Category Archives: Videos

short;Play, Videos

short;Play: Fractalus

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Rescue on Fractalus is one of my all-time favourite games, so I was tremendously excited to hear that a remake that has been ten years in development finally reached its 1.0 release the other day.

At the same time, I was a little skeptical; could a modern reimagining of a classic 8-bit game, deliberately built within the constraints of technology of the time (albeit using some real bleeding-edge programming techniques) really match up to its inspiration? Only one way to find out, isn’t there? Well, maybe two; you can also download it for yourself for free at the official site.

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

Videos

Atari A to Z: Triad

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Although their name might suggest otherwise, Adventure International put out many different types of game for the Atari 8-bit.

One interesting example from the relatively early days is Triad, a game that combines noughts and crosses with shoot ’em up action, in which each square on the board contains a specific type of enemy — and each type of enemy requires a specific means of defeating them! It’s a fun combination of shoot ’em up and puzzler that is still surprisingly addictive today.

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

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Community, Q&A

Q&A: December 2020

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Welcome to the second monthly Q&A session, in which S-Rank Patrons over on Patreon get the chance to ask me questions about whatever they feel like probing me on.

This time around, we ponder my outlook on Western games, Vtubers, forgotten games from the early days of the company we now know as Nippon Ichi, anime girl kinks and favourite games from least-favourite genres.

Enjoy the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more. If you’d like to be part of the next Q&A, sign up to become an S-Rank Patron at my Patreon page here: https://patreon.com/petedavison

Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: RealSports Boxing

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Fighting game fans whinge a lot these days, but a lot of them don’t know how good they have it now. Back in 1987, the genre was still in the process of figuring things out and determining the best way of doing things — and whether there should be a contrast between “sports fighting” games and “street fighting” games.

RealSports Boxing for Atari 2600 is a late-era release for the system that adopts the sporting approach, with a points-based system and long matches bound by a clear set of rules. There are some interesting features, though, particularly considering the era — most notable of which is the fact that you’re able to choose between several different characters to play as.

While it’s not necessarily something you’ll want to spend a lot of time with today, it is worth checking out from a historical perspective. And you can do just that in the video below. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more when you’re done!

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Evercade A to Z, Videos

Evercade A to Z: Checkered Flag

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Every gaming platform worth its salt needs at least one great racing game to keep the petrolheads amused. And in the case of the Atari Lynx, that role was very capably fulfilled by Checkered Flag.

The game is a challenging “vanishing point” racer that offers a wide selection of tracks and options to customise your experience, plus a great showcase of the Lynx’s hardware scaling capabilities. Plus you get a big ol’ snog from a hottie (male or female, depending on preference) in a swimsuit if you win. And now you can enjoy it as part of the Atari Lynx Collection 2 for the Evercade!

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

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Mercenary III

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I’ve been a big fan of Paul Woakes’ incredibly ambitious open-world adventures in the Mercenary series since a young age, and returning to them with adult eyes has given me a whole new appreciation of them.

Take this third installment, for example; while I grasped the basic concept of the game when I played it as a kid — and even beat it, if I remember rightly — as an adult I have to respect the sheer ballsiness of a developer putting out a game that is, in essence, a first-person political intrigue game more than anything else. Even more so because Woakes managed to pull it off and still keep the game interesting, enjoyable and amusing — thanks in part to the fascinating universe he created, and also to the biting satire in the writing.

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

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short;Play, Videos

short;Play: Dead Rising

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We’ve been in the “HD era” for a while now — so long, in fact, that titles from the early days of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 probably count as being “retro”.

An all-time classic from this early period — a dark time when developers apparently didn’t know what VSync was — was Capcom’s Dead Rising, an ambitious quasi-open world affair that saw you battering your way through hordes of zombies in an attempt to solve the mysterious outbreak in a sleepy Colorado town. There are better ways to play this today, but I’ll always have a soft spot for the original Xbox 360 version — particularly with how cheaply you can acquire a copy today.

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

Videos

Atari A to Z: Shamus

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Shamus is one of those games that probably every Atari 8-bit enthusiast has played at one point or another; like many other games from publisher Synapse Software, it’s an all-time classic.

Developed by Cathryn Mataga (credited as William Mataga in the game), Shamus is a top-down action adventure that draws some inspiration from the classic shoot ’em up Berzerk and combines it with a more coherent world that you need to explore in order to proceed to the next level. Offering massive mazes and tons of replay value, Shamus is still a great time today.

Check it out 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 Basketball

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Ever wanted your Atari 5200 to trash-talk you? Enter RealSports Basketball, a game that is more than happy to give you a mouthful.

This is another unreleased prototype sports game in the RealSports series, originally set to come out in 1983 but never quite making it. It’s a tad better than the rather bare-bones RealSports Basketball for Atari 2600, but still a little lacking in features where it counts. There’s some fun to be had, though, particularly if you can rope a friend into playing with you.

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: Scrapyard Dog

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One of the things that excited me about the Evercade pretty much from the moment it was announced was the fact that a number of Atari Lynx games would be coming to the system.

The Atari Lynx, one of Atari’s numerous failed experiments in the ’90s, played host to a variety of interesting and genuinely unique games — most of them simply weren’t available on any other platform. The release of the two Atari Lynx Collection cartridges for the Evercade marks the first time many of these games have been widely available for a very long time!

In today’s video, we check out Scrapyard Dog from the Atari Lynx Collection 1 cartridge. Check it out below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!