One promising lead is that ScummVM has a work-in-progress port of the MADE engine, so Return to Zork can be played. It’s currently only available in their daily SVN builds, but once the engine is more stable, I’ll write up a guide for it. Because of the consistency of ScummVM cross-platform and the ease of use of the software, this guide will be appropriate for Windows XP/Vista, Linux and OS X without much difference between each version. A second development is the continued growth of Wine. Recently a patch was created that addresses one of the big bugs that get in the way of playing Zork Nemesis and Zork Grand Inquisitor on Linux and OS X. That patch isn’t in the main wine codebase yet, but once it is, I’ll revisit writing a guide for Zork Nemesis and Zork Grand Inquisitor on Linux. Mac OS X continues to be a problem because I can’t test on that system, but I have researched a few options that may allow for the games to be played on OS X and placed those links in the table of configurations on the website.

Lastly, I want to bring up a real piece of news in the Zork universe, probably the first real piece of news in a decade. Activision announced Wednesday that they’re working on a new Zork game called Legends of Zork. It will be a multiplayer adventure played through a web browser and will target iPhone so it will likely be JavaScript-based. More info can be found at Gamasutra and Forumopolis.

The guides are currently at http://www.kevinbecker.net/zorkguides and will soon be hosted on http://www.thezorklibrary.com as well. The project is a work in progress and needs help on the configurations I can’t test myself, mainly Mac OS X and Vista. Help with writing the guides and testing them, as well as comments and questions would be greatly appreciated!

When I first heard about the Wii, I thought that it would be a flop. Honestly, I thought that it was possible that Nintendo would go the way of Sega after Nintendo’s poor Gamecube sales if the next console was a financial failure. I certainly didn’t want to see Mario and Link in games of the poor quality of recent Sonic games, but then a funny thing happened. As we all know, the Wii is a hit, but it is a hit despite that it has all the things that gamers typically don’t want and doesn’t have all the things that gamers typically do want from the newest consoles. First, it has a gimmicky controller and multiple games that have their own attachments for the controller, plus the nunchuck and the classic controller. Historically, add-ons and special controllers don’t sell well. (See: Sega 32X, Nintendo Power Glove, Steel Battalion). Second, it has a completely new user interface. Nintendo tried new interfaces before with the Virtual Boy and it was one of the biggest disasters in Nintendo’s history. Third, the Wii isn’t capable of high definition picture resolutions, which was one of the big things gamers were excited about with this generation of consoles. Fourth, it has extremely poor online service for multiplayer with the abysmal friend code system that is so far behind Xbox Live or even the Playstation Network. All of these things made the Wii seem like a terrible idea to the typical hardcore gamer. The only things going for it are its lower price and the typical Nintendo franchises. These things held the GameCube afloat, but just barely. Even with all that, the Wii sold and isn’t stopping anytime soon. Beyond that, the Wii isn’t selling to hardcore gamers, at least not as much as previous consoles.

The Wii sets itself apart by selling to the people historically least likely to play video games… people over 40, women, and every other non-gamer demographic out there, including my parents. Not that it sold really poorly with gamers, it being a Nintendo console after all, but the percentage of hardcore gamers buying the Wii is probably less than any console ever. Let’s look at why this has happened. There are a few obvious reasons: the low price, the familiar Nintendo franchises and the hype of the console that no one can seem to find in stores. Beyond that, I think there’s two broad reasons in addition to those: the controler and the games, and both these reasons show interesting trends in gaming.

The Wii remote is the first motion sensitive video game controller to go mainstream. It’s the console controller with the fewest buttons since the original Nintendo Entertainment System’s controller from 1985 (counting the buttons on only the Wii remote, not any add-ons). One of the problems many people who are traditionally “non-gamers” have with games are the controls. The controllers and their buttons are not intuitive to them. They probably weren’t for me either, but I don’t remember back that far. Video game controllers have been second nature to my hands for more than 15 years, so I grew up with simpler controllers, simpler games and grew into today’s gaming control complexities. In addition to difficulties with the physical controller, navigating a 3D world is difficult for the uninitiated. The Wii gets around both these issues with its unique motion controls. Not only are there fewer buttons to learn, the act of controlling on screen movement is as simple as moving your hand. Rather than forcing your brain to translate your wishes to the control scheme of the buttons, your brain simply uses your already well developed muscle functions to control events on screen naturally, so the games are much easier to get into in terms of interaction.

More intuitive control is an important step in getting more people playing games, but makes little difference if you’re pushing games like Ikaruga (a scrolling space shooter that is masochistically difficult to master), .Hack (a single player, offline, japanese-style role playing game [JRPG] episodic series where you play as a video gamer who plays a virtual reality massively multiplayer online roleplaying game [MMORPG] where some players are unable to log out to get back to the real world; you play in that online roleplaying game’s interface as if you are in the virtual reality world with others, despite it being a single player game… yes it’s that abstract and convoluted, really!), or Deus Ex (a cyber-punk hybrid of first person shooter and role playing games with a deep, complex story with an equally deep and complex system of character customization). I could go on and on listing games that are either very difficult to play and master, very difficult wrap your head around or just plain weird. Those aren’t the type of games that bring in casual gamers. Games like Wii Sports, Wii Play, Rayman Raving Rabids, Warioware and now Wii Fit give non-gamers accessible experiences that can be played for small amounts of time without the mental and physical investment of a more hardcore game. The Wii succeeds because it primarily provides these types of games.

The combination of these two factors results in the fact that the Wii gives experiences that are genuinely fun. More importantly, it is fun in a way that is obvious to most people, by being physical and being social. It’s great at a party. That said, it’s not fun in the way a speed run in a mario game, a low level challenge in an roleplaying game, or a gold star, full combo performace in Rock Band recorded for YouTube are to a hardcore gamer, but that’s Nintendo’s point. They’re catering to those who pay the bills now, and that’s not necessarily the hardcore gamer anymore.

The real question is what effect this is having on the gaming industry. Obviously, hardcore games are becoming more of a niche than ever, especially on the Wii and there’s lots of evidence of it. A game like the previously mentioned Ikaruga will never see retail release again, as Ikaruga and many like it are relegated to being downloadable games because those hardcore enough to play it will be hardcore enough to buy games on services like Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and the Playstation Network Store. Another example would be Rayman, which was previously a platformer series that was transformed (or some may say perverted) into a casual assortment of mini-games like Warioware. Games which were once extremely difficult like the Ninja Gaiden series now have newer sequels released with a significantly easier level of difficulty as the default. There are exceptions to this trend, like No More Heroes for the Wii, and games that stradle line between both hardcore and casual gaming, like Rock Band, but it’s obvious that casual games are taking a bigger and bigger piece of the gaming pie.

A full critical discussion of the intricacies of the new balance between hardcore and casual games being forged today is a topic for another article though. That said, I’m not the only one thinking about the issue. IGN recently tauted 2008 as year of the “Death of Hardcore Games”. I’m not so convinced about them being dead, or if the proliferation of casual gaming is such a bad thing, but that’s a topic I’ll discuss more in the future. This is certainly an interesting time for games!

After I was done playing, I decided to do a Google search and see if anyone noticed the Vera comment. Apparently someone had. Then I found a second. But this second one mentions more. What? That UNSC Sergeant Reynolds is… Nathan Fillion?! Brilliant! I don’t remember noticing his voice, but there was a Sergeant Reynolds mentioned several times during the “Tsavo Highway” and “The Storm” missions, specifically in the Battle of Voi section. I had to investigate more. It turns out that not only did that “Here’s Vera!” sound like Jayne, it was actually Adam Baldwin. Alan Tudyk (Wash) is somewhere in the game too, but I’ve yet to recognize him. Someone on livejournal actually took a screenshot of the voice acting screen in the credits that shows the former Serenity crew members.

As if I needed more reasons to love Halo 3!

Since I’m rambling, it’s obvious that I love the game even though I’ve played very little so far. But that’s not the main point of the post. As you can see by the title, I have way too many great games to play. But I can’t complain. It’s better than not enough great games to play. Currently, I’m still working on completing Guitar Hero 2 and Bioshock. Plus there’s a few arcade games I need to complete, like Band of Bugs, Catan, Carcassonne and Bomberman Live. Now I have Halo 3 as well. Then there’s Guitar Hero 3, Half Life: Orange Box and Puzzle Quest coming in October followed by Rock Band, Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect in November. Plus, IGN claims that Beautiful Katamari is coming in October and Army of Two in November, though those aren’t likely to make it out by then. Of those, I think I’m looking forward to Mass Effect most. And now I read some really good reviews of Eternal Sonata. I love those good ol’ traditional turn-based japanese-style RPGs and Eternal Sonata certainly looks like a good one. I haven’t had a good one since Xenosaga in 2003 (no, the Kingdom Hearts series doesn’t count, it’s neither a traditional RPG nor turn-based).

I love fall because it’s the best season for video games. Winter is pretty good too because that’s the time I catch up on my game playing.

This sounds like an excellent attack vector for Xbox hackers. One small bug in the code for authenicity verification of the software could allow unsigned code to be loaded. Another possibility is that the encryption used on the downloaded files could be broken and their format reverse engineered. This would let you put things on the Xbox and it wouldn’t know the difference between something from Microsoft and something from elsewhere.

This sounds like a fun possibility to me. If only I had the time to devote to such a thing. Oh well, I know there’s people nerdier than me that will do it. Here’s hoping homebrew software on the 360 takes off soon!