OCD Action

playthoseblues
Member

As you step into the record store, a shaft of light shines through the wooden rotten, window frame, on to the floor, dust flowing gently through the air. Wooden crates, cluttered on wooden put me up tables, stuffed with records, some with sleeves, others without. In the corner of the room, is a small doorway with a long scrap of cloth dangling above it. As you brush your hand through the doorway, the cloth moves to one side. Wooden floorboards creaking underfoot, you notice wooden shelves stacked all around the small square room you're in. Video games clutter these shelves, old ones new ones, some for young people and some for older people. Causal games and niche ones.

And in the corner, is a small tarnished metal till, with the same paper bag used to package the vinyls, the same musty smell wafting through the room. And next to the small tarnished till is someone sitting on a stool, gazing around the room for the day's customer's to daze in to gaze around. The muffled sounds of 'Record Of the Day' can be audible through the plasterless wall. This person is Andrew, and on the wall behind him, is the old poster peeling of the wall slowly like a slug dragging itself along on the ground. Although the text has been sun bleached, the words 'Andrew and Jon's Video Game Department' can just be made out. Perhaps today we might get the odd customer, let's see what the day brings......

Sun Apr 24 2011 20:26:17 #
Truddles
Member

Perhaps today we might get the odd customer

Yep, that's me So I thought I'd pop in to say hello to both yourself and Andrew.
I'm afraid as I don't play video games I wont be purchasing anything but brought you both an Easter egg to share

Sun Apr 24 2011 22:23:00 #
playthoseblues
Member

Thanks for the Easter Eggs Trudy!

Mon Apr 25 2011 8:47:44 #
Ratwomble
Member

The bell rings as the shop door opens. A wizzened old man shuffles through the dusty racks of vinyl, heading for the back room. He is wearing a dirty T-shirt, grubby jeans and carries a stout cane. He is humming gently to himself. He reaches the curtain, pulls it to one side and steps through.

He nods to Andrew, looks up briefly from his book, and nods back. Without asking he rises, goes through to the back and puts the kettle on. When he returns with two cracked mugs of tea and a plate of biscuits the old man has still not found what he is looking for. So he puts down the refreshments and returns to his book. He knows that soon the visitor will find something, and when he does he will be ready to talk.

Eventually the old man finds what he has been looking for. He takes the dusty black box from the shelf. Andrew can just see what looks like a golden eagle on the front of it. The man shuffles over, painfully climbs up on the stool Andrew has found for him, and with a sweep of his thumb on the front of the box, removes the dust that is hiding the word…

Elite
BBC Microcomputer Model B
Floppy Disk version
Acornsoft
£19.99 in 1984
Written and Developed By David Braben and Ian Bell

The computer that I am writing this on has 2,000,000,000 bytes of main memory and around 80,000,000,000 bytes of secondary storage. It is by no means an exceptional machine. My mobile phone has 32,000,000,000 bytes of memory.

My first computer in 1984 was a BBC Micro Model B. It claimed to have 32,000 bytes of memory, but by any modern definition there was really only 16,000 bytes that could be used by the programmer. This meant that, compared to my mobile phone, it had 2 million times less memory.

Perhaps some perspective is needed here. If the memory on my computer represented the distance between Edinburgh and Glasgow, the memory on my phone represents the distance between Edinburgh and the sun. If the memory on my phone represented a single sheet of A4 paper, then my phone represents a stack of A4 paper taller than the Eiffel Tower.(but only if the Eiffel Tower had the Angel of the North under it and the London Eye on top). We are talking about a substantial difference.

And in those days, the expectations of game players were radically different. Games were largely licensed versions (or copies of) arcade games, or new representations of the games that had been available on mainframe computer systems for the idle amusement of academics.

So on the one hand, we had a lot of games that were designed to separate teenagers from their 10p pieces as quickly as possible, giving a vague promise of advancement. But with these games, you always played from the start. When you mastered climbing level one, you had to go through level two, but when you started a new game, you always had to start at the beginning. By and large you got three lives, and the chance (sometimes) to win more. The game was always the same.

On the other hand you had the kind of games that computer scientists liked to write and play. So we had very basic adventure games (which were text based and relied on you entering exactly the right trigger to move on), maze games, again screen based, simulators or the old standby Chess. These games were designed to be played on text devices. Dumb terminals and teletypes.

In 1984 the computer market was beginning to take off. We had the original IBM PC, which was a couple of years old. We had the Sinclair Spectrum (with it's cheap and nasty "dead flesh" keyboard and overheating power packs). There was even the Apple Macintosh, albeit in a form that most people today would struggle to recognise. And then the BBC decided that computers were going to be big, wanted to do a series of TV programmes about it and needed a basic computer that could be used as the basis for education. Hence the BBC Microcomputer was born. Sleek and powerful in a beige box, with a proper keyboard and mysterious expansion slots underneath, it was instantly adopted by schools, hobbyists and doting parents who planned that their children should use it for homework.

Now in 1984 the games market was very young, and it was possible for two young men to come up with something completely new and release it to the waiting world. David Braben and Ian Bell intially met at Cambridge university where both of them were already working on games for the BBC Micro. Together they produced a game that defined a genre - the space trading game.

It is possible to sum up the gameplay of Elite very quickly. You start as a lowly ranked space pilot, with a basic ship and a small cargo hold, in a quiet area of the galaxy with very little money and fewer prospects. You are labelled "Harmless". Your aim is to get your rating elevated to "Elite", at which point you were given a code that you sent to Acornsoft and they would send you an enamel badge. (I still have mine).

You improved your ship by buying add ons. To get the credits to buy the extras, you traded: buying low and selling high). Once your spacecraft was not entirely made of cardboard, you could try to hunt down the odd pirate, for credits and some of their cargo. You could choose to travel to lawless planets taking drugs and contraband, or stick to flying computer parts into advanced planets.

You had 8 galaxies to explore, each with 256 worlds. At each world you had to dock with a space station, and (if necessary) evade the police or pirates that were looking for you.

But there were also missions. Sometimes, very rarely, when you docked at a space station you would hear a strange claxon and see the words "Incoming Message" flashing on your screen. You would then be asked to take on a mission to deliver something to somewhere, or to hunt a bad guy, or to look for someone. These missions fit loosely into a bigger story and you felt part of a larger game, although the missions themselves rarely involved you doing anything that you weren't doing anyway.

Space combat was in what we now consider to be the standard way: a joystick was used to fly, you had missiles, you had guns. You could see alternate views, you had a radar system showing you where friends and foes were. All the usual stuff. But you see it wasn't usual. We hadnt played it before. This was very much the game that defined the space combat simulator and every game since (Starlancer, Freelancer, Space Trader, etc) has borrowed liberally from the defining influence that was Elite.

The game was brilliantly paced. Rewards came at just the right intervals to keep you interested. Just when it was getting increasingly hard to make it through to the next system, you would get a new weapon, or a piece of kit or (wonders of wonders) a mission to carry your interest forward. And always, there was the quest to get the rating "Elite".

It is thirty years, give or take, since Elite was first released. Versions followed for virtually every home computer. IBM PC, Spectrum, Commodore 64, I think there was even one for the short lived Dragon. There was a very acrimonious split between Ian Bell (who wanted to make the original versions available on the internet for free) and David Braden (who didn't). There are rumours of fallings out over royalties or IPR for the subsequent Frontier games. What is certainly true is that Bell and Braden never again produced anything that affected the gaming world like Elite.

So what was remarkable about Elite? We had adventure games in 1984 and we have adventure games now. We had platform games then, we have platform games now. We had simulation games then, we have simulation games now, and so on.

The difference about Elite, is that it was so advanced (and remember it ran in so little memory) that the fundamentals of the game are still recognisable in the modern space combat/trader games. The interface and gameplay standards that were set by Elite are still applied to new games today. Elite remains the yardstick by which the genre is measured and an unparalleled technical achievement.

And after nearly thirty years, there is no other area of computing that can say that. We don't compare hardware platforms to 1984 and more because (as shown above) it is laughable. We don't compare platform games, because (frankly) Ratchett and Clank has little in common with the orginal Donkey Kong. We don’t compare adventure games, because a text based Philosophers Stone has NOTHING WHATSOEVER in common with Red Dead Redemption. We certainly don’t compare Microsoft Office 2010 with Word and Excel vesion 1.0.

Putting it plainly, everyone of my age who is remotely interested in games, remembers Elite. Thirty years from now, how many pub conversations will you be able to have over reminiscences of Tiger Woods 2011 or Fifa 2011 or Bulletstorm or Call of Duty. All good games, but they will never be ranked "Elite" and given a little badge.

Commander Jameson out..........

Mon Apr 25 2011 12:27:12 #
Maxthedog
Member

Andrew, feeling peckish after the old man left, with his second hand copy of Elite (Andrew already claimed the code) walks over to his refreshments, and idly picks out a kit-kat, one of his faourites. And, wondering about the past, remembers an influential game he played with his father once. The first game for his PC, a special present when he was 7 or so. A long time ago now. He remembers looking over his kingdom, the slightly disturbed scribe complaining "Sire, there is no food left". He remembers the same voice, saying when starting the game and entering "Andrew" for his name, saying "Welcome, Lord Andrew" and marveling at the amazingness of this interactivity. He remembers always forgetting to build a granary. He remembers the hours spent listening to the Kaiser Chiefs and The Zutons whilst creating his own maps, near the end and start of the Star Wars: Jedi Academy phase he went through. Sitting in the slime green room where he sat for around 30 minutes a day, every day for two years. In his little red chair. But he can't remember the game's name right now. A young boy walks in, and asks "Do you have another copy of Stronghold?" Andrew says: "Ah, yes my boy, I do. And you may have it for free." ANdrew walks out, promising to be only a few minutes, and enters the garage. He reaches into an old plastic box, near an old fake wood desk, and pulls out a dusty copy of Stronghold. His Stronghold. He goes in and hands it to the boy. "Here you go."
"What do you say?" the boy's father asks
"Thank You mister storekeeper"
"Come back soon" is the warm reply, happy he can make a child happy as he was was, once.
Stronghold
PC only
(Thinks but can't remember who made it)
£ Not a Lot on Amazon

Stronghold influenced my life. I was not very happy at the time, and it was my first love. It started my passion and the string of affairs with other games. I thought about a lot, and if I couldn't complete a level, I would think about it for days. New tactics, different soldier types, different resources, the whole game-plan changed. I was the best in class for my Castles course when I was seven. And it was thanks to this game. I finished the campaign quickly and moved onto the skirmish feature. Then made my own maps. All this time, I was playing with my Dad, using multiplayer, and once or twice, I won. My dad is one of the people who thinks that he should play hard, and when I beat him, I have really beaten him as a person.

The game starts, if I remember correctly with 5 bosses, named after animals. You must defeat each one to claim your kingdom. The Rat, The Pig, The Snake, The Wolf and one other dude. You start with a wooden keep, and you are taught the basics, build a wall, build soldiers, get resources. But the sheer depth of the game shocked me. To make a knight, you would need a person, weapons made by a blacksmith from metal, shield from the same, a horse from a stable. There were different missions, destroys, captures and defends. Even resource gathering for "feasts" and other things. Of course, the people had to be kept happy, with bars and churches, or kept in line, using stocks, gallows. The punishments made them work harder but be unhappy, the churches, and the wells (also for putting fires out) made them not leave your castle, which they would do if too unhappy (or starving). This led me to discover other Real-Time Strategy games, and I believe has helped me learn to think into the future. Buy this game It will change your life.

Mon Apr 25 2011 15:01:19 #
Maxthedog
Member

PS: Thanks for the egg Trudy Yummmm!

Mon Apr 25 2011 15:13:38 #
playthoseblues
Member

A late Sunday afternoon, the shops's shut for another day with Andrew and David making their way home. Jon's left turning off the background music for the day, when all of a sudden he notices a plastic bag that he had brought in with him this very morning. Then he remembers. Taking the plastic bag from out underneath the cash counter, he walks through the curtain door and places the red plastic bag at the back of the room, on a dusty old shelf. In this plastic bag was a milestone for Jon in PC gaming. He never was a fan of many PC games apart from the strategy ones. From since he bought the game in 2003, at the age of 9 he always installed this on the computer the family had.

Simcity 4
Electronic Art/Maxis
£10 for the deluxe edition
PC

I've never been a massive fan of PC gaming, I mean, I think it's just using the Keyboard and Mouse. It just doesn't appeal to me. However from a very young age I was introduced to The Sims Games. I'm a BIG fan of those games, not as much as my sister, but still fairly big. But I always thought they were too repetitive. Create a family, build a house, go to work day in day out. I love The Sims Games, because you can create something of your own and just escape to a universe of your own. Back when I was 9, I remember my Dad was up in London and somehow he asked if me and my sister wanted a game. We asked for SimCity4 however the requirements probably wouldn't. We were trying to run games on a Windows ME (Dreadful OS!) with an 8MB Graphics card when I think Simcity needed 16 or 32Mb. So when I got the game it was playable, albeit the frame rate.

"But why do you like a game which you couldn't run properly!" I hear you ask. Well like other reviews it's the huge scope of the game, and how much detail has been laid onto the game. It's not just build some houses, or make a small town. The huge variety found in this game keeps the gameplay fresh, and although 8 years old, the graphics still look superb. And it's the choices that can be made throughout the game that can really draw you in. Fancy making a really nice little neighbourhood with plaza's around the small square in the centre? How about a library or even a subway link to a city centre? It can be done. On the other hand, what happens if you want to make a run down old port town? It can be done. Want to annoy the environmental adivsors? Place those residential houses next to the industrial factories!

Simcity 4 is constantly evolving as you play the game. Every small adjustment in the game be that taxes to industrial, commerical or residential land, Ordinances, or accepting trading deals with your neighbouring towns can greatly affect your burgeoning town. By using the game to it's full extent you can create whole networks of economic and social outcomes. At the beginning of the game you create a region, a piece of land split into many segments of different size, in these segments you build cities, and by connecting carriageways, motorways, ferry links, subway links, road links, you can push and pull population levels from other cities you have created.

Simcity 4 is really one of those games where you create a land of your own. What energy source do you want to use? You can place gas plants and oil refineries, connecting water systems, building traffic networks, garbage facilities, changing the health system, education system. The game is endless in what you can do, and with God mode at the beggining of building a city, you can terraform the land. Do you want to build a city on a plateau? Well you can. How about a valley or big sea? Well you can.

Mon Apr 25 2011 17:18:50 #
Maxthedog
Member

Great Review! I had the game too, but never got into very much, other than building a house or two and destroying them with a volcano or an alien invasion!

Mon Apr 25 2011 19:02:04 #
Maxthedog
Member

What do we love about Video Games?

I love the control you get over the hundreds of little minions you make xD

Thu Apr 28 2011 11:45:10 #
Ratwomble
Member

The old man staggers in carrying a box. He drops it on the counter in front of Andrew and, with just a hint of drama, peels back the tape that is holding it closed. He opens the box to reveal that it is filled with packing chips to protect the contents. He reaches in and removes a wedge of black plastic, about the size of an A4 Folder.

The top has many switches, there are wires out of the back. Sticky backed plastic in a wood print is strategically attached to the console. There are two controls linked by wires to the main box each consisting of a small box with a round knob.

Andrew's eyes widen in amazement. His jaw drops and he reaches for the leads to the TV set at the back of the shop. He whispers….

Pong
Atari (and others)
Circa 1976

In 1972, two computer engineers, Allan Alcorn and Nolan Bushnell installed a large cabinet in their local bar. Surrounded by the jukebox, the pinball tables and the earliest video game of them all, a multi directional shooter called "Computer Space".

The new game that was installed was a prototype. This was a very simple game. On each side of the screen a rectangular "paddle" could move up and down. A square moved from one side of the screen to the other, bouncing off the top or bottom of the screen as necessary. If you did not move your paddle to intercept the "ball" then it went off the screen and you lost a point.

Alcorn and Bushnell left the unit in the bar for a week until they were called in to fix it. They discovered that the problem was that the coin mechanism had jammed due to the box being entirely full of quarters.

The game was called Pong, as a result of the distinctive sounds made when the "ball" collided with the edges or the paddles.

The game really was that simple. The home version had options, you could have a small or big ball. Slow or fast speed. Big or small paddles. And that was it.

Commercial versions were appearing in bars and public places by 1973 and other games were quick to fill the market. Many of them more sophisticated than Pong, they relied on expensive technology: custom chips, sound cards, complex controls. But in most arcades, the venerable Pong would sit. Waiting for a player or two to test it out.

Where Pong is really remarkable is that it was the first real home video game. We had a small cupboard under the stairs in our house that could be reached from the kitchen. We called it the "Toy Cupboard" and it was generally pretty full. Full of jigsaws, and board games, both with some pieces missing. It was full of dried paints, running together to form brown. The fiddly pieces of Spirograph where spread around, so that the pins would stick in unwary feet. There was rock hard plasticene and play-doh. And Lego. My God there was Lego. And leaking Chemistry sets. And Airfix kits.

The only electronic toys that we had were train sets and Scalectrix. Fine in their way, but fiddly. And you needed a 6 foot by 4 foot space for them. And any parent that was around was happy to let you use a 6x4 space, but only up until dinner. Or lunch, Or bedtime. So the setup (which granted was at least half the fun) took three hours, you got an hour to play, then you had to start packing up.

So when my father came home one evening with a box under his arm, with exciting pictures on the front and polystyrene insides, and the name PONG on the top, it caused something of a stir. My Father had (and has) a love hate relationship with technology. Easily seduced by slick technology he has a lack of patience when it comes to the business of actually using it. He relies heavily on his son and grandson.

But I was of little help that day. Put simply, I had never seen anything like this before. The idea of connecting anything to the TV was completely new. We simply did not have any devices that connected. Remember at this time (and my daughter does not believe this) it took about five or ten minutes for the TV to come to life when you switched it on. It was common to be sent to the living room to warm up the set at 7:15 so that Mum could watch Coronation Street at 7:30.

So we lifted out the console with respect, even awe. And we read the instructions. These had been translated from Japanese into English via a smattering of Village Idiot. But we managed it. We then managed to tune the tv into the RF frequency that the Pong console used. And that was it. We were hooked.

It has been observed that the only thing that prevents my brother from being the most competetive man on the planet is the presence of my father. Battle lines were drawn. Hours were spent playing. Best of three matches easily became best of twenty one. Some matches were held over weeks with scores being kept on paper scraps in the box. Every night the console would be put away reverentially.

The console wasn’t too reliable. It overheated after seven or eight straight hours of play. And we played for seven or eight hours straight, all the time. I can still remember the smell of it when it got too hot. The game became the cultural focus of our lives. Friends would call just to play a bit. We developed extravagent gestures to go along with the movements of the paddles.

Pong was important because it was the first affordable home video game system. It was also (very nearly) the first arcade game. It was also the first two player game, which really matters. It was simple to learn, fun to play and

Sometimes I watch the latest video games on the Xbox 360 on HD TVs with wireless controllers and internet enabled headsets with a kind of wonder. How can we have come from Pong to Bulletstorm, from a single knob controller to the Xbox kinnect, from a ball that was a square to every blade of grass in a golf game being modelled.

And are we actually any better off? Does the graphic intensity of the modern game outdo the frenetic gameplay of the PONG battlefield? Is the realism and strategy of the modern gamers world truly "better" than the loud beep as the ball hit your paddle?

(Well, yes. Obviously.)

Thu Apr 28 2011 17:09:28 #
Ratwomble
Member

Anyone else looking forward to LA Noire? Just a week or so to go......

Wed May 11 2011 21:32:39 #
Maxthedog
Member

I heard it's gonna be great

Thu May 12 2011 19:35:02 #
Ratwomble
Member

You aren't going to get to play it. It's an 18

Thu May 12 2011 21:39:52 #
Truddles
Member

By the sounds of it even if it wasn't an 18 you wouldn't get to play it as your Dad will be hogging it

Thu May 12 2011 21:47:11 #
Ratwomble
Member

Ah Trudy, we need to get you an XBox.......

Fri May 13 2011 11:55:39 #
Ratwomble
Member

Sea Jay has mentioned Red Dead Redemption in another thread.

I spent hours with that one. I can still remember the pleasure involved in riding your horse gently over the brow of a hill and seeing the sun come up over a canyon in front of you. Was like being in a Western. As a professional programmer I have no idea how they can do that sort if thing on an XBox

Sat Aug 13 2011 8:07:32 #
Maxthedog
Member

Im paying a lot of Starcraft 2 so I'll do a quick review.

Basically its a Real time strategy. You get 3 races - Zerg, Protoss and Terran.

Zerg - Most complicated to play but if you can play them then you'll probably win
Protoss - Medium race
Terran - Least complicated to play but good for if youre new to the game.

It has a good multiplayer system in conjunction with battle.net, so you can use realid to friend your real life friends. The campaign is really imaginative and unique with some great devices to keep moving - one requires you to move your base before a wall of fire destroys it ! I'd definately reccomend to anyone who likes sci-fi and Real Time Strategy. If you LIke command and conquer you'll like this.

Mon Aug 15 2011 11:59:23 #
playthoseblues
Member

Mafia II, is a 1940's and 50's free roam, but story driven video game available for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Situated in a fictional city much like New York, called Empire Bay, Mafia II tells the story of Vito Scaletta, and the entangling events of his life story throughout his teenage years, and his rise of infamy has he climbs the ranks of the Italian Mafia. As an Italian born American, at the tender age of 18, Vito is sent to Scilly to help with the American war effort, and of which, the first mission of the game takes place, as you assault a government building, learning the basics of the gameplay. After this interesting first chapter, of the game, you are introduced back to your home town of "Empire Bay" where you speak to your old friend Joe about work. Gradually, you and Joe begin to make a name for yourself and begin to work for the mafia, the missions increasing in intensity in each of the 13 chapters.

Although Mafia II is a good game, I don't think it can ever be called a great game, due to the gaping holes that developers 2K left out of what could have been a brilliant sequel to the original game. From the hours I have dedicated to this game, I always feel a hint of disappointment to what could have been, and what 2K actually developed. The story in Mafia II is great, with an exciting intense plot, with great gameplay features, including the addition of melee and stealth, which work fantastically well! The cover system, works well but could also do with being more flexible, as to enter crouch, a certain button has to be pressed, but then to exit cover, the button has to be pressed again, which at times can be unhelpful.

2K should also be commended on the atmosphere that they created, with a busy bustling, city, with pedestrians minding their own business, and car's going by playing the latest hits from the time. The immersive location also includes real store fronts, and clothes shops and bars. The mechanics of the police is also brilliant, perhaps even better than rival competition such as Grand Theft Auto. Players can be caught speeding, or driving through a red light, and if caught stealing a car, that vehicle can become wanted, so anyone seen in a certain stolen car will be booked! There are great customizable features on top of this, such as repainting cars, changing the rims, registration plates etc.. and really adds depth to the game.

But whilst this all sounds great, there are huge con's in this free roam shooter. The game is linear... VERY Linear, even so a warning label should be placed on the game. Although the story is very driven, this also put me off, as I felt I was forced to finish the game, when I wanted to soak up the city, and off the beaten track there is absoulutely nothing to explore. Not a single side-quest exsists in the game, and you really feel that the city had so much to offer, but none of it is used.

This lack of substance really is a crying shame, as 2K had a very solid engine, and build that they could have used to really make a proper Mafia game, but with the linearity at a high all the way through, and no side missions or events to see or do, you really feel the game passes by in a split second.

It all just leaves me to say, is that I wish I could have stayed in Empire Bay that little bit longer.

Mon Aug 15 2011 21:08:37 #