PC PC GAMES

I think it’s time someone pointed out how this game has affected everyone.  I’d first like to apologize for bringing this drug into the homes of you all since our last LAN at Karsten’s.  A lot of us, including myself, are losing site of why we play games because of the way this single game has changed our gaming process.  Games are meant to be fun and are supposed to be played with friends to increase the fun of the game, not aggravating and selfish.  Winning and losing go hand in hand, you can’t have one without the other.

Here’s a few examples of how players change and become from playing this game.

It’s time we went back to “playing games” and enjoying them like we should. What’s more fun than a group of friends conversing, laughing, and enjoying themselves to the fullest.  Let’s leave the teen highschool drama to reality tv shows and the actual highschool teens!

Thanks Josh for showing me the comic, and Curlen for the title.

This comic is a work of Ctrl+Alt+Del (www.cad-comic.com), please visit the site by clicking the picture for proper viewing.

An interesting look into the life, mind and world of Richard Garriot aka Lord British. It’s quite interesting to look a little into what makes the man tick. Too bad Tabula Rasa didn’t live up to the expectations. I wanted to like it, but there just wasn’t enough there.
Somewhere I have a picture with me and him, meeting him at an E3 where he showed his then unreleased Ultima Online. If I find it I scan it and post it.

The famed Gold Box Edition

Back in the days when text adventure and Basic ASCII designed games ruled the PC domain, it was a real treat when you could play a game utilizing 4-bit CGA graphics. Oh the joys of screens made up of 4 colors from a palette of 16 colors – usually being black, cyan, magenta and white. And if blinking graphics appeared, well all the better.

Then the dark ages gave way to the renaissance of EGA graphics. Long gone were the days of 4 bland colors at once. Now 16 colors out of a palette of 64 colors could be displayed at one time. Personal computers were finally cooking with gas. With the EGA GPU, better graphics could be displayed with more colorful sprites and simple animation.

Along with the new EGA technology, a whole breed of platform, strategy and rpg games were developed. One of these developers would become well known for their unique games. The name was Strategic Simulations, Inc. – or SSI for short.

You might remember SSI for their games such as the Panzer General series. The company developed games for most systems including the Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari ST and Tandy TRS-80. In 1987, SSI acquired the license from TSR for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and created 30 games over time. The very first of these rpgs was AD&D Forgotten Realms Pool of Radiance.

Pool of Radiance would go on to set a standard for future role-playing games in it’s time. Other games like the Ultima series and the Wizardry series owe credit in some ways to the format that SSI used.

Pool of Radiance was created for the Commodore 64/128, Atari ST and the IBM PC. There was even a lackluster version for the NES. The version I am going to cover is the MS-DOS version as that is the only version that I ever owned.

Even characters from Star Wars can play AD&D!

The game play is basic. You create a party of adventurers. You can choose your characters race and class. When the computer calculates the points for your abilities, you can either accept or modify the numbers. You can even create “super” characters if you want all the characters abilities as high as they can be. But this just creates a party that can obliterate monsters with one or two hits. It may be fun after a first couple of go-a-rounds, but you will soon tire of the lack of real strategy during combat. You can also customize the character icon sprites. Characters can be carried over from one game to another game title in the same series.

The game is your standard simulated 3D views along with a map view. You go around the city of Phlan and acquire proclamations from city hall to gain experience points and treasures. The missions send you into the slum sections of Phlan that are inhabited by monsters and need clearing in order for the city of Phlan to expand. You will also reference journal entries and tavern tales as the game gives you hints.

Check out Darth Vader with his lightsabre

Combat consists of a combination of commands, casting spells and moving your characters strategically while attacking. Nothing special in the way it operates.

Since this an early DOS game, there is no use of a mouse. Everything is based on choosing the first letter of the command you wish to use. It makes it rather tedious, but later versions of SSI AD&D games incorporate the use of a mouse or joystick.

Is that a Gamorrean guard?

My personal suggestions when playing these old rpg games are to keep character sheets written out on paper in order to have a quick glance of your characters just like in real pen and paper role playing games. I also recommend using graph paper to map where you have been. That way you can mark doors, traps, places of interest, etc. without guessing or trying to remember where you’ve been.

So here is how I rate this game:

Graphics: 3  Nothing fancy, but then it is an old-school game.

Audio: 1 Probably not a fair assessment as it uses simple PC speaker beeps and boops. Again old-school.

Control: 3 Being all DOS based, old keyboard controls run the mechanics here.

Fun Factor: 5 This game may be dated, but it’s still a hoot to play.

As archaic as these games are, they are still fun after 20 some-odd years. If you have access to these old SSI games and are still holding on to an old 386/486 computer, you should take a trip back and give it a go. Otherwise, you can use the DOSBOX emulator in order to play MS-DOS games within Windows. You can also search abandonware sights, but you do so at your own risk. I will not provide links to any such sites here. Anyways, I highly recommend you give any of the SSI AD&D games a try. Or any SSI game for that matter.

GAME OVER

Let me just start by saying that I am a pretty big comic book fan. What with having a couple thousand comic books in my possession, I have a pretty good handhold on these things. Spider-Man and Batman have always been my favorite superheroes since the early 70′s when I started collecting as a kid. And before I begin to sound biased because I have a distaste of anything labeled Marvel “Ultimate-insert-crap-here”, I really did try to like this game. But for me it just felt like a giant kick to the groin. In fact it’s more like two kicks to the groin between Activision publishing this game and Marvel Comics allowing Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada to take the reigns and let his “creative” staff take 70 years of history, throw it in the shredder and rewrite it. After all, isn’t that why Marvel published the “What-If….” series years ago?

But between my disdain for all things “Ultimate” in the Marvel line-up and being biased of most superhero games, nothing could prepare me for this suck-fest.

The story takes place with the Ultimate Spider-Man story arc, the black goo symbiote that would become Peter Parker’s new spidey suit until Peter rejects it and the symbiote then merges with Eddie Brock to seek revenge on Peter. And this is where the story gets too confusing and convoluted. First, Mary Jane has to sew your butthole shut (yes, I said butthole). You then race Johnny Storm testing your spider swinging abilities for no reason at all. Then you will witness Wolverine get bested by Venom for no reason at all. Then as Spidey, you take on the Rhino for no reason at all. Then Silver Sable shows up. Then Nick Fury and SHIELD show up. Then Beetle frees the Green Goblin and steals a sample of the Sandman. Then….Jesus Christ, the confusion just never ends!!!

You need a good 'ol Spidey spanking you naughty girl!

This suck-fest really kicks in overtime when it comes to control and playability. Now a lot of you know that I have a thing about using keyboards for gaming since I’m a huge retrogaming screwbag and like using gamepads. And in games like this one, the gamepad really is the way to go. But controlling Spidey is a full-time job in and of itself. The controls never respond in any manner that you direct it. First he swings, then he slams into a wall and just falls. You’d think that jumping would be able to incorporate webslinging and wallcrawling. But no, the silly trolls at Treyarch decided that was just too much for Spidey to handle. It goes hand-in-hand with walking and chewing gum I suppose. But Spidey is a superhero. Superheroes CAN walk, run, beat up the bad guys and unwrap chewing gum with their toes all at the same time. Apparently asking for that was just too much of an effort for Treyarch. Spidey had better controlling action in previous games.

There is one minor good point that I can give this gold-plated turd. Treyarch used cel shading, which I can say really added to the effect of a living comic book. The presentation was spot on for recreating that comic book feel. It’s just too bad that artifacts appear on almost every cinematic screen. I have tried this game on three different computers with three different VGA cards and the artifacts appeared the same on each one. Minus the artifacts, the graphics were pretty good and stayed consistent with the Ultimate Spider-Man series artwork.

As you can tell, I hate this game. It ranks up there with having a doctor stick his greasy finger up your backside. No, it’s worse than that. It’s like having your grandmother slip her tongue in your mouth and drop her dentures down your throat. I’m just hoping that someone has played this game on the Gamecube or PS2 and can say something better than what I just did.

And the polished turd award goes to.....

So let’s wrap this crap-cube up:

Graphics: 4.5 Minus the artifacts that appear in some scenes, the graphics are pretty good. Fans of Marvel’s Ultimate universe will appreciate the artwork.

Audio: 4 The voice acting is pretty good and surprisingly better than most of the Spider-Man games in the past.

Control: 1 Just bite me. You read the review.

Fun Factor: 2 I can’t say it wasn’t cool to swing around, but I can’t say that this game is worth the $10.00 I paid for it at a local discount store either. A person can find better things to do like chew on their toenails in front of the TV. Wait, I think I hear the suck police coming. WEEEEEE-EWWWWWW!

Now please excuse me as I go pour bleach in my eyes to get rid of the image burned into my retinas and shoot scrubbing bubbles in my mouth from swearing while Spider-Wad confusingly met his doom every 5 minutes.

GAME OVER – Thank God!

P.S. – And did I mention you can play as Venom in this game too? What? You don’t care? Me neither!

Thanks to all the people who just read this and feel like they just lost 5 minutes of their lives that will never come back. It’s not like all those saved minutes on your cell phone. They’re gone buddy!

This is a very informative article posted on MSN’s frontpage today:

http://www.slate.com/id/2213124/?Gt1=38001

……my poor old Commodore 64 just died today. We shared some really good times together. Please pay your respects.

R.I.P.  little guy. You were a fighter in the world of PCs. 

R.I.P.

Found this great video on College Humor’s website that I think you will enjoy:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1932178

A lot of people ask me “why do I retrogame? There are so many games with  better graphics and more realistic content. Besides, who wants that old prehistoric stuff?” I mean, let’s face it. With today’s technology, you can play online against people from all over the world or on a private LAN with a few of your buddies and the graphics are far and beyond the older systems. You can choose to game on a PS3, the X-Box 360, the Wii. Or you can just stick with your PC as your favorite gaming platform of choice.

Retrogaming is defined as the following per Wikipedia: Retrogaming, also known as classic gaming and old-school gaming, is the hobby of playing and collecting older computer, video, and arcade games. These games are played either on the original hardware, on modern hardware via emulation, or on modern hardware via ports or compilations. Participants in the hobby are sometimes known as retrogamers in the United Kingdom, while the terms classic gamers, or old-school gamers are more prevalent in the United States. Similarly, the games are known as retrogames, classic games, or old-school games. Retrogaming is often linked to, although not the same as, indie gaming, the hobby of playing games that are not published by any conventional publisher. Additionally, the term old-school could apply to a newer game, but with features similar to those of older games, such as “old-school RPGs”.

I think to better understand retrogaming, you have to start at the beginning and understand the culture that surrounded the public. Some people consider retrogaming starting with the arcades, while others may consider the Commodore 64 or 128 as a starting point. Still yet, others may go back to when the old 386 and 486 computers began to come out with 8MB of RAM and 128MB harddrives that could hold dozens of MS-DOS games. It all depends on what generation you came from.

I choose to start my idea of retrogaming by going all the way back to Pong in 1972. Pong first appeared on the Magnovox Odyssey and later by Atari, of which was owned by the grandfather of video games, Nolan Bushnell. Now we all know what Pong is, so there really is no explanation needed here.

With the 70′s came a time of some great events such as the blockbuster movie Star Wars, the first test flight of NASA’s space shuttle Enterprise, the TRS-80 – one the first affordable home computers, and the U.S. and Soviet Union coming to terms on the spread of nuclear weapons. It wasn’t until 1977 that a gaming console called the Atari 2600 came out. Sears department stores sold the same unit as the Sears Telegames Cartridge System. Mattel soon followed with the Intellivision and Coleco presented the Colecovision. People were amazed at the whole concept of video games and the video game craze was ablaze. It was the 70′s and the sign of advanced technology was just beginning.

Next came the 80′s. And with it came a whole new generation of gamers. Clothes changed from bell bottom pants and disco shirts only to be replaced with florescent jams and Ocean Pacific shirts. Everyone wanted the Don Johnson look from Miami Vice. John Lennon was shot and killed. President Reagan was shot and wounded. People traded in old appliance colors of olive green, brown and goldenrod for white and beige. The CD became the choice for music, replacing the vinyl albums and cassettes. As the video game craze began to develop, games that were once only found in niche corners of the local convenience store were now appearing to the masses in the form of arcades. Arcades appeared in almost every mall in America and some were just walk in outlets off the street. Companies like Namco, Midway, Atari and Nintendo started to make waves with games like Pac-Man, Galaga, Space Invaders, Dig-Dug and Donkey Kong. There seemed to be no end in site when everyone became crazy with Pac-Man Fever. 

But then something drastic happened. Around 1982 to 1983, the video game market collapsed. The game console market became flooded and people started to divert their attention toward personal computers. Commodore and Atari began to compete for bragging rights by swaying people to buy home computers for doing daily tasks such as home finances while still having the ability to play games as well. Software companies began to lose publishing control when Atari decided that programmers did not deserve credit for their games such as musicians and actors. Arcades soon followed suit and began to close their doors.

It wasn’t until 1985 that video games would come back into peoples lives with the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System. With such games as Super Mario Bros., people became interested in the games with better graphics and music. There was still the simplicity factor, but more advanced than the older systems. Atari tried to compete unsuccessfully with the 5200 and 7800 series consoles. Sega also tried to compete with their 8-bit Master System. Towards the end of the 80′s, Nintendo introduced the first cartridge based handheld system called the Gameboy. The Gameboy would turn out to be another huge success for Nintendo. Sega soon introduced the first 16-bit gaming system known in the U.S. as the Genesis and NEC introduced the Turbografx-16 in North America.

We now enter the 90′s. And again a whole new generation of gamers. People were trading their American cars for more economical Japanese models at a massive rate. The Berlin wall had just previously fallen. The Soviet Union was once again named Russia. Home computers were becoming more and more advanced at a quicker pace. The first recordable CD-RW drives began to appear at the cost of $1000 or more. This would become the era of the 32-bit, 64-bit and 128-bit generations. Nintendo would finally enter the 16-bit arena early in 1992. But in 1994, Sony would soon unveil the first CD-based game console called the Playstation (PSX) after a failed attempt to partner with Nintendo on a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo. The PSX introduced early 3D gaming. Sega also introduced the CD-based 32-bit Saturn. In 1996, Nintendo, along with the help of Silicon Graphics, created the 64-bit Nintendo 64. Choosing to stay with a cartridge based system, it fell short of toppling Sony. It was now 1999 and Sega introduced the first 128-bit gaming console called the Dreamcast to compete against Sony. Even though the PS2 didn’t come out until 15 months later in 2000, the Dreamcast failed to overtake the competition with Sony and succumbed to a bitter defeat.

Now why did I just cover all of that? Well again, depending on what generation you’re from, you all believe in a different opinion of what retrogaming is. My opinion starts with Pong and ends with Sega’s Dreamcast. Others may argue that, but with each generation of gaming technology and systems, there is a bit of nostalgia of the times that can be placed with it. And with that nostalgia, it brings to light the enjoyment we once had and have forgotten while growing up with video games, whether it be hanging out in the arcades with your friends or just playing your first home gaming system with your family. There can be special memories associated with anything we may do in the present. No matter how old and simplistic the technology was at the time, there is no denying that those games that were once so fun to play back then, are still just as fun to play today. We should all take a stroll down memory lane to remember the good times growing up while playing those old video games from each era. And we mustn’t forget that the past technology is what has pushed us to where we are today. We owe a great deal to the early pioneers of video gaming.

Game over.

OK. Totally off topic from the norm on this site. But I want to take you back to the 80′s when a little show called The A-Team aired on Tuesday nights on NBC. Any self-loathing 30/40 something geek who hasn’t heard of The A-Team has probably been living in their mother’s musty basement eating Doritos and drinking Mountain Dew for too long.

The original A-Team cast

 Well, there’s a new A-Team movie hitting theaters this year. You can watch the trailers at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0429493/

The difference between the old series and the new movie, obviously is the new cast. But instead of being framed for commiting crimes in ‘Nam, they were framed while in the Gulf War. And yes, B.A.’s kick-ass black and red van is in the movie. In all, if you are an A-Team fan or just a junkie for anything 80′s, this movie looks cool as hell.

The new A-Team

Last time I did a retro-gaming review here on PC PC Games, I decided to start by delving into a little of the history behind the Sega Dreamcast and what it had to offer. Some of you out there were nice enough to leave feedback about your past experiences with what I call “The Little Console That Could”. Well today I’m back to do a review on a classic hit that appeared on the Sega Dreamcast.

First, it should be mentioned that there were not a lot of “pure” driving games produced for the Dreamcast such as what has appeared on the PSX and PS2. By “pure”, I mean racing games that do not include encountering disastrous environments or the ability to destroy other vehicles (ie “Gran Turismo” or “Ridge Racer”). But while the quantity of racing games might not be as plenty as one would like, the quality is.

“Daytona USA” is one such example. “Daytona USA” is the only stock car racing game that came out for the Dreamcast. With Electronic Arts deciding not to support the Dreamcast and instead directed their allegiance towards Sony, Sega lacked any kind of license for NASCAR racing games. Thus Daytona USA came to be. Sega decided to port the arcade version over to the Dreamcast. It should be noted that prior to the Dreamcast version, Sega had produced a lackluster version that appeared on the Sega Saturn. However, the Dreamcast port was actually better than the original arcade version both graphically and in playability. The Dreamcast was capable of faster fps, more polygons and better shading than the arcade version could.

There are 8 tracks in all to compete on. Three tracks from the original arcade version, two from the Saturn version, and three tracks designed specifically for this version. Tracks can be raced in reverse direction as well.

In the beginning, there are two cars to choose from for Team Hornet. Later in the game as you begin to win races, there are 6 additional cars that can be unlocked. The cars can be custom painted in several different ways. As with all racing games, you can choose automatic or manual transmissions. Tires can be changed depending on if you like the car to grip the track or if you prefer the car to drift a bit. The player can change the camera angle to be behind the car, above it and from behind the wheel for that authentic driving effect.

Races consist of your normal time attack, single racing, championship racing, and head-to-head. Head-to-head allows the screen to be split horizontally or vertically. “Daytona” also featured special online multiplayer racing as well.

The game can be played with the driving wheel controller or the standard Dreamcast gamepad. There are people who say that using the gamepad allows for too much over-steering and the wheel is less sensitive, thus making it easier to drive the car. That is a matter of opinion. I find the gamepad to be acceptable once you get a feel for the controls.

So here’s how I rate this game:

Graphics: 3.5 While this game looks dated by today’s standard, the game has that retro arcade quality and feel about. The Dreamcast adds it own touches of transparency and gloss to the cars that the arcade version didn’t. There were other games with much better graphics later in the Dreamcast’s lifespan, but for “Daytona USA” time of release, this was pretty good.

Audio: 3 It’s your average racing sounds and music. Nothing special here. But it is interesting how the game announces “Game Over” in an odd voice at the end which just adds a creep factor.

Control: 4 While others may decide that the wheel controller is better suited for this game, it is not impossible to learn the controls quickly using the standard gamepad.

Fun Factor: 5 This may not be the highest tech stock car racing game, but it is plenty of fun. With a good number of tracks to choose from, unlockable cars and other features, this game is a win. In a case like this, it’s not about the graphics so much as it is about the game play. You will find yourself coming back for more with each race.

Join me next time as I switch gears and will be reviewing the NES.

As a side note, I will also be using a 5-star rating system for all game reviews in a similar fashion to gaming magazines.

Until next time, Game Over.

When people talk about retro-gaming, two things are referenced in one’s mind. They either think of arcade games (ie Pac-Man, Galaxian) that they spent their hard-earned allowances on as kids, or they think of the old console systems like the Atari 2600 or the NES.

But one console that I believe stands out from the rest of the pack is the Sega Dreamcast. You might ask, why I would consider the Dreamcast as a retro console? The simplest answer would be just to say because it isn’t in production anymore and leave it at that. A better answer would be to say it is an amazing system that has a great library of software but it never received the recognition it deserved during it’s short life span as the first 128-bit game console.

The Dreamcast was released in Japan, November 1998, in the U.S on 9/9/99 and in Europe, October 1999 and was loosely based off the Sega NAOMI system which were used in their arcade games. Taking a first glance at the console, it just looks like a little gray box. Nothing fancy or even appealing to the eye. And depending on if you are from the U.S./Japan or Europe, the swirl on the CD lid would either be reddish orange for the former or blue for the latter. The system came with one controller, a VMU (I will get into what the VMU is later) and a built in modem for online gaming. (continue reading…)