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So , Peter Moore didn’t apologize for his words by the end of the week. It took him a full eleven days. But it’s not even that important now, because Tim Schafer, genius behind works like the PC game Grim Fandango and the Xbox game Psychonauts has began an email writing campaign to get Psychonauts supported by Xbox Back.Compat. If you don’t read Double Fine Action News shame on you, but you should at least read his latest post where he kicks the campaign off. (I think it’s safe to say you’ll be addicted.) Send your email by clicking here, and do your part!

As I had mentioned before, the choices made in what to aim for in BC seems a bit odd to me. Of course, we don’t know exactly what they’re aiming for, just that seemingly each time they do they get a few extra games by welcomed accident. It seems that the best thing they ever did was to focus on the Tom Clancy line of games and have them all work in one update. That’s smart, and rather obvious. You’d think that they’d repeat this approach by trying to ‘theme’ every release, or at least have one big game each time. After asking a few folks, I’ve come up with a list of games that they could get working to appease us slightly more ‘hard core’ players.

-Psychonauts. Yes, over a week ago this game came in first and with good reason. Its artistic style is beautiful, and its design clever in exemplary fashion. Not playing this game results in your loss of credibility as a gamer. Also, if you own an Xbox and choose not to play this game, you are no longer my friend.

-Panzer Dragoon Orta. Some people just love on-rail shooters, and if you even remotely like them, you need this game. It’s a great entry to a great series and perfectly pinpoints the arguments made in this fight for backward compatibility. Microsoft should provide this because, after all, where else can gamers get it?

-Jet Set Radio Future. Who didn’t love skating around in a cel-shaded wonderland painting the city to the coolest of soundtracks? Only people with no heart, and no sense of rhythm.

-Mech Assault. Until Halo 2 came out, Mech Assault was the number one game on Xbox Live. Mech Assault 2 was a solid game in its own right, and would no doubt climb the ‘most played’ lists again given the chance. Nowadays gamers tell “back in my day” stories of discovering Doom’s deathmatch. One day they’ll do the same for Mech Assault and Crimson Skies.

-Steel Battalion. Yeah, that’s right. Steel Battalion. Not only should they get this game to work, but they should do it in tandem with a hardware manufacturer to get the expensive controller to work with the X360. While this is the least likely game that they’ll ever get working, their doing it would be a significant achievement toward the hardcore gaming community and mend fences greatly. Honestly, I was surprised it showed so well.

-Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. While completely overshadowed by Oblivion, this game did rather well in my little poll. I guess even when you have a brand new, shinier, world to explore, it’s kind of hard to forget about the old world. Sometimes it just feels like home.

-Shenmue II. Look. Shenmue is a game that even sold a few non-gamers on buying a Dreamcast. It was just that good. And this is the sequel that continues the story that all hardcore gamers want to see finished. Sure the voice acting sucked (“How about a game of Lucky Hit?”) but the game was wonderful. Of course, if Microsoft really wants to impress us, they could give us the entire Shenmue story, which creator Yu Suzuki still assures us will be completed and released.

-Others. Of which there are many niche favorites like NFL2K5, Guilty Gear 2X #Reload, Spider-Man 2, Otogi, Chronicles of Riddick, and more

It’s games like these should be seen as a boon to the Xbox gaming console library, and treated properly. Microsoft should look back in two generations and still be able to say “See? Our consoles have a long history of providing timeless classics that you can still pick up and play. Yes, we hope to sell many games, but it’s also important to us to sell good games.” But I guess that just makes sense, so we can’t do that, huh?

FYI, you can see the actual votes and ‘other’ suggestions here.

Generally Carnival of Gamers posts offer something to the reader. Well, this time I’m asking something of you. I’d like you to grade a test for me.

If you don’t read Tadhg Kelly’s blog, you don’t care enough about games; it’s just that simple. (Here, for later.) In one of his recent posts, he talks of the resume materials brought in to job interviews. Programmers have code samples, artists can show previous model/texture work, (both of those can perform tests,) level designers can bring levels, etc. But what does a a game designer put forth to show his ability? One could show a previous game, but that’s about it. So, Tadhg, in one of his fine ideas, has created a test (over here,) for designers.

Here’s the gist:

The particleblog design test
Place the candidate in a room and give them the following items.

1 deck of cards
4 six-sided dice
A pad of paper and three pens of different colours
1 pack of index cards (blank)
1 whiteboard and eraseable marker pen
1 bag of 50 black tokens
1 bag of 50 white tokens
2 table-tennis bats
1 table-tennis ball

And you tell them that they have 4 hours to create a game.

Here are the rules of the test:

1. The game must only use the components presented.
2. The game must be in a playable condition at the end of 4 hours.
3. The game must be playable by anyone (i.e. no obscure knowledge of trivia etc)
4. They do not have to use all the components. If they just want to create a puzzle game using only the whiteboard and the tokens, that’s fine.
5. They must not replicate a game which already exists
6. They must write out the rules of the game, because…
7. They don’t get to present the game

So, going from that, I’d like to present my game. If it’s not fun, well, I fail. If you have any questions about the rules, I guess I really fail. Well, I tried it. Let’s see how I did.

Lesser Man’s Face Off
This game is played only with fifty black tokens and a deck of playing cards. The ideal number of players is four-five, but this is flexible from two to fifty.

Pre-Game Set-Up:
Divide the tokens evenly amongst players. Remaining tokens may be given to players that are in need of a handicap, if all players agree. Otherwise set any remaining tokens out of play.

A Round:
The dealer shuffles the deck of cards to his satisfaction and offers the player to his right the chance to cut the deck. After the cut, the dealer then starts with the player to his left and, in a clockwise fashion, hands each player as many cards as they have tokens remaining in their possession.

Starting with the player with the fewest chips, (or in the case of a tie, the player that both has the fewest chips and is closest to the dealer’s left,) , in a clockwise fashion each player tells how many of their tokens they are willing to bet. Each following player can lower the bet if they wish, but no one may raise it. When the betting has made a full circle unchanged, each player must meet the bet by putting that number of tokens into the pot.

Then each player, using a number of cards equal to the bet made, must fashion their best hand possible. (If the lowest bet is two, then each player must put two tokens inthe pot and may only use two cards from their initial dealings.)

The points for each hand from lowest to highest is as follows:
single higher card =1
pair =2
two pair =3
three of a kind =4
five straight =5 (+1 for each additional card in a straight)
four of a kind =6
royal flush =7 (+1 for each additional card in the straight)

The player able to make the most points of their hand wins all of the tokens in the pot. If there is a tie, the player with the highest card in their highest point-getting combination wins the pot. If the players highest card in their highest point-getting combination is of the same value, then the winning players split the pot as evenly as possible and leave any remaining tokens in the pot for the next hand. After a hand, the cards are collected and the player to the left of the current dealer becomes the new dealer, and a new round begins.

Losing Condition:
If a player runs out of tokens, then they are out of the game and may no longer play.

Winning Condition:
If a player wins all of the tokens, leaving no more opponents, then he wins the game.

Not incredibly complex, but hey, it’s just a first try. Anyone actually read this far and want to give me a grade?