In this Issue…

Contents

38

Features
26 | Editorials
Will Wright: Pioneer
Richard Garriott: The Story of a Legend
A Short Biography of Scott Adams
In a Bar with Sid Meier
2old2pwn LAN Party Wrapup
2old2con Wrapup

Departments Flashback
04 | Columns
Credits
The Editor Pwns You!
Feedback
2old2type Radio
Tank Reports
You Blogged This!
Weekend Rentals
Ask MikeJames
12 | Reviews Photo of the Month
Madden 07
Talismania
War Rock
21 | Interview
War Rock Developers
PopCap Games
28 | Gamer Profile
42 | Retro Games
50 | HowTo
52 | Soon In Stores
 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine
 Contents
On the Cover: 24
PopCap Games get us hardcore
into the casual game Talismania.
Review by Codemokey on Page 15.

45

12

11

 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 Credits The Editor Pwns You!
The Editor Pwns You!
I wanna be a game designer when I grow up
by CodeMonkey
Front Page Illustration:
Kirk Manley (BATMANKM)
I always wanted to make games when I grew up. Honestly, I could
Chief Editor: not think of a better thing to do in life. When I was fourteen years
old, I tried “making a game” on an old Macintosh without having
Derrick Schommer (CodeMonkey)
a single clue on how a game was made. Needless to say, MacPaint
Editors: didn’t make all my dreams come true. Now I am thirty years old
Daniel Plouffe (DanLeCrinque)
and I write code for a living…not games, but it’s a step in the right
Cory Cheney (Drost) direction! Oh, and on the side I also work on a magazine.
Derek Nolan (DSmooth)
Many of my friends wanted to be police officers or firefighters, a few
Eddie Barnes (edd9139)
wanted to be G.I. Joe…whatever that was, but I always wanted to
James O’Dea (Fetal)
make video games. I haven’t lived that dream as of yet, so all I can do
Jennifer Schommer (ChaosNation)
KingDrewsky
now is try to interact with those that do live that life. I look at games
Paul Szczublewski (webmonkee) a.k.a Trupundit differently than most gamers because I have done a little “indy game”
Rebecca Jones (CapnHun) development and I work in a development position.
Rob Dunn (DeadDrPhibes)
I’m not saying that gamers lack respect for the game studios,
Todd Burbo (prododgeball)
but many just want to entertain themselves and kick off their shoes after work in front of some
Terry Griffith (bigeks)
SimCity, Halo or Madden. Gamers are amazed at the graphics and eye candy while I’m amazed at
Design & Layout: the amount of polygons, lighting, textures and design. You may find yourself talking about how
Luke Leidal (Broken Design)
fast Need for Speed: Most Wanted is, while I wonder how they managed to cache a whole course
Jean-Phili����
ppe “Lunatik”
���������� Lambert
�������������������
(Lunatikzx) without accessing the DVD. I guess it is just another way of thinking.

This is why in my mind I hold most game designers high on a platform. Designers like Will Wright
Illustrations:
and his simulations or Richard Garriot and his infamous Ultima series. I wish I could watch John
Kirk Manley (BATMANKM)
Carmack develop a game engine or shake hands with Shigeru Miyamoto. All of these brilliant
website: http://www.studiokm.com
minds have helped change the game entertainment industry at its foundation and built a set of
Josh Diffey (Darth Cestual)
childhood memories that are worth a fortune in gold. There are so many great game designers that
Articles, Reviews, Interviews, it would not be possible to mention them all, but every member of this elite group is responsible
for my childhood imaginations and drive to be a developer.
and Content
Derrick Schommer (CodeMonkey) I understand that each one of these important figures is a normal person working a job to feed his or
Eddie Barnes (edd9139) her family. I hope they understand the impact they’ve had on society – and continue to have every day
Fred Giombolini (Derf) we power on our console or computers. Everyone has a figure to look up to; some people love Orson
Jeff McCain (XS Smoke) Welles, Samuel Clemens (“Mark Twain”) or Gene Roddenberry for StarTrek. Each of these figureheads
Jimmy (JollyRoger) has changed an industry and along the way the minds of many. The game industry is no different.
Joey Parker (RogueRedneck)
Kevin (TANK 2old2play) If I had to pick a single game developer that has changed my way of thinking, it would have to be
Mike Serpe (MikeJames) Shigeru Miyamoto. There is not a single game design, in my opinion, that he has created incorrectly
Michael Kanick (MTK005) or that needed improvement. If he releases a game, I would not hesitate to buy it because he has never
NoVARaif disappointed me in any design decision. Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros, Zelda, F-Zero, Star Fox, Mario
Rob Dunn (DeadDrPhibes) Kart, Wave Race, Luigi’s Mansion, Pikmin and the list goes on. Are they the most dazzling games on
the market? No. Not one of them matches the graphics of Call of Duty 2 or Oblivion, but when it comes
Special Thanks To:
down to top notch quality games in all areas of design, Miyamoto impresses me endlessly.
PopCap Games for taking our interview seriously and
giving us great answers to our questions. It is teams like My wife said to me, “why don’t you have an issue featuring some game designers,” and I thought it was a
this that make the game industry fun to work with. great idea. I asked a few writers to do a little research on their favorite designers and this issue features
a few of their conclusions. I hope I can get more research for later issues on this topic as well, because I
Wikipedia.org for providing some facts and figures for
believe it’s an area that few people consider when looking at a game. Next time you sit down in front of
information. It is nice to find a group of great people that
are driving to collect all the facts of the world.
your favorite game, ask yourself, “how did they do it?”

The Legal Stuff

© 2006 2old2play.com and MediaCrumb, LLC. Use of Thanks,
the name of any product without mention of trademark
status should not be construed as a challenge to such
status. Copyrights are owned by the respective com-
panies and are not claimed to be owned or operated by
2old2play.com or MediaCrumb, LLC. MediaCrumb,
Derrick Schommer (CodeMonkey)
LLC is doing business as “2old2play.” Articles are the
opinions of the writers and no author will take claim for [email protected]
any injuries, damages to hardware, or silly methods of
hurting yourself. Be safe.

 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

Gaming Rooms and Rigs

Feedback
Com mu n it y m em ber s show off their ga m i ng setu ps

The couch is facing the TV, if you’re looking for some perspective. You can see parts of my
custom-designed-and-built Sony / JBL / Cerwin Vega / Bose / Toshiba Home Theatre System.
OK, I designed and built it with what was on sale and I had probably been drinkin’… I also re-
ally like to groove on the ‘70s wood paneling.

lotus13, Cincinnati

Here’s my setup in my basement...

52” HD Projection, Yamaha 6.1, home-built bar,
and current arcade project - elevator action.
Gets the job done!

mozzer77, Baltimore, MD

 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 Gaming Rooms and Rigs (Continued)
Feedback

I played on a 42” for a while, didnt like it, es-

pecially for competitive use. So I play in my
office now on 27” widescreen.

Neks0ne

You will have to forgive the quality these were taken at 4PM without a tripod.
The quality gets better at night.
The projector is a SHARP XR11XC. You can get them at COSTCO for about $975.00 after tax.
You will find it as an XR10X commercially. The other # is like a costco and sams club number.

OldGameFreak, Tempe, AZ

 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

2old2type

2old2type Podcast
Au dio Stimulation for ga m er s ov er 25

This episode consists of three personalities:

Doodirock: The man with the master plan to bring news and information to the twenty-five
and older populous. His opinions can sometimes be extreme but his questions are on target
with what a gamer is thinking.
Ebola2: A man with gaming views and opinions that align well with the typical gam-
er. He brings reality back after Doodi and Bliznot fall victim to off topics.
Bliznot: Often sarcastic attitude towards gaming and life in general (and anything
doodirock says). Bliznot is there to break the seriousness with some off the wall topic of
conversation that may make you say “wtf?” and spit your cola all over the keyboard.

Episode 29

T his week covered a little bit on the new site

enhancements coming down the pipe, includ-
ing the infamous Senior Citizen Card (SCC)
system. In the site news they also covered informa-
tion about the new blog features and the final count-
down for the writers contest (should be resolved be-
fore this edition goes to ‘print’).
EA discusses the new Ultima Online re-make and the casters go into
detail about their opinions of the MMO and if they’d leave World of
Warcraft to play it.

Also in the news, Microsoft enables user-created Xbox 360 games. Of

course, doodirock and Bliznot want to make a 2old2play game starring
them as all might ninjas. What does Ebola2 get to be? Listen and find out.

What is this podcast you speak of?! For those of you new to the world
of podcasting or currently own an iPod yet have never subscribed to a
podcast, you are missing a good deal of great information. A podcast is
a radio show, similar to what you would hear on a radio station in your
home town, but typically more focused towards something you actually
want to hear. Many podcasts contain zero commercials and can offer
hours of entertainment.

Like a radio show on your way to work, you will learn the personalities
of the show and begin to relate to their perspectives (or argue against
them). Podcasts such as 2old2type focus on the game entertainment
genre, but you can find podcasts that cover all topics in all languages.
It’s simply amazing, and one of the best features of the Apple iPod.

You can obtain the 2old2type podcasts on www.2old2play.com for free

by clicking on the episodes directly on the homepage, or through iTunes.
If you’re new to podcasts, you can download episode 1 through episode
29 from iTunes and start filling up your iPod’s disk capacity (episodes
usually run about 50-60 minutes).

If you would like to ask the team a question about gaming, you can leave
them a message at (733) 527-2961.

 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 Tank Reports
TANK Reports
A ll the latest n ews from the Fron t Li n es

EA & CRITERION GAMES AMAZON MARKS

ANNOUNCE BURNOUT 5 DOWN THE
EA will publish a new truly next generation version in the Burnout se- 12 MONTH LIVE
ries for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The menu subdividing the GOLD CARD
game play will be gone; every intersection has the possibility of being a The MSRP on the 12 month Xbox Live Gold
Crash Junction! The new Drivers License feature will keep track of how membership is $50.00 and that’s what you’ll
much carnage and destruction you cause; additionally there will be boss find it for in many stores. However, customers
fights when you reach certain levels. This will be built from the ground of Amazon told them that it was too expensive
up for Xbox 360 and PS3. and they listened. Amazon has marked down
http://www.electronicarts.co.uk/news/8904/ the price of the membership card to $36.00 sav-
ing you $14.00 off a big box store or renewing
through your dashboard. Shipping is also free
if you pick Super Saver adding to the value.

ht t p://w w w. a ma zon.com/g p/produc t/B0 0 0B9R I0 0/sr=8-1/

qid=1155581360/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-6239008-8970365?ie=UTF8

SONY HALTS STAND-ALONE

BLU-RAY DRIVES FOR PlayStation 3
Sony has decided to delay plans for releasing their own stand alone Blu-
Ray DVD decks. The Blu-Ray laser diodes are in very short supply right
now and Sony’s trying to get 2-million PS3’s built for launch. This could
Dead Rising be a good marketing move since Blu-Ray decks are $1,000 so people
looking for one of those will see the $600 price of a PS3 as a bargain. For
those people they’ll be getting a cheap DVD deck and a game machine
DEAD RISING FASTEST SELLING
as a bonus. Sony’s marketing machine working at it’s best!
GAME TO DATE
The zombie killing masterpiece sold a copy every five seconds in its first two http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20060828PR206.html
weeks making it the fastest selling Xbox 360 title to date. Unfortunately,
other regions have to wait until September to get their zombie kill’in on. LUMINES Live WILL BE THE MOST
EXPENSIVE XBLA GAME EVER
http://www.xboxic.com/news/1518
Just when you thought $2.00 Oblivion horse armor and $10.00 in
Chromehounds part upgrades was getting a little too much. Along comes
PLATINUM HITS =
Lumines Live to make those seem like a bargain! Lumines Live, to start,
CLASSICS ON XBOX 360 will be the most expensive XBLA game to date. Despite being the most
Microsoft has announced that they will start a expensive game, you don’t even buy the whole game for that money. You
line of games selling for $29.99 called ‘Classics.’ can progress only so far and you’ll be asked for another few bucks to con-
The first two games to be called Classics will tinue. Then when you get to the end of that “expansion,” you’ll be asked
be Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo, both 1st for some more money to continue. If you want to play Lumines Live, I’d
party titles. This should hit store shelves recommend getting it for your PC for $5.00 and send a message to devel-
just in time for holiday shoppers - so peo- opers that we’re not going to tolerate the constant wallet leeching.
ple will compare $29.99 Xbox 360 games
to the $59.99 PlayStation 3 games. This is http://www.gamingbits.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=v
Microsoft’s counter punch I guess. iew&id=1016&Itemid=2

http://2old2play.com/modules.php?name
=News&file=article&sid=474&mode=&or
der=0&thold=0

MICROSOFT SAYS CORE SYSTEM

BUILT FOR $149-$199 PRICE POINT
Microsoft’s Albert Penello has gone on record as saying that the CORE was
designed to reach the price point of as low as $149 over time. Could we see
a price drop of core to $199 for the holiday season? With the new cheaper
processors and cheaper components, there certainly seems like there’s room
to drop the price. It will probably depend on what Wii’s announced price
will be and we’ll probably see CORE drop to compete for holiday dollars.

http://360stuff.blogspot.com/2006/08/xbox-360-eventually-149-199.html Lumines Live

 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

Tank Reports (Continued)

TANK Reports
G4 TV VIDEO WALK-
THROUGH OF
PlayStation 3
USER INTERFACE
G4 produced a short video on one of
the PS3 development units. They run
you though the basic interface and sub
menus so you get an idea of what the
PS3 UI will look like. I’m told it’s very similar to the PSP.

http://crunchgear.com/2006/08/29/ps3-retail-unit-porn/

Playstation 3 PROCESSING POWER

CUT BY 50MHZ
The PS3’s CELL processor was suppose to run at 550mhz and the memory
was suppose to run at 700mhz. Rumor has it that the yields on the CELL pro-
cessor are pretty bad right now (which is typical for brand new processors).
Processors that don’t run at 550mhz or better typically wouldn’t make the cut
and are essentially not usable in the PS3. So by dropping the spec to 500mhz,
many more processors can pass the mark reducing waste. Since Sony’s trying to
get 2-million units made for launch, they need all the processors they can get.
Cell Processor

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33995

PlayStation 3 TO LAUNCH
WITH 700,000
UNITS PER TERRITORY
A story broke a few weeks ago about the launch numbers Sony
will have on the PS3. They will launch three territories at the
same time with 2-million units total, so around 700,000 per ter-
ritory. It’s not known what the split between the two SKU’s will
be. However, some analysts are saying that number could be
cut in half due to component shortages. So a launch that looks
better than the Xbox 360’s 500,000 suddenly becomes worse
to 360,000. Only time will tell as Sony ramps up production
but Sony is saying they have capacity to make 2-million units a
month and expects to deliver 4-million by the end of the year.

ht t p://w w w.compute ra ndv ide og a me s .com/a r t icle .

php?id=144796

SPORE MAY COME TO

NINTENDO DS
Will Right is evaluating the DS and if he can get SPORE
to work on it. He really likes the dual screens and the touch
sensitivity and thinks he can work with it.

http://www.nintendorevolution.ca/08202006/08/
nintendo_ds_preview_spore

 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 Game Studio Grand Tour
You Blogged This!
You Blogge d Th is: Sou n d off lik e you’v e got a pa ir

I f there was a game developer studio that you Tiburon Studios (aka the EA studio that produces Madden). I
could tour and meet the makers, ask questions chose them because I hate traveling and they are in my backyard
and socialize with… what developer would it be? - Orlando. Plus, I wouldn’t mind bitch-slapping Madden’s head
producer for introducing a yearly gimmick to the franchise instead
Bungie. I’d shave my head beforehand, gank Frankie and take his job. of streamlining the game play.
Plus, you know, screen shots of Halo 3…
KingDrewsky,
Drost, Stillwater, OK Deland, FL
I hate tours and if i’m touring anything it’s the Playboy Mansion.

Count-Fartula

For me, I’d have to say Blizzard. I’d love to sit down and meet the
makers of the biggest MMORPG in history and ask them “How do
you do it? How do you keep it all running?” and see what history
these people have that culminated to the historical WoW craze. Playboy Mansion
CodeMonkey, New Hampshire
Nintendo.

SirPoonga, WI
Bungie.

GIJoeBob
I would say Bungie as well.

budman24, Lynn, MA
I’m too lazy to look it up right now,
but I’d like to visit whoever devel-
oped Big Mutha Truckers 2 and beat
the snot out of them for represent-
World of Warcraft ing everything that’s wrong with the
game industry.
I would like to visit… Bungie. At any point
[Editors note: Eutechnyx developed
in the company’s history, from Alex’s base-
Big Mutha Truckers 2 and it was re-
ment when he was an MS employee, to
leased by THQ.]
there new digs, which are supposedly a
former hardware store. If it was really old jtgjr007,
time stuff, then I would say Infocom, or
Microprose way back in the day.
Nebraska
Smithcraft,
Seattle, WA

10 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

Confessions of an Addict…

Weekend Rentals
I’m stuck i n azeroth!
By XSSmoke

W here to begin? Let’s start with the fact And there you have it. The game is of course World of Warcraft and
that I missed last month’s article (Week- I am just another lost soul among millions. Is it the game’s fault or
end Rentals) pretty much due to my insa- my own? Well of course, it’s not the games fault; I am not going to
blame a game for my playing habits. I could, but that would honestly
tiable appetite for a game I had never even looked at just be a silly thing to do. Truly, the fault lies with my
before. Let’s take a look at the facts in the begin- “friend” who bought me the game and just told
ning stages of my soul being consumed… me to, “try it.” It must completely be his fault,
1) Imagine 120 hours of your life put into said so for all those who knew me before the addic-
game over the first eleven days of playing it. tion, blame him.

2) I found myself crashing out for bed around 3-4 am It’s not as if I didn’t know it was going to happen,
every night, while not highly concerned with the though. I have been trying to avoid this game, always
fact I get up at 7:30 am each day for work. knowing the effects it would no doubt have upon my
poor defenseless body. However, I fell into the age old
3) Not even during my Halo 2 fanboy peak had I ever got up trap of peer pressure and the natural curiosity of the un-
before work to squeeze in some playing time. known. A taste is all it took and I was gone. The first
night was like a blur and I am not even sure where I
4) When I slept, it took all of 2 days for the dreams woke up. All I know is the night before was a whir
to start. of colors and sounds unlike any I had experienced.
It wasn’t a quick fix; the effects lasted for hours and
5) I was supposed to write an article last month… I can
hours on end. By the time the weekend was done, I had
barely remember what month last month was.
played for 36 of the 48 hours that were available to me.
6) I used to play Halo 2 on my PC every day. I have It felt like I had taken only a sip from the Golden Goblet
played it twice in two months now. Possibly because which held the Elixir of the Gods…
I couldn’t get to my computer.
I can see why so many people on the outside hate this
7) There is a sun? game. If you knew exactly what it did to people then
you do not hate it enough. There are some of you that are
8) I have friends who get together every weekend. Or I not into RPG games and it is those that may not truly be
did anyway… maybe I still do. I’m not sure. It could hooked and are safe from its evil trappings. Play your foot-
just be the voices in my head. ball games and shooters and you will live knowing that you are
partaking in the “safe” games. However, if you ingest this cookie of
desire and are at all in touch with the life of a fantasy role, then be
warned, you may need to have therapy and attend anonymous meet-
ings later on.

The game is WoW. Is it a game or an addiction?. When they told me not to

forget to eat, I thought it was just a silly joke and played it off as nothing.
I am pretty sure my caretaker, who shall be called “Ice,” does manage to
shove food into me at certain intervals. I owe a lot to this strong willed
woman. She puts up with an addiction that really isn’t my doing.

Oh, one more thing… If you want to find me, my name in WoW is Xor-
lin, and I can be found on the realm “Agamaggan,” somewhere between
the Ironforge auction house and the dangerous perils of the Desolace
outback. If you come looking for me, be wary of the evil Horde that lurk
around the corners just waiting to attack unsuspecting Alliance.

I must return and uphold the honor of my dwarven brethren now. I

shall, however, leave you with a closing statement… Real life just
takes away from WoW time.

11 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 Madden 07
Reviews
I n-Depth ga m e r ev i ew
By MTK005

B
y now, I’m sure most Those of you who have played MVP Baseball with its HoF system
gamers know all will understand this system a little bit better. The problem, though,
about John Mad- is that once you unlock these guys, they’re in your roster. And there
is no option, as in MVP Baseball, to not allow these players into your
den, his game, and the franchise rosters. So, any crappy team could pick up Lynn Swan, for
history of one of the most example, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
successful game series of
all time. Review or not, Other than those items, I haven’t found anything terribly new or in-
most football fans pre-or- teresting here. EA has definitely kicked up the realism however; when
der this game every year. If I played the Colts in Week 1 (with my beloved Giants), Peyton Man-
you show up at midnight to ning audibled something (or more than once) on virtually every play.
your local GameStop the night Superstar Mode
it’s released (as I did), you’re likely to Superstar mode is back this year after being out in 06 and not on the list
see 40-50 (or more) people hanging out, waiting to for this year. EA decided that it could cram this into the 360 version,
get their copy, go home, play for hours and roll into and it seems to be the biggest reason for getting this game.
work or school after 3 hours of sleep.
In this mode, you play as the player you create, and only as him. If you’re
I have a confession to make before I start. My name is MTK and a RB, you run your plays and you block or roll out for passes. You can
I’m a self ascribed EA fanboy. I’ve only ever owned two 2K Sports assume control of the defense, but only if you choose to. Otherwise, you
games and have always bought EA every year. I never owned a 2K sit the bench and watch.
football game, but I’ve heard a lot, since 2K fanboys are quite loud
with their opinions. And if you think that may be difficult, you have to realize that, unlike
previous years, you cannot just adjust your created player numerically,
Regardless of my fanboy status, I’m going to try and give the most fair making yourself perfect in every facet of the game. To be good, you have
and honest review I possibly can. I picked this game up at 12:16 am on to master the Mini Games, which takes some time.
8/22/06, and here is my “I’ve owned this game for 60 hours” review.

Franchise Mode
Franchise mode has been around a long time, and it’s become such
a normal part of the game that it’s hard to get in any changes. This
year, EA tried a few tweaks for the 360, and I’m still not sure how I
feel about them. The easy tweaks to describe come from a lot of the
in-game play, whether it is the pre-game entrances for each team or
the cool videos of your team walking up to the line for the next play.
The more interesting ones are a sliding bar for each player’s happiness
and the presence of Hall of Fame players in your franchise. The easy
one to discuss is the happy-scale, since it’s fairly intuitive. This is one
step further from EA’s previous meters – instead of having to go to the
management screen for the specific player, you can see a little bar un-
der the player icon on your roster and in some menus you can see what
he desires most: a good team, playing time, or money, etc. This helps Another side note/bug issue I noticed in this mode – don’t try and do
you keep your team morale up, and we all know that a happy team is something before it has it on your schedule. With my first Superstar
more likely to be successful. (whom I had to restart from the beginning), I noticed in the menu that
you can go to the agent list before the calendar prompts you to get one.
The Hall of Famers (HoF) are a different story. EA uses a system I did so and hired an agent two days early. When it hit the agent sign-
called the “Madden Gamer Level” (which I’ll explain later) to track ing day on my calendar, I went to the Agent list from the calendar and
your progress through the game and unlock items for you, much while I could hire and fire agents as many times as I want, somehow me
as the Madden Points did in the past. When you attain a higher having one already screwed up the game and I was stuck in that menu
Madden Gamer Level (MGL), you automatically unlock more HoF until I went back to Dashboard and restarted the game, which as you
players, instead of buying those Madden Cards from previous years. can imagine was very annoying.

12 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

Madden 07 (Continued)

Reviews
This mode can be the most rewarding, however, since you can play your- Madden Gamer Level
self right into the Hall of Fame. The offspring of the Madden points is EA’s new way of letting you
track your progress and skill level and keep you playing the game. The
Mini Games system is akin to Halo’s level design (for example, I’m now a 4, whereas
As I mentioned before, the mini-games are not something you can ex- Stryker is a 3) and also helps in getting you matches online where you
pect to excel at right out of the box. Everyone does both the 40 yard won’t get pwned by some crazy Timmy. Unlike Halo, however, it’s not
dash and the bench press, and then you get a role-specific mini game. based on your performance online, just on how often and well you play
For example, RBs and LBs get a running/run stopping game while QBs/ the overall game. There are achievements associated with attaining
Receivers/DBs get a passing/receiving game. Practice makes perfect, so different levels, and you also unlock the Hall of Fame players.
I wouldn’t try to create a player for your Franchise or Superstar mode
until you’ve mastered these techniques.

Online
For a lot of us at 2old2play, the online portion makes the game.
That’s why a Chromehounds is so successful versus a deeper, better
Single Player game like Prey. So to test this mode and put my “elite
Madden skills” to the test, I enlisted my clan mate Stryker in an
online throw down. We had both the game running and a 360 chat
connection going the whole time, and there was rarely any notice-
able lag. The only lag was during the video sequences. However, I do
know others have had problems with lag.

UI (User Interface)
This is one of my biggest bones of contention with this game, and it
is semi-frustrating. Anyone who has played NCAA 07 will know the
UI is very similar with scrolling menus as opposed to entering a spe-
cific mode. Additionally, if you hit “B” enough times you’ll end up back
where you were before you hit “B”, not at a main menu. It’s harder to
explain than it is to try.

The problem, however, is that with NCAA it works, whereas Madden

is less intuitive. NCAA gave you some visual background clues as to
where you are in the menus, whereas my Madden background has never
changed from my team specific one. It doesn’t even rotate players; it’s
just Jeremy Shockey, all the time. This system makes it very hard to find
what you are looking for some times, as it’s not a very intuitive system.

Additionally, the menu skips somewhat, as if the code is too clunky

I’m not big on playing sporting games online, but I had a blast trash for the 360 to process. It’s hard to believe that EA could screw
talking and analyzing plays while taking my G-Men to a 21-7 victory. this up to make a “next-gen” machine have menu blips like an old
If you like playing real folks, this is the mode for you. Also, beware of Xbox, but it did. I’ve seen much more intensive games not have
your friends list, as someone else who owns the game can challenge this problem (like Chromehounds) so I’m sure this is just EA’s bad
you in your franchise and ruin your perfect season. programming at work.

13 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 Madden 07 (Continued)
Reviews
Other Notes
This is my place to vent on other items I found wrong or weird with this
game that I cannot fit into other sections. I’ll avoid discussing the bugs
that have already been pointed out (Fatigue) and get on to my own issues.

First off, there is no menu function to download the most recent roster update.
EA apparently decides to prompt you on this whenever they feel like after you’ve
signed into online mode. I was almost into my online game with Stryker before
it told me (not asked me) that I had to download an online roster.

Secondly, if you’ve made a created player and saved your roster but decide to
discard it, you can delete that saved roster, but it’s hard to reset your rosters
to the disc default. Stryker had a default roster saved to his 360 that he could
load, mine did not. There was no “hit X to load default rosters” prompt or controls are clunky (hit RT to bring up the scroll bar, the hit the stick to the
anything so I again had to go back to the dashboard to clear everything. right while holding RT to go to the other side, etc). Yet another obstacle to
getting the Madden player to a point where they are happy with the realism.
Third, no matter what mode you play, the in-game announcer is not John
Madden. It’s some radio guy, and he’s not nearly as
good. Next year, give me Al Michaels Please. To be good, you have to
Finally, when I went to make the rosters ac- master the Mini Games,
which takes some time.
curate (Ty Law to the Chiefs, Junior Seau to
the Pats, etc) I found that
even in roster edit mode
(i.e. not signed into a Verdict
franchise or superstar) Well, if you’ve made it this far I have to give you credit, since this is longer
it was a pain to get guys than I expected. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d have to give this game a 7.5.
to their correct team,
since some of the menu Overall, it’s the same old Madden, but with upgraded graphics. It’s
still a lot of fun when you actually get into the game, which is a big
chunk of how you have to evaluate this. EA loses points on the
announcer, but watching Peyton audible 4 million times made
up for it. The bugs, glitches and menus are an issue, but it’s
only between games, so it’s easily overcome.

To end this, I’ll go back to where I started and my self-de-

termined mission to be fair and honest. I feel that, had EA
not gotten the exclusive license, this game would be a lot
better. I’m not saying I’d be buying NFL 2K7 right now, but
competition makes everyone up their game and skills, which leads
to a better end-product for consumers.

Also, I’d still have MLB players in the MVP series since 2K wouldn’t be
making a crappy baseball game, but that’s a story for another day.

14 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

Talismania by PopCap Games

Reviews
Do you fa ncy your self a gr eek legen d?
By CodeMonkey

T alismania is a puzzle game jointly developed

by RocketJump Games and PopCap Games,
and published by GameHouse. It was released
on August 3rd, 2006. In the game, you play King Mi-
das, who has accidentally transformed his daughter,
The GamePlay
The game play is simple yet intriguing enough to keep you addicted.
Each level pits you in a hexagonal grid maze of tiles that you can spin
clockwise by right-clicking or counter-clockwise by left-clicking. Every
tile has two or more tunnel-like pathways to guide a beam of light from
one talisman to another. You are given one or more pairs of talismans
Marygold, into a golden statue with the magical Mi- which you must connect through this beam of light.
das Touch. The Greek god Zeus will agree to reverse
her transformation if Midas uses magical talismans to Once you spin the tiles so the beams of light link you will receive a num-
create money to spend on others instead of himself, to ber of coins for each tile between the two talismans.
atone for his sins of greed. To help him with this task,
The coins you collect will be made of bronze, silver, or gold. The goal is
Zeus has presented Midas with a team of builders, so to collect as much money as possible throughout the level. Once you link
that he can rebuild various buildings and landmarks two talismans all the tiles that were part of the link are converted into
across the kingdom. coins and new ones drop down (in a fashion similar to Hexic).
Talismania is the newest arrival from PopCap Games. This puz- The coins you collect help Midas build monuments, temples and other
zle game is slightly more addictive than any other game PopCap architecture to complete Zeus’s task. As you collect coins, your Talisman
has in its library to date. I would gather that it is more addictive Meter will rise. This meter is
and fun than Tetris was fif- right at the top of the level in
teen years ago. Talismania the letters of TALISMAN.
is like a good Merlot, sim- They move from bronze to sil-
ple in f lavor but presents a ver and finally to gold as you
strong satisfaction. build paths. Watch out, how-
After receiving the press re- ever, because the meter drains
lease from PopCap Games while you’re building paths,
that announced this new arriv- so it is in your best interest to
al, I went out and downloaded build them fast. When you hit
the demo to give it a try. The silver or gold, the next talis-
game contained some natural man set will be made of that
draw to me that I could not respective material. The gold
describe. It might be the na- talismans (shaped like lions)
ture of puzzle games and their will convert the tiles into gold
ability to quickly hook you coins, the silver (unicorns) into
like a fish to a worm. A few silver coins, and bronze (owls)
days later, I had finished the into the most basic coin.
main story mode of the game A Talisman master will work
and sat back with a satisfied hard to complete the tasks
look on my face, “I beat it.” quickly in order to keep gold
talismans on the board and score the highest points by bringing in the
The Modes most gold coins. Once you’ve filled your gold scale to its maximum goal
There are two modes to Talismania: Story Mode and Hero Mode.
(written under the scale) you will defeat the level.
It is clear from the start that Hero Mode is locked, so you must
complete some of the Story Mode before unlocking it. The two There are five levels in each chapter of the story and a total of
modes share most of the same style except Hero Mode is a timed eight chapters.
puzzle whereas Story Mode is not. You must finish the puzzle
before time runs out – the more time you have the more points As you can see by my completed map I have all the chapters fi-
you earn. This is unlike Story Mode, where you have all the time nalized, but not all of the structures are built with gold! That is
in the world to finish a puzzle and have the opportunity to perfect because I am not yet talented enough to receive large amounts of
your techniques. gold talismans for each chapter. Each time you build a part of the

15 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 Talismania by PopCap Games (Continued)
Reviews
required architecture, it uses your money to buy the most expen- The last ramp of difficulty arrives when you see your first ani-
sive material. If you notice in the “Colossus” chapter I managed mated tile. This little tile spins around in a circle and you can
to make a silver statue except for the right arm – that sucker is select a position for it by right or left clicking but, after a few sec-
gold! Unfortunately, I was unable to build a full gold statue due onds, it will begin moving again. If you plan to use them in your
to lack of skill. path you must do it quickly or continue to go back and join them
when they re-animate. However, you gain more points
for using these tricky tiles.

Talismania mode
A puzzle game isn’t complete without many bonus
opportunities. As you’re completing levels and mak-
ing really skillful moves, you gain one or more stars.
These stars can be used to go into Talismania Mode
for a number of seconds (depending on the total stars
you have accrued). Once in this mode you quickly
click the tiles on the hexagonal maze and they will
turn instantly into coins as if you linked two talis-
mans. If you can click all the tiles, you will gain a
large quantity of coins (perhaps enough to complete
the level without further work).

In later levels, I found this to be extremely important

for destroying a number of annoying monster tiles.
When I was in a situation where I had no easy paths
to destroy all the monsters and I had five monster
tiles on my screen in a single turn, the fastest way to
destroy them was to enter Talismania Mode and tar-
You cannot really lose in Story Mode, but you may not complete the get them for destruction (and coins). However, since this mode
story with all gold monuments. You are not able to go back and redo requires you to build up more stars by doing fantastic maneuvers
the chapters without starting a fresh game, so do it perfectly the first it should only be used in times of desperation or if you know you
time or deal with the consequences – this is part of the challenge and will be able to complete the level quickly after using it.
replayability factor. Didn’t do it perfect? Start over!
BoNUS chest
The Challenge The bonus chest, usually sitting beside Midas in the far-right cor-
Talismania’s Story Mode starts out fairly tame. Initially you believe ner, is initially locked. To open the chest you must complete the
it’s a “simple puzzle game” until you see your first monster. The entire level in a specific number of turns determined by the number
game contains a host of mythological monster tiles that will appear on the chest. This is your incentive to build long pathways in short
as the levels increase in difficulty. Any number of monster tiles time. A turn is initiated when you link two talismans together.
can be on a puzzle and the more you find the harder
the game becomes. You may find yourself up against
a Medusa tile where she will randomly turn your tiles
into stone; useless for gathering coins, if you do not
cross her path with the talisman beam (after all, she’s a
tile like all others).

You cannot rotate monster tiles and this adds an in-

creased level of difficulty. They are static tiles, some
which will move on their own after you complete a
talisman link and do not include them. Each time you
complete a link and you do not include a monster it will
perform its own specific action. For example, a Mino-
taur tile rips through your tiles, making them useless for
coins, by charging in a straight line in a random direc-
tion. The Acid Slime spits acid on your coin scale and
eats away a few coins. A red Acid Slime will chew away
bonus stars, a Siren drains your Talisman Meter and a
Kraken chews on a percentage of coins you just earned
by completing the link (and not including him).

To make matters worse, an Epic Monster is like all other

monsters but requires two turns to kill. That means you’re going to If you receive the bonus chest, you will be handed a large stack of ad-
take a penalty in most situations unless you are fast and can destroy ditional coins at the end of the level. These coins are valuable for those
them with another pair of talismans on the board (or jumping into trying to build completely gold monuments.
Talismania Mode - see below).

16 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

Talismania by PopCap Games (Continued)

Reviews
Special Tiles The Music Score
Talismania does not come with all curses and monsters. Some tiles The music, by Somatone Productions, was perfect for this game.
that show up are there to help you. The Bonus Tile gives you a five- These folks also did the music for Metal of Honor on the PlayStation
coin bonus if you complete a 2 along with a few Disney
link with this tile in your path. games and Indie games. The
The Power Tile fires a lighten- audio has almost an Egyptian
ing bolt (from Zeus) down in a rhythm mixed with a new aged
straight line and all tiles in its techno which is best summed
path become coins (including up by one word: awesome.
monster tiles). There is a Freeze
Tile which will freeze the turn The music is clear and profes-
counter on the Bonus Chest so sional. This is the type of audio
that you have a few free turns to rhythm that one could listen to
work with. in their car on the commute to
work. The sound is f luid, re-
There are two other tiles that laxing and contains an addic-
must be mentioned: the Combo tive beat. Those with good bass
Tile, and Pandora Tile. The boxes and sound systems will
Combo Tile is a tile that has four appreciate the musical score.
branches and you must link four
beams into the tile. The beams The Eye Candy
must all be the same talisman The graphics remind me of
type: bronze, silver, or gold. If Zuma on the Xbox 360 with a bit
you can link all four beams into more of a cartoon aspect. The
one of these tiles, you get a five- story and characters are defi-
star bonus and all the talismans nitely set in a Super Deformed
and paths utilized are turned anime style world. The graph-
into coins. The downfall is that it ics are as clear and professional
takes some time to complete and as the sound quality but are not
your Talisman Meter will prob- mind-boggling next-generation
ably suffer for your patience. graphics that you’d see in Call
of Duty 2 or Madden 07. They are built perfectly for the game at-
The Pandora Tile can be good or bad (isn’t that always the way mosphere and make you feel like you got your $19.95 worth.
with her?) It has eight branch pathways running through it and is
easy to incorporate into a path, High Score
sometimes unavoidable. Once The score is everything. You
you turn it into a coin, it is re- want to have the best score in
placed by a random bonus tile your neighborhood and a puzzle
or monster tile. Good luck. game is about high scoring. The
score is determined by many in-
The Story game factors such as the amount
Ok, hold your breath for a of money you gain, how fast you
minute… you may play this gain your coin, how many gold
game and learn a bit about coins you have, the amount of
history. I apologize now to bonus chests (which is coin), a
those gamers that want mind- few mid-level mini-games for
less game entertainment. more points, etc.
When you complete certain
structures or statues, you are To list out all the ways that you
given facts about mythological can increase the score would be a
history. These are “fun facts” bit more in-depth than required
that you probably should have for this review. Just know that,
taken notes on in sixth grade. like most puzzle games, it’s all
about gaining the best score and
The game does indeed have a practicing to utilize all situations
story but I must admit… I liked for the highest scoring actions.
the puzzles too much to pay
close attention to it. I do know HOw could
that each chapter had a cartoon- it be better?
like scroll that had words and I am a big fan of manuals and
pictures. I just clicked “OK” and installable documentation.
moved to the next chapter. I apologize up front to the story designer This game comes with a “View Readme,” which covers credits,
and promise to read it if the story comes out in hardcover. legal information, and other such text. It also comes with a link

17 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 Talismania by PopCap Games (Continued)
Reviews
to PopCap Games’ website but I was unable to find any real
documentation for the game. The best documentation on the
web is the Talismania wikipedia entry.

The game contains tips as you’re playing to help you learn, but I have
a bad habit of clicking “ok” and moving on. I like to read documenta-
tion before or after I play a bit – not during the game. Therefore, it
would be nice to have a concrete set of rules for the game outside of
the in-game tips.

The high scores are not posted on the Internet. I believe the
game would contain a larger amount of challenge had the scores
been competitive across the world.

Talismania is an enjoyable
game for a twenty
dollar bill. I would love to
see this game show up on
Xbox Live Marketplace in
the future.
Final Wrapup
Talismania is an enjoyable game for a twenty-dollar bill. I believe
you will gain much more enjoyment from this game than using
your USD $19.95 to see a movie with a bag of Sour Patch Kids
and a Root Beer. The game mechanics will be learned in a matter
of minutes but the game can take weeks to master. There are so
many small details that increase your points, coins and comple-
tion speed that you just won’t learn it overnight.

Having defeated Story Mode I thought I would be done and

ready to put the game down. This is not a true statement at all.
Going back and attempting to build more gold structures is claw-
ing at me and I’ve just barely touched Hero mode. I suggest you
download the demo from PopCap Games and see for yourself.
The value of $19.95 is worthwhile. I would love to see this game
show up on Xbox Live Marketplace in the future.

Rating: BUY

18 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

War Rock – K2 Network

Reviews
R ev i ew of Wa r Rock pu blic beta
By Edd9139

F or players new to the FPS world, this modern Gameplay 9.5/10: War Rock is similar to both Counter Strike and
tactical shooter’s action-packed gameplay has Battlefield 2, although unique in such a way, which makes every game
been structured with an easy learning curve. For different. There are currently three map sizes at the moment. Mis-
sion mode maps, which are small scale maps for small arms combat
the expert FPS fans, variety of game-play -- from small on which you either have to plant or defuse bombs. K2 Network is
squad level close quarters combat to medium-sized ur- planning to introduce more mission modes in the future. Next up is
ban conflicts to huge multi-squad and vehicle operations infantry combat with maps slightly larger, in which a few vehicles are
– provides deep gameplay. K2 Network’s Free2Play™ added to gameplay and there are a few flags to capture. Finally, there is
model allows players to have full access to the game free. vehicle combat, which is large scale maps designed for vehicle and air
Fans that crave an enhanced experience can use in-game combat, with a large number of flags to capture. Mission mode allows
money earned during play or real world cash to access for up to 16 players, infantry combat maps allow for up to 24 play-
increased player abilities, special weapons and other ers, while vehicle combat maps offer play for up to 32 players. Mission
benefits. An efficient engine allows War Rock to supply mode is played in rounds, where the first team to win a set number of
high-quality visual details and fast frame-rates without rounds wins, while infantry and vehicle maps are both won by captur-
the need for the latest, most expensive computers. ing a set numbered of flags.

– K2 Network There are five soldier classes for you to play, and you can change what
class you are playing as soon as you have died. The default sidearm
weapon for all classes is a Colt handgun, while the default primary
War Rock is a FPS PC game by K2 Network, which has just gone into
weapon varies. The engineer repairs vehicles and aeroplanes, etc, al-
public beta testing. War Rock is entirely free at the moment, although
though is useless in mission mode maps where there is nothing to
a commercial version will also be available soon. PC, FPS and FREE,
repair. An engineer carries a sidearm gun, primary gun and spanner.
need I say anymore? War Rock is currently in public beta testing before
The medic carries a hand gun and primary gun. The medic also has
its commercial release, although it has been confirmed that the game
the additional bonus of 10 medic kits which they can use to either
will always remain free to play, with the option to purchase a fifth weap-
partly raise their own or a teammates health. A scout (sniper) is con-
on slot and more weapons and features.
sidered the best class by the more skilled group of players. The scout
Why all the hype about War Rock? For me it’s the fact that War Rock can carries a secondary gun, two hand grenades and the sniping rif le,
be played casually and you can still be good at it. Unlike other FPS shooters with the M24 being the default weapon for a scout. The combat-
where, the more you play, the more skilled you become, the more you own. ant class is easily the most popular class in the game, mainly for the
In War Rock, you still become more skilled the longer you play, although it fact that this class can use what some would consider more powerful
doesn’t mean you’ll always own newer players or players which play less. weapons (some weapons are restricted to certain classes). A combat-
ant carries a sidearm gun, primary gun and two hand grenades. The
fifth and final class available in War Rock is the heavy weapons unit,
a player who chooses this class carries a sidearm gun, four TMA
mines, and a rocket launcher, with the default being the PZF. Each
class has its advantages, with the medic or combatant class being
best suited for new players, while the scout or heavy weapons class is
more suited to experienced players.

Better weapons can be purchased from the item shop using the in game
currency Dinars. Dinars are earned whenever a match is played, and the
better you did, the more Dinars you will receive. Whenever you level
up a level, you receive 5000 Dinars. Weapons are leased from the item
shop for 3, 7, 15 or 30 days, costing from 1200 Dinars for a Desert Eagle
hand gun for three days, up to 19000 Dinars for the RPG7 for 30 days.
When the time the weapon was leased for is up, the weapon is returned
to the item shop. This adds greatly to gameplay and the replay value of
War Rock, as to have more powerful weapons, you need more Dinars,
which are largely gained by leveling up. The more you play, the harder it
is to level up and the harder it becomes to earn Dinars.

19 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 War Rock (Continued)
Reviews
for experienced players. Ranking and leveling up
a big factor, with there currently being 100 pos-
sible ranks, ranging from a Private Second Class
to a General. To obtain better weapons, you have
to play more, and the more you play, the harder
it becomes to get enough Dinars for that desired
weapon. To me, War Rock is a casual gamer’s
game, one that can just be picked up and played.

Counter Strike has always been a favourite at a

LAN party, although War Rock will be soon be
ready to take over. War Rock is a great game for a
LAN, with gameplay easy to master for first time
players, and still fun for more skilled and existing
players. Although clans and clan-wars are cur-
rently disabled, they will be available for explosive
action in the not too distant future.

Overall War Rock is a neat game, considering its

still in beta testing and is free to play. What it lacks
in graphics, it makes up for in gameplay. This is
defiantly one game I will be buying when released,
just to see the new ‘pay to play’ features K2 net-
work come up with. Its no surprise War Rock is
More mission modes and ways to play in mission mode would cer- often compared to as “the free Battlefield 2.”
tainly make gameplay on small scale maps more interesting.
Overall 8.5/10
Graphics 8/10: The graphics for this game are surprisingly good, al-
though I found little difference between the low graphics settings and http://War Rock.net/
high graphics settings, apart from the muzzle
flash on weapons. The ‘rag doll’ effects when
dying are great, although sometimes inaccu-
rate. For example, where a soldier breaks all
their bones and is thrown across a road after
being shot in the head. The graphics are crisp,
although not stunning, like other FPS games.
Consider that War Rock is still in beta though
and has a great development team behind it…

Sounds 6/10: This is one aspect of the game

which is not so developed yet. Why weapon
sounds and sound effects are decent enough, the
Korean voiceover’s are of below average quality.
Hearing ‘medic’ and the same voice over’s repeat-
ed over and over in a round is nearly enough to
make any player mad. Although voiceover’s were
recently updated in a patch, and may change
again before the final commercial release.

Performance 8/10: The game does not need

a decent computer to run. It will even run
reasonably well on an old P3, all thanks to
the Jindo 3D engine, which supports play on
older computers. Servers for the English War
Rock are currently located in West USA, Minimum System Requirements: Recommended System:
East USA, England, Germany and Spain.
Lag is not an issue for me, even with slower Pentium 3, 800 MHz Pentium 4, 2000 MHZ
internet, although a very small minority of
players report problems with lag. 512 MB RAM 512 MB RAM

Replay Value 10/10: Every game is different Radeon 8500LE, Geforce MX400 or better FX5700 or ATI 9200
with every conflict being unpredictable. The
Windows ME, 2000 or XP. Windows 2000 or XP
simplicity of the game keeps one entertained
for hours, although there’s still plenty more 800 MB Storage 800 MB Storage

20 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

WAR ROCK Interview

Interview
Q&A Session w ith the Producer, M att Norton

W e were lucky enough to catch up with Matt Dream Execution, Ltd., is the South Korean-based developer of War
Norton, the producer of War Rock, who was Rock. It took over two years to create the Jindo engine underlying the
more than happy to answer our questions… War Rock game code and a year longer to create the game. War Rock
has actually been in commercial release in South Korea for over a year
War Rock will be a free release - totally free. How do you feel you now, with over 3-million registered users.
will become profitable with future releases and patches if you hand
the game away for free? Why would someone purchase the commer- Dream Execution has made special effort to make the game quick mov-
cial game over its free counterpart? ing and easy for even novice players to get involved in. An additional
feature of War Rock is that the Jindo engine is extremely efficient. War
War Rock will always be free to download and Free2Play™. Even after Rock’s minimum system requirements are only a PIII 800 MHz (or
commercial release, players will be able to play for free, and rise to the equivalent) and its recommended system spec is a PIV 2.0 GHz.
highest ranks, without ever paying us a penny.
While the game is extremely successful in South Korea, Western players have
We believe that if you enjoy the game and play it for ten, twenty, thirty slightly different priorities and expectations than Korean players do, so we’ve
hours a week (or more) that we can offer things that our players will find spent most of our Beta-test time fine-tuning War Rock for Western players.
useful enough to pay for.
Do you foresee any additional content being made
In War Rock free players play alongside the Pre- available once War Rock ships a final commercial
mium players - there is no need to separate service release? Will you develop a sequel or publish pur-
for paying vs. non-paying players since both are chasable, downloadable content to your audience?
equally competitive.
Our schedule for War Rock includes monthly con-
During the course of the game players can earn tent releases. This new content will be accessible
in-game money (called Dinars) as a result of their by all players free of charge.
victories, and even hard-fought defeats. Players
can choose to spend their Dinar on things like ad- In addition to the normal content releases, a couple
ditional weapons, the ability to carry a wider vari- of times a year we will be releasing larger packages
ety of weapons onto the battlefield, healing packs, of updates that will include more game modes,
and the like. updates on the background story, as well as new
maps, weapons, and vehicles.
We will be selling additional Dinars to players if they would like to get
a wider variety of game-enhancements than they could afford through How do you see War Rock unique and different from other FPS?
their battlefield exploits alone. War Rock is different in a few key ways. First, at K2 Network we see
These packages of Dinar will include additional benefits like: the ability online games not so much as a product industry (where you put a box
to create game-rooms with more customized features (game duration, on a shelf) but rather, as a service industry. As part of that belief, we feel
game type, password restricted, etc.), first access to new maps, log-in that the game belongs to the players not us.
preference on crowded servers, access to some Premium-only game- Since we’re already scheduled and set up to provide monthly releases
events, and an assortment of other features. of new content, it makes sense to allow the player-community to define
Non-premium players will still be able to join any of the games and they that content by telling us what they want next.
will be able to create games with standard preferences. We read the forums and respond to users, but we also actively solicit in-
The important thing is that players will never be able to buy their way to formation on the game from our top players and clans. For example, we
the top ranks. No matter how much or how little a player spends, access recently ran a poll so the players could tell us which weapon they wanted
to more advanced and specialized weapons and other gear will be restricted us to add to the game next.
by character rank - with the higher ranking characters having access to I think the most important and most exciting difference for War Rock as an
the cooler military technology (much as in real-life, the more experienced FPS, is that we can create a game in which the content is very player driven.
troops tend to get some of the more specialized equipment).
For example, some of our clans have set up races on one of the maps, us-
How long was the development cycle for War Rock, and did you find ing 6-wheel trucks and motorcycles. We think that’s a great idea and are
any huge hurdles and challenges while designing the product? planning to create some race maps to support that.

21 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 WAR ROCK Interview (Continued)
Interview
Other players came up with the idea to allow for Asymmetric combat.
As you know, this refers to situations very much in the news today, in
which you have a smaller group of well armed soldiers against a great
number of opponents equipped only with AK-47s. It sounds like a great
idea so we’re slating it for production.

Another popular request from our players is to allow character customization.

We’re currently working to let players show their clan symbols as unit-patches
on their character uniforms, and even to enable clans to customize their uni-
forms (with, say a red-beret for all of your clan members in the game).

We let the players decide the course of the game, and I think that’s
something very unique in online games.

Will new content released after the commercial release be exclusively

for players who purchase the commercial version? If so, do you think
this will cause balance issues between players who bought the game
and players who play for free?

There will be no required purchase as part of the commercial release.

When the game goes to commercial release that merely means that we Have you found your open beta to be a success? Are gamers enthusi-
will start allowing players to purchase some enhancements, but the astic about having access to a game in its early stages and feel “part”
framework of the game will not change. of the quality control for the product?
Non-premium players will not be able to start a game with some of the The Open Beta has been extremely successful for us in finding out more
new maps for the first 30-days after new assets about what our players want as well as which
are released. But they will be able to start normal
games (with default settings) and they will be able
The Beta test areas we need to improve in. Additionally, we’ve
been able to start establishing ties with clans and
to join games on new maps. time has given players across the US and EU.
Other than that, all of the contents allowed by each
player’s rank will be available for purchase using in-
us a real oppor- We read and respond daily to bugs given to us on

tunity to show
our forums, we allow our Beta players the ability to
game money (Dinars) regardless of whether those input bugs directly into our bug-tracking software
Dinars were earned in-game, purchased, or a com-
bination of both. our players via a web-interface, and we have in-game GMs.

Do you have any game designers with prior military that we listen At first, we weren’t sure how useful GMs would be
in a FPS game, but it turns out that’s something

to them.
experience working on the game design and “real- that the players really like. Our GMs move from the
ism” factors in the strategy and combat tactics? lobby into the various game rooms, and are able to
answer questions, verify cheating vs. skill, and to help run in-game events.
The emphasis in War Rock is on action and fun rather than realism for
its own sake. Having GMs in-game has been so successful for us that we intend to enlarge
the GM staff and make that a permanent part of War Rock’s service.
Many of War Rock’s developers at Dream Execution have served in the South
Korean military and we blend that with the team’s FPS game-experience. The I think that the Beta test time has given us a real opportunity to show
result is a good blend of the real-feel with constant fast-paced action. our players that we listen to them, we care, and most importantly we take
action on their concerns and requests. As a developer, it feels very good
to be able to respond to player’s wishes. I’m very excited to see where our
players will take War Rock in the coming months and years ahead.

Do you consider War Rock the “World of Warcraft” of first

person shooters?

In any online game the online community formed by the players is a vital element.
Some large, diverse, and dynamic communities have grown up around WoW.

Nurturing and supporting the War Rock game community so they feel
a real attachment to their game is vitally important to us. In that sense,
WoW and War Rock share some common goals.

WoW is a very cohesive developer-vision of a fun game-world, and play-

ers are invited to experience that vision. Where War Rock differs is that
we would like to help our community to form War Rock into their vi-
sion of the best FPS ever.

The War Rock team looks forward to doing just that.

22 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

PopCap Games

Interview
Interview by CodeMonkey

P opCap Games puts pride into each game What is the PopCap office like? Do people wear T-Shirts and Shorts
they ship. PopCap has one goal: producing or business casual?
fun games that every single person can enjoy. PopCap’s offices are for the most part pretty informal in most respects.
They have no limit on age and prove beyond any We do insist that employees wear clothes, but beyond that we’re not
doubt that casual gamers exist and those gamers too picky. Name-calling, pulling hair and putting tacks on the CEO’s
love to play games. For anyone that has played a chair are frowned upon. The company’s headquarters in Seattle are lo-
PopCap game knowingly or not they have found cated downtown in a spiffy high-rise, and our conference rooms over-
hours of entertainment and joy from such simple look the Space Needle and much of the rest of the city. The office is
designs and cheap prices. There is no doubt in my a semi-circular space with lots of cubicles centered around a spacious
mind that PopCap Games will grow as everyone be- inner room that is set up like someone’s dream “rec room,” with a big-
comes drastically aware that each person has a little screen TV and various video game consoles, as well as couches, bean
bag chairs, foosball table, and several arcade cabinets equipped with
gamer inside themselves scratching to get out... virtually every video game from the late ‘70s to the ‘90s.
Your company history states that
You started with all web
in 2002 the three founders John
based games, and have moved
Vechey, Brian Fiete, and Jason
into packaged downloadable
Kapalka stopped working out of
games. You even have some
their house and started working
of them on Xbox Live Arcade
in an office. This success story
now. What made you decid-
is interesting, can you expand
ed that full blown “deluxe”
on that? Were these visionaries
download games were the
working full time on PopCap web
next progressive step?
games? Were they living on Mac
& Cheese while they struggled to We were more or less ‘forced’ to
make a name for themselves? come up with the “try-before-
you-buy” deluxe game down-
Well, without going into all the
John Vechey, Brian Fiete, loadable sales model when the
gory details, suffice it to say we
bottom fell out of the Web
were scraping by in the early days, and Jason Kapalka advertising business in 2000-
watching the bottom fall out of
2001. We couldn’t survive on
the online advertising market and asking ourselves “how can we make a
the meager ad revenues available via people playing our games free
living with games that people have always been able to play for free if at
online, so we thought ‘maybe people will PAY for a deluxe version
this point advertisers won’t take a chance on the Web and foot the bill
of a game like Bejeweled, with better graphics, more levels, and
for this user experience?” We decide to try selling a somewhat enhanced
some bells and whistles. Brian Fiete built a little app that made a
version of Bejeweled, then known as Diamond Mine. No one else in the
‘cha-ching’ cash register sound every time someone entered their
industry thought this was a good idea, and they had history on their side;
credit card number and bought one of our games… it was very cool
how do you get consumers to PAY for something that they’ve tradition-
to hear that sound, at first every hour or two, then every 30, 20
ally gotten for free and can still get 80% of for free online? But we really
minutes. When the ‘cha-ching’ began sounding every minute or so,
didn’t have much choice if we wanted to stay in the casual games space
we turned it off ‘cause it got annoying. But that’s when we knew we
so we said “what the hell, let’s give it a shot.” Brian built a little app that
were on to something!
produced a “cha-ching!” cash register sound each time someone actually
uploaded their credit card info and purchased the game. At first it was Our games are now also sold at retail outlets like Wal-Mart, Tar-
really cool hearing that “cha-ching” every hour or so… when it started get, BestBuy, etc. as shrink-wrapped boxed editions, as well as via
going off every 15 minutes, we thought “maybe we’re on to something Web download (still the bulk of our sales). Many of our top games
here.” Then when it got to be every two minutes, every minute, etc., we are also available on mobile phones and PDAs, in-f light on sev-
turned the damned thing off ‘cause it was driving us nuts!” Yes, we were eral airlines, in-demand TV in thousands of hotels, and on video
at that point working on PopCap titles full-time and yes, some quanti- game consoles. Heck, there are even scratch-off lottery tickets
ties of Mac & Cheese were consumed in those days… now we can afford sporting the Bejeweled, Chuzzle, Bookworm and other PopCap
Mac & Cheese AND the occasional bottle of water – life is good! game brands!

23 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 PopCap Games (Continued)
Interview
PopCap’s flagship game, Bejeweled, was an instant success.
What was it about this game that was popular to so many people?

We’re still not sure, after selling 5 million copies on the Web and see-
ing Bejeweled installed on 50 million cell phones in N. America alone
over the past couple of years! Essentially, it boils down to simple yet
challenging and rewarding game play, solid graphics and a fundamen-
tally fun core activity: matching three like objects through specific
controls/movements, with some interesting obstacles and bonuses
appearing over time. We knew this game was pretty good when we
sat a couple of our moms down to play the prototype and they were
still playing an hour later when we came back! We never anticipated it
would become the biggest casual game in the 21st century so far!

What is your most popular game to date? I’ve heard a great deal
about Bejeweled 2.

Well, Bejeweled and Bejeweled 2 are our ‘flagship franchise’ title and our most
popular game(s) so far. But others like Zuma, Bookworm and Chuzzle have Bejeweled 2
been huge hits too. The Bejeweled ‘franchise’ – Bejeweled and its successor
Bejeweled 2 – have collectively sold well over 5 million units and the mobile two thirds of our workers are involved in some aspect of game design/
version of the game has been installed on more than development, with the rest handling marketing,
50 million cell phones in N. America alone over the
past couple of years. We estimate that the Bejeweled
We were more sales, and other areas. We generally have half a
dozen or more games in the pipeline at any given
franchise has consumed roughly 2 billion hours of
consumers’ leisure time since 2001 – not bad for a
or less ‘forced’ time, and try to publish at least four or five each
year – although those numbers continue to grow
game you can learn in about 30 seconds! Add to this to come up with as we expand our operations and increase our

the “try-before-
Computer Gaming World Magazine’s induction of workforce.
Bejeweled into its Hall of Fame last year – the first

you-buy” deluxe
puzzle game to be inducted since Tetris 19 years ago Does PopCap work a standard set of hours or do
– and we’re pretty proud of that one! the developers tend to work late into the night?

Your site says that PopCap has 66 employees. Are game download- We don’t have standard hours, a dress code

able sales model

all these folks working on arcade games? How or many of the other trappings of “real” cor-
many games do you work on simultaneously? porations. Heck, we left the corporate world

Actually, PopCap now has 75 employees, most when the bottom to avoid that stuff! On the other hand we do
work hard and sometimes the artists and cod-
of them situated here in Seattle but some in our
new San Francisco studio and our recently opened
fell out of the ers burn the midnight oil – but not because
they’re “on deadline” – we have no deadlines,
international offices in Dublin Ireland… who’s re-
sponsible for updating the damned website? Oh,
Web advertising really, we just ship a game when it’s ready.
This philosophy has served us well so far and
wait – I am! Well, we’ll get that figure updated business in we have no plans to change it. It really doesn’t

2000-2001.
shortly. Not all of these people work on building make sense to drive employees toward some
games, of course – someone has to sweep the he- made-up finish line, only to have the game be
licopter pad and feed the monitor lizard. Roughly less than it can be and the employees be burned
out. Maybe if you’re a public company you have to do some of that
stuff to keep the shareholders happy and meet quarterly financial
goals, but we plan to avoid this mentality like the plague for as long
as we possible can – hopefully forever!

You develop games internally, but have also published a few games for oth-
er developers. What criteria do you have for publishing external games?

We look for games with great fundamental gameplay – just as we do

with our internally-developed games. We certainly help “polish” 3rd-
party titles when necessary, but basically it’s all about the core game and
how much fun it is, how novel and different it is, and whether it’s com-
plimentary to our existing lineup of games.

PopCap encourages independent game developers including hand-

ing out your own developer framework to others. How do you see
independent game developers fitting into the gaming market? It
Talisman
seems that all big companies started out as small independent
companies with a dream.

24 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

PopCap Games (Continued)

Interview
We still think of ourselves as indy game developers, and some of 90% of your customers are over the age of twenty-five. What do you
the brain cells from our early days are still functional, so we can think draws the 25 and older crowd to your games? Is it the simplic-
relate to the small indy team working in an attic apartment or ity, the retro arcade-feel, or do older gamers just like to have fun?
as a virtual team spread across the country
or the world. The indy developers are key
to keep the casual games sector vibrant and
innovative; they’re the ones who really have
the ability – and often, the desperation – to
think way outside the box and come up with
something very different. They have no one
lurking over their shoulder saying “that’s in-
teresting but unproven; let’s go with some-
thing more conservative but a bit more tried
and true that will definitely earn a return on
the investment.” So indy developers are still
very much the lifeblood of this part of the
games business in our opinion and we want
to help support them wherever possible.

Based on your customer breakdown you have

a 72% female gamer base. What do you think
draws female gamers to your games?

We honestly don’t have a definitive answer

here. Our assumption is that women like to
play games, including ‘videogames,’ as much
as men. It’s just that traditionally, videogames
have been made with the young male audience BookWorm
in mind. This dates back to the days of big
arcades and the first console systems. (Al- Good question. Basically, when you make games that don’t focus on vio-
though the VERY earliest arcade hits, like PONG, Donkey Kong, lence and don’t have the goal of getting your adrenaline pumping like
Centipede, Pac-Man etc. had very broad appeal.) Women were you’ve just run a 5k race, you end up with games that appeal to the hu-
never really a clear target for computer game developers and when man brain at a fundamental level. And that in turn makes them appeal-
those developers DID try to make a ‘game for girls’ it was generally ing to just about everyone. Furthermore, because the casual games we
panned by critics and consumers alike – no one likes to be pan- make lend themselves to short sessions of playing and don’t require you
dered to… But if you build games with truly broad appeal, women to read a 50-page manual before you can start playing, adults tend to
will play them, and since we at PopCap strive to make games with gravitate to our games. Some play the games as a form of ‘mental break’
the broadest possible appeal, it makes sense that women would – playing for 15 minutes at their desk during lunch; some play for social
gravitate toward these games. Further, since the majority of com- reasons (competing with friends to get the highest score in Bookworm
puter/videogames still target young male consumers, casual games or Bejeweled 2, etc.). Others play for the sheer fun of it, and games that
like ours are in some ways ‘the only game(s) in town’ for female can be started and stopped at any time lend themselves to the smaller
consumers. I don’t think we’ll ever try to make a game specifically periods of time in which adults can still have fun…how often does the
for women, though – not only is that difficult to do, it’s never really average adult really have an opportunity to play a game for three hours?
worked in the past and it’s not really necessary. Just make solid, Having said all that, we DO have many fans in the under-25 crowd…
high-quality games with everyone as your target audience, and games like Insaniquarium, Feeding Frenzy, Heavy Weapon, etc. have
women will definitely be a big part of the customer base. strong followings of younger players.

Essentially, [Bejeweled’s popularity] You’re site allows gamers to try before they
buy. Every game has this nice feature; do you
boils down to simple yet challeng- know how many gamers try your demo’s be-
fore they buy it? I almost cried in the middle of
ing and rewarding game play, solid Bookworm when it shutdown because I played
for my hour demo – it was just that addictive.
graphics and a fundamentally fun core Luckily, once I had a registered copy it remem-

activity: matching three like objects

bered where I let off.

through specific controls/movements,

Well, we know that more than 175 million cop-
ies of the deluxe versions of our games have been

with some interesting obstacles and downloaded in the past six years. And while the
percentage of those downloads that turn into ac-

bonuses appearing over time. tual sales is relatively small, our games are also
available at retail, so many people who try the
deluxe downloads end up purchasing at stores

25 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 PopCap Games (Continued)
Interview
like CostCo, Target, etc. This ‘try-before-you-buy’ sales model is great Zuma can get extremely difficult in the later levels; do you have any
because it means that we have virtually NO dissatisfied customers – if PopCap employees that have defeated this game? It seems to take
you’re able to play a game in all its deluxe glory for an hour (usually after many hours to do so.
playing the free basic version for awhile on the Web first), you have a
far better idea how much that game really appeals to you than if you’re Yes, part of the challenge with Zuma is that when you fail to complete
purchasing a typical ‘hardcore’ game at a store based on the packaging, the last round of a given level, you must start that whole level over…
and ad or two, and maybe a review. And let’s face it, we HAVE to give this does cause some frustration for some players, but it also means the
people a ‘taste’ of the games before expecting them to buy – we don’t game provides a challenge for a longer period of time for most people.
have the huge marketing budgets, over-the-top graphics and animations, Sure, many of our employees have finished the game, but they had to
and movie/TV show/comic book tie-ins that help sell ‘hardcore’ games. work overtime to do it. And we’ve certainly heard from some customers
who’ve completed the whole game – though some of them had to cheat
You categorize your games into Puzzle Games, Arcade games, Word to do it! Naughty, naughty…!
Games, and Card Games. Which category has been the most successful?

The puzzle game genre has been most successful for Popcap so far, but that’s Zuma
partly because we’ve made more puzzle games than other kinds. We also
strive to break down those category ‘barriers’ in new games, because let’s
face it, you can only play so many ‘match-three’ games before that particu-
lar type of game becomes old hat. (That said, we also work hard to ‘extend’
existing gameplay models with all sorts of twists and tweaks, and you’ll see
that reflected in some future games.) We’ve got some games in the pipeline
right now that definitely can’t be comfortably put into any of the categories
you cite above – what are they? We dunno – but they’re fun as hell and
totally addictive and we expect them to help push the boundaries of
so-called ‘casual games’ in new directions.

Let’s talk about Zuma for a second. This game is

massively addicting and seems to be successful on
Xbox 360 Marketplace. It’s available on mobile
phones too? What type of phone do I need to
play Zuma mobile?

Are any other PopCap games planned for the

Xbox Live Marketplace?

Oh, definitely. The success of our initial offer-

ings for Xbox Live Arcade (Bejeweled 2, Zuma,
Feeding Frenzy and Astropop) has encouraged us to
port more games to that platform. A very cool version of
Heavy Weapon, complete with all-new multiplayer modes,
is in development right now and will ship later this year. We can’t
disclose any other plans at the moment but it’s safe to say that we
‘get’ the Xbox and look forward to seeing more PopCap games on
that platform in future.

How do you guys spread the word of PopCap games? You pub-
lish your own products and I’ve not seen PopCap on shelves at
Astropop EB or BestBuy.

It might be easier to list the phones that Zuma is NOT available for Well look harder, dammit! Half a dozen of our biggest hits are avail-
Thanks to our partnerships with Glu, Jamdat, Astraware and other mo- able as shrink-wrapped, boxed editions at BestBuy, CostCo, Target,
bile content providers, Zuma is literally available for hundreds, perhaps Wal-Mart, CompUSA and other retail chains. If your local retailer
thousands, of different phones, not to mention PocketPCs and PDAs. doesn’t carry them, complain to the manager (but for god’s sake don’t
Phones that are more than a couple of years old may not support the tell them we told you to!) *The boxed edition of Chuzzle even comes
game, but beyond that just about any phone can play the game. And like with a plush Chuzzle doll :) As for how we spread the word, that’s
Bejeweled, Zuma is pretty ideal for mobile play in almost every respect: done through positive press and reviews, as well as tons of word-of-
you can play it for 5 minutes or an hour, depending on how much time mouth. When one soccer mom sees another having fun on her laptop
you have while waiting at the airport, in line at the grocery store, at the or mobile phone, they want to know what it is that’s taking the player
dentist’s office, etc.; the controls and rules are straightforward enough to such an enjoyable mental place while everyone else is twiddling
that you can be enjoying it within a minute of downloading it; the their thumbs. So the ‘pass-along’ phenomenon is definitely a big
graphics/UI is simple enough that a large screen is not necessary; and part of our success, and we have many stories of people getting their
the broad appeal of the games combined with the fact that just about bosses, their spouses, their psychiatrists or even their entire families
everyone has a mobile phone has resulted in these games being big hits hooked on our games.
on the mobile platform.

26 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

PopCap Games (Continued)

Interview
It seems that many retail outlets only cater to large publishers like groundswell of consumers playing casual games. Depending on which
Electronic Arts, Activision, UbiSoft, Sega, and other popular com- research numbers you believe, there are now between 150 million and
panies. Is there no shelf room for Independent game companies or 300 million people playing casual games on a regular basis – not bad for
do Indies just not have the cash to produce boxed games? a ‘little-known leisure-time activity’

This has been true historically but is changing. As retailers wake up to the
fact that nearly *everyone* who comes into a Wal-Mart is a potential buyer
Insaniquarium
of a broadly appealing computer/videogame, they will increasingly stock
games like ours. That, and the fact that casual games sell for less than half
of the typical hard-core game makes casual games a great ‘impulse buy’ that
retailers love. It’s already happening, and will happen more in future!

Console makers are now

aware that their original
audience is aging and they
need to find ways to reach
a broader audience, I am sure you have heard of the Wii and how they are targeting new gamers

including older gamers and creating a more casual gaming environment. What are your thoughts
on their goal to bring in new gamers? Do you see this as a successful maneu-

and women. ver or should console companies just focus on the die hard gamers?

Console makers are now aware that their original audience is aging
PopCap recognizes the “casual gamer,” but how do you define the and they need to find ways to reach a broader audience, including older
habits of a casual gamer? gamers and women. There’s no reason why these other parts of the over-
all consumer base couldn’t be enticed to purchase a videogame console
We’re actually conducting a survey next month to attempt to define – if the right games were presented to them. Whether those ‘casual
some of this. Basically, a typical casual gamer is a 40-something woman gamers’ can eventually be “upsold” to more hardcore titles remains to
seeking a form of leisure-time entertainment that’s more engaging than be seen, but even if they can’t, this broader audience is so much bigger
TV, more fun that reading a newspaper, and can be available when the than the 12-28 year old male consumer base that you can make money
mood strikes for 15 minutes of fun. As to exactly how customers view this way even if it’s $5 or $10 at a time. Many gamers would love to say
the playing of our games versus other activities in their lives, that will “I build games for a living” - Do you have any inspiring thoughts for
hopefully be among the answers we glean from the survey – stay tuned! gamers that want to move into the game development industry?

Well, it’s simplistic and somewhat hackneyed, but the key is “do what
you love.” We’ve seen a fair number of artists and developers from the
hardcore side of the business migrate to the casual games space with
an attitude of “well, this isn’t my cup of tea, but it’s where the money is
at the moment, so what the hell.” That’s no way to make a living – or
have a life! To make great casual games you need to play and enjoy
them, otherwise you’re just guessing at what people will like or mim-
icking what’s already out there – and that’s no fun and not the way to
be successful, ultimately.

Heavy Weapon

There are many people out there that would be great “casual gamers” but
have not found their games yet. Is there any good strategy to get new
people involved in gaming so that they too can enjoy gaming casually?

Well, our strategy is to try to raise awareness of casual games in general

– through stories in newspapers, magazines, on TV and radio, and of
course on the Web. We haven’t done much advertising in the past, but
are starting to do more, and that will also make more people aware of
the games. Combine that with the fact that people LIKE to share their
discovery of casual games with others, and we’re starting to see a real
Feeding Frenzy

27 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 J011yR0ger
Stores
in Profile
2old2play.com Community Member Showcase

Real Name: Jimmy, Jim or Jimbo If you won five million dollars
������
Gamer ����
Tag: J011yR0ger (Leet spelling) what would you do with it?
Gamer

First invest, then spend.

���������
Location: Atlanta, GA.
Soon

What video game do you find

Age: 32
yourself playing the most?
Status: Married It was COD2, but the 2old2con LAN party in Chicago and lure of
Halo 2 has drawn me back.
Children: 3
Occupation: Help Desk Will you be buying a Wii,
PlayStation 3, both or none?
Maybe a Wii. Honestly, I would like to get a DS Lite, especially for
the new SMB game.

What video game character do

you think best portrays yourself?
Duke Nukem. I could care less who, or what, it is. If it moves, it’s gonna
die and I shall feel no remorse for it.

Are there any games that you

play that are not part of the
first-person-shooter genre?
Ummmm…… no. Does Blazing Angels count? It’s third person. I will
say this for the entire community; I am ashamed that I have NEVER
played an RPG. There I said it. LOL

JollyRoger, Wife and kids

Jimmy IV and Ian-Thomas

Favorite Drink:
Sweet Tea not that unsweetened garbage you geographically misplaced
people drink.

Favorite Food:
Mexican (Food or people)

Favorite Music Group:

Metallica

Favorite TV Series:
Don’t really have one. Old cartoons (60’s, 70’s & 80’s)

Favorite Movie:
Pirates of the Caribbean

Favorite Solo Artist that you

would almost be embarrassed
to say you enjoy hearing:
Barry Manilow, c’mon folks he writes the songs….

What brought you to 2old-

2play as a member?
Well, I had posted a message on Bungie.net back at the end of April
2005, talking about how much I hated the snot-nosed brats (pre-Timmy
label) I would game with in MM. I believe it was MikeJames that re-
plied, letting me know that there was a place I could game with people Ian-Thomas and Megan
more my age and not have to worry about the little ones bothering me.
Been a member since May 4th, 2005. w00t!!

28 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

J011yR0ger (Continued)

Soon inProfile
Gamer
What video game developer/de-
signer do you believe has made
the most significant impact on
the gaming market?

Stores
Easy answer for me personally… Bungie. I had no desire what-so-ever
to get a next generation console. After being given an Xbox and Halo, I
haven’t looked back.

Where did the nick name

“JollyRoger” come from?
Ok, this is a long story. It has nothing to do with pirates. I am a huge
history nut, especially WWII. First up, my Halo avatar. The emblem
matches the tattoo I have on my right arm. It is what my grandpa’s patch
looked like. He was a nosegunner in a B-24 bomber, named Big Chief
(pilot was an American Indian and his name: Leaford Bearskin he is
now Chief of the Wyandot tribe in OK), in the Pacific in WWII. He Megan
was part of the 5th Air Force, 321st Bomb Squadron, 90th Bomb Group
called the Jolly Rogers. A lot of thought and preparation went into get-
ting it because I wanted it to be special. He is my hero and has some
awesome war stories. THAT is where JollyRoger came from, not some
cool pirate story.

You attended the 2old2con

event last month, any thoughts?
It totally rocked. Thanks goes out to OldManRiver48 for hooking me
up. It was just a great time to hang out with people I have gamed with for
over a year, finally putting faces with the voices. Cool family to be a part
of. All around it was most excellent. Looking forward to next year.

Is there any old-school games

that you would love to see
remade with today’s graphics,
sound and horse power?
Contra (Non-XBLA), Duke Nukem - you gotta have Duke on the 360.

How do you feel about the

support that the 2old2play
site has given you and
your family over the last
few months? Megan
Wow, where to start here. When I first started posting about my
daughter, Megan, I honestly did not expect the response that I re-
ceived. It was truly overwhelming. People I had never heard of, or
even gamed with sent me PM’s with their well wishes. Phone calls
from XSSmoke, Rashanii and Teufelhunden were wonderful to get,
while in the hospital. The site really showed out during that time and
actually still does today. I constantly get message in chat, or on the
site asking how Megan is doing. For that, the site and its people will
Jimmy and Megan
always have a place in my heart and will always have my respect.

Has it inspired you or changed

your perception of people?
In one word, yes.

If you had to give a younger

kid some advice about gaming
and online play, what would
you tell them?
Watch what you say. Think before you speak. And always remember,
there is ALWAYS someone better than you.

29 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

Gamer
Soon Stores
in Profile

30 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

Will Wright: Pioneer

Editorial
A look at the ga m e design er h imself
By Edd9139

W ill Wright is a pioneer in gaming and the gam- headway on since 1984 was released.
ing industry for the past 20 years. Wright was Sim City became a best-seller video
born in 1960 in Atlanta, Georgia, and gradu- game by the end of the year, and was
even distributed to over 5,000 pub-
ated from high school at the age of 16. After high school, lic schools to teach children about
Wright continued to further his education at Louisiana the infrastructure of cities.
State University, Louisiana Tech, and New School Uni-
versity, where for five years he studied architecture, me- Wright soon began co-designing Sim Earth: The Living Planet with Fred
chanical engineering, and aviation. What did this future Haslem. The game was released through Maxis in 1990 and at the time was
pioneer get after five years at three institutions of higher considered to have unlimited potential, although sales were not as high as
learning? No degree, although five years of experience that of Sim City. At this stage of his career, Wright was also working on a
which would be crucial later. new game with Justin McCormick, Sim Ant: The Electronic Ant Colony. It
was released shortly after Sim Earth in 1991. It never gained much popu-
At age 20, Wright became heavily involved in gaming and became addicted larity at that time, but is considered today to be one of Will Wright’s best
to computer games. Later that year, he taught himself how to program on his games to date by game critics.
Apple II. In 1984, the then unknown Will Wright released his first game,
Raid On Bungeling Bay, published by Broderbund for the Commodore 64. Sim Life, released by Maxis in 1992, was the next major game to add to
Raid On Bungling Bay was a scrolling shooting game. While developing Wright’s resume. The game was often referred to as “The Genetic Play-
Raid On Bungling Bay, Wright discovered placing roads and populating the ground,” in which players had the ability to modify the genetics and DNA of
map using his building utility for the game was fun in itself. species in order to alter the outcome of the planet. Sim Life was certainly ahead
of its time and never really got the praise it deserved.

A Train, a train simulation by Japanese company Artdink, was released

by Maxis in the USA in 1993. Also out in 1993 was SimFarm, which
you either loved or loathed. There is only one word capable of describing
Sim Farm: “Classic.”

Ever since Raid On Bungeling Bay and then Sim City, Wright had been
fascinated by architecture and the construction of dwellings. His latest
project at that time had the working titles of Dollhouse and Home Tactics:
The Experimental Domestic Simulator. It was 1993 when Wright started to
become serious about an architecture simulation and developed a playable
game. Although being the pioneer Wright has always been, he decided
to take the game one step further. The aim of the game was to create an
architecturally good house however; he had no way to score players. That
is where little ‘sims’ entered the architecture game. The characters would
live in the house and evaluate the quality of the dwelling. This small addi-
tion changed the game and Will Wright’s career drastically.

Raid On Bungling Bay Sim Ant

Hence, Wright began to expand on his roads and buildings utility and
transformed it into a unique game of its own. Sim City, as it would become
known, was an entirely unique simulation game unlike no game before it.
After developing the game solely for a year, Wright started to look for a
publisher. No publisher would accept the game due to its unheard of and
unproven concept -- a decision some still likely regret today. Even Broder-
bund didn’t want Wright’s latest game and believed that “without clear
winners and losers, the idea would be a commercial flop.” With no pub-
lisher, the game was left unreleased for four years. Finally, Wright created
Sim City on the Commodore 64 in 1985 on his own without a publisher.
With no publisher, the game was left unfinished for years., but sold only
a few copies. However, all would soon realize Broderbund could not have
been further from the truth with Sim City.

In 1987, Wright was, still unable to find a publisher for Sim City and, teamed
up with Jeff Braun, a businessman who wanted to enter the gaming market.
Together they formed Maxis; Wright and their small team of developers
started to work on improving Sim City, readying it for release. Finally, in 1989,
the idea with which Wright had been spinning in his head and slowly making

31 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 Will Wright: Pioneer (Continued)
Editorial
been pushing. Sim City 3000 was released in Q1, 1999 after Bradshaw had
SimCopter been assisting the development of the game for more than a year.

While Bradshaw was working on Sim City 3000, Wright was still busy
at work working with a single programmer, Jamie Doornbos, on creating
the engine on which Dollhouse (later renamed to The Sims) was based. By
1998, the team working on Dollhouse had grown to about 12 programmers
and graphic artists. Finally, EA Games saw Wright’s vision of the game,
and Wright had a full team and all the resources he needed. The Sims was
already highly anticipated when it was released in February, 2000. With
many Sim City fans eager to get their hands on Wright’s latest creative game,
The Sims went on to become one of the best selling PC games ever.

After The Sims release, the community following grew quickly and the
Sims team expanded to nearly 400 staff. Wright began work on an ex-
pansion pack for The Sims titled The Sims: Livin’ Large. He slowly had
less involvement in expansion packs for The Sims and began work on The
Sims Online making it playable online with other players.
Wright began developing small sims to live in the In 2001, Will Wright was awarded a Lifetime
game, and in doing so, created interactions for the
sims, such as having a shower or cooking a meal. Will Wright is Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice
Awards. After a year-and-a-half, The Sims Online was
Gradually, the focal point of the game shifted from an
architecture and building sim to a full blown life sim-
not only a pio- released and regrettably failed to be as successful as
The Sims franchise. In total, seven expansion packs
ulator. Interestingly enough, Maxis executives failed
to see Wright’s vision and the project was shelved.
neer but also were released for The Sims. Wright only had a large

an inspiration.
involvement in Livin’ Large. He advised on The Sims:
House Party, Hot Date, Vacation, Unleashed, Super-
With a Sim City sequel desired by many and Wright
wanting no part of it, Fred Haslem set to work on Sim
City 2000, when Wright wanted no part of it. How-
From University star and Makin’ Magic expansion packs.

ever good a designer Fred Haslem was, it was decided dropout to one The Sims had been a huge success for Maxis/EA
games, and Wright was eager to do a sequel to The

of the greatest
during development that the game wasn’t working Sims, and in September, 2004, The Sims 2 was re-
out. That is when Wright was called back in and leased on PC, although this time, Wright and Lucy
spent the next year working on Sim City 2000. Sim
City 2000 was released in Q1, 1994. game designers Bradshaw (who is still with The Sims 2 today) had
a team of nearly 400 programmers, animators, tex-
Maxis had great success with Sim City and its spin- in the industry, ture artists, meshers, songwriters and testers. The
Sims 2 was another huge success, and like The Sims,
off Sim City 2000 but unfortunately, they were
quickly losing money and slowly coming to face the everyone can it is sure to have a long life ahead of it. The Sims 2:

learn from
University, Nightlife and Open For Business expan-
inevitable. Maxis executives wished for Wright and
sion packs have already been released, although
his team to produce four games by the end of 1996,
a feat which many considered impossible including
Wright. Wright was then working on his latest sim,
Will Wright. without Wright’s direct involvement.

What could Wright be working on which is more of

SimCopter, where you would pilot various helicopters and complete rescue a challenge than The Sims series? The game which has been quoted as superior
missions, etc. By the end of 1996, Maxis did manage to rush out SimCopter, to The Sims series: Spore. Spore will give the player the ability to simulate life
SimPark, Full Tilt Pinball, and Sim Tunes. Although Wright and his team met which evolves over time from microscopic cells to sentient beings capable of
the deadlines, he was not a very happy game developer; “To start off with, I creating their own society with every
didn’t even have the resources I needed to do SimCopter!” The company had game vastly different. It’s expected the
spread what limited resources they had across the four “must-launch” games. work of the genius will be released in
SimCopter was a popular game that season even though it was riddled with the second half of 2007.
bugs and did not enthrall many players.
Will Wright is not only a pioneer but
After pressure from Maxis executives to rush out yet another sequel, also an inspiration. From University
Wright and his team of developers immediately started to work on dropout to one of the greatest game
another Sim City iteration, Sim City 3000. Wright spent the next year designers in the industry, everyone
working on Sim City 3000, although he was unhappy with it, and quot- can learn from Will Wright. Everyone
ed, “my stress level was increasing exponentially.” young or old can grasp the wise words
of Wright, “I think by exploring the
Maxis reported losses of $1.7 million in 1996, and in 1997 was acquired
bad side you’re really just mapping the
by EA Games for $125 million. EA Games moved Luc Barthalet to Maxis
envelope of the system… you’re getting
with the task of turning the company around. After seeing Sim City 3000,
a sense of how far off you can go.”
he was shocked and quickly brought in another EA designer, Lucy Brad-
shaw (who still works with Will Wright today) to help improve the game.
References:
Bradshaw decided to strip the game back to Sim City 2000’s roots and ex-
http://www.gamespot.com/features/maxis/page6.html
pand on that, obliterating the 3D aspect Maxis executives had previously

32 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

Richard Garriott

Editorial
The Story of a Legend in the Game Industry
By Tank 2old2play

T here are few people in the game industry who In 1985, Ultima IV introduced the now legendary Avatar character
have been around as long as or had the same and the eight virtues. This was the game that broke the RPG mold
impact as Richard Garriott, aka Lord British. and introduced things that would be copied in RPGs to this day. This
game also had a full feature NPC conversation engine for character
Through his revolutionary games, he has gained fame interaction. Garriott wanted the NPCs to be as life-like as possible;
and fortune that other developers can only dream of. this would continue to evolve as future games developed. This was
That fortune has allowed him to have many eccentric hobbies and the first RPG to break the typical “build your stats up to beat the
collectables. For example, he owns the very first moon buggy and main guy” model. In this game your goal was to become the Avatar
has taken trips to Antarctica. Perhaps his biggest eccentric posses- through following and practicing the eight virtues. Your bad actions
sion is a throwback to his alter ego Lord British. In the late 90s, he that didn’t matter in other RPG’s would have consequences in Ul-
bought a 25,000 sq ft. estate on top of a hill and built his own castle tima IV. The game also kept traditional RPG elements such as dun-
complete with moat, underground passages and a dungeon. geon crawling, monsters to kill, in-depth story lines and a core quest
to complete to finish the game. These are themes that would carry
His Lord British alter ego has its roots in the cruel high school days through all of the subsequent Ultima games.
where kids made fun of you and came up with ridiculous nicknames.
Kids thought he had a British accent, so the kids started calling him Brittania, now with a cohesive society with morals and a role model
Lord British. Although he was born in Cambridge, England, he was hero would now focus on struggles of the land to live up to and ma-
raised in League City, Texas. nipulate the virtues. Ultima V showed how the virtues could be cor-
rupted by an unscrupulous ruler in an inflexible society. Ultima VI
Back in 1979 when Garriott was 19, he started working on showcased prejudice brought
his now-famous game called Alkabeth. It was a pet proj- on by not understanding
ect he worked on during the summer after Senior year of other cultures. By Ultima
High School. He was an employee of ComputerLand at the VII, the society that made up
time and the owner of his store convinced him to publish Brittania had taken up a life
the game himself. So Richard went out and bought 200 of its own as NPCs struggled
zip-lock bags and had 200 cover sheets and 200 manu- to balance the virtues with
als printed up. At the time though, floppy disks were so their goals and own vulner-
expensive he only made 16 disks to start with and he sold abilities. Ultima VII was the
15 of them. One of those 15 discs found its way to Cali- last Ultima game published
fornia Pacific who purchased the rights to Alkabeth and by Origin Systems as an in-
published it, selling 30,000 units. dependent entity.

Happy with the Alkabeth success, Garriott went to work on In 1992, Richard Garriott
a follow up game called Ultima 1. This game shared the dun- sold Origin Systems to Elec-
geon code form Alkabeth and had bit mapped graphics for tronic Arts. EA invests in
the outdoor environment. This was published in 1980. companies to help increase
the level of creativity in
The Ultima series was gaining a lot of attention, enough that games released under its
Sierra was interested in publishing the next installment. There- brand. Richard Garriott still
fore, in 1982 Sierra published Ultima 2. The partnership wasn’t remained on board Origin
a good one for Garriott though. He ended it and founded Origin Systems, creating his vision
Systems with his brother Robert in Austin, Texas. A year later, of what RPG’s should be.
Origin Systems published its first game, Ultima III. Ultima VIII, the first Ultima
title published under EA’s influence, was a mess. It was more action
The first three Ultima games were building blocks for Garriott. He was
oriented than RPG, was full of bugs and became known by its fans
teaching himself how to program and testing out what did and didn’t
as ‘jump and run’ Ultima.
work in a game. These first three releases were a mix of fantasy, sci-fi
and whatever else was ‘hot’ during the time period. For example: the As realistic as Garriott had taken Brittania’s NPC’s, they still weren’t
time travel focus of Ultima III was influenced by the hit Time Bandits real people, they were just conditional programming. So Origin began
movie. So, after the launch of Ultima III, Garriott wanted to re-invent working on Brittania to be inhabited by real people and in 1997 Origin
Ultima and what an RPG could be as he began work on Ultima IV. created the modern day MMORPG by releasing Ultima Online into the

33 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 Richard Garriott (Continued)
Editorial
call. Through discussions they found each of their companies to be
Ultima III a compliment to the other and their overall vision was the same.
Destination Games needed outside funding and an equal partner.
NCSoft needed USA exposure and talented MMO developers it
couldn’t get on its own. The two companies joined, and Destination
Games became NCSoft Austin. Richard Garriott currently serves
as Executive Producer for NCSoft Austin.

A lesser known part of Richard Garriott’s life is his role as Vice

Chairman of Space Adventures, a space tourism agency. Garriott’s
father was an astronaut, so space flight is in his blood. Space Ad-
ventures, on behalf of Richard Garriott, contacted both NASA and
the Russian Space Agency to find out if Garriott could fly to space
as a tourist. While NASA said no, the RSA said it would cost hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars to research such a mission and mil-
lions more to do it. Garriott paid for the research to find out how
much a private space visit would cost and RSA came back with
wild. Since Ultima Online was a new breed of game, again Garriott was the large figure of $20 million. While Garriott had recently sold
learning through doing. The original beta test of UO ran on one server Origin Systems to EA, this was the time the stock market crashed
which very quickly crashed when 50,000 beta testers tried to log on and and the disaster of 9/11 and Garriott saw a lot of his fortune evapo-
play. While this showed how badly they calculated demand and load, it rate. Since Garriott couldn’t afford to go
did justify that the online RPG idea had a lot at that time, Space Adventures started to
of interest to the Ultima fans. With EA breath- look for someone else to take the initial
ing down their necks and watching everything private space tourist flight and found Den-
through a magnifying glass,the talented peo- nis Tito. Tito has since made history and
ple at Origin Systems fixed UO post-release is credited as being the first private space
and grew it into a huge success. tourist. Though Space Adventures now has
millions in cash from pre-paid reservations
With the problems of Ultima Online’s initial
for sub-orbital flights, there are no sub-
release and a very long development cycle of
orbital airline seats to book today. Space
Ultima: Ascension, the relationship between
Adventures currently invests in the space
Garriott an EA became strained. The last
tourism vehicle development businesses,
chapter in the Ultima series, Ultima: Ascen-
hoping to one day fill their reservations
sion was forced out the door by EA way be-
and spawn a whole new travel and vacation
fore it was ready -- much to the dismay of the Ultima V
industry. With both Space Adventures and
loyal fan base that had eagerly been waiting
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galatic focused
for five years. The game was full of problems and bugs. This was
on producing an aircraft and both having working prototypes that
the last straw for Garriott, who left Origin Systems/EA in 2000 along
have completed test flights, private sub-orbital travel could be a
with his brother.
reality in 2008.
During his one year non-compete contract, Garriott and his broth-
er started brainstorming about opening their own game company Ultima Online
again. EA, also watching the calendar, laid off almost everyone at
Origin systems one year and one day after Garriott’s departure. All
of Origin’s projects were cancelled and the company was moved
out of Texas. The only Origin game left standing was Ultima On-
line, which to this day is still EA’s best selling MMORPG. In April
2001, Garriott made a return to the industry when he and his brother
formed Destination Games. Their initial investment of $2,000,000
to start Destination Games was to see them through the first couple
years of startup. However when EA laid off all talent Garriott had
initially put there, he wanted to hire them all back for Destination
Games. The Garriott brothers quickly decided they needed to ac-
celerate their plans to bring in money.

This is where NCSoft entered the picture. NCSoft (a Korean com-

pany) released a MMORPG called Lineage not too long after UO.
The game had four million subscribers, mostly in Asia. In con- Richard Garriott continues to pursue his passions for bringing interac-
trast, UO and EverQuest had 220,000, and 400,000 subscribers, tive virtual worlds alive and his love of space travel. He has become
respectively. Here in the US noone had heard of NCSoft nor the a legend in game development and amassed a fortune, which lets him
hugely successful Lineage MMORPG. NCSoft had been trying to keep eccentric hobbies such as his hilltop castle home and investing
get US gaming magazines to review Lineage but there was no in- in bringing space travel to the masses. Maybe one day we’ll be able to
terest. So, having heard about the Origin/EA Richard Garriott split take a flight on Space Adventures to Ultima Space Station.
and their new Destination Games startup, NCSoft gave Garriott a

34 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

A Short Biography of Scott Adams

Editorial
Adventure Game Designer
By DeadDrPhibes

B ack in the late 1970s when PC gaming was just er problem was lack of standardization. A game would have to be rewrit-
beginning to take off, one man in particular ten over and over for all the different computer systems then available.
was responsible for the advent of text adven- What games do you play these days?
ture games on home PCs; Scott Adams.
Everquest 2 on the PC and on the Xbox 360 I am still playing
While the colossal cave adventure had Oblivion and King Kong. I try lots of games and recently enjoyed
been around for some time on main- Titan’s Quest for a few weeks, but EQ2 is the only game to hold
frame PCs, Adams brought the genre my interest for long term. Oblivion is a distant second to that with
to the home PC, beginning with Ad- about 60 hours played so far.
ventureland in 1978. Adventureland
was a relatively short text based ad- What would you consider the greatest achievement (so far) of your
venture game using a two word (verb gaming career?
noun) parser and written in BASIC.
Even within this fairly restrictive me- Probably being the first company to specialize in gaming for the
dium, Adventureland was a clever and home computers.
engrossing game that made players use
What projects are you working on these days?
their imagination to come up with some
rather oddball solutions to the various I am working a little bit on a new adventure game based on the old testa-
puzzles. Adams’ adventure titles could ment but haven’t done much on it recently.
easily be compared
to the popular What developments would you like to see in gaming in
room escape type the next 10 years?
games found all over online gaming sites today. The play-
er is presented with a seemingly random set of inventory Tough question. Certainly the appeal of the Xbox
items and must come up with often rather unusual ways 360 is due to the ease of use for gamers. No drivers,
of using them to complete the game. no video cards or O/S to worry about. It would be
nice if Vista will help the PC industry head in the
Adams published 17 adventure games between 1978 same direction.
and 1984, including such titles as Secret Mission, Pyra-
mid of Doom, and Savage Island. These titles were avail- Many of your original text adventures are avail-
able on several of the platforms of the time, including able online via free game websites. How do you
TI99/4a, AppleII, Commodore Vic 20, Amiga, etc. feel about this?
His last published game from this period was the They have asked me for permission first and I have
graphic adventure Return to Pirates Isle, a text adven- told them to go ahead. It is wonderful there are still
ture with graphics instead of text descriptions. While folks interested in replaying my classics.
there was no true ‘point and click’ interactivity with the
images, this game can easily be said to be the precursor What, in your opinion, is the best
of the now common room escape games on free gaming sites. game on the market today?

I first played Adventureland on my TI 99/4a, which required a cartridge Oh tough one! If we are talk-
that ran the game interface and loaded individual adventures from either ing single player then it would be
a tape or disk drive. I had a blast playing these quirky things. If you’re Oblivion, if MOG then EQ2. Be-
curious and want to take a stab at an original Scott Adams Adventure, tween the two, I would have to say
I’ll post links to sites where you can either play a Flash version online or EQ2 would rank number one. I
download an emulator and ROM, all free and legal of course. have tried virtually all the current
MOGs including WoW and I still
As it turns out, Mr. Adams lives only a few hours away from me in Wis- think EQ2 is heads and shoulders
consin, USA. I took the liberty of shooting him an email with a few ques- above them all.
tions and he got back to me within a few days with these responses:
Scott Adams adventures are avail-
What inspired you to write your first text adventure game? able to play online via flash or in a
I played Colossal Caves on a DEC Mainframe. I wanted to do a game downloadable format at:
on my TRS-80 Model 1 that would use strings in Basic and this seemed http://www.msadams.com Scott Adam’s yahoo mail list group on
like a good concept. computer gaming:
What were the biggest challenges/obstacles you had to face while http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ComputerGaming - Yahoo Group
creating games in the late 70s and early 80s? specifically on Scott Adam’s games.
Memory size and lack of any secondary storage. It wasn’t until the time http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ScottAdams. - Scott Adam’s Yahoo Group
of the Commodore 64 that disk drives started to be affordable. The oth-

35 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 In a Bar with Sid Meier
Editorial
The life of a Game Designer
By Derf

S id Meier, designer of the Civilization PC series, land targets with tomahawk missiles to engaging in sub-to-sub warfare. You
is a legend in the game industry. As is with all felt like you played a big part in stalling the communist invasion depicted in
legends, embellishments are added each time Tom Clancy’s book. Just thinking about this game makes me want to dig it
up and play it again. It was a truly outstanding piece of work.
the story is told, such that the latest story may not
be fact but some truth in the tale remains. Being the Sid also became involved in converting strategy board games to the com-
same age as Sid and remembering how things were puter. Before the computer became king, complicated strategy board games
in 1982, I’m sure his story begins in a bar. were widespread. Many of the programmers of that time had played these
games and there was interest in converting them for computers. Sid’s first
Fade-in to a corner pub circa 1982. In the corner of the old bar stands an air stab at this genre was Nato Division Commander 1985. Many felt that this
combat arcade game. Sid and his friend Bill Stealey, a former military pilot, game was extremely complicated and had a steep learning curve. Sid did
were enjoying a cold one. Bill, thinking of his real life experience, challenges other board game conversions; Crusade in Europe and Decision in the Desert
Sid to game or two, or 10. Bill coolly walked across the sticky floor and won were simpler and, in the opinion of many gamers, more fun to play. When
the first game. And then Sid won the next and the next. Bill was flabbergast- looking back, it seems that this is the time when Sid realized fun, not real-
ed! “The enemy AI is so predictable, I’m sure I can design a better one,” Sid ism is what most gamers crave. That led him to write one of his most popu-
said. “If you can, then you have a job!” exclaimed Bill. And so Microprose lar titles ever – Pirates.
was founded. Oh, how I wish I was in that bar with Sid Meier.
Oh how I wish I was in the bar that day when Sid came up with the Pirates idea!
Sid’s game, Solo Flight was Pirates has a little bit of Action /Adventure, Strategy, early Real Time Strat-
released in 1982, along with egy, and Role Playing. Recently it was reincarnated on the Xbox and my son
his first fighter game Hell- and I enjoyed playing it all over again. Sid’s genius comes in with his basic idea,
cat Ace. Sid honed his skills military fighting pirates = boring – being a Pirate = fun! Few games appeal to
at authoring several flight all, but if there is a game most people enjoy playing, it’s Pirates. If you are inter-
simulations over the next ested in adventure and haven’t played Pirates yet then run out and grab a copy.
several years, including Spit- You won’t be disappointed.
fire Ace, F-15 Strike Eagle I,
II & III, Acrojet, Gunship, F- Sid was inspired by Will Wright’s Sim City and decided to make Railroad
19 Stealth fighter, Night hawk Tycoon. The goal in Railroad Tycoon was to build, manage and expand a rail-
117a, and Gunship 2000. In road. Wikipedia calls it “an economic simulation and a strategy game.” The
the 1980s and 1990s many game has had great success and has many sequels, including Railroad Tycoon
gamers craved flight sims
with some degree of realism, Civilization 2
but which were still playable
and fun. Sid’s work fitted
that model quite well. I have
great memories of unwrap-
ping my F-15 Strike Eagle
and launching Gunship on my Atari 800 and Atari ST. To this day you can see
the evolution of Sid’s work in any flight simulator on the market.

Although Sid’s flight sims sold well, his first big hit came with his WWII
submarine simulator Silent Service. In this game you were the captain and
crew of a WWII attack submarine. Through the interface you controlled
the whole ship. I loved the game because it didn’t sacrifice fun for realism.
In a real sub a captain could spend hours or days setting up for his torpedo
salvo. Silent Service spared us the boredom while giving us the thrill of a
burning tanker or the terror of trying to evade a depth charge attack. Later,
Sid would produce Silent Service II, which included a campaign mode. His
other submarine simulation Red Storm Rising was a modern day sub simula-
tion based on Tom Clancy’s best selling book. In this game you commanded
a nuclear attack sub, and Sid allowed you do everything from destroying

36 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

In a Bar with Sid Meier (Continued)

Editorial
4 slated for release this fall. Many of the features • Sid Meier's Pirates! (1987) game allowing you to go from the Ancient
of the original Railroad Tycoon show up in Sid’s Times to Modern Times. It features diplo-
greatest game – Civilization (1991), the title for macy much like that of Meier’s other game,
which he is probably best known. Alpha Centauri, and also introduces Culture.
This installment makes the Civilization se-
ries the best selling PC series to date.
• SimGolf (2002), a joint project with the
Sim- masters at Maxis

Sim Golf
Pirates!

• F-19 Stealth Fighter (1988)

Alpha Centauri • F-15 Strike Eagle II (1989)
• Covert Action (1990)
According to Wikipedia, Sid borrowed many tech- • Railroad Tycoon (1990), an economic simu-
nology tree ideas from a board game by the same lation game, that paints the early develop-
name published in the UK in 1980 and by Avalon ment of railroads in the United States and
Hill in 1981. Civilization is a turn-based strategy Europe, a time when competition between
game in which you attempted to take a group of railroad companies was very fierce • Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004), a remake of the
settlers all the way to the space colonization age. acclaimed Pirates! game from 1987, updating
• Civilization (1991), Meier’s most successful
Along the way there are other leaders to conquer the graphics and featuring some entirely new
game to date. It has lived through several ver-
and technologies to discover. The game has stood game play elements and an all new ballroom
sions (see below) and sold over 6 million cop-
the test of time by being continually for sale and ex- dancing segment.
ies. This game is a turn-based strategy game.
panded upon for 15 years. The latest incarnation, • Civilization IV, released October 25, 2005.
• Pirates! Gold (1993)
Civilization IV is published by Sid’s Company – Fi- Civilization IV is the newest game in the
• Colonization (1994), a turn-based strategy Civilization series. A full 3D engine replac-
raxis software. Sid also made a space based game
game themed on the early European coloniza- es the isometric maps of Civilization II and
similar to Civilization called Alpha Centauri (1999).
tion of the New World, starting in 1492 and III. This installment adds the concept of
Sid Meier’s more notable releases, as listed in lasting until the age of independence in 1850. Religion to the game, building upon both
the Wikipedia entry: To achieve victory in this game, the player must the Culture and Diplomacy elements from
declare independence, and win in a revolution- previous incarnations.
• Spitfire Ace (1984) — is Sid’s first game ary war against their mother country in Europe
• Sid Meier's Railroads! (expected Fall 2006)
that he made while playing a major role in (France, England, The Netherlands, or Spain).
When Take 2 shut down PopTop Soft-
the game creation stage. • Civilization II (1996) A remake of Sid Mei- ware and folded it into Firaxis, Meier once
er’s successful Civilization; Brian Reynolds again became responsible for the Railroad
was lead designer on the game. Tycoon series, and this is billed as the se-
• Sid Meier's Gettysburg! (1997) quel to Railroad Tycoon 3.
• Sid Meier's Antietam! (1998)
• Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (1999) Brian Reyn-
olds was lead designer on this adaptation of Civi-
lization to an outer space theme. Alpha Centauri
is set in a futuristic setting on an alien world, with
ideological factions substituting for civilizations.
This is a much more versatile version of Civiliza-
tion, featuring economics and unique military
customization, as well as diplomacy.
Railroad Tycoon 3
Civilization III
There are few in the gaming business that
have the creativity seen from Sid Meier. The
• NATO Commander (1984) Academy of Interactive Arts and Science
• Solo Flight (1984) voted him into its “Hall of Fame,” and in
• Kennedy Approach (1985) — one of the first 2002, he was honored with an induction into
games to use a software voice synthesizer the Computer Museum of America’s Hall of
Fame. I doubt Sid was in that bar, heck I
• F-15 Strike Eagle (1985) — one of the first
don’t even know if he drinks. I do know that
combat flight simulators
he has fed my gaming appetite since there
• Silent Service (1985), a World War II sub- • Civilization III (2001), a remake of his clas- was something upon which to play games.
marine simulation game, and Meier’s first sic game with improved rules, graphics and So today, I raise my glass to a brilliant game
foray out of flight sims. gameplay. This is a turned-based strategy designer. Long live Sid Meier!

37 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 2old2pwn Clan LAN:
Editorial
Something Demented This Way Comes
By RogueRedneck

I joined 2old2pwn in October of 2005 and a few

months later recall bringing up to my wife the subject
of going to a clan LAN. She told me that I must have
completely lost my mind if I thought I was going to go play
video games and leave her home alone with the kids.
Left to right: Ming Li, dpaden, Cuda

It was then that a funny thing happened. My wife was sucked into the world of
2old2play and 2old2pwn. It started by her lying on the couch and laughing at
the interactions between the other players and me while we were playing. Then,
she started reading the site under my account, DubbleORedneck, and made
some posts on the forums. She eventually opened her own account, DixieBelle,
on December 23, 2005 and immediately joined the clan.

This was important to explain how I found myself on the road at 4 AM

on Thursday, June 29th, on my way to Pittsburgh for what would turn
out to be one of the greatest weekends of my life.

It was a long grueling 11 hour drive that took Dixie and I from Tennessee to
Pennsylvania. We braved many hardships along the way, including regular Left to right: Cowboy, Rogue,
phone calls from Cowboy Bates, Barracuda52774, and dpaden wanting to Kween, Gutter (in back), Nova
know where we were so they could beat us to the hotel. (They did….)

Dixie and I pulled up in front of the Rodeway Inn at 4 PM local time and
saw the first members of our degenerate crew standing in front of the hotel.
The hotel was conveniently located over 1000 yards from the nearest school
so that KidMach wouldn’t violate his parole. There was kweenie1969 and her
husband, Gutteral Rumble, dpaden, Ming Li, Cowboy, and the flame haired
Cuda, who was easy to pick out since he was busy in a bush when we arrived.
We settled into our circa 1970 rooms and then met up with NoVARaif,
CurvyBunky, and BlimeyLimey before heading out looking for nourishment.

We ended up at the Lonestar Steakhouse, which was located next door

to the Quaker Steak & Lube restaurant. Let me just pause here to say
that we don’t have these establishments in the South and I was a little
concerned. The steak part wasn’t a problem but the lube part made me The next morning began at
wonder. Do you get the lube as a side item included with your meal or is approximately 9 AM with
it extra? What weight do they use? But then I realized… a meeting in the coffee shop
(Nova’s Room). It is impor-
At the restaurant, we were treated to the first of many statements I like tant to note that we all packed
to call “Cowboyisms.” We ate a good meal and found that there was for a 3 day party. Nova came
none of the uneasiness you sometimes feel when surrounded by people to the LAN prepared for an
you’ve never met before. We easily fell into our forum and XBL roles extended siege. This man ar-
and were soon making fun and laughing with and at each other. We just rived with a truck full of TVs,
genuinely enjoyed being together in person for the first time suitcases, wires, switches, Team Hoob (Curvy,
We finished the night back at the hotel just talking and preparing for the first aid kit, assorted variet- Kween, Dixie)
first official day of the LAN. Before the day finished, we greeted the ar- ies of coffee, and both a coffee
rival of GopherGoat, Lord Kerdaq (god complex), HexionBean, Count machine and espresso machine. The man meant business.
Fartula, and his friend, Eddie. Eddie has since become a member of the We entered the conference room at about 9:30 AM and began to unload the
site and our newest clan member, allniteRawk. Most of us retired to our equipment. At this point, Nova realized there could be a power distribution
rooms at about 1 AM in preparation of the next day. problem and went to work on the problem with the help of Gutter and the in-

38 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

2old2pwn Clan LAN (Continued)

Editorial
terference of Cuda. I won’t go into the details of what was done. You can read boy was reduced to the equivalent of a cold and frightened Chihuahua puppy.
Nova’s article for the technical aspects of the party. I get paid to arrest people and He cowered behind his girlfriend for protection, but there was no hope.
not to play with electricity, unless I’m tasering said people; in which case, I have
a LOT of fun with electricity. In short, if you ever have a LAN Party, I highly Over the next day, we received more members in the form of mr sleestak, who
suggest bringing a Nova with you. soon violated the blow up doll, and the surprise guest, LB75Player. LB is a
sneaky little guy, who convinced his wife, Curvy, that he wasn’t coming to the
The day progressed and we witnessed the arrival of Cabel, Walladog, Kid- LAN but then made a surprise 5 AM arrival. He had to wake her up from a
Mach, Blue Steihl, itsBillykiller, Durnan, waterboy, IACO, and Yountdog. drunken stupor, but she appeared happy to see him. I think this is typical, if I
We were all surprised when Yountdog arrived because none of us knew he had to live with LB, I’d keep myself on the verge of unconsciousness as well.
was King Kong’s stunt double (we put him in the corner next to Blimey be-
cause we figured, if he got hungry, he could have the Canadian). Everyone The rest of the LAN is a blur of HALO,
found somewhere to play and was hooked into the power grid. At this point, laughter, absurd aliases, and threats of vio-
the conference room looked a lot like the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon, lence. We played ‘til the wee hours of Sunday
but you gotta do what you’ve gotta do. morning when our 24 port switch died and
could not be revived despite the best efforts
I don’t remember a lot of the actual gameplay that followed. On this first offi- of Nova. Walla even tried to assist by offer-
cial day, several of us walked over to the restaurant next door, the Eat’N’Park. ing his advice to “Slap it with a stainless steel
Here, despite the lack of sweet tea or Dr. Pepper, we enjoyed a decent meal. spatula” but, alas, the switch was gone.
After Walla had been brutally forced into ordering the salad bar, we were wit-
ness to the first stroke of genius of the 2006 2old2pwn LAN. We were temporarily back in business when
it was discovered that Cowboy brought a 16
I’m not sure how it started but someone mentioned that it would be fun- Curvy port switch but, before we could hook up
ny to get a large rubber phallic device. We could use it to strike at those the new switch, we suffered yet another ca-
who we felt needed it. Walla suggested that we should name it “Rubber sualty. The blow up doll collapsed under the combined force of Kid and Walla.
Justice.” Thus was named the clan mascot. CPR was administered by Kid but she did not survive.

Within the hour, Walla, Cuda, Dixie, and I were at the local Adult Store Sunday morning, and it was a subdued crowd that arrived at the conference
where Walla informed the clerk (who was not a man of great wit nor did he room to gather their belongings and head back to their boring, incomplete lives.
appreciate our humor) that Dixie, my wife, wanted the largest rubber dong Hugs were given and hands were shaken. Someone, I honestly can’t say who, put
they had in stock. We left minutes later with two 16” rubber dongs and a 3 Rubber Justice and the deflated doll in Cuda’s suitcase in hopes of detaining him
foot blow-up doll with a coaster in her head. Walla conned the local gas sta- at airport security and we all went our separate ways.
tion into giving us a Magic Marker and we returned to the hotel.
In the end, it was a good time had by all. We laughed and cried. We played
As we were standing outside preparing to unveil our purchases, a woman drove HALO, consumed alcohol and slapped each other with rubber dongs.
up, got out of her car, and apprehensively approached us. She was wearing nice
business attire and appeared lost. When she saw Cuda writing on Rubber Jus- BEST CLAN LAN EVER!!!!!
tice and Dixie holding the doll, Walla informed her
that she probably didn’t want to be here and she chose
to leave the premises. Go figure.

We entered the building and christened Cowboy

with the dual Justices.

There was minimal confusion as others arrived as

Nova and Gutter worked to get everyone hooked up as
quickly as possible. Before long, I found my self sitting
next to KidMach. It was then I discovered that Kid is
not as annoying in person as he is on XBL… he’s worse.
I lost count of the number of head butts and dong beat-
ings he received but they were many and often. I offi-
cially announce that he may be the site Timmy.

One of the key moments of the LAN was the arrival

of itsBillykiller. He arrived and soon discovered that
Cowboy had left to retrieve his girlfriend. Billy felt On back wall (L-R): Kid, Durnan, Hexion, Lord,
compelled to call Cowboy a few times to express his Count, Ryan, allniteRawk
displeasure. Billy and Cowboy debated his absence
from the LAN (the finer points were quite inter-
Middle row (L-R): Blue, Walla, IACO, ‘cuda, Yount,
esting) and came to an agreement. Cowboy would Sleestak, Rogue (teabaggin’ Cowboy), Blimey,
come back or Billy would hurt him. Waterboy, Billy
Cowboy arrived at the LAN at 1:30 AM on Satur- Front row (L-R): Dpaden, Gopher, Curvy, Dixie,
day morning and asked me, “How’s Billy?” He was Cowboy, Chris (Cowboy’s g/f), Ming, LB, NoVA
informed that Billy was, well, Billy… at 1:30 AM…
Missing from photo: Kween, Gutter
drunk… and tired. Moments later, they met and Cow-

39 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 2old2pwn Inaugural LAN Party
Editorial
How Many Systems Does it Take to Make Circuit Breakers Pop?
By NoVARaif

T he official 2old2pwn clan LAN party was Once the LAN party weekend arrived and about 30 very eager clan
scheduled from Friday, June 30th until Sun- members and friends began checking in, the shortcomings of the
day, July 2nd, with early birds arriving Thurs- hotel became apparent. The hotel had been visited before the sum-
mer heat began, so room air conditioning had not been a concern.
day evening, June 29th, for an evening of eating, Most, if not all, attendees found that the room air conditioning
drinking and socializing. produced a feeble gust of cold air, if anything. Fortunately, our
Much consideration was given to location, since the clan is spread across days were spent in the conference room, and the nights were cool
the globe. The chosen hotel, enough to allow attendees
the Rodeway Inn, located in staying on the second f loor
Coriapolis, PA had the right to leave their patio doors
price, decent accommoda- open. Some attendees
tions, and a decent conference found a relative of Mothra
facility. Two other big pluses had invaded their rooms
were that there was an Eat ‘n in the middle of the night.
Park restaurant on one side, Parents should be warned
and a Sheetz gas station on the to keep small children
other, so our late night food away from the warp-pow-
needs would be easily met. ered toilet, as they could be
pulled into the spatial rift
Despite the various issues de- caused each time the toilet
tailed here, the LAN could not was f lushed. Some found
have gone better. 2old2pwn that their feet stuck to the
truly is the Best Clan Ever!!! room carpeting, while oth-
A successful LAN party is not Center to Right Cowboy, Dixie, ers found their carpeting
determined so much by where Rogue, Lord, Blimey crunchy. The televisions in
it’s held, rather by the people in most rooms were at least
attendance. We want to share as much as we can about our experience, so as old as the youngest clan members, with remote controls that
that other clans can grow from our experiences as we did. needed 9V batteries to work. Remember the old Zenith TVs with
Computer Space Command remotes? Yup, we had them!
Twenty-eight clan members, and friends in Attendance (by GamerTag):
AllniteRawk, Barracuda52774, BlimeyLimey13, Blue Stiehl, Chris (Cow- Once we were able to start setting up the conference room for
boy’s girlfriend), Count Fartula, Cowboy Bates, Curvy- the LAN party on Friday
Bunky, DixieBelle75, Dpaden70, Durnan, GopherGoat, morning, we found that
Gutteral Rumble, HexionBean, IACO, ItsBillyKiller, Kid- power was going to be an is-
Mach, Kweenie1969, LB75Player, Lord Kerdaq, Ming Li, sue, and space was going to
Mr Sleestak, NoVARaif, RogueRedneck, Ryan (Mr Slees- be ”cozy.” The main room
tak’s friend), WallaDog, Wat3rboy1011, and YountDog7 was about 35’x35’. We set
up 4-6’ round tables near
‘Special’ Guest appearances by: Rubber Justice (I and II), the center of the room, and
and Cowboy’s Inflatable Girlfriend lined the walls with 3’x6’
tables. We setup a router
Gamers Comments to provide DHCP and a
Being able to game with so many clan members, with no 24 port switch to provide
lag whatsoever, was very awesome. At one point, we were the needed connectivity.
time-sharing our gaming consoles as we had more attend- We pulled power from four
ees than there was room for equipment. Various 2 on 2, 4 different 20 amp circuits
on 4 and other tournaments took place. in the conference center (3
rooms total). Thankfully,
Technical and we had all the heavy duty
Logistical Overview extension cords we needed
The hotel was visited prior to the actual LAN in an effort LB and Hexion to do the job. We used tons
to check for any issues that would disqualify the hotel as of gaff tape to get the power
the best place for the LAN party. The LAN party “ad- and network connectivity where it needed to be, safely. We also
vance team” was apparently shown only the hotel’s best rooms, not the masked off exposed portions of the windows with table cloths, pa-
actual rooms in which the attendees would be staying. The advance team per and tape, both to keep excess light out, and maintain privacy of
explained to the hotel that we would have about 30 people attending the party. Each night/early morning when the party wound down,
with TVs, gaming consoles, etc., and that we would need to have power, we locked the front door of the conference center, and, for added
space and air conditioning to support them. The team was assured that security, parked a truck right in front of the door.
it would not be a problem.

40 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

2old2pwn Inaugural LAN Party (Continued)

Editorial
Partying began, in earnest, on Friday. Power outages on a couple cir- In summary,
cuits also started, in earnest, on Friday afternoon. After figuring out the our Lessons Learned
best balance of TVs/gaming consoles per circuit, the power stabilized, Hotel Rooms – check for:
and gaming continued. Gaming continued until the wee hours Saturday
morning, then resumed mid-morning. The sequence was repeated on • Hotel Staff and other guests - Look around and get a feel for both
Saturday until 0110hrs Sunday morning, when the fully-populated 24 groups, as it’ll tell you a LOT about the facilities themselves. (This lends
port switch opted for early retirement, probably due to stresses caused itself to the next two lessons learned.)
by unstable power. Fortunately, we had a spare switch, and downtime • Room Air Conditioning – Does it work, and work well?
was limited to about 30 minutes. • Room Cleanliness - Clean Carpets, sheets, etc.
• Televisions – Are they modern enough to support A/V inputs for im-
promptu gaming?
• Toilets – Shouldn’t be warp-powered and require Starfleet credentials
to operate them safely.
• Power and lighting - Adequate number of power outlets and functional
light fixtures in the rooms?

Conference Room Requirements:

• Air Conditioning – Is it adequate to handle heat from the electronics?
• Power – Assume five amps per conference attendee. Our conference room
only had 100 amp service, which was almost woefully inadequate. We also
suggest bringing a UPS for the networking equipment, at a minimum.
• Extension cords - Bring extra 16-gauge extension cords, in lengths from
50-150 feet, in the event that outlets are far from gaming areas.
• Gaming space – assume a minimum of 32sq ft per conference attendee
(4’x 8’), including table space
• Space – adequate room to move around, in addition to gaming space,
best to plan for a 4’ path, if at all possible
• Restrooms – see previous comment about warp-powered toilets
• Food/Beverages – Must have space for food/bar setup, and coolers with ice, etc.
• Hotel Staff – Work out a schedule to have hotel staff restock bathrooms
and empty trash daily.
• Xbox Headsets - Bring your headsets for team play. They make it easier
to coordinate tactics across a room rather than yelling to one another.
• Wireless options - If possible, bring as many wireless-equipped game con-
soles as possible; it’ll help limit the amount of wiring gaff-taped to the floors.
• Equipment spares – Where possible, bring extra networking equipment;
Here’s a diagram of the power and switches, routers, etc., as it never hurts to have too much.
network connectivity done by some
first time LAN party attendees: Closing Comments
Overall, the inaugural 2old2pwn 2006 LAN party was a smashing suc-
Cleanup efforts began on Sunday morning, with everyone checking cess, and I think I speak for the clan in saying that we’d do it all over again,
out of the hotel by noon and getting on the road shortly thereafter. The in a heartbeat, and cannot wait until the next 2old2pwn LAN party!!!
withdrawal started before anyone got more than five miles from the ho-
More pictures from the LAN party can be viewed at: www.hargest.com
tel. Planning of the next LAN party started shortly thereafter.

41 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 History of the First-person-shooter
Retro Gaming
There and back again: Wolfenstein [3D] to [Castle] Wolfenstein
By CodeMonkey

T he history of the first-person-shooter, common- resulted in many game ports to be toned down or just not created at
ly known as the FPS, is long and great. The FPS all. The Super NES version was modified to remove Nazi references and
genre has seen memorable milestone games, symbols. If the game was about escaping Nazi Germany, how fun would
it be without any reference to the actual militia you were escaping?
interesting wannabe clones and a long line of ground-
breaking technologies. What makes the FPS genre one Besides obvious fallout with the use of Nazi symbols, music, and poorly
of the most powerful video game designs is the edge of created non-native German speech, the game opened the eyes of devel-
your seat thrill ride, violence, and its ability to consis- opers around the world. Not only was it possible to create a game with a
tently push the envelope of computing power. decent amount of violence, but the technology was reusable and could be
enhanced for greater levels of detail. Game developers adopted the con-
The FPS game design was forever changed by the birth of Wolfenstein cept of “shareware” as a way to get their game to the market and provide
3D. Wolf3D, its common name, was published by Apogee Software evidence that it was a sellable solution. All these new ideas were formed
on May 5th, 1992 and given life by ID Software. The inspiration be- by the success of Wolfenstein 3D.
hind the game was a 1980s Muse Software computer game called Castle
Wolfenstein and the follow-up game, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein. These Although Wolfenstein 3D was technically not the first game that had a
adventure games would inspire the ID Software team to create an evolu- first-person perspective and allowed you to shoot things dead, it was the
tionary work of art. Wolfenstein 3D was definitely not the first true FPS first to ignite the desire for this genre. Ultima Underworld created the
game; Spasim and Maze War might have been the founding fathers of initial FPS technology. This technology was inherited by Wolfenstein 3D
the FPS, but they did not define the genre as it still exists today. and was later improved upon in ID Software’s DOOM. In 1993, DOOM
would take center stage, leaving Wolfenstein 3D as a distant
memory. The world of DOOM had textured floors and ceilings,
Wolfenstein 3D moving platforms, and multi-player network capabilities!

DOOM defines the frightening FPS genre. The game would

keep you on the edge of your seat killing imps and other evil
demonic creatures while running through dark halls and un-
loading weapons at everything that moved. If played in the
dark, DOOM was capable of putting you on the floor in a jump
of terror. Gamers were so enthralled by the new DOOM fran-
chise that they continued to play it for years. Gamers might
say that DOOM was the first FPS that got them addicted to
the genre. Game developers might say that DOOM proved just
how powerful great technology and ideas could become.

Doom

This relatively unknown company called ID Software built a game that in-
volved, at the time, a significant amount of violence and destruction. They
pushed the limit by designing a game that included many dark areas of our
past, including the Nazi military reign. The game contained guns, blood
(on certain releases), the ability to kill Germans by the truck load, and
most importantly, the open use of the most feared symbol in the Western
world: the Swastika. This foundation of violence and destruction would
catapult the FPS genre to heights previously unknown to gaming.

Germany, of course, was not exactly thrilled about the release of Wolfen-
stein 3D. Killing Germans is not nearly as bad as the open use of Nazi
symbols and the anthem “Horst-Wessel-Lied” which is banned in Ger- Shareware assisted in the success of DOOM as it did with Wolfenstein
many. Wolfenstein 3D was the first FPS to contain legal issues and cause 3D. Over 10 million people downloaded DOOM within the first two
copies to be confiscated in 1994 Germany. The legal issues in Germany years of its creation. According to GameSpy, DOOM has been voted

42 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

History of the First-person-shooter (Continued)

Retro Gaming
by industry insiders as the number one best game of all time. Not only Marathon was the next “DOOM clone” of the year, but this game
was DOOM widely successful – the ID Software team became the big utilized a feature that had been overlooked from prior FPS
boys on the block in terms of FPS technology. People wanted to be like games: a real plot. The FPS genre, in general, has very little
ID and they went through the trouble to duplicate the efforts non-stop history in terms of plot usage, but Marathon started it all and
with “DOOM clones.” later Half-Life would bring it to a completely new level of play.
System Shock, another “DOOM clone” combined the new FPS-
In 1994, ID Software would hold the FPS genre with DOOM II: Hell style gaming with the controls of a Role Playing Game (RPG)
On Earth. This release was very similar to the original DOOM with complete with horror elements. System Shock was a cult success
a few minor changes and additional levels and enemies. Although a story but did not take a main stage like DOOM.
major goal had been achieved, DOOM II was not sold as shareware,
but as a product widely distributed in the stores. ID Software was The next big “DOOM clone” would change up the environment by add-
building a very large bankroll in a very small period of time. During ing a few imperial bases and Star Destroyers: LucasArts’ Star Wars:
this year, a few other games spawned from the FPS clone clamor: Dark Forces. LucasArts built its own DOOM-like engine called the
Rise of the Triad, Marathon, and System Shock. “Jedi Engine” and added a feature that was rare in the FPS genre: al-
ternative firing weapons. You could have a weapon that had multiple
modes of fire! This feature would be utilized in future games. However,
Marathon like DOOM and the other clones, Dark Forces was a slight enhancement
on FPS game engines that came before it but it was still not true 3D.
Within a year, that all would change.

Descent

The 1994 “DOOM clones” each contained small changes in the

technology that would, in the end, better the genre for many years. In 1995, Interplay Productions would publish a game known as Decent.
Apogee Software’s Rise of the Triad, initially developed as a sequel to This FPS title took the terms 3D and made it real. A full six degrees of
Wolfenstein 3D, and added deliberate and unjust violence by invent- freedom, coined 6DOF, and the player could fly their ship around the
ing the “giblet.” A giblet is a little piece of f lesh, internal organ, bone level in many directions. The maps were true 3D worlds
or entire limb of a larger body that is shot off during the bodies’ ex- where one could fly through a tunnel above them, be-
plosion. Although, Adrian Carmack is credited with the name, it was low them, or in any direction in “3d space” and get
Rise of the Triad that initially thought of the concept. John Carmack lost in the envi-
and the ID Software team would make great use of this ‘giblet’ in ronment. Those
Quake, as would Apogee Software in Duke Nukem 3D. that found the ship
in Decent too hard to
control simply tossed
Duke Nukem 3D the game aside as a
“DOOM clone” and
overlooked the complete
3D feature set unknown at
that time. Ultimately, Decent
failed to reach DOOM-like
levels because of its difficulty
to control, often requiring a
joystick, and Interplays re-
strictions on level modifica-
tions. ID Software allowed inde-
pendent developers to ‘mod” the game
levels (known as “WADS”) to create new
FPS game environments. These modders kept
the game alive for years after it should have been
forgotten. Interplay didn’t do this and thus its
Doom 3 game has been forgotten.

43 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 History of the First-person-shooter (Continued)
Retro Gaming
Duke Nukem 3D, released January 29th 1996, became an instant
Quake success by adding new f lair to the FPS genre. Duke Nukem 3D is
best known for the humor that was added throughout the game. The
game lacked one specific feature that would make it lose the FPS
battle in the future: TCP/IP network based multiplayer capabilities
for the Internet. 3D Realms published the game ahead of its rival ID
Software, but in the end ID Software would show the industry who
was on top.

ID Software, again, created a graphically stressful FPS that requires

gamers to think about moving out of the 486 processor era and jump
on the Pentium bandwagon. Quake helped invent the need for the true
“Gaming system” over a typical workstation of the time.

Most importantly, Quake made games of the same year, such as Duke
Nukem 3D look simple by comparison. A year later Blood (built off the
Duke Nukem 3D “build engine”) was released by Monolith and it still
could not hold water compared to Quake’s revolutionary graphic design
Lead designer John Romero and lead programmer John Carmack pol- and multiplayer capabilities. It seemed that ID Software would own the
ished off their next big FPS in 1996. The title was known as Quake and FPS genre forever if they continued to keep ahead of the game.
towered over all games of its time with a brand new graphics engine and
more textures than ever seen in a video game. The
ID Software team predicted that the multiplayer
gaming environment was the way of the future Between 2004 and 2006, FPS
and designed Quake for local area networks along
with standard “world wide” network play. The In-
sequels were the next best thing.
ternet was coming of age and it was time to move
from our BBS systems into the world of the web.
Each sequel had new weapons,
Gamers were able to play multiplayer games with
people all over the world.
textures, eye-candy and thrill.

44 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

History of the First-person-shooter (Continued)

Retro Gaming
ID Software released Quake II a year later, in 1997, published by Ac- and be a success. Most FPS ports from older games failed to impress con-
tivision. This release had no relationship to Quake except for the name sole gamers. This was a large milestone for the console gaming community
“Quake” which was just used to draw sales. The game was an improved because it would help realize the truth behind the console FPS genre.
network model compared to the original release and the game engine was
re-built again. When Quake II was purchased by PC gamers around the
world and played on the Internet until the wee hours of the night, Golden- Goldeneye
Eye 007 was released on the Nintendo 64. GoldenEye 007 had a few FPS
improvements, which included complex bullet-hit detection to maximize
damage with “head shot” targets. The second large improvement was the
game’s ability to play on a console system without a mouse and keyboard

Quake II

All of the technology that had been built over the past years came to
life as a complete package during the years of 1998 and 1999. The PC
would see a release of Half-Life by a small development studio known
by few as Valve. Within two years Valve would see a huge success in
their Half-Life franchise spurred by a great initial release and a “to-
tal conversion” modification of the game called Counter-Strike. This
Counter-Strike modification, created by Minh Le and Jess Cliffe was
so successful that they graduated college and went on to work at Valve
software. These two college kids were part of the reason Half-Life and
its modification Counter-Strike are still being played today.

45 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

Retro Gaming

“”
What makes the FPS
genre one of the most
powerful video game
designs is the edge
of your seat thrill
ride, violence, and its
ability to consistently
push the envelope
of computing power.

46 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

History of the First-person-shooter (Continued)

Retro Gaming
The same year that Half-Life hit the market two more FPS games were
released: Thief and Tribes. Thief was one of the first FPS games that suc- Half-Life 2
cessfully tackled the idea of “stealth” in the genre. The concept of sneaking
around the levels instead of blasting through doors running and gunning
was lost on many FPS fans. The concepts, however, were solid and the game
brought new aspects into an overly used military-type genre. The counter-
weight to Thief would be Tribes, which scoffed at sneaking and replaced it
with team-oriented military vehicles. The vehicles employed in Tribes by
today’s standards are light; however, without the proof-of-concept in Tribes,
vehicles may still be a rarity in current FPS titles. Although Dynamix’s
Tribes cannot be considered a huge commercial success, the influences were
enough to change the future of FPS gaming.

ID Software made another run for the money with Quake III Arena by pro-
ducing a multiplayer-only version of Quake for Internet play. Ten days be-
fore the launch of Quake III, yet another FPS known as Unreal Tournament Between 2004 and 2006, FPS sequels were the next
was released. These two titles would battle head to head for years, trying to best thing. Each sequel had new weapons, textures,
become the multiplayer FPS victor. The two competitors continue to battle eye-candy and thrill. Gamers would buy DOOM
it out today with Unreal Tournament 2004 and Quake 4. A new Unreal Tour- 3 and find the graphics stunning but a simple
nament is scheduled for release in 2007. re-hash of the original story. Play-
ers were bored with the con-
Finally, in the early 2000’s a new breed of FPS game was born. cept that once excited them
To take on the challenge of building another great console but had been redone dozens
FPS to match the success of GoldenEye 007, a company of times since DOOM’s orig-
called Bungie Studios produced a “killer application” for inal release. Half-Life 2 was
the Microsoft Xbox. Halo: Combat Evolved took the el- a great success and utilized
ements of all games in the past and rolled them into more GPU then most FPS
a console game that sold over 6 million copies games (excluding DOOM
worldwide since its release in 2001. Many 3) and allowed players to
critics found that the game “bored interact with their environ-
them to tears” due to the overuse ment in new detail along with
of specific areas throughout a realistic physics engine. Halo
the game but nevertheless the 2 was an obvious success focus-
game was a hit and sold many ing highly on network play and
Xbox consoles by itself. became another huge success be-
cause of it. Metroid Prime 2, Ghost Recon
In 2002, the world would get
Advance Warfighter, Call of Duty 2, and
the most in-depth tactical FPS
others sequels arrived for consumers to
it had seen thus far: Battlefield
rip off the store shelves. All quality games
1942. This game allowed players
with an increasing fan base.
to operate vehicles, aircraft, and
ships similar to Tribes. This ele- If you mark Wolfenstein 3D as the game
ment, along with the tactics required that defined the FPS genre back in 1992,
for the game allowed dedicated players to become you can see that FPS games have not
truly skilled in team oriented destruction. In addition, been around all that long. Considering
this year Nintendo would turn Metroid into an FPS and call Mario has brought us games since the early
it Metroid Prime. There was no going back for Samus now; 1980s, the FPS is a comparative teenager.
she was in the world of the first-person-shooter. The genre has made huge leaps and bounds
after each developer’s creation and contin-
ues to do so. Not all FPS games are out-
Counter Strike
standing success stories but each one brings
something new to the table.

Where do we go from here? Halo 3 is a highly

anticipated game for the Xbox 360
that should be released in 2007.
Unreal Tournament 2007 Perhaps the announced release of
Castle Wolfenstein for the Xbox 360
will change history. Ironically, the game
that evolved the genre plans to return after
fifteen years in hopes to revolutionize the
industry once again. We’ve proven that
history is bound to repeat itself.

47 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 2old2con
Ask MikeJames
The Diary of MikeJames
By MikeJames

N ow that 2old2con is over, many people from the Friday was spent meeting people with whom I’ve played online and held
2old2play community are recovering from hang- conversations with in the forums. I was actually able to put faces to those
overs and kissing their spouses’ asses for letting names. Not a single person was fake. Everyone acted how he or she does
online. The gamer tags do indeed go with peoples personalities. We may
them go, as well as saving up for next years 2old2con. have told each other our real names, but hell, I have a hard enough time
The rest of you are simply asking yourselves, “what was it all about,” remembering gamer tags let alone real names.
and “Why didn’t I go?” After seeing the pictures and Dantez’s awesome
video of the party, umm, I mean LAN, you’re probably wondering what LBSutke and RightHandofGod
else happened. Well, as excellent as I am, I will tell you about the Mike
James experience at the 2old2con LAN party.

Tait

I guess you could say it all started Thursday night, when I wasn’t yet in
Chicago. I received a phone call from Knaabi, one of our senior mem-
bers, at roughly 9:30 pm, asking when I was coming to town. All I could
hear in the background was music and a lot of noise from drunken peo-
ple. At that point, the thought passes through my head, “Why didn’t I
take off Thursday too!?”

My Experience
Friday morning comes along and I’m ready to go. I pack the kid, my
wife and myself into the car and we take off about 7:00 am to head to
Kenosha, WI, where I’m from and where my parents still reside. Noon
hits and I’m dropping off the wife and kid, saying a quick hello to the
parents, then I’m back in the car headed to Chicago. It’s now 12:30 pm
and I still need to stop at the liquor store. Yeah, Mike James stopped
at the liquor store to buy beverages. I run in, pick up a bottle of JD and
head on out. 60 miles to go - 60 minutes and I’ll be at an event I’ve been
looking forward to since August, 2005. The first keg rolled into the room about 5 pm that first night. Either they
went light on the keg or we’re all alcoholics. That first keg was gone by 9
Two hours later, after being stuck in Chicago traffic, I finally arrive at pm; completely empty and floating. I remember getting beer from some-
the 2old2con 2006. The first person I see is my roommate for the week- where else, but not quite sure who gave it to me. I do remember, however,
end, Dead Dr. Phibes. Fortunately, instead of having to search him out eating other peoples Chicago style pizza. Hell, it was lying there and no
to get into the hotel room, he was pulling into the parking lot right be- one was guarding it, so why not eat?
hind me. But, who cares about the room as long as there is more than
one bed, because I am not about to sleep in the same bed as DDP. Eventually, people started rolling out about 2:30 am. There was about
15-20 of us left and I was thirsty. I wanted booze. Funny thing is, some-
After dropping off my bags, I make my entrance. “What’s up BITCHES!!?!?!??!,” one left beer in the cooler… and… once again, no one was guarding it.
I shout as I open the door. I can’t even tell you the first person I met. The “Anyone need a beer?” Four or five people came on up and I passed out
conference room was designed as two U shapes. One inside of the other the beer as if it was my own. Sorry to whoever’s beer it was; you should
with 30 TVs all throughout the room. What an awesome site to behold. have drunk it or brought it back to your room.
The best part - everyone was over 25.

48 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

2old2con (Continued)

Ask MikeJames
The next morning, about 10 am, a small group of us got together and About 3 am everybody was leaving the party and heading back to
went out for breakfast. It was just a little dive through restaurant but their rooms. Then the saddest part of the LAN happened; the
it did the trick. For eight bucks I had three eggs, two pancakes, toast, realization that it was over. When I would wake up the next morn-
sausage, bacon and a glass of milk. ing, everybody would be leaving and on their way back to their nor-
mal lives. Tears were shed; handshakes were given and, hell, even
After returning to the hotel room I checked on the activities in the party some manly hugs.
room. Not a whole lot was going on and so I said to myself, “Be a wuss
right now and get your ass back to the hotel room and take a one hour The rest of my trip home doesn’t really matter. What really matters
power nap.” So that’s what I did. Awaking at 1 pm refreshed, I head is what happened at the 2006 2old2con and my experience.
back to the party room.
Here is what happened:
About this time, the gaming is in full motion. From board games, World One hundred people all with the same hobby came together into one
of Warcraft, Halo 2, Chromehounds, Call of Duty 2 to even poker and big room. We were all together without a single bad attitude and
drinking contests - it was all happening. without a single bad experience. People traveled from all over the
United States and some from Canada to really experience what de-
This time I jump on and play a little Halo 2 since that’s what everyone
fines 2old2play as a site above all others.
else was doing. I eventually went out for dinner to celebrate Jolly Rogers’
and SysChaos’ birthday. It’s about gaming, but it’s also about the real life friendships that are
built. Xbox Live and 2old2play have become a meeting place for many
Upon return, there was a keg waiting for us to tear into. This one lasted
people. Some great friendships were built at 2old2con, a few actual rela-
a little bit longer than the night before. A whole lot happened that night.
tionships (guy/girl, you pervert), and best of all, camaraderie.
To sum it up, I got drunk (like you didn’t know that). Hell, everyone was
drunk and we floated another keg. I was “volunteered” to do the raffle If you didn’t make it to the 2006 2old2con, you need to make it next
and speak in front of everyone. We handed out some bondage equip- year. There will definitely be another one. Start saving your money
ment and we got to see Phreaks with a strap-on. We also had a poker for plane tickets, hotel costs, booze and plenty of good times. I hope
tournament, the Wheezin Geezers awarded Doodi and DSmooth with to see you at the 2007 2old2con.
these cool-ass tokens of appreciation, (they were postcards from mem-
bers of the Wheezin Geezer clan that couldn’t make it all posted onto a -MikeJames
frame) and, last but not least, we met a ton of great new people.

49 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 D-Link GameFuel
Howto
K I LL LAG AND HOSTI NG PROBLEMS W ITH D -LI NK GAMEFUEL
By Tank

L ots of people in the forums ask about what Step2: Hopefully your ISP is listed in the pull down. If not,
router to buy, what router are others using, you’ll need to know a little something about how your ISP
and what router is the best, etc. I thoroughly assigns your TCP/IP address. I’ve probably used 10 differ-
believe in the D-Link Gaming Router, which is spe- ent ISP’s and all but one have used the first option, DHCP.
cifically designed to maximize your gaming experi- So pick that if you don’t know, it’s got the highest probabil-
ence. Besides being a top notch firewall and router, ity of being correct.
it has specific features within it for online gaming Step3: Sometimes your ISP locks your network card’s hard
and Xbox Live use to reduce lag. coded address (MAC address) as the only system that can ac-
D-Link has 2 gaming routers; they’re both the same except one also cess the connection. If this is the case, click the Clone Button.
has WiFi (802.11b/g) wireless networking (DGL-4300). The other is Then type in a HOST name, which can be anything you like.
for wired connections only (DGL-4100). Both routers feature four
1GB Ethernet ports, so you can plug your wired devices in and
network them together at top speeds.

Let’s get started with the setup and configuration. This

setup guide will focus on getting the most out of your
Xbox 360 Live connection.

Section 1: Wiring it up
D-Link has an excellent graphical wiring diagram on its
website. I recommend you take a look. Basically, if your Broadband Lastly, click the CONNECT button and your router will save the settings
Modem connects directly to your PC, the D-Link router will now and restart. Log back in using your new password and click STATUS in
go in the middle, with both devices plugging into it instead. Modem the top menu. In the STATUS menu, you are most concerned with the
into the WAN port, PC into one of the 4 LAN ports. If you have a WAN section. You want to see the TCP/IP address, Subnet Mask, Gate-
firewall/router already between your Broadband Modem and PC, the way and DNS Server all filled in. If it’s not, click the DHCP Release
D-Link will replace that device. button then DHCP Renew, and wait a minute. If you still get nothing,
the DHCP option you picked in Step 3 wasn’t the option your ISP is us-
DGL-4100 guide:
ing. You’ll need to call them and list the options in Step 3’s screen and
ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Gateway/dgl4100/QIG/dgl4100_QIG_100.pdf
find out which one to pick to be compatible with them.
DGL-4300 guide:
Section 3: Wireless Setup
ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Gateway/dgl4300/QIG/dgl4300_QIG_100.pdf
(If you have the non-wireless
Section 2: Basic Configuration model you can skip this)
Your D-Link router’s factory TCP/IP address is 192.168.0.1..If you Step 1: You have to give your wireless network a name. This name
have some other device with that same address, you’ll need to turn is known as its SSID name. Any time you try and connect a wireless
that other device off until your D-Link is configured. A similar device to your wireless router, you need to specify the name or pick
thing to note is that your computer must also have a TCP/IP ad- the name out of a list of available Wi-fi networks that are in range.
dress starting 192.168.0.X where X is a number from 2-254. If your
Step 2: There are 3 types of encryption to secure your wireless net-
computer’s address is something different, change it to 192.168.0.2
work against outsiders getting on and messing around. In order of
with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and you should be able to talk
strongest to weakest those are WPA2, WPA and WEP. If you want
to your new D-Link.
to put the time into researching what all your wireless devices can
Once your router is turned on and your network settings are worked support, go ahead and do that and pick the appropriate option. If you
out, type 192.168.0.1 in Internet Explorer or your browser’s address don’t know, pick the GOOD option which is WEP, the most compat-
bar and click GO. This should load the D-Link router logon screen. ible option that will work with everything.
The default setting is for no password. From there you’ll be dropped
Step 3: Wireless Password: This first screen generates a WEP Key
into the main D-Link Router configuration screen with 2 wizard op-
from a password you give. You will use the WEP KEY to connect
tions -- Internet Connectivity Wizard and Wireless Security Wizard.
to your wireless network, not the password you type in. For your
Click Internet Connection Setup Wizard. Most of these options are password it should be 20 characters and a mix of capital, small let-
basic, so I’ll just point out some important things. ters, numbers and special characters. Click NEXT and your WEP
KEY will be generated, it will look like 1C347 68BC4 4F262 93E2F
Step1: Password: choose a good one. Make it at least 8 characters 1F750 9. Write this WEP KEY down somewhere, you’ll need to type
and try and use letters, numbers and special characters. it into each wireless network device you have.

50 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

D-LInk Gamefuel (Continued)

Howto
Finally, click SAVE and your router will reboot. Reconnect to the GAMING: We need a very important option in here. In the Add Game
router once it resets. Rule window, Enable should be checked. In the Select Game pull down,
select Xbox Live . Then click the SAVE button under Schedule. You
Connecting your wireless devices is beyond the scope of this docu- should see Xbox Live listed now in the Game Rules List window. If you
ment. Every device, however, will need to know both your SSID do, click Save Settings at the top.
and WEP Key, so make sure you have those remembered or written
down and secured in a safe place. GAME FUEL: This is the heart of the D-Link router which gives it
maximum gaming performance. Click Enable Game Fuel and a few
Section 4: The rest of the configuration windows will open. You can leave all these set to the
Basic options default options and click Save Settings at the top.
LAN: If you’re fine building your network based on the 192.168.0.X de-
fault configuration, you can leave this section alone. If your network was Firewall: Enable SPI should be checked. Enable DMZ is
based on some other network, you will change that here in the IP Address optional but I would recommend it. What I do is I manually set
box and adjust the Subnet the TCP/IP address infor-
Mask as required. Leave mation on my Xbox 360
the rest of the settings and in here I click En-
alone and don’t forget able DMZ and put the
to SAVE Settings if address of my Xbox
you make changes. 360 in the DMZ IP
Keep in mind that Address box. So if
if you change your I set my Xbox 360 to
router’s LAN TCP/IP 192.168.0.254, that’s
address, you’ll now what I would put in
need to change your PC’s networking information as well before you can the DMZ IP Address box. Why would you want to do this? It
connect to it again in Internet Explorer or another browser. eliminates any connectivity problems if you host games. It may
also help in gaming traffic flow speed because none of the game
DHCP: I’m not going to get into advanced DHCP configuration but traffic should be processed by the firewall rules.
I’ll give you the basics. Every device on your network needs the
LAN TCP/IP address information, including your Xbox 360. If you Section 6: Finishing touches,
only have one or two devices, you could set the network information the Tools Menu
manually. However if you have a few devices or just want a quick There are a number of useful settings things to think about en-
automated network device setup, I’d recommend you turn this on. abling in the Tools menu. The first thing you should do once
Just click the Enable DHCP Server box at the top and click Save Set- you’re done tinkering is click Tools, Admin, and scroll to the bot-
tings. All the default options that are set when this gets turned on I tom and pick Save Configuration. This will save a file to your PC
expect will be fine for most people. hard drive with all router settings. You want to do this in case
something happens to wipe out your router settings (firmware up-
Section 5: dates have a habit of doing this.) If something happens to your
Advanced Settings settings, you just come back to this screen and pick Restore
You could tinker in these advanced settings for Configuration from File, find the file on your hard drive
days. I’ll take you through the most important sections and all your settings will be restored.
relevant to Xbox Live and let you read up on the others on your
own. Most people won’t need to go beyond the sections I walk That should do it. There’s a lot to tinker with
you through. in the D-Link router and what I’ve walked
you through should get you gaming
SPECIAL APPLICATIONS: This screen opens inbound con- at maximum performance.
nections from the Internet to your home network. For most home
users you can uncheck everything in the Application Level Gate-
way Config window, especially if you don’t know what any of
those options are. These leave doors open for hackers to attempt
exploitation. If you connect to an
office to work from home, you
probably want to leave PPTP
and L2TP and IPSec VPN
checked (or just one of
the three if you know
specifically which
one your office
uses -- just ask
your IT guy.)

51 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

 September Releases
Soon in Stores
The Ultimate List of Gaming Goodness in Stock this month

Title Release Date Title Release Date

Playstation 2 Bomberman 9/12
King of Fighters 2006 9/4 Bounty Hounds 9/12
World Championship Poker All In 9/4 NHL 07 9/12
Okami 9/5 Rengoku II 9/12
Spyhunter : Nowhere to Run 9/5 Open Season 9/19
Yakuza 9/5 The Godfather 9/19
NASCAR 07 9/6 World Series of Poker 9/19
Backyard Baseball 2007 9/12 NBA Live 07 9/25
IGPX 9/12 Bubble Bobble Revolution 9/26
Lego Star Wars 9/12 NBA 07 9/26
NHL 07 9/12 Online Chess Kingdoms 9/26
NHL 2K7 9/12 Spectral Souls 9/26
One Piece : Pirates’ Carnival 9/12 Stacked 9/26
Rule of Rose 9/12 WTF : Work Time Fun 9/26
Bratz : Forever Diamondz 9/18
XBOX
Cabela’s Alaskan Adventure 9/19
Spy Hunter 9/5
Ford Bold Moves Street Racing 9/19
NASCAR 07 9/6
Open Season 9/19
Fuel 9/11
Samurai Warriors 2 9/19
Lego Star Wars II 9/12
World Series of Poker 9/19
NHL 07 9/12
Corvette GT Evolution 9/25
NHL 2K7 9/12
Family Feud 9/25
Ford Bold Moves Street Racing 9/19
NBA 2k7 9/25
Open Season 9/19
NBA Live 07 9/25
NBA 2K7 9/25
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 9/25
NBA Live 07 9/25
Fast & the Furious 9/26
Just Cause 9/26
Greg Hastings Tour Paintball Max’d 9/26
Just Cause 9/26 XBOX 360
Valkyrie Profile 2 9/26 Possession 9/1
Zatchbell 9/26 ShadowClan 9/1
Test Drive Unlimted 9/5
PSP
Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged 9/5
World Championship Poker 9/4
Lego Star Wars II 9/12
Guilty Gear 9/5
NHL 07 9/12
Loco Roco 9/5
NHL 2K7 9/12
MotoGP 9/5
Cabela’s Alaskan Adventure 9/19
Ultimate Ghost ’N’ Goblins 9/5
Open Season 9/19
NASCAR 07 9/6
Xbox Live Vision Camera 9/19

52 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine

September Releases (Continued)

Soon in Stores
Title Release Date Title Release Date
Samauri Warriors 2 9/19 Windows
The Godfather 9/19 Devil May Cry 3 9/1
World Series of Poker 9/19 GTR 2 9/1
NBA 2K7 9/25 Luxor Mahjong 9/1
NBA Live 07 9/25 Backyard Baseball 2007 9/4
Import Tuner Challenge 9/25 Emperor’s Treasures 9/4
Just Cause 9/26 Perimeter 9/4
Prison Tycoon 2 9/4
GAMECUBE
Secret Files: Tunguska 9/4
Lego Star Wars II 9/12
Call of Juarez 9/5
One Piece Pirates’ Carnival 9/12
Faces of War 9/5
Bratz 9/18
Joint Task Force 9/5
Open Season 9/19
Origin of the Species 9/6
Baten Kaitos Origins 9/25
Coffee Tycoon 9/11
Backyard Baseball 2007 9/26
Company of Heroes 9/11
Naruto II 9/26
Glow Worm 9/11

DS Pacific Storm 9/11

Hardcore Pool 9/1 Avatar The Last Airbender 9/12

Micro Machines V4 9/1 Everquest II Classic 9/12

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 9/1 Lego Star Wars II 9/12

Konductra 9/5 NHL 07 9/12

Ultimate Card Games 9/6 NeverWinter Nights 2 9/14

Mario Hoops 3on3 9/11 Age of Pirates 9/18

Cooking Mama 9/12 Face Factory 2 9/18

Harvest Moon DS 9/12 Patriot National Guard 9/18

Lego Star Wars II 9/12 Rag Doll Kung Fu 9/18

Mech Assault : Phanton War 9/12 The Guild 2 9/18

Mega Man ZX 9/12 Ford Bold moves Street Racing 9/19

Bratz 9/18 Open Season 9/19

Danny Phantom 9/18 Fuel 9/25

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 9/18 Inspector Parker 9/25

Contact 9/19 NBA Live 07 9/25

Dragon Quest Heroes 9/19 ParaWorld 9/25

Open Season 9/19 Poker SuperStars II 9/25

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody 9/19 Caesar IV 9/26

Alex Rider 9/25 El Matador 9/26

Maro vs Donkey Kong 2 9/25 Family Fued 9/26

Bubble Bobble Revolution 9/26 Just Cause 9/26

Mage Knight Destiny’s Soldier 9/26

Rainbow Island Revolutions 9/26
53 | 2old2play Magazine | Issue 006 | www.2old2play.com/magazine