Microsoft made an announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show about the forthcoming spring release of Game Room, a new virtual space for players to hang out as their avatars and play classic/vintage arcade video games. Sounds fine as a basic description, but my intuition says this will be a bust.
There are several issues that will get in the way of Game Room’s success. First up we have the games themselves. Game Room will be launching with approximately 30 titles, with a promised 1000 titles within three years. That is a ton of shit and I mean that quite literally. If you can name me 20 classic video games that actually withstand the test of time, let alone 1000, I’ll send you a virtual medal.
Then there is the pricing, an area where Microsoft really understands the fine art of screwing customers. Players can either pay $5 for a dual-license that allows for PC and Xbox 360 play, or $3 for a single platform. Finally, players can sink 40-points (50-cents) for a single play.
As someone who grew up with the dawn of video games, having played just about every classic arcade title when it was actually available at my local Shakey’s Pizza, I can honestly say the vast majority of those so-called classics sucked. Add classics from vintage home consoles like Intellivision and the Atari 2600 and you have a recipe for complete boredom.
Look, I find value in these old games as museum relics and they are worth a time-limited trip down memory lane, but the overwhelming majority are just awful by today’s standards. There are only a few games from the 70s and 80s that hold up, like Asteroids, Missile Command, Galaga, Defender, Tempest, Star Castle and a few others. As for Atari 2600 games, none will hold your interest beyond a minute or two, perhaps longer if you’re bathing in nostalgia. I mean c’mon, $5 for Sub Hunt? Sea Battle? Outlaw? Ugh.
Microsoft Game Room smacks of a way to attract impulsive consumers into spending money on something that seems cool but will ultimately lead to regret. Besides, every single one of these ancient games can be played on the PC right now, complete with rule sheets and virtual cabinets, using a well-known emulator called MAME. I assume most hardcore gamers already have MAME or had it but grew bored once the novelty wore off.
If I had been in charge of developing the Game Room, I would get rid of 99% of the vintage games, only using the true classics that have aged well, and devoted the rest of the space to new and relevant XBLA (and XNA) titles like Castle Crashers, Space Invaders Extreme, Geometry Wars, etc. This would boost sales of new wares and foster increased multiplayer competition with games people actually want to play.
Unfortunately, I’m not in charge and Microsoft is wasting resources on something that will prove itself an underutilized failure. It wasnt that long ago that Xbox 360 gamers were complaining vociferously about the abundance of crappy vintage games clogging up XBLA. MS seemed to listen and reigned in the number of releases. Now MS is back with a vengeance, eyes on your wallet, hoping you will succumb to memories and ancient passions, futilely chasing Sony’s Home scheme while ripping off Nintendo’s Mii’s, all so you’ll pony up $5 to play Adventure?
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a new game coming from Michel Gagne. Looking at the wonderful trailer, I am reminded of classic arcade games like Scramble mixed with the art sensibilities of something like Patapon. Whatever the influences, you can’t deny it has a style all its own, plus it appears to have tons of fast-paced gameplay.
Currently, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is slated as a downloadable game for the PC, but an Xbox 360 release as an arcade title is rumored to be happening. You can find more info at the official blog.
Curious as to what Michael Jackson’s mythical arcade room looked like? Wonder no more. PinSane has created a pretty nifty 360-degree panorama of the room that allows the viewer to zoom in and out, which is mandatory as the room is packed with with stuff, some recent, some vintage, all cool.
We sit down with gaming pioneer and multiplayer god Owen Rubin to hear about his days during the birth of our industry.
Multiplayer is considered almost a necessity for most games released today. But long before the world discovered the joys of Counter-Strike or even Combat on the 2600, Atari released the first and only multiplayer vector game, Space Duel. In 1982 it hit arcades across America and quickly developed a small, cult-like following. Today, it may at first glance, appear like a colorful Asteroids clone, but this over simplification wouldn’t do justice to the innovations it introduced, or the pioneer, Owen Rubin, who created it.
Recently, Senior Editor Chris Jensen got a chance to interview the father of multiplayer gaming, and ask him about his experiences during the birth of our multi-billion dollar industry.
Hollywood has long been criticized for its lack of originality and creativity, and never more so than it the last twenty years, which has seen more remakes and rip-offs than ever before. The industry as a whole has become so beholden to the bottom line that taking a risk on a new property has become all but impossible. It’s an industry enslaved by paranoia, unmoved by innovation, a place where executives are unwilling to green light a film unless it has proven itself in some other medium, whether it be a popular novel, a remake, a television show…or a video game.
Isaac Asimov may have his Three Laws of Robotics, but gaming has its own Two Laws which, so far, have never been broken:
A movie based on a game will suck.
A game based on a movie will suck.
Why these two laws exist is a mystery, as the two mediums should compliment one another nicely, yet there is some strange force of physics that is getting in the way. So let’s take a brief look at the sordid history of movies based on video games and see how we’ve arrived at the sad state of affairs we’re currently in.
The PSP has a thriving homebrew scene, despite the continued attempts by Sony to thwart custom firmwares with unrelenting updates. Hackers are a resourceful bunch, though, and Sony has yet to put an effective nail in the coffin of homebrew. That’s good news for those of us who enjoy running programs and playing games from an independent community with tons of ideas and skill. It’s their abilities that give the PSP increased longevity and ultimately make the handheld more than a portable game playing machine.
With the recent announcement of a Lumines exploit that effectively downgrades every model of PSP, allowing for the running of homebrew applications, the scene has been reinvigorated. While I’m not going to go in to any detail about how you can hack your PSP to run homebrew, I will spotlight a few choice programs that make this minor hassle worthwhile. There is no shortage of resources on the Internet that will teach you the basics of how downgrade your PSP and I urge you to explore the possibilities.
(Ratings Average: 4.50 out of 5)
Loading ...
Loading ...