You were just let go after confessing to killing JonBenet Ramsey, you were the only person in the theater when you went to Snakes on a Plane, and you can't get enough of killing mindless zombies in Dead Rising! It sounds like you just barely survived August 2006, a month that brought Tom Cruise a pink slip, Paris Hilton a new BFF and Michael Jackson a 48th birthday. Yes, I said 48! But just because you're trying to get a 29 year old woman laid, Jane Magazine, doesn't mean you have to stop enjoying August 2006. This is Defunct Games RECAPPED!!, your monthly guide to the best and worst of the last 31 days. This is all the stuff you missed, all the stuff you forgot about and all the stuff you can't wait to see again! So get on your dancing shoes, Tucker Carlson and Jerry Springer, it's time for you to prance about as we celebrate everything that was good (and bad) in the month of August!
Why This Article?
Why This Article?
There are two facts that we are sure of, people love a bargain and they love to read lists. Just look at how many different Top Ten Lists David Letterman has gone through in his quarter-century as a late night talk show host. And it's not just in entertainment, even the religious tend to take kindly to things created in list form, just look at the long standing popularity of the Ten Commandments. Knowing that lists are almost always fun to read we decided that everybody would have a good time when we counted down the 50 best video game compilations of all time. But who knew I would get such a response from such simple subject matter.
Of all the articles in August, The 50 Compilations that Rocked the World proved to be the most popular. Defunct Games received dozens of emails suggesting titles we missed (including the Samurai Spirits Best Collection) and thanking us for creating such a list. It's fun to be able to cover so many different games by only talking about fifty compilations. For the fact that we were able to talk about well over 500 different games and promote a nice healthy discussion about game compilations, I would say that's enough to be considered the best article of the month, but it's not even a contest when you factor in all of the mail we received about this one topic. That's right ladies and gentlemen, our lengthy look at the best video game compilations of all time is good enough to be considered the single best story of August 2006!
Post-Article Thoughts:
"One thing I know for sure is that there are a lot of people who read this site that are interested in video game compilations. For years now I have been receiving emails from readers who discovered brand new games they would never have seen had it not been for some compilation disc. I am committed to talking about these game collections as much as possibly, just as long as it continues to be interesting. This was one of those articles I thought would be a lot of fun to do, it's the kind of list we hadn't seen a lot of recently. But not even a week after posting this lengthy article the editors of CNET featured a story that was almost exactly the same! Who knew something as simple as fifty great video game compilations would be such a hot commodity in August? Since writing this article both Sega and Electronic Arts have announced compilations for the PSP, there's simply no denying the appeal of these bargains products. Judging from the amount of mail I received about this list I would say that the readers of Defunct Games are extremely interested in video game collections, you might even say that video game compilations are having the best month ever!"
-Cyril Lachel
Why This Article?
Game On in 15 Minutes was our very first video feature on Defunct Games. This is a 16 minute long movie that we made about the Game On exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington. Although the location was small, Game On managed to feature much of the history of our industry. They look back at long-forgotten consoles and computers (such as the Sinclair computer, PC Engine Duo and the Atari Jaguar) and try to put it all into context. The staff of Defunct Games took a tour of Game On and made sure to shoot enough footage to assemble this straight-to-video classic. Game On in 15 Minutes may be the most straight-forward article on Defunct Games this month; it's exactly what the name implies and doesn't try to pull any punches. But just because it's straight-forward doesn't mean that it's boring, and Game On in 15 Minutes is certainly not boring. Watch this video right now and see why we're willing to call this our second best "article" of August 2006!
Post-Article Thoughts:
"This is the first of (hopefully) many video features on Defunct Games. You can probably point to some amateurish qualities, but for a first attempt I think it's pretty darn good. I almost wish I had more footage because I have a lot more to say about the Game On Exhibit. The good news is that we will be featuring more video content, such as a full tour of the Penny Arcade Expo. But before I get ahead of myself perhaps I should just bask in the success of this first video attempt. In the mean time go ahead and watch this short video of Game On again, it's well worth a second (or third) viewing."
-Cyril Lachel
Why This Article?
If you are having game convention overload then you aren't the only one, in August Defunct Games managed to head out to three completely different video game events. Early in the month we hit up a science
exhibit of the history of the video game industry, and then late in the month we attended the Penny Arcade Expo, the biggest American game convention since E3. But between those two events staff writer Lee Miller visited Otakon, one of the largest anime conventions on the East Coast. This three-page look at Otakon covers just about everything you would want to know about this anime convention ... except for the anime. This may be the only write-up about Otakon 2006 that does not feature any content about the various animes currently populating the Cartoon Network. And for that reason we consider Hot Baltimore Nights @ Otakon to be our third best article of August.
Post-Article Thoughts:
"I spent the weekend at Otakon, throwing my body into the line of fire/cos-players for you, the reader. In the week since it went up I have been overshadowed by the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). Next year I will have my revenge! A bigger, better article that covers some of the stuff I left out, like say, the anime that was at this anime convention. That would make sense wouldn't it? Regardless of me leaving out the thing that most obviously belongs in the article, it's a great read covering live music, video games, dancing and those wonderful cos-players! Next year Cyril! Next year!"
-Lee Miller
Why This Article?
It wouldn't be a month without another podcast. This time around we give up the scripts and allow Cyril to take over for 20 minutes of frightening letters to the editor. We combed through hundreds of old magazines to
find just the right letters and then unleashed them on an unsuspecting host. To make this podcast even more dramatic we added a number of disasters that rip the studio apart. The good news is that Cyril came through it with only a few scrapes and scratches; nobody needed any serious medical attention. This is a podcast unlike any we've done before and maybe that's why we've decided to honor it by calling Another Disastrous Radio Program our fourth best article of the month. If you haven't had a chance to learn about Atman Mehta then now if your chance!
Post-Article Thoughts:
"Most months we would have the podcast close to the top, but there were just so many great articles this month Another Disastrous Radio Program has to settle for fourth place. This particular podcast was fun to do; I had a good time thinking up worse things to do to the poor host throughout the show. I also enjoy the idea of answering other magazine's mail, especially when the mail is decades old. If I have my way we will make this kind of podcast a regular part of the DGC Audio/Video Club. One thing we tried to do was make the name "Atman Mehta" popular on Google. And so far it appears to have worked. We have twenty years worth of truly terrible letters to the editor; I can't wait to explore this theme again."
-Cyril Lachel
Why This Article?
Game On: A Brief History of Time is our second article this month about Game On, the video game exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington. This three-page feature was actually our first write-up about Game On; it is
the article that wasn't afraid to talk about what we saw, what we played ... and what we almost stepped in! Now that the Game On exhibit has boxed up all their systems and left town this Defunct Games article is your only way of seeing all the sights and sounds. Are you ready to learn about the only video game event this year that featured a child pooping on the carpet? Yeah, that's what I thought. And that's why Game On: A Brief History of Time is our fifth favorite article of the month.
Post-Article Thoughts:
"We sure did go to a lot of video game events this month, between PAX, Game On and Otakon there was almost no time for anything else. Thankfully we were able to get in a few non-convention articles, but it's easy to see why there are so many articles this month about those three events. It was a lot of fun spending the day with Barry at the Game On exhibit, we saw a lot of rare systems and had some time to observe the regular people who paid their money to learn about Jaguar and Saturn. It's a shame Game On didn't feature the 3DO, CD-i or Nintendo 64DD, but it's hard to argue against an event with so many quality games on display. Hopefully as this event keeps touring they will pick up some of the systems that were missing, this is one event that has an awful lot of potential. And since this is probably the final time this year I will be talking about Game On, I just want it to be known that Tempest 2000 is not the only good game on the Jaguar ... Alien vs. Predator rocks too!"
-Cyril Lachel
Why This Article?
We don't post as many episodes of the Guerilla Scrapbook as we used to. Perhaps that's one of the reasons it feels so important every time one comes around. But the fact that four weeks went by without us making fun of a fake game isn't enough to celebrate this preview of the upcoming World Trade Center game for the PlayStation 2. The deciding factor came when readers of Defunct Games started writing in asking important questions about the product. When will it come out? What kind of game is it? Is it only coming out on the PlayStation 2? Judging by the emails we received there must be an awful lot of confused people out there. And that's the reason this game is one of our favorites of August 2006!
Post-Article Thoughts:
"You never really know with these kinds of articles. As soon as the idea hits I start to wonder how many people will take it as fact. I suppose we don't make it easy for them, on one day they will be reading about the best video game compilations and then all of a sudden they see this write-up about a World Trade Center game. Who would have guessed that it was fake? I can only assume that for every person that wrote in there were a couple thousand that took it as a joke, exactly the way it was intended. But like always, there were a few fans of the site who thought it was just realistic enough to warrant an email. Thanks for the laugh fellas, after writing about such a weighty subject it felt good to just let loose. The only problem now is coming up with a fake game that is even more convincing than the last one. Sigh."
-Cyril Lachel
Why This Article?
Almost exactly one year ago Defunct Games was the first to take up valuable bandwidth on the magazine Hardcore Gamer Magazine. As fans of Die Hard Game Fan, the Defunct Games staff could not get over the similarities between that classic 1990s mag and this
brand new one which featured some of the same writers/editors. In the year since posting our comparison of Die Hard and Hardcore we noticed that some of the things Greg Off (the magazine's editor) told us ended up not coming true. In One Hardcore Gamer's Redux we go back to the source and try to figure out if it was a flip flop or a giant conspiracy perpetrated by the U.S. Government. I think you'll be surprised with what we discovered, and that's why you should definitely tune in to this, our seventh best article of August 2006!
Post-Article Thoughts:
"When it comes to developing stories I rarely need to get quotes from the source, most of the On Running Feuds end up being nothing more than my opinions and me trying to back them up. But for One Hardcore Gamer's Redux I had the pleasure of interviewing Hardcore Gamer Magazine's extremely busy editor, Greg Off. Not only was Greg totally into the idea of my article, but he was more than willing to explain why he flip flopped when it came to putting his character (the Monitaur) on HGM's covers. The truth is that this article was nothing more than a giant excuse to advertise Hardcore Gamer Magazine. Last month was the first month that HGM featured Defunct Games in their pages, and I figured I would return the favor by resurrecting a funny article from a year ago. If that makes me a corporate shill then that's fine with me, as far as I'm concerned it's fantastic to finally have a magazine that is willing to promote the smaller guys who really make this industry tick. Finally, a magazine that actually advertises websites other than their own! Why did it take so long for somebody to think of that?"
-Cyril Lachel
