Back To The Main Page
Master Gamer News- April 27, 1999
Master Gamer News- April 10, 1999
Master Gamer News- March 29, 1999
Master Gamer News- March 17, 1999
May 9, 1999
"Our News Is Fresh, But Our Cream Cheese Expired Four Months Ago"
The United States Senate recently held a hearing to discuss the effects
of violent video games on children. The following are a few notable quotes
from the hearing as published in the transcript of the hearing on the
Senate's web site:
Colonel David Grossman (taking an anti-video games stand):
-violent video games are "mass murder simulators that can truly teach you
how to commit a mass murder... what we have before us is a new national
video game. The high score in this video game, instead of getting their
three initials in the video arcade, is their picture on Time Magazine and
on every television in America... the time may have come for us to say that
anyone who provides this toxic substance to children is a criminal."
- "The army has a (training) device; I will provide pictures. The last time
I trained on that puppy, it had a label on it that said Nintendo. If I'm
wrong, if I'm mislead, I sincerely apologize to Nintendo Corporation. If
I'm right, I will provide pictures and we can let Nintendo explain the
matter to the Senate."
Dr. Henry Jenkins (taking a pro-video games stand):
-"Harris and Klebold (the murderers in the Colorado shooting) played video
games. Not surprising. Roughly 80 percent of American boys play video
games... none of these cultural choices, taken individually or as an
aggregate, differentiates Harris and Klebold from a sizable number of
American teenagers who also consumed these same forms of popular culture
but have not gone out and gunned down their classmates."
Senator John McCain of Arizona (taking a neutral, I-don't-want-to-piss-
anybody-off standpoint):
- "As a country, we are not parenting our children. It is not simply video
games, music, movies or access to guns. Instead, it is all of these factors
plus many others which combine to create a deadly mixture which feeds a
culture of violence."
All this talk about video game violence has prompted Pennsylvania
Senator Jack Wagner to propose legislation which would restrict children
from playing violent video games. Wagner proposes that ALL video games
should have to be submitted to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board
(99% already are) and it would be illegal for any game with a "graphic
violence" label to be sold or rented out to anyone under the age of 18.
Wagner stated, "What I am proposing is not censorship. Individuals and
companies would still be free to create, sell, and rent violent video
games. They could not, however, offer such games to minors. I believe the
restrictions I am proposing are reasonable, justifiable, and in the best
interests of Pennsylvania's children and children across America." Wagner
also said that some video games "involve barbaric acts of violence that are
desensitizing children to violence" and pointed out that "the level of
graphic violence in video games far exceeds that which is permitted in
R-rated movies." In addition, Wagner urged "all parents and guardians of
children to monitor and control the video games children are playing." In
defense of the video game industry, the IDSA's chief Doug Lowenstein said
that there are more adult gamers out there than under-18 gamers, and also
said that only two of 1998's top 20 selling games were rated "Mature" (and
this coming from a ratings board that gave super-cute Pocket Fighter a Teen
rating).
Howard Lincoln has announced that he will step down from his position as
Nintendo of America's chairman next year, or more specifically, the end of
February. He will still be on Nintendo's board of directors, but will play
a drastically smaller role in the day-to-day operations of the company.
A Nintendo spokesperson would not comment on why exactly Lincoln is
stepping down, but it reportedly has nothing to do with the fact that Sony
has been whipping his butt for four years...
The video game industry hit a major milestone this week: a video game
company generating over one billion dollars in a single year. Electronic
Arts announced that in the fiscal year ending on March 31, 1999, it
generated $1.2 billion of revenue. In addition to its usual domination of
the console industry, EA is now a much bigger force than it used to be in
the PC market thanks to such smash hits as Sim City 3000 and Alpha Centauri.
EA will only continue to grow in the PC market with the release of more hot
games like Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun later this year.
The latest edition of the Pro Wrestling Torch newsletter confirmed that
Acclaim is indeed in negotiations with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW)
now that Acclaim is about to lose the lucrative WWF license. The deal
would seem to be beneficial to both companies. Acclaim still wants to make
wrestling games in the future, and we all know that licensed wrestling
games sell better than non-licensed wrestling games. ECW would benefit in
the long run from the increased national exposure that such a deal would
bring, but more importantly for them right now is that they need the cash
in a bad way. ECW is in some serious financial trouble right now, to the
point that wrestlers' paychecks are bouncing with regularity and the
company could be shut down within a couple of months if they don't get an
infusion of money from somewhere.
The free online gaming service Mplayer.com became a publicly traded
company this week. The company stock opened at $18 per share on Wall
Street, and rose to $50 in its first day on the market. It fell to $39 the
next day, but that's still more than double its price when it opened two
days earlier. An Mplayer spokesperson made the following statement: "I
think one of the biggest reasons Mplayer is so successful is because Ivan
Trembow chooses to play Quake 2 on Mplayer so often. We are honored to
service him and I know that millions of gamers flock to our service with
the hope of one day meeting Ivan, or as I like to call him, He Who Has
Black Stripes On One Sock And Red Stripes On The Other."
THQ has signed a deal with Electronic Arts to bring many of EA's sports
games to the Game Boy Color. Among the games included in the deal that THQ
will bring to the GBC are NHL 2000, FIFA 2000, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2000,
NBA Live 2000, Madden NFL 2000, Triple Play 2001, NASCAR 2001, and I'm
Making This One Up To Drive Home The Point That EA Makes A Lot Of Darn
Sports Games 2000. These games will be released between July of this year
and March of 2001. I wonder whether any of them will contain un-authorized
South Park videos like Tiger Woods '99 did. Actually, I got the number to
EA's headquarters from a friend of mine in the industry and called them to
ask this very question. After getting a recording prompting me to enter
the extension number of the person I wished to speak with, I pressed four
buttons and here's how the conversation went:
"Hello, this is Steve."
Me (with a disguised voice): Hello, Dickie.
Steve: My name isn't Dickie. It's Steve.
Me (without a disguised voice): Stop kidding around, Dickie. What I want
to know is whether any of EA's sports games this year will contain un-
authorized South Park videos like Tiger Woods '99 did.
Steve: YOU again! How did you get this number?
Me: Don't run away from your feelings, Dickie. (click) Dickie? Dickie??
DICKIEEEEEEEE! Oh well, I'll call again later...
You might be asking yourself, "What the heck is going on with Dave Perry
and Shiny Entertainment?" After producing the cult hit Earthworm Jim and
its sequel, Shiny soaked up the praise and became a huge hype machine.
There was just one problem: they weren't actually releasing any games.
After three years in development, Wild 9 was finally released last fall to
mostly negative reviews. Even more late is the company's PC game Messiah.
Messiah might have been revolutionary... two years ago. Now it's old and
getting older with each passing month, and even now, Shiny still isn't
committed to releasing it this year (when a company says a game will be
released in the "winter," it could mean either late this year or early next
year, usually early next year or they would just say "fall"). Dave Perry
has stated that after eventually completing Messiah, the crew at Shiny will
go back to their console roots for a while and focus on PlayStation 2
development.
Game Boy Color sales continue to skyrocket, and Nintendo claims that the
system is currently selling 94,000 copies on the average week. This is
more than triple the amount it sold in the average week at this time last
year (31,000). Much of these sales can be attributed to the massive
success of Pokemon in the US, and this will only intensify with the
upcoming releases of Pokemon Gold and Silver. In addition, the Game Boy
and Game Boy Color combined have sold over 70 million copies worldwide.
In a related note, Nintendo has also released four new case colors for the
Game Boy Color: dandelion, kiwi, berry, teal. Of course, the colorful
cases won't change the games at all, but it's a decent marketing ploy.
If they really want to try to a new marketing ploy, how about an honest
slogan like, "The Game Boy: Offering Limited Gameplay and Grainy Graphics
Since 1989."
The best selling video games for all systems from April 4 to April 10
were:
1. The Need For Speed: High Stakes for PlayStation
2. Pokemon Red for Game Boy (the first time Red has topped Blue on the
sales charts)
3. Triple Play 2000 for PlayStation
4. Pokemon Blue for Game Boy
5. Syphon Filter for PlayStation
6. Mario Party for Nintendo 64
7. MLB 2000 for PlayStation
8. Civilization: A Call To Power for PC
9. Army Men 3D for PlayStation
10. Beetle Adventure Racing for Nintendo 64
On a points basis, the PlayStation won with 30 points, followed by the
Game Boy with 16 points, the Nintendo 64 with six points, and the PC with
three points.
The following hardware sales figures are for the period of April 5 to
April 11 in Japan, as reported by Weekly Famistu.
Sony PocketStation: 47,000 sold
Sony PlayStation: 36,000 sold
Game Boy Color: 25,000 sold
Bandai Wonder Swan: 16,000 sold
Sega Dreamcast: 13,000 sold
Nintendo 64: 12,000 sold
Game Boy Pocket: 8,000 sold
Neo Geo Pocket Color: 3,000 sold (ouch!)
Also, based on the top 30 selling games in that week in Japan, here are
the percentages held by each system in the software market:
1. Sony PlayStation: 79%
2. Nintendo 64: 12%
3. Game Boy: 6%
4. Dreamcast: 3%
5. everything else- no games in the top 30
The Dreamcast is performing fairly well in Japan, but not as well as
Sega had hoped it would. It has "only" sold 900,000 systems and three
million games so far in Japan.
The latest screen shots of Capcom's next Resident Evil game for the
PlayStation show off Jill Valentine wearing a mini (and I mean mini) skirt,
as well as a low-cut top that is very tight and uh... form-fitting. I
personally think that this kind of blatant sex appeal has no place in the
dark and scary Resident Evil universe. How can I really let the game scare
the crap out of me if I'm too busy trying to maneuver the main character
into strategic camera positions for... better viewing? The game's story
line takes place just before Resident Evil 2 as Jill attempts to escape the
always-infested-with-zombies Raccoon City. Right now Jill is the only
playable character that I know of, and there's no sign of Barry Burton at
all. With or without Barry, Capcom is trying to finish the game before
Christmas, but then again, they were once trying to finish Resident Evil 2
in early 1997....
Speaking of Resident Evil, Capcom has released more details regarding
Resident Evil: Code Veronica for the Dreamcast. Code Veronica follows
RE2's Claire Redfield in her attempts to find her brother Chris in Europe
after enduring the events of Resident Evil 2. As of right now, the plan is
for the game's story to pick up just as Claire is being freed by an
Umbrella Corporation employee from an Umbrella prison. Once again, where
the heck is Barry Burton? The STARS room in Resident Evil 2 would seem to
indicate that Barry also went to Europe to further investigate Umbrella, so
there's no way reason why he can't be in this game. Resident Evil: Code
Veronica isn't due out in Japan until December, so a US release this year
is very unlikely.
EA Sports recently revealed that in addition to the PlayStation,
Knockout Kings 2000 will make its way to the Nintendo 64 this fall. Great!
Now N64 owners can share in the crappy boxing game joy...
Sony's Greatest Hits promotion; wherein old, classic PlayStation games
get special packaging and retail for under $25; has been a massive success.
However, there are so many games that are now "Greatest Hits" that it
appears Sony may be running out of big-name, high-quality games to add.
Case in point: Fighting Force and TNN Outdoors Hardcore 4x4 are the latest
additions to the Greatest Hits promotion. What's next? Rascal? Spice
World? Tomb Raider 3? (Sorry once again, Tomb Raider fans, I couldn't
resist)
Nintendo is teaming up with Visteon to put Nintendo 64s in the back
seats of mini-vans across the country. For an extra $1,500, you can get
Visteon's back-seat entertainment system containing a 6.4 inch LCD screen
(ach!), a VCR, and a Nintendo 64. While this doesn't seem too appealing at
first because I can think of another "back-seat entertainment system"
that's a lot cheaper (if you smell what The Rock is cooking), I would
imagine that parents are going to love it. Their kids will be too busy
playing games on long car trips to bother them every few minutes asking
"Are we there yet?" Instead, they will be saying, "Hey mom, when was the
last time a decent game was released for this system, anyway?"
Acclaim has announced that they will publish South Park for the
PlayStation sometime this summer. Before any PlayStation owners out there
get too excited, you should consider that the game sucks. Anybody who has
played the N64 or PC version will tell you that. Also, the port is being
done by Appaloosa Software, who is one of those companies that just doesn't
"get it." They took a classic series in Contra and turned it into a
festering piece of crap with Contra: Legacy of War. Then Konami gave them
a second chance for some unknown reason, and they released another piece of
crap in C: The Contra Adventure. Until they prove me wrong, it seems that
Appaloosa couldn't make a good game if the design document wrote itself and
the game programmed and play-balanced itself. Other companies that seem
unable to make any good games include Dreamworks Interactive (who have made
countless God-awful Jurassic Park games), and Core Design, who made the
terrible Ninja, the shallow Fighting Force, and worse of all, Tomb Raider...
Nintendo has struck a deal with Disney which allows them to make
numerous video games based on the Disney and Mickey Mouse licenses. OK,
fair enough. It may be the source of a lot of hot air and it may re-
enforce Nintendo's position as a kiddie-oriented company, but I could live
with this... until I heard who is going to be developing these games: Rare.
Rare employs some of the most talented video game developers in the world.
They made Donkey Kong Country, they made Goldeneye 007, they have carried
Nintendo through every holiday season I can remember, and they're about to
carry Nintendo through this holiday season, too, and what does Nintendo
assign them: A BUNCH OF FREAKIN' MICKEY MOUSE GAMES. Now is that good
business sense or what? I can just picture the obnoxious commercials for
these games now. The only thing more annoying is people who answer the
phone and instead of saying "hello," they say "YELLOW!" I feel like
yelling back, "BLUE! Why the heck are we naming colors when we answer the
phone, you moron?!?"
Last fall, Micro Star was sued by GT Interactive for making an un-
authorized Duke Nukem add-on pack. Micro Star lost that lawsuit, but they
still went ahead and made an un-authorized StarCraft add-on pack. Blizzard
sued them for that two months later and they lost in court once again. Now
Micro Star has just lost its third such lawsuit, this time to Lucasarts for
making an un-authorized X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter add-on pack. I can hear the
thoughts of the enlightened Micro Star executives now, "Hey, wait a minute!
Making un-authorized add-on packs is illegal! We've been sued for it three
times and lost on every occasion! We've lost lots of money and our
reputation has been ruined! Do you think we should stop making un-
authorized add-on packs? Nah..."
Sony and Nabisco are teaming up to hold a massive sweepstakes promotion
from July 1 to October 31. Tons of people will win such prizes as
PlayStation systems, Dual Shock Analog Controllers, PlayStation clothes,
Sony music CDs, and numerous PlayStation games like Gran Turismo, Crash
Bandicoot: Warped, and Spyro the Dragon. One lucky grand prize winner will
win the PlayStation Thrill on Wheels- a huge truck packed with 68 feet
worth of PlayStation systems and games. To enter this contest, all you
have to do is look for the 1-800 number on specially marked Nabisco
products. Oh, I forgot, you also have to sign a written contract in which
you swear that you will never, ever buy a Sega Dreamcast. And if you do,
the punishment is almost unthinkable: You have to watch an entire episode
of WCW Thunder. The horror...
SNK is a busy company. The Neo Geo Pocket Color is selling horribly in
Japan right now, but SNK is still giving it everything they've got to
ensure the system's success in the US. One of the system's biggest selling
points is its compatibility with the Sega Dreamcast and its Virtual Memory
Unit (VMU). Now SNK is apparently negotiating with Sony to make the system
compatible with the PlayStation 2 as well. SNK is also working on two
joint projects with Capcom (a fighting game and a light-gun shooter), and
they're even negotiating with Sega and Namco to unite the Tekken and Virtua
Fighter characters in one really awesome fighting game. A few years ago
I would have said that there's no chance this could ever happen, but with
Namco standing behind and supporting the Dreamcast, it now has to be
considered a possibility.
Rare has released more screen shots of Donkey Kong 64, and four members
of the Kong family are pictured in them. In addition to Diddy Kong from
Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2, DK 64 also features Tiny Kong, Lanky Kong, and
Chunky Kong (what the heck?). What about Donkey Kong himself? Also, given
the recent deal to bring Resident Evil 2 and other Capcom games to the N64,
why couldn't some of Capcom's characters been included in Super Smash
Bros.? I can just picture an encounter between Mario and Barry Burton
now...
Mario: It's-a-me! Mario!
Barry: WHAT? What is this?
Mario: You know, Mario, from all those Nintendo games.
Barry: BLOOD. Hope this is not Chris's blood...
Mario: What the heck are you talking about?
Barry: Stand back, Jill! He's insane!
A test version of Quake 3: Arena was recently released, but only for the
Macintosh. For once, PC gamers knew the feeling of a hot new release
coming out for another computer platform besides their own, and the Q3 Test
has still not been released for Windows. It was released for Linux shortly
after the Mac release, though. Also, the rush of hot PC games coming to
the Macintosh continues. The latest PC-to-Mac conversions to be announced
were Half-Life and Baldur's Gate. In a totally un-related note, I was
watching Animal Planet the other day and saw the hilariously courageous
Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin come across a pair of highly poisonous and
violent sea snakes mating. My first impression if I saw such dangerous
animals right next to my feet would be to run like heck and not look back
until I got to the hotel room. Steve Irwin's first impulse was to get down
on his knees and look closely so that his face was mere inches away from
the poisonous snakes, at which point he went into his hyper-excited mode
and said to the camera man, "Oh my God! Zoom in here! They're mating!
They're joined! It's mating! They're mating! Unbelievable!" I guess he
doesn't get out of the house very often... (although, really, I'm not one
to make fun of people for this, considering that in a few short weeks my
surgeon says I'm going to be "Mr. Don't Bend Or Move The Wrong Way For Nine
To Twelve Months Or We'll See You In The ER, Peppy")
Evidently pleased with the feedback on the motorcycle racing levels in
Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Naughty Dog is now working on Crash Team Racing,
the next game in the Crash Bandicoot series. This time Crash isn't racing
on motorcycles, he's racing in a very Mario Kart-like go-kart. Crash Team
Racing will feature over 20 tracks and is due out this fall, when it will
once again be published by Sony. In order to get more information about
the game, I tried to call my source at Sony, but he kept going on and on
with some nonsense about pressing one if I wanted to do this, or pressing
two if I wanted to do that, and so on. If I didn't know better, I would
think that my inside source at Sony is just a recording! Wait a minute...
D'oh! So many hours... gone forever...
Sources for news: Fastest Game News Online, GameSpot, GameFan, Blue's News,
GI News, Next Generation Online, Adrenaline Vault, The Magic Box,
VideoGames, Happy Puppy, Gamesdomain, GameCenter, PlanetQuake, PSM Online,
IGN 64, The Sega Zone, Gaming Age, Weekly Famistu, www.hamsterdance.com
Back To The Main Page
Master Gamer News- April 27, 1999
Master Gamer News- April 10, 1999
Master Gamer News- March 29, 1999
Master Gamer News- March 17, 1999
© 2001 ivan@mastergamer.com