In the original Prince of Persia on the Apple II, the fencing animation frames were taken from the classic movie Robin Hood (1938). Specifically, from the final sword duel between actors Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone.
Pardon my ignorance, but isn't Bejewelled a matching game?
Not sure what you mean, but yes Bejeweled and Candy Crush are match-3 games. With every move the goal is to match 3 or more of the same color in a row of column.
I don't think any game this basic developed post-2000 is original.
Obviously every game borrows some things from other games but that doesn't mean that in the 21st century originality is dead. Geez. Just look for example at Blocksum or Tumblestone or Baba Is You to name just a few. Blocksum borrows from Tetris Attack, Baba Is You borrows from Sokoban but they put such a clever new spin on it that it's genuinely an original game imho.
Anyway, what strikes me about the Shariki game is that Bejeweled is so clearly a copy of the game (same rules, same grid size), yet Shariki is a relatively obscure game while Bejeweled is practically a household name.
I'm a big fan of the game Bejeweled, it's simple yet hard, clever mechanics and just an elegant game design. Bejeweled was released in 2001 and was a big hit, and games like Candy Crush remain popular to this very day.
Only recently I found out there was an msdos game called Shariki ("Шарики" in Russian) and it is just fascinating. It's the exact same game as Bejeweled, except from the looks of it, it dates back to the 90s.
You can download the game and the file dates are from 8-april-1996. The only thing is, it's almost impossible to verify the release date because file dates are unreliable and can be manipulated. But if this really was programmed in the 90s, predating Bejweled and even Diamond Mine that's just remarkable.
For what it's worth, the Russian text during the game at the bottom of the screen reads:
Программа "Шарики" Автор Женя Алемжин. Пишите письма: sandra@sandra.kemerovo.su Привет всем! Which according to google translate translates to:
Program "Balls" The author Zhenya Alemzhin. Write letters: sandra@sandra.kemerovo.su Hello to all! Interestingly there is a Youtube channel by someone called Yevgeny Alemzhin with videos from 2013 of a game Match-3 in 3D. So I assume it's the same guy. I mean, it's kind of spectacular that such a well designed yet humble msdos game was turned into the world famous money making machines we now know as Bejeweled and Candy Crush. I mean there's definitely a story there with parallels to Tetris except with maybe a not so happy ending for the original developer.
Wild Pilot by Jaleco 1992 has an interesting level selection screen. I'm not sure but it looks like they are traced from celebrities photos, singers, movie stars etc.
Coolmath-Games published one of my games It's called Impossible Snake and it's a very challenging one-button html5 webgame. You can play it in link below www.coolmath-games.com/0-impossible-snake
Just saw this tweet/article. It seems two of the Street Figher II backgrounds were inspired by the movie Hard Times (1975) starring Charles Bronson as an illegal prize-fighter during the Depression Era. The background in question are Ken's Battle Harbor and Zangief's Big Factory backgrounds.
Escpecially the boat scene is very similar to the movie.
I'd buy that in an instant (although this particular game isn't emulated). There's a wealth of light gun games out there that can't be properly enjoyed with current technology.
There are some for PC's, but they're like $100 a piece. Couldn't say with any certainty, but perhaps USB-(insert favorite consoles gamepads here) would accept light guns that way, but you'd need to be able to convince the PC that it has one plugged into it. Probably not as issue with M.A.M.E. Otherwise, most emulators seem to accept a mouse with an on-screen target, if that's acceptable enough for you(same for the PC versions of the Virtua Cop and House of the Dead series, if you can get those running on yours).
It's too bad but even the expensive lightguns today seem to have significant cursor drift, I mean when you quickly swipe the gun across the screen there is a noticable lag in the aim cursor. It seems the current gyroscope+infrared technology can't match the performance and accuracy of the 'simple' cathode ray trick of the PS1 guncon.
Can't someone do a kickstarter for a good new lightgun design?
Recently I've recreated some LCD game in JavaScript, and a couple of LCD game simulators are playable: Highway, Mario Bros and Sea Ranger The idea is based on www.pica-pic.com/ (flash website with 26 games) but I'm still missing a lot of features. See page below, they are only playable on pc/laptops using the keyboard.
Sorry to kick this age old thread, but apparently Natsume is working on a yet-to-be-released remake as a PS4 exclusive, it will be called Wild Guns Reloaded and it looks pretty good