Told y’all there’d be “more SSFF N-Gage content in the very near future!” In this follow-up to our video covering the whole history of the N-Gage, this episode seeks to cover a handful of the handheld’s most notable games, and to see what potential the system brought to the proverbial table.
My second research and writing contribution to Stop Skeletons From Fighting – an episode on the life and times of the Nokia N-Gage – is out now on YouTube! Contributing to the script on this one was a ton of fun, and brought to light all sorts of fascinating facets of Nokia’s business operations — so much that this episode ended up way longer than anyone had planned for. Let’s just say that I’ve got still got a few insights stowed away in the back pocket for an eventual ‘Console Review’ in the future. But in the meanwhile, please to enjoy this brief history of cell phone gaming, and look forward to more in the way of SSFF N-Gage content in the very near future.
Cover by Cam Adjodha.
My monthly feature for @PIZZAPRANKS‘ Indiepocalypse continues; with a piece on the potential creative design concepts that can be explored through “deliberate inaccessibility,” and how 2018’s The Quiet Man squanders / walks back its most novel idea. Where Square Enix and Human Head Studios may well have landed on a novel idea by “accident” as it were – unwittingly enough to go and completely compromise it come game’s end – I still see the decision to present the game and its cutscenes without audible accompaniment as a novel concept, and one that I would love to see more deliberate developers expand on.
I’m really enjoying using the format of the monthly feature to more briefly touch on bad games (which I’m sure I will get into further detail with / make full articles out of in time), and to explore my own ideas with regards to game design and the endless potential of the independent scene. The latter is something I feel like I don’t get to explore too much within the format here on the Bad Game Hall of Fame, and I’m excited to get to float my goofy ideas to an targeted audience with it. I’m also gonna start providing brief samples from said features here in my promo posts, so y’all can get a brief idea of what I’m attempting to traffic in:
The concept I’m more compelled by within The Quiet Man is obviously the decision to star a deaf protagonist, and the implications that has on the gameplay and narrative. Obviously, I reckon there should be more video games which speak to / represent the experiences of the differently-abled, and serve to put players of all circumstances into their proverbial shoes. In dealing with deafness in particular, there are so many roads that a developer could take: To interpret and teach the different ways the hard of hearing can engage in communication, or to demonstrate how folk are able to overcome the perceived obstacles their deafness seems to invite. Lacking audio accompaniment for spoken word or other audio cues, you could instead convey understanding of lip-reading or sign language through on-screen text or even though abstracted imagery — whichever feels more authentic to your own personal experiences.
I really would encourage y’all to give the ‘zine / bundle a shot; not just to read my pieces, but to get hands on some kick-ass curated indie games in the process! I’d like to highlight that this month’s edition includes Strangest.io’s Nightmare, serving as a particularly kick-ass throwback FPS with some proper neat time manipulation mechanics. Very much worth a play if 2.5D FPS is your bag. The collection also includes Nathalie Lawhead’s Electric Zine Maker, for those of you who might be afflicted the ‘zine-making bug yourself. Really though, I like to think there’s something for everyone included in the bundle portion of the package, so please to give them all a go if you decide to take the plunge.
Cover art by @POWAOFTEHKOWA
Howdy folks! I’m excited to let y’all know that I’m gonna be turning in a new monthly feature for the indie games bundle / zine ‘Indiepocalypse!’
My contributions will generally be centered around the merits and innovations of historically “bad” games (as is our brand and all), while challenging indie developers to try and incorporate the “lessons learned” from them — to take chances on concepts and mechanics that seem to go against typical design logic. I hope to encourage developers to embrace non-intuitive design; in the interests of expanding players’ own appreciations for non-conventional games, and helping move the medium forward in our own little way.
Our first piece serves as a sort of introduction to the ideas I’m wanting to put forward: Providing examples from a small handful of selected games, and exploring how their perceived “faults” are a big part of what makes them memorable. Future columns will likely focus on singular games or mechanics, and figuring out what they did wrong / could potentially do right [in the right hands]. I’m afforded a degree of flexibility when it comes to my feature, so we’ll see if we land on some other odd ideas in time! In any case, I’m excited to try my hand at a different format, and to try writing with a different set of goals in mind. I do hope y’all will give the zine a read, if’n you’re so inclined! Oh, and have I mentioned yet that every issue comes with 10 games included? Do be sure to give those a try too, you hear?
“Press ‘F1’ to experience the most terrific pleasure ever laid on your beady little pupils.” SQIJ! ZX Spectrum cover.
Another year, another April Fool’s Day, and another reaffirmation of my promise to leave the Bad Game Hall of Fame website appearing and operating as normal — a solemn vow I have kept for the past three firsts of April gone by. To explain my stance to potentially new readers: I’ve always thought that the classic webmaster tradition of “making your own website completely unusable” as an April Fool’s prank is a dumb one, and so I choose a different path: To instead to write regular articles about video games that can be considered as “jokes” in and of themselves. That being said, I reckon I’ve already covered most of the most historically notable gag games, and so I’ll probably have to start stretching the definition somewhat in order to keep this tradition going. Which brings us to the subject of today’s article: A game not intended by its creator as a prank on consumers per se, but rather one which they had never expected to be released in the first place. In that sense, I reckon the joke was ultimately played on them, as their contentious cassette somehow found its way to store shelves across the United Kingdom.
The story of SQIJ! (pronounced “Squidge,” according to its original creator) for the ZX Spectrum has been recounted many times and many ways in the years following its 1987 release, and become the stuff of British microcomputer legend. It’s well and truly one of the worst games of all time, and one which – I must reiterate – the creator of which didn’t presume their publisher would even put out on shelves! Luckily for us, the story of its development and unlikely release has been pretty well chronicled by this point, providing us a fascinating insight into the British budget games scene of the mid-to-late 80s in the process. It’s territory we’ve covered here before on the Bad Game Hall of Fame, but a subject matter I’m always happy to revisit nonetheless. It’s a dirty job, but someone on this side of the pond has gotta do it.
Now, one last thing before we get started: For a reason which will be revealed over the course of the article to follow, Spectrum SQIJ!’s defining feature is the complete inability for players to so much as move the titular character. And so – as an incredibly stupid self-imposed challenge for myself – I have determined to write this entire article in a single sitting, without getting up from my chair. Because, y’know: Not being able to move from where I am and all that, yeah? Also, I only decided to do an April Fool’s article this year with just a few days left before the 1st, so I’m basically having to knock this all out with little in the way of time to spare anyhow. Considering though that our standard articles take whole weeks of writing and research, and that I typically have a tendency to over-do it in the “word count” department, this should prove an incredibly difficult and potentially disastrous task. But hey, this whole damned website is nothing if not a testament to my own masochism, so on with the show I say!
