nostalgia
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Breakfast Topic: Does WoW ever make you feel old?
So much has changed in the game of late. The acceleration to experience has some grumbling "I remember when you had to grind your levels," a la Grandpa Simpson. In fact, for those who have been playing the game for a couple of years, nostalgia not only kicks in, but a little dementia as well. The_ivorytower recently posted on the WoW LJ about this very topic, about all those moments that add up in WoW to just make you feel just plain old.Among the things she brings up are those times in long past when spells like Consecration and Evocation were talents. Or how about the Unending Breath that never actually ended, allowing the Undead to sit underwater untouchable by their opponents? She mentions also Mor'Ladim and his insane aggro radius; he would basically run straight at you once you set foot in Raven Hill. And the Sons of Arugal that would descend in a pack to pick your bones clean in Silverpine before you even knew they were there.Because this game has changed so very much since launch, often times you can date yourself from the elements you remember before they were removed. Plains Running anyone?
Ye olde loot drama
Andrek posted an interesting thought on the forums: remember loot drama? Sure, there's still loot drama floating around-- as long as there is more players than loot at each boss drop, there will always be loot drama. And maybe this is just nostalgia rearing its ugly head, but it seems like Andrek is right-- Molten Core was home to far more loot drama (Rogue weapon! No, Warrior weapon! No, Hunter weap!) than Outland's raids have been.There's a few reasons for this. As players note later in the thread, Blizzard is much, much better at itemization now than they were back when we were raiding Ragnaros. And we're all in 10 and 25 man groups rather than 40 man-- fewer people means fewer arguments about who gets what. Not to mention that there's so much more loot now (and so many more ways to get it), that even if you lose that roll to a Hunter, you still get Heroic badges to turn in, or you've still got your Arena rating to count on.It seems like loot actually means a little less now than it used to, and that's a great change. It's too bad that the old "hunter weapon" joke might actually be becoming obsolete, but less loot drama means more fun, and no guildleader will argue with that one.
Five is the new eight
Bornakk has pretty much laid down the law. Eight piece armor sets are dead as we know them. Despite Claymore from Medivh's call to bring them back, Blizzard is happy with the way the five piece tier sets are working out, and that's the way they're planning to keep it.Kind of a shame, because as Claymore says, seeing someone with a full eight piece set was pretty epic. It took a lot to pick up every since piece, and some of the eight piece bonuses were pretty cool for their time. But just like the 40 man raids, there were lots of problems with eight piece sets as well. I never completed mine, just because my guild had moved on from where the gear was dropping before I was able to pick all the pieces up. And five piece sets give a lot more options as to customization-- with the extra, non-set pieces, players can choose to focus on a certain stat over others, which couldn't be done with the full eight piece sets.So in general, it's a good move-- bigger is not always better. Nostalgics may long for the days of Bloodfang and Giantstalker, but five piece armor sets are here to stay.
Wil Wheaton loves the Virtual Console
Geek hero, Weblogs, Inc. buddy, and, yes, former Wesley Crusher Wil Wheaton has discovered the Virtual Console, and like all reasonable people who have just been given access to Alien Crush, he likes it! In a column on the generally-not-safe-for-work SuicideGirls website, Wil traces his NES experiences, taking us back to a time when people voluntarily played Kung Fu. After playing a demo NES in a store, he attempted to persuade his parents to purchase a system, calling it "...probably the most advanced computer that will ever be made."Naturally, when the Wii came along and gave him another crack at The Legend of Zelda and other NES classics, Wil was more than pleased to share the games he grew up on with his stepson. We love to hear good things about the Virtual Console, and we're also glad Wil chose to play NES games in his youth instead of nefarious mind-controlling puzzle games. This is probably the most heartwarming article we've ever read on a porn site.
Getting nostalgic about old player favorites
Minkyminky kicks it off on the forums: there's a lot of things that have disappeared from the game that players really loved, and it's pretty nostalgic to think about what we used to have, and have since lost. Plainsrunning was a Tauren racial ability that was in the game before Blizzard implemented Kodos. After a quest, the cows got an aura (canceled with combat, underwater, or indoors, just like a normal mount) that let them move faster and faster up to a certain speed. Swirly ball was what the Rogue's Detect traps ability used to be-- a castable 3 minute buff that showed an annoying swirly ball that could be used to detect lag or just make noise. The old Hunter's Mark (as you all should know, this one wasn't long ago) was just an arrow, not the fancy schmancy (garish, if you ask me) deal we've got now. Baron Geddon's Living Bomb debuff used to be able to hit pets. Hunters would then dismiss their pets-- and resummon them in the Auction House to create carnage. The Hakkar virus was another debuff, this one from Hakkar, that did damage to anyone standing around the player. The debuff hit everyone in an AoE based on the target for a few hundred damage every few seconds for a few minutes, and passed on the plague. So players beat Hakkar, ported back to IF, and spread the disease around the world. This one actually made it to the media, and was used as a study for how disease spreads in a virtual environment. Captain Placeholder (my personal favorite) was a placeholder who went up while the ships between the continents were bugged. Don't miss the Lament of Captain Placeholder. Trolls used to have a "keel two dwarves in the mornin'" emote that got removed from the game, either for violence or drug references, depending on who you ask. Unfortunately, as cool as all of these things are, there's not much chance we'll ever seen any of them in the game again-- most of them are graphics that got updated to something Blizzard thought was cooler, or just simply bugs or placeholders that got "fixed" for good.But the other interesting thing is that almost all of them are clear examples of emergent gameplay-- the devs didn't plan for this stuff to be popular, it just became so. If nothing else, they can learn from what happened with these, and (as with world events) bring them back in other forms. And that's a really interesting thought-- a game designed by the players themselves.
Entire SNES game collection on eBay
Got $15,500.00 sitting around? If you do, you can be the proud owner of every SNES released in the US. The same eBayer who sold his NES game collection back in January is at it again, this time hoping that 16-bit nostalgia is just as powerful as its 8-bit counterpart. All of the games are in mint or near-mint condition and include the original box and instruction manual. At 794 games in all, you'll be paying just under $20 per game. A bargain!The auction ends March 21st and as of the time of writing has yet to receive a single bid. The NES auction closed at over $15,000 with nearly 100 bids, so either 8-bit nostalgia is more powerful or NES fans have more money to throw around.
Modded NES and SNES controllers work wirelessly with Wii
Judging by the sheer number of modifications and hacks for the NES that are out there, we'd have thought the limit to the number of things that it's possible to do with the hardware is close to being reached. Apparently not: as this latest mod by a guy called Mark Feldman proves, as long as the games stick around, people will go to extraordinary lengths to get authentic hardware to go with it. Mark's wireless NES controller mod for Wii involves opening up a SNES and NES controller, sticking a wireless transmitter, a microcontroller, and an iPod mini battery inside, and constructing a wireless receiver module with a GameCube cable on the end. Thanks to some sort of black magic -- Mark refers to it as "coding" -- when all this is put together, an off-the-shelf Wii can interpret the control input from the modded controllers, and the nostalgia-fueled gamer can play classic games on their virtual console without worrying about wires, and without a Wiimote-tethered Classic controller. Full details of how to make your NES controller wireless, and how to code the microprocessor so that it'll understand the signals, are available on Mark's site. Before attempting to execute any of the plans, we'd recommend warning friends and relatives that they may not see you for a while. Especially spouses: they tend to get worried when their SO disappears to the basement with a bundle of chips and circuitry.[Via hackaday]
The death of the game mascot
Anyone who was a gamer in the '80s and '90s remembers the days when you couldn't turn around without running into some sort of new platformer with a furry and/or cheesy mascot. These days, the selection is somewhat more limited. Sure, the Sony triumvirate of Sly, Ratchet and Jak are still going relatively strong, and occasional breakouts like Viewtiful Joe and Alien Hominid keep the 2D-platformer on life support, but it's pretty clear that platforming mascots' best days are behind them. The Age's Screen Play blog was inspired by a page of forgotten advertising mascots to post up a list of some rightly forgotten platformer mascots of the recent past. Some fans might be mad to see big names like Sonic and Mega Man alongside true hasbeens like Bubsy and Aero the Acrobat. Personally, we feel the list could use some more additions. Where are Sega's Vectorman, Kid Chameleon and Chuck D. Head? Where's gun-wielding robot B.O.B.? Where's the Saturn's extremely appropriately named Bug!? Where's the useful information that could be in our brains instead of this obscure trivia?
Power Glove mod merges with Wiimote
For all of those people out there who didn't manage to grab a Wii at launch -- and probably won't be able to until next year -- there comes a moderate form of compensation in seeing what crazy Wii-themed mods people who did have come up with. The latest to pop up is one that retro-loving Nintendo fans will surely appreciate: a fully functional Wiimote Power Glove, complete with working finger buttons. The burst of nostalgia at seeing the Wii-glove in action is definitely enough to last us until the next Wii shipment, although we can't quite shake the nagging concern that this guy must have spent a whole lot of time not playing his Wii in order to create it.[Via Slashgear]
Aliens and explorers enter Virtual Console lineup
Taking a break from watching obscure Japanese commercials, the fine fellows at Bits Bytes Pixels & Sprites recently poked their noses into the various nooks and crannies of Hudson Entertainment's website. Along with a vague smell of bacon, they discovered the product pages for two, as yet unannounced Virtual Console games. Though there's no mention of a release date, Alien Crush and Dungeon Explorer are both set to appear on the Wii's TurboGrafx-16 emulator. Memory refresh: Alien Crush sees you playing pinball on the faces of some rather menacing aliens, whereas Dungeon Explorer adequately equips you with tools clearly intended for hacking and slashing. Presumably, you also get to explore dungeons in the company of a "knome." If either of these floats your cup of nostalgia, be sure to check back with us on Monday -- there's a decent chance they'll become available then.
I remember how useless Silithus was
I don't have much to add to this "I've been around so long I've seen" thread-- it's a pretty good read on its own. But even though I haven't been around that long, relatively speaking, I will say that I've been around so long that...... I remember when Warsong was just a hunting camp, and not a graveyard for millions of PVPers.... I had to ask a guildie in Ironforge to help me find a group for ZF when I was in Tanaris.... I know there was a time when you could queue for a battleground at 19, and level to 21 before you joined the instance.... I remember when dying actually cost you experience points (no, wait, that was back in Dark Age of Camelot)... I remember when Chuck Norris was just a guy on a TV show, and not a supreme Godlike being.Ok, maybe that last one was never true. Nickelplate (a player who posts on page 4) gets it right when he says he remembers "when people lived life at a slower pace and the idea of feeling nostalgia for things that happened only 2 years ago was laughable," but a little nostalgia for nostalgia's sake never hurt anybody, Nickel. This game has changed a lot over the past few years, and considering it's all going to change again pretty soon here (when the next patch, and, soon, the expansion gets released), now's a good a time as any to take a look backwards.
Taito gets in on the old-school resurgence
It seems like Sega Genesis Collection, EA Replay and Metal Slug Anthology have been getting all the attention lately. However, some of you may not know that Taito is throwing their hat in the ring with Taito Legends.Legends packs in 25 classic Taito games ranging from Space Invaders to The Legend of Kage. And although the game won't feature multi-player support, players can share up to 21 games wirelessly with other console owners via the PSP's game-sharing function. Also, Cameltry, Crazy Balloon, Balloon Bomb, and The Legend of Kage have each received graphical upgrades along with being adapted to the PSP's widescreen.Gamespot, who just recently previewed the game, said "It's also a shame to see that little effort has been made to expand Taito Legends beyond including emulated versions of classic games. It's good to see that the PlayStation Portable's features have been used to allow wireless game sharing, but aside from the games themselves, there's little to keep you going for a long time."It looks like the retro compilations are starting to pour in, but I think companies will have to do more than stuff a bunch of their old games onto a UMD and send it out the door for them to be successful.
Kid Chameleon Sega Genesis Collection video
With every new video release for a Sega Genesis Collection game, I continue to get filled with more and more nostalgic memories. We've already seen videos of Columns, Ecco and Alex Kidd. Well, there's a new kid on the block with a Kid Chameleon video that has just been released. Released in May 1992, you may remember Kid Chameleon as that silly platformer with the kid who wore a variety of masks, each transforming his features and giving him special powers. There was even a goalie mask, a la Jason Vorhees, that enabled Kid Chameleon to throw axes.You'll be able to enjoy Kid Chameleon and more than 30 other old-school Genesis titles Nov. 7.[Via IGN]
Getting back to the Pac
There was a time in this country where everyone, and I mean everyone, was obsessed with a single video game. It may seem hard to believe in today's ultra-segmented entertainment market, but in the early '80s Pac-man was a true national phenomenon at a scale unmatched by the likes of Grand Theft Auto or even The Sims. Richard Poplak at the CBC uses the games re-release on Xbox Live Arcade as an occasion to look back at that singular moment in gaming history and speculate on why we can't recapture that feeling in today's industry.We're all for appreciation of the past, but there's something a little rose-tinted about this retrospective remonstration of today's industry. Pac-man did capture the national consciousness in a way that will likely never be equaled, but that's as much because of the medium's relative novelty and narrowness as it is the game's simplicity and accessibility.Despite ballooning production costs, endless licensing fiascoes, an over-emphasis of realistic graphics and all the other ills of today's gaming industry, we still enjoy a gaming market that's much more varied and potentially rewarding than the one that existed in the early '80s. It may seem at times that every other game released is another first-person shooter or beat-em-'up rehash, but any industry that can support the success of games as varied as Grand Theft Auto, The Sims and Guitar Hero is far more mass-market than it's sometimes given credit for. While this segmentation means that any one game is less likely to capture an entire nation, but it also means that the entire nation is much more likely to find at least one game it likes.We're living in a golden age of gaming ... we may just be too close to it to appreciate it. Not to worry, though -- 25 years from now we'll look back on the simple, 3D games of today and wonder why we can't recapture that feeling in our immersive, holosuite simulations of ... Pac-man.[Via Wonderland]
Viva System 7
The first Mac I bought (though I'd been using them since the LC days) was a PowerMac 7100/66 in 1994, and it was my dream. I even paid extra for the GeoPort modem (remember those gnarly beasties). It shipped with a special version of System 7 (v7.1.2) that was optimized for the new PPC chips to which Apple had just transitioned. And wow, was I happy with the speed and stability of System 7 on my new 7100. Believe it or not, it was actually possible to have a stable System 7 working environment--I did for years. Myst on this baby was one of the first truly surreal experiences I'd ever had with a computer.I haven't actively used System 7 since I got rid of my PowerBook 100 back in 1998 but was pleased to find that some people are still championing this breakthrough OS. Dan Palka is a student at Bradley University and has set up a hobbyist site called System 7 Today, and maintains a fairly complete list of tips, tools, and tricks you can use to tweak out your System 7-equipped Mac.And, who knew you can still order a boxed copy of System 7.6 from Apple? Go figure!
A Brief History of ClarisWorks
Ah, ClarisWorks...the first software I truly admired. One of the developers of ClarisWorks, Bob Hearn, recounts the history of the software as it developed from an independent title into the productivity package that so many of us used on our early Macs.I still admire the way "frames" worked in ClarisWorks/AppleWorks and know of several people who continue to rely on this feature every day to get their work done. The simplicity of being able to move objects (for example, a spreadsheet, a table, or a graphic) around between the different components of ClarisWorks was a model I wish many other programs had.
