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The Official Game Room thread of Rewinding Time

R

RadarScope1

Member
Bernbaum said:
Got Game Room over a week ago and didn't invest much time into it until I picked up a long-overdue arcade stick for my 360.

The stick opened up a higher level of enjoyment for the line-up of admittedly dated games. But what really got me hooked were the friend leaderboards.

The games are overpriced, but I'm happy with the four games I got:

Red Baron
Road Fighter (My fave!)
Lunar Lander
Shao Lin's Road

Out of my friend's list, I've got the top score for all except Lunar Lander, and have gold medals for everything except for 'Time spent playing' for Shao Lin's Road (3 hours is a lot of Shao Lin's Road!). If the prices were lower, I would be more inclined to make impulse purchases. Of the games I've got, I only see Road Fighter and Shao Lin as capable of holding my attention beyond claiming all gold medals.

The service is not without its caveats, but I'm now solidly addicted.
Click to expand...

What kind of stick are you using?
 
B

Bernbaum

Member
Hori EX2. It's the first stick I've owned, so I have nothing to compare it to, but it works great. Use it for every game except Red Baron which I prefer to play with a gamepad.

Kinda sucks that I can't reconfigure the buttons and that none of the alternative control layouts for any of the games suit how I would prefer to use the arcade stick.
 
B

Bernbaum

Member
So I start to think I might be good at all these old arcade games I never played. I'm scoring gold medals and clearing my friends list high scores, thinking that I'm just plain super at video games.

Then I purchase Tempest, get my arse kicked, only to be further insulted to see my friends leaderboard populated by markedly higher scores than my own. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm sure as hell not doing anything right :(

New goal in life: Must. Master. Tempest.

And holy crap at the four hour requirement to get the 'Time spent playing' gold medal for Shao Lin's Road. Four fucking hours? Jesus Meatballs!
 
M

minus_273

Banned
ok this is going bug me to no end. what is the song that the guitar item plays. It sounds really famialair. I thought it was the airwolf theme but that wasnt it.
 
M

MightyHedgehog

Member
Man, what the hell, Krome/MS? The server flakiness seems to have been addressed, but the where's the damned beef about upcoming games and a general update on what's in store for GR users? Damn, dudes.
 
D

Diablohead

Member
MightyHedgehog said:
Man, what the hell, Krome/MS? The server flakiness seems to have been addressed, but the where's the damned beef about upcoming games and a general update on what's in store for GR users? Damn, dudes.
Click to expand...
Over a month between release and the first expansion pack is terrible, I given up with this already since I am bored of the given content raping people, and he next pack I doubt will get my interest back unless it's more modern software.

Ball dropped with game room, should not have given a 4 week gap before the first extra game pack...
 
J

JMizzlin

Member
Are arcade games associated with gamer tag, or console?

Reason I'm asking is because I plan to grab an American account loaded with MS points, and was thinking about using some spare points to grab some machines, so as to get my GR gamer score at LEAST a little higher.


Sadly I have a feeling that machines are associated with gamer tag :(
 
M

MightyHedgehog

Member
Diablohead said:
Ball dropped with game room, should not have given a 4 week gap before the first extra game pack...
Click to expand...
I agree that they're failing to instill some sense of confidence in GR going forward with a complete fucking lack of information. Perhaps they used this break to get foundational improvements and fixes in place for the first major update while seeing how people have reacted to the sales of the initial games and adjusting upcoming lineups accordingly...but it doesn't excuse a lack of communication with the audience.

Eye Drop, all purchases are tied to your Gamer Tag. Stupidly, though, it seems that progress inside of Game Room, as in your GR levels and medals gained with it, might be limited to local save...which means you can lose all of that progress. Which is mindblowingly stupid-sounding.
 
C

ClivePwned

Member
minus_273 said:
ok this is going bug me to no end. what is the song that the guitar item plays. It sounds really famialair. I thought it was the airwolf theme but that wasnt it.
Click to expand...

It's the Game Room theme that plays in the main arcade before you add a theme, and it plays during the game room credits and the krome Logo at the start. I think almost all of the musical-oriented decorations play a variation of the GR theme. Except the boom box

You tube Vid
 
M

minus_273

Banned
ClivePwned said:
It's the Game Room theme that plays in the main arcade before you add a theme, and it plays during the game room credits and the krome Logo at the start. I think almost all of the musical-oriented decorations play a variation of the GR theme. Except the boom box

You tube Vid
Click to expand...

yeah thats it! really its not the title screen from another game? i really sounds like it belongs as the opening to a nes game or something
 
M

MightyHedgehog

Member
Pretty weak list this coming week, honestly.

Pitfall! (better be the ever so slightly better Intellivision version, but the A2600 one was fine)

Night Stalker (cool game, and at least they picked the Intellivision game versus the weaker A2600 conversion, Dark Caverns)

Megamania (good Space Invader-like wave shooter)

Rack 'em Up? (The old Konami pool game? From what I remember, it was flashier than but not as fun to play as Side Pocket from around the same time from Data East)

Basketball (The original Atari version?...ugh...hopefully it's at least the Realsports one)

RS Volleyball...(pretty decent for the time, but it's definitely nothing as good as later 8-bit ones a couple of years later)

There's always the week after, I suppose. This focus on A2600 and Intellivision is just so 'meh' feeling...and I grew up with that shit.
 
Darkmakaimura

Darkmakaimura

Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
Pitfall will more than likely be the Atari 2600 version. I really hope they release Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns soon. That is my favorite Atari 2600 game of all time!
 
U

user_nat

THE WORDS! They'll drift away without the _!
Eye Drop said:
Are arcade games associated with gamer tag, or console?

Reason I'm asking is because I plan to grab an American account loaded with MS points, and was thinking about using some spare points to grab some machines, so as to get my GR gamer score at LEAST a little higher.


Sadly I have a feeling that machines are associated with gamer tag :(
Click to expand...
Answering a few days late, so it might not matter.. but.. console.

I bought a game on my tag and it was available in my brothers arcade also.
 
D

Daigoro

Member
so far Game Room = HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT.

dont see that changing any time soon. its already been deleted from my HD in fact.
 
A

Ark Malmeida

Neo Member
Definitely not what I was hoping to see for the kick off of (hopefully) weekly releases. I'm not really surprised though since most of these games were rumored to be coming out and can be seen in previews. I assume the next pack will probably be headlined by River Raid with the other games being uninteresting to most people, although I hope I'm wrong.

I really enjoy the service right now, and I'm kind of taking it similar to the early days of XBLA, which took a while to hit its stride.

I'll definitely be grabbing Pitfall and possibly Megamania and Super Breakout (if it's the arcade version).
 
B

Brashnir

Member
GitarooMan said:
Can't understand the focus on 2600 and Intellivision stuff over Arcade, which I think would interest a lot more people.
Click to expand...

The beginning of these things is always more about publisher interest than consumer demand.
 
H

HadesGigas

Member
GitarooMan said:
Can't understand the focus on 2600 and Intellivision stuff over Arcade, which I think would interest a lot more people.
Click to expand...

Probably because they can just drop in any 2600 or Intellivision rom and it'll work fine with their emulator, but their arcade emulator is probably not all-encompassing, which is why the arcade games are sparse and from two companies (Atari/Konami).
 
A

Absoludacrous

Member
The real problem with this system is that I only want Pitfall, so naturally I am going to have to download the entirety of game pack 3 for like 80mb. If this keeps up and I only want a game from each pack, I am looking at a gig of space for a dozen tiny arcade games.

Fantastic.
 
M

Mar

Member
I don't know. Them releasing obscure titles that no one has heard of or never played, I think it's a good thing. I've discovered lots of cool retro games I'd never played before and found them really enjoyable.

Buying them at 240 points a pop though? Well, that's another story. I have trouble buying them at that price.
 
A

Ark Malmeida

Neo Member
Hmmm, the new content is supposed to be out today, but nothing yet. I hope they don't mess this up - Game Room certainly doesn't need another black eye at this point.
 
B

BarrenMind

Member
From Daniel Maher's twitter @MrPointyHead: "The latest batch of Game Room content has also been delayed until further notice - I'll let you know once a new date is confirmed."

I suppose this is just a confirmation for EU? Still casting more doubt there will be a Game Room update for anyone this week.
 
D

Dynoro

Member
How did MS manage to screw up Game Room quite this badly; I would've spent silly money on this if they actually kept their promises...oh well
 
R

RadarScope1

Member
I played yesterday and there is a title update. Didn't seem to do much that I could notice. Maybe it was to better sync with the servers. Anyone still having trouble connecting to the mothership?

Played last night for the first time in a few days and immediately got a hi score on Shao-Lin's. I still think GR has potential. Just keep the titles coming, keep the ARCADE games coming, and it will gain critical mass eventually. I still believe Namco and Sega need to be on board. No matter how many times we've been offered Ms. Pac-Man or Shinobi, somebody somewhere will be willing to buy them just to have another venue for hi scores.

Still don't get the opposition to the pricing, either. I spend $1.50 on a soda or $3 on a beer without thinking and both are gone in 20 minutes. Just how many dozens of hours do you have to get out of Asteroids to make it worth a few bucks?
 
D

Deleted member 20415

Unconfirmed Member
What a mess. This whole thing seems like an unfortunate disaster. They talked a huge game... what were we supposed to have, like a thousand titles in a year? Doesn't look like they'll come near that. 7 games a week was lofty and it looks like people were skeptical for the right reasons.

Shame really.

I would like to hear the real story about what happened with this. Why the layoffs at Krome? Who dropped the ball, Krome, Microsoft or the licensors?
 
J

jlevel13

Member
Deleted this off my hard-drive last night (had to make some room to install SSFIV).

It's hard to understand how they bungled such a simple, good sounding idea so badly.
 
R

RadarScope1

Member
Just read the news. Wow. I've been one of the apologists for this service to this point but it's just looking like a clusterfuck at this point. Obviously they knew something was up when the games didn't come after the first week. Surely it would have just been better to delay the entire launch until summer or fall. They only announced it in January. It's not like people were salivating for 25 year arcade and Atari games. What a massive marketing fuckup.
 
A

AkuMifune

Banned
Yeah I've been a believer in Game Room too, but they make it really hard to defend it anymore. Why the hell would they ever launch this thing without a steady stream of games ready to follow? And now Game Pack #3 is delayed? Man. Any word on the layoffs and if Microsoft is still behind this thing?
 
P

PepsimanVsJoe

Member
Worst part is this isn't just a black eye for Game Room this is also a black eye for retro gaming in general. Chances of seeing a similar service to this are nil at this point. The chances of seeing a lot of arcade classics(or even arcade obscurities) get any mainstream exposure is but a distant dream once again.

Really sucks.
Really fucking sucks.
 
Darkmakaimura

Darkmakaimura

Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
Even sucks for us in the U.S. too.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6260514.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;5

[UPDATE] Microsoft Europe says this week's batch of retro offerings have been "delayed until further notice"; US store also lacking new content.

It appeared as if Microsoft was all set to begin bringing regular, weekly updates to its retro Game Room on Xbox Live. Laying out its plans for the remainder of April, Microsoft said that it would begin expanding upon the channel's 30 initial offerings with new additions, such as Super Breakout and Pitfall, as of today. Unfortunately, that now seems not to be the case.

This morning, Xbox Live Europe's Daniel Maher updated his Twitter feed with news that Microsoft has postponed the release of this week's update. "The latest batch of Game Room content has also been delayed until further notice--I'll let you know once a new date is confirmed," the Microsoft employee said in 140 characters or less.

It would appear as if the delay isn't limited to the European Xbox Live network, either. As of press time, Microsoft had not updated the North American version of Game Room with this week's batch of new content. Last week, the publisher noted that "new games will release every Wednesday alongside Xbox Live Arcade titles." This week's XBLA release, Tecmo Bowl: Throwback, is currently available.

One possible reason for the delay could be the recent round off layoffs at Game Room developer Krome. Last week, the Australian company confirmed for GameSpot that it had trimmed its staff, though Krome declined to quantify the extent of the cuts. According to unconfirmed reports, that figure stood at some 50 developers.

[UPDATE] Microsoft director of Xbox Live programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb has since affirmed the Game Room disruption via his official Twitter feed, promising an update as details become available.

"We're working to bring you additional Game Room titles as soon as possible! I'll let you know the moment I have more details," he said.
Click to expand...

I am disappoint.
 
C

ClivePwned

Member
as someone who did not have a 2600 (we did have an Atari 400 though), sell me on why I should play Pitfall (whenever it comes out)
 
M

MightyHedgehog

Member
What the fuck, MS?! I'm sure that some of this has to do with Krome's recent troubles, but what in the fuck is going on here? Did the overall impression left on most people trying it out come out much more negative than expected? I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case...the first impressions are not nearly as positive as they could be if there was more meat on the bones, man, and some decent consideration for the value of things on offer. Get your shit together regarding Game Room, people. Give people more than some old ass 2600 and Intellivision titles for three fucking dollars apiece in the years past compilation releases that offer upwards of fucking fifty for $20 god damned dollars. Jesus, man. Get this shit right.

ClivePwned said:
as someone who did not have a 2600 (we did have an Atari 400 though), sell me on why I should play Pitfall (whenever it comes out)
Click to expand...
Whenever the next game pack is released, you can demo it fully for ten minutes. I loved it back then, but it is very old and simple...perhaps too basic to hold the attentions of most people today.
 
N

nli10

Member
Would be amusing if there are never any more games for the service. Would be impossible to get the full points too which would annoy quite a few people. :lol


While not quite as bad as Home the launch really is quite underwhealming, there are a few nice games on there and I was happy to pay points for a few extra goes on the ones that I liked (and I bought one too) but the way it's just been abandoned does not feel like a first party effort at all...
 
Darkmakaimura

Darkmakaimura

Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
MightyHedgehog said:
What the fuck, MS?! I'm sure that some of this has to do with Krome's recent troubles, but what in the fuck is going on here? Did the overall impression left on most people trying it out come out much more negative than expected? I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case...the first impressions are not nearly as positive as they could be if there was more meat on the bones, man, and some decent consideration for the value of things on offer. Get your shit together regarding Game Room, people. Give people more than some old ass 2600 and Intellivision titles for three fucking dollars apiece in the years past compilation releases that offer upwards of fucking fifty for $20 god damned dollars. Jesus, man. Get this shit right.
Click to expand...
Somebody's pissed.

nli10 said:
While not quite as bad as Home the launch really is quite underwhealming
Click to expand...
I was there around the launch for Home. I think this might be a bit worse.
 
M

Mar

Member
RadarScope1 said:
Still don't get the opposition to the pricing, either. I spend $1.50 on a soda or $3 on a beer without thinking and both are gone in 20 minutes. Just how many dozens of hours do you have to get out of Asteroids to make it worth a few bucks?
Click to expand...

Completely different situation when it comes to Microsoft points. You can't just buy that game for $1.50 because you have to buy points in lots. When I browse through a bunch of games and find one or two worth buying, I then go to buy some points but the lowest level worth purchasing is around 30 dollars (Australian). I see that figure and then start questioning if it's worth it.

This is Microsoft's plan of course. You buy in lots therefore more likely to buy more stuff as you have left over points lying around. However I don't think that plan works for very low priced stuff such as the game room games. They are so low that the figure needed to buy in is comparatively way too high.
 
A

Ark Malmeida

Neo Member
Nice to see - hopefully they actually follow through this time and it means that they are ready for the 7 games a week that they promised would start over a month ago.
 
B

Bernbaum

Member
Just saw the tweet. Super Breakout = me spending money.

Hopefully this is the real start to the service taking off.
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
RadarScope1 said:
Played last night for the first time in a few days and immediately got a hi score on Shao-Lin's. I still think GR has potential. Just keep the titles coming, keep the ARCADE games coming, and it will gain critical mass eventually. I still believe Namco and Sega need to be on board. No matter how many times we've been offered Ms. Pac-Man or Shinobi, somebody somewhere will be willing to buy them just to have another venue for hi scores.
Click to expand...

I think they are, Namco at least. I mentioned it back on post #481, they ripped a bunch of icons from the Windows version of Game Room:

http://www.techknight.com/blog/2010/03/25/hidden-resources-in-microsoft-game-room/

Top row, seventh over, I'm pretty sure that's Quick Man, Pac-Man and Air Man. So there's got to be some planned Namco and Capcom involvement.

Mar said:
Completely different situation when it comes to Microsoft points. You can't just buy that game for $1.50 because you have to buy points in lots. When I browse through a bunch of games and find one or two worth buying, I then go to buy some points but the lowest level worth purchasing is around 30 dollars (Australian). I see that figure and then start questioning if it's worth it.

This is Microsoft's plan of course. You buy in lots therefore more likely to buy more stuff as you have left over points lying around. However I don't think that plan works for very low priced stuff such as the game room games. They are so low that the figure needed to buy in is comparatively way too high.
Click to expand...

I thought someone said you could buy MS Points in low increments via the Zune Store... but I don't know if that's available in Australia or not.
 
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