"Critical Kate" Willaert

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 11, 2024 at 03:13 UTC

I've done my best to clean up the IA scan. Not only are their poses subtly different, the angle of the lighting is completely changed. Like they made everyone sit there while they moved the lighting around a bit? Somehow this one looks more early '90s than early '80s to me.

3 replies 1 reposts 9 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 11, 2024 at 03:12 UTC

Interesting bit of trivia about the famous "Can A Computer Make You Cry" ad below: There was an alternate version that was only ever printed in Creative Computing that at first glance is just the photo in color, but it's actually a different shot from the same session.

1 replies 2 reposts 13 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 20:13 UTC

I will update the spreadsheet!

0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 20:09 UTC

Over on Gaming Alexandria Discord we've been trying to piece it together (with a lot of input from @garrettgilchrist.bsky.social)

2 replies 0 reposts 3 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 20:06 UTC

For fans of history, one of EA's first games Murder On The Zinderneuf contains a meta-game of sorts: Which real and fictional people are each of the 16 suspects based on? In many cases they are a combination of at least two.

2 replies 3 reposts 7 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 04:01 UTC

You should just randomly use it in place of whatever idiom you’d normally use. Reading the responses to this has been completely out of pocket.

0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 02:30 UTC

I dare someone to name their video game cover band Panic! At The Doki.

2 replies 3 reposts 19 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 02:17 UTC

Oh, "I. Marui" comes from the prototype I guess.
tcrf.net/Proto:The_Le...

0 replies 0 reposts 6 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 02:14 UTC

The big question re: Clu Clu Land is whether any of the credits line up with anyone who worked on Legend Of Zelda. And the answer is: not unless "JIM" is the mysterious "I. Marui" who is credited as "Marumaru" in Zelda. But where does "I. Marui" even come from if it's not in the game?

1 replies 0 reposts 6 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 01:40 UTC

Most of these guesses come from this useful page:

w.atwiki.jp/ncgamereport...

1 replies 0 reposts 7 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 01:37 UTC

"T.S" = Takao Sawano? (Mario Artist) "SUG" = Tadashi Sugiyama? (Zelda II) "KAZ" = Kazunobu Shimizu? (Zelda II) "ERI" = Kazunobu Eri? (Mario Artist) "K.M" = Kenji Miki? "TOM" = Tatsunori "Tomichan" Takatura again? "M.U" = Masayuki Uemura?

1 replies 0 reposts 8 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 01:34 UTC

I'm completely lost on the others though. Clu Clu Land is equally tough. It's an important game because Zelda's rupee and puffer enemy come from this. But who worked on it?

1 replies 0 reposts 8 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 01:27 UTC

However, Melee also says DDP's Tadashi Sugiyama did character design, and he's not here. People that could be here: "SOE" might be Zelda's Yasunari Soejima. "IYO" could be Metroid's Hiroji Kiyotake. "TOM" could be DDP's Tatsunori "Tomichan" Takatura.

1 replies 0 reposts 11 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 01:23 UTC

Ice Climber is important because it was a vertical-scrolling platformer before SMB2/DDP. And in fact, we know one DDP programmer worked on it: Kazuaki Morita said so in a Nintendo Power interview, so he's "MOR." Melee says Akito Nakatsuka did music, so he's "NAK."

1 replies 0 reposts 14 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 01:16 UTC

One sad/frustrating thing about Nintendo history is that any early game that Miyamoto didn't work on, we frequently have very little info about who worked on it. However, high score tables in the VS. arcade editions might offer hints? Let's take a look at a few.

1 replies 6 reposts 45 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 18:28 UTC

Now that we're approaching one year since the Famicom 40th minisite opened, I'm looking at some of the epic hi-res artwork.

0 replies 0 reposts 14 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 04:15 UTC

Better not tell them about Tropical Dave.

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 03:54 UTC

There’s an obscure lost Japanese-only arcade game from 1980 called Tropical Dive, and whenever I see it in my spreadsheet, my brain registers it as “Tropical Dave.” Hey man, it’s Tropical Daaave!

4 replies 1 reposts 18 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 19:57 UTC

That's what I'm saying, yes. This might've changed my life as a kid.

1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 16:48 UTC

Do you ever think about how Mario Maker was like a sequel to WarioWare DIY was a sequel to Mario Artist was a sequel to Mario Paint was a sequel to Family Computer BASIC?

7 replies 2 reposts 37 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 15:25 UTC

What I also learned is that apparently very few straight women follow me. Or maybe I was just posting too many polls and this one got lost in the shuffle. Non-binary not attracted to women was also a tiny sample.

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"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 15:23 UTC

Men and non-binary attracted to women overwhelming voted for Lady Bug, roughly 80% to 20%. Women attracted to women was a closer race, 62% to 38%.

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 15:16 UTC

I conducted six polls, broken down into male, female, and non-binary people who are and are not attracted to women. The sample size probably wasn't large enough to be representative, but it suggests some interesting trends. In particular, the group Ms. Pac-Man won was gay men, 65% vs. 35%.

1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 14:35 UTC

Before I share the results with you, I'll let you chime in about which you think is more "sexy," and if you want to elaborate on your rationale.

Also, I forgot to tag @drewgmackie.bsky.social, you should follow him.

2 replies 1 reposts 5 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 14:31 UTC

This was the result of an unlikely conversation between myself (an asexual) and Drew Mackie (of the podcast Gayest Episode Ever) after I read his recent article on the history of Ms. Pac-Man, over on his excellent gaming history blog:
www.thrillingtalesofoldvideogames.com/blog/ms-pac-...

1 replies 3 reposts 9 likes

"Critical Kate" Willaert @katewillaert.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 14:29 UTC

Bluesky sadly still doesn't have polling functionality, so over on Twitter I recently conducted a very strange poll. I asked different groups who they considered to be more "sexy" in their classic cabinet art depiction: Ms. Pac-Man, or rival Lady Bug?

1 replies 2 reposts 10 likes