Category Archives: Videos

Videos

Atari A to Z: Gorf

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When is a Space Invaders rip-off not a Space Invaders rip-off? When it also rips off Galaxian and Gyruss!

No, that’s unfair to poor old Gorf, an arcade game by Bally Midway that was ported to Atari 8-Bit by Roklan Software. Gorf is an entertaining and enjoyable game in its own right that most certainly has its own identity — albeit perhaps not what was originally intended.

This began life as an adaptation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, of all things, but was presumably adapted into what it eventually became after someone at Bally Midway figured that a game involving a 20-minute sequence slowly panning around a spaceship with nothing happening probably wouldn’t be that much fun. The end product was rather good… and bastard hard.

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Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Sunday Driving, Videos

Sunday Driving: Pudding?! You Were Always So Quirky, Brian – Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed #6

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It’s time for another Sunday Driving session as we continue our playthrough of Sega and Sumo Digital’s wonderful Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.

We’re making good progress through the World Tour mode — it should only be another episode or two before we clear all the available events on the normal difficulty we’ve been playing them all on so far.

But what then? Hmm, we’ll have to wait and see, won’t we… Hit the jump for today’s video in the meantime!

Continue reading Sunday Driving: Pudding?! You Were Always So Quirky, Brian – Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed #6 →

Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Atomino

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First released in 1985, Atari’s ST range of 16-bit computers were the official follow-ups to the 8-Bit range.

Over their eight years on the market, they saw a variety of weird and wonderful games, as developers were provided with greater graphical fidelity and faster processing speeds… even if the ST’s Yamaha YM2149 PSG sound chip was technically inferior to the POKEY chip of the 8-bit range!

Let’s kick off our exploration of the ST’s extensive and varied library with Atomino, a 1990 release developed by Blue Byte and published by Psygnosis. This is a science-themed puzzle game in which you build molecules from atoms in increasingly complicated circumstances!

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Videos, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Pursued By Lu Bu – Warriors Orochi #7

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Talk to any Warriors veteran, and one piece of advice will almost certainly be a constant: “do not pursue Lu Bu”.

However, what a lot of people fail to mention is that you should also do your very best to not be pursued by Lu Bu, either, because that is a sure-fire means of finding your insides unexpectedly on the outside.

Today’s adventure in Warriors Orochi is a painful lesson in this particular concept.

Continue reading Warriors Wednesday: Pursued By Lu Bu – Warriors Orochi #7 →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Final Legacy

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One of my favourite things about early computer games is the sheer creativity a lot of developers showed within the technological limitations of the time.

Today we look at 1984’s Final Legacy, a rather ambitious action-strategy naval combat game in which you command a formidable warship in an attempt to destroy the totally-not-Russian missile bases pointed threateningly at your cities. Rather than a dry, abstract affair, Final Legacy brings us a cool bit of very visual interactive speculative fiction about how warfare might work in the year 2051.

Initially unfolding from an overview map, you’ll use an electric beam to destroy enemy missile silos, lasers to shoot down incoming missiles and torpedos to destroy enemy ships. It’s a ton of fun.

Don’t forget you can now follow Atari A to Z on its own dedicated site — and watch out this Thursday for a brand new Atari-related video series to complement this one!

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Sunday Driving, Videos

Sunday Driving: Amy Maxes Out – Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed #5

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Ladies, gentlemen and various woodland creatures… start your engines, ’cause it’s time for another installment of Sunday Driving.

We’ve been playing through Sumo Digital’s excellent Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed on PC and having a ton of fun along the way. For the uninitiated, this fantastic kart racer is particularly well known for having a superb single-player mode, so for those who have found Mario Kart a bit lacking in this regard over the years… check it out.

Hit the jump for the latest episode.

Continue reading Sunday Driving: Amy Maxes Out – Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed #5 →

Videos, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: So Many Dongs – Warriors Orochi #6

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It’s Warriors Wednesday time again, as Nobunaga Oda and the Samurai Warriors forces continue to fight back against Orochi and his army.

Today we take on the fourth main story mission of the Samurai Warriors campaign, and bust out some new characters, including Okuni and Xiao Qiao.

Hit the jump for the new video.

Continue reading Warriors Wednesday: So Many Dongs – Warriors Orochi #6 →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Encounter!

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The Atari 8-Bit played host to some great games, many of which drew fairly unashamed inspiration from popular arcade games at the time.

In some cases, these “derivatives” provided an interesting twist on their inspiration’s formula — or in some cases improved upon it. Such is the case with Encounter! by the late Paul Woakes, an enormously talented (and mostly solo) British programmer who developed some of the most technically impressive games of the 8- and 16-bit era.

Encounter! wears its Battlezone inspirations on its sleeve, but it mixes things up with much faster-paced gameplay and a challenging “hyperspace” sequence between stages. Watch me fail at the latter aspect in particular below.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Sunday Driving, Videos

Sunday Driving: Amy vs Tank – Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed #4

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It’s another weekend where I find myself editing an episode of the MoeGamer Podcast, but here’s a bit more Sunday Driving for your enjoyment!

Today we continue our playthrough of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed’s excellent single-player mode, the World Tour.

We’re starting to get into some of the game’s more unusual events now, so hit the jump to see the latest episode.

Continue reading Sunday Driving: Amy vs Tank – Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed #4 →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Dandy

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For the retro gaming and retro computer enthusiasts among you, here’s the continuation of my ongoing project to explore the library of the Atari 8-Bit.

Released through the Atari Program Exchange (or APX), an initiative by Atari that allowed amateur and professional programmers alike the opportunity to get their projects distributed commercially, Dandy by John Howard Palevich turned out to be a rather influential game.

Originally intended as a multiplayer networked adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons before being simplified and refined into the four-player action dungeon crawler it ultimately became, Dandy would be a defining influence on Atari’s later arcade hit Gauntlet… and it’s not hard to see why.