Monday, January 31, 2011

Proto Man 3


I wanted to play as Proto Man in Mega Man 3 but a good romhack didn't exist so I made one myself. Before Proto Man 3, the best Proto MM3 hack was Pixelboy's "Break Man." However, I always though Proto looked funny in that version. More importantly, "Break Man" was FUCKING PINK! Proto Man, obviously, should be red and grey, which is how I rendered him here.

I've been painstakingly meticulous with this romhack, every one of Proto's pixels is in the proper place, a rarity in these things. Usually one or two frames of animation are off, which really makes the entire effort worthless except as a minor curiosity. There are no awkward frames of animation, Proto Man runs, jumps, and shoots like a pro, and I think this version looks good enough to burn on to a real NES cart (if anyone is ever so inclined).

Hacking Mega Man 3 presents many more challenges than either MM1 or MM2. Graphics must be changed in (some cases) 8 separate locations in order to properly display in-game. The palettes, likewise, exist in multiple places. Several utilities were used: Tile Layer Pro (for graphics), MM3TextEdit (very easily allows for editing of the text), MegaManFLE (a MM3-5 editor), and Hexposure (good old fashion HEX editing). This was a lot of fun, and very useful as an exercise, and I'm very pleased with the finished product and hopefully the quality here will show. Enjoy!

Download Proto Man 3 (Mega Man 3 Hack)


New Version of Proto Man 3

Only a few hours and I'm already releasing a new version!

If you downloaded Proto Man 3 before this post you should re-downloaded it now!

This is just a notice because the file name did not change, so you should delete the old version and grab the good one.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Star Quest Promo Art: Graves


A single robot watches over three graves. To understand the context, you have to beat the game. I'll give you a hint, however, this event takes place BEFORE the game even starts.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Star Quest Promo Art: Solar Adventure Princess



Solar Adventure is a legendary arcade machine. It's pretty rare, so you'll have to search around for one. If I were the arcade owner, I'd keep a machine like this in the back room where people couldn't play it...

Original Mega Man Helmetless Hack


I already did Mega Man 2, so why not 1? MM1 is actually slightly harder to hack, but I think the sprite looks even better in this version than in the MM2 hack. I also changed the title screen in this one to reflect the fact that it is the Helmetless version.

Download the Mega Man 1 Helmetless rom.



Mega Man 2 Helmetless Rom


Who needs a goddamn helmet to fuck Wily's shit up? Mega Man's hair is longer than his 9/10 sprites, because I thought it looked cooler. This is a great improvement over the previous version. Certain awkward frames of animation have been corrected, and Mega Man flows very smoothly. I also edited the title screen to say Mega Man II: Helmetless, and the dates to 2010-2011. Download the Mega Man 2 Helmetless Rom. I used Tile Layer Pro, a great utility for NES graphics hacking.

This project started a few year ago when I hacked Mega Man 2 so that I could play as Helmetless Mega Man. I intended to hex edit the rom to make Mega Man take double damage, but decided that was unnecessary. I posted some preliminary videos on youtube, to mixed responses. I'll admit that the sprite looked awkward back then, and was even glitched on one frame of animation, but now this mod works 100% perfectly.

Enjoy! I'll do some more videos of the new version...



Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Star Quest Promo Art: The Scientist


Not much is know about the Scientist. He recently built Skull Castle, destroying the biggest city on the planet in the process. This is the only photo known to exist.

However, the Starship Computer has some interesting information: the red soldiers guarding Skull Castle seem to be drawing power from other sources. Theoretically, it should be possible to enter the Castle.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Mega Man 8-Bit Death Match Secret Skins


Type the following commands into the console to unlock 5 rockin' skins:

skin megaman-hair
skin protoman-break
skin alien (MM2 Final Boss)
skin wilyskullsuit
skin auto

Star Quest Promo Art: Ax Man


The first boss! He has 7 axes that fly around randomly. Hit space to kill him!

Super Meat Boy Wii Not Canceled!



UPDATE: Super Meat Boy for the Wii was totally cancelled.

Super Meat Boy is a great DLC game for the XBOX360 and Steam, and the plan was to release if for the Wii as well. However, recently the game was canceled because of file size requirements on Nintendo's WiiWare Service. Developers must make their games 40 megs or smaller because the Wii has the storage capacity of a 10 year-old digital camera.

But Team Meat (the devteam) recently tweeted this:

"the news we hope to have by GDC effects the wii version and pc version of the game"

http://twitter.com/SuperMeatBoy/status/27997359031984129

This probably means that Super Meat Boy will be available as a disc for the Wii, but will Wii gamers be willing to shell out even $30 for a game that costs $10 via XBOX Live and $3.75, recently as a promotion, over Steam? Not me. $15 would be a nice price-point, as long as the manual is sweet as hell.

Now, check out this rad cutout.

Star Quest Promo Art: The Computer Monster



The Computer Monster used violence and cunning to slaughter the people of Lava Mountain. Although the Computer Monster assumed control of a Castle, rumors persist that Lobtron, a revolutionary freedom fighter, has been imprisoned deep inside the labyrinth.

You'll need to navigate the Mountain Maze and find Lobtron to even have a chance at defeating this boss!

Star Quest Promo Art: The Carpenter Bee



The second (and my favorite) boss. This sly motherfucker managed to steal the King's castle and paint it gold. He commands an army of evil bees, but factions exist in the insect world. You will notice that not all of the bees on the Planet support the Scientist's minions.

Get the entire Carpenter Bee story, and more, by downloading Star Quest now!

I'll post another piece of Star Quest art this afternoon... who should it be? If anyone requests a character I'll post that one, otherwise it'll be random. (It can be any character in the game!)

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch Review and Download Info


Mega Man 8-Bit Death Match Review: best FPS ever. Done.

Experiencing classic Mega Man levels in 3D invokes nostalgia and awe.

Play for free, online against other players, or progress through a single player campaign mode. MM8BDM is the product of Cutmanmike and other dedicated players who clearly love Doom and Mega Man and mashed the best of both together. Cutstuff.net is the main page, but the resources are spread across a few pages. They launched a demo last summer, and the game has multiplied geometrically since then.

MM8BDM has all the potential to maintain a great longterm playerbase. This game does not get old quickly, and simple obliterates any $60 game currently on the market.

First, you need to download the main game (v1c). It's 100% free.

Although the game comes with about 80 skins, you should download a few of the more popular ones off of the wiki. Even if you don't use them, other people do, and if you haven't downloaded their skin, then they appear as Mega Man. Put all your skins into a folder "skins" under the MM8BDM directory.

Most people grab squidgy617's awesome sprite pack, he has a link in this topic to download them all at once!

Next, you probably want the I-Pack, by Ivory. It's the most recent blog post at the time of this article.

Finally, the Roboenza and Halloween expansions should get you everything you could need to play on the good online servers.

MM8BDM uses the Skulltag engine, based on Doom 2, so some of the default control setups are unintuitive. You'll absolutely have to customize your controls to use WASD keys, jump, use items, etc.

And the game is packed with all of the stages, bosses, music and items you could want from the NES Mega Man games. The rumor online is A Mega Man 9 expansion pack is in the works. Expansions and updates are released frequently. I'll post any major updates the as soon as I know about them.

I go by the handle Robot, so shout out in-game! Stop reading, start playing!


INDIE GAME WEEK


The weekend's over and real life again beckons. At least you can play Star Quest at your desk. Also, this week I plan on covering an independent game every day this week as well as some more promotional art for Star Quest.

The 7th month break saw some pretty exciting releases, and it's time to play catch-up on some other masterpieces you cannot not play.

These games are, just to let you know, fucking brutal overall. But what's the point in playing an easy video game?

Thursday, January 20, 2011

STAR QUEST



After two years of development, Star Quest is finally finished! You play an unnamed Spaceman who suffered memory loss during a 5,000,000 space journey to a strange planet. Explore the world, meet unforgettable characters, bask in the 4-Bit, sweet-as-hell graphics, and tap your foot to the rad midi music.

The story so far...

An astronaut travels space for millions of years,
Forgetting the past for the sake of his journey.

The Starship Computer lands on a strange planet,
The Computer says the Star is here,

The Star Quest has begun!

You'll explore dungeons, Castles, and dozens of stunning, original areas. There are over 70 maps to explore and 10 arcade games to master. Once you've beat the game, play through again with all of your unlocked characters and items. You can always start another New Game + at any time after beating the game for the first time!

-Amazing Retro Graphics
-Inspiring philosophical storyline
-New Game + Mode
-10 Original Arcade Machines
-16 Unlockable secret characters
-Tons of hidden areas and secrets
-FREE DOWNLOAD!

Star Quest is like the RPGs you've played before, but in many ways it's unlike most other games.

DOWNLOAD STAR QUEST BETA 1.1

The download includes:

Starquest.exe (The Game)
Starquest.rpg (The Game Data)
ReadMe.txt (More important info)
An Official Star Quest Poster
License and other .dll files needed to run the game.

OLD TRAILER:


CONTROLS:

Arrow Keys - Walk around
Space - Talk/Interact/Attack (you must let go of the arrow keys!)
ESC - In-Game Menu

Check out these screenshots:









Thursday, January 13, 2011

1942 FAQ



I wrote and compiled a small FAQ on the arcade version of 1942 because I love the game and no one had written one. Mainly it consists of tables of charts. Pretty dry reading--- unless you really dig 1942!

I decided the host the 1942 FAQ on GameFAQs, simply because that's where people go for game guides. If you have a suggestion on improving the guide or spot an error, please let me know!

Visit a Cold War Era Soviet Arcade


I read a great story at Anjel Van Slyke and Connal Hughes's blog, A Dangerous Business: The Museum of Soviet Video Games.It details their trip to an underground Russian arcade filled with strange games from the Cold War Era. Obviously, Russia had a hard time importing American arcade machines in the early '80s. You'll see strange arcade machines similar, but oddly different from the rest of the world.

They do commendable job of conveying the excitement and intensity of this opportunity. Slkye and Hughes write:
The air was filled with the sounds of games and it was exactly like walking into any bustling arcade. It made the whole experience even more fun as people weren’t visiting the museum with some sort of ironic detachment or casually looking around – everyone was there playing games and having a blast.

It's a fascinating story, and I recommend you read it at A Dangerous Business. They include over two dozen photos of arcade machines you'll never see in the Western Hemisphere.

Pixel Art: Field



Click it for regular size! I made a wallpaper version below, a play on the endless amounts of field wallpapers packaged with windows. I still prefer the smaller version.

Pixel Art: Final Fantasy 7



Final Fantasy VII on the Atari.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Pixel Art: Invader Zim

Another request!

Pixel Art: Kirby and King Dedede


Pixel Art: Cthulu



Play Ghosts 'N Goblins Online

Testing this out... I found a flash version of the game. It's similar to the arcade game, but different. Might help you get your fix if you're still beat up about the loss of the NES version on the Wii.

You can use Z to Jump, X to Fire, and the Arrows to move around. Enjoy, even though this version feel sloppy compared to the arcade, you neve know when you'll need to play Ghosts 'N Goblins in a web browser.


Thanks to Classic Arcade Games

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Pixel Art: RPG Sprites



I wanted to make all the sprites one would need for an RPG. A Template that could be used in different ways because it had enough RPG variety to get the job done. For example, the top row could be your party members (Fighter, Healer, Elf, Wizard); the second row are the town NPCs (which of course can doubled as an important townsperson with a palette-swap); The third row provides some bad guys; and the forth row can be used for important NPCs (the Green Guy at the bottom I imagine as the "doppelganger" or "rival" to the main fighter sprite), generic soldier-type NPCs.

Or, the shepherd at the bottom could be the party healer and the priest could just be an NPC. Or the priest could be the Final Boss and he uses 2 types of goons (the shady-looking dudes). Alternatively, the Machine-Gun Man could be the Final Boss, and he only has 1 type of goon... the possibilities are endless.

Also, I use an artificial limitation of only 2 colors + transparency. This pushes the limits of the Atari (or similar computer), and I like working in it more 8-Bit (3 colors + transparency). Click 'em for the big version.

Watch Driester Online: 1980s Dutch Arcade Documentary


With English subtitles of course. I'm watching it right now, and the video documents the rising popularity of Video Games (specifically classic arcade games) in the Netherlands. The video runs for just over 30 minutes.

It's fascinating to watch people react to Arcade Games when computers, for most people, existed only in Star Trek. You can feel the excitement in the video because everyone intuitively understands that the world is changing, forever, towards a more futuristic and electronic existence. The neon CRT monitors light up the arcade with every conceivable color and you can feel the electrons in the air. Suddenly, humans can create virtual space, time, and spaceships, and to be honest I don't think we've fully come to terms with the implications of computer software.

Arcades were the first step in integrating people and software on a global scale. Watching the phenomenon happen to another country proves doubly exciting. You can't go back to the '80s, but you can certainly watch a few arcade documentaries.

Click here to check out the documentary, entitled "Driester." Feel free to post your reaction to the film in the comments section!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Ghosts 'n Goblins Arcade and Wii Virtual Console



Ghost 'n Goblins remains one of the true classic early platformers. It exists as an example of what platformers were before Mario: brutal arcade machines with clunky controls demanding intense memorization. Ghost 'n Goblins on the Arcade, Wii, and even NES is no exception. The is now available for download on the Nintendo Wii for 800 points. I highly recommend it, but you should know what you are getting yourself into, so MAME might be a good idea at this point. Alternately, you can grab the arcade port in Capcom Collections Vol. 2 for the Playstation 2.

You play Arthur the Knight, and you were about to make sweet love to Princess Prin-Prin when some demon named Astaroth abducts her. As a video game hero, this is your idiom. You collect different weapons to spam at bad guys, like daggers, shields, and fireballs. Get hit and you'll lose your armor and run around in your boxers. Get hit again and you die. Like Mario, you can collect extra lives, but you do have unlimited continues. And you'll need them.



The game is brutally difficult, but you have unlimited continues in the Arcade. When real money isn't on the line, learning to play the game can be great fun. The levels vary in subject matter; you'll fight through Ghost Towns, Graveyards, Caves, Forests, Ruins, and the Pandemonium Palace of Hell. Between every stage you'll see your progress on the map, a convention later adopted by many arcade and NES games. The design is amazing, the music fits the tone of the game well, and despite the difficulty, the game is quite beatable.

Unfortuneatly, to get the real ending one must play through 2 loops of the game--a rather underhanded tactic. Still, many gamers put the game down after the first loop. I certainly did after beating Satan on the NES (oh yea, the Final Boss is none other than the Dark Lord Satan himself, so good luck). Other gamers, like doctorx0079, can beat both loops without dying. Watching videos can certainly be a useful tool for advanced players, but don't rob yourself of the experience of playing through the game initially!

The VC port offers gamers the ability to customize the settings as per usual arcade emulation. The game always ran in Horizontal Alignment, so you won't have to worry about black bars (unless playing on a widescreen TV). Unfortunately, Capcom had the NES version of Ghosts 'N Goblins pulled from the store, which is a shame. The NES version remains very much a classic, but doesn't offer the visual, auditory, or customizable experience of the arcade port. The move appears to makes sense from a "business-meeting" perspective, but honestly these games are all old news now and Capcom wouldn't hurt anyone by leaving the NES version for sale. They fail to account for hardcore fans of the series, who would purchase BOTH games, and they (presumably) lose all the money they've earned from the NES VC release (all $200!).

Like 1942, Capcom ported the game to many home consoles (especially in the European market) including the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Amiga, Atari ST, IBM PC, Commodore 16, Sharp X68000, Game Boy Color, GBA, NES and Apple's iOS. The game spawned sequels at the arcade and SNES, which was recently remade for the PSP. Gargoyle's Quest, an RPG series, would result in a spin-off series arguably better than its source material (check out the NES Gargoyle's Quest!).

The Virtual Console release, in any case, remains exciting because, as I mentioned in The History of the 194X Games, Capcom will be releasing arcade classics on the Wii. This also establishes a possible price-point for 1942. In addition, the precedent has now been set for the removal of NES games if an updated version is released, so expect the NES 1942 to leave the VC this year.