#Granted I also have no idea where like making a platformer mega man game like this would fit in the lore💀

[no1ryomafan]

My beloved bf gifted me mario wonder for my bday and while this isn’t my first mario game bc I had the one on the ds-just sucked at it lol-im having a blast going through it since I always like playing other plaformers then my usual even if I’m always comfy with Mega Man. However, playing this along with other platformers made me realize mega man misses a common aspect in most platformers: collectibles tied to progression/general items to pick up in stages that aren’t upgrades.

Mega Man does have its fair share of items to pick up but almost always it’s a health or power upgrade. The general structure of Mega Man is less of jumping on enemies like others and more so being strong enough you can take down your enemies with your weapons, the usual challenge comes from fighting bosses without their weakness or tight platforming segments. Not to mention, the entire appeal of Mega Man’s structure is you can do bosses in any order, so having stuff like collecting a object for progression just to access the next stage or area would ruin that freedom. (Also in terms of if mega man would collect coins or rings or gems I’m not sure if that would fit either given he’s a robot… What would a robot collect unless it’s like stated it’s apart of his energy source or something? Or maybe screws? Even though that’s the currency in classic for just buying stuff)

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing since it gives mega man it’s own unique appeal and some people may not like other platformers compared to it-even if I say the challenge universally sticks so others are worth checking out, especially when in other games it’s waaaay easier to die despite how brutal mega man is with lives and Insta kill stuff-but it’s something I noticed when playing Mario and other platformers so I’m definitely gonna be rotating this for awhile.

[hikari-chan1001]

Megaman Review Part 2

The gameplay loop is intrinsically simplistic at the start of the game the player is presented with 6 levels the player can complete in arbitrary order, with each stage beaten giving the player an additional weapon making future levels and bosses easier, and once the 6 levels are completed there is a final gauntlet of levels that have to be beaten in linear order. The structure of a set of levels that the player can complete in arbitrary order initially brings to mind The Legend of Zelda, or at least the first one, however, it is inaccurate to conceptualize Mega Man levels as Legend of Zelda dungeons, because Legend of Zelda dungeons have branching pathways and the route for progression is obfuscated while in Mega Man the level and the route for progression is intrinsically simple, the only partial exception being the second appearing blocks section of Ice Man’s stage, however, it is immediately obvious where one would need to end up at the end even if the path there is a tad abstract. The option for the player to choose the first level out of any of the initial 6 has some benefits as it opens the player to do either the stage that they find the easiest with just the ordinary fire or the level that will grant them the weapon they think is the best, however, it flattens the average difficulty curve of the game until the Dr. Wily gauntlet which the developers can be assured that you have beaten everything before that point so you are sufficiently skilled, and the solution they tried as far as I can tell is to make each of the initial 6 stages challenge you in different ways with different obstacles, which they succeed partially enough so that I believe that it is what they are going for, however, they fail to completely commit to the idea as there are some obstacles that function idetencally shared between two stages (I.E. the laterally aligned straight bar of damage present in both Fire Man’s and Elec Man’s stage, and the laterally moving missile enimes that move up and down that are present in both Fire Man’s and Bomb Man’s stage are similar to the penguin enemy present in Ice Man’s stage, and the appearing blocks present in both Elec Man’s and Ice Man’s stage). Now it is time for the weapon discussion, the mega buster shoots off a laterally moving projectile that is not bound to gravity that moves to the direction that you faced while firing it with the capacity to have three on the screen at once only stopping if they collide with an enemy or reach the edge of the screen, the rolling cutter shoots off a scissor like boomerang projectile that moves in a circular manner connected to Mega Man’s current location disappearing if it collides with an enemy or Mega Man, the elec beam fires three projectiles aligned to the top and bottom of Mega Man and one aligned to the direction Mega Man is facing only disappearing if they reach the edge of the screen, the ice slasher fires a projectile that moves laterally in the direction Mega Man was facing when he fired it that will cause an enemy to stop moving if they are struck with it disappearing if it hits the edge of the screen, the fire storm shoots off a laterally moving projectile that moves in the direction Mega Man faced when it was fired it also creates a damaging barrier around Mega Man, the hyper bomb arcs a projectile that will be affected by gravity, that will stall a tad before exploding into a damaging cloud that lingers for a moment, the super arm requires and removes a block from the environment that Mega Man can later throw that damages enemies, the magnet beam creates a semi-solid platform whose length will vary depending on how long the player holds the attack button that will linger and then expire after a while.

[glapplebloom]

Not everything From the Research Bin will be specifically for Death Battle.

Before Death Battle, I enjoyed reading through things like Wikipedia or TVTropes to learn more about a subject. I was even helping out Factpile (an old Debate Website) before becoming a Researcher for Death Battle. Not to mention I had ideas as articles about who would win in a fight against who. So looking through my Google Docs I found an old one.

I’m pretty sure you don’t need me to tell you who Sans the Skeleton is. Undertale is a frikkin popular game. So popular that Sans and Megalovania got into Smash Fighters as a Costume. So of course he’s going to be a popular pick for Death Battle requests. The problem is, how do you present him? Undertale is a very vague game. Depending on the researcher, you got someone who can see him as being extremely weak and another thinking he’s universal in scale. So finding an opponent for him is difficult because of how Undertale works. Is it magic that makes attacks against monsters so strong or any strong emotion behind the swing?

Now what about Kid Radd and why did I put him against Sans? Well, Kid Radd is the star of an old Pixel Comic where a game character is forced to leave his game and try to live a seemingly normal life, only to once again save the day from an evil entity who wants terrible things to happen. The fun thing about it is he fights like he does in the original game: 4 hits before being killed while being able to maneuver around like your average platformer. So for this fight, I decided to not have it be feat based, but gameplay based.

Sans is a powerful opponent gameplay wise. Gaster Blasters that he can summon at any time and any place, bones that can hurt you when you’re standing still or even moving, and the ability to control your gravity by messing with your SOUL. Combining all of these throws you to a gauntlet of bones, platforms and lasers to avoid. And if you’re hit, Karmic Retribution can attack you even when you're Invulnerable. Even going through the menu is dangerous as he can attack you there as well. But he gets tired and after 24 shots (or 25, it was a long time ago when I wrote this and may not have added the dodge then attack that killed him) he is easy to take out. Not to mention being an RPG, he’s more prone to letting people take turns.

Kid Radd can only take 4 hits. Luckily for him every hit gives him a brief bit of immunity. With the Lucky Penny, he can take an additional hit beyond the 4 and with a code can access his Raddboard to grant him better maneuverability and flight. And like Mega Man, he fires small bits of energy called Radd Beams and charges it up for a Mega Radd. Now here’s the messed up part. Since the game programmers coded him to use the max bits available, his Mega Radd can be charged up to be even more powerful than the base game. It was even capable of destroying the internet. Problem is any hit, no matter how minor, does the same damage to him. So if his opponent is smart enough, they can attack him with no miss attacks and he can’t do anything about it.

Ultimately, I gave the win to Kid Radd. Platforming and recognizing patterns is his bag. That’s how he was able to beat his Rival Slash Brother Gnarl while avoiding armies going against him. I also suspect his Invulnerability is superior to Karmic Retribution since other games' abilities wouldn’t work on him when invulnerable, while KR is coded for specifically Undertale’s hit system. And even if it does work, his knowledge of platforming and his Raddboard can negate Sans’ ability to control the target’s gravity. And if anything, he can just continue to charge up the Mega Radd so much that Sans can’t avoid it, since after destroying the Computer Network he did the attack in (long story), he was still there.

Has things changed since 2016? Honestly, no. Deltarune is a mystery on how it's connected to Undertale, with Sans being there but not doing anything. While Kid Radd ended a long time ago, concluding its story. Maybe if a future Deltarune game showed how Sans connects them both this could change, but I would still back up Kid Radd when it comes to gameplay Vs gameplay. Though I definitely prefer Wreck it Ralph Vs Kid Radd. Did that for a Discord Community Death Battle.

[aion-rsa]

Best Cyberpunk Movies to Watch Before You Play Cyberpunk 2077

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We’ve warned you of the dangers of overhyping yourself for Cyberpunk 2077 ahead of the game’s December 10 release date, but I understand if it’s hard to contain your excitement for 2020’s most anticipated game. However, that still leaves you with the question of what to do while you’re waiting to finally play CD Projekt Red’s potential masterpiece.

I can think of few better ways to pass the time than to curate a marathon of the best cyberpunk movies. While the definition of the cyberpunk genre (especially on film) has traditionally been somewhat debatable, these are movies that showcase a vision of the future where technology seems to have towered above the humans who designed it just as a new breed of revolutionists prepare to counter this growing culture.

So whether you want to celebrate the genre or just understand it a little better, these are the cyberpunk movies you need to watch ahead of Cyberpunk 2077‘s release.

Akira

Along with being arguably the most important anime film of all-time (at least in terms of the global growth of the genre), Akira is considered by many to be the definitive on-screen portrayal of cyberpunk style and the genre’s social commentary.

As the story of bikers in Neo-Tokyo who find themselves at the target of a manhunt after an incident grants one of them telekinetic powers that could destroy society, Akira checks nearly every cyberpunk box in its elevator pitch alone. Yet, the true joy of this movie will always come from basking in the beauty of its animation and the ways that it highlights a vision of the future where technological advancements were built on the crumbling foundation of forgotten souls. 

There’s no world in which Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t heavily inspired by Akira. We wouldn’t be shocked if the game even featured a few Akira Easter eggs.

Blade Runner

While this list is simply arranged in alphabetical order, it’s certainly amusing that arguably the two most important cyberpunk movies ever find themselves at the top of the list. 

Blade Runner’s story is an admirable attempt at an ambitious tale of identity and humanity in a rapidly evolving world, but this film’s greatest gift will always be its world design and practical effects. Blade Runner finds its “punk” in a noir-like atmosphere while the movie’s “cyber” elements shine in a largely unromantic futuristic city clearly dependent on often cold forms of technology. 

Everyone should see Blade Runner at least once, and we can’t think of a better time to view it for the first time than before you play Cyberpunk 2077. 

Burst City

If you’ve got the stomach for something totally weird and very raw, then I highly recommend this 1982 cyberpunk musical oddity. 

Burst City leans heavily into the “punk” part of the cyberpunk equation with its story of various bands who battle the police and each other in a dystopian version of Tokyo. While the plot itself is admittedly barebones, it proves to be the perfect set-up for what amounts to a unique look at the underground Japanese punk scene of this era. 

Cyberpunk 2077’s pop culture is clearly built around music, so it will be interesting to see whether the game borrows many ideas from this sometimes overlooked gem. 

Cypher

Corporate espionage is a big part of the Cyberpunk 2077 universe, which makes it that much easier to recommend this 2002 film that’s all about the dangerous pursuits of corporate spies. 

To be fair, that’s really the simplest summary of a labyrinthe of a plot that begins with a man taking a job in the lucrative field of corporate espionage. What follows is a series of mind blowing revelations that show us the lengths these corporations will go to and how dispensable everyone is in their pursuit of power. 

If you need to be sold on Cypher‘s cyberpunk credentials, just know that its director once described it as “James Bond meets Kafka.”

Dark City

John Murdoch has a problem. He’s just woken up in a bathtub in a seedy motel with no memory of who he is or what is happening. To make matters worse, he’s being pursued by a mysterious group of strangers who chase him through a city where it’s always night. His only hope is a vague series of clues and mysterious psychokinetic powers that he’s only now just beginning to understand. 

Dark City is an impossibly bleak and literally dark film that confronts the burden and the power of the human mind. It’s a complicated and often ambiguous film that benefits from grand ideas and an absolutely lovely noir-focused sense of style.

What Dark City lacks in scenes of high-tech glory and traditional punk design elements it more than makes up for with its bleak, intelligent, and unflinching vision of a future that absolutely belongs in this genre. 

Dredd

Few people expected much of Dredd given how hard the ‘90s adaptation of the character fell on its face, but this 2012 movie proved to be one of the most compelling pieces of wide-release cyberpunk entertainment in years. 

Dredd’s fantastic action sequences and small scale story that invokes the core concept of The Raid: Redemption and Die Hard sometimes disguise the movie’s brilliant cyberpunk world-building. In every corner of every shot, there are these hints at just how bad things have gotten and what desperate measures have been enacted to keep even the visage of civilization alive.  

It’s easy to imagine that Cyberpunk 2077’s weapons and comments will mine a few ideas from this modern classic. 

eXistenZ

Nobody goes into a David Cronenberg film looking for a straightforward feel-good ride, but eXistenZ still manages to stand out as a uniquely weird entry into the director’s legendary filmography. 

Considered by many to be a spiritual follow-up to Videodrome, eXistenZ follows a game designer who must dive into her latest virtual reality creation in order to repair potential damages. The journey through that virtual world will certainly not disappoint any Cronenberg fans looking for memorable moments of body horror wrapped around an introspective plot. 

With its VR concepts and meditations on the inevitable intersection of technology and flesh, eXistenZ offers a glimpse into a cyberpunk void that may not be quite as memorable as Cronenberg’s best works but is worth a look. 

Ghost in the Shell

With very little respect to the 2017 film of the same name, I want to make it clear that I’m absolutely talking about the 1995 animated classic. 

Released at the cultural height of the “Hackersploitation” genre (more on that in just a bit) Ghost in the Shell envisions a world in which people are neurally connected to the internet and cyborgs have been integrated into society. Into this future comes a hacker known as The Puppet Master whose unique abilities present a clear threat even as they raise questions about what remains of humanity that’s worth saving. 

Along with Akira, this is absolutely one of those cyberpunk movies everyone should see even if they don’t typically consider themselves to be fans of anime or even animated feature films.

Read more

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Hackers

Hackers is essentially the big-screen version of every regrettable high school yearbook photo ever taken. It’s a relentlessly corny slice of the ‘90s that will be particularly painful to anyone who ever thought it was truly the height of cool. 

Yet, there is still something genuinely cool about Hackers. It treats hackers with the same bizarre cultural relevance as bouncers are afforded in Road House, but the idea of gangs of hackers and celebrity hackers taking over the digital age has always tapped into the heart of the cyberpunk genre. 

We know that Cyberpunk 2077’s universe is highly inspired by ‘90s counterculture, so you should expect a few nods to this movie somewhere along the way. 

Johnny Mnemonic

Wait, Johnny Mnemonic is a ‘90s sci-fi movie starring Keanu Reeves that’s all about a man who knows too much trying to escape from gangs and corporations? Are we sure this somehow wasn’t a soft adaptation of Cyberpunk 2020?

It’s not and, if I’m being very honest, this movie doesn’t always live up to its considerable potential. However, it’s a consistently entertaining piece of ‘90s technological absurdity bolstered by some genuinely fascinating world-building and the charisma of its leading man. 

Don’t expect a masterpiece, but Johnny Mnemonic is the perfect movie for getting you in that Cyberpunk 2077 mood. 

Robocop

Countless words have been written about Robocop’s status as both one of the best action movies ever made and one a biting piece of social commentary, but Robocop somehow never seems to get enough love as a brilliant slice of cyberpunk style. 

With its roaming gangs and mega-corporations whose power has become fully integrated into and unchallenged in society, Robocop has the cyberpunk genre flowing through its veins. What’s truly remarkable, though, is the way that the movie so effectively balances the seemingly inevitable hopelessness of its world with a bleak sense of humor that speaks loudly even as it is delivered with tongue in cheek. 

Since you probably don’t need an excuse to watch Robocop again, I’ll also take this chance to point out that Robocop 2 is a largely underrated sequel that somehow amplifies the original’s cyberpunk vibes. 

Strange Days

Released in 1995 to divisive reviews and worse box office returns, Strange Days’ poor reception threatened to derail the career of legendary director Kathryn Bigelow.

Years later, though, it’s easier than ever to overlook Strange Days’ rough edges and bleak tones and appreciate its painfully accurate portrayal of racial inequality and sexual violence. Though it was only set four years in the future, Strange Days took the pulse of its time and imagined what would happen if society just reshaped itself around its problems rather than attempted to address them in a meaningful way. 

Strange Days is a hard watch but a great example of the forward-thinking pessimism of the cyberpunk genre. 

The Matrix

At the tail end of a decade obsessed with hackers but often lacking in truly great works of “Hackersploitation,” The Matrix came along and shattered all expectations by combining tech fears, underground style, high-flying action sequences, and jaw-dropping special effects that made it the most unlikely blockbuster of the ’90s.

Long after the special effects have become commonplace and the film’s most memorable sequences have been parodied to death, it’s The Matrix’s cyberpunk philosophy and setting that endure. The Matrix so seamlessly weaves its grander ideas and world-building into the movie’s legendary fights that it’s easy to forget how much weight they carry. 

While you can safely skip your rewatch of the sequels unless you’re an apologist or sycophant, don’t forget that The Animatrix really got everyone excited about the grander implications of this movie’s promising universe. 

Total Recall

Two Paul Verhoeven movies on the same list? Yes, but to be honest, Total Recall almost didn’t make the final cut. 

While Total Recall lacks some of the philosophical depth and overwhelmingly bleak tones that so often help us identify the defining entries in this genre, it manages to tap into the cyberpunk genre’s sometimes overlooked elements of absurdity and uses them as the basis for a truly fun adventure. 

If it’s been a little while since you’ve actually watched this movie, you might be surprised by how its complex and well-told plot expands a fascinating world where the false promise of anything being possible has been revived in a horrifying new form. 

Upgrade

The final movie on our list is also the most recent cyberpunk film that I’d recommend you watch ahead of Cyberpunk 2077’s release. 

Actually, one of the things that stand out about Upgrade is its video game sensibilities. As the story of a man who gradually begins to understand the extent of his newfound powers, Upgrade taps into that role-playing idea of building a character over time. While it showcases the potential horrors of body enhancements, it also gives us time to dream of having such abilities. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Cyberpunk 2077 is all about enhancing your character through implants similar to the one featured in this film, so check out Upgrade if you can’t wait to see what one of the game’s end game characters might look like. 

The post Best Cyberpunk Movies to Watch Before You Play Cyberpunk 2077 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[mobilelegendsfreediamonds-blog]

History of Video Games - The First Video Game Ever Made?

As an avid retro-gamer, for quite a long time I've been particularly interested in the history of video games. To be more specific, a subject that I am very passionate about is "Which was the first video game ever made?"... So, I started an exhaustive investigation on this subject (and making this article the first one in a series of articles that will cover in detail all video gaming history).

The question was: Which was the first video game ever made?

The answer: Well, as a lot of things in life, there is no easy answer to that question. It depends on your own definition of the term "video game". For example: When you talk about "the first video game", do you mean the first video game that was commercially-made, or the first console game, or maybe the first digitally programmed game? Because of this, I made a list of 4-5 video games that in one way or another were the beginners of the video gaming industry. You will notice that the first video games were not created with the idea of getting any profit from them (back in those decades there was no Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Sega, Atari, or any other video game company around). In fact, the sole idea of a "video game" or an electronic device which was only made for "playing games and having fun" was above the imagination of over 99% of the population back in those days. But thanks to this small group of geniuses who walked the first steps into the video gaming revolution, we are able to enjoy many hours of fun and entertainment today (keeping aside the creation of millions of jobs during the past 4 or 5 decades). Without further ado, here I present the "first video game nominees":

1940s: Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device

This is considered (with official documentation) as the first electronic game device ever made. It was created by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. The game was assembled in the 1940s and submitted for an US Patent in January 1947. The patent was granted December 1948, which also makes it the first electronic game device to ever receive a patent (US Patent 2,455,992). As described in the patent, it was an analog circuit device with an array of knobs used to move a dot that appeared in the cathode ray tube display. This game was inspired by how missiles appeared in WWII radars, and the object of the game was simply controlling a "missile" in order to hit a target. In the 1940s it was extremely difficult (for not saying impossible) to show graphics in a Cathode Ray Tube display. Because of this, only the actual "missile" appeared on the display. The target and any other graphics were showed on screen overlays manually placed on the display screen. It's been said by many that Atari's famous video game "Missile Command" was created after this gaming device.

1951: NIMROD

NIMROD was the name of a digital computer device from the 50s decade. The creators of this computer were the engineers of an UK-based company under the name Ferranti, with the idea of displaying the device at the 1951 Festival of Britain (and later it was also showed in Berlin).

NIM is a two-player numerical game of strategy, which is believed to come originally from the ancient China. The rules of NIM are easy: There are a certain number of groups (or "heaps"), and each group contains a certain number of objects (a common starting array of NIM is 3 heaps containing 3, 4, and 5 objects respectively). Each player take turns removing objects from the heaps, but all removed objects must be from a single heap and at least one object is removed. The player to take the last object from the last heap loses, however there is a variation of the game where the player to take the last object of the last heap wins.

NIMROD used a lights panel as a display and was planned and made with the unique purpose of playing the game of NIM, which makes it the first digital computer device to be specifically created for playing a game (however the main idea was showing and illustrating how a digital computer works, rather than to entertain and have fun with it). Because it doesn't have "raster video equipment" as a display (a TV set, monitor, etc.) it is not considered by many people as a real "video game" (an electronic game, yes... a video game, no...). But once again, it really depends on your point of view when you talk about a "video game".

1952: OXO ("Noughts and Crosses")

This was a digital version of "Tic-Tac-Toe", created for an EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) computer. It was designed by Alexander S. Douglas from the University of Cambridge, and one more time it was not made for entertainment, it was part of his PhD Thesis on "Interactions between human and computer".

The rules of the game are those of a regular Tic-Tac-Toe game, player against the computer (no 2-player option was available). The input method was a rotary dial (like the ones in old telephones). The output was showed in a 35x16-pixel cathode-ray tube display. This game was never very popular because the EDSAC computer was only available at the University of Cambridge, so there was no way to install it and play it anywhere else (until many years later when an EDSAC emulator was created available, and by that time many other excellent video games where available as well...).

1958: Tennis for Two

"Tennis for Two" was created by William Higinbotham, a physicist working at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. This game was made as a way of entertainment, so laboratory visitors had something funny to do during their wait on "visitors day" (finally!... a video game that was created "just for fun"...) . The game was pretty well designed for its era: the ball behavior was modified by several factors like gravity, wind velocity, position and angle of contact, etc.; you had to avoid the net as in real tennis, and many other things. The video game hardware included two "joysticks" (two controllers with a rotational knob and a push button each) connected to an analog console, and an oscilloscope as a display.

"Tennis for Two" is considered by many the first video game ever created. But once again, many others differ from that idea stating that "it was a computer game, not a video game" or "the output display was an oscilloscope, not a "raster" video display... so it does not qualify as a video game". But well... you can't please everyone...

It is also rumored that "Tennis for Two" was the inspiration for Atari's mega hit "Pong", but this rumor has always been strongly denied... for obvious reasons.

1961: Spacewar!

"Spacewar!" video game was created by Stephen Russell, with the help of J. Martin Graetz, Peter Samson, Alan Kotok, Wayne Witanen and Dan Edwards from MIT. By the 1960s, MIT was "the right choice" if you wanted to do computer research and development. So this half a dozen of innovative guys took advantage of a brand-new computer was ordered and expected to arrive campus very soon (a DEC PDP-1) and started thinking about what kind of hardware testing programs would be made. When they found out that a "Precision CRT Display" would be installed to the system, they instantly decided that "some sort of visual/interactive game" would be the demonstration software of choice for the PDP-1. And after some discussion, it was soon decided to be a space battle game or something similar. After this decision, all other ideas came out pretty quick: like rules of the game, designing concepts, programming ideas, and so forth.

So after about 200 man/hours of work, the first version of the game was at last ready to be tested. The game consisted of two spaceships (affectively named by players "pencil" and "wedge") shooting missiles at each other with a star in the middle of the display (which "pulls" both spaceships because of its gravitational force). A set of control switches was used to control each spaceship (for rotation, speed, missiles, and "hyperspace"). Each spaceship have a limited amount of fuel and weapons, and the hyperspace option was like a "panic button", in case there is no other way out (it could either "save you or break you").

The computer game was an instant success between MIT students and programmers, and soon they started making their own changes to the game program (like real star charts for background, star/no star option, background disable option, angular momentum option, among others). The game code was ported to many other computer platforms (since the game required a video display, a hard to find option in 1960s systems, it was mostly ported to newer/cheaper DEC systems like the PDP-10 and PDP-11).

Spacewar! is not only considered by many as the first "real" video game (since this game does have a video display), but it also have been proved to be the true predecessor of the original arcade game, as well as being the inspiration of many other video games, consoles, and even video gaming companies (can you say "Atari"?...). But that's another story, arcade games as well as console video games were written in a different page of the history of video games (so stay tuned for future articles on these subjects).

So here they are, the "First Video Game" nominees. Which one do you think is the first video game ever made?... If you ask me, I think all these games were revolutionary for its era, and should be credited as a whole as the beginners of the video gaming revolution. Instead of looking for which one was the first video game, what is really important is that they were created, period. As the creator of "Spacewar!", Stephen Rusell, once said: "If I hadn't done it, someone would have done something equally exciting or even better in the next six months. I just happened to get there first".

[thelongestdamnreviews]

Mega Man X4

Every few years, I get the urge to play Mega Man.  This time I only restricted it to the PS1 X titles instead of starting with the SNES X games, or even going back to the NES with the original series.  I've had X4 for forever given I got it not long after it released.  Like with other emulated titles, I played this under Retroarch with an Xbox 360 controller.

A Maverick attack at Sky Lagoon brings the floating city down upon another on the ground, resulting in severe casualties.  The Colonel of Repliforce, responding to the attack in order to save his sister caught in the crossfire, is detained and requested to return to Maverick Hunter HQ for questioning.  He refuses to disarm and leaves, causing the entire Repliforce to be labeled as Mavericks.  Repliforce then stages a coup in order to establish an independent nation for Reploids only.  And someone familiar is behind the scenes, pulling the Maverick Hunters' and Repliforce's strings to bring them into conflict...

The X series got several enhancements that came with jumping from a 16- to a 32-bit platform like bigger and more detailed spritework, more detailed environments, fully-animated voiced cutscenes, higher-quality music (that doesn't loop on the PS1 but does on the Saturn), pre-battle boss banter, as well as making Zero fully playable in a style completely separate from X.  It is also somewhat of a step backwards from X3 in terms of the "things to do" department.  There are no roaming hunters to defeat/destroy that change future bosses, there are no Ride Armors to collect, no armor chips...it's more straightforward like X1.  You have eight bosses to kill, eight Heart Tanks to collect, etc.  One thing that stands out is that the Fourth Armor has two different arms parts that can be swapped out if you revisit the capsules containing them. 

If you've never played any of the games in the series, these are side-scrolling platformers.  You warp into a stage and are tasked with getting to the other end of the area alive by destroying or avoiding enemies and stage hazards like fire bursting out of the ground or spikes that instantly kill you when touched.  This applies to pretty much every game that's not part of the Battle Network, Starforce, or Legends series, but the X games stand out from the Classic series with the original Mega Man due to the higher speed you traverse levels through an on-demand burst of speed called 'dash' that can initially only be triggered on the ground.  There is also the potential to explore with the wall-kick feature, where you jump at a wall and keep holding that direction while you jump repeatedly.  X is also able to find armor capsules hidden away in the stages that enhance his abilities such as body armor that reduces the health lost when hurt, or leg parts that allow you to do a dash in mid-air.  Destroying one of the eight bosses at the end of the standard set of stages earns you a limited-use special weapon that also is the weakness of another boss.  There is a pattern you can learn and follow to tackle bosses in a set order so you always have the best weapon ready when you face them down.  When you finish the initial eight stages, you move onto the final leg of the game where you face the true antagonist of the game as well as have rematch fights against the eight bosses you killed already. 

Ride ‘em, cow...robot?  There’s only one Ride Chaser-only stage in this game but I remember X8 had two. 

 X plays pretty much the same as always.  The legs armor upgrade allows air dashing (only left/right, no more up) as well as a temporary hover with the option to slightly move forward or backwards at the cost of flight time, the body part reduces damage and charges up an invulnerable tackle Nova Strike, and the head part gives special weapons unlimited ammo when using their uncharged versions.  The arms part either allows you to store up four charged shots or lets you release a massive shot that lingers when it strikes an enemy to deal extra damage, and both let you charge special weapons as always.  I found the Stock Charge Shot to be pretty underwhelming.  It takes a little longer to charge but for some reason it doesn't fire when you let go of the button, and that threw me off quite a bit.  Four charged shots on-demand should sound really good, but you can't combo bosses with them and their smaller size makes them a little harder to use in the stages.  Plasma Charge Shot on the other hand releases a gigantic blast and the lingering damage tears up regular enemies.  And will grate your ears with the repeating 'ting' sound when you hit something invulnerable. 

Zero has given up his buster and instead uses the Z-Saber exclusively.  He's geared more for experienced players since he has to fight up close, but he has a damaging three-hit combo to decimate enemies.  He collects Heart Tanks and Sub Tanks and all just like X, but he has no armor capsule upgrades so his game is harder overall.  He has a three-hit saber combo that will ignore the boss' invulnerable grace period until all the hits land.  Zero later gets a double jump and a Giga Attack of his own, but I largely felt like the devs didn't really know where to take Zero in this game given two of his eight won techniques aren't actual attacks, just upgrades like an air dash or destroying shots with the saber.  Zero also has a personal stake in the story given Iris is somewhat his girlfriend, and her brother is Repliforce's Colonel.  And if you didn’t catch the hint in X2, this game spells out who made Zero if you’re familiar with the Classic series. 

X has a variation of the Fourth Armor unlocked when you use a cheat code at the character select screen.  Use it and access an armor capsule to be granted the entire Ultimate Armor at once.  The only differences between it and the Fourth Armor is that it can only use the Plasma Charge Shot and it has infinite use of the Nova Strike Giga Attack.  Zero has a code too but it only changes the color of his armor to black--a reference to the fake Zero from X2--and this doesn't have any gameplay impact unfortunately. 

X5 and X6 at least change the color of his dash afterimages with Black Zero active. 

I thought that the stages felt a little longer than in older games, but that also is helped by every stage being split into two parts separated by a loading screen.  At least each half has some different features, like Cyber Peacock's stage having time trials in part 1 and gravity puzzles in part 2, or Storm Owl part 1 seeing you traverse smaller floating ships to taking on miniature laser cannons in part 2.  Jet Stingray is the only stage that's entirely autoscroll on a speeder bike up until the boss fight, and for some reason, Frost Walrus part 2 has a completely different background music from part 1.  The stage graphics change between both halves too and I thought that was nice for a change of scenery at least. 

There aren't many animated cutscenes but they're not bad for the later 90s style you may or may not remember.  Zero has a pretty nice one on his path that shows his and Sigma's first encounter before the events of the first game that's worth watching, though there's a sad one right before this.  People derided the voicework and I can understand why since it's okay at best.  They for some reason reused Mega Man's voice actress from Mega Man 8 to voice X, apparently to reinforce the idea that Rock is somehow also his little brother, X.  There are a few voice clips during gameplay, though it gets a little annoying since they're tied to jumping or attacking, like Zero's three-hit combo (hoo hah HOOOOH forever). 

You want to know how I got these scars?  It depends on if you’re thinking of the original continuity or the one where Day of Sigma takes place and Sigma gets Shining Finger’d by X. 

The controls felt great and the PS1 games allow X the use of his X-Buster as well as special weapons by putting them on Square and Triangle by default which really helps flexibility.  Sometimes you want to keep a special weapon readied while you have the buster charging or whatever.  The PS1 games have an interesting quirk with the dash feature in that if you hold down the dash button, you can get the momentum and afterimages of a dash jump when you jump, even while standing still or just running.  It doesn't have much practical use but repeated short hops with this can be one way to speed across relatively even terrain.  It seems to be an on-ground implementation of dash walljumps that appear in the other games. 

Overall, X4 isn't really a bad game.  The big draw for a lot of people was to finally play as Zero without him being a one-life wonder like in X3, and he can actually take on bosses this time.  The game's not really too hard even though the number of Sub Tanks got cut in half (but there's now a Weapon flavor and another item that bumps you to four lives when starting a stage if below four), and it's nice that you can fill the Sub Tanks even if your health isn't maxed.  Difficulty is pretty average with a couple of bosses being more annoying than outright difficult, though Sigma is one of them.  It's worth playing twice so you go through with X and Zero and see their side of the story, but for some reason there's no real mention or interaction with the character you're not playing. 

Stuff about to blow up. 

[weprajith]

History of Video Games - The First Video Game Ever Made?

As an avid retro-gamer, for quite a long time I've been particularly interested in the history of video games. To be more specific, a subject that I am very passionate about is "Which was the first video game ever made?"... So, I started an exhaustive investigation on this subject (and making this article the first one in a series of articles that will cover in detail all video gaming history).

The question was: Which was the first video game ever made?

The answer: Well, as a lot of things in life, there is no easy answer to that question. It depends on your own definition of the term "video game". For example: When you talk about "the first video game", do you mean the first video game that was commercially-made, or the first console game, or maybe the first digitally programmed game? Because of this, I made a list of 4-5 video games that in one way or another were the beginners of the video gaming industry. You will notice that the first video games were not created with the idea of getting any profit from them (back in those decades there was no Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Sega, Atari, or any other video game company around). In fact, the sole idea of a "video game" or an electronic device which was only made for "playing games and having fun" was above the imagination of over 99% of the population back in those days. But thanks to this small group of geniuses who walked the first steps into the video gaming revolution, we are able to enjoy many hours of fun and entertainment today (keeping aside the creation of millions of jobs during the past 4 or 5 decades). Without further ado, here I present the "first video game nominees":

1940s: Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device

This is considered (with official documentation) as the first electronic game device ever made. It was created by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. The game was assembled in the 1940s and submitted for an US Patent in January 1947. The patent was granted December 1948, which also makes it the first electronic game device to ever receive a patent (US Patent 2,455,992). As described in the patent, it was an analog circuit device with an array of knobs used to move a dot that appeared in the cathode ray tube display. This game was inspired by how missiles appeared in WWII radars, and the object of the game was simply controlling a "missile" in order to hit a target. In the 1940s it was extremely difficult (for not saying impossible) to show graphics in a Cathode Ray Tube display. Because of this, only the actual "missile" appeared on the display. The target and any other graphics were showed on screen overlays manually placed on the display screen. It's been said by many that Atari's famous video game "Missile Command" was created after this gaming device.

1951: NIMROD

NIMROD was the name of a digital computer device from the 50s decade. The creators of this computer were the engineers of an UK-based company under the name Ferranti, with the idea of displaying the device at the 1951 Festival of Britain (and later it was also showed in Berlin).

NIM is a two-player numerical game of strategy, which is believed to come originally from the ancient China. The rules of NIM are easy: There are a certain number of groups (or "heaps"), and each group contains a certain number of objects (a common starting array of NIM is 3 heaps containing 3, 4, and 5 objects respectively). Each player take turns removing objects from the heaps, but all removed objects must be from a single heap and at least one object is removed. The player to take the last object from the last heap loses, however there is a variation of the game where the player to take the last object of the last heap wins.

NIMROD used a lights panel as a display and was planned and made with the unique purpose of playing the game of NIM, which makes it the first digital computer device to be specifically created for playing a game (however the main idea was showing and illustrating how a digital computer works, rather than to entertain and have fun with it). Because it doesn't have "raster video equipment" as a display (a TV set, monitor, etc.) it is not considered by many people as a real "video game" (an electronic game, yes... a video game, no...). But once again, it really depends on your point of view when you talk about a "video game".

1952: OXO ("Noughts and Crosses")

This was a digital version of "Tic-Tac-Toe", created for an EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) computer. It was designed by Alexander S. Douglas from the University of Cambridge, and one more time it was not made for entertainment, it was part of his PhD Thesis on "Interactions between human and computer".

The rules of the game are those of a regular Tic-Tac-Toe game, player against the computer (no 2-player option was available). The input method was a rotary dial (like the ones in old telephones). The output was showed in a 35x16-pixel cathode-ray tube display. This game was never very popular because the EDSAC computer was only available at the University of Cambridge, so there was no way to install it and play it anywhere else (until many years later when an EDSAC emulator was created available, and by that time many other excellent video games where available as well...).

1958: Tennis for Two

"Tennis for Two" was created by William Higinbotham, a physicist working at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. This game was made as a way of entertainment, so laboratory visitors had something funny to do during their wait on "visitors day" (finally!... a video game that was created "just for fun"...) . The game was pretty well designed for its era: the ball behavior was modified by several factors like gravity, wind velocity, position and angle of contact, etc.; you had to avoid the net as in real tennis, and many other things. The video game hardware included two "joysticks" (two controllers with a rotational knob and a push button each) connected to an analog console, and an oscilloscope as a display.

"Tennis for Two" is considered by many the first video game ever created. But once again, many others differ from that idea stating that "it was a computer game, not a video game" or "the output display was an oscilloscope, not a "raster" video display... so it does not qualify as a video game". But well... you can't please everyone...

It is also rumored that "Tennis for Two" was the inspiration for Atari's mega hit "Pong", but this rumor has always been strongly denied... for obvious reasons.

1961: Spacewar!

"Spacewar!" video game was created by Stephen Russell, with the help of J. Martin Graetz, Peter Samson, Alan Kotok, Wayne Witanen and Dan Edwards from MIT. By the 1960s, MIT was "the right choice" if you wanted to do computer research and development. So this half a dozen of innovative guys took advantage of a brand-new computer was ordered and expected to arrive campus very soon (a DEC PDP-1) and started thinking about what kind of hardware testing programs would be made. When they found out that a "Precision CRT Display" would be installed to the system, they instantly decided that "some sort of visual/interactive game" would be the demonstration software of choice for the PDP-1. And after some discussion, it was soon decided to be a space battle game or something similar. After this decision, all other ideas came out pretty quick: like rules of the game, designing concepts, programming ideas, and so forth.

So after about 200 man/hours of work, the first version of the game was at last ready to be tested. The game consisted of two spaceships (affectively named by players "pencil" and "wedge") shooting missiles at each other with a star in the middle of the display (which "pulls" both spaceships because of its gravitational force). A set of control switches was used to control each spaceship (for rotation, speed, missiles, and "hyperspace"). Each spaceship have a limited amount of fuel and weapons, and the hyperspace option was like a "panic button", in case there is no other way out (it could either "save you or break you").

The computer game was an instant success between MIT students and programmers, and soon they started making their own changes to the game program (like real star charts for background, star/no star option, background disable option, angular momentum option, among others). The game code was ported to many other computer platforms (since the game required a video display, a hard to find option in 1960s systems, it was mostly ported to newer/cheaper DEC systems like the PDP-10 and PDP-11).

Spacewar! is not only considered by many as the first "real" video game (since this game does have a video display), but it also have been proved to be the true predecessor of the original arcade game, as well as being the inspiration of many other video games, consoles, and even video gaming companies (can you say "Atari"?...). But that's another story, arcade games as well as console video games were written in a different page of the history of video games (so stay tuned for future articles on these subjects).

So here they are, the "First Video Game" nominees. Which one do you think is the first video game ever made?... If you ask me, I think all these games were revolutionary for its era, and should be credited as a whole as the beginners of the video gaming revolution. Instead of looking for which one was the first video game, what is really important is that they were created, period. As the creator of "Spacewar!", Stephen Rusell, once said: "If I hadn't done it, someone would have done some

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