Curing the Plague - One NPC at a time.
Wow. I'm not sure what's worse, the cold or the medication.

Inflicted with such disease as I am, I am reminded of an old RPG that I doubt very many people remember... Twilight: 2000. I played both the pen & paper version and the CRPG (by Paragon Software, later assimilated into Microprose, which was later assimilated into... yeah, you get the idea)

One of the randomly-generated missions you could encounter in Twilight: 2000 (the cRPG) was one where you had to heal everybody in the town who had contracted some kind of disease. It meant using up some of your supply of antibiotics. You had to hunt down everyone still infected with the disease, and use the medication on them (I can't remember if there was some kind of skill check against your medical skill or not).

Finding the last couple of diseased villagers was always a chore. They would appear as a different colored dot on your mini-map, but it was still hard to locate that last randomly-wandering-around NPC who was preventing mission completion.

There was a similar mission (or "quest," if you prefer) where you had to interrogate everyone in town to find a spy. Similar gameplay, but the interrogation skill was used.

At the time, I thought those were the most boring, lame quests ever in an RPG.

Then I came across the "Kill the giant rats and bring me ten giant rat-tails" type quests in MMOs. And sadly, in some single-player RPGs. And then I realized, to my dismay, the Twilight: 2000 quests were brilliant in comparison. After all, in those quests, you could at least locate the one or two targets you needed to tackle to guarantee success.

Okay, time for me to lie down again.

Labels: retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:14 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
Command & Conquer - free!
The ol' classic Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (+ Expansion), and C&C: Red Alert are now available for free, to help promote the release of Command & Conquer 4.

Command & Conquer - Classics

It took me a while to realize "Tiberian Dawn" was actually the original C&C. I am so old-school. Back then we knew it as, "The unofficial sequel to Dune 2." Yeah, they aren't harvesting spice on Arakis, you were harvesting tiberium or whatever-it-was-called on Earth... But yeah. It's perhaps not THE great-grandaddy of RTS's, but it's definitely one of the classics that spawned the genre.

(Tangent: my first RTS game was the much-forgotten MindCraft game, "Siege.")

I spent a few very late nights back in the day playing the first one, but never played the other two. Should be fun!

Labels: Free Games, retro, strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:01 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Outwars
When I was at SingleTrac, Outwars was probably the single largest project we'd ever worked on. And it was PC only. We negotiated the deal with Microsoft - the idea was to make a game that was "two generations removed from Doom." Quake - undoubtedly the "next generation Doom" - was looming on the horizon but we weren't sure exactly when it would be released. We wanted to leapfrog it.

The project was also inspired by an offer to do the videogame based upon the upcoming movie adaptation of Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Ultimately, that deal didn't pan out (and I personally thought the movie sucked). And they never revealed to us (well, at least not to me) any of the details about that proposal, to keep us completely untainted. But the idea of doing a game about powered armor with massive vertical movement sounded kinda cool. As research, I re-read the book Starship Troopers, as well as John Steakley's outstanding book Armor.

So the game was about taking a team of soldiers in jetpack-enabled battle-armor and fighting aliens across four different "planets" - though one planet was actually the giant alien mothership. That was basically so we'd have four different environmental "themes."

While we were in development, Looking Glass Studios produced the very under-rated game Terra Nova, which scared the crap out of us briefly because we feared they'd made our game. As usually happens with these things, playing the game revealed that it wasn't actually all that similar. That happens a lot. You hear something about a soon-to-be-released competing game that at first sounds like they bugged your office and beat you to the punch with your own game. But then, upon release, you realize it's not even close.

Although, to be perfectly honest, Terra Nova (which I understood was kind of a flop, too) was closer to the game I wanted to make. While it wasn't ever going to take its place among my all-time favorites, it was more of the combat-jumpsuit-SIMULATOR that I'd had in mind. But I wasn't the guy in charge of the design of the game. One of my many sins was probably pushing the sim-like elements too hard into a game design that hadn't really called for it.

A third of the way into development, we experienced a pretty major rift within SingleTrac. It was a rift that was never healed. It partly came about because we were being sold to GT Interactive (which was, not long afterwards, absorbed by Infogrammes, which then became re-branded as Atari here in the U.S.). ALL of our senior people on our team - all of our leads, our producer, designer, etc - ended up away much of the time (meeting with lawyers, etc), and even when they were there they didn't quite have their head in the game. At least not our game. As one of the lowly peons, I was never quite sure what was going on there. I had (and still have) a lot of respect for those folks, and a dozen years later I bear them some sympathy for what was going on. But at the time, I was pretty annoyed.

During the final third of the project (which by this time, was plunging relentlessly into delayed and over-budget territory), management finally made official what had been going on unofficially for months - our senior people were gone, and the rest of us now had authority to add to our responsibility for making the game fun and getting it out. We did what we could.

But as the sale of our company was done, Outwars was in a strange limbo. As we owned the intellectual property rights on the game, our publisher no longer saw much value in it - it could no longer be turned into a franchise. And GT Interactive was annoyed that we were still contractually obligated to finish a game for their competitors. Both sides were pretty much of the opinion that we should just get the game out the door and meet contractual obligations. At least, that was my own take-away from it.

But while Outwars didn't meet with great marketplace acceptance or critical acclaim (one review called it a "Nightmare in a box"), I still feel some pride in the game. It was wildly ambitious for our company, sort of a mission-impossible thing... and we pulled it off. There were many decisions I wish we could have changed. And I will forever be apologizing for that final alien boss battle - it was (almost) all my fault, and I knew even less about game design than I do now.

Labels: game development, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:07 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Wizardry Series - Sequel, Spin-Off, Start Over, or Stay Dead?
Diehard Gamefan argues over whether or not the classic Wizardry RPG series ought to be revived or not.

Not that it has any bearing on whether that would even be an option. And yes, there is not an insignificant amount of discussion over how the series has been picked up by Japanese game developers and is now enjoying popularity there that we don't even get most of the imports of over here.

The consensus? Half the reviewers would like to see the series continue here in the west, half think it should remain dead. The rationale is the interesting part. Go over and check it out:

"Wizardry - Sequel, Spin-Off, Start Over, or Stay Dead?" at Diehard GameFAN

Me, personally? Oh, heck yeah, I'd love to see a Wizardry 9. The thing is, I pretty much skipped the middle games - I played the Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, and a little bit of the second one (Knight of Diamonds? ) waaaaaay back in the day. And then I played a little bit of the sixth game - Bane of the Cosmic Forge, but just after I started Wizardry 7 came out - Crusaders of the Dark Savant, and I totally gave up on the previous (borrowed) game while me characters were something like zeroth level. Never finished Wiz 7, either, though I have been intending to do so for YEARS. But I chronicled my expedition to victory in Wizardry 8 in quite some detail. The tedium of combat was the only serious blemish on what has become one of my favorite RPGs.

(And I think it's kinda cool how a game can become one of my favorites in spite of being a a half-decade past its prime).

The first game in the series was magical just on account of it being there, where it was, and offering so much in an era when computer games were new. It boldly forged new territory, and it was full of awesome.

Wizardry 8 was likewise full of awesome, but it faced another problem: It was born in an era where hardcore games of its kind could no longer find the mainstream audiences they needed to sustain their development. If the game can't be made for less than four million, and the aggressive sales plan only sees sales potential of three million... well, that's a problem. If there's no way around those two numbers, it clearly means no game.

And yes, I'm totally channeling my earlier blog post.

Bottom line: I would like to see games like Wizardry 8 somehow thrive in the modern era via indie-dom. And I'd like to see the series make a return to development in the west. And Brenda Brathwaite designing them, too. As long as I'm wishing...

Oh, and a hat tip to RPGWatch for the link.

Labels: retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:22 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Grazing on Cheap Games
Hoo boy. Well, a good chunk of my Christmas mulah ended up going to the fine folks at GOG.COM and Valve - and some indie developers - over the holidays. Especially if you count "the holidays" as being from Thanksgiving weekend all through December.

Apparently, I am a sucker for sales. Even at GOG.COM, where a sale-priced game only means three dollars of savings on something that was already cheap. This says something about psychology, I think.

The trick of it is --- I don't have much time to actually play the games due to actually making games in what constitutes 'spare time.' I end up feeling guilty when I do. Sure, I can claim "research" as I'm putting time into Torchlight or The Witcher (definitely NOT retro) or Might & Magic: World of Xeen or Stonekeep (both delightfully retro). But at this point, I'm grazing more than feasting.

One more reason I'm happier to have gotten these games at a discount price, I guess.

Labels: retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:14 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
So What Does "Old-School" RPG Style Mean?
Kat Bailey comments on efforts to bring back that old-school flavah by mainstream RPGs in 2009:

2009: The Year of the Old-School RPG at 1Up

Dang - I refuse to get a PS3, but Demon's Souls and Valkyria Chronicles are looking pretty cool. But that's besides the point. As an indie game developer and self-proclaimed "indie evangelist," I have to admit to feeling a little defensive at the premise here. Hey, whadayamean mainstream games are going old-school? That's now the indie niche, leave it alone, guys! But really, I'm not exactly seeing a return to the era of Might & Magic, Wizardry, Baldur's Gate, and 16-bit console games here from the mainstream biz.

It sounds a little like on some levels Kat is equating "old-school" with "hard" (and I have heard that Demon's Souls is frickin' punishing), and I don't think that's necessarily the case. Some of my favorite RPGs of yesteryear never struck me as being particularly difficult. Intimidating to newbies to the genre, I may grant you. But difficulty was more of a characteristic of particular series / brands, not the genre in general.

And dropping references to older games and adopting a slightly less action-oriented gameplay doesn't really constitute "old-school feel" to me. But I do welcome these features. It's long been my contention that the trends in modern RPGs that some people call evolution was simply homogenization. Me? I'm for greater diversity. Let's borrow some of those old-school features where they fit (there are a LOT which, as I mentioned earlier this week, which may not be appropriate for all games but could still make for wonderfully entertainment in the right game), take advantage of new-school design elements and sensibilities where they fit, throw in a healthy spoonful of innovation, and see just how ginormously huge this genre can really be!

But the premise of the article also opens up another can of worms. What really constitutes "old-school?" This is a wonderfully subjective question, conjuring up images of our biggest early influences in the genre. But the truth is, "old school" games - while typically more deeply rooted in early Dungeons & Dragons tabletop gaming than their modern descendants - were still a wildly diverse bunch. Especially now that gaming now spans generations of gamers - I still have a tough time thinking of Baldur's Gate or Fallout as "old-school" RPGs, though as they are well over a decade old now, I think it's time I let go and admit that they have joined that fraternity. But compare someone who's biggest influences were games like the Ultima series with someone who grew up playing 8- and 16-bit Japanese console imports, or someone who got their start playing the old D&D "Gold Box" and Eye of the Beholder games, and you will see vastly different opinions on what constitutes "old-school."

(And as an aside, I was playing the action-RPG Gateway to Apshai over a decade before Diablo "invented" that style of game, making that way less modern and "evolved" than some designers and marketers like to claim. That's old-school, baby! Just a few steps removed from Venture!)

So what does "old-school" mean to you? What would be the features you'd look for in a modern game that would speak to your retro-lovin' heart, if any?

Labels: retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:54 AM (Permalink) 10 comments links to this post

 
Seven Things About Old School CRPGs That Really Annoy Me - Except When They Don't
So here we go with another article wherein the Rampant Coyote bellyaches about stuff other players consider sacred!

I've spent a bit of time this year engaging in some glorious retro-gaming of older computer (and console) RPGs. We'll call it, uh, research. For Frayed Knights. Yeah, research, that's the ticket. Some of these games I've played before, but others are new to me (except for hearing and reading about them for years, now).

I don't know how hard it would be for someone who never grew up with and experienced these kinds of older-vintage games to appreciate them. As for me - I remember when these games were of sufficiently modern technology (very few RPGs actually pushed the ol' tech envelope) that they didn't seem in any way lacking. But even for me, going back takes a bit of getting used to. The first hour or two is always a little bit painful. And then, after growing comfortable with the rules and interface (almost always a challenge, especially with RPGs), my imagination starts filling in where the graphics and sound might be missing - as it always did. I then find myself transported to a fictional world, and actually having fun and enjoying myself.

I love these games. Still. There's a lot to like. And I've talked about what made 'em awesome in other articles.

But there are a few things about these old-school games that I never really appreciated back in the day, and absence has not made my heart grow fonder. I don't miss 'em. Usually. Except when I do.

1. Mandatory Food (or other daily maintenance costs)
Ah, food - the great money sink. While it might be somewhat challenging at lower level when money is scarce, it's merely an annoyance at higher levels. And it grows to be a big annoyance over time. Let's just assume that --- like having to excrete wastes as well --- eating is just something that happens "behind the scenes," okay? Unless it's something special - like having a feast with the king or eating an enchanted apple - I don't want to worry about it. I don't want to pay a tax on staying alive.

I shouldn't have to say this, but I will anyway - non-mandatory food (where, for example, an apple gives you a slight health boost) is fine.

Exceptions: If it's a "survival fantasy" kind of game - like Ultima Underworld or Arx Fatalis, where food is not something taken for granted by anyone - then the above doesn't apply. I actually enjoy the verisimilitude. It's no longer an annoyance, but a key part of the narrative. (Hah! I caught a fish!)

Strangely, the cost of staying at an inn (which is functionally equivalent) usually doesn't bug me - especially if there is a "free" alternative somewhere in the game that I can return to if I'm feeling particularly skinflint-y.

2. Time Limits to Failure
One can easily gripe (and I have, too, at times) about how unbelievable it is that the entire world - including the evil overlord's plans - are put on hold to match the player's schedule. But efforts to address this issue are, generally, way more annoying than the problem. The stress of worrying about the passage of time in my explorations, and second-guess when I might have taken too long, isn't much fun. And having characters age and grow weaker in their career? No, thanks - it always felt like an arbitrary rule to make another arbitrary rule more frustrating. Fortunately, games featuring this particular problem have always been rare.

Exceptions: Although I didn't actually enjoy it, Fallout handled the time limit for the main quest quite well, by putting it very much front-and-center throughout the game. So at least you never had to second-guess the problem. That made it considerably less annoying, and it seemed - well, okay. And different. So it gets a pass.

One place where I really liked the time limit problem was in Depths of Peril - but the entire quest system was pretty organic and you knew (at least after the first play-through) that the gameworld events and quests were going to evolve. It behaved predictably, and thus became enjoyable.

3. Mazes
I have already ranted about these. And no, I was never talking about old fake 3D tile-based games, which were inherently maze-like (though most games at least tried to minimize the maze-like feel where technology allowed - except in maze-like areas...).

Exceptions: While mazes are generally 20% cool to 80% suck, I believe that ratio is manageable - as I stated in the linked article. And I've played some games where the mazes weren't too bad. They just don't come to mind right now. Instead I feel this ancient hatred towards Final Fantasy X's temple / maze puzzles, particularly in the late game, though I barely remember them now...

4. Paying a Big Chunk of Cash To Level Up
This one annoyed me in pen-and-paper AD&D, and we always ignored that rule. It's just another one of those money-sink, paying-tax-on-staying alive things. I guess it's because I always felt like I was paying extra to obtain something I'd already earned. I didn't like seeing that rule carried over to my CRPGs (where I couldn't ignore it), either.

Exceptions: Paying money to gain new individual skills never really bugged me. And paying money to increase skills above and beyond the gains entitled to me by leveling up was never an issue. It's just the leveling-up maintenance fees that annoy me.

5. Running Into Level Caps Well Before Running Out of Game
I totally understand level caps. I don't have a problem with them - they are a necessary evil. In some of the older games, though, it was really easy to have a maxed-out character with more-or-less the best equipment available pretty early in the game. While there were undoubtedly good reasons for this, it makes the player feel penalized for taking the time out to explore and sub-quest and battle through every nook and cranny. Though it's not a competitive game, I still don't want the Harrison Bergeroned to the level of a guy who beelined it with a walkthrough in the final encounter.

Exceptions: This assumes "reasonable" play. If somebody chooses to spend most of the game grinding in random encounter areas to max out their level practically before concluding the tutorial, that's their own call.

6. Tiny Character Name Limits
Limiting a character name to four, six, or eight characters was pretty uncalled for even in the 8-bit days (particularly on the PC). Why did a character name have to be the same as a saved-game name, anyway? Sheesh.

Exceptions: There are no exceptions, says Ninglaetori the Mysterious.

7. Encumbrance
Okay, this never really bugged me a lot, but it was a minor irritation at times that I don't really miss. I mean, yeah, I know how much a suit of plate mail weighs (having worn some in real life), and I fully recognize that a normal human really isn't going anywhere with six suits of plate mail stuffed down his pack. Assuming it was even physically possible to stuff seven suits of plate mail into a pack, which boggles my imagination.

But in dice-and-paper games, the rules were really just there to prevent abuses or outright silliness (Gary Gygax himself admitted that he only used the encumbrance rules as a threat, not something they actually kept track of). It was also used as a challenge - such as trying to figure out how you are actually going to cart that dragon's horde out of its lair before dying of old age or having it all stolen before you were done. And where would you store it all?

But in the pen-and-paper games, you had a ton of options that didn't exist in CRPGs - such as obtaining a cart and / or mule, hirelings, burying or hiding some of the treasure, or even being able to drop said treasure without it instantly vanishing. Plus, the pen-and-paper games (particularly D&D) generally provided plentiful magical items aimed squarely at circumventing those restrictions (like Bags of Holding and Portable Holes) that didn't make their way into CRPGs. So you got some concrete limitations on something that felt like it was only an abstraction.

Plus, micro-managing weight-loads between party members was never that much fun.

So while it has never been a big deal, I'll generally chalk encumbrance in the negative (or at least neutral) column of features.

Exceptions: Again, survival-fantasy RPGs get a pass, here. Foraging, discarding, and generally making do is kind of the whole point. Similar games where you play a solo character, the "micromanagement" aspect can be part of the fun. If the game really does allow some reasonable level of non-abstract encumbrance mitigation and inventory management offered in a dice-and-paper RPG, then yeah - it can be interesting. But in general - hey, let's just assume I hire some porters, okay?

Summary

I think in all these cases, the exceptions are what is noteworthy. None of these elements are necessarily bad, or need to be annoying or grouse-worthy. Except the tiny name thing. Mmm-probably. But in many cases, these elements were dropped in for some reason ("to make it more realistic!", or "because that's how D&D does it" are the most likely reasons) other than really improving the game.

But it's not hard to envision a game where these same game elements are both important and fun. It's been done. They may still have a place in modern games. So game designers should be careful that they don't throw babies out with bathwater.

But when retro-gaming, I just have to learn to put up with 'em.

(UPDATE: Added "Summary" heading, elaborated a little bit on the Time-limit and encumbrance exceptions. I can't believe I missed my favorite indie RPG as a big ol' exception to the time-limit rant....)

Labels: retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:44 AM (Permalink) 17 comments links to this post

 
Classic Might & Magic Games 50% Off This Weekend - Plus Freebies!
Courtesy of classic gaming clearance house and generally cool guys GOG.COM:

Might & Magic Sale at GOG.COM

This includes the Heroes of Might & Magic strategy games and the massive RPG collection, the Might & Magic Six-Pack.

They are also offering the first two Tex Murphy adventure games, Mean Streets and Martian Memorandum, for free until December 24th. I remember enjoying Martian Memorandum many summers ago. Um, way too many summers ago... It was kind of a humorous blend of Cyberpunk, Raymond Chandler noir, and Sierra-style adventure gaming, using photographed actors and sets (which was kinda cool by 1990 standards). I don't know if it will hold up, but at least the price is right!

Labels: retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:35 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
More Old-School RPG Flavah!
Ah, an ode to old-school RPGing.

And yeah, it does kinda remind me of what I'm NOT doing in Frayed Knights. So my work is only a pale imitation of old-school gaming that I'm paying homage to (and sometimes parodying). But I don't know what kinda hell I'd catch if I tried to get rid of the in-game map...

But it does make me feel nostalgic for the old days. Man - the graph-paper I used going through the dungeons of the early-to-mid Ultimas, The Bard's Tale, Wizardry, Telengard (before I gave up on the futility of that task...), and the D&D "Gold Box" games...

And yeah, plenty of death and nasty surprises at every turn. But the level of personal investment you had to put into the game just to have a hope of succeeding may have also helped our enjoyment of it.

Hide the Map If You Dungeon Crawl

Hat tip to RPGWatch for the link!

Labels: retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 3:30 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
Realms of Arkania On Sale This Weekend
GOG.COM has the Realms of Arkania games on sale this weekend for 25% off. Like $9 for all three games. The offer expires Monday, so now's your chance.

GOG.COM Realms of Arkania Games Sale

So many games, so little time... But the awesome thing about GOG.COM - besides being an excellent spot for PC retrogaming - is that when you complete an order, it doesn't just say something stuffy about your transaction (*cough*Like I Do*cough*) - they say, "Kewl, your order is complete."

I've got an older laptop I'm taking with me to Cedar City for Christmas. Maybe I'll get some Arkania action in. Though I've once again got an indie game backlog, and I'll be working on Frayed Knights, so we'll see...

Labels: retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:49 PM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

 
Planet M.U.L.E.
While dated in its interface, M.U.L.E. remains a classic of game design.

And now, it's available for free. Officially. With improved visuals and sounds. With Internet play. As kind of an MMO. Still the same ol' interface, though. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I think there is definitely some more depth and improvements in modern interface design that could be applied to make it a better game. But - it's pretty freakin' authentic as far as I can remember, so I'll forgive them not wanting to sully the original.

It IS cool that you can play M.U.L.E. with players all over through Internet play, now.

And did I mention free?

Planet M.U.L.E.

Tip o' the beanie to Brenda Brathwaite for the heads-up on this one!

Labels: retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 11:35 PM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

 
Playing From Memory
I used to be the best Jet Moto player in the world.

This isn't idle speculation or boasting. Literally, demonstrably, empirically, and usually uncontestedly (at least until Nate Pendleton, our lead tester, started gunning for my crown), I was the best. Granted, only a few dozen people in the world had played the full game at that point, as it hadn't yet been released. But that's immaterial, don't you think?

Anyway, over the holiday weekend my youngest daughter broke out the game and began playing it on the PS2. So I joined her. Much to my chagrin, she nearly beat me on one level. Then we played my favorite (and, back in the day, my best) level, Nightmare. It's the one at the end of this trailer:



I definitely didn't have what it takes anymore. I guess a dozen years of almost no practice can do that to you. But while I ran into some troublesome parts of the track where I repeatedly screwed up, I was rather astonished by what I didn't screw up. Some kind of muscle-memory took over along many parts of the track, and I found myself repeating long-forgotten but long-ingrained movements to navigate trickier spots in the track. I didn't even remember what it was I was doing - if I thought about it, I'd screw up.

It's not the only time that's happened. While I now suck horribly at the old arcade game Shinobi (a game I used to beat on a single quarter), I do find myself making a lot of old moves and following old patterns I've consciously forgotten. It's a weird feeling.

Has that ever happened to you?

Labels: retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:07 AM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

 
Stonekeep & KOTR For Sale...
Okay, don't let this stop ya from buying some great indie games this weekend, but...

GOG.COM has a few old Interplay titles for sale this weekend, including Stonekeep.

As I recall, this game was at one point nicknamed "Fargo's Folly" internally, and for a while it sounded like it was destined to become permanent vaporware. Like Duke Nukem Forever. Or Prey. Oh, wait, they eventually made Prey. Not that it had much in common with the original project, which was concurrent with the development of the original Unreal.

But after some major overhauls and a massive budget (for the time), it ended up seeing the light of day - and by most accounts turned into a pretty good game, with some significant adventure-game-style puzzle elements. I can't say for sure, because I never played it... though I just picked it up myself. You know, with all my spare time...

Also - this just in - Steam has the original Knights of the Old Republic for sale for 75% off. That's like... uh, $2.50. For those who might not know (there are some casual gamers who do hit this blog, after all...) Knights of the Old Republic = Star Wars Done Bioware Style. This sale will only last for about 20 more hours - though other games will be available tomorrow. So grab it today while you can.

Labels: retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:01 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
The Secret of Monkey Island - The Lost Scenes!
So while creating the Special Edition of The Secret of Monkey Island, Adam Bormann came across a lot of commented out / unused scripts in the original SCUMM code. And some fascinating comments inside the code.

Fortunately, they did not try to re-integrate these "lost scenes" and alternative plots into the remake. From Bormann's perspective, Gilbert & Co. probably had very good reasons for leaving them out. But he's copied the "lost scenes" in a blog post for fans who may enjoy this glimpse into development of the classic game.

The Secret of Monkey Island - The Deleted and Extended Scenes

An excerpt:

When Guybrush gets out of the water after being thrown in by Shinetop, he runs into Governor Marley, and then this alternate exchange starts.

Guybrush

“You came down here to rescue me?”

Elaine

“Well…”

Guybrush

“You were going to dive into that icy water and drag me out?”

Elaine

“…Something like that.”

Guybrush

“You were going to brave the sharks and the eels to save my life?”

Elaine

“Sharks? What sharks?”

Guybrush

“And then you were going to give me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?”

Elaine

“Don’t push it.”

Enjoy!

Hat tip to Greg Squire of MonkeyTime for sending me the link!

Labels: Adventure Games, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:50 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Archon Classic Preview
At the Utah Indie Game Night, I got the chance to play the upcoming title from React Games, Archon Classic. It is still unfinished, but quite playable.

I'm old enough to remember playing the original. *Sigh*. I was excited about the chance to play this new version. We ended up having a four-player team game which lasted a half-hour or so. And after having played it, I can only say that I'm even MORE excited about this game now. I had that much fun.

And it's that faithful to the original. So faithful you'll want to play this one with a gamepad. So faithfulthat you can choose to play with old-school graphics from the original 8-bit game and capture some nostalgia if you are old enough to have it about the original game.

If you do not remember the original, it was one of the original action-strategy games. The game is played on a gridded board. At first blush, it looks a little like chess. Some squares are light, some dark, some neutral, and some change color between light and dark over time. Each piece has a different range of movement and some other movement restrictions. Two of the figures on the board can cast spells to do things like reverse the color cycling of tiles, resurrect defeated pieces, and so forth.

The goal of the game is to possess all five special squares on the game board, or to be the last man standing. (As one of the developers told me, it's amazing how often it comes down to the latter in the new game)

The big difference between Archon and chess is what happens when a piece lands on an square occupied by an opponent. In Archon, it's not an automatic victory. It means a action-based battle must take place. One side may get an advantage if the square color favors their army (the dark army gets bonuses on darker squares, etc), or they have bonuses obtained from possessing goal squares.

The health lost by the piece in battle remains lost, however (except for the shapeshifter) - which means it is possible to "wear down" a tough piece with weaker pieces over the course of a couple of fights.

This old-school gameplay is faithfully re-created by the new game. It's everything the old game was, but better. These guys were clearly fans of the original, and have taken great care to keep the original game intact.

But then they've added upon it with additional options and gameplay modes. There are quite a few variations, of which I think the original designers would approve. The boards have some different layouts. You can have power-ups that appear randomly on the battlefield that may give your piece health, spread-shot fire, and so forth. Another mode allows your pieces to level-up by defeating enemies - which counters the weaker health they normally. You can choose from several different game boards.

You can have up to four players in either a team mode (each player controls half an army) or in a free-for all. In team mode, you can "double up" pieces on a square. Battles don't begin until everybody has moved for the turn, so you can end up with a 2-on-2 battle over a particular square. I did not play free-for-all, but with each player taking a "corner" and a half-sized army, it should be interesting.

I personally feel the introduction of pick-ups in the game mode we played did wonders for the action sequences, which I always felt was somewhat lacking in depth in the original game. I did not play it against the AI, so I cannot vouch for the AI's ability in either strategy or action mode.

We ran into a few little bugs, but the game is still a couple of weeks from going beta.

As it is a hybrid game, it may not appeal to action gamers who hate strategy / tactics, or strategy gamers who hate real-time action. But if you don't mind a mix of gameplay styles, it's a pretty dang fun game. A good strategy can cover for less-than-stellar gaming reflexes or vice versa. Hey, I'd pretty much lost the game last night, but still managed to take on all comers with my remaining unicorn until the final battle against the sole remaining dark piece, so I feel good about how I did!

It looks like React Games has done a very nice job with the classic license. Go indie! I really look forward to playing the final version.

Labels: Game Announcements, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:13 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the jRPG
My first game console was the Sony Playstation. The first one. After I'd graduated from college.

Unless you include a Coleco Telstar that we had as kids. We got to play tennis, hockey, OR handball (all Pong variants) before the thing died about nine months later. After that, my friends had consoles. The Ataris and Intellivisions. Later, the Nintendos. Meanwhile, I had computers. From my beloved Commodore 64, to my first DOS-based PC (386sx 16 mhz with 4 meg of RAM and a 40 meg hard drive!). So most of my gaming was enjoyed on computers.

And of course, as a Dungeons & Dragons fan, I was really into computer RPGs that tried to simulate the tabletop experience.

Because my access to consoles was limited, I never played any of the console RPGs (unless you count successive generations of The Legend of Zelda games, which I always thought of as action games with some minimal RPG elements rolled in). For me, it was all about the computer RPGs - the series like Ultima, Magic Candle, Might & Magic, Wizardry, Apshai, Eye of the Beholder, Realms of Arkania, the "Gold Box" D&D series, and so forth. No, I didn't play them all, but that was my universe, and if I didn't explore them personally I enjoyed them vicariously through friends and the pages of magazines. I was distantly aware of the Sega vs. Nintendo war, but I was more concerned about seeing a port of Dungeon Master from the Amiga to DOS. Yeah, it was ported to the SNES as well, but I was oblivious of this until years later.

My first "real" job out of college was - surprise! - making console video games. Suddenly I found myself having to spend some time getting a remedial education in console games. Since we were doing action games, discovering console RPGs was not part of my mandate. But some coworkers told me how much they enjoyed several RPGs from Japan (dubbed "jRPGs") - games like Chrono Trigger, The Secret of Mana, the Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest in Japan), games, and Final Fantasy III (Final Fantasy VI in Japan, as only half of 'em made it to our shore).

Since my games were coming out on the Playstation, we bought ours on launch day, 9-9-95. Wow, that was a long time ago... Originally, everybody thought the Playstation was going to fail against the combined might of Sega and Nintendo. Just like the 3DO. But then the buzz shook the industry that Sony scored a coupe - they got the exclusive with Squaresoft's next Final Fantasy game. The Nintendo-exclusive series was coming the the Playstation, and that was a game changer.

What's the big deal, I wondered. So I figured it was time to figure out what these console RPGs were all about. So when the first RPGs for the Playstation started to trickle in, I decided to give them a try. Of course, they wouldn't be able to stack up against my western RPG favorites...

... or could they?

On the suggestion of a friend, I borrowed Suikoden, a newly-released RPG for the Playstation. It was supposed to be "different" in that you'd build an army (and a castle) to fight in tactical battles. Ah, cool, I liked strategy games...

Well, the tactical battles were little more than scripted games of Rock, Paper, Scissors. So that wasn't all that exciting. But overall, the game was delightful. We had a great time playing. I can't really remember much of the story today, but I remember I enjoyed it. So did my wife. Suikoden became our entertainment in the evening. I think my wife cross-stitched a bit too - but she was caught up in the story.

I was right in that the console jRPGs really couldn't be compared very well to Western computer RPGs. Maybe they weren't apples and oranges, but they were maybe apples and pears. They were very different in a lot of ways. But I developed a taste for 'em. After Suikoden, it was Wild Arms, and then Final Fantasy VII. And so forth and so on...

But I discovered that I could enjoy both the Japanese-style RPGs, and the traditional western RPGs I'd grown up with. I found I had no problem talking about Final Fantasy VII on one hand, and Baldur's Gate on the other. Peaceful coexistence was not only possible, but a heck of a lot of fun.

And that's how I came to appreciate games of the so-called "jRPG" style of games.

Over the last decade, I feel the two styles of cRPGs - once so distinct - have blended together more and more, borrowing concepts from each other and losing the distinction that was once so noticeable. Eastern RPGs are once again borrowing ideas from the west (they originally borrowed heavily from the very-western early Wizardry and Ultima games). And we have western developers emulating the character-and-story-heavy styles of jRPGs. And we have indie RPGs made by North American and European developers that are deliberately similar to the classic jRPGs of the 16-bit era.

Will we get to the point where there is no real distinction between "jRPGs" and "Western RPGs?" I don't foresee it, but I do see it becoming more of a broad, densely-populated spectrum rather than two distinct categories.

And as a fan of both styles, that sits very well with me.

Labels: retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:30 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Ultima and Knee Trauma
A few weeks ago I asked people about their favorite "old school" computer or console RPG, and why. The point about calling it "old school" was to try and weed out differences in technology, and focus in on the game itself. I've really enjoyed the thoughts shared there, and I hope you have, too.

So here's my own story.

My own favorite RPG has been - with only a little bit of contention for the spot, Ultima VII: The Black Gate. Yeah, something like seventeen years running. That's scary. But while I think the game was a solid, wonderful game, I think the reason it has maintained such a fond place in my mind has less to do with the game's quality itself, and more upon my life circumstances. After reading through the stories of some folk's favorites, I find I'm not alone.

I think games stories are like a lot of other things: You get out of 'em what you put into 'em. It's about how much of yourself you invest into it.

I was a poor, starving, newly-married college student, and had to borrow the game from a friend at the time (I later picked up the complete Ultima VII set of games and expansions on CD-ROM). I was hooked almost immediately. The opening sequence, the murder mystery - all extremely cool stuff. I played it for about three weeks off and on, and I had a great time with it. It was definitely a favorite of mine at the time. But it wasn't the game itself, exactly --- but it was particular moments or subquests. But the whole overarching plot with the Guardian and the mysterious religious cult, the Fellowship, had me intrigued.

But as often happens with RPGs, there came a time when I got lost, bored, and mired in some aspect of the game. I'd play for an hour and feel like I'd made no progress and only wandered about in circles talking to the same people with no new information. And so playing became intermittent. Several weeks went by. It looked like it would be another game that would never be finished. And today I'd be talking about how Baldur's Gate II or something else was the Best RPG Evar.

But one week I got to puttering around in it after about a three week hiatus, and made a little bit of progress. Not enough to get me fully re-invested. But that night I had a little medievalist practice with the group we'd cobbled together called (at the time) Battleguard, using the Dagorhir rules. The group met (and still meets) in the park right across the street from our dinky one-bedroom apartment in Provo, Utah. That's right - when I wasn't playing a swordsman in the computerized virtual world, I was running around playing a swordsman in the real world, too.

The night started as it usually did, with twenty or so of us squaring off into two teams and having at it with padded sticks that resembled medieval weaponry. I was kicking butt as usual. :) Then I found myself running towards one of the better players, arriving too late to save a teammate he'd just dispatched. Then I caught another of his teammates - also a skilled player, coming at me from behind. The two of them charged at me.

I realized I couldn't take on both of them at the same time. But if I acted quickly, I might be able to kill one of my opponents quickly before the other could come to his aid. So I stopped and spun in place, trying to get a cheap shot in on the guy behind me (who might not be expecting it). I wasn't so lucky. He parried, and it was clear I was going to be in for a long fight with him. So I made another quick attack and prepared to run.

His partner came up from behind just before I took off running and hit my extended left leg with his sword. I felt my kneecap pop out of position and roll on over to the side. And then the pain hit.

Let me tell you - I have never felt greater pain in my life. I may have been in pain for much longer, but that brief second or three before my kneecap snapped back into position was about the most intense agony I've ever experienced before or since. Fortunately, one of the Battleguard players was an EMT. He rushed over to check me out, figured out what had happened, made sure I was in no immediate need of medical help, and told me what I needed to know. By that time I was only feeling the aftershocks of the pain, plus the endorphin rush that usually accompanies a major stretch or workout.

The two guys involved in the accident supported me and helped me hobble across the street and up the stairs into my apartment. In spite of it not being their fault at all, they were feeling horribly guilty about it. And they were good friends (they were instrumental in helping us move a few months later, too...)

The next day, Friday, my leg was still pretty much useless. I skipped all my classes. Getting from the bedroom to the living room - where we had the computer - was about the best I could do. So except for a trip to the doctor (who confirmed exactly what the EMT had said, after being astonished when I told him it had happened by getting hit with a sword), I was stuck at home with nothing to do all day...

Except play Ultima VII.

Interestingly enough, I only had about eight or ten hours left to finish the game. I have never really spent that much time in one sitting playing a computer game. Britannia was my escape from the real world, where - with some help from some ibuprofen - I could forget about the pain for a while.

And it was awesome. Hunting down Elizabeth and Abraham ("EA" - get it?), unraveling the mystery of the Fellowship and discovering Batlin's hidden agenda, and the final cut-scene where the Guardian's gateway portal is shattered just before he enters the world - his threat to the planet Earth at the end... It was all awesome.

I'm really not hoping for some new trauma to force me to discover a new favorite RPG, though I'm certain I've got several candidates that could fill the bill. I'm happy leaving Ultima VII as the reigning champion for life if that's what it would take to replace it.

Labels: retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:10 AM (Permalink) 9 comments links to this post

 
GOG.COM - Realms of Arkania Now Available
I'm sure a lot of you got the same email announcement I did from GOG.COM, but for those who didn't...

Realms of Arkania is now available at GOG.COM. They've got Realms of Arcania 1 & 2 available now, and Realms of Arcania 3 will be released soon.

Cheap. Old-school hard-core RPG goodness.

Argh. When these games were new, I had plenty of time to play, but no money. Now they are cheap enough for anybody to afford 'em, but I have no time!

Labels: retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 1:16 PM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
What Is Your Favorite "Classic" cRPG?
What is your favorite classic / old-school RPGs on console or computer?

Why? What makes it live on in your memory?

I'm soliciting ideas over at the forums. Please feel free to add your 2 copper pieces:

Favorite Old-School RPG - Why?

Labels: retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 3:26 PM (Permalink) 12 comments

 
The Return of 2D Gaming?
2D gameplay was an unfortunate casualty of the polygon war. In the race to show off awe-inspiring visuals, anything that didn't lend itself to showing off the 3D graphics potential of the box got chucked to the wayside. And as I said three years ago, I maintain that we were premature in discarding 2D.

Sure, we were all kinda sick of soulless 2D side-scrollers at the time. But that didn't mean the whole genre was dead. Just phenomenally saturated with crap. But 2D gameplay still had - and has - a lot of potential.

And now some of that potential is finally being realized. Games like Geometry Wars, Braid, Castle Crashers, and the newly-released Shadow Complex are proving to be minor hits in their own right, in spite of 2D gameplay (sometimes enhanced with 3D graphics).

In case you haven't seen it yet - Shamus Young has a commentary on 2D Gaming's potential renaissance at The Escapist: Experienced Points: Long Live 2D

To which I utter another "amen!"

So far, we're seeing the return of 2D primarily in the growing indie scene and some of the "budget" titles (like XBLA) from lower-tier mainstream developers. Will we return to an era where so-called "AAA" games are allowed to play in two dimensions?

Labels: retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:01 AM (Permalink) 11 comments links to this post

 
Might & Magic Six-Pack at gog.com
Not the drinking kind of six-pack... but...

Might & Magic Limited Edition (Six Pack) - $9.99 at GOG.COM

Ummm.... wow. So considering the SIZES of the Might & Magic games: If you bought this today and played 10-12 hours a week, you might finish this whole thing... oh, sometime next spring or summer, maybe.

I don't know how many people would be keen to tackle the first three games all the way to completion - even as a retro-gamer I'm not sure I'd have quite that level of ambition and stamina. But it a really is good deal and a lot of old-school CRPG goodness.

Labels: retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:16 AM (Permalink) 11 comments links to this post

 
Game Remakes, Re-Releases, and Re-Imaginings
Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software has posted an article over the weekend about one of the major benefits of a developer having the rights to their own intellectual property (IP) - something of a rarity outside of indie gaming: The Joy of Re-Releasing Old Games

This topic can be a little bit divisive, and Jeff does a good job of addressing some of these concerns.

It's amusing to me that our little hobby has become so big and has enough history that the idea of delving back into it has finally had its time come. And I think it is a good thing for game players as well as the game developers. Well, I guess I mean the "IP holders." Because in general - in mainstream - the developers don't own the IP they create and so they get jack squat for benefits.

But there are three different approaches that we could talk about here: Re-releases, remakes, and re-imaginings.

Re-Releases
I've shelled out quite a few greenbacks over the last year on older games that have been ported or re-jiggered for modern hardware. XBLA, GOG.com, WiiWare, and GameTap all have some great old classics that have been returned from the past via emulation and maybe just a touch of enhancement (such as with XBLA's achievements being added). I remember in 1996 or so picking up "The Kilrathi Trilogy" --- the older Wing Commander games retrofitted to work under Windows 95 - with some enhancements to sound and music on top.

That's a classic re-release to me: A re-launch of an old game for new audiences and new technology, but with very few - principally cosmetic - changes.

Remakes
Then you've actually got remakes. To me, this is a massive overhaul of the original codebase. A lot of fan-created projects (alas, many of which get a Cease-And-Desist just as they approach completion) are attempts to "remake" old games with new and improved graphics, sound, interfaces, and bug-fixes. It kinda sounds to me that this is the direction Jeff Vogel is going with Avernum (I never played the original Nethergate, so I can't tell if his recent re-release was really more of a "remake," but I assume so).

While I use the term for the lack of a better word, I don't think it necessarily implies a complete re-creation of an old game from scratch. I mean, if nothing else, you are basing the new game on old gameplay and concepts; often existing art and sound; and possibly existing code as well. For me, a "remake" is simply a massive overhaul of the original code. The recent release of The Secret of Monkey Island - Special Edition for XBLA and PC falls squarely in this category. I think a few "platinum edition" releases of games fall into this category as well.

And this is probably the category that generates the most complaints - as well as plenty of fan requests. How many people would love nothing more than a visual and UI overhaul of a game like X-Com or older Ultima games? Yet many gamers - convinced that "newer is always better" like the marketers keep telling us - consider this a rip-off. Apparently major overhauls of old games should be given away for free or something.

Re-Imaginings
This is a fairly recent concept in games. Game makers are sometimes going back to classic series, hitting the "reset" switch, and making a game that could qualify as a sequel, except that it has cut all sense of continuity with the previous game(s) and starts fresh. The PS3 game Warhawk and the upcoming reboot of the Mechwarrior franchise might both be considered re-imaginings of classic games (or game series). Perhaps Spiderweb's own Avernum could be considered a re-imagining of the Exile series.

This is a fairly risky move with intellectual property. The reason you are using the old property is that there is an existing fan base and the developers do not want to violate or jeopardize that goodwill. Yet the whole point of the re-imagining is to reboot the series and jettison all the old baggage and start fresh with new ideas and a new vision that will grab new audiences. If you go too far, you might as start over fresh with a new IP. Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes is a soon-to-be-released game for the DS which just leaves me scratching my head as to why they bothered to slap the "Might & Magic" label... it sounds like some marketing idiot's lame idea that they slapped in at the end of development.

Where I Stand
As a fan, I think I'm not too far from the norm. When I find a game (or novel, or movie, or TV show) that I love, I find myself wanting, "More of the same, but different." I'm also a bit of a retro-gamer, and I usually don't find it terribly difficult to see past antique graphics and interfaces to enjoy an older game. Usually.

So I'm actually a bit of a fan of all three approaches. I do not believe that newer is necessarily better - and I am happy modern gamers now have a chance to the games that are the ancestors of (and in some limited aspects, superior to) the modern blockbusters they now enjoy.

I've been thrilled with the chance to finally delve into some older games that I'd had at best a passing acquaintance with in the past through some of the downloadable re-releases. I've forgotten much of The Secret of Monkey Island, so I'm enjoying the "Special Edition" almost as much as a brand new game. And I am really excited about the Mechwarrior franchise reboot, and would love to see the same thing happen to some other classic series (Wing Commander re-imagined, anybody? Just nothing at all like that horrible movie, please).

So - speaking as a player - I say, "bring 'em on."

Labels: retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:09 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Daggerfall For Free
Sweet Baby Cthulhu in a wedding dress!

GameBanshee reports that the classic RPG Daggerfall is now available as a free download.

Booyah! If you can stand the bugs, interface, and 1995-era graphics... it's an awesome game. One of the few that managed to consume triple-digit-hours of my life with no regrets.

(Posted from Bear Lake on a borrowed Internet connection, so I may not be able to reply until later tomorrow).

Labels: retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 1:47 PM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
Game Design Essentials: 20 CRPGs
Gamasutra has a whoppin' 22-page article discussing 20 "essential" CRPGs - plus the grandfather of all RPGs, Dungeons & Dragons.

It notes the first published use of the term "Role-Playing Game," the influence of D&D on later RPGs, and breaks up the field into 10 western RPGs and 10 jRPGs. Each game is summarized in what could easily stand as an article on its own. It cheats a little by including entire series as a single entry (such as the Wizardry, Pokémon, Final Fantasy, Might & Magic, and Ultima series, as well as a couple of "catch-all" categories.) It also mentions in passing a number of classic key games that didn't make the cut, such as Eye of the Beholder, X-Com, Planescape: Torment, Skies of Arcadia, and several others.

While I've played many of the games on the list (especially the western RPGs), there are many I haven't. Some I probably never will. So I'm glad for the summaries.

Anyway - plan on taking some time on this one - but it's well worth it:

Gamasutra - Game Design Essentials: 20 CRPGs

Labels: Game Design, retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:52 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
That Old JRPG Magic ...
Apparently Final Fantasy VII, that much game people either love or hate, has had over 100,000 downloads on the PSP since being released earlier this month. The linked article notes,

"Square Enix's seminal RPG -- now over a decade old -- has become something of a cultural icon to gamers, and it's generally associated with the era of more mainstream interest in Japanese RPGs in the U.S., as well as the rise of the PlayStation platform."

Having been there (and been a professional game developer at the time) back in the day, I remember what a shake-up it was when Square announced their next Final Fantasy game would be a Sony exclusive rather than for Nintendo. I had never played any jRPGs (Japanese RPGs) at that time - nor any console RPGs at all unless you count The Legend of Zelda (I kinda... don't). So the momentousness of the announcement was lost on me. I was a PC gamer, and I loved my PC RPGs. I really didn't get the geeky love for the obviously inferior console jRPGs with their poorly translated dialog, goofy deformed-looking characters and simplistic gameplay.

Then I played Suikoden and Final Fantasy VII. And I learned what those weird SNES fanboys had been talking about all that time. While my love of western PC RPGs of that era was unchanged, I found a newfound appreciation for these much more linear, angsty, story-heavy little melodramas.

And Final Fantasy VII was, for many, the turning point where the mainstream western gamers discovered the jRPG. I only beat the crowd by a couple of months.

But for me, while the two styles of games are generally pretty different (though they freely borrow from each other), I enjoy both. I don't know if that makes me weird, or puts me in a silent majority, for I more often hear from people who love one style and completely hate the other. For me - a good game is a good game.

On a side note, for those who might be curious or who missed out on playing Final Fantasy VII in the first place but don't really feel inclined to play through it now to see what you missed, there's a great retrospective on the game at gamespite entitled Final Fantasy VII: The Voice of the Planet which I really enjoyed. It endeavors to strip out over a decade of hype and hate, look past the technology of the era and peer instead more at the core of the game - the good and the bad. Particularly the good - as nobody goes ga-ga over the formerly lush background visuals anymore. The article contains an amusing analysis of the primary - and what made him stand out - which is worth quoting here:

"Cloud's journey of personal transformation -- from a badass loner mercenary to a babbling mental wreck, to the deconstruction of his entire self-fabricated persona, and eventually, to acceptance that it's not too bad just to be a regular guy who says things like `Let's mosey' -- is genuinely sympathetic. (Which makes it all the more a disgrace that the game's various sequels have thrown his development back to square one, for no reason but that badass loners sell.)"

Labels: retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:34 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Classic Games versus Indie Games?
A couple of weeks ago, I finally succumbed to the siren's call of GOG.COM (Good Old Games) and purchased some older RPGs - Gothic 1 and 2, and Arx Fatalis. Last weekend, I also found myself buying Phantasy Star II - an RPG originally released for the Sega Genesis - on XBLA.

Not that I really have time to PLAY these games in a serious, committed way. But I LOVE this growing trend of classic games getting re-released as downloads (or as remakes, though it makes me feel old). It's re-introducing games to gamers who might have missed them the first time around - whether due to age or attention. It's forcing publishers to re-evaluate their history and wealth of great properties ... an important thing when I'll betcha most of the suits making these decisions weren't there when these games were hot and might only be barely aware they exist.

I barely noticed Arx Fatalis when it was originally released. Its user interface is the sort of thing nightmares are made of (except for spellcasting, which is way cool), and its obviously nowhere near as pretty as Oblivion or Fallout 3. But so far, when I can look past all that, "she's got it where it counts, kid." I mean, for $6, it's a steal. Big-time. I pay more than that for lunch at Apollo Burger. Incidentally, thanks to you folks here and on the forums who clued me into this one.

But when I put on my businessman hat (it never fits very well, but I try and wear it from time to time), I get a little bit alarmed as an indie game business.

Here's why: One of the secrets of the console game market's success - the console makers wipe the slate clean whenever the market gets too crowded with games. That way the newer games don't have to compete so much with a large back-catalog of titles (many of which are now available used or at reduced prices).

The PC doesn't have that, and instead game-makers relied on the nature of the platform and kept our minimum specs creeping up year after year. And the fact that that in a brick-and-mortar world, those older titles don't usually stay on the shelf very long to crowd out your brand new game. But now, part of the challenge PC game publishers are facing now is that the ol' dog is having trouble keeping up now. We're hitting the law of diminishing returns on technology. Besides the fact that it is costing more and more to keep pushing that bar of visual quality higher, the kinds of gamers that at one time would annually drop a hundreds or thousands of dollars to maintain the ultimate gamer machine have defected to the console camp.

And then you have the indies. Like me. Particularly, those indies who are delving into familiar categories. The restoration of these classic games to the market means indie games have to jockey with some heavy-hitting old warhorses for position along the long tail. And it's only going to get longer. And the indies won't have the price advantage against these titles for which any residual profits are pure gravy.

But this means Frayed Knights is going to be going head-to-head against Gothic 2 Gold and Arx Fatalis. And do I really want a player to choose between my game or Fallout? Especially when Fallout costs less? Holy crap!

I guess I'm just gonna have to hope that people have already played Fallout. And ... *gasp* ... I'm gonna have to make sure that my game is something that's not just a clone of an older game.

Okay. So we indie RPG developers and adventure game developers may be facing a bit more competition since some of the artificial pruning of the marketplace may be getting undone. But really, I see this as a positive. A really big, wet, sloppy kiss positive. Here's why:

Do you think that Telltale Games is worried at all that LucasArts is going to be releasing a "remastered" version of The Secret of Monkey Island at approximately the same time they are releasing their new Tales of Monkey Island episodes? Of course not. If anything, the games are going to help sell each other.

Ditto for these older titles and the new indie games that they may have inspired. I think anything that grows interest in the kinds of games I want to make is a Good Thing.

So bring 'em on!

Labels: Biz, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:52 AM (Permalink) 11 comments links to this post

 
Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption - Only a Week to Install!
So last Wednesday, I tried to install my old copy of Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption. I wanted to take a look at the modeling they did for the architecture in medieval Prague for some ideas. No dice. The installer would just disappear, never to return.

I forgot about it. It didn't work. I complained briefly about it in passing last week. Too bad - I always remembered the level design in Redemption looking pretty good in spite of its low polygon count (mainly because of the lighting and shadowing system that was used for the game, which was ahead of its time).

Then, a week later, I suddenly get a popup complaining that I needed to re-insert the Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption install disc. I hadn't shut my computer off in all that time, and I hadn't hunted down the installer through the task manager. In fact, I had three copies of the installer all playing the Redemption theme music at once.

Bizarre. I don't know if this was an artifact of copy protection, a crappy installer, or what... but nearly a week later, I was finally able to install the game. I spent about an hour playing it - mostly wandering around Prague and the mines and seeing how they made repetitive textures not look so bad. But the game played just fine. It definitely looks dated, but aside from the installer problems, the game works.

So what do you do when an installer goes bad like that? Waiting around a week for an install isn't generally a reasonable solution to play a retro game.

For what it's worth, I always loved Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption. Mechanically, it was only so-so... excessively linear, but the game system was good. As it predated Neverwinter Nights, its storyteller multiplayer stuff was way ahead of its time. Buggy and crashy, but a heck of a lot of fun when it worked. The dialog was purple prose bordering on ultraviolet. But for sheer atmosphere, the game still ranks among the best.

Labels: Mainstream Games, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:14 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
Shareware and the Golden Age of PC Games
Eurogamer has an article about the "golden age" of shareware in the early-to-mid 90's. Very worth reading:

The Shareware Age

Hat tip to Scorpia for the link, and I happen to agree with the Stingered One that they do seem to overstate the influence of shareware on the PC gaming scene. Apparently, all gaming must be console-style action gaming, and the top shareware games of the day definitely helped turn the PC into ... uh... just another console.

But the article really doesn't give enough credit to mainstream developers. About the same time Wolfenstein 3D broke ground on the first-person shooter genre, an amazing 3D action-RPG was hitting store shelves, entitled Ultima Underworld. Wing Commander, also by Origin, is blamed by many designers of ruining PC game development in a similar fashion to how Star Wars "ruined" American cinema. It issued in the era of the blockbuster. Wing Commander, incidentally, predated Doom by about three years.

This "golden age" was also the era that brought us Eye of the Beholder, Falcon 3.0, The Elder Scrolls (influenced by Ultima Underworld, I'm certain), X-Com, Lemmings, Civilization, a whole slew of killer graphic adventure games from Sierra, Legend, and LucasArts (oh, yeah, and Cyan), X-Wing, TIE Fighter, the Star Control series, Stunts, Out of This World, Prince of Persia, SimCity, System Shock, Alone in the Dark (long before the consoles lay claim to the "survivor horror" genre), Ultima VI and Ultima VII (parts I and II), Wizardry 6, Darklands, The Incredible Machine, Syndicate, Red Baron, and a whole ton more that I am no doubt missing here.

I may also note that - unless I missed it - the article missed a major low-tech hits of the shareware scene - Scorched Earth. Gameplay still trumped technology, even then.

Frankly, it was a wonderful era to be a PC gamer, and shareware was just a small (but significant) part of it. Yes, at the time, action games typically played second fiddle to an outstanding array of role-playing games, adventure games, flight simulators, strategy games, and even golf and solitaire. I kinda miss that, actually. But it was far from being in any kind of ghetto. From 1990 - 1995, the PC gaming scene was as vibrant as one could imagine, both with shareware and mainstream gaming.

In my opinion, the "revolution" wasn't about shareware, but two other things: VGA, and the end of the computer wars. While the article suggests that VGA was adopted only slowly, by 1990 it was pretty much the standard even on business computers. At this point, it was in general graphically superior to any game consoles out there, and the DOS-based PC had finally emerged from the clash of competing systems as the clear victor and standard (as "standard" as PCs ever got, which wasn't very...) around which game publishers could build a business.

This isn't to say that Doom didn't pretty much put PC gaming on the map as far as mainstream consciousness is concerned. At the time, consoles had been geared for a more juvenile crowd, and video games were still viewed (even by the console manufacturers themselves) as a pre-adolescent pastime. Doom was starkly adult in nature, with graphic (if pixelated) violence and a darker theme. It was the wake-up call that grown-ups liked games too - and the PC was the only platform that really catered to their needs.

That's changed a bit now, of course. A lot has changed. Though it seems as though the PC has led the way again on the casual gaming front. History repeats itself, I guess.

Labels: Mainstream Games, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:53 AM (Permalink) 11 comments links to this post

 
The "DM's Special"
So you enter a 20-foot by 20-foot room in one corner of an underground complex that is home to the requisite number of monsters. You've been hacking and slashing with glee, but in this room, behind the door, you see a large treasure chest against the far wall amidst some dilapidated furnishings. "Score!" you think to yourself. Somehow nobody checked and looted this room before...

Ah! But it's probably booby-trapped, you realize. So you carefully - gingerly - begin to check for traps.

Suddenly - shock and horror! - the chest itself attacks. It is a mimic - a creature which has disguised itself to appear as a treasure chest to lure unsuspecting adventurers to their doom!

Nothing says "Old School RPG" like these kinds of monsters. Ed Greenwood (creator of the Forgotten Realms setting for Dungeons & Dragons) once used the term "DM's Special" to describe these creatures that seemed designed purely to trip experienced players up. While most monsters in fantasy RPGs require you to not think too hard about their ecology or how they might have possibly evolved, these kinds of creatures went beyond the pale in this respect. These things were predators optimized for a world full of dungeons and a steady supply of treasure-hunting adventurers to eat.

I encountered a mimic last week, playing the flash-based indie hack-and-slash fest aptly entitled, "Ginormo Sword" (referred to me a long time back by one of our community members in the forums). Because it had been a while since I'd encountered these kinds of monsters in a game, I'd let my guard drop, and I actually moved in to pick up the treasure lying on the floor, only to get zapped. The mimic had claimed another victim! Not bad for being a nearly 35-year-old joke!

I don't know whether I love 'em or hate 'em, to be honest. Used sparingly, they can be kinda fun - if completely ridiculous.

In D&D, several of the "DM's Specials" were designed to disguise themselves as ordinary objects in the prototypical dungeon. The Trapper resembled a dungeon floor. Its counterpart was the Lurker Above, which resembled the ceiling of a stone room, and could magically (and silently) hover just below the real ceiling. Piercers resembled plain ol' stalagtites which would drop and impale unwary adventurers below. The Cloaker --- resembled a cloak. Go ahead, put it on!

The problem with these kinds of monsters - moreso in dice-and-paper RPGs than in computer RPGs - is that they can be misused to the point that the game slows to a crawl from player paranoia. But is it paranoia if the Game Master really is out to get them? If there are no clues or indicators of threats being near, and these types of monsters are in any way common, the players will be taking hours between moves to verify their safety. While fun for a little while, it gets old very, very quickly.

Then you had the monsters that resembled other monsters, but which would surprise adventurers attacking them with conventional tactics. There was the Adherer, which looked like a mummy but was immune to a cleric's "undead turning" ability and seemed to be made of superglue, sticking all weapons to itself. The Gas Spore was a creature which mysteriously resembled the dreaded Beholder, but which immediately exploded on impact when attacked. Topping the stupidity scale was a monster I fortunately never remember appearing in any game I ever played - the Nilbog (that's goblin spelled backwards). This annoying creature resembled a goblin, but was healed by attacks and damaged by healing spells.

We see some of these kinds of creatures making their way to computer and console RPGs as well.

Wizardry had "Creeping Coins" which weren't really a DM's special - though they could have been. Coins that attacked you? Take THAT you greedy treasure-hunting adventurer! In Wizardry, though, they just attacked.

Nethack has both mimics and piercers. So you can never feel safe.

Ultima III's grand finale had a bunch of monsters that resembled ground tiles that would attack you. So you might have thought the path was clear to destroy the machine Exodus, but no... no, you were fighting grass and brick road chunks for a while getting to it. And then designer Richard Garriott included monsters that resembled children in later Ultima games. Just to be especially nasty.

These are just the ones off the top of my head, and I'm sure there are numerous examples I forget or from games I haven't played. Do you have favorites / most hated examples of "DM's Special" monsters in games? What were they, and in what games?

Labels: retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:44 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Interview with Richard "Lord British" Garriott
Crispy Gamer has interviewed Richard "Lord British" Garriott of Ultima and Tabula Rasa fame. Part I of the interview was last week, and this week we've got the full installment.

Interview with Richard Garriott, Part I

Interview with Richard Garriott, Part II

Interview with Richard Garriott - Bonus Material

As you probably know, the Ultima series was not only my favorite (well, up to Ultima VII and Ultima Underworld), but was also a big influence on me as I chose a career. Working for Origin sounded like a dream job - I even called and talked to their HR folks a couple of years before graduating with a Computer Science degree to find out what kind of qualifications they looked for in candidates.

Ultima VII remains my favorite RPG, and this interview focuses a lot on it and the "third trilogy." This interview spends a lot of time reminiscing about the development of Ultima VII, about rooms of "killing children," and discussing all the ways people found of killing the "unkillable" in-game version of Lord British.

An excerpt:

"Well, the game’s called The Black Gate, so there’s no question that it was intended to be dark. Very much so. In fact, Ultima IV, V and VI were all quite the opposite. I mean, Ultima IV didn’t even have a bad guy. Ultima V only had a misguided bad guy. Ultima VI, with the gargoyles, you were sort of the bad guy in a sense. Ultimas IV, V and VI were the lighthearted goody-two-shoes games, while Ultima VII was very purposely dark. I may not articulate it the same way you did — in that “you, the player, could kill anything and everything,” but I would say that it is dark in that the world had become dark. We now had truly prescient evil, and we had a pantheon of characters you were interacting with that were absolutely trying to take advantage of the time of darkness for their own personal gain. So you’re constantly being befriended by people who were in fact not your friends. So, yeah, it was purposely a very dark game."

Good stuff. Dang, I miss the ol' glory days of Origin in that era...

Labels: Interviews, retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:06 PM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

 
Thirteen Years...
So it's my youngest daughter's birthday today.

It's also, coincidentally, my own, but since my daughter and I share a birthday and I'm no longer keen on having that bigger number follow my age, I prefer to focus on the fact that it is HER birthday. For me - being alive (barely) when man first walked on the moon is beginning to show its downside.

But it does afford me the opportunity to look back. And forward.

Thirteen years ago, Alex St. John and Microsoft threw me a hugely awesome birthday party. And they didn't even know they were doing it. There were freaking LIONS there, man. And togas. I started my career at what was probably the "big boom" in the video game industry, and I won't lie to you - it was pretty awesome. It was a time of massive transition - the entire industry and the face of video gaming was changing before our eyes, and it was exciting to be there in the middle of it.

I think that morning Michael Abrash had given a talk explaining what he and John Carmack had done to build the new Quake engine. On the bus on the way to the big party, heard some guys talking with a designer from the Atari 2600 days. And they were all talking about how amazing the world of videogames had changed in just a little over thirteen years (since the release of the original Pitfall! cartridge). I remember thinking how it didn't seem like that long ago, and reflecting on how amazed I was at how much video games - and the industry - had changed since then.

The next day, in Microsoft's post-CGDC DirectX conference, I saw some things that blew my mind. A vision of the future that made me think William Gibson's and Neal Stephenson's technology were now old hat. A glimpse into the amazing future of gaming. A future that now appears relatively quaint. Voice over the internet! Real-time Internet gaming! Massively multiplayer games with hundreds - maybe even thousands - of players playing together in real-time? Wow - that was amazingly cool. The technology - which I had tinkered with a little in the past - was finally becoming mature.

And here we are today:

* Graphics technology is - well, amazing. Not as amazing as it could be. But compared to what Michael Abrash was remarking about in his talk this morning thirteen years ago, it's pretty incredible.

* Online gaming. We can play some pretty impressive multiplayer 3D games in a web browser today. Things I wouldn't have thought would be possible back in the mid 90's. And of course, World of Warcraft has taken over the world of gaming. We'll see if the newly announced OnLive thing actually works.

* Online Distribution and the rise of Casual / Indie / Niche Gaming: In the early to mid 90's, we saw the rise of "shareware" as an alternative to what was otherwise the Only Game In Town. You found yourself a publisher willing to put your game in a box and distribute it to the stores. But shareware was still very much a "back door" that didn't work very well. Today - wow. One thing it has done is allowed game makers to reach "niche" markets that the publishers no longer wanted to serve. Thus we have had the rise of casual games, and we have several "dead" genres make modest comebacks - such as graphic adventure games and wargames.

* Indie Games on Consoles - I really didn't think I'd see this happen. At best, I thought some publisher might go slumming and produce some kind of "indie games pack" shovelware on disc, but not the ability to have downloadable "indie" games on the major consoles like we do now.

* Gaming Goes Mainstream: It was already getting there in 1996, but it's pretty well established now. Maybe some old fogies in public office don't realize it yet, but pretty much everybody plays video games now. Maybe not Gears of War, but they are gamers - a round of Solitaire on the computer, a couple of hours a night in World of Warcraft, online Poker, Wii Fit, Rock Band, Virtual Villagers, or good ol' traditional hardcore gamer fare with blood, guts, and busty women... games are everywhere and part of our culture now.

* The diminishing of non-online hardcore PC games: I've always been a computer gamer at heart, from the time we had to type in the code ourselves (and hey, I guess I still do). The immediacy, the flexibility, the... keyboard and the mouse! There are certain kinds of games that just work better on the PC than they do on the console, and those are the kinds I love the most. But the consoles have an overwhelming marketing force working for them, and they've managed to woo the older hardcore audience - once the domain of the PC - to their camp.

* The staggering increase in piracy: Those technological advancements have also made it trivial for people to steal other people's hard work - remotely and anonymously. Piracy has always been a problem, but it has definitely grown to staggering proportions. I believe that there is a causal relationship between this growth and the diminishing of non-online PC games.

* The rise (and hopefully fall) of "Strong" DRM: The attempt by mainstream publishers to not only clamp down on piracy, but also to further restrict the rights of customers has hit some rocks. If the latest moves by EA are any indication, this may be an idea that is going to give way to a "kinder, gentler" approach in future years.

So having pretty much grown up with videogames and seen so much of the technology and culture change, I ask myself, "What are things gonna look like in another thirteen years?"

Considering how much I didn't really anticipate back then, I'm not sure I can really guess. I expect online distribution and online gaming to continue their current trends - actually replacing brick-and-mortar as the primary means of game distribution within two console cycles (as it is already doing for PC games). I think the way we purchase games may shift a bit more, but I don't know what that will look like. I think something is gonna give on the piracy front, but I'm not sure how that will work out yet, either.

I think the advances in graphics - while still on-going - will be less dramatic. I think the Wii has proven to the industry that the fanciest, most realistic graphics are not the guarantee of success that they once were.

Gaming communities will be a bigger and bigger deal. Gaming is increasingly becoming a social exercise - even in single-player games. Again, what form that will take in thirteen years, I can't predict.

Oh, yeah. And the indies. Indie gaming is growing. The barriers to entry are down. The big publishers aren't even making a pretense of maintaining a stranglehold on distribution anymore. Instead, they are trying to embrace it and cash in. I see the growth - and the problems - continuing.

Beyond that - I just hope its a lot of fun.

Labels: retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:54 AM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post