61 Frames Per Second

Browse by Tags

• 8-Bit Love: The Ten Greatest Vintage Game Songs to Have Sex To, part 2

  Cyriaque Lamar is a New York-based writer with a New Jersey-bred weltanschauung. He’s had original work published at Cracked.com and performed at The New York International Fringe Festival. Cyriaque is thrilled to contribute to 61FPS, as it brings him one step closer to his childhood dream of living on the set of Nick Arcade. 5.) Final Fight CD – “Walk In the Park (Bay Area)” System: Sega CD (1993) Sounds Like: A sweaty nooner with Don Johnson. I always loved the premise of Final Fight. The idea of a city’s mayor stripping down to his underjohns and beating the shit out of unemployed people in order to stimulate job growth was really ahead of its time. Wait? Mike Haggar was actually fighting to save his daughter from an evil street gang? And here I thought the game was some kind of radical Objectivist propaganda. This Bay Area theme is classic whatever console you play Final Fight on, but the Sega CD version pushes it to the limit with gale-force porno guitars. Seriously, these riffs are like an F4 on the Fujita Scale. In my mind’s eye, the person who would get the most out of this track wears a ton of sea foam green and frequents Fort Lauderdale whorehouses. Sometimes, you just gotta be that person. When it comes to the Sega CD, the only thing sleazier is Night Trap. Read More... Posted Apr 16 2009, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: nintendo, actraiser, game boy, rare, capcom, hideo kojima, satellaview, top ten, final fight, sega, commodore 64, atari, chrono trigger, genesis, metal gear, super nintendo, atari 2600, mario paint, sega cd, tetris, star tropics, donkey kong country 2, kid icarus, solid snake, cyriaque lamar, radical dreamers, zoda’s revenge, matt gray, msx, last ninja 2, david wise, streets of rage 2, metal gear 2, yuzo kashiro

• 8-Bit Love: The Ten Greatest Vintage Game Songs to Have Sex To, part 1

  Cyriaque Lamar is a New York-based writer with a New Jersey-bred weltanschauung. He’s had original work published at Cracked.com and performed at The New York International Fringe Festival. Cyriaque is thrilled to contribute to 61FPS, as it brings him one step closer to his childhood dream of living on the set of Nick Arcade. There are three reasons this list exists. First, I felt obliged to highlight 61FPS’s distinction as the gaming apparatchik of an internet sex publication. Second, I wished to showcase the unsung virtuosos of yesteryear who made masterworks using a limited palette of sounds. Finally, I intend to rebut those critics who still dismiss video games as low culture. Using the below examples, I intend to reclaim the carnal legacy of video games by evincing how early console music illustrated the gamut of human sexuality, from atavistic, heteronormative modes of eroticism to polymorphous perversity as delineated by Freud. Plus, the thought of people sticking penises into vaginas to Nintendo music is funny. 10.) Radical Dreamers – “The Girl Who Stole the Stars” System: Super Famicom Satellaview (1996) Sounds Like: Koyaanisqatsi composed on Mario Paint. Since roughly 95% of all human lovemaking involves someone with a XX chromosome pairing, I thought it necessary to seek out my female associates’ thoughts on which game music best applies to amore. The suggestions I received were few yet incisive — responses ranged from “the Kid Icarus theme” to “Who the eff effs to video games?” Ultimately though, I deferred to my own instincts and picked this pan-pipe jam from the Japan-exclusive, text-based sequel to Chrono Trigger. Composed by the legendary Yasunori Mitsuda, “The Girl Who Stole the Stars” is easily the most romantic theme on our list. Read More... Posted Apr 16 2009, 04:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, actraiser, game boy, rare, capcom, hideo kojima, satellaview, top ten, final fight, sega, commodore 64, atari, chrono trigger, genesis, metal gear, super nintendo, atari 2600, mario paint, sega cd, tetris, star tropics, donkey kong country 2, kid icarus, solid snake, cyriaque lamar, radical dreamers, zoda’s revenge, matt gray, msx, last ninja 2, david wise, streets of rage 2, metal gear 2, yuzo kashiro

• Things I Didn't Know Existed: GoldenEye: Source

  No matter how snobbish we may act about it today, if you had friends and access to video games in the late 90s, then it's likely you spent an inordinate amount of time playing GoldenEye for the N64. It's really nothing to be ashamed of; after all, until Halo came out, GoldenEye was basically the only FPS in town for consoles. Today, however, it's little more than a curious relic. Anyone going back to GoldenEye more than a decade after its release shouldn't be surprised by the slow, swimmy movement and awkward shooting mechanics of Jimmy Bond--remember, the N64 controller had no second analog stick. This means that returning to GoldenEye for an N64 nostalgia trip might not be the greatest of ideas--unless, of course, you seek out alternative methods for playing the game. And this is where GoldenEye: Source comes in. Read More... Posted Feb 10 2009, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: rare, goldeneye, fps, n64, retro, fan projects, fandom, bob mackey

• Donkey Kong Country: A Christmas Miracle

  There's something special about spotting that familiar rectangular shape under the tree, which I've had the good fortune of looking forward to at every Christmas. Growing up, I usually got two games each year. One on my birthday and one on Christmas. Of course, I had a rich friend across the street (didn't we all?) with two of every system and all the games I ever wanted to borrow. But for a moment each Christmas morning I would pore over the instruction booklet, jump around the room waiting for a game to install, or breathlessly set up a new console. For my last post before the holidays, I'll relay a particularly heartwarming Christmas memory. It was the mid-nineties, and Rare had mailed me a promotional VHS tape. Read More... Posted Dec 23 2008, 03:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: rare, cole stryker, donkey kong country, christmas

• Explanation: Why Developers Don't Care About SDTV

  I may be breaking some sort of blogging code of ethics and/or laziness with this post, but if the way I hang my toilet paper (in front of the roll) has taught the world anything, it's that I'm a maverick who doesn't play by the rules. That being said, back during the Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts unreadable text debacle, where Rare clearly didn't have SDTV users in mind when developing their game, a certain 61FPS reader made an enlightened and very long reply that really cleared this issue up for me; unfortunately, said reply was made when the post was more than a week old, so I doubt anyone but me saw it. So, in honor of our 61FPS chum Roy G. Biv, I'm going to do the honor of reposting his comments about the issue on the front page of our fine blog. Unorthodox, I know; but this dude put more work into a single reply than I do in most of my writing. Roy, should I ever die, you can take up my freelancing sword. I got it from the Home Shopping Network. So, without further ado, here's Roy's well-researched take on why SDTV readability issues aren't an issue for developers: 1) At some point in the past few years Dell & Co. started putting HDMI & Component inputs on the backs of LCD computer monitors, alongside the DVI & VGA ports. Game programmers 7 designers already tend to have (at least) one of these on their desks and swapping inputs on a single device turns out to be a lot easier and (perhaps more importantly) cheaper than having a separate CRT on hand for reference. 2) "But that's just the programmers and designers!" you might say. "Surely the QA Testers must be looking at these games on a variety of rigs?!" Well, you'd think so, but in many cases the operational expense of keeping a bunch of heavy-ass, old vacuum tubes in working order is slashed in favor of tiny, reliable LCD monitors which take up less space and allow for testers to be placed closer together. Even when SD sets *are* employed, testers aren't playing the games the same way an end user would. They're sitting in a cube (if they're lucky) with their eyeballs 12-18 inches from the screen. Read More... Posted Nov 18 2008, 01:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: banjo kazooie 3, rare, bob mackey, hdtv, tech, sdtv

• God Help Me, I Am Looking Forward to Banjo-Kazooie XBLA

  Back in the Summer of 1998, my friend lent me his N64 when he left for a week-long Florida vacation--I didn't end up getting the system for myself until the combination of bargain-basement prices and Paper Mario forced my hand three years later.  With my judgmental friend out of sight, I took this as a prime opportunity to rent some N64 games that were skewed for a demographic much younger than the average, mumbling 16 year-old male.  My first stop was Yoshi's Story, a game I was excited to play after the world-changing Yoshi's Island.  As with many other gamers out there, I gathered I was being punished for some great evil I had done. An equally unexpected happening happened when I disposed of Yoshi's Story in a local fire and picked up Rare's then-new Banjo-Kazooie. Unexpectedly, I loved the game; and even though I'm much smarter and have a solid 8 years of Rare grudge resting on my shoulders, I can't help but anticipate the release of BK on XBox Live Arcade in a few weeks. See if this trailer will fill you in on my mental state: Let's get some things out of the way: all of these characters are absolutely insipid. Read More... Posted Nov 18 2008, 11:30 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: banjo kazooie 3, rare, bob mackey, xbox live arcade, banjo kazooie, banjo tooie, donkey kong 64

• The Banjo Kazooie Text Debacle Part 3: Text Hard With a Vengeance

  At the end of last month, I was more than a little miffed about Rare's use of super-tiny text in Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.  A few days later, the story caught on--in no way caused by me alone--and Rare was forced to reply: "No dice."  As much as I don't like to report on the same issue thrice, something miraculous has happened: Rare has decided to fix the problem.  A quote from this post on the official Banjo-Kazooie blog reveals their unexpected change of heart: It has come to our attention that people are experiencing subtitle readability issues with Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts on Standard Definition TVs. We would like to assure you that contrary to earlier reports, we are aware of the issue and currently working on a title update to be released within the next 30 days that will fix it for those with Standard Definition TVs. We’re committed to ensuring all fans of the franchise are able to have the best experience possible with Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. It sure is nice to see legitimate Internet complaining pay off; and while I'm not necessarily interested in buying Nuts and Bolts, I really don't want to see another precedent set for screwing over SDTV owners. Listen, guys: my goal is to be economically comfortable enough to buy an HDTV by the next generation of consoles.  So please avoid making all of us SDTV owners sad until then.  Thanks in advance. Read More... Posted Nov 10 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: rare, xbox 360, bob mackey, hdtv, banjo kazooie, sdtv

• Rare to SDTV Owners: "F--- You."

  A while back, I reported on the general illegibility of the text in the Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts demo for SDTV owners.  Well, it looks like the rest of the world has caught on, because Rare has finally been forced to give an answer.  Joystiq reports: Rare has confirmed that Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts' unclear text on standard definition televisions will not be fixed. The issue came to light following the release of the demo last week and now Rare states that the issue is "too expensive in terms of time, resources and money to alter." The news story also adds that Microsoft requires developers of XBox Live games to make their text readable on 14" SDTVs. So why the double standard? From playing the BK demo, I can tell you that the text is far from superfluous; it's completely necessary to read in order to know just what the hell to do in any given situation--and it's not like there's actual spoken dialogue to fall back on if the text is unreadable on your set. This brings me to another question: why, in a game ostensibly made for kids, would you make it necessary to read tons of tiny dialogue? There seem to be some fundamental flaws at work, here. Read More... Posted Nov 06 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 14 comment(s) Filed under: banjo kazooie 3, rare, xbox 360, bob mackey, hdtv, banjo kazooie, sdtv

• Movie to Game to Movie: Goldeneye

  Like everyone else who was alive in the late 90s, I played a hell of a lot of Goldeneye for the N64; as primitive as it may seem today, Rare's take on the Bond franchise was the first console shooter to make waves in a pre-Halo world. But despite the hours and hours I'd virtually murder my friends with the world's sexiest Englishman (not my definition), the source material never really interested me. At the time, I had never seen a James Bond movie, so I wasn't exactly worried if Goldeneye was a faithful movie-to-game translation. The N64 adaptation could have included a Kart racing level, and I wouldn't have known any better. All these years later, it's safe to say that I have Rare's version of Jimmy Bond's adventure inscribed in my brain where so much useful knowledge could be, so I thought it would be a surreal experiment to finally sit down and watch the movie I had already had a great amount of exposure to, albeit in a different form. It was weird. Read More... Posted Sep 26 2008, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: rare, goldeneye, fps, movies, n64, bob mackey

• Alternate Soundtrack: Battletoads vs. The Blood Brothers

  Here's another one born out of discussion in the comments. Hooray for audience participation! Battletoads is the notoriously challenging beat 'em up platformer developed by Rare before their more questionable forays into the worlds of pre-rendered apes, Mii substitutes and anthropomorphic candy sacks. Though conceived as an over-the-top competitor to Konami's popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games, the extreme attitude and legendary difficulty of the games made them a pop culture phenomenon of their own right in the early 1990's. I was happy to leave this one alone for a while, but the Angry Video Game Nerd reminded me of my biggest problem with this game, that the catchiest music on the whole cart is on the pause screen! This situation must be rectified. Read More... Posted Sep 09 2008, 10:30 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: alternate soundtrack, derrick sanskrit, battletoads, rare, angry video game nerd, nes, blood brothers

• E3 Day Two: Spin, Malaise, Sony’s New Clothes, and Nintendo’s True Disruption

  Despite their show-ending bombshell announcement, Microsoft’s E3 press conference was something of a non-event. The house of X showed off titles that had already been seen or leaked, announced a handful of downloadable titles that weren’t exactly setting folks’ brains on fire, and revealed an embarrassing attempt to cash-in on the Mii phenomenon with Xbox Live Avatars. It’s embarrassing enough that the Avatars look so similar to Nintendo’s Miis, but it’s even worse that they were designed by Rare, the less-than-profitable appendage Microsoft cut away from Nintendo in the first place. It wouldn’t have been difficult for Sony and Nintendo to one-up Microsoft’s event, but neither of the console makers did, both of them focusing more on sales data and business strategies than on software. Read More... Posted Jul 15 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, nintendo, nintendo ds, microsoft, rare, xbox 360, wii, sony, animal crossing, e3, mii, avatars, satoru iwata, wii music, wii sports, wii motionplus

• Common: Rare Makes Bad Games

  Jetpac is not good. Neither is Killer Instinct, Kameo, or Captain Skyhawk. While we’re on the subject, you should also know that Perfect Dark is bad. Battletoads sucks. There. I said it. Rare makes bad games. They have always made bad games. Playing Rare’s games reminds me of having to sit next to the kid who always crapped his pants in kindergarten. You feel bad for them, you may even think they’re pretty funny, but that doesn’t mean you want to play with them. Banjo Kazooie 3 and Viva Piñata 2 will most likely also be bad. Read More... Posted May 13 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, battletoads, perfect dark, viva pinata, captain skyhawk, microsoft, killer instinct, jetpac, banjo kazooie 3, jet force gemini, rare, goldeneye