.net 176 on design screw-ups

It’s not often these days that I get catharsis when writing articles, but for .net 176 I got to vent, albeit through the words of others. Having worked on an overview of grid design for the previous issue (interesting and essential, but also very regimented subject matter), 176’s feature is about the top-ten design mistakes, including such gems as making Flash websites that look like HTML web pages, and version capping (telling people to ‘upgrade’ to a lower version of a plug-in or browser, because you stupidly set the then-current version as the sole requirement).

However, great fun as all this was, my own comment was mercilessly cut by the brutal editor (nothing to do with the fact that there simply wasn’t room, obviously), and it read: “When linking to PDFs, make that very clear, to avoid users’ browsers freezing up while Adobe Reader invades, leading to wailing, gnashing of teeth, and the subsequent ejection of laptops out of nearby windows.”

It amazes me that many web designers still do this sort of thing, even linking directly to a PDF from a site’s primary navigation. This, for me, is a design crime for which the culprit should be tarred, feathered, tarred again, and then dropped down a really deep well. Head first. Aaaand… relax.

You can grab the latest .net from netmag.co.uk, and if you’re outside of the UK, it’s called Practical Web Design for reasons that I still don’t entirely understand.

The United Nations of sports simulations

Sometimes, you shouldn’t go back. Just as it’s painfully clear to older eyes that 1980s TV shows such as Knight Rider and Transformers were, in fact, rubbish, it’s a jolt when a much-revered old-time game stinks like a sewer in the cold, harsh light of the modern day. Sadly, that’s (almost) the case with World Games, an Epyx ‘classic’ originally released in 1986 for the Commodore 64 that’s recently stumbled on to Virtual Console.

Clearly running out of traditional sporting events after a slew of Olympic-inspired efforts, Epyx began culling sports from the bizarre end of the spectrum for World Games. Instead of running, jumping and swimming, there’s sumo wrestling, caber tossing and barrel jumping. Although variety is the spice of life, half of the eight events taste like soot, due to poor implementation (the barely playable slalom skiing), sluggish controls (log rolling, sumo wrestling), or just by virtue of being dull and unoriginal, even at the time (weightlifting).

It’s not all bad news—the game is peppered with cute animations and the barrel jumping, cliff diving and bull riding events offer some basic fun (and, fact fans, the bull-riding event is actually very easy if you can, say, hold a joystick and read instructions), although as standalone events for the single player, they’re still limited and throwaway. And so unless you have a copious number of friends and cans of beer to hand, World Games is unlikely to hold your interest for long.

World Games is available now on Virtual Console for 500 Wii points (£3.50ish), or for a fraction of that via eBay, if you fancy a copy of the original.

To the max! Or something

Space Invaders is rubbish. The word ‘extreme’, when placed after an existing word or short phrase, makes the subject seem worse by a factor of fifty-six billion. Therefore, the fact that Space Invaders Extreme is not only very much not rubbish, but is instead staggeringly good, is flabbergasting.

At its core, Space Invaders Extreme is the same game that wowed people in the late 1970s, but became old-hat upon the arrival of myriad superior shooters. Invaders invade (from space, natch), and you shoot them. Only this time, invader patterns change with each wave, bonus levels provide adrenaline-fuelled bouts of additional blasting and extra weapons furnish you with the means to rapidly annihilate scores of aggressors.

In addition, Space Invaders Extreme offers a pumping soundtrack, dizzying visuals and a score mechanic that combine to put you half in mind of Rez and half in mind of a fruit machine. It’s simply brilliant, and the entire package engrosses to the extent that you soon forget you’ve given hours of your life to the game—at least, up until when your hands cramp up in screaming agony.

Space Invaders Extreme is available now on import (Play -Asia.com), and will be released on June 17 in the USA and July 1 in Europe.

Including a six-page interview with artist legend Roger Dean

Surviving the death of a publisher is no mean feat, but in December 2005 Retro Gamer crawled from the wreckage of Live Publishing and set up shop at Imagine. Now, against all odds, the magazine is celebrating its 50th issue.

For this milestone, I’ve penned something special and a bit different from my usual videogame making-ofs—an interview with Roger Dean. Inventor of the sea-urchin chair and cover artist for Yes, Roger’s best known in gaming circles for his imaginative and stunning artwork for Psygnosis games. However, as the interview reveals, his gaming-oriented output is more wide-ranging than covers for classic 16-bit titles.

Find out more about Retro Gamer and buy the current issue at www.retrogamer.net.

It’s back… And it’s hungry

Hello! Revert to Saved is back! Although some of you might remember the name from a column that was attached to some online Mac magazine whose name now eludes me, or as a standalone website that largely made fun of Apple, the new Revert to Saved will be far more wide-ranging. My aim is to use it to support the various publications I write for, and more besides. Therefore, over the coming weeks and months, you can expect succinct articles on gaming (including retro gaming), technology, music, and anything else that takes my fancy. I’ll also likely delve into the RTS archives and reprint some old stuff, along with putting online some transcripts of interviews I’ve done with various famous people, parts of which have been used in articles I’ve written (parts of the interviews, that is, not chunks of the people).