Category Archives: Videos

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short;Play: Rise of the Dragon

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Adventure games — particularly point-and-click affairs from the ’90s — are a genre I’ve loved for a long time. And one of my all-time favourites from back in the day is Rise of the Dragon, a futuristic dystopian adventure by Dynamix that feels all the more plausible today.

Taking on the role of William “Blade” Hunter, trenchcoat-wearing private detective extraordinaire, it’s your job to investigate the strange and horrifying death of the mayor’s daughter, stop the spread of a deadly DNA-altering drug and prevent the resurrection of an ancient Chinese wizard who really wants to take over Los Angeles for some reason. I say he’s welcome to it; LA’s a shithole now, and it looks even worse in the future.

Check out my full playthrough of this adventure game classic in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Valgus 2

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Valgus 2 (or possibly “Valgus Squared”, thinking about it) for Atari 8-bit is an interesting and creative take on Tetris that, for once, doesn’t just knock off someone else’s game.

While superficially resembling Alexey Pajitnov’s official follow-up Welltris, Valgus 2 is actually a rather different sort of game, tasking you with surrounding a central piece rather than making lines on the floor of a “well”.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: RealSports Football

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Yes, yes, yes, it’s RealSports time again here on Atari A to Z Flashback, and this time around it’s another one I’ve been dreading: the 5200 incarnation of RealSports Football.

I was actually quite surprised to discover that the single-player “practice” mode in this one is a very good means of experimenting with the mechanics and figuring out what all those different “plays” are. As a result, while I’m not sure I’d say I necessarily had a good time, I certainly feel like I learned a bit more about digital American football from this game than any other simulation of the sport I’ve played in the past. Especially that 2600 version.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Evercade A to Z, Videos

Evercade A to Z: Galaxian

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Do you like to shoot, but also to think? Then you should give Namco’s Galaxian a shot (no pun intended) — it’s a game where attempting to go in all guns blazing will quickly end in failure.

The Famicom version, seen here as part of the Namco Museum Collection 1 cartridge for the Evercade, is a great adaptation of the arcade classic with pretty authentic sound and visuals — and a very authentic challenge factor!

Witness my intergalactic incompetence in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Videos

Atari ST A to Z: One Step Beyond

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Whenever someone mentions the Atari ST to you, doubtless the first thing you think of is the delicious, relatively low-calorie cheesy potato snack known as Quavers.

What do you mean, no? Well, that might all change after today’s game, in which the erstwhile mascot of this longstanding British junk food favourite is tasked with clearing a series of puzzle-tastic levels while attempting not to fall into the abyss inside his computer. It makes about as much sense as it sounds, but it’s a surprisingly fun time — and the product placement isn’t as obnoxious as you might expect.

Check out the game in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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short;Play, Videos

short;Play: Tee Off

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If you’re unfamiliar with various takes on sports games over the years, you might not think that “arcade-style” is a descriptor one could readily associate with golf titles.

But there have been numerous great examples of top-notch arcade-style golf games throughout gaming history. And one of my absolute favourites of all time is Tee Off, a game put together by little-known Japanese dev Bottom Up and published by Acclaim. Not only is it a super-fun golf game, it has a fantastic soundtrack that sounds like something out of Sonic Adventure, as well as a full-on second game mode based on “gate ball”, or Japanese croquet.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Universal Hero

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The origins of the open-structure 2D platform game tend to be traced back to console games such as Castlevania and Metroid these days, but it was always a popular way to put a game together back on 8-bit computers, too.

Games such as today’s title, Mastertronic’s Universal Hero, tended to be known as “arcade adventures” back in the ’80s, thanks to their blend of traditionally arcade-style mechanics with the conventions of adventure games, such as exploration, puzzle-solving and object manipulation. While they didn’t always get that blend quite right, it certainly made for some interesting and challenging games!

Check out Universal Hero in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: RealSports Football

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If it was not already painfully obvious from previous dalliances with digital adaptations of the sport, I do not “get” American Football. I get the basic idea, but I do not understand the execution at all.

This is made particularly apparent by RealSports Football on the Atari 2600, a game which, to someone like me, appears to amplify all of the most obnoxious things about the sport while stripping out anything even vaguely enjoyable about it. Your mileage may, of course, vary if you are already a football fan — but if you were hoping that a 2600 football game might be a good means of learning the ropes before graduating to the Maddens of this world… think again!

Admire my experiences in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Evercade A to Z, Videos

Evercade A to Z: Food Fight

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The concept of a real-life food fight fills me with absolute disgust; while I do love a good bit of food, as my unfortunate waistline will attest, there’s something about food where, once it leaves the plate and doesn’t go straight into a mouth, it becomes immediately repulsive.

The above is why I will never, ever find photographs of your baby with chocolate smeared all over their face adorable; rather, they will genuinely make me want to vomit. Thankfully, I have no such issues when playing the Atari 7800 classic Food Fight, since it’s more Robotron than Little Billy’s First Birthday Party. And it’s one of the most addictive games on the Atari Collection 1 cartridge for Evercade, too.

Check it out in the video below, see my writeup for more, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube when you’re done!

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: The New Zealand Story

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Taito made some great arcade games back in the day, some of which are more well-known than others.

One which got a fair amount of attention back in the days of 16-bit home computers was The New Zealand Story which, among other things, was part of a popular Commodore Amiga bundle. Naturally, owners of the Amiga’s big rival, the Atari ST, had a chance to get in on the action, too.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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