Tag Archives: Videogames

RANDOM STOPS, Videogames

RANDOM STOPS: “Play Again” At Corpus Christi’s Classic Video Game Store

On any particular day on the corner of Everhart and Corona in Corpus Christi, Texas, you may find Link or Master Chief beckoning you over to a store called Play Again Classic Video Games.

Come on Down!

In business since 2007, Play Again specializes in classic video games, currently defined as everything from the Playstation 2 going all the way back to the original Odyssey.

Odyssey

Where it all began...

Upon entering, you see that two walls of the interior are almost completely covered with shelves of cartridges and some CDs.  The store is decorated with video game and anime memorabilia: atop those cartridge-filled shelves are board games based on popular 80’s titles and boxes for various systems both old and relatively new.

Games!

A few tables and seats by the front door invite customers to come in and talk shop, and accessories for older systems can be found in the back.

Classic Accessories for Classic Systems

Those Wonderful Toys...

Store owner Marco Castillo is always happy to talk shop.  He asked not to be photographed for this article, saying that “we are one big team and not just one face.”  With several years of working in video games, he has some interesting views on where the industry is currently at and where he feels it should be heading:

R9: How did Play Again get started?

MC: Play Again Classic Video Games got started by two friends of mine that owned independent game stores in California, where I was living at the time.  I was working at Sony Electronics in Silicon Valley and got tired of working for others and felt my life needed some new direction.  I would visit my friends’ stores and noticed that they seemed very happy and often counseled young folks through life’s big and little challenges.  I think it was that concept of helping and counseling people in this environment that was the thing that snapped me into action per se.  I can safely say that we have been in business now for over 3 years and I have helped out all kinds of people from the simplest technical problem to the deeper relationship issues as well.  While it may be an endless job I, would not ever want to give it up: its just too much fun and fulfilling.

R9: Do you play current-gen titles, or are you strictly a retro gamer?

MC: I own a DS, Wii and PS3 and will be getting a 360 since we will soon start to repair the current gen systems.  I really like the DS the most of this generation of gaming, there is just so much to choose from and companies appear to feel comfortable to make games for it that often would not make it to the larger consoles.  I really do try to play everything I can get my hands on and make it a point to try everything from the first person shooting games to the cheerleading and DDR style games.  I hear the word “hard core gamer” being bandied around, in my opinion a hard core gamer is a gamer who is willing to try any game and is not tied to any genre or system or platform.  When I used to work in the video game industry people defined hardcore as people who play first person shooter games, I really think that is a bit myopic.  I think the term should be dropped because lately it seems to me that it is taking kind of a negative tone to those types of people who have no real human social life and are becoming socially inept.  I think gamers are neat people; I wanted to create a place for gamers to come out and meet people in person and find a girl or guy and play games in person.  Call me old fashioned but meeting people and interacting with them while doing the thing you all have in common is a fun way to live life.

Ok, I see I went off topic…to answer your question I play a lot of classic games because they are quick fix get in and get out games since I work 7 days a week at the store.

R9: As an independent store, how has the consolidation of the brick-and-mortar videogame chains (EB/Gamestop merger, Gamecrazy going under, Blockbuster on the ropes) affected you, if at all?

MC: The big chains are a very interesting case to me, we really do go out of our way to try to make friends with all game stores in our area.  Since Wal-Mart, Gamestop, etc are all selling modern games, it has not really affected Play Again too much.  We often send people to our friends at the other stores when they are looking for anything in this generation of gaming and it seems to be a real friendly relationship that we honor and enjoy.

For the record, I don’t think it’s a good sign for gaming that stores seem to be closing up, it might be a sign that the industry is changing again.

We have noticed that since so many people are growing tired of sequels of games many are going back to their roots and wanting a SNES, PS1, Genesis  or any other retro system.  I think gaming coming back to its roots is a great way for us to be reminded that in the end of the day, its not just about the graphics, it all about the game play.

R9: You appear to be primarily a brick-and-mortar operation; do you have any plans to increase Play Again’s online presence?

MC: We do indeed; when I first opened I was pushed by so many to have a very robust online store and to get it opened immediately.  I had noticed that after research and falling back on my Silicon Valley experience the only way to do a website is the right way, and in this case to make it work well from the beginning.  When I first opened it was just me and one employee and we didn’t even really have enough games to satisfy the local market much less the worldwide one, but we saw the importance of getting a website done right.  In the end we held off the idea until one can be done correctly taking into consideration logistics, mailing, communication, labor and product supply.  We hope to hire our web person when we do our expansion.

R9: The industry seems to be in a bit of a rut right now, with sequels upon sequels littering the release lists.  What do you think needs to happen for the industry to move ahead?

MC: That is an interesting question; I think the rut of the industry is a many faceted problem.  I think the market has become too saturated with games and game making people.  People often call the “Golden Era” of games the times of the 8 and 16 bit system days.  I think it was a bit different back then; games simply were not coming out as fast, reusable / licensable game engines really did not exist on a very large level.  The idea of taking someone’s engine and doing a graphic mod really kept the games coming out to a smaller amount with longer design times.  I think that was the biggest strength and weakness of gaming back then, but games often were quite fresh and original many times.  With the dawning of rapid design tools like flash, games come out quicker than ever and all have that simple flash look that the cartoons of today are so unfortunately saddled with.  I yearn for the time of hand drawn animation and games on a wider scale again!

The other day I saw a commercial for a tech school that claims, “Hey you! Unemployed person, stop playing games and start making them!”  I realized that once gaming became the next gold rush, there were going to be a lot of people making them and not necessarily a lot of people becoming the overnight millionaires that many believed the Silicon Valley tech bubble of the late 90’s and 2000’s tried to be as well.  When you have too many people rushing to make money it always comes at the cost of quality and originality.  I hate to say it but I think some of the best games came when game makers were not the millionaires but the lower salary people who were doing it simply because it was what they really believed in.  Can you imagine if paintings all of a sudden became real money makers?  People would swarm in and paint like there is no tomorrow, and what would we have, a whole bunch of paint on canvases and very little art.

I personally think one of the best things that can happen to this industry is to scale back. I think it should cut the people who really should not be in that business/art field and regroup and decide that it’s ok to take time to make a game.   It will be ok not to rush it out, and its NOT ok to make too many sequels.  Its sad but we live in a “sure bet” world of: “if your game cannot project to make over $1 Million dollars than we simply wont do it.” Thus, we have lots and lots and lots of sequels and very little originality.  Seriously people, you pay good money, (often $50 – $80) for a game.  Don’t you deserve a new and fun experience every time?  It should not be an accident before we get another original game like Katamari Damacy.

R9: Is retro gaming is making comeback, and if so, why?  Is it because of a desire of younger players to find out where it all began, nostalgia on the part of first generation gamers, or a combination of the two?

MC: Humm.. I think that retro is kind of making a comeback in some ways.  We get the luxury of being able to talk to many people, men and women, young and old alike and we have found one thing: people really do want straightforward games.  You will notice I did not say simple games.  People say that to make games for families or girls and women that the games need to be simple, but I have to very much disagree.  I think families and women want straightforward games, games where you don’t have to learn complicated moves or remember esoteric key combinations to do the simplest stuff.  I think the moment some nerd figured out the dragon punch for Street Fighter II and decided that he wanted to impress the exact girls that were playing the game by thoroughly handing them many defeats, gaming changed forever…and not in a good way.

You see, the concept of women playing games or even fighting games, while may seem very foreign now, was not so foreign back in the early days of arcades.  Gaming and arcades in the 80’s were full of games like Frogger, Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Street Fighter II etc that were straightforward games, not simple or easy, and they were just fun to play for everyone.  I think we lost our way in some respects and I think many people are getting back to when gaming was just fun and straightforward.  There is a good reason that at one point it was cheaper to shingle your house with the Mario/Duck Hunt cart than it was for actual shingles, but today that game goes for quite a bit more money.  People want to return to the days of easy to get into, get in-and-out-of, straightforward gaming.. at least that is what we see in our store.

R9: How do you feel about the current trend of “new arcade” games, such as Geometry Wars?  Are there any that have succeeded in capturing the feel of the classic games that they clearly draw inspiration from?

MC: I really do like games that are an homage to the game they are honoring.  I loved Geometry Wars on the DS and the Wii. I am really enjoying the new version of Sin and Punishment on the Wii as I was a big fan of the Japanese N64 version.  I did not try a Boy and His Blob yet but would like to give it a run since the first one was such a cool game.  I think it might be harder to remake a game than just make a new one in some ways, because with a remake people have expectations and sometimes our memories are fonder than the game itself.  Go back and play some of your most well remembered games, I am betting that a few of them like movies will now turn out to be kind of flat experiences.  When we create the legend of a game or movie in our head that is often bigger than the actual game,  any remake of it will have a very rough time meeting those tough expectations.

ES: How long have you been involved with gaming?

MC: I am happy to say I am a child of the 80’s, I was a teenager during the original video game wave and was pretty much born with an Atari joystick in my hand.  I was always that kid that was always reading the magazines and saving his money for the game he wanted and never seemed to have enough for all of the ones I actually did want!  I have been doing this store now for over 3 years, and have worked in the game industry for another 3 years and in Silicon Valley for almost 10 years… I have to say its been quite a ride and one that I would not mind doing over again!

ES: Are there currently any plans for expanding Play Again?

MC: We are currently planning to expand the store into our sister store where we are hoping to give our locals a place that is focused on meeting people of the opposite gender and share the love of gaming in friendly competition in a relaxed anime inspired café gaming shop.  I am working with the person who is going to open it and it looks like everything is going well and we hope to have lots of community based events and fun things for people to do until the wee hours of the night in a safe and welcoming environment for everyone.

R9: Is there anything else you would like to say?

MC: Gaming, anime & cartoons are lots of fun, meeting people for real, going on dates and discussing things in an adult manner are the cornerstone of what we as gamers are. Somewhere down the line we have been pigeon-holed as less than that and lost our way.  I just want to help us find it again and enjoy ourselves at the same time.

I would like to thank Mr. Castillo for taking the time to answer my questions.  If you are in Corpus Christi and are looking for a long lost cartridge, need a system repaired, or just want to rekindle the old SNES vs. Genesis debate (or Atari 2600 vs Intellivision for us older gamers). then check out Play Again Classic Video Games located at 5301 Everhart Road, just one block off of South Padre Island Drive.  With a knowledgeable staff and a love of all things classic, they will be more than happy to take care of your retro gaming needs.  Play Again Classic Video games can be found on the Web at: http://www.playagaincvg.com

Contact Eduardo “RANDOMIZER9” Soliz at edsoliz@gmail.com!

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CREATIVE, ORIGINAL-GAMER.COM, TECH, Videogames, WORDS

Why So Serious? WHY NOT?

I’ve been writing opinion pieces, game reviews and doing voice-overs for Original-Gamer.com (and occasionally here) for a few months now, and for what its worth, I always try to play it straight.  Well, except the voice-over stuff, unless its something I wrote myself, I don’t have much of a choice there. -shrug-

I play it straight because I don’t believe in pandering to the least common denominator.  If gaming is an artform that is just now ‘growing up,’ as some claim, then the people that report on it are probably just a few steps behind.  As I said at the end of my second article, The Numbers Game: “if we want others to take games seriously, we must take them seriously ourselves.”

But why aren’t videogames taken seriously?  Is it because of their relative youth compared to other artforms such as television and film, or is it because of the immaturity of those that cover it?  Granted, this is the internet, but there are very few places where videogames are covered without a wink and a snarky attitude. What the gaming press needs is the equivalent of The Wall Street Journal or Variety, but what we’re getting is Mad Magazine.

Now, I openly admit, I don’t practice what I preach: I crack jokes in my reviews and perhaps I shouldn’t ‘write myself’ into them.  The latter, I do because think it is important for the reader to get a sense of where I am coming from.  For better or worse, my score will be influenced by whether the game was something I was REALLY REALLY REALLY looking forward to or was just something that got tossed into my lap.  I think it also helps the reader if they are made aware of my biases for or against the game coming in.

Am I impartial? Admittedly not, but let’s be honest, nobody truly is.

In any event, while I am pointing out the problem, I don’t really have a solution.  The best that I can hope for is that the ‘serious guys’ get popular enough to, well, be taken seriously.  Now, does everybody have to take gaming seriously? Not really, there will always be a place for the snarks and clowns, and if worse comes to worse I can always go back to joking about how much I suck at fighting games.

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TECH, Videogames

Why We Love Pac-Man

Pac-Man turns 30 today, and while his glory days are far behind him, he still keeps busy by appearing in mobile games and serving as NAMCO BANDAI GAMES’ official mascot.  To this day, it would be hard to find an arcade without the presence of at least one member of the Pac-family.

What is it about the game of Pac-Man that has kept him around for so long?  While it is simple (and true) to say that it is because Pac-Man is fun to play, I believe that is just the start of why he and his game are so fondly remembered by many:

To begin with, Pac-Man is a very simple game to play and understand.  The only button to push is the one to start the game.  You move Pac-Man with a joystick, and he only goes up, down, left, and right within a maze that never changes.  Indeed, the only ‘advanced’ concepts to learn are the power pills and the tunnel that transports Pac-Man from one side of the maze to the other.  The ghosts (or at least their eyes) always return to their box in the middle of the screen after they’ve been eaten.  You only get one extra Pac-Man at 10,000 points.  The characters are also simple; the titular Pac-Man is a circle with a mouth that constantly opens and closes, and ghosts are eyeballs covered with, well…something.

As a game, Pac-Man is fun, but it is also challenging in a way that is a little bit different from other games.  Oftentimes in classic games, players are swarmed with enemies and bullets until they are destroyed, so defeat is usually accepted by the player as having been inevitable.  In Pac-Man, there are always just the four ghosts to contend with.  Thus, upon being eaten, a player is more likely to blame themselves instead of the game, thinking: “if I had only gone this way instead of that way, I wouldn’t have died!”  This helps give Pac-Man that “just one more game” quality that keeps players coming back for more.  Also, unlike many other arcade games, there is only one high score!

Next, Pac-Man is undeniably cute, especially when compared to the hordes of menacing aliens usually found in other classic games.  It is hard not to smile as the ghosts’ eyes dart back and forth in search of their prey, or feel sad for Pac-Man when he gets eaten, as he shrivels away and disappears with a blink.  The sound effects and music are unbearably cute and unique: the cheery opening theme, the wakka-wakka sound Pac-Man makes as he chomps, the constant little police siren (that speeds up as you clear the maze) and even the sad little “boink-boink” which means its Game Over.  The odd montage of electric noises that come after eating a power pill are easily some of the strangest sounds in all of videogaming.  Finally, the little “breaktime” scenes provide an early example of in-game comedy.

Unlike most games, Pac-Man has personality.  While Pac-Man himself is a yellow Everyman with no redeeming quality besides his insatiable appetite, his adversaries have names and distinct behaviors.  Easily the most hated of the quartet; Blinky, the red ghost, relentlessly pursues Pac-Man with dogged determination.  Pinky, the pink ghost, causes no end of aggravation as he cuts off Pac-Man’s escape.  Clyde, the orange one, is a fraidy cat that will dash away if Pac-Man gets too close to a power pill.  Finally, there is Inky, the blue ghost, who wanders the maze seemingly with no rhyme or reason.

There is also something primal about Pac-Man.  In its most basic terms, Pac-Man as a concept can be described in one sentence: “Eat or be eaten.”  Indeed, the entire game revolves around eating: you eat dots to get points and advance, you eat fruit to get more points, you eat power pills which allow you eat your enemies, and you lose the game by being eaten.

Pac-Man is also about exacting revenge.  Eating a power pill briefly turns Pac-Man into the hunter instead of the hunted, and in addtion to the points, the smug satisfaction of watching the ghosts scatter back to their ‘base’ in the center of the screen after being chomped is a reward in its own right.  Sadly, victory is only temporary: literally within seconds, Pac-Man resumes his initial role as the prey.

Like nearly all arcade games, Pac-Man is about survival.  For better or for worse, Pac-Man and his adversaries and trapped in a maze with no escape, destined to perform their drama for as long as the player can keep Pac-Man alive.  It could be said that Pac-Man is an exercise in existentialism or consumerism, but that is more analysis than this author wishes to pursue.

In addition to being a fun game, we love Pac-Man because it is simple, challenging, and cute, yet it also appeals to some of our base instincts.  With a personality all its own, Pac-Man will remain a part of our culture for years to come.  Happy 30th, Pac-Man!

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Apple, Computers, TECH, Videogames

Apple is the new Nintendo (which is the new Apple!)

Somedays it is easy to believe that I have waken up in Bizarro-world.  Apple recently decided that the iPod Touch was going to be a game machine.  Nintendo turned the DS into a music player with the DSi, (using Apple’s codec, of all things!)  In addition, Nintendo announced the DS XL not even a year after the DSi’s release.

What’s next, a new version of Windows that actually works?

Oh…

I have thought of Nintendo as being the “Apple” of the video game industry for some time.  Much like Apple, they march to their own beat and don’t worry about what “the other guys” are doing.  Sometimes it works out great, sometimes they trip over their own innovations, and sometimes they are just too far ahead of the curve for their own good.  At the end of the day, they make lots of money and have lots of die-hard fans.

Apple, of course, has long been known for “thinking different,” as well as for Steve Jobs, overpriced hardware, constantly re-releasing new iterations of said hardware with minor updates, and not being very interested in gaming.  At the end of the day, they also make lots of money and have lots of die-hard fans.

Thus, it came as a surprise to see Apple take a page out of Nintendo’s book, as they touted the iPod Touch as their new portable “game machine.”  Apple was also pretty blatant in promoting their device as being superior to Nintendo and Sony’s portable offerings.  The beauty of Apple’s approach is that Apple itself does not have to make any of the games themselves.

Nintendo, for its part, recently announced the DS XL, a curious move which defies traditional gadget logic.  After all, things are supposed to get smaller over time, not bigger!  In fact, the 4-inch screen of the XL nearly brings it to par with Sony’s PSP.

Speaking of Sony, Lord only knows what they’re thinking…I mean, seriously, $250 for the PSPgo?

For all of the hype, I don’t see games being a big part of Apple’s overall strategy; instead they will be another revenue stream just like apps and music.  The games themselves have been mostly casual affairs, the ‘big budget’ titles have come from EA and their ilk…as if they needed another platform to release Madden onto.

It remains to be seen whether Nintendo will be adding other multimedia functions to take advantage of the DS XL’s bigger screen.  While a video player would be much appreciated by DS users, it won’t contribute to Nintendo’s bottom line, so I doubt we will see that happening anytime soon.

While Nintendo and Apple have taken pages out of each other’s business plans, the fundamental core of what both companies will remain the same, so long as the DS and iPod continue to be money-makers.

I suppose Bizarro-world isn’t such a bad place to be after all.

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Videogames

Army of Shadyness

My gaming days started on the Atari 2600, so I’ve been through most of the videogame era, save for the paleolithic Pong days.  I enjoy playing the oldies, and modern games made in the old style (done right, of course) still find their ways into my consoles.

While role playing games are not a main part of my gaming diet, I will occasionally indulge when I have the time.  My favorite series is Dragon Quest, mainly because the plot and gameplay have remained basically the same: Evil Dude is trying to end the world, you and your merry band of adventures have to find him and take him out.

RPG’s, particulary the Japanese ones, have their own set of odd tropes and cliches (many documented here).  The majority of them feature the ability to resurrect player characters that have kicked the bucket along your travels.  It makes sense, because it would suck to spend a boatload of time building up a character only to have them killed off halfway and then have to start over again with a new one.

In any event, I was playing Dragon Quest VII, and inevitably, a character perished in battle.  At that point, “high-tail it to the nearest town” became the top item on my “To Do” list.  As I fled from each battle, hoping that I wouldn’t crap out of one of the many virtual twenty-sided die throws, I saw that a casket had taken the place of the recently deceased.  I figured we were dragging around his remnants so that there would be something TO resurrect once we got to town.  I imagined that lugging a casket around must be a pain; the weight, the smell, and innkeepers probably would charge extra for that sort of thing…”That’ll be an extra 10 gold coins for the corpse, Mac.”

At that point, I had a great idea:  wouldn’t it be great if we could bring that character back as a ZOMBIE?  I don’t know if it has been done before, but I think it would be cool.  To compensate, the character would be a stat hit, maybe less experience could be gained, and spells probably would be out of the question.  I figure half a character is better than none, especially when you’ve got four Evil Knights staring you in the face.  Maybe they could even have special zombie attacks, and once you get into town to see the priest/wizard/alchemist they can un-zombify the character for half off!

Zombies are like bacon, the number five, and The 1812 Overture: they just make everything better!  I think it could work!

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Uncategorized

Online Killed The Split-Screen Star

So I have a guest over Saturday night, and we’re getting our Rock Band on and having a good time. My friend is asthmatic and I’m getting over the flu, so we got tired after a bit and decide to play something else.

I get a game from my collection and pop it in, expecting to find a 2-player split-screen mode…no dice. There is online play, but no split-screen. Okay, game number two…same result…a third game, and its STILL online only…we then punt and play Gears of War 2 instead.

I don’t know if this is a Xbox 360 thing, but what happened to local multiplayer? It seems silly that I can connect 4 controllers to my 360, but there aren’t very many GAMES that support 4 people playing on the same machine.

Online gaming is fun, but there are few things are more enjoyable in gaming than hearing the wailing and gnashing of teeth of your opponent as you pop them with a blue shell in Mario Kart…and few things more agonizing than hearing your opponent gloat after nailing you just before the finish line.

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Uncategorized

Metal to the Pedal!


Metal to the Pedal
Originally uploaded by EdSoliz

At first I was considering a repair kit for my beleaguered Rock Band bass pedal (see previous entry). A repair kit has a metal plate which is attached to the busted pedal with self-tapping screws. It would do, but there would be nothing to stop the underlying plastic from breaking further, and driving some screws into something made out of plastic might make that happen just a bit quicker too.

Cost: $25 Certainly a few more bucks than I what wanted to spend, but what the hey, that upgrade to Rock Band 2 wireless drums can hold off a bit.

I then read about PedalMasters who sell a complete metal replacement for the entire pedal. There would be some work involved in removing the plastic pedal completely and replacing it with the new one.

Cost: $30 A few more bucks, but hey, there would be NO chance of that sucker breaking. After an agonizing 3 days waiting for the Postal Service, I got my prize and put it all together. Even for someone as mechanically un-inclined as myself, it was fairly easy, though there were a few rough spots. The verdict?

This. Kicks. Ass.

I can’t say it any better than that, the pedal now has a much better feel to it. The increased weight reduces the push back from the spring underneath and it is much more comfortable to use. Even after playing “YYZ”, “Call Me”, “Ballroom Blitz” and “Rio” on Hard difficulty my leg felt pretty good. I can hit the triple-bass notes in YYZ (though I can’t say much for the REST of the song) and it ROCKS.

Once I get the Rock Band 2 set, I may replace its stock pedal with this monster. Big thumbs up to Pedal Masters!

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Uncategorized

Packing on the Pixels

As if I need Wii Fit to give me a fresh reminder every day, I am a lot heavier that I should be right now. I am making some slow progress in turning that around, but even given the best of scenarios I will continue to be fat for the near future.

Yeah, I said it. FAT. Not “husky” or “big-boned” or any of that other baloney.

Thus, when I play games that have character creation, I like to make a character that looks somewhat like myself, and thus, I’ll kick up the ‘weight’ slider in an attempt to have my fat-assness reflected in game…but somewhere along the way, they stopped letting you create fat characters in games.

I first noticed this in one of the many flavors of The Sims; all of the characters are Ken and Barbie dolls with the heaviest one sporting just a slight pot belly. Disregarding my own situation, what if I wanted to create Santa Claus? There’s no P90X at the North Pole!

I was quite happy, then, to find that Guitar Hero:World Tour allowed me to present myself in all (and I mean all) of my 268-pound glory. I even have him doing the Elvis bit at the end of shows. Perhaps I will slim him up in the future if things go well, but until then I will be happy to see him stomping around the stage like Meat Loaf.

Thankyavurrymuch, Neversoft!

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