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Review: Commodore Amiga: A Visual Commpendium by Sam Dyer, Bitmap Books

Commodore Amiga: A Visual Commpendium by Sam Dyer, from Bitmap Books, available exclusively at funstock.co.uk

With great trepidation I turn the page to reveal the next spread of Sam Dyer’s landmark volume on the Commodore Amiga. Sadness is slowly creeping up as I briskly process the remaining years covered by Commodore Amiga: A Visual Commpendium; every letter, every pixel presented in a lavish, precisely elegant layout feasting on the glory of 16-bit graphics I savour like that eagerly sought after drop of water, enjoyed at last, after a perilous journey through a barren landscape.

The Amiga-less years have been harsh and unforgiving and this fabulous volume, clad in a pearly-white sleeve, finally provides relief to Amiga fandom. Continue reading “Review: Commodore Amiga: A Visual Commpendium by Sam Dyer, Bitmap Books”

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Retroasylum Podcast: From Silver Screen to Video Game!

Retro Asylum goes to the movies with TheDrisk in charge of tickets and Matt Lambourne armed with the popcorn as the guys look back at a bunch of movie licensed video games!

http://retroasylum.com/episode-113-from-silver-screen-to-video-game/

 
For an in-depth analysis of the demise of movie tie-ins see Of Movie Tie-Ins and Joystick Storytellers: The Video and Computer Game Revolution that Devoured Hollywood http://www.obiwandi.at/?p=1122

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Special Editions: Why Patrik Spacek’s Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis matters

Patrik Spacek has submitted a stalwart pitch to The Walt Disney Corporation to have his fabulous looking “special edition” of Hal Barwood’s and Noah Falstein’s legendary point-and-click adventure Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis officially sanctioned and supported. On the eve of what is certain be an important event,  a review of the common practice and history of “special editions” is in order. What does a product make “special” beyond the difference in pricing and packaging? Is it justifiable to attach such a powerful attribute to a word as mundane as “edition”?

Continue reading “Special Editions: Why Patrik Spacek’s Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis matters”

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Of Movie Tie-Ins and Joystick Storytellers: The Video and Computer Game Revolution that devoured Hollywood

Why did the computer and video game industry “tie in” with motion pictures? How come the once ubiquitous game adaptations disappeared whilst gaming is more popular and lucrative than ever?

Of Movie-Ties and Joystick Storytellers: How the Computer and Video Gaming Industry devoured the Motion Picture. An Analysis by Andreas Wanda. Screenshot: Jurassic Park by Ocean Software, Amiga OCS, 1993
Of Movie-Ties and Joystick Storytellers: How the Computer and Video Gaming Industry devoured the Motion Picture. An Analysis by Andreas Wanda. Screenshot: Jurassic Park by Ocean Software, 1993

This is an analysis of how gaming industry’s original envy turned into unsurpassed pride, of how the relationship between the motion picture and the computer and video game industries has undergone a significant change over the last four decades, of how players cast off the double-duties as brand ambassadors name-dropping a film’s title in conversations to tell their very own, very personal story of their adventures inside the bits and bytes of computer and video gaming. This is the journey of the joystick marketeer that lived to be a virtual storyteller…

Continue reading “Of Movie Tie-Ins and Joystick Storytellers: The Video and Computer Game Revolution that devoured Hollywood”

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Thimbleweed Park: A New Classic Point & Click Adventure! by Ron Gilbert & Gary Winnick

Writes the great Maniac Mansion duo: “It’s like opening a dusty old desk drawer and finding an undiscovered LucasArts adventure game you’ve never played before.” The pledge descriptions alone make you want to pay Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick a dollar for every second you’re laughing: pledge at their Kickstarter Thimbleweed Park project page to help the legendary adventure game designers become even more legendary than the legendary treasure of Big Whoop!

Thimbleweed Park: A New Classic Point & Click Adventure! by Ron Gilbert & Gary Winnick