5 ms·

Superman 64

42 points by luu 4y ago

johnteller 4y ago
.... why?
- saagarjha 4y ago
  Perhaps inspired by a recent submission of an interview with the creator of E.T.?
  - technothrasher 4y ago
    E.T. wasn't that bad. I remember playing it when it came out and enjoying it. But this Superman thing... I hope somebody got blacklisted for that.
    - tialaramex 4y ago
      Right, E.T isn't a stand out classic, it's a bit rushed, the game isn't a great fit to the movie (but it's far from the worst in that era), but what stands out in people's memories is mostly that it wasn't what they expected. Which somewhat tells us about that era of video games more than about ET. In an era with Goose Game, Paper's Please and Unpacking, people understand that just because this is a video game doesn't mean it needs to fit into a handful of pre-existing niches - games can do whatever they want, but ET pre-dates that era. I expect if you had shot a found footage mockumentary movie in 1940 (before even Citizen Kane was shown) audiences wouldn't even have understood what you were trying to do. It wouldn't matter whether you did a good job or not, reviews are going to say it's a bad movie because the reviewer does not have a framework in which to assess it.
      - alasdair_ 4y ago
        I just found out that Papers Please is coming to mobile on August 5th!
    - egypturnash 4y ago
      From the account in the linked article, it seems that a large part of the blame can be laid at the feet of the licensing folks at WB, who ate up a ton of the development time by constantly demanding changes. They probably didn't lose their jobs.
agent86 4y ago
The Cutting Room Floor has an entry about a prototype version of the game from before Warner Bros started messing with its development. It covers some of the differences between the prototype and the production game and provides a download link for the prototype ROM. https://tcrf.net/Proto:Superman_(Nintendo_64) https://tcrf.net/Proto:Superman_(Nintendo_64)
taspeotis 4y ago
https://youtu.be/1dJXgJ1c4vY https://youtu.be/1dJXgJ1c4vY
- M4v3R 4y ago
  It would be useful to provide some context for the uninitiated - this is an Angry Video Game Nerd review of Superman 64. Viewer discretion is advised, as this particular reviewer likes to use elaborate expletives to describe downsides of reviewed games. It's pretty entertaining, though. PS. the actual review of Superman 64 for Nintendo 64 starts at 3:30. Also, some context for the game itself, from the article itself: > critical reviews were extremely negative, claiming it to be one of the worst video games ever made and panning its unresponsive controls, technical flaws, repetitive gameplay, overuse of distance fog, and poor graphics It's interesting how this game came to be, because Titus Interactive was a pretty well known studio that had a decent track record until that point. I would be interested to read more about how exactly it happened that they've released this monstrocity.
  - revolvingocelot 4y ago
    Exactly. This comment's [0] link to a description -- and download! -- of a build of a much, much better game made me desire a writeup from some knowledgeable insider. I played the game in my misspent youth; the description of the shelved build is amazing, and saddening. Makes me think of the recently released Duke Nukem Forever 2001 build [1]. Everyone surely knows of the turkey DNF became, but back in 2001 it really looked [2] awesome. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32274895 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32274895 [1] https://www.moddb.com/games/duke-nukem-forever-2001 https://www.moddb.com/games/duke-nukem-forever-2001 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDlB2P1leRM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDlB2P1leRM
  - egypturnash 4y ago
    The “development” section of this Wikipedia article gives a pretty good overview of it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_64#Development https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_64#Development All the footnotes next to the quotes lead to interviews with the head of Titus on the subject of Superman.
2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
I remember being on the USS Denver, in the top bunk sitting up, watching another Marine play emulated N64 games on his laptop. I told him to give Superman 64 a shot and I nearly died laughing. It was better that he didn't know what he was in for and went in totally blind. I also saw him snort coke that he bought in either Subic Bay or Pattaya.
- idontknowifican 4y ago
  info about deployed life is always so odd. i love the juxtaposition of playing n64 and doing coke. not related, but still a great window into what you chose to remember of that dude
  - guythedudebro 4y ago
    For me that juxtaposition was called college
- bryanrasmussen 4y ago
  How was the quality of the coke in relation to the game? on edit: meaning in relation to game quality, I know the events were not coterminous.
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  Not really a good idea to snort coke you buy from random places. Unless you have a trusted seller, better stay away.
messutied 4y ago
For anyone interested, here is a speed run, the game indeed is terrible. https://youtu.be/iQ2UzTpXfpU https://youtu.be/iQ2UzTpXfpU
- bko 4y ago
  Omg, the patience the speedrunner had to have to slog through that whole thing. I'm always impressed by speed runs but this blew me away. The game is truly awful
sylens 4y ago
As a kid during the N64 years, my dad was excited to rent this game from Blockbuster for us to try. We both recoiled in horror after a few minutes when it became evident it was a disaster.
- affgrff2 4y ago
  I remember playing the game as kid with a friend whose mom rented it for him. We were so disappointed. What stuck in my mind very much is that the character had now shadow whatsoever so it was imposible to determine the distance to the floor, super annoying in a game where you can fly...
Kye 4y ago
Are Superman games still cursed to be awful? I got the NES game in a yard sale ages ago and remember looking it up on the early web and finding others who also thought it was atrocious.
- sylens 4y ago
  I think it is a particularly hard character to build a game around. Danger/conflict for Superman boils down to a binary question - is kryptonite present or not? I think a later Superman game (for the XBox or XBox 360 generation, I believe) tried to use the health of Metropolis in lieu of a health gauge for Superman himself, which I thought was a novel idea. There's also a lot of individual mechanics for Superman (flight, speed, strength, laser vision, etc.) that are probably challenging to get right. It's easier to work with more limited heroes.
  - acuozzo 4y ago
    > Danger/conflict for Superman boils down to a binary question - is kryptonite present or not? Perhaps, but given that Superman is not from Earth it could go the Dragon Ball route.
hertzrat 4y ago
Off topic, but I just learned that the author of Watchmen (Alan moore) wrote some superman stories. The one I’m trying to track down right now is “for the man who has everything.” He described his writing process for it in detail in his great, short book on comic writing

Superman 64

42 points by luu 4y ago

johnteller 4y ago

.... why?

saagarjha 4y ago
Perhaps inspired by a recent submission of an interview with the creator of E.T.?
- technothrasher 4y ago
  E.T. wasn't that bad. I remember playing it when it came out and enjoying it. But this Superman thing... I hope somebody got blacklisted for that.
  - tialaramex 4y ago
    Right, E.T isn't a stand out classic, it's a bit rushed, the game isn't a great fit to the movie (but it's far from the worst in that era), but what stands out in people's memories is mostly that it wasn't what they expected. Which somewhat tells us about that era of video games more than about ET. In an era with Goose Game, Paper's Please and Unpacking, people understand that just because this is a video game doesn't mean it needs to fit into a handful of pre-existing niches - games can do whatever they want, but ET pre-dates that era. I expect if you had shot a found footage mockumentary movie in 1940 (before even Citizen Kane was shown) audiences wouldn't even have understood what you were trying to do. It wouldn't matter whether you did a good job or not, reviews are going to say it's a bad movie because the reviewer does not have a framework in which to assess it.
    - alasdair_ 4y ago
      I just found out that Papers Please is coming to mobile on August 5th!
  - egypturnash 4y ago
    From the account in the linked article, it seems that a large part of the blame can be laid at the feet of the licensing folks at WB, who ate up a ton of the development time by constantly demanding changes. They probably didn't lose their jobs.

agent86 4y ago

The Cutting Room Floor has an entry about a prototype version of the game from before Warner Bros started messing with its development. It covers some of the differences between the prototype and the production game and provides a download link for the prototype ROM. https://tcrf.net/Proto:Superman_(Nintendo_64) https://tcrf.net/Proto:Superman_(Nintendo_64)

taspeotis 4y ago

https://youtu.be/1dJXgJ1c4vY https://youtu.be/1dJXgJ1c4vY

M4v3R 4y ago
It would be useful to provide some context for the uninitiated - this is an Angry Video Game Nerd review of Superman 64. Viewer discretion is advised, as this particular reviewer likes to use elaborate expletives to describe downsides of reviewed games. It's pretty entertaining, though. PS. the actual review of Superman 64 for Nintendo 64 starts at 3:30. Also, some context for the game itself, from the article itself: > critical reviews were extremely negative, claiming it to be one of the worst video games ever made and panning its unresponsive controls, technical flaws, repetitive gameplay, overuse of distance fog, and poor graphics It's interesting how this game came to be, because Titus Interactive was a pretty well known studio that had a decent track record until that point. I would be interested to read more about how exactly it happened that they've released this monstrocity.
- revolvingocelot 4y ago
  Exactly. This comment's [0] link to a description -- and download! -- of a build of a much, much better game made me desire a writeup from some knowledgeable insider. I played the game in my misspent youth; the description of the shelved build is amazing, and saddening. Makes me think of the recently released Duke Nukem Forever 2001 build [1]. Everyone surely knows of the turkey DNF became, but back in 2001 it really looked [2] awesome. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32274895 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32274895 [1] https://www.moddb.com/games/duke-nukem-forever-2001 https://www.moddb.com/games/duke-nukem-forever-2001 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDlB2P1leRM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDlB2P1leRM
- egypturnash 4y ago
  The “development” section of this Wikipedia article gives a pretty good overview of it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_64#Development https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_64#Development All the footnotes next to the quotes lead to interviews with the head of Titus on the subject of Superman.

2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago

I remember being on the USS Denver, in the top bunk sitting up, watching another Marine play emulated N64 games on his laptop. I told him to give Superman 64 a shot and I nearly died laughing. It was better that he didn't know what he was in for and went in totally blind. I also saw him snort coke that he bought in either Subic Bay or Pattaya.

idontknowifican 4y ago
info about deployed life is always so odd. i love the juxtaposition of playing n64 and doing coke. not related, but still a great window into what you chose to remember of that dude
- guythedudebro 4y ago
  For me that juxtaposition was called college
bryanrasmussen 4y ago
How was the quality of the coke in relation to the game? on edit: meaning in relation to game quality, I know the events were not coterminous.
ChuckNorris89 4y ago
Not really a good idea to snort coke you buy from random places. Unless you have a trusted seller, better stay away.

messutied 4y ago

For anyone interested, here is a speed run, the game indeed is terrible. https://youtu.be/iQ2UzTpXfpU https://youtu.be/iQ2UzTpXfpU

bko 4y ago
Omg, the patience the speedrunner had to have to slog through that whole thing. I'm always impressed by speed runs but this blew me away. The game is truly awful

sylens 4y ago

As a kid during the N64 years, my dad was excited to rent this game from Blockbuster for us to try. We both recoiled in horror after a few minutes when it became evident it was a disaster.

affgrff2 4y ago
I remember playing the game as kid with a friend whose mom rented it for him. We were so disappointed. What stuck in my mind very much is that the character had now shadow whatsoever so it was imposible to determine the distance to the floor, super annoying in a game where you can fly...

Kye 4y ago

Are Superman games still cursed to be awful? I got the NES game in a yard sale ages ago and remember looking it up on the early web and finding others who also thought it was atrocious.

sylens 4y ago
I think it is a particularly hard character to build a game around. Danger/conflict for Superman boils down to a binary question - is kryptonite present or not? I think a later Superman game (for the XBox or XBox 360 generation, I believe) tried to use the health of Metropolis in lieu of a health gauge for Superman himself, which I thought was a novel idea. There's also a lot of individual mechanics for Superman (flight, speed, strength, laser vision, etc.) that are probably challenging to get right. It's easier to work with more limited heroes.
- acuozzo 4y ago
  > Danger/conflict for Superman boils down to a binary question - is kryptonite present or not? Perhaps, but given that Superman is not from Earth it could go the Dragon Ball route.

hertzrat 4y ago

Off topic, but I just learned that the author of Watchmen (Alan moore) wrote some superman stories. The one I’m trying to track down right now is “for the man who has everything.” He described his writing process for it in detail in his great, short book on comic writing