All posts by Pete Davison

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Super Bug

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While a bit different from what we know today as the “arcade racer”, Atari’s early attempts in this regard were all rather enjoyable.

Of the three included in the Atari Flashback Classics collection, Super Bug was the earliest and, consequently, the simplest. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time, however — if anything it makes it a great place to start!

Drive until you can’t drive any more: that’s all you need to do. But as we’ve seen countless times on this series already, sometimes it’s the simplest concepts that make for the most addictive games…

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

One-Shots

Doom: Now Available On the Go. Kind Of.

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[UPDATE 27/07/2019 — Bethesda has said in a tweet that the online login requirement mentioned in this article was originally intended to be an optional feature for their “Slayer’s Club” members to obtain rewards for playing the classic Doom games. They are presently working on a fix to remove the mandatory online login. The original article follows while the situation remains.]

The sudden, surprise news that id Software’s venerable first-person shooter Doom was coming to Nintendo Switch (and PS4, and Xbox One) was initially very exciting indeed.

In celebration of Doom’s 25th anniversary, it seemed, we were to be treated to modern ports of Doom, Doom II and the underappreciated Doom III — and they were going to be cheap. Moreover, the fact that they were coming to Switch meant that you’d finally be able to take a competent version of Doom on the go with you without having to battle mobile versions’ awful touchscreen controls.

And indeed, you can now take a competent version of Doom on the go with you… but there are some important things to note. Let’s take a look.

Continue reading Doom: Now Available On the Go. Kind Of. →

Cover Games, The Expression: Amrilato

The Expression: Amrilato – Nova Vivo de Rin

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cropped-amrilato-header-7970256This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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A lot of Japanese popular media tends to place adolescent characters in leading roles. There’s a very good reason for this: adolescence is a point in your life where your understanding of the world and your beliefs are at their most fluid and dynamic.

Many dramatic Japanese stories explore the concept of adolescence as a turning point in one’s life. For most people, adolescence is where they truly establish who they really are, how they see the world and how they choose to live in it.

Most of us don’t have to go through an ordeal quite as turbulent as The Expression: Amrilato’s protagonist Rin as part of this journey of discovery, however…

Continue reading The Expression: Amrilato – Nova Vivo de Rin →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Quest for Galaxia

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The 16-bit home microcomputer era was a bit of a golden age for public domain software and shareware — even long before the advent of the Internet made distributing such things child’s play.

A key player in this space here in Europe was Budgie UK, who became well-known for distributing good quality public domain software, typically taking the form of 16-bit takes on classic arcade games.

Today’s game is a prime example of that, providing a thoroughly serviceable and enjoyable clone of Namco’s fixed shooter classic Galaxian… with a cool demoscene-style title screen!

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

Community

Sunshine Blogger Award

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A big thank you to Megan of A Geeky Gal for nominating me for the Sunshine Blogger Award.

For the unfamiliar, these “awards” are an occasional community affair that give all of us writing for our own (and hopefully, your) entertainment the opportunity to  break free of our usual formats and give our readers and blogging comrades the opportunity to get to know us a bit better. Then we tag a few more people, and we can all find some great new sites to read. Everybody wins!

All right. Let’s see what’s going on with all this, then…

Continue reading Sunshine Blogger Award →

Hundred Honeys, Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: The Hundred Honeys Project Neo

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It’s been a good while since I’ve done one of these, and I’ve been meaning to have a proper full-on play with Honey Select Unlimited Extend’s Studio Neo for a while. No time like the present, eh?

For those just joining us, Honey Select Unlimited is a legendary hentai game from developer Illusion that is most well-known for its excellent character creation tools rather than its filthy content. (Its filthy content is very good too, mind.) Honey Select Unlimited Extend is an expansion pack for it, and part of that expansion is an all-new photo studio app to complement and/or replace the original Honey Unlimited Studio application.

The Hundred Honeys Project, meanwhile, is my ongoing attempt to break the Honey Select Unlimited studio applications by ramming as many characters as possible into a single scene without my computer exploding.

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: The Hundred Honeys Project Neo →

Videos, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Heavy Weapon – Warriors Orochi #48

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In today’s episode, Cao Pi, Xu Zhu and Xu Huang hit the jungle in an attempt to convince their ally Zhang He that Orochi is a cause worth fighting for.

Of course, with Cao Pi being Cao Pi, he’s up to something. Exactly what isn’t quite clear just yet, but at some point in the very near future, he’s clearly going to strike.

In the meantime, it’s a case of biding his time and at least attempting to look like he’s doing the great serpent’s bidding…

Essentials, One-Shots, Puzzlers

Crawlco Block Knockers: A Game That Indeed Contains Both Blocks and Knockers

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If you were to tell me a couple of weeks ago that one of the most addictive, satisfying games of the summer would be a peculiar combination of venerable (but largely forgotten) Sega arcade title Pengo and ’90s Japanese arcade eroge I’d… have probably believed you, to be honest, but here we are anyway.

Yes, the aptly named Crawlco Block Knockers is a deliberate homage to dank, smoky, sleazy Japanese arcades in the ’90s and the games you would find therein. Drawing particular inspiration from Kaneko’s Gals Panic series and Mitchell Corporation’s Gonta the Diver duology, the game combines strategic thinking, arcade action, ’80s inspired vaporwave music and the opportunity to gradually reveal images of attractive, curvy women not wearing very much.

Sounds like a party, right? Let’s take a look. Some mildly NSFW shenanigans after the jump!

Continue reading Crawlco Block Knockers: A Game That Indeed Contains Both Blocks and Knockers →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Wavy Navy

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I’ve always kind of been fascinated by games that get “bad” reviews. And my gaming experience over the last few years has demonstrated that it’s always best to make up your own mind about things rather than going purely by one person’s rant — as amusing as those rants can be sometimes.

Today’s Atari 8-bit title, Wavy Navy from Sirius Software, is a great example of this. Poorly received by at least one reviewer for its similarities to the system’s excellent port of Galaxian, it’s actually a rather fun fixed shooter with an interesting twist.

Sometimes it pays to go back and revisit those “bad” games… in many instances they’re actually nowhere near as bad as you might think!

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

Community, One-Shots

Why Collect?

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Collecting games is a major hobby for many people — whether they’re into modern titles or retro stuff.

Thankfully, although certain portions of the industry are trying desperately to push us towards an all-digital (or, worse, an all-streaming) future, there are still plenty of companies out there who understand that there is still very much a collector’s market: people want to fill their shelves with their favourite games, and they want cool goodies to go with them.

Why bother, though? Aren’t you just cluttering up your limited living space?

Continue reading Why Collect? →