Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with videogame

current state of competitive gaming

low affect — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:32:30 -0800

What video game competitions award the most prize money? How much are kids pulling down per month or per year? Playing which games? This is mostly an international question. From what I can tell, this isn't as big in the US as it is in Korea, Sweden, and ... where else? Are kids in the US making a living playing games competitively?

Appealing, school-appropriate video game clip?

daisyace — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:00:02 -0800

I would like to find a link for a short video clip of a video game that meets certain criteria. It will go into a presentation to elementary school teachers, as a quick backdrop to a point about interactive games that will be used in school, and that will be fun while challenging kids to think and learn. (It won't itself BE that game; it just has to plausibly look the part.) It needs to have some connection to an outer space theme. So to recap and clarify the criteria:
* At least a 5-second, decent quality clip available online.
* Looks appropriate for kids younger than 12.
* Looks appropriate for a school setting (so, no shoot 'ems, etc.).
* Look like it helps kids think and learn, but preferably not as explicitly as math sums that appear on screen or something - think more like 'puzzles and challenges,' less like 'pick the word that starts with A.'
* Looks interactive.
* Some connection to an outer space theme.

Suggestions would be great, links even better.

Movies from video game footage?

snowjoe — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:52:25 -0800

Help me find this NPR story about making movies from video game footage. I think it was two days ago (April 14, 2008) I heard part of a radio article or show on KPCC (NPR) about making feature length movies using video game "footage". I would like to find the entire article and listen to it but my googlefu isn't working. I would also like find a website or some other venue where I can view some of these movies and learn some of the technology used to make them. Ideas?

Looking for help with some Rock Band tournament questions

idleminded — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:57:17 -0800

I'm hosting a Rock Band tournament in a "battle of the bands" style competition and I'm looking for prize suggestions (as well as some other tips). I've heard of custom Guitar Hero controllers, but is there a place online that does custom Rock Band controller paint jobs? I run a video game club at my college and we're holding a Rock Band tournament as a really major event. We want to have judges rate competitors as a band in terms of style (playing behind the head, drum tricks, etc.), band unity (how well they work together), and dress (we want them to dress like rock stars). I should mention that this is the first time we've done a tournament this way, so any tips on running it like this would be great.

But here's the real question, I have been trying to come up with some good ideas for prizes and have come across some custom painted guitar hero controllers. Is there a place that can do custom painted Rock Band controllers online? Any other suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

Halo 3, a 9.5? No way

brandnew — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 06:14:50 -0800

Are video game reviews legitimate? How does the "official" video game review system really work? When I'm in the mood for a new video game, I usually start at a game review aggregator like gamerankings.com. Then, I sort the latest games from the last so many months by average rating. Then, I work my way down the list until something interesting stands out. It's not a very inspiring approach, but it seems to have worked well enough for the amount of time I have put toward it.

However, very often I've noticed that the individual review sites' scores are very close to one another. And, when I say close I mean like exactly same, or within 1 or 2 point variance on a 100 point scale. Further, the score similarities seems to be present on the very best games as well as the worst ones. This phenomenon is much different from what I experience with movie reviews where an individual professional review may vary wildly from one another.

So, my educated guess is that one of two things are happening: 1) the bigger game review sites are collaborating on the reviews, either amongst themselves or with the game production companies. Or, 2) the game review sites are all using some similar quantitative, objective criteria to come up with their ratings. I'm sure a little of both happens, but I'm probably missing something obvious as well.

So, for those of you who work in the game industry (or know how it works), how are games actually reviewed? What is the process for a review, from the time a game is announced to the time it's published in one of the more major sites or magazines?

Why are my videogame screen captures the wrong colors?

Orb2069 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:12:24 -0800

Trying to save Videogame screen captures under Windows XP. They're supposed to look like this, but they wind up looking like this(Color pallete wrong). What am I doing wrong? I did this using PrtSc-Ctrl to copy the image into the buffer, then pasted into MSPaint. Pasting into OpenOffice with the same results. Trying to paste directly into the GIMP wound up with a solid-black block. The program PasteOff refuses to even pick up images from the game.

If nothing else, does anybody have any ideas how I could fix the files?

Who wouldn't want a video game movie?

cmyk — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:01:42 -0800

I'll Query The Hive Mind For You Filter: late-eighties or early-nineties video game that involved a VHS tape and a light gun that may have resembled a rocket ship? A friend asked me about a video game and I had no idea, so now I'm asking you.

He had, or thinks he had, a game that involved a Duck Hunt style light gun and a VHS tape. I don't know if this was attached to some sort of console, but he's had everything Nintendo since ever, so it could've been a "Plays on Nintendo!" independent add-on.

The way it worked was: you put in the tape and got your gun, which may have resembled the spaceship that all the characters lived on. There would be expository scenes, with really bad acting and worse special effects, and then you'd play a shoot-em-up sort of game that was laid over the movie. You couldn't really lose, because the movie would keep playing anyway, so whatever you shot in the game just got you points.

The only other bit of information I've got was that the people played chess on this spaceship, especially the captain and a girl. (I hope I'm remembering all of this correctly.)

XBox360 or PS3?

Koko — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 12:20:01 -0800

Please to give me the pros and cons for XBox360 and PS3. Now that the PS3 has been out for about a year, how does it compare to the XBox? We'll be buying a console game soon, and have narrowed it down to these two (we're not interested in the Wii). Most articles and AskMe threads I've been able to find on the subject are a year old. So, gamers, which do you prefer? Most of the better games are cross-platform by now, so that's not much of an issue, is it? Is overheating really that much of a problem with the XBox? What about other mechanical concerns? Are the graphics capabilities fairly comparable? We do not have HDTV, but we do have a 6.1 surround system that supports DTS. Our interests in games spans pretty much all genres.

Thanks!

Linking diverse gameboys

baf — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:18:06 -0800

What's the best way for two people with incompatible gameboys to trade pokemon? I recently started playing my old Pokemon Blue game again, picking up from where I left off many years ago, intending to catch 'em all this time. A friend of mine dug his Pokemon Red cartridge out of storage to help me, but his gameboy is an old Gameboy Pocket and mine is a GBA, which means we can't hook them together with standard cables: Nintendo changed the plugs, and for all I know maybe the transfer protocol, between hardware versions.

What's my best course of action at this point? Try to obtain or create an adapter? Make friends with another GBA owner to facilitate trades? Buy a second used GBA off ebay?

I tired of not looking behind the curtain.

Phantomx — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 16:55:43 -0800

Is there a resource to find out what features/problems have been addressed when a game auto-updates on my Xbox 360? So many games have auto-updated (heaven forbid we call them patches) but they never mention what is going on. I would like to know what is going on when those happen, but I can't find it anywhere online or in the xbox.

Do you remember that conversation based video game?

TeatimeGrommit — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 16:18:03 -0800

I can't remember the name of this video game. It was an academic project, as I recall. The entire thing is conversation based. What the player types is parsed by a natural language processing engine so the game seems to understand what you say. It takes place in a single room and revolves around a couple with a not-so-great marriage.

Looking for the name of an old C64 game

lyam — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:54:44 -0800

Looking for the name of a game I encountered on the Commodore 64 around 1987 or so. I remember it being a martial arts themed, 2 player, sidescrolling 'running race' through a series of different traps (fireballs, guillotines, etc...) The characters were small and the stages were labyrynthine. The stages were static on the screen and when your character reached the end of one another would appear. When your character was killed by a trap, you'd start over at the beginning.

My memory is a bit fuzzy so I may be conflating some of the minor details with another game, but any leads you might have would be fantastic. Thanks!

Will a PS3 bought in Singapore work in Brazil?

dcrocha — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 03:38:32 -0800

Will a Playstation 3 bought in Singapore work in Brazil? By "work" I mean play the games in color and not black-and-white. Devices bought in the USA work because TVs in Brazil are all PAL-M/NTSC compatible, but not sure about Singapore's color system.

Videogame design program collection development

foxinthesnow — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:57:06 -0800

Hypothetically, if you had $10,000 to build a library collection to support a videogame design/animation program, what items would include? It doesn't have to be just books. Are there any online subscription resources you would recommend? Magazines? I don't know where to start.

Best price/performance modern video card?

killdevil — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:40:06 -0800

Neeerrrrrrrrdfilter: I want to play Bioshock. Help me find the most economical way to upgrade my video hardware so that it will run the game satisfactorily. My desktop machine is a not-over-the-hill-but-not-brand-new Pentium D (last gasp of the Pentium IV architecture if I recall correctly) running at 3.2GHz. It came with an nVidia GeForce 6800 (AGP), which I use to play Source-engine games at 1920x1200 and about 30fps with HDR disabled.

My understanding is that Bioshock -- and other new games, for that matter -- will probably not run especially well on a GeForce 6800. What is the best modern ATI or nVidia card I can buy from a price / performance standpoint? I don't want to drop $500 on a bleeding-edge video card, but I do want to play Bioshock at or near full settings, and also be able to play Day of Defeat: Source at much better framerates WITH HDR enabled.

Suggestions?

What is a "Reverse Miracle Putt"?

britcoal — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:45:14 -0800

What is Miracle Chosuke's "Reverse Miracle Putt", exactly? There was a game called Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf for the 8-bit Nintendo. There were four "characters" you could play and one of them, Miracle Chosuke, was able to perform a "reverse miracle putt" (a specialty).. I've played too many holes of golf on this game in my life but I have no idea what that shot actually entails.

Name this FPS...

rancidchickn — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 16:34:09 -0800

Can you name this PC game I remember playing around 8 years go? I remember playing this game on my Windows 98 machine. I'm guessing it was about 8 years ago. I can only recall a couple things about the game.

1) It was an FPS
2) The game (or atleast the level I remember) took place on a farm
3) There were mosquitos so big that you could kill them with a shotgun

Looking for an old Mac game

NewGear — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 19:25:52 -0800

Looking for an old Macintosh game, where you flip reflectors to get a ball to bounce from one side to the other, This game may have dated back to the OS6 days (if my memory is working right); it was definitely a black-and-white game, and I seem to remember it being on the old 9-inch screen. Basically, there was a grid on the screen with a bunch of randomly placed reflectors (shaped like forward-slashes or back-slashes). There was a small ball on the left of the grid, just outside the frame. When you pressed the spacebar (or maybe a "go" button?) the ball started moving through the grid, left to right, in a straight line. If it made contact with one of the reflectors, it would bounce off at a 90 degree angle and continue until it hit another reflector.

The way the game was played, you would click on the reflectors, which would make them flip to the opposite type (front-slash to back-slash and vice-versa). You would have to set up the reflectors so that when you started the ball moving, it would make its way to the right-hand edge of the grid, bouncing off reflectors as it goes. A new, random board would be generated each time you played.

I loved this game; it was basically one of those things you could fire up and play quickly to pass a few minutes, a sort of solitaire physics thingy. I loved tracing the potential path of the ball through the grid and off the reflectors, and trying to get it to make it all the way through on the first go.

I've looked through Google and a Mac abandonware site, but have had no luck finding this little gem. Does anybody know what it was called and/or where to find it?

Thanks!

Video game design for middle-schoolers?

mai — Wed, 16 May 2007 13:58:18 -0800

My middle-school students are interested in video game design. What classroom projects can we do? Many of my 7th-grade students (primarily the boys) have got in their heads the desire to make video games when they grow up.

I would like to give them a taste of what this would actually be like so that they can better understand the skills that go into creating a video game - storytelling, programming, art design, etc. I am hoping this will motivate them in general. Also it might be a nice way to pass a few days in class.

What online resources or other resources can I show them that either overview the game-design process or let them design their own games? How else can I teach them about video game design?

I have two computers in my classroom, and a laptop that I can, in theory, hook up to an LCD projector, although securing this is logistically tricky and so should have high payoff.

Help with "The Typing of the Dead"

evilelf — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 19:01:29 -0800

Help with video drivers for 'The Typing of the Dead'. OK, Google search did return some answers but nothing helpful. When I attempt to run the application I get the following error: 'Not Support Graphic Device' How can I fix? Well, I've tried it on three machines. Three different video cards but no luck. Is there something I'm missing? Some sites mention patches but nothing I could download.

How to switch a Wii to 480p without even looking.

Eddie Mars — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 10:06:07 -0800

Help Mii with my Wii! I would like to hook my Wii up to a projector. The problem is, the projector can only display progressive scan video -- not interlaced.
I've bought the component cables for the Wii which support 480p, but you have to switch the Wii to this video mode via a menu. Until you make the change, the signal goes out as 480i.

I have it hooked up to my TV now, which does support interlaced video, but not progressive. Seems like I could turn on 480p there, and then hook it up to the projector, but the 480p option is greyed out because I'm hooked up with the original cable which only does 480i. I'm caught in a catch-22.

My question: Is there another way to force the Wii to switch over to 480p. Alternately, is there a *cheap* box that can convert the signal for me?

Help me find other games in the same vein as Seven Kingdoms or, failing that, Netstorm.

TrueVox — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 09:33:01 -0800

Looking for another game in the same vein as Seven Kingdoms or, failing that, Netstorm. Both of these games held great allure for me when they first came out (and off and on over the years since). Now, while I'm currently loading them both up to play again, my appetite has grown to the point that I desire something more.

I fell in love with the resource/trade system of Seven Kingdoms, and Netstorm was just a very unique concept to me, a combination of Magic: The Gathering, Street racing with Pink Slips, and a floating island background that has really stuck with me through the years.

So, what do you say, fellow AskMeFites? Any ideas that might appeal to a mind like mine (for the record, also a fan of Alpha Centauri, best Civ game ever!)?

It's a Wii, Wario!

superbird — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 16:37:08 -0800

I want to host an awesome and inclusive Wario-Ware Tournament/Party. I recently bought Wario Ware: Smooth Moves for the Wii, and I am really excited about having a crazy-fun tournament night where married couples will enjoy themselves.

I want everyone invited to have an equally fun time, even if they don't like video games all that much. Any ideas, from those who know anything about the game, how to organize it and what sort of game modes or events I should include? Should I do the bracket system or some sort of elaborate point system, or a hybrid of both?

Also welcome are ideas for luring skeptics who may balk at the idea of a party based around a video game.

Game design software advice needed

davey_darling — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:37:06 -0800

Help me help my students design video games. I am a high school communications technology teacher. I would like to give my students the opportunity to design their own video games. I am not quite as interested in the actual programming aspect as I am with giving them the chance to develop 3d environments and characters that they can run around shooting stuff in.

I downloaded the “Torque Game Engine” demo from http://www.garagegames.com/, and it seems like it would do what I want it to. Would this allow my students start from a blank environment and add graphics, characters and gameplay elements in order to create their own playable games? Is there some other software package I should be looking at?

I’d like to see a few options (price and feature wise)

If you have any sort of experience in this field, I would love to hear your input.

We are PC based with no chance of going to Macs (at all, ever)

Who did the beautiful concept art for Elebits?

santojulieta — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 18:49:26 -0800

IGN.com posted some of the original concept artwork for the new game, Elebits, and it's graphically stunning. Do you know who the artist is? What other work is he/she responsible for? (Be nice; I'm new!)