Archive for November 2015
Podcast: Short but Sweet
Recently we talked about the endless, hundred plus hour games that compelled our childhood. Unfortunately many of us don’t have the tens, if not hundreds, of hours to commit to a single game. With the help of some listener mail Fred and Jam dissect the world of shorter games that can be enjoyed in only a handful of hours.
Podcast: …In A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Part 2 of this week’s episode continues with Fred and Jam discussing the move into 3D and divergence from the original trilogy. As Star Wars titles moved into the 90s, they included worlds, characters, and settings found outside the movies and either in the creator’s mind or in the expanded universe told through books.
Lost Treasures of Gaming: Smash TV
There was no episode of Lost Treasures of Gaming, but that never stops Syd from talking about another classic on the OMG! Hour. This week was a treat that I loved back when I was playing in the arcades, Smash TV. A twin stick shooter with ultra violence in a futuristic gameshow, this Robotron 2084 inspired title was a blast. Not only that, but thanks to how I captured the game we have interview footage with Midway developers Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell.
Check out the Lost Treasures of Gaming podcast at http://www.omgnexus.com.
Podcast: A Long Time Ago…
This week technical difficulties continue to plague the live show and cut it short (however you’ll notice nothing on the recorded show other than length). Despite this, Fred and Jam start to tackle the history of Star Wars games and get rather far before time is up. Fortunately they will continue the show later this week in a second part and hopefully all will be fixed for next week’s live show.
Ongoing Series: Tomb Raider Anniversary
For the November game club we are playing through Tomb Raider, both the original and anniversary. Fred is tackling Anniversary. By popular request two versions of each video is being uploaded: one with and one without commentary. This has commentary, so if you wish to see the one without simply go here.
Lost Treasures of Gaming: Chip’s Challenge (Lynx)
This week’s Lost Treasures of Gaming featured Chuck Sommerville, formerly of Epyx, to discuss the development of the famed “games” series and of course Chip’s Challenge. In his many years at Epyx, Chuck touched and led many a team into popular titles including California Games. It was later on Epyx’s (and later Atari) portable console, the Lynx, that he made a game many love: Chip’s Challenge. This is a highly addicting puzzle game as you will see in the video.
Check out the Lost Treasures of Gaming podcast at http://www.omgnexus.com.
Game Fights: Fireworks
Introduction
Welcome to an all new style of article I’ve written exclusively for Gaming History 101: Game Fights.
This is an idea I’ve thought of for a while and it’s where I pick two contenders which share something special and pit them against each other. The article is designed to just be a bit of fun and while some of the facts presented will be as accurate as possible the final verdict will be based entirely on opinion. Thanks for checking this out and of course if you want to share your own views on the games in this article please share them in the comments below.
Now without any further ado…let them fight!
Fantavision Vs Big Bang Mini
The 5th of November in the UK marks Bonfire night (aka Guy Fawkes Night) which is our unusual celebration of Guy Fawkes foiled plot to blow up the House of Lords on the same date in 1605. There is a quite a lot of history behind why we still celebrate this date today but one thing you can guarantee seeing on this event is lots and lots of fireworks. Fireworks are certainly prevalent in a lot of video games such as the end level in the gun game Point Blank but few games make them the actual focus of the gameplay. The two games I’ve found to discuss were Fantavision on PS2 and Big Bang Mini for the Nintendo DS. What better way to celebrate Bonfire night (even though this article will post very late) than to pit these two games together and find out which is the best fireworks video game.
Podcast: Press Button to Kick
This week is all about Bethesda, although oddly enough we’re probably the only podcast not heavily discussing Fallout. Based in Maryland and created in 1986, Bethesda Softworks came a long way and developed many games (some more ambitious than others) before landing into the open world frenzies the company is known for today.
Backward Compatibility on the Xbox One: How’s the List?
It’s almost time. That famed firmware coming November 12, 2015 to the Xbox One that not only brings NXE (New Xbox Experience/Windows 10) but also backward compatibility with Xbox 360 games. Honestly many users will never use this feature, despite what Microsoft marketing has you believing. Then again, this seems to be the first generation where many of my friends straight up sold off last gen’s console and entire library to help fund their newest purchase, so who knows. Either way you will soon be able to play Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One, which will broaden the library of games you can play and hopefully see you returning to the classics that graced last generation. Oh wait, there’s a catch. You don’t get every game from the Xbox 360 and in fact you don’t even get 10 percent of every game released – digitally as well as at retail – but rather a list of exactly 104 titles available at launch. If you didn’t see a long list of games you don’t intend to ever replay coming, then you probably don’t have much experience with how things like this work. Now given how well the backward compatibility fared on the Xbox 360 for original Xbox (a good majority of the games were eventually playable in some form) we may very well see an impressive list spawn but for now there are only a strong handful of games worth boasting about. They are all long games though so you could probably kill about six months trying to replay what will be available. As of this morning the official list is out, I personally have been using the feature for almost six months, and the following article will tell you how it works, what to expect, and give my take on what games are worth utilizing this feature for.
Shadowgate (2014) Review
This review originally published on The B-Team Podcast site. An agreement with that site and GH101 allows the reviews to run in both locations.
If you were around for the point-and-click adventure boom on computers in the 80s and early 90s, then you’re probably already aware of Shadowgate. While Sierra and LucasArts battled it out for the number one position – Sierra always won, by the way, even if it didn’t have the better games – there were a handful of developers that released lesser known adventure titles. Of those, one of the more prominent were known as “MacVenture” titles, which were menu driven point-and-click adventure games specifically for the Macintosh and created by ICOM. These games were so popular they ended up getting ported to microcomputers, received color, and eventually even made it onto the NES. Shadowgate was one of those MacVenture games and when I played it on my NES as a youngster I couldn’t believe the amount of horror, death, and adult themes that appeared on a console riddled with childlike concepts. Much like other adventure titles I had to try everything on everything, but unlike those other titles I would die all the time and merely be sent back to the scene just before my death. This meant that if I was patient and persistent enough, I could overcome the challenges and complete the game. The idea that I couldn’t get stuck and barely got penalized for being experimental was the key drawing point of Shadowgate and its peers with the enchanting story being the icing on the cake. Now, almost 30 years later, Shadowgate has been re-imagined and somewhat brought it into the modern times resulting in a title that is unapologetically retro and yet refreshing for veterans all the same.
Gaming History 101 