Justin's Game Journals

[Professor Gallardo]

Justin Gallardo's Game Journals Thread

Name of Game
Game author (If known)
Game Studio

Original Platform & control mechanism

Control mechanism you used
Would the experience have been different using the original? How?

Describe game Play and mechanics
~ 150 words

Describe strengths & weaknesses of art & design
~ 150 words

what made it fun?
~ 300 words

Now that you’ve played it, Why would this game be considered influential? How does it fit into the evolution of games?
~ 300 words

How would you rate this game (1-5 Stars (5 stars good))

[Professor Gallardo]

Game Journal #1 - Card Games (Bullshit & Four Up, Four Down)

(I put both game journals in one document, let me know if you would like me to separate them)
(Also I think the time is wrong on the forum posts, I turned this in at around 11:07pm and it said 5:07am)
(Just realized it was "choose one" and not "do both". I will remember that for next time)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bdTUUNL9erBzOqMf3sJpMiiLv7kN5BNLiq008SoN0iw/edit?usp=sharing

[Professor Gallardo]

Game Journal #2 - Backgammon

(Turned in: 2:04pm 6/8/2024)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RBH4ZeItk773l2HRzZnCfVfZLW8t6Hkg9ZJ9fVRmwrk/edit?usp=sharing

[Professor Gallardo]

Game Journal #3 - Spacewar!

(Turned in 12:21pm 6/11/2024)

Name of Game: Spacewar!

Game Author: Steve Russel with collaboration by Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen,Bob Saunders, Steve Piner, and others.

Game Studio: None (University Employees and Students)

Original Platform & Control Mechanism: PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) computer. The control mechanism was the front-panel switches on the computer. There were four switches for each player. People have said these controls were a bit annoying to deal with and that players would accidentally flip the power switch at times. And one player would be off to the side of the monitor which made it more annoying to play, until one of the group created the precursor to the gamepad, which was a detached control device so both people could play in front of the monitor.

Control Mechanism we used: Me and my sister used a normal computer keyboard, and then tried two xbox one gamepad controllers.

Would the experience have been different using the original? How?:

Very much so, yes. I can’t imagine having to flip analog switches that most likely click into place to make basic maneuvers in a video game, especially a 1v1 player vs. player game. And on top of that one of the players in the earlier months of this game's existence caused one of the other players to be offset from the screen as well. All of that would be horrid for how we play now in the modern day. But back in the day this was all they had, the first fledglings of the video game, so I assume it was amazing at first and then slowly improved upon it once the people had some time to play it and make critiques of the design issues. Which is when they made the controller concept, which I am sure also helped not wear out the switches on the control panel of the computer.

Describe Gameplay and Mechanics:

The gameplay is rather simple overall. There are two players; one wedge looking ship and one thinner needle ship. They are both dropped on opposite sides of a spinning line…which I assume now, after having been sucked into it while testing controls, to be a black hole of some sorts. Both ships seemed to have controlled the same and the controls, while basic, took a bit of getting used to by both me and my sister. The controls were similar to top down racing games, where turning is relative not to the camera but to your actual vehicle, which both me and my sister used to play as kids so getting used to it again wasn’t too bad. Once we were used to the controls, the main mechanic was maneuvering the black hole in the center to attempt to take out the enemy ship while not being blown up yourself or sucked into the black hole. The way you attacked was a small thin projectile that only went a few feet in front of the ship you piloted, so you had to get a bit close and aim properly. The ships are also a bit inertia based so it takes a while to get them going fully. There is also a “Hyperspace” button for each player, and it seemed to be a dodge of sorts, but you were not able to control where you went and also seemed to possibly explode your ship randomly if you were not careful and used it too much.

Describe Strengths & Weaknesses of Art & Design:

To be honest there isn’t too much of a strength when placed against modern game design and hardware, but looking at the game through a lens of being there I think the game has great strengths in being a multiplayer game. Much like BS this game allows people to face friends and have fun through the medium of gaming. Now one of the big weaknesses of this being a multiplayer game is that you need to teach the other players the controls and let them get used to it. And if you were bringing in someone unfamiliar with the switch panel of the computer you might have some issues. Even in the modern day, trying to teach my sister the controls and letting her get used to them, took a good while. She kept asking, “Why can’t pressing left make me go left…” which told me she could control the system, but never felt happy or comfortable with it. Now of course the biggest strength of this game at that time, was being one of the firsts and a pivotal historic moment for the genesis of video games…but it is a very old game, and that shows immediately when you attempt to play.

What Made It Fun?:

I think the main fun of this game, looking through the lens as if I was there when it was made. Would be that the game was one of the first of its kind, and a sort of novelty. Playing other people in something that wasn’t just cards or chess or tic-tac-toe on the computer would have been amazing. And it would have been fun to gather a group of people to sit down and take turns trying to beat each other. Kind of like game nights during elementary and high-school when all my friends would come over and we would play smash-brothers or other games like that. But sadly now playing this game in the modern day, while still novel and interesting from a historical perspective, was not very “fun” and was a bit annoying to learn the controls and when failing to, having to wait for the game to reset to attempt another round. I think a modern recreation of this game would work rather well as a simple mobile game where you played other players around the world for a few moments. But with its current design and feel it was not very action backed or engaging. I can definitely see why they started making additions and changes by adding a controller to help with the not being in front of the monitor issue. Because it seems like that was all they could do at the time to make it more fun because of the limited hardware. I think if given a bit of a polish and up-rez to make it a bit more bearable, this could be a very fun little experience. As it is though, it is certainly a product of its time and very dated by modern standards which definitely hampered the experience a good bit.

Now that you’ve played it, Why would this game be considered influential? How does it fit into the evolution of games?:

I can understand right away why this would be a very influential game. Being one of the first of its kind and an attempt to show off the power of the hardware of the day was a nice move in the right direction. Being one of the games that moved the video game industry one step closer to what it would become in the 80’s and 90’s is admirable. While it is not up to current standards, it never could be. Playing it in modern times is more for “reverence” than enjoyment for me. At the time this game probably entertained so many of the computer science department and Harvard and any other universities where it ended up being copied too or recreated at. Certainly a good show of what could be done besides just static “turn-taking” games, and a nice way to implement playing against other players to make the game more competitive and fun. Because even if a player lost, they could just try again, or relinquish the controller/switch board to another player and then wait while watching. I am sure there were many-a-time where there were ten or more students and faculty gathered around a small monitor to watch two people duke it out with small pixel ships shooting little pixel lines at each other. Maybe even over some beers and pizza. And it is that same feeling that certainly sparked in more and more people the ideas and concepts that would lead to more and more video games. Seeing what can be done, only sparks ideas for what else could be done. The famous mis-quoted line from the movie Field Of Dreams that everyone says: “If you build it, They will come” actually works really well. These games started building the foundation so that people could see the technological and entertainment value of video games, and inspired others to make some themselves. And I think that is pretty cool.

How would you rate this game (1-5 Stars (5 stars good)):

I rate this game 2.5 stars. Influential for its time, but now it is a bit annoying to play. But I am sure lots of students and faculty had fun with this back in the day.

[Professor Gallardo]

Game Journal #4 - Breakout

(Turned in 2:33pm 6/13/2024)

Name of Game: Breakout

Game Author(s): Brad Stewart (Programmer), Nolan Bushnell(Concept), Steve Wozniak(Main Designer), Steve Bristow(Concept), Steve Jobs (Designer)

Game Studio: Atari

Original Platform & Control Mechanism: Arcade Cabinet & the main control mechanism was a turn knob and a “serve button” to serve the ball the first time and start the game.

Control Mechanism we used: I used a mouse to move the paddle

Would the experience have been different using the original? How?:

Of course, playing on a dial, if it was anything like the Pong style dial, might have actually been pretty easy to control. When I played Pong last with a dial, it allowed you to control the speed at which you moved the slider by turning the dial faster to get to the point on the screen you wanted quickly. When I played it on the PC however, it was very easy due to the mouse controlling the location with very quick precision. The other difference would be the way you held the control system and the position you were in as well. You would most likely be standing at the cabinet instead of sitting down like I was.

Describe Gameplay and Mechanics:

The gameplay is rather simple but very enjoyable. It is easy to see the influence from Pong in breakout. The main mechanic is trying to hit the ball back and forth to destroy the blocks above you. You move the little paddle at the bottom to try and block the ball when it bounces back and hit it back at the blocks in your way. Eventually when the ball destroys more and more blocks, it becomes a bit harder to hit the blocks that you want due to there being only a few. Meaning you must try and guide the ball to bounce in a way where it will hit the remaining blocks. Which was not always easy due to the way the little paddle would work. It would move the ball in certain directions depending on where on the paddle it was hit, making it more about hitting the ball from the right place than just serving it back. The ball also gets slightly faster with each serve from what I could tell

Describe Strengths & Weaknesses of Art & Design:

The biggest strength of this game is its ability to be played as a single player. While Pong is nice and fun to play, the only issue is that it requires a friend. So anyone who was alone or didn’t have friends that wanted to play with them would be left out. So this game fills that role nicely. It also adds in the added benefit of a score and life system. Allowing the player to make some mistakes with the lives system, and pushing the player to get a higher and higher score with the score system. Letting playtime be a bit longer while limiting how much someone as a single player could play, which allowed for more quarters to be collected by the player overtime if they wanted to keep playing. The weakness of the game is that it probably wasn’t the most exciting game for other spectators to watch over the person’s shoulder, and the paddle sending the ball in certain directions could make for an annoying situation when you have one block left, but can never really get a good angle on it and are stuck hitting the ball for a few moments until you finally hit the last brick. The biggest strength of this type of game is most likely friends trying to one-up each other at high scores. You don’t have to have it be 1v1 to add competition and the score system helps with that a lot. I could see teens huddling around a breakout cabinet to see if their friend would beat their score, and if he did then they would jump on next to try and beat them.

What Made It Fun?:

While simple, the game is pretty enjoyable from a more relaxed standpoint for me. Since the game isn’t very taxing with button inputs or having to face another player. It can be a very chill and fun experience. Once the game picks up and the ball starts going faster and faster I could see the game being very engaging, but in the earlier stages of the game it is rather relaxing and helps you figure out the feel of how the ball will bounce. Especially with the dial controls back in the day, I feel like letting the player start off with slower speeds and ramp it up more and more would help them get used to how far and fast they could move the paddle. While it could be a bit annoying when it came down to one brick and it took a few shots to finally get an angle on it. It overall was very fun and satisfying. Especially when you got the ball behind the bricks and let it just go nuts breaking the bricks behind the line and clearing up a good amount of them. Although I think the mouse controls made the game a bit too easy, I felt like it was impossible to lose as long as I was slightly paying attention because the mouse was so easy to move across the screen. I could move the paddle from one side of the screen to the other with a simple wrist flick. I feel like if the ball started a bit faster or ramped up in speed quicker for the PC version it would help a lot. Overall the game is fun to play, but I feel like for the style I was playing it, it could have used some tweaks to make it more engaging sooner rather than it taking so long to ramp up.

Now that you’ve played it, Why would this game be considered influential? How does it fit into the evolution of games?:

Having played a more barebones version of breakout like this, I can see why it was considered a big hit and cloned so much. The controls were simple and easy to understand, people would have already been used to its style from Pong. And It would have been easy to shift over to playing that if they already had played Pong in the past. The saying that we talked about, “Easy to learn, hard to master.” definitely rings true here. The game is easy to understand, but I am sure when the game speeds up significantly, making sure to understand how the paddle will bounce the ball makes the game really engaging and interesting to play. I have also played a more modern version of Breakout and have enjoyed it quite a bit. It added things like multi-ball modes, modifiers, two players at the same time mode, head to head modes. And I can see where adding something like that to such a simple game would be rather easy because of its nice simple, robust design. It also explains why there were so many clones in the years to follow, and even to this day. I have seen so many mobile games that end up being breakout clones. So even till this day it is having an effect on the gaming landscape in some way. I also feel like this game definitely helped with the idea of arcade games not always having to be player vs. player experiences like Pong, a game that focused on the skills of one player and having them do their best against the game. Similar to what Tetris would become eventually. And games at this time started to push that idea forwards, like Space Invaders and Asteroids which both released after this and started to have more simple computer sided mechanics like enemies on screen and things to dodge. And I feel like Breakout was one of the good starts for that ideal of Player vs. Game/System.

How would you rate this game (1-5 Stars (5 stars good)):

I give this game 4.25 stars. I think the game is something I would have on my phone today and play idly when I was waiting for something else. It’s a nice simple system that can get faster and more engaging as time goes on.

[Professor Gallardo]

Game Journal #5 - Galaga

(Turned in 6/15/2024 at 5:06pm)

Name of Game: Galaga

Game Author(s): Shigeru Yokoyama (Director), Toru Ogawa (Programmer), Hiroshi Ono (Artist), Nobuyuki Ohnogi (Composer)

Game Studio: Namco

Original Platform & Control Mechanism: Arcade Cabinet & the main control was a round ball tipped joystick, and usually a single button to fire the ship’s projectiles. With usually a single player and two player button on the side.

Control Mechanism we used: I used a fight stick (controller used for fighting games, looks pretty much like a smaller version of an arcade joystick and buttons.)

Would the experience have been different using the original? How?:

Not too much different actually. I have played Galaga in an arcade as well as with the fight stick I own and both experiences are pretty similar because they use similar technology. The fight stick is supposed to recreate the experience of playing in the arcade a bit more for people that are used to that. So it works well to make the experience a bit closer while playing Galaga.

Describe Gameplay and Mechanics:

The mechanics of Galaga are rather easy, but take time to become a master at. It definitely is a game that is very “easy to learn, hard to master”, and you see that easily as the levels go up. The basic mechanics are using the joystick to move the ship at the bottom of the screen around. Eventually ships will fly in and begin to land in position and it is your job to shoot them down using the shoot button. When all the enemies fly into position, they then begin to fly from their position to your position in an attempt to dive bomb you. You have to shoot them down otherwise they will just re-appear at the top of the screen if they fly past you. This will ramp up more and more as you play, as soon as the levels go on some ships will fire back at you when moving down or moving to their initial positions. And eventually they will even break their rank and file and dive bomb you early as they pass you, which you have to watch out for. There are also challenge rounds that if you do well enough at, can give you more lives to work with and score.

Describe Strengths & Weaknesses of Art & Design:

The biggest strength of this game is its very simple mechanical design, that eventually requires more and more from you as the levels continue. Starting off super simple and not very dangerous to get the player used to the controls and how each ship moves and works. Some ships are more prone to moving around, some prone to flying faster, and another having to take two hits to take down, which also has a hidden mechanic of stealing a ship that you can steal back. All these things are hidden to the player when they first play and something they can learn by trying out new things. And since the game is just movement and shooting, it makes it easy for the player to Get a feel for the controls enough to get good enough at it to climb higher and higher levels with each try. The only downside is that it is a tough game for beginners. This is my favorite game of the bunch, and I would always play with my sister as player two, and she would take a lot longer to get the strategies needed at later levels to progress. Which means if you die, you need to climb the ladder all over again to get back to the levels that were giving you trouble, but that is also what makes the game fun, trying to continue as much as you can before you lose all your lives. Another strength of the game is the enemy AI and how they each have their own interesting patterns, and even splitting off into new ship types, of which I will talk more about in the next section.

What Made It Fun?:

The game is just so easy to control that it makes it super easy to get the hang of the game after a few rounds of playing. Eventually when more and more is thrown at you, it comes as a surprise at first and then you slowly start reacting to it and coming up with a counter strategy to the enemy’s new plans of attack. When you start the game is very easy and the enemies do not even fire back. Then the next few levels they gain the ability to fire, then the ability to dive bomb before they get to their initial position on screen, and so on. These additions are what make it super fun to get to later levels. You feel like you are being taught the system as you go, losing to it, learning from it, and then overcoming it by remembering patterns and how each enemy ship will eventually work and how to deal with it. That is basically the Dark Souls and Elden Ring mentality, and that is the exact mentality that I love from a video game, and why I think this game succeeds at being so fun. The game slowly drip feeds you enough to teach you and lets you get comfy, throws you a curve ball and then expects you to react. And if anyone was like me when I was younger, I took it as a challenge to climb as high up the levels as I could, eventually I got so good that at the arcade all the kids around me would gather because I would hit level 35 without losing a life, and even got to level 86. That feeling of being able to put my name on the scoreboard after hitting that high a level was an awesome feeling. The feeling of learning the systems of a game that ramps in difficulty to see all the enemy ship designs that are in the game and how they move and attack. It was one of the first games I truly got good at, and I feel that is a testament to its addictive enjoyment.

Now that you’ve played it, Why would this game be considered influential? How does it fit into the evolution of games?:

I know it was very influential in my group circles because of how easy it was to play and easy it was to watch others play it. The game being just a joystick and one button really helped. And the main draw of the game wasn’t just how you moved your ship, but how you the player learned and memorized enemy patterns on each level and how each ship worked. And this game having a high score list, at least when I was a kid in the arcades, really helped to want to get as good as you could at it to put your name on the scoreboard. It is a superb addition to single player arcade games, and I am sure was a favorite of many kids and teens in Japan/America/EU in 1981 and beyond. You can tell how enjoyable and influential it was because I see it in places that have arcades even till this day. During my time in the arcades it was always coupled with Ms. Pacman in the same cabinet and just shows how much both those games worked well in that setting because they still kept them around. I even had this game on my Wii, Xbox 360, and PSP, it was ported to so many places either alone or in arcade packs made by namco. While Defender focused on management and defense of resources, and Centipede focused on strategy of mushroom destruction and when to shoot the titular centipede since it would split and move in more parts if shot. Galaga focused on memorization and quick movement decisions and shooting to win the game. Which I felt was super enjoyable and fun vs. the other two. It let you focus on one thing, kept the screen simple, but upped the difficulty not in management or planning, but in understanding your enemy and knowing what they would do and acting accordingly. Or at least reacting as quickly as you could to their actions if it was the first time encountering that level of enemy.

How would you rate this game (1-5 Stars (5 stars good)):

I give this game 4.85 stars, even though it is simple it is a very good game and super fun to replay over and over again.

[Professor Gallardo]

Game Journal #6 - Bump 'N' Jump

(Turned in 6/18/2024 at 2:14pm)

Name of Game: US: Bump 'N' Jump/JP: “Burnin’ Rubber”

Game Author(s): Not documented in public records, all that is known is the two composers but only for the NES port.

Game Studio: Data East

Original Platform & Control Mechanism: Colecovision & The Colecovision remote which had a knob on the top portion and a phone number bad on the bottom portion.

Control Mechanism we used: I used a keyboard.

Would the experience have been different using the original? How?:

Very much so, it would have been significantly different in terms of holding the controller, pressing buttons and turning the knob. I would have had to use both hands in a formation of almost holding a phone and turning a dial on a radio that is laying on top of my phone. It would be a strange way to hold a controller that I have not done since I was a kid when I played my mother’s console a few times.


Describe Gameplay and Mechanics:

The game is rather simple, you are a car that is in a race of some sort. You press up to go faster, back to go slower, and press the first horn button to jump when going fast enough, and of course moving side to side with right and left. The game was really enjoyable due to the added mechanic of being able to bump other cars out of the way, and if they hit a wall they exploded, which took me by surprise the first time it happened. I didn’t expect an old Colecovision game to pull a “Burnout Revenge” by allowing me to blow up the competition. Moving the car side to side can be a bit sluggish, most likely due to the emulator, and seems to be more tile based than value based. The other fun part that took me a few tries to figure out, due to the game not telling me what button was jump, was jumping gaps when it prompted me with a warning symbol.

Describe Strengths & Weaknesses of Art & Design:

The strengths of this game is that it was rather enjoyable and a bit replayable due to having to memorize the track a bit. Exploding other cars was very fun, and it was rather fast paced once you picked up a bit of speed with the little car. The game also has multiple levels which makes it fun to try and see them all. And the sprites and sounds for the jumping of the car and the explosions of the other vehicles were very enjoyable to see and listen to. The biggest weaknesses of the game was that the tracks could get rather hard rather fast. And some areas were very narrow making it easy to get knocked off. The other issue was the game not telling me the controls in a menu, I know that it most likely would have been in a manual, but it did make it rather annoying to not know. I am glad that has changed over the years.

What Made It Fun?:

The main thing that made this game fun was being able to push other drivers off the road and have that satisfying explosion and successfully jump a gap while the other racers fall into the water. While the game is rather simple in nature, the visuals and sound really elevate the experience a lot. The fast paced nature and being able to decide what speed you are comfy with is really nice for learning the tracks as well. Or you can speed through and try to get a good time and score. It has a nice competitive nature with two players, and fighting for the best scores. The only main issue I had with it, in terms of design, was that it wasn't really easy to see how well I was doing, since the game isn’t really a race against others, just getting a good score. This is mainly due to the system not being able to keep track of racers off screen, so you couldn’t do a standard racing game sadly. But that is a minor nit-pick. The game itself was fun and I played it for a good 40 minutes just trying to get better and understand the game more, which was fun. I found myself jumping other cars just for the heck of it because I enjoyed the sound and visuals so much. I really do think if this game was remade as a small mobile game with new graphics and added quality of life, I think it would do really well as a fun little mobile online racer. I think there could be some nice additions to make it better, but I think if I was a kid back then I would have been really happy with this choice of game if I owned a Colecovision, surprising and fun.

Now that you’ve played it, Why would this game be considered influential? How does it fit into the evolution of games?:

Now that I have played “Bump ‘N’ Jump” I really think this would have been a fun game for kids of the day to own back in 1982. I know there were a lot more revolutionary and innovative games coming out at the time that probably blew this game out of the water in sales. I certainly never heard of the game beforehand and never heard it talked about in any history videos on the internet that I have watched. But for as simple as the premise was, it was a cute little game and was super enjoyable to play compared to how I thought it was going to. It certainly surprised me with a lot of the choices the devs made to spice it up a bit from a normal driving game. Even though I think it is rather fun and enjoyable, the biggest thing I have to remember is how much these games cost. They were very expensive back in the day for a kid, and when you bought one, that was your game for months and months. So I am guessing this game isn’t as well known due to something like that. Kids choosing other more “known to be good” games that their friends told them about or ones they saw marketing for on TV, versus this game that might have been more obscured by others. I think that if it had a bit more quality of life, and maybe a better controller from the original that was used, it could have been a really fun game of the time. Even though it was considered a commercial success, I think there are things wrong with it and other games that came out that might have overshadowed this one in its relevance to history. Even though it has its flaws, I really enjoyed it.

How would you rate this game (1-5 Stars (5 stars good)):
I give this game 4 stars. While the controls are a bit janky and slow to respond on the emulator, it was a lot of fun.

[Professor Gallardo]

Game Journal #7 - Pitfall

(Turned in 6/20/2024 at 1:14pm)

Name of Game: Pitfall!

Game Author(s): David Crane (Designer)

Game Studio: Activision

Original Platform & Control Mechanism: Atari 2600 & Joystick with a a single button

Control Mechanism we used: Xbox Controller

Would the experience have been different using the original? How?:

It would have been very different for movement, the button would have probably acted similar to my xbox buttons with just a different tactile feel and pressing threshold. But movement and holding the controller would have been way different in terms of moving the controller left and right. Since it is one joystick big it is hard to make quick decisions like the one on my xbox controller without having to whip your hand back and forth to move.

Describe Gameplay and Mechanics:

The game mechanics are rather simple, but it does a lot with a little. The game is simply getting your character from one side of the stage to the other by going through little jungle jump obstacles such as jumping over barrels, pits, campfires, scorpions, water, and more. You can also use ropes to swing over large bodies of water or gaps, and when you do the little guy will let out a pixelated “george of the jungle” yell while he swings. You can also go up and down ladders and look for treasure, but my main focus was just getting to the end, so I stayed on the main top path as much as I could. I played the game on my Xbox 360 since I have an old arcade bundle pack on there still downloaded. So I don’t know if the game was altered or updated in any way, it seems like it hasn’t been from videos I have seen, but I am not 100% sure.

Describe Strengths & Weaknesses of Art & Design:

For a home console game of that day, there is a lot happening on screen at once. A lot of sprites are starting to have movement at once while keeping it simple. The screen is not too cluttered and the gameplay is rather intuitive and easy, although it does get a bit repetitive over time. The big problem with a lot of older home console games is that they run poorly or have too much going on with little information given, but this game is rather easy to pick up once you get used to the timing of the character’s jumping. The sounds can be a bit loud and grating over time, the jump for instance has a very shrill sound towards the end that makes it a bit annoying to hear over and over again. The other big issue with the game is that the character is wearing all green in predominantly green backgrounds. I am sure this was a limitation of the colors they could use on the Atari 2600’s memory, but it would have been nice to have maybe the red of the bricks in the underground be used for his shirt so we can see him a bit better. There were also times where I would spawn into the next area and be expected to jump right away, which was a little annoying till I got used to it.

What Made It Fun?:

Overall the game was rather enjoyable despite its faults. Since I played it on my Xbox 360 it ran rather well and felt nice since it didn’t have the weird lag that browsers sometimes have with emulators. The game did get rather boring pretty quickly, but that might just be because I am used to more intricate gaming experiences versus this which might have been the bee’s knees back in the day. The thing that was most fun about this, was that it was a rather competent, playable, and visually uncluttered platformer. I really liked that I could play it without any issues. I also liked that it started me out without any immediate danger or threat, just a pit with a ladder, a log, and open land to get used to movement and jumping before I hit the first pit. It took me a few tries to fully get used to how far and high I could jump to avoid things, but eventually the game became rather easy and was nice to just see if I could keep holding forward as much as I could and just use jumping to keep going. And when I was about to get bored they started adding in pits and water that would disappear and reappear to make it a bit more challenging which was nice for a bit. I think the experience didn’t change up enough for my liking before I ended up giving up and moving on. It was fun for what it was, but that eventually became a bit too same-ey on all the different stages. I think it would have been nice to see a ramp up in difficulty or different obstacles to deal with, or even a color pallet change in the trees. But this is probably due to the memory of the hardware at the time and not a choice on the devs part.

Now that you’ve played it, Why would this game be considered influential? How does it fit into the evolution of games?:

Now that I have played “Pitfall!”, I think it is a very nice game and I can see why it has become a popular historical game. It seems to have been one of the better platformers of this time and was very nice and refreshing to see a game that wasn’t bogged down by nonsensical clutter or unexplained mechanics or systems. It was so simple and easy to pick up that it was easy to succeed at but difficult enough where I still had to pay attention for most of it. It definitely seems like a game that even the people playing it might be able to get really good at it and finish it after a good number of tries. It seems like it would be easy to pick up and replay when you are feeling the desire to. Seeing if you could get a better score the next time, etc. Because it is so simple to start and play again, I could see many people taking turns trying to get a higher score than the others around them. It almost has an endless runner feel to it in a way. I honestly think if the character got a bit faster and faster with each stage passed it would be super enjoyable to keep up the frantic speed while dodging obstacles. I think this game brings in a nice start to a lot of the NES and SNES platformers that we would see in the future. Although I still think that the game gets a bit too repetitive towards the end and the sounds can be a bit grating on the ears, if I was a kid in the 80s and this is what I got for christmas, I don’t think I would be upset in the slightest. Although I think I still would be happier with things like Akalabeth/Ultima for a more engaging experience.

How would you rate this game (1-5 Stars (5 stars good)):
I give it 4.7 stars

[Professor Gallardo]

Game Journal #8 - Zork
(Turned in 6/22/2024 at 2:54pm)

Name of Game: Zork

Game Author(s): Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels

Game Studio: Infocom

Original Platform & Control Mechanism: PDP-10 mainframe computer (But the devs expanded the game and split it into 3 games eventually and released them for various personal computers at the start of 1980 some of these include: PDP-11 minicomputer, Apple III, TRS-80, Commodore64, IBM PC) & control was the 1980s personal computer keyboards’.

Control Mechanism we used: Modern keyboard

Would the experience have been different using the original? How?:

Not too different overall. It is the same mechanism, just probably has a different feel to my more modern day keyboard. Buttons probably felt way different and most if not all keyboards in that day were attached to the computer that they worked with versus mine.

Describe Gameplay and Mechanics:

The gameplay is rather simple overall, but depending on how much the developers put in and how many parse words they used, the game could be rather deep and interesting. The simple portion of the game is that it is a text adventure, meaning you are reading words on a screen and then responding in the command line by using phrases like “take apple”, “close door”, “go west”, etc. The nice thing about Zork is that you can use this system to do the game in a more non-linear fashion. Since the developers allowed you to do different solutions in different orders. It can take a player a bit to get used to the game though. Mainly due to trying to figure out which “action/command words” to use. More modern gamers might try to put “walk to the red shed” instead of “go west” or “go shed”. Since the developer of the text adventure probably only used simple verbs plus noun structure. But this is also why the game would have come with a manual to show the player important commands to use and examples on how to use them. But once you understand the commands, you basically know how to play the game for the most part, not much else to it.

Describe Strengths & Weaknesses of Art & Design:

The biggest weaknesses that I will get out of the way right now, are that the game is rather limited by its hardware and computer memory, but even so still delivers a nicely made experience. Most text style adventures will eventually start to put pictures of what you look at to make the experience better, and due to Zork being so early and older hardware, this isn’t really something they thought about or something they couldn’t even do. The other weakness is having to make the player remember certain commands and there will be times where if the player does not own a manual then they will attempt to type in all manner of commands to try and do what they want till they figure it out. But the strengths of Zork are that if you type in a wrong command the game will let you know it is not something you can do by saying “You used (your word) in a way I don’t understand” ,or “I don’t know the word (your word)”, or context specific ones like “It’s too dark to see”, or ”I don’t see any (your word) here!”. Which really helps the player understand what they might need to change to get what they want, or if they are on the right track at all. The other major strength, which is basically the entire way the game is structured, is the major focus on atmosphere and storytelling. If the story/descriptions were very bad or poorly written, then the game would not be very enjoyable at all. Since the game is basically a one person D&D game with the game being your dungeon master, the game needs to immerse you and let you enjoy the experience, which it does very well.

What Made It Fun?:

I love text adventures a lot. It is a thing I grew up on and continue to play by people in the modern day, because I really enjoy engaging in a D&D style story where I make choices and decisions. It’s like when I used to read the choose your own adventure “Goosebumps” books when I was younger as well. I really enjoy their style of system, it’s simple, easy to get started and pick up, and easier to create since it’s all text. Zork is one of the games I had a bit of experience with as a kid. The game itself, while simple, was very enjoyable to me. I remember typing in a ton of commands to try and figure out the right way to get the game to do what I wanted, and once I figured that out, I really started having fun. The game’s sense of atmosphere, the simplicity of it, and the freedom you have to go wherever you want really made me feel a bit frightened as a kid. I was told by the person who got me to play it that there “Might be monsters in the game”, and I always remember that helping to set the tone of being cautious while exploring for me, and the house being described with a boarded up front door always made me think of an old paint chipped dilapidated haunted house. Which is why I like this game so much, it allows you to bring so much to the table while reading the descriptions and asks you to fill in the blanks with what is in your own mind for how things look. But the game does have some humor and a good amount of puzzles that make the game what it is. Moving objects to certain places, solving riddles, ect. But like I said previously, the biggest thing was the descriptions and the images that it brought to my mind because of them that made this game so fun for me as a kid. It always made me feel like I was living through a book I could control a bit. And eventually that idea is what got me into D&D so heavily. While playing the game again now I can see that it has a more light-hearted tone than I saw as a kid.

Now that you’ve played it, Why would this game be considered influential? How does it fit into the evolution of games?:

I think for most of the reasons I stated in the “What made it fun” section can apply here. I am sure so many people in the 1980s felt the same way as me when they ended up playing Zork on the personal computer. The game lets you interact with a described world, while simple, still lets you bring a lot of your imagination to the table in terms of how things look, which is the exact formula of D&D, which by that time many kids might have played. It was like playing a game of D&D on your own with the Dungeon Master being your own computer and the game. While I brought a lot of ideas to the table as a younger kid because I was scared of losing the game (I had a fear as a kid that if I lost a game I would die in real life, so I tried to never lose single player games) the story has a lot of light hearted lines of text that make it actually pretty silly and quirky. The game feels very playful and fun. And the sense of exploration, of being able to let a player explore the world that has been created and let them decide actions in order that they choose and do puzzles in certain order is a lovely design decision that I think many kids of that day really enjoyed. I mean the game was so influential that it will show up as easter eggs in modern media. The second time I interacted with “Zork” was in “Call of Duty: Black Ops” as an easter egg. If you wiggled out of your torture chair in the main menu, you could go to the back of the room and see a computer that held a copy of “Zork” on it. And if you beat the game then you unlock an entire top down game mode for “Call of Duty Zombies” which was super fun. Overall Zork definitely shows off that once it came out it inspired an entire idea of what an adventure game could be and certainly contributed a push to make more interactive and more story centered experiences.

How would you rate this game (1-5 Stars (5 stars good)):

I give it 4.8 stars, I love text adventures and Zork was one of the first I played as a kid.

[Professor Gallardo]

Game Journal #9 - Risk (Mac)
(Turned in 6/25/2024 at 2:28pm)

Name of Game: Risk

Game Author(s): Antonie J. Engle (Tone Engel)

Game Studio: Silicone Beach Software

Original Platform & Control Mechanism: Macintosh & 1980’s keyboard and mouse

Control Mechanism we used: Modern keyboard & mouse

Would the experience have been different using the original? How?:

Other than maybe the button feel, not too different from the looks of it. It is starting to resemble what we have today, just older.

Describe Gameplay and Mechanics:

The mechanics took a bit to get the hang of since it has been a while since I have played the game of “Risk” and this one doesn’t really have instructions and no manual I could find for this specific version. But from what I understood, the game starts and you pick a player and the other people that will be playing against you. You have the option to name them and your player. I chose default naming and selected the first option. Once that happens the game starts and I was randomly placed on the map, since that is the option I selected in the menu. We then get a few rounds to place our units on our owned land. And then the game begins. At the start of your turn you get extra units to place anywhere on land you own, then you have the option to click on a piece of land and attack neighboring land (if your number is higher you slowly whittle them down from what I found, but it might be based on an invisible dice roll), or you can fortify land next to that piece that you own, or you can use cards (Of which I still didn’t really understand the mechanics of yet). Then you keep going like that till one person owns the whole map.

Describe Strengths & Weaknesses of Art & Design:

The biggest weakness is that the game kinda just throws you in without some simple explanation, even Wizball had 3 screens dedicated to the instructions. They were not good instructions, but they helped a bit. I assume the game came with a manual so that would make it easier, but sadly I did not have one so It was a bit of a pain to learn the system by trying things out over and over. The biggest strength is that the game was rather easy to start up and rather easy to figure out by eventually just clicking around until I understood, minus the card system, I didn’t know I even had cards till halfway through. But the game was pretty fun because of how quickly the turns went. If I lost I could just reload the game and it ran quickly enough where losing wasn’t a huge punishment if I wanted to try again. I wasn’t very good at the game, but I enjoyed walling off my section of the world while the other people fought it out and saw if I could poke a hole in defenses to get through with my army.

What Made It Fun?:

The biggest thing that made the experience good was that it was quick to boot up and try again while I was learning, which allowed me to eventually have fun with the game instead of being frustrated when I had to reboot. The biggest enjoyment of the game was trying to slowly push back other armies and move mine into position after walling off my section enough to amass a huge force. I eventually almost got the win, but was taken out from behind where my army was weakest. That is what made me learn that you could attack diagonal even if it seemed like the countries were not touching enough. Even though I never won one of the games, I had a fun time figuring it out and learning the systems. I think if it came with an in-game tutorial, or a computer file manual, then it might have been a bit better and more fun for me. The biggest amount of my time was spent learning/re-learning the game, so I didn’t have too much time to actually strategize or try and win. And maybe if I learned the card system a bit more than that might also help as well. The main thing I ended up enjoying about the AI was watching how they chose to do things and why. And what kind of settings were set too. Much like a game of CIV it seemed like they all reacted differently when next to another person. So watching that and trying to learn how they would act while next to me was the game thing I ended up doing and enjoying. Overall, I think if I got some time to review the rules and take a look at the game some more, I think I would enjoy it a lot more than I did. And I enjoyed it a good amount, it just seems like one of those games I would end up enjoying once I knew all the rules/remembered them.

Now that you’ve played it, Why would this game be considered influential? How does it fit into the evolution of games?:

I think this game would be influential in a few ways, but not necessarily for the game itself. It was very hard to find any information on this game. I eventually had to look at sights just hosting the game to find out any information on it. Some websites said that it is somewhat “lost media” not to sure if that was true. So maybe the version I played was a recreation, not totally sure. So the game itself does not seem to be super remembered enough that it is being talked about in history books or anything, but I think it’s main contribution was to that of the single developer or indie dev idea. This level of quality from the 80’s while being either a small team or one guy is very awesome. The game felt good and was very well put together. So I think this game would have definitely inspired others to do something similar or get more people in on the idea that video games had some staying power on the personal computer of that day. So while maybe not super culturally influential the game certainly has a place in the evolution of games and gaming as a whole. It’s games like this that the original Civilization, Age of Empires, and other games of that nature have to thank for getting the PC market into these types of games early and showing how well these games work on that platform with a keyboard and mouse. I think that is probably one of the biggest contributions of this game. Showing people that this type of game works really well on this platform, and showing how easy it is to use and control with the hardware. Games like this might be a big reason why we have these types of games showing up more on the PC than we do the console, and that is pretty interesting to think about. I know that this particular one wasn’t the catalyst, but it certainly helped that idea along for sure. The interface for the mac was also very cute and that is a plus.

How would you rate this game (1-5 Stars (5 stars good)):

I give it 4 stars. It was way more fun than the other games, and was easier to understand. I actually played it a few times in a row.

[Professor Gallardo]

Game Journal #10 - The Legend of Zelda
(Turned in 6/29/2024 at 1:03pm)

Name of Game: The Legend of Zelda

Game Author(s): Shigeru Miyamoto (Director), Takashi Tezuka (Director & Writer), Keiji Terui (Writer), Toshihiko Nakago (Programmer), Yasunari Soejima (Programmer), I. Marui (Programmer), Koji Kondo (Composer)

Game Studio: Nintendo

Original Platform & Control Mechanism: NES / Famicom & NES / Famicom controller. (two action buttons, start & select, 4 directional movement arrows)

Control Mechanism we used: I went and played it on my friends “NES Classic Edition” which was an NES re-release by Nintendo, but with all the games on a small physical emulator and roms loaded into it. Same NES controller, just modern tech.

Would the experience have been different using the original? How?:

Other than maybe the button feel, not too different, it is the same exact controller design, down to the colors.

Describe Gameplay and Mechanics:

The player is spawned in a field, of which no real items or anything are. Movement is simple, just the 4 arrow directions on the controller moving you in those directions. There is a cave and a few other directions you can go. Which inside the cave holds an old man that will give you a sword. Then you can press the “A” button to attack with the sword from that point onward. Moving out of the cave and to another path on the screen will cause the screen to pause and transition to the next screen. Getting hit makes your character flash and you take damage for a moment after being knocked back a tiny bit. At full health your sword will shoot out in front of you and explode, dealing damage to enemies. But if you dip below full health you just have a normal sword again. You have another slot in your actions, the “B” button which can be filled in by other items that you find along the way, such as bombs. These items are changed in the item menu/pause menu. The name of the game is to defeat the evil of the land by exploring around and beating monsters and uncovering secrets and items. You can even upgrade your sword and health as the game goes on by finding certain items.

Describe Strengths & Weaknesses of Art & Design:

I would say there are a few flaws with the game that make it a bit rough on a newer player for the first few moments, but then as the player continues to play, they will understand and learn the game a bit more. The biggest being that the sword is in a cave that you do not have to enter first. This makes it hard for a new player to know to go there first and pick up their all important weapon. The other is that the game can be rather big for a game of its time. Make it something you have to try and remember where everything is until you start to find your way around by landmarks and memorization. The biggest strengths of this game is that it's a large open world experience of an older era. It allows the player to explore, find secrets, figure out what is happening and where things are. It doesn’t guide the player where to go, at first, just lets them explore and enjoy the aspect of exploration and adventure. Which is the main point of the game. It also has a nice separation between open world sections and dungeon sections by changing the size of the room to be a bit more cramped and more puzzle and enemy focused than outside in the open world. This gives a nice feel in gameplay where exploration is still in the forefront, but when you enter a dungeon the mood changes a bit to where you have less areas to dodge and move to, like you are on the monster’s turf now. And the aspect of gathering items that you keep or can refill to use again is a lovely addition. More games had timed power-ups before this time, so having that adds a nice sense of progression and that you were being rewarded for exploring with something that will help you on your adventure to the very end. Although some of the items like the extra clothes for link that make his outfit white make him very hard to see on cream colored or light flooring which can be a bit annoying.

What Made It Fun?:

The overall fun of the game is exploration and adventure. Having the feeling of overcoming dungeons with items you collect and skills you gain by playing is rather enjoyable. Slowly learning how an Item or an enemy works over time by dealing with them. Seeing how enemy patterns work and how best to deal with them, either through maneuvering or another item that you found. Being rewarded by not being hit, by having a better version of your sword when at full health, incentivising you to be cautious and keep a safe enough distance from enemies to try and keep that buff. All while slowly scouring the world to uncover secrets and hidden places to move forwards with the adventure or to gain something cool in a somewhat side quest-y way. Although some of the secrets can be a bit too well hidden, such as burning a single push to find a stairway down, etc. But this game might have been one of the only games that a family would have owned on the NES due to the pricing of games at that time being a bit expensive, so it would stand to reason that the player would have a ton of time to figure out things. As well as the good old school yard gossip on games to possibly help out, since there were no online guides back then. But with a 10 hour 100% completion time on the game, this one is expected to be a longer style game than most of the other games of that era. And it really gives the player their money’s worth. Able to get new content consistently out of a game like this for so long was a huge boon. Although it might be more fun for me because I remember most of the things about the game, versus someone that might be brand new to it. They might have more of an annoying experience if they are not willing to give it the time that it needs to learn it and get used to it. But that is the same for a lot of longer form games.

Now that you’ve played it, Why would this game be considered influential? How does it fit into the evolution of games?:

This game easily shows why it is such a successful and influential piece of media. It puts together the idea of adventure and exploration very well back in a time when a lot of games and game devs didn’t really know how to capture that well. The only ones that captured it well enough were things like text adventures and eventually with other games that Sierra-Online and other makers like Richard Garriott (Lord British) would bring to the table slightly before the release of this game and during it. It was one of the great additions to the idea of letting the game speak for itself and allowing the player to explore a new world without too much input from the dev or a tutorial telling them exactly what to do. Just giving them a basic manual of controls, some minor tips, and then sending them out to adventure in the new world for themselves. Which certainly led to the school yard idea of sharing secret parts of games that you didn’t even know was true until you went home and tried to find it yourself. This was the time when games were starting to get a feel for what a “long form” experience might be, an epic adventure instead of just an hour or so of re-playable gameplay. And I believe that “The Legend of Zelda” had a big part in that progression and showing other people how a game like this can be and how long and enjoyable it can be, while keeping it as simple as possible to allow more people to enjoy it without having to worry about D&D style stats blocks. I think that this game probably brought a lot of people more into the RPG space of games, even though it’s more of an action adventure game versus an RPG. But it is so much like what we see of open world RPGs today, that I think it certainly helped push that idea forwards.

How would you rate this game (1-5 Stars (5 stars good)):

I give it 4.85 stars. A classic and always fun to play from time to time.

[Professor Gallardo]

Game Journal #11 - Sonic The Hedgehog
(Turned in 7/2/2024 at 7:30pm [Was stuck in traffic and could not turn it in at 6pm])

Name of Game: Sonic The Hedgehog

Game Author(s): Hirokazu Yasuhara, Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, Jina Ishiwatari, Rieko Kodama

Game Studio: Sega

Original Platform & Control Mechanism: Sega Genesis & Sega Genesis controller.

Control Mechanism we used: I used an Xbox one controller.

Would the experience have been different using the original? How?:

Pretty different, while being a controller, it is a completely different style of controller and controller button layout. I am also sure the button feel is very different as well.

Describe Gameplay and Mechanics:

The game is rather simple overall, it is very easy to get into and work with. The game is as simple as run forwards, there isn’t even a sprinting/run button like in Super Mario Bros. It is really just pressing left or right to move in that direction. It focuses on the speed of the character and the system over other games like it. While still having a focus on platforming jumping while still trying to keep up the speed. The color of the levels also lets you focus on the character a lot, the blue of the character helps him stick out to the player so you can keep an eye on him and help for platforming when things speed up a bit more. There are also multiple paths and allow you to find secret areas. The only main mechanic is just jumping on enemies to hurt them, and spin dashing, as well as using things like jump springs to bounce.

Describe Strengths & Weaknesses of Art & Design:

The main focus on the game’s speed really helps to separate it from other games of the time. It really gives it its own feel and rewards the player for continuing to go fast, and even calculates level score based on speed and other factors which really helps to push the player to find ways to go faster and faster each level. A massive strength is its character design and how the character was part of the main draw versus games like Super Mario Bros. The game really pushes a more edgy and teen oriented and focused character which people of that generation really latched onto. The spin dash which is also a good portion of sonic’s design is a good implementation of a mechanic that helps him go from “0 to 60” in little time. It helps him pick up quick speed and get a nice speed going if you end up slowing down or hitting a wall. The main weakness is that the game can be really tough to keep up speed if you don’t already know the “track” really well. Which makes it more fun to play on repeat playing, but not very easy to be a perfect act on the first few run throughs.

What Made It Fun?:

The main draw of sonic is its speed. It makes you feel very skilled once you get the simple systems down enough to try and master the levels. The downside is that it is very hard to get a very good score the first few run throughs and eventually you need to play the levels enough to memorize it and get better at the different routes so you can keep sonic’s speed up continuously. This becomes a sort of staple of the games later, as being a “get through the level” the first time through, and then subsequent times are more focused on time attack and getting better at your score and time. Which is a nice way to design it, but makes it feel a bit slower to a player that is not well versed in the levels, versus watching someone who knows the level very well zooming through at top speeds without stopping a ton. There are also some sections of levels that require more slow upwards platforming which slow down the pacing more, which can be a tad annoying. The biggest things that I remember and have fun from this game are the designs. I really love all the sprites, even today. And I think they are designed very well and make the game so fun to look at. Even sonic idle animation is filled with personality and flavor for the character. While this was never my go to game when I was a kid, I owned and played a Super Nintendo mainly. I always enjoyed going over to a friend’s house to play on his Sega, and I always enjoyed this game out of all the ones he had. The character, sounds, and speed of gameplay always kept me having fun. I just never had the time to fall in love with it since I never owned a Sega.

Now that you’ve played it, Why would this game be considered influential? How does it fit into the evolution of games?:

I think this game is one of the most influential for a number of reasons. It came out during a time when Nintendo owned the market. And it helped the Sega Genesis go toe to toe with the NES. And one of the major reasons was the great marketing, the amazing design and color choices of characters, backgrounds, and sprites in the game. The focus on fun and interesting set pieces and characters instead of going with something more “Safe” and it brought in a whole genre of platformer which was the “Mascot Platformer” which emerged after Mario and Sonic were duking it out in the console wars, so lots of developers after thought they could cash in and make those kind of sells numbers if they did something similar and had a mascot of their own. This is probably the main reason we have characters like Crash Bandicoot, Ty the Tasmanian tiger, Daxter from Jak and Daxter, Banjo and Kazooie, and way more. Sonic proved that good and interesting character design draws in people and keeps them playing and loving the game through interesting gameplay and the feel and personality of the characters involved. And during that day, it was a focus on the more “Mascot” style of character, thanks to this game. So yea I think it really pushed forwards a new section of gaming history and brought out a lot of ideas in developers on how they would like to do a similar game, and how to design more appealing characters that would grab peoples’ attention and keep it. Because without sonic, without his iconic and well designed state, I think the game might not have done as well as it had. And we might not have as many of the more iconic video game mascots that we do today.

How would you rate this game (1-5 Stars (5 stars good)):

I give it 4.6 a very fun game, it was just not my favorite growing up but I never have a bad time.

[Professor Gallardo]

Game Journal #12 - Super Metroid
(Turned in 7/9/2024 at 12:06pm)

Name of Game: Super Metroid

Game Author(s): Yoshio Sakamoto, Makoto Kano, Kenji Imai, Hirofumi Matsuoka, Masahiko Mashimo, Hiroyuki Kimura, Kenji Yamamoto, Minako Hamano

Game Studio: Nintendo R&D1 & Intelligent Systems

Original Platform & Control Mechanism: SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) & SNES controller

Control Mechanism we used: I used a SNES controller (I own an original SNES and a copy of Super Metroid)

Would the experience have been different using the original? How?:

Same exact way, because it’s the original hardware.

Describe Gameplay and Mechanics:

Super Metroid is an interesting game in that it is basically a suped up version of the original Metroid. The beginning is even the same area, just with more updated visuals, which is really cool. The game overall is a 2D side scroller, very heavy on exploration, but with a nice amount of quick action. This action is very quick and simple, something around the lines of Mega-Man in the beginning, but during boss fights and with later enemies it becomes a bit more complex than the start. Which is a great flow to the gameplay and keeps the player engaged. The basics of the gameplay are moving around with the directional arrows, “select” brings up the map and “start” pauses the game. And then there is a button for firing the arm cannon, angling your fire diagonally in either direction (up/down) and jumping. The nice part about this is that there is also a controller configuration menu in the main menu where you can change the buttons around a bit. The main focus of the game is to run around, shooting anything that moves really so it does not harm you and deplete your health, shooting doors open and checking rooms for power-ups like missiles and health upgrades while searching for bosses to defeat to get even more power-ups to progress further in the game.

Describe Strengths & Weaknesses of Art & Design:

The massive strengths of this game can be felt from the very start. The game really pushes a lonely and almost horror-like atmosphere in the first few moments after the small cutscene. The game really pushes its design and art to make things look amazing while still being pixelated sprites. It gives you a lot of time at the start with no enemies to truly get a feel for the way Samus moves and controls. And then after a short scripted boss fight, you have to make your way back through the facility you just went through with little enemies and there are dangers and a timer. Making you put the movement you learned getting down to that point to the test so you can make it back up in time. The music also plays an amazing strength to the game by making it very ominous and chorus at times. A lot of tracks sound like choirs of ancient cults singing, and really push a dark and ancient atmosphere in the places you visit. Besides the art and design, the game's mechanics are very fun and simple to grasp at first, and become more and more engaging as the game goes on. The game is so widely loved for the mechanics and lovely level design that the game is a staple speed running game to this day. The biggest faults/weaknesses I would say about the game is that some of the later controls like super jumping after dashing, and wall jumping, can be a huge pain for some players and are not very easy to pull off and not much hint is given to the player on how to do it. I chalk this up to the controller trying to fit the abilities on the buttons when none were left, and having to do what they could to fit it into the control scheme, but it is still a tad annoying to deal with.

What Made It Fun?:

The main fun draw of the game is the interesting exploration, atmosphere, art, bosses, and power-ups. I really love the look of the game and love the world of Metroid, and that was due to this game being one of the ones I owned growing up. The game’s music is a nice backdrop to this planetary dungeon delve you go on with your main character Samus Aran, and the planet is a sight to behold. So many interesting biomes to explore and enemies to encounter. Moving around the game is pretty simple at first, and then as you get more and more upgrades it becomes more challenging and fun. Especially with all the weapon types and missiles and super missiles you collect to fight enemies and open doors. It is so fun to roam around in a place, slowly mapping it out room by room, seeing what you can find and where you can go. And eventually running up to a door you can not open because it won’t, but it’s a different color than the others, slowly hinting to you that you don’t even have the thing you need to open it yet. Then slowly but surely you go through the game and find that item, then all of those previously locked off rooms are now open to you, letting you explore even more and find even more interesting items or bosses. The other thing that really makes it fun is just the overall feel and look of the game when compared to what has come before from Nintendo. This game is a huge shift from Mario and other titles. It just feels more adult and serious than those games, and that always made me really enjoy it a lot because of its very dark and dank feel to the environments in the planet, and with the music it really seals the deal.

Now that you’ve played it, Why would this game be considered influential? How does it fit into the evolution of games?:

This is one of the greats in gaming. It is literally one half of the games that helped spawn an entire genre of games, the “Metroid-vania”. Together with “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” this game created a large generation of games that still hang around today in popular games like “Hollow Knight”. It really gives a nice feel for exploration and sets a nice standard in how exploration can be handled in a game, that also makes its way over to games like “Symphony of the Night”. It really gives players a lot for their money and pushes the idea that you can really make an area in a game fun by locking area’s off with power-up “keys” to let the player know that they will be back in a few hours with something they got later to unlock this. It gives the player a sense of intrigue at what could be in those locked spaces while also showing them the journey they went on when they come back to that place hours later and reminisce about the start of their journey. It also enables the devs to pace out the player’s experience masterfully. This game was a huge influence to so many developers and a huge push forward in the evolution of what games could be and how things could be thought of and paced out to give the player an amazing experience. Some form of these mechanics make its way into all sorts of games, even into games like “Mario64”, “Banjo Kazooie”, and more. I know it has a huge influence on my design and how I view exploration in games when it comes to thinking about how to doll out the experience to the player. This and “Symphony of the Night” were massive inspirations to me in terms of design and for a lot of other people as well.

How would you rate this game (1-5 Stars (5 stars good)):

I give it 5, it’s a classic and is still played a lot today. I always come back to it from time to time.

[Professor Gallardo]

Game Journal #13 - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
(Turned in 7/11/2024 at 10:51am)

Name of Game: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Game Author(s): Toru Hagihara, Koji Igarashi, Ayami Kojima, Nobuya Nakazato, Toshiharu Furukawa, Michiru Yamane.

Game Studio: Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo

Original Platform & Control Mechanism: PS1 and PS1 Controller

Control Mechanism we used: PS2 Controller

Would the experience have been different using the original? How?:

Slightly different due to the change in design, but all the buttons used are basically the same. So not much will feel changed.

Describe Gameplay and Mechanics:

“Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” is a 2D side scroller with action elements. The main gameplay is moving side to side, using attacks, shields, spells, and items to defeat the denizens of Castle Dracula. Jumping is a dedicated button, as well as left and right hand items such as weapons and shields. Other dedicated buttons are for back dashing, and turning into other vampire forms like a wolf, bat, or mist. The combat is overall pretty simple, if an enemy touches you or hits you with a weapon, you are knocked back and take damage. If you hit an enemy, they take damage. The main focus of the combat is to keep good distance while an enemy is attacking, and then going in with a weapon and hitting them when they are open. Projectiles can be blocked by shields, but shields can not block melee or magic attacks from enemies. The other addition to combat is the length and speed of your weapon. Longer weapons have an easier time hitting enemies from a safer distance, but most likely have a longer animation time, leaving you more open to hits, if timed incorrectly. There are also healing mechanics and a mana management system, for spells and vampire forms, but mana regenerates slowly over time. There is also a secondary item slot that is used for special items that take “hearts” (not health) to use. These include things like throwing daggers, throwing axes, holy water, thrown crosses, time stopping pocket watches, and more.

Describe Strengths & Weaknesses of Art & Design:

The main fun of “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” is the variety of gameplay brought by the different weapon types in the game, and all the special weapons you can gather by defeating enemies. A lot of the cooler weapons in the game are hidden as a drop from an enemy, which is a random chance to get. So you can get lucky and get a really rare weapon drop sometimes. Which makes the game rather fun when you have all these weapons and items you can collect that make your run different. The stats in the game don’t really matter all that much and gameplay is more focused on the weapons you choose to wield, which have no stat requirements to use. Which I think is both a strength and a weakness, it allows players to try out all sorts of weapons without having to re-spec their build or play another save to try it out. But, much like Dark Souls and Elden Ring will perfect for this system, sometimes having restrictions on builds like that can be rather fun and incentivise multiple playthroughs. Overall though the game is rather fun, and has an amazing art direction and design. The game was made towards the end of the PS1 dev cycle and was made in 2D rather than 3D so they focused on stuff they perfected already, and it shows. The sprites are still beautifully animated to this day, and the backgrounds are gorgeous, as well as the sheer enemy and weapon variety. This game alone got me into the idea of monster design and mythology at a young age because of its art.

What Made It Fun?:

The thing that makes “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” fun for me, is the sheer size of the map and exploration. As well as the hidden secrets, fun weaponry, and monster design. The game even has multiple endings, and one of the endings literally hides half of the game behind it, which is amazingly awesome that to play the full experience you have to scour the entire castle from top to bottom to uncover what needs to be done to progress to the final ending. I have played this game more times than I can count. It is probably one of my favorite games of all time. That is due to the sheer variety of fun and interesting weapons that you can use in the game. Some even have special hidden abilities that you have to do a fighting game input to use. And some have special attributes like doing more damage to ghost enemies, etc. There is just so much interesting exploration and intrigue for a new player that it can leave them engaged for hours, just trying to find all the cool secrets and interesting weapons to use. Then one of the other fun things is that once you finish the game once, you start looking online for all the hidden secrets and weapons you were unable to find, and then you go trying to collect them all so you can 100% your playthrough. The game just gives you so much to work with, and so many interesting designed environments and monsters to see that a good portion of it’s fun is just seeing what Dracula’s Castle has in store for you in the next room, and the next, and the next. It makes the experience of traveling and exploring the castle so much fun, and so varied and enjoyable to experience.

Now that you’ve played it, Why would this game be considered influential? How does it fit into the evolution of games?:

This game was both amazingly influential to my childhood, but also super influential to so many other people, and to the gaming space as a whole. Alongside “Super Metroid”, “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” is the -vania portion of Metroidvania. This is the game alongside Super Metroid that crafted this genre of game and made it something that still endures today in things like “Hollow Knight”. This game also influenced/perpetuated some bigger game mechanics like those found in “Dark Souls” and “Elden Ring” with weapon diversity, weapon types dictating what the weapons animation will entail, hidden special weapons used as enemy drops, etc. Games like “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” focus heavily on the player's experience with how they play the game and allow for people to craft what they want to play the character as. Do they want to use a huge hammer that is slow and does a ton of damage, but leaves them open to attacks, or do they like using a ranged weapon, or a small dagger that is easy to dodge with but does little damage. This is something that makes “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” so fun and engaging while also making it so replayable. I have played the game more times than I can count, and if Konami would actually release the game on steam or any other place other than Playstation, then I am sure I would have played it 100 more times than I already have. “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” is also amazing in inspiring the type of monster designs that we would see in other games as well as showing that a large roster of interesting monsters really makes a game enjoyable, especially when they all act differently from each other and have unique attacks and animations to and deal with.

How would you rate this game (1-5 Stars (5 stars good)):

I give this game a 5, it is one of my favorites of all time.

[Professor Gallardo]

Game Journal #14 - Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
(Turned in 7/16/2024 at 1:56pm)

Name of Game: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Game Author(s): Toru Osawa, Yoichi Yamada, Eiji Aonuma, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Toshio Iwawaki, Shigeru Miyamoto, Kenzo Hayakawa, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Yusuke Nakano, Toru Osawa, Kensuke Tanabe, Koji Kond

Game Studio: Nintendo

Original Platform & Control Mechanism: N64 & N64 Controller

Control Mechanism we used: N64 controller on original N64

Would the experience have been different using the original? How?:No different at all, since it’s the original.

Describe Gameplay and Mechanics:

The basic mechanics of the game are walking around with the movement stick, pausing the game to look at the menus and inventory. Jumping by moving off ledges, and attacking when you have a weapon or using an item when you have it in your hand. Although the game gets more complicated with mechanics when you proceed through the game more and unlock more items and weapons that serve different purposes. Some are useful in combat, but most will be useful for unlocking different parts of the world or completing certain criteria for quests. This pushes the idea of exploration and adventure, which is what the games main themes are. The game is one large adventure and much like Super Metroid, the game asks you to explore around and uncover secrets, NPCs, quests, and items while learning about the story of the world and where to go next. Aside from exploration, most of the combat comes down to holding the Z button to z-target the enemies and use your sword and other items to dispatch them while not running out of health yourself. Another fun thing to collect and use is the songs on the ocarina, of which is one of the most important items in the game. They add a nice way to add collectability while also giving a wide array of things to do with them, like change the weather, time of day, teleport, and more that are very useful for quests.

Describe Strengths & Weaknesses of Art & Design:

The massive strength of this game is the size of its world compared to previous entries in the series and the great transition from 2D topdown (first game) and 2D side scroller (second game) to a full 3D experience that defined a lot of things about games even to this day. The Z-targeting system really helped to keep enemies in focus of the camera since the controller didn’t have the full camera control that we expect today, which going back and playing can feel a bit strange after not playing that way for a long time. The things to do in the game all feel like a small step towards something grand, which is a lovely way to have a large collectathon like this built out. It makes you want to do all the quests and find the secret areas so you can unlock every upgrade, weapon, and item in the game. Exploration even helps for increasing your magic bar and your health, which really helps you a lot later on in the game. The art style, while polygonal, still holds a nice old charm that is even being recreated today with more old style graphic de-makes of games and styles. But I would say the biggest sticking point is probably the quality of the sprites, the game can look rather blurry compared to what we are used to nowadays which hurt my head after a bit of playing it on the original hardware. I can understand why people mainly play the game emulated nowadays because of this. But even with that slight issue, the game still holds up great today and worked very well even on an old original cartridge. And the music only enhances the experience I had and was a lovely melody of different tunes that are still listened to fondly today. But I will say the biggest weakness for me, even while going back to play it, is that sometimes it can be hard to tell where to exactly go when you get to later parts of the game, trying to remember which places you have been and finished can get a bit tedious.

What Made It Fun?:

The biggest draw to the game is of course the wide open world and the exploration that follows it. As well as the plethora of fun and interesting items that scatter the world for you to collect and find and the secrets that follow. This was a game that was heavily talked about on the playground along with Super Mario 64. This game was always discussed because of secret areas and rumors about the game, which was always fun to talk about and engage with. Combat with the z-targeting was also very fun and enjoyable. Doing stylish things like back flipping and then attacking an enemy to finish them off was always a satisfying thing to do. That and the accompaniment of amazing music that really helps accentuate combat and exploration really helps to make you feel like you are on a grand adventure. The Hyrule Field music always makes me smile when I first walk out from Kakariko Village and into the wider world of the game, the swelling music really getting me pumped for a large adventure that I know will span across the game's zones. And the variety of those zones really helps the exploration feel interesting and engaging. You want to see all the cool and interesting things that exist, and even the most inconspicuous place can hold a cool area that might be hidden under the ground or behind a door. Like the spooky sewer esc dungeon inside the well in one of the first main towns. What seems like a simple non hostile area turns into one of the more creepy and unsettling dungeons with one of the more unsettling bosses in the game, and it is just right under the well in the sleepy little town. Overall the fun of the game is really getting lost in the world and enjoying the landscape and exploration of this interesting new world.

Now that you’ve played it, Why would this game be considered influential? How does it fit into the evolution of games?:

I would consider this one of the most influential games that Nintendo has made. It really popularized the idea of targeting enemies with a button with the z-targeting and really helped solidify the popular ideas that would continue later into the Legend of Zelda series like collecting multiple items in the wider world, going back to previous dungeons or areas with new items to unlock secrets or finish quests, much like in Super Metroid, heavy focus on z-targeting combat, and the use of different items to handle different enemies. And you can tell that this game has a huge focus on collecting items due to the fanfare you get for picking up an item out of a chest, there is a whole cutscene for it. Which has become a popular staple of the games and those that emulate the feeling of it. You can always tell when a game is influenced by The Legend of Zelda and it usually comes from this game and ones after that are heavily influenced by it. It certainly had a big effect on pop culture and which games were seen as big sellers by nintendo. This game really helped solidify what style of Nintendo games you liked as a kid, and which ones you didn’t. It was a much longer form than Mario 64 in terms of it’s moment to moment gameplay, and some people preferred that and some didn’t. I know I was a kid that preferred Mario 64 due to its easy level separation and ease of use when knowing how much you had completed of the game. But I know that the older I got the more I enjoyed the way Ocarina of Time handled gameplay with a longer form adventure that spans over hours with little breaks between ”levels” other than dungeon entrances and leaving one area into another, but the game does its best to make it all feel like one cohesive world and experience. Which really inspired my interest in later games that follow this mentality like Dark Souls and Elden ring.

How would you rate this game (1-5 Stars (5 stars good)):

I give it a 4.9 out of 5, it is one of my favorites to go back and play from time to time, but I do have some issues with certain pacing and finding out where to go sometimes.