Hidden Treasures of the Past

     So I was cleaning through my basement the other day and trying to get things organized, which led me to pull out all of the old totes and containers I keep my vintage gaming stuff in.  My kids wanted to know what the Super Game Boy did, so I pulled it out and showed them.  Now, mind you, I acquired my Super Game Boy very late in the consoles life, second hand, so I didn't use it much before the N64 and the Game Boy Advanced eclipsed all that older content.  And since the later of those systems was backwards compatable with Game Boy titles, I never saw much need to be tethered to a television screen.

     So imagine my surprise when the cartridge I inserted, Dragon Quest Monsters 2, Tara's Quest, loaded with images filling the sidebar to make up for the difference in pixel count between the SNES and the Game Boy.  And even more surprising, the image changed depending upon what part of the game i was in.  I remember the days of the Game Boy being limited by the amount of data that could be fit onto a cartridge, so every game tried to pack as much content in as possible.  To even use space for a couple of extra bitmaps was a luxury no developer could afford.  But here they were, and what delighted me more was they were artwork from Akira Toriyama, that I'd never seen before.

     This got me wondering what other titles had hidden images you could only see on the side-bar of the Super Game Boy.  I went through my personal collection and discovered that full half of the games my wife and I collected in our youth had hidden side bars.  And what's more, the Pokémon Trading Card Game Game even used these side bar images to track badge progress, making the image a functional part of the game!

     I'm totally enthralled with these surprises, and I want to seek out all of these gems.  Once I get my analog visual capture hardware set back up, I'm going to seek out all these games and set up a page of all the images and the games they're from.  Wish me luck.

     I'll keep you all updated, and see you soon.

They Showed Me Support!

     So, not really me, but a whole wide community of people got validated by Sega.  The massively popular Total War: Warhammer game is available to play on Steam for Linux, which is just amazing.  I'm not sure how many people reading this even know that Steam has a download client for Linux distros, but it is a real thing that really took off in the early 2010's and opened a lot of people up to the use of Linux as an alternative to Windows.
     Then, in the late 10's, Steam gave up on the concept of Steam Boxes and their own flavor Linux, SteamOS, and it seemed to many of us it would only be a matter of time till Steam gave up on Steam for Linux.  But games continued to get coded for Linux, and Steam for Linux chugged on, though without much attention from major studios.

     Now enter Sega and the total war: warhammer game.  I recieved a free copy from a Games Workshop promotion, and though I don't own a Windows PC at the moment, figured I should redeem it in case that changes soon.  Imagine my surprise when I redeemed my steam code and the game appeared on my games for Linux list.  I was so excited about it, honestly, I went straight into writing this article.  I mean, a major publisher like Sega, with a major property like Total War, and a license like Warhammer, available on Linux.  Even a decade ago I would have told you you were mad if you'd said this would happen.  I'm just glad I've seen a shift like this in my life.

     It really has seemed for the longest time that gaming on the PC was restricted solely to Windows, with even Mac having to scrape and play second fiddle.  To see the linux development environment explode in recent years, and more companies embrace this shift and release titles on Linux, its heartening to see people support a less controlling and more laser-focused ecosystem.  Steam Boxes may not have taken off like Valve originally envisioned, but I personally feel that all of gaming is bettered by the inclusion of a Linux download client.  And hopefully we will see more in kind from their major competitors, so the entire gaming culture can grow better together.

     I look forward to playing Total War: Wahammer on my Linux box, and I hope to see more major titles get this treatment soon.

Blitz for Prizes [Disney Emoji Blitz]

     Disney Emoji Blitz works off of a strange premise.  Play this game to earn upgrades to your phone's keyboard that add a huge number of new emojis.  All Disney, of course.  The game itself is a simple match-three drop game, so this is definitely geared to the casual-game Disney fan.  I'll be honest about it now, I do not fall into that category.  I'm a fan of Walt Disney, the animator, and I am a gamer, I'm just not the kind of person who goes nuts over everything Disney.  This game was not developed with me in mind.

     Now that if got that technical bit out of the way, here's my take on Disney Emoji Blitz:

     My first impressions on this game is that it's meant to get you right in and playing, but there is no way to stop the tutorial, so you have to play through the whole thing in one shot, which can take some time.  Mobile games aren't meant for someone who has time.  So this is something I feel needs a remedy.  Some ability in game to pause, and exit out, then restart from where you left off.  This can be achieved for the most part by cold closing from your phones open apps button, but having to use a shutdown method outside your program always feels like bad coding to me.

     The next thing I noticed when playing the game was the color.  This game uses the whole pallet of bright.  Just playing it cheered me up.  So this stands as plus.

     Past these first blushes, this game is a pretty standard connect three formula, with a timer to keep you on the edge of your seat.  Which is disappointing, but not unexpected.  This game was made to bank on a popular trend, and get a few Disney whales to drop a bunch of money into it while giving a huge number of Disney fans a collection of digital stickers to plaster around people's text conversations and market more Disney products.

     So all in all, this game lacks substance beyond a primal collecting itch, and doesnt really warrant a lot of attention.  I'd give it two out of five stars.  Here's to hoping Jam City will get a better one next time.

AFK Arena, A Beautiful Waste of Time [AFK Arena]

So, I am a gaming addict.  Not just video games, games in general, and I spend almost all of my time in some sort of escapism.  Mobile games make this even worse by allowing me to feel like I'm gaming, even when I'm not.  Case-in-point is the mobile title AFK Arena.

     AFK is a beautiful looking spectacle with cool and cute characters that seemed intentionally designed for cosplayers, and it has a decent, if forgettable, sound track.  Gameplay is where the game is really lacking, but for AFK, that's kind of the point.

     Probably more technically correct as AFS (away from screen), this game is designed from top to bottom to facilitate your laziness.  You can set the battles to auto-combat, you can skip raid battles after your first one for the day and just collect the rewards, you can mass gold and equipment just by waiting, along with player EXP.  You don't actually have to do anything.

     The largest gripe I have with this game though, after having played for almost a year, is the grind.  There is a point not long after starting where the drop rate of characters become absolutely debilitating, and progressing further in the game just stops.  If you don't pay, you just mindlessly throw yourself against the same battle over and over until you want to pull your hair out, or you get luck on a character draw.  And this is only getting worse with the addition of new characters.

     Over all this is a beautiful game, but I can't condone the underhanded money grab it becomes in-game.  It shouldn't take months tok progress a minimal amount in any video game, regardless of it revenue system.  I'd have to give this one a 2 out of 5.

FFRK Holiday Backdrop 2019

Here is 2019's Holiday Backdrop image.  I really love that every year we now get something different for the Holiday Backdrop, though I will still miss the first one.

An All New Studio

I really like being the first one to make a fuss about something in my local area,  and it's even better when it's something cool a friend has done.

My good buddy Jon Kenworthy finally did what we had all be telling him to do a few years back and got himself a job in game design.  That's old news, but proper introductions.  So after getting a job working for Google and living in the greater Seattle area, he and some friends went ahead and started their own video game studio, Games Folder.

Now to my point, they made a game and published it on the Google play app store.  Now, it's not the end-all-be-all, but I have to support a developer from our own backyard, and I want to see them succeed.  If your interested in helping them out, here is the link to the game:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.GamesFolderLLC.Chinchiroll

Well, that's what I've got for now, check back again soon.

Happy Wasteland Explorations!

So, Bethesda software has been getting a lot of crap lately for the disaster that is Fallout 76.  So I thought I could toss them a bone and highlight a great game they released a few years back that hasn't gotten the attention I think it deserves.  That game is Fallout Shelter.

Fallout Shelter is a free-to-play, resource gathering sim with some exploration and story elements thrown in for flavor.  Simple, silly, and all around easy to get into, this game probably isn't for diehard fanatics of the fancier console fare, but if you like Fallout and need something to play on your mobile device, this game is actually quite good.

And despite there being micro-transactions in it, you never really feel like it's a forced element of the game.  You can happily chug along, growing the residency of your vault without ever feeling like you need to buy something just to progress.  Which is nice.

Seeing as how it's a free mobile game, it's nice that Bethesda gives you three different save files, one of which can be cloud saved.  Other technical features I've appreciated;  easy to use menu structure, and good tutorial.  To many mobile games just toss you in and let you flounder.  It's frustrating.  This title doesn't do that.  Shelter makes sure you're on a decent footing before letting you loose in the world.

Other than that, I can't say anything really negative about Fallout: Shelter.  It's a solid free-to-play title with lots of character, and easy to comprehend gameplay.  It's nice and refreshing to play a Bethesda title that just works.