8 Bit Memories

So I was reading another blog by CaptJB about looking back at old games and it got me thinking.  I have done a ton cool stuff that new games might not get to do again for a long time.  Most of my favorite franchise stuff went away, never to return.  I thought I would take a look back at some of my favorite things I have done in video games.  Feel free to post your own.  I will probably try to keep this updated as I think of more in the future:

this post will be 8-bit memories:

made a map of the towns and dungeons in Bard's Tale
custom made my entire party in Bard's Tale
Found the Bell, The Book, and The Candle in UO
Spent hours mediating because I stole Lord British's goods
Created a massive car gang in SSI's Road Wars and terrorized post-ww3 america
used Bruce Lee to go thru a massive platformer, and killed a ninja and fat samurai
Went to various vector planets in Stellar 7 and kicked some butt with my wireframe tank
played side-scrolling shooters and vertical shooters
Played Commando and whiped out an entire army by my lonesome
played with little computer people
almost beat mission impossible (my friend did)
Played a game called Hacker.  A game with no instructions and no directions.  It took us like 3 weeks just to crack the password to start the game!
made over 100 tracks in racing destruction set, and they where awesome!  No racing game since was as flexible
made my own pinball machines with pinball construction set (come on EA it's 2007 already)
played computer chess with pieces that had to fight each other (archon)
played a game that you only read and click.  It was called portal.  nothing ever like it was made again.
Competitive kung-fu fighitng (kung-fu, Iron Fist, karate champ)
I played infocom games.  That's right I played Zork.  Also played a few other weird ones.
A friend and I made our own Text Adventure game engine in basic that worked.  He never forgave me for not writing out the whole game that used his engine.
I flew an F-15 (microprose) into the Gulf and bombed Lybia!  I remember college people coming over when I was in 6th grade and we would do real time missions where we would fly that plane all day!
I flew the first stealth fighter! (microprose)
Chuck Yager taught me how to fly.  I took an SR-71 into space, and re-entered earth orbit to fast and ripped off a wing.
I built a space station.  I had to fly the space shuttle, develop technology, and plan every little detail ( and it ruled)
I played elite.  People tell me there are missions in the game.  I played that game for 2 years and never found one mission, but I sure did a lot of slave trading and pirating!  Black market good where awesome!
Track and Field (I hate that game)
EPYX GAMES---SUMMER, WINTER, CALIFORNIA---many a broken joystick
I played test drive.  It had one track.  You went up a mountain.  and that was it!
River Raid!
OMG!!!!  Bugle bay!!! that game was awesome!!!!

There are to many good games.  We need to bring back more games that create awesome memories...

That's enough for tonight...I have to go play some modern games.  But look out for a 16-bit memories post sometime in the future.

Meet in public buildings with a box full of old games and traded them for other peoples old games (computer swap meet, before the internet )

Posted by Mediaman @ 11:31 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

No Kids On Next Gen?

So I was going to have my friend drop by after church and check out Warhawk.  He is interested in the game play.  Showed him a few trailers from Gametrailers.com and he really liked it.  He said he had his 2 kids so he didn't know if he should stop buy.  At first I was like who cares, then it hit me.  Even tho his oldest kid is in middle school, letting him see Warhawk is like letting him in a rated R movie. 

It would be a whole bunch of "Timmies" cursing and swearing and tea-bagging each other.  Not what I need.  The dad is going to come over some other time and try it out with out the kids.

It does seem weird tho.  By playing online you are going to be cutting a large number of kids out of the list, unless the parents are the ones who fill out the friends list.  Then the kids can only play with the people the parents approve of.

The problem with this is the whole point of online is meeting all new people.  So much for Timmie meeting someone outside his daily circle of friends this way.  Cuts out the educational part of the net.

It would also be cool if you could rate people.  I heard 360 has this feature?  Might be something I need to look into.

We are in the process of adopting a boy.  I am going to have to totally rethink what I can do at home when he gets here.  At first I was like Warhawk has no blood, just rag-doll physics...it's fun.  Of course it does have a bunch of potty-mouths.

It could be cool to use 360 / PS3 as a parent meter.  We could all report when Timmy starts swearing and then report all the parents who are letting their kids play M rated games.

I don't really know how to solve the issue.  If you don't want your younger kids exposed to a lot of hardcore stuff, then I don't know if a 360 or a ps3 is an option.

Almost all the cool shooters coming out have tons of swearing, sexuality, and extreme violence. 

UT GOTY didn't have blood & dismemberment.   I wonder if the golden age of gameing for Jr. High and High Schoolers are over?  Has gaming turned into an A.O. hobby?  Granted more Timmies play then adults online right now, but that is why the online space can be so bad.

It's all those bad parents letting their kids curse me out online and ruining everything for me.....

Posted by Mediaman @ 11:21 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Game Play Extentions

I think that an element that needs to be added onto games, is an interactive element that can be played at work.  I have not played the game, but Forza 2 seems to be in the right frame of mind.  While you are at work you can hit up auction houses and message boards.

That is a nice beginning.  I think it needs to go a lot more detailed.  Imagine a console style mmo, where you did the adventure at night, but you planned for it in the day.  Say over a break at work you log into a web based interface, you could equip your character, have him go to shops and buy his gear, do auction house stuff, and get to the nights meeting point.  That would rule.

I think the big element to all this is that it needs to happen in a way that it is playable over any pc.  No crazy flash or anything that will stop peoples work computers from accessing it.  No streaming video, or large data transfers that would trigger someones itchy IT department.  It maybe could have a stripped down version for work, and an enhanced version for those with less restrictive jobs.

What would be even cooler is, if in game people could see your character walking around and doing the tasks you told them to do.  Players in the game could maybe interact with you buy sending txts or some type of RSS feed that could give you options for your characters actions.  Like say a craftsman tells your character he has some good sale items and you get an email about it, or your web interface refreshes and you can read about it.

That is a game type I would love.  Then you can talk about it with people you work with, make plans for the evening, and when it is time to play at night there is no messing around.  You could even have your character waiting for you at a predetermined point.

Another thing I would like is the Real Life Happens feature.  RLH is when you planned on meeting with your group at 9:30 and you got stuck at work late.  Rather then put everyone off you could give people temporary permission to use your character as a bot.  Maybe you could even predefine your bots characteristics.  If he's a warrior you could input some types of preferences on how he fights, or if he's a cleric, you could shape the bots actions on how he healed and buffed.

It wouldn't be as nice as actually having you there, but your friends night wouldn't have to be ruined.  Then if you could join them an hour later you could just take over. 

These ideas are not just for MMO's however.  They could be implemented for any multiplayer game.  This kind of game element might be a generation or two away yet, but I hope that it is only a short time before we start seeing a lot of this type of game play element.

Posted by Mediaman @ 4:57 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

A new era of consoles

So after church today I was talking to a friend. He loves to play UT (GOTY) and wanted to upgrade the machines to play newer games. He asked me, "Where can I get a motherboard that will support my AMD 1700 and give me a PCI Xpress slot?"

ummm...how about no where?

I could be wrong, but I don't think they ever really made PCIX mobo's for those old amd processors.

"So what should I do?" he asked.

I told him to go buy a console. I explained that all the game types he likes are all available on consoles now. FPS with online play? Check. Simulations? Check. Casual games and free web based games? Check.

If you would have asked me even 15 months ago if you should dump your pc I would have said no. I thought the 360 looked terrible (nice games now) and it will probably be another year before the PS3 even has enough must own games to make it worth it.

The problem is that windows machine upgradability is a myth. I view PC's as being repairable rather then upgradeable. Take my one friends PC. He has a 5800 nvidia card. He is stuck at agp. He cant upgrade. So he says I will get a new mobo. Of course then he needs a bigger power supply. Then you find out the mobo's with pciX all use a different kind of memory and have different sockets for the processors.

I am not saying that this is bad. I am just saying that when people think they buy a pc and can upgrade it later they are fooling themselves. I understand you can add more ram, or add a faster processor.

The thing is, over the last 10 years I have noticed that when a new, faster processor comes out, they almost always have a different pin layout. Usually the processor or video card upgrades you CAN do are just MINOR in terms of performance increase. If your video card goes out, you might be able to add a slightly faster variant, but almost always the next gen of cards ends up being not compatible with your current motherboard. Sometimes it is your slot, sometimes it is your power.

I am not knocking PC games. I just went to a lan party last week and we played pc games all day. I am just saying that for the common consumerist, it just doesn't financially make sense to game on the PC anymore. A decent homebuilt starts at about 1k now, and a console maxes out at $600. A PC is usually good for 2 years max, a console is usually good for 5-7 years. As a PC ages the games get worse. As a console ages, the best games start appearing.

Plus this isn't even talking about pc maintenance and time suckage, like virus patrol, spyware removal, and the massive waste of space the pc ends up using. I don't even believe that the average consumer is even capable of keeping a windows platform fully functional anymore, but that is a blog for another day.

Anyone else feel this way?

oh yeah. He's coming over next week to see warhawk. He is paranoid about not playing with a mouse. He said he's not bringing his kid tho. He doesn't want his kid to see what he might be missing out on

Posted by Mediaman @ 8:11 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

Warhawk makes me want UT

So last week I looked thru a computer magazine at a Borders.  I saw they had a little sidebar article on it that talked about a new feature of Unreal Tournament called "Unreal Warfare".

It looked like UT has a completely new feature where you can have a commander.  That commander can see who is on his team, what their gaming stats are like, and he can give way-points.

That means if I was to join an online server and someone was leading the force, he would see that I die a lot but do ok with turrets.  He then could give me a way point that went to a base that was going to be attacked and I could help defend it.

For me that would make a much more fun experience then Warhawk.  I am having fun in Warhawk.  It is the most fun I have had since the first Unreal Tournament game.  The problem with Warhawk is I do not know if I am contributing and helping at all.  Most of the people do not have microphones, and no one ever says, good job on that turret guy!  Keep shooting down Warhawks.

The appeal that UT2008 is going to have for me is the ability to make a difference in the game and be recognized for it.  I want people to know that instead of rushing for a tank I stayed back and delayed the enemy from rolling over our base.  Right now Warhawk only rewards lots of killing, rather then team play.  A person who sits at a choke point on a map with a tank or sniper rifle and holds back an army from advancing should get just as much reward as the guy who jumps into the middle of an enemy base and shoots down 12 people buy himself.

I also can't wait to play a FPS online that lets you feel more like you are working together as a team.  Right now in Warhawk if we all attack the same base that is great, but it is never organized or coordinated.

Online FPS has come a long way.  From the confined levels of DOOM to the open landscapes of Warhawk.  It has only gotten more fun, but I can't wait for new social mechanics to take place and make the games even more fun.

Posted by Mediaman @ 5:51 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments