I had a chance to chat with Marc Ecko recently about gaming. I taped the thing and asked my lovely wife to transcribe the rambly conversation for posting on Kotaku.

The conversation lasted about 30 minutes and in it we talked about Getting Up the future of Ecko Games, his love of Bob Ross and the systems he plays and played.

He struck me as pretty down to earth for a rich graffiti artist, and he definetly seemed to know his shit when it comes to gaming.

Brian Crecente
What is your sort of response to the reaction (to Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure)? It seems like it has been sorta mixed, though in general if you look at the scores it seemed to do pretty well when it came to grading. Some people kind of bashed it, but it wasn’t like people gave it an F.

Marc Ecko
Right, right. I was content I thought that, you know, I learned a lot from the process. You know the best critique is the consumer, I think that, you know, that it was definitely very interesting how polarizing it happened to be, at least online within hardcore gaming communities, that it was like either people loved it or they completely characterized it like it was shit.

More here --> http://kotaku.com/gaming/feature/eck...ing-168215.php ...

For those of you that don’t know, Tommy Tallarico has been making music for video games for years now. He recently got a chance to check out the Revolution at THQ’s event, and left some impressions on the IGN boards.

“Rev Controller was interesting but it didn’t totally blow me away as some were expecting. Need to see more games for it I guess. It was running the new SpongeBob game from THQ. The coolest part was that the controller could be used it different ways for different gameplay mechanics and levels. For example, sometimes you would turn it on it’s side as use it as a steering wheel. Other times you held it upright and used it like a flight stick. And another time you could use it like a hammer or pick-axe to destroy stuff. The game itself was running off the GameCube (with the Rev Controller) so I can’t really comment on the graphics… they looked like an old GameCube game.”

Tommy says he wasn’t blown away by the controller, and then he goes on to discuss how the coolest part about the game was the Revmote functionality. I guess he is saying he enjoyed the controller, but not as much as he thought he would. Then again, perhaps he is saying that he didn’t enjoy the actual game at all, but the best part of the game was the Revmote aspect. It’s just a little hard to decipher those comments.

http://gonintendo.com/?p=2147 ...

News from the Doom DS Site:

We now have two separate Doom projects for the DS, DoomDS and Doom3 DS.
The Doom3 DS site is completed, but not online just yet, it wont be long though so be patient.

DoomDS will be based purely on the classic Doom games, whereas our sister project Doom3 DS is obviously based in the Doom3 universe. The decision to create two separate projects was brought on by the fact that DoomDS in its evolved form was becoming very complex and perhaps a bit ambitious for our first attempt. We are using DoomDS to learn about the DS and hopefully get us ready to work on Doom3 DS.

DoomDS quickly evolved into a story driven game with features that the standard Doom engine would not have been anywhere near capable of handling. We needed a much more advanced engine that would need to be created from scratch, which is something we are currently not experienced enough to start. DoomDS will hopefully give us a much better understanding of the DS and showcase just what it is capable of.

DoomDS is based on the original Doom engine and will be somewhat similar to Doom64.

It will not be a port for the DS, but will feature alot of Doom64's visual look. For a better understanding of DoomDS, head over to the about page and get reading.

The media page has been updated and all old content removed, the new media will be uploaded as soon as we finish some texturing work. Don't expect any in-game shots for a while yet though.

I want to thank everyone who has emailed asking questions and giving suggestions, its great your all still interested in the project and keeping an eye on it. Email's from people asking questions that have been covered on the website many times before will not be answered, and requests for us to port Counter Strike will go unanswered also, we are not porting CS so quit asking.

I'm still a very busy person, and will most likely be even busier soon, if things go to plan i will announce it here on this site, but I wont get my hopes up just yet.

The team currently consists of myself and a dedicated programmer by the name of Robert Lubawski.
Rob is a machine and has been so dedicated with the project and has been doing the best he can, even though he does not own a DS. Rob has even written a dual screen FPS simulator with the same screen dimensions as the DS, just so we can test levels and art assets! The simulator is awesome and features a 3D map on the lower screen that looks just like Metroid Prime. We may show some pic's of this at a later date, but not now.

Obviously DS programming is very different, so Rob's move into DS territory is slow. His DS demo's so far are fantastic and prove that he will get to grips fast. He is limited to my own testing and emulators, so the donation button has been put back online, in the hope Rob can get a DS.

Previous donations went towards getting a DS for Michele Pace. Michele now works for a commercial game company and has little spare time to devote to DoomDS. It is a shame, but thats life and I know that I too would prioritize my real life work ahead of my DS hobbies. I'm glad to see Michele working in the games industry, he's a very talented programmer and a very nice guy too.

Good luck Michele!

I must be off now, as there are models to be textured and real life issues to deal with.

Shame on those who said we were dead, we're here till the end!

More info --> http://dual-soft.com/doomds/ ...

News from the Doom DS Site:

We now have two separate Doom projects for the DS, DoomDS and Doom3 DS.
The Doom3 DS site is completed, but not online just yet, it wont be long though so be patient.

DoomDS will be based purely on the classic Doom games, whereas our sister project Doom3 DS is obviously based in the Doom3 universe. The decision to create two separate projects was brought on by the fact that DoomDS in its evolved form was becoming very complex and perhaps a bit ambitious for our first attempt. We are using DoomDS to learn about the DS and hopefully get us ready to work on Doom3 DS.

DoomDS quickly evolved into a story driven game with features that the standard Doom engine would not have been anywhere near capable of handling. We needed a much more advanced engine that would need to be created from scratch, which is something we are currently not experienced enough to start. DoomDS will hopefully give us a much better understanding of the DS and showcase just what it is capable of.

DoomDS is based on the original Doom engine and will be somewhat similar to Doom64.

It will not be a port for the DS, but will feature alot of Doom64's visual look. For a better understanding of DoomDS, head over to the about page and get reading.

The media page has been updated and all old content removed, the new media will be uploaded as soon as we finish some texturing work. Don't expect any in-game shots for a while yet though.

I want to thank everyone who has emailed asking questions and giving suggestions, its great your all still interested in the project and keeping an eye on it. Email's from people asking questions that have been covered on the website many times before will not be answered, and requests for us to port Counter Strike will go unanswered also, we are not porting CS so quit asking.

I'm still a very busy person, and will most likely be even busier soon, if things go to plan i will announce it here on this site, but I wont get my hopes up just yet.

The team currently consists of myself and a dedicated programmer by the name of Robert Lubawski.
Rob is a machine and has been so dedicated with the project and has been doing the best he can, even though he does not own a DS. Rob has even written a dual screen FPS simulator with the same screen dimensions as the DS, just so we can test levels and art assets! The simulator is awesome and features a 3D map on the lower screen that looks just like Metroid Prime. We may show some pic's of this at a later date, but not now.

Obviously DS programming is very different, so Rob's move into DS territory is slow. His DS demo's so far are fantastic and prove that he will get to grips fast. He is limited to my own testing and emulators, so the donation button has been put back online, in the hope Rob can get a DS.

Previous donations went towards getting a DS for Michele Pace. Michele now works for a commercial game company and has little spare time to devote to DoomDS. It is a shame, but thats life and I know that I too would prioritize my real life work ahead of my DS hobbies. I'm glad to see Michele working in the games industry, he's a very talented programmer and a very nice guy too.

Good luck Michele!

I must be off now, as there are models to be textured and real life issues to deal with.

Shame on those who said we were dead, we're here till the end!

More info --> http://dual-soft.com/doomds/ ...

The Neoflash team have released a new version of their software for the MK2 and MK3.

Heres whats new:

* Some bugs of mmc/fat/dumper/save manager are fixed
* TetrisDs can run! ( work with MK3 game flash only in this version)


More info --> http://www.neoflash.com/ ...

The Neoflash team have released a new version of their software for the MK2 and MK3.

Heres whats new:

* Some bugs of mmc/fat/dumper/save manager are fixed
* TetrisDs can run! ( work with MK3 game flash only in this version)


More info --> http://www.neoflash.com/ ...

SuccessHK have posted this new Commercial Release:



Soccer fans worldwide can now take part in the excitement that is 2006 FIFA World Cup, the only official video game of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Immerse yourself in the world's greatest sports tournament as you lead your nation from the qualification rounds all the way to the World Cup Finals in Germany to lift the World Cup trophy. You'll experience a full range of emotions along the way - from the elation of beating rival nations to the despair of having your World Cup dreams shattered in a crucial penalty shootout. This is your ticket to all the pageantry and passion of the greatest show on Earth. ...

SuccessHK have posted this new Commercial Release:



Celebrating the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany - the world's largest sporting event - 2006 FIFA World Cup brings you to the games with the world's superstar players, 12 official stadiums that will be used at 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany and stadiums from each qualifying region. Gamers can play as their favorite team from qualification right through to a virtual reproduction of the tournament in Germany.
In addition to enabling gamers to participate in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany by taking control of one of 127 national teams, the game features new compelling modes of play, including the Global Challenge that recreates classic moments in FIFA World Cup history. Furthermore, the game supports up to eight-way multiplayer matches and boasts a plethora of in-game unlockable content such as legendary players and exclusive apparel. ...

SuccessHK have posted this new Commercial Release:



Celebrating the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany - the world's largest sporting event - 2006 FIFA World Cup brings you to the games with the world's superstar players, 12 official stadiums that will be used at 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany and stadiums from each qualifying region. Gamers can play as their favorite team from qualification right through to a virtual reproduction of the tournament in Germany.

...