Infinite Lives

For fans of retro games, the Classic Gaming Expo holds a certain allure. Ever since its founding in 1997 as the World of Atari expo, CGE has attracted guests from varying eras of the video game industry, including Steve Wozniak, Al Alcorn, Ralph Baer, and Rob Fulop. Collectors, exhibitors (who have ranged from Konami to Retro Zone), and video game enthusiasts the world over annually congregate for the event. Unfortunately, the 2008 show was canceled due to the inability of its organizers—Joe Santulli, Sean Kelly, and John Hardie—to find a venue, and it looks as if the 2009 show, too, has been canceled for as-yet-undisclosed reasons.

Therefore anyone curious about the expo might also be interested in the CGE 2007 DVD box set, which is finally available for preorder after spending roughly a year in editing. As someone who was there in 2007 (and in 2004), I can honestly say it was one of the most entertaining conventions I’ve ever been to. Standing around chatting with Keith Robinson from Intellivision about a Burgertime movie a few of my friends made, to playing actual Pong and Computer Space arcade machines, to visiting the museum: it was just an excellent time. This DVD box set may well be the closest anyone gets to recreating that feeling, at least for a while!

• theLogBook.com – Classic Gaming Expo 2007 4-DVD Set

Here it is: my worn, well-loved copy of the Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers novelization (ROC, 1997).

I like this cover. I especially like how a grainy still from the game’s FMV sequel has been superimposed onto it (Gabriel Knight II itself was filmed against a blue screen, so the cover art is an homage, I guess).

As for the book itself, I wouldn’t say it’s awful. For what it is—a novelization of a voodoo murder mystery PC game—it’s pretty good. It’s pulpy, a little hardboiled and over-the-top.

During the action, sure, it’s a real clunker: entire paragraphs play out procedurally, as if this were a strategy guide instead of fiction. The expository dialogue is pretty good, though.

Crash moaned louder, clenching his fist. “Fuck you! You didn’t see nothin’!”

“You know those binoculars across the park, Crash? Ever seen those?”

Apparently, Crash had. He began to weep, quietly and hopelessly. The tears that pressed between his fingers were pink.

”’S that the last straw, you think?” Gabriel asked quietly, when the boy would not stop.

The boy nodded inconsolably, his face still hidden in his hands.

“Not s’pose to let anyone see you do that, huh?”

The boy nodded again and hitched his breath, his crying raising a notch in sorrow.

Gabriel wanted to put a hand on the kid’s shoulder, but he was supposed to be playing the bad guy and for some reason, he was sure he had to. Besides, he didn’t want to get too intimate with whatever disease it was that was eating this kid alive.

Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within, the novel, was published the following year. You can find either book online for about a buck.

To: Jenn
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Retro WIRED is a continuing retrospective of WIRED Magazine, 1996-2000.

By the mid-2000s, we’d realized we preferred to hide our game consoles. The 360’s faceplate, for instance, could be made to match the furniture, while the Wii was a slim, discreet box. The PS3 irked consumers: it was big and bold, all black gloss and chrome shine, totally undisguisable.

In the post-yuppie 1990s, though, we brashly displayed our technology. Ikea TV stands, with their frosted glass doors, deliberately paraded every component and console within, concealing only the wiring. Surround-sound speakers were mounted in the corners of the room or perched on willowy spires.

In Wired 6.08 (August 1998), Kevin Kelly—then Wired Magazine’s executive editor—tried to find the politest way to ask Martha Stewart whether she were actually ashamed of her computer. Stewart, herself an unlikely computer whiz, insisted that computers needn’t be ugly.

Mysterious.

• Polytron – SOMETHING AWESOME THIS WAY COMES

Look, I realize that Mac gaming is, on the whole, an oxymoron, like ‘jumbo shrimp,’ ‘diet cake,’ and ‘libertarian.’ And if you want to play on your Apple laptop, why, you’re even worse off—seemingly relegated to ports, casuals, freebies, and castoffs. Until recently, even Apple admitted you were better off dual-booting into XP.

But you bought a MacBook Pro anyway, knowing full well what you were signing onto. “It’ll be a dedicated workstation,” you told yourself. “I’ll only do work on it; I’ll be careful with disk space and RAM; I’ll spend all the rest of my days trying not to covet PC gaming.” But one morning you woke up and you realized iMovie wasn’t cutting it anymore. I need to download ten games that are totally ideal for my MacBook Pro. That’s what you said. That’s what you sound like.

Fortunately, I was sitting at my word processor when I distinctly heard your cry of despair. And your cry of despair coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Mac, erm, two weeks ago.

What luck, then, that I’ve made this list of ten games! Each one is downloadable, every one, ideal for MacBook gaming. Enjoy!