Divide, The: Enemies Within

[Discoalucard]

hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/divide/divide.htm

This is an expanded reprint of an old article from Retro Gamer magazine, along with an interview of the game's designer. I hadn't heard of it before, but basically it's like Super Metroid, in 3D, for the PSOne. This means early PSOne 3D, but it doesn't look too bad. As soon as I uploaded this I grabbed a copy off Amazon for $4, so I'm looking forward to giving it a go.

[aganar]

I always wanted a subscription to Retro Gamer, but jesus christ is it expensive to import.

[Discoalucard]

Seriously. I've been grabbing them as I see them in Barnes & Noble, but it's $12 per issue ($10.80 with members discount!) and they arrive erratically. Subscriptions are something like $120 and barely much of a savings.

[Deleted]

Great article. I really want to know how the story went for this one.

[kimimi]

I stopped reading Retro Gamer years ago after a few articles listed emulators rather than hardware you could play easily available games on, and a comment in a shmup article that went something like "Lol Radiant Silvergun is expensive so just download it instead!". I don't actually mind people playing games that way, but I would have thought the raison d'etre of a retro mag was to champion the joys and nostaliga of the real thing, and it really didn't sit right with me.

Anyway, have they changed at all?

On topic: looks like a pretty cool game, I'll have to investigate further.

[kal]

Definitely want to try it.

[dooz]

Indeed, this game looks really interesting. It's a shame that it got so overlooked.

[savagepencil]

Will this actually run on a modern PC?

[Rambo M]

Jul 1, 2009 3:06:27 GMT -5 kimimi said:

I stopped reading Retro Gamer years ago after a few articles listed emulators rather than hardware you could play easily available games on, and a comment in a shmup article that went something like "Lol Radiant Silvergun is expensive so just download it instead!". I don't actually mind people playing games that way, but I would have thought the raison d'etre of a retro mag was to champion the joys and nostaliga of the real thing, and it really didn't sit right with me.

Anyway, have they changed at all?

This has less to do with recommending emulation and more with recommending crap, but the most recent issue i've come across was more or less a giant giddy advertisement for Mega Drive Ultimate Collection, and they could barely have gushed upon it any more than they did in their review of the damned thing. It's garbage like this that allows Backbone to believe they can get away with half of what they throw out.

You would think, given they're a spinoff of games™, they would be better than that...

[Sketcz-1000]

They're actually not a spin-off of GamesTM. They were started by Live Publishing, which went bankrupt, and were bought by the publishers of GamesTM. From page 2 I start talking about Live Publishing, and explain how they went bust, owing all their writers:
www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_71/411-Bankrupt-British-Freelancers

As for Retro Gamer's internal policy, I haven't written for them for 3 years, so can't answer any complaints. For the record, I hate the recent PS3/X360 MD Ultimate Collection.

As the readership has said various times on forums, a lot of them aren't hardcore nor are they interested in "authenticity" or things they don't already know. They just want a bit of nostalgia to remind them of Christmas 1986, before putting the mag aside. The majority of readers are sadly like this, and not like the readers of HG101 for example. Though there is obviously cross-over, but it's still frustrating.

And yeah, I know this sucks. It's one of the reasons why I left. I was seldom allowed to cover niche, hardcore or interesting subjects, and I didn't like having to pander to a crowd only interested in rewarmed, banal nostalgia.

[DPB]

This looks interesting, did it get a European release? There's nothing on eBay UK or Amazon Marketplaces, I might have to get the US version (thankfully I have a modded PS1 from before Sony's court case that got modchips banned here).

[Blake Casimir]

... and thankfully I seem to have what is now an incredibly rare Action Replay for the expansion port of older PS1 consoles, which allows for disc swaps.

This looks like an interesting game indeed, but us Euro gamers might have to import, as sadly there doesn't seem to be a European or UK release.

[Sketcz-1000]

Yeah, I had to import it via eBay. Though a brief check tells me it's on snesorama, if you don't mind using a CD-R. Though considering how cheap it is, there's no reason not to indulge in the real thing.

Jul 1, 2009 17:02:32 GMT -5 savagepencil said:

Will this actually run on a modern PC?

Not sure about the PC version itself, but the PS1 version was emulated well on some PS1 emulator or another. Though for sheer fun, I would say it's best played on a TV.


If anyone discovers the easter Ian mentions, please say so! I've never found it.

[kimimi]

Thank you for your previous post Sketch, as well as the link to your article - it explains a lot (sadly). To be honest I'd never considered that Retro Gamers audience would be non-hardcore gamers reminiscing over the Christmas they unpacked their C64; but now you mention it a lot of things about their choice of article and style of coverage make more sense.

[Sketcz-1000]

Yeah. The saddest thing was I once covered the lost Hudson Mario games (I was occasionally allowed to cover some crazy stuff), found only on Japanese home computers. Because I thought: it's Mario so people will recognise it, BUT! It's obscure, totally different in terms of layout and design and structure, and it's awesome, so it's a combination of familiarity and also newness...

And more than person made a complaint that a) We apparently have no right covering Japanese computer games for the PC88 if the machine was never sold in the UK, and b) they didn't care about Mario and didn't think it was "proper" retro.

These were hand written letters. Yup, I was pretty bummed out for the rest of the day. They still get letters from disgruntled readers complaining that things like the PS1 and Sega Saturn aren't retro, and they get pretty vitriolic. And others who are pissed off with the iPlayer retro coverage (which I quite like - since the games are newly devved but retro by design). As for the love of Backbone compilations, it's partially because it helps with ad revenue.

I'm not trying to be apologetic, the situation sucks, but it's not always because the writers want to write that kind of stuff.

Here's scans of the Mario articles, btw:






ABOUT THE DIVIDE AND PSN:
Viacom still seems to be around... But Ian also said the rights could be with MTV. Crazy thought here, but what are the chances of using this article, and any feedback, to encourage the current rights holder into making it a PS3 PSN download? From what I've heard, PS3/PS1 downloads are simply repackaged ISOs. I'd love this game to get more exposure.

Or am I just being naive?