Podcast: Pixelated Pints Episode 29: It’s All About the Benjamins
This week Fred and Heffe reflect on the value of the game Risk, 80s cartoon crushes, large sums of money involving game development, getting plastic guns through airport security, and of course end on Bloodborne.
Opening Song: It Was A Good Day – Ice Cube
Closing Song: It’s All About the Benjamins – Puff Daddy featuring Rob Zombie, The Notrious BIG, The Lox, & Lil’ Kim
Midwest Gaming Classic 2015 Panel: 80s and 90s Magazines
At this year’s Midwest Gaming Classic, we were honored to be invited to do a panel, but we definitely wanted to be noticed. Noticed we were (by the Milwaukee Record even) thanks to special guests “Trickman Terry” Minnich and Ken “Sushi-X” Willimas, who joined me to discuss video game magazines of the 80s and 90s. Below is the audio recording of that panel and I must apologize for the background noise and the audio quality as it was a unidirectional recorder and the mic Terry and Ken were using was a bit quieter than mine. If I amplify the sound I get clipping so I’m just putting it up in raw form. Enjoy.
The supplement I reference in the talk can be found here.
Jam’s SNES Unboxing Video
Yes, it finally happened, Jam got a SNES. A retro console he never thought he would actually own due to the kinda crazy prices the games sell for in the UK. He appears very happy with this and wants to dedicate this video to good friend Mr. SieOne who has been a huge support to GH101 and to all the content we have provided in the past.
Midwest Gaming Classic 2015 Recap
This weekend, thousands gathered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to celebrate the Midwest Gaming Classic (MGC), the Midwest’s largest retro gaming show and I was lucky enough to attend. While the convention proper didn’t officially start until Saturday, Friday night was chock full of great activities and great people already eager to get a sneak peek at what MGC 2015 had to offer. I hadn’t been to MGC within the last few years due to my daughter being born and me moving out of the local area, and in that short time it has grown from a Convention that took over chunks of the Sheraton to completely taking over the hotel itself. There are perks to that, of which this article will discuss, and if you wanted to spend 48-72 surrounding yourself with games, gamers, and optional sleep, that was completely possible. It was a blast, complete with Gaming History 101 having its own panel, and whether we are invited back or not, GH101 will be at MGC 2016. Here’s an overview of just what the show had to offer and what you can expect where you to attend next year.
Now & Then: Mortal Kombat 3
Switching It Up
A lot happened both in the talent pool of Mortal Kombat players and in the game design overall between the release of Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat 3 (MK3). For starters there was a mass exodus of on screen talent due to royalty disputes, so almost no one from the original two games returned for the third release. In addition, Boon and his team were trying to turn Mortal Kombat into a viable fighting game with things no one had ever seen before and mechanics that could compete with the massive rush of fighters in arcades. The game was completely Americanized, with all hints of Eastern influence including symbols, locales, and the soundtrack completely absent without a trace and instead replaced by urban stages, 90s hip-hop soundtracks, and cyborgs replaced the signature ninjas. These locations were now composed of pre-rendered 3D backgrounds and the character sprites were almost totally digitized as opposed to the digitized/hand drawn hybrid of the previous games. Along with it came an overhaul of the controls, including combos and a “run” button to address rightful claims that defensive players ruled the previous title. It’s all one giant 90s metaphor but that doesn’t change the fact that MK3 (and it’s update Ultimate MK3 or UMK3) stands as the moment I felt the series went into the mainstream fighter territory. Couple this with the fact that it was on just about every console that existed at the time, still dominated arcades, and had more content than rival Street Fighter II could ever dream to do with its iterations and I see why it’s creator Ed Boon’s favorite. Mortal Kombat 3 definitely upped the ante.
Podcast: Easter Eggs
What’s more fun that running through your favorite game? Finding something that was either hidden away, not intended to be seen, or just a little way for the developer to check in and thank you for playing the game in some way. These fun extras, known as Easter Eggs, have always been a part of gaming since way back in the late 70s with the Atari 2600. Fred and Jam go back and forth with the chat to reveal some of their favorite gaming Easter Eggs.
Long Lost SNES Music Maker, Sound Factory, Finds Mass Release
I know plenty of people that have done some amazing things in Mario Paint on the SNES, including one of our guests Gary Butterfield from duckfeed.tv. Well perhaps many of you are unaware that there was a fleshed out music creator by Electroplankton designer Toshio Iwai who back in the early 90s was set to release his music creation tool Sound Factory on the SNES and it would be bundled with the mouse and mouse pad. It’s been almost 15 years since the project was canceled and both the Eastern and Western releases faded into oblivion, but thanks to eBayer KiiroBomber and a tip from Nintendo Life, the recently purchased prototype of Sound Factory is available to all. It’s a bit of a slog to find the rom, so we’ve made it easy and said you can find it in the links to the YouTube demo video here. Enjoy!
The Price to Play
Video game pricing: this is a topic that sparks a lot of debate in the community. In this article I wanted to give you a brief history of video game prices in the UK while I was growing up and give my personal thoughts on the topic. Since this is quite a deep topic I’m only going to spend this article discussing new retail games. [Editor’s Note: This article uses prices in British Pounds (£). For reference, at time of writing £1 = $1.48]
I have been quite lucky to see the early days of video game pricing to what it has generally become today. Back in the eighties when I was a very young fellow I distinctly remember seeing ZX Spectrum games being sold for the nice low price of £2.99. This was very common with micro computers, but the ZX Spectrum by far had the cheapest and arguably the most shovel ware as a result. The Microcomputer and PC for that matter would always be cheapest place to get your retail game fix. This is of course back before the internet was even a thing, my family certainly didn’t even have the internet until the late nineties. What was commanding the high price points was the Sega Master System and Nintendo Entertainment system, games would sell between £29.99 to £49.99. Nintendo had quite the reputation for expensive pricing in the UK. What was quite interesting is the used game market wasn’t a big thing at retail at this stage. But you were able to purchase used games from market places or car boot sales along with a ton of bootleg copied Micro computer games. Once the Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo rolled around I started seeing games rock up to prices as high as £59.99. Nintendo once again was the main villian for these prices. While this may sound rather high we just have to deal with it. This sort of pricing became a standard affair for me, hence why my brothers and I would probabaly only purchase just one or two new games a year.
My Weekend With Bloodborne
I’ve been in a bit of a gaming rut. I keep trying to play, and enjoy, The Witcher 2 on PC and I just can’t seem to get it to work. My issues with that game are for another post, but rest assured I see the value of it as a pinnacle of modern RPG gaming and love the branching stories, but due to the complicated keyboard-to-joypad controls and complex battle system I can’t step away for long and come back. That’s not good for a person like me, who is frequently taking long pauses from games, not playing for long periods of time, and often having to play several retro games mixed into my sessions. As a father, husband, full time salaried employee (which means I’m working far more than 40 hours a week), and a guy trying to manage a retro gaming site that includes a blog, reviews, podcasts, and video, there’s not much time for modern games in long stints. Hell, if it weren’t for my partner-in-crime Jamalais, this site would not sustain at the level of quality and measure of content it has now. Oddly enough as I was trying to figure out what to do about my Witcher 2 situation and considered other games to migrate to, the most unusual title entered my periphery and made my weekend: Bloodborne.
Dragon Force II English Fan Translation Releases
After nearly eight years of development (Verve Fanworks originally started the translation in 2007), anyone with a copy of Dragon Force II can now play the game fully translated in English (although still with Japanese voice dub) on an emulator or modded Sega Saturn. If you head on over to Verve Fanworks site, you will find the handful of different patches depending on the version of the disc you own and instructions on how to patch and integrate into emulators.
Gaming History 101 