Sinclair to Return to the Market

In a surprise announcement, Sinclair Research, manufactures of a number of classic 1980′s personal computers including the ZX81 and the ZX Spectrum, revealed that they were to return to the home computing market.
Founder of the company, Sir Clive Sinclair, revealed that the company had decided that the current market provided an excellent opportunity for the company to introduce its new product. “In the 1980s, Sinclair revolutionised the home computing market, and provided access to affordable computing technology to thousands of homes. It was Sinclair which sat at the centre of the early British computer games development scene, and gave birth to many of today’s prominent developers. In 2009, Sinclair hopes to release a new system, and encourage many of these leading developers to return home.”
Sinclair seemed initially coy when asked about system specifications, but began to reveal more information when he caught representatives from Sony and Microsoft sniggering at the back. “Obviously times have changed significantly since Sinclair last released a system, and the company has not stood still. The new system, the Sinclair ZX Millennium, will have a top of the range eight,” he paused, “Megahertz processor, and a whopping 512Kb RAM, that’s half a megabyte!” Sinclair looked unimpressed with the lack-lustre response from the crowd, and sighed before continuing, “These improvements have allowed us to take full advantage in improvements in display screen technology, delivering a full 576i resolution in a stunning 32 colours, all via your SCART lead for the crispest image reproduction. With the ZX Millennium your games will look just like cartoons, and thanks to the efforts of our engineers, we have been able to completely eliminate the problem of attribute clash.” Sinclair beamed, and looked around the audience for a reaction, clearly expecting this to be a bombshell, “That means that Dizzy can stand in front of a bush, and still look white,” he clarified, before collapsing forlornly after he was met with cold silence.
Karen Farley, of Modern Videogamer (US) asked whether the ZX Millennium would still rely on the cassette tapes used with previous systems. “Of course not,” responded Sinclair, “Our engineers initially toyed with the possibility of distributing games on compact disc, as the ability to skip tracks would allow a user to easily choose which game or piece of software to load, the media also had an improved shelf life when compared to cassette tapes. However we realised that this would show no appreciable improvement in loading times, as games would still be delivered as audio streams. Instead we decided to make the microdrive standard for the ZX Millenium.”
The ZX Millenium will be available from November 2009, priced at £175.

FIFA 1660

EA Sports today announced the release of FIFA 1660. Talking about the game, and EA spokesman said, “Electronic Arts have been developing soccer video-games since 1993, and rapidly made itself one of the foremost names in the genre. Since the release of FIFA International Soccer in 1993, EA Sports have released over fifteen titles on twenty-six different systems. This doesn’t include countless spin-offs and other variations. During this time, EA Sports has constantly tried to innovate and move the game forward, keeping up with the fast-paced game of football itself. Each year we have strived not only to introduce great new features, but also to ensure that the game reflects of the latest changes to teams, players and league tables. However, this led us to consider, what if we looked back.
In FIFA 1660 we take soccer back to its roots. Set before the rules of football were fully finalised, FIFA 1660 sees you enjoying the earlier, less codified game. With no referee or linesmen, players find themselves less restricted by the rules, and thus the new reaction-touch fight system allows for punches and kicks to be thrown at nearby players. The same system is also used to fend off those attempting to enforce the law, and disrupt the game.
Authentic historical research has attempted to ensure that the game-play accurately reflects the game as it was played at that time, and historical records have been used to provide names for the player database. Thus, when you play, you can be sure that your team are made up of genuine 17th Century players!”
FIFA 1660 will be released in Spring 2010 on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and PC.

Worst videogame bosses ever? Email yr suggestions to gameswipe at zeppotron dot com. Make what you will of that email address.
10 minutes ago from TweetDeck

Brooker is no stranger to games journalism, as his career began back on the pages of PC Zone. He has also regularly mentioned various computer and video games in his column in the Guardian. The E-mail address also appears to be associated with Zeppotron, the production company behind both Newswipe and Screenwipe.
Brooker’s recent satirical and biting look at news coverage in the form of Newswipe was absolutely fantastic, both hugely entertaining, and damning in its criticism, proving to be one of the only television programs for which I will bother setting an alarm.
Exactly how the *wipe format will be adapted to gaming is unclear, as both Newswipe and Screenwipe focused heavily on the past week or so in television/news, an approach which is unlikely be be so suitable for the slightly slower moving world of gaming. Thus its possible that we shall be looking at a one off special episode, or a short series taking a more general look at gaming; certainly the E-mail request somewhat suggests the latter.

Edit: Wow! I should post breaking news more often, this post is only twenty minutes old, and its already brought in a load of visitors.

Save, Load, Return, Quit

Damn it! It was the fourth time he had done that test and yet his mark was lower than ever before, not to mention he somehow managed to alienate half his friends while waiting for the result. That was the biggest annoyance, the waiting. It took him ten attempts to pass his driving test, but at least he didn’t have to wait a week between each go. Now though he had to suffer through the same miserable week of crap weather and no prospects. He needed a break.

The four familiar words swam in his mind’s eye as the world remained frozen around him, that last ever present option both seductive and terrifying in its promises. Attempt number two wasn’t so bad; he had failed, but he did make the reserve list, and things were going remarkably well with Sarah. He couldn’t bring himself to accept it though, he needed a job, and in the current climate that could take a while, even for someone with his skills. Besides, he could always come back, now he just needed to be as far away as possible. He reached far back, not even looking at the dates as they flashed past.

February 12^th 1990, Little Wadeway

He turned inside out as the world past through him and then righted itself; a pause; then noise. The excited babble and shouts of children crashed over him as he was pushed and jostled by their movements as he found himself in a much smaller body than he had been occupying moments earlier. He was stood in the playground of Little Wadeway C. of E. Primary School and a glance downwards revealed that he was dressed in a bright red wax raincoat and a scruffy pair of Velcro trainers. How far back had he gone?

Jack glanced around in an attempt to place himself, in time, rather than space. The weather and bare trees indicated that it was the middle of winter, and he couldn’t see the portable class room in front of the school hall. Then there was his coat, how old was he when he had that again? Jack was adept at remembering the short-term timing of events, but he was unused to such forays into his more long-term past. Then he saw Robert Dean approaching from across the playground and he knew exactly when he was.

It was February 1990 and Jack was six. With hindsight he was amazed at how well his six year old self already wielded his power, not only confidently retrying sections of his life, but more importantly knowing when to stick and when to twist. Somehow he had also realised – without a trial and error approach – that his abilities weren’t normal, and that they were probably best kept to himself. As a result, people often claimed that Jack led a charmed life, but in reality it was easy to roll sixes when you could roll as many times as you liked. It was only later that his experience with computers provided an ideal analogy for his ability, and finally provided words for what were previously four nebulous options.

In this particular incident, Jack had needed fourteen rolls of the dice before he was satisfied with the outcome. At the time he had agonised for ages, spending borrowed weeks on family holidays skulking on the beach or in his room. Now however the situation seemed inconsequential, and furthermore, Jack realised that he had probably suffered more trying to avoid it than he would have done had he let things pass normally.

Robert now stood in-front of Jack, his chest thrust forward and his body stretched upwards; a completely unnecessary gesture of dominance, as even slouched he’d have towered over Jack. He stood up close, so as to exaggerate his need to look downwards, “Where’s your ammynight?” he demanded while stepping forwards so as to force Jack back. Five minutes ago the posturing would have seemed ridiculous; the aggressiveness of this six year old child still seemed humorous to a part of Jack’s mind. However, in the immediate context the situation carried a genuine threat, and the conflict between the two emotions gave the encounter a surreal quality. “Well?” Robert pressed.

The ammonite in question had been one Jack had brought into school that morning to show off, after having been given it by his Dad the previous evening. He had been immensely proud of the fossil, taking his father’s comments about their rarity with all the exaggerated importance of childhood innocence. It was an attitude which seemed especially naive with hindsight, as brief obsession with geology had lead to his twelve year old self building up an impressive collection of rocks and fossils, including some genuinely rare finds; ammonites however were not in short supply.

Jack shrugged, “Ammonite,” he corrected, “I gave it to Mrs. K, she wanted it for a display.” Robert exhaled sharply, and shoved Jack backwards before storming off. It was a lie, of course; he could feel the ammonite in his coat pocket, but Jack wasn’t keen on capitulating, even when it no longer mattered.

The rest of the lunch-break passed with Jack watching those around him with detached interest. He contemplated joining in the various games, but felt too self conscious, and could only do so half-heartedly. He had read this book before, and while re-reading it was revealing new ideas he has missed the first time round, he could no longer engage with the story, and could instead only dissect it strictly academically. The return to class wasn’t much better, lessons in triviality which he was thankful he didn’t have to fully engage in. When, after an hour of simple board work and listening to facts of dubious simplicity, he was able to write freely, he took perverse pleasure in over analysis and unnecessary symbolism. It would have been written off as arrogant and pretentious in university, but he didn’t care, that was the point. Unfortunately the work wasn’t marked at the end of the lesson, and Jack doubted he’d be sticking round long enough to wait for the books to be collected in.

Heading home was a stranger experience than he had expected. His first surprise was meeting his Mum outside of the school. Not only had he been expecting to walk home, but he was struck by how young she looked, and was even more disturbed when he realise that he had dated women who can only have been a few years younger. What surprised him most though was how his Mum greeted him, “Hello Jack, did everyone like your ammonite?” she asked, a slight sing song tone to her voice. It wasn’t a million miles removed from her questions about his interviews, but was somehow more… not patronising, but… well, ‘motherly.’ The adult Jack realised that she was asking the question purely for his benefit, not because she was interested in the answer herself, but because she knew Jack would be. He hadn’t noticed their relationship shifting over time, but with the comparison it was striking.
“It was fine,” he said, showing about as much interest as his Mum probably felt.
“Yeah, everyone thought it was really cool,” he perked up, trying to give his Mum what she expected, “Mrs. K said I should start collecting them and make a museum.”
“You can ask Dad to get you a Trilobite next.”

The house surprised him. He had moved out of his parents’ house shortly after finishing university, and had spent much of the preceding years in university accommodation. However his parents had stayed in the same house; his memories of it weren’t tarnished by age. Firstly, his small stature made everything feel so much larger, especially in comparison to his London flat. Secondly, he was surprised how different everything looked, old furniture he had all but forgotten about, and wallpaper that was long since torn down. Most disconcerting were the various pieces of decor which he remembered from a point at the end of their long years of service, previously worn out and tattered items looking fresh and new. The house felt simultaneously dated and fresh with only a few old antique pieces of furniture remaining consistent. He moved up to his room.

His bedroom felt the biggest throwback. Before his re-load, his room in his parents’ house was fairly empty, decorated simply such that it may easily be used by guests. The room he stood in now however was cluttered, the floor littered with discarded toys and the walls covered in bright wallpaper illustrated with cartoon characters. Here however he remembered most of the items clearly, and as such the change wasn’t so much of a shock as a chance to indulge in nostalgia. Old friends examine and explored with the same hands which first played with them all those years ago, and fond memories broke through the cynicism which formed a cautious barrier around the new mind controlling the hands. By the time Jack had found the box of Lego he was no longer engaging in nostalgia, but actively playing, the self consciousness which had been inhibiting him earlier now shed. It wasn’t a case of retreating into his childhood, but it was without the vague guilt which accompanies play in the face of responsibility. This was silly, especially as he effectively had infinite time.

Tiredness crept upon Jack more quickly than he had expected, and by half past seven he was already feeling tired, and it didn’t feel unwanted when his Dad told him to head off to bed. Tiredness and exhaustion both seemed to be properties of the body, rather than the consciousness, and Jack found he could theoretically go weeks without sleep if he kept shifting to a point at which he wasn’t tired. It had been in the weeks immediately preceding his GCSE exams however that he had learnt that this wasn’t the great idea it seemed; while it did indeed mask the feelings of tiredness, his thoughts still underwent the symptoms of sleep deprivation, complete with increase in irritability and, eventually, hallucinations. In practice he had only been awake for eight or nine hours, so could easily jump elsewhere without worrying about any mental strain, but now the idea of sleep was so appealing that he decided to put off thoughts of moving on until the morning.

June 10^th 2000, Clackford

The room was lit by an orange glow from the streetlight outside, filtering through the thin cotton curtains. Jack stood in the middle of the room, naked and erect. The bed next to him was scruffy and unmade, the walls covered in photos, arranged into collages and caught behind sheets of glass. It took Jack a few moments to realise where he was, and almost immediately he was out, faced once more with those four options.

The moment was another of those he had returned to several times in the past, although not for many years now. It was a moment that had gone right the first time he visited it, and almost every time since then. This was another benefit of his power, the ability to re-live his favourite moments, subtle differences each time preventing them from becoming boring. They didn’t prevent them from becoming inappropriate though.

It was early summer; the weather was warm, but not yet tired. After a party the previous night he had stayed at Fiona’s, helping her to clear up before the two of them spent the rest of the day together, and they intended to carry this into the evening. Jack had been seeing Fiona for six months, and previous moments of intimacy could hardly be described as such; brief sexual fumbles in short and tenuous moments of privacy at parties, or attempts to be subtle in more crowded surroundings, which were ultimately unsatisfactory. This was the first chance they’d have to be truly alone together, without chance of interruption. Jack decided to make the most of it, not knowing when such an opportunity would come again.

For a few months later, Jack had revisited the moment many times, particularly when later opportunities were thwarted by outside events. He was disappointed that he couldn’t bring Fiona back with him, as ultimately these snatched moments of intimacy occurred in isolation, in terms of their relationship, only the first time mattered. Six months later the relationship was going to sour, leaving Jack feeling alone and embittered. In his anger he re-loaded the moment, hoping to find catharsis, and to claim something he felt had been denied to him. However, when it came to it, he couldn’t do it, and had continued to stand in the middle of the room weeping. He never returned to the moment.

Now of course, not only was the moment tarnished by those emotions that had dominated that last visit, and almost lead to an ugly moment that would have sickened him later, but they were also overlaid by ten years, which made any contemplation of reliving the moment not only highly inappropriate, but completely undesirable.

December 13^th 2000, Clackford

Instead, Jack jumped to counterpoint, six months later, three days after the relationship had ended, and two days after he had last jumped to June 10^th 2000. In the end he had found resolution through another method, death, repeatedly.

This wasn’t the first time Jack had died, that had been entirely by accident, hit by a car when he was eight. It was that moment which had confirmed a growing suspicion in Jack, that death to him wasn’t the final curtain that it was to everyone else. In times there were occasions when he even saw it as a friend.

Initially Jack had used his newfound relationship with death to cheat it, to use his ability to take part in increasingly dangerous stunts to impress onlookers. Five, ten, fifty attempts to jump between two parts of the school roof, six jumps off a waterfall into a pool beneath, and innumerable broken legs avoided while climbing trees. This had all come to an abrupt end when Jack’s increasing success in this arena had goaded a friend into action, and prompted him to attempt a jump which had taken Jack thirty attempts to make successfully. Jack had looked on in sick horror at the crumpled body that lay at the base of the building until he realised that his ability to re-load would work as well for his friend as for himself. He went back and never attempted the jump, his friend likewise remained on the ground.

Later Jack used his ability not just to avoid death but embrace it, self harm with no lasting scars, no permanent damage. He found death without consequence strangely liberating, not to mention a source of answers to previously unanswerable curiosity. It was an attitude born not out of morbidity, but one born from a combination of curiosity and thrill seeking, that latter tempered by his realisation that the lack of consequence meant that all the danger he felt was ultimately artificial.

It had been a few years since his last death, and Jack had realised that his initial thoughts of immortality were naive. Death didn’t always come suddenly, and avoiding it wasn’t always as simple as jumping a few months into the past. Eventually his health would begin to deteriorate, and no amount of re-loading would suspend the inevitable. One heart attack skipped in favour of another, one disease traded for the next. When his grandfather had died he had on several occasions revisited his last conversation with him, but soon realised that there was no progress; while he remembered the last conversation, his grandfather did not. Theoretically he could relive the last few months of his life as many times as he wanted, but time gained meaning through progress, and reliving the same moments too many times would eventually feel shallow and empty. At times he considered that at the end of his life he made re-load his very first save, run through from the beginning, do things differently, but even this he was sure he’d eventually tire of. This was why the quit option existed.

Jack pushed off with his feet, diving away from the wall and off the roof of the church. He swung round, his head downwards, back the wall. The air rushed up around him, his stomach lurched and the ground swung up before him. There was a sudden burst of pain, a blinding flash, and then two words.

Load, Quit

Jack stared at the options for a moment. He realised that he had been flitting around undecided, not settling on an option, metaphysical channel flicking. He was clearly distracted, and this sojourn into his past clearly wasn’t helping to relieve the tensions that had been building up over the past few weeks. He should just settle on a date and stay there, take a week off to recover, but the problem was that nowhen seemed all that appealing to him at the moment. Fuck. Escapism was going to be a problem when whenever he looked all he saw was the problems of his then self, be they fossils or past girlfriends. None of them were problems that particularly bothered him now, but they were all important at the time, and he’d still find himself having to deal with them. Furthermore he had done all this, and while he was sure that a more mature mind might have more insight into past situations, he was also wary that this could see the destruction of cherished memories.

Perhaps he should go back, take one more crack at the test and then pick whatever the best outcome. Besides, being on the reserve list may be enough; He’d have had an excellent reference from his previous company, as whatever he may lack in knowledge he certainly made up for in results. Jack’s career in playing the stock market was inevitable after he realised that it was one of those factors which was fairly reproducible after a re-load, particularly in the short term. While some random events, such as the national lottery seemed particularly effected by chaos theory, larger systems, such as the stock market were more resistant. His performance wasn’t perfect of course, the very act of buying and selling shares for instance affected the system, but his performance was substantially better than his intuition and knowledge would allow.

Unfortunately, these same dynamics meant that large global market trends were also unavoidable, and no amount of trading on Jack’s part could avert the ‘global economic crisis’ that had forced his previous employer to ‘consolidate’ their staff. While Jack’s success was indisputable, it was also patchy, and so his employer had written him of as an unnecessary risk in a time in which they were trying to appear prudent. His patchiness was a result of the need to live through any time period twice, in order to be able to make the best investments, and Jack was reluctant to do this for every moment of his life; perhaps for any moment.

Each ‘first run’ through any moment was one he ultimately threw away, along with anything he had achieved during this time. This left him memories of events which never happened, which often had a bittersweet contrast with the events which unfolded in his eventual reality. Shared moments of fortune or coincidence that he could share no longer, and memories that it was impossible to reconstruct. Was it really worth this cost? Effectively using his own power against him.

January 5^th2010, London

Jack stared at the piece of paper in his hand, “We are sorry to inform you that you failed to meet the criteria required to be entered on to the short list, however…” He took the paper between his hands and was about to tear it, stopped, shook his head and put the letter to one side. There was no need to make a decision yet. He phoned Sarah.

September 25^th 2076, Mumbai

Gina sat beside Jack in the hospital bed, holding his hand between hers. She passed her lower lip out between her teeth, keeping the inner surface trapped between them as she managed a weak smile. “Edith and the boys will be here in a couple of hours, their train was delayed in Moscow; June will be a bit later,” she said, she opened her mouth as though to say something more, then thought better of it. Jack saw the expression, read it, but didn’t respond. She had been hoping he’d make it that long; he would. “You have to stop doing this Dad,” she chided, “this is what, your fifth heart attack; you can’t keep doing this for ever.” It was a joke, but her voice caught at the end.
“Eighth,” Jack replied quietly.
Gina looked confused, and then annoyed, “Oh Dad, you should have…” Her face dropped, mouth opened in surprise, “then why are you,” she trailed off, “Oh, Dad,” she finished. This was it then, or if not this one then the next, or the one after.
Jack smiled, then laughed, “I suspected as much. I remember a game of snakes and ladders in which you threw five double sixes in a row, which tipped me off slightly.” Gina blushed red. “I think your Mum thought you were just cheating.”
“You’ve given up then?” asked Gina, a brief spell of defiance entering her voice, said quickly as though she were afraid she’d lose confidence.
“Of course I bloody haven’t, you’d have me reloading heart attack after heart attack would you, spending the rest of my life rolling dice to avoid death, to avoid the inevitable?”
“You could at least give it a bloody chance!”
“Eight heart attacks, eight. You’ve seen me have four, not five, so that is four times I gave it a bloody chance, and another four times in which I’ve ended up taking the same odds as everyone else.”
“You’re not in the clear yet.”
“No, but I’m not running and hiding either.”
Gina was silent, though from her face it was clear that she merely wished to end the argument, rather than concede it.
“You must have considered these things,” he said.
“I don’t like to. I have only died once so far, I don’t look forward to a repeat experience.”

September 27^th 2076, Mumbai

In a hospital ward in Mumbai an alarm sounded, as for the final time, Jack’s heart stopped beating. Like countless times before, Jack was faced by three words, and this time, for the first time, Jack was about to opt for the third and final option. However, in the last few moments, just before choosing Oblivion, Jack realised that his selection had changed:

Load, New Life, Quit

Jack considered his options.

Games on Tour

While computer and video games have a huge, global market, it is not a homogeneous one. Regions differ in terms of platform popularity and genre preference, as well as far more abstract concepts regarding perception, and the way games are played. The popularity of competitive gaming in South Korea for example is a familiar example, with the proportion of those playing on-line games being over three times that of Europe¹ . However these regional differences don’t only influence game popularity and availability, but also in some games game content.

The need to localize games to different markets should be obvious. Language barriers are the most apparent consideration, as games require translation of text in the interface, instructions and within the game environment itself, such as signs. As voiced dialogue becomes more common, this can add the burden of employing regional voice actors, a costly endeavour. There also considerations of differences in standards, such as PAL and NTSC, as well as possible regional legal implications. Given all this, it is understandable that many localisations will also consider issues cultural issues, both with regard to marketing, and general comprehensibility.

One of the most influential effects of regionalised graphics is the consideration of local rules regarding censorship in rating. Some countries have particularly harsh restrictions on game content, with Germany being an oft quoted example, and one which has been previously discussed on this blog. Such rules will often result in the censorship of violence, replacing people with zombies or robots, and turning blood green. In the case of Team Fortress 2, the German edition replaces the gibs (body parts left behinds after a kill) with balloons and other party paraphernalia, a feature included in other versions in the form of ‘party mode.’ In Germany, computer and video games are classed as toys, and are thus forbidden from representing Nazi imagery, such as Swastikas. This has resulted in the modification of a large number of games, thanks to the frequency with which Nazis have been used to present an unambiguously evil, and yet real-world, enemy. In some games, such as the recent Lego Indiana Jones the need for regional differences have been avoided by removing the Nazi references from all versions of the game.

While violence bothers the Germans, sex causes trouble in the US. Unlike violence however, sex is still rare in mainstream titles, and is usually confined to low cut tops and ‘jiggle physics’². However, Polish developer CD Projekt RED‘s game, The Witcher, featured a number of possible sex scenes, after which the player was ‘rewarded’ with cards showing scantily clad portraits of the women in question.³ However, in US edition, these cards were censored to be more ‘modest.’ Unlike changes in Germany, this change was not a legal requirement, but was likely an attempt to avoid gaining an adults-only (AO) rating, which would drastically restrict the commercial availability of the game.
As well as considerations of censorship and ratings, games also undergo changes due to marketing and other considerations. In many cases these are merely reflected in external factors, such as packaging design, which may reflect regional sensibilities. In other cases though, changes are more fundamental.

The game Megadrive Ristar, by Sonic Team, had several distinct changes between the Western and Japaneese releases. I’ll now discuss some of these changes, as well as identifying some of the other techniques used within the game.

Fig1a. Western (Top), Japanese (Bottom)

If you compare the western and Japanese screen-shots (Figure 1) you will notice a number of subtle differences. For example, compare the eyes of Ristar, the main yellow star like character. In the western screen-shot, Ristar’s expression looks more aggressive than the Japanese equivalent; the western version of the game uses sprites previously reserved for boss battles. A side a effect of this change is a reduction in the number of idle animations in the western versions, and a loss of some of the graphical subtlety. Similarly, a comparison of the flying bird-like enemy also shows that the western version uses more aggressive sprites. This difference is due to the greater marketability of cuteness in the Japanese markets, compared to the appeal of violence in western markets.

Fig 2. Western (Left) Japanese (Right)

Fig 3. Western (Top), Japanese (Bottom)

Fig 4. Japanese (left), Western (right)

The Rest of Ristar

Fig 5. Example Enemy

Figure 6. The Boss changes colour as it is hit

Fig 7.

Figure 8

The control of the background is a popular technique in many games, and has even made the shift into the three dimensional era. In Half-Life 2 and its episodes, Valve used the tall structure of the citadel to provide a point visible over large portions of the game. In the first game this provided an eventual target, and source of oppression, whereas in episode one, the citadel provided a constant reminder of the threat which the player needed to escape from. The background video-screens also performed a similar role, presenting Breen as an overarching figure of oppression, one which exists from the very opening moments of the game. This imagery borrows heavily from Orwell’s 1984, and thus is able to communicate a huge amount of information to any player familiar with the book.

And so…

Part 3 was largely concerned with looking at some of the ways in which game graphics and illustrations vary regionally. In particular, it focused on some of the changes made to the Megadrive Game Ristar. I then used Ristar as a jumping point to consider some of the techniques it employed to create consistency, broadcast information and create atmosphere. It is likely that many of these techniques will be revisited in later entries.

1. This Gaming Life, Jim Rossingol, 2008, University of Michigan Press, ISBN-10: 0-472-11635-5
2. Jiggle physics is a term used to describe the way in which breasts are made to ‘bounce’ in response to movement. While it could be used to increase realism, it is more commonly exploited for gratification of the straight male (or gay female) gamer.
3. Many kilobytes have been spent elsewhere discussing whether these cards are sexist and objectify women, and how this fits in with the larger scope of the game. I shall not be covering this discussion here as I have not yet finished the game itself, and the topic is somewhat irrelevant to this entry.
4. Although personally I think they are cute

Ch…Ch…Ch…Changes

So this leaves a bit of a stream of conciousness affair here instead. If anyone actually is reading this blog regularly, you’ll have noticed the ‘this weeks tweets’ post which appeared this Wednesday. As you may have gathered, this is an automated weekly affair and ties in with my use of Twitter. You might also have noticed the ‘lifestream’ tab, a page which summarises my activity across the web, perfect for all you stalker types.

Time and Tide

The title of this blog post refers to the weekend’s tendency to disappear. I had intended to get some food shopping done, but suddenly it was six and I hadn’t got to the supermarket. I was in the lab though, before ayone thinks I was in bed. Odly enough this is probably actually a good thing, as I had forgotten than I was heading home later this week for my Mum’s birthday. I had planned a whole week of food.

The Great Train Ticket Gamble¹

Oddly, talking of going home I had a great time playing the ‘find the cheapest train ticket’ game. It turns out that the answer was Megatrain from Edinburgh to Birmingham, and then a standard return from Birmingham to Kemble. I could have actually done it cheaper with an offpeak return, but that would have left 15 minutes to change trains in Birmingham, which is a bit tight if one of my connections suffers a delay. I’m still slightly confused at what happened to one of the tickets offered to me between Birmingham and Kemble, as it seemed to change price. This isn’t unusual for ‘advanced’ tickets, but only standard tickets were availible at that point.

And Now for Something Completely Different

This was originally going to go in On Art anf Games [Part3] but never really fitted. So I’ll stick it here instead, where is still doesn’t fit but at least its surroundings are similarly muddled.

And now, finally to football is over, sao I can start watching Being Human.

1. I almost went for the great train robbery, but the price was fairly reasonable in the end

Early Home Computers

As the home computing revolution began in the 80′s, systems were getting into peoples homes through two different routes. While Atari, and later Nintendo and Sega were making the first games consoles, the likes of Sinclair and Commodore were producing some of the first home computers. (The IBM PC remained out of the price range of many home users. Atari was also involved in the home computer market, along with other competitors that I haven’t discussed here.)

While the graphics of these early 8-bit systems were poor compared to modern standards, they were flexible enough to give developers real control over their game’s appearance. While some systems, such as the Sinclair Spectrum had very limited colour pallets, other systems could use a larger selection of colours, although would often be restricted to a subset, such as the twenty-five colours per scan-line limitation of the NES.

Notice how the four colour limitation of the NES sprites is dealt with. Mario's shirt is brown, rather than the later blue, and once powered up his moustache is red.

A restricted colour-palette and often large pixels, meant that cartoon style graphics were particularly common. This was reflected in games with child-friendly mascots such as Sonic and Mario. On the Spectrum, the colour restrictions were particularly strict, not only using a fixed 16 colour palette, but also drawing the screen in blocks of 8×8 pixels, each capable of containing only two colours. If two sprites of different colours overlapped each other, this would lead to a phenomenon known as attribute clash. While many games largely ignored this, others helped to work around it, either through the use of large bulky sprites, or by maintaining monochrome environments in areas where attribute crash would otherwise occur. The linked Wikipedia article goes into some more details on this restriction.

A screenshot from the C64 game, Creatures.

While the cartoon style of many early games also coincided with a suitability for children, other games were using the same visual style in a darker manner. While the C64 game Creatures had a cutesy visual style, which conflicted with violent torture scenes contained therein. The juxtaposition of cute graphics, with disturbing visuals was important in building the humour of the game. The sequel played off the effectiveness of this approach, and increased the role the torture scenes played in the game.

A Touch of Realism…

Other games took movements toward being more realistic. Jordan Mechner‘s Prince of Persia games used Rotoscoping to produce realistic character animations. On many systems the game used a subdued colour palette, making use of pastel shades, rather than bright primary colours. A similar feel was subsequently used in the games Flashback and Another World (Out of this World in the US), both of which relied on fluid and realistic movements. While Flashback used hand painted backgrounds in pastel shades, Another World made heavy use of browns, blues and greys, with subdued touches of other colours. The backgrounds were produced with vector images, which were reminiscent of the early 3D graphics and also replicated the same style seen in the character. This had the effect of creating scenes which felt simultaneously alien and realistic.

Prince of Persia also provides illustration of the way in which graphics may be used to break up empty space, and to offer feelings of progression. Early development versions of the game had large regions of empty space. Mechner broke these up, first through the addition of torches and wall textures, and later through filling otherwise large empty regions with blocks. The latter especially helps make the dungeon feel more confining. Mechner also realised that a change in graphical style helped break monotony, and gave the game a feeling of progression. The contrast between the upper levels of the palace, and the lower dungeons, also serves to better establish a sense of place and to better amplify the wealth of the latter environment. This technique, of using changes in graphics to add variety to a game is extraordinarily common, and many graphical themes have since become cliched, the terms ‘fire world’ and ‘ice world’ being shorthand for a lack of imagination. To work efficiently, this technique has to be accompanied by gameplay progression, otherwise it can feel like a cheap way of introducing variety.

Abstract Ideas

While some games were making strives toward realism, others were using more abstract approaches. Abstraction allows game developers to work with the limitations of the graphical system, rather than attempting to produce effects that it is incapable of. It is also a necessity of games which largely operate outside of real world concepts. The games Tetris and Klax for example, have no real bearing on the real world, save for their use of the concepts of colour and gravity. However other games used abstract presentation for more standard concepts.

Perhaps the king of the abstract is long term indie developer Jeff Minter. Minter has adopted a style reminiscent of psychedelia, which runs the gauntlet from the strange surrealist, and yet still representational graphics of Attack of the Mutant Camels through to the much more abstract Gridrunner. Many of Minter’s early games drew heavy gameplay inspiration from popular shooters of the time, with Gridrunner being inspired by Centipede. However Minter made use of surrealist and psychedelic imagery, as well a large numbers of ungulates (Cows conspicuous in their absence). As graphic technology increased, Minter made use of it to increase the number of visual effects, throwing more psychedelic imagery at the screen. This culminated in the recent Space Giraffe, in which the graphics act specifically to obscure the action on screen, forcing the player to use auditory clues. Other titles, such as Geometry Wars, use bright neon graphics, and sensory overload in a war which is reminiscent of Minter’s graphical style, while also using graphics which deliberately take on a retro feel, a technique which I will discuss in more detail in later parts.

And so ends part 2

Firstly I apologise about the lack of screenshots to illustrate some of my points. I’m trying to avoid nabbing them from sources which don’t specifically allow it, which is surprisingly difficult. I hope to be able to present animation frames from Prince of Persia especially, although you can seem images on Mechner’s website, which has been linked at several points. I’ll also look to providing a few examples of Minter’s work.

I tried to take a few jumps forward in time with this part, as a strictly cronological treatment is not what I intended. This allowed me to escape for the purely technical considerations that will otherwise shape the consideration of many early graphics.

In the next part I’ll mainly be using the 16-bit era as a jumping ground, but hope that the discussion will embrace contemporary two dimensional games.

I am not an artist; nor have I had training in the experience of literary analysis and criticism. While I can tell a Monet from a Dalí, I could tell you little about the history of either, or how they influenced or were influenced by the art, social and political systems contemporary to them. I have however played many different computer games over the years, and have seen their development from blocky 16 colour pixels to HDR lighting, 32bit colour and countless thousands of polygons. This technical development has shaped, and been shaped by, the graphical requirements of games.

The Early Days…

Spacewar running on PDP-1. Photo courtesy of Joi, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

When considering the earliest computer games, technical constraints were a major restriction on what could be accomplished. One of the earliest computer games, Spacewar!, for example was limited to very simple monochrome graphics, whereas the earlier Tennis for Two made use of an oscilloscope. In these cases graphics were mainly functional, although Spacewar! did make use of a background star-field to add a bit of flavour. However, in terms of effecting player emotion, or even just representing a mechanic of any real complexity, the displays were somewhat limited.

Where graphics wont do…

At this point it would be a good opportunity to make a diversion into a discussion of interactive fiction. While Hunt the Wumpus, used text to present a fairly simple mechanic, move or shoot, it was in Adventure that Will Crowther, and the later additions of Don Woods, showed how text could be used to deliver a feeling of place that wasn’t possible with graphics, given the technical limitations of the time. By describing the cavern, Crowther and Woods managed to deliver details which would have been impossible to render in the crude graphics of the period. (The Crowther-Woods version was released in 1976, predating the NES, the ZX80 and even the Atari 2600) The parser, albeit crude, also allowed for a level of interaction which was difficult to reproduce through purely graphical implementations, and subsequent improvements mean that modern interactive fiction titles can still offer the player an impressive level of control over the world.

Orange River Chamber

You are in a splendid chamber thirty feet high. The walls are frozen rivers of
orange stone. An awkward canyon and a good passage exit from east and west
sides of the chamber.

A cheerful little bird is sitting here singing.

A screenshot showing the opening room in Melbourne House's The Hobbit, as running on the ZX Spectrum.

Following Adventure, companies such as Infocom and Magnetic Scrolls took the genre further, using text to deliver narrative as well as description, and managed to extend the medium beyond the traditional cave crawl. While some companies began stretching what could be done with narrative, others began to make use of the available technology for supplementing the text with graphics. Titles such as The Hobbit and The Very Big Cave Adventure, used rudimentary graphics to supplement the room descriptions. While in some cases these images were used for simple illustration, in others they were used to provide additional information to the player. While the limited graphics capability still meant that art direction was still a somewhat meaningless concept, changes in palette, and the occasional use of a restricted field of drawing helped provide a different atmosphere for distinct regions of the game.
Slowly, a subset of IF titles began to use graphics as a direct replacement to the text delivery system. As they did so, they also showed a similar move away from a parser based control system to more graphical systems. Some early Sierra titles provided almost all player feedback in the form of animated graphics, yet still relied on typed communication in return. Other developers, such as Lucas Arts, meanwhile began to narrow down the larger verb list inherited from its interactive fiction forefathers. While early versions of Monkey Island for example had a list of twelve verbs, this was narrowed down to nine in later releases, both a reduction on the fifteen verbs in Lucas Arts first SCUMM adventure, Maniac Mansion. Later, graphic adventures tended to abandon the verb system altogether, first using pictorial representations, and then adopting context sensitive systems. Thus the graphic adventure moved away from the influences of its text based roots. Later systems tended to increase the screen real estate available for depicting the game-play, and removed what some developers felt was unnecessary redundancy in the verb system, that is, if a player clicks on a closed door, it should be blindingly obvious that they wish to open it.
While the graphic adventure market flourished, traditional IF slowly lost its commercial presence, although remains popular in a large community of enthusiasts. Graphics are still a rare addition in most modern interactive fiction, usually being confined to representing maps or jigsaw pieces. However, some games use graphics to flavour the interface, bringing the otherwise bland parser in to the game environment, as well as providing interface shortcuts. Other titles, such as Photopia, have taken a far more minimalist approach, using changes in the palette colours on chapter transitions in such a way as to tie in with thematic tones of a chapter.

That which follows…

So far I have introduced the beginning of the computer games industry, and looked at the way in which the most early of graphics were tightly constrained by technical limitations; it is very difficult to deliver emotion through an oscilloscope. In this situation, presentation was often confined by practical considerations, although the simulation of star-fields in Spacewar! shows that even some of the earliest gaming graphics weren’t solely practical.
Then I went on to consider how some games used text to create detailed and immersive environments, which were out of the reach of graphics of the time. Then, the slow addition of graphical elements to these games, eventually lead to the evolution of the graphic adventure, which itself had been shaped by the conventions of its text only predecessor.

I had hoped to take us further in this initial post, yet Sunday is almost over, and new years resolutions must be kept. Next post I hope to move on to the home-computing revolution, and consider how the 8-bit and 16-bit eras began to offer developers the freedom to use graphics in increasingly creative manners to shape the feel of their games.

Anyone who has played a game on the Xbox 360, or has looked at a growing number of PC Games, will be familiar with the concept of achievements. Achievements are a way of meta-gaming, giving the player a reward outside of the game, for completing various in game tasks. These tasks can vary from simply completing the tutorial, through killing a certain number of enemies, to something as bizarre as carrying a garden gnome through the whole game so as it may be launched into orbit at the end.
Life doesn’t have achievements; there are no amusingly named awards which pop up at the lower edge of your vision whenever you complete a particularly important life event. Unless you were a member of the Scouts or similar, you won’t have a little collection of icons representing the various things you have accomplished. This, I think, is one of the reasons why computer games will eventually win out over life, and we will all sit in large virtual reality booths getting achievements to our hearts content. Or something.
But before this great revolution can occur, I present the proposed list of achievements which will be available in Life 2.0. Note that it will be impossible to get all achievements in one lifetime; this is to encourage replay ability, something currently unavailable outside certain religious groups.

Achievements

Achieved _

Unattained _

Phew, that took far longer than it should have done and I don’t even get an achievement.

bisexual
bisexuality
bisexuals
bi-sexual
bi-sexuals
…
gay
gays
…
homo
homos
homosexual
homosexuality
homosexuals
…
lesbian
lesbians
lesbo
lesbos

Along with several pejorative terms for describing non-straight people (except poof for some odd reason). What the list didn’t block is straight, heterosexual or any of its variants. This provides gay and bisexual people with little ability to discuss their sexuality, while placing no such restriction on straight folk.
This just continues to reinforce the idea that gay and bisexual people are an ‘other,’ and that there is something dirty or morally corrupt about their sexuality. If the list itself can’t be described as homophobic, it in the very least reveals the deeply rooted homophobia in our society.
Before someone raises the issue, I am well aware that gay and ‘homo’ are used as insults in the same was heterosexual isn’t. However the developer’s approach here is highly unsatisfactory, and I think creates a situation which is worse than the situation they were trying to prevent. By blocking the words, they merely end up re-enforcing the attitude that led to them being considered offensive in the first place.
I feel the developers (or more accurately the publishers, as there is an indication that the list was supplied by Disney) should have either allowed all non-pejorative terms to describe sexuality, or none of them.
If anyone is interested, the banned word lists can be found here.

This post was originally a message on the snopes messageboard.

CORRECTION: The post intended to refer to the game Pure, rather than P.U.R.E, as was mistakenly written in the initial post. I apologise to the creators of P.U.R.E for this mistake.

A few months ago I though this sounded quite snazzy, so signed myself up for the beta. Today I got access, so thought I’d give things a whirl. As a favour to their beta users, GOG are doing a buy one get one free offer on the first order, Sign-up was quick and easy, and didn’t seem to require too much in the way of information. Unfortunately it did decide to send my password and security question to my E-mail, a questionable security practise. I’ll E-mail them on this one.

I had a bit of trouble with establishing a secure connection, but that seemed to be due to OpenDNS. It seems to cause problems on secure sites if some of the page content is hosted at an invalid domain.

Payment allows visa or Mastercard only, which means those without a credit card are possibly out of luck. I’d try my debit card, but I’d prefer the added security of a credit card on an unfamiliar website. So can’t say if delta is also accepted. However they claim that they are adding more cards shortly, so I assume this limitation won’t last long.

On purchase of Sacrifice at the bargain price of $5.99 (About £3) the game was added to my account page for downloading when I saw fit. The account page also provides links to forums, articles and additional downloads.It also gives me the opportunity to rate the game and review it. The articles address technical issues with the game, such as the requirement to run the installer as administrator on Windows Vista.

The downloads for the game include the manual, reference card, desktops and avatars. The game itself downloads as a single exe, and the 562.6MB file is downloading hovered around 140kB/s-160kB/s, it looks like it will take about an hour.

While thats happening I’ll talk about the rest of the service. Much like Steam, GOG provides forums for all the games available on its service, as well as a General Discussion forum which currently contains mainly feedback and feature requests.

The website provides a nice console, listing games you own, providing download links as well as links to relevant support articles and forums. According to GOG purchased games will be available for download forever, which should sound like a no-brainier, but some download services fail to provide this. The website also encourages you to make backups to CD, something I’ll do as I don’t fancy re-downloading half a gig regularly.

Unlike something like Steam, the service doesn’t require any background tasks. This will please many people and hopefully means that games installs will be virtually identical to the CD versions, only without a CD requirement.

Interestingly the license covers any number of PCs/laptops in the same household. In practise of course many people will do this anyway, but its nice that they allow it implicitly.

Now onto the the most important aspect, the catalogue. GOG promises to add new releases each Tuesday, which should ensure a constant flow of games. Currently it just hosts titles from Codemasters’ and Interplay’s back catalogues. This includes among them classics such as Fallout 1 and 2, Sacrifice, Giants: Citizen Kabuto and MDK, all at $5.99. There are also a few $9.99 titles thrown into the mix. Currently they only have 34 titles listed, and a few of those are flagged as ‘coming soon.’ Notably key Interplay titles like Baldur’s gate aren’t present, I suppose Atari’s continued interest in the D&D license, or Bioware’s cavorting with EA, may be holding this one back. However the forums are full of requests so we’ll see what happens.

The developers currently seem to be fairly active on the forums, but this is may be just due to the beta period.

With the download done, we are on to installation. As suggested, I’ll install as administrator.

Hmm, bit of a slow start here, but its a huge file and the problem could be with Vista’s paranoid security. Still, we are in to a customised installer. Seems to be very easy to use, if you don’t want to charge the default installation directory it is installed and launched in three clicks.

Game works first time, and adds itself to the vista games manager, uhh, twice, once with a shiny icon, and another time with downloaded box art. The shiny icon has links to the manual etc, and the box-art icon appears to be the version Vista ads automatically. The game appears to be fully patched.

So overall the process was extraordinarily simple, and doesn’t have any unnecessary gubbins to get in the way. One downer is that they don’t provide an automatic update tool, but seeing as these games are pretty ancient I expect they are as patched as they are going to get.

Currently the selection is a touch limited, as are the payment options. However, it is still early days, and GOG already show intentions of addressing both these problems. I hope early sales will be sufficient to encourage other publishers to join the fray. The low prices means that I’ll certainly be using the service in future, to catch up on missed titles and to fill in gaps between modern releases. The benefit of not requiring the CD, of having everything patched up and easy to use, and having it all only a few clicks away, makes GOG an attractive alternative to scouring eBay and the pre-owned bins, and charity shops.

Good Old Games can be found at http://www.gog.com/ and is currently in beta phase.