Insert Quarter is a glimpse into gaming’s past, present, and future through an exploration of historical, retrospective, and contemporary reporting.
Fans have been drawn to the colorful flavor of the Cooking Mama franchise ever since the first game was released for the DS in 2006. Dishing out meals alongside Mama has never been a particularly meaty experience, but the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding her latest entree, Cooking Mama: Cookstar for the Nintendo Switch, is definitely getting a little spicy.
I’d apologize for all those food puns, but trust me, you’re going to be hungry for more by the end of this.
Halo 2 burst onto the scene exactly 15 years ago and changed the way we look at online multiplayer, but it might be just as well known for the weird and wild “I Love Bees” ARG (alternate reality game) that preceded its launch. While Master Chief has faded a bit from the forefront of gaming’s most popular characters (along with the Halo franchise as a whole), this milestone anniversary still gives us a great excuse to talk more about another one of the most influential games of all time.
And believe it or not, it wasn’t even the biggest blockbuster to emerge from amongst the new releases of 2004’s penultimate month.
While the the game’s creators didn’t know it at the time, Spacewar! wouldn’t just help the future endeavors of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, but also launch an entire industry.
In the 1950s and 60s, the Space Race and the Cold War gave students and researchers at top universities a reason to fight for processing time on the small number of room-sized mainframes in operation at the time. But thanks to the inclusion of a keyboard and a monitor (a luxury for a mainframe at the time), a small group of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered that these machines were perfect for games.
After a lot of trial-and-error, these pioneers wound up with Spacewar!, a ship-battling simulation that combined their fascination with space travel with the computational power available in the mainframe. Completed in 1962, word quickly spread amongst the other students at the university, and Spacewar! became a bonafide blockbuster.
While the the game’s creators didn’t know it at the time, Spacewar! wouldn’t just help the future endeavors of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, but also launch an entire industry.
Mario Segale died last week at the age of 84, but the Seattle real estate developer and philanthropist is probably best-remembered among gamers as the namesake for Super Mario, Nintendo’s world-famous mascot.
Mario Segale died last week at the age of 84, but the Seattle real estate developer and philanthropist is probably best-remembered among gamers as the namesake for Super Mario, Nintendo’s world-famous mascot.
No video game character has ever been introduced to the public as fully-formed as Lara Croft was back in November 1996. Their Tomb Raider was an instant icon and an overnight sensation, and to hear the developers tell it, they did it almost by accident.
No video game character has ever been introduced to the public as fully-formed as Lara Croft was back in November 1996. Building on the then-unique gameplay hook of a fully-explorable 3D world, publisher Eidos Interactive and developer Core Design fleshed out Lara’s personality with expensive cutscenes and stoked the gaming public with a relentless advertising blitz. Their Tomb Raider was an instant icon and an overnight sensation, and to hear them tell it, they did it almost by accident.
Toby Gard was the Lead Artist at Core Design, and his early sketches of Lara Croft actually depicted a male treasure hunter that shared more than a few similarities with Indiana Jones. Fearing the litigious wrath of George Lucas, Gard flipped the gender of Tomb Raider‘s hero-in-progress. And at some point in the pre-production process, Gard’s finger slipped when adjusting a “Breast Size” slider, and the slim Laura Cruz turned into the busty Lara Croft.
I’ve long suspected that this part of the legend is fiction, but the rest is history…
NBA Jam, Age of Empires, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl had a massive impact on the video game industry, and the men and women who made them surely have some interesting stories to tell.
25 years ago… NBA Jam made its rim-rattling console debut.
21 years ago… Age of Empires conquered the PC world.
10 years ago… Super Smash Bros. Brawl fought its way into our hearts.
All three of these games had a massive impact on the video game industry, and the men and women who made them surely have some interesting stories to tell.
In his introduction to Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier wrote that a game developer once told him it’s a miracle when a team manages to complete a game. But not every team is so lucky, and the development cycle for even the most well-funded games can often turn into a comedy of errors.
In his introduction to Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made, Jason Schreier wrote that a game developer once told him it’s a miracle when a team manages to complete a game. Over the next 300 pages, developers from Blizzard, Bungie, and Naughty Dog reinforce this point again and again. Using brutal honesty, they all discuss how close they came to disaster.
But not every team is so lucky (including the members of LucasArts that Schreier interviewed for his last chapter), and the development cycle for even the most well-funded games can often turn into a comedy of errors.
Sony and Bluepoint Games repackaged Shadow of the Colossus and Ico in a “High Definition” bundle for the PS3 in 2011. In addition to promoting the latter with the proper boxart for the first time in North America, the re-release gave PS3 owners a new opportunity to return to the worlds of Fumito Ueda. But with the PS4’s launch looming, Sony had even bigger plans for Shadow of the Colossus, and they wanted to take the famously frustrating game in a brand new direction.
Sony and Bluepoint Games repackaged Shadow of the Colossus and Ico in an HD Collection bundle for the PS3 in 2011. In addition to promoting the latter with the proper boxart for the first time in North America, the re-release gave PS3 owners a new opportunity to return to the worlds of Fumito Ueda. But with the PS4’s launch looming, Sony had even bigger plans for Shadow of the Colossus, and they wanted to take the famously frustrating game in a brand new direction.
Sony recently teamed with developer Bluepoint Games to take Shadow of the Colossus and reimagine it “from the ground up” for the PS4. As one of the first games that could truly be described as “artistic,” it holds a special place in the hearts of many gamers. But how did it get there?
Sony recently teamed up with developer Bluepoint Games to take Shadow of the Colossus and reimagine it “from the ground up” for the PS4. As one of the first games that could truly be described as “artistic,” it holds a special place in the hearts of many gamers. But how did it get there?
Though it was critically-acclaimed from the very beginning, Ico was only a moderate hit for Sony and developer Fumito Ueda when it was released in 2001. But Ueda was thrilled with the game’s artistic ambition, and decided to create something even bigger as a followup.
Yesterday was “National Video Games Day,” a holiday that’s designed to honors those special video game memories we all have. But I can’t figure out why the organizers of National Video Games Day chose September 12. It doesn’t celebrate the launch of Pong (that’s November 29)… It’s not Ralph Baer’s birthday (that’s March 8)… It’s not even the anniversary of “Mortal Monday” (believe it or not, that’s today, September 13).
