You can always do it before or after the show so it becomes bonus content!
2 Likes
Hmmmm good point. I promise to only use this knowledge for good.
3 Likes
I can also offer “perform a real world minimal cost task” at 3 credits
3 Likes
Like what…make Frank do the dishes?
4 Likes
Didn’t know Yeso was a family man.
2 Likes
In life, you just gotta do what Guile tells you.
2 Likes
I love how disruptive Credits have become even without being used.
5 Likes
I think the last time my dad played a game that wasn’t Hunting Unlimited or Solitaire was one time when he wanted to try out Lost Planet on the PS3. He had a hard time figuring out the controls, told the human enemies to fuck off, then gave me the controller. My mom loved Bejeweled and Candy Crush. I have no clue if she has touched either past 2015. One time she played Little Big Planet with me.
I feel like Sony is more likely going to get rid of the boot-up screen for PlayStation moving forward. The PS4 and PS5 both have incredibly muted personalities and their boot screens are a clear demonstration of that. It’s kinda sad that consoles are more and more becoming just a box that does stuff. Having said that , if Sony could design a GUI that doesn’t feel like it actively hates me and wants to waste my time that would be an improvement. Why they threw the XMB in the bin is beyond me.
4 Likes
Is the History Hour episode Frank mentioned available anywhere yet? My feed still hasn’t updated since the December 15th, 2023 episode.
1 Like
It’s not out yet. Patreon update says it should be back early 2025.
2 Likes
@esper On the Youtubes, what’s the Fox moving blocks around game before Xenocrisis while Brandon talks about post-Gen MD games? (Not Tanglewood, the other one)
1 Like
As Flavia Gassi - a Brazilian journalist, recently researching the gamergate influence in the elections - would say: games are made in our world and our world is political, so games are political too!
Let’s take a look at Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for an example:
The speed cap is dictated by how many coins you have. If you have 10, maximum speed! Every time you get a coin, a small speed boost. The only position you can maintain 10 coins is 1st because:
When you’re hit or fall off the track, you lose coins. The middle class (4th to 9th place) fights amongst themselves. If you’re in 3rd place and throws a green shell back, you do not have class conscience. The lower class (10th -12th) survives on assistencialist items that take away control over your own decisions (bullet bill) and just drops you amid the chaotic middle class at best. The middle class hates you for “taking their spot” as if you were the problem.
The high class on the other hand has it easier. Sure, 2nd and 3rd could easily fall back to middle class any second a crisis hit.
1st has no obstacles ahead of them, can drive freely. 1st has the freedom of choosing double item boxes and the items are super rigged:
70% chance of getting a coin, to maintain the highest speed while getting mini turbos, Followed by 65% chance of getting a banana which is arguably the best item in the game: if used correctly, it defends you from most attack items, it serves as an extra bumper if anyone comes in contact with you. On top of that if timed correctly, you throw ahead of yourself and slip in it before a blue shell. The recovery time is significantly lower. It’s just like committing a major crime and paying a small fine for it.
50% chance of a green shell, 5% of a single red shell, 5% of a mushroom (if timed correctly, you can avoid a blue shell entirely) and 5% of a Super Horn, which is a top tier item too!
If you throw 200cc in the mix, it’s like late stage capitalism 2: the age of ultra billionaires. Some items don’t work, red shells cannot get you! The game wasn’t designed for this, it kinda happened. Laws and Regulations were flawed then and it’s worse now.
(please do not take this seriously)
6 Likes
Animal Well may not be polemical, though unfortunately for me it is (or at least was, in the brief period following its release) a political object. It was produced by Youtuber Video Game Dunkey, against whom I hold a grudge because he expresses reactionary opinions about older or experimental game design—and forestalls counterargument by disguising these as comedy—which his millions of subscribers then take as some kind of gospel and spread elsewhere.
Two days ago I had a conversation with a new acquaintance about video games, and more than once during the conversation he had to point to something Dunkey has said in order to explain why he didn’t like a game. I have no real argument against Animal Well—by all accounts the guy worked very hard on it and has earned its success—and I recognize that by this point its audience is self-sustaining and distinct from any Youtube sphere, but it’s hard for me to separate it from the cultural dominance of Dunkey and his antecedents etc. whose influence helped bring it into the world.
8 Likes
Everyone in my family games or at least gamed. I have three siblings and two parents, and the only one who doesn’t play games ever anymore is my sister but she did for a long time. The Sims 1/2, Animal Crossing Wild World, Tetris DS, and Mario Kart DS are the games I most associate with her. My mom has always been like a Bejeweled style gamer and still plays some weird thing on her phone all the time. She used to like Sonic on Genesis though, and she really liked playing Super Puzzle Fighter with us.
The men are all true gamers. My older brother only has time for one or two a year but he still usually gets into something. He’s been working through Jedi Survivor lately. My dad and my twin brother are pretty much playing something daily like me, and if not they’re figuring out what their next game will be.
The sad thing is my extended family have all fallen off. I can’t even talk to my cousins about games anymore even though that was how we bonded growing up. It’s so sad that I got really excited when my cousin’s husband told me that he likes to play Call of Duty Warzone
6 Likes
The release of Animal Well is very relevant politically (particularly internal game politics).
Billy Basso (Developer) already had representation (from Dan Adelman, ex-Nintendo and performed a similar role for Axiom Verge) prior to signing with Dunkey/Big Mode (Publisher). Which is a nuance that gets lost even if you get the standard “You know Dunkey’s just the publisher, he didn’t actually make the game…” clarification.
This is merely informed speculation, I obviously don’t know the precise breakdown of roles/credit/funding, and I’m not minimising the work of any one. But to me it’s pretty obviously a case of a publisher getting an obvious slam-dunk first game and a developer that needs even less babysitting than normal, and the developer getting a non-interventionist publisher, with a built in audience of semi-informed fans.
There’s nothing wrong with this arrangement. It’s smart and sensible business, and all involved benefit. But it’s not something that anybody seems to mention when discussing the game, or Dunkey’s competence as a publisher.
I’ll also note that his second project is publishing Star of Providence (also known as “Monolith”, “What the fuck is that game called now…”, or “Why did they change the name?”) on consoles. Which is again a game that is already known to be high quality, and doesn’t need to be shepherded through development as much as a normal game.
6 Likes
I think every game is political except the Call of Duty games. The developers said it’s apolitical. Nothing we can do about it but take their word and trust them. They know what’s best.
12 Likes
that’s a solo any% run in 5:19 of Rikki & Vikki on the 7800! came up in a search for fan made Atari 7800 games and looked cute PenguiNet - Rikki & Vikki
(this is properly keyed and attributed in the video, but i wait until Frank actually mentions the 7800 to fade it in)
4 Likes
Rikki & vikki is absolutely the game to mention on 7800 so nice work there!
4 Likes
Video Game History Hour is officially back! New ep and bonus ep just popped up on the VGHF Patreon
6 Likes