Entries Tagged 'sega Master System' ↓

It's expected that Amazon will reveal its scrawny "Coyote" tablet this week, rather than the bigger, more glamorous "Hollywood" concept.

(Credit:Amazon)

It’s widely expected that tomorrow in new York, Amazon will unveil its much-anticipated tablet, the device many headline writers promise will at least maim theiPad, if not commit a full-blown 187 on its ass. So why does it feel like the year the Sega Genesis came out and I got a clearance-shelf Sega Master system for Christmas?

Probably because thetablet that we’ll reportedly see Jeff Bezos introduce this week–the Kindle Fire, a 7-inch, backlit tablet modeled after RIM’s PlayBook with Wi-Fi only and no camera–is not the coolest tablet Amazon has been working on.

Since the spring, we’ve heard rumors, tips from anonymous sources, and analysts all describing Amazon’s work on two tablets–a 7-incher and a 10-inch version that could feature all sorts of goodies, including free 3G, free Amazon Prime, and a dual-mode option that makes it possible to flip between a backlight and e-ink.

But for the past month, it seems that Amazon has decided to turn its attention to getting out only the smaller tablet for the holiday shopping season. Unfortunately, the tablet/e-reader/whatever that will be introduced tomorrow will likely be the one we’ve known all summer by its code name, “Coyote”–a scavenging canine that feeds on nature’s scraps in its most harsh environments–and not the larger one with all the sweet goodies code-named “Hollywood”–the center of all that is decadent and glamorous in our universe.

There’s an outside chance that both tablets could be introduced tomorrow, but most reports have the big-time 10-inch Hollywood tab following the 7-incher at some point next year.

So what gives? why does Amazon seem determined to come out of the gate into the crowded tablet arena armed with a half-charged taser instead of a bazooka?

Related stories• Amazon’s press event, Wed. 7 a.m. PT (live blog)• What to expect from Wednesday’s Amazon event• Amazon inks tablet deal with publishers, report says• new Amazon tablet called the Kindle Fire?

Apparently, Amazon has decided it doesn’t want to compete head-to-head with the iPad. more likely, it’s got its eyes on the Nook 2, which is supposed to be dropping any day now. The Nook has already become a popular choice with folks looking for a basic tablet that’s much cheaper than the iPad. The Amazon tablet isn’t expected in stores before November, so the early announcement could be a move to preempt the next Nook.

Another possibility is that Amazon wouldn’t be able to deliver on the hype surrounding the expected low price-point of its tablet debut with the bigger “Hollywood” tablet and all its supposed bells and whistles. With all the talk about a possible “loss leader” from Amazon to push tablets into the hands of potential shoppers, coupled with the rush on discontinued $99 HP TouchPads, another new $500 tablet might have a hard time wooing consumers away from the iPad.

Even so, it seems like now is the time to go big or stay home. A dual-mode Kindle/tablet hybrid with free 3G sure sounds like an easy sell for the hot new gift item of the holiday season to me, even if it does cost more than $300. Besides, between now and 2012 is an eternity in tech time. by then we might be anticipating the latest entry into the tablet market by Netflix or Hulu or–why not?–CBS Interactive!

Carpe diem, mr. Bezos. how about a ticket to Hollywood for 4 million to 7 million of your closest friends?

Our RPG Pillars kicks off with Phantasy Star II, a game that showed how to leverage the technological improvements of the 16-bit console to tell a better story — and that RPGs didn’t need to be set in fantasy worlds.

Phantasy Star II: the new look for the 16-bit generation.

A new generation of hardware isn’t important. a new generation of games, taking full advantage of what the hardware has to offer — that’s what’s important. While adding better graphics and sound can be great, the goal, of course, is to make better games. the new technology should make new kinds of games available. this hasn’t really happened, outside of Nintendo-driven interface changes, in the current generation of consoles. but oh, how it did occur back in 1989 and 1990, when Sega and Nintendo released the Genesis and SNES back in the days of the 16-bit system. And one of those games is Phantasy Star II.

The role-playing genre was ripe for a major change, too. It became popular in the early 1980s thanks to games like Wizardry, and this led to a bunch of games based almost entirely on mechanical combat — or as we call it nowadays, grinding. Most RPGs, on console or on the computer, were built on repetition and leveling-up. And they were hard. not fun hard — hard-hard, like only insane people or children-who-don’t-know-any-better hard. There were a few computer game exceptions — say, Ultima IV and Dungeon Master — but only a few. the great divide between computer and console, Western and Japanese RPGs, gritty and anime-inspired existed, in practice, yes, as gamers tended to only play one or the other because of their platforms. but the formal distinctions between, say, the Bard’s Tale and Final Fantasy are negligible.

More storage space as well as better graphics and sound changed all that in the 16-bit generation. Advances in presentation meant more personality, more character, and more plot. It meant that a console RPG could now have a deeper story, with more obviously anime-inspired visuals. It meant that the early ’90s helped form the RPG we play today, especially the Japanese-style RPG. Phantasy Star II is the game that, more than any other, demonstrates those changes. It directly straddles the line between the old-fashioned style and the more modern one. you can even see it in its release dates: 1989 in Japan, 1990 in North America. old and new, together.

Phantasy Star II’s opening stands out as something completely different from what came before it.

From the start, Phantasy Star II shows something that is rare in 8-bit RPGs — character. the opening cinematic, crude as it is, portrays the nightmares of the main character, Rolf, as he “remembers” the struggle of Alis, the hero of the first Phantasy Star. Rolf is generally a silent protagonist throughout the game, but another character, Rolf’s sidekick, Nei, has a better, more developed character arc.

Nei is an artificial construct, struggling to discover her history and her place in the world. this “Who am I?” plot will become a well-trodden storyline in the history of JRPGs, and it’s certainly done better with her successor, Rika, in Phantasy Star IV or Vivi in Final Fantasy IX (and done to death by Cloud in Final Fantasy VII). but what makes it stand out is that the game uses the examination of the self as a motivating factor for the player. in virtually all previous RPGs — and games in general — the motivation was external. you play a hero or group of heroes, and someone asks you to fix a problem, so you do it. Starting with Phantasy Star II, we get into a deeper conceptual world, where motivation is more than simply doing good because you were asked to do good. It is about the self-discovery of the characters, and the player is along for the ride.

The anime/manga-inspired artwork also makes its appearance in the introduction, as it does throughout the game with little character portraits. There are big eyes and crazy-colored hair, just as we’ve come to expect. And yes, you can see this influence to some degree in the battle models of Final Fantasy’s fighter. but this isn’t the dominant visual style that it would become in the 1990s — the first Phantasy Star, on Sega’s less popular but more powerful Master System, utilizes it to some degree, but its character designs aren’t quite portraits, and they’re less obviously inspired by manga. Still, it’s worth noting that the first Phantasy Star attempts to do much of what Phantasy Star II accomplishes — it just needed the extra power and space of the Sega Genesis.

A long time ago in a galaxy far away, I wasted many pointless hours playing Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System. I got everything I needed and went to every level; but never could figure out how to finish the #$@ game.
Any old-school gamers out there that remember this?