http://www.gamertagradio.com Godfree is the next Bionic Commando at E308
First level from Bionic Commando - my favourite NES game.
Feel the breeze 'tween your knees as you swing through the trees.
Swinging in the city ain't what it used to be.
The trashcans of the past are stuffed with consoles that didn't catch on. Play value Episode “Failed Consoles part 1” Jeff: 500 years of books and we still get books on paper. 100 years of film, still pretty much the same medium. Video games change every 5 or so years, the whole market changes. Here is a shake up every five years. And it doesn’t matter what you did. It’s all about the next system. TJ: In thirty five years of video games. You have all these consoles, the big ones. Xbox, Nintendo, even the Genesis, everybody knew what it was. But for every one of those, there are five of them that didn’t make it. Dan: 1978, what’s big in 1978? The Atari 2600, so of course everyone else has to come out with their own consoles to compete with that. One of the ones you don’t really remember anymore was the Magnavox Odyssey 2. Josh: Great system really had some nice horsepower in it. But Atari bought out rights to third party games like Space Invaders and Pacman, so by the time the Atari 2 came out; they really just didn’t have the content to compete, except for KC Munchkin. I don’t even have to describe it in much detail, all you need to know about it is the, it’s a rebuffed Pacman. Dan: There were a couple of differences, there weren’t as many dots, and mazes were different. But it was just close enough to be legally actionable. And if it Atari thinks something is legally actionable, they are going to action it. So why did the Odyssey 2 fail? Well KC Munchkin was there mascot and if he is tied up in court, then you got nothing left. Josh: At the end of the day Atari controlled the content. Which as you will see through history is what dictates which consoles live and which consoles die. Dan: Now the biggest threat to the Atari 2600 came from the Intellivision. This was a cool little system that was actually a 16 bit system, 16 years before the Sega genesis. Josh: This is interesting because Intellivision wasn’t a complete failure. Here you had a company who had a pretty powerful machine, with some interesting innovations. They had directional pad instead of a joystick. Dan: And just like the Genesis and later the Xbox they kind of positioned themselves as kind of the more adult console for the sports crowd, the mature crowd, and the kind of hip young adult kind of people. Josh: They actually really focused on sports games; they had a baseball game that sold more than a million copies. They had George Plimpton the sports caster, Shill as Mr. Intellivision in some ads. And they actually did well because of it. And decided to parley that strength into what I would call video game mistake number one. Dan: What do they do? Well they just completely spazz out. They start releasing all these peripherals. Hey had a keyboard add on, they had the intellivision 2, 3, 4. They had kind of a computer add on, that turned it into kind of a vey primitive computer. Thy had a whole separate computer they built that was a stand alone PC. It was just too much hardware, not enough software. Josh: They cluttered the market and forgot the fundamental rule, if you don’t have good games; no one is going to care. TJ: Atari releases the 5200 console system in 1982. There were a number of problems that plagued that system that really didn’t make it as successful as it could have. Number one, the controllers. These controllers were cool to look at. But what was the problem with the controllers was no centering of the joysticks. Josh: It was a strange thing because I would just flop to one side like you couldn’t get it back in the middle, and it was really. Well this looks really strange right here, but it was really. Yeah the thing was terrible. TJ: Number two was that the 5200 for all its glory wasn’t able to play 2600 games. Your just telling your consumer, hey thanks for spending all your money, and now here is the new stuff that you can’t use any of your new stuff with. Josh: Basically it was the firs instance of this whole backwards compatibility thing. That still plagues systems. The Xbox 360 is still having trouble playing many of the best original Xbox games. TJ: In the long list of things that game companies refused to learn. Backward compatibility. Josh: Let’s talk about another failure. Actually I wouldn’t necessarily call it a complete failure, but the Sega master system was one that just couldn’t quite do it. Jeff: Nintendo made some of the best first party games of all time. Like Mario and Zelda, but beyond that they had some of the best third party support from companies like capcom and konami. They were just giving them gifts in the form of games like castlevania, metal gear, and bionic commando. The list just goes on and on. Josh: Nintendo had pretty much made exclusive deals with its third party companies. Like Konami, like Capcom. Basically saying to them, if you make games for us. We don’t really want you making games for other companies. And basically they effectively black balled Sega from being able to work with some of the best gaming companies that were out there. Jeff: It was up to Sega to make there own games, and they were ok at it. But thy were no Nintendo. It would have been impossible for them to match the creative force of Nintendo, capcom, Konami, just all the companies combined. Dan: there was one flaming car wreck on the side of the video game highway that some people remember kind of fondly and that was the Vectrex. Josh: It was a home based system that played 3d vector graphics. It didn’t actually plug into your TV. It came with its own little nine inch monitor. Now there graphics were interesting because they were actually being used back in the day as a way to create 3d graphics in games. And like one of the best examples is probably one of my favorite games too of all time. It’s the starwars arcade game. It’s that vectrex tried to bring that excitement home. Dan: It failed because you couldn’t hook it up to your TV, there are only so many games you can make out of these white lines coming at you, and today it is kind of a, it’s a curio, it’s a oddity. But it still has its fans. Josh: Let’s add another log to the fire and talk bout the Atari 7800. If the Atari 7800 had came out any earlier it would have been a nice system. Problem was, this is about 2 years too late. Jeff: There big titles are pole position 2 and Miss Pacman. Neither of which are big improvements over the originals, which are great games. Bu they are ancient, they are literally ancient. I mean you have things like Zelda going on. Like really revolutionary stuff. And they are still making maze games. And Pacman is a classic, but there is new classics being made like Mario and Zelda. Josh: Launching with Ms. Pacman in 1986 is like coming out with a DVD player and packing in birth of a nation. Jeff: Every successful console has on game that sells the system. A Mario, a sonic. Just something that moves it, that makes people say that’s the one I need. I need to play this game. TJ: In the industry there is a term that everyone uses called killer app. Now killer app stands for killer application. And a killer application is a application that is a application, a game, a killer title that helped drive the sales of the console. If the console does not have a killer app, or a group of titles that people really want to buy, the system will fail. Josh: Atari knew it, that’s why they locked down the licenses for Space invaders an pole position, for Pacman, these huge games that are sort of driving the success of the systems. TJ: Looking back at 35 years of gaming. The top console had a killer application. Something that is unique to that device. Jeff: Nintendo has Mario an Zelda. Genesis has sonic. TJ: You have the game boy. Game boy had Tetris. The most simplistic designed game, and greatest selling game of all time. Dan: the original playstation they got tomb Raider, they had resident evil. These are games you jus had o play. On the playstation 2 they had grand theft auto. Changed the face of gaming for ever. TJ: Xbox one comes out, the killer app on Xbox, Halo. Jeff: They never would have gotten anywhere without Halo, they really wouldn’t have. Dan: And today on the current generation, the Xbox 360, well gear of war, that’s the killer app for that. For the playstation 3 the jury’s still out, we don’t really have a killer app yet and maybe that’s why it is not selling so well. Josh: These consoles all succeeded because they had games that people were just dying to play. The ones that couldn’t get those games, for whatever reason, were the ones that lost it.
The history of the bitter feud between Atari and Nintendo. Play Value Episode “Atari vs. Nintendo” Dan: Nintendo and Atari, you would think these two video game pioneers would be the best of friends. But you really should not invite them to the same dinner party. Jeff: Atari was synonymous with video games for a long time, the way that Nintendo is now, and uh they fell off there throne. They made some miscalculations, they made some bad decisions and they weren’t the number one guy anymore Josh: But Nintendo took on Atari’s role and Nintendo’s success just like fueled the fires again, and gave Atari this last glimmer of hope that they could be back on top of the industry. Libi: Atari released the 7800, in an attempt to compete with Nintendo. And when that didn’t work out, Atari decided to drop the whole console thing, and said hey; alright we are just going to make games for Nintendo instead. Jeff: One of the reasons Atari fell from grace in the first place is just so many games were coming out it was impossible to keep track of what were the good ones and what were the ad ones. And the bad ones were so overwhelming that people just started to think that’s what videogames are, they are garbage. Libi: Nintendo wanted to reassure its customers that they were going to get good games from them. So what they did was decided to put the Nintendo seal of quality on their games. And then limited other companies and told them hey you can only make five games a year for our console. TJ: So you have to pick the five best games, because we are not going to flood our console with crappy games. We saw what it did to Atari, we have seen the past and we don’t want that. We want to have some kind of quality control. Jeff: So Nintendo says no more than five games a year, and in order to ensure that happens they put a security system in Nintendo called the 10 NES code. And what it is, is kind of a lock and key system. Where there is a special chip in the Nintendo games that matches a special chip inside the Nintendo. And if both aren’t present a game doesn’t start. Josh: When a cartridge was put into the console they communicated, and it was like this is a real game, this isn’t a real game. If it was a real game you could play it, if it wasn’t a real game, meaning authored by Nintendo, it wouldn’t play. Libi: So by limiting companies to only creating five games a year for their system, they really did ensure that they got the best games from those companies. Jeff: The companies didn’t like being limited to five games a year. But because they were, you see some of the games that come out here are some of the best games ever. Capcom is releasing Mega Man, Bionic Commando, Ghost and Goblins. Konami is putting out stuff like Contra, stuff like Castlevania, Metal Gear, and Gradius. There are just so many great games that even today they still make sequels to. Because they were so good that even twenty years later people still want Castlevania's because of those first few. TJ: Ok when Atari gets this news that Nintendo’s only going to allow them five games Atari is like wow, wow, wait a minute. We invented video games, w invented the home console. You’re not going to limit us to five. Dan: Nintendo says listen, you guys were first, we respect that but you got to play by the same rules as everybody else. Atari was not happy with this at all. TJ: It’s all on ego. Atari couldn’t stop third party providers from making crapware for their system. So when Nintendo tries to do it they are like wow, we couldn’t do it, what makes you think you can do it. Oh you guys add a secret code, damnit why didn’t we come up with secret code? Jeff: Atari wants special rules they want to put out more games, Nintendo says no. This goes back and forth for months, finally Atari says fine. So Atari through there subdivision Tengen, puts out three games, RBI baseball, Gauntlet, and Pac Man. And that is going to be the end of it. We will just keep moving and see how it goes. Maybe we will put out more games, maybe we won’t, you know? No big deal. TJ: Now this is were the story gets good. Because secretly Atari as a plan. All the Atari execs sit around and say ok, we are going to play by the rules. We are going to give them their five games, but we are going to break this code, we are going to find out what this secret Nintendo code is. Josh: Atari at first tried to hack the system. Bought a bunch of NES’s cracked them open gave hem to their best programmers. Monitored how the software interacted with the software in hopes of finding that unique little trigger that they could then bypass when they made their own game. Jeff: You know they tried to look at it and see what information was being sent back and forth. They were like we will steal this the correct way. But when that failed they were like alright, ok we will just take it from the copy right office. TJ: Atari goes to the copyright office and they submit a request to see the Nintendo code. Well the copy right office, fine why do you need to see the code? Atari said we are sued by Nintendo and in order for our legal team to create a proper defense we have to see what this code is, so that we can then fight this legal battle. Copyright office doesn’t know, so what do they do, they release the code to them. Jeff: This isn’t like one rogue Atari employee who is trying to rung Nintendo. This is an entire corporation, committing a major crime, really a very elaborate scheme to try and break the rules and then try to change them retroactively. TJ: So now Atari is sitting on the secret Nintendo code, and then in turn they sue them for 100 million dollars. They sue them for 100 million dollars because they have been monopolizing the industry. Dan: Nintendo they weren’t going to take this lying down, they said we are going to take this to the street. This is a street fight. So they went to all the toy retailers and they said listen. We got this tiff going on with Atari we will tell you what’s going to happen. If you carry any of their stuff, then you’re not going to get anymore Nintendo stuff, so no matter who wins these lawsuits. Nintendo still wins, Nintendo for the win. The fact is that Nintendo just owned the market, they dominated toy stores, and they are accounting for half of a store like Toys R Us’s profits. The court case took awhile to drag on but the results are just meaningless. Because Nintendo just bullied Atari out of stores. They had that much clout. They kind of were operating like a monopoly. There are warehouses full of games that people would have bought, but no ones going to sell them because they didn’t want to upset Nintendo. Josh: I mean basically Atari now needed to win this lawsuit against Nintendo. Everything rode on this, because they weren’t making any money in the market place with these games. Jeff: What happens next, because they so clearly stole it in a, a sneaky and underhanded way. I mean kind of like a Boris and Natasha style plot. Because of the way they got this they don’t do very well in court. Josh: Atari brought a fair and valid antitrust argument to bear. But completely ruined there credibility by engaging in theft, in copyright theft. TJ: But it never even got to that. Case was dropped, they settled out of court. Atari ultimately paid Nintendo something for stealing from them, and then Atari disappears. Jeff: Eventually the code was cracked as all codes are, and one person was making games, Wisdom Tree who put out some classics like Sunday Fun Day. Libi: And basically they hacked a secret code and they made Bible games. And so Nintendo heard about it and they were like man, do we really want to sue these guys. You know we are trying to tell parents that games aren’t the devil, but then we are trying to sue a church, un uh, I don’t think so, Tj: Nintendo in the true fashion of the Bible decided that they were just going to turn the cheek on this one and let Wisdom Tree do there thing. Jeff: This whole story is the beginning of a lot of bad blood between Nintendo and Atari, and it would continue for many years. But it was never really a big deal, just because Atari was never any competition. Atari always wanted to be, what Sega would eventually become, which is a real second company, with a real strong chance at dethroning the king.
BIONIC COMMANDO® REARMED REPORTS FOR DUTY AS DIGITAL DOWNLOAD Capcom Brings New Life to 8-Bit Classic with Modern Makeover SAN MATEO, Calif. — January 18, 2008 — Capcom®, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, today announced Bionic Commando Rearmed™, a makeover of the classic 8-bit game originally released 20 years ago. Bionic Commando Rearmed will be available for digital download from Xbox LIVE® Arcade, PLAYSTATION®Network and PC this spring. This announcement follows the news that Capcom will be releasing an all new next-generation sequel to Bionic Commando® on Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Sony Computer Entertainment’s PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment system and PC platforms. Bionic Commando Rearmed sees a return of the intense 2D side scrolling, shooting and grappling action from the much-loved 1988 Bionic Commando on the original 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System™. Bionic Commando Rearmed brings the amazing gameplay up to date with stunning new visuals, new weapons, online rankings, a reworked musical score and the addition of a 2-player co-op mode. The title will also provide cross-game interoperability, as completing parts of Bionic Commando Rearmed will unlock new content and provide secret insight into characters and plot of the brand new Bionic Commando sequel coming later in 2008. Bionic Commando Rearmed will contain the following features * Classic Bionic Commando gameplay focused around the use of the bionic grappling arm * 2-player co-op mode * Total modern visual revamp, including dynamic shadows, particle effects and environmental damage * Reworking of musical score * Cross-game interoperability – complete specific parts of Bionic Commando Rearmed to unlock new content and hints for the Bionic Commando sequel * In-game art designed by one of Capcom’s most talented artists, Toshiaki Mori To find out more visit the official website at www.bioniccommando.com
Witness the evolution of Capcom's side-scrolling NES classic and rescue Super Joe once again.
