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Post by Discoalucard on Jul 13, 2016 19:26:44 GMT -5
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Post by hellomrkearns on Jul 13, 2016 19:39:14 GMT -5
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Post by Malev on Jul 13, 2016 20:45:29 GMT -5
Keolamanaokalahuinui "Keola" Kaula was the winner of the $25,000 cart. According to wikipedia, he got to star in a Sega commercial. I wonder which one, though.
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Post by JDarkside on Jul 13, 2016 20:47:56 GMT -5
Vectorman cover of the Pepsiman song.
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Post by Bobinator on Jul 13, 2016 20:56:08 GMT -5
I just wanna say that I think Vectorman's gun makes pretty much my favorite sound of any energy weapon firing sound of any game. I dunno why, I just really dig that particular sound effect.
That is all.
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Post by bladededge on Jul 14, 2016 14:35:29 GMT -5
Factual error in the opening paragraph, with this line:
""WINNERS DON'T USE DRUGS" is probably one of the most iconic political slogans of all time, with most - if not all - arcade cabinets produced during the last ten years of the 20th century spreading a unique fraction of USA President Bill Clinton's war against drugs all over the world."
'WINNERS DON'T USE DRUGS' predates Clinton (who was elected in 1992). It was actually launched during the Bush era, appearing in arcade cabinets as early as 1989-1990, and was a product of the american Federal Bureau of Investigation, not the executive office. The original executive branch push against illicit drugs actually predated even that, though it's arguable as to exactly which administration really began the 'war on drugs' as it came to be known. (Nixon in the 70's and Carter after him both considered illegal drugs a push-button issue, though the efforts against them in the 80's are largely associated with the Reagan administration). Inverse had a good article on this topic last year. [https://www.inverse.com/article/5193-how-the-f-b-i-made-winners-don-t-use-drugs-the-arcade-motto-of-the-90s]
Aside from this, a tidy little article. I especially appreciated the segments on the cancelled Vectorman games, which I was unaware of the existence of.
There's a bit of extra behind-the-scenes information on the original Vectorman and BlueSky in general available in "Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works" by Keith Stuart and Darren Wall which might prop up the somewhat short length of the article a bit, if you can get access to the book without paying out the nose for it. Specifically, there's an interview with Rich Karpp, Vectorman's game designer, on page 300. I can make a scan if it would help.
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Post by windfisch on Jul 14, 2016 14:39:33 GMT -5
Well, yes and no: the original 3D models should by nature have been based on vectors, but this game uses rasterized images of those. So let's call it "Rasterman" instead? Also: with all the Vectorman - Donkey Kong Country comparisons this article seems like a throwback to the 16 Bit console wars Seriously though, I don't think this comparison is appropriate, because the games don't have that much in common in terms of gameplay and atmosphere. Sure DKC popularized prerendered sprites and that probably had an impact on why this method was chosen in Vectorman. And both are more or less platformers. But that's about it. Otherwise it's apples and oranges really. So it seems a little odd to call them competitors. Maybe Vectorman was marketed that way back then? For the same reason it seems weird that the article states that Vectorman The author seems to like the sountrack a lot and that's okay - I can see why and I like it too. But I also believe that DKC does have very well composed music and excellent sound design. Again both styles are quite different, each going for different overall feel. Therefore they are difficult to compare in my opinion. But then of course, opinion seems to be the key word here. By the way: Am I the only one who thinks Vectorman is only a mediocre game? I certainly want to like it, and there are aspects about it that I enjoy: the the main character is charming, the animation is fluid, the music is catchy and some of the backgrounds are really beautiful. I especially like the snow stage and the different variations of the first stage with all the streaming flags, the parallaxclouds the sunset and the lightnings. Other stages however are not always as pleasant to look at: some are just bland and grey others too murky or too busy visually to properly see whats going on. And only a handful of the enemies and bosses are really memorable. While I think that the sound effects are well made, especially the voice samples, the constant shooting noise is too dominant for me to enjoy the soundtrack (you can switch sfx off, but then there are no sound cues whatsoever). Gameplay feels a little sloppy and often frustrating. Vectorman controls slightly slippery and he moves rather quickly by default. His sprite is too big for that: if you move at the pace that the game seems to be suggesting, you're constantly bumping into enemies or projectiles, without being able to see them in time. You are forced to go slower, but that feels very counterintuitive in this particular game. This tactic also won't keep you from blindly jumping into enemies - I especially dislike the mosquitos that constantly respawn. The levels themselves are varied, but most of them are not that interestingly designed in terms of layout and new ideas. Exploration is actually not that emphasised as one might hope for, especially because there is a time limit and the bonus items are rarely worth the trouble, because you're likely to lose health along the way. While the transformation items are neat, their effect wears off too qickly. It would have been great to be able mess around with those more. I also don't get why there is no built in autofire-mode or the option to stand still while shooting diagonally - this game practically begs for those. Overall I think Vectorman (and Vectorman 2 as well) feels sadly unpolished: It's ambitious and impressive on a techincal level. But many aspects seem like they needed a little more thought put into them - with more effort (or talent?) it could have been great. But compared to the best platformer-shooting hybrids for the Mega Drive (like Gunstar Heroes or Contra Hard Corps) it falls short in terms of gameplay and presentation.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2016 17:33:22 GMT -5
no, i agree. i think vectorman was the game that convinced me that big, detailed sprites aren't necessarily to a game's benefit; as you pointed out it leaves little screen real estate, and thus less time to not collide with every damn thing. doesn't help that most enemies take far, far too many hits to vanquish.
even the massive dk sprite doesn't take up as much room, and dkc's non-intrusive hud clears some visual room too. and only bosses take more than a couple of hits
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Post by Kubo Caskett on Jul 14, 2016 18:36:34 GMT -5
I remember when I had a copy of the game that had some prize offer featured on the cover if someone where to beat the game; although I briefy had a genesis about 15 years ago and the offer would probably be null by then.
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Post by zilliont on Jul 14, 2016 19:36:42 GMT -5
I'm the writer of this piece, so please direct all of your complaints directly to me from now on Vectorman's massive sprite size is, as I said in the article, its biggest weakness, as it really makes dodging enemy fire and other hazards very difficult. The sequel tried to fix that by making the level design more compact as a whole, but since that game is even cheaper than the original in some spots, it's obvious that the problem wasn't with the stage structure itself. And yeah, Vectorman isn't a great game per se, but for a game of its genre, country of origin and year of release, it's pretty damn good. Vectorman 3, however, would probably be downright mediocre if it was released, since we all know how well 3D action games from that era aged. I was going to put a tibdit on the article about this and another few oddities related to the franchise (such as the "competition" of sorts that the original game was involved in and the appearance of the Bolo Gun as a DLC weapon for the mobile version of House of the Dead: Overkill), but I didn't find a place to put them in Man, I'd do ANYTHING to have this book on my hands right now :/ Scans are apprecciated! SEGA did tout the game's unique "Vector-Piece" technology on its marketing, but at the time I wrote this I thought it was just a silly marketing slogan not unlike Blast Proccessing (although that one does have the Motorola 68000's speed to back it up...). And yeah, Vectorman was marketed as SEGA's answer to Donkey Kong Country at the time of its release, so the comparisons are unavoidable.
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Post by jorpho on Jul 15, 2016 0:47:48 GMT -5
The one time I got a chance to play this game, I recall getting completely smacked down in the second stage – some kind of obnoxious overhead thing with insta-kills?
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Post by Snarboo on Jul 15, 2016 0:58:52 GMT -5
I remember reading an article in some long forgotten gaming magazine from around the time of Vectorman 2's development that showcased a lot of interesting concept art, including what looked like an FPS stage. There was also concept art and early screenshots of Rayman 2, which was originally going to be a sidescroller like the first game.
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Post by zilliont on Jul 15, 2016 3:12:04 GMT -5
I remember reading an article in some long forgotten gaming magazine from around the time of Vectorman 2's development that showcased a lot of interesting concept art, including what looked like an FPS stage. There was also concept art and early screenshots of Rayman 2, which was originally going to be a sidescroller like the first game. Man, if only the second game had some additional love and care put behind it... I bet that, with enough development time, it could surpass the original in terms of quality and uniqueness :/
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Post by GamerL on Jul 15, 2016 7:36:54 GMT -5
The canceled Vectorman reboot came at a time when it looked like Sega was trying to resurrect a lot of their lesser known properties, you had Toejam & Earl 3 and Panzer Dragoon Orta on the Xbox, you had the canceled Xbox version of Rent A Hero and a reboot of Altered Beast that I think did come out in Europe but not America.
As far as I know there was no attempt to reboot Alex Kidd though.
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Post by JDarkside on Jul 15, 2016 8:05:50 GMT -5
I really should give this game a second try. First time I played it, I got frustrated by the difficulty. As soon as I'm no longer owned by Tycoon games, clickers, and Sailor Moon ROMs, I should try it again.
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