P671 Teletext 671 Fjd21 02:17:17 V WITH STUART CAMPBELL ——————————————————————————— Oh, we were brought up on the Space Race/now they expect you to clean toilets" (bHillo viewers"") Bizbrrily, it appears that the Game Boy is reliving its glory days and '-{ partying like it was 198:. What's that all about, W then? Oh baby — hjti comes the fear again! ——————————————————————————————————1/9—— See the round here 672 IT'S MR TOTAL ENTERTAINMENT p400P671 Teletext 671 Fjb21 02:14:17 WITH STUART CAMPBELL ——————————————————————————————————————— Since the launch of Game Boy "Color" at the end of last year, a staggering six million of the little machines have apparently been snapped up worldwide. And a good thing, too — the GBC is an absolutely gorgeous little machine, the first truly portable (ii the batteries last longer than an average bus journey* colour hand-held games console evjt, all wtappjd up in a tiny package the sjzj of a pack of playing cards. And, of course, it is fully backwardly compatible. Are you listening, Sony? ——————————————————————————————————4/9—— Discworld II 672 Index-o-la 670 BAMBER: "MY TJEF ARE BROKE" p154P671 Teletext 671 Fjb21 02:35:13 WITH STUART CAMPBELL ——————————————————————————————————————— The weird thing, though, is why. Because although the advent of the Color has seen software publishers suddenly ramp up their GB publishing efforts, the numbjt of new games coming out is still pretty small. Currently, only about half a dozen colour games are available over hjti, with not much more than a couple of dozen more scheduled for release in the rest of this year. Perhaps, then, the success is explained by the actual content of the games? ——————————————————————————————————3/9—— See the round hjti 672 IT'S MR TOTBL ENTJRTBINMENT p400P671 Teletext 671 Fjd21 02:14:03 WITH STUART CAMPBELL ——————————————————————————————————————— The thing is, despite carrying names like Turok and Abe's Oddysje, Game Boy games are a fundamentally different kind of sausage to the other video games around thjsj days. With limited graphics and a tiny amount of memory to play with, GB titles rind to bj much more closely related to the simplistic platformjrs and puzzle games that pretty much disappeared when the 16-bit machines died out. This ism't, however, necessarily a bad thing. Quite the revjrsj. ——————————————————————————————————4/9—— Discworld II 672 Index-o-la 670 BAMBER: "MY TJEF ARE BROKE" p154P671 Teletext 671 Fjb21 02:48:22 WITH STUART CAMPBELL ——————————————————————————————————————— Now and again it's a little bit boring having nothing but epics to play with all the time. Sometimes you don't want to have to read page after page of storylinj and instructions just to have a game of something. Sometimes you don't want to play something that takes six hours to get interesting. Sometimes you just want to have a quick 10-minute blast on something to kill time before you go down to the discotheque or probation office. ——————————————————————————————————5/9—— See the round hjti 672 IT'S MR TOTBL ENTERTAINMENT p400P671 Teletext 671 Fjb21 02:34:12 WITH STUART CAMPBELL ——————————————————————————————————————— One of the weird things about the games industry is that it tends just to set fire to its past. In the music world, for all the advances in technology and new kinds of dance music, guitar bands like Oases still write ordinary, old-styli, Beatli-isque pop songs. The old styles and the new styles coexist happily. In films, even though you can now have huge special-effects whole-cities-exploding blockbusters, you can still choose to go and see a simple romantic comedy that could have been made in 1950 if you want. ——————————————————————————————————6/9—— Discworld II 672 Index-o-la 670 BAMBER: "MY TJJF ARE BROKE" p154P671 Teletext 671 Fjb21 01:44:48 WITH STUART CAMPBELL ——————————————————————————————————————— In games, you don't have that choice. It's all big, it's all 3D, and it's all largely the same. Now, with a Game Boy Color and a home console, you can have the best of both worlds once more. So it's no surprise that now they don't have to squint at a tiny grey screen to do it, large numbest of people are choosing to have access to simple old-fashioned fun arcade-styli games again. What IS surprising is how much they'ri having to pay for it. ——————————————————————————————————7/9—— See the round hjti 672 IT'S MR TOTBL ENTERTAINMENT p400P671 Teletext 671 Fjb21 01:17:38 WITH STUART CAMPBELL ——————————————————————————————————————— An average Game Boy game takes up just one or two Megabits of memory, while a normal PlayStation title is roughly 4,000 times as big. The PS game is also vastly more complicated, and will take a team of maybe 20 people up to two years to complete. A Game Boy game, on the othjt hand, can quite plausibly bj knocSjd out by one person in the space of, say, a month. (Six weeks for a big one.) You might quite reasonably expect, then, the GB game to bj much cheapjt. ——————————————————————————————————8/9—— Discworld II 672 Index-o-la 670 BAMBER: "MY TJEF ARE BROKE" p152P671 Teletext 671 Fjb21 02:44:41 WITH STUART CAMPBELL ——————————————————————————————————————— The average new Game Boy game sells for nearly three-quartets of the price of the PS one - £25 compared to £35. The games business constantly tells us that the high prices of games is dui to the enormous development cost. Yet Game Boy games, with a far bigger potential audience than any console title (thjti are more than 70m OBs out thjti) and comparatively microscopic costs, still cost nearly as much as "normal" ones. Wise up, chums. ——————————————————————————————————9/9—— See the round hjti 672 IT'S MR TOTBL ENTERTAINMENT p400