Patrick Scott Patterson – Page 2 – Obsolete Gamer

Patrick Scott Patterson

Two more NES prototypes hit online auctions

The first cartridge is a sample copy of the pack-in cartridge that came with the NES Power Set containing Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt and World Class Track Meet, a game designed for use with the Power Pad, an early example of a video game motion controller. The opening bid sees a “Buy It Now” price tag of $200,000 with the option to make an offer. The other cartridge is graded and comes with a certificate of authenticity. It is listed as a prototype version of a cartridge titled Arcadia VI, a multi-game cart. A page on website Unseen64.netshows more about this prototype and confirms the seller as co-owner of the only known example. The “Buy It Now” price for this item is currently $100,000, also with the option to make an offer.

Patrick Scott Patterson

Legend of Zelda prototype sells for $55,000

“I definitely cannot thank Jason Wilson, Mark Nolan, and Matt Nolan enough,” he added. “They had the foresight to go after these prototypes years and years ago. They preserved important pieces of gaming history. I think between this and the release of Ecstasy of Order the video game community is getting some much needed love. We are not a bunch of geeks sitting around glued to the boob tube, we are normal everyday people celebrating something that makes us happy.”

Patrick Scott Patterson

Ecstasy of Order now on DVD

Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters, a documentary film about the 2010 Classic TetrisWorld Championship, is now available on DVD. The film, which has won a number of film festival awards since starting on the circuit last year, has ties starting with the 1990 Nintendo World Championships and leads up to the 2010 California event that invited many of the current day Tetris champions to compete, including Robin Mihara, Jonas Neubauer and Harry Hong.

Patrick Scott Patterson

Joust turns 30

The two-player feature helped Joust make an impact in the coin box at arcades across the country. While the ability for numerous players to play together has been a common feature in arcades for some time, in 1982 it was quite the novelty for two players to be able to play at the same time. Adding to the feature were offers of bonus points on certain levels, some of which encouraged teamwork and others that encouraged direct competition.

Patrick Scott Patterson

Spelunky

Spelunky is also an incredible challenge, yet somehow contains enough balance to remain charming. Personally, I am reminded of the very balance that hooked me on games like Lode Runner in the 1980s and the original Prince of Persia in the 1990s. Spelunky joins those titles on a short list of platformer games that have driven me just insane enough to demand that I have to try again, knowing that I’ll do better on my next go-around, only to dodge my previous mistake in favor of making a new one. Passing a level is extremely satisfying, even if you didn’t get any further than you have before by doing so.

Patrick Scott Patterson

Mythbusting six common video game trivia mistakes

Another very common error, despite being easy to disprove with a quick Google search. I’ve heard people tell me that “Jumpman” was the name for Mario in the original Donkey Kong arcade game, with some going so far as to tell me he wasn’t even named Mario until Donkey Kong Junior or even the original Mario Bros. None of this is quite correct. While it is true that Mario’s working name was Jumpman, and that the instructions on the original arcade version do call him that, the name of Mario came along before Nintendo was even pushing Donkey Kongmachines out the door. The original advertising flyer, released at the time the game was released, refers to the character as Mario numerous times

Patrick Scott Patterson

Arcade classic Donkey Kong Junior is turning 30

According to trademark filings, Donkey Kong Junior first appeared publically on June 30, 1982. The suffix in the title was spelled as “Jr.” in Japan but “Junior” in North America. Later home releases moved toward the shorter version, appearing as “Donkey Kong Jr.” Despite the original longer version of the name the shorter suffix is the most common spelling of the game title worldwide. “I remember Donkey Kong Junior getting a lot of attention in the arcades,” said Mark Kiehl, the all-time high score champion on the arcade classic. “People were excited about a sequel to Donkey Kong.”

Patrick Scott Patterson

Goin’ Out West: Running the gauntlet at E3 2012

A great surprise came to me this morning as me and Walter Day met up at the Nintendo booth along with Guinness World Records’ Gaz Deaves to present Isaiah Triforce Johnson with awards for his successful attempts at being the first-in-line to purchase numerous Nintendo consoles at launch. The surprise came in the form of Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime along with a photo op alongside him. Quite a hard fellow to get to, it was a fun thing to happen to me, even if the photos I saw later claimed I was Gaz Deaves. I can’t quite imagine him with my haircut.

Patrick Scott Patterson

Know Your History: Call of Duty critics should note the Pac-Man run of 1982

Also worth note is the fact that historians blame Super Pac-Man’s quick fade from popularity to be due to the massive changes in the basic Pac-Man gameplay concept. Ms. Pac-Man, however, changed little to the basic concept of the game and simply added new screens and features while running on the hardware of the previous game. Ms. Pac-Mansold a record number of arcade machines in the United States and continues to hold the record to the modern day. Ms. Pac-Man machines can still be found in many locations across the country, the only one of the four 1982 Pac sequels to do so.

Patrick Scott Patterson

Trials Evolution

The multiplayer mode provides the only real issue thus far. At the time of this review, online matchmaking was taking several minutes at a time and would fail altogether on many attempts. Once in a game, however, it ran flawlessly and could easily become a serious competition for many XBox Live fans. Be aware if you lag behind the rest of the pack the camera will turn toward you once the race has finished, putting all eyes on your efforts to complete the track. Hopefully the matchmaking issues can be remedied quickly.

Patrick Scott Patterson

Atari’s XE Game System

The XEGS also boasted of a huge library of games available for play due to backward compatibility with previous Atari products. While technically true, the game library was deeply aged by the time the XEGS hit store shelves. Most of the XE branded games in stores were simply repackaged Atari computer game titles while others were translations of other home computer licenses as Nintendo had exclusive deals signed for almost every other arcade hit.

Patrick Scott Patterson

Does upcoming film help gaming or further stereotype it?

Upon watching the trailer I am given mixed emotions. Some of it made me chuckle a little, such as the little kid on the other end of the XBox headset, the team name being spelled as “riegn” (the type of horrible misspelling one cannot play a game online without coming across), and a little homage to classic arcade gaming. However, I can’t help but feel this film also pushes stereotypes of video gamers that simply don’t apply to the majority of gamers today. The film seems to feature a number of foul-mouthed little kids, girlfriends that hate games and bash their boyfriends for playing them and loudmouthed stoner types that simply have nothing else to do.

Patrick Scott Patterson

Angry Birds Space

Iconic games of the past have sometimes struggled with sequels. The original Tetris has proven a more popular game than any of it’s later follow-ups, while most Pac-Man sequels also fell short of the original. Ms. Pac-Man was the exception to the rule, proving successful in large part for managing to take everything that made the first Pac-Man popular and enhancing it with new features. Angry Birds Space manages to do what Ms. Pac did decades before. Ten million downloads in the first three days of release show others feel the same. The new title successfully enhances the classic gameplay formula that made the original such an unqualified success.

Patrick Scott Patterson

What is gaming’s ‘Greatest Generation’?

Over the past several years I have seen and dealt with players who will put the topic up for constant debate. I have seen classic arcade gamers refer to anything console as “lame” and unimportant in comparison, even going so far as to note the NES as the death of their generation instead of the massive industry crash years before it. I have seen modern gamers question the loyalty of the classic gaming fans and I’ve seen every generation inbetween sing the virtues of their preferred generations of gaming.

Patrick Scott Patterson

Latest sales figures show all three modern consoles now top lifetime NES sales

Now, according to sales-tracking website VGChartz.com the PlayStation 3 has now also topped the lofty NES numbers. Not only does this put all three PlayStation consoles into the top five best-selling consoles of all-time, but it also means the PS3 joins the Nintendo Wii and XBox 360 in that short list. All three modern consoles have now topped the NES lifetime sales figures, a first for any console generation in history. (Author’s note: All three consoles have also topped the NES software sales figures, according to the same website.)

Patrick Scott Patterson

Veteran gaming author turns to Kickstarter to update video game history book

Right now I’m unemployed, so money is a serious issue for me, which is why I turned to Kickstarter,” he said. “With financial support for a few months, I think I can improve and expand High Score and put out a great new edition. I want it to be an even better book than the original versions, with all the main material, but better. I also want to find a way to publish or e-publish the extra content that I have, because there’s a lot of it, tons of graphical material and even much longer interviews that I could share. At any rate, this seems like a perfect moment to create the new edition, improve the book and expand it to cover the last decade or so, as well. Carpe diem

Patrick Scott Patterson

Oklahoma’s “violent video game tax” shot down after e-mail backlash

With Fourkiller’s claim that video games cause violence and obesity, the proposed tax would have applied to any video game Rated T or higher on the ESRB Ratings chart. This would have included game titles such as Zumba Fitness 2: Party Yourself Into Shape, a popular fitness title.