Game.com 5 Hit Combo

Game.com might not be the most popular handheld, even among the less popular ones [..what?] but if you think it totally sucks, you're wrong. Partially.

If you have no idea what a Game.com is, it's a handheld gaming platform developed by Tiger, released in second half of '97. It featured a touch screen, and even though it didn't impress display-wise [190 x 108, displaying four shades of grey] it was capable of using rather neat PCM samples. Nice touch in all fighting games, where you actually get to hear the announcer.



So what am I so happy about? I've managed to score five games, sealed, in mint condition, and I got a bargain. Usually Game.com games, even though rather low in price, wear higher pricetags than what I have paid for these titles.



As you can see, Game.com did get some decent titles, such as Resident Evil and Fighters Megamis [also worth mentioning: Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Sonic Jam]. And all would be fine if it wasn't for the terrible refresh rate of the screen. Graphics are really cool, sound rocks, but the refresh rate makes you feel as if you were playing a Game & Watch title. And that's not good at all.

However, if you do come across one of these, give it a try. Game.com systems can be extremly cheap these days, since noone will have them. A nice addition to your collection, especially if you're into handhelds of all sorts.

『 Exclusively Multiplatform 』

Today, while at work, I was doing some thinking and it occured to me that Microsoft obviously doesn't know what does the word "exclusive" mean. To start on a correct note, let us make sure about the meaning of the word before we proceed [we're only interested in the adjective, or course].



"Not divided or shared with others / not shared" I'd say that about sums it up. In other words, if let's say, Microsoft, was to publish a game and label it "Only on Xbox", that would mean the game is an exclusive Xbox title and you shouldn't even try looking for it elsewhere.

There are plenty of games released on Xbox that wear this exclusive label proudly. Among them you'll find "Ninja Gaiden", "Dead or Alive" and "Gotham Racing". And that's just fine. But among "Only on Xbox" titles you'll also find "Halo" and "Chronicles of Riddick". While it is possible that a PC port of the first title wasn't planned at the time of its Xbox release, I read about the PC version of "CoR" within a month of game's premiere date. Now honestly, being a developer, would you not know that you were about to port the game and release it just six months later? In Europe, Riddick came out on Xbox in August. In December it came out on PC. Strangely enough, Halo's european launch was in March of 2003. In September it came out for the PC.



It's just an observation and it doesn't bother me that much really, but if you mark something as being exclusive or dedicated to one specific platform, you should know better. On top of that, what is "exclusive" in the world of video games? There's a fair chance that a succesfull title will get ported sooner or later. On top of that, does an arcade title ported to a home platform count as an exclusive? When "OutRun 2" came out on Xbox, it also had the distinctive mark of "Only on Xbox". But if the game itself is already a port or an arcade title, how exclusive it really is?



I guess Nintendo understands this a bit better. Their "Only For (GameCube)" marking really stands for what it says, and you won't see an exclusive GameCube title being ported to some other system. As an example of how careful Nintendo is in this matter you can look at "Resident Evil 4" release. Even though the PlayStation 2 port didn't appear untill eight months later, the original GameCube release wasn't labeled as exclusive. In fact, not one Resident Evil game, including the "Resident Evil Zero", was labeled as exclusive.



I guess the definition of a dedicated, single platform title would have to be "Fighters Megamix". Developed for Sega Saturn, labeled as an exclusive, and that was that.



Untill the Game.com version came out. The End.



If you'd like to share your thoughts on the subject of games' exclusive status and how inacurate these labels can be, feel free to comment

『 Kalmo - Rokkstar 』

Now this is something I've been looking for since the end of Assembly 2004. Each year more and more mobile demos are produced, which makes it even better to own a proper mobile phone, so that you can run all these marvelous productions.

In 2004, out of nowhere comes Rokkstar and their Kalmo. The production was stuffed into one category with GameBoy and other handheld devices, because otherwise it would have virtually no competition. It scored a third place. Only a video was released, which kind of bums me out. It's a Symbian based program, which should be properly released as a *.sis file. No such luck.

To this day noone got their hands on an executable. Nonetheless, you should check out Scene.org or any other major scene portal which can fix you up with the full video of Kalmo. In the meantime, enjoy the ending credits.