November 24th, 2008 by Craig (email author)
I’ve been away for a while visiting family near Portsmouth. One of the things that we always seem to do while we are there is visit Southsea which is a nice little seaside town in the area.
With it being a seaside town, it is obviously very quiet at this time of year. However, to my surprise the arcades were still open. And as always, I couldn’t resist having a quick look around to see if anything caught my eye.
Now, I seem to do this almost everytime I see an arcade so I should be expecting it really. But I still feel disapointed whenever I look around and discover that the arcades of today are full of slots, sit-down racers, shooters and dance machines. I find myself secretly hoping to find an old Bubble Bobble or 1942 machine hidden away in the corner, but of course this never the case.
I grew up quite near the coast in the ’80s and the arcades where one of the places where my love of games first started. Back then, there was a quantum leap between the games you could get for your home computer and the ones available in arcades. It was always a special experience to play them in their native environment. However, it seems that the only way arcades today distinguish themselves from their arcade counterparts is the interface you use to play the game. Out are the 8-way joysticks of old and in are a variety of controls ranging from the previously mentioned dancemats to fishing rods.
It does make me wonder if there are any pubilc retro arcades still out there. My heart would love to see one, but my head tells me the maintainence of the old machines alone would be a nightmare. And with emulators such as MAME enabiling people to play the classics in the confort of their homes, would anybody other than real enthusiasts be interested?
Anyway, the visit wasn’t a complete disapointment. I did find a couple of pinball tables which recieved the attention they deserved. I have to shamefully admit that I got all three multiballs stuck on a ramp on one of them.
October 20th, 2008 by Craig (email author)
Whilst playing around with a few behind-the-scene things, I managed to change something in the RSS feed which means it hasn’t been working for the last week or two.
Admittedly there hasn’t actually been much on the feed, but at least I’m smug knowing that it’s back up and running.
I’m sure there is a lesson to be learned here, but where’s the fun in getting it right all the time?
October 19th, 2008 by Craig (email author)
Description
“Turrican fought an epic battle against Morgul and won a stunning victory against great odds. Once again he embarks on a rescue mission. Five worlds and twelve levels await him in his Final Fight against the remnants of Morgul’s creation. The classic run-and-gun shooter saga continues with Turrican II: The Final Fight, a game featuring state-of-the-art visuals, five worlds packed with hidden secrets and treasures, and seven mega-weapons including a powerful flamethrower.” [box art]
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September 17th, 2008 by Craig (email author)
Description
“High in the Andes, a biting wind howls through the Incas’ ruined strongholds. Half a world away, the Pharaohs’ tombs lie empty. In Italy, the Roman Colosseum decays. Everywhere, you see the remnants of societies that thought they would endure forever. All are dust. Yours can be different. You can be the one person in history that builds an empire that never falls.
That’s the challenge of Civilization, the most enthralling “god game” yet developed. From the creator of Railroad Tycoon – the SPAs 1990 Strategy Game of the Year – Civilization lets you match wits with history’s greatest leaders.
You start at the dawn of recorded history – 4000 B.C. and the founding of the first cities – then nurture your society toward the Space Age. In the beginning, you’ll labor to simply survive while building your settlements, discovering new technologies, and fending off barbarians.
As your empire prospers, you’ll face competing civilizations guided by history’s most legendary figures: Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar and more. Now you’ll test your capacity for expansion and domination, your ability to outwit and outmaneuver those cunning and brilliant leaders.
Just look how Civilization lets you build a brave new world.” [box art]
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September 9th, 2008 by Craig (email author)
Description
“You are a feared gunslinger, until you attempt to help a woman whose life has been destroyed by a mysterious Cabal. You too are sucked in and killed; when resurrected you are out for revenge.
Ken Silverman’s Build engine is the basis for what was possibly the goriest first-person shooter ever made up to this time. The environment is fully interactive, with moving floors and active vehicles. Destruction of landscapes is possible, and bullet holes being left by misplaced shots. The Build engine is 2.5D, so there are rooms above rooms and puzzles which are based on this.
People explode violently when taken out, to the point that you can use a zombie’s head like a football. Impaled victims can be found lying around, and people die in different ways depending on how they are attacked and in which part of their body.” [mobygames]
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September 1st, 2008 by Craig (email author)
I’m lucky enough to live in an area where there seem to be a load of car boot sales going on every weekend. Yesterday I found the time to go along and see if anything was worth buying.
Due to the recent spell of bad weather we have been having, the usually packed field was a bit quiet. However, I did pick up a few PC games that caught my eye…
- Glover – I’ve only played a friends copy of this very briefly. It’s a kind of 3D platformer with a Mario 64 graphical feel to it.
- TFX – I remember the whole publisher fuss made when this was first developed for the Amiga. It was finally released by CU Amiga magazine, but I never had an Amiga that was powerful enough to play it. Let’s see what the PC version is like.
- The Dig – A classic LucasArts adventure that I have never played. I have never heard anyone say anything bad about this game.
- Daikatana – A overly hyped and apparently very bad game, or so the press claimed at the time of release. I’ve only ever played a single map death-match demo of this, so it will be interesting to see what it’s like.
They should keep me busy for a few hours, anyway.
August 31st, 2008 by Craig (email author)
Description
“Liquid Dezign featured many of the Digital Illusions team who developed 21st Century’s hit pinball games, and after the generally-disliked Pinball Mania from another team, they produced one last Amiga pinball game. The game features four different tables, each with different layouts and features. A large number of sub-games are included, as well as a variety of animations on the LCD panel at the top. Each table has multi-ball features, with the view automatically switching to full-screen when this is activated. in total there are six different viewpoints, and no less than 47 different game modes are promised.” [mobygames]
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August 24th, 2008 by Craig (email author)
Description
“Stardust is basically Asteroids, but with a lot of modifications to the basic gameplay. There are 30 standard levels split into groups of 6 – you can take these on in any order, but most fight an end-of-level bad guy once you finish all 6. While each level has the standard disintegrating rocks to destroy, all but 2 of them have extra bad guys, with a range of attack patterns.
There are a number of different weapons available, which are collected by moving your ship so that it crosses their paths as they float through space. Each of these can be powered up – some weapons start strong but can’t be powered up as much as others; fortunately you can power up one weapon while using another. Extra lives, shield enhancements and a smart bomb are also on offer.
Along with the standard levels, there are also 4 tunnel levels, which involve shooting what you can and dodging everything else as you dart through a ray-traced tunnel, and 2 optional Thrust-style bonus levels in which lives can be won or lost.” [mobygames]
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August 19th, 2008 by Craig (email author)
Hello and welcome to my own little bit of the Internet.
Using this site, I am hoping to track down some of the old computer and console games I played when I was younger and see how they hold up today. I’ve been playing games ever since I was given my first Sinclair Spectrum as a child and have enjoyed hundreds of games for multiple systems ever since and have quite a range to draw from.
I am going to try and mainly focus on the two systems that have given me the most joy over my games-playing life, the Commodore Amiga and the PC. However, don’t think I’m just going to restrict myself to them! There are quite a few other systems that I’m planning to revisit. Also, where ever possible I am going to attempt to track down original disk images of the games to get the full experience and also let you know where to get hold of them yourself.
Now the uncomfortable first post is out of the way, where do I start?
