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CultureTotal Recall
StarCraft Was Once a Busted Pile of Crap
Blizzard isn’t just famous for its games, it’s famous for a lengthy and considered development output. It’s one of a privileged few studios in the world that can say “we’ll release the game when it’s ready”, and really mean it. The agonising wait fans have to endure for new Blizzard games is testament to this.…
by Patrick Wyatt Published September 11, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallOne of the Rarest Games on Earth is About The Bible
Once believed to be a hoax, vintage Atari game Red Sea Crossing has in recent years emerged as one of the holy grails of video game collecting, owing partly to the fact that it’s believe only two known copies exist on the entire planet. And also because it’s about Moses. Programmed by Steve Schustack in…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 10, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallWhen The Future of Video Games Was…Tape Decks
This is a commercial for Hitachi’s H2 model of the MSX, Microsoft’s unsung hero of Japan’s gaming past. The soothing tones, the brilliant whites, the computer-generated animal…this is the future, people. The distant, star-gazing future! Where video games are so advanced they’re sold not on discs, or downloaded over communications networks, but put on cassette…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 7, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Miyamoto’s Worst Game Idea Ever. Or Maybe The Best. Not Sure.
In 1989, Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto sat down with Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii for an interview. The two spoke about practically everything, from game design to their latest titles (like Link to the Past) to the future, but what I found most interesting was the pair’s ideas on making games about teaching. Both had…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 7, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Unpublished Nintendo Comic That Said “S**t”
Howard & Nester was a comic staple of Nintendo Power for much of the magazine’s run, but there’d always been one storyline kept out of the public eye. Until today. This issue was never intended to run in the magazine; instead, it was specially made and given to former Nintendo of America icon Howard Phillips…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 6, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Most Arcade Games From The 1980s Have Been Smashed To Pieces
While there are plenty boutique arcades and bars across the world that are home to old Asteroids cabinets, and private collectors who own working versions of Centipede, they account for barely a drop in the ocean of the total number of arcade cabinets manufactured in the 1970s and 80s. We’d like to think those machines…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 6, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Street Fighter II’s Vintage Art Book is a Thing of Beauty
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By Luke Plunkett Published September 5, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Life, and Death, of PC Gaming’s Most Famous Cover Star
You might not have played the game, but if you’ve ever walked into a video game store in your life, you’ll recognise the face: that of the Chessmaster, star of 1986 game The Chessmaster 2000. That first game, developed by The Software Toolworks, would lead to a series that would span decades, with the last…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 31, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Namco’s Badass Retro Arcade Game Logos
I do love me some arcade marquees. The colours, the hand-drawn art, it’s all so very Roger Dean. This set are from Namco, before the company merged with Bandai, and could just as easily have worked as the logos for mid-80s thrash bands. Which is equally awesome. Namco Arcade Logos [VGJunk] Total Recall is a…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 31, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Super Nintendo’s Greatest Weapon Was Its Secret Spinning Tech
While in most areas the SNES and Mega Drive were similar enough, Nintendo’s one secret weapon – that Sega couldn’t match – was its Mode 7 technology. Allowing different “layers” on the screen to be rotated, it was usually used to move the “ground” separately from the background, and is perhaps most famously employed in…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 30, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
You Are Getting Old. Street Fighter Just Turned 25.
On August 30, 1987, the very first Street Fighter game was released by Capcom. Making today the series’ 25th birthday. My God. How depressing. Not for Capcom or Street Fighter, of course. For them, it’s party time. But for most of us who grew up button-smashing our way through combos, it’s a stark reminder that…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 30, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Your NES Could Have Had a Keyboard And Wireless Controllers
In the mid-80s, thanks to the success of platforms like the C64 and MSX, video game machines that could double as personal computers were hot. So it’s understandable that, ahead of Nintendo’s entry into the North American console market, the company was thinking that its first US machine might need to be more than just…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 29, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
World of Warcraft’s 2001 Reveal Feels Like a Different Age
The year was 2001. Rather than battling evil computers on white-washed spaceships, we were instead still living on Earth playing PC games, and stuck in that awkward phase between the pre-WoW Blizzard and its post-StarCraft efforts. That phase is perfectly illustrated here in this cover feature in the sadly now-defunct CGW magazine, giving the world…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 29, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
How Assassin’s Creed Was Made
Assassin’s Creed is easily one of the most successful and genuinely new properties to emerge from this console generation. But were it not for a few key changes here and there, things could have ended up entirely differently. Edge has a great feature up detailing the story behind the making of the first game in…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 28, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallOne Man’s Journey From Warehouse Worker to Nintendo Legend
Howard Phillips might not be as big a name in Nintendo history as men like Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata and Gunpei Yokoi. But his story is just as interesting, and the story of his role in the company’s American invasion of the 1980s is one all Nintendo fans should enjoy. Speaking with Phillips – who…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 28, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Ten of the Best/Worst Examples of Retro PC Box Art
I’m not normally one to indulge in “TOP TEN THINGS OF THIS THING” lists, but when they involve badass box art from 1980s and 90s PC games, I can’t help it. Topless Robot put together their list of “10 Insanely Badass DOS Game Boxes”, and it’s good reading, mostly because they know the worth of…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 24, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
How Nintendo Got The Prettiest Zelda Game of All Looking So Damn Pretty
If you’ve got the capability right now, whether on GameCube, Wii or even PC, go put Wind Waker on. And just look at it. Soak up how a video game released almost a decade ago still looks like it could have come out yesterday. Once you’re done, ask yourself “how did Nintendo do that?”. Then…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 24, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Why 1990s SNES Games Were so Damn Expensive
It’s easy to forget now, but back in the 1990s, many video games had the same price on the sticker they do today, which when you account for inflation reminds you that they were super expensive But just why did games cost so much? This infographic from a 1995 issue of British magazine Super Play…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 23, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Old Game Company Intro Screens Were The Best
“Saaaayyyyy-gggaaahhhhh” and Lucasarts’ efforts might be the most memorable, but a ton of console games of the 1990’s had great little intro screens, not for the games themselves, but for the publishers releasing them. Sometimes they were clever, sometimes they were funny and sometimes, in the case of EA, they’ve barely changed at all. Console…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 23, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallSonic Doesn’t Just Run, He Also SLICES, And DICES
Sega ran some pretty awful commercials during the early 1990s, but that doesn’t mean everything you saw on TV with the Sega logo on it was dreadful. Take this 1993 Genesis ad, which…well, it’s great. Really great. [via Albotas]
By Luke Plunkett Published August 22, 2012