Unleaded Logic Dot Com

Yeah. I know you read the headline and I know exactly what you were thinking when you read it too. In fact the headline made you so curious that you just had to see what exactly I was talking about right?

Well read on because I just ran into the same situation.

These past few days I’ve been flipping through scans of old Nintendo Power issues and just a little awhile ago I flipped to a monthly comic strip called Nester’s Adventures in which the main character is often in the most popular Nintendo game at the time. This particular issue it happened to be Star Wars. Innocent enough right? Heck its even Halloween themed…yeah well its innocent until you get to this part:

Yeah! I bet you hope he has a huge sack! What exactly do you mean when you say “Mr. Goodbar”? Does that come along with the sack? Is that a light saber in your pants or are you just happy to see me?

When I read this as a kid, I didn’t think anything of it, but reading it now you have to wonder if the writer was pissing his pants putting in this part. Fantastic. There’s no way you could get away with telling kids at the door “OPEN YOUR SACK KIDDO!!!!” You’d have the police at your door in seconds.

Anyways, enjoy the weekend and I hope your have a huge sack! *

*Actually, keep your sack away from me.*

This week, Retro Game Challenge for the Nintendo DS was released in North America. Known in Japan as Game Center CX: Arino’s Challenge, the game is based off the popular TV show of the same name where chief game player Arino takes on the challenges of retro video games ranging from Famicom system to Super Famicom and more. The games he plays are often frustrating and tough, but is fun to watch for a nice trip down memory lane. So how the heck do you base a TV show that revolves around a guy playing games for a living and make it freaking awesome? Simple, trade places with Arino and take on the challenges yourself! You won’t be playing Super Mario 3, Ghouls and Ghosts or Star Soldier though; rather you’ll be playing parades of these popular games.

The story of this game is that Arino himself became so frustrated with video games that he himself became a "ghost" in the world of video games and haunts gamers around the world; turning them into a child and then challenging them to play classic retro games from Arino’s childhood. In order to be turned back into an adult and escape from Arino, you must beat all of his challenges! The moment you pop in the game, you become the latest victim of the Retro Game Master Arino. The game itself makes decent use of the NDS’s dual screens, the bottom screen is used for selecting which video cart you want to play or to read the latest issue of Game Fan magazine that offers you cheats and tips on how to beat the games that the Game Master has challenged you to. You will also have many chats with your new found friend young Arino who cheers you on at every game and shares your frustration with you if you blow a challenge.

The top screen is where all the gaming action takes place. After selecting your game from the screen below, the game starts on the top. This screen scheme gives the idea that the players are in the living room in the screen below and the top screen is where they are looking up at the game as they are playing it. The games as I mentioned before are clones of popular games such as Galaga, Star Soldier, RC Pro AM, Dragon Quest and more. Each game has 4 challenges that you must complete in order to gain access to the next game. In Cosmic Gate one of the challenges is to use a Warp Gate twice without dying and once you figure out how make a warp gate appear and find it twice, you successfully pass the challenge and are given another which can be harder or easier depending on how the Game Master is feeling. Some of these can be quite easy, while others can get a bit frustrating; but nothing too bad to where you want to give up on the game easily.

Each game offers a ton of different variety and each one is actually its own full game with its own ending, even after you finish the challenges that Arino gives you for it. Once you beat all 4 challenges the game is placed in Free Play mode where you are able to play it to the end. Pretty awesome! My favorite game so far has to be Guardia Quest, a clone of Dragon Quest! It follows the exact same formula of the first three games, but gives it its own unique twist; thus making it feel like a brand new game. The game is packed with shooters, platform, RPG’s and racing; and each game brings a smile to your face because it makes you feel like your back in the 80’s playing an awesome Nintendo game again.

You can watch just a few examples of the game’s in my small video review below:

Overall the variety that this game offers is worth the $29.99 price for it and if your a fan of retro games or you just have a taste for playing some that will wack your nostalgic memories then this game is perfect for you. I highly recommend picking it up!

The tracks for my 5th album Ergo have been uploaded in high quality MP3 format! Free of charge!

Ergo was a labor of love for me and I’m quite proud of it. Cinematic Showdown is one of my favorites but tracks such as "Endless Wave 07" (Which has been played at a few Tiesto shows.) and "Live Like We Die Today" feature the vocal awesomeness of Cassie Nelson and rock hard!

You can download the tracks below or check out my official download page at Unleaded Logic Dot Com.

Ergo (2008)
1. He Cried Out
2. Tears Echo
3. New Dawn
4. Little Sister
5. Last Stand
6. Endless Wave
7. Your Only Twenty-Four
8. Parties+Girls=Sex
9. Cinematic Showdown
10. Kira
11. Sector 17
12. Live Like We Die Today
13. Overwork
14. A Second Chance

About two weeks ago, I received a call from a semi-local game studio in the Hoffman Estates/Chicago area with an offer to work for their studio as a Audio Designer. They based their decision to make me an offer based on a demo I sent them about a year ago. (?!)

A year ago, I would of crapped my pants the moment I received the call, just because I was completely burnt of with my current job at the time and really wanted to get into the game industry. Now though, not so much. The offer they gave me was lower then the annual salary I receive at my current job and quite honestly; I enjoy what I do at my current job. So it really didn’t bother me declining the offer.

Researching the company though, I also found out that they recently laid off decent amount of talent and that is most likely one of the larger reasons they contacted me. They are looking for fresh meat at a low price.

Well, you can’t get my meat for cheap.

That sounds really bad.

Anyone who is looking for a opening as a Audio Designer and lives in the Illinois area, let me know and I’ll forward you the contact information. Hopefully if you send them a demo, it won’t take them a year to get back to you.

Yesterday we spoke to Dan about his his first console system and his arcade roots, in the second part of the interview, we will cover Dan’s background in the gaming industry and how he started producing game titles with his friend Gary, another co-founder of the Midwest Gaming Classic.

Mike Mertes:

"Were you involved with the video game industry previously or is your
dedication to the event simply for the love of the game?"

Dan Loosen:

"I would say that I was loosely involved.  Gary and I have been friends
ever since we started staying after school in 5th grade to program BASIC
on Apple computers, and we had always been interested in making games or
doing something in the industry in the future.  We were both collecting
for the Atari Jaguar at the time, and someone who had stated that he was
going to be producing games for the Lynx and the Jaguar and I got into a
bit of an argument, and he said that if I thought that I was so good, I
should send a sample of our work.  So I did…  a program Gary and I
wrote in 7th grade that was a Space Invaders clone, and this guy was so
interested that he offered to buy us a development kit if we would sell
the game through him."

"We agreed, and in 1999 we traveled to an event called Jagfest in
Minnesota which celebrated the Atari Jaguar and Lynx to tell people what
we were hoping to do, and to show people the Atari Lynx dev kit so they
would know we were serious.  It was a great time."

"Unfortunately, after that event, the developer got a lot of seed money
in the dot-com bubble, and because we didn’t want to redesign our web
site every two months, we got more or less fired.  Long story short,
because we had some things we wanted to do, we established the GOAT
Store as a hobby, and then offered to host our first event in 2001,
which was the fifth annual Jagfest event.  So, while we never really
were fully involved with the industry, we had plans to be involved.  We
did actually achieve our dream of producing (although not creating)
games on the Dreamcast in future years directly as a result of the show,
however."

Mike Mertes:

Having worked on a few Dreamcast Projects, what do you think about the
opportunity that Microsoft gives people to develop games on the PC and
Xbox 360 with XNA? Would you and Gary ever take a shot at  producing 
something on XNA?

Dan Loosen:

"The Dreamcast releases that we did were fascinating because they
happened in almost a perfect scenario where there were people who wanted
to develop new games for consoles, but did not have the ability to do so
because the cost for entry was so high.  The Dreamcast was legally
reverse engineered during its life span, which made it a magnet for
people to try to figure out tricks for programming neat stuff, and the
console saw a lot of really cool stuff because of this.  Programmers who
were first entering the job market and wanted to show their skills could
use the Dreamcast as a platform to experiment with, and then show
developers what they could do.  What we did was especially unique,
because we were releasing fully realized and complete games for a
console that prove that the developers understood how to truly complete
a game and work the bugs out of it.  A lot of our developers were
offered to develop other titles or were hired into the gaming industry
because of what they did on the Dreamcast."

"The XNA removes the barriers that basically everyone used to have —
simply put, that development kits cost far too much for anyone not a
huge company to get, and that small experimental games were something
developers could once again do because the cost for entry again is much
lower.  I think that the XNA and what Microsoft particularly has done is
nothing short of genius for keeping new talent coming in, and perhaps
for developing new games and game play elements that people might have
otherwise never took a chance on.  In fact, a number of games that were
in development for us to publish got moved into XNA projects because of
the easy entry that the system allowed, and I think that’s great."

"Creative games need to find an outlet in the marketplace, no matter how
they get there.  We were honored to have four very creative games so far
that we were able to produce.  That may be all that we do, although
there are a few more that may still occur in the future.  But
regardless, as long as there is a creative output, I’m happy no matter
where it comes from."

"As for us moving into helping do production work for the XNA, we’re
really happy with the work we did with the Dreamcast and what the GOAT
Store focuses on now, which is the collector who wants the physical
copies of games from the past.  If an opportunity fell into our laps, we
would definitely explore it further, but I think the likelyhood of us
moving any of our resources onto that platform would be slim to none."

In part three of our interview, I will cover Dan’s thoughts on emulation and if it takes away from the original feel of the games. During the subject Dan will also reveal to us his thoughts on if retro re-releases are a good thing for the video game business.

This March, the Midwest Gaming Classic will be returning to the Wisconsin area for its 8^th  show. Having become quite the retro gamer, I thought I would go check out the convention this year and see what the event is like. What would one find at a retro game convention other then…well Retro Games? I got in touch with Dan Loosen one of the co-founders of the Midwest Gaming Classic to find out and also get some details on what made him start the M.G.C. in the first place.

Mike Mertes:

“So Dan, first and foremost I’d like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to interview you! Now the Midwest Gaming Classic had its first event in 2001, but let us rewind and talk about your gaming roots for a bit! When did your run in with video games start and how did your time playing them ultimately lead up to starting an event like the Midwest Gaming Classic?”

Dan Loosen:

“I first got involved with video games as early as I can remember.  My dad bought an Atari 2600 when I was very young, and I always remember having it growing up.  As I got older, the Nintendo Entertainment System came out, and I really wanted one but my parents thought it was basically the same as the 2600, and they said that we already had a game system so we didn’t need another.  I was disappointed, but my dad was a huge rummage sale person, and I would tag along with him, with my meager allowance in tow, and find Atari 2600 games for sale as cheap as a quarter.  I started slowly amassing a collection of 2600 games because it was all that I could play at the time, and after a few years, I saved up enough to buy my own NES, and then it started all over again.”

“On top of that, I got into arcade games at a young age thanks to my grandpa.  Whenever I was off school on a Friday when my parents were working, he would take care of me, and part of the deal was that he would have bowling league on Fridays, so I would have to accompany him to the bowling alley.  He would give me money to play the arcade machines, and I spent many a Friday playing Mario Bros. and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with the other kids.”

“I never played pinball until the early 90s because I thought it was all luck, and with video games I could stretch my quarters by being more skilled.  That opinion changed when I was at Summerfest one year and was in an arcade tent while my parents were off watching some band, and I watched someone play the new Jurassic Park machine for practically 30 minutes straight, and I realized there must be more there than just luck.”
“And really, none of these addictions ever stopped.  I’ve jokingly called the Midwest Gaming Classic the "ultimate event for me", although that is more or less how it works.  Gary and I sit down and we try to figure out the stuff that we would want to see the most, and then we try to meld the event around those areas.  The people who volunteer for the show, of which there are many awesome people that do, contribute their own things to the show too.  So in some strange way, the Midwest Gaming Classic is like my own collection and interests cranked up to 11, as the old saying goes.”

Come back tomorrow for part two of this awesome interview and learn about Dan’s involvement with the video game industry and more!

This week, my fifth album that was released last year will be going online at Unleaded Logic Dot Com for free.

The decision to place the album online for free has to do with a number of factors, but I’m happy that it will be freely available to regular visitors of my official web site.

I have no plans to start working on a follow up album to Ergo till 2010, but other projects I’m working on should keep you pretty interested.

So keep an eye on the official web page and get ready to download Ergo!