Tag Archives: Classic Video Games

Classic Gaming Expo 2012 Update: A Video About Game Audio…

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If you’re going to CGE 2012, here’s yet ANOTHER something to check out from what’s already going to be a pretty amazing classic gaming convention. Can you name all the games in this video? Better yet, can you do it with your eyes closed just listening to the clip? Ah, memories… too bad I stink at most of those games these days. Well, except Q*Bert. OK, and maybe the Three Stooges. Anyway, Vegas is waiting, baby! Of course, how crazy will you go between being tempted by blowing all your money on gambling and all you can eat buffets galore or blowing all your money on some great vintage to current games and gear?

Babycastles Summit Update: Tickets Now Available (You Should Go If You’re In the NYC Area!)

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Well, THAT was fast! Tickets for the Babycastles Summit are NOW on sale here and yes, you should go if you’re in NYC and have even the faintest interest in gaming.  getting the chance to interact with one of the guys behind Katamari Damacy should be enough to get you out the door, but there will also be a few other fun things to see and do.

That is all. Off to change the banner for August, as I have no idea what to do, image wise. Too much stuff going on!

Juggernaut: A Horror Game For Eggheads (And That’s A Good Thing)

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Proof that a good horror game isn’t all about running around dispatching all sorts of hideous monsters with assorted weapons, Juggernaut is also a tough sell unless you’re looking for a game that’s very weird and intentionally slow moving that still manages to get under your skin. From the surreal visuals to the even stranger plot, the game is a three-disc descent into hell that gets stranger as the plot spools out, yet makes for a compelling experience once the game has its hooks in you. Granted, it’s an old PlayStation game from 1999, so you’d need to have an interest in revisiting that system for about a dozen or so hours (give or take). Nevertheless, the story of a guy trying to save his possessed girlfriend’s soul by taking a trip into her mind (with a little help from a creepy corrupt priest with his own agenda) just might keep you up longer than you’d like. Don’t expect this to pop up on PSN any time soon, as the game never got decent reviews other than a few of writers (yours truly included) who “got” the creativity oozing from the game in all the right places.

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EVENTS: Babycastles Is Bringing Keita Takahashi To NYC. Maybe You Can Help Make A Game With Him.

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OK, I’m feeling a bit lazy, so consider this an audience participation post (or my idea of performance art). Please pretend to see an arty image somewhere in this post, as I didn’t add one. Of course, clicking on the link below will make your eyeballs happy, as you get a nicely animated official site to pore over with the same details below:

BABYCASTLES SUMMIT

WITH KEITA TAKAHASHI
IVAN SAFRIN
KAHO ABE
NEIL FRIDD

Brought to you by:

NYU GAME CENTER
CITE Game Innovation Lab

KEITA’S FIRST VISIT TO NEW YORK CITY!!!!

✌ THREE DAYS OF ✌
BANDS ✌ WORKSHOPS ✌ TALKS

Inspired by Keita’s kid-friendly play-scape designs and Anna Anthropy’s book, “Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form”

Our goal is to inspire and encourage people who didn’t think they could make games to make games.

Babycastles will be building four video game play-scapes designed by Keita Takahashi In association with Kaho Abe, Neil Fridd and Ivan Safrin. They will be on display and available for play throughout the summit at the Museum of Art and Design in 2 Columbus Circle.

NICE HAIR

The Babycastles summit is a three-day series of talks, panels, bands, hands-on workshops and custom video game installations designed by Keita Takahashi , game designer of Japan’s Katamari Damacy. The summit will be hosted by the Museum of Art and Design from August 24th through the 26th as part of the “Fun Fellowship”.

Ticket Info Coming SOON as well as BANDS AND TALKS INFO
ALL AGES

Gallery: US Sega CD/Sega Saturn Library

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Or more precisely, what’s left of both after the great “I Need Money!” sell-off of a few years back. The three PAL Saturn titles I think I posted already last year, but I’m too lazy to go look up something on my own website (wow, that’s bad!)…

Anyway, While I do miss the stuff that’s gone and harder to find (and even more insanely expensive these days), I have my fingers crossed that one of these days, Sega will find a way to get some of their first-party Saturn games back into gamers’ hands in SOME reasonable manner. Oh yeah, I added in a picture of my Mega mouse just to show that the thing actually existed and yup, works fine for the games that use it. The disc-only games (which I normally don’t collect) came in a CD wallet that was part of a giant box of stuff I traded for a long time ago. All of the games worked fine, but some needed a lot of cleaning (and a bit of Perma-Spin action – that stuff is awesome!).

Thanks, Sega!: NiGHTS into dreams… Makes A Welcome Return (Which IS Excellent, But…)

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Hey, Sega! Longtime supporter from the arcades to Dreamcast and beyond here. While I’m loving that you’re finally getting NiGHTS onto XBLA, PSN and PC soon enough, I’m also one of those crazy people that has the original game in it’s box with the analog controller, the Christmas NiGHTS disc (I have one each here for the US, Japanese and UK Saturn), the excellent Wii follow up and yes, that means I’ve played the game to death and will do so once more when this HD u[date hits. That said (dot, dot, dot)

Not to be a pest (again), but I’m just wondering when we’ll start seeing some of those other first-party Saturn titles get the same HD or remake love. The Panzer Dragoon series, Shining Force III (including all the content that stayed in Japan), Burning Rangers, stuff like that? It’s not as if I’m screaming about BUG! or Clockwork Knight not getting HD remakes here (you get what, one email a month about those, right?). I’m just a little bit concerned about Sega of America ignoring some of its best games on a console that’s been HUGELY underrepresented since it died. That and while they may not have sold in spectacular numbers on the Saturn, the games I listed might do even better today if the time was taken to bring them to gamers in the best possible manner.

Hell, I’d bet a Panzer Dragoon Complete Box Kickstarter would see money raining from the heavens…

Divine Divinity Finally Drops Onto Steam (Yes, You Know What To Do)…

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It’s here, it’s a mere six bucks and you should be playing this NOW. Although, gog.com users are probably chuckling away at this news because they’ve had access to the game for a bit longer as a DRM-free download, this is great news if you’re a dedicated Steam fan who’s always wanted to give Larian’s first RPG a shot. What’s it like, you ask? Well, go see for yourself, I say. If you like gorgeous artwork, a lengthy, challenging quest and want to play a game where you can lose yourself for too many hours in. That and it’s pretty funny in a few spots and some of the hidden areas and secrets are quite cool.

When The Last CRT Display Goes, It’s The End of An Era…

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I hadn’t thought about this much as frankly speaking, I’ve actually not been paying too much attention to the classics I grew up with until recently. They can take care of themselves in terms of their familiar gameplay and assorted visual styles holding up, but things are certainly a lot more grim on the technical side. Nostalgia is indeed wonderful when it does what it does and makes you smile, but today’s gamers are getting the shorter end of the stick despite having better, faster (and yes, more expensive) ways to play games.

Sure, today’s fast-moving technology is great and all, but sometimes “vintage” is more acceptable for some things for a few very key reasons.  According to a press release I got from the fine folks at  Dream Arcades yesterday, the lack of new CRT’s is probably going to affect their bottom line at some point (and sooner that they’d like) and will probably signal the death of another central core of vintage gaming history…

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On Replay Value: Why Most Critcs And Gamers Are Dead Wrong

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One of the annoying trends I’ve seen grow far out of hand over the last decade plus is the issue of griping about longevity in games, or more precisely, the overemphasis on criticizing length versus cost divided by quality. Pop onto any games review site or message board and you’ll see whining about games being too short for what they cost (no matter what they cost) or worse, too many posts about people who play certain types of games ONCE and immediately trade or resell them, often for far less than what they paid.  This is dumb, and thanks to too many reviewers who write as if they’ve never set foot inside an actual arcade (or even if they haven’t, fail to understand that most games are made to be replayed), this trend of limited thinking and under-appreciation will keep thriving. For me, unless a game is so terrible that it HAS to be removed from one’s sight as soon as possible after a single play-through, it’s worth replaying… and in many cases, keeping.

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Go Buy This: Tomba! Hits PSN (Thank You, Monkey Paw Games!)

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I sold off my mint Tomba! and Tomba 2: The Evil Swine Return sometime last year for a nice chunk of change (I was surprised at how much they went for), but of course, I miss them terribly now, as they both were fun to play and pretty hilarious to boot. Anyway, thanks to the fine folks over at Monkey Paw Games, I can at least play the first game again, as it’s gotten a PSOne Classics reissue. Yeah, yeah, I’d prefer it on a disc with a bunch of other PSOne games, but that’s not going to happen, so this is the next best thing. Like Klonoa and before it, Pandemonium!, Tomba uses a “2.5D” perspective that combines traditional side-scrolling gameplay with occasional plane shifts into different parts of the 3D environment. It’s also got some light RPG elements (but isn’t a RPG a tall) and is one of those games that will keep a smile on your face from the moment you fire it up. I’d actually LOVE to see Monkey Paw get more PSOne games out (including a ton of the imports I have here), but I guess I should go bug them about it on their site, right?