Peggle Message Board

Today is International Stop Hating Things Day. Do you hate things? Do you burn to say how awful you think they are on the internet? For one day only, stop it. Stop hating things! You’ll feel better. And I’ll even give you a reward for it – a free copy of Peggle Deluxe. No, you’re not allowed to hate it. That would contravene the rules of Stop Hating Things Day.

All of this has happened before and will do again, of course. I mean to pull no wool over your eyes there. Any chance to place Peggle, especially if you haven’t before, is one worth taking though – PopCap’s arguable finest hour is one of merriment and affirmation, and steeped in a good-natured innocence arguably lost to PopCap games since they started getting all hot and bothered about Facebook and whatnot.

It also seems so very long ago that all of RPS’ founders lived and breathed Peggle, with the exception of John who hated it because International Stop Hating Things Day hadn’t yet been invented.

Remember: stop hating things, all today. And play Peggle. Peggle!

#bubblewitchsaga Take the addictive bubble-popping gameplay of Bust-a-Move, toss in the enticing random chance of Peggle, and you've got Bubble Witch Saga, a Facebook game so addictive I'd be playing it right now if I hadn't run out of lives. More »

If you’ve picked up PS Vita then you’ve probably been too busy plowing through the dense launch line-up to have spent much time browsing the Settings menu. Luckily, you don’t need to – we’ve spent plenty of time with PlayStation’s new crown jewel and we’ve put together a few favorite tips and tricks we wanted to share. Of course, this is just a start: We want your tips, too!

If you’ve discovered any favorite PS Vita functions, please share them in the comments for all to enjoy this weekend.

1. Order in the court! By now, you’ve probably figured out how to move your game and app bubbles around the Home Menu by pressing and holding one using the front touchscreen, enabling you to drag it around into different frame. You can even change the background color or image by tapping the theme icon in the bottom right of each frame. Get creative and design your own background images (which you can transfer to your PS Vita via PS3) like James Gallagher from the EU PlayStation Blog did here.

2. Let there be light. You can adjust your PS Vita’s OLED screen brightness mid-game without the hassle of jumping into the Settings menu. Just hold the PS button to bring up a quick-access menu that enables you to adjust brightness and your custom music options. Wanna listen to the soundtrack to Armageddon while carving through Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus? Don’t miss a thing, baby.

3. Call for backup. Let’s face it: electronic devices have an uncanny affinity for toilets. We can’t prevent that, but we can help ensure you don’t lose your precious saved game data. Simply connect your PS Vita to your PS3 via the USB cable, open up the Content Manager on your PS Vita, and select the the Back Up option to back up all your PS Vita’s game data and gain a little extra peace of mind.

4. Say cheese! PS Vita comes equipped with a simple but game-changing new feature: The ability to snap screenshots of your in-game exploits. Just press the PS button and Start at the same time: You’ll see a white flash and hear the snap of a camera shutter and the resulting image will be saved and neatly categorized in your Photos gallery. You’ll be able to take screenshots in the vast majority of games, though not every game.

5. Prettier PSP games. PS Vita currently supports more than 275 legacy digital PSP games and more are on the way. You can also improve the way those lower-resolution PSP games look on the PS Vita’s screen by pressing and holding the front touchscreen to bring up a Settings menu where you can activate several options. Checking “bilinear filtering” and “color space” seems to yield consistently smoother results, but experiment with your PSP games to find your favorite combination.

6. Slip into something more comfortable. PS Vita enables you to adopt a custom panel to add a little flair to your PSN presence. To change your PSN panel, navigate to Settings, PSN, Account Information, and Panel to choose from a wide assortment of artwork from first and third-party games.

7. Remote Play renaissance. Ever wish you could log into your PS3 remotely to access a video or initiate a PlayStation Store download? This handy feature isn’t technically new — it was supported on PSP — but thanks to PS Vita’s monstrous OLED screen and more powerful processors, it’s more useful than ever. Protip: Remote Play is compatible with any PSone games you may have on your hard drive, along with a handful of classic PSN games such as PixelJunk Monsters, PixelJunk Eden, and Peggle.

8. Bluetooth bliss. PS Vita supports high-quality stereo Bluetooth for audio output, so if you’ve got a nice pair of Bluetooth headphones, you can pipe in your game audio without restricting wires. In the Settings menu, touch Network and Bluetooth Settings and you’ll be able to pair your headphones to your new PS Vita. If you get stuck on the pairing code, try “0000.” If that doesn’t work, check the manual that came with your headphones (or look it up online) to find the proper four-digit code. Now enjoy a better life — a life without wires!

9. Silence is golden. Some people like soft jazz, others prefer silence. If you want to turn off PS Vita’s toe-tappin’ menu music, you’ll find the option in Settings > Sound & Display > System Music. While you’re there, you’ll notice an AVLS option. This limits the maximum volume when using headphones — perfect if you share your PS Vita with a little one.

From a job advert posted on Gamasutra, it is revealed that PopCap are working on “a stylistic reboot of our Peggle franchise”. Which is a way of saying: NEW PEGGLE! Which pretty much confirms that rumour from last month, after naughty Adam Orth tweeted about needing a new art director for a Peggle project, before promptly deleting it and probably having his knees spanked.

(more…)

Bloodhound-nosed Lewie P gets in touch to say he had a bit of an interesting encounter with a PopCap fellow, via the medium of Twitter. One that rather strongly suggested that the company might be gearing up for Peggle 2. Lead designer at PopCap, Adam Orth, sent out a tweet asking for an Art Director “for the Peggle franchise”. Lewie retweeted this, and then said on his own account, “Imagine Peggle 2″. To which Orth replied, “I am.” Which he has since deleted. Rather tellingly. However, Lewie had already retweeted it. So yes, an awful lot of he said/she said. Except without the shes. We’re going to contact PopCap to see if we can get an answer out of them. But in the meantime, let’s all just assume it’s true so hard that it has to happen.

You know how you promised to, like, do stuff tomorrow? Forget it, you've got new plans -- addicting, intoxicating plans. Popcap has announced via its Twitter account that tomorrow Peggle HD launches on the App store. No price was revealed but, honestly, does it matter? Of course it doesn't.

So we suggest in light of this news you start going around, stocking up on goodwill with the people in your life. Help them in these last few hours of Wednesday, August 24. Once it's the 25th, you're gonna need to use up some of that good will ignoring everything except your iPad.

PopCap's indie sublabel has put out three games so far, with plenty more planned for the future.

PopCap Games' sublabel, 4th & Battery, was not originally going to be called 4th & Battery.

It was not, in fact, going to be associated with PopCap at all. Technically. When director of editorial and social media Jeff Green joined PopCap last fall, one of his first projects was working with producer Matthew Lee Johnston on making what would eventually become 4th & Battery.

"We were going to do it almost like a stealth indie house launch," explained Green. "That was the original idea we had. We were pretty much making up a new game company."

Green and Johnston had planned on distancing PopCap from the venture entirely, to the point that PopCap's lawyers looked into registering the new studio through the Cayman Islands, preventing anyone from being able to trace it back to PopCap.

The 4th & Battery rabbit hole goes deeper, much deeper, though.

The two of them actually concocted a whole background and persona for this new, semi-imaginary studio. The founders, as Green and Johnston envisioned it, were two female game designers also located in the Seattle area, where PopCap's at.

"One of them had a boyfriend who was in a band," said Green. "We actually made up that band."

The current state of sad parade's MySpace account is appropriately depressing.

The band was called sadparade. Green and Johnston went as far as to register a MySpace account (seriously!) for the self-described "emo/experimental/indie" group known as sadparade, an account that still exists online, albeit unfinished. sadparade's mood on MySpace is currently--and probably forever will be--described as "annoyed."

This underground studio and the mythology behind its faux creators was enough of a real thing for PopCap to create bumper stickers for sad parade, and for Green to sit down and write a fictional song.

Today, I'm happy to present the lyrics to this so-far unproduced sad parade track, "(Welcome to the) Sad Parade," penned by Green:

Heavy raindrops on my windowsill
I’m lookin’ out but I can’t see
My heart is heavy for you baby still
That’s why I’m lost in misery
And when I look out at this big ol’ world
I see a lot of things that bother me
Why do people have to be so mean?
And what’s up with all this poverty?

CHORUS
Welcome to the sad parade
Fall in line with the sad parade
Don’t stub your toe in the sad parade
Come play the flute in the sad parade
Yeah soldiers shoot each other all the time
When they all should just be holding hands
What will it take to make the people free
Why can’t we make them understand?
But oh yeah baby you should be here now
Instead of somewhere I don’t know
You told me that you needed room to breathe
You know I’d have opened a window!

CHORUS
Welcome to the sad parade
Yeah line right up for the sad parade
There’s free balloons at the sad parade
We need more tubas in the sad parade
So now I walk along this dusty road
Looking out at all I see
So many people with nowhere to go
I’d like to buy them all iced tea
And yeah you baby you’re so far away
You’re on your own now without me
But you’ll be back girl I do surely know
Because I have taken your housekeys

CHORUS
Welcome to the sad parade
Yeah keep on marching in the sad parade
Play Louie Louie in the sad parade
Watch out for horses in the sad parade
Please tune the trumpets in the sad parade
Don’t call me princess of the sad parade
Play Theme from Rocky in thesad parade
Who let those midgets in the sad parade
(repeat and fade out)

None of this is a joke, by the way. I asked multiple times between fits of laughter on the phone.

"This was all true, this was how we originally envisioned it as just a separate thing!" said Green.

While PopCap would have nothing to do with this kind of sort of fictional company on the surface, it was still a PopCap initiative that PopCap would have to somehow point towards.

"We were gonna have to try and use ways of drawing attention to it, but we were just going to be another indie developer," he continued. "That's when a lot of internal debate started happening, and the company was like 'why are we putting all this effort to hide this thing when there's a lot that we actually kind of want to show off?'"

There are a bunch of these bumper stickers for sadparade still floating around PopCap's offices.

The name PopCap Labs became the new point of discussion within the company, but that one was tossed over concerns having "PopCap" in the label's name would create unnecessary pressure. Games coming out of this sublabel were going to be experimental in nature, and gamers should not be expecting something on the level of Peggle or Plants vs. Zombies from it.

"We spent an insane amount of hours debating this whole thing," said Green.

sadparade may come back, though. Green hasn't ruled it out.

"We still may incorporate that band into 4th and Battery," he said. "I think we should. There's at least [that] one song that they wrote...they...wrote."

And with that, everyone on the call burst out laughing all over again.

PopCap games is auctioning off art from its games for children's charities in the US and UK. The auction runs from now until July 12- and 100% of the proceeds go to said charities. [http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/06/popcap-auctions-sketches-of-zombies-unicorns-for-childrens-charities.ars] More »

#science While more mainstream video games are under fire for causing depression, a new study at East Carolina University finds that playing casual puzzle games is an effective way to combat clinical depression and anxiety. Guess who underwrote the study? More »

Having both Peggle and LittleBigPlanet 2 on the same plane of reality meant this had happen sooner or later. With Peggle already on every platform known to man, and LBP2 molding itself T-1000 style into every game imaginable, why wouldn't we get the Plinko puzzler recreated in Sackboy's world?

While it may not hold the same honors as Dead Space Girl, this mouth-watering image is one of the most frequently used throughout Joystiq history, reserved for many of our Peggle-related stories. Considering its wide cross-platform availability, we're almost certain you know exactly what Peggle is, and why it's so addicting. Surprisingly, PopCap's game has not yet made it to Sony's handheld -- a fact will be rectified next Tuesday when it lands on the PSN for $9.99.

PopCap's Michael Santora promises that the PSP version will include "all the original Masters, challenges, and levels in adventure mode," but unfortunately, he makes no mention of any Peggle Nights. Considering how late the PSP version is, we're surprised no additional content is being added. It certainly makes justifying the $10 asking price a bit more difficult.

What could be better than the iOS version of PopCap's crazy-addictive totally excellent Peggle for only $0.99? Try a whole bunch of top-shelf games for Apple's devices on sale for a buck, some of which normally run $5 or more. The likes of Osmos, Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, Need for Speed Shift, both Monkey Island SEs and more are being offered at the price.

Others, including Mirror's Edge, Castlevania Puzzle and Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2 have dropped to $1.99. These prices are temporary, of course, and without any announced end dates for the various sales, we'd advise getting 'em while they're hot. You'll find a full list super savings after the break.

Microsoft recently turned its eyes to the east and decided, you know what, the good people of Japan look like they have way too much free time on their hands. Its solution for their overabundance of recreational opportunities was one we've become very familiar with over the past few years: The company will bring both volumes of the PopCap Arcade collection for Xbox 360 over to Japan in a single bundle, retailing for 3,990 yen ($43).

This one, malevolent disc contains within its circular borders a cornucopia of time-devouring casual classics: Bejeweled 2, Zuma, Feeding Frenzy, Astropop, Heavy Weapon, Feeding Frenzy 2, and Peggle. By our estimation, Japan should get back to being productive sometime in the middle of 2014.

[Via Siliconera]

#hotflashes If you enjoy Peggle, felines, and raw fish rolled in rice, the you'll love Sushi Cat, a game about getting a cat fat enough to activate an automatic door. More »

Catch the Extreme Fever.

The Institute demands your attention.

Here's a little reminder that there are three, count 'em three, Xbox Live Deals of the Week this week, just in time for Thanksgiving. Up for grabs are the Fable II "See the Future" DLC, Peggle and Death Tank. Peggle is now half price at 400, "See the Future" drops from 560 ($7) to 400 ($5), while Death Tank takes a precipitous tumble from 1200 ($15) to 800 ($10). We'll also take this time to remind everyone that this week is the perfect time to snag both Peggle and the recently released Peggle Nights expansion all for 800 ($10). Trust us, Peggle is the perfect thing to calm the inevitable family arguments over the holidays. Just don't let grandma anywhere near it, because she will not give it back. Add See the Future to your 360 download queue Add Death Tank to your 360 download queue Add Peggle to your 360 download queue

"A beginning is a very delicate time. Know then, that is is the year 10191. The known universe is ruled by the Emperor Björn the Super Guide. In this time, the most precious substance in the universe is the Peggle. The Peggle extends life. The Peggle expands consciousness. The Peggle is vital to space travel. PopCap Games and its designers, who the Peggle has mutated over 8000 years, use the frequency emitted by the dropping balls across pegs to fold space. That is, travel to any part of the universe without moving. Oh, yes. I forgot to tell you. The Peggle exists ... everywhere, it is all around us, sniff it up and fold some space... wheeeeeeeee! Check out the full PSN update after the break." -- Princess Tula Sunflower [Thanks to @Colossalblue for answering the call of photochop duty!] Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)

Blockbuster franchise delivers compelling gameplay and non-stop multiplayer action.

Here's how the sausage of video game news gets made: ShackNews reports that the Peggle Nights DLC will arrive on XBLA this Wednesday, November 18. The DLC is a $5 addition to XBLA Peggle, adding sixty-something levels to the game classified in several countries as a controlled substance. Double-checking with Peggle developer PopCap, the company hasn't officially announced the date in a release and is optimistic that Nights will be available this Wednesday. Checking with Microsoft, the company is "looking into it." So, yeah, there's no reason to doubt anyone, but there doesn't seem to be an affirmation of Peggle Nights' release this week.

PlayStation 3 owners now can get in on some Peggle action.