Tag Archives: Let’s Play

Videos

Atari A to Z: Rick Dangerous

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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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Videos, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Enter Kunoichi – Warriors Orochi #23

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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 →

Split/Second, Sunday Driving, Videos

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

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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 →

Project Zero, Videos

New Game Plus: Nightmare Finale – Project Zero #11

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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 →

Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Quartz

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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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Videos, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Yes, We Have No Bananas – Warriors Orochi #22

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Today on Warriors Wednesday, it brings me great pleasure to introduce you to my cat Meg, who thought she would participate in the beginning of this video.

After that, we get thoroughly acquainted with the lovely Lady Nō, who is primed and ready to get you all hot under the collar before ruthlessly killing you.

Hit the jump to see how today’s mission went, and how Lady Nō deals with a bad case of how do you like my halberds?

Continue reading Warriors Wednesday: Yes, We Have No Bananas – Warriors Orochi #22 →

Split/Second, Sunday Driving, Videos

Sunday Driving: Splashdown – Split/Second #2

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Having cleared the pre-season training and the first episode of exciting new TV show Split/Second, it’s now onto the next installment.

This episode, Splashdown, introduces the Air Strike event type. This involves helicopters firing missiles at you while you’re just minding your own business trying to drive in circles around an abandoned city.

It’s as intense and ridiculous as it sounds. Hit the jump to see how things went…

Continue reading Sunday Driving: Splashdown – Split/Second #2 →

Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Asteroids Deluxe

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How do you make Asteroids better? Add the word “Deluxe” to its name, obviously.

Okay, 1980’s Asteroids Deluxe adds a bit more to the basic Asteroids formula than that, but it’s still very much recognisable. The whole experience is a bit smoother than the original, the presentation is sharper and cleaner (and blue!) and there are some additional enemies to deal with. But you’re still rotating and firing and dodging. And dying. Dying a lot.

I’m still no good at Asteroids, Deluxe or otherwise, but I actually enjoy it a lot more today than I did back when it was “current”. It’s a game that’s held up extremely well, and it’s a pleasure to revisit both of its most famous incarnations in the Atari Flashback Classics collection for Switch.

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Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Pac-Mania

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There have been numerous attempts to improve on Pac-Man over the years by both Namco and third parties.

One such attempt by the former was Pac-Mania, a game which transplanted Pac-Man’s simple single-screen maze-based gameplay into a scrolling, oblique-perspective affair with jumping, power-ups and visually themed worlds.

Opinions vary as to whether it’s actually an improvement on Pac-Man or not, but one thing is certain: Grandslam’s port to Atari ST was very solid indeed, and one of the few Atari ST games I actually remember buying for myself back when I was a kid!

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Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Operation Thunderbolt

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It wasn’t unusual to see lightgun shooters adapted to the 16-bit computers of the late ’80s and early ’90s. However, you didn’t tend to see a lot in the way of lightgun peripherals.

You did, however, see a lot of these games making use of mouse control to simulate aiming a gun. Some of these made use of a clear, obvious mouse cursor, allowing for precise aiming, albeit at the expense of a certain feeling of “authenticity”. Meanwhile, some, like Ocean’s solid adaptation of Taito’s Operation Thunderbolt, provided the interesting twist of making where you were aiming invisible until you fired — much like a “real” lightgun would behave.

While the ST struggles to provide a completely authentic arcade experience — particularly in the sound department, as always — Operation Thunderbolt is actually a pretty solid port, and its unusual aiming mechanics make it surprisingly satisfying and addictive to play, even today.

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