Hardcore Gamer Magazine is Coming!

PO Box 800057, Valencia, CA 91380-0057
February 21, 2005
Hardcore Gamer Magazine is Coming!
We’re sending this message out to announce a new enthusiast publication, Hardcore Gamer Magazine.
HGM is being made by a group of dedicated gamers who recognize the need for a new multi-platform
magazine — one that caters to the interests of the die-hard, hardcore gamer, as well as the masses of
regular game fans. We have been hungering for a magazine which delivers interesting content about the
fascinating yet unexplored aspects of video game culture, but still features the reviews, previews, news,
strategies and other pertinent video game info everyone loves to read about. We’re tired of waiting for
someone else to make something we could enjoy and respect, so we’ve gotten off our collective duffs and
done it ourselves!
The magazine will make its debut this spring, and we plan to give away free issues of HGM to the core
gaming community. We know everyone loves free stuff so we’re making it quick and easy for folks to get
the HGM goods and we’re making sure what we present is the best product that we can make.
We realize that content and quality is key, and that is why we have assembled a talented staff of
recognized industry veterans who bring over 25 years of combined print journalism experience to the
table. While DoubleJump Publishing is a relatively new company, the President and founder is Tim
Lindquist, one of the same folks who started GameFan Magazine back in 1992 and many other print
magazines in the years since. Also along for the duration is Greg Off, another GameFan founder who
has been working on the print media side of the industry since the early ‘90s. Greg will lend his skills by
doing the thing he is most experienced in doing as the Editor-in-Chief of HGM. As if that weren’t enough,
the person in charge of artwork and illustration is Terry Wolfinger, who was the man behind the look of
GameFan — the one who drew more than 60 of their covers and countless illustrations within. In addition,
we have handpicked our editorial and art staff to reflect our vision of delivering new products and ideas to
the marketplace. We’ll introduce the rest of the staff with bios in the magazine.
With so many of us being former GameFan creators, you might expect to see a little bit of that old feeling
in what we’re doing with HGM. However, we’re not looking to recreate an old magazine, we’re inventing
a new one to fill the void which exists in the gaming magazine industry today. We are confident that
we will strike a chord with those of you who want a magazine which caters to the things you enjoy
most about gaming. We are passionate, we are committed and our entire staff has two other things in
common — we truly love games and we enjoy writing about them.
Please take a few moments to go over the enclosed sample content which is a sneak peak at some of
the things we plan to include in the first issue. Tell us what you think. You can visit our official message
boards to give your feedback directly at www.hardcoregamermag.com, where we will listen and talk
to you to make sure we do it right. If we are to succeed it will only be because you demand it.
Sincerely,
Tim Lindquist and the whole HGM Staff
Half the fun of Stranger’s Wrath comes from playing around with the
animals you can load into your crossbow. You can find new animals
in stores, in the wild, or in clearly labeled crates.
Stunkz: Firing a Stunk creates a short-lived cloud of gas at
its point of impact. It doesn’t affect Stranger, but paralyzes
outlaws with nausea. It’s great against crowds.
Publisher : EA
Genre(s) : Action Adventure
Developer : Oddworld Inhabitants
Category : FPS/Platformer
Release Date : 1/25/2005
# of players : 1
Rating : TEEN; Blood and Gore, Realistic Violence, Strong language
Bolamites: One shot from a Bolamite wraps ordinary enemies up in spider webs, allowing you to capture them alive.
Stronger outlaws or bosses will tear free immediately, but it
slows them down a bit.
I knew I liked the game when my ammunition started
talking to me.
I was never a great fan of the Oddworld games, but that was back
when they were deeply idiosyncratic puzzle/platformers. Oddworld:
Stranger’s Wrath reinvents the series as a frantically weird Western
tale, complete with a laconic cowboy (cowthing?) hero and a
frontier full of bandits to hunt down.
As the Stranger, you’re a bounty hunter in the frontiers of
Oddworld, bringing in outlaws to pay for an unspecified and
possibly sinister “operation.” You’ll see a lot of familiar Oddworld
sights, rendered here in amazing and colorful 3D, but most of the
time, you’ll be too busy ducking flying lead to appreciate it.
Stranger’s Wrath is a rare thing; it’s a platformer and a first-person
shooter, but both styles of gameplay are done equally well. Usually,
whenever someone tries to blend the two, you get insane
jumping puzzles that teach the world how to hate.
There’ve been a lot of otherwise good FPSes
that’ve screwed themselves over by including
one too many (which is to say, one)
difficult jumps.
The difference here is that in Stranger’s Wrath,
you can switch from third- to first-person at any
time by clicking the right thumbstick. You still
have access to a lot of Stranger’s moves in
Chippunk: This mouthy little squirrelly hamster thing makes
a single enemy angry enough to race to its position. The
Chippunk won’t make an enemy stop attacking you, but it’s
perfect for ambushing unsuspecting outlaws. Try it in conjunction with Fuzzles.
either perspective, but you can change them out as you see fit
depending on what you’re trying to accomplish at the time. It’s a
simple mechanic elegantly instituted, and if there’s any justice, it’ll
be imitated by scores of games to come.
Another unique quirk is how Stranger fights, which is a big part
of the game’s charm. In a world full of people wielding shotguns,
homing missiles, explosives, and metal limbs, Stranger’s walking
around with a double-barreled crossbow and a pouchful of hostile
animals. This is a game that’s all about launching an electric bug
into somebody’s face at point-blank range, or setting a series of
traps with angry furry monsters that’re 90% teeth.
There’s a lot of charm in that. I’ve played a lot of shooters,
especially recently, that took an odd amount of glee in the flawless
depiction and unrestricted use of military hardware. In Stranger’s
Wrath, I am firing angry Muppets at people. I can’t begin to tell you
how refreshing that is.
At the same time, this is not an easy game. The platforming is fairly
simple, and doesn’t require a lot of thought. Combat, on the other
hand, is usually a question of taking on a well-entrenched enemy
force on their own turf. You’ll have to outwit enemies as often
as you outfight them, by sneaking up on their
position, knocking snipers out, or using your critter
arsenal to its fullest extent. Despite its slightly
cartoony look, Stranger’s Wrath is a surprisingly
Zappfly: Your default weapon, a charged Zappfly can activate certain kinds of machinery and acts as a one-hit instant
stun on any unarmored outlaw it hits. It also has the longest
horizontal range and shallowest arc of any of your initial
weapons, which is great against distant targets like snipers.
difficult experience with a decidedly dark sense of humor.
If the game’s got any flaws, it’s that Stranger’s deadpan Clint
Eastwood impression wears a little thin after a few hours.
We get it. He’s a parody of the Man with No Name. You can
stop now. There are also a few parts where I would’ve really
appreciated an in-game map, or at least some onscreen
indication of where my next objective was.
Those of you who’re expecting a traditional Oddworld game
should probably look elsewhere. For the rest of you, Oddworld:
Stranger’s Wrath is a lot of fun, both in its own right and as a
palate-cleansing antidote to the glut of nearly-identical FPSes
that’re clogging the shelves. It’s just hard enough and offers
just enough freedom that you’ll want to play it again.
Fuzzle: You can place Fuzzles on walls, ceilings, and floors
as traps, or fire them directly onto enemies to distract them.
While an enemy has a Fuzzle attached, he’ll run around like
an idiot. This is your chance to punch him out.
Thudslug: At close range, this’ll stun and knock down almost
anything. A great nonlethal strategy against bosses is to
alternate between Thudslugs and charged Zappflies at close
range.
Boombat: Flying rodents with a slight homing capacity, a
Boombat’s explosion will stun or kill virtually any ordinary
enemy. They’re best employed to destroy enemy turrets or
machines.
Stingbee: They don’t do much damage, but Stingbees fire
at a furious rate and track their target, allowing you to duck
behind cover while they do their thing. A few salvos of Stingbees are great for slowly whittling away at a boss’s health.
Rating : 4.5 of 5
2nd opinion by Fatebreaker • Alternate Rating : 5 of 5
Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is a real gem, and this is coming from a newcomer to the series. The
hype for GotY might be heading towards RE4, but this is definitely my choice for GotY so far.
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ODDWORLD: STRANGER’S WRATH_REVIEW_45
lets you exit UMD games, volume controls,
a button that adjusts screen brightness, and
a button that adjusts the equalization of the
PSP’s speakers. A strap is attached to the left
side of the unit, so you can loop it around your
wrist for easier carrying and extra protection
against being accidentally dropped.
GAMES
The portable gaming scene has been stable — some would even say stagnant, for a long time. Since the release of the Game
Boy, which created the market in 1989, it has been completely dominated by Nintendo’s products. In recent years, it has even
become one of Nintendo’s most important revenue sources. However, that old market is about to change — dramatically and
permanently. On March 24th, Sony will launch the PlayStation Portable in North America. The system will be sold as part of
a $249.99 “Value Pack” that comes with a 32 MB Memory Stick Duo card, battery pack, AC adapter, cleaning cloth, soft case,
headphones with remote control, and a sampler UMD featuring several demos. The first one million Value Packs sold will also
contain a bonus copy of the theatrical film Spider-Man 2 in UMD format. Coming off the heels of its outrageously successful
Japanese launch, the PSP will offer Western gamers an impressive new combination of media features and gaming power.
CHISELED FEATURES
The PSP’s hardware specs have raised eyebrows since the very
first time they were rumored. Up until the day of the Japanese
release, fans on the internet heaped scorn on the idea that
the PSP could even come close to delivering everything Sony
promised. It seemed much too good to be true, and even
a raging success like the Japanese PSP launch wasn’t quite
enough to dispel the aura of skepticism that surrounds the PSP’s
supposed capabilities. However, once you have the machine in
The PSP is not only a portable
gaming machine, it also functions
as a portable multimedia center. It
will read MP4 movie files and MP3
music files off of Memory Stick
Duo miniature flash cards (which
are manufactured both by Sony
and a variety of third parties like
Sandisk), as well as movies and
games that are sold in Sony’s own
UMD format.
your hands, there’s no denying that Sony has delivered what was
promised and then some. For this article we took a look at one of
the Japanese PSPs, which are expected to be very close in design
to the American edition of the handheld.
The system itself is a marvel of miniaturization, measuring about
7 inches long, 1 inch thick, and 3 inches wide. The roughly 4
inch screen uses the 16:9 aspect ratio of theatre screens and
HD TVs, which gives the best PSP games a glorious, panoramic
look. It also makes the PSP an ideal player for theatrical films and
widescreen media files. Packed into the space not taken up by
the screen is internal storage for your Memory Stick Duo, a USB
port, the UMD slot, and a DC-in slot for the battery charger. For
controls, the PSP essentially has a duplicate of the PlayStation
controller. There’s Right and Left trigger buttons, start button,
select button, the four “shape” buttons, a D-Pad, and a small nub
that functions as an analog stick. There’s also a Home button that
HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 1_RISE OF THE CHICKEN
With so many different functions to coordinate, the PSP wisely features a powerful built-in operating
system. It’s no more difficult to use than your average RPG’s menu system, as you’ll toggle through
different menu options with the D-pad, make selections with the X button, and cancel selections with
the circle. Toggling The OS will let you browse through the MP3s, photos, and video files on your
Memory Stick Duo, set a host of system options that can help save power, and activate a “USB mode”
that will let you easily transfer data between most PCs and your PSP’s Memory Stick. Photos and music
will have their own directories on your memory card after it’s formatted, and relatively little trickery
is involved to get the PSP to read MP4 movies off of the stick. Writing data from your hard drive to
the memory stick is no more complicated than copying and pasting in Windows, and Mac users can
synchronize the PSP with their iApps using downloadable software (see Sidebar: Hack Your Darlings).
Sony has announced that 24 titles will be
available for the PSP at the system’s launch,
and the sheer number of third-party titles
in the listing seems to make good on this
promise. People who want some way to
play an equivalent of the PS2 library on the
APE ESCAPE: ON THE LOOSE
SCEA
go definitely won’t be disappointed, as the
majority of the titles are just PSP entries in
long-running PlayStation franchises. However,
there are also a few original titles debuting to help freshen the
line-up and show off what makes portable gaming a very different
experience from just playing at home on a console.
The PSP runs off of a rechargeable lithium
ion battery with an average lifespan of about
4-6 hours, and features standards-compliant
802.11b wireless. The wireless connection
allows it to network with other PSPs for headto-head play, or connect to the internet for
software upgrades. The wireless connections
will even let you play games with a buddy who
doesn’t happen to own his own copy of the title
Wireless LAN
in question, thanks to the PSP’s “game
switch
sharing” function.
The UMD is something like a
miniature high-density DVD,
holding about 1.8 GB of
information. The discs rest in
plastic casings that help protect
them from accidental loss or
damage, and remain in the
cases even when the PSP is
playing them.
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While the PSP is a good multimedia portable
for movies and a decent one for MP3s, it’s
still a gaming system at heart. It runs off of
the custom PSP 333 MHz processor, which is
driven by a 32-bit MIPS 4000 chip. To give
some idea of what this means, the original
PlayStation ran off of the MIPS 3000 chip.
You can expect PSP games to look at the very
least as good as PSOne games, and most titles
are easily comparable to top-line PS2 games.
And just like every other gaming system
ever released, a constant flow of fun, easy to
play games will be key to the PSP’s success.
Hopes are already high for the system, simply
because it bears the PlayStation name and,
presumably, the games made for it will come
from the same design philosophies as the
best PSOne and PS2 titles. After relying on
Nintendo to produce most of the quality
portable software on the market for well over
a decade, an influx of PlayStation-style thirdparty titles will no doubt be a welcome change
of pace.
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The PSP will have more titles that cater to sports fans at launch
than possibly any other handheld in history, with fully half of
its initial library coming from the sports genre. Sony Computer
Entertainment America will be contributing NBA, Gretzky NHL,
MLB, Wipeout Pure, and World Tour Soccer. Rival Electronics Arts
will also have a staggering array of titles ready for launch, with
FIFA 2005, MVP Baseball, NBA Street Showdown, NFL Street 2,
and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Activision will even be throwing in
with a PSP version of its hit Tony Hawk’s Underground 2. If you
choose to count driving as part of the sports package, then you
can also add EA’s Need for Speed Underground, Namco’s visually
stunning Ridge Racer, and SCEA’s brutal Twisted Metal: Head-On
and ATV Offroad Fury to the line-up. Even more attractive will
be the promise of free netplay for five of SCEA’s titles — Gretzky
NHL, MLB, Twisted Metal, ATV Offroad Fury, and NBA — right out
of the box, using the PSP’s ability to wirelessly connect to
the Internet.
PSP LAUNCH_FEATURE_65
While the PSP will be very friendly to sports
fans, it won’t be neglecting other genres.
Sony Computer Entertainment America
will be releasing an Ape Escape game, and
Sony Online Entertainment will offer Untold
Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade for the
RPG fanatics. Konami will also be courting RPG
lovers with the bizarre and challenging action
RPG Rengoku, and is sure to score big with
the latest and strangest entry in the Metal
Gear franchise, the CCG-like Metal Gear Acid.
Puzzle fans can look forward to Lumines from
Ubisoft and Archer Maclean’s Mercury from
SQUARE PEG IN A ROUND HOLE.
The edge of the screen lies here. Note
the black foam along the edge has been
removed under the Square button.
The sensor for the Square button is
far off center.
The sensors for the other buttons
are nearly centered.
DYNASTY WARRIORS
KOEI
Ignition, while Capcom will be offering up a
new version of an old fighting game classic in
DarkStalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower. Koei will be giving the
PSP a Dynasty Warriors title to sate gamers’ hunger for beat ‘em
ups, and Konami will be releasing Coded Arms to give the system
an FPS. Eidos is also releasing a mysterious action title named
Smartbomb.
Of course, despite the resemblance in the system libraries,
playing a PSP will not be exactly like playing a tiny PS2. While
the control layout of the Japanese edition we looked at does its
best to mimic the classic PlayStation controller, the PSP has only
one analog controller and one set of trigger buttons. The analog
controller may take some getting used to, as its location directly
under the D-Pad is rather awkward. Similarly, the PSP’s weight
makes the trigger buttons a bit less comfortable and easy to use
than they are on a proper PlayStation controller. So unless the
American design is significantly different from the Japanese one,
gamers can probably expect to spend some time getting used to
the feeling that they’re pushing a penny around a slippery plastic
surface to control their game.
ALL THAT GLITTERS...
The promise of PlayStation gameplay on the go would seem to be
a no-lose proposition, but the PSP is not a perfect device. Much
has been made of the PSP’s announced 4-6 hour battery life
being simply unacceptable in a gaming portable, even though it’s
fairly standard as portable media devices go. Sony entertainment
boss Ken Kutaragi has even admitted that graphically robust
games will result in quicker battery drain in the original Japanese
version of the PSP, as will use of the wireless connection.
As a result, there have been many reports from sources like
Gameindustry.biz, claiming that Sony has been demanding that
developers not make games drain battery life excessively. There
are even reports that Sony has included a “battery emulator” with
the PSP dev kit, that measures how long a game can be played
on a single battery charge. What this means in practical terms
for gamers is that some of the programming techniques that
make PS2 titles what they are — such as streaming media from
disc — may not be widely used on the PSP because of battery
drain concerns, particularly in early releases for the system. This
will certainly result in some noticeable differences between PS2
and PSP game design, although it’s too early to know exactly
what that difference will be.
The Japanese PSP is also very fragile compared to the sturdy
Nintendo portables. Instead, it behaves more like an expensive
gadget, with a delicate LCD screen and an internal structure
that’s not likely to tolerate falls well. The unit needs to be kept in
its soft carrying case when not in use to help protect the easilyscratched screen, and some units will suffer from typical LCD
defects like dead pixels or dust under the screen. Ken Kutaragi
has also admitted, in an infamous interview with the Japanese
magazine Nikkei Business, that about 4800 PSPs from the initial
Japanese launch were returned to Sony because of problems
with the Square button. The Square button is
so close to the display screen that its sensor is
not located directly beneath it, but is instead
slightly off to the right. This can cause the
button to become unresponsive, or in some
extreme cases, to begin sticking. Kutaragi has
not been apologetic about the problem. We
translated his quote. He said, “We can only ask
that the software developers and buyers find
a way to deal with its specifications...” “In a
blueprint drawn by a famous architect, no one
would see an odd placement of a gate as a
fault. This is the same.”
SPIDER-MAN 2
ACTIVISION
66_FEATURE_PSP LAUNCH
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In an effort to get to the bottom of the
Square Button issue, we used our patented
XYZ-Ray Oggle™ powered imaging
technology to get a Sneaky Peek™ at
what lies beneath the housing of a PSP.
What was revealed was dramatic. The
sensor for the Square button is clearly off
center compared to the ones for the other
buttons and the casing of the LCD screen
invades deep into the Square button’s
personal space. Some revisions to the
hardware design will need to be made to
eliminate this issue. It will be interesting to
see what they do to correct the problem.
HACK YOUR DARLINGS
The Xbox and the PSP share one important trait when
it comes to their popularity among hacking enthusiasts:
they both use a lot in the way of standard electronics
components that are very easy for programmers to mess
with. Although the PSP hasn’t been on the market long
anywhere in the world, new software has already been
written to make it do things that Sony never intended. Here
are some programs developed for the Japanese PSP, and
there’s certainly more on the way:
The PSP is compatible with Xlink
Kai, a tunneling application that
allows the system to connect with
other PSP units over the internet.
So, for multiplayer games, this
translates into free netplay. Just
install the Xlink software on your
PC or Mac to get started: http://
www.teamxlink.co.uk/
THE NEAR FUTURE
However, anyone who remembers some of the disasters from the
first wave of PlayStation and PS2 production knows that Sony
learns from its mistakes, and goes out of its way to improve its
hardware over time. American consumers can reasonably expect
to see some of the PSP’s design issues addressed in the American
version of the product. However, even if the PSP’s hardware
issues are addressed, complaints about the price remain. The
Value Pack will be a full hundred dollars more expensive than
Nintendo’s competing DS, despite not featuring a pack-in game,
and it will not be possible to buy the PSP as a standalone unit.
On top of this, anyone who wants to make full use of the PSP’s
multimedia functions will definitely need to buy a larger Memory
Stick than the 32 MB one included with the Value Pack.
While there’s a lot of
support for users who
want to transfer media
between their Windows
machine and their PSP,
Mac users seemed left out
in the cold until Ronin no
Sakurakai released iPSP.
This program allows Mac
users to have all the same
multimedia conversion options as Windows users, with
an interface that’s designed to be compatible with all OS
X users’ favorite iApps. http://www.kaisakura.com/
iPSP/
Sony’s release plans would seem downright quixotic, if not for
their sheer unshakable confidence in their product’s marketability.
The company has taken to calling the PSP the “Walkman for
the 21st century,” and doesn’t seem worried at all about losing
customers to Nintendo. If anything, Sony seems confident that
the PSP will break out of the boundaries of the video game
industry and cross over into the lucrative market for portable
media gadgets. An online digital music store, suspiciously similar
to Apple’s iTunes, is in the works for PSP owners, and a recent
software leak indicates that Sony is also preparing a PSP web
browser and suite of office apps. Sony’s also developing a version
of their LocationFreeTV software to work with the PSP, which
would let the system play television signals picked up
via broadband.
Of course, even if you own a PC, you need Sony’s Image
Converter 2.1 software (retails
for about 1000 yen) in order to
convert videos for use on the
PSP. You can get around this by
using a free encoding program
called 3GP and this handy set
of step-by-step instructions
from technology blog Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/
entry/1234000980024404/
So many media features would seem to make the PSP a nolose prospect, but savvy gamers will remember that, about ten
years ago, Sega and Atari tried to sell their abortive attempts
at breaking into the portable market on very similar strengths.
Of course, it wasn’t long after that when Sony unleashed the
PlayStation on the console industry and proceeded to mercilessly
destroy the old industry status quo, too. There’s simply no way
of telling right now whether the PSP will turn out to be a raging
success or an ambitious failure, but it almost doesn’t matter.
HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 1_RISE OF THE CHICKEN
The very fact that Sony is releasing a portable system at all
has already transformed the market, and turned the stale old
handheld scene into the staging grounds of a fierce competition
for mindshare. Whether the PSP becomes the next big thing or
the next portable gaming has-been, there’s no question that it’s
the reason why people are finally getting excited about portable
gaming again.
PSP LAUNCH_FEATURE_67
easily get back into the game quickly and realize where they left
off. To do this, we provide all sorts of information on what they
need to be doing next.
HANDS-ON
It’s one thing to rattle off a list of big-franchise game titles, but it’s quite another to see if any of them are actually any good. PSP
games are pretty hard to come by right now, but here at Hardcore Gamer, we’ve managed to lay hands on a few. Here are some quick
impressions:
HGM: Which platform of the two do you prefer to work on?
They both offer different challenges and advantages. Developing
for an entirely new system like the PSP is very exciting. The
capabilities of it are far greater then any other portable out
there. Not only is the screen gorgeous, but the graphical and
WiFi capabilities are very exciting. Through the use of wireless
communication it can recreate the experience of sitting in the
same room and playing with friends like the PS2, only each
person has their own PSP to play on. It is also extremely easy to
get multiplayer games started. This opens up all sorts of avenues
for innovation on the PSP.
DARKSTALKERS CHRONICLE: THE CHAOS TOWER
DarkStalkers was unquestionably one of the great arcade
2D fighting classics, and Capcom’s managed to make the
PSP port better than arcade-perfect. With every character
from every game playable, a host of new features, and
wireless head-to-head play, die-hard fighting game fans
will find a lot to love about this title. However, this isn’t one
of the games that really pushes the PSP’s hardware, and
even with new features, the franchise hasn’t aged well.
The graphics haven’t even been updated to use all of the
PSP’s 16:9 screen, instead occupying only a 3:4 ratio area.
RIDGE RACER
Showing someone this game on the PSP is often enough
to sell them on the system. The 3D graphics are sharp and
unbelievably beautiful, with the PSP’s wide screen turning
each race track into a stunning panorama. The controls are
intuitive, but the gameplay remains fairly challenging and
head-to-head racing is insanely fun. Combined with a huge
array of tracks and cars to unlock, this makes Ridge Racer
easily one of the best launch titles for the PSP.
METAL GEAR ACID
To save a plane full of hostages from a pair of insane
terrorists, Solid Snake must infiltrate an enemy compound
and steal a sample of the biological weapon Pythagoras.
This time, his mission unfolds as part of an interactive
board game. As Snake or the foreign operative Teliko,
players will construct decks of playing cards with which
to strategically sneak, shoot, and think their way through
countless obstacles. Many cards take their names and
effects from classic characters or items from past Metal
Gears... and yes, the cardboard box is in there.
Metal Gear Solid is weird. Japanese video card games are
weird. Taken together, it becomes head-bendingly surreal,
but once you get used to it, it’s surprisingly addictive.
HGM: Is the development software for PSP already mature with
libraries and standard functions that you can call for commonly
needed tasks or do you find you’re writing your own tools from
scratch to get the job done?
We wrote a lot of the tools ourselves. The PSP does provide some
nice libraries for things like memory stick i/o, complete with user
interface, but a lot of the stuff we did on our own.
HGM: Is the dev system PC based? Can you give specific details
about the system?
We developed on Win32 PCs with Microsoft DevStudio. We used
SN Systems to compile and build for the PSP.
INTERVIEW: SONY ONLINE
We at HGM tend to have a fascination for the inner workings
of games so we decided to track down some people who are
actually making a PSP game to pick their brains about what it is
like to develop for the PSP. We were able to corner Rob Hill, a
producer with Sony Online Entertainment, who’s working on a
launch title named Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade. He
was on a tight deadline so we didn’t get too chatty, but we got
some juicy bits out of him anyway.
The PSP Development Tool and a little
taste of the CodeWarrior Development
Studio for PSP (sold separately).
HGM: How do you like developing for the PSP
compared to developing for, say, the PS2?
LUMINES
This is a deceptively simple falling-block puzzler in the
Tetris tradition. Just match up 4 blocks of the same color
in a square, and they’ll disappear when a scanning laser
glides over them. Attach lots of squares together, and
the laser will eliminate them all at once for a combo.
High quality music and an array of graphical skins make
Lumines a more visually engaging experience than most
puzzlers, and the 16:9 display adds a surprising new twist
to traditional falling-block gameplay.
68_FEATURE_PSP LAUNCH
RENGOKU: THE TOWER OF PURGATORY
You’ve got to love any game where you can equip a gun
on your head.
Set in a dystopian future where androids rule the planet
Earth, Rengoku begins when its hero awakens on the
lowest floor of the Tower of Purgatory, unarmed and alone.
To escape, he must fight his way through the tower, while
equipping his arms, legs, and head with whatever weapons
he can find.
Rengoku will appeal to fans of dungeon crawlers, but it has
a bit of a learning curve. With randomly generated floors
and dozens of enemies to face, it has a lot of playtime, but
it may be an acquired taste.
HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 1_RISE OF THE CHICKEN
The PSP is a portable device. We had to design
the game systems specifically for that type
of gameplay experience. The thought is that
since people will be playing Untold Legends:
Brotherhood of the Blade on the go, there is
always a chance for them to be interrupted. This
means that we had to allow for shorter bursts
of playing time than you would expect from
someone sitting on their couch at home playing
PS2. We also had to make sure people could
UNTOLD LEGENDS: BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLADE
SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT
HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 1_RISE OF THE CHICKEN
PSP LAUNCH_FEATURE_69
HGM: Will it interface with a PSP to upload
software for testing or is all the play testing
done in emulation on the dev system?
HGM: What kind of missions can players look forward to? Will
missions change depending on party size?
We have a wide variety of missions available to the player. There
are 25 main storyline quests and close to 20 side quests. The
player may explore the world at their leisure or take part in the
on going drama. We cover the range of rescue, kill a boss, deliver
an object, retrieve an object, and others that often have a twist
to them.
We used emulation for most of the
development process and to debug the game
logic. However, there is no substitute for actual
hardware when it comes to testing certain
kinds of features, performance, and memory
load. We used both emulation and hardware
according to what kind of tests we
were running.
As the party grows in size, the monsters become more difficult.
The nice thing about parties though, is that the characters are
designed to compliment each other. This is where multiplayer is
truly fun. Figuring out how your character classes interact so as
to overcome difficult beasts.
HGM: Thanks for your time. We look forward to seeing the
results of your hard work and wish you the best.
HGM
PLAYSTATION PORTABLE SCREENFEST
There are a ton of games in development for the PSP that are not launch titles but we still want to show you. Since they’re still works in
progress, instead of boring you with words, we’ll let the pictures do the talking.
UNTOLD LEGENDS: BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLADE
SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT
ATV OFFROAD FURY: BLAZIN’ TRAILS
Regarding Untold Legends specifically:
HGM: Does the game use a standard engine that you developed
and plan to re-use in future games?
The engine was designed from the ground up for the PSP. It takes
advantage of all of the hardware nuances of the device. It is
certainly robust enough to support other games.
HGM: How extensively will Untold Legends support the PSP’s
game sharing function? For example, could four people play a
game together if only one of them owned a copy of the game?
Due to the amount of data that the game requires to display the
highly detailed graphics and sound, it would be impractical, if not
impossible, to have a game sharing feature. It supports up to four
player cooperatively if everyone owns a copy of the game.
HGM: Untold Legends seems to make heavy use of random
generation as a design element. Can you tell us a bit about why
you decided on this approach?
One of the primary goals from the very beginning of the project
was for us to provide as much replay value as possible. Random
dungeons, items, monsters, and four character types buy us quite
a bit in this. Every time the player starts a new game or revisits
an area they have seen, it is an entirely new experience. This will
keep the player coming back to find that ‘perfect’ new weapon or
HOT SHOTS GOLF: FORE!
SCEA
SCEA
piece of armor. Technically, they can play as long as they want or
start a new character class for a totally new style of play.
HGM: Will Untold Legends have official online
multiplayer support?
It will not have online support. It was decided early on that our
best chance for multiplayer was with sticking to a peer-to-peer
plan. It is really exciting to sit and play with friends, hollering
back and forth as you lose track of time.
ARCHER MACLEAN’S MERCURY
FIFA SOCCER
IGNITION ENTERTAINMENT
EA SPORTS
NBA 2005
TWISTED METAL: HEAD-ON
SCEA
SCEA
HGM: Can you share some details about the story and setting of
Untold Legends with us?
Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade takes place in the land
of Unataca centered around the city of Aven. The people of Aven
have become xenophobic and forgotten much of what happens
outside of their domain. This is until a plague of spiders begins
to emerge from below them. While exploring the cause of this,
an important figure is kidnapped and must be rescued. Doing so
eludes to further strange things going on outside the city. It is the
player’s job to explore the unknown regions long forgotten and
find out what the cause of all of this commotion is.
HGM: The four player character archetypes for Untold Legends
are pretty unusual. Can you tell us a bit about them?
MVP BASEBALL
NBA STREET
EA SPORTS
EA SPORTS
ACTIVISION
SCEA
NFS: UNDERGROUND RIVALS
TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR
EA
We wanted to allow for all sorts of gameplay types. By choosing
some more non-traditional character classes,
we are able to do some things outside the
realm of standard action role playing games.
For example, we have a pet that is primarily
used to distract the monsters instead of fighting
them as is usually the case. This allows for
the character to stand back and deal damage
from afar. Another example is a spell that
charms monsters while healing and buffing
them greatly. The side effect is that once the
monster is no longer under the influence of the
charm, it attacks the players, WITH the buff
still intact. This requires the player to use this
spell strategically.
TONY HAWK’S UNDERGROUND 2 REMIX
WIPEOUT PURE
EA SPORTS
DEATH JR.
NFL STREET 2 UNLEASHED
KONAMI
GRETZKY NHL
EA SPORTS
SMART BOMB
SCEA
EIDOS
MLB
CODED ARMS
SCEA
KONAMI
UNTOLD LEGENDS: BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLADE
SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT
WORLD TOUR SOCCER
SCEA
70_FEATURE_PSP LAUNCH
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HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 1_RISE OF THE CHICKEN
MEDIEVIL
SCEA
PSP LAUNCH_FEATURE_71
programmers “wanted” to do, but may have not been
able to for whatever reason. In the ROMs for Bega’s
Battle, I found an enormous amount of unused code
that turned out to be a demo mode, which never
made it into the final game.
Having reached the top girder, I had just one more ladder to climb to save the lady and move on
to the next level. As I started my final ascent, something intriguing caught my eye. Just a short
distance to my left were two long ladders that extended upward into the dark unknown. Since there
was still plenty of time left on the clock, I figured that saving the lady could wait. I had to climb these
ladders and find out where they went. I dashed to my left and hopped over a couple of barrels. I was
abruptly stopped by an “invisible barrier” that prevented me from reaching the mysterious ladders. D’oh! It
was apparent that the game’s programmers didn’t want me or any other adventurous soul to find out what was up there.
WHY HACK?
Fast forward to more than twenty years later. As I sat hacking
those Donkey Kong ROMs, I came across the section of code that
created that “invisible barrier.” I quickly deleted it and played the
game again. After all these years, I climbed those ladders and
found out what was at the top: nothing.
Well, not every hack turns into an outstanding marvel of gaming
ingenuity. I did the “invisible barrier” hack merely to satisfy my
curiosity, but there are plenty of other motivations for hacking
games. Some people look to create cheats that provide extra
power-ups or unlimited lives; some want to add features like
rapid-fire or alternative mazes; and sometimes the motivation
is just to fix those oh-so-obvious bugs that have annoyed the
%#$!@ out of us for all these years.
While most modern games stay fresh by offering level editors or
expansion packs, the classics can get boring rather easily. Let’s
face it; it can get old playing the same Pac-Man maze over and
over again, and who wouldn’t want to see a new level added
to Donkey Kong for a change? That’s where hacking comes in.
Numerous people have already lent their skills to some pretty
creative hacks. A quick search of the Internet will turn up things
like level editors for Tempest, upgrades for Crazy Climber, and
new features for TRON. One of my favorites is a hack that lets
you play the “Drawbridge Scene” in Dragon’s Lair.
Most of the hacks that I’ve created involve adding freeplay to
games that previously didn’t have it. This is great for parties and
such, where you don’t want to have to keep pumping quarters
into your games. The gameplay itself remains unchanged. I
simply alter the routines that monitor the START buttons and
ignore any checks for credits when starting a game.
Of course, when you dive into the
internals of the software code, you
never know what you might find. The
most surprising thing I found was in the
LaserDisc game Thayer’s Quest when I
came across a lengthy list of curse words.
Apparently, the programmers had hoped
to foil any attempts by kids to abuse
the game’s “speak my name” feature
by creating a Do-Not-Say list. Often I’ll
find “backdoors” that programmers used
to playtest their code. A special patch
inside the Dragon’s Lair code allowed you
to play the whole game if you held the
joystick a certain way when you inserted
your quarters. (I could have saved a lot
of money if I knew about this when I
was a kid.) If you enter a certain input
sequence in Dig Dug, you can bring up a
secret NAMCO title screen.
Sometimes, I’ll find remnants of
routines that give hints as to what the
PHOENIX ROM HACK IN
PROGRESS
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HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 1_RISE OF THE CHICKEN
I often came across interesting routines and
excitingly creative ways to accomplish things, like a
really cool routine that generates a random number
using the joystick direction, some timers, and the
microprocessor’s stack pointers. I’ve seen routines
that continuously verify a copyright entry and
intentionally screw up gameplay if it’s ever altered.
I’ve also seem some amazingly complex scheduling
routines that seem almost too advanced to be
running on such old hardware.
The thing that surprised me the most is how often
I see identical routines show up in different games
from different companies. People obviously weren’t
too shy about copying someone else’s work. When
you put Congo Bongo code next to Donkey Kong
you’d be shocked at how much of the code is an
exact match. There are some rare occasions where
I see some bad code too -- stuff that’s so messed
up that I’m amazed that it even works. Dig Dug was
one such example of some poorly written code. Most
routines were very inefficient, often taking fifty to
a hundred bytes to do something that could have
been accomplished in five. It’s pretty difficult to try to
follow, and even more difficult to try to hack.
Hacking Tips
Figuring out how to modify games requires that you first familiarize
yourself with some of the basic functions that most games share.
INITIALIZATION
The first hunk of code is mostly used for initialization. Not all the
initialization code is useful since most variables are simply set to “zero,”
so look for variables that are initialized to non-zero values. Variables that
are set to 5 or 10, for example, may provide better clues as to what they
are used for.
INS AND OUTS
Search for commands IN and OUT. These commands will be associated
with the input and output routines. Input variables include Joystick/
Buttons, Status bytes, and DIP Switches. Output variables include Coin
Counters, LED/Scoreboard Controls, and Graphic Chip Communications.
Search for these instructions right away and make some early
assumptions. Chances are you may be right!
TIMERS
Timers can be count-UP or count-DOWN timers. Look for one- or twobyte variables that get decremented or incremented inside an interrupt.
It’s probably a timer of some sort. Analyze your game and find out where
timers may be used. Does the Attract Mode run for a certain length of
time? Do you have a certain amount of time to continue your game? Do
you have a limited amount of time to enter your initials?
DIAGNOSTIC HELP
Jeff recently
created a new
level for the arcade
classic, Donkey
Kong, which you
can install and
play in an original
Donkey Kong
arcade machine
or play with an
emulator such as
M.A.M.E. (www.
mame.net).
If you’re interested in trying your hand at hacking,
here are a couple of things to consider before getting
started. First, make sure you pick a game that you
know fairly well. Having a good knowledge of how a
game works can be extremely helpful when you start
dissecting it. Next, you’ll need to become familiar
with the language -- assembly language, that is. Find
yourself a good tutorial on assembly instruction sets
for old microprocessors like the Z80. Once you’re
familiar with these basics, you can dive in.
HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 1_RISE OF THE CHICKEN
Identifying the code for Diagnostic Mode can identify such things as RAM
addresses, Video RAM addresses, ROM Checksums, Sprite X/Y locations,
Joystick Input Routines, Coin Input Routines, DIP Switch Settings, and
Sound Routines. The game manual should tell you the order in which
Diagnostic Tests are run.
USING DIP SWITCH INFO
Find the switch settings that control Coins/Credit and Lives/Credit. This
will help you find the RAM locations for Number of Coins, Number of
Credits, and Number of Lives. Searching on these locations should help
you find death routines (loss of life), bonus routines (award additional
life) and coin insertion routines.
COMMON ROUTINES
Look for routines that are called a lot. These routines may be mathtype routines. Finding a routine that, say, adds two numbers together
can possibly lead to a point-award routine. Finding math routines that
subtract may lead to timeout routines or death routines.
INTERRUPTS
Interrupts normally have routines that must be run “continuously”.
Routines such as checking for coins or redrawing/refreshing
the screen are commonly found in interrupts.
THE ART OF GAME HACKING_FEATURE_79
new and exciting hacks. Someday,
your curiosity may even get the
best of you and force you to put
your hacking cap on. The results
will surely pump excitement back
into these great games, and one
day you may revisit your favorite
game and find yourself playing a
new level, fighting a new enemy,
or climbing a ladder that has
never been climbed before.
DAD, WHAT’S INSIDE OF
A ROM? IT’S FULL OF BITS,
JIMMY. LOTS OF BITS.
Now, don’t think that you’ll find a sign that
says “Place Your Hack Here.” Often, the
biggest challenge of creating a hack, is
figuring out where it goes. You can spend
hours, even days, staring at thousands of
assembly instructions trying to make sense
out of it. For the inexperienced, it can be
like staring at a city map that doesn’t have
any street names. Check out the HACKING
TIPS section on the previous page for tips
on what you can look for to start making
sense of things. With a little persistence
(and some trial and error) you’ll start to
understand what you’re looking at, and
before you know it you’ll be a hacking
madman. Good luck!
BegasPack is Jeff Kulczycki,
creator of jeffsromhack.com.
If you’re serious about becoming
a ROM hacker, there’s no better
place to go to get the tools and
knowledge you need than Jeff’s
web site.
HGM
FROGGER GOES UNDER
THE KNIFE
There’s still plenty of life in those old
classic games. As more enthusiasts join
the collecting hobby, we’re bound to see
M.A.M.E. IS GOOD FOR MUCH MORE THAN JUST PLAYING
M.A.M.E. (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is an excellent tool
for exploring the inner workings of arcade game code. You’ll need
to get a hold of a version that has debugging options enabled.
M.A.M.E.‘s debugging tools allow you to do all sorts of neat things
to a game’s code in real-time.
No, most hackers
do not speak
hexidecimal from
birth. To turn those
piles of bytes
into something
a little more
comprehensible,
you need a
disassembler/
assembler.
Once the code
is disassembled
from the ROM
(i.e., converted
to english
mnemonics) things
will start making a
little more sense
and you can start
adding notes to
each instruction to
keep track of what
it’s doing.
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HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 1_RISE OF THE CHICKEN
BREAKPOINTS
Set breakpoints at the beginning of routines that
you are trying to understand. Make note of when
the breakpoint happens, because knowing when a
routine runs can be very helpful in understanding
what the routine does. Does the routine run when
the player dies, when an enemy is killed, or when
the game starts up?
TESTING
M.A.M.E. is also a great way to test out hacks relatively quickly,
and with considerably less effort then burning EPROMs and installing them in your game. Do all your testing with M.A.M.E. first. You
can field test your hack using the actual game later, once you’ve
worked out all the major bugs. M.A.M.E. emulates the original
games so faithfully that there’s rarely any difference.
WATCH YOUR STEP
Step through the game using the STEP feature.
You’ll be able to follow the program flow much more
closely, and you’ll be able to watch variables get
updated as each line of code gets executed.
KEEP A WATCHFUL EYE
Watch windows allow you to watch the contents of
memory. Watching variables change can help you
identify timers and counters. Keeping track of when
variables change can help you find key routines.
When does the player’s score get updated? When is
an extra life awarded?
MAME’S DEBUGGER IS
POWERFUL HACKING JOY
HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 1_RISE OF THE CHICKEN
THE ART OF GAME HACKING_FEATURE_81
Epilogue
Are you wondering what’s up with the chickens?
One of our ideas is to give every issue a different goofy subtitle to show that we don’t take ourselves too
seriously even though we’re calling ourselves Hardcore Gamer. So it’s not meant to be an inside joke, just
something lighthearted... stuff like “Gamers Gone Wild,” “From our mom’s basement to your hands,” “Our
Sonic is four feet tall,” etc.
Almost since it became possible to represent their fowlish form in pixels (Freeway, Atari 2600), game
makers have taken the opportunity to place feathered friends into their games. It has possibly even
become a token of good luck. It seems that a lot of quality games, going way back, feature a
chicken within.
Sometimes their presence is not obvious but their effect is always felt. Zelda, Wild Arms, Street Fighter
2, Flicky, Final Fantasy (somewhat alien, the Chocobos; but definite cousins they are)... the list of good
games with chickens is lengthy. Inversely, most bad games do not feature a chicken. Superman for N64
(most Superhero games, in fact), Hunchback Olympics... I could go on. It has even gone as far as to
spawn a game developer who obviously is clued in to The Phenomena (Lucky Chicken). Unfortunately,
labeling oneself as such does not ensure a quality game will ensue -- raising the suspicion that the name
may have been used in a vain attempt to circumnavigate the quality control process.
So, since our magazine is about games... well, I think I don’t need to elaborate further. ;)
Tim