Tag Archives: gameplay

Atari Collection 1, Evercade

Ninja Golf: Hitting the Links (And Everyone Who Stands in Your Way)

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One of the things I’ve always been rather fond of from the ’80s and early ’90s is how literal a lot of video game titles were, particularly on Atari consoles.

In Casino, you play casino games. In Race, you race. In Canyon Bomber, you bomb a canyon. And in Ninja Golf, you are a ninja who plays golf.

No, I’m not making that last one up. Indeed, for many people this 1990 release from BlueSky Software (who would later go on to develop Shadowrun and the two Vectorman games for Sega Mega Drive) is one of the crown jewels of the underappreciated Atari 7800’s library. And now you, too, can experience its highly entertaining gameplay thanks to the Evercade retro gaming system and its Atari Collection 1 cartridge!

Continue reading Ninja Golf: Hitting the Links (And Everyone Who Stands in Your Way) →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Baby Berks

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For me, one of the most exciting things to see happen in the retro gaming community is when the original creator of a classic work returns to it and does something cool with it.

Today, we have an example of that. Baby Berks was originally a type-in listing for the Commodore 16, and after an AtariAge forum poster noted that it might be nice to see an Atari 8-bit port of it, who just happened to show up in the thread but the original creator Jon Williams himself?

A month later, there was an official Atari port of this fun arena shooter. Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Podcast

The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 42 – The Never-Ending Arcade

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Welcome to another podcast! My good friend Chris Caskie of MrGilderPixels and I have been very much enjoying the Evercade retro gaming system from Blaze, so we thought we’d make a podcast about it.

The MoeGamer Podcast is available in several places. You can subscribe to my channel on YouTube to stay up to date with both the video versions of the podcast and my weekly videos (including the Atari A to Z retro gaming series); you can follow on Soundcloud for the audio-only version of the podcast; you can subscribe via RSS to get the audio-only version of the podcast in your favourite podcast app; or you can subscribe via iTunes and listen on Spotify. Please do at least one of these if you can; it really helps us out!

Enjoy the podcast in video and audio formats below:

And hit the jump for show notes!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Millipede

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Millipede may look like Centipede, but it’s considerably more chaotic and frantic than its predecessor.

Rather impressively, the Atari 2600 version, while not quite capturing the visual style of the arcade original, manages to keep pace with the game’s iconic chaos, providing a challenging and enormously addictive arcade blaster for the platform. In fact, some consider Millipede to be among the 2600’s finest games.

Want to see what it’s all about? Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atelier Arland

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland – A Matter of Time

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cropped-atelier-megafeature-header-1-8868334This post is one chapter of a MegaFeature!
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A year after Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy bid a fond (and very late) farewell to the PlayStation 2, the Atelier series finally entered the high-definition era with the 2009 Japanese release of Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland for PlayStation 3.

Since the original release of the game and its 2010 localisation, we’ve seen a few other versions. In 2013, Atelier Rorona Plus revamped the entire game for PlayStation 3 and Vita with the graphics engine and alchemy mechanics from Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland, the third game in the Arland trilogy. In 2015, Japan got a peculiar chibified remake for Nintendo 3DS. And then in 2018, Atelier Rorona DX, a port of Atelier Rorona Plus that included all its downloadable content, was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC.

From hereon, we’ll primarily be looking at Atelier Rorona DX, since that is the most readily accessible version at the time of writing — but most of what we’ll talk about applies to all the different versions. So grab your Basket and let’s begin a whole new adventure!

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Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: He Loves Only Gold – Final Fantasy III #11

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Coming to their senses after seemingly bringing the world back to life, the Warriors of Light found themselves with their airship locked up and the next Crystal guarded by the mysterious “Goldor”.

Having acquired themselves some Levigrass shoes to cross the swamp guarding Goldor’s mansion, the time has finally come for the Warriors of Light to take back what is rightfully theirs — and perhaps plunder some shiny booty in the process.

Enjoy the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

short;Play, Videos

short;Play: Carrier Command – Gaea Mission

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Despite not really being old enough to truly understand and appreciate it when it was “current”, I was a big fan of Rainbird’s Carrier Command from 1988.

With those fond memories, I was delighted to see Arma developers Bohemia Interactive take another crack at the idea in 2012 — though I never actually got around to trying it for myself back then for one reason or another.

Time to rectify that, with the assistance of my cat Patti! Check out my strategic incompetence in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Action Quest

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I’ve been meaning to get around to this one for a while, as someone recommended it to me quite some time ago, but I’ve finally gotten around to it!

Action Quest is an interesting game that blends elements of top-down arcade adventure with some genuinely interesting puzzles. It was an early attempt to make something of a “graphic adventure”, though it still errs a little more on the “action” side of things, as you might expect from the title.

Enjoy this unusual game in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more.

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Micro-Gammon SB

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Do you like backgammon? How about if it was a bit smaller? Well, that’s not at all what Micro-Gammon SB for Atari 5200 offers, though it does have very tiny (for the time) pixels.

Micro-Gammon SB is a previously unreleased Atari 5200 game that hit the cutting room floor due to not being “arcadey” enough. It’s a shame, because it’s a solid backgammon adaptation for a single player — there’s no two-player mode, oddly — that is capable of playing at a variety of skill levels, up to and including “SuperBrain” mode.

Check out how I get on against the easiest opponent in the video below — bearing in mind I’m still very new to backgammon! — and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more.

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Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: Levigrass Shoes – Final Fantasy III #10

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We rejoin the four Warriors of Light as they find their title contested: it seems that four eccentric old men also claim they are the warriors of legend!

As you might expect, it doesn’t take long for the real Warriors of the Light to prove themselves — but being thoroughly all-round decent people, they don’t hold it against the silly old buggers.

From here, it’s onward to track down the next of the crystals, but there’s a frustratingly inconvenient swamp in the way. Only one thing for it, clearly: Levigrass shoes!

Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!