On Twitch, the Big Bad Game-A-Thon is this weekend! It’ll be going until 8 PM Sunday night, and it’s filled with bad games and fun commentary! Go see it on its channel. It’s schedule is here.
Big Bad Game-A-Thon
Tag: marathon
AGDQ 2023 Approaches!
Everyone’s favorite, or at least the most famous, charity speedrunning marathon is back! It’s January 8 through 14. This is the one with Awful Block, BTW! This year AGDQ is being run to support the Prevent Cancer Foundation.12
This year I have a schedule conflict and so I won’t be able to watch it as carefully to report on day to day here. But I can try to say something where I can when I happen to catch a stolen moment!
Of note, AGDQ 2023 this year is completely online again. SGDQ this year went back to being in person, but particular issues resulted in AGDQ going back to online-only. Specifically, back in 2020 before the pandemic happened, they had locked in a venue in Florida. Since then not only did the pandemic hit, but Florida went absolutely anti-vaccine crazy, not to mention anti-trans!
Both of these factors resulted in their decision to not hold the event in Florida, even though it requires paying substantial cancellation fees. That sucks, but I support them in this decision, and I say this as someone who lives in a state close to Florida.
Even though I won’t be able to follow it as closely as last time, they will still be posting archives of all their runs to Youtube so they can be watched after the fact! And I can still take a moment to have a look at their schedule right now and find some things that might be of interest out our audience of three, maybe even four people. All times here are US Eastern:
SUNDAY, January 8th
Noon: Splatoon 3, still a really new game so you’ll probably to be able to see a lot of new tech!
1:30 PM: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The past six years this game has been absolutely blown apart in strange and entertaining ways! This may be its last year in the spotlight though, since its sequel is coming out this year!
4:29 PM: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. An old favorite!
11:19 PM: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. This is a randomizer run, so unusual events may be in the offing!
MONDAY, January 9th
4:30 AM: Ax Battler, A Legend of Golden Axe. A fairly obscure Game Gear game, focusing on the least charismatic character of the original Golden Axe trio.
7:35 AM: Bomberman 64: The Second Attack.
11:39 AM: Shovel Knight Dig. A race!
2:54 PM: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. This is that recent game made as an homage to the classic Konami arcade titles! This is described as a “chill race,” and is being played in co-op mode.
6:59 PM: Portal. A “bonus game,” which will be done if a donation incentive is met. Portal is another game that’s been annihilated by speedrunners.
10:59 PM: Fable Anniversary.
TUESDAY, January 10th
12:29 AM: Ape Escape 2.
3:39 AM: Goat Simulator. “Here comes that goat again….”
10:29 AM: Castlevania: Harmony of Despair.
11:39 AM: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.
2:30 PM: Super Mario Galaxy 2.
7:05 PM: Outer Wilds.
WEDNESDAY, January 11th
4:02 AM: FEZ.
6:28 AM: Final Fantasy VII. Over seven hours!
2:03 PM: Stardew Valley. A glitchless race.
2:53 PM: A Sonic the Hedgehog block, with Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors: Ultimate and Sonic Advance 2, which is the subject of a character bidwar. #teamamy
5:21 PM: Pokemon Red “or Yellow,” I don’t know what that means. Glitchless, but only two hours long. How?
7:36 PM: Ocarina of Time 3D.
8:21 PM: Last year’s hit Stray as a bonus game.
11:54 PM: Kirby Star Allies, with a “Guest Star?”
THURSDAY, January 12th
12:44 AM: Pac-Man: The New Adventures. This is that funky 16-bit game where you don’t directly control Pac-Man but instead try to influence an AI-controlled Pac to do what needs doing. This may be intended to kick off Awful Block, but I don’t think it’s really awful, just, not really much of a Pac-Man game.
1:23 AM: AWFUL BLOCK! Yo! Noid 2: Game of a Year Edition, Yolanda, Lizard Lady vs. The Cats, Office Race, Salamander County Public Television, Battle of the Eras, Morodashi Sumo, Dokkaebi-ga Ganda, I’m going to die if I don’t eat sushi!, Sonic Blast, Bad Guys At School, and Steven Seagal is the Final Option, at 7:05 AM.
8:59 AM: The World Ends With You: Final Remix.
12:54 PM: Metal Slug. Oh I’m sorry, that should be Metal Slug!, with an exclamation point.
2:00 PM: BS The Legend of Zelda. Not only is this a terrifically obscure game, only released on the Satellaview in Japan (and only coming down to us in any form due to the hard work of preservationists and hackers), but it’s a 100% race!
6:17 PM: Puyo Puyo Fever 2.
6:57 PM: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC tracks as a bonus game.
8:27 PM: The Simpsons Hit & Run.
11:43 PM: Power Wash Simulator.
FRIDAY, January 13th
3:06 AM: Kirby Air Ride. A hugely underrated game! Although sadly this is normal racing and not its stand-out mode, City Trial.
3:39 AM: A short NES block, with Jackal, Mickey Mousecapade and Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers.
5:33 AM: Beautiful Katamari.
7:03 AM: Gunstar Heroes.
8:28 AM: Kirby’s Adventure.
10:35 AM: Metroid Prime 1+2. Multiworld Randomizer Co-op. How will this even work?
1:45 PM: Cult of the Lamb.
6:00 PM: Elephants and Snakes and Crocodiles. On the SNES? I’ve never even heard of this one!
6:55 PM: Final Fantasy XIV. The description of this one is a jumbled alphabet of abbreviations and initialisms, I have no idea what any of that means.
8:05 PM: Arcade Stepmania, as a bonus game. This is a demonstration, not an actual speedrun, but these tend to be insane anyway!
9:35 PM: Super Mario All-Stars Shuffler.
SATURDAY, January 14th
2:38 AM: Blinx the Time Sweeper.
5:29 AM: Mega Man 64 and Mega Man Rock N Roll. The first of these two is the N64 version of Mega Man Legends, the second is a fan game.
9:08 AM: Donald (Duck) in Maui Mallard.
11:27 AM: Metroid Dread. All boss glitchless. To think we went from this game being a vaguely rumored cancelled title to an official release being speedrun at AGDQ in a little over a year.
1:17 PM: Terraria.
6:02 PM: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past as a bonus game.
10:53: Super Mario 3. Warpless, but any%.
That should be it, although of course they like to put in unannounced bonus games toward the end, so keep your eyes open!
News 12/8/22: Akka Arrh, Steam Dwarf Fortress, Sexy Game Flyers
“We scour the Earth web for indie, retro, and niche gaming news so you don’t have to, drebnar!” – your faithful reporter
Hello blobs! Welcome again to our recognizable brand of snarky response to gaming media which I am given to understand has not been seen anywhere else over the past 30 years of the internet! I’m so original! Let’s get started….
Well it looks like Atari had the same idea we did regarding putting some of its neglected prototypes out there! Not only has their classic-era unproduced game AKKA ARRH (it’s fun to say!) playable in the Atari 50th Anniversary collection, but W. Shanklin at Engadget tells us it’s getting a remake! One quib with the article though, it says it didn’t get made because it was too hard, but playing it in the Anniversary collection I got rather a few waves in, on my first try? They got Jeff Minter on board for the remake, so you know it’ll be A. great, B. trippy, and C. have cheeky ungulates in there somewhere!
Keith Stuart at the Guardian visited Play Leisure, a UK company that refurbishes and resells classic arcade machines! It’s always nice when we here at Set Side B can link to a Real Publication, something that gets pressed in ink onto paper, that may have a shelf life, and not be purchased by Ziff-Davis and then rapidly shut down.
At PC Gamer, Ted Litchfield mentions surprise at learning that Bungie’s first three FPSes have been available free on the internet for over a decade. I am sure that the free availability of the Marathon games is something that was once generally known about. You remember Marathon, right? Back when Bungie only produced games for Macs? It HAPPENED, honest!
PC Gamer additional item! Joshua Wolens mentions that the Steam version of Dwarf Fortress hit its two-month sales goal in 24 hours! It couldn’t have happened to a nicer elaborate dwarf death simulator! Let’s spin the Wheel of Mortality, it could come up Goblins, Vampires, Forgotten Beasts, Were-Things, Demons, Fluid Physics, or Dwarf Psychosis!
Zoey Handley at Destructoid sparks a dozen internet flamewars with their article listing the 5 best N64 games! Guess what you think they’ll be. My guesses are Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Star Fox 64 and, oh, Mario Party. The answers: Majora and Star Fox, but then they chose Ogre Battle 64, Banjo-Kazooie, and F-Zero X. Which, yes they’re good, but over Ocarina? (Well honestly I think Ocarina of Time is a little overrated, but it’s usually a safe bet? Oh well, to the next item.)
Truly, there is no demographic out there more vulnerable to the marketing wiles of the sexy poster babe than middle-aged male business owners, and the arcade industry has long known this. Rare Historical Photos has a collection of arcade flyers, 90% of which feature variations of the scantly-clad promo lady. Konami’s U.S. division in particular made a lot of use out of them. Those ladies look like they do all their shopping at Girls’s Costume Warehouse.
And Sorrel Ker-Jung at Destructoid reminds us that we don’t have to care about the “Game Awards.” They don’t even have a catchy name like the Oscars, Emmys or Tonys. I wouldn’t even trust them to come up with a good name, because it’d probably be something hamfisted and too-obvious, like the “Miyamoto,” or the “Wright.” Bah!
Summer Games Done Quick 2022
It’s almost time! Tomorrow, June 26, begins SGDQ for 2022, the popular speedrunning marathon, this year benefiting Doctors Without Borders. Their other yearly marathon AGDQ back in January earned 3.4 million dollars, can they top it this time? After two years of remote speedruns, this year it will once again be held in person, with a live audience.
Here is their schedule, and from it, here are some highlights of particular interest to our topic categories of indie, retro, and niche games. Times are given in US Eastern/Pacific, dates by midnight Eastern time.
What to look for? Any games you particularly like, or want to see obliterated, of course. Anything that sounds like it might be a romhack will usually be a good time. Races are fun. Randomizers provide an entirely different kind of challenge to a speedrunning mindset. RPGs and Pokemon games often require some non-intuitive decision-making. Very weird games, of course. New games provide a chance to see people deal with something that’s not been exhaustively demolished, and it’s also cool to see what has been discovered in the short time since its release. And any obscure or rare games you happen to know of.
There are far too many interesting things in the list to call them all out, so, here are three arbitrarily-chosen items to watch for each day:
Sunday, June 26
12:30 PM/9:30 AM: Pre-Show
1:00 PM/10:00 AM: Shadow of the Colossus, PS4, NTA Boss Rush RANDOM
6:58 PM/3:58 PM: Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Switch, Any%
10:10 PM/7:10 PM: Spyro the Dragon, PS, 120%
Monday, June 27
6:41 AM/3:41 AM: Blaster Master, NES, Glitchless (US) Race
9:09 AM/6:09 AM: NiGHTS Into Dreams, Saturn, All Levels Any%
4:03 PM/1:03 PM: The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (2019), Switch, Any% Glitchless Race
Tuesday, June 28
Midnight/9:00 PM[27th]: Silent Hill 4: The Room, PC, Any%
9:14 AM/6:14 AM: Earnest Evans, Genesis, Any% (in 12 minutes)
12:02 PM/9:02 AM – 3:26 PM/12:26 PM: Mega Man Games! Powered Up, Xtreme, Wily Wars and 5
Wednesday, June 29
3:33 AM/12:33 AM: Final Fantasy IV Worlds Collide Randomizer
11:13 AM/8:13 AM: Knuckles Chaotix, 32X, Beat the Game
3:42 PM/12:42 PM: Pokemon Emerald Randomizer, GBA, Evolution Chaos Co-Op
Thursday, June 30
1:17 AM/10:17 PM[29th]: Banjo-Tooie, N64, Any%
3:43 AM/12:43 AM-8:44 AM/5:44 AM: Silly games! DEEEER Simulator, Mi Scusi, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, Jimmie Johnson’s Anything With an Engine, Gourmet Warriors, Thunder In Paradise, and Incredible Crisis!
9:08 PM/6:08 PM: Bonus Game, SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR, 1 player, PC
Friday, July 1
9:01 AM/6:01 AM: Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, PC, Normal Ending
4:38 PM/1:38 PM: F-Zero GX, Gamecube, Story Mode, Max Speed, Very Hard (yow!)
9:28 PM/6:28 PM: Bonus Game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Beta Showcase
Saturday, July 2
11:22 AM/8:22 AM: Bloodstainted: Curse of the Moon, PC, Any% Ultimate
5:36 PM/2:36 PM: Kaizo Super Metroid, SNES, Any%
8:31 PM/8:31 PM: Super Mario Maker 2 Relay Race!
Sunday, July 3
12:21 AM/9:21 PM[3rd]: Elden Ring, PC, All Remembrances + possibly as a bonus game, an Any% run
Nethackathon 2022
April 15th through the 17th, a group of 24 streamers will be playing classic roguelike NetHack for 48 straight hours on Twitch! Their site is at nethackathon.org, and they’re on Twitter. Last year’s marathon can be found archived on YouTube.
They did a similar stream last year in the month of September, but this year they’ve moved it to April in order to space themselves better around the two major NetHack tournaments in June and November.
What is that? You don’t know anything about NetHack? Oh boy, I get to explain it again-it’s a venerable roguelike game that’s been in existence for 34 years! The first version of NetHack is older than the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It began during the presidency of Ronald Reagan! While there have been lulls in its development, and at least one major member of its dev team, Izchak Miller, passed away years ago, it’s still going, and it’s still being worked on. It’s notable for its high difficulty, the large amount of information a player must assimilate to be successful, and for its high degree of fairness (although sometimes it doesn’t seem fair)
NetHack comes across as like a solo adventure in an old school first-edition AD&D megadungeon. It’s full of monsters with weird properties, you have to figure out what your items do, and every game is randomly generated.