Tag Archives: retro games

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Shadowgate

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Thou art dead! Again. Yes, it’s time for Shadowgate, a fairly notorious point-and-click adventure from the “Macventures” series — rebranded, of course, to “Atariventures” for its ST release.

Like its stablemates Deja Vu and Uninvited, Shadowgate is a challenging adventure that is rather fond of killing off the player in a variety of cruel and unusual ways. The game is always fair, though; you just need to learn the rules it’s playing by in order to make a little more progress with each save you reload!

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

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short;Play, Videos

short;Play: Heretic

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It’s often a good idea to revisit games that were dismissed for one reason or another back when they were originally released; they’re often great experiences in their own right.

Raven Software’s Heretic is a great example; while it didn’t exactly receive a negative reception per se, it was considered to be little more than a Doom clone by many people, despite the innovations it added to the mix. Revisit it today, divorced of that original context, and you’ll find there’s lots to enjoy — and there are many more games like this out there!

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

Evercade, Namco Museum Collection 1

Dig Dug: Diggin’ Dirty

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One of the interesting things about fully exploring retro gaming is discovering the subtle differences between different versions of a game.

Back in the early to mid ’80s, there were sometimes quite significant differences between the various platforms’ take on an established game. This was due to a combination of factors: most frequently it was down to the technical limitations of the host platforms, but sometimes it was due to the programmers responsible for the ports not having all of the resources they needed, and consequently having to do the coder’s equivalent of holding things together with sticky tape.

Namco’s port of its classic arcade title Dig Dug for the Famicom — easily accessible today as part of the Namco Museum Collection 1 cartridge for the Evercade retro gaming platform — is a good example of (probably) the former. Either way, it’s a distinctive version of Dig Dug that is well worth playing, even if you’re well familiar with the arcade original!

Continue reading Dig Dug: Diggin’ Dirty →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Yar’s Strike

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Classic Atari 2600 game Yars’ Revenge never got an official conversion to Atari 8-bit, sadly.

That doesn’t mean people haven’t done their best to make their own, however! Today we have one such example, where a brave AtariAge denizen decided to take on the challenge of programming their own original take on Yars’ Revenge, entirely from scratch and, in true 2600 tradition, squeezed into just 4K.

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: Bizarre Creations’ True Beginning

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fatalrewind-wide-header-3923218-2151205This post is one chapter of a MegaFeature!
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So far here on Fatal Rewind: A Bizarre Creations Retrospective, we’ve seen how Martyn Chudley and, subsequently, a team of able assistants, commanded a solid technical mastery over the hardware they were working on, producing beautiful looking games that played well.

Today, we reach a significant milestone in the history of the company and their games, because it marks the point at which Chudley and his team became Bizarre Creations, the name under which they worked up until their untimely demise in 2011.

It also marks the first time they worked on a type of game that would come to be seen as their particular specialism: the accessible but realistic racing game, straddling the line between arcade game and simulation. Let’s look at Formula 1, released for PlayStation in 1996.

Continue reading Formula 1: Bizarre Creations’ True Beginning →

Community, Q&A

Q&A: January 2021

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Welcome to the third monthly Q&A session, in which I milk you mercilessly for “Content” and then provide you with a video for your troubles.

This month, we talk classic arcade games, a dream “next-gen”, favourite aesthetics and more. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Enjoy the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more. If you’d like to be part of the next Q&A, sign up to become an S-Rank Patron at my Patreon page here: https://patreon.com/petedavison

Announcements, Community

Around the Network

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And so, another week draws to a close — and with it, the January of what will hopefully be a better year for everyone.

My 2021’s got off to a thoroughly nice start with a new job that is full of lovely people and work that I enjoy, though the wife and I are still going a little stir crazy at being stuck in the house all the time. It’d be nice to see friends, but then it is also nice to be able to breathe and not die, so there’s that.

Anyway, all that aside, it’s that time again — let’s see 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 closing in on the home straight of the RealSports collection in Atari Flashback Classics! Only two more to go after this one!

RealSports Tennis for Atari 2600 is a fun game for one or two players that… doesn’t really offer much of a realistic game of tennis, but does provide a rather prettier take on the Pong format, with a couple of interesting twists. It’s simple and straightforward, but it’s also speedy and fun — particularly with a friend.

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: Desert Falcon

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Today’s Evercade game is a cross-platform Atari title — it’s Desert Falcon, which was primarily designed for the Atari 7800, but which also got a 2600 version.

Desert Falcon is an isometric perspective shoot ’em up in which you take control of a majestic bird who has a real grudge against Sphinxes. By collecting combinations of hieroglyphs, you’ll be able to equip yourself with a variety of special powers — or, sometimes, hindrances — to make your task a little more interesting and unpredictable.

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

Atari Collection 1, Evercade

Aquaventure: The Game That Deserved a Release

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One of the nice things about modern, curated compilations of games from old platforms is that they provide an opportunity for “lost” classics to finally get an audience.

In many cases, “lost” classics were completed and reached a full prototype phase, but just never ended up getting duplicated and distributed to the public. Sometimes this is understandable; at other times, it’s a bit of a mystery.

Aquaventure for Atari 2600, which you can play not only in Atari Flashback Classics but also as part of the Atari Collection 1 cartridge on Evercade, definitely falls into the latter category. This game is good, so why didn’t it get released?

Continue reading Aquaventure: The Game That Deserved a Release →