An Editorial By Ricky Coulter

In games, in computers, in life itself, I oftentimes find myself facing in a different direction than the rest of the world seems to be heading. There are times when I enjoy the fact that I am one of the few who see the world differently in that manner, and there are times when it’s just plain tough.

Let me explain to you how I view things differently as far as games or computers are concerned. First off, I am a Mac fanatic. Oh, but if that weren’t enough, I am fighting the switch to Intel Macintosh hardware. That’s right, I have began to segregate myself from the already small and segmented group that is Mac fanatics. I’m a PowerPC Mac fanatic. Perhaps it’s a purist thing. I haven’t been a Mac freak for a considerable amount of time. Case and point, I got my first Mac about 2 years ago, after many years of on and off-hand PC usage.

The reason I switched in the first place was because I was tired of viruses, tired of stupid system crashes, tired of .DLL files, and tired of the dreaded BSOD. I even tried Knoppix, a linux distro that runs from the CD drive, and used it for probably six months or so before I gave up on it as well. It was just too damned complicated. There were too many problems, so I basically said, “Screw it.”

Suffice to say, orienting myself into a more Mac lifestyle was fun, interesting, and very relaxing. It was fun using a computer again. It was different than everyone else’s beige box. Discovering the Aqua interface for Panther was simply awe inspiring. I was disappointed in the lack of certain software on the Mac front, but it’s a small price to pay. After all, crashes are rare and viruses are all but nonexistent. I can surf the web and download mail, music, whatever, without having to worry if it’s safe.

Then fast forward to today and the first MacIntels are out. What’s worse, they’re faster than even the most powerful quad-core G5 PowerMacs. It’s depressing for the worst reasons. Logic tells me that I should be grateful for a faster Mac, but my heart tells me to stay away, that it’s a bastardization of the Macintosh platform I know and love. So for the time being, at least until Apple drops support for the PPC Mac line, I’ll be segregated from the few who understood the difference between PC’s and Macs, at least the difference that used to exist.

Oh, but it gets worse. Let me give you another example of my segmentation from normal society. I own an N-Gage QD. That just about say’s it all. Of course, there are about 3 million other N-Gage lovers across the globe, but it’s certainly a small group. What’s even more strange is that nine out of ten times, I would have completely ignored the N-Gage as a phone and as a gaming platform. It’s like in any other situation, I wouldn’t have looked twice.

I’ve had my QD since it was launched back in 2004. The reason I got into the N-Gage was actually fairly logical and simple. I needed a phone and I wanted the best value for my dollar. The N-Gage had some cool games and was starting to get even better ones at the time, it could run software written for the Symbian Series 60 OS, a large portion of which was freeware, it could do all sorts of neat things, and it was relatively cheap at $200 bucks. A device that can do such things at the time was pretty expensive. Still is. But again, I needed a phone, so the extras just made the deal that much sweeter.

Even though I no longer have cellular service, I still use my QD daily. I read text files and e-books on it using ReadM, I watch movies on it using RealOne Player and SmartMovie, I play NES/GBC/SMS/GG games on it using vNES/vBoy/SMSPlus, and I have several N-Gage games backed-up on the same card, so that I can conveniently choose from them in the menus without having to swap cards. As a multimedia device, it’s got it’s drawbacks, but for a nearly two year old phone, I am still getting a ton of usage out of the damn thing. But what makes me different, again, is, perhaps, the purist in me.

The next-generation of the N-Gage family will be that of a whole line of compatible smart-phones that can play next-gen games. Backwards compatibility with the current library of games is questionable at best, and even more disheartening, the new system will use a form of online download-per-pay service. That means you buy a game and it downloads straight to your phone. Yeah, great for some apps, but I am adamant about having some sort of physical product where my games are concerned.

It just doesn’t feel right to me, so once again, I’m segregating myself from an already small group of peers and I will be staying behind on the Series 60 version one platform using my QD. As the world moves on to different things, i’ll be staying behind. Let me say that it is disheartening to see the N-Gage as it stands today die after only a couple of years. Things were finally starting to work out for the platform and it’s already just about gone. Shame.

Ironically enough, I’m not even close to being done. To ensure that this editorial is kept under a reasonable length, I will summarize my other ‘quirks’. I believe the cartridge is still a viable gaming storage medium for certain gaming applications, namely handheld consoles or the like. Likewise, I feel that 2d has been literally abandoned for 3d, and it’s just a damned shame. I don’t know how you feel, but I LOVE 2d gaming. I’m a Neo Geo freak. It’s got some of the best 2d games ever created, as far as I am concerned.

Now, I like 3d gaming just as much as the rest of the world. Resident Evil 4 was superb, Star Fox on the SNES is one of my two favorite games of all time, and Super Smash Bros. Melee is simply kick-ass. It could even be argued that SSBM is 2d due to the perspective. Sure, it is. But that’s only part of the picture. I am a fan of sprite-based 2d games. Let me briefly explain what a sprite is. It’s a collection of colored pixels that make up a small image on the screen. When zoomed in up close, it looks like colored pixels, but when viewed at it’s intended size, it looks like a cartoon or a character or whatever. It looks cool. Pixel Art seems to be a dying art form these days, with the minor exception of the GBA. It’s practically the end of the line for 2d games.

You think you’ll ever see a 2d sprite-based game on the PS3? Hell no. And you know what, it’s just a damned shame that the world has moved past such a creative and fun gameplay design. Another segregation from my peers: check. And one more quirk of mine…I’m a pushover when it comes to older or classic gaming or computer hardware.

Now, I’m not talking about a 486DX PC when I say older computers. That’s just a slower version of today’s PC. I’m talking about stuff like the Amiga or the Atari ST/TT/Falcon line of computers. They were the last platforms that were significantly different in their approaches to personal computing, with Apple’s Macintosh as the surviving exception. Even now, I long to own a circa-1986 Atari ST computer setup. I wish I had a Falcon computer, which was the last official Atari computer released before the entire computer line was axed in favor of the Jaguar.

Speaking of the Jaguar, consoles are no exception to this view. I am adamantly against the quick turnover for console cycles. I think the NES has some cool tricks left up it’s sleeve. I think the Jaguar is one of the greatest untapped homebrew boxes, not to mention one of the first. The 2600? No question it has potential. Just take a gander over at AtariAge and you’ll see the 2600 homebrew scene alive and kicking. Games are still produced for the machine nearly 30 years after it was launched. And you know what? That’s how it should be. Don’t even get me started about the Dreamcast…I don’t like looking at a console and saying it’s dead. The world seems to have moved on, but why should I leave when it’s just getting warmed up?

Maybe I am a purist of sorts. If that is the case, I am an unusual purist, perhaps an impure purist, if you will. I’m an oddball in my views of things, but that’s okay. It’s good to be different.

Feel free to discuss this editorial in this thread.