Some thoughts on Final Fantasy VIII parade scene

After deceitfully big title, I am afraid I will disappoint you with a short note just to make a record of a game-related reflection I’ve had recently. Nothing particularly brilliant, nothing particularly insightful, but perhaps you will find it interesting.

My girlfriend (who, on a side note, looks like Zafina from Tekken 6) has shown me Notre-Dame de Paris, the beautiful French musical, fragments of which can be found on Youtube. After watching the song called “La fete des fous“, I couldn’t shake of the feeling that I have seen it somewhere, or at least something very similar.

After some time my neurons made an intriguing connection – I realized that this scene reminded me of Galbadian parade of sorceress Edea in Final Fantasy VIII. Although I’ve heard voices on the web that dancers are doing Thriller routine, I frankly am not convinced at all. For me the parade scene carries more resemblance to the one from musical, in the overall tone and way that dancers move. Seeing how the musical predates the game, the speculation that this particular fragment became influence for the aforementioned parade scene cannot be totally ruled out.

I’m curious to hear your opinion: first click here, than here – do you see any similarity, or is it just me?

Gaming on Acer Aspire One

Being a gadgeteer, I too often buy cool technological gizmos just because I get into my head that it would be cool to have one. In most cases I get back to my senses some time later when I realize I am not using them to their full potential or that they are not half as cool as their marketing promised them to be and as a result sell them when in need of money. Examples of things I used to own but don’t anymore include: iPhone, Wacom Intuos3 A4 tablet, Toshiba M200, Toshiba M4, Powerizer clone and, just recently, a cool Acer Aspire One netbook.

In case of the netbook craze, I reckoned it would cool to be able to type my blog posts and other writing thingies when travelling by train to my hometown (you wouldn’t believe how long it takes Polish railways to travel 200km…) or occasionally check mailbox when in one of many cafes in the city center. Being able to watch a movie, do lightweight programming or play some games were additional plus. At first I wanted Asus EEE, but it was expensive and I told myself that I wouldn’t buy anything more expensive than 1000PLN (Polish currency, which I give here because dollar conversion is changing a bit too rapidly these days). Then I fell in love with MSI Wind, because it was prettier, got many things better and also carried 6-cell battery, promising about five hours of battery life. For a short period of time I considered Samsung N10, which was even cooler – however, it turned out to be freakin’ expensive as well.

Finally I settled for a used Acer Aspire One, with 6-cell battery, 80Gb hard drive, 1Gb of RAM and Windows XP for significantly smaller amount of money than my limit. Unfortunately, it turned out that while it is quite capable machine on its own, it also has several drawbacks.

First of all, the keyboard, while often described as the best among netbooks, is still too small for me. I am a tall guy of about 2m (6.6 feet) and I do have large hands with long fingers – which made typing problematic. Secondly, while the screen was wonderfully crisp and colourful, it also had very high DPI (meaning very small pixels), making extended use for writing/reading a strain on my already strained eyes. Coupled together, these two issues made my primary application of notebook – as a portable typewriter – very limited. I would get tired of using it for anything else than games and movies much faster than the battery would run out. Don’t get me wrong – it was a delightful little device, only it turned out to be unfit for my particular purposes and physical build. I use the past tense, because I sold it very quickly (in order not to lose money, since the moment for sale on the netbook market is good).

However, this being primarily a gaming website, I couldn’t pass the opportunity to check Acer Aspire One’s gaming capabilities – and I have to tell you that it makes an excellent portable gaming device. All the emulators run smoothly (PSX, Amiga and others), but what’s more impressive, a good selection of great older (but not too old, mind you) PC titles are playable as well. I immediately checked four of my favourites that I was itching ever since seeing some of the other “Gaming on Acer Aspire One” videos: ONI, Manhunt, Morrowind and Unreal Tournament Classic. ONI and UT run flawlessly at full speed, high details and in perfectly fluid animation. Manhunt is totally playable in all its gory glory, occasionally losing couple of frames in some more graphic-intensive fragments when there are lighting and fog effects present. Morrowind becomes a bit less fluid outside, but in interiors runs great and lowering drawing distance makes the game an enjoyable experience. Without further ado, here come the four classics in action:

I do apologize for the video quality, but I made this movie in my last hour of Acer ownership, when the buyer was already on his way to my place. It was bright spring morning and AAO’s shiny screen did become quite reflective. As a result, not only can you watch my skinny hand and arm, but also reflection of me and the camera. While what you can see in the movie looks a little weird with the glare, it actually didn’t infer with playing. In other words, things look much worse in the video than in reality. Still, this is the video showing in action some games (ONI, Manhunt) that you couldn’t find played on a netbook anywhere else on Youtube and it might be helpful if you are thinking about buying Acer Aspire One with potential gaming in mind.

256 Posts

Just a quick heads up – Barts News has just crossed the magical boundary of 256 posts. Celebrating 100 posts is for noobs, in here we think in Hex. Now, if you just started counting those posts, don’t be surprised if you see less of them – some are still in production, but the overall post counter (including draft ones) has just risen over the 8bit threshold.

What has happened during these two and a half years it took me to produce these posts?

I have been to Tokyo Game Show as official representative of CD-Action magazine, met Jessica Chobot and grabbed a beer with Kotaku’s two Brians. Maciej Miąsik noticed my post on his old XLand games and port of Heartlight PC to PSP, so did Avi Munchuk from Aviary (even though he did not reply to my comment). I got linked to from some more popular blogs and websites.

How did it all begin?

I originally started Barts News as a therapeutic kind of thing: I was very ill at the time and could not do anything more active. It turned out to work just fine and I am happy to announce that I feel fine enough to train martial arts, dance salsa, work, study Japanese and lead a normal life on my own. Running blog turned out to be so much fun I actually opened another one, this time on old books.

How many visits do you usually get?

On the best day I’ve had about 3,500 visits and on average day pageloads vary between one and two hundreds. It’s not that much, seeing how the site has been around for more than two years now, but it’s not too bad either. At least someone is reading the damn thing.

What do people search on your blog?

Most popular post has been the one on little programs to help you with Japanese and most popular searches usually are related to PSP, especially PDF on PSP and Bookr. Strangely enough, the posts I am most proud of somehow don’t get that much appreciation, except maybe the one on Wipeout Pure and in-game ads. Also, short referral fun for you to see some of the weird searches that apparently lead to my site:

how to sacrifice Ubuntu – with obsidian dagger, of course!
nazi girls – not here, my friend… oh, wait
how are Greek and Japanese goddesses similar? – they have breasts
spank Chobot – some do realize this fantasy in the real world, not me though
gameboy games for girls in firefox – my imagination just switched off
how to be strong enough to finish “dungeon siege” – I suggest doing push-ups and taking cold showers, if these don’t help, then face it: perhaps you are just too weak to finish Dungeon Siege

Any final thoughts?

There is a little box on the right that says Follow This Blog Barts’ Minions – I would be very grateful if you clicked it, it will boost my ego and show the world that you are following this blog. Thanks!

We’re living in exponential times

Recently I stumbled upon this video and was stunned:

Or awoken, I don’t know. Indeed, shift happens right now.

My mother said it’s terrifying. I don’t agree. I believe that finally technological advances have gained momentum to change the world as our parents know it and what’s more, to do it rapidly, over the course of years instead of centuries or decades.

I consider myself a child of the beginning of this digital era, blessed with the privilege of riding on the first wave of technological changes. I was a witness to the process of nowadays computers hatching from crude 8-bit machines, I was there when first mobile phones size of a brick became fashionable, I saw them shrink in size and grow in numbers, I observed the rise of internet, through dial-up connections at first (ah, the BBS era), fixed lines later and recently wireless. I have been following all these changes misty-eyed, because for me they were sci-fi dream descending into my own grey reality of post-communist block country, transforming that reality to more and more colourful and connected to the outer world, the part of which we fully are now as a member of European Union. I wrote more about that times on Slashdot three years ago.

The magazine with tiger on the cover is the one that begun my digital journey

On the other hand, I am part of the last generation raised in the world without internet access everywhere, where children still knew how to have fun without digital crutches. When kids would try to be on time, instead of lazily sending text message “I will be late” and going back to their computer game – among other things, because being trustworthy meant something. The imagination that we had developed while playing our games without computers or other devices is something that I fear might be gone soon… or not, perhaps I’m just growing old and senile.

I still remember the reaction of my Father, when as 13-year old kid I told him I wanted to make computer games – he was unhappy and asked me if I wouldn’t consider studying in order to find a real job. I know he meant well, but video games are now a multi-billion dollar entertainment sector, something he could not envisage back then. Similarly, when in 2007 I told my parents I was blogging about games, it took my Father couple of months to finally grasp that blogging might not mean just writing about my private affairs. When he finally checked Barts News, he then said “Hey, this actually looks neat and professional.” and added “I didn’t know there even was such thing like blogging about games…”

I sometimes am surprised that my parents don’t follow the technology rush. I believe that this results not so much from the amount of changes in their life span, but more of the approach. People that are curious and interested in the world in general and new things in particular seem to be on much better terms with changing realities and emerging technologies than thos who adapt conservative approach. Curiously, this is also the case of my Grandfather.

When my Grandfather was a nine year old child, he was asked to go and accompany guests from the train station which was one day from their house. He took horses, carriage and drove all the way to the station, picked up the guests and then came back. During his life, he has seen the change from XIX century technology and mentality to total cyberpunk of XXI century (also, two wars, three prison camps, independence of Poland, fall of communism and atomic bomb – not bad for just one life) and no wonder some things are hard for him to follow.

Unfortunately, I have not managed to teach him how to use computer and internet, something that I bitterly regret now, because it would make his last days much more interesting now that all his friends are dead and times are almost alien for him in how futuristic it has all become. Main reasons was his Parkinson disease and vision problems, but not the lack of understanding or interest. When I was showing my Grandparents computer games on laptop, he was genuinely interested. He actually liked Morrowind, a game that he called a great adventure and compared to reading a good book (sic!).

Image courtesy of Penny Arcade

Even though due to his physical limitations I did not succeed in bringing my Grandfather to PC community, I have explained to him how things work and shown XXI Century to him. And oddly enough he seemed to mentally adapt to it much more smoothly than my Father. Hence my conclusion, that this is not so much related to age, but to approach and mental flexibility.

Coming back to the animation that started my torrent of thoughts above, I feel that I have been given a unique chance not only to live between two distinct eras, not only to witness the rise of technologies that have changed the face of the world as we know it, but most importantly to live in rapidly changing and evolving new reality, where our creativity, ideas and open mind are our primary assets further boosted by tools, software and hardware, where connection with other people from all around the globe is easier than ever, where the technology gap between countries is constantly diminishing thanks to decreasing cost of computers.

Supposedly, there is an ancient Chinese curse: “may you live in interesting times.” It was meant as a curse, but interesting times can also be a blessing and I believe that this is the case, because as a sentient species we now have more possibilities at hand than ever before.

Kindless Kotaku Kontest

The story behind this post is simple. My favourite gaming blog, Kotaku, has announced a contest in which one could win a bag of schwag, but more importantly, status of contributor for the site for one day. As much as I love gaming paraphernalia, I craved the opportunity to write for Kotaku even more. My inner aspiring blogger was kicking and screaming “I want that!”, so I had no choice, sat down and began working.

Barts with Brian Crecente and some other folks

The contest required finding three best and three worst posts among original Kotaku posts, writing some justification of contestant’s choice and suggested that finalists would be chosen based on what they wrote:

We’ll sort through them a select a batch of finalists who will then need to submit a writing sample for the whole class to read, so that your future readership for a day can have the final vote.

As I like to think of myself as a writer, I decided that I stand a chance in this competition. It was not random drawing, my writing is surely not the best there is, but is quite sufficient for a contest, and also the choice of posts mattered. That’s what I assumed – but I was wrong.

I spent quite some time scanning last year posts on Kotaku, and trust me, there’s a lot of them. I then spent more time on writing and proof-reading. Altogether I believe it took me somewhere between three and six hours, but I didn’t measure it (perhaps all for the better).

The shit hit the elevator when the finalists were published – turned out Kotaku staff were too busy to actually read through all the entries, so they drawn five finalists at random. You can read my ranting about it here if you really must. I admit I was being bitter and disappointed, not only because I have not won (which, while childish, is something normal), but more so because I considered that the change of rules during the contest was a nasty thing to do. Had I known the selection process of finalists were to be random, I would have spared myself the effort and skipped it altogether, hence missing on the disappointment. I have never won anything by random draw – all the competitions that I won were the ones where I had to put some serious work into my entry.

Kotaku folks have chosen not to react to the controversy at all, which, while understandable, once again seems not too nice. Some people complained a bit in comments under next post, but then the whole ruckus ended.

While I have totally nothing against other contestant and I wish all the best to the winner, I was definitely disappointed with both me wasting my time on writing something no one would read and the behaviour of Kotaku staff. In order for my work no to be entirely useless, I have decided to publish my entry here. After all, this is my blog, right?

I have decided not just to point out to three stories I like, but rather use them as particular illustrations of more general preferences. There are some things I like in Kotaku (many), some that I don’t (few). I used this competition’s formula to provide some feedback.

LOVED:

NUMBER ONE – GAME REVIEWS
Post example: Left 4 Dead review

I really like the reviews and I consider them one of the most important additions to Kotaku in 2008. They are concise, structured and in case of games I have actually played myself, I checked that I pay attention to same points (except maybe I wouldn’t articulate them so well). I am all for lack of numerical score, I really like how there are positive and negative points listed and as icing on the cake, the details concerning how long the reviewer has played the game, what modes they unlocked etc. After reading the review of Dead Space I actually went out to buy it, making educated decision despite it flaws listed in the review – because I knew they wouldn’t spoil the fun for me.

NUMBER TWO – PERSONAL POSTS, ESPECIALLY BASHCRAFT’S
Post example: Brian Ashcraft’s dilemma

I totally love posts that contain little glimpses of Kotaku Krew’s everyday life. I have to say that when I started reading Kotaku (early 2005) I was annoyed by these tidbits: “I want to read about games, goshdarnit, what do I care for some nerds’ private life?”. Funny, how I have grown fond of this formula. I now know the name of Crecente’s wife and kid, I know quite a bit about Bashcraft – and these small fragments are something that makes you folks much closer to and less anonymous. It has become a thing that keeps me attached to Kotaku, as if I knew you, and it has created a bond of sort that keeps me coming back. As a result, last year I could shake hands with both Brians and bunch of Kotakuites (including Witzbold!) during party in Shimokitazawa.

NUMBER THREE – INSIDE INFORMATION PLUS BOOBIES
Post example: Activision’s Playmate

Okay, this one is tough. Kotaku sometimes pulls out of the hat some cool behind-the-curtains industry information, which is cool, and sometimes a post that gives the excuse to show some breasts, which is also cool. Rarely, there are posts that fuse these two powers combined – and this is the nirvana of game journalism, exemplified by the post above (which I have found really interesting, by the way, even more so due to appearance of the main heroine in comment section). Now you may label me a sexist pig.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Ten most terrifying video game Enemies
I totally loved this post because of the discussion below it and also because it spawned a series of posts on my blog on fear in videogames.

DSi Manual Kommented
The creativity of Kotakuites at its best – couldn’t stop laughing after seeing some of the comments.

Trailer’s Trash
This was the best video podcast of the year here on Kotaku. I am so disappointed that it was not continued that I almost put this in “Didn’t like” category to let you know that I absolutely want more of those. Lens flare!

DIDN’T LIKE:

NUMBER ONE – “TELL US, DAMMIT” SERIES
Post example: Did you buy any games on Black Friday?

I’m sorry, not only are some of the questions lame (the one above is a good example – Black Friday is something typically related to USA, putting it on a global site is a bit off in my perspective), but it makes me think of a telemarketer calling to ask me questions about products I like and why. One thing that makes Kotaku less annoying is that you don’t call me when I’m enjoying a bath or quiet (actually, not so much) moment with my girlfriend. Other than that, I can’t shake off the feeling that you are processing data acquired from these posts and sell them to EA. Definitely don’t like.

NUMBER TWO – TROLLS MAKE ME LOSE FAITH IN KOTAKU READERSHIP
Post example: Clearly no one black worked on this game

On the whole, Kotaku community is cool and is one of the reasons why I like coming back to this site. Good part of interesting information, opinions and risky jokes are shared in comments. But while there are fewer trolls, haters and idiots here then on other sites, there are some cases when I really am saddened at how ignorant, obnoxious and racist some commenters can be. The above post was a fiesta of nasty comments and I really think that they should be removed from the site (not only users banned, but some comments deleted as well – you know which ones I mean).

NUMBER THREE – KOTAKU CAN F**K UP TOO
Post example: What is the Xbox Pure?

This one is not really a trend per se, but it happens sometimes Kotaku will screw something up. In this case I was not really judgemental, so I won’t be pointing finger at anyone. I didn’t really consider CAG’s joke to be the best (to put it diplomatically), but I didn’t really like Kotaku’s reaction to it – yes, you guys caught the bait, but then again, a bit more distance would perhaps be more appropriate than getting angry at CAG in general. On the whole, slight taste of disappointment here.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
There aren’t any. Kotaku is my favorite gaming site and it was actually quite hard to find things that I didn’t like. I pointed them above, but there are no runners up.

Ironically, the contest title was Winners and Losers. Har, har. Nevertheless, Kotaku still remains my favourite gaming site or at least the one I frequent most often, and I stand by what I wrote above. I know folks there, both among staff and among commenters, I have my little star as a long time tipster and commenter, as well as a small bunch of followers and generally I will still hang around there. I just didn’t like how this turned out, that’s all.

First post in the New Year

Welcome in 2009 everybody!

I am so sorry for the silence on this blog during Christmas period and until the end of 2008. A lot has been happening in my life, some of it very pleasant, but a good deal of it not at all (unfortunately). I’ll spare you the details, because this should be the place where you come back to read some news on games and technology, not some private rants. So without further ado, let’s get back on geeky topics.

2008 Wrap-up

Last year saw Barts News change quite a bit, both on the graphical side of things and content-wise. I have finally gotten around to updating page template and so the look of the site has finally moved away from default Blogger templates.

As for content, I have decided to write less posts but more juicy ones – so instead of barely reporting the news or fun stuff I have found on different gaming pages, I try now to focus on writing comparisons or features that you would not see elsewhere. Also, since I have less time for playing games but instead dabble in programming, graphics and other non-entertainment activity, I began adding posts on useful programs or interesting services found in the meantime. We’ll see where this takes us, so far the only immediate result is that the number of visitors dwindled again. :/

Speaking of which, this post dating back to 2007 has generated the majority of traffic on Barts News last year (Pareto rule in action, I guess). Ironic, isn’t it?

2009 Perspective

What’s coming up in 2009? Well, there will definitely be some changes. I am considering moving to some new platform ever since struggling with pains of updating site template. This will also be the opportunity to update graphical side of things once again and maybe finish that damn log once and for all…

There are some large posts waiting in the line (sneak-peek: my personal history of Final Fantasy VI and its remakes, and comprehensive list of cultural references in oldschool shoot’em up game Blood – among other things) and I definitely intend to wrap them up. Yes, I know I have promised you post on Blood last year already, but it’s already in the making. I have made the mistake of writing too many posts at once in December, so there is a lot of unfinished writing pushed back due to lack of time, but they will appear on Barts News soon.

Speaking on incoming posts, I have also wasted good couple hours on Kotaku contest, which then turned out to be a random drawing – I will use the writing from the contest here, in order for it not to prove totally useless.

Also, the commenting has been reopened for anonymous accounts – Dhoine drawn my attention to this and I have decided to give it a try. If the site gets overflowed with spam, I will have to revert to what it was before.

So there you go – you know now that I am not dead, you know that there’s a bunch of posts in making, you can expect some changes, possibly for the better. Hopefully you’ll still visit this blog from time to time. As always, I am waiting for your comments, impressions, suggestions, advices and insults.

All the best in 2009!

Blobby Volley PSP (with bonus anecdote)

Long time ago there was a game called Blobby Volley available for PC. It was crappy two player volleyball match between two colourful jellies. That’s about all that could be said about the game.

Its main advantage was that it didn’t have virtually any system requirements and also it didn’t require internet connection to be played. Hence, two players could compete on one computer, even if the hardware was very old – useful for those boring laboratory classes where pairs of students were put in front of lousy computer for long hours. Other than that particular case, I feel pity towards people who play this for fun.

You can download it from here or here, newer version is available here (for Windows, MacOSX and Linux). This link leads to a fansite the members of which obviously have too much time on their hands and very peculiar sense of what digital entertainment is. But then again, to everyone their own porn.

All right, so the game is old and crappy (although apparently some people do like it, but then again, some people juggle geese) – why even bother? The reason I am bringing this little, umm, thing to the light of day is that just recently a PSP port showed up (link to news, link to download). Okay, I hear you say, so now we have a crappy port of a crappy game, so why bother again?

Well, first of all, like I mentioned before, some people enjoy this game. It actually is fun for a short while and having it on PSP might let you pass couple minutes while waiting in a queue to dentist’s. Not many interesting homebrew games arrived on the platform recently, so this one will have to do for a moment. At least give it a try, despite my complaining.

But the real reason for me to write about this game is a little anecdote from old times when I still was a student of telecommunications.

Introducing two heroes of the story:

• Cyril – blonde white guy with blue eyes, terrible acne and addiction to porn, always downloading new kinky movies, very likable, known by everyone, generally fun to talk to;
• Pablo – half Spanish, half Polish, with huge mane of black hair, addicted to computer games, grumpy, lazy, but despite that also really likable;

Both of them would almost never leave computer lab (albeit due to different motivations,) both of them would play countless hours of Quake II and Starcraft, both them would be local masters of Blobby Volley.

After some dialogue that started innocently, then heated up and escalated, they both decided to have an official match to settle the difference concerning who is the best Blobby Volley player once and for all. The whole Telecommunications group gathered to watch the clash of the titans, the epic showdown which would establish the champion of computer lab.

Someone spontaneously assumed the role of commenter and added voice-over to otherwise silent match:
– Pablo dodges Cyril’s attack…
– Cyril remains cool…
– … now he’s attacking in a cold fashion…
– …doesn’t show any emotions…
– Pablo on the other hand is feverishly struggling…
– … fighting desperately…
And then someone loudly added:
– …in order to preserve his species!

Bam, the whole tension went out of the window, everybody burst out with laughing. I don’t remember who won, but I do remember everyone laughing out loud. Pablo totally hated the line about him preserving his species, which would of course be thrown at him every now and then ’till everyone got bored.

Okay, so maybe this is not that funny to you, but at the moment it was simply brilliant and frankly, this anecdote was the first thing that popped into my head after having seen the news on PSP port of Blobby Volley, so of course I had to go and share it publicly.

Design update

As you can see, I was not entirely joking when I said that Barts News needs a bit of rehash. Yes, I have been toying with the idea of changing the look of the site for quite some time already, the persistent lack of free time preventing me from actually ever doing it, however. But following the launch of my other new blog (don’t get excited though, it’s in Polish and about forgotten books), and some poll concerning possible templates, I dived head first into template editing and whatnot and you can see the result around.

Granted, it’s still a little rough around the edges: links went all bye-bye (apparently saving blogger template XML doesn’t not save all of it, thanks a lot Google!), so if the link to your page is not out there, please wait patiently until I readd it anytime soon, placement of some widgets is random (and some others went to the place were good widgets go after they die, thanks again Google), I cannot force some scripts to work, there is no cool logo (working on it) and blah, blah, blah. You don’t care anyways, do you?

Still, the design update was definitely needed (how long can you use default Blogger template anyways?), so bear with me a while and I’ll iron all the details out. If anything looks weird in your browser, please let me know via comments. If the link to your website doesn’t reappear in about a week, put some meaningful coughing in the comments. If there’s anything else you might wanna let me know about, for example impressions after change, feel free to. I’m waiting for your opinions here!

ZX Spectrum games bible is out!

In communist Poland of the eighties there was one computer magazine (quite popular, actually). It was divided into “clans”: ZX Spectrum clan, Atari clan, Commodore clan, Amstrad clan. Plus game reviews, plus features. I was, of course, ZX Spectrum clan member and I remain one ever since.

Why do I even mention it? Because a book with ZX Spectrum games’ reviews is out right now and I have contributed a review to it as well.

The project is called ZX Spectrum Games Bible, and while not the first one, it seems to strive to be the most complete one so far. There are of course online lists of best ZX Spectrum games (such as this one – great read!), but you know, a book is a book.

I learnt about it from Retro Gamer magazine I was reading at Heathrow airport, contacted the author and finally ended up writing one of many, many, many reviews included in it. Most of my favourite games were already taken, but I have found one game I have known under different name: Panama Joe, which I have come to know under the alias Montezuma’s Revenge (you can play it in your browser on World of Spectrum). This is the excerpt from the review:

Today Panama Joe may seem simplistic, repetitive and hard as hell, but back in 1984 it was an epic adventure allowing players to experience the struggle with the dangers of Aztec pyramid and as such it deserves a place in the heart of every 8-bit veteran out there.

You can buy the book here. If you do, please let me know – it will definitely boost my ego.

Fear in virtual worlds, part II

Continuing the subject of scary videogames moments (part I is here), I must confess first that I actually missed out two games from early DOS era in my previous note: the original Alone in the Dark and Space Hulk.

While AitD sequels were a mere shadows of the original (especially the last one is catching a lot of flak in reviews), this game was really something. It required a lot of quick thinking in stressful situations from the very beginning – in the very first location player had to immediately start blocking both door and window in order not to be devoured by incoming creatures. The game included Lovecraftian elements and pirates – a combination granting success in the eyes of video game players – but above all, it delivered truly scary experience.

Also, Space Hulk. The moment when a space marine with PowerClaws (or whatever the name of that murderous device was) guarding the back of a squad falls and evil Aliens Genestealers attack the rest of your squad from behind, successive squad members monitors go offline… Combining strategy, arcade, micromanagment and horror, this game would guarantee a good dose of adrenaline to the player.

I don’t know how I could have forgotten these two games. The only possible explanation is that I played them both before I even had my own PC and I don’t have the originals on my shelf. So, let us now leave the DOS era and move towards early Windows…

The next game that managed to scare me was Blood. I was already in highschool and even though the game’s graphics don’t seem that realistic these days and theoretically I was already quite grown up, but nevertheless Blood managed to creep me out. It had really thick atmosphere, memorable monsters and great sound effects combined with unsettling music would set the ambience really well. Roaring stone gargoyles (the epic battle with first one was a tough cookie), growling underwater beasts, screams of evil cultists, with occult chanting in the background of some levels (“…pestis… cru-ento… filo… matsus…“) – I actually had to take breaks when playing this game, when the spooky atmosphere was getting to me.

On a side note, Blood remains one of my all time favourites and some time later I got used to the screams, monsters and music so much that I would be playing the game to cheer myself up, not to mention hours of multiplayer. I actually plan to write a separate post on this game alone.

Around that time I also got frightened by System Shock II, but since I have just played the demo, I don’t think it really counts. Never got back to play this one, which is a shame.

Next in line comes another incredibly scary game, namely Aliens versus Predator. Playing as Alien was spooky with weird, with strange music, unusual vision and the need to have incredible spatial orientation when walking on the walls and ceilings. Player had to watch out for marines and other hazards, but while challenging, this mode was not very frightening. The other two modes, however, were. Even as a Predator, with great health, powerful weapons at hand and vision modes facilitating enemy detection and aiming, fighting swarms of Aliens would be a memorable experience, full of moments when player jumps up. The epitome of fear incarnated, though, was playing as a Human.

The reason for this was simple – the Aliens were not scripted, but deployed in waves somewhere in the level and then would roam free to bite player, coming out from every ventilation shaft, pipe and dark corner randomly. It’s true that there were no savegames during a level, the sounds were very suggestive (just like in the movies), the vision was limited and levels were claustrophobic, but the main reason why this game was so scary was the impredictability of the threat. There was no way to guess when or where from the next attack would come, so the game would keep player at his toes all the time. And since Aliens were such killer beasts, if player missed one acid-blooded monstrosity crawling upon him from behind, the game would be over in seconds. Of course, our Marine would carry a movement detector, the beeping of which alone was often enough to start one’s heart racing, but it only covered fron 180 degrees… I admit not having finished this game due to its insane difficulty setting and fear factor.

The sequel to Aliens vs Predator was still scary, more cinematic and epic, with better story – but it was scripted, hence less unpredictable and therefore less frightening as well. Which is not to say that it wouldn’t freak me out once or twice. Or thrice…

Next comes a whole paragraph devoted to Silent Hill series. Actually, these games could have a separate post written on them. They were all about fear and uncertainety. The first one was the most bizarre of all, with worlds / dimensions / realities switching in a way that left the protagonist (and hence the player as well) totally unsure of what is happening, as well as when and where. The game took a lot from Jacob’s Ladder movie. The sequel was a psychological nightmare, with recurring motive of a girl in haunted city resembling main hero’s dead wife. The girl would die over and over again, only to reappear alive later on, leaving protagonist more and more guilty, shaken and bewildered, finally leading him to see why this was taking place. The third part was definitely less psychological and more straightforward splatter-horror-like, but with great graphics and twisted storyline it also fit well into the series’ dark univers. And let us forget about the fourth one.

In each of these games there was a lot of scares, some coming from the fact that alternate Silent Hill reality was nightmarish world of rust and decay in which causality was just an empty word, but also from really unsettling monsters. An invicible monster called Pyramid Head was haunting player throught Silent Hill 2, pretty much causing me to sweat each time it appeared (not to mention the famous “rape” scene). Little shadow babies in Silent Hill 1 gave me the chills with their crying and moaning. The moment from the beginning of the game when player gets trapped in a nightmare with a crucified corpse on the fence was a masterpiece. Silent Hill 3 also had a couple of really scary moments, for example at the hospital, when player enters a wing that doesn’t exist…

There was a good amount of fear coming from the fact that rules of the game could change with shifting of the worlds (especially true for Silent Hill 1), there also was a certain amount of unpredicatibility, because the game would throw some surprises at the player every now and then. The thick atmosphere of danger was further by white static being emitted from the radio each time a monster would be approaching (quite similar to movement detector in Aliens vs Predator and equally unsettling). The visuals of the other world and monsters, incredibly spooky music by Akira Yamaoka added to the overall impression – this series gave many people some serious nightmares.

To be continued…