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[Oddball]

I think I might get lynched for saying this, but... I didn't like it. It's a great idea and I applaud the inventiveness, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. Judging by the responses so far though I don't think you'll be needing my vote anyway. Good stuff.

[Zaphos]

I think I might get lynched for saying this, but... I didn't like it. It's a great idea and I applaud the inventiveness, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. Judging by the responses so far though I don't think you'll be needing my vote anyway. Good stuff.

Could you elaborate more on what specifically turned you off about it?  (I'm just curious; I like reading constructive criticism about games.)

[Farbs]

Could you elaborate more on what specifically turned you off about it?  (I'm just curious; I like reading constructive criticism about games.)

2nded. Constructive criticism is a wonderful thing! I'd love to hear what turned you off the game.

[William Broom]

Just one question, how did you get the name ROM CHECK FAIL from the VGNG?

[PHeMoX]

Just one question, how did you get the name ROM CHECK FAIL from the VGNG?

It's a rare name that will pop up when the VGNG glitches from an overload of awesomeness.

[Oddball]

Could you elaborate more on what specifically turned you off about it?  (I'm just curious; I like reading constructive criticism about games.)

2nded. Constructive criticism is a wonderful thing! I'd love to hear what turned you off the game.

Sorry. Suppose I should have elaborated a bit more. There's definitely nothing wrong with the game. The hundreds of positive replies are testament to that. My tastes just lie in a different direction. For me I found the constant changes in game mechanics more of an annoyance than a challenge. I found myself constantly having to reassess my tactics and techniques without ever getting the feeling I was going to be allowed to master them. Maybe if I were given a lot more time with each combination early on in the game I'd be less inclined to feel frustrated at the quicker changes later on. TBH though I just think I'm not your target audience. I am however a big supporter of those that try something new and different so you get encomium from me just for that.

[Farbs]

Cool, thanks man!

I intentionally tried to balance RCF so that the player felt like they were fighting for control, but I can totally see how that could be frustrating. I don't think I'll change it since I think it's a case where improving the experience for some would damage it for others, & produce a more mediocre game for everyone.

Constructive criticism earns you one of these though:
 

[Pip]

Just thinking about what Oddball has said: it might be cool if at first the game plays relatively straightforwardly. Then, after a good minute or so, the first "change" occurs, changing just one element (player's control method, for example). After this, the changes gradually become more and more frequent until they get to the speed they're at now. Would need more levels to make this work effectively though.

[Golds]

ROM CHECK FAIL in the Onion AV Club today!  Coooooool!

http://www.avclub.com/content/games/rom_check_fail

[Corpus]

The comments on that article just melted my brain.

[shinygerbil]

ARTICLE: FAIL
 by alexei kavestoriripoff
I like how you can do a whole review about this game and not once cite your source, i.e the author's website or even just a place to dl the game or the VGNG website or the TIGsource contest website.
This is totally retarded.

I'm digging that name. :D

[moi]

Perhaps a TIGS regular?

[gnawingonfoot]

I'd love to check this game out but for some reason I get a really weird display bug or error of some sort (and this also happens for PCFM).  Basically the whole screen goes black, and I get part of the game's upper right corner in my monitor's lower left corner, and the upper left corner in the lower right corner.  I tried to screenshot it, but it just came out as showing the properly-sized game window (http://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=notworkzd1.png).  Is there something else that I'm missing and need to install?  Is there a way I could give you more info on what might have caused this?  I'd love to check the game out, and this not working stuff is making me sad.

[Farbs]

That's extremely weird. What res are you running your desktop at? Do you have a weird native screen res? Have you tried both windowed and fullscreen (alt-enter to toggle)? Can you run other games that use the popcap framework?

[gnawingonfoot]

That's extremely weird. What res are you running your desktop at? Do you have a weird native screen res? Have you tried both windowed and fullscreen (alt-enter to toggle)? Can you run other games that use the popcap framework?

My desktop resolution is 1440 x 900, which a little bit funky, but not too unusual.  But fortunately the Alt+Enter fullscreen thing worked just fine.  Switching back to windowed mode made it look wonky again.  As for other Popcap framework games, I don't believe I have played any, but I'll gladly test something out for you if you'll point me towards one. 

And now that I've had a chance to play the game, I'd just like to echo the praise everyone has been giving you for the past fourteen pages of this thread.  It was bizarre, surreal fun.  And I loved the ending screens, too.

[joshg]

So we all know ROM CHECK FAIL has made some game blog headlines already.  But when I saw this in my RSS reader I figured I had to post it here.

You don’t need to be a videogame fan or being a teenager in the seventies / eighties to know videogame classics like Space Invaders, Pacman or Tetris. Their iconic power is still intact in the public imagination, also thanks to many reinterpretations and updates. Their patterns are often used by game artists as metaphors to create new connected sense...

...the most radical experiment in this tradition is probably Rom Check Fail, a sort of psychedelic remix of a dozen classic arcades. Graphic, enemies, scenes and their respective dynamics are randomly remixed by a software gone crazy. Every game is a frantic zapping among unpredictable situations but oddly playable. Remix culture, contaminated the video and now invades videogames. With astonishing achievements.

from Neural, a new media art magazine / blog based in Italy (thus the slightly broken English).  This also got picked up by another new media blog, Networked Performance.

[Farbs]

Art.
 

[snerdo]

This game is pretty terrific. Terrific like I played it until I beat it three times, terrific. Even if the name didn't come out of the VGNG.

Though I did get a name from the VGNG that describes ROM CHECK FAIL perfectly:


Manic Theme Park All-Stars

which was a pretty funny coincidence I think

[zradick]

Very impressive work Farb.  There is genius and madness in equal measure. 
Cheers,
--Zack

[Akatosh]

Appearantly, the mainstream(ish) media agrees in this case! (at least over here in Krautistan)


(click image for full version - you need to download it and rotate it by 90° to the left because of Photobucket's weird restrictions on size, and sorry for the crappy quality)

This is an article from the german gaming magazine "Retro" (#08, issue of summer 2008). For those among us who don't speak that language: The article is called "The art of talking about games". Basically, it states the game is "probably the first playable artistic view on videogames", then describes the gameplay in short and points out that "it does something hardly any remakes of 8-bit-classics have achieved in the last years: every last pixel oozes the spirit of the original, and yet it is something completly new". It closes with two very nice sentences:

"Thus, we can come to a wholly new point of view regarding many pleasant memories and many old classic can be interpreted in a wholly new way, which is exactly what great art should be achieving. And because that is really awesome [sic], we put "Rom Check Fail!" on the magazine's CD."


And they are right. The game is really goddamn fun. Congratulations and kudos to you - despite being mainstream media, they even recognised the game as "indie".