Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy Listing Appears On The Switch eShop
Update – Thu 26th Mar, 2020 02:25 GMT: A listing for this game has now appeared on the Canadian Switch eShop (thanks, Nintendo Everything), and it appears to have the same release date as the PlayStation 4 version (26th March). We’ll just have to wait and see!
Original article – Sun 22nd Mar, 2020 07:05 GMT: One welcome surprise on the Switch last year was the release of Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Although this version didn’t include the much-loved multiplayer component, Aspyr Media still made the effort to improve the solo experience over time with some patches.
What’s going on with Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, though? It was confirmed for Switch last September alongside the reveal of Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and was scheduled to be arriving early on in 2020. Well, the latest update comes from the PlayStation Blog of all places. Yep, according to a new post, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is arriving digitally on the PlayStation 4 on 26th March. Here’s the description for this console:
The online multiplayer classic comes to PS4 with Trophies and modernized controls! Take on the role of a new student eager to learn the ways of the Force from Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Interact with famous Star Wars characters as you face the ultimate choice: fight for good and freedom on the light side or follow the path of power and evil to the dark side.
While there’s obviously no mention of the Nintendo Switch release on this page, there’s a theory going around it could be linked to the rumoured Nintendo Direct, which is believed to be taking place on 26th March. This same rumour already predicted the recent Nintendo Indie World Showcase. Keep in mind, there is no guarantee, so we’ll just have to wait and find out.
Nintendo capped off its surprise Nintendo Direct Mini with some new information about Pokemon Sword and Shield. In particular, the company revealed more details about the games' first upcoming expansion, Isle of Armor, which is currently slated to arrive this June.
Isle of Armor is set on the eponymous island, which lies off the coast of the Galar region. The isle is home to a Pokemon dojo where aspiring trainers learn under the tutelage of Mustard, the longest-reigning Pokemon Champion in Galar's history and Leon's former mentor.
When you arrive at the dojo, you're gifted the Legendary Pokemon Kubfu from Mustard himself. As part of your training, you will eventually be able to challenge the Towers of Two Fists--the Tower of Darkness and the Tower of Waters. You can only challenge one of the towers, however, and the one you choose will influence how Kubfu evolves.
It’s been a while. I’m healthy once again and able to bring you Minecraft related News.
Have you ever wanted to walk on lava in vanilla? What about using a compass that pointed you elsewhere instead of at 0,0? Well, this Snapshot may just be for you!
Added the lodestone
Added the Strider
Basalt is formed when lava flows over soul soil next to blue ice
Farmer villagers can now compost seeds
LODESTONE
A new block that can help you get your bearings!
Crafted from a Netherite ingot and chiseled stone bricks
Use a compass on a lodestone to create a lodestone compass pointing to that lodestone
STRIDER
A new mob living the lava lakes of the Nether.
Striders can walk on top of the surface of lava
Can be saddled, but has a will of its own
Really likes the smell of warped fungi – might even be convinced to follow it
FARMER VILLAGERS
Farmers can now put excess seeds in the composter to create bone meal
Bone meal is used by the farmers to grow crops
Farmers share excess wheat to other farmers, so more farmers can make bread
You’re now more likely to get soul speed books and boots from bartering with Piglins
You now can charge the respawn anchor using a dispenser
Jigsaw Block
A fishing location is now considered to be open water if the fishing hook is in water, there are no blocks besides lily pads above water and all water blocks are source blocks with no solid underwater blocks around
JIGSAW BLOCK
Jigsaw can now have one of 12 orientations
Added new property Joint type to describe if attached piece can be rotated (rollable) or not (aligned)
NBT field target_pool has been renamed to pool
– attachement_type has been split into name (on parent block) and target (on child block).
MC-118080 – Bows without pulling predicate animate when other bows are pulled back
MC-154427 – Villagers only pick up four stacks of items
MC-171003 – Crimson and Warped stairs, planks and slabs can be used as fuel in a furnace
MC-171286 – Warped fences and Crimson fences don’t connect with other fences
MC-171484 – Shields, crossbows, bows, and fishing rods don’t show their proper animations in first person mode after certain actions
MC-171526 – en_us.json issue: weeping_vines and weeping_vines_plant have the same name
MC-171830 – Smokers cannot be crafted using crimson or warped stems
MC-172123 – Using a spawn egg on a mob without a baby variant spawns an adult mob of the same type without a weapon
MC-172279 – Can’t craft campfire with nether stems or hyphae
MC-172307 – All loaded tileticks instantly run in the first tick after loading the chunk
MC-173258 – Back of zombified piglin heads has very different texture/shading compared to the other sides
MC-173367 – Arrows are floating in midair after being pushed by piston
MC-173791 – Mobs dismount vehicles only in front of the boat, even if there is danger ahead
MC-174368 – Minecarts can no longer eject entities into an open trap door
MC-174428 – Nylium can be bonemealed underwater with seagrass above it
MC-174434 – Sugar Cane, Kelp and Bamboo are in the incorrect creative inventory tab
MC-174481 – en_us.json issue: twisting_vines and twisting_vines_plant have the same name
MC-174510 – Stems, Hyphae, and variants do not use the Nether Wood material
MC-174537 – Zombie Pigman hooves are still visible on Zombified Piglin texture
MC-174547 – Kelp, Weeping Vines, and Twisted Vines can be bonemealed at age 25
Designing the many Easter eggs of Zombie Army 4: Dead War
“Easter eggs” have become common in visual media, whether it’s film, television, or video games. Creators hide these bits of surprise in a way that’s findable to those with a keen eye and an appreciation for whatever the Easter egg makes reference to.
As games evolved over generations, the principle behind the Easter egg has grown exponentially, with more iterations on the concept appearing in modern video games.
One recently released game that leans into the idea of Easter eggs is Zombie Army 4: Dead War, Rebellion’s latest in the series, which maintains a cult following. Jordan Woodward, lead level designer at Rebellion, is no stranger to the implementation of secrets within the game world. Much of what infuses a sense of charm into the world of Zombie Army is the carefully positioned Easter eggs, which encourage players to carefully dissect each level. A conversation with Woodward gave insight into the process behind it all.
Within the early moments of Zombie Army 4, a small room presented a dead end with nothing of interest but a typewriter. With no other means of interactivity in the room, the typewriter beckons players to inspect it. Choose to do so and it will begin to type on its own accord — reeling off numerous horror movie quotes for the player. Then, as the player turns around, a greeting from several creepy dolls is glaring back at them, startling the player.
It’s a game series that’s built around the love and admiration of classic horror movies — especially the golden age of the genre.
“The franchise and universe of Zombie Army take a lot of inspiration from cult horror and 80s B-movie horror films and that vibe is definitely a big part of Zombie Army 4,” said Woodward. “They are genres a lot of the team are massive fans of, and they had a lot of fun coming up with references and Easter eggs from their favorite films to put in the game. We had feedback from our community, and this was one of the things people loved about the franchise, so it was an obvious fit for Zombie Army 4 too.”
Looking at player feedback and how the community reacts is an integral part of the process, as well as looking back at past installments. “Creating an engaging and intriguing world which players want to explore was at the core of designing the levels and lore within the game,” Woodward said. “The humor and tongue in cheek delivery of that additional layer was something previous Zombie Army games in the franchise were praised for and another reason our fans, and ourselves, loved the other games. We wanted to revisit this in Zombie Army 4, continuing with the trend of adding movie references and quirky Easter eggs to discover, to drive some more exploration and provide a few chuckles along the way.”
With so many different voices in the team at Rebellion, everyone had their own ideas for what to implement in the finished release. “A lot of the development team are big fans of the horror genre and we spent a lot of time watching cult zombie horror movies such as Dead Snow, Outpost, and Overlord – so naturally everyone jumped at the chance to get their favorite zombie and horror movie references in to Zombie Army 4.”
Having the player recognize these secrets isn’t integral to the experience. It was to be made clear that finding such extras was an extension to the overall experience. “It was also our aim to provide players with a layer of depth and environmental storytelling that is always present for the player to find but wasn’t crucial to the enjoyment of the game,” Woodward said. “It’s a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but lore-wise everything still makes sense within the world and story we’ve created.”
And that world is crafted around a love for horror movies with a vast array of inspirations. With examples stemming from influences such as The Shining, and the more recent Netflix show Stranger Things. In Zombie Army 4, the game references Stranger Things via an environmental puzzle: lights lay draped on the wall, each dangling beside a letter. Figuring out the correct sequence in which to shoot the lights rewards players with a locked safe opening, which is filled with an assortment of items to assist them on their quest.
When such a large team is working on a project of this magnitude, there must be a degree of preparation when it comes to implementation. The early stages of development called for the team to come together, collaborate on ideas, and see what sticks.
“In the pre-production stages of development and during development, we encouraged everyone from the team to submit as many ideas as they could for their favorite Easter eggs, movie references, horror references and even references from previous Rebellion games,” Woodward said.
With such a wealth of ideas coming from a large team, it’s no doubt that many would fail to see the light of day. Collectively discussing the plethora of concepts the team had brainstormed and choosing what to go forward with was a key aspect of the thought process.
“After we had collated a huge list of ideas, we started to look at which ones we wanted to take forward, prioritizing them and how and where we wanted to present them. Also, what would be the most fun way to discover it?” Woodward explained. “We then started to pin down the locations where we thought each of them would work well and the designers mocked them up in the levels using pre-made or whitebox assets and our in-house Asura Engine scripting tools for any triggering logic.”
While Zombie Army 4 is jam-packed with Easter eggs bursting from the seams, the development team still had plenty of ideas which inevitably were left unfinished. According to Woodward, this was the case with this development cycle.
“A few ideas had to be scrapped from the list,” he said, “mainly due to complexity or time it would have taken to create them as some would need bespoke complex animation sequences or custom art assets we didn’t have the time to make. Or we had to simplify the reference, using different assets we already had. A lot of the coolest ideas made it into the game, though.”
With so many hidden secrets packed into one game, a balancing act needs to be performed to ensure that they’re tucked away from the casual player, but not too obscure for the keen eyed. Often, the Easter eggs that lay dormant in Zombie Army’s world lay waiting at the end of offbeat tracks or incorporated into heavily decorated rooms, waiting for eagle eyed players to stumble across their presence.
“The design approach with Easter egg placement was to encourage curious exploration of the game world,” Woodward said. “Often, we didn’t want to lead players directly to them, as this may have caused an unwanted distraction from the main objective of the mission or an encounter, this being especially problematic in co-op.
“The balance was to create areas and paths that weren’t too far away from the main play areas and main paths, so players didn’t get lost and could always quickly find their way back to a fight. These additional areas helped add some extra depth to the world and make the world seem larger and more open to explore.”
Sometimes, the balancing act can be tricky business and finding that perfect contrast into seamlessly integrating Easter eggs into the world of Zombie Army isn’t as easy as it may seem.
“There were some tweaks we had to make to some of them to make them more obviously connected with a different part of the level,” Woodward said. “For example: the gas rats Easter egg in the Hellbase mission. During playtesting players weren’t getting the link between finding and killing the rats in the level to open a locked safe in the following room. We tweaked this and put tiny gas masks on the rats and a rack for tiny gas masks to hang on the wall in the safe room by the safe. A mask would be hung on the rack each time a rat was killed to show how many were found. It’s subtle, but it helped make the link.”
The sheer amount of creativity Woodward and the team put into Zombie Army is evident through the playful level design they’ve crafted. Much of the process has been rewarding, but Woodward has found the most enjoyable part being the developers’ playtesting sessions.
“What I’ve personally enjoyed most about seeing all the awesome Easter eggs, environmental storytelling pieces and references is the creativity and enthusiasm from the design team. Even now during internal play sessions the team are finding references in each other’s work they didn’t know about!”
Video: Designing great UI that helps immerse players in your game
In this 2018 GDC session, UI designer Steph Chow discusses how to embed a game’s world into its user interface, and how to strike the right balance between player immersion and player usability.
It was an intriguing talk that afforded attendees a fresh look at the ways in which game developers traditionally design UI, and offered practical advice for designing UI that reinforces the themes of your games and helps players stay immersed.
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page.
Humble have just released a bundle targeted as musicians. The Humble Music Producer Bundle is a collection of sound banks and VSTs. As with all Humble Bundles it is organized into tiers:
1$ Tier
Angelicals
Frontier
AAS Player (Note, this is available free)
15$ Tier
Analog Essentials
UltraFX
Kitnetix
Journeys
20$ Tier
Strum Sessions
Lounge Lizard Sessions
Ultra Analog Session
This bundle gives you a key that you redeem as a single download from https://www.applied-acoustics.com/. As with all Humble Bundles you can decide how your money is allocated, between charity, the publisher, Humble and if you choose (and thanks if you do!) to support GFS if purchased using this link. You can learn more about this bundle including briefly seeing the 20$ Tier items in action in the video below.
Konami – which is now the custodian of the PC Engine brand following its purchase of Hudson Soft in 2011 – is perhaps a little late to the party with its take on the ‘micro-console’ concept that kicked off with the Nintendo Classic Edition a few years back. Since then, we’ve seen SNK, Sony and Sega all jump on board the retro money train, often with wildly varying degrees of success.
However, while the Neo Geo Mini and Mega Drive Mini both offered up a selection of games that will be familiar even to the most casual of retro gaming fans thanks to the fact they’ve been released (and re-released) on a wide range of digital storefronts over the past decade, the PC Engine Mini (alongside its western counterpart, the TurboGrafx-16 Mini) offers up a library of games that’s a little more off the beaten track. That’s not to say it lacks quality – quite the opposite, in fact – and with emulation expert M2 doing the heavy-lifting (just as it did with Sega’s micro-console) authenticity is assured.
However, while the PC Engine Mini is questionably home to some fine games, there’s no denying that it lacks the fame and recognition that have arguably made Nintendo’s NES and SNES Classic Editions so popular. With Nintendo, you know you’re getting Mario, Zelda, Metroid and much more besides, but if you stopped the average person in the street and asked them to pick their favourite PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 releases, most wouldn’t even know what console you were talking about. Can Konami’s console overcome this thorny issue and establish itself as one of the best micro-consoles money can buy? While the western release of the console has been delayed by the recent coronavirus outbreak, we’ve been able to get our hands on a Japanese unit, so let’s find out.
Unlike Nintendo and Sega’s micro-consoles, the PC Engine range is perhaps a little less famous with the average gamer. A fruitful collaboration between Japanese software company Hudson Soft and Japanese electronics giant NEC, the PC Engine burst onto the scene in 1987, offering players a more powerful home system than the ageing (yet still dominant) Nintendo Famicom. With its faithful arcade ports and robust support from the likes of Konami, Namco and Taito, it quickly established itself as Japan’s second favourite games console – a position it would maintain even after Sega launched its technically-superior Mega Drive in 1988.
A dizzying array of hardware upgrades followed; the PC Engine was blessed with a CD-ROM add-on in 1988, and was given a ‘Pro’ overhaul before Pro consoles were even a thing when Hudson and NEC released the ill-fated SuperGrafx in 1989 (only six games were ever released for it, and two of those are included on the PC Engine Mini – Daimakaimura and Aldynes). The PC Engine was released in North America as the TurboGrafx-16 in 1989, which struggled to keep pace with Nintendo and Sega in what would become a memorable console war. Despite the name, the system is powered by an 8-bit Hudson-made HuC6280 CPU – however, the graphics processor is 16-bit, which is why PC Engine games look so much better than NES titles.
While it failed to make any real impression in North America, in its native Japan the PC Engine was still popular enough to keep Sega at bay and would benefit from several additional hardware refreshes; the PC Engine Duo would combine the base console with a CD-ROM drive and would be iterated upon twice with the Duo-R and Duo-RX, while the system’s power was augmented using ‘System Cards’, the most notable of which was the Arcade Card which enabled slick ports such as SNK’s Fatal Fury Special and Art of Fighting. There was even a low-cost, kiddie-friendly variant in the form of the bizarre-looking PC Engine Shuttle, and portable editions such as the PC Engine GT and PC Engine LT, the latter of which came with an eye-watering price tag.
The PC Engine would eventually be replaced by the PC-FX in 1994 – another joint venture between Hudson and NEC – but the system was a dismal failure and never made it out of Japan.
PC Engine Mini Review: The Hardware
The PC Engine Mini’s naming is slightly disingenuous because it’s not actually that much smaller than the real deal. The original PC Engine was famous for its diminutive size – it was much, much smaller than systems like the NES, Mega Drive and SNES – so it stands to reason that Konami (via Hori, which is handling the hardware side of things with this project) was always going to struggle to shrink it down any further for this 2020 edition. As it stands, the PC Engine Mini is around 25-30 percent smaller than the 1987 model, but it has the same kind of dimensions as the NES Classic, SNES Classic and Mega Drive Mini. In fact, having all of them on a shelf together looks pretty cool.
From the green power switch to the fact that the console even ships with the red ‘EXT BUS’ protective plastic cover on the back (which has to be removed to reveal the USB and HDMI ports), the PC Engine Mini is a close match to the system that revolutionized the Japanese home console market in the late ’80s. However, there are some notable differences; NEC’s branding is completely removed from both the system itself and the packaging. Konami’s purchase of the PC Engine brand has effectively erased NEC from the picture – which is a bit of a shame given the firm’s contribution to the system’s legacy, but understandable in the context of giant corporations gobbling up IP.
Also, some purists may be upset by the fact that there’s no HuCard slot on the console – where these credit card-sized games would be inserted on the original console is simply a blanked-off gap on the PC Engine Mini. This is a relatively minor cosmetic grumble, however, and naturally has no impact on the system’s functionality. If it does bother you, then you’ll be even more annoyed by the fact that the AV and power sockets on the sides are also blank.
The controller feels like a one-for-one match with the original and comes with a generous 3-metre cable. The rolling D-Pad is brilliant, as are the two face buttons. Sadly, there’s no autofire option, as was the case with the revised PC Engine controller released after launch (this was the pad that the TurboGrafx-16 launched with). There are two USB ports on the front of the console (the original PC Engine only had one) so two-player games don’t need any additional hardware. For games that support more than two players (Bomberman, we’re looking at you), you’ll need to purchase a special adapter.
The version we’re reviewing here is the Japanese model. The North American version is renamed TurboGrafx-16 and features a different case design, while the European variant is based on the CoreGrafx revision of the Japanese PC Engine.
PC Engine Mini Review: The Games
The PC Engine Mini range offers 58 games – that’s 34 Japanese titles and 24 TurboGrafx-16 (American) games – but some of these are actually duplicates. In some cases where both a Japanese and North American version exist, both versions are included. So, Nectaris is available in its Japanese form as well as Military Madness, the North American release – and these are listed as two separate games on the console’s menu. There are some exceptions – Soldier Blade is only included in its TG-16 form, despite a Japanese release existing – but in this case it matters little as the versions are identical between regions due to the lack of Japanese text.
While the lineup is very similar across the three available hardware variants, there are some differences; the Japanese console gets Tokimeki Memorial and Tengai Makyō II: Manji Maru, while Konami’s shooter Salamander is exclusive to the North American and European editions. The version of Splatterhouse present is also different depending on which model you have; the western versions have the censored North American release where Rick wears a red mask to make him look less like Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees, while the Japanese model has the original, uncensored version.
It’s also worth noting that some of the games – such as Soldier Blade – come with bonus versions based on the popular ‘Caravan’ events which toured Japan at the time. These versions are usually score-focused and have a strict time limit, and are accessed by holding down the ‘Select’ button while pressing ‘Run’ to boot the game.
With (almost) 60 games available, the PC Engine Mini arguably trumps its micro-console rivals in terms of pure volume of software, but that number doesn’t tell the whole story. While Nintendo and Sega’s machines benefited from the amazing depth and breadth of their respective libraries, the PC Engine can’t offer quite the same degree of quality. There’s no 2D platformer here that is even close to rivalling Super Mario Bros. 3, nor is there an RPG present that can match The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Likewise, there’s no side-scrolling fighter at all, which means the PC Engine Mini lacks an answer to the brilliant Streets of Rage 2 on the Mega Drive Mini. In terms of pure software quality, Nintendo and Sega won that war a long time ago.
However, it’s worth pointing out that several of the titles on the PC Engine Mini rank as some of the best of the era. Dracula X: Rondo of Blood is widely regarded as one of the best entries in the entire Castlevania series, while Ys Book I & II is a classic JRPG with glorious 2D cinematic scenes and an epic soundtrack. Daimakaimura – better known to western players as Ghouls ‘n Ghosts – is presented here in its SuperGrafx form, and is arguably one of the closest home ports available. Alien Crush is a brilliantly twisted take on pinball and a forerunner to the equally fantastic Devil’s Crush, and the caveboy Bonk – arguably the PC Engine’s most obvious rival to Mario and Sonic – appears in two excellent side-scrolling platformers.
However, where the PC Engine Mini truly shines is in its shooters. The original console was famous for its talent in this particular genre, and back in the day, import-savvy players debated endlessly over which console was best for this kind of intense experience – the PC Engine or the Sega Mega Drive. The system’s proficiency in this field is evidenced by the sheer volume of shooters present on this miniature re-release: Galaga ’88, Fantasy Zone, Dragon Spirit, Super Darius, Super Star Soldier, Aldynes, Seirei Senshi Spriggan, Spriggan Mark 2: Re-Terraform Project, Gradius, Gradius II: Gofer no Yabō, Star Parodier, Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire, Psychosis, R-Type, Space Harrier, Cho Aniki, Lords of Thunder, Blazing Lazers / Gunhed, Air Zonk and Soldier Blade are the 20 shooters available here, which means that over a third of the console’s entire library is devoted to the genre (shamefully, the astounding Gate of Thunder didn’t make the cut).
Given the quality of the assembled blasters, it’s hard to complain; Seirei Senshi Spriggan, Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire, Soldier Blade and Star Parodier alone would cost you thousands of dollars to acquire in their original forms. Even the more common examples – such as the peerless port of Irem’s R-Type which helped sell the PC Engine to the masses at launch – are well worth a play, making this system a shooter fan’s dream come true. However, if you’re not so keen on that genre, you may find that pickings are slimmer than you’d like.
Granted, RPG fans are well served with the aforementioned Ys: Book I & II, Dungeon Explorer, Cadash and Neutopia II (the latter being as close as PC Engine fans got to a Zelda on the system), and titles such as Moto Roader, Power Golf, Parasol Stars, Splatterhouse, Panic Bomber and the superb Bomberman ’94 offer some much-needed variety, but there are one too many duds on offer here for our liking. The Kung Fu – known in North America as China Warrior – impressed in the ’80s thanks to its massive, screen-filling sprites but in terms of gameplay, it’s a proper snore-fest and should have been omitted in favour of something more worthy. J.J. & Jeff is also a waste of space; while the Japanese original, Kato-chan & Ken-chan, is infamous for its toilet humour, it’s a dog of a game to play and the North American port is even less interesting as much of the amusing content is stripped out. Victory Run – viewed by some as the console’s answer to Out Run (which is ironic as the PC Engine actually got a port of Sega’s famous racer) – is similarly superfluous, and unless you have a real fondness for it, you’re unlikely to boot it up more than once. Why include these when titles like Gekibo: Gekisha Boy and Magical Chase are potential picks?
Then there’s the issue of Japanese text. The fact that the PC Engine Mini in all of its various guises includes Hideo Kojima’s seminal Snatcher is fantastic, but unless you can read Japanese, it’s going to be a closed book to you. The same can be said for Tokimeki Memorial, Tengai Makyō II: Manji Maru and Jaseiken Necromancer, all of which are dense RPGs which don’t feature an English language option because there never was one; they were exclusive to their native Japan back in the day.
In terms of emulation quality, everything is absolutely spot-on as far as we can tell – and that’s to be expected with M2 at the helm. The menus are animated neatly and look very similar to the ones seen on Nintendo’s Classic Editions and the Sega Mega Drive Mini (the latter of which was also handled by M2). The games are presented in two categories for each region, and switching between the two of them triggers a cool effect where the screen blinks off before switching over to the other menu, just like when you’d turn the original hardware off on your old-school CRT TV back in the day. Booting a game also triggers a cool animation which shows the HuCard or System Card being placed in a console, complete with authentic sound effects.
You have slots for save states and it’s possible to change the way the screen looks, too. Sadly, the CRT filter makes the image look very fuzzy, and when running with the default setup there’s an odd shimmering effect due to the fact that the pixels are being distorted slightly. Switch to pixel-perfect mode and this issue vanishes completely. There’s also a filter mode which plays the game via a PC Engine GT / TurobGrafx Express, which is really awkward but amusing all the same.
The PC Engine holds a special place in the hearts of many retro gamers, so it’s fantastic to see a micro-console hit the market which caters for this very specific niche. While the PC Engine Mini isn’t going to have the same widespread appeal as the SNES Classic or Mega Drive Mini, it’s nonetheless a welcome addition to this burgeoning sector of the games industry.
Sure, there are a few odd selections when it comes to the bundled software, but being able to play titles like Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Seirei Senshi Spriggan, Soldier Blade, Splatterhouse, Parasol Stars, Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire without having to remortgage your house is pretty special. M2’s emulation is as faultless as ever (shame about that CRT filter, mind) and if you’re a fan of the system already then this is perhaps going to rank as your favourite micro-console so far.
However, without a recognisable slate of characters like Mario, Sonic or Link to pull them in, total newcomers might be left wondering what all the fuss is about – which perhaps says more about the failure of the TurboGrafx-16 in the west than it does about the overall quality of the games. Outside of Japan, the PC Engine was always an acquired taste, so it’s actually rather fitting that the situation should remain largely unchanged in 2020.
Please note that some links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.
PlatinumGames rarely drops a lot of information at once, but when it does, it’s often big news. Over the past few months, it’s successfully funded a Kickstarter project for The Wonderful 101: Remastered, revealed Project G.G. – the powerful climax to the Hideki Kamiya superhero trilogy, confirmed there’ll be a new Tokyo Studio, and unveiled its next-generation game engine.
Now, we just need to know what its fourth and final surprise is. According to the Japanese company’s official website, all will be revealed at the start of next month on 1st April (yes, the date lines up with April Fool’s Day). Given what’s already been shared, there are a lot of possibilities. Could it be tied to something like Bayonetta or Viewtiful Joe? Tell us what you think below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 03-26-2020, 07:42 AM - Forum: Python
- No Replies
How to Get the Key with Maximum Value in a Python Dictionary?
I have spent my morning hours on an important mission. What is the cleanest, fastest, and most concise answer to the following question: How do you find the key with the maximum value in a Python dictionary? Most answers on the web say you need to use a library but this is not true!
Simply use the max function with the key argument set to dict.get:
income = {'Anne' : 1111, 'Bert' : 2222, 'Cara' : 9999999} print(max(income, key=income.get))
# Cara
The max function goes over all keys, k, in the dictionary income and takes the one that has maximum value after applying the income.get(k) method. The get() method returns the value specified for key, k, in the dictionary.
Play with it yourself in our interactive code shell:
Now, read the 4-min article or watch the short video to fully understand this concept.
What’s the Max Function in Python?
Most likely, you already know Python’s max(…) function. You can use it to find the maximum value of any iterable or any number of values. Here are a few examples using the max function without specifying any optional arguments.
# Key that starts with 'largest' letter of the alphabet
print(max(income))
# Mary # Largest value in the dictionary income
print(max(income.values()))
# 878000 # Largest value in the given list
print(max([1,4,7,5,3,99,3]))
# 99 # Compare lists element wise, max is first list to have a larger
# element print(max([1,2,3],[5,6,4]))
# [5, 6, 4] # Largest value in the given sequence of numbers
print(max(5,7,99,88,123))
# 123
So far so good. The max function is very flexible. It works not only for numbers but also for strings, lists, and any other object you can compare against other objects.
Now, let’s look at the optional arguments of the max function. One of them is 'key'. Let’s find out what it does.
How Does the Key Argument of Python’s max() Function Work?
The last examples show the intuitive workings of the max function: you pass one or more iterables as positional arguments.
Intermezzo: What are iterables? An iterable is an object from which you can get an iterator. An iterator is an object on which you can call the next() method. Each time you call next(), you get the ‘next’ element until you’ve got all the elements from the iterator. For example, Python uses iterators in for loops to go over all elements of a list, all characters of a string, or all keys in a dictionary.
When you specify the key argument, define a function that returns a value for each element of the iterable. Then each element is compared based on the return value of this function, not the iterable element (the default behavior).
We define a function inverse() that returns the value multiplied by -1. Now, we print two executions of the max() function. The first is the default execution: the maximum of the list [2, 4, 8, 16] is 16. The second uses key. We specify ‘inverse’ as the key function. Python applies this function to all values of [2, 4, 8, 16]. It compares these new values with each other and returns the max. Using the inverse function Python does the following mappings:
Original Value
Value after inverse() applied (basis for max())
2
-2
4
-4
8
-8
16
-16
Python calculates the maximum based on these mappings. In this case, the value 2 (with mapping -2) is the maximum value because -2 > -4 > -8 > -16.
Now let’s come back to the initial question:
How to Get the Key with the Maximum Value in a Dictionary?
We use the same example as above. The dictionary stores the income of three persons John, Mary, and Alice. Suppose you want to find the person with the highest income. In other words, what is the key with the maximum value in the dictionary?
Now don’t confuse the dictionary key with the optional key argument of the max() function. They have nothing in common – it’s just an unfortunate coincidence that they have the same name!
From the problem, we know the result is a dictionary key. So, we call max() on the keys of the dictionary. Note that max(income.keys()) is the same as max(income). To learn more about dictionaries, check out our article Python Dictionary – The Ultimate Guide.
However, we want to compare dictionary values, not keys. We’ll use the key argument of max() to do this. We must pass it a function but which?
To get the value of 'Anne', we can use bracket notation – income['Anne']. But bracket notation is not a function, so that doesn’t work. Fortunately, income.get(‘Anne’) does (almost) the same as income['Anne'] and it is a function! The only difference is that it returns None if they key is not in the dictionary. So we’ll pass that to the key argument of max().
income = {'Anne' : 1111, 'Bert' : 2222, 'Cara' : 9999999} print(max(income, key=income.get))
# Cara
How to Get the Key with the Minimum Value in a Dictionary?
If you understood the previous code snippet, this one will be easy. To find the key with minimum value in the dictionary we use the min() function.
income = {'Anne' : 1111, 'Bert' : 2222, 'Cara' : 9999999} print(min(income, key=income.get))
# Anne
The only difference is that we use the built-in min() function instead of the built-in max() function. That’s it.
Find the Key with the Max Value in a Dictionary – Alternative Methods
There are lots of different ways to solve this problem. They are not as beautiful or clean as the above method. But, for completeness, let’s explore some more ways of achieving the same thing.
In a StackOverflow answer, a user compared nine (!) different methods to find the key with the maximum value in a dictionary. Here they are:
# Convert to lists and use .index(max())
def f1(): v=list(income.values()) k=list(income.keys()) return k[v.index(max(v))] # Dictionary comprehension to swap keys and values
def f2(): d3={v:k for k,v in income.items()} return d3[max(d3)] # Use filter() and a lambda function
def f3(): return list(filter(lambda t: t[1]==max(income.values()), income.items()))[0][0] # Same as f3() but more explicit
def f4(): m=max(income.values()) return list(filter(lambda t: t[1]==m, income.items()))[0][0] # List comprehension
def f5(): return [k for k,v in income.items() if v==max(income.values())][0] # same as f5 but remove the max from the comprehension
def f6(): m=max(income.values()) return [k for k,v in income.items() if v==m][0] # Method used in this article
def f7(): return max(income,key=income.get) # Similar to f1() but shortened to 2 lines
def f8(): v=list(income.values()) return list(income.keys())[v.index(max(v))] # Similar to f7() but use a lambda function
def f9(): return max(income, key=lambda k: income[k]) print(f1())
print(f2())
print(f3())
print(f4())
print(f5())
print(f6())
print(f7())
print(f8())
print(f9())
# Cara (all outputs)
In a benchmark performed on a large dictionary by the StackOverflow user, f1() turned out to be the fastest one.
So the second best way to get the key with the maximum value from a dictionary is:
income = {'Anne' : 1111, 'Bert' : 2222, 'Cara' : 9999999} v=list(income.values())
k=list(income.keys())
print(k[v.index(max(v))])
# Cara
Find Key with Longest Value in Dictionary
We know how to find the maximum value if the values are numbers. What about if they are lists or strings?
Let’s say we have a dictionary that records the number of days each person worked this month. If they worked a day, we append 1 to that person’s list. If they didn’t work, we don’t do anything. At the end of the month, our dictionary looks like this.
The total number of days worked each month is the length of each list. If all elements of two lists are the same (as is the case here), they are compared based on their length.
# Length 2 is less than length 4
>>> [1, 1] < [1, 1, 1, 1]
True
So we can use the same code we’ve been using in the article to find the key with the maximum value.
>>> max(days_worked, key=days_worked.get) 'Cara'
If we update our dictionary so that Bert has worked the most days and apply max() again, Python returns ‘Bert’.
>>> days_worked = {'Anne': [1, 1, 1, 1], 'Bert': [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1], 'Cara': [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]} # Bert has now worked the most
>>> max(days_worked, key=days_worked.get)
Find Key With Max Value in a List of Dictionaries
Let’s say we have 3 dictionaries containing income information. We want to find the key with the max value from all 3 dictionaries.
We can see that ‘Igor’ has the highest income so we expect that to be returned.
There are several ways to do this. The simplest is to put all key-value pairs into one dictionary using a for loop. Then we call max() as usual.
# Initialise empty dict
>>> big_dict = {} # Use for loop and .update() method to add the key-value pairs
>>> for dic in list_of_dicts: big_dict.update(dic) # Check the result is as expected
>>> big_dict
{'Anne': 1111, 'Bert': 2222, 'Cara': 3333, 'Dani': 4444, 'Ella': 5555, 'Fred': 6666, 'Greg': 7777, 'Hope': 8888, 'Igor': 999999999999} # Call max() and specify key argument
>>> max(big_dict, key=big_dict.get) 'Igor'
Where to Go From Here?
Every Python master must know the basics. Improving your basic code understanding skills by 20% will improve your productivity by much more than anything else. Why? Because everything else builds upon the basics.
But most material online is tedious and boring. That’s why I’ve written a new and exciting way of learning Python, while measuring and comparing your skills against other coders. Check out the book “Coffee Break Python”. It’s LeanPub 2019 bestseller in the category Python!
