"Visionary" is an awful, over-used word, but it's cases like this which are the rare exceptions you can actually use it and it fits.
Arthur C. Clarke Predicts the Internet & PC [YouTube, via Neatorama]
When I was four years old, my father took me out to a local electronics store and said we were buying a computer. OK, I thought, not really knowing why that was such a big deal. Twenty-seven years later, I now know it was one of the most significant days of my life.
That day we brought home a Commodore 64, my first ever video game system, the device which first kindled my lifelong passion for video games and which, ultimately, has led to who I am and where I am today.
So it's sad to learn today that Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore International, has passed away at the age of 83.
Born in Łódź, Poland in 1928, Tramiel's early life was, like that of fellow video game pioneer Ralph Baer, dominated by the aggression of Nazi Germany. Following Poland's rapid defeat in 1939, he would spend the next six years in German captivity, first working at a garment factory and later as a labourer.
Liberated from his work camp by US infantry, Tramiel would, again like Baer, end up in the US Army, where he specialised in the maintenance of office equipment and typewriters.
This experience enabled him to establish the Commodore Portable Typewriter Company in 1954, and when the typewriter business began to go sour a few years later, he deftly switched both his operations and company name to Commodore Business Machines, Inc., and began producing calculators instead.
Then in 1977 Tramiel was able to switch lanes again, and recognising that the future of home electronics lay in computers, had Commodore (now known as Commodore International) engineer Chuck Peddle come up with the PET (Personal Electronic Transactor), an all-in-one device which was popular in institutions like schools.
Schools alone wouldn't pay the bills, though, and Tramiel's now-famous line "We need to build computers for the masses, not the classes" led to two of Commodore's greatest successes.
In 1981, they released the VIC-20, which at the time became the biggest-selling computer of all time. Its success was based on its versatility: it could play games, yes, but it could also be used for more practical purposes like family budgets. At USD$300, it was also "affordable", at least by the standards of the day for such equipment
In 1982, though, they went one better, and released the Commodore 64. It was, for the time, the perfect machine, striking a balance between performance and affordability that would see it sell over 20 million units. To this day it remains the single biggest-selling personal computer system of all time.
What made the C64 so impressive was the way it blew away the competition in terms of both graphics and, more importantly, sound (indeed, the C64's unique architecture means its still a favourite of chiptune artists today). This led to some of the most memorable games of the 1980s appearing on the platform, from Last Ninja to GI Joe, Elite to Little Computer People, Summer Games to Way of the Exploding Fist. And that's before I even get to Cities of Gold, Pirates! and Aztec Challenge.
I adored my system, and its massive catalogue and raw performance meant it survived as our home computer until 1992. Even then, people were trying to make the system relevant, with ports of contemporary games like Street Fighter II.
Tramiel left Commodore in 1984, and in a strange quirk would go on to buy the remains of Atari. It was Tramiel's son Sam, in fact, who oversaw the development of the Atari Jaguar, the company's last important contribution to the home video game market.
A lot of farewells, and as this medium matures we're only going to need to write more of them, end up either sad or, sadder still, acts of discovery as the masses only find out about how important a person was when they pass.
This time, though, I just want to say thank you, Jack. I know you weren't the only person involved in the creation of the C64, but you were the man in charge, and without you I wouldn't be who I am today. So, yeah. Thanks.
Thank goodness for Reddit. Otherwise you'd be staring at something other than this picture of a cat with a cherry right now, and that headline would make absolutely no sense.
Kirk is out today, having traveled to Imagination Land to be given the key to the city for his bravery in doing something very brave involving imagination. I don't know, use your making-up-things muscle or whatever it's called. Whatever he was doing it surely wasn't as vibrant and striking as this cat and cherry combo. Makes you wish The Coca-Cola Company hadn't had the creative beaten out of them during the New Coke era.
You want links? You can't handle the links. Just kidding, you can totally handle these. I was just being dramatic.
Yes, you're only getting five tonight, but that's the beauty of the comments section: you can always add your own.
Mercenary outfit Blackwater has been accused of some pretty terrible things during its time operating as a "security contractor" in Iraq. Something captured in these shocking videos.
Part of a great feature over on Harper's (registration required), they show what happens when angry men are overpaid and set loose on a country that, while everyone else was there at least trying to help, was to them just an opportunity to operate outside the law.
Motherboard's Derek Mead likens the spectacle to a game of Grand Theft Auto, something that's hard to argue with. The shooting, the smashing of other cars and, in one disgusting sequence, the hit-and-run of an innocent civilian, it's all stuff that litters the experience of an open-world game, and which sickeningly appears just as enjoyable to these meatheads as it does to your average gamer.
If you were wondering just why a video game based on the exploits of Blackwater was such a controversial subject, well, now you know why.
Warning: some of the content is quite graphic.
The warrior class: A golden age for the freelance soldier [Harper's, via Motherboard]
Perhaps a mere picture of the Guild Wars 2 collector's edition wasn't enough for you. Perhaps early access and name reservation isn't your thing. No, that's not it. You just haven't seen it in video form with a dramatic score. Prepare yourself.
Guild Wars 2 pre-purchase begins tomorrow, giving gamers all around the world (well, Europe and the U.S.) a chance to officially pick their pre-release poison. This handsome collector's edition is one of the offerings going up on the block, packed with $50 worth of game and another $99 in sexy swag you'll cherish until eventually tossing it into a box or trying to offload it on eBay. "GUILD WARS 2 COLLECTORS RYTLOCK FIGURE RARE" your auction will say, and you'll be humming the tune from the video as you post it.
You will get $15 for it.
Developer/publisher Ubisoft didn't show off much of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier at PAX East. I experienced the tactical shooter through rounds of Guerilla mode, tackling up to 50 waves of increasingly difficult hordes of soldier enemies with three fellow elite Ghosts.
For those not familiar with the franchise, it's easy to recognize the heavy emphasis on gadgetry and futuristic warfare once you take control of the third-person perspective soliders. Your HUD is detailed, and maybe even too complicated for less enthusiastic players. But that will be part of the appeal for gamers who are looking for a tech-involved experience that includes things like sensor grenades and Cross Com goggles to scope out intel on enemies rather than just depending on the mini-map to locate potential threats, as most shooters do.
The first wave we tackled—insertion wave—was easy enough. We were able to stealthily move in between enemies for silent kills. But we had to step out of our optical camouflage once the proceeding waves started pouring in.
For all the tactile HUD and tools, I found it odd that crippled enemies were so difficult to identify on the screen. There was no clear visual to indicate where your fallen comrade was attempting to limp-crawl to safety. It became too much of a chore rather than a seamless, momentary movement to revive a teammate.
The map itself was also boring. You had a typical congregation area, almost a small hut-like shelter that covers all angles where enemies are flanking you. I wanted to wander and run around from cover to cover, which I managed to do for short increments of time, but the map wasn't conducive to it. The only time my teammates and I were dragged out from our hunting shed was to seek out the lone RPG-holding soldier squatting from a roof somewhere overhead. Otherwise, we were mostly holed up in that one area that was useful for team defense, which can be redundant after just a few waves.
Regardless of your play style and class selection—Assault, Specialist or Recon—the goal is to provide support to your teammates. It's easy to get flanked in this horde-style mode, but there are effective ways to communicate with your teammates to avoid that. Shooting enemies is always supportive, but perks like UAVs and drones are also accessible to you.
Unfortunately, the drone my kill streaks built up to was only used to communicate enemy locations to fellow players. Although I can see this being useful in other modes, it didn't suit Guerilla mode. I found a nice hiding spot to send my drone out, hoping that I could fire on enemies, but realized that I was wasting precious time during which I could've bested my teammates on the leaderboard instead. It was useless, especially because you can communicate by tagging enemies.
Fortunately, adversarial multiplayer will apparently have drones with mini-guns attached to them, but the campaign and Guerilla mode feature strictly communicative devices for drones.
Surviving waves unlocks other special abilities, like 30 second intel on all enemies, turrets, air strikes, carpet bombing, and more. Eventually you get access to vehicles like helicopters and tanks, but the short amount of time we were allotted didn't give us an opportunity to run through as many waves as it would have taken to get to that point.
There are a lot of good ideas with potential to be filled in later down the road. Since Future Soldier is hopefully a game that will be known for its equipment, I'm reserving solid judgement until I get my hands on a more expansive list of them.
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will release on May 22 for the Xbox 360 (played), PS3, and on June 12 for the PC.
Competitive gamers play to win — it goes without saying, really. The desire to come out on top is what motivates almost every conflict, especially among professional and competitive fighting gamers.
But every time there's a winner, there's a loser. And even the best players can't go forever undefeated. Fighting game site I Play Winner has a surprisingly poignant video, "Redemption," interviewing a number of fighting game players about their greatest losses and mistakes, and how they learned or recovered.
You can watch the emotions chase across the faces of every player interviewed for the video, lighting up as they remember their finest moments and quieting as they describe their losses. But every loss is a lesson, and the most touching moments come from watching the players learn to move past their regrets.
"These things happen," Andry Kane manages with a smile. "The game is brutal. Ruthless. Unforgiving, that's a good word for it." But accepting defeat and learning to move on makes winning all the sweeter down the line.
Redemption - IPLAYWINNER: Summer 2012 Promo [IPlayWinner, via Shoryuken]
Every time I write about Skulls of the Shogun, I use the same buzzwords: "Advance Wars." "Wu-Tang Clan." It's one of the most stylish turn-based strategy games on the horizon. And it plays really well.
It's streamlined and complex at the same time. It's stuffed with a 15-hour campaign and four-army multiplayer.
Do I need to tell you much more?
We saw the game at PAX East this past weekend, and watched the game's lead developer Jake Kazdal play through a match. The session took about 10 minutes as momentum swung in and out of Kazfal's favor. Give it a look to see who wins.
Skulls of the Shogun will be out later this fall, debuting as a downloadable game on the Xbox 360, Windows 8 and Windows Phone..
Book One of Adam Rippon's Dragon Fantasy was non-stop 8-bit nostalgia. Book Two doubles that.
You can get a brief glimpse of the upcoming indie role-playing game in this video, shot at PAX East last weekend. The first few episodes of Dragon Fantasy are already out on the iTunes Store, but the new-and-improved 16-bit second book won't be out until later this year.
Dragon Fantasy [Muteki Corp]
Later this week, the indie game Fez will be released, and so we'll need to give some new game to title of Coolest-Looking-Indie-We-Can't-All-Play-Yet. Which game deserves it? Spy Party? The Witness?
I submit that Monaco, the co-op heist game from Andy Schatz, is a game for this throne. The video here makes the argument.
Monaco has evolved significantly since I first saw it in 2010. (It was so... blocky back then!) It's been shown at multiple Penny Arcade Expos. It's been winning awards. It's set for release some time this year on PC, Mac and at least one unspecified console.
And so we wait...
Release this game, Andy Schatz! (Please?)
Andy gave us a demo of the newest build this past weekend at PAX East. We took a video of it. Enjoy!
