The Gamer's Quarter

[simplicio]

just did! it's in her development thread though.
_________________
"Worlds turn the new machine to thee. To thee. Though, thine the new machine space."
-Kurt Schwitters, 1919

[helicopterp]

http://trenchant.org/nestography/index.html


it makes me laugh.
_________________
Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

[Harveyjames]

Apparently Violet Berlin is married to Gaz Top!

[aderack]

One of the Kotaku editors posted this mostly in order to mock it:



I think it's pretty fascinating! One forgets that back in the early '80s there was a really progressive "games as art" movement, that kind of... died.
_________________

[Harveyjames]

I think it remained as big as it ever did, didn't it? Only now it doesn't have the money of publishers behind it, so much.

That's a pretty funny quote from EGM.

[Patrick Alexander]

It's nice to see videogames called a hobby, by the specialist press! Enthusiasts these days are all, "I am a gamer. Gamer pride! Gaming is a lifestyle," etc.

It's a hobby, dammit.
_________________
Raymondo Person | Eegra | Things

[Cossix]

[bleak]

Games as art has kind of evolved to games that are art, rather than games which are also art. I mean, by and large.
_________________

[Harveyjames]

You mean there's too much of a gulf between the mainstream and the games that self-consciously set out to be art?

I think I could point to a few games which aren't esoteric and obtuse but still manage to use just gameplay and the player's input to create moving experiences, but they're the usual suspects (Shadow of the Colossus, mainly).

It's not the BOO HOO I KILLED A GENTLE GIANT aspect I find the most affecting in that game, either. It's the fact that you're given a whole world to explore with absolutely nothing in it. Discovering there was nothing to discover was like the most slow-motion kick in the balls I've ever had.

[Cycle]

Man, when I played Shadow, I totally got a huge rush killing these giants, and a feeling of achievement and STUFF when I made one fall. I didn't feel sad at all! I was all like, YES, i AM THE LORD OF THIS LAND, I AM THE GREATEST CREATION PUT ON THIS WORLD, HUMANS ARE THE ONE GREAT RACE. I guess I was a hunter in a previous life or something! Great game, too! Apart from those two boring giants. Which weren't even giants at all!
_________________

[Harveyjames]

[aderack]

[dessgeega]

someone fan-translated a remake of fire emblem.
_________________

[ApM]

This improv text adventure transcript / interview with Tim Schafer is pretty much the best thing I've read in years.

[Patrick Alexander]

PIMPIN'

Guys I interviewed Kenichi Nishi... RIGHT HERE.

He's the Archime-DS, Chibi-Robo, Giftpia etc. guy. Mates with Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Kenji Eno, if that makes you care more!

I also interviewed his programmer and his publisher. All at the same time! It was pretty interesting.
_________________
Raymondo Person | Eegra | Things

[Harveyjames]

You just reminded me of the Pointless Waste of Time review of Starcraft 2 with your use of the word pimpin'! http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/games/starcraft2.html

[Harveyjames]

You can download Commodore 64 games for the Wii Virtual Console?!??!

[aderack]

In Yurp, yes.

Was originally announced... I think about the time the Wii was launched. Same with the MSX stuff. It's just taken a while to materialize.
_________________

[simplicio]

I know some of you folks are like "Metroid 2 black and white O DIVINE SPIRITS OF LONELY GAMES," but what do you think of a remake?
_________________
"Worlds turn the new machine to thee. To thee. Though, thine the new machine space."
-Kurt Schwitters, 1919

[extrabastardformula]

Oh, man. There's stuff in there that I loathed when it appeared in Super Metroid. Map, Power Bombs, Wall Jumping, maybe super missiles. I'm not enthusiastic about this.
_________________
Signature:
This is a block of text that can be added to posts you make. There is a 255 character limit

HTML is ON
BBCode is ON
Smilies are ON

[D-A-I-S]

[Harveyjames]

Wow they really captured the spirit of Metroid 2 with Speed Metal Drumming and RAWK RIFFS

And what DAIS said. The game's got a very distinct atmosphere. The whole thing seems to take place at night or in icy cold space! What is this??

Good effort though, I guess! Maybe it's not what I was seeing when I played Metroid 2, but it's obviously what they saw! I'm sure some people will love it!

[aderack]

Someone put a lot of effort into addressing the common complaint that the entire Metroid series isn't exactly like Super Metroid, with different maps.
_________________

[aderack]

Let's everybody bomb the Youtube thread with criticism, and give thumbs-down to everyone who says positive things about the video.
_________________

[extrabastardformula]

Right after you commented, further commenting was disabled on the video.
_________________
Signature:
This is a block of text that can be added to posts you make. There is a 255 character limit

HTML is ON
BBCode is ON
Smilies are ON

[Cycle]

I'm also unimpressed with this remake! For one thing yeah, fuck power bombs and all that crap! Also, where's the atmosphere! FAIL.
_________________

[B coma]

yeah well, the map kind of ruins the most profound design in the game, now doesn't it?

[Pijaibros]

Thanks for not dissappointing with the commentary on the Return of Samus remake.

I had a feeling at least you guys would agree on the SNES-ification of this. Once I saw Samus handgrab a ledge, it left a bad taste in my mouth.

This is why I still come here.

[Harveyjames]

I'll leave a bad taste in your mouth.

I left an encouraging but constructive comment. Making games is hard! Poor guy.


This is funny:

[Mr Mustache]

It looks technically competent and all, but really, what a silly idea.
_________________
Straight up

[aderack]

You know what a Metroid 2 remake would really need? Complex lighting. And lack thereof.

Lack of ambient lighting, a lot of the time. You'd get some from lava, from certain bioluminescent materials, and whatnot. Maybe some areas would be brightly lit. Mostly, though, and at times exclusively, you'd be relying on a certain tapering bubble of light around Samus. Outside of that you'd get a vague hint of shapes and motion. This would also give the game a somewhat monochrome appearance.

Maybe the more injured Samus is, the smaller the window or the dimmer the light, or the more flickery.

Heck, maybe phaser shots would set things on fire, creating light and attracting/distracting certain monsters.

Maybe, instead of a map, a way of marking the terrain. So you'd know if you'd been somewhere. Like, if the spider ball were to leave a faint residue behind...

Let's do our own remake, specifically to flip off this one!
_________________

[aderack]

Shepard: You could even have upgrades that enhance how much light Samus gives off, as an extra bonus.
Like maybe your gun shots are a little more sparkly now.

eric-jon: I can see an argument for adding the charge shot.
Just hold the charge to light the room, pretty much.

Shepard: Try to tune it so that Samus's ambient light increases as the environmental light decreases.
So at the beginning you've got all these fungi and lava pits and glowbugs.
And by the end it's just... a dead pit.
Maybe the occasional nigh-dead Chozo lamp.

eric-jon: I like how a lot of the natural lighting will be a deep, threatening red.
From all the lava.

Shepard: Mmm.

eric-jon: A lot of the game, where there's color, it will seem tinted.
Oh heck. And light would generally just show the surface of things. So outside a certain number of pixels (one "block" or so), walls would be flat black.

Shepard: Yeah.

eric-jon: A narrow, well-lit corridor would still leave half the screen dark.
Creating a sort of letterboxed, managed feeling to the space.

Shepard: I wonder how that would look if you had the rare, fully-lit-even-penetrating-the-tiles room, for Chozo Artifact rooms.
I get the feeling players would want to just chill out in those rooms.

eric-jon: That would seem comparably tranquil, wouldn't it. especially if the light were to have a sort of ethereal, light blue cast to it.
_________________

[aderack]

eric-jon: I want to play this now.
Heck, this sounds closer to what Metroid should be doing in general.

Shepard: It is warm inside the power suit.
Everywhere else is cold.

eric-jon: The third game set too much of a template for laying everything out in front of you like a videogame. Here's this kind of tile, which needs this kind of key to break. You need this to get through here. Everything laid out clearly; you just have to go through the motions. All very rational. Of course, it's a lot less obnoxious about this than other games that followed (and preceded it). Still, Metroid shouldn't be an action puzzle game. It's supposed to be mysterious, oppressive, anxious, and a little wonderful.
The first two games have this.
Fusion does, a little, in its completely different way.
Prime does, pretty much. The first one.

Shepard: It turned "do it because I said so" into the actual story.
Metroid Prime 3 doesn't!

eric-jon: Hunters doesn't!

Shepard: At one point you have to build a nuclear bomb.
And put it into a floating shell.

eric-jon: Is that better or worse than a power bomb?

Shepard: And then stand on the shell as it floats towards a target.
It's way better.
And defend the shell from pirates.
And then you get there, you turn off the shell's engines, so it will land on the target.
Then you get into the escape pod but OH NO the escape pod isn't working!
But you already turned the engines off!!
I sure hope the maintenance tunnel for the escape pod is morph ball-shaped!!
(it is)

eric-jon: Samus is a very lucky girl.
_________________

[aderack]

[aderack]

To add to earlier ideas: surfaces glisten. So (depending on the potency of a light source and the reflectivity of a material) to things just outside the range of full lighting, you'd still get some faint one-pixel-wide reflection off any surface parallel to the light source, partially outlining an otherwise black mass. Which would be incredible if there were several living things around the edges of the screen.

Combine this with the business about spider balls leaving residue, and there's a lot of complex stuff going on with edges.

Maybe an infrared visor upgrade, that you can toggle. Danger of flaring sometimes, especially when you're shooting. When exploring and travelling, generally speeds things up.
_________________

[Harveyjames]

If only any one of us with all these great ideas had as much get-up-and-go and those Metroid II remake guys. Say what you like about them, but at least they get things done! Conversely, I bet Eric-Jon will never make his Metroid, great as it would be.

[aderack]

I bet you a cock you're right!
_________________

[helicopterp]

So am I the only person looking forward to this Bionic Commando as much as the xbla update?
_________________
Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

[Winged Assassins (1984)]

Guys, here's your Metroid 2 remake.
_________________

[Cycle]

rero what gmae should i write abuot for my next flashback
_________________

[Winged Assassins (1984)]

Cycle you should write about FlaiL.
_________________

[Cycle]

that's catch of the month material, not flashback material!
_________________

[Winged Assassins (1984)]

What, do you want me to do your job for you now?
_________________

[Cycle]

well gee rero i thought you'd be interested in contributing to what you see in your favourite magazine, BUT I GUESS NOT
_________________

[Winged Assassins (1984)]

Oh I'm just razzing you, I'll be serious now, for once this week.

Write about my second favourite game ever, Hexen.
_________________

[Cycle]

i think we've done that before, so i sent STRIFE as an option for my boss instead.

my hexen article would be just like THIS IS A BAD MYST CLONE MIXED WITH A RAD DOOM CLONE.
_________________

[D-A-I-S]

cycle write about flashback for flashback (unless you've already done that?)

more seriously, not enough people have played Strife for anyone to be able to have a flashback over it

even more seriously, what kind of games do you usually write these columns about?

[Cycle]

I know not many people have played Strife, which is why I wanted to cover it. I don't want to cover every big game and be all like OMG THIS GAME WAS SO AWESOME. I only want to cover something I think recieved less attention than it deserved in its time, or a game I can really say something new about.

So far I've done Riven, Maniac Mansion and Marathon. I'm not sure what I'm doing next.
_________________

[Winged Assassins (1984)]

You are doing Terminator Future Shock and its sequel that feels like a mission pack Skynet. If you're not opposed to doing another first person shooter.
_________________

[dessgeega]

cycle you should write about jill off for your freeware column
_________________