Lost Infocom games unearthed

Journalist and programmer Andy Baio's discovery of an old backup hard drive used by legendary computer game publisher Infocom has yielded, among other things, some games that were publicly announced but never saw the light of day. The most notable so far is Milliways, the sequel to the game based on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

And if you go to the link you can even find playable games for download, too!

Baio writes that a lot of stuff is on that drive: from internal company memos to the source code and finished files for "every released and unreleased game Infocom made." So are there any hitherto-unknown Zork projects on that thing? And I've heard mention a few times over the years that Infocom had planned a third Battletech role-playing game (it's second, Battletech: The Crescent Hawks' Revenge is arguably the first real-time strategy game ever created). Yeah I know that those Battletech games were developed by Westwood for publishing by Infocom but if there was ever a third one in the works then surely there must be mention of it somewhere in Infocom's archives.

That's why this kind of stuff fascinates me: it's like neo-archaeology. Who know what else is out there floating on long-forgotten hard drives or tape backups, waiting to be found.

So since this has to do with Infocom, and is a discovery of some import, I know of no better way to celebrate than with a hearty drink...

"Want some rye?

'Course ya do!"

(You've no idea how long I've been waiting to make a Return to Zork reference on this blog :-)

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DC rolling out Gears of War comic this fall

WRAL is reporting that Cary-based Epic Games and DC Comics have announced plans to publish a Gears of War comic book/graphic novel this fall, in the lead-up to the release of Gears of War 2. The story is to be set after the conclusion of Epic's 2006 mega-selling video game, which saw main character Marcus Fenix giving humanity a dire-needed victory over the Locust Horde.

A few days ago I wrote that I'd finished playing the game and how much I enjoyed it but that some more back-story would have been nice. I'm guessing this new comic is going to "flesh-out" the Gears of War saga greatly. Oh yeah, I started playing it again last night on Hardcore mode. So far so good... but I still doubt that I'll ever try it on Insane :-)

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Just beat Gears of War

And in case anyone's wondering, it was in Casual mode. I might try Hardcore next. And since I never got far in Doom on Nightmare mode, I doubt I'll ever survive Insane on this game :-P

I've had Gears of War for the Xbox 360 since late January, and had to re-start several times because stuff kept coming up and with a video game narrative like Gears of War, I like to play it through with a sense of uninterrupted story.

This was one of the best video games I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Gears of War, along with Halo and BioShock (which I've also been playing and will review shortly) represents an exciting future for storytelling: a deep, immersive plot that pulls the player in and makes him or her honestly believe that this is a living, breathing world they are interacting with.

Anyhoo, I had some time this afternoon in-between projects, and decided to have another go at taking out General RAAM: something that's eluded me for two days now. The strategy that finally worked for me against that black-clad freak: use the barricade for cover, stay in the light so that the Kryll won't bother you (I also had to duck when they approached 'cuz otherwise they chew me to shreds) and hit RAAM with the Torque Bow to dissipate the cloud of Kryll that surrounds him. Then quickly switch to the Lancer, aim for RAAM's head and do well-timed Active Reloads whenever possible. With that strategy I was finally able to kill RAAM in about a minute, without taking serious injury or having Dominic hurt too much either. Ironically it was a hit from the Torque Bow - which I was only using to shoo the Kryll away - that delivered the coup de grâce to RAAM.

Now it's just a wait 'til November, when Gears of War 2 comes out and continues the story of Marcus Fenix and the rest of Delta Squad in their fight against the Locust. One thing this saga needs that I would have appreciated: some more back-story. Especially for the planet Sera. My theory is that this was a bare-bones colony from Earth that was dropped onto the surface, and in this fictional universe starship travel is a hard premium. So there's not much contact with other human worlds and those on Sera have to fend for themselves, but they've also been able to reach a level of culture and technology on their own that approximates that of 21st Century Earth. And the Locust Horde? Right now I'm thinking those are humans that got exiled early on in Sera's colonization, that "went native" and hooked up with the local wildlife and now years later are back for revenge. Maybe we'll find out more in the sequel.

Worth noting that Gears of War is pretty much a product of the Tarheel State, having been made by Epic Games out of Cary, North Carolina.

Very, very cool game. And a beautiful thing to behold on a 42-inch LCD high-definition screen at maximum resolution :-)

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How much is that doggie in the Wii-ndow?

For Christmas I got Lisa a Nintendo Wii. Had to camp out all night during cold rain in front of a GameStop store the week before to get it (this was when they had the vouchers thing going, and I wound up getting a Wii for Lisa and a Wii voucher for my sister, who got hers a little over a week after Christmas ... am I a great husband/brother or what? :-)

Along with the Wii I bought a card worth 2000 Wii Points, to spend on extra games or whatever through Nintendo's online store for the Wii. And until now we hadn't used it at all (guess we've been having too much fun with everything else on the Wii). So yesterday I loaded up the points and "went shopping", and even though it cost 500 points I thought it would be neat to have the Internet Channel installed. This is a version of the Opera browser customized for the Wii, that lets you surf the web (kinda like WebTV).

The Internet Channel for Wii is pretty neat. The first thing I went to was this blog (of course!) and then Lisa's and a few friends' sites. Then I went to Flickr. Why? Because I wanted to see if there were any new pictures of a certain girl...

A year ago I discovered Taci, an unbelievably cute cocker spaniel whose owner Kalen loves to take pictures of her and post on Flickr. Taci looks almost exactly like Bridget, our cocker spaniel who sadly passed away way too young some years ago. Kalen is quite a talented photographer and she's captured Taci in so many sweet (and often funny) poses and expressions. The pic above is one of the latest that Kalen has taken of Taci. So I zoomed-in with the Wii Remote and took this photo of Taci's face on a 37-inch high-definition television set via the Wii! Kalen thought it was hilarious (and hopefully so did Taci :-).

By the way, that might be the last photo that I post on this blog of our high-def TV: the one that I've been referring to as "The Behemoth" ever since we got it a little over a year ago. You can't see it in this photo but there's something wrong with the screen that looks like it's been a manufacturing defect (that's not a reflection on the company that made it by any means, these things just happen every so often). We tried to get it fixed but it's not really feasible, so next week the retailer is giving us another high-def television, one that might be even better. Thank goodness we got the service plan for this thing. But still, I've grown quite fond of The Behemoth. So before it went away I wanted to post a photo of it displaying something beautiful for a change, as opposed to, say, Gears of War :-P

And if you want to see more of "Taci the Wonder Spaniel", scamper over to this link!

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The "Spy Hunter" Pontiac commercial

Here's that new commercial for the Pontiac G8 GT, inspired by the classic video game Spy Hunter ...

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Rock Band coming to the Wii, BUT ...

... it won't have downloaded content or online play.

Harmonix announced today that the wildly popular music game will be released for the Nintendo Wii on June 22. It will have five "bonus" songs. This supposedly is in lieu of the online play feature and ability to download new songs that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions already have.

A lot of people will be glad to know that Rock Band is getting ported to the Wii. But how long is that going to last when these details about the release become widely known? To exclude the downloadable content feature and online play is an insanely bad move by Harmonix. From a business standpoint, it makes no sense at all! Nintendo Wii is the best-selling video game system on the market today, consistently outpacing both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Now bear in mind that for those two systems already, Harmonix has sold over 6 million copies of new tracks that have been made available since the game's launch in November.

Obviously, the downloadable content is one of Rock Band's most popular points. Harmonix is courting disaster by consciously stripping it from the Wii edition. They aren't just going to be losing millions of dollars in potential profit from lack of downloaded tracks, but a lot of Wii owners - and I'm one of them - are going to see this move as petty at best, and outright insulting at worst.

Besides, there is no reason at all why the Wii could not support either the downloaded content or online play for Rock Band. It can save tracks to an SD card, and I'm sure that some kind of encryption/encoding scheme is possible that would prevent tracks from being illegally copied. Technically, the online capabilities of Rock Band could certainly be shared with the Wii version. So why aren't they?

The suits at Harmonix had best reconsider, and announce that the downloaded content and online play are going to be in the Wii version too. Or else they're going to wind up with tons of unwanted Rock Band for Wii boxes that'll take up a hella lot more space in a landfill than those E.T. cartridges ever did.

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Rock Band massive update includes in-game music store

Give it up for Harmonix: they are definitely one software company that listens to its fan base. Yesterday they pushed a patch for their hit game Rock Band that addresses several issues that players have been having. And with the update comes one very cool innovation: Rock Band Store, an in-game way to purchase new songs without having to leave the game for Xbox Live Marketplace or the PlayStation Store.

I just installed the update and messed around with the game (the Xbox 360 version) and I am extremely pleased with what Harmonix has done with this update. The Rock Band Store even lets you preview songs that you might consider purchasing before doing so.

In addition to the Rock Band Store, the new patch fixes the random song lists bugs, tweaks the cap on fans in Band World Tour mode, improves some issues with the microphone (which was a big deal with the PlayStation 3 version), and the downloaded content is said to be much faster in loading 'cuz after this update it's now being cached.

The update is free. Just turn on your system with the Rock Band disc, and if you're on Xbox Live or PlayStation Store it should automatically ask if you want to install it.

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Rumored: Beatles version of Guitar Hero

A few weeks ago it was announced that there would be an Aerosmith version of Guitar Hero in a few months. Now comes word that the Beatles may be getting their own edition of the popular music video game.

I don't think this is a good idea. Aerosmith I can understand, but the Beatles had a whole 'nother vibe going than their guitar style (even though they were great guitarists). But now that the Beatles catalog will soon be available via iTunes, who knows: maybe we'll soon see some Beatles hits as downloadable content for Rock Band too, which would make a lot more sense than Guitar Hero.

(Credit goes to Electric Pig for their awesome pic of Paul McCartney with a Guitar Hero controller :-)

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BioShock 2 coming in 2009

I rented BioShock for the Xbox 360 from a nearby video store over the weekend to see if this game lived up to the good word that I've heard about it. There haven't been many spare moments lately 'cuz of various projects but I've got to say: no other video game that I've ever played has had me so looking forward to chances to playing it more as has BioShock. Right now I'm in the Medical Pavilion level, which I think is still very early in the game so I don't know anything about where this story is headed. But even so, I'm going to definitely be buying this game for my permanent collection and I'm going to be posting a review of it soon.

So if you too have fallen in love with the haunting beauty and mystery of the underwater city of Rapture, you'll be happy to know that Take-Two Interactive has announced BioShock 2 for the fall of 2009. BioShock's lead creator Ken Levine will be involved with the sequel but what his precise role will be hasn't been announced yet.

Okay, I'm off to play some more BioShock. Maybe this time I'll finally get past the Big Daddy...

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Game Boy: Toughest product ever?

Slashdot has a neat discussion going on, which was inspired by this article at CNET about the most durable gadgets made. And right now wide consensus is that the original Nintendo Game Boy might be the toughest product to ever hit the market. There's one neat story about a Game Boy that was dropped into a lake and was on the bottom for a week before a guy in SCUBA gear recovered it: after drying out for a few days, it worked fine. I personally know of one guy who thought he'd lost his Game Boy after it went flying out of a car window in a minor fender-bender. He found it a few hours later at the bottom of a paved spillway: not a scratch on it! And then there's this Game Boy (pictured at right) which saw hostile conditions in the first Gulf War. It's now on display at at a Nintendo store in New York City and as you can see, it's still playing Tetris.

Not bad at all for a product that's almost twenty years old! Now if only iPods and every other popular gadget on the market nowadays had such durability...

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Just finished Halo 3

"This is the way the world ends."

Almost exactly three years since beating Halo 2 - if it can actually be called "beating" that game - a short while ago I finished playing Halo 3, the final chapter of the saga that started with the original Halo in 2001.

As Lisa put it, it was "beautiful".

After going all the way with Halo 2, I complained about all the threads of the story that had been left dangling. Halo 3 brought everything to a satisfying conclusion, while significantly adding to the depth of the story. It also made up greatly for what I think were some of the weaknesses of Halo 2: getting to play the Arbiter in that game was a neat twist... but I think that Bungie might have overdid that aspect of the game. Fortunately you play Master Chief the whole way through Halo 3, although the Arbiter does have a much-appreciated role to play in this tale. It's hard to tell for sure, but I think the game itself might have been a bit longer than Halo 2 was, too.

Most mind-blowing scene of the entire game: the reveal of the newly-created Halo. If you ever wondered how the heck those massive rings are built, you find out in Halo 3.

Most satisfying moment? When you finally, finally, after three games, get at last to open up a can of whoop-butt on Guilty Spark. Stupid little blue twit: he had it coming for a loooong time.

I can honestly say that the time spent playing it was very enjoyable and perhaps even enlightening a bit. How often can that be said of a video game?

If you play the game and get to the end, make sure to stick around for the final credits. In true Halo tradition, there's one last scene that reveals much about the fate of two major characters (and you can probably guess who they are if you've ever played a Halo game).

So ends the Halo trilogy proper. The war with the Covenant has drawn to a close. So of course, a prequel is in the works: bring on Halo Wars!

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Those insane courses on Wii Sports: Golf

This afternoon Dad came by. It's been raining here for most of the day, and it was pretty chilly out in his knife shop and he'd wanted to take a break from his work, and I needed one from some projects too. So we played a nine-hole round of Golf on Wii Sports on the Nintendo Wii that I got Lisa for Christmas.

How did we do?

Let's put it this way: if Robert Trent Jones ever designed a golf course as evil as the ones on Wii Sports: Golf, he would have probably been dragged out onto the fairway and shot.

We were doing pretty good until the ninth hole. If you've played Golf on Wii Sports you probably know which one I'm about to talk about: it's that one where the hole is in the middle of a rocky island, that you have to drive the ball onto. Dad and I both tried our darndest to get it onto the green... but it's impossible! The ball either goes into the water, or it ricochets off the cliff-side and then goes into the water. By the time each of us had hit +12 on the hole the game told us to "Give Up".

Somewhere at Nintendo Headquarters in Japan, some smart-alecy game programmer is no doubt laughing at his supposed cleverness for creating the golfing equivalent of the Kobayashi Maru "no-win" scenario.

Okay so anyone else who has this game: how the heck do we get the ball over the water and onto that tiny island??

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Most AWESOME video game intro sequence EVER!

Last week I got Rock Band - Special Edition for our new Xbox 360. We finally got it out of the box last night and after getting the instruments put together (without a doubt the first video game that I've ever bought that has "some assembly required") we started playing the game.

I can already tell that Rock Band is going to be one of our favorite video games for a long while to come: we're having a blast with it! Lisa is getting really good on drums, and for once I'm not getting booed off stage while singing ("Don't Fear the Reaper" is my best song so far). We haven't done anything with the guitar yet. I'm gonna study the instructions some more, figure out just what the heck we're doing here before we start really jamming with Rock Band.

And if you've ever played this before, you already know something: that Rock Band has the most mind-blowing title sequence for a video game... probably in the history of anything. Here it is courtesy of YouTube.

And turn up your speakers. Turn them way up!

EDIT 9:34 p.m. EST: I just found out that this song is called "Highway Star" by the legendary English hard rock band Deep Purple. They were once listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as being "the loudest band in the world". And supposedly those are the band members as they appeared in the 1970s who are riding atop those vehicles.

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Various CLOVERFIELD items: sequel talk, demand for Giacchino's overture, suggesting a video game ... and the first VERY good image of the creature!

Few things about Cloverfield, the breakout hit monster movie that came out this weekend (here's my earlier review)...

- Cloverfield's success already has director Matt Reeves discussing the sequel, which he suggests might take place on the same night as the attack, but showing a different story with other people's cameras, cellphones, etc.

- I'm seeing a lot of demand for "Roar! (Cloverfield Overture)", the orchestral track by Michael Giacchino (the composer for Lost) that plays over the end credits. It would be great if Paramount and Bad Robot could release this via iTunes or some other online distribution, because it would sell (and I would be one of those buying a download).

- If it's not in the works already, I would like to heartily recommend to The Powers That Be that as Cloverfield represents one of the best launches of a fictional franchise in recent memory, that a more interactive experience is in order. Namely, a Cloverfield video game. Instead of reiterating the story of Rob and his friends, it could be an entirely separate story that parallels that of the movie. Such a game would put the player in the position of someone else who was in New York City on the night of the attack. I imagine that the graphics capabilities of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 would make such a quite a stunning success. And as for the Wii... can you imagine swinging the Wiimote like an axe at those smaller creatures? :-)

- Finally (for now), for everyone who has been looking like crazy online for a really great picture of the Cloverfield monster, talented artist Carman MacDonald easily has rendered the most definitive image yet of the beast. Having seen Cloverfield twice now, I have to say: this one nails the look of the thing extremely well.

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Wii are family: The things I do for the women in my life

It's now almost 2 weeks since Christmas, and Lisa is happily playing her new Nintendo Wii.

Yes folks, we have a Wii. And my sister does too!

How did it happen? The Thursday night before Christmas, I went to a GameStop store in Greensboro, where they were due to begin selling vouchers the next day for the Wii (which might have been the hottest item of Christmas 2007). The plan was that you buy the voucher, and your Wii comes in on January 25th. I figured hey, if it's 4 weeks after Christmas that's still okay.

So I got to the store, and lo and behold the nice associates told me that they had some Wiis in stock, that they were going to start selling the next morning.

"I'm not going anywhere," I told them. "I'm gonna be camping outside all night until you guys open tomorrow morning, if that's okay." They said it was fine, and after they left for the night they told me to stay warm and dry (it wasn't quite freezing, but it was cold and due to rain as the night progressed).

I was alone until about 1 a.m. that Friday morning, when another dude who'd come into the store that night arrived to also camp out so that he could get a Wii for his 9-year old son. A few hours later we were joined by two ladies (including one who was getting a Wii for her 67-year old father). Over the course of the next several hours, a few others arrived. The last on the scene before the store opened was a guy from Eden who told us that he and his wife had hit every store between Winston-Salem and Raleigh trying to find a Wii for his grandson.

Just after 8:30 a.m., the GameStop associate who had come to open the store told us that he could start taking us one at at a time, and that they had 11 Wiis that they could sell. And it just so happened that there were exactly 11 people waiting to buy a Wii in line. I was the first through the door, bought the Wii, and exited amid much cheering from my fellow campers! The grandfather from Eden bought the last one.

As soon as I had Lisa's Wii in my car trunk, I got back in line to get a voucher for my sister (they were limiting Wii purchases to one per person, the same with the vouchers). Even these were limited in number. I bought the voucher, and a few days later put it in a small box, wrapped that, and then put it in a series of several other wrapped boxes. When Anita finally got them all open on Christmas morning, there was a Wii voucher for her. But she didn't have to wait so long for it to be redeemed. A few days later, her Wii had already arrived. I delivered it to her during this past weekend.

So how is it? I haven't had much chance to use it so far, 'cuz I've been so busy with other things. But the Nintendo Wii might be the most immersive, challenging and fun video game system that I've ever played with. Lisa is absolutely loving Super Mario Galaxy, and I'm having a ball with Wii Sports (the Boxing game really gives you a strenuous workout!). The Wii also connects to the Internet via our wireless router, and you can check out news and weather when it's on, and even buy new games (that are saved on an SD flash card) through an online Nintendo store. I think Anita was really looking forward to playing with her Wii too: she's a physical therapy doctor, and she's been reading a lot of material about how the Wii is an excellent therapeutic tool.

The Wii wasn't the only video game system we ended up with for Christmas: through circumstances beyond my control (though I'm not regretting it at all), we also received an Xbox 360. So now I can finally play Halo 3 and see how that story wraps up (the ending of Halo 2 is still one of the most frustrating things I've ever seen in any video game). It also came with the Xbox 360 version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance, which I played on the original Xbox last year and it became one of my favorite video games ever. I think Lisa wants us to get Rock Band sometime so that we can jam in our living room, especially when we have friends over.

Now if I can only figure out which system I want to play Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on when it comes out in a few months. Gotta admit: the Wii's ability to swing a lightsaber makes that version pretty tempting... :-)

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Steve Jablonsky Appreciation Group on Facebook

Right now I'm listening to the CD of Steve Jablonsky's score for the movie D-War (it was mostly marketed as Dragon Wars when it came out here in the U.S.). It's the third time that I'm playing it and admittedly it's very hard to put movie soundtrack music in context without having seen the movie itself yet. But as a standalone album, the D-War score still rocks the house! I'm going to give it a full review as soon as I've had a chance to check out the film when it becomes available on Netflix.

As for the real reason I'm posting here (amid what may or may not still be my sabbatical from blogging): if you have a Facebook account and are also a fan of this amazing composer, a few days ago I started up the Steve Jablonsky Appreciation Group. So if you enjoy Steve's work on Transformers and Desperate Housewives and the jillion other good things that he's composed music for, come on by and join us! :-)

Finally, a bit of shameful news to report: a few weeks ago I wrote here that I had vowed not to listen to Transformers: The Score at all until I was able to purchase 2 copies at a real store. Well a few days ago I admitted on Seibertron.com's forums that I have broken that solemn vow. It happened this past Sunday, while Lisa and I were on our way to Boone to go cruising on the Blue Ridge Parkway at the peak of the season for fall leaves. I couldn't help myself!! We were on that wide-open road, headed toward the mountains, and Transformers: The Score was begging to be played. So we listened to the whole thing and played "Decepticons" and "Arrival To Earth" each at least twice.

I am hearing that the Transformers score CD is starting to appear in more stores though. Still not as widely-enough as we were hoping for. But that does assuage my humiliation some. I'm still going to buy two copies as soon as I can. Maybe more. They'll make great stocking-stuffers for Christmas :-)

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Ron Price is a monument to all our sins

I really hate to say this, but righteous anger is something that has always helped me feel more creative so far as parody goes. If there's something wrong out there in the world, I do what I can to point it out and try to make it right, using whatever talent that God has given me... and in a way that I hope will make people both laugh and think about things.

So now that Rockingham County Board of Education member Ron Price is apparently trying to start-up the school uniforms thing again, my creative juices have gone into overdrive. A lot of ideas have come to mind in the past day or so regarding the Piedmont's #1 larcenous elected official.

Here's my latest work: Ron Price as the Gravemind in a piece inspired by the Halo video game series...

It was a bit hard to do, because Gravemind is one of the most undefinable objects that I've ever seen in a visual medium (no I haven't played Halo 3 yet so maybe he'll look better in that). But I still like how this turned out. And since Gravemind is the power-hungry, conniving central conscience of the Flood, I thought that the parallel to Ron Price was all the more appropriate :-)

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Halo 3 comes out at midnight tonight

Unfortunately I don't have an Xbox 360 to play it on even if I bought it. Might be getting one come Christmas though (now that it's been out for about 2 years I guess I can trust the technology :-) and then I'll play Halo 3. And the Xbox 360 version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance. And maybe Gears of War which a lot of people tell me is a very good game.

In the meantime I'm gonna replay the original Halo and Halo 2. Especially Halo 2. I'm still confused as heck about the ending to that game.

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Music from Doom on a piano

Another awesome YouTube find (actually Doomworld gets credit for the discovery). It's a video of a guy playing a lot of the theme music from Doom on his piano! This was worth posting just for his rendition of E1M1 (to this day the most pounding/driven theme from a video game I've ever heard).

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JOUST: The Movie? Is this a joke?

GameDaily BIZ is reporting that a new Hollywood production company is making a full-length feature film based on Joust.

Yes, that Joust! The 1982 arcade game that had you flying around on a giant ostrich and jousting opponents around floating platforms.

The movie is being described as "Gladiator meets Mad Max" and is being set in Las Vegas 25 years in the future.

A movie where people ride ostriches... which actually fly... and fight each other. Ok-aaaaaayyy...

I'll withhold final judgment until I see the thing (and who knows, it might surprise us). And maybe it'll be a success and pave the way for other great movies like Burgertime and Dig Dug.

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