Final Fantasy VII

Join me on the adventure of a generation, and we will play through one of the greatest games ever made. 

Cloud Strife, a SOLDIER with a troubled past must heal the planet, and his own fractured psyche, in order to achieve victory. 

In 1997, I wanted nothing more than this game. I didn't have a PlayStation, but my family had just purchased a new PC that could actually run the insane 3d. The machine was shared by all four members of my family, so I had to negotiate playtime (also I was 12). Late at night, I would sneak down the dark corridor through the center of the house, and into the computer room. With everyone sleeping, I would mute the speakers in preparation of the Windows 98 start-up chimes. The monitor remained black until everything was ready, and I would play my game for a few extra hours.

www.twitch.tv/Robot2600

Watch live video from Robot2600 on www.twitch.tv

Need 4 Speed World

Need for Speed World Online is a racing MMORPG. Sounds crazy, I know. It's also a Freemium (pay 2 win) game so it has to suck, right? Well I've played a few races and it seems pretty fucking fun to me. Don't worry about the pay 2 win stuff, I'm going into this game with the intention of never ever spending a cent. However, if it's fun I'll look more closely at the Need for Speed games in the future.

I'm gonna stream it for a while on Twitch if you want to check it out, hey maybe you'll even download it.

If this falls through, I'm going to go back to GTA4 tonight; I only have like 4 missions left in the main storyline.

www.twitch.tv/Robot2600

Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stream

Vice City is still the best Grand Theft Auto, 12 years later. Nothing against the other entries, but they bottled lightning by combining the brilliancy of GTA3 with the 1980s, which are just more fun in general.

That's enough bullshit, come push it to the limit in Vice City. www.twitch.tv/Robot2600

Risk of Rain Streaming Tonight!

The old school action continues with another new game: Risk of Rain. It's a sidescrolling action platformer roguelike. If that sounds like a lot to handle, it is. However the game was on sale this weekend for 3.39 USD, and I picked it up along with about a million other gamers. With all these roguelikes in the mainstream, it's hard to believe people used to gape in awe when I talked to them about NetHack. 

Risk of Rain is hard like NetHack, but the UI pains that plague many ASCII games are being washed away in the modern generation of games like TOME, FTL, Binding of Isaac, and Risk of Rain.

The game is awesome. The music kicks ass, the sprites are tiny, and the action is huge. Classes are varied and uniquely fun. You can play as a commando, bandit, engineer, mutant, miner, and 5 other equally cool classes as you battle through hundred of enemies in your quest to survive the horrors of the strange planet. Each class is very different. The bandito relies on trigger-fanning shotgun blasts and nimble dodging while invisble. Acrid the Mutant, however, requires you to get up-close and personal as you stack poison on mobs of mobs.

Want to experience the awesome? Then come check it out tonight on www.twitch.tv/Robot2600 or check out the embedded video at the end of the post.

Risk of Rain is brutally difficult, and the longer your game lasts the more difficult it gets. After 40 minutes of action you reach "HA HA HA HA HA" and "I'm coming for you" difficulties in which all good manners are forgotten. I managed to make it this far last night, and I'm hoping to beat the game tonight. I made it to the last level but couldn't take the heat and died in the kitchen.

On top of all this, you can play with up to 4 people in truly epic co-op. The server-side stuff is a bit complicated (I hosted a game and then my computer decided not to allow a second game despite the fact that I changed no settings in the interim). If you want to play come drop by the twitch channel or post a message here. You could be on (twitch) TV! Wow! You'd be totally famous and popular.

Anyway I'm off to a place where there is a risk of rain in space. For great justice and adventure!

Watch live video from Robot2600 on www.twitch.tv

Ultima III: Exodus World Map

Ultima III: Exodus might look like it has a small map, and it some ways it is, but the developers really squeezed everything they could out of this relatively small space. Because of the line-of-sight feature, you can't always see everything that's on the screen. This makes exploring more exciting because you actually have to walk around the mountains rather than just looking at the edge of the screen. The world loops around the edges, but unlike Final Fantasy 2, you can't just walk around forever.

Towns and dungeons can go unnoticed by players for YEARS, without the help of a guide. The same thing happens inside cities, where the line of site blackout can hide gigantic buildings through clever placement of walls and doors. The towns are almost as big as the world map itself, and overall Exodus is a monster of a quest. 

Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest certainly have bigger maps, but they've streamlined the RPG to the point where those world maps get eaten up quickly by new players.

Also, FF and DQ are rarely non-linear experiences (although they have their moments). Ultima is basically an RPG sandbox, allowing you to go anywhere, visit towns in any order, shuffle your party around, kill townspeople, steal, and generally have a romping good RPG time.

It's also worth nothing that Exodus was released 3 years before Dragon Warrior and 4 years before Final Fantasy. In those years, it's sad to say, Squaresoft and Enix made the world maps bigger, but the gameplay was undeniably dumbed down and the player was forced on a "quest" that was more like a "hallway with occasional doors." Ultima IV, released only 2 years after Exodus (and still before 1 year before Dragon Warrior and 2 years before Final Fantasy) upped the world map to an insane level, easily topping DQ and FF in terms of realism, complexity, and number of locations. Ultima IV also had a text parsing system which allowed the player to talk to NPCs and get clues on solving the quests. So why didn't other games follow suit with legitimate gameplay advances? Why do no games today use text parsers?

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny Tileset

The tileset posting continues! Ultima 5 boasts 512 tiles (compared to the 256 of Ultima 4), and one can easily tell the difference when playing both games. Overall, however, there is a lot of wasted nonsense like the pink "Shadow Realm" tiles, "sitting down" tiles, and the four-frames of animation for everything.

The class sprites are greatly reduced, no more Tinkers, Druids, Paladins, Wizards, Rangers, Fighters, Shepherds, or Bards... instead characters use either the "Rogue," "Knight," or "Wizard" sprite. Yet, with the lack of diversity, the artist uses space within the tiles more more effectively by filling in more space (so there is less black) and making everything look realistic through shading and eliminating the representation of unimportant/awkward sprite features such as necks.

As far as gameplay is concerned, I'm making good progress in Ultima 5, although some of the new mechanics are annoying at best. Picking up loot has become a veritable chore, and the DAY/NIGHT system is poorly implemented as far as I can tell. Basically there is nothing new to explore at night, and the towns and shops close down in the dark.

On the positive side, the player is no longer burdened with protecting his or her Avatarhood, and can lie, cheat, steal, run away from fights, and murder like the good old days of Ultima 1-3.

Epic Death

This is what happens when you die with max stats in Realm of the Mad God. RIP Vulpix.

Frog Bog Intellivision

Frog Bog was one of several games featured in the recent cult classic film Grandma's Boy. It's easy to see why: the movie definitely has a retro penchant, and an Intellivision game is perfect for the movie's comedic vibe.

Supposedly this game is a remake of Frogs and Flies for the Atari 2600, but for some reason I just like Frog Bog better. The graphics are definitely improved, but I enjoy the controls on the Intellivision, oddly enough, better than on the Atari.

In the movie, a younger gamer challenges pro-taganist Alex to a game of Frog Bog, and its the perfect choice for multiplayer action. The game test reflexes, timing, and prediction of parabolas (mental calculus) to the extreme. Your competition is the only real difficulty setting, because the computer is laughably easy. Both players jump around catching flies for three minutes, flies are worth different amounts of points, and the player with the most points after three minutes wins the game.

There are several different control options. A fixed arc across the lilypads serves as the easy setting. I prefer medium, in which you have to plan your jumps more carefully by holding down the button to determine velocity; this setting also allows you to choose between low hops and high hops. This also allows the players to fall off the lilypads, and this is great because it only penalizes you by taking a little time to swim back up to the lilypad. Its both realistic (i.e. frogs shouldn't die when they touch the deadly water) and fair. Players won't be discouraged from taking risks, and an agressive strategy is the only way to victory.

As you play, the pond shifts slowly into nighttime--a nice graphical touch, and one that provides the game with some extra charm. The game was included in the PC, PS2, and DS versions of Intellivision Lives! On the DS you can play single-cart multiplayer with a friend of stranger. It's a game you can challenge anyone to, anytime-- to the death or for money.

Intellivision Lives! DS Review

Most Intellivision games are terrible. However, there are enough exceptions to make this collection worthwhile for any retro gamer.

The stars of this collection are undoubtedly the AD&D games, relabeled as generic fantasy adventures, but with all the original art and gameplay.

Crown of Kings was the first. It's something in-between Adventure for the 2600 and The Legend of Zelda. It randomly-generates caves and the map to offer endless potential and replayability.



Tower of Doom is my other personal favorite, offering a selection of dungeons, many randomly-generated, and is quite simply an awesome dungeon crawler.

Frog Bog is a nice addition as well, and I've always thought it was better than Frogs & Flies for the Atari.

Other Intellivision classics like Astromash appear, but I'm sure they left a few of the favorites out. They certainly left out the extras--such as documentaries present in the PS2 version--out of this release. Every game, however, has an in-game instruction manual, and I've found the interface intuitive and easy-to-navigate.

It's definitely the collection to own, and although it'ss getting hard to find these days, scoring a copy is not impossible. I'd recommend getting this collection while you can, and maybe even supplimenting it with the Intellivision Lives! disc for the PS2 or PC. I picked the PS2 version up for $1.59 at gamestop this week, and that's a hell of a deal. The DS version is a little more expensive, but it's got the better game selection and the the touchpad function nicely with the overly-complex Intellivision controls.

Get both--Intellivision might not be the best, but it's good enough. The AD&D games are truly epic, and legitimize the purchase, everything else is just gravy.

Many of the games are sports titles, a few are basically unplayably slow by today's standards. Others are just a little dull. However, it does have over 60 games, and single-cart multiplayer modes on tons of titles. Outside the Dungeons and Dragons games, many simply lack the spark of classic Atari adventures like River Raid, Adventure, Pitfall, Super Breakout, Missile Command, Centipede, Pac-Man, Circus Atari, and Berzerk.

Still, every now and then you'll find a great gem like Space Spartans, Frog Bog, Tower of Doom, Crown of Kings, or Treasure of Tarmin. What's the harm in having some crappy titles rounding out the collection? The variety ensures that this will last you at least a year if you're just now getting into the Intellivision. I've only been playing the games a few years myself ever since I bought an Intellivision Plug-N-Play a few years ago. It required 4 AA batteries, and I promptly returned it, but not before playing Crown of Kings and getting hooked. However the game is unfortunately missing from the PS2 and PC collections, which makes getting both versions a must for everyone. The $1.49 price tag is worth it for the cool virtual arcade menu, documentary, programmer interviews, and ability to play on a large monitor.

I like to think of it as an expansion pack for the DS version, and a necessary one at that.

Play Kaboom Online and Kaboom Atari 2600 Box Scans

I found this really good port of Kaboom! today and I've been playing for the last 30 minutes :D

The Atari 2600 has some awesome paddle games, and Kaboom is one of the best. The concept is so simple, catch the bombs before the hit the ground and explode, but the challenge and fun are top-notch.

This was another masterpiece by Activision, and it would spawn countless other Arcade and TI-83 clones.

Freewebarcade has a really nice Kaboom flash game, and this makes me want to search for an Atari 2600 Web-based emulator. In any event, you can bide the time until then saving the city from the crazy person in Kaboom!

It might seem primitive, but anything that was actually fun to play in 1981 was a great game. Kaboom! truly stands the test of time, like dozens of other Atari 2600 masterpieces.

This port is flawless and uses the mouse very well. Check out the box scans on 8-Bit City before you get a high score! The servers are down (this game was ported in 2002), but I just scored a 775. The challenge increases quickly to truly test your reflexes and skill.

Hazmat An 8-Bit Web Plaformer

Hazmat is a cool 8-Bit platform with simple mechanics, nice smooth controls, helpful signs, and a fun, addicting character.

The music gets grating, but you can easily mute with M. The signs in the game really explain everything, so these screenshots should give you an idea of what the game is about.

You can play Hazmat online at Free Web Arcade.

It's like Super Meat Boy! A great formula for a video game. Hazmat might not be original, but it's free and it's fun! The toxic waste theme isn't bad either, and actually goes along well with the jumping-based platformer.

Play Missile Command Online!

Missile Command is my favorite arcade game. It's challenging, the graphics are awesome, it flashes a lot, and you don't kill on the offensive. Your role is purely defensive, and I like that.

The game has a really fascinating history, the developer even had nightmares about nuclear war during creation.

Originally, the game was going to be a huge cabinet with external LED boards like a pinball machine, but the design was scrapped in favor of the materialistic approach that the world would spend thousands of quarters attempting to beat.

The Atari 2600 version isn't bad, but why not head over to Missilecommand.com, the official site and play their web-based version? The controls are great; you can fire from any turret like in the arcade, or let the game choose the closest turret. I nice option addition for this web-release!

New Duke Nukem Forever Screenshots and Release Date

Supposedly the game is finished and launching in the USA on May 3rd for PS3, XBOX, and PC. This is great news for DOS gamers and FPS fans; the Duke Nukem series was known for possessing edgy action humor and (in the case of Duke Nukem 3D) an in-game strip club. Sales were exceptional.

The DOS platformers are fun and clunky, but Duke Nukem 3D is a masterpiece. This is really the game that popularized Duke and brought him out of the drugstore shareware bin and onto home consoles into gaming magazines.

No surprise then that 3D Realms decided to make another game, to follow up on the success of Duke Nukem 3D. Well they did, 14 years, except it's been in development ever since. Long ago, everyone abandonned any hope of playing this game. Duke Nukem would go the way of Commander Keen and Hugo. Sad, but typical. However, deep within the 3D-Realms office block, underpaid grad students continued to tinker with Duke Nukem 3D and kept slowly working on the game, until now.

One day, they say, "Z.O.M.G. We finished this shit!"

Executives response, "Whoa wtf! No way!"

It now uses a modded Unreal 2.5 engine, which is great because it should be fast-paced, smooth, and lend itself to online play and further modding (but who knows?).

These are the interesting, new screenshots, which don't show too much to be honest. Story screenshots? Sigh.

In any case, it's almost time to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I'm all out of gum.

OFFICIAL DUKE NUKEM FOREVER LINK

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!