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Hello! Have you ever wished you could read old LEGO magazines? Probably not. But I sure love to put old LEGO magazines on the internet anyway! I recently received a small collection of LEGO Adventures!, Bricks n' Pieces and LEGO World Club Magazin issues courtesy of Cyrem and jamesster. Only two of them have been made available in English in their entirety online prior to now, so I am pleased to present what I have for your viewing pleasure. As with my LEGO MANIA Magazine scans, I will be uploading these frequently, but probably not daily. LEGO Adventures! LEGO Bricks 'n' Pieces LEGO World Club Magazine Issue 16 LEGO Magazine LEGO Shop at Home

Original post with comments that clarify some of what I've said: http://www.steamgifts.com/forum/dg0Pw/can-we-please-have-another-industry-crash/page/31337 I don't like the gaming industry as it is. Everything sucks. AAA is less about trying to take chances on making something incredible and more about pleasing the lowest common denominator, of which many screech from the tops of mountains, belittling those who actually have a valid opinion. Publishers no longer are PUBLISHERS but instead feel as though they are the ultimate gods of gaming, purchasing out the licenses to the best gaming franchises and milking them for all their worth. DLC practices are getting worse and worse, and the push to have more "free" (Read: Missing content designed to fool the non-informed consumer) online games. Hell, the industry is pushing more and more towards complete digital, online services, believing everyone in the world to already live in the future under the benevolent rule of Skynet. The Indie market too is not doing so well, and it's oversaturated by mediocre titles by developers who don't have a passion for gaming but simply want to make a quick buck. The last console not to be produced by one of the three "mighty" titans was absolutely bollocks and showed that its creators were just as evil as the people making the other consoles. Games as good as Minecraft (in terms of what it did for indie gaming) are few and far between, and typically spawn a bazillion clones because these clone-developers believe that "if ain't broke, don't fix it" actually was supposed to be "if it ain't broke, remake the entire thing in Unity but miss everything that made the original good because we're unoriginal and we don't understand the golden era of video games." Let's Plays by Pewdiepie apparently somehow are able to warrant millions of spoiled brats supremacy of YouTube, and Kotaku can write whatever random garbage spews from their mind and there will always be people who won't bat an eyelash. Some developers are leaving the industry because they receive enough hate over tiny decisions to match the Sun, whereas other developers are complete degenerates and it takes only a tiny realisation that nobody is laughing with them for a s***storm to start. People review games by comparing them, not based on the games own merits, and people believe that all manner of "technical issues" (LEIK GUIZE ITZ LOCK'D 2 30FPS DIS R s***E) should detract from the game's overall score, when it's clear they're the only one with their problems. Console and PC wars continuing to rage on, and yet no developer wants to properly merge the gap out of fear they might actually convince gamers its okay to choose what works best for them. Ubisoft f****s PC games daily, Bethesda (generally) gives console players the cold shoulder, and Microsoft loves to screw with everybody equally. People still have it in their minds that console-exclusives are a good thing, and there are still "hardcore" gamers convinced that because a game has no more than the occasional button-click here and there, it shouldn't classify as a game. Meanwhile, "casual" gamers spend money on buying new items for Farmville or Angry Birds, items that take no more than 5 minutes to make and rake in hundreds of thousands of kilos worth of cocaine every day, giving the big publishers the incentive that suddenly all gamers are like that, so they can begin to push DLC right down the unwilling gaming public's throat. I'm not done with gaming, but I'm pissed off that we've come to this. Only a few years ago, we were still in the warm and fuzzy period of gaming where things weren't as bad. YES. Some of these problems have been a constant. But they were nowhere near as drastic as they are now. This industry used to be about put players into places they've never been before, to experience things they've never felt before. The people who worked in it did so with passion for what they did, not so they could make it rich. Publishers weren't obsessed with licenses or DLC, they just wanted to rake in some profit off the side for distributing the games, as they rightfully should. Back then, you could look inside a game store and find a huge library of amazing games, not just a few awesome titles scattered through a lot of waste. Mario changed the industry forever. We need a new Mario (NOT A SEQUEL LIKE YOU'VE BEEN DOING FOR YEARS, NINTENDO). Hate me if you will, but that's my perspective. Your move, gaming industry.

The Halo seires was amazing until 343 Industries bought it from Bungi. Now Halo 4 is like amazingly boring campaign after you beat it. Bungi did good with campaigns, cuz they had lots of secrets you wanted to find, and 343 never had much I could find. I was expecting a gigantic forge world in 4 when it came out, only to find a few crappy forge places with not much amazement. Online gaming on the xbox is boring now. Mainly noobish people and rage children that don't let you enjoy the fun of online gaming. The Assassin's Creed lost its amazement after Revelations, and now a pirate/assassin theme now?? Why not make it a French Revolution or some other revolution in Europe? It has been almost a year since I've purchased a game or game related stuff for Xbox. I wont see much reason to get a game unless its an RTS that I would care to try (Which are rare games to come out on Xbox). I've never cared to do Steam on my CPU. I have only three CPU games on my computer I play often LRR, Crystalien Conflict, and Chess. I prefer to not purchase any more games. A waste of cash for me now. Since middle school, my "Everlastian Empire" turned into a great success of artistic skills. It could be a game if I were a programmer, but I never could take the time to study scripting.

My dad thinks I'm losing interest in gaming because I'm just "getting older," but really, you nailed exactly why I haven't been into it anymore. I feel like we're in a dork age of gaming where nobody is brave enough to try anything that hasn't been done to death, and really it's why I've been more into thrift shopping for older titles rather than keeping up with anything nowadays. Cyrem really put it best -- if we could have a crash right now, I would be all for it.

What can I say? I haven't played a game for ages. Nothing interests me anymore. Would love a video game industry crash right now... see what arises from the rubble.

Will there be different types of options for online? Like co-op (maybe even a multiplayer for story mode), competing, or both types? I'm kinda hoping for both. Now that I think about it, outside of this (which did not involve you), has random generated maps even been discussed? This has some of the ideas that we want to implement, for example the sandbox style world and anywhere drilling. We will have solo play with story based single play level objectives. We want to encourage players to design levels, and upload these for other players to play and rate. For sand box levels these are usually randomly generated, but with coding to have some logic, so 'higher value' crystals are deeper or in hardwe rocks, and rocks appear as seams. The open sandbox nature means that there is no 'planned' positions or guidence, the player has free choice.. We would bias planetoids for certain types of levels, with greater abundnce of certain resources. e.g. Metal worlds, or crystal worlds, We can have co-op levels, the players can choose to help each other or they can hinder each other. We can set 'goals' for combined or individual 'achievements'. BETA testing of these levels will be where we will want a lot of feedback from willing beta testers, which I hope yoou will all be up for this.

Our engine started development over 13 years ago, pre=rock raiders, but it is constanty being updated. it is an ongoing development project, so the last version is usually only a few days old. I said I would 'like to do a facebook version' unfortunately this format would be very different and it would not be part of the same engine. All the other formats are done together and will have the same capability. Although the Wii technically has the same modding capability as the PC version, the publisher requirements of Nintendo would not allow modding. The good news is that the PC version will be totally modable. documented and modding encouraged. On the other formats, we will allow access, to what we can under publishing agreements. re: is the PC version going to be weak? NO! the Wii is a less powerful format - thats right, but the code isn't written for one format, it is all data driven. We have seperate format directories for texture. models. animations and audio,. the final compliled format, uses the folder for that hardware. So a Wii version will use lower textures, meshes, audio etc, Add in that the screen resolution will also be lower, and you already have a great saving on memory and processor power. The final version can be tweaked for draw distance, timing allowance for AI, route finding and many other simple data variables. This is how two identical code bases can work on two different formats.

The problem is that this is exactly what the Rock Raiders United community doesn't want, or at the very least that is the general attitude that many people have around here. Rock Raiders is a very casual game already up until a few levels near the end and many of the mods that RRU has made try to make the game more challenging. The core demographic for the original game was children, so that is understandable. Now, we have grown up and the majority of us are 15 to 25 years old. We can take a challenge. This makes me feel a little bit better about the situation. In my eyes, Rock Raiders was one of your best games and I have hope that you are willing to show us a game that's even better than the original Rock Raiders. Of course, when I say "you" I'm addressing all of DDI -- the programmers, the artists, the musicians, the engineers, and the leaders. I was talking to a few people about this and we're actually concerned about you developing this game on multiple formats at once. Having multiple formats means that you need multiple teams to work on each version, which splits your time and energy. If you're planning on PC, Wii, WiiU, Android, iOS, and Facebook... you're spreading your effort way too thin and the main product (PC) will suffer. And honestly, the game will end up being completely different for each format. The PC has mouse and keyboard controls which are superior to a controller (WiiU) or pointer (Wii), and far superior to a touchscreen (Android, iOS). The general attitude towards Facebook games for many people around here is negative, and I feel that you will receive either backlash or apathy towards a Facebook version of the game. We do not want Farmville Raiders. We do not want to waggle a Wiimote at a screen in order to drill a wall. Please understand this. Your trending analysts may say that Facebook games are hot right now and the casual market is something you need to capture, but RRU in general is not in that market. I don't want to speak for everyone, but I think we are looking for a game that makes us think and plan ahead.

Hi Peabody, I don't mind addressing this. We sold over 5 million Popcorn Arcade titles, It was a huge worldwide success, and the truth is that the public loved the titles and we are still selling them now. Our only problem was that the press (actually 2 companies) hated our titles. to be fair they didnt understand them, they saw the huge success we were having and didn't get it. At the time the press was talking about 100 man teams taking 5 years to develop hardcore games, and we came along with family friendly casual games at the lowest price on Wii, the opposite of what they thought gamers wanted. At the time, the Press didn't think family friendly, simple to pick up and use games would be popular, and they slated our games for being too easy, and simple. The whole games market has since learnt that simple online games and phone games have captured the majority of the market, this type of game is exactly what the public wanted! To be a commercial writer you quickly learn that extremes sell, writing a review of an average game, at at affordable price appealing to young kids isn't 'interesting copy' you get a better story saying, this is the best game, or worst game in the world. Anyone who has been in the business will also stell you the correlation between advertising budgets and review scores! and we didn't advertise. It was sort of amusing as despite their hate campaign, they still kept printing 'why are people buying these games' and thats who we make games for the 5 million players, who bought and kept buying our games, not the 3 magazine writers. Our titles helped the Wii market, at the time NO-ONE was writing games for Wii, and a console flops without enough software, we captured 40% of the market, nothing was a shoddy product, they all fully used the Wii remote, they were all multiplayer games, we were innovators, first to launch titles with Wii motion Plus support, first titles with 3D glasses, our Golf Trainer title won many awards, Budget games can't compare with full price titles, but our games were excellent for the money, and at less than $20 when games were $40-$60 we were games that kids could afford, I am proud of what we did. After saying all that, the New Rock Raiders is not a budget game, it is a BIG project, we can do many styles, and this is a Major quality title for us.

OK a bit more on the design ideas: It is still being fleshed out, but it answers some questions that have been raised. STORYLINE: The year is 3099 and the far reaches of the universe are being colonized with the search for valuable resources. Sending men to these remote and far away lands is dangerous, so instead we teleport a remote controlled android. For some strange reason these look like a Lego MiniFigure, but it’s not exactly the same, as there are still copyright laws even in the 31st century! Your Minifig wants to explore and discover resources, such as minerals, gems and power crystals. These are usually hidden beneath the surface, and unless you can discover caverns and tunnels, your minifig will need to dig deep underground to get these. When you find a good seam, you can choose to chip away at it with your pick axe, or you could teleport back some of your wealth and rent some serious, upgraded excavation equipment. Crushers, or laser drills can get the work done in short time, but for big equipment you need big power supplies and support buildings. Its up to you, choose to build a large mining complex or keep it simple. Then there are the ‘local’ inhabitants to deal with. The more disturbance you make, the more local wildlife you will disturb. Some of the locals are easy to catch, and we call these ‘food’ but many can bite back, and they will call YOU food. You will need to build defenses to protect you and your base. In some cases, if they dislike water, this might be a simple ditch, but in the case of a Rock Monster, I would recommend a river of flowing lava, and make it wide as these monsters can jump! The universe is a pretty big place, so big in-fact that there is a type of world to suit everyone. Planetoids are in zones, which are rated 1 (peaceful) to 5 (wild), so you can choose your neighbors and style of world for the style of game that you want to play. Some people may want to build a magnificent city, design buildings, and create landscaped gardens, and these can be on worlds where you can build, without interruption from other minifigs. Or you can goto a high risk and reward, ‘5 zone’, where you will have to spend as much on defense equipment as you do on mining. You will want to craft or buy, defense towers, weapons and armor. If you want combat and action in these zones you can also choose to be a mercenary, flying from planetoid to planetoid taking what you can steal from the inhabitants.

Thanks for the comments, it sounds like the idea is well recieved, i will post some more details, and suggestions.

My faith in this game has been restored. Sounds awesome, seriously.

I don't know whether to post here or make it a new topic, but we are thinking of being more creative and allowing you to build your own types of vehicles from a collection of ready made parts. So the basic list goes something like this.. Vehicles: You create the parts to make the vehicles that you can afford, or that you need, to suit your world. CHASSIS Small - Stand on Small 4 wheel , light, medium or heavy weight. Medium 6 wheel, light, medium or heavy weight. Static base . 1 to 8 blocks. Power unit: Push Steam Oil Electric Fusion Power Crystals Traction: light wheels, Strong wheels All terrain wheels Ski Tracks Flying Hover Helicopter blades Jet Anti gravity Space Propulsion Armour: Wood Hard wood Copper Bronze Iron Steel Carbon Steel Alloys Work bits: Drill Medium Drill Large Drill WTF Drill Lasers 1-5 Wrecking ball Lump hammer 1-5 You create the Vehicle combination, add the power supply, add in the work bits, and get constructing. Modding options will allow for player designed, vehicles, in various models and graphical styles to be created and available as downloads. Buildings. Buildings and vehicles can be created from any block of any material, and saved as a ‘plan’. If you want to recreate a building you choose a spot and place the ‘plan’ in the build list. Your engineer minifigs will then try and build it from materials that you have in storage. You can purchase and sell designs, to other players. There will be an online site for choosing, rating and voting on the best plans, functionality, good design, and cool new looks. What do you think? The code will allow for MODS, so original Lego rock raiders models can go in from fans designs (we will not be able to do this as a pre-defined set) but create your vehicles and design a mesh 'look' for it I think would be cool - your input please!