8-Bit City and Star Quest Update

You might be wondering, "Where the heck are all the updates?" I am sure you were not. I felt like taking a little time off from all the super serious video game criticism and informally address readers and tell a little about everything video game related in my recent life.

I'm now getting a lot of emails asking for me to do graphics for their game, or if they can use my graphics in there game, or if I'd write something for them, or if they can write something for me. Unequivocally I've turned everyone down in the form of not responding.

Nobody acts professionally. Rather, some of these emails borderline unsettling. Keep reading, I'll tell you whats wrong with the messages.

As far as graphics go, anyone is free to use my sprites in their own FREEEEE games. Not sort of free, or any sort of pricing anything. I'm talking down and fucking dirty indie game devs doing it all for free can use anything they want as far as I'm concerned. If you wanna make an iPhone game don't email me with some ambiguous nonsense about a shady "project" or "game." I am not opposed to design or graphics jobs, but have your shit together before emailing.

Second, if you want to write an article for 8-Bit City, just do it and email the article to me. However, I have never published an article by another author on 8-Bit City, but I've also never received one by submission. Of course, I reserve the right to not publish anything you send me. You should also send 3-4 pictures with the article if applicable.

If you are working on/finished an indie game and want me to blog about it, please email me the link! Know about a cool game? Hit me up! These are the kinds of emails I really do enjoy, and you can also post this sort of thing in the comments section of recent posts and I'll read it.

As far as games go, I am in "recharge" mode, playing through Phantasy Star 3, finishing the Phantasy Star 2 article, playing NESTalgia & Final Fantasy 6, and about to Start Dragon Quest VIII... so just remember that one has to play games in order to write about games.

NEStalgia, the 8-Bit MMORPG, is set to receive a new patch which will allow the player to recruit almost any monster (humonoid's included) as a party member with it's own set of skills, promising much expanded gameplay and party options. If you haven't played NEStalgia, now's the perfect time to start!

Finally, I've been thinking of my own development projects, and what I'd like to do next. I realized that Star Quest was still technically in Beta 2.0 and I've considered updating the battle system and gameplay. Generally speaking, I'd like to turn it into a classic console-style RPG. This would mean that I would need to increase the overworld, make some other changes, but overall I don't think that it would be too daunting of a task.

However, there are other options for the future of Star Quest. I've also considered porting the game to Byond using the same graphics, style, and story but adding online multiplayer functionality. I truly feel like this is the best option for Star Quest because the simple graphical style would allow for easy expansions. The OHRRPGCE Beta 2.0 feels like a sketch. I picture player-controlled robots and rogues hanging out in shady arcades and mugging other players for their quarters.

I'm also reworking the way in which the arcade machine's work, but I'm throwing around a lot of options.

It's also possible that I just move on to Star Quest 2 using OHRRPGCE...one never knows.

Play The Great Gastby 8-Bit NES Game Online

Classic literature takes the internet gaming scene by storm!

Witness the tragic tale of the horrors of the American Dream, now in 8-Bit.

Supposedly, some guy found a cart entitled "Doki Doki Toshokan: Gatsby no Monogatari." It appears to be an unrleased prototype, and, thankfully, the guy released it to the internet. However, looking over their site it became perfectly clear that the game was merely created in NES-style. There was no Gatsby Cart, but the game has been released under the GNU General Public Liscene.

Visit http://greatgatsbygame.com/ to play through the adventures of Nick Carroway in 8-Bit glory. They also have some cool manual scans and ads for the game, made to look like NES ads circa 1990.

Everything is presented really well with text, NPCs, and bosses from the novel.

Only 4 levels (and the 4th is a joke) so this shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to demolish. I enjoy it, but would have prefered more of the story to be rendered in full.

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?

8Bit Killer

This weekend I played an FPS that really renewed my faith in the genre. That game? 8Bit Killer. If you haven't already guessed from the screenshots, title, and general nature of the games reviewed here, it's an 8-Bit Game. It plays like Doom or Wolfenstein and is actually a 2-D game. You can't aim up or down, and never need to. It was made by an indie game developer who goes by "Locomalito." My Spanish isn't the best in the world, but I think it translates to something like "Crazy Badass." You can check out his official site (and download 8Bit Killer, along with other games) here. The site has both Spanish and English versions (but is easily navigable).



The game tells a story of a group of marines defending Earth from an alien invasion. You are hopelessly outnumbered. Most of the aliens look like medieval torture specialists. The story is interesting, and extremely appropriate. And... well, I guess I should go ahead and confess: I try to only review games that I've beaten. This doesn't always happen, and I've broken the rule several times already, but at least I'm upfront. I've gotten to (what I suspect) is second to last level, and I loved every minute of it. I had a lot of free time over the weekend and spent a good 4-8 hours (who knows?) getting to the second to last level and successfully dying.

Things start out simple enough. The first level is strictly linear, one room after the other, no sidepaths. The second level is reminiscent of Doom, and is an exploring level where you have to find keycards, secrets, weapons, backtrack, solve puzzles, blow shit up, etc. Third level is a boss fight. When vanquished, you proceed to the next chapter. The first 3 chapters stick to this pattern, but the linear level is replaced by another free-roaming level in the (suspected) final chapter.



The design is fucking great. Brilliant. Even the linear levels are fun because they conjure memories of simpler times, when game design was bare-bones, but well thought out and interesting. You feel like you are playing an FPS incarnation of the original Contra at times. Other times you'll be reminded of Bionic Commando, Doom, Wolfenstein, Quake, but you'll be completely aware that you are playing 8Bit Killer, because the game oozes originality in an interesting way. If the NES had a First Person Shooter, this would be it (though I believe it is too complex for my buddy the NES). None of the concepts are new (except maybe that all enemy bullets can be seen, and dodged!) but the game makes them its own. It is not exploiting other works, but collaborating with them as part of a video game tradition. It converses with other games and carves its own identity, differentiating itself from the pack with its graphics and music.



Graphically, the game uses 32x32 pixel textures, but runs in a much higher resolution (maybe 1024x768?). The texture resolution is lower than even Wolfenstein, I believe. This method forces design creativity, and the color palette brings the game to life. The colors are rich, complementary, perfectly varied, and set the mood for each level wonderfully. The sprites are detailed and display master craftsmanship as far as pixel art goes. 8-Bit aficionados will be drooling, and if you're like me you'll wonder why a game like this wasn't made in the '90s. In fact, 8Bit Killer was released in June 2008, so it's still fairly new. It's proof that the graphics race is coming to a close, or, more appropriately, that gamers are gaining a deeper understand of what is meant by a game's "graphics." For a while, that meant realistic, (and I know I'm not the first to say this) but lately simpler graphics have a very big fan base. Mega Man 9 is proof of that, as well. Hopefully we can shed the term graphics when reviewing games, and use "art direction" as a more descriptive nomenclature.



Finally the music. 8-Bit chiptunes composed and programmed by RushJet1. You can access his website here. It's some of the best I've ever heard. As good as the best of Mega Man 2 or 9's music, maybe better. The game comes with 10 tracks, which is reason enough to download the game, even if you don't want to play it (but why wouldn't you?). The music quotes a few NES games, Bionic Commando, Mega Man, and possibly a few others, but it's never more than quotation. The songs, above all else, are catchy. They have an infectious quality and lodge themselves in your brain. It's unavoidable and completely welcome.

8Bit Killer has a few small problems, if you want to pick it apart (and why not!). One problem I noticed with the game was performance-related. It had a tendency to slow down at times, but the music never changes tempo, so it's not a huge deal. The game is easier to play when it slows down, but less fun, BUT at least it won't cause a cheap death. The second is the lack of options. Any options. It uses standard FPS controls (WASD + Mouse + Alt + Space + Esc) and I think you can opt out of the mouse. Another problem is that hitting ESC quits the game. Instantly... a simple Y/N screen would have been nice. I'm hoping for an updated version in the future that at least adds this small feature.



If you're still reading, you'll love the game. Go download it now, now! This game is so fucking awesome and it's so fucking free that there is no excuse. I hadn't played an FPS in a while before this weekend, and I've always had a bit of trouble navigating game. My usual strategy is just to bumble around killing monsters (or soldiers) until I find the exit. Not the best strategy, but serviceable. The levels can look similar at a first glance, but after a few playthroughs you'll have the layout memorized.



There are plenty of health and ammo powerups, including some that increase your max health and ammo, which is great because you will grow in strength as the game progresses.

You'll kill hordes of monsters, my first kill count was over 600 when I Game Overed. Which happens after 3 deaths. No saving. No continuing after that, it's back to Level 1-1. Brutal, but you (and I) shouldn't be dying anyway.

After all, you're Earth's last chance. Don't fuck it up!