Category Archives: Videos

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Slaygon

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There was a time when we couldn’t take first-person adventures for granted; a dark time when you could only turn by 90 degrees and move by 5 feet at a time.

Okay, we still have games like that, but at least we have a choice these days. Back when Slaygon was released for Atari ST, it’s pretty much all we had if we wanted to infiltrate some sort of complicated installation… such as a futuristic tech company looking to unleash a deadly virus into the atmosphere for… some reason!

Slaygon put an interesting twist on the dungeon crawler formula by putting you in control of a futuristic cybertank with all manner of fancy systems for you to use. It was still all about finding the right keys for the right doors though…

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

Videos, Warriors All-Stars, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Beautiful Flowers – Warriors All-Stars #16

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Today in the world of Warriors All-Stars, it’s a day of gradually conquering the map and inching towards a new Dramatic Battle.

For the uninitiated, a core mechanic in Warriors All-Stars is your area of control over the overall map. This is most broadly affected by the major battles you complete, such as story battles and character unlocks, but fine-tuned by the more “generic” battles you encounter along the way. As such, in order to expand your sphere of influence — and thus the battles you’re able to participate in — you’ll need to engage in skirmishes right on the front lines.

Today our main goal is reaching the “Beautiful Flowers” battle, which pits some of the prettiest ladies of this Warriors world against seemingly overwhelming odds!

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Yogi Bear & Friends in The Greed Monster

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Licensed games were a real mixed bag in the 8- and 16-bit eras, because mechanical genres were still being defined and refined — and it was sometimes tricky to relate an established style of game to a particular property.

Hi-Tec was one company that got a bit experimental with their various licensed games. They had the rights to all the Hanna-Barbera cartoons, after all, and to their credit, rather than simply churning out various reskins of the same game, they tried lots of different ways of doing things — even between multiple games featuring the same character.

Yogi Bear & Friends in The Greed Monster is an example of a game where they got it right. It’s an interesting and enjoyable game, even today, and distinguishes itself by being just that bit different from other licensed games of the period.

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: Circus Atari

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Today’s Atari Flashback Classic is Circus Atari, an interesting and challenging twist on the Breakout formula.

The origin story of this one is quite interesting, too; it began life as a third-party spin-off of the Breakout arcade hardware, then was subsequently ported by Atari itself to the 2600 platform. Original developer Exidy, who were struggling to compete with Atari at the time, must have been real pleased about that!

Anyway, if Breakout wasn’t hard enough already for you, Circus Atari challenges you to bounce two little clowns on a see-saw and pop a bunch of balloons. Good luck; you’ll need it!

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: Leila, Warp! – Final Fantasy II #5

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The early Final Fantasies are interesting to return to, as they show the origins of various things that have become series mainstays over the years.

Today in Final Fantasy II, we see the first mention of the Dragoons in the series; while you can’t actually be a Dragoon in Final Fantasy II, you do learn a little bit about them and their companion Wyverns. We also see the Lifestream for the first time; this concept hasn’t been in every Final Fantasy, but it does play a prominent role in both Final Fantasy VII and, of all things, the CG movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Bet you’d forgotten about that, hadn’t you?

Maria also spends a lot of time training her Scourge spell, and we get into a real mess trying to get back out of a dungeon. Because, well, we’ve set a certain amount of precedent at this point, haven’t we?

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Rod Land

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Ah, Rod Land! I frigging love Rod Land, as I believe we’ve previously discussed elsewhere.

Turns out the Atari ST version is a very, very good port indeed — and a game that I absolutely coveted back in the day. I never had my own copy though, so I had to satisfy myself with the short demo I had from a magazine cover disk.

Thanks to Patron Ken, however, I was able to secure myself my own copy after many years! Time to enjoy; I’ve got a lot of catching up to do!

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

Videos, Warriors All-Stars, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Wicked Lil’ Servant – Warriors All-Stars #15

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Drama and intrigue in today’s episode of Warriors All-Stars as Kasumi and Arnice attempt to save Setsuna from the trap he’s fallen into.

We also run into Marie Rose, subject of last week’s Waifu Wednesday, and discover that she’s a more powerful weapon than anyone could have possibly imagined… and she doesn’t even need to touch anyone.

While we’re on, we have a nice chat about what’s coming up here on MoeGamer, too. Why not stop in and hang out? We have swords and cute girls.

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Xmas House

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It’s Christmas! Well, okay, no it isn’t. It’s quite a while after Christmas, but whatever. I needed a game for “X”.

And so here we are with a type-in listing from ZONG Magazine. Not just any old type-in listing, though; this one is written in Turbo Basic XL, a popular programming language that followed the principles of Atari BASIC while increasing its speed dramatically and adding all manner of cool new functions.

The game itself is a bit… well, type-in listing-y, but it’s not a bad effort at all. I’ve certainly seen far worse Christmas-themed games!

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: Championship Soccer

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I detest most real-life sports, but I’ve been known to have a bit of fun with digital recreations of sporting activities over the years; they make great, easily understandable competitive affairs, after all.

My favourite sporting games are those that don’t try too hard to be realistic simulations; those that simply make use of straightforward, abstract mechanics that provide a rough approximation of the basic rules of the sport. Games that you can just pick up and play without having to worry about the more complex side of things.

As it happens, Championship Soccer for Atari 2600 is a great example of this. It resembles football in only the most cursory of ways — but it’s actually quite an enjoyable competitive game of skill, even for those of us who don’t really like sports!

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

Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy Marathon

Final Fantasy Marathon: The Dreadnought Factor – Final Fantasy II #4

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After last week’s intensive mage training, Firion, Maria and Guy are just about ready to take on their most significant challenge yet: destroying the Empire’s superweapon, the Dreadnought!

Of course, it won’t be an easy task. First they have to find the damn thing, and navigation, it seems, is not their strong suit. Then they need to remember all of the reasons they went there, not just the one that involves a big, exciting explosion. Memory, it seems, is also not their strong suit.

But what is an adventure without a few mishaps along the way? Join our friends of the Wild Rose rebellion as they do their best to make the world a better place…