Non-Games and utilities in the 'Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality

So I got this bundle, and after downloading a handful of the obvious 'better known' games, I started to noticed a few asset packs and non-game applications in there.
Being the curious type I Googled for non-games software in the bundle, and came up with... well pretty much nothing! And that's where I left it for a while.

It was only after discovering that a full version of Pico-8 was in there that I began to become a bit more interested in finding out exactly what other games creation type software may be lurking in the depths of the bundle. Around the same time I watched a YouTube video where they were reviewing four or five different asset packs from the two or three I had initially noticed, and they commented that they may have missed some, they had.

By this time I had pretty much decided to trawl through the whole thing (so you don't have to 😉) and find out if there was anything interesting in there.
It turns out that some stuff was pretty much as expected and some wasn't.

That YouTube'er rewed a handful of asset packs, see below for a list of the ones I found:

Asset Packs:
Kenney Game Assets 1 20,000+               Game assets for use in your games!
CanariPack 8BIT TopDown               8/16BIT 16x16 Tileset, Animated Sprites, Music,SFX
HUGE pixelart asset pack                1500+ Tiles pack, characters and some animations
Heroic Asset Series: Overworld        Tiny animated 16x16 tileset with 64 colors!
HPS Cartography Kit              Hex tiles for custom cartography. over 400 map tiles
Multi Platformer Tileset                Various 2D side-scrolling environments on pixel art
Pixel Art Medieval Fantasy Characters        Pack of high-quality fantasy pixel art characters.
Pixel Art Infinite Runner - Pack       Make a Infinite Runner Game!
RPG Items - Retro Pack             591 retro styled item RPG items
Top-Down - Interior Tileset               A versatile interior tileset for your top-down game
CanariPack 1BIT TopDown               1BIT 16x16 Tileset, Animated Sprites, Music and SFX 
Tiny Adventure Pack Plus              Asset pack for game development.
Lava Caves - Fantasy Pixel Art Tileset     Fantasy Lava Caves tileset
Lil' Dragon - Pixel Art Tiles                             Top Down tileset inspired by old RPGs
Gentle Forest "Mana Seed" Pixel Art     A fully featured RPG forest, hills, rocks, and water
Heroic Asset Series: Buildings Pack       Tiny animated buildings pack with 64 colors!
Heroic Asset Series: Icon Pack     Tiny 16x16 icons with 64 colors!
Dungeon Tileset - Top Down RPG                A pixel art dungeon tileset.
Pixel Art Platformer Painted Style                   A live painting in Pixel Art!
Heroic Asset Series: Creature Pack     Tiny animated creature pack with 64 colors!
Low Poly 3D City Builder              Royalty free 3DGame Assets .
Deep Forest - 16 Colour Tileset      Limited 16 colour palette tileset
8bit Overworld Tileset       A retro flavoured topdown tileset 
Glitch Brushes: Dithering & Text Digitally paint with the power of glitch (photoshop)
Glitch Pixel Brushes II                Digitally paint with the power of g᷾l̶᷾i̝t̴̠ch̃᷃! (photoshop)
Glitch Brushes Maze & Organic Textures Digitally paint with power of glitch
Pixel Button Prompts Tile Set                        Keyboard and Gamepad
Extended monster pack          48 different monsters
PIXEL ART METROIDVANIA                         Asset Pack with tiles and animated sprites
Photoshop Inkers                     Photoshop Assets
Photoshop Real Pencils             Photoshop Assets
Relaxing Ocean SFX - Audio Asset Pack Relaxing ocean SFX recorded in Scotland
Kawaii Game Icons                                        50 Kawaii Icons
BearFX Explosions Pixel VFX Pack    High quality pixel art explosion effects
Three Red Hearts  [Music Assets]              24 seamless Chiptunes
Pixel art Forest              Make your own forest!
Japanese City Game Assets              118 static (32x32) tiles + 8 animations
PIXEL FANTASY RPG ICONS     87 different sized icons for fantasy RPGs
Low Poly Auto Racing Car Pack       Royalty free 3D Game Assets
Paid RPG Pixel Art Assets 2              A downloadable asset pack.
Medieval Town and Country Bundle      Interiors and Exterior town tiles, characters, more
PVGames Sci-Fi               Sci-Fi tiles and characters
8-Bit Sound Effects [100+ SFX]       Perfect for retro games, game jams, mobile games
FunkyQuadZ - 3D for Construct 3 Funky QuadZ - 3D Sprites and 3D Camera Control
SC: Monster Pack 1 - DELUXE EDITION 40+ monsters, 5+ variants each, over 1000 files
Essential Pool Billiards Table Asset Pack Royalty free 3D Assets for Virtual Reality Games.
Lo-Fi Stellar Skirmish             A starship-themed asset pack
Modular Cartoon Dungeon           Props and Tileset Pack. 3D RPG game assets
RPG Town Tileset                     32x32 Tileset for RPG
PIXEL SPACESHIPS           Shoot'em Ups Assets [HD]
SNES Original Soundtrack Collection     A collection of 9 SNES like tunes 
Flappy AirShip GF/X Asset Pack     Fantasy AirShip GF/X Kit (2D)
Mini Loops                     5 second music loops for games
Old Man Character Sound Effects             A collection of 'old-man' sound effects
Medieval Chibi Cartoon Character Pack      Character Pack for Fantasy Games (3D)
Gothic/Haunted Castle Tileset      (32x32) Character Pack 
Classic JRPG Music Pack /Medium Pack Music for RPG projects
Swords Pack x6              The pack contains 6 types of swords
Voxel Currency             9 voxel art currency symbols
Swords and Daggers Pack            The pack contains 6 types of swords
Platformer SFX            Classic Retro Sound Effects
Cassette                           Play. Pause. Rewind. A library of tape sounds.
Modular Walls Asset Pack            Tile-able Walls, Ceilings and Floors (textures for 3D)
DungeonGameAssetPack             Castlevania inspired
Outdoor Adventurer Tileset              Pixel grass and dirt path tiles, stage characters, cat
Forest zone bitsy tile pack             Make your own forest zone
models of a retro dog and scene in Blender Blender Assets

The content of these packs vary wildly in styles and genres, but the average content is good to high, and certainly can lift a bar to the beginner developer as far as graphics and sound goes.

Next I looked for non-games programs in general, but particularly for Game-Creation based utilities. It turns out there were a few apps, but this was pretty much a mived bag. There were five utilities that could, at least loosley, be described as games makers: PICO-8, PQ93, Make your Adventure, DragonRuby, and ADLENGINE. The rest being a hodgepodge of add-on modules to existing products, database, and graphics utilities.

Applications:
Mu Cartographer                       Experimental Colourful Exploration Machine
Hex Kit                   Hex Mapping tool for table top RPGs
DragonRuby Game Toolkit            An intuitive cross-platform 2D game engine.
Tape                    Project management for artists and designers
PQ93                     A fantasy console for making small games
PICO-8                   A fantasy console for making, playing and sharing
Electric Zine Maker           A print-shop and art tool for making zines
Construct 2/3 Pseudo 3D              A pseudo 3D system made in construct no plugins
Snapshot Shaders Pro (Unity)      23 image effects for Unity HDRP and URP
VR Drum Studio             A VR Drum Studio
Twitch.tv IRC Interface for GameMaker Extension to connect GameMaker Games to Twitch
Make your Adventure                 Turn your idea into a game, without programming
ADLENGINE                  Roleplay / Text Adventure Engine
mMcFabs's Texture to SkyBox Converte Convert flat horizontal textures to sky-boxes

And I would say that's the bulk of the game-design assets and utilities. Some, like PICO-8, are very good, and this also gives yo acces to a vast range of 'virtual cartradges' many of which are remakes of older games, and many are ndw, or prototypes of games that have since had a full indie release made.

Around a third or so of the bundle, is made up of non-computer table-top and RPG/LARP type games. This is an area I know little to nothing (well nothing really) about. So it's probably best to leave that for someone else to talk about.

The other small bunch of things I did, rather more surprisingly, find were books, comics and zines. 

I haven't looked through much of these, and have tryed to lump all non-computer based 'Written Word' works into one category, but I think it's fair to say this is a rather diverse (to say the least) group in both style and content. 

The Written Word:      (Books, Comics, Zines, & Tutorials)

My Friend Took Me To A Feline Therapy Place For My Anxiety And I’m Starting To Wonder Where The Cats Are?

  -  An illustrated light novel about dealing with anxiety, cats, 

The Stellar Beacon: Hope-punk Issue

  -  Zine with optimistic sci-fi adventures and essays on pop culture

GRIPHOTIKON | BOOK 1

  -  A zine detailing the life of an animal people, living inside a mail slot.

Dirty Town Quick-starter Zine

  -  A ttrpg Zine about Pigeons. Wait, really? Yes! Get ready for their corny adventure

I Signed Up To Be The Substitute Familiar Of A Struggling Witch To Pay My Bills And I'm Just Now Realizing...   

  -  An illustrated light novel about magic, witches, familiars, and gender feels

Avery Chase - EP1 : Apparition Avery Chase EP1

SOULS & STRIPES UT/DTR comic anthology

SINS - The RPG - PDF                     Award-Winning Supernatural Post-Apocalyptic RPG

Philip K. Dick's Tony and the Beetles The war. Always the war.

Fall Diary Diary comic collection.

Blind Men A boys' love visual novel about a supervillain and the spies that try to stop

Okay, Hero A series of essays on the Metal Gear Solid games

Hitboxes and Hurtboxes Learn how to setup hitboxes and hurtboxes in GameMaker Studio!

Gourmet Street: Fantasy Street-Food Adventuring A zine about bringing the greasy beauty of street food to your urban rpg

Worlds Without Master Issue 3 A PDF magazine of sword & sorcery tales, games, and comics. Includes Swords Without Master!

Penicillin Issue #1          Weird RPG Zine

Penicillin Issue #2          The follow up to the acclaimed first issue of Penicillin

Penicillin Issue #3          The third issue of the World's Other Only RPG Zine

Way With Worlds Book 1 Crafting Great Fictional Settings. A helpful guide to world-building

Skill Points         An RPG zine about learning through play.

The Watching Book A zine of oracular culture, and an rpg to play with it.

Procession         A short zine about the miracles and monstrous 

HG101 Presents:         The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures

There are a few other things scattered around the bundle, that defy any of these categorisations, and the Table-top/RPG games are also very diverse. There are also some Paper based utilities for defining this type of game. All of which I feel that I don't know enough about to judge

Shenmue 3 - Finally being made after 14 years.

 Not too long ago in a land far far away, a not-so-simple
games-maker called Yu Suzuki produced a rather unusual
& often misunderstood game named Shenmue

And so the saga begun...

Nowadays it's become a bit of a thing to say how awesome and historically important the Shenmue game is, or was, to the current gaming industry. But this wasn't always the case...

I remember picking up the boxed sets of Shenmue One and Two for the Dreamcast from a second-hand games store, for around ten UK pounds (17ish US dollars),  a good few years ago. They were both in good condition and had all the original packaging intact. In fact, it looked like they were hardly used!
Of course that was before the game had really began to gather much of a 'cult following' status, and definitely before it became mainstream, or in vogue, to know about and 'like' the Shenmue franchise. Remember that this is a game that cost more than any other to make at the time of its release, and then (more or less) bombed in the high-street stores!

Artsy, not Fartsy...

In the Beginning...

There has always been an element of 'art' that has existed, and grown, alongside but generally separate (or underground) from mainstream computing, long before the computer games industry was invented. Likewise the 'can computers make art' debate has existed from the very beginnings of the medium.
Even the early Teletype operators used to send text generated pictures to each other.This was the beginnings of what became knows as ASCII Art, arguably the first true 'art' produced solely by using machines. Arguable, because some still say it was nothing more than akin to computer graphite. Is graphite art? Well that's a question for a different blog...

Sticking with computer generated art, Conway's Game of life was possibly one of the first computer programs that could ever be considered a true form of computer art - rather than 'traditional' art made on a computer. The 'game' was based on a cellular automaton thought experiment originally devised  by John Horton Conway, a British mathematician, in 1970. His 'game' had no user interaction other than the placing of the first cells in a grid. These cells ether 'lived,' 'died,' or 'reproduced' on each turn of the game, based on Conway mathematical rules.

The rules to 'Game of Life' were few and simple, but many intricate 'living,' evolving designs could be made from the placing of the original 'seed' cells.

This zero-player 'game' was typically written for most of the 1970's mainframe, and mini, computer systems.

During the 1980's it was a typically included in various how-to programming books and listings magazines as a teaching program for most 8Bit micro computer machines.

AR v VR.

Are we now seeing the next step in console evolution?

I'm writing this in the aftermath of an E3 conference that definitely had a very real tendency towards Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) gaming.

Now, both of these technologies are hardly new, Ether in concept nor in, largely failed, real world implementations. Although we now we seem to be at a place where the technology; and equally importantly, its cost; has caught up with consumer expectations, making large scale VR and AR devices not just commercially feasible, but viable in mas-produced marketplace, perhaps for the first time...

A Fictionally Interactive Oddity…

…Or, why the death of the text-adventure has been greatly exaggerated.

What is a text adventure?

There are those that would dismiss text-adventures as gaming-dinosaurs that rightfully died out decades ago.
And to be fair I suppose it is now possible that a generation has grown up without ever seeing, let alone playing, the genre.

Or perhaps you only know them as their latter-life nom-de-plume of ‘Interactive Fiction:’ a name that a lot of purists loathe with a passion, and although I wouldn't place myself firmly in that camp, I must admit that I do prefer the name ‘Text-Adventure.’

So what is it? Well, it’s essentially a story-based text only puzzle game, where you communicate with the computer by typing in common-language phrases and the computer responds. This response may be based on any number of conditions, not least of which may be your location, items you are carrying, objects or characters that share your location, things you may or may not have already done, or how you have actually phrased your commands.  And if all that sounds confusing and dull, you may be half-right. Confusing – undoubtedly, but dull? Like anything else that entirely depends on the player. There are people, like me, who began playing text-adventures in the early to mid-eighties, and still occasionally find something interesting in them now. But there is also a dedicated core of people still playing old and new text-adventures, and there is no shortage of new interactive fiction being written. So the text-adventure is still very much alive and not an extinct dinosaur medium at all. Hopefully this blog will go some ways to showing you the how, why, and where’s of this…

When is a TV not a TV?

...When It's a Vectrex.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Vectrex. The worlds one and only vector graphics bases console. 

Now you may think you have seen vector graphics on everything from old home-computers right up to modern day browser based games. 

But the chances are you really haven't. What you probably have seen are line-based games made up of pixels, on a CRT rastascan or LCD matrix based screen.

Ah, you say, but all computer graphics are made out of pixels. Well no actually, vector systems displays aren't, and only a handful of Arcade cabinet games from the eighties, and the Vectrex console; by Milton Bradley, no less; have truly been capable of proper vector graphics.

The Revolution Has Been Televised...

My grandparents remembered a time before television. My parent talked about a time where only one or two houses in their street had a TV... Black and white of course, with a whole three stations. I myself remember the hype when a forth station was added to this lineup only to be followed, some years later,  by a fifth. By this time our family TV was a whopping 28" and in colour with almost twice as much stations as it used to have, and not only that... I could also plug my VIC-20 computer into it and actually play games on there as well. Surely we were now truly living in modern times...

Oh how long ago that seems. Now here I sit in front of our modest 42" flat screen HD digital TV watching SKY and wondering if theres anything more interesting on NetFlics or LoveFilm, whilst typing this into one of our three tablet devices, and checking for e-mails and tweets on my smart phone. But if my teenage self could suddenly jump from then to now all this would be secondary, amazing, astounding, but secondary... Because underneath the TV sits a PS3. And there's an Xbox 360 and a PC in the bedroom, and what would I think when I switched ether of these, now aging, devices on - well, what would I think after wiping the drool away from my gaping mouth, that is?

Will iOs7 be the straw that broke Apple’s back?

Has the mighty Apple finally managed to slightly annoy its, traditionally very loyal, core user-base?

You may think their products are overpriced. You may get annoyed at their unnecessarily non-standard connectors, or become frustrated with their closed operating system and insular software licencing policies. But if you do then you probably aren't an ‘Appleite’ and definitely not on their target customer base.

Was the latest iOs7 upgrading a step too far for too many established users?

Apple has prepared a very successful business model through their plug-and-play approach to their systems, and I can see the appeal of these types of product to their target audience, who are for the most part, average non-technical consumers. But this time Apple appears to have missed the mark with the look of their new desktop. And in line with Apples own policy, the ‘look,’ along with simple no-fuss functionality, has always been one of the most important selling points.

Yes there were teething problems with the new operating system, then to be fair most new operating system have these, but this time a significant portion of the established user base seems to have taken a general dislike to the fundamental look and approach of the new desktop. Has Apple pulled a ‘Windows 8’ and pushed their vision of a modern desktop upon a consumer base that doesn't want it? A quick Google search would seem to support this hypothesis…

Different format, same game…

Or, when did competing systems start to run the same software?

If, like me, you are old enough to remember the 8Bit console and home-computer era  you will no doubt remember the slew of arcade game conversions, which steadily began to appear for practically every known 8Bit format. 

These various implementations were often rather interesting to say the least...

Some were remarkably good, others simply awful, but they all had their own very unique take on their parent game. 

This was largely due to the limitations and eccentricities of the various, and varied, hardware platforms of the time. But a not inconsequential part of the success, or failure, of these conversions was also down to the programming teams responsible for re-writing the parent, arcade cabinet, game for the home hardware.

 Both conversions and original games produced for multiple platforms during the 8, 16, and to a certain extent the 32Bit era were often all very different in their look, feel and playability. I'm not saying this was a good or bad thing, it’s just a fact. Sometimes the games shone on a particular platform, other times all the versions were equally as good or bad as each other. But they were invariably distinct, with the platform running the game being clearly obvious: except perhaps between a hand full of 8Bit Atari and Commodore 64 titles, but there are generally always some exceptions to most rules.

  There was a time when the PC lagged  behind its 8Bit contemporaries.     

Show me the money…

… Or why are so many Indie start-ups asking for crowd-funding?

Do you recognise the four games on the left? Well, a lot of people will, and all of them are independently produced  games, what are commonly referred to as 'Indi-Games.' 

But there are many levels of 'Indi' game makers... 

As you may or may not know, I've been dabbling in the wonderful world of no-budget PC indie games lately, and one thing I very quickly noticed was the amount of  individual start-up programmers and small two-to-three man teams that are now asking for up-front funds from crowd-funding projects like Kick-starter. Then they usually complain bitterly that nobody is giving them any money for their brilliant idea…

Well, not to be harsh or anything, but why should they? And more to the point why ‘exactly’ do you need it?

I've looked at quite a few projects, many of which seem to be nothing but an idea, and can’t for the life of me see where these asked for thousands would be going. Generally their case isn't helped much by the complete lack of explanation over where the money will be spent, and I have seen some very well laid out Kick-starter projects that explained exactly where, and when, each penny of the money would go.

To be honest I can't see that many of these projects are any more ambitious than some of my own. And I don’t need any money to develop those, just the will, a half-way decent computer, my brain, and some time… Although you’d be surprised how difficult it could sometimes be to get those things together in the same room and talking to each other.

Should story based action games be difficult?

So I’ve been playing some relatively modern and mainstream games lately, and it’s obvious they are all very-much story based and designed to be completed.

The thing is some parts of some of these games seem to unnecessarily bog-down the progression by being harder than the vast majority of the game.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I like arcade games with a high difficulty curve, but these are action games, designed to be completed within a certain time-frame.  I think the problem occurs when you get a boss stage or level that seems to grind the game by forcing you to play through it again and again before you can progress the story, or when a certain part of a level is suddenly and unexpectedly hard. If you aren’t used to hard game-play it soon becomes infuriating rather than challenging, chiefly because it is holding you up from progressing in the all-important story.

I know some people have complained about mainstream gaming becoming increasingly easier and designed to be completed (the walk-through game, as some have called it) but if it is a story based game I want to be able to hack/slash or shoot my way through that story without coming up against an inappropriately placed hard grind – whether it be a boss or a particularly difficult part within a level. I can see how this could be interpreted as bad level design.

I don’t think the idea of a ‘walk-through game’ is inherently bad. Surely it’s the experience that matters most, and these games are generally designed to take a set number of hours to complete. So any sticking point is just that, a point where you are stuck and unable to perform the main goal of progressing through the story.

MUD in your Eye…

To those who don’t know (is there anyone) MUD stands for Multi User Dungeon.

As a games genre, it has been around from the very beginning of on-line gaming, and almost from the beginning of multi-user gaming.

MUDs are predominantly multi-user text based adventure games:  the type of thing that is now referred to as ‘Interactive Fiction,’ although that label is generally reserved for stand-alone single player games.

The term MUD was originally coined in 1978 by Roy Trubshaw; a student at Essex University, in England; who wanted to make a multi-user version of the ‘Zork’ text adventure games he had played on the university systems. Although Trubshaw wasn’t solely responsible for developing the game to the form it was most widely known, and played, in he did coin the phrase and lay the groundwork.

People will disagree about what exactly happened next, but arguably the MUD game got its first major break when it was released on the pre-internet subscription-based ‘CompuServe’ dial-up computer network.

Both prior to, and after, the commercial  ‘‘CompuServe MUD’ release most MUDs were, and continued to be, run as hobbyist systems.

These hobby-MUDs were invariably run from Dial-up Bulletin Board Systems (or BBS for short) and although these were free to use accessing them often involved hefty call charges.

3D Runes – and a return to 2D gaming...

I remember first playing Runescape around a year and a half to two years after its inception, and even at that time there were those players that complained about the 'old-fasioned 2D graphics' the game used.

But nowadays it seems the old Runscape game, now referred to as the 'original' version, is being reinstated due to popular public demand: in fact it was by an overwhelming player vote...

So it begs the question, are these the same players that were complaining about the 2D game in the first place? And if not, who or what has changed?

I remember there being some reticence and concern from a small percentage of the 'veteran' players when the 3D version was first announced, but on the whole it was very much greeted as a good thing by the community. Although even then, some players still complained that it looked 'too old.' I can only assume this was in comparison with the platform specific MMORPG programs of the time.

So what has changed? Runescape is now massively more popular than it was back then and has become something of an on-line browser-based gaming stalwart. But surely that means that the vast majority of its players are 'new' at leasty in terms of not being around when the original 2D version was at its peak. So why the overwhelming desire to see it return now? Perhaps with the proliferation of 'realistic' 3D games available now people don't see 3D as the 'magic games-playing formula' that they once did. Maybe the rose-tinted 3D glasses are beginning to slip. Is opinion maybe now becoming split or polarised between two camps, or is the playing-filed just settling down after the 3D explosion, and becoming wider and more encompassing again? Personally I think it may be a bit of both.

Programming language fan-boys (and girls)

Wow! I’ve been programming in one form or another all my working life (20+ years) and had no idea that such a thing as the programming-language fan-boy existed until I recently started looking into which language would be best used to program an independent computer game.

I was using C#.Net at work lately and I've just discovered the XNA tool-kit, which can be used to develop games for MS Windows, Windows phones, and the Xbox 360... And I have access to all of those.

After a quick play; it isn't busy at work lately, we’re waiting for a systems upgrade before starting the next project; I can definitely say I've developed a bad case of 'shiny object syndrome.'

I don't have any ideas as yet, but I probably will be writing something using this system, if just to see what I can come up with, so I’ve decided to give writing my own Indi game a decent go. I’ll probably write it to work on windows to begin with and maybe try to get it on to xbox-live or something. Although unlike a lot of the comments I’ve read on various message boards, I’m going into this with my eyes open, and with realistic expectations.

 I do currently program commercial programs for a living, just not games ones. I have learnt a lot of languages over the years, as and when I needed them, but haven’t really given any one system much more credence than the others. I do have a personal preference for older (lower level) non-object-orientated stuff. I mostly use VB.net just now, and sometimes find myself fighting it more than using it. C# seems to be a bit better, because I think it gives you a bit more freedom in your code, but I still find these object-based very high level languages restrictive. Then again, I program a 30+ year old video games console in assembly language (machine code) for fun, so I freely admit that my view may be slightly scued in this.

100% Machine Code Games!

   I remember, back in the 8Bit home-computer days, when this was the marketing cry for ‘quality’ games, or supposed quality at least.

When home systems like the ZX 81, VIC 20; and to a lesser extent the later ZX Spectrum, and commodore 64; ruled the home-computer markets, and first generation consoles like the ATARI 2600 were just becoming seen as ‘old hat,’ written in machine code was seen as a majour selling point. There had originally been an initial glut of games written in some form of BASIC, as the language was generally included on the ROM of most home computers, and was designed to be easy to understand and quick to pick up. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not dismissing Basic in any way, shape, or form at all here. This was undoubtedly the introduction for many people, of a certain age-range, into a career in the IT industry. And the current IT workforce has a lot to thanks these systems for.  But back then it was all about programming games, something most people with a home-computer had attempted to varying degrees of success.

A Review of NeverEnd. (PC)

I’ve decided to have a look at those quirkier or somewhat left-of-centre games that got panned in the general press and internet review sites.  First of all I intentionally picked a few games that I had never heard off, which consistently got low reviews from the main media sources, and then I did some internet research, before playing them with an open mind whilst remembering the on-line and in-print comments. I intended to see if I thought all these games are genuinely awful, or if there is possibly something more to the general review trends? After all there’s truth to the old axiom ‘know your audience.’ Me, well I’ve absolutely no idea who reads this stuff: So this one’s for you Anon...

Panned Games - Review 2: NeverEnd.

The second game on my ‘Panned Games’ list is NeverEnd, an old-style fantasy based RPG game for the PC.

This one got a Metacritic score of a whole two stars, then came the usual, band-waggon jumping, derogation on YouTube and various other 'games fan' blogs.
It subsequently gained a bit of an anti-fan following in certain gamming-circles.

But was this deserved?

The lead character is female, but not necessarily in a ‘Cor look at them pixles,’ Lara-Croft type of way...

Following thw fall of the evil Enakhaan, the  powerfull wizard Sarthaan - banished all non-human magical beings to another realm, amongst those that were driven from their land were noble warriors and mages from the race known as Auren. Now, only a few remain, lost in a world that hates them.
Agavaen is a young Auren, living as an outcast and travelling with a band of thieves.
Her magical powers are starting to grow and now, aged 20, she is beginning to wonder what her future might hold.
And so says the blurb, but what does this mean for game-play? 

The game is played over a series of fixed viewpoint backgrounds, some of which scroll as you move the character through them. Camera angles, and distances, vary from scene to scene, in much the same way as the original Resident Evil games did, although the overall feeling here is much more spacious, although some internal locations do give a good claustrophobic feeling.

This is basically a pseudo 3D third-person RPG adventure game, set in a fantasy world populated by the usual characters, but the plot does have a decent story-arc and progresses at a steady pace. None of the plot puzzles are too obscure, and although the story progression is fairly linear you do need to put some thought into it in order to advance. You also need to continually level-up during the adventure, but again this is fairly even paced and experience should accrue steadily as you progress through your quest. I only had to stop and ‘train’ in order to proceed on a couple of occasions, and then not for very long. The story is fairly involved and relies on puzzles just as much as levelling-up to proceed, with enough side quests and interactive characters to keep it interesting. You can also gather a party of fellow adventurers to help you out with the fights, this 'party' aspect is handled well enough, with some characters being integral to the plot and some not.
I’ve heard this referred to as a ‘Girls Game,’ apparently in a derogatory manner, although I’m not sure why. The lead character is female, but not necessarily in a ‘Cor look at them pixles,’ Lara-Croft type of way… Although some of the characters aren’t exactly dressed for winter.

Will 2013 be the year TV Console gaming changed forever?

We’ve already seen TV-Top gaming creep into the living room with the release of the OnLive TV console, and we've heard of the proposals to include streamed on-line gaming options in future TV-Top Video-Streaming media devices…

But, with both Google and Steam getting ready to release their own TV-Top games consoles, should we all be looking forwards to the advent of a completely new wave of, console-like, gaming?

 

Electro-Mechanical Magic.

Lets take a look at some pre-electronic arcade games.  

 

 

 What was in the arcades before the advent of video games?
 If you said one-armed-bandits and slot machines you are half right. Because mechanical based arcade games machines shared the floor with the more long-lived pin-ball machines and bandits from far before even I was born.

These arcade games machines were all initially very much mechanical based.

 

I’ve read first-hand accounts from the people responsible for building these machines and it appears that, towards the end of their run at least, the building process became more of a suck-it-and-see ‘black art’ than a precise science. Many of the people responsible for fixing these electromechanical marvels would freely admit to ‘not know exactly how or why they worked in the way they did half the time.’ The ‘science’ of these machines had evolved into an ‘art’ in much the same way early bedroom-coders would later forge the beginnings of the multibillion dollar/pound video-game industry.

 

One of the most collectable of these is the ‘World Series’ game released by Rockola in 1937.

This was pretty much a mechanical device, but did have some minimal electricity-run components, so technically this was an early electro-mechanical gaming device.

A Review of AMY (PS3 & Xbox 360)

I’ve decided to have a look at those quirkier or somewhat left-of-centre games that got panned in the general press and internet review sites. First of all I intentionally picked a few games that I had never heard off, which consistently got low reviews from the main media sources, and then I did some internet research, before playing them with an open mind whilst remembering the on-line and in-print comments. I intended to see if I thought all these games are genuinely awful, or if there is possibly something more to the general review trends? After all there’s truth to the old axiom ‘know your audience.’ Me, well I’ve absolutely no idea who reads this stuff: So this one’s for you Anon...

Panned Games - Review 1: AMY

The first game on my list was AMY by VectorCell. This is a first person horror-survival game, where you take control of, Lana. A character who, as well as trying to survive in an epidemic ridden world, also has to take care of Amy, a young girl who appears to have some undisclosed form of autistic communicative difficulties. 


The back-story revolves around your attempts to escape the city with Amy in tow.

The game-play is primarily puzzle based, with the Amy ‘companion character’ having three main functions. The first being that you must keep Amy safe; this is done ether by keeping her close (calling for her and holding her hand) or by hiding her. The second function of Amy is to aide in puzzle solving. This can range for something as simple as getting her to crawl through a space where the main character couldn’t fit and press a button to activate some mechanism or open a door etc, to more complicated puzzles where you must place her in certain positions in order to perform some action(s). Then move her around with a combination of instructions; getting her to move and perform a series of simple commands that help accomplish a task; always bearing in mind that she is more vulnerable when away from your direct control.

The third, and most intriguing, function of Amy is to protect your protagonist from the infection. When separated from Amy the main character will slowly become infected, leading to your eventual death if you can’t find Amy in time and don’t have any serum handy.

The best indie games on PSN and Xbox Live

Indie, or Independent, game releases have been gaining momentum and notoriety on the PC for some time now. And over the past few years they have turned into a legitimate force on the two main console platforms as well...

The main problem with Indi games has generally been deciding exactly what an Indie game is. Some people seem to forget that ‘Indi’ simply stands for ‘independent’ and generally try to define the games by their game-play or genre, normally calling anything that’s outside the mainstream gaming gamut and ‘Indie’ game. This never really works though, because there’s nothing to stop an Independent developer making a game which is firmly within the mainstream game style, and some of the major developers have released the odd quirky game over the years..

The grey-area comes in trying to define exactly what an Independent publisher really is, and isn’t. Although, I think it’s faire to define a few (but still rather fluffy) rules...

They are not financially backed by a publisher.

They are generally promoted by small or start-up companies.

They tend to be produced by individuals or groups, who may form small companies.

They generally rely heavily on on-line ‘digital-distribution’ markets.

They tend to have much less (or no) resources and budget than mainstream games.

They are not limited to an allocated budget or development schedule and time-frame.

Development is not generally steered by any controlling (corporate) interests.

They do not require publisher approval: many self-publish.

They often rely on the artistic ability, creativity, imagination, and experimentation

 of an individual or very small team.