Ranting Kenya

So I loaded up a copy of X-Com on my computer yesterday (all hail the glory of steam!). X-Com, as many will remember, was the turn based strategy game published by Microprose in 1993. Even now, that game is truly something special. There are many games that I loved as a child that I simply cannot play now. Even going back to something like Goldeneye on the N64 is really hard for me to do, and Goldeneye is much newer.

X-Com really hits a lot of key points and levels with me. For one, I like the general theme, alien invasion. Add on base building, resource management, fighting UFOs and exploring their crash sites makes it a cluster of awesomeness for me. I always think about my idea of an ideal game (an RTS where I can then take part in the battles in FPS mode, basically act as a hero unit), and X-Com probably comes the closest to this reality.

In fact, this game is resource management to the extreme. You have to manage your personnel, actual equipment and artifacts, money, approval rating, movement points, aircraft, base facilities, multiple bases etc.

Another thing I love about this game is it’s difficulty. I have actually never beaten it. Even now on it’s 2^nd easiest difficulty, I’m being challenged on the second mission. And you are challenged across the board. On the missions, all the management, the aircraft battles, everything. Keeping your soldiers alive is really key for later on because they gain experience. If all you ever have is a revolving door of rookies, you won’t get very far.

But what it’s probably best at is creating atmosphere. The graphics are ancient by today’s standards (after playing it for a couple hours, looking at my iPhone felt like I was looking at the highest res display ever), but they’re good enough to make it work. The music is midi-like, but sets the mood of all the various sections of the game perfectly. And many of the background graphics elevate this mood. For instance, when you’re looking to sell some of your loot from successful alien missions, the background image is of a shadowy character in a trench coat holding open a suitcase of money towards you. And there’s a number of barely visible characters in the background.

The game really sets the tone of “secret government agency stopping extra terrestrial attacks”. It’s a really good game. I’m really enjoying playing this 17 year old game.

Is anybody kind of surprised that Apple has beaten Sony and Nintendo to the mobile “xbox live” service? Does this not strike anyone as a complete and utter failure on behalf of Sony and Nintendo. And I suppose also a failure of Microsoft.

I mean let’s review. Basically, the Xbox’s single best unique feature is xbox live. It isn’t new either. It’s been around for like 6 or 7 years now. It’s what pulled a good number of people off the Playstation 2 (the most popular console ever) and onto Microsoft’s new platform, the original xbox. It was and is a pay service. But still, people flock to it.

Now the xbox 360 is a true powerhouse in the console gaming space, and Sony’s playstation network is ok, but not great. It tries to copy the xbox features, but it lacks the community.

Nintendo’s literally pretending that online gaming doesn’t even exist (and what’s the HD everyone is talking about). Now Apple walks in with a phone, a mobile phone, announces their game network, and instantly it makes nearly no sense that Sony and Nintendo have missed this boat.

Nintendo isn’t really surprising because their history suggests that this thing would fly right by. But Sony. The very same strategy that Microsoft used to take a bite out of your console business should’ve been repurposed by you to take a bite out of Nintendo’s mobile gaming dominance.

Apple’s games are for the most part, cheap and of questionable quality. But in their vast library, there are quite a few gems. There are more gems on the iPhone than on the PSP. And there’s millions of iPhones and iPod touches out there. There’s going to be more of them too. It’s the hottest consumer device in years. The games will get better, and Nintendo and Sony will be left wondering out such an obvious enourmous business opportunity/threat looked them right between the eyes, and then moved on.

Microsoft has been touting that Xbox live will go portable (either on their crappy windows mobile 6 phones, or the newly announced Windows mobile 7), but their failure to create any device of note has truly let this opportunity vanish. An “Xboy” would’ve brought the console community over, but they haven’t touched on that either.

So in review, Apple didn’t come up with the idea of an online gaming network, they don’t pay publishers or developers, they have an online software delivery network (iTunes, hello no shipping and shelf space fees), a dedicated and expontentially expanding consumer base, and they’re going to put it all together and completely and utterly dominate the mobile gaming space inside of 3 years (my prediction). Add the quickly improving power of iPhone and iPad-like devices means that mobile games won’t have to be “mobile-like” games for long.