@BrendanSinclair First thing I do on every streaming service is look for the setting to turn off autoplay. If they don't have it then I probably won't watch anything on there.
The Colony was infamous for the many ways in which it would kill you. Here's one involving one of two infinite corridors you could get trapped in (warning: loud sounds).
Given the news that @croqueteer has released the source code to his landmark 1988 adventure/FPS hybrid The Colony (https://github.com/Croquetx/thecolony), I thought I'd dig out and repost the #macicons entry I wrote about it:
I still find myself drawn into the Colony icon every time I look at it. @croqueteer had a tough job with it — how do you translate the magic of the game's real-time wireframe 3D graphics into a static 32x32 pixel grid? — but I think it strikes a perfect balance between the clean/clear lines that every good icon needs (for legibility) and enticing imagery to attract your interest in playing the game. And like every good game icon, it's instantly recognisable to anyone who's played the game (and seen the cool ray-casting 3D as well as the creepy giant eyeball alien).
I still find myself drawn into the Colony icon every time I look at it. @croqueteer had a tough job with it — how do you translate the magic of the game's real-time wireframe 3D graphics into a static 32x32 pixel grid? — but I think it strikes a perfect balance between the clean/clear lines that every good icon needs (for legibility) and enticing imagery to attract your interest in playing the game. And like every good game icon, it's instantly recognisable to anyone who's played the game (and seen the cool ray-casting 3D as well as the creepy giant eyeball alien).
@MichaelKlamerus @Bogusmeatfactory Not the first, but very early, and using the same raycasting techniques that drove the rise of FPS games in the 90s — except with a fascinating story to unravel, a very low framerate, and a sadistic design that'll kill you for anything.
There's a great tale behind its creation, too, which is laid out on the GitHub project page as well as in my Secret History of Mac Gaming book.
There's a great tale behind its creation, too, which is laid out on the GitHub project page as well as in my Secret History of Mac Gaming book.
📌 Examining the roles of Vicky Arnold and Heather Stevens, the women behind the early #TombRaider franchise, an article by Llewella Chapman: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/QA5I5X8M3WZHFGAKSKPE/full?target=10.1080/14680777.2023.2217346
It's a must read! 👍
Source code for the 1988 game The Colony has been posted to Github
Y’all ever wonder what the game you’re working on in World Builder for Macintosh System 6 would look like on the @playdate and then accidentally start designing and coding it a little bit? Haha this is rhetorical question it happens to everyone
Found this while hunting for a floppy disk that still works (so I could copy USB drivers to a fresh Win98 laptop install). The Polish-made Epic MegaGames-published Robbo was my first experience with shareware on DOS/Win3.1 rather than Mac. Cool game. Doesn’t look like I have the first disk anymore.
I'm pleasantly surprised by Super Action Ball, a cool Korean arcade-style PC football/soccer game from the mid-90s with anthropomorphic animals, power-ups, and off-the-ball violence.
Gameplay's a bit clunkier than the likes of Super Sidekicks and Soccer Brawl, and less varied than the Kunio-kun games (Nintendo World Cup and its Japan-only sequels), but the presentation is fantastic and it's miles better than the UK-made games of this sort from the time. Shame it never got an international release or a sequel.
Gameplay's a bit clunkier than the likes of Super Sidekicks and Soccer Brawl, and less varied than the Kunio-kun games (Nintendo World Cup and its Japan-only sequels), but the presentation is fantastic and it's miles better than the UK-made games of this sort from the time. Shame it never got an international release or a sequel.
We got some FPSDOC backers to review a (4.5-hour!) rough cut of our film recently and were blown away by the results.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fandamental/first-person-shooter-the-definitive-fps-documentary/posts/3818387
All along I've wanted it to be the first high-gloss gaming documentary that actually gets the balance of depth and nostalgia right, and to make a doco that doesn't fall into the stereotypical oversimplification and cringey 8-bit graphics/music crap that plagued most of the other projects with the pull to get big-name interviews. Looks like we did it.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fandamental/first-person-shooter-the-definitive-fps-documentary/posts/3818387
All along I've wanted it to be the first high-gloss gaming documentary that actually gets the balance of depth and nostalgia right, and to make a doco that doesn't fall into the stereotypical oversimplification and cringey 8-bit graphics/music crap that plagued most of the other projects with the pull to get big-name interviews. Looks like we did it.
Photo and description of injury, not for squeamish people
Sliding down a full flight of stairs may sound fun, but three days later I can safely say it most certainly wasn't fun for me. Still nursing serious bruising on my leg, butt, arm, and knee. Had some grazing, too, that's mostly healed, and I cracked an IKEA picture frame that we taped back together.
And all that's with instinctual knowledge about minimising fall damage honed by years as a dancer in my 20s. (I probably would have broken something otherwise.)
And all that's with instinctual knowledge about minimising fall damage honed by years as a dancer in my 20s. (I probably would have broken something otherwise.)
sensitive media
Opening sequence of our 1997 game The Last Express.
https://youtu.be/U7k3_CX6NII
In today's blog post, I explain this very special game's connection to my latest artwork (and my new graphic novel "Replay"): https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/latest-news/#a-new-departure
This new video by Luke Muscat about the creation of Fruit Ninja is a great watch if you're a designer or just a fan of the game!
https://youtu.be/St5v2uI-Nis
@lunarloony
@MichaelKlamerus @greg Indeed, like on all those adventure games that got a great FMTowns port, or how lots of PC games were actually best on Mac but are way easier to set up for most people and *nearly* as good on DOS with patch A plus the audio ripped from the Mac or Windows CD version.
@MichaelKlamerus @greg Indeed, like on all those adventure games that got a great FMTowns port, or how lots of PC games were actually best on Mac but are way easier to set up for most people and *nearly* as good on DOS with patch A plus the audio ripped from the Mac or Windows CD version.
@greg
@MichaelKlamerus Hence why I mentioned the UI change as a possible negative. And now we're getting into the troubling question of what defines "best"? It could very well become a flowchart/decision tree for many games.
@MichaelKlamerus Hence why I mentioned the UI change as a possible negative. And now we're getting into the troubling question of what defines "best"? It could very well become a flowchart/decision tree for many games.
@MichaelKlamerus @greg I'd say the Mac and Windows versions are the best ones I've tried, as they have better sound and higher-resolution graphics, but they're also lacking the original custom menubar font and textured background used on the DOS/Amiga/Atari ST versions — which might be a big deal to some folks.
@flargh
We've had a mandated "gamble responsibly" disclaimer at the end of every ad for years, but gambling addiction is still a huge problem here. They're introducing a on ban credit card payments for "in-play" matches now, though, so that's something at least. (We have a casino here that was somehow allowed to keep its licence despite flagrant illegal activity they themselves sanctioned, too. Yay for gambling tax revenue.)
We've had a mandated "gamble responsibly" disclaimer at the end of every ad for years, but gambling addiction is still a huge problem here. They're introducing a on ban credit card payments for "in-play" matches now, though, so that's something at least. (We have a casino here that was somehow allowed to keep its licence despite flagrant illegal activity they themselves sanctioned, too. Yay for gambling tax revenue.)
@flargh Here in Australia you can't watch anything on TV or an ad-supported streaming service without coming across betting ads (usually involving a celebrity or famous current/former athlete). They're even on bus stops sometimes. The betting companies keep getting into trouble with regulatory bodies for going too far, though, so reform to the advertising rules for gambling is on the way.
Unique and interesting look at Iran's first ever video game, clearly inspired by Prince of Persia, courtesy of the efforts of Arash Hackimi. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/culture/the-history-of-iran-s-very-first-video-game