Épée

By: Derek Yu

On: August 16th, 2007

I was under the impression that fencing, or “swordfighting for gentlemen,” was about prancing around back and forth and poking your opponent with a thin sword, and possibly leaping onto rocks or kicking over tables to confuse your opponent. You know, like Inigo Montoya does it? But from Épée I gather that you could be 100 pounds overweight and still have a chance, so long as you grunt convincingly in French.

This is one slow, ugly game, that takes about 30 seconds too long to load do to the “real-time 3d fencing interface taking advantage of all the latest bleeding-edge shader programming technologies.” Which basically means that I could make a sandwich in the time it takes my guy to lunge at his opponent. AW HELL NO!

(Source: The Gamer’s Quarter Forums)

Toribash 3.0

By: Derek Yu

On: July 23rd, 2007

Toribash 3.0: real-time shader effects, reflections, and motion blur are just some of many improvements planned for the next release. Holy hot damn, this looks good.

Those with crappy video cards can always opt for the original look.

High-res trailers: Windows Media Player, Quicktime

(Source: Fun Motion)

Lugaru 2 updates

By: Lorne Whiting

On: July 20th, 2007

After several months of spending time on lame stuff like school and non-pretty game stuff, David of Wolfire Software decided to update the company blog.

First up is some purdy parallax mapping thing

Followed by a sky shader with a hint of pineapple:

Oh those crazy Wolfire dudes and their insane shader technologies.

Preview: Samurai Soul Hunters

By: Derek Yu

On: July 6th, 2007

DMac, the patron saint of the indie games community, let me know that his current project, Samurai Soul Hunters, can now be shown to the public! Hurrah! Created for the

It’s been great to be able to hear firsthand the love and hard work DMac’s put into this game. And it shows! The game looks like great fun, especially with four players, and I totally dig the Space Harrier-esque perspective. Can’t wait to see this on XBLA.

Plus, more games need metal soundtracks! All hail the DMac!

Bokusin

By: Derek Yu

On: June 19th, 2007

I continue on my quest to play all of Ikiki’s games and chronicle them. With Bokusin (“Boxing”), I discover that not all of Ikki’s games are created equal. This two-player boxing game must be one of his earlier efforts. I give this one 1 Ikiki out of five, which is about 20 on William Usher’s rating scale.

Still, the title screen music is pretty awesome.

Direct download here.

Memories: Bloodlust Software

By: Derek Yu

On: May 21st, 2007

I can’t remember how I first got a hold of Executioners, but I do remember sitting in front of my dad’s old computer, being completely mesmerized by this gritty, gory game. Nevermind how rough the presentation was or how basic the gameplay was… even as a youngling I could tell this game had a lot of heart.

In just the first level of this game you’d fight off a menagerie of strange mutants, everything from Rastafarian zombies to werewolf hookers. In the background, signs for “Ed’s Wiener Shop” and “Julio’s Stuffed Pets” passed you by. At the end of the level, a bloody guy gets tossed off the hood of a moving car, only to begin puking on you and beating you with his own limbs. Violence and bad taste have always been a mainstay of commercial video games, but even Mortal Kombat had nothing on Executioners. While Commander Keen, released a year before, was setting the bar high for PC games and putting the shareware business model in motion, games like Executioners and, later on, Timeslaughter, pulled the bar back down and then kicked it into a shallow grave. Bloodlust Software games were the indie of the indie.

Ethan “Hellbent” Petty (Bloodlust’s lead designer and the artist for the games) and Icer Addis (the programmer) would eventually part ways and land jobs in the commercial game industry. But not before releasing NESticle and Genecyst, two of the earliest and most legendary emulators.

Bloodlust Software still (kind of) exists today, maintained by Ethan alone. Ethan’s even released a few games on his own, using game creation software like Multimedia Fusion to bring his twisted designs to life. I’ve had the opportunity to chat with him on more than one occasion and he is a downright friendly guy! Last I heard, he was a new dad! Congrats, Ethan!

Plans for sequels to Executioners and Timeslaughter have been in the works for a long time, but may never see the light of day. But you can still obtain full, free versions of the originals from the games page on the Bloodlust Software website. DosBox is almost certainly necessary to get the games to run.

Big Bang Beat

By: Tim

On: May 13th, 2007

That doujin fighting game article sure sounds like something up my alley. Anyway, here’s another item of interest to fans of import titles from Japan. A demo is available, but with only two playable characters there’s not much to experiment with (yet).

Ah, right. Here are some hints on how to do a proper combo.

(Some of the members in the development team were responsible for Melty Blood.)

Akatsuki Blitzkampf

By: Derek Yu

On: May 11th, 2007

Previously mentioned on TIGSource, Akatsuki Blitzkampf is a fighting game that takes place in a world where sauerkraut sushi is a delicacy, the world of Philip K. Dick’s famous novel The Man in the High Castle… the world where the Axis powers won World War II.

I’m a fan of fighting games, but no expert, so I’ll let Hunty tell you about it. All I’ll say is that it’s got a nice, clean, fascist look to it.

(Source: Tim W., natch!)

For information on where to get the demo and how to get it to run, hit the extended:

You can download the demo here (126 Mb). The game is configured for a gamepad by default, so if you want to play with a keyboard, you’ve got to run the config.exe. In order to get config.exe to work, you have to change the compatibility mode (right-click and go to “Properties”):

Then go to this menu and click 1P:

Then change all the buttons:

Voila!

Bashanomics

By: Derek Yu

On: April 26th, 2007

Toribash, the amazing 3D, turn-based ragdoll fighting game just keeps getting bigger and better! We covered this game almost a year ago, and its great to see it thriving.

GameSetWatch reports that the game has introduced virtual credits into their online community, creating a virtual economy based on buying and selling everything from custom body parts to forum sig graphics to stories written about the various clans that have arisen around the game. Man, I love this kind of stuff… the idea of clans, histories, and economies emerging from these little game worlds drives me nuts.

I met Hampa, one of the creators, at GDC this year, and he’s also a really nice guy. Good game, good people. If you haven’t tried it yet, you should.

Sumotori Dreams

By: Derek Yu

On: April 24th, 2007

I don’t think I’ve laughed so much playing any other game, to be quite honest. Well, maybe Pillar Killer.

Sumotori Dreams is a sumo wrestling simulation that incorporates some sort of self-balancing algorithm. What that really means is that the wrestlers stumble around like a couple of drunken clowns. Add to that an easy jazz soundtrack and you basically have the funniest 88kb of fun you’ve ever had.

(Source: Sensible Erection NSFW)