Gamespite Quarterly Vol 6 Now Available

The sixth volume of Gamespite Quarterly went up for sale last week, and mine just came in over the weekend. You should definitely buy it - I am not saying this because I contributed to it, but because it is an excellent book.

Last year, the second volume included a top 40 "best of" list, as voted by the site's forums. It was a damn good selection, but like most such compilations, it was missing some of my personal favorites - no Bionic Commando, and no Snatcher, mostly. This volume is a top 50 list of games that didn't get in the first time around, plus other under appreciated gems. Again, it's a good solid list of stuff, spanning three decades worth of gaming. Most of them are indeed underdogs, the kind that you could occasionally find people list in their "favorite games of all time" canon but not universally loved enough to make a list like this. Stuff like Bangai-O Spirits, God Hand, Ogre Battle, even Deadly Premonition. Entries 40-50 are pretty brief - mine's only 300 words - but the rest are fairly meaty, and anything with an expansive treatise on Zelda II (still the best Zelda game ever made, never to be surpassed) earns extra stamps of approval. Also, I had never realized that the whole part in Area 6 of Bionic Commando, where you have a scale a tower while avoiding a series of rolling balls, may have been a reference to Donkey Kong.

I forgot to write about it last time because I'm inherently lazy and forgettable, but you should also buy Volume 5 while you're at it. Years ago I'd wanted to write an expansive guide to every NES game published, which fell by the wayside because there's just so much junk on the system. This book, on the other hand, concentrates on what's relevant about the system, not just on specific games, but various topics - MSX<->NES translations, the awfulness of LJN (and to contrast, the radness of Ultra), the best Japanese-only games, various bits on censorship and other localization topics, and loads of other stuff. It is basically the perfect book for NES fans, so if you know a video game nerd and don't know what to get them for Christmas, this is probably it. The layouts also look fantastic, especially since their in black and white. (For all of the people commenting on about how it should be in color - yeah, color printing, especially through self-publishing, is still ridiculously expensive.) I can tell you that HG101's Adventure Game book will not look nearly this pretty. (Although, keeping in the theme of the site, it will be at least as large as a college textbook.)
<center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/gsq6.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> The <a href="http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Site/GSQ6TableOfContents">sixth volume of Gamespite Quarterly</a> went up for sale last week, and mine just came in over the weekend. You should definitely buy it - I am not saying this because I <a href="http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Games/G644-PanzerDragoonSaga">contributed to it</a>, but because it is an excellent book.<br /> <br /> Last year, the <a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2009/08/gamespite-quarterly-vol-2-now-available.html">second volume</a> included a top 40 "best of" list, as voted by the site's forums. It was a damn good selection, but like most such compilations, it was missing some of my personal favorites - no Bionic Commando, and no Snatcher, mostly. This volume is a top 50 list of games that didn't get in the first time around, plus other under appreciated gems. Again, it's a good solid list of stuff, spanning three decades worth of gaming. Most of them are indeed underdogs, the kind that you could occasionally find people list in their "favorite games of all time" canon but not universally loved enough to make a list like this. Stuff like Bangai-O Spirits, God Hand, Ogre Battle, even Deadly Premonition. Entries 40-50 are pretty brief - mine's only 300 words - but the rest are fairly meaty, and anything with an expansive treatise on Zelda II (still the best Zelda game ever made, never to be surpassed) earns extra stamps of approval. Also, I had never realized that the whole part in Area 6 of Bionic Commando, where you have a scale a tower while avoiding a series of rolling balls, may have been a reference to Donkey Kong.<br /> <br /> I forgot to write about it last time because I'm inherently lazy and forgettable, but you should also buy <a href="http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Site/GSQ5TableOfContents">Volume 5</a> while you're at it. Years ago I'd wanted to write an expansive guide to every NES game published, which fell by the wayside because there's just so much junk on the system. This book, on the other hand, concentrates on what's relevant about the system, not just on specific games, but various topics - MSX<->NES translations, the awfulness of LJN (and to contrast, the radness of Ultra), the best Japanese-only games, various bits on censorship and other localization topics, and loads of other stuff. It is basically the perfect book for NES fans, so if you know a video game nerd and don't know what to get them for Christmas, this is probably it. The layouts also look fantastic, especially since their in black and white. (For all of the people commenting on about how it should be in color - yeah, color printing, especially through self-publishing, is still ridiculously expensive.) I can tell you that HG101's Adventure Game book will not look nearly this pretty. (Although, keeping in the theme of the site, it will be at least as large as a college textbook.)

Gamespite Quarterly Volume 4 now available

Gamespite Quarterly just published its fourth issue last week, available for order on Blurb and my copy just came in over the weekend. It's probably the best one yet, with a ton of interesting stuff. The overall theme is game mechanics and how they can make or break a game (check out the table of contents), but there's an eclectic bunch in there too, including a brief history of space flight sims a la Wing Commander and X-Wing, and a piece on the recent resurgence of adventure games. Also included is pretty much the definitive piece on magnificent Dragon Quest V - well-deserved, considering it's the game that totally made me reconsider the series - as well as an analyzation of Final Fantasy's character development systems and how they relate to the narrative. Other interesting bits include an analysis of the stripping away of traditional JRPG mechanics and what they mean for modern games, and a bit about the de-RPG-ing of Mass Effect 2, a topic which could potentially reek of master race PC elitism in the wrong hands, but here is a remarkably even-handed treatment of the subject. While only a couple of articles are online at the moment, they'll eventually put up over the next few months. It's always worthwhile to support independent sites, especially through the exchange of cash moneys (trust me, if Ars Technica is complaining about ads, smaller sites have it a zillion times worse, and Gamespite doesn't even host advertisements) and the actual book is classy and compact.

Previous volumes include a tongue-in-cheek compendium of 8-bit heroes, ranging way into the super obscure category; a Top 40 Best Games of All Time cataloging, which is a pretty well chosen list; and an ode to the original Gameboy. There's also a volume which includes the half of the complete listing of all articles posted on Gamespite in 2008, all great stuff. Blurb shipping can be a bit pricey - they ship through Fed Ex instead of US media mail - but for the moment there's a few free shipping codes - WESHIP (for US purchases), WESHIP2 (for British folks), or WESHIP3 (for other Europeans.) This expires on March 21st, though, so order up quick.
<center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/gqs4.jpg"></center><br />Gamespite Quarterly just published its fourth issue last week, available <a href="http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1208328">for order on Blurb</a> and my copy just came in over the weekend. It's probably the best one yet, with a ton of interesting stuff. The overall theme is game mechanics and how they can make or break a game (check out the <a href="http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Site/GSQ4TableOfContents">table of contents</a>), but there's an eclectic bunch in there too, including a brief history of space flight sims a la Wing Commander and X-Wing, and a piece on the recent resurgence of adventure games. Also included is pretty much the definitive piece on magnificent Dragon Quest V - well-deserved, considering it's the game that totally made me reconsider the series - as well as an analyzation of Final Fantasy's character development systems and how they relate to the narrative. Other interesting bits include an analysis of the stripping away of traditional JRPG mechanics and what they mean for modern games, and a bit about the de-RPG-ing of Mass Effect 2, a topic which could potentially reek of master race PC elitism in the wrong hands, but here is a remarkably even-handed treatment of the subject. While only a couple of articles are online at the moment, they'll eventually put up over the next few months. It's always worthwhile to support independent sites, especially through the exchange of cash moneys (trust me, if <a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/03/why-ad-blocking-is-devastating-to-the-sites-you-love.ars">Ars Technica</a> is complaining about ads, smaller sites have it a zillion times worse, and Gamespite doesn't even host advertisements) and the actual book is classy and compact.<br /><br />Previous volumes include a <a href="http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Site/GSQ3TableOfContents">tongue-in-cheek compendium of 8-bit heroes</a>, ranging way into the super obscure category; a <a href="http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Site/Issue15TableOfContents">Top 40 Best Games of All Time cataloging</a>, which is a pretty well chosen list; and <a href="http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Site/Issue14TableOfContents ">an ode to the original Gameboy.</a> There's also a volume which includes the half of the complete listing of all articles posted on Gamespite in 2008, all great stuff. Blurb shipping can be a bit pricey - they ship through Fed Ex instead of US media mail - but for the moment there's a few free shipping codes - WESHIP (for US purchases), WESHIP2 (for British folks), or WESHIP3 (for other Europeans.) This expires on March 21st, though, so order up quick.

Gamespite Quarterly Vol. 2 Now Available

If you're fortuitous enough to check this slightly out-of-the-way blog, chances are you also probably read Gamespite. If not, you probably should, because it intersects with a lot of the interests of HG101. Awhile ago they started compiling some of their artricles in a hardcopy digest format, which began as a reaction to the closing of EGM. Since then, they've been putting out quarterly editions of their new content, themed in some manner. Their most recent book went on sale last weekend and my copy just arrived a few days ago.


It's a Top 40 sorta deal (Top 48 if you buy the pricier hardcover edition), which people tend to get prickly over due to too many terrible "Top ___" by other magazines in any number of fields, but I've always found the concept pretty interesting, as long as the people compiling them know what they're talking about. (The Top 100 Best Games cover story from EGM back in like 2002 or so is still one of my favorite issues.) Of course, the Gamespite folk have quite good taste, and the articles are a more bit more in-depth than the usual "thirty words or less" blurbs you usually see on these kinds of things. (You can find the whole list here.) The only games from my own personal canon that I would've added are Snatcher, King of Fighters XI and Deus Ex, but otherwise it covers some of the best - Final Fantasy Tactics, Star Control II, Metal Gear Solid (1 and 3), Silent Hill 2, Super Metroid, Metroid Prime, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Of course, all of the contents will be posted online eventually, but feeling all of this content together in physical form has a certain profoundness that's usually lost in the Internet Age. (I'm kinda working on doing something similar with HG101, but compiled in a different way, although that's definitely going to be awhile off.) It's reasonably priced at $13, and while it's technically smaller than a magazine, but there's so much more worthwhile content than the average issue of pretty much anything. Unfortunately Blurb insists on shipping Fed Ex, which jacks up the total price to closer to $20, but if you Google "blurb free shipping" you can probably find a coupon code around that.

After receiving this in the mail, coincidentally, there's a thread on Cheapassgamer advertising a deal for US subscribers for the the UK mag games(tm). It's $75 for 13 issues - not bad considering the cover price here is about $10 - which caused a bunch of jackalopes to muck up the thread because CLEARLY paying for content is STUPID when you have Kotaku and Joystiq, and $4-a-year subscriptions to the Official Playstation Magazine. Who would want to read more about video games than just news and screenshots, right? People like this are the reason why the Games sections at your local Barnes and Noble consist of nothing but strategy guides, causing everyone else to think that our whole culture revolves around the best way to beat Kingdom Hearts II.
If you're fortuitous enough to check this slightly out-of-the-way blog, chances are you also probably read <a href="http://www.gamespite.net">Gamespite</a>. If not, you probably should, because it intersects with a lot of the interests of HG101. Awhile ago they started compiling some of their artricles in a hardcopy digest format, which began as a reaction to the closing of EGM. Since then, they've been putting out quarterly editions of their new content, themed in some manner. Their most recent book went on sale last weekend and my copy just arrived a few days ago. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCsfMErWadwZJjz9W54nYH2OZ0LVVhSZMyeTBgyGH4AvlqMSmvBxMuDSC-16a6IaW4KqGccYNFPHkVe-fFxcqQzYU1LmsYG81hcObSlx4COYto1wttNWSDMEOPsT5bIqGzXc11fBlhOz8G/s1600-h/gsq2_promo.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373922207164315890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCsfMErWadwZJjz9W54nYH2OZ0LVVhSZMyeTBgyGH4AvlqMSmvBxMuDSC-16a6IaW4KqGccYNFPHkVe-fFxcqQzYU1LmsYG81hcObSlx4COYto1wttNWSDMEOPsT5bIqGzXc11fBlhOz8G/s320/gsq2_promo.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 230px;" /></a><br />It's a Top 40 sorta deal (Top 48 if you buy the pricier hardcover edition), which people tend to get prickly over due to too many terrible "Top ___" by other magazines in any number of fields, but I've always found the concept pretty interesting, as long as the people compiling them know what they're talking about. (The Top 100 Best Games cover story from EGM back in like 2002 or so is still one of my favorite issues.) Of course, the Gamespite folk have quite good taste, and the articles are a more bit more in-depth than the usual "thirty words or less" blurbs you usually see on these kinds of things. (You can find the whole list <a href="http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Site/Issue15TableOfContents">here</a>.) The only games from my own personal canon that I would've added are Snatcher, King of Fighters XI and Deus Ex, but otherwise it covers some of the best - Final Fantasy Tactics, Star Control II, Metal Gear Solid (1 and 3), Silent Hill 2, Super Metroid, Metroid Prime, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Of course, all of the contents will be posted online eventually, but feeling all of this content together in physical form has a certain profoundness that's usually lost in the Internet Age. (I'm kinda working on doing something similar with HG101, but compiled in a different way, although that's definitely going to be awhile off.) It's reasonably priced at $13, and while it's technically smaller than a magazine, but there's so much more worthwhile content than the average issue of pretty much anything. Unfortunately Blurb insists on shipping Fed Ex, which jacks up the total price to closer to $20, but if you Google "blurb free shipping" you can probably find a coupon code around that. <br /><br />After receiving this in the mail, coincidentally, there's a <a href="http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=234649">thread on Cheapassgamer</a> advertising a deal for US subscribers for the the UK mag games(tm). It's $75 for 13 issues - not bad considering the cover price here is about $10 - which caused a bunch of jackalopes to muck up the thread because CLEARLY paying for content is STUPID when you have Kotaku and Joystiq, and $4-a-year subscriptions to the Official Playstation Magazine. Who would want to read more about video games than just news and screenshots, right? People like this are the reason why the Games sections at your local Barnes and Noble consist of nothing but strategy guides, causing everyone else to think that our whole culture revolves around the best way to beat Kingdom Hearts II.