If you grew up in the NES golden year then you may well remember the infamous Konami Code. One site online has cataloged all the other sites that use it and what secret easter eggs occur when you enter it in.
Awesome to see so many people implementing this bit of game history where they work.
A bit more information on the code and its history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konami_Code
If you grew up in the NES golden year then you may well remember the infamous Konami Code. One site online has cataloged all the other sites that use it and what secret easter eggs occur when you enter it in.
If you own Borderlands 2 on the PS3 or XboX gearbox has gone to the effort to fit in the konami code alog with thousands of other little things; like Micheal M (a borderlands fan that died of cancer at the age of 22) he was put in Borderlands 2 as an NPC that gives a free gun when you see him. I love how gearbox spends so much time with Pop-Culture references and eastereggs. ;p
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 10/05/2012 at 03:08am
I just Googled that, yeah it looks like it unlocks wub mode but it doesn't actually do anything. Cool they added it though, Gearbox is awesome.
I hear many people mention that video games are more expensive than they were in days of yore. Its interesting as this image has recently surfaced to somewhat dispel that idea. Some games cost in upwards to $70 in certain markets depending on the launch system and demand for it.
I don't mind the $60 if the game is worth it and now games can be MUCH less if its digital. Do you think games cost too much? What was the most expensive game you have both recently and ever?
I hear many people mention that video games are more expensive than they were in days of yore. Its interesting as this image has recently surfaced to somewhat dispel that idea. Some games cost in upwards to $70 in certain markets depending on the launch system and demand for it.
I don't mind the $60 if the game is worth it and now games can be MUCH less if its digital. Do you think games cost too much? What was the most expensive game you have both recently and ever?
I feel like games are a bit too expensive right now. Most major games are $60 which is quite a lot compared to the more indie games that are $20(little more/little less depending on the game type). I don't see why games need to be $60, most indie companies that sell their games cheaper seem to do fine as long as the game is actually good. Also, the fact is that soon most games will be all downloaded digitally. Selling a game digitally is much cheaper than selling a hard copy(disk,case, and any booklets). At least with the hard copy they have to account for all the stuff they include with the game. So the profit isn't going to be as much as a digital download.
All in all I guess I'm saying if you sell a hard copy of the game for $60 its alright, but once you start selling digitally for $60, your just being completely greedy. No digital download needs to be $60 to make a good profit.
Also, I forgot to add stuff about dlc. Now they are starting to make dlc at the same time the game is being made then selling it for another 10 to 20 bucks. So that brings the total up even higher than before. Mass effect 3 is one of the games that did this. They released the Ashes to ashes dlc at the same time they released the game and gave it a price of $10. This caused the total of the game to become $70 if you wanted the full game. That is just greedy EA for ya.
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 10/05/2012 at 03:21am
I agree, $60 for a digital only triple A game is too much. I've heard the reason why they can't drive the digital price lower at first is because of contracts with stores.
I hope that changes in the future. Or just charge less, like CS:GO or Torchlight 2 pricing :D
I remember Sonic and Knuckles being ridiculously expensive. The justification was that it let you play the other Sonic games as Knuckles. Pretty awesome idea btw. It was like DLC before DL's.
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 10/05/2012 at 12:17pm
Oh right, didn't that cart have a open top to put the other games on so it could change the code or something?
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 10/05/2012 at 12:18pm
Honestly I feel like that picture in particular may be taken out of context. For instance, http://www.play-asia.com/paOScore/19-71-99-49-en-15-gundam.html take a look at how expensive those games are. Ya some places have them way hiked up then they were at the time but, most places were pretty cheap. I got a lot of my super sega games for like 20dollars. Sega Saturn in particular has reasons for being so pricey. As out of japan it did horribly and the number of copies was exceedingly low for games.
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Its a good way to boost the value of your steam game count, and most importantly acknowledge the developers that work years to bring the games we play :']
How many people are excited about the Humble Indie Bundle ?
Its a good way to boost the value of your steam game count, and most importantly acknowledge the developers that work years to bring the games we play :']
Who Doesn't Like a good sequel to an amazing story ?
If you havnt played borderlands original you have missed out on the back story of DAHL and will never know who Atlas Steel was D: comment on what was your favourite part of the original BORDERLANDS
Who Doesn't Like a good sequel to an amazing story ?
If you havnt played borderlands original you have missed out on the back story of DAHL and will never know who Atlas Steel was D: comment on what was your favourite part of the original BORDERLANDS
Fav part of the original? I would have to say either Sledges Safehouse OR the... hmmm... the very beginning. I had so much fun just existing in the world, killing things and nabbing sweet guns.
My favourite part was in the DAHL headlands, either the massive mine that introduced the Eridian's or SkagZilla, I also missed the hours of farming loot in new haven. NOT ENOUGH LOOT IN BORDERLANDS 2 !!!
Never forget Crawmerax the invincible from the general knox DLC. Most memorable mission "You. Will. Die." and in Borderlands 2 "You. Will Die.(seriously)" Best way to get loot when you have no missions left
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This just in from the land of things that needed to happen yesterday: 8-bit Gangnam Style. If you haven't been initiated to South Korea's own Psy and his video masterwork, please do so now:
Kingdom Rush was recently released for the iPhone and being a fan of the original browser Flash game installing it was a no brainer. It being free also helped as well. Since Kingdom Rush had an iPad port it was fairly inevitable that there would be a port to the iPhone and after playing a few levels I can say the wait was worth it. Occasionally the map doesn't fit the size of the phone and the game lets your flick around the map to see areas you couldn't otherwise. That said, the port is nearly flaweless and in not time I was enjoying myself protecting my Kingdom from invaders.
Tower Defense is one of those game types that does well on a touch screen device. Tapping to... Read All
Kingdom Rush was recently released for the iPhone and being a fan of the original browser Flash game installing it was a no brainer. It being free also helped as well. Since Kingdom Rush had an iPad port it was fairly inevitable that there would be a port to the iPhone and after playing a few levels I can say the wait was worth it. Occasionally the map doesn't fit the size of the phone and the game lets your flick around the map to see areas you couldn't otherwise. That said, the port is nearly flaweless and in not time I was enjoying myself protecting my Kingdom from invaders.
Tower Defense is one of those game types that does well on a touch screen device. Tapping to select the tower you want to build is simple enough but Kingdom Rush ups that a notch by tossing the invaders at you at a quicker pace. If you don't feel the game is fast enough, you can tap to allow the next wave of invaders to come faster and if you do so, incur a bonus of reinforcement units.
The game picks up on the pretty popular freemium model by allowing you the ability to collect gems and spend those on in game bonus items. If you want to purchase them with real money, you can. As with many freemium games you need not pay to win, that said I could see where it would help you out quite a bit.
If you have an iPad or iPhone you should download Kingdom Rush as it is a really fun high quality tower defense game. The ability to replace levels with different challenges adds to its replay-ability and its fantasy theme make it more fun that most of its kind.
I just watched an interesting documentary I've heard quite a bit about titled Indie Game: the Movie. It basically follows a few indie game developers through development ups and downs in really interesting documentary style. They focus on the team that made Super Meat Boy as well as the developers that made Fez. They also talk to the developer that made Braid as Braid ushered in the new wave of Indie game development on XBLA.
The movie is very interesting and if you can check it out, I recommend you do. I felt it was a little long but that was my only negative to the film. The soundtrack is fantastic and the camera work stands out to me as some of the best I've seen in... Read All
I just watched an interesting documentary I've heard quite a bit about titled Indie Game: the Movie. It basically follows a few indie game developers through development ups and downs in really interesting documentary style. They focus on the team that made Super Meat Boy as well as the developers that made Fez. They also talk to the developer that made Braid as Braid ushered in the new wave of Indie game development on XBLA.
The movie is very interesting and if you can check it out, I recommend you do. I felt it was a little long but that was my only negative to the film. The soundtrack is fantastic and the camera work stands out to me as some of the best I've seen in a documentary yet.
If you love video games or ever want to make them, you need to watch this!
I received an email today from introversion (makers of Uplink, Darwinia, and DEFCON) announcing alpha access to their newest game. It really sound interesting and I have enjoyed all of their other games... (I just wish they followed the Minecraft alpha pricing model where it's much cheaper to buy the alpha instead of the kickstarter model where you pay full price and more to help fund it)...
Here's the full text of the short email:
Now in Alpha!
The creators of Uplink, Darwinia and DEFCON, Introversion Software, proudly present the world's first lock 'em... Read All
Introversion is allowing early access to it's new game Prison Architect http://www.introversion.co.uk/prisonarchitect/
I received an email today from introversion (makers of Uplink, Darwinia, and DEFCON) announcing alpha access to their newest game. It really sound interesting and I have enjoyed all of their other games... (I just wish they followed the Minecraft alpha pricing model where it's much cheaper to buy the alpha instead of the kickstarter model where you pay full price and more to help fund it)...
Here's the full text of the short email:
Now in Alpha!
The creators of Uplink, Darwinia and DEFCON, Introversion Software, proudly present the world's first lock 'em up. Inspired by Dwarf Fortress, Theme Hospital and Dungeon Keeper comes a bulfrog style prison management game.
Access Alpha Build
Get immediate access to the alpha download, or choose from one of our specialist tiers to Digital-Immorto-Criminalize yourself by naming a prisoner, having our artists draw your likeness into the game or secure access to a truck load of cool PA merchandise.
Ya, great Dev (did you guys ever nuke Santa in Uplink?). The name sounds a bit Facebook Gamey, but with Introversion doing it it will probably be pretty good.
Defcon, sorry. Wrong game. Ya, if you have a game that takes place on 12/25 you can nuke santa. It was part of the whole "Steam Christmas" thing last year.
When I found out Portland had a Retro Gaming Expo I had to be part of it. To hang out with other like minded geeks and talk about some of the coolest things ever made? I had to do it.
Originally I wanted to volunteer up a storm and hang out the entire weekend, but things being what they are starting a new job, I couldn't commit to the full schedule. I had a few hours today(Saturday) and I was able to help out. When I arrived at 8.30 AM people were already lining up and I was excited to see so many people in attendance. I wasn't sure what to expect as it was my first year and I was happy to see so many happy geeks in lines.
My first job was to hold a sign directing people... Read All
When I found out Portland had a Retro Gaming Expo I had to be part of it. To hang out with other like minded geeks and talk about some of the coolest things ever made? I had to do it.
Originally I wanted to volunteer up a storm and hang out the entire weekend, but things being what they are starting a new job, I couldn't commit to the full schedule. I had a few hours today(Saturday) and I was able to help out. When I arrived at 8.30 AM people were already lining up and I was excited to see so many people in attendance. I wasn't sure what to expect as it was my first year and I was happy to see so many happy geeks in lines.
My first job was to hold a sign directing people to purchase tickets. There were a few other volunteers holding signs and directing people to will call and other whatnotery. It seems all the volunteers I met had some love for gaming and are involved in it. One such nice person person I met was Clifton. I actually remembered seeing Clifton at PAX this year. As it turns out he is a game designer and is working on a game called Clobbr and you can play it right now @ http://clobbr.com/
After the expo opened up and the line cleared I headed to my first major volunteer assignment of answering questions and looking knowledgable at the Auction Booth. It was a fun experience and I enjoyed talking to all the people that came to ask questions or just talk about gaming. The items that got the most attention were the Ps2 & GameCube dev kits as well as a pristine Virtual Boy as part of the entire collection lot that was up for auction.
A few items from the Auction Booth I was extremely happy to be standing around:
At 2pm I had someone relive me and I was able to hit up the show floor and check out the rest of the exhibitor hall. If you lust for all things retro and dream in 8-bit, the Retro Gaming Expo show floor is your heroin. Due to my brain being in an unfortunate state this morning I forgot to bring cash with me and as such suffered greatly as I couldn't buy anything... Oh well, I snapped a few rad photos so I can judge myself later.
Many exhibitors were creating 8 and 16 bit art pieces from a craft supply I have seen but can't put a name on. Can you guys help me figure out what these little plastic bits are you put together, heat up and they stick to form things? That said, the stuff the artists made out of them was stunning:
A few vendors were selling other awesome bits from my childhood I never thought I would ever see again.
http://i.imgur.com/6XzSe.jpg [ The Original Nintendo Trading Cards in the packaging. Proof there is a God ] http://i.imgur.com/pLOhd.jpg [ Super Mario Brothers 2 Disk System. I don't believe this came to the states. I really dig the packaging ] http://i.imgur.com/5zQbQ.jpg [ Didn't every school have the Apple II? I didn't see any Oregon Trail ] http://i.imgur.com/mRBZ6.jpg [ This original GameBoy station was for play in the free play Arcade area ]
I talked to many people and made some friends along the way. I'll be posting more about some of the individual booths I found awesome in the next few days. If you have time to hit up the Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2012 tomorrow you should, it is awesome. If not pencil in time for next year, you will not regret it. I look forward to having more time to spend time volunteering next year and meeting more awesome people. And, if I am in luck I will remember to bring money so I can something awesome on my mantle.
The full album of all the photos I took is available for you to persue on imgur right here:
Dude these pictures are awesome. I'm sure it cost an arm and a leg, but I really want that game collection. Especially the NES, SNES, and N64 games. :D
That pixel art was really cool and the level prints were kind of amazing! I seriously want an Earthbound and Chrono Trigger print!
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 09/30/2012 at 05:00am
The collection did cost a few gold coins :D
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 09/30/2012 at 05:02am
In fact, one vendor claimed to accept Rupees and I considered making a joke about currency from India and the I realized that wouldn't have been funny at all.
That collection is HUGE, I wish I could own that many games of any system, not to mention having a collection that large of retro games. I would love to just go through and look at all the games. I would especially love to get my hands on the N64 games. That is one of the first systems I ever played and I loved all the games on it; they were so well thought out. I still have my N64 console and play it from time to time.
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 09/30/2012 at 03:09pm
I see no problems with putting that in a living room. Always lights up... Nice conversation starter!
I'm really surprised that the devkits are available. Especially the PS2 one. As a developer/publisher you never actually bought the hardware, you just rented it for $25,000 (the price varied a bit and dropped over the life time of the hardware, and there were eventually 2 models -- the normal model and the Performance Analyzer model which was awesome at showing you an incredible amount of detail about how your code ran on the hardware). I saw studios close up shop and Sony asking for the hardware back... They never wanted anyone not covered by contracts to touch the hardware. I guess some slipped through the cracks.
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 09/30/2012 at 06:16pm
Yeah, I didn't know the hardware was so restricted to use. Figured cause you paid so much you'd get to keep it. Apparently not :D
I didn't get a huge look at all the pictures. I made sure to check out that retro collection though. I know there's probably thousands of great games in there if i look hard enough but what stood out was harvest moon 64! Best in the series and my first one. I was just trying to play some harvest moon recently so it caught my eye. I still own the game cartridge as well.
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 10/02/2012 at 02:40am
Awesome. Still trying to figure out with retro game to tear into next. My money is on Earthbound. :D
Completely old post BUT I just wanted to note. I've been playing through tons of retro games as well. Earthbound is also on my radar. As are the other MOTHER games.
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 10/08/2012 at 10:23am
I've tried out the fan translated Mother 3 (Earthbound 2). I sunk maybe about 5 or 6 hours into it so I didn't get terribly far into the story, but it was fun. I stopped playing mainly because I got sidetracked with other stuff, but someday I'll go back and finish it.
If you own Borderlands 2 on the PS3 or XboX gearbox has gone to the effort to fit in the konami code alog with thousands of other little things; like Micheal M (a borderlands fan that died of cancer at the age of 22) he was put in Borderlands 2 as an NPC that gives a free gun when you see him. I love how gearbox spends so much time with Pop-Culture references and eastereggs. ;p
I just Googled that, yeah it looks like it unlocks wub mode but it doesn't actually do anything. Cool they added it though, Gearbox is awesome.
Off topic: wasn't gearbox at one time associated with Valve?
After searching for it, this is the only thing I could find: http://imgur.com/r/gaming/Phv5d
Ah, they made the two expansion packs for the original half-life:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life:_Opposing_Force
Oh no kidding... That makes sense then.