Around this time last year, I wrote a very popular entry about my goal to drastically reduce my game collection and the work I was doing to achieve said goal. Reading this back a year later, I can tell I was writing from a peak point of games outgoing. I spoke about reducing shelving units from three to two, and how I'd like to go from two to one. I noted that I had gotten on the shelf physical titles down to about 750 pieces. So, what has happened since then? In twelve months was I able to get down to that magical goal of one shelving unit for games? Am I buying any games anymore? Perhaps the answer will be surprising.
It was two years ago that we had our inaugural 'Test and Repair Table' at the 2019 Cleveland Classic Console and Arcade Gaming Show. One thing I think most can agree on, that in-between block of time has been unusual and the time before it seems long ago. Finally, thankfully, this year's show came around and it was as excellent as we all hoped!
[img align=right]https://i.ibb.co/B6gLZbS/PSX-20210728-150832.jpg[/img]The first REAL computer sport?
Back in May 2020 an article appeared, somewhat bizarrely, on the BBC Sport website about a 1985 videogame designed to teach people how to surf.
It was a fascinating piece that I'll link at the bottom and I thoroughly recommend you read, but with little interest in surfing my imagination was particularly captured, so much so that I tracked down and bought myself a complete copy of the game, by the game's bespoke controller; a plastic surfboard shrunk down to a size a little smaller than the original model of ZX Spectrum. This device was designed to sit on top of the rubber keys and claimed to offer the player scientifically developed 'realistic' movement.
It's a brilliantly bonkers concept, but how does it work? And is the game any good?
Well, perhaps unsurprisingly (especially if you've read the aforementioned article) the game has the air of being put together by someone who's never made entertainment software before. It's worrying enough when the loading splash screen looks to be comprised of the in game graphics which were, it should be said, very simple even by 1985 standards. But furthermore, once loaded, you're immediately presented with the questions "Choose your board 1-5?" and "Gear Selection 1..5", the latter of which inexplicably requires you to enter more than one number and then, for some reason, enter an "X" to move to the next screen.
This is a menu system that is entirely impossible to navigate without constant reference to the game manual, and once you're in-game things only slightly improve.
First up, you have to plod up and down the beach as you choose the best time and place to paddle out... or risk being washed back the way you came. How far you paddle is a variable, as is when to mount, how to turn, how to re-mount... and all this is must be achieved while watching an energy bar that constantly depletes, and is impossible to refill.
On the underside of the game's 19cm surfboard controller are a central pivot, and several little nubs around the edge that press down onto certain keys. Placing a hand on the board, you press in the various areas, relative to where you would press with your feet when real-world surfing, to perform turns, dip the nose over waves, and replicate other surfing moves that I have little knowledge of... I think you can even "hang ten".
So I figured that instead of using my Instagram to post devlogs (never do that sort of thing on any social), I would just use RFGeneration since I've been on there a few years, and you guys are listed in the opening splashes after all; truly, after putting some time into actual developing. amazing job bickman how do you do it so good*
So, recap, I've been working on this thing for a few months. It's been...
..
interesting, to say the least.
but rewarding when you actually get something working.
As of this week, I have made a grand total of 4 whole songs for it and added a title screen and tutorial.
I want to add a dialogue box soon, and actual dialogue.
*Shadow Kisuragi, you are good too. To all the developers who may be reading this, good job.
Over the last year and a half, we've looked at the best games from a variety of systems, and in that time more than 1000 games at least got some attention. The lists focused on retrogaming, and with nearly all the lists specific to a particular system, it meant that there wasn't many opportunities to compare games between systems.
For this list, though, we've looked at the best 2D platforming games, regardless of console. Mario vs Mega Man vs Samus vs Sonic and others in a match outside the Smash Bros Universe. One of the challenges in a list like this is to decide what it includes, so the question was left open-ended. Because of this, there were some interesting choices, including what to do with games that cross genres but include heavy doses of platforming.
Posted on Aug 10th 2021 at 12:00:00 PM by (Pam) Posted under video, review, PC, FMV
Today I'm reviewing my favourite FMV game ever - The Pandora Directive - and reflecting on what makes it so great. This year is its 25th anniversary and a remaster is in the works.
[img width=320 height=320]https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SJ2G4aimw1Q/YP3IaEm6Y3I/AAAAAAAAJIU/S1Vy-uP8qMQidF3MS_IfViL8HrvKiOoqgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/gb_mercenary_force_p_vy85t3.jpg[/img] For some reason, Meldac decided the mercenaries needed to look like firefighters.
In the early '80s, as Atari VCS/2600 units were flying off store shelves, a lot of companies jumped on the video game publishing bandwagon. The glut of terrible software in 1982 and early 1983 created a situation where too much supply met waning demand, and the North American video game market bubble burst. In reviving the market during the mid-late '80s, Nintendo was careful to try and exercise better control over publishers to ensure that the software met at least some bare minimum standard before it could be licensed for the console. While the rest of the world had no such "crash" regarding video game sales and their viability as a vertical market, a lot of Japanese companies tried their hand at video game publishing to expand their portfolio. Some flirted with the idea briefly; others went all in and managed to create another business line for themselves.
A million years ago (March 2020, to be exact), I was chomping at the bit to play the sequel to Doom 2016, my favorite game of that year. I loved Doom Eternal's predecessor so much that I pre-ordered it on both PS4 and Xbox One and knew I was probably going to eventually buy it on Steam as well. Then, after finally getting my grubby hands on it, my initial thoughts were....well, less than glowing. A year and a half later, I'm close to beating it on all three platforms and have (mostly) enjoyed the journey. How did this happen??
So I have a confession to make: As much of a phenomenon as it is, I have never played or really had any interest in Minecraft. This cover selection was made by others for a group competition, and upon first listening to it, I really didn't know what to do with it. Although I thought it was a nice piece, I always tend to gravitate towards more intense pieces like battle themes, and the very laidback and minimalistic tone of this one was a stark contrast to what I'm used to and also set it up as a blank slate to get very creative with. It was an interesting experiment for me, and although I'm pleased with the end result, it ended up being quite different from my usual style. Let me know what you guys think of this one!
Phantasy Star is one of Sega's longest-running video game franchises. It really is one of the company's own flagship products and has near continuously seen development and releases since the Japanese release of the first game for the Master System back in 1987. By now Phantasy Star could be said to be divided into two eras. The first is the older single-player era; all the games for Sega's cartridge consoles fit into this camp. The first game was a first-person dungeon crawler while the second through fourth used a top-down perspective for the full experience. Each of these games were single-player role-playing games, meant to let players build characters from nobodies into world-defining powers through the magic of grinding. The Sega Saturn generation only saw a release of the first four games on a compilation disc. Sega had new plans in mind for the series and its upcoming late 90s console, the Dreamcast. Phantasy Star Online released and featured multiplayer action and a single-player option. This fusion and ability to move your character back and forth from online to single-player was a massive change and evolution from the roots of the series. Today, all new Phantasy Star releases follow the basic outline explored by one of the Dreamcast's premier role-playing releases of Phantasy Star Online. However, there needed to be a next step beyond this original game; a bridge between this now archaic multiplayer console relic and the already aged and newly starting to be reimagined Phantasy Star Online 2. This bridge would be Phantasy Star Universe, which would see its original Japanese release on Playstation 2 and Windows on the final day of August of 2006, with a North American launch following in late October. An EU release followed in late November; the ultimate bonus of an AU release came the following week of very late November. An Xbox 360 release would come virtually simultaneously to the North American releases, however the Japanese release lagged behind until just two weeks before Christmas of 2006.
[img width=427 height=299 align=right]https://i.ibb.co/Jp10HwH/PSX-20210723-100137.jpg[/img] It's the sound, I think...
More than the sandy beaches and palm trees. More than the branching routes and agonising countdown. More, even, than the girl and the Ferrari. It's the sound that really makes OutRun special.
It's fairly unlikely that I encountered Yu Suzuki's iconic driving game 35 years ago but it was then, late in 1986, that the bright red and vaguely car shaped cabinets first arrived in Japanese arcades.
It's more likely, however, that a couple of years after I would have discovered it when my grandparents took me and my brother on holiday to Great Yarmouth, a popular seaside destination for people living, as we did, on the outskirts of London. This was largely thanks to its Pleasure Beach; a collection of aging arcade machines, roller coasters, and other death-trap rides and attractions jutting out into The Wash.
It's been a while since my P5R article, so I felt like I should give a bit of an update. I'm making my own game!!! It's being made in Unity using C#, and, while I do not enjoy developing it, I do enjoy the satisfaction I get from completing a feature. I've started a group to help me make it, namely Lekooliatris Games, however, I make the game for the most part. One member helps with debugging my code, which is very nice. I've even made some music for it! You can listen to it on Spotify and YouTube, in a week from when this is being posted, (will update when it goes live), and...
...Well. I got a bit too excited there, didn't I? Let's rewind a bit. This all started upon the reveal of Game Builder Garage, (which I'm going to make an article about sometime) which kind of got me excited to make a game in it. I started thinking, "How would I go about this without some sort of group?" and that's when I got to work on setting stuff up for Lekooliatris Games. I came up with the name for the group randomly in my head, funnily enough. After everything was said and done, I wondered, "What's this sort of thing without any games?" So I started it. Not in Game Builder Garage, but in Unity.
I've added and added to that project, until I remade it with less hardcoding and better code.
So, "what is this? How do I get it? When is this release date? Tell me the name of the game already!"
Well, I'll answer those questions individually.
"what is this?" It is a 2D, pixel-art, indie, New Super Mario Bros - style platformer.
"How do I get it?" It's not released yet, so you can't get it yet. However, you can download the PC and Android prototypes right now! https://omnifate.fandom.com/wiki/Prototypes
And finally, "Tell me the name of the game already!" Another thing I came up off of the top of my head, Omnifate.
*probably spoilers, I do not know yet, read at your own risk*
I plan to have a sort of multi-ending system, and at the end of the game someone reviews all of your actions and gives you your "Omnifate"; you also earn a fitting achievement for that ending. (Yes, NieR already took that. I know.)
*you are good now*
This is going to take an extremely long time to come out, probably more than a couple years, but I will be releasing prototypes and alphas and betas for it.
I'm having a hard time coming up with something to write about, so it's time to pull from the old bag of cliches. Ok, let's see here...ah! "If you could take one game console or handheld to a deserted island, what would it be and why?" I love this one, don't you? The question forces you to narrow down your gaming collection to just one console, with the assumption being that it is the only one you can play for the rest of your life. There are many things to consider in making this decision. Are the controllers comfortable? Is the library deep enough to keep you busy forever? Let's assume for the sake of the question that the hardware will never break down, so the durability of the hardware doesn't need to be considered. So, let's say the choice is for one console with all original controllers and the existing library.
There is one more thing to consider here. Can I choose a modded console or does it have to be factory conditions? I have many modded consoles that can play most of the games of most of the consoles that came before them. Although I'd obviously prefer this, it dilutes the exercise, so let's go with a factory console, and to make it even tougher we'll say no backwards compatibility. That's right, choosing PS2 does not mean you can play PS1 games, no Gamecube on the Wii, and so on.
We are a community of collectors, gamers and the likes, and some of us enjoy to let the world know what is on our mind. For those members, we have the community blogs, a place where they can publish their thoughts and feelings regarding life, universe, and everything. Some of those members might even choose to write about gaming and collecting! Whatever they write about, you can find it on their blog. You can either see the latest community blog entries in the feed you see to the left, or you can browse for your favorite blog using the menu above. Interested in having your own blog hosted on RF Generation? It's rather simple, first be a registered member, and then click the "My Blog" link that you see in the navigation above. Following those two steps will certainly get you on your way to blogging.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy our entries, rantings, and completely unrelated series of thoughts. We write for you to read, so we certainly hope that you enjoy our material.
