<HTML>

  <title>loonygames' Pad Happy</title>
<body bgcolor="#FEFFEC" link="#000000" vlink="#000000">
<div align="CENTER">
  <div align="CENTER">
    <center>
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "ca-pub-2373963192914918";
/* 468x60 */
google_ad_slot = "3417104156";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
</center>
  </div>
  <div align="CENTER">
    <table border="0" width="600">
      <tr> 
        <td width="261" height="105"><img src="../../images/next_logo_sml.jpg" width="251" height="94" usemap="#map" border="0"> 
        </td>
        <td width="92" height="105" align="LEFT" valign="MIDDLE"> 
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">- <a href="../index.html">Contents</a><br>
- <a href="../../../about.1">About</a><br>
            - <a href="../../../submissions/index.html">Submissions</a><br>
            - <a href="../../../feedback.1">Feedback</a><br>
            - <a href="../../archives/index.html">Archives</a></font></p>
        </td>
      </tr>
    </table>
  </div>
  <table border="0" width="600" align="CENTER">
    <tr> 
      <td width="192" height="936" align="LEFT" valign="TOP"> 
        <table border="0" width="172">
          <tr> 
            <td height="1194" align="LEFT" valign="TOP"> 
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 23</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">New!!</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments <a href="../../../index.html">on the front page</a>!</font></p>
              
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../2.15/feat/index.html" target="">Livin' 
  With The Sims</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">: 
  theAntiELVIS explores the wild and wacky world that is Will Wright's <b>The Sims</b>, 
  asking the inevitable quesiton, &quot;is <b>The Sims</b> the first step toward a virtual 
  life where everyone is Swedish?&quot;</font></p>
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../2.15/pixel/index.html" target="">Pixel 
  Obscura</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">: Josh 
  Vasquez on <b>Omikron: The Nomad Soul</b>.</font></p>
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../rl/index.html" target="">Real 
  Life</a></font>: <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <font size="-1">Check 
  out our newest comic strip, Real Life! Updated daily!</font></font></p>
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../uf.1" target="">User 
  Friendly</a></font>: <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <font size="-1">Updated 
  daily!</font></font></p>


</p>
              
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><font color="#339900">Related 
                Links:</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../1.21/pixel/index.html">Pixel 
                Obscura</a>: Josh Vasquez looks at <b>Ridge Racer Type 4</b>.</font></p>
              
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><a href="http://www.berda.com/loonygam.htm">T-Shirts</a>: 
                </b>Stylin' loonygames t-shirts from Berda Compugrafix!</font></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><a href="../../../artwork.1">Artwork</a>: 
                </b>Hey, dig the artwork on <b>loonygames</b>? We're selling some 
                of the original art.</font></p>
              <p><!--#include virtual="/includes/shooters.htm" --></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><font color="#339900">Feedback:</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">You've got 
                an opinion...voice it! Drop a line to our <a href="../../../feedback.1">Feedback</a> 
                column...you could end up with a free T-Shirt!</font></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><font color="#339900">Random 
                Feature :</font></b></font></p>
               <p align="CENTER"><img src="../../images/thumbs/bnl.jpg" width="129" height="107" align="MIDDLE"></p><p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../1.13/feat/index.html">Blue & Levelord Get Drunk</a>: Truly the definitive interview with Levelord, Stephen "Blue" Heaslip and the Ritual level designer get drunk and talk about the gaming industry.</font></p>

              <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" name="">
                <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><font color="#339900">Search 
                the Archives!</font></b></font> 
               
                 <INPUT TYPE=text name=q size=12 maxlength=255 value="">
 <INPUT type=submit name=sa VALUE="Google Search">
 <INPUT type=hidden name=cof 
VALUE="LW:216;L:http:/home/loonygames/loony.timedoctor.org/content/images/logo1.jpg;LH:55;AH:center;S:http://www.loonygames.com;AWFID:13a298c7abe84fd0;">
<input type=hidden name=domains value="loonygames.com"> 
<input type=hidden name=sitesearch value="loonygames.com">               
</div>
              </form>

            </td>
          </tr>
        </table>
      </td>
      <td width="406" height="936" align="LEFT" valign="TOP"> 
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"><b><a target="" href="../../columns.1"><font size="-1">Pad 
          Happy</font></a><font size="-1">:</font></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><br>
          Mirror, Signal, Maneuver</font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          </font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <a href="mailto:nickf@saqnet.co.uk">Nick 
          Ferguson</a></font></font></p>
        <p align="right">&nbsp; </p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Course layouts have become 
          far more adventurous since the comparatively dull pseudo-3D perspective 
          of <b>Pole Position</b>. Sega produced the stunning <b>Outrun</b>, which 
          made excellent use of the scaling and sprite-handling System 16 board, 
          creating a breathtaking sense of speed. The dawn of true 3D made for 
          some stunning scenery and track design in a number of games, most strikingly 
          <b>Virtua Racing</b>‘s fairground level and the glorious suspension 
          bridges of <b>Ridge Racer</b>. Now that tracks will probably be played 
          again and again at home (rather than as 5 minute arcade thrills), developers 
          have more incentive to tweak the designs until they are as near-perfect 
          as possible: companies like Namco and Sega have made track design into 
          an art form.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Even the most social of us 
          sometimes find ourselves playing racing games <i>tout seul</i>. The 
          solo experience of a racing game will never live up to the thrill of 

          playing ‘live’ opposition, but well-coded AI can go a good way towards 
          making up for a living, breathing opponent. Early driving games presented 
          you, usually, with two sorts of opponent – the slow, dumb ‘obstacle’ 
          and the impossibly freakish ‘perfect’ driver. It never felt like you 
          were racing against anything approaching another human when the CPU-controlled 
          cars replicated identical lap after lap. These days, such simple tactics 
          are frowned on; Nintendo’s <b>1080 Snowboarding</b> received a lot of 
          criticism for its unimaginative AI (your opponents follow the same racing 
          line EVERY race, even falling down at identical places)! Improvements 
          in AI don’t necessarily correlate with next-generation software, either: 
          <b>Mario Kart 64</b> had the most cheap AI I’ve ever seen (unfair to 
          the extent that single-player was almost unplayable) - the balanced, 
          fair-but-challenging system in SNES <b>Mario Kart</b> (where CPU characters 
          made mistakes just like the rest of us) was infinitely more enjoyable. 
          However, titles like <b>Gran Turismo</b> provide an effective demonstration 
          of how racing with just 5 opposing cars can be exciting, as long as 
          the AI is thoughtfully constructed.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Presentation has also become 
          an integral part of a title’s success. To my mind, the first racing 
          game to take the concept of &quot;racing&quot; and dress it up with 
          a seriously noticeable image and attitude was <b>Outrun</b>. That famous 
          music and the outstanding graphics (for the time) combined to create 
          something great. The whole concept of seeing your character in the driver’s 
          seat (with the blonde sitting next to you) was pure genius, as was the 
          car radio music system. Since <b>Outrun</b>, a racing game oozing attitude 
          isn’t so unusual, and it takes something pretty special to catch my 
          attention these days.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Namco’s <b>Ridge Racer</b> 
          series has always exuded a certain daffy charm, with the enthusiastic 

          announcers and speedy time-of-day lighting change particularly favorite 
          touches. The last PlayStation incarnation, <b>Rage Racer</b>, was a 
          stylish title but the newest game in the series takes the presentation 
          to a level beyond the superficial. <b>Ridge Racer Type 4</b> develops 
          a narrative with your team’s engineer between each race (unfortunately, 
          it’s all in Japanese) against a mesmerizing backdrop of subliminal logos, 
          ambient music and flashing icons. This doesn’t make the slightest bit 
          of difference to the core basics of the racing game, but it does make 
          the solo play <i>experience</i> deeper and more satisfying than most 
          racing games out there. The overall effect of <b>R4</b> (with its gorgeous 
          FMV intro, sharp menu screens and suitably moody techno-funk ambience) 
          is to create an utterly compulsive and beautiful gaming universe. It’s 
          one of the most entrancing racing games I’ve ever played. This sense 
          of atmosphere is a significant trump card, and one of the main reasons 
          I prefer <b>R4</b> to <b>Gran Turismo</b> (an excellent game in itself). 
          As a solo gamer, <b>R4</b>’s attempts to draw me into the experience 
          is richly rewarded by a greater sense of personal investment in each 
          race.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Finally, realistic physics 
          have made a big impact in recent years. As dedicated 3D hardware has 
          taken a load off the CPU, developers have begun to experiment with vaguely 
          realistic physics models in games. The handling of <b>Pole Position</b> 
          and <b>Super Sprint</b> looks ridiculously cartoonish in comparison 
          to the near-sims of today’s consoles. The Dreamcast version of <b>Sega 


          Rally 2</b> probably uses more processing power calculating the grip 
          of your car’s tires than existed in the entire <b>Pole Position</b> 
          series! Many games are sold on the strength of this realism <b>– Gran 
          Turismo</b> won deserved praise as ‘The Real Driving Simulator’ - but 
          an obsession with realism can go too far. Racing games and simulators 
          are entirely different breeds – a simulator should aim to replicate 
          an experience as accurately as possible, whereas a racer should aim 
          to be as much fun to play as possible, realism or no. This isn’t to 
          say that realism has no place in racing games (who can deny the appeal 
          of racing actual production cars that handle in a believable fashion?), 
          but the quest for realism is not the same thing as the quest for balanced 
          gameplay. The level of realism in Codemasters’ Touring Car simulation 
          <b>TOCA</b> was toned down for the sequel, <b>TOCA 2</b>. The games’ 
          producer admitted in a recent interview with Britain’s EDGE magazine 
          that &quot;exaggerating certain areas of the physics is <i>necessary</i> 
          if you are to match the expectation of what the user remembers or believes 
          the driving experience is actually like&quot;. Most reviews have concluded 
          that <b>TOCA 2</b> is a better game for it.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="right"><i><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">(<a href="index3.php">Continued 
          on Next Page</a>)</font></i></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
  </div>
<map name="map">
  <area shape="rect" coords="32,38,226,76" href="../../../index.html" target="_self">
  <area shape="rect" coords="12,79,125,94" href="http://www.bluesnews.com" target="_self">
 
</map>
<table border="0" width="600" align="CENTER">
  <tr> 
    <td> 
      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"> </font></i><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
        Pad Happy logo illustrated and is &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. Pad Happy is 
        &copy; 1999 Nick Ferguson. All other content is &copy; 1999 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so 
        don't try it, or you'll get some real force feedback.</font></i></p>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
</HTML>
