Collector’s Corner #3: the Weirdest Thing in my Collection

Collector’s Corner #3: the Weirdest Thing in my Collection

If there is a standard in video game hardware, it is the cheap knockoff.  Since the beginning of video gaming, companies have been taking advantage of the video game market with cheap imitations and low quality ripoffs.  Higher end versions of this can be considered as the unlicensed games on early consoles, such as Bible games and NES games by TENGEN.  These days, the biggest knockoffs are knockoff systems.  Many systems try to emulate the look of other systems, especially the Wii, and come pre-loaded with a ton of games.  Most of these are cheaply made, are generic as hell, and control like ass.  Go to any Rite Aid or Walgreen's and you will see this all over the gift and electronics aisles.

In my younger years, my parents could not afford to get me a Gameboy.  Friends and family had Gameboys and Gamegears, and I had jack squat.  In the early 90’s, this could be countered with the Tiger Handheld electronic toys, which were basically monochromatic games on a pre rendered background and an LCD screen.  Anyone who grew up then remembers these, but apparently they are still going.

Unfortunately, I could not afford to have a ton of these systems, so I needed the next best thing.  Enter the no-name knockoffs, handhelds that claimed to hold “hundreds” of games on one console.  I remember these being sold at Boscov’s, with commercials appearing on late night infomercials and during ECW broadcasts (pre WWE).  This, my friends, is the Pro400 Gaming System, the weirdest console that I own.

Dafuq????

I do not remember exactly when I got this, but I want to say some time in 1997 or 1998.  This was not the one that was on TV a lot, but it is close enough.  Boasting a whopping 400 games, how can this go wrong?
The console itself has a decent, and surprisingly comfortable shape to it.  It has an oblong oval shape, with curved edges all around the device.  It is about 8 inches wide, and at its worst about an inch and a half thick, though the meat of the body is only around an inch.  It has a flip up screen, a 4 day D-Pad, and a single action button, that is used to both play games and select the play modes.

On the back of the console is the lone mono speaker, along with the battery ports for the device (2 AA’s) and a port for a small battery backup.  Why the smaller battery?  Well…

Once the screen is flipped, the basic outline of the play area is shown, along with a handy calculator...for some reason.  I have had this system for at least 15 years, and the calculator still works, so these batteries last a long time. Next to the calculator screen are 4 buttons: Pause/Start, Off/On, Reset, and Mute.  The volume has four different levels, going from loudest to muted.

Still Funny

The gameplay consists of block shapes displayed on a 10x20 grid.  Above and on the sides are all the different displays for each type of game.
While the game boasts 400 games, it is really just 9 games with a ton of different modes.  You get basic clones of classics such as Arkanoid, Combat, a vertical version of Pole Position, Frogger, Snake, random block shooting games, Simon, and about 8 versions of Tetris, each with a different catch. Some move to the left each time, some to the right, some are inverted, etc, etc.

I don’t remember how much this console cost, but I want to say somewhere around $50.  For the time, was it worth it?  Depending on your situation...possibly.  Playing it now, you really need to mash the buttons to get a response.  I am not sure if that is a product of age, or if it was always like that, but it is still pretty bad.  The music that plays in the beginning is a chiptune version of “1 little 2 little 3 little indians,” with the death screen being a classic tune that is instantly recognizable but I can’t remember at the time.  In game, there is no music, just the same chip sounds for shooting or moving, with the lone exception being the sounds for acceleration in the racing game.

Game Select Screen

Some games play better than others, with the Arkanoid and Tetris clones playing the best of all.  If there is one thing that this system does have going for it, it emulates a bunch of games that are all time classics.  The problem with many of todays knockoff systems is it tries to get too fancy with the games.  This game keeps it simple, and while it might not be the best playing, it at least has some good options for games.  Another plus to the system is that it has a LONG battery life.  Thanks to the simple sound (that I normally just turn off) and simple screen, there is not a lot to kill batteries, so you can play for hours.  The screen is not back lit, so you need a decent amount of light to play.  Unlike the Gameboy, you can play this system from a non direct angle, as the screen doesn’t blur from the side.

Positives aside, it is not a great system, but it is not the worst of these that I have ever seen.  For all of the flaws that this system has, I played the everloving shit out of this system.  When it is your only option, it is not a bad one, and I took it everywhere.  My favorite games were arkanoid and tetris, and I could play those for hours.  I actually fully beat one of the shooters too, which made me happy as a kid.  This game was so black market, I cannot find anything about it anywhere on the internet, so this article might be one of the few that you will see about it anywhere.  Overall, it is an interesting piece of gaming history, and one that I am thankful to still have, even if it is weird as hell.

Do Achievement Points and Trophies Ruin Gaming?

 Do Achievement Points and Trophies Ruin Gaming?

Hey everyone, Brian here and I wanted to give my thoughts on a specific topic. The Xbox Achievements and the Sony Trophies and the impact these virtual awards have on gaming. I have often thought about this topic while gaming and it really came to a boiling point when I saw this article, click here. The article is about a man who became the first gamer to reach 1,000,000 achievement points. Depending how you look at this that is either quite an achievement, no pun intended, or a total waste of time.

At what point does this person realize that he is no longer gaming for the sake of enjoying the game but rather competing, with himself, for a pop up notification indicating his reward of 20 G Points. Is it a point of pride, the easiest comparsion would be like getting the highest score at your local arcade. You want to prove that you did something no one else has, you want to make your mark, yet is this a testament to true acheivement or time invested?

 There is no set formula for how to achieve these points. You can earn points by going through the story of the game or you are charged with a specific task. Sometimes points are gained fairly easy while others are almost impossible or turn into a total time-consuming exercise in monotonous tasks. Playing through a tutorial, getting X # of kills and even online multiplayer the options for gaining points are limitless.

There are plenty of websites and videos that help gamers learn how to achieve these challenges which creates another universe to gaming in general. To some gamers they remember only the achievements and the challenges that they provided, but is that the purpose of a game? I suppose that this is similar to someone who buys COD or Halo or Battlefield and only plays the multilayer mode, never to see the campaign or any other modes offered. Now I am not suggesting that there is a specific way that games should be enjoyed, I understand gaming is different to everyone.

So is this system of awarding players for specific tasks good or bad for gaming?

Personally I find myself in the middle of this issue. First and foremost I play games because I enjoy them. I want an escape from reality and something that will entertain me, plain and simple. But, as I am playing next-gen games and I see those achievement points popping up I can't help but find motivation to try to get as many as I can. In some cases I see the achievements as a good driver to explore all aspects of a game, while other times it seems like a shallow social experiment bent on proving how much time someone can waste playing video games, click here for an example.

I can admit that I have gone through and completed all achievements in a game just so I could feel a sense of completion, and to be honest it was a good feeling. I can also admit that I have started games with intentions of achieving points and yet I ignored the game itself, not paying attention to the story or the characters but rather yearning for those rare pop ups. Now I realize that if I am going to play a game I really don't care about the points, if I earn some, that's great and if I don't its not a big deal. I will still check to see what it takes to earn achievements and if it is something that sparks my attention I will give it a try, but I will not look up guides on how to complete this task.

My only hope is that people don't lose sight of the true purpose of gaming as an outlet for entertainment, not a venue for competition and not a platform to "waste" time.  I know that there are those out there that say games are competitive in nature and therefore my argument would be invalid. Hell, in South Korea some video-games are considered a national sport, but I do not see the value in that. When you are playing against another opponent the competition is implied, but when you are earning achievements who are you competing against?, If not yourself? That can lead people to dispises an otherwise great game because they couldn't earn those last 30 achievement points unless they grind out 20+ hours in an attempt that will not enhance the game but dilute the original intention.

In closing, play video-games however you like, but do not limit yourself to one aspect of a game or gaming in general, try out everything, play through the story, appreciate the hard work that has gone into every pixel. Before you task yourself with achieving all 1000 Xbox point or Sony Trophies, ask yourself do you enjoy this game enough to invest that type of time?

So anyway grab a beer and start enjoying your games!

Advice Column 1: Tips for New Retro Game Collectors

Advice Column 1: Tips for New Retro Game Collectors

Jim again.  I know every blog I say that I am going to keep this short, but this time I may stick to just that.  Today I want to talk about something that I do as a hobby, but in no way do I consider myself an expert.  Today we are going to be talking about retro game collecting, where to buy, how to check for problems, etc.

Building a new collection

For new collectors looking to build their own collections, my best piece of advice would be to strike at the end of a videogame lifecycle.  As of this writing, the PS4 and XBOX ONE are under 6 months old, and game stores are looking to dump inventory fast.  Even a huge monoply like Gamestop is dumping last-gen games for cheap, crazy cheap.  In fact, they now have a $10 and under section for all of the old systems, including the Wii, X360, and PS3.  The best part is, many of these games are really good, not just shovelware.  Two weeks ago, I bought Brutal Legend, Mass Effect 3, and 2 other games for 14 dollars...that is insane.  

Besides the big chain stores, there have been a number of smaller, local game stores to pop up lately.  Retro game collecting has turned into a viable business model, and dedicated gamers are turning their passions into profits.  Here you will be able to find more of the games of yesteryear, and also some cool peripherals.  I have seen control sticks and custom controllers at places like this that I would have never thought existed.  Also, you can find some decent deals from time to time.  Many of these places base their prices off average ebay or amazon sales, which is never exactly a golden find, but makes finding hard games easier.  Also, many of these stores can restore old systems that you own, which can help extend the lifespan of your collecting.

Another good way to get games is through the usual spots: thrift stores, garage sales, and flea markets.  Each of these can be easy ways to find golden deals, but this day and age I would not expect great things.  Obviously, garage sales and flea markets are seasonal events and based heavily on climate conditions.  Right now it is the middle of the worst winter we have seen in ages, so it is safe to say that there have not been any events going on.  Not only that, but people tend to stay in more, a lot more, during the winter, so thrift stores go dry around December, and don’t kick in again until April.  Keep this in mind if you are starting, you will need to wait until spring before you really delve deep into it.  The biggest problem with this approach though is the fact that retro games are no longer for a niche market.  Retro game collecting has exploded lately, and people are constantly combing markets and garage sales for hours a day each weekend for a chance to find something special.  It is this saturation of the market that makes a game like Earthbound so hard to find, and so expensive to buy online.  You will never find a cart of Nintendo World Championship at a garage sale, but it hasn’t helped keep it from going for over 100k on Ebay.

Ebay, Craigslist, and other sites can also work, but you tend to take a big risk with these.  Prices on sites like this will tend to be higher than anything you can find in person, depending on the game, condition, or if some asshole decides to turn something into a bidding war.  Not only that, if you overpay to get stuff shipped to you, you are going to eat that money.  At least with a garage sale or flea market you can get a game for a dollar or two tops.  Easy sales on Ebay can come in at around the ten dollar mark, and that doesn’t include shipping.  The best thing to do is bid on big collections of games.  You can sometimes get crazy deals on large sums of games.

Preparing Used Games Before Playing

This can be one of the toughest one for a new collector, and I only recently discovered this.  No matter where you go, buying an old game is a bit of a risk.  For the most part, old cartridge based games hold up pretty damn well over time.  Hell, my brother has an Atari 2600 that still works, with games that still work, and he has never one who was careful with his things.  That being said, when you buy a used retro game, there is no guarantee that it will work, but there are ways to avoid some unnecessary aggravation when playing your recent purchase for the first time.

For any game: from HUE cards, to cartridges, to CD’s, cleanliness is of the most importance.  It does not matter how well a game works, if it is dirty, there will be problems.  Rubbing alcohol is a game collector’s best friend.  I won’t bore you with the finer details, but there is almost no problem that cannot be solved with a Q-tip and some rubbing alcohol.  Before trying any recently purchased game, CLEAN IT FIRST.  

Take a look at this picture, this is what can come off of a game cartridge that has not been cleaned in a while.

This came off of a copy of Contra that I bought a local used game store.  At this store, they repair old systems and sell all kinds of game memorabilia.  One of the big selling points of their store is that they restore retro games, and even theirs can look like this if they sit out for too long.  If a game that comes from a store can look like this...imagine what is on games that aren’t properly cared for.  

The biggest problem that comes with dirt is with the pin connectors on cartridges.  The biggest way that pin based carts do not work is because of a problem with the pins.  In extreme cases, the pins break off, rendering the game a useless piece of plastic.  The most common problem is that the game is dirty, and it makes playing a game almost as hard.  If the connections aren’t all there, the games won’t play.  Not only does the dirt mess up the game, but it also messes up the pins on the system, which are a lot harder to get to.

I never had a NES growing up, and did not buy one until a few years ago.  When I got it, it did not work.  Luckily, the system powered on, but it gave nothing but static on the screen and a blinking red light.  After doing a quick YouTube search, I discovered that this could have meant one of two things, either the CPU chip was blocking me out (North American systems have a block to prevent the play of unlicensed games) or the pin connector was messed up.  Lets just say that over the next two weeks, I learned how to take apart a NES in my sleep.  At the end of the day, the pin connector was the problem, and all it took was a $4 replacement to fix.

The problem of cleanliness isn’t just limited to cartridges either, take a look at this GameCube disk…

It might be hard to see here, but the game was dirty and smudged to all hell.  In fact, after the startup screen for the system, the disk was considered unreadable.  I thought I had bought a 20 dollar dud.  Luckily, some common glass wipes fixed this issue, and it plays perfectly.  

The worst thing you can do is make a situation worse before it gets better, so cleaning off your games before playing will save you a lot of headaches in the future.  Also, you will greatly improve your chances of having it work the first time.  NOTHING is more disheartening to a retro collector than having a purchase not work.  

That’s all for now, but we will have more advice columns in the future.

Flappy Bird and the Problem with Digital Only Games

Flappy Bird and the Problem with Digital Only Games

 

Hey guys, Jim here, and today’s blog won’t be as long as the others, but is definitely more topical as far as the state of gaming goes.  Before this current (next) generation of games, a big controversy going around was the prevalence of digital only downloads for video games.  In fact, before they changed their mind after public outcry, the Xbox ONE was planned to be digital only, forsaking the physical copies we all know and love.  

Before I go into digital only games on consoles, I want to talk about Flappy Bird for a second.  For those that have not heard by now, Flappy Bird was recently removed from the App Store and Google Play.  It was a very simply designed, yet extremely difficult and addicting game that drew the ire of both critic and gamer alike, but was played by many people.  Basically, the player uses their finger to guide a bird through a series of pipes.  It sounds simple, but was extremely twitchy and difficult.  Gamers all over the world uploaded angry reaction videos, and there were reports of multiple devices being broken because of the game.  

This past Monday, February 10th, the game was removed from IOS and Google Play by the developer.  Even though the game was downloaded over 50 MILLION TIMES, it wasn’t enough for the developer, Dong Nguyen, who couldn’t take the constant ire he received through email and social media.  As of this writing and it’s removal, it was one of the most downloaded games in the world.  And now it’s gone.  That, my friends, is the problem with digital only media.

Say you are an average gamer, who is now interested in this.  How are you going to play it?  Well, for one, if you have a friend who had the game, you can play it off their device.  Then again, if you are a collector, do you know what you need to do now?  You need to buy a device that has it.  As of February 11th, over 4000 listings are now up on EBAY for devices that that have the game.  The highest bid is now close to $100k.  I severely doubt that anyone will pay that, but God damn.  We are now in the age of collectable apps, which is a phrase that I would have never thought of until yesterday.

This, in turn, is the biggest problem with digital download only games.  Luckily, this game was free, so anyone who downloaded this didn’t lose anything.  Still, if I had a phone that had this game, I would never update my phone again, because there will come a day when an OS will not agree with the game, and it will be useless to you.  There is no more support for it, this moment in time is the last way you can play it.  All because a guy said, “I can’t take this anymore, I’m done.”

While I had never played the game, I too have been bitten by the removal of digital content.  Last week, while hanging with Brian, we decided to play some old school arcade games that I had on XBOX LIVE.  We played Contra, X-Men, and some others, but one game seemed to be missing.  A game that I had paid 10 dollars for.  What game was this?  The Simpsons Arcade Game, the Konami classic.  Apparently, both this and X-Men had been removed from the PSN, but only the SImpsons was removed from XBOX.  There was no warning, Microsoft never made an effort to contact the owners of the game, they just removed it.  As of this writing, I am seeing if I can get my money back, but the issue remains….the game is gone.  

This is an image you will not see on XBox Live again

With the PSN, it turns out that the license ran out.  The X-Men game had a 3 year license, but the Simpsons game had only been out for about a year.  It is crazy to think that, one day, an entire catalog could potentially be gone from a major media outlet for any number of reasons.  Whether it be the developer, creator, publisher, or someone else, there are so many ways that we could potentially lose out on games that we paid for, with little to no explanation at all.  What happens if a developer goes out of business, doesn’t get bought out, and there is no one left to pay for the license?  While the game companies and publishers may hate the used game market, it is a mecca for gamers and collectors alike.  Why?  Simple, there will be copies of games to be found.  Some may be priced out the ass because of rarity, demand, or both, but they will still at least be around in some form.   

I don’t have the biggest game collection in the world, not even close, but I do have over 300 games that are on display in my game room.  If everything is digital only, then I have no game room, and I lose a big piece of the hobby I love.  Don’t get me wrong, there are more people than not who only want it digital, because honestly, there is more you can have with way less hassle.  It is the way of the future, I just fear many of the ramifications that can come from it.  I’m butthurt and I only lost a 10 dollar game.  I don’t want to think of how bad it could potentially get.

Memories of Summer Break - Part 1: Jim

Memories of Summer Break - Part 1: Jim

Hey everyone, Jim here.  With our blogs we try to do something different than our standard reviews or histories of things.  We like to make these a little more personal, and talk about stuff that comes to the top of our heads.  This time, we are going to be going back to our youths, when most people play video games the most.  If you are anything like us, this should be a topic that is very relatable.  

When I was a kid, I played video games all the time (shocking I know).  I played video games all the time, but I never had more time to than during the summer.  Looking back, I feel bad for my poor parents, who tried to get me and my friends to go outside, but all I was interested in was playing through a certain game or type of game.  Back then, my friend Ryan and I would lock ourselves up in a room and play a game for hours on end.  We would either spend an entire summer trying to beat 1 game, or just playing one type of game over and over.  Below are the games that I remember playing the most, and certain memories to go with them.

Streets of Rage 3

Streets of Rage 3 is pretty much the black sheep of the franchise.  Though each game in the series is different, this one just had a different overall feel to it.  The basic gameplay and sprites were the same, but there was always something...off about it.  

That being said, it is still a great game, and easily the hardest game in the series.  In fact, the North American version of the game was made harder than the Japanese version.  Why is that?  Hell if I know, but it turned a series that can be beaten in under an hour into a marathon of memorization and skill honing.  Knowing your surroundings, proper character strategy, and quick reflexes were musts.  If you beat the game on hard, it would end after level 5, giving you a false ending.  Beating it on easy is no cakewalk, and beating it on medium is a test.  Not only is it tougher, but on the last boss of the game you have a time limit.  If you don’t stop the boss in time, the city gets destroyed by randomly placed bombs.  

When I was a kid, we would play this for hours, getting a little better each and every time.  We would get farther and farther, but fall just short of the later levels.  After a while, we developed a strategy where I would play the first 5 levels, hopefully only on my first continue, and he would join in after, fresh with 3.  Even doing this, it was never easy.  I only beat the game on normal once, and that is after hundreds of tries.

Goldeneye / Perfect Dark

There isn’t a lot that I need to say about this.  Everyone knows these games.  Like Streets of Rage, we spent entire summers playing this game, one summer on each.  With Goldeneye, Ryan, his brother Chris, and I would constantly play through the levels, trying to unlock everything and completing each secret objective.  From there, we would play multiplayer for hours at a time.  The late 90’s were a great time to grow up with videogames, and the N64 was the king of local multiplayer.  None of us were PC gamers then, so this was our FPS of choice, and really, was the best out there until HALO came around.

Perfect Dark had a similar summer.  We didn’t play the single play as much (except for Chris) but we played the hell out of multiplayer.  It may seem weird, but setting up matches against bots (called SIMS) never got old.  Back then, we didn’t know any better, so the slowdown and lag caused by explosions and blurry punches were not game breakers.  Unfortunately, the game does not hold up.

Super Smash Brothers Series

Yet another game I played the hell out of, especially with the Lynch brothers.  Both of these games are fun as hell, with loads of unlockables.  We all took turns trying to unlock stuff, and the multiplayer fights never got old.  Not much I need to say about these games either.  

Melee was when the obsession started.  The night they got a Gamecube, they got Melee and Fifa 02 I believe.  Of course, most of our time went toward Smash.  We all had our favorite characters, and I was almost always Link.  No specific memories come out, but we might have spent two summers playing this.  

Brawl was much of the same, but added more characters and way more unlockables.  Also, the fun of the ultra moves added a new dynamic that could change the course of the game.  Chris was by far the best, and with Snake he was goddamn unbeatable.  

Final Fantasy VII

Sorry, I never physically owned this game, so no picture

While I never played this at the time, Ryan was absolutely obsessed with this game.  Even though I didn’t appreciate it at the time, I would sit there and follow the story as Ryan played through it.  I will say this, sitting through random encounters can be painful, but it was still such a new experience in gaming at the time.  I think he played and replayed this game for about a year straight.

Resident Evil: all until 4

That’s right, during the course of a summer, we played through every one of these games.  This summer was the reverse of FFVII because I would play the game, while Ryan was happy watching and helping me figure out puzzles.  During the course of a summer, I played through Resident Evil’s 1, 2, 3, Zero, Code Veronica X, and the GC remake of 1.  It remains one of my favorite game series of all time, and one that Brian and I will go into great detail to in the future.  In a later summer, I also played 4, but the Wii version of all things.

Twisted Metal 1, 2, & Black

This one was a definite favorite of Ryan and I, especially 2.  We played two for hours, with my favorite being Mr Grimm, and Ryan’s being Axel.  Axel was always so damn cheap in 2, but that’s why I was always the little guy who could hit big and run.  Back then, we didn’t even have the original Twisted Metal until much later, but played the hell out of the old EGM demo.  Black was more of my favorite, and wasn’t quite as fun in multiplayer, but we dabbled in that together as well.  Still, nothing beats a Twisted Metal 2 marathon, even to this day.

 

Hot Shots Golf 3

 This one has a special place, since it is a game I played all the time with my dad.  We would spend hours on this game, and played damn near every day.  We both spent a ton of time playing through the tournament mode, and would play against each other all the time.  I never went easy on him, but after a while we were neck and neck every time we played.  

StarCraft: Broodwar

I really doubt there is anything I need to say about this game, considering it is a national sport in Korea.

I played this a lot with Ryan, and my friends Jerry and John.  In fact, for a number of years, I would wake up early every Saturday and log in with Ryan and play for hours.  I would have an old 13 inch CRT tv next to me, as cartoons and then bad tv would be playing in the background.  When I say bad shows, I mean bad FOX saturday afternoon tv (Beastmaster, Stargate SG1, etc).  

With Andrew and Jerry, it was all about UMS (Use Map Settings) games. These were almost all user created maps, and each one was creative. Test of Terran/Toss, Swarm modes, Turret Defense...it was all here.  We also did a ton of comp stomps, eventually getting to the point where we could beat 6 computers within a few hours...damn lag.

Mario Kart 64

I think I played this to death with every group of friends that I have had.  To this day I am still way too good at this game.  

San Francisco Rush / 2049 Stunt Modes

This is a game that many today don’t know much about, but back in the late 90’s you would be hard pressed to find an arcade that did feature one of these games.  They were fun racing games, if not anything overly special, but it was the console versions that had the ace, Stunt Mode.

In San Fran Rush, I would play this with my Dad and Brother a lot.  We would each keep developing new strategies to have the new high score, and we would write it down every time.  In the end, we all wound up just going off the same jumps, but it was fun every time.

In 2049, my group of high school friends and I (John, John, Ryan, Kurt, Dan, Rob) would play this all the time in between poker nights.  My basement was the hangout spot for a while, and we were obsessed with this and poker.  Basically, once someone got eliminated from a round of Texas Hold Em, we would start playing this or Mario Kart.  This mode had different play mechanics, but we all wound up going off the center pyramid every time.  

Guitar Hero / NHL series

I am not going to go too far into this because I just wrote a huge article on it, but this was probably the last game that I played during a summer break.  I took a lot of summer classes, and worked internships, so summer breaks were pretty much done for me by the time I was 19.  I would play this with my friends Ryan (a different one), John, John, Rob, Dan, Kurt, and others, though some played way more than others.  It was also around this time that we discovered just how awesome the NHL series of games were by EA, and we would get in heated marathons to see who was the best that night.  This was also probably the last hurrah of local multiplayer gaming, because getting old makes that harder, but we can still have summer anytime over XboxLIVE and PS Network.  One thing was always for certain...if it went to a shootout...I would lose.  I was the Ilya Bryzgalov of NHL video games.  

I have a lot of games that I play with a bunch of other friends since then, but none that I can classify under summer break.  The times I spent with friends and family playing these games will never go away, and keeps all of these fun (well, except for Goldeneye and Perfect Dark).  Even better, as you can see, I still own the original games that I played back then, so you can imagine how precious they are to my collection.  Next time Brian will share many of his memories. 

Guitar Hero and Rock Band: A Look Back

Guitar Hero and Rock Band: A Look Back

Hey guys, Jim here, and it’s my turn to write this week’s blog.  There are a lot of things that I could go into, but I wanted to start with a game genre that I probably spent 2-3 years straight playing…the rhythm genre...mainly Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

To start, here is a quick history of these games.  Released in 2005, the original Guitar Hero was developed by Harmonix and Red Octane.  Red Octane previously had a part in the music game genre with GuitarFreaks, an arcade game that can still be found in arcades and boardwalks.  The music in the game was originally all covers, and the game innovated with its immersive and fun guitar controller and accessible learning curve.  It is a game that everyone could play, but took a lot of work to master.  From there, the series got more popular with the first two sequels (II and III), with II being one of the first big games to take advantage of XboxLIVE and DLC.  In 2007, the companies broke apart, with Harmonix going on to create the Rock Band series.  From there, these two series would take completely different paths.  

Rock Band was the first to create the full band experience, bundling a microphone, guitar, and drum kit.  Each player could play separate instruments, and even the most arrhythmic person could have the experience of being in a band.  It was stupid fun, and was an instant hit.  GH would follow suit with their 4th main entry, Guitar Hero: World Tour, which did the exact same thing, but with a differently designed drumset.  From there, each game would release sequels, and add to the hardware, but this is where the paths fully diverge.

The biggest difference between these two franchises, in my opinion, is the way that the developers treated the consumer and the evolving (or devolving) quality of the overall product.  Here is a breakdown of the releases for each franchise.  If this doesn’t give you an idea of where I am going, I will explain shortly. Also, I am excluding the portable titles.  These maintain the “hit a button at the right time” aesthetic of the gameplay, but without the standard controllers.  

Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero - 2005

Guitar Hero II - 2006

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80’s - 2007 (last game developed by Harmonix)

Guitar Hero III - 2007

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith - 2008

Guitar Hero: World Tour - 2008

Guitar Hero: Metallica - 2009

DJ Hero: 2009

Guitar Hero: Smash Hits - 2009

Guitar Hero 5 - 2009

Band Hero - 2009

Guitar Hero: Van Halen - 2009

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock - 2010

DJ Hero 2 - 2010

Now let’s compare that to Rock Band’s releases…

Rock Band - 2007

Rock Band II - 2008

The Beatles: Rock Band - 2009

Lego Rock Band - 2009

Green Day: Rock Band - 2010

Rock Band III - 2010

Rock Band Blitz - 2012 (download only title, did not use the guitar peripherals)

Rock Band also released a bunch of physical track packs, released as separate disks between 2008 and 2011.

In the beginning, these titles came out maybe once a year, and made strides every time.  GH 1 and 2 made huge, yet subtle, gameplay tweaks that made the gameplay much better.  GH III had the widespread appeal, and the first to mainly feature licensed tracks.  Rock Band introduced the band aspect, and heavily relied on DLC.  GH Metallica introduced the double bass pedal mechanic, and RB II improved all aspects, including the hardware, of the original title and had one of the biggest licensed DLC libraries of all time. After this, the last innovation, besides the turntable aspect of DJ Hero, was with Rock Band III, which included a way to plug real guitars into the system.  

As many of you know, Brian and I are both engaged.  We are both in our late 20’s and have full time jobs.  Suffice to say, we don’t have a lot of time to play video games, or to discover new things unless we REALLY want to invest our time and money into it.  We are self-admitted marks for COD and WWE games, and will gobble up anything by Bethesda.  WIth that being said, the blog is our way to relive the old times, to hang out and just play games like we used to.  When the original GH came out, i was 19, and the heyday was in my early 20’s.  There really was not a time in my life that I didn’t get to fully enjoy games more, now that I had money, and delved right in.  

 
I had played GuitarFreaks before, and while impressed with it, was never blown away by it.  That was not the case with the original Guitar Hero.  My friend Ryan was the first of my group of friends to get it, and I was hooked right away.  In Christmas of 2006, I got my very first game of my own, that being GH2.  I played through the entire game on medium, every song, straight through until 5 in the morning.  From there, we would gather and play each new iteration, one of us forking over the money on a new one so we could all play.

Then came Rock Band.  The band dynamic, along with the drum set, really shed a new light on the genre.  None of us used the mic, but playing with 2 guitars and a drum set was amazing.  The christmas after it came out, we did the entire game again, playing straight through for about...8+ hours if memory serves correct.  Like I said before, GH eventually came out with their own version.  Being a drummer in real life, I tended to enjoy the GH games more, mainly because the drum set was more “realistic.”

After that came the biggest problem, overexposure.  Look above, look at all those games and the frequency that they came out.  Sure, many of them made leaps, but most were not worth it.  Guitar Hero, now being distributed by Activision, was the biggest offender.  To Rock Band’s credit, they mainly focused on DLC.  Also, when a new version came out, you could pay a small fee (typically 12 dollars), to import ALL of the songs from the previous game(s).  Besides that, instead of releasing a full 60 dollar disk that would maybe have 50 songs, if that.  Also, the song imports for the GH games would not give the full games songs, barely making the investment worth it.  It was the money grab aspect that killed the genre, and that is a real shame.  If the games had been worth the money, or made strides, then they would be worth it...but that never happened.  The genre, the way it was set up, only had a ceiling that was so high.  By the time RB3 came out with its real-world integration, it was too late, and the genre had gone stale.  

Every once in a while I will break out the old kits again, which I consider very lucky since the equipment was notorious for breaking.  I think there is a place for the genre, but it won’t be for a long, long time.  Games like Rocksmith keep the genre alive, that focusing on a more educational approach, but the party aspect really isn’t there.  Maybe one day it will come back, and when it does, I will be there to give it a shot and hopefully reclaim some old glory.