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Advanced Video System

Source: own

This is the last post related to my visit of Nintendo World NYC and the launch of NES Classic. Last time I mentioned that Nintendo intially wanted to enter the NA market that would reject a video game console with a home computer. A wood mock of this unrealized project is now on display in the Nintendo World store.

The keyboard on the main unit is for use with a BASIC programming language interpreter. To store the programs written, one must use the cassette deck. A noteworthy feature of the deck is a counter of turns of the tape that allows to locate the start point of the program. The systems that used cassettes, such as Commodore 64, were very susceptible to piracy. Both a keyboard with BASIC interpreter in a cartridge and the cassette deck were released as standalone accessories for Famicom in Japan

Controllers for AVS have no cords and that is not a mistake: all peripherals were connected to the main unit by infrared port, essentialy the same system as TV remotes use. Ergonomics of this solution are questionable; while it would work for the stationary cassette deck, people don’t really want to focus on holding their controller in line with the system. Wireless controllers didn’t return to Nintendo consoles until the optional radio-based Gamecube WaveBird controller in 2002 and became standard with Wii Remote in 2006.

Last noteworthy difference is the foldable (and futuristic looking) Zapper. The lightgun had a much more conventional design when it was released with the final NES.

The AVS Zapper and the final NES Zapper. Sources: own, IGN.com

Road to NES

Famicom, Japanese counterpart to what NES was in other regions. Credit: wikimedia.org

In retrospective, it seems hard to imagine that Nintendo Entertainment System’s entry to the North American market could have been anything but overwhelming success. But the video game market it entered was in catastrophic shape. In 1983 a big bubble burst in North America. The profits of video game industry dropped 97% between 1983 and 1985. Home computers, such as popular Commodore 64, got to a point where they were priced similarly to the home video game consoles and they became direct competitors. Both could play games, but on computers you could also create them. The educational factor was important to parents and console makers at this point couldn’t argue that their games were deeper and better looking - they simply were not.

This was still an era when home games were on a much weaker hardware than their arcade machines counterparts (but even those were not without troubles - due to inflation a single quarter was not an appropriate price for a single session anymore, and Eisenhower dollar was technically impractical for arcade machines). Console makers relied on quantity by allowing anyone to publish games on cartridges, hoping new concepts would drive more people to buy more consoles. The reality was a market flooded by mediocre titles that alienated existing user base. Some tried to add value to their titles by purchasing rights to popular franchises - that often turned against them as they needed to meet insane deadlines to hit an appropriate window of release. The epitome of this era is E.T. for Atari 2600 - it is believed that millions of its unsold cartridges were buried in New Mexico desert (Microsoft financed a documentary that looked for them in 2014).

E.T. cartridges unearthed in 2014. Credit: http://geekologie.com/2014/04/it-was-true-after-all-treasure-trove-of.php

Japan was largely unaffected by this crash. Nintendo already released their first home console Famicom for their domestic market in 1983 and they had to figure a way to market it to North American audience. At first, they designed peripherals to make it a fully-fledged home computer. But the response from journalists was lukewarm, and they once again went for a full redesign. Nintendo decided to appeal to their history of toy-making company and bundled a toy robot with the system. The now iconic design was selected to avoid association with failed consoles. Even the system for loading cartridges was changed. They avoided the common industry nomenclature - the console was called “Entertainment system” and cartridges “Paks”. All titles from third parties had to be licensed (cartridges wouldn’t work without a proprietary protection chip) and bore the official “Nintendo Seal of Quality” to ensure a standard in any game on a shelf. Finally, retailers were offered generous refund policies to convince them to stock the system and have nothing to lose in case of failure.

Final NES design. Credit: wikimedia.org

Console launch in NYC

Line outside Nintendo World NYC on 11/12/2016. Source: own

My visit in NYC coincided with the launch of NES Classic Edition - a remake of classic 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System that includes 30 games and connects to modern TVs. I did not expect a whole block long line before Nintendo World at Rockefeller Plaza, the only amusement park/store Nintendo runs outside of Japan.

NES mini does not seem like a big deal to a European - cheap Nintendo Entertainment System clones with games preloaded were extremely common in 90s and some Asian markets sell them even today. But those were unofficial and sometimes extremely weird. And we did not experience the original 80s craze, when 30% of American households had a NES and "Nintendo" became a synonym for any gaming console.

The busy midnight retro-themed launch party was a first indication that 60 bucks are a good deal for many New Yorkers. I didn't arrive at the scene until the next morning, when the accessories were already sold out and orders were limited to one system per customer. Hardcore fans were sleeping on the ground while others formed line behind them, directed by security guards. "If you you're not shopping for the NES, you can go straight in, if you're waiting for the NES, get in the line that starts at other side of the block, if you're waiting for the new Pokémon launch, that is two weeks from now," joked the guards as I went inside. The inventory of the store circulates often as do the games available to try out. There are great historical exhibitions that cognoscenti appriciate - the mock Advanced Video System being the hottest one at the moment.

Update: As of Saturday noon, NES Classic was sold out at Nintendo World. As of Sunday evening, it was sold out on Amazon, Game Stop, Best Buy and Amazon. Ebay auctions are very active and reach $200 easily.

Exhibited AVS. Source: own

Nintendo Switch

Japanese video game company Nintendo revealed its new generation gaming console in a video trailer on Thursday, Oct 20. Nintendo stuck to its primary image as a toy maker (which it built after the video game crash of 1983) and focused on the modes of use that new device will offer. While at its core a tablet, Switch offers detachable controllers and a docking station that connects to a TV. You can play it in a number of ways, both alone or with friends.

Nintendo consoles have been praised for its local multiplayer (as in, you sit in front of your TV with friends, unlike online multiplayer) and Switch seems to be a huge step in this direction. It is worth noting that Nintendo is switching to a completely new business model. Since the premiere of Game Boy in 1989, the company has always offered a home console and a portable device. A unified platform means easier work for development teams and a possibility of a higher penetration of market overall. Notably, the trailer features young adults and not a single teenager or a kid, and probably reflects a demographic Nintendo is targeting with Switch. No hints about the price were made, although Nintendo has confirmed that the device won’t be sold at a loss, which is a model that they have followed for a long time (and only broke recently for Wii U), unlike their indirect rivals Sony (Playstation) and Microsoft (Xbox), who subsidy the price of their hardware with the sales of games and online subscriptions.

Little has been revealed about the device’s technical specifications. Battery life of the undocked tablet seems to be the biggest concern to Nintendo cognoscenti. There is also a possibility that Switch will become a jack of all trades and a master of none. Switch is set for a worldwide launch in March 2017.

Game Spotlight #3 - Catrap

Platform: Nintendo Game Boy Publisher: Asmik Year published: 1990 (JP, NA)

This series of posts is about introducing interesting games that made it from Japan to North America but not to Europe. Today’s exhibit has more to it that a portmanteau in its title. Cats and traps indicate that we are dealing with a puzzle game. But you also have to guide the avatars - antropomorphic cats - past obstacles, so to be precise, this is a puzzle-platformer game.

The goal in any of the 100 levels that the game offers is to eliminate all enemies. But your avatar cannot jump (probably just ate a big can of tuna) and you have plan your route through the level carefully, using ladders and pushing boulders. Thus far, nothing revolutionary. In a regular puzzle game, you usually have to restart the level if you find yourself unable to continue. But in Catrap, you can actually rewind time - you hold a button and see your avatar and the environment moving smoothly back through the sequence of actions you performed, and you can stop any time.

Time rewind mechanics are technically complicated, and didn’t make their way into mainstream games until early 2000s. The most memorable title is Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (2003), where you can use the scarce resource of Sands of Time (duh) to get yourself out of dangerous situations and reach new areas.

#gamespotlight

Creating a game at GW

I came across an invitation from GW Game Developers for a game creating session. The target audience for this workshop are people who have little or no experience with programming. The first meeting took place in Phillips 108 on Thursday night and there will be more in the upcoming weeks, likely at the same time. This BYOC (as in Bring Your Own Computer) session was taught by a lovely Mr. Walker, and he did a great job! He was guiding us through the necessary steps on the projected screen but he would stop for questions and troubleshoot with us as neccessary.

The goal was to create a basic 2D platformer (games of this genre were prominent in the 80s and early 90s, think classic Mario) and our tool was GameMaker Studio. Learning how to create games is very challenging, because you need graphic assets from the very start - whereas when you create basic programs in general, you are satisfied with output to command line or a plain text file. Fortunately, GameMaker offers an integrated graphic editor, similar to Microsoft Paint. With it, you can create your character (and animate it!), level background and tiles - think of them as LEGO bricks that are all the same size and you use them to build the layout of the level. So first you need to create your brick and then simply paste it all over again.

Tileset from Super Mario Bros. Credit: Superjustinbros from spriters-resource.com, Nintendo

We also managed to create physics of the chracter's movement based on keyboard input and define collision behavior between the character and the tiles.

My goal is to become familiar with all areas of game development (game design, programming, assets) so I can understand the ideas that shaped the classics. Ultimately, I would like to have an advanced technological knowledge of the platforms of the past. I can't for next week's meeting! You can even try my game (Windows only), although there's not really much to do apart from jumping back and forth - yet.

My workspace in GameMaker after finishing the first lesson

Are your palms ready?

An interesting piece of hardware is about to be released on October, 25th by 8Bitdo. This company offers a number of wireless controllers and dongles that can be used with your phone or computer to play retro classics. Their newest controller is a faithful replica of a Nintendo 64 controller. While it is most known for its unorthodox shape (which is suprisingly ergonomic if you actually give it a shot), the controller was the first of the home console controllers to offer an analog stick. Most contemporary controllers use even two of them but back in 1996 Nintendo had to teach the players how to use this new piece of technology. One of the launch titles, Mario 64, had a number of narrow platforms that can only be navigate by a proper use of the analog stick. To put it simply, the stick knows how far to a side has the player pushed it, and if it is pulled only slightly, it translate to a slow walk on the screen, whereas pushing the stick all the way to the side makes a character run.

This portion of the video shows the internals of a N64 controller and the author explains how the analog stick works

The N64 controller became infamous when Mario Party games were released. Mario Party series emulates a board game, where every turn a random minigame is played out of a pool of 60 or so. A couple of these minigames required the player to rotate the stick as fast as possible. Hardcore players soon figured out a way to rotate it faster than with your thumb - put your whole palm over the tip of the stick and rotate with your whole arm. Inevitably, there were blisters and damaged skin. Nintendo even went as far as releasing safety gloves.

Injury as a result of excessive playing with the N64 controller

The analog sticks became worn out rather easily compared to later controllers. By now, most vintage controllers have very loose sticks and owners try to repair them. Some of them 3D-print brand new sticks.

8Bitdo's new controller won't connect to the original console but can be paired with your phone or computer. You can also use a cable connection if wireless is not your thing. So this controller is only usable for emulation. But it definitely brings hope to people that want to repair their vintage controllers - 8Bitdo is creating new sticks and they will hopefully appear on the market as stand-alone parts.

I think this is a really interesting blog idea and a cool post. I think in the future it could be helpful to a lot of people if you explained some of the gamer terms for the more casual gamers that might read your blog. A little more historical context could also be helpful. I look forward to reading more of your posts in the future and learning more about gaming.

Game Spotlight #2 - Super Mario RPG

Platform: Super Nintendo Entertainment System Publisher: Nintendo Year published: 1996 (JP, NA)

Super Mario RPG can be viewed as an attempt to introduce the genre of roleplaying games, popular in Japan but obscure in the United States, to the Western audiences. Mario was a family friendly character with solid reputation in the USA and while it has been used to market other genres (mainly sports), creators had to be very careful not to make Mario a brute that obliterates his enemies. Magic, a staple in the RPG genre, also had to be dealt with. While Mario, Bowser and Peach are all playable characters (they use their trademark moves - Mario’s fireball, for example), two new characters of clumsy Mallow and mysterious Geno were introduced as major spellcasters.

The game presented from the isometric perspectivewas praised for its stunning visuals. Some of the finest 2D graphics in gaming period were made possible by the integration of an additional computing chip in the game's cartridge, a treatment that only seven games outside of Japan got.

Source: http://usebu.forumactif.org/t1255-tuto-super-mario-rpg-en-francais

Ironically enough, the game was released much earlier on the European region of Nintendo's Virtual Console service for Wii and then later for Wii U, even though it was never physically in Europe. Super Mario RPG was a succesful effort and even though it never recieved a direct sequel, two lines of Mario RPGs followed that still receive new games as of today.

#gamespotlight

Game Spotlight #1 - Faceball 2000

Platform: Nintendo Game Boy Publisher: Bulletproof Software Year published: 1991

Faceball 2000 is a technical marvel. First released on the Atari ST platform in 1987, its authors later ported it to a more restricted platform - the original Game Boy. Starting with Wolfenstein 3D in 1992 the first person shooter titles were used as an exhibit to show the ability of both its authors and the platform they were released on. The tricks of displaying 3D graphics, level design and control schemes were far more complex than the requirements of any other genre. But one of the most impressive titles came out before the genre was defined by Wolfenstein 3D.

Game Boy had a 4.19 MHz processor and 16 kB of memory, 8 kB for the code and 8 kB for graphics. I’ll let you do the math comparing it to your smartphone yourself but to put it in perspective, mid-tier IBM-compatible PCs sold in that time were sold with 1 MB of RAM. Faceball 2000 not only ran on Game Boy, it was also a good game. As banal as it sounds, this is an important distinction nowadays, when we have Windows 95 running on Apple Watch and Half-Life 2 on Android devices. Proof on concept is nice but playing retro games on your phone with virtual keyboard can be a rather frustrating experience. Sure, you can semi-legally get thousands of games on your phone in a matter of minutes but do you want to? It's just not the same as playing with physical controls on Nintendo's Virtual Console service (compromise) or go all-in retro and ensure yourself the original experience. Nice for some, necessary for the growing group of people who study video games as socio-cultural phenomenon or their relation to the hardware platforms.

Faceball 2000 in theory supports 16 people multiplayer. A 16-way link adapter was supposed to come out but never did. Passionate fans figured out that you can chain seven 4-way adapters and connect 16 Game Boys with 16 original copies of Faceball 2000. One person was last heard from when they collected enough hardware to connect 14 players. The dream lives on!

#gamespotlight

I am not a video game player myself, but I always find it interesting to learn about the communities that have formed around video games, both online and in real life. I am very curious about this idea of a video game museum. I look forward to hearing more about video game festivals as well as hearing about your progress of finding games while in DC

How I joined Retroherna

I first learned about Retroherna in April 2015. Through the local Nintendo distributor an exhibition of old gaming devices was announced. It was to take place in one of the Prague's largest malls for two days. A small part of me hoped that the display would be interactive and I secretly wished that I would get to know that people that organize such an event.

When I arrived at the location I was stunned. The organizers brought several large CRT televisions to provide an authentic retro experience. I was allowed to stay as long as I wanted playing whatever I liked from the extensive collection of games that were brought to this event. When my hands became too tired to keep on mashing the buttons of 30-year-old controllers, I noticed closer the volunteers of Retroherna that were overseeing their precious exhibits with non-intrusive care.

I gradually realized that they are a group of young collectors who know their stuff but are brave enough not to be controlled by a collectors worst fear - someone touching their collection. This is a reason why it is so hard to run a video game museum - you have to be prepared for controllers destroyed by constant heavy use, cartridges damaged by thoughtless manipulation and gaming consoles suffering of frequent transportation. Preparation has to be emotional and financal - a huge collection of games is useless witout a device to play them on.

At one of the subsequent events in Prague I came in with a firm determination of joining Retroherna. I approached the members that were running the event, introduced myself and expressed my motivation of joining Retroherna. One electronic application later, it was agreed that I would be admitted. I started helping maintaining the inventory, running smaller events in Prague and eventually major festivals around the country.

As of September 2016, Retroherna doesn't have a permanent residency. The modus operandi are visits to events and festivals, both domestic and foreign. If there's a theme to the event, Retroherna tries to offer corresponding inventory, e.g. a Star Wars Con will offer Star Wars video games. Since our crowdfunding efforts in Summer of 2016 were not sucessful, we are negotiating a residency with a major student organisation operating under the patronage of a Czech university.

I'm super excited for your blog, both because I'm very curious about your perspective on finding video games that you could not get yourself back home, but also because as a whole I love video games but never know enough about them. Good luck on your pixel chase!

An Unxpected Party

Ah, the dread of starting a new blog. The subject was easy enough for me to decide. I love video games. Back in Prague I am a member of a non-profit organization Retroherna, which seeks to open a fully interactive museum of video games. Here, during my semester at GW in Washington, D.C., I was entrusted with acquistion of titles that never came out in Europe, or are hard to find on the old continent. Documenting this quest seems to be a perfect topic for a blog.

But naming a blog is a whole another thing. Mashup seemed to be a good start. The Paper Chase is a 1973 movie about two law school students who are determined to overcome all obstacles that law school brings. Since I will be chasing old video games, I’ve decided to go with The Pixel Chase.

Stay tuned for more about me, Retroherna, the software and hardware I’ll be tracking down and the methods I will be using.

#retroherna #video games

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