Tag: Konami

TD Gaming Podcast 199: Now In QuadTD Gaming Podcast 199: Now In Quad

November 30, 2010November 30, 2010| schommerschommer| 0 Comment| 8:58 pm

This week we’ve got four folks on the show, including Jonah Falcon who will soon take over the reins from Don as the third host of the gaming podcast. This week we’ve got a bit of user comments (a few didn’t make it as they were stuck in my queue, hopefully next week) and we’re flashing back to Food Fight while hitting up news:

Question of the Week: What did you buy on Black Friday?

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Gaming Podcast 128: ProducaGaming Podcast 128: Produca

June 23, 2009June 23, 2009| schommerschommer| 0 Comment| 5:24 pm

This weeks gaming podcast tackles the history of Full Throttle and the history of the SCUMM script system created for Maniac Mansion. We’re also hitting up some game news, talking a bit more about games that have changed our lives and taking to heart some great user comments.

This weeks question of the week is of the user-submitted style! Krud asks, “If you could only play four games (w/o new DLC for the foreseeable future), what four would you choose?”

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New Castlevania Title For 360 and PS3: 2D or 3D?New Castlevania Title For 360 and PS3: 2D or 3D?

October 10, 2008October 10, 2008| schommerschommer| 0 Comment| 11:57 am

The Castlevania series was born in Japan on September 26th back in 1986. That knowledge in hand, you can imagine the demographic of 30+ year old gamers who would kill to get an old school franchise title on a new graphic intensive console.

We’ve had many new Castlevania releases since 1986 including releases on the Nintendo DS in 2006 with more titles arriving with the Castlevania branding. However, we’ve not seen a true “full blown” Castlevania title in some time. As a retro style gamer, I’d love to hear news that this would be a 2D game with “next generation” graphics.

There are far too few really great 2D side scrolling platformers for this generation of consoles. Outside of Nintendo, most side scroller systems become “arcade” titles in XBLA or PSN. Over the last fifteen years we’ve had plenty of 3D games with jumping and crazy camera work. Lately, we’ve had some new titles arriving that are 2D platformers like Little Big Planet and the recently released Mega Man 9.

More than likely, Konami will follow the flow and design yet another old franchise with new 3D graphics. Given the demographic for this franchise it would almost seem like a selling point to jump back to a 2D world view.

What would you like? A 3D or 2D Castlevania title on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3?

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Konami Owns Musical Rhythm-Matching Game Patents?Konami Owns Musical Rhythm-Matching Game Patents?

July 11, 2008July 11, 2008| schommerschommer| 0 Comment| 8:55 am

Apparently Konami just realized Harmonix, MTV Networks and Viacom have made some game called Rock Band and want to take legal action. Konami has created some Japanese games involving karaoke called Karaoke Revolution. Why take legal action now?

Probably because Konami is working towards Rock Revolution, a title which puts together drums, vocals and guitar. How odd, don’t we have a game called Rock Band which has done that for awhile now? It’s much easier to be competitive in the market if you can squeeze your opponent out of the market by telling them you hold a patent on the entire concept…which you let slide for a year.

It seems a bit convenient to force a lawsuit, now, after Rock Band is proven successful and before you launch your own “clone.”

Its suit claims that Rock Band violates a series of US Patents registered in 2002 and 2003 relating to “simulated musical instruments” and “musical rhythm-matching game.” (gamespot)

Although the developers of Rock Band should have gone through some patents on the topic prior to make it (or maybe they did?), it seems a bit out of place to patent such a generic concept. As far as I know, Musical Chairs is also a musical rhythm-matching game but nobody put up any stink when Konami filed a patent for the same concept…

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