AVGN long ago
reviewed Action 52.
AVGN
plays STREEMERZ in the first volume of Action 53. (Via
koitsu; F-word warning) Video description claims that the next video will cover other included games, such as those in the Compo 2011 section.
Interesting how they consider the game to be a "mod" of Bionic Commando...
I'm not trying to promote Cinemassacre, but I'm sure many of you have seen the AVGN and I thought it was interesting that they were playing a homebrew game that I often hear get mentioned here. It also says "INFINITE NES LIVES" on it, and I know he's a member here. It's kind of cool that someone semi-famous like James would be playing a game I presume was made by people here.
Anyway, this is the video. I haven't actually really watched it yet though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWxfoIhWnk4
https://twitter.com/koitsu2009/status/7 ... 5381563392 -- be sure to click "View other replies" to see Tepples'.
Shoot, I've never even played Bionic Commando or ever really seen the NES version, and I could already tell it wasn't it. It seemed more like the grappling hook was more like the hookshot or something of Zelda than an actual rope like in that game.
Those guys from Cinemassacre are gamers, so you can't really expect them to look at things from a coder's perspective. On the other hand, if they're playing something and sharing it on YouTube for hundreds of thousands of people to see, it wouldn't hurt to do a little research on the specific game they're playing to make sure they don't say anything stupid.
You don't have to be a programmer to see 90 degrees of difference between
Bionic Commando and
STREEMERZ: Super Strength Emergency Squad Zeta. There's a vast difference between these kinds of
jumpless platformers.
Before there was
STREEMERZ, there was "Streemerz" from
Action 52, but even before that, there was
Roc'n Rope. It's essentially a diagonal version of the "portable ladder" mechanic from
Rod Land. In these games, the player moves primarily in a straight line along the rope.
Pitfall!,
Bionic Commando, the
Spider-Man games, and the
Wrecking Ball Boy tech demo use a different paradigm in which the player moves perpendicularly to the swinging rope.
tokumaru wrote:
if they're playing something and sharing it on YouTube for hundreds of thousands of people to see, it wouldn't hurt to do a little research on the specific game they're playing to make sure they don't say anything stupid.
Yeah, they don't really do that.
What's really strange to me is how they'd never really heard of Metal Slug before they played it. (James did vaguely.) What drives me up a wall though is when they get information wrong and they're probably not to sure but they present it as fact. I know they probably don't do this on purpose and they seem like nice people, so I'll let it slide.
Maybe I'm alone in my stance, but they're just three gamers. They're not programmers, they're not hardcore NES tech enthusiasts, I wouldn't expect them to know the difference between a "hack" and a "homebrew", and I don't think the majority of their fanbase knows or cares either. It reminded them of Bionic Commando (as the designer seems to have intended), and if anyone likes that style of platformer, then they'd see this and might check it out. Besides, they didn't mean to downplay the game, and they even mention in the video description that there are "16 different homebrew titles such as the iconic Streemerz" (emphasis is mine). If the description didn't say that before, it says it now, meaning James or Mike noticed and updated it.
It's just really weird to get upset over our niche terminology that most people wouldn't know or care about.
tokumaru wrote:
Those guys from Cinemassacre are gamers, so you can't really expect them to look at things from a coder's perspective. On the other hand, if they're playing something and sharing it on YouTube for hundreds of thousands of people to see, it wouldn't hurt to do a little research on the specific game they're playing to make sure they don't say anything stupid.
But saying stupid things without research, is what
made them famous!
James and Mike (and guests) videos are just a couple of gamers talking about games while playing them. They do not have a script and their memories are often nostalgic, so I expect the occasional error. They cannot be expected to be omniscient when hanging out and having fun. When James wants to do a review of a game or a movie, he is pretty accurate (his Dracula commentary is worth listening to). James still captures composite video from his systems, does not generally use emulators or reproduction games and still has wood paneling in his basement even though he can afford wainscoating.
When you take footage like that, in some cases you know what you said was wrong by the time you're editing, but there's no clean way to cut it out without losing something else you want to keep. It's often a choice to keep the wrong thing in favour of something else, because re-filming it is not an option you want to exercise.
It's not stupid, mod implies modifying another person's work. Creating your own is in another league entirely. If I were the creator of the NES port my reaction would be:
beggining: AWESOME! They're playing my game from start to finish!
middle: Wait don't skip that that's my favorite dialog piece... hey you're supposed to do x not y... sigh.
end: Man this sure was fun, what an honor to have them... wait what, bionic comm-- IT'S HOMEBREW NOT A MOD!!! HOW COULD YOU? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I'm sure they could do minimum research on something that gives them a significant amount of revenue.
No matter what you release, people aren't always going to play it the way you want it to be played, and they won't always think what you want them to think. It's not worth getting so hung up over, because all you're doing is discouraging yourself if you think that way.
Drag wrote:
No matter what you release, people aren't always going to play it the way you want it to be played, and they won't always think what you want them to think. It's not worth getting so hung up over, because all you're doing is discouraging yourself if you think that way.
This is very true.
As a game developer, I might be disappointed if someone has a
bad experience because of something I didn't expect, but otherwise as long as they're enjoying themselves overall, I'm happy.
I'm especially baffled when people complain about others using things like game genie or cheat codes or TAS or weird exploits. It's their experience, what's wrong with them having fun on their own terms? (...as long as they aren't cheating dishonestly, e.g. in a competitive game, but dishonesty is a separate issue.) The whole point of games is that you can choose what you want to do; if there's no choice, it's not a game. This stuff is a natural extension of that, and actually as a developer I'd generally be excited to see someone trying things with my game that I didn't even intend to be possible.
rainwarrior wrote:
I'm especially baffled when people complain about others using things like game genie or cheat codes or TAS or weird exploits.
If you sold a closed gaming platform, such as an Xbox, PlayStation, or Wii console, wouldn't you complain about "weird exploits" of a particular game's savegame format to obtain execution privilege? People could use that to do several things that undermine any console maker's business model:
- Unlicensed games: Make and distribute working games for your console without paying your developer tax. The generally low quality of unlicensed games tends to reduce the expected quality of a randomly chosen game for a console.
- Emulation of pirated previous-generation games: Run illegal copies of the first party's back catalog (such as through FCE Ultra GX). This unfairly competes with current-generation sequels and with official rereleases through services such as Virtual Console.
- Cloning: Run illegal workalikes of your licensed developers' games, such as the various Tetris reimplementations used as Hello World on newly cracked consoles.
- Modding: Make and distribute new levels for an existing licensed game. These are considered derivative sequels per Micro Star v. FormGen, and they unfairly compete with a game publisher's own paid DLC and sequels.
- Achievements/Trophies: Even an ostensibly single-player game is "a competitive game" on the console's built-in social network nowadays.
Nintendo complained in court about Game Genie but lost on a technicality: because the device lacked ability to save codes, the modifications were not considered "fixed" and thus not derivative works.
Galoob v. Nintendo.
Here's part two, they play four more games.I like this better than if the Game Grumps tried to do it. James, Mike, and Bootsy are giving it an honest try. Arin and Dan, though funny, would just screw around and then quit.
Tepples: I think rainwarrior was talking about other players and/or game developers and just cheating within the game's confines, but you're right, the console's manufacturer would have a different reason to be upset with cheating devices or exploits.
tepples wrote:
If you sold a closed gaming platform...
I don't, so... that's kind of a weird thing to predicate your response on. It wasn't what I was referring to
at all, but nevertheless here's my flippant personal opinions as reply:
- I think mods and hacking lead to great things. (...like this website we're on?)
- Buying a VC game is a voluntary process for anyone who knows about emulators, they're not "competing" in the traditional sense.
- Anti-piracy protection always punishes legitimate users in some way.
- Cheating achievements is fine because achievements are stupid.
0:03 Forehead Block Guy
1:36 LAN Master (and they spliced in Pipe Dream music)
2:14 Lawn Mower
3:47 Driar
5:33 I Wanna Flip the Sky
7:10 -> "Twisty Passages" begin
13:04 -> "Twisty Passages" end
They dubbed in other NES games' music.
Nearly half the video was spent trying to beat "Twisty Passages" in IWFTS. But only the comments section realized that the game is actually I Wanna VVVVVV the Guy. Others made comparisons to MetalStorm. And they compared FHBG's background to a Creeper from Minecraft. I wasn't aware of Hover Bovver or the detention minigame in Bully until commenters compared Lawn Mower to them. And apparently, Driar is a remake and reskin of Jet Set Willy.
I hope there's a part 3, because they have 10 games left.
tepples wrote:
And apparently, Driar is a remake and reskin of Jet Set Willy.
Saw that comment too, really baffling because the games are
very different.
Speaking of which when is the next nesdev compo? I'm eager to try to make a game and fail miserably again.
It's whenever we want it to be. If nobody cares about cash prizes or anything, we can just start one whenever.
So it's kind of interesting to remember what led me to NesDev in the first place.
I have been following the TASVideos publications since 2008. I knew homebrew only a little bit since I bought a copy of
Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril but I was focused on learning PC programing at that time so I didn't look much into it. Then in 2013
The TASVideos run of Streemerz was published. At first I was kind of confused about whatever or not Streemerz was an older game. It seemed to be related to action52 but the game quality was way beyond that infamous package. So a bit of link following and internet searching revealed that the
Streemerz Bundle was being sold. So I quickly got that, and then proceeded to binge read the NesDev forums.
I had once seen the existence of NesDev in 2000 where the only things I remembered was the NSF file format and 6502.txt, but the fact that another programing compo that led to physical cartridges was just around the corner of 2014 was the biggest factor that led to me signing up here.
Unfortunately, they grew tired of it. This week's episode is about some wagon adventure game.
The wagon game is pretty fun.
They may just be saving the last part for some other time. At least the wagon game is fun.
I must hand it to them though, if it weren't for James and Mike I would never have finished my game collection.
I actually found this site because of AVGN's Streemerz video. The exposure that they gave worked.
tepples wrote:
Nearly half the video was spent trying to beat "Twisty Passages" in IWFTS.
[...]
I hope there's a part 3, because they have 10 games left.
I'm guessing that they played all of the games on the day that they filmed, but footage from the other games was cut out.