Tag Archives: gameplay

Atari A to Z: Atari Basketball

Basketball is another sport I know next to nothing about, but I know more about it than I do baseball, in that I understand how to win and what the players on the court are actually supposed to do. Therefore, I am much better equipped to comment on Atari Basketball than I was for Atari Baseball.

Atari Basketball is a simple one-on-one affair in which you and another player or the computer square off against one another and try to score more baskets than the other. That’s… pretty much it, really, but there’s something about this game that makes it surprisingly addictive.

I think it’s the controls — the original arcade machine made use of a trackball controller, which translates quite well to modern analogue devices. I can imagine a game against another human opponent getting rather frantic when standing up against the original machine — but it’s still fun here when played on the sofa with a wireless controller, or even on the go with the Switch in handheld mode.

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New Game Plus: Producing Sundries – Atelier Rorona DX #1

It’s time for a new series of New Game Plus, in which I take a game I’ve already beaten and explore its postgame content and/or New Game Plus modes.

With the Atelier Arland Cover Game feature now done and dusted, that would seem like an ideal time to immediately revisit those games and see what happens on a second playthrough, right?

We get underway today with a new beginning for Atelier Rorona DX: The Alchemist of Arland on Nintendo Switch.

Continue reading New Game Plus: Producing Sundries – Atelier Rorona DX #1

Atari ST A to Z: Shanghai

Any time you undertake a project like this, you have to accept that some elements of it are just going to be less of a “spectator sport” than others.

Such is the case with today’s Atari ST game, the not-much-to-look-at-but-fun-to-play Shanghai by Activision, an adaptation of Mahjong Solitaire that makes use of the ST’s built-in graphical user interface GEM as the foundation of its aesthetic. This was not at all an unusual approach back in the day, and is akin to more modern PC games running on Windows 95 and beyond making use of a windowed interface and standardised Windows controls. Not the most beautiful look, no, but perfectly functional — and a lot more intuitive to those who perhaps don’t play a lot of games.

Compared to more recent adaptations of Mahjong Solitaire, Shanghai is fairly limited, but it nonetheless remains a pleasingly relaxing, Zen sort of experience. Once you figure out how to read the screen properly, that is…

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Warriors Wednesday: Ina Bit of a Pickle – Warriors Orochi #24

Things are heating up!

After a few missions where things have gone mostly smoothly for the Wu boys and girls (and friends) it seems we’re starting to encounter a little bit more in the way of resistance… even with all those lovely Abilities unlocked!

Well, desperate times call for desperate measures… so now seems like an ideal time to start levelling yet another character from 1, right? Come on down, Ina…

Continue reading Warriors Wednesday: Ina Bit of a Pickle – Warriors Orochi #24

Pete Plays Dragon World: The Real Treasure is Love

And now the epic conclusion of the Dragon World saga!

Back when we played this in the classroom, you were doing really well if you made it to Part 2, which wouldn’t allow you to even start playing without a password. (“ogweb”, if you’re too lazy to deal with Part 1’s nonsense)

Part 2 takes you on a surprisingly unforgiving treasure hunt through the aptly-named Town of Treasures… so let’s see if we can find something to make all dragonkind happy!

Continue reading Pete Plays Dragon World: The Real Treasure is Love

Atari A to Z: Rick Dangerous

The “masocore” platformer, in which you learn by dying repeatedly in seemingly unfair circumstances, has become particularly popular in the age of Let’s Plays and streaming.

The reason for this is that, although playing the damn things tends to be rather frustrating, they’re quite entertaining to watch. And their reliance on puzzle-solving and memorisation make them quite a distinct experience from more conventional platform games and action adventures.

Here’s the Atari ST version of Rick Dangerous, developed by Core Design (of Tomb Raider fame) and published by Telecomsoft imprint Firebird in 1989. Oh, boy, it’s irritating… and yet I found myself trying again and again and again… Waaaaaaaa!!

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Warriors Wednesday: Enter Kunoichi – Warriors Orochi #23

The Wu campaign continues as the Sun family comes to blows over the recapture of their father.

In this installment, the Battle of Sekigahara, we retire the ever-reliable Ranmaru Mori for now in favour of newcomer Kunoichi, who turned up in the previous battle. She is joined by Taishi “Prepare to Die” Ci and Lady Nō to form what appears to be a pretty respectable fighting team.

Hit the jump to see how the battle went this time around…

Continue reading Warriors Wednesday: Enter Kunoichi – Warriors Orochi #23

Sunday Driving: Big Rig Boom – Split/Second #3

Today on Split/Second, we introduce the second new type of event: Survival!

This event sees our brave drivers attempting to survive as long as possible against the odds, as the Split/Second trucks throw deadly explosives their way!

Hit the jump to see how yours truly coped with this fearsome challenge…

Continue reading Sunday Driving: Big Rig Boom – Split/Second #3

New Game Plus: Nightmare Finale – Project Zero #11

This is it! It’s nearly over! Yes, today we clear Nightmare mode on Project Zero for the first time.

The last night in the game was actually a whole lot shorter than I remembered it being, but at least there’s only one wandering ghost to pick up on our ongoing quest to clean up the ghost list.

Hit the jump to see how the buildup and the dramatic conclusion to Miku’s story went this time around…

Continue reading New Game Plus: Nightmare Finale – Project Zero #11

Atari ST A to Z: Quartz

An unusual and very pretty shoot ’em up today, from the mind of the man who gave us Spindizzy.

Quartz is a game that combines free-roaming, vaguely Asteroids-esque sequences with more traditional forced scrolling stages in a variety of different directions. It’s simple but effective… and damned addictive.

It’s also a great example of a popular graphical style at the time — raytracing, or at the very least, a pixel art approximation of raytracing. Today, graphics cards are just starting to get into real-time raytracing for the latest “new thing” in graphical fidelity, but back in the ST era, prerendered raytraced graphical assets were quite commonly used as a means of making sprites look “3D” without going full-on polygonal.

Whether it’s “real” raytracing or not doesn’t really matter at the end of the day… what does matter is that this is a gorgeous game that’s a ton of fun to play!

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