It’s been a great week for the site this week! If you’re a new reader, thank you for your support and a hearty welcome; if you’ve been around, hello again!
It’s late and I’ve been podcast editing all day, but I’ll do my best to be vaguely coherent before I pass out. Lots of things to go through and lots of things to look forward to in the coming weeks!
Let’s get right into the things you might have missed in the last week, then…
Whew, it’s getting late! I’ve spent the day editing a particularly monster episode of The MoeGamer Podcast, so please look forward to that caressing your lugholes and eyeballs sometime tomorrow.
In the meantime, though, there is, of course, plenty of stuff here on MoeGamer for your reading enjoyment, as well as some videos for your entertainment!
Without further ado then, and before I fall asleep on my keyboard, let’s check out what you might have missed.
Another long weekend! I’m not complaining, though every one of these makes it harder and harder to go back to a full work week.
Lots to share this week: plenty of articles, a few updates on future plans, and the usual shenanigans from around the broader community.
So without further ado, let’s look back at what you might have missed this week…
Major Havoc is one of the more unusual games from Atari’s back catalogue of arcade titles, and it’s interesting from a historical perspective for being one of the first games Mark “PlayStation” Cerny was involved with.
Making use of vector graphics to provide seamless transitions between three very disparate types of gameplay, Major Havoc challenges you to blast enemies in space, land accurately on an enemy space station, navigate a perilous route to a reactor and then get the hell out of there before the whole thing blows.
It’s frantic, high-energy, super-difficult and a whole lot of fun. Take a look!
Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.
Another week comes to a close! I hope you’ve all been having a lovely time. I’ve definitely been having a lovely time as I haven’t been at my day job. Holidays are great.
Anyway. Being on holiday from work doesn’t mean I’ve been on holiday from MoeGamer and Atari A to Z! Quite the opposite, in fact; I’ve been getting all sorts of exciting goodies prepped for the coming weeks and months.
In the meantime, though, let’s take a look at what you might have missed this week.
And so another week draws to a close and we all slide inexorably onwards towards our inevitable deaths.
We may as well enjoy the intervening days, weeks, months and years then! This month I’ve been doing just that with a fine selection of SNK shoot ’em ups plus my continuing adventures in the world of Death end re;Quest.
Let’s take a look at what you might have missed.
I do enjoy a good “dirt and boulders” game. And Simon Hunt’s Diamonds, published by English Software in 1983, is certainly a good “dirt and boulders” game.
Casting players in the role of Digger Dan, part-time member of Blue Man group and long-time precious stones enthusiast, it’s up to you to gather the titular diamonds while avoiding the unwanted attentions of Brian the Blob, Philip the Filler, The Fireflies, The Eyes, Simon the Snake and The Demon. Brian also wants diamonds; the others just want you dead. Which isn’t very nice.
This is a longstanding personal favourite of mine from the Atari 8-bit era, and a game I still like returning to today quite often! Check it out when you get the opportunity.
Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.
Another week has passed! This one seems to have gone by quite quickly for some reason. I’m not complaining; I have a couple of weeks off from the day job at the beginning of April, and I’m very much looking forward to using that time for a bunch of MoeGamer and YouTube stuff.
In the meantime, though, things have been continuing as usual around here, with plenty of things to read, watch and listen to.
So let’s take a look at what you might have missed this week!
Continue reading Around the Network
Do you know what “trimetric projection” is? If not, take a good look at Atari’s Crystal Castles. That, dear reader, is trimetric projection at work.
This 3D perspective take on the Pac-Man formula is a popular game from Atari’s early days, and enjoyed numerous home ports over the years, particularly on Atari’s own platforms. It’s a fun — if challenging — game, and remains noteworthy from a historical perspective for being one of the first arcade games out there that it’s actually possible to “beat”. Although good luck with doing that.
Also, if you score first place on the high score table, you get to enjoy your initials presented in 3D trimetric projection for everyone to admire on the first level of each new playthrough!
Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.
You know me, I love an arcade racer. And while the Atari 8-bit era was very much a time where this genre was just starting to define itself, there were still some fun, interesting games to enjoy.
Baja Buggies from Gamestar is a game from the early days of the system that I didn’t play that often back in the day, primarily because it was on cassette, and who has time to sit around waiting for those things when you have a US Doubler-equipped 1050 disk drive for high-speed floppy loading goodness? (Said drive died recently, please raise a glass in memoriam. Thank you.)
Anyway. It’s an interesting racer that eschews the Pole Position timers-and-checkpoints formula in favour of an endurance race format: pass 80 opponents before you wreck your buggy or cross the finish line. The desert awaits!
Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.
