Play FreeCiv in your browser (HTML5)

FreeCiv is now available as a HTML5 implementation that runs right in your (modern) browser:

Load times are quick too, so give it a try. It even supports multiplayer.

Tip: Moving units is either done via the arrow keys (preferably the number key-pad ones as those allow diagonal movement) or by dragging a red line from the unit to the desired location.

Two times (0.)2.0

(Yes, that is a rather thin common ground to combine these two news in one post ;) ).

Anyways, today there is one for the "FreeGamers", aka those that are looking for more or less playable games:
There is a new release (2.0) of StuntRally, and I guess I can quote Twain here too:

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated!

Because it looks like development was not only resumed after the earlier announcement of a project hold, but even increased in pace :)

Anyways, here is a great video:


And the other one is for "FreeGameDevs":
And as they say: good things come to those that wait, and things are better late then never... so I am happy to also report about the Octaforge 0.2.0 beta1 release.

This friendly fork of the Cube2 engine, brings an impressive list of new features on the table, and should once it becomes more "production ready" be a strong contender for the easiest to mod FPS engine out there!

OpenXcom takes a giant leap

Main menu

OpenXcom is one of those projects I've been following religiously, not only because I'm a huge fan of the X-COM series, but also because it promised to deliver a fully stable and bug free engine port released under a Free Software license.

The last time I talked about it, it seemed like there was still much work to be done, but apparently things have changed, as the developers suddenly just went from a fairly incomplete version 0.4 to a fully playable and enhanced version 0.9.

In game

This is obviously great news to all X-COM fans. OpenXcom now ensures the game can be ported to practically every modern device or OS you can think of. It also allows improved mod support and further enhancements to gameplay and graphics to be made by the community. Sadly the infamously hard sequel to X-COM, known as Terror from the Deep, is yet to be supported, something that will hopefully change in the upcoming versions of OpenXcom.

You can download OpenXcom v0.9 here.

The engine requires an original copy of X-COM: UFO Defense/UFO: Enemy Unknown in order to run, which can be purchased here.

Finally, if you're interested in modding or downloading mods made specifically for OpenXcom, you should check this page.

Code License: GPLv3

Nathan vs Perler Beads Part 7 : Go Big or Go Home

Time for another round of this! It's a two-part bonus episode today, featuring the creative magic of Final Fantasy VI. Seriously, it's my favorite game, so no duh I'm going to make tons of FFVI perlers. Whenever I sit down, I just want to make some huge Final Fantasy VI enemy, even if they're tricky and take like four hours. Because that game is gorgeous. 

Anyway, I've got a one-two punch today, with steps!

First up, the clown himself, Kefka. We made him before in walkaround sprite form, but I decided that wasn't cool enough.

Black outline first...

...and the finished product. I like how he turned out quite a bit!

We put him over the other Final Fantasy VI characters so he could act all superior.

Continuing the FFVI train, here's the biggest sprite I've done yet. It's based off the fantastic AbyssWolf's sprite art, and the original looked like this:

The trickiest part about perlering is getting the right colors, and adapting to fit the colors you have. However, in any case, I always start with a black outline, so we did that first:

That took about 45 minutes just for that. Then I decided to just work on colors I knew for certain were correct, so I started with the greens of her hair and sash thing.

After that I realized I had to make a hard decision and actually commit to some colors, so I committed to the easy ones: the blues in her legs.

I also had an idea of what I wanted the reds to be, and the purple in her bow wasn't that bad.

The trick was finding colors that blended well with the reds, because there aren't that many that match the original sprite. I finally decided on the colors I wanted which made her outfit a bit more vibrant than the original sprite.

I also had to darken her skin tone a bit because of my limited selection of fleshy-colors, but I think it looks good. 

I was doing this all in the middle of the night, and this is where I went to bed. I wasn't certain exactly what colors to use for her shoulder cape and I also wasn't sold on the skin tone (yet). I also needed to find a way to make the gold at the top of  her gloves and bustline "pop", as well as the edges of the cape. After waking up the next day, however, I knew exactly what colors to use, which is rare; usually I screw up at least once on big colored projects like this. 

All that was left now was her cape, which I was also worried about because of the limited colors, but I manned up and just made it. Here is the finished product, next to a Final Fantasy III SNES cart and the original Terra overworld sprite for size and color comparisions. 

She's big! Three feet! Look at how big she is!

Also, my beard looks crazy in that picture. Whatever.

Ironing things this big is a pain, and she was no exception. Part of her cape and hair broke off, and bits of her separated into large chunks as we ironed. It took almost an hour to iron her and fix the damage we'd done, but in the end everything turned out lovely. 

This is her next to the giant Metroid, for a size check:

And this is her nailed to the wall:

That picture makes her look small. She isn't. :)

We'll have more in the future, so be sure to check all that out! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed watching the steps!

Next up? Atma Weapon. Yeah. That'll be awesome. 

Oh, and unrelated: we have a Facebook Page as well as an Esty Shop (that we just started) where we'll TAKE REQUESTS (on either the Facebook page or email us through the shop). If you're interested, we try to price them competitively and would be willing to do almost any sprite. We also have Pokemon Coasters that I want to keep for myself, so here's a spoiler for next time:

BIDOOF

Nathan vs His Game Collection: Day 21 - Fester Can Suck It

So, what happens when you reverse Cookie Monster? Something fantastic, that's what!
That has nothing to do with today's reviews, I just wanted to post it up here. Two for you today, because I'm tired and have to leave to work shortly. But hey, it's the weekend! Almost! Hooray!

Faxanadu

A little background

 Oh man, somebody really went crazy with the sharpie on that one. Wanted to make sure everybody knew you owned it forever, huh? Until it showed up at the used game store, I guess.

Faxanadu is a Hudson Soft joint (makers of such fine products as Adventure Island and Bomberman), released in August of 1989. It's a classic story of Elves vs Dwarves, and the people stuck in the middle. It's a classic action RPG in the vein of Zelda 2, The Battle of Olympus or (shudder) 8 Eyes. This is also a game I wanted for a really long time but could never find a copy in stores, so when one showed up (even with a ruined label) I still had to pick it up.

First impressions last forever

 This game is really, really brown. Lots of dark browns and muddy greens here. It also looks like the world graphics of Zelda 2 had a baby with the UI from 8 Eyes. Which I guess can be good or bad depending on what you like.

The game has solid controls, though, and I like the music. It's also extremely difficult. 

But as I played further...

 Faxanadu is widely considered a cult classic, but I just think it's ok. Don't get me wrong; it isn't bad by any means, it's just...really hard. It's hard, ok? Lots of level grinding, lots of people to talk to, lots of stuff to buy, lots of dying; you get the point. The action RPG elements help make it so the grind isn't as tedious, and I do like the various locations you can explore and the little quirks the game has to offer. For example, you can buy "titles" (like "Warrior," etc.) from a title...selling guy, and then flaunt these titles around town to get people to give you money. Yeah, it's weird, but that's Faxanadu!

Part of me thinks this game could have been better than Zelda II if only they'd put more effort into it, but after several hours I'm just sort of lukewarm to the whole game. Though I do like it a bit better than The Battle of Olympus, it still didn't quite suck me in. 

So what's the conclusion? 

I still think Faxanadu is worth getting, especially if you're a fan of Zelda II. While the game is very brown (what a muted color pallet!) and also very hard, it's a classic action RPG that still manages to do just about everything right. If you're into those kinds of games, and want a long, action-rpg quest with plenty of locations to visit and enemies to kill, you could do a lot worse than Faxanadu.

Copies (if you can find them) are usually $10 or less. 

Fester's Quest

A little background

Sunsoft, you tards. Sometimes you make really good games, like Batman and Blaster Master. And sometimes you make total, undefendable trash, like Fester's Quest.

Obviously based on the Addams Family, Fester's Quest was forcefully ejected into the world by Sunsoft in September of 1989. It's interesting to note that the overhead engine used for most of the game was the same engine used for the overhead sections in Blaster Master, as this game came after Blaster Master. Why it's still so horrible after they made that excellent game is beyond me. 

Also, he should probably do something about that spider on his head. Just sayin.  

First impressions last forever

For using the Blaster Master engine, this game looks hideous. Fester is like a black mound of round pixels, and the enemies are either unidentifiable objects or toads. The controls aren't half bad (probably, again, because of the Blaster Master engine) but the power-ups are just awful. The wave gun doesn't pass through anything, so if you're in an enclosed space the shots just...go away! Who designed this? 

But as I played further...

 There are I guess one or two interesting things about Festers Quest. The big one being the 3D rooms when you go inside houses. Those are actually kind of cool, even if the rooms are completely empty mazes. I guess.

It seems I only had one nice thing to say, not two. This game is trash. Complete and utter trash. 

So what's the conclusion? 

I have a weird knack for buying games AVGN references because frequently I think he's wrong about them (for example, Jaws really isn't that awful), but he nailed this one right on the head: Fester's Quest is just not a good game. Even for curiosity, it isn't worth picking up. You'll play it for a few seconds, get annoyed, and quit. This is one of the few instances I'd suggest trying it first on an emulator before buying it, because the two minutes you spend playing it will be enough to last you the rest of your life.

It's a mess, don't buy it, don't look at it, don't acknowledge its existence.

Copies are too much, whatever the price. 

Heroine Dusk, cool in browser retro dungeon crawler

Clint Bellanger, the awesome guy behind the Flare RPG (engine), just landed a surprise hit for the #OneGameaMonth competition(?):

Heroine Dusk

The fully JavaScript (and thus in Browser game) is called Heroine Dusk, and can be played here as a first demo. Game play seems to be heavily influenced by those early 1990ties pseudo 3D dungeon crawlers (similar to the recent indie-game hit "Legend of Grimrock").

Code and art assets are of course fully FOSS!

Nathan vs His Game Collection Day 20 - The Destruction of Spondylus

DINOSAURS. AW YEAH. 

Dynowarz: The Destruction of Spondylus

A little background

 Dynowarz's box art is something wonderful to behold. A giant red dino, being shot through the head in a wanton act of violence by Spaceman Spiff there, with the hardcore, gangster font "DYNOWARZ" blasting itself across the screen. Also, they're on like the moon or something. This box art? Phenomenal. 

The game itself? Uh...

Dynowarz was released in April of 1989 by...*sigh*...Bandai. Not to hate on Bandai all the time, but they really weren't on top of their game during the NES era. And they "modernized" by merging with Namco and selling you "Level Up" dlc for the Tales games. So, in truth, they're kind of still sucky.

I'm just gonna paste what's on the back of the box, here, and leave it at that. 
"Something was terribly wrong in the distant man-made Spondylus Solar System. One by one the planet's central life support computers had been infected with a life threatening virus while the planet surfaces had been overrun with computerized dinosaurs known as Robosaurs. Under attack in his laboratory on Alpha Planet, Professor Proteus, the mastermind of the Spondylus System and the founder of the Robosaur project suddenly realized that this deadly sabotage could only be the work of his former partner, the deranged Dr. Brainius. 
Years earlier, the doctor had fled Alpha Planet after Professor Proteus had exposed him for performing forbidden robotic experiments on human subjects. At last, he has returned to seek his revenge using the Professor's own creations! But little did he realize that Proteus had been hard at work for the past few years perfecting the ultimate Robosaur, Cyborasaurus. 
There was only one hope to save the Spondylus System."

First impressions last forever

You don't start off as a dinosaur. Instant negative points. You play as a blob of blue that I think is a guy. He can jump like 200 feet in the air and has really bad platforming controls. However, after blasting through other nondescript blobs, you find a giant dino head sticking up through the floor and you jump into it.
Begun, the Dynowarz has!
Also, since you technically get in and out of your robot dinosaur, this basically makes this Blaster Master, except replace the car with a giant metal T-Rex. Point: Dynowarz. 

But as I played further...

Dynowarz is honestly just a mediocre platformer. While as midget pixel blob man you can jump 3/4 of the way up the screen and get a variety of gun powerups, as Dyno (who is engaging in the "Warz") you have a limited, clunky jump, and start armed with just your fists. Yeah. You know how T-Rexes have tiny arms? That's your starting weapon: punch with tiny arms. Great.
You later get other totally not dinosaur related powerups, like a boomerang fist (?!) a sort of laser shot, and some other power up I can't remember off the top of my head. You can upgrade them, but only if you get the same upgrade powerup two times in a row. Or else it'll switch you back to another one at level one, which sucks.
After beating the level and the painfully easy bosses, you'll switch to the guy again and jump into a nearby building to blow up Mother Brain. Why the dino couldn't just destroy it from the outside is beyond me. Then you beam up (literally) and start the process over.
The controls aren't great, the graphics are ok I guess, and while I do like they try to switch up gameply styles between dino and man, neither are very fun. But hey, I'm punching robot Stegosauri in the face with a Robot T-Rex on an alien world. That's a'ight. 

So what's the conclusion? 

I secretly have a soft spot in my cold, dead heart for Dynowarz: The Destruction of Spondylus. It gives you one life but unlimited continues, and the only real difficulty in the game is the pits and the fact that when you get hit you leap back like a quarter of the screen (usually into the aforementioned pits). The human levels aren't that great and the bosses are lame and easy, but it's still...charming? Somehow?
Maybe my love of dinosaurs is overwhelming me. Speaking of which, why don't we make any dinosaur games anymore? What, did they stop being cool?
Copies are cheap; usually $3-5.

Elevator Action

A little background

 Elevator Action is the NES port of the classic arcade game of the same name. Made, released, and ported by Taito in August of 1987, this game has the honor of being the second most played game on my TI-86 calculator, the most played being Tetris. It also stars a kleptomaniac ginger, so I can relate to that as well. Odds are you've at least heard of this game, and probably played it, so the question is if the NES port is still any good. 

First impressions last forever

 I remember why I both like and hate this game: it involves elevators. Lots of elevators. A bit of action, but mostly just elevators.

The goal's simple: get the documents and get out. You can manually control the elevator and have it pause between floors until the coast is clear (unlike any elevator ever), and also hide in doors and shoot dudes who pop out of doors. So that's kind of like Rolling Thunder or Codename: Viper. Only not at all.

Also, sometimes they turn out the lights, and the game gets hard. 

But as I played further...

 This is a classic arcade game, but honestly one I found kind of boring. To be fair, it's a bit different than most: it requires a lot of planning ahead and devising strategy, hanging back when necessary rather than always moving forward (though you will need to move forward at some point). Killing people isn't necessarily the way to win, as the only goal you have is to get the documents and get out. It's fun, pretty crazy, and not too frustrating compared to other arcade games (like Burger Time). I never really dug it, but I can still appreciate it. 

So what's the conclusion? 

I like how I said I "don't really dig it" right after saying I played it a ton on my calculator. Hey, it's not like I had a lot of TI-86 games. 

Point being: Elevator Action is still solid, and as far as ports go it's near perfect. While this, like all other arcade games, depends entirely on if you liked the original arcade game, I'd say Elevator Action is well-rounded enough that everybody can at least get a few solid rounds out of it. Whether you'll pick it up after that is up to you (and again, NES carts like this don't save scores after you turn them off). But still, a fun little diversion.

Copies are usually $5-10

Excitebike

A little background

So hey, the Excitebike theme is pretty great, even if it's only nine seconds long. Just put it on repeat and have a happy day. 

Excitebike is an NES launch game in October of 1985, and is well remembered among fans. This game was re-released as "Vs. Excitebike" on the Famicom disc system, with the option to actually save your custom tracks. It's also worth pointing out that the Wii port in the Virtual Console also allows you to save tracks. So that's great.

And the "brrrrrpppp" sound of the motor of the bike always goes through my head whenever I see that box art, so you got that too.  

First impressions last forever

 Man, this game is classic. Also, tons of fun!

There's two modes: one where you race other players (but they just sort of...are there. You're really going against time and they're in the way) and one by yourself. Yourself is boring but lets you not have to worry about anything but the tracks, but I prefer playing with other racers because it's less drab. 

Mastering the jumps, speeds, and when to use nitro is tricky but easy to figure out. I'm sure some people have gotten absurdly masterful at the game, but for me it's just a fine time trying to not biff it. 

Also, the track editor is pretty good. 

But as I played further...

 It really sucks they didn't save your tracks with a battery. I know this was a launch title, but it still sucks. Can you imagine making tracks, then loaning the cart to a friend to have them test them out? That would have been cool. Also, having two player would have been nice. 

Regardless, this is nitpicks. Excitebike is a simple concept (drive over a complex track of jumps, bumps, etc. while not biffing it) with a sadly limited number of tracks, but it's so fun you'll forgive it. I love Excitebike, and spent way too much time playing it for this retrospective review. 

So what's the conclusion? 

While I could argue that Trials and Joe Danger are better, more modern sequels (and they are), there's still something inherently charming about the original Excitebike. While a few minor niggles exist, most are from the point of view of Future Game Development, looking back (like saving tracks, etc.). For what it is, Excitebike does well enough, and is an essential part of any collection.

Copies usually are cheap; around $5.