From the mouth of Patrick:
I'm going to make a pretty bold prediction right now: Within the next ten years, commercial physical media (as we know it) will no longer be available for purchase. No longer will we go to the nearest electronic store and browse the latest Blu-Ray movies that came out, nor will we have stacks of DVDs that our favorite games were bought on.
Instead, we'll be buying and downloading all our content from the safety of our home.
Until recently, physical media have always been the most efficient way of distributing data in the highest quality possible and in the most legal way possible. Thankfully, we've had two companies who have given birth to, in my opinion, the best thing that could happen for the technological age: Apple and Valve.
To quickly touch base on Apple, they introduced the iTunes Store in 2003, and just this year became the number one music retailer (Physical and downloadable) in the United States. Currently, they're rolling out downloadable movies, movie rentals, and television shows as well in various countries, and they're greatly picking up steam (which leads me to...)
In terms of PC gaming, the greatest thing in the past five years is the introduction of Steam. What Steam did for PC gaming was take the best things that console gamers had and add the benefits of what you can do with the PC platform. Things like friends, chat, instant friend game joining and, alas, a way to store and play games without the need for a physical medium. Gametap has created a similar service as well focusing more on independent and older games, and a new service based just on retro gameplay is launching within the next couple of months.
However, there are still a couple of hurdles that hide themselves. If you read the Steam contract for any game you buy, you'll see that if Steam goes down, then all of your legally purchased games are unplayable. As well, these gaming services tend to have poor offline modes that do at some point require online verification. Still, the day where electronic stores are filled simply with hardware and all software and multimedia is off the disc will be a very happy day in my mind.
And then maybe I'll be able to clear enough room off my desk to add a second monitor. Except for all the cool stuff I like to collect. Which brings me to...
DROD: The City Beneath Limited Edition Deluxe Boxed Set
The collector in me is pleased to announce that Caravel Games is finally taking pre-orders for the deluxe CD version of
The City Beneath! This limited edition boxed set will be crammed with more features than you can imagine, including a physical poster map of Dugandy (helpful for those tourists who are looking for a nice vacation spot or maybe have a hankering for a roachburger), and other surprise bonus goodies on the CD.
For all those of you who've bought the downloadable version of
DROD:TCB previously, you can get the boxed set for an easy $16 by emailing your previous order information to Mike at Caravel (miker [at] caravelgames [dot] com) and asking for a coupon code. Better hurry, only 200 copies are going to be available and a substantial portion have already been spoken for as of this moment!
http://www.caravelgames.com/buyTCB.html (Buy CD Link)
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=22247 (Discussion)
Devilishly Dangerous Dungeons of Doom
Yes, it may have been over a year in the making, but the brand-new
Smitemaster's Selection is out, authored by Roger Barnett, prominent forum figure Calamarain! This episode takes place shortly after the end of
The City Beneath. In it, Beethro's out to tell people the secret he learned at Lowest Point, but something's blocking him from reaching the one person that could actually help him out. Let the raucous romp of alliterative allegory melt into your mind! Anyone with existing credits can grab the SS through the Purchase tab in their forum Profile, or they can pick up some extra credits via the link below.
Caravel is taking final pre-orders for this SmS on CD. If you have a CD credit in your Caravel user account, you'll get this issue sent to you as soon as it's printed. If not, and you want this new SmS on CD, then you'd better act fast and order one!
http://www.caravelgames.com/Articles/Games_2/SS.html
Ask almost anything about DROD RPG: Tendry's Tale
You may have heard through the grapevine that Caravel's releasing a new game in the not-too-distant future. You may have even heard that it stars a character other than Beethro. Heck, you may have even heard that it will be like a role-playing game as opposed to a straight puzzle game. But what if your main concern was the color of this new character's hair? This is the topic to ask all about it!
And no, we don't know the release date yet, but it will be soon!
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=22016
Winners Galore
Many puzzles were created in our June contest, but we could only have three winners.
Techant took bronze with her DROD rendition of Sudoku (and personally, I'm a big fan of Sukodu thanks to long lunch hours),
DanielFishman took second for a fun puzzle for watchdogs, and
brian_s received First Place for his Laryngitis puzzle (please collect the item of your choice from the Prize Pile!). All of the puzzles were well crafted, and an excellent way to sharpen the ol' noggin!
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=21953 (Puzzles)
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=22143 (Results)
DROD: Not-so-realtime RTS
In an effort to gain more market share, August's contest is all about simulating a strategy version of our favorite game. Participants are given a ten-roach army, and turns will be occurring three times a week. Sadly, it's too late to enter this contest, but that doesn't mean you can't observe the fun! This should certainly be an interesting contest to say the least!
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=22216
Topic Picks for July
Our good friend Robobob3000 has stepped up to the microphone to start reporting about the wonderful events that happen in the forum. I wanted to try and get him to go to QuakeCON, but it was apparently outside my budget.
Speedy Cheese
This poll doesn't just ask the burning question we've all been wondering about. It also represents an astonishing breakthrough in verbal efficiency: Cheese good? Take care when participating - there is such a thing as a wrong answer in this poll.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=22235
Guess the Screenshot
This little forum game has been burning up the board for approximately 82 pages now and shows no sign of stopping any time soon. I mean, look at it! That topic icon is literally on fire! Come take a look and marvel at how ugly games used to be. Show off some of your own obscure favorites!
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=10851
Hawks: Also Known for Their Speed
The_Red_Hawk, best known for his colossal
Deep Hold, has returned to our corner of the internet from the searing brightness of the outside world to give us
Lightning, a short hold based around (wait for it...) speed potions! Let's help an old forum vet out with some testing, what do you say?
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=22186
Flash! (Not to be confused with The Flash, of course)
How do you attract the masses to harsh puzzle hacking and slashing? Simple! Flash-based gameplay! If you've got a knack for the ol' ActionScript, give this community project a look over. Be forewarned: A DROD-themed gem-swapper is entirely unacceptable.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=22196
Barleytown, Dungeon Master, Secret Santa Compilation, Outposts, Album 2, An Eye View, Castle Steele
These are all the holds that have been released in the past month. Be sure to give them a shot, as a couple of them were made by experienced architects!
http://forum.caravelgames.com/holds.php
Have a great month everyone!
-Patrick
____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.
[Last edited by mrimer at 08-03-2008 09:42 PM]
is a considerably more stylish way to express sarcasm than 
, because everybody uses 
/dy