1 More Podcastle
020 – Jurassic Scottie Pippen Park
“Stop dribbling, Scottie!” Michael Jordan said as the T-rex stared them down. “Their vision is based on movement!” Charles Barkley mumbled something about chaos theory.
Gone Fishin’
Sports games, as you may very well know, are an immensely popular genre in the world of video games. Every year, the Madden series manages to sell a staggering amount of copies, arguably with very little changes from the year before. The same can also be said of the NHL, NBA, and MLB franchises. Yet, what about games based on less popular sports? Why is there not great attention paid to games based on bowling, paintball, and even fishing? Well, I’m here to explain the joys of Real Fishin’.
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The Fair Shake
Jumpjet: DOS
Shareware was, and is, a popular method of distributing a game. I’ve covered such games like Spacewar and Flightmare, both being fun, challenging shareware games that over 25 years later still entertain, even with limited graphics and sound. I’ll add another this week to fill your 1.44 Mb floppy with. JumpJet, by Monte Variakojis.
The Retro Critic
PSYCHO
Back in the day, nothing annoyed me more than games based on movies which had absolutely nothing to do with the movies they were based on. Or games which simply got everything wrong adaptation-wise.
Remember Ghostbusters on NES?
Oh sure it had some “ghost busting” in it, technically, and an ending somewhat related to the film but as a whole it was nothing short of insulting. Total Recall had cats you could punch and Jaws had you mindlessly killing stingrays for ages, fine, but they were still playable at least.
Then I start playing Psycho (aka Psycho: Arcade Quest) for the Commodore 64.
What songs do your favorite games remind you of? I wanna know
Video games. Music.
Music. Video games.
Both have been entertainment mainstays for many moons. Music tends to tie itself to moments and memories in your life. In the case of a multi-decade chronic video game player, they remind me of various games, too.
D-ported
SimCity 2000
Everybody loves SimCity 2000! But does everybody love it on the SNES? Alex explores the port of (almost) everyone’s favourite city building game.
1 More Podcastle
19 – Sock Piano
In this episode, we answer a listener email and Bailey tries to coin a new phrase. The coining process was more of a failure than my sock puppet piano lesson business (Sock puppets can’t play piano, nor do they have any inclination to learn).
An Interview with American McGee
American McGee: The man is the founder of Spicy Horse, creator of the Alice series of games, and currently is pushing Akaneiro: Demon Hunters on Kickstarter. But perhaps you’d like to know more about the man who got his start working for ID, on such games as Wolfenstein and Quake. Read on, as we’ve got an interview featured after the break!
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RetroHate
New Game Minus
Check it out! RetroHate has leveled up and will now be a regular feature on 1MC! Be afraid for your childhood. Be very afraid.
So today I’m turning the LHC (Large Haetron Cannon) on a single game (or series) that has frustrated me and many others to no end: Ghosts n Goblins. This arcade/NES game and its subsequent series is widely known as possibly the most difficult game of all time. Part of this is due to the fact that you can only get hit twice; once you lose your armor, twice you lose your skin. Another thing that makes the game so gruelingly, “Nintendo/arcade hard” (“Dark Souls hard” for you younger gaming whipper-snappers) is that the game deliberately tries to screw you at every turn: Zombies continually and randomly pop up from the ground, even beneath your feet; enemies constantly flood every part of the screen, re-spawning if you so much as walk two steps backwards; wizards cast spells that turn you into a frog; your weapon is slow & weak; weapon “upgrades” can actually hinder you from progressing in the game; and the overall level design is designed to make things as difficult as inhumanly possible.
The Fair Shake
Sunset Riders: SNES
With the gun control debate raging, I figured I’d briefly touch on one of my favorite SNES games that concerns guns with unlimited ammo magazines. In the video game realm, we have Steve, Billy, Bob, and Cormano, bad-ass bounty hunters who are the main characters of Konami’s Sunset Riders. Released in 1991 initially as an arcade game and two years later as excellent home conversions for both the SNES and Genesis, the game puts you in control of one of these four bounty hunters who are out to get some cash by capturing some bad guys and in the process saving a small section of the Old West.
The Retro Critic
BLACK LODGE
Taking a little detour from actual retro games and entering the dark and twisted realm of fan-made retro-themed games, here’s a little something I’ve been dying to talk about for some time.
Black Lodge is, believe it or not, a Twin Peaks Atari 2600 game. Or, rather, a free Atari 2600-style Twin Peaks game made recently and playable on your Mac or PC. A homage to both the classic console and the cult TV series, essentially.
Arcade’s perennial classics are seemingly without contenders
One of the most common questions I get doing what I do is why Donkey Kong world record stories seem to be coming out all the time. In the wake of the most recent, which was Quebec’s Vincent Lemay coming just 2,700 points shy, I had to give this some deep thinking about that.
Clearly 2007’s The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters kicked off a flurry of interest in chasing the Donkey Kong record as well as overall interest in the world record chasing scene. While it only SEEMS that stories on new DK scores are the only ones that have gotten mainstream press since (stories on Pac-Man, Frogger, Q*bert and others have gained some press, too), I couldn’t help but notice that arcade gaming’s perennial classics are sitting dormant.
Sandy Petersen: An interview about DOOM, Quake, and AoE
Sandy Petersen. You may know him as the level designer behind such games as DOOM, DOOM 2, and Quake. Or maybe you’re more familiar with his role as a game designer for many of the Age of Empires games. Perhaps though, you’re instead a fan of his Call of Cthulu role playing game? Whatever it is, I got a chance to ask Mr. Petersen some questions on his varied, and influential, career.
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N64 Connoisseur
Why Do You Hate the Rumble Pak?
Hey! Are you guys still here? Seems like a while since I’ve seen you. Thanks for waiting! The N64 Connoisseur is back from the holiday break and I have a question for you. Why the heck do you guys hate on the Rumble Pak so much? It seems to me that a lot of Nintendo 64 conversations always come back to 2 major complaints: I hate the controller and that rumble thing was stupid. Well, Tyler Beauregard already handled the controller issue on Retroware TV. He handled it beautifully, I might add. I will go to bat for the Rumble Pak and poke holes in your most common Rumble Pak complaints.
The Fair Shake
GATO
So let’s discuss a hypothetical quandary. You like submarines, but hate the complicated controls found in most every modern simulation game (I refer you to Flightgear for a modern example). Graphics are irrelevant to your enjoyment, right? I mean if they were that important to you I don’t think you’d be reading my column, would you? So what is a modern day Admiral Nelson to do? I refer you to the first commercial PC submarine simulator: GATO. One of the first releases from Spectrum Holobyte, initially for the PC in 1984, GATO puts you in control of a United States Navy submarine during World War II in the Pacific theater. The game features several different types of missions, but most all revolve around sinking enemy ships. You may need to go to a certain spot on the map to rescue a crashed fighter pilot, all while avoiding enemy patrols, or destroy an entire convoy before it escapes the game map.
The Retro Critic
Shenmue II: The Ultimate Gaming Cliffhanger?
I haven’t worshipped too many games in my life. Many games I’ve really liked, even loved but worshipped? Very few.
Off the top of my head, I can only think of a handful including Panzer Dragoon Saga on the Sega Saturn, the very first Tomb Raider on PC, Shenmue and of course its sequel, both on the Dreamcast. I was especially hooked by the latter and, like many other gamers out there, the second game’s ending not only blew me away but left me wanting more.
Did you know? Well now you know, and you know what knowing is.
Holidays are over. The kids go back to school now. Seemed like an appropriate time to do one of these and maybe do a little teaching myself.
Here’s some fairly random video game trivia to get your minds working again as we kick 2013 into gear.