The Fair Shake
“What the EFF should I play?” – TI – 99/4A
When it comes to games, I don’t really ‘collect’ everything I see. I usually stick to 2600 cartridges as my ‘system’ to collect for bypassing rows upon rows of SNES, N64, and Genesis carts at a flea market, but actual systems? Those are a weakness. Same goes for the older 8 bit gaming computer systems. I’m lucky enough to be able to have a game room setup (which sees far less use then you’d think) in the house, along with a fiance’ that enjoys gaming and permits this little fun den. The shelves in the room are stocked with most mainstream US consoles from the Atari 2600 onward. a A few weeks ago I stumbled around one of those flea markets doing ‘the walk’. You know ‘the walk’, right? That slow shuffle as you gaze on tables upon tables of knick knacks, doilies, pots, pans, old DVDs, and stereo systems that were lousy 20 years ago. Once in awhile though, you find a gem buried under something.
It Came From Japan
Parodius Da!
Konnichiwa! こんにちは! (gotta show off a bit of Japanese from my university class) I hope all is going well with you. I figured for this week’s entry of It Came From Japan I would stick with the penguin theme that I kind of started in the last post with Antarctic Adventure. What do a penguin, octopus, twin bee and fighter jet have in common? They are all flyable characters in Parodius Da! This game was put out by Konami (which instantly makes it awesome) in 1990 and is available on the Famicom, Super Famicom and also for the Japanese Game Boy system. The GB version will still work on your system since the Game Boy is region free. Though keep in mind since it is the GB, that version is only 8 levels long.
I have this game for the Famicom, but the version on the Super Fami seems to be pretty much the same as the Famicom version but there are a few extra levels plus looks and sounds nicer, so if you have a choice pick up the SuFami one.
Read More
The Retro Critic
City Hunter
So I recently realised that I had never reviewed a HuCard PC Engine game, which isn’t so crazy since I grew up playing consoles and only discovered the crazy world of computers much later, but also because I kinda… forgot those games even existed.
Thinking about anime-themed games, I remembered a specific one based on one of my own personal favourite anime series which I had painstakingly tried hunting down through the dark backwoods of the “interwebs” some time ago: City Hunter.
Read More
1 More Podcastle
062 – The Eric & Jason Show!
Welcome to the new podcast we’re launching today: The Eric & Jason Show!
The Backlog
Shatterhand (NES)
Scott Pilgrim vs The Backlog continues! In 1991, the NES was graced with a game about a cyborg cop whose thirst for justice was quenched only by punching things until they exploded. Shatterhand is that game.
The Completist
The Completist Presents: The Streets of Rage Series – Part 1
Wife: “She kicks.”
Zack: “She kicks? What do you mean by, she kicks?”
Wife: “I’m telling you, she kicks.”
N64 Connoisseur
They Call That a Remainder
In long division, when there is a little something left over, that is referred to as a remainder. That is about where it ends for me and the maths, but that is enough to define what I am up to here this week. As I have come to find out over my time as the Connoisseur, not every idea can be a full piece. Some ideas are good, but there is just not enough meat to them to support a whole piece. Kind of like how I don’t think Will Smith is a good enough actor to be the only character in a movie. Over the course of a year, though, these things tend to pile up and what am I supposed to do with them all? Maybe they would all be good together. Will Smith, after all, is good with other actors around him. So, this piece is my purging of all of those N64 Connoisseur thoughts that just didn’t make it.
What The EFF is on this Disk!?
Unlabeled Mystery Disk
For whatever reason, I never labeled this disk. I always knew what was on it when I was a kid, as of course games were all that were on my mind circa 1992 (that and comic books). As time marched on this disk made it’s way deeper and deeper to the bottom of a desk drawer, forgotten until last year when I started tearing apart my childhood desk (not literally dismantling it, but ’emptying it’.) Of course I found the requisite dried out colored markers, my old combination lock that served me for over 10 years, and this disk. The ‘blank disk’.
The Retro Critic
Sailor Moon
After Fist Of The North Star, I thought I’d talk about something, indeed, anime-related but slightly lighter in tone and what better show to choose for that but Sailor Moon?
After all, there are a bunch of Sailor Moon games out there and the idea of a Streets Of Rage-style beat ’em up with that character, I must admit, I always found random, in an awesome kind of way, of course.
And I’m all about awesome/random things.
This particular game (aka Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon) had three main incarnations: on the Super Famicom, the SNES and the Sega Mega Drive. I’ll focus on the latter two because they’re the ones I’m most familiar with.
Storming The Castle
RetroActive Round Up
Hello everyone and welcome to “Storming the Castle,” a new collaboration between three similar, but also very distinct minds. Allow us to introduce ourselves:
Johnny De Alba: “Retro Gaming Corner” columnist and viral article creator extraordinaire! Johnny manages to find topics so obscure and inconceivable, you can’t help but gawk in sheer amazement. How does he find this stuff?
Zack Smith: Scribe of “The Completist” column. Zack manages to write articles that are so long, even people who read Robert Jordan novels can’t get through them without a dictionary and a bowl of popcorn.
Paul Potvin: Author of the insanely prolific “The Fair Shake” and “What The EFF is on this Disk?!” columns. Paul posts his articles with the punctuality of a German train. It is rumored that if he ever missed more than two weeks 1 More Castle would spontaneously implode due to lack of content.
Now that we have introduced ourselves let me briefly explain our mission: we want to do something a little different, at least by 1 More Castle standards. Thus the name “Storming the Castle.” Sure, you’ll see plenty of retro games and retro inspired items, but that’s the tip of the iceberg. So without further intro bloat let’s start by shaking things up a bit with something 1 More Castle has only occasionally touched on before: some NEWer retro games!
1 More Countdown
Top 10 Games Based on Boring Jobs
Over the summer I needed some extra money so I did landscaping at a private golf course. For forty hours a week I was raking sand traps, digging holes, and mowing acres upon acres of grass. The job wasn’t bad at all but it was definitely boring. On this job I found myself thinking up numerous ideas for blogs and lists. However, the very first idea I thought of, was the top 10 games about boring jobs. So it’s the first one I decided to write.
The Backlog
Crash ‘N’ The Boys: Street Challenge (NES)
Kicking off “Scott Pilgrim vs The Backlog,” Joe talks about Crash ‘N’ The Boys: Street Challenge for NES, a rough-and-tumble track and field game that’s great for rowdy multiplayer sessions.
GMZ
GMZ #4 – Adoption, Back Hair, and an Exclusive Ninja Turtle Interview
Slippy Toad adopts African child
By Pigma Dengar
Slippy Toad, celebrity engineer and autist extraordinaire, still leeching onto the worn out trends of A-listers before him (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Captain Commando), recently revealed his new adopted child from the African Congo, who Slippy has decided to name “Linus,” after the Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux. Slippy has since taken Linus on several public shopping trips, a day at the zoo, and to a picnic in south east Cornerian Fields district of Corneria.
Several critics are saying Mr. Toad only adopted the child to attract publicity, especially since the lack of buzz since he came out as bisexual 5 years ago. While some believe Slippy is begging for the spotlight, he confided to The Corneria Gazette that he “really just wanted someone who will appreciate [him] more than the rest of the world does.” Well, be it for publicity, or to make up for emotional neglect, many feel the child is being used as a ploy. But will being a doll for the cameras be an improvement over the impoverished life in Africa? Only time will tell.
Read More
Mascot Mania
Radical Rex
Just like the generations before it, the 90s had its fair share of catchphrases. The Ninja Turtles brought surfer lingo into all of our young vocabularies with words such as “cowabunga” and “gnarly.” Other popular phrases included bodacious, tubular, rad, boss, and bitchin’. For those who aren’t aware, these all basically translate to being cool or awesome. Now I know what some of you are thinking, what does this have to do with video games? This isn’t a lesson in urban slang! Well, someone at Beam Software thought it would be a radical idea to take some slang and mix it with something most kids loved, dinosaurs. As a result we got yet another mediocre at best mascot platformer: Radical Rex.
Read More
Read More
It Came From Japan
Antarctic Adventure
![VTS_01_1[21-05-57]](/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/VTS_01_121-05-57.jpg)
For this week I have decided to pick a game based on the weather, it sounds kind of lame when I say it that way but stick with me here. It’s November now so it’s time for winter, and based on the weather here winter has definitely come. When I think of cold and snow one of the first things that comes to mind is little penguins all dressed up in their tuxedos. Apparently game developers in Japan like penguins too, based on the amount of penguin games that came out for the Famicom that we never got here. The game I’m thinking of is Antarctic Adventure starring Pentarou who went on to star in a lot of other Konami games. The really cool thing about this series that a lot of people probably don’t know is that a really popular game designer worked on it back in the day; that designer is Hideo Kojima, the man behind games like Metal Gear. He didn’t work on this game specifically, but he worked on the sequel called Penguin Adventure that was released for the MSX.
The 7th Guest 3 Kickstarter
Once called the “new entertainment standard” by Bill Gates, the original 7th Guest was an interactive movie puzzle adventure game released in 1994, and was one of the first games to be a CD-ROM exclusive. While the sequel, 1995’s the 11th hour, was not as commercially successful, creator Rob Landeros has taken to Kickstarter to create a threequel.
The Fair Shake
Tooth Protectors: Atari 2600
Some people are gamers. Some are collectors. I’m more on the ‘gamer’ side of the fence, however I do constantly look out for one thing ‘in the wild’. Atari 2600 stuff. It’s where my heart lies, I suppose, there and the NES. I grew up with the Atari, and actually only stopped playing for a few years in the early to mid 90’s. Sure, a lot of the games are trash but you can overlook those, right? Hours spent playing with my dad, or watching my dad play back before the NES even existed. Whatever the reason, I collect for it.