How did the guys up at Arthur’s Hall come up with the idea of giving the world such a list of video games? Shatner (yes, after William Shatner), Arthur’s Viking Assistant, gives us the details:

I had a discussion with Arthur the other day regarding the question, “Are video games manly?” While wasting your life away on a couch playing video games isn’t quite as manly as killing small animals for food, or going to war against the forces of tyranny, we decided that in the end, video games are a manly form of entertainment.

Here’s how I went through Arthur’s Hall’s list:

Pro Wrestling on the Nintendo Entertainment System … check. Counter-Strike on the PC … check. Double Dragon on the NES, in the Arcade, and on the Sega Master System … check. Street Fighter II on multiple systems … check. Ikaruga on the Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo GameCube … what the hell’s Ikaruga? Tecmo Bowl on the NES … never played it since American Football is a very alien sport in my country. Metal Slug on the Neo Geo … check. Custer’s Revenge on the Atari 2600 … yeah, saw it when I was younger but didn’t understand the object of the game (which was to order General Custer to, uhmmm, ravish a young Indian girl). Mike Tyson’s Punch Out on the NES … check. And finally Contra on the NES … perfect!

Then I thought, “Waitaminute! Where’s Leisure Suit Larry?

Leisure Suit Larry is the series of adventure games written by Al Lowe (hail to the chief!) and published by Sierra On-Line from the 1980s to the present. The character, whose full name is Larry Laffer, is a balding, dorky, double entendre-speaking, leisure suit-wearing “loser” in his 40s who spends much of his life trying, usually unsuccessfully, to seduce attractive women.

Undoubtedly, Leisure Suit Larry is the manliest game of all time … that is, if Larry is a bit more manly looking. But where’s the adventure in playing a good-looking, hunky guy in his 40s with the goal of chasing, always successfully, nubile young and attractive women?

Here’s a short overview courtesy of Wikipedia:

Leisure Suit Larry originally stemmed from ideas of Sierra’s first adventure game Softporn Adventure created by designer Chuck Benton. The Larry games were one of Sierra’s most popular games series during the genre’s heyday when it was first released in the mid 1980s. As such, they remain well-known among fans of the type today. The series stands out among Sierra’s catalog in that they are the only games the company produced that contain significant sexual themes.

In general, the games follow Larry’s escapades as he attempts (and mostly fails) to convince a variety of young nubile women (rendered with increasing sophistication throughout the series) to have sex with him. A common link between the games are Larry’s explorations of luxurious and cosmopolitan hotels, ships, beaches, resorts and, more commonly, casinos. One of Larry’s trademarks is his manner of introducing himself: “Hi, my name is Larry; Larry Laffer,” a reference to James Bond’s introduction style, “My name is Bond; James Bond.”

Because of the nature of the games, the first and third episodes of the series featured an age verification system, which consisted of a series of questions to which the authors reasoned only adults would know the answer. However, many of the questions were United States-centric and this frustrated some non-U.S. gamers. Also, the multiple-choice questions did little to deter adolescents with some patience and a notepad.

Post from: EveryJoe

10 Manliest Video Games of All Time: What, no Leisure Suit Larry?!?

During this time, on the other side of the world, video game consoles were coming out. These consoles didn’t come with joysticks as controllers but something called D-pads, an adaptation of the arcade controller sans the stick. The joystick was replaced by a button shaped like a cross that allowed movement much like a joystick, eight directions: north, east, south, west, northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest.

I remember the time Nintendo started marketing the Nintendo Entertainment System (repackaged in some Asian countries as the Nintendo Family Computer), bundling it with two hot video games at the time, Super Mario Brothers and Hudson’s Adventure Island. The controller that came with the Famicom felt clumsy in my hands. I found myself longing for a joystick, primarily to make my adventures in Super Mario Brothers more palatable.

So we went out to a shopping center to look for a joystick for the Famicom. Of course, we failed to find one. The closest thing we found was a joystick-like contraption that took the place of the cross-shaped button. A few hours of playing Super Mario Brothers using the stub was enough to drive me bonkers. “It’s not a joystick!”

I think that was what forced me, and probably a thousand other players, to adapt—and adapt fast—to the controller of the next generation, the D-pad. Of course, there’s also the fact that it’s hard to play new games using the joystick.

Here’s an opinion from a pro d-pad guy:

I have a great dislike for the joystick of more modern video game system controllers. Controllers like the ones for the Playstation, Playstation 2 and Gamecube all bug me in one very big way with their joysticks or whatever you wish to call it. Joysticks have to have this way where you can control how fast the character or cursor moves by how far you tilt the stick. Push it a bit to make the character or cursor move at a crawl or walk, and push it all the way to move the character or cursor fast. This is where I have problems.

I find the D-pad (the plus sign thingy on the left side of most controllers) so much easier to work with. There’s no need to tilt the thing to control the character or cursor for the games.

Now let’s take a look at the comment of someone who loves joysticks:

Today’s controllers are the main reason I don’t play action games anymore. I dislike the controllers you describe but I was never a fan of the D-pad either. My favorite joysticks remain the ones we used to have in the late 80s to early 90s: a rectangular box with a hard lever and suctions that make it stick on the table. And if the game only needs one button, even better. You control the lever with your right hand and push the button(s) with the left one; an old arcades feeling, the joystick is really a part of yourself and you can feel in control. How today’s gamers enjoy sitting on the couch and playing with their thumb is beyond me.

Nice. So how about you? Joystick or D-pad? Joystick or other video game console controllers?

Post from: EveryJoe

Age-old debate: Joystick versus other controllers

How did the current home-console controllers come to be? How have they evolved? You may have noticed some similarities between the current generation controllers, or between them and the previous generations of controllers. So, how do they all tie together?

Let’s try to find out. I’ve put together a chart, or controller family tree, that tries to connect all the current console controllers with their predecessors. Firstly, I don’t think anyone else has tried to do something similar on the Web, and secondly, none of the manufacturers actually come out and tell you who they’re borrowing ideas from. This means that a lot of the information presented here is my opinion. I try to keep things accurate, using facts I know, but also making some of my own conclusions where no hard evidence is available.

Suffice it to say that Sock Master has done a good job at assembling his little project, from the old school Atari 2600 joystick to the sensational Nintendo Wiimote.

Atari 2600 joystick: Grandpa Controller

Nintendo Wiimote: Junior

Here, take a gander at Sock Master’s work.

Post from: EveryJoe

The video game console controller ‘family tree’

Well, here’s my list:

Pong, Space Invaders, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Pac-Man, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brothers, Leisure Suite Larry, Afterburner, Double Dragon, Prince of Persia, Tetris, Secret of Monkey Island, Sonic the Hedgehog, Castle Wolfenstein, Super Mario Kart, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Minesweeper, Myst, Rayman, Command & Conquer, Tekken, Tomb Raider, The Sims, Grand Theft Auto, and Total War.

Darn, I think I have to brush up on my video games history and literature again.

Post from: EveryJoe

The History of Video Games in two minutes

Sigh. I guess I just have to content myself with watching videos of the fights—at least until I get to the arcades and find a suitable opponent to fight. Haha. Here’s one of the videos I’m currently watching:

Awesome graphics and sounds, as only Capcom can pull off.

Post from: EveryJoe

Ken and Ryu versus Ken and Ryu

Well, borrowing from what he’s written on the About page of his blog, Zack Scott is a prolific videographer. His collection of videos, which is very extensive, focuses mostly on comedy, education, and (gasp!) his cute pets.

So what does his being a, uhmm, cute pet lover have to do with Nintendo and widely or little known facts about the company? Watch this.

You have no way of knowing this just by viewing the video on Re:Retro, but when you hop over to YouTube and check out the Zack Scott’s collection, you’ll discover that his “Amazing Nintendo Facts” video has racked up more than 2.5 million views. Whew!

Kudos to you, Zack! Maybe one day you’ll do a rundown of the Top 100 video games of all time?

Post from: EveryJoe

Amazing Nintendo Facts by Zack Scott

The author of this mish-mash, however, missed the entire Apple line of personal computers. I owned an Apple IIc, so I know first-hand that a lot of video games can be played on the machine—that is, if any Apple computer is still intact to this day.

Post from: EveryJoe

Video game consoles, then and now

Call me a purist, but I could never think of certain consoles as retro platforms. By that I mean anything Sony or Microsoft will ever make. That’s for the plain and simple reasons that both companies largely started entered the market not with a love for games, but with an interest in making a lot of money.

Once were done with this cycle of hardware I’ll find it hard to class the PS2 and Xbox as retro platforms, so I’ll make a pretty bold claim here: retro gaming’s next star is of course the Gamecube. It has all the hallmarks of a retro platform for the simple reason that it was created out of a genuine love for making and playing games.

The thing I love most about old video games is the memories they invoke. I could happily spend entire evening’s waxing lyrical about Chase HQ for instance. The Gamecube has a whole series of quirky titles that will certainly be locked in the minds of gamers for years to come such as Super Monkey Ball and Animal Crossing.

Quirkiness aside, the one thing that I think will forever cement the Gamecube as this generation’s retro candidate is the fact that it kept alive the series that we know and love from the dawn of console gaming, namely Zelda, Metroid and the ever ubiquitous Mario. Just those three series would render it fit for any retro enthusiast’s archive (admit it, you call it an archive), but it just so happens the Gamecube was blessed with many more memorable games that we’ll forever treasure.

If you haven’t got a Gamecube yet then go pick one up, you can get hold of one for a buck fifty or something. If you don’t then give it ten years and you’ll wish you did.

Post from: EveryJoe

Gamecube – A future retro star?