we had our burglary alarm go off tonight, so we had to stand out in the freezing cold for half an hour. And none of us had jackets, because we're not allowed to wear them.
They interfere with work (supposedly anyway) and we don't have anywhere to put them, lockers are for managers and up only. Plus, the entire building is heated, so the logic is "why would you need them anyway?".
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
Doctor Who reference in Pokemon B2W2? Headcanon accepted.
A submission for Hardcore Gaming 101. Here it is so far:
Ordyne, 1988
When the 1980's were drawing to a close, the entire video game market from arcade to home was enjoying a recovery with Nintendo dominating and the 16-bit generation was about to take its very first baby steps, with the PC-Engine being released in Japan and Sega's Megadrive following up not too long after. It was to be a very positive end for the decade where video games truly began -- and almost permanently died. It was around the tail end of this time that Ordyne made its quiet appearance in arcades -- a solid, cooperative shooting game that seemed a little late to the party even considering the powerful new hardware it was hosted on.
Incredibly cheerful and colorful to a fault, the game's cartoony personality was looking a bit out of place to the darker and grittier likes of Double Dragon and Final Fight which were dominating the arcades at the time. The poppy, upbeat music is the biggest throwback, sounding like it belonged more to early 80's saturday morning television. The sound effects are also impressively cartoony, with recognizable stock cartoon sound effects of balloons popping and frog hops. The story is nothing new -- the protagonist's girlfriend is kidnapped and he must go rescue her.
Where the dated aesthetic ends and the actual game begins is another matter entirely. If there's one thing Ordyne does well, it's showcase the power of the new (for the time) Namco System II hardware that it was running on, which deserves special mention here. One of the features of the platform was a powerful scaling and rotation layer that's very similar to the Super Nintendo's Mode 7 capabilities, but a few years earlier. The system also boasted more than three independent background layers, which are also given a workout in this game. What really takes the cake is the system's ability to reference a 24-bit color table and display as many as 6144 of those colors at any given time which Namco makes quite apparent at the title screen. To say that even the most powerful home computers at this time would have had trouble matching this hardware goes without saying -- it took not one, but two Motorola 68000 CPUs running at 12MHz to direct Namco's System 2.
In regards to level design and layout, Namco faithfully followed just about every recognizable trope that a good 80's shooter needed, including sky, fire, and water levels and the ever-necessary boss rush stage. The final stage is the most impressive, an amalgam of the first stage and the inside of a giant powered fortress that starts out as a giant machine replete with giant pistons and fans that oddly enough transitions to a lego-style block city, perhaps in harkening to its contemporary from the same company, Pac-Mania.
What sets this game apart from other shooters is the power-up system. You must collect balloons of values from 50 to 5000 in order to purchase items at the flying shops that pop up infrequently around each level. They range from three-way shots to powerful bombs, all the way up to a game-breaking shield/gun that incorporates Pac-Man of all characters, which would attract enemy bullets and projectiles to power its own super-weapon, a forerunner of sorts to the Radiant Sword in Radiant Silvergun. This weapon, along with the most powerful bomb, can even one-shot bosses making the entire game a breeze to clear for veteran players.
Another somewhat novel feature was the cooperative two-player option. Player one could play as the protagonist scientist, and player two as his assistant. This made continuing after dying at least somewhat less bothersome, as being an 80's arcade game, it would force you to enter your initials for high-score before allowing you to continue.
A year after its release in arcades, Ordyne was given a port to the PC Engine. While a very capable home system, this was an incredibly tall order -- but Namco handled the port with aplomb. All of the separate multiscrolling backgrounds had to be merged into one, and the luxuries of scaling and rotation had to be scaled back with some clever substitutions by Namco that keep the gameplay relatively intact. Given the console's ability to display nearly the entire palette at any given time, the colors didn't suffer too much in the transition either. The music also made it over intact, thanks to the system's flexible soundchip. The game's intro cinema was tossed, but the ending was expanded over the short, ambiguous one the arcade version offered.
it's not done of course but of course I'm open to critiques
an amalgam of the first stage and the inside of a giant powered fortress that starts out as a giant machine replete with giant pistons and fans that oddly enough transitions to a lego-style block city
this runs on just a lil bit stuff some commas in there or something. and you used 'giant' twice in v quick succession
i really know very little about video game so that is just some small writing advice. peace
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
Hello peoplepersons.
For some reason I keep imagining a version of Duck Sauce's "Barbra Streisand" but with "Barack Obama".
Someone's probably made this but I wouldn't know what to search for to find it...
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
an amalgam of the first stage and the inside of a giant powered fortress that starts out as a giant machine replete with giant pistons and fans that oddly enough transitions to a lego-style block city
this runs on just a lil bit stuff some commas in there or something. and you used 'giant' twice in v quick succession
i really know very little about video game so that is just some small writing advice. peace
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
I'm writing aspietastic stuff about my imaginary science museum.
The building I imagine it in is a copy of the former Lazarus department store in Columbus, Ohio, but I'm wondering if I chose too big a venue since that building is 750,000 square feet and most science museums seem to be a fraction of that size... >_>
(Granted, I specified that the uppermost floor is used almost entirely for offices...)
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
(Lazarus's flagship store, that is, not any of the smaller stores they had around the city.)
The history of Lazarus still kinda makes me sad. They formed Federated Department Stores, who purchased Macy's in the 1990s and then proceeded to kill of dozens of other brands in favor of slapping the Macy's name on everything. >:(
Comments
also I'm back from work
we had our burglary alarm go off tonight, so we had to stand out in the freezing cold for half an hour. And none of us had jackets, because we're not allowed to wear them.
Couple reasons.
They interfere with work (supposedly anyway) and we don't have anywhere to put them, lockers are for managers and up only. Plus, the entire building is heated, so the logic is "why would you need them anyway?".
It makes sense, it's just annoying.
DuΔlity's turning out to be pretty cool, but I wouldn't mind some new songs rather than just interludes.
....and exactly as I say that a new song comes in. Whelp.
*is hugged*
whatcha writan', Corporal?
Incredibly cheerful and colorful to a fault, the game's cartoony personality was looking a bit out of place to the darker and grittier likes of Double Dragon and Final Fight which were dominating the arcades at the time. The poppy, upbeat music is the biggest throwback, sounding like it belonged more to early 80's saturday morning television. The sound effects are also impressively cartoony, with recognizable stock cartoon sound effects of balloons popping and frog hops. The story is nothing new -- the protagonist's girlfriend is kidnapped and he must go rescue her.
Where the dated aesthetic ends and the actual game begins is another matter entirely. If there's one thing Ordyne does well, it's showcase the power of the new (for the time) Namco System II hardware that it was running on, which deserves special mention here. One of the features of the platform was a powerful scaling and rotation layer that's very similar to the Super Nintendo's Mode 7 capabilities, but a few years earlier. The system also boasted more than three independent background layers, which are also given a workout in this game. What really takes the cake is the system's ability to reference a 24-bit color table and display as many as 6144 of those colors at any given time which Namco makes quite apparent at the title screen. To say that even the most powerful home computers at this time would have had trouble matching this hardware goes without saying -- it took not one, but two Motorola 68000 CPUs running at 12MHz to direct Namco's System 2.
In regards to level design and layout, Namco faithfully followed just about every recognizable trope that a good 80's shooter needed, including sky, fire, and water levels and the ever-necessary boss rush stage. The final stage is the most impressive, an amalgam of the first stage and the inside of a giant powered fortress that starts out as a giant machine replete with giant pistons and fans that oddly enough transitions to a lego-style block city, perhaps in harkening to its contemporary from the same company, Pac-Mania.
What sets this game apart from other shooters is the power-up system. You must collect balloons of values from 50 to 5000 in order to purchase items at the flying shops that pop up infrequently around each level. They range from three-way shots to powerful bombs, all the way up to a game-breaking shield/gun that incorporates Pac-Man of all characters, which would attract enemy bullets and projectiles to power its own super-weapon, a forerunner of sorts to the Radiant Sword in Radiant Silvergun. This weapon, along with the most powerful bomb, can even one-shot bosses making the entire game a breeze to clear for veteran players.
Another somewhat novel feature was the cooperative two-player option. Player one could play as the protagonist scientist, and player two as his assistant. This made continuing after dying at least somewhat less bothersome, as being an 80's arcade game, it would force you to enter your initials for high-score before allowing you to continue.
A year after its release in arcades, Ordyne was given a port to the PC Engine. While a very capable home system, this was an incredibly tall order -- but Namco handled the port with aplomb. All of the separate multiscrolling backgrounds had to be merged into one, and the luxuries of scaling and rotation had to be scaled back with some clever substitutions by Namco that keep the gameplay relatively intact. Given the console's ability to display nearly the entire palette at any given time, the colors didn't suffer too much in the transition either. The music also made it over intact, thanks to the system's flexible soundchip. The game's intro cinema was tossed, but the ending was expanded over the short, ambiguous one the arcade version offered.
Looks good to me, though I'm not very good at writing critiques.
Needs moar screenshots, obviously, but that's not something you need me to tell you.
*hugs all tightly*
scaley scale scale. find a different word there yo
i just kinda skimmed it and that was the main thing that leapt out at me. also
this runs on just a lil bit stuff some commas in there or something. and you used 'giant' twice in v quick succession
i really know very little about video game so that is just some small writing advice. peace
local east london girl, she is, born just down the road from where i was
still alive too
^Hi Tools
Dinner soon. What have?
hey
My day is going... Okay, I guess. Not perfect, just okay