Bill Loguidice's Blog, page 139
April 24, 2012
Videos - All Author Interviews for the Book, My Xbox: Xbox 360, Kinect, and Xbox LIVE
Wouldn't you know it? After Christina posted earlier about our first author interview appearing on the Amazon Website for our latest book, My Xbox: Xbox 360, Kinect, and Xbox LIVE, we find out that the whole series in Que Publishing's OnGadgets&Hardware is available on their site. You can check out the links here (click on Podcasts) to each of the videos or watch the embedded versions we've included below. They're also available at iTunes and in audio-only versions. Thanks for the support!
New Kickstarter for Atari 2600 Star Castle - But should you support it?
[image error]I posted about this as a comment in another thread, but since this is such a big deal I thought I would whip up a quick front page blog post to give it its due. There's a new Kickstarter for an Atari 2600 version of Star Castle, a 1980 vector-based arcade game from Cinematronics that received an excellent port to the Vectrex home console in 1982. While the Atari 2600 can only produce raster, not vector graphics like the Vectrex, a recent port of the game was created by D. Scott Williamson, an original Atari programmer, albeit one who started working there six years after the 1982-release of Howard Scott Warshaw's Star Castle-inspired Yars' Revenge. Williamson was similarly inspired to create his Star Castle homebrew by Warshaw's creation, so he purposely limited himself to 8K of ROM for authenticity's sake, even though the cartridge hardware that he made could handle up to 64K.
Long story short, Williamson ended up wanting tens of thousands of dollars for his programming effort--a reasonable request if this were the platform's early 80's heydey. Unfortunately for Williamson, most homebrewers these days do it for the proverbial love of the game, so no one was willing to pay anywhere near that. In fact, in a convoluted AtariAge thread, his actions and subsequent reactions, not to mention that of the community's, eventually led to another homebrew programmer being himself inspired to create a version, which he released for free, here, and by all accounts is superb.
Undeterred, Williamson decided to take his case to Kickstarter, which you can see here. It's a genuine soap opera (one that I'm not even sure I have sorted correctly), albeit one within a niche of a niche within our industry. It will be interesting to see how this Kickstarter works out for Williamson. I'm certainly intrigued by the cartridge with flashing lights timed to the gameplay and admire his engineering effort, but $100 for a complete, boxed copy is a bit tough to swallow. Maybe with a bit of time I'll reconsider...
What are your thoughts on this mess? Obviously Williamson can charge what he wants for his work - and it's up to the market to decide what they'll pay (and they didn't pay the first time around; maybe this Kickstarter will be different) - but is he out of touch with the realities of the homebrew market? After all, even the best homebrews can struggle to sell 250 boxed copies at well below his $100 boxed copy asking price...
April 10, 2012
Game Over for TWiT.TV's Game On! -- Is it an indictment of the interests of our audience?
For several years now I've had a theory percolating that seems to have borne itself out one too many times not to now instead be considered a fact--videogame players will not support anything financially en masse outside of an actual videogame. What do I mean by this? Well, TWiT.TV's newest show, Game On!, is just the latest in a series of examples of videogame players failing to support something that on the surface should have been right in their wheelhouse. Game On! was slickly produced, had an attractive, personable and knowledge hostess in Veronica Belmont, and a similarly competent, over-the-top co-host in Brian Brushwood. Several days back, TWiT poobah and host extraordinaire, Leo Laporte, declared that the show's initial 12 episode run (it actually came to 13 official shows, counting the final episode, plus some test pilots) would be its one and only due to being too expensive to produce (it was easily the most elaborate TWiT production) and not gaining enough traction quickly enough. According to Laporte, without at least 50,000 regular genuinely engaged viewers/listeners, no one in the videogame industry would even consider advertising, making it financially prohibitive to keep running.
Now, I won't blame all of Game On!'s failings on the audience--after all, it was very me too and stereotypical on many levels, with fast cuts, silly skits, and loud noises seemingly targeted to the dated idea of the ADD teen hipster gamer, but in Laporte and crew's defense, he claims a previous attempt at a more thoughtful videogame show that also failed, arguably even more spectacularly (I never saw it/listened to it, but I'll take Laporte's word for it). Now, obviously, being one of the co-founders of Armchair Arcade and considering my own body of work, it's pretty clear which side of the fence my interests fall, but it may be a simple fact that no matter what your approach--crazy, intellectual, pandering, going-your-own-way, etc., it's never destined for anything more than niche success. It's great to carve out that niche, but when you try to go "big," the end result is the same--failure.
I often wondered why it was so darned hard to get a mainstream publisher interested in a videogame book. It took me years to really understand why--while you can usually be guaranteed several thousand sales of a good videogame book, that's nothing in comparison to other books on technical topics that can easily sell double or triple that amount. The economics just don't work out (in solidarity, most bookstores that still exist got rid of their videogame book sections long ago). Same thing with us lamenting the change in original vision of both G4 and TechTV, for example, in merging into the monstrosity that is now simply G4 and has only the slightest hint of videogame or technology coverage, instead featuring generic content targeted solely at a similarly generic 18-34 male demographic that is sadly far more valuable to advertisers. If gamers really supported these networks at even 25% of the levels they support the latest, hottest videogame, we'd still have the pure content ideals we all seem to crave. The fact is, not enough of us support these things with our eyeballs, ears, and pocketbooks to make a difference, and I'm not sure if the truly collective we - which based on the latest industry sales figures is a theoretically monumental force to be reckoned with - ever will.
April 9, 2012
Kinect Rush House Party Unboxing Video
Bill does a quick unboxing of the Kinect Rush Xbox 360 House Party kit from www.houseparty.com. He also quickly mentions his latest book, My Xbox. Filmed by Christina Loguidice on an iPad 2, where it was also edited and uploaded via the iMovie app.
March 14, 2012
New Reviews for My Xbox Book
[image error]The reviews are starting to roll in for our new book, My Xbox: Xbox 360, Kinect, and Xbox LIVE. You can see a few of the reader reviews from the Amazon link, listen to the Lautering Bytes Podcast segment discussing it (starting at ~18:12 mark; great comment: "...the manual you wish came with your Xbox..."), and a Game Vortex review. Of course, we can't forget Matt Barton's mention of the book at the end of Matt Chat 137, which covered Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. As more reviews come in, we'll of course keep you posted.
My Xbox: Xbox 360, Kinect, and Xbox LIVE is available from booksellers everywhere in both paperback and ebook formats. If you have a copy and posted a review, let us know, or just sound off in the comments below. All feedback is much appreciated. Enjoy!
March 6, 2012
Dragon's Lair: The Sexiest Videogames of All Time (01)
[image error] In Armchair Arcade's fun new series, we ask the provocative question, "What makes a particular videogame sexy?" Each week's feature will explore some of the many intriguing approaches game designers have taken over the years to make their games more sensual, not just with increasingly detailed graphics, but also with romantic and seductive gameplay. While some of the games we'll be looking at are unabashedly low brow, displaying their raw sexuality like a badge of honor, other games in contrast are remarkably subtle, often downplaying their suggestive themes.
This week's entry, written by Bill Loguidice, is on the oft-ported arcade classic, Dragon's Lair. Enjoy, help spread the word, and of course, let us know what you think:
March 2, 2012
The Sexiest Videogames of All Time: An Armchair Arcade Feature Series
[image error]Despite a certain film critic endlessly proclaiming otherwise, videogames are art. Unfortunately, like any other art form, certain videogame creations are nothing more than quick cash-ins that aspire to nothing more than to pander to the masses. Sadly, this artistic failing too often also extends to videogame critique, with deep analyses and provocative topics side-stepped or avoided completely.
Luckily, because of the unique make-up of Armchair Arcade, we're under no such critical artistic restrictions. As a result, we are free to explore some of these more provocative topics in a way that's both thoughtful and fun, and do so over an extended time period.
In one of the first such series we'll tackle, we ask the simple, yet provocative question, "What makes a particular videogame sexy?" In this ongoing series, we'll explore the many intriguing approaches game designers have taken over the years to make their games more sensual, not just with increasingly detailed graphics, but also with romantic and seductive gameplay. While some of the games we'll be looking at are unabashedly low brow, displaying their raw sexuality like a badge of honor, other games in contrast are remarkably subtle, often downplaying their suggestive themes. This is of course the type of nuance you'd expect to find in art.
Your series authors will be me, Matt Barton, Chris Kennedy, Al Vallely, and Christina Loguidice. Each of these individuals will be responsible for crafting their own entries on a particular game, giving each new piece a fresh perspective on the original question. Armchair Arcade will be rolling out the articles in this series at a rate of approximately one per week, starting with my entry on Dragon's Lair. The rest of the dozens of entries will be revealed over time, like an appropriately slow seduction.
Look for the first entry in The Sexiest Videogames of All Time soon. Read them, enjoy them (or not), but, perhaps most important of all, let's hear those comments and help us spread the word!
February 17, 2012
The Last of the Power Personal Computers?
[image error]My, how plans change. I was all but dead set on waiting for Windows 8 to come out and then getting a new kick butt PC, but the more the Windows 8 story has publicly evolved, the more I realize that that's probably not a direction I want to go. This led me to go on a search for a new PC now, one that I've decided may end up lasting me until it no longer makes sense to have the type of PC we traditionally consider "killer." Let me explain why I think this is an inevitability...
February 15, 2012
Karateka to return on Xbox 360 and PS3 with Jordan Mechner at the helm!
[image error]Karateka (Apple II)To the delight of 8-bit videogame fans everywhere, the legendary Karateka will soon be getting a reboot courtesy of original developer, Jordan Mechner, for the downloadable game services on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. As we know with the long history of Archon remakes, it can take many years and iterations to finally hit on a proper remake formula, but at least Mechner is saying all the right things in interviews, trying to take direct inspiration from the original. After all, although Karateka is a type of playable martial arts film, it kept its gameplay simple and approachable, something fighting games have all but forgotten since the rise of Street Fighter II, and the related over-the-top, combo-heavy, and sometimes button mashing approaches to hand-to-hand combat.
February 10, 2012
New Book is Out! - My Xbox: Xbox 360, Kinect, and Xbox LIVE
[image error]After announcing only yesterday that the Amazon look inside feature for our new book, My Xbox: Xbox 360, Kinect, and Xbox LIVE, was active, it turns out that it is now available for purchase and immediate delivery almost everywhere in both paperback and ebook versions, though not every bookseller will have both versions available just yet. For instance, Amazon has the paperback version available right now, but not the Kindle version, while Barnes & Noble has the Nook version available, but not the paperback. The publisher has sent various press and review copies out, so I'll keep you informed as new reviews and coverage rolls in. Besides using the look inside features of sites like Amazon and Safari Books Online, you can go straight to the publisher's Website, Que, and download Chapter 2 in PDF format for free (it also includes the Index; just select the sample from the "Sample Content & TOC" tab), which is the networking chapter. While that's not necessarily the most exciting topic in the book, it will give you a great idea of how visual and helpful the whole book really is, with multiple color images, callouts and diagramming on practically every page.
If you or someone you know thinks that the wealth of features available in the Xbox 360 are a bit overwhelming, this is the book that will finally bring it all together and have it make sense, and, unlike the other Xbox 360 books already out on the subject, this one covers all the latest features, including the new dashboard, so what you see in the book is what you'll see on your console and TV. Here's a high-level overview of the main chapter titles in the book:
01. Getting Started
02. Networking Your Xbox
03. Personalizing Your Xbox Experience
04. Getting to Know Your Xbox
05. Playing on the Games Channel
06. Viewing the Video Channel
07. Tuning into the Music Channel
08. Getting Social with Friends
09. Exploring Social Apps
10. Getting to Know Kinect
11. Using Kinect
Christina and I should be getting our author copies today and I'll try to put some customer images on the Amazon page. Anyway, that should just about wrap everything up for now. Let us know what you think!
