Michael Michael On PomPom Shmups

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to an Adrenaline Vault interview with Michael Michael, one of the two developers at indie game outfit PomPom. They've just had their two good-looking PC shoot-em-up ('shmup') titles, the Robotron-inspired Mutant Storm and the Defender-inspired Space Tripper picked up by indie publisher GarageGames, and talk a little about the idea of "..more single stop online portals for quality independent developers, so that customers who buy a PomPom game and like it can return to the same site for similar titles by other developers, rather than hunting throughout the Internet" - definitely a good idea.

Comments

Tumble-weed blows...

[Anonymous Coward]

through the troll infeasted waste land.

I was all set to get excited

[Allen Varney]

I find this whole "central indie-game hub" trend very interesting, and I was hoping to read another success story in this PomPom interview. Turns out they're on the brink of oblivion, no longer working on games, and hoping this deal pulls them back to solvency. Sigh!

Re:I was all set to get excited

[easychord]

Well, necessity is the mother of invention and all that. I don't see why any gaming geek would get a hard on for distribution and publicity unless they absolutely had to.

Mutant Storm is a very good game by the way. Its worth getting excited about, and I've paid for my copy.

And the award for most confusing article title....

[onomatomania]

This post is officially a finalist for the "Most confusing slashdot headline Evar" award. Upon reading it, I was like "what the hell is a schmup or a PomPom, and what on earth has that got to do with the chick who played Cleo on ER?

Wet Blanket?

[Ratso Baggins]

Miles Visman must be one!

After all he could have changed his name to Miles Miles for the good of the ....

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

[Anonymous Coward]

NEWS BULLETIN - Cupertino, CA

Rumors came to an end today. In a press conference, Steve Jobs announced the new Apple user input/output device. The device, called COCK®, it is a radical shift in human interaction devices. COCK®'s enhanced as it also contains feedback support.

Basically COCK® looks like a shaft with two balls at the end. A user places the shaft into their mouth and keeps the balls pointed towards the monitor. There are sensors on the balls that track the motion of the COCK® in relation to the monitor. The user must look at the area on the screen to move the mouse. Thrusting of the shaft results in click actions. Additional functions may be provided by mapping licking and coddling the balls.

Since the device is used by one's mouth, bio-metric security can easily be used on OS X. COCK® has a built sampling device which can match saliva to specific users on the computer. As such, the user will have access based on their spit.

Feedback exists in several forms. First the shaft may increase in size to better fit the user's mouth. This usually takes a couple of minutes. There is also the ability to give the user a slight shock given error conditions on the computer. Additionally, in severe error states, a milky substance will be emitted from the COCK® to signify an error condition to the user.

Questions at the press release signified mixed opinions on COCK®. There seems to be resistance to using such a device in the non-Macintosh community. Steve Jobs acknowledged this problem. As such, the current mice will still be available when purchasing Macintoshes. Currently Apple is marketing towards current users of their platform. "Product testing showed us that long-term Mac users were most willing to use COCK," Jobs stated.

Despite resistance, Apple does not feel it will hurt their sales, only increase them. Jobs said "We at Apple hope that COCK will be as important as our switch to G3 based computers. As such, our marketing staff are fully committed to convincing every one that COCK is the best."

Now that Steve Jobs released COCK® onto the world, he hopes sales will increase steadily. One mac fan stated "COCK is the best IO device in the world. Even the milky error substance tastes great!" Apple's stock has not significantly dropped or rose. However, Apple's online store estimates that sales of COCK® will rise in the next two weeks.

Available for Linux and Mac too!

[Daniel Ashbrook]

It's worth noting that both of PomPom's games are available for not only Windows, but Linux and MacOS.

But...

[Anonymous Coward]

can I use COCK® with it?

Help!

[Airwall]

Who Who on What What What the Dingdongs?

the title is all wrong

[Tibor the Hun]

shouldn't it say "Michael Michael on pom pom schumps schumps"?

PomPom games are fantastic

[Katravax]

I own them both, and wish there were more coming. They have a very old-school feel and gameplay, but the gorgeous looks of modern games.

Mutant Storm will make you go and buy a dual-stick joystick, like the Thrustmaster Firestorm. It's a lot more fun than Crimsonland. Much more action, and it always shoots where you point, just like Robotrom -- no separate fire-button action needed.

Re:And the award for most confusing article title.

[Bitsy Boffin]

This is a Pom-Pom

heh

[austad]

I thought it said PornPorn for a second. Then all of hopes were dashed.