Tecmo added to Wii virtual console

This just keeps getting better and better.

Japanese developer Tecmo has become the latest company to agree tosupport the Wii’s ‘Virtual Console’ digital download capabilities, aspart of business plans revealed for the company’s second half of 2006.

According to the plan, which also involves toy and pachinko merchandising of franchises such as Dead or Alive, “active efforts” are being made with regards to the virtual console – although not specific titles have yet been announced.

This is fantastic news for fans of the following NES games:


And who knows what else?

This is going to be an expensive holiday for gamers.

Manifesto Games becomes more than an ideal

I mentioned Greg Costikyan‘s desire for a utopian gaming distribution method back when I was blogging at the Evil Network, and now it looks as though that ideal is finally starting to work its way into a real PC content delivery system.

A typical game store has fewer than 200 facings. Yet thousands of titles are released each year. The result is that a game has two weeks or less to establish itself–and if it isn’t selling through in that short time-frame, it’s into the bargain bin to make room for the next title.

The result: highly hyped mediocre games win out over stealth masterpieces. There is no time for word-of-mouth to do its magic, no way to build a groundswell of enthusiasm for a fine new game.

And as a result (also of the high budgets required for A-level titles), the conventional channel is no longer interested in any game that can’t project a bare minimum of 300,000 unit sales. There is no room for games with niche appeal–or even for games in genres that still have a following, but cannot generate those kinds of sales. Computer wargames, graphic adventures, flight sims, turn-based fantasy, 4X–they’re all gradually disappearing from the shelves.

We say the hell with this. Broadband is spreading. Shelfspace is not an issue on the Internet. Let’s move online–and let’s offer as many titles, of as many different types, as we can. Let’s appeal to every niche we can find, and let’s make it possible for someone who controls his budget, and knows he can sell 10,000 copies, to make a decent living doing so.

Greg makes it impossible to NOT support this kind of system. It’s essentially the same ideal and method of delivery that makes social software on the internet such a mind-blowing success. Sites like digg and YouTube and services like blogging and photo sharing are all built on the foundation of freedom. The user gets to control the content and what they see. The experience is no longer managed by some faceless publishing and/or distribution overlord. It’s in your hands. It’s the very essence of freedom. That’s why you have to support an effort like Manifesto Games. Because those publishing overlords? They hate our freedom. Let’s fight them together using our armament of consumer dollars.

Penny Arcade game in development?

How is this for Friday news?

The creators of online ultracomic Penny Arcade have joined forces with Hothead Games, an independent and experienced video game developer, to collaboratively create video games based on the Penny Arcade comic.

“We’re really excited to be working with Hothead Games on our first electronic adventure,” said writer Jerry Holkins, his clawed feet resting atop a huge slab of granite. “From the moment we laid eyes on them, it was clear they had the technical and creative chops to execute our grim vision. Now that we have pooled our strengths, our dark work may truly begin.” Holkins then paused to eat a rat whole.

The first game, entitled Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, will be a comic adventure game initially available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, followed by a version for next-generation consoles. The game will be available by digital download, delivered in episodic format with new installments of the adventure coming out several times a year.

This is all at once a bit puzzling, exciting, and intimidating. I caveat this post with the revelation that I am a huge fan of Penny Arcade. But even I’m not sure how the webcomic would translate into a video game. The comic covers a lot of ground in various arenas of nerd discourse, mainly revolving around the games industry, but often delving into such topics as the tech industry, book publishing, general webcomics interests, etcetera, etcetera. What will we be doing in this game? Controlling the main characters Tycho (Jerry Holkins) and Gabe (Mike Krahulik) through…what, exactly? A trip to IHOP? An Eldritch Saga? Hobo rapings? I can’t imagine for the life of me what this game will have its participants doing. Maybe we’ll just click the button as we scroll through an archive of all their comics.

Being such outspoken critics of the utter garbage the gaming industry can toss at us consumers, one has to ponder — what if this is crap? What will they do then? Will they lose their credibility? Will they shill their product despite it’s poor showing on Gamerankings? Will they admit it and apologize to their fanbase for allowing their brand to be attached to an abysmal failure?

So many questions. I can, however, assure you that this turn of events is NOT evidence that the PA guys have indeed sold out. Selling out is not simply “taking money in exchange for doing something.” That’s generally referred to as “work”. Selling out means that you toss your ethics and morals aside, compromise what you’re currently doing and alter it in order to suit some larger purpose, usually a purpose that has handed you a wheelbarrow full of cash. I don’t see that here. They are absolutely making a great use of their established brand, and that’s marketing, not selling out. Learn the difference, naysayers.

In any case, I’m interested to see where this takes us.

Battalion Wars 2 for the Wii

After hearing about Battalion Wars 2 for the Wii I was faily interested. Hearing that it will include online multiplayer, I got excited. Seeing the controls, I’m absolutely ecstatic. People who don’t think the Wii will bring about a gaming revolution simply aren’t paying attention.

I’m pretty busy at work these days. That’s why you’re only getting short spurts of uninspired content from me. Just an FYI.

Not really news, according to 1up

There’s a “not really news” story floating around the internets today, clogging up the tubes. Evidently, Electronic Arts thinks the Nintendo Wii will retail for $170. Surprising news, right? Sure, unless you’re familiar with the news story Shacknews posted last week regarding a Japanese financial analysis firm saying that exact same thing, citing lower CPU chipset prices as potentially alleviating some of Nintendo’s Wii production costs.

The best part of this story has to be the 1up article title, “EA says Wii price at $170? Not really”. Which looks like this in my browser:

Which is basically true. We’re led to believe that EA has some kind of insider information, but really, they’re just hearing the same predictions from the same analysts as the rest of us. They’re just getting their own quotes for the news is all.

Help me update our webcomics listing!

A thread over on Evil Avatar forced me to realize that I haven’t updated my webcomics listing in a long, long, long time.

Here’s a few comics I plan to add to the listing in the next week or so.

Anything you want to see added? Anything on the list you think should be removed? Please let me know! Either submit your thoughts in the comments or send me an email. I should probably solicit ideas like this on a monthly basis to make sure my list is kept fresh.

New header graphic…drinking water

We got the chance last month to check out a huge popular park in Des Moines. All of us spent the afternoon there with the wife’s father and stepmother. It was July in Iowa, which means it was hot. Very hot. Caleb drank lot of water. The rest of sat in a lot of shade. Great fun was had, and discoveries made. Such as, did you know that grandpa doesn’t like being sprayed with water, especially while holding an expensive new camera? It’s true! Of course, Caleb had to test the theory.