![Portrait with a Clumber horse [10/52]
I actually intended to try and do quite a straight portrait and include the horse at the side of me. I stood with my back to the horse with my camera at ...](http://publicenergy.co.uk/Projects/52-Weeks/20100306-1145-0017-Edit/803460292_nQg6M-Th.jpg "Portrait with a Clumber horse [10/52]
I actually intended to try and do quite a straight portrait and include the horse at the side of me. I stood with my back to the horse with my camera at ...")
Flock
I’m glad modern technology is being used to make games like this :)
Tagged: Games RSS
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Dave
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Dave
Flowery Reviews
I was just reading Edge magazine while I’m sat on the train on my way to Newcastle when i read this little gem! It reminded me initially of NME reviews but also of TV news reporters who seem unable to just relate the facts, Regardless, the new version of Geometry Wars is great!
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Primed Minisiter
Might have to download that. I quite like the editorial style in Edge. That description of Geometry Wars is great!
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Dave
N+ and Pac-Man Championship Edition
Like a lot of other people, I got an Xbox 360 for the first time when the price went down a week or so ago.
Now, for all of the next generation whizzy graphics and whatnot, some of the best and best value gaming comes from the Xbox Live Arcade. Two games in particular have made an impact with me.
Firstly, N+, a 2D platform game where you control a ninja collecting gold and avoiding enemies in order to escape the level. It’s so simple in principle, but there are so many things about it that raise it above the typical. The stick figure you control is deceptively simple looking. It is wonderfully animated as it runs, jumps and climbs – not to mention as it dies – there are a lot of realistic physics at play here. The game leads you in gently but as it progresses you have to get increasingly ingenious and improve you controls in order to progress.
Whilst the single player game is great, I was further impressed by the multi-player game. You can play co-operatively, and the maps that you play on are geared up so that the best way to complete them is through co-operation. Some of them can only be completed with multiple players. Using Xbox live and being able to talk to the other players as you come up with your strategy is great. You tend to hear a lot of grimacing noises and laughter though as various players are splattered!
You can download N, the game N+ was based on free for PC, Mac and Linux here
Pac-man Championship EditionThe second XBLA game is Pac-Man Championship Edition. Now, I’ve always had a soft spot for the arcade versions of Pac-Man and especially Ms Pac-Man which I’ve always thought was the best version of the game. Every time anyone tries to update the game for a console, they tend to make it worse, or just emulate the arcade game and pad out the side of the screen with unnecessary artwork.This is different. Pac-Man Championship Edition was developed by Tōru Iwatani who came up with the idea for the original version many years ago. This is apparently the last game he will work on. This is also the first Pac-Man related game I’ve played since those original arcade games where I think they’ve actually improved it.
There are half a dozen modes to choose from, but they all have some common themes. You have a fixed amount of time to play the game – 5 or 10 minutes depending on the mode. So, your goal is to score as much as possible in that time – and to begin with, even survive to the end of the timer. There is also just one maze and during that time, the action doesn’t stop. You don’t get cut scenes or pauses when all of the dots are gone. When you eat all of the dots from either the left or right hand side of the maze, a fruit appears in the opposite side. When you go and eat that fruit, the dots refresh in the other side of the maze. And so it goes on. Some of the game modes not only re-fill the dots, but also re-draw the layout of the maze.
While all of this is going on, there is a more modern thumping version of the Pac-Man background music playing – nothing horrible though – it just sounds like the original noise made modern – no fancy tunes or anything nasty!
So, if anyone fancies a bit of friendly high-score beating, you can find me here… ;)
(going out for a walk and to take some photos soon!)
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Primed Minister
Good to see you’ve taken the plunge and got a 360 Dave. If you’re a fan of the GTA series, I hope you’ve allocated some free time for GTA IV when it comes out! I have, problem is I’m not sure how I’m going to cram in time for my photography malarkey too… Not enough hours in the day. :)
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publicenergy
With these two games, Worms and Bomberman, I’m happy as a pig in shit! – I’ve also heard that Mr Driller is on the way and on the Wikipedia page for Chu Chu Rocket it says that’s coming to XBLA too. I really hope that last one is true! :)
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Primed Minister
Worms… Have you not sussed by my email address yet Dave that I work at Team17? :)
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publicenergy
I did clock it some time ago and thought aha! – but then promptly forgot about it. Well, However you are associated with Worms, that’s a great thing to leave behind after your time on this earth! – the 2D versions anyway! :)
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publicenergy
Oh and I caved in on GTA IV (didn’t try that hard not to really) – the HMV 1000 free MS Points seemed too good an offer to miss!
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Primed Minister
Nice one. I’ll have to have you a game then mate at some point (gamertag: pmr17), I haven’t been on XBLA for a while though (my son’s always on it)… :)
I’m looking forward to GTA IV, there’s been a lot of hype about it so I only hope it lives up to expectations! It does look very nice though and I’m curious to see how they integrate the multiplayer aspect into this one. Only 28 days to go now before it’s out… Expect less Flickr uploads after the 29th!
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Dave
Naked War is a play-by-email strategy game. I’m currently in the middle of a game with PremiumP in which I thought I was doing well until it all went horribly wrong shortly afterwards. It’s not over ‘till the fat lady sings though!
The play-by-email element to this is great – it definitely adds to the atmosphere wondering what you’re opponents are up to until the next move arrives. I suppose it’s like playing chess by mail years ago, but with brighter colours, funny hats and guns! It also means that you take your turn when ever you’re ready rather than co-ordinating with somebody to make sure all of the players are online at the same time. There’s also nothing stopping you having several games on the go at the same time.
I go for very long periods of time without playing computer games these days but occasionally something like this pops up brings a bit of fun back to it. It reminds me of Worms – mainly due to the fact that you just have to sit back and watch your opponents wreak havoc on you and there’s nothing you can do about it until it’s your turn again – that in turn is like the old comedy device where somebody will just sit there and get a custard pie in the face before taking their turn to do something worse afterwards.
I’m only mid-way through my first game, so I’m not some military mastermind yet! – but if anyone would like a bash, you can challenge me using the player name publicenergy – alternatively, if you’ve never heard of this game before, leave a comment and I’ll email you a challenge.
Before disappearing, there seems to be lots of really high quality independent games being made. I found this web site called Game Tunnel which covers them. I’ve not really had a go with any. I did look at one called Break Quest which is a breakout style game with a bat and a ball but it uses the power available on computers these days to jazz things up with some realistic physics and nicer graphics.
I’m glad there’s an independent movement out there creating small games that are fun rather than some of the multi-million pound mamoths that I guess most of us are used to.
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greywulf
Looks good. I think you’ve like Advance War on the Nintendo DS. That’s a similar kind of game. I can get drawn into that for hours.
Wonder if there’s a Linux version of Naked War. Hmmmmmm…
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premiump
I thought I was doing well until it all went horribly wrong shortly afterwards.
Indeed, I thought I had made two critical errors in a row, allowing you to really pound me. Changing strategy really paid off though :)
Initially, you’d told me you hadn’t read the “officers manual” … I bet you have read it now ;)
I have a few quid in my PayPal account, and will be buying a $19.99 subscription shortly. This game has legs … and I’ll be walking with you for months :)
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observe, participate, ramble &
[...] Over the last few days, I have been playing Naked War. Its a turn-based strategy game that is played via email. Publicenergy summarises it very well here. The beauty of it is that you play your turn when you are ready, fire off the email (pun intended) and wait for retaliation. [...]
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Dave
Darwinia and Defcon
I don’t really play computer games much these days. I used to a few years ago, but these days, most games I find seem to be old games with a new lick of paint and very little new or interesting. There also seems to be a trend to spend years working on a game with huge teams of professionals only to publish something mind numbingly dull and uninspiring at the end of the process.
A few games have stuck out as being a bit different though, like Darwinia
Darwinia just caught my imagination somehow – it has a very stylised look to it and has a lot of nice touches – for example, the further you get through the game alters the programs opening sequence – which are a bunch of homages to games from the past. One of the early ones makes it looks like ZX Spectrum game is loading – these touches are unnecessary but they add to the games charm.
There is a two minute video which will give you some idea, but I recommend downloading the demo version to really see it in action. The demo can be downloaded from The Darwinia web site or through Steam.
The reason I thought I’d post this today is because Introversion Software who were behind Darwinia, today unleashed their next game called Defcon – there is a pretty good trailer but again, it hardly gives away just how simple, effective and well designed these games are.
Not only are these games good, they’re also amazingly cheap – a tenner each. Much better than most bloated crap costing 3 or 4 times that.
One of the nicest things about Defcon from my small amount of time playing it is the lovely chilled out relaxing music that plays while nuclear attacks are in full swing. It’s quite spooky. This video demonstrates that.
Introversion were also the people behind Uplink which I’ve not seen anything like before or since.
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Roger B.
My nephew earns obscene amounts of money designing computer games.
(of course I’m not jealous)
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Dave
Flicky
Anybody remember the game pictured on the right? I was chatting to a mate earlier this evening who reminded me about MAME so I dug it out and had a quick go on one of my all time favoute arcade games – Flicky.I think it’s possible that the translation from Japanese wasn’t entirely successful when this game was released. The instructions tell you to guide flicky to collect the Piopio and pop them through the Flicky door whilst avoiding the Nyannan and the Choro. In practice this means controlling a little blue bird, jumping around on platforms collecting little yellow birds whilst avoiding cats and iguanas and throwing the odd plant pot or milk bottle at them if they get in the way.
I was quite happy with my 200,000+ scores but a little searching on the internet reveals this to be laughable. I found this quote…
For any of you who are in the VideoGames usergroup and are participating in the high score contest, then my current best on the game is 925310 points. I am not playing it any more. I have played enough. I see little yellow bird things every time I close my eyes. I would dearly love to shoot Flicky with some sort of painful bird torture gun.
And they say video games make you violent.
One thing I’ve never understood is why some of the Piopio wear sunglasses – but then maybe I ought to just forget about this to avoid the potential violence that the game could lead to. A day out cycling in the White Peak tomorrow should sort me out.
mame, flicky
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Dave
MAME
Back in the good old days before everything went 3D and all the fun got sucked out of video games, there were some very simple addictive games around that just worked very well. On such game is pictured here – Mr Do!In the mid to late 90’s when the Internet was still new to me I discovered a program called MAME. This stood for Multi Arcade Machine Emulator. It allowed you to play these old games on your PC. Because it was emulation, the MAME software emulates the hardware that was inside those old arcade machines and allows the original programs to run. That meant that in theory they would run exactly like you remembered them running.
That is indeed the case for the vast majority of the games it supports. There are some where the emulation isn’t complete but on the whole – you see it like it used to be.
The emulation is so perfect that you even have to press a key to signal to the program that you have deposited a coin in the slot because of course they were programmed to wait for that to happen!
When I first discovered MAME, I was amazed that for the first time I could play PacMan as it used to be rather than some copy made by someone who missed all the fine points of the game. Back then MAME supported PacMan and I think about 25 or 30 other games and more releases of the software brought new support for more games. These days it supports somewhere in the region of 5000 arcade games. A lot of them are awful, but there are some real gems in there too – Remember Flicky?
Dave Wild, and 
Rick Harrison 10:29 pm on November 30, 2008 Permalink |
Have you found anything to say when its coming out? It does indeed look fun :-)
Dave Wild 8:01 am on December 1, 2008 Permalink |
It was supposed to be before Christmas but the word on the, ahem, farm, is that it’s more likely to be January.