Atelier

Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland – Following the Footsteps

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So we’ve talked about one of the main reasons Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland became somewhat notorious around the world — now it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty of what the game itself is all about.

Mechanically and structurally, it’s a very interesting game to contemplate, because while it’s still recognisably an Atelier game — and recognisable as a follow-up to Atelier Rorona, even — it feels like it draws influences from a much broader field to create an experience that is noticeably different from its predecessor, while remaining comfortably familiar as part of the Arland subseries.

Pack a lunch and don’t forget to bring your Adventurer’s License, then; it’s time to take to the road with Totori.

Continue reading Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland – Following the Footsteps →

Evercade A to Z, Videos

Evercade A to Z: Star Luster

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Given the popularity of Atari’s Star Raiders, it’s surprising that Namco never brought Star Luster, its own take on the early days of the space sim genre, to Western NES owners.

Thankfully, we can now enjoy it officially outside of Japan thanks to its release as part of Namco Museum Collection 1, cartridge 02 in the Evercade collection. And good Lord have I ever been enjoying this game; it’s absolutely one of my favourites from the Evercade’s launch lineup, and a game I feel it’s a real shame more people don’t know about.

With that in mind, then, I’m doing my bit! Check out Star Luster in action in the video below — and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Nurse Love Syndrome

Nurse Love Syndrome: Nearest and Dearest

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Although Kogado Studio’s visual novels Nurse Love Addiction and Nurse Love Syndrome are available as a set (known as Nurse Love Obsession), they’re actually very different experiences.

While Nurse Love Addiction primarily unfolds in a nursing school and deals with the shared traumatic past of a small group of students, Nurse Love Syndrome, at least on a first pass, is a rather more down-to-earth affair that concerns the struggles of a rookie nurse during her first year on the job.

For anyone who has ever experienced work-related stress and the mental health challenges that presents one with, it’s a difficult and emotional but rewarding read. And there’s a lot more to discover beyond that first playthrough, too. Let’s take a first look at the package as a whole, and what one of the routes through the narrative has to offer us.

Continue reading Nurse Love Syndrome: Nearest and Dearest →

Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Asteroids Deluxe

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Will I never be free of this accursed game? Given the sheer number of versions Asteroids has enjoyed over the years, I suspect not. But it is actually quite interesting to compare all of them.

The Atari ST version of Asteroids Deluxe — one of the only ports of that specific game as opposed to the original Asteroids — was handled by Paradox Software, much like many of the other late Atari-published arcade conversions on the platform. This time around, they haven’t done an altogether bad job on the port — it looks and plays pretty well, for sure, though as always for the poor old ST, the sound leaves a little to be desired.

It’s certainly far less of a mess than certain previous Paradox ports, however — and a solid version of Asteroids for Atari’s 16-bit machine. 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: Totooria Helmold

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The Arland series, as we’ve already discussed, saw Atelier returning to a lot of conventions from its past.

One of the most notable of these was each new mainline installment being named after and focused on the life of a single main character who was inevitably attempting to make use of alchemy under somewhat challenging and time-sensitive circumstances.

The second Arland game, Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland, gave us a widely beloved protagonist who, in many ways, encapsulates what modern Atelier is all about. Bring on our charming Totori!

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Totooria Helmold →

short;Play, Videos

short;Play: Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game

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I’ve always loved a good multi-sport athletics game, right back to the good old days of Epyx’s “Games” series on 8- and 16-bit platforms.

With the 2020 Olympics being cancelled (sorry, “postponed”) due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there I was thinking there wasn’t an official video game out there. But there was! It came out in 2019 and is a Japan-only release, but has full English support. You can read more about it here.

Or you can watch me show off all 18 events to varying degrees of success in the video below, of course. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more.

Evercade, NES, Piko Interactive Collection 1

Exploding Fist: The Way Fightin’ Used To Be

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Like most game genres, fighting games went through a period of experimentation and flux in their early days as developers and publishers attempted to figure out the “best” way to do things.

In the days of 8-bit home computers and consoles, we saw a variety of different games attempting to simulate martial arts with varying degrees of realism — and certain elements of these early titles can be traced all the way forwards to today’s most competitive fighters.

One early, influential title was Beam Software’s The Way of the Exploding Fist. This is best known in its home computer incarnations for Commodore 64 and 16, BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC and Acorn Electron, but there was also supposed to be an NES version. For one reason or another, this console version never saw the light of day, but more recently Piko Interactive managed to rescue this prototype, clean it up a bit and release it to the public. And now you can enjoy it on the Evercade retro gaming platform as part of the Piko Interactive Collection 1 cartridge. Let’s take a look!

Continue reading Exploding Fist: The Way Fightin’ Used To Be →

Videos

Atari A to Z: Gossip

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Today’s indie scene is quite rightfully regarded as one of the most creative spaces in the games industry. But it’s been that way for a lot longer than most people realise.

Some truly fascinating games came out through the Atari Program Exchange or APX, a programme run by Atari where consumers (or indeed Atari employees) could submit their pet projects and get them published by the company — perhaps the earliest take on today’s “indie specialist” publishers such as Devolver Digital and its ilk.

One such example that it seems never quite made it to final release was Gossip, a fascinating game by Atari’s master of simulations, Chris Crawford. Gossip is an attempt to simulate social interactions using a mathematical model of affinity as a basis. As a game, it takes a bit of getting used to, but as you start to figure out what’s going on it becomes a fascinating experience. Check out my attempts to woo the virtual ladies in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Community

TangoPunk: The Zine Scene is Alive and Well

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The rise of the Internet caused a quantum shift in how we enjoy our media. And magazines were one of the areas most affected by this change.

Whereas we once got most of our relatively up-to-date news and information on our hobbies from glossy periodicals, today we simply hop on a website and read the headlines, check our feed readers or get angry at things on Twitter.

That doesn’t mean there’s no place for magazines any more, however — I’ve long been a believer in this. In fact, I believe magazines now have a new, distinct and worthwhile purpose which is well worth exploring. Which is why I was so excited when a creator named Tango reached out to me last week, offering me a look at the first issue of her new publication, TangoPunk. So let’s explore that first issue together!

Continue reading TangoPunk: The Zine Scene is Alive and Well →

Announcements, Community

Around the Network

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Morning all! We’re a day late on this today as I had a busy weekend trying to get some stuff done. Said stuff is now done, so here we are!

It’s been a retro-tastic week this week with a continuing exploration of the Evercade’s library of games, plus the launch of my Evercade A to Z video series to complement the written articles here. If you wanted to see these classic (and not-so-classic!) games in action — now you can!

Let’s take a look at what you might have missed in the last week, then. Hit the jump and let’s explore!

Continue reading Around the Network →

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