Obituary: The Father Of Video Games, Ralph Baer

The Father Of Video Games, Ralph Baer
March 8, 1922 – Dec 6, 2014 
A true pioneer never to be forgotten 

When Ralph Baer made a tiny piece of light fly across the screen in a controlled manner he didn’t just create the idea of a video game, he created the something we often forget…the wonderment of video games. 

The fun they evoke, the surprise and the sheer joy that this entertainment medium has given us all.

As much an electronics wizard as a visionary, Ralph Baer had a vision in 1966 to create the very first games console – this is known as ‘the brown box’ which actually sits in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington. The prototype was completed in 1968 way before Atari even conceived itself as a company, let alone created Pong. 

Mr Baer didn’t have ‘video games’ inventor as part of his job description, during his career as an employee of BAE working on televisions he sought to investigate the ‘idea’ of playing a game on a screen. It had no previous concept, no customer-base – he simply loved the ‘idea’ of it and sought out to make it work. Finally after many years of developing this prototype he managed to find an interested party – Magnavox, in releasing it to the World.

So in essence one man created the Video Game commercially – this 1st generation console released in August 1972 was to be known as the Magnavox Odyssey. With no sound behind the gameplay this was a simple experience – but back in the early 70s ‘an experience’ none the less for those 1st generation gamers. Those gamers that could be your moms or dads – or even grandparents! 

So from the original Magnavox came other incarnations many of which Ralph Baer was involved in – his invention of the first light gun is an amazing achievement. Forget your Playstation Move, Wii Controller or even Kinect – his idea of use a separate device to interact with a TV screen was a true revolution.

In his lifetime he not only had over 150 electronics patents to his name he created much loved games such as Simon, Electronic Perfection and Laser Command amongst many others.

And that was Ralph Baer – a revolutionary inventor. Someone to respect, admire and aspire to. Someone who created the one thing we love.

We thank you Mr Ralph Baer – not for only inventing the first video game console. But for creating the one huge, massive thing we love in life…video games.

HD Retrovision - A Kickstarter Interview

We spoke to HD Retrovision about their now 'Live' Kickstarter project - its goals and expectations, and why its so important to support retro gaming systems of days gone by.

Tell us why you choose to work on a Sega & Nintendo retro gaming product - rather than a new generation console accessory?

We grew up on these consoles and they're the reason we're gamers today. It saddened us to see them threatened by the lack of support on modern TVs. 

Who are the products designed for?
The products are really designed for anyone who wants a simple, affordable, yet high quality solution to playing their old consoles on new TVs. It's true other solutions exist, but they can be expensive and messy, or require people to have hardware skills they don't have.

What was is about the Genesis and SNES that makes it so special?
The games on those consoles represent the pinnacle of gaming to us in a lot of ways.

The games had enjoyable story lines without hours of cutscenes, and designers were focused more on awesome gameplay than making the game have movie-quality graphics. They also feature some of our favorite video game music of all time. I still hear the Desert Strike theme in my head regularly.

How important are playing games for you when you making a product like this?
Very important. We've tested our cables across on many many games to make sure we don't run into anything unexpected. It's really the only way to know if you're going to run any issues if someone plugs a Sonic 3 into a Sonic & Knuckles into a Game Genie.

How has your background and experience contributed to the development of this Kickstarter?

Besides being avid gamers, we're both electrical engineers and mathematicians by training. This has contributed to us being very precise and methodical in our development of the cables. 

Tell us a bit about the technical details to feature in the product?

The concept behind our cables is not new, but the implementation is radically different. Through careful engineering, we are able to fit our custom electronics into a tight, enclosed space without an additional power source. This approach lowers the cost and headache compared with competing solutions, which we hope will give more people access to high-quality retro-gaming.

Left - composite video, Right with component from HD Retrovision cables

What are your favourite 5 Genesis games of all time?
Streets of Rage, NBA Jam, Kid Chameleon, Toejam & Earl, Earthworm Jim

What are your favourite 5 SNES games of all time?Megaman X, Chrono Trigger, Super Castlevania IV, Shadowrun, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 

What does retrogaming /gaming mean to you?

It's the a link back to our childhood. Retro-gaming brings us back to an era where some of our best memories were formed, often while playing these games with a good friend or sibling.

Back the Kickstarter here: 

Castlevania Review

A Dark Beginning for the Immortal Franchise - Castlevania NES

By Ben “Blinge” Cataldo

If somebody were to name the most famous 2D platformer franchise, the most common responses would be Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog or maybe Megaman. Lurking just outside the window however is Castlevania, one of the oldest series still enjoying new releases today. The original Castlevania was released by Konami on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987.

In Castlevania you assume the role of Simon Belmont, a hero of the Belmont clan of vampire hunters. You have a simple mission; battle your way into Castle Dracula and kill its owner. Although he's Dracula in all but name as the manual simply refers to him as "The Count."

Castlevania was one of the first horror themed console games and achieves this end beautifully. While earlier NES games often looked more primitive than their later 8-bit counterparts, Castlevania remains visually impressive, showing variation in each stage despite the entire game taking place within the castle itself. The NES' colour palette is used tastefully, the backgrounds are detailed enough to avoid being repetitive and the foreground elements pop out enough to be distinct from the backdrop.

As Belmont progresses through the castle he encounters new themes in each stage. First, a zombie infested entrance, an ascent through crumbling stairs and hallways, a race across rooftop parapets, an underground cavern, a grim laboratory and finally the iconic clock tower that has since become a staple of the series. The whole game is replete with gothic imagery and these surroundings are suitably aged as to look like a still-living ruin: the castle itself seems undead.

Indeed the place is teeming with un-life, packed with monsters that aren't exclusively from the vampire mythos. Castle Dracula is described as a "doss house for every monster from every mythology ever" by notorious reviewer Yahtzee Croshaw.

Castlevania arrived on the NES amid a total saturation of 2D scrolling games, but what distinguishes Konami's flagship platformer was its slower pace. Belmont can’t jump on enemies to kill them, neither is he fast enough to avoid the castle denizens, even attempts to jump over enemies will likely cause him damage. Slamming into a crowd of enemies to try and force your way will often lead to death as well. The player is encouraged to take each new enemy or obstacle as its own challenge, whether by using the range of Belmont’s whip, or by experimenting with the various secondary weapons you can find in the castle. 

A great example of this is the throwing axe, which can be found shortly before the first boss – a large vampire bat. The bat usually stays above Belmont before swooping down to attack: while it’s possible to whip it during this dive attack, using the axe and its upwards arc is a more reliable tactic. This is an example of player training as the player should learn that using the different sub-weapons yields better results.

The slow pace contributes to player training again in stage 2 when you find a Bone Pillar waiting at the top of a staircase. This static enemy stands in place like a turret and repeatedly fires two projectiles at a slight interval, but Belmont can safely stand on a lower step beneath the fireball’s trajectory. An observant player should see the Pillar’s pattern of attack, and that it’s possible to hit it safely with the whip from slightly below. Carrying this knowledge into the rest of the game will make future Bone Pillars easier to deal with, as will using the environment to gain an advantage over enemies, thus a slower pace encourages intelligent play, and intelligent play is rewarded. Let it be known however that rushing through Castlevania is possible, as is only using the whip, though this requires a real mastery of the game.

Trial, error and slower gameplay is also the main source of difficulty in Castlevania. While a modern gamer may dismiss Belmont’s sluggish movement as old games having bad controls; slower movement and lack of agility is integral to the balance of the game, and the controls are precise enough to be suited for this purpose. It is usually a player’s rash actions that get them killed rather than Belmont’s speed.

Another source of difficulty is the much bemoaned knockback: upon being hit, Belmont will be stunned for a fraction of a second and stagger backwards. Sometimes this can be disastrous, you might be hit and knocked backwards into an instant death-pit, or bounced between several enemies, taking a lot of damage in the process. However there is a positive aspect to knockback: you’re invincible for the duration of the stun period and slightly longer, saving you from taking fatal levels of damage too quickly and in the second scenario mentioned above, it would be possible to jump to safety or launch a counterattack.

Standard practice for many games at this time was to give the player a limited number of lives and continues; once they’re gone it’s game over. Castlevania offered a concession here as you can continue infinitely from the beginning of the stage you’re on. Stages are made up of smaller sub-areas, dying resets you to the beginning of an area (with 0 ammunition) and continuing after a game-over takes you back to the first area of that stage. 

When considering Castlevania’s difficulty, this is a good system that rewards progress and encourages the player to continue without fear of losing that progress.

Overcoming frustration and learning how to deal with a difficult section to the point where you can beat it every time and progress further is an immensely rewarding experience, it’s what makes Castlevania such a good game and the essence of why we enjoy challenging experiences.

Castlevania’s atmosphere is a fusion of the 2D action game with gothic spookiness, so it can’t be called a pure horror game, despite drawing upon gothic imagery throughout. However, encouraging a new player to take things slowly provides ample time to build some measure of suspense. Music plays a huge part in creating the game’s atmosphere; the brief intro builds tension as Belmont approaches the castle gate, before giving way to the opening blast of Vampire Killer, the catchy and iconic level 1 song. The theme of the whole game is summed up here: a foreboding build up, then straight into the action. In keeping with the gothic atmosphere, the boss theme sounds like classical music through the NES soundchip, which works surprisingly well. That same boss melody is worked into the stage 5 music, Heart of Fire: the perfect example of the feel of a classic Castlevania game.  

The soundtrack does go for a full horror approach when Belmont finally reaches Dracula himself, the final ascent up a long staircase into the Count’s throne room with the music constantly cranking up the tension must have been mind-blowing for somebody playing it for the first time in 1987. The fact that many of these songs have been re-used and rearranged in later games in the series is a testament to the quality of their composition and their popularity among fans. 

The NES revolution brought something that console gaming hadn’t seen before; the ability to pick a theme and run with it, fashioning a coherent gaming experience from that theme. Castlevania does this with gothic horror, it does it with spooky imagery and sounds but doesn’t detract from the fun of a platformer/action game. The gameplay itself even feeds into that theme by encouraging the player to take their time and think about how they’ll tackle each challenge. Many design elements in modern games can be traced back to this pioneering time, or Castlevania itself. One could go as far as to suggest that this game was the Dark Souls of its time.

Come then ye children of the night, those vampires aren’t gonna slay themselves.  

This extended review by Ben “Blinge” Cataldo

Also the web review can be found here: 

www.gamesyouloved.com/game-genre/consoles/nintendo/nintendo-entertainment-system/castlevania/

Hints and Tips for videogames pioneers – the video!

When Andrew Hewson announced to GamesYouLoved.com he was going to bring the wisdom of the 80s and 90s game development experiences to life through a ‘hints and tips’ book – we were excited to say the least!

Not only had Team - GamesYouLoved.com grown up with playing the Hewson and 21^st Century Entertainment gaming classics across a range of different microcomputers - we had been fully aware of Andrew’s part in the UK’s gaming history which sprung up during the 80s and into the 90s.  

It was more than just making and publishing the games for Hewson. It was about a whole generation of kids like us at the time inspired to use a computer. The part Andrew played in providing articles and content for the gaming press as well as his own published books of the 80s is a testament to this cause.

There were the games too, Pinball Fantasies, Firelord Zynaps, Uridium and Nebulus –really fantastic games with amazing graphics and addictive gameplay.

The people involved with Hewson in the design, artwork and development of these games were our heroes. We wanted to know more and Andrew was there with the help of his son Rob to do the job for us.

Kickstarter provided a great forum for the project to live and really happen on a scale and was successful in its fundrasing and we at GamesYouLoved.com supported this thoroughly along with worldwide retrogaming community.

We were also privileged to hear first hand some of Andrew’s experience of Hewson in the 1980s at Play Expo Manchester - last October.

We heard about setting up the business and the early days, how Andrew marketed the business with investment in development rather than expensive advertising. Through the growth of gaming generally in the 80s, and Hewson with it into the years with 21^st Century Entertainment. This footage provided by GamesYouLoved.com in collaboration with Hewson will help formulate the bigger story to what is an amazing narrative of gaming history - which is due to be told with the forthcoming release of the book.

Part one: Hints & Tips for Videogame Pioneers - Part 1/3 - The Birth of Hewson Consultants - - part 2 and 3 to follow:

Christmas with the SEGA Game Gear

A Guest Blog by Steven Parky Yates (aka Fats McClane)

I had a GameGear.  Odd place to start, but stay with me, you'll see why I started here. I loved it. I remember having a knee high pile of Fleetway Sonic The Comics in an open stackable box cupboard in the corner of my room, piles of drawings I had copied from it strewn across the floor and posters of Sonic I had asked to be kept for me from stores and even a bank (think it was TSB infact I know because I literally found it online - pictured right ) hanging from my wall above my Sonic the Hedgehog covered bed.

As we see, I was a Sonic fanboy without even knowing what a fanboy was. I was eight years old and was a countryboy. Living in a place with maybe eighty people tops but only sixty in the actual village I tended to go on very long walks, feed ducks and game.

Problem was most games I had were for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.   was given a Game Gear later, but was not up to date with the technology that was around at that time, so home consoles was a lost concept on me.

I saw kids play at school with their Gameboys, well I said play...we couldn't see the screen if we stood next to them, and we were soon shooed away by the irate gamer. 

I wanted one so bad, I once borrowed one and played Mario 6 Golden Coins and loved it so much, but at the same time wished a certain hedgehog was on it.  

Thanks to me miss-spelling 'Gameboy', due to being a rush and writing my Christmas list on a car journey, I was given a Game Gear, I had never even heard of this and was disappointed when I opened the paper hiding it. I hid my sadness and went to my room with it. 

I was told it needed to stay plugged in to play, which a gameboy did not so was angry my friends wouldn't be able to see me being cool at school, and the size of it was huge.  But soon as I plugged it in and inserted Sonic the Hedgehog 1 into it...I was blown away.

Graphics were clearer, true, BUT there was COLOUR!  I was so impressed I turned it off and on again just to see Sonic jump the SEGA logo....it was blue! Not black with a green background. It actually said SEGA through my speakers!  After this I was always on it, playing Shinobi, Sonic and Streets of Rage. I had been bitten with the gamer virus and was not wanting a cure, just another fix.

It was at this time I competed with my then best friend to see who had the best gadgets, and who was the better gamer (in the long run I am winning -  as he has become a boring old man builder and I still melee the hell out of nubstepz on Halo!)
He had same things as me, so we would head to head alot, Micro Machines on the GameGear being the favourite with laptimes. One day I came to visit him...he had it up on his television. I was in awe. He handed me a black controller with three buttons on it and told me to carry on while he went to the toilet. Three buttons?  I instantly knew which button made me go, and I was soon playing the game, not thinking anything of it except that maybe he had bought a cable of some sort that allowed him to play the game on the television.

When he returned he asked me 'So?  What dya think?' I said love it man, he nodded and pointed to the black box under the television. 'My Megadrive...So....when you gettin' one?' I gasped.  He explained it was a GameGear that was better...but could be played on the tv and with better and longer games.  I didn't believe him until he slotted Sonic 2 into the console and switched it on.  I was pretty much close to killing him and stealing the machine he had.  The graphics so clear, so colourful, so....AMAZING!  I wanted it so bad!  

Hiding my contempt by not flushing the toilet when I went to the toilet and returning home, I nagged constantly about the console my friend had. My mother must have heard the constant whining because at Christmas she didn't get it me.  Instead I was given more GameGear games and a chair that was made by a neighbour who loved to carve.  I was screaming internally and said I loved them.  My mother said to go and get the mail, there was unopened Christmas cards in them so I went into the next room, trying not to cry.  When I returned there was a MASSIVE box before me.

'Oh, we forgot this one' she said'must have been behind the couch'.  I fell to my knees, heart was racing and all eyes on me.  I didn't dare raise my hopes again, but it was not far away.  I ripped it open in the corner on the bottom....and saw in blue the Logo,....SEGA!

I ripped the rest open and there it was!  My 16bit dream console.  With Sonic waving his finger in the corner.  I cried.  I was a tough kid but seeing something I had desired for over four months infront of me made me well up.  My fingertips brushed its top and I whispered 'thankyou' through a wall of tears.  My mum laughed and said 'do you want me to set it up?' I laughed, 'stupid question!  Of course!!!!' In less than five minutes I had slotted the first game in, Sonic the Hedgehog 2.  I wept slightly as I ran through the 1st level, the music so much better, the colours streaming across my screen in clear blocks, and the fact it was more of a game than I had ever played.  

I look back at that Christmas as one of the best (until I got my N64 but that's another story) and why? It resembled to me at the time why I liked Christmas. It was a gift, granted. But it was a day I remember, even now, twenty one years later.  It was a gift that made me realise I had been listened to, it was a corner stone in my gaming hobby and it made me appreciate everything that went into it being made and the people who got it for me.  

So I hope this Christmas if any of you get a 3DS, WiiU, Vita, Xbox One or PlayStation 4, that some of you, will feel not just happy, but complete with a sense of accomplishment.  And I hope it inspires you and doesn't burden you.

A Guest Blog by Steven Parky Yates (aka Fats McClane) for his great gaming memories and this special Christmas Guest BLOG