Sunday Thoughts
No football and college basketball is not fun for me, so I’m enjoying watching the Combined Ski Jump & Cross Country competition.
Times like this remind me of all the enjoyment I had playing the olympic sports games (even thought they didn’t have the official license) by Epyx on my Commodore 64.
I loved how you could save your world records to disk..there was always something to try to beat. Although the Winter Games Bobsled felt stupid, the biathlon was always interesting. Figure skating sucked though. And I think the freestyle skiing was pretty lame too.
Speed skating was always cool though.
Speaking of Olympics, I always thought the Calgary ‘88 logo where they made the “8'’s with the Olympic rings was pretty cool.
I have been playing Mario & Sonic a bit and as you’ll hear from the podcast, Glen spoke so highly of Just Dance that I had to pick it up. What a fun game that is. I wish they had downloadable songs for it, but man, it is a much more fun game than DDR because you’re using your hands rather than your feet. I am exhausted playing it.
And yes we did record the podcast. Seriously if you thought live blogging the olympic ceremonies is good, how about live podcasting? My comments about Wayne Gretsky are awesome.
I would concur with what Glen said about the Luge death. I think they had to run it though, it’s still not pretty but when you have an event that happens like that, I think it’s important to show how dangerous the sport can be. I think they may have overdone it however – remember that SNL skit with Buckwheat dying? It felt like that – in case you missed it, here’s the video again – that sort of thing.
Finally, as I continue to play NHL 10, I was noticing that the paid “insert” advertising is for a good cause as EA has put American Red Cross text for Haiti messages. It’s things like that I think are very cool that they can do. When the game companies do advertising like they have in sports, I’m okay with that – ie dasher boards, billboards in baseball etc. Its when they modify everything to add more billboards or put an ad on the screen on every down that I hate.
When Camden Yards first opened, the Maryland Lottery had the coolest ad in right field – the “Hit It Here” sign. I always thought that the stadiums in video games that had that were so cool.
What are your thoughts about Commodore 64 olympic gaming and ads in videogames?
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Dan:
February 14th, 2010 - 16:53
I’m fine with ads in games as long as they make sense where their placed. Putting them along the boards in hockey games etc.
That’s perfectly fine. I don’t have any issues with that.
Throwing them into places where they wouldn’t be in real life, or trying your hardest to ensure you fit an add of some sort into every screen you see gets annoying very quickly and is detrimental to the gameplay.
I only have a very vague recollection of Commodore Olympics, about the most I can say now is that I know liked it. Track & Field on the NES was terrific though.
Mario & Sonic Winter Olympics on the DS is a strong game. Surprisingly the adventure mode is quite enjoyable and a number of the events stand up very well through repeated playthroughs. Probably the first Olympic styled game I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed since the 80′s.
Which simultaneously makes me feel old, and wonder just what the developers have been doing the last 20 years.
February 15th, 2010 - 11:43
I miss Epyx’s games. I did the whole “combine Summer and Winter Games” on my C64 and had a marathon with a friend.