Slashdot Mirror
Atlus Readies Stylus-Based Surgery Game For DS
Thanks to GameSpot for its article discussing Atlus' announcement of a stylus-utilizing touchscreen surgery game for the Nintendo DS handheld. According to the article about Caduceus: Surgical Operation: "The player steps into the role of a talented young surgeon who must operate on different maladies in each of the game's stages... Actions such as cutting the patient or getting rid of an unidentified parasite are done with the [Nintendo DS] stylus. In addition, while operating, the player must cheer on the patient using the device's voice recognition." There's also a couple of screenshots of the forthcoming Life & Death-eque game, featuring the "Hurted Heart" mission, on the Japanese-language NTT site.
These are the kind of things that Nintendo was talking about when they said we'd get new kinds of gameplay. At E3 there was a carving demo that would let your carve things. They could do things like that to let you make your own piece in a board game. It may take some time, but I think we are going to see some VERY interesting games from the DS. Even if some aren't good, the innovation will be great.
How about a game where you "raise" a little AI robot or something. You could design it yourself, and be able to add user created objects to it's little "playpen" to explore and see how it reacts to things. You could "program" it by connecting little logic blocks (sort of how you program the Lego Mindstorms software).
And of course, now we could get a VERY cool version of Mario Paint.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Yeah, that's what I always look for in a surgeon... someone to "cheer me on" while I'm unconscious.
. . . they didn't even mention the fifth level, entitled "Busted Balls".
Seriously, how many of us would love to see a greatly enhanced sequel to this classic. The DS would be ideal, but I could also envision a GC/next gen version that utilizes the Mario Sunshine engine and allows one to create their own 3D Mario adventure.
It could feature a user friendly 3d modeler (with premade models of all the Nintendo favorites, of course). Design your own character or bad guy, apply premade or user-created texture maps/bump maps, etc., then create animations of the character through a smart interface. Put the characters in a designed game world and give them routes to walk on, triggers to react to, etc. Create worlds with premade or user designed objects, events, and triggers. Also let the user create some hilariously lame in game music, of course. Then create an overworld and even make in-game cinemas with your characters and user recorded audio! Imagine the possibilites...
Meanwhile, relive some Mario Paint goodness here.
---
WARNING:Slashdot karma not redeemable in the afterlife.
First thing I'd do is create a plastic surgery mod for m' ladies ;)
Urgo: "I want to live. I want to experience the universe and I want to eat pie!"
Jack: "Who doesn't??"
Man I loved that game, and I sucked at it! I used to play on my ][gs. I couldn't get past the apendectomy. The game didn't like my sutures or something.
But man, if I ever had to perform an emergency apendectomy, i could. Oh sure, you'd bleed to death later because aparently I can't sew, but at least you wouldn't die from apendicitis.
Now I can frag my friends and put them back together!
I like muppets.
And when will we have the lawyer claiming that he is trying to save the moral fabric of our society by claiming that this game will result in increased malpractice rates by doctors desensitized to surgery?
Or more likely, some kid will take a knife to his pet or smaller sibling and then someone will suggest they learned it from the game.
"But I trust in the people's capacity for reflection, rage and rebellion." -Oscar Olivera
Hmmm, suddenly a see a game in which you as a Samurai slice and dice your opponents with a sword shaped stylus. Miss the vitals and he may kill you, with bonuses for slicing style and penalties for too many strokes!
And for the kids, a Harry Potter game with a wand shaped stylus...The hits they keep a comin!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
I think they called it 'tamogotchi' is something :-)
I really like you idea - but look at 'A Dogs Life' by David Braben, or 'Creatures' (that *is* the one where you have a pet magical creature on an island?)
They take 'programming' much in the way of the sims, or the original little computer people.
Perhaps making it visibly logical could be more educational.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
I remember a game like this on the amiga, where I never got past the fiurst incision, which usually lead to a complete dissection of the victim, I mean patient.
/.'ers at the operating theatre asking for a local instead of going under, then telling the surgeon that perhaps he should try the level 5 technique, and then arguing with him:
Of course, parent groups may protest that this will lead to home grown surgery systems, where people use this as a simulator.
I can imagine
"How many successful quarduple bypasses have *you* done?? I'll do it myself thanks!"
How to make money? Simply change the operations!
Breast Augmentation Surgery (with celebrebrity appearances!)
'Sex change chop shop' (with cele... no wait, that is too much)
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
...It says that this game will fall under the "sci-fi surgery action game" genre. I think we can all agree that we've already had way to many games in this category. Why can't they do something original for once!
It's amazing how much innovation comes when a "real" game company starts using a touchpad.
I've been waiting for this a long time to come to my palm, but almost every game I can find is stuck using the buttons at the bottom. I've only found two games that make good use of the stylus.
Insaniquarium and that other puzzle(sp?) one that was a huge hit and I can't for my life remember the name of(you switch position on some sort of gems and they disappear if you get three in a row).
If noone rtfa, then what's the slashdot effect?
I'm fairly sure that's what you're thinking off... switch blocks around, get three in a row and the row vanishes.
-ReK
md5sum -c reality.md5
reality: FAILED
md5sum: WARNING: 1 of 1 computed checksum did NOT match
Imagine the looks from your fellow travellers while screaming "hang in there" "don't die on my now" "we got a squirter here get a me a clamp he is bleeding all over" into you gameboy.
On a side note, why can't I ever turn of the music on gba games? Is it somekind of mind control program that I must play with horrible repetetive crappy soundcard music?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
That game look's interresting, but if there's n option to deliver babies, I'm sure not playing it in the subway or any public transport.
"Ok, there you go, breathe harder, harder. Push push push - Sir, I'll have to ask you to leave or stop that camcorder or I'll shove it up your a** - No nurse I don't have a time for a sponge bath - Push harder lady. Yes!!! Congratulation it's a boy. Here sir, cut the umbilical cord. *clip* Congratulation, you've got a girl!"
What most people simply dont recognize is, that a stylus and a touchpad is a very good mouse replacement. I am pretty sure that many point and click adventures can be converted to the new GB, the main problem those things had in the past was that those games are close to impossible to be played seriously with the usual control cross. If you ever played the monkey islands on a handheld or ultima7 on a zaurus you would know how well the point and click interface can be mapped to a stylus interface.
Edheads already has Virtual Knee Surgery!
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
...while operating, the player must cheer on the patient using the device's voice recognition.
So let's test it out with an obligatory Simpons quote!
"The hip bone's connected to the leg bone!
The leg bone's conected to the thingy!
The thingy's connected to my wristwatch!
Uh oh..."
-Dr. Nick
Nintendo, I DEMAND that you cease this "innovation" crap immediately. Nobody wants to try new things - we only want what we are comfortable with.
You're twisting my words. I'm saying that the Stylus is NOT a new input form, it has been tried before and is CRAP.
Innovation in gameplay is great. 'Innovation' in the form of gimmicky controllers, be they styluses or boxing gloves, leads mostly to crappy games in which the entrie purpose of the product seems to be to showcase the controller, and instead of opening new possibilities, closes them down further to strict genre games (dancemat or light-gun, anyone?)
Tell that to the MILLIONS of PDA users in the world. Or the tblet PC users (ok, not that great of an example =p). Either way, they will tell you that touchscreen input is an efficient, fast, intuituve way to interface with a computer system.
Many games play well with a joystick and buttons; shooters, side scrollers, etc. Some games play well with a mouse and keyb; FPS, and RTS. Playing a FPS on a console with a gamepad doesn't even compare to using a mouse and keyb. PLaying a RTS game with a controller is next to impossible, hence the complete lack of RTS on consoles.
The touchscreen can do some things as well as a mouse, some not as well, and some better, but as you point out, they are similar. FPS would be marginally better with touchscreen than with control pads, but not up to the keyb/mouse. RTS games, on the other hand, would be arguabley better suited to touchscreen input. Games likes one, which sounds very interesting, tho I doubt it will ever be released here, due to people like yourself who only want the same old same old.
As mentioned above, I hope that graphical adventure games make a comeback with the DS. The interface is perfect (thouch screen, extra screen for text messages, inventory, etc, voice recognition could add a whole new level to an old genre).
The idea of modeling your own game items/characters is interesting, and would be better excecuted with a stylus than a directional pad. Mario Party's line tracing games are a good example of why precise control with a joypad is not ideal.
Because in the 1980's having a computer that ran above 320*240 was considered to be a high-tech, high-end you'll never see outside a college campus or government facility machine. These days there are machines that default at 1600*1200 and considered to be 'mid-range' PCs. Much easier to use a stylus when the pen tip doesn't fill in half the screen everytime you touch it.
UI? Tell that to the millions of people who STILL use the 'Start menu' in Windows, then you can come back and lecture to the closed system console/handheld companies.
Oh and for some odd reason I've never seenen a trackball outside of a computer store before. How strange.
don't knock gimmicky controllers. ok, stylus has been done before, in handhelds even (tiger game.com), usually to rather less than thrilling effect. but guess what? technology evolves, grows. i'm sure that the monitor you use today is better than the one you used 10 years ago. same goes for your mouse (at least mine: i use an optical, which is infinitely better than the 'ball' mouse i used 5 years ago) technology grows, and i'm sure nintendo wouldn't put it out if they couldn't make it work. as for light guns and dance mats, even those have evolved: they both date back (in home consoles) at least as far as the NES, but when you use a guncon2 and a ddr dance pad next to, say, the zapper and the 'power pad', the difference is great. the dance mat now has an actual good game to use with it other than that silly track and field game (that we used to cheat at long jump by completely stepping off the mat), and the zapper? every time you fire it the whole screen flashes, with a different shade for a flash around the ducks, but the guncon's effect is a bit more subtle, and while it still flashes, its not the same seizure inducing flash that i dealt with not 3 years ago trying to play house of the dead 2 on my dreamcast.
Well yeah but for some reason that kill sound. See I like the sound effects BUT not the music. Perhaps I am just odd but I play most of my games without the enclosed music. Maybe it is a console thing. Give option. Music On/Off Sound On/Off. Not that complex is it? PC games been doing it since the adlib card came along. Yeah I am that old.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Has anyone else noticed a trend of games becoming like work? The first example that comes to mind is the common leveling treadmill, in which one has to complete the same task again and again for hours just to get anywhere. Now there are curry-house simulators, sports stat management sims that play like glorified spreadsheets, and a surgery game. What's next, "Answer the Phone eXtreme"?
This sig has been stolen. Return it to its original user for a reward.
Yes, using a stylus is the absolute worst input method ever. That's why we have completely given up writing on paper.
I don't know how much mileage will really come out of it, and this is the only example I've yet seen that wasn't totally lame, but face it - there is no better way to mimic a scalpel than a stylus, at least at this point. How can you not think this is cool? It will necessarily improve hand-eye coordination, which is always good.
Touch screens are cool. A stylus is the only accurate way to use one. And, a mouse is not feasible for use with a handheld gaming device. Kindly extract head from rectum before posting.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I've noted several times that the only way the dualscreen and touchscreen would be any more than gimmicks is if there were computer-style games made for the system. Looks like at least one developer has realized that.
Rob
If you call a game "Life & Death" in Japan, won't they think you're talking about Go? Though considering that a PC can't play decent Go, I guess a portable would be pretty awful :)
English is easier said than done.