Gaming

(TBoI:Re = the Binding of Isaac Rebirth)

For the curious, the combo is Chaos (the smile) + Holy Light (the eyes).

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/videos/p/1767715/delete-your-discord-account

I hadn't heard of this YouTuber until now, but he went into some good depth on what's going on with Discord with the age verification rollout news.

He covers:

• Discord's previous data breach where government IDs were stolen
• Other companies with age verification and similar promises yet have had customer data stolen.
• Discord's preparation to go public with an IPO.
• How Discord's co-founder stepped aside in 2025 and a former vice-chairman of Activision/Blizzard took over as CEO.

Edit: formatting

(DCSS = Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup)

I had a great summoner turned shapeshifter run (morgue file for those who can read it) with storm form and summoning spells up to Summon Horrible Things reliably castable (<5% failure rate), absolutely destroying the last floors of Elf, Vaults, Crypt and even Zot (tesseracts are soo cool~)!

Zot 5 is cleared and I step up to the Orb of Zot. Here it is, I only need to bring it to the surface. Why not doing in a fancy way? I have Apportation after all. Why not yoink it right in my electrified hands, and then jump onto a tele trap? Why shouldn't I?

Well, I yoinked the Orb a few times (it resists the spell sometimes), then noticed that the Orb run had started so without a proper thought jumped onto the trap and started ascending to the surface. Enemies aren't scary, I have my blinks and haste potions and wands of digging, all goes smooth. Until...

"Are you sure you want to leave without the Orb of Zot? That will be a game over."

w h a t ?
I looked at my status panel - no "Orb" status indeed (this status persists in the entire Realm of Zot, so I couldn't notice it until I left it, btw). Apportation started the Orb run but did NOT pick up the damned Orb. FUCK

I descended all the way back, spending my last remaining scrolls of blinking as the danger of the enemies increased. I took the fucking Ball of Flawed Design and went to Yet Another Stupid Dash to the surface.

And, just like the game knew that my patience was running low, it brought to me a panlord with three tormenting demons (torment cuts your health in half, with no way to avoid that), one of which could also hurl damnation (irresistible damage).

I misplayed. I should have, the moment I saw this hellish circus, bring my eyes to the sky and yell "Dithmenos, turn off the lights, I don't want to see this shit anymore!!!" (Dithmenos' most expensive ability literally makes you see nothing, deactivating all enemies for a while), and go in darkness until my teleport scroll activates or I reach an upstairs.

Instead, I summoned my own demons, hoping that they will distract demons for long enough for me to teleport. Stupid move, caused by my frustration at the whole Orb situation.

My health evaporated in a few turns, and then damnation killed me off. Game over. Hello my first Orb run death. Fuck torment. Rant is over.

Please tell me there's a way out of this, I want more time with the glaive beam :(

Update: I died

Sports games are a large blindspot for most video game historians – I admit it! When we look at the wide span of video game history, sports games only tend to get the briefest of mentions, especially after the early days. While there are many reasons for this, primarily I think it’s hard for some of us to parse how the gameplay innovations of early sports titles differ from providing a pure simulation, like non-civilian flight simulator. In a world where each major sport is dominated by a single franchise, the end result can seem inevitable rather than gradual. “If it’s in the game, it’s in the game.” Right?

But this view has always been reductive and misses out on the ways that sports games have often pushed the boundaries of gaming technology – plus influenced other genres in the process. Today we’ll do a brief examination of the golf game genre, a sport whose relationship with video games has been particularly interesting. We’ll look at several ways it innovated early game technology, spurred players to engage with the games in some diverse ways, and created one of the enduring UI elements unique to video games to boot.

Among major, popular sports across the world, golf is fairly unique: It’s not fundamentally a team sport, competing players do not generally influence each other, and the terrain is absolutely crucial to how each game plays out. This last element was a huge challenge for early takes on the sport. While designers did not have to worry about AI and counterplay as in sports like football and baseball, having varied landscapes was often an even greater challenge for 8-bit systems. Beyond that, how a player struck the ball and the physics thereof was half the point of the game – it couldn’t be fudged as in other sports.

One simple way of solving the terrain problem was to portray the game as mini-golf, which has generally flat and blocky courses. This worked well with the top-down perspective of most games at the time, allowing players to view a full course and work towards a single objective. However, perfect right angles are not conducive to interesting course traversal. These simple golf games were invariably hamstrung by their perspective and couldn’t truly embody the physics at play in real golf.

Pushing the boundaries of mono-screen golf games was no easy feat for those designers who attempted to fully feature the sport. It was easy enough to program differences in golf clubs and even on consoles it was simple to have balls move in more than the cardinal directions. However, interface was always an issue: particularly the golf swing. The swing seems like a perfect place to introduce an action element but that introduced a plethora of questions. Should the swing itself be a physical object like the player, as in Computer Golf! on the Odyssey2 and later Atari’s Golf? What about as an isolated action with several steps like PGA Golf on the Intellivision? Or should the swing be treated more like an artillery game with numerical inputs for all possible variables? Despite seeming simple, golf was not easy to boil down into a few elements of action as a sport.

The first steps in evolving the golf game first came from Japanese software houses. Tackling the interface problem, in 1981 Data East’s Pro Golf introduced the power bar. This innovative user interface element provided a method by which a character’s action could be predictably translated into player action. Using a linear graph split into segments, players could near-accurately determine what their ball would do in flight (taking into account all other variables, of course). While Pro Golf mostly determines aiming for the player and only has rudimentary barriers to keep the pace of play fast, the introduction of the power bar helped unlock so much statistical depth while reducing input complexity that it’s one of the greatest innovations in the history of digital games – adopted for a wide variety of uses outside of the sports sphere.

3-D Golf Simulation by T&E Soft on computer platforms was the next major step in bringing authenticity to the game. Of course most of the hardware of this era was ill-suited to any manner of 3D display. Utilizing some of the techniques of existing flight simulators, 3-D Golf Simulation rendered set angles of a golf course with flatly undulating 3D terrain. The path of the ball was traced on each swing, allowing a player to determine their current position and switching cameras as they reached new parts of the course. It also included the power bar, though with its level of freedom also came a good deal more informational complexity and requiring the angles to be set with each swing. The 3D space of 3-D Golf Simulation bid players to treat the golf course as a robust world with many facets, even if it was a very slow and laborious game on the whole.

Leave it to Nintendo – and HAL Laboratories – to bring package all the gold innovations together in a more appealing package. Golf (1984) for the Family Computer was among the most popular games for Nintendo’s console in both Japan and the U.S. Its iconic status can be explained by three particular refinements. Firstly, the game emphasized character with the maybe-Mario golfer taking up a significant portion of the screen – implying a 3D perspective without having to do any 3D rendering. Next was the pace of play, with each putt following almost immediately after the next. The clarity of the course design was likewise vital to the rhythm of the game, as were the touches that made it seem to have depth where there was none. Finally, Golf‘s chief innovation on the power bar, a three-step solution which accounted for not only strength but the slice of the ball’s direction without having to pre-position the golfer or swing.

Golf‘s smooth gameplay innovations helped it find an audience on both sides of the Pacific, despite the stereotype of golf being purely for older people. It was also one of Nintendo’s lead games featured as part of the coin-op VS System (which included a variant called Ladies Golf). However, the arcade of the mid-1980s was not frequented by the types of people who would want to be seen playing golf – even if they enjoyed playing the cartridge at home. Older audiences for games had shifted to computer platforms, where an arms race was on to create a true 3D golf game with all the bells and whistles of something like the Nintendo version.

Three projects in simultaneous development by American development groups sought to tackle the same issue: Projecting a 3D golf course into a two-dimensional image which would change every new swing – terrain differing per the position. In the middle of 1986, these games arrived on top of each other; two of them kickstarted decade-long franchises. The first was Leader Board for the Commodore 64 by Access Software in April 1986, predecessor of the Links series. Then Mean 18 was published in May 1986 for the IBM PC by Accolade Software, progenitor of the Jack Niklaus franchise. Last to the party was World Tour Golf by Electronic Arts in August 1986 for the IBM PC.

The shared commonality between these games are their behind-the-golfer perspective, static 3D rendering that takes into account all obstacles, and some form of a three-stage golf swing (what would later be called the “three click swing”). World Tour Golf is the odd one out with its implementation of a radial-based system, but all three have power and slice on a timing-based UI system which are not identical to Nintendo’s implementation.

How each team came to its own form of the swing is unclear. Creator of Mean 18 Rex Bradford is absolutely certain he did not see Nintendo’s game prior to making his own system, though he cannot recall what inspired him to use a similar bar with markers denoting strength and slice. However, while Bradford was working on Mean 18, he claims to have seen a 3D golf game in production when visiting Electronic Arts which made him accelerate his development process. He couldn’t confirm whether this was World Tour Golf – he remembered the game having a much more complicated control scheme rather than the final radial dial system. That all three 3D golf games of the time came to similar conclusions does make one wonder what might have been in the air.

At the time, Leader Board was the best reviewed – and a real showpiece of psuedo-3D technology for the Commodore 64. Mean 18 and World Tour Golf as PC games played to a smaller market, plus looked significantly worse as many people still only used CGA cards with default monitors. Mean 18 was one of earliest games to use the composite mode of CGA, which allowed it to display many more (and more appealing) colors than typical CGA outputs. Bradford’s game also had another technical leg up as it featured actual sloped terrain rather than using a veneer of 3D on top of an entirely flat course.

These golf games also had something to help in their longevity: Additional course disks. This strategy of adding content to sports games was being exploited commercially by publishers to elongate the sale’s life of their line up – an early form of expansions or DLC. While Leader Board sold several content disks, the two PC games each had course creators, allowing anybody to create and save their own maps. This became a special appeal for for Mean 18 as it had a particularly well-done course editor inspired by the classic Pinball Construction Set. Accolade sold 100,000 units of the original game, benefitting both from official course disks and a robust user community sharing maps over both the sneakernet and bulletin board systems.

With a solid foundation of appealing golf gameplay established on computer platforms, the concept found further purchase in coin-op. Incredible Technologies’ Golden Tee Golf from 1989 brought graphical pizzazz to the 3D golf format with fast gameplay fit to the game’s location-based context. It also solved the issue of interface for golf swings in an ingenious way, utilizing the classic trackball controller pioneered in the late 1970s. As in its use on Capcom Bowling (a previous Incredible Technologies game) the trackball enabled both power and curve naturally in a way that even non-game players could understand. The approachable nature of Golden Tee Golf helped it find purchase in bars an restaurants – establishments which had not regularly hosted video games since the Golden Age of Arcade Video Games.

What really propelled Golden Tee Golf into legendary status though was its revival of another Golden Age concept: Competitive play. Using the power of the burgeoning internet, in 1995 Incredible Technologies and its distribution partners encouraged players across the U.S. to submit their best efforts in Peter Jacobsen’s Golden Tee 3D Golf to online leaderboards in nationwide tournaments. Mean 18 had been used to a similar purpose on an early networking service, but golf again proved a perfect testbed for the burgeoning technology of the Internet. As a game that didn’t need to be played simultaneously in real-time, Golden Tee 3D Golf helped to propel a new method of social play through a limited form of connectivity which is still maintained to this day.

Drilling down on a particular game genre helps illuminate larger trends in the industry, plus how different ecosystems help shape games within that genre. There’s plenty more to be said on the refinement of golf games, but in these examples I hope I’ve highlighted the ways in which this ‘boring’ sport influenced the wider gaming world. Whether it’s the many forms of the power bar which found its way to and then out of sports games, some of the first steps in creating 3D worlds as we know them, early modding communities, or competitive ranking over the internet. No genre is an island and no video game developer could miss the impact golf games have had.

Now i must say to my Defence that i grew up with Rayman 3 on the PS2 and never even had heard of Rayman 1 at all as a Kid until my Father brought in his Cousins Pirate CDs and DVDs as he had a Chipped PS2 overhere :P

and while i do love Rayman especially 2 and 3 (tho mostly Rayman Revolution because i prefer the Voice Acting instead of the Gibberish personally :P) i HATE Rayman 1 like i just never found it played Good and it was just argh >.>

And its not like the Music Level makes it frustrating its just the whole Speed of the Game feels more like a Slog to Playthrough -.-

Itd assume anyone else probably enjoyed Rayman 1 more especially via the PC Fan Game of Rayman 1 that basically fixes all the Flaws apparently? >.>
I really should try it out someday :P
Its just for 2D Raymans i prefer Origins and Legends anyday over whatever Rayman 1 rtried to be >.>

DCSS 0.34 features:

• Many new egos for weapons, armour, amulets, and orbs.

• Big overhauls to strategic damage with a new doom system and a reduction of player mutation.

• Unlimited player inventory for consumables.

• Major updates to Troves, the Slime Pits, and the Halls of Zot.

• Dozens of new monsters spread throughout the dungeon!

The tournament starts today on Friday Feb 6th, 8pm UTC and runs through Sunday Feb 22nd, 8pm UTC, with all online 0.34 games counting towards your score.

Yippee!!!~

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/58424401

Amazon's Fallout countdown delivers possibly the only thing more pointless than a New Vegas or Fallout 3 remaster

To cherry Bushido Ball, you need to win against five opponents without losing as any character. But after doing it twice with Yamada, I decided I wanted to play it more so I started trying cherry with other characters. After many hours of pain and suffering (and fun, of course) I've done it!

During this challenges, I've mastered these martial arts:

• "Dash attack", performed by attacking right after a dash. Highly accelerates a ball, giving it a weird trajectory too. Trivializes early opponents, later opponents won't be impressed. Rather inefficient on Chiyome. Yamada has something similar with his side attacks.

• "Block", performed by pressing "left" (away from your opponent) and attacking at the same time. Resets ball's movement and hurls it very high, above your opponent. With the right timing, you can stun them and thus force a win. Use this art whenever you feel overwhelmed.

Also, there are two special abilities that use a resource that I call "bushidos" (these boxes that appear every second successful hit):

• "Double-tap ability", or simply 2tap, performed by pressing attack button twice in quick succession. Costs a small bushido. The effect differs for each character so I will discuss them in the character section. Key for winning this game.

• "Charged ability", performed by holding down attack button until at least one full bushido is charged. The amount of bushidos charged improve the ability's effect. Always expend only one full bushido. Similarly to 2tap, it depends on who you're playing as. A bit less important for winning.

Now, the characters, sorted by how much I enjoyed playing them:

• Yamada, or the absolute GOAT of this game. Slow, can't dash sideways, his attack is very narrow and his charged ability is fairly weak. Benefits? His 2tap. The bombs he spawns can and will confuse opponents at any difficulty level. His side attacks are very strong though do depend on your reaction speed a lot. Unlike other characters, Yamada has one strategy that's effective against any opponent: position yourself at the center of the arena, reflect the ball and spam bombs.

• Ayumi, or what if Yamada but fast ~~and cute~~. She's fast, has good attack swing, can spam a strong 2tap! The main thing that holds her back is that her traps are less efficient than Yamada's bombs AND can be used against you! Her playstyle is that of a mastermind, manipulating the arena until her opponent can't keep up. (What a delicate way to say that you must spam 2tap and hope it'll be enough...)

• Kotaro, because if you can't defeat them - join them! He got me my first win because, when I played this game as other characters, this hell of an opponent absolutely destroyed me. Fun fact: Kotaro's charged attack is so fast it sometimes can dodge a well-timed Tomoe's chain. It's insane. He has many advantages: good attack swing, great 2tap, OP charged ability... but his main draw, the reason why he's the strongest in my mind is that you don't have to fight yourself. Not having to fight Kotaro is OP.

• Raizo, or "why did they make this?". I refer to his 2tap. Why? It's entire thing is that it's unfair. It's good for forcing wins and weak for anything else. The worst thing is, this character doesn't have that many strengths to begin with! The only two good things about him are that he's really good at dash attacking and his 2tap. And as I said already, dash attacks are rather bad against later opponents.

• Tomoe, how do I dare to put her so low!! Don't get me wrong - she is strong. She has the best attack swing in the game after all. Her dash attacks lack the raw speed of Raizo's but it's compensated by giving the ball really weird trajectory (because of the attack's angle). As you have undoubtedly noticed already, I'm a big fan of 2tap abilities, and Tomoe... doesn't have a good offensive 2tap. Her chain is a nice defensive tool but it sucks at actually winning. And you end up stacking on bushidos in hope that your charged attack will get through this time (and it doesn't happen that often...)

• Chiyome, my final boss! Terrible attack swing, the lowest attack power, and a teleport instead of a dash which might seem like an advantage but it's actually a huge downgrade. You see, when you dash, you often will smash into the ball on your way. But it won't happen when you teleport. Yes, she leaves a tree stump in her initial position and it does help a little bit but it's not even nearly enough to offset the issue. So how have I won as Chiyome? Good old 2tap :) Kunai is sooo strong, it can carry Chiyome through the entire tournament as long as you use it intelligently. Yes, I turned on my brain instead of spamming 2tap at every opportunity - what an occurrence!

So that's all I got to say about this game. It was incredibly fun! Hopefully this write-up will be entertaining to someone, or maybe even helpful :O

It will also have a 'very premuim' experience, possible capable of running PC games as well.

I have been deconstructing space ships for months now. I like how each spaceship is a little puzzle, and that there is some story involved.

Are there any similar cleanup/deconstructing games?

What are you playing that scratches a similar itch as hardspace?

I hate the hype train. This is the only game I have been legit excited about in years, possibly even a decade.
There's no pre-order, though I'm likely to grab it when EA comes. I'm ready to be disappointed, but I'm staying positive about it.

We saw a random stream of this game and decided to compile this video to show just how evil this game is. (Although half of that is skill issue ;) )

The streamer is arugiBlues, I’m not affiliated with them.