Well, although I didn't plan it that way, this seems to be my week for things ending. I had the last of Stanley G. Weinbaum's van Maderpootz stories for Free Fiction last Saturday, and the last chapter of Undersea Kingdom on Tuesday (plus the last re-post of the edited version on Monday). And now, more than 21 months after posting the first level of Shadows of the Empire, we finally come to the climactic Skyhook Battle, the concluding cutscenes, and the end credits.
I'm not sure where to go from here. I taped a playthrough of Goldeneye for the N64 back in 2002. For a while, I discounted the notion of posting it here, on the basis that it's not science fiction. Then the other day, it occurred to me, Of course it's science fiction, you nincompoop. It's about a plot to destroy London with a satellite weapon. But it may be too early to start another long playthrough on the same system as Shadows of the Empire. So I dunno. I may do a few features on games for other systems, and then do Goldeneye. Or not.
At any rate, I need to get going on replacing the few parts of the playthrough that I deleted when I (mistakenly) thought that my problems uploading new videos had to do with the fact that they were banned in some countries.
Thank you, all 22 or so of you out there who have watched this whole thing.
1:23 On this level, you get a free life with every fifteen fighters destroyed.
4:41 So what's the most lives it's possible to get? Other times, playing this level, I've reached 60 kills. I don't know if it's even possible to get to 75.
4:55 The control scheme changes for this last part of the level for some reason. I frequently forget, and up firing a few missiles when I mean to fire blasters, as here.
5:05 Here, I'm just firing the rest to get a full supply again for when I go into the Skyhook.
6:38 I know some people can just fly around the reactor core, pounding it with more missiles when they reload. For me, it's easier, if more time-consuming, to go out the next arm of the Skyhook, fly out a ways, turn around, and come back in again to fire on a new side of the core.
6:43 Again, shooting the last missile to get a new supply.
9:29 To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what happened here: neither what sent me out of control, nor how I managed to damage the last side of the core with two wild shots.
10:00 I didn't run out of time; this is supposed to happen when you reach the end of the last arm. (I'm not sure there even is a time limit.)
10:32 The timeframe of Shadows of the Empire stretches from the beginning of Empire to just before the beginning of Jedi. Note that Leia is in the bounty hunter suit she wears into Jabba's palace.
10:57 So what does happen when you finish the game in Medium? I did it back in the day, but it would take quite a while for me to repeat the feat now. Fortunately, someone else has recorded it. It's at the end of this post.
12:01 I never watched Freakazoid! so I needed Wikipedia to tell me that this is a gag credit which frequently appeared on that show, although it was most often spelled "Weena Mercator."
12:29 By this point in the credits, I always start thinking about the Atari 2600 days, when individual programmers created games all by themselves: design, music, graphics, everything. (And sometimes it showed, as with Adventure's ducklike dragons. But I digress.)
14:48 Then the credits just repeat. I just put black over it in editing until the next music fade-out.
And here it is, the Medium-and-up ending. It starts at 1:55 of this video.
Showing posts with label Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Games. Show all posts
Friday, November 11, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Games: Desert Moon
Day 1
[Excerpt from Post-Incident Report]
"There were no firearms. We're salvagers... engineers. Not soldiers. You couldn't even see anything out of that escape suit. But something was killing us, eating us. We had to fight back. The wreckage was full of components, components [that] we put together... and we fought back."So begins one of my favorite new Flash games of this last year: Desert Moon. It's well-designed, fast-moving, and has well-chosen music and sound effects. This is sort of a science fiction combination of shooter and tower defense. Place defenders with different weapons types in front of half of your crashed spaceship, facing increasing hordes of aliens of different types... and the re-animated corpses of your friends from the separated other half of your ship.
I enjoy games that, once you've picked up the mechanics of it, aren't too hard to master. It seems I'm not the only one, because I've found a lot of Flash games are that way. As I've said before, I hardly possess mad skillz, but I've finished all five "days" at all three skill levels with top marks. For some people, mastering it takes all the fun out of the game. For me, it makes it something relaxing to come back to now and again. If you can call being besieged by aliens and zombies relaxing.
(click here to get to the game)
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Games: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64) Part 12
You'd think, having just come up from the sewers, I wouldn't be able to sneak up on guards so well. At any rate, now it's time for Xizor's drastically under-furnished palace! This is a level you really need a guide for— or, ahem, a video walkthrough —what with all the fiendishly hidden challenge points. Enjoy them while you can: in the next (final) level, challenge points are awarded automatically.
0:54 Here's yet another place where the auto-targeting just will not lock onto flying droids to save its life, hence some cheap hits.
1:39 See, that switch not only opens the door on ground level across the room, it also opens the small alcove I'm now backing into.
1:53 As you can see, this door doesn't stay open for long, which is why I concentrated on jumping and running, and left shooting the droid for once I was past the door.
3:06 If it's not obvious here what I'm doing: the switch sends the lift back to the first level. Then, by hovering here until it goes red, I can click it again, and send the lift down to a secret level.
3:49 I'm just moving over here so you can see the drawbridge coming down.
5:18 Nothing happened when I ran through the pulse pack (purple) because I'm already full up. The same deal with the extra 5-health pack.
5:55 Yes, another alcove where you wouldn't expect it.
6:41 This is my favorite devious hidden challenge point of the level: a hidden passageway behind an alcove. That window I fly past, by the way, is the control room I was in a minute ago.
7:13 I'm sure there's some way to time this so you don't get pummeled by the giant gear, but I haven't managed to figure it out.
7:24 Oh, nice jump, me.
8:06 I'm going back this way instead, just to make sure I don't get pummeled by those gears I dropped between.
8:44 Again, auto-targeting and those damned flying droids.
9:36 I fired that stunner a little high, and it wasn't effective.
10:22 I can never remember which corner of this shaft is which, so I end up checking them all until I find the right one. It's the same story with the exit hatch shortly.
11:45 I've switched to seekers because I only have so many disruptors. It's fairly easy to hit the first stage of the Gladiator with seekers... not so much the next two.
12:46 If I had better aim, and hit the Gladiator itself more often instead of the wall behind it, this would probably go a lot quicker.
0:54 Here's yet another place where the auto-targeting just will not lock onto flying droids to save its life, hence some cheap hits.
1:39 See, that switch not only opens the door on ground level across the room, it also opens the small alcove I'm now backing into.
1:53 As you can see, this door doesn't stay open for long, which is why I concentrated on jumping and running, and left shooting the droid for once I was past the door.
3:06 If it's not obvious here what I'm doing: the switch sends the lift back to the first level. Then, by hovering here until it goes red, I can click it again, and send the lift down to a secret level.
3:49 I'm just moving over here so you can see the drawbridge coming down.
5:18 Nothing happened when I ran through the pulse pack (purple) because I'm already full up. The same deal with the extra 5-health pack.
5:55 Yes, another alcove where you wouldn't expect it.
6:41 This is my favorite devious hidden challenge point of the level: a hidden passageway behind an alcove. That window I fly past, by the way, is the control room I was in a minute ago.
7:13 I'm sure there's some way to time this so you don't get pummeled by the giant gear, but I haven't managed to figure it out.
7:24 Oh, nice jump, me.
8:06 I'm going back this way instead, just to make sure I don't get pummeled by those gears I dropped between.
8:44 Again, auto-targeting and those damned flying droids.
9:36 I fired that stunner a little high, and it wasn't effective.
10:22 I can never remember which corner of this shaft is which, so I end up checking them all until I find the right one. It's the same story with the exit hatch shortly.
11:45 I've switched to seekers because I only have so many disruptors. It's fairly easy to hit the first stage of the Gladiator with seekers... not so much the next two.
12:46 If I had better aim, and hit the Gladiator itself more often instead of the wall behind it, this would probably go a lot quicker.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Games: Bloons Tower Defense
(originally posted January 26, 2009)
And now for a bonus science-fiction-themed Monday Game: Bloons Tower Defense!
(click here to get to game)
And now for a bonus science-fiction-themed Monday Game: Bloons Tower Defense!
...
Oh, like monkeys throw darts to destroy an onslaught of balloons in real life?! Besides: monkeys? Throwing darts? To pop balloons? Entertainment gold, I tell you, solid freakin' gold!
(click here to get to game)
Monday, October 3, 2011
Games: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64) Part 11
I'm still trying to find out if there's any way for me to continue to post larger videos on YouTube with their new system, so Undersea Kingdom is waiting for that. In the meantime, here's something that came in at a perfectly uploadable 1.97GB.
Time to get down and dirty with my playthrough of the classic Nintendo 64 game Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire as we make our way through the sewers of Imperial City. There are only two more levels after this, so yes, this is coming to an end someday.
Notes:
0:21 You can, of course, also walk the path, but this is much faster. And if you're lucky, you can get away without damage from the flying droid you can briefly see at 0:25.
2:10 You can barely see it at this distance, but I'm shooting at a Dianoga. I'll shoot another one underwater in a moment. You'll get to see them better later.
3:23 Honest to God, it's much, much more difficult to shoot these droids than it looks like it should be. The auto-targeting is pretty much useless on them, for some reason.
4:26 I can't tell you how many times I've found myself stumbling around this dark room, trying to find the exit. This time, I got off easy.
4:59 The laser cannons and droids in here are easier to avoid than they are to shoot. You take a lot less damage this way, believe me.
5:13 Whoops, pressed the wrong button, there.
6:28 Now you can see a Dianoga a little better.
7:50 All of this fuss is about one of the flying droids. They can see you easier than you can see them. And they can shoot you much, much easier than you can, them. Honestly, if I came out into the open, it would be cheap hit after cheap hit. I see an explosion at one point, but I'm not certain I got him, hence all the extra shooting.
10:52 Now I'm not entirely certain the disruptor shot got both Xizor troopers who are up there. It's important not to take cheap hits at this point, so you go into the boss battle with as much health as possible.
12:13 It's also important not to get smacked by the damn blades, but you can't have everything.
12:49 And now, the mother of all Dianogas! It took me quite a while to find the best way to do this. As you can see, I'm keeping low, and shooting up. The thing is to destroy the eye. If you stick around up top, the tentacles (which grow back, by the way) will pound the hell out of you all through the process, as opposed to just when the eye is destroyed. When keeping low, be sure not to touch the Dianoga's mouth.
Time to get down and dirty with my playthrough of the classic Nintendo 64 game Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire as we make our way through the sewers of Imperial City. There are only two more levels after this, so yes, this is coming to an end someday.
Notes:
0:21 You can, of course, also walk the path, but this is much faster. And if you're lucky, you can get away without damage from the flying droid you can briefly see at 0:25.
2:10 You can barely see it at this distance, but I'm shooting at a Dianoga. I'll shoot another one underwater in a moment. You'll get to see them better later.
3:23 Honest to God, it's much, much more difficult to shoot these droids than it looks like it should be. The auto-targeting is pretty much useless on them, for some reason.
4:26 I can't tell you how many times I've found myself stumbling around this dark room, trying to find the exit. This time, I got off easy.
4:59 The laser cannons and droids in here are easier to avoid than they are to shoot. You take a lot less damage this way, believe me.
5:13 Whoops, pressed the wrong button, there.
6:28 Now you can see a Dianoga a little better.
7:50 All of this fuss is about one of the flying droids. They can see you easier than you can see them. And they can shoot you much, much easier than you can, them. Honestly, if I came out into the open, it would be cheap hit after cheap hit. I see an explosion at one point, but I'm not certain I got him, hence all the extra shooting.
10:52 Now I'm not entirely certain the disruptor shot got both Xizor troopers who are up there. It's important not to take cheap hits at this point, so you go into the boss battle with as much health as possible.
12:13 It's also important not to get smacked by the damn blades, but you can't have everything.
12:49 And now, the mother of all Dianogas! It took me quite a while to find the best way to do this. As you can see, I'm keeping low, and shooting up. The thing is to destroy the eye. If you stick around up top, the tentacles (which grow back, by the way) will pound the hell out of you all through the process, as opposed to just when the eye is destroyed. When keeping low, be sure not to touch the Dianoga's mouth.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Games: Age of War 2
Since my cheap-ass Western Digital hard drive won't currently let me bring you Part Eleven of my honest-to-God-it's-ending-before-too-long playthrough of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, here's one of my favorite current Flash games.
In this game, as in the first Age of War, you and your AI opponent field armies and equip your respective headquarters with defenses as you both advance through the ages from caveman times to the far future (and, no, not back to caveman times).
This version features improved animation, all-new warriors, additional ages, and upgrades for your different warrior types, as well as defense.
One thing I like about Flash games is that most programmers seem to realize that you're not going to spend endless hours working your way through the thing, and so, by and large, they tend to be easier to complete than console games. I've done all the levels on Age of War 2, and I hardly have the maddest skillz on the block.
Actually, I wish console games were like that. I got through, I dunno, maybe half of God of War for the PS2 about three years ago, but there was one part I just could not beat. After dying underwater a couple dozen times, I just gave the thing up, and never touched it again.
That's one of the reasons Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for the Nintendo 64 is one of my all-time favorites: you don't have to master a level in order to go on to the next one. In fact, with many levels, you have to have upgrades and unlocked ships to master the earlier levels, and that requires that you gain those upgrades and awards by doing reasonably well on multiple levels. You could see that as grunt work, but I see it as a game that rewards replay.
Uh, now where was I...? Oh, yeah, Age of War 2. I've found that the Easy level is, in fact, easy enough that you can get away without building any soldiers until you reach the Modern Age. I'll tell you how after the jump.
(click here to go to the game)
In this game, as in the first Age of War, you and your AI opponent field armies and equip your respective headquarters with defenses as you both advance through the ages from caveman times to the far future (and, no, not back to caveman times).
This version features improved animation, all-new warriors, additional ages, and upgrades for your different warrior types, as well as defense.
One thing I like about Flash games is that most programmers seem to realize that you're not going to spend endless hours working your way through the thing, and so, by and large, they tend to be easier to complete than console games. I've done all the levels on Age of War 2, and I hardly have the maddest skillz on the block.
Actually, I wish console games were like that. I got through, I dunno, maybe half of God of War for the PS2 about three years ago, but there was one part I just could not beat. After dying underwater a couple dozen times, I just gave the thing up, and never touched it again.
That's one of the reasons Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for the Nintendo 64 is one of my all-time favorites: you don't have to master a level in order to go on to the next one. In fact, with many levels, you have to have upgrades and unlocked ships to master the earlier levels, and that requires that you gain those upgrades and awards by doing reasonably well on multiple levels. You could see that as grunt work, but I see it as a game that rewards replay.
Uh, now where was I...? Oh, yeah, Age of War 2. I've found that the Easy level is, in fact, easy enough that you can get away without building any soldiers until you reach the Modern Age. I'll tell you how after the jump.
(click here to go to the game)
Monday, September 12, 2011
Games: Oiligarchy
(originally posted December 15, 2008)
It may be a good sign that your simulation has verisimilitude when you get people arguing over what, exactly, constitutes "victory."
In this game, you are the head of an oil conglomerate. You can exploit resources and use campaign contributions to get a friendly and cooperative U.S. government. The game ends when the shareholders fire you (for not making them enough money), you're forced into retirement (by the end of dependence on oil), or everything goes up in a mushroom cloud (if the economy crashes from too little supply for the demand for too long).
So far, so good. But how do you win? Is it by lasting as long as possible before any of the three happen? Is it by lasting as long as possible while yet managing to keep the shareholders happy and bring the economy to a soft post-oil landing (i.e., retirement)? Or, as one person argues on the "Tips and Walkthroughs" section at addictinggames.com, is it to reach retirement and a non-oil addicted world as quickly as possible?
Myself, I've tried for the "soft landing" victory, but generally, I end up with the mushroom clouds somewhere in the latter half of the 22nd century. (My longevity record is 2213, but that ended with a bang, too.)
Is the point to save the world, save your job, or a combination of the two? The very ambiguity may be the game's biggest contribution to making you think about the goals and future of the oil economy.
2011 Update: Since then, I've read the creators' "postmortem," and yes, the ambiguity is part of the point. As they say, "we think that this kind of disorientation that indicates many open moral interrogatives is the biggest accomplishment of Oiligarchy."
(click here to proceed to game)
It may be a good sign that your simulation has verisimilitude when you get people arguing over what, exactly, constitutes "victory."
In this game, you are the head of an oil conglomerate. You can exploit resources and use campaign contributions to get a friendly and cooperative U.S. government. The game ends when the shareholders fire you (for not making them enough money), you're forced into retirement (by the end of dependence on oil), or everything goes up in a mushroom cloud (if the economy crashes from too little supply for the demand for too long).
So far, so good. But how do you win? Is it by lasting as long as possible before any of the three happen? Is it by lasting as long as possible while yet managing to keep the shareholders happy and bring the economy to a soft post-oil landing (i.e., retirement)? Or, as one person argues on the "Tips and Walkthroughs" section at addictinggames.com, is it to reach retirement and a non-oil addicted world as quickly as possible?
Myself, I've tried for the "soft landing" victory, but generally, I end up with the mushroom clouds somewhere in the latter half of the 22nd century. (My longevity record is 2213, but that ended with a bang, too.)
Is the point to save the world, save your job, or a combination of the two? The very ambiguity may be the game's biggest contribution to making you think about the goals and future of the oil economy.
2011 Update: Since then, I've read the creators' "postmortem," and yes, the ambiguity is part of the point. As they say, "we think that this kind of disorientation that indicates many open moral interrogatives is the biggest accomplishment of Oiligarchy."
(click here to proceed to game)
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Games: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64) Part 10
Blah blah 1995 blah blah Nintendo 64 blah blah. Now Part 10: Imperial Freighter Suprosa.
This isn't one of my favorite levels. It seems like every time I turn a corner, something is already shooting at me. And since usually, they don't come around the corner after me, I'm constantly taking damage. That's annoying even when there are adequate remedies around.
As with Part 9, I received a notice from YouTube after uploading it that it "may have content that is owned or licensed by Warner Chappell." Which is to say, the music. Which makes me wonder how so many of these installments haven't gotten me notes like this.
Not that I'm complaining about the ones I have gotten. I think many copyright holders are being quite rational about this sort of use of their material. I get to post my walkthrough even though it features their music, and they get to place ads on it. Seems like a win-win situation. (The exception is that Part 2 is, for some reason, simply banned outright in Germany. Go figure that.)
Notes:
0:19 Is it my imagination, or is Luke, let's say, more generously proportioned in the lower face here than he is in the movies?
1:50 Fortunately, this Stormtrooper will come after you if you wait long enough.
4:30 If it seems I'm being over-cautious here, remember the first paragraph.
6:23 I think there's probably more complex jumping in this level than in any other. Do this one wrong, for instance, and you end up on the other side, and have to go through the Dash-mashers again.
6:29 Here you see me not doing too well, grabbing the free life. Now, I suppose I could have done the level a few more times until I had one where I did everything right the first time, but I think this way is probably more educational for the viewer.
7:15 As I say, more complex jumping. Here, twisting in the air after coming off the turntable.
9:49 I've mentioned it before, but I enjoy it when Dash stops bulkheads from descending with his head.
10:17 To avoid wasting a lot of time here, you have to memorize where the important stuff is. Or write it down in a chart, which is what I did. But take it from me, the bays I don't check here, aren't worth checking. Same with the boxes I don't blow up.
14:48 Well, that was easy. If I remember correctly, in the more difficult levels, you don't have disruptors at this point to help you.
16:16 "Xizor is unaware that both Darth Vader and the rebels have learned of his treachery and race to confront him." For some reason, reading it this time, I almost want to check out the novel, because that sounds exciting: Vader and the Rebellion after the same guy. That "almost" isn't to diss the novels, by the way (especially one written by an author from one of my Thrilling Wonder Stories volumes); they're just one of the many things I never started on, and which seemed later like it was too late to start. But I suppose this one would be fairly standalone.
This isn't one of my favorite levels. It seems like every time I turn a corner, something is already shooting at me. And since usually, they don't come around the corner after me, I'm constantly taking damage. That's annoying even when there are adequate remedies around.
As with Part 9, I received a notice from YouTube after uploading it that it "may have content that is owned or licensed by Warner Chappell." Which is to say, the music. Which makes me wonder how so many of these installments haven't gotten me notes like this.
Not that I'm complaining about the ones I have gotten. I think many copyright holders are being quite rational about this sort of use of their material. I get to post my walkthrough even though it features their music, and they get to place ads on it. Seems like a win-win situation. (The exception is that Part 2 is, for some reason, simply banned outright in Germany. Go figure that.)
Notes:
0:19 Is it my imagination, or is Luke, let's say, more generously proportioned in the lower face here than he is in the movies?
1:50 Fortunately, this Stormtrooper will come after you if you wait long enough.
4:30 If it seems I'm being over-cautious here, remember the first paragraph.
6:23 I think there's probably more complex jumping in this level than in any other. Do this one wrong, for instance, and you end up on the other side, and have to go through the Dash-mashers again.
6:29 Here you see me not doing too well, grabbing the free life. Now, I suppose I could have done the level a few more times until I had one where I did everything right the first time, but I think this way is probably more educational for the viewer.
7:15 As I say, more complex jumping. Here, twisting in the air after coming off the turntable.
9:49 I've mentioned it before, but I enjoy it when Dash stops bulkheads from descending with his head.
10:17 To avoid wasting a lot of time here, you have to memorize where the important stuff is. Or write it down in a chart, which is what I did. But take it from me, the bays I don't check here, aren't worth checking. Same with the boxes I don't blow up.
14:48 Well, that was easy. If I remember correctly, in the more difficult levels, you don't have disruptors at this point to help you.
16:16 "Xizor is unaware that both Darth Vader and the rebels have learned of his treachery and race to confront him." For some reason, reading it this time, I almost want to check out the novel, because that sounds exciting: Vader and the Rebellion after the same guy. That "almost" isn't to diss the novels, by the way (especially one written by an author from one of my Thrilling Wonder Stories volumes); they're just one of the many things I never started on, and which seemed later like it was too late to start. But I suppose this one would be fairly standalone.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Games: Age of War
(originally posted February 16, 2009)
Here's one I got addicted to a while back. You start out in the stone age, and use your experience points to progress, era by era, into the future. Each age brings with it new kinds of troops and weapons. The goal is to destroy the enemy headquarters. Obviously, it helps if you progress faster than the computer opponent. Oh, and you can periodically rain down the vengeance of heaven on the enemy; using that at opportune moments helps, too.
Here's one I got addicted to a while back. You start out in the stone age, and use your experience points to progress, era by era, into the future. Each age brings with it new kinds of troops and weapons. The goal is to destroy the enemy headquarters. Obviously, it helps if you progress faster than the computer opponent. Oh, and you can periodically rain down the vengeance of heaven on the enemy; using that at opportune moments helps, too.
I don't know if I was just lucky when I playtested this game again prior to posting it here, but I managed to beat the enemy while still in the age of musketeers.
UPDATE: Yeah, it was luck. I played again, and it went all the way to the bitter end. (I did beat the enemy; it was just with futuristic SuperSoldiers.)
[2011 Updates: Click on the message title to get to the game. There's also now an Age of War II, which I like even better. You can bet your boots that's coming here before long.]
[2011 Updates: Click on the message title to get to the game. There's also now an Age of War II, which I like even better. You can bet your boots that's coming here before long.]
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Games: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64) Part 9
Yet more of my video playthrough of the classic Nintendo 64 game Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. I have three N64 games amongst my all-time favorites: this one, Goldeneye 007, and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. So when I finally finish this, you may be seeing more from the N64.
Now, Part Nine: Mos Eisley and Beggar's Canyon!
Notes:
As you can see, I wipe out the swoop gang before picking up any of the free lives or challenge points. I suppose a faster player than I am might be able to do it on the fly, but it would almost certainly be at the cost of letting the swoop gang get out into the desert. And, really, they're much easier to kill in the confines of Mos Eisley.
Or maybe not. According to Wookieepedia, "there is a short-cut that can be taken to avoid most of the Swoop Gang members all together [sic] and finish the stage in record time." Here's how to do it. I don't know if you could avoid them and get the bonuses, though.
5:34 Whoops. Very nearly dropped off the ledge, there. In fact, I really don't understand how I didn't.
8:03 Notice the oddly-shaped challenge point, like a rabbit's head. Apparently, this is one of many references in LucasArts games to Sam and Max, a comic book series that has spun off into multiple other media. Beats me; it's one of those things I've missed out on.
8:29 If I remember correctly, there's an edit here, just as the camera finishes swinging back to the front view. It took a crazy number of tries for me to grab the challenge points above the Sarlacc pits, and rather than subject you to them, I've cut them out. The important part is, I didn't lose any lives doing it.
8:33 I couldn't find a good edit point, so I made this hugely obvious dissolve before the second Sarlacc pit.
9:15 There was no reason for me to go along the ledge here. I just forgot this wasn't the one with the challenge point.
10:10 See, this is what I thought the first one was.
10:59 This may look easy when done right, but it took a long, frustrating time for me to learn to do it right. Immediately in front of the portal is a deadly trench. Hit the portal anywhere but through the middle, and down you go.
Now, Part Nine: Mos Eisley and Beggar's Canyon!
Notes:
As you can see, I wipe out the swoop gang before picking up any of the free lives or challenge points. I suppose a faster player than I am might be able to do it on the fly, but it would almost certainly be at the cost of letting the swoop gang get out into the desert. And, really, they're much easier to kill in the confines of Mos Eisley.
Or maybe not. According to Wookieepedia, "there is a short-cut that can be taken to avoid most of the Swoop Gang members all together [sic] and finish the stage in record time." Here's how to do it. I don't know if you could avoid them and get the bonuses, though.
5:34 Whoops. Very nearly dropped off the ledge, there. In fact, I really don't understand how I didn't.
8:03 Notice the oddly-shaped challenge point, like a rabbit's head. Apparently, this is one of many references in LucasArts games to Sam and Max, a comic book series that has spun off into multiple other media. Beats me; it's one of those things I've missed out on.
8:29 If I remember correctly, there's an edit here, just as the camera finishes swinging back to the front view. It took a crazy number of tries for me to grab the challenge points above the Sarlacc pits, and rather than subject you to them, I've cut them out. The important part is, I didn't lose any lives doing it.
8:33 I couldn't find a good edit point, so I made this hugely obvious dissolve before the second Sarlacc pit.
9:15 There was no reason for me to go along the ledge here. I just forgot this wasn't the one with the challenge point.
10:10 See, this is what I thought the first one was.
10:59 This may look easy when done right, but it took a long, frustrating time for me to learn to do it right. Immediately in front of the portal is a deadly trench. Hit the portal anywhere but through the middle, and down you go.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Games: Battleground States 2008
People used to want these embedded games on another page so you didn't have to listen to their music if you didn't want to. I would have preferred that, too, but Blogger didn't offer that option. Now, however, they do, although they don't seem to be able to do it with a normal "more" prompt to click on. However, click on the post title above to see the game.
By the way, note the "Boston Tea Party." In 2008, that was just a punning gag used to fill a space in the list of eight political parties. Who would have thought that two years later, the Tea Party would be an actual political movement that could would sponsor candidacies for high office?
***
(originally posted November 3, 2008)
Want to play your favorite presidential candidate (even if that candidate is Cynthia McKinney or Bob Barr) and wipe all other candidates off the face of America? Well, here's your chance.
By the way, note the "Boston Tea Party." In 2008, that was just a punning gag used to fill a space in the list of eight political parties. Who would have thought that two years later, the Tea Party would be an actual political movement that could would sponsor candidacies for high office?
***
(originally posted November 3, 2008)
Want to play your favorite presidential candidate (even if that candidate is Cynthia McKinney or Bob Barr) and wipe all other candidates off the face of America? Well, here's your chance.
"So where's the science fiction?" you ask. Well, any scenario that starts out with up to six other parties having the same amount of support as McCain and Obama is clearly the result of recent history so alternative, it'd make even Harry Turtledove's head spin.
The game runs out of real candidates after the four I've mentioned, and then it throws in some jokes. One of them, though, the Black Panther Party, is my favorite to play with. The color for the states it holds is, of course, black—as is the color of all state borders. The contiguous states I've won become a single, united, homogeneous block, swallowed up in my victory. Moo-ha-ha-ha-ha!
Friday, August 5, 2011
Games: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64) Part 8
Continuing my playthrough of the 1996 Nintendo 64 launch title/killer app, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. This week, meet (and beat) Boba Fett!
Notes:
Notes:
This one was also originally in two parts (the break was at about 9:50), but this time, I was smart enough to have the part two fade-in over by the point where the fade-out begins on part one. I could have done the whole level as a single video, but I decided I'd rather not take my chances, trying to upload a 34-minute, 4.5GB file to YouTube. (It took three attempts to get the 2.99GB Chapter Two of Undersea Kingdom uploaded.) Besides that at my upload speed, it would take about 15 hours.
2:07 This is really not at all difficult. I'm just not doing it well.
2:43 Ditto.
3:50 I have no idea why it seems more difficult coming back than going. Dash is losing altitude coming back, so it should be easier. And yet... Even though that landing on the mesa was the last part I learned to do successfully, this is the most difficult to do consistently.
4:05 This is where I knew that, barring a disaster, I was going to finish this level with full lives.
5:36 That "bloop" noise is the remnant of an otherwise-edited-out accidental push of the start/pause button.
7:19 It strikes me only now that I would have avoided a lot of trouble if I had come around the shaft in the other direction, so I wasn't being constantly pushed back by the same fan blade.
9:14 Meet Random Imperial Guard #942,806, the only man tougher than Dash Rendar. Where did he come from, you ask? He fell. From the height I'm about to scale in my jetpack. A height that would certainly kill Dash. The real difficult part of this guard's training, of course, was learning not to make any sound when he hit.
13:37 Have I ever mentioned I'm scared of heights? Even this gives me a pit-of-the-stomach feeling.
16:30 Does this look easy? Okay, it is, kind of... once you've learned how while getting your lunch handed to you over and over and over.
17:04 How did I get on the ground?
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Games: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64), Part 7
Resuming, at long last, my runthrough of the 1996 Nintendo 64 game on easy level, losing no lives and picking up all Extra Lives and Challenge Points.
This is the level where I really, really wish this game had save points. It took quite a while for me to make this video, since I kept eating it and having to go back to the beginning. (Not the whole seventeen months since I posted the last installment, mind you, just "a while." In fact, I made the video before my sabbatical.)
Notes:
(I thought about making these annotations in the video, but as far as I can tell, the viewer can't avoid annotations, whereas you can choose not to read this.)
Slight YouTube milestone: This is my first video over 15 minutes. Back when I started this, the limit was 10. Then they upgraded it to 15. Then they removed it altogether.
0:53 Ahem. It's more difficult than it looks. Honestly.
2:51 Yes, I can shoot Imperials from half a mile away, but the automatic targeting gets stymied by things that are right in front of me. The last Probe Droid, back at 2:31, was also full manual targeting.
4:07 This is about the point where I almost always sing "Mooooon Riiiiver." Why here, and not on any of the other umpty-grazillionth repetitions of this music in this level, I don't know.
5:03 That thing up on the path is a Sand Wampa. It came from one of the caves that I passed by. (There was nothing but a 20 Health in there.)
6:02 Here's another of those automatic targeting things. It won't hit the far Imperial, because there's a closer one, even though he's out of sight behind a corner.
8:12 I remember the first time I played this level. For some reason, I had enormous difficulty just getting on the floating platform, getting off at the other side, and going through the doors before they closed.
9:33 Damn targeting. There's another Stormtrooper in that lower alcove, you see (or rather, don't yet).
9:53 The part where the image dims and comes back isn't part of the game. This video was originally in two parts, but since I don't have limits on YouTube now, I decided to combine them. The problem is, the fade out on the first and the fade in on the second overlap, and I erased the original tape.
10:44 But where will I ever find a jetpack?
10:50 (Bela Lugosi) How fortunate! That simplifies everything! (/Bela Lugosi)
11:40 You can, of course, also jump for the Challenge Point. But since you can only get the Extra Life with the jetpack, why not make it easy?
13:53 Does this look difficult? Good, because it is freakin' crazy-ass difficult. It was the last part of this level that I could execute successfully. If I hadn't quickly turned the jetpack on and off a couple of times as I was coming down, I wouldn't have survived the last fall. This was the point while taping this where I began to hope I was going to make it through the whole level this time without dying.
This is the level where I really, really wish this game had save points. It took quite a while for me to make this video, since I kept eating it and having to go back to the beginning. (Not the whole seventeen months since I posted the last installment, mind you, just "a while." In fact, I made the video before my sabbatical.)
Notes:
(I thought about making these annotations in the video, but as far as I can tell, the viewer can't avoid annotations, whereas you can choose not to read this.)
Slight YouTube milestone: This is my first video over 15 minutes. Back when I started this, the limit was 10. Then they upgraded it to 15. Then they removed it altogether.
0:53 Ahem. It's more difficult than it looks. Honestly.
2:51 Yes, I can shoot Imperials from half a mile away, but the automatic targeting gets stymied by things that are right in front of me. The last Probe Droid, back at 2:31, was also full manual targeting.
4:07 This is about the point where I almost always sing "Mooooon Riiiiver." Why here, and not on any of the other umpty-grazillionth repetitions of this music in this level, I don't know.
5:03 That thing up on the path is a Sand Wampa. It came from one of the caves that I passed by. (There was nothing but a 20 Health in there.)
6:02 Here's another of those automatic targeting things. It won't hit the far Imperial, because there's a closer one, even though he's out of sight behind a corner.
8:12 I remember the first time I played this level. For some reason, I had enormous difficulty just getting on the floating platform, getting off at the other side, and going through the doors before they closed.
9:33 Damn targeting. There's another Stormtrooper in that lower alcove, you see (or rather, don't yet).
9:53 The part where the image dims and comes back isn't part of the game. This video was originally in two parts, but since I don't have limits on YouTube now, I decided to combine them. The problem is, the fade out on the first and the fade in on the second overlap, and I erased the original tape.
10:44 But where will I ever find a jetpack?
10:50 (Bela Lugosi) How fortunate! That simplifies everything! (/Bela Lugosi)
11:40 You can, of course, also jump for the Challenge Point. But since you can only get the Extra Life with the jetpack, why not make it easy?
13:53 Does this look difficult? Good, because it is freakin' crazy-ass difficult. It was the last part of this level that I could execute successfully. If I hadn't quickly turned the jetpack on and off a couple of times as I was coming down, I wouldn't have survived the last fall. This was the point while taping this where I began to hope I was going to make it through the whole level this time without dying.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Games: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64) Parts 5&6
Continuing my runthrough of the 1996 Nintendo 64 game on easy level, losing no lives and picking up all Extra Lives and Challenge Points.
Part Five Notes:
4:40 What kind of resources do you need to have before you can (apparently) let hovertrains just run themselves down into lava? And if you have resources of that magnitude, what's even the point of having a junkyard? You can't really need to recycle. You might as well toss whatever you don't need into a star.
8:24 It takes a while to get used to the degree of "float" in this level, where the ground seems to shift under your feet. It was pretty unnerving at first, as I recall, especially when I was standing near the edge of a train.
Part Six Note:
1:26 I forgot to point out the bit back in Part Two where I had Dash repeatedly stop a big metal door from closing with his head, and he sustained no damage. He's just that tough (and possibly has just that little up there to damage). Here, he proves it again by jumping into molten metal, and coming away with some minor owies. Forget nuking the fridge; Dash could probably just survive by going into crouch mode.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Games: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64) Parts 3&4
Continuing with the Nintendo 64's Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, we finish the second level and see all of the third in gameplay I recorded in 2002. And therein lies a boring and technical tale.
When I bought my first digital camcorder*, I didn't know its native sound-recording mode was 48 KHz (although it would record a 44.1 KHz input at the correct rate). So I'd input and export the sound at 44.1 KHz. Adobe Premiere wasn't smart enough to tell me not to. My current Final Cut, on the other hand, is smart enough to tell me when I'm trying to input something with a different data rate from the timeline (the timeline in this case being 48 KHz). It says it's liable to end up out of sync if you do that. And it did seem to be out of sync.
So I created a 44.1 KHz timeline, and imported the video into that... and it was still out of sync. Which is why I mention how it got to be 44.1 KHz in the first place. Apparently it got out of sync back in 2002, when I recorded off the N64 in 48 KHz, and imported to Premiere in 44.1. But a little trial and error in 2010 showed all I had to do was speed it up by .17%.
So it's fine, and I could have just decided not to bother you with why it's fine as opposed to the not-fine it could have been. But I like telling you all this techie crap, because it gives me a sense of accomplishment.
*- It was a Sony D8 model... the kind that recorded DV-format video onto Hi-8 videotapes. In the '80s, all my video recorders were Betamax until VHS was clearly about to wipe Beta out. It's just as well that I decided to wait until the format wars were over before I bought a high definition disc player, isn't it?
Part Three Notes:
0:48 I've never known... are we supposed to be able to understand what the Probe Droids are saying? 'Cause I can't, anyway.
2:51 I'm probably not the first person to point this out, but both sides in this conflict make a specialty of building equipment in gigantic, man-crushing scale. I wonder if they ever worry about running out of resources if it takes all of this, just to keep a Rebel base running.
4:36 Even though I knew when I was dumping this to my computer that I didn't lose any lives on the level, this part damn near stopped my heart. Almost didn't make it onto the spur, and then came thisclose to falling off the other side.
8:31 Yes, the Stormtrooper falls through the floor and screams.
(2011 Update: I probably didn't need to post a new version without music, but I had a copyright block in some countries, and I worried (probably wrongly) that it had something to do with my difficulty uploading longer videos when YouTube changed their system on September 21, 2011.)
Part Four Notes:
5:08 "Imperial City"? I thought they'd invented the name "Coruscant" by this point (1996). Or did the Emperor rule from elsewhere? Ah, bless Wikipedia: "The planet first appeared in the Expanded Universe and was called 'Coruscant' for the first time in Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire [1991].... In various novels, characters aligned with the Empire refer to Coruscant as 'Imperial Center.' Within the stories, this is explained as an administrative renaming undertaken to emphasize the differences between the Old Republic and the Empire." (I know that doesn't mention Imperial City, per se, and the rest of the Coruscant entry doesn't mention it either, but Wikipedia's disambiguation page for "Imperial City" lists Coruscant as one of the places the expression may refer to.)
5:48 That evil grin makes me laugh every time.
By the way, last Thursday, I got through Gall Spaceport without missing any Challenge Points or Extra Lives, and without losing any lives. Counting up, I figure it had to have taken only six tries, but it felt like a lot more than that, especially because most of them had me falling to my death multiple times as I tried to re-learn how to do the tricky bits.
I figure not all of you may want to see twelve or so consecutive weeks of Shadows of the Empire, so I'll use this more or less natural stopping point at the end of a level to take a break. So next week, back to the '80s!
When I bought my first digital camcorder*, I didn't know its native sound-recording mode was 48 KHz (although it would record a 44.1 KHz input at the correct rate). So I'd input and export the sound at 44.1 KHz. Adobe Premiere wasn't smart enough to tell me not to. My current Final Cut, on the other hand, is smart enough to tell me when I'm trying to input something with a different data rate from the timeline (the timeline in this case being 48 KHz). It says it's liable to end up out of sync if you do that. And it did seem to be out of sync.
So I created a 44.1 KHz timeline, and imported the video into that... and it was still out of sync. Which is why I mention how it got to be 44.1 KHz in the first place. Apparently it got out of sync back in 2002, when I recorded off the N64 in 48 KHz, and imported to Premiere in 44.1. But a little trial and error in 2010 showed all I had to do was speed it up by .17%.
So it's fine, and I could have just decided not to bother you with why it's fine as opposed to the not-fine it could have been. But I like telling you all this techie crap, because it gives me a sense of accomplishment.
*- It was a Sony D8 model... the kind that recorded DV-format video onto Hi-8 videotapes. In the '80s, all my video recorders were Betamax until VHS was clearly about to wipe Beta out. It's just as well that I decided to wait until the format wars were over before I bought a high definition disc player, isn't it?
Part Three Notes:
0:48 I've never known... are we supposed to be able to understand what the Probe Droids are saying? 'Cause I can't, anyway.
2:51 I'm probably not the first person to point this out, but both sides in this conflict make a specialty of building equipment in gigantic, man-crushing scale. I wonder if they ever worry about running out of resources if it takes all of this, just to keep a Rebel base running.
4:36 Even though I knew when I was dumping this to my computer that I didn't lose any lives on the level, this part damn near stopped my heart. Almost didn't make it onto the spur, and then came thisclose to falling off the other side.
8:31 Yes, the Stormtrooper falls through the floor and screams.
(2011 Update: I probably didn't need to post a new version without music, but I had a copyright block in some countries, and I worried (probably wrongly) that it had something to do with my difficulty uploading longer videos when YouTube changed their system on September 21, 2011.)
Part Four Notes:
5:08 "Imperial City"? I thought they'd invented the name "Coruscant" by this point (1996). Or did the Emperor rule from elsewhere? Ah, bless Wikipedia: "The planet first appeared in the Expanded Universe and was called 'Coruscant' for the first time in Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire [1991].... In various novels, characters aligned with the Empire refer to Coruscant as 'Imperial Center.' Within the stories, this is explained as an administrative renaming undertaken to emphasize the differences between the Old Republic and the Empire." (I know that doesn't mention Imperial City, per se, and the rest of the Coruscant entry doesn't mention it either, but Wikipedia's disambiguation page for "Imperial City" lists Coruscant as one of the places the expression may refer to.)
5:48 That evil grin makes me laugh every time.
By the way, last Thursday, I got through Gall Spaceport without missing any Challenge Points or Extra Lives, and without losing any lives. Counting up, I figure it had to have taken only six tries, but it felt like a lot more than that, especially because most of them had me falling to my death multiple times as I tried to re-learn how to do the tricky bits.
I figure not all of you may want to see twelve or so consecutive weeks of Shadows of the Empire, so I'll use this more or less natural stopping point at the end of a level to take a break. So next week, back to the '80s!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Games: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64) Parts 1&2
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was one of the launch titles for the Nintendo 64 in 1996. And let me tell you, I spent more of 1997 playing this game than I really want to think about. When I had to do a video project for a class at Columbia College, I did one about Shadows of the Empire, because there was just nothing else on my mind.
I made this week's recording in 2002. For my own amusement, I had already made a "movie version" of the N64 Goldeneye game, editing together successful runs through the levels. I began to do the same for Shadows of the Empire, only raising the bar a bit. I would not only have to beat each level in Easy mode, but get all the Challenge Points, get all the extra lives, and not lose any lives. (Yes, I know. If I were a real gamer, I'd be able to do this in Jedi mode.)
I'd done it before, but I hadn't record it. For some reason, I only got as far as recording the first four of the ten levels before I set it aside, and I've barely played the game since.
Since the four levels I did record are enough video for three installments, maybe I can give it another try in the meantime. I still have the Prima's Secrets of the Game book, so maybe the re-learning curve won't be too steep.
Part One: The Battle of Hoth
I'm including all the run-up to the first level just to give a feel for the experience of playing the game.
Part Two: Escape from Echo Base, First Stage
UPDATE 2011: As I write, YouTube changed their policy about three weeks ago so that any user can now upload videos longer than 15 minutes and larger than 2GB... theoretically. In practice, I find that although I used to be able to post longer videos, I no longer can. Currently, I'm not sure if it's because I have an antiquated pre-Intel Mac that won't run the latest browser software, or because I had four copyright strikes due to music in these playthroughs. The help forum suggests that other users who previously had no problem with copyright strikes now do. So just in case that is the answer, I'm replacing the affected videos (like Pt.2 here) with new ones, in which I play the game with the music switched off.
1:36 What I'm doing here is opening the wampas' cages. You can hear them duking it out after I leave the room. In a moment, I'll go back and kill the weakened survivor.
5:17 Here, I'm using manual targeting on the laser cannon, because it's too far away for auto-targeting.
Next week, the rest of Escape from Echo Base, and the Asteroid Chase.
I made this week's recording in 2002. For my own amusement, I had already made a "movie version" of the N64 Goldeneye game, editing together successful runs through the levels. I began to do the same for Shadows of the Empire, only raising the bar a bit. I would not only have to beat each level in Easy mode, but get all the Challenge Points, get all the extra lives, and not lose any lives. (Yes, I know. If I were a real gamer, I'd be able to do this in Jedi mode.)
I'd done it before, but I hadn't record it. For some reason, I only got as far as recording the first four of the ten levels before I set it aside, and I've barely played the game since.
Since the four levels I did record are enough video for three installments, maybe I can give it another try in the meantime. I still have the Prima's Secrets of the Game book, so maybe the re-learning curve won't be too steep.
Part One: The Battle of Hoth
I'm including all the run-up to the first level just to give a feel for the experience of playing the game.
Part Two: Escape from Echo Base, First Stage
UPDATE 2011: As I write, YouTube changed their policy about three weeks ago so that any user can now upload videos longer than 15 minutes and larger than 2GB... theoretically. In practice, I find that although I used to be able to post longer videos, I no longer can. Currently, I'm not sure if it's because I have an antiquated pre-Intel Mac that won't run the latest browser software, or because I had four copyright strikes due to music in these playthroughs. The help forum suggests that other users who previously had no problem with copyright strikes now do. So just in case that is the answer, I'm replacing the affected videos (like Pt.2 here) with new ones, in which I play the game with the music switched off.
1:36 What I'm doing here is opening the wampas' cages. You can hear them duking it out after I leave the room. In a moment, I'll go back and kill the weakened survivor.
5:17 Here, I'm using manual targeting on the laser cannon, because it's too far away for auto-targeting.
Next week, the rest of Escape from Echo Base, and the Asteroid Chase.
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