Gametap

If you read Penny Arcade, you might remember that Tycho recently signed up for Gametap. Turns out I did the same thing the week before (great minds think alike?). Admittedly, I was a bit skeptical of Gametap when it first came out. I loved the idea of a digitally distributed, all you can eat gaming service, but the games list didn't look too appealing at first, and considering it was owned by Time Warner (usually one of the more bumbling fools in the realm of conglomerate media companies) I didn't think it would get much better. Apparently I was dead wrong. There are a couple of minor issues with the service which most uber geeks will certainly cry foul over. For all of you normal people, read on to hear some of the more important questions about Gametap, and what I think of them so far.

How often does the games library update?

I have no idea how they did it at first, but as of now Gametap updates with about 7-10 new games every Thursday. That's far more frequent than I expected, and it amounts to a pretty sizeable stack of new stuff to play every month.

As for the selection of new releases, its hit or miss. I've only seen three weeks worth of updates, but its obvious that some will be better than others. For example, last week we got Contra: Hard Corps, Castlevania Bloodlines, Frogger, the two Time Pilot arcade games, and an old PS2/PC game called Shadow of Destiny. That's two Genesis classics, a legendary arcade game, two obscure schmups', and a decent little adventure game. The list next week contains some educational software, a Carmen Sandiego game, and Bust a Move. As you can see, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the updates; my guess is they release whatever is ready. However, it seems that there's at least one good, older game to play each week. If they can do that and toss at least one recent game to me every month, then the service basically pays for itself.


What kind of variety are we looking at here? Are there actually good games, or just a lot of "classics" that haven't aged well.

I'm shocked at how robust Gametap has become. Just about every genre I can think of can be found on Gametap. The weakest links are easily new spots games and RPGs, though I don't care much for those. If you are a gamer of many tastes, who appreciates classic gaming, then step inside. Gametap has games from the arcade, DOD, modern Windows, 2600, Genesis, Dreamcast, Neo-Geo, C-64, Intellivision, Game Gear, even the friggin' SG-1000. Of course, this does mean there's some true crap. I can't think of one thing that's good on the SG, but the mere fact that they include it blows me away.

At the same time, it seems that every time I traverse the list of games I'm finding something new that I had no clue was even offered. In less than two weeks I've manage to play Pandora Tomorrow, Riven and Myst, 1942 and all its sequels, a smattering of obscure capcom fighters, and a smattering of other classic arcade games. And I still haven't gotten to Rayman 3, the Ultima games, Kizuna Encounter (how the hell did they get such an obscure SNK game?) , Baldur's Gate, Commandos 3, Uplink, Landstalker...shit, I could go on. They really have done a good job of getting some solid modern games, some great old games, and a lot of really obscure stuff that I'd never dream of seeing here. Suffice to say I have a lot of catching up to do, aside from the regular updates. There's also some original G4-esque TV shows and some cartoons to watch. Haven't tried those out.

Did I mention that some games have multiplayer, and you can upload high scores in certain arcade games? I'm hoping that one day, I can meet Tycho in Uru Live.


How nice is the client?

This is where I think a lot of people might complain for no reason at all. Here's a nice little screenshot of the interface. As you might have guessed, its all slick and shiny for today's modern internet user. All that shit animates when you click on it, meaning its a bit sluggish at times. Also, the options and TV menus are a bit cluttered. At least getting to the games is easy enough, what with all those categories and a search to choose from.

Anyway, as you can also see, each game has a nice little image, and when you wish to play a game, it pops up with a window detailing its premise and instructions, some gameplay tips, and sometimes even some historical information. Whoever writes this stuff is a god. Rather than flinging around tons of silly gamer slang and cheesy jokes, these descriptions are helpful and informative, as if someone who knows something about gaming wrote them (the entry for Xevious is what really sold me). Sometimes you can also grab a PDF of the manual. My only issue with this part is that sometimes they don't give you the full scoop on how to operate a game. For instance, I still don't know how to quit out of Ultima 1.

When you want to play a game, you download it locally to your harddrive, and can have up to three games dl'ing at once. It works rather quickly, and overall the only suspicious slowdown I've seen was during the Splinter Cell cutscenes (the game itself ran smooth as butter). I also saw slowdown with some old arcade games, but I had quite a lot running in the background. I like the idea of it downloading rather than streaming, as it means performance is solid. Yet Gametap needs to do something about getting rid of the games. You can delete them any time you want, but it requires hunting a bit through the storage options. A button for deleting them right at the game menu would be a little easier for most players, otherwise they may find themselves with a full harddrive! My other complaint with the downloading is that if your internet connection dies (like my wireless does daily), it often has problems with a download. Sometimes it resumes, sometimes you have to start from scratch. This is offset a bit by relatively fast dl speeds. There were a few instances early on where I had mysterious download errors with no explanation at all, but I'm certain it was my conection, since they haven't returned.

Being that this is a Time Warner service, you can bet your sweet ass that AIM Triton makes an appearence in Gametap. What is amazing is that they never force it on you. You can use AIM to message buddies and hook up for some multiplayer on GT, but it only exists as a little button in the corner. Don't want to use it? You don't have to, and that's that. I've also checked process manager and see no spyware or other shit snooping around when the service is running. So far this is turning out to be a very un-Web2.0 experience, in a good way. Nothing is pushed on you, and you don't have to jump through hoops to get what you want. Okay, so that's not 100% true; when you're dl'ing a game, or look for TV shows they like to show you video clips advertising some of the stuff on the service. However you can disable them during the download, and the TV clips stop the moment you navigate the shows. A minor annoyance, but one that goes away easily.

So there you have it. Like I said, there is going to be a contingent of people who'd rather run the thing from the command line, or hate the idea of not owning the games (despite the fact that its only ten bucks a month to play all this shit legally, and owning some of them in cart form would be crazy expensive). I however am more than impressed with what they've come up with here. A few minor annoyances aside, I'm finding myself logging on at least once a day, either to chug my way through Riven, or to blast through a few quick credits in Galaga. I still can't believe they have all these different consoles and games working so well. The fact that the Sam and Max episodic content will appear on Gametap just seals the deal. Give it a shot if you're curious. I think you'll find something to like, and if not, the staff behind it seem to be working hard enough to make sure that eventually you will.