Credits Where Credits Are Due

Posted on March 22, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

Lest you think I have been horribly neglecting this project of late, I assure you that I am doing something, though less visible than playing games. I have taken some time to enter credits into MobyGames. It’s a large, tedious chore, but something that needs to get done. And I have an insane pile of credits. Plus, it’s relatively brainless work and I can listen to a movie at the same time. At first, I hated the task. But it is starting to grow on me. One of the strangest parts of the process (from the newcomer’s perspective) comes at the end of the credits entry for a game, the part where you must select categories for each credit title. For example:

The above screenshot depicts some of the more common and sane categories. The process becomes more like a game when you try to find appropriate categories for the more offbeat credit listings. Take these, from Radio Active:

MobyGames Credits Entry -- strange credits

This looks to be some kind of inside joke among the executive team. I listed it as “Other -> Unknown”. It’s so cryptic (and misspelled) that it doesn’t even deserve the “Other -> Other” catch-all category.

Dual Tetralogy Completion

Posted on March 21, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

This is a momentous occasion in the evolution of the MobyGames database– The Deer Avenger and Tek-Kids Flash-Ops tetralogies (I just love that new word I just learned– means a series of 4) are now fully logged, along with another schlocky licensed title:

Cyberchase: Castleblanca Quest

Posted on March 18, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

Remember how I mentioned that interior decoration in the form of choosing and arranging furniture was not my proverbial cup of tea in the game of Restaurant Empire? This Gaming Pathology experiment has reached new lows in emasculating gameplay. Check this out– a minigame that revolves around measuring and cutting drapes:

Cyberchase: Castleblanca Quest -- Drape measuring and cutting game

This comes from today’s game, Cyberchase: Castleblanca Quest, ostensibly based on a PBS-produced educational TV series (and it shows in the opening animations that were poorly transcoded from television source material). This follows the same general formula as countless other educational kids’ games: A series of odd minigames strung together by a tenuous storyline. In this one, our 3 young protagonists visit the town of Castleblanca, a village run by horrid but civil monsters. The 3 kids also have a mutant bird in tow who sounds like he’s voiced by the ever-grating Gilbert Gottfried, but alas, the credits indicate otherwise. And even though the unholy undead are supposed to be the comically frightening aspect of this town, this no-eyed skeleton can’t hold a candle to the unnaturally glassy-eyed stares of these young ones:

Cyberchase: Castleblanca Quest -- D.A.R.E. to keep kids off drugs

Regarding the actual gaming content, there are 8 minigames/puzzles to play through. All have practice modes that are significantly easier than the actual games in the adventure mode. Each game teaches something to do with mathematics or spatial reasoning. Most are a little difficult to wrap one’s head around at first. But after some practice, the purpose usually clicks. For example, in the Monster Dive game, there is a tank with a low volume of water. The scoreboard tells you how much depth is required for the current diver, plus a custom adjustment for that diver. You must do the math to decide the water level and drop more monsters into the tub to displace water and raise the level.

All in all, this was my favorite minigame:

Cyberchase: Castleblanca Quest -- Disco mirrors

Your task in this Disco Deflector game is to adjust the mirrors so that when you throw the switch, the light beam finds its way to the mirror ball without hitting any of the monsters. Then they can boogie like they were meant to.

Deer Avenger 3D

Posted on March 17, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

Time to get back to it, especially since I have finally completed acquisition of the entire Deer Avenger tetralogy with the recent eBay find of Deer Avenger 3D. Based on the story told by the opening animation (partially through that timeless plot-unfolding device, the Star Wars scroller), this is what I told MobyGames about the game: “Our hero Bambo seems to have found happiness with a new doe bride, while believing that the dreaded human hunters have forever been vanquished. Just as the pair is about to engage in intimacy, small woodland creatures appear at their window to urgently warn of the hunters’ return. Bambo’s bride laments that she can’t get into the mood while the creatures of the wilderness are threatened. With a cry of soul-wrenching anguish, Bambo finds himself curiously motivated to strike out to dispatch the bipedal enemies once more.”

So, that’s probably the most interesting part of this episode. I’m glad I skipped this one and went straight to 4; if I had played this first I might have had a severe aversion towards the fourth installment. It feels as though the designers were still trying to hold on to certain gameplay characteristics from the first 2 Deer Avenger games, whereas #4 went full on into FPS-type territory.

I take Bambo out into the wilderness equipped with something from his arsenal (whose selection grows as enemies are offed). I wander around the mountain-enclosed, snow-packed arena, laying out a lure here and there and finding the occasional fart powerup. That’s an unfortunate mainstay on the entire series, a disgusting one that’s not altogether welcome after I’ve just eaten. Fortunately, the farts aren’t as visually detailed in this game as they are in #4; in fact, they come out as pixellated white clouds. (Aside: It finally occurs to me that in his quest to rid the forest of stereotypically vulgar rednecks, Bambo has lowered himself to their level. In effect, he is no better than his enemy, a profound theme that underlies the entire series.)

So I eventually hear a hunter in the arena:

A female hunter, no less, and in a revealing hunting outfit. At least, I think she’s a hunter. She could be a jogger with a rifle. I chase her around and around a bluff and just barely keep pace with her. After I notice that she keeps trotting in the same circle, I wait in one spot for her to run by– but I can’t seem to hit her. Eventually, it occurs to me to move into her path and shoot her directly. I still can’t land a shot and she still doesn’t take up arms against me. However, she does run off after I attempt this new strategy; I don’t know if she became scared or if she had finished her little workout. I keep thinking that maybe she was just a jogger, but she did have a gun for which she verbally expressed inordinate affection.

In addition to the normal modes of travel that include both walking and running, Bambo can now jump. It’s a very stylish, powerful jump. But I honestly don’t see any practical application for it through the entire game. The gameplay is rather odd and even ineffectual. You guide Bambo from a 3rd person perspective around the wooded arena using the keyboard. When it’s time to shoot, use the mouse to select the first person shooting view. From here, you have very limited mobility — you can basically rotate about the point where you stand and fire. This puts you in a precarious situation if the hunters decide to shoot back — which, oddly, they rarely seem to do.

Emma Sue shows up again and isn’t on her workout anymore. I make short work of her since she’s not running. I take care of 2 other hunters soon afterwards. This game is pretty easy, especially compared to #4 which actually required some strategy. There are also some harmless humans, typified by the hippie who also shows up in the fourth game. Don’t shoot them (too many times) or it’s game over:

Deer Avenger 3D -- Thwarted By The Ranger

This is the ultimate weirdness that I have seen throughout the entire Deer Avenger series — a forest ranger who implicitly countenances your slaughter of human hunters.

NES ROM Images

Posted on March 14, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

I have a major technical fascination with video games. Before discovering multimedia full motion video files I was interested in old 8-bit NES games. At one point, I disassembled a number of game cartridges and scan their ROM printed circuit boards. If you’re a gaming tech nerd like me, you might find my gallery of NES ROM images. This is what Super Mario Bros. looks like, the simplest, most unadorned type of PCB:

The interesting thing about many of the PCBs is the special hardware present on the board to extend the capabilities of the standard NES, usually in the form of extended memory.

Interrogation Minigames

Posted on March 13, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

A recent thread of the MobyGames forums discussed controversial or shocking moments in games. This arose when the original poster had read a review of Activision’s Spycraft: The Great Game that happened to mention the game’s torture minigame. Since hearing about a “torture minigame” undoubtedly piques your curiousity, disturbing though the concept may seem, I did what comes naturally and posted the relevant clips on YouTube.

To review, Spycraft is a 1996 CD-ROM game where you play a CIA agent leading a team to avert an international crisis between the U.S. and former Soviet Union. Gameplay consists largely of a series of highly unique sub-games and none is more unusual than the torture minigame.

After capturing this agent, you have two methods of extracting information from her. The first is to strap her into the Bullpen, the agency-sanctioned torture device. You have controls at your disposal to administer various levels of electrical shocks. Too much will kill her. This movie file from the game depicts the various reactions she has to shocks and questions:

It can be a tad stomach churning to view. It helps if you imagine that she invented interactive movie computer games, though.

The game acknowledges up front that this sequence might be too much for some gamers to handle and includes explicit warnings in the manual. Plus, at the very start of the game, the player has the option to disable the path of physical coercion entirely. In that case, or if the player chooses this route in the game, there is a minigame in which the player has to use special CIA equipment to doctor some photographs. The photographs are then used during the interrogation minigame to lean on the captured agent, by duping her into believing the agency has captured another agent for whom she has feelings. This movie has the scenes that comprise the interrogation:

Imagine what innovation could come of Nintendo’s Wii-mote for the Big N’s next party game… Wii O’ nine tails.

Gaming Pathology

Piles Of Games, Copious Free Time, No Standards

Month: March 2007