elioncho

Its been one of those years…

As many of you guys know, Elioncho diverged into a tangent roughly two years ago when Elioncho and Tiogus made the tough decision to leave video games for a while and instead focus on web applications. Since then, Elioncho has been the one who has had the most shares of success to date, even though he have also had his share of sunken ships under his belt.

Many of you guys don’t know the whole story from my part, but let me give you a rough synopsis:

Back in March 2008, during the height of my video game development interest, I was given the opportunity to work on a small company that made 3d simulations for military training in the US. I recall that I began development of Dong vs Dong one week before starting my new job, and during my first 2 months at the job I tested and wrapped up the version of Dong vs Dong that is now available.

Without going into many details, that job lasted a mere 6 months, but 6 horrid months. During the last 3 months I had very bad experiences at the job and I was forced to look for other opportunities elsewhere. It was a sad situation – I felt that I no longer wanted to be involved in game development of any sort ever again in my life. It was as if my experience in that company had killed all the interest I had in developing video games. The day I walked out on that company I made a secret vow to forget video game development once and for all. And so I did.

Shortly after I found a job developing web apps, and I became interested in the discipline. With video game development long forgotten (or at least in the back burner) I focused my attention on web application development. It was during that time that I worked on buttonsmashers with Elioncho, until that ship hit an iceberg and sunk into the depths of oblivion.

I was also exposed to the blogging world by November 2008 and I got the idea of creating a blog about boxing, a sport I really love. So during Thanksgiving 2008 I began extensive work on Boxing Highlights, and I’m happy to say that, almost 1 and a half years since its inception, it has been a success. But even thought I’ve been quite happy with the moderate success of Boxing Highlights, I’ve also been quite sad for the last two years. Every now and then I recall my past interest in video games and its abrupt end, and it deeply saddens me how something can change so quickly like the turning of a switch. It’s not like my interest in video games faded, but rather I forced that interest to remain in the deep cavities of my heart in order for it never to be awakened.

It has been two rough years, and I feel like every couple of months my interest in games rekindles to some degree, and this past month the flame was finally set ablaze. I am not sure what triggered it, but it suddenly happened. Now I find myself going through videos of classic games, browsing through articles of old engine technologies, finding out what new Doom ports have been released in the past couple of years, and sending emails to people like Samuel “Kaiser” Villarreal, the creator of the DOOM Absolution Total Conversion. I think the time has come for me to make a comeback, but at this point, as I write these lines, I am a bit hesitant. There are too many things going on in my life right now, and I think that it would be unfair to all of my current projects if I decide to undertake a fresh gaming development initiative at this time.

But the fire has rekindled, and it will be hard to put it down, but I just know that I’ll be back!

Today was one of those days where I detach my mind from the daily routine involving work, work and more work, and have the time to sit back and think about they great college years – years spent mainly in the following set of activities: cramming for exams until 4am, chatting with Diana Fernandez, and of course, playing every single Half-Life mod out there. The latter activity brings me many nostalgic moments, as I remember how at 1am on Friday nights, after a “long” day of school, I would go back to my apartment and decide on which new mod to play.

From the shitty “When the Army came to the Office” to the legendary “They Hunger” by Black Widow Games, I managed to play almost every single Half Life map pack, mod and total conversion out there but I could stay here for hours mentioning every single one of them.

If you haven’t played any Half-Life mods to date, you better check this playlist out – which shows you some of the best mods from the Half-Life era. Not all mods are mentioned, but I’ll come back and go over some of my favorites later on:

The Virtual Boy: A pair of goggles on a stand

As most of you already know, the Virtual Boy is considered the worst console made by Nintendo. Along with the Sega CD, Sega 32X, 3D0 and other assorted calamities, it miserably praised its own crapiness. Believe me, you could read it between lines:

“Its unique design eliminates most external stimuli, totally immersing players into their own private universe with high-resolution red images against a deep, black background“

…just in case you got immersed in a coma after reading that:

“Every Virtual Boy game has the option to pause automatically every 15-30 minutes to remind the player to take a break, to prevent undue eye strain and possible headaches”

So there you have it, Nintendo kindly warned us all about this sunken ship since day one and no one listened.

Now let me take you on a brief journey to the past and share a related story to the “true 3D graphics” machine.

1995 – Release Year

At my hometown Barranquilla, Colombia, there was a guy named Juan Carlos Díaz, also known as “muro” (the wall), due to his great (but overhyped) goalkeeping skills. “Muro” was the first guy I ever saw playing the Virtual Boy at a local video game site called GAMEMANIA. Immediate fear of catching eye disease prevented me from placing my eyes on those binoculars. The funny thing is that the only guy I actually saw playing it was “muro”. He ALWAYS WAS THERE. In fact, thanks to him I never touched that piece of garbage.

1996

A year passed and the Virtual Boy had already descended into dead stock. The machine stand that was once the home of Juan Carlos, now stood alone as a monument of its former self. No longer appreciated by fans and no longer working (and no Juan Carlos to be seen), my chances to ever play it were scarce until life offered me a new opportunity when I visited a friend’s house (his name Jonathan). “There you go, a Virtual Boy in a family house, a more hygienic machine!”, I thought. Out of curiosity I asked Jonathan to let me play it, but sadly (?), the Virtual Boy was dead for good, I could perceive it in him.

Back to the Future (2008)

I recently got in touch with Jonathan and in the midst of our conversation the Virtual Boy subject strangely surfaced. We laughed and trashed the console, but I still sensed tormented feelings on him. I told him that the only guy I saw playing that thing in Barranquilla was Juan Carlos Díaz, to which he immediately responded:

“That was the guy who told me to buy it!”

What are the chances!? This is a small world indeed.

So 13 years have passed and I haven’t touched the Virtual Boy for once. I always felt that spending my money to get only 2 colors on a screen was a rip off. For instance, what will you rather play, RED and BLACK golf or the classic 8-bit NES golf? After watching the screenshots, the decision is pretty clear.

Red Alarm: Supposedly a flying game

Nintendo simply got it all wrong. Just one year later came the Nintendo 64 along with Super Mario 64, full of brilliant colors and 3d gameplay which made the Virtual Boy look totally outdated, obsolete and the worthy owner of a place at the nearest closet.

Super Mario 64: A defining moment in gaming history

If only we could have got something closer to this picture things would definitely have been different.

What immersive red and black graphics should look like

Today the Virtual Boy has become a “hot” collector’s item which suggests that people just can’t get enough of its rubbishness. They keep waking up each day, turning ON those goggles, trying to find “true 3D graphics” and “parallel universes” and 15-30 minutes later get caught in frustration, eye strain and failed hope.

• “muro’s” whereabout is currently unknown (he is for sure immersed in his own private universe of pain), blame it on the red and black machine.