Dont know about you guys but i think its time for another Madness Contest!

Maybe this can be a suggestion thread!
i say we do video game Madness!
Could be any video game new or old pc or PS3 or anything inbetween

I love this idea.

You could even divide the bracket by type:

Coin-Op: stuff you find in arcades and bars
PC/Online: includes Windows or Mac games
Console: those released for Nintendo, Playstation, Sega, Atari, etc.
Hand-held: e.g. smartphones, GameBoy

Or something like that. The online category gets tricky, since it crosses between PC-based games and consoles nowadays.

I know I'll represent the old school, as Yar's Revenge for Atari 2600 and Dark Castle for the Mac still hold very fond memories. (Although I've played more hours of Unreal Tournament than any other game of any kind.)

Couldn't really do a coin-op one because Joust would obviously win in a landslide.

I fixed this so you wouldn't have to repost. I do like the idea of brackets by different eras/systems though.

Yea thought about the way it should go down either free for all no brackets or bracket for each type of video game,
Nitendo
Sega
Playstation
N64
Etc.

And winners of each bracket play in the final!

Liking the bracket idea better!

Joust and Galaga were by far my brother's favorite games when we were growing up. These two and Dig Dug. I honestly don't recall seeing him play anything else.

Also, if we end up doing this bracket, we should send a blank version to Twin Galaxies to see how their opinions would compare to those of poker people.

I like the idea of doing brackets, with each bracket composed of an equal amount of systems/generations. For instance, do 4 brackets of 8 where each 8 is composed of:

- 1 pre-90s arcade game.
- 1 1990 or later arcade game.
- 1 first (Maganox, Pong boxes) or second generation game (Atari, Intelli/Colleco-vision)
- 1 third generation (NES, Sega Master System)

- 1 fourth generation (SNES, Genesis, TG16)
- 1 fifth generation (PSone, Saturn)
- 1 sixth generation (Dreamcast, XBox, PS2, Gamecube).
- 1 seventh generation (PS3, XBox 360, Wii)

We could likely drop seventh generation for computer exclusive games (all eras).

I would obviously love this, but finding a proper structure would be quite difficult and think doing it similar to previous ones based on voting results is the only way to go about it. But I don't think our esteemed hosts know as much about more recent video games to make it interesting enough to them, where the TV, movies, and food ones were very well within their interests.

I'm confused. Since Planescape: Torment, Grim Fandango and Elite are universally recognized as the top three games of all time, this must just be to vote over no. 4 and down, right?

ZOMG, too many games/genres to nail this down....

galaga, pacman, 1942, triple action [intellivision], Donkey Kong, SuperMario Brothers, Excape from Monkey Island, Stree Fighter II, Time Killers, Madden, Final Fantasy...The list goes on and on and on....

Q: Why do a poll when Planescape: Torment is the clear winner on merit? (Secret of Monkey Island being a close runner-up)

A: This is a 2+2 poll, whose popularity contests have nothing to do with objective criteria.

coin op: elevator action , yie ar kungfu, samurai showdown ("victory hanzo!")

quake 3 and all the mods (urban terror mod ftw) for mulitplayer

haha...way too much free time back then

This just shows how bad off I'd actually be in such a bracket, even though I still love the overall idea: I had to Google search two of these titles. That's how far off the grid I am when it comes to post-1980s video games.

Every now and then, I meet someone who hasn't owned a television in 20 years. So the last sitcom he watched was probably Cheers. I'm discovering that I am to video games what that guy would be to the TV comedy madness. ("Arrested Development? South Park? Never heard of them... how do they compare to Night Court?")

And yet... still want to do this... can't resist...

Gotta justify the hours I spent building up players on PGA Tour 2004. Or celebrate the day I finally figured out how to use the gear shift in Pole Position (no really -- I was too young to drive back then so I had little practical sense as to what it was for).

Also, I wonder how Angry Birds will fit into all this?

I think a good set up would be
bracket one:
all arcade games
Bracket two:
Nintendo, Sega, super Nintendo
bracket three:
Nintendo 64, Playstation, Dreamcast
Bracket four:
Playstation 2, Xbox
Bracket Five:
Playstation 3, Xbox 360
bracket six:
PC games

Each brackets have 8 nominees with 2 polls of 4 nominees, winners of each poll will make into the final 12. Then it's a heads up battle from there.

What do you guys think?

Sounds cool for sure.

AAAANDD.. I actually own an original 1982 stand up coin-op Galaga.

I think I like JD's setup better. There were a lot of good games made prior to 1985.

We can likely balance it by doing a play round or two, with no system nominations.

1. People nominate games (w/ systems) -- games for multiple systems can only be nominated for one.
2. Committee picks nominations (4 of each based on my previous post). Those get randomly seeded into the 4 brackets.
3. We then have play in rounds for anything that didn't make the nomination, only issue is where to put the winner of these.

That just means you have some awesome game-experiences in store

Grim Fandango can be a little hard to get hold of these days, but P:T is available cheaply on gog.com. Graphics will look a little (well, probably a lot tbh) dated if you've never played it before and are used to todays games, but there are mods (linked on gog) that will improve both look and performance.

Taking the time to get over the initial roughness that one might feel when first starting it is really worth it, because it is such a fantastic game once you get into it.

It's not a game if you only like arcade/action games, but if you like to read a bit and value a good story (actually stories that intertwine beautifully) and make you think (and laugh and cry), there are no better games.

It has really good voice acting also, with people like Sheena Easton and Dan whatshisname who does Homer Simpson.

I might have to check this out. Part of the reason I'm not more avid/knowledgeable of video games is that I DON'T generally enjoy arcade/action games.

There will be an interesting split between Europe and the US, at least where PC games are concerned.

In the 1990s, Bullfrog pretty much dominated Europe with games like Populous, Syndicate, Theme Park, Magic Carpet, Dungeon Keeper. Yet we never really got a look in stateside.

It wasn't until consoles really took hold that the two markets became one.

After finally getting to the end of last week's podcast, I'm pretty confident of being able to rally enough support to get Astrosmash to the finals.

I think I have a possible good one. Stand Up Comedians

Reasons

#1- Stays in line with our running comedy theme
#2- Tons of possible nominees
#3- Easy for people to watch youtube clips and learn about great comics they may not know
#4 - No clear cut runaway winner - Could name 15 different comics off top of my that could win.
#5 - Everyone has a few faves they will lobby passionately for like we saw with Muppets last event.
#6 - Watching Adam try to get Louis C.K. to win over legends like Carlin, Pryor, Cosby, Hicks, Rickles will be awesome.

Think it could be a winner.

I like it.

ya, +1 for comedians