How does a game like this get on shelfs? (Must read!)

the only thing I can possibly think of is that the developer sent off a very very early work-in progress they had archived accidently instead of the finished thing, and no one bothered to check it

Thank you for this...it truly made my day.

I''m still laughing my a$$ off...

Thx for the fix... Didn't check that it worked, was still kinda light headed from that article.

I was thinking... If I had this much fun just reading a REVIEW on the game, sounds like a must have...

2 Words:

Gag Gift

Buy one (I would assume there is no copy protection) copy it, give it to your nephue (sp?) who wanted whatever game for his birthday. Tell him you couldn't find it but that this game "looked cool!"

PS - It's still good 2nd time... Got kick out of the "You're Winner!" screen. Seems there about good with grammer as me...

[edited by - Cyber-Ace on January 23, 2004 3:54:22 PM]

OMFG. Geez, im going to go straight to their publisher and ask them to publish an old game of mine, BIG OL'' BLACK SCREEN. As long as I get the money upfront, I see no problem.

LOL. (In it''s full meaning.)

That probably the worst game ever released by "a professional company". You should really visit the devloper''s site and view their bragging on the few pages that work. The game list is completely empty, and the contact page doesn''t work. My guess is that they''ve gone out of business (which is not surprising).

maybe they had an intractable publishing deadline, so they had to give them an early beta version. i mean, in theory that game could be fun (i mean if it actually worked, and the controls were made better, and all the other stuff was fixed), you never know.

anyone ever play "circus maximus"? that game sounded really cool in theory, but sucked more than anything i have ever played in my life. i actually scratched up the DVD before returning it (i rented it from the video store), so i could get a different game and nobody else would have the pain of renting it after me.

Lol, and I was worried about my game''s functionality.

heh i could remove some stuff if i wanted to now=)

;-)

Raymond Jacobs,

www.EDIGames.com
www.EtherealDarkness.com

That is one of the funniest game reviews I've ever heard.

edit: "ever read".

shortcurves.com | /josh

[edited by - salsa on January 24, 2004 1:45:53 AM]

An interesting follow up to the review on Gamespotting

Move over Xtreme Paintbrawl...

That''s because your average retail title sells because of marketing more than how good the game actually is (this goes both ways). That''s one reason I love the shareware model - every single customer has played the demo and knows what to expect - they buy the game not the box.

if you think the gamespot review is funny read the readers'' reviews

This brings to mind bad memories of the original BattleCruiser.

I really liked that follow-up article. I''ve seen the original review posted on several other sites, and people replying with "OMG! I''m going to buy that game just because of how funny it will be!", which is exactly what the publisher is hoping for, and by giving them your money you''re only going to encourage this kind of sleazy marketing ploy and drive the game industry further into the ground.

quote:

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Original post by JHL
the only thing I can possibly think of is that the developer sent off a very very early work-in progress they had archived accidently instead of the finished thing, and no one bothered to check it

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Don't laugh. Similar things have happened before and I speak from personal experience.

"2D Game Maker", CRL, published in 1988 for the ZX Spectrum. For some inexplicable reason, CRL decided to just publish an early version, instead of waiting for us to finish the game. (Both myself and the programmer were still at school when we made this, so it took about 3 months' worth of weekends. It was coded on the ZX Spectrum itself, using a couple of ZX Microdrives to speed up the process.)

That didn't stop some mags giving it surprisingly high marks--one even gave it 70%. But my favourite review is this one from "Your Sinclair" magazine.

There was about 20% of the project left to do, but we gave up when we discovered an older version had already been sent out for duplication. (The missing features the reviewer talks about in the linked review were all supposed to be there. The bugs were there because it was literally unfinished software.)

The irony is that "Your Sinclair" magazine was later reduced to publishing 'games' written with the program on their covermounted cassettes. Most of them didn't even bother changing the graphics.

That said, I do think the YS review is the most accurate. It's certainly the only one I want to have framed on my wall.

--
Sean Timarco Baggaley

(I was interested in working as a graphics artist back then, so I did the graphics and what passes for a 'demo' level in the released version. This version also only lists the programmer in the credits, but then it's not a release I'm particularly proud of. )


[edited by - stimarco on January 24, 2004 8:59:19 PM]

quote:

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Original post by Anonymous Poster
I wonder if the offshoring to Russia has anything to do with the quality of the game... Just a thought..

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Mmh... from that alone, it''s unlikely. Russian game development is becoming a really big thing as of late; they even have their own GDC. Just because it''s Russian outsourcing doesn''t mean it''s bad. Of course, in this case it may just have been bad Russian outsourcing.

I do wonder why games don''t do more in the way of displaying magazine ratings on their boxes. Films have it - "So tense you''ll eat your cat," Frank FilmCritic, GenericMagazine - so why can''t games have a big ''95% - PC Gamer,'' ''More fun than Counterstrike - Gamers World'' type thing on the front? It would help get this kind of cruft off the shelves, or at least, out of your shopping basket.

The editorial raises a good point about quality control in PC games - console games get it built in. But the fact is that anyone with influence over the market can provide quality control - and I''d say that the people in the best position to do that for PC games are the gaming magazines. You read the magazines and find which one you agree with the most, and then you look for the games that have high ratings from it on the shelves. Simple.

Richard "Superpig" Fine
- saving pigs from untimely fates, and when he''s not doing that, runs The Binary Refinery.
Enginuity1 | Enginuity2 | Enginuity3 | Enginuity4 | Enginuity5
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Preserve wildlife: pickle a squirrel today!

i swear i full read about this game somewhere, like in one of the game dev articles, but i can''t seem to find it. And they were full going on about how good it was going to be etc.

That game seems to be more of a ''ghost game'' then anything else, looks like it was started then abandoned as the programmers got lazy

Well, at least the reviewers went through the bother of talking about every facet of the game.

That has to count for something.... doesn''t it?

Hmm...

"Ok class, this is how NOT to make a game."

quote:

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I wonder if the offshoring to Russia has anything to do with the quality of the game... Just a thought..

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Clearly the publishers are crooks - no self-respecting company would publish such a game - so I''d assume the fault lies with them rather than the developers.