Games

 

In October of last year we first caught wind of Martin Kool's loving homage to retro adventure games, Sarien.net. Nearly a month later, we got a hands on preview of Space Quest, the first game Martin ported from its previous web-based browser state to an iPad-specific version that was custom tailored for both the screen and input of the device. Not long after that, Space Quest went live. While I'm not entirely sure how many people played the web-based version of the game to completion, it sure was awesome to have, and was a great tech demo for just what was possible via a web app on the iPad.
Today we got word that the rest of the Sarien.net catalog has been ported over, and in addition to iPhone support, the whole site is now hosted via Amazon's content distribution network to make loading even faster. Most of the games have even been extensively tweaked to be easy to play on the touch interface.
I'm not sure how much more detailed I need to get on this because, well, all the games are completely free to play and don't require any kind of installation beyond navigating your iOS device to sarien.net, tapping the game you want to play, adding a bookmark icon for it, then launching it. The single down side (if you'd even call it that) to all this is that since the games are played online via a web browser, you need an internet connection, but that seems to be a decent tradeoff to being able to instantly play such fantastic vintage adventure games for free on your iPhone or iPad.

'Space Quest' Lands on the iPad — Courtesy of Safari

We've made a number of posts over the last few months regarding a fan-created, iPad version of Sierra's graphical point-and-click adventure Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter. What makes the effort particularly interesting is the fact that the game is entirely web-based. Load the URL in Mobile Safari, save a bookmark to your Home Screen and — voila — you're a tap away from playing a true classic on a device more suited to the style of gameplay than anything that was available back in 1986.
We're happy to report that developer Martin Kool has completed his effort and shared the public URL where iPad-toting space cadets the world around can get started on this excellent adventure. The game can be found right here:

 

Our observations of a pre-release version stand true for the final product. You tap the home screen icon and the game loads completely seamlessly without any additional work. It's crazy just how fast and easy the whole process is. The first time you load it up, there's a small load time, but as soon as mobile Safari starts caching parts of the game it's just like playing the actual computer game. There's even multiple save slots, and accessing them is as simple as rotating the iPad in to portrait mode.
The game features the same, relatively blocky graphics as the original. And, to the retro gaming fan in me, that's a splendid thing — but getting them to render unaltered in the iPad's browser was no walk in the park, it turns out.

 

The only complain I could offer is the lack of sound effects that were present in the original — a challenge of in-browser, HTML / Javascript gaming that the developer indicates he hasn't addressed "yet." I spent a brief period with Space Quest in days long past, and I can say that what the developer has delivered here, despite that complaint, is all that I remember and then some. Now, I confess that I'm more of a King's Quest man at heart, but that's no matter; Martin recently indicated that once Space Quest was complete, he's moving on to The Black Cauldron, King's Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry.

Games

Once again coinciding with E3, this year’s Los Angeles Video Games Live show is sure to be a special one. Celebrating their 200th performance, Tommy Tallarico and the gang have quite a line up in store for us, even more impressive than in years past. Attendees will be privy to a number of musical masterpieces across the spectrum of game genres, from Mega Man to Metal Gear Solid, many under the conduction of the original composers, including: the award winning song “Invincible” from World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm conducted by Blizzard composer and audio director Russell Brower, the world premiere of the award winning music from Red Dead Redemption, the music from Street Fighter II, featuring Tommy Tallarico on guitar, and much more. There will also be an extensive meet and greet with an impressive list of gaming music greats, and performances from “The Video Game Pianist” Martin Leung, Mega Man tribute band The Megas, and the promise of surprises yet to be revealed. For a full list of songs and performers, check out the list after the jump.