Looking at the Dreamcast lineup for 2013, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Sega’s 15-year-old home video game system had never gone away. Of all the supposedly dead consoles, the Dreamcast is surely the one that looks most alive.

Despite the Dreamcast production lines shutting in 2001, the console’s community is still fervently supporting new titles that continue to release. Two highly successful Kickstarter campaigns last year, for role-playing game Pier Solar HD, and shoot-em-up Redux: Dark Matters, clearly showed that love for the Dreamcast is still strong.

When the Dreamcast first came out in North America in September 1999, it looked like it could change the gaming world.

It was the first 128-bit console, from one of the big three console manufacturers, featuring the first built-in online capabilities, and boasting a launch lineup of big-name titles such as Sonic Adventure, Power Stone, Soul Calibur, and Marvel vs. Capcom. Sales of 500,000 units in its first two weeks led to hardware shortages, and Businessweek magazine heralded the Dreamcast as one of the best products of the year.

Then, just six months later, along came Sony’s PlayStation 2.

The Dreamcast couldn’t compete with the power of the PlayStation brand, as Sony’s new machine — with its built-in DVD player – began a journey that would eventually see sales of 150 million consoles. In contrast, the Dreamcast managed to sell just over 8 million sales during its short lifetime.

Many Dreamcast fans feel cheated by the machine’s premature death in 2001 — a death that saw the once mighty Sega bowing out of the hardware business for good. Those same fans can take some solace, perhaps, in the glut of quality titles still being released for the console in 2013.

2013: The year of the Dreamcast

More than 15 unofficial titles have been released for the Dreamcast since its demise, and 2013 looks set to be the best release year yet, with seven brand-new games either scheduled or already out there.

Sturmwind is the most recent new release for the Dreamcast. The side-scrolling shooter from German developer Duranik came out at the end of April, and it has already been well received by critics and fans.

It’s the first foray into Dreamcast development for brothers Roland and Johannes Graf, who between them make up the Duranik team. Prior to this, the Graf brothers have released games for the Atari Lynx, Jaguar, and Falcon.

So why pick the Dreamcast? “It’s always fun to develop for a console, at least for us,” said Roland Graf. “The other thing is of course the less-crowded market. Everyone is going to iOS or Android these days. These platforms are really drowned with apps of all type. Even if you have a nice game, it’s hard to stand out.”

Being new to the platform, Graf was unsure how many copies they would need to cope with demand. “We estimate around a few thousand units,” he said. “Of course, this is a quite a small number, but the machine has not been in the spotlight for a lot of years. There is certainly still a small but solid fan base that supports the machine, even after all those years.”

That support is more than evident now that Sturmwind has been released. Both the Limited Edition and regular version have already sold out at the website of publisher, RedSpotGames. The same is true at reseller PlayAsia.com.

Sturmwind’s Limited Edition run looks particular impressive, featuring a soundtrack CD, 3D-printed spacecraft, full color manual, and guidebook. It even has a plush toy of one of the bosses available to purchase.

While CD-ROMs for the Dreamcast are much easier to produce than, say, a cartridge-based game, the quality of the Sturmwind physical release is still admirably high. “We had a lot of production issues with our special edition packaging,” Graf said. “This is the reason the game was delayed for several months.”

For Graf, Duranik is only a spare-time project. He leaves the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of Sturmwind entirely in the hands of RedSpotGames. Sega also did its bit to help with Sturmwind’s marketing, though, when PR executive Fabian Doehla appeared on Destructoid Live to unveil and play a demo of the game.

“I think that was just for fun,” says Graf. “They certainly won’t come back and start producing Dreamcast games now. From what we heard, they enjoyed the game.”

Thoughts from a Dreamcast gamer

Jake Smith, “end of level boss” at digital agency JP74 , was a Dreamcast gamer from the very beginning. Importing a Japanese machine before Sega had hit the Western market, Smith talked up the console in the very first issue of Official Dreamcast Magazine (U.K.).

For him, the Dreamcast’s arcade root are all important. “Anyone who played Sega games in the arcades will have a soft spot for the Dreamcast,” says Smith. “Sega Rally, Zombie Revenge, Crazy Taxi, and House of the Dead are highly playable titles, even today. I think it’s the console that closely retained that arcade look and feel in its action games, but it still managed to play host to more absorbing and in-depth games like Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia, and Phantasy Star Online.”

He’s managed to keep on top of most new releases for the console and is impressed with what he’s seen. “Generally, of the ones I’ve played, they hold their ground very well,” he says. “Highly polished, lovely graphics, excellent music, and tight gameplay. Some of them don’t feel they have quite as much depth as officially released titles — an obvious consequence of small dev teams who possibly hold down full-time jobs too.”

“This isn’t a harsh criticism,” says Smith, “as with [2009 RedSpotGames release] Rush Rush Rally Racing, the game concept was decided on because it could be accomplished quickly for a [Hong-Hong-based distributor and retailer] Lik Sang competition in 2006, but the quality of the actual game is high. Then again, some original games, like Toy Commander, weren’t exactly deep!”

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Follow our PlayStation 4 coverage

Forums are igniting with discussions. Twitter is rife with speculation. And hardware rumors old and new are popping up across game blogs and news sites. This can only mean one thing.

Happy new console day, everybody!

At least, that’s what we think is going to happen. Sony Computer Entertainment is only a few hours away from its big announcement at 3 p.m. Pacific in New York City. Though it hasn’t said anything about it, the leaks and teasers of the last few weeks clearly point to the coming-out party of the PlayStation 4 (or whatever Sony is going to call it).

But console reveals are tricky. Lofty promises are often made and then broken by the time of the actual launch. Games depicted in promotional trailers may not represent the final product, and in some cases, may never see the light of day again. The company obviously wants to show its fancy new system in the best possible way, but if experience has taught us anything, it’s that we should view these momentous occasions with a healthy dose of skepticism.

That’s why we decided to dig through the past three PlayStation reveals — PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 — and remind you of Sony’s track record of preparing its new consoles for launch. Some things it did were funny, other decisions left us scratching our heads, and a few choices were just plain weird.

PlayStation

Announced: October 1993
Release date: 9/9/1995 (U.S.)
Launch price: $299
Number of launch games: Eight

A new challenger appears: 

In the early ’90s, Nintendo joined forces with Sony to create the Play Station (with the space), a console that featured the cartridge-based Super Nintendo Entertainment System combined with a CD-ROM drive. But that didn’t work out.

In short, Nintendo wasn’t satisfied with the business terms of its partnership, so during the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show, it announced that Philips, a Sony rival, would be the one developing a CD-ROM expansion to the SNES. This came a day after Sony publicly revealed its Play Station plans.

Sony executives were understandably furious. But at least two of them, a former Sony engineer named Ken Kutaragi — often called the “father” of PlayStation — and president Norio Ohga, didn’t want to scrap the project. After facing some internal strife, Kutaragi spearheaded the creation of a standalone 32-bit system to compete against both Sega and Nintendo. It re-branded the project simply as “PlayStation,” which made a big splash at the first Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 1995. At the time, the PlayStation was the scrappy underdog in a market dominated by giants.

Fun facts and broken promises:

• During the U.S. rollout at E3 ’95, Sony said “20-Plus” launch games would coincide with the console’s release (at the 4:50 mark in this clip). It delivered less than half that amount.
  
• Early marketing in the U.S. labeled the PlayStation brand as a lifestyle, not just a product or toy. Its TV ads featured such cryptic messages like “U R Not E” (You are not ready) and “ENOS Lives” (Ready Ninth of September). In the U.K., advertisements proclaimed the console was “more powerful than God.”
• The disembodied head known as Polygon Man was the first PlayStation mascot. But disagreements about marketing led to the poor guy’s quick demise prior to launch. About 17 years later, developer Superbot Entertainment brought him back as the final boss in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
• On 9/19/00, Sony released a new, petite PlayStation model called the PS One for $99. This set the precedent for a slimmer line of systems during the latter part of a console cycle, as we saw with the redesigned versions of the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3.

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This week, Nvidia unveiled its new mobile gaming platform Project Shield, the itty-bitty Android console GameStick gets in trouble on Kickstarter, and developer and publisher THQ loses it quick sale request and loan in its ongoing bankruptcy negotiations.

You’ll also find reviews for Anarchy Reigns, Seduce Me, and Noble Nutlings.

News:
The DeanBeat: Nvidia is taking big risks moving into game hardware. Is it crazy or genius?
Skylanders toys outsell Transformers and Star Wars action figures in 2012
Wii U sells 890,000 units in U.S. in first six weeks
The top 10 best-selling games from all of 2012
December NPD: The Xbox 360 dominates another dull month at retail
New wave of Skylanders Giants action figures start hitting retailers
Will you buy this TCL TV for a new way to play Fruit Ninja?
The Walking Dead first-person shooter debuts in March
Kickstarter takes down GameStick project due to intellectual-property dispute (update)
Game developer association to Biden: ‘We welcome more evidence-based research’
GameStick will support the Xbox 360 controller-like Green Throttle Atlas
Entering the ‘free-to-play’ MechWarrior Tactics closed beta will cost you
Fantasy MMO Tera goes free-to-play
Planescape: Torment followup is set in new RPG world Numenera, and a Kickstarter is likely
Hanna writer attached to Shadow of the Colossus film
New Pokémon X and Y details: Legendary Pokémon named
Shaq is back in gaming with ShaqDown on smartphones
GameStick gets more colors and MicroSD support if backers meet new goals
American McGee sees brighter future for year-old Akaneiro: Demon Hunters on Kickstarter (updated)
GameStop’s holiday: Used sales down 15.6 percent, digital up 40 percent
Big Fish’s casual cloud-gaming service headed to Windows 8, brings Xbox Live Achievements
Imprisoned Arma II developer helping DayZ map design from behind bars
THQ equity backer agrees to hear bids for individual titles (update)
DayZ standalone entering prerelease testing soon
Lenovo and Ubisoft deliver cool touch-screen games on giant 27-inch Table PC
THQ denied request for quick bankruptcy sale and loan

Mobile News:
Balrogs! Kabam can’t keep #11 top grossing iOS game The Hobbit live tonight
Point this app at your TV screen and it overlays all kinds of augmented-reality goodies
Mobile-ad platform Chartboost raises $19 million to fund further product development
Moga unveils a console-style mobile-gaming controller
Nvidia unveils Project Shield, an open mobile game console you can play in the living room or on the run

Interviews:
Nvidia CEO’s 7-year journey to make the Project Shield portable gaming device (exclusive interview)

Previews:
Nvidia’s Project Shield: Hands-on demo with the hot portable gaming system of CES (video)
Razer wants to satisfy gamer lust for tablets with the Edge (hands-on video)

Community Spotlight:
Save me: The symbolism of Silent Hill’s save points
The music industry took too long to recognize game music as worthy of the Grammy
Saying farewell to the PlayStation 2 (2000-2012)
Japanese role-playing games on major consoles are dead
The Buddhist teaches players that goals aren’t always necessary
Video games, violence, and religious identity

Reviews:
Anarchy Reigns is the digital version of a big box of mismatched toys (review)
Noble Nutlings is a safe debut from three former Angry Birds developers (review)
Seduce Me makes sex seem really boring (review)

Pieces of Flair:
If Mega Man had a dating site profile
8 button prompts we would like to have seen
10 female characters not featured in their game’s cover (and 10 that are)

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Well, my friends, it’s official. Sony has confirmed that production of our beloved PlayStation 2 has finally ended. After 12 years and over 10,000 games, no new PS2s will ever be made again. While many gamers may have hung up their DualShock 2 controllers a long time ago, this announcement adds a sad finality to what we all knew was inevitable.

The PlayStation 2 may be the most successful game console of all time, and for good reason. Much like the PlayStation 3′s ability to play Blu-ray discs, the PS2 had the extra selling point of also being a DVD player back when those things were all the rage (which kind of makes me wonder if anyone ever planned for a console with a VCR attached … probably not). It also had some great third-party support throughout its life span. Many franchises that gained their popularity on a Nintendo console — such as Final Fantasy, Castlevania, Metal Gear, and Dragon Quest — would eventually make the move to over to the PlayStation, and most of these found sequels on the PS2.

At the time of its release, the PS2′s only real competition was Sega’s last console, the Dreamcast, which was already losing popularity. It’s no exaggeration to say the PS2 firmly planted the nail in that coffin. Developers were moving on to Sony’s newest polygon-pushing powerhouse, and exactly one year after the release of the PS2, Sega would discontinue the Dreamcast, never again to release another console.

Didn’t the Saturn say the same thing on the box?

It wasn’t until the release of Microsoft’s first home console, the original and enormous Xbox, in November 2001 that Sony’s juggernaut would begin to have some serious competition. Developers were now releasing titles on both consoles, but PS2′s exclusives helped keep its new and as yet unproven challenger at bay. That same month, Nintendo would also enter the ring with a fresh console, the diminutive GameCube. But without a single Mario, Zelda, or Metroid title available at launch, it took the GameCube a little while to pick up any real steam. The PS2 had a year of seniority, a steady release of quality titles from well-known developers, and a DVD player.

To further illustrate just how incredible the PS2′s longevity was, let’s compare the numbers. The Dreamcast (may it rest in peace, the poor thing) was released in 1999 and discontinued in 2001. Many would lament that it died before its time. The Xbox was released in 2001 and discontinued in 2007. Six years — not bad. The GameCube was also released in 2001 and went out in 2007. That 12 years is starting to look a lot more impressive, isn’t it?

What’s even more impressive is that Pro Evolution Soccer, the last title to come out on the PS2 in North America, was only released just last month. And the last game scheduled for release in Japan, the Final Fantasy XI expansion Seekers of Adoulin, won’t even be out until March 2013. Because the PS2 has such a ridiculously large install base, Sony continued to support it long after the release of the PS3.

The PlayStation 2 was home to many of my greatest gaming experiences. The epic Shadow of the Colossus, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Final Fantasy XII, Dragon Quest VIII, Katamari Damacy, and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 and 4 are just the tip of very large iceberg. I still power up my PS2 and unravel the cord of my trusty silver DualShock 2 to play these classics from time to time.

But what about the future? Will the PS3 even come close to having the kind of longevity of its predecessor? Rumors of the inevitable PlayStation 4 are becoming more prevalent, as are whispers of Microsoft’s next console. Tech demos for the next generation are already being shown. With the added competition of veterans like Nintendo, newcomers like the Ouya, and the recently announced Project Shield, does Sony have its work cut out for it? If the lifespan of the PS2 is anything to go by, the PS3 might very well be supported years after the launch of its successor, which is all right with me since I’ll likely be unable to run out and buy a new console anytime soon.

But what do you think? Will the long years of support for the PlayStation 2 set a new precedent for console lifecycles?

Either way, today I say farewell to the PS2. Thanks for all the memories.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Note: This post contains spoilers for Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (or Star Ocean 3) was one of the first games I bought for the PlayStation 2. I enjoyed the wide-open overworld and the tons of items I could invent.

However, I almost didn’t finish the game because it was too damned long.

The third Star Ocean is probably the longest in the entire franchise. By the time I beat it, I had played for about 120 hours. Many of the winding dungeons repeat textures and designs so much that they become nauseating to look at.

In spite of all its problems, Till the End of Time makes up for its flaws with an incredibly wacky storyline. Unlike its predecessors, this Star Ocean plot changes from a galactic invasion into a cyber-hacking soap opera. And Star Ocean 3 has the most ridiculous villain: an online game developer who wants to eliminate his creations because he thinks they’re out of control.

A lot of diehard fans still have issues with how the developer changed the storyline. After all, the first Star Ocean games were inspired by the interplanetary adventures in Star Trek. To tell the truth, the entire series dove off the deep end long ago with the silly Wise Men bosses in Star Ocean: The Second Story, but this story takes that extreme campiness to a whole new level.

Here’s an example of how bad it gets. The opening scene takes place in some hotel where the two main characters speak in stilted high-school drama dialogue. After more awful lines and a spaceship invasion, the male protagonist, Fayt Leingod, ends up on an underdeveloped planet where he has to save some whiny little kids in a village.

After more bad storytelling, a buff guy in black leather saves the story from sinking into oblivion. This hero, Cliff Fittir, is part of an anti-Federation group called Quark and hopes to reunite Fayt with his father. After they encounter another spaceship battle, Cliff and Fayt land on a giant medieval planet named Elicoor II.

As some people might imagine, the story is a train wreck. However, the giant 3D overworld of Elicoor II compensates for all of Star Ocean 3′s flaws. Although the environment never quite reaches the detail level of The Elder Scrolls series, for example, the world looks incredibly beautiful. I explored snowy mountains, sandy deserts, and grassy meadows.

The story also greatly improves as it moves along. Eventually, Fayt and his friends discover that they are merely virtual avatars in an online game in the real world. Although the long, winding dungeons grow monotonous in the second half, I still appreciated all the hard work put into the final dungeon in outer space. The ending was also an insightful, philosophical discussion about the meaning of existence.

As much as I hated Star Ocean 3, I enjoyed all the advancements the game made in 3D exploration. Someday, I’ll have to play the final entry, The Last Hope, to bring this beloved saga to a close. Star Ocean is still one of my favorite Japanese game franchises. It really deserves more credit for bringing role-playing adventures into the 21st century.

What are your thoughts on the series? Did the developers really need to extend the story for such a long time in the third installment?  Should they make more Star Ocean games? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The Tokyo electronics giant said today it also sold more than 15 million units of its PlayStation Move motion-sensing controller. That’s behind Microsoft’s Kinect sales (though the publisher does not disclose exact numbers on that platform), and it’s far behind Nintendo, whose Wii motion-sensing controller comes with every console.

Sony hit the 70 million number on Nov. 4, less than six years after the platform launched in 2006. That record is worse than the PlayStation 2, which has sold more than 150 million units worldwide. (Sony uses sell-in numbers, or those sold to retailers).

Microsoft’s number for the Xbox 360 is probably above Sony’s, though not by much. And Nintendo has sold an estimated 96 million Wii consoles since 2006.

The Sony PlayStation Network has 170,000 downloadable digital content pieces, including 57,000 games. The PSN network operates in 59 countries, and Sony revamped its PlayStation Store in October for easier shopping. Developers and publishes have created 3,590 titles for the PS 3 and sold 595 million units worldwide.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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What if LucasArts never existed? What if the irascible filmmaker, beloved (and despised) the world over for his invaluable contributions to the pop-culture lexicon, had stuck to making space operas and juvenile fantasies about archeologists in fedora hats? What if George Lucas never entered the arena of gaming 30 years ago?

LucasArts revolutionized, created, or nurtured several whole genres, so its absence would’ve irreparably hindered the burgeoning video game medium. The San Francisco-based developer and publisher gave the point-and-click adventure – a heretofore obscure niche – a serious shot in the arm (and doctors everywhere an influx of carpal tunnel patients).

It reinvigorated the space shooter, redefined console RPGs, and when Jar Jar Binks took a dump on the collective geek fandom, it even reignited the ailing Star Wars franchise. LucasArts games have appeared on every major console, from early 1980s consoles such as the Atari 2600 and the Intellivision to the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, including dank parlors of teenage truancy (i.e., arcades).

LucasArts has dabbled in almost every genre in gaming: point-and-click adventures, space shooters, first-person shooters, action, sidescrollers, role-playing games, MMORPGs, and even fighting games.

Suffice to say that the forerunner of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Maniac Mansion, and Monkey Island had a significant impact on gaming.

Humble beginnings

George Lucas founded LucasArts, the gaming arm of LucasFilm, in 1982 – the same year that Lucas’ frequent collaborator, Steven Spielberg, unleashed the interactive version of his adorable, alcoholic, bipedal alien, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. While the latter nearly destroyed gaming in its infancy, LucasArts would weather the great crash of 1983 and reemerge for the medium’s second renaissance in North America in 1985.

LucasArts originally partnered with the premier North American video game company – Atari – and in 1984, produced inventive action titles like Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus! for the 5200 and 7800 systems. PC versions followed a year later.

During the era of Reagan, greed, and the imminent fall of the Soviet Union (aka the 1980s), LucasArts developed a number of military simulations, including PHM Pegasus (1986), Strike Fleet (1987), and Battlehawks 1942 (1989). This was no accident.

One of Lucas’ prime inspirations for the Star Wars trilogy – especially the gee-wiz, outerspace dogfighting scenes – were swashbuckling, jingoistic World War II flicks, and he’d explore this more directly with the 2012 film Red Tails.

LucasArts would revisit combat sims years later, but under the guise of its flagship franchise – Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (1998) and Star Wars: Starfighter (2001), to name but a few. They’d also return to the WWII era with 2003′s aerial-warfare title, Secret Weapons Over Normandy.

Planting the point-and-click adventure flag

LucasArts found its stride with repetitive mouse clicks and a little game called Maniac Mansion (1987). Creators Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick designed a loving tribute to B-movies, kitschy horror films, and ’80s teen flicks.

Maniac Mansion – based on Skywalker Ranch – gave the intrepid point-and-click explorer the opportunity to solve puzzles, navigate the sort of prepubescent stupidity that only exists in horror flicks, and for the budding serial killer, microwave a hamster. Seriously.

It also introduced the Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion (SCUMM), a scripting/programming language that saw action in every subsequent LucasArts adventure game.

SCUMM was the subject of numerous in-jokes, not the least of which was the Razor and the Scummettes band from Maniac Mansion and the “SCUMM bar” in The Secret of Monkey Island (1990).

The latter, of course, established LucasArts as the premier developer of adventure games on the planet. Maniac Mansion and SCUMM alumni, Ron Gilbert, returned for The Secret of Monkey Island, and a young Tim Schafer (Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brütal Legend) cut his teeth on this seminal adventure title.

Apart from Star Wars, Monkey Island is probably LucasArts’ most enduring franchise.

Teenaged pirate Guybrush Threepwood returned for four sequels, including Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (1991), The Curse of Monkey Island (1997), Escape from Monkey Island (2000), and the episodic Tales of Monkey Island (2009).

Talk about longevity – from the original Monkey Island to Tales, the series spans nearly two decades. This puts it roughly equivalent to video game stalwarts (and franchise superstars) like Mega Man, the latter of which only has about four years on Monkey Island.

Indy takes the spotlight

Before LucasArts made its bones in the adventure genre with Maniac Mansion, it dipped its toes in the water with Labyrinth, based on the Jim Henson (and Lucasfilm) fantasy movie. But that was just a taste.

The globetrotting archeologist (of the fedora hat and whip variety) also saw numerous video-game adaptations. Many of the early Indiana Jones titles were movie tie-ins (Raiders of the Lost Ark for the Atari 2600, The Last Crusade for the Genesis and NES), and LucasArts didn’t publish or develop most of them.

The house that Lucas built assumed auteur duties for the point-and-click adventure game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992), a critically acclaimed genre title, and LucasArts subsequently took charge for Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (1999), Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb (2003), and Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (2009).

Alas, I feel like I’m forgetting one particular franchise…

Wars among the stars

LucasFilm’s cash cow was a stalwart of video gaming since Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1982) for the Atari 2600 and Mattel Intellivision and the Star Wars arcade game (1983). But Lucas’ in-house development studio didn’t work on it until the X-Wing franchise.

The DOS-based space-combat sim put you in the cockpit of various Rebel starfighters – X-wings, Y-wings, and A-wings – ultimately tasking you with assaulting the Death Star itself. Lead designer Lawrence Holland borrowed a number of gameplay elements from his previous WWII flight sim, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe.

X-Wing included a revolutionary 3D flight engine, the template for every succeeding space-combat sim, and won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1993.

But it was the sequel – much like with the Star Wars cinematic franchise – that ensured X-Wing’s enduring legacy.

Remember Vader’s wingmen from A New Hope (DS-61-2 and DS-61-3, if my memory serves … yes, I’m a hopeless Star Wars geek)? Ever wanted to be them (or a reasonable facsimile, given that those two chuckleheads screwed up, one collided with Vader, and essentially helped saved the Alliance)?

Star Wars: TIE Fighter (1994) gave budding Imperialists the chance to play as the bad guys. This was followed by the multiplayer-oriented X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (1997) and later by X-Wing Alliance (1999).

Star Wars: Rebel Assault (1993) uses FMV cut-scenes, pre-rendered 3D backdrops, and digitized music and footage from the movies to re-create the trilogy beneath the helmet and behind the trigger of “Rookie One” (a transparent stand-in for another famous Tatooine moisture farmer who walks among the sky).

The sequel, Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire (1995), incorporated original footage of real actors, with high production values and expert use of John Williams’ iconic score. But the clunky, on-rails gameplay kept the game from achieving its predecessor’s fortune and glory (to reference another famous LucasArts franchise).

Meatbags, Jedi, and console RPGs

By 2002, the consensus among the collective Star Wars fandom was that the franchise was overexposed. Episode I: The Phantom Menace took the series in what some perceived as a new kid-friendly direction, alienating long-time fans, and most of the games that followed in its wake were mediocre (at best).

Then along came a console role-playing game called Knights of the old Republic (2003), featuring customizable classes, witty dialogue, and a mature, multilayered narrative. In other words, it was everything that the prequel trilogy (Episodes I, II, and III) tried (and mostly failed) to be. KOTOR was an immediate hit with gamers, and PC and Mac ports followed shortly thereafter.

LucasArts published the sequel, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II — The Sith Lords, for the Xbox and Windows PC in 2004 and 2005, respectively.

‘Block’ party

In 2005, LucasArts inaugurated the Lego video game craze with Lego Star Wars: The Video Game, an instant multiplayer classic. And since your characters could never truly die (they explode in a cacophony of cute, Lego body parts, only to instantly respawn), it’s also a family-friendly classic.

While not the first Lego-branded video game (that would be 1997’s Lego Island), it indisputably launched the current renaissance, and its success compelled LucasArts to release a slew of sequels and spinoffs, including Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (2006), Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (2007), a compilation of the prior two, and Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (2011).

Henry Jones Junior (aka Indiana) also got a couple titles, Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (2008) and Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues (2009).

Credit LucasArts for igniting the Lego gaming craze – non-Lucas franchises, including Batman and Harry Potter, rode the former’s wave of success.

Experimental phase

Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995) capitalized on the popularity of Doom and took the Star Wars franchise into the realm of first-person shooters. It spawned a sequel, Star Wars: Jedi Knight — Dark Forces II (1997) and the Star Wars: Jedi Knight third-person action series.

LucasArts dabbled in strategy with Star Wars: Rebellion (1998), Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds (2001) and Star Wars: Empire at War (2006), and it ventured into the tempestuous world of massively multiplayer online role-playing games with Star Wars: Galaxies (2003) and Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011). While the former was plagued by bugs and an overly complex progression and class system, the latter acquitted itself much better.

In one of the most bizarre uses of the Star Wars license, LucasArts created the 1997 fighting game, Masters of Teräs Käsi, a poorly received mess.

Third-person action title Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, a multimedia craze (punctuated by the official canonical sanctioning by one George Lucas), launched with the Nintendo 64 in 1996, while the recent Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008) presented an uncommonly superb narrative, even if it was mechanically flawed (and even if the 2010 sequel threw out all the nuance and subtlety of its predecessor).

The future

By now, you’ve undoubtedly heard that everybody’s favorite cartoon mouse purchased Lucasfilm (and LucasArts) for a cool $4.05 billion. What does this mean for the future of the gaming division? Lucasfilm spokesperson Barbara Gamlen told GamesBeat that “For the time being, all projects are business as usual.”

This might suggest that Disney has no plans to tinker with the forthcoming Star Wars 1313, the M-rated action-adventure title revealed at this year’s E3 (to the delight of fanboys everywhere, myself included). But considering the mass-media juggernaut’s family-friendly facade, gamers are rightfully concerned.

GamesBeat will continue to document the rich history of LucasArts as it develops and hope that a new chairman of the board subscribes to the light side of the force.

Here’s to 30 more years of quality LucasArts gaming.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Publisher Namco Bandai announced today that its weird ball-rolling puzzle game, Katamari Damacy, will be part of a New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) installation. The 2004 PlayStation 2 release features a colorful world where the prince of the cosmos must collect trash in order to replenish the galaxy’s moons, planets, and stars. It was critically acclaimed at the time and has since seen a number of sequels.

“Namco Bandai Games’ Katamari Damacy has touched countless people, from children to adults, and is truly a modern video game classic,” said Carlson Choi, the vice president of marketing for Namco Bandai Games America, Inc. “The inclusion of Katamari Damacy in this groundbreaking exhibit is a testament to the creative designs embodied in Namco Bandai’s games and shows the importance of video games in peoples’ lives, in addition to being a validation of video games as a modern form of interactive art.”

Katamari Damacy will be included as part of the Century of the Child: Growing by Design exhibit. This is MoMA’s look at the 20th century preoccupation designers had with developing and designing specifically for children. In addition to examining video games, Century of the Child will take a closer look at other overlooked aspects of youth-focused design, including school architecture, playgrounds, and safety equipment.

Over the past few years, gamers and critics have debated the artistic merit of video games. If Roger Ebert proclaiming that interactive experiences like Katamari Damacy “cannot be art” is one end of the spectrum, then a curator placing a game in the MoMA — alongside works by Picasso and Jackson Pollock — should provide an excellent counterpoint in the defense of games.

Century of the Child: Growing by Design will be on display in the New York museum from July 29 through November 5.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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As the last installment in the Dark Knight trilogy hits theaters, we wanted to take a look back at Batman’s more polygonal adventures. Here’s a brief history of the masked detective in video games.

THE FIRST BATMAN GAME

Batman
ZX Spectrum – 1986

Batman games began with this isometric adventure from developer Ocean Software. Robin has been kidnapped, and the player must guide the mask-wearing crime-fighter through his cave to collect the seven pieces of the Batcraft (a Bat-themed hovercraft). Bruce Wayne should probably fire the contractor who designed the Batcave to be so difficult to navigate.

Ocean’s adaptation is notable for a sound effect that plays constantly every time Batman walks. It’s like hiring a high-school sophomore to continuously play two notes on his clarinet every time you take a step.

Despite the annoying noise, Batman for the ZX Spectrum was well received. The magazine Computer and Video Games awarded it a 37 out of 40.

Batfact: Ocean designed an early form of the checkpoint system that saves players’ progress for this title.

THE DARK KNIGHT IN 8 AND 16-BIT 

Batman
NES – 1990

Batman for the NES is an adaptation of the Tim Burton-directed film, but developer Sunsoft’s true inspiration was obviously the Konami favorite, Ninja Gaiden. Batman walks, jumps, and attacks in a nearly identical manner to the Ninja Gaiden protagonist. Enemies even vanish in an explosive puff when punched as they do when attacked in the Konami game. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it an average score of 7.75.

Batfact: The prototype version of Batman for the NES featured cutscenes composed of panels from the Alan Moore-authored Batman: The Killing Joke.

Batman Returns
SNES – 1993

The Konami-developed Batman Returns for the SNES is an action beat-em-up. The game’s plot follows the Tim Burton sequel closely, even featuring a 16-bit representation of Danny DeVito as the Penguin. It’s pretty great. Despite being yet another walk-and-punch Final Fight ripoff (in the thick of that genre’s popularity), critics gave it generally favorable reviews. Electronic Gaming Monthly declared it the best licensed game in its 1993 Buyer’s Guide issue.

Batfact: In total, six different developers produced six different versions of Batman Returns across PC, Amiga, Atari Lynx, Genesis, Game Gear, and SNES.

WHERE DOES HE GET THOSE WONDERFUL POLYGONS?

Batman & Robin
PlayStation – 1998

In 1997, Warner Bros. and director Joel Schumacher unleashed an unholy creation on humanity known as Batman & Robin. It is a notoriously awful film starring George Clooney as Bruce Wayne. A year later, the game based on that tragic mess didn’t do much to help the Bat’s reputation. The Acclaim-published and Probe Entertainment-developed semi-open-world title had players guiding Batman, Robin, and Batgirl around Gotham to collect clues and predict where Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy will turn up. In its review, GameSpot said it was better than the film, and then awarded it a 5.7 out of 10.

Batfact:  In-game events in Batman & Robin would occur independent of player action. Instead, moments like Mr. Freeze robbing a bank would occur at a preset time, similar to modern zombie game Dead Rising.

Batman Begins
PlayStation 2/Xbox/GameCube – 2005

A day before Christopher Nolan’s first Batman film hit theaters, EA released the Eurocom-developed Batman Begins for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. Typical for games adapted from movies at the time, Eurocom chose the third-person action-game genre. The dev attempted to set its title apart by creating an intimidation system for Batman. Players use gadgets and the environment to frighten enemies, making the targets easier to defeat. The result is an average game that Nintendo Power Magazine felt was worthy of a 6.5 out of 10.

Batfact: The game’s composer, Ian Livingstone, worked on the score for Napoleon: Total War and created the famous default ringtone for Nokia phones…which is now in your head.

WHICH LEGO PIECE DO I USE TO MAKE THE BAT NIPPLES?

Lego Batman: The Video Game
PlayStation 3/Xbox 360/Wii – 2008

Coming off its astronomical success with the Lego Star Wars games, Warner Bros. and developer Traveller’s Tales teamed up to blockify and then gamify the world’s greatest detective. Players control numerous characters from the Batman universe across 30 levels. The Lego games are low-pressure adventures designed to be forgiving to young players. Collecting cool characters like Nightwing, Harley Quinn, and Man-Bat keeps the action fresh, even as some of the mechanics begin to wear out their welcome. According to Metacritic, Lego Batman: The Video Game is favorably viewed by critics. The Xbox 360 version received an aggregated score of 76 out of 100.

THE BEST BATMAN GAME

Batman: Arkham City
PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 – 2011

By the time developer Rocksteady released Batman: Arkham Asylum (the precursor to Arkham City), the Dark Knight had earned a reputation for poor to mediocre performances in games. That changed with the gripping 3D adventure set in Gotham’s asylum for the criminally insane. The bigger sequel refined and expanded an already great experience.

In Arkham City, Gotham has cordoned off most of its land as a makeshift prison a la Escape from New York. Bruce Wayne holds a press conference to announce his opposition to this method of incarceration when he is kidnapped and placed inside the walls of the quarantine. It’s a good excuse for the game to throw every major villain across the Caped Crusader’s path.

Critics love Batman: Arkham City. Metacritic tracked the Xbox 360 review scores for the game at a 96 out of 100.

Don’t forget to check out our look back at the many pixelated incarnations of the Bat.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Last week we exposed some of the most rampant cover art clichés in gaming. Well, it only seems fair that we celebrate the most beautiful and original images that have ever graced the boxes of interactive entertainment.

The gallery below contains games across multiple eras of the industry’s history, but they all feature covers that beg for a second glance. Also, if there’s one thing we can learn from this, it’s that Japan is far better at this sort of thing than we Americans are.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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After 10 years and 11 months, Sony hit the 150 million units (shipped into stores, not sold to consumers) milestone on Jan. 31. That’s a pretty big accomplishment, considering that Sony launched the PlayStation 3 in 2006 and that most buyers of new consoles have opted for the newer machine.

But it shows that older technologies are still fashionable in many parts of the world where the cost of new technology is prohibitive. In fact, it really isn’t such a crazy idea to make a game for the PlayStation 2. To date, some 10,828 titles have shipped on the PS 2 and more than 1.52 billion games have been sold for the PS 2.

The PS 2 had some eye-popping graphics for its day, and it introduced innovations such as the DualShock 2 vibrating controller, the EyeToy camera, and a bunch of cool games from God of War to Gran Turismo. The PS 2 was also the first home entertainment system to integrate DVD technology. At the time, people thought Sony was crazy. But the success of the PS 2 helped establish DVDs as the format of choice for movies for years to come.

The PS 2 is still selling strongly in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and South America.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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