It's good to see a remake of the XCom game in boardgame form... I've wanted to see one for years.
My own wargame system, of which Target: Earth is the first in the series (to be printed this summer, hint, hint;-), is based very much based on the tactical-simulation-like mechanics of XCom - Time units, detailed RPG-like stats (but using D10 for simplicity), flexible unit actions (not the unrealistic move-shoot-charge of others) and highly customisable infantry and vehicles; as opposed to the more game-like Warhammer titles from Games Workshop (which bore me, even though I have spent a fortune on them in the past).
Plus, I've set it in a near future Earth (latter half of the 21'st century) with big stompy anime-style robots and powered armour... not some depressing eons away hell-hole full of goths and spiky bits.. not that I have anything against goths;-)... that means people can use those cool gundam and macross models in an actual game, rather than collecting dust on a shelf:-D
Anyway, I'll have to give this XCom boardgame a whirl; it may well be too fiddly as-is, but its no-longer the computer game and can be modified with your own rules and interpretations (personally, I'd like to see it without a tile-based map and using conventional gaming scenery with rules for elevation/difficult terrain etc).
Now I'll need some new figures.... where do I find some nice minis for the aliens?.....:-)
It *was* apparently released in europe, though most of us here never actually realised it!
It seems that there was a tiny release with the US TG16 (shame, the Jap Coregrafx design would have gone down better) having a modified tv output for PAL; no-one is certain whether it was actually only released in Spain or across all of europe, certainly I can't remember any adverts for it at the time; but they do exist.
Lords of Thunder is an excellent shooter, as good as anything on the MD/Genesis. Excellent kick-ass music and fabulous graphics (well animated, screen high bosses etc.).
Check out Gate of Thunder, by the same team, but sci-fi, rather than fantasy based - kicking music and great graphics.
I've got both:-)
The thing that many people forget is that the PC-Engine was *the* most popular games console in Japan for many years, while the Turbo had a luke-warm (at best) response in the US - the uninformed usually only remember the US release.
IMO, the TG/PC-E is *the* best console from the 8 and 16-bit era; NES/Famicom, Master System, SNES/Super Famicom and MD/Genesis. I've owned (or still do) them all.
I'll admit that some of the early games are simplistic and clunky, but which console didn't have a terrible round of release titles (Altered Beast on the MD is a classic example.. utter crud, Kung Fu Kid on the SMS or the early NES games that were really crude) compared to later releases?
The later Hucards and then CD and Super CD games are in a completely different league to the first Hucards; take a look at the Macross games (both the 2036 shooter and Eternal Love Song the strategy); awesome, then there is the original (and some may say best ever computer version of the game) Devil Crush pinball game, Soldier Blade (best, imo, of the Gunhed series), a fab version of Raiden and the brilliant R-Type. Some excellent CD titles to look out for include:
Y's I/II + III & IV Spriggan (the daddy of Aleste) Nectaris/Neo Nectaris - forerunners of a million strategy spin-offs Shadow of the Beast (if only for the stunning graphics and soundtrack) Solid Force - RPG/Strategy Side Arms Star Parodia
There are so many great PC-Engine games that it would take forever to list them all.
Don't forget all the hardware innovations: first console with CD ROM, built in memory saves, multi-player adaptors, mouse, a portable that played the same games as the console... the PC-Engine remains a true classic; and a successful one at that (in Japan, at least).
Hubble is 375 miles from Earth, the article has Webb listed as 1 *million* miles from us. Where is it going to be located, and how is it getting there? (I'm guessing that there will be no opportunity for service calls, as there was for Hubble!)
Skies of Arcadia: a engrossing cartoon style rpg, with overtones of Miyazaki's 'Castle in the Sky' and 'Nausicaa' along with WW1/WW2 type sea battles of giant iron juggernauts with quite a bit of buckling your swash thrown in:-).... absolutely TONS of mini-games and side-quests to undertake, great use of the DC peripherals (mini visual VMU games, rumble pack use in-game, etc). A classic.
Metropolis Street Racer: Excellent racing game featuring real streets and scenery of cities across the world. Good physics and handling of the cars; you can actually tell the difference between them.
Rez: Trippy shooter. Brillian use of timing and interactive sound and music. The minimalistic wireframe and shaded graphics bring it, for me, to being the closest thing to being in the world of Tron, than anything else.
Shenmue/Shenmue II: Flawed, but a huge virtual world. Absolutely massive.
Bass Fishing: Huge fun for everyone including drunk students or even grandparents:-)
Indeed, the Spectrum was alive until the early 90's and came with ever increasing amounts of ram (8kb, 32kb, 48kb, 128kb), despite the Z80 remaining constant.
Here in jolly old England, we regulary have crisps (translated: 'potato chips') forced upon us, with such flavours as:
Chocolate Worcestershire Sauce Baked Beans Curry Lamb and Mint Gammon and Pineapple Hedgehog(!) Mustard Tomato Ketchup Brown Sauce (the strong stuff made by HP, Hammonds, etc.)
They're usually only for a few months a year as 'test' flavours by the crisp makers, but bleurgh!, its long enough.
Actually, one of the 'test' flavours was 'Paprika' a few years ago, it proved so popular its now a regular flavour (Walkers MAX paprika... mmmm).
You play the aforementioned chap and go around a house drinking lager/disinfectant/toilet water, eating curry/soap/various other inedibles, farting, getting drunk and generally being a bit of an arse.
Come to think of it... what were the actual goals of the game?
Quality software from the time of the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and the like:-)
No, most of the oxygen is locked up in the ice of the permafrost under the pyramid shaped mountain; just waiting for a muscle-bound action hero to unwittingly find it...;-)
Shame the Japanese haven't taken up the GP32 (more powerful, bigger screen etc.) more readily then; it does all of that and more, on cheap smartmedia. The free image viewers out there scroll pretty big jpegs really smoothly, too - the screen quality is *excellent*. The commercial DivX player (all of $5) is brilliant and the wireless adaptor has been out for a while. So it's no Zodiac, but its small, compact, cheap, powerful and the software base is huge if you count the ability to easily port software other platforms (theres a gp32 sdl library, the official SDK for free, all the various arm-gcc gubbins...)..... it's just a pity the 1st party s/w hasn't been that great... some spectacular looking titles seem to have fallen by the wayside.
Linkage:
http://joygp.entware.com (download commercial games and the great GPCinema divx player to your GP32)
http://www.gp32x.com (news, demos, utilities)
http://www.gbax.com (buy one!)
http://www.lik-sang.com (buy one!)
-John
I don't understand it either. A secret ballot, with a simple 'X' against your chosen candidates name seems much simpler.
Why must you inform them of whom you intend to vote for, before actually casting your vote?
Slashdot Mirror
My own wargame system, of which Target: Earth is the first in the series (to be printed this summer, hint, hint ;-), is based very much based on the tactical-simulation-like mechanics of XCom - Time units, detailed RPG-like stats (but using D10 for simplicity), flexible unit actions (not the unrealistic move-shoot-charge of others) and highly customisable infantry and vehicles; as opposed to the more game-like Warhammer titles from Games Workshop (which bore me, even though I have spent a fortune on them in the past).
Plus, I've set it in a near future Earth (latter half of the 21'st century) with big stompy anime-style robots and powered armour... not some depressing eons away hell-hole full of goths and spiky bits .. not that I have anything against goths ;-) ... that means people can use those cool gundam and macross models in an actual game, rather than collecting dust on a shelf :-D
Anyway, I'll have to give this XCom boardgame a whirl; it may well be too fiddly as-is, but its no-longer the computer game and can be modified with your own rules and interpretations (personally, I'd like to see it without a tile-based map and using conventional gaming scenery with rules for elevation/difficult terrain etc).
Now I'll need some new figures.... where do I find some nice minis for the aliens? ..... :-)
It *was* apparently released in europe, though most of us here never actually realised it!
It seems that there was a tiny release with the US TG16 (shame, the Jap Coregrafx design would have gone down better) having a modified tv output for PAL; no-one is certain whether it was actually only released in Spain or across all of europe, certainly I can't remember any adverts for it at the time; but they do exist.
Lords of Thunder is an excellent shooter, as good as anything on the MD/Genesis. Excellent kick-ass music and fabulous graphics (well animated, screen high bosses etc.). Check out Gate of Thunder, by the same team, but sci-fi, rather than fantasy based - kicking music and great graphics. I've got both :-)
...and bizarrely was absolutely massive in Europe. Far more succesful than the NES, and had hundreds of Europe/UK only releases.
The thing that many people forget is that the PC-Engine was *the* most popular games console in Japan for many years, while the Turbo had a luke-warm (at best) response in the US - the uninformed usually only remember the US release.
IMO, the TG/PC-E is *the* best console from the 8 and 16-bit era; NES/Famicom, Master System, SNES/Super Famicom and MD/Genesis. I've owned (or still do) them all.
I'll admit that some of the early games are simplistic and clunky, but which console didn't have a terrible round of release titles (Altered Beast on the MD is a classic example.. utter crud, Kung Fu Kid on the SMS or the early NES games that were really crude) compared to later releases?
The later Hucards and then CD and Super CD games are in a completely different league to the first Hucards; take a look at the Macross games (both the 2036 shooter and Eternal Love Song the strategy); awesome, then there is the original (and some may say best ever computer version of the game) Devil Crush pinball game, Soldier Blade (best, imo, of the Gunhed series), a fab version of Raiden and the brilliant R-Type. Some excellent CD titles to look out for include:
Y's I/II + III & IV
Spriggan (the daddy of Aleste)
Nectaris/Neo Nectaris - forerunners of a million strategy spin-offs
Shadow of the Beast (if only for the stunning graphics and soundtrack)
Solid Force - RPG/Strategy
Side Arms
Star Parodia
There are so many great PC-Engine games that it would take forever to list them all.
Don't forget all the hardware innovations: first console with CD ROM, built in memory saves, multi-player adaptors, mouse, a portable that played the same games as the console... the PC-Engine remains a true classic; and a successful one at that (in Japan, at least).
Hubble is 375 miles from Earth, the article has Webb listed as 1 *million* miles from us. Where is it going to be located, and how is it getting there? (I'm guessing that there will be no opportunity for service calls, as there was for Hubble!)
-J
Skies of Arcadia: a engrossing cartoon style rpg, with overtones of Miyazaki's 'Castle in the Sky' and 'Nausicaa' along with WW1/WW2 type sea battles of giant iron juggernauts with quite a bit of buckling your swash thrown in :-) .... absolutely TONS of mini-games and side-quests to undertake, great use of the DC peripherals (mini visual VMU games, rumble pack use in-game, etc). A classic.
:-)
Metropolis Street Racer: Excellent racing game featuring real streets and scenery of cities across the world. Good physics and handling of the cars; you can actually tell the difference between them.
Rez: Trippy shooter. Brillian use of timing and interactive sound and music. The minimalistic wireframe and shaded graphics bring it, for me, to being the closest thing to being in the world of Tron, than anything else.
Shenmue/Shenmue II: Flawed, but a huge virtual world. Absolutely massive.
Bass Fishing: Huge fun for everyone including drunk students or even grandparents
... the mk1 Lotus Cortina twincam. A classic in every sense of the word.
:-)
Shame they're a small fortune to pick-up... I'll have to do with my mk1 Escort instead
Indeed, the Spectrum was alive until the early 90's and came with ever increasing amounts of ram (8kb, 32kb, 48kb, 128kb), despite the Z80 remaining constant.
I believe it was either roast or barbecued hedgehog. Stewed? Ewwww.. now that just *sick*
Here in jolly old England, we regulary have crisps (translated: 'potato chips') forced upon us, with such flavours as:
Chocolate
Worcestershire Sauce
Baked Beans
Curry
Lamb and Mint
Gammon and Pineapple
Hedgehog(!)
Mustard
Tomato Ketchup
Brown Sauce (the strong stuff made by HP, Hammonds, etc.)
They're usually only for a few months a year as 'test' flavours by the crisp makers, but bleurgh!, its long enough.
Actually, one of the 'test' flavours was 'Paprika' a few years ago, it proved so popular its now a regular flavour (Walkers MAX paprika... mmmm).
And the full review, from 'Your Sinclair' from the time of the games release: http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/articles/howtobeacompleteb astard.htm
Offtopic? errr, yeah... right-o modmeisters...
b oa rd=3;action=display;threadid=1394
http://www.catharton.net/electronica/index.php?
I think I remember Rik Mayall (of 'The Young Ones' and 'Bottom' fame) being in the promotional material for the game....
You play the aforementioned chap and go around a house drinking lager/disinfectant/toilet water, eating curry/soap/various other inedibles, farting, getting drunk and generally being a bit of an arse.
:-)
Come to think of it... what were the actual goals of the game?
Quality software from the time of the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and the like
No, most of the oxygen is locked up in the ice of the permafrost under the pyramid shaped mountain; just waiting for a muscle-bound action hero to unwittingly find it... ;-)
..and what's the betting that we get it in the UK for 39.99??... and no 'upgrade coupon' rebates.
Shame the Japanese haven't taken up the GP32 (more powerful, bigger screen etc.) more readily then; it does all of that and more, on cheap smartmedia. The free image viewers out there scroll pretty big jpegs really smoothly, too - the screen quality is *excellent*. The commercial DivX player (all of $5) is brilliant and the wireless adaptor has been out for a while. So it's no Zodiac, but its small, compact, cheap, powerful and the software base is huge if you count the ability to easily port software other platforms (theres a gp32 sdl library, the official SDK for free, all the various arm-gcc gubbins...)... .. it's just a pity the 1st party s/w hasn't been that great... some spectacular looking titles seem to have fallen by the wayside.
Linkage:
http://joygp.entware.com (download commercial games and the great GPCinema divx player to your GP32)
http://www.gp32x.com (news, demos, utilities)
http://www.gbax.com (buy one!)
http://www.lik-sang.com (buy one!)
-John
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/product_info.php?c Path=41&products_id=359
Was it any good? I've managed to rustle up most of the wierd/good/cool/unusual DC games, but Seaman + controller is one I've yet to find.
Anyone else waiting on the imminent release of the 6th edition of Call of Cthulhu? Supposedly due out on the 22nd of this month.
Did anyone ever play the voice-controlled DC game "Seaman"? That was voice controlled - you had to make an fish-type creature evolve.
I don't understand it either. A secret ballot, with a simple 'X' against your chosen candidates name seems much simpler. Why must you inform them of whom you intend to vote for, before actually casting your vote?