Konami Quits Console Game Production

[sleepy]

Another piece of my younger self has just died. No more Castlevania. Metal Gear. But will still be developed for portable devices?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ollieba...e-game-development-technical-director-leaves/

 

[pinballdaveh]

i remember the konami arcade game Track and Field. it had two run buttoms that the player would slap quickly to get the man to run faster. it was so noisy that locations started complaining. buttons with half moon guards were field installed to cut down on some of the noise. but that took some of the fun away from the game and lost some of its popularity. later editions came with a smaller size track ball at the end of the games production. (atari missle command and head to head football and head to head baseball used a large size black track ball).

 

[Itchigo]

i remember the konami arcade game Track and Field. it had two run buttoms that the player would slap quickly to get the man to run faster. it was so noisy that locations started complaining. buttons with half moon guards were field installed to cut down on some of the noise. but that took some of the fun away from the game and lost some of its popularity. later editions came with a smaller size track ball at the end of the games production. (atari missle command and head to head football and head to head baseball used a large size black track ball).

I used 2 fingers back and forth, many others used a knife on that game.

For the handheld fans: (I have these on my cab)
http://www.peterhirschberg.com/handheld/ledhead/

 

[StevOz]

Ah Track 'n' Field, I remember it well was never a great fan of the game, that said some of my friends loved it and mums hair brush was the weapon of choice to really mash those buttons racing it across the buttons back and forth.

 

[sleepy]

You mean using mum's hairbrush like a slider resting atop both buttons? That would make it very quick.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Didn't Konami do Zombies Ate My Neighbors? Now that was a game! Great animation that managed to pay tribute to just about every '50s sci-fi/horror flick. I spent hours with it and still never reached the end.
Wow, that LEDhead thing is something else! Almost 40 years later and that handheld Mattel Football is still the most fun I've had playing a football video game (with good ol' Tecmo Bowl coming in a close second).

 

[StevOz]

You mean using mum's hairbrush like a slider resting atop both buttons? That would make it very quick.

Indeed exactly like that, using this technique, their scores and record times were basically unbeatable using any other means.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

. . .

. . .

59 more handheld games in madrigal: (scroll down a little bit to see the list and pics)
http://www.madrigaldesign.it/sim/download.php


...

26 more (mostly LCD) you can play right in broswer:
http://www.pica-pic.com/


(yeah i'm a bit of handheld fan)

 

[LeeVanCleef]

(yeah i'm a bit of handheld fan)

Ha! This from the guy who designed the VP port of Wildfire handheld LED pinball! That may be the one handheld I played more than Mattel Football. Lost my handheld Battlestar Galactica game to the nuns after I brought it to school. They said I'd get it back after class. They lied. That opened my mind to other things they may have been lying about and an agnostic is born! They pretty much reverse-engineered missionary work.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

damned nuns!
say, i wonder what they do with all the seized contraband? do they mostly just toss it, or maybe give it to family and charities perhaps? maybe one day you'll be in a thrift store and discover your old game just waiting to be reunited for a couple bucks. :)


re: wildfire,
you know i never really finished that one. i had mostly converted it to LED (i mean the ball itself, so it would jump around just like in the real thing), but needed to work on the samples, physics and rules. instead i got caught up in the great pacdude wars and the thing is still sitting on the shelf, much like billiards engine.

actually i had always wanted to convert tsukuda pachinco to VP, but couldn't find enough resources:

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Dude, I played that Wildfire you made... physics were completely spot-on! I think there was one or two things not finished on it, but physics wasn't one of them! A fine job!
I can't wait for the Ken Burns multipart documentary on The Great Pacdude Wars. The Sheldon guy from Big Bang Theory has signed up to do Pacdude's narration! The part of "nic" will be read by EIght is Enough's Willie Aames, so you're in good hands.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

thanks, dude. :) although it was just standard VP physics with an 'LED' graphic substituted for a silver ball image.

in the real game, the ball would jerk around from spot to spot since there were a very limited number of LED's on the PF, you know? also, the physics in the parker bros game were extremely primitive, and by that i mean pretty terrible. so my goal was actually to -worsen- the physics on the VP version.

i guess if you (and anyone else) were willing to playtest i could hunt that down and get back to work. i would basically need a critical mass of motivation... which i haven't had for VP in years.

anyway, is the sheldon guy the brattiest and most obnoxious of the big bang characters? if so, he sounds about right for dear old gordan. one quibble tho-- i think big bang theory is a POS show, while VP was damn cool back in the day!