Monday, December 30, 2013

Spending Money

Despite having next to no time to game, and my despite my computers currently being used for crypto-currency mining, I still have managed to just about bankrupt myself with Steam sales.  I just can't stop.  The deals are too good.  Somebody, anybody, please help me.

On another note, I have my Pentium III 'RetroBox' up and running now.  I was having issues with it freezing intermittently which I think was being caused by a faulty USB port.  I have since picked up at PS/2 keyboard and mouse to use and I don't seem to be having any issues (knock on wood!).  It's loaded with Windows 98 and will be a project rig for running vintage software on.  I have dabbled with programs like VMWare and VirtualBox, but I wasn't always able to get certain games running due to the constraints of the virtual environment.  I'm hoping that having a dedicated box with dedicated hardware will remedy this situation.  I also have a P4 box which I'm trying to bring back from the dead, although in all honesty I'm not really sure why as P4 boxes are still pretty common today.  It does have a ZIP drive though which is something I've always thought was kind of cool (ever since I couldn't fit AltecApollyon's copy of SimCity 2000 on to a normal 1.44MB diskette).

I've also been busy attempting to digitize the analog media I had lying around.  I'm through all of my VHS tapes now, so I just have Hi-8 and cassette tapes to go through.  Once I have everything digitized I can start editing and hopefully getting some stuff posted to the web.  Alright, I've got 20 minutes?  I'll just pop in a tape and let my Hauppage encoder do the heavy lifting.

I'm hoping to pump out some new content in the new year as I'm slowly adjusting to having an infant in the house and he's slowly adjusting to his rather bizarre father.  I'm excited to get going on the MAME project again as I ordered buttons and joysticks, and just recently acquired some more tools to allow me to fabricate a control panel from scratch.  That'll have to wait though as it's about -19 degrees celsius here today and my garage isn't heated.

Anyhow, here's to my peeps in the streets who are essentially game collectors and not gamers thanks to Steam's ridiculous sales.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Race the Sun (PC)

NOTE : this game has nothing to do with the 90's movie with Halle Berry....thank the good Lord. Although it does use the "solar powered vehicle motif.


Race the Sun caught my eye on Kickstarter. The sleek ship design, dodging geometric obstacles, clean HUD, the metallic look to everything and the feeling of speed - were all things that attracted me to this title. I'm a big fan of the original Starfox - and this reminded me of the feeling I first felt flying in that game. Having been burned before though I held back, didn't pre-order and finally picked it up when it was a full release.

You might have heard of Race the Sun, or Flippfly - from their widely publisized "Not On Steam" sale.

It's been called an endless runner, compared to Tiny Wings, Starfox, Temple Run and Star Wars Podracing. This last one I would like to quickly mention that a true Star Wars Podracing game with customization at it's center - racing and betting online - would be an amazing game.... and customization (at least at that level, is missing in Race the Sun).


When I first got it I played it daily. Since the levels are reset every 24 hours - it's a different experience each day. This idea does keep you coming back for more and prevents the player from memorizing a map and being able to play the game blind. There are also portals that take you to alternate levels and now (since the newest update) a new very difficult level type and user generated levels. In short, there's a lot to play. Sometimes, however, the randomly created levels can be a little unbalanced - your runs range from extremely short and then the next day perhaps it's a breeze.

You are a solar powered ship that must stay in the light to keep the ship powered. Collect little glowing pyramids to increase the multiplier. The sun is setting, so you need to hurry and power-ups will help you. As the sun sets, the shadows will get longer - this has two effects: one to sap power from your ship if you stay too long in them, and two to actually warn you of an upcoming obstacles - it's a good mechanic. Also the setting sun has a neat effect - though the long shadows it creates might help you navigate, when you pull back into the sunlight you are blinded and if it's low enough it's exactly as you would imagine: flying towards the sun is blinding.


Each game starts with a quote - usually sometime to about time and I wonder if that has something to do with the way that the levels are created. Perhaps the quotes are apart of some algorithm? I don't know.

I haven't mentioned yet that there is no speed control in the game - you fly at maximum speed all the time. You can steer, jump if you have the power-up and even do a barrel roll (although I find this super dangerous and not too helpful). If you bump an object you might get lucky and get away with a speed reduction and a scratch - but most likely you will explode into a powdery white firework.


The game looks so sleek while flying - I wish I could say the same thing for the menus. I think they are wanting the menus to look "old school" but in my opinion they are just clunky and ugly. Since the last update actually, the game has gotten even less appealing to me with the addition of ship decals - which I find destroy the beautiful bright reflection off the metallic wings.  If anything, I would update the HUD and simplify it even more: putting a light on the back of the wing or hull for a power-up so you don't have to take your eye off the action.



There is also a Rally Mode where you can play with friends in teams. The first player races as far as they can and when they collide and explode the baton is passed to the next player and they continue from there - unfortunately I have no experience with this more because I just don't know anyone else who is playing. *sob* I haven't tried to the world editor for the same reason.

Overall it's a fairly solid game - sometimes the levels seem a little strange and I'm not sure how I feel about how the leaderboards work - comparing your daily scores and then your overall scores, but I guess that is the best way to do it with a game that randomly creates levels. It might take away from the competition though, since you have to check back to see what day you won on. Maybe they could implement 'daily wins' or something like that.


I've decided to step away from Race the Sun for a while - mostly because I don't know anyone who is playing and so the will to compete just isn't there for me. It's fun to climb leaderboards for a while - but without taunting and trash talk and rubbing it someone's face when you destroy their highscore, it feels lonely. Maybe I will take it up again after another update, see if they fix that HUD and those menus.



You can pick up Race the Sun here.

Also check out the (now over) "Not On Steam" sale page and their original Kickstarter page for game details.




Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Puzzle Games on iOS


'I Love Squares' is a little game that looks great. You drop the glowing lines (either vertical or horizontal) down Tetris-like - you can only match colours with like colours and slowly the lines move up at the game progresses. I found it pretty hard, and since I am not big on these kinds of games anyways, I left it on my iPad for my wife for a while - and then dropped it.


Hue Brix is a pretty cool little game and I played and kept it for quite a while. You have these coloured blocks with numbers on them and that's how many adjacent blocks you can paint with that colour. There are things that make this more complicated then you first would think - blocks that subtract or add amounts of colour, blocks that can only be exited in one direction and specific ending points that much be reached.


All-in-all Hue Brix is very solid. When you beat a level theres a satisfying "resolution" as the colours wind around each other like ribbons and zip off screen and it's great to play on the iPad but I felt like I had played enough and didn't need to see how challenging it gets - I understood the mechanics and the style and was happy to move on. Deleted.



Match blocks is just too hard. Blocks tumble down onto the screen, at first with only two colours but in different patterns. You use the two buttons at the bottom of the screen to tap the patterns you see which makes the blocks disappear. So by tapping : Yellow, Yellow, Green will blocks with that sequence disappear but not, 'Green, Yellow, Green.'


Of course when the falling blocks reach the top you're dead and this will happen faster then you can blink - especially with circular multipliers and a third colour. That is as far as I got - three colours. I tried the game a few more times, but no, I am terrible at it - and so it's deleted.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Crush (iOS)


Crush is an arcade game from Radian Games. I have played most of his games, either on the Xbox or on iOS. But after falling in love with Super Crossfire HD (which I consider the best work) I was hooked and ready to try anything bearing the Radian Games titlescreen.


Colours are a big deal in games by Radian Games, usually they are neon and flashy and I love them. This time they are more mature - a tan-bronze background and three colours of blocks; off-white, red-orange and grey. There's also a crazy tilt to the whole thing while playing (which you can adjust if you don't like it) and one other colour scheme to choose from.


This game has unlockable powers and like Ballistic and Super Crossfire, its important to choose the powers that fit to your playing style. I gave this game far more chances that I usually would because of my love for Radian Games but I just couldn't find a way into this game. Sometimes I felt like I understood what to do, other times I felt like the game was too random and I was just tapping around. I would recommend this game to anyone who passively plays arcade games on their phones - people who maybe like bejeweled and things like that. It's better than those games, but just didn't hook me.



Monday, December 2, 2013

Moku Fly & Scarlet (Browser / Freeware)

Moku Fly : A cat, flying a biplane over a river flowing through a canyon which is filled with cacti for some reason....oh and floating lasagna (at least that's whats I see) after playing a few rounds I found out that you can shoot (when that little circle on the back of the plane is yellow).

The circle or propeller at the back of the plane makes a good "power bar" and life bar....well done. Other speedy dodging games could make use of this so you don't have to look away from your vehicle to check the HUD. But, controlling with the mouse? That really sucks and I got over 7 million points while using my trackpad so I'm guessing the collisions are a little off. Not much to sink your teeth into. Wont have to play this again, but cute none the less.

You can play it here.

 Scarlet : Your girlfriend arrives home early from a conference and while she blabbers on about it (that's my character's point of view, not mine!) you run around the apartment hiding the evidence of your affair.

It's another game made for one of these 48-hour jams and and considering that it's pretty conceptual. It's really simple, but it does the job and makes it's point : you become the transgressor. I really enjoy games right now that put the player in difficult moral situations and this does that.

I would really like this one to develop into a full game (I even thought of the subtitle : "Deceit, Lies and Underwear"). In the full game it would be interesting to have more consequences for your actions, maybe you could also play a female story.

This version has a few strange issues, like objects twirling in the air for no reason and an ending which was criticized by some but I found it to be just dark humour and a quick way to finish off the game.


Sunday, December 1, 2013

Artibeus (Freeware)


My daughter woke from her nap to find me reading gaming news on Indiegames.com - she pointed at this game and said she wants to play it - so we checked it out together.


It's quite cute and very old school. You are a little bat who has to get fruit - so maybe a fruit bat? You use the arrow keys to fly around and gather up the fruit and avoid the enemies : eyeballs and spikey green things and later flying skeleton-serpents and swords. If you manage to get all the fruit then a door opens to the next level. Little details were quite nice in the game, fly over a magnet and the fruit wafts towards you and hit a bomb and it kills enemies in a radius. My favourite was the candle, hit this and the lights go out - and it's just you in "bat view" seeing the enemies and the fruit - I told my daughter its most definitely because bats can see better in the dark.


It seems that Stanislav Kostka, from Slovakia used Game Maker for this as well - I really am amazed at the polished quality people can get using that software. His pixel art shows real promise and I will keep an eye on him to see what he comes up with next. Here's the trailer :


Download Artibeus for free here.