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Portables (Games)

Atlus Readies Stylus-Based Surgery Game For DS 60

Posted by simoniker from the cut-snip-snip dept.
Thanks to GameSpot for its article discussing Atlus' announcement of a stylus-utilizing touchscreen surgery game for the Nintendo DS handheld. According to the article about Caduceus: Surgical Operation: "The player steps into the role of a talented young surgeon who must operate on different maladies in each of the game's stages... Actions such as cutting the patient or getting rid of an unidentified parasite are done with the [Nintendo DS] stylus. In addition, while operating, the player must cheer on the patient using the device's voice recognition." There's also a couple of screenshots of the forthcoming Life & Death-eque game, featuring the "Hurted Heart" mission, on the Japanese-language NTT site.
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Atlus Readies Stylus-Based Surgery Game For DS More

Atlus Readies Stylus-Based Surgery Game For DS

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  • This Is Why The DS Is Cool (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Thursday August 05, 2004 @11:07PM (#9896661) Homepage
    How could you do a game like this on the PSP or GBA? You couldn't. Controll would be just too much of an issue. But with the DS's touch screen, you can do surgery, or add an alien autopsy to your game. You could even do an "Operation" game of sorts (don't touch the sides!).

    These are the kind of things that Nintendo was talking about when they said we'd get new kinds of gameplay. At E3 there was a carving demo that would let your carve things. They could do things like that to let you make your own piece in a board game. It may take some time, but I think we are going to see some VERY interesting games from the DS. Even if some aren't good, the innovation will be great.

    How about a game where you "raise" a little AI robot or something. You could design it yourself, and be able to add user created objects to it's little "playpen" to explore and see how it reacts to things. You could "program" it by connecting little logic blocks (sort of how you program the Lego Mindstorms software).

    And of course, now we could get a VERY cool version of Mario Paint.

    • Mario Paint! (Score:4, Interesting)

      by OneIsNotPrime ( 609963 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @11:41PM (#9896810)
      Great point!

      Seriously, how many of us would love to see a greatly enhanced sequel to this classic. The DS would be ideal, but I could also envision a GC/next gen version that utilizes the Mario Sunshine engine and allows one to create their own 3D Mario adventure.

      It could feature a user friendly 3d modeler (with premade models of all the Nintendo favorites, of course). Design your own character or bad guy, apply premade or user-created texture maps/bump maps, etc., then create animations of the character through a smart interface. Put the characters in a designed game world and give them routes to walk on, triggers to react to, etc. Create worlds with premade or user designed objects, events, and triggers. Also let the user create some hilariously lame in game music, of course. Then create an overworld and even make in-game cinemas with your characters and user recorded audio! Imagine the possibilites...

      Meanwhile, relive some Mario Paint goodness here [obscenemusic.net].

    • > They could do things like that to let you make your own piece in a board game.

      You know, I could imagine a Warhammer-esque game like that, you'd have to carve and paint your peices and then have them fight each other or something.
    • I think they called it 'tamogotchi' is something :-)

      I really like you idea - but look at 'A Dogs Life' by David Braben, or 'Creatures' (that *is* the one where you have a pet magical creature on an island?)

      They take 'programming' much in the way of the sims, or the original little computer people.

      Perhaps making it visibly logical could be more educational.
    • there's a playstation2 game called Magic Pengel [gamerankings.com] where you have a very bare-bones mario pait like program (that lets you model an object in 3d) and you draw 'doodles' that they come to life for you to use in creature combat (sort of like a pokemon game, but the characters are 'sketchier.. ooh, bad joke..) something like that would be PERFECT on the DS, and while you can do it on the ps2 with analog controls, it would really shine on the DS with touch-screen drawing.
  • while operating, the player must cheer on the patient using the device's voice recognition

    Yeah, that's what I always look for in a surgeon... someone to "cheer me on" while I'm unconscious.

  • This game does look cool . . . (Score:3, Funny)

    by dgrgich ( 179442 ) * <drew&grgich,org> on Thursday August 05, 2004 @11:40PM (#9896802)
    . . . they didn't even mention the fifth level, entitled "Busted Balls".

  • Mods (Score:4, Funny)

    by Cyberop5 ( 520141 ) * on Thursday August 05, 2004 @11:47PM (#9896844) Homepage Journal
    First thing I'd do is create a plastic surgery mod for m' ladies ;)
    • Well,to take your idea seriously, i think it would be cool to be able to upload a picture of yourself and use tools and the stylus to realistically alter your features and make it look photorealistic. I think there would be a HUGE market for that these days.

  • Life and Death! (Score:5, Funny)

    by prockcore ( 543967 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:00AM (#9896889)
    Man I loved that game, and I sucked at it! I used to play on my ][gs. I couldn't get past the apendectomy. The game didn't like my sutures or something.

    But man, if I ever had to perform an emergency apendectomy, i could. Oh sure, you'd bleed to death later because aparently I can't sew, but at least you wouldn't die from apendicitis.
    • Lucky, I could never manage to properly use the forceps to lift the peritoneal layer so it could be safely snipped. Result? The intestine would constantly get punctured leading to eventual infection. Of course, I was also never able to properly use suction to clean the cavity and suture up the intestine. Not to mention my incisions, despite cutting as much as possible, never being large enough to actually get at the stupid appendix.

      Hope you wanted to get an extra gut infection along with that burst appendi
    • "Man I loved that game, and I sucked at it! I used to play on my ][gs. I couldn't get past the apendectomy. The game didn't like my sutures or something."

      "But man, if I ever had to perform an emergency apendectomy, i could. Oh sure, you'd bleed to death later because aparently I can't sew, but at least you wouldn't die from apendicitis."

      Screw that. From television, I've learned that all you need to do is finish the main part of the operation, then tell someone standing around to "close this up for me." Th
    • I remember life and death...never could get past the apendectomy, not sure what came next. Either the suturing didn't go well, the patient bled to death or he died of heart arythmia...this is assuming I remembered to turn the gas on first (those screams were GREAT!).

      I think the game was rigged, personally. We tried countless times and could never get a single surgery down.

      --trb
    • fyi, obligatory Home of the Underdogs link [freeoldies.com]

      --trb

  • Fantastic! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Turn-X Alphonse ( 789240 )
    Now I can frag my friends and put them back together!

  • Won't someone please think of the children? (Score:3, Funny)

    by TheLoneDanger ( 611268 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:49AM (#9897039)
    And when will we have the lawyer claiming that he is trying to save the moral fabric of our society by claiming that this game will result in increased malpractice rates by doctors desensitized to surgery?

    Or more likely, some kid will take a knife to his pet or smaller sibling and then someone will suggest they learned it from the game.

  • Slice N Dice (Score:3, Funny)

    by blueZhift ( 652272 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @01:09AM (#9897102) Homepage Journal
    Hmmm, suddenly a see a game in which you as a Samurai slice and dice your opponents with a sword shaped stylus. Miss the vitals and he may kill you, with bonuses for slicing style and penalties for too many strokes!

    And for the kids, a Harry Potter game with a wand shaped stylus...The hits they keep a comin!
  • I remember a game like this on the amiga, where I never got past the fiurst incision, which usually lead to a complete dissection of the victim, I mean patient.

    Of course, parent groups may protest that this will lead to home grown surgery systems, where people use this as a simulator.

    I can imagine /.'ers at the operating theatre asking for a local instead of going under, then telling the surgeon that perhaps he should try the level 5 technique, and then arguing with him:

    "How many successful quarduple byp

  • In case you didn't read the article... (Score:3, Funny)

    by osrevad ( 796763 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @02:31AM (#9897314)
    ...It says that this game will fall under the "sci-fi surgery action game" genre. I think we can all agree that we've already had way to many games in this category. Why can't they do something original for once!
  • It's amazing how much innovation comes when a "real" game company starts using a touchpad.

    I've been waiting for this a long time to come to my palm, but almost every game I can find is stuck using the buttons at the bottom. I've only found two games that make good use of the stylus.

    Insaniquarium and that other puzzle(sp?) one that was a huge hit and I can't for my life remember the name of(you switch position on some sort of gems and they disappear if you get three in a row).

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @06:42AM (#9897829)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • What most people simply dont recognize is, that a stylus and a touchpad is a very good mouse replacement. I am pretty sure that many point and click adventures can be converted to the new GB, the main problem those things had in the past was that those games are close to impossible to be played seriously with the usual control cross. If you ever played the monkey islands on a handheld or ultima7 on a zaurus you would know how well the point and click interface can be mapped to a stylus interface.
  • Edheads already has Virtual Knee Surgery [edheads.org]!

  • Argh! No! (Score:1, Troll)

    by cluke ( 30394 )
    Oh wow! The possibilities of this exciting new form of input! Why, it's revolutionary, it's some sort of pointing device!
    Like a mouse then?

    Come on people, stylus input freakin' SUCKS BALLS. It's is rubbish. They tried similar things with light pens in the 1980s and instead of opening up new vistas of UI possibilty everyone totally hated them. Why don't they just stick a trackball on it and be done with it?
    Seriously, stylus input is not more natural. It's a gimmick, and an expensive gimmick to boot (you nee

    • Re:Argh! No! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by mrgreen4242 ( 759594 )
      stylus input freakin' SUCKS BALLS. It's is rubbish.

      Tell that to the MILLIONS of PDA users in the world. Or the tblet PC users (ok, not that great of an example =p). Either way, they will tell you that touchscreen input is an efficient, fast, intuituve way to interface with a computer system.

      Many games play well with a joystick and buttons; shooters, side scrollers, etc. Some games play well with a mouse and keyb; FPS, and RTS. Playing a FPS on a console with a gamepad doesn't even compare to using a mouse

    • They tried similar things with light pens in the 1980s and instead of opening up new vistas of UI possibilty everyone totally hated them. Why don't they just stick a trackball on it and be done with it?

      Because in the 1980's having a computer that ran above 320*240 was considered to be a high-tech, high-end you'll never see outside a college campus or government facility machine. These days there are machines that default at 1600*1200 and considered to be 'mid-range' PCs. Much easier to use a stylus when th

    • Re:Argh! No! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Friday August 06, 2004 @01:47PM (#9901552) Homepage Journal

      Yes, using a stylus is the absolute worst input method ever. That's why we have completely given up writing on paper.

      I don't know how much mileage will really come out of it, and this is the only example I've yet seen that wasn't totally lame, but face it - there is no better way to mimic a scalpel than a stylus, at least at this point. How can you not think this is cool? It will necessarily improve hand-eye coordination, which is always good.

      Touch screens are cool. A stylus is the only accurate way to use one. And, a mouse is not feasible for use with a handheld gaming device. Kindly extract head from rectum before posting.

  • ...while operating, the player must cheer on the patient using the device's voice recognition.

    So let's test it out with an obligatory Simpons quote!

    "The hip bone's connected to the leg bone!
    The leg bone's conected to the thingy!
    The thingy's connected to my wristwatch!
    Uh oh..."

    -Dr. Nick

  • Games becoming more like work (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ALeavitt ( 636946 ) <aleavitt@gmail . c om> on Friday August 06, 2004 @01:47PM (#9901548)
    Has anyone else noticed a trend of games becoming like work? The first example that comes to mind is the common leveling treadmill, in which one has to complete the same task again and again for hours just to get anywhere. Now there are curry-house simulators, sports stat management sims that play like glorified spreadsheets, and a surgery game. What's next, "Answer the Phone eXtreme"?
    • No, this isn't games becoming more like work (well, unless you are a surgeon). This is games reaching a new level of potential- showing you what its like to be a different profession. If done right, it could be really educational too.

      I'm begining to get excited about a new console for the first time in a long time. If its backwards compatible, I'll definitely get it (my first handheld since the game gear). If it isn't I still may.

  • PC Games (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Pluvius ( 734915 ) <pluvius3NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Friday August 06, 2004 @03:00PM (#9902537) Journal
    I've noted several times that the only way the dualscreen and touchscreen would be any more than gimmicks is if there were computer-style games made for the system. Looks like at least one developer has realized that.

    Rob

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