Tag Archives: retro games

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Pac-Man

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We’re all pretty accustomed to arcade-perfect conversions these days, but what about back in the ’80s where programmers had to make home versions of arcade games from scratch without any handy emulation?

The results varied enormously — at least partly because in some cases the programmers in question didn’t have any original source material to work with — but there were a few very solid examples over the years.

One pretty great arcade conversion for Atari 8-bit was the Atari-published version of Namco’s Pac-Man. It’s certainly better than the notorious 2600 version!

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

MoeGamer Awards 2019

The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The Atari Anime Award

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The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards I’ve devised in collaboration with the community to celebrate the sorts of things that never get celebrated in end-of-year roundups! Find out more here — and feel free to leave a suggestion on that post if you have any good ideas!

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This year’s first award is exactly the sort of peculiar thing I was after, courtesy of regular and longstanding reader Viscera/@Zwifu.

Viscera wants to know the Atari game I want to be remade with cute anime girls the most. Preferably something that has been covered in one of my Atari A to Z videos.

That’s a hell of a category to start with! I’m going to have to think hard about this one…

And the winner is…

Continue reading The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The Atari Anime Award →

Announcements, Community

Around the Network

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Hello everyone, hope you’ve been having a good weekend. Mine has been fairly uneventful so far, which I guess is a good thing.

It’s officially December now, so you’re all allowed to put your Christmas decorations up. The MoeGamer Awards will be starting shortly alongside the Pokémon Sword and Shield feature, so please be sure to stop by this post and leave some ideas for award categories if you haven’t already. The more the merrier!

Anyway, let’s check out what you might have missed this week.

Continue reading Around the Network →

Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Black Jack

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I’ve never been especially good at gambling. Largely because I don’t do it a lot.

Experimenting with simulated gambling doesn’t fill me with a ton of confidence, you see, because games like this are an excellent way to see that, inevitably, if you keep going you’ll end up with nothing more often than not.

Here’s Black Jack, a launch title for the Atari 2600, and a game which Video Magazine gave a perfect 10 out of 10 rating in 1979.

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

Cover Games, Pokémon Sword and Shield

Pokémon Sword and Shield: Introduction and History

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header-6-2861792This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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Pokémon is the biggest media franchise in the world at the time of writing. It’s certainly a far cry from being either overlooked or underappreciated. So why explore it in depth here on MoeGamer?

Because despite it being the world’s biggest media franchise, there’s not a ton of in-depth analysis out there. Sure, commercial sites will fill their frontpages with clickbait “How To Catch Shiny Pokémon” and “How To Evolve Farfetch’d to Sirfetch’d” guide articles, but actual in-depth looks at the game are surprisingly thin on the ground.

So I thought I’d do my bit to correct that. Beginning with an extensive look at the history of the series: where it came from, how it became such a global phenomenon, and what has led us to Sword and Shield. Let’s begin!

Continue reading Pokémon Sword and Shield: Introduction and History →

Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: Remember To Save Your Work – Final Fantasy I #22

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While for most of this playthrough, I’ve been keeping honest and true to the original NES version’s restrictions on saving… when it comes to a 20-floor endgame dungeon, you’d better believe I’m going to save before the most notoriously difficult bosses in the whole game.

Lifespring Grotto’s incarnations of Shinryu and Omega from Final Fantasy V are the toughest superbosses in the entirety of this particular version of Final Fantasy, and accidents happen. An accident did, indeed, happen. Thankfully, I had remembered to save.

Even more thankfully, after restoring said save, challenging the other one of these two notoriously challenging opponents proved to be a much better idea… even if the fight ended up being the longest we’ve seen in this whole playthrough!

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: I, Ball

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Telecomsoft, a division of British phone provider British Telecom, was a pretty prolific software publisher throughout the 8- and 16-bit home computer eras.

The brand was split into several parts: “Firebird” released big-name, high-profile games designed to have broad appeal; “Rainbird” released games intended for more mature audiences such as adventures, strategy games and simulations; and “Silverbird” provided budget-price experiences, usually in the form of arcade-style games.

One title released on the latter label was I, Ball, a game which was particularly well-received on the 8-bit home computers for its Rob Hubbard soundtrack; sadly, this is absent from the Atari ST version, but it’s still a solid — if monstrously difficult — shoot ’em up with some entertaining sampled sounds to enjoy!

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

Videos

Atari A to Z: Orc Attack

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Orcs used to be a popular, even clichéd, fantasy foe to encounter in both video and tabletop games, but I feel like their prevalence has declined somewhat over the years — perhaps in a concerted effort for modern fantasy to move away from Tolkien.

Fear not, though, because this 1983 release from Thorn EMI Video has absolutely hundreds of the little buggers just waiting to make your life an absolute misery — climbing up ladders, shooting arrows directly into your eye, chipping away at your wall and pulling your head clean off. What’s a humble guard to do?

Fight back, of course! Preferably by hurling heavy objects and boiling oil, but as a last resort there’s always the option of a bit of slicing and dicing…

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

Essentials, One-Shots, Switch

Old School Musical: Tapping Through Time

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We devoted an episode of The MoeGamer Podcast to the idea of “homage” — specifically, games that deliberately adopt both aesthetic and mechanical conventions of titles from the past in order to pay tribute to them.

There are other ways you can show your appreciation and respect for the influence old games continue to have, though, and a powerful means of doing that can be through the use of pastiche and parody.

Old School Musical, a rhythm game from indie developer La Moutarde, very much falls into this category; it may not play like the old-school games it’s paying tribute to — but few could say that it isn’t still a wonderful homage that demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of gaming history from the 8-bit home console era onwards.

Continue reading Old School Musical: Tapping Through Time →

Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Basketball

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Sports games have always been a staple of video gaming. In fact, in the earliest days of the medium, they were a good source of basic rules and mechanics for designers to rely on.

Basketball for Atari 2600 was a noteworthy example of one of these early sports games for being an early title that didn’t require two human players. In fact, the single-player mode even claimed to offer an adaptive difficulty of sorts, with the computer player supposedly playing “better” if the scores were closer.

In practice, this mostly equates to the computer player running the wrong direction if he’s winning too much, but it was 1978… give them a bit of credit!

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.