Who's Better? Who's Best?
Posted Friday, February 8 by Ojo de Gallo
The first ever Gamer's Edition of the Guinness Book of World Records hit shelves today in Britain (it makes it to America March 11th). The book features high scores (cribbed from the Twin Galaxies scoreboard) hidden somewhere amidst the full-color pictures and completely useless trivia the folks at Guinness are famous for. For example, the Bungie staff ate 20,000 pounds of pizza while working on Halo 3. The largest (and most likely only) virtual beerfest is the annual Brewfest which takes place in World of Warcraft. Speaking of annual events, the cover of the Gamer's Edition claims that it too will be a yearly occurence, easily beating the once every ten years release schedule for Twin Galaxies' own record book.
Lowered Expectations
Posted Monday, February 4 by Ojo de Gallo
A couple of recent purchases for the PS2 got me thinking about what we now expect out of video games and how easy it is to get wrapped up in secondary features.
The first is Rock Band. Rock Band for the PS2 is not Rock Band for the XBOX 360 or the PS3. It doesn't have the create-a-player or the expansive career mode or the store. You just play through the songs in order using a computer generated character. At first I was disappointed, I admit, but I soon realized this actually made the game more fun. Now I don't have to play "Wanted Dead or Alive" eight times to beat the game or go back and play the entire game on Easy just to unlock another guitar to buy.
The second game is Alien Hominid, which is about as old school as they come. It's a basic run to the right and kill everything that isn't you game like Contra, Rush'n Attack, Metal Slug and about a million other games I wasn't any good at at the time. I'm not any good a Alien Hominid either, but I enjoy it more than I ever enjoyed any of those other games. It may be the over-the-top cartoony violence, or it may be that it reminds me of a simpler time before game saves, health bars and unlockable secret characters with alternate outfits.
January Must Be Dumb Luck Month
Posted Thursday, January 31 by Ojo de Gallo
It appears that a protoype of the previously unreleased Atari 2600 game Gamma Attack has been found. Unfortunately, it was found by a douche who's too worried someone else might "profit from his work" to release the ROM to the classic gaming community, meaning the game will likely never see the light of day. I hadn't realized that buying a box of 25-year-old video games with hopes that one of them might sell for enough on eBay to pay for the lot was "work". From the sounds of things, the game is little more than a knock-off of Laser Blast, so at least the world isn't missing much.
Feeling Adventurous?
Posted Monday, January 28 by Ojo de Gallo
An ultra-rare Entex Adventure Vision has shown up on eBay with an asking price of $5,500. Why so much? Because only about 50,000 of these things were ever made. Compare that to roughly 30 million Atari 2600s. But before you sell your car, ask yourself, "Why were only 50,000 of these things made?" As with most rare things in the world of classic gaming, Condor Attack for example, the Adventure Vision is rare because it sucks. Imagine a Vectrex with everything cool surgically removed. Instead of black, it's white. Instead of 30 games, there are 4. Instead of cool vector graphics, it has 40 LEDs and a mirror. Plus, it's another one of those "guy stumbles across a warehouse of rare vintage games" stories. Maybe if I'm ever the guy in one of those stories, I'll change my tune, but I don't feel inclined to reward this guy to the tune of 5 grand for pure dumb luck. Still interested? Check out the listing here.
Virtual Obscurity
Posted Saturday, January 26 by Ojo de Gallo
Sega has announced that Master System games will be available for the Wii Virtual Console beginning this February in Japan (no North American date has been announced). Now those of you who missed out on playing Transbot by not buying a Master System during the roughly 2 months it was available in the U.S. may finally get your chance.
Fist of the North Star and Fantasy Zone will be the first two games available. Sega also plans to begin releasing Game Gear titles to the Virtual Console, though no specific dates or titles were mentioned.
Diet Pepsi - Better Than Pong?
Posted Tuesday, January 22 by Ojo de Gallo
As lame as playing Pong by yourself is, I still give it the edge over drinking Diet Pepsi. And if the producers of the spot happen to be reading this, here's what Pong actually looks like when played on an Atari 2600.
The first ever Gamer's Edition of the Guinness Book of World Records hit shelves today in Britain (it makes it to America March 11th). The book features high scores (cribbed from the Twin Galaxies scoreboard) hidden somewhere amidst the full-color pictures and completely useless trivia the folks at Guinness are famous for. For example, the Bungie staff ate 20,000 pounds of pizza while working on Halo 3. The largest (and most likely only) virtual beerfest is the annual Brewfest which takes place in World of Warcraft. Speaking of annual events, the cover of the Gamer's Edition claims that it too will be a yearly occurence, easily beating the once every ten years release schedule for Twin Galaxies' own record book.
