Misplaced Pages

#292707

62-548: GT Advance features forty-five licensed Japanese cars and places the player in races on thirty-two tracks. Due to positive reaction to the game in Japan, THQ purchased publishing rights for the North American and European releases to the game after a reported bidding war, and added in a controversial password save system into the game to cut costs. The game was received with mostly positive reviews from critics that praised

124-406: A Compete.com study. In January 1996, Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein quit their positions at IDG and founded SpotMedia Communications. SpotMedia then launched GameSpot on May 1, 1996. Originally, GameSpot focused solely on personal computer games, so a sister site, VideoGameSpot , was launched on December 1, 1996. Eventually VideoGameSpot , then renamed VideoGames.com ,

186-418: A game save , savegame , savefile , save point , or simply save ) is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game . From the earliest games in the 1970s onward, game platform hardware and memory improved, which led to bigger and more complex computer games, which, in turn, tended to take more and more time to play them from start to finish. This naturally led to

248-465: A "restore point," which is like a quick save but has no restrictions on reloading. Although likely derived from quick saves, restore points are functionally identical to save states, and can be used for many of the same purposes. Game designers often attempt to integrate the save points into the style of the game using skeuomorphism . Resident Evil represents save points with old fashioned typewriters (which require an ink ribbon item for each save),

310-529: A Japanese import version of the game instead, since it was in English and included a battery save feature. Eurogamer wrote that even though GT Advance was hampered by passwords, it recommended the game for fans of racing genre. NextGen praised the selection of cars and tracks, and called the graphics and sound as "passable", but was critical that some tracks are short and that the game has issue with collision physics. Bro Buzz of GamePro said, "Despite

372-464: A game they were heavily advertising on GameSpot at the time. Both GameSpot and parent company CNET initially stated that his dismissal was unrelated to the review. However, in March 2012, the non-disclosure agreement that forced Gerstmann to withhold the details of his termination was nullified. Not long after, Giant Bomb (a site Gerstmann founded after leaving GameSpot ) was being purchased by

434-466: A new design similar to that of TV.com , now considered a sister site to GameSpot . GameSpot ran a few different paid subscriptions from 2006 to 2013, but is no longer running those. In June 2008, GameSpot ' s parent company CNET was acquired by CBS Corporation , and GameSpot along with CNET's other online assets were managed by the CBS Interactive division. A new layout change

496-512: A new password save system, tweaking was kept to a minimum for the North American version of the game. The choice was made in the Japanese version to use mostly English in the game so it would be playable outside Japan. The Japanese version of the game, Advance GTA , was praised by critics and the anticipation for the North American and European releases of the game grew. A reported bidding war between United States publishing companies to release

558-446: A player saves the game. For instance, IGI 2 allows only a handful of saves in each mission; Max Payne 2 imposes this restriction on the highest level of difficulty. Some video games only allow the game to be saved at predetermined points in the game, called save points. (Not to be confused with " checkpoints ".) Save points are employed either because the game is too complex to allow saving at any given point or to attempt to make

620-405: A savegame with a loss condition used in this way is usually referred to as a "save state". Game saving does not need to be manual. Some video games save the game in progress automatically, such as after the pass of a fixed amount of time, at certain predetermined points in the game as an extension to the save point concept, or when the player exits. Some games only permit "suspend saves" in which

682-504: A semi-automated moderation system with numerous volunteer moderators . GameSpot moderators are picked by paid GameSpot staff from members of the GameSpot user community. Due to the size and massive quantity of boards and posts on GameSpot , there is a "report" feature where a normal user can report a violation post to an unpaid moderator volunteer. In addition to the message board system, GameSpot has expanded its community through

SECTION 10

#1732786559293

744-422: A server, or some combination thereof. Similarly, passwords have generally been rare at arcades, with occasional exceptions, such as Gauntlet Legends . GameSpot GameSpot is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition to

806-485: Is save state hacking , the practice of which uses a hex editor to modify the save states to alter gameplay conditions, usually in favor of the player. Save states are comparable to snapshots of a computer system's state or hibernation in computing, with save states being a limited form of snapshots. Save states have started to receive mainstream usage in the early 2010s with Nintendo's Virtual Console. Some Wii U and 3DS Virtual Console titles allow players to save

868-404: Is a form of a saved game in emulators . A save state is generated when the emulator stores the contents of random-access memory of an emulated program to disk. Save states enable players to save their games even when the emulated game or system does not support the feature. For instance, save states may be used to circumvent saving restrictions or as a savescumming technique. An associated concept

930-424: Is a mechanism to distinguish players, such as user accounts . Leaving the decision of when to save up to the player increases the likelihood that a save will be made during a less than favourable game state. A quicksave shortly before an event which kills the player creates what is known as a death loop. Passwords are a form of saved game not stored on non-volatile memory . Instead, everything needed to reconstruct

992-564: Is available after finishing the main story. Saved games have generally been rare at arcades, but have found some use, notably in the Konami e-Amusement system, Bandai Namco 's Bandai Namco Passport, or Banapassport system, or by the use of PlayStation cards, as in Dance Dance Revolution . These generally use either a magnetic card to store the data, a card that stores data through network (internet) connection or through

1054-445: Is deleted and the game must be restarted. The term "perma-death" would come to refer to the concept used for that purpose. It is possible to cheat the system by copying and reusing suspend save files in an act of what is considered to be a form of savescumming. "Checkpoints" are locations in a video game where a player character respawns after death. Characters generally respawn at the last checkpoint that they have reached. A respawn

1116-444: Is most often due to the death of the in-game character, but it can also be caused by the failure to meet an objective required to advance in the game. Checkpoints might be temporary, as they stop working when the player loses their last life, completes or quits the level, especially in platform games. Most modern games, however, save the game to memory at these points, known as auto-saving . Checkpoints might be visible or invisible to

1178-404: Is to use a deterministic, seeded pseudorandom number generator , so that undesired random outcomes cannot be avoided simply by saving and reloading. In this situation, when the player reloads a saved game, 'random' events will occur identically every time – the only way to get a different outcome is to play differently. Savescumming is made an in-built feature in most game emulators. In this case,

1240-490: The Grand Theft Auto series used representations appropriate to the era of the setting: cassette tapes for the mid-1980s ( Grand Theft Auto: Vice City ), 3½-inch disks for the early-1990s ( Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ), and compact discs for the late-1990s ( Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories ). Although save points are typically seen as boons, some games have traps which use this tendency to fool

1302-557: The Super Cassette Vision was the first-ever game to allow saving game progress on a video game console, using an AA battery on the game cassette. In modern consoles, which use disks for storing games, saved games are stored in other ways, such as by use of memory cards or internal hard drives on the game machine itself. The use of memory cards for saving game data dates back to SNK 's cartridge-based Neo Geo arcade system and home console in 1990. Depending on

SECTION 20

#1732786559293

1364-573: The golden age of arcade video games did not save the player's progress towards completing the game, but rather high scores , custom settings, and other features. The first game to save the player's score was Taito 's seminal 1978 shoot 'em up title Space Invaders . The relative complexity and inconvenience of storing game state information on early home computers (and the fact that early video game consoles had no non-volatile data storage ) meant that initially game saves were represented as " passwords " (often strings of characters that encoded

1426-484: The Xbox 360, many players are beginning to view those who load other people's files onto their systems as "cheaters". Some games such as Grand Theft Auto IV attempt to prevent the use of saved games made by other users. In contrast, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages actively encourages players that have completed the game to share their progress with others via a password swapping side quest that

1488-413: The character save game is managed by the server. The use of saved games is very common in modern video games, particularly in role-playing video games , which are usually much too long to finish in a single session. In early video games , there was no need for saving games, since these games usually had no actual plot to develop and were generally very short in length. Classic arcade video games from

1550-407: The dents, GT Advance is a solid early contender in the handheld racing championship—just be sure to drive with the lights on." Responding to criticisms of the password save system, THQ later re-instated the battery save feature into the two sequels of the game, GT Advance 2: Rally Racing , and GT Advance 3: Pro Concept Racing . Password (video games) A saved game (also called

1612-412: The feature has developed over the years from being the only kind of save system per game to the more modern 'suspend game' feature among regular save points. For online games, the game's progress is maintained on the remote server. In some games, upon resuming the game from a save game, the software locks or marks the save game. Early examples include Moria and Diablo II 's "hardcore" mode where

1674-456: The game a particular feel or alter its difficulty. A video game may allow the user to save at any point of the game at any time. There are also modified versions of this. For example, in the GameCube game Eternal Darkness , the player can save at almost any time, but only if no enemies are in the room. To make gaming more engaging, some video games may impose a limit on the number of times

1736-417: The game again. If the outcome is red (or green), the player disregards this outcome by reloading their last savegame. This allows for an indefinite winning streak. Game programmers may defend against savescumming by various means, such as checking timestamps. For example, on multiuser Unix systems, NetHack uses setgid to prevent users from copying save files into the necessary directory. Another technique

1798-506: The game for its fun gameplay, but THQ was criticized by most reviewers for adding passwords to the game when the Japanese version had battery-backed saves. GT Advance Championship Racing is a customizable experience, including 48 cars from 8 car manufacturers, and 32 courses. Some of the cars featured in the game are exclusively found in Asia, such as the first-generation Nissan Cube . The courses vary between paved and dirt roads, requiring

1860-454: The game in the US began after the positive feedback from the Japanese version. THQ later gained the publishing rights for the game's North American and European releases. GT Advance Championship Racing received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic . In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 26 out of 40. Critics garnered praise for its overall gameplay, but

1922-405: The game is automatically saved upon exiting and reloaded upon restarting. The aim of a suspend save is only to allow the gameplay to be temporarily interrupted; as such, suspend saves are erased when the player resumes the game. This concept was popularized by Rogue and the namesake genre , which are known for employing the mechanic such that if the player were to die in the game, their save file

GT Advance Championship Racing - Misplaced Pages Continue

1984-404: The game more challenging by forcing the player to rely on their skills instead of on the ability to retry indefinitely. Save points are easier to program and thus attractive from a development standpoint. Some games use a hybrid system where both save anywhere and save points are used. For example, Final Fantasy VII permits saving anywhere when the player is traveling on the world map, but once

2046-400: The game state is encoded in and displayed on-screen as a string of text, usually comprising random alphanumeric characters, and the player can then record or memorize it. The player may later resume play from that point by entering the same password. Passwords were widely used by home console games before the advent of non-volatile memory and later internal and external storage. A "save state"

2108-491: The game state) that players could write down and later input into the game when resuming. BYTE magazine stated in 1981, regarding the computer text adventure Zork I ' s save-game feature, that "while some cowards use it to retain their hard-earned position in the game before making some dangerous move", it was intended to let players play over many weeks. InfoWorld disagreed that year, stating that save games "allow users to experiment with different approaches to

2170-454: The game to retrieve their data. Many critics blamed THQ for what was perceived to be a cost-cutting measure. It was the only major change from the Japanese version of the game. MTO began development on GT Advance Championship Racing about a year before the release of the game in Japan. The game was first announced in August 2000, under the name of Pocket GT Advance . With the exception of

2232-402: The game, a player will have the ability to save the game either at any arbitrary point (usually when the game has been paused), after a specific task has been completed (such as at the end of a level), or at designated areas within the game known as save points. The available ways to save a game affect gameplay, and can represent a practice of players or an explicit decision by designers to give

2294-492: The game. For many years, sharing game saves among friends has been very common. From trading passwords to swapping memory cards, gamers have always been able to help each other out to unlock features in a game. With the growing popularity of the Internet, many people upload their game saves to help out their online friends. However, with the inclusion of a progress meter or " gamerscore " that tracks player progress in games for

2356-528: The games made this feature optional, as do franchises such as the Fire Emblem , Shenmue and .hack series. Video games may also take the saved games of other video games into account; for example, the character Rosalina becomes available on Mario Kart Wii if there is a Super Mario Galaxy save on the console. The save game of Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition can be imported to the Remix version of

2418-491: The hundred best websites, alongside competitors IGN and CNET Gamecenter . On July 19, 2000, CNET announced its acquisition of ZDNET , putting GameSpot and Gamecenter under the same parent company. That December, The New York Times declared GameSpot and Gamecenter the " Time and Newsweek of gaming sites". In February 2001, GameSpot was spared from a redundancy reduction effort by CNET which shuttered Gamecenter . In October 2005, GameSpot adopted

2480-428: The impression of 3D graphics in the game. The Japanese version of the game, Advance GTA , had save support. However, THQ pulled the battery RAM out of the North American and European releases of the game, and utilized passwords to save data instead. The system forces players of the North American and European releases to enter a sixteen digit code consisting of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols into

2542-414: The inclusion of a password save system by THQ into the North American and European releases was heavily criticized. IGN ' s Craig Harris praised the high quality graphics engine and the entertaining powerslide system, but panned the password system. GameSpot called GT Advance as robust and graphically impressive racing game. Despite praising the gameplay, GameSpot recommended that players buy

GT Advance Championship Racing - Misplaced Pages Continue

2604-517: The information produced by GameSpot staff, the site also allows users to write their own reviews, blogs, and post on the site's forums. It has been owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. In 2004, GameSpot won "Best Gaming Website" as chosen by the viewers in Spike TV 's second Video Game Award Show , and has won Webby Awards several times. The domain GameSpot.com attracted at least 60 million visitors annually by October 2008 according to

2666-477: The loss of progress in the game (as might happen after a game over). Games designed this way encourage players to 'try things out', and on regretting a choice, continue from an earlier point on. Although the feature of save games often allows for gameplay to resume after a game over, a notable exception is in games where save games are deleted when it is game over. Several names are used to describe this feature, including " permadeath ", "iron man", and "hardcore", and

2728-426: The need to store in some way the progress, and how to handle the case where the player received a " game over ". More modern games with a heavier emphasis on storytelling are designed to allow the player many choices that impact the story in a profound way later on, and some game designers do not want to allow more than one save game so that the experience will always be "fresh". Game designers allow players to prevent

2790-452: The physical appearance of the vehicle. The game contains multiplayer support, allowing two people to play against each other using a Game Link Cable . Controls are simple, with the A and B buttons controlling the player's gas and brakes respectively. The R and L buttons shift the car up or down a gear when set to manual control, and the D-Pad controls the car's steering. The game requires

2852-439: The player enters a location (e.g. town, cavern or forest), saving is only possible at save points. Overusing saved games may be seen as unfair and in such a context is referred to as "savescumming". Savescumming makes losing a game impossible because whenever the player loses or is about to lose, a savegame is loaded, effectively turning back time to the situation before the loss. In a video game, this could for example be done when

2914-411: The player loses a battle/race, misses the best performance grading for a level (such as an S-rank ) or runs into an unwinnable situation by losing anyone or anything needed to continue and win. For example, in a game that features a casino, the player could save the game and then bet all their in-game money on black at a roulette table. If the outcome is black, their money is doubled and the player saves

2976-403: The player must find and expend an ink ribbon for each save. In some games, save games or save points are part of the plot. In Chrono Cross , save points are called Records of Fate, managed by an entity called FATE, an antagonist that uses the save points to control people. In Anonymous;Code , the protagonist Pollon Takaoka has a unique ability to save and load save games, which is central to

3038-412: The player to adapt their driving to meet the conditions of the course they're driving on. The game's championship mode features four levels of play, three cups of varying levels, and two unlockable "extra" modes, " kart racing mode" (labelled as Extra 1), and " formula racing mode" (labelled as Extra 2). Upgrades earned through gameplay can be added to the player's car, and in some cases, they can change

3100-447: The player to master the powerslide technique to skid around corners and to reduce their lap time. The roads in the game are painted on a flat plane , which allows the game to progress at a smooth rate, but makes it harder for the player to see upcoming turns in the road. The problem can be remedied by playing through a track multiple times to gain familiarity with the turns in a course. The cars are rendered through sprite frames, giving

3162-415: The player would lose all of their checkpoints. Quick-saving and quick-loading allow the player to save or load the game with a single keystroke. These terms are used to differentiate between the traditional saving mechanism where the player is required to invoke a menu or dialog box, issue save the order, specify a title for the game being saved and, if applicable, confirm whether an old saved game file with

SECTION 50

#1732786559293

3224-554: The player. In Chrono Trigger , attempting to use a fake save point in Magus's castle can actually bring the party into battle. Some games employ limits to saving in order to prevent players from using them as a primary means of succeeding in the game. In Tomb Raider save points are consumed upon use, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest charges two banana coins to use a save point more than once, and in Resident Evil

3286-399: The player. Visible checkpoints might give a player a sense of security when activated, but in turn sacrifice some immersion , as checkpoints are intrinsically "gamey" and might even need an explanation of how they work. Invisible checkpoints do not break immersion but make players unsure of where they will respawn. Usually, if a player does get a game over, then their progress will be lost, and

3348-482: The plot and the main game mechanic. Another way saved games interact with each other is through passing along data to sequels. A famous example of this is the first three installments of the Wizardry series. To play the second and third installments, players needed to import the characters they'd used in the previous installment, which retained all experience and equipment gained in that installment. Later versions of

3410-465: The purchase of ZDNet by CNET , GameSpot UK was merged with the main US site. On April 24, 2006, GameSpot UK was relaunched. In a similar fashion, GameSpot AU (Australia) existed on a local scale in the late 1990s with Australian-produced reviews. It ceased in 2003. When a local version of the main CNET portal, CNET.com.au was launched in 2003, GameSpot AU content was folded into CNET.com.au. The site

3472-450: The same parent company as GameSpot , and that they moved their headquarters into the same building. As part of this announcement, Gerstmann revealed that the firing was indeed related to threats of Eidos pulling advertising revenue away from GameSpot as a result of Gerstmann's poor review score, which was confirmed by GameSpot's Jon Davison. GameSpot ' s forums were originally run by ZDNet, and later by Lithium . GameSpot uses

3534-428: The same situation". Home computers in the early 1980s had the advantage of using external media for saving, with compact cassettes and floppy disks , before finally using internal hard drives . For later cartridge -based console games , such as The Legend of Zelda and Kirby's Adventure , saved games were stored in battery-backed random-access memory on the game cartridge itself. Pop and Chips (1985) for

3596-452: The same title should be overwritten. The term "quick save" may be used in video games that lack the traditional saving mechanism altogether. The advantage of quick saving is its low burden: The player only has to press a button and, if applicable, wait a few seconds. The disadvantage is the automatic loss of the previous quick-saved game. Games that only offer quick saving may be impossible to play by two different players (or more) unless there

3658-516: Was adopted in October 2013. CNET was sold to Red Ventures in October 2020. Two years later, Fandom acquired GameSpot , along with Metacritic , TV Guide , GameFAQs , Giant Bomb , Cord Cutters News, and Comic Vine from Red Ventures. In January 2023, 40-50 employees were affected by a round of layoffs. More layoffs at GameSpot took place in January 2024. GameSpot UK (United Kingdom)

3720-481: Was fully re-launched in mid-2006, with a specialized forum, local reviews, special features, local pricings in Australian dollars , Australian release dates, and more local news. Jeff Gerstmann , editorial director of the site, was fired on November 28, 2007 as a result of pressure from Eidos Interactive, a major advertiser; Eidos objected to the 6/10 review that Gerstmann had given Kane & Lynch: Dead Men ,

3782-419: Was merged into GameSpot . On January 6, 1997, SpotMedia and publisher Ziff Davis announced a $ 20 million agreement allowing the publisher to run content from Computer Gaming World and Electronic Gaming Monthly on SpotMedia's websites. By the following month, Ziff Davis's substantial financial infusion enabled GameSpot to grow to 45 employees. In February 1999, PC Magazine named GameSpot one of

SECTION 60

#1732786559293

3844-516: Was started in October 1997 and operated until mid-2002, offering content that was oriented for the British market that often differed from that of the U.S. site. During this period, GameSpot UK won the 1999 PPAi (Periodical Publishers Association interactive) award for best website, and was short listed in 2001. PC Gaming World was considered a "sister print magazine" and some content appeared on both GameSpot UK and PC Gaming World . Following

#292707