Let a billion videogames bloom

Hello, everyone! In-between working on a side project (to be announced soon), I did more website work since last time. To wit:

• Another tiny scripting language family: the belated part three of a series started last year;
• a homepage for Orion TT, the game port announced last November and released three weeks later.

On top of that, I might finally bite the bullet and make a strategy game section on the site, like I've been meaning to for a while.

But for now, let's see the news. This time we have some old stuff that I couldn't just quietly place in the archive, some new stuff to keep things fresh, and one headline worth commenting on.

Well, there's also the big splash made by Microsoft acquiring Bethesda. It's the second major acquisition in IT this month, and it comes right before the launch of another console generation, so people are taking notice. Wish they started doing more than worry one of these days. But opinions are easy; to admit systemic problems, not so much. Let alone to do something about them.

So I'll let others cover this in more detail, and just move on to my main headline for today.

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Last Friday, The Digital Antiquarian wrote about the history of X-Com. And you know... Funny how this most beloved strategy game is my least favorite of Julian Gollop's. I loved Laser Squad to pieces (and its isometric PC remake), but X-Com turned me off right away with its real-time strategy component. No-one would play a pure tactics game, you say? Fine, let Square Enix eat your lunch. As for battles fought in deep space for unclear reasons... Space Hulk, anyone?

Maybe lay off the obsession with grandeur, people, and just make good games. Capitalizing on the zeitgeist, now that's another story. And hey, I wrote plenty of fiction exploring the same couple of themes. Just not exclusively.

Last but not least: so, if they had canceled the game as told, the publisher would have been in big trouble? Business: always dumb as rocks. Stay well away.

(And yes, dammit, the turn-based tactical battles are the real game! The other half is the filler! Surprise!)

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Now for the brief headlines. First, a couple that are actually from last year, but were just that good:

• Final Fantasy Pixel Artist Kazuko Shibuya Comments on Her Career and the JRPG Series’ Early Days. I didn't know the iconic art of the early games was made by a woman, but it makes so much sense in retrospect, and it's awesome.
• Even more interesting is Pac-Man: The Untold Story Of How We Really Played The Game; a cultural and anthropologic take on it for a change.

Coming back to the present day, we have:

• Audio Accessibility Features for Roguelikes, a follow-up from last time.
• Révélations sur l’histoire de la fiction interactive: A write-up (in French) about the perils of researching videogame history. And this is about events from only 40 years ago: within my lifetime!
• Last but not least: Why PyGame is Slow, a discussion of some issues in (graphics) programming.

Lots of links for a change then, and even plenty to say about them too. But all good things must come to an end, so enjoy the coming weekend and see you next time.