Rick Brewster is probably best known for creating Paint.NET, the popular free alternative to Microsoft Paint, but in 1994 he was a 12-year-old kid taking his first steps into coding. Like many budding programmers of the era, Brewster learned his trade by dabbling in videogame creation via instructions in a book. One such creation was The Golden Flute IV: The Flute of Immortality. Thinking it good enough for a relative to enjoy, young master Brewster put his DOS adventure game on a disc and mailed it off to a cousin, never to be seen again.
Imagine Rick Brewster’s surprise when Macaw, a retro streamer, fired up The Golden Flute IV just before Christmas. Here was Brewster’s long-lost game, a game he only ever sent to one person, being played live on Twitch! All its primitive preteen glorious CGA graphics and simple audio back from the past like a “lost, drunken cat” finding its way home.
How did this happen? According to Brewster’s Twitter thread, his cousin cannot remember the details, but he was likely trying to do his cuz a solid and submitted the game to to a BBS where it was later collected by a publisher in the 1994 Cream of the Crop 5 compilation disc. From there, it wound up on FidoNet, and into the Internet Archive, where you can play it too.
The Age of Empires developers have a holiday surprise for everyone. It’s an official Yuletide graphics asset Winter Celebration mod for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. It’s a free in-game download that will turn the ground snowy, change spears into candy canes, and snowballs become weapons of mass destruction. You have until sometime in January to download it, at which point the team will remove the mod from the listing. Once you have it, you can enable it from within the game and play in winter whenever you want.
Star Wars: TIE Fighter is the best dog-fighting action space sim ever made. Fight me for it. But there was a time before 1994 when TIE Fighter wasn’t a sure thing. Larry Holland and LucasArts had an earlier hit with Star Wars: X-Wing, but this was a game from the bad guys’ point of view! The disposable Imperial pilot, no less. Would it actually sell? We laugh about that question now, but imagine trying to market that game.
PC Gamer dug into the history of how the game was made, and one of the often forgotten bits of TIE Fighter’s success was that its demo was pressed and marketed thanks to Dodge Neon. Yes, that pokey little car that hit the streets in wacky colors like “Nitro yellow-green” and “Lapis Blue” along with other questionable choices.
“I wasn’t in much of a bargaining position; I didn’t have a whole lot to give in return, other than they get to use Star Wars in their advertising. For the Dodge Neon, which was nothing like a sci-fi or futuristic car. It was from Michigan. There was nothing sexy about it; it looked like a family car. But it was a big win, because we couldn’t afford to distribute 400,000 demos on our own, or do a TV commercial.”
Imagine Grand Admiral Thrawn’s personal Neon. It would likely be the pimped-out one with the headlight hoods and chrome accents.
Microsoft is adding Battle Royale to Forza Horizon 4. The Eliminator is a free mode coming today that features up to 72 players duking it out in open-world car tomfoolery. Everyone starts in a 1965 Mini, but winning races or finding “rare drops” can give the players better cars, and everyone tries to eliminate other drivers. And yes, there is a circular border that slowly contracts throughout the session that will knock players out if they stray too far. It’s like PUBG, but without the inventory shuffling or teabagging.
Electronic Arts’ Command & Conquer Remastered will feature the original voice actor for the player’s AI assistant. According to Frank Klepacki, in 1995 Westwood recorded most of their in-game voices using office staff, jury-rigged equipment, and a padded broom closet. Kia Huntzinger, office supervisor, agreed to be EVA, the computer voice of the player’s UI. To many gamers her “Greetings Commander” became as comforting and familiar as Alexa or Siri. Unfortunately, the master recordings were lost, and the game files contained audio flaws that became exacerbated in the remaster process. The solution? Bring Kia back! Luckily, she was game for the opportunity to return to the role. You can hear some of her work in the video here.
Players of Command & Conquer Remastered will be able to choose between the new audio or the original files.
Google has refused to waive their standard fee for Fortnite’s in-game purchases. According to The Verge, Epic asked Google for an exemption or reduction in their cut to have Fortnite listed on Google’s Play store for the Android platform. Google, not surprisingly, told Epic to take a hike. The tech giant pointed out that Epic apparently pays Apple the same rate to be listed on the official Apple iOS store, and that their portion of revenue is necessary to maintain their distribution and support costs. Epic says it’s high time for the industry to change.
We have asked that Google not enforce its publicly stated expectation that products distributed through Google Play use Google’s payment service for in-app purchase. We believe this form of tying of a mandatory payment service with a 30% fee is illegal in the case of a distribution platform with over 50% market share.
Fortnite is currently not available in Google’s Play store for Android platform. It has to be manually loaded onto Android tablets and phones via Epic’s store.
Sony is finally, better-late-than-never, allowing cross-play in Minecraft. The Bedrock Update is coming to the PlayStation 4 version of the game. This will bring the PS4 version up to date with every other platform. The main roadblock to PlayStation getting the update was Sony’s refusal to allow cross-play with its rival in Redmond. That corporate resistance has faded as games like Fortnite and Rocket League have demanded it.
The Bedrock update originally launched in 2011 for iOS, and it subsequently launched on other platforms throughout the years. This update will also allow PlayStation players to purchase the in-game DLC that’s been available for so long. Rejoice! You can give Sony and Microsoft more money at the same time.
Nintendo is adding Link to Super Mario Maker 2 on December 5th. The 2.0 Update features a lot of great stuff, like a new speedrun mode and special blocks, but the star of the free content addition is the plucky hero from The Legend of Zelda. Unlike previous costume changes for Mario, turning into Link will drastically change how players interact with the game’s levels. Link can shoot arrows, thrust with his Master Sword, and carry bombs. Let me turn into Zelda, and we’ll really be cooking.
There’s a pretty nasty bug in Civilization 6 on the Nintendo Switch that prevents winning. According to reports from numerous players, the game has a tendency to crash just before the human player gets to declare victory. Like a sore loser at checkers, the game just quits when you’re about to win. Thankfully, there’s a workaround while 2K Games figures out a fix.
“A discovered known workaround is to declare war on the Civilization that is causing the crash right before you end your turn.”
There’s your solution for now. Crash out, then reload and declare war on the civ that caused the crash. You’ll feel the sting of the AI’s tantrum, but you’ll get to rub it in Civilization 6’s face eventually.
Battleborn, the ill-fated 2016 character-driven shooter from Gearbox, is finally retiring. 2K Games has issued a notice on their support site warning everyone of the impending drawdown. As of today, the publisher is removing Battleborn from all digital stores. If you already have it in your library, you’ll still be able to play for as long as the servers remain up, but that will eventually end too. 2K will be turning off the game completely in January 2021. Fare-thee-well Montana, you teeny-noggin galoot! We hardly knew you!
Valve announced Half-Life: Alyx, the next “full-length” chapter in the saga. It’s not Half-Life 3, or even Half-Life 2: Episode 3, but it’s probably the best we’re going to get. Unfortunately, it’s exclusively a VR game, so fans of City 17 and The Combine will need to own hundreds of dollars worth of extra hardware to play it.
For those that do have a PC-based VR headset, Half-Life: Alyx will take players on a prequel story to Half-Life 2. Alyx Vance, armed with groovy “gravity gloves” and chatty quips, swats leaping headcrabs out of the air like a champ.
Owners of the Valve Index headset will get the game for free when it launches in March 2020. If you’re in the mood to see more, Geoff Keighley of The Game Awards has already posted a behind-the-scenes video.
Less than stellar launch reviews aside, Stadia, Google’s game-streaming boondoggle has at least brought us this amazing ad. It may now be my favorite example of “How do you do, fellow kids?” It’s so gamer marketing tryhard that it circles almost all the way back around to nerd cool. Almost.
Rainbow Six Siege has them. Overwatch has them. Apex Legends has them. Now, Counter-Strike, the competitive shooter with maybe the least detailed lore or personality, has characters. Honest-to-gosh characters with unique looks, voice lines, and ‘tude. These Master Agents come with the latest update to the hoary shooter, and the inject a little chutzpah into the proceedings once you unlock them through whatever operation coin upgrading shenanigans are afoot. There’s Two Times, Buckshot, Commander Ricksaw, Osiris, Agent Ava, Maximus, Blackwolf, and other appropriately hooh-rah sounding nicknames. Imagine how envious everyone will be when they’re using plain old T’s or CT’s and you’ve got some guy called “The Doctor” sporting a faux-hawk.
Grid, (just stylized as “GRID” and not “GRID Reboot” or “GRID 4”) launched on PC and consoles last month from Codemasters. It’s supposedly a “return to roots” for the franchise. It certainly looks like a fine racer that virtual gearheads should like. It’s also coming to Google’s Stadia streaming service, and when it does, the game will have something there you can’t get on any other platform.
The Google Stadia version of Grid will have a 40-car racing mode. According to Codemasters’ Mark Green, this exclusive mode “just isn’t possible” without the tech giant’s streaming technology. Speaking to WCCFTech, Green also says controller lag isn’t an issue – a prediction that many commenters have had for streaming tech.
“I mean racing games are particularly sensitive to controller lag and yet I can’t feel any when playing on Stadia, the experience is fantastic.”
While Grid will not be part of Google Stadia’s launch lineup, it will be available later this year.
Bethesda Softworks has launched a major update for Wolfenstein: Youngblood. The 1.0.7 update adds new endgame content sure to please the teen twin Nazi-stompers.
Once you’ve finished the main campaign, the new “Da’at Yichud Artifacts” mission will open up to give players a treasure-hunt going back through Nazi-occupied Paris. Twenty treasure maps will lead hunters on a backtrack journey for bits and bobs that give finders money, XP, and ability points. You’ll need those new points, because the update adds a new ability for each character tree. If you need new ways to high-five or flip the bird to your cooperative or A.I. sister, there’s new pep signals, too!
