A Magazine Just for Übernerds

No, it's not Make even if they are incredibly cool too. I'm talking about:

If you can name at least 80% of the characters on that cover and identify exactly which game each comes from then this is the magazine for you.

[i]Retro Gamer[/i] is published in the U.K. which makes it hard to find over here but I have seen a copy or two from time to time. The expense made me hold off until I saw this collection which appears to be about a year's worth of issues crammed inside. It's actually volume two and it makes me want to hunt down volume one and any other volumes they've made.

Inside you'll find feature articles on the making of classic games, the history of platforms, profiles of a particular publisher or developer, and occasionally a double page spread of a low resolution game. Since it is from the U.K. it does have a very U.K. focus but I didn't mind much since I'm not really that familiar with the Spectrum and Amstrad platforms.

Now to go and find that volume one...

Metal Gear Sigh

I finally got Metal Gear Solid 3 today. Yes, number four is out but I just got three. The reason is that I don't like the Metal Gear games but because I am a gaming nerd I want to be conversant on the popular titles so I attempt to play through them. Since they're popular they're also cheap to buy used (at least once the new game smell has worn off) and the worst thing that happens is I'm annoyed for a few hours and then I'm out roughly the price of a movie.

I've now played for nearly three and a half hours. Or let me revise that: I've played for roughly twenty minutes and watched three hours and ten minutes of poorly written, laughably bad cut scenes. The kind of stuff where a character says a meaningless line because it sounds portentous but it's actually pretentious (I swear it's like they wrote four different versions of each cut scene as they were pinning down the plot and then randomly decided which lines to leave in). I watched the clock and there was literally over an hour and half of cut scenes between meaningful game sequences (where I did something other than use the menu or walk between screens).

And that's why I don't like the series. I want to play a game, not watch a poorly made "spy thriller" by someone who thinks obfuscation is the same thing as cleverness. I'm sticking with it since the most fun I have with the games is providing my own Mystery Science Theater 3000 commentary to those cut scenes. But as a game so far it has been failing just on the game to watching ratio.

Some Terrifying Video Game Art

You know, I'm kind of used to anatomically disturbing females presented as "sexy" in games. A few decades of it and it just fades into the background. This took it to new heights:
Besides the art being ugly and featuring a man with a large chest measurement of his own (he's the one on the left on the front cover; yes it is a man) those women are such bizarre parodies of the female form that it's disturbing. I'd like to say that the artist meant it as a statement on the ludicrous images of women in video games but sadly I think this was intended as attractive.

The game plays pretty well but the spine crushing forms are carried over to the game.

Games I Got Recently

One thing I haven't been able to mention is the games I purchased at Origins. As you look through this list keep in mind that I budgeted myself at $150 and reached that limit exactly.

The game I purchased that's been getting the most plays is Battlelore. I haven't played every scenario yet but it has been a great, simple tactical game. Since the scale is roughly skirmishes it plays very quickly for a basic wargame. I also got the Call to Arms expansion and Hill Giant figurine but haven't been able to dig into them.

I've only gotten in one play of Reef Encounter but I enjoyed it immensely. It did take a full game for me to finally grasp all the nuances of this surprisingly complicated area control game. I'm looking forward to playing this again since it does take time to develop an understanding of it.

I've enjoyed the new Fantasy Flight edition of Arkham Horror quite a bit but I've been hesitant to add too many of the expansions. A game can get bogged down if too much is added to it. I finally obtained The King in Yellow which mainly adds more encounter cards and effects but also adds a play that can bring the game to a sudden end.

Thanks to the recent Hasbro reprint I obtained a copy of the plastic 3M edition of Acquire at about a third of the price that it would have gone for six months ago. I never played this classic before and I found it to be a tough challenge to choose where to invest.

The other old 3M game I obtained was Speed Circuit (though here I got the Avalon Hill edition). In this case it was missing the rules and some of the pieces but substitutes are easily available on Board Game Geek.

I haven't had a chance to play it yet but the game that I'm most looking forward to digging into is Hammer of the Scots. I have been hearing about this strategic game that uses blocks to provide fog of war for years. Hopefully I'll finally get a game in this weekend.

Despite being designed for miniatures Babylon 5: A Call to Arms contains enough counters to play out most fleet combat scenarios (there's roughly twenty sheets of heavy counters). So far I have only read through the rules but I wasn't impressed enough to push it to the table. I may eventually try a few solo scenarios but I don't have much hope for it. Also, the fact that I got two things titled "A Call to Arms" is just one of those weird coincidences that color our lives.

Ricochet Robots is a game that divides people. There are those who love it as a logic puzzle and those who hate it for the same reason. I got my copy because I was certain I would be in the first category. Still haven't had a chance to play a game of it year but hopefully soon.

I gave up my Magic cards around the time that the initial bubble burst but I wanted a few to play with so I bought a box of a few thousand random cards. Yeah its all going to be junk but since I don't care about playing competitively I have enough to stick with for now. I did have to ask them for some land to play with when I purchased the box.

I don't buy a lot of RPG's since I never have a chance to play them these days but I did get a few books while I was at it. The first is Silver Age Sentinels in the tri-stat edition. Since I obviously have an affinity for superheroes this was a natural choice. In addition some of the designers of it are currently working on the Champions MMORPG which I am very likely to play which made me interested.

I also obtained three Transhuman Space books: In the Well, Under Pressure, and Personel Files. I found Transhuman Space setting to be one of the more well defined science fiction settings with the concept of a human society right on the brink of singularity. These three books just about wrap up the set for me.

The first game I got as part of the Rio Grande give away in the Board Room was Guatemala Cafe. It sounded like an interesting light game but I don't expect to get around to playing it any time soon.

The other free game from Rio Grande was Halli Galli which I have little interest in and will probably give away as a gift.

I purchased Maginor at the auction thinking it was another game (I was thinking of Magdar from the same publisher and the box was covered by the auction slip so I couldn't see the art). As a result it's low on my list of things to play but I may get around to it at some point. I really don't know much about it other than the fact that it isn't that popular of title.

I won two games in the Board Room drawings and neither of them are worth it. Crocodile Pool Party is a game rightfully considered the worst of Kosmos's two player series. It's nightmarishly terrible and I won't even be able to give it away.

The other game I won was Tricky Town which appears to be a simple roll-and-move children's games. It's another one that's going out as a Christmas gift.

Origins 2008 Recap

So the Origins Game Fair is over and once again it was a nerdy fun time was had by all. The CABS Board Room was, once again, the place to be for board gaming and the free games from Rio Grande attracted an even larger crowd than usual.

I played too many games to list them all: some old favorites, some new ones of interest, and a few stinkers. Highlights were:

The auction where I got the big purchase I was looking for, Battlelore along with the Hill Giant figure and Call to Arms exansion, at a severe discount and if that wasn't enough I bought a 3M edition of Acquire and a brand new copy of Reef Encounter for just pennies on the gaming dollar. I got in a game of Acquire early the next morning and Reef Encounter the next day and I had no complaints on either purchase. Speed Circuit was a mistake; not only were there many copies available after I purchased mine but I took an Avalon Hill edition and the better 3M editions were available (complete with metal cars!) at a dollar each and my copy was missing rules and components. I still have Ricochet Robots from the auction to play but at least that one is in shrink wrap so it is likely complete.

I did particularly poorly in the Settlers of Catan world qualifier. In my first two games I was completely knocked out of the competition by some spectacularly bad luck (we're talking about hitting a trifecta twice in a row level of unlikelyhood; in one game I had a better than 1 in 2 chance of getting resources on any given roll and I still went more than fifteen rolls without developing anything). By the time the third game came around I went a bit whacky and while I could have done better I didn't. The last game I won handily with, finally, a little bit of luck that went my way but it was way too late.

For the actual games I finally got to try Race for the Galaxy as the absolute last game of the con for me. It was a brilliant expansion on the mechanics already used in San Juan and I was disappointed that it was out of print. I also got to try Shogun which was marvelous as a deep euro-style game with an American design sensibility.

Naturally I had a great time and always wish there was more time to play everything. But there's always next year.

Some Silly Filler

I'm leaving tomorrow and busy with preparations so here's some Spore creatures I've made:


And here's an image of the fine scanning work done by Google that I found while double checking my memory on a portion of Hamlet (yeah, I have multiple copies of the complete text of Shakespeare but sometimes Google is faster):



Finally to round things out here's the cover of the issue of Jimmy Olsen before Jack Kirby took over and started the Fourth World stories:


And the cover immediately after he left prematurely ending it:


Sadly he didn't have much of an impact, did he?

The Nerdiest Place on Earth

My yearly pilgrimage is coming up soon so there will be the short stories tomorrow and I'll put something fun up on Monday but after that I'm going for a week. Where could a colossal nerd go on vacation? I'm headed to Columbus, Ohio for the Origins Game Fair.

When it comes to gaming Gencon is better for RPG's. Essen is better for board games but its a bit of a haul for an American (and October is my busiest time anyway). The World Board Game Championships is impressive but its focus is a little outside my preferences. The Gathering of Friends has the small problem of not being public.

Origins is becoming the definitive US destination for board game fans thanks in large part to the work of the Columbus Area Board Game Society who manages a magnificent game room that is almost a con unto itself. They started two years ago and when I went to their room it was pleasent but a bit quiet. People realized it was the place to hang out though and last year it was packed solid at the busy hours. I played more prototypes and met more game designers in that room than I think I've ever encountered in one place and I've been to E3 when it was still a private conference. I first played my favorite game of last year months before release there.

I fully expect this year to be even busier. They've already announced that just for showing up they'll give you a board game and nothing lures nerds more than free games. Pretty much anyone who doesn't have to work the show all weekend and likes board games is going to turn up there.

Other things I'm looking forward to on my trip:

Rio Grande Games is celebrating their tenth aniversary with a large party and that will be fun.

I've entered myself into the world qualifier for Settlers of Catan; I fully expect to not do well against the agressive players but it's one of those things that I want to take part in just to do it.

On that note Mayfair games will be continuing the Catan resource collection game where you play their games to gain a set of resources which you trade in for a full 50% discount on their games.

It's possible that Agricola, the board game of farm development which has been getting monsterously positive buzz in since its European release last year, may be available at the show and I'll definitely be getting that.

I'm looking forward to meeting Dr. Reiner Knizia again. I met him once very briefly years ago and when he was at the convention the last time he cancelled a talk I was looking forward to. This year I fully expect him to be around and available so I'm looking forward to it.

I'll bring back pictures!

Oddities From my Library - The Original Nerd

For this last trip into my library for a while I want to honor a man who paved the way for nerds: Herbert George Wells. Aside from being one of the people who the majority of science fiction descends from he had a myriad of other interests taken to a degree that would be considered nerdy today. What I'm going to talk about though is the fact that he was the first man to codify kriegspeil, or war game.

Yes, the author of War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man also created the first published war game and so besides science fiction he's also the father of a significant percentage of modern gaming. Modern war games grew from his design, it's the earliest known rule set for miniatures, role-playing games sprung from war games, and between those three they extend into the majority of games published today.

There are two books of note that Wells wrote on the subject and the most important of these is Little Wars. Wells took his inspiration from descriptions of games played by Prussian officers and an article by Robert Louis Stevenson. Neither of them ever published their rules so they are lost to history leaving us with Wells's as the first widely available one.

Who can play Little Wars? Well according to the second sentence: "It can be played by boys of every age from twelve to one hundred and fifty - and even later if the limbs remain sufficiently supple, - by girls of the better sort, and by a few rare and gifted women." Which, of course, explains why women don't play war games; being insulted by the Victorian who created them was just too much of a turn off.

The game is intended to be played with Napoleonic style tin soldiers with each player taking at least forty men to a side. Substitutions for these by modern players is easy but the basis of the game is the artillery which is not. Wells used spring loaded cannons which were built to scale with with soldiers and the point of the game is maneuvering and firing these weapons. I have seen substitutions made with toy guns but it is not the same thing.

Wells's system is a simple one: players alternate turns and each unit can move a certain distance. Infantry move one foot, calvary two, and cannons and carts just one if they have a team in place to move them. Once a player has moved all of the forces on their side they may then fire their cannons a number of times depending on if a team is in place to man and load them. Anyone hit is dead and once this is resolved formations of men combat. They are resolved in straight numbers; an overwhelming number will win and if one side does not have a significant advantage then they whittle each other down. That's the basic form of the game but Wells goes on to provide rules for a command unit and campaign play.

The other book is Floor Games which despite the title does not include any actual games. Instead Wells describes building terrain and structures for the toy soldiers. Floor Games was written before Little Wars so it does not describe any kind of formal game and instead Wells tells the reader how his children use them.

These books have been reprinted multiple times in the past hundred years but I'd recommend the editions from the 1970's. They are facsimiles of the original printings and include some clever marginal illustrations as well as some of Wells's own photographs of games and structures. The books are very entertaining and any gamer with a sense of history should enjoy them.

Oddities From my Library - Games!

Sid Sackson is arguably the first great American game designer. In the decades when board games were stuck with simple roll-and-move mechanics he created games like Acquire and Can't Stop which hold up even in comparison with modern designs. Over the course of his life he designed nearly a thousand games and had a collection of over fifteen thousand board games. Sadly he died in 2002 just as his hobby was undergoing a modern renaissance.

Sackson also wrote extensively about board games and A Gamut of Games is considered his best work. At its heart it is a collection of over thirty board games the majority of which are Sackson's own creations. Few of the games require any specialized equipment (one does utilize four colors of stackable tokens) and Sackson breaks down each chapter according to materials that would be needed: cards, traditional six sided dice, a chess board, paper and pencil, and so on.

While I haven't played every single game in the book the ones I have played have been very good; I suspect Sackson saved his best efforts for this collection. Even the games by other designers that Sackson included are very good; particularly impressive is Origins of WWI where they managed to put a complete negotiating wargame (albeit without direct conflict) ala Diplomacy into five pages. Almost all of the games include both a walk through of a few turns (which sometimes amounts to a full game) and variations to increase the complexity.

Sackson rounds out the book with capsule reviews of every major game that was widely available at the time. It's badly out of date at this point but it is interesting to see what Avalon Hill had available in 1969 for the discriminating consumer.

A Gamut of Games has been out of print for nearly twenty years at this point. It is worth seeking out a copy though since it contains so many unique games that were never published anywhere else.

Oddities From my Library - Strategy Guide

Timescape update: my copy has finally shown up. I can't promise a review for Monday because I want to be able to build up a buffer of read books again. So I need my copy of Book of the New Sun but I'm moving forward.

So here's another oddity from my library:

Yes, a video game strategy guide. It's not however a strategy guide that resembles anything that the majority of people are familiar with.

A long time ago writing on computer games was held to a very high standard. The magazine Computer Gaming World read more like the New York Times Review of Books than Wired. That changed rapidly as computers started becoming a mass market thing. The first issue of PC Gamer in 1993, for example, had a highly positive review of a game by the same person who wrote the prerelease strategy guide. These days you won't find a gaming site with advertising that isn't ensnared in conflict of interest relationships with their subjects.

The few strategy guides for PC games that were released before those days of putting out a guide day and date with the game were very different. For example I have The Official Book of Ultima which is half biography of Ultima creator Richard Garriott and history of Origin Games and half walkthroughs for each of the Ultima games to that point. Then there's books like this Master of Magic strategy guide and Rome on 64k a Day for Civilization (no 2, 3, or 4) which didn't just give you a few paths to victory and a list of units; they contain enough enough data to be able to rebuild the game from scratch.

Let's start with one of the obvious difference. Right there on the cover you'll see that it "covers up to version 1.3". This book was not released on the day the game was released to be sold to suckers purchasing the game who were not aware of free guides online; this book was released months after the game was.

The book is 441 pages long. Across those 441 pages there are twenty screen shots. Small screen shots that fit across one column of text. And almost all of them are in the first one hundred pages. And the text used is small; I've read history text books with less information than what is packed in these pages.

What it does have is formulas. Lots and lots of formulas for every single aspect of the game. And it points out where the bugs are that can be exploited due to those formulas. There's seven formulas for determining each city's gold income, for example. Every one of the hundreds of combat modifiers are given detail.

There's so much information that many people have used this book to remake the game from scratch. This is the nuts and bolts of a computer strategy game from a time when complexity was something people were striving for. You don't get game guides like this any more because the market wouldn't support them.

Doing Important Things...

Very...

...important...

...things.

So no update tonight. If you're really desperate to find what I think of "Home is the Hangman" or "The Borderlands of Sol" the answer is decent reads for both.

Oh and Super Smash Brothers Brawl is a fine addition to the game.

In Memorandum Gary Gygax

Yes, that is my copy of the Dungeon Master's Guide up there. It's well worn, well loved, and deeply played. What better memorial can there be for a game designer?