Three-dimensional games proved the hot topic at this year’s Game Developers Conference. Attendees experienced a plethora of 3-D technologies on the exhibit floor and participated in various 3-D related sessions. I’m not referring here to three-dimensional renderings of graphics in a two-dimensional display, the quality and prevalence of which have risen since 5th-generation console games ushered them in during the late 1990s; rather, I’m referring to stereoscopic technologies used most often for 3-D movies. My unofficial count at GDC revealed a dozen vendors […]
Let’s Get Physical! NCHEG Home Plays Finnish Game
At Strong National Museum of Play, home of NCHEG, we recently installed an exhibit that allows the public to experience one of my all-time favorite games, Crayon Physics Deluxe. It derives from the original Crayon Physics, which a co-worker got me hooked on a few years ago. The museum is a natural home for the game because of the whimsical nature of the graphics and musical soundtrack, and because (Crayola) crayons were inducted into our National Toy Hall of Fame in […]
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Russian-born Tetris Illustrates Good Design
Tetris is a great example of how simple ideas often inspire the best video games. In my recent conversation with Alexey Pajitnov, he recounted how a simple wooden puzzle game inspired him to create Tetris.
Pajitnov was working at the computer center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1984 when the thought came to him that Pentominoes would make a great computer game. Pentominoes are a mathematical puzzle in which players need to place 12 different shapes made of 5 […]
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Japanese Jewels Excite E-Bidders
Over the last few weeks my e-mail filled up with friends and other electronic games enthusiasts bringing to my attention a couple of eBay auctions. Amused at first, I quickly saw a collectors’ chain reaction happening.
These auctions centered on the rare and elusive Stadium Events video games by Bandai, a Japanese toy making company founded in 1900. The first e-mail I received referred to an auction on eBay for an “Old Nintendo NES system and five games” that sold for […]
We Extend Our Deepest Condolences
We at NCHEG extend our deepest condolences to the family and colleagues of Mark Beaumont, who suffered a fatal heart attack during the early hours of February 23. Mark was an industry veteran and visionary who began his career at Atari in 1982 and at the time of his death served as Capcom’s COO for North America and Europe. Previously he held various positions with Activision, Time Warner Interactive, Data East, Mindscape, and Psygnois.
A 1987 interview in Compute! Magazine demonstrates […]
Welcome to Farmville–Please Have Your I.D. Ready
Happy Aquarium
Recently, I reluctantly signed up for Facebook. The site’s grown too large for me to ignore it any longer—and Lord knows I have tried. Part of the reason I joined is because Facebook has become a huge platform for the delivery of games. Several people I know don’t consider themselves gamers, yet they play Facebook games on a regular basis, mostly to maintain their farms in Zynga’s FarmVille and aquariums in CrowdStar’s Happy Aquarium.
These real-time simulation games’ immense popularity […]
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Holiday Geek Gift List
Although the electronic games of my youth have since evolved into something different, one thing has remained the same: savvy marketers continue to cash in on the popularity of electronic games through non-electronic merchandise. In addition, Internet storefronts allow innovative individuals to create and market their own electronic game-related products. The breadth of available items (and the oddity of said items) has grown exponentially.
As a tween in the 1980s, I owned various Pac-Man themed objects. I had the Pac-Man bed sheets and […]
My Guitar Hero Problem
It’s not that I play too much, quite the contrary. The Guitar Hero game I’ve had at home since last Christmas is still wrapped in cellophane. I just can’t bring myself to buy the guitar controller required to play the game.
My reluctance is not a reflection of the game, which is by all measures popular, fun, and imaginative. Guitar Hero is more than a game actually. It’s a pop culture and gaming milestone that has opened doors for an […]
Get Your Goo
Here’s a neat opportunity you might want to seize from 2D Boy Games.
Their World of Goo is a unique and quirky physics-based puzzle game that won both the Design Innovation Award and the Technical Excellence Award at the Independent Games Festival in 2008.
World of Goo’s success demonstrates not only the rise in popularity of independently-developed games, but also the emphasis on physics in several recent puzzle games. World of Goo is included in a survey of casual games guests can play […]
