Category Archives: Videos

Videos, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: The Solid Whack You Can Deliver with Wood – Warriors Orochi #12

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Things are getting noticeably more difficult as we approach the conclusion of the Samurai campaign in Warriors Orochi.

Today’s mission sees our intrepid heroes facing off against a selection of powerful foes, including “wild man” Keiji Maeda, who threatens to break Xiao Qiao in half (“but who will put me back together again?!”). But help is at hand in the form of “God of War” Kenshin Uesugi and his longstanding rival, Shingen Takeda’s formidable moustache. And the warrior attached to it, I guess.

How do things go? Hmm… take a look.

Continue reading Warriors Wednesday: The Solid Whack You Can Deliver with Wood – Warriors Orochi #12 →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: The Last Starfighter

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Greetings, Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada.

Any kid who watched the 1984 movie The Last Starfighter longed to hear those words for real — to put the skills they’d learned in video games to the test with real conflict against invading forces!

Unfortunately, Atari’s attempt to cash in on the popularity of the movie didn’t quite make it to market in time, instead finally seeing the light of day in 1986 as the hastily rebranded Star Raiders II. However, the original, fully playable prototype of the game in its original The Last Starfighter format has been well-preserved over the years… so it’s that we’ll be taking a look at in today’s video!

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Auto Modellista, Sunday Driving, Videos

Sunday Driving: More Faster Than I Was – Auto Modellista #3

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AUTOOOOO MODELIIIIISTAAAAA!

Yes, it’s that time when we strap in and go for a bit of a drive, once again in Capcom’s beautiful 2002 “Gran Turismo lite” affair, Auto Modellista.

Today we take on some tougher challenges, and either start to hit the limits of what my dear little Yaris has to offer… or perhaps my own skill ceiling. Hit the jump to see what happened.

Continue reading Sunday Driving: More Faster Than I Was – Auto Modellista #3 →

Videos

Atari ST A to Z: F-15 Strike Eagle

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Attempts to realistically simulate things it would be near-impossible for the average person to experience have been around for a long time… even when the technology wasn’t quite up to the job.

Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, one of the most prolific creators of simulations — with a particular (though not exclusive) focus on military jet fighter simulators — was MicroProse, erstwhile home of Sid “Civilization” Meier. As time went on, these games got more and more satisfyingly complex and true to life… but the genre had to start somewhere!

F-15 Strike Eagle was first released in 1984 for various 8-bit computers and ported to a variety of other platforms (including the Atari ST) over the course of the next three years. It’s a fairly “arcadey” take on the jet fighter sim, but it remains enjoyable to this day… even if its core tech looks severely dated even compared to MicroProse’s own titles from just a year or two later!

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Videos, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Mistakes Were Made – Warriors Orochi #11

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Ahhh… I knew it wouldn’t last.

After last week’s joyful celebrations of clearing a mission first time… today we more than make up for that good performance with a series of unfortunate and crushing defeats.

But still, as long as we learn from our mistakes, it’s okay to mess up once or twice, right…?

Continue reading Warriors Wednesday: Mistakes Were Made – Warriors Orochi #11 →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Kid Grid

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This week on Atari A to Z, it’s another game by Arti Haroutunian and Tronix that… pays homage to a popular arcade game.

Much as last week’s Juice! was clearly inspired by Q*Bert, so too is Kid Grid more than a little bit like Amidar. That’s no bad thing, though; both Amidar and Kid Grid are a good time. If a bit difficult.

Okay, quite a lot difficult. But don’t judge me too harshly; I couldn’t even beat the first level of this when I was a kid!

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Auto Modellista, Sunday Driving

Sunday Driving: Fear the Mighty Yaris – Auto Modellista #2

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I enjoyed Auto Modellista so much when I tried it for the first time last week that I felt it deserved another look or two. So that’s what we’re up to today!

For the unfamiliar, Auto Modellista is a 2002 release from Capcom that, alongside Monster Hunter and Resident Evil Outbreak, was supposed to be Capcom’s big break into online gaming. That, uh, didn’t quite work out — indeed, the initial Western release of Auto Modellista didn’t have any online modes at all — but it didn’t stop it being a cool, immensely stylish game.

Hit the jump for the latest video to see what I mean!

Continue reading Sunday Driving: Fear the Mighty Yaris – Auto Modellista #2 →

Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Eliminator

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Today’s Atari ST game is a good example of the sort of technically impressive titles that came from the development company Hewson.

Probably best known for their impressive platformer Nebulus (known on some platforms in some regions as Tower Toppler), Hewson was a company that became renowned for its visually striking games, making use of a variety of techniques to provide the illusion of pushing the hardware “beyond its limits”.

Eliminator sees the company turning its hand to the quasi-3D effect of late ’80s racing games… and then layering a brutally challenging bit of shoot ’em up action atop it. I also have fond memories of it for admittedly strange and anecdotal reasons that are little to do with the game itself…

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Videos, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: First-Time Clear – Warriors Orochi #10

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I did it! For the first time in quite a while… I cleared a Warriors Orochi battle without messing it up even once.

This is surely cause for celebration… at least partly because it almost certainly won’t happen again, as the challenge factor continues to ramp up with each new mission.

Hit the jump for the latest video and admire my… skills?

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Videos

Atari A to Z: Juice!

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It was pretty common in the Atari 8-Bit era for games to offer a bit of a new twist on established formulae. You had to make your games stand out, after all!

In Juice!, a game developed by Arti Haroutunian and published by Tronix, you take on the role of “Edison, the kinetic android” who is essentially a mechanised electrician. It’s up to you to connect all the wires on the board to get things up and running again while avoiding the unwanted attention of various electrical-themed enemies.

If you watch the video, it probably won’t take you long to notice that the game bears an uncanny resemblance to Q*Bert in some ways — but there’s enough different here to keep things interesting, and this remains a great, highly playable game for Atari 8-bit computers.

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