The 8bitanimal.com 2013 Year In Review

Today we take a look back at some of the really cool stuff we played, one or two things we're glad we didn't, and everything in between.

Happy New Year from The Digitized Ramblings of an 8-Bit Animal!!

Nilin, Lara, And Their Awesome Games

 

Today's video takes a look at Tomb Raider and Remember Me, two of 2013's best action games that happen to star female protagonists.

It's Official; Scammers, Trolls, And Fanboys Have Gone To A New Low

The fact the Sony and Microsoft have sparked a new console war when there is so little distinguishing one from the other is remarkable. What is troubling is the lengths some people have been going through to troll some gamers because of their allegiance, and the depths that some are going to in an effort to scam them.

How WayForward Resurrected Greatness With DuckTales Resmastered

Today's video takes a look at the Wayforward developed remake of Capcom's legendary NES title, DuckTales.

The Crash Of 1983: The Price Of Greed 30 Years Later

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30 years ago, an event happened that could have destroyed the gaming industry. It’s something that has made gamers nervous for years, especially with the proliferation of games with incredibly high production budgets and consoles that are only as good as the non gaming applications attached to them. There have been a number of conflicting claims as far as where to point the finger of blame for causing The Video Game Crash of 1983, but it boils down to simple greed.

Atari had a lot of problems leading to the crash. One of which was simple arrogance. You see, Atari did silly things on occasion like produce more copies of a particular game than they had consoles in the market.

This was case with the Atari 2600 port of Pac Man. In 1982, when the 2600 port of Namco’s iconic title was released, Atari decided to produce 12 million copies of it. This wouldn’t have been a problem if not for one important fact: Atari only had 10 million consoles in homes. In the end, Atari sold only 7 million copies of Pac Man and was faced with legions of angry fans who sought refunds after playing the incredibly subpar port of Pac Man.

Pac Man wasn’t the only miscue Atari faced, and the next one was one of legendary proportions. When the movie E.T. was released in the summer of 1982, Warner Communications, who owned Atari, demanded that a video game based on the film be available in stores by Christmas. Atari was given a mere six weeks to see a video game through from concept to store shelf. The resulting game was what many consider the worst video game ever made. Again, Atari was left with millions of unsold cartridges, which they took to a landfill in New Mexico, destroyed, and covered by cement. The “Atari Landfill” as it became known over the years has become something of an urban legend among younger gamers, but is all too familiar to us old enough to have seen the catalogs with 1 cent sales on 2600 cartridges.

Finally, there may have been way too many crappy games and random consoles on the market. In 1982, Atari had two consoles and two computers on the market. Also, several companies had consoles that played Atari 2600 games, several other game consoles and computers, and games available for all of them. It was incredibly confusing and left many gamers and their parent not even wanting to be bothered. This led to store being flooded with stock hogging shelf and stockroom space. As a result, the average parent could buy their kid an Atari 2600 for $30 and games for $1-$5.  The losses were monumental and in 1983, many companies either abandoned their video game divisions, or went out of business.

The Crash of 1983 was something that many younger gamers never heard of, but that doesn’t make it any less real. The fact is, some of the problems that damaged the industry them, most notably flooding the market, is definitely happening now with titles being released on an almost yearly basis. If the gaming industry were to crash again, I’m hard pressed to think it would recover. There are those who have pondered the validity of console gaming with the rise of gaming on devices not typically designed for it, like phones and tablets, but as console gaming goes, so does gaming on PCs and mobile devices. If this upcoming generation of consoles falters, then who can assume that anyone would be willing to stay the course with those other devices.

The evidence that gaming may be slowing down or that gamers are just getting tired of playing the same games over and over may be the fact that in one particular month a single game, Grand Theft Auto V, accounted for nearly half of all video game sales on the market. While Atari would have killed for this to happen with Pac Man or E.T it does point to a problem in gaming. Gaming can ill afford to repeat the events that led to the Crash of 1983, but simple human greed could lead to history repeating itself. Unfortunately, There may not be any room for a new Nintendo to rise from the ashes and save the art form that we have grown to love.

Kickstarter Campaigns That Will Excite Retro Gamers

Today's post takes a look at a few Kickstarter funded games that are sure to have retro gamers salivating.

Thank You, Hiroshi Yamauchi

Hiroshi Yamauchi was a giant that many gamers may not know. He wasn't a rock star like Goichi Suda or Hideo Kojima, but if he wasn't in the position he was in we may not have a video game industry to celebrate today. If not for his guiding presence, Nintendo may still just be a small playing card company or may not exist at all. This man laid the groundwork for the rise of the most known brand in gaming history. Under his watch, playing video games became "playing Nintendo", and even staunch haters of Nintendo's current direction have to admit that the contributions of Hiroshi Yamauchi have helped lead to the wide reaching appeal of gaming culture.

Yamauchi became president of his grandfather's company, The Nintendo Playing Card Co. in 1949, a few years after the end of World War II. Under Yamauchi's watch, Nintendo rose from a simple playing card company into the monolith that revived gaming. From the Nintendo Love Tester, to their line of Pong clones, to the predecessor of the Game Boy, Game & Watch, Nintendo was able to gradually reinvent itself into a household name.This moves led to the release of the ill fated Radar Scope, which in it's failure, led to the creation of Donkey Kong. Then the steamroller that is Nintendo began throughout the 80s. All of the company's greatest moments were achieved with Hiroshi Yamauchi at the helm.

Hiroshi Yamauchi took a small company and turned them into a juggernaut the likes of which no one expected. As Nintendo weather's it's current storm, current President Satoru Iwata would do well to learn from his predecessor and do what is necessary to get folks believing in the house of Mario again. Thank you, Hiroshi Yamauchi. You gave millions of gamers around the world a gateway to experience new worlds, face new challenges, and rescue princesses from new castles.

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Super Mario Bros.

Today's video takes a look at Super Mario Bros. from Nintendo

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Mega Man

Today's video takes a look at Mega Man from Capcom

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Ninja Gaiden II

Today's video takes a look at Ninja Gaiden II from Tecmo

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Contra

Today's video takes a look at Contra from Konami

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Adventure Island III

Today's video takes a look at Adventure Island III from Hudson Soft

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Snake's Revenge

Today's video takes a look at Snake's Revenge from Ultra Games

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Tecmo Super Bowl

Today's video takes a look at Tecmo Super Bowl

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Double Dragon III

Today's video takes a look at the NES port of Double Dragon III from Acclaim

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Tetris 2

Today's video takes a look at Tetris 2 from Nintendo

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Roadblasters

Today's video takes a look at Mindscape's NES port of Atari's Roadblasters

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Captain Comic

Today's video takes a look at Captain Comic for the NES from Color Dreams

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Xexyz

Today's video takes a look at Xexyz for the NES from Hudson Soft

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Slalom

Today's video takes a look at Slalom for the NES. This game is the first title developed by Rare for any game console.

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Popeye

Today's video takes a look at the NES port of Popeye from Nintendo

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III - The Manhattan Project

Today's video takes a look at Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III - The Manhattan Project from Konami

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Castlevania III - Dracula's Curse

Today's video takes a look at Castlevania III - Dracula's Curse from Konami

The Summer Of 8Bit 2.0: City Connection

Today's video takes a look at The NES port of City Connection from Jaleco

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Werewolf - The Last Warrior

Today's video takes a look at Werewolf: The Last Warrior from Data East

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: A Boy And His Blob

Today's video takes a look at David Crane's A Boy And His Blob from Absolute Entertainment

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Defender II

Today's video takes a look at the NES port of Williams' Defender II from HAL America

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Ice Hockey

Today's video looks at Ice Hockey from Nintendo

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Superspike V'Ball and Nintendo World Cup

Today's video looks at Superspike V'Ball and Nintendo World Cup, both developed by Technos Japan.

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Tom and Jerry

Today's video looks at Tom and Jerry for the NES from Hi Tech Expressions

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Super Spy Hunter

Today's video takes a look at Super Spy Hunter from Sunsoft

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Legends Of The Diamond

Today's video looks at Legends Of The Diamond from Bandai

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Excitebike

Today's video takes a look at Excitebike from Nintendo

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Batman

Today's video looks at Batman for the NES from Sunsoft

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Whomp Em

Today's video looks at Whomp Em from Jaleco

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Double Dragon II

Today's video looks at the NES port of Double Dragon II from Acclaim.

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Mario Bros.

Today's video looks at the NES port of Nintendo's Mario Bros.

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Tag Team Wrestling

Today's video looks at the NES port of Data East's Tag Team Wrestling

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: The Rocketeer

Today's video looks at The Rocketeer from Bandai

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: The 3-D Battles Of WorldRunner

Today's video looks at The 3-D Battles Of WorldRunner for the NES from Square / Acclaim

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Today's video looks at Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES from Ultra Games

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Disney's Ducktales

Today, we celebrate 400 posts with a look at Disney's Ducktales for the NES from Capcom

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Godzilla - Monster Of Monsters

Today's video looks at Godzilla - Monster Of Monsters from Toho

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Startropics

Today's video looks at Startropics for the NES from Nintendo

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Rampage

Today's video looks at Data East's NES port of Midway's Rampage

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Amagon

Today's video looks at Amagon from American Sammy

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: 1942

Today's video looks at the NES port of Capcom's 1942

Nerdgasm Noire Network Is Selling Shirts...Get One Today!!!

The wonderful ladies of Nerdgasm Noire Network are in the middle of a Teespring campaign. Order yourself one today and support independent media.

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Shadow of the Ninja

Today's video looks at Shadow of the Ninja for the NES from Natsume

The Summer Of 8-Bit 2.0: Bomberman

Today's video looks at the NES version of Bomberman from Hudson Soft