Tag Archives: gameplay

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: RealSports Tennis

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We’re nearly there! We’re nearly there! We’re so nearly through the RealSports gauntlet! Just a bit of friendly Tennis action to get through, followed by some beach volleyball, and then we’re done!

RealSports Tennis for Atari 5200 is a decent tennis game that suffers a bit from an awkward control scheme — an awkward control scheme which hasn’t been emulated particularly well in Atari Flashback Classics, as it happens. Consequently, it’s best treated as more of a curiosity than something you can really spend a lot of time with — but it’s worth acknowledging, at least!

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

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Evercade A to Z, Videos

Evercade A to Z: Pac-Attack

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Pac-Attack is an unusual and highly memorable puzzler from Namco with a bit of an interesting history!

Those of you who listened to our end-of-2020 podcast episode will also recall that Chris declared it his Game of the Year 2020, despite the fact it released in 1993. Our recent discovery of it is all thanks to the little wonder-machine that is the Evercade — and you can enjoy it too as part of the Namco Museum Collection 2 cartridge for the system.

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

One-Shots

Tasomachi: Behind the Twilight – The Joy of Exploration

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The Steam Game Festival is underway at the time of writing. This is an event where developers show off their upcoming games by releasing exclusive time-limited demos — and there are some real belters out there this year.

Over on Rice Digital, I picked out five of my favourite demos from this year’s Festival that are well worth your time. I kind of want to talk more about all of them, but I’ll take them one at a time — starting with probably the one I found the most striking.

Tasomachi: Behind the Twilight, also known as Tasogare ni nemuru machi (A City Sleeping in Twilight), is a 3D platformer with a gorgeous soft-edged visual style and some intriguing exploration-based gameplay. And I love what I’ve seen so far.

Continue reading Tasomachi: Behind the Twilight – The Joy of Exploration →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Shadowgate

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Thou art dead! Again. Yes, it’s time for Shadowgate, a fairly notorious point-and-click adventure from the “Macventures” series — rebranded, of course, to “Atariventures” for its ST release.

Like its stablemates Deja Vu and Uninvited, Shadowgate is a challenging adventure that is rather fond of killing off the player in a variety of cruel and unusual ways. The game is always fair, though; you just need to learn the rules it’s playing by in order to make a little more progress with each save you reload!

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

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short;Play, Videos

short;Play: Heretic

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It’s often a good idea to revisit games that were dismissed for one reason or another back when they were originally released; they’re often great experiences in their own right.

Raven Software’s Heretic is a great example; while it didn’t exactly receive a negative reception per se, it was considered to be little more than a Doom clone by many people, despite the innovations it added to the mix. Revisit it today, divorced of that original context, and you’ll find there’s lots to enjoy — and there are many more games like this out there!

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

Evercade, Namco Museum Collection 1

Dig Dug: Diggin’ Dirty

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One of the interesting things about fully exploring retro gaming is discovering the subtle differences between different versions of a game.

Back in the early to mid ’80s, there were sometimes quite significant differences between the various platforms’ take on an established game. This was due to a combination of factors: most frequently it was down to the technical limitations of the host platforms, but sometimes it was due to the programmers responsible for the ports not having all of the resources they needed, and consequently having to do the coder’s equivalent of holding things together with sticky tape.

Namco’s port of its classic arcade title Dig Dug for the Famicom — easily accessible today as part of the Namco Museum Collection 1 cartridge for the Evercade retro gaming platform — is a good example of (probably) the former. Either way, it’s a distinctive version of Dig Dug that is well worth playing, even if you’re well familiar with the arcade original!

Continue reading Dig Dug: Diggin’ Dirty →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: RealSports Tennis

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We’re closing in on the home straight of the RealSports collection in Atari Flashback Classics! Only two more to go after this one!

RealSports Tennis for Atari 2600 is a fun game for one or two players that… doesn’t really offer much of a realistic game of tennis, but does provide a rather prettier take on the Pong format, with a couple of interesting twists. It’s simple and straightforward, but it’s also speedy and fun — particularly with a friend.

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

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Evercade A to Z, Videos

Evercade A to Z: Desert Falcon

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Today’s Evercade game is a cross-platform Atari title — it’s Desert Falcon, which was primarily designed for the Atari 7800, but which also got a 2600 version.

Desert Falcon is an isometric perspective shoot ’em up in which you take control of a majestic bird who has a real grudge against Sphinxes. By collecting combinations of hieroglyphs, you’ll be able to equip yourself with a variety of special powers — or, sometimes, hindrances — to make your task a little more interesting and unpredictable.

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

Atari Collection 1, Evercade

Aquaventure: The Game That Deserved a Release

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One of the nice things about modern, curated compilations of games from old platforms is that they provide an opportunity for “lost” classics to finally get an audience.

In many cases, “lost” classics were completed and reached a full prototype phase, but just never ended up getting duplicated and distributed to the public. Sometimes this is understandable; at other times, it’s a bit of a mystery.

Aquaventure for Atari 2600, which you can play not only in Atari Flashback Classics but also as part of the Atari Collection 1 cartridge on Evercade, definitely falls into the latter category. This game is good, so why didn’t it get released?

Continue reading Aquaventure: The Game That Deserved a Release →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Rogue

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It’s time for a biggie! A truly genre-defining game, at that — although its real influence perhaps wouldn’t become truly known on the mainstream side of gaming until quite some time after its original release.

I’m talking about the legendary Rogue, of course, which has an interesting story behind its original creation — and whose Atari ST version is one of the best ways to play out there. This edition, published by Epyx and put together by one of the game’s original creators, is an accessible and friendly way to enjoy some dungeon crawling — and a great way to kick off a roguelike addiction if you don’t already have one!

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

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