In addition to playing games, I watch a lot of games being played on YouTube and Twitch.tv in part because I don't watch traditional TV any more. Today I thought I'd share some of my favorite gaming/gamer related YouTubers and their channels.
First there's Pro Jared. Jared is a reviewer and comedian at heart. He obviously reviews games, both short and more detailed reviews, streams games he plays some times, participates in multiplayer game shows, covers gaming events like E3 and makes other gaming related videos. He is one of the funniest and likable YouTubers out there in my opinion.
Next is Peanut Butter Gamer. He does lets plays, reviews older games, streams games and does Top 10s. He is a naturally really funny guy without trying to be and often has self-deprecating humor. He's family friendly and also a really likable guy.
Then there is Pat the NES Punk. Pat became relatively well-known for his quirky sense of humor in his game reviews. Pat reviews older games, does a podcast called the “Completely Unnecessary Podcast” with his friend Ian that operates a game store and has a flea market game collecting series. He does some other videos too. Pat has extensive knowledge about games and collecting and has one of the largest, most complete NES sets (and games in general) you'll come across. His sense of humor can be pretty cheesy but I enjoy his blend of comedy with gaming knowledge. His reviews are often very informative.
Another YT channel/show I enjoy quite a bit is Ports Center. Ports Center is a series that reviews, well, game ports. Ben and friends produce and host the show. I really appreciate and enjoy Ben's sharp wit/humor and very informative reviews. He never disappoints. I also interviewed Ben for the site. You can read the interview here!
One of the funniest and most enjoyable shows I watch is The Game Chasers. The Game Chasers is a show chronicling Billy and Jay, two long-time friends on their quest collecting video games around Texas and at conventions and the like. Billy and Jay are two crass dudes and the show is completely unscripted. The shenanigans these two get into and the things that follow have left me in tears more than a couple of times. FYI, they swear, fart and take off their shirts a lot. The show really comes across like hanging out with your friends but at the same time it is VERY well produced by Billy. If you like games, collecting them and/or humor, check this show out. YT channel.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Nathan Barnatt's channel. Nathan is a super nice, super funny comedian and actor and does a lot stuff about games (not exclusively games though). He does really cool dance videos too. He's family friendly and is one of the funniest people I've come across. He's a character actor and has developed a number of his own characters. The character that helped get him to where he is today most is: Keith Apicary. Keith is an approximately 30 year old man with the mind of a boy and an avid gamer with a love of Sega. Keith gets into all kinds of incidents and accidents by playing dumb and Nathan pulls it off with such mastery. He has another character which he is developing a show for, for Amazon.com and he voices the character Blackstein on Fox's 'High School USA'. Nathan's comedy is very Buster Keaton like, so you don't even have to like games or gaming, if comedy is your thing, check out Nathan's channel. I've had some personal interactions with Nathan and he is a really cool, nice and funny dude. I'm really happy for his success because he deserves it. YT Channel.
Lastly is a website ran by a small handful of personalities. It's one of my favorite websites, ScrewAttack.com. ScrewAttack is home to tons of original content/shows (such as the famous Death Battle) about gaming/gamers, live shows (i.e. lets plays), reviews and news. The SA community members are referred to as 'g1s'. It's my favorite gaming community and everyone is really nice. Watching SA and participating in the community has made me feel like it's one of my other homes away from home. The people that run it are great, funny people. Their original content is really entertaining to me.
Those are most my favorite YT channels. What are your favorites?
For the tune today, I leave you with awesome track from an unofficial remake of one of my favorite game series ever, Streets of Rage Remake. The track is called: 'Alien Power'.
Today I thought I'd share and talk about a game I've had a lot experience with lately: Dark Souls II. There's no goal with this other than to make people aware of the game, if you're so inclined or looking for a new game to play. I'm new to the 'Souls' franchise. I had watched a lot of gameplay of the previous game 'Dark Souls' and a little of its predecessor 'Demon Souls'. I had heard and read that DS2 is the most accessible of all three so it's best game to jump into the franchise with. So I gave it a try.
For the uninitiated, the 'Souls' franchise is an action RPG game series developed by From Software with an emphasis on steep difficulty, or brutality as some might say. Much of it is learning patterns and memorization, not just for defeating bosses but even regular enemies. It has a fairly vast open world and exploration is often rewarded but also punished in some ways. (You may find this statement humorous if you're familiar with the series.) It doesn't have a storyline in the familiar sense as it gives little in the way of story. One must uncover lore/story by talking to NPCs, items descriptions/appearances and geographic hints in the world. If you play this you will die, A LOT, so if you don't have patience, this isn't the game for you.
The areas of the world are varied and interesting, as are the bosses. (There is even a hidden boss.) The game does feature online play. It features PvP (player vs player) and co-operative gameplay but not in the traditional sense. In order to play together players must meet a few requirements (these requirements are lifted after reaching a certain level) and leave their 'sign' somewhere in the world so they can be summoned by other players. Typically the point is to make it through an area in the world to the area boss and/or fight the area boss. Successfully defeating the area boss nets the helper a reward. Time playing cooperatively is limited too and the helper automatically leaves after a certain amount of time (I believe 40 minutes) or after the area boss is killed.
The PvP comes into play often in very inconvenient and annoying times. In certain areas in the world you can be invaded by other players as phantoms. You must kill the invader or lose your souls (the games currency/upgrade requirement) if you die from the environment or the invader. If you defeat ('banish') the invader you are rewarded but so is the invader if he/she kills you, albeit in a different way. It sounds cheap and/or annoying and it is some times but it does offer a change-up in gameplay and keeps things interesting. You can also leave message in the world for others to see. What can be written in messages is limited to a set of words, phrases and terms. It makes leaving clever and/or funny messages challenging. Reading humorous messages adds some levity to a game that takes itself and its lore seriously. Reading messages has become a past-time of mine in the game. Their are covenants in the game. To borrow from the fextralife wiki:
“Covenants provide the player with multiple new ways to interact with their world and other players. Some offer assistance and protection from invaders, others bring new goals such as defending areas, and some demand the blood of other players.” These add replayability to the game even when you have beat the game. (The game does feature New Game Plus.) There are tons of items, equipment and really cool weapons and spells to dig your teeth into and keep you interested. This has been a game I have put many hours into. It is frustrating and brutal at times but it is fair (for the most part). Being so difficult, challenging and brutal makes the satisfaction of success that much better. If I describe this game using analogies, it's kind of like a Zelda or Metroid game in terms of exploration, RPG elements and the way the “story” is kept vague combined with a Monster Hunter-like approach to action. So if you're looking for a new game to get into and one you can put a lot of time into, this is a lot of bang for your buck, as long as you don't mind a very steep learning curve. If you meet those criteria, I'd recommend giving it a go. It's a lot of fun and addicting. Also, there's an invincible talking cat NPC, so there's that too. Rather than leaving you with a single tune today, I've opted for the playlist to the soundtrack of the game as I couldn't choose my favorite. It's a fantastic soundtrack. Some of my favorites are 'Ancient Dragon', 'Executioner's Chariot' and 'Pursuer'.
I'm back after taking a sabbatical.Today I want to talk about an easy, cheap way of getting into retro gaming if you're not already.
One of the major problems with getting into retro gaming is finding the consoles. Some places they are easily attainable via local pawnshops and the like. Other places they are scarce. A lot of times the games are more common than the systems are. Often the systems are overpriced so it isn't always easy finding them at affordable prices.
Apart from the different experience of playing with an emulator and roms, which is controversial to some, one of the easiest and most affordable ways to get started is with reproduction consoles. There are a lot of them on the market and they're typically quite affordable these days for what they do. You might ask yourself, “How do I know which one to get and is it reliable?” That is what I am here to advise on.
While I have not used/tested every single one on the market, I know enough to share about several of these in a helpful way. While I prefer the original systems and have a few dozen consoles (not counting handhelds), I own and have used a number of these repro systems myself.Possibly the most famous of the systems is the Retron by Hyperkin. The Retron is a multi-cart supported system, meaning one can play games from multiple systems on it. The Retron is currently on its 5th generation. From humble beginnings it now has support for Gameboy, GB Color, GBA, Famicom, Super Famicom, NES, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and Megadrive cartridges. This is the best bet for covering the most amount of systems. The trade off is that it's the most expensive, typically about $150. They're more reliable now than they ever have been so if you can afford the cost, it's worth it.
Another popular one is the Retro Duo by Retro-Bit. Serves the same purpose as the Retron but it only supports NES/SNES games. It supports the Game Genie and Super Gameboy though. If one only wants to play these systems, this may be a more prudent choice. Also comes in portable handheld format. Another one that has become more popular over the last several years, possibly because there seems to be renewed interest in the Sega Genesis/Megadrive collecting market in the United States, is the Sega Firecore (unofficially AKA the Sega Genesis Model 4), which was officially licensed by Sega to AT Games to produce. This is a very cool SG/MD console that is about the size of a clenched fist. I've used it extensively and find it quite reliable. Some of its very cool features include: over 80 built-in games (including one or two that were never released in North America), wireless controllers (although I highly prefer using the original SG controllers) and composite/RCA support. It does have some drawbacks compared to the original system though: No Game Genie support, only mono audio (the original genesis was mono as well but could be modified to produce (I believe true) stereo audio, which would have been a nice touch with this), the console is very lightweight (maybe less than a pound), which can be a downside, especially with a controller plugged in and it also still suffers from the occasional slowdown that plagued retro consoles (presumably because it still contains the same CPU and amount of RAM). There is also several versions of the Firecore available in portable format. I have had one myself for years. It's essentially the shape of a PSP but thicker and it accepts SG/MD carts just like the console version. There are some versions without cartridge support though. This portable Firecore is far more preferable to a Sega Nomad for a whole myriad of reasons I won't go into. One reason though is that the Nomad was designed 11 years before the Firecore.
Another popular one is the Supaboy by Hyperkin. It is essentially a portable SNES. It's painted to look like a North American SNES which is pretty cool. It supports actual SNES/Famicom carts but also has a very cool additional feature usually absent on other repro portables: controller ports so one can use original SNES controllers. This has the added bonus/effect of being able to play games with two players at the same time! A quite useful and cool feature. It also has composite video/audio output so it can be hooked up to a TV and used just like an original SNES console. It works well and all of these things make it a worthwhile purchase at (usually) around $60-75 if you like the SNES.
Feel free to share any questions or comments. You can just reminisce about retro gaming in general too. I like to talk about that. For the usual tune I leave you all with, today I've chosen one of my favorite tracks from a PS1 classic, Tomb Raider 2. It's called 'Lara Plays in the Snow' from the Tibetan Foothills stage. It's composed by Nathan McCree.
Since this is a comic book page/site first and foremost and because I like them so much I'd like to discuss video games based on comic books/characters. There have been a lot of them over the years but I play more retro games than modern so I haven't played a lot of the newer ones like the Arkham series (played the demo of the first game), the X-Men Legends series or the Deadpool game so I won't be touching on those. (Feel free to discuss them in the comments though.)
I have a lot of time and experienced logged on many of the old school platformers like Maximum Carnage, Separation Anxiety, X-Men & X-Men 2: Clone Wars and others like the TMNT series. A little known gem is on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive platform based on the TV series 'The Phantom'. It plays really fun and is a solid platformer.
I loved Maximum Carnage and Separation Anxiety on SG/SNES. They were pretty difficult and quite long. Some might have grown tired of them because of the repetitive gameplay but I found the gameplay enjoyable. I never have beaten those games legitimately (without cheating). It was SOOOO cool at the time being able to play as Venom. He played different than Spider-Man and I think kind of stole the show as far as I was concerned. X-Men on the Genesis/MD was another fun platformer. For me it became somewhat easy at a certain point after spending so much time on it but the difficulty definitely ramped up in the later stages. It had a varied selection of X-Men to choose from, each with their own unique style and abilities. There were also one-time use power-ups that provided support in the form of other (non-playable) X-Men. I have beaten it legitimately which leads me to my next point about this game: It also included a very cool, unique feature, which I'll describe with some help from Moby Games: “Near the end of the final stage the game actually requires the player to reset the system, with a light press of the reset button. This causes issues in emulation and on the Sega Nomad handheld system, effectively rendering the game not completable. It was also possible to inadvertently fully reset the system by hitting the button too hard.”
X-Men 2 on Genesis/MD was another I spent tons of time on. A great variety of characters to choose from, again with their own unique movesets and abilities. This was the first game one could play as Magneto! (After one unlocks him of course.) I loved this game. The difficulty was moderate I'd say and I've beaten it several times. There's a decent amount of strategy involved in beating this game because some characters moves and abilities are better suited to completing some stages. A wide variety of stages to go through here. Visiting the Savage Land was very cool to me, I was only disappointed that Sinister wasn't there.
Another game I spent some time with was X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse on SNES. I used to play it at my cousin's house as they owned an SNES and I did not. Another solid game. This one was more of a beat-em up I'd say. It featured a number of different characters and if I remember correctly, they were voiced by their TV counterparts. This was a fun game to an extent but I don't remember it holding my attention as long as the Genesis games. Definitely give these games a try if you want to play some good games based on comics, if you can get a hold of them of course. Pawn shops/thrift stores are often the best places to look. I'm a big X-Men fan, it's my favorite comic series and I do have X-Men Legends 1 & 2 on PS2 and Xbox which I plan to get to eventually, in part because I hear they're great.
I'm sure you all have played a lot of them. What memories do you have of games based on comics? What are your favorites? Any recommendations? For today's tune I'll share one from possibly my favorite game that I've talked about today, X-Men 2: Clone Wars on Genesis. It's called 'Avalon 3'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgMIsK4CYZo
My name is Jeff and I'm a lifelong gamer myself. I write 'The Console Slayer' column here on CBNAH. There are some online sites and shows that are worth your time that I want to make you guys aware of. To that point today I'll be interviewing Ben Paddon, the main mind behind a show called PortsCenter.
CBNAH: How are you doing lately Ben? Why don't you tell everyone who you are, a bit about yourself and your history with gaming and about the show you star in and produce? Ben Paddon: Sure thing! My name is Ben Paddon, and I'm... well, I'm a lot of things really, but probably the simplest "catch-all" title would be "content creator". I'm the writer and host for PortsCenter, which for the last year-and-a-bit has been looking at interesting and unique ports and conversions of video games. And it's still going, so that's nice. I also co-wrote the Left 4 Dead parody webseries "Boomer's Day Off", which has been viewed millions of times over on YouTube and been nominated for all manner of awards, I was the co-creator and Head Writer for Jump Leads, a sci-fi-comedy webcomic that ran from 2007 to 2012, and I've written bits and bobs here and there for various websites and magazines. I'm British, but I moved to Los Angeles in 2007 and I've been here ever since.
I've been playing video games for as long as I can remember. There was always an Amiga computer in the house when I was a kid, and I'd spend hours playing games on it. Some good, some not so good. I probably clocked just as many hours playing Lemmings as I did playing the absolutely dire ThunderCats game. I actually taught myself to read when I was very little so I could play The Secret of Monkey Island. I bloody love that game.
CBNAH: That's an impressive resume. I know PortsCenter isn't just a one-man production but I think it goes to show the quality of the show. Tell people what PortsCenter is and how it came about? Perhaps what inspired it? BP: PortsCenter came out of a conversation I was having with a friend on Twitter back in 2011. I can't remember the specifics but it basically ended with my saying, "Look, Doom on the PSone is the best version of the game, I'll capture some footage for you and prove it." A week later I had friends 'round my apartment filming the pilot for PortsCenter, going into detail about the differences between the two ports and making jokes about the crappy multiplayer. Bit of an odd jump, but there we are. The name of the show came to me as I was in bed, the script was easy to write because I knew the game, and the port, inside out, and I had a friend, journalist and stand-up comedian Nick Simberg, help me punch up the jokes and set the tone. A year later we wrapped up a successful Kickstarter, and then the show began proper in January 2013.
In terms of the format, I was very specifically inspired by British media commentator Charlie Brooker. He's done a number of shows for the BBC looking at different aspects of the media, and that year he'd done a one-hour special called Gameswipe which was kind of an "Intro to Gaming 101". A lot of what I do is inspired by or directed lifted from the format from his shows, though I do try to make it my own as much as possible. For the second season of the show I've started giving Brooker a Very Special Thanks credit at the end of the show, because without the influence of his work Glod only knows what this show would've been like.
The pilot aside, those early episodes were very much a one-man affair. For most episodes it would just be me setting up the camera, the lights, managing the sound, all of it. Easy to do for the most part because I seldom do anything different with the camera; it's always me sitting on the couch talking to the viewer. But for occasional episodes in the first season, and so far every episode of the second, I've had people step in to help with all manner of stuff from monitoring the sound to color correction to location shooting. My friend Cara has joined the crew for the second season and she's brilliant. She is. She's invaluable, she's a great judge of whether a take of a particular scene works or not, and she's fantastic at managing everybody who's on set. And she keeps me in check, which is no small feat!
CBNAH: It's kind of comical in a way to know the show was sparked out of the desire to prove someone wrong. Nice to learn how it's coalesced into a show with burgeoning success. Lets talk about the production of the show. Can you talk about how the show is produced? What kinds of things go into making PortsCenter?
BP: I wouldn't say it was about proving someone wrong, more about giving someone a nugget of gaming history. It was never an argument or a debate, just a conversation. :)
Each episode is the product of hours and hours (and, occasionally, hour and hours and hours) of work, from picking the games I'm going to look at right up to editing the episode. I choose my games well in advance. Almost all of season one had been decided partway through the previous year, and the line-up for season two is basically locked in. I also have back-ups in mind just in case I'm not able to look at a particular game, which is good because that's happened on a few occasions.
I usually pick ports I already have some experience with, but even if I don't I make sure I sit down and play the game for several hours, usually capturing footage at the same time. I never used to make notes as I played because I figured I'd remember everything, but there have been occasions where I've been uploading an episode and realized, "Oh bugger, I forgot to mention that one thing!" So now I have Evernote open on my phone or laptop as I play so I can make notes, and I'll refer to those as I write the script.
Writing the episodes, figuring out how to get my information across and keep it entertaining, takes some time as well. Some scripts, like the script for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Wii episode, took a couple of weeks to write. Others, like the episode about The Real Ghostbusters or the episode about Luigi's sprites in the different releases of Super Mario World, were bashed out in a matter of hours. Sometimes an episode takes a while to come together - either I have the jokes but not the information, or all the information but no jokes. Nick Simberg used to be a great resource there because he could make anything funny, but he's not so involved now due to the tight production schedule. Also he moved to San Francisco to be with his girlfriend, the selfish bastard.
Once it's written, and then rewritten and edited, and then rewritten again, printed out, gawped out in disbelief, rewritten a third time and then printed out in triplicate, it's shot. I've shot in a number of places over the last year and a half but I try not to shoot at home when I can so as not to disturb the family. Most of the episodes are shot in the apartments or houses of various friends, because disturbing them is perfectly acceptable. Plus they often buy pizza afterwards. Shooting usually only takes an hour or two - set up the camera, figure out the angle I'm shooting the couch at, then set up the lights and sound equipment and away we go. Some episodes take longer, like the Donkey Kong Country episode which had multiple camera angles and lighting set-ups. The Mortal Kombat II episode took about four hours, two of which were spent shooting a cold open that was eventually cut for technical reasons, then we had to come back and shoot pick-ups a week later because our lav mic crapped out... and the replacement barely worked. Oy.
But once that's all done all that remains is editing the episode, which takes the better part of a day. I record the voiceover before I start editing, I assemble the graphic elements in PhotoShop - stuff like the overlay, the end credits and so on are all assembled in PhotoShop - then I start building the episode, which involves going through multiple takes of scenes, picking the right moments of gameplay footage, and occasionally sourcing video from elsewhere for stuff like commercials and game trailers and so on. Then I add the music, which is almost entirely sourced from open-source music libraries, and once that's done I watch it, rewatch it, make tweaks, occasionally wind up rerecording a bit of VO for whatever stupid reason, and then it's rendered and uploaded. That whole process can be anywhere between five hours and eighteen, depending on how complex the episode is. I probably get some sleep in between all of that as well. I'm sure I must do.
CBNAH: In the whole process, from pre to post production, is there any part you enjoy most? BP: Being finished with an episode, and getting to climb into bed and fall asleep next to the love of my life. This invariably happens between 4 and 7 o'clock in the morning.
CBNAH: Ha. One of the things I enjoy about PortsCenter is your sense of humor. What is your goal with the show on an episode-to-episode basis and any eventual goals with the show? I imagine gaining a partnership with a site with some viewership might have been one. Such as the case now with RetrowareTV.com. How did that partnership materialize?
BP: I never really had any long-term goals with the show other than, y'know, making it. And it was important that it was of a certain quality. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I've abandoned entire shoots in the past when things haven't quite worked out as I'd wanted. When we were shooting the pilot I brought in my friend Jonathan to film it (I didn't have my own filming gear at the time), and I can remember, during one shot, that he'd said, "Yeah, it doesn't need to look good, it's just for YouTube." And I said, "No, that's why it does need to look good." The show may just be me sitting on a couch talking about old games nobody cares about anymore, but that doesn't mean it can't have a slickness to it. I'd be shooting in 24fps if my camera supported it. It says it does, but it's lying. Canon cameras like, folks.
So, yeah, my goal was to make the sort of program I wish existed, but didn't. And now it does. I knew from the beginning that it's a pretty niche subject. I don't know that many gamers who give anything even vaguely resembling a shit about video game ports, but it's a very important part of gaming history. The Street Fighter II I grew up playing is almost entirely different from the one my friends grew up with. If you had a Sega Mega Drive instead of a Super Nintendo then your experience with Earthworm Jim is going to be different. The Sega Master System was a huge success outside of America, and there's an entire Sonic the Hedgehog game on those systems that maybe Americans aren't familiar with. And then there's stuff like the cancelled Game Boy Color port of Resident Evil, or the Japan-exclusive PSone port of Mortal Kombat II. I've always been fascinated by this stuff, and even now when I can afford to buy the same game for multiple systems I do because I want to see the differences. I want to see what's changed, what's been done differently. These days it's not much, but in the 80s and 90s, games had to be rebuilt from the ground up to be ported, sometimes without access to the original game assets. I fucking love that. I find that side of things immensely fascinating.
Whoops, I went off on a tangent.
So anyway, yes, partnerships. My good friend Shane Luis recommended, back when season one was just starting, that I should post PortsCenter in places like Screw Attack and Retroware using their user-submitted content forms. But I'm a lazy man, and I didn't get around to posting episodes to Retroware until the middle of the year. Retroware loved the show - it was featured as User Content of the Week I think two or three times - and the rest is history.
CBNAH: That's awesome. I'm fascinated by that stuff too. I much enjoy ScrewAttack and Retroware. A lot of shows now famous started by people posting on those sites. Is there anything you can talk about that we can expect from the rest of season 2 or even season 3?
BP: I have a lovely little list of games for season 2, which includes a couple of games I wasn't able to get to in season 1. I'd wanted to cover the PSone port of Mortal Kombat II last year, but I had trouble finding a copy I could afford. Thankfully some wonderful internet folk came to the rescue there. I also planned to do an episode on the Gears of War board game, but the logistics for that one are tricky. That episode basically needs to be a fusion of PortsCenter and Wil Wheaton's show Tabletop, and I don't want it to stretch on for too long, so I'm still trying to figure it out. And I'm still hoping to do that Street Fighter II Amiga special I teased last year. I want to get a group of people who play Street Fighter on the tournament circuit and watch them get to grips with the Amiga's single-button joystick!
As for other episodes... lots of cool stuff. A lot of people have asked me to do Tetris, which is bonkers because that game has been released for everything, but I think I've found a way of doing Tetris that should be a little different and fun. There'll be three or four Top 5 lists this year, because I wanted to experiment a little and try some new things, and nobody on YouTube has ever done a Top 5 list of anything ever, so I'll be the first! Can you tell I'm being sarcastic? Oh, and I have a musical season finale planned. I'll keep quiet on that one for now.
Already I've had to cut games off the list for season 2, though. Sadly earlier this year Nintendo decided to have YouTube pull one of my episodes, and I had to reupload it with different audio. I'm not the only person who's been affected by Nintendo and even though my use of their game footage and audio is covered under Fair Use YouTube doesn't make the distinction or the final decision, so the video gets pulled. I'd really hoped to do episodes on SimCity for the SNES, the two Commodore 64 ports of Donkey Kong and the Game Boy Color versions of Mario Tennis and Mario Golf, but why put all that effort into talking critically about these games if Nintendo is just going to have the videos yanked? And these are games that I fucking love, by the way, I mean the SNES port of SimCity is the definitive version of the game, and it was developed internally by Nintendo! It's fantastic, and I'd love to gush about it for five-to-ten minutes... but it's not worth the risk if Nintendo are just going to have it taken down.
There probably will be a third season of PortsCenter, and I already have a tentative line-up planned. Lots of cool stuff, lots of great games. I don't want to spoil any of it now because who knows what'll happen between now and then? I'll also be launching another show later this year for SoulGeek that uses a similar format to PortsCenter but has nothing to do with games. Still in the planning stages on that one, but I'm very excited about it.
CBNAH: Sounds like some fun stuff to look forward to. I was going to ask about your new show next. You haven't revealed much about it yet as far as I know. Anything else you'd care to share about it?
BP: Absolutely! It has an "&" in the title. That's an ampersand, if you're into lolograms. It's not about those, though. Keeping everything under wraps for now, but it should be good fun.
CBNAH: Are there any other shows/ventures/whatever you're involved in right now that you'd like to tell people about?
BP: I'm writing a drama-comedy webseries that, fingers crossed, goes into production later this year. Can't say much about that though.
CBNAH: Well, thank you very much for your time Ben. It is much appreciated. I think people will enjoy learning about new sources of entertainment such as PortsCenter, and hey, it's educational too. I really hope people will check out the show. It's great. Can you tell people where to find PortsCenter?
BP: Absolutely! You can watch new episodes on the YouTube channel, which can be quickly reached at PortsCenter.TV, or you can go to RetrowareTV.com to catch new episodes as well as a bunch of other retrogaming shows.
Ports. To use the definition from About.com, porting a video game is: To modify video game software for one platform so it can be used on a different platform. Not a remake, but a modification to work on other platform(s).
There have been numerous ports of games over time. Some of the more well-known ones come from arcade to home console. On a historical side note, the Neo Geo AES used cartridges containing actual Neo Geo arcade ROMs (games), no porting required. The only problem with the AES is that it cost $650 retail. Some of my favorite ports were TMNT: Turtles in Time (ported to SNES but not perfectly, also included an extra stage), Strider (ported to Mega Drive/Genesis) and the Mortal Kombat & Street fighter series.Some of my favorite home console to home console ports are the Resident Evil series from PS1/N64 to Gamecube/PS2. Nintendo also ported some of the best hits on the NES like Castlevania and Metroid to Gameboy Advance in the 'Classic NES Series'. Ocean/Midway did an awesome port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 to the Nintendo DS as well. I enjoyed a lot of the games and spent countless dollars of my parents money playing them in the arcade but I also enjoyed a lot of these games at home on console, some times by myself but with others as well. It was always fun to be able to bring the arcade experience home with you, even if it wasn't exactly the same.
What ports stick out in your minds? Do you have any favorites? Ones you dislike? Any stories? Lets hear them.
For today's chiptune I'm going to share a track from TMNT IV: Turtles in Time again. It had such an amazing soundtrack that there's a lot of choices there. This is another of my favorite tracks from the game from the extra stage 'Technodrome'.
I figured this week I'd delve into a subject I know a lot about and love, game collecting. In my collection I have about 1,000-1,200 games, about a few dozen systems and countless accessories/peripherals for those systems.
I started collecting games about three years ago thanks to some online shows/websites I follow such as ScrewAttack.com, The Game Chasers and The Angry Video Game Nerd. They rekindled my love of games I used to have as a kid. For me collecting is as much about getting back that feeling I had as a kid (and more) as much as anything else. I have far more now than I had as a kid but there's still a certain nostalgia I have for that time.
I mostly collect via local pawn shops, a swap meet and our local Goodwill. I do purchase online (from the Amazon Marketplace and eBay) but rarely. The game collecting market has been severely damaged by resellers. They're people that buy up games and resell them at vastly overinflated prices, many times what games are actually worth. They do this because they know some unsuspecting/uneducated fools will pay the prices they ask. For collectors such as myself, it's almost pointless most times to buy online. If one does, the better bet is to buy in lots.
I typically go game chasing two to five times a week. I buy mostly from Goodwill because the prices are always low on games (some times high on consoles though). For me, besides actually playing the games, one of the funnest parts of collecting is going out and rummaging through stuff and looking around because you never know what you can find. It's kind of like gambling in a way I suppose. Some of my best finds have come this way.
My favorite systems to collect for are the PS1 and NES because both have a ton of great games in their libraries and they're relatively easy to find & cheap to collect for.
Are there any collectors in the group? Does anyone have any memories of collecting or even just buying games when you were young? Do you guys or gals have any questions about collecting or games? Send them my way. I'd be happy to discuss them with all of you.
The tune this week is courtesy of CrimzonWolf777 of OC Remix. It's an amazing remix/remake of several of the tracks from easily one of the best games, if not the best in the Metroid franchise, Super Metroid.
Gaming magazines. They're mainly a relic of the past now. All of us might not have grown up with them though so I thought I'd touch on them. Growing up, my first exposure to gaming magazines that I can remember was at a local Shopko. Unlike many who began with Nintendo Power, the magazine in question in my case was actually Electronic Gaming Monthly, AKA EGM. I got a subscription to it at some point of which I don't remember. My second foray into gaming mags was Tips & Tricks magazine. I loved both of these mags for different reasons. EGM was just fun and had cool features on upcoming games. Tips & Tricks was great for all of the codes & strategies it focused on. Imagine my surprise as an adult to learn it was published by Larry Flint Publications!
I wrote in to Tips & Tricks but they sadly never published my letter.
It was advantageous to hang on to the various issues of Tips & Tricks because they alternated codes all the time. EGM was somewhat well known for their April Fools joke features such as the infamous 'Shen Long in Street Fighter II' prank. (On a side note, there is a reference to this character in the game however.)
I sadly traded my considerable collection of gaming mags to a friend in High School. At least it was for his Sega Genesis and all of his Genesis games.
Now-a-days the point of gaming magazines like Tips & Tricks is practically moot with the advent of the internet. Same goes to a certain extent for mags like EGM when the gaming news industry is so prolific. Hardly anything is a surprise these days with leaks from online retailers and the like.
So what memories and/or experiences do you all have with gaming magazines? Any at all? Which mags did you read/follow/subscribe to? What did you look forward to? Lets hear it.
For today's tune I chose a cool soundtrack: Super Contra (Contra 2) on NES! I particularly recommend track 1 (Lightning and Grenades) and track 6 (Under the Feet).
Music. We all have our own tastes with music. Today I'm covering a topic I've been meaning to write about since before I even started this column. Music from the classic era, say 16-bit era (SNES/Genesis/Mega Drive) and before.
During these periods, the audio hardware's capability was limited. For those that cared enough to make a game with a great soundtrack, before game soundtracks were even referred to as such, it was quite the creative challenge. A few companies that immediately come to mind with a lot of games with great music are Capcom and Konami.
To really understand and appreciate the music from these early eras, one must experience it. (Coincidentally, it's one reason I always include a favorite game tune of mine with every column). As an aside, some of my favorite game music composers to name a few are first and foremost, Yuzo Koshiro, famous for the music from one of my favorite beat-em-up series of all time: Streets of Rage. Another favorite of mine is Michiru Yamane, famous in part for the immortal Castlevania: Symphony of the Night soundtrack. Some others are Manami Matsumae and Yasuaki Fujita both famous for the early, excellent Mega Man trilogy and Kinuyo Yamashita famous for the soundtrack to the original Castlevania.
The work these masters created is indelible. To understand what they were able to achieve with the limited hardware of the time (Castlevania: SotN being an a more modern exception) one must understand the limitations. I don't want to bore anyone with the technical limitations so suffice it to say they were many. To hear some of the music of the composers I mentioned and to realize those limitations to make music more memorable than a lot of modern music, I think does a service to the composers and gives appreciation they deserve. So in order to achieve that appreciation, I'm going to include some playlists from some of my favorite game music ever. I hope their greatness shines through. They are some of my “must hear” soundtracks for game fans.
Streets of Rage 2 composed by Yuzo Koshiro. I can't recommend this one highly enough. Possibly my favorite game soundtrack of all time. I'm sure I'm a bit more partial to it because the second system I ever got/owned was a Sega Genesis and the first game I got with it was Streets of Rage 2. If you like electronic music or dubstep, I HIGHLY recommend this soundtrack. It's amazing.
Mega Man 2. I don't think I need to say much about this one. A classic soundtrack.
Mega Man 3. A lot of people debate over whether MM2 or 3 was better as well as the soundtracks. I'll let you decide.
One of the series that IMO has the some of the greatest music ever composed for it. This franchise was so blessed to have a lot of really talented composers work on it. Castlevania on NES. I cannot explain the greatness of this soundtrack. It must be experienced.
Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest. Kind of the black sheep of the Castlevania series but IMO it had a solid soundtrack.
Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse. Another awesome soundtrack from the 8-bit era.
(Super) Castlevania: IV. One of the best soundtracks on SNES (16-bit). A masterpiece.
Super Metroid. A great soundtrack that really enhanced the isolated nature of the game. Many compared the sense of isolation to original Alien film. There are some inspirations from that film in the Metroid series. This game consistently places in the top five SNES games in lists. I think the music is some of the reason why.
Games, there's so many different aspects to them. Gameplay/game mechanics, plot, graphics, audio, controls, environment, immersion, replayability, etc.
The main thing for me is gameplay. I can deal with not so great graphics or audio or clunky controls. If the gameplay isn't forgiving or easy to work with, I'm not going to waste my time on it. I think we've all dealt with games like this. I think it's probably why I'm most partial to retro type games like platformers and beat em ups.
Lets not forget about advertising though. I suppose to some people this will be all they see before playing a game. I guess what they see depends on what is shown in the advertisement. Some people like to rent first. I think this is a less important factor as far as deciding if one wants to buy a game or not than it used to be as rentals are becoming more and more scarce with the advent of downloadable demos and the like.
What is it that gets you interested in a particular game? What's the most important thing to you? Gameplay, plot, graphics, immersion, etc.?
This time I present a theme from one of the games I've spent the most time with, Diablo 2. It's called 'Rogue'.
We're going to talk about the games we've played the most today. The games you've poured the most amount of time into.
Some times we play particular games so much because we simply enjoy them. Other times because we crave a sense of accomplishment. Still other times we need to feel a sense of completion. Some times it's because we have to grind in order to progress or finish a game. Whatever the reason, some games or game series just suck us in.
In my case, the game (series) I've spent the most time with is the Castlevania series. This game series is a favorite of mine, maybe my favorite ever. I have virtually all of the games released in North America and have beaten nearly all of them. For me this game series had a formula that equaled fun. Exploration, simple but fun combat, collectibles that constantly give you a sense of reward, challenging bosses, typically great soundtracks and addicting gameplay.
The game in the series I spent the most time with is one that a lot of people probably spent the most time with as well: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. This game has everything I mentioned before and one of the best soundtracks of the entire series. It's a game I return to every year and play over again.
Being a game collector, this game also happens to be the best deal I've ever gotten on a game. I work at a retail store that buys back games among other things. We currently only buy back games up to a generation old. Well, February 18th of last year someone had brought in a stack of PS1 games to sell. I didn't do the buyback so I had no idea. I went up later to get stuff to put away and I saw the stack of already processed PS1 games. I was surprised and looked through them. I couldn't believe my eyes when sitting in the pile was one of the most sought after PS1 games, the original black label SotN complete! I immediately tucked it under my arm, clocked out for my break and bought it. This game typically runs about $70 online. I got it for $3.74 with my employee discount! That really made my day. Literally about a week or two later we stopped buying back games more than a generation old.
Which games or game series have all of you played the most? Also, why? What made you keep coming back to it/them?
In homage to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, here is one my favorite tracks from this amazing game, “The Tragic Prince”, a kickass tune! Give it a listen!
Today we'll talk about our favorite games of 2013! 2013 was packed with a lot of releases and a bunch of really big releases. I don't play everything, nobody does. So today when I talk about my favorite game of the year obviously it's only of what I've played. Also, it's only my opinion.
The game I looked forward to most in 2013 arrived early in the year. It was a game franchise I enjoyed very much growing up. I remember going to Blockbuster with my cousin to rent Nintendo 64s from time to time. I remember this particular day going to rent a Playstation 1 for the first time. I forget but it may have been my first interaction with a PS1. The game we rented to play with it was none of than Tomb Raider. It was a game and main character that changed the video game world.
I always enjoyed platformers as a kid and still do, but this was a newer take on a platform game as it was in 3D. It wasn't the first to do 3D platforming and it wasn't only a platforming game, but it appealed to my tastes. The sense of exploration and adventure in this game were possibly the most I had ever gotten out of a video game until then.
I stuck with the franchise, only wavering from it with Angel of Darkness because I didn't have a PS2 or a PC capable of running it at the time. Luckily, according to most I dodged a bullet with this game.
I have since played through and beaten all of the console TR titles except AoD and some of the portable titles as well.
Imagine my surprise when a reboot was announced. I immediately pre-ordered it. It was supposed to be a new experience for Lara and the player. It would be vulnerable, gritty and a matter of survival. When this game was released I bought it on PS3 on launch day. I played through and beat it on every difficulty. I loved this game. While not perfect, Crystal Dynamics did an amazing job with the game. The gameplay was solid, the atmosphere was immersive & interesting and the game had replayability for a fan such as myself. It was a fun experience.
I have since bought the game on PC along with all of the DLC and plan to play through it again this time with my high end PC.
So what was your favorite game of the year and why? I'd like to hear.
For today’s tune I present one of my favorite video game tracks from the 90's, in honor of my favorite game of the year, the “Main Title” theme from the original Tomb Raider by composer Nathan McCree:
Everyone has their favorite consoles. The ones I had growing up are: NES, Sega Genesis, PS1, Xbox and PS3. Since then I've become a collector and in addition to those I have many more consoles now including: Emerson Arcadia 2001, Magnavox Odyssey 2, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, and PS2. Not to mention handhelds.
The question I'd like to pose today is, what is your favorite console to play and/or collect for and why?
For me, I probably have the most fond memories of my NES and SG. They're probably my favorite systems to play. What do I need to say about these two legendary systems? Both of these systems had great and memorable libraries.
On the other hand, my favorite system to collect for is actually the PS1. I have a lot of fond memories with the PS1 as well. I currently have an original PS1 as well as the PSOne revision. I also currently have approximately 100 complete games in my PS1 library.
The reason this is my favorite console to collect for is two-fold. First, PS1 games are not typically hard to find. There are a lot of them out there so it's easy to get in to collecting for. Secondly, it may be the system that is most affordable to collect for. I've gotten 98% of my PS1 collection on the cheap. The lack of scarcity, affordability and fond memories are reasons that make the PS1 my favorite system to collect for.
So how about it people? What are your favorites?
Today's chiptune is an oldie made new. I didn't grow up playing the Zelda franchise much and only got into it in the last few years. I played the original a bit as a kid and have now played through half of Link to the Past. Few songs in video games conjure up so many memories as well as this song does so in honor of the new Zelda game, a spiritual successor to LttP, A Link Between Worlds, I leave you with the classic 'Overworld theme'.
I've been in a nostalgic mood lately when it comes to games so I thought we'd talk about our first console memories.
Are you old enough to remember your first console memories? I would have been about 4 years old when I got my first console. Like a lot of people, my first home console was a Nintendo Entertainment System. It was the Action Set with the orange/red Zapper. Some of my earliest memories are playing, surprise surprise, Super Mario Bros. I still remember the big screen TV I played it on. I could list the memories with SMB but those are a dime a dozen since practically everyone that's played games has those same memories too. I remember having fun with the Zapper and Duck Hunt too. I always hated that asshole dog. I knew I hit those ducks...
I also remember getting other games too, unfortunately some of them absolutely terrible. Back to the Future was horrible. I remember never being able to get past the malt shop level. Tapper did it right, not BttF. I also remember having the terrible NES port of the GREAT arcade game Strider. That game was hard and confusing to me as a small kid, although I did make it pretty far. I didn't like it then and I still don't like it. Haha.
The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. Where do I start with this one? Cool cover art, not so great of a game. It's not a terrible game, but it's not that great either. Pretty damn hard. How about the infamous dam stage? The game is perhaps most well-known for this perceived “atrocity” of a stage. I'll admit it was pretty frustrating at times and made me angry but as time went on, I could speedrun that bitch and take little damage. I never did beat that game as a kid but I could make it close to the last stage. I still haven't beat it as an adult. Then there's the Game Genie. I just recently re-added the Game Genie for the NES to my game collection. I remember trading codes with friends before the time of the internet. When games were ass hard, like “NES hard” as the term has come to be, if you weren't cheating, you weren't trying.
What are some of your first console memories?
For the tune of the day, I share my favorite arrangement of my favorite track from F-Zero, called “Big Blue”. This arrangement is from Super Smash Bros. Melee however:
This week we will take a look at and discuss a controversial subject in the home console game market: on-disc DLC ('downloadable content' for those that don't know).
Now-a-days DLC in games is quite commonplace. It can add variety to games, to varying degrees. It is a method for developers to profit further from their games. On-disc DLC for the unaware, is when a developer includes the DLC they will require purchase for later on the physical disc(s). Consumers are used to buying a “complete product” and owning it. Should developers sell “whole” games with all finished assets instead of saving it for the future as DLC? Would/should consumers pay for multiple endings? One is essentially buying an “unlock code” to gain access to something that is already on the purchased item. Are consumers buying the same product twice? They are independent companies and are free to choose how they conduct business, but the bottom line is: is on-disc DLC a legitimate business practice?
I personally don't have a problem with DLC because it can benefit games positively. However, put simply, I feel on-disc DLC is kind of like buying something twice. I wonder if there are any legal issues with this subject depending on area/country...
This may not be an issue in the future as generations come and games move even more to the digital medium.
Here is one of my favorite themes from a platformer I have a ton of memories with on the Genesis/SNES. This is a really cool and unique fusion of the SG/SNES versions of the song “Heroic Assault” from Maximum Carnage. (This also happens to be my favorite Spider-Man story arc/series.) JOIN THE DISCUSSION HERE AT THE CBNAH FACEBOOK GROUP OR BELOW IN THE COMMENTS...
Welcome to The Console Slayer! This is a new feature about a subject a lot of us are passionate about: video games!
Today’s subject will be about old school versus modern games. A lot of us video game nerds are familiar with modern games. Some of us might not have experience with “retro” games though. In a lot of cases this is due to age. Lets define “retro” though because it could be relative. By retro I mean anything from ancient systems like Magnavox Odyssey, Colecovision, Atari systems and NES through say the fifth generation consoles like the PS1 or N64. For those of us that are familiar with retro games as well as modern games, let me pose this question: Are retro games more difficult than modern games? I'm of the opinion that they are.
Modern games are rife with multiple difficulty settings (standard these days), adaptive/on-the-fly difficulty scaling, automatic checkpoints and the ability to save your game. On the other hand, what about games like the Ninja Gaiden series (modern), MGS, Demon Souls/Dark Souls and Super Meat Boy though? These are some of the most widely acknowledged, most difficult of modern games.
What about old school games with the limited programming and hardware capabilities, lack of saving whenever one wants, unreliable physical mediums and more widespread glitches? Some examples of the most difficult retro games for reference: Ghosts 'N Goblins, Battletoads, (Mike Tyson's) Punch Out, Gradius series, TMNT, Contra (series) and Ninja Gaiden (original series).
What do you guys and gals think? (Discuss here or in the CBNAH Console Slayer Facebook Group Discussion) It doesn't really matter which is more difficult but its an interesting discussion both of gaming history and of gamers themselves.
I've also decided to always leave you with a little tidbit of my favorite game music/chiptunes with every post. Labeled the 'Final Boss' it is actually the Shiar stage theme from X-Men on Sega Genesis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M35kFx0ETpA (Best listened to in 720p)
