Category Archives: Videos

Sunday Shooting

Sunday Shooting: Cardinal Sins

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Well, we’ve done Eschatos and we’ve done Judgement Silversword… we might as well complete the set, right? What’s that you say? “NO!”? That’s the spirit.

Cardinal Sins, also known as Judgement Silversword Recycle Edition, is a remix of Judgement Silversword into a different style of shoot ’em up. Rather than simply working your way through stages and trying to survive as long as possible, here you’re challenged with a variety of different objectives, each loosely themed around the Seven Deadly Sins.

Hit the jump to see what it’s all about.

Continue reading Sunday Shooting: Cardinal Sins →

Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Liberator

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All right, Atarian. Are you man enough to join Commander Champion’s Atari Force and liberate the planets suffering under the oppression of the Malaglon army?

Described by some as the opposite of Missile Command, Liberator sees you taking to the skies and firing orbital strikes on enemy missile bases… while attempting not to get hit by the torrent of missiles that comes flying back in your direction!

It’s a fun game that didn’t get a very widespread release back in the day, but thanks to compilations such as Atari Flashback Classics, now everyone can enjoy it.

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

Atelier Arland Trilogy, Videos

New Game Plus: Beat the Heat – Atelier Rorona DX #11

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It’s summer! At least it is in Arland.

You know what that means: alchemical solutions to beat the heat! Of course, the astute among you will have already noticed that… oh, let’s leave that as a surprise, shall we?

Today’s New Game Plus run continues with more alchemy, more one-hit kills, some boobs on proud display, and Tantris and Lionela really starting to come into their own as fighters, despite their inferior equipment. Hit the jump to see how things went!

Continue reading New Game Plus: Beat the Heat – Atelier Rorona DX #11 →

Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Castle Master

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The “Freescape” games released by Incentive Software were all rather interesting for a variety of reasons.

Most notably, they represented some of the earliest examples of a multi-purpose, cross-platform 3D engine at work — Freescape was so flexible that it would run on everything from the ZX Spectrum up to Atari ST, Amiga and MS-DOS PC, though obviously with some limitations on the less powerful platforms!

Castle Master was one of the last Freescape games to be released on 16-bit platforms, and it’s also one of the most mysterious and intriguing. Let’s go for a little explore, shall we?

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

Videos, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Spirits of Sanada – Warriors Orochi #34

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Oh no! Ghosts! They ruin everything. Particularly when they’re not actually there.

This is the painful lesson that Yukimura Sanada has to learn in today’s Warriors Orochi mission. Fortunately, Zhao Yun, Yue Ying and Ginchiyo Tachibana are right there ready and waiting to educate him with various pointy implements.

Hit the jump to see how the Shu gang’s attempts to prove their corporeal nature went…

Continue reading Warriors Wednesday: Spirits of Sanada – Warriors Orochi #34 →

Videos

Atari A to Z: Hover Bovver

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We’re back with another Jeff Minter classic, and a game that I like to describe as one of his most unusual but least “weird” games.

Hover Bovver is a game about stolen property, vicious canine attacks and… mowing the lawn. Playing as the personification of the middle-class curse-words Gordon Bennett, it’s up to you to mow an assortment of increasingly awkward lawns while attempting to placate your temporarily loyal dog and your less-than-happy neighbour.

Remember to stay off the flower beds!

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

Sunday Shooting, Videos

Sunday Shooting: Judgement Silversword

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If you enjoyed Eschatos, which we looked at last weekend, you’ll enjoy its spiritual precursor, Judgement Silversword.

Originally developed as a “homebrew” title for the WonderSwan Color WonderWitch device, Judgement Silversword won a short-lived software competition and subsequently saw a very, very limited commercial release.

Fortunately, despite it being one of the rarest and most expensive WonderSwan Color games out there, it’s pretty easy to get hold of in other forms today…

Continue reading Sunday Shooting: Judgement Silversword →

Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Gravitar

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We all know “harder than Dark Souls” is a cliche today. If you really want to show your hipster retro gaming cred, describe something as being “harder than Gravitar”.

Gravitar is indeed monstrously difficult, at least partly because of its “turn and thrust” control scheme, but there’s an undeniably addictive quality that keeps you wanting to play just once more… just once more and you might nail that level you nearly completed… just once more and you might beat that high score…

I may have a problem. And I’m pretty sure Gravitar caused it.

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

Atelier Arland Trilogy, New Game Plus, Videos

New Game Plus: Mel Kishida Loves Stinky Feet – Atelier Rorona DX #10

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As with Wednesday’s Warriors Wednesday video, I thought I’d make an effort to drop in some vaguely interesting factoids into my video intros.

As such, today you will learn that yes, indeed, Atelier Arland character designer Mel Kishida is indeed into stinky feet. But how is this relevant? Umm… Well… Oh, just watch it, will you? (And play Blue Reflection, it’s beautiful.)

Hit the jump to see how Rorona’s efforts went today… ignoring the pervy Japanese dude just waiting for her to take her boots off!

Continue reading New Game Plus: Mel Kishida Loves Stinky Feet – Atelier Rorona DX #10 →

Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Batman – The Movie

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A well-known name in the 16-bit home computer era here in Europe was Ocean Software.

Ocean had many strings to their bow, but one of their most reliable sources of income was movie tie-in games, many of which drew criticism for being somewhat derivative and unimaginative platform games, but which sold well regardless. A good example of a game where they tried something a little bit different from the usual formula was Batman: The Movie.

That said, the opening stage is a platform game, and is so monstrously difficult I’d be surprised if everyone saw the other things the game had to offer without making use of the cheat mode… I know I certainly didn’t!

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