Halo 360 Services Shut Down Preparation

This shouldn't be a surprise. Halo's first game on the Xbox 360 came in the fall of 2007 with Halo 3. After that were at least five more with the last one being Halo: Spartan Assault in 2013. These all have single player stuff, multiplayer that drives huge interest. Always has been since at least the second game. But plans have been set for the 360 games to be losing their servers. These will be taken off serves effective December 2021.

I've probably mentioned it in other blogs, but it bears repeating. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are consoles that still get a bit of play out of them. There's been updates for these two systems over the last two years or so. Beyond the games, some might still use them for Netflix machines. You got apps for certain products like YouTube and Amazon. With the exception of one PS3 game back in August, both haven't had games in about two years. You're still able to buy games through the digital stores. Over 1000 titles on 360 with mostly 360 and some original Xbox titles. PlayStation 3 is roughly the same number, maybe a little higher with a combo of games for that, PS2, and PS1. It's also the only way to buy PSP games digitally since you can't on a computer anymore.

People do still cling to older releases. That will never die out at any point. You'll have the followers who dedicate to playing an older title.  Think of some of the older Call of Duty games. That logic can be applied to Halo. Not everyone moves on to newer hardware and if some do, it might be well late into the generation. Even with backwards compatibility, that doesn't mean some were going to jump to Xbox One just to play certain 360 games along with the limited list of games.

The TL:DR of what I'm saying is, you have to get used to it. PlayStation has had over the course of the last couple of years, had servers shut off for a number of games. This is going to happen with 360 games if some of it hasn't happened already. The likelihood of 360 servers shutting down altogether, I don't know. There isn't a good prediction for it. I'd figure 2020 or 2021. I'm not sure anymore. But get your play out of it while you can for the online aspect. Inevitably, the two systems will be bowing out in terms of everything getting shut down. One day, it will happen. 

Geeks and Jocks: Episode 56

Newest episode

https://anchor.fm/ryan-sullivan1gaj/episodes/Episode-56-Light-of-Normalcy-eobfk7 

The Final Adobe Days

Back in 2003, I found the site, Newgrounds. This was one I would visit for the next six, seven years in looking at video content, flash games. All of this being done with stuff like Adobe, flash players, what have you. Over the years, Apple went with html and it marked the end of flash as we know it. With it being days away, it will bring forth an end to an era that most will never forget.

There were issues with flash. It brought a lot of security issues and was easy to manipulate. For a number of people, it was a simple way to do cartoons, easy games in terms of using certain styles. I remember with Cartoon Network. Even for shows I don't like, they had some great flash games you didn't see on consoles or standard computer releases. I'm sure others have other memories from various sites, but that's what I remember from long ago.

Game memories include some stick figure games. Stick RPG being the most notable. Newgrounds with a handful of Sonic the Hedgehog games, several Mario stuff. Duck Hunt and a 1945 mod of it. A flash version of the first episode of Doom, which was very surprising. Pac-Man: White House Edition. A number of Cartoon Network games that I remember, but don't remember the title names. Never played much Nickelodeon stuff outside of SpongeBob flash games and one or two other games. 

Other sites I can't remember, but there was Homer's Beer Run from The Simpsons. A sneaking game that had you playing as O.J. Simpson. A farting game where you had to hide farts from another. Pac-Xon, a Qix type of game, but with Pac-Man. Yahoo and Microsoft had game sections. Collapse was one I played a lot of. Rocket Mania, Dyno-Might. Played 8-ball a bit. Multiple sites had Crush the Castle. Some of these may not be flash, but that's what I remember.

The last year or so has seen Internet Archive make sure the animations and games of flash are preserved. It's really nice to see this happen because I would assume there are a number of sites that are abandoned or they don't want to go a different route. Preserving history has become one of the big important things for a number of mediums. One generation in another lifetime will discover these and find it via the virtual archive.

Here's to Adobe. May it live peaceful in its final days. Apple, go fuck yourself.

YouTube Videos: Dec 18-24

 

Geeks and Jocks: Episode 55

 The newest episode

https://anchor.fm/ryan-sullivan1gaj/episodes/Episode-55-Commercialize-eo4dm1

The podcast is also on Spotify, Google Podcasts, RadioPublic, and Breaker.

Saturday Night Addict

Saturday Night Live has had its share of writers and cast members that have had issues. When you look at drug issues, you think John Belushi and Chris Farley. Both passed away from speedballs in their early 30s. It's not just the sketch comedy show that has had to deal with this. But it feels like it gets out of control for some of them. This new one now includes John Mulaney going to rehab. Honestly, this is one of the last people I would think that would have issues. For him it's like a Farley situation. Cocaine and alcohol.

Mulaney was a writer for quite a bit of time on SNL. He has his own set of specials. And he's still young at 38. Still wowing audiences. I don't know what it is that makes comedians go loose and think they are invincible. Maybe it's the glamour of New York City. Maybe it's being recognized for either some of the writer, the sketches, the jokes. If I had to guess, the fame goes through some of these people's heads and they do crazy stuff. While not a stand up comedian, we're not too far from ten years ago when Charlie Sheen went nuts and went on a drug and alcohol binge that led to getting fired from Two and a Half Men.

Hell, we can go back to the 30s of The Three Stooges when Curly Howard was part of the group. Not drug related, but he boozed it up, ate a lot. It led to weight issues and a stroke in 1946 that ended his career. He wound up passing in 1952. Going back to Belushi for a second, his death in 82 was when he did drugs with Robin Williams and supposedly Robert De Niro. That sparked Williams to go clean for a very long time. Unfortunately, he relapsed and combined with bad depression, led to his death in 2014.

Comedy has its share of great moments and unfortunate bad behind the scenes moments. It's like the musicians that die young. Big names that include Mitch Hedberg for example. Better now than never for Mulaney to get this fixed. But it has to take a lot of willpower to give up addiction and do whatever is necessary to not want what led to your downfall. Here's hoping for no relapse. Same goes for anyone that is going cold turkey on whatever they are addicted to.

Optimizing Games

Cyberpunk came out. So far, nothing has been seen as good for this hyped release. Some have wondered if it was even being developed in mind for current hardware. This got me thinking. Has there ever been a point where a game was not developed well for older hardware but was for newer ones?

There aren't many games that get released simultaneously on multiple generations. The longest I can think is with PS3/PS4 and Xbox 360/One. But I can think of certain games and they are the common ones. Call of Duty Black Ops III had only online for PS3 and 360. Some of the EA Sports games had features that were exclusive to the newer hardware. I'd actually be curious about other titles like LittleBigPlanet 3. Something like a GTA V or a Minecraft, that doesn't count as being gimped because of support waning on older hardware. Minecraft had its last updates on a number of systems at the end of 2018 and other ones still get updated here and there.

With other generations, I don't feel like titles are being gimped on purpose. Something like Another World/Out of This World, the developers were working with limitations. Computers, Sega Genesis, SNES, Sega CD, 3DO. All radically different. A title such as NBA Jam Tournament Edition gets spruced up a little bit. Nothing intentional. Some games strive to improve some aspects. The Terminator and Earthworm Jim on Sega CD got reworked, more so Terminator, but both had stuff you didn't see on cartridge.

In the same generations, companies work within the specs of each console. You win some, you lose some when there's titles released on competing systems. An N64 game might be better than a PlayStation version and vice versa. Same with an SNES and Genesis release. Point being with this blog is that I don't think stuff is being made intentionally bad most of the time for older hardware. But developers have to realize what they are getting into before coding what they need for a retail release.

YouTube Videos: Dec 11-17

 

Disney Over Milk

In the midst of talking Warner Brothers and their app, it slipped past me about Disney last week. With their Plus app, they have a lot of plans set up. They also have a lot of questions on what could happen with their movies. This includes a new Houcs Pocus sequel and a new Sister Act sequel. Remakes on films like Willow and Three Men and Baby. All of this courtesy of Cnet. There's some other stuff hitting soon like Soul from Pixar and Hamilton. But that's not the main focus.

Disney is trying to do their best while still in this pandemic. But milking their Marvel and Star Wars stuff is not going to help. With the Cnet article, they are planning up to 20 new shows. That could be lower, but more than half a dozen from each side. I'm going to start with Star Wars. I don't have much inkling to see the films, but even fans are getting burnt out. I said this in a blog back in the summer of 2018 that there was too many films when the Solo film flopped horribly. Hard to tell if Episode IX would have had better numbers in the spring if the pandemic didn't happen, but who knows.

People love The Mandalorian. But I'm not sure there is any hype for something like a Lando show or Obi-Wan Kenobi. Not to say all their ideas are coming out at the same time, but Disney is over milking a franchise that hasn't had any breathing room. Prior to The Force Awakens, the franchise was still in the public eye, but in terms of books, games, and a few other things. I'm not sure if even the die hard fans will be on board.

The problem with the Marvel stuff isn't so much having different things to occur in the shows. There's plenty of development that can be made. But do you need that many? The glut of films and shows is one of the things I can see where it gets people burnt out on comic book films. It's something I've talked about for a long time now. With the properties Fox had now under their grasp, it could go overboard. It won't die painfully like what Batman and Robin did in the late 90s, but Disney and Kevin Feige don't think there is a fatigue. Let's see what happens with Black Widow, which some wonder if it will even do well. Or any of the films that don't have your mainstays like Iron Man and Captain America.

While I will not wish for these to fail, I hope a failure brings Disney back to reality. Too much of a good thing, even if its good, will turn even loyal fans away. Maybe try some original properties as well instead of pinning everything to overworked franchises and reboots.

Geeks and Jocks: Episode 54

 New episode. Click on the link.

https://anchor.fm/ryan-sullivan1gaj/episodes/Episode-54-Keen-Sense-enrjdo

Commander Keen at 30: Id's Debut

If you want a pioneer of computer gaming, Id Software has to be up there. Before the first person shooters after another that revolutionized a lot of things, they imitated Super Mario. Their first games were Commander Keen. The original trilogy, Invasion of the Vorticons, made its first episode debut back on December 14, 1990. It was a basic platformer. Completing objectives depending on the title. Fighting bosses. Death defying jumps. Standard fare.

You have to understand where computers were in 1990. The biggest games were point and click games and a couple other genre. They didn't have what was seen on the NES and Sega Master System for years. And the Sega Genesis and Turbografx-16 were beginning their runs. A lot of it comes down John Carmack mostly and Tom Hall. It started with recreating Super Mario Bros. 3, then the hot new title on the market. A sample size, but they got it to scroll. Nintendo liked what they saw, but declined to want a computer port.

Stuff like that is why Nintendo has been in bad situations for the last 25 years or so. Because Apogee became Id's publisher for a couple years and Keen was a huge hit. Part of it was the engine. That's why Duke Nukem came into fruition and several other titles. Developers and publishers could learn a thing or two and craft their work. Apogee had their own range of side scrollers. Epic Games had the Jazz Jackrabbit games. Of course, it allowed Id to look at how to make computers look cool and attractive to buy. Especially when they bigger than ever with Wolfenstein 3D in 1992 and Doom in 93.

I don't have any big memories of playing any of the episodes as a kid like I do with Wolfenstein and Doom. The only thing I remember was at some point in the mid to late 90s one of my family members playing a shareware version of Vorticons and doing okay. Back when floppy disks were prevalent. Shareware was actually not a bad idea before CD's became the norm. If you were impressed by the first episode, you could buy the rest the of the trilogy or set if you wanted.

It may not get the love now these days, but Commander Keen should be saluted for making Id a recognized company and for getting PC's to do much more than a couple genres.

Youth Football Striking

Why?

It's one thing to have issues with a team. But what should never happen is to throw punches. I'll cut to the chase. There's a youth football coach in Savannah, Georgia, that is going to face charges of abuse. Thankfully, there is video of it being shown. This guy punches a nine year old kid a couple times. Obviously, the outrage has been seen. One of the people you wouldn't think would respond is Buffalo Bills legend Bruce Smith. The NFL's all time sack leader brought up moments of when he was abused by a coach and that he would have gone after the abuser, Gerrel Williams.

Some wonder why nothing was done. I would love to pin it on people being assholes and record the event rather than step in. There are times where I wish cell phones didn't exist just so there can be intervention. But the thing is, there could be legal ramifications. I'm not an expert on law, but if it got to the point where it escalated to a melee between parents and coaches, there would be lawsuits and lots of jail time. It could also be a situation where you have kids involved and there could be some long term consequences. Not every kid is a saint, nor is every one pure evil.

Football in the South has gotten very ridiculous. There was that Edinburg, Texas incident a week or two ago involving a high school player tackling a ref after getting ejected. The amount of worship for the sport has grown to an unhealthy level, and I say that as someone that likes the sport.  Whether its the South, North, whatever, coaches can't act like that to kids. I knew quite a bit of fucking idiots that coached youth football and a few at the high school level. Some of them didn't have any control though no violence occurred.  Part of me wanted to punch some of them when I was younger.

With it being youth involved, it's just a game. Nine year olds will learn from mistakes and if they really want to play, they'll develop into quality players that high schools will love to see. I got no idea what the jail sentences are for abuse in Georgia, but I think Williams will see a couple years at the minimum.

YouTube Videos: Dec 4-10

 

WB Stream All the Way

I'm kind of struggling with how this will work. Warner Brothers has made 2021 interesting when it comes up next month. Whatever films they have planned for theaters, they are putting them on their HBO Max app the same day they come out. I understand where they are coming from. We may not see any normalcy until this summer. And that's pending how things go. It drew ire from several companies and a few Hollywood names.

If it's a way to draw people to the app, I'm struggling to see how much of an increase it would get. Some of these movies are not low budget. We're talking 100 million and up for Dune, Godzilla. I would think they would go the Universal route and charge 20 dollars for their new releases. Not prohibitive, but not cheap. But would people bite? There will be ones that want more than just old products or rewatching the last few years of films.

Some of the films could benefit greatly from the app. Something like The Suicide Squad and The Matrix 4 could drive a lot to HBO Max. I'm very curious about Tom and Jerry and Space Jam: A New Legacy. You can only do so much with Tom chasing Jerry. With just looking up Space Jam's budget, I have a feeling it's going to fail and not recoup the 183 million dollar production. Are critics going to like it? Because the original was panned, but made a decent profit back in the fall of 1996. The failure of Looney Tunes: Back in Action despite a better reception made Warner Brothers drop a number of projects back in the mid 2000s. Are 90s kids going to like it from an adult perspective? I'm predicting an underperformance, theater wise and app wise. Maybe it gets a better reception in July, but that's hard to gauge.

Stuff like Dune and Godzilla, I'm iffy on wanting to give a prediction. They could surprise people.  Is there enough drive for Godzilla vs. Kong given how their films have done in recent memory? Will Dune impress anybody? It depends on the reception and even if you disregard reception, if enough people will watch it. Other films include Mortal Kombat, The Little Things, and Judas and the Black Messiah as just a couple of examples of also making it to the app and theaters.

Here in the States, it's still a struggle with this pandemic. Short term, Warner Brothers is hoping for 2022 to be a return to where people go back to the movie theaters. Maybe a little earlier, but still. As I said, I would think they would do like what Universal did. The numbers will dictate how the company thrives or struggles domestically. Internationally will be a different story.

Geeks and Jocks: Episode 53

 New episode

https://anchor.fm/ryan-sullivan1gaj/episodes/Episode-53-I-See-Anger-enhn2v

Free Melee: Rallying Protest

A while ago, there was a Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament that got canned by Nintendo because of a mod to play online. It caused a bit of backlash. This past weekend was supposed to have a Splatoon 2 tournament with the publisher having some involvement. A lot of players went with names in support of Melee. In the end, it got cancelled with Nintendo citing "operational challenges." It continues the ugly problems regarding emulation and the way they treat fans and gaming in general.

Companies have a right to protect their properties. If it's something on PlayStation 4 and 5, the Xbox One and series line, and Switch and 3DS, that's not a problem. But when it bleeds over to systems that have been dead for longer than a decade, that's where it gets problematic. I can't stand Melee, but it hasn't been re-released at any point since it first came out in December 2001. Nintendo to me goes overboard in the way they protect their properties. Some of it now is getting their fans a little tired of the way they approach things. A number of tournaments have had difficulties due to the stingy attitude.

I get it why they don't want to see piracy run rampant. But when its games that aren't on the market anymore, it makes no sense to me. And Nintendo hurts emulation because what's lost is more than just their games. We're talking sites that have thousands upon thousands of games. Titles that don't even get a sniff of daylight because of copyright issues, companies dying out, etc... for those reasons. Some games are not worth the asking price for. For NES, The Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak is not worth hundreds. Little Samson is not worth near a thousand dollars.  Even if its below a hundred, prices for GameCube games are not worth what they go for.

Modders have made Doom levels since 1994. GTA has tons of stuff for their games since GTA II's release in 2001. Sega does not go after the Sonic community's fan games. This arrogant attitude of Nintendo in their Japan division is going to be their demise one day. They'll still have fans, but the approaches they go in gaming is inconsistency and never knowing who they sucker next. Great software, shitty company.

Scalping: Who's to Blame?

Tickets to sporting events. Movies. Plays, whatever. Scalping is something you see more often than you think. It's reared its ugly head with the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S and X. This can apply to toys as well considering hot products like a Frozen toy for example. The movie Jingle All the Way with Arnold Schwarzenegger back in the mid 90s made fun of the craze of people desperate to get a product and stores bumping up prices potentially. That was before the Internet was really huge, considering we see more using eBay and other methods to produce scalping at an alarming rate.

But who is to blame? It's not one sided. We'll start with scalpers first. Still in a pandemic and online orders are going to be through the roof. Pretty simple. Much easier this year to see that there won't be foot traffic when shopping. Hacking has obviously been huge. You get bots to do this. Not all, but it can ruin it for ones who want it. And they know there will be suckers. You know there will be desperation out of all this. Either because they think they won't get it, or that the quantity is not replenishing.

The suckers don't help either. They're convinced they won't be able to get the product and so they pay these ridiculous prices. With PlayStation and Xbox, they may bite the bullet. Apple products are generally over a thousand dollars, so the disposable income may not be a huge issue. It's an endless cycle. Replace those consoles with a toy or anything. And there's nothing stores can do. They can try to make it where its limited, but with hacking, it may not be feasible in their attempts.

We do need stuff to keep us entertained. As far as PlayStation and Xbox goes, it can wait a year like what I'm doing. We still have plenty of stuff from years past. Have a little patience. 

YouTube Videos: Nov 27-Dec 3

 

Nintendo v. The Big House

This one is quite late, but its been on the backboard for a while. With the pandemic, you're not seeing tournaments, conventions, or anything. The Big House, a Smash Bros. tournament that has happened since 2011, got shut down by Nintendo for this year. All because they were going to use an emulator so people can face each other in the GameCube Smash Bros. game, Melee. A way to face each other online with netplay due to no online features at the time since no one was doing online in 2001 for consoles. That included a warning and a cease and desist and the tournament was canned.

There are two sides that I see. I'll start with why Nintendo is in the right. It's their property and they have every right to protect it. Even if it's a really old title like Smash Bros. Melee, they don't want to see something altered for something like a tournament. And they have strayed away from the series in terms of tournaments and all the controversy back in the summer regarding underage grooming and sexual assault. There's other bad moments, but nothing to level of those revelations. They are not involved, but they want to avoid any potential troubles. Waiting another year when things are normal should have happened with The Big House.

But that doesn't mean Nintendo is free from criticism either. They have been one of the most stingiest companies when it comes to emulation. Some of the big ROM sites were shut down in 2018 because of them. EmuParadise was heralded for not being a virus filled site before it shut down. Its difficult for people to find what they want and not worry that their computer will lock up because of something in the rom file on a website. Nintendo is hurting the scene a lot more. Yes, they have to protect their IP's, but is anything downloaded pre-DS damaging their bottom line? And it not only damages emulation for Nintendo systems, but others. We're talking Sega stuff, Atari, tons of computer games that will never see a re-release.

When you look at NES, SNES, and so forth, there are hundreds of games that don't show up on Virtual Console or the Switch online service. I don't know if Nintendo has a plan to do their own emulator for GameCube, but there are pros and cons to having something like Melee on Switch. It depends on what kind of fans it gets. But as a whole, they haven't done a good job with bringing older titles to their service. Wii U was a letdown and the Switch only has NES and SNES games with a slow trickling down. Nintendo keeps shooting themselves in the foot and think that emulation is a huge problem. For the modern stuff, it is a problem. Them, Sony, and Microsoft don't want to see their hyped releases getting pirated on their current systems. But for older systems, I'm not seeing how it affects them that badly.

Again, I understand where Nintendo is coming from. But emulation has been around for about 25 years. Maybe a little more. You're not seeing most people go to an arcade or pick up an Atari 2600 and NES. There are ones that want the real article, but it may not be possible to get specific titles without an arm and a leg or are too rare to find. That can be applied to other systems and computers. Emulation will never die out. Nintendo can keep fighting it, but its a losing battle and the damage they bring to it hurts the scene as I mentioned earlier. When people say they are out of touch, this is one of the big examples and its a shame that their Japan offices are stubborn about what their customers want outside of that region.

Geeks and Jocks: Episodes 51 and 52

The last two episodes: 

Episode 51:

https://anchor.fm/ryan-sullivan1gaj/episodes/Episode-51-Console-Buyers-Guide-2020-emuhnb

Episode 52: 

https://anchor.fm/ryan-sullivan1gaj/episodes/Episode-52-Digital-Service-en7iig