arcade

Pacman, Tetris, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders; revisit retro arcade video games and shop for modern reboots of the all-time classics.

Celebrating The NES Classic's 10th Anniversary
Released on November 10, 2016, in Japan and Veteran's Day 2016 in North America, the NES Classic was a console emulated with 30 games, with titles such as Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo Bowl, Castlevania, and of course, the iconic Super Mario Bros. That year, yours truly had a birthday coming up in two days and wanted to get my hands on one. Unfortunately, by the time I went to my local GameStop and Best Buy, they were all sold out. All hope was not lost, as I was able to purchase one on eBay weeks before Christmas. I know what you're going to say: "You gave in to the scalpers." You're right. I did, but I wasn't able to get one for my birthday. I had a justifiable reason for doing it. Scalpers are one of the worst people on this planet and are the true example of why we can't have nice things. They take advantage of people's desperation by hoarding multiple NES Classics, just to turn around to inflate the price of them. If you've watched videos on YouTube regarding these snakes jacking up the price of the NES Classic, chances are you were extremely pissed. I was one of those irate people back in 2016. Scalpers who buy lots of items such as Pokémon cards and Hot Wheels and inflate the price of them on the internet, should be banned for life from third-party sites like eBay and Amazon. I have to put some blame on Nintendo for allowing this to happen in the first place. Stores like GameStop and Best Buy should've instituted a strict one per person policy to prevent would-be scalpers from reselling the NES Classic online. This includes other game consoles and new ones in the near future. If you're a retro gaming fanatic like me, nostalgia was the main reason why many people wanted to have an NES Classic in their homes. I've been playing video games for nearly 40 years and scalpers who do increase prices on stuff we love will only make it difficult for others to afford certain things. Not only that, but it ruins it for everyone. Every selling site should have a blacklist for scalpers. It'll weed out the ones who prices things that they're trying to sell fairly and those who jack up the prices of items just to make money off of desperate individuals.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 4 days ago in Gamers
Faker’s Worlds Secret Might Be an Empty Calendar
Nuguri said something on the LCK secondary stream that sounded casual and then stuck. He guessed that Faker looks stronger at Worlds because in Korea he often has no time to train. Shows, commercials, sponsor shoots, fan events. The calendar fills. Training gets squeezed. At Worlds, those obligations shrink. He can play and prepare.
By Jin10 days ago in Gamers
The Worlds Draw Gave LPL the Match It Never Wanted
The civil war is set The draw put IG against TES. LPL fans did not want this matchup. The bracket did not care. 3-1 teams drawing each other was always likely, and now the bill is due. The region gets one guaranteed semifinal spot. The cost is one good team stopping in the quarterfinals.
By Jin13 days ago in Gamers
Meiko Said iG Can Beat Anyone. The LYON Series Shows Why That Quote Has Teeth
When Meiko said after iG reached the quarterfinals, “I think this iG can beat any team right now,” the line was easy to clip and turn into a reckless post-match boast. Competitive sports punishes that kind of quote. Win, and it is confidence. Lose, and it is fodder. Say it too early, and it is borrowing against the future. Say it too late, and it is hindsight.
By Jin16 days ago in Gamers
The $200 Game That Lost $84.60
At 2:40 a.m., in a rented office in Nanshan, Shenzhen, the air-conditioner compressor was humming outside the window. He clicked the “Submit for Review” button on his ninth store page. The page spun for three seconds, then a green line appeared: Review approved. Earliest release date: 21 days from now. He took a screenshot and dropped it into a folder called “Reference.” The folder already held 47 screenshots, all store pages from the top twenty games on the wishlist charts. He closed Steamworks, opened the AI code-generation page, and typed: organize shelves, click, score, three-level loop. The screen light fell across his face. He picked up a bowl of noodles. The noodles had already gone soggy.
By Jin17 days ago in Gamers
The Two-Day Demo Trap
The most intoxicating moment in AI-assisted game development usually arrives on the second day. On day one, you open an editor and type a prompt: make a cyberpunk bullet-hell demo, with a ship that fires glowing orbs and enemies pouring down from the top of the screen against a neon-rain background. A few hours later, the ship moves. The orbs fly. The enemies explode. You never checked whether the orbs travel at 500 or 800 pixels per second. You did not care whether the background is deep purple or dark blue. You stare at the screen with something close to vertigo: I created a world from nothing.
By Jin17 days ago in Gamers
I Almost Bought the Wrong Gaming Laptop on Double 11. Here’s the One I Chose Instead.
On a Tuesday night, Chen’s old laptop fan started rattling like a scooter with a loose panel. He had two weeks until Double 11. He opened three tabs: a repair quote, his bank balance, and a laptop listing page. The repair shop wanted 480 yuan for a new fan and thermal paste. He paid. Then he started reading.
By Jin19 days ago in Gamers
Phantom Blade Zero's 88 Isn't a Disappointment. It's Exactly What Chinese Games Needed.
The completion screen read: 36 hours and 25 minutes, good ending, 89% total collection. The reviewer noted that "thanks to the thoughtful map guidance, I took far fewer detours," so those 36-plus hours almost all landed on solid ground. Put that next to a Metacritic score of 88 and an IGN 9, and my judgment is this: it meets expectations, but not the expectation of flawlessness. It meets a harder one: that a Chinese action game has finally reached the international genre benchmark in its core experience.
By Jin20 days ago in Gamers
Why "MMO Is Outdated" Starts a Fight Every Time
"Why won't WOW players admit that MMO no longer fits the times?" The question presupposes two things. First, that "MMO no longer fits the times" is an ironclad fact. Second, that people who play MMO refuse to admit it because of emotional investment.
By Jin20 days ago in Gamers
Your Mortgage Was Not Ruined by Two Hours of Street Fighter 6
I used to read the autobiography of SKY Li Xiaofeng, the Human Emperor, again and again. One passage I returned to most was a set of questions he asked himself back then, when he was not yet the Human Emperor and the ID Sky had not entered the Warcraft circle. A person who later becomes visible is rarely visible because of one sudden moment of insight. More often, he has already turned the same problem over a thousand times in the dark.
By Jin21 days ago in Gamers
Absolute Randomness Would Ruin the AAA Game You Think You Want
Picture this. You are in a realistic AAA game, carrying the key item the main quest needs. You have walked a mountain road for three days. You have calculated weather, stamina, and equipment wear. You even begin to enjoy the slow, certain accumulation. Each step brings you closer to the goal. Then a random avalanche falls. It buries the item. There is no warning, no solution, and no prompt telling you that you can shovel the snow. You stand in the snow with nothing but an empty backpack.
By Jin22 days ago in Gamers
The Jersey Swap That Never Happened Became a War Over Respect
Few expected a jersey swap that never happened to blow up. It did. The facts are small. TES and HLE did not swap jerseys. For a swap to happen, several conditions have to line up: operations staff put it on the schedule before departure, the other club brings extra jerseys, and the inventory includes one with the right player ID. From what has been said, TES may have raised it only after arriving in the US. HLE had brought a fixed number of jerseys and had no extra one with “Zeus” on it. There was a reason. It was not convenient.
By Jin23 days ago in Gamers