Now, Flush the Goldfish has arrived. 
And he’s all outta gum.

As you can probably tell from the narrow screenshot, Flush the Goldfish is out on (Nintendo) DsiWare. It’s stars a character not completely unlike Earthworm Jim. As the developer says “You’re playing as a goldfish in a robot suit that shoots bananas! Instead of ducking, the goldfish will eat the robot suit and will drag itself over the floor!”  (Modern Warefare devs, take note.)

Flush the Goldfish has tonnes of animation (over 200 frames on the main character alone), with graphics by Paul Veer & Roy Natan de Groot (Super Crate Box). There’s 300+ rooms of one-button action, and then an inbuilt editor to create some more.  (Ahh, if only I had a Nintendo DS to play it….)

 Flush the Goldfish is out ‘now’ in Euro DsiWare territories, and ‘any day now’ in the rest of the world.

Hope you had a great 2011!

Here’s our ‘greatest hits’ from the past 12 months – enjoy the ultra-low-budget virtual fireworks display!

Click:  J-OMG’s end of 2011 report.

Videogames allow us to explore space, or race a Ferrari. To match shapes,  or solve ancient mysteries. To make Sonic collect drugs, or throw excrement at Kieron Gillen. And for the latter, we can thank Karl Adamson.

Karl’s a supply/substitute teacher in the UK, teaching Secondary English. In 2008, he made his own interactive fiction (text adventure) game and used it in the classrooom. It was a simple ‘haunted castle’ affair, designed to teach narrative techniques. The students enjoyed the experience and as Karl wrote in The New Statesman, he “realised he’d become irrevocably addicted to designing games.  [It] became both a hobby and an obsession.”

SEUCK remake

Soon afterwards, Karl discovered Gernot Frisch’s SEUCK (Shoot em up Construction Kit) remake. His first game? “A terrible shmup. It was boring, predictable and way too hard.” But even so, this still led to some good insights. “I think if I learned anything from creating it, it was that building my own engine meant that I would be in control of everything in the game. I also learned – pacing is essential, as the game’s first level was so hard most people never saw beyond that.”

The next step in Karl’s indie game-making history was an important one. A friend introduced him to Mark Overmars’ Game Maker. And what was his first impression? “Gamemaker was bewildering when I first fired it up – a total blank slate.” Mind you, Karl overcame his initial shock, and was soon pumping out games at a serious rate of knots. Arena shooters, platformers, shumps.

Karl reflects on a few of his creations released in the last 18 months…

Blocky Bill in the Arena of Death

 Blocky Bill in the Arena of Death
“An arena shooter. I wanted to make something determinedly retro-styled, hence the super-blocky graphics. It’s a fun little game, but there’s a few balancing issue with it if I’m honest. But it was an experiment for me in creating a one-screen game. It’s really a tribute to Doom and Serious Sam via Robotron 2084, which is why some of the monsters may look familiar.”

Dave Awesome Versus the Thieving Alien Scumbags

 Dave Awesome Versus the Thieving Alien Scumbags
“This is a tribute to Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy. There’s even a Miner Willy topiary outside the castle in one of the routes through the game. It was created for a competition, hence the wholly highscore-oriented nature of the game. Overall, this is one of my favourite games and one I still come back to! I learned a lot about collision detection from making this, as that isn’t easy when making games in Game Maker.”

Silo Commander

Silo Commander
“This was made for a MiniLD [Ludum Dare competition] last year on the theme of “greatest fear”. I went retro and went with the fear of all-out thermonuclear war. The retro-stylings here are quite blatant – the game is really a tribute to Missile Command and its ilk. It marked the very first time I had made a one-screen game, and I found it to be a very enjoyable experience, as it is quite replayable because it is such a quick burst of gaming.”

Pipeworx

Pipeworx
“Created from a scrapped mechanic from Platformcraft. I was going to add flooding to Platformcraft, but the framerate just wouldn’t hold up. I think this is one of my sneakier games, and it’s also one of the more popular ones. It’s totally about risk VS reward – you can complete the game, and that’s a fair challenge, but you need to put the little robot dude in harm’s way if you want to rank at all with your score. Overall, it’s quite simple, perhaps even crude but it proved to be a hit.”

 And then, the big ones…

Go Go Sonic

Karl’s first game to really made an impact was “Go Go Sonic“. Unsurprisingly, it’s a tribute to Sega’s blue mascot, but one that accentuates his biggest Mario-threatening attribute.  “I really wanted to take Sonic and strip it right back to one thing – sheer speed. So I came up with the idea of Sonic running faster and faster to the right and the player having to keep him alive.  [I added an] attack button, which was mainly a psychological thing but gives the player one more way to protect Sonic from the avalanche of stuff trying to kill him at 100mph.”  Go Go Sonic was well received by players, and enthusiastically promoted by sites like UK:Resistance and Rock Paper Shotgun.

The acclaim continued for Karl’s next release, Imagine: Embittered Videogame Journalist. It was inspired by a trip to his local W H Smiths (A British bookstore chain). As he browsed the magazines, Karl felt terribly depressed. “I decided to take the idea of the decline of videogame journalism and turn it into a game. I haven’t been a fan of Kieron Gillen since he gave the original Hitman: Codename 47 a bad review in PC Gamer, so with my own prejudices – the villain was an obvious choice.”

Strangely enough, it was Kieron Gillen himself who blogged about Imagine: Embittered Videogame Journalist on Rock Paper Shotgun. But what is it about ‘new games journalism’ that Karl disagrees with? “I’d just like to see reviews being more about the game and less about how well-educated the reviewer is. In fact, as I write this I see that Future Publishing are struggling. This is GREAT NEWS – as hopefully someone better will come along and hire the writers and get games journalism back on track again.”

Regardless of how games journalism progresses in the future, one thing is certain. Someone, somewhere will be writing about Minecraft. It’s inspired tonnes of 2D remakes (most of which are no more than tech demos) but Mr Adamson has made a bit more progress with his variation, Platformcraft. Interestingly enough, he’s never played Notch’s game, himself.  “No, I’ve never played Minecraft. While I like the overall idea, it looks to me like a level designer you can wander around in. What’s the point?  But then I’m probably not the target audience.”

In the end, Karl took most of his inspiraction from ancient DOS game called MinerVGA.  “It’s a simple blend of resource management and score-chasing. It’s also a lot more “physical” than Minecraft. You can’t hack rocks away from 30 feet, you have to be right next to it, and getting trapped in a mineshaft with an angry demon is a real possibility if you’re not careful. “  He also cites Dig-Dug and Boulderdash as influences upon Platformcraft.

Indeed, many of Karl’s indie games include references to classic games, and it’s no surprise when you consider his game-playing childhood. His first machine at age 5, was a Commodore 64. Karl cites titles like Gryzor (picture above), Chuckie Egg and Harrier Attack as favourites from those early days. The next step was a Super Nintendo, and there Karl discovered the joys of Super Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts. “[It was] the first game I bought with my own money. [It's] probably my favourite game of all time and the most influential game on my own design ethos.”

As the 90s continued, Karl bought a Playstation (“which rarely had Final fantasy 7 out of its disc drive”) before moving onto a PS2, then the Xbox 360.  He claims to to have owned just about every portable console on the market at some point, and is currently getting “heavy use” out of his Gameboy Advance.

Now, Karl has returned to where he began; making text adventures. His latest project is called ”STARSEEKERZ“. In Karl’s own words, “It’s a choose-your-own-adventure game, very short, in which you choose your character’s path through a shitty TV reality singing show.” Once again, Mr Adamson doesn’t get mad at modern media trends, he merciliously satirises them – via his games.

I wish I had a schoolteacher who did that.

Karl’s games are all downloadable from his site Vaccilating Dichotomy. To follow his latest WIPs, see his blog Gaming Theory. Or - follow Karl on Twitter.

…and that’s ALWAYS my favourite kind of mod.

Of course normally, GTA IV wouldn’t get a mention here on J-OMG.
Aint Retro. Aint Indie. Aint Coinop.

But Team RAGE are working on a mod titled “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Rage” which promises to “Make a complete conversion of Vice City (including transport, atmosphere, weapons, storyline and etc.)” in the GTA IV.

And the only Grand Theft Auto game I ever bothered to play, was the one with the Commodore 64 loading screen…

Cue funky trailer with Cutting Crew soundtrack…

Usually I’d put this in the ‘will never be finished’ camp, but that map looks pretty complete. Of course, programming all the voices and missions will take much much longer.

And yet, they’re saying they’ll release a ‘beta’ this Christmas.
And WOULD be merry.

Via Internode news.

Spanish indie game maker ‘Locomalito’ has just released a demo of his latest ‘big’ game..  The beautifully Ghosts n Goblins-esque Maldita Castilla.  Time for a release-day interview!

But just before we do;  a quick recap.

Just over a year ago,  ’Loco’ released his biggest game yet – the Gradius-like shmup Hydorah (interview, screenshots). Since that time, he’s released a number of smaller titles, like the Manic Miner-esque L’Abbaye des Morts and he vertically-scrolling gross-em-up Viriax. Both were fantastic, but I had the feeling that they were just entrees compared to the main course of Maldita Castilla .

Now, Locomalito spills the beans on Spanish heroes, dirty monitors, favourite arcade music and the levels you’ll never play…

<J-OMG>   Recently, some fan donations enabled you to buy some new gear. Can you tell us about that?

<Loco>   I needed an ergonomic (wave) keyboard and trackball. And then it was like a voice coming up from players, saying “Oh! let me just pay this for you”.  It’s hard to describe in English. It feels somehow touching.

<J-OMG>   You’ve said Maldita Castilla will pay homage to classic arcade games from 1985-1987 like Ghost’n'Goblins, Tiger Road, Black Tiger, Shinobi, Rygar, Karnov and Trojan. Although clearly, Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins is the biggest influence. What sort of timeframe are you working to, and what tasks take up most of your time in a title like this?

<Loco>   Like in other games, I think it’s balancing everything to achieve interesting gameplay and good replayability.  I feel a game must be interesting ‘always’, even if you already played it for 20 times, and that requires an incalculable amount of redesigning.  From changing the notebook ideas into ideas that works with the game, to creating new enemies, situations….  Often,  I cut out half of a level, sometimes entire levels I must admit!

<J-OMG>  Maldita Castilla features real ‘FM/YM2203′ sound, as demonstrated in this clip. What are your favourite arcade soundtracks that used that chip?

<Loco>   It’s hard to choose a favourite, but I like the music in Chelnov.  In that era there were a few Yamaha chips that sounded very similar, both Gryzor87 and me like how powerful it sounds in Aliens. 

<J-OMG>  Arcade adventures, run’n'gun games…you can imagine they’re inspired by 80s action films. But this game is partly influenced by a book from the 16th century!  Tell us more..  

<Loco>   I wanted to make a ‘chivalry’ arcade game, so I searched for a good old chivalry book to read. I then remembered that Cervantes wrote about this book  ’Amadis of Gaul’, in “El Quijote”. It’s described as the favourite of Don Quijote, and you know, he goes mad reading that stuff. I loved the book, it’s like the arcade of the books!, Things just keep happening non-stop. In 3 pages it can describe a romance, a travel and a battle, leaving many things to the reader’s imagination. And well, it’s amazing because it was written in 1508, and it’s still pure action these days!

<J-OMG>  Looking to visuals , Maldita Castilla has been filtered with ‘scanlines’  to look like an ‘old dirty monitor’.  What do you think that adds to a game like this?

<Loco>   I think it adds a cool ambience around the game. Like if we’re playing into a bar, where the screen is old and dirty, far from our flat and glossy monitors, you know…?   Even the scanlines are ‘messed up’ to create the illusion of non-squared pixels, cause this is how they looked in the cabinets, back in the day.  It also helps with the graphics, as it makes it look a little darker in the edges, creating a “bad feeling” of the surroundings.

<J-OMG>  Speaking of graphics, you’re working on a Megadrive port of L’Abbaye des Morts, with enhanced graphics. (Here’s an early preview) Why was that console chosen?

<Loco>  Someone asked me for permission to make a freeware port. I thinked it could be cool to make a revision to the graphics, and Gryzor87 thought the same about the music. It’ll be a cool exercise :-)

<J-OMG>  You’re also working on an updated PC version, a “1.5 version” perhaps – with more levels. What’s the thought behind doing your 1.5 version of L’abbaye (PC)?

<Loco>  We made (the original game)  in about a week (two if you count the artwork and debugging). After some people liked it, we thought we can make it a little more polished, and add a little more to the story of Jean Raymond. Also (and mostly I think), this kind of ‘low detail’ game is really rewarding to make, as it gives much back result for not so much effort.

<J-OMG>  Thanks Loco, and all the best for the rest of your development.

Hope you enjoyed our ‘demo day interview’ with Locomalito. I certainly enjoyed the demo!  Within the first few seconds of play, the music transported me back to an arcade in 1985, playing Ghosts n Goblins. The FM sound is incredibly evocative of that era. Scanlines (those thin grey horizontal stripes in an old arcade monitor) give the visuals that lovely soft analogue look, sadly missing from modern screens.

The demo covers a full level, in two halves.  Your character, Don Ramiro begins his quest in a spooky forest. A flash of lightning welcomes you – and in a moment you’ll see Maldita Castilla doesn’t just look like Ghosts n Goblins – it plays remarkably close to the original. So much so, I immediately started jumping/firing, hoping to trigger a ‘secret’  a la Ghouls n Ghosts. Alas, this didn’t work – but something else did, later on. Let’s leave it at that.

The Maldita Castilla demo isn’t huge, but it gives you a good taste. And, it’s now available to download, for PC.

(Oh yes, took me SECONDS to write that headline. Every one’s a winner baby.)

Jarlaxe, a member of the GoPinball.com forums, has put pixels to phosphors, and ink to scissors, to create some fantastic papercraft pinball models.

T2, Attack from Mars, Medieval Madness, Wheel of Fortune (erm..) – they’re all there, ready for sneaky printing at your workplace, or less-sneaky printing at home.

Of course, these aren’t the first papercraft arcade models seen online. Some of the earliest ones include this beautiful set of arcade cabs by Fuseball of Way of the Rodent. But this 2011 set of pinball cabs by Jarlaxe is very, very well done.

You can download those papercraft templates, and more at this forum link, and there’s detailed assembly instructions at this Youtube link.

Credit: bubba1234 @ Aussie Arcade

Another week, another tonne of visits to our original ‘Last Ninja Remake‘ post. There’s some serious interest out there for this project… great to see.

In the meantime, have a listen to this amazing rendition of the original game’s main theme, on classical guitar!

Wow.
Just wow.

Thanks to J-OMG reader Harvey for the headsup.

• Great games.
• Pay what you want.
• No DRM.
• Money to charity.
• Windows/Mac/Linux.
• Redeemable on Steam.

“Marty, where we’re going.. you don’t NEED sentences!”

Here’s the ‘Humble’ site.

I hope your donation is anything but ‘humble’.

As mentioned previously, I’ve been doing a little bit of guest-blogging over at Wired UK’s GEEK DAD blog.

This time, my post’s about the age-old tradition of geeks supplying ‘tech support’ to family members. You know, removing 391 viruses from a single machine.. or in this case, making a PC a little more ‘kidsafe’ so little Johnny doesn’t learn too much about anatomy at an early age…

Mum's the Word - blog post

As always, if you feel like jumping onto my Wired UK post, and submitting some feedback, that would be great.

Oh, and if you have a subject you’d like me to tackle (mixing families and technology) on the Wired GeekDad blog – just leave your comment below!

Being a gamer since about 1870 gives me special skills.
Like the ability to…

• Press a mouse button 15 times per second.
• Spot airconditioning ducts when I’m out ‘n’ about.
• And maybe – recommend appropriate games for kids.

Last year I was asked by My Child magazine (a respected Australian quarterly publication) to write an in-depth piece on games and children under five…

Two thousand three hundred words later, with interviews from psychologists, gaming experts, optometrists and other gurus, plus a selection of parents… it’s hit the shelves.

Kids & Videogames - My Child - Winter 2011 edition

If you – or a friend – have children under 5, and you’re not sure when to start them gaming – this article is for you. If you’re not sure which iOS games are good for a 3 year old… or which PC games are good for a 5 year old, I’ve got lots of recommendations. And if you’re not sure which system is suitable for your family, there’s plenty of buying tips.

My Child is available at most Australian newsagents. It’ll be on the shelves until August 31.