This week’s gaming podcast paints its face with your blood. Okay, not quite, but we’re definitely hitting up some news, reading community comments and looking back at Sinistar and the history of the Power Pad. This weeks news includes:
We’re also asking the question, are you looking forward to a LEGO mmo?
I miss old SSI games and all the beauty and wonder they brought me as a child. Perhaps it’s more of the feeling of playing old MS-DOS games and that no worries feeling of playing games all summer long when your parents are out working; no cares in the world but that of the evil dragons and goblins of an RPG world. Secret of the Silver Blades arrived in May of 1990, developed and published by Strategic Simulations Inc (SSI), a company we covered in our gaming history back in TD Gaming Podcast Episode 9.
Secret of the Silver Blades is actually the third in a four-part game series which was eventually packaged in the Gold Box editing of the SSI games. It was a continuation of the game Curse of the Azure Bonds and the first in the series: Pool of Radiance. The cool part of the series was the leveling system where each would let you level to a certain limit just like most modules in D&D games, this game let you get to level seven which means a Mage could use the cool Delayed Blast Fireball spell which was one of my favorite magic spells in D&D (yeah, I’m a dork.)
The graphics were a whopping 16-colors, with slight graphical improvements over the other two prior games. This game didn’t have an overworld map like the others, going full first person for the length of the game. Another great enhancement was the ability to use the arrow keys to navigate menu’s without the need for “hot keys” like older SSI titles, given the game is very much menu-based for combat, equipment and inventory management it was very handy to have the use of those nice little arrow keys.
You create your party and start adventuring in a game engine very similar to all the games before it, so introduction to game mechanics was minimal, you could advance your characters further in level and, most importantly, import characters from previous games. The D&D world is really a character-driven game environment and you grow fond of your characters and understand the best ways to battle with them, importing is key and still, today, is a big part in well done RPG expansions (Guild Wars is a great example). Unfortunately, many games fall short of character import and it kind of blows away some of the magic of an RPG.
One of the frustrating issues with Secret of the Silver blade is the limitation on levels for the Cleric, because they can’t level up past 7 they can’t get the good ressurection spell, only allowed to use Raise Dead which lowers your characters constitution by 1 (much like the traditional D&D rules). However, given its a video game and not a paper-dice based game, the raise dead penalty is annoying, so it was easier to save often and re-load when you died to try again and avoid the penalty. I do recall their being some scrolls or something to get back your constitution penalty… but it’s been awhile I might be making that up.
Anyway, a well done series, classic RPG and helped build a foundation for games like Morrow Wind and Oblivion in my opinion.
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This week, the guys discuss Madden NFL 24 being a buggy mess, the Xbox 360 Store closure in 2024, Ubisoft still trying to make Skull & Bones work, and Starfield going gold.
The news includes:
Let us know what you think.
This week’s episode, which has been posted a little late due to life interruptions, has Jonah ranting about Mass Effect Andromeda, which T.J. and Scott pine for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wind.
This week’s news includes:
Let us know what you think.
acing that intro jen, keep it up =p
acing that intro jen, keep it up =p
In responds to Derrick
I lived in Cooktown (far north Australia) -.- got to do something else with my Munny, then just spend it on rent, spirits & liqueurs =p. + I don’t want Microsoft’s the next gen to be a more powerful system with more features. I want something revolutionary.
In responds to Derrick
I lived in Cooktown (far north Australia) -.- got to do something else with my Munny, then just spend it on rent, spirits & liqueurs =p. + I don’t want Microsoft’s the next gen to be a more powerful system with more features. I want something revolutionary.
……Logo MMO? ……. *unOfficially Lame*
……Logo MMO? ……. *unOfficially Lame*
– twitch games, like in reflex-based. Like Quake 3, Unreal Tournament as twitch shooters.
– affording games: so is it safe to say that some of the charm of a game comes from not affording it?
– 2K Boston – Irrational Games: it makes sense somehow to keep the name, for rainy days I guess … I mean having a name that’s already known is better than trying to come up with a new one, do marketing for it etc.
@CoD series: I guess the CoD brand name is owned by the publisher, so they can switch the developers as they please.
– LEGO MMO? Not interested.
I mean, for what market segment? Most people above 18 (and a lot of the younger ones) are either into realistic stuff (think COD4, STALKER) or fantasy (WoW).
But LEGO? That would target what, the 10 years old? Now, would you really like having your 10 year old kid playing an MMO for hours?
Just doesn’t make sense. A 10 years old can’t afford buying the game or paying for the subscription.
That’s it for my rant 🙂
Your podcast is office-dangerous: I was drinking tea and I almost spewed it on the monitor when you guys did that voice to text thinggie.
– twitch games, like in reflex-based. Like Quake 3, Unreal Tournament as twitch shooters.
– affording games: so is it safe to say that some of the charm of a game comes from not affording it?
– 2K Boston – Irrational Games: it makes sense somehow to keep the name, for rainy days I guess … I mean having a name that’s already known is better than trying to come up with a new one, do marketing for it etc.
@CoD series: I guess the CoD brand name is owned by the publisher, so they can switch the developers as they please.
– LEGO MMO? Not interested.
I mean, for what market segment? Most people above 18 (and a lot of the younger ones) are either into realistic stuff (think COD4, STALKER) or fantasy (WoW).
But LEGO? That would target what, the 10 years old? Now, would you really like having your 10 year old kid playing an MMO for hours?
Just doesn’t make sense. A 10 years old can’t afford buying the game or paying for the subscription.
That’s it for my rant 🙂
Your podcast is office-dangerous: I was drinking tea and I almost spewed it on the monitor when you guys did that voice to text thinggie.
having never actually played a lego game, except for lego island when I was like, 6, I may not be the best personto comment on a lego mmo, but TBH the entire idea of the lego series kinda repulses me. They remind me of the acme company out of the roadrunner cartoons, like, bad versions of aproduct, eg acme axe, acme anvil, acme game, they see a real game that works, then slap the word “lego” on it and remarket it. This kind of thing has never appealed to me, as you could play the actual game rather than the lego one, even though if there was a lego 4 dead 2 I would be tempted, if just to see what happens when u fire a grenade launcher at a brick zombie 😀
having never actually played a lego game, except for lego island when I was like, 6, I may not be the best personto comment on a lego mmo, but TBH the entire idea of the lego series kinda repulses me. They remind me of the acme company out of the roadrunner cartoons, like, bad versions of aproduct, eg acme axe, acme anvil, acme game, they see a real game that works, then slap the word “lego” on it and remarket it. This kind of thing has never appealed to me, as you could play the actual game rather than the lego one, even though if there was a lego 4 dead 2 I would be tempted, if just to see what happens when u fire a grenade launcher at a brick zombie 😀
lol lego fps, now thats something i wanna C =p
lol lego fps, now thats something i wanna C =p
I wasn’t going to comment on the whole LEGO thing, but since I’m seeing a bit of flak for the franchise I feel the need to speak up on its behalf.
If you’ve played the demos at least, you’d see that LEGO (or whoever the design team is that creates the LEGO-like games) has put a lot of care and effort into creating a unique gameplay experience that still remains relatively true to the content in question, albeit in a facetious, wink-at-the-player manner. And c’mon, who didn’t at least smirk the first time they saw the screen shot of darth vader’s head on the bikini-clad Leia body?
I equate the LEGO games as being a video game parallel to Pixar, who are also big on doing homages (particularly in their shorts), and those have a wide age range of appeal.
But then again, I’m also one of the few people who thought “Stupid Fun Club” was an awesome name for Wil Wright’s company. ‘;)
I wasn’t going to comment on the whole LEGO thing, but since I’m seeing a bit of flak for the franchise I feel the need to speak up on its behalf.
If you’ve played the demos at least, you’d see that LEGO (or whoever the design team is that creates the LEGO-like games) has put a lot of care and effort into creating a unique gameplay experience that still remains relatively true to the content in question, albeit in a facetious, wink-at-the-player manner. And c’mon, who didn’t at least smirk the first time they saw the screen shot of darth vader’s head on the bikini-clad Leia body?
I equate the LEGO games as being a video game parallel to Pixar, who are also big on doing homages (particularly in their shorts), and those have a wide age range of appeal.
But then again, I’m also one of the few people who thought “Stupid Fun Club” was an awesome name for Wil Wright’s company. ‘;)
(BTW, I don’t like your new edit plugin. Or rather, your new edit plugin doesn’t like me. ‘:P [Wouldn’t load before the edit time was up.])
(BTW, I don’t like your new edit plugin. Or rather, your new edit plugin doesn’t like me. ‘:P [Wouldn’t load before the edit time was up.])
Oops, almost forgot to say what I’d intended before the LEGO tangent!
I wanted to answer your question from Facebook about whether playing games ever made people want to become a game designer.
Yes. Many times.
In fact, that’s what I went to college to do. Though as is evident by my not being a game designer, that didn’t pan out. Partly because none of the colleges within my range offered any sort of computer game programming/design courses (unlike today), but mostly because I sucked at modular design, as prior to college I was self-taught at programming (my high school was severely behind the times where programming classes were concerned. We learned on Apple II’s!)
Anyway, here are just some of the game designs I worked on over the years:
16 – [Your Name]’s Bland Adventure. (Programmed in BASIC w/ minimal save data, but had “high-res” graphics.)
18 – Space Gerbils From The Planet Pumbly Fraxelcrud (text parser w/ audio effects; wanted to beat Infocom level interactivity, which meant never getting far enough to actually meet the titular “space gerbils.”)
19 – Pureluck Jones And The Maltese Chicken (another text adventure, using the Adventure Game Toolkit. Included musical numbers “The Maltese Chicken Blues” by The Singing Thug Troupe, a group of thugs who enjoyed singing, dancing, and beating people up in alleys.)
20 – Bunnyman (a superhero parody graphic adventure based not at all loosely on both Spiderman and Batman The Animated Series. Used some other game-making utility whose name eludes me. Gave up after I saw “The Tick” and realized the idea had already been done, if not in game form.)
[Several years skipped for space]
25- Mall Mogul, a business sim idea inspired by the likes of Rollercoaster Tycoon, Transport Tycoon, etc. The difference being it would be more graphically intensive (Betani and I were self-studying graphic techniques off and on), mimic mall behavior, and double as a cool sandbox environment. Yeah, rather lofty goals, ones we knew we’d never pull off by ourselves, but we thought if we designed a meager prototype we mght find people willing to help us on it. But then the game “Mall Tycoon” came out, not only beating us to the punch, but also doing such a sucky job at it that nobody would ever willingly jump in to do a similar title. So we pretty much gave up after that.
In recent years I’ve fiddled with the Adventure Gaming System, which mimics the environments of old LucasArts and Sierra games, with minimal programming required beyond logic scripting. I started to make a proof-of-concept mini-game involving a sarcastic wishing well (to see how many interactions I could get in one scene), but beyond that the only real end “product” I’ve come up with was an animated Indiana Jones parody greeting card for my dad on Father’s Day.
Anyway, I’m sure that was more than you wanted to know, and I don’t really expect you to read this whole freakin’ thing, but I felt like sharing anyway. ‘:)
Oops, almost forgot to say what I’d intended before the LEGO tangent!
I wanted to answer your question from Facebook about whether playing games ever made people want to become a game designer.
Yes. Many times.
In fact, that’s what I went to college to do. Though as is evident by my not being a game designer, that didn’t pan out. Partly because none of the colleges within my range offered any sort of computer game programming/design courses (unlike today), but mostly because I sucked at modular design, as prior to college I was self-taught at programming (my high school was severely behind the times where programming classes were concerned. We learned on Apple II’s!)
Anyway, here are just some of the game designs I worked on over the years:
16 – [Your Name]’s Bland Adventure. (Programmed in BASIC w/ minimal save data, but had “high-res” graphics.)
18 – Space Gerbils From The Planet Pumbly Fraxelcrud (text parser w/ audio effects; wanted to beat Infocom level interactivity, which meant never getting far enough to actually meet the titular “space gerbils.”)
19 – Pureluck Jones And The Maltese Chicken (another text adventure, using the Adventure Game Toolkit. Included musical numbers “The Maltese Chicken Blues” by The Singing Thug Troupe, a group of thugs who enjoyed singing, dancing, and beating people up in alleys.)
20 – Bunnyman (a superhero parody graphic adventure based not at all loosely on both Spiderman and Batman The Animated Series. Used some other game-making utility whose name eludes me. Gave up after I saw “The Tick” and realized the idea had already been done, if not in game form.)
[Several years skipped for space]
25- Mall Mogul, a business sim idea inspired by the likes of Rollercoaster Tycoon, Transport Tycoon, etc. The difference being it would be more graphically intensive (Betani and I were self-studying graphic techniques off and on), mimic mall behavior, and double as a cool sandbox environment. Yeah, rather lofty goals, ones we knew we’d never pull off by ourselves, but we thought if we designed a meager prototype we mght find people willing to help us on it. But then the game “Mall Tycoon” came out, not only beating us to the punch, but also doing such a sucky job at it that nobody would ever willingly jump in to do a similar title. So we pretty much gave up after that.
In recent years I’ve fiddled with the Adventure Gaming System, which mimics the environments of old LucasArts and Sierra games, with minimal programming required beyond logic scripting. I started to make a proof-of-concept mini-game involving a sarcastic wishing well (to see how many interactions I could get in one scene), but beyond that the only real end “product” I’ve come up with was an animated Indiana Jones parody greeting card for my dad on Father’s Day.
Anyway, I’m sure that was more than you wanted to know, and I don’t really expect you to read this whole freakin’ thing, but I felt like sharing anyway. ‘:)
Lionhead studios, from memory, is London and/or UK based.
QotW: no
Lionhead studios, from memory, is London and/or UK based.
QotW: no
The edit tools seems fine you have fast internet Krud?
The edit tools seems fine you have fast internet Krud?