Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Two fans of a nostalgic Nintendo Entertainment System video game organized a tournament at Pizza Time Saloon on Saturday
Jeremy Haring, of Norristown, was right at home Saturday in the upstairs sports bar at Pizza Time Saloon, with Nintendo controller in hand and 8-bit pixelation of the Buffalo Bills on the HDTV screen. "My buddy comes here after work, and took a picture of the tournament flyer and sent it to me. He knows I play this religiously," said Haring, not batting an eye from the screen. "It's a classic." Pizza Time was turned into a nostalgic NES and Super NES paradise Saturday during the first-ever "Tecmo Super Bowl" Tournament. The event was the brainchild of Collegeville resident Dave Mancini and Dave Eyes, two friends who continue to love the simplicity of the original Nintendo to this day. "We used to play 'Tecmo' back in the day. We recently …
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Nintendo has gone retro. For free. Online.
Fans of nostalgic video games are surely online right now playing a free NES-influenced video game that has been six years in the making. "Abobo's Big Adventure" debuted today at abobosbigadventure.com. It is an online game in all the NES 8-bit glory, complete with that familiar 8-bit soundtrack as well from games like "Metroid" and "Mega Man." The goal: control Abobo through levels to rescue his son, Aboboy. It was created by Team Bobo, spearheaded by Roger Barr, according to the game's About Us page. The game features many creatures and characters from beloved NES games like "The Legend of Zelda," "Super Mario Bros." and "Kung Fu." Abobo is a villain from the NES game "Double Dragon." Now, instead of fighting him, you get to play as him…
Saturday, October 15, 2011
When one of the most influential visionaries in PC gaming is declaring the platform to be playing second fiddle, we have no choice but to listen.
The notion that PC gaming is dead has been kicked around for over a decade. Pundits have declared it repeatedly only to have games like Half-Life and Deus Ex re-introduce it as the evolutionary heart of the industry. When it once again began to lose traction, the Steam distribution platform made it easier than ever to find and purchase games for the PC without the hassle of manually patching them. By now, it should be obvious that PC gaming will never be completely dead. There will always be a place for it. Consoles are unlikely to ever have the level of flexibility to allow for the creation of mods or user-created content using anything other than game-provided tools (which aren't very common and often underpowered). Additionally, the …
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Bundles of DRM-free games at whatever price you choose - no catch - and all the money goes where YOU say it goes.
Independent game development has produced some real gems over the years. Regardless of what is typically a very limited budget when compared to the big-money companies in the industry, indie developers tend to be innovators, relying on original mechanics and pure gameplay to provide a memorable experience. After all, you can't hide behind flashy presentation when you can't afford it to begin with. But that same budget limit often means that these gems might stay buried if not for word of mouth. Downloadable console services like Xbox Live Indie Games and the PlayStation Network have provided unusually visible platforms for these titles, but for the games that are lucky enough to be featured, much of the money made through these services …
Saturday, October 1, 2011
The season of blockbusters has officially arrived
Fall is here, and it brings with it the beginning of a steady stream of sure top-sellers in the video game industry. October hosts the release of id Software’s first entirely in-house title since 2004, a sequel to one of the most wonderfully sadistic games of the last decade, the Xbox 360 and PS3’s taste of a previously Wii-only dance title, the triumphant return of the dark knight, and DICE’s true sequel to their genre-defining FPS from 2005. It’s been a long time since id Software has developed a game entirely in-house. 2004’s Doom 3 was the last time that such a title was released. And with the developer’s track record of games that includes the aforementioned Doom franchise as well as several Quake iterations, a lot of gamers are …
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
What are the most influential moments in the development of home game console controllers?
The appearance of the first home game console occurred in 1972 with the Magnavox Odyssey. Believe it or not, we’re scarily close to being able to say that home video gaming is 40 years old. Among all of the improvements that have been made in the medium over those four decades, here are the top 5 of them specific to control scheme: #5: Shoulder Buttons (Super Nintendo - 1990) The fifth most important development in control scheme in home consoles was the advent of the shoulder buttons on the gamepad as introduced by the Super Nintendo in 1990. It created an effortless addition of two more buttons that didn’t require any awkward movement to reach. Located comfortably under where the player’s pointer fingers were likely to rest anyway, the …
Saturday, August 6, 2011
One more month of summer left. Take a moment to kick your feet up with one of these new titles before vacation season is over.
After a slow July in game releases, August marks the beginning of the rush of potential blockbusters for the latter half of 2011. Included in this month's releases are an HD remake of an underappreciated Wii game, the newest iteration of a certain annual sports franchise, and a long-awaited prequel to one of the greatest games of all time. To kick off this month's list, we revisit one of the best Wii games that no one played. The original No More Heroes came out for the Nintendo Wii in the US in January of 2008. No one heard it drop, but the majority of those who played it felt that they had enjoyed one of the best titles of the year. It was up for a number of awards across several publications by the end of 2008 citing its excellent story…
Saturday, July 23, 2011
No matter how hard you try to force it, they don't mix.
It really seems like it should work, doesn't it? You'd think that movies like Harry Potter and Iron Man should make great games, right? There's plenty of room for action, creative game mechanics, even RPG elements... It's almost like the idea is gift wrapped for the developer. Regardless, time and time again, taking a movie and making it into a video game instead becomes an exercise in futility. Take Harry Potter, for instance. A quick look at Metacritic tells most of the story. The movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has received an aggregate score of 87, an impressive showing. The game of the same name? 47. That's not even in the ballpark. Iron Man was also recognized as a decent movie by most standards. But the video game…
Saturday, June 18, 2011
In fourth-quarter 2011, Sony will launch their next-gen handheld, placing it in direct competition with the Nintendo 3DS.
Less than three short months ago, Nintendo announced the beginning of a new generation of handheld consoles with the release of the 3DS. While Sony's inevitable entry to the fold with their follow-up to the PSP was no mystery, details were cloudy and vague at best. But following E3 2011, we now know what Sony has up their sleeve, as well as projected pricing and release timing. Ladies and gentlemen, the Sony PlayStation Vita. The pictures sure are pretty. It looks not unlike the current-gen PSP at a glance, but there's a very important difference noticeable right from the get-go, and it's a feature that fans have asked for time and time again: the Playstation Vita sports dual analog sticks. Finally, a true FPS experience can be readily …
Saturday, June 11, 2011
This past week hosted the biggest industry event of the year. Here are some of the high and low points of this year's expo
Fans of video gaming the world over are acutely familiar with the Electronic Entertainment Expo, affectionately known as E3. It is the industry trade show of the year. It's the event that the biggest names in video gaming save their biggest secrets for, or at least try to. The entire expo is a week-long display of major upcoming gaming hardware and software releases, but the real attractions are the developer conferences, where the real news is let out. Last year's conferences announced hardware such as the Playstation Move and Microsoft Kinect motion controllers, as well as the recently-released Nintendo 3DS handheld system. Last week played host to the 2011 E3 Expo, which concluded yesterday. Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Sony, …
tommy
12:23 am on Sunday, October 16, 2011
"If you're not playing an MMO or an RTS, chances are that you're better off gaming on a console." lets see.. "If you're not playing an MMO or an RTS, chances are that you're better off gaming on a console." Battlefield 3 PC lead Platform, Counter Strike: GO PC lead Platform, Metro:last light PC lead Platform, Planetside 2 by Sony PC Exclusive, Farcry 3 PC lead Platform, Stalker 2,Arma3,Red … more ›