So, our official submissions were:
Botticelli - Nathan Tolbert
Ghiberti - ppd2
Masaccio - Coolsonh
Vincent (Van Gogh) - dayallencrey25
Venus de Milo - Zerothis
Machiavelli – taylor
Now Brian Farmer pointed out on our forums:
“1) Just about everyone's missing the fact that Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello were the first names of those renaissance artists, not the last names or nicknames, as are being suggested.
2) All of these four were just as famous--and in some cases, more so--for other forms of art than painting. Donatello and Michelangelo are best known for sculpture, and Raphael was a master architect, as well.
3) The idea of fitting in the "Americanization" of the names is a good idea, too.
Based on the above, it surprises me that no one's suggested "Benvenuto" (Cellini). He was a leading goldsmith and sculptor, an author, and a composer. Plus, Benvenuto shortens and "Americanizes" to "Ben" quite easily. “
and he makes some good points. However, I'm not so picky. For instance Machiavelli may not have been a painter, but he was certainly Italian and involved in the renaissance. I also don't believe anyone can question the fact that the Venus de Milo was involved in the art scene (besides, the turtles need a woman.)
As as result of my rather liberal views on riddle solving and naming conventions I declare that all the entries are valid. Now for the results!
Nathan Tolbert was unquestionably the “Quick” in our little contest. He answered correctly roughly twenty minutes after I posted.
As for the “Lucky,” that plum goes to taylor's submission of the dark turtle “Machiavelli”. His number quite literally came up. (Does that say something about the balance of the light and dark sides?)
I enjoyed this a great deal and I plan to kick off another contest soon. I won't give you the exact date, but I will say I plan on doing it in April, so that should give you some idea.
Nathan and taylor I need your address info. Please send an e-mail to webmaster@consoleclassix.com so I can get your prizes sent out.
Once again thanks for you participation and congratulations to the Quick and the Lucky!
Friday, April 8, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
A Busy Bee
This week has already been a busy one for me. (I know I say that a lot, but honestly it's true.) I'm still working on the Linux library I talked about a couple of posts ago. I hope to do another post about the elements of a great game, but I have to get the time. Lord willing I will get a NES emulator working on Linux today. If I manage that I should be able to get my next element post up soon.
I know not many people are going to be using the Linux client at first, but it opens a few doors. It was also my first foray into cross-platform development. I would like the next one to be Mac. We have a lot of Mac users out there who have asked us about a version for them, but we haven't been able to do it yet. This Linux project has given me a bit more insight into the whole cross-platform scene. Given time I think we could get something working for Mac users.
I also want to do a series of videos on all the different settings options the emulators we use have. You can actually do a great deal with them if you know how. The thing is most people don't know how. That's why a series of videos would be a useful thing for us to put together. Like so many things it's a matter of finding time.
I'm supposed to update all the emulators that have new versions out this month, but it may have to wait. We also have to do an inventory and that is going to eat some time. I want to move all the carts into better containers and while we are doing that I figure we might as well do a complete inventory. There are over 7500 carts, so it's a bit of a chore. I plan to make a video of us doing it so that you guys can see our entire inventory. It's kind of cool if you're into that kind of thing. (and most of us are, obviously)
Either way I'll keep you guys posted. If you haven't entered the contest from my last post go do it now. You could win a gift card man! I'll announce the winners this Friday.
If you guys like you can follow me on Facebook:
My Facebook
Also please feel to drop by the forums and say hello:
CC Forums
I know not many people are going to be using the Linux client at first, but it opens a few doors. It was also my first foray into cross-platform development. I would like the next one to be Mac. We have a lot of Mac users out there who have asked us about a version for them, but we haven't been able to do it yet. This Linux project has given me a bit more insight into the whole cross-platform scene. Given time I think we could get something working for Mac users.
I also want to do a series of videos on all the different settings options the emulators we use have. You can actually do a great deal with them if you know how. The thing is most people don't know how. That's why a series of videos would be a useful thing for us to put together. Like so many things it's a matter of finding time.
I'm supposed to update all the emulators that have new versions out this month, but it may have to wait. We also have to do an inventory and that is going to eat some time. I want to move all the carts into better containers and while we are doing that I figure we might as well do a complete inventory. There are over 7500 carts, so it's a bit of a chore. I plan to make a video of us doing it so that you guys can see our entire inventory. It's kind of cool if you're into that kind of thing. (and most of us are, obviously)
Either way I'll keep you guys posted. If you haven't entered the contest from my last post go do it now. You could win a gift card man! I'll announce the winners this Friday.
If you guys like you can follow me on Facebook:
My Facebook
Also please feel to drop by the forums and say hello:
CC Forums
Monday, April 4, 2011
The Quick And The Lucky
So, I've decided to have another little contest here on my blog. Why? Why not?! Everybody likes a good contest. It's a chance to show off your quick wit or mad luck skills.Let's start with the rules: No cheating! How you would cheat in this particular contest I have no idea, but if you find a way you're on your honor not to do it! None of the CC family can participate (sorry guys). The first person to chime in with a correct response (there are a number of possible correct responses) wins a prize. At the end of the contest we are also going to randomly select one of the other correct responses and give a prize to the person who posted it. You can only post one response, if you post more than one only the first one will count and other people can take any additional responses you posted.
What are the prizes? Both the the first correct poster and the randomly selected correct poster are going to get a $25 Amazon gift card. (Don't tell me there isn't something you want from Amazon, they offer almost everything.)
When is it? Right now! You have from the time I post this, Monday April 4th 2011, until this Friday April 8th 2011, to enter the contest.
What is the contest? I'm glad you asked that, so I am. You just have to post a name in response to this post. What name you ask? Ahhh, that's the contest. Let me explain:
The four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are named with a running theme. You have to come up with a name for a fifth turtle whose name is related to the other four in the same way that they are related to each other. Find the common threat and expound on it, as it were. Now, some of you may think this is too easy. For those of you who want to make it more challenging you can force yourself to post only using a cell-phone with internet access while standing on your head in some public area (a state park for instance.) The rest of you can just post your submission here as a comment.
So, have fun and good luck!
If you guys like you can follow me on Facebook:
My Facebook
Also please feel to drop by the forums and say hello:
CC Forums
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Getting Cross
As so many weeks are at Console Classix, last week was a busy one. We got a number of things underway. One of the tings I'm really excited about is the fact that we started building a cross-platform version of the CC Library. Now, that may be complete gibberish to some of you so I'm going to explain what it is and then why it matters.
To begin with, the Console Classix Library is a piece of software that allows a program to connect to the CC server and play a game. (It also handles a number of other little things, but we'll skip that for now.) It's what we use to enable emulators to access our services. It makes the entire process neat and clean.
Now, when a piece of software is “cross-platform” that means that it will run on more than one platform (duh...) So, for instance, it might run on Windows and Linux. In fact, that is exactly what we intend the CC Library to do. In point of fact the software runs on both of them now. We just need to pack it all up as a library and start using it.
Here we come to why this matters. First, it will allow us to offer CC on the Linux platform natively. Up until now Linux users could only play CC from within a Windows emulator. (That is a bit of a performance limitation.) As soon as we are done they will be able to run it directly under Linux just as our Windows users do. As I've mentioned before, the more people we have playing the better it is for everyone. This is going to open another small door for our fans to come through.
But wait! There's more! For a long time we have wanted to put together some plans for a CC home console that you can hook to your TV and wireless network. One of the limitations was that Windows would tack $100 onto the cost and make it unreasonable. Linux is a completely free operating system so we could put it on a home console without adding anything to the cost. We're still a long way from this, but the cross-platform library is a very real step in that direction.
Once it's done we may start trying to put together a prototype with a single board PC. Adding CC support for the Linux emulators we would need should only take a couple of days (Lord willing.) Then we'll just need to make a cross-platform version of the CC Browser. In some ways that may be easier than doing the library in the first place. All things considered it will certainly be worth our trying to build a prototype. If we do we could post a video of our building and testing it for you guys to see.
On top of all this I want to build a CC arcade cabinet. I would prefer to run Linux on it, which is one of the reasons I haven't done it yet. Once this is wrapped up I'll finally be able to do that.
All in all this cross-platform library is another good step. I'll let you know more when there's more to know.
If you guys like you can follow me on Facebook:
My Facebook
Also please feel to drop by the forums and say hello:
CC Forums
To begin with, the Console Classix Library is a piece of software that allows a program to connect to the CC server and play a game. (It also handles a number of other little things, but we'll skip that for now.) It's what we use to enable emulators to access our services. It makes the entire process neat and clean.
Now, when a piece of software is “cross-platform” that means that it will run on more than one platform (duh...) So, for instance, it might run on Windows and Linux. In fact, that is exactly what we intend the CC Library to do. In point of fact the software runs on both of them now. We just need to pack it all up as a library and start using it.
Here we come to why this matters. First, it will allow us to offer CC on the Linux platform natively. Up until now Linux users could only play CC from within a Windows emulator. (That is a bit of a performance limitation.) As soon as we are done they will be able to run it directly under Linux just as our Windows users do. As I've mentioned before, the more people we have playing the better it is for everyone. This is going to open another small door for our fans to come through.
But wait! There's more! For a long time we have wanted to put together some plans for a CC home console that you can hook to your TV and wireless network. One of the limitations was that Windows would tack $100 onto the cost and make it unreasonable. Linux is a completely free operating system so we could put it on a home console without adding anything to the cost. We're still a long way from this, but the cross-platform library is a very real step in that direction.
Once it's done we may start trying to put together a prototype with a single board PC. Adding CC support for the Linux emulators we would need should only take a couple of days (Lord willing.) Then we'll just need to make a cross-platform version of the CC Browser. In some ways that may be easier than doing the library in the first place. All things considered it will certainly be worth our trying to build a prototype. If we do we could post a video of our building and testing it for you guys to see.
On top of all this I want to build a CC arcade cabinet. I would prefer to run Linux on it, which is one of the reasons I haven't done it yet. Once this is wrapped up I'll finally be able to do that.
All in all this cross-platform library is another good step. I'll let you know more when there's more to know.
If you guys like you can follow me on Facebook:
My Facebook
Also please feel to drop by the forums and say hello:
CC Forums
Thursday, March 31, 2011
The Elements of a Great Game
I decided to do a post about a discussion we've been having on the forums. The topic?
The elements of a great game! (duh...)
The reason I decided to lay my thoughts out in blog format is that I hope to seem less like a gibbering mental patient than I did on our forums. Here I can ramble on without interruption until I make my point or until they come to take me away.
“but I know I've got one thing I got to do, Ramble on!”
Lately I've been thinking a lot about game design. There are number of reasons. For one thing I got into computers because I wanted to write games. My life and career moved around until I've dedicated years of energy to preserving and providing classic games for other fans such as myself. This has kept me so busy that I haven't worked on a video game for, well, let's just say a long time. I hope that, one day, I will finally get my chance, but there's more than that.
I have also played D&D for many, many years. I have been the Dungeon Master for I don't know how many hours of my life. I've written good campaigns and not-so-good campaigns. I've played where I was caught up and enjoying every minute of it and I've played where I just sat there rolling my dice watching the clock and dreaming of the moment when the game wrapped up.
What do these two things have to do with each other? Everything. I'm not just talking about what makes a great video game, I am talking about what makes a great GAME. I believe there are common threads that connect all gamers and all games. It is those threads that I am considering.
What makes people want to play games? A lot of things really. The challenge, the reward, the atmosphere, etc. I want to boil these motivations down to their basic elements. Why? Well, someone on the forums compared these base elements to chords in music. I think that is an excellent example. As chords to a musician or a palette to an artists so these basic driving elements should be to game developers.
A lot of people might believe that these game “chords” are already well known or that they don't exist. Well, I believe I have an answer for each of these objections. First, games are much like books, television or movies. In all those forms of entertainment there are certain formulas that are used. That is why there are classes on writing and cinematography. They teach people what the basic “palette” is that they should use. Now that's not to say that you can plug in the formula and BAM you have a best seller or a block buster. Even if you know the chords you have to be able to play.
“Well, how can we have descent instruments when we don't really even know how to play?”
“That is why we need Eddie Van Halen!”
As in all forms of art the artist is really what makes it art. However, if Van Halen had never learned his chords would he have still been a great musician?
So, I believe those elements exist. Which is why “Save the girl” is a running theme in books, movies and games. Man has a natural desire to save the girl! (and if she doesn't want to be saved hilarity ensues .)
Now, as to these themes being common knowledge, they may be, but I'm not familiar with such a school of study. Plus when I look at some of the games that have come out I have to believe that I'm not the only potential game developer that has never heard of them. Some games just make me think “Who would have ever wanted to play this and WHY?”
This post is getting a bit long, so I am going to cut it short. I plan to do another post soon touching what I believe is one of the “Colors” of game development.
I hope my sanity has been established and that you could see what I was saying.
The elements of a great game! (duh...)
The reason I decided to lay my thoughts out in blog format is that I hope to seem less like a gibbering mental patient than I did on our forums. Here I can ramble on without interruption until I make my point or until they come to take me away.
“but I know I've got one thing I got to do, Ramble on!”
Lately I've been thinking a lot about game design. There are number of reasons. For one thing I got into computers because I wanted to write games. My life and career moved around until I've dedicated years of energy to preserving and providing classic games for other fans such as myself. This has kept me so busy that I haven't worked on a video game for, well, let's just say a long time. I hope that, one day, I will finally get my chance, but there's more than that.
I have also played D&D for many, many years. I have been the Dungeon Master for I don't know how many hours of my life. I've written good campaigns and not-so-good campaigns. I've played where I was caught up and enjoying every minute of it and I've played where I just sat there rolling my dice watching the clock and dreaming of the moment when the game wrapped up.
What do these two things have to do with each other? Everything. I'm not just talking about what makes a great video game, I am talking about what makes a great GAME. I believe there are common threads that connect all gamers and all games. It is those threads that I am considering.
What makes people want to play games? A lot of things really. The challenge, the reward, the atmosphere, etc. I want to boil these motivations down to their basic elements. Why? Well, someone on the forums compared these base elements to chords in music. I think that is an excellent example. As chords to a musician or a palette to an artists so these basic driving elements should be to game developers.
A lot of people might believe that these game “chords” are already well known or that they don't exist. Well, I believe I have an answer for each of these objections. First, games are much like books, television or movies. In all those forms of entertainment there are certain formulas that are used. That is why there are classes on writing and cinematography. They teach people what the basic “palette” is that they should use. Now that's not to say that you can plug in the formula and BAM you have a best seller or a block buster. Even if you know the chords you have to be able to play.
“Well, how can we have descent instruments when we don't really even know how to play?”
“That is why we need Eddie Van Halen!”
As in all forms of art the artist is really what makes it art. However, if Van Halen had never learned his chords would he have still been a great musician?
So, I believe those elements exist. Which is why “Save the girl” is a running theme in books, movies and games. Man has a natural desire to save the girl! (and if she doesn't want to be saved hilarity ensues .)
Now, as to these themes being common knowledge, they may be, but I'm not familiar with such a school of study. Plus when I look at some of the games that have come out I have to believe that I'm not the only potential game developer that has never heard of them. Some games just make me think “Who would have ever wanted to play this and WHY?”
This post is getting a bit long, so I am going to cut it short. I plan to do another post soon touching what I believe is one of the “Colors” of game development.
I hope my sanity has been established and that you could see what I was saying.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Good Old Atari
So, early last week I got an e-mail from Josh Pendrick. He's a Social Media manager over at Atari. He wanted to know if Console Classix would be interested in promoting up and coming Atari products that our fan base might be interested in. My answer, in a word, was:
Duh!
Of course Console Classix will promote new “classics” that are just about to come out. Needless to say we're huge Atari fans. (Don't bother mentioning how many times the company has changed hands, I know, I know. Not my point!) I don't know how many Atari products I own personally. We'll just run with “A lot” for now. We love Atari past, present and (I hope and believe) future.
Now a week went by before Josh said anymore to me. However, when he got back with me he did, indeed, have a couple of interesting news items to share.
First, a new version of Warlords is due to come out this Summer. That was a personal favorite of mine. Me and one of my childhood friends would play it for hours at the time. Josh gave me a link where you can get a bit more information about it. This is it:
Warlords
Now, I haven't gotten to play it yet (cough, cough), but it looks great. My only hope is that it maintains the feel of the original even with all the new bells and whistles. I may very well do a review of it after it comes out. Until then, go check out the site.
In other up and coming awesomeness news, a new version of Yar's Revenge is also under way. If you've never played the original go give it a whirl:
Yar's Revenge
I don't have any more information yet, but I am supposed to get some soon. I'll comment on this post with the URL as soon as I get it.
I would also advise you to go by Atari's website. They actually have a number of rebuilt 2600 games up. You can play them here:
Play Atari
All in all Atari has a lot going on for the retro-gamer. I am going to have to keep a closer eye on them in the future. If I get any more information or actual play experience (cough...) with these up and coming titles I'll be sure to let you guys know.
In a final note we may be getting a little Atari swag to give out. If we do we'll almost certainly contest it away in one way or another.
Have fun and good gaming!
Duh!
Of course Console Classix will promote new “classics” that are just about to come out. Needless to say we're huge Atari fans. (Don't bother mentioning how many times the company has changed hands, I know, I know. Not my point!) I don't know how many Atari products I own personally. We'll just run with “A lot” for now. We love Atari past, present and (I hope and believe) future.
Now a week went by before Josh said anymore to me. However, when he got back with me he did, indeed, have a couple of interesting news items to share.
First, a new version of Warlords is due to come out this Summer. That was a personal favorite of mine. Me and one of my childhood friends would play it for hours at the time. Josh gave me a link where you can get a bit more information about it. This is it:
Warlords
Now, I haven't gotten to play it yet (cough, cough), but it looks great. My only hope is that it maintains the feel of the original even with all the new bells and whistles. I may very well do a review of it after it comes out. Until then, go check out the site.
In other up and coming awesomeness news, a new version of Yar's Revenge is also under way. If you've never played the original go give it a whirl:
Yar's Revenge
I don't have any more information yet, but I am supposed to get some soon. I'll comment on this post with the URL as soon as I get it.
I would also advise you to go by Atari's website. They actually have a number of rebuilt 2600 games up. You can play them here:
Play Atari
All in all Atari has a lot going on for the retro-gamer. I am going to have to keep a closer eye on them in the future. If I get any more information or actual play experience (cough...) with these up and coming titles I'll be sure to let you guys know.
In a final note we may be getting a little Atari swag to give out. If we do we'll almost certainly contest it away in one way or another.
Have fun and good gaming!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
This week at Console Classix
Well, last week really, but I'm posting about it this week....
Anyways, the parts finally came in (yesterday) for the new NES reader I plan to work on this week. I actually have to go pick up some SNES carts to dissect for the project. I know it's a loss, but what can I do. They will have to lay down their video lives for the greater good. Plus, we can still use them really. I need to remove their ROMs, but that won't trash them, it will just make it impossible to play them on the SNES.
I made some changes to the browser and rolled out an update. We added a “Random” button so you can take wild ride to who knows where. It reminds me of when the Doctor put the randomizer in the Tardis. (If you don't know what I mean I am talking about THE Doctor and Time And Relative Dimension In Space) We also updated the Facebook Status Update code. Now it's easy to turn the status update on and off. Of course, the more you guys use it the more traffic we will have. You all know what that means. (More games and features!)
Belief it or not that basically ate my week up. I also had some tax stuff to take care of, but for the most part I was working on the browser.
As I mentioned, I hope to get the new NES reader up and running this week. I probably won't get it done in time to get any new NES games up Wednesday, but I'll do what I can. I am probably going to work on adding the categories to the CC browser although, again, I may not get it finished this week. I want to add a commenting system on the game info pages. The user review system is good (although we really need to keep up with it better), but I want something that allows a bit of back and forth between players. I am also planning on doing more blog posts and, as I mentioned in my last post, I am enlarging the number of subjects I touch on. Last, but not least, I am probably going to work on getting more video up soon. I want to show you guys how we go about building an adapter and what have you.
For the moment I'm off. Have fun, cause I'm gonna!
Anyways, the parts finally came in (yesterday) for the new NES reader I plan to work on this week. I actually have to go pick up some SNES carts to dissect for the project. I know it's a loss, but what can I do. They will have to lay down their video lives for the greater good. Plus, we can still use them really. I need to remove their ROMs, but that won't trash them, it will just make it impossible to play them on the SNES.
I made some changes to the browser and rolled out an update. We added a “Random” button so you can take wild ride to who knows where. It reminds me of when the Doctor put the randomizer in the Tardis. (If you don't know what I mean I am talking about THE Doctor and Time And Relative Dimension In Space) We also updated the Facebook Status Update code. Now it's easy to turn the status update on and off. Of course, the more you guys use it the more traffic we will have. You all know what that means. (More games and features!)
Belief it or not that basically ate my week up. I also had some tax stuff to take care of, but for the most part I was working on the browser.
As I mentioned, I hope to get the new NES reader up and running this week. I probably won't get it done in time to get any new NES games up Wednesday, but I'll do what I can. I am probably going to work on adding the categories to the CC browser although, again, I may not get it finished this week. I want to add a commenting system on the game info pages. The user review system is good (although we really need to keep up with it better), but I want something that allows a bit of back and forth between players. I am also planning on doing more blog posts and, as I mentioned in my last post, I am enlarging the number of subjects I touch on. Last, but not least, I am probably going to work on getting more video up soon. I want to show you guys how we go about building an adapter and what have you.
For the moment I'm off. Have fun, cause I'm gonna!
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