8-bit hacks

8-bit impressionism

I was never a big Rad Racer fan back in the NES era. Growing up in the NES era I did try it, of course, but Power Glove or no, I never could get a hang of it. There was something about all of those early "fake 3d" racing games that never clicked with me, with the exception of Yu Suzuki's timeless OutRun. However, the one thing that's remained lodged in my brain to this very day is the pictured "night driving" scene as the player approaches a city. That 8-bit cityscape lit up my imagination and I still think of it when I try to get into an "80's mindset." That city was a place I wanted to be. Even if it was the way it was only because of the limitations, in something as simple as the art style, an entire era could be encapsulated.

The Duel

I know quite well that the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, for those of you who have been living in a cave for the past 8 years) is the hot thing on the game scene nowadays. Two players isn't enough any more, there have to be players everywhere and anywhere. A vertiable sea of interaction! It's not just the MMORPG, of course. The FPS has expanded its multiplayer abilities dramatically, as well, increasing from 4 players maximum in the original Doom, to 16 in Quake, to upwards of 32 and 64 in modern games.  However, I think that beneath this multiplayer massiveness there is still a fundamental dynamic, one that exists between only two people, and has existed ever since one-player games first started to be able to support a second player.

Nintendo Power + 20: The Legend Begins

One score years ago (thereabouts), Nintendo set loose upon the world its own propaganda rag game magazine, and the gaming world was never quite the same. I'll confess I never got hold of NP #1 quite when it first came out, but I do recall finding a box of old NPs at a garage sale in the early 90s and considering it quite the find.

I still have those oldest issues (before they switched to the cheap binding), and I thought what better time than its 20th anniversary to flip through it and take a trip down memory lane?

RPGs, what happened? You used to be cool.

I'm having a problem with this generation of RPGs. I'm not quite sure what it is, but something's standing in the way of me getting into so many of the higher profile releases. I'm able to play most of them for one session, in some cases more, but inevitably I lose interest. I've spoke previously about my difficulties with Final Fantasy XII and the wall that game put in my path, but it is not alone. There have been several games over the last few years which have lured me in with creative concepts, so it's not that. It's not the mechanics, either, the degree of strategy and complexity in today's traditional RPGs has never been higher. And it's DEFINITELY not the craftmanship, as few games have more care behind them than major japanese RPG releases. So what is it?

Why Zelda is Timeless

I have been going back lately and playing several classic games to try and gauge their impact when brought up against the best that modern gaming has to offer, but a funny thing happened. A familiar gold box, made of worn abused cardboard, completely sidetracked me and I found myself completely lost for almost the entire evening. It was a familiar feeling, looking through every page of the instructions. I wonder what the look on my face must have been, 7 years old, out on my front lawn, looking wide eyed through the lavish instruction booklet with my Grandfather, reading every single word in there before the game ever got popped in. I'm going to put aside my nostalgic feelings for a moment and see if I can wrap my head around just what made this unassuming little game so iconic, enduring in one form or another even today.

The Nefarious Mr. Glitch

Ask programmers how they feel about glitches, and you'll probably be greeted with displeased grunts, a shake of the head, a forlorn sigh, and something about needing to run more unit tests. Considering the complexity of a modern game, a modern gamer is likely to feel about the same way; what you get when the game does something unintended is usually nothing but an ugly crash, and, if you're lucky, a patch from the game's maker. Oh, what of those bygone days of minus worlds and untold secrets, all because the game was tightly packed 6502 assembly language and game players were a crazy, crazy lot?

Asymmetry

Though it is obviously a mindlessly simple game, there is something to be learned from the design of the venerable Rock, Paper, Scissors, and it's something that (at least some) game designers have been very slow to embrace: a game can be both asymmetric and yet balanced.

One of my favorite multiplayer games back in ancient history was a classic called Aliens vs. Predator 2. It had its flaws, but what really drew me to the multiplayer game was that you could be the Marine, the Alien, or the Predator, and each faction had its own strengths and weaknesses. All three could compete on their own terms, and yet the game remained fairly balanced. What has really surprised me in the years since is that this sort of gameplay has not appeared more often.

If you're not cramping, you're not rocking

When I play a game that's too easy, I impose my own challenges. If I complete a stage, I lament the secrets left behind. If I win a race, I shout a curse if I don't beat my time. If I slay a boss, I feel like the loser for taking too much damage.

I can't think I'm the only person who plays this way.

Let the wookie win

I love Street Fighter. It's one of the few games out there I will take seriously and the only game I'd ever "practice" to get good at. It has long carried the reputation of the king of fighting games, and it's not hard to see why. The way the game is at once both simple and deep, the way the best versions fit together so seamlessly, and the way you can be beat no matter how good your reflexes or your strategy are all reinforce said reputation. However, 95% of the time I play the game, I'm playing with someone who is just playing to have fun and doesn't take it too seriously. Though it might upset Herm, most of the time when I'm playing Street Fighter with friends, I'm not playing to win the game.

Braid and the gaming butterfly effect

After reading Michael Abbott's complaints about Braid, the thought that was left lingering in my head just how subjective individual experiences with games can be. Setting aside the self-admitted irony of the "brainy gamer" struggling with the puzzling elements of Blow's masterpiece, what resonated with me was the fact that some intangible difference between his cognitive ability and mine, or some otherwise meaningless discrepancy in our experiences was all it took to transform a lasting and impactful achievement into a tedious and overbearing disappointment. It determined whether we'd encounter puzzles that challenged just long enough before succumbing to intuition and perplexing riddles that overstayed their welcome and taunted, almost begging the player to load up GameFAQs and end the misery once and for all.