In the grand gaming tradition of mini-bosses, mini-games, and mini-quests I thought it'd be good to add some mini-posts when i get a chance. Today a snippet if my life. I have been seeing a doctor for the past 3 weeks for a stye (which is an eye lid infection much like a pimple). I just had a procedure to hopefully get it cleared out, but the thing that surprised me was what I was afraid of.
Being part hypochondriac, I of course always extrapolate to the worst possible scenario when it comes to any possible disease. In this case, the loss of my sight in one eye (which is totally not a possibility, but my brain does what it will). The weird thing (and the reason I am posting here) is that I did not lament necessarily the possible loss of my sight. No, I instead was worried that I would not be able to enjoy the 3D gaming that currently exists and that will exist in the future.
Priorities...I have them.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Pokemon Revisited
So an amazing friend of mine stopped by my office the other day and dropped off Pokemon X and Y telling me to pick one so we could battle (when he finally got a 3DS). Since then I have been dutifully playing through the Y variant and having a lot of fun, but there are some mixed feelings in there.
Firstly, the graphics are great! It's really fun to see the Pokemon in a glorious cell shaded 3D that puts the N64 games to shame (the last time I encountered 3D Pokemon was in Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Snap). Also in this iteration they finally upped the ante on the animation for various attacks. They are still fairly generic deformations of the characters (used to be wobbling of the sprite), but now at least the arm moves when they are doing an arm based movement (like scratch). The 3D effect is great too if you can get past the reduced frame rate (I can't though).
It was also really nostalgic to encounter a good mix of the 151 I was familiar with, along with the new comers (or at least new since the first 3 games). I actually got my favorite Pokemon early on and he is the best one of my team (although I don't quite like the default name that the original NPC trainer gave him).
I feel like I am still early on (I only have one badge so far) and the game keeps introducing things to me at a reasonable (if not a bit slow) pace.
And that's where I start my mixed feelings. As I am going through this new region with new places to explore, I find myself pushing to get to the next area, almost not able to enjoy where I am right now. And to be honest, I think the problem is with me, not the game. I delved deep into the first Pokemons, so much that I got all 151 in the US (which, as some of you may know was not possible without a glitch). I dove into the Pokeverse with friends and we discovered new secrets that we talked about over lunch as we battled. I don't know if I am missing the social part, or if the game just doesn't have enough new for me.
That being said, some of the new things I have really enjoyed. There is a mansion where you can fight trainers (just like on the road) but in this case you are battling for higher titles. All of the people you battle are snooty entitled rich folk which gives an extra bit of satisfaction as you defeat them. Then there are a bunch of mini games to help train your Pokemon (and make them like you more) which I have just barely scratched the surface of. Not to mention I haven't even figured out how to battle real people yet.
I'm just beginning but unfortunately it's probably going to be like that for a long while. I get about 5 minutes to play a night (seriously, I do a battle or two while I floss) but at least I am making some progress. Every now and then the kids want me to play (when they aren't asking for me to play Minecraft) so that is where I get the bulk of my play time in.
Another area of mixed feelings came from that actually. My kids wanted to play their own Pokemon, but as you may know all the Pokemon games are one cartridge = one save. As I mentioned before I do have the original Pokemon, which were simpler and more likely that the kids would be able to play, so with a heavy heart I deleted my games and started new ones for my kids. All my Pokemon gone. I would probably still be down about it (especially because to this day the kids have only played their respective Pokemon games once), except I remember in one of the Pokemon games (I can't remember which), one of your parent's says something to the effect of "I remember when I went on my Pokemon journey. I'm so proud and can't wait to hear of your adventures." Sappy, sure, but it captures my feelings quite nicely. Let's hope G and A pick up their Pokemon journey again some time soon.
Firstly, the graphics are great! It's really fun to see the Pokemon in a glorious cell shaded 3D that puts the N64 games to shame (the last time I encountered 3D Pokemon was in Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Snap). Also in this iteration they finally upped the ante on the animation for various attacks. They are still fairly generic deformations of the characters (used to be wobbling of the sprite), but now at least the arm moves when they are doing an arm based movement (like scratch). The 3D effect is great too if you can get past the reduced frame rate (I can't though).
It was also really nostalgic to encounter a good mix of the 151 I was familiar with, along with the new comers (or at least new since the first 3 games). I actually got my favorite Pokemon early on and he is the best one of my team (although I don't quite like the default name that the original NPC trainer gave him).
I feel like I am still early on (I only have one badge so far) and the game keeps introducing things to me at a reasonable (if not a bit slow) pace.
And that's where I start my mixed feelings. As I am going through this new region with new places to explore, I find myself pushing to get to the next area, almost not able to enjoy where I am right now. And to be honest, I think the problem is with me, not the game. I delved deep into the first Pokemons, so much that I got all 151 in the US (which, as some of you may know was not possible without a glitch). I dove into the Pokeverse with friends and we discovered new secrets that we talked about over lunch as we battled. I don't know if I am missing the social part, or if the game just doesn't have enough new for me.
That being said, some of the new things I have really enjoyed. There is a mansion where you can fight trainers (just like on the road) but in this case you are battling for higher titles. All of the people you battle are snooty entitled rich folk which gives an extra bit of satisfaction as you defeat them. Then there are a bunch of mini games to help train your Pokemon (and make them like you more) which I have just barely scratched the surface of. Not to mention I haven't even figured out how to battle real people yet.
I'm just beginning but unfortunately it's probably going to be like that for a long while. I get about 5 minutes to play a night (seriously, I do a battle or two while I floss) but at least I am making some progress. Every now and then the kids want me to play (when they aren't asking for me to play Minecraft) so that is where I get the bulk of my play time in.
Another area of mixed feelings came from that actually. My kids wanted to play their own Pokemon, but as you may know all the Pokemon games are one cartridge = one save. As I mentioned before I do have the original Pokemon, which were simpler and more likely that the kids would be able to play, so with a heavy heart I deleted my games and started new ones for my kids. All my Pokemon gone. I would probably still be down about it (especially because to this day the kids have only played their respective Pokemon games once), except I remember in one of the Pokemon games (I can't remember which), one of your parent's says something to the effect of "I remember when I went on my Pokemon journey. I'm so proud and can't wait to hear of your adventures." Sappy, sure, but it captures my feelings quite nicely. Let's hope G and A pick up their Pokemon journey again some time soon.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
G+ Roundup
I realized there are several gaming related things I have posted recently on my G+ that haven't been shared here. With the slim chance that there are people outside of my small circle of friends that view this site I thought I should share some of the items.
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL TABLETOP GAMING DAY!!!
G made a Triforce at preschool. No direct influence on my part.
A silly but awesome oven mitt
A bone die I 3D printed at home.
Ok, til next week!
Ok, til next week!
Those good ol' games
About two or three weeks ago someone clued me onto gog.com where some brilliant jerk decided to take the amazing games that I loved fumbling through on the PC as a child and rework them so they would function on a modern Mac or PC. Instantly I picked up Wing Commander: Privateer for $6 (since I have been craving the upcoming Star Citizen) and it turned out that it came with the expansion I never knew it had! The graphics were glorious, sounds were great, and the NPC voices were phenomenal. I know no one had touched the actual game, but now instead of playing it on a mid line (read as bare bones) system I was lightyears beyond what the game expected me to have so it looked, felt, and responded like a brand new game (with retro graphics).
I dove right in, and for those of you who have not played Privateer before, I really mean dive right in. No back story. No tutorial. No explanations beyond a video at the beginning where it shows space pirates trying to steal cargo from a badass cargo ship (that is you). It's almost as if that encounter where you blast the pirates away ended with you bumping your head and landing on a remote mining station. I vaguely remembered what to do so I grabbed a mission, went out, and proceeded to get destroyed as I fumbled around with using a mouse to fly my ship. Yeah, I needed a joystick.
Unfortunately for me Mac's don't have joystick ports, so getting the true nostalgia by playing with my old stick just wouldn't work. That being said, my old stick was literally that...a stick with two buttons on the base. Think Atari but with a second button and analog instead of digital. That was all that was reasonable at the time, but technology has advanced, so what could I get with my vast adult spending ability?
According to my searches on Amazon, joysticks today fall into three categories. Game pads (which are not joysticks but for some reason show up when you search), $20 joysticks, and $100+ joysticks. Seriously, there is not much in between (ok maybe a few things, but they look ridiculous and uncomfortable). One in particular stuck out as not looking obnoxious and was reasonably priced, but the reviews where what really struck me as odd. There were complaints like "I can't program mouse functions to the buttons" and "Has issues with Battlefield 4." Ok, who uses a joystick for FPS games? Seriously, I want to know how that works (re: my previous post).
Anyway, I got it, and aside from an inability for fine control (which I think is related to the game and not the joystick), it was awesome! Yesterday I probably spent the most time I have spent on a solo video game straight since before kids (which, to be honest, isn't saying much).
And the best thing is that I am breathing new life into this game. I actually understand what is going on. The religious zealots, the political struggle in the background, the game mechanics to upgrade my ship all make so much more sense to me. This game was originally released in 1993. I was 12 years old and afraid to fly out of my home quadrant. To be honest I still am, but before I shut off the game last night I picked up a jump drive at the local dealer. Now I just need to remember to grab a nav map so I don't get lost.
P.S. Speaking of gog.com, I think my next purchase has to be the source of my high school idol: Gabriel Knight. That game is the entire reason I spent my pre-college years in a black leather trenchcoat (pre-trenchcoat related tragedy that is). Imagine my excitement when I found out that there are two sequels!!!!
I dove right in, and for those of you who have not played Privateer before, I really mean dive right in. No back story. No tutorial. No explanations beyond a video at the beginning where it shows space pirates trying to steal cargo from a badass cargo ship (that is you). It's almost as if that encounter where you blast the pirates away ended with you bumping your head and landing on a remote mining station. I vaguely remembered what to do so I grabbed a mission, went out, and proceeded to get destroyed as I fumbled around with using a mouse to fly my ship. Yeah, I needed a joystick.
Unfortunately for me Mac's don't have joystick ports, so getting the true nostalgia by playing with my old stick just wouldn't work. That being said, my old stick was literally that...a stick with two buttons on the base. Think Atari but with a second button and analog instead of digital. That was all that was reasonable at the time, but technology has advanced, so what could I get with my vast adult spending ability?
According to my searches on Amazon, joysticks today fall into three categories. Game pads (which are not joysticks but for some reason show up when you search), $20 joysticks, and $100+ joysticks. Seriously, there is not much in between (ok maybe a few things, but they look ridiculous and uncomfortable). One in particular stuck out as not looking obnoxious and was reasonably priced, but the reviews where what really struck me as odd. There were complaints like "I can't program mouse functions to the buttons" and "Has issues with Battlefield 4." Ok, who uses a joystick for FPS games? Seriously, I want to know how that works (re: my previous post).
Anyway, I got it, and aside from an inability for fine control (which I think is related to the game and not the joystick), it was awesome! Yesterday I probably spent the most time I have spent on a solo video game straight since before kids (which, to be honest, isn't saying much).
And the best thing is that I am breathing new life into this game. I actually understand what is going on. The religious zealots, the political struggle in the background, the game mechanics to upgrade my ship all make so much more sense to me. This game was originally released in 1993. I was 12 years old and afraid to fly out of my home quadrant. To be honest I still am, but before I shut off the game last night I picked up a jump drive at the local dealer. Now I just need to remember to grab a nav map so I don't get lost.
P.S. Speaking of gog.com, I think my next purchase has to be the source of my high school idol: Gabriel Knight. That game is the entire reason I spent my pre-college years in a black leather trenchcoat (pre-trenchcoat related tragedy that is). Imagine my excitement when I found out that there are two sequels!!!!
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Eat your veggies like Pac Man!
Early on I took a page from my fathers book of making food fun. When I was young I would get apples that were full, but when you pulled them apart it turned into a 3D puzzle. I do that for G and A but it's not related to video games so that does not belong here. Instead I want to show something that I haven't done in a while: Pepper Carving.
The first time we wanted to get the kids to eat peppers they wouldn't do it. To make it fun I decided to cut them into Pac Man shapes. Needless to say they were a hit. The neat side effect is that now they really like peppers in any shape.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Mission: Control
One of the most frustrating things in games, and also in life, is the inability to do something just because of bad interface. You know what you have to do, you know what you want to do, but you just can't get your limbs to go. Sometimes gaining the skill to stop fumbling is part of the game itself (case in point), but in this case my kids really want to play Minecraft on their own and spinning around looking down is not quite what they had in mind.
So what happens when you give a 5 year old a first person shooter interface for the first time? A couple of things:
- They tend to twist the mouse instead of slide it. It seems G views the mouse as an avatar of herself so when she wants to turn, she turns the mouse. Oddly enough looking up and down is an easily grasped concept but...
- They tend to shift their view down. Once G was walking along outside I noticed that she slowly slid her view downwards to the point where she was basically looking at the ground, and she was ok with that. When I reminded her to look up she stopped, looked slightly up, and noticed she almost ran into a pig (to which she said "Oh, a pig!"
- You realize that the natural motions of the human body are fascinating. Instinctively G seemed to view the computer screen as a window, or possibly a projection of her vision, because at times I caught her moving her head to try and see around things that were in front of her. It is clear that we need an Oculus in this house (or possibly some other non-Facebook branded VR).
In the end, G was able to do some navigation on her own and was telling me she wants to learn how to fight monsters. For a first try I think it was a success and we need to see how try 2 goes. Now I have yet to experiment with the 3 year old (especially because he says he want's to play now too), but I expect the results would be worse.
I find myself trying to remember how did I learn to masterfully prance around a 3D landscape? Thinking back I remember that the first time I thought "That is a pain in the ass," was when I made the first shift from Wolfenstein 3D and Doom 2 to Quake. Looking up and down is hard. I then think further back and remember that circle strafing was a revolutionary point in my battles against the demon horde (and helped me to learn how to use the mouse better). Will the 16 Bit Mom support my desire to train my 3 and 5 year old with battling demon Nazis? Probably not but maybe if I install the Barneystien mod.
The alternative is to make a new type of controller. I'm just thinking this up as I type this so bear with me. Addressing the issues shown above, maybe I need to find some way to isolate X and Y movement into two controls (the kids don't need to move fast, they just want to have fun). That should be easy enough with taking apart an old school ball mouse and would solve two problems (twisting and head going down)...I think I know my project for this weekend.
I should also mention that I don't think the 16 Bit Mom is going to like giving up the laptop for a Minecraft machine, so I think I will be spending some time this week trying to set up Minecraft on my Raspberry Pi. Maybe the mini arcade machine I planned before is going to turn into a Picraft machine for my kids. I wonder how a track ball would work for Minecraft...
So what happens when you give a 5 year old a first person shooter interface for the first time? A couple of things:
- They tend to twist the mouse instead of slide it. It seems G views the mouse as an avatar of herself so when she wants to turn, she turns the mouse. Oddly enough looking up and down is an easily grasped concept but...
- They tend to shift their view down. Once G was walking along outside I noticed that she slowly slid her view downwards to the point where she was basically looking at the ground, and she was ok with that. When I reminded her to look up she stopped, looked slightly up, and noticed she almost ran into a pig (to which she said "Oh, a pig!"
- You realize that the natural motions of the human body are fascinating. Instinctively G seemed to view the computer screen as a window, or possibly a projection of her vision, because at times I caught her moving her head to try and see around things that were in front of her. It is clear that we need an Oculus in this house (or possibly some other non-Facebook branded VR).
In the end, G was able to do some navigation on her own and was telling me she wants to learn how to fight monsters. For a first try I think it was a success and we need to see how try 2 goes. Now I have yet to experiment with the 3 year old (especially because he says he want's to play now too), but I expect the results would be worse.
I find myself trying to remember how did I learn to masterfully prance around a 3D landscape? Thinking back I remember that the first time I thought "That is a pain in the ass," was when I made the first shift from Wolfenstein 3D and Doom 2 to Quake. Looking up and down is hard. I then think further back and remember that circle strafing was a revolutionary point in my battles against the demon horde (and helped me to learn how to use the mouse better). Will the 16 Bit Mom support my desire to train my 3 and 5 year old with battling demon Nazis? Probably not but maybe if I install the Barneystien mod.
The alternative is to make a new type of controller. I'm just thinking this up as I type this so bear with me. Addressing the issues shown above, maybe I need to find some way to isolate X and Y movement into two controls (the kids don't need to move fast, they just want to have fun). That should be easy enough with taking apart an old school ball mouse and would solve two problems (twisting and head going down)...I think I know my project for this weekend.
I should also mention that I don't think the 16 Bit Mom is going to like giving up the laptop for a Minecraft machine, so I think I will be spending some time this week trying to set up Minecraft on my Raspberry Pi. Maybe the mini arcade machine I planned before is going to turn into a Picraft machine for my kids. I wonder how a track ball would work for Minecraft...
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Mine Blok Craft!
For the longest time I never understood the appeal of Minecraft. You sit and hack away hoping to get enough rock stuff to make something. Where is the fun? Digging in the dirt? Building with blocks? I could do both of those things in the real world and actually get something done...But Minecraft is a cultural phenomenon, and all my friends can't be that terribly wrong. So I checked it out.
I played the game some with my nephews, who knew a ton about how to craft, what to craft, and why to craft. I saw that this was at minimum a very rudimentary introduction to programming of sorts (especially when you use something called "redstone" that can activate machines). Great for kids, but I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the time investment to learn how to do something that was, in the end, useless for me (ok...fun isn't useless, but this was getting close enough to learning a programming language that I would rather have spent the time learning how to program for Android).
Forcing myself to socialize I played regularly with some close friends on a shared server. I saw the insane creations that people were making and thought, I might as well too. My way of differentiating myself was to do the opposite of build. I wanted to carve something out of a mountain. My goal was a cathedral hidden behind a single door, with skylights and such. It was going to be tricky because, as far as I know, you can't fake rock blocks. They can only be leftover after you cut around them. That was all fine and dandy, but then, when mining for materials to make another pick axe, I discovered a cave.
It turns out that in addition to randomly generated terrain, there is almost a randomly generated history for each world. That history isn't written down, but something happened long before you arrived in this land and there are places to explore. That is where I found the fun. My favorite thing to find now are the zombie spawning dungeons which I hope someone will explain to me some day. It is a crafted room filled with zombies. You kill them all and what is left is a small caged zombie that is on fire (and subsequently spawns more zombies). Kill that and you can get the treasure. They really are creepy rooms because you can hear the zombies from far away while you mine. There are no doors or windows, just zombies trapped as if they were buried in some ancient ritual.
I have to admit that part of the current attraction for me is that my kids really get into it. They aren't jaded by the lack of a clear goal or the absence of story (which I think was my problem all along, solved now that I found out how to make the story and goal for myself). They are scared by the zombies, feel triumph when I discover gold, and feel bad when they stick their head in front of the computer monitor and block my vision causing me to run into a hole and die in lava. "A" now regularly asks to play Blokus (which I am trying to teach him is a different game, but that's what he calls Minecraft) and "G" likes to talk about how mommy will love all the sheep in the field (because of the wool we get...shameless plug http://hipstrings.etsy.com).
Again, I don't think it's a great game. The art is fun, but basic. The goals are nonexistant (especially in free mode). But as with Legos and Lincoln Logs, the fun is in the simplicity and your own imagination. Being able to do it with friends makes it even more so. Add in a little bit of Oculus (which is compatible), and I think you will have a timeless classic.
Incidentally, I was wondering what I should do with the saddle I found in one of the zombie dungeons and "A" suggested that I put it on a sheep. A quick Google search tells me that won't work, but I like where his brain is going.
I played the game some with my nephews, who knew a ton about how to craft, what to craft, and why to craft. I saw that this was at minimum a very rudimentary introduction to programming of sorts (especially when you use something called "redstone" that can activate machines). Great for kids, but I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the time investment to learn how to do something that was, in the end, useless for me (ok...fun isn't useless, but this was getting close enough to learning a programming language that I would rather have spent the time learning how to program for Android).
Forcing myself to socialize I played regularly with some close friends on a shared server. I saw the insane creations that people were making and thought, I might as well too. My way of differentiating myself was to do the opposite of build. I wanted to carve something out of a mountain. My goal was a cathedral hidden behind a single door, with skylights and such. It was going to be tricky because, as far as I know, you can't fake rock blocks. They can only be leftover after you cut around them. That was all fine and dandy, but then, when mining for materials to make another pick axe, I discovered a cave.
It turns out that in addition to randomly generated terrain, there is almost a randomly generated history for each world. That history isn't written down, but something happened long before you arrived in this land and there are places to explore. That is where I found the fun. My favorite thing to find now are the zombie spawning dungeons which I hope someone will explain to me some day. It is a crafted room filled with zombies. You kill them all and what is left is a small caged zombie that is on fire (and subsequently spawns more zombies). Kill that and you can get the treasure. They really are creepy rooms because you can hear the zombies from far away while you mine. There are no doors or windows, just zombies trapped as if they were buried in some ancient ritual.
I have to admit that part of the current attraction for me is that my kids really get into it. They aren't jaded by the lack of a clear goal or the absence of story (which I think was my problem all along, solved now that I found out how to make the story and goal for myself). They are scared by the zombies, feel triumph when I discover gold, and feel bad when they stick their head in front of the computer monitor and block my vision causing me to run into a hole and die in lava. "A" now regularly asks to play Blokus (which I am trying to teach him is a different game, but that's what he calls Minecraft) and "G" likes to talk about how mommy will love all the sheep in the field (because of the wool we get...shameless plug http://hipstrings.etsy.com).
Again, I don't think it's a great game. The art is fun, but basic. The goals are nonexistant (especially in free mode). But as with Legos and Lincoln Logs, the fun is in the simplicity and your own imagination. Being able to do it with friends makes it even more so. Add in a little bit of Oculus (which is compatible), and I think you will have a timeless classic.
Incidentally, I was wondering what I should do with the saddle I found in one of the zombie dungeons and "A" suggested that I put it on a sheep. A quick Google search tells me that won't work, but I like where his brain is going.
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