Latest Haul (and Impressions): Icebreaker II
Well, what’s this? A new 3DO release? That’s right… As I mentioned on one of the first posts to this blog, OlderGames.com was planning to bring us several new 3DO games. Well, the time is now. The Classic Gaming Expo has come and gone, the games are officially released, and everyone that placed a pre-order has the game in their hands.
All of the games that OlderGames has released were incomplete works-in-progress and are at various levels of playability. Powerslide seems barely playable. Decathlon is playable, but with a fair number of bugs. Onside looks quite stable, but doesn’t interest me much. Icebreaker II, on the other hand, feels like it was very much ready for an official release, and that’s why it’s the only one I decided to buy. The only thing that indicates the game isn’t finished is that there is space on the level select screen for 150 levels, but only 118 are present. (Oddly enough, levels 149 and 150 have been created even though 117-148 don’t exist.) On top of that, there’s a whole collection of small tech demos to play around with, outside the scope of the game itself.
So how is it? Was it worth waiting 13 years after the origial release for the sequel? Well, I guess it depends on how much you were actually anticipating it in that time. For someone like me, that hasn’t played the first and only found out there was an unreleased sequel a couple years ago, it wasn’t a bad wait at all! But I pity those who were waiting with baited breath (if any of you exist). Not that it’s a bad game, but rather… Why would you be waiting with baited breath for any game for 13 years? (Says the guy waiting for the NiGHTS sequel. D’oh.)
For the unfamiliar, I think the best way to describe Icebreaker is as a puzzle-slash-shooter game. The object is, as a floating white pyramid, to float around each level destroying all of the other pyramids. Most of the pyramids are static and can be broken either by running into them or shooting them. Some take more shots than others, some take more rapid shots than others, some turn into pools of acid, some turn into pools of lava. On top of that, there is a constant onslaught of mobile enemy pyramids closing in on you, so you have to negotiate destroying them while destroying the static pyramids.
Though I haven’t played much yet, I think I can confidently say I’ve never played another game quite like this one (of course, like I said, I never played the first game). From what I’ve seen, Icebreaker II is fresh and fun. The concept is unique and I really like the colorful, cartoon-like graphical style. Naturally, I’ll have a full review sometime in the future…
It lives!
As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, my trusty laptop that I do all my work from died. Well, I’m happy to say that it’s back in service! After a failed Craigslist deal and one bad replacement motherboard from eBay, I finally got a working part today. Now it’s good as new!
Funny thing is that I got so fed up with dealing with it that I went out and bought a new laptop over the weekend. But I hate it, so I think I’m going to return it. I can’t stand Windows Vista. Perhaps it’s fitting that I like my old laptop more than my new one. After all, I do enjoy old video games more than new ones…
(P.S.: More frequent posting resumes immediately.)
Library of Congress to preserve video games
I’ve noticed a bit of concern amongst classic game enthusiasts about proper preservation of older games. Their concerns range from digital downloads replacing physical items (what happens when a download service is no longer available) to online games becoming unplayable (what happens when a company decides it’s not profitable to keep running servers) to hardware deteriorating over time (we’ve all seen what happens to an NES). Well, fear not. it looks like the good old Library of Congress is on the case. On Friday, the Library announced a new program to preserve digital media of many types, including video games.
The game-news circuit seems to have picked up on the story today, and I figured I’d pass it along as well, since I’m sure this is a topic of interest for many visitors of this site. Here are a few details:
http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2007/07-156.html
August 3, 2007
Digital Preservation Program Makes Awards to Preserve American Creative Works
Preserving Creative America Initiative to Engage Private Sector Creators of Films, Sound Recordings, Photographs, Cartoons and Video Games in Digital FormatsThe Library of Congress, through its National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), today announced eight partnerships as part of its new Preserving Creative America initiative to address the long-term preservation of creative content in digital form. These partners will target preservation issues across a broad range of creative works, including digital photographs, cartoons, motion pictures, sound recordings and even video games. The work will be conducted by a combination of industry trade associations, private sector companies and nonprofits, as well as cultural heritage institutions.
…
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Interactive media are highly complex and at high risk for loss as technologies rapidly become obsolete. The Preserving Virtual Worlds project will explore methods for preserving digital games and interactive fiction. Major activities will include developing basic standards for metadata and content representation and conducting a series of archiving case studies for early video games, electronic literature and Second Life, an interactive multiplayer game.
Judging by the press release, it seems they might have particular interest in Second Life and other virtual worlds. Let’s hope they give old video and arcade games their due, too!
What secrets CDs may hold…
The Sega Saturn was my first CD-based console, and I remember being really intrigued by the format. Sure, I was familiar with CDs, but I thought it was really cool that I could take these games, which were meant to be played on a console, and explore them in a number of other devices that can also play CDs.
I’m sure most of us have put a game CD into a stereo to listen to its soundtrack, but how many have put games into a PC’s CD-ROM drive to explore its contents? Probably not quite as many. But for me, that was a fun experience. At the very least, it provides a little insight into the technical structure of the game. At the very best, there may be a secret or two to uncover.
Today, I remembered the way I used to check almost every disc-based game I had in my CD-ROM in hopes of finding a few goodies and decided to give it another shot, now that I have a lot more systems to explore. Unfortunately, my search was not particularly fruitful. It seems 3DO games are completely unreadable in normal CD drives, Neo-Geo CD games don’t have much of interest, and TurboGrafx CD/Turbo Duo games just show up as unplayable audio CDs.
But just as I remembered, Saturn (and Dreamcast) games are particularly fun to check out. Sometimes, you’ll just find the game’s files. Other times, there are text files with copyright information. Occasionally, you’ll find playable media files. You might even find HTML files full of Japanese text. But the best is when you find that bonus folder. It might be called “EXTRA,” or it might even be called “SECRET.” It’s a folder that was hidden away, just for the fans. Most people will never even see it, but I, since I took the time to look, got to find that little bit of extra fun.
My favorite disc of goodies? NiGHTS: Into Dreams for the Saturn. It’s nothing too special, but it’s like a hidden treasure. Cool not just for what it contains, but mainly just for the fact that it’s there.
Impressions: Populous, Killing Time, Landstalker
I mentioned on the About page that I’m something of a lazy gamer. Or, at the very least, I’m not a very dedicated gamer. When I was younger, I could dedicate myself to a single game for hours on end, day after day. I just don’t have the attention span for that anymore. I think it happened when I started spending more time on the internet. So either the internet destroyed my attention span, or I just grew up a little, I’m not sure what it is. But either way, I play a lot of games, and I play a lot of games for a couple hours at a time.
Eventually, I’ll get around to playing each game long enough to properly review it. (After all, that’s the point of this site.) But in the meantime, I’m going to post quick impressions of the games that I’ve been playing lately but haven’t spent enough time with to properly review. So here goes:
- Populous (SNES): I’m not sure what it says about a game when its tutorial mode provides absolutely no instructions in any way. I bought the game used, cart-only, and was utterly lost. Shouldn’t a tutorial at least describe what all the buttons on the screen do? Once I found a transcription of the manual online, things fell into place. This is an unusual sim/strategy/god game where your main power is to raise and lower the land so your followers can farm, gain strength, and eradicate the followers of your rival deity. I’m going to have to spend a lot more time with this one before I really form much of an opinion of it, but I’ve found it intriguing so far.
- Killing Time (3DO): Another awkward early 3D game for the 3DO. It’s an FPS that does a few things right and a few other things horribly wrong. I love the seamless transitions between areas/levels, as if it’s one big environment I’m exploring, rather than segmented levels. I hate the ugly enemy sprites that repeat ad nauseum (there are only one or two different enemies per area). I’ve only played through the first few areas, but so far, it seems like a technically sound game with smooth controls being brought down by poor enemy variety and a total lack of ammo. In fact, I’m pretty sure I have to ditch my current save because I only have one bullet left and about four enemies to kill to advance any further. Argh.
- Landstalker (Genesis): Now this game is promising. It’s a fun action-adventure/RPG with platforming elements, puzzle-solving, and fantastic graphics that manage to look appealing despite the miniscule color palette of the Genesis. I was a fan of Dark Savior on the Saturn, so it’s no wonder I’m liking this one. I’m just having some doubts about the controls, though. It’s an isometric game, so you spend a lot of time moving in diagonals. I’m not sure yet if the controls are unresponsive or if the six-button pad that comes with the Genesis 3 just doesn’t do diagonals well. I think I’ll track down a different controller before making my final judgment, but so far so good.
What have you guys been playing lately? Have any quick impressions of your own to share? Hit the comments…
Ninja Spirit (TurboGrafx-16)
As your footsteps fall silently upon the floorboards of the ruined temple at which you were born and raised, you barely have time to contemplate the untimely and unjust death of your father and the vengeance which you have sworn to obtain. With swiftness and deftness that can only come with a lifetime of training, you dispatch foe after foe with ease. But they are relentless. Bombs, knives, and swords fly at you as your enemies swarm about, seemingly appearing from thin air. Where are they coming from? Why do they want you dead? Why did they kill your father? There’s no time to ask questions. There’s no time to think, only to react.
Your sword slices through your attackers and shields you from their bombs and knives, but it is becoming more and more difficult to handle each wave of aggression on your own. You defeat an unusual ninja in bright orange, and as if on cue, an apparition appears. But this apparition does not attack. Instead, you discover that it mimics your every move. You gracefully jump hundreds of feet into the air and drift softly to the ground. It follows you every inch of the way, without a hint of effort. You look closer, and on the face of this apparition, you see yourself. You see your anger, your hatred, your determination. This apparition is your spirit. It is invulnerable and has every drop of strength and skill that you have. It will protect you.
Continue reading Ninja Spirit (TurboGrafx-16)…
Sitegeist (7/23/07)
Well, I’m back from my camping trip/mini-vacation, so that means I’m behind on my gameplaying. I also came home to discover that my laptop is dead. Hooray! So, that means I’m stuck on my old Pentium III desktop, circa June 2000. What’s all this mean for you guys? It means you get a half-assed update tonight! Hooray! I’ve had a Sitegeist post queued up for a while now, so here it is…
First of all, I want to point out that 3DOkid has been kind enough to reciprocate my link to him, so if you haven’t already, check out his blog for the most 3DO fanboy goodness you can find on the web.
Next, you might also notice the new Recent Comments section in the right sidebar. You can keep track of any new comments as they show up there. Thanks to those of you that have been commenting so far — I enjoy hearing from you! Everyone else, I’m severely disappointed in you for not participating… 
I also got FreeDO working on my computer, (The one that’s now broken… Oh, irony!) so that means I got some good screenshots for the Total Eclipse review. Unfortunately, I lost the first set of really good screenshots that I took to a Photoshop crash, (I guess that’s what happens when you open like 40 new images at once. Oops.) but the second batch was good enough, as well.
And one other really small update: I tagged Streets of Rage as a Wii Virtual Console game since I noticed it’s available there.
So, those are the updates. I’ve also been working on getting polls up and running, but I need to rewrite the CSS to get them to look right, and I haven’t felt like doing that! Also, if you’re the one that submitted a Time Capsule: The NES Network link to reddit.com, thanks! That resulted in a nice traffic spike for my humble abode. It’s making me think about adding digg links or something to the site… Anyway, that’s another possible change. Stay tuned!
- Currently Playing: Virtua Cop (Sega Saturn), Killing Time (3DO)
RetroMacro (7/18/07)
I’m heading out tomorrow for a long weekend of camping and celebrating my birthday (25 on the 20th… Can I start complaining about feeling old yet?), so while I’m out enjoying nature, I’ll leave you with a new RetroMacro to ponder.
If you’re not the observant type, this is a power button. (Duh.) But the power button to what system? That’s the question! Click the picture for a bigger version and a little bit of a hint! As always, feel free to leave a comment if you think you got it.
Now it’s time for me to go pretend to be the outdoorsy type…
Time Capsule: The NES Network
Back when I subscribed to gaming magazines, I always liked to hold onto them and look through them a few years later. It was always fun to read the old articles in a new light with the knowledge of what came true and what didn’t. It seems I’m not the only one with that interest, as magazine scans seem quite popular in the retro gaming community. Unfortunately, I threw away all my old magazines while I was in college, so I can’t partake in that pastime any longer.
But thanks to the internet, there’s actually a whole new world of old game-related articles to explore — ones outside the gaming press. A lot of people look through old game magazines, but what about old newspaper articles, press releases, and trade magazines? All of them cover video gaming in some way, and I find them incredibly interesting to read through. What was the press saying about the release of the Game Boy? What were they saying about the heady days of the mid-90s when the market was flooded with various game platforms? What products and projects were announced but never saw the light of day? There are an interesting number of parallels between the industry of 15-20 years ago and the industry of today.
I’d like to kick this feature off with an article about a project that Nintendo and AT&T announced in 1989 that seemingly disappeared immediately afterwards: the NES Network.
Nintendo, AT&T to plug into the interactive field - Nintendo of America Inc. and American Telephone and Telegraph Co. form joint venture to enter computer shopping field
Discount Store News, Sept 4, 1989 by Arthur Markowitz
Nintendo, AT&T to Plug Into the Interactive FieldTwo major corporations, American Telephone & Telegraph and Nintendo of America, last month charged up the interactive computer shopping and information service field when they announced plans to enter the nascent business.
The two companies are expected to form a joint venture to originate and deliver shopping, entertainment and information services, as well as pursuing separate endeavors in the interactive business.
This seems like it was a common concept, back in the day. But ultimately, the PC and the web proved to be the breakthrough technologies for electronic shopping and information services. Still, devices like the modern consoles are starting to realize this original vision — the Wii’s news and weather channels, the Xbox 360’s movie downloads, and the PlayStation Network’s upcoming music service are all reminiscent of this old goal.
Nintendo, meanwhile, has set up an NES Network division to develop and market an information service by next year. It has named Jerry Ruttenbur, previously a senior vice president with Home Box Office, to the newly created post of vice president of network products to head up the NES Network.
The NES Network? Jerry Ruttenbur? What? Who?
Nintendo will use its game system now in about 20 million households as the base for the NES Network.
The control deck used to run the Nintendo game–which sells for about $100 in discount stores–will be the processor for the projected information system, with a keyboard, modem and a device that combines a computer disk reader and a facsimile machine as the other hardware. The other hardware together is expected to cost about another $300 to $400.
I can definitely see the logic behind Nintendo’s strategy here. It was an era where PCs were still incredibly expensive and not many people owned them. But millions had NESes. Why not turn those millions of little gray boxes into networking capable machines for a fraction of the cost? It certainly seems to make sense. But then again, the WebTV probably made sense, too…
A Nintendo spokesman said the company was considering several different configurations for its system and hadn’t decided on the exact technology or even marketing plan for the NES Network.
Ruttenbur is responsible for design, marketing and sales of products for the system. The company won’t detail its plan until after he joins Nintendo in October, he said.
Hmm, now maybe we’re getting some hints about why this never came to pass. Did the plan for Ruttenbur to join Nintendo fall through? Did he join but fail to design a compelling product? Actually, a little additional reading indicates that he did join Nintendo of America but wasn’t given adequate support for designing the network and hardware. He ultimately resigned shortly thereafter, in 1991. It seems NOA was not that enthusiastic about the project, despite the existence of a similar service in Japan.
Nintendo’s thrust into interactive information services is part of the company’s efforts to change its game system from a toy into a computer, a move that will blur the merchandising distinction between toys, consumer electronics and computers.
The spokesman said Nintendo’s strategy was to get its technology and basic system into as many households as possible and then provide other hardware that will turn what was first viewed as a toy into a multi-function device.
This is probably the most compelling section of the article. Convergence devices have been a hot topic for years, and apparently even Nintendo was on the bandwagon at one point. In fact, people in the tech industry are still talking about blurring the line between game systems, PCs, and other electronic devices. You don’t need to look any further than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to see it. Interestingly, Nintendo seems to be the least ambitious of the modern game companies in this regard, despite their attitudes 18 years ago.
Nintendo strived to first “offer a non-intimidating and affordable device to consumers and bit by bit build into a computer.” The NES Network’s success would be based on the huge installed user base of the Nintendo game, he said.
But while their strategy to turn game systems into computers is long gone, their goal to create “non-intimidating” devices is as strong as ever with the DS and Wii…
I think this article leaves us with plenty to think about. What could have been? What would the internet look like today if efforts by Nintendo and others had succeeded in getting the masses online in the early 90s? What would game systems look like today if these project were actually seen through? Would the notion of a “game system” be completely obsolete? I kind of like the niche that game systems have established for themselves, but it’s no doubt that a lot of people had much bigger ideas.
If you’re interested in more details on AT&T’s role or more information on what Nintendo’s Japanese service was like, I’d recommend reading the full article.
Virtua Cop (Sega Saturn)
Light gun games have something of a linear history. Virtua Cop may have shaken up the genre by bringing into the 3D era, but its gameplay is not nearly as revolutionary as its graphics were. In fact, you can trace the gameplay straight back to one of the earliest NES games — Hogan’s Alley. In Hogan’s Alley, you were a cop, wandering through a seedy area, shooting down thugs while trying to hold back your itchy trigger finger when an innocent appears. In Virtua Cop, you’re a cop, wandering through a seedy area, shooting down thugs while trying to hold back your itchy trigger finger when an innocent appears. 16-bit light gun games were much the same (see Lethal Enforcers) as are modern ones (see the Time Crisis and House of the Dead series).
But saying Virtua Cop sucks because light gun games are all the same would be unfair. It’d be like saying Soul Calibur sucks just because it’s a 3D fighter, or Streets of Rage sucks just because it’s a side scrolling beat-’em-up. The real question is whether or not I have fun playing it. And, quite simply, I do. It’s certainly not worth playing with the controller, but get yourself a Stunner, and you’ll be mowing down baddies left and right.
Continue reading Virtua Cop (Sega Saturn)…
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