First off, we really wanted to make sure we paid proper homage to the collection’s arcade roots, so right from the main menu we included a model of the original arcade cabinet and the marquee (arcade term for the light-up game logo) for each game. In terms of emulation quality, each game looks and plays exactly the same as its arcade counterpart. In fact, the PS3’s capabilities has made it possible for many of the games to feature true sound emulation for the first time on a console, resulting in a better sound response than in any previous collection. In a further attempt to capture the arcade spirit, each game features its own unique wallpaper background based on the game’s original bezel artwork or cabinet side art.

As many of the games in this collection were also responsible for feeding what would become the high score craze of the 80’s, it was a no-brainer to include online leaderboards. In the game’s Score Attack mode, players are only given one game (or credit) to get as far as they can with the default settings. This is the true test of the high score king, and we’re looking forward to seeing the results posted on the scoreboards for everyone to see. This is also the only mode where Trophies can be unlocked, so you’re going to have show some skill to earn them — keep reading to see the full Trophy list below.

We also included a Free Play mode for more casual players, where you can adjust the same original arcade settings the arcade operators did. This enables you to tweak how the game plays, such as changing the difficulty setting, adding more lives per credit, or increasing the gameplay timer. The endless credits of Free Play mode enables you to sit down with a friend and finally get to see the end of games such as Smash TV and Total Carnage, or get a marathon four-player session of Gauntlet going.

Beyond that, we also added a couple options in terms of visuals. There’s a filter that gamers can apply to the graphics in order to give them a smoother, more modern look. If players don’t like the way this looks, they can stick with the pixel perfect, non-filtered version, which still looks great on a high definition television.

We even added a bit of trivia to the game. If the game is paused for any reason, a scroll bar will appear and detail some facts and interesting odds and ends about each game’s development and release. So don’t say we didn’t warn you in the event you learn something… and see you on the leaderboards!

Trophy List

So Rusty wanted me to write a little blog post about Everyday Shooter for PSP. I don’t really know what to talk about so I guess I’ll start chronological and see where that goes.

I actually tried porting Everyday Shooter to PSP way back around December 20th, 2007, and stopped around December 27th, 2007. Here’s an old video I found from back then:

WHAT!!??!? WHY DIDN’T YOU RELEASE IT!?!?? WHY DID YOU SIT ON IT FOR 239846921487 MONTHS YOU SON OF SO MANY UNMENTIONABLE THINGS!!!!!!!

I thought the same thing until I remembered that it crashed every eight seconds, had a ridiculously low frame rate, was missing graphics and effects, and generally blew.

Yeah, Everyday Shooter PSP really worried me at the time. I was convinced to get the game running properly it needed to be hacked to shreds – reducing the number of enemies, changing all the
backgrounds, changing the enemy graphics – ugh, this is going to SUCK.

So I dropped the idea until Rusty contacted my agent, Warren, and I, saying Sony was interested in putting Everyday Shooter on PSP. Immediately, the floodgates opened to the stress of so many potential problems sweeping my soul to the faraway depths of darkness where it was then beaten repeatedly at three frames per second before crashing…

But Rusty said (paraphrased): “Jon, this is how it’s going to go down. We’re going to hire this developer [Backbone], and I know this guy, he is one of the best programmers I know. And the deal is going to be this: if they even hint at a suggestion of messing with your vision, we are going to fire them and find a new developer. This is going to be a straight port, we are not going to mess with your vision.”

Skeptically, I replied “and the boobies?” To which he answered “no boobies.”

Honestly, I was still skeptical.

I was also told that the original QA team for ES-PS3 was brought in to test the PSP version too, so I’m quite confident that it was left in good hands.

I’m amazed at the job Backbone did:

They actually ported it without altering any of the graphics, effects, or gameplay! How!?? No seriously, how did you do that!? Like, even the backgrounds? I was expecting to have to do this whole back and forth about what graphics needed to be changed and redesigned, what enemies needed to be reduced, gimping the game just for the sake of performance… NO! Not at all! They just somehow made it work. What is this sweet juice of hexadecimal that you drink from and where do I get it?

Then again, I’m not technically a great programmer, so maybe there’s some simple secret I’m not aware of. I generally just multiply things by negative one if they don’t work because in math, to get the opposite of something you just multiply it by negative one. Since the opposite of “doesn’t work” is “it works,” multiplying numbers by negative one should yield a correct result. Unfortunately, when
applying this strategy to Everyday Shooter PSP it still didn’t work.

Thus, and clearly thus, there was no solution.

Of course Backbone proved me wrong.

I think this is a pretty accurate port of the game. I mean, I played it till my hands cramped, jotting down every subtle problem, some bordering on imaginary, but yet still fixed. For example, the first
few builds I played, everything looked great and seemed to be in working order but something was weird. I kept getting beaned by the game! I mean, I couldn’t even get to level 4! Suspecting my own
skill level, I busted out the PS3 version just to make sure and to my surprise, I was still able reach the final stage with just three starting lives. It’s got to be the port.

Okay, so how do you convince someone that this is actually a bug and not because of some lack of skill on my part? I mean, otherwise, the game felt exactly like the PS3 version, so there was no factual information to draw from except for “well, Jon thinks it’s too hard now.” For weeks, I kept thinking they were going to ignore it, and it’ll get released, and the internet will swallow me whole, and then it will hurt a lot.

But amazingly, the bug was found. Apparently (and from what I recall — I might be wrong), it had something to do with timing issues since Everyday Shooter PSP runs at a much lower simulation rate given that the PSP isn’t as powerful as the PS3.

To this day, I’m still not sure if anyone believed me on this, and I’m not even sure if I believed myself (I’m quite positive it was way harder, though), and I totally see that the whole thing just sounded nuts and imaginary, but either way, Backbone was gracious enough to give me the benefit of the doubt and make this change. I know some people who paid a silver dollar only to have their ports birched by shoddy developers, so I’m very grateful for the amount of effort and attention Backbone gave to the project.

Anyway, we tried to make this as accurate as possible. Warren called me a few weeks before the final build asking whether I played the PSP port yet and what I thought of it. I replied, “I don’t know what to say. I mean, it’s basically Everyday Shooter PS3, except it’s running on a PSP.”
_______________________