Tag Archives: Let’s Play

short;Play, Videos

short;Play: Snack World – The Dungeon Crawl Gold

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Welcome to a new video series! I give you short;Play, which, all being well, I will put out on Wednesdays.

The idea behind short;Play is similar to my Atari A to Z videos, only for more recent games and not on specific platforms. I’ll give you a brief rundown of the context and history of the game, then a guided tour of what to expect from the game. It’s not a full playthrough or a multi-episode Let’s Play — it’s just a quick look at what a typical session with the game is like.

We kick off with Level-5’s Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl Gold, and once I’m a bit deeper into this game the video will be complemented by a full writeup here on MoeGamer. For now, please enjoy the first episode of short;Play, and I hope you continue to enjoy what I have lined up for the next few Wednesdays!

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Knicker Bockers

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You probably have no idea what to expect from a game with a title like “Knicker Bockers”. I didn’t really know either.

What we actually get is a surprisingly fun, if challenging, maze game that combines elements of Lock ‘n’ Chase, Pengo and a teeny tiny bit of Drelbs. It’s a good time!

Well, okay, the narrative setup for the game — which features a guy named Knick playing in a door factory while being pursued by the local toughs — perhaps needs some work… but it was the 8-bit era and no-one cared about narrative if the game was enjoyable!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Double Dunk

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I don’t “get” sports games at the best of times, but throw in the need to select “plays” before you can do anything and my comprehension of what is going on goes right out the window.

Enter Double Dunk, then; one of the latest games to be officially released for the Atari 2600, and a game which takes the “playbook” approach to two-on-two basketball.

I do not fare well with this game. I do not fare well at all. But I try, very hard!

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Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: Give Me My Ragnarok – Final Fantasy II #17

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Our quest is nearly at an end! Today’s challenge is finishing off the Arcane Labyrinth and proving to Deumion once and for all that we are worthy of wielding the legendary weapons he guards.

If I wanted to, I could go back and do the whole thing again in the hope of getting legendary weapons for some of the other characters… but I won’t subject you to that right now. Especially not since Maria and Guy are both using staves rather than the bow and axe that Deumion would provide for them!

Next time, we’re on track to beat the game… after a few mishaps, of course…

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Donald Duck’s Playground

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Growing up, I always had a certain resistance to explicitly educational games; I would much rather have been blasting aliens than doing maths problems.

However, if you were to cunningly disguise those educational components as a Sierra adventure game I would, of course, be well and truly on board. The folly of youth.

Enter Donald Duck’s Playground, then, second of the Disney/Sierra crossovers to be put together by Al “Leisure Suit Larry” Lowe, and proof if proof were needed that Sierra’s AGI engine wasn’t quite suitable for every type of game…

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Jawbreaker

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Pac-Man didn’t make it to Atari 8-bit computers until 1982, but that doesn’t mean that people were short of some dot-eating maze-based funtimes until then.

Nope; we had John Harris’ Jawbreaker, an excellent Pac-Man clone that was extremely well-received at the time of its 1981 release — and which was so uncomfortably close to Pac-Man that Atari ended up suing publisher On-Line Systems.

Atari’s suit was ultimately unsuccessful, but Harris chose to play it safe and follow up the original Jawbreaker with a successor that was less obviously based on the Namco classic. But that’s a story for another day!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Dodge ‘Em

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The dot-eating maze game formula is most readily associated with Namco’s Pac-Man — but the genre had actually been around for a while already by the time our hungry hero had made his first appearance!

Atari’s Dodge ‘Em released for Atari 2600 in 1980, providing a peculiar combination of racing, dodging and dot-eating — but this wasn’t the first one, either! Dodge ‘Em was actually a clone of a 1979 Sega arcade title called Head On.

The reasons for the Sega game’s title will become apparent very, very quickly…

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Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: The Arcane Labyrinth, Part 2 – Final Fantasy II #16

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Today we continue Final Fantasy II’s endgame with the second part of the Arcane Labyrinth challenge — the goal: Firion’s ultimate weapon, the Ragnarok sword.

Each keep of the Arcane Labyrinth has a different number of floors. The first has 5, the second 7 and the third 10 — nowhere quite as sprawling as Final Fantasy’s Lifespring Grotto and Whisperwind Cove here, thankfully!

Today, we take on the 7-floor keep, steamrolling through the floors we previously completed before running into a Giant-sized roadblock…

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Casino Roulette

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Casino games, played solo on your home computer or console, may seem largely pointless… but they can be a good way of learning the rules or experimenting with “techniques”.

Of course, it’s a fool’s game to assume that any betting methods “work”, particularly in a game as inherently random as roulette — but if you’re playing in the comfort of your own home on your Atari ST, there’s no harm in trying a few systems for yourself, is there? Particularly when the manual is good enough to spell them out for you.

If nothing else, Casino Roulette for Atari ST allows us to appreciate quite how far speech synthesis has come in the last 30 years or so!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Interval

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Ever since the early days of computing, programmers have been finding ways to develop educational software for a variety of purposes.

One such programmer was Douglas Crockford, who was a particular fan of experimenting with the Atari 8-bit’s sound capabilities. One such experiment led to the creation of Interval, a piece of software designed to help you train your aural skills — whether you’re a musician, a teacher or simply someone with an interest in musical theory.

This is actually a really solid program that can still be of use to music teachers in the 21st Century — though quite how many still have an Atari 8-bit in their teaching space I have no idea…

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