Comments on: Revolution Action: Gridrunner Revolution Imminent

By: Dominic White

Dominic White — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:00:06 +0000

It’s more proof that you can make big bucks simply but slapping an old arcade game in an emulator and calling it a port, and if that isn’t sad, I don’t know what is.

By: Tei

Tei — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:54:22 +0000

Is something strange to get sad at. Everybody know frogger, so, obviusly is a powerfull brand. Your (new and unknom) game has not gags in the Seinfield series about it :-). And to add to that, theres the nostalgia. WTFLOL. Is like making a new puzzle game and geting sad because sells less than Tetris?

By: Dominic White

Dominic White — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:34:33 +0000

If I remember right, he wasn’t even mystified. More annoyed and depressed because he had put months/years of genuine effort into Space Giraffe, and it sold only a tiny fraction of what Frogger did, which wasn’t even a port – it was just the original arcade ROM slapped into an emulator. A five-minute job. That, and Frogger wasn’t even that good a game back in the old days, and has aged badly. Points I definitely agree with.

Sure, gimme Space Invaders, but Frogger? Bah.

By: Malibu Stacey

Malibu Stacey — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:30:18 +0000

Will be buying this if (when) it’s on Steam at a decent price.
I’d have Space Giraffe by now if it wasn’t £15 on Steam. Call me a gaming snob (or a cheapskate) if you like but games like this would’ve been £3/£4 from the local WH Smiths when I were a lad compared to £10/£12 for “full price” games. If they drop the price to between £5 and £10 I’d be much more inclined to purchase it (hence my Steam account having tons of ‘indie’ games such as Braid, Defence Grid, World of Goo which by no coincidence have been on sale or were priced ‘competitively’ in the last 6 months).

I love Gridrunner++ & I’d get a Jaguar again just to play Tempest 2000 (and even Hovver Bovver 2 has its charms). More games please Mr Minter!

By: Malibu Stacey

Malibu Stacey — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:15:50 +0000

Because he makes games which are so awesome that when you try to screenshot them it’s like trying to freeze lightning?

By: solipsistnation

solipsistnation — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:59:34 +0000

Anonymous Coward said:
I’ve noticed that among the people who didn’t like Space Giraffe, there seemed to be a hardcore group of people who took it as a personal insult, and a reason to declare war on Minter himself.

I recall a post where he was saying something about how a port of Frogger had out-sold Space Giraffe and he was pretty mystified and not very happy about that. That triggered a lot of Angry Internet Man freakout action on his LJ, and he deleted the post and all comments pretty quickly. I suspect people are still unhappy about that, although, you know, he has a point. (I don't know if anyone mentioned that Frogger was sold as a pack-in with a joystick controller, or if that counted as sales… I suspect it did count but that nobody mentioned it.)

By: theALLseeingEYE

theALLseeingEYE — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:45:39 +0000

Can’t say I agree with you there Bhazor, I love both Space Invaders Xtreme and Pacman Anniversary Edition, to me, this looks like something special.

Could be the bullet gravity mechanic, but I’m a big fan of Minter’s games, so i suppose I assume there will also be an excellent underlying depth to the gameplay. Can’t wait for this to come out, only 7 days now :)

By: Bhazor

Bhazor — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:53:29 +0000

Doesn’t look as good a revamp as Space Invaders Xtreme or Pacman Anniversary Edition. But Minter’s not done me wrong so I’ll stay optimistic for this.

By: richmcc

richmcc — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:09:20 +0000

The review code press pack for this is genuinely wonderful. Real wool! Real brown, slightly smelly wool!

By: Dominic White

Dominic White — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:26:11 +0000

I’ve noticed that among the people who didn’t like Space Giraffe, there seemed to be a hardcore group of people who took it as a personal insult, and a reason to declare war on Minter himself.

I’ve seen mass raids on his livejournal and hate-mail thrown around (both at him, and at me for not hating it/him either) over that game. Some people just seem unable to just disilke something like a normal human being. Hell, I can’t stand the entire football management genre, but I don’t go screaming at the people who like it.

By: RobF

RobF — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:56:34 +0000

Thing is, Croucher hasn’t done anything in what? 22 years or something? Bit of an unfair comparison as much as I respect the guys output.

I am eternally fascinated by how his view on games has sort of come back into vogue with large wads of the indie scene though but I guess we’re destined to keep reinventing the wheel at times. Feels like your teenage son coming up and saying he’s just invented a new thing, it’s called Rock N Roll, bless.

As for Space Giraffe, didn’t click with me – I got it from the off (slight powerzone confusion due to tutorial aside). Maybe I’m a freak but years of playing arcade games meant it posed no trouble. I blatted through it again recently after a near 2 year gap of playing and it still amazes me how much it constantly mixes it up right up to the final stage. Even in Nuxx mode which sorta breaks it for me a bit (ok, a lot!), it’s still a cracking game.

I didn’t really touch on this too much in my write up but Gridrunner Revolution is an oddly schizophrenic game. I’d be loathe to say “unique” because I fear there might be something missing in my knowledge bank that someone will go “aha, it’s like -this-” and I’d look a total tool (well, more so than normal). Each level has two halves, a sort of defensive half first and an aggressive half second yet weirdly the defensive half is more intense than the aggressive one. Hard to explain!

There’s also the thing that the first two difficulty levels are almost casual in nature, you can drift through them pretty easily but come the final two difficulty levels and you’re into a proper arcade blaster territory. This shit shouldn’t work, it sorta does though.

Ultimately, I like it. There was a time early on in development when I couldn’t see it turning out as well as it did, but the niggles I mentioned in my piece aside, I’m really impressed with how it turned out both from my eternal fascination with taking apart game elements to see how they work brain-isms and as someone who enjoys things that wot explode in pretty colours.

By: Paul Moloney

Paul Moloney — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:38:32 +0000

I suppose one’s opinion of Minter is based on whether you think he (a) updates old classics with a refreshingly British/Pythonesque/Goonish twist or (b) remakes old games by slapping on a running joke that’s been running too long and was never very funny in the first place.