It’s the fabulous 250th Episode milestone, and this particular podcast features a major surprise for longtime listeners. Not only is this one of the funniest podcasts in a long while, but there’s plenty of show to go around, too. First, the Gaming Flashback checks out the classic shooter No One Lives Forever, while the Gaming History examines the infamous Gizmondo handheld gaming console.

As for the news:

• Hirai: Sony could be facing “serious trouble“
• Take Two CEO states “strong become stronger” with next-gen transitions
• Developer Starbreeze fears Syndicate may be “too hard“
• Oklahoma state rep wants 1% violent videogame tax
• Ubisoft cuts off legit players With DRM server migration

There’s no Question of the Week, but we’re definitely sure there will be plenty of comments for the podcast hosts.

For those of you good at math, you might notice that the TD Gaming Podcast is one episode away from a special number. While we have a surprise in store for loyal listeners, there’s still this week’s news to discuss. For starters, the classic Silent Hill 2 is the subject of the Gaming Flashback, even though none of the podcasters have gotten a chance to actually play it.

There’s also some interesting news to discuss, including:

• Christian group accuses The Old Republic of “warping kids” with pro-gay message
• Rumor: Next Harmonix project being released on XBLA, PSN, and Facebook
• EA Sports: SSX will bring extreme sports videogames back to prominence
• Xbox 720 rumors springing up like wildfire
• PS Vita continues to struggle in Japan
• SNK brings Neo*Geo back as a handheld

There’s plenty of Reader Feedback, but there’s no Question of the Week, because there’s a special episode coming up. Ooooh, what could it possibly be?

It’s the episode just before Thanksgiving, and both Jordan and Paul have new jobs, as the latter settles into his new Los Angeles home. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the Atari 2600 game Kaboom!

The guys also discuss the following news items:

• EA targeted for class action suit over Battlefield 3 PS3 bait and switch
• Modern Warfare 3 makes $775M in 5 days
• Square-Enix officially opens Montreal studio
• Blockbuster has “ramped up the rental” of games, getting an “awful lot of support”
• Rockstar eager to return to Bully IP

The question of the week: “How do you buy games most often these days: retail, online retailer, or digital distributor?”

This week is a big episode, as it is chock full of surprising news this week, as well as some long, long reader mail. If that weren’t enough, we take a look back at the IntelliVision game Maze-a-Tron, deal with too much love for Paul, and the mystery that is the popularity of gorillas.

This week’s news includes:

• Electronic Arts buys Popcap Games
• Microsoft: Only Master Chief in Halo from now on
• PlayStation Vita dev costs closer to PSP
• Netflix takes aim at usage based billing
• Expert glitcher hired to clean up Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer
• Skyrim ‘less confusing’, not ‘more accessible‘

There’s no Gaming History this week, but the Question of the Week is: “What old game do you most want to see remade?” There’s no contest behind it, but you can always take heart in the fact that your question was probably the most awesome.

It’s the Smurfiest post-Fourth of July podcast ever, as Jonah Falcon and Jordan Lund look back at the ColecoVision classic Smurfs: Rescue from Gargamel’s Castle, probably the easiest videogame ever Smurfed.

If that weren’t Smurfy enough, Jonah and Jordan, working without Paul S. Nowak this week, also check out this week’s Smurfy news:

• Xbox 720 with Halo 4 launch in 2012?
• PS4 also in 2012, with embedded Kinect-like motion control?
• Crytek says Kinect development is “really, really easy.”
• Sony working on new PSN redesign?
• Questions over alleged early close of Sony’s Welcome Back offer.

This week has a ton of Smurfy reader feedback, as well as reaction to Sony’s crackdown of Star Wars Galaxies shutdown petitioners. If that weren’t Smurfy enough, the Question of the Week is pretty Smurfy as well, as readers are asked, “What game that you can’t find anywhere anymore do you wish you could play again?”

As usual, hit us up on iTunes and leave some comments!

Paul crows about Nintendo’s dominance over the ColecoVision and Dreamcast, while Jonah and Jordan reminisce about this week’s Gaming Flashback, Electronic Arts’ Barnstorming for the Atari 2600.

The news also includes the following topics:

• Duke Nukem Forever review fiasco
• Harrison: Apple will be the games industry in 10 years
• Tretton: No need for PS4, PS3 now hitting its stride
• Slimmer PS3 coming?

This week’s Gaming History looks at the husband-and-wife developing team Freefall Associates, while the Question of the Week is: How much weight do you give the score of a review? Let us know what you think.

Some of the worst voice acting in videogame history can be bearable, when someone decides to supply a face for them.

Check out YouTube user HansJamesMusicAOk’s hilarious “face acting” on the sound clips from 50 of the worst voice acting in games.

With the strong rumor that Halo: Combat Evolved is going to be remade graphically from the ground up, it brings us to the question of why aren’t more games being remade? We’re not talking about reboots like the new emo Devil May Cry, or re-imaginings like the first person shooter XCOM. We’re talking about a true remake like you see endlessly from Square-Enix with its Final Fantasy games on the handhelds – they’re completely faithful to the original, save a new engine, graphics and occasionally an additional mission or two; the upcoming localization of Dragon Quest VI is a great example.

So, we’ve picked out seven games that desperately need a modern remake, sometimes due to their primitive graphics, sometimes due to their incompatibility with the current OS, or the fact you need to do some major tweaking to get them to run (unless GOG.com does it for you, bless their souls.)

These games aren’t old or have already been remade, so you won’t see M.U.L.E., Sid Meier’s Pirates or Seven Cities of Gold – in fact, the oldest of the games is from 1994. You also won’t see games that require little work to be remade, which is why you won’t see Grim Fandango here, either. These games would require serious undertaking. The games also have to remain the same genre and style, so no Elder Scrolls version of Ultima IV, either.

Without further ado, here are five older games that desperately need a remake – in alphabetical order.

Age of Empires II

This was the game that made Ensemble Studios a star. While the first Age of Empires was a good game, mixing Civilization with Warcraft, Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, released in 1999, honed the game to a fine sheen, and made a real-time strategy game that even people who didn’t like RTS’s enjoy. There was just something magical about the game – the lush graphics, the gameplay choices and the way abilities were branched. It was as addictive as Warcraft II, but it was far easier to relate to because it was about human history, not the fictional fantasy land of Azeroth. Most gamers didn’t even know what a trebuchet was until this game.

The Remake: Well, the graphics were lush in 1999 – they’re just pixellated now. There’s no changes needed in gameplay, but the graphic engine could use a boost, even if it were to just Warcraft III levels. We’re greedy, though – we’d like to see it push graphic cards for those gamers who could handle it, like Starcraft II. One of the things that we’re implement is that every single civilization look different. The French should look different than the British, let alone the Aztecs, Saracens or Japanese. With better CPUs, have mega-sized maps with 16 players going on at once.

The Reality: Robot Entertainment, which is comprised chiefly of ex-Ensemble Studio developers, is making Age of Empires Online, an MMORTS that allows for both co-op and competitive gaming. The graphics are on the cel-shaded cartoon side, and the MMO itself will be free-to-play with premium content. It’ll be a Windows LIVE game, so it’ll even have Xbox 360 Achievements.

Deus Ex

One of the most beloved games of the last decade, released in 2000, Deus Ex successfully melded the roleplaying and first person shooter genres. The game was filled with dialog, philosophy, paranoia, and one of the first computer roleplaying games that dispensed with the idea that killing enemies granted experience points – exploration and mission goals did. The game won most of the Game of the Year Awards that year, and with good reason. People still play it even now.

The Remake: Unfortunately, the graphics were poor even in 2000. While not on the level of bad that the character models were in System Shock 2, the way the character’s mouths moved was silly at best, distracting at worst. The game desperately needs a graphic overhaul. Imagine instead of the Unreal engine it was developed on, if it were done on the Unreal 3 engine. Combat could be made smoother, though since RPG stats are applied to gun skills, it may be an inherent flaw that can’t be fixed.

The Reality: Deus Ex: Human Revolution is being released this year, as a prequel to the first game. It’s looking very good, and recent gameplay videos are reassuring in that it really is a Deus Ex game.

Giants: Citizen Kabuto

Giants: Citizen Kabuto is a game that has been all but forgotten – a third person shooter mixed with real-time-strategy, but where Brute Force failed, Giants succeeded. Not only did it have wildly different gameplay perspects when the player’s control went from the tech-obsessed Meccaryns, the magic-wielding mermaid-like Sea Reapers, to the giant Godzilla-like Kabuto, but a dry, witty British wit dispersed through the entire game. The game created a believable alien world, and had fun with it, without forgetting there was pathos as well. This game was well ahead of its time, basically Beyond Good & Evil before Beyond Good & Evil.

The Remake: The game’s beautiful graphics hold up in 2010, but the awesome vistas could be made more detailed. While all of the games in this list could use a graphic overhaul, Giants would greatly benefit from the current dual analog gamepads of today. Mouse and keyboard just didn’t feel right with Giants, and the PlayStation 2 version did use it to great benefit. Most of all, the gamers of 2010 would be more interested in Giants than the gamers back in 2000 did. This game deserves a new audience.

The Reality: There are no plans for the IP, even with Big Moon acquiring 37 ex-Shiny Entertainment employees.

Master of Magic

Speaking of genre mixing, which seems to be a running theme here, Master of Magic was a joyous blending of Civilization, Master of Orion, and Magic: The Gathering. This was one of the few games at the time (1995) which had truly unique units that looked and acted unique, while maintaining some level of balance, though some veterans will grumble about the human paladins and halfling slingers. It had colored, themed magic, aggressive opponents and some deep gameplay. It was almost impossible to play with new Windows OS’s until GOG.com released a slightly modified version designed to handle new rigs. Thank you, GOG!

The Remake: Again, the graphics, while they still hold up somewhat – after all, it is a turn-based strategy game – could use an upgrade, and unlike most games, since it’s tile-based, it would be easy to do. Of course, you could go for the isometric, breaktaking beauty of Civilization V, too. However, detailed 3D modeled units would be just fabulous. The game still could use some gameplay balance tweaking – and while you’re at it, how about AI sliders much like sports games?

The Reality: Atari owns the license, and is currently doing nothing with it. Age of Wonders was a semi-successful attempt to mimick the game, and Stardock has pined for the license for years, and have released their take on the genre with Elemental: War of Magic. At this point, a Master of Magic 2 is too much of a pipe dream – how about a Master of Magic 1.5 remake?

Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon

The game that started the entire “Tycoon” craze. Sid Meier created a game based on some railroad board games that he loved, in which you laid down track, being mindful of grade and value of the land, linked cities and competed with the various rail barons of the time. The game took you from the very humble beginnings of 1830, when train engines looked like stoves on wheels, to the modern era of streamlined engines. There was also economic competition, as you and three other historic railroad owners battled it out not only for cities, but for each others stock – there was nothing more fun than owning another company lock, stock and barrel. The game’s scope was tremendous – you could do the entire United States, just the West Coast, just the East Coast, and Europe. (The Deluxe Edition added Africa and South America.)

The Remake: Technically, I’m bending the rules here, since there was a remake, Sid Meier’s Railroad! However, that game had little in common with the original game. It, like Railroad Tycoon II and III (both of which were not developed by Meier), was extremely focused and had none of the scope of the original. The maps were much smaller, there was no economic warring, and it just felt limited. Having a Railroad Tycoon with the complexity of the original but 2011 graphics would be a danger to human life on Earth, from its sheer addictiveness.

The Reality: The entire Railroad Tycoon IP seems to be dormant, if not dead. Sid Meier’s Railroad! is still available for download – and pretty inexpensive. The best in the genre, however, is available free for download, though the controls are wonky.

System Shock

Rather than going with the more well-known sequel, we’re going with the original System Shock. Released in 1994, this game was shockingly advanced for its time. Most shooters were games like DOOM - maze crawls with no plot or story, or even interactive environments save “insert key here”. System Shock was basically a deep roleplaying game in first person perspective. It also introduced one of the all-time great villains, SHODAN.

The Remake: The first System Shock desperately needs an update. Forgetting the 1994 level graphics (which predate by two years games like Quake and Duke Nukem 3D), the controls are absolutely horrid. There’s no mouse look, the inventory is confusing, the gameplay is stilted. However, the design is still amazing, the environments, for all their dated graphics, are detailed and logical, and the story is just as captivating as the sequel’s. It really needs modern conveniences and standards, however.

The Reality: Forget it. The System Shock IP is in legal hell, and the closest anyone will ever come to System Shock is the BioShock series.

Thief: The Dark Project

When people talk about stealth-based games, there’s really only one series: the Thief series. Other games like Metal Gear Solid or No One Lives Forever have nods to it, but only Thief made it the main gameplay mechanic. Garrett the Thief, one of the coolest characters in videogame history, can’t fight. He can take on one guard, but if he’s discovered, you may as well put a toe tag on him. His job is to avoid contact. The hardest difficulty levels not only require he not kill anyone, but sometimes not knock any civilians out. We’re going with the first game, which is the hardest of the series to implement on new computers, and is also the creepiest and scariest of the three games.

The Remake: Like Deus Ex and System Shock 2, the human character models were terrible, even for the time (1999). Thief: The Dark Project‘s humans looked like carved wooden marionettes, and even jerked around like them. The game’s Dark engine was mainly concerned with light sources and how they fell on objects. It also didn’t let the game feel too “floaty”, which Thief: Deadly Shadows was.

The Reality: Thief 4 is coming either late this year or 2012. Hopefully, it’ll recapture the scariness and gameplay of the original. But a remake of the original story would still be awesome.

Those are the Seven Games we’d most like to see remade – let us know if you have your own ideas for games that should be remade. We do, so sometime in the future we’ll have a Part II to this list. Let us know what you think.

(Originally on GameStooge.)

This week’s gaming podcast covers a wide variety of news, we also argue a bit about the Wow restrictions on taking donations and cash (again) and touch on some gaming history involving The Sims and the history of Infocom. For news, we’ve tackled

• EA Leaves SecuRom out of Sims 3
• Sony Enticing Independent Developers to be Exclusive to PlayStation Network
• Steam Makes DRM Obsolete
• Blizzard Rolling Out New Game Franchise?
• OnLive to Kill off Consoles as we know them?
• PS3 Rumors and Price Drops

This weeks question, is the Nintendo Wii killing off gaming as we know it?

This week we’re flashing back to Zaxxon and into a bit of a reflective history on the NES Satellite accessory. We reflect upon how bad Don sucks at Mass Effect and get tips from the community. We’re also checking in on some news this week including:

• Microsoft Xbox 360 Outsells PS3 and Wii in Japan
• Nintendo DSi not competing with cell phones or iPods
• PlayStation 3 hard to develop for on purpose
• EA admits they need to try harder
• Killzone 2 sells 750k after launch
• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li KO’ed at theaters
• Tabula Rasa MMO Shutting Down After 1.5 years
• Xbox Live Bans Gay Gamers

We’re also asking a few questions of the week, you can answer them all, one or none (but we’ll give you sad face)! What’s your favorite video game accessory since you started gaming, what actor can make a video game movie a success?

Yo! Noid was a commercial opportunity for Domino’s Pizza developed by Capcom. This retro style game revolved around Domino’s Pizza claymation style mascot, the Noid, as he adventures through fourteen stages of side scrolling action.

The game sound was much like any other 8-bit action platformer. It reminded me of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the Nintendo Entertainment System, not the cool arcade one. Minus the turtles, Yo! Noid is a battle against Mr. Green, the Noids evil duplicate, a concept used in so many games; remember Shadow Link?

Unlike Link, Noid lost a life when he hit an enemy similar to the Super Mario Bros. style platformer but with a Yo Yo weapon. You could also gather smart-bomb type scrolls to clear the screen of all enemies, another classic side scroller arcade recipe. Yo! Noid brought nothing to the table in terms of uniqueness and relied on the standard recipe of side scrolling conflict.

This retro game may be one of the first true “total conversion mods.” Later we’d see Counter Strike born out of the Half-Life engine and way before that, Noah’s Ark 3D built out of the Wolfenstein 3D engine. Yo! Noid was a re-creation of the game Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru. Oddly enough, Yo! Noid was probably more well known than its forefather game because Capcom didn’t release Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru in the United States. Instead, we got Yo! Noid and a $1.00 off coupon on the back of the manual so we can get ourselives some Domino’s Pizza.

Although a few of us may recall Yo! Noid from our childhood, the title really didn’t create any huge waves in the game industry. Yo! Noid did show developers that a brand named product could be used as a marketing and brand awareness strategy, something we’d later see Burger King try on the Xbox 360 and find some success.

Can you tell the difference between Yo! Noid and Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru?

This weeks gaming podcast flashes back to Yo! Noid, for the NES and a bit of gaming history on Accolade while touching on some hot news topics:

• Nintendo considering changing accelerometer chips
• Nintendo brings Club Nintendo to North America
• Playstation Home arriving December 17th
• GTA IV patch coming to a PC near you

This week’s soap box we’re asking you if you believe social networking and new media techniques will help or hinder the gaming industry.

With a few hours of Mega Man 9 under my belt I’ve got to admit, this game is FREAKING HARD. I’ve played many games since the original Mega Man series was released on the NES and later on the SNES and nothing compares to Mega Man 9 in terms of sheer difficulty. This new franchise title looks and acts like the original with all the glitches, colors, bleeps and effects of the original games.

This game is much like chasing your kids around the yard, you forget how “old you are.” Mega Man 9 challenges reflexes, hand-eye coordination, patience and persistence. You are constantly awarded with death upon death and level restarts. Just when you think you’re getting close to a leader you’re actually just encountering a harder portion of the stage.

Between the start of a stage and the final boss you’ll encounter larger single-screen microbosses who challenge your patience and skills. As it turns out, I’ve got very little of both attributes. Upon defeating a little boss I am handed another like boss which is a little tougher. Upon defeating this slightly tougher boss (after many level restarts) I’m rewarded with yet another more difficult microboss.

Mega Man traditionally allows you to wonder all of the selectable stages out of the gate but each one gets easier as you build your characters weaponry. The trick is finding that “easy” level to get you to a boss, defeat said boss and acquire a weapon of mass awesomeness. Alas, I’ve done none of these.

You can find online video walk-throughs on the Internet which can give you tips for getting around the stages but the end result is the same: patience, persistence and accuracy. Mega Man 9 teaches you that nobody is a game master without consistent practice.

The first time through a stage is a destructive mess of failure. As you restart the stage over and over you’ll learn some of the tricks to getting you through the initial enemies without taking damage. You’ll build up your arsenal of tricks for hitting enemies before they’re on the screen and mashing the fire button to freedom… until you hit your first spike.

Spikes are the bane of the Mega Man character. Mega Man isn’t a fan of little pointy objects which result in instant death. You can hit the jump button quickly for shorter jumps and longer for bigger jumps; jumping technique is required to move you through spike infested levels.

You learn quickly to never turn your back on an enemy. Turn around, ever so slightly, and walk back on the side-scrolling screen and forward again will result in the rebirth of all enemies you’ve killed. This includes bomb wielding birds, rock tossing baddies and hells fury in the form of red and green cannons.

If you’re looking to discover all the ways you can possibly lose in a game, feel your inner child emotionally crushed under the weight of 8-bit bad asses, Mega Man 9 is the game for you. The achievements will make you laugh and the difficulty will invoke that old controller tossing nostalgia.

Mega Man 9 is a challenge. If you wish to take on this challenge and prove your 8-bit weight in the world of high resolution graphic fairy tales this may be the title for you!

One of the great downfalls of an acquisition or merger, in the game industry, is the loss of great franchise titles. Sierra, or Sierra Online, once stood on its own as a company with great gaming titles but later fell into the depths of Hades under many different company names.

Sierra’s last stop on the acquisition highway was Vivendi, years after much of Sierra’s steam had slowed. Now, they’re part of Activision Blizzard so we had high hopes they’d find a great use for some of the old Sierra properties long since collecting dust. Space Quest, Kings Quest, Leisure Suit Larry and especially Gabrielle Knight were some of our favorites, but times have changed.

“We are retaining only those franchises that are a strong fit with our long-term strategy including Crash Bandicoot, Ice Age and Spyro, as well as Prototype and a second game that has not yet been announced. We will not publish any other titles that previously were part of the Vivendi Games portfolio and we are currently reviewing our options regarding those titles,” says Activision Blizzard (joystiq)

This is unfortunate news, Activision Blizzard now has a large set of franchises on their hands, many of which have collected dust for years. Those dust collecting franchises could rise from the dead and reinvigorate their old fan base… or be dropped to the earth as unwanted scrapes after a big hunt with the vultures awaiting their take (sorry, too much watching of Animal Planet)

A reworked Kings Quest or Gabriel Knight could have seriously awesome potential in this time and age, imagine a dark comedy version of Gabriel Knight or a huge scaled world in King Quest using todays graphic engines. Although, these titles could also go the way Atari has gone and taken a well remembered franchise and made mud of its great name (*cough* Alone in the Dark).

Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know the distance an old franchise could go in this new world. We’ll have to pull out an old copy of our prized posessions and remember just how great they once where.

This week we take a walk back in retro gaming history at Super Mario World, covering a bunch of great user questions and chat a bit about our favorite RTS of all time based on a user question. In the news this week:

• Xbox 360 Out Sells PS3 in Japan
• Rock Band 2 Bundle Delay
• Harmonix Says “No” to Exclusive Artist Deals
• Diablo 3, Finite Health and Loving It

We also announce the winner of Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords – Collectors Edition! This show was packed with content and material, we had to hold off on the Gaming History for this week, but we’ll hit it next week.

Although we weren’t able to get a free copy to give away for Castle Crashers due to limited supply, GameStooge has one, and has the ability to hand one out. If you’re looking to get in on the contest and potentially get a free code to download Castle Crashers upon its release, checkout GameStooge’s contest.

The rules are simple: “Write in the comment section what is your favorite movie with a castle, and why it’s the castle is so great in it – minimum 30 words.” The game looks crazy fun, so I highly suggest you put in a contest entry if you’ve got an Xbox 360 gamer tag and 360 console to play it on!

Duke Nukem 3D has now been certified by Microsoft and is ready for the big time, let’s rock. It seems like “forever” since we’ve seen a Duke Nukem game, even if this is simply a flashback to 1996. There were plenty of gamers that have an Xbox 360 now that didn’t get to play Duke Nukem 3D back then

This is a great time for younger gamers to experience an old school FPS in the days where we had to network our DOS systems together and play over IPX, before the Internet would bloom to where it is today. This version of Duke 3D has Xbox 360 achievements, so you can go back and re-live and re-achieve like never before.

“Murderous aliens have landed in futuristic Los Angeles, and humans suddenly find themselves atop the endangered species list. The odds are a million-to-one, just the way Duke likes it!”

It’s important to look back at some of our old games and replay them to see just how much we’ve advanced. It may not, however, be enough to make an old school gamer re-buy the game again. I find it odd that someone took the time to put energy into porting old Duke 3D and have yet to release Duke Nukem Forever, that was promoted back in 1997 is that next great Duke game. Where is it? Instead, we get a rehash of the last title. Interesting decision.

(Thanks, Kotaku)

In a world of 3D worlds, dynamic lighting and intense shadows we see far too few old school retro style platformer titles. With the advent of Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and the PlayStation Network we’re seeing a few new indy developers getting into the game.

Castle Crashers, developed by The Behemoth, is an upcoming side scroller of cutely neat beat ‘em up action on Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA). The game will be 1,200 Microsoft Points (USD $15) and will launch August 27th, very soon. This side scroller allows for 4-player action, local or over the Xbox Live system with your friends and there is another mode for battling each other known as Arena.

This is like an artistically rendered version of Golden Axe with Knights! There are many different knights, each with their own powers of attack, Blue Knights can attack with Ice while the Orange Knight attacks with Fire, the Ninja Knight fires shurikens and a host of other unique Knights do battle with their own methods of madness.

If you checkout The Behemoth‘s Castle Crasher Website you’ll see a host of images and their recent trailer showing off the action. It’s safe to say, this is going to be a fast paced slightly silly slightly retro beat ‘em up game paying homage to Golden Axe, Double Dragon and TMNT (original arcade one at least) with the graphic style of Alien Hominid HD, their last title.

Stay tuned, we’ll be announcing a contest to win a copy of Castle Crashers in the very near future!

Capcom isn’t fooling around, they know their market for Mega Man 9 on Xbox Live, WiiWare and PSN and its nostalgic gamers with a desire to be a kid again. Any retro gamer will tell you the old school experience must include some pixel flickers, slow down and 8-bit style bugs.

They have decided to include an optional feature to enable old school bugs on purpose. The limitations of early hardware like the NES caused situations where you would only see a limited number of creatures on the screen at any one time else things slowed down, flickered and got undesirable fast. What used to be undesired is now nostalgic!

“Yeah, there were some things, like you couldn’t have more than three enemies on the screen at once, so we had to make sure that that’s how it stayed in our game. In the part with the dragon with the flame, [there should be] flickering, and whatnot,” noted the game’s producer. “In the options of this game, you can adjust that, unlike the old games. We purposely put some of those old-school bugs into this game, so it does recreate that feel.” (joystiq)

Luckily these options are disabled and can be enabled to get a bit of old world feel if your little heart desires. For most of us, we should have moved on from the old times and are ready to play old school games on new school hardware to show off a bit more fluid 8-bit logic. Not so for everyone, which is why the feature was added as an optional one.

Staying true to old school computing in an emulator is extremely important when playing old ROM games because the game was coded with a certain speed and understanding of the hardware. Change the hardware without updating the game can lead to an unusable product. Mega Man 9, however, is a new game so it doesn’t have to adhere to old standards. But, it’s funny to see it try.

Now here is another interesting video game for the Atari 2600, the game Dragon Fire consisted of two game screens, one which you ran across a bridge while fireballs were shot at you, you had to duck or jump over the fireball. This screen was a side-scroller style screen (although it doesn’t actually scroll), at the other end of the bridge was a castle door which you’d enter to get to the next screen.

The second screen was more classic “overhead but not really” screen where you ran around this black screen picking up treasures while a dragon at the bottom shot fire at you from below.

As the game increased in level jumping fireballs became more challenging (on the first screen) as you ran because they would come quicker, more often. The second screen would get very difficult very quickly as the dragon would increase in speed and fireball spitting. You could tell how hard the dragon would be as it would change colors from lighter to darker black as you progress stages.

When you finished collecting all the treasure an exit would pop up in the corner and you had to run to it without being burned by the fireballs, that dragon would turn from left to right nearly instantly too! Then, you’d jump into the exit and be back on the bridge again, but this time it was harder. You could die up to 7 times before the game was over (just to show you how hard it is, they gave you a bunch of lives).

The game was tough, frustrating, hard to replay because you were just so nervous and jittery from the last attempt. Graphics were “okay,” nothing to rave at but it was, after all, the 2600.

You can hear all we had to say about DragonFire for the Atari 2600 on Episode 79 of the TD Gaming Podcast!

In 1986 SNK released Ikari Warriors, it had all the makings of a classic title. Cool weapons, time strategies, two player action and a great challenge. We’re now seeing folks reproduce some of the essence of classic games by creating platformers like Little Big Planet and Mega Man 9, where is the love for the top-down scrollers?

Ikari Wariors was one of the first game titles to use a rotary joystick along with a directional system. Looking at the current generation Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 it’s plain to see the joystick is equipped with this design. We’ve seen Geometry Wars utilize the analog stick to create a 360 directional attack, so it’s possible to utilize this behavior for Ikari Warriors.

Given SNK is still alive under the name SNK Playmore the intellectual property must still exist to breath fresh life into an Ikari Warrior remake, with about six to eight months development time a classy title could be re-developed using old concepts brought to the current generation hardware.

Blast grenades, RPG’s, smart bombs, air strikes the options are limitless and the concept has been proven to work. Given the gamer demographic of 18-34 it’s plain to see old gamers of the Arcade and NES would recall and rebuild their love for the title while attracting younger audiences whom have never seen an Ikari Warriors title; if it worked in 1986 are we so adverse to it working again?

Games do not have to implement full 3D perspective graphics to be cool, we’ve seen proof in that with the Wii and the demand for titles like Little Big Planet. We neeed another Ikari Warriors.

One of the first games I was introduced to on the 2600 was River Raid, back in 1982. I remember it vividly, as I was at my cousin David’s house, who was older than me, and he’d “baby sit” me so the adults could have some adult time hanging out in the dining room. We’d sit in the family room playing 2600, mainly River Raid.

This is an Activision game, and was later ported to Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit, C64, ColecoVision, IBM PCjr, Intellivision, ZX Spectrum, and MSX. The player controls an airplane in a top-down view over a river and gets points for shooting down enemy planes, helicopters, ships and balloons (for versions after the Atari 2600). By flying over fuel-stations, the plane’s tank can be refilled. The player can shift side to side and change the speed of the plane. Sections of the river are marked by bridges.

The game was highly acclaimed for its ability to stuff tons of map into small amounts of space. The map was huge and it fit on the disk because it’s randomly generated using a common starting seed, basically, imagine some of the Diablo dungeons…they’re randomly generated but the starting seed which starts the random process is also ‘random.’ (probably based on clock time which isn’t too uncommon). Atari, rather than try to make a random level each time used the level random generator to build a procedural based level rather than drawing it and saving it into the cart. GENIUS.

A more highly randomized number generation system was used for enemy AI to make the game less predictable.

Germany consider this game harmful to children, indexing it on their list of games “harmful for children” along with the game Speed Racer. It remained on their list until 2002 (since 1984) when developers petitioned it off the list before the PS2 launch of Activision Anthology (otherwise they’d not be able to put it in the game)

Some of the Germany reasons: Minors are intended to delve into the role of an uncompromising fighter and agent of annihilation (…). It provides children with a paramilitaristic education (…). With older minors, playing leads (…) to physical cramps, anger, aggressiveness, erratic thinking (…) and headaches (wikipedia)

All in all, a great game! To hear all the details on River Raid and our opinions, checkout TD Gaming Podcast Episode 78.

Myst was published by Brøderbund Software, developed by Cyan Worlds and created by two brothers that did the design and directed the game (it was, much like a movie).

The original game was released on the Macintosh (in 1993) and then later ported to Microsoft Windows and Sega Saturn, PlayStation, Jaguar CD, AmigaOS, CD-i, 3DO, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo DS.

“Myst puts the player in the role of the Stranger, who uses an enchanted book to travel to the island of Myst. There, the player uses other special books written by an artisan and explorer named Atrus to travel to several worlds known as “Ages”. Clues found in each of these Ages help reveal the back-story of the game’s characters. The game has several endings, depending on the course of action the player takes.” (wikipedia)

The game was a success, no doubt, and was considered the best selling PC game of all time until TheSims dethroned it. Besides mind blowing graphics, at the time, Myst helped move the game and PC industry along by selling CDROM’s. The game required a CDROM, which was rare at the time, and I recall them bundling Myst with some CDROMS or hyping it as “you need a CDROM so you can play Myst.” On more than one occasion when a person game to me asking what they should get to show off their new (costly) CDROM I would say “you need to try Myst.”

The gameplay of Myst consists of a first-person journey through an interactive world. The player moves the character by clicking on locations shown in the main display; the scene then crossfades into another frame, and the player can continue to explore. Players can interact with specific objects on some screens by clicking or dragging them(wikipedia)

Franchise sales: 12-million copies (first Myst game alone in the franchise, 6-million), pretty impressive eh?

You don’t have to be a huge Myst fan to know how it changed the industry, grew the medium of CD-based games and entertained millions. A real gamers thinking game!

To hear our full impression of Myst, checkout the TD Gaming Podcast Episode 77.

Capcom has finally come out and stated Mega Man 9 will indeed be available on the PlayStation 3 (PSN) and Xbox 360 (Xbox Live). Capcom may be making a great move by providing everyone the ability to play their new retro title in download form. The game is definitely going to be a smaller title with a niche appeal, you really want to gain as much access to gamers as possible.

Although WiiWare is a great staging point for a new/old franchise there is absolutely nothing wrong with expanding it to the other consoles, even the PlayStation 3, giving all gamers the choice of which platform to purchase the title for.

In many ways, a console gamer with all consoles can chose the version of Mega Man 9 which will provide them the best “controller” experience. You want to play on an Xbox 360 controller? Great! Perhaps the Wii classic controller is more your style? Fine! Wanna stick with the proven PlayStation controller? Excellent!

Hopefully we’ll get a sense of which console moves the most downloads for Mega Man 9, as this will define who gets great gaming DLC in the future. Oddly enough, it might be the Xbox 360 because of its console sales count and total attach rate, even though the Wii has huge volume of users they don’t purchase very many games (if any).

(Thanks, Kotaku)

The same company that brought us the NES Advantage has proven the Wii control scheme isn’t as bad as critics speculated. The beauty of adding the “waggle” technology is limiting your button count to a reasonable level without overwhelming gamers.

We’re seeing casual gaming on the rise both in the press and in the public. Yet, each “next generation” console brings new features and functionality to the consoles, games and accessories. Since NES birthed the SNES we’ve seen button count increase on controllers.

Nintendo has usually been conservative on buttons, trying to work “shape” over sheer volume of buttons, barring the C button count on the N64 controller. Nintendo controllers change shape with each generation and they’ve evolved, not innovated, their way around with the Wii control scheme. Each function of the controller exists, on its own, in other products but nobody has built a fully functional controller in such a way for a game console until now.

Sony took pieces of this concept in their PS3 controller and its ability to detect “tilt.” Xbox 360 stuck with the beefy controller with lots of buttons and analog sticks. Not just a D-Pad but two analog sticks and a ton of buttons to press, some pressure sensitive as well. What of our next-generation console? Maybe a few new buttons?

Or, maybe a few new motions? Wii evolved the control scheme and Sony validated their decision, what’s next? Are the controllers just too damn complicated in today’s world? Or, perhaps limiting the buttons brings in more gamers, like Grandma and Grandpa, to play your console as well.

“I think you could do things with a built-in camera or a little motion sensitivity. You look at the Wii controller with less buttons – they added functionality by doing waggle. Not a lot of games use the waggle well, but Super Mario Galaxy for example uses it perfectly. Zak and Wiki uses it rather well,” said Cliff Bleszinski of Epic Games.

CliffyB is a game designer at Epic Games and, believe it or not, when he starts to question the sheer amount of buttons, he’s probably echoing the sentiments of other game designers. He also said, “if you look at a controller right now it looks like an alien spaceship.”

Why does it matter what Cliff thinks? He’s a game designer and his goal is to make his studio and their publisher a lot of money in video game sales. He wants to get his product to “the hands” of the largest audience possible in order to build the best bank roll. The more people who can utilize your game with the mechanics of the controller the better chance you’ll have a block buster title (at least in terms of sales).

The Nintendo DS utilizes the same button position as all the hand helds from Nintendo and reflects the look and feel of the old Game and Watch titles. The simple control scheme has worked for years, continues to sell hundreds of thousands in unit sales and contains a huge library of games. It also uses “touch and feel” mechanics to expand the game play design with intuitive stylus mechanics.

The DS shows exactly how new technology in touch and feel can expand the controller without adding buttons just as the Wii has shown us a fourth dimension of game control. Perhaps, the future of gaming involves utilizing new technologies to break the need for yet more old style button clicking.

Are game controllers too complicated?