Saturday, October 31, 2009
Retro Game of the Day! F-Zero
Friday, October 30, 2009
Retro Game of the Day! Super Space Fortress Macross
Also of note, the game had some very beautifully rendered cinematic shots bordering the action. This isn't something that is very noteworthy today, but back when this game was new it was still fairly jaw-dropping to see something that looked like a fairly well-represented Japanese Anime running piped through a game engine somehow. Sometimes it was just fun to play through these games in order to just watch the nice graphics!
Headcase Games' new game is being prepped for release! We are looking for some Beta Testers to give us some feedback on our newest game, which I like to refer to lovingly as "Digital Crack." (But we decided to go with "180" instead for our reasons). If you'd like to apply to be one of the select few, contact me and I'll see about hooking you up with a build.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Retro Game of the Day! Chiller
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Retro Game of the Day! Mr. Do!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Retro Game of the Day! Defender
Speaking of neutered, the Atari 2600 version pulls back on so many of the game features that it almost feels like it'd be not much more than a shadow of its subject matter - but the designer did a good job in working around the limitations (ONE action button!) and conserves the spirit, and fun factor, appropriately.
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Monday, October 26, 2009
Retro Game of the Day! Quarth
Development Blog #12
Sigh. It is late, and I am tired, and I still have some fonts to look at (and a car to park) before calling it a night. So this will be a quickie.
As usual, lots to say but I am gonna pare it down and try to get to the meat. Overall, things are going really well. A ton of developments going around at HcG lately, which is always good, and our new game "180" is coming along very nicely. The biggest point to note is that as of late last week, the last crucial gameplay element was implemented at last (it required a fairly substantial rewrite of a lot of older "proof-of-concept" code) and as such it was hanging out for awhile, but now that's settled and we have a very near-final gameplay experience in our hands over here. Some tweaks and adjustments need to be dealt with - and the whole issue of overall presentation, which now comes into the fore - but overall I am very pleased. The game was quite addictive before, and with this new version I am there all over again. Now we just need to do it justice with the layers of polish, and it's off to the races!
I am spending a lot of time investigating other apps at this phase, to see how ours holds up (gameplay and aesthetically) to them. In my travels, I've come across some games worth mention - here's some (controversial) thoughts to chew on:
- Mr.AahH!! - cool little game, nice presentation. Pretty thin, you play it for a few sessions and then you never need to see it again! But, a great "feeling." Swing on ropes, tap the screen to try and land on a target.
- Gangstar - chugs on my old device. Extremely impressive - I would love to make a game like this!
- I Dig It- people rant and rave about this game. I couldn't make myself play it long enough to get the gist, I don't like games where you have to go back and forth and buy equipment immediately.
- Canabalt - I only played the flash version on the PC, it's not bad but I was over it pretty quickly
- Swingaling - I had expected this to be more immediately captivating. I'll go back to it, but the controls were a big turn-off.
- Line Up - after my own in-development game, this is the one I keep coming back to. So rock-simple but addictive. If you can make yourself play longer than a few rounds, this game will grip you and won't let go without a fight. Marred by some slight tech issues but not enough to be a buzzkill.
- Peggle - heard of this game for ages, between the name and the screenshots it was a huge turn-off for me. I wanted to examine their interface so I gave it a DL. Oh boy - great game.
- Horror Racing - was described to me as RC Pro-Am-ish (Pro Amish!) Yuck. The controls are unwieldy, at best
- Stoneloops of Jurassica - best "marble popper" I have seen on iPhone in awhile, looks like this just got pulled off of the App Store. It's a scary landscape out there right now with this stuff happening, and yet - if your game is a very close rip of someone else's work, should you be able to get away with it? Several other games I have been intending to look at have similarly disappeared - sketchy times, indeed.
Other notes - we have a local iPhone App Dev meetup in Hollywood coming up Wednesday night, hope to see you (that's YOU!) there! Every time we do it, always a blast -
Also, heading into the office for the startup I am helping out with, so I will be double-time busy these days. Whew - exhausting! I guess that'll have to hold you for now, I need to wrap up some things and try to get some shuteye. Thanks for tuning in, keep following us and spreading the word - we appreciate it!
-Ron & Ben
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Retro Game of the Day! Dracula X: Rondo of Blood
Dracula X: Rondo of Blood by Konami for the Japanese PC-Engine CD-Rom, Original release was around Halloween, 1993, with no release outside of that territory (until a PSP port surfaced in 2008). That didn't stop many of us from playing it, however!
Hmm, so yes, it is October, and that being the month when Halloween is celebrated, it's a good excuse to go and double- and triple-dip into some of the myriad of Castlevania releases, I don't think it's not gone unnoticed that there's been a few of them popping up here on Retro Game of the Day lately. Well, as the month grows late, might as well get it over with and have a look at the Big Mother of Castlevania games then, eh?