Category Archives: Videos

Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: Oooooh, Mysidian Girl – Final Fantasy II #8

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Most people with a passing awareness of Final Fantasy will know about the series’ recurring elements: chocobos, Cid, the various summons. However, there are a couple of things that crop up slightly less frequently, but still more than once.

One of those things is a location called Mysidia, which, on the few occasions it puts in an appearance in the series — starting with this installment — is inevitably a small settlement populated exclusively by mages. It’s typically the centre of mysterious happenings or magical doodahs, and in this case marks an important stop on the way to retrieve the Ultima Tome.

Today Firion and crew reach Mysidia, go for a little wander, then come back again because, as it turns out, they forgot something. Whoops!

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Ultima 2

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Today’s game hails from the relatively early days of what would go on to become an incredibly popular genre worldwide: the RPG.

Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress is often regarded as the “black sheep” of the Ultima series, but it nicely demonstrates how things worked for this type of game back in the Good Old Days… as well as makes me realise that I really had no need to feel intimidated by the supposed complexity of RPGs back when I was a kid!

The ST version perhaps isn’t the most visually impressive game you’ll see on the platform, but it does make good use of the GEM interface, and provides some solid, enjoyable adventuring action!

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

Videos, Warriors All-Stars, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Finale? – Warriors All-Stars #18

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And so, we reach the conclusion of our Warriors All-Stars adventure. Or, well, the first conclusion, anyway; this is a game with multiple endings, and a variety of paths through its overall narrative.

The ending we achieve today is not the “true” ending, but it forms a suitable conclusion to the narrative path we’ve been following. Plus you get to see some absolutely disastrous attempts at a “one-hit kill” mission; things get real messy for poor old Honoka for a while there.

This may be the end of our first playthrough of Warriors All-Stars but we’re far from done yet! There are more characters to unlock and play as, more narrative paths to explore and more hot furries to lust over. Fight. I meant fight.

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Ants in Your Pants

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Type-in listings in computer magazines in the ’80s were more than just an opportunity to get some “free” software, with the only expense being the cost of the magazine and your time. They were also a chance to learn something.

In many cases, type-in listings were accompanied by commentary from the author explaining the processes and techniques they’d used in order to create the various functions within the program. In the case of Ants in Your Pants by Allan Knopp, published in issue 27 of Page 6, the technique in question was “page flipping” — a method of getting the computer to draw several screens in advance, then seamlessly switching between them to create the illusion of full-screen animation.

As a game, it’s fairly limited, but as a demonstration of some of the things it’s possible to do in Atari BASIC, it’s definitely worth a look!

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

Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: The Search for the Black Mask – Final Fantasy II #7

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With Fynn safely back under the control of the Wild Rose forces, the time has come to take the fight to the Empire. To do that, we’ll need some firepower.

Minwu set off for Mysidia a while back in an attempt to track down the Ultima tome, but no-one’s heard from him for a while. Firion and company decide to set off in search of him… but not before they stop by the Tropical Island to track down the Black Mask they’ll need to find what they’re searching for. Which, of course, begs the question why Minwu didn’t take it with him… but we’re not supposed to think about that.

Today’s episode is a bit shorter than previous ones; we’ll probably go back to about this length from hereon, as it’s a little more practical for me to record. It’ll mean the series as a whole takes a bit longer to get through… but these games aren’t going anywhere!

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Thunderbirds

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As we’ve previously talked about a few times, licensed games on 8- and 16-bit home computers tended to follow a particular formula.

That’s why when games like Thunderbirds came along and tried to do things a little different from the usual “platform game that doesn’t have much to do with the show or movie” approach, it was worth taking notice. Okay, so Thunderbirds in particular manages to create a lot of its own problems by taking this approach… but it’s got ambition, I’ll certainly give it that.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that when this was released, a lot of conventions that we take for granted in gaming today were still being established and figured out. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself as I had to restart that first mission over and over and over again…

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

Videos, Warriors All-Stars, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: A Light Worth Protecting

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Now we’re making good progress through the plot, it’s clear we’re starting to move towards one of the various conclusions to Warriors All-Stars.

For those unfamiliar, Warriors All-Stars features numerous endings based on the choices you make throughout the game. These aren’t visual novel-style binary choices, however; they mostly relate to which characters you recruit and which specific battles you choose to participate in.

Thankfully, there’s a handy menu in the game that shows you which battles unlock which paths. For now though, we’ll just have to see where this all ends up…

Videos

Atari A to Z: Zybex

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We made it to Z once again, folks, and it’s time for an all-time classic shoot ’em up for the Atari 8-bit: it’s Zybex, from Zeppelin Games.

Zeppelin began their life as a company specialising in budget-priced titles on cassette; the first time I came across them was when they released today’s game Zybex and motorcycle racer Speed Ace for £2.99 each. Speed Ace was fairly decent, from what I recall — though at the time of writing it’s not one we’ve revisited as yet — but Zybex was something truly special.

Featuring frantic shoot ’em up action for one or two players, Zybex truly brought the arcade-style scrolling shoot ’em up home in style — and it still holds up pretty well today.

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

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Codebreaker

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With the digital revolution, many classic tabletop experiences have fallen by the wayside. But back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, you could count on most households having a copy of Mastermind.

Mastermind was a code-breaking game developed by an Israeli telecommunications expert named Mordecai Meirowitz, and it was based on an earlier pen-and-paper game named Bulls and Cows. The concept is simple: one player develops a code consisting of four coloured pegs, and the other player has to guess this code in as few steps as possible, making use of the codemaker’s feedback.

Codebreaker is essentially a digital adaptation of this game, making use of numbers rather than coloured pegs. It also features an adaptation of the ancient mathematical game Nim, for those who enjoy taking the last chocolate in the box. As a complete game package, it might look a bit limited from a modern perspective, but there’s fun to be had here.

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

Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: The Liberation of Fynn – Final Fantasy II #6

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The time has come for the Wild Rose rebellion to take back what is rightfully theirs: the city of Fynn and its castle!

Well, before that there’s the small matter of extracting Princess Hilda from Palamecia, but surely such a straightforward task won’t prove a problem for Firion and company after all their training to date!

Today’s episode is a good example of how Final Fantasy II makes a strong effort with worldbuilding and a sense of narrative progression, bringing back characters you encountered earlier in the game and showing you places in different contexts. Besides its unusual progression system, this side of things is probably the most noteworthy thing about the game in the context of the series as a whole.