Games

Archive for the ‘Game Infomation’ Category

Remember the good old days of gaming, when there were only 5 pixels in the protagonist and your imagination could turn them into a heroic figure of Schwarzenegger proportions? When the enemies and the heroes were distinguished by colour and you only needed one button on the joystick? Well times have changed and technology has moved on. Pulling my old Commodore 64 or Atari out of the back of the cupboard and setting them up often takes more time than the nostalgic pang lasts. I’ve also noticed that some of my old disks are starting to age and become corrupted. Enter the Internet.

The wonderfully technologically gifted and giving Internet populace is out in force in their attempts to preserve the older side of gaming. Remakes and Emulators for almost any old machine can be found around the Internet. Emulators act as a layer between old software and new hardware allowing modern PCs to run programs that such hardware was never meant to see. Commodore 64, Amiga, NES, Master System, Arcade Machines and more have all been emulated and the necessary programs placed online for download, usually for free.

Emulation is not a new idea. I had a hardware emulator for the VIC20 that plugged into the back of my Commodore 64 and allowed the use of the older VIC20 cartridges with the new hardware (I never actually owned a VIC20 or any programs for it but that’s another issue). Emulator popularity has been fading in and out for many years, only coming into many people’s attention with the release of Bleem!, a Playstation emulator for PC that was released while the PSOne still held a dominant share of the video game market. Bleemcast (a Playstation emulator for the Sega Dreamcast) soon followed causing one of the more interesting video game legal battles as Sony fought to have the emulator shut down. However, the emulators have a strong following and very active user base.

Emulators are easy to find and download. Simply search for the system you want and add the word emulator to the end (e.g. “SNES Emulator”) and you’ll probably come up with a lot of hits. Be slightly wary as some emulator sites will either be false links or may contain pornographic ads. Setting the emulators up to run is usually fairly straightforward and there’s a fair chance that you’ll be able to find some documentation and help. Some of the newer systems require a BIOS image to be installed with the emulator. This is to get around the legal issues raised by Sony in the Bleem! legal battles by requiring you to be in possession of a Playstation BIOS (and hence, presumably, a Playstation) in order to play the games on your computer. Making a BIOS image to load into your computer will most likely be beyond your technical expertise, but a quick check of your console’s case will reveal the file you need to get and then it’s as simple as searching the internet for a BIOS image that matches the BIOS you already own.

Of interest are the PC emulators now available. Windows no longer has very good support for older DOS-based games so there are a few emulators out there now to emulate the DOS environment. DOSBox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/) is probably the best known of the crop. There are also game-specific emulators such as ScummVM (www.scummvm.org) or DOOM Legacy (http://legacy.newdoom.com/) that focus specifically on certain games and hence are able to improve the experience for those particular titles.

Once you have yourself an emulator you’ll need to get yourself some programs to run with it. These programs are called ‘ROMs’ and are images of the original storage device that the program came on (be it a cartridge, tape, floppy or other). The process of creating a ROM is probably far too technical for the vast majority of computer users so you’re probably going to have to find a ‘backup’ from somewhere to download. This is where the venture gets slightly foggy. Basically the deal is that you can only have a program ROM if you own the original program. So if you have boxes of old Amiga disks, NES cartridges, or other old gaming programs stored away somewhere, you’re in luck, otherwise you’re treading on legally shifty ground. While it can easily be argued that the downloading of a 1987 computer game is of no real consequence to the company that has in all likelihood closed down, copyright doesn’t actually expire for 50 years and computer games just haven’t been around that long.

Online ‘emulation’ is a new area now being explored. The idea is that you simply play the game in your browser through a Java applet or Flash application. These might not always strictly be emulated programs but many remakes are feature perfect with the originals. The graphics, sounds, and game play remain intact. One excellent place to look for online games is Every Video Game (http://www.everyvideogame.com). While the site does not in fact contain ‘every video game’ it does have a very large list of old games from the arcades, GameBoy, NES, and Master System all playable through your browser. Many remakes can also be found at Shockwave’s site (http://www.shockwave.com/sw/actiongames/arcade_classics/).

Some of the old games have even been remade and updated for this modern world we now live in. Try doing a search for remakes of a game title you particularly enjoyed and you may be surprised at what you find. There are games that have been updated to be 3D, such as some old favourites of mine: Pac man (http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/f1292.html) and Barbarian (http://www.dgdevteam.tk/), and while these might not always be brilliant games or remakes in their own right, the thought and effort put in often leads to an enjoyable diversion. There are also more traditional versions of games that have just updated the code as well as possibly the graphics so that they can still be run.

So if you’re feeling nostalgic or just can’t get the hang of these new-fangled games that require you to push fifty buttons in a precise configuration just to jump, you may like to check out the emulation and remake scene. It’s surprisingly entertaining to go back in time to when games were simple yet fun.

Daniel Punch M6.Net Web Helpers http://www.m6.net

It’s a popularity contest.

Solitaire is hip, cool, and way more popular than Half Life 2. Don’t believe me right? Well, the numbers don’t lie. According to two of the biggest search tracking tools on the web (Wordtracker and Overture) more people are looking to play Solitaire then Half Life 2. Almost twice as many. Wordtracker says that every day 5,031 people searched for Solitaire, while only 3,610 looked for Half Life 2. Overture says 3,095 searched for Solitaire, while only 1,180 searched for Half Life 2. And these days, Half Life 2 is in its prime. It’s having its 15 minutes of fame. Within 6 more months, when all the buzz has worn down, Half Lifes numbers will drop. After those same 6 months, Solitaire will be just as popular as ever. It’s a classic; it never goes out of style. It’s retro, old school, and bleeding edge all at the same time.

Save your money.

Ya gotta read the fine print folks. Flip that pretty shrink-wrapped box of Half Life 2 over, and take a peek at the little letters. You know, the ones with all the tech speak, that only the 14 year old in the family understands. Don’t bother trying to read it; I’ll translate for ya. It says, “Not only will you have to shell out 59.95 for this glitzy box in your hands, but prepare to cough up another $150-$ $200 (plus installation) to upgrade that pathetic outdated machine you have at home”. Yea right. Is there a big “L” burned into my forehead? I’m willing to bet however, that if you can read this article, your PC has all the juice it needs to run the biggest baddest version of Solitaire ever created.

You’ll never be bored.

If your looking to expand your Solitaire experience head on over to your favorite search engine, type in Solitaire, and hit enter. Google finds about 6.8 million sites. Pick one, and have a blast. I’m sure you can find one that’s way cooler than the one that came with your windows machine. Now, how many variations of Half Life 2 are there to choose from? Umm I believe the title suggests there are 2. Not much choice there.

You don’t have to train with the circus contortionist.

You’ll really need to get your fingers limbered and loose for all the crazy keyboard commands, combinations, and permutations you’ll need to master for Half Life 2. The original Half Life had 49 different keyboard / mouse control combinations to play the game. I suspect that version 2 has even more. Last time I checked, the version of Solitaire installed with Windows, only needed 2. Point . . . and . . . click. Once again, if you’re reading this article (and obviously you are), I think you’ve got all the training you need for Solitaire. Ever seen a deck of playing cards before? Ok then, your trained!

Slingo, Platypus, Breakout, Tetris, Zuma, Magic Vines, etc, etc, etc.

If Solitaire doesn’t get you all worked up, then look around a little. Don’t just settle for the latest hype from today’s headlines. There are thousands of fun, easy to learn game gems out there, just waiting to be discovered by someone like you. They never get old, they’re always fun. Plus, you can download them right now, and be playing in minutes. They’re great games, they don’t need to be hyped. So, what are you waiting for, stop reading, come on in, and play play play!

About the author:
Chris Campbell is secretly envious of everyone with a PC good enough to play Half Life 2. When not writing articles praising the glory of independent games and their developers, he dreams of the day when everyone searching the web for “solitaire” ends up visiting his website: http://www.SunAndGames.com Then maybe he’ll be able upgrade his PC, and finally play Half Life 2.

You may not agree with the order in which they are in, that’s personal preference.

But you have to agree that these are some pretty stupid game names.

1. “This Is Football”
Trust me, it is. Really.

2. “The Thing”
Where you shoot at the what-sits with the um stuff.

3. “Sweet 16 Licensed To Drive”
Unfortunately Mary-Kate and Ashley miss the true legal significance of this birthday

4. “Go Go Golf”
This is like calling Gran Turismo 3 ”Zoom Zoom Cars’.

5. “WWE Shut Your Mouth”
They should have included ‘You Lycra Wearing Macho Meathead Freak’ on the end but they forgot.

6. “Rugby”
It surrrrrre is.

7. “F1 Championship Season 2000″
Has a championship in which you race the 2000 season, in F1.

8. “Speed Freaks”
A game full of freaks that are on speed. Don’t bother playing this game, just go downtown and you’ll find the guys who inspired this game. Both kinds that is…

9. “Gitaroo Man”
Maybe the Japanese guys who made this game invest in a slightly higher quality English translator, as obversely it wasn’t working too good.

10. “Z”
Zed … or Zee? The most basic game name ever and most people will say it wrong!

10-2. “Final Fantasy X-2″
Sorry, couldn’t miss this one out. For making a mockery of Roman Numerals. Look out for the sequel ‘Super Final Fantasy X-2-7-4 Turbo Ultimate Gold Limited Edition.

Hamster hangs out: http://www.faultystudios.com, where the cool guys do flash movies, and um, talk jack on the forum.

There are millions of computer games out there on the market, how do you make your game best selling? What features have to be included? I have taken a look on previously best sellers trying to determine what makes a great game.

Set the player in focus

The player wants to be in focus in the game, he or she wants to feel that he can control the outcome of the game. It doesn’t have to be easy, or it shouldn’t. The harder the game is the better the player will feel when he has completed the game and won.

For example in Sid Meiers Civilization the player is set in focus and can affect the outcome of the game. She knows that it’s up to her if she wins or loose. This concept is seen in virtually all best sellers, Doom, Civilization, The Sims, Sim City, Warcraft, Command&Conquer to name a few.

This can also be done in games that are heavily built on a story. For example in several adventure games by Lucas Arts the concept of that the player can control his or her destiny is used frequently. Developers should look out for basing the game too much on what the computer does or other factors.

Simplicity

Never underestimate simplicity; a gamer does not generally like to read hundreds of pages to be able to play a game. Sure advanced features could be included, but still the player should within ten minutes be able to understand what the game is about and how it is played. If the gamer doesn’t the game will probably be turned into a dust collector in the basement.

Here the design of the menus and the interface comes in. Avoid having strange controls, like the firing button on F for example. If you were making a 3rd person shooter you would want to use the same set of controls as other games in the sector do.

The menus should be easy to understand, I have reviewed a lot of games were the menus are made out of symbols without any text. This is not recommended since the interpretation of a symbol is highly subjective; try to mix symbols with text.

Action

With action I don’t necessarily mean violence. There should however be something happening in the game, and when it happens the player should really notice it. For example killing an enemy in a 3rd person shooter should generate blood, building a police station in Sim City should reduce crime, killing the last enemy in Warcraft should generate victory, ok I guess you got the picture. Perhaps this seems quite basic, and it is, but still some developers don’t think in these terms.

Story

Never ever underestimate a game story. If you read any gaming magazine today you notice that there is an awful lot of focus on the graphics. The graphics are important but they mean nothing if the background story sucks. Of course this isn’t true if a game is ground breaking. Doom didn’t have a very well developed story but still it was ground breaking because people had never seen nothing like it before.

But generally the story is important, sometimes a player wants to feel part of something bigger.

To name a few examples we could start with virtually all role playing games. However don’t do the mistake of writing the story too complicated. A simple story or shorter story should work fine as long as the story is good.

Graphics

Yes well I have to mention it. Graphics serve one purpose as I see it; they enhance the game play and all the other factors I have mentioned. They are important in the sense that they communicate the game to the player. They don’t have to be stunning but they should serve a purpose.

A recent example of this is Command&Conquer Generals, the graphics are good, they serve a purpose and they enhance the gaming experience. However the game in question was not that long-lived for various other reasons.

There are several games with bad graphics that are still fun to play for example Warcraft 2 or Sid Meiers old classic, Pirates.

Things that people can relate to

A bestseller game has to include something that the player can relate to in some way. The Sims that is the world’s best selling game right now have several factors that people can relate to in real life. However remember that different people relate to different things.

Say that a person just saw a science fiction movie and thinks “I really want to fly a space ship like in that movie”, so the person in question starts a search for such a game. This is also one of the reasons the Warcraft series become very popular, the Orcs and other characters in the game people remember from reading Tolkien’s book.

Developing a game about solving equations will probably not be a hit since far too few people relate to it. These are the main factors that create a good game, if these factors are followed you will probably have a pretty good game. There are of course other elements that make a difference; marketing is one of them that will be more important as the gaming scene grows.

Daniel Westerstal is the editor of: http://www.uziana.com/ which features many reviews and other PC gaming related content.

Introduction

In this article you will learn how to get the most out of your graphics card by installing new drivers and tweaking Windows. The guide is based around Windows XP Professional Edition but you can use the same guide to tweak other Windows operating systems.

Step 1.

The first thing you need to know what graphics card you are using. The most popular graphics card companies are nVidia and ATi. Both these companies have an excellent range of products and offer excellent service. Once you know what graphics card you are using, then head over to the companies website where you can download the latest drivers.

Drivers are software that runs your graphics card, printer or scanner correctly. Being up to date with drivers will help solve issues that may arise with modern PC games. Just recently I had to update my drivers to fix a problem I had with a game I recently purchased, and this solved my problem.

OK once you have downloaded your drivers for your graphics card make sure you create a restore point using the utility System Restore. This can be done my click Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools and then System Restore. Then follow the on screen instructions to create the restore point. By doing this it makes sure that if a problem occurs after you installed the new drivers, you can return to the restore point to see if the problem is the drivers you installed.

Once you’ve finished creating your restore point, you need to install your drivers. This can done by double clicking on the file you downloaded and then you follow the on screen instructions. After you’ve installed your drivers you will have to restart Windows so the changes can take effect.

If everything goes according to plan you should see an increase in performance in your games and you will not need to go back to your restore point. If you do have problems, use your restore point to go back and fix the problems. If the problem persists, then contact the company that made your graphics card.

Step 2.

Make sure you have the latest version of DirectX. This can be done by going onto the Microsoft website http://www.microsoft.com and searching DirectX. Once you’ve downloaded the latest version, you will need to create another restore point. One person I know installed the latest version of DirectX and then had problems afterwards, and because they didn’t create a restore point they couldn’t fix the problem and so they needed to reformat their computer to solve the problem. Again to create a restore point, go to Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools and then System Restore.

Once you’ve created the restore point install the latest version of DirectX by double clicking on the file you just downloaded. Follow the on screen instructions and once you’ve finished you will have to restart your Windows.

Step 3.

In this step I will guide you through tweaking Windows XP. The first step will be changing the performance of Windows, to do this right-click on My Computer and then Properties->Advanced->Performance->Settings and select ‘Adjust for best Performance’.

The next step is to change your Themes, so right-click on your desktop and select Properties. Under the Themes tab set your theme to Windows Classic.

About The Author

I run a small PC gaming website called Gaming Archive. I’m currently a student in England studying ICT. steve.hames@gaming-archive.com