As this year
marches on we begin to head into an interesting time for video games,
as both retro and current games continue to bleed into one another more
and more. In just a few weeks the TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine will
have a return to the spotlight with its own mini all-in-one
system. A new Intellivision console is slated for release at the
end of the year. The next generation of modern gaming is waiting
just over the horizon, ever blurring where the retrogaming line
falls. Flash cartridge technology continues to mature and
improve, continuously adding value as hobbyist projects become
legitimate gaming solutions. It's all pretty great as it gives
the player choice and variety - as does this issue!
We get
underway with Merman's comprehensive look at the roster of
Capcom games on Commodore 64, featuring titles both classic and obscure
in this issue's cover story. Donald Lee returns with his thoughts
on the current incarnation of Namco Museum as well as some Atari
homebrew news, straight from Don's Desk. With less than a year
until its planned launch, the Intellivision Amico is back on Sean
Robinson's radar as he details his views on how the upcoming console is
being presented. Absence may make the heart grow fonder but have
the nearly two decades since the Shenmue series began on the Dreamcast
allowed the flames of revenge to cool down? The promise and the
problems of Shenmue III are detailed in a special article.
Regarded by some as little more than a failed gimmick, Todd Friedman
presents his case for the importance of the Power Glove in The
Controller Chronicles. Video Game Haiku returns after a short
hiatus, along with a reader submission! All that and
more are ahead in this issue of The Retrogaming Times!
I want to
again remind our readers if
they
have comments or questions about anything covered in the newsletter, or
there is something they would like featured in a future issue of The
Retrogaming
Times, to contact me directly at trt@classicplastic.net!
Of course article submissions are also always open. If you have
something
ready to go, the address is the same, trt@classicplastic.net. "If
there is something you want to write about, send it in!"
Midwest Gaming Classic, April 3rd - 5th
2020, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
The Midwest
Gaming Classic is a trade show featuring 150,000+ square feet of retro
and modern home video game consoles, pinball machines, arcade video
games, table top RPGs, computers, table top board games, crane games,
collectible card games, air hockey, and that’s just the start.
The Midwest
Gaming Classic is about celebrating gaming, trying new things, learning
about the gaming hobby, about meeting others who share the love of
gaming, and having fun doing it! No matter if you have one
console and a handful of games or thousands of games in every room of
your house, you'll find something to celebrate with us!
Pintastic Pinball & Game Room Expo,
June 25th - 28th 2020, Sturbridge, Boxborough, USA
Flippin Fun
For Everyone! Are you looking for a little relief from the hot
summer sun? Look no further than Pintastic New England, which is
the first of its kind, centrally located in Sturbridge,
Massachusetts. This expo is 30,000 square feet of fun for the
whole family. The kids can have never-ending excitement with a
caricature artist, face painting, friendly clowns & balloon
animals. The adults can bring out their inner child with over 200
pinball machines set on free play, all while enjoying an ice-cold craft
beer.
Video Game Summit, July 11th 2020, Villa
Park, Illinois, USA
The date for
the 2020 Video Game Summit has been set! It will be held on July
11th at The Odeum Expo Center, 1033 North Villa Ave., Villa Park,
Illinois. More information to follow shortly!
KansasFest, July 21st - 26th 2020,
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
KansasFest
2020, the 32nd annual Apple II convention, is scheduled for July 21 -
26 in Kansas City, Missouri. Robert Woodhead of Sir-Tech Software,
well-known as the co-creator of the Wizardry series of computer
role-playing games, will join us as the keynote speaker.
At an early
age, Robert Woodhead, aka Trebor the Mad Overlord, was consumed by two
passions; computer programming and not having to have a real job.
He first achieved this by writing computer games for Sir-Tech Software,
most notoriously co-authoring the first four Wizardry CRPGs, first for
the Apple II, and later for other, lesser computers. In 1989,
deciding that this wasn't nerdy enough, he founded the oldest surviving
anime releasing company, AnimEigo. Other things he's done
include: writing one of the first MMO bots, building a 2-time National
Champion Combat Robot, serving 4 terms on the EVE Online Council of
Stellar Management, and not being "liquidated" by his wife. Yet.
KansasFest is
an annual convention offering Apple II users and retrocomputing
enthusiasts the opportunity to engage in beginner and technical
sessions, programming contests, exhibition halls, and camaraderie.
KansasFest was originally hosted by Resource Central and has been
brought to you by the KFest committee since 1995. Any and all Apple II
users, fans, and friends are invited to attend this year’s event.
Registration details will be announced on the KansasFest Web site, and
registration will open on March 31. For photos, videos, and
presentations from past KansasFests, please visit the event’s official
website.
Will you be
among the 2020 attendees? Mark your calendars for July 21 - 26, 2020.
California Extreme 2020, July 25th -
26th 2020, Santa Clara, California, USA
California
Extreme is very pleased to officially announce the dates for this
year's California Extreme Arcade and Pinball Show. It will be
held on July 25 - 26, 2020 at the same fantastic location - the Hyatt
Regency in Santa Clara, California. Please join us for our 24th show
with hundreds of your favorite arcade and pinball games, both past and
present, all gathered for another fun-filled weekend of arcade
excitement for everyone!
We will
announce later when the hotel will be accepting reservations (please
don’t contact the hotel as the block is not set up yet) and when show
tickets will be on sale.
Classic Game Fest, July 25th - 26th
2020, Austin, Texas, USA
The biggest
retro gaming event in Texas is back on July 25 - 26, 2020! Classic Game
Fest returns to the Palmer Events Center in Austin, TX on July 25-26,
2020. The annual summer event will feature all the expected attractions
including special guests, live music, free play games, a massive vendor
hall and more. Vendor booth and ticket information will be available
soon.
If there is a
show or event you would
like listed here, free of charge, please contact David directly at trt@classicplastic.net.
Please include a short official blurb about your event along with any
relevant
links or contact information and it will be published in the next issue
of The Retrogaming Times. The event listing will remain posted
until
the issue following the event date. Big or small, we want to
promote
your show in our newsletter.
Check out
these great events, shows,
and conventions and let them know you read about them in The
Retrogaming
Times!
More
C64! - Capcom USA
by Merman
Everyone has heard of Capcom, right? IRM (formed in 1979
by Irem's founder Kenzo Tsujimoto) and Capsule Computers (formed in
1981) made sales through a company called Capcom (a contraction of
Cap-sule and Com-puters, the company was headed by Tsujimoto after he
left Irem). The two companies would merge under the Capcom name and
became one of the leading arcade manufacturers in the 1980s, with a
string of hits including Commando and Ghosts 'n Goblins. The Capcom USA
subsidiary was founded in 1985 primarily as a publisher, with the
majority of its titles released on C64 and DOS. Capcom USA still exists
today, but we are going to look back at its catalogue of C64 titles -
which are nearly all arcade conversions. Much of the conversion work
was done by Pacific Dataworks International, a company formed by Troy
Lyndon and Christopher Riggs. But as we will find out, not all of those
conversions were originally from Capcom's own arcade titles.
The Capcom presents logo from Bionic Commando
(US version), and the Pacific Dataworks logo from Street Fighter (US
version).
BIONIC COMMANDO (US VERSION)
The highly original mechanic of swinging through the
levels on a bionic arm made Bionic Commando an arcade hit, with some
great cartoon-style characters and excellent music. When it came to the
home computers, there were actually two versions - the UK game
developed by Software Creations for US Gold's Go! label, and the US
version from Capcom USA.
However, the US version is markedly inferior to the UK
incarnation. The UK game has a superb soundtrack by Tim Follin, using
many of the themes from the arcade machine and elaborating and
expanding on them. The US soundtrack is poor in comparison, although it
does only use two channels to allow the third to play sound effects.
And while the small sprites of the UK version are no match for the
arcade game, they move and look so much better than the US game
(although the main sprite is quite effective, the rest are poor). The
US version also suffers with a really short bionic arm that makes hard
work of climbing upwards; you often find yourself falling off the end
of a platform because you didn't hook in far enough. The final nail in
the coffin is the poor scrolling.
About to blow up a
generator in the UK level 1,
and grabbing a branch with the claw in the US version.
CABAL (US VERSION)
The arcade original is a tough game filled with
destruction, with the player moving a cursor to fire their machine gun
and grenades at enemies and background features alike. A lot of players
remember it for the strangely camp way the hero runs up the screen on
completing a level.
There were two versions of this title too. Special FX
developed an excellent port for Ocean. The graphics are really well
drawn (especially the hero sprite with its black overlay giving
detail), it features all the levels and controls really well. It lacks
the victory "dance" - the hero simply walks off screen to the right
instead - and a two-player mode but it works well.
Sadly the US version is another let-down. Graphics are
notably worse, enemy bullets can be hard to spot and it is tricky to
control. (Interestingly, it also uses sprite overlays but the larger
player character is not as well drawn). It also lacks the two-player
mode, and the collapsing background details are poorly handled.
Stranger still there is no dodge roll and no actual grenades - you
simply double-tap fire and it does extra damage to the target, without
showing the grenade at all. The difficulty level is high too.
Level 1 of the UK
version on the left, level 2
of the US version on the right.
GUN.SMOKE
Capcom's vertically-scrolling run & game has a great
Western theme, with a series of bad guys to catch depicted on a wanted
poster. Developed by the legendary Yoshiki Okamoto, it took the idea of
Commando and made the player push forward with its forced scrolling.
The player could aim in three directions, and shooting barrels revealed
power-ups. These included boots to speed up movement and rifles to
increase shot distance. Waiting at the end of each level was the bad
guy the player had to kill for the bounty, with the scrolling stopping.
There is only one version, developed by Capcom USA. And
that may explain some of the poor reviews, as the game was not properly
optimised for the PAL (European) market. ZZAP! 64 magazine in
particular was very harsh in its review. There were bugs, poor graphics
and terrible sound. Reviewer Julian Rignall suggested the American
programmers should have been given a copy of The Shoot 'Em Up
Construction Kit (a programming utility by Sensible Software, which
ironically contained a game inspired by Gun.Smoke called Outlaw - which
is more fun to play, despite lacking the power-ups). The final overall
score was 15%, with the acerbic comment, "Any decent cowboy would have
this lame horse shot and sent to the great software shelf in the sky."
Perhaps my least favourite aspect of the conversion is the fact that
you restart at the beginning of the level when you die; at least the
arcade game had checkpoints in the levels so you restarted further
along when you had reached one.
The WANTED first
villain is named after a type
of rifle, and setting off into level 1.
An interesting postscript to the Gun.Smoke story was
unveiled by journalist Jeremy Parish for the USGamer website. Capcom
in the early 2000s had developed several new games related to but not
directly based on its classic properties. One such game was Maximo, a
3D game loosely inspired by Ghosts 'n Goblins. Parish discovered Capcom
had a 3D cowboy game in development in 2003, drawing on Gun.Smoke's
heritage. However the company halted development - only for Rockstar
Games to step in and buy the prototype. Rockstar continued development
and released it under the new title Red Dead Revolver in 2004. Six
years later came the best-selling sequel Red Dead Redemption and in
2018 the mammoth follow-up Red Dead Redemption II.
HAT TRICK
This is the first of three games that were not originally
Capcom's in the arcade. Former Atari personnel set up a new firm in
1983, called Videa. Atari founder Nolan Bushnell needed games for his
Chuck-E-Cheese restaurants, invested in Videa and renamed the firm
Sente Technologies. (Sente, like Atari is a term from the Japanese game
"Go." Where Atari means to "hit the target", Sente means to "have the
initiative.") It did lead to a lawsuit from Atari, who claimed Bushnell
was violating his "no competition" clause from his dismissal
settlement. Although that was settled and Atari got first rights to
Sente's games, when the firm hit financial trouble it was bought up by
Bally to become Bally Sente. One of Sente's key concepts was a cabinet
with interchangeable games, the idea being operators could refresh the
cabinet with a new game regularly. This was before the widely-used
JAMMA standard came into being. Bally Sente closed its doors in 1988
and Capcom USA bid for the rights to develop home versions of key Sente
titles.
Hat Trick was Sente's ice hockey game, with the rink
viewed from overhead. Simplifying things with just a single player and
goalie on each side, it leads to frantic action. The goalie moves
vertically at the same time as the player, allowing you to save an
opponent's shot. (A four-player version was tested in Canada but did
not go on wider release). One of its most memorable ideas was the way
the players left trails in the ice. And like the real game, the Zamboni
machine would appear between periods to resurface the ice.
The C64 conversion gets it right. Everything is there,
including the ice trails and the Zamboni machine. While there are not a
lot of sounds, there are some jingles. An effective conversion that
remains very playable, especially in two-player mode.
Taking on the
computer in one-player mode, and
the Zamboni clearing the ice at the end of the game.
MINI GOLF
A second Sente arcade game, and another viewed from
overhead. Up to four players can join in, controlling the aiming cursor
with a trackball. Having placed the cursor, the power is set by moving
left and right and the player presses a button to make the shot. Fail
to make par and the player loses a "hole"; run out of holes and it is
game over. Slopes, loops and electric fields feature in the 18
different holes available.
The C64 version is quite good, with the graphics closely
resembling the original. However, the control method was changed. To
time the shot, the player presses fire and the power dot moves around
the ball in a declining spiral pattern. If it reaches the ball before
the player hits fire then it costs a shot. Moving the joystick left and
right then sets the power and fire takes the shot. While it is a
reasonable conversion, the tricky control method can be off-putting.
Choosing the number
of players on the menu, and
tackling hole 2.
POCKET ROCKETS
This stands out as being an original title published by
Capcom USA, although it did not make it overseas. It was developed by
Riggs International, a company formed by Christopher Riggs (Lyndon's
former business partner). There are four different models of superbike
(based on real motorbikes) to ride. The action takes place on a road
course and the drag strip. On the road the player must avoid roadside
obstacles and set the fastest time to become champion. The bike is
viewed from behind in 3D, which works ok. On the drag strip the player
has to avoid a false start, over-revving the engine or falling off by
accelerating too fast. The aim is to set the lowest time for the
quarter-mile; this part of the game is viewed side on with the strip
scrolling horizontally. There were also Amiga and DOS versions. The
presentation of the game is really good, but it does mean a lot of disk
accessing; at times a small stopwatch animates onscreen as a bar
decreases to show how long loading the next section will take. The
controls are quite difficult to master in both sections, and the
circuit race is purely for time - there is no one to race against.
Racing around the
bend in the Pocket Rockets
circuit race, and falling off after accelerating too fast in the drag
race.
SIDEARMS HYPER DYNE
This was an impressive shoot 'em up for its day,
featuring both horizontal and vertically scrolling sections. One of its
key features was the ability for two players to team up; by collecting
a specific icon, the two sprites merged to give a larger character with
heavier firepower.
The C64 conversion resulted in a heavy multiload to cope
with the changing background graphics. Sadly it does not look great,
and the difficulty level fluctuates widely. Part of the problem is the
controls, with the player having to turn before firing backwards - and
since many waves approach from behind, it becomes an annoyance. Like
Gun.Smoke, this game suffered from being poorly optimised for PAL
computers - and it also has a habit of crashing during play.
Flying through level 1, and the loading screen (with
added HOTLINE logo from
the cracking team).
THE SPEED RUMBLER
This was a personal favourite of mine in the arcades. The
European version of the arcade game called its hero Super Joe,
connecting it to Commando and Bionic Commando; the lives counter in
Speed Rumbler resembles the one in Bionic Commando. The player must
drive their car through six zones, rescuing hostages before time runs
out. The car can shoot enemy vehicles, but when it takes too much
damage the player must bail out and wait for a new car to be delivered.
Shooting cages releases the hostages, who carry bonus items to be
collected. A spanner repairs the vehicle, for example, and the red gun
improves the main weapon. It is an incredibly tough game, especially
when running around on foot.
The C64 version starts with an options menu controlled
with the function keys and then loads the game. The disappointment is
the small playing area and the very grey graphics, particularly in the
first city section. Scrolling is not very smooth and the difficulty
level matches the arcade game. You cannot run around on foot in this
conversion, and prisoners are released by running over the cages; the
cage flashes multiple colours and a message onscreen shows what you
have been awarded. It takes perseverance to make progress, and while I
still load it up now and then it isn't the best conversion. The pity
is, it was the ONLY conversion of Speed Rumbler back then.
The disappointing
loading screen, and picking up
a prisoner in level 1.
STOCKER
This was another Sente arcade title, the first of a
three-game series. The game was viewed from overhead, with the player
controlling a stock car that had to race along the road that twists and
turns through a large scrolling map. The car starts with a set amount
of fuel, and is controlled by pushing in the direction you want the car
to go. Running into obstacles or other cars drains fuel, and the game
is over when the fuel gauge runs out. The course contains timed
sections, where the faster you complete it the higher the bonus score
awarded. Speeding and crashing attract the police, and when they catch
you the player is issued a ticket when they catch you (with a close-up
view of the cop, asking 'Where's the fire?'). But you can evade a
police chase by crossing the "state line." Each ticket reduces the
total score, which is based on distance traveled.
The original arcade game was followed by Euro Stocker,
with different courses and graphics; it is rated rare by the Videogame
Museum website. Night Stocker was very different as it had a 3D view,
with the car driving on planet surfaces to take out alien bases.
The C64 version of Stocker plays reasonably well, with
average graphics and sound. The map is made up of a series of still
screens, with the occasionally shortcut or dead end to steer down.
Control is ok but it soon becomes frustrating and repetitive. The
presentation screens, including the cop, are good though.
Being chased by a
police car, and the bitmap
that is shown when the police give you a ticket.
STREET FIGHTER
For the world-beating Street Fighter II to exist, there
had to be a Street Fighter 1. Launched in 1987, the memorable thing
about the first game was its original cabinet design. This had large
pressure-sensitive buttons, turning the strength the player hit them
into the strength of attack by the player's fighter. The buttons proved
unreliable, leading Capcom to create the now-familiar six button layout
to give different strengths of punch and kick.
As with other games discussed here, there were separate
UK and US versions. The UK game developed by Tiertex tried to carry
over the large size of the fighters and the panning background (moving
left and right) in the arcade game. But by using the built-in sprite
expansion, the characters appeared very blocky. It did not do well in
reviews, with the control method also criticised.
Capcom USA developed the US version itself. After the
menu system (which looks very similar to Speed Rumbler's) the in-game
graphics appear very good at first glance - but much smaller. The
sprites use an overlay (a black outline) to give definition. The
backgrounds are well-drawn but do not scroll, giving an almost
widescreen appearance. However the speed of the game here is much
slower than the UK game, and the special moves are harder to pull off.
In an interesting twist, US Gold published a disk version
with the UK game on one side and the US game on the other. Although
this represented good value for money, neither was a great conversion
of the arcade game. And Street Fighter II was poorly served by its C64
conversion as well (developed solely in the UK).
The same fight, shown
two ways. On the left is
the UK version from Tiertex, on the right is the Capcom USA version.
TIGER ROAD
In the process of researching this article, I found
references online to a different US version of this coin-op. The game
sees a martial arts master rescuing children from the bad guy, with a
mixture of horizontally and vertically scrolling levels. One
interesting power-up gives the power of flight.
However, all I can actually find is the different
packaging used for the Amiga game in the American market. There doesn't
seem to be any download images of a distinct US version of Tiger Road.
So unless this claim was based on a particular catalogue, advert or
magazine article, I believe it may be speculation and never actually
existed. The graphics of the C64 version are ok, with some effective
backgrounds (including the animated waterfalls). Sprites are rather
small, and certain other elements of the presentation suggest it may
have been developed in the US - including the function key controls on
the menu. It's not a great game to play, with some levels simply being
a case of hacking through enemies or tackling the large bosses.
Heading off into
level 1 of Tiger Road, and
taking on the first boss.
CONCLUSIONS
A real mixed bag of games from Capcom USA, then. A lot of
it can be put down to different development strategies between US and
UK companies. Many US games access the disk regularly, drawing in extra
graphics or presentation sequences. In the UK programmers tried to
optimise loading times, partly because fewer users here had disk drives
and had to rely on the much slower tape deck.
Troy Lyndon would go on to greater fame as a key
developer on the Madden series, with his PC experience on Monday Night
Football helping the Madden games move into 3D. Capcom continues to
develop games, most notably its Resident Evil franchise with a remake
of Resident Evil 3 and new spin-off Project Resistance due this year.
An early logo for
Troy Lyndon, and the Capcom
USA logo.
Here's a final thought. The original name Capsule
Computers came from the arcade games it was making, designed to be a
"capsule of fun." And there is no doubt Capcom have continued to make
fun and interesting games - even if they did not translate well to the
8-bit Commodore 64.
Happy New Year
folks. This is my first official column for 2020 as I missed the
deadline for the January issue. It was a busy time toward the end
of 2019 as I am a high school basketball official. If anyone of
you are high school sports fans or have kids that play high school
sports, you may have heard there is an official shortage. While I
don't necessarily have to work a lot of games, I chose to go full bore
and work a large number of games this season. That means a lot of
evenings I'm out of the house until late. Thus, when I had some
downtime to think about things, I realized I had missed the deadline
for the January issue.
It actually
worked out for the best as I'm not sure what I may have
talked about in the January issue. I don't think I mentioned it in any
articles, but during Black Friday, I picked up several games for my
modern systems (Xbox One and Nintendo Switch) because they were on sale
and I thought they were a good value. For the Xbox One, I
picked up Grand Theft Auto V. It was relatively cheap and it had
been a long time since i played a Grand Theft Auto game. For the
Switch, I picked up Rocket League and the Namco Museum. Rocket League
has a big learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty
fun.
But as this is
a retro gaming magazine, let's talk about the Namco
Museum. I primarily picked up Namco Museum to play Galaga though
I have played Pac-Man and Dig Dug in the arcades and other
platforms. Unfortunately, the other games in the collection
weren't all that familiar to me and I haven't played the other games
yet. In playing Galaga, Pac-Man and Dig Dug, it was fun to relive
the arcade experience and also get to compare scores around the world
and
not just the top 5 scores that showed up in the arcade machines in our
youth.
There was a
bit of a downside to Galaga on the Switch's pro
controller. The response and feel seemed different than the
arcade joystick and fire buttons. I haven't messed with the
default settings, but it just seemed a tad slow to me. I am a
decent player of the Galaga arcade machine and get pretty far, but it
was a bit of struggle for Galaga on Switch. Maybe i need to
adjust the settings and see if that helps. I thought Pac-Man and
Dig Dug played ok. Maybe because the games were a tad slower and
the response time was better. All in all, for the price i paid,
even if Galaga doesn't quite feel 100% arcade like, I enjoy playing the
game and it's nice to have on the road. Worth a look if you're a
fan of the games in the collection.
Speaking of
Galaga, I have mentioned Champ
Games a lot in past columns. I think I mentioned in some
more recent columns that Champ Games is back in business. One of
their first releases is a remake of Galaga for Atari 2600 called Galagon.
Remember, you
can't spell Nintendo Famicom without Amico! ;-)
Seriously
though, my attention was returned to the Amico - which is being
designed by "new Intellivision" - thanks to the videos they have been
posting recently on their YouTube Intellivision channel. They are
sending some really mixed messages via this medium and wherever else
they are re-posting these videos. On the one hand, they are
claiming to be for casual gamers and local multiplayer. But their
videos with their "tension-inducing music" seem to be aiming these ads
and updates more at the hardcore gamer crowd with the
percussion-driven, heavy musical tracks and the "We'll show you all!"
attitude. Where's the emphasis on single player gaming? I
spent a lot more of my time with solo gameplay than multiplayer back in
the 80's & 90's and even today, and I know I'm not the only
one. However while their emphasis is on local multiplayer, the
videos they have shown so far of their games and remakes seem to
confusingly only show single player gameplay with no multi-player
footage. I understand they have a lot to prove, but I think if
they want casual gamers to buy the Amico then their videos should be
more like the classic Nintendo Wii advertisements from 2006 through
2009.
It seems like
modern Intellivision - lead by Tommy Tallarico - is going for a
combination of Nintendo's Wii with the "casual console" and Apple's
classic iPod with the "simple controller" (though it is obviously also
inspired by the Intellivision controller's design) for the Amico.
Their goal seems for the Amico to be as accessible and popular as
either one or preferably both devices. But with the Amico's
Internet access requirements for purchases as well as a credit card or
debit card or gift card just to be able to buy games by downloading
them (even if it will work offline after the games are downloaded),
I've got to wonder if it will really be enough to make the world
care. It's not like physical copies of games will be sitting on
store shelves to act as a form of advertising or marketing for the
thing, and look at how quickly "everyone" forgot about the Ouya without
physical games on the shelves to remind them. Heck, look at the
money and advertising that Sony put behind the PlayStation Vita, and
yet without lots of physical games sitting on retail shelves to remind
people that it is still alive and getting new games, most people
figured the Vita (ironically meaning "life") was dead long ago.
The reasons
the Nintendo Wii was so popular for casual gaming might have been in
small part thanks to a simple controller and motion controls, along
with accessible games and local multiplayer. Additionally it
benefited from the "lack of DLC and in-app purchases" (although those
actually existed on the Wii in a limited capacity), but the main reason
was that the "smart phone revolution" where everyone had a phone that
was good enough to play Wii-quality games or better hadn't happened
yet... but did a few short years later, "killing" off the Wii when the
general public all had smart phones and were bored of motion
controlled-games. Granted, the Wii didn't really die off until
Just Dance 2020 was released as the final Wii game on November 5th,
2019, but most Wii players (not counting retro gamers) had moved away
from the Wii sometime around 2010.
It would be
nice to play some Imagic, Atari, and Intellivision remakes though, such
as Tempest, Centipede, Adventure, Miner 2049'er, Moon Patrol, Yars'
Revenge, and Thin Ice. Thankfully most of those have been
announced for the Amico even if Thin Ice has not. (Thin Ice was
so much fun and one of my favorite Intellivision games, so it really
deserves a remake - if nothing else, please at least pay attention to
that important last point, new Intellivision!) However, as some
or all of these will probably be ported to PC or consoles eventually,
we can likely purchase them gradually via, say, Steam in the next few
years without an Intellivision Amico. And ironically, if that
happens, we'll be able to play them with Steam's Remote Play Together
to play local co-operative and competitive games with the local
multiplayer portions both offline and
online contrary to only on a couch or chairs in the same room as the
Amico's designers envisioned.
Shenmue is one of my favorite video
games of all time. The series
revolves around the sudden murder of martial artist Iwao
Hazuki on the evening of November 29th, 1986 in Yokosuka, Japan.
His assailant, a man named Lan Di, confronted Iwao in search of a stone
artifact known as the Dragon Mirror. Threatening to kill Iwao's
son, Ryo, unless the mirror is given to him, Lan Di is told the
location of the mirror. After his men recover the artifact, Lan
Di finishes off Iwao as retribution for an alleged murder in China and
flees, leaving Ryo injured and unable to pursue. The next day Ryo
sets off to investigate the circumstances surrounding his father's
death and avenge him. A revolutionary experiment to create
a fully immersive and open world, Shenmue leaned heavily into the
details of everyday life, with realistic locations and characters that
would go about mundane daily routines - including Ryo until his life is
turned upside down on that November evening.
I came to
the party late, buying a Dreamcast in early 2001, after the release of
PlayStation 2 but before the formal announcement of Dreamcast
discontinuation, picking up Shenmue in February of that year. I
played the game near constantly over four days and upon my first
completion I was blown away by the attention to detail. Part
detective story, part adventure game, part revenge epic, part fighting
game, part life sim - completely unlike anything else I had played
before but familiar at the same time. After the Dreamcast
release of Shenmue II in North America was canceled, I held off on
importing the subtitled UK version as the English voices were a core
part of what made the Shenmue experience to me. I have no
shame in admitting that I bought an original Xbox the week Shenmue II
was
released specifically to play that single game in English. I
loved the
sequel as well, even with its cliffhanger ending that made the original
game's cliffhanger ending look like it was sewn up tight in
comparison. The financial idea behind the Shenmue series was to
spend most of the series' budget on the first game and then make back
the costs over the course of the sequels, as the tools and development
technology would already be in place. When the Dreamcast ended
production just as Shenmue II was finishing up, it cast doubt if the
series would continue as everything would have to start over again on
new hardware.
A series that has
literally spanned generations, continuing a narrative that began twenty
years ago
In 2015 Shenmue creator and gaming
icon Yu Suzuki launched a
crowdfunding campaign to fund Shenmue III as a licensed Sega
property. This wasn't to be a remake or a reimagining, rather a
direct continuation, as if the almost fifteen years since the release
of Shenmue II were non-existent. The campaign would raise over
two million dollars within seven
hours and become the highest funded game on Kickstarter to date.
I never kick in to anything on a crowdfunding site, it's just not my
thing, especially when so many high profile projects end in
disaster. This one however was an instant contribution from me
for the PlayStation 4 version. Sure it was basically a pre-pay
for the game but in this case I was happy to allow Yu Suzuki to work on
an unfinished game series that he loved. In late 2019 the game
finally shipped, eighteen years after the release of Shenmue II.
It became apparent almost immediately that it would be a very slightly
modernized take on the Shenmue gameplay formula, feeling like the most
unapologetically retro of modern game sequels. Shenmue III almost
feels like an unreleased completed game from two decades ago, given an
HD polish, and then released to the masses. Ryo Hazuki has
certainly come a long way in his continuing investigation.
This look at Shenmue III will not
be free of spoilers for a couple of reasons. Firstly, most of my
issues with the game have to do with how the ending is structured or
lack there of. Second, the way Shenmue III is designed, simply
talking about the game spoils a tremendous amount of what the player
will do over the course of its events. This makes it difficult to
talk about the game and
attempt to be free of spoilers, as rather than having an overarching
narrative, Shenmue III elects to make the day to day grind of life the
narrative itself.
Shenmue has always been about the day to day interactions with the
people who inhabit the world around you and working out clues obtained
via conversation. Shenmue III doubles down on the former, with
the vast
majority of the game spent simply living within each day, completing
tasks to sustain Ryo financially, building relationships with locals,
and going home every night before it gets too late. Rather than
piecing together clues one after another as in the previous two games,
Shenmue III is more about Ryo exploring an older foreign land and
becoming part of the communities he passes through.
Unlike previous games in the series,
Ryo's health bar is now always
present and slowly depletes over time as it is also tied into his
stamina. Keeping it replenished requires purchasing and eating
food or other health supplements. The game provides a few free
food items for the taking every day but they aren't enough to keep Ryo
properly sustained, meaning money is required for
survival. Money having real weight is the biggest and most
welcomed change in Shenmue III, as earning wages actually amounts to
something more than a gimmick to play arcade games or buy capsule
toys. Gone
are the days of carrying around a hundred worthless chocolate bars or
bags of potato chips, as this time around Ryo can finally sell
virtually any item he has in his possession. Every item has some
kind of use, even if
it's only to be consumed for HP replenishment or sold for a couple
bucks. Pawn shops exist much as they
did in
Shenmue II, purchasing capsule toys from Ryo and paying higher rates
for complete
sets. Additionally they offer more valuable items, such as skill
books, when trading in specific combinations
of goods. Drug stores
not only sell replenishment items, they will also purchase
herbs that grow in abundance throughout the adventure. Specific
sets
of herbs fetch insane prices and aren't all that difficult to obtain,
making them an ideal way to build a healthy cash flow. Gambling
makes a return but rather than directly wagering currency, tokens are
purchased at the various venture areas and gambled with. Tokens
can then be taken to prize exchange areas and traded for items - which
can then be sold for cash in pawn shops. Unless you're looking to
complete an item set, the best bet is usually to trade tokens for
something such as a gem that will fetch the most money when pawned.
In addition to buying and selling
items
and herbs, money can also be obtained the usual way via part time
jobs. The most prominent job on offer is splitting wood but later
in the game Ryo can saddle up a forklift for some dock work.
Fishing straddles the line between collecting and working as caught
fish are then sold at the bait and tackle shop after completing a
fishing session. Unfortunately I found the fishing segments to be
unengaging with very little strategy other than selecting a casting
point. Additionally reeling in the line requires repeated
circular analog stick motion, something I wish developers would stop
doing as it prematurely wears out controllers - and has since the
Nintendo 64 era. Between hunting out herbs here and there,
completing a single capsule toy set, and redeeming venture area tokens
I was never hurting for money - or at least never felt that I was
having to go out of my way to grind for cash. Commerce is truly
the vehicle
in which Shenmue III rides and it's a nice change for the series.
Shenmue - Dreamcast
(left), Shenmue II - Xbox (center), Shenmue III - PlayStation 4 (right)
Aside from the commerce system, the
other big change this time out is
how combat moves are learned and utilized. In previous games
combat efficiency was generally built upon while Ryo slept via a menu,
simply because there was only a minimal attack statistics and practice
system in place. New moves would be purchased and mastered
instantly, meaning very little work had to be done to grow the
moveset. The same cannot be said for Shenmue III, where training
and hard work are the order of the day. Attack power and stamina
now need to be built up by training with wooden dummies, with the
stamina building particularly important as it directly relates to the
maximum size of Ryo's health meter. These training modes are slow
and repetitive but I have a feeling that was the intention - putting in
the time and work to better oneself. New moves are learned by
obtaining skill books and then selecting them in a submenu before
engaging in a sparring session. Then during the sparring session
Quick Timer Events (QTEs) will pop up relating to the selected
moves. The more frequently the move is pulled off correctly, the
faster its level builds. Once mastered, complex moves can be
activated with a single button press while in combat, with up to five
special moves selectable at a time. The fighting system mirrors
this change and puts more emphasis on evasion and making openings
rather than positioning and counters as in the previous games.
I've read that some people dislike the new system as it removed lunges
and throws from the moveset but I honestly like the faster combat of
Shenmue III.
With so much going on in the game, so
much to do and so much to see in
its densely packed game world, my biggest issue with Shenmue III is how
empty it feels after a dozen or so hours. Sure, there are
storefronts everywhere - and at a few points in the game Ryo will have
to venture into many of them to ask around for specialty items - but
for the most part they're all the same. Aside from a couple of
them, I never felt like I had any rapport with the shopkeepers like in
the previous games. While there are different game centers
throughout the adventure, they all have the same games in them and
after a few plays I didn't feel the need to return. It was
understood early on that Shenmue III wouldn't feature any classic Sega
arcade games - and that's fine - but there's just nothing in the game
centers to kill time. Adding the dart machines from Shenmue, and
specifically dart competitions from Shenmue II, would have done a lot
to alleviate this feeling of the game centers being dead. Smart
Ball is a new addition that is a bit like early pinball but the player
has so little influence on the action of the game, even less than with
Lucky Hit, it feels like a waste of time. Aside from simple
fighting competitions at martial arts schools there is a fighting
arena, the Rose Garden, that is found early in the second half of the
game. I was actually looking forward to this as I enjoyed the
multiple street fighting areas in Shenmue II, but not only are the
battles here easy, they are extremely repetitive and boring. That
in itself is a problem with the later half of the game, as although the
areas to explore are truly massive, they all feature exactly the same
stuff - same shops, same games, same venture areas.
Yet my single biggest gripe with
Shenmue III is the anticlimactic
ending. The core story of why Lan Di killed Iwao Hazuki in
pursuit of the Phantom River Stone mirrors is only marginally moved
forward but I don't have any issue with that, as it was known early on
that Shenmue III would not conclude the story. However Shenmue
III itself doesn't go anywhere with the events it specifically sets
into motion on its own. The original Shenmue built up the need to
get to Hong Kong and the conflict with the Mad Angels that it resolved
at its conclusion, finishing with an unresolved battle against
Chai. Shenmue II established Ryo in China, ultimately taking down
Don Niu and his Yellow Head crime syndicate and finishing with an
unresolved journey with Shenhua. Shenmue III is about finding
Shenhua's father as yet another crime syndicate, the Red Snakes, has
been kidnapping stonemasons who may know details about the
mirrors. Unfortunately beyond a few local ruffians, the Red
Snakes don't seriously come into
play until the very end of the game.
Eventually a background character Ryo
has run into a few times, Feng
Li, says that Shenhua has been kidnapped by the Red Snakes and taken to
an ancient castle. This event comes across as strange but little
more, as Feng Li was barely encountered throughout the game. As
Ryo and company set off to storm the ancient castle where the Red
Snakes are hiding out, Chai is encountered once more. However
rather than having a big final battle against his earliest adversary,
Ryo simply dispatches him with a two-button QTE and Chai is down for
the count. I was in shock that Chai was simply cast off quicker
than a common thug, when Ryo had encountered him so many times
throughout the series. A
rather sudden betrayal sets the finale of the game into motion, as it
is revealed that Feng Li is actually Niao Sun, one of the leaders of
the Chi You Men along with Lan Di. My problem with this is that I
don't feel enough contact was made with Feng Li throughout the game,
she didn't seem mysterious or suspicious
or really
anything until thirty minutes before the big reveal - in fact she
barely shows up at all! She
should have been encountered more throughout the game to at least have
her be on the
player's radar, so that the reveal at the end is actually shocking
rather than confusing and forced. Then once Ryo gives her the
Phoenix Mirror in exchange for Shenhua, Niao Sun tells him Lan Di is at
the top of the castle. Ryo and Ren continue on while Niao Sun
instructs her men to set fire to the castle, with her aim to kill Lan
Di and gain complete control of the Chi You Men. They try to make
Niao Sun an interesting character - she has a visual style different
from everyone else in the series, she's obviously powerful, and she
comes across as calculating but insane - however as it's all so crammed
into a five minute exchange at the end of the game there's absolutely
no payoff to her inclusion.
Although it seems
Niao Sun was intended to be an intriguing new character, her inclusion
stumbles out of the gate at the end of the game
The fight up to the top of the castle
is nothing to write home about as
most enemies only have a couple units of health and are dispatched
without much fuss. It should be said that I put in the time to
completely max out my stats - both stamina and attack - and at the end
of the game felt it was a waste of time as no enemy approached any sort
of difficulty during the finale. There is a boss battle with the
leader of the Red Snakes at the end of the climb, however aside
from having a new QTE at the end it's just as easy as when he is fought
earlier in the game. The battle against Lan Di is little more
than a story event but that's perfectly acceptable as this game wasn't
meant to conclude the series. Honestly it was about what I
expected and thought it was handled fine. This is followed with a
reasonably short story scene that gets the main narrative moving and
then... the game ends. While I thought the ending scene was
acceptable with the hopeful progression toward a Shenmue IV, the notion
that
Shenmue III ending with absolutely nothing other than a few fights with
common thugs irritated me. It's almost as if the castle area was
intended to be more fully featured (it does have a store staffed with a
shopkeeper, complete with an optional fetch quest) but perhaps the
developers ran out of time or money. Some kind of battle with
Niao Sun should have occurred, even if it
ended in a stalemate where Ryo was forced to hand over the Phoenix
Mirror before continuing the climb to Lan Di. As it stands, there
is simply no satisfaction in terms of completing a story arc at the end
of Shenmue III. I wasn't expecting some huge conclusion or
revelation at the end but at the very least maybe a big battle against
a big player. Seems to me like Niao Sun was intended to be such,
at least
at one point, but that never materializes.
There are also some technical issues
I have with the game that as of
date have not been patched. The biggest offender is the QTE
system, which feels just a little too fast for its own good.
While it's phenomenally better than the mess that Shenmue I & II HD
made of the QTE system, input prompts feel like they don't allow enough
time for the input to be executed. This leads to continual
failure of QTE sequences until they are memorized through trial and
error. Simply adding two or three more beats to each prompt would
alleviate the issue completely and feel more natural as they did with
the original releases of the first two games. There are a couple
points in the game where Ryo must catch live birds and the QTEs here
are the stuff of nightmare and frustration. Thankfully there
aren't any massively long QTE sequences unlike the later parts of
Shenmue II. Additionally when picking up either kind of orange
while herb hunting the screen goes black while Ryo reaches out for the
fruit, almost as if the scene was never rendered, as he harvests every
other kind of herb without cutting away to a black screen.
Even with the anticlimactic ending
and minor technical issues, I really
did enjoy Shenmue III, especially the first two-thirds. It truly
feels like a game from two years after Shenmue II, with more modern
visual polish. It also must be said that the music is made up of
some of the finest compositions I have ever heard in any video game and
perfectly it complements the tone throughout. It was also cool to
sneak in music from classic Sega arcade games here and there, as well
as call backs to songs from previous Shenmue games. I don't fault
Shenmue III for
sticking true to its reasonably archaic roots while Sega's Yakuza
series essentially took the Shenmue game style and cranked everything
up to eleven - and continues to do so to this day. If Shenmue was
further modernized beyond what was seen in Shenmue III, it would feel
like a stunted Yakuza, rather than its own game. Being rooted in
the earlier games makes it feel like a continuing progression, which it
is, and that's what I wanted it to remain.
A Shenmue sake set I
hand painted in reference to my favorite character from the first game,
Yamagishi
While I doubt Shenmue III will bring
new people into the fold, it
really wasn't intended to. "It's a game for the fans" is a term
that was thrown around a lot with Shenmue III and while it may sound
like an easy way out for describing the game, at least in this case
nothing rings more true. I cannot think of a more retro "modern"
game in the history of the industry, where its aesthetic is not to be
an homage to an earlier generation of gaming but rather a heartfelt
continuation of a unique and still unfinished narrative. Simply
that Yu Suzuki and his team got
to continue making a game series that they all really love and want to
make is a wonderful thing and something that should happen more in the
gaming industry. I truly hope Shenmue IV comes around and I will
be right there to help fund it as with Shenmue III. In the end,
this is an odd game - a modern title that is twenty years retro, making
it unlike anything else... Exactly as the original Shenmue was unlike
anything else when it was released in 1999.
Some call it a
controller, some call it a
peripheral, some even call it
a gimmick. I would say it is all of these and more. The
Nintendo Power Glove is one of the most talked about pieces of the
juggernaut system we know as the Nintendo Entertainment System
(NES). Critics have said it was a failure, but some hardcore
gamers and programmers knew it was ahead of its time. There were
so many ways to use the glove, but when it was released to the public
in 1989, it did not have enough software created to display its full
capacity. One reason was that Nintendo really wanted this item to
ship before the holidays of 1989. They knew they had another year
or so to make the games for the glove but were forced to release it
without any games to really play with it. The one game the glove
was designed for and the commercial showed, was a game called Super
Glove Ball. The game was not completely ready at release so the
gamers were disappointed to pay for the glove and not be able to play
the game. What designers had to do was to use the current games
released to interact with the glove. Games like Mike Tyson's
Punch Out!!, Super Mario Bros, and Metroid. The problem was that
it was very difficult to make the Power Glove as accurate as the
standard controller that was used for the system. This made
gameplay very hard and frustrating and gamers felt like they wasted
their money. Before we talk about what games worked and how to
use the Power Glove, lets break down how this futuristic glove worked
and where the idea originally came from.
The idea of the
Power Glove start long before the release in 1989. Designers and
programmers had the idea of an interactive glove since the late
1970's. The idea was first called the "DataGlove." It was
an interactive glove that was used for big corporation testing such as
NASA and government agencies. When the growth of home
consoles became mainstream, the idea of using the glove as an
interactive toy was appealing to companies such as Mattel. The
design and feel of the glove were tested and tested many times
over. The final product had a RoboCop feel to it and responded
well to the designers. Like I said earlier, the problem was
software that was not designed to work perfectly with the glove and
that was its ultimate downfall. Games were not as interactive as
we were told. In fact, it made games a lot harder and less fun.
A couple games did
make it to the public after the glove was released. One of these
games is Super Glove Ball. This 3-D puzzle game came out in 1990
from the publisher Rare. The plot was mainly about the player
saving a shuttle commander who is trapped in a maze. The only way to
win is to throw the Energy Balls at the walls and break the commander
free. To do this would involve incredible timing and skill.
Practice was the ultimate key in this game. The glove itself
controls the hand on the screen. The first-person perspective
gives an almost virtual reality feel to it. The player is not
allowed to have the ball pass the hand or the game is over. When
a ball hits a tile, it is destroyed. The player will get five chances
(balls) to defeat the wall. Another way to battle is to hit the select
button on the glove to shoot Robo-Bullets. These can destroy the
walls with one hit, but still need to maintain the ball from passing
you. When all the walls are destroyed, the game progresses to the
next level. Other items that can be used in your favor are Ice
Balls, Bomb Balls, and Super Balls. If anyone wants to use the glove in
the way it was intended, Super Glove Ball is the game to play. It
was designed specifically for the glove. You can play the game with the
standard controller, but it is not that much fun. It really needs
the glove to get the full experience.
Super Glove Ball (left), Bad
Street Brawler (right)
A totally opposite
game that was created for the NES as well as other systems was Bad
Street Brawler. Mattel released this fighting game for multiple
platforms. The NES version, however, was more realistic using the
Power Glove. This beat 'em up game took place on the streets
where gangsters are getting in your way. The object is to, well,
beat them up. This Double Dragon type game was difficult to
handle with the Power Glove. The reaction time of hitting the bad guys
to the actual timing in the game seemed to be a bit delayed.
Using the buttons on the glove with the idea of punching your way
through levels, was frustrating at best. Once you get past the
gangsters, each level brings new trouble to the streets such as
gorillas and circus dwarfs. All in all, there are 15 stages to
this fighting game. Being one of very few games to use the Power
Glove, it still was not flying off the shelves.
Once the Power Glove
hit the consumers, the first thing a lot of technically savvy people
did was to hack the glove. Like the world today of hacking
consoles and loading hundreds of game roms on it, the Power Glove was
one of the first items to have the gamers program it and use it in
different ways. The glove could be seen used as a musical
instrument, a DJ turntable, robotic arm to move household items and of
course the use of the glove as normal clothing attire. One of the
most recognizable people to wear the glove, even today, is Isiah
TriForce Johnson. TriForce is historically known for his Zelda
knowledge, his week long waiting in lines for the new Nintendo product
and an advocate for eSports in the USA and other countries. The
Power Glove is with him always and is like putting on your socks, he
puts on the glove wherever he goes. It's a status symbol for him
and is proud to wear it and talk about its history.
Here is a little
story from TriForce about the Power Glove: "The power glove has played
a significant role shaping who I am as a gamer. When I was a kid in the
late 80's going into the 90's I use to hang with my group of friends,
and we call our group ‘Videoland.' Yeah, that was before Captain N the
Game Master. Our group leader and Game Master Kevin got a Power Glove
and I always thought it was cool. In '91 though he just wasn't into
games the way he used to be in the 80's. He then told me I was the
group's Game Master. He gave me his Power Glove and told me that it was
like the crown for being the Game Master so wear it so long as you
represent the group. 30 years later, I still wear it and Videoland has
now become an Empire with my eSports Brand Team Empire Arcadia. I still
wear it but not just as a Game Master but the Emperor of Arcadia. It is
the symbol of my history growing up as a gamer and I still wear it to
this day."
Every Friday on The Retrogaming Times
Facebook
page (facebook.com/theretrogamingtimes),
we present a Weekly Retrogaming Trivia question. This
just-for-fun
trivia challenge provided each week is an opportunity to test your
arcane
and oddball retrogaming knowledge. The answer to the question
from
the previous week is posted along with a new trivia question every
Friday!
Below is the recap of all
questions and
answers posted between this issue and the previous issue:
01/03/2020 - WEEK 145 Question: What is
the name of the grand prix series contested in R4: Ridge Racer Type 4?
01/10/2020
- WEEK 146 Question: What was
the final game in the largely forgotten Gex series?
01/17/2020
- WEEK 147 Question: Mega Man
Legends takes place on what island?
01/24/2020
- WEEK 148 Question: Opa-Opa
is the star of what video game series?
01/31/2020
- WEEK 149 Question: The Black
Bass (NES) is actually a localization of what Famicom game?
02/07/2020
- WEEK 150 Question: What was
the only baseball game to be released in North America on the
TurboGrafx-16?
02/14/2020
- WEEK 151 Question: Infamous
NES game Chubby Cherub is actually a heavily reworked localization of
what Famicom game?
02/21/2020
- WEEK 152 Question: What was
Sega's first home video game console?
Strange early NES release
Chubby Cherub (left) is actually a rework of an earlier licensed Q-taro
Famicom game (right)
Answers: Week 145 Answer: Real Racing
Roots '99. Week 146 Answer: Gex 3: Deep
Cover Gecko (1999). Week 147 Answer: Kattelox
Island. Week 148 Answer: Fantasy Zone. Week 149 Answer: The Black Bass
II. Week 150 Answer: World Class
Baseball, a localization of the first Power League game. Week 151 Answer: Q-taro the
Ghost WanWan Panic. Week 152 Answer: The
SG-1000, first released in 1983.
Sega's home console
legacy began with the SG-1000, which would eventually be enhanced as
the Mark III / Master System
We
need your questions! If
you have a trivia question you would like to submit for possible
inclusion
in the Weekly Retrogaming Trivia question pool, e-mail it to trt@classicplastic.net!
If you question is selected to be featured, you will be entered in our
year-end prize drawing!
One of my
favorite accounts on Twitter is Game Magazine Print Ads
(@GameMagPrintAds), which posts classic video game magazine
advertisements. Not too long ago the account posted an
advertisement for The Black Bass from the January 1990 issue of Electronic
Gaming Monthly. As per our last group of Weekly
Retrogaming Trivia questions, the US release "The Black Bass" was
actually a localization of sequel "The Black Bass II" and was
alternately titled "Black Bass USA" on the game's title screen.
Although I love classic fishing video games, the advertisement that was
posted wasn't something I had seen before but it caught my eye as it
looked very similar to artwork I was familiar
with - namely the box art for The Black Bass II.
Magazine
advertisement for The Black Bass for NES (left), box art for the
Famicom release of The Black Bass II (right)
Interestingly
enough, the American advertisement is more or less a westernized
version of the exact scene depicted on the Famicom game box. A
television with water spilling out of it to flood the room, a giant
bass brought from the game into reality, and a kid in a collared shirt
and cap shocked at the catch he has reeled in. Heck, even the
window and curtains make the journey across the Pacific for the
advertisement. Unfortunately the box art for the NES release of
the game went for a more generic illustration of a bass against a
picture of a lake but the illustration of the kid waist deep in the
water was used on the back of the box. I suppose someone at HOT-B
must have really liked the Famicom artwork to put so much effort into
adapting it for the NES advertising campaign. By the time The
Blue Marlin (a game I much prefer over The Black Bass games) was
released a few years later, identical box art would be used for both
the Famicom and NES releases, featuring an illustration of a marlin
that falls in between the realistic and the stylized. I plan on
bringing the classic fishing game reviews back sometime this year as
there are actually a couple really great fishing games that sadly get
overlooked. Do you have a passion or strange fascination for a
nearly forgotten video game genre? If so, drop me a line and let
me know!
Thank
you once
again for reading The Retrogaming
Times. We'll be back on May 1st with our next issue.
Be sure
to follow The
Retrogaming Times on Facebook and join our community for the latest
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and notifications for all things The Retrogaming Times! I
sincerely
hope you enjoyed this issue and that you will return to read the next
issue
and possibly submit an article yourself. Remember, this
newsletter
can only exist with your help. Simply send your articles
directly
to me at trt@classicplastic.net or check out the submission guidelines
on the main page. Submit an article today and join a great
retrogaming
tradition!