Archive for 2016
My Open Letter of Loving Advice to Sega
Recently I saw on twitter that Sega was asking its fans to fill out a online survey to help them figure out what they need to do next for the company. That or it’s a long list of tick boxes just to take our e-mail address and sell it on to third parties. Well I got half way through the survey where I had typed a long page essay of why I wanted another sexy Altered Beast arcade game only to realize, “you know what? I’m going to write a letter instead!” So here it is folks, my open letter to Sega on some loving advice – from the heart – to get them back on track:
Podcast: PvP or PvE? (Online Gaming Part 1)
It sounds crazy, but online gaming has been around just about as long as video games themselves. The two technologies seemed to emerge from similar origins, despite games having a clear head start. Jam and Fred begin the journey of the history of online gaming starting with the educational PLATO network and ending this first part at the first dial-up modems for home consoles in the mid 90s.
Lost Treasures of Gaming – Call of Duty Black Ops (Animation Sequence)
This week was a bit different but also quite refreshing as Syd and Sean featured Kristen Sych. Kristen is a cinematics director at Activision who discussed his work on Call of Duty: Black Ops back in 2010. We take a look at one of the more heavily animated sequences (fair warning, it’s spoiler-rich) and appreciate all the hard work that goes into the story.
The Lost Treasures of Gaming podcast can be found at http://omgnexus.com
Podcast: Frankenconsole
Sega is most famous for hyper segmenting its markets in the 16-bit generation with the Sega CD and 32X. This resulted in reduced audiences each time a game was developed. This was especially the case in 1994 when the Genesis/Mega Drive was struggling to keep up with the more popular SNES, the Sega CD was limited by the high price of hardware, and the 32X just plain didn’t have games. Fred and Jam discuss the attributes and games that make these two add-ons significant.
Maniac Mansion Retrospective
Maniac Mansion is a significant game in the evolution of the medium, but interestingly enough it’s also a game that is hard to find and not many have played. Perhaps it’s the fact that the point-and-click genre went away long ago and until recently, really hadn’t seen a resurgence. It also likely has to do with the fact that Lucasfilm was for many years no longer in the publishing business, didn’t have much interest in rehashing these older titles, and the fact that it was originally on microcomputers like the Commodore 64 made it hard to port. The reason Maniac Mansion holds such an important role and special place in my heart – which is impressive considering I generally hate point-and-click adventure games – is because it started a new trend for the genre.
When it was conceived in 1985 the rift between computer gaming and console gaming was vast. On consoles the experiences were more action oriented and based on feats of skill in the moment with titles like Super Mario Bros. or Gradius. This makes sense because consoles like the NES were tailor made for an experience like that with the ability to scroll and a gamepad as an interface. On computers, the story was a bit different. Microcomputers were terrible at scrolling and any attempt to do so was clunky with the player literally able to see the vertical lines being drawn as they progressed. Games had to have rudimentary sound, supported single button 9-pin joysticks, and could come from various sources such as cartridge, tape, and floppy disk. One thing the computer had over the console was the fact that it could use a full keyboard for its interactions and this is where the adventure genre really takes off. From text adventures like Zork and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and RPGs like Ultima came the point-and-click adventure. In the early 80s these were dominated by Sierra On-Line, a development house that also published and was responsible for notable graphical point-and-click adventures like King’s Quest. These titles, while incredibly immersive and entertaining for more mature gamers, suffered a fatal flaw in that you could overlook simple items in the beginning only to have them render the game unbeatable several hours later. Gamers like myself also hate the fact that the concept is basically to read the developer’s mind and in the end succumb to the horrid tactic of “try everything on everything.” Back then Sierra was even meaner, with fail states that could kill your character and thus if you forgot to save resulted in the loss of progress, sometimes large sometimes small. That’s not to say that Sierra games aren’t good or enjoyable, many of my peers will admit to loving the Sierra catalog and they are a welcome addition to the library at Good Old Games, but Lucasfilm Games hoped to do something different.
Podcast: Virtual Remedy
Virtual Reality began as early as the 1950s and slowly progressed into the goggles that released now. Remedy Entertainment is responsible for several unique titles including Max Payne and Alan Wake. This week we talk about the history of virtual reality and celebrate the development studio Remedy Entertainment.
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Here is the link for the podcast from the end of the show: https://soundcloud.com/user-143230139/batman-vs-superman-spoiler-talk/s-tv39j
Mega Man Legends 2 Out Today on US PSN, Go Get It
Today you can finally pick up Mega Man Legends 2 on PSN, which most (myself included) never believed would ever see a release. It’s only a small fraction of the price of getting a potentially scratched up disc online, so even if you don’t have a US PSN, get one and pick this up.
Many titles have gone from 2D to 3D with varied success. Sonic always struggled to make his 3D mark whereas Super Mario knocked it out of the park on his first attempt. Mega Man has widely been regarded as another of those success stories, but only on the Playstation. Mega Man Legends is to the original series what Super Mario 64 is to its originals, but many people don’t know that because the N64 received a lackluster port by the name of Mega Man 64 that had compressed audio, graphical blurring, lack of cutscenes, and in many opinions worse controls. Even if you have an old PS1 or grab a PS3 (all will play PS1 games), it’s still not that easy with the three titles in the Mega Man Legends series fetching some high prices. The first title, available on PSN now for $10, has a modest average price online of about $30, but the prequel and sequel prices have skyrocketed. Recently The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, a prequel to Mega Man Legends, released on PSN for a mere $6 but before that finding the actual disc meant spending $150-$225. The final nail, Mega Man Legends 2, was claimed by Capcom to be stuck in a licensing nightmare that would probably never see a PSN release…until today. Now the game that will cost you $70-$90 online can be had for a much lower $10 price tag. Complete the trilogy and enjoy yet another gem from the past made easily available thanks to retro ports like this.
Turok 1 and 2 Coming to Xbox One, Why This is a Good Thing
Night Dive Studios, or as I like to know them Remastered Edition Studios, are bringing Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Turok 2: Seeds of Evil to the Xbox One (Xbone) in wonderful remastered form. To catch you up, Night Dive Studios has already brought us Strife (see Fred’s coverage), System Shock, and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter in remastered form and so far it has only been on PC. This comes as fantastic news that we are starting to see some love on consoles.
Now I may sound like a die hard Turok fan for writing this article, but that is not actually the case. I am, however, a fan of any classic game being remastered digitally (and subsequently making it compatible with modern hardware) as it exposes more people to lost treasures that they may have missed them the first time around. Turok 1 & 2 had quite the niche fan base back in the day, but they represent a era of gaming that has kinda been lost. Both games have you play as the warrior Turok as he literally roams large landscapes mowing down dinosaurs and even dinosaurs packing guns. The premise is just barmy and I love it. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, while quite the difficult game due to its reliance on backtracking and exploration, has some incredible level design. One moment you are mowing down lizards in a castle and the next you are deep underground hunting cyclops-like monsters. I also loved in both of these games how you literally started the game with a melee weapon and gradually obtained more powerful weapons over time like. You may first get a bow and arrow and eventually move up to the infamous cerebral bore, a weapon that shoots bullets that literally drill into the enemies’ cranium in a horrific gory display. Unlike modern shooters, you keep every weapon you obtain and your health never regenerates (although this is indicative of most shooters from the early to mid 90s). If any of this sounds interesting then go check out the first title on PC now if you can, but if you have an Xbox One you have to hold out a little while. Both titles should drop sometime this year on Xbox Live, but they may release at different times as Turok 2: Seeds of Evil has yet to see its remastered release on PC, let alone the Xbone.
It is likely Night Dive Studios won’t just be applying a lick of paint to the remasters. Much like System Shock and Strife, Night Dive Studios will probably tweak the gameplay and update the controls as well. Changes are always welcome but I also hope they include the games in there original vanilla form for weird people like me who like that sort of thing. Hopefully both these titles will sell well (provided they are priced well) and it will send the message to developers that there is an audience for these little blasts from the past.
Collector’s Cache: Unboxing of 20 Mystery Xbox Games
Fred found a pack of 20 “mystery” original Xbox games at a local used game store. He’s expecting it to all be terrible, but who knows what may be inside. Discover the ups and downs of random boxes as he opens it and reveals each game one by one.
Collecting: Is there any treasure still out there?
I have been collecting video games and hunting deals for the last few years at car boots (flea market if your in America) and charity shops. For me it’s much more enjoyable to find a game out there in the wild than do the easier stay at home thing and get it off eBay. In fact I use eBay so infrequently now that I only tend to use it if I to order games I might want to cover for the site.
What has become very clear to me from the past few years of collecting is there really is less and less probability of finding deals or hidden treasures. In this article I’m going to cover why that might be and what this means for the future of collecting.
Gaming History 101 