

The Great Gatsby - For NES - vanrenen
http://greatgatsbygame.com/

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kentbuckle
The Japanese title on the about page translates to something like "Heart-
Pounding Library: The Legend of Gatsby", which is how I think the book should
have been titled.

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iuguy
The Great Gatsby is one of my favourite pieces of American literature. I don't
even know how this can exist. It just makes no sense. It would be like making
Jabberwocky Kart Racing or something.

The worst thing is it doesn't seem to be that bad a platformer either!

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dufusheart
I would totally play Jabberwocky Kart Racing.

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jacques_chester

        `Twas brillig, and the slithy tovekarts
          Did gyre and gimble at the start wabe:
        All mimsy were the borogoves,
          And the mome raths outgrabe the bloody turtle shell.

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scw
They've put the source code for the project up on bitbucket for anyone
interested: <https://bitbucket.org/charliehoey/gatsby/src>

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roryokane
I’ve never played an NES game. Is this a spoof of NES games based off of
movies and books – do those games have about as much connection to their
original work as this one does to The Great Gatsby? (Which is to say, do those
old NES games have cutscenes that make no sense without already having read
the book, a style of gameplay that is inappropriate for the setting, and
setting-appropriate art and music?)

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chipsy
Games using licensed IP have a very, very long history of only being vaguely
related to the original works. In the early 8-bit era this was particularly
true because of technical limitations; from around the advent of 16-bit
consoles on, the default became "generic action-game gameplay that is visually
similar to the IP." The main thing that has changed since then is the kind of
generic gameplay used - at first it was almost always platform games; nowadays
third-person action-adventures tend to be the default. The inclusion of mock-
Japanese elements is mostly a reflection of the NES in particular, but games
from the U.S. and U.K., on other platforms, tended to be wacky too, just not
as much(probably because the licensors were more hands-on about the content of
the game).

Some examples(some bad games, and some really good ones too):

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFVEtVEYtBw>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqdtn-gaGbo>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6x4wQJMLEc>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9t_tAGKKkQ>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJTNGoBvkVU>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkBLLH5fiZk>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3GmQrQPXc8>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2zfOBOYLwo>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYFdgyuv6fU>

In general, the further the developers are allowed to stray from the original
work, the more they can actually do with it as a game. But at the same time,
some IP-holders will get obnoxiously protective of the brand image, take a
"merchandising tie-in" view of the game that blinds them to other sources of
value, and as such are willing to cut large amounts of the game out for the
sake of making it fit into their vision. When this happens it can be very
discouraging for both parties.

Here's an example of a real game license that I worked on a pitch for(never
went into production): Michael Phelps. It was the most perplexing thing. What
the fuck do you do in a Michael Phelps game? The publisher had come up with
two concepts to work from - generic action-adventure(Phelps...swims very
fast...to save the day from terrorists?) or generic party game(lots of
swimming minigames with Michael Phelps in them?).

This was shortly after the stories came out about his pot-smoking habits, so
one idea we desperately wanted to put into the concept, if it weren't so
obviously un-befitting of brand image, would be to do the action-adventure but
turn it into a parody and have him "power up" with bong rips and enter bonus
stages where he's literally swimming in the clouds. With this simple change,
the license does a 180 in terms how much novel/interesting gameplay can be had
from it.

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ephermata
I just noticed that a Kinect game featuring Michael Phelps has been announced.
Time will tell if this is brilliant, or if it's the latest way to flail badly
in front of your TV. Does look like it'll make you exercise, though.
[http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/02/michael-phelps-push-the-
li...](http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/02/michael-phelps-push-the-limit-kinect)

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gatsby
I'm flattered.

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jacksonpollack
Nice. The too-smooth gameplay (and the all-star credits) give it away. I like
the Mega Man-esque ending.

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Sniffnoy
Oh man, I totally thought this was real until I looked at the contact page.
Though the credit to "N. Uematsu" was certainly surprising! I suppose putting
in credits to "Bun Bun" and "Yuukichan's Papa" was appropriate as one or two
of the level musics were rather Mega Man-ish.

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orls
This is actually a really, _really_ well put-together platformer! Fast, just
enough of a challenge, cute and fun, and brilliant music too.

Fantastic!

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zppx
Oh man, I just began reading this book four days ago, it's my current book to
read while commuting, and it's pretty weird to think that tomorrow this will
probably be in my head when I read a chapter... maybe this will be too much
and I'll put the book on hold for a month or so.

The game itself is a nice classic platform.

~~~
andrewce
I've read "Gatsby" over 25 times in the last 5 years, and have taught it
twice. It's my favourite piece of literature by far, and would be my nominee
for "Most Beautifully Written Book In The English Language" (should such an
award exist).

After you are finished, go back and re-read the first 2 pages or so (until the
double-carriage return); they take on a whole new meaning when the end of the
novel is known.

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cturner
Found it through Google books.
[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FV5R6_FgLUAC&printsec...](http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FV5R6_FgLUAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=gatsby&hl=en&ei=ojVaTfabJdGLhQf_uYHdDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false)

Do you mean the idea of decay? That Gatsby is constantly building himself up,
but prayed on by time and dust?

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andrewce
I mean the whole thing. The advice given to Nick by his father (in his younger
and more vulnerable years), the statements he makes about how others seem to
see him as a confidante, and also the way he characterizes Gatsby ("a romantic
readiness for hope"), and definitely the last sentence. Additionally: Nick's
statements about conduct ("Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet
marshes...") and the "fundamental sense of decency". There's so much here.

When I taught "Gatsby", I did so in a Language & Rhetoric course. Instead of
doing the standard New Critical Theory thing, we evaluated the statements Nick
presents as factual, particularly those he makes about himself and about
Gatsby, with the larger goal of 1) building a broader understanding of
character as it relates to language and the presentation of the self, and 2)
looking for inconsistencies (the end of Ch. 3, for example: "Everyone is
guilty of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine. I am one of
the most honest men I know." (paraphrased slightly)).

I can't speak conclusively to whether or not this was the best possible
approach, but I will say that I had more than 30 students (out of just over
120) come up to me and say "Mr. E, this is the best book we've ever read in an
English class." I'll also say that class discussions were livelier and better
informed than any of the college literature courses I took (students were
required to use quotations to back up almost every evaluative statement they
made, and by the end of the 3-4 weeks we spent on "Gatsby" knew the book
almost as well as I did. I cannot say the same for even my senior/grad level
literature courses in college).

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cturner
Thanks.

English was my favourite subject at school, but I didn't get Fitzgerald at
all. I remember arguing with my teacher around the introduction - the teacher
was trying to talk about the prejudices that the narrator brings to the book,
but I thought the opening was Fitzgerald's attempt to convey that the narrator
was largely free of prejudice.

Something put me back onto all this all about six months ago. I've just reread
_Tender is the Night_ (fifteen years on after a couple of retries. I don't
think I finished it at school although was somehow familiar with some of the
end). I'm pleased I did, and now feel I'm doing better with that than Gatsby,
which I'll tackle after I've finished _The Beautiful and the Damned_.

I will be content only when I feel that I know what Fitzgerald was trying to
say.

If you're in London at a time and would be happy to let me buy you coffee to
discuss Gatsby further, that would be much appreciated. There's lots of things
I don't really get - valley of ashes, owl-eyed man, significance of who turns
up at the funeral. As well as the arc itself. My email is in my profile. I do
occasional trips to NY, Chicago and Sydney/Melbourne/Adelaide too if you're
around any spots there.

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j_baker
Dear God... why?! This brings back nightmares of my freshman English class in
High School.

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bromley
I found it easier when I crossed my hands over so I could do the left/right
keys with my left hand, as is the original Nintendo way.

I'm glad there were only a few levels, as I really struggle to leave platform
games half finished.

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t34cher
Just signed up to say this is awesome! I'm teaching this at the moment to
middle schoolers and I'm sure they're gonna love the game. :)

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Fargren
The game sporadically decides to ignore all my keypresses. It looks good until
it becomes impossible though.

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andrewce
If you double click a few times on the game screen, that usually straightens
it out.

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Jach
I didn't like the book, didn't like the movie, but the game.. I like it. Died
against the first boss.

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starpilot
The music in the first stage sounds familiar, anyone familiar with it?

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Groxx
Anyone managed a no-death game? Does it do anything differently?

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vanrenen
Haven't done it yet, but word is that there's a special ending...

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Sniffnoy
I managed it, I can confirm it. I notice now on the about page it suggests
something might happen if you find all the gold bags; has anyone done this?

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afhof
The entire repo is 125 MB?

