A Sprite

If the images shown in a freely distributed video are copyrighted, minus their full context or any interactive element, then it's logical to assume that nobody can record themselves playing the game, or put together a comprehensive review of the media in question. This is where the copyright holders would be pressing their luck, as unlike a movie itself, a movie of a commercial product produced for non-commerical use is not only legal, but constitutionally protected free speech. A video game is a participatory activity - the actions of the person playing it, viewing it, whatever, are their own possession, and can't be restricted on a whim, any more than the makers of sports gear can forbid the taping of School sporting events. That said, someone who intentionally uploads content not yet released to the public, or uses any of the contents of the video as a feature in their own commercial game can hardly claim to have gained the material legally. And while any number of Tetris and Pac Man clones exist, suggesting audio and video mean little, someone who clones Final Fantasy VII and offers it for free download without changing more than the name is going to be facing a cease and desist, for reasons that are insanely clear to anyone not trying to spell it out in legal language. Now to the real question - why do you ask?

Hard to say. Many of these videos act as advertisements, rather than a replacement for the game itself. A case could be made in either direction, depending on the personalities of the copyright holders.

Screen blur wasn't completely eliminated until the release of the Gameboy color, which made the back catalog of the Gameboy obsolete: some of it's best games were even re-released in color form (R-Type I & II), or given color sequels (Elevator Action EX). While all games were affected by the screen, unless you had ideal lighting conditions, it was usually easier to track games with larger sprites or slower, more deliberate gameplay. Early arcade hits were neither. It was popular - but I seldom see it given the kind of love the 2600, Intellivision, NES, Genesis, SNES, and even Game Gear receive. Most reviews I've read compare the games to games for SNES and Genesis...and there has never been a rerelease of the original green and grey games for any modern system.

I bought the game before I emulated it. It seemed like a good idea at the time? I haven't been able to clear a window in my schedule to give the game the time it needs. It seemed easier to try to match the high score if everything was out to murder me as fast as possible - I didn't want to have to rely on saving the game where no saves would be allowed on the cart itself.

Forgive me if this is retarded, or much, much, worse, but could the lines be filled in, sonar style? Say if there's a block in the way, bounce backwards, and if there's no opening, move down one line, repeat process, until blocked and bounced back upwards. If the scan returns to it's starting coordinates without finding an escape, it marks all squares inside the area as claimed territory, then counts the number of squares as .5 points each, to create the percentage.

Thanks for the feedback. Never played the game before. I only know of it thanks to Gorf in the Jag forums. I'll try to download the MAME file, and see if I can't find solutions. As for showing you up, you did all the hard work - all I did was scribble on your picture. I've been playing with old gameboy games for the past few years, 4 color art theory is instinct by now.

Level: Insane Speed: 10 Endorsement deals: Not in this lifetime.

Mind if I try? Apologies, if I've missed the theme entirely.

Try Project 64. I had no troubles with the game at all, on any of my computers.

Here's an approach used in the MSX conversion of 1942, if you need a comparison.

Great icons. Love the use of anti-aliasing. Now that we've got that out of the way - you asked for constructive feedback, not just compliments. Since you've created games before, I'll take you at your word. Your landscape is too simplistic. There is no interaction between the water and the shore, or attempt to match the style of the icons. It cheapens the overall effect...any texturing, no matter how small, or even an outline, would improve matters greatly.

Okay, so all we need to do to succeed in life, is buy debit cards, give them to each other, purchase Live accounts, then form a class action lawsuit, free from any worries of prosecution for attempted theft. If it fails at all, we can write a book about it afterwards, so that other people can learn from our mistake. Those who can't read can learn from the audiotapes and attending our ethics seminars.

It was a challenge to find any information at all, outside of e-bay. Is it like the Coleco table top?

Now in color. In retrospect, most of these games were a bad idea. Small graphics on a bad screen. The blur was so bad that a programmer could achieve a true transparency by flickering a sprite off and on. Most action games were unplayable; forget figuring out what the graphics were supposed to represent, you counted yourself lucky if you knew something was trying to kill you. Even worse, from a business perspective, the average player seldom played for high scores anymore, outside of abstract puzzle games like Tetris. With cartridge memory being limited, and catridge costs being high, it wasn't unusual for a single retro game to be packed into a single cartridge, and sold at full price. Until they were marked down. Magazines seldom reviewed the portable market. When they made a stab at it, it was to review 8 bit adaptations of 16 bit games, by 16 bit standards. Publishers in turn, relied on brand recognition to reach uninformed consumers. Konami's first Castlevania was rushed out the door, and resembled a stillbirth more than a labor of love. Megaman relived his old adventures, in a bizzare medical experiment where two old games were chopped in half, mashed together, and packaged as something new. Then there were the movie adaptations. Waterworld allowed you to get your ass kicked by tiny fish, just before Aquaman stole your wallet. Navy Seals allowed you to play as a true American hero with a license to kill anyone who even looked like a terrorist. It took two shots to do this. You died if you made contact with their sprite. Nobody else besides me has played this game in the past 10 years. By the time the gameboy color was released, everyone was only too happy to pretend all the years leading up to it never happened. The release of the gameboy advance sealed the deal. And yet, for these games, so many of which were once unplayable, it was the best thing that could have happened. With limited color support for the classic games allowing 4-8 colors on screen , and a new, better screen, the original apple to swamp green gameboy was revealed as having one the largest collections of classic arcade games ever made for a post crash system. Even better, they were so well programmed that when the next series of bad reviews came, as the fans took over the internet, it was often due to the fact that they were rated as if they were true emulations - the uncanny valley had been reached. So why collect them now, since their time has long passed, and they will always be flawed? The answer for me, is because they are flawed. This is library of games you can't simply play straight out of the box. If you want color, you need the right tools, and an eye for what the programmers were trying to achieve. More than that, you need to sacrifice. The ghosts in Pac-Man can only be two sets of colors. One set when chasing you. Another when you're chasing them. What colors can all 4 of the ghosts share, and still have the the same effect on the player as the arcade? Once you realize you'll never have a game that's perfect, once you're willing to sacrifice what's best for what works...you realize there's a game to be found in just optimizing the smallest of details... You come a little closer to understanding what it was like to create games back in the Atari Age. For those of us who can't program, this is as close to a time machine as can be found. If you've sat through this post, I thank you for your patience. Even if I haven't convinced you to try the Gameboy games, I hope you enjoyed seeing the games themselves. I was inspired to do this, by the series "The Many Faces" - there are many faces of old friends still waiting to be found...

Mormon.

Agreed. I don't wanna touch a screen. I want to break it. Hard. Give me a joystick anyday, a big throbbing black rocket, with rumble built in. Give me men with guns. Big guns. Men in uniform. Men who watch each other's backs in uniform. And online play, so I can teabag any man who gets in my way. Also, the DS needs to be wrapped in leather. And have body hair. I want to know when it's sweating too...

If you have a digital camera, sure. I didn't know you could slow the game down using an emulator. I want this open to everyone (that is, everyone with a high-speed modem that can download an N64 emulator and N64 roms, I'm still stuck in dial-up because high-speed modem isn't available in my area yet.), but if you have a copy of the game on a real N64, use it. The Atari 2600 HSC allows emulators, which is why I allowed emulators. N64 emulators (AFAIK) aren't as far along as 2600 emulators. I'm not too sure there is an emulator that could do RObo 64 and even if it could without the n64 controlpad it would be damn hard to play the game. It works fine.... ..as long as you don't try to take snapshots. I died for this. Most N64 games are easier to play on the Wii or the PC, due to the higher resolution.

Why not? This is the same Tecmo that hid the tone deaf SNES versions of Ninja Gaiden trilogy in their X-Box title. That said, if the commercial was real, it better be for a Virtual Console roster update. There's no excuse otherwise.

The awards on the front page only go up to 2004. What about the games created since then?

Why choose? Sprites and polygons are two ways of building a game, but in the end, it's the game you remember...

The same Sega who used Spiderman, Batman, and Godzilla in a game with that began with famous Japanese actor Sonny Chiba as famed real life ninja Hattori Hanzō deflecting ninja stars? The question that immediately comes to mind is: "They stole her act, and paid Michael Jackson?"

Small sprites? For NES, they're huge.

I'll play Satan. I switched. When you're looking poverty in the eye, and there are mouths to feed, the choice is easy. I miss my library, seeing all the games lined up, but - The PC has advantages over the original hardware; it's harder for drug addicts to steal and pawn. God forbid the former tenants who lived in the apartment you're moving into invited the cockroaches over to keep house - Atari cartridges make safe nesting grounds. I still have nightmares about how I lost my copy of Solaris. The PC is easier to watch when children are at play. I don't need to worry about weather ruining a Starpath cassette. If we move past the Atari age, emulation really improves on the original experience. My ritual with my real NES is blowing into the cartridge slot, rocking the game back and forth until the connection is made, and then playing a game that can cause seizures in unsuspecting housepets while trying to kill enough enemies so that I can see which ninja turtle I'm supposed to be. I switch the game, the ritual begins again... I'm letting go. I'm giving away my physical classic game collection to those who give it the kind of love it needs.

Wait, what? In II, if you hit both buttons at once, you did a special attack. Like a little jumping slash. This was good, and pretty vital to doing well in the game. In III, if you hit both buttons at once, you do a slightly fancier attack, but it KILLS YOU. They didn't add, they took away and replaced. That's not better, it's just worse. Make the game harder, but don't limit me to an hour of non-stop jump kicking. I agree with you on the flicker in II though. It's awful. Keeps it from being one of my favorite NES games. You're right about the move. I can't believe I had so much trouble pulling it off. Here it is in emulation - NES pad must be getting old..

There were no desperation moves in 2, so is it really a loss? Any variety is welcomed in a side scrolling beat 'em up. Just so people who haven't played the games know what we're talking about. Not on all counts. The third game adopted the "hey, let's up the difficulty by making special moves drain the player's health" route. For that, i will always prefer TMNT II. And i'll agree with Castlevania III being the best of that series, but you should probably also spring for a copy of II. It's different than any other game in the series, and totally worth playing through. edit: Playing it again, the third game flickers just as much, but faster, and less random, you lose less of the visuals overall - maybe due to the sprites being a little smaller?