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07/01/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
category: archive
Just this week the IDSA (Interactive Digital Software Association, the trade organization for video game makers and the like) announced a lawsuit naming six individuals who have been copying and distributing, for a profit, all kinds of games. What's even more astonishing is that one of these folks is from Idaho, the great home state of GF! We just don't get much publicity for Idaho, and I felt like the connection beckoned me to write this article.


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01/01/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
category: archive
This past summer I reviewed bleem!, a Playstation emulator introduced at E3 last spring. We rarely revisit software titles but because of the ongoing legal battles between bleem! and Sony, and the recent release of version 1.5b, we at GamesFirst! decided to take a second look. The initial review can be found in it's entirety here; let's get this updated review started by sharing a December 13, 1999 press release:


01/01/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
category: archive
It kills me to say this, but I've always believed that if you can't do it right, don't do it at all. So here I am.

I'm a writer and I love video games. Being a writer may make me hypersensitive, but I find myself wondering all the time: Where did they get this crap? It's not the plots of games, which are varied and diverse enough to satisfy any genre desire, but the way these plots are presented. Where did all the dialogue writers go? Why aren't any of them working for game companies? Why does this gross negligence never get attention?


01/01/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
category: archive
Lately I've been spending a lot of time with my copy of Norm Koger's The Operational Art of War, and I have a lot of nice things to say about it. It's deep, it's fun, it's got a great interface”well, OK, it's just a great game. In any case, I was happily playing along in the spiffy 2D mode, feeling nice and comfortable with the familiar board wargame look of the game, when my son looked over my shoulder and suggested we try the 3D view of the game, "you know, the one where the tanks look like tanks instead of chits of cardboard." Figuring it wouldn't hurt to humor him, I switched over to 3D, and”Great Patton's Ghost!--we were confronted with a sight to freeze one's very soul”that of the ugliness that lies at the heart of wargaming. We witnessed wraith-like infantry, indistinct vehicles, Germans wearing green uniforms, Allies grey. It was like World War II on food poisoning.


01/01/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
category: archive
Catch the Winter X Games? During the women's slopestyle competition, one of the riders pulled a double-grab 360. The announcer hollered, "ding ding ding," and called the trick. It struck me that he was making a Coolboarders reference. The video games are affecting the sport itself.


01/01/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
category: archive
Yesterday, the arcade nearest to my house officially sold its soul”not to the devil, the government, or even a special interest group with some less diabolical agenda. No, it sold out to the thirteen year old mall crowd and their perceived need for franchise-like arcade huts and the seemingly infinite series of genre clones that go along with them. Don't get me wrong, one of the best things about arcades is the fact that they provide you with the opportunity to play games months before they make it to a console, and generally in better versions.


01/01/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
category: archive
Obviously, the internet capabilities of the Dreamcast”combined with its superior processor apparatus”give it an edge far sharper than any system to break in the last forever many years. You thought, perhaps, that you had maximized the possibilities of your couch when you finally found the Dukes of Hazzard TV tray you had been looking for the last ten years, or installed the Molson-stocked mini-fridge next to your remote control caddy. But now, Sega has introduced the possibility of leisurely strolling through the internet from that selfsame couch, not to mention given you the option to play console games on-line with friends who are similarly devoted to their domestic sitting arrangements.


01/01/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
category: archive
AIRPORT, Salt Lake City. Maybe some of you out there haven't been to E3. In fact, maybe almost none of you have. Well, this was my first year, and I just sort of lucked into it, so believe me, I understand the pain and frustration that you must feel knowing that another year has come and gone in which you didn't get to see any Namco girls. Yes, I am just patronizing you. Anyway, a conversation I accidentally got on tape at the airport might help. This kid ("some kid" as I prefer to call him) was on his way to visit his dad in Illinois. The plan was, he was going to go there, try and get free stuff and money, and mostly listen to his dad complain about "your mother the bitch." So I showed him forty-five minutes of footage of the Space Channel 5 Go-go dancers. And after he cried for joy, I hugged him, and we had a pretzel. We also had this conversation:


01/01/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
category: archive
In the grand scheme of things the Dreamcast hasn't sold as well as it could have and I don't think there's any real mystery as to why this is so. A lot of people felt like they got burnt by the Saturn and they've lost faith in Sega's ability to deliver the goods. Gamers coughed up 299 bucks to take a stroll through the next generation system, but then a little something called the PlayStation showed up and preceded to whoop Sega's ass all up and down the isles of your local videogame store. When Resident Evil came out it gave gamers an experience they'd never had before and the Saturn was on the ropes. Sony landed jabs and uppercuts and if you listened closely you could hear bones breaking. Final Fantasy VII rolled out and "Fatality" echoed in the background. FFVII helped sell a bajillion more Playstations, and the Saturn basically just disappeared. When the dust settled and the blood was mopped up Sony was the undisputed champion of the console world and Sega's mangled remains were unceremoniously kicked aside, and the videogame world moved on.


01/01/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
category: archive
Well, it's coming up pretty soon now. Assuming Microsoft sticks to the most recent release date, Windows 2000 Professional, Server, and Advanced Server should be out in stores in a few months. And what we all ask is, "Do I want it?," and, of course, we answer "YES!". But what we all really need to know is, "Do I need it?" And that's a definite maybe.


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