What a silly illustration.
Discussion topic of the week: In your opinion, which Super NES game had the best graphics?
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“Why watch the Olympics when you can be in them?”
24 years ago, EPYX delivered the industry’s best Olympics simulation to date in time for the Games of the XXIII Olympiad. While real athletes struggled for the gold in Los Angeles, kids at home recreated their heroes’ moves in digital form, courtesy of Summer Games.
In the mid 1980s, my brother, his friends, and I would pull out EPYX’s Summer Games every year and compete for the best records. We played the Atari 800 version, although EPYX released the game on the Commodore 64 and other platforms as well. Completing all events in Summer Games felt like a real, epic challenge. Our quest for world records was aided by the fact that the game saved our high scores to the disk. (Our 1980s scores are still on that disk, by the way, and I’ve been meaning to back it up for years before it gets screwy.)
To this day, EPYX’s masterpiece is still my favorite Olympic video game. In the spirit of the 2008 Beijing Games, I pulled out Summer Games last night and played it while the real Olympics unfolded on the TV behind me.
Discussion topic of the week: What’s your favorite Olympic event to play in a computer or video game? (e.g. diving, gymnastics, decathlon, etc.)
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25 years ago, Nintendo entered the home video game system arena with the release of the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan. You may know the console as the Nintendo Entertainment System, which sold 61.9 million units worldwide in its various forms.
In honor of its anniversary, I took apart an original Famicom and its accessories (including an original Famicom Disk System) while documenting the process on my trusty workbench. You can see the result as a slideshow on PC World.
I had this piece ready to go before July 15th (the actual anniversary date), but it got pre-empted by E3 coverage. I hope you enjoy it, even if it is a tad late.
(If you liked this slideshow, you might also like my previous PC World teardowns of the IBM Model M Keyboard, Apple IIc, and the TRS-80 Model 100.)
Michelangelo is turning in his grave (eager to play SimEarth, of course).
SimEarth: “It’s kinda like being God, except the graphics are better.”
If I recall SimEarth in general, it was kind of a dud: after excitedly buying it for the PC upon its release, my brother returned it within a few days, disappointed. I personally have never played it much, nor have I tried the TurboDuo version. But if it has better graphics than being God, then maybe I should give it a second chance.
Discussion topic of the week: What role, if any, should religion have in video games?
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Like an alien mothership come home, a small flying saucer surveyed the pulsing, Technicolor scenery of Manhattan’s trendy Studio 54 dance club. The saucer, a four-foot replica of a mysterious electronic toy, hung overhead in preparation for an unveiling later in the night. Yet the revelers below, entranced by thumping disco and free-flowing decadence, barely noticed the invasion in progress.
Further up, in the pitch black balcony, a 56 year-old engineer from New Hampshire fought off drowsiness and reminded himself why he had attended the deafening event: among the glamorous movie stars, the blasting music, and the swirling mirrored balls, it was his creation they were there to celebrate.
At approximately 3 AM on the morning of May 16th, 1978, the music stopped. The dazed crowd parted like the Red Sea, and a middle-aged man — the Vice President of Milton Bradley — took the stage to introduce the company’s latest toy, a curious wheel of blinking colored lights and musical tones called Simon that would soon become the must-buy gift of Christmas 1978.
In the balcony, the engineer smiled: he had reached the end of a story that had begun, surprisingly, six years earlier.
Something is crooked in the state of Denmark.
Leave it to the Japanese to create a fantasy golf game with androids, robotic caddies, and floating islands in the sky. As usual, they were quite forward-looking in 1993: they knew that some day, androids would be better at golf than humans.
I’ve actually tried my hand at this game a few times, and it’s weird. While the 3D engine is cool, it’s painfully slow; you can easily doze off while waiting for the screen to redraw.
[ Correction – 07/21/2008 ] I just played Mecarobot Golf again, and it seems that my memory was flawed. The whacked-out SNES Golf game I recalled above was actually Devil’s Course. Now that is a crazy golf game. Mecarobot Golf still contains robots, but it features a smooth Mode 7 engine.
Discussion topic of the week: What’s your favorite video or computer golf game?
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“Mutant scum never learn!”
Being a huge fan of the original Blaster Master for the NES, I went gaga when I first discovered that Sunsoft had developed (yes, I missed it at the time, along with everyone else) a Blaster Master 2 for the Sega Genesis. And so it was that BM2 became one of the first Genesis games I emulated on a PC in the mid-late 1990s. And I was disappointed.
If you get past Blaster Master 2’s horribly tinny FM-synthesis music, you’ll find a cartoonish technicolor imitation of the original. BM2 somehow lacks the epic feel of the original Blaster Master (maybe it’s the color palette), and instead resembles a straight-up Turrican-esque 16-bit platform shooter. Still, if I could get past the first stage (and turn down the volume), I feel like BM2 might be fun.
Discussion topic of the week: What’s your favorite Sega Genesis / Mega Drive game of all time?
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Yep, it’s that time again: time to premiere a new Benj-crafted VC&G-related article from another site. Today we’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of Space Invaders, and my ode to the seminal space shooter can be found on 1UP.com. I think the piece turned out well — 1UP did an especially good job with the illustrations. Here’s a blurb from the introduction:
Thirty years ago this month, Taito released Space Invaders, one of the most important and influential videogames of all time, to Japanese arcades. You might know that it set its native Japan ablaze and drove America crazy, but have you ever wondered why? Well, you’re about to find out. Here are 10 things everyone should know about Space Invaders.
Feel free to check out the article; I think you’ll enjoy it. When you’re done, tell us some of your Space Invaders memories. When was the first time you played it? What did you think of it at the time?
“…easy after you spend a day on it.” Then your hand snaps off.
Of all the weird contraptions pitched by obscure third-party controller manufacturers, the Video Game Control Glove ranks among the worst. I have but a simple question: in what way was the regular Nintendo 64 controller bad enough to inspire someone to redesign it into an impractical novelty shape that likely promotes wrist injury? Better yet, why does anybody do anything stupid?
Because somebody, somewhere, thought it was a good idea at the time. (And someone else gave them money.)
Upon closer inspection of this ad, you’ll notice that the company behind this needless exercise in hand strain called itself “Reality Quest.” That explains a lot: exactly 83% of the dumbest video game peripherals ever made were ill-conceived attempts to capitalize on the early 1990s media hype around “virtual reality” (case in point, the StuntMaster headset). At the time, virtual reality was always just around the corner, courtesy of strap-on goggles and gangly game gauntlets that engulfed your hand in gaudy gadgetry.
I’ve never used the Glove; my guess is that it falls somewhat short of turning Mario 64 into an immersive virtual reality experience. But the next time I need a controller whose function requires rapid, repetitive contortions of one of weakest and least durable joints in the human body, I’ll keep it in mind.
Discussion topic of the week: What’s the worst video game peripheral you’ve ever bought?
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Well, our first forum contest was a spirited one. Its goal was to stimulate activity on our previously stagnant forum, and it succeeded. We saw many new members arrive and many interesting discussions held.
After a month of battling it out for post supremacy, I’m sure our contestants are anxious to hear the results. So without much further ado, I’m proud to announce the winners of our 2008 VC&G forum contest.
