As recently noted, Adventure is famous for having the first well-known Easter egg. But this classic game was groundbreaking for more than its hidden features. The gameplay itself established the precedent for the likes of The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy. It's also a fun game in its own right — especially for a program written in only four kilobytes of code and with only 128 bytes of memory available for it to use. (For comparison, a standard DVD holds about 4,928,307 kilobytes, and a computer with 2 GB of RAM has 2,147,483,648 bytes.)

Like many genre-defining titles, Adventure has lived well beyond its years, thanks to the dedication of fans. An unmodified port of the original was recently released for the iPhone (iTunes). When the Onion was playfully suggested that a sequel was in the works, it wasn't far from the truth. Adventure was published in 1979 was for the Atari 2600; 28 years later a homebrew sequel was released for the Atari 5200 console to generally positive reviews. A version of it was even included in the Atari Flashback 2 console.

However, these ports and sequels have either not advanced the game or have not been widely available. As of today, a new take on Adventure overcomes both these hurdles. First announced five months ago in the Penny Arcade forums, a remake of the original game is now available for download. Created from the ground up to feature 16-bit graphics, voice acting, time trials, and more. What's not being discussed is whether the game features any Easter eggs!

Adventure 2600, released today for Windows. Here, the hero has used the purple bridge to evade Grundle the green dragon, gaining access to the Black Castle.

I've often reminisced about exploring the catacombs of the white castle, laying the purple bridge, or getting caught in the belly of a dragon (or duck) while the bat spirited us off to parts unknown. With the release of this free Windows remake, a new generation of gamers can share in this foundational experience. (If you want to try the unadulterated original on your PC, see the links in my previous post.)

(Hat tip to Gamebits contributor Robert Boyd)

Today, April 22nd, is not only Earth Day; it's also the day that, after a year of waiting, Lode Runner arrives for the Xbox Live Arcade.

Lode Runner was originally released in 1983 for the Apple II computer, where its combination of frenetic activity and puzzling gameplay made it an instant classic. You can play the original online — it looks something like this:

Lode Runner has always been one of my favorite games and one that I return to in any year and medium. I drop quarters to play the coin-op at FunSpot every year, and courtesy the Wii's Virtual Console, I have the Nintendo version of Lode Runner — though that game's limited resolution requires the screen to pan to see everything, limiting its effectiveness. There's even an iPhone version called Gold Runner, reviewed in the March issue of Juiced.GS.

I've been waiting for the Xbox sequel for awhile, as evidenced by my blog post last August, when I counted it among my reasons to buy an Xbox 360. My desire formed well before that — a year ago this month — when Xbox Live's Major Nelson interviewed Ross Erickson, who detailed the lengthy legal path to finding out who owned the rights to Lode Runner. This week's podcast interviews Brett Ballow of Tozai Games, the company responsible for Lode Runner. (You can follow Tozai Games on Twitter — but only nine followers? Following zero people? That's not effective networking.)

Lode Runner costs 1200 Microsoft Points, which is the equivalent of $15, the high end of XBLA games. I hope it's worth it, as this gameplay video looks a bit mundane:

The lack of background music combined with the somewhat confusing graphics (I can't quite tell where the player can go and where he can't) might not represent the final product. I'm also hoping the Xbox version is somewhat frantic, as I'm used to playing Lode Runner at a slightly accelerated pace.

I'm delighted when Apple II games inspire today's greats, but I'm overjoyed when they are resurrected, heart and soul, in a form that any geezer can recognize.

In time for the holiday weekend, Computerworld has published a video gallery of ten Easter eggs in action.

The name "Easter egg" comes from the Easter tradition of hiding chocolate eggs for children to find. It has a similar meaning in software: an undocumented, hidden feature or message that users may stumble across.

The first software Easter egg is popularly thought to have occurred in 1979. In the early days of software development, programmer identities were jealously guarded. Software studios didn't want their staff to gain celebrity status, their names eclipsing those of the brands they'd created. Warren Robinett, then a programmer for Atari, didn't appreciate this lack of acknowledgement. He couldn't get his name in the manual for the Atari 2600 game Adventure — so he sneaked it into the game itself.

Read the rest of this entry at Computerworld.com »

Ah, April Fool's… a day of delicious pranks, falsified rumors, and opportunities for corporate entities to demonstrate a sense of humor. Last year, Microsoft got in on the fun with phony Xbox peripherals. In blogging about that joke, I neglected to spotlight an even more impressive one.

Video games are proving an increasingly popular source for Hollywood scripts, with adaptations coming from Hitman, Max Payne, Street Fighter, and Prince of Persia. But what about the games we actually want to see turned into films? Last year, production company Rainfall Films together with IGN created this mock trailer for a movie based on the Legend of Zelda series:

The production quality is so high that many people were fooled. Only a few clues tipped off suspicious viewers, such as Link's lack of dialogue (true to the source material, admittedly!) and Ganon's cheap costume. Except for those, this trailer suggests (at least to me) that a faithful and high-quality movie of this series is possible.

This mockup goes well with another trailer. It's expected that franchises will evolve over time; this teaser demonstrates the Zelda series so by taking a giant step forward… into the future:

What other games would do well as movies and/or in futuristic settings? Maybe… Tetris?

(more…)

Given the current and global economic turmoil, many big-budget developers are relying on established franchises, rather than taking risks with new, experimental intellectual properties (IPs). Fortunately, a balance can be found by brushing off old franchises and updating them for a new generation. When done right, this approach plays to older gamers' nostalgia while offering newcomers to the series something original.

Nintendo is doing just this with the Wii version of Punch-Out!!, a re-imagining of their 1987 classic NES title. Although a brief teaser trailer was unveiled back in October, it hasn't been until this week that I've seen anything worth getting excited over:

The characters, the soundtrack, the peppy optimism — with this single video, I've been transported to my youth. When this Punch-Out!! comes out on May 18th, it may simply be a marriage of old gameplay with the Wii's motion controls, which are themselves getting old… but I still think I'll enjoy squaring off against something other than the workout bag offered by Wii Sports and Wii Fit.

Update: this game will support the Balance Board.

I ask you: could there be a better time for Little Mac to come out of retirement?

(Hat tip to Joystiq)

Still looking for just the right way to express your affection for the gamer in your life? Consider this Street Fighter e-card, courtesy GoAnimate.com:

For more Valentine's Day goodness for gamers near and far, see our special holiday message from Cats.

(Hat tip to TrekToday)

Two decades-old heroes who returned to the silver screen in 2008 will be reappearing in video games in 2009, this time without LEGOs.

First up is Indiana Jones in The Staff of Kings:

To the best of my knowledge, the last Indiana Jones game was The Emperor's Tomb, which was released in 2003 and based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer game engine. Though I never finished that Indy outing, I have fonder memories of it than I do of his previous Nintendo 64 game. I'm looking forward to continuing this upward trend with a more successful revisit to the franchise than last year's film.

The Staff of King's Wii version, and only the Wii version, will include the Indiana Jones' 1992 adventure, The Fate of Atlantis. Of course, if you have the original computer version of that classic game, you can already play it on your Wii, courtesy ScummVM and the Homebrew Channel.

The other hero swinging onto the TV screen is the Dark Knight in Batman: Arkham Asylum:

Batman's interactive experiences have generally gone the way of Sonic the Hedgehog, both of them having promising beginnings that quickly slumped into shame. The Caped Crusader's 8-bit NES debut was the best yet, whereas his 2003 game, Dark Tomorrow, was more a dark morass. Could Arkham Asylum be any worse? At least it is capitalizing on the recent films' successes without necessarily relying on them. I'm not a fan of Christian Bale, so I'm glad to hear the game's main hero and villain have the right voice actors for the parts.

(Hat tips to Kotaku and Superhero Hype!)

Today marks one month with my Xbox 360, which makes it timely to reflect on my experiences thus far. When I brought it home from Christmas festivities, I found the system easy to hook up: the same A/V cables as my original Xbox worked, requiring less rewiring, and a nearby AirPort Express I'd previously installed provided the wired connectivity that my Wii gets wirelessly. I didn't appreciate the need for this additional hardware and cabling.

But once the connection is made, the Xbox's superior online experience is immediately evident. Though Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) games may not be superior to WiiWare, the availability of free demos for both downloadable and retail games gives any gamer hours of free entertainment. I immediately queued up 57 downloads, playing one while others continued in the background. Eventually I turned the system off and let the remainder continue into the night.

However, the transition from Wii to 360 has not always been easy. With the Wii being the only current-gen console in my household for more than two years, I've grown accustomed to its innovative and intuitive controls. Though I was excited to finally have hands-on experience with all the 360 titles I'd heard so much about, I found their controls both daunting and archaic. I actually have to push buttons to make things happen? How quaint! One look at the complex control scheme for Dead Space, and I quit. It's not that I'm incapable of learning detailed controls, but my gaming preferences have shifted sufficiently that I prefer pick-up-and-play approaches.

It's no wonder, then, that a month later, I've yet to put a single disc in my console. In a recent episode of the Major Nelson podcast, the observation is made that a new Xbox owner who downloads the top XBLA games will be set for awhile. Such has been my case. Not counting freebies like Dash of Destruction and Aegis Wing, I without hesitation bought Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Pac-Man Championship Edition, and Portal: Still Alive. A demo of Braid assured me it, too, was worth purchasing, and I was delighted to discover a remake of the original Apple II game Prince of Persia. It didn't take me long to beat Bionic Commando and Portal, but I still play Pac-Man every day. I knew these games would appeal to me more than Halo, BioShock, or Mass Effect, and so far I was right; for less than $50 USD, I've gotten hours of accessible and replayable entertainment value. But what's surprising is that, after reading reviews or playing demos, the six retail games I originally listed as reasons to buy an Xbox 360 are now ones I have no intention of buying. And, given the use I'm currently getting out of my 360, I don't see that I need to, either

The 360 is more than just games, of course. I've never purchased movies or television shows via iTunes, but upon a friend's recommendation, I did buy an episode of Scrubs from Microsoft's Video Marketplace. I also registered Rivet (upgraded this week to v2.0), a Macintosh program that lets me stream most audio and video from my Mac to my 360 (though I had to upgrade my OS to Leopard before Rivet would run). I like that the New Xbox Experience allows me to peruse the Xbox Marketplace from my computer at work and queue downloads for when I get home; it provides more opportunity and immediacy for acting upon various news and thoughts I come across during the day.

Without many multiplayer games or even a Gold membership, I've not yet engaged in any online competitions, but that's okay. I've always enjoyed sharing the couch with my fellow gamers, and I don't know that I'd enjoy the remoteness of online play.

In the meantime, I am a very happy, if unconventional, Xbox 360 gamer.