Commentary wise, yet another good performance. Matt seems to be able to do no wrong with the commentary portion, no matter what gaming subject he's tackling. In this case, you (Matt) really got it right about why the game was a hit. The idea of 150 levels (!!!!) back then was mind blowing, not to mention the fact that the game gave you the power to create your own levels. These bullet-points would have been moot if the gameplay itself wasn't engaging and addictive, but it was. I spent many a wasted night playing both official and friend-created levels, and many more wasted nights creating my own levels for my friends to waste their nights playing!
That seems to be the pattern. Shane over at MWF said something similar. It sounds like great fun, making levels and sharing them with each other. I'm sure I would have had a blast! Sure, you can make your own levels and areas in many of the newer games, but I can't imagine it being as easy as Lode Runner's construction set.
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I like the heavier reliance on cutaways in the recent Matt Chats, particularly this one. I liked seeing the cutaways of Pinball Construction Set and
Space/Apple Panic. Very appropriate, and it compliments the commentary excellently. It was also great to see clips of other ports of LR, including the Atari and Commodore versions.
I do, too, though I need to plan ahead more. I kept thinking of new games I wanted to put in, but there just wasn't time. Kinda sucks that I wasn't able to squeeze in Pitfall! and a few others. Still, there's a diminishing returns thing here. You can only cram so much stuff into 10 minutes and expect any kind of coherent or in-depth commentary. My original plan was to show four different versions of LR at the same time, but then thought it might be better just to show the different levels on different platforms one at a time.
One bad thing about the clips is that it's killing my computer and the Vegas software. The program crashed about four times during rendering, forcing me to start over. I was actually done around 4 p.m., but due to all the crashes and restarts, didn't get the rendering done until after 9 p.m. Just ridiculous--all that for a lousy ten minutes. I must have some deep flaws in my setup somewhere.
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I'm not sure of the relevance of "Frogs," though. Perhaps I missed that connection in the commentary. Still, seeing all the cutaways of people, articles, and games really adds pizazz to the Matt Chats, and is quite fun. And seeing a clip of "Jumpman" was quite cool, because it's another of my all-time favorites.
It's cited as the first platform game, which I know is a bit of a stretch.
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While I knew that, in theory, Space Panic had similar game mechanics to Lode Runner, seeing it actually demonstrated onscreen really hit home about how scarily close some of the play mechanics of Lode Runner are, and seeing this might shock a lot of Lode Runner fanatics. Now Lode Runner took it to the next level (is that a pun??), but the Space/Apple Panic video clip is undeniable proof that LR didn't just spring into existence from a vacuum, conceptually.
Yeah, a lot of these guys copied each other. There was lots of shameless cloning. I know what you mean, though, it's a bit of a downer to realize that a game you thought was highly original ends up being basically plagiarized. That happened with me and "Elite." It's still special, but it was essentially just a combination of older games. What's really telling is when certain accidental details are copied, such as that digging action in Space Panic. Definitely not a coincidence there. Still, it doesn't bother me when that kind of thing happens as long as there is innovation and not just a downright copy. Lode Runner is different enough from SP to please me. Apple Panic is a blatant rip off.
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The "Bungeling Empire" was a frequent nemesis in Broderbund games, featured in Lode Runner, Choplifter, Raid on Bungeling Bay," and possibly others.
Ha! That's great.
Quote:
You really butchered the pronunciation of "Shigeru Miyamoto." LOL :-) No biggie, though.
Commentary wise, yet another good performance. Matt seems to be able to do no wrong with the commentary portion, no matter what gaming subject he's tackling. In this case, you (Matt) really got it right about why the game was a hit. The idea of 150 levels (!!!!) back then was mind blowing, not to mention the fact that the game gave you the power to create your own levels. These bullet-points would have been moot if the gameplay itself wasn't engaging and addictive, but it was. I spent many a wasted night playing both official and friend-created levels, and many more wasted nights creating my own levels for my friends to waste their nights playing!
That seems to be the pattern. Shane over at MWF said something similar. It sounds like great fun, making levels and sharing them with each other. I'm sure I would have had a blast! Sure, you can make your own levels and areas in many of the newer games, but I can't imagine it being as easy as Lode Runner's construction set.
I like the heavier reliance on cutaways in the recent Matt Chats, particularly this one. I liked seeing the cutaways of Pinball Construction Set and
Space/Apple Panic. Very appropriate, and it compliments the commentary excellently. It was also great to see clips of other ports of LR, including the Atari and Commodore versions.
I do, too, though I need to plan ahead more. I kept thinking of new games I wanted to put in, but there just wasn't time. Kinda sucks that I wasn't able to squeeze in Pitfall! and a few others. Still, there's a diminishing returns thing here. You can only cram so much stuff into 10 minutes and expect any kind of coherent or in-depth commentary. My original plan was to show four different versions of LR at the same time, but then thought it might be better just to show the different levels on different platforms one at a time.
One bad thing about the clips is that it's killing my computer and the Vegas software. The program crashed about four times during rendering, forcing me to start over. I was actually done around 4 p.m., but due to all the crashes and restarts, didn't get the rendering done until after 9 p.m. Just ridiculous--all that for a lousy ten minutes. I must have some deep flaws in my setup somewhere.
I'm not sure of the relevance of "Frogs," though. Perhaps I missed that connection in the commentary. Still, seeing all the cutaways of people, articles, and games really adds pizazz to the Matt Chats, and is quite fun. And seeing a clip of "Jumpman" was quite cool, because it's another of my all-time favorites.
It's cited as the first platform game, which I know is a bit of a stretch.
While I knew that, in theory, Space Panic had similar game mechanics to Lode Runner, seeing it actually demonstrated onscreen really hit home about how scarily close some of the play mechanics of Lode Runner are, and seeing this might shock a lot of Lode Runner fanatics. Now Lode Runner took it to the next level (is that a pun??), but the Space/Apple Panic video clip is undeniable proof that LR didn't just spring into existence from a vacuum, conceptually.
Yeah, a lot of these guys copied each other. There was lots of shameless cloning. I know what you mean, though, it's a bit of a downer to realize that a game you thought was highly original ends up being basically plagiarized. That happened with me and "Elite." It's still special, but it was essentially just a combination of older games. What's really telling is when certain accidental details are copied, such as that digging action in Space Panic. Definitely not a coincidence there. Still, it doesn't bother me when that kind of thing happens as long as there is innovation and not just a downright copy. Lode Runner is different enough from SP to please me. Apple Panic is a blatant rip off.
The "Bungeling Empire" was a frequent nemesis in Broderbund games, featured in Lode Runner, Choplifter, Raid on Bungeling Bay," and possibly others.
Ha! That's great.
You really butchered the pronunciation of "Shigeru Miyamoto." LOL :-) No biggie, though.
Yeah, a phonetic would help with that one. :)
Matt Barton, Managing Editor
Location: St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA
Email: matt@armchairarcade.com