Hover Brings The Nostalgia Back to Your Browser

IanDavis

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Aug 18, 2012
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Hover Brings The Nostalgia Back to Your Browser


Microsoft relaunches the semi-hidden Windows 95 game with modern graphics and touch controls.

I have vivid memories of the time I discovered Hover!. It was buried on the Windows 95 disc inside a folder called "fun stuff". Back when games came in expensive boxes from the store, finding a free game secreted away was pretty exciting. Its particular brand of bumper cars crossed with capture the flag demanded a certain level of mastery. Now, you can let all that flood back, as Microsoft has released a new version of [a href=http://hover.ie/]Hover[/a] that plays right in your web browser.

Built with the latest version of WebGL, the new Hover features significantly improved graphics with a Tron-like spin. It's optimized for Internet Explorer, but it should run in any browser. While it looks different, it should still have the same feel as the original, even if the levels are slightly modified. There are also three vehicles to pick from now, each with their own handling characteristics. Likely the best part is the addition of online multiplayer. Hover features support for up to eight players to compete in teams. Instead of a server browser, it generates a special URL that each player can use to join the game.

"We build these experiences to showcase to consumers what the web can be, and at the same time to developers what they can actually build on the web," said director of Internet Explorer marketing Roger Capriotti. "This is good eye candy, but at the end of the day it's a real site. This is a real game that you can play [with] multiplayer and we're excited to have developers take it for a spin, reminisce about it and also learn from it and maybe build their own experiences."

Source: [a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/2/4789144/hover]Polygon[/a]

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Vie

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Nov 18, 2009
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I used to really love Hover as a kid, and I'd jump at the chance to play it again.

Then I saw that advert... ..wow, still playing to that stereotype are we MS? And touch controls? Seriously?
 

CriticalMiss

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Jan 18, 2013
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Vie said:
I used to really love Hover as a kid, and I'd jump at the chance to play it again.

Then I saw that advert... ..wow, still playing to that stereotype are we MS? And touch controls? Seriously?
Just be glad that the advert wasn't people spontaneously break dancing, like their target demographic apparently do all the time.
 

Doom972

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Dec 25, 2008
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I never knew about this game. This new version looks nice.

UBERfionn said:
It's a .ie web address.

Why is a .ie?

Is it Irish?
Yes, but I think that they picked it because it's also the acronym for Internet Explorer.
 

Steve the Pocket

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Mar 30, 2009
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This game really needed some more testing before it went live. I keep getting stuck in the walls, an issue I thought we'd abandoned back in the Nintendo 64 era. The controls are also incredibly touchy and everything seems to be coated with Flubber -- run into a wall and you go flying in the other direction at least twice as fast -- but that part was probably intentional, at least.

Vie said:
And touch controls? Seriously?
It's not required, obviously. It also lets you use the arrow keys.

I would have liked it if they'd made it controller compatible too, though. You can do that with HTML5, right?
 

ritchards

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Nov 20, 2009
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"We build these experiences to showcase to consumers what the web can be, and at the same time to developers what they can actually build on the web,"

Allow me to correct that to "Look, look, look, you can too do cool stuff in IE! Please don't leave us for all the better browsers out there!!!"
 

Alfador_VII

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This is weird. if they really wanted to push IE, they should have made the game better.

Oh and it runs on Firefox and Chrome which defeats the point
 

Steve the Pocket

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ritchards said:
"We build these experiences to showcase to consumers what the web can be, and at the same time to developers what they can actually build on the web,"

Allow me to correct that to "Look, look, look, you can too do cool stuff in IE! Please don't leave us for all the better browsers out there!!!"
Alfador_VII said:
Oh and it runs on Firefox and Chrome which defeats the point
It gets better. You can play it on any version of Firefox or Chrome from the last couple of years, but if you use IE 10, it'll tell you that you need to upgrade to IE 11 because they only just now added support for WebGL.