Category Archives: Videos

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: King’s Quest

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A few of you have been asking for full playthroughs of adventure games after the episodes on Uninvited and Borrowed Time — so here you go!

Today’s game is an all-time classic that probably needs very little introduction. It’s Roberta Williams’ King’s Quest for Sierra, a fairytale adventure with a penchant for killing off its protagonist in a variety of unpleasant ways.

I remember getting stuck for months on these games as a kid. Turns out you can clear them in a couple of hours if you know (mostly) what you’re doing…

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

Videos, Warriors All-Stars, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Oi’m William, So I Am – Warriors All-Stars #8

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One of my favourite things about Warriors All-Stars is, to be honest, its main selling point: the fact it brings together characters from disparate franchises to fight alongside one another.

So far, our recruits have pretty much exclusively been cute girls with varying degrees of terrifyingness about them, but today we bring on a big ol’ hairy man to shake things up a bit. It’s William from Nioh.

At the time of writing, I haven’t played Nioh, but William seems like a likeable enough chap… and he’s very good at understanding Japanese people despite resolutely speaking English at all times!

Videos

Atari A to Z: Q*Bert

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What does Q*Bert say when he loses a life? That’s a question that’s plagued gamers for many years now… and part of the fun is that everyone’s answer will probably be a little different.

Q*Bert originated in the arcades, but it had a number of ports to 8-bit computer platforms — some better than others. The Atari 8-bit version by Parker Brothers actually ended up being pretty true to the arcade original — albeit lacking a couple of features to squeeze the experience into the limited space a ROM cartridge provided.

It may take a bit of getting used to if you’re not used to isometric controls, but once you get that part nailed there are many hours of addictive fun to be had with Q*Bert and his friends.

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: Bowling

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With a few occasional exceptions, sports games these days tend to be limited to a few “safe” options.

You’ve got your football, you’ve got your American football, sometimes you have your golf; very occasionally you have your Olympics. But ten-pin bowling? I can’t remember the last time I saw a game based around that for a modern computer.

Back in 1978, however, developers were still working out what kinds of sporting rules and structure worked and didn’t work in the electronic space. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not Bowling for Atari 2600 does the noble pursuit of hurling heavy things at skittles justice!

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

Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: Onward to Whisperwind Cove – Final Fantasy I #23

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The Warriors of Light are about to take on their longest, most significant challenge yet: the 40-floor Whisperwind Cove!

Thankfully, the boss fights in here aren’t quite as brutal as the devastating foes who lurked at the base of Lifespring Grotto, but 40 floors is certainly a lot to get through. Thankfully, there are plenty of places to rest and regroup along the way… including a village full of absolutely fabulous-looking mages.

I have no idea how long this is going to take, so if I manage to get enough episodes recorded in advance, there may be two episodes a week just while we clear out this monstrosity. And then we have the Labyrinth of Time to clear after this, too… why did I start this again…?

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Jinxter

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Telecomsoft’s “Rainbird” label was known for putting out a variety of high-quality releases aimed at more “mature” gamers: things like adventure games, strategy games and simulations.

A popular set of games released under this label were the illustrated text adventures composed by Magnetic Scrolls — a range of games with a distinctly British sense of humour about them, along with some excellent writing, some well-crafted “feelies” in the packaging and, as usual for the genre, plenty of crazy puzzles to figure out.

One such example is Jinxter, a game which challenges you to deal with the fact the world is suffering a bit of a spate of… wossname… bad luck.

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

Videos, Warriors All-Stars, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Princess of Traps – Warriors All-Stars #7

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I’m clearly going to have to investigate the Deception series at some point. I mean, I was planning on doing so anyway, but this game is just reminding me of quite how behind I am!

In today’s missions, Rio and company spend a bit of time clearing out some smaller skirmishes before taking aim for their next potential ally: a rather dour young woman named Millennia, who seems a little too keen to get started on the whole “killing” thing. No-one told her we don’t kill people in Warriors games; we K.O. them!

Millennia hails from Kagero: Deception II, which is where the series really got rolling and established itself after the first-person first installment in the series. She has… a certain amount of stress to get out of her system, it seems — but as we all know, there’s no better place to do that than in a Warriors game!

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Pac-Man

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We’re all pretty accustomed to arcade-perfect conversions these days, but what about back in the ’80s where programmers had to make home versions of arcade games from scratch without any handy emulation?

The results varied enormously — at least partly because in some cases the programmers in question didn’t have any original source material to work with — but there were a few very solid examples over the years.

One pretty great arcade conversion for Atari 8-bit was the Atari-published version of Namco’s Pac-Man. It’s certainly better than the notorious 2600 version!

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

Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Black Jack

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I’ve never been especially good at gambling. Largely because I don’t do it a lot.

Experimenting with simulated gambling doesn’t fill me with a ton of confidence, you see, because games like this are an excellent way to see that, inevitably, if you keep going you’ll end up with nothing more often than not.

Here’s Black Jack, a launch title for the Atari 2600, and a game which Video Magazine gave a perfect 10 out of 10 rating in 1979.

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

Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: Remember To Save Your Work – Final Fantasy I #22

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While for most of this playthrough, I’ve been keeping honest and true to the original NES version’s restrictions on saving… when it comes to a 20-floor endgame dungeon, you’d better believe I’m going to save before the most notoriously difficult bosses in the whole game.

Lifespring Grotto’s incarnations of Shinryu and Omega from Final Fantasy V are the toughest superbosses in the entirety of this particular version of Final Fantasy, and accidents happen. An accident did, indeed, happen. Thankfully, I had remembered to save.

Even more thankfully, after restoring said save, challenging the other one of these two notoriously challenging opponents proved to be a much better idea… even if the fight ended up being the longest we’ve seen in this whole playthrough!