Someone on my Twitter feed pointed out to me that they had no idea HG101 did book reviews. Well, we do. Or rather, we have, since last October. Introduced by International Man of History Derboo, it's a good way of getting a quick introduction to the growing number of video game books out there. Since the section maybe gets overlooked when mentioned in the updates I thought I'd post on the blog - especially since this write of Video Kids will likely need to be edited before inclusion in the book section.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Book Review - Video Kids: Making Sense of Nintendo
Someone on my Twitter feed pointed out to me that they had no idea HG101 did book reviews. Well, we do. Or rather, we have, since last October. Introduced by International Man of History Derboo, it's a good way of getting a quick introduction to the growing number of video game books out there. Since the section maybe gets overlooked when mentioned in the updates I thought I'd post on the blog - especially since this write of Video Kids will likely need to be edited before inclusion in the book section.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Post Apocalyptic videogames – and a book
In this entry we skim through a dizzying array of post-apocalyptic videogames, skip several entries entirely, and talk about my post-apocalyptic novel: Beyond Aukfontein. It’s now on Amazon! Which has nothing to do with games, but it’s pretty good anyway according to reviews. There’s a LONG cascading list of games before though, so skip to the bottom if you’re curious.
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I love the post-apocalyptic / dystopian genre, whether it’s in books, films, games, theatre or some form of interpretive dance. In fact I’m probably slightly obsessed by it. As a result I’ve enjoyed a lot of examples of PA fiction over the years, and when writing my first fiction novel I chose a PA setting. But why does it appeal?
If we’re being honest, the world is and has for a long time been a fairly awful place, for reasons too numerous/complex to debate here. Basically we’re just a really mean species, to everything, including ourselves. So the idea of human civilisation being wiped out, or wiping itself out, and starting again has a certain bent appeal. What if the result is better? What if it’s worse? It’s like re-rolling your character in an RPG, and all it takes is destruction of billions of lives. Easy. What makes examples of the genre particularly exciting is that you can end up with scenarios which mix elements of archaic history with futuristic sci-fi. Are armies fighting with spears or lasers or both?
Obviously you’ll end up with a certain amount of repetition, as well-worn tropes and ideas are recycled, but sometimes, especially with games, you’ll get something really immersive and genuinely unique.
The problem with compiling a list of PA games is that the genre is purely thematic; contrast this against the horror genre in games which can be both thematic and mechanical, and platformers, which is strictly a mechanical classification. A purely thematic classification encompasses absolutely everything, ever. There’s also a tremendous amount of cross-over with other genres, such as Steampunk and Cyberpunk, depending on how ruined the world is. You can see the problem – for a start the above two sub-genres are polar opposites, and also there’s a daunting quantity out there. So do we put the Akira and R-Type games alongside Rage? And do we count Bioshock, since its world is one that’s fallen into collapse? This list is in a semi-random order and merely what I’m aware of/have played extensively, so I don’t even touch games like Resistance or Gears of War, since I’ve not invested any serious time. Or Trojan, or Beneath a Steel Sky for that matter! Crikey, there’s probably hundreds of games out there, proving how well-loved PA genre tropes are.So by all means join the discussion on what’s missing and recommend your own favourites.
Images nabbed either from Mobygames, or HG101’s back catalogue of articles.
THE LIST
WastelandThe granddaddy of PA games and a revolutionary RPG as well. I put a lot of time into this a while ago via DOSbox, getting about a quarter the way through. It features a rich and complex gameplay setting, unfortunately let down by confusing controls and fiddly menu system. Everyone has a variety of skills chosen from a massive pool which can be levelled up (eg skill with handguns, rifles, lockpicking, swimming, etc), plus used at any time, and there are numerous items (several of which are useless duds) that can also be found. The problem though is when and where to use them. An early example is a rope by a mountain side, where it’s implied you need to use someone with a high perception skill to enter a cave. Problem is, when using a skill you need to select the block is starts on and the direction it goes in, and choosing the block with the rope and a neutral direction doesn’t work, you need to select the adjacent block and face west. It sounds trivial when describing it, but as the game progresses you’ll find yourself using every skill and every item on every block while facing every direction, just in case, because it’s never obvious how and where anything is needed. Which is tiresome. A slick remake which streamlines this, but without dumbing it down, would be excellent. Followed by sequel Fountain of Dreams, while Fallout is regarded as its spiritual successor.
Irem’s arcade gamesThere are so many Irem arcade games with a post-apocalyptic setting that Hardcore Gaming 101 has an entire feature dedicated to them. Awesome.
Fist of the North Star seriesBased on the manga and/or anime. I’ve played several FOTNS games and I don’t like any of them, not even the PS3 update. They’re all too repetitive, and some of the early ones are pure kusoge. There was also a PS1 release, regarded as excellent by many.
Metal Max seriesA series of RPGs, some fan-translated, others officially localised, a couple only in Japan. Never tried them, but always wanted to. The Famicom original sounds great, since a Japanese review describes the game as totally free-form. You could spend time doing missions, or you could just tweak your tank, or if you preferred you could ignore all of that and get drunk in a bar. I also once read a fascinating anecdote on a forum regarding Metal Saga on the DS, and the way one mission dealt with delivery of a Bible (books being rare after the apocalypse), and subsequent debate over religion and its use as a tool to give people hope in blighted times. One of the enjoyable things with PA fiction is considering how people would interpret/react to things which to you are commonplace (in this example an everyday Bible).
Mad Max (NES)Drive around to find hideouts with fuel, food and water so you can later buy entry into the car arena. Repetitive indistinct graphics, confusing layout, extreme difficulty and sloppy controls didn’t prevent me from putting several hours into it.
CrystalisSeemingly inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä, this is a pretty good RPG from SNK. In fact it’s one of only two RPGs I can think of from SNK. Set centuries after a great cataclysm, magic has returned to the world as civilisation has rebuilt itself. It’s basically a Zelda clone with some clever ideas – oh, and you need to kill God apparently. Unfortunately it gets very repetitive later on, with a lot of palette swaps for the dungeons, which also makes them confusing. Covered in detail on HG101.
OutlanderThere are rumours that this was originally going to be an official Mad Max game until the license fell through. I played through this back in the day on SNES (such was my love of the Mad Max films), though it didn’t quite warrant it. You drive along a Mode-7 style road shooting bikers and choppers (and jeeps in the Mega Drive version), stopping at towns. Then you switch to a 2D side-scroller to kill enemies and collect fuel for your car.
You can punch, or shoot with a sawn-off shotgun. It’s almost awesome. The problem is lack of balance. Enemies require two shots with the gun or two punches to the stomach to kill, negating the usefulness of the former. Towns are also nauseatingly repetitive, as is the driving. 15 minutes and you’ve seen everything. And yet... And yet it was somehow compelling. The single looped audio track is cool, and blowing bikers away with the L and R buttons on a SNES pad is awesome. Another month in development and this could have been great. Failing that, a romhack which redresses the balance would also go down well.
Contra gamesSeveral Contra games have featured Earth in a post-apocalyptic state after aliens invade. Most people prefer Contra III on the SNES, but my favourite is Contra: Hard Corpse on the Mega Drive, which now has a patch to bring back the Japanese health bar, so you can play it as the developers intended, albeit in English. Check out HG101’s affiliated Contra site.
Terranigma I’ve never seen this mentioned in lists of PA games, which is a shame since it’s a rather nifty Japan/Euro exclusive action-RPG, where you need to rediscover various things from Earth’s history. Big feature here.
Panzer Dragon I+IIA majestic pair of on-rails shooters for the Saturn (the original was also ported to Windows, PS2 and the original Xbox). These first two games set-up and create a beautiful ruined world later explored in depth with the 3rd game in the series. Has some great set-pieces, such as the flooded town in the first game, and the forest and underground caverns in the second. Not many people know this, but the PD games seem influenced by the Spartakus’ and the Sun Beneath Sea series of French cartoons. Article on the whole series is here.
Panzer Dragoon SagaIf I was asked for my favourite post-apocalyptic game, favourite Saturn game, or favourite JRPG, Panzer Dragoon Saga would be it. Undoubtedly it’s also in my top 10 all-time favourite games ever list. It should change your perception of videogames. This is also how you create a decent apocalyptic world; a soaring and beautiful world rich with visual diversity, with interesting, likeable and believable characters. It has a legitimately good story which although starting as a simple revenge quest evolves into something much greater – to the point where there is no obviously good or bad, just groups who oppose each other’s ideals, and with you caught in the middle. As for the ending, it makes Kojima’s Metal Gear storylines seem like children’s picture books. The Panzer Dragoon series, but especially Saga, manages to create its own unique visual style. It may borrow some elements from Frank Herbert’s Dune, Naussicaa, and Mad Max, but it manages to wrap everything together in a way that it all feels new. The best thing about Saga though, is that it features its own fictional language, apparently a mix of Latin, Greek and German. PD director Yukio Futatsugi was a fan of languages, and so created his own for PDS. This is what makes PA fiction so cool, the fact that cultures and language would be remixed, rebooted, fundamentally changed into something unpredictable. Although it commands high prices, it’s worth acquiring in English, via any means possible, and played through at least once.
Panzer Dragoon OrtaIf you liked the first two PD games, this should appeal, as it’s an on-rails shooter with some of the most impressive graphics for the original Xbox. Mechanically and thematically it’s excellent, and even features some cool side-missions involving a boy from the Empire, plus a detailed Encyclopaedia of the game-world’s lore. Almost perfect. Except for my tastes the super shiny graphics detract slightly. The crude polygons and grainy textures of the first three titles enhanced the post-apocalyptic atmosphere; they enhanced the feeling that vehicles and structures were ruined and half broken, as if it were a miracle those airships could fly. This definitely looks gorgeous, but is maybe a little too clean and shiny...
Half-Life 2Mix of dystopian and post-apocalypse. Annoyingly it has less weapons than the original Half-Life, but the first-person driving sections are pretty good and convey a strong Mad Max atmosphere. It would have been even better if you had to sporadically stop at the towns to collect fuel. As it stands it’s a bit shallow. And there’s a painful lack of weapons compared to the first. That silly gravity gun isn’t compensation for less...
Disaster Report seriesThere’s an HG101 article for this series in the works, honest. This is more disaster survival, but the destroyed cityscapes, which you need to navigate, are quite compelling. Great survival mechanics too, requiring regular water consumption/body heat maintaining, plus co-operation with NPCs.
PathologicIs this post-apocalyptic? More like historically apocalyptic, as you deal with a quarantined town ravaged by plague in the early 1900s. There’s marauders, martial law, and a black-market trade system to negotiate. It warrants the PA classification more than most, because while other games are all about shooting, there are times in Pathologic where you will trade in your gun just so you don’t starve to death. In a real apocalypse, food will be the number one currency. Lengthy write up here.
Fallout 1+2Never played these, for whatever reason, and regret not doing so. But I’ve heard enough praise for both Fallouts, from people whose opinions I respect and can trust, to not question it. One day, one day...
Fallout 3I didn’t like this. It was incredible for the first few hours, until I realised every NPC sounded the same, every environment looked the same, and everything played the same. All the time. The pseudo-1950s vibe also didn’t appeal that much. Plus it was too easy. Was followed by Fallout: New Vegas. I was tempted by this because of the hardcore mode it featured, where you had to eat food otherwise you’d die and limb damage had serious consequences. But why was it an optional extra? It should have been the default mode – “man up” is all I have to say to anyone frightened by the idea. A nuclear holocaust isn’t a picnic, son.
Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruin of the MoonOne of the most visually beautiful games on the Wii, dealing with concepts of loneliness, friendship and loss in a world seemingly without people. Has lots of cool ideas, like finding diary entries from people long since dead – the one from the gamer who named his JRPG character AAAA is brilliant, since he laments that the cartridge you find is the last legacy he’s left on Earth and he didn’t even bother naming the character. I was going to post a lengthy write up on this back in the day, but ultimately didn’t. A lot of people criticise it for its rubbish combat and obtuse backpack/suitcase carrying mechanics, but this isn’t a game about slick playability. It IS clunky and awkward. It’s what the Japanese call a “funiki game”, a game all about the atmosphere. Which I guess puts it alongside Silent Hill 2 in that regard. It’s certainly thematically strong, and you’ll come across several “whoa!” moments.
Sin & Punishment Sin & Punishment 2Fantastic pair of on-rails shooters from the action masters Treasure. Beautiful to play, too insane to understand. Lengthy feature here.
STALKER: Shadow of ChernobylSet in the ruined wasteland around Chernobyl, this takes inspiration from the Russian novel Roadside Picnic. Along with destroyed ruins you also need to deal with strange anomalies which defy the laws of physics, mutant creatures and animals, rival factions, bandits, the military, plus the need to eat and avoid radiation. Lots of areas are heavily radiated, and there’s some cool survival mechanics with the anomalies (there’s an electrified tunnel which you need to carefully navigate, for example). There’s also a trade economy with fellow STALKERs, where you can barter weapons and ammo for medkits and other stuff. Oh, and you can hunt mutated animals for their organs (a pig’s eyeball, a dog’s tail etc), which can sold on the black market or used to complete missions – this was AWESOME, since it meant you could loot both the bodies of animals and NPCs. Probably my favourite PC and FPS game of all time. A lot of people will say it’s only any good once modded – but this isn’t true. The basic vanilla version, once patched to functionality, is a fantastic ride and definitely worth playing once. It is the mods though which give it infinite replayability, enhancing it to the point where it’s like an all-new game with vehicles, new mutants, new missions, entirely different weapons and so on. It’s also a buggy game, but this isn’t as problematic as you may think, especially since as far as I can tell nothing is game breaking. The idea behind The Zone is that weird stuff happens, so when characters disappear, or something peculiar goes down, it all adds to the atmosphere. Besides, mods can correct or alter nearly any parameter.
STALKER: Clear SkySkipped this to move straight on to Call of Pripyat. According to online reviews, you won’t miss much doing this.
STALKER: Call of PripyatContaining the best elements from the previous two games, minus the faction wars of the original. Pripyat is the most stable STALKER release, with an overhauled mission system, and while it’s a legitimately good game, it’s nowhere near as good as the original. The overall story is dull and the missions, while more complex, tend to drag on for too long and reward you with garbage. There’s also less irradiated areas, a less diverse array of mutants, no World Encyclopaedia (which was one of the BEST things about Chernobyl), and it’s also a much more horizontal game. There’s a few vertical areas (like the one pictured), but the environments feel more funnelled. In Chernobyl there was a ruined city where you could climb a telegraph pole to snipe at mutants below, and then navigate via rooftop if you preferred, dropping into a freaky house along the way. In Pripyat you spend most of your time running from one area to another completing really convoluted missions. By far the worst thing though is the total removal of animal hunting. You can still kill animals, but you can’t loot their bodies. It’s still a good game, but it feels dumbed down for the sake of stability.
Metro 2033Based on the Russian best-seller by Dmitry Glukhovsky. I’m actually jealous of Dmitry, since he seemed to find massive success very easily with his novel, which he started off serialising online. The game is actually quite good, if a little too restrained. It features a lot of fantastic ideas, like an economy based on trading bullets and the need for gasmasks outside, but it never really does anything interesting with it. It’s just kind of there, like they started implementing it but then got scared that such things would scare off console players. It’s also quite linear, but this makes sense in the context of the story. A very cool feature is its manufactured weapons, some of which have unique loading systems – there’s a revolver shotgun which due to the nature of its barrel you can normally only load 5 shells, though firing one then allows you to load an extra 2 shells for a maximum of 6. It’s a complex mechanical concept to convey in text, but it’s very realistic. Sadly, and much to my horror, most people on forums like GameFAQs were confused why it was happening and were complaining it was a bug. It’s not a bug – it’s awesome!
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Ruined world controlled by AI and robots. The demo was fun but I utterly despise Andy Sirkus’ voice so didn’t buy it. Furthermore the whole collared thing seemed contrived. I dunno about you, but I’d have grabbed that harlot and plunged both of us off the side of a bridge the minute she started sassing me.
Ryu ga Gotoku: Of the End
Also known as Yakuza with zombies! There was a free demo up at one point, now released in Japan, with a western release confirmed. Demo was good, basically traditional Yakuza albeit with guns in a ruined cityscape.
BorderlandsAnother one I haven’t played, mainly because everyone kept saying how the multiplayer was the only reason for it. Not on my sub-ADSL speeds it isn’t! Also, several said the story was lacklustre. Is this true? Videos make it look awesome (the cel shading is great), and the idea of procedurally generated guns sounds like the best thing ever – but is it basically a mindless online FPS? Or is there a strong sense of place and story to it?
RageIt looks pretty but first-play reports on NTSC-uk, where people talk of how there’s no interactivity with the environment, have put me right off this. Apparently you can shoot a chair and nothing happens – no little bits flying off or anything. It’s basically like playing in a pre-rendered plastic environment where your actions have no bearing on anything. Which sounds like an FMV-based lightgun game to me. If I wanted to see non-interactive environments on my PS3 then I could just buy Mad Max 3 on BlueRay. Remember when you could interact with games? I need to be able to shoot something and knock it over or break it.
Metro: Last Light
On PSN there’s a 12 minute E3 video for this, plus other trailers. Check them out right now. This looks incredible, plus it has destructible environments, unlike Rage. Everyone is praising Rage, and it’s getting good reviews and lots of publicity, and the developers are sounding smug in interviews about all they’ve created, and yet in my view Rage is totally trumped by a mere video of Metro Last Light. Notice how you can shoot concrete barriers and destroy them to get at enemies behind? Or shoot cooking pots to spill the contents? Or break boxes and wood and set fire to them? The new Metro appears to offer all the environmental interaction that Rage should have offered. Screw clever texture mapping – I want interactivity! Can’t wait.
STALKER 2
Little was known about this sequel other than what’s on THIS PAGE. There were concerns its cross-platform development would result in it being dumbed down – sadly recent news shows it’s even worse than that: it will require constant internet connection as part of DRM. No one should accept constantly online DRM, no matter what game it is.
Beyond Aukfontein – THE BOOKThis isn’t a game, but it is my first fiction novel. All ~95’000 words of it, across 12 chapters. Written over two years, with a further two spent doing rewrites and editing it. It’s nothing to do with games, but maybe readers will be interested. The only slight connection is that I was influenced by Panzer Dragoon Saga’s love of language, and thoughts of how language would evolve over time were on my mind. As a small example I use the word rifleductor, for train conductors who carry rifles. I suppose in this regard some influence was also taken from Terry Pratchett, who has a creative flair for inventive new words.
A detailed blurb is available on Amazon, along with a free preview of the first two chapters. Reviews for Amazon.COM and Amazon UK are separate, but there’s a review on each, by different people. Both are positive and make some excellent points, I’m happy to say. For the moment it's only available for Kindle and other Kindle compatible readers.
While there was obviously inspiration from hundreds of books that I’ve read over my life, at the same time I think Beyond Aukfontein also manages to be genuinely unique in its scenarios and ideas. There’s a lot of subtext to situations, perhaps too subtle in places, and every character has a backstory and ambitions told through vignettes. One of my goals was to make it believable, so it looks at what kinds of authority would form long after a collapse, what kind of barter economies would emerge – which may sound boring to some, but trust me when I say there’s also tension, mild terror, wild action in places, and a sense of incredible wonderment at the world. I seem to recall that David Brin, who wrote The Postman, complained that most PA fiction focuses only on boyhood fantasies of running rampant without rules, and this is true for the more derivative examples. I like to think I’ve struck a good balance between realism and fantasy.
Check it out on:
Amazon.COM
Amazon UK
Amazon.DE
Amazon.FR
Did I miss a game? Is there a PA title that absolutely must be played? Post in the comments and recommend-me-do!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures is on sale, apparently
Only $19.44 at Amazon!
I don't actually decide when/if this goes on sale, but Amazon decided to drop the price down a bit, so if you've been on the fence for a physical copy, this is the best time!
If you haven't been around lately, you can read about the 772 behemoth we published last month over at the book's page.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Computer-Spiele
Took me a while to get to the second book...
Sopart's book is much lighter on the gaming strategies part, but of course it has to deal with a much broader market than Video Spiele covered two years before. The book not only introduces a big number of home computers, which had by then taken control of the market, but also consoles, LCD handhelds, "Mini Arcade" tabletops, even chess computers and the like.
While Videospiele gave me the impression that it was aimed at "gamers", Sopart has to spend 7 pages explaining "How he computer plays with humans".
Strictly speaking, computers are not ideal playfellows. From their makeup they bring neither intelligence nor flexibility, which are requirements for a good playfellows. But how could these devices became partners more demanding from the player than a human counterpart?
Picture with the funny caption "game for two", while the screen and the boxes above clearly show office applications.
Sadly, a lot of space is wasted with manual-like descriptions of stuff, but there are a few interesting points that kept being issues for many more years or even decades. So there's the reoccuring complaint about crappy boxes, evaluating plastic clamshells similar to VHS boxes (the winner here) vs instable cardboard boxes. Anyone who thought pro-gaming was a recent phenomenon is put into place by this argument in the joystick buyer guide: "Passionate gamers will be glad to hear that there are even joysticks that ship with interchangeable handles. Slowly, the industry is becoming more active for professionals."
Kinda defeats the purpose of a "wireless" controller, doesn't it?
From the chapter "Pictographs or cinema quality?":
You know them from so many images: The famous computer people. They are pictographs, stylized depictions. Computer games are still identified with pictographs. (...) Why?
Especially with the transition from pictographs to almost realistic figures [don't forget: this is 1984!] it becomes visible, how quickly computer games have developed [yes, perfect tense].
(...) Some of the things we get to see on our screens nowadays really almost look like movies [talking about home computers, so probably not even meaning Dragon's Lair. As it goes on:]
What does that mean for the computer gamer? He should know that these pictographs actually already belong into the realm of history, even if they're sometimes still sold.
And, most interestingly for retro gamers:
Game cassettes with pictograph-esque visualizations could, as scene insiders assume, become bestellers again already in a few years - as computer antiquity. For that one has to recognize, that we're still living in the beginning days of the computer industry, and thus also of computer games. In few years we will experience the same effect as with shellac records. Those classics from the founding years of the music industry are now en vogue. (...)
A similar phenomenon could soon become evident with computer games. Therefore, it is advisable to archive old games that don't satisfy the desired standards and quality today. This not only under an economic aspect (...), but also under consideration do be able to get a "notalgic effect" out of them in a couple of years.
On "war games":
There is no doubt: The bad reputation of computer games in some social strata is mostly due to the games, that contain elements of war. But there are differences world wide. In the USA war games are less strictly rejected by most of the population than in Europe and particularly in the Federal Republic [of Germany]. Yes, one could even say in the USA a greater group developed into downright fans of these kind of games. The special situation in Europe and most of all in Germany resulted from the experiences from two world wars.
In case you wondered how to get the best high scores:
Whoever wants to become a good or great gamer also has to be an adept with the joystick. So it's necessary to make exercises to strenghten the hand's musculature. Thereby, the hands tightly grasp an item [no, not what you're thinking] - a candle, for example.
"In this posture, you'll hardly achieve maximum performance on screen."
The book even has a chapter on game programming, but it doesn't do much more than listing a number of basic Basic commands...
Monday, September 6, 2010
Study the past to learn about the present.
Digging deeper into the history of non-English video game journalism, today we're unearthing two of the oldest German monographs that deal with our favourite hobby.
Peer & Ulrich Blumenschein co-wrote Videospiele in 1982. The team of father and son made sure that the book was written well (Ulrich Blumenschein had worked for rennomated magazines such as Spiegel and Stern) but also knew what it was talking about. I only recently found this book when I decided to write about the other one ...
... Computerspiele, by Christa-Maria Sopart. This is from 1984, but I got it sometime during the early 90's at a bargain bin for 1 Deutsche Mark.
It's astonishing to see the many aspects where we've come an incredibly long way during the last thirty years, and even more astonishing to see how some things never change.
Videospiele was focused on Arcade games and home console, and understood itself mostly as a playing and buying guide. Even the introduction sounds like an economy advisor:
Gratulations ...
... dear reader! The few bucks you've spent for this paperback volume are well invested. For if you use these guide properly, you can save more than the price of the book in a short time. That applies to the young Arcade-Freak as the family dad, who plans to buy a video game console for home use or even a new cassette for his son.
So after ten pages of video game history (interesting how the book already saw the decline of the American industry in favor of the Japanese) it goes on with strategies for the most popular arcade games at the time. Today this section mostly delivers entertaining value for the German paraphrases to the English game titles and a few funny drawings of game scenes. A few examples:
Asteroids: Gefährliche Reise durch den Raum (Dangerous Journey Through Space)
Galaxian: Überleben is alles (Surviving Is Everything)
Defender: Entführungsdrama auf dem Planeten X (Abduchtion Drama On Planet X)
Berzerk: Der üble Otto (The Evil Otto)
Phoenix: Hitchcock im Weltall (Hitchcock in Space)
Donkey Kong: Der Affe und die Jungfrau (The Ape and the Virgin)
Oh, and not to forget the Seven Golden Rules of arcade gaming (These have longer text explaing the rules, I'm only translating the catchphrases):
Rule No. 1: Select a game that appeals to you and that still gives you joy after a few test rounds - and specialize to that game!
Rule No. 2: Assemble your own list of Questions while watching others play, and don't stop watching until it seems you've answered all your particular questions!
Rule No. 3: Examine the machine before you start! [this warns of inferior rip-offs with similar titles and the condition of the conrols]
Rule No. 4: Training brings Score!
Rule No. 5: Let others help you, when you can't cope with a difficult situation in your game.
Rule No. 6: Concentrate while playing!
Rule No. 7: Keep cool while playing!
After that follows a comparison of the four consoles available in Germany at the time and their games - Atari VCS, Intellivision, Phillips Videopac Computer G7000 (that's what the Odyssey II was called here) and the German console, Interton Electronic Video Computer VC 4000. It seems the latter was already out-of-date by the time the book was published, as it is rather neglected. There's no picture of the hardware, and no single screenshot of any game (only one picture of a game box).
For each available game there's a review, if you want to call it that, with a description of the game's mechanics, a sentence about "What caught our attention" and two scores, Spielwert (Game Value) and Gesamturteil (Overall Assessment), of which I don't quite get what's the difference, although the latter is sometimes one point below the former. The unit are once again german school grades.
"What caught our attention" is once again good for chuckles:
"Once again Atari didn't even manage to find an understandable German title for the game." Yars' Revenge (Die Rache der Superfliege)
"The spookhouse can be really frightening, you shouldn't give it to your kids in the evening." Haunted House (Das Spukhaus)
Not so scary: Haunted House
"Simple as Pong. The coloring is very nice." Super Breakout
"You'll need strong nerves." Astrosmash
"It pays to win; the explosion of the enemy battlestar is worth to see and hear." Star Strike
"When playing for a long time, the trigger finger starts to hurt." Weltraum-Armada
"If it wasn't only three field players per team, the illusion would be perfect" Fußball
"Funny how the spectators turn their heads after the ball." Tennis
"Not suited for a small screen. Only with 60-cm color TV are the details on the map overview properly recognizable." Flotteneinsatz (Sea Battle)
"Pong in 2D" Tennis
Interesting in a historical sense is an article on the future of video games, surprisingly cautious with wild speculations, but rather focusing on technologies that were in development at the time or new trends in the US, mentioned are talkie peripherals and Subroc-3D, the first "real" 3D arcade game based on similar technology as we know from the Virtual Boy. On the rise of independent developers (here meaning not what we call indie games today, but 3rd party developers like Activision):
For the video gamer this are of course great perspectives. He can more and more feel like the reader [of books], who is able to read any book with only one pair of glasses. Or with other words: he isn't pressed for a decision between this or that hardware system when buying his basic equipment.
But of course there also had to be:
It seems we are not far from laser light to create spatial images (Holograms) or language controlled computers in Telegames, anymore.
An early announcement for ET the game?
Atari has already teamed up with Steven Spielberg, the man who raised the science fiction film to a new level with his "Star Wars" series (sic!) and [Spielberg] made a contract with Lucasfilm Ltd., the best special effects studio in the world, which created the phantastic scenes for films like "Star Trek II", "Poltergeist" and "ET". Goal of the cooperation is to create novel Video-Games, that appear like a movie at the cinema, with life-like characters in realistic surroundings.
(Almost) at the end of the book stands the eternal question: "Video Games - A danger for young people?"
Question: Are video games addicting?
Answer: (...) Of course there are gamers that overdo it.
One could compare them to buyers of season tickets to the Fußballbundesliga [premiere league of soccer]. No one accuses them of any addiction.
(...)
Question: Shouldn't the young arcade machine fans spend their money for better things?
Answer: (...) There are many temptations in our sparkling, pluralistic world. Cigarettes. Bubble Gum. Pot ... video games seem to be a lesser evil here.
(...)
[after an answer mentioning the learning effects of video games]
Frage: I hope this learning effect doesn't apply to those "War Games"?
Answer: Whether anyone plays "War" is first of all a question of good taste. Parents should definitely make sure not to draw in again that kind of war toys through the back door that has long been banned and disappeared in other places. Program cassettes like "Blowing up dams" are certainly not suited as gifts for a child's birthday or christmas.
Yeah, Germany had/has a rather troubled relationship with the topic "war".
The video game companies are well-advised to follow the example of Mattel Electronics, who didn't even bring a game with the title "B-17 Bomber", that's freely available for home use in the US, to the german market. The task in this game consists of flying bombing attacks on a mass of land that clearly recognizably shows the shape and characteristics of Europe.
By the way the definition for "War Games" by the federal ministry of youth, family and healthcare quoted in the book is: "Entertainment games without profit opportunity [not sure how to translate that, it means no gambling], with which cruelty or acts of war are depicted or where technical appliances are used to simulate bursts [meaning lightguns]."
When watching and questioning real Arcade-Freaks in Hamburg or Munich, it quickly becomes evident that in case they should encounter a green man of Mars on the street after leaving their Arcade, they'd prefer to go have a beer with him instead of putting him down with a laser gun (where to get such a thing, anyway).
Oh, this is getting really long, and it's getting really late. Going to bed now, there'll be a closer look at Sopart's book in a few days ...
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Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Purgatory Kabuki – can’t give it away!
Quite a while ago Treasure artist Yasushi Suzuki created a manga called Purgatory Kabuki – rather than being the perfect cross-over between videogames and manga that people dream about, it was awful. So awful, I couldn’t even give it away. For free!
(This blog entry comes with bonus IT Crowd script)
Author: Yasushi Suzuki
ISBN 13: 978-1-59796-070-0
Date Published: 12/27/2007
Format: paperback / B&W
Number of pages: 144
Rating: 13+
Price: $9.95
.
.
.
I recently moved house, and with that I sold off, gave away and threw out most of my surplus clutter – so all the manga I didn’t intend to read again, all the anime I disliked, and the majority of my Dreamcast CD-Rs (man, did I really burn a copy of Memories Off?). Most things sold except for Purgatory Kabuki. I then offered it to a games journalist friend who loves Treasure games and had happily accepted a poster for Gunstar Heroes – signed by the Treasure team – which I’d given him previously (which I’d actually had to rescue from the dustbin of my ex-boss, who’d received the signed posters for use as competition prizes and then simply chucked them out). But even he didn’t want Purgatory Kabuki.
The sad thing is, it is one of the worst manga/graphic novels/comics I have ever read.
Since late 2006 I’d been following its production in Halverson’s PLAY magazine (which, I should add, I think is now on the verge of bankruptcy, seeing as myself and several other European subscribers haven’t received the last 3 issues, plus a whole bunch of other things I’m not at liberty to divulge – but trust me, I’ve seen several publisher bankruptcies in my life, I know the signs. You read it here first!).
Anyway, Purgatory Kabuki was released in America and then proved stupidly difficult to get in the UK due to delayed release dates and suppliers running out. No one seemed to have heard of it anywhere, with only PLAY in America championing it. Not even NEO Magazine covered it, despite the Treasure/videogame/manga crossover connection. Not even my local ‘comic book guy’ had heard of it. This highlights an endemic failure in the media to publicise things, much like Agarest. Even if it is awful, it sets a historical precedent.
So anyway, eventually Waterstones orders it from a different supplier and I pay my £6.99 and wait for it to arrive.
So I get a call one day and go in the following morning. Well, the woman who actually handed it to me was one of the most attractive, intelligent sounding, bubbly, nubile strawberry-blondes I’ve ever seen in my life. All wise smiles and bosom. Geeky guy getting served by a young maiden, buying a manga graphic novel... Sorry, comic book. And suddenly I feel like I'm in the episode of the IT crowd.
I can just imagine myself as Moss...
Moss: You’ll never guess what Roy!
Roy: Oh, hello der Moss. What is it?
Moss: I was speaking to such a lovely young woman this morning!
Roy: Oh really?
Moss: Yes! We spoke about this, and we spoke about that, and she asked how things were, and she was smiling the whole time I made light conversation, Roy!
Roy: Oh, so did you ask her out then?
Moss: No Roy, I was buying the first print volume of the new Purgatory Kabuki graphic novel, by Treasure artist Yasushi Suzuki, who worked on hardcore titles like Ikaruga. Man, those were some great games, weren't they Roy?
Roy: Yes, dey were. I really liked Sin & Punishment which I bought on import, I bet she didn't even know that, huh Moss?
Moss: No Roy, she certainly did not know about Sin & Punishment, or who Yasushi Suzuki is, or Treasure.
Roy: So, did she continue speaking to you after you'd bought the comic?
Moss: It's a graphic novel book, Roy. And no, I quickly left the establishment and then ran off. But I think we had a real connection there.
***
Anyway, I finally had Volume 1.
And, like I said, it was shit.
I'm not a massive manga fan, since apart from Welcome to the NHK and Genshiken I can’t actually find anything that’s to my taste. Well, maybe Nausicaa, but I digress. I bought Purgatory Kabuki solely because of the videogame crossover and the fact that it’s by the main artist from Treasure. It HAD to be good, plus PLAY raved about it.
Unfortunately, it might be the worst manga EVER made.
There were only two colour pages at the start, despite the quality of monochrome shading making it look as if the whole comic was created in colour then converted to black and white – meaning you lose a lot of detail.
Worse still, it comes across as a piece of work created by someone who has no understanding of the comic medium, or even literature in general. Large panels are used almost exclusively for posing shots, while kinetic fights are displayed in tiny postage stamp squares, making it impossible to work out what’s going on. Worse still, there are several instances of panels taking up both pages, with the key details (as in main characters), being lost in the book’s gutter – this is a schoolboy error. Plus you’re left with panels displaying only empty scenery.
There’s also very little text. Which is no bad thing, I once read a fantastic graphic novel which had nearly no text whatsoever (it was about a lone wanderer venturing into a city of rats to find his lost wife, in some post-apocalyptic future – titled “The City”, it was by James Herbert). But in Purgatory Kabuki this lack of text makes things even more confusing, because the story is an incoherent, poorly written mess; a veritable rotting whale on the beach of narratives.
The story, of what I can understand, is absolute nonsense. Some guy with no name kills demons and takes their swords, until he kills a headless demon, and a child demon comes out of its belly, cuts his arm off, and then makes a deal with the nameless guy. Kill a thousand demons and take their swords, and I'll give you a new body with a working army. He accepts and is suddenly given a name. It's tough working out the rest, since it's like trying to read text fragments through a bowl of shredded wheat.
I didn’t look into buying subsequent volumes. And while I couldn't give away the first volume, I couldn't bring myself to throw it away either. So I've kept it, on my shelf, as a reminder to in future be more careful about what I buy.
Sad too, since I thought we were on to a winner, and I don’t want to criticise Yasushi Suzuki. His artwork is fantastic. The man is an extremely gifted artist, with a diverse range of styles, able to work in various mediums, and his artwork deserves nothing but praise. His other book, The Art of Yasushi Suzuki, in contrast is a fantastic coffee table read since it focuses on what he’s good at: art.
Purgatory Kabuki stands as an example where being skilled in one thing doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be good in related fields.
Insert Credit had a fascinating interview with him, as did the publisher, DRMBooks. Apparently Suzuki-san wanted to make a game based on Purgatory Kabuki.
On a related note, someone else also raised the question pertaining to another videogame artist who attempted to branch out into manga: Anyone know what's become of Junya Inoue’s (Joker Jun, Cave’s artist) manga? It was supposedly translated into English.
After getting burned on Purgatory Kabuki I’m hesitant to investigate further. Taken from Amazon:
Otogi Matsuri 1: Dark Offering
A demon thirsty for human blood, a young girl who can see supernatural beings and a boy who inadvertently promises his future to the god of the south—all combine to give Otogi Matsuri the speed and power of a runaway bullet train. From the first appearance of the bone-crunching "cat-spider" monster, Inoue gives notice that this adventure story is deadly serious. Its teenage heroes are enmeshed in a realm that has it in for any puny humans who get in the way of its gods and demons. Luckily for plucky high school boy protagonist Yousuke Suruga, he's been unwittingly armed with the bow of Suzaku, a weapon with phoenix-like powers. Together with Ryuuichi Ezo, who's similarly armed with the spear of Seiryuu, and Yomogi Inaga, armed with otherworldly vision, he's able to take on the cat-spider and, later, a horde of monstrous dragonflies controlled by a gigantic eyeball—leading to some amusing absurdist dialogue such as "I saw a big eyeball going down the street!" Eventually, the demons are defeated and order is restored, but tantalizing loose ends have been left dangling for the next instalment, making for a good, juicy adventure with evocative graphics and great promise for part two.
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