JMT’s Retro Games

Gameplay Style Trends (2D vs. 3D part II)

Posted on December 8th, 2008 by JMT.
Categories: Articles.

I think this debate hits on the definition of a video game. Or more properly, what do you want to get out of a video game? And there has been a large shift in what people want to get out of their video games over the last few decades, though it’s unclear if it’s driven by the gamers or the industry (for example, is top-40 music the top-40 because the majority of people independently chose that music as their favorite out of the full spectrum of available music, or is it the top-40 because that’s the only thing they play on the radio?)

In the 70’s/80’s, people generaly wanted the arcade experience. Gameplay that would be intense or difficult for a short period of time, but was fun or addictive enough to keep bringing you back for more. This was the era of gaming when you could just plug in a game, play it for 5 minutes, and then go do something else, having obtained a complete, fullfilling gaming experience within those 5 minutes. Some of those games were by definition repetitive. Most had only one level that just got more difficult with each wave. But the simple gameplay created the addictive style that makes many of those games still fun today. Sure I’m not going to spend hours playing them. But every once in a while, I still get a craving for 5 minutes of Kaboom, Breakout, Millipede, Jr. Pac-Man, BurgerTime, Moon Patrol, Joust, Dig-Dug, Tetris, etc.

In the 80’s/90’s, people generally wanted levels. They wanted games with a goal, and you had to go through stages to reach the goal. Platformers, RPGs, Shooters, all met this definition. They evolved to have more stages, more types of enemies, more types of spells/attacks, etc.

In the 90’s/00’s, people started wanted a cinema experience. They didn’t want to pop in a game for 5 minutes and have fun. That’s “old-skool” gaming. Modern games are more like interactive movies. Generally a 3rd person view so you can see the whole scene like a movie. Lots of story and cutscenes and orchestral music. Gameplay is more like following a movie script than addictive action.

The funny thing is that this style of gameplay that is popular now is really inherited from early 90’s FMV gaming. Even though most people make fun of the simple gameplay of FMV gaming, where the gameplay was locked on rails. But in reality, most of the new 3rd person games are just as much locked on rails. Left, right, up, down, moves you around the screen. Hit a button at the right time and a pre-scripted action takes place (talk to someone, hijack a car, whatever). Only difference is that instead of FMV, it’s 3D graphics.

Where does that leave platforming? Basically the best platform games of past had steady action balanced with deliberate movements, and were paced by relatively short levels. Now, you either get all action (hack’n’slash style), or all deliberate with long levels (RPG style). They just don’t make games anymore that use the gameplay mechanic of short levels with steady action.

Personally, I’ve never been a fan of any RPGs. I want my video games to be something I can have a fullfilling, fun experience in 5 to 30 minutes. Not something I have to invest 100 hours into, and do tedious tasks like get jobs, talk to people, and kill the same regenerating baddie 500 times to up my experience once level. So you can see why the styles of games that I prefer just aren’t being made anymore.

Also, I think that the best 2D platformers, the ones I consider excellent, weren’t as repetitive. They offered up something different every few levels to keep it interesting. For instance SMB3 had a very good variety of stages. That game is probably the epitome of 2D platforming. Also, EWJ mixed up a lot of weird and different levels, keeping it from getting too reptitive. And some games conjured up bonus levels to mix up the game a bit, like the different bonus levels in Sonic, or the 7-up bottle levels in cool spot. Even contra had the into-the-screen style and the side-scrolling style every other level. But Battletoads probably takes the cake with it’s insane collection of level ideas. It’s hard to even define that in a strict platform sense.

I do agree that some older game styles could be static or repetitive. Alone a beat-em-up can quickly get repetitive. However, I think that the beauty in beat-em-ups is the fun 2-player experience. Which is also something that’s generally lacking. In atari and NES days, nearly every game had 2-player options (and even if it wasn’t simultaneous, since the game lives and levels were short, trading-off was still fun). But even starting in the 16-bit days, I noticed 2-player starting to disappear from games that would have definitely benefited. Especially in shooters, though it’s likely they just couldn’t render 1 more sprite on-screen anymore. The beat-em-ups usually don’t rank as “exellent” on my list above. I only included SOR because the music is legendary, and TMNT2 for the aforementioned kick-ass 2-player experience.

But even with fighters, 3D or 2D, the quest to keep “improving” them is driving them into insanity. I liked the old days when you could memorize a list of 6 special moves and 3 combos and a fatality in an hour and then kick butt with the character. But nowadays between the list of 50 normal moves, counter moves, blocks, reflections, partner attacks, etc just overwhelms. It’s like the new-style shooters that just saturate the screen with stuff and bullets so you can’t tell what’s going on anymore. Sometimes “more” isn’t always “better”.

In response to assumptions that enjoying 2D games is entirely “nostalgia”, I say it’s my view that 2D (platform, shooter, driving, etc) is a completely different gameplay mechanic, and that it can provide a valid gaming experience different from 3D game styles. I enjoy 3D games. I just wish that the 2D styles could continue to live on home consoles, so we don’t have these kids questioning your virility for being able to find enjoyment out of a simpler game of yesterday.

At one point in my life, I even sold all my 2D games and only bought new games that had 3D in them. I was obsessed with 3D, because it was new. The genesis couldn’t do it, but the new systems could. I’d say even now I probably own more 3D games and play more 3D games than 2D games. It’s just that usually, once I finish a 3D game, I’m done with it. The graphics are greata nd the gameplay fun enough to play through. But rarely does it have that addictivity that makes me want to keep picking it up months later to play a little. However, the 2D games I have tend to have more addictive properties and more replayability. That’s why I tend to collect 2D more. They last in my collection longer, even after I complete them. While I enjoy playing though the fancy 3D games on my projector, but keep rotating in the next one once completed.

Of course the majority of the 3D games that I find to be the best are either driving or flying styles. A solid 3D engine can make these games extremely fun.

But even when it comes to driving games, where I prefer a good 3D engine, the fanboys still can’t let me be. If the gameplay is good, the gameplay is good and I still enjoy playing it. That means I still enjoy the first need for speeds on the PS1, and thunderstrike on the sega CD, X-wing and Tie Fighter on the PC, and even virtua racing. But some people will make fun of you for bothering to play yesterdays 3D driving game when the PS3s 3D driving games have such superior graphics and realistic physics. But to me, fun gameplay is fun gameplay, whether the physics are as realistic or the graphics as high-def.

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2D vs. 3D Gameplay Mechanics and Graphics Style

Posted on December 6th, 2008 by JMT.
Categories: Articles.

There’s two key factors at play here.

1. Game mechanics
2. Graphic style

1. Game mechanics.

This is basically whether the gameplay itself is 2D or 3D. For instance, a 1st person shooter is simply only playable in 3D. And there have been some great 3D FPSes. Also, simulation games like flying and driving from a 1st/3rd person perspective have seen much improvement as 3D engines better match the more “realistic” gameplay.

However, just because every game *can* be 3D nowadays doesn’t mean that *should*. What developers don’t understand is that a 2D platform is just as valid of a gameplay mechanic as a 3D platform. But because the consoles can pump a trillion shaded textured polygons a second means we have to use that for every game, which means they only bother to make games based on 3D game mechanics.

There have been good 3D platformers. But there have been many more excellent 2D platformers. Platforming in 2D gameplay mechanic is still a worthwhile concept for a game. Developers just don’t seem to care.

Even though FPSes tend to work better in 3D, it doesn’t mean the 2D FPS (like NES Punisher or Cabal or T2) isn’t also a valid gameplay. And just like 2D platform is an entirely different gameplay mechanic and gameplay experience from 3D platform, so is 2D FPS from 3D FPS. But the developers don’t seem to understand that they are *different* gameplay styles that can coexist. They seem to think that 3D is purely an upgrade from 2D, and 2D is purely a downgrade from 3D, and therefor 3D is the successor and 2D is no longer necessary. But it’s not true, because they are entirely different styles of gameplay, and both have value.

The game engine used in the original 2D (faux 3D) road rash series is a completely different game engine than the full 3D incarnations. And again it is clear that they are simply different, and the 3D is not the successor with no turning back. This is evident in the fact that the fun factor of the gameplay on the original 2D versions is far superior to the game play on the 3D offerings.

And don’t forget that the 2D (spy hunter, micro machines) and ISO (R.C. Pro-Am, Rock’n'Roll Racing) gameplay mechanics for driving games are also completely different gameplay mechanics from the 3D driving games, and like the previously mentioned styles, have been completely abandoned these days. But again, the gameplay mechanic is unique. 3D driving is not an upgrade from 2D driving. It’s a completely different mechanic altogether. The 2D gameplay can still provide unique and fun game experiences.

And like the Playstation’s ignomonious D-Pad and button-layout, some specific gameplay mechanics that simply suck and have done more to destroy gaming than E.T. continue to be reused ad-nauseum. Basically I’m referring to the 3rd person platformer/shooter. After 13 years and thousands of games, nobody has yet managed to design a camera that doesn’t suck a full 34 feet. I’m pretty convinced by now that it’s near impossible. It can only be developers complete ignorance of other options for platformers gameplay mechanics that allows them to continue to churn out every new game to use a 3rd person view.

2. Graphic Style.

Ignoring gameplay for a second, there are basically two ways to make graphics. Sprites and texture mapped shaded polygons. It just so happens that 3D gameplay most easily fits with a polygon graphic engine, and 2D gameplay tends to be associated with sprite-based graphic engines.

Polygon-based graphic engines have several limits. For one, they abide by real-world physics and optical properties. But games aren’t real, and it’s not always necessary for the optical physics of a proper 3D environment to be emulated in a game. They also suffer from morphing. This is where the 2D textures are wrapped around 3D surfaces. Sure there’s a gazillion tricks to make it look more realistic. But there’s still no 3D engine that you can’t look at and instantly tell it’s 3D graphics. They also suffer from zooming. The texture is a fixed size, but since the world is often free-roaming, you can end up zooming in optically to objects beyond the resolution of the textures, resulting in blurry effects or jaggad features.

Sprite based graphics have different limits. These are mainly resolution and color, but also memory which limits how big the on-screen sprites can be. But the artist can draw anything (within the resolution and color limits) and animate it in any way they want. There’s no concession for having to model the shape or motion with polygons and physical models. It’s easier to aminate 3D movements using polygon graphics, but you can simulate any motion with 2D graphics just by creating a series of frames of animation. You can even make sprites photorealistic. And you don’t have to model the physical limits of a sprite with a polygon shape first.

Polygons are limited by the triangle filling power of the processor, which is why early attemps on the 1st gen 3D systems (saturn, 3DO, PS1) were awful to look at. Though I’ve always had a sweet spot for the simple un-textured polygons of the SegaCD/32x era.

Sprites are limited by the color palette of the graphics processor. Sure on the atari and 8-bit systems, we didn’t get much to look at, so gameplay took precedence. And that is why nearly all of the 2D gameplay styles (block-puzzle-clone, breakout-clone, mario-clone, commando-clone, gradius-clone, xevious-clone, contra-clone) were perfected during this era. And almost all of the key franchises that are still being reitereated today originated during that era. But by the time we got 16-bit systems with 100s (wow) of colors., we got some very nice looking sprite-based graphics.

What would 64-color sprites possibly give us that photorealistic lighted textures can’t? Color, and contrast! Low-color sprites tended to use brighter, bolder colors, and also used colors further separated from each other in the color spectrum. It made things moke more interesting and catchy to the eye. It provided more contrast and texture to the pixture, to see the harsher edges between colors and features. Sure 16-million are nice, but if it just means using 1000 shades of brown and grey in your 3D FPS, I don’t call that pretty eye-candy.

Even the SNES sometimes used it’s high color palette to its disadvantage. Take the Super Mario All-Stars for instance. The original block-based sprites of SMB on the NES had bright color and contrast. On the SNES SMB, all the blocks use the larger spectrum of colors to blend the colors on the blocks together. The reduction in texture and contrast makes the game feel more washed out, smooth, and less colorful.

That’s not to say that a high color palette can’t be good for a 2D game. For instance, some of the 2D fighters on the dreamcast used high-color count and still looked great, like Fatal Fury MotW or SFA.

I personally think that much of the ‘prettyness” of 2D sprite graphics peaked on the Saturn. They still used lots of color and contrast in the graphics on that system.

But some of the mid-color games still make exellent eye-candy today, such as the Sonic games on the Genesis, and many of the Genesis shooters, like Eliminate Down, Hellfire, and Musha.

But it doesn’t end there. Remember the graphcs style and gameplay mechanic are independent factors. What happens when you put 3D graphcs on a 2D gameplay? Well, if you like 2D gameplay, you get the gameplay you like. However, you’re stuck with the problems of 3D graphics, which is that you have to form the shape out of polygons first, and then wrap textures around it. It simply never will be as pretty as 2D. For instance, all the recent 3D versions of 2D shooters (raiden, darius, castle shikagami, r-type etc) just don’t have the detailed, colorful look of the old sprite-based versions. Sure you can create a bunch of cool effects with the new graphics engines. Volumetric rendering, transparency, light effects, etc. But all it really tends to do is clutter the screen so you can’t tell what’s smoke or lighting effect, and what’s an enemy bullet coming your way. Sometimes 2D game mechanics are easier and less confusing to play with sparser, simpler sprite-based graphics.

Now some will point out the plethora of really crappy 2D platforming games, and it’s true. After the success of Mario and Sonic, developers went 2D platformer mad and cranked out shitty game after shitty game. But it’s just the sheer quantity of 2D platformers that came out between 86 and 96 that means that there will of course be a large quantity of crap. But some of the most excellent platform games were also created during that time.

SMB, DDP, SMB3, StH1,2,3,K,CD, contra, contra 3, SOR, metal slug, earthworm jim, cool spot, comix zone, aladdin, castlevania, battletoads, TMNT2, ninja gaiden, DKC. There’s a lot of other very good ones, but these ones definitely top the excellent list.

And as you can see, they all are series that they continue to (and fail to) make attempts to create 3D platform games based off of. The 3D contra, EWJ, castlevania, and sonics are pretty universally reproved. Sure some 3D marios and NG games have been successful. But they are completely different gameplay animals from the original. They are similar only in name, and do not in any way provoke the same style of entertainment as the originals (not to say they don’t invoke a new style of entertainment, it’s just an unrelated style).

The 3D platform games we get these days tend to be either:

RPGs masquerading as platform-action games

- These are those platform games that pretend to be action-platform style, but really all the action is scripted by cutscenes. You perform one action like pick up a coin or find a lamp or kill an enemy, and advance through the sripted game engine. The new Wii Mario Galaxy is like this. Sure the gamplay engine is amazing. But the “action” is so scripted and too quest-like, that beneath the surface it still lacks something. Sure it’s good in its own right, but it’s not the same as having to go beginning to end stomping shrooms and dodging hopping turtles. Mindless, but addictive!

Hach’n’slash masquerading as platform-beat’em’up games

- These are the games that are completely mindless. You just mindlessly jam the attack buttons and wiggle the analog stick while you wait for the 3D engine to slowely animate your sword back and forth and fight through endless waves of regenerating baddies. Sure there were hack’n’slashers in the 2D days as well (and games like Super Smash TV were quite fun too). But it seems that the real genra of beat’em’ups which required more deliberate action, evasion, ans special moves (like SOR and final fight) has been completely supplanted by the hach’n’slash genra.

Of course there are more traditional 3D platform games, like SA on dreamcast, rayman 2, klonoa, pandemonium. But 20 years from now, people will still play SMB and StH 2D on their cell phone ocular implants. How many 3D games haven’t been lost in the quest for improved graphics? Seems that once the PS3/XB3/WII are out, the fanboys are ready to forget all the old shitty graphics of the PS2/XB/GC.

It is also true that there were few good 1st person shooter 2D games. Really, the only game that I rate as “excellent” is the NES punisher. Never a game has been made that quite matched the perfect “balance” of that game (kind of like no 3D FPS has recreated the perfect “balance” of the original doom). But T2 is darned fun anyway. And there’s a PAL-only game for Genesis called Bodycount that’s pretty cool, and it supports both the menacer and mega-mouse for 2P fun. But yeah, most of the ‘fun” ones were light-gun based. Like lethal enforcers, that’s quite fun. Oh, there was a PC game for Predator 2 in the 90’s that was 1st 2D shooter, and that was really cool, and used the mouse to point and shoot.

In the end, gameplay is really all that matters. Too often these days, due to the requirement of having cutting-edge graphics - as the fanboys will refuse to pay any attention to something with yesterdays look - gameplay comes in second, or third too often. (and by “fanboys”, I’m just using that to refer to the small selection of people like a couple of posts I saw on blog where they’re like “how can you actually enjoy playing a 2D game when there are 3D games now? You must be a geek who needs to get laid”. I mean those kind of people…).

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DIY 32x-Gen Mixer Cable a Success!

Posted on May 15th, 2008 by JMT.
Categories: Articles.

Since I found another 32x cheap, but it was missing the 32x-gen adapter/mixer/pass-through cable, and it’s cheaper to just buy a complete system than the stand-alone cable (bizzare), I decided to try to make my own.

The do-it-yourself 32x cable:

I started with the genesis 1 to 32x adapter (just for convenience) since it has the same connections as the 32x and genesis 2 for plugging the adapter into.

I placed tape over the connector, and then poked holes with wire. Then I stripped the tips on 8 wires and then plugged in all 8 wires (only 8 of the 9 pins are used) into the holes. This ensures that the wires are at the correct spacing.

Then I took silicon and engulfed the end in about 1 inch of silicon, making sure to get it inbetween all the wires to securely hold them in place. The silicon will then form the mold to hold the pins in place, and by having them plugged in to the right connector, they will have the correct spacing/locations. It’s kind of like molding your own cable.

About 24 hours later, the silicon is dry, and I pull it out and take the tape off. I fiddle with the wires a bit to make sure they’re aligned right, and crimp the ends, etc. I also shaved the silicon so that it fits into the 32x hole (since the plug is recessed).

Then repeat for the other side. The tricky part is making sure you match the correct pins on each side. I just used a voltmeter to measure resistance across the pins to double-check. This one took 2 days to dry for some reason.

Then I plugged ‘er in, and it worked!

Click for full-sized images:

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My Darius Collection

Posted on May 12th, 2008 by JMT.
Categories: Articles.

I thought I’d post my Darius collection. For one, I think it’s kind of cool. And I just got the Taito Legends which has Darius Gaiden and G Darius on it, so I’ll probably end up selling my existing copies, so I wanted to snap this picture while I still could.

There’s just something cool about Darius. It’s not that great of a shooter. I didn’t even have Sagaia on my list, but couldn’t resist picking up a complete in box copy at Halfprice for 5$. There’s just something cool about the giant mechanized fish theme. I like collecting themes. Like all the Sonics, and all the Marios, and all the Cottons, and all the Thunderforces, etc. And Darius is a nice collection.

Well, Darius is a good shooter. The weapons are cool, and the shield is cool. As long as you get the shield and a couple upgrades, it’s pretty fun and intense. The problem is if you don’t have the shield and/or only have basic fire, you tend to be screwed, even on the first level.

If you’re wonder why the Gaiking VHS is in there, I made a post about that a year or so ago. Basically, it’s a Japanese animation that pre-dates the first Darius arcade game, but the enemy is named “Davius” (could be mis-translation), and the enemy has a battlefleet of giant mechanized fish-shaped craft. It’s just too much to be a coincidence in my book.

 
Click to view full size image.

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I Fixed a Broken Atari 2600

Posted on May 11th, 2008 by JMT.
Categories: Articles.

I found an atari 2600 at a flea market. Of course I got the “it worked the last time my kids played with it 300 years ago” response, which means chances of working are about 5%.

The unit would not turn on. So I cracked ‘er open.

The first thing I noticed was that the right-angle power plug was loose. In fact, it was so loose the soldered contacts weren’t connected anymore. The plug pins were kind of floating in the pcb holes. I tried holding it to the side to force contact, and it still wouldn’t turn on. So at first I thought that wasn’t it. I was also able to read +13v all through the unit.

Unable to find anything else to try, I figured I’d give that powerplug a try anyway. So I resoldered the 3 pins on. And lo and behold, now it works!

So if anyone has a non-functional 2600, check that power input connector.

But the story doesn’t end there. The On/off switch was very touchy. The system would reset itself constantly unless the switch was in just the right position. So I sprayed electrical contact cleaner inside the switch and played it back and forth a bunch. And viola, now the On/Off switch is as solid as the day it was born.

So if anyone has twitchy switches no their 2600, try spraying contact cleaner in them.

The contact cleaner also helps twitchy paddle-controllers, but only about 50% of the time.  Also, the paddle controllers tend to need re-cleaning every so often, kind of like 5200 joysticks.

This 2600 I got came with 3 sets of paddle controllers. One was junked, one was twitchy, and the cleaner only fixed the player-2 paddle. However, the 3rd set of paddle controllers  is as smooth as a baby’s bottom. Better than any of the sets I already had.

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I Fixed a Broken 32X

Posted on May 11th, 2008 by JMT.
Categories: Articles.

I got a 32x in a box of junk at the flea market.

The 32x turns on and boots games, but the games didn’t play so well. Sometimes they wouldn’t boot easily, and when they did boot, they would freeze during intro screens.

In Doom, it was actually crash with a Bus parity error printed on the screen during the level select.

So that got me thinking, maybe there was a problem with the data busses.

So I cracked ‘er open, and I took out the two ribbon cables. I cleaned the contacts with an eraser, and then sprayed contact cleaner inside the connectors and plunged them a bit using the ribbon contacts.

Then I put it all back together, and viola, it works! No more crashes.

So, if anyone else has a crashing or non-working 32X, try cleaning the ribbon cable contacts.

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Finding Fun in Maligned Games

Posted on April 6th, 2008 by JMT.
Categories: Articles.

I find I sometimes polarize a bit too far into the “awesomeness” of some games just to offset the more generally negative reviews.

I think it’s a mental state that makes you find the good in a game. I got the 32X when it first came out, and was completely awestruck by the 1st person 3D action of “Doom” (at the time my computer couldn’t play it, and I never owned a Jaguar). FuncoLand had a list a mile long of expected titles already priced on their inventory sheet (even though as it turns out, the titles I was most interested in - Alien Vs Predator and Virtual Hamster - never arrived, and I really started to hate the fact that Funco would list pricess for games that were never released, which kept you thinking that you could somehow find them somewhere, sometime. They even used to have Alien Vs Predator listed as a Genesis port as well).

Luckily I was one of those that noticed I had to make sure (my mom picked up for xmas) the correct version that had the Genesis model 1 cable. However, the 32x only came with an RCA composite mono output, and at the time, most of the TVs were still antenna-only. I had to bring the 32X down from my bedroom to the living room to play 32x games. Kind of an oddity, right off the start.

I got Doom, Star Wars, and Virtua Racing with the system. Doom was amazing, even if the screen was a bit small (it wasn’t until later I discovered they’d cut out some parts of levels, and actually only included 1.5 chapters from the PC version). Star Wars was actually the game I was most interested in, but it struck me as a big disappointment when I first played it. First, it was kind of odd that they didn’t have any music playing during that intro cinema, just 3D graphics. And I thought you would have full 360o freedom of flight in the X-wing, and it turned out you were only limited to a little bit of nose-up and a little bit of nose-down. And then your ship controls like a blimp. It’s impossible to dogfight those tie’s when you turn slower than molasses and they zip around like flies. It also makes it near impossible to navigate through those trenches on the death star levels. The ties can pass right through bulkheads without problems.  But I was really annoyed at first when I’d end up bouncing back and forther against trench walls like a pinball game and die.

But it was Star Wars, and it was my 32X, and I forced myself to have fun. Eventually I figured out that I could plug in player 2 with auto-fire, so I’d have 2 cursors firing on the screen and one extra shield, and eventually managed to beat both original and arcade modes (I later picked up a new copy, and for some reason, the game always freezes on the last level of 32x mode now). And the voice over for admiral ackbar was pathetic! But it grew on your after a while. And I figured out how to beat those deathstar levels. Those towers would kill you, so you have to dive right away into the trenches, and then use that “stop timer” code, and just take your sweet time picking up your 35 ties in the tenches. There are some sections of trench that have no guns to worry about.

Oooh and that super star destroyer level. The fact that your x-wing controls like a blimp makes it sheer impossible to navigate through its belly. BUT I played it endlessly anyway, and now I’m a pro. First, you have to memorize where those proton torpedo launchers are going to be, and then blast them away from a distance before they start launching. And then take it carefully down the belly, but assume you’re going to bounce afew times, which is why you need to save at least 5 shields for that part. Plus it’s impossible to target the guns in the belly, since then you’ll fly into the wall. But I tell you, the first time I made it through i was like the biggest accomplishment of my life.

Ok, so where does this get to Motocross?

Well, some half a year later, and no more video games worth 50$ have come out for the 32X??? But I would not give up! It was my baby. All they came out with was some sports games (I don’t like sports games anyway, not since atari 2600 anyway), and ports of arcade games back from the 8-bit days (afterburner, space harrier), and ports of games already on the genesis (MKII, and the 32x-CD games). Compared to the depth of a game you got with doom, star wars, and virtua racer, I just didn’t want to spend 50$ on simple, narrow-concept games like afterburner, space harrier, motocross, etc.

Luckily, we found this place called Mario’s Video, and they actually rented a full selection of Sega CD and 32X games! Amazing! The only place I’ve ever known to have stocked those systems for rent. So finally, I had a chance to play all these games that I didn’t want to spend 50$ on. They were of course fun, but arcade fun, not expensive long-time fun. Except motocross. That was fun enough that I went to Planet Games and payed 20$ (an exceptable price) for a copy.

I just wanted texture mapping! Doom whet my appetite, but nothing else delivered. But those textured tracks on Motorcross were just what I was looking for.

And then there was Metalhead. It was amazing to get a fully textured 3D environment. Even though the frame rate went down to .5fps when you ran and fired at the same time. Unfortunately, once I’d get to the last level (which didn’t take too long, there were only like 5 or 6), I could never figure out how to win. So I felt I’d done it all. It missed some polish.

Well, Saturn came out, and I was pissed. 32X was supposed to be the 32-bit platform. Why wouldn’t they just start making GOOD games for the 32X-CD platform, instead of throwing out something new. The 32X-CD combo was capable of as much as the Saturn. But the idiots just kept porting bad FMV games to it.

Finally, Virtua Fighter came out and we 32x lovers thought we were saved. Expecially since the 32X version was better than the Saturn version. I thought that meant or sure a longer life.

The last few games trickled out, I got Primal Rage and T-Mek for my birthday (’96?). T-Mek too again was a disappointment. I was expecting texture mapped terrain and polygon hovercraft. Instead. the entire game was sprites. The shooting action wasn’t very intense. Too slow of firing rate. Though again I forced myself to have fun. I played it all the way through to the end a couple times. There were some neat parts. The cave level and the fire level were fun. But the action was very repetative.

And then it died. All 32X systems were being clearanced for 20$. Games were dumped in the clearance bin.

Sega pissed me off. They had the perfect console made, and many of us bought it - the Genesis+CD+32X system. It was perfect because it was backwardds compatible with all prior systems. You never had to give up your old games to get the new power. The Saturn meant giving up your old games. The 32X-CD had so much potential, but they never used it.

While I still clung on to hope that more games would keep being released for my favorite systems (CD and 32X), the few games I had were all I had. I made the most of them. I found the good parts, and learned how to work around the bad parts.

That’s how it used to work. I’d get a game, and I’d try to play the most of it, because I didn’t know any better. I can’t believe how many times I actually tried getting through Empire Strikes Back for the NES. Futile. I actually spent hours playing ST-TNG for Genesis. It was star trek, it had to be fun, right? Not.

Now, I have the entire past library of a dozen systems at my disposal. I can purchase the games for less than 5$, and I can resell them at the MGC for even more. I have hundreds of games in my collection I haven’t even played yet. So now I just play the first level, and if it ain’t turning me on, it goes in the sale bin. No time to waste on mediocre titles, when I’ve got a hundred other games I haven’t even played yet burning a hole in my shelf.

So, that’s the difference in mental state. One state is needing to find fun in a game, or needing to find any fun game from a limited library. The other state is needing to find the most fun games from a large library.

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Forgotten Worlds Controller Bug

Posted on April 6th, 2008 by JMT.
Categories: Articles.

Just an FYI for everyone out there. Forgotten Worlds for the Genesis has a known bug where it just simply won’t work right with certain controllers. I find that as soon as you start a game, right after the intro cinema, it jumps straight to the game over screen, instead of actually entering the game. This is not a 6-button versus 3-button issue (the Mode button doesn’t help any, though I seem to have more luck with 3-button controllers). Rather, it just doens’t work right with some controllers, but works with others. So if it doesn’t work for you, just try a different controller until it does.

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Motocross 32X - don’t trust the bad reviews

Posted on April 6th, 2008 by JMT.
Categories: Articles.

I think it’s sad that Motorcross 32X gets universally poor reviews. I think the problem is that nobody took the time to learn the controls. Because once you have the riding controls down, this game is both easy and incredibly fun.

First, I want to make a correction to many of the reviews. There ARE stunts. You perform the “step off” by tapping A and then holding A while airborne, and this gets you 100$. And you perform the “power salute” by tapping UP and then holding UP while airborne, and this gets you 200$.

So back to gameplay. The driving controls have good depth to them. For the time, this was more than other systems had. By pressing UP, you lean forward, and can go faster. BUT if you lean forward when landing off a jump, you’ll nose dive and crash. By pressing DOWN, you pull up on the handlebars, and it helps you clear jumps. Also, you need to hold DOWN to get through those molehills at a decent speed.

Turning is precise. The only problem is if you take too much air right before a turn and don’t land in time to turn, but that’s part of the challenge. Otherwise, your rider turns very easily, which allows you to keep your speed pretty well through the game. And later levels let you take tons of air, and it’s extremely satisfying to go flying off a big jump and remain airborne for a long time, and try to get a stunt or two in.

In fact, I thought it was the coolest thing when I finally hit a huge jump at top speed and flew high enough to see the edge of the horizen come up. Maybe it was a bug, but seeing it makes me feel like I’ve achieved a huge jump.

Now, back to the beginning. It’s true, the only flaw in the game is at the start, when all the riders collide into a mess. However, this also makes the game very easy to get into the top standing right off the bat. All you have to do is NOT hit the gas at the start. Wait a second for all the other riders to collide, and then hit the gas and zip past them. There will be 4 or 5 top riders who miss the collision, and then these will be the top riders you fight against for 1st place.

It didn’t take me more than a few days of playing and nailing down the solid controls, and I could complete the whole season mode. But even after completing it, it’s still total fun to play. I’ve never played a motocross game before or since that is just so much fun. The feeling of air you get from the jumps is second to none, and the tight controls on turning give it that good “Arcade” feel that lacks from some of the later too-realistic titles.

Also, this game should never be compared to road rash. That’s like trying to compare AH-3 Thunderstrike to Desert Strike. They’re just different games. The punching/kicking is mostly useless in this game. Every once in a while you’ll get a good punch in. But it’s a bit confusing because you have to hold the direction pad in the direction you want to punch. Just forget about the punching, and concentrate on the awesome air.

Also, the animation of the ground (which is texture mapped, BTW, it’s not scan-lined like the road rash games, this couldn’t have been done on the Genesis or the SNES) is perfectly smooth, and enables the high speed flying.

I think it’s sad that this game always gets such bad reviews. It prevents more people from being able to see the fun in this simple arcade motocross game.

And the fact that there’s 12 different tracks (each with more and bigger jumps), and 3 different bikes (faster to catch even more air) means you can never run out of fun with this game.

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Sonic Not Just About Speed

Posted on March 24th, 2008 by JMT.
Categories: Articles.

It seems that all post-generation expansion of the Sonic the Hedgehog enterprise only focus on his speed. But the original sonic wasn’t all about speed. For every part where you’d whip around loops at top speed, there were other areas where you could take time and find some secret areas. The video looks to me like it’s entirely a fast paced on-rails 2.5D platformer. It might still be hella-fun, but I just can’t tell if it has other elements to balance it out yet.

I think it’s important for a platformer to have a good balance between the two. Sonic Adventure kind of accomplished it by splitting the two into different gameplay areas.

Even Mario had the balance. There was good old jumping and fireballing action, plus there were little secrets, like the hidden blocks, subterranean bonus levels, and warp zones.

And even Doom, with it’s good balance of chainsaw massacre and finding secret areas.

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