General Chat

Chrono Trigger, I'm playing it again on my snes emulator, its awesome.
Crude busters was a cool arcade beat'em up I'd like to see again(also known as 2 crude dudes)
Bionic commando and rastan saga

Yes... all of those SNES rpgs were AWESOME!! Maybe the Lost Vikings could make a comeback too.

Battletoads (I've gone all consoley now) too maybe, if they did it right.

I used to love games like Crystal Caves and Secret Agent... maybe they could make some of those.

Anything but Operation Wolf. :D

Scott.

lost vikings is coming back :) u can download a free pc demo from the blizzard site...

http://www.blizzard.com/

Stunts, that was a cool game, i liked it when u landed on the corner of something and then bounced back with twice the speed you landed with, so you'd fly into the air until all you could see of the map was this tiny little dot on the screen.
Haha, and whats wrong with operation wolf?
I think they should remake a bunch of the old JLM games i used to play back in the day, like JetPack and Dogs of War.

Jetpack was only good because of the level editor.

Shareware should make a comeback.. shareware games were the bomb.

Scott.

A game I'd like to see them do a sequel (or better yet, a remake) would be of a turn based RPG called Perihelion, by Psygnosis (on the Amiga also). It was a mature, dark, post apocalyptic RPG (no happy love story, or fun characters.. I don't think there was a single joke in the entire game [:)]).. Amazing story, fantastic artwork, and incredible atmosphere (the music contributed a lot to this). The game was seriously freaky, but I loved it.

Can't sleep... clown will eat me...

Damn that reminds me of theis RPG on SNES called shadowrun, I loved that game. A remake is definitly in order

This is exactly why the games industry is falling flat on its haemmorhoidal arse, there is a drought of new ideas.

Old games really did have some good, original ideas, but lets not get sentimental. They worked in their zone. They still work there, simply because the ideas were a perfect match for the tech they were coded for.
We have much more to work with now, and sony (I know as pretentious as it sounds) is thinking along the right lines with creating emotions. (latest zelda game? ico?) If you compare the wealth of fiction in books and movies that use the basic storylines offered by Shakespeare, then the same can be applied to games.

But then Shakespeare didn't see interactive entertainment coming. What would he have done then?

Understand the powers of nostalgia, it is much rosier in hindsight, but it leads to backward thinking.
We have new powers at our fingertips, and new toys. This calls for new thinking.

Good point.

Scott.

The games industry is falling flat on its haemmorhoidal arse (in terms of innovation) because publishers are relying on safe and bankable genres.. and you can't blame them I guess, because hey, a lot of risk and money is involved..

I'm sure there are tonnes of innovative game ideas out there, but most will unfortunately never see the light of day. There's an independant games developer competition that's been held annually for a few years now (the name of competition escapes me atm). Lots of innovative and creative games entered over the years, none of which (even those that won the competition) have received any publishing interest..

quote:Originally posted by Bite Me

Old games really did have some good, original ideas, but lets not get sentimental. They worked in their zone. They still work there, simply because the ideas were a perfect match for the tech they were coded for.

Old games made for new tech that have become successful : Tomb Raider (which is basically Prince of Persia, Flashback in 3D), Soul Caliber 2 and all the fighting games (Street Fighter 2).. Grand Theft Auto 3(GTA 1, 2.. I'd throw in Mercenary (C64) and Hunter (Amiga) in there).. Mario 64 (Super Mario Bros).. Fun games translate to any new tech, I say.

Speed Ball 2 has come out/is comming out on the GBA. Wheee its like Im a kid again but no one is making me stop playing.

I love it.
Pantmonger

I think old games should make a comeback, at least for the handheld platforms. Because naturally the handheld platforms (GBA, Nokia etc) lend themselves to quick bursts of gaming, so the older more arcadey games naturally lend themselves to that sort of gameplay, where you can pick them up, play a level, a match, or just start from scratch (like pong).

The other thing with the winners of the Independent games contests is that their games are usually far out or whacky, kind of like how abstract art is compared to regular art (like that milk spewing guy on the tabloid newscasts), or really made for a specific purpose (like for the blind etc). These contests are also balanced against mainstream games because the prizes are awarded for innovation, rather than just a really good product.

I'd bet that there are a lot of innovative mainstream games out there, just that they don't have the publicity to sell really well and be acknowledged by the mass gaming public, and aren't far out "whackyily innovative" to compete in the independant games contests (also being published, however poorly, disqualifies you from the contests).

Me and my brother were having a dicussion somewhat pertinent to this subject a couple of days ago. The development process of computer games is a creative one, not necessarily artistic, but definitely a creative one. The reason behind computer games sucking sphincter hole right now is that the creativity has been ceased for commercial reasons. While the focus is on the cash (and unfortunately it is for various reasons) it's going to be the same old re-hashes of already-covered material again and again.

Q : Who here thinks Britney Spears creates emotive, original and thoughtful music?

I'm guessing no one :)

There is plenty of different original games out there, but they are not "noteable" -> the same way that alot of good musicians out there now-a-days aren't noteable either. It's just looking at similarities between creative media.

As for the old games and not getting sentimental? I agree, partially, but I also don't agree.

I think that there needs to be good new creative stuff out there, but alot of the old games laid down some excellent ground work. Alot of them were very good, under-successful and could easily pass as new games nowadays if they had a face-lift. I think using an already created environment, and an already created history/backdrop for a game is good - carrying on a bit of storyline is okay, as long as it's not at typical hollywood sequel.

Totally rehashing the same idea and 'game mechanic' (as I call it) is not good. It lacks creativity and ultimately won't be a very good game either. Alot of mistakes were made back in the old days of game making, and some of our childhood memories (sentimentality) make us blur over what actually is a seriously flawed game, but we loved 'em anyway.

p.s. Stunts was cool :) Something like GTA3 is as close as we get nowadays - in fact, GTA3 probably could've used a few more of 'Stunts' ideas and it could've been even better. It always pays to check out what games have been made in the past to polish up the games of the future.

I totally agree there Maitrek, the current stock of games out there is a rehash of old concepts, at the moment we have one FPS with about a thousand faces, it really sux. RTS well while they are good are definetly lacking originality, Dune 2 Rocked, and a few after that, but nothing recent. What does the industry need?
EG:
Fighter, Platform, Strategy, RPG, Simulation, with strategic elements ? hmmmmm
Whilst I think originality and creativity is a good thing it always stems from previous experiences. What needs to happen is to step back in to the past and get some experimental game concepts from back, then. Than try to rebuild it into something current and playable.
Just think on that one how would someone intergrate these concepts, frankly there is an extreme degree of problems that will arise, not to mention how complex the final system to play would be.
The old games all had one thing in common Playability and Replayability, what we have now is getting slowly further and further from it.
Defining What is fun is a very difficult task,
besides maybe
#define What_is_fun 43
But seriously what is fun for one group of gamers is completely different to any other group or person.

On the note of rehashing old stuff.. Have a look at blizzards site, they now have a classic section where they are re releasing old games to GBA, eg The Lost Vikings.

I have noticed that one of my faves is coming back, on a not so new platform, PS2 :)
(Robin Hood) Defender of the Crown, clasic 4 colour game from way back when i was knee high or so, but that had game play. Stunts was great loved it, Ikari warriors, etc.
Dig dug, Death Track all great games. I most have done close to 200 leagues in Death Track.

What is revolutionary is true creativity, or mabe stealing concepts from else where. DDR is a classic case of that, Clubbing and dancing. Now Dance Routine games.. SCARY,
Where else could we pull ideas from ??

Anway I though a would put a couple of cents into the conV

0xBaaDf00d

I love playing old games, they just get straight to the point.
Coin in, thumbs working, I'm smiling.

Only a handful of recent games do the same, so I can see the attraction of bringing the chemistry that old games have to the new formats. But isn't this defeating the purpose?
Why do new formats/ extra technology exist? We seem to enjoy old classics more, and have a soft spot for them even if they sometimes don't play out exactly like we thought they would.
Q;Why are we all buying into the new stuff?
Q;why are my ears pricking up at the thought of a PS3?
A;The hope of a fresh new gaming classic

Monkeyball, good idea, thumbs up, but its a rarity these days.
Sure, the publishers can keep on about risk/development cost ratios, but come on, the big guns EA/Sony/THQ et al, could try something a little daring once in a while. Every game developer I know has two or three original ideas that they're gagging to make.
The most singular problem is that every development studio / publisher can't afford to have it's own niche in the market, from where it earns the bread and butter profits, (zelda, tomb raider etc) so that it's more risque titles can go to development w/out pressure. But, once a studio has its niche it can rely on it too much, to the point of commercial distraction. This is a flaw of the current business heavy system in place in the studios. The profits blind, the suits scream for more.

here's my other $0.02...
I think there'll be more underground development coming our way,
smaller teams using available game technology.

There is a space for the classics but remember, they're just the classics. Wanna see more of them? Don't sell your old consoles.
Me? I want fresh.

ps I forgot to add, after our second published game, years ago, we, due to inexperience and almost necessary reliance on proven licenses, were toying with the idea of remaking Stunt Car Racer, (see first post)
We had the tech, it was just a question of convincing the license originator, Geoff Crammond.
I'll bet we would have been waiting in a queue even then.
New idea, pah!

Some more old games getting reworked..

The new adventures of Zak Mckracken (free, fan made sequel) www.gamershell.com/news_BTheNewAdventuresofZakMc.shtml

R-Type Final www.gamers.com/news/1351621 (this looks awesome)

Spyhunter www.3dgamers.com/screenshots/games/spyhunter

Zak Mckracken was awesome... I'm still waiting for my space van to get to Mars!

Scott.

Each gaming platform has its limitations and advantages,
And a different kind of thinking and puzzle solving for each.

When you take something like pitfall for instance and remake it for a ps2 it would not hold much chop this is because its a totally different gaming experience the limitations have been removed and therefore the expectations are much higher.

I think developers should be concentrating on new ideas and concepts instead of rehashing on past memories and cashing in on our childhood experiences.

This does not mean that the games old should be forgotten though,
I still pull out my 2600 every now and again and get into breakout.
And stunt car racer networked between 2 old hotted up Atari?s was great.

When you look at our current games you can see that they are the evolved form of our old c64 and amiga platforms.
if we are using the same code why use the same old concepts, it just doesn?t make sense to me?
Its sterilizing our imagination and making me wonder if the idea well is running that dry?

nannoo nannoo

Very short $0.02
I don't think the idea well is running dry - it's really just the whole industry isn't paying much attention to it.

On top of that, there's other issues involved.

The market/consumers doesn't respond well to different products. There's a perceived risk from their point of view as well. They haven't tried this type of game before, it might not be worth shelling out up to (and sometimes over) $80 to give it a shot. The way games are marketed, and the way they are sold, and presented in general really doesn't promote different gaming products when you think carefully about it.

your right maybe the devolopers should keep bringing out those counterstrike mods sim games and fps untill the market becomes totally saturated with crap like whats happening with our music industry.

nannoo nannoo

Commercialism leads to saturation, that's only the natural progression of things, and it even happened in the "good ol' days". Sometimes you just have to say that the original is the best I guess.

If you haven't tried a game I would suggest grabbing a demo of it, however demos are now around the 100-200 meg mark, so downloading them (even if you've got broadband) is an expensive ordeal, (if you don't get gaming magazines). And I agree $80 is a lot to shell out for a game that you don't know how its going to be.

hehehhe, i put some serious time into 'stunt car' (amiga) and finished the chapionship (8 tracks) and then you got a car that went about twice as fast and the track was blue... (ever wonder why some jumps had a landing, and then another landing further down the track, that was why)

some neat levels, but 'drawbridge' was evil, and 'sky jump' was insane....

quote:If you haven't tried a game I would suggest grabbing a demo of it, however demos are now around the 100-200 meg mark, so downloading them (even if you've got broadband) is an expensive ordeal, (if you don't get gaming magazines). And I agree $80 is a lot to shell out for a game that you don't know how its going to be.

This is my whole point summed up right here basically. When it comes to marketing games, we are preaching to the converted. The only people who try out these games or have a look into them, are people who are already into games (ie collect gaming mags, have way too much internet bandwidth etc etc). Alternative games for oft ignored gaming markets are being marketed to people who play the mass-commercialised stuff, they aren't being marketed in a casual-gamer friendly manner.

id like to see a remake of the old Alex the kidd in miracle world. still keeping the old midi sounds, and still a sidescroller, only with sweet 3d gfx :) that would be rad!

I'm really keen on seeing a third Halloween Harry game. I've got about 4 different attempts to get that project going on my hard drive but we never seemed to be able to get the momentum going on any of them. :(

Halloween Harry was champion... that and Keen 4 were probably my most played games back in the day. Kudos.

A Harry game on a handheld would be quite cool indeed. [8D]

Scott.

quote:Originally posted by spacecaptsteve

I'm really keen on seeing a third Halloween Harry game. I've got about 4 different attempts to get that project going on my hard drive but we never seemed to be able to get the momentum going on any of them. :(

You should do it before 2005.. it'll be a 20th anniversary thing! (20 years since the first Halloween Harry game.. now THAT is a long time. [:)])

http://www.classicgaming.com/sopwith/ SOPWITH 3!!!!

Too true, next it will be on IBM built hardrives only, if you want ot restrict the games to one card make console games, leave the freedom of PC's alone. Eep 200th post!!

Also Microsoft are writing a windows OS for x86-64, could be stuck on toasty warm over-heating AMDs as well if we aren't careful :) (not that I don't mind AMDs, I love 'em).

Can you say "fucked up" boys and girls? The idea of exclusivity to one particular set of hardware is totally the opposite of the entire idea of a PC.

Its probably bullshit, the existence of half-life 2 hasnt even been confirmed, seems like only morons would want to make a game hardware exclusive now-days.
does anyone else think something like this may kill PC gaming?
I can certainly see developers losing quite a lot of money

Yeah, somehow I don't think Valve would want to limit themselves to just NVIDIA graphics based computers, last time I checked they aimed for a very wide audience. Plus all of the hardcore Gamers are switching to ATI based cards.

HAHAHHAA

Also, Duke Nukem Forever on Atari 2600!!

http://www.3drealms.com/duke4/dnf2600.html

It's a good way of ensuring games becoming coasters if you happen to upgrade your gfx card to another brand when a better option becomes available or if nVidia happens to bite the big one. It's a silly idea if it's true.

And yeh, Valve.. I don't think they've announced a Half Life 2 at all actually? I'm still waiting for Team Fortress 2.

quote:December 18, 1998
Well folks, Team Fortress ? 2 will be here shortly and community sites are popping up all over the web. Clans are starting to form, Tournaments are being planned, and information pages are being posted. If you haven't checked out the sites yet, be sure to visit our links section or visit PlanetFortress.com for more information.

lol - that's awesome, I still have an Atari 2600 lying around with a half-working controller, I can't wait!!!

As a side note. Making games for a single piece of hardware is a stupid idea and I seriously doubt anyone would do it, especially with all the APIs we have for that stuff as well. Still some more standards and standard sharing between GPU manufacturers would be nice.

We are all waiting for games like:

Duke Nukem Forever
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
Team Fortress 2

etc...

I think these have now earned the status of something akin to a mythical legend, like the unicorn / pegasus is to (greek?) mythology, these are to modern-age net-mythology.

"all" ... "Counter-Strike" ... Hell no!

Valve have pretty canny business people, I doubt they'd limit their market... more likely they would have "features" limited to the hardware, so the game isn't limited to those with specific cards... this way, the game would become a "must have" for people with that card due to the extra features without alienating the rest of the audience... it would be mutually beneficial to both Valve and nVidia in that case.

Thats what I say, but I should be sleeping.

Scott.

PS. Redwyre, people have a GUID's now? What next? [:P]

I don't think so really, maybe a bundle package or soemthing, like a gf4mx or something with a whole half life pack.
But I doubt taht tehy would add extra features just for a particular card, maybe different rendering paths, but currently both cards are at a level where all effects can be implented on them.

I'm sure a lot of developers would love the luxury of a 5-6 year developing cycle. [:)].. how could you even prepare for a machine 6 years in the future.. I'm sure those titles have gone through many iterations and changes during development (Duke Nukem Forever, Team Fortress 2).
As games get bigger, and bigger, I wouldn't be all that surprised when we'll hear of games that are a decade long in the making [;)]

Well even if they do make it exculsive, or features exclusive to certain hardware specs it won't matter.
It will take maybe a week tops for the cracking community to fix things up.
So it will be ready when the games is released 2 weeks after the crack :)
And yeah anyone who is anything but a casual gamer wants an ATI card.
I mean really the 9700 pro has been out for like a year and the latest nVidia card still under performs it.

I think Valve, 3DRealms etc are all probably going to release under-whelming titles (Half Life 2, Duke Nukem Forever etc) because they are most likely constantly changing them to suit what they think the consumer wants, and not working on nutting out an actual solid cohesive game.

Yes, if they'd released them when they originally planned, they would have been well received. Now the market is so different. Those crazy nutbags!!

Scott.

just like with C&C 2 Tiberian Sun, everyone had been waiting years, it was like the most anticipated game for a few years, and then it finally can out and it was shit.
So i just went back to playing total annihilation, "haha lets pick up their commander so he can do any thing" "what a D-Gun thats unfair"

Back on the NVidia topic - I guess Spong might have crapped on a bit, and (like what others here have said already) that you'd see features designed to work on Nvidia hardware. http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/030410/tech_nvidia_electronicarts_1.html

Probably nothing major, in DirectX there's not much they can do other then use some special texture formats...

You know I am @:-)

I was, but we droped it, cause we couldn't be bothered :) (plus other stuff came up)

Like wise, you know I am :)

Pantmonger

NYG? Whats that?

[url]http://www.nextyearsgame.com/[/url]

woo im not .. but im definately interested in doing something .. thanks for the link! :)

Hrm, so really there are only two teams involved that have members on this board?

I would've thought that there would be more...

Myself and a few others considered entering, but found the competition too much of a gamble of our time; great if we wina game utilizing unlicensed, pricey software if we don't.

And Jet didn't exactly tilt our kilts.

Scott.

Does anyone have any idea how many entrants there are in the competition?

None asked me [:(] lol and all the good programmers I know are too busy.

I have word that QANTM has Jet in their curriculum this year, so its a good bet that there will be a few NYG projects coming from that direction.

Scott.

I heard that Auran have recieved about 250 entries for the competition, so I'd say about 250-300 entries all up.

its a pretty good prize, too bad you have to use Jet.
i was considering making a game, and then just including a few jet headers in it, and only use one function as a joke, but i couldn't be stuffed filling out the registration stuff

Don't know of any entries at QANTM, I'll check with some off the students.

Hey,
I'm working on a entry to NYG with some friends

its called LNR (little ninja rampage), unfortunatley we're REALLY behind schedule...

also if any modellers out there feel like doing charty work... plz email me (kj.lord@student.qut.edu.au). We have damn nice concept art, however our concept artist can't model or skin well. We have one modeller who is occasionally helping us on the project but he appears to have little time to help us on this.

I think they should make a leisure suit larry movie... with Sarah Michelle Gellar as a kickbutt empowering Larry.

Or maybe Gary Coleman with white person makeup on would make a better Larry. :D

Most movies that have made the transition from games have generally sucked. I can't believe I went along to see Mario Bros.. and Street Fighter, boy did that stink. Mortal Kombat 1 was mildly enjoyable, but the sequel should've went straight to video. Double Dragon - I think I watched that movie for about 20 minutes before I ejected the video cassette, jumped on it a hundred times with steel boots, then hammered the remains into little pieces before setting it alight..
Game movies seem to attract the low end writers and film producers of the industry, and are definately riding on the success of certain games for a quick buck.
From the top of my head, I don't think I'd like to see any movie adaption of a game out there at the moment.. Wasn't there a Doom movie announced about 3-4 years ago?

Oh. I do have *ONE* exception where a game -> movie which didn't suck. It's actually pretty damn good. Street Fighter 2, the animated movie..

I cant think of any good game movies.
Got resident evil out last week and wasnt impressed by it.

i think there was a rumour of a game movie for an ID game, cant remember it is was Doom.

I liked Resident Evil a whole bunch

Alien VS Predator well that wouldn't so much be a movie based on a game as, a Movie based on a Game based on a novel (series of) based on a Dark Horse Comic based on a mistake/joke made by a set design guy on a movie.

Oh and I like the Animated Street fighter movie.

Pantmonger

Hi this is my first post here (be warned..lol). I'm an independent/short filmmaker is Brisbane. I have a short film currently available for download from my site, so tell me what you thought. I was made over Christmas, mainly for fun. Souri was ever so kind enough to post a news item for me. Thanks Souri. www.boxheadfilms.com

I'm going to have to add my 2 cents here on this topic here. Game movies, comic book movies, I think have the potential to be fantastic. The groundwork is done for you. Character development is set; all they have to do is come up with a new way to tell the same story. By default most writers fall back on the method of writing and style of the comic book, relying on the popularity of the comic/game to carry the film. Throw in a couple of awesome action scenes so we get to see spiderman swinging thru the streets to forfill a childhood dream and whammo, they have a made a film. Most of the time is doesn't work, on those rare ocassions it does, we all silently thank the film gods.

Pantmonger - I agree with you. I love the street fighter animated series. It was dark, violent and nasty. Everything you expected from the characters. The movie with Van Damme was nothing more than a gigantic wheel of smelly cheese that had gone bad. But they made the film for the 'kiddy factor'. BAH! I say.. tell the story right!

Resident Evil, was a stroke of genius in its writing. They took the well-known game, but didn't tell the story from the angle of the characters we had played. It was completely new, from perspective of umbrella. I played these games on playstation years ago. In the dark. Alone. With headphones - I scared myself silly and loved it. (Besides Milla as the star - that girl rocks)

Now for Alien-VS-Predator... pantmonger, I am a big fan. I grew up on aliens and predator films.. And when I read the dark horse series. Ok, I needed mouth to mouth to calm myself. This film could be awesome. It's one of my pipe dreams to make this film. If only I had the money...

Ok sorry for the long rant, but you got me excited on a subject I really enjoy. All right I will go hide now.

- boxhead

Game movies made by Hollywood generally suck. I agree that Mortal Kombat was alright and the second one sucked enough for 100 game movies. Street Fighter and Double Dragon sucked almost as much as MK:Annihilation. Wing Commander would have to be the worst game to movie transition ever - there was so much wrong with that movie, I just stopped caring. Resident Evil, could have been better, but it is one of the better Hollywood attempts. Final Fantasy - not exactly Hollywood, I know - was alright until the awfully lame ending. And Tomb Raider, which my dad decided to buy me for my 21st birthday, has more plot cliches than Days of our Lives (or the third and fourth seasons of Star Trek: Voyager). As you might be able to tell, game movies don't particularly get me excited and wanting to see them because of the awful track history. Yes, there is potential, but as long as Hollywood's making the movies, they'll always be a "cash in on the success of the game" type movie.

And, um, Aliens -v- Predator movie idea has been around for something like 15 years, and AvP games only started emerging during the early to mid 90's.

See, what we need is some REAL directors and writers to grab hold of a game license, who actually care about the movie and not the fact it'll make money because it's a popular game. I mean, the same people making game flicks could easily be the same people making teen horror flicks, and that's concerning before belief.

And boxhead, bravo on Fragged. Enjoyed it muchly and look forward to more of your work. @:-)

I think we kill the movies for ourselves, sometimes, when we go to see them because of high expectation that it will make hollywood look like they've been doing things all wrong or something, and that games make awesome movies.

I thought Street Fighter was pretty average, nothing really special, Tomb Raider was a 'fun' movie, nothing brilliant but it wasn't "shite" either. Mortal Kombat 1 was also pretty "average".

Alot of games make very average movies because the writers don't fill in the blanks that the game player usually has to fill in, when playing a game, ie the motivation behind the main character. Also the player is directly involved in the 'fun' part of the interaction when playing a game, rather than watching a movie, where there is not a great deal of involvement - games carry themselves on this interation - iwhereas movies generally have to try other things to maintain interest which are often ignored in these game movie conversions.

yeah gooberman, i am aware of how long the idea's been around. Im saying I want to make it.

I think we have all hit the nail on the head, here. I think we should all write for the next game/comic movie.

if you where to make a film about your favourite game/comic book character what you would you do? For me.. comic book 'The Punisher' (we dont talk about the first one made) i grew up redy him as well.
game - haha, i just finished my delta force one.

-boxhead

warcraft- only because i know it would look damn nice :)
either live action or cg.

the story would have to be very good that ties well into the game, or the game franchise is stained just as much as the movie.

but looking at blizzards track record i dont think they could stuff up that much.

boxhead: heh, oops, that was in response to lava_monkey saying that Alien -v- Predator is being snapped up as movie rights.

Writing a script based on someone else's IP is a tricky task. Do you try and do the same kind of stuff that's come before at the risk of being labeled cliche or old? Do you try to do new stuff and risk alienating fans? Do you force your own opinion of things on to the world when your opinion is different from the fan base's majority, or do you give in and work on something you think is totally wrong and consequently won't enjoy working on it much?

Yes, I'll sit here and complain that no one has made a really good Hollywood movie out of a game yet, but if I was asked to write a script for a game-movie crossover, I'd decline because I know I wouldn't do as good a job if I was given free reign to create something from scratch.

quote:Originally posted by inglis

i think there was a rumour of a game movie for an ID game, cant remember it is was Doom.

There have been plans to make a Doom movie before, but they've always fallen through.

Heh, remember how Interplay were going to set up a movie studio? I don't know if it ever eventuated, but I doubt it's around nowadays (considering Interplay are pretty much in the shitter).

Interplay?!?! but they made Virtual Pool. :)

The Final Fantasy movie rocks :D

I reckon a movie made from System Shock would be awesome. If done right, of course.

I've heard of alot of Game Movies that never made it
I know theres lots but all i can remember are
monkey island - with Micheal J Fox as GuyBrush
Duke Nukem with Arnold Schwarzenegger

Gooberman... you work at Krome studios?? dam it's a small world. I work around the cornor from you, at REEL IMAGE. I did the live action cut scene captures for your latest release 'TY', and just finished a job yesterday about Krome Studios for State Development about QLD exporters. Now that's funny.

Gotta love Bris-Vegas. 1 degree of separation.

when i studied film at qca a lecturer told me something that stuck in my head.
when you see a movie the real talent is to suspend your believe ability to fully experience the make believe world.
the more you can create the imaginaty world the better the experience the same can be said for books and computer games.
when you try to relate the movie to real life a book or game you are limiting that experience.
so when i see a movie i try not to think of it complementing or distracting from its source, its something totally different.
a movie is not a game or a book so it should be percieved in its own light.

nannoo nannoo

boxhead: yeah, started working here in January, so I wasn't around when Ty was released.

There is a duke nukem movie under production, and as far as I know an alien vs predator movie is also under way.

just did a search for the alien vs predator movie, looks like its set to come out this year.

http://movies.go.com/movies/A/alienvspredator_2003/

Oh wow same basic plot as the really awful draft script I read that was going to be the movie if it was made 10 years ago. Looks like another mindless action flick is coming our way...

using the site inglis posted:

http://movies.go.com/movies/L/laracrofttombraider2thecradleoflife_2003/…

http://movies.go.com/movies/D/doom_2004/index.html

http://movies.go.com/movies/D/dukenukem_2002/index.html

I don't think we will be seeing the Duke Nukem one for a few years ;)

haha doom will be PG13- they should have sold the rights to whoever did the new final destination movie :) . people getting cut into parts by fences, getting squashed by large panes of glass, heads getting chopped off by elevator doors, the list is long :) what a crack up.

i wonder if they will drag out the duke nukem movie like dk forever. already looks like they have started.

If I could choose one game series to be made into a movie, it would have to be Thief.
I'd want someone like David Lynch to write and direct it, have it as more a thriller/mystery story instead of the usual action crap.
Oh yeah and last I heared, Hitman is going to the big screen as well.

Fluffy CatFood: Theif ala "wrapped in plastic" hey, lots of midgets and dream sequences. [:P]

thief by lynch? are you on crack?
why not cronenberg at least you would get mutants (a little better than backward speaking dwarfs, but just slightly)

nannoo nannoo

Lynch is kewl, but his style wouldn't particularly suit a Thief movie... David Fincher + Thief would be a Good Thing(TM) though :)

"City of Lost Children" director (some french guy) gets my vote. But who would play Garrett? Probably Freddy Prinze Jr, making Theif the movie a teen sensation!

I think Blood would make a cool movie too, the only problem is they'd get sued for breach of copyright every time Caleb opened his mouth. :)

Scott.

Ah, another fan of City of the Lost Children, that film rocks.

[:o)]

nice paint skills

Coder art at it's best :P

I think the humour behind that comic revolves around how many times redwyre can make me look at the damn thing.

Curse you redwyre.

Scott.

haha, im not sure whats worse the art or the jokes.

quote:Originally posted by lava_monkey

haha, im not sure whats worse the art or the jokes.

I'll take that as a compliment :)

There is a second one up if you haven't seen it yet...

THAT DAMNED CARTOON!!!!

There's some more pictures of the game at http://tformers.com/article.php?sid=652

Souri: yup, there were indeed 2 games on the C64, the awful platformer which I still spent hours on because it was transformers, and that pretty kewl adventure type game - it was a bit of a mix between adventure and strategy if I remember correctly.

I'd like to grab the game designer of that Transformers platform game and ask him "what the hell were you smoking?!".. It commits one of the biggest sins in game design - spawning you all the way back to the beginning when you die. [:)].. Oh, and that you could get killed instantly by flying into stairs (and they were everywhere)..

It was probably a cruel joke.

I got the Transformers Movie on DVD the other day, oh it takes me back, I still liked it, but man the music aged so badly. I wish there was a music off option.

Pantmonger

Yeh, there's 80's big-hair screeching cock-rock music aplenty.. [:)] The animation has held up pretty well, considering how old the movie is..

Hello All... Just wanted to update you on the link to screens from GamezCore.com

The correct link should be: http://www.gamezcore.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Magnish&file=index…

we'll be updating that with more screenshots that have just come out, so keep an eye out for more Autobot and Decepticon goodness.

ThanX

Wasn't there a transformers Quake Mod? Was it any good?

I got the same thing today, maybe they're remodelling the site.

Personally even though it was a nice australian site, I think ausgamers is being kept up with the news a bit more.

Maybe I just didn't get the bigkid thing?

Yeah, it's been like this for a coupla weeks now. Am rather hoping it gets back online soon.

I've noticed that the news gradually got reported less and less often.. maybe they just eventually got sick of fixing / managing a website, after all those memory allocation errors (I think) that were popping up.. *shrugs*

Apparently their provider is having problems hosting the site on a new server.

Ah.. thanks for clearing that up, Steve.

Splash is a good mate of mine ... been meaning to ask him what's been going on there, BigKid has been a bit wonky for a while. He's a busy guy, but it would be a shame if the site folded.

Due to unbelievable incompetence on the part of our host, BigKid will be down for a few more days. Hypermax (I don't recommend them) reconfigured their server and discovered they had broken our site, and couldn't fix it. Apparently they know diddly squat about PHP and even tried telling us it was something we had done (!) Needless to say, we're a bit peeved. We have hooked up a new host and are just waiting for the domain to redirect.

Strangely though, I think it's turned out to be a good thing. We are all very busy in the industry now and can't afford the 4+ hours a day to keep the site as it was current. Also, sites like Sumea have picked up the baton and are doing a better job anyway. We have done a bit of talking and have come up with some interesting ideas revolving around our ability now to report on the industry from within. Bruce is in London and can't provide the sort of maintenance time he used to, but he's fairly keen to work on a slighty new format. We still are enthusiastic about BigKid, and don't want to let it just slide, despite the recent lack of content.

I'm also very keen to get all our old content in the new database so it is accessible again. That's 100's of hours worth of work, but having immersed myself in SQL recently, I might be able to do it reasonably painlessly. We'll see.

Thanks for the continued interest in BigKid. We worked very hard for several years to get the site known, and I for one won't let that dribble away into nothing. Not while it's still immensely enjoyable and rewarding to be a part of the industry from both sides.

Great to hear, monty! There'd be some serious arse kicking if BigKid shut down... @;-)

Well, we're back up. Slightly different format - we're a blog now, which means we are probably going to editorialize a bit more than we have in the past. We hear lots of stuff about the industry at work, the trick is going to be sorting out what we can report without getting ourselves in trouble :)

There's been a few things I've been privy to which I have dared not mentioned on the site.. some are just better left unposted. I'd hate to come under some serious wrath if I did. [:)]
Anyway, good luck with Bigkid (I see it's back up already!) [:)]

Good to see it up again! :D

Useful tip number one, dont spam a forum that has a section marked looking for work the way you have done. You have made two posts in seperate sections saying basicly the same thing, just post in the Looking for work section and if you have any specific questions, ask them, just dont pimp while dong so.

Pantmonger

Pants is right go to this thread [url]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=25[/url] and make a post there.

Everyone hear is looking for work too so you're going to need to do more than just say you "can just about model anything, like cars and people", so can everyone here and we have work to show as proof.
It will be in your best interests to make a portfolio or participate in the challenge before going straight for the throat with "I want work".

alright easy I said I was new. Thanks for the advice gentlemen annd the thread. Im actually working on my portfolio right now but its gonna take time cause its going to be my final uni project. Its to be completed by Nov 2004.

quote:Originally posted by Malus

Pants is right go to this thread [url]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=25[/url] and make a post there.

Everyone hear is looking for work too so you're going to need to do more than just say you "can just about model anything, like cars and people", so can everyone here and we have work to show as proof.
It will be in your best interests to make a portfolio or participate in the challenge before going straight for the throat with "I want work".

nice folio_ do u have links to the actual animations?

The links to the animations should work, they are zipped up though not streaming.

just a little bit of advice. epson printers are poor. go for something like the canon s750, does excellent prints especially on glossy paper _but u have to experiment with the setting.

best thing u can do is visit stors like harvey norman where they sell a variety of different brands.

I have a Canon S4500, the print quality is good, not great but good. The reason I think it is a god printer however is this.

Black ink for it costs (on average) $20
It's A3
You can get a scan head for it like I did, and scan near to A3 is size. (no more little drawings to fit the scanner)

Well thats my two cents.

Pantmonger

Great! Thanks guys...

My dad got an Epson stylus, and the quality was great, but that beast guzzled ink like you wouldn't believe.[:0]

After taking the Epson back, we got a Canon S200SP, which has a "super economy" mode (just comes out lighter - very usefull). The quality is great, but I've had some problems with the drivers (printing colour), though that's probably just me.

The Canon S200SP would probably be an OK choice ("super economy" is a great feature to have), but there is probably something better...

My old HP printer is still going.. have a look at what they have to offer these days.

Hope this information is useful :)

I got a Canon BJC something-or-rather (in the low 100's), and it was pretty damn pathetic I have to say. The drivers for it refused to print properly, no matter what the settings (i.e. it would print the pages only 1/2 as wide as they were suppsed to be, with everything squashed there), so I had to use drivers for another printer to print black and white properly. Colour printing was fuxored too.

Now I just use the printers at Uni for all my "B&W" printing, and as for colour - pah.

One thing you have to notice is that one model might be great, then the next a heap of crap. (or the other way around)

Brands mean *nothing* in the world of printers, I have learned.

Best thing to do is research the specific models you are looking at.

i got a HP psc2100 (printer/scanner/copier) and its price is getting lower
the print quality is awesome, color or b/w
the scan speed is fast and good quality
the copier is pretty darn good and fast too

Peter Gillespie
www.3dluvr.com/eagor

I got it jotted down for 21/03/03 .. [:)]

If you want a really good movie, go hire Donnie Darko. I'd say it's my favourite movie, but there's some competition with Fight Club for that spot :)

Ethan Watson
Current job: Programmer, Krome Studios

quote:Originally posted by Meatex_Salami

On an un movie related topic i finished my lipsynch assignment on wednesday YAY! :D
I didn't burn it so i don't have the final thing with me but i would like to show it to everyone soon. Souri, would you mind hosting it?

How big is it?
And yeh, Fightclub is one of my favourite movies too.. I'm just about to swap my normal DVD version for the special edition one too. Woo. [:)]

Fight club is very good but the bourne identity is very close to being better and is better in many aspects. It's worth seeing just for the fights alone. But fight club is also alot more funny than the bourne identity.
oooo size i can't remember
8MB without sound
but thats using the cinepak codec (we have to use that codec at AIE)
i reackon it'll be around 6MB or less once i put it into divX

Who needs real life, UT2003 has amuch better poly count!

donnie darko had an amazing script its concept relized into full fruition, it has a very daniel clowes about it.
is it based on a comic book? it has that feel about it
but to compare fight club to it is like pears and pinapples.
lots of fruit today

nannoo nannoo

Fight Club seriously tanked at the box office - it's definately one of those movies that you either love or hate. I think most people decided not to see it because they thought it was some mindless street brawl movie (that was my impression at first)- but it obviously isn't. The special edition DVD is pretty cool. I didn't know they built that old derelict house that Jack/Tyler lived in by scratch. And for a movie like Fight Club, I didn't realise it require as much special effects shots. [:)] Also David Fincher is one of my favourite directors, so it was cool to see the guy doing his stuff.

Fincher is a good director. Not the best but definately good. He has a very unique style and apart from panic room (which was quite average) all his films have been quite "different"
The second disc specail features i thought were alright but i would of been more interested in thing related to the making of the movie and acting in it as apposed to the special effects.
I hope his next film isn't so bloody standard.

I thought The Bourne Identity was ok. There wasn't anything really special about it... although I liked some of the stuff that - was it Jason Bourne? - did, like blowing up the truck to distract the sniper while he finds the guy's location. That was cool. But the ending was so hippy-trippy... sorta like The Fifth Element, which had a vomit-inducing ending.

All in all, I think I'd give it a 7/10. Oh, and I think The Matrix is much, much better. Bring on Reloaded, Revolutions, Animatrix and Enter the Matrix! [;)]

No surprise that there will be sequels to the Bourne Identity as I think there's about 5 books based on the Jason Bourne character by Robert Ludlum.

quote:Originally posted by shiptu_shaboo

donnie darko had an amazing script... but to compare fight club to it is like pears and pinapples.

hence why I wasn't comparing but merely stated that I couldn't decide which one I liked better. Some people love pears but hate pinapples. Other's can't get enough of either.

Yeah I just went and saw the bourne identity today to see what people were going on about, and I didn't expect alot - I hadn't heard anything really bad about it - I like to keep low expectations, but I still thought it was pretty average. The fight scenes weren't brilliant, overall the character Bourne was pretty cool, but the script and pacing was pretty average, there were some really unnecessarily slow moments in the movie, and that pointless love interest crap too. I hate it when hollywood feels obliged to put in some kind of "titillating" love crap into action movies. But yeah it was alright, some good action, good main character, passable acting, but not really a *great* movie by a long shot.

It's pretty strange to hear that kind of stuff, especially when other reports say profit from the games industry are getting higher and higher.. but there sure has been a lot of developers going belly up recently too..
That article that came from the GDC 'Ten Reasons You Don't Want to Run a Massively Multiplayer Online Game' sure wasn't very encouraging.. [:)] http://gamespy.com/gdc2003/top10mmog .. *looking forward to E3*

On a somewhat related note. http://slashdot.org/articles/03/03/11/1445254.shtml?tid=127&tid=98

i want i want :)
but im not waiting til christmas, its coming out in 2 days.

lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0618212906/ref=lib_dp_TFC…

Amazon have some pages for preview, but in true useless style, the pages they show have text and hardly any art..
I think this is a valuable book for any game artist/texturer/concept artist to have.. it'll get some inspiration going, thats for sure!

without doubt.
i have the art of warcraft book and the concept art in it is amazing.

that page is actually pages from the art of the fellowship

lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/

Doh! Well, I want that Fellowship book too [:)]... got any links for the Warcarft art book??

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0744000815/qid=1047389382…

inside the book:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0744000815/ref=lib_dp_TFC…

on top of the many pages filled with concept art there is also several pages containing cinematic artwork.

i could scan in some pages if u want. (is that legal?)

lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/

Legal Stuff: One can reproduce for the purpose of review, but this does not include works of art. (You can not reproduce a work of art without the copyright holders permission.)

Pantmonger

[img]http://home.iprimus.com.au/evilbunny/Jagged/GamaPantsWeb.gif[/img]

Had a look at those pages you posted, Inglis.. looks nice, but I think the Warcraft style is a bit tooo cartoony for me. [:)]..

*In my best Homer voice*

Yes Souri, Yes he does.

Pantmonger

[img]http://home.iprimus.com.au/evilbunny/Jagged/GamaPantsWeb.gif[/img]

*sings the theme song, promptly followed by the credits song*

Chris Bowden
http://brain.gamekey.com/

o.k trivia time
who has seen giant robo?
and did anybody notice the honourable mention metropolis gave to astroboy?

Shows how much I am out of touch with anime.. I haven't even heard of Metropolis before!.. looking at Sony's website http://www.sonypictures.com/cthv/metropolis/ , I can see some of the ideas are similar to those in Astroboy.. What kind of mention did they give in Metropolis? I know in the movie version of BlackJack (another comic created by Osamu), they had some jig-saw puzzles which showed Astroboy and Kimba the White Lion (which Disney ripped off with the Lion King)... BlackJack was beautifully animated btw... Sony is supposed to be working on an Astroboy movie (with 3D graphics) since 2001, so I can't wait for that!!

Holy crap.. anyone wanna see a preview of the Astroboy movie? go to this page.. http://astroboy.jp/c/009/movie/index.html Some fantastic animation...

That looks really cool!
Hey Souri, just a guess but something tells me you are a little bit of a Astroboy fan. :|
Ever tried modelling the little guy?

Dean Ferguson - 3D/2D Artist

http://www.inkmancomic.com/dean/Portfolio/index.html

The English version of the trailer is below the first one (which is in Japanese).. there are some familiar characters in that clip (some redesigned)... It looks AWESOME! **500 sumea credits to anyone who can grab the 30mb trailer and convert it to divx for me [;)]**
I kinda had hoped they'd search for the original voice actors from the 80's series, but I guess that might have been too much of an ask.. The new voices sound cool though. Can't wait for this!@!@@!
I did have a feeble attempt years ago.. nothing to write home about. I would like to model and animate him though!

On the flipside, I was scared of astroboy when I was a kid, and I never liked the show...at all :)
Not to say that I don't like anime, just not astro boy.

Or that speed racer s*** - not that I put them in the same category, I know that astroboy has pedigree and all compared to that speed racer git....they're basically just two japanese "cartoons" that I never liked - wierd!

Anyone here actually seen the original metropolis? I haven't seen either, but I hear that the Metropolis animated version was pretty crap - and the original movie was much better...although almost impossible to watch due to modern movie standards (ie color and sound).

Snootchie bootchies!
Any off-topic issues send to maitrek@austarmetro.com.au

"Metropolis animated version was pretty crap"

That kind of talk going to get you into a whole heap of trouble. :)

My opinion is that Metropolis was great, loved it to death (watched on the big screen and those 3D city scapes are wow.) I know that its not everyones cup o tea, and I am an anime fan, but it is good.

Oh and to clear up any confusion the animated version is not a remake of the original. It is a inspired by film. Similar world, Similar theames.

Pantmonger

hi souri

sorry to get back to you so late computer problems.
metropolis rocks!!!
screenplay written by katsuhiro otomo
concept/design rintaro
osamu tezuka first penned metropolis before astroboy in fact astroboy was created from metropolis and the ideas transformed into astroboy 50 yrs ago
both otomo and rintaro worked with tezuka on the original astroboy and made it as homage to tezuka.

i think tezuka was japans granddaddy of manga but i think hayao miyazaki is the god of manga

I can only say what I've heard - I can't say whether I actually think it's pants or not :) Although, being a newer anime, I'm sure the artwork/cinematography is fantastic - however I'm always a bit unimpressed with some other parts of modern animes...

Does this mean that there is an Astroboy movie to look forward to?! I used to pretend to be astroboy when I was a little girl and ran around the house in my underwear;-)

If you do this same thing when the movie is released, Questions will have to be asked.

Pantmonger

Apparently there's not only going to be a movie but a new series!!! I dunno - it could be awasumo or they could fudge it completely ...

From Aint It Cool News - [url]http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=14713[/url]:

quote:Sony To Create New Astro Boy TV Series

Could Be Available Next Year

ICv2 reports Sony Pictures Television International is preparing a new 52-episode version of the classic Astro Boy anime series by Osamu Tezuka. The studio plans to keep the same classic anime character design that made the original Astro Boy series so influential in the development of Japanese animation. Produced in 1963, the original black-and-white Astro Boy anime series (Tetsuwan Atom in Japanese) introduced themes and robot characters that have echoed throughout anime history as has the "big eyes, small mouth" character design of Tezuka's classic character. Many Tezuka fans actually prefer the 1980 color remake of the original series, upon which Mr. Tezuka was able to lavish additional resources unavailable in 1963. Unfortunately the 1980 color series will not be available in the U.S. on DVD until after the Astro Boy feature film is released.

Sony is also producing the computer animated Astro Boy feature film, which is now slated for a 2005 release. It is likely that the new Astro Boy TV series will also be largely computer-generated. So far Sony has not released a timetable for the production of the new series, but the company is planning on presenting the new series at the MIP-TV trade show later this year.

For anyone who regards Astro Boy as just another brainless anime with a lot of shrieking that was around when you were young - I really urge you, go back and have another look. It's a quality series, well written, touching and intelligent. I loved it as a kid and still love it today.

A note also for anyone searching out the original `Metropolis' (the silent film) - I can't emphasis enough, FIND A DECENT VERSION. I'm serious - it's not worth watching in a bad version, the film is wrongly transferred (the frame rate was different in the silent era, about 16 frames per second to sound's 23, which requires readjustment) and it'll play like a dirge and go forever. Unfortunately, the JEF Films version (black cover with blue writing, 123 minutes duration) is the worst you can get, but is also the most commonly found.

Find the newly released DVD if you can, or the Giorgio Moroder soundtrack version, which you can still find on the classics shelf at plenty of video stores.

[;)]

Hmmm ... don't know about this idea about not using the original voice actors for the Astro movie ... [?]

The Silent film version is avalable on DVD at Borders Book shop in Brisbane.

Pantmonger

I remember renting a lot of videos in the 80's and ALWAYS seeing that damn Metropolis preview (with that freaky looking metal female), so I finally rented it out to see what it was all about.. very interesting stuff [:)] They used some of Vangelis's music too for the soundtrack, so that was cool..

Tripika is right on the nail there.. Astroboy was definately not your run of the mill cartoon flick! Most episodes had some moral or lesson - the entire series covered issues like prejudice, racism, greed, preserving nature, good triumphs over all, size doesn't matter etc... you name it!! And yes, the stories were fantastic!

And hey, in the last 2 episodes of the series, Astro visited Australia too!! (and yes, you saw kangaroos) [:)]

Tripitaka, the new voices are quite good actually.. [:)] I was a bit disappointed at first that they didn't use the same voice actors, but the more I watched the preview, the more I liked the new voices. [:)]

Monkey Magic... that was a great TV series too.. the thing I'm lost about that show was - did they ever reach India?? (I need closure! [;)])

quote:Originally posted by shiptu_shaboo

i think tezuka was japans granddaddy of manga but i think hayao miyazaki is the god of manga

I wanted to go to watch Spirited Away at the cinema, but I will definately buy the DVD when it comes out.
Tezuka gets credits as the first to adopt the wide eyed cartoon look in Japan, and also for Japan's first animated television series - 'Tetsuwan Atom? (Astro Boy). And he's come up with so many great comics/characters.. Astro boy, Kimba the white lion, Black Jack, Princess Knight. So yeh, he definately deserves the grandfather of anime title. [:)]

i have had many friends visit japan and the anime that trickles its way to australia is terrible, we only get such a small portion of the masterpieces that are produced in japan
tezuka and his influence on western animation like disney is so obvious
and only now do masters like tezuka and miyazaki get cinema releases decades down the track.

if you can get your hands on another miyazaki, Princess Mononoke its a great film
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/

My brother is an ENORMOUS anime/manga freak - videos and DVDs line his walls, he'd have several hundred at the very least (and I'd definitely say Astro Boy was a major influence on his tastes). He also gets very irritated by the western perception of anime as either a bunch of screechy cartoons for kids, or post-apocalyptic violent doomfests like `Akira'. Sure, there's vapid cartoons or cliched ones - but there are also some incredibly insightful and thoughtful ones, too. `Wings of Honnemaise' for example, or any of Miyazaki, is worth watching as a serious scholar of film.

Oh, Souri - I don't know if they ever got to India in Monkey Magic, but I have on tape the episode where Monkey runs after those big slug people yelling `Idiots! Poofters!'. LOL!

Ahh Monkey Magic.. only he can get away with picking and rolling a booga, then swapping it for a magic pill, whilst playing chess.. or plucking his nostril hairs and blowing it for his group of attacking clones!.. I loved that show.. [:)]

Yes, it's an old thread... but rather than start a new one, I thought I'd just tack on the end of this one to see if anyone's seen the new Astro tv cartoon yet? I was switching tv channels and happened to find an episode on channel 2 today, and I'm looking forward to seeing some more! Animation totally rocks, nice futuristic world and great cartoon style. Astro looks cool, but I prefer the old voice from the 80's series. [:)] Dr Elephun was there, and he's instantly recognisable and the same as they've always drawn him. One thing that was missing was the famous Astroboy theme song! Usually during every episode in the 80's version, especially during the climax and Astro is kicking arse or something, that damn catchy theme song is on, without fail. Didn't here a lick of it here though! [:(] Anyway, if you're an Astro fan, check your tv guides to see what time it's on, but I think it's on weekly, every Thursday afternoon on ABC. [:)]

That was the second episode on today. The first one last week was great, showing Astro?s creation. I personally didn?t miss the 80?s theme really, I thought the electric guitar rock tune worked well, but I did miss the little running animation they used to have at the end of the show! [;)]

Overall, I think they?ve done a great job. I?m particularly glad that Astro seems to have the same personality. I was worried that they would make him into an entirely new character with a rebellious, ?cool? attitude, with ?cool? catch phrases. They seemed to have kept the shows integrity.

I loved this scene from the first episode last week, where Astro climbed out of his room to go play with the flying things outside (cars and stuff), and ended up falling a long long way down to the ground, before discovering he could fly. It was very cool to see Astro zipping through the futuristic city! ?It?s got me trying to model some architecture of my own!

Anyway, I?m gonna tape it every Thursday arvo (5.25pm ABC), to watch after work. For those 25 minutes, I?m almost a kid again!

(I wonder if he?ll have that little gun that pops out of his bum again? Remember that!? [:D])

Ah, I would've loved to have seen the first episode. I agree about what you said about the shows integrity. That episode I saw with the robots battling in a sports arena which turn on a reluctant Astro is exactly in the spirit of things..

I've been doing some reading online on how the new Astro Boy cartoon is being received, and unfortunately it's not doing too well in the U.S.. They've jumbled up the episodes, taken the show off air for a couple of weeks due to bad ratings etc.. People have noticed that the American cartoon network that's showing it is really milking the advertisement dollar by editing out parts of each episode so they can fit more ads in the half hour showing. I can kinda understand the kinda poor reception the new cartoon is getting in America though, since they only received the b/w cartoon series in the 50's or 60's, and missed the 80's series entirely. The enthusiasm and fanbase for Astro Boy is usually seen from countries where the 80's episodes were shown (Asian pacific, Canada, parts of Europe, China etc)..

Just a little bit more on the voice acting on the new Astro - it's funny how a different voice can really change the way a character comes across, I think. The new Astro's voice sounds like a somewhat older Astro with some coarse pitches here and there. It tends to make him sound a bit bratty at times, whereas the 80's Astro had such a sweet voice. It just made him all the more innocent and vulnerable. The voice on the new Astro definately sounds different to the trailer that Sony did last year (which I very much preferred to than the current voice). You can download the [url="http://astroboy.jp/c/009/movie/data/.stream/w_astroboy_100k.wmv
"]3mb trailer[/url] and see what I mean.. (or you can [url="http://astroboy.jp/c/009/movie/data/.stream/w_astroboy_1000k.wmv"]download the 30mb version[/url] - it's a pretty cool trailer). I had thought this trailer was of the movie, but it looks like the TV series. Is it?

All this Astro talk is probably freaking out the regulars.. [:)]

Ok, I'm sorta bringing back this old thread - feel free to ignore it if you never grew up in the 80's and watching Astroboy and Monkey Magic before / after school was a daily ritual [;)] Look away now, some serious geekiness ahead! I think they repeated Monkey on the ABC in the early 90's, so you young dudes might not be totally in the dark here [;)]

Anyway, I noticed that Siren Entertainment (or Siren Visual as they're known now?) have got the [url="http://www.sirenvisual.com.au/index.cfm?fuseaction=showFilmProduct&cata…"]Monkey Boxset[/url] which they started selling late last year (and it seems to be a hot seller - it costs a whopping $260 though. I've read that you can find it cheaper at Kmart or Target). It contains all the episodes from the 2 seasons of Monkey, *including 13 missing episodes which were never aired in Australia or the UK*.

I decided to look up on them internets about the show to find out what happened there, and other Monkey trivia. I hit the jackpot at www.monkeyheaven.com which has tonnes of faqs, and info about the show. I'll make a list of stuff which either had always puzzled me as a kid or I find pretty mind blowing now that the answers are available.

1. The 13 missing episodes were from season 2. They were never redubbed, so were never seen in Australia or the UK (Monkey was pretty big in the UK for the same reasons as in Australia - it became a ritual for kids to watch before or after school). In 2004, for the release of the Monkey DVD's, they grabbed all the *original* voice actors from the 80's series to provide voice for the missing 13 episodes. How incredible is that?! It's been like 24 years!

2. The actress who played Tripitaka died of Leukemia a few years after Monkey, she was only 27 [:(]

3. Why did they get a new guy to play pigsy in the second season? Because the show wasn't expected to last more than one season, so the actor had organised another acting job after the first season.

4. How come the show stopped before they ever reached India? Season 1 provided to be hugely popular, ratings wise, but the scores were too low during Season 2 so it was axed. [:D]

I was a HUGE Astroboy and Monkey Magic fan, any useless trivia you feel like throwing around I'll happily read :)

Well, for the voice redub in 2004, the guy who was the voice of Pigsy (he was also the voice of Golem in the animated series of Lord of the Rings) passed away just under a month of completing his work for the 13 missing episodes. I thought that was pretty amazing, and fans are really fortunate that he was able to voice Pigsy one last time before he was gone.

I've been doing some reading on the tale that Monkey was based on and found that there really was a Tripitaka who travelled to India to research and scribe down Buddhism teachings. It took some 17 years and 25,000kms of travel though many hazards and very close calls. On his return, he lost lots of those manuscripts when his boat capsized. [:0] You can read all [url="http://www.palikanon.com/english/pali_names/h/hiuen_tsang.htm"]about it here[/url]. It's pretty fascinating stuff.

I'm planning to buy the complete boxset, but what Sirens Entertainment is charging is a total rip off at $265!!! The ABC shop has it for $205.95 as a few other places, and I'm sure you can get it even cheaper if you look around.

Just thought I would point out that this is the greatest thread title ever. Keep up the good work, Souri :)

"Journey to the west" is the chinese myth it's all based on, and you'll also find that many of the spirits and characters inspired DragonBall (and it's alphabetical eponyms). hence the monkeys, pigs etc.

I couldn't resist and went out and bought the Monkey Collection's Edition boxset for about $195 or so. It's got all the redubbed missing episodes as well. I know there's a 25th anniversary edition which I think is only available in the UK - they have an extra disc with a making-of documentary and another documentary called Monkey nuts which is all about the voice actors reuniting for the redubs. Well, that isn't in my boxset [:(]
I was sorta debating on whether I should even buy it or not though. Rose coloured glasses of nostalgia and all that. You see, my friend asked me if I ever saw Voltron (lion) DVD's to immediately buy it for him as he was a huge fan of the series when he was small. So, when I came across one set of three Voltron boxes on sale at EB Games one day, I snapped it up for him. I remember that I kinda liked the show when I was a kid as well, so I thought I'd have a look before I passed it on to my mate.
It was bad. Terrible. I couldn't even bare watching more than 10 minutes of it. The animation was poor, the story was laughable, and the voice acting was absolutely *horrendous*. You know those *weird* voice re-dubs that some crazy fans are doing with those GI Joe cartoons? It was almost at that level bad. Anyway, when I gave it to my friend, he was pretty thankful. I refrained from telling him how immensley crap it was, choosing to rather wait till he sees it for himself. When I next saw him, he expressed his utter disappointment on the show. He couldn't believe that he adored this cartoon so much before.

So back to Monkey, I was *praying* that this didn't suck just like Voltron, especially since I invested $200 on the fancy boxset. Well, I'm glad to say that it rocks [:)]. It's bloody hilarious. Season one of the series contains so many great stories, laughs, and memorable moments. Season two is still ok, but some of the stories from the missing episodes were real duds. There wasn't as much humour in the redubs either. I think this has got to do with the original (english) writer not coming back for the redubbed versions. I read on that monkey heaven site that the original writer didn't receive much in scripts/translations for each episode, but rather got a general synopsis of what was going on. So it was up to him to fill in the blanks and add his own dialogue and humour. I'd say that the new writer for the redubbed epsiodes got a direct translation of each episode and used mostly that.
For those who are interested, the redubbed voice work for Monkey was *spot on*. He sounds exactly the same as 25 years ago. Tripitaka's voice was almost spot on, it just seemed *slightly* deeper than it originally was. The voice work for Sandy was a bit peculiar though. At times it sounded nothing like him, while at other times, it sounded just like him. I think Pigsy's voice was a bit of a miss though [:(]

Monkey r0xx0rs my b0xx0rs. Watching the series as a mature (ha!) adult, I was shocked (pleasantly) to find how much grotty adult humour it contained. The dragon princess making the magic wishing staff grow for example... Monkey's persistant use of the word poofter makes me giggle like a schoolgirl.

If you wanna know more, Monkey is based on the book of the same name by Wu Cheng En, which in turn is based on the myth Journey to the West. Here in Oz, Monkey is published by Penguin Classics, although I had a bugger of a time finding it. Check the classics shelf at your bookshop, it's good stuff. I'd like to get a copy of the original myth, but apart from hunting through mythology at the library I wouldn't know where to begin. Just about every Buddhist country has a version, right through Asia and the Pacific Rim.

hey sam this is a long winded post and will be boring for others, so sorry.......
i worked with an overseas company but to actually work in the country (Hong Kong) required the company to sponser your visa, this required a guarantee from the company that they would employ no matter the circumstance, after gaining trust and a steady schedule things were working well.
but with no direct contact and a screwy aussie dollar which is four times the hong kong which went up and down by the day.
Australia was not looking good in the press as an ally to america and china wanting korea to re-unite and america wanting korea as a stronger trading port.
you start to get the idea that a lot more goes on than just how you perform, its the politics as well.
in the end it worked out more difficult than beneficial, and well i was no longer needed.

I have joined only one really serious international project, although several of the people involved lived in Australia, and the project is still moving along slowly. Generally I'd have to say that the hardest thing is the time-zone / communication issue, since we can't just go over their place, or ring them up (without paying out a fortune) so email and Instant-Messaging become really valuable assets. Another difficult thing is with the timing of major events, such as exams and work with people overseas, since usually when you're free they are not, and vice-versa. Also you have to set a standard for communicating times and dates, (since the Americans stupidly use MM/DD/YYYY - why????), and the time zones, hence the times are also different, so scheduling an IRC meeting or similar involves effort figuring out the timezones and informing people to attend.

Oh well that's enough from me and my limited 1 project experience.

The reason I this topic is because after now my third attempt (1st was using the quake engine to make a RPG - which went under due to the guy in America had a real job that got too busy, number two was me and two other guys who always argued about story and plot and who was going to do what and me being the only programmer I ended up pulling out, and the last attempt was with a reputable company in America who where supposed to make a kids game for the PS2 using Renderware and after downloading and learning the engine and submitting my game proposal I am all of a sudden not needed - I think I have been used) I am really starting to doubt the whole working in a team thing (remotely) - but to get anything productive done and art that isn?t programmer art (and I know how bad my programmer art is) working and running we must work as a team which I am finding useless - so am I stuck in a catch 22 situation???

hmmn, i worked overseas for a while (4 years on unsucessful project) then worked in australia and now doing contract art work for american game company (paid, and we are getting stuff done, renderware as well)

have had no sucess with doing free projects, people tend not to appreciate work done for free. so people either disapear, or just keep changing stuff (have learnt to quicly recognise 'everything keeps changing' as a good sign that a project can never finish.....

i have some resouces avaliable (animated characters http://www.websamba.com/davidcoen/3d_other.htm - all the IEW stuff) if you are interested, and like everyone else, i have my own dream project too... what is yours like (though a lot of my time is taken do previously mentioned art contract work)

I was questioning whether I should have pushed that news item public, but hey, it was a slow news day/weekend, and Guildehall themselves (I'd assume) seem fit enough to post it, so I didn't think people would mind.. They have posted other news items in the past about Guildhall which I didn't make public due to the same reasons you give..

Fair enough. I dont think that post was really hurting anyone, but it did seem a little too out there :)

no i think its good to look outside the bubble
theres a hell of a lot going on out there

I got no problem with that.
Sumea is a site for the Australian and New zealand game developers community though.
I think the international stuff is best left to the international sites, like polycount and cgtalk.

Could just rename the Downloads folder to lowercase...

Chris Bowden
http://brain.gamekey.com/

If I did that all the other links that look for it with a capital 'D' would break. :P

Dean Ferguson - 3D/2D Artist

http://www.inkmancomic.com/dean/Portfolio/index.html

rule one of web dev EVERYTHING is lowercase
rule two use quotes:

Brad Beddoes
Programmer / Biz Dev
Tycom Studios
http://www.tycomstudios.com

Maybe try linking to the exact location, just to make sure....

Oh, and you shouldn't put spaces in filenames either. [:)]

an absolute link might work, or perhaps a "/" before the path.

i noticed the link to your e-mail was not working either
could be hotmail? could be bug?
who did you contact @ halfbrick for your sprite work experience?
ive been told that halfbrick studio is in the valley yet the website sez kelvine grove?

the file name is a shocker I know, I had everything in lower case though then when the site was moved to a new server it made half of the links uppercase!! Wierd.
The link was created by Flash too so I do'nt know why its all crapped out, direct linking to the pdf file works, just not when the flash file does it. Argh!! Think I'll just rename the file to something better and move it, that way flash will have to look somewherre new.

Dean Ferguson - 3D/2D Artist

http://www.inkmancomic.com/dean/Portfolio/index.html

I agree Souri, its beautifully done, I need cable!!

Dean Ferguson - 3D/2D Artist

http://www.inkmancomic.com/dean/Portfolio/index.html

too bad you'll have to pay to play.
if they made it free 2x more people would buy the game.
although they would need 2x more server power.

lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/

Paying per month is nothing, if you budget, you'll easily see how you'd spend more on fast food/video games etc.

yeah your right :) its just i would rather keep that $20 (guessing) in my pocket. i'll wait and see how good it is :)

new gameplay video:
http://www.blizzard.com/wow/movies/

lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/

i downloaded the two gameplay videos and now i cant wait :)
it looks very promising.
i wont go out and buy it straight away, instead go around to a friends place and leech off them for an hour or so and see what its like :), but coughing up the money wont be as big an issue now :)

lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/

Res Evil 0 till forever
Silent Hill 1 & 2
Parisite Eve 2(Pic the theme anyone)
FF 7
Fallout 1
Another World

Pantmonger

Warcraft 3
Tony Hawk whichever
Tribes 2 (massive games of this are the bomb)
Sam and Max
Dance Dance Revolution
Daytona
Metal Slug

I feel I'll go on forever @:-)

Chris Bowden
http://brain.gamekey.com/

quake3.
grantourismo3 (the cars [8D] i got that game 87% complete in 1/2 weeks then had to give the ps2 back to my friend [:(!] damn him!)
sof2
warcraft
goldeneye
master of magic (first game i ever played on a computer)

anything thats has good multiplayer...
could go forever as well.

lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/

Mohaa
Morrowind
Jedi knights
Heroes of might and magic 4
GTA3
Return to castle wolfenstein
Sof2
warcraft 2, yes 2
heaps of old school stuff but I'd be here forever
Inglis: Master of magic! lol yeah go the mighty paladins.

Dean Ferguson - 3D/2D Artist

http://www.inkmancomic.com/dean/portfolio/index.html

Warcraft 3 is pretty damn good, but I don't have a powerful enough computer to really play it
Counter-Strike and Quake3 are usual favourites at lans

My favourite game though is X-Com - the first one, its soo damn cool!
The Mechwarrior 2 series is also pretty good, especially MW2:Mercs with the latest patch applied
Civ 2 is fun to play around with still, and I wish I could have a game of Sam 'n' Max just now.

dungeon master (amiga)
daggerfall (pc)
dark reign (pc)

MONKEY ISLAND - "how come no one else has said this yet.."
Shadow Warrior
Commando's
Hero's of Might and Magic III
NWN
and Larry 4 [:p]

Final Fantasy VI and VII
Doom and Doom II
Half-Life (including Day of Defeat, amongst other mods)
StarCraft
Metal Gear series
Devil May Cry
Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2
Super Mario World 1 and 2
Chrono Trigger

We like a man who comes right out and says what he thinks - when he agrees with us.

quote:MONKEY ISLAND - "how come no one else has said this yet.."

I wish I knew the answer to that one.

Okay my list...
1. System Shock (Not SS2 - that was sacrilige when compared to the original) has to be at top of my list, it was so badly marketed and came out right at the time of Doom, and Doom had some better gimmicks to work with :)

And some honourable mentions....

Quake - an all too popular game, but I remember seeing my first ever perfect mapped polygon, and loved the simple gameplay and the multiplayer was awesome.

Monkey Island - as I kid this was a favourite, Guybrush was such a doofus and the game has so much endearing charm.

Day Of The Tentacle - the closest thing to an interactive cartoon, one of the most fun games I played as a young'in.

Azrael's Tear - very little known game but tried some ground breaking concepts but fell apart in some other areas.

Ultima 7 and onwards - sure I played the first few, but the later ones were far more playable especially when I started to get more jaded about graphics quality.

DreamWeb - disgusting and started a huge debate, but had bloody good atmosphere and character story etc etc, and I played it when I was like 11 or something and I'm fine - I'll kill all of you!!!

Grand Prix Legends - I tend to think of this as a sim more than a game, but it kicks arse and takes up alot of my computer time. :)

Snootchie bootchies!
Any off-topic issues send to maitrek@austarmetro.com.au

I might have mentioned it before, but I still have my boxed Amiga version of Monkey Island on my shelf... Loved that game.. played most of Lucasfilm's (or LucasArts as it was called then) adventures. I'm not sure if I have the patience for those types of games now though.. boy, when you get stuck in those type of games, you REALLY do get stuck.

Grand Theft Auto 3 was the first game in a long while that I played sometime at night, then realised it was 5am.. Lots of fun things to do in that game. Lots of silly things to do too..
Frontier (Elite 2).. (I think David Braben is starting to work on a follow up to that now actually)
Resident Evil (1 and 2.. 3 got boring...)
Silent Hill..
Flashback
Half Life and Quake 2 ... great games.. didn't want to put it down.
The Settlers.... loved that game on the Amiga.. played it waaayyy too much.. and then I realised it was seriously killing too much time. [:)]
Starcraft.. (it's a faster version of Settlers, kinda... [:)])..
Counterstrike .. I still like this game.. the only reason I don't enjoy it as much these days is that everyone plays the same damn map, over and over and over.. or worst still, they play a deathmatch map.. which kinda defeats the purpose of playing Counterstrike.

Oh, I have a soft spot for Tetris and Puzzle Bubble too... and Pang!.. [:)]

quote:Originally posted by Souri
Resident Evil (1 and 2.. 3 got boring...)

I thought three was imbalanced and the least fun of the lot, I loved Code:Veronica and the remake of 1 kicks arse. IMO anyway.

Pantmonger

[img]http://home.iprimus.com.au/evilbunny/Jagged/GamaPantsWeb.gif[/img]

Nolf 1 and 2
Thief 1 and 2
Undying
the longest journey
Morrowind
Deus-Ex
Broken Sword 2
System Shock 2
Zelda 3
Super Metroid
Zombies ate my neighbours
Perfect Dark
Eternal Darkness
Resident evil series
Duke Nukem 3d
Half-life
UT
Chrono Trigger
Secret of mana
Flashback

Ninja commando on commodore 64, the game that got me hooked on gaming, got a copy for an emulator but it didnt work, havent played it in years :(

"when it comes to angry killing machines, nothing beats the Lord Jesus!"

Malus: Yeah, I tried to keep that list short for the same reason that I could go on forever listing all the old games I liked.

Lava_Monkey: DOTT > Monkey Island > every other Lucasarts game... I had to prioritise :P

Souri: He already did a followup to Elite 2 (Frontier: First Encounters), but yeah, there is some sort of work happening for Elite 4 :) http://www.frontier.co.uk/games/elite4/faq.html Kinda surprised I didn't see Impossible Mission on your list... :P

And interesting... Most people's tastes seem to be from games made within the past 10 years.

Ethan Watson
Current job: Programmer, Krome Studios

quote:And interesting... Most people's tastes seem to be from games made within the past 10 years.

my excuse: ive only been using computers for the past *counts fingers*... 4/5 years....:)

lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/

in no particular order my faves would be:
Grand Theft Auto 3
Gran Turismo 3
Project IGI
Delta Force series
Counterstrike (LAN not internet)
Battlefield 1942
Alien vs Predator
Red Alert 2
Need for Speed 4
NHL 99
Colin McRae 2 (PC)
Jetfighter II (<--kickass)
Descent 3
Wargasm
Janes Longbow 2

quote:Originally posted by GooberMan

Souri: He already did a followup to Elite 2 (Frontier: First Encounters), but yeah, there is some sort of work happening for Elite 4 :) http://www.frontier.co.uk/games/elite4/faq.html Kinda surprised I didn't see Impossible Mission on your list... :P

There's a bajillian C64 and Arcade games that I could mention, but I didn't want to bore the 'youngins.. [;)] .. arcade games.. 1942, Last Ninja, Rygar, Rtype, Wonderboy, Pacland.. I could go on and on.. (yes, at some stage, these were my favourites :)) I used to play so many c64 and arcade games (and finished them too), it's not funny. I made it to the end of Ghost 'n Goblins in the arcades with one credit. You had to fight two demons, and I made it past the first one on my first attempt, but got killed by the second demon. A few days later, they replaced the machine with something else.. Doh!

Bugger, I had a nice big list and lost it :/

So I'll give you the short version:

System Shock (The first one) is the BEST GAME EVER MADE.

If you haven't played it, you are deprived of the greatest creation of the greatest game development studio.

--redwyre

And yes Ethan, we all know about your new job. [:(!]

--redwyre

Ah let the man gloat. :P
I wish I could, they just turned me down for a position there, boo hoo.

Dean Ferguson - 3D/2D Artist

http://www.inkmancomic.com/dean/portfolio/index.html

quote:Originally posted by inglis

grantourismo3 (the cars [8D] i got that game 87% complete in 1/2 weeks then had to give the ps2 back to my friend [:(!] damn him!)

Gran Tourismo has always been very cool.. seems to get better and better.. I've read that GT4 will come out mid 2004 with online capabilities, plus world rankings.. you'd also be able to trade cars too.. GT3 came out early in the PS2's life, and what they did with the machine was really cool.. I wonder how much they can squeaze out of it now..!

Souri: Yeah, I remember all them games :) Pretty kewl games. I could only ever get up to the sixth stage on one credit for arcade Ghosts n Goblins. The sequel, Ghouls n Ghosts, wasn't anywhere near as good as the original, but still fun for a while. I hear they're making an online Ghouls n Ghosts game though :)

Ethan Watson
Current job: Programmer, Krome Studios

GT4 *drools all over keyboard*

lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/

Re : the 10 years question
I've been playing games since around 1987ish, but because I was young (like 5 years old) and couldn't afford good games I had to wait a few years for some kick ass games to come my way. Although some of the really old games that I liked are probably Sierra stuff, Microprose F1 GP maybe Lemmings :) I dunno what else, it's all too vague now.

Redwyre is on to something everyone, play SS1 if you haven't!!! Even though the graphics look terrible today, it still beats the garbage out of the sequel, and beats alot of other plain boring shooters we get nowadays.

Snootchie bootchies!
Any off-topic issues send to maitrek@austarmetro.com.au

Jagged Alliance 2 is the best game I've ever played. Kinda like Fallout only a real world scenario and more advanced squad based warfare.

Leisure Suit Larry 7 is champion, its too bad Al Lowe got the ass. (Anyone remember "Wheres Dildo?")

Quake 2 is still the best multiplayer FPS out there (the joints on my little finger have fused from holding it rigid while I Q2'd)

I love Hitman 1 & 2 for their polished gameplay, and sexy verlet integration.

Ye Olde stuff like Artic Adventure (CGA!), Mission to Mars, Secret Agent, Duke Nukem, Zak McCraken + Alien Mind Benders, Delphine stuff, LucasfilmLucasarts stuff blah blah.

Freecell is like crack to me, but my favourite games of ALL TIME are Alien Hunter (For the intro movie alone!!), Steel Carcass, FalCOM8, and He-Man masters the universe... mainly because I made them. :)

Scott
Current Job: Programmer, Centerlink ;P

No one's said Pong yet? :P

Ethan Watson
Current job: Programmer, Krome Studios

My first PC game was Space Quest 3 lol. Roger Wilco is my hero, how many space janitors do we see in games now days. :P
Good old sierra adventure games, lost to the ethers of time.

Dean Ferguson - 3D/2D Artist

http://www.inkmancomic.com/dean/portfolio/index.html

quote:Originally posted by GooberMan

Souri: Yeah, I remember all them games :) Pretty kewl games. I could only ever get up to the sixth stage on one credit for arcade Ghosts n Goblins. The sequel, Ghouls n Ghosts, wasn't anywhere near as good as the original, but still fun for a while. I hear they're making an online Ghouls n Ghosts game though :)

I will have to admit though that I cheated to get to the last level on Ghost'n Goblins with one credit. There was a bug in the game (I think it was the 3rd level?) - anyway, its in the cave with the bats, zombies, and those poles with mouths that shoot at you.. just hang around there at a certain spot, shooting left, right, left, right etc (because the zombies seem to spawn from the sides - best to use a dagger, because you kill faster). You get heaps of points doing this, and as the timer runs down to 3 seconds left, duck down and shoot those rocks so the magician guy shoots some magic to turn you into a frog.. the trick is to time it so that you turn to a bunch of bones before the timer hits zero, but the magic spiral will still continue and hit you, turning you into a frog.. hop around abit and avoid the zombies, and you eventually turn back into a knight, but with the timer stuck at 0.. go back to that point where you shot the daggers left, right etc, and keep scoring... do it for about 15 minutes, and you should have about 8 or 9 men total.. [:)].. you can do this forever and get even more men, btw.. the timer is stuck.

Too many to list all of them, but some of my more recent favourites:

Battlefield 1942
Vice City
C&C Generals
Age of Mythology

My favourite game at the arcade:

Dance Dance Revolution!!!!!!

--redwyre

Heh heh, yay for Dance Dance! I'm sure I don't spend enough time at Replay with it... @:-)

Chris Bowden
http://brain.gamekey.com/

Yeah i have checked it out tonight luckily i have the firepower on my home box to run it.

Quite good first impressions seemed to be some weirdness with the emitted lightboxs coming from the grenade things('R') when they are in mid flight.

Also i think someone may have been looking at the doom 3 bathroom scene with that little effort with the swinging light in that far room.

The ability to deform lights is cool, self shadowing also looks quite good, what is with that swinging light magically coming back to life after being shot though weird-o-rama. Overall for this level of release quite impressed, looking forward to seeing future revisions.

Brad Beddoes

Hey majorpain I licensed the engine ages ago, Its rather impressive even though not all the features are in it yet. Oh yeah the editor has been improved massively, I love it now.
I'm planning on using it for a game after I finish some other work.
People around here definitely check it out. Now you can see all the shit I was going on about, on here a few weeks back.

"when it comes to angry killing machines, nothing beats the Lord Jesus!"

They're probably pis poor simple games like pong, tetris etc.

I saw a small hand held controller that you plug into the tv that played games (60 games) that was being sold on an infomercial. And those games were really piss poor. So I'd imagine that most of those games that will be piss poor, but decent fun for a while... Maybe there's counter strike in it?

thats what i was thinking of- ive seen that infomercial as well...their big game was Soccer, it was pretty cool with the 16x16 pixels :)
Looked like lego men running across the screen.

lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/

There's been some speculation on what those 32,679 games would be of.. some say 1,000 variations of the snake game, 10,000 card games etc.. Some say since it's Windows based (I think? Maybe Linux), it automatically means you have access to all their games. :P (not sure how, since there isn't a cd/dvd drive.. maybe they're setting up broadband downloads of those with a paying system?)..

i think its linux..

lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/

even it has great games- would it be likely to make it out to australia? seeing that broadband isn't that widespread yet.

a friend of mine who plays sof2 on australian servers said he has talked to the monitors and say the current console game servers hardly have anyone on them. i dont know how true that is.

lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/

Primarily I think they're going to target the home that doesn't have a computer in America, and then try to outreach to other parts of the world. I think even though Korea has a high broadband penetration it will be a very hard market to sell to since everyone there has a pc, and all the lan gaming that's taking place etc.

I think Australia would also be very ahrd to sell to because of the lack of broadband availability (connectivity?).

Good ol' reverse engineering...

Ethan Watson, teh brand spankin' new Krome employee.

http://www.homelanfed.com/index.php?id=12374

Check that out, Home Lan Fed interview the guy who started it all :) Pretty interesting, can't wait to play the 2nd build.

If anyone is interested, check out http://www.multitheftauto.com/page.php?show=news
30+ players can join in on the action now!!.. Check out the screenshot of the players lining up. They're also working on some game modes, like 'capture the car'... Awesome. [:)] I can't wait till someone puts together an entire new city/cars/pedestrians/missions..

Yours is the best I've seen so far.

thanks!!
"Dang"!! there must be one somewere ?

Unfortunately I don't have that much spare time for something liek this but it sounds like an interesting collaboration, epsecially in light of recent events. (seeing some of the pictures of local rallies like Sydney and Melbourne was amazing - I haven't seen so much people in an area like that before)

would be cool if you could create 3d elements and then export them into your game.
i would buy one then..depending on price :)

lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/

Rather buy a high-end PC. It would be fun though. I still use TimeSplitters 2's level editor for quick multiplayer romps. If they make it as easy to use as that editor (but more varied of course), then I think it would be worth it indeed.

We like a man who comes right out and says what he thinks - when he agrees with us.

It gives me a bit of the fear, (I could be wrong) but mass market products to the artistic bent are usualy so user friendly and idiot proof that they are usless to an artist of any experience with digital media. That would be my fear anyway.

Pantmonger

I think the next area that artists will get into will be the Tablet PC kinda deal, I know that the artists on Penny Arcade uses one for all his drawing now and he reckons its quite good. I would imagine a larger tablet pc kinda thing being used by 3d modellers not so far in the future, would make it easy to select bones, move them etc. Or what about virtual clay kinda thing? Erg, I'm babbling here.

quote:It gives me a bit of the fear, (I could be wrong) but mass market products to the artistic bent are usualy so user friendly and idiot proof that they are usless to an artist of any experience with digital media. That would be my fear anyway.

Yeah, but what's the point in having technically advanced products with a console which is meant to be user-friendly? That is to say, if you're afraid that it would be too "idiot proof", then just buy a high-end PC.

We like a man who comes right out and says what he thinks - when he agrees with us.

example, bryce is "too idiot proof" with the large colored buttons. the rotate button takes up half the screen in that program.

lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/

I'm pretty certain that any video and image editing abilities the Xbox2 will offer is going to be so dumbed down, serious people won't bother with it. Unless they're packing a keyboard and mouse with the new console, you're not going to be able to or want to do much editing with a control pad. I can make a safe bet that the Xbox 2 won't come with a DVD burner [;)], so you'll playback your edits on your Xbox, and record it on your VHS... Remember Mario Paint for the N64? It didn't sell the N64 by the bucket load.. I wonder why Microsoft are bothering with novelties, when it's the games that sell the machine..

quote: I wonder why Microsoft are bothering with novelties, when it's the games that sell the machine..

Unfortunately, that's not quite true. In today's ICON (Sydney Morning Herald lift-out), it stated that the PS2 had sold 700,000 units in Australia, followed by the Xbox with 225,000 and the GC struggling to reach 50,000. Note that the GC is the only games-dedicated machine, whereas the other two have "novelties". In fact, the PS2 is not only the best selling console in the market at the moment, but it's also the best-selling DVD player.

Serious designers won't bother with editing on a console, but your average console gamer will. That's who the "idiot-proof" software is designed for: non-designers. I won't bother with it either, but it wouldn't be too bad whipping up a quick map when you're sick of the maps you've already got. Sure, it's no alternative when compared to downloading maps, but we'll do that when we're given the opportunity.

quote:example, bryce is "too idiot proof" with the large colored buttons. the rotate button takes up half the screen in that program.

Is that a console or PC program? If it's console, then it is justified in making it idiot proof. If it is a PC program, then it is not designed for people like yourself, but rather for either beginners or people who just want to have fun making maps (or whatever is the purpose the program) without putting in too much effort.

We like a man who comes right out and says what he thinks - when he agrees with us.

I think one of the better series of editors out there that are also extremely simple to use at the Starcraft and Warcraft3 editors. They have managed to build in powerful scripting into a relatively simple editor.

Although one of the other more powerful editors out there is the Unreal Editor, that is one mean hunk of software.

Its true though, that for consoles you have to make your products idiot proof.

quote:Originally posted by Sertan

quote: I wonder why Microsoft are bothering with novelties, when it's the games that sell the machine..

Unfortunately, that's not quite true. In today's ICON (Sydney Morning Herald lift-out), it stated that the PS2 had sold 700,000 units in Australia, followed by the Xbox with 225,000 and the GC struggling to reach 50,000. Note that the GC is the only games-dedicated machine, whereas the other two have "novelties". In fact, the PS2 is not only the best selling console in the market at the moment, but it's also the best-selling DVD player.

Serious designers won't bother with editing on a console, but your average console gamer will. That's who the "idiot-proof" software is designed for: non-designers. I won't bother with it either, but it wouldn't be too bad whipping up a quick map when you're sick of the maps you've already got. Sure, it's no alternative when compared to downloading maps, but we'll do that when we're given the opportunity.

Editing - I was referring to video and image editing that the Xbox2 will offer supposedly (user made game levels are a different issue [:)].
About the PS2 winning the numbers battle - that's my point.. it's the large variety of games that have pushed it to the front.. not because it plays DVD as well - well that's my opinion anyway. [:)] We've discussed in the forum on why the Gamecube was so behind - one of the reasons was marketing, and the other was the lack games.

quote:Editing - I was referring to video and image editing that the Xbox2 will offer supposedly (user made game levels are a different issue

Oh, ok. Sorry. [:)]

quote:About the PS2 winning the numbers battle - that's my point.. it's the large variety of games that have pushed it to the front.. not because it plays DVD as well - well that's my opinion anyway. We've discussed in the forum on why the Gamecube was so behind - one of the reasons was marketing, and the other was the lack games.

I suppose there are a lot of reasons, then. Though I do remember in the PS2's early days that the console sales to games sales ratio was tipped very highly towards the console, which is a rare occurrance. A spokesperson or somebody at Sony attributed this to the console's ability to play DVDs. That is, of course, if memory serves me. Thus, this would affect it's lead in the market as well. [:)]

But, as I said, there are a lot of reasons...

We like a man who comes right out and says what he thinks - when he agrees with us.

Soumds to me like microsoft is just trying to turn the XBOX into a "family" pc. No upgrades and patches, all simple to use, sounds sinister to me.

"when it comes to angry killing machines, nothing beats the Lord Jesus!"

It would be pretty funny if they did bring out a keyboard and mouse for the Xbox, actually..

Souri you just reminded me of moario paint it was on super nintendo not the 64 ... it had a cool music maker using all the sound from mario but the drawing part was crap with just a pad. Ahh those were the days working at the games store smoking and making crazy tunes on mario paint

I'm sure there was a Mario Paint on the N64 as well.. (Mario Paint 64?)...