100 commodore 64 games in 10 minutes, that’s the promise of the youtube video below. So many memories brought back by this, it surprised me how well I can remember the games in these clips. I’d say I recognized more than half of the games they run through in this thing. I do think they missed several classics from that era, at least for my friends and I – Rocketball isn’t there, nor is Spelunker, aka the greatest and toughest C64 game (which I solved!) of all time, and only one of the Ultima games is shown. Still, this is fun to watch if you played games in that era.
Category: Gaming
fraxy is awesome
I agree with tigsource.com: fraxy is indeed awesome. You can get your own copy over on the developer’s page for the game. This is fast paced arcade action at its finest, basically a series of boss battles strung together with not much purpose beyond getting your blastem on. A couple of things to be aware of: first, don’t neglect the use of speed boost, it’s critical to success against many of the bosses. Second, be sure to grab both the .exe and the english text translation file, and read the readme on how to install the language file. The download links are right at the top of the screen on an otherwise completely asian language website. Also check out places like this, and this (you’ll have to dig around a bit) for more enemies to install.
This is free, windows only, and a pure adrenaline blast of arcade fun.
Allow me to spend $2.50 of your hard earned cash
If you’re on a pc and grew up on a healthy diet of quarter-fueled arcade games in the 80’s, fire up your steam account, or go to steampowered.com, make an account, and download the steam client if you don’t already have it. Once you’re logged in, buy Geometry Wars for a measly $2.50. There has never, in the history of videogames, been a deal this good. I’ve talked endlessly about Geometry Wars and the various clones of it that have come out over the last couple of years, and the original is better than any of them. It’s an 8-way shooter, a genre of action arcade game inspired by Robotron, one of the seminal arcade games from the height of arcade era.
The $2.50 price only lasts until June 22nd, after which you’ll have to lay down a whopping $3.99 to acquire your copy, so hop on this now.
Play Red Orchestra for free on me
Red Orchestra is a fantastic fps that simulates combat in WWII on the eastern front. I’ve written about it a couple of times before. Though I don’t play much anymore it’s still my current fave fps. They recently released a major engine and content update (more players per match, new maps, etc) and to celebrate they gave all players 2 free passes they can give to friends so their friends can try the game. First 2 folks to say the word get a free pass from me. Not sure how long it lasts, probably at least a couple of days, certainly long enough to get a feel for the game, and it’s cheap enough to buy if you end up liking it. Post in the comments to get your pass.
Tomb Raider: Anniversary is excellent
I was a huge fan of the original Tomb Raider Playstation 1 game. I spent a couple of months working my way through that game in the davecave in Yarmouth ME, with my buddy Kevin as a frequent adviser. It’s one of the few games I’ve solved
Kudos to gametap on version 3.0
Gametap released their version 3.0 client yesterday and revealed a host of new services, including a free client which gives access to a set number of games each month for free to anyone. It’s all accessible via their website and is definitely worth checking out if you’re a PC gamer. I subscribed several months ago and while I wish they would provide better access to the .ini files of the games they install, and come up with a way to allow the installation of mods and patches, overall it’s a fantastic bargain. For about $80 a year I get access to over 1000 games ranging from classic arcade games from the 80’s to stuff released within a few months of retail release. There’s a lot of chaff in their collection but there are more than enough gems to make it all worthwhile.
As an added incentive to check out the service, they provided access to the remake of the original tomb raider game which has been getting great reviews. If you’re on a PC definitely check it out, free is free after all.
Friday two-fer – Flash based particle simulator
Here’s another friday fun link. This is a simple yet captivating flash-based particle simulator. Use the radio buttons at the bottom to pick materials and elements to ‘paint’ onto the canvas and watch how they interact – drop some seeds, for example, then some water, watch things grow, try and overwhelm it with an avalanche of sand, or lay down a small fire and pit it against a water fountain. There are tons of cool little interactions and rube goldberg inspired setups you can sketch out with this.
Flash based riff on Robotron
It’s not exactly a Robotron clone, but Luminara is a fun, fast paced 8-way shooter that uses the core Robotron gameplay mechanic in a stylized setting, and it’s a perfect friday fun link. It’s not a perfect game though – it’s too easy to lose track of the aiming icon in all the activity on screen, and after several games I’m starting to think that staying in the center is a better tactic than moving around. Also, the laser made me laugh when I first got it, but as a gameplay element I think it’s pretty lame. Still, for a lunchtime diversion it’s worth a look.
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Examining open source and copyright from a different angle
I muse periodically on open source and copyright issues and I happened across a great non-software example of how letting things fall out of copyright is generally good for folks. Star Frontiers is a sci fi themed pen and paper roll playing game that reached the height of its popularity in the 80’s when Star Wars hype was at its peak. It was originally published by TSR, the folks who introduced Dungeons and Dragons to the world. TSR dropped the game from its product lineup in the mid-late 80’s, and eventually it became freely and legally available for download. A small fanbase have been keeping the product alive ever since. Recently one of those fans took it upon himself to do some major updates, ironing out issues with the rules, fleshing out areas that had been unfinished or vague, working on the aesthetics of the downloadable rulebook, and launching a ‘dungeon‘ like fanzine to accompany all this work. This has caused a bit of a renaissance of interest in the game, bringing a moribund product back into the limelight at places like rpg.net and exposing a new generation of gamers to a solid, fun game that had become unavailable due to the economics of publishing.
If this game was kept in copyright it would be dead now, sought after only for nostalgic reasons by collectors and played by no one. Instead it’s a living, breathing product with a fanbase and new content to keep it going into the future. This whole conception of reuse remix burn doesn’t just apply to music or digital media is the point I’m trying to make here – it’s equally applicable to dead trees and other kinds of intellectual property. And lest you think this is an edge case I’ll observe that things I’ve linked to in the past like Librivox (fan created audiobooks of rights free material), source code releases to game engines like Quake 3 (and the various fan projects these spawn) and other things I don’t think I’ve mentioned (the Marvel Super hero role playing game, the downloads, and the fan plans to revamp it) also illustrate the issue.
This is not about anarchy and fighting against rights owners opportunity to profit – this is about recognizing that it’s a complex issue and there is value to all of us on both sides of it, and our challenge is to find the right balance between protecting the interests of rights owners and the interests of everyone in a vibrant, flexible, imaginative marketplace of ideas. In my opinion we’re failing miserably at this at present.
Egoboo gets a sequel
This week’s friday fun link is to Soulfu, the new game from the guy who brought the world Egoboo so long ago. Egoboo was a sort of ‘roguelike meets gauntlet’ action adventure game that never really found a wide audience but that showed a lot of promise. Soulfu is still a work in progress – the networking is not yet included and because everything is randomly generated it feels a bit disjointed, but there’s fun to be had in a mindless kind of way, and the art style is great. Check it out if you’re on windows and looking to try something lightweight and fun. Windows only, sorry to say.
If you’re on mac or linux or you’re just curious, Egoboo is still being maintained and can be fun to mess about with, too, using the link above will bring you to the portal where you can download it for your platform.
Dave's Place/Metamusing 