Tag Archives: retro games

Videos

Atari A to Z: Atlantis

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An all-time classic of old-school Atari gaming, Imagic’s Atlantis is a simple but fun shoot ’em up in which death is inevitable — there’s a cheery thought for you!

Originally coming to prominence on Atari 2600, Atlantis was subsequently ported to a variety of other platforms, including Atari 8-bit. Gameplay-wise, the Atari 8-bit version isn’t all that different from the Atari 2600 original — it just looks a bit nicer.

Check it out 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: RealSports Volleyball

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This is it at last — the final RealSports game in Atari Flashback Classics! After this, we can move on to something else. (There are still a few more sports games ahead of us, mind you!)

In the grand scheme of things, RealSports Volleyball for Atari 2600 isn’t a bad game. It’s pretty simple and arguably a bit too ambitious for what the 2600 was really capable of, but once you get your head around how its mechanics work, there’s potential for some solid two-player fun here — or an occasional test of your skills against the computer.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atelier, Atelier Dusk

Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky – A Question of Technique

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As always for the Atelier series, alchemy is at the core of almost everything you do in Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky.

This time around, there’s an interesting distinction made between female protagonist Escha’s “traditional” approach, taught to her by her mother, and male protagonist Logy’s “modern” approach that he learned in the mysterious Central City. Mechanically speaking, both are pretty much the same — though they are each used for different purposes in the game as a whole.

Today we’re going to take a closer look at that alchemy system, see how it differs from Atelier Ayesha’s approach — and give a firm thumbs-up to some quality of life features that longstanding Atelier fans will find very welcome, particularly if they haven’t played Atelier Lulua yet.

Continue reading Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky – A Question of Technique →

Podcast

The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 47 – STAGE 1 START!

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Welcome to a brand new podcast episode! Today I am joined, as always, my good friend and confidant Chris Caskie of CCaskieArt.

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!

Continue reading The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 47 – STAGE 1 START! →

Evercade A to Z, Videos

Evercade A to Z: Claymates

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Interplay put out a fair few “claymation” games in their time, of varying degrees of quality!

One that was on the slightly better end of things was Claymates, an inventive and enjoyable side-scrolling platformer with some interesting level design and some peculiar mechanics.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Zone X

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Gremlin Graphics was a developer who lasted a long time — from the early 8-bit days right up until the early 2000s, when the company was swallowed by Infogrames, and then folded. Today the Gremlin spirit lives on in the developer Sumo Digital.

Zone X is a classic Atari game from Gremlin Graphics I remember playing back in the day and never being able to get very far with. Turns out I still can’t get very far with it, but it’s an interesting game nonetheless!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Fatal Rewind

Formula 1 97: Racing, Refined

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A year after the well-received Formula 1 hit the PlayStation, Bizarre Creations proved that their apparent skill in creating great racing games wasn’t just a fluke — because they made another Formula One game, and it was even better.

Formula 1 97 hit store shelves in September of 1997, a month before the 1997 racing season came to a close. While development ran fairly smoothly — and apparently legendary commentator Murray Walker was so impressed with the game that he signed an exclusive agreement with Sony to provide commentary for another two years — Psygnosis and Sony ran into legal issues with the sport’s various governing bodies after the game launched, and ended up having to repackage, rename and rerelease the game.

Thankfully none of that matters now, and Formula 1 97 still provides an enjoyable racing experience for both arcade racer fans and more dedicated petrolheads. So let’s take a closer look!

Continue reading Formula 1 97: Racing, Refined →

Announcements, Community

Around the Network

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Sunday evening, and the living is eas– wait, that’s not how that goes.

I’m sleepy! I haven’t had a particularly busy weekend but I did have a fairly packed working week, and thus it’s been nice to just have a fairly laid-back weekend where I didn’t need to worry about anything in particular. So I didn’t. We had a nice Chinese takeaway, I played some Atelier and Final Fantasy, and life is good.

So with a comfy air of satisfied tiredness about me, let’s look back over what you might have missed in the last week.

Continue reading Around the Network →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: RealSports Tennis

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We’re nearly there! We’re nearly there! We’re so nearly through the RealSports gauntlet! Just a bit of friendly Tennis action to get through, followed by some beach volleyball, and then we’re done!

RealSports Tennis for Atari 5200 is a decent tennis game that suffers a bit from an awkward control scheme — an awkward control scheme which hasn’t been emulated particularly well in Atari Flashback Classics, as it happens. Consequently, it’s best treated as more of a curiosity than something you can really spend a lot of time with — but it’s worth acknowledging, at least!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more.

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Evercade A to Z, Videos

Evercade A to Z: Pac-Attack

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Pac-Attack is an unusual and highly memorable puzzler from Namco with a bit of an interesting history!

Those of you who listened to our end-of-2020 podcast episode will also recall that Chris declared it his Game of the Year 2020, despite the fact it released in 1993. Our recent discovery of it is all thanks to the little wonder-machine that is the Evercade — and you can enjoy it too as part of the Namco Museum Collection 2 cartridge for the system.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!