Hotshot Tales, Part 21: Shadows of the Patriots

Hotshot Tales, Part 21: Shadows of the Patriots

In my previous post overall, I showed how the '86 Rosso could be given a two- or three-tone livery even after its stock roof was replaced, as follows:

Above, from top: A three-tone livery is possible on the '86 Rosso by choosing a different exterior color for the lower side bodywork (which in the case of this body set, is the Secondary Car slot) and bumpers in addition to specifying a third color for the front lip, and rear valance/side skirts (represented by the Misc. Paint 3 and Misc. Trim 1 areas, respectively) as an accent. If you wish to use a two-tone livery instead, you could use a single color for both the main and lower bodywork (including bumpers) while also applying a different color to the Misc. Paint 3 and Misc. Trim 1 areas; alternatively, extending that color to the lower bodywork places it in a foreground role instead of as an accent.

What intrigued me most about these exterior color areas, however, is that it's also possible to duplicate some of the liveries in Hotshot Racing using Aston's Drift car, the Shadow, and applying Skin 3 (which finishes the middle and/or lower bodywork in contrasting colors when choosing most palettes outside of the Special Set, whose palettes always apply a single color to the entire car), as follows:

Above, from top: Using Skin 3 on Aston's Shadow in Hotshot Racing, it's possible to get a 3-tone livery similar to what I applied to my test build in Automation - with some palettes displaying variations on the theme by changing the order of the colors and/or making some of them brighter or darker. Admittedly, the middle part of the front bumper is color-matched to the car's background color and not the middle horizontal band, but you get the idea. In any case, Alexa's 9th palette (which is one of the defaults for her Speed car, the Mirage) is the closest match, though, When combined with the Shadow's default wheel type (a red 5-spoke design - the Automation build has white ones, although they can be recolored accordingly if desired, unlike the wheels in Hotshot Racing), the similarity becomes even more pronounced.

This is, however, just one example of how Automation allows you to pay tribute to a car/livery combination in Hotshot Racing - but there are many others, and those, too, can be replicated (or at least approximated) using skillful use of body molding, decal, and exterior area color choice manipulation.

On the subject of customization, that topic, in turn, will be the topic for another post in yet another series of mine.

A Lifer's Diary: Part 16: Reimagining Generation II for Car Nuts

A Lifer's Diary: Part 16: Reimagining Generation II for Car Nuts

After imagining what Generation III of the Game of Life would look like with a car-themed reskin, I've decided to do the same thing with Generation II, its immediate predecessor. Keep in mind that this particular generation debuted in 1991 and remained in print until 2006 - the longest print run since the 1960 original. However, this was the last generation to not only have separate decks for Career and Salary Cards, but also to have a unified Career Card deck, and it was also the only generation with a unified House card deck. An automotive-themed retheming would therefore only require one each of Segment and Garage Card decks (resulting from a renaming of the Career Card and House decks, respectively), instead of two.

Although taxes would still be called Service in this retheming, Salary Cards would have most likely had to be renamed to Engine Cards, as follows:

• 3-Cylinder (salary $20,000/service $5,000)
• 4-Cylinder (salary $30,000/service $10,000)
• Turbo 4-Cylinder (salary $40,000/service $15,000)
• 6-Cylinder/Rotary (salary $50,000/service $20,000)
• Turbo 6-Cylinder (salary $60,000/service $25,000)
• Small-Block V8 (salary $70,000/service $30,000)
• Big-Block V8 (salary $80,000/service $35,000)
• V10 (salary $90,000/service $40,000)
• V12 (salary $100,000/service $45,000)

Furthermore, the new names of the Segment Cards in Generation II would've been as follows, with the names of those requiring an Engineering School degree being italicized:

• Hatchback (replaces Salesperson)
• Sedan/Wagon (replaces Travel Agent/Computer Consultant)
• Van/Minivan (replaces Teacher)
• SUV/Truck (replaces Police Officer)
• Muscle/Pony (replaces Artist)
• Luxury Car (replaces Accountant)
• Sports Car (replaces Superstar/Entertainer)
• Supercar (replaces Athlete)
• Hypercar (replaces Doctor)

In addition, House Cards would now have had to be called Garage Cards, as follows:

• Small Garage (replaces Split-Level; cost $40,000/insurance $10,000/resale $60,000)
• Medium Garage (replaces Mobile Home; cost $60,000/insurance $15,000/resale $90,000)
• Small Dealer (replaces Log Cabin; cost $80,000/insurance $20,000/resale $120,000)
• Large Garage (replaces Cozy Condo; cost $100,000/insurance $25,000/resale $150,000)
• Main Dealer (replaces Dutch Colonial; cost $120,000/insurance $30,000/resale $180,000)
• Super Garage (replaces Beach House; cost $140,000/insurance $35,000/resale $210,000)
• Road Course (replaces Farmhouse; cost $160,000/insurance $40,000/resale $240,000) 
• Luxury Showroom (replaces Tudor; cost $180,000/insurance $45,000/resale $270,000)
• Superspeedway (replaces Victorian; cost $200,000/insurance $50,000/resale $300,000)

Moreover, Stock Cards would have been renamed to Part Cards, as follows:

• 1: Engine/Exhaust
• 2: Gearbox/Drivetrain
• 3: Suspension
• 4: Wheels/Tires
• 5: Forced Induction
• 6: Body/Chassis
• 7: Aerodynamics
• 8: Interior/Audio/Safety
• 9: Lights/Accessories

Other changes include renaming the Get Married, Lose Your Job/Mid-Life Crisis, Stock Market Boom, Stock Market Crash, and Baby/Twins spaces to "Hire Test Driver", "Change Manufacturers", "New Part Contract", "Part Supplier Closes", and "Get A Fan/Get 2 Fans", respectively. Furthermore, all other spaces would have to be renamed in accordance with the automotive-themed reskin.

As in Generation III, Life Tiles would retain their default values and names, but with different descriptions to match the new theme. The two retirement options, Countryside Acres and Millionaire Estates, would now be called Private Garage and Motor Museum, respectively, but they would still have the same effect as before. Pay Raises (which were introduced in Generation III) would've been called Tune-Ups here, had they been featured - but they weren't in Generation II, which makes that issue moot. Finally, the movers would have had a different, sleeker, more sports car-like shape instead of the more angular minivan/SUV-like forms found in the original game.

In short, had a Car Crazy Edition (my suggestion for the new theme's name) of Generation II of The Game of Life been made, it could have convinced Hasbro to do the same for Generation III - which is something I've already discussed. And had that one also been greenlit and gone on to become a commercial success, they could have done the same thing for at least the next Generation or two. Those, however, should be stories for another time.

New Year's Resolutions for 2024: The Road Ahead

New Year's Resolutions for 2024: The Road Ahead

Happy New Year everyone! It's only the second day (or third day, depending on where you live) of 366 in 2024, this being a leap year and all, but already I am coming up with a list of New Year's resolutions as a Steam gamer (among others). The most important ones are as follows:

• Be more creative as an Automationeer  - whether it's by finding new, imaginative ways to manipulate exterior fixtures in-game, or by unlocking new secrets of engine design and/or trim configurations, I am finally ready to explore all the possibilities brought on by the public release version of the Ellisbury update for Automation (4.3), in which cars made in sandbox and campaign can now be more realistic and diverse than ever before.
• Dive deeper into the Infinite Space Trilogy - Even though it's been almost a decade since I started playing Sea of Stars (the third game in the series), and nearly two decades since I started playing the first game, there's still much to discover in this underrated yet entertaining series of sci-fi roguelikes. In particular, I will be exploring the similarities and differences between it and BattleTech, since both of them have a sci-fi setting (although BattleTech is about combined arms, in contrast to Infinite Space being focused solely on space combat between fleets of starships and the occasional space station).
• Uncover more secrets about the Game of Life - Even though Hasbro has been making the Game of Life for over six decades, there are still some aspects of it that I have not yet covered here. Among them are a detailed guide to Generation V (the current version) - it's at or near the top of my to-do list for 2024.
• Do something crazy (and potentially difficult) in a game I acquired last year as part of a free giveaway - Last year, I downloaded a game for free legitimately as part of a free offer. In the months since, I have enjoyed playing it every single time - so what is it exactly? The answer will be revealed soon.

Do you have any New Year's resolutions of your own? Whatever they are, I hope you manage to keep them by New Year's Day 2025. See you soon!

The Game of Life on Steam, Part 4: Trivia

The Game of Life on Steam, Part 4: Trivia

In many ways, the third generation of the Game of Life tabletop game (on which the PC adaptation was based) represented a transitional period in the game's history. On one hand, it marked the end of an era; on the other hand, it was also the beginning of another. Some of the trivia associated with this version of the game (referred to Generation III here) includes the following:

• Generation III of the Game of Life was the shortest-lived version, being in print from 2007 to 2013 - a six-year production run, one-fifth as long as that of Generation 1 (in print from 1960-1990, if its re-release during the 1970s is not treated as a separate generation).
• This was the last version of the Game of Life to support six players (and therefore six differently colored game pieces) or to feature stocks as a purchasable item (referred to as Long-Term Investments here, and costing $10,000 instead of $50,000 to purchase as in earlier versions), and also the only version since Generation I to feature Share The Wealth Cards. The absence of Long-Term Investments in Generation IV is explained by the fact that they have been replaced by Bonus Numbers, which are now tied to Career Cards.
• Spin To Win, first introduced in Generation I as Lucky Day, but omitted altogether from Generation II, was reintroduced in this version of the Game of Life and retained for Generation IV, albeit with significant format changes.
• Life Tiles, introduced in Generation II (in print from 1991 to 2006), were retained for Generation III, only to be replaced with Action Cards (which are always worth $100,000 each) in Generation IV (in print since 2013).
• This version introduced several new ideas for the game that were retained in Generation IV: wedding gifts, retirement gifts from children, separate branches dedicated for returning to school or attempting to raise a family (with the latter known as the Family Path), two separate Career Card decks (one for normal careers and another for college careers), and salaries tied to careers.
• Speaking of which, unlike in other versions, careers' salaries are not fixed, but can increase over time through accumulation of Pay Raises, up to a certain point (except for the Entertainer, Athlete, Lawyer and Doctor, which do not have a maximum salary).
• This is the only version to feature Lawsuit spaces, where any player who lands on it can sue an opponent for $100,000. It is also the only version where players must still spin on their turn after retirement for Long-Term Investments, and the only one to feature two House Card decks (one for the cheaper Starter Homes, and another for the more expensive Houses).
• More video game adaptations of Generation III of the Game of Life have been produced than for any other generation. The first one was released in 2008(!) for home computers and featured an optional "Enhanced Play" mode which featured various mini-games as well as a tweaked rule set. This was followed a few months later by a mobile phone game, which was more faithful to the original board game, except for the fact that it supported only four players instead of six, and featured an isometric view and animated character portraits. This version would later be remade with 3D graphics for more advanced handheld platforms (albeit without animated portraits), and was re-released again with support for six players, before ultimately being ported to PC via Steam and other digital distribution platforms. Finally, the entire game was featured as a mini-game (complete with its own unique mini-mini-games!) in Family Game Night 3, released in 2010 for seventh-generation home consoles.
• This is the only version to include a purple car token, and also the last one to have an orange car token; only four colors (red, yellow, green and blue) were retained for the car tokens in Generation IV.
• A special 50th Anniversary edition of the board game was released in 2010 to mark 50 years since its introduction in 1960. Apart from gold-colored buildings, landscape elements and regular spaces, as well as the addition of special tokens only obtainable from landing on certain spaces, it is mostly identical to the standard edition.
• This version of the Game of Life and its immediate predecessor are the only ones to have a Pension space immediately before the Retirement space. Anyone who lands on the Pension space must spin again to collect a money bonus multiplied by the number they spun ($20,000 times spin in Generation II, $10,000 in Generation III) before ending their turn.
• Unlike previous editions of the Game of Life, Generation III omitted insurance policies entirely - the first version of the game to do so.
• Generation III was the last version of the Game of Life to have at least one space on the board which would cause any player who landed on it to skip their next turn. In fact, there was only one, and it was located on the Start College branch near the very start of the Path of Life.
• Generation III was also the last version of the Game of Life to feature any spaces which were guaranteed to cause any players that landed on them to lose their current careers and take new ones in their place. There were four of these spaces on the board, but one of them could be bypassed altogether by taking the Return to School option part-way through the game.
• In the original board game release of Generation III, all players may choose whether or not to Spin to Win (and if they do, they must also specify an amount to wager in $5,000 increments), regardless of whose turn it is. However, in the 2008 video game adaptation, developed and published by PopCap Games and Electronic Arts (whose enhanced remake on Steam is the primary subject of this guide), respectively, only the player who lands on a Spin to Win space is able to Spin to Win.
• It is much more likely in Generation III for a player to retire with unpaid debts. This most commonly occurs if that player is sued enough times (beyond the point where it is becomes necessary to take out any loans to cover the payment caused by a lost lawsuit) and fails to make enough money during the game to compensate.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it still includes some of the more entertaining and unusual facts about this version of the Game of Life. I was hoping that this would be the final part in this relatively new series, but there will be at least one more - which will be posted soon, so stay tuned.