Tag Archives: gameplay

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Saboteur!

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I never played Clive Townsend’s classic open-structure 2D platformer Saboteur! until his recent Nintendo Switch version, which I absolutely loved.

Imagine my delight, then, when I saw that some talented AtariAge members had taken it upon themselves to port this classic game to the dear old Atari 8-bit. How would it come out, I wondered.

Pretty damn well, as it happens; some speed inconsistencies aside, we have a very true port of a ZX Spectrum classic here — now available for any Atari fans to enjoy! Check out 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: Gravitar

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It’s another Atari 2600 port of a classic arcade game! This time around we’re taking a look at Gravitar, one of the most legendarily difficult games of all time.

Its Atari 2600 incarnation is arguably somewhat more accessible than the challenging arcade version, since it has a variety of different ways to play that affect the number of lives you have and even whether or not you have to deal with the titular gravity.

It’s still a beefy challenge, though — but if you have the patience, there’s plenty of rewarding gameplay to be found here. Enjoy the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more.

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Final Fantasy III, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: Freelancin’ Ain’t Easy – Final Fantasy III #2

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As yet bereft of the iconic Jobs that would go on to define this particular installment in the Final Fantasy series, our heroes are tasked with seeking out a naughty old Djinn.

It’s not a quest they can really walk away from, either; a significant number of people in the vicinity have been turned into ghosts by this malevolent dark power — and of course, no-one but a bunch of freelancin’ kids could possibly go and sort out the whole problem.

While it’s a daunting challenge at first, it doesn’t take long for our heroes to build up their confidence at fighting — and before you know it they’re toppling their first significant challenge, proving themselves worthy of the title “Warriors of Light”.

Enjoyed the video? Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Evercade, Namco Museum Collection 1, Shmups

Star Luster: Namco Does Star Raiders

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One of the great things about the Evercade retro gaming handheld is its unofficial mission to bring a variety of overlooked, underappreciated or unlocalised retro gaming titles to a worldwide audience.

The publishing partners who have signed up to distribute their games on the platform are seemingly more than happy to jump on board with this philosophy too — and this is especially evident with the two Namco Museum Collection cartridges, which not only provide the classics we expect to always see on such compilations like Pac-Man and Dig-Dug, but also some lesser-known titles, some of which never officially left Japan on their original platforms.

Part of the reason for this is the Evercade’s initial focus on retro home consoles, whereas Namco’s own Namco Museum releases have historically tended to focus on the arcade side of things. And so, we come to Star Luster, a 1985 release for the Famicom that never came West. Until now!

Continue reading Star Luster: Namco Does Star Raiders →

short;Play, Videos

short;Play: Descent

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The mid ’90s was a great time to be playing PC games. It was a time when the platform was really starting to find its feet, and it saw a variety of innovations in lots of different genres that we’re still feeling the effects of today.

Enter Descent from Parallax Software, then — a fully texture-mapped, polygonal, 3D, six-degrees-of-freedom first-person shooter that plonked you in the cockpit of a spacecraft and taskes you with blowing up a series of mining installations from within. There really was nothing quite like it at the time.

It’s a game that’s held up extraordinarily well over the years and is still a ton of fun in the 21st century. Check out the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Atari Collection 1, Evercade

Alien Brigade: The 7800’s Crown Jewel?

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We’re all about the Evercade here on MoeGamer, so where better to kick off our exploration of all the games available on this retro wonder-device than with the first game on the first cartridge in the library?

Alien Brigade is a rail shooter originally released for Atari 7800 in 1990. It’s regarded by many Atari 7800 enthusiasts as one of the best games on the system — and certainly one of the finest titles that is completely unique and exclusive to the 7800. It’s also quite hard to find a copy of these days, so in keeping with the Evercade’s unofficial mission to resurrect a variety of somewhat lesser-known retro titles for the modern collector, it’s entirely appropriate that this is where the whole library opens.

Is it actually any good, though? Well, read on.

Continue reading Alien Brigade: The 7800’s Crown Jewel? →

Videos

Atari A to Z: Rainbow Walker

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Today we pay another visit to a beloved publisher of the Atari 8-bit days: Synapse Software — and one of the company’s most well-regarded games.

Rainbow Walker isn’t an especially original premise — it’s a Q*Bert-style game in which you have to hop on all the squares to change them to the correct colour — but the remarkable thing here is the incredibly slick presentation, featuring a gorgeous 3D effect, smooth movement and some fancy special effects. It’s not hard to see why the game is regarded as one of the finest in the Atari 8-bit’s library.

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

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Podcast

The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 39 – Gentlemen, Start Your PC Engines

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Sorry it’s been a while, but we’re back again with a big bowl of podcast for you to enjoy — as always, featuring both my good self and Mr Chris Caskie of MrGilderPixels!

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:

Hit the jump for show notes!

Continue reading The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 39 – Gentlemen, Start Your PC Engines →

Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Golf

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Ah, golf. The one sport I can get behind in that it involves minimal physical activity (aside from walking about a bit and occasionally giving a small ball a hefty thwack) and is mostly about being very quiet.

Video game adaptations of the game that spoiled many a good walk have been around for a long time, as it happens, with one of the earlier ones being Atari’s own simply named Golf for Atari 2600.

Let’s go play a round in the video below — meet me in the 19th hole and subscribe on YouTube when you’re done!

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Mana Khemia

Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis – A Learning Experience

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cropped-atelier-megafeature-header-1-8868334This post is one chapter of a MegaFeature!
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Turn-based, menu-driven RPGs for computer and console — particularly the latter — are, for the most part, well past being simple adaptations of tabletop gaming rules.

The freedom afforded them by the digital medium means that they can get highly creative and abstract with all of their core mechanics without being limited by physical components, complexity of calculations or even any sort of rational plausibility. This not only applies to combat mechanics, as we saw in the previous part of this feature, but also to character progression.

While past Atelier games kept things relatively conventional in this regard, following the “experience points and levels” system, Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis features a very distinct way of powering up your characters that fits in very well with its core themes and other mechanics. So let’s take a closer look at that today.

Continue reading Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis – A Learning Experience →