Comments on: Confederates in my Hard Drive http://techliberation.com/2008/08/04/confederates-in-my-hard-drive/ Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:51:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Steve R. http://techliberation.com/2008/08/04/confederates-in-my-hard-drive/comment-page-1/#comment-44467 Steve R. Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:01:58 +0000 http://techliberation.com/?p=11664#comment-44467 <p>Good post. I like the turn-based strategy games. It seems that the good niche games are now distributed (more-or-less) solely on-line. <br><br><a href="http://www.battlefront.com/" rel="nofollow">Afrika Korps</a><br><a href="http://www.hpssims.com/" rel="nofollow">Chickamauga</a></p> Good post. I like the turn-based strategy games. It seems that the good niche games are now distributed (more-or-less) solely on-line.

Afrika Korps
Chickamauga

]]> By: Steve R. http://techliberation.com/2008/08/04/confederates-in-my-hard-drive/comment-page-1/#comment-43149 Steve R. Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:01:58 +0000 http://techliberation.com/?p=11664#comment-43149 <p>Good post. I like the turn-based strategy games. It seems that the good niche games are now distributed (more-or-less) solely on-line.</p> <p><a href="http://www.battlefront.com/" rel="nofollow">Afrika Korps</a> <a href="http://www.hpssims.com/" rel="nofollow">Chickamauga</a></p> Good post. I like the turn-based strategy games. It seems that the good niche games are now distributed (more-or-less) solely on-line.

Afrika Korps Chickamauga

]]> By: ultra http://techliberation.com/2008/08/04/confederates-in-my-hard-drive/comment-page-1/#comment-44466 ultra Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:50:21 +0000 http://techliberation.com/?p=11664#comment-44466 <p>Sort of in line with this is the relatively recent rise of the PC-based fighting game community. While fighting games like Street Fighter still nurture arcade scenes in some places, for most of the past decade the definite trend has been towards consoles. Unfortunately, some of the most popular games never received faithful translations to home systems (ie Super Street Fighter II Turbo never got a good port despite half a dozen ties), others received faithful translations to now-dead systems (ie Marvel vs Capcom 2 was ported well to the Dreamcast but nowhere else), or received faithful translations with crappy online play (like Street Fighter III: Third Strike), and less popular games have never received a faithful port. The result has been that the scenes for lots of games have really had to struggle to stay alive. <br><br>Enter useful and accurate emulation and viable online play with excellent netcode. Emulated games have been around a long time and the ability to play them online against people is some years old as well, but only in the last year have really excellent programs come out. For example, nFBA is a great emulator that supports virtually all of the popular 2D fighting games, and <a href="http://GGPO.net">GGPO.net</a> and 2DF Freeplay are both extremely well done p2p netcode programs that allow for very faithful and near-perfect online play.<br><br>The result of this is a huge increase in access to good fighting game players and a correspondingly large increase in both the popularity of the games and the levels of play that've grown up around them. And the benefit hasn't just gone to the popular games; older, more niche games like Street Fighter II: Championship Edition and World Heroes Perfect have developed loyal fanbases and very high levels of play, an impossibility until just this last year. <br><br>As for the raw numbers? 2DF currently has 8730 registered users and GGPO currently has over 60500 registered users, and both have several hundred players from every continent online at any given time.<br><br>This isn't really an example of modding, but it is an example of the creation (or continuation, really) of a dynamic community thanks to the PC's ability to create ways to work with older games. And yeah, it's one reason I can't see PC gaming dying either.<br><br>There's no real way to know whether any of this has had any impact on game developers, but it's interesting to note that since nFBA, GGPO, and 2DF were created, fighting game developers have announced the creation of five major 2D titles to be released in just the next year, and some of them, most prominently Street Fighter 4, will be released on PC.</p> Sort of in line with this is the relatively recent rise of the PC-based fighting game community. While fighting games like Street Fighter still nurture arcade scenes in some places, for most of the past decade the definite trend has been towards consoles. Unfortunately, some of the most popular games never received faithful translations to home systems (ie Super Street Fighter II Turbo never got a good port despite half a dozen ties), others received faithful translations to now-dead systems (ie Marvel vs Capcom 2 was ported well to the Dreamcast but nowhere else), or received faithful translations with crappy online play (like Street Fighter III: Third Strike), and less popular games have never received a faithful port. The result has been that the scenes for lots of games have really had to struggle to stay alive.

Enter useful and accurate emulation and viable online play with excellent netcode. Emulated games have been around a long time and the ability to play them online against people is some years old as well, but only in the last year have really excellent programs come out. For example, nFBA is a great emulator that supports virtually all of the popular 2D fighting games, and GGPO.net and 2DF Freeplay are both extremely well done p2p netcode programs that allow for very faithful and near-perfect online play.

The result of this is a huge increase in access to good fighting game players and a correspondingly large increase in both the popularity of the games and the levels of play that’ve grown up around them. And the benefit hasn’t just gone to the popular games; older, more niche games like Street Fighter II: Championship Edition and World Heroes Perfect have developed loyal fanbases and very high levels of play, an impossibility until just this last year.

As for the raw numbers? 2DF currently has 8730 registered users and GGPO currently has over 60500 registered users, and both have several hundred players from every continent online at any given time.

This isn’t really an example of modding, but it is an example of the creation (or continuation, really) of a dynamic community thanks to the PC’s ability to create ways to work with older games. And yeah, it’s one reason I can’t see PC gaming dying either.

There’s no real way to know whether any of this has had any impact on game developers, but it’s interesting to note that since nFBA, GGPO, and 2DF were created, fighting game developers have announced the creation of five major 2D titles to be released in just the next year, and some of them, most prominently Street Fighter 4, will be released on PC.

]]> By: ultra http://techliberation.com/2008/08/04/confederates-in-my-hard-drive/comment-page-1/#comment-43099 ultra Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:50:21 +0000 http://techliberation.com/?p=11664#comment-43099 <p>Sort of in line with this is the relatively recent rise of the PC-based fighting game community. While fighting games like Street Fighter still nurture arcade scenes in some places, for most of the past decade the definite trend has been towards consoles. Unfortunately, some of the most popular games never received faithful translations to home systems (ie Super Street Fighter II Turbo never got a good port despite half a dozen ties), others received faithful translations to now-dead systems (ie Marvel vs Capcom 2 was ported well to the Dreamcast but nowhere else), or received faithful translations with crappy online play (like Street Fighter III: Third Strike), and less popular games have never received a faithful port. The result has been that the scenes for lots of games have really had to struggle to stay alive.</p> <p>Enter useful and accurate emulation and viable online play with excellent netcode. Emulated games have been around a long time and the ability to play them online against people is some years old as well, but only in the last year have really excellent programs come out. For example, nFBA is a great emulator that supports virtually all of the popular 2D fighting games, and GGPO.net and 2DF Freeplay are both extremely well done p2p netcode programs that allow for very faithful and near-perfect online play.</p> <p>The result of this is a huge increase in access to good fighting game players and a correspondingly large increase in both the popularity of the games and the levels of play that've grown up around them. And the benefit hasn't just gone to the popular games; older, more niche games like Street Fighter II: Championship Edition and World Heroes Perfect have developed loyal fanbases and very high levels of play, an impossibility until just this last year.</p> <p>As for the raw numbers? 2DF currently has 8730 registered users and GGPO currently has over 60500 registered users, and both have several hundred players from every continent online at any given time.</p> <p>This isn't really an example of modding, but it is an example of the creation (or continuation, really) of a dynamic community thanks to the PC's ability to create ways to work with older games. And yeah, it's one reason I can't see PC gaming dying either.</p> <p>There's no real way to know whether any of this has had any impact on game developers, but it's interesting to note that since nFBA, GGPO, and 2DF were created, fighting game developers have announced the creation of five major 2D titles to be released in just the next year, and some of them, most prominently Street Fighter 4, will be released on PC.</p> Sort of in line with this is the relatively recent rise of the PC-based fighting game community. While fighting games like Street Fighter still nurture arcade scenes in some places, for most of the past decade the definite trend has been towards consoles. Unfortunately, some of the most popular games never received faithful translations to home systems (ie Super Street Fighter II Turbo never got a good port despite half a dozen ties), others received faithful translations to now-dead systems (ie Marvel vs Capcom 2 was ported well to the Dreamcast but nowhere else), or received faithful translations with crappy online play (like Street Fighter III: Third Strike), and less popular games have never received a faithful port. The result has been that the scenes for lots of games have really had to struggle to stay alive.

Enter useful and accurate emulation and viable online play with excellent netcode. Emulated games have been around a long time and the ability to play them online against people is some years old as well, but only in the last year have really excellent programs come out. For example, nFBA is a great emulator that supports virtually all of the popular 2D fighting games, and GGPO.net and 2DF Freeplay are both extremely well done p2p netcode programs that allow for very faithful and near-perfect online play.

The result of this is a huge increase in access to good fighting game players and a correspondingly large increase in both the popularity of the games and the levels of play that’ve grown up around them. And the benefit hasn’t just gone to the popular games; older, more niche games like Street Fighter II: Championship Edition and World Heroes Perfect have developed loyal fanbases and very high levels of play, an impossibility until just this last year.

As for the raw numbers? 2DF currently has 8730 registered users and GGPO currently has over 60500 registered users, and both have several hundred players from every continent online at any given time.

This isn’t really an example of modding, but it is an example of the creation (or continuation, really) of a dynamic community thanks to the PC’s ability to create ways to work with older games. And yeah, it’s one reason I can’t see PC gaming dying either.

There’s no real way to know whether any of this has had any impact on game developers, but it’s interesting to note that since nFBA, GGPO, and 2DF were created, fighting game developers have announced the creation of five major 2D titles to be released in just the next year, and some of them, most prominently Street Fighter 4, will be released on PC.

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