I’ve often heard podcasters and other videogame journalists discuss 1998 in reverant tones. To hear many people talk about it, all the most amazing older games were released in 1998, and no year since has had such an amazing list of titles.
Let’s take a look at what games were actually released in 1998. Baldur’s Gate. [...]

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One of the oldest game genres is the platformer, so named because you play a character that jumps to and from suspended platforms. Contra, Bionic Commando, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Super Mario Brothers all fall into this category.
I should make it clear here that I never got into Super Mario World or Mario 64, largely [...]

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Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I’m a self proclaimed pack-rat and collector, but if I ever had to sell my gaming collection to feed my family these are the games I’d hang onto. If my wife let me, anyway.
Ah, the [...]

Read the rest of Keepers: Phantasy Star Online

This is the second part in my series on what themes tie together my all-time favorite video games. In April 2008, Blogs of the Round Table discussed this topic, and I’m only just now catching up.
One aspect of games that I’ve always appreciated is innovation. When a game comes out that does something totally new [...]

Read the rest of Variations on a Theme, Part II: Innovation

Of all the big holiday game releases this year, four have become standouts to me. I prepurchased Dragon Age: Origins in early 2009, back when I thought the game was going to be released in early 2009. I don’t regret that purchase, because the game looks amazing. Mikeyface’s hype machine has got me sold on [...]

Read the rest of Comparing Final Fantasy XII to Ultima V

Lots of the games I play are not new. While perhaps not all of them may qualify as truly “retro”, at least half of the games I’m normally playing are more than 2 years old.
Porting games to consoles on which they’ve never before appeared or re-releasing older games as downloadable titles is a good way [...]

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Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I generally sell a game that I’ve finished, so the only reason I keep one is because I plan to replay the game some day. Classifying a game as a “keeper” is generally a badge [...]

Read the rest of Keepers: Baldurs Gate

Anyone remember “That’s Incredible”? They used to show stunts and other random crap. Turns out they also held the very first video game championship, between 3 competitors, using arcade machines. This whole thing is very 80s, and looking at how primitive-looking these games really were is a trip.

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They call it “Bubble Bobble: The Revival”. All I know is that it’s got the same old music I remember from playing Bubble Bobble on my Commodore 64. If you remember Bubble Bobble, maybe you’ll get as much of a kick as I do from this game.
Play Bubble Bobble

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Like Greg, my love of gaming goes way back to my early childhood and begins with the goodness what was the Atari 2600. I have fond memories of my mom and I playing Pac-Man, Combat, Yars’ Revenge and even the debacle that was E.T. I think we went through a joystick every six months, [...]

Read the rest of Gaming Made Me – Frank Needs a Quarter