Games Archive

EXiGY rolls up the all of the above experiences into a single package: make games the way they were made in the mid-90s, by dragging and dropping objects into a window, programming some behaviour into those objects, and clicking the Run button. It’s like ZZT with tile graphics instead of ASCII. Want to send your little game to some friends? Click the Gift button to package all of the files up, and send your friend the .XGY file. EXiGY is about making it fun to create games again. ↫ Chris on the Exigy website I fell in love with this the second I saw it come by on Mastodon. Chris – I don’t know the author’s full name so I’ll stick with Chris – has been working on this for the past year, and it’s not out quite yet. Still, the feature list is packed, and on the linked website, they intend to post development updates so we can keep up with the goings-on. This seems like an incredibly cool project and I’d love to play around with it when Chris deems it ready for release.

A three-year fight to help support game preservation has come to a sad end today. The US copyright office has denied a request for a DMCA exemption that would allow libraries to remotely share digital access to preserved video games. ↫ Dustin Bailey at GamesRadar This was always going to end in favour of the massive gaming industry with effectively bottomless bank accounts and more lawyers than god. The gist is that Section 1201 of the DMCA prevents libraries from circumventing the copy protection to make games available remotely. Much like books, libraries loan out books not just for research purposes, but also for entertainment purposes, and that’s where the issue lies, according to the Copyright Office, who wrote “there would be a significant risk that preserved video games would be used for recreational purposes”. The games industry doesn’t care about old titles nobody wants to buy anymore and no consumer is interested in. There’s a long tail of games that have no monetary value whatsoever, and there’s a relatively small number of very popular older games that the industry wants to keep repackaging and reselling forever – I mean, we can’t have a new Nintendo console without the opportunity to buy Mario Bros. for the 67th time. That’d be ludicrous. In order to protect the continued free profits from those few popular retro titles, the endless list of other games only a few nerds are interested in are sacrificed.

Steam has finally stopped working on several older Windows operating systems, following a warning from Valve that it planned to drop support earlier this year. With little fanfare, Windows 7 and Windows 8 gaming on Steam is no longer possible following the most recent Steam client update on November 5. ↫ Ben Stockton at PCGamesN It’s honestly wild that Valve supported Windows 7 and 8 for this long for Steam in the first place. They’ve been out of support for a long time, and at this point in time, less than 0.3% of Steam users were using Windows 7 or 8. Investing any resources in continuing to support them would be financially irresponsible, while also aiding a tiny bit in allowing people to use such unsupported, insecure systems to this day. I’m sure at least one of you is still rocking Windows 7 or 8 as your daily driver operating system, so I’m sorry if you don’t want to hear this, but it’s really, really time to move on. Buying a Windows 10 or 11 license on eBay or whatever costs a few euros at most – if you’re not eligible for one the free upgrade programs Microsoft ran – and especially Windows 10 should run just fine on pretty much anything Windows 7 or 8 runs on. Do note that with Windows 10, though, you’ll be back in the same boat next year.

Is your Windows PC not performing well when gaming? Understand how to optimize the main Windows settings you will never touch again, such as Game Mode, Power Options, and Driver Updates, step-by-step for a smoother gaming experience. Maximize Your PC Performance Gaming on computers is a popular choice for players across genres, whether playing video poker, exploring large RPG worlds, or engaging in fierce MOBA matches.  The performance of these games is often determined by how well your system is optimized.  Minor changes to Windows settings can significantly improve gameplay by ensuring that your computer allocates resources efficiently.  Game Mode, featured in Windows 10 and later, prioritizes gaming operations for improved performance and frame rates.  These adjustments, combined with regular updates, revised power settings, and eliminating unneeded background operations, ensure that your PC is ready for uninterrupted, high-performance gaming sessions in any genre. Enable Game Mode Game Mode is a feature built into Windows 10 and 11 that optimizes your computer’s gaming resources by reducing the impact of other apps.  To enable Game Mode, start in ‘Settings’. Then, select the ‘Gaming’ button from the menu options. Finally, head to the game mode settings, where you can enable it.  The functionality works by reducing background tasks and stopping updates while you play a game. Game Mode is a feature that works wonders when it comes to improving your gaming experience.  This is especially useful when playing resource-intensive current games since it helps maintain an optimal performance level that could contribute to reaching at least 60 frames per second (FPS), which adds smoothness to game motion. Game Mode makes tasks like managing system resources much easier, leading to increased frame rates and reduced latency, which are important perks when playing online.  Be it speedy engagements with opponent shooters or long trips through large open-world settings, Game Mode gives gamers the competitive edge for a deeper dive into their virtual worlds. Adjust Power Settings for Maximum Performance Optimizing display settings and power configurations is key to increasing PC gaming performance, especially on gaming laptops.  It is possible to prioritize system performance. A high-performance power plan allocates most power to the system instead of a longer battery life.  It’s easy to enable. Go to Settings > System > Power & Sleep, open Additional Power Settings, and choose High Performance.  A suitable method of avoiding power reduction is getting power from an external power supply. If the option isn’t there, check under Show Additional Plans or create your plan.  Changing these settings means that your setup can execute resource-demanding programs, resulting in a smoother and more fascinating experience. Optimize Graphics Settings in Nvidia Control Panel Modifying some settings on the Nvidia Control Panel may maximize gaming performance.  Select ‘Prefer maximum performance’ from the power management settings menu to ensure that your graphics card always runs at total capacity and can even kick in during unexpected moments. Getting the other settings, such as texture filtering and monitor refresh rates, right helps to improve the visual quality and smoother the gameplay.  The preferred one is the highest available. Reducing stutters consequently allows us to have the smooth experience we have been waiting for.  Moreover, Nvidia also announced that G-SYNC would reduce stuttering and screen tearing problems and thus increase the overall gaming experience. Turning off VSync may result in better frames per second but may cause screen tearing. Selecting Single Display Performance Mode if you typically game on one display is another adjustment to improve gaming performance.  Keeping these settings tuned and installing GPU drivers regularly is critical to ensuring that your graphics card performs at its best across all games.  Disable Unnecessary Background Processes Extraneous background tasks can degrade gaming performance as they draw necessary system resources.  To improve your gaming experience, remove non-essential software and free up resources for smoother gameplay. The Task Manager window shows you how many applications are running when you right-click the taskbar, select Task Manager, and go to the Processes tab.  If you right-click on one of the redundant processes within the list and click on ‘End Task’, you will claim back your system resource. The Startup tab in Task Manager allows users to disable unnecessary programs during startup, which can increase startup times and spare resources for the whole system. Update Graphics Card Drivers You need to ensure that your video drivers are updated to get the highest performance out of your graphics card.  If the user ignores this fact, there may be glitches, drops in frame rates, or even system crashes during play.  Graphics card updates that increase responsiveness, speed, and the general quality of functioning of a system will thus provide a great core for gaming. Use software utilities such as GeForce Experience for Nvidia cards or Radeon Software for AMD cards to conveniently handle graphics card driver upgrades.  These programs will detect your GPU model and download recent driver releases. Consistent updates can increase frames per second by up to 23%, significantly improving gameplay quality.  Make a habit of regularly checking for the latest driver updates to avoid common gaming problems and guarantee the smooth running of the system.  This proactive move not only leads to a high-quality gaming experience but also helps in keeping the game up and running without any disruptions. Configure Display Settings Optimizing display settings is vital for achieving the best gaming performance. Make sure your monitor’s refresh rate is at its highest to enhance visual smoothness while playing games. Enabling hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling can lower latency and improve graphics output.  To activate this feature, navigate through Settings > System > Display > Graphics settings and switch on the hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling option. You can reduce the resolution of the monitor you are using to relieve the GPU and simultaneously make the games smoother.  It is advisable to set the monitor to the recommended resolution in order to make the display sharper and improve gaming performance and overall efficiency. Disable Windows Notifications and Game Bar The Xbox Game Bar and Windows notifications

Esports competitions are the pinnacle of competitive gaming, bringing together the top players and teams worldwide to participate in thrilling events. These events, frequently staged in enormous venues and broadcast to millions of people online, include many popular titles such as League of Legends, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike.Aside from the spectacular events, esports tournaments are well-known for the ardent fanbases that bet on who will win. Frequently updated about Dota 2 and LoL odds, these enthusiasts propel the tournaments forward, attracting larger audiences, higher stakes, and increased media coverage. These events will be greater than ever in 2024, providing unforgettable moments that will impact the future of gaming. League of Legends World ChampionshipThe 2024 League of Legends World Championship will make history as the first to be held in London, in the O2 Arena, in front of 15,000 fans. This November, twenty elite teams will compete for the coveted Summoner’s Cup and a sizable prize pool, which last year totaled $2.25 million. The competition begins with the Play-In Stage, where teams such as the MAD Lions and PSG Talon compete for a berth in the main event. The double-elimination system leaves no room for error, paving the way for thrilling comebacks and high-stakes matchups. Following the Play-In Stage, the Swiss Stage takes over, with 16 elite teams from various areas competing in a competitive five-round format. This phase guarantees exciting matchups and second opportunities, as only the most adaptable teams progress to the final rounds. The Swiss format stresses perseverance, giving fans unexpected victories and strategic games. The Worlds Anthem, performed this year by Linkin Park, is a trademark of the competition “Heavy Is The Crown.” The song reflects the tournament’s attitude of triumph over adversity, which resonates with contestants and supporters. The anthem’s dramatic music video captures the togetherness and passion that define the League of Legends community, raising Worlds to more than just a tournament. Dota 2: The InternationalThe International is synonymous with Dota 2 and continues to be one of the world’s most anticipated esports competitions. It is well-known for its large prize pools and record-breaking viewership, and it defines competitive gaming. This year, Valve is upgrading the experience with up to ten LAN events, giving fans additional options to participate in the competition at all stages. Beyond the significant rewards, The International represents strong competition and the pinnacle of Dota 2, with suspenseful and dramatic encounters. The tournament’s heritage is founded on passionate rivalries and amazing moments, making it a must-see for fans year after year. The first prize pool for 2024, financed by Valve, begins at $1.6 million and is expected to expand to more than $2.6 million through community contributions. Historically, the winning team wins more than 40% of the overall prize money, with significant benefits for other players, adding to the event’s appeal. This year’s leading contenders include Team Spirit, which is looking to make history by winning its third championship, and the Gaimin Gladiators, which finished second last year and is looking for its first TI victory. Teams such as Team Liquid, Xtreme Gaming, and newcomers The Falcons heighten the competition excitement, promising an exciting tournament full of legacy-defining moments. Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) The Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) has established itself as the leading esports championship, attracting top talent and enthusiasts worldwide. The VCT Masters will be held in Shanghai in 2024, reflecting the city’s booming esports culture. The event builds on the success of Valorant Champions 2023, which attracted a peak audience of 1.29 million. Riot Games has implemented new player trade and loan mechanisms, which adds strategic depth to this year’s event. The competition starts with regional qualifiers, in which teams from various places compete for a berth in the main event, assuring a diversified participation. The knockout stage employs a double-elimination structure, which provides second opportunities and heightens the suspense. Fans can expect intense matches and spectacular moments as teams compete for the ultimate championship. Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) The Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) is a highlight of the esports season, known for its big prize pools and high viewership. FNCS 2024 anticipates tough competition, building on last year’s success of 6 million hours watched. When it begins in early 2024, the tournament, which has a $4 million prize pool, will draw top-tier participants from all over the world. The event includes several crucial tournaments and qualifying rounds to determine the top-performing teams. Each tournament highlights regional diversity, bringing distinct strategies and growing gameplay to light. These events also emphasize Fortnite’s dynamic meta, which requires teams to adapt and excel.Renowned organizations such as FaZe Clan and TSM are anticipated to lead the tournament, while Dignitas and Team Falcons will also want to make their impact. The FNCS 2024 not only provides entertaining confrontations but also influences worldwide rankings, making each match crucial for future qualifying. Fans can expect an electrifying event as elite players compete for supremacy in one of the most prominent esports events. Apex Legends Global Series The Apex Legends Global Series is becoming increasingly popular, capturing a diverse and enthusiastic audience. The series features a huge prize pool, with $2 million committed to the World Championship finals alone. Each section of the series allows competitors to win from a $500,000 prize pool, ensuring that competition stays high at all levels. In 2023, viewership for the Apex Legends Global Series increased by 13%, totaling 47.9 million hours watched. This spike can be attributed largely to playoffs, which attract a lot of attention since they feature elite teams from diverse locations fighting in high-energy clashes that represent the game’s intense essence. This gaming event exemplifies Apex Legends’ long-term appeal to players and deeply ingrained competitive spirit. Counter-Strike 2 Major Championships The PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 promises to be a watershed moment in the Counter-Strike 2 series, with 16 elite teams vying for a $1.25 million prize pool. It will take place at Denmark’s Royal Arena from March 21 to March 31. It will showcase some of the

Nintendo, together with The Pokémon Company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, Inc. on September 18, 2024. This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights. ↫ Nintendo press release Since the release of Palworld, which bears a striking resemblance to the Pokémon franchise, everybody’s been kind of expecting a reaction from both Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, and here it is. What’s odd is that it’s not a trademark, trade dress, or copyright lawsuit, but a patent one, which is not what you’d expect when looking at how similar the Palworld creatures look to Pokémon, to the point where some people even suggest the 3D models were simply lifted wholesale from the latest Nintendo Switch Pokémon games. There’s no mention of which patents Pocketpair supposedly infringes upon, and in a statement, the company claims it, too, has no idea which patents are supposedly in play. I have to admit I never even stopped to think game patents were a thing at all, but now that I spent more than 2 seconds pondering this concept, of course they exist. This lawsuit will be quite interesting to follow, because the games industry is one of the few technology sectors out there where copying each others ideas, concepts, mechanics, and styles is not only normal, it’s entirely expected and encouraged. New ideas spread through the games industry like wildfires, and if some new mechanic is a hit with players, it’ll be integrated into other games within a few months, and games coming out a year later are expected to have the hit new mechanics from last year. It’s a great example of how beneficial it is to have ideas freely spread, and how awesome it is to see great games take existing mechanics and apply interesting twists, or use them in entirely different genres than where they originated from. Demon’s Souls and the Dark Souls series are a great example of a series of games that not only established a whole new genre other games quickly capitalised on, but also introduced the gaming world to a whole slew of new and unique mechanics that are now being applied in all kinds of new and interesting ways. Lawsuits like this one definitely pose a threat to this, so I hope that either this fails spectacularly in court, or that the patents in question are so weirdly specific as to be utterly without merit in going after any other game.

The Box64 project, which allows you to run Linux x86-64 binaries on non-x86 architectures like ARM and RISC-V, has achieved a major milestone with its RISC-V backend. It’s been over a year since our last update on the state of the RISC-V backend, and we recently successfully ran The Witcher 3 on an RISC-V PC, which I believe is the first AAA game ever to run on an RISC-V machine. So I thought this would be a perfect time to write an update, and here it comes. ↫ Box86/Box64 blog Calling this a monumental achievement would be underselling it. Just in case you understand how complex running The Witcher 3 on RISC-V really is: they’re running a Windows x86 game on Linux on RISC-V using Box64, Wine, and DXVK. This was only made possible relatively recently due to more and more x86 instructions making their way into RISC-V, as well as newer RISC-V machines that can accept modern graphics cards. The Witcher 3 can runs at about 15 frame per second in-game, using the 64-core RISC-V processor in the Milk-V Pioneer combined with an AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT GPU. That may not sound like much, but considering the complexity underpinning even running this game at all in this environment it’s actually kind of amazing. It seems Box64 could become as important to gaming on ARM and RISC-V Linux as Wine and Proton were for gaming x86 Linux. There’s still a lot more work to be done, and the linked article details a number of x86 instructions that are particularly important for x86 emulation, but are not available on RISC-V. The end result is that RISC-V has to run multiple instructions to emulate a single x86 instruction (“a whole of 10 instructions for a simple byte add”), which obviously affects performance.

Way back, Valve had the intention of making gaming on Linux a reality by allowing anyone to make PCs running SteamOS, with the goal of making Steam less dependent on the whims of Windows. This effort failed and fizzled out, but the idea clearly never died inside Valve, because ten years later the Steam Deck would take the market by storm, spawning a whole slew of copycats running unoptimised, difficult to use Windows installations. There have been hints Valve was toying with the idea of releasing official SteamOS builds for devices other than the Steam Deck, and the company has not confirmed these rumours. The company’s long said it plans to let other companies use SteamOS, too — and that means explicitly supporting the rival Asus ROG Ally gaming handheld, Valve designer Lawrence Yang now confirms to The Verge. ↫ Sean Hollister at The Verge This is great news for the market, as some of these Steam Deck competitors are interesting from a specifications perspective – although pricing sure goes up with that – but running Windows on a small handheld gaming device is a chore, and relying on OEMs to make “gaming overlays” to make Windows at least somewhat usable is not exactly something you want to have to rely on. SteamOS is clearly lightyears ahead of Windows in this department, so having non-Steam Deck handheld gaming PCs officially supported by Valve is great news. We’re still a long way off, though, says Valve, and the same applies to Valve’s plans to release a generic SteamOS build for any old random PC. That effort, too, is making steady progress, but isn’t anywhere near ready. Of course, there’s a variety of unofficial SteamOS variants available, so you’re not entirely out of luck right now. On top of that, there’s things like Bazzite, which offer a SteamOS-like experience, but using the Atomic variants of Fedora.

The complete source code for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) version of Doom has been released on archive.org. Although some of the code was partially released a few years ago, this is the first time the full source code has been made publicly available. ↫ Shaun James at GBAtemp The code was very close to being lost forever, down to a corrupted disk that had to be fixed. It’s crazy how much valuable, historically relevant code we’re just letting rot away for no reason.

About a week ago, there has been a little addition to the 3dbrew wiki page about 3DS cartridges (carts) that outlines the technical details of how the 3DS cartridge controller and a 3DS cartridge talk to each other. I would like to take this opportunity to also include the 3DS itself in the conversation to illuminate which part of which device performs which step. I will then proceed to outline where I think the corresponding design decisions originate. Finally, I will conclude with some concrete ideas for improvement. ↫ Forbidden Tempura Everything you ever wanted to know about 3DS cartridges and how they interact with the 3DS.

Nearly 30 years after the launch of the Virtual Boy, not much is publicly known about how, exactly, Nintendo came to be interested in developing what would ultimately become its ill-fated console. Was Nintendo committed to VR as a future for video games and looking for technological solutions that made business sense? Or was the Virtual Boy primarily the result of Nintendo going “off script” and seizing a unique, and possibly risky, opportunity that presented itself? The answer is probably a little bit of both. As it turns out, the Virtual Boy was not an anomaly in Nintendo’s history with video game platforms. Rather, it was the result of a deliberate strategy that was consistent with Nintendo’s way of doing things and informed by its lead creator Gunpei Yokoi’s design philosophy. ↫ Benj Edwards and Jose Zagal at Ars Technica I’ve never used a Virtual Boy, and in fact, I’ve never even seen one in real life. It was mythical object when I was not even a teenager yet, something we read about in gaming magazines in The Netherlands. We didn’t really know what it was or how it worked, and it wasn’t until much later, in the early YouTube age, that I got to see what using one was actually like in the countless YouTube videos made about the device. It seems it caused quite a few headaches, was cumbersome to use, had very few games, and those that were sold ended up collecting dust pretty quickly. In that sense, it seems not a lot has changed over the past thirty years.

Electronic Arts has a long, storied history of trying to wring more money out of gamers after they’ve purchased a game — now, it appears, the company’s hard at work on its next generation of in-game ads. EA CEO Andrew Wilson admitted as much on the company’s Q4 earnings call: when an analyst asked about “the market opportunity for more dynamic ad insertion across more traditional AAA games,” he said the company’s already working on it. “We have teams internally in the company right now looking at how do we do very thoughtful implementations inside of our game experiences,” said Wilson. ↫ Sean Hollister at The Verge Ads in games are definitely not new – we’ve seen countless games built entirely around brands, like Tapper for Budweiser, Pepsiman, or Cool Spot for 7-Up – and banner ads and product placement in various games has been a thing for decades, too. It seems like EA wants to take this several steps further and use things like dynamic ad insertion in games, so that when you’re playing some racing game, you’ll get an ad for your local Hyundai dealer, or an ad for a gun store when you’re playing GTA in the US. Either way, it’s going to make games worse, which is perfectly in line with EA’s mission.

This is a virtual DEC PDP-1 (emulated in HTML5/JavaScript) running the original code of “Spacewar!”, the earliest known digital video game. If available, use gamepads or joysticks for authentic gameplay — the game was originally played using custom “control boxes”. Spacewar! was conceived in 1961 by Martin Graetz, Stephen Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen. It was first realized on the PDP-1 in 1962 by Stephen Russell, Peter Samson, Dan Edwards, and Martin Graetz, together with Alan Kotok, Steve Piner, and Robert A Saunders. ↫ Norbert Landsteiner It’s wild to me that even for the very first video game, they already made what are effectively controllers anyone today could pick up and use. Note that this emulator can run more than just Spacewar!.

One of the remarkable characteristics of the Super Nintendo was the ability for game cartridges (cart) to pack more than instructions and assets into ROM chips. If we open and look at the PCBs, we can find inside things like the CIC copy protection chip, SRAM, and even “enhancement processors”. ↫ Fabien Sanglard When I was a child and teenager in the ’90s, the capabilities of the SNES cartridge were a bit of a legend. We’d talk about what certain games would use which additional processors and chips in the cartridge, right or wrong, often boasting about the games we owned, and talking down the games we didn’t. Much of it was probably nonsense, but there’s some good memories there. We’re decades deep into the internet age now, and all the mysteries of the SNES cartridge can just be looked up on Wikipedia and endless numbers of other websites. The mystery’s all gone, but at least now we can accurately marvel at just how versatile the SNES really was.