Retro News Roundup
Retro News Round-Up – October 2014
This month’s Retro News Round-Up includes Donkey Kong getting a good thrashing, Mario as a pinball, and a faithful recreation of Doom using just lego bricks.
GMZ
GMZ #1 – The Gritty Reboot – Golden Pong, Social Justice Warriors, and Sega Secession
Michael Vick Elected to Best Athletes in Video Games Hall of Fame, Awarded Golden Pong
By Clayton Shefter
Just over a decade after Vick accumulated 500+ combined yards in passing and rushing with ease in Madden 04, Vick received what he calls “the highest honor of my career,” the 2014 recipient of the Golden Pong. Not known for his emotions, a teary-eyed Michael Vick thanked the college and NFL defenses he dominated in the early 2000s and EA Sports for bestowing on him super-human ratings on the one football game where he graced the cover.
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The Gaming Book Club
The Gaming Book Club: Game Over by David Sheff
Are books on gaming discussed enough? Probably not, especially as there are some pretty good ones out there. So to put that right here’s The Gaming Book Club.
So pour yourself a cup of tea (any other hot beverage is also acceptable) and let’s talk about what is considered to be one of the best books about Nintendo…
1 More Podcastle
106 – Dolphins in Space
Today I learned that there is a large section of the internet devoted to photos of dolphins in space.
It Came From Japan
It Came From Japan – Devil World
こんにちは! Today I’m looking at a fun little puzzle game for the Famicom called Devil World. Devil World is a puzzle maze video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Famicom by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. A lot of people feel that it is a Pac Man clone, and in some ways it definitely does resemble it, but it’s also different in a lot of ways. It was released in Japan on October 5, 1984 and eventually in Europe on July 15, 1987 but due to the all of the religious icons in the game it went against Nintendo of America’s strict policies so it was not released here. This makes it the only game designed by Miyamoto that hasn’t been released in North America. The great thing is like a lot of his other games, you can just pick up and play without having to know Japanese to play it.
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Game Overkill
Game Overkill – Gradius
As the lists came in, I got to see certain games slowly move up in number of votes. Sometimes this made me excited because it was a game I loved, and other times it made me anxious because it was a game I had absolutely no interest in playing. Gradius fits into the latter category. I’d never really played it before, but I’ve pretty much never liked a single shmup I’ve played beyond 2nd generation of consoles (think Atari 2600). To say I wasn’t excited to see it make the list would be an understatement.
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The Retro Critic
Captain Silver
Ever read Treasure Island?
All the way through, I mean.
No? Me neither.
I did, however, see that drunk Orson Welles movie which was… interesting.
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Raising a Gamer
Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It’s Dark Outside
Point and click adventures have been a part of my life ever since I first discovered Myst over 20 years ago. I have been playing through Doublefine’s superb Broken Age recently and wanted to revisit some examples of the genre from my childhood. It so happens that my daughter, Mae, has been experiencing some trouble sleeping lately and has been asking to leave the light on longer each night. In order to try to combat this fear of the dark, I thought it might be a good idea to introduce her to a game that helped me fight this common childhood fear. Read More
My Two Gils
Dynasty Warriors for Dummies
With Hyrule Warriors around the corner, I was surprised at the lack of experience of most of you with Koei’s flagship franchise. Well… given the relative limited mainstream success and critical acclaim and sheer number of sequels made despite this absence of popularity, it might be closer to the company’s paddleboat ( or pédalo if you will). In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realized this series really embodies the spirit of a paddleboat. Navigating at a slow pace, unable to move faster no matter how fast you pedal/press “x.” Everywhere you look water/soldiers, barely hindering your progress. You can go co-op to have at least someone to talk to while you’re grinding away. Most of the paddleboats/characters you see do look kind of good in their goofy way, but I’m always surprised they’re viable choices to sail on a lake / fight on a battlefield. You see my point.
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Now You’re Playing With Power – An Intro
As any gamer kid of the 80’s and 90’s can probably tell you, Nintendo Power was the video game bible that we all lived by.
1 More Castle Community Gaming Night
Hi, everyone! Tom here, breaking doctor’s orders and writing to give you some important news! The gaming community as a whole has been nuttier than a squirrel’s cheeks in October lately and here at 1 More Castle, we’ve been fortunate enough to become somewhat of a refuge from the madness. As 1/2 of the Community Management team, that makes me smile. I have been wanting to do something to help remind everyone why it is we’re all here to begin with: to have fun with video games and share our love of video games with others. An idea was born. Read More
It Came From Japan
Famicom Disk System
こんにちは! Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Started a new job, had a bunch of training then I had a vacation in Vegas. But now I’m back and ready to go! Today I’m gonna continue to talk about the Famicom, but this time focusing on the attachment known as the Famicom Disk System. The FDS system is pretty cool and plays games that look like 3.5 inch floppy disks. The beauty with this type of cartridge/game is it allows you to save your game! There were machines in a lot of stores that would allow you to erase the game on the disk you had and save a new game onto it. Which seems awesome but when you buy a game online now, even though it has a label saying it’s one game it could actually be something totally different.
Queries
Queries: Dj Cutman (Episode 1)
Welcome to Queries! My name is Daniel Lamplugh, and in this series, I will be posting monthly interviews with people from Internet Culture, generally related to gaming. This could range from game devs to chiptune musicians, or whoever else is willing to come on the show. I can’t promise Cliffy B, Minoru Arakawa, or Adam Sessler will be on here, but I will try to find interesting and noteworthy guests.
Daniel Lamplugh: And on that note, today I am here with musician, remixer, and record label manager, Dj CUTMAN.
Game Overkill
Game Overkill – Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy was one of the first NES games I played. I can still remember first turning it on and being disappointed almost immediately. I was 9 years old and wouldn’t start studying English for another two years, so all that text that was meant to tell me important things was practically unintelligible. Luckily, I lived in Canada, and for some awesome reason, almost everything on the box and in the box was in English AND French.
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The Retro Critic
Nightshade
Big plans were brewing back in 1992.
BIG plans.
Like a group of mad scientists in an old black and white movie, Beam Software developed a little game called Nightshade, also known as Nightshade Part 1: The Claws Of Sutekh and, although the game never received the sequels it promised/deserved, it was later used as a starting point for Shadowrun.
Released on the NES, the game was an ambitious mix of RPG adventure, point-and-click mystery, fighting action and… bad jokes.
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GMZ
GMZ #19 – Katamari, Gaming’s Greatest Feud, and Burnout
Katamari Child Abuse?
By Tom “T-Bone” Stankus
Child Welfare Services have placed the the young Prince and all his cousins in various foster homes and shelters after police across the universe arrested their parents for a multitude of charges ranging from reckless endangerment, child labour, cruelty, and malnutrition.
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1 More Podcastle
104 – Naked Bears
I, for one, welcome our new Google search audience based on this episode title.
Retro Power
Retro Power Project Announcement
I’d be lying if I told you that my college writing classes were my favorite, but since graduation I have slowly come to not only tolerate putting ink to paper, but actually quite enjoy it. There was something almost inexplicably cathartic about my Indy Pop Con article. I knew after its warm reception I had to do something else to add to the retro gaming community, but what else was there?
After exchanging emails with my now partner in crime the thought struck me, “I love Nintendo Power.” I mean who among us in the community doesn’t shed a tear now and then at its absence, but my sentiment wasn’t just about missing the beloved magazine itself, but more so the gaping hole it has left in our community since its disappearance.
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Chasing Ghosts: One Quarter at a Time
Who is that guy in the red hat? Vs. Super Mario Bros. boggles my brain
The following is part of a series about my past experiences with arcade games and running them in MAME. I will only write about games I remember playing in an actual arcade, not games I only discovered through MAME.