Keepers: Phantasy Star Online

Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I’m a self proclaimed pack-rat and collector, but if I ever had to sell my gaming collection to feed my family these are the games I’d hang onto. If my wife let me, anyway. Ah, […]

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Variations on a Theme, Part II: Innovation

This is the second part in my series on what themes tie together my all-time favorite video games. In April 2008, Blogs of the Round Table discussed this topic, and I’m only just now catching up. One aspect of games that I’ve always appreciated is innovation. When a game comes out that does something totally […]

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Comparing Final Fantasy XII to Ultima V

Of all the big holiday game releases this year, four have become standouts to me. I prepurchased Dragon Age: Origins in early 2009, back when I thought the game was going to be released in early 2009. I don’t regret that purchase, because the game looks amazing. Mikeyface‘s hype machine has got me sold on […]

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Thoughts on Game Ports and Re-releases

Lots of the games I play are not new. While perhaps not all of them may qualify as truly “retro”, at least half of the games I’m normally playing are more than 2 years old. Porting games to consoles on which they’ve never before appeared or re-releasing older games as downloadable titles is a good […]

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Keepers: Baldurs Gate

Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I generally sell a game that I’ve finished, so the only reason I keep one is because I plan to replay the game some day. Classifying a game as a “keeper” is generally a badge […]

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First Videogame Championship

Anyone remember “That’s Incredible”? They used to show stunts and other random crap. Turns out they also held the very first video game championship, between 3 competitors, using arcade machines. This whole thing is very 80s, and looking at how primitive-looking these games really were is a trip.

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Free Game Friday: Bubble Bobble

They call it “Bubble Bobble: The Revival”. All I know is that it’s got the same old music I remember from playing Bubble Bobble on my Commodore 64. If you remember Bubble Bobble, maybe you’ll get as much of a kick as I do from this game. Play Bubble Bobble

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Gaming Made Me – Frank Needs a Quarter

Like Greg, my love of gaming goes way back to my early childhood and begins with the goodness what was the Atari 2600. I have fond memories of my mom and I playing Pac-Man, Combat, Yars’ Revenge and even the debacle that was E.T. I think we went through a joystick every six months, those […]

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Gaming Made Me: Greg Waxes Nostalgic

I’ve been following Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s “Gaming Made Me” series for the past week or so now, and I’ve really enjoyed reading nostalgic tales from different people in the industry about which games most influenced them. The series has inspired me to go back and re-evaluate which games most inspired me as I grew up. […]

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Free Game Friday Bonus: Daggerfall

Although I’ve already posted a Free Game Friday game for today, I just found out that Bethesda has decided to offer The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall for free download. Since you have to run the game with DOSbox to get it to work, they’ve got a detailed installation guide (pdf) that you can follow. Download […]

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