Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Hudson Hawk

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Remember the movie Hudson Hawk? Probably not. It was a Bruce Willis passion project that the people who actually watched found rather enjoyable, but it ultimately ended up forgotten by most.

Like many movies in the ’80s and ’90s, Hudson Hawk got a video game adaptation by Ocean. The remarkable thing this time around is that said video game adaptation didn’t suck; it was actually a rather good platformer that combined dexterity challenges, puzzling and light combat. It also didn’t feel the need to be super-true to the movie, which probably helped it in the long run.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Patricia Wagon

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It’s easy to work on the mistaken assumption that, these days, super-cute female characters are the exclusive preserve of Asian developers, while Western developers prefer the more “gritty, realistic” angle.

That, however, is emphatically not the case, as WayForward demonstrates on a fairly regular basis. Not only do they have the wonderful Shantae and her friends in their portfolio, but they also have the cast of the delightful puzzle-platformer series Mighty Switch Force! to draw upon.

Today we’re going to take a look at the lead from that series, one Patricia Wagon. Stop, in the name of the law!

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Patricia Wagon →

short;Play, Videos

short;Play: Inertial Drift

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What do you mean it sounds a bit like “Initial D”? Completely coincidental, I’m sure.

Inertial Drift is a brand new arcade racer with an unusual but highly effective twin-stick control scheme. It’s a ton of fun that channels some serious ’90s energy, and proof if proof were needed that indie devs are on point when it comes to resurrecting supposedly “dead” game genres.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more.

Evercade, Namco Museum Collection 2

The Tower of Druaga: Persevere, Sir Knight

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The Tower of Druaga is an important part of gaming history — yet it’s also a game that has somewhat divided opinion over the years.

Back in its native Japan, it was widely loved and appreciated for its revolutionary nature at the time of its original release; in the West, however, it was lambasted for its slow pace, obtuse mechanics and monstrous level of difficulty.

Regardless of your feelings on it, you can now play the Famicom version as part of the Namco Museum Collection 2 cartridge on the Evercade retro gaming system. So let’s take a closer look, and see why this game is so important.

Continue reading The Tower of Druaga: Persevere, Sir Knight →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Nightmares

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You think we have problems now? Back in the ’80s, video game distributors would refuse to stock games if they felt they would be “harmful to children”. And Red Rat’s Nightmares for Atari 8-bit was a victim of this moral panic.

It stung doubly hard for UK-based Atari 8-bit enthusiasts, becuase the stockist in question was Silica Shop, a longstanding supporter of Atari platforms and a popular choice for mail order. Unusually, it was actually the press that stepped in to help — Page 6 Magazine took on the task of distributing the game in place of retailers who refused to stock it, and perchance made themselves a few quid in the process.

Was the game actually any good though? Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more.

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Atari Collection 2, Evercade, Shmups

Yars’ Revenge: This Game Has Bugs

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Yars’ Revenge is, it’s fair to say, one of the most well-known and respected Atari 2600 games out there.

Indeed, back in the day it was one of the platform’s best-selling games, being one of several examples from the 1981-1982 period that actually broke a million copies sold. This was, as you might imagine, a pretty big deal back in the early days of video gaming.

It’s enjoyed enduring popularity over the years for good reason. So with it being part of the Atari Collection 2 cartridge for the Evercade retro gaming system, let’s take a closer look at what it’s all about.

Continue reading Yars’ Revenge: This Game Has Bugs →

Announcements, Community

Around the Network

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Happy Sunday everyone, and I hope you’re all doing well today. It’s been a relatively uneventful week here at MoeGamer Towers, though I am very pleased to welcome two new Patrons to the fold. If you want to join them and be super-awesome, check out my Patreon page.

Some of you may have noticed a few ads appearing here and there on MoeGamer. This is something I’ve wanted to avoid doing for as long as possible, but I’m at a point where certain things on the site do such good daily traffic it seems silly not to be able to get a bit of income from it. With that in mind, I’m running a short experiment to see exactly how much I could stand to earn from a bit of advertising on the site. Said ad income will, of course, be invested directly back into the site — and if the ads prove to be obtrusive or annoying, I’ll switch them off. Please also let me know if you see anything inappropriate!

Thank you for your understanding on that — though I must say when I raised this on Twitter the other day, everyone was surprisingly positive about it anyway, so perhaps I was overthinking things! Anyway, suffice to say nothing will change about what I do here; this will remain a strictly clickbait- and hatebait-free zone — it’s just now I might be able to cover a few expenses a little easier! We’ll see. Anyway, enough of that, let’s get on with looking at what you might have missed in the last week!

Continue reading Around the Network →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Race

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Of all the genres that have been with us since the earliest days of the medium, racing games have probably been through the most significant changes.

There’s still an undeniable appeal to classic single-screen top-down affairs, though, particularly when they control as elegantly as Race (aka Indy 500) for Atari 2600 does. Originally making use of a custom “Driving Controller” and today mapping excellently to the analogue sticks on our standard joypads, Race remains a fine way to while away a few minutes, whether you’re by yourself or in the company of a friend.

Check out the solo experience in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more.

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Atelier

Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland – Meruru, Warrior Princess

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cropped-atelier-megafeature-header-1-8868334This post is one chapter of a MegaFeature!
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As we’ve seen numerous times in the previous installments of the Atelier series, being a successful alchemist isn’t just about holing yourself up in your workshop for months at a time; sometimes you have to take to the field and get some practical experience.

In Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland, those excursions outside of the protagonist’s home base occupy something of a middle ground between the relatively short excursions of Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland, and the grand adventure which unfolded over the course of Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland. Meruru never strays that far from home — but she does have important things to accomplish wherever she goes.

Let’s take a look at what life in the field is like for our tomboyish princess — and how she makes use of her alchemical talents to defend herself when things get rough.

Continue reading Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland – Meruru, Warrior Princess →

Evercade A to Z, Videos

Evercade A to Z: Multidude

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One of the nice things about the Evercade is how it’s not only bringing us new opportunities to enjoy classic games, it’s also fully embracing the “new games for old platforms” indie development scene.

A specialist publisher in this part of the business is Mega Cat Studios, who make it their business to pick out some exciting examples of modern games for classic hardware, and bring them to a wider audience. And a fine selection of such titles can be found on the Mega Cat Studios Collection 1 cartridge for the Evercade.

Multidude is a great example of the sort of thing you can expect: fun, enjoyable experiences that work within the limits of classic platforms but provide distinctly modern-feeling gameplay challenges to explore. Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

The best of overlooked and underappreciated computer and video games, from yesterday and today.