If you’ve never heard of the Amulet of Yendor, I don’t know how or why you would search this out. But if you have even the smallest amount of interest in video game history—of uncovering the roots of the procedurally generated loot tables that underpin the gaming world’s new hotness—then Dungeon H@cks is required reading.
Read MoreVideo games aren’t a given—they didn’t have to happen—but they are so ubiquitous now that I am very surprised that stories about their origins aren’t more popular. Changeable software cartridges connected to a hardware platform that piggybacks off of a preexisting and console-agnostic television is an insane idea in a world of closed units like arcade machines. Pulling a piece of software from dedicated hardware that was designed to do nothing else and shoving to into a generic platform while trying to retain the original shape seems herculean:
Read MoreTo draw the four pursuers, programmer Tod Frye relied on a technique called flicker. Each of the four ghosts is moved and drawn in sequence on successive frames. Pac-Man himself is drawn every frame using the other sprite graphic register….
So while I have never played Second Life, the chance to read scholarly work that takes the subject of virtual worlds seriously was too good to pass up. And Second Life does bring me back to my law school days of trying–and failing–to get any of my cybersecurity professors to engage with the wild things happening in virtual worlds. If I had 2006 back again, I would do more than just bring printed-out Something Awful forums about flying phalluses to office hours and play at issue-spotting with people who couldn’t possibly care less.
Read MoreAnd all of a sudden, I was through the main story quest. I had leveled past 50 on four classes and had admitted to myself I was, indeed, a dragoon main. Never could have expected it. Then I found myself doing something I even less expected—I was running end game content.
Read MoreI AM ERROR elucidates the functional, physical aspects of the Famicom and applies that knowledge onto the end product; it is why Mario looks the way he looks, or moves the way he moves; why the bushes and clouds in Super Mario Bros. are made from the same tiles.
Read MoreTech and games are much more ubiquitous now than when I used to spend the afternoon at my friend’s house watching them play The 7th Guest. Games your friends owned were extra-magical, because you didn’t have the option to learn them well or to explore at your own pace. Because you were pigging-backing on their familiarity, you could see things in them you were not prepared to completely understand on your own merits. Paradise Killer has that vibe: I don’t always know what is going on, but I know I like it.
Read MoreThe movement, the puzzles, and the combat of CrossCode are so enjoyable. The major conceit—that you’re playing an MMO—allows some sideways commentary on video games in a way that’s really cute.
Read MoreI would rather read about someone’s loose framework of rind-rationalizing than further entrenchment of the vanilla oligarchy, so I guess I’m part of the problem. But this list isn’t designed to be “You’re eating your apple WRONG” clickbait—not that anyone admits when it is—and I don’t think I was counterculture for the sake of standing out.
Read MoreChoosing to wrap up Breath of the Wild meant severing a connection to the type of wonder that tends not to survive in adulthood: exploration with no sense of urgency. There was no fear of missing out if I didn’t see the whole game, because what I saw and did was—tautological, I know—all I could have seen and done.
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