Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: History of Gaming

Some Titles from Capcom

Posted on by Viljami

I got the idea for this blog post as I was playing the first Devil May Cry. It was actually an HD release and it was for Xbox 360. I find this game to be of good quality especially considering it was first released for PS2 in 2001. I find many familiar features inside the game. For me it brings especially Resident Evil to mind.

I think it’s not possible to not notice what company made Devil May Cry. It was Capcom. You just can’t miss their logo from the beginning of the game. Actually, when you think about it, there is a huge amount of video games of very good quality that were released by Capcom. Many of these games are familiar to me. So it makes an impression.

First memories that I have that are related to this company are from the game Street Fighter II. I have strong nostalgic feelings when someone even mentions Resident Evil. Do you still remember Dead Rising? Do I have to tell you about Mega Man? Dino Crisis? This list is very impressive.

The story of Capcom started in 1979. It was originally part of a company called I.R.M. It started concentrating on video games software instead of gaming hardware of arcades and was actually named Capcom in 1983. They released their first game ment to be played with a video game console in 1985. It was a game called “1942” for Nintendo Entertainment System or, as shortened, NES.

I personally have enjoyed many of their games. Today they have over 2500 employees. One of their games, Street Fighter, is still a very popular game in eSports. There are many players that wish to compete in this game of this genre. I think it has these certain qualities that make it perfectly suitable for competitive one-against-one matches.

You can read more about the history of Capcom here

Interesting Book About PlayStation

Posted on by Viljami

My goal in this blog post is to introduce this subject and this book to my readers. At the beginning I have to make clear that this book is only available in Finnish so don’t get too excited. I am afraid that you won’t enjoy it if you can’t read Finnish text even if it would be possible for you to buy this book. I don’t know if any libraries in Finland have this book. It was pushed only a limited amount of copies and I am afraid that there aren’t enough books for everyone. But that’s not actually a problem for me because I received the book that I had paid already earlier. There were some problems in delivering the book but I think this is understandable since this publisher isn’t a big company.

But to get to the point – this is a book about how at first the first Sony’s gaming console, PlayStation, hit this country and how it was received. We are a small nation of only a bit more than 5 million people that are currently living here. But as players of video games we are very enthusiastic. So thinking proportionally there is a large amount of players in here. People in Finland are basically doing fine and the standard of living is good. To say it truthfully – we buy a lot of games.

PlayStation was a big hit in Finland as it was also world wide. It is said in this book that Finnish people are also faithful to the brand to some extent. The name of the book can be translated to “PlayStation People” or “PlayStation Nation” (rhymes funnily). There were PlayStation fans already waiting when it was time to release PlayStation 2. Have you heard of Sing Star games? Well, it was a series of games that was particularly popular in here. It started from games for PS2 and ended with a game or two released for PS4. It’s a bit sad that new games aren’t being released no more.

The book goes on to explain how PS3 was released. It also tells about a game company called Housemarque. It’s first hit game was Supreme Snowboarding. It developed lots of games for different PlayStations. It is still developing games for PS5 also. The book describes latest and greatest games for PS4. It ends with some words about the release of PS5.

I liked this book a lot. It has 184 pages and lots of pictures so it isn’t a long read. The books availability is a bit limited. I did order it in November and I received it in January. So it was a bit delayed. If you set aside these small problems it is a great book. I ordered a hardcover version of my book. There was also paperback version available when I ordered my book.

Space Invaders for PS1

Posted on by Viljami

Since I recently played Space Commanders, that is a Space Invaders clone for PC, I decided to pick up this PS1 game titled also as Space Invaders. I bought it some time ago but I haven’t really played it.  The price of this game was low. That’s one reason I decided to buy it. Back when I made the decision to buy this game I had already many items in my mind that I wanted to order. It kind of came with the other stuff that I ordered.

It is basically the same game that especially retro game fans know. The original game was released in 1978 as an arcade game and it was also released for Atari 2600 in 1980. Graphics have been improved for this PS1 release. It doesn’t introduce three-dimensional graphics. There is also some slight modifications made in the game play. Activision was the publisher of this PS1 version of this game.

All in all this is  a nice little game. It didn’t keep me playing for a long time. It is although interesting to me at this time of my hobby as a game enthusiast. It is  not difficult to figure out why this game was popular when it was remade for PS1.

As I read the Wikipedia page of Space Invaders I realize that there was a big difference in the arcade version and the console (Atari 2600) version of this game. During that period gaming consoles located at home weren’t as powerful as specially crafted devices that were placed inside arcades. I really don’t know much about their technology.

Things like game consoles and computers are things I know a bit more about. If you are interested in arcade machines and games you could play with them you might want to check this site: https://www.mamedev.org/