Before I begin, I’d like to say that building the arcade cabinet has been an extremely rewarding experience. There really is nothing like playing the classics on your own machine, tweaking it so that it’s just the way you like it. You’re basically shaping your own arcade experience. And, even people who don’t like video games are usually impressed. Periodically, I’ll post information on how to build your own. Mostly, these will be guidelines rather than set instructions. I patched together my cabinet by combing through lots of Internet sources, and chances are you’ll want to do the same. I’ll try to help out.

–(gratuitous TRON cabinet!)–

The first thing to do is decide what kind of machine you want. They come in all different shapes and sizes (thanks to klov.com for those images), and what you choose may depend on either the functionality or the look you’re trying to achieve. From what I’ve seen, most homemade models stem from three basic types:

There’s the tall and thin upright cabinet, best for one or two standing players. My machine is modeled after the Defender upright cabinet. You’ll find dimensions for that at over here.

There’s the cocktail cabinet, where two players sit at opposite sides of a screen that faces up. Instructions here.

And of course the frickin’ huge cabinet, which usually allows for two to four players, plus extra features like trackballs (Golden Tee!) and spinners (Arkanoid!). Check this site out for dimensions.

Stay tuned ’till next time, when my Dad — a Jewish guy from the Bronx — and I start weilding power tools. Yikes!

Cabinet | No Comments »

I appear in April’s Wired Magazine, my second published piece for them. It’s a review blurb that’s so small I could blockquote the whole thing here, but I don’t know if that would get me in trouble, so I’ll just link to it instead. Be sure to scroll down to the “Play With Fire” game review.

Newman | 1 Comment »

Just thinking about this after the last post.

The Government Man in Half Life presents you with a choice: You either work for him (the government, or The Man), or you go back to Xen and die facing an army of aliens.

Funny — you’ve just poured 20 hours into a video game that had you go from average government scientist to badass superhero. Now you have to go back to work for the government. How meta, because now that the game is done you can either go back to your crap 9-5 job working for the government, or The Man, or you can return to the video game world where you’ll run out of money and whither away to an untimely death. Just wanted to get that out there, because someone was saying in the 1UP Forums that video games don’t have a point or make you think.

Storylines | No Comments »

I just posted this on GameSetWatch as a comment in response to a 1UP story:

“Game plots are often dramatic and cliche because it’s easy and fast. A good film can take an hour or more to begin understanding characters and atmosphere. It’s rare for a game to dedicate even that amount of time to a storyline.

“I’m not saying that games shouldn’t or couldn’t have plots, but more and more I’m thinking that video games aren’t really the place for narrative. Even when a game has a good (enough) story, it still seems like a crutch, a way to get you to play through the rest of the game, regardless of gameplay.”

Half-Life was hailed for revolutionizing video game narrative, because players didn’t ever step out of Gordon Freeman’s shoes to watch the story unfold. They were merely peppered with occasional bits of information to push things along, and it made for a great in-game story. When the G-Man looks you in the eye at the end of the game and tells you you’re going to either work for him or get sent back to Xen to die, you’re hit with emotions borne only from working hard through the game itself, only to come to this frightening resolution.

But did it really have a narrative? No — the entire series of events can be explained in one paragraph.

Certainly games can have better dialogue. Maybe plots can be less derivative. But saying games _need_ better stories is like saying movies need better acting.

Theory, Storylines | No Comments »

It occurs to me that last week I wrote my first article on games for one of my part-time papers, The Stamford Times.

Okay, it’s not about video games, it’s about the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament — a massive multiplayer deathmatch of crosswords if there ever was one. It’s moving from Stamford to Brooklyn after 30 years due to skyrocketing attendance.

As I read through it again, I realize I said “said” a few times too many. It’s better than not attributing, I guess.

Newman | No Comments »

Sorry for the pun.

Anyway, my buddy Scotto has asked me a few times why I haven’t been playing Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii. Here’s my theory:

The short answer is that the motion control sucks. One would hope that stabbing the remote, or swinging it in a circle or slicing backhand would perform those actions on screen. Instead, to do those actions you must shake the remote (doesn’t really matter how) while holding some combination of other buttons. It’s an example of the Wii’s buttons being used as a crutch for the unrefined motion sensing.

You see this in other games too. SSX Blur allows players to switch to the analog stick to move instead of twisting the remote, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance lets players mash a button when their arms get tired from swinging. The developers are basically acknowledging that the remote is a gimmick, and once you’re through with it, you’re welcome to fall back on the old standard of buttons and sticks. Cheap.

The funny thing is that in Zelda, I’d rather be playing on a Gamecube controller. Nintendo, being the first party and all, doesn’t let you, even though practically the same game was released for the older system as well. Essentially they’re saying, “Look, this is the new technology, and if you’re not happy with it you should have bought the Gamecube version to begin with.”

You see the conflict now? I want buttons as crutches, but I don’t like the message it sends about Wii-as-gimmick. The potential solution is basically what we’ve been waiting for anyway: controls that surpass the abilities of traditional gamepads. A Wii motion should never be analogous to a button press. I should be able to perform one gesture on the remote for every two or three button combo on the gamepad. It should be so intuitive that it’s just easier for me to do so. That way, I’ll never even consider switching back.

Theory, Wii | No Comments »

Joystiq reminds that The Independent Game Rating System has been overhauled, but they fret that a self-rating honor system could lead to abuse and scandal.

GameTunnel’s writers review games for nothing other than a free copy of the game. Surely, there must be a similar group who’s willing to do the same thing for a ratings board. Granted, it isn’t as cool as a byline, but it’s also less work. Self-regulation is better than nothing, but that’s about it.

I do think that worrying about an indie game scandal is a little silly. That scene has already had one (Super Columbine Massacre RPG), and I think it’s stronger for it.

Indies | No Comments »

Here’s a shot of the arcade cabinet in progress. My old man and I have been working on it on the occasional weekend for about a year now. Control Panel needs to have some miscalculations corrected, and it needs some side art too. But it’s fully playable.

More pictures here, here and here. Bonus points for naming all the games on the marquee. A number of friends have asked me how it was done, so I’ll post more info on that soon.

Newman, Cabinet | No Comments »

Manifesto Games founder Greg Costikyan, who I wrote about for Wired in January, has posted his acceptance speech for the Maverick Award at this year’s Game Developers Conference. A slice:

… I want you to imagine an educational system in which games are integrated into every aspect of the curriculum, in which everyone understands that games can illuminate things in ways that are complementary to but different from text. I want you to imagine a world in which games dare to tackle the most knotty, controversial, and difficult issues our society faces–and are not condemned but praised for doing so. I want you to imagine a world in which the common person is no longer ignorant of economics, physics and the functioning of the environment–things which are themselves interactive systems –because they have interacted with them in the form of games. I want you to imagine a world where it us understood that continuing to play into adulthood is not failing to grow up, but rather preserving the flexibility and ability to learn that is essential in an era of rapid technological change. …

If you’re late to the party, here’s Costikyan’s rant about the games industry from GDC 2005 (scroll down the page for it).

Newman, Indies | No Comments »

You are a puddle of slime that has been given life in a laboratory, and now you want to get out and see the world.

The slime has no special abilities other than to slide around and use its gooey mass to manipulate nearby objects. First, you have to escape the test tube by rocking yourself back and forth until the momentum causes you to tip over and spill out. Now you can either gum up the nearby computer and spark an electrical fire, thereby activating the sprinklers and sending you through the drainage pipes, or you can simply slide off the table and slip under a crack in the door.

From here, your options branch even further. Traveling through the pipes lets you warp to different parts of the building, while moving through the hallways of the office requires a bit of stealth. If you’re spotted, you’ll be swiped up by the janitor and have to find your way out of one of the building’s many trash repositiories. Otherwise, you can try to hitch a ride by sticking underneath someone’s shoe, effective for getting across the gap in the elevator door or for gaining access to new rooms.

Each room will present a different opportunity for moving around. For example, you might append yourself to a memo and get sent to accounting, where you can gather a pen and sign off on various equipment shipments that are blocking your path. Or, you may be able to sneak into a syringe and get yourself injected into someone, only to be passed on in a nearby bathroom (another way of entering the pipe system).

Of course, there will have to be some side objectives to keep you from leaving as soon as possible. Perhaps there are some fellow slimes to animate, or some lab technicians to play pranks on. And there’d have to be plenty of minigame opportunities, such as a variation on connect-the-dots when shorting out that first computer.

What would one title such a game? I’m sticking with “Slime in a Laboratory.”

Random Game Idea | No Comments »