PixelVulture » Retrospective

The Evolution of the Video Game Console [Infographic]

Brett Greaves — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:35:01 +0000

With the flurry of rumors surrounding the imminent launch of the Playstation 4 and Xbox 720 we felt it only fitting to provide you with this very brief history lesson detailing exactly where consoles came from. Much to my dismay, I learnt my Sega MegaDrive Genesis was not the first console known to man…not by a long way. We must thank RIPT Apparel for taking the time to put together this comprehensive infographic as it details the evolution of the console from inception to date. Enjoy. Evolution of the Video Game Console is an infographic by RIPT Video Game Tees

Minimalist classic game posters

Matthew Arnold — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 05:15:22 +0000

A series of beautiful minimalist posters of classic video games from artist/designer Hexagonall. I love minimalist design and I love to see old classics recreated. These posters capture the essence of each game through a symbol or even just a colour which is instantly recognisable. For more of these images you can head over to Hexagonall's site. via [OneLargePrawn].

Geek inspired 2D photography

Matthew Arnold — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 07:22:10 +0000

David A. Reeves is a photographer and geek. Have a look at some of his breathtaking 2D photography using cutouts of popular gaming and geek icons.David uses cardboard cutouts of game / movie characters to recreate iconic shots that remind him of his past. The images are quite Limbo-esque in nature and this is obviously a source of inspiration for David as he includes a few Limbo shots as well. My favourite has to be the Half-Life shot with the awesome little lambda logo cutout on Gordon's chest. If you would like to see more photos as well as behind the scenes pics then head over to David's tumblr. (Click to see full size)

Epic Mario time lapse chalk drawing

Matthew Arnold — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 08:49:46 +0000

This time lapse video of artist Chris Carlson drawing a 3D Mario is truly amazeballs. Check out the video to see just how cool chalk can be. We love time lapse videos, we love amazing artists and we love all everything about retro gaming. This video is a beautiful symphony of all of these and is definitely worth sharing.

Digital Distribution Systems and how they affect you

Wesley Fick — Tue, 01 May 2012 06:00:52 +0000

You’ve all heard about it at one point or another: Digital Distribution. You know, that thing gamers and power users have been talking about for a while. When someone says they bought something off of Steam, you know they’re not talking about kettles or trains – they’re talking about games.

Digital distribution was long seen as the bastard child of the gaming industry. On the one hand the idea was good: buying games online allowed publishers to be more flexible in their advertising and even distribution of games (no more consignment stock to worry about) and they could cut out a great deal of extra fees that usually make purchasing titles from Musica or BT Games so expensive. On the other hand, the service required a decent internet connection and a credit card; 56k users beware! You were sometimes apt to sit in front of your computer for hours while Steam in its original form decided whether or not to update Half-Life 2 for you. In addition, like the music labels who have suffered under the tremendous popularity of the Apple iPod eventually discovered, online services like Steam tend to eat into regular sales that brick-and-mortar shops like Musica, Game and CNA enjoyed in the years before. These days, things are much better sorted. If you’re aware of the issue game publishers and developers now have with second-hand sales, then you’ll see why big boys like EA rush to get their Origin service out the gate and into the wild. In order to get more of your money they embraced digital sales and DLC, even going so far, as in EA’s case with the Call of Duty series, to block users from using specific DLC packs that would have been free had you bought the game new – you have to pay for those now. Part and parcel of why Battlefield 3 enjoys such enormous success is because the popular map packs, extra guns and special personalization items are only available to buy online through Origin or free as a bundle with the game (new, of course). World of Tanks enjoys a healthy revenue from the sale of specialized tanks, guns and other weapons. Warcraft creates entire economies around mining gold inside the game world. Valve makes hats for Team Fortress 2 to keep things fresh and Gears of War 3 urges players to put down some money for decent map packs, weapon load-outs and retro lancers (Vreeeeeeem!) for a chance to win and improve your skill online. While I don’t agree with many practices by the publishers in the industry (and I’m as vocal as anyone about the high retail price of AAA titles) I’m not going to debate semantics or ethics here. I’ll certainly pick that topic up at a later date, but for now I’ll walk you through the better online services available, and the perks each one brings. There are drawbacks, but the services themselves are useful and any gamer with a decent internet connection would be well off to try one or all of them. Steam Created by Valve, Steam is an online store that sells games for the company and acts as a middleman for other publishers who wish to use the service. There is a huge variety of titles available and even some free ones as well. The service is well-known for their weekend and knock-down sales, sometimes selling titles like Portal 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and DiRT3 for as low as $9.99. There are great free games on the service and I recommend people pick up Team Fortress 2, Trackmania, Super MNC and Fallen Earth. Those of you who have not experienced Half-Life, I recommend you pick up the complete pack for $40. Purchase-wise, you have two options: Buy for Myself; and Purchase as a Gift. Gifts can be given to any Steam player on your friends list, and is the perfect option for underage gamers whose parents have credit cards, but would like a separate account. As far as payment is concerned, there is an array of options to choose from, PayPal and Mastercard included. Drawbacks? I’d have to say the biggest one is limited internet connectivity in South Africa. Steam has to be logged in every two months to make sure all licenses and payments are up to date, otherwise your games won’t launch. You also have to have uncapped ADSL – anything else is a killer for your bank account and bandwidth. Otherwise, its no longer the underdog, and Steam has a large player base and a vibrant, active community - just a few months ago 13,000 players pushed Half-Life 2 back into the #1 most played game spot that weekend to protest about a lack of Half-Life 3 info. If you do buy a game on Steam or that’s compatible with the service, however, you can activate it on the account and re-download that game at any time. You can even have all your games loaded on two computers, provided they’re both used by you and that there’s only one PC logged in at a time. Unlike Origin, which I’ll discuss later, Steam provides a built-in backup service for all your games for when you need to free up space or reformat your drive. Steam also has official support for both the Windows and Mac platforms, but with a limited amount of games boasting Mac OSX compatibility. Valve has also launched a Steam overlay for certain PS3 games like The Orange Box and Portal 2 and will eventually launch a proper side-loading client for both the PS3 and Xbox 360. In the works already is also a Linux port of the Steam client and Source engine, ready to bring joy and tears to Linux gamers around the world when it launches (hopefully) later this year. Continue reading on Part Two of this overview.

Retrospective: Original Diablo 2 TV advert

Matthew Arnold — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:58:10 +0000

With the launch of Diablo III just around the corner (May 15th) we were feeling nostalgic and dug up the original TV advert for Diablo 2 circa 1998...

Retrospective: California Games

Matthew Arnold — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:11:16 +0000

The purpose of PixelVulture’s Retrospective posts is quite simply to remind you of the classic gaming days from ages ago and provide a few minutes nostalgia. This game is one of the very best in that department. California games was created by Epyx Games and released in 1987 for both PC and video game consoles.

It was immensely popular across the world providing a bundle of awesome summer activities for you to play. What really made this game stand out from the crowd were these activities, what could be cooler than Half Pipe, Roller Skating, Surfing, BMX, Footbag and Flying Disk.

According to Wikipedia there are a range of Easter eggs hidden within the game, I definitely remember one or two of these:

On some random occasions, there is an earthquake during the skateboarding event, causing the H of the Hollywood sign to fall down (The remaining "OLLYWOOD" might also be a reference to the ollie skateboarding trick.)
Players can hit the seagull (named 'George') in Footbag. Hitting the gull grants more points.
A shark or a dolphin or a seagull occasionally appears in Surfing after a player falls off the board. If the shark comes the iconic theme from Jaws plays briefly.
When practicing Flying Disc, if the player repeatedly fails in his attempts to throw the disc, a UFO appears and abducts the catcher.

A very interesting aspect of this game was the in-game sponsorship opportunities, including Costa Del Mar sunglasses, Kawasaki and Casio. Is this perhaps a very early form of in-game advertising? So if you would like to relive some of the sunshine and glory then download California Games here, it is a whopping 237kb ;)

Pixel Art documentary

Matthew Arnold — Tue, 25 May 2010 07:56:33 +0000

Animator Simon Cottee has created a very cool video documentary, called Pixel, about the pixel art phenomenon and posted it on YouTube. In the video, Cottee interviews notable pixel artists like the creator of the brilliant art-house video game Passage and mixes those interviews with glimpses of some gorgeous works in the currently-niche-but-growing movement. The practitioners of pixel art turn the digital art clock back 20 years by electing to use only a palette of colored pixels — the same limitations that technology imposed on early digital artists who made (among other things) 8-bit and 16-bit video games in the ’80s and ’90s. Pretty much the essence of retro coolness. The movement has a cousin in a musical genre called chiptunes, whose musicians employ the same chip boards that are used to synthesize sounds on video game consoles to make music. Both the pixel art and chiptunes movements rely strongly on nostalgia, but while that reliance could be the basis for unfavorable criticism, Pixel points out that childhood nostalgia has played a part in the works of many respected traditional artists. The documentary also shows that artistic movements that favor a medium or aesthetic’s most basic elements have popped up time and time again, so pixel art is not unprecedented. Check out the documentary video below:

Retrospective: Wacky Wheels

Matthew Arnold — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 06:45:04 +0000

This game was possibly one of the most enjoyable games I have ever played. The sheer thrill of racing around a track shooting powerups at your mates is incredible. So yes it’s a bit old (October 1994), but shooting hedgehogs at your mates is timeless. This makes it a must have part of our Retrospective series.

Wacky Wheels allows you to play against your mate head-to-head using a modem or serial cable – long time since i tried that – where can you even find a PC that has a serial network port? Anyway the split-screen option is a great way to experience the heart-racing music and furious 3D point-of-view vivid VGA graphics and animations.

You can play any of eight wacky animals in Wacky Wheels. Each animal has its own colorful antics and animations, including a tiger, elephant, raccoon, panda, shark, and more. The Shark was always my favourite. Just to show you how groundbreaking this game was we included a qote from the 3D Realms site: These animals are not wimpy racers, they are very competitive. They hate to lose! We've programmed each racer with a artificial intelligence and they take great joy in bumping you and zooming past you when you spin off the track. (As each racer passes you they turn their head toward and honk their horn.)

In Wacky Wheels, you get six unique racing game modes. Including time trials, normal racing (with many variations), battle zones, and the just-for-fun duck shoot-outs. This will keep you going for a while. Take, for example, the duck shoot-outs. The shoot-outs take place on special battle zones, which are not designed for racing. The object is to race around a huge, wide open area, full of obstacles, and maze-like walls, all the while collecting ammo and shooting at the ducks-on-wheels.(Think quake arena on a golf cart when wasted.)

So other than the very aerodynamic hedgehogs there are several other weapons to collect include bombs, oil slicks, ice blocks, and flame balls. Apogee games are action-packed, and Wacky Wheels is a perfect example. From start to finish you get edge-of-your-seat excitement and action. When playing, you'll grit your teeth, lean your body into the corners and scream "EAT MAGMA!" as you launch a hedgehog that sends the racer in front of you spinning into the lava!

· High-speed 3D point-of-view racing!
· Large variety of race tracks. (42 total in the "Upgrade Edition".)
· Two-player, head-to-head modes via modem connection, serial link or at the same computer.
· Time trials mode, allows you to go for a record time on each track.
· RemoteRidicule(tm) feature, allows you to send a funny/distracting messages to your opponent during matches.
· Opponents are programmed to be very competitive.
· 60 high score charts--one for each of the unique racing options.
· Giggle keys, which allow you to send funny messages to your opponents.
· Many cheat passwords, and a secret ammo power-up key.

Download it from the 3D Realms website

Originally released October 17, 1994.

Retrospective: Jonty Rhodes Cricket (with download)

Matthew Arnold — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:18:28 +0000

I was playing Ashes Cricket on my PS3 with a few mates on the weekend and it stirred up a few memory from many years ago. My first PC cricket game - the totally awesome Jonty Rhodes Cricket. I spent many hours after school with my mates playing this game. Here is a bit more about it as well as the link to download this awesome game (Both via CricketWeb):

Probably the world's best cricket game until Electronic Arts' EA Sports version years later, Allan Border's Cricket is also known as Graham Gooch World Class Cricket, Jonty Rhodes II World Class Cricket, and probably a myriad other names depending on where the game was released. Aside from different introductory picture featuring different cricket stars (Jonty Rhodes in the South African version of the game, for instance), all versions of the game feature the same great gameplay.

Allan Border's Cricket lets you play a variety of games, from one day matches to test cricket. The game has team listing for all nine test-playing nations, as well as those in the Australia Cricket Shield. There also is a feature to edit your teams, incase you want to update the lists and averages. The Australian version (i.e. this one) features all the Sheffield Shield Sides (Australia) with authentic batting and bowling averages, plus Australia, New Zealand, West Indies and England teams, all of which can be customized to your heart's content. You can play against a friend or good computer AI, at Amateur, Professional, or World Class level; you can even watch two computer sides play each other.

On the pitch, the game allows you to control the bowlers, the batsman and the field placings, all of whom are animated very realistically. Intuitive mouse-based controls (similar to computer golf games) allow you to make many kinds of batting strokes including the sweep, hook, cover drive, and square cut. You can vary the speed and the amount of spin or swing, and even choose handedness of your batsman and bowlers. Choose from the pre-set field placings or create your own; fielders automatically change over to a left-handed batsman, or a new bowler. The list of options goes on, and the game's fantastic graphic detail including player shadows, and occasional showers of rain add icing to the cake. Suffice to say that no cricket fan should be without Allan Border's Cricket, one of the best sport games of all time that put Audiogenic on the map of great game developers.

DOWNLOAD THE GAME FREE HERE.