Shapez is a factory building game with a really simple to understand game mechanic. Create shapes of all colors and forms and thats it. Sounds boring? You would be absolutely wrong. Never underestimate the addiction potential of this endless world with limitless possibilities for automation structures. Lets have a closer look!

General Information – small dev studios for the win

Shapez has been released in June 2020 by the single developer Tobias Springer. Its steam page boasts overwhelmingly positive reviews and with its current price tag of 10 € (half that in a good sale) the first impressions are already good. Note also that the game has just gotten a successor whose graphics have been massively updated and have been transformed in to 3D.

Gameplay – Factory here, Automation there

The gameplay of shapez is quite simple and self explanatory also eliminating the need for overly long introductions at the beginning. You simply rotate, color, stack and cut shapes that exist in random spots on the map to feed a central hub in the middle of the map via conveyor belts. The hub changes the shapes it requires from you to get to the next level each time. For example to get from level 1 to 2 you need to feed it 30 gray circles. With increasing levels the shapes get increasingly complex and in turn require increasingly complex and large production factories. With each level you unlock a new possibility to edit the shapes color, orientation, place and so on. Going to the extremes you can even go completely crazy and build whole computers in this cute looking game.

The main factory blocks are the extractor (1) which harvests the random on the map occurring spots of shapes and colors, the conveyor belt (2) which moves harvested items/shapes from one spot to another, the coloring module (3) which inputs a shape and a color and colors the shape in this color, the cut module (4) which halves the input shape into two pieces and the turn module (5) which rotates a shape 90°. As you can see there aren’t that many and they are not very difficult to understand. This original simplicity that quickly evolves into complex and tightly build automation machines is exactly the factor which makes this game so appealing and addictive. Try it out yourself and you will soon want to build more and more complex factories as if it lies in the human nature to automate everything we see.

Graphics – Simple 2D top down style

Shapez works with a simple top down style 2D graphics style and focuses more on the gameplay mechanics than the textures. I personally like the minimalistic design not just for its clean look but also for its performance. Even with quite a few buildings and automations set up the game runs well and smooth even on older hardware. That said the game can absolutely run on work laptops such as the Thinkpad x270 but if you actually want to achieve any work i would rather recommend you not to install it :).

For performance reasons the game switches between two modes depending you zoom in on the map. If you zoom out it switches to a map mode in which you can not build and buildings and any items on conveyor belts are not rendered. For me personally this was a bit annoying as i wanted to have a better view of the surrounding factories while building the current one. But don’t worry the dev though of that:

Modding capability – Mods keep game alive

We talk quite a bit about mods on here and that for a reason: Mods keep games alive. The most popular example is the all known king of computer games Minecraft. For our detailed explanation look here. But also Kerbal Space Program 1 is a perfect example for a game that even lives on after its successor has been released thanks to an incredible modding community that has extended the possibilities in graphics and gameplay mechanics again and again over the years.

Luckily the dev of Shapez also included modding capability into the game which allows you to browse through a large assortment of different mods including one that changes the zoom point in which the map view kicks in. Its simply brilliant when game developers include functions like these.

Summary – great game with addiction danger

Shapez is a well made game with a very reasonable price point when you wait for one of the many steam sales. Its simple but clean graphics style allows it to run well on older and less powerful hardware. Combined with the addicting nature of its automation gameplay which lets you want to build ever more complex and expanding factories across the whole map this game make for a great time killer for long train rides or flights. Also thanks to its integrated modding capability the game even allows you to customize it to your liking and has a passionate community.

Get Shapez here:

What was Flash Player?

Flash player was a popular software for displaying multimedia content in the browser. This included videos, audio, animations and also small games. Some of the most popular include line rider (a simple game where you draw the hill for a sled rider to ride down), Desktop tower defense (a classic tower defense game), the original cookie clicker, crush the castle (a more realistic version of Angry birds) but also simple multiplayer games like territory wars. Furthermore, the early bloon tower defense ran in the browser using flash player the same way the popular, quite violent mini sandbox game happy wheels made its way onto many screens across all homes and schools :).

To sum it up, flash player was the solid foundation to many of the fun early day browser games that we know till today.

But why was it discontinued?

By bringing so much fun to the people and therefore traffic and more importantly money to computers around the world, one would rightfully ask why Adobe Flash player was turned off in December 2020. Although many reasons lead to the final decision, the Flash player had serious security reasons that made computers using the software very prone to hacking. With increasing age more and more vulnerabilities came to light and the amount of developers using flash player for their projects decreased with it. Therefore in 2017 Adobe finally decided it was not worth it to keep Flash player running and discontinued it.

Bring back the memories

But don’t worry all the memories are not gone forever! The free open source software Flashpoint Archive allows you to download a separate, easy to use environment in which you can use, download and play thousands of old Flash Player games! The environment itself is only taking up around 3GB of space while the individual game themselves are obviously just a few MB as they were meant to be played in Browsers. You could even download the whole archive with more than a Terabyte of old Flash Player games.

Check out this free to use portal to old times of the internet and play some of you favorite childhood games!

Get Flashpoint archive:

This article is not advertisement for Flashpoint archive. The following links are not affiliate links.

The Thinkpad X270 is a highly portable laptop of Lenovos well known bussiness Thinkpad series. It has been released in 2017 and is therefore not really state of the art anymore. “Why write a review on it then?” you might rightfully think. Well because this might be one of the last laptops that offers such a good combination of usability, functionality and battery life. But let me tell you in detail.

The Thinkpad series

Everyone who knows a bit about computers will have heard about the well known Thinkpad series. Originally sold as laptops for bussiness use cases these devices do not feature any great designs or beefy power systems but were incredibly reliable and had great usability. Additionally they had to endure the challenges of daily extended usage and were built like tanks.

Design

The design language in the X270 is basic, square and black. The blackness is traditionally interupted by a red track point in the middle of the keyboard. The lid continues this design and is totally blackish with the Thinkpad logo in the top corner being the only interruption. It features a red led in the i dot as a status marker. In comparison to other laptops it simply looks boring but thanks to this also completely neutral and is perfect for every occasion from class room to bussiness meeting.

Durablity

Despite its rather elegant size this 20mm thick device is properly built and wont brake in your backpack however angry you shove it in there. The material used on the outside is durable and resistant ABS plastic that has been reinforced from the inside with magnesium. The lid is made out of ABS that has been given more rigidity through a glass fiber layer the same way it has been done on the base cover.

The hinge is made out of solid metal and feels smooth when opening. It holds the display securely in place even in a shaking environment.
In total this 1,4kg heavy package makes for a very dense and robust appearance and is without a doubt ready for the challenges of your daily life aswell as traveling and any other adventures you can think of. I had the x270 in multiple trans continental flights including one where the backpack around the laptop damaged in transfer. The Thinkpad itself was completely fine.

Furthermore, I found myself in a situation where the outside of the Thinkpad was completely wet and soaked, but the device itself, despite not having a special splash-proof seal and having been switched on in this state for several hours, was perfectly fine. That is truly impressive.

Functionality

Performance

Lets come to the elephant in the room first: the performance. When this device was released the 7th gen Intel processors were state of the art. The performance of these two core, four threads processors were not incredibly over the top back then and that very obviously hasn’t improved in the past years. To make a long story short if you are looking for a laptop to play AAA games on it, this is the wrong address. For everything like browsing, office work, writing, movies and light coding though this device is still perfectly functional though. Nonetheless i would recommend to use a light operating system like a Linux distribution or a debloated version of windows like Tiny11.

Extra: Gaming

If you are interested in playing some lightweight old games on it you can check out our recent test of Portal on this laptop. We came to the conclusion that old games like these that aren’t as graphic intense are still able to run decently on the integrated HD 620 GPU.

IO

While modern ultra books have a trend towards IO only consisting out of two USB-C ports the X270 features a wide assortment for everything you would ever need on the go. Charging is possible over the square Thinkpad charging port AND the USB-C port on the left. Via this port the Thinkpad is also capable of charging with extremely slow chargers going down to below 20W (need the Thinkpad to be turned off). This is incredibly useful while traveling or when you forgot the special charging plug.

Furthermore the Thinkpad offers a HDMI port, a Smart card reader, two classic 3.0 USB-A port, an AUX connector and depending on the model even a SIM card reader with a 4G modem.

The most important capabilities though are the included full size SD card reader making this perfect for camera and photography enthusiasts and the Ethernet port for on the go server administrators or pentesters. Additionaly the Thinkpad features a special power bank feature on one of its USB-A ports turning it into powerbank for your phone while turned off.

The X270 also has an integrated camera and microphone in the case you need to make a video call on the go.

The only big downside is the lack of a Thunderbolt port.

Upgradability

Although most other ultra books dont offer any upgradable parts anymore the X270 is different. Against its official stating it can acutally be upgraded to a full 32Gb of single chanel RAM. Some people were also able to change out the LTE modem against another SSD. In general the Thinkpad community is quite creative when it comes to modding these so there are many options to customize the X270 to your liking.

Input devices

Apart from the exceptional keyboard of the X270 it offers the well known trackpoint. If you dont like that one you also have the abbility to use the small but responsive track pad below. Above the trackpack are the dedicated left and right click buttons aswell as a middle click/scroll button. All of these offer the user a vast assortment of input devices making the X270 really comfortable to use without a mouse.

To unlock the X270 you have the option to use a fingerprint reader located on the palm rest.

Battery

The battery life might be one of the best selling points of the X270. The X270 is one of the newest Thinkpads that still has the Power Bridge technology. It allows the laptop to switch between an internal battery and one located in the removable slot in the back of the device. The internal battery of the x270 has 24Wh while there are multiple options for the external one. The biggest offers 72Wh making for a combined 96Wh of battery on a 12 inch laptop. Combined with the low power 15W TDP CPU this laptop can therefore last an eternity on this power system. Lenovo says it does above 20 hours while i managed to just get above 16 hours with casual use which is absolutely great.

The dual batteries also allow you to change the removable battery on the back of the X270 while its running. Should you run out of juice just change the battery! While this feature is only useful in edge cases and is generally only of use once every month, when you are really depend on your laptop continuing to run it quickly becomes one of the most important features.

Cost

At its release the X270 used to cost around and over 1000$. These days when looking at a used X270 you can find these at prices from 100 Euros to 200 Euros. Depending on the condition the prices are sometimes incredible low but be aware that you wil need to refurbish these devices if you are not trying to catch any decease from them. They are luckily incredible easy to take appart and is build to be decently easilly servicible.

Tips for buying

Buying a used X270 is easy as they are all over ebay and other such platforms. There are a few points to pay attention to before pressing buy:

• make sure to get the 1920×1080 display as it is by far better
• make sure it does have an internal battery there are some that lack these
• make sure it does have SIM card reader as some dont have the modem (if this is important for you)
• make sure it does have the right keyboard with background lighting
• the x270 was available with the 6th gen and 7th gen cpus. try getting the 7th gen.
• some have NVME SSDs some have SATAs try to get the NVMEs

Conclusion

Even in 2024 the Thinkpad X270 offers a great package of versatiliy, usability and compact form factor. Thanks to its exceptional battery life and power bank feature its ideal for travelling and is a thrustworty companion for any adventure. With its vast array of ports and functions it is the ideal carry around swiss army knife laptop. Furthermore its the last Thinkpad with the power bridge feature and this level of upgradability.

In the video game industry there is an ever increasing need for calculation power to support the ever improving graphics quality. If a new game get released and your PC hardware is simply not powerful enough anymore you have the option of either looking at a stop motion film on your screen or spend tons of money to get the newest graphics card, right?! Don’t you worry, Lossless Scaling is a software tool that claims to fix exactly this problem! Lets take a look and verify if these claims are actually true.

How does it work?

Lossless scaling offers to main aspects. On one side it allows you to upscale a non full screen video game to full frame through various methods including AMDs FSR and Nvidias Image Upscaler. This is not only useful for some emulators that don’t support full screen natively but also allows you to render ANY game at a lower resolution and then upscale it to your screen resolution regardless of what GPU you have. This essentially is the same thing as Nvidias DLSS but now usable in any game.

The second feature is the build in frame generator which uses an AI algorithm to generate frames in between the normally rendered frames to offer a smoother gaming experience with the end result of higher FPS. For the frame generation Lossless Scaling uses its own models called LSFG from which the developer now just released the 2.0 version. Should you be running on extremely low end hardware there is now also an additional Performance button enabling the most power optimized version of LSFG.

It should be noted that Lossless scaling is meant to improve the performance on devices that already have a decent graphics card so please view the results of this test as an extreme case for which the program most likely isn’t optimized for.

Testing run

To check if Lossless scaling might actually be the future of low power hardware gaming we will run a few FPS tests in the valve game Portal. You might now rightfully proclaim that Portal is not the most graphically demanding game to have ever reached the home computer and you are absolutely right with that. But because this test is aimed at even some of the least powerful hardware out there like old Lenovo Thinkpads we need to lower the bar quite a bit to even get close to a reasonable experience.

Speaking of which, the following tests are run on a Lenovo Thinkpad X270 which only relies on its Intel integrated 620 HD graphics card for rendering. It has a 1920×1080 display. The graphics settings in Portal are turned all the way down.

Baseline 1 – NO LSFG // NO SCALING // Rendering 1920×1080

To create a performance baseline running at the native resolution of the screen the integrated graphics manages to render at 25 to 35 FPS while mainly staying at 30. While this is not a particular luxurious experience, it does work.

Baseline 2 – NO LSFG // NO SCALING // Rendering 1080×720

At 1080×720 the 620 graphics unit is much more happy and is easily reaching 60 FPS and peaking at above 70. This is now as smooth as it gets on such a laptop only limited by the 60 Hz refresh rate of the screen.

Test 1 – NO LSFG // LS1 Scaling // Rendering 1080×720

Please note that taking screenshots is not working as such with scaling turned on therefore the quality of the pictures here is worse than what you would see on the screen. But rendering at 1080×720 and scaling it up through Lossless scalings own LS1 algorithm on performance mode does make a difference in the achieved FPS. Instead of around 30 FPS you can expect up to 50 FPS with an average increase of 15 FPS. This results in a very pleasant gaming experience with few stutters and a noticeable difference in smoothness.

Test 2 – NO LSFG // AMD FSR Scaling // Rendering 1080×720

This time trying it with the AMD FSR upscaling algorithm also on optimized mode, the performance is a bit worse FPS wise. In average you can expect up to 10 FPS more than rendering at native resolution. I would say though that especially in fine details it looks a bit more refined and sharper than LS1.

Test 3 – NO LSFG // NVIDIA Image Scaling // Rendering 1080×720

Surprisingly the NVIDIA image upscaling did work great even on so little power. Averaging a plus of 20 FPS and resulting in peaks above 70 FPS this was seriously impressive. There was also no apparent loss of quality. This is so far my favorite although sometimes there were rare irregular stutters with FPS crashing to 25.

Test 4/5 – LSFG 2.0 // NVIDIA Image Scaling // Rendering 1080×720

With frame generation turned on i was not able to get decent performance from the tiny integrated GPU. I got an average FPS of around 20 with dips going down to 10. Not great. Sadly i was not able to fix this. LSFG 1.1 didnt make much of a difference either. I assume the frame generation simply needs a dedicated GPU with appropriate power to work in a reasonable environment. I will later retest this on more powerful hardware but so far it seems you have to stick to only using upscaling for a better performance.

Test Results

Baseline: native rendering at 1920×1080 resulted in average FPS of 30 FPS.

Result and Impression

The upscaling through Lossless Scaling works good and has a easy to use interface to choose between the different modes and algorithms. It clearly has potential and can give you a more playable and enjoyable experience even on very low end hardware. Especially the NVIDIA Image Scaling algorithm impressed me through its great performance.

The frame generation does need more raw calculation power though and is not suitable for low power systems without graphics cards. I am deeply impressed that a single developer managed to get something up and running that works this great and I hope that the development of this project is going to continue for the good of non high end gaming.

Ceck out Lossless Scaling here:

This is not an affiliate link neither is this article advertising for Lossless Scaling.

Connect X to X and Y to Y – I am done, right? – Gameplay basics

In Lyne, as the name already suggests, your goal is to connect two points of one color with one line. While constructing a way you’ll have to move the line through blocks of the corresponding color. Each block is only allowed to be connect once, only some connector blocks are meant to be crossed multiple times to complete a level.

Depending on the level the amount of colored blocks that have to be connected changes and you’ll find more of the connector blocks. The difficulty of levels varies in each set of levels.

If you’re interested in steam achievements: the 33 achievements require you to complete all of the initial “alphabet levels” which sum up to 650 single levels and 10 daily sets which the total of levels up to 900. In addition to that you’ll simply have to change the color palette once.

Fancy colors – Game design and level structure

Lyne is made out of simple shapes like rectangles and triangles that can be connected with simple lines. The beauty of the game comes from the different color palette options that are unlocked through completing certain milestones.

If you’re playing with headphones you’ll be able to enjoy some very satisfying sounds each time you complete a level or draw your line through the shapes.

Each alphabetically sorted set of 25 levels includes a variety of difficulties which leads to a interesting game experience. Sometimes I was able to complete multiple levels in a minute and sometimes one level took me up to 10 minutes.

In addition to the “normal” you also get multiple daily sets each day that are generated to create more new levels. These vary in difficulty but are generally not harder than what you’ll be used to from the “alphabet levels”.

Conclusion

Get Lyne here

DISCLAIMER: There will be some story spoilers in the mission summaries.

The missions are given to the players by Martin Madrazo, a powerful business man, that tasks the players to assassinate some targets in different locations all over the map. Most mission involve a driving part around 5km and only have one target to be eliminated.

1. Dispatch 6

The players each have to eliminate a police officer that was affiliated with Madrazo and is transported in an armored truck. The trucks are protected by police cruisers.

This mission was the easiest of all as you just have to drive towards the vehicle convoy, take out a weapon of your choice and make quick work of the targets.

2. Dispatch 3

The players have to eliminate a translator that has interacted with Madrazo in the past. The IAA is preparing to transport him with a armored plane from LSIA. After arriving there you can either stealthy eliminate the target or wait for them to enter the plane and use rocket launchers to deal with the plane. Another option would be to steal one of the two jets that are situated inside the hangar to take out the plane mid-air.

All in all a very cool mission as the way to get there is pretty fast and you don’t have to do much to complete the mission. In addition to that you can also practice your flying skills.

3. Dispatch 4

Madrazo tasks the players to eliminate one of his dealers that is meeting with a rival gang at the recycling plant in La Puerta. After arriving at the plant you’ll have to take out multiple enemies outside and some more inside, while making your way up towards the room with the target.

This mission offers a cool environment to actually use a shotgun as the rooms are pretty small. The only annoying part is the fact, that you most likely parked your car near the open stairs at the marked point on the map and you’ll have to walk the whole way back there, as the target is situated at the complete opposite side of the building. So maybe think about moving your cars to the front of the recycling plant.

4. Dispatch 1

The players are tasked to take out one of Madrazo’s friends as he’s afraid of them cooperating with the police. You’ll have to enter the Mission Row Police Station in the middle of Los Santos to find the target. After eliminating all the police officers inside and getting in the prison area, you’ll have to open a door to get to the target and escape either through the front door or with a helicopter on the roof of the station.

The mission’s end is pretty annoying as fleeing the station with a car can be quite hard because there’s lots of police waiting outside. Another problem we ran into when first playing this mission was to actually find the prison cell the target is held in.

5. Dispatch 2

Madrazo tasks the players to infiltrate the Merryweather headquarters on Elysian Island to take out an undercover FIB agent that wants to buy some records. You can get to the office where the meeting is taking place in stealth mode or shoot your way through the security guards. After eliminating the target you can either go out the same way you entered the building or make a spectacular escape with a helicopter. Either way you’ll have to fight security that was alarmed.

From our experience it’s pretty annoying to get to the office in stealth as the guards most of the time spot you when entering the building. Finding a simple entrance is also pretty hard. We would recommend either taking the boat on the right side of the building and traveling to the back or just swimming around to the nearest ladder on the left side.

6. Dispatch 5

Madrazo orders the players to take out 5 targets of a crew that is laying low between jobs. Multiple helicopters are provided to travel across and around the map. You have 7 minutes to eliminate the last 4 targets once you got the first one.

This mission was a pain in the a** to play solo because you don’t have much time and one of the targets is located on top of a building. Also if you’re not good at flying helicopters this isn’t the mission for you. I would recommend playing this with 2 or more players to actually have a chance a completing it or checking out the locations prior on the Fandom Wiki site.

Conclusion

As the missions only reward up to, and sometimes even less than, 20000$ we don’t recommend doing them as a way to grind money but more as a fun experience with friends.

Feel free to let us know your personal rating of these 6 mission in the comments below!

DISCLAIMER: There will be some story spoilers in the mission summaries.

The missions are given to you by Dax, the leader of the Fooliganz gang. You can find their HQ, the Freakshop, at the yellow D near the east highway of Los Santos after completing the first mission in the First Dose series. You as a player are working with the Fooliganz to fight against a group of rival drug producers. Dax also offers some other variable, repeatable missions that reward 50.000$.

If you play through the missions chronologically this is the correct order:

• Last Dose 1 – This is an Intervention
• Last Dose 2 – Unusual Suspects
• Last Dose 3 – Friedmind
• Last Dose 4 – Checking In
• Last Dose 5 – BDKD

1. Last Dose 5 – BDKD

This is the final mission of the series. The players are flying a plane towards the LSIA (airport in the city) with the goal to steal goods from Friedlander cargo plane mid air. After you’ve successfully taken over the plane you’ll have to land it at the Sandy Shores airfield. After landing and while loading the goods into a truck you are confronted with police forces arriving and need to hold the position for a while. The mission ends with a chase over the highway back to the Freakshop.

I really enjoyed this mission because of this typical GTA unrealistic way to get something done. Flying such a huge cargo plane was also a nice challenge but I can imagine this can be annoying if you aren’t used to flying in GTA. All in all a nice way to end this mission series.

2. Last Dose 1 – This is an Intervention

The players joins Dax and Labrat, a psychedelics researcher working for Dax, who are having an argument over the drugged state Labrat is currently in when a group of white suited man kidnap Labrat and escape. The players have to fight of multiple waves of enemies on foot, in cars and even in helicopters to complete the mission.

This mission is pretty simple and also fun to complete as you can train your aiming skills and it can be completed pretty fast if you played it multiple times and know where and when the enemies appear.

3. Last Dose 4 – Checking In

Dax sends the player to a rehabilitation center where Isiah Friedlander is testing his new drug. The players have to fight against a few enemies alongside their Fooliganz friends. After defeating all of the enemies and opening the door to the center they are hit with a wave of drugged gas. You experience a drug trip and have to fight against 4 waves of enemies.

The mission is very similar to the first one as you’ll just have to drive to a destination and eliminate targets. During the drug trip part it was harder to hit enemies as the gun was very shaky and it was hard to hit. Other than that I would say the trip was more enjoyable than the one in the first series of missions.

4. Last Dose 3 – Friedmind

The players use the keycard from the last mission to access the FriedMind HQ. You first need to search for clues of Labrats position and are then guided towards the basement. Throughout the HQ you’ll have to deal with security. They find Labrat in the basement but are stopped by Isiah Friedlander, the leader of FriedMind before escaping. After a little cutscene the players need to escape in a stolen car back to the Freakshop.

This mission was cool because you can even complete some parts in stealth. The cutscene was well made and the escape at the end was actually pretty easy as you can avoid most of the fighting.

5. Last Dose 2 – Unusual Suspects

After Labrat was kidnapped, Dax tasks the player to find clues about his location. Dax first gives the players 2 locations where they should interrogate two low-level group leaders to get clues. As neither of them know more about the whereabouts of Labrat, Dax decides to target a higher level Hippy Boss. This time the players are guided towards a warehouse on Elysian Island. There they need to search for 5 clues while defending themselves against enemies. The clues show that the FriedMind Pharmaceutical Corporation is responsible for taking Labrat. The players steal a keycard that is used in the next mission.

I don’t like the concept of having to complete 2 events that are basically pointless. The whole mission took way longer than for instance the first one and the payout sadly doesn’t represent this. I did like the little minigame when the players are hacking the door of the warehouse.

Conclusion

Each mission pays around 20k for completing it on normal difficulty. For some of them this is definitely worth it (the first one for instance can be completed in around 5 minutes if you are playing with a 4 player squad.

The missions are defenitely worth a first playthrough as you a receive a 100k bonus for each mission you complete for the first time (so around 600k for completing all missions). The Freakshop in itself is also worth a look as it offers a weapon shop that is free to use. In addition to that you can also claim the Friedlander’s sportscar, an Ocelot Virtue, after completing the final mission.

As always feel free to let us know your personal ranking of the First Dose missions in the comments below.

Asteroids is a 2D science fiction space combat game released in 1979, over 44 years ago, by US based developer Atari. It was originally meant to run on arcade machines but was later even more popular as it was ported to one of the first programmable game consoles ever build by the same company named Atari 2600. With the 6-month birthday of this website coming up shortly we are going to celebrate by taking a look at exactly these origins and first steps of video games, with small reviews and history lessons in the next few weeks.

Pioneers of their time

Atari is one of the most iconic names in the history of video games. Founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in Sunnyvale, California the company pioneered the arcade game industry like no other with selling hits like Pong, Breakout, Lunar Lander and many more. One of the most successful and influential games Atari ever produced is the classical space themed shooter Asteroids that was released in 1979 and sold over 70.000 arcade cabinets worldwide putting it in the top 5 list of all arcade games.

Birth of an idea

Lyle Rains Ataris vice president of engineering and Ed Logg, a game designer who had previously worked on Breakout, came up with the idea for Asteroids during a meeting and developed the concept based on another unfinished Atari game called Cosmos. Further inspirations were taken from the hit game Space Invaders from Japan and one of the first video games ever, named Spacewar! that ran on a PDP-1 Computer the size of a room and was developed in 1962. Logg then refined the game design through trial and error, adding more features such as hyperspace, the UFOs and the splitting of asteroids (all of which will be described more closely in a second). The game was then finally released in 1979 and ported to the Atari 2600 in 1981.

Visual Appearance and Gameplay of Asteroids

Probably everyone has once seen the gameplay of this legendary piece of computer history but here is a quick run-down: In the black and white video game the player is able to control a triangle spaceship which is originally located in the middle of the screen. After pressing start the player is confronted with asteroids flying randomly through the screen. By shooting these asteroids with the help of projectiles coming out the front of the spaceship the player can earn points and the asteroids get smaller by splitting up until they vanish completely. If the spaceship is hit by an asteroid it looses one life out of three so one needs to be careful.

Maneuverabilty of the Spaceship

You are also able to maneuver inside the space by turning the spaceship left and right and pressing the forward button to fire the thrusters which will accelerate the ship in the turned direction. The spaceship will then keep moving into this direction unless it is turned and the thrusters are fired in the opposite direction. Should you be in an emergency situation with an asteroid straight on collision course you can also press the hyperspace button spawning the ship on a random location on the screen which is also not without its own dangers as you could rematerialize directly above a meteoroid or even fail to rematerialize at all.

Furthermore there are also other dangers you need to expect such as two versions of alien UFOs trying to shoot you down so you will need to be the faster one on the trigger.

Even today the simple yet trivial gameplay is really fun and brings joy across all generations playing it. As Asteroids was also one of the first games to integrate the possibility of adding a name tag after achieving a score in the top 10, the competitive feeling of getting a higher score than your friend is really amplified.

Technology behind it

The graphics are truly a result of their times. Of course a game released in times were programmable home computers weren’t even a thing to exist will have really basic textures and elements. As the original Asteroids was released on arcade machines its textures were therefore generated through hard wired computer boards performing the needed operations. Not only game development was in its early steps but also display technology.

Vector display technology

Howard Delman was a developer on the game Lunar lander and created a technology using vector calculations which was then also used on Asteroids. Due to these vectors, the elements all consist of lines that look like a wireframe and round objects do not really exists. Even if you have never been in an arcade, playing this game today really brings you back to the mid 1980s, known as the golden era of arcade machines, where these games really were everywhere.

Legacy

Today over 40 years after this era most young people playing a round of Fortnite of course do not know anymore about these pioneers of the game industry who build the foundations for our modern high definition video games. And although we should stand with our eyes and attention facing the future we shall not forget whom we owe the pioneering work behind this.

Conclusion

As already mentioned at the beginning, apart from the huge success in selling arcade cabins, Asteroids was later ported to the Atari 2600, a home game console with a 1.1 MHz processor, and sold an astonishing 30 million times. Furthermore the game has inspired countless of other developers and game designers. All in all Asteroids and with it also its developer Atari have undoubtedly earned their place in the video game hall of fame as a pioneer of arcade and home console technology and as one of the most successful games of the golden arcade era.

Play Atari Asteroids

You can play Ataris original Asteroids with a little bit of technical and computer background knowledge using an emulator. As the download of the needed files would be illegal though we are not going to get into how this works here. You can also take a look at the reloaded version Atari released of the game in 2021:

In this review I’ll quickly talk about the games appearance and story, how it works and what you can expected if you play it over a longer amount of time.

Game appearance

In November of 2012 the “original” Ingress, later called Scanner [REDACTED] was released. Around 6 years later it was replaced by Ingress Prime, a version of the game with the same features but a different user interface and appearance. Today I’ll share my experiences with the newer version as I only got into the game during the change.

The main interface consists of a map with a cursor to mark the player position, a bar that represents your energy level, your username and a box with the newest activity in a radius around you. The map represents streets and buildings in different tones of gray with the background being black. Around you on the map you’ll see portals. They look like a flame in a either white, blue or green color.

Actions are often accompanied by soundeffects and the login massage even has a voiceline that informs you how long is has been since your last login. These sounds add to the futuristic vibe of the app but also match the story behind it very well.

Story

In 2012, a research group of the Niantic Project at the CERN research center discovered Exotic Matter (XM). This matter was encoded and apparently contained information transmitted by Shapers, a transdimensional force. The complexity of this information was so great that it could only be processed by a computer with artificial intelligence. This computer was named ADA (as in “Algorithm Detecting Anything”).

During the incident on December 1, 2012, known as the Epiphany Night, an accident occurred involving a Power Cube, resulting in the laboratory being flooded with highly concentrated XM (Exotic Matter). Some individuals succumbed to the effects of XM and became extremely creative, while others took it upon themselves to resist the Shapers and their influence on humanity through XM.

In Ingress you belong to one of these teams: The Enlightened , who welcome the influence of XM and strive towards a higher state of consciousness and the Resistance, a group that fear that the Shapers take over humanity who fight against the Enlightened.

If you are interested in the whole story behind the game and the want to understand the mass of media ingame or from the community I recommend looking up lore in the wikis of the game and to get in contact with your local players. There is also a animated show on Netflix that shows the incident and explains many parts of the game.

Gameplay

In Ingress your goal is to occupy as many portals as possible for your fraction / team. Portals are often located at sights in cities or other interesting places and should never be on private property. To occupy a portal you place resonators in one or more of the 8 slots the portal offers. The more and the higher level resonators you place, the higher the portal level will be in the end. The maximum is a level 8 portal.

Each Portal can reward you with a key to it. This key is used as a means to connect other portals to the current one or to access it from afar. Keys are also a souvenir to a place you’ve visited.

The level influences the reach of the links you can create from one portal to another. A link is a connection between 2 portals of the same color. To create one both portals need to have enough reach to get to the other portal and also nothing in between them that could be blocking the link and you needed a matching key for the target portal. 3 links that connect 3 portals in a triangular shape are called a field. Fields reward you with mind units (“MU”) that basically represent your fractions influence over the “normal” inhabitants of the area.

You can attack and also defend portals. To attack you can use XMP-weapons or Ultra Strikes. These will drain the energy level of the resonators placed around the portal and in the end destroy all of them. To defend you can place additional shield power in the 4 mod slots of a portal. (These can be equipped with mods that improve the portals properties) If you own a key of the portal you can recharge the resonators from further away.

To recharge your own energy level you can either walk around and collect XM that is spread around the world or use power cubes to refill faster.

Power cubes and other items can be acquired through hacking portals. This rewards you with items that match the level of the portal. In addition to normal hacking there are many other options such as a hack that guarantees a key or one that doesn’t contain a key or the Glyph hack, a feature of the game where you need to remember glyphs and repeat them in a certain time window to earn more rewards than with a normal hack.

All these actions (attack, occupy, place resonators, hack, etc) are used in missions. These are a group of tasks that evolve around the portals in an area and reward you with a badge for your profile. Completing many of these can result in a beautiful mosaic. Mosaic are often pictures related to the city the missions are in. I’ve linked a website that offers an overview of mosaics and missions in your area below the article.

Other activities also reward badges that are displayed on your profile (these have 5 stages for more difficult growing goals). In addition to that, events that take place over the year can reward you with time limited reward badges. Other badges can only be purchased through the ingame shop or acquired at real life events such as community days or NL-1331 meetups. These events draw a large group of ingress players together at one place where you’ll complete missions together of fight around the portals in an area.

Grind & Consequences

Every time you capture a portal, hack one, create links or fields, attack portals and many other actions you are rewarded with experience points. Like in many other game you level up once you have a certain amount of experience points but in ingress you also need to have a certain amount of badges of a certain “quality”. The maximum level is 16 but you can also “prestige” and reset your level to 1 and start again. All other stats will be saved.

If you get to a point where you have way to many keys or other items in your inventory that you don’t need you’ll have to do lots of filtering and deleting before each big event you go to and maybe even consider buying additional key storage. You could also try sorting your items into capsules to keep them well organized.

Another aspect of the game that is worth grinding are the many missions around the world that also make a pretty sweet vacation souvenir.

In addition to all the fun you have you are also motivated to go outside and move your body which has a good influence on your health. (As long as you don’t drive everywhere with your car

Conclusion

Get Ingress here

Arena Breakout is a mobile first person extraction shooter published by Level Infinite (part of Tencent Games) and developed by Morefun Studios. We already covered the game some days ago with a first look article after its release on July 14.

Since then, I’ve played for 19 hours, both in duo and solo sessions, completing 49 raids. So far, I’ve reached level 18 and visited the first 3 maps to complete various missions.

Game Appearance

Arena Breakout can be played in multiple graphic quality settings and FPS configurations but it still offers a good map appearance on lowest settings compared to other mobile shooters like COD: Mobile or Lost Light.

The audio quality is really crisp and you can hear every move of your enemies, if you turn the volume up. The gun sounds are realistic and it’s easy to differentiate the type of gun someone is using.

Gameplay

In Arena Breakout your goal is to go into a raid and extract with a much loot as possible while taking out enemies. Because the game is a hardcore extraction shooter, meaning that it’s very realistic and you have to plan what gear you’re taking and how much time you want to spend in the raid, what your goal is and if you want to go stealth of full on confrontation mode.

You can either enter a raid as a tactical ops or as a militant in covert ops mode. While in tactival ops, the “normal” mode you can take gear from your storage into the raid. As a militant you get an assigned set of gear and therefore have no risk to loose any of your items. The covert ops mode has a 15 minutes cooldown and offers a risk free looting experience. Sometimes you can even eliminate real player and leave with a fortune of loot.

At the moment there are 4 maps in the game that each offer a different sized and difficulty raid environment. That means that some kind of weapons like snipers are more suited for open maps like Valley or Northridge while SMGs are best used on Farm, the smallest map at the moment. Some maps even offer a “Lockdown Zone” mode that requires you to pay an entry fee and to carry more valuable starting gear but also has better and more supply spots.

Valuable items can be acquired either through looting other players or militants or more commonly through chests and other storage items such as jackets, medical cases or even fridges. Opening one of these will take a certain amount that increases, the bigger the storage gets. After that you also need a certain time to identify what items were found. This most of the time leaves you exposed to enemies and you’ll have to listen very carefully while looting.

At the end of each run you have multiple extraction points marked on the map that can be used to get back into the main menu with all your acquired gear. Some points are always open while others have a chance to them if they’ll let you extract. Others even require you to leave with no backpack or other requirements.

After each raid you’ll have to organize your storage to fit all the new loot. This gets a tedious, especially in the beginning. After some playtime you’ll be able to expand your storage to fit more items. All items take over a certain area of squares inside your storage and can be moved around to your liking. The game also offers an auto organizing features which I highly recommend using as it groups all items into categories, making it easier to search for a specific item.

Progression and Grind

You can learn lots of features from the ingame explanation screens and from the tutorial at the beginning of the game. More advanced game features and play techniques can be learned via youtube videos.

At some point, you’ll unlock the gunsmith feature, which allows you to modify guns to your liking using various parts. You can for instance switch sights, equip a new magazine or even put a longer barrel and place it on your gun for more range. The possibilities are endless but I found myself rather left alone figuring out how to build weapons and would like a more in depth ingame tutorial for that aspect of the game.

The game offers a more or less steady increase in difficulty with different maps offering more and better loot but also stronger geared AI soldiers and better equipped players. On your leveling journey you’ll unlock better quality ammunition and weapons that can be purchased at the different Contacts (quest + merchant npcs) through trading. This sometimes offers a cheaper alternative to the market as some players like to take advantage if an item isn’t broadly available. The market is a communal economy space where players can sell and buy items such as weapons, armor or even miscellaneous items that are required for quests or contact trading.

Contacts also offer the main source of experience points: Missions. These are tasks that need to be completed to earn XP and most of the time even money and gear. Some require you to visit a point on a certain map or to place an item at a designated spot. Others task you to go retrieve certain items from a location or to eliminate an amount of enemies in a certain area. Some of them are challenging but they always somehow manage to make them challenging but not impossible.

There is also a Battle Pass in the game that rewards you with items and which levels up with the same experience points as your normal player level. The only difference is, that you are only able to level up the battle pass 10 ranks each week unless you have purchased the second premium variant for around 15€. The first premium variant of the battle pass costs around 6€ and grants you access to additional items and appearance items.

Another very important point for me are the events which are currently taking place and are announced for the future. These event tasks in combination with missions introduce you to every aspect of the maps and game principles over time.

Frustration and other problems

As I want to provide an honest review that’s true to my experience, I also want to briefly mention the problem with skill differences in the game. There is no skill based matchmaking (SBM), meaning that you don’t always play against other player on your level of experience. Sometimes you are even matched against teams of multiple players. That results in sometimes unfair and even impossible to avoid situations that lead to frustrating moments. Especially when you loose good gear or can’t complete certain quests. Don’t get me wrong: I do understand that players with better gear are more likely to extract but I would love to see SBM at least in the ranked mode.

What often killed my mood during playing this game are the campers that literally occupy a single building for 5 minutes straight, waiting for you to loot your teammates or to extract. In addition to that, people have apparently figured out how to hack in Arena Breakout as we’ve met some players that for instance lock on to your head while your sitting in a bush 150 meters away.

In the future of the game I also hope to see a more balanced and mistake-friendly looting experience. At the moment there is close to no opportunity to get medical supplies that can fix broken bones once you’re inside a raid. Other medical items such as Medkits are also hard to come by so you have to rely on other players carrying them around. Another aspect of this is the frustration you get when opening a enormous weapon case only to find one empty magazine.

On the other hand new weapons and low level armor are pretty easy to come by as you can go into match with only a knife and sneak yourself towards the nearest AI soldier.

Conclusion

Get Arena Breakout here