Take a slow, deep breath. Find your centre. Imagine your future. Zen your meditation. Now, turn to your left, exhale, and spit out mulched grass. This is the first step on your spirit journey. The second step is listening to the podcast past the break. Also, emailing us is good for your karma.
1989 was a weird time to be gaming. For the most part, gamers in the US were in either the Nintendo camp, enjoying Mario 3 on their NES, or they were team Sega, Golden Axing it up on their new 16 bit system, the Sega Genesis. Meanwhile, there was that one guy who knew a guy who had a friend with a Turbografx 16. Bonk had appeared a few months before Sonic, and for a time, Bonk was the up and coming gaming mascot to dethrone Mario “Man look, arcade games, Bonk looks like a huge cartoon character, wow! These graphics are so rad!” This commercial, and others like it, made every 10 year old kid jealous. Want times infinity!
3D Realms/Apogee were really king of the FPS in the early to mid 1990’s, with entries such Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem, and Blake Stone. While not as popular as the Wolfenstein’s or DOOM’s of the world, a little game called Rise of the Triad captured the hearts and minds of gamers back in 1995. Read on to see what the fuss was all about.
“Doctor, I have trouble stopping and making sharp turns while running. It’s like I have bananas strapped to my feet.”
“Hmmmm……You seem to have a severe case of Mario Foot.”
Have you ever just barely slid off a thin platform in a platforming game? Or skidded right into an enemy while trying to turn the other direction? Of course you have, we all have. But here’s the thing, through hours of research & experimentation* (yes, sadly, many lives were lost in the process) I figured out what causes that last second slip into death: It’s not your lack of skill or an enemy’s magnetic powers, it’s a gaming-physics phenomenon I’ve dubbed, Mario Foot.
Happy New Year 1MoreCastleers!
Yes it’s 2013 and what better way to start the year than with a review of a retro game based on one of the best animated series ever made?
Well… an animated series that was… made, anyway.
We all remember Captain Planet: the so-not-subtle environmental messages, the power rings, the bizarre voice actors, that misguided AIDS episode…
Classic.
But what of the Sega Genesis game?
I hear this phrase quite a bit from Mega Man fans: “Capcom should just make an open world Mega Man game! They’d make so much money.”
Guess what? They did! They made three actually! Mega Man Zero 1, Mega Man ZX, and Mega Man ZX Advent. Although the Zero series (which would go all the way up to Zero 4) would ditch the open world mechanic after the first game, the ZX series was entrenched in it.
Here’s a look at the unsung, unrecognized, ill-fated Mega Man series: Mega Man ZX. Read More
Someone call Fox News! They’ve been blaming video games for the wrong thing. I’ve discovered the origin of the War on Christmas and it’s AtariAge.com, a veritable breeding ground for godless monsters who hate Christmas. You heard it here first kids and it’s all true.
Some of the more naïve of you might find all of this a little far fetched, so look at each cart one by one.
It’s the last podcast of 2012, and we’ve got a packed show for you: A listener email, a new impromptu segment involving horrible chewing noises, and some great moments when we reminisce about how Bob Hope pulled down the ref’s pants and dunked on the opposite team’s captain.
It seems like a simple question: “What were 1 More Castle’s most popular features in 2012?” Or, perhaps for the more cynical: “What got the most hits?”
But seriously, although we always emphasize passion and quality over any desire to get those ever-precious views, the question comes up enough that we agreed this end-of-year exposé would be appropriate.
So, here it is, a simple top-ten list of the most-frequented articles on 1 More Castle, starting from the top and working our way through an interesting revelation as to which pieces have managed to grab the most attention from gamers.
Well 2012, you were great. 1 More Castle was founded just over half a year ago, and I’ve been floored by the quality of content we’ve received. Week after week, our contributors have created funny and interesting written and video content.
Here, in no particular order, are my favourite pieces for each of our weekly contributors:
Wake yourselves! The British are coming with a new episode of the podcast! Our forward scouts report they’ve got a great discussion question this week suggested by a listener email, and an all-Nintendo Retro Showdown.
As content creators begin publishing their year-in-review posts across the web, I wanted to look back on the body of work 1 More Castle has established so far as well, from our wonderful team of talented contributors. As their Editor-In-Chief, I am immensely proud of the quality and variety of features that we have achieved.
We have broken exclusive stories, gotten involved in some healthy controversy, raised conversation, founded a new gaming a holiday event, had contributors get noticed by sites like Kotaku and 1UP, experimented, interacted, and enjoyed. When I think back, in some ways, it is hard to believe that we have only been around for about 6 months. I am so excited to run headlong into 2013; but, before we close the chapter on 2012 completely, I would love to just have some fun revealing my personal picks for my favorite contributions from each of our core contributors, in no particular order.
Long before Unreal Tournament and Gears of War, Cliff Beskinski got his start at Epic Megagames working on a platformer known as Jazz Jackrabbit. What’s Jazz Jackrabbit you ask? Well, I’ll have you know, he’s the coolest Space Jackrabbit to ever be featured in a video game. Read on to see what the fuss was all about!
Tis that time of year again, where my dual-personalities comes out to play; I like to call them Dr. Kringle & Christmas Hyde. While I love Christmas and the holidays, it can also bring out the worst in people, media and games. So while Dr. Kringle sleeps off that eggnog, let’s let Christmas Hyde have some fun with a few holiday-themed games.
One of the many things that have gone by the wayside as time marches on is receiving a copied disk from friends or family with a game on it. Even ‘retro gamers’ who eat sleep and breathe old computers and games usually turn to the internet at some point to find something new to play rather than physical media. Last week, when I was in my game room I went flipping through some of my old disks. I came across a sad 5 1/4″ floppy with a hand written label: “NINJA “.
Last Christmas, I made a short, stupid little video in which I joked in an AVGN-style rant about the game Daze Before Christmas and how every time demon Santa enters his own bag (I’ll get to that) it looks as if he’s imploding into an oversized piece of dung.
As you can tell, it’s a year later and I’ve totally grown-up.
You ever take those online surveys or find yourself stopped at the mall by those people with the clipboards that ask you to go take a survey for $2?
A common question in those surveys asks about what you’d do if that product or brand “came to life as a person.” Personally, I always thought this was a really silly question… as if Gatorade came to life as a person I assure you I wouldn’t find it charming or fun or whatever else they ask me. I’d probably freak the holy hell out.
That being said, I’m going to use this idea for this column this week. If some major game titles and consoles came to life as a person, and I liked them after I stopped freaking the hell out at a living XBox 360 or whatever, I might consider some Christmas presents for them.
