Apr 25 2010

The Fire Rekindles

by tiogus

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!


May 13 2009

Duke Nukem Forever: Nuked!

by elioncho

Duke Nukem Forever has changed its release date from “when it’s done” to “done with it”. Fans haven’t stop posting since the news broke out. These are the highlights of an online conversation:

Dude 1:

QUAKE was always better than Duke

Dude 2:

At least Duke had a theme going instead of mixing all kinds of crazy shit at random (samurai sword guys, soldiers with laser guns, zombies, tar balls, demons, ghosts, lightning-shooting mutant polar bears, wtf)

Dude 1:

Lizards with jetpacks, flying mentalist octopodes, pigs in cop costumes… yeah, totally.


Dec 27 2008

GIVE HIM A NINTENDO!

by elioncho

I’ve spent the last couple of days with my 5 year old cousin being my shadow wherever I go; telling me weird stories (theatrics included), shouting and jumping without any apparent reason and playing a little piano that I regret lending to him.

“GIVE HIM A NINTENDO!!!”, I exclaimed in the middle of a nervous breakdown.

It was clear to me why my parents bought me my first console. An easy decision after the amount of pain and sadness I was causing on them. I even used the word “Nintendo” to reference any type of video game console, just like they did.

Luckily, in the end my cousin got his console…

The next step will now involve his parents moaning about how he doesn’t wants to spend more time with the family, but hey, just don’t blame it on the Nintendo.

Merry Christmas to all!