My HotRod joystick finally arrived! It’s the perfect joystick for playing your favourite MAME games, as it uses the same technology used in actual arcade cabinets. I was a bit shocked by it’s enormous size when it arrived – the case seems to have been built from 2 inch thick planks of wood. After playing a couple of 2-player Street Fighter matches, I realized the bulky case is there to add stability, and avoid the joystick flying across the room in the heat of battle.

I just came across these 2 very original, independent, downloadable games: Gish – control a sentient ball of tar(!) moving through a maze. Oasis – a strange, fast-paced Civilization type game.

Also check out this great 2004 Web & Downloadable Games White Paper (pdf – 2MB). A must-read for anyone interested in creating web based games.

Recently I’ve been playing a lot of Pac-man on mame. Pac-Man has a fantastically simple, self-contained game concept. Upon first seeing the play area you instantly grasp the purpose of the game. The sound design is awesome, especially the tempo setting wacca-wacca sound (The Japanese word “paku” represents the sound of opening and closing the mouth).

It turns out the ghost’s movements are completely deterministic (there is no randomness in the AI). Because of this people have discovered patterns that will enable you to finish the game every time. There are actually just 3 patterns you need to get to level 17 every time.

Note that these patterns enable you to finish levels but not maximize points. The perfect Pac-man game is hitting the level 256 split-screen lock up, after eating every ghost and every fruit, and never losing a life. This was achieved in 1999 by Billy Mitchell, who said: “I understand the behavior of the ghosts and am able to manipulate the ghosts into any corner of the board I choose.”

Download a demo of Samurai – a turn-based strategy game of balance and conquest. This is a Mac/PC implementation of a board game by Reiner Knizia, a big name in ‘german’ or ‘designer’ board games. Good AI, online multiplayer and an attractive interface make this a great version of a classic game.

‘N’ is a very addictive, minimalistic 2D flash platform game featuring advanced physics simulation. Download it here.

PopCap‘s games seem to be some of the most popular on the web. They have almost taken over Shockwave.com, and they have 2 new games: Zuma and Rocket Mania.

When I first checked out PopCap’s games I was upset by the mindless gameplay which usually involves repetion of simple tasks. These games seems to be targeted at a large and unloved sector of the games audience: old people and office workers. These people have web access and lots of free time. They want undemanding, relaxing games with nice graphics that will kill some time.

After playing Rocket Mania for a while I began to succumb to the almost zen-like state of mindless clicking. The games are very well crafted and easy to use. They have good installers, effective sounds/animations and very tactile UIs. There is usually a random play element to keep up interest, and a game system where good (or lucky) plays are rewarded with chain-reactions of explosions.

As the game market expands to cater to people other than teenaged boys, I think PopCap will do very well.