Jack's Gaming, GIF and more Blog

The origin of E3

2010-06-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the next generation of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) called Electronic Entertainment Expo better known as E3. Before the E3 was there the show of choice for game companies was the CES. The Atari made its public debuted at the "CES" so had every game console before the Playstation and Saturn. For those of you who do not know what the CES is. Think E3 with everything Electronic added to the event. CES seres the entire electronic industry and not just gaming like E3 does. Coming from an Time article on CES it was stated the 2009 event "The conference will include 2,700 exhibitors flaunting their wares across 1.7 million square feet of floor space at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Sands Expo and Convention Center in the Venetian Casino and Hotel.".
So when Sega, Sony, and Atari wanted to go to a new event called E3 Nintendo and Microsoft did not. Nintendo had signed up to do CES and not E3 from the start. Douglas Lowenstein president of Interactive Digital Software Association states in The Ultimate History of Video Games as Nintendo became isolated "Nintendo recognized that the industry had essentially voted with its feet, with an overwhelming number of companies signing up with the E3 event. Nintendo then eventually joined the rest of the industry in signing up". Little did the people behind CES know that E3 would forever change their event. The gaming market had always been pushed to the side at CES. So they never expected that E3 would eventually lead to the end of the summer CES event.
In the Spring of 1995 the world would see the most successful debut of a trade show ever called E3. Which was scheduled for the same week as the CES summer event. As company after company canceled their CES show, the show was doomed to close. E3 first year over 40,000 people attend. On May 11, 1995 at 8:30 in the morning the public would first hear from Tom Kalinsje president of Sega of the Sega Saturn which would hit the market with a $399.00 price tag. The biggest part of the news was though the system had already been shipped. After Sega was done next would be Sony.
At the time there was a number of rumors about the Playstation it was going to be higher priced than the Sega Saturn. This would end up not being true and would lead to Sony winning the first E3. Olaf Olagsson was giving a speech about how important story telling was in games when he stopped himself and called Steve Race to the stage. Steve Race walked up to the podium with a bunch of papers like he was about to give some long speech. He just said one thing "$299.00". With that being said it right after the Sega's presentation. It would be the first nail into the Saturn coffin. Nintendo had shown off big games for the Super NES Dokey Kong Country 2, Killer Instinct and a game which orinally Nintendo would not make called Yosh's Island.
addendum

References:
G4 Icon The History of E3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btgT8ue3y5U
Kent, S. (2001). The Ultimate history of video games. Roseville, California: Three Rivers Press.
Pickert, K. (2008, January 08). The Consumer electronics show. Time,

There nothing wrong with being called a gimmick in gaming

2009-08-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

When Nintendo first came out with the NES most expects called the controls a gimmick and said due to the arrows no one would want to use it. The same experts said the NES was also doomed to fail because gaming has a whole was called a gimmick. So Nintendo added ROB and called the NES a entertainment system. Then when the N64 came out the analog control was called a gimmick again by many gamers until it was copied on and improved. When the rumble came with Star Fox 64 again many so called expects called it a gimmick and to note so did I. I remember even laughing at the rumble pack myself. When Ultima's MMO came out many called the idea of an MMO a fad and gimmick.

The term gimmick is correct when talking about something new and appealing. Many of what you would now call standards in gaming was a gimmick at one time. A tool used to prove itself because it has a something which makes it stand out that others don't have. One more thing to think about once the Sony motion control and the Natel is out the Wiimote will no longer be a gimmick. From that point motion controls will be a new standard in gaming. Maybe not used in every game, even the Wii does not do that. But never the less the Wiimote motion or waggle if you will becomes startard.

Plants vs Zombie Review

2009-07-11T12:12:00.000-07:00

What is it that every Zombie has been wanting since the dawn of time? Well, to eat your brains. Plants vs. Zombies is an exploration into the scenario of what to do if Zombies were attacking you and the only defense is genetically altered plants. The very highly addictive tower defense game offers many a main games with multiple mini games and puzzles.
The main game mixes up the game play with new environments to keep the game from becoming stale. This also allows you, as the gamer to come up with multiple different strategies for each new set of levels. The Zombies in this game are smarter than your average Zombies. They attack from the front yard to the back yard and even from the roof. Don’t expect the Zombies to take a rest either, as they don’t care if it is day or night - the Zombies want your brains. Your only defense from these brain eating Zombies are plants. That’s right, plants!
The plants vary from a sunflower which provides you with sunlight to pea plants which shoot out peas. The sunlight pays for your plants which you use in the game. It is a simple mechanic you need the sunlight to make the plants. The Zombies come in from different areas and you as the gamer have to come up with strategies as to where to place your plants to defeat them.
Then, on top of the main game there are a large number of mini-games, puzzles and endless modes. The mini-games vary from blowing down zombies to being the zombies attacking the plants. There are two puzzle modes; the vase breaker and I, Zombie mode. In the vase breaking mode, the gamer breaks a vase one at a time to either have a Zombie pop out or a plant which can be used on the other Zombies which also pop out. The endless modes keep throwing zombie after zombie at you non-stop. See how long you can last, and here is a hint if you can get past 10 levels of Zombies then you will unlock an achievement if you got the game on Steam.
One of the best parts of Plants vs. Zombies is that the game is only $9.99 on steam and $19.99 on PopCap's website. Plants vs. Zombies is a great game for the whole family. Even my wife can’t get enough of playing this game.

The uproar over Lego RockBand!! Is it because of the Wii?

2009-04-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

Lego Rockband was rumored a few weeks ago and many fans have been taking this as a full on attack on against them, the “core gamers”. These core gamers should only be the fans Rock Band, but I am betting many people who have not even played Rock Band are upset because they take this as an attack from the invading casual gamers. Is the hate towards Lego Rock Band a result of the Wii hate out there? I think so and here is why. There have always been causal games on all game systems without question. Let’s not forget the huge mistake Atari made with ET. It did not start from the ET it started the very second gaming companies were aware a quick dollar could be made from causal gaming. It does not mean causal games are bad either. There are a number of good casual games out there. Who does not play games like Tetris, movie based games and so on.

With all these casual games having always been out, why is there hate now for them? In some way, I think it is the influence of the Nintendo Wii on the market. This hate is coming from gamers who are upset that the Wii is winning the so called console war with sales. You will not hear the hate for the Nintendo Wii and the hate for Lego Rock Band being talked about together. it was not until the Wii’s success did most gamers start caring about casual games on the market. Many other haters have picked up the reasons why the Wii they think the Wii is not a good system. These haters would yell name of games like Ninja BreadMan as to the reasons why the Wii is not a good system. Yet, they did not seem to care when that same game came out two years before the Wii on the PS2. These causal games still sell a lot despite the so called “core gamers” hate for them. With sales of games like Cranial games and Deca games reaching over a million it is little question as to why third party companies are trying to make more casual games. Don’t forget the Wii was not out when we got the first Lego Star Wars.

“Anakin Skywalker meet Strawberry Shortcake”

Now that we have gone over the Wii and why it’s not the Wii’s fault these games come out but companies wanting to make a dollar. Let’s take a look at a game which is tied to the music genre, but not hated on when it makes causal games. At least any hate which I know of. The name of the game is Dance Dance Revolution better know has DDR. It was one of the first major music franchise predating Guitar Hero and Rock Band by many years. There are well over 50 versions of DDR games with many of them not being the core editions of the game but more casual targeted versions. Some of these casual versions are Disney, Hannah Montana, Strawberry Shortcake, High School Musical and many more titles. So where was the protest when these games came out? The fact was very few cared because the DDR fans knew it was the norm and a good way to get more DDR players. Now this is something that the Rock Band players should be looking at when thinking about the casual friendly Lego Rock Band that it is only going to get more gamers into Rock Band. The more gamers that get into Rock Band the better and stronger the title is and the better the support will be for many more sequels. Even if these new Rock Band players start at a kid level it may be something that stays with them and that they will grow to enjoy as well as other Rock Band fans. The reason for this hate may be because of the Wii that so called core gamers are taking more notice to casual games. But that does not mean you, the fan, should get caught up in the hate.

Zelda 2 an amazing and underated game

2009-04-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link is, in my humble opinion, one of the best Zelda games and one of the best NES games. I know many may laugh at the idea and many might think of Zelda 2 as a fluke game that was hard and had too many flaws. I am going to go over many standout reasons why Zelda 2 was a great game.

First, random enemies unlike the Dragon Quest "or Dragon Warrior as it was know then," and Final Fantasy, Zelda did not have the random enemies that popped up. As shown below in the picture, Zelda 2 had a number of random enemies come up on the screen.

These enemies came up in such a way that you could run away from them or attack them to level up. What!!! Level up in a Zelda game. Yes there was leveling up in Zelda 2 and I will get to that later. These enemies would come out whenever you got off your path. When one did attack you, the screen turned from the the picture above to the 2d image you see below.

The whole attack system of where you fought the enemies made it where each enemy was like a mini level on itself.

Second, a leveling system: Notice the top of the screen the bar shows magic 1 and life 1 then next 0000/0050. The reason for this is as you attacked enemies you gained experience. How much magic you could do or how much life you had was based on the level you were in the game. Giving Zelda 2 more of an RPG feeling than any other Zelda offered.

The Third reason: the missions in the game with could be found in the towns. To get a spell like healing in the game you may have to get a mirror for some person who has lost it or find some lost kid. This added more to the game and made it much more enjoyable.

The Forth reason: A number of attack moves which are used in future Zeldas also came from this game. The up and downwards thrust used in many Zeldas now.

They had their start from this game. I could keep going but the point of the story is spend the $5. Download this game, and see what we are missing in some of the Zelda games that come out today.

Jack Campbell -HarlockJC