The Blessing and Bane of Emulators
With age comes nostalgia, and having grown up on the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System, there is a certain level of sentimentality for the games that defined me. Game system and software manufactures recognize this and have begun repackaging and selling us back our memories in the form of emulators and rereleased games. And while these offerings make it convenient to take on Dr. Wiley or find that our princess is in another castle, there is something lost in the translation from dusty 8-bit consoles to modern gaming systems and high-definition TV’s. It all feels just a little off.
I have been playing with emulators for around ten years now, mostly on the PC. It’s been great being able to play all of my favorite old games again. When my son was born, I had dreamed of taking him on a video game history lesson through the emulators, starting with Super Mario Brothers 1-3 and onwards to other great titles such as Mega Man, Super Metroid, the Mario Kart series and any of the Final Fantasy RPG’s. Then Nintendo announced the Virtual Console for the Wii and emulation caught the public’s eye. Suddenly, millions of households had access to a fantastic library of old games that they could download and immediately begin playing. And we began to recognize that great gameplay shines through regardless of a game’s vintage.
But while we get to play all these games again, are we really recreating the gaming experience? The 1980’s were the golden-age of console video games and often the titles we were playing were pushing the hardware capabilities to previously unseen levels (example: compare Super Mario Brothers 1 to Super Mario Brother 3 on the NES). Additionally, the feel of the controller and the limitations of televisions at the time added to the charm. I played the NES on a 13? black-and-white TV over an RF modulator. Being able to hook the system up to the big color TV in the living room was a privilege bestowed only on special occasions.
The one glaring problem playing any emulator on a computer monitor or an HDTV is the quality of the picture: it’s too good. These games were developed for CRT TV’s which have physical properties that help make the images we fell in love with look the way they do. The picture is a little fuzzy, flickers some and the colors bleed a little. But most importantly, artists designed sprites with an understanding that RBG elements in a TV were not arrayed in a fixed grid. And blowing these images up on a 52-inch HDTV’s leaves the edges too sharp, the color too bright, and graphics resampled in such a way as to distort those sprites. (A user on the NFG Games Forum had an excellent write up of this effect, via Gizmodo.)
In response to this problem, a group of Georgia Tech computer science majors were tasked to simulate the properties of CRT TV’s in Stella, a popular open-source emulator for Atari 2600 games. Ian Bogost, the associate professor who ran the course, shared the results on Georgia Tech’s Digital Lounge blog. In his article, you can see the difference that the student’s Stella plugin makes when playing these old Atari games. In Ian’s words, the elements he wanted his students to add - the texture, afterimage, color bleed and noise - are all present and look great. And I agree; it feels like what we’d expect if we were firing up an old 2600 on a vintage TV. The fantastic part of this story is that his team have returned their changes to the source code to the maintainers of Stella and that we’ll see these as a configurable option in an upcoming release, and hopefully, in even more emulators.
Looking back to my Wii emulator experience, I was disappointed starting up Super Mario Brothers and finding there were no configurable options for ‘enhancing’ the images to look more like how I remember them. Purists may say that Nintendo and others did exactly the right thing by not including such options. Certainly I can hook my Wii up to an old TV and bask in it’s phosphorus glow. But I think something is being missed as we play our old games on modern equipment. It’s nice to see that others recognize this problem and are contributing solutions. Hopefully Nintendo and other emulator manufacturers will recognize this too and give us similar options.
In the mean time, I’ll make do. And the kids can grow up with their own memories.
Link: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/05/the-blessing-and-bane-of-emula...
Top 5 Gifts for Retro Gamers - Great Gift Ideas
Pac-Man Oven Mitt
While perhaps less comfortable than a regular oven mitt, the Pac-Man oven mitt's charm is something difficult to ignore. The mitt perfectly resembles the yellow, pill-chomping semi-circle, and even contains imprints of the original game's maze on the inside of the mouth.
On top of the charm, the Pac-Man oven mitt is food-safe and can withstand temperatures up to 450 degrees. Due to the design, it may be wise to keep a normal oven mitt when handling large pots, and only use the Pac-Man oven mitt for smaller pans and racks.
At $14.99, the Pac-Man oven mitt is a treasure any Pac-Man fan would adore, for a price that's affordable.
8-Bit Tie
Perhaps not the best thing to wear to a business professional interview, the "8-bit tie" makes for a perfect gift for any gamer working in a business casual, gaming-friendly environment.
Retro gamers love pixels, so what better gift to give than a pixelated tie? The hand-made, smooth as silk 8-bit tie costs $14.99. The only downside is having to wait for availability.
Space Invaders Wall Graphics
Together with Pac-Man and Pong, Space Invaders is one of the most widely recognized gaming icons, and is a true symbol for retro gaming. Even gamers without much appreciation for the game itself enjoy the pixelated aliens for what they embody.
The Space Invaders vinyl decal stickers make a perfect decoration for an old-school gaming or arcade room, a dorm room, a home office, or any other game-centric room. The package comes with one spaceship, numerous aliens, and multicolored missiles for $39.99.
Space Invaders Ice Tray
Once again, a Space Invaders-themed gift for the retro gamer that has it all - a Space Invaders Ice Cube Tray!
Great for game parties, the Space Invaders ice tray creates ice-cube versions of the aliens from space invaders. As an added bonus, the tray survives temperatures from -48 degrees F to 446 degrees F, giving gamers the option to cook miniature space invaders treats.
At only $7.49, the Space Invaders ice tray makes for a perfect stocking-stuffer, or as a gift for a casual gaming buddy.
From: http://videoonlinegames.suite101.com/article.cfm/top_5_gifts_for_re...
Namco’s Dig Dug Remix Arrives On The iPhone
Dig Dug was a classic arcade game made in 1982 by Namco. Atari published the maze-based game shortly after the game was made for arcades. The objective of the game is to eliminate ground-dwelling monsters while digging through mazes. Eliminating monsters requires the Dig Dug character to inflate them using his pump.
For those of you that want to relive their youth, but don’t have access to an Atari or the Dig Dug arcade, you can pick up a copy of the game for $5.99 through the iTunes App Store. The $5.99 that you pay will allow you to play the classic version or the remixed, new version of the game that features new levels, new enemies, and new power ups.
From: http://www.itechnewsdaily.com/namco%E2%80%99s-dig-dug-remix-arrives...
[Review] Atari Football for the iPhone
Based off the table top version you loved as a kid, Atari Football for the iPhone and iPod Touch amps up the game with a new look and feel for the new platform! Name your team, pick your logo, and customize your helmet before you crush your opponent. Catch the The Bomb or Blitz the QB to defeat your friend via local Wifi Multiplayer!
All in all the game is not perfect, but good. It can be fun and very easy if you are strategic and if the controls register.
If you are an avid football fan and you can not wait for Madden ‘10 on the iPhone/iPod Touch then get this to get a tiny fix of football. If you can wait and save the money for Madden then do it. You are not really missing out on anything breathtaking and will need to buy the game. It can be fun, sometimes, but controls are messy and there is no real story for the game. If there was an Association or a Season mode it would have made the game a lot better.
Link: http://www.dotdosh.com/main/reviewatari-football-for-the-iphone
ACP as a demo machine?
No of Escape writes: After several years of winter sleep, the ACP project was finally reanimated by Fredi Aschwanden and Mathias Wittau. Since last December, Mathias is contacting a lot of Atari developers and tried to figure out if this project is still feasible in 2009. In fact, the response was overwhelming so that Fredi immediately started working on the design and PCB layout.
In the meanwhile, several technical details have become available at the website http://acp.atari.org I think that this development is pretty intriguing for Atari demo scene. The project not only tries to achieve high compatibility with the original Atari by including many original Atari connectors but it will feature a big FPGA allowing the implementation of custom hardware features. Since this project will be open source, everyone will be able to create custom hardware components. As I know, there is already work in progress to implement a DSP56k inside the FPGA. So this could be a cool and challenging platform for creating demos for.
Link: http://acp.atari.org/
From: http://www.dhs.nu/
Check out this Jace Hall show appearance!
BenHeck writes: A few weeks ago I was in Burbak for the Jace Hall show and the episode is now complete. It was a fun interview, very goofy and off-the-wall, which was nice for a change!
Link: http://jacehall.tv/2009/05/14/stargate-benheck/
From: http://benheck.com/
My interesting computer history by David Bingham
So then came the ‘Atari 800XL’. I loved that machine, it had excellent graphics, Donkey Kong was brilliant and had a real printer and a 5.25? floppy disk drive. I had the chip changed in the disk drive to make it about ten times faster to load software using ‘Alpha-Load’. Very reliable too.
The 800XL also boasted 64KB of ram, nicely competing with my friend’s Commodore 64. Also, as you can see from the picture, it featured a cartridge slot for games.
OK, then I decided that I wanted to upgrade to a 16 bit machine and being totally satisfied with Atari’s performance, went for the ‘Atari ST’ - the first computer I owned that had it’s own monitor so you didn’t have to plug it in to a TV set. It also came with a very nice 3.5? floppy disk drive.
My Atari ST nicely competed with my friend’s Commodore Amiga, also a 16 bit machine.
Well since then it’s been PC’s which have completely replaced the so-called ‘home computers’ and nowadays, I just live on my Sony Vaio laptop.
From: http://www.davidbingham.com/2009/05/17/my-interesting-computer-hist...
Guru Meditation game blends Amiga, Atari 2600 and Wii on the iPhone
As a rule we try to keep to iPhone news here at iPhone Otaku, but Guru Meditation transcends platforms old and new. Meet the iPhone's first hybrid of the Amiga, Atari 2600, Wii and WiiFit.
If you're an old Amiga gamer, as I am, the term 'guru meditation' will bring back memories good and bad. Good, because it reminds you of a wonderful age of gaming focused on the Commodore Amiga, and bad because seeing a guru meditation flash up on the screen meant your awesome Amiga had just crashed.
So, what does a game called Guru Meditation have to do with all these classic and new gaming platforms? Well, it's an ambitious project by developer Ian Bogost, which brings an Atari 2600 game of the same name to the iPhone. Yet the Atari 2600 game is actually a new game that Ian's put together and installed on a cartridge for those of us who still their beautiful wood veneer consoles.
n top of all this Guru Meditation revives an Amiga-made peripheral released in 1982 for the Atari 2600 called the Joyboard (this is before Commodore bought Amiga and released its wonderful gaming home computer), which is essentially a more primitive version of the WiiFit. Basically a joystick that you stand on, Guru Meditation puts this woefully underused peripheral into action in a rather surreal yoga-based game. The game involves sitting cross legged on the Joyboard while remaining as motionless as possible. By keeping still, the yogi on screen begins to float - move, and his concentration is broken and he floats back to Earth.Still with me? Good.
So, Ian's actually selling a limited number of complete Atari 2600 kits - complete with Guru Meditation on a cartridge, and bundled with the Joyboard - over on his site. And to help drum up a little extra interest in Guru Meditation, he's released an adaptation for the iPhone. Developing any iPhone game is no small task, but there aren't many that can boast quite such a fascinating and convoluted lineage as Guru Meditation. The iPhone version works in the same way; requiring you to sit in motionless meditation to allow the yogi to rise to video game enlightenment, and - on the iPhone only - also includes keeping as quiet as possible so as not to break his contemplation of the emptiness of cyberspace.
The lines between handheld, retro and next-gen gaming have never been so blurred, and hats must go off to Ian for accomplishing such an unusual and ambitious project as Guru Meditation. You can check out the iPhone version by clicking the App Store button, and head over to Ian's site to see the incredible work he's done on the Atari 2600 version right here.
Link: http://www.bogost.com/games/guru_meditation.shtml
Link: http://www.atariage.com/controller_page.html?SystemID=2600&Controll...
Link: http://iphoneotaku.com/iphone-games-previews/195
From: http://iphoneotaku.com/iphone-news/39-new-game/196-guru-meditation-...
19 Classic Video Game Commercials
Guess what? Game companies want you to buy their machines. Surprised? Well, of course not, but the ways in which they’ve gone about enticing you to buy their products over the years makes for a fascinating journey. We thought we’d take a look back at exactly how they got us excited for the next big thing - how they introduced us to each exciting new step in the evolution of video gaming.
To do this we have decided to dig-up the old television commercials that inspired generations of gamers to plug in, boot up and get lost in worlds only limited by the imagination. Some ads were funny, some weird and some clever - there were even those that outright attacked the competition. So, sit back and rub that nostalgia bone until you go ‘ohhh’.
Link: http://www.gameplayer.com.au/gp_documents/GameCommercials.aspx?Page=1
From: http://slashdot.org/
Namco Bandai swallows ATARI Europe
Namco Bandai purchased a 34 percent stake in ATARI Europe last year and are now expected to purchase the rest from ATARI parent Infogrames, effectively buying out the company.
The company's UK marketing boss David Miller stated, “We believe that DP will become a wholly-owned Namco Bandai games company soon, but this process requires time and we will comment further when we have an anticipated closing date."
It gets even more complicated, though: Distribution Partners (which PTB points out "sounds like a company name just a few steps removed from Universal Worldwide International Consolidated Regional Industries Limited, Inc.") will be handling the newly-owned releases in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
More, ATARI will still have its UK branch in London, while its American headquarters will become an "online-centric content producer". The times they sure are a-changin'.
Link: http://www.pressthebuttons.com/2009/05/atari-continues-to-collapse....
From: http://www.neoseeker.com/news/10718-namco-bandai-swallows-atari-eur...
