CHEGheads Blog

Three Themes of E3

Posted by Jon-Paul C. Dyson - 06/25/10 at 04:06 pm

Between individual meetings about our work here at ICHEG, I grabbed an opportunity to wander the E3 conference floor in LA. After interacting with the various displays, I concluded that this year’s E3 encompassed three themes:

1) What’s Old is New Again—Given ICHEG’s mission, I happily noted old video game titles and characters finding new audiences in fresh games. Square Enix showed off Space Invaders Infinity Gene, a high-energy sequel to the classic game and a blast to play! Namco Bandai introduced Pac-Man Party for the Wii. Later, at the company’s evening celebration for Pac-Man’s 30th anniversary, I participated in a fun, four-player, cocktail-style arcade game, Pac-Man Battle Royale, due out in September. I also sampled a Bejeweled-like Pac-Man matching game for the iPad, which you can find in flash version here. And finally, Disney’s Tron Evolution proved exciting—as a middle school student, I geeked out over the original Tron. And since we have both the Tron and Discs of Tron arcade games in our ICHEG collections, I couldn’t help but snap this photo of the light cycle at the Disney booth.

Disney Booth

2) Active Play—Given recent trends in video game news, it’s not surprising that highly-active systems and games dominated the show. Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s Move appeared often, and their capabilities look impressive. Here’s an iPhone photo I took of George Lopez showing off his moves at Harmonix’s Dance Central booth.

Dance Central

3) The 3-D Killer App—I must admit, I’ve been skeptical about 3-D. At first, I thought this was a result of my not being an early adapter of technology—perhaps that’s why I’m an historian, not a futurist! However, I’ve been wondering how many people will plunk down money for 3-D televisions, after they recently purchased new high-definition sets. More importantly, I’ve always been wary of any technology that requires special glasses. Sure, they’re okay to wear in a movie theater where everything is dark and we are essentially having an individual experience (even if we’re with others), but I believe the best games have a social component.

I first learned this many years ago when playing Nintendo’s Virtual Boy. With your face plastered to the viewing area of the Virtual Boy, you lose contact with the people around you. Although the 3-D glasses are less cumbersome than the headpiece for Virtual Boy, the frames still limit your ability to interact with the people next to you. Nintendo’s new 3DS, however, offers a 3-D experience without isolating you from others nearby. The competition from the iPhone and other smart phones caused me some reservations about the future of DS, but the 3DS assures me that there’s still plenty of life in the old system.

So of these three trends—revival of old characters, new movement-based controls, or 3-D systems—which do you think will have the most success in the coming years?

June 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment

On the Road with Video Games

Posted by ssymonds - 06/18/10 at 11:06 am

Last week, my husband and I took a road trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Our drive took us through parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and over the course of our six and a half hour drive, we visited many of the convenient highway stops along the way. While stretching our legs at these rest stops, I happily discovered that the vast majority contained small video game arcades!

Asteroids from ICHEG Collections

In general, I found all these arcade games easy to understand and quick to play. Nearly all these arcades contained simple shooting games, such as Big Buck Hunter and occasionally a retro-style multi-directional shooter like Asteroids. In addition, themed pinball machines populated the game floors, especially those based on movies like The Lord of the Rings and Indiana Jones. Some of these arcades focused heavily on children’s games. I saw compilations of carnival-style games in several different rest stops including a ring toss and shooting gallery. Other arcades tended more toward adult tastes and contained video poker and slot machines. All of these game genres made perfect sense to me, but there was one type I didn’t expect to see at all, and it appeared in almost every single arcade I visited: racing games.

Because these arcades are located in rest areas designed solely for the purpose of accommodating traveler’s needs, I was surprised when I noticed that the first arcade possessed a driving game. I assumed that everyone making a pit-stop would have had enough of cars—this must be a fluke! But then the next rest stop had a racing game. And then the next, and the next, and so on. I’m not talking about stand-up racing games like Pole Position, either. At least these provide the player with an opportunity to stretch his or her legs. No, these were all of the sit-down variety, and sometimes they even contained two seats so players could race against one another. Not only were these racing games the most prevalent style, they were also the ones most often being used. As we continued our trip, I expressed my incredulity to my husband. Why would anyone want to exit their car for a break, only to sit right back down again and keep driving? Here one might assume that children, perhaps eager to imitate their parental drivers, were playing these games; however, I can guarantee I saw more adults at the wheel.

Virtua Racing from ICHEG Collections

Now don’t get me wrong—I love racing games! Some of my earliest memories include playing “crash ‘em up cars,” which is the nickname my mother gave Pole Position because as a child I crashed during the course of the game more than I actually drove. Under normal circumstances, I’ll head for a racing game the minute I enter an arcade. But I still can’t understand why road travelers consciously choose to continue driving while on break. Perhaps the escapism provided by racing a fantasy car down a complex track provides a measure of relaxation for both passengers and drivers, or maybe everyone just had driving on their brains. Either way, my mind is still reeling.

Do you have any memories of gaming on the road? Or perhaps you were of an age when handheld gaming systems were all the rage, and you packed one of them to play in the car, instead of relying on road-side stops. Please share your stories of how gaming has eased your past traveling experiences. And if anyone has some insight on why driving games are so popular in arcades clearly meant for travelers, I’d love to be enlightened!

June 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment

CHEGheads Going to Gaming Paradise . . . E3

Posted by Eric Wheeler - 06/11/10 at 03:06 pm

The CHEGheads are headed to E3 Expo 2010. Both a trade show and a celebration of gaming, the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo presented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is one of the most talked about industry events of the year. With the opening only a few days away, the E3 excitement is building on the blogosphere as gamers anxiously await news on “what’s next” in the gaming world.

Los Angeles from OSU Fisher College

Alternate interfaces for gaming consoles will garner considerable attention. Microsoft’s world premiere for the motion-sensing, “controller-free” Project Natal is scheduled for the Expo, and 3-D technologies will have their place in the sun with Nintendo showing off the next iteration of the highly successful DS line—the 3DS handheld gaming system. There is also some speculation that Sony will debut the next version of the PSP. We’ll see. As always, a host of new jaw-dropping game titles will make initial appearances too.

E3 Expo 2009 from E3

Complementing the Expo, a number of other game-related events take place throughout the city. I’m excited about seeing Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall’s Video Games Live and attending the EA Sports Strikeforce Live mixed martial arts event, both at the Nokia Theater.

We hope to bump into you at E3 and if you are interested in following the CHEGheads adventures, check out our E3 news on Twitter. Plus, we will share post-E3 reactions once we’re back home.

Meanwhile, what product releases are you excited about from E3 this year?

June 11, 2010 | Leave a Comment

A Generous Gift of Video Game Guides

Posted by Jon-Paul C. Dyson - 06/07/10 at 09:06 am

Ever been stuck in a game? You’re not alone. Back in the 1980s, when I was cutting my gaming teeth, I remember being stymied by Colossal Cave Adventure. I was playing the Osborne Computer version, written by Mike Goetz I believe, and to win the game you had to amass 580 points by solving a series of puzzles and challenges to acquire all the treasure. I had figured out almost all the problems in the game but couldn’t complete it. At last a friend told me I could teleport from room to room with the secret word, XYZZY. Rushing home, I entered the code, it worked, and I went on to finish the game.

From ICHEG Collection

Without my friend’s help, I never would have solved Colossal Cave Adventure. At the time, a few advice books on how to beat popular titles like Pac-Man existed, and some game publishers even provided hint books, but, in general, friends furnished the only reliable source of help. Game magazines, such as Nintendo Power, eventually began providing advice on playing selected titles, but the ultimate resource for players—detailed game guides—didn’t emerge until the 1990s.

Game guides have proved popular for many reasons. They whet readers’ appetites for the games with abundant screen shots, offer clear solutions to seemingly insoluble problems, and reveal secrets that players would never discover otherwise. In the process, the guides document both the games themselves and gamer culture in writing and visually. They also last longer than purely digital media. For all these reasons, it is vital to preserve them.

Prima Game Guides at ICHEG

That’s why we are so pleased that Prima Games, the largest publisher of game guides, donated more than 1,000 guides to the ICHEG collections. From Madden NFL to Might and Magic to Mortal Kombat to Myst, the guides in the Prima Games Collection are treasure stores of information on the contents and challenges of the games they cover. They will be as useful to researchers in the future as they have been to players in the past and present. It’s a fabulous gift for posterity.

Thank you, Prima Games!

June 7, 2010 | View Comments