Is it 1992 in here?
March 1, 2010 7:19 AM Subscribe
It's not Friday and it's not Flash. Eric David Ruth makes downloadable PC games which generally ape the style of old-school console games. He's got quite a bit of attention recently for Pixel Force Left 4 Dead, which attempts to recreate Left 4 Dead as it would have been on the NES.
Strange but I feel like I'd have more fun playing this version. Or maybe I'd play it for ten minutes and then be wanting my fps back, who's to say.
posted by nola at 8:04 AM on March 1, 2010
posted by nola at 8:04 AM on March 1, 2010
It ran badly but playably under one version of WINE I have installed -- weird blinky window in one corner, and no sound -- but not playably enough that I'd want to spend the 10 minutes to Winebottle it for everyone else to enjoy.
posted by majick at 8:12 AM on March 1, 2010
posted by majick at 8:12 AM on March 1, 2010
I always thought he should have called it Left 2 Die.
posted by episteborg at 8:20 AM on March 1, 2010
posted by episteborg at 8:20 AM on March 1, 2010
This seems excellent. I liked that 8-bit TF2, which sounds similar. Do you have to register at IGN to download the file? And if so, why? I've never seen this kind of registry wall outside of the news/comment systems, and I'm curious about its use for games.
posted by Valet at 8:29 AM on March 1, 2010
posted by Valet at 8:29 AM on March 1, 2010
You shouldn't have to register anywhere. I think Fileplanet may require registration these days, but there's three sources on the game's homepage.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:32 AM on March 1, 2010
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:32 AM on March 1, 2010
I hope Valve doesn't get all pissy about it and make him take it down.
Valve is usually pretty good about letting the mod community have its way, and I don't see them get a snake up their britches about this.
posted by deezil at 8:33 AM on March 1, 2010
Valve is usually pretty good about letting the mod community have its way, and I don't see them get a snake up their britches about this.
posted by deezil at 8:33 AM on March 1, 2010
This is adorable. I think I even saw a witch.
posted by episteborg at 8:37 AM on March 1, 2010
posted by episteborg at 8:37 AM on March 1, 2010
I only know of two times when Valve's interfered with mods or fan stuff. The first was with Black Mesa, a mod that, when finished, will recreate the original Half-Life in the Source engine. (The devs were disappointed in how crappy Half-Life: Source was and felt that the game deserved more than just being copied and pasted to the Source engine, so they're not only recreating the game in Source, they're upgrading the models, textures, environment, and so on to bring it up to more modern standards.) It was originally "Black Mesa: Source", but Valve has released a few games under the name "x: Source" and required the team to leave off the last bit.
The other was Codename Gordon, a fan-made side-scroller based on HL2 which used to be available for free on Steam. It was eventually removed because the devs' domain registration expired and was sniped out from under them by porn spammers. This wouldn't have been a problem, but the game's main menu contains a link to the website. Valve apparently tried and failed to contact the creators of the game to get them to update it, but failing that, removed the game from Steam so that kids wouldn't follow a link from a free game to a porn site. It's still available if you put in "steam://install/92" in your address bar- it simply isn't present in the system.
So yeah, I think they're a pretty light touch, and EDR shouldn't have anything to worry about.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:54 AM on March 1, 2010 [3 favorites]
The other was Codename Gordon, a fan-made side-scroller based on HL2 which used to be available for free on Steam. It was eventually removed because the devs' domain registration expired and was sniped out from under them by porn spammers. This wouldn't have been a problem, but the game's main menu contains a link to the website. Valve apparently tried and failed to contact the creators of the game to get them to update it, but failing that, removed the game from Steam so that kids wouldn't follow a link from a free game to a porn site. It's still available if you put in "steam://install/92" in your address bar- it simply isn't present in the system.
So yeah, I think they're a pretty light touch, and EDR shouldn't have anything to worry about.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:54 AM on March 1, 2010 [3 favorites]
Valve should put this on Steam.
posted by smoothvirus at 11:56 AM on March 1, 2010
posted by smoothvirus at 11:56 AM on March 1, 2010
Downloaded. Played. Deleted.
Yes, I get that it's cute and thematic and blah blah blah. At some point, they forgot to make a good game as well. Battletoads is more fun than this.
posted by mightygodking at 12:13 PM on March 1, 2010
Yes, I get that it's cute and thematic and blah blah blah. At some point, they forgot to make a good game as well. Battletoads is more fun than this.
posted by mightygodking at 12:13 PM on March 1, 2010
It's got the right intro music and pixel art.
They forgot to work in the game dynamics, though. You fight through alone- no teamwork. The Boomer doesn't attract the horde, his bile just hurts you. You don't get sudden crowds of zombies. To make up for that, the zombies are too easy to kill.
posted by dunkadunc at 3:13 PM on March 1, 2010
They forgot to work in the game dynamics, though. You fight through alone- no teamwork. The Boomer doesn't attract the horde, his bile just hurts you. You don't get sudden crowds of zombies. To make up for that, the zombies are too easy to kill.
posted by dunkadunc at 3:13 PM on March 1, 2010
>: the zombies are too easy to kill.
oops. Make that 'too hard to kill'.
posted by dunkadunc at 3:15 PM on March 1, 2010
oops. Make that 'too hard to kill'.
posted by dunkadunc at 3:15 PM on March 1, 2010
Heh. Battletoads is awesome. Terrifyingly difficult -- man, I couldn't even beat that game with a Game Genie -- but so very satisfying.
posted by effugas at 7:55 PM on March 1, 2010
posted by effugas at 7:55 PM on March 1, 2010
I felt the same way, dunk. The author claims that his intent was not to recreate L4D but to implement it the way it would've been implemented in the NES era- hence the cheesy-ass chiptune background music.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:31 AM on March 2, 2010
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:31 AM on March 2, 2010
The background music was totally incongruous, but damn I loved it.
posted by dunkadunc at 8:02 AM on March 2, 2010
posted by dunkadunc at 8:02 AM on March 2, 2010
There are too many sprites (And colors) and colors for it to be an NES game, though. But not enough colors for it to be a good SNES game.
posted by delmoi at 1:28 AM on March 20, 2010
posted by delmoi at 1:28 AM on March 20, 2010
Yeah, they could've done like Mega Man 9 did and added sprite flicker.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:44 AM on March 20, 2010
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:44 AM on March 20, 2010
« Older Church, state, basketball and Mennonites | Have One On Me Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by cmonkey at 7:32 AM on March 1, 2010