February Status Report

Posted on February 28, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

Another month has flown by, which seems to happen regularly thanks to this new mission. Here are the latest games to make it into the MobyGames database thanks to this blog:

And it may interest — or frighten — some of you to learn that this blog is starting to infect others. WildKard, a major MobyGames contributor, is embarking on a similar new-game-a-day effort. His first review is of a fascinating little indie game called Galcon.

I’ve actually managed to keep this nonsense going for a solid 2 months now. I keep wondering if I should back off a bit. Trouble is, I’m on a roll now and I’m getting so good at selecting, installing, playing, capturing, noting, blogging, and documenting these games, and all in a single evening, that I would hate to lose the momentum. Besides, the better I get at it all, the more fun it is. Still, I may declare one night a week as a break night to do other stuff that needs doing (tax season is upon us in the U.S.!).

However, I just ordered 20 more cheap, obscure, absent-from-MobyGames titles from eBay. The madness! The pathology.

Odds & Ends

Posted on February 26, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

While my study of digital multimedia has often centered on video games, sometimes I have picked up CD-ROMs that are not strictly games in the technical sense (generally meaning that they have no clearly defined goal). I thought that I would make a post about a number of such titles that I have encountered recently.

One is Magic: An Insider’s View. This disc is an educational journey through magic illusions hosted by Harry Anderson, star of the old sitcom “Night Court”.

Magic: An Insider's View hosted by Harry Anderson

The disc features multimedia instruction on a range of tricks as well as historical tidbits about the craft.

Two other non-game multimedia CD-ROMs I have are Crayola-licensed titles created by IBM: Crayola Vehicle Voyages, which came in a bundle of “Games For Boys”, and Crayola Magic Princess Paper Doll Maker, in the analogous “Games For Girls” bundle. These truly are just crayon drawing activities transposed onto the computer monitor. Here is a screenshot from the Vehicle Voyages title:

I could not find any gaming elements to qualify it for entry into MobyGames.

Then there are 3 storybook titles. At first blush, these sound like they would be little different than cartoon videotapes. However, according to the instruction book for one title, it is possible to interact with various hotspots on storybook pages which might qualify it for inclusion. I’ll know more when I can actually get the games to run. The first is called Little Samurai published under the banner of “Magic Tales: Stories That Magically Come To Life.” Unfortunately, it absolutely, positively requires an 8-bit video mode which my video card simply won’t provide (16-bit is the lowest it offers):

Little Samurai needs no more than 8 bits

The other 2 books are marketed as “Living Books” and the stories are “Mark Schlichting’s Harry And The Haunted House” and “The Tortoise And The Hare.” They suffer from a similar problem:

I tried to get them to work under Windows 95/VMware but ran into the old audio driver issue, namely the fact that I haven’t figured out how to install one yet on the VMware image.

All 3 titles seem to use some interesting multimedia resource files. Even though one title is published by a different house than the other two, the file formats between them seem to bear some resemblances.

Got Me A PS2

Posted on February 24, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

I got a brand new PlayStation 2 yesterday and just finished hooking it up. This is the first Sony gaming console I have ever owned. Indeed, it may be the first time I have ever touched a PlayStation console at all.

I have the slim one on the left

You know what this likely means: I can now accumulate all manner of obscure PS1/PS2 titles from the last 12 years. This GP experiment could well continue for a long time.

I had never planned to get any PlayStation console, although I do possess a smattering of PlayStation 1 & 2 games collected for the purposes of multimedia study. My impetus for this purchase was that I wanted a new standalone DVD player to replace one that I don’t like very much (also made by Sony). A friend recommended that I just go ahead and get a slim PS2 so that I can also play the used copy of the legendary PS1 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night game that I happen to own, and that he thinks I should rightfully experience in its full glory. So I got the console and the DVD remote accessory. I have heard tales that the original PS2 was not a good DVD player but the slim PS2 was markedly improved. Fortunately, I’m not the type who can discern variance in video quality very well and I’m quite happy with the DVD playback thus far. All the annoyances of the old standalone unit seem to have vanished.

And I’m pleased to report that Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is incredible; at least the early levels that I got to play operate like a super-duper NES remake of the classic Castlevania stages.

I actually bought this system new, which is quite uncharacteristic of me. It got me to thinking of the other consoles I have purchased, and when was the last time a purchased a new console. I have never exactly been on the cutting edge. My first console was the NES Action Set (with Zapper gun) in 1989… purchased new on March 11, but who’s keeping score? Next console was a Super Nintendo, purchased used in August, 1997. Next was a Sega Saturn, purchased in early 1999 well after they had been discontinued. It’s a blur, but I might have actually gotten this one new, though very cheap. Next was a Sega Dreamcast in April, 2001. These had been discontinued at the time but I heard that they were easily programmable which was my primary reason for purchasing one. However, the Sega Dreamcast (and Resident Evil: Code: Veronica) got me back into casual video gaming. I can’t remember exactly when I picked up a Nintendo GameCube but I know it was used (not much cheaper than new at the time, but it was the principle). My latest acquisition before the PS2 was an old Sega Genesis pawned off on me by a coworker.

There’s a first time for everything. Who knows? Perhaps one day, I will think of a reason to pick up a used Microsoft console.

See Also:

At MobyGames:

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Moving Quickly

Posted on February 22, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

MobyGames is approving my new entries almost as quickly as I can submit them. Here are the latest 5 entries:

Creatures Adventures
Garfield’s Mad About Cats
Safari Kongo (that’s right! you don’t actually have to be able to play a game to get it submitted)
Speedy Eggbert
Spy Kids Learning Adventures: Mission: The Underground Affair

Latest New Games

Posted on February 20, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

For awhile there, I was only playing interactive movies and other games that were already in the MobyGames database. Still, here are 2 of the latest games that I have found time to enter:

ArtRageous! (lots of interesting, colorful screenshots here)
Tek-Kids Flash-Ops: Mission: Data Island

From here on out, I am hoping to work hard on games that are absent from the database until I have cleared that section of the queue, especially since I am getting proficient at playing a game, writing a blog entry about it, and submitting a complete MobyGames entry, all in the same evening.

Special V-Day Message

Posted on February 14, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

For all I know, some of my gaming brethren out there might be struggling on this day of love and giving and giving love because their selfless devotion to digital challenges has left them little time to pursue outside interests. Just an illustrated reminder from Danny Vermin in Johnny Dangerously:

“Dames was put here on this earth to weaken us…

“drain our energy…

“laugh at us when they see us naked.”

Gaming Pathology

Piles Of Games, Copious Free Time, No Standards

Category: The Big Picture