Still A Video Gamer At Heart

If you have been reading this blog since the beginning, then you may have noticed that I occasionally write about games. The majority of the gaming posts seem to be about online games that I mostly play at Facebook. But recently, a company called Man Crates contacted me and got me thinking of my start as a gamer. If you don't know them, they're a cool company that creates wacky gifts, including a gift card encased in concrete! I remember actually playing pinball as a kid while my old man drank beer at the local tavern on Saturdays. This was Kansas in the 1970s and before arcades exploded locally. When someone finally opened a local arcade, I went after school and squandered a few hard earned quarters on the various arcade games including pinball. The arcade was usually packed so I mostly watched others play. I remember that Asteroids, Pac-Man and Space Invaders were big back then.

My younger sister and I were surprised when we got an Atari console with a Space Invaders game cartridge as a shared Christmas present in 1980 or 1981 (a few years before that we got an EZ Bake Oven). Of course, we fought over who got to play first. I remember that it had two paddles and two joysticks. There may have been other games with the console or they came separate. I do remember getting Asteroids, Breakout and Pac-Man, which my sister was so much better than I at playing. We got a few more games for the Atari console but most of them are lost in my memory at the moment.

A few short years later, we upgraded to the Nintendo Entertainment System and it blew Atari away. We got the NES console as another shared Christmas present along with Duck Hunt and Super Mario Brothers. I admit that I loved shooting that dog more than the ducks. While I enjoyed Super Mario Brothers, my sister was a much better player. We picked up a few more games for the NES including The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Finally, these were games that I could play and I spent many hours doing so.

Our local arcade closed up in the mid to late 1980s and became a video store. The only places to find video games was at the local various convenience stores (there were actually about seven at one time) and the two pizza places (Pizza Hut and Big Cheese Pizza). I remember my favorite arcade game at this time was Kung Fu Fighter and my friends were all trying to beat each other. I wasn't great at the beginning but I spent countless quarters and time getting better. Then without warning, the local convenience stores got rid of their arcade machines. We rented a few video games from them but they usually didn't work or didn't have the instructions so we stopped.

I can't remember when exactly we got the Super Nintendo console but I'm thinking it was another shared Christmas present to my sister and I from our Mother (our parents had been divorced for several years at this point). I remember staying up countless nights playing Final Fantasy III and IV on it. Cheetos were my snacks of choice while I drank either Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew or Pepsi. I was big into Dungeons and Dragons so these fantasy types of video games were more my style.

I have to put in a good word for Game Genie here. For those who don't know, it was a cheat system that first came out in 1990 that attached to the game cartridge. I picked one up for the NES and was able to actually complete and enjoy the video games that were frustrating me like Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Brothers. It was fun to be invincible and have endless lives. I later picked one up for the Super NES so we could complete Super Mario Brothers 3. I don't remember ever actually finishing any video game before getting a Game Genie.

After the SNES, I got a Playstation console for my birthday along with a Spider-Man game. That was the only game I got for that system. My younger sister got more games for it and more or less took it over. I ended up playing games on the computer mostly the SimCity and WarCraft series. Since then she has gotten the GameBoy, Nintendo 64 and Nintendo DS systems. She still plays her DS games while I play the Facebook games. While she still likes to play the Mario games on occasion, she has switched to mostly puzzle games. I hate playing the hand held games for the controls and screens are way too small for me.

While I haven't played any computer games for the past few years, I still play online games on Facebook mostly House of Fun slots, Hit It Rich slots and Nords: Heroes of the North. I greatly enjoyed playing Superhero City but then it got dropped. I played FarmVille but grew bored with it fast and I played Candy Crush for a while before I got stuck on a level. I wish Game Genie would come back with codes for Facebook games.

Yes, I do feel old after writing this post and sharing my memories about the various video game systems and games that I have had through the years. Maybe it's because I just realized that I will be turning fifty-one one month from today.

Heroes Rising Kickstarter

Some of the original programmers are teaming up with fans of the gone but not forgotten online game, Superhero City, to create Heroes Rising. Check out their sample powers trading cards:

The End of Superhero City

Today is a sad day for me. I read the following message on Superhero City's Facebook page:

Capital Gamers,

Today is the day.

At precisely 1:27pm Pacific Time the servers have been shut down. Age of Champions, Superhero City, and Supreme Heroes will be preserved in the archives of EA and within the hearts of everyone these games have touched.

These games launched dozens of careers, thousands of friendships, a marriage, some headaches, a few babies, and our Capital Games Empire into the world.

We hope to see you around Heroes of Dragon Age and any other games we are set to release in the future. Thank you all. Its been a truly wonderful and emotional ride.

-The Capital Games Team

I knew it was coming but it is still a shock to see such a good superhero game end. I believe I got my character up to level 1146 the last time I played. Here is my character from Superhero City in animated form:

Shadow Avenger from Superhero City

Women Wednesday: Mardi Gras at Superhero City

I finally managed to defeat the Mardi Gras raid at Superhero City that actually came out in 2013. I do like the cards that were given out as rewards since they featured some women like this Krewe of Sins card:

Yeah, I know this year's Fat Tuesday was yesterday but Mazikeen actually had her own Superhero City card last year for the Mardi Gras raid:

My favorite Mardi Gras card features Trixie:

King Triton's Mermaids At Superhero City

Superhero City started a stat challenge for Valentine's Day that pits three sexy mermaids against their father, King Triton:

I love the fact that the mermaids include a blonde, a brunette and a redhead:

King Triton really doesn't stand a chance against the three beautiful mermaids:

So far, I have six Triton's Daughters cards and one King Triton card.

Happy Valentine's Day 2014 From Superhero City

Even though Superhero City is sunsetting, they are still celebrating Valentine's Day by offering a free card. Here is the banner for the offer:

This year's special Valentine's Day card is Distracting Defense and the masked lady sitting on the heart-shaped love seat is very distracting:

Shame that she isn't wearing bra and panties with the Superhero City logo.

Colossal Madness At Superhero City

Superhero City is celebrating the Super Bowl by running a Colossal Madness: Tug of War contest (I picked Cavalry's Charge):

My character, Shadow Avenger, hit level 450 earlier.

Animal Instinct Cards At Superhero City

I'm still playing Superhero City and will be until the final day. Earlier this week, the online game released a set of Animal Instinct cards. Here is the banner:

The Animal Instinct cards include Animal Attack, Supremium Claws and Attack of the Feet (the artwork for all three feature women):

They had a very limited edition Chinese New Year card but they went quickly and I missed it.

Sad News For Superhero City Fans

I went to play Superhero City earlier and found this:

The second thing I noticed was that the name of the game had officially changed from Superhero City to Supreme Hero City (the game was rebranded last summer when Capital Games took it over). I did some digging on the forum and found Final Days of Supreme Hero City with the following announcement:

Heroes,

Beginning Thursday January 23, 2014 Supreme Hero City will begin the process of sunsetting. This will culminate in a total game / server shutdown sometime after Thursday March 27, 2014.

PvP events will continue to run thru February 13, 2014, after which the game will remain live for at least another 6 weeks.

If you have any questions regarding what this means to your account you may send in a support ticket and we will work to get you the answers you need. You can also check our Terms of Service and Digital Serve agreements for quicker answers.

That was the business end of the message, now onto what we mean…

For almost 5 long years this "City" has been alive, thriving in a way that has made other gaming companies envious. We are simply overwhelmed by the connections we have with you, we are often left speechless by your passion and dedication to this little project that was started so many years ago, with such a simple and modest goal. Never intending to redefine the facebook gaming space, we did. Never seeking to change the rules by which success would be measured for core games in the social space, we did.

The good, the bad, the mediocre… it all had a profound impact on us, our game and our relationships with you, the player.

Remember…

Raids, animated boss fights, Mascots, the old UI, Diffuser cubes, attack orbs, Zigonian Invasion, the catastrophic total game shutdown of 2010 (we mean ninjas, yeah ninja attack!,) SHC Labs, foil animated cards, holiday events…. SO MANY HOLIDAY EVENTS!!!! League wars, Brawls, Duels, Shadow Knight shuffle introduction, the "winning" defense card, "off-facebook" site, IGC scandal, load outs, City Mastery, Donut Challenge, avatar make-over, stat-challenges, LW Rings, Final Judgement's Snack Bar, Astronicus, Angela vs. Angela, Direct SKS purchases, Sin City, The Foundry, Achievement introduction (took down the game with that one,) gifting limits, weapons, equipment, costume contests, masquerade balls, Haxxor's antics, sexy Haxxor antics, old support ticket email address (ugh), MP Lottery (Shadow slots,)

The entire team at Klicknation / Bioware / Capital Games had a vested interest Superhero City. We lived and died by this game. It would be difficult to overstate the importance Superhero City has in our company's lore and learnings. It is you, the players, that brought so many of those lessons to light, that brought so much complexity and thoughtfulness to the game that we had to step-up our commitment. Lost weekends, holidays, consistent 12, 14, 16 hour days… all because we, like you, were passionate about this City and never wanted to see it decline.

With the landscape of Facebook gaming in an ever-constant state of flux and the state of online gaming growing at a blinding pace we regretfully have to call this chapter just about closed (we're giving you about 9 more weeks to play with your accounts.) We are taking all of the lessons learned, the experiences had, and moving them into our next project. We will build a better, more engaging product the likes of which the world has never seen. And we have you to thank for that.

Enjoy the final weeks, we've put just about everything on sale and hope that you all get a chance to purchase that card you've always wanted and battle your friends (and foes) one last time.

That about does it for the "official" post. Look for some of our team members to make personal posts in the coming days / weeks. We are fraught with emotions, and as they cool down we certainly will want to share some more of our experiences and memories with all of you.

Thank you all,

LucifersDaddy 

Women Wednesday: Merry Christmas From Superhero City

Superhero City is offering a free Sugar Cookie trading card this Christmas:

Superhero City Celebrates Thanksgiving Day

Superhero City is celebrating Thanksgiving Day with a Special Edition Earth Ability card:

I spent most of the morning watching parades before working on a Mickey Mouse puzzle. We had an early dinner so we can snack on leftovers later. I wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving Day this year.

Superhero City Celebrates Doctor Who's Fiftieth Anniversary With The Traveller

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the BBC's Doctor Who and Superhero City has been celebrating all week long by offering a special stat challenge featuring the Traveller trading card (I have snagged three so far):

By the way, I'm up to level 386 in this online game at Facebook.

Superhero City Celebrates Veterans Day

Superhero City celebrates Veterans Day by offering players a FREE Defender of the Nation card:

Yes, it's the same card from last year.

Countdown to Halloween 2013 Day 20: Witches Free Daily Cards At Superhero City

Superhero City is celebrating Herotober by offering Witches Free Daily Cards:

I love the sexy green-skinned witch with a super large purple pointy hat that matches her cape:

Countdown to Halloween 2013 Day 17: Demons Ability Set At Superhero City

You got to hand it to Superhero City for they are one of the few Facebook games that I still play. They start the Halloween season by offering a Demons ability set that includes Hellfire, Scales of the Demon and Wings of the Demon.

Women Wednesday: Brit's Birthday Bash At Superhero City

In celebration of EA/KlickNation's artist Brittany Hermann's birthday, Superhero City is having a Brit's Birthday Bash Triple Stat Challenge by offering three trading cards featuring women done by three different artists as a tribute to her. The challenge actually started yesterday and ends July 30, 2013.

Independence Day 2013 At Superhero City

Superhero City is celebrating America's Independence Day with three new ability cards. First up is the cool banner:

The three Independence ability cards include: Bear Arms, Assemble and Speedy Trail. Here is the special edition card set in all their red, white and blue glory:

This is a reminder to stay safe on this Fourth of July!

Superhero City Introduces Lazer Squadron 9

I love when Superhero City introduces new cool trading cards like the Lazer Squadron 9, which includes Sgt Raptor, Roxy Hammerstrike and Nitroclaw:

Easter Collection 2013 At Superhero City

I have cut back on playing a lot of online games at Facebook but I still play Superhero City on a regular basis. The online game is celebrating Zombie Jesus Day this year by offering three trading cards as part of their Easter Collection. They are also offering an egg but you need all three of the cards to play the missions, which I have not done yet.
The first card in the set is Parade of Sweets '13, which looks like crazy Peeps seeking revenge for those that have been eaten during the Easter celebration:
Next up is the Choco Decoy '13, which makes me wonder if it is solid or hollow chocolate and if it can be animated like a golem:
Finally, Cottontail Hop '13 features a well rounded superheroine that is just too wild for words:

New Retro St. Patrick's Day Card Set At Superhero City

Superhero City now has a new retro St. Patrick's Day card set. The abilities cards include Livid Leprechaun '13, St. Patrick Spirit Shield '13 and Clover Portals '13.
The three abilities cards include Livid Leprechaun '13, St. Patrick Spirit Shield '13 and Clover Portals '13.
The online game also has a new mascot named Rumbles McBrandy: