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Cool Katamari Tee in Pre-Orders

After spending most of last weekend playing Katamari Damacy I had to preorder one of these t-shirts depicting the Prince and his rolling ball, with the caption, "This is how I roll."

Katamari Damacy is the most inventive and addicting game I've played for the PS2 and this amazingly designed shirt is, as Cory Doctorow calls it "A true nerd pride item", but they won't manufacture it unless they get enough pre-orders.

Link (via BoingBoing)

9:15 am | permalink | /technology/games | 0 writebacks |

How Eric Got His Game Back

Okay. I'll admit it. I don't play video games.

There. I said it.

I'm a supergeek who hates halo. I'm the sole square-enix fan that has yet to finish Final Fantasy 7 let alone any of the games that followed. I'm the only dork more likely to win the Olympic gold in high-jumping* than to frag someone in quake deathmatch.

I just don't have the time.

I live to create, to be productive. If I'm sitting in front of a 70 hour RPG, I know exactly where those 70 hours are going, and the sound of the "Toilet of Lost Time" flushing haunts me every minute I play.

If I'm in front of my computer, at least then I'm trying to get something done, even if it doesn't always work out that way.

This isn't the way it's always been. I grew up loving every game I could get my hands on. It didn't matter if it was even fun, I played it for the sheer love of playing. I spent a great deal of my childhood in front of my 8-bit altar, and my first true geek "call-for-help" was to walk a friend through the second quest of the Legend of Zelda.

Sometimes I miss the hours spent in front of my games with no thoughts of what I could, or should be doing. Don't get me wrong, I still love a good game when there is company around, but then it's a social activity, something to do while hanging out.

No, if I was going to really enjoy solitary gaming again, I needed to find some time that was already wasted and idle. Time when I really had nothing better to do.

How much does it cost to get your childhood back?

Eighty Dollars.

I got a Game Boy Advance SP last Christmas, and I've played it every day on the subway since. I've got absolutely nowhere to be, except on that train. No one is waiting, there's noting better I could be doing. It's the perfect subway pastime.

The games I had were good, and they kept me occupied. I enjoyed the Mario RPG and grew to understand why the original Pokemon game was so addictive that it spawned a TV show and a multi-billion** dollar empire. I played through the new metroid and regained my uncanny knack for working the D-pad and the B and A buttons.

These were fun diversions, but they weren't quite what I missed.

And then Nintendo released "The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap"

This is how games are supposed to be. For the past month, I've poured myself into this game, struggling with puzzles, searching dungeons over and over until I found the one hidden corner I missed. I've spent days thinking about what I could try next to beat a mid-way boss and then found myself giddy when I figured it out. This wasn't just hacking up octorocks and tectites with my sword. This game actually required you to be smart and think of things in new ways. This game was enriching.

I have yet to finish the quest, and I don't mind telling you that I'm stuck again. This game is damn hard. But it's damn good too. Possibly the best single player game ever made for any console, and coming from an 8-bit connoisseur, that's not a statement I make lightly.

If any of you grew up loving Zelda, or simply spend your days waiting for your train to bring you home, seriously, drop the $80 and pick up a GBA SP and this game. Your train rides will never be the same.

*I should note that I have zero aptitude for high-jumping.

**I also have no idea how much Pokemon has made for Nintendo, between the game, the shows, the cards, and the toys. Billions doesn't seem impossible.

1:21 am | permalink | /technology/games | 0 writebacks |

8-Bit A Cappella

An a cappella group from Wisconsin sings a medley of the best music of the 80's, and by that I don't mean Madonna or Cyndi Lauper (although Cyndi did kick ass...). I mean the soundtracks to the video games we were raised on.

The vocals aren't 100% but you can tell they had a blast doing this. I wish we'd thought thought of this when I was in school! Check out the video.

11:27 am | permalink | /technology/games | 0 writebacks |

Gran Turismo 4 is Out

Well, GT4 is out (not be confused with the GTA series,) and I'm practically drooling.

GT3 was the first really amazing game for the PS2, taking racing simulation to a new level. Rye and I spent soooo many hours earning licenses, learning how to find the line and brake efficiently, and just generally beating the crap out of that game.

The only problem was that there weren't that many tracks, so after a while, it was more and more of the same thing. News of GT4 started making the rumor mill almost 3 years ago, and I've been excited since.

Now, after delays galore, it's finally on North American shelves. This time there's a TON of cars and even more tracks. Some of the stuff they threw in here is just crazy!

Looks like Rye and I will have to line up a weekend to go be kids and stay up all night playing this one again.

2:00 pm | permalink | /technology/games | 0 writebacks |

Hold the Wine!

In my previous post, I mentioned firing up Wine to run old DOS games under Linux. Turns out that Wine is complete overkill. All you need is dos, (not the whole windows API,) so that's all you should emulate.

Enter Dosbox. This little program can run just about any old dos game with sound and "real mode" memory drivers, allowing you to run most of your old favorites in a window on Linux.

Best of all, it's a widely supported package, meaning that installing is as easy as doing quick

12:44 am | permalink | /technology/games | 0 writebacks |

Finding Some Old Favorites

Kel was asking me where she could find the DOS Classic Torus (OK, well maybe it wasn't a classic, but we played a lot of it) recently, and that sent me on a web-adventure of sorts. Along the way, I saw several things I wanted to blog about.

Of course, I have our official "Geoffrey Poole*" copy running around on my server somewhere, so I pointed her in its direction, (*ahem* /gamez/ *ahem*) but I was curious to see if the old game was online anywhere.

That led me to dosgamesonline.com where they host old games like torus, and a slew of others. They've got a rating system as well that lets the best games of old float to the top. Pushover sounds kind of neat. I might have to see if I can get wine running to try some of these out.

While I'm talking about great dos games, I have to mention Zelda Classic. It's a complete remake of the old NES/SNES game from the engine up. While you can play through the official quests, they've got different sprite-sets (skins) that you can apply to the games, and whole different maps and worlds in a user contributed quest database. Very cool.

Looking back at games from a few years ago is fun, but I'm amazed how many decent projects there were like this that have completely died out. Were they open sourced, many of these would have grown and morphed along with our operating systems and would still be available and easily playable today. Not to worry though! There are many great open source games today, and I've got a round-up of a few new ones coming soon.

8:22 pm | permalink | /technology/games | 1 writebacks |

The Legacy of Alexey Pajitnov

While visiting Aeriesstars for her wedding shower up in Rochester, we were treated to several hours of "Tetris Worlds" on the XBox. We all sat transfixed, each racing to complete the level we were on before the other players completed theirs. Smartly, the game only advanced the winner to the next level, but you all continued playing. In essence, you were competing against yourself, but it's fun to play together since only the first player to finish will advance.

In order to understand my appreciation for this game, you have to know that I'm no stranger to multiplayer Tetris. Years ago, my friends from back home and I squeezed 4 of us in front of a single PC keyboard, each reaching an arm in to claim our keys and battle it out in tristix. Later, my college buddies and I transformed the 3 PCs of the Wagnerian Newspaper office into tetrinet terminals, and dueled online, shouting late night obscenities back and forth as we sent weapons like "block bombs" back and forth at each other.

While both of these iterations were fun diversions, playing via the keyboard isn't quite as satisfying as utilizing the years of hand-eye training we all have with the NES gamepad and similar controllers. Tetris Worlds is available for all modern gaming consoles, so now you can play with the controller of your choosing, and the game is retailing for about $20, or cheaper if you find a used copy on ebay.

The update of the classic puzzle game is excellent not only for its brilliantly engineered multiplayer modes, but also for its subtle fixes for some of the great problems of the original. Dropping a piece in the wrong "column" is no longer as frequent, thanks to a "ghost" image of the piece you're about to slam down. The "hard drop" is also a part of the official game now, meaning that you can hit "up" to put the piece down in place instantly, or hit "down" to slide it down and then sideways if you choose. New game modes add extra fun to the game, and I recommend it to anyone who uses their gaming system to entertain. Everybody knows how to play Tetris, and of all the versions I've tried my hand at over the years, this is the best for casual gaming fun.

The game, which is officially licensed and written by Alexey Pajitnov, the original Russian creator of the game, also includes a 4 page long "History of Tetris." I had always wondered about the legality of the thousands of "clone" games and there's a apparently a long and sordid tale behind the mess. At the heart of it, the rights to the game were improperly licensed by a British company for years, and even when "Elorg" established official rights and licensed the game to Nintendo (and forced Tengen to pull it's arguably superior but unlicensed version) Alexey waited behind the Iron Curtain of Communism while the Russian government absorbed whatever profits he would have acquired.

Since then, the USSR has fallen, the venerable Mr Pajitnov has moved to Seattle and started working for Microsoft, and he still has yet to see the wealth creating the world's most popular video game should have garnered him. Surprisingly, Alexey himself says he's content to have created a piece of our culture. It's an interesting story and worth a read.

I wonder if there will be a movie or book deal some day. Imagine "Tetris: The Russian Puzzle" with Robin Williams as Alexey and Matt Damon as Vadim Gerasimov, his young hacker friend who ports it to the PC. Throw in Tom Hanks as the hard edge KGB agent who keeps them from getting their money while evil villain Mirrorsoft sells licenses worldwide without owning them itself!

UPDATE: Wow - I just did some research, and it turns out the BBC just ran a documentary on all this. I'll have to try to get my hands on it! Anyone around here get BBCAmerica?

1:22 am | permalink | /technology/games | 0 writebacks |

Harry Potter 3 Game is Out Today

The Prisoner of Azkaban PS2 game is out today, and we'll either be renting it or buying it soon. Sara and I both thoroughly enjoyed playing through Harry Potter 2 on the PS2; the puzzles were interesting and fun, and the action thankfully errs on the side of being too easy, giving you just enough challenge while not burning you out because you're stuck for hours. Sara rarely hands me the controller in exasperation while playing this series.

The games steal a lot from other 3rd person titles like Tomb Raider, Tenchu, and Metal Gear, but in doing so mix up the game play enough that you're entertained throughout, whereas you can tire easily of just creeping around all the time, or just blasting stuff while you run.

The new installment is getting decent reviews, and seems to be similar in play to the first two, although you can play as Ron and Hermione in this one, and there are more side games. New to this edition are 2 player mini-games like dueling club and "Flying Seahorse Fishing." For owners of the Eye-toy, there's also a set of HP themed games which you can play with up to 4 friends.

9:56 am | permalink | /technology/games | 0 writebacks |

Nostalgia Gaming

Joust - Donkey Kong - Pac Man - Centipede - Galaga - Bad Dudes - Street Figher. These were the games that defined our youth, played endlessly in arcades and pizza shops while we waited for the adults to do whatever it was they did, on our Colecovisions and our Atari twenty-six and fifty-two hundreds.

I've grown out of videogames. In all honestly, I haven't sat down and played an entire game by myself since beating the crap out of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night over 6 years ago. Sure, I've had little affairs with games since, but they're always been too fast and un-centered, for lack of a better word, for me to enjoy. Games with a 3D camera make me alternately frustrated and dizzy, and it's near to impossible to find a game without one anymore. I don't really care how realistic the lighting or the bump-mapping looks, beyond a geeky curiosity, and I don't need a Hollywood budget or plot. To me, the best games are the ones that, in the words of my "Othello" box, take a minute to learn, and a lifetime to master.

To find the games that I really enjoyed playing for any amount of time, it was time to stop waiting for the next great first person shooter, and start looking backward.

See more ...

9:59 pm | permalink | /technology/games | 1 writebacks |

The Revenge of Joust

In "researching and implementing" (read: goofing off with) Mame for an upcoming article, I discovered Karl Farh's Ridiculously Complete Joust Strategy Page It's a brilliant read and pretty much sums up everything I could say.

It was only later that I realized just how bizarre the world of Joust is. Player 1 is riding a giant ostrich, and player 2 is mounted on a great stork. The enemy jousters are all sitting pretty on big green buzzards. Stone islands appear and disappear in the sky, acting as obstacles one second and cover in the next. Opponents turn into eggs when defeated, which hatch into even more lethal opponents unless picked up. Inspiration? or madness?

Check out Karl's page and relive the old-school glory!

12:23 am | permalink | /technology/games | 1 writebacks |

The New Instant Messaging Battlefront

Anyone who was played a MMORPG while being online (which is, you know, the whole freaking point), knows that it's often a pain to IM while you're in the game. Either you have to relentlessly alt-tab, or you have to just live in the game-world or the real(online)-world.

The new Matrix MMORPG seems to be addressing this by embedding a mechanism for interfacing with AOL IM right in the game. This is brilliant, and a master move for AOL. The more games they can get to "License" their technology, the more users they will get to switch to their platform.

The sticking point is this - If Microsoft were to pull this with PC versions of their X-Box live titles, every anti-trust watchdog would be crying foul, saying that their monopoly was allowing them to leverage games to drive users to their Messenger service. AOL can get away with it because they're just giving the game makers a way to build it in, not doing it themselves.

Genius

1:26 am | permalink | /technology/games | 0 writebacks |

Game Review: SSX3 for PS2

As I don't often play games, these reccomendations have been a bit sparse, but I can't go without throwing in my hat for SSX3 from "EA Sports Big". Fitting that 20 years ago EA released the first sports game I ever played on computer, "Dr J. vs Larry Bird," beginning my long history of excelling at athletics in the virtual world, while sucking at them in meatspace.

We played the hell out of the original SSX back in 2000-2001, but you can only play the same 7 tracks so many times before you're just sick of them.

See more ...

1:36 am | permalink | /technology/games | 0 writebacks |

More Open Source Game Fun

Continuing on my trend of highlighting Open Source games which I enjoy here on the blog, I have a few new picks.

LBreakout2 is an extremely playable Arkanoid clone. It reminds me a lot of DXBall2, but of course, since it's open source, you don't have to steal/crack this one to play all the levels!

Pingus also gets an honorable mention this time around - it's a wonderful little Lemmings clone. The only reason this didn't get my full nod is that version 0.60 is broken on Windows, so those of you stuck on the proprietary OS will have to wait for 0.61 to play.

1:16 am | permalink | /technology/games | 0 writebacks |

OpenSource Games Come Of Age

I've been running on Linux for almost a year now, and as such, once in a while, I want to relax and play a game or two.

Mind you, I've never been an avid gamer (I'm still running on a crappy old Ati Rage 128), and often opt to play on the consoles when I do play at all. When I play on a computer, it's either to play online, or because I'm waiting for something else to finish.

With all that in mind, I've discovered three games recently that are worth mentioning: Bomberclone, Armagetron, and FrozenBubble

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12:29 pm | permalink | /technology/games | 1 writebacks |