Seth Gorden

Pier Solar - Watermelon, juicy development

As discovered by The Artful Gamer and Retro Gamer Magazine, a new title has come to the Sega Genesis/Sega CD. Over four years in the making, a team of dedicated fans have brought their love of classic JRPGs to life. Started as a project among sega-loving forum members, they have leveraged a fan-built SDK, loads of talent, and poured their efforts into Pier Solar, a story of healing and friendship…

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Breath of Death VII - Zeboyd Games

A great accomplishment comes to us from independent developer Zeboyd Games (listed as ‘RainbowDespair’ on XBOX Live Marketplace). I learned about this game through a Kotaku article posting about the success of the title through the XBox Live Arcade service. I was excited to see an old-school RPG come out and make a splash.

The game follows several colorful characters…

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While I never run out of commentary or complaints about various aspects of the gaming industry, it doesn’t always make for the most stimulating blogging experience. To remedy this, I’ve decided to create and update a new page on this site, which I have dubbed Retro Lane. Therein, I will begin posting on happenings in the gaming world that really do get me excited. Please visit the page, and read about some retro-inspired projects and posts. Go ahead. It will be good. Like old times.

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Most mornings, I can set a watch by my stomach. At 10am sharp, I will be hungry. This is generally an interruption to the day. And if no snack-able items are present, it does not make me a happy camper. I am likely to be thinking about lunch for the next two hours. But there is hope.

I have discovered a magic food. It is called a Blueberry Bagel. They are thick and force me to chew slowly, thereby extending the enjoyment of eating. And afterward, time seems to pass quickly without thought of consuming more food.

However, tragedy has befallen me this week, having consumed the last Blueberry Bagel. Sad times. Must attain more, for they are delicious and magical.

Warren Spector is my new favorite designer, as per the Gamasutra interview I just read.

When asked about the limited processing power of the Wii for his current project Epic Mickey, he said this:

“Constraints always push you to be more creative. I mean whatever the constraints are, whether it’s the constraints of a license, the constraints of a piece of hardware, I mean, no creative act is made better by being constraint free.”

And isn’t it the truth? This man gets it. A few fun facts that support this idea:

The Nintendo Entertainment System revitalized the Video Games industry in America after the Video Game Crash of 1983. It had only 56 colors and a central processor that ran at 1.66 MHz. That’s less than 2 mega-hertz, people.

The most successful game console to date, Nintendo’s Gameboy, had only four shades of gray and central processor that ran at 4.19 MHz. It sold well over 100 million units worldwide.

It turns out that a few bright colors and a couple mega-hertz were enough to revitalize an industry. A few shades of gray were enough to set sales records that top any console since created.

But why was it enough? (more…)