By Jim Rossignol on February 6th, 2013 at 12:00 pm.
Last century’s best science fiction tropes really do seem to be the water this week, with Blendo Games putting out a trailer for Quadrilateral Cowboy that subtitles it “20th Century Cyberpunk”. The gentle trailer of infiltration and hacking is explained like so: “When you have a top-of-the-line hacking deck armed with a 56.6k modem and a staggering 256k RAM, it means just one thing: you answer only to the highest bidder.”
This is most definitely a game worth paying attention to. Watch.
For rather more information on Quadrilateral Cowboy, have a read of Nathan’s interview.
It’s expected some time later this year.
06/02/2013 at 12:03 Frosty says:
I think this is actually the game I am most excited for this year. Also Claire De Lune is an excellent match to the trailer.
Mr Blendo Games really has a unique art style nailed down doesn’t he?
06/02/2013 at 13:02 Wang Tang says:
IMHO the “unique artstyle” looks way too bland and really not appealing in any way. It just looks bad. And if that should be a reference to games from the ninetees, it’s not working for me either :S
But the idea and gameplay, from what I’ve seen in the trailer, seem to be really great, so I’m waiting for more infos on the game (and pricing).
06/02/2013 at 13:11 bab says:
I think Blendo Games is just the one guy, so sticking to a simple-but-effective art style has probably helped him focus and spend his limited funds on the important core aspects of the game rather than just the aesthetic ones. Some of the scenery in the previous games was still incredibly effective despite being simple textures on blocks, though.
06/02/2013 at 14:48 abandonhope says:
I kept hoping Clare de Lune would turn into a Susumu Yokota song. This one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAq0f6z5cY8
06/02/2013 at 23:42 Emeraude says:
Damn, I love that album troll sampling at its finest… The opening to “Traveler in the wonderland” always makes me smirk.
07/02/2013 at 05:30 miscreated says:
I had to create an account just so I could thank you for introducing me to Susumu Yokota. That song is beautiful.
06/02/2013 at 12:09 Tusque D'Ivoire says:
I absolutely adore Blendo Games’ oeuvre. And after Gravity Bone and Thirty Flights of Loving I just can’t wait what Chung does when he does an actual FPS-game, not just a non-game. Did I say that out loud?
Also, terminal hacking always makes me feel like the king of the world.
06/02/2013 at 13:51 phlebas says:
Gravity Bone was a game! It had an annoying platformy bit and everything!
06/02/2013 at 19:03 AlexxKay says:
Atom Zombie Smasher was a really fine game.
06/02/2013 at 19:28 tompudding says:
You might enjoy my entry to the last Ludum Dare which was all about terminal hacking. Warning : You probably won’t.
06/02/2013 at 12:13 Hodge says:
Later this year? Man, why does he have to tease us like this?
06/02/2013 at 12:18 dethtoll says:
Going back to Nuevos Aires so soon? I can’t wait!
06/02/2013 at 19:21 cptgone says:
arewethereyetarewethereyetarewethereyetarewethereyetarewethereyetarewethereyetarewethereyetarewethereyet?
06/02/2013 at 12:25 GallonOfAlan says:
Oh yes indeedy.
06/02/2013 at 12:28 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
So basically, this is the game of what I thought I’d grow up to be?
Superb.
06/02/2013 at 13:03 Ross Angus says:
I’d always imaged you as one of the cast of Downton Abby, myself.
06/02/2013 at 17:21 jonfitt says:
But if Lord Smingleigh lives in Downton Abby, perhaps he dreams of escaping it all?
06/02/2013 at 17:28 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
I spend my days in the Computing Parlour, which isn’t open to the public. Occasionally I have to summon a servant for some more chocolate hobnobs, which I do through a marvelous network of shouting-tubes.
06/02/2013 at 20:06 Ross Angus says:
Mental picture: 100% complete. Thanks.
06/02/2013 at 12:30 Carbonated Dan says:
‘Twentieth Century Cyberpunk’ translation: the Nineties are now Retro
anyone else feel old?
06/02/2013 at 12:48 DrAmateurScience says:
Every day.
06/02/2013 at 12:49 Hoaxfish says:
I watched some trash new “video game program” on TV this week, they were acting like some throw away PS1 era game was “classic retro” (a bad proto-3D graphics game).
06/02/2013 at 21:26 Dances to Podcasts says:
I can’t wait for the 00s to become retro.
Because that would mean I could finally figure out what happened there.
06/02/2013 at 12:39 Jorum says:
computer tech is the best for making people feel old.
look at Neuromancer where 5mb of ram is hot black market property and worth murder.
06/02/2013 at 12:46 Hoaxfish says:
In instances like that I like to pretend that it’s a “new” measurement.
So, stuff like 2001 having space travel and alien monoliths? That could still happen, it’s just at some point they stopped using the same calender as us. Maybe there was some dark age regression of civilisation (Planet of the Apes style)
06/02/2013 at 17:43 MrUnimport says:
MULTIBYTES
06/02/2013 at 17:49 CannedLizard says:
I’m pretty sure what was ON the RAM was what was important. That may not make computer hardware sense, but William Gibson preferred his computers in the abstract at that point (Neuromancer being written on a typewriter, ironically).
06/02/2013 at 12:42 Mario Figueiredo says:
First time I see this. Last year was a busy year to me. Didn’t do much reading on games and totally missed this. Was completely hooked. Bookmarked their site and yet another entry on my RemindMe chrome extension! Will for sure want to keep an eye on it.
Whats the musical piece on the movie, btw?
I now I have it in my mp3 classic collection but having trouble finding it. It’s a big collection. Isn’t it one of Chopin’s Etudes? I have all 27 but am at odds why I can’t find it. If not Chopin, Liszt then?
06/02/2013 at 12:45 Frosty says:
Claire De lune!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q32jEWJaS6Y
06/02/2013 at 12:53 Mario Figueiredo says:
Ah! Of course I would never find it. Was looking totally in the wrong place. Debussy.
Thanks :)
06/02/2013 at 12:52 Ostymandias says:
hacking bwpwap
and on that note i really think games media should pay more attention to what happens in the rest of this “new media” field. it’s still a frontier, and video games tie into an overlapping aesthetic of a much large production of art and culture. these “self conscious”, retro-futuristic games about technology such as this one and notch’s new thing with space and eighties computers are in essence some sort of techno-cultural feedback loop, a painting of a painter painting a painter. we’re at a point in this digital arts field now where it breaks down into and onto itself and that’s a sign of maturity, I think.
oh, and check this out: http://www.transmediale.de/content/ioq3apaint
06/02/2013 at 12:59 DrAmateurScience says:
I need this jacked directly into my frontal lobes tute de suite.
06/02/2013 at 13:41 Low Life says:
I’d settle for Oculus Rift. From the RPS interview of the developer:
“You are hired by corporations to make plans to infiltrate buildings and steal documents. But you’re not the one actually running the plans. You’re just making them and giving them to people who are way more athletic than you are. So the idea is that you’re just a guy sitting in a chair wearing VR goggles.”
So you’d be a guy sitting in a chair wearing VR goggles controlling a guy sitting in a chair wearing VR goggles controlling a guy!
07/02/2013 at 05:41 Geen says:
Somebody make a VR version of this, STAT.
06/02/2013 at 13:09 Odexios says:
I really, *really* hope it has something like tab completion. It might be that I’m too used to it, but I found out I can’t play games like these if I don’t have such a feature.
06/02/2013 at 13:44 weteor says:
He wrote about it in his dev/news blog:
http://blendogames.com/news/?p=486
06/02/2013 at 14:19 Odexios says:
Thanks for the link! It strikes me as odd that he thought it would be difficult to implement an autocomplete feature; it’s nothing more than making a list and comparing a few strings. I guess he just never did something like that.
Great news, anyway.
06/02/2013 at 14:22 gritz says:
But I thought GTA3 was 20th century cyberpunk??
06/02/2013 at 15:55 Felixader says:
But he said “without the Hardware”.
06/02/2013 at 14:51 mont3core says:
Yesssssss, ohmygoodness. That interview with Brendan had me excited but this looks even more delicious.
06/02/2013 at 16:53 realmenhuntinpacks says:
Awwww yeah.
06/02/2013 at 23:34 MrTambourineMan says:
This looks too good, day 1 purchase for me, that’s for sure!
07/02/2013 at 05:15 El Mariachi says:
A door openable via telnet? Might as well leave it unlocked.