In this episode Joel and I get our groove on with Crypt of the Necrodancer. Well, Joel gets his groove on. I just die a lot.
Episode 2 is upon us and this week we’re taking a look at Psyonix’s smash hit car-to-ball game Rocket League.
The wait is over! You can now, at long last, refresh the Side by Side tab you’ve had open since the end of season 1 to see that season 2 is upon us! Bigger, better, harder, faster… uh, stronger? Actually, while season 2 won’t necessarily be bigger, we hope it’ll be better. Harder? No. Faster? No. Snappier? I didn’t say that, but yes. Sexier? Now now, don’t push it.
Joel Goodwin and I are now nine whole Great British episodes into our collaborative video series Side by Side which aims to cover an assortment of local multiplayer games both old and new, from the familar to the foreign, the physical to the frightening. If you haven’t checked it out yet then here’s a slice of what you’ve been missing:
It’s been quite a while since I posted anything on Tap but my good friend Joel Goodwin over at Electron Dance has just launched our new 15 episode local multiplayer video series ‘Side by Side‘. I say our, it’s more his because Joel has done all the hard work, I just hosted the sessions, giggled a lot, spoke with him about our experiences and fed him cheese and ham sandwiches.
Anyway, I’m incredibly happy with the first episode which covers Jan Willem Nijman’s fantastic TENNNES and very much starts the series as it means to go on. Side by Side has its own YouTube channel so feel free to subscribe, like, share and all that other social media jazz. If you know anyone who enjoys a spot of local multiplayer then point them our way: we’ve got lots in store.
You can watch the video after the jump, on Electron Dance or over on the Tube of You.
Earlier on in the year, Harbour Master and I got together to play Terry Cavanagh’s dithered local co-op curiosity At A Distance (which you may remember me mentioning in my Eurogamer Expo coverage last year). It’s an enigmatic oddball that few people have played — despite it appearing at countless game shows and indie shindigs — and one that even fewer have experienced through to the very end. You see, most people who finish At A Distance, don’t really finish it; they see just the beginning. We saw the end, and we’re not afraid to talk about it.
While you’re over there, you may notice that changes are abreast. Until now the good ship Electron Dance has been a solo affair, captained by part-man, part-machine Joel Goodwin aka Harbour Master. Well today HM has welcomed Eric Brasure aboard, a man who, according to his about page on Charles Wallace on Camazotz, ‘used to do stuff at SecondQuest.vg’. For more information on him and a brief primer on his Dialogue Tree podcasts (which is what originally attracted HM’s attention and what will be re-appearing on ED over the coming months) I recommend reading the welcome post and having a listen to the short four minute chat between the two of them.
To contact the author of this babble email greggb@tap-repeatedly.com
The previous Cat’s Away Chronicles featured the fine chaps over at Arcadian Rhythms having a wee drink and a chat with Electron Dance’s Harbour Master. The latest in his series sees him venturing up North to visit me where we talk, talk about playing some games, talk some more, talk some more about playing games, play some games, then talk some more. Thankfully Harbour Master is awfully good at editing and managed to focus our chatter on the games we played and a round of quickfire questions. Chainmail skirts, stealing Steerpike’s concubines, evolution versus creationism, the meaning of Braid… it’s all in there. Go see!
Alliance of Awesome fellow Harbour Master, at his own haunt of Electron Dance, has posted a thoughtful piece on games that “leak:” that is, games that are uber-stimulative, not just profound or impactful, but that make you look at life differently. Check it out, he promises more to come.
About a month ago just before the run up to the Eurogamer expo 2011 (which Mat C and myself covered here), Joel Goodwin, a.k.a. Harbour Master of Electron Dance, posted up a discussion the two of us had about our experience with the little miracle that is the Portal 2 co-op campaign entitled Men of Science. Joel without me realising also recorded some of our antics and spliced them together to form a very special …
Remember how back when I posted that it was hot I said I was busy in real life and that was totally interfering with my usual schedule of being around on the site I should arguably be responsible for maintaining? That was totally true, yo. So true in fact that it’s not even hot any more and I’m still too busy to, you know, pay attention to Tap. I’m really sorry about that.
Luckily I have many fine contributors and the ability to recycle my own content from other sites. Thus do I give you the latest installment of Culture Clash, which is a little incoherent on account of the busy – something about hearts breaking, and I think childhood. Harbour Master is mentioned in there as well. I dunno. It made sense when I wrote it. Enjoy! I’ll be back in like three months.
Over the past three months we’ve linked to several pieces in Electron Dance‘s series of retrospectives and developer interviews, titled “Where We Came From.” Well, in case you hadn’t realized, yes, it was indeed a series, comprised of fifteen segments, which concluded just a few weeks ago with its final entry.
Whether you missed a part here or there, or if you missed it entirely, what better time to delve into such treasures than the onset of a weekend? Be warned though: it’s as much a retrospective on 8-bit gaming as it is a journey of self-discovery. And not just for the man who penned it all, either…
Mystery awaits you: Where We Came From.
I know what you’re thinking. You love the great taste, wholesome values and nutritional benefits of the Alliance of Awesome, but you just don’t have enough ways to absorb or interact with its lovely staff, readers and contributors. You need and crave more. Fear not, discerning gamers of impeccable taste and style. Not only is the Alliance of Awesome gifting you three awesome websites (Tap-Repeatedly, Bits ‘N’ Bytes Gaming and Electron Dance) and three awesome Twitter feeds …
Harbour Master, he truly is the best of us. Alliance fellow HM, steward of the delightful Electron Dance, has been playing the games that made us. The latest – Chris Crawford’s unforgettable 1981 SCRAM: A Nuclear Reactor Simulator, required plenty of manual-reading and reflection on the misapprehensions about nuclear disasters so prevalent in today’s world. Harbour Master’s The Fukushima Syndrome is – as usual – worth checking out. Part 2 of The Fukushima Syndrome is where things get hot …
Our friend Harbour Master over at Alliance of Awesome fellow Electron Dance has been publishing a series of fascinating, heartfelt vignettes on game designers. The latest tells the story of Bill Williams, one of the greatest visionaries of the early home computer period, one his colleagues have called “The Stanley Kubrick of Game Design.” Tragically the world lost him to cystic fibrosis, and we were denied his genius far too early. Check out HM’s thoughts. …
For those who are not already, please cease current activity and toddle over to our friend Harbour Master’s Electron Dance, and read The Aspiration, in which he is chronicling a game of Neptune’s Pride. At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, even emotionally exhausting, it is always epic and written in a classic Harbour Masterian style that many can emulate but none can match. Preview—— Part 1—— Part 2—— Part 3—— Part 4—— Part 5 It’s not …