Episode 8 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...rum/index.php?topic=10545
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Many of us are familiar with the games released for our favorite consoles. But how can you enhance your collection beyond simply obtaining retail releases? Well explore one of many answers to that question this time around by entering the realm of Homebrew titles. And to make sure we treat the subject appropriately we've sought out help. NES Homebrew Developer John White, creator of the game Assimilate, joins us to discuss his thoughts on Homebrew games.
We took this opportunity to poke and prod as much info as we could from him regarding both his game and Homebrews in general. Being a collector focused site, we of course had to get his unique perspective on the collectability of such items too.
As usual we also discuss the most interesting scores posted on the site since our last recording. With the overwhelming number of post this time around we must apologize if you feel we missed mentioning your finds. There were far too many wonderful additions to our member's collections this episode that we really had to cut it down to what we felt were the absolute best scores.
Show notes:
Music: Final Fantasy III/VI (SNES)
4:53 Small Scores
1:12:00 Homebrew intro discussion
1:35:03 Interview with John White
2:50:59 Outtro
Sites mentioned in the show:
http://airwalkstudios.com/
http://nessylum.wordpress.com/
http://www.retrousb.com/
This is just a little different than the typical "RFG Thanks for (insert month/year)".
I was going through some of my old blog entries and I found one I wrote as an open letter to the community. It was written 3 years after joining, but a mere 2 months after I really began to get involved with the community.
As I sit here now, my son is playing Pokepark on the Wii as I look at my TI-99/4A that I need to test so I can sell it. There have been a lot of changes for me personally as well as for the site in the time since that blog post. I have gone from grabbing everything in sight to being selective and selling off stuff that I have just to have it. I'm now a director on the site. We had a pretty big disaster on the site that easily could have been the end of the site potentially. I recovered what I could with what I had, losing a couple of years worth of forum posts and maybe 6 weeks of database submissions.
The forum was slow to come back, but here we are. We have a bunch of new members and old members who have returned. We have new bloggers and a new podcast. We are nearing in on 70,000 software entries and 5,000 hardware entries! We have a new server with more power and drive space for us to grow with! And we have continued to do so with just the support of the community and their donations. We have no plans to be sold or put up ads.
We're doing this on our own. I see and hear things happening elsewhere that I never want anything to happen here. We want you to communicate to us and let us know about any issues you have or any ideas to make things better. Together, we'll continue to get better as well as grow.
What this all boils down to is... thanks. Without the passion of the community, we wouldn't be here. Thanks to the bloggers for writing about your perspective. Thanks to all of the staff for your work on keeping that submission queue low. Thanks to everyone who was here before me who started the site right. Lastly, thanks to every member for making this a great place to be, day after day.
And as always, keep it on channel 3!
[img width=550 height=798]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-060/bf/U-060-S-00560-A.jpg[/img]
So here's the thing. I knew very little about D. I knew it was a survival horror game with a cool cover, and not a whole lot more. Yesterday I received it in a trade from fellow RFGenner Barracuda and figured I'd throw it in to make sure it worked. I fired up the Saturn, and opened the manual to see how it worked. "Due to its story, this game has a two hour time limit," I read. "In keeping with the time limit, this game does not contain a pause feature." ...Interesting.
And what began with me testing the game out, turned into me being totally sucked in. Two hours (or a little less really) later, the game had reached its conclusion. I suppose that if I had bought this game when it was first released, then I may have been upset. I mean, two hours? A game that has a linear story, and puzzles I had solved the first time. Surely there'd be little re-playability. I would have maybe felt that I had spent $50 on a game that had run its course in one sitting. Right?
[img width=640 height=448]http://img.gamefaqs.net/screens/d/0/a/gfs_54839_2_4.jpg[/img] [img width=640 height=448]http://img.gamefaqs.net/screens/f/b/f/gfs_54839_2_15.jpg[/img]
But who knows how I would have really felt then? All I can tell you is how I feel now. I feel thrilled to have played this game. I feel thrilled that I've discovered this series. There are some games out there that go so far beyond being just a fun game -- they are experiences to be had. Special games that you hold close to you forever and are willing to play again and again because of how they affected you. Games like Shadow of the Colossus or Heavy Rain come to mind. These are games not so far removed from an engrossing cinematic experience. Like a favorite movie that you can watch over and over again finding new tiny nuances to latch onto with each new viewing.
D starts off with an amazing cinematic cut scene that puts you in a deserted hospital -- the scene of gruesome murders committed by your father, a doctor. Suddenly the hospital turns into a big abandoned castle-esque mansion. It soon becomes clear that reality isn't part of this story. Instead, it is a story mostly told through mood somewhat akin to a David Lynch film.
[img width=640 height=448]http://img.gamefaqs.net/screens/b/0/e/gfs_54839_2_18.jpg[/img] [img width=640 height=448]http://img.gamefaqs.net/screens/0/c/f/gfs_54839_2_10.jpg[/img]
The controls may take a few moments to get used to. The point-of-view is first person most of the time, though interactions with the environment take place in the third person. Much of the game consists of solving various puzzles in order to access new areas, somewhat reminiscent of Myst. However the gruesome flashbacks and other bits of disturbing imagery are all far removed from the somewhat relaxing tone of a game like Myst. Indeed this is a creepy game. One where although very little happens you can't help but feel a certain sense of dread (and perhaps urgency from the imposed two hour limit).
Though actual bits of story are told through some rather laughable voice acting, it is nonetheless an incredible experience. One that I won't spoil for you. None of the puzzles are brutally hard. In fact your biggest downfall may well be over-thinking some of them. But at just two hours there's really no excuse for you to not experience this game. After beating it myself I started doing some research and it turns out I got the "bad" ending. Luckily enough D was so compelling to me that I have no problem with the idea of playing through it again just to see the "good" ending. If you are a fan of the macabre, or just fascinatingly unique games in general, I highly urge you to seek out D.
George Pelonis is the founder of Fury Unlimited, a company that creates homebrew titles for the GCE Vectrex home console. George currently resides in Southern California, and programs Vectrex games in his spare time. You can check out his website and purchase his games and controllers at: http://www.furyunlimited.com.
[img width=350 height=400]http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y359/necrom99/Pelonis%20Interview/1.jpg[/img] (In reference to the glasses, he writes, "[I'm] not trying to look cool. Those are just off-the-shelf 3D LCD glasses, like the kind used for home 3D television setups and PC 3D gaming. They were made useful to Vectrex fans by Kevin Horton (creator of the game KevTris) who marketed an adapter which made these glasses work with Vectrex 3D games. An interesting part of this is that it obviously couldn't create the color 3D illusion like GCE's 3D Imager, so you played in 3D monochrome. As long as I wasn't doing anything color-specific, I preferred using this to program 3D Sector-X because it produced less eyestrain.")
Regardless, you still look pretty cool George. Thanks for your time and for agreeing to do an interview with me.
Thank you!
Continue reading Vectrex Interview Series #2 - George Pelonis
While kicking back this past weekend, the unexpected befell this aged bachelor - emergency babysitting duty of my 6 year old niece. With little time to prepare, it was decided that we would just hang out at my humble abode for the evening. To my surprise, she was not disappointed at all but actually ecstatic. This would be her very first visit to my home and entrance to my 'Room of Doom' was included in the evening's events (in addition to a Kung Fu Panda video).
Upon her arrival, she politely declined my offer of the Dora the Explorer juice box and simply looked up at me and cautiously asked "Can we go check out the video games Uncle Terry?" So off we went, skipping the whole way (why do kids like to skip so much?) to the Man Cave.
She was initially awestruck by all of the mysterious goodies contained within my secret gaming domain. She had experienced the Nintendo Wii and gaming apps on her iPod touch, but this was a completely different animal. After receiving my A-OK, she immediately plopped down in front of one of the bookcases to pick out a game for us.
Within a few minutes, she began organizing games taken off the shelf into distinct, but as of yet unidentifiable, piles. She then stated in a rather dubious manner "Uncle Terry, what are we going to play???" It was only then that I recognized the pattern: titles were being sorted by their ESRB rating. Her frustration was being fueled by the inability to quickly locate any "C" (children) or "E" (everyone) rated games. This realization caused me to pause prior to answering her. I took a moment to reflect upon my own early years, an era when ignoring similar cautionary flags could actually lead to incurring substantial physical harm ... |
| Handy Andy Toolbox
Complete with a steel hammer, finishing nails and a metal serrated saw, the Handy Andy Toolbox provided the urchin everything needed to impart destruction. Family furnishings were primarily the target, but annoying little sisters could also become the recipient of 'Handy Andy Terror'. | Betty Crocker Easy Bake Oven
 Looks pretty innocent at first glance, but this demon actually caused more house fires than anything else on this list. In addition to being able to actually heat your morning biscuit to a fairly high temperature, the Easy Bake Oven excelled at exploding ball point pens, melting crayons and torturing the wayward insect. | Jarts
For those unfamiliar with Jarts (or lawn darts), the premise is the same as horseshoes but you use high-flying metal tipped darts in lieu of slow moving steel projectiles. Participation required nimbleness to avoid the errant cast that could turn this seemingly harmless toy into a potential death missile. | Pen Knife
For whatever reason, this always seems to be an item gifted from one's Grandfather. Receiving one of these multi-functional instruments is almost like a rite of passage for the youngster. The possibilities this tool afforded were overwhelming, as were the self-inflicted injuries this device could inflict. | Kaster Sets
Like the Play-Doh Fun Factory, the Kaster Kit enabled the young buck the ability to craft their own toys. But instead of using a malleable clay product, the material that was provided was solid lead. The manufacturer 'wisely' included an apparatus to heat the lead to its melting point (621 degrees F!!). | Wood Burning Kits
Before the age of electronic labeling devices, the wood burning kit was the inscribing king. Within a matter of minutes, hooligans could apply their initials to virtually anything. From baseball mitts to the coffee table, everything could be branded by the youth, including human flesh for the careless. | The Junior Chemist
Now if the Junior Chemistry Set isn't a recipe for disaster, I don't know what is. With over 20 chemical compounds, test tubes and its very own Bunsen burner, the adolescent was provided with everything they needed to create any number of mysterious, bubbling cocktails. Without a doubt, this product had to be the Poison Control Center's biggest nightmare. | Atomic Energy Lab
This has got to be the most outrageous toy in the history of mankind. This monstrosity came with four different types of uranium ore, a cloud chamber with its own short-lived alpha source and an electroscope. An optional Geiger counter was also available for purchase, a popular add-on to ensure that radiated family members were appropriately quarantined. |
| I snapped back to reality to see my niece, still sitting there patiently awaiting my answer. What game were we going to play? If I could have survived the hazards detailed above, then she could certainly weather virtually any title within my collection. A glance down at that young bug quickly dismissed that thought. To her delight and my dismay, we ended up playing the following, a true horror that rivals any of the items listed above: | High School Musical 3: Senior Year DANCE!
 | | What Hazardous Toys Do You Remember? |
[img width=300 height=300]http://www.techdigest.tv/kevin-bacon-thumb.jpg[/img]
September was another good month of submissions for RFGeneration. Our total submissions went up from 2,962 (August) to 3,334. Out of these new submissions, 3,256 were software and 78 were new hardware. Less than half of the total submissions (1,393) were images, which means that a lot of new content was added to our database!
Continue reading RFG Thanks: September 2012
[img width=550 height=787]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-048/bf/U-048-S-00160-A.jpg[/img]
I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the Sega CD. Perhaps because I was one of the kids that bought into the hype and begged my parents for the pricy add-on that Christmas season. And although its library is riddled with some pretty awkward and crappy games, they are often also quite interesting. Case in point, Bram Stoker's Dracula -- an attempt at combining classic side-scrolling action with the digitized actor craze of the Mortal Kombat days as well as the Full Motion Video craze that the Sega CD brought with it.
Certainly you're all aware of the film from which this game was adapted. Bram Stoker's Dracula was huge in 1992 -- directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring the likes of Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves, Anthony Hopkins and Wynona Rider. The film went on to win three Academy Awards. But why should we care about any of that here? Well because whereas earlier games licensed from film properties simply took characters from the movie, made some sprites that looked like them and asked you to platform around collecting stuff, Sony Imagesoft actually used clips of the film and digitized actors. (See if you can guess which of these pictures below is the film and which is the game!)
[img width=401 height=320]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5rfXLvTJP1k/Tw5ENKlpkRI/AAAAAAAACZU/G4mqjAtI0Yg/s1600/oldman+dracula.jpg[/img] [img width=640 height=480]http://img.gamefaqs.net/screens/2/7/d/gfs_56503_2_29.jpg[/img]
Now here's the thing -- Dracula isn't completely terrible. But it is bad.
First let's take a look at what this game did well. The first thing that jumped out to me was the music. Thanks of course to the CD-ROM format, we're blessed with wonderful gothic chamber music throughout the game. It's really a fantastically fitting soundtrack that couldn't have been replicated via chiptunes. There's also some very cool 3D scrolling effects where you change direction of the path you're taking, all the while continuing on a 2D plane. It's a bit hard to describe, but looks impressive when you experience it unexpectedly in the game.
[img width=640 height=480]http://img.gamefaqs.net/screens/d/d/2/gfs_56503_2_15.jpg[/img] [img width=640 height=480]http://img.gamefaqs.net/screens/3/a/9/gfs_56503_2_30.jpg[/img]
However if there's one major downfall of Dracula, it would be that Sony was just a bit too ambitious with this project. Really they had some great ideas, and were perhaps really onto something which is great when talking about a licensed property. They were smart enough to at least attempt to emulate another great vampire-killer game (that was no doubt inspired by the Dracula story itself), Castlevania. But the problem here is that Castlevania and all its primitive sprites controlled so much better than this. Indeed the digitized actor here moves incredibly slow. And his jumping, punching and kicking are also slow and clunky, which seems pretty unfair when enemies are moving quickly and swarming at you from all directions on the screen. Sadly though you'll be inclined to want the game to better than it is and see it to the end, you'll often find yourself frustratingly losing all your fifteen lives before the second level is even over.
With that said, I'd recommend Bram Stoker's Dracula to fans of the macabre who must horde such games, or those curious about the Sega CD format's growing pains. But beyond that this is probably one best left overlooked.
Episode 7 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...rum/index.php?topic=10429
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When buying, selling or trading games there is one thing that's always sure to come up: Whats this game worth to me? Pricing your game to sell can be a tricky thing. Buying at a price both the seller and buyer can agree upon, and be happy with, can be even trickier.
How important is it for trades to be equal in value? Does your relationship to someone have a monetary value when it comes to transactions? Whats a lowball and is it ever appropriate to make such an offer? What are the generally accepted methods of estimating an items price?
Join Duke, Crabmaster and Bil as we discuss how to spend your Toonies on the ever fluctuating market of secondhand video games.
Show notes:
Music: Ninja Gaiden (NES)
10:09 Small Scores
1:42:40 Pricing
2:55:46 Outtro
Sites mentioned in the show:
http://videogames.pricecharting.com/
http://www.ebay.com
http://www.cheapassgamer.com
The following was written up early last summer for appearance on another site that ultimately didn't run it. So I'm posting it here...
[img width=680 height=348]http://thecontrolleronline.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Pinball-Arcade-Logo.jpg[/img]
When I was in my early teenage years, the arcades were experiencing what would be their final hurrah before entering into a sad and ongoing fifteen year decline of increasingly shuttered mall stores, vacated boardwalk buildings, and empty pizza parlors. In many ways, however, the pinball arcade had already gone through this transition while the arcade itself was yet thriving. When I was a kid, most arcade hideouts had long ago tossed Pin-Bot and Space Shuttle machines to make room for more Mortal Kombat, Tekken, or NBA Jam cabinets. Pinball Wizard was not an anthem for my generation (I guess we had Guile's Theme, instead) and pinball was starting to be seen as a poor investment for arcade owners. As a kid, I didn't care. Pinball was something that I'd play to bide my time if all the video game machines were already taken. As an adult, however, I now lament the lost opportunity to spend more time with these masterful creations.
Pinball Arcade, published by FarSight Studios, offers a salve of sorts to my feelings of regret. FarSight previously published the excellent Pinball Hall of Fame titles which featured classic tables from pinball companies Gottlieb and Williams, each of which were painstakingly and lovingly recreated in video game form for a wide variety of consoles. Pinball Arcade takes that basic concept - detail-focused recreations of classic tables (complete with spot-on physics) - and offers it in the form of an PSN/XBLA/iOS title. This entry represents not only their best work to date, but it is also perhaps the best pinball video game to ever grace a console.
[img width=640 height=360]http://www.tech-gaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/The-Pinball-Arcade-1.jpg[/img]
On consoles, the game comes with four tables at an initial offering price of $10. Those tables are Theater of Magic, Black Hole, Ripley's Believe it or Not!, and Tales of the Arabian Nights. These are all heavy hitters in the pinball machine market: Theater, Ripley's, and Tales regularly command $5,000+ to purchase a machine on eBay or at conventions, and Black Hole will likely cost you at least a couple of grand. No video game can give you quite the same feeling as you would get playing the original, but I find it much easier to drop $10 for an excellent facsimile of that experience that to drop $20,000 for the real thing. Having played a wide variety of pinball video games in the past and having played three of the actual tables that are included in this collection, I can say that I've never played a title that feels closer to reality than Pinball Arcade.
There are a number of things that Pinball Arcade does right. For one, it offers online leaderboards that allow you to compare your scores with those of your friends and with others from around the world. I have been surprised by how much I have enjoyed this feature of the game, as it really delivers a sense of mutual competition that is reminiscent of the actual arcade experience. For another, it offers extremely easy to understand breakdowns of table goals, how to score, what spinners and lights mean what, etc. It seems a small thing for a pinball game, but the writer for the brief tutorial paragraphs deserves a bonus: those short blurbs of explanation are extremely succinct and informative without being condescending. The game offers a number of incentives for playing often and improving your skills: each table has a set of table goals and harder wizard goals which you can try and achieve (successful completion of which will net you trophies or achievements on PSN and XBLA, respectively), and finishing all of the goals will allow you to play tables with tilt turned off. Each tables menu also has a section detailing the history of the table and offers scans of the original flyers for you to pour over.
Oh, and those who purchase the PS3 version get the Vita version for free, so that's a nice bonus as well. The Vita version, while taking a slight drop in the visuals, performs extremely well and is my preferred platform for the game. You can't go wrong with any version, though.
[img width=640 height=363]http://i.imgur.com/NLDtnl.jpg[/img]
FarSight has indicated that more tables will be continue to be released as DLC at about $2.50 per table. So far these tables have included "Monster Bash," "Bride of Pin-Bot", "Medieval Madness," "Funhouse," and "Cirqus Voltaire" with promises of "Attack from Mars, "Star Trek The Next Generation" and "Twilight Zone" coming soon (and, again, almost all of these are extremely expensive machines on the pinball market). They have also built into their game the opportunity for tournament and challenge play with the addition of future tables, which should make leaderboard chasing even more exciting.
Whether you are a grizzled veteran of the pinball craze in arcades, a video gamer who has ever enjoyed any video pinball title in the past, or just a person who likes games that motivate you to improve your score, youll find a lot to love in Pinball Arcade. It might not give you the exact sensation of feeling all the bumpers and becoming part of the machine, but you can still work out those crazy flipper fingers (on shoulder buttons) while pursuing your own (virtual) pinball crown.
[img width=640 height=616]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/box/8/6/8/197868_50344_front.jpg[/img]
Street Fighter II.
...and now that I have your attention, I'll tell you a bit about my love of 2D fighting games. You see it all really began with Street Fighter II. Sure I played other fighters back then -- your Fatal Furies or Mortal Kombats -- but Street Fighter II would remain the standard for me. It's one of those games that I've bought over and over again in many different forms. Over the years I've owned multiple versions of SFII on SNES along with ports to Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, XBox 360 and so on. And while in many ways I feel that Street Fighter III (and perhaps even IV) are ultimately better games, it all comes back to II as the one I have the fondest connection with. So while I was away for gaming for much of what Capcom delivered post-SFII, it was with great enthusiasm that I went back discovering many of these amazing games I had missed once I fell back in love with IV.
Some of you may know about my love for the Darkstalkers series, which of course was Capcom's "macabre Street Fighter" game. Once I had discovered the series, the doors opened up to me to start investigating the various Capcom Vs. games which included Street Fighter and Darkstalkers characters in the roster amongst other Capcom notables. Though I dabbled a bit with Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, it was really the third game in the series that got me excited as a current-gen fighting game. But this past week I've been spending some time with the first Marvel Vs. Capcom on Dreamcast. Of course the roster is smaller, the visuals aren't high-def and there's no online play. But the truth is, I'm probably enjoying it even more than MVC3.
[img width=480 height=360]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/screenshots/8/197868/marvcap_screen001.jpg[/img] [img width=480 height=360]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/screenshots/8/197868/marvcap_screen011.jpg[/img]
Upon booting the game up I was greeted to some excellent music, which got me excited as I perused the roster. My first impression was how small the roster was compared to the third game in the series, or even other Capcom Vs. titles I've played. But when I looked closer, it seemed like that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. See a lot of the characters chosen are ones I'm fond of -- Morrigan, Chun-Li, Wolverine to name a few. I'm still on the look-out for a legit Dreamcast fight pad, but I do have a Total Control adapter so for now I'm using my Nubytech Street Fighter II anniversary pad released for PS2. With no tweaking to controls whatsoever in the options menu, this sets the six face buttons to classic Capcom style light-medium-strong attacks. Perfect!
I jumped right in using Morrigan and Chun-Li as my tagteam, who I've used as a team in other Vs. games many times before. Right away I was impressed with how visually stunning the sprite-work looked on the Dreamcast hardware. I've never played this game on the original arcade cabinet, so I can't speak much for how "100% arcade perfect" the game is as claimed on the back artwork. But I will say that everything is smooth and fast.
[img width=480 height=360]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/screenshots/8/197868/marvcap_screen052.jpg[/img] [img width=480 height=360]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/screenshots/8/197868/marvcap_screen092.jpg[/img]
Once I started playing for a while, there was one thing that caught me off guard: this game is hard. Or maybe I'm just rusty? Captain Commando and Mega Man both seem pretty ruthless in this game. Notice I said "ruthless" rather than "cheap." That's because as brutal as they and some of the other characters' AI can be, it always seems fair. If you put the time in to get good at Marvel Vs. Capcom, you will get good at it. Luckily the Dreamcast manual (remember those?) has pretty thorough move-lists. And before I knew it I was pulling off screen-filling specials that made me feel like a force to be reckoned with. That said, I'm still not able to beat the game on "a dollar's worth" of credits yet. But that's fine because much like the younger version of me playing Street Fighter II, this is the kind of fighter that you can sit and play for hours and have a great time doing so.
[img width=640 height=360]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/2012/5/predictions_001_73701_640screen.jpg[/img]
Many a gamer grumbled the world over when the 3DS was first revealed as having only a single, left analog 'circle pad.' Gaming futurists claimed the new system was already dead in the water because of a refusal to get with the times. Even the PSP has been routinely criticized for only having as many control inputs as a Dreamcast, compounded by the Vita's announcement of twice as many touch pads and analog sticks. By the time the 3DS XL came around with the gall to not split its own player base, forums were alight with proclamations of "no 2nd pad, no buy."
As a southpaw gamer, some of my concerns about this are admittedly doomed to a minority. For example, many Vita games are completely inaccessible to me because of a lack of input options, even for a portable with more input methods than ever before. It was extremely frustrating to find that Resistance, Uncharted, Unit 13, and most disappointingly Gravity Rush have no option to use the left stick for the 3D camera. I should know; I suffered terrible nausea trying to play the latter for ten minutes.
While this indelible oversight occurs often on consoles, where some systems have controller-modding options, on a handheld I'm pretty much out of luck. Sadly, it is a curse I've just had to accept about my own limitations meeting a publisher/developer's inconsideration for handicapped gamers (even for an easily correctable solution, such as the ability to swap the stupid analogs). But this element actually plays very little into the fact that I'm much happier that most portables, including the new 3DS models, only have a single analog. That's right; if given the choice, I'd rather every portable only have one analog thumb device, be it a 'nub,' 'stick,' or 'pad.'
Why? It actually has less to do with controls per se, and more to do with game design. What game types do developers make for systems with two analog sticks? As any modern gamer knows (and many an 'old school-er' laments) the genre du jour is first and third person shooters. It is generally agreed that for consoles, the now standard two-stick setup is the most ideal control method for these games, and I wouldn't argue. (Sticking to consoles, as this isn't a mouse-and-keyboard debate.)
But what do developers, who make so much money off of these F/TPS games, do about the portable market? Often, the system design is largely ignored for the sake of shoe-horning a console shooter onto it. And in my opinion, not having another stick is not the biggest problem with this; blocky graphic engines, bad framerates, limited enemy intelligence, scaled down maps, stripped down features, the list goes on. Its not that these game-types are doomed to fail on a portable; there does exist a few examples of excellent portable F/TPS games. But by and large most handheld iterations of anything resembling a Call of Duty or Halo derivative are considered subpar experiences. At best they are used as third tier backups for the 'true' experience, at worst they are practically unplayable experiments in ignoring the benefits of redesigning a game to meet the system where it is.
We naturally expect ports of popular series on our portables, and there is nothing wrong with that. The problem lies in assuming that we are capable of, or even want to, experience the same game on a system that will almost always have lower resolution and horsepower, different programming architecture, and more limited control elements than a home console. Hardware developers can see this as a challenge, trying to produce cutting edge devices (with expenses to match) to solve this 'problem.'
Except it is not a problem, any more than the idea that a Super Nintendo cannot be as entertaining as a PS3 because of inferior hardware. We have different expectations for different hardware, and of course that plays into our preconceived notions of what we will experience. But as many of us here at RFGen can attest, sometimes our modern consoles do not get nearly the playtime as our older systems. And not just because of nostalgia; our blogs here are rife with those who discovered a fifteen year-old game they never played suddenly becoming a new favorite.
If Doom were ever truly ported to the Atari 2600, it would be amusing for inventive programming, not because it was truly competing to rival the actual experience of the original. Unless... it wasn't designed to play like the original but was instead a new creation inspired by it. This leads us to brilliant redesigns like Doom RPG for cell phones. While Doom can be hacked onto a cell phone, playability and other issues would always be a concern, but by taking the original as inspiration and the limitations of the system in mind, a game perfect for the format was developed.
And here is found the solution to the 'problem' of a lack of a second stick on portables; for developers to make games with the system in mind from the beginning of development. The real problem is not one of technical limitations; it is one of design. My favorite, and I would argue the best, games on portable systems are the ones specifically designed with the system in mind. For the DS, classics like Kirby Canvas Curse, the Etrian Odyssey series, Knights in the Nightmare, and of course Scribblenauts were designed with the unique DS hardware in mind, and it shows in awesome game design. Instead of being limited by the technology, the technology was utilized in fun and inventive ways.
As port-heavy as the PSP library is, it is no surprise that my favorites are also ones that ignored the system's console siblings and were developed just for it; Killzone: Liberation, Metal Gear Acid 1 and 2, and R-Type Command are great examples of trying something better suited to the system's unique hardware. The Loco Roco and Patapon series are perhaps the best showpieces of original design catered to both the PSP hardware and its portable nature.
Having another analog should not have the opposite of the intended effect and limit game design, of course. We can also certainly have great F/TPS games on portables, and now with the Vita, no doubt there will be more to come. But where developers look at the Vita and may assume quick ports of modern shooters will make money on the system, I'm thrilled that the relatively underpowered 3DS will, if history serves correct, be host to inventive, creative, unique experiences catering to the portable. Of course, we'll be flooded with 'Party Babyz" style shovelware left and right, but that is the nature of the beast of modern gaming, and unrelated to how many silly inputs a game system has. 
Well, this is a bit late, but better late than never right?
August was another solid month for submissions here at RFGeneration. Our wonderful members made a total of 2,962 submissions in August, 866 of those were images and 500 title additions! While it wasn't our best month, its still certainly something to be proud of, there's not many sites out there that get over 800 images in a month during a good month, let alone a slow one. And its all done for you, by you guys, the community.
So who submitted the most this month? That was ApolloBoy with 1074 submissions. Shadow Kisuragi, Techie413, Sirgin, and aeroc all also had over 100 submissions during August.
And of course, we can't forget about our dedicated team of reviewers. The top reviewers in August were Shadow Kisuragi, Paully3433, and NES_Rules, each with over 100 reviews.
Thanks to everyone who helped out in August, now get to submitting even more for September. We're on track for 50,000 submissions this year, but let's see if we can get 60,000!
Dear RFGeneration members, welcome to what I hope to be a series of interviews on homebrew game designers in the VECTREX community. As some of you know, I'm a real proponent of the VECTREX system and it's a large focus of my gaming collection. I vaguely remember the system growing up, but never played one until a few years ago. I was immediately drawn to it, not only because of it's unique look and portability, but because of the vector graphics, which I remember being a huge fan of in the arcades of my youth; Tempest is still one of my all time favorite cabinets.
Though the VECTREX had a very limited amount of original releases, some of which were only playable with the Light Pen and 3-D Imager accessories, the majority of the games are fun and challenging. Due to the small amount of original games, several designers in the homebrew community who have an affection for the VECTREX, have created some great games for the system, some which are originals and others are ports of original vector arcade titles. Kristof Tuts is one of these designers and is the founder of Tutstronix, a company that creates homebrew titles that push the boundaries of the VECTREX console. Kristof currently resides in Belgium and is one of only a handful of designers still creating games for the VECTREX. After ordering a copy of his most recent release, Vector Pilot, I was fortunate enough to get in contact with him for an interview, which I hope you enjoy.
[img width=700 height=523]http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y359/necrom99/Kristof%20Tuts%20Interview/Tuts.jpg[/img]
**Kristof with this son, one of his primary game testers**
Continue reading Vectrex Interview Series #1 - Kristof Tuts
Episode 6 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...rum/index.php?topic=10347
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Crabby and Duke decide to allow Wildbil back on, since his awesome score streak has dried up and he's no longer competition. We sit down to discuss methods for keeping track of your gaming inventory. You may be able to guess our current favorite, but we talk about the options, our history with different methods, and the deeper meaning behind documenting items.
You folks may regret all the praise you gave us for the last episode, as we've gone on to produce another three hours of content. Don't blame us, you had the chance to complain at the last one 
Show notes:
Music: Metroid (FDS)
22:01 Small Scores
1:34:09 Main Topic: Inventorying
2:58:04 Closing
Sites mentioned in the show:
http://www.rfgeneration.com
http://www.ign.com
http://www.nintendoage.com
http://www.segaage.com
http://www.collectorz.com
http://www.cheapassgamer.com
[img width=500 height=375]http://diamondtrustgame.com/boxes.png[/img]
There is a good chance you may not know of 'conflict diamonds,' and the politics surrounding them. There may be a slightly better chance you know of Jason Rohrer. Both are things best to have awareness of, which brings us to Diamond Trust of London.
Perhaps the most famous aspect of this game is not its setting or even its notable creator; Diamond Trust is the first DS game launched from Kickstarter.
(http://www.kickstarter.co...6/diamond-trust-of-london)
It took several years, and according to Rohrer, many a fortunate situation, but the game is now available, though only through the website: http://diamondtrustgame.com/buy.php
It comes with a typical DS case and manual, and everything included is very professional and pretty much the same as buying any new DS game from retail. As for the creator:
If Jason Rohrer's name just sounds to you like Scooby Doo trying to warn you of Friday the 13th, I highly recommend looking the man up. For a coder/programmer/engineer/musician, the guy practices 'simple living' with a family of four coming under 15k a year, has a number of interesting political and sociological theories (as his lifestyle suggests) and his games are mostly free experiments. I can't say I'd agree with the guy on everything, though I respect him for standing in his beliefs (see if you can catch his somewhat veiled criticism of circumcision from his personal website, or his interesting defenses of natural habitats.)
Most relevant here, Jason Rohrer is an award winning game designer, and his takes on game design are often cited when referencing video games as a medium to be used beyond typical base entertainment value. Works like Passage and Sleep is Death are designed to push our buttons as much as we push buttons on a controller.
Much more 'typical' a game is Diamond Trust. Though the setting is political and contemporary, it never moves past the background to become preachy (if you have no idea what the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme is, Rohrer is not about to use a game to tell you.) The design is an almost standard board game, and the strict two-player limit (an AI opponent is available, though the game's own manual desires the player to seek out someone else to play as soon as possible) keeps the focus razor sharp. This is a game about bluffing, bribing, resource management, and second/third/fourth guessing your rival.
If you normally read board games as 'bored games,' know that Diamond Trust is a tighter, faster paced, meaner version of the games you fell asleep to during family reunions or the backup entertainment for those college nights when the power went out and so did the LAN party. Simpler than Monopoly, darker than Catan, and far cheaper to acquire than Dark Tower, if you have another human whose wit you want to match, I can think of fewer alternates as fun.
Only one copy of the game is required, (you send a download copy to another DS) and the DL copy only looses the nifty chiptune music during play. My beloved and I sat down with it the night it arrived and we didn't want to stop playing. Considering the kids were in bed already, giving us some precious alone time, and this is what we wanted to do with it, I can't think of a better way to recommend Diamond Trust of London.
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