when I asked Carmack about doing a remake, his main concern was that there really wasn't the same market for remakes of retro PC games that there was for retro console games.
He did say that if they ever did another plat former, it would probably be Keen though.
One of the Commander Keen series, along with Doom 2, were my first (and only!) PC games for quite some time. I recall trying to play Keen with a flight-intended joystick.
There are so many good games from the Epic/iD/Apogee library to choose from for remakes: Halloween Harry, Bio Menace, Jason Storm, Jill of the Jungle, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, KEEN...
Unfortunately, in the era of big-budget blockbuster games, these old decaying IPs will just fall by the wayside. :/
@High Speed Indeed: Ah I love those Shareware discs. Remember my dad used to get them with Old PC mags. "180 GAMES ON ONE CD!!!" Before steam there was sending postal orders in the mail.
@High Speed Indeed: I have them as well, but in some box somewhere in my office. I'm sure I could find them...not sure if I actually have the A:\ drive to boot them anymore though :P
@Destruction: ah thats nothing! I had a 2disc set called "the encyclopedia of games", it claimed to have over 1000 games on...and it might well of done.
Everything from 'Fuzzys World Of Miniature Space Golf' (still superb) to 'Race The Nags'
@elronathon: Hehe, Race the Nags was surprisingly fun... those compilation discs were chock full o' gold. Soleau Software, MoraffWare, hundreds of bizarre Tetris clones... all kinds of games you would have never known to look for, but once you had them, they were indispensable.
Seems like the kind of job for Unreal Engine 3.
Just imagining this remade a la Shadow Complex is making me wish I was a game developer so i could at least pitch it to someone important.
@syafiqjabar of Mars: I just say it should because the look and mechanics of Shadow Complex, to me, are a perfect step up from 2d side scrollers.
I'm not sure what these videos are supposed to be conveying to be other than massive nostalgia-bombs.
If MS wanted to be consistent, the least they could do is prevent underage kids from downloading mature content only. That shouldn't be that hard to implement. A blanket lock-out of everything is just lazy.
Microsoft's willingness to prevent kids from downloading mature content could, if done properly, send the appropriate message to the knee-jerk anti-game lobby who doesn't understand that adults game too and some of the content out there is geared towards us, not their "precious snowflakes." (Whether or not the most unreasonable of those reactionaries would actually take notice or listen is another story entirely.)
I have no problem with age based restrictions, and as kids grow older, they too will come to appreciate the reasoning behind it and realise the world didn't come to a crashing halt because they couldn't download some mature title on the marketplace.
Really though, it's sad that parents have so little control and/or can't take time out of their busy schedule to monitor their child's gaming habits all the time, not simply when they happen to notice their little darling is already playing Gears of War 2.
....
Let your little darling shoot strangers in the face online, unsupervised, all the while hurling obscenities at people twice his age through his headset that you paid for, and jam mountain dew and hot pockets down his gullet.
We were wondering about xBox Live and the ability of kids to download anything they want as long as they have a credit card or a Microsoft Points card just yesterday. I think Microsoft is trying to clean up the behavior on Live and we speculated that eventually they will come up with a way of screening downloads there. I have no idea how, but when parents only sue after the fact instead of being pro-active, what's a corporation to do? It'll be interesting to see how the NZ situation plays out as a way of seeing into our future in our own country.
It's simply them covering their butts before the NZ government kicks them in it. Harsh yes, sucky yes, but when parents don't parent, others have to or end up taking it on the chin.
I'd rather censor myself and protect myself from a government style reaming then 'fight the power' and end up sitting in jail over something like this, which IMHO isn't worth lawsuits, million dollar fines and jail time. Plus the unspeakably bad PR.
Edited by Foxstar is in love with Kotaku's two Brians. at 07/27/09 2:36 AM
Foxstar is in love with Kotaku's two Brians. was starred
Foxstar is in love with Kotaku's two Brians. was unstarred
I live in NZ, and two weeks ago on regular, free tv at 9:30pm they showed "the perfect vagina" so anyone of any age could watch flabby labia being cut off a woman's vag, but heaven forbid they download a halo map pack instead.
Isnt this what 'Master' and 'Child' accounts are for? The Master account can control what the child account can do (I may have gotten the terms mixed up but whatever).
The root of the problem here is that the division of Internal Affairs here in New Zealand has not up until this point been placing content ratings on downloadable products.
Microsoft's intention, no doubt, is simply to avoid falling foul of the law here, by halting the sale of what could end up being restricted materials to people that will not be legally allowed to possess it.
What it unfortunately amounts to, however, is a corporation taking it upon themselves to censor media, which is unacceptable.
A government censoring any sort of media is questionable enough, but acceptable given that we live in a democracy, and we could kick up a stink if we really felt that strongly about it.
You could argue that people also vote with their dollars, when it comes to the actions of corporations, but this always ends up as a lot of talk on the part of a vocal minority (i.e. a few Kotaku readers), while Joe Consumer who doesn't give a damn carries on buying whatever he likes.
However, I find myself thinking that, were I in Microsoft's shoes, I would be doing exactly as they are, and for this reason: If a 14 year old currently owns content that will soon, retroactively, become illegal for him to own, where to from there? I would want to avoid as much of that mess as possible, even knowing that there's already going to be a lot of mess needing attention when downloadable content ratings come into place.
As for where the prompt for this action came from, and I speak entirely on the basis of rumours here, I hear it's a government department, but not the department of Internal Affairs, oddly.
11/24/09
11/24/09
#speakup
11/24/09
New hotness: Horney Young Teachers.
#speakup
11/24/09
#speakup
11/24/09
11/25/09
#speakup
11/25/09
Actually Google Trend kinda verifies that ....
[www.google.com]
#speakup
11/24/09
He did say that if they ever did another plat former, it would probably be Keen though.
11/24/09
There were an immense amount of pogodeaths.
11/24/09
Unfortunately, in the era of big-budget blockbuster games, these old decaying IPs will just fall by the wayside. :/
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
#speakup
11/24/09
Everything from 'Fuzzys World Of Miniature Space Golf' (still superb) to 'Race The Nags'
11/24/09
#speakup
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
But I have high hopes. The Dopefish will rise again.
11/24/09
do it 2.5D. Bright colors, smooth mechanics and animation, and remastered, reimagined music ala BC:R.
11/24/09
Just imagining this remade a la Shadow Complex is making me wish I was a game developer so i could at least pitch it to someone important.
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
I'm not sure what these videos are supposed to be conveying to be other than massive nostalgia-bombs.
07/27/09
Microsoft's willingness to prevent kids from downloading mature content could, if done properly, send the appropriate message to the knee-jerk anti-game lobby who doesn't understand that adults game too and some of the content out there is geared towards us, not their "precious snowflakes." (Whether or not the most unreasonable of those reactionaries would actually take notice or listen is another story entirely.)
I have no problem with age based restrictions, and as kids grow older, they too will come to appreciate the reasoning behind it and realise the world didn't come to a crashing halt because they couldn't download some mature title on the marketplace.
Really though, it's sad that parents have so little control and/or can't take time out of their busy schedule to monitor their child's gaming habits all the time, not simply when they happen to notice their little darling is already playing Gears of War 2.
....
Let your little darling shoot strangers in the face online, unsupervised, all the while hurling obscenities at people twice his age through his headset that you paid for, and jam mountain dew and hot pockets down his gullet.
I hate the world.
07/27/09
07/27/09
I absolutely concur. New Zealand: Like Lord of the Rings!
07/27/09
100000100001110000001010000100...
07/27/09
07/27/09
I'd rather censor myself and protect myself from a government style reaming then 'fight the power' and end up sitting in jail over something like this, which IMHO isn't worth lawsuits, million dollar fines and jail time. Plus the unspeakably bad PR.
07/27/09
07/27/09
07/27/09
Microsoft's intention, no doubt, is simply to avoid falling foul of the law here, by halting the sale of what could end up being restricted materials to people that will not be legally allowed to possess it.
What it unfortunately amounts to, however, is a corporation taking it upon themselves to censor media, which is unacceptable.
A government censoring any sort of media is questionable enough, but acceptable given that we live in a democracy, and we could kick up a stink if we really felt that strongly about it.
You could argue that people also vote with their dollars, when it comes to the actions of corporations, but this always ends up as a lot of talk on the part of a vocal minority (i.e. a few Kotaku readers), while Joe Consumer who doesn't give a damn carries on buying whatever he likes.
However, I find myself thinking that, were I in Microsoft's shoes, I would be doing exactly as they are, and for this reason: If a 14 year old currently owns content that will soon, retroactively, become illegal for him to own, where to from there? I would want to avoid as much of that mess as possible, even knowing that there's already going to be a lot of mess needing attention when downloadable content ratings come into place.
As for where the prompt for this action came from, and I speak entirely on the basis of rumours here, I hear it's a government department, but not the department of Internal Affairs, oddly.