Acclaim didn't "turn into" a greedy, uncreative publisher, they just used to hide that fact better. (Well, not the uncreative part, just the greedy part.) Remember LJN? Those guys who released aggressively bad NES games like Back to the Future, Jaws, and Marvel's X-Men that relied entirely on their big-name licenses? That was an Acclaim subsidiary.
Yes, because Acclaim published it. Anyone can publish a game as long as he has money; it's the developer that makes it worth playing. And it's not like Wizards & Warriors was so unusual that no one else would risk publishing it; someone up there even called it a Ghosts & Goblins rip-off (though that's a bit harsh and off-base).
Irnfrogramresr buying "Atari" makes sense -- there's Pong, that whole old-school feeling, the funky "A" logo. Activision buying "Acclaim" is... Well, I'm trying to come up with an association here
I'll give you one: "crap." The fact that anyone would think that buying a brand name with such a terrible reputation is a good idea is honestly mystifying.
BTW, the article says that a co-founder of the modern Activision bought the name. Don't know it it's independent from Activision or not.
Wizards & Warriors was good, but it was also a Rare game. You know, made by the guys who did stuff like Battletoads and GoldenEye. Associating that game with Acclaim is like associating Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam with them (like another poster did) even though those were really Midway games.
The only "good game" that Acclaim could really be given credit for was Turok. And a lot of people thought that that sucked. There have been bad games made by other companies, but no one quite had a reputation for making horrible video games like Acclaim did.
It changed in FF8, where if you knew what you were doing, you could kill most enemies in seconds. Of course, most people who played that game didn't know what they were doing, which is why FF8 is unfairly maligned in many gaming circles.
Indeed, making fun of first-season episodes isn't really fair. If you really want to talk about a bad episode of MST3K, try the one for Castle of Fu Manchu. That one was so brutal that they even made fun of how bad it was during all of the host segments.
Physical ability should be linked to PE grades. Do you think that those evil Nazi jocks should get an A in Algebra II just because they tried their best to solve a quadratic equation despite failing miserably? Just as they had a (presumably) natural aptitude to athletics that allowed them to do well in PE, we had a natural aptitude to various academic subjects (math, science, or whatever) that allowed us to do well in those classes. So why should only one group reap the rewards of its genetics? I hope it's not that "no educational value" thing, because it's precisely that sort of thinking that has led us into our current obesity epidemic.
I'm saying this, BTW, despite the fact that if they gave fair grades for PE today, it almost certainly would've wrecked my GPA in high school.
Well, it was when Robert Byrd was Senate Majority (and Appropriations) Leader, but not any more. You've inadvertantly pointed out the primary problem with this program, though; it'll cost a lot of money to maintain unless you only provide very few machines, which in turn will cause crowding concerns. The state may be willing to spend that money, however, considering how massive (haha, I made a funny) the obesity problem is here.
If you really want to know why minimum-wage jobs suck, why not just get a real job at Kinko's (or McDonald's, or whatever) and get paid while learning? It's not like it's hard to get hired.
That magazine used to be top-notch, partially because Nintendo basically was the console-game industry. More than that, though, it used to not be the propaganda machine it is today, as the blurb points out. I dunno exactly what the state of the book is now, but I stopped reading around the time they hyped up the execrable Donkey Kong Country because it had awesome graphics (and, of course, because it was a Nintendo first-party). Before that, NP really was as honest as it could be about the quality of the games, and it also had a lot of other great stuff like Counselor's Corner and the big maps for selected games. There were also a lot of great feature articles. I remember one in particular about interesting games that didn't make it to America; one of them was Mother, before Earthbound made that franchise popular over here.
For the record, I was also one of those people that got a subscription as a Christmas (or maybe birthday?) gift because it came with Dragon Warrior, though I'd been reading the mag occasionally when I could beg my mom to buy it off of the newsstand. I'd read it religiously from that point up to the time I mentioned up there, which I think covered at least 40 issues or so, and I didn't completely give up on it and allow my subscription to lapse until the end of 1996. It's one of only two video-game magazines I miss, the other being VideoGames & Computer Entertainment.
That article is widely regarded by people who have actually played MUDs to be completely stupid and off-base because a "rape victim" can simply log off, walk out of the room, or/ignore. And yes, it was basically "someone being creative with/emote."
For a moment, I thought Genji 2 was a Gran Turismo spinoff. Not that it really matters, though, since the chances of GT5 coming out at launch are about the same as the chances of Jack Thompson leaving the bar and joining a death-metal band...
I thought of both Dune 2 and StarCraft 64, but it seemed to me that the author was referring to games specifically made for the console, and Herzog Zwei is the only one that fits that bill. Dune 2 was excellently ported, though, and there was another fine port of an RTS on the Genesis; Tyrants, better known as Mega lo Mania on the PC.
Despite the fact that relatively sound and effective improvements to driver's license security had already been implemented as part of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act
The only "improvements" to license registration I've seen in West Virginia are stupid and ineffective. Law-abiding citizens need an act of Congress to get a license but all a terrorist has to do is forge a couple more documents. I imagine other states that made changes aren't much better.
Let's go back to the beginning. Let's look at these strategy games, as if they were new. How would we approach it now? Let's pretend that there never was a mouse, and all we had were consoles. How would we bring this about?
Like Herzog Zwei, maybe? Oh, for the times when game journalists had a memory that went back before the current generation of consoles...
Slashdot Mirror
Acclaim didn't "turn into" a greedy, uncreative publisher, they just used to hide that fact better. (Well, not the uncreative part, just the greedy part.) Remember LJN? Those guys who released aggressively bad NES games like Back to the Future, Jaws, and Marvel's X-Men that relied entirely on their big-name licenses? That was an Acclaim subsidiary.
Rob
Yes, because Acclaim published it. Anyone can publish a game as long as he has money; it's the developer that makes it worth playing. And it's not like Wizards & Warriors was so unusual that no one else would risk publishing it; someone up there even called it a Ghosts & Goblins rip-off (though that's a bit harsh and off-base).
Rob
Irnfrogramresr buying "Atari" makes sense -- there's Pong, that whole old-school feeling, the funky "A" logo. Activision buying "Acclaim" is... Well, I'm trying to come up with an association here
I'll give you one: "crap." The fact that anyone would think that buying a brand name with such a terrible reputation is a good idea is honestly mystifying.
BTW, the article says that a co-founder of the modern Activision bought the name. Don't know it it's independent from Activision or not.
Rob
Wizards & Warriors was good, but it was also a Rare game. You know, made by the guys who did stuff like Battletoads and GoldenEye. Associating that game with Acclaim is like associating Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam with them (like another poster did) even though those were really Midway games.
The only "good game" that Acclaim could really be given credit for was Turok. And a lot of people thought that that sucked. There have been bad games made by other companies, but no one quite had a reputation for making horrible video games like Acclaim did.
Rob
There are a number of games that have gameplay similar to what you describe. You're probably referring specifically to Origin's Omega.
Rob
DO NOT WANT
Rob
I didn't notice until I saw that Halo was one solid band of color. I expect that at least GTA would beat Mario if not for that.
Rob
It changed in FF8, where if you knew what you were doing, you could kill most enemies in seconds. Of course, most people who played that game didn't know what they were doing, which is why FF8 is unfairly maligned in many gaming circles.
Rob
no details on which company would distribute the PC games in Japan, if any, were given.
Good one, Gamasutra! Mainstream games on the PC in Japan, what a jest...
Rob
Ah, the "noble savage" theory. I didn't know anyone still seriously espoused it.
Rob
To be fair, it was another id game, Wolfenstein 3D, that in 1992 introduced gamers to the concept of the first-person shooter.
Except that it wasn't. Even if you don't count Maze War (and its successor, MIDI Maze) for some reason, you still have id's own Catacomb 3D.
Rob
Indeed, making fun of first-season episodes isn't really fair. If you really want to talk about a bad episode of MST3K, try the one for Castle of Fu Manchu. That one was so brutal that they even made fun of how bad it was during all of the host segments.
Rob
The problem, of course, being that DDR really has little to do with dancing.
Rob (Of course, I suppose middle-schoolers don't know how to dance anyway)
Physical ability should be linked to PE grades. Do you think that those evil Nazi jocks should get an A in Algebra II just because they tried their best to solve a quadratic equation despite failing miserably? Just as they had a (presumably) natural aptitude to athletics that allowed them to do well in PE, we had a natural aptitude to various academic subjects (math, science, or whatever) that allowed us to do well in those classes. So why should only one group reap the rewards of its genetics? I hope it's not that "no educational value" thing, because it's precisely that sort of thinking that has led us into our current obesity epidemic.
I'm saying this, BTW, despite the fact that if they gave fair grades for PE today, it almost certainly would've wrecked my GPA in high school.
Rob
Well, it was when Robert Byrd was Senate Majority (and Appropriations) Leader, but not any more. You've inadvertantly pointed out the primary problem with this program, though; it'll cost a lot of money to maintain unless you only provide very few machines, which in turn will cause crowding concerns. The state may be willing to spend that money, however, considering how massive (haha, I made a funny) the obesity problem is here.
Rob
If you really want to know why minimum-wage jobs suck, why not just get a real job at Kinko's (or McDonald's, or whatever) and get paid while learning? It's not like it's hard to get hired.
Rob
Bungie existed before Halo.
Rob
That magazine used to be top-notch, partially because Nintendo basically was the console-game industry. More than that, though, it used to not be the propaganda machine it is today, as the blurb points out. I dunno exactly what the state of the book is now, but I stopped reading around the time they hyped up the execrable Donkey Kong Country because it had awesome graphics (and, of course, because it was a Nintendo first-party). Before that, NP really was as honest as it could be about the quality of the games, and it also had a lot of other great stuff like Counselor's Corner and the big maps for selected games. There were also a lot of great feature articles. I remember one in particular about interesting games that didn't make it to America; one of them was Mother, before Earthbound made that franchise popular over here.
For the record, I was also one of those people that got a subscription as a Christmas (or maybe birthday?) gift because it came with Dragon Warrior, though I'd been reading the mag occasionally when I could beg my mom to buy it off of the newsstand. I'd read it religiously from that point up to the time I mentioned up there, which I think covered at least 40 issues or so, and I didn't completely give up on it and allow my subscription to lapse until the end of 1996. It's one of only two video-game magazines I miss, the other being VideoGames & Computer Entertainment.
Rob
That article is widely regarded by people who have actually played MUDs to be completely stupid and off-base because a "rape victim" can simply log off, walk out of the room, or /ignore. And yes, it was basically "someone being creative with /emote."
Rob
Jack puts on his "I'm a reasonable man" hat for interviews with the mainstream media (for the most part).
Netjak isn't in the mainstream media. In fact, it's precisely the type of website that Jack Thompson trolls.
His interview was still full of shit, though.
Rob
For a moment, I thought Genji 2 was a Gran Turismo spinoff. Not that it really matters, though, since the chances of GT5 coming out at launch are about the same as the chances of Jack Thompson leaving the bar and joining a death-metal band...
Rob
Hell, I thought that he was a Nintendo shill. He's probably just anti-Microsoft.
Rob
I thought of both Dune 2 and StarCraft 64, but it seemed to me that the author was referring to games specifically made for the console, and Herzog Zwei is the only one that fits that bill. Dune 2 was excellently ported, though, and there was another fine port of an RTS on the Genesis; Tyrants, better known as Mega lo Mania on the PC.
Rob
Despite the fact that relatively sound and effective improvements to driver's license security had already been implemented as part of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act
The only "improvements" to license registration I've seen in West Virginia are stupid and ineffective. Law-abiding citizens need an act of Congress to get a license but all a terrorist has to do is forge a couple more documents. I imagine other states that made changes aren't much better.
Rob
Let's go back to the beginning. Let's look at these strategy games, as if they were new. How would we approach it now? Let's pretend that there never was a mouse, and all we had were consoles. How would we bring this about?
Like Herzog Zwei, maybe? Oh, for the times when game journalists had a memory that went back before the current generation of consoles...
Rob