Tag Archives | Gaming

NBA Jam, Then and Now

Posted by Jared Newman on January 12, 2010 at 3:50 pm

It was only a matter of time, I suppose, but EA Sports has announced that it will revive NBA Jam, the classic two-on-two basketball game from the mid-1990s, as a Wii exclusive. Very little is known about the game, but as I pondered the possibilities, it struck me how the hallmarks of NBA Jam are no longer anything special. They’re either taken for granted or relics of a bygone gaming era. Is it really possible to re-capture the magic of NBA Jam when so much has changed? You be the judge:

Voice Acting: Part of NBA Jam’s novelty was its color commentary. Voices in video games were still rare in the mid-1990s, especially on home consoles, and part of NBA Jam’s charm was just how lo-fi everything sounded. It’s hard to envision “boomshakalaka!” in crystal clear audio.

Cheat Codes and Easter Eggs: Back in the day, cheat codes had a mythical status — the 30 lives code in Contra, the blood code in Mortal Kombat for Sega Genesis — and NBA Jam was chock full of them. My favorites? Big Head Mode and the unlockable character of George Clinton, a.k.a. P-Funk. Nowadays, cheats are earned and unlocked through in-game accomplishments, if they’re in the game at all.

Saved Games: The ability to record your stats on a game cartridge came into fashion during the 16-bit era, but plenty of cartridges still lacked this feature. Nonetheless, I won’t lament the ubiquity of saved games now.

Licensing: According to this fascinating ESPN interview with NBA Jam creator Mark Turmell, Midway had to plead with the NBA to license actual basketball players, teams and logos because the league was wary about associating with arcades. Back then, it was rare to see a game with both players and teams, but a sports game wouldn’t be caught dead without both now.

Sports Fantasy: The genius of NBA Jam is the way it stripped down and pumped up basketball’s bare essentials, but I think it also came along at the right time, when a realistic depiction of sports wasn’t entirely possible yet. Can NBA Jam still capture the hearts of people who’ve become spoiled by NBA Live and NBA 2K?

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The (Not So Many) Games of CES

Posted by Jared Newman on January 11, 2010 at 4:33 pm

The Consumer Electronics Show is not a prime venue for video games, although it used to be, back before gaming had its own trade show, E3. But while some of my game journalism friends flew in and immediately started grumbling about how little there was to do, I enjoyed the scraps of stick time snuck in between checking out all the new tech toys. And unlike E3’s usual far-off fare, most of the games I played at CES are coming out in the next month or two. Here are the higlights of what I saw:

Heavy Rain: I played one scene of this PS3-exclusive adventure game at a party for bloggers, and despite the festive atmosphere, my heart was racing and palms were sweating as I tried to subdue an armed convenience store robber using smart dialog choices. No shooting galleries here, just pure dramatic tension. I can’t wait for February 23.

Splinter Cell: Conviction: I miss the game’s pure stealth roots, and being able to rely so easily on gunplay instead felt cheap, but if you do perform stealth kills, you earn the ability to execute, well, even easier silent kills. It’s out February 23 for PC and Xbox 360.

Lego Universe: It’s a third-person beat-em-up, due sometime this year, in the style of previous Lego Batman, Star Wars and Indiana Jones games, plus the ability to cooperate with people online. That’s worth a yawn, but I’m excited for the inclusion of Lego’s existing Digital Designer software. I’m told that you can build things in Digital Designer and put them in your home space within the game. Wait, a Lego game that actually encourages creativity? Cool.

Super Stardust HD in 3D: Sony’s 3D gaming kiosks didn’t make me want to buy a capable television right now, but I did enjoy seeing this pop out of the screen. The game’s out now in two dimensions.

Capcom Goes Retro: At an off-site suite, Capcom had a few old-school offerings on display. Final Fight Double Impact, due for Xbox 360 and PS3 in April, is the same beat-em-up as ever, plus achievements, a virtual bezel that looks just like the old arcade machine and a lesser-known 1990s arcade title, Magic Sword, packed in. But the real attraction was Mega Man 10, out in March. Yeah, it’s the same jump-and-gun platformer I’ve been playing since childhood, but I always come crawling back.

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PrimeSense: Remote Control Without the Remote Control

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 11, 2010 at 4:08 pm

Was it really only three years ago that Nintendo’s Wii controller seemed mindbendingly innovative? Before long, the fact that the Wii involves a controller at all may feel a tad retro.

One of my favorite CES demos this year was in a little private room on the periphery of the show floor. PrimeSense is an Israeli chip designer that’s building a processor to enable consumer-electronics devices of all sorts to accept gestures as input. It uses a cameras/infrared sensor to spot people and figure out their movements–even subtle ones like a wave of the fingertips. And then it can use those movements to control consumer-electronics devices, games, and maybe even eventually cars.

Here’s a video the company prepared showing the basic idea:

The video doesn’t show the use of the technology that really knocked my socks off when the company showed it to me: a TV-based photo viewer that’s reminiscent of the one offered by Microsoft’s Surface tabletop computer. Except PrimeSense’s version doesn’t make you touch anything–you just move your hands around in middair to move, rotate, and resize pictures on the TV. It’s multi-touch without the touch.

It’s also the closest thing to real-world Minority Report I’ve witnessed so far:

PrimeSense isn’t new (it also previewed what it was up to at CES 2008) and doesn’t lack for competitors trying to do vaguely similar things (such as Canesta). And the example of controller-less control that’s grabbed the most attention so far is Microsoft’s Project Natal for the Xbox 360, which is supposed to show up by the 2010 holiday season. But PrimeSense is finally talking about its technology showing up in commercial projects–the first of which is a new version of CyberLink’s PowerCinema movie player for Windows which will let you use gestures to control playback.

One way or another, I look forward to the day when the only universal remotes we’ll need are our own ten fingers…

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Electronic Guitars Battle for Music Game Supremacy

Posted by Jared Newman on January 10, 2010 at 1:05 pm

You know how musicians like to moan about how music games don’t inspire people to play real instruments? I wonder how they’d feel about Inspired Instruments’ You Rock guitar and Gambridge’s Z-1 Hybrid guitar.

Both axes, on display at CES’s gaming showcase, are MIDI guitars that also work as controllers in Guitar Hero and Rock Band. They’ve got actual, strummable strings for your picking hand and plastic frets that respond to the touch. Along several frets, there are also color-coded bars, marking them as buttons for music gaming.

I’m a guitarist and a gamer, so I couldn’t wait to give You Rock’s capable hired musician a rest and to try both guitars on my own. One thing’s for sure: Playing Guitar Hero on these instruments was considerably more fun than using the actual game’s paddle-and-buttons guitar controller. Being able to jam on strings brings the experience closer to real life (but still pretty far off, of course).

Playing the guitar wasn’t half-bad either. You definitely lose some important abilities, like bending strings and full control over muting, and it takes a little getting used to, but I was able to kick out some blues without too many problems. I actually preferred Gambridge’s guitar as a musical instrument, as it felt more responsive to muting and sliding, and its frets have a little give, making them feel more like real strings. But it’s heavier and its design isn’t as sleek.

It’s probably a good thing that there are two companies pursuing this, because it increases the chances that the product will get to market. The $179 You Rock guitar is available for pre-order online with ship date unknown (you’ll also need a $25 Bluetooth dongle for your game console of choice, available in Q1 for Playstation 3 and Wii and Q2 for Xbox 360), and the company is hoping to land retail deals at CES. Gambridge is shooting for a September launch with the $199 Z-1, whose prototype works with the Playstation 3 only (Gambridge eventually wants to support all consoles) via wired USB.

Would I buy one? Maybe, as the ability to use these guitars as instruments in Garage Band sweetens the deal if you’re an actual musician, but if I was looking to teach a Guitar Hero enthusiast how to play, I’d probably opt for a cheap starter electric guitar instead.

Update: I’ve clarified that the You Rock guitar can mute and slide strings, but it felt a little more natural on the Z-1 in my brief time with both.

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Microsoft’s Game Room: The Arcade Reborn?

Posted by Jared Newman on January 7, 2010 at 4:59 pm

With the Game Room, Microsoft’s hoping to capture the old magic of video game arcades, minus the stale air, sugar highs and wasted quarters.

I got some questions answered on service, which will be available on Windows and Xbox Live this spring. Here are the important details (if you’re a retro game nerd):

-30 games will be available at launch, including Centipede, Lunar Lander and Night Driver (full list here), from arcade systems as well as the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. Microsoft says it’ll release 7 new games per week after launch.

-Games cost $3 each for either Xbox Live or Windows, and $5 if you want the luxury of playing on both. The arcade itself is open to any level of Xbox Live (no Gold subscription necessary).

-Unlike some of the classic games Microsoft released earlier this year, these are straight emulators with no boosts in resolution or graphics. Unfortunately, that means if there’s any overlap, you’ll have to pay for the Game Room titles again.

-Players build their own virtual arcades, with cabinets that mimic the hulking monstrosities of yesteryear. As your arcade grows, you get new rooms or entire new floors that can be decorated differently. But you don’t navigate these with an avatar — the camera simply slides between each room and cabinet.

-Other players can visit your arcade, and they’ll earn free play tokens based on how many games you have. They can also demo any game once, or can pay 40 Xbox Live points (50 cents) for extra plays.

-Downer: You can’t directly play against another player online (so no head-to-head in Combat). Instead, online multiplayer consists of high score or other challenges you send to your friends. Two-player games will work locally.

The service seems promising, and I particularly like all the ways Microsoft will give players to try games. It’s like we’re getting allowance all over again.

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EA Axes Online Play for Old Games, Including Madden

Posted by Jared Newman on January 4, 2010 at 3:26 pm

Fair warning to those who like sweeping through Gamestop’s bargain rack to pick up old sports titles: In a month, you won’t be able to play many of them online anymore.

On February 2 and February 9, Electronic Arts will shut down servers for more than two dozen of its past sports titles. This isn’t the first time EA has done this, but the list of titles on the chopping block are shockingly recent. Here are some highlights:

–Madden 2008 was the last game in the series to be released for Windows. When the lights go down on this game’s multiplayer, PC gamers will have nowhere to go.

–Madden 2009 was released in August 2008, so it’ll be a year and a half old when its multiplayer servers shut down for all consoles. Do you upgrade to Madden 2010, or wait six months for Madden 2011, whose online play will then have a longer shelf life?

–Facebreaker, a cartoon-style boxing game, received some good and some very bad reviews, but it’ll be just a year and three months old when its online component gets cut.

–NBA Street Homecourt, released in 2007, was the last game in the Street series. No more trash talk for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 street ballers, I guess.

I wouldn’t be surprised if activity was null for many of the games on the list, but certainly the latest round of cuts will spark outrage among these games’ devotees. Even if you don’t own or play any of the games being cut, this is a salient reminder that while online multiplayer is an attractive bullet point on the back of a game box, it’s not a guarantee.

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Ladies and Gentleman, It’s Game Awards Time

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 23, 2009 at 12:32 am

It’s time for one of Technologizer’s most hallowed traditions–actually, come to think of it, it may be the only hallowed tradition we have so far. For the second year, our gaming correspondent, Jared Newman, is commemorating the year that was in gaming by doling out some awards. We don’t have a famous venue, celebrity presenters, or exclusive afterparties, but we promise no long-winded speeches or Beyonce-related commandeering of the festivities.

And you can come as you are–just click here to view the Technologizer’s Second Annual Game Awards slideshow.

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Technologizer’s Second Annual Game Awards

Posted by Jared Newman on December 23, 2009 at 12:20 am

Tail between its legs, the video games industry tried to retreat from 2009. Heavy hitters like Splinter Cell: Conviction, Bioshock 2, Bayonetta and Heavy Rain were pushed back to next year, ostensibly to allow more development time, but more likely to avoid competition from Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3: ODST during a time of frugal gaming. Despite it all, there were plenty of games to love no matter what genre you’re into. I’ve got my favorites, upon which I’ve continued the tradition of bestowing arbitrary superlatives instead of arbitrary numerical rankings. Read on to find out what games were Technologizer’s best of 2010.

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iPhone App Store Flirts With an NES Emulator, Briefly

Posted by Jared Newman on December 22, 2009 at 5:15 pm

For a brief period last night, iPhone owners without jailbroken phones had access to a fully-functional Nintendo emulator. I’m kicking myself for not spotting 9 to 5 Mac’s story sooner, but it looks like the app got pulled very shortly, maybe a couple hours, after the news broke.

The app was called Nescaline, and its creator is Jonathan Zdziarski, who wrote iPhone Forensics. The $7 app included several homebrew games, but also allowed users to download more games by pointing the app to the URLs of ROM files. On his Web site, Zdziarski says an Apple rep told him the app was removed because it was an emulator. “Ironically, Apple currently has several emulators in the AppStore, so I am going with the belief that someone (likely Nintendo) probably pressured them about this particular application,” he wrote.

He’s right about the App Store having other emulators, but it’s more complicated than that. Currently, it’s possible to purchase C64, which lets you play classic Commodore 64 games, but it only found permanent footing on the iPhone after some drama involving the app’s BASIC interpreter and the ability to hack into it. More importantly, C64 maker Manomio has the rights to the games it sells. Nescaline, by contrast, opened the door to illegal game downloads.

It’s certainly possible that Apple’s trying to avoid legal hot water — Nokia attracted some unwanted attention by advertising that capability on the N900 — but I also think Apple is inclined to reject NES emulators in order to protect the App Store’s business model. When you have games that can make $1 million per month, why give people a bountiful source of free, classic games?

Given that Apple and Nintendo are now competing, I think an official NES iPhone app is unlikely. As for why Nescaline was approved in the first place, I’m thinking it was a simple blunder. I doubt Zdziarski was the first developer to submit a Nintendo emulator.

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The End of Music Games As We Know It?

Posted by Jared Newman on December 21, 2009 at 6:50 pm

Reuters dipped into the well of knowledge that is Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter and came up with a conclusion: Music games, such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero, aren’t the cash cows they used to be.

Pachter says that music games, which earned $1.4 billion last year, will only earn half that amount in 2009. And that’s not for lack of trying, as this year saw the release of Beatles: Rock Band, Lego Rock Band, Guitar Hero 5, DJ Hero, Band Hero, Rock Band Unplugged, Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits, Guitar Hero: Metallica and finally Guitar Hero: Van Halen, which comes out tomorrow.

But it’s important to note that Pachter’s not predicting the demise of music games. He’s merely saying that the boom is over, a bust is happening, and music games are coming back down from super stardom. His theory is that music game makers gave players too much in each release, so they don’t have to keep buying. I also like a theory posed in October by two marketing researchers from Northeastern University: There are just too many darned music games, and game makers didn’t realize they were riding a bubble.

It’s mildly amusing to me that marketing gurus and analysts are sticking with that conclusion now. Take a look at some reader comments at various gaming Web sites when Activision announced three “Hero” games at once and five different companies announced Lego Rock Band. The backlash was obvious, and that was in the spring, before the industry realized a recession was really happening.

Enthusiast gamers aren’t always great bellwethers — these are the folks who turn their noses up at the Wii — but I’m glad they were right this time. It’s insulting to see publishers churn out handfuls of music games in a single year, expecting players to lap them up. Maybe next year we’ll get a chance to forget the overplayed music genre, so we can some day remember how good it sounded the first time.

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