Tag Archives: retro games

Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Canyon Bomber

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Time after time in gaming, we’ve seen that the simplest concepts can be some of the most effective and addictive.

Atari’s Canyon Bomber, originally released to arcades in 1977, is a prime example of this. You only need one button to play, and that button drops bombs. The concept is so simple anyone — even someone not at all familiar with video games — can understand and enjoy it. Drop bombs, hit things, score points. Whoever scores most points, wins.

And one of the best things about this game when compared to some of its contemporaries is that the simplistic concept means that it was very straightforward to implement a “computer-controlled” opponent to compete against if you didn’t happen to have a friend handy. So even those of us with no friends can still enjoy this game… and end up playing it a lot longer than you might expect!

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

Atelier Arland Trilogy, Videos

New Game Plus: Creating Explosives – Atelier Rorona DX #3

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When returning to a game for a second playthrough, it’s always incredibly satisfying when you manage to complete an objective well ahead of “schedule”.

Despite only certain things carrying over to a New Game Plus run in the various incarnations of Atelier Rorona, you can still bash out a lot of the early game content very easily, leaving you with plenty of time to make money, grind for experience, build up your relationship values and just generally have a good time in this pastel-coloured world.

Hit the jump to see just how quickly I managed to satisfy the second assignment…

Continue reading New Game Plus: Creating Explosives – Atelier Rorona DX #3 →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: U.N. Squadron

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If you thought games journalists wringing their hands over “problematic” subject matter in games was a new phenomenon… well, I got news for you, my dear reader.

U.S. Gold’s home computer conversion of Capcom’s arcade title U.N. Squadron (originally known in Japan as Area 88, after the manga it was originally based on) drew criticism from UK computer magazine ST Format in December of 1990 for being “self-righteous”, “crass” and even “propaganda”. Why? Because you shoot enemies in an obviously Middle Eastern-inspired setting — at least in the first level, anyway — and in 1990 the Gulf War had just broken out in full force.

Of course, Area 88 first came out in 1979, but let’s not let facts get in the way of a good bit of outrage, shall we? Sigh. Some things never change. Anyway, this is a reasonably solid shoot ’em up, though unsurprisingly not a patch on the awesome SNES version…

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

Videos

Atari A to Z: Zeppelin

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Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve done it! Well, we’ve done it once, anyway.

Yes, indeed, with this week’s Atari A to Z video, we finally make it all the way to Z, with Cathryn (formerly William, as seen on the title screen) Mataga’s Zeppelin, an interesting multi-directional adventure shoot ’em up in which the challenge is not just from shooting bad guys and avoiding environmental hazards, but also from navigation and item manipulation.

This is a great example of the sort of quality software publisher Synapse became well-known for, although that quality tended to come at a price — Zeppelin was a whopping $34.95 when it came out in 1983, or nearly $90 in today’s money, taking inflation into account! And if Mataga’s name is familiar, you may have come across another Synapse-published title called Shamus that I’m sure will feature on this series at some point in the near future! But that’s a story for another day…

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

Split/Second, Sunday Driving, Videos

Sunday Driving: Midway Pass – Split/Second #6

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Look at me, I’m on camera!

Yes, after some reluctance and a surprising amount of urging from my wife (who either really wants me to suffer or genuinely thinks this is a good idea) I finally decided to show my Actual Face on one of these videos. I thought Sunday Driving was as good a place as any to experiment a bit with this format.

And yes, I know I cut the top of my head off in my GameFace shot. This is why we do experimental takes like this!

Continue reading Sunday Driving: Midway Pass – Split/Second #6 →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Time Bandit

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I love it when game developers get creative. This is not an altogether unusual sight these days, of course, but back in the early to mid ’80s, it was always a real treat to see someone step outside of genre “norms”.

Such was the case with Time Bandit by Bill Dunlevy and Harry Lafnear, a top-down action adventure with elements of text adventures, role-playing games, Pac-Man and all manner of other goodness. While superficially resembling Gauntlet — which actually came out after Time Bandit was fully developed — there’s a hell of a lot of depth here, and some fiendish puzzles to unravel.

If you want a game that pretty much sums up what the Atari ST gaming experience is all about, you can do far worse than give Time Bandit the, uh, time of day.

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

Videos, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: In Case of Emergency, Use Taishi Ci – Warriors Orochi #25

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Side note: since starting Dynasty Warriors 8, in which they pronounce everyone’s names quite differently from earlier Warriors games, I have become aware that I am perhaps pronouncing… well, everyone’s name wrong. Tai-shuh-tsuh, indeed.

Anyway. That, hopefully, will not detract too much from your experiences with the ever-expanding series that is Warriors Wednesday. We’re continuing to make it through the Wu campaign of Warriors Orochi at a pretty decent pace — even if a few things do happen to go a little bit wrong this time around!

Hit the jump to see how things went in the latest mission for our brave heroes and overenthusiastic heroines. Hi-yaaa!

Continue reading Warriors Wednesday: In Case of Emergency, Use Taishi Ci – Warriors Orochi #25 →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Yoomp

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Although the Atari 8-bit range of computers mostly lost what little “mainstream” relevance they had with the onset of the 16-bit era — which, in turn, was killed off by the widespread adoption of standardised MS-DOS and Windows PCs — there are a few dedicated developers out there still plugging away at this old hardware.

The results these modern maestros can get out of ancient computers can be, at times, absolutely astonishing. Some form part of what is known as the “demoscene”, producing audible and graphical showcases that push the hardware to its absolute limits. Others take that extra step and add true interactivity, making actual games with impressive visuals and sounds to show what they’re really capable of.

Yoomp from 2007 is an example of the latter. It makes use of some clever graphical techniques, fully optimised for both PAL and NTSC displays, and some delightfully catchy, toe-tapping music courtesy of the Atari’s trusty POKEY chip. If you’d like to find out more about this game — and download it for free to try for yourself — check out the official website here.

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

Podcast

The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 17 – Death to Metroidvania!

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Hello! Welcome back to The MoeGamer Podcast, featuring my deliciously fruity vocal tones along with those of my good friend Chris Caskie of MrGilderPixels.

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; 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. Please do at least one of these if you can; it really helps us out!

Or you can hit the jump to watch or listen to today’s episode right here on MoeGamer.

Continue reading The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 17 – Death to Metroidvania! →

Split/Second, Sunday Driving, Videos

Sunday Driving: Hit the Skids – Split/Second #5

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You thought we got off lightly last time around with “just” some races and time trials? This week’s episode more than makes up for that.

That damn helicopter is back, and ready to cause considerable grief. And those trucks are back, too, ready to hurl flaming death out of their rear end, much like my friend James did after he decided to find out what kind of curry a “Naga” was.

Hit the jump to see how things went.

Continue reading Sunday Driving: Hit the Skids – Split/Second #5 →