Despite the fact that I have a backlog of video games that is, let me check… At least in the double digits (I haven’t updated it in awhile) I find myself returning to the same stable of games again and again.
Am I the only person who does this? I’m guessing not, going by all the videos, forum threads, and websites dedicated to old video games; how to find them, how to play them, how to beat them, how to exploit them, and on and on. (I even indulge in this myself. Click on that ‘Let’s Play’ tab at the very top of the page to see.)
I like to think that this is more than blind nostalgia operating. That there are very good objective, quantifiable reasons why I play Megaman 2, Castlevania, or King’s Quest IV time after time and year after year. The problem of course is that games, as works of art, are notoriously difficult to objectively quantify or qualify. The hobby does have widely held corpus of “great” games, but the list is highly mutable and it has been argued contain sgames that are present merely for their age. Furthermore, what qualifies a game as “great?” The criteria available to use is nigh endless and contradictory.
I’m no ludologist (and I don’t have the time, energy, or inclination to pretend to be an amateur one ) so I’m not going to attempt creating a list of the various components of games that qualify them as “greats.” I’m sure if I could isolate said components they would not match up with others’ lists anyway.
Sometimes it is merely the presence of the ineffable that defines greatness, I suppose…
Here’s my list of games I just can’t, and wouldn’t want to, quit (in no order):
King’s Quest IV
Super Metroid
Castlevania
X-COM: UFO Defense
Megaman 2
Contra
Space Quest III
Super Mario Bros. 3
Ape Escape
Chrono Trigger
Tenchu
Final Fantasy
Do you find yourself going back to a set of “knowns” time and time again? Regardless of how many new “unknowns” you might have and want to consume? If so, please share them below in the comments and why you think it is you keep going back to them!
This was more of that “needs more metal miniatures” I was talking about last weekend… So here are some pictures of the various HQ units for my Ultramarines Army in Warhammer 40k. I think I painted these seven or eight years ago before I came up to college. I bought into 40k during third edition. Instead of saving the money I made at my job for college I spent large amounts of it on little toy soldiers and their accessories.
Since moving up to Davis I haven’t done a lot of painting or playing WH40k which is a shame because I really do enjoy the game and the hobby. (Worse I have friends up here who want to play it with me!) Maybe if you see these and tell me how great they look, how you want to see more, and wonderful things like that I might find the energy/time to finish assembling, painting, and playing with all the models I have lying around.
I don’t know how Games Workshop or Privateer Press takes pictures of their models… However they do it, I wish they’d share. I swear while these might not be professional grade models they don’t look as bad as these pictures make them appear. If the pointer hovers over the image you’ll get some inside commentary on painting these little guys!
Tiny space marines fight across enemy held deskThe Old Marneus CalgarCaptain with power sword and storm bolterChief Librarian TigeriusChaplainTechmarineVeteran Sargeant
There is an apothecary in that group photo but every picture I tried to take of him was a blurry, white mess. That’s it for the HQ. If I continue doing this I’ll put up pictures of my Elites next.
This set-up is complicated by the fact that no one can quite agree on who to poo-poo and what exactly deserves to have paeans written to its glory. Video games though just aren’t taken seriously and game journalism is seen of more as a cheer team rather than a bastion of stimulating conversation and critique.
Respect to a media isn’t given until those who profess a love for it, denigrate the majority of it… In an effort to bring more creditability to video gaming I’m offering this list of 10 things you’ll absolutely need to be one of those snobbish elitists you’d see if you ever went to art galleries, indy-music gigs, or read the New Yorker…
It seems in order to be taken seriously by the art industry, and the world at large, you have to poo-poo a lot of things while singing the praises of a small few… This set-up is complicated by the fact that no one can quite agree on who to poo-poo and what exactly deserves to have paeans written to its glory. Video games though just aren’t taken seriously and game journalism is seen of more as a cheer team rather than a bastion of stimulating conversation and critique.
Respect to a media isn’t given until those who profess a love for it, denigrate the majority of it… In an effort to bring more creditability to video gaming I’m offering this list of 10 things you’ll absolutely need to be one of those snobbish elitists you’d see if you ever went to art galleries, indy-music gigs, or read the New Yorker…
10. Braid – Braid is the future of video games, movies, life, everything. Don’t believe me? Just asks its creator, Jonathan Blow, who has managed to make his own ego the main selling point of this brainy platformer. Now, you don’t actually have to beat the game, you don’t even have to play it. Simply mention Braid, or it’s creator, in any video game discussion as an excellent example of form reflecting content, or comment on the delicate and multi-layered story in a condescending voice and you’re peers will soon be asking you what games they should like and why.
9. Zork – As a connoisseur, a collector, a critic you know the importance of packaging, how the context of an item contributes or detracts from how that item is perceived and interpreted. Zork is one of the most famous PC games ever made, familiar to even those outside of the hobby. So you know that Zork was originally sold in small plastic baggies with a 36-page booklet, right? and that is the version that you have. Why is this important? Because you own a piece of gaming history before it was commercialized, before the hobby was “sold-out.” It is important to play Zork so that you see just how far the format has degenerated since its inception… Here is story-telling! Games today eschew story in exchange for fancy graphics and complex sound tracks, all wrapped around 12 year-old male power/revenge fantasies. You also need to play Zork, in order to know what a grue is, in case your expertise and right to belittle everyone and everything to do with the hobby is questioned.
It's Thinking...
8. Sega Dreamcast – Sega tried so hard too, The Dreamcast was the companies swan song before they got out of the hardware business altogether. Why do you need one? Well because as a snob you know that the biggest isn’t always the best, in fact, you’ve based you’re entire value system around hating and vilifying anything that the majority like. The Dreamcast is the perfect system, not only because it had a surprising number of great games on it, as well as truly bizarre ones that help your connoisseur cred, but it also failed to be commercially successful. Not because the system had actual technical flaws, It’s parent company had used up any good-will consumers might have had towards them long before, or a myriad of other reasons. It failed solely because the proletariat failed to perceive its glory, but snobs recognized its greatness which is why they still own one and endlessly talk about how much better it was than the PS2.
7. Any board game designed by a German – If you follow the broader world of gaming you know that there has been a recent revolution in the boring old world of board games. Over the last few years European game designers have muscled in on the boring American market bringing to our shores such games as Carcassone, Puerto Rico, and numerous other board games that aren’t Monopoly or Life with a new skin… Having at least one of these games shows that your love of gaming transcends boundaries and medias. It also shows that your snobbery does as well, “If it isn’t designed by someone with an accent in their name it really isn’t worth playing.”
6. Any game that sells on the secondary market for more than $200 – Obviously it has to be complete… That cardboard box adds anywhere from $25-$100 dollars to the aftermarket price. Why do you need one of these? For a number of reasons: you get to brag to everyone just how much your complete MIB copy of Panzar Dragoon Saga is, not that you care about that sort of thing; it shows that you you take care of your collection, that you are not a gamer, anyone can be that, you are a collector: that you have impeccable taste, others might have to scrape together a small fortune to get their hands on a game everyone, belatedly, recognizes as great, you bought it when it first came out, when everyone else was buying garbage like Killer Instinct you picked up a copy of Earthbound.
sexy, sexy, text
5. Softporn Adventure – Software erotica, wasn’t always easy to come by… In fact digital images of naked women weren’t even possible with early computers, and early attempts at digital pornography are more disturbing than titillating. Softporn Adventure was one of the first digital attempts at adult oriented gaming. The game lacks any graphics and is tame even by the standards of its time. Despite all that the game created a huge controversy and was bootlegged and pirated across America’s high school and college campuses. This rare piece in your collection tells people your love of the art isn’t bound by bourgeoisie attitudes toward sex, feminism, and class. Bonus snob facts: This game was originally published by On-Line Systems, which would become Sierra On-line, and is the only game the company made that does not include graphics. Also Roberta Williams (creator of King’s Quest and other adventure games) is naked in a hot tub on the cover.
4. Japanese copies of Games released in English – That’s impressive that you own Casltevania 1,2, and 3 complete MIB. Did I tell you I have a copy of Akumajō Dracula, Dorakyura Tsū: Noroi no Fūin, and Akumajō Densetsu? No, well I do. What’s that you have Final Fantasy 3? That’s nice, check out my copy of Fainaru Fantajī Shikkusu. Things are just better when you can’t understand them, also they have crosses and boobies in the original versions.
3. An irrational, undying, love for some game designer – It really doesn’t matter who… Sid Meier, Hideo Kojima, Shigeru Miyamoto, Tomonobu Itagaki, the Gollop Brothers, Brian Reynolds, Hironobu Sakaguch, the list is endless… As long as you’ve picked one and will defend any and every game, statement, or bowel movement they’ve ever made. You’re not a fanboy though, so you’re going to have to dress up your slavish commitment up in big words, and technical terms… Talk about moving the media forward, paradigm shifts, innovative controls, restructuring design elements, advanced responsive AI, groundbreaking story-telling, etc., etc.
2. A videoed speed-run of your favorite game, tool assisted doesn’t count – As an expert on all things gaming, you must occasionally show others just how amazing you are at games. Also, you’re better than them at games. One of the best ways to do this is to go through a game, preferably a hard one, as fast as you can without dying recording the whole time and then upload it to YouTube where the whole world can bask in the glory that is you… The video above, by Toad22484, is a speedrun of Contra, and it clearly shows how much better than you he is at gaming… With your own you’ll also be able to assert your dominance over the unwashed gaming masses…
you wish you owned it
1. An original arcade cabinet or prototype/demo cart – Either one. Possessing one of these not only shows you’re better than other gamers, disposable income to blow on superfluous collector’s items… Having one or multiples of these lets people see how you’re doing your part to preserve video game heritage. It will also make them jealous.
So there you have it, 10 things you’ll need to enter the gamerati elite. Best of luck I look forward to our hobby becoming as shallow, hollow, and joyless as other forms of mass entertainment are today!
If you read this blog you already know I’m a gamer. I play video games, I review video games, I even write up news items about video games (saunter on over to Gamestooge and take a look). What you probably don’t know is that I enjoy more than video games, I enjoy games, period. You don’t hear much about other types of games though. When it comes to the mainstream media, they only have enough time to mis-cover and misrepresent the most ostentatious and conspicuous form of gaming, video games. This means that while even if you’ve never played a video game before you know who Mario is or what Grand Theft Auto games are about. You’ve probably never heard of Warhammer, Ticket to Ride, or GURP before, though these games and others like them have had a tremendous amount of influence on their younger sibling, the video game.
So, in an effort to educate as well as entertain I’m introducing, what I’m sure will become a sporadically updated series, Analog Gaming. In AG I’ll showcase various board, card, and table-top games (some you’ll know and others you won’t) highlighting how you play the game, its history, how long it takes, game mechanics, and then diving in to how it and variations on it have influenced more popular electronic games.
I don’t know if it’ll be successful but it sounds like fun abd it’s what I know.
First up, Warhammer By Games Workhops. Name sounds familiar doesn’t it? It should, it’s the primary influence for Blizzard’s popular, record shattering, series WarCraft. Warhammer is what is called in the industry a table-top fantasy war game. The basic idea is to build a customizable army using the books and rules that Games Workshop provides to write up a fantasy army, then you purchase, assemble, and paint small metal (or plastic) models, these models represent the forces of your Army. After you’ve designed and constructed your own army the next step is to wage war with it. Luckily, there are places to play all around the United States (and across the globe) though it is more fun to play against friends. Once you have an opponent you set up your playing area (a dining table works great, for starters). You set up your armies and begin moving them around the board, each unit has it’s own characteristics and moves (remember those books I mentioned, all this information is found in them). You can’t win a war without fighting and the heart and soul of Warhammer is the rule-set that controls how units within an army interact with other friendly and unfriendly units. These encounters are resolved by look at the two fighting units stats and then rolling across dice to see the outcome and comparing the dice to some charts to see who lives and who dies…
I know this sounds boring, and it can be, at times. Referring to books, army list sheets, and quick-reference charts doesn’t sound fun. But this is only a small part of the game and the charts are easily memorized, Games Workshop has tried very hard to make the rules as non-intrusive as possible. Leaving most of your time to beating the hell out of your friend, which is a great deal of fun. The actual game is only 1/3 of the Warhammer experience, the other 2/3 is designing and customizing your army, and then putting it together and painting it. It’s incredibly rewarding to see models you’ve put together and painted spread across a table in the middle of a game your winning.
“Blah, Blah, Blah” you’re saying, “What does all this have to do with Blizzard and Warcraft?” I’m getting there just one more thing before we get to the good parts! If you are a video gamer what I described should sound really familair to you, because I’m describing the analog non-digital version of a Real-Time Strategy Game (RTS). RTSs were the direct offspring of turn-based strategy games, which were the offspring of table-top war games. The historic base war games are very complicated and very long, and their descendants on computers haven’t changed much… In 1983 Games Workshop released Warhammer moving the game into a fantasy setting and cutting out a bunch of complications, to make the game more fun, faster, and less of a headache. In the early and mid 90’s Games Workshop was approached by a small American development team called Blizzard, the folks at Blizzard were fans of GW’s products and they wanted to make a game based on the Warhammer setting… Negotiations went back and forth and Blizzard began eal development. Then GW backed out. Blizzard though still wanted to make the game, so they tweaked it and changed it a little and released it as Warcraft: Orcs and Humans… The rest is history, Warcraft was the first successful RTS game (alongside Command and Conquer). If you look through early Warcraft material and that in Warhammer books you’ll see several similarities: art direction, magic spells, griffin riders, wolf riders, tech gnomes and goblins, all are in Warhammer and the models of these figures look a lot like those found in the Warcraft games.
As the Warcraft brand matured, especially with the WCIII and World of Warcraft, Blizzard has moved away from the Warhammer roots, they’ve injected a great deal of humor, and cartoonish joy into the WC which is absent from the bleak setting of Warhammer.
If you’re interested in playing Warhammer the best place to start is with the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set, which includes two small armies, and everything you and someone you know to start playing with them (they are unassembled and unpainted, part of the game is doing that too).
10. Braid – Braid is the future of video games, movies, life, everything. Don’t believe me? Just asks its creator, Jonathan Blow, who has managed to make his own ego the main selling point of this brainy platformer. Now, you don’t actually have to beat the game, you don’t even have to play it. Simply mention Braid, or it’s creator, in any video game discussion as an excellent example of form reflecting content, or comment on the delicate and multi-layered story in a condescending voice and you’re peers will soon be asking you what games they should like and why.
6. Any game that sells on the secondary market for more than $200 – Obviously it has to be complete… That cardboard box adds anywhere from $25-$100 dollars to the aftermarket price. Why do you need one of these? For a number of reasons: you get to brag to everyone just how much your complete MIB copy of 
4. Japanese copies of Games released in English – That’s impressive that you own Casltevania 1,2, and 3 complete MIB. Did I tell you I have a copy of Akumajō Dracula, Dorakyura Tsū: Noroi no Fūin, and Akumajō Densetsu? No, well I do. What’s that you have Final Fantasy 3? That’s nice, check out my copy of Fainaru Fantajī Shikkusu. Things are just better when you can’t understand them, also they have crosses and boobies in the original versions.
