For a gaming community there are relatively few topics on console modifications and the homebrew scene here so I thought, why not write an article? And here it is.

Saying "Sorry" to my Nintendo DS

About three weeks ago I picked up my Nintendo DS to have a game of Final Fantasy IV when it occured to me that the damn thing looked disgraceful. Sporting numerous scratches and grazes from the odd drop my desk and the dreaded fall down two flights of stairs my silver DS bore the personality of a console that has not just been abused but a console that has actually been to war and come back as a veteran. When my friends ask me what happened to my DS I have to tell them that it "walked into a door" because I don't want them to find out the harsh truth that I am a console abuser.

To repent for my sins I went out into the English desert and meditated in a holy cave for 40 days and 40 nights, feeding on failed Sony data formats to keep starvation at bay. Returning home with the sour taste of betamax eating away at my gums, I logged onto the internet and ordered a replacement case from a respectable sounding Chinese merchant on that new-fangled auction site that the kids of today call eBay. After another prolonged 40 days and 40 nights, it arrived. ...

Good morning class, over the next few weeks our lectures will focus on discussing and evaluating the different methods and approaches that can be undertaken when designing a videogame; I will be pointing out where a lot of people go wrong as well as the many traps that lay ahead throughout the development process. Open your text books to page 1, you will see that this series is designed for general development, meaning it covers any game design program...
...
...
There will be no talking until after the lecture!

*Turns to face the Whiteboard*



Starting a game is always the easiest part of development; once you have an idea, you naturally try to get the ball rolling as fast as you can by diving straight into it.
Trap: When ideas flow, they are generally in short supply, trying to produce something when the idea is fresh is where a lot of people go wrong.

In this issue, you will learn how to plan and organise a project so that it is ready for the next stage of development. ...

Back in the year 1984 during a time when there was in fact no perpetual war (Sorry Orwell), ATARI released an arcade game called Marble Madness. Such was the popularity of the title, an early Electronic Arts got their hands on it and it was subsequently ported to most consoles and home computers. I was born in 1987 and I grew up in the 90s. I remember spending hours taking turns playing Marble Madness on my friend's Sega Master System. Fantastic.



That's all very nice, Ed - but what has this got to do with learning Lite-C?
Well, since we're on tutorial number three now I would like to give my students the opportunity to make a game that is beyond mere technicality and actually fun to play. Today I will be making a Marble Madness game and hopefully feeding you with the knowledge to create your own or something similar.

Ready to begin?

Tip: If you are new to Lite-C I strongly recommend that you have a go at my previous tutorials before attempting this one as it progresses beyond basic understanding. ...

An interview by Strangeluv

♥ INTERVIEW WITH OCEAN'S DREAM ♥

The weather started getting rough,
The tiny ship was tossed,
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The S.S. Misao would be lost, the S.S. Misao would be lost.

The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle
With Gilli-game
The Ripper too,
The Misaoaire
And his wife,
The hype-r star
The Chipsetter and Iaman,
Here on Gilli-game's Isle.

I open my eyes. Nothing but deserted shoreline. All my crew is dead. Stuck... on this strange isle. Nothing to do but walk so I start plodding along the coast. Maybe there's someone near.

After half an hour of walking, I see a figure in the distance. A slim womanly figure. I get closer to her. I can see a little more of her now. She has supple breasts and firm thighs. Her eyes are big and blue... like the ocean. Was I dreaming? She looked like the woman of my dreams. Maybe she was a dream from the ocean. An Ocean's Dream.

I approached her... trying not to startle her...

SL:Excuse me, ma'am? ...

Greetings to members of the Gaming World Indie Game Development scene and other members alike.
Prof. Knight here to talk to you about the Harsh Realities of the Development Forums.
Today we are going to break away a bit and take a more in depth look down GW’s Game Dev. Cavern to harvest whatever possible diamonds and probable fungi that lurk deep within.

Let’s begin with a brief observation of the current “state” that Indie Game Development is in...

Topics may showcase a Full Game or Lengthy Demo.
Fact: You can release your game to be viewed and rated in a live environment.
Harsh Reality: Indie Game Development is like a last generation console, sitting there gathering dust, used every now and then...

Topics may involve discussing general Game Design and Development.
Fact: They have to go somewhere, and we can’t clutter the Game and Demo Advertising forum.
Harsh Reality: We clutter the forum that has completed material as a means of bringing more people into the forum... ...

What ho, fellow gamers!  Today's tabletop spotlight is a departure from the dank dungeons and crowded high-fantasy streets you're most familiar with.  Today, I bring you a game so esoteric that it goes for quite a mint in online auctions.  A game that garnered some controversy and was refused to be carried in some shops.  A game that was praised by psychologists and lambasted by concerned parents.  This game of horror and imagination is

Little Fears - The Roleplaying Game of Childhood Terror



Grab some Lovecraft, remove the dry and repetitive plot devices, toss it in a pot and mix it up with some Lewis Carrol whimsy and you get Little Fears, a game that pits you as a six to twelve year old child in a world of nightmares.  As a mentally disturbed child, you are consistently haunted by nefarious Demagogue and the Seven Kings of Closetland all of which are based on the seven deadly sins.  Armed with "Belief" the ability to shape the "matter" of imagination, you must defeat the kings and the monsters in the closet without going crazy. ...

• So the GW Olympics was announced over in the General forum, with a list of possible activities. Over the next few weeks, these events will be popping up around the Videogame forum, so make sure you sign up when they arrive.
• The Netplay Tournament Event has a topic open over in the VG forum deciding which game the event will be taking place in. So far Street Fighter Alpha 3 is in the lead, though closely followed by Street Fighter III: Third Strike. Also in the poll are Garou: Mark of the Wolves and Street Fighter 2 Turbo.

• Details of the Team Fortress 2 Teams Event have been leaked, the event will most likely be in teams of 5 or 6 competitors in some Capture the Flag matches.

• The Speedrun Event is deciding which game and level the event will take place on. Have your say now.

this was totally 100% by me and totally 100% not by gz



today is my day off. this is normally grand news. however on my way down the elevator to leave my office i was trapped. apparently someone has been throwing garbage down the adjacent broken elevator shaft and this jammed the elevator. in any event i was trapped for two hours with a man named pasty and i decided i would kill three eagles with one spear and interview him impromptu. warning: this interview is 100% impromptu:

Doug Beach PHD: hello pasty it is great to meet you. tell us about the man behind the games... do you practise witchcraft? what occupation do you have? what is your preferred toothpaste? converted into hex code what is your age?

Pasty: well hello there!  it is great to meet you too -- i will be sure to tell the wiccan order about you (yes) i do intelligence analysis work in the military (military) i'll give you a hint it is white and comes out of a tube (crest) 16 (22). i am male (cribs notes) and i make games (poorly). ...

Gaming on the Cheap - Dead to Rights II


Today I’m going to do a Gaming on the Cheap article that’s a little out of the norm for a series like this one. I’m not going to recommend a gem, or warn away from an absolute stinker. No, today is really about discussing how a franchise could change so rapidly on the inside whilst trying to disguise it all with a glossier coat of paint.

If you’re a connoisseur of horrible movies no doubt you’ll know about Troll 2. It’s a low budget gore-fest, hastily put together, full of hideous dialogue and non-actors doing their best. It’s a sequel to the original only by name as it seems that when it came time to deliver a product the makers had little faith in the product and decided to change the name to cash-in of a reasonably successful predecessor. The movie didn’t even feature any trolls (they were actually goblins). If you imagine the original Troll as a solid, even good videogame rather than a poor horror film and its sequel carrying many of the cash-in traits of the second Troll movie then you might start to see where I’m heading with this analogy. This time it really seems like a goblin is the star of the game, although the makers have still called him a troll. ...

Holy shit it’s the



FULL GAMES AND DEMOS:

Okay, here’s where you can find reviews of all the games that were released in the last week. First up:



‘Pirates’ sees two buccaneers, Duck and Penguin, making off with a cursed ship while being chased by the ship’s vengeful guardian, who summons various local creatures to finish them off. This is a full-length shmup made in RM2k3.

First off, I’m pretty blown away by the fact that this was done in RM! I mean, yeah, I guess it can be a pretty versatile engine if you really work at it and people have made stuff like platformers or whatever in it, but it’s still pretty incredible that there’s realistic seagull physics or whatever on display here.
Anyway, about the game itself… ‘Pirates’ is a shmup with a difference, in that it has a more strategic element than the usual bullet hell stuff. Firstly, the bullets you fire are cannonballs, so they move like cannonballs: in an arc, instead of a straight line… And an arc with fairly limited range, at that. Then there’s the fact that you can’t have two cannonballs in the air simultaneously, and that the angle of your shot affects the rate of fire, and yeah, it means that you’re forced to take a more measured approach to taking down enemies instead of just blasting anything that moves. It can take a little getting used to, and it gets pretty fucking difficult on the later levels, but it does add a sense of depth to the proceedings and it’s pretty cool to have a shmup which isn’t just about spamming the fire key as much as possible. ...