Nostalgia Message Board older than one year ago

#pitfall! There were a lot of one-hit wonders in the 1980s, but David Crane isn't one of them. The Activision programmer was behind Decathlon for the Atari 2600, Ghostbusters, one of the first great film-to-game adaptations on PC, and later, A Boy and His Blob. But he'll forever be known as Pitfall!'s creator, almost typecast as such. More »

Jon Chey is a co-founder of Irrational Games, who recently formed up a brand new studio called Blue Manchu, to work on a new game called Card Hunter. Card Hunter might easily be mistaken for many similar games of much lower quality: It's a Flash game that runs in your browser, and it's going to be a free-to-play title monetized by microtransactions, using collectible cards to fuel the gameplay.

While Card Hunter may look shallow on the surface, it's anything but. Chey and his team have crafted what's essentially a love letter to tabletop gaming, combining mechanics usually meant for traditional board gaming (like game boards, cardboard cutouts, dice, and action cards) with a high-quality and well-designed video game.

#nostalgia That Super Nintendo box isn't real. Neither is the cartridge. More »

#cds I grew up, like many, blowing cartridges and spending hours reading through game manuals. Then came the boxy jewel cases and CDs. The more I loved a game, the more scratches and nicks the back of a game would suffer. More »

#essay The Commodore 64 turns 30 today. Reams of copy have been written in tribute to this machine. It wasn't the first personal computer, but it truly was one that democratized them to millions of middle-class households. Releasing in August, 1982, it stepped into the breach a year later when console video gaming, as we knew it then, utterly collapsed. More »

For no other reason than because I love you, below you can see an American programme – Computer Chronicles – looking at the current state of computer games, almost 30 years ago. Beyond knowingly laughing at how they just don’t know stuff from the future, and their jumpers, it’s a fascinating perspective. Not just to see how gaming was already considered both old by then, and just how much the presentation in the media hasn’t changed. They ask, “Are computer games here to stay?” You can see the half-hour PBS programme below.

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#screengrab It's only his freshman year, that's why the Valve co-founder and boss hasn't yet been voted Most Likely to Succeed. More »

#stickjockey Tomorrow I'm hitting the road for a cross-country move, the sixth time I've driven the width of the nation since 2001. As I was boxing up my video games it occurred to me that some of them will have made five of those journeys by the time I reach North Carolina on Friday. All of them are sports titles. More »

#nintendo Nearly 20 years ago, three household names in Nintendo gaming took a shot at drawing Kirby inside the official strategy guide for Kirby's Adventures. Masahiro Sakurai, the game's creator (and creator of the Super Smash Bros. series); Shigeru Miyamoto, who really needs no introduction, and Satoru Iwata, who doesn't either, unless you don't know who Nintendo's current CEO is. More »

#maxpayne Today, Rockstar was kind enough to send me a copy of Max Payne 3, along with some very (but cool) promotional swag. A bullet keychain, a t-shirt with some bullets on it, another bullet in a box, and… a pill container. Also, a nifty ashtray that I could probably melt down and make into bullets. More »

#metroid We've heard all of the Super Mario Bros. themes performed by an orchestra. Simon Viklund's blood-pumping update of the Bionic Commando soundtrack is still on my workout playlist. And this version of Tecmo Super Bowl's opening cinematic makes me eat lightning and crap thunder. The great NES chiptunes of the past have all had great instrumental covers by now. Except one. More »

#guesteditorial Editor-in-chief's note: I was annoyed when I heard that 'an exhibition exploring fascinatingly bad games' being held at New York University on Friday would include GoldenEye a Nintendo 64 game I loved when I was in college. Earth Defense Force and Big Rigs I could understand. They're so bad, they're good. But GoldenEye? WTF? I sent the curators a terse e-mail: "What do you know that I don't know about GoldenEye being a bad game? If you'd care to make an argument, I'd be happy to run it on the site. " Curator Owen McLean replied: More »

Precocious, pondering, prattish younger me used to stand in game shops holding Jane’s Combat Simulation games, marveling at the heft of the box, the grandeur of the screens, imagining Jane at her desk, making a game and being so proud she’d put her name to it. I was stupid. Now I know better: Jane is the second name of military enthusiast Fred T. Jane, and he died in 1916. He didn’t make those games, although given that they were basically manuals made into gaming form, with his love of detailing military hardware he’d probably have enjoyed their elegant air battles and cockpit rendering. As for the latest incarnation, Jane’s Advanced Strike Fighters, being released a full decade after the last one, I’m pondering how he’d react. The video below looks fun, sure, but I’m sensing developers Evolved Games have taken a bit of a diversion around realism.(more…)

#pacman Despite how silly it looks, the Pac-Man animated series broadcast on ABC in the early 1980s was a modest success. It lasted only two seasons, but that can partly be attributed to the crash of home console video gaming taking the subject off people's minds. More »

#speakuponkotaku In today's completely grown-up edition of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter DukeofWulf muses on how easy it is for kids today to fill all of that free time they've got with copious amounts of free gaming, the little snots. More »

#saturdaymorningrpg Coming soon to iOS-powered devices from the wonderfully named and logo'd Mighty Rabbit Studios, Saturday Morning RPG might be the only turn-based role-playing game in which the protagonist can transform into a truck and ram faux Cobra troopers. Color me intrigued, but not the official colors so I don't get sued. More »

This week, we debut a new column by Jason Schreier dedicated to the analysis (and occasional mocking) of his favorite genre, the Japanese role-playing game. Whether it's because they're too antiquated or just too niche, he believes JRPGs don't get enough attention in the gaming industry today. It's time to change that.
It's hard to find an RPG fan who doesn't have fond memories of the "16-Bit Golden Age," that revered era when developers seemed to release nothing but instant classics. Twenty- and thirty-somethings all over the world love to wax poetic about the early 90s, a time when videogame production was driven more by creativity than graphical power, more by innovation than formula, more by TLC than DLC.

Take a moment to flip through the App Store or Xbox Indie Marketplace and you'll find striking evidence of this obsession with the old-school; today's indie RPGs are packed to the brim with sprites and textures that wouldn't be out of place on a Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis. The obvious explanation might be money - powerful graphics are expensive, and indie developers not named Notch are always broke. But is that the only reason iPhone RPGs like Guardian Saga and Ash aim to emulate that 16-bit style? Or is there something inherently appealing about classic turn-based gameplay?

And then there's that million-dollar question: Were all those old-school RPGs really all that great, or is our perception just tainted by nostalgia?

Psychologist Jamie Madigan, writing on his blog "The Pyschology of Video Games," argues the latter, saying that we tend to have selective memory when it comes to our favorite old games. We only remember the good parts.

#nostalgia Entertainment Weekly brought back the cast of The Princess Bride, which turns 25 next year, for a gaze-worthy image that—just like the film— is equal parts charming, funny, and touching. More »

#nostalgia There's something weirdly nostalgic about these two videos, which are a compilation of every boot screen for every console ever to have one, going back to the Sega Master System (the Mark III in Japan) of 1985. More »

#starcade The company behind the original video game competition, 1982's Starcade, has launched a site that packages clips from the old game show into a format that lets you "play" Starcade online. More »

#timetoreload Activision puts nostalgia-loving gamers in their sights once again, gathering a nice list of domain names revolving around something called "Goldeneye Reloaded". This could mean a number of things are in the works: an HD re-release of Goldeneye for the Wii, an HD remake of the classic N64 Goldeneye, or maybe even a turn as an Xbox Live Arcade game or on PSN? More »

#lookatthis Thirtysomething gamers will recognize plenty in this isometric pixelated depiction of the original run of Kenner Star Wars action figures from the first film to Return of the Jedi. I remember Luke Skywalker: Bespin Fatigues, the first action figure with two weapons. Spent the entire summer of 1980 coveting that one. More »

#combatbasketball SB Nation had a good thing going, picking winners of the first round of the NBA Playoffs using awful games like Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball and IN THE ZONE '98. But then the Miami-Philadelphia series was simulated using Streets of Rage. Streets of Rage is not a crappy video game. More »

#clips On the occassion of the silver anniversary of Super Mario Bros., Nintendo has put out this video celebrating the most famous glitches of the original, ones that first spread not by Internet or message boards, but grade school lunch tables. More »

As promised, Jay Pavlina has delivered Ryu Hayabusa from the NES Ninja Gaiden as the seventh playable character in the flash sensation Super Mario Bros. Crossover. Other character-specific abilities have been included in the game's 1.1 update. More »

#nostalgia With no sequel, no reboot, no spinoffs - just one movie and one video game - The Goonies is a rarity, a phenomenon supported by two decades of nearly unexploited nostalgia. The film's 25th anniversary of its release is today. More »

#starwars I've finally caught on. The Hoth-themed recruiting booth at Game Developers Conference last month was a clue. The e-mail about rare movie set photos seals it. It's the 30th anniversary of the Empire Strikes Back this year. Nostalgia time. More »

Update: Comments have been closed and a winner shall be emailed expediently! Check your inboxes, dearest readers. Ahhh, nostalgia. It's quite a thing, isn't it? That old familiar feeling. We were just tots 20 years ago when the first Final Fantasy was mere months from its North American release, a game that went on to influence -- be it directly or incidentally -- many of the RPGs we've played since. Like this week's Swag Sunday, the appropriately titled Nostalgia, for instance (appropriately titled for our theme, that is). Joystiq's own JC Fletcher said in his preview that, "The winsome attitude of Nostalgia makes it a nice counterpoint to the self-importance of, say, Final Fantasy games, and the no-frills combat (and ability to make a temporary save file if you need to quit and aren't near a save point) is perfect for short-session handheld play." You see that? He even names Final Fantasy! How's that for sticking with a theme! Anyway, if you'll be so kind as to leave a comment below in the next 24 hours (once only, please) telling us about a nostalgic moment you've had while gaming, you'll be entered for a chance to win a copy of the game. Get to it! Leave a comment telling us about a nostalgic moment you've had while gaming. You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec, mostly because of the lack of sweet Fez footage as of late). Limit 1 entry per person per day This entry period ends at 7:31PM ET on Monday, January 18. At that time, we'll randomly select one winner to receive one copy of Nostalgia for Nintendo DS ($34.99 ARV). For a list of complete rules, click here What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes "Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. Please note that Joyswag may be in "used" condition. For more info on our policy, click here.

Ahhh, nostalgia. It's quite a thing, isn't it? That old familiar feeling. We were just tots 20 years ago when the first Final Fantasy was mere months from its North American release, a game that went on to influence -- be it directly or incidentally -- many of the RPGs we've played since. Like this week's Swag Sunday, the appropriately titled Nostalgia, for instance (appropriately titled for our theme, that is). Joystiq's own JC Fletcher said in his preview that, "The winsome attitude of Nostalgia makes it a nice counterpoint to the self-importance of, say, Final Fantasy games, and the no-frills combat (and ability to make a temporary save file if you need to quit and aren't near a save point) is perfect for short-session handheld play." You see that? He even names Final Fantasy! How's that for sticking with a theme! Anyway, if you'll be so kind as to leave a comment below in the next 24 hours (once only, please) telling us about a nostalgic moment you've had while gaming, you'll be entered for a chance to win a copy of the game. Get to it! Leave a comment telling us about a nostalgic moment you've had while gaming. You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec, mostly because of the lack of sweet Fez footage as of late). Limit 1 entry per person per day This entry period ends at 7:31PM ET on Monday, January 18. At that time, we'll randomly select one winner to receive one copy of Nostalgia for Nintendo DS ($34.99 ARV). For a list of complete rules, click here What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes "Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. Please note that Joyswag may be in "used" condition. For more info on our policy, click here.

The salad days of RPGs reborn--Or a portable grind riding the coat tails of greatness?