Category: games

just looking

I’ve been getting a little bit interested in games again. Not interested enough to spend any significant amount of time actually playing a game, but enough to spend some time thinking about them and looking at some interesting stuff.

I still haven’t finished Final Fantasy VIII, which I started playing in 2003. And I’m pretty sure the last time I made any progress with it was 2009. I jumped back in a couple of times recently, but I’m stuck at a boss fight that I can’t seem to get past, most likely because I haven’t played the game in so long I really don’t remember what I’m supposed to be doing. So I did some reading to refresh my memory, including finding a few various FAQs and walkthroughs that I had previously downloaded. So I think I have an idea of where I am now, and what I need to do to progress, but now I’ve kind of lost interest again.

Last night, I spent some time browsing through some of the stuff that’s marked down for Steam’s big sale this weekend. There are some good RPGs on sale cheap, including some good stuff that’s marked down to $1.50 or $3. But I’m pretty sure I’d buy something, then never get around to playing it, like I usually do. So I should really just not buy anything.

Over at GOG, I’ve noticed that they’ve added some more AD&D games since the last time I looked, including Dark Queen of Krynn, which is the one gold box game I never finished. And Neverwinter Nights, which I have a regular boxed copy of, for Mac OS, which I bought and never even installed, plus my brother’s old copy for PC (which he played all the way through, I think).

I’ve also been tempted to try out TIS-100, but I think I’m more interested in the idea than the execution on this one. If I want to learn a new programming language, I’m probably better off learning one that looks good on my resume, rather than one that’s really only useful as part of a game. Jeff Atwood has some interesting things to say about this game, and others like it.

Reading about TIS-100 has made me think more deeply about what I’ve been doing with my spare time lately, and what I want to do with it. I enjoy learning new programming languages, and reading (reasonably) high-brow stuff, but, at the end of a workday, I often don’t have the energy for anything other than TV and comic books. And my eyesight often fades at the end of a day, so doing more programming work is out of the question. Even reading can be a chore, depending on the material and typography. And playing a video game sometimes seems more stress-inducing than stress-relieving.

I wonder how somebody like Shawn Wildermuth can do so much work and travel and still spend 1300+ hours on Fallout 4. Lots of coffee, I guess. I can’t imagine spending that much time on a game, while still being a productive member of society. (Shawn, meanwhile, manages to blog, produce a podcast, create content for Pluralsight, and who knows what else. But I digress.)

I’ve been thinking that maybe learning a bit more about game programming might be a fun thing to do. Daniel Schuller’s book How to Make an RPG looks like it could be a good place to start. If nothing else, I’d learn Lua, since that’s the language he uses in this book. The book is almost 1000 pages long though, so that could be a pretty big commitment. (And I’m not sure if knowing how to write a game in Lua would be any more useful on the resume than knowing how to program the TIS-100.)

AD&D gold box games

I was happy to discover that some of the old AD&D gold box games are now available at GOG.com. I’ve played through all of the AD&D gold box games, except for Dark Queen of Krynn, which I started but never finished.

GOG released three collections of AD&D games, but all the ones I’m interested in are in the second collection, which is only $10. Sadly, they don’t have the Krynn games in there, but if they’ve got all the others, I imagine they’ll release the Krynn ones at some point.

I’m probably going to buy this collection, since it’s only $10, and I love these games, but honestly I’m probably not going to replay them. I already own plenty of games that I’ve never played, or never finished. (I never finished Final Fantasy VIII, and never started FF IX or X, and I have all of them sitting on a shelf.) I just don’t have the time to play all these games! Every once in a while, I think I should rethink the way I use my limited spare time, and maybe spend more of it on interactive fun, like gaming, and less on passive stuff, like TV watching.

Well, anyway, it’s nice to see these games (and so many others) available in a legal DRM-free format, playable on modern PCs.

game nostalgia

I’ve been feeling nostalgic for old computer games recently. Particularly, Moria (the Amiga version) and the “gold box” AD&D games.

Moria was a “roguelike” game, similar to several other games that were popular back when I was in college. They all, generally speaking, had simple, ASCII graphics, and randomly-generated dungeons. I’ve been looking around for more modern roguelike games, and have found a few interesting possibilities.

Yesterday, I bought Rogue Legacy on my PS3. This game has some elements in common with the roguelikes that I’m familiar with, including randomly-generated dungeons, but it’s really a 2D side-scroller, and I think it may be a bit too frenetic for my taste. But I’ll play around with it some more. It’s fun, but I don’t think I’m going to be any good at it.

On the subject of the AD&D gold box games, I did some web searching, to see if they’d been ported to Steam or re-released on GOG or anything, but it doesn’t look like they have. I did discover, though, that some folks from SSI (the company responsible for the gold box games) have started a new company called TSI, and they’re working on a new game, in the same spirit as the old AD&D games. That could be really interesting.

And, at some point, I should get back to the Final Fantasy series. I played all the way through FF VII on my PS1. (Though I may have finished it on my PS2. I can’t remember.) And I’ve gotten a good way through FF VIII. (Probably started on my PS2 and continued on my PS3, which, yes, can still play PS1 games!) I should finish that, then try FF IX. (I do have all three of these on CD, but they’re also available on PSN now, I think.)

Gazelle


gazelle
Originally uploaded by andyhuey

I just boxed up my PS2 and PSP to send off to Gazelle. I’m not getting much money for them, but that’s fine — I’m really just looking to keep them out of the landfill. I think I’ve had the PS2 since 2000, and the PSP since 2005, so I’ve certainly kept them long enough.

I can still play all my PS2 games on my PS3, but I’m looking to get rid of all my UMD-format PSP games now. (I even have a couple of UMD movies. No one seems to be interested in those at all.)

I’ve gotten rid of a couple of the games via Swaptree, generally in exchange for a book or CD. I may throw the rest of them on eBay at some point and see if they sell.

too many games

For the purpose of convincing myself not to buy any new games, here’s a list of all the games I have sitting around that I haven’t played yet, but which I fully intend on playing through:

  • Final Fantasy IX (PS2)
  • Final Fantasy X (PS2)
  • Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)
  • Metal Gear Acid (PSP)
  • Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)
  • Force Unleashed (PS3)

Okay, that ought to be enough to keep me from buying FF X-2 or FF 12 for the PS2, or Metal Gear Acid 2 for the PSP, or, well, anything new for the PS3 or Wii. I need to keep reminding myself that it’s a lot easier to plunk down $20 for an old PS2 or PSP game than it is to find the 50 hours to play it through…

Tetris

All the talk about the 25th anniversary of Tetris last week got me feeling nostalgic. Tetris is one of my favorite games of all time. I think I first played it on my Amiga back in college. I’m pretty sure the version I played on the Amiga was a freeware knockoff, but it was a straightforward implementation of the basic Tetris game. I later played it a lot on my original black & white GameBoy.

So I decided to look for a version of Tetris I could play on my PS3 or Wii. Surprisingly enough, there doesn’t seem to be a version of Tetris out for the PS3. At least not anywhere in the download store, as far as I could tell. On the Wii, though, there’s a relatively new title under WiiWare called Tetris Party. I was actually kind of hoping there’d be a Virtual Console version of some old version of Tetris from the NES or something, but no luck.

I kind of vaguely decided to buy Tetris Party on Sunday, but I hadn’t used my Wii in so long, the batteries in the controllers were completely dead. I left them charging overnight, then put them back this morning, turned on the Wii, and went through the obligatory system update that was, of course, waiting for me. Then, tonight, I had to go through the silly ritual of buying more Wii points, so I could spend them on Tetris Party. Eventually, I got to the point of buying & downloading the game.

In a nutshell, it does, indeed allow you to play good old, regular, Tetris on the Wii, in glorious 480p. With cheesy music, and your Mii of choice dancing around on the side of the screen. I could probably do without the dancing Mii, but it’s a pretty good implementation of Tetris, and there are a lot of oddball variations I can try out later, if I get tired of regular Tetris.

PS3 update

For no good reason, I thought I’d write a post on what I’ve been doing with my PS3 so far. I haven’t played MGS4 yet. I’m waiting until I have a good block of time to get started on it. (Maybe after I finish Final Fantasy 8.) I’ve spent a lot of time messing around with Pain, which is a downloadable game that came free with the PS3/MGS4 bundle. It’s a lot of fun. Basically, you shoot a guy out of a slingshot and try to cause as much damage as possible, both to the guy and his surroundings. Very cathartic.

I felt like I needed to go out and actually buy at least one game for the PS3, so I went to Best Buy and bought Orange Box today. The main reason for buying it was to get Portal, which is a nifty little puzzle game with a twisted sense of humor. And an end-credit song by Jonathan Coulton. I’ve already started playing it. Supposedly, it can be finished in just a few hours, so I may be about half-way done. (Or maybe not. I’m usually slower than average with these kind of games.) I’m not sure if I’ll bother with any of the other games in Orange Box. I’m not that interested in online multi-player stuff like Team Fortress 2, and I’m not sure Half-Life will be my cup of tea. I guess I’ll try it out at some point and see if I like it.

eBay – old video games

I just listed some old video games on eBay. I only wanted to put up a few simple listings quickly, so I just used eBay’s most simple listing method, pulling in item details based on UPC. This method backfired on me, though. Every one of the games I listed wound up with “Gran Turismo 2” in bold letters above the stock box art photo. That was the first game I listed, so I guess some bug pulled it from page to page as I was listing stuff. While you can revise listings on eBay, it seems that you can’t fix something that’s wrong in the standard layout that’s generated when you pull in an item description. Very frustrating.

I tried the eBay online chat support, to see if I could get it straightened out. In the end, I’m not even sure if I convinced the support rep that anything was wrong. I think she thought I was just too stupid to navigate the “revise your item” page. Oh well. Everything else in the listings is right, so I just added a line to the description asking people to ignore the “Gran Turismo 2” heading.

These are old PS1 and PS2 games that nobody’s likely to want anyway. I just thought I’d toss them up on eBay to see if I could find them a new home rather than tossing them in the garbage.

In looking through other listings for PS1 games, in particular, I was surprised to see some games going for more than they originally cost. Apparently, the “black label” version (vs. the “greatest hits” version) of some of the old games is considered collectible. I guess that’s no stranger than some of the stuff that makes certain comic books more collectible than others (price variants and so on).