Kicking off
our sixth year in style, The Retrogaming Times welcomes everyone to our
continuing celebration of all things retrogaming. There has been
a marked increase in our readership since the beginning of the
year. If you're new to the newsletter, everything here is created
by retrogamers just like you. So if you enjoy reading The
Retrogaming Times, consider sending in an article of your own! I
sincerely hope all our readers are doing well, taking care of
themselves, and enjoying classic video games.
Our biggest issue in quite awhile features returning faces and new
contributors. Things start off with More C64 and Merman's round
up of homebrew Commodore 64 games that were released at the end of
2020. In a combination of Don's Desk and the Apple II Incider,
Donald Lee touches on some recent retrogaming purchases including his
first physical Apple II software purchase in many decades. This
issue's cover story features an often overlooked licensed platformer
for the NES based on the second Gremlins film, with Dan Pettis delivering
the details before midnight. Miniature tabletop arcade games have
come a long way since the 1980's and a new offering of a quarter scale
Dig Dug cabinet is put through its paces. On the eve of an
upcoming new Mortal Kombat movie, Dan Pettis gives his opinion on
whether or not the original is still worth a watch. After some
time away, Jerry Terrifying returns to the newsletter with a chronicle
of his experiences playing Roguelikes on both home and portable
consoles. Street Fighter II recently celebrated its 30th
anniversary and new contributor George "mecha" Spanos details its
origins, development, and influences. Not seen since our first
issue, Pyuuta Tutor is finally back again with Saurusland, an obscure
game for the obscure computer. It's no secret that rising
retrogame values can seem a bit crazy these days and Todd Friedman
talks about his brush with the changing collecting landscape, something
that sooner or later we will all face. 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!"
If
you're stir crazy at home and are a retrogamer, there has to be
something on your mind - let us know by submitting an article!
NOTICE: Due to the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic, many shows and events have canceled, postponed, or
modified their dates. For the latest on the events listed below,
please visit their individual websites or contact their relevant
customer support channels as the current situation continues to
unfold. Thank you.
~
~ ~
KansasFest, July 23rd - 24th 2021,
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
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. For photos, videos,
and
presentations from past KansasFests, please visit the official
website.
Since last July, we had hoped that things would have returned to normal
in time to hold KansasFest 2021 in person. Although the pandemic
situation has improved and vaccines are on their way, there are still
too many health risks and potential travel restrictions to attempt an
in-person gathering in 2021.
Given the success of last year's 8-bit Virtual KansasFest (over 500
attendees!), the KansasFest Board is pleased to announce "KansasFest
2021: 16-Bit Virtual Edition." Similar to 2020, our plan is to hold an
online event Friday and Saturday, July 23-24. The event will include
lots of exciting talks, panel discussions, and other fun events. We'll
also have time in the evenings for get togethers on Discord, where you
can chat through text or video, get advice on hardware or software
mods, or just hang out with fellow Apple II enthusiasts.
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! - New Games at the End of 2020
by Merman
The end of 2020 brought
us some fantastic new games for the C64. There
was also the Retro Games Winter Dev Competition, creating new games for
the C64 and VIC-20 - hosted by the company behind the C64 Mini.
All three games listed
here are PAL and NTSC compatible, and the developers offer digital
downloads that are designed to be compatible with the C64 Mini / THEC64. MW ULTRA Developed by Covert BitOps, published by
Protovision (cartridge) & Psytronik (disk)
This is a remake of the
first Metal Warrior game. If you are not familiar, this series of run
& gun platformers mixed with exploration and heavy-metal-inspired
music. The original game was released in 1999 and has had three sequels
so far. Ultra adds modern ideas and presentation, extending the
storyline of the first Metal Warrior. Programmer Lasse Öörni
also created the recent Hessian and Steel Ranger games.
Ian just wants to play
guitar and drink beer, while around him the future city is filled with
violence and cops that attack any citizen openly using a weapon. Waking
from a strange dream, Ian is asked to help with a simple burglary - but
his friend dies during the raid and Ian gets drunk to blot out the
memories. A phone call invites him to audition for war metal band
Cyberpriest and he is drawn into a complex plot.
The storyline is
advanced by talking to characters, with their portrait appearing when
Ian talks; at certain points, the player can choose a dialogue option.
Ian's mobile contains extra information and reminders of what to do
next. Exploring the city is done by going through doors/gates and using
stairs and ladders. Important doors will be highlighted with an arrow.
Ian can also use cover to hide from attack.
Search
everywhere including the bathrooms for items, and talking to guitarist
Jo (shown larger at the bottom of the screen with the dialogue).
Enemies and police
signal their attention with a ? when Ian is acting suspicious, or a !
when they will attack. Ian can fight hand-to-hand or use a variety of
weapons. Items and credits to buy things are found by searching
furniture or dropped by defeated enemies. Killing or subduing an enemy
earns experience; using non-lethal weapons earns experience faster.
Fill the experience bar and a Skill Point is earned to upgrade Ian's
abilities (including his endurance and hand-to-hand fighting) from a
menu. His energy is shown by three bars that can be refilled by
sleeping or using a first aid kit. Run out of energy and Ian can
continue from the last door used. The game can be saved to disk or
cartridge to resume later.
Run over by a
motorbike in the wilderness, while the Skill Menu requires earning a
lot of experience to upgrade Ian's capabilities.
There is a huge city to
explore and lots to uncover, including a brilliant grapple gun to swing
around on - like the bionic arm in Bionic Commando. The graphics are
great, particularly the character portraits, and there is a fantastic
soundtrack backing the action. A minor niggle is using keys to select
an item or weapon, although extra joystick buttons are supported. The
main story will take about eight hours to complete and is linear, but
the player can explore (including the dangerous wastelands outside the
city) and fight without advancing the plot.
Protovision's cartridge
version has already been released, with a special golden cartridge for
regular Patreon / Tippee backers. The gold edition included a
soundtrack CD and a mini first aid kit. Psytronik launched the disk
version in January 2021, as a Collector's Edition with extra goodies in
the box.
This was the stand-out
C64 game in the Retro Games Winter Dev Competition. It is based on Puyo
Puyo 2, which many people will know better as Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean
Machine on Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. Pairs of coloured beans drop from
the top of the screen, and the aim is to make groups of four or more of
the same colour to clear them. Create several groups or a "combo" and
black rocks are sent to the opponent's side of the screen to block
them. Rocks can be removed by making a match next to them. But if your
side of the screen fills up to the top, you lose the round.
On the left
player 1 has created a combo, and on the right the AI player has sent
huge numbers of rocks to the player's side.
Practice Mode lets one
player compete for a score until the screen fills. Two-Player is a
head-to-head mode, with optional handicap settings available. Scenario
sees the player taking on the computer, with a series of opponents
chosen randomly from the 48 AI characters - with a choice of four
difficulty levels. One of the more interesting settings is the
Colour-Blind option, designed to help people who are red / green
colour-blind to spot the different colours easily.
Setting
the
handicap and other options, and the Scenario Map is split into levels
that must be climbed by reaching a points target.
This looks and plays a
lot like the console game, with Mike Richmond composing some suitably
jolly tunes. At times it can be very frustrating, especially in
Scenario Mode. The need to plan and build "combos" can be tricky to
master, especially with the frantic pace the game moves at higher
levels. This is a fun but frustrating conversion from the console game,
but I did find myself going back to it again and again.
Like so many shoot 'em
ups before, the Soul Force fighter is the last ship standing up against
the odds to a larger invasion fleet. The plot is told through small
animated "talking heads" and static bitmap pictures between levels.
There are 20 varied levels to play through, with huge bosses waiting at
the end of each one. Each boss will have one or more weak points that
can be shot to cause damage, and some bosses have more than one form -
or change attack pattern - as they are damaged.
The action scrolls
horizontally, with layers of parallax scrolling. Shooting a complete
wave of enemies earns 500 bonus points. Small transport ships carry
upgrades that can be picked up, increasing the strength of that weapon
type (to an initial maximum of 3) and making it the current weapon.
Later in the game a ship upgrade offers new types of weapons and
increases the maximum strength to 5. Dying by hitting scenery or being
shot by an enemy reduces the current weapon's strength by one. A Shield
power-up will protect from three hits as shown by its colour; shoot
enough enemies and your shield can regenerate its strength by one
level. The Invulnerability power-up will only last for a short while
when you collect it. An extra life is earned every 50,000 points or by
picking up the small ship icons hidden in the levels. There is a choice
of four difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, Hard and Manic) and an
optional Auto-fire mode. Progress can be saved to the cartridge or disk
before starting a new level, but only one save slot is available.
The
first of
the impressive bitmap screens that appears between levels, and fighting
through the Gradius-inspired first level.
The large cartridge
format gives Sarah Jane Avory a real chance to improve on her previous
games, the vertically scrolling Neutron and Zeta Wing, and she does it
in some style. The polished level designs hark back to classics
including Gradius / Nemesis and Thunderforce IV; level 3's chase across
an aquatic planet looks like it came from the latter 16-bit game! Later
levels take on a maze-like aspect with barriers to break down. The
soundtrack is clever too, with sound effects playing simultaneously and
a series of recurring motifs that tie the tunes together. Sprite work
is impressive with lots of enemies and bullets onscreen at once, but
those parallax scrolling layers in the background really help the game
look superb. The presentation graphics by Gergely Sinko and Paolo Pomes
are good too, especially the talking heads. Control is veryresponsive,
and it never feels unfair; the difficulty levels are well tuned, and it
is possible to make progress with each new game. The save feature is
clever too, allowing you to resume at a higher starting level once you
have reached it. Note that there were some initial compatibility
problems with the C64 Mini, but these have now been fixed.
The Soul
Force
fighter prepares to go underwater, where it finds this massive seahorse
boss waiting...
Not only is Soul Force
one of the best games of 2020 - releasing on the 31st of December - but
it lays claim to being one of the best C64 games of the last thirty
years. If you love the C64 or shoot 'em ups you should be playing it
now.
There are lots more
games to look forward to in 2021, including Arlasoft's Funfair Inc.
(based on the classic Theme Park) and Megastyle's graphically
impressive conversion of The Empire Strikes Back (with huge AT-AT
walkers to destroy). There is also the Cassette 50 Charity Compilation
to look forward to, where creators are challenged to use a small amount
of memory and create a game in the spirit (or using the original
graphics) of Cascade's Cassette 50 compilation. And 2021 will also be
the final edition of Richard Bayliss' long-running Shoot 'Em Up
Construction Kit Competition, for games created with the SEUCK utility.
The weak
point
has opened on this AT-AT, so blast it quickly in Megastyle's The Empire
Strikes Back (based on the Atari 2600 game).
Most people may be at home but as we
write this, lots going on in
February. Valentine's Day has just passed. Chinese / Lunar
New Year has just passed. I've been super busy at work. In
fact, before started writing this, I just finished editing a video
project I volunteered for at work. I'll share more on that in
future columns. For this month's column, I've going to discuss a
few things I purchased recently. However, these won't be full
commentary or reviews and you'll see why. I anticipate writing
more about these items in future columns though.
Several weeks ago, I was up late
talking to someone on the phone. After I was done, I couldn't
quite get to sleep. So I surfed around the Internet and was
reminded that there was a new game for the Apple II called Nox Archaist
that had been released. This wasn't exactly new news as the
game's been publicized for a long while. However, it suddenly
dawned on me that since I had purchased the Virtual II emulator back in
2020, I actually might be able to play
Nox Archaist on my iMac.
So I browsed around the developers
website (https://www.6502workshop.com/p/nox-archaist.html)
and saw they had a downloadable version for sale. There was also
some higher priced versions where you get some physical packaging and
goodies (ala Ultima games of old). I seriously thought of just
getting the download version but I decided to support the developer and
plunk down a decent amount of change for the physical goodies. I
downloaded the game immediately after but the physical goodies won't be
coming until March.
I had a good laugh at myself as this
was probably the first time in some 30 years that I had purchased an
Apple II game! I remember picking some old Atarisoft games at
like a thrift shop out here in the Bay Area in the mid to late 1990's.
But I wasn't done with my retro
purchases. I've talked about my exercise plans involving my
Nintendo Wii and Switch. I've added some programs to my Switch
recently (Fitness Boxing 2 and Zumba). For whatever reason,
I've been looking for some additional options. There were some
options for the Switch that were only released in Japan only (Finc Home
Fit). So I looked at the Wii instead. I saw that Wii Fit
Plus (and the Balance Board) had been popular. I saw someone had
a brand new (or unused) Wii Fit Plus and Balance Board on eBay. I
put my money down and just got it this part Friday. I also saw
another program called Gold's Gym: Cardio Workout that was
available. So I put in some dollar for that program as well
(hasn't arrived yet as I write this).
Of the three purchases, I've only
used two of them and the last item hasn't arrived yet. I booted
Nox Archaist to make sure I could get it running but haven't started
playing it yet. I opened up Wii Fit Plus and the Balance Board to
make sure it was working. I've used it the past couple of days to
get in some exercise. Is it crazy to spend this money on retro
system programs? You know, I've been home for the past year and
haven't spent as much money as I usually do on things. Nox
Archaist will be fun and it's good to support the developers. The
Wii games are practical and will get some usage as do all my exercise
programs.
So as you see, once I get a chance to
dive into the programs more in the coming months, I will discuss each
one in more detail. See you next issue!
As any child of the 1980's will tell
you,
there are several important
rules when it comes to caring for a Mogwai. Don't get them wet, don't
expose them to bright light, don't feed them after midnight, and
perhaps most important of all - don't forget to write down your
passwords so you can continue your progress in their video game. So
grab your Gizmos and hold on to your Mogwais, because the Gremlins are
back in Sunsoft's Gremlins 2: The New
Batch video game for the
Nintendo Entertainment System.
A licensed adaptation of the second
movie, the Gremlins 2 game puts players in the role of the ultra
adorable and fuzzy Gizmo as he tries to fight his way through a
Gremlins infested New York City skyscraper. As for the film this game
was based on, word has it that Warner Bros. was so hungry for a sequel
to the original movie, that returning director Joe Dante was given
complete creative control of the movie and a huge for the time 50
million dollar budget. The film Joe Dante turned in was a hilariously
self aware, fourth wall breaking sequel that pokes fun at the very
notion of sequels and the original Gremlins movie itself. The movie
traded the small town charm and Christmas setting of the original for a
cold industrial office building but upped the ante with countless new
bizarre gremlin types like a bat shaped Gremlin, an electricity powered
Gremlin, a tarantula Gremlin, and perhaps most bizarrely, an ultra
smart brainy Gremlin who could eloquently speak full sentences. Also in
a move way ahead of its time, the film parodies rich egotistical
businessman types with a character named Daniel Clamp who loves to name
giant skyscrapers in New York after himself. The world was not quite
ready for this movie and it vastly underperformed at the box office,
but it's absolutely essential viewing if you want to see a campy cult
classic and have some more silly fun in the Gremlins universe.
Getting back to the video game, it's
a good sign that you're in for a fun time when the options on the start
screen are boldly punctuated with exclamation points by Sunsoft. This
game takes place from a top down original Zelda style perspective, and
the action takes place entirely within the setting of the movie, the
Clamp office building. The game starts out innocently enough, with
Gizmo fighting giant tomatoes, and smaller enemies like rats and bats.
But when the Gremlins finally start showing up, the gameplay variety
and difficulty ramps up immensely. As previously mentioned, the film
was notable for having an utterly insane cast of themed Gremlins with
bonkers powers and this game delivers almost all of those Gremlins and
even ups the ante on the movie with more unique types of the monsters
to defeat. There are Gremlins on helicopters, fire breathers,
skateboarders, and a Tasmanian Devil style Gremlin who throws top hats.
There's even Gremlin arms that pop out of the ground without warning
and hurl projectiles at your poor Mogwai.
Gizmo getting chased
by
gigantic tomatoes (left), Gizmo raises a matchstick
to help power up his weapon (center), a battle with boss
Gremlin Stripe (right)
In the film, Gizmo eventually hardens
up and turns into a Rambo-esque action hero, complete with a red head
band, to help defeat the Gremlins overrunning the office building. That
may sound crazy, but I swear I'm not making that up. Gizmo's only means
of attack in the game is to throw items at attackers. Just like in the
movie, his weapons upgrade as the story goes on with each set of levels
passed. You start with a puny low range tomato, but by the end you'll
be awarded a super powered bow and arrow that shoots a large
four-pronged fireball, perfect for roasting those pesky Gremlins. You
don't have a punch move or melee attack so you'll want to be sure to
strike from a distance to keep the Gremlins at bay. The enemy Gremlins
will chase you and Gizmo relentlessly so you'll have to get good at
punishing them from a distance. You're going to need the upgraded
weapons and a lot of patience as the boss Gremlins in this game are
just plain tough to take down. They include the incredibly fast moving
electricity Gremlin and a machine gun wielding Gremlin. These fights
are a real endurance test with some of the bosses taking over 30 hits
to defeat!
There's also a lot of platforming to
be had even with the game taking place from an overhead perspective,
with gameplay reminiscent of fellow NES cult classic StarTropics. There
are lots of tricky treadmills and moving platforms to be found, and
you'll have to master your jumping ability if you want to make it out
of Clamp Tower alive. Luckily, the game contains life saving balloons
which let you float safely above trouble spots for a few seconds. Just
be careful where you land because the game has a tendency to re-spawn
you really close to pits after you fall in and you'll want to have a
little bit of a running start to make some of the longer jumps in the
game.
The game also has a really
interesting heart based health system. You'll start out with only three
hearts and can be hurt twice before losing one full heart. You start
out with just one life, and since there are no check points, you'll
frustratingly have to start the level completely over from the
beginning every time you die. So be prepared to hear the game over
jingle quite a few times if you plan on finishing this otherwise fun
game. Fortunately, extra lives and other power ups can be bought with
crystals, the game's currency, at stores run by original Gizmo owner
Mr. Wing. So to put it in the words of Depeche Mode, the old man from
the movies is about to become your own personal Jesus.
Graphically, this is a very nice
looking game. The design of Gizmo is a perfect detailed likeness and
the developers also nailed the overall look of the many types of
Gremlins. The backgrounds can be a little basic at times, since the
game takes place entirely within an office building, but there is still
some interesting variety and décor. The cut scenes are also very
pleasant to look at despite being very simply animated. There is very
little pixel flicker, and strangely enough, I spotted more of the
obnoxious flicker in the earlier levels of the game. I also did not
encounter a trace of slowdown in my complete Gremlins 2 play through.
Gizmo on the run from
some pesky Gremlins (left), the cuteness of Gizmo in
a cut scene (center), Mr. Wing helps save the
day with power ups for sale (right)
As for the music, it is a great
combination of creepy and catchy. It is mischievous and a just a little
scary, just like the Gremlins themselves. The music from the first two
stages are real ear worms and bound to get stuck in your head long
after you turn off your NES. To me it sounds vaguely reminiscent at
times of the music of the Journey To Silius soundtrack, another Sunsoft
produced 8-bit classic. That's because the tunes for both games were
composed by Naoki Kodaka, who also created the music for Sunsoft's
excellent 1989 Batman NES game. The music for the first stage, the
office, is so catchy that it was covered by guitar god Nestalgica in
his trademark heavy metal style for his 2016 album "Feed. Play. Sleep.
Repeat." I highly recommend checking his version out, as the song
translates incredibly well to his trademark crunchy guitars.
Overall Gremlins 2: The New Batch for
the Nintendo Entertainment System adds up to being a very fun and
unique experience, that I'd definitely recommend giving a shot,
especially if you're a fan of Gizmo's big screen adventures. I think it
earns a place in the upper tier of licensed movie based games for the
NES thanks to Sunsoft's knack for making extremely fun games out of
established licensed properties. So the next time your gaming console
of choice goes on the fritz, or your copy of the Gremlins 2 game isn't
working - before you look up a tutorial of how to fix it on YouTube,
turn on all the lights, check all the closets and cupboards, and look
under all the beds. Because you never can tell. There just might be a
Gremlin in there!
Small
tabletop replicas of arcade cabinets are nothing new, reaching
initial peak popularity in the early 1980's with Coleco's vacuum
fluorescent display based re-creations of Pac-Man, Frogger, Galaxian,
and Ms. Pac-Man. While those games are and were cool little
collectibles that played a reasonably similar version of the title they
were representing, they were very much deluxe handheld games rather
than
miniaturized arcade classics. It wouldn't be until a few years
ago with Replicade Amusement's 1/6th scale Centipede cabinet that a
miniature arcade game became available as an accurately detailed and functional
collectible. Continuing with the trend, a collectible merchandise
company by the name of Numskull Designs introduced an accurate 1/4
scale version of Pac-Man to wide distribution in 2019. Under then
moniker "Quarter Arcades" they would follow it up with Galaxian, Ms.
Pac-Man, and Galaga - all functional and accurate reproductions except
in quarter scale. That assortment of four games is nothing out of
the ordinary and has been re-licensed and re-produced in many forms
many times, not to mention are contained in what are essentially the
same cabinets. Their next game would be something different
however and genuinely piqued my interest - a faithful quarter scale
replica of Dig
Dug.
The Quarter Arcades
Dig Dug is an incredibly accurate and functional reproduction of the
classic cabinet, except at quarter scale
While Midway
originally manufactured the smooth low profile cabinets for Pac-Man,
Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, and Galaga for American distribution - it was
Atari who would manufacture Dig Dug outside of Japan. Atari
arcade cabinets of the era tended to be tall and angular, with marquees
that would jet out to attract a player's attention and monitors that
were positioned more upright than the laid back approach Midway
used. Dig Dug was no exception, a towering white cabinet clad in
bright pop art depicting the game's characters and mechanics. The
objective of Dig Dug is to guide the titular character through
underground mazes he digs himself, snagging enemy pookas (red
balloon-like creatures) and fygars (green fire-breathing dragons) with
his air harpoon and pumping them full of air until they explode.
Alternatively large boulders can be dug free and used to crush foes as
they fall into the shaft below. The side art uses this tall
profile and angular shape to outstanding effect, with a falling rock
following the upper contour to smash a pooka, while a partially
inflated fygar occupies the center of the illustration. The air
harpoon stuck into the fygar twists downward, around a dancing pooka,
and to Dig Dug's air pump where he is squatting at the handle.
The art is bold, beautiful, very unique - and perfectly re-created on
the Quarter Arcades cabinet. The detail continues around to the
front of the cabinet with a beautifully accurate control panel overlay,
and what I believe to be a screened glass marquee and bezel. The
text on the control panel could have easily been phoned in at this
scale but Numskull's attention to detail means that every word is
legible - although you may need a magnifying glass.
Rather than
scaling up the control inputs, the joystick and buttons are
in line with the rest of the 1/4 scale reproduction. The player
one and player two start buttons are even little illuminated cone
buttons, something Atari cabinets are known for. The "Pump"
buttons used to activate Dig Dug's air harpoon and pump have a very
smooth and responsive motion and honestly feel far better than they
should given their size. The joystick is microswitched with the
correct four-direction gate and a reasonably accurate and responsive
throw. I am very impressed and a little blown away at how good
the game feels to play on a control panel of this size.
Admittedly there is a little bit of slop in the joystick and it remains
to be seen how well it will hold up over time but I have seen videos
online of the cabinet being given heavy play by a Dig Dug expert who
had no problem racking up huge scores. As for the game, it is
running the authentic arcade version of the original Namco release of
Dig Dug on a custom PCB that Numskull had manufactured specifically for
the Quarter Arcades line. It features full DIP switch game
settings accessed by holding both player start buttons upon boot up,
allowing difficulty selection, starting lives, attract sound, and where
extra life bonuses fall. Additionally Dig Dug is the first of
Numskull's Quarter Arcades cabinets to retain high scores even after
the cabinet is turned off, adding in a feature many had requested after
the release of the previous games.
Controls and control
panel overlay are also in scale, right down to tiny illuminated cone
buttons and full game instructions
The display is
an LCD panel, as is expected on a product made in the
current era, even a retro reproduction. However it looks great,
with good detail and bright and accurate colors. The viewing
angle is also spot on perfect when playing the game or having it run
while on display. The glass marquee, player start buttons, and
coin reject buttons are all illuminated and with the room lighting
dimmed the entire cabinet gives off the same soft glow of a full size
machine, albeit at quarter scale. Sound is delivered through a
speaker over the bezel, exactly where it was in the original cabinet,
and sound volume is controlled by a dial located on the back of the
cabinet. Sound reproduction, while accurate, sounds a slight bit
off but I feel that's mainly due to the small speaker size and accurate
placement in the cabinet. While it's nice to be able to adjust
the volume on the fly with the mechanical adjustment on the back, I
would rather volume adjustment be handled in software as it would be
one less part that could potentially fail, as I have read product
reviews stating that some people have received cabinets with dead
audio. I will also say that while the audio can be turned up
fairly high, it sounds distorted when up beyond what I would consider
"scale volume" - again, I believe the scale speaker and its positioning
is the culprit in this case.
Power is
suppled via a USB connection and as is common with many
consumer electronics these days, you will need to supply your own USB
power adapter. I know this is a point of contention with some but
it makes global distribution of electronics a lot easier for
manufacturers and at least a USB cable is provided in the box.
Speaking of the box, it is very well designed with tons of packing foam
at both the top and bottom that keep the cabinet securely isolated from
the walls of the display box. This is then further protected with
cardboard slats along each edge between the display box and the outer
shipping carton. It appears the shipping carton had a reasonably
hard impact on one corner while in transit but due to the well-designed
packaging the cabinet was unaffected. Unlike many other arcade
cabinet reproductions, Numskull actually had the foresight to include a
built-in rechargeable battery. After a full charge you'll get
about four hours of gameplay away from wall power. I find this a
nice touch as it allows the cabinet to be functionally displayed in
more locations than if it had to be tethered to a power cord. I
also want to mention that the power switch is a soft toggle, meaning
that you hold it down for a couple seconds until the cabinet powers on
and then do the same to turn it off. This isn't specifically
explained anywhere in the instruction booklet and it may catch you off
guard at first if you're expecting a solid on / off rocker click.
Pictures don't do the
screen justice as it looks outstanding in person (left), minor bezel
damage that escaped quality control on this cabinet (right)
As has been
described, cabinet fit and finish is very nice with wood,
metal, and glass construction throughout. The entire assembly has
a solid feel and good weight, with grippy pads on the bottom to prevent
it from sliding or toppling while being played or on display. My
cabinet had a minor quality control issue with a small area of the
bezel either not being screened correctly or lifting off during final
assembly. I contacted Geek Store, the company I purchased the
cabinet from through Amazon, an they offered either a direct exchange
or 20% off the price as an apology. Not wanting to ship the
cabinet back to the UK, I accepted the 20% refund, which I feel was a
generous offer. Manufacturing and longevity issues will come up
with any mass-produced item, this is expected, but it would be nice for
a much wider distribution to help alleviate them. Understandably
in the time of our current global pandemic manufacturing, distribution,
and warehousing are uniquely overburdened but when things improve I
hope that the supply and support chain for these products is expanded.
Numskull is a
UK based company but they do offer worldwide shipment and
distribution through their retail partners depending on your
region. I purchased Dig Dug via Amazon but it was fulfilled and
shipped by Geek Store (which has apparently recently re-branded as Just
Geek) in the UK and it was shipped directly from them, taking only a
few days to arrive. Shortly after my order arrived the Amazon
inventory disappeared but you can still order directly from Just
Geek. Additionally for USA customers, Gamestop was allocated a
small quantity at one time but is currently sold out as this issue goes
to publication. While Quarter Arcades production doesn't seem as
limited as smaller 1/6th scale Replicade Amusement cabinets from New
Wave Toys, it also appears that they are not made in massive quantities
and demand is outweighing supply. Just Geek's website does,
however, have the earlier out of stock cabinets (Galaxian, Galaga, Ms.
Pac-Man) with future release dates, so there's a chance they are going
back into production in the future. This would be awesome as
there's no sense in a company leaving money on the table when there is
obviously continued interest and people selling their products
second-hand for up to three times purchase price.
Putting things into
scale - Quarter Arcades Dig Dug, a vintage Coleco Ms. Pac-Man VFD
tabletop, and a standard coffee mug
Now that
purchase price may be the sticking point for many.
Quarter Arcades cabinets range in price from between $130 to $150
depending on where they are purchased. After tax and shipping
they're about $170 out the door, as the higher priced distributors tend
to offer free shipping, leveling out the final price regardless.
Without a doubt that's a lot of money but it's not severely more than a
Replicade Amusements 1/6th scale cabinet and those tend to sell out
almost immediately. Additionally it's not all that much more than
what a good condition 1980's Coleco VFD tabletop goes for these days
but admittedly I find that pretty crazy. I think there's an
appropriate value here for what you're getting for the money, as you
can tell there is a real attention to detail throughout.
Certainly far more care is put into these than pretty much any other
lower cost alternative to these specific cabinets that have been
released by other companies. They truly are collector's pieces
that can actually be played and with the presentation Dig Dug's cabinet
is known for, you really can't go wrong with this one.
MORTAL KOMBAT!!! From the second you
hear that opening scream followed by the drop of a glorious techno
beat, the fun is on. The first Mortal Kombat movie is an entertaining
spectacle full of epic fight sequences and glorious fan service ripped
straight out of the arcades that was way better than it had to be. It
was the first time a video game based movie truly connected with
audiences and became a smash hit in the summer of 1995. With the film
series resurrected by a brand new movie coming in April to movie
theaters and HBO Max, now is the perfect time to look back on the
original hit film that first brought the series to life.
The success of the Mortal Kombat
video games is owed heavily to the classic action packed karate movies
that were a huge influence on the developers of the games. Movies like
Bruce Lee's Enter The Dragon and Jean-Claude Van Damme's Bloodsport
played an essential role in shaping the look and feel of the games.
Here that debt is repaid with Mortal Kombat becoming a classic martial
arts film in its own right. This is one of the biggest reasons for its
success. It pays homage to the very things that helped inspire MK's
creation in the first place. The second biggest reason the movie works
so well is how seriously it takes the source material of the first two
games. Director Paul W.S. Anderson played the games religiously in the
arcades before making this movie and his passion for the project shows
up on the screen. The movie is played entirely straight with little
hint or irony or mockery. It includes most of the dialogue and catch
phrases of the games and features the special moves from the games
brought to life with some of the best effects the 1990's could offer.
The fighting is even faithful to the games with many of the physically
impossible moves recreated in a semi-realistic style.
Christopher Lambert
plays a
slightly goofier version of Raiden
The movie begins with a lusciously
haired version of Liu Kang, played by Robin Shou, heading to the Mortal
Kombat tournament and out for revenge after Shang Tsung (Cary-Hiroyuki
Tagawa) kills his younger brother. Our other two main heroes who enter
the tourney are actor Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby), out to prove that
he's as tough as his movie characters, and Sonya Blade (Bridgette
Wilson), who inadvertently joins the action after chasing her nemesis
Kano on to a boat taking competitors to the tournament. Thunder god
Raiden, as played here by Christopher Lambert of the Highlander movies,
also offers protection and guidance to our heroes as they seek to save
Earthrealm from sure destruction.
The movie mainly focuses on
characters from the first Mortal Kombat game, but also features
characters from the second game like Jax and Kitana in supporting
roles. Series stalwarts Sub Zero and Scorpion appear, but their intense
rivalry from the games is eliminated, as in the movie they are both
generically evil and under the mind control of Shang Tsung. But the
movie absolutely nails the original pallet swapped look of the iconic
ninja characters, and green ninja Reptile, who also briefly shows up.
As for the look of the rest of the characters, the movie doesn't really
seem to care to put them into their colorful outfits from the games,
which admittedly could have looked a little cartoonish, but the
characters still look appropriately dressed in their more bland,
restrained costumes.
Sub Zero is ready for
a
fight
The martial arts in the film is top
notch especially during a fight between Johnny Cage and Scorpion and
also in a fight featuring Liu Kang versus Sub Zero. Robin Shou is
generally outstanding as Liu Kang in his many fight scenes. It must
have been an incredibly physically demanding role given the amount of
fight scenes he has throughout the course of the movie. Supposedly he
broke several ribs while filming, but kept on taking the hits to get
the movie done. Speaking of the fight scenes, this is another aspect of
the games that film scores a flawless victory on. All of the
fantastical special moves are taken seriously and represented with the
proper flair that performing them in the real world would have. The
PG-13 rating of the movie however does not allow for the bloody
brutality that is the series trademark. Although the movie does push
that rating to the limit and gets away with the bloody decapitation of
a skull and a few other toned down fatalities but they are still not
nearly as gory as the games. The new Mortal Kombat movie will have an R
rating and could feature more of the ultra violence and the over the
top fatalities that the series is famous for.
The main villains of the movie are
also fantastic. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa does an incredible job as the
imposing soul stealer Shang Tsung. He radiates evil intensity as he
spouts many of the series famous one-liners. As a viewer you'll truly
love to hate him, in an outstandingly hammy performance. Trevor Goddard
also seems to be having a blast putting on an Australian accent to play
the crude red Terminator-eyed villain Kano. Goro also appears, played
here by a high tech animatronic that cost over one million dollars to
make. He looks a little rubbery, and the decision to use practical
effects to bring him to life may have been due to the technical
limitations of the time, but I'll still take a physical puppet over
computer animation any day.
The movie focuses on
Sonya, Johnny Cage, and Liu Kang
However, some of the film's special
effects that looked great at the time, have aged poorly. This is
similar to what has happened with many of the other pioneering movies
of the era that dipped their toes into using the mediocre computer
animation of the day. Two of the cheesiest offenders in the movie are
the effects used for Reptile in lizard form and Scorpion's iconic hand
blade. With a bigger budget and better graphical designers behind it,
this is another area where the upcoming re-boot can easily improve on
its predecessor.
The movie was a massive success,
grossing over 122 million dollars world wide, and spawning a sequel
movie in 1997: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Director Paul W.S. Anderson
would go on to make more video game movie history as he directed
another one of the only truly critically and financially successful
video game adaptations, the first Resident Evil movie. It would go on
to become a six movie franchise that also has a reboot movie scheduled
to come out later this year. Anderson is still at it, and he directed a
movie based on the Monster Hunter video game franchise which was
released last year. So until the new Mortal Kombat movie gets over
here, now is a good time to revisit the original classic movie. It's by
no means a flawless victory, but its got such good action and is such a
blast that it'll give your boredom a real fatality and you'll have a
bloody good time.
The Roguelike genre
just is not for some people. The first barrier to hurdle is the
name of the genre, at least it was for me. It harkens back to the
mid 90's before games were called "First Person Shooters" and were all
just referred to as "Doom clones." Once you get past the obtuse
genre classification you're thrust into a fairly simple but
relentlessly unforgiving style of game. Rogue: Exploring the
Dungeons of Doom was developed in the early 1980's for Unix based
mainframes. Basically extreme nerd content for computer science
majors and engineer types. Some of the key components of the
Roguelike, a game that is like Rogue, are permanent death, managing a
food meter, randomly generated dungeon floors and randomly dropped
equipment.
If a player happens
into a game like this expecting your typical Role Playing Game that
lasts for tens of if not hundreds of hours, they will be sorely
disappointed when their character dies only to start the game
anew. Which is what happened to a lot of players that experienced
Roguelike games on early consoles. My first experience with a
Roguelike was actually ToeJam & Earl for the Sega Genesis.
The creator of the game, Greg Johnson, was directly inspired by Rogue
after playing the game in college. Forgoing the typical setting
of a musty dungeon full of traditional fantasy villains, Johnson was
inspired by the previous game he had worked on which took place in
space. The titular ToeJam and Earl are stranded on Earth and need
to traverse different levels looking for spaceship parts while dodging
Earthlings and using randomly generated items to aid them on their
quest.
The first time I
played the game I was over at a buddy's house playing on a soft modded
Xbox. During those times it was a common occurrence for us to get
a few cases of the cheapest headache-inducing Honey Brown beer and a
large quantity of fried chicken (my friends younger brother worked at a
Lee's Chicken at the time) and have all night gaming sessions. We
fired up ToeJam & Earl on the emulator and were blown away by how
fun the co-op mode was. I didn't realize it but I had just played
my first Roguelike.
The next time I
would have any real experience with the genre was with the Sega
Dreamcast in the form of Time Stalkers. My main interest in the
game was the character Nigel who first appeared in the Sega Genesis
masterpiece Landstalker. The general plot is various characters
from different universes are being brought into a hubworld for the
amusement of a malevolent force. The worlds range from medieval
to futuristic. The player can play as the hero named Sword or
other characters as they are unlocked by beating dungeons. Each
time you enter a dungeon you start at level 1, have a limited
inventory, and if you die all your items except equipped gear are
lost. Level layouts are randomly generated with randomly dropped
gear and items. A lot of reviews had a hard time with this
gameplay but I believe it was due to the Roguelike genre not being
widely known or appreciated. If you go into the game with the
right mindset it's a very enjoyable game, especially if you're a fan of
Climax Entertainment's other games. It really was a treat getting
to play as Nigel from Landstalker and Lady from Ladystalker again.
My next trip into
the world of Roguelikes would be with the Mystery Dungeon series.
My love for Dragon Quest put the game World of Dragon Warrior: Torneko
The Last Hope on my radar. This is the seventh entry into the
Mystery Dungeon series and the second in the Torneko games. The
series is actually a bit of a big topic to tackle. But to keep it
brief the developers of Dragon Quest, Chunsoft, approached Yuji Hori
and asked if they could use characters from Dragon Quest IV to make a
spin-off game, Torneko's Great Adventure. The gameplay was based
on Rogue but in the world of Dragon Warrior IV, featuring the chubby
merchant Torneko going on a quest to explore dungeons to make his store
famous by stocking great treasures from the mystery dungeon. The
game was a huge hit in Japan for the Super Famicom. The sequel on
PlayStation, World of Dragon Warrior: Torneko The Last Hope, was
released in North America during the RPG craze on the PS1 without much
fanfare. But my love for Dragon Quest has had me picking up all
of the mainline Dragon Quest games and their spin offs over the past
decade or so and eventually I would pick up World of Dragon Warrior:
Torneko The Last Hope.
After playing this
gem of a dungeon crawler, I went down the rabbit hole of Mystery
Dungeon games. The second game in the Mystery Dungeon series was
called Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer. Shiren was a
character developed by Chunsoft which gave them a bit more freedom in
creating locations, characters and enemies separate from Dragon
Quest. The series would continue making unique games as well as
plenty of other spin-offs, most famously the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
games. Thousands of Pokemon fans have been playing Roguelikes,
although toned down in difficulty, without even realizing it! So
after reading a bit about the Mystery Dungeon series I picked up a copy
of Shiren the Wanderer, which had been ported to the Nintendo DS.
Shiren is still going strong today with the fifth Shiren game appearing
on the PlayStation Vita and recently being ported to Steam and Nintendo
Switch. For my birthday this year I preordered a Limited Run
Games physical copy of Shiren the Wanderer 5 and can't wait to play it!
Part of the appeal
to me with Shiren on the DS is being able to play in short
bursts. I have a three-year-old daughter and one-year-old son so
time to play games comes at a premium. Being able to open up the
DS and make a quick run through some dungeons before being taken out by
an enemy can be perfect for an impromptu 10 minute game session.
I hope the same will be true for Shiren the Wanderer 5 on the
Switch. Now that I've been exposed to the genre I've been looking
for other similar games. There is Fatal Labyrinth on the Sega
Genesis and Dragon Crystal on the Sega Master System / Game Gear which
are also great games to play in short bursts. There have been
many a night my son has woken up and been rocked to bed in the gentle
glow of Fatal Labyrinth. As of yet I still haven't played the
original Rogue although it sits in my Steam wishlist. Perhaps if
it goes on sale from its already affordable price of $2.99 I just might
take the plunge and play the original.
Capcom's Street
Fighter II: The World Warrior turned 30 years old recently. Based on
accounts from the development team itself it would appear this was
intended to be the only sequel effort to the original Street Fighter.
What they had stumbled upon with the re-energized franchise was nothing
short of truly amazing. Here's the tale of how Street Fighter II took
the arcade coin-op world by storm.
The franchise's
roots lie in the 1987 release of Street Fighter, a game based around an
international fighting tournament concept inspired by the 1973 Bruce
Lee film, Enter the Dragon. At the head of its design was its producer
Takashi Nishiyama, who had successful titles Moon Patrol and Kung Fu
Master to his credit with his former company Irem. Fascinated by
martial arts themes, he and his team set out to take fighting games in
the vein of Karate Champ (Technos) and Yie Ar Kung-Fu (Konami) to the
next level.
Street Fighter
Street Fighter's
primary innovation was the implementation of sequenced special moves,
consisting of a motion of the joystick followed by an attack button,
albeit its poor execution in the game is among what it was best known
for. Arcades at the time almost required new games to have unique
aesthetics or mechanics (driving games with full motion cockpits, for
example) in order to enable them to stand out in a sea of titles
battling for floor space. Street Fighter came in a large 25" display
"Deluxe" trim consisting of pressure sensitive pads that you would hit
with great force to determine the strength of your attack in the game.
It was another bust for the game, as players literally experienced
injuries from trying to play the game. In its native Japan, Capcom
shipped the game also with the familiar 6 button layout consisting of 3
punch and 3 kick attacks. The Deluxe cabinets were "upgraded" to use
this arrangement instead. Although a successful game in its own right,
it developed a poor reputation based on its Deluxe pad controls and
would serve as a valuable lesson for later.
Nishiyama and other
members of his team were subsequently poached to work for SNK shortly
thereafter. Although a certain demand existed for a future sequel to
Street Fighter, it would not be under his direction. Another
development team at Capcom was headed by Yoshiki Okamoto, who at the
time was directing a shoot-em-up game with a unique rotary dial control
for aiming called Forgotten Worlds. Rounding out this team were
designers Akira Nishitani, Akira Yasuda, and Noritaka Funamizu.
Forgotten Worlds was the first game designed on Capcom's new universal
arcade hardware, the CPS (Capcom Play System), powered by a Motorola
68000 CPU. From a purely hardware perspective, it was a highly
ambitious effort, requiring a significant amount of ROM storage, and
thus had a high cost of production. Although the game was well
received, it was a major financial burden on Capcom. With the demand
for a Street Fighter sequel looming, a ROM chip shortage in 1988
sidelined the project and a different kind of "Street Fighter" game was
on the horizon instead.
Final Fight
Okamoto used the
same personnel for the new project that Capcom initially wanted to
brand as part of the Street Fighter lineage, titling the new game
Street Fighter '89. Double Dragon (Technos) had been a major hit in
arcades, drawing mass popularity and garnering critical acclaim. With
its 2 player cooperative gameplay, players were rewarded with the
opportunity to team up and operators saw double the profits. A contrast
to the development of Forgotten Worlds, the new game was engineered
with the utmost frugality. Clever tricks to save on the ROM storage
were employed. The idea was to make a lean and mean street brawler like
Double Dragon, but orchestrated with a higher degree of precision in
the gameplay. When the game started making the rounds at operator
conventions with the Street Fighter '89 title, however, people were
confused as to how it had anything to do with Street Fighter. Capcom
responded by renaming it Final Fight, and giving one of the playable
characters a background as a "former Street Fighter" instead. Due to
the heavy losses from Forgotten Worlds, the new CPS entry was a make or
break for the company. If in the event it were to fail, Capcom could
potentially go under. The game wound up being a success, the company
responded in kind by asking for a sequel.
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Okamoto had a
storied history before his career at Capcom. He had worked for Konami
years earlier and was tasked with producing a driving game, but instead
created the shooter Time Pilot. Despite the game's success, the company
parted ways with him and he wound up with Capcom instead. The ROM chip
shortage had subsided, and with instruction to make a follow-up to
Final Fight, it was here he chose to go with the game they had wanted
to do all along: Street Fighter II. The official title was Street
Fighter II: The World Warrior, patterned around the same basic concept
as its predecessor, the new game expanded beyond Players 1 and 2
controlling identical characters in Ryu and Ken. Now there were eight
selectable characters to choose from, each hailing from their own
respective home countries, to compete in a fighting tournament hosted
by M. Bison (Vega in Japan). Bison and three other characters: Balrog,
Vega, and the previous game's champion Sagat, were a cast of "boss"
characters the player couldn't play as.
Getting a shot at
doing another Street Fighter meant that Capcom could fix all the
blemishes from the original title. Out of the box, the game came only
with the 6 button attack layout, to alleviate the symptoms of players
with busted open bloodied hands. The special move execution was fixed
by being programmed to work more leniently with the button input
following the joystick motion. Oh, and this design inadvertently gave
birth to the combo, a standard in fighting game nomenclature ever
since, by way of the leniency opening up the possibility of chaining
multiple attacks. Each fighter had authentic settings representing
their countries in the background art, and the iconic music to match
composed by Yoko Shimomura.
Although Street
Fighter had head to head 2 player fighting, real world demonstration
showed that it was particularly limited. For Street Fighter II having
many different selectable fighters with unique fighting styles meant
there were significantly more options for competitive play. In Japan
when the game was placed on location test, the team observed that most
players were only playing 1 player games against the computer instead
of their intended "battle play" with 2 players. Japanese publications
began to promote the concept and the players subsequently caught on.
The game was location tested in California for its United States
release. Distributors were leery at operators requesting more cabinets
since the single cabinets they'd put out were backed up from players
waiting in lines to play, believing that adding another cabinet
wouldn't result in added profits, but splitting them between the games.
Perceived estimates were that the game would be capable of taking in
$800 a week. Milpitas location Golfland got their additional cabinet;
the two machines drew $1,400 each. Capcom had a mega hit on their hands.
Street Fighter II': Champion Edition
Although great care
went into the refinement of the gameplay in the initial World Warrior
release, there were a few areas of potential that weren't even realized
until demand among players grew. In The World Warrior, there were no
"mirror matches," meaning it was impossible to have match-ups in the
game between two of the same fighter. Players also wanted to tap the
potential of the four boss fighters for their own playing needs.
Additionally, going without saying, the game could have used a little
more refinement too, as well as a fix for the game-breaking glitch of
Guile's handcuffs. Through the instruction of James Goddard, a
forefather for the fighting game community and esports in general, all
of these new design aesthetics were put into place. The result was the
next iteration of the series, Street Fighter II': Champion Edition.
With Street Fighter II already cemented in arcade lore, Champion
Edition sold a staggering 140,000 units and in the infancy of its
battles with Mortal Kombat, ultimately won the first round.
Street Fighter II' Turbo: Hyper Fighting
Effectively a
standard in arcade coin-op, bootlegging of game circuit boards was
inevitable. It stung Capcom pretty bad, with an array of bootlegs
showing up in countries in the hundreds of thousands where distribution
didn't even think to go to. Profits were starting to be adversely
affected, as these were unsanctioned by Capcom and their distributor
networks. One of the companies producing these bootlegs was Hung Hsi
Enterprise Taiwan. They also published one of the more prevalent ROM
hacks that existed for Champion Edition named Rainbow Edition. Rainbow
Edition sported significantly faster gameplay, and also enabled the
ability to throw (spam) multiple projectile attacks at once and also
notably perform special moves in mid-air. Capcom facing pressure turned
to James Goddard once again who had played Rainbow Edition in the wild.
Although Goddard was unimpressed with how the special move hacks broke
the game, he did find the turbo element fascinating and suggested
Capcom use it. The development team had expressed disinterest in
speeding the game up as it would break their gameplay balance set forth
in Champion Edition. After much coercion by way of player demand, the
next upgrade release, Street Fighter II': Turbo Hyper Fighting emerged.
Akin to a great
offense being a great defense, Turbo Hyper Fighting was engineered to
carry the benefits of the hacked Rainbow Edition by way of faster
gameplay, new moves, and mid-air execution but with balance. Rainbow
Edition was perceived as silly due to its imbalance; Capcom could
change the tide completely if they offered the fresh spin with balance
that players argue was superior even to Champion Edition. Using data
from the tournament scene for Champion Edition and that game's flaws,
Turbo Hyper Fighting had a chance to be innovative and win over fans in
a huge way. A stormy, and rapid, development cycle on the game
alternating between Goddard's requests and Capcom's resistance resulted
in Goddard getting his way. Capcom was able to secure a third victory
with Turbo Hyper Fighting, their reluctance to even make the game at
all was silenced when the game was a success on play test in Japan.
Ultimately Street Fighter II, and all three flavors of it, went on to
set many standards in fighting games for three decades. Capcom is still
in business today as a result of their efforts on the project, spawning
many more successful franchises in their Marvel vs. Capcom crossovers,
Resident Evil, and of course, many more Street Fighters.
Way back in
March
of 2016 I began this column with our first issue and intended it to
become a regular fixture from then on. For whatever reason I
never followed up its first entry, a review of Bombman, and the subject
at hand soon became a distant memory. As we begin our sixth year
at The Retrogaming Times, I thought it fitting to get Pyuuta Tutor
rolling again and deliver on my intent from half a decade ago.
The Tomy Pyuuta is the original Japanese version of the Tomy Tutor, a
rather obscure home computer from the very early 1980's and the very
first computer I ever used or owned. While only ten games were
released for the Tutor, the Pyuuta had many more, running the spectrum from
outstanding arcade conversions to quality original games specifically
for the Pyuuta market. Even though the Japanese market had
multiple Pyuuta models and a healthy library of games, it was still a
very obscure platform even in its country of origin.
Before
we get going again after all these years, I want to once more give a
huge thanks to those who acquired, archived and added these
Pyuuta cartridges to fill out the entire Tutor / Pyuuta library in MESS
(Multi Emulator Super System), particularly Team Europe. It is
due
to the efforts of these hobbyists that we are able to enjoy these games
and ensure the Pyuuta's place in video game history is preserved.
Thank you!
Saurusland is
labeled as the third cartridge in the Pyuuta lineup but
in terms of game design and visual styling it feels much more like it
was developed in tandem with Bombman, which was labeled as release
number one. In Saurusland you control a caveman armed with a
large club that he uses to clobber moles, mammoths, and
dinosaurs. There's no objective beyond obtaining points and
staying alive, as Saurusland is a game of high score in the style of
early arcade and computer games. Initially I
was impressed that Saurusland has an honest to goodness title screen,
something not seen in many Pyuuta games, with the game name displayed
in large letters as three volcanoes erupt in the distance and a little
title melody plays. With that said, the background of the title
screen is the one and only playfield in the entire game but
single-screen games were common in the early days of the Pyuuta so it's
not surprising.
The caveman
can freely move in eight directions with very fast response
and instant movement when turning from left to right or vice
versa. Pressing either the SL or SR button swings his club and
again this action is very rapid instant. He also has a few
different frames of animation as he walks and even though his sprite is
very blocky, his design and movements lend the character a bit of
personality. As he walks around the grassy area, mounds will
begin to appear in the dirt, with a mole eventually popping out of each
one. Neither the mounds or moles can hurt the caveman, however
they can both be smacked with the club for 100 points, with no
difference between them that I could ascertain. It seems that
smashing moles is the main concept behind the game, so it's surprising
that they don't offer any challenge beyond lining up your club and
absolutely no risk in attacking them. What does pose a risk
however are the mammoths and dinosaurs that also roam the grassy
area. These are roughly the same size as the caveman and also
feature a few animation frames but each are a single color - the
mammoth in black and the dinosaur in pink. Only one mammoth and
one dinosaur can be on the screen at a time but they tend to leave and
appear quickly from the left and right edges of the screen, making them
a constant obstacle even once clobbered. The touch of either of
these larger animals is deadly and their speed and direction of
movement can change at a moment's notice, however they award 500 points
if successfully hit with the club. Hit detection may take a few
minutes to become familiar with but once the sweet spot for the club is
understood, attacking is consistent and solid.
Title screens are a
rarity on the Pyuuta (left), a dinosaur closes in (center), evading
volcanic rocks during an eruption (right)
As the caveman
and creatures run around the playfield, the three
volcanoes in the distance will continuously steam and smoke but they're
more than just background decoration. The volcanoes will
frequently erupt, throwing three flumes of lava into the air.
When this happens the moles will retreat underground and the dinosaurs
and mammoths will stampede, making them a much larger threat to the
caveman. Volcanic rock will then begin to rain down, two boulders
at a time, and must be avoided as even the slightest touch will kill
the caveman. The score counter runs continuously during the
eruption, making the time spent avoiding the constant barrage of rocks
easily the most lucrative scoring part of the game. The rocks
seem to home in on the caveman just a bit if he is near them, so
avoiding them completely is often the best strategy. After the
eruption calms and the skies clear, the moles will begin to tunnel back
up and the mammoths and dinosaurs will return once again. While
there are no stages or levels in Saurusland, the frequency of eruptions
and the speed and unpredictability in which enemies move constantly
increases the longer you play. Additionally the boulders that
rain down will move faster and faster as the game continues on, showing
some pretty smooth and quick sprite movement on the hardware.
What I find
most charming about Saurusland is the sound effect package
it uses, something often not said about games on the Pyuuta.
Generally there are one or two sound effects that overpower everything
else with Pyuuta / Tutor games but such isn't the case here.
Nearly everything has a different sound, even the footsteps of the
caveman and those of the larger enemies. The enemy footstep sound
even increases in time with their movements when they speed up or slow
down. Volcanic eruptions use the standard Pyuuta "explosion /
collision" sound but rather than stomp on the rest of the sound effects
it actually blends in with and complements them. Amusingly the
sound that plays when clubbing a dino sounds like part of the harpoon
sound effect from Dig Dug, a game that influenced the box art for the
first Pyuuta game, Bombman. Speaking of Bombman, Saurusland plays
a rendition of "Shave and a Haircut" upon the caveman being killed,
same as was played during a game over in Bombman. Saurusland
takes things a step further with the caveman turning into an angel,
complete with a halo, and floating up toward the top of the
screen. Again, a nice little touch that adds just a bit of
personality to a very simple game.
Defeating a mammoth
earns 500 points (left), getting into position for an attack (center),
the caveman didn't make it this time (right)
As expected of
a Pyuuta game, Saurusland features both AMA (amateur)
and PRO (professional) game modes, selectable after inputting the
number of players. PRO difficulty simply ramps things up quicker
with more frequent volcanic eruptions and dinosaurs and mammoths
charging around at different speeds. After playing a couple games
to work out the hit detection for the club, it is my recommendation to
play this one in the PRO mode only as it provides a much faster paced
and challenging game compared to the AMA setting. Additionally
the faster the enemies move, the smoother the scrolling is. I
have no idea why that is but it seems to be common among all Pyuuta /
Tutor games when it comes down to object movement - faster equals
smoother.
Saurusland
isn't an incredible game or a lost gem, even on the
Pyuuta. It is very simple, has even fewer mechanics than Bombman,
and as with the first Pyuuta games it feels like an exercise in
something you could program on the computer yourself. Yet I still
find it a lot of fun in the style of an early arcade or computer game
with simple action, simple rules, and just enough of an addiction
factor to remain fresh for a few games here and there. While it
would be left in the dust by the next generation of Pyuuta games I
still believe it to be a good introductory game for the hardware.
If anything games like Saurusland, and the Pyuuta in general, were more
victims of being released on the eve of big changes in the Japanese
home gaming industry than anything else. It's important to
understand that the Pyuuta launched in 1982, just a year before Sega's
SG-1000, and the revolution of Nintendo's Famicom. Things were
changing and simple games like Saurusland would soon be rendered all
but obsolete. That doesn't mean they still aren't fun and I found
myself really enjoying this one for what it is.
I have been
seriously collecting retro video games for the last five years or so
and I have learned a lot about what games are worth. It seems that
certain games that would most likely never be played or kept can be
worth a lot of money. Recently I am in pursuit of loose NES games, to
collect all licensed and unlicensed games. At the time of this article,
I have 450 individual loose NES cartridges. I still have a long way to
go to the official 685 licensed and the 97 unlicensed games for a total
of 782. In this process I have done a lot of shopping around,
researching and even bidding on eBay for some. Everyone has a different
way of truly collecting the games, but because of COVID-19 in 2020 and
2021, it is almost impossible to go to an event or a video game store
and do the game hunting I am used to. There are many ways to find the
value of a game and to truly get what the game is worth and not feel
scammed. Some apps like Retro Game Collector, tell you what the game is
worth for loose, with manual, and complete. There is also website like
www.pricecharting.com who most gamers stand by for the value of a game.
The problem is pricecharting.com uses eBay to average the amount for
what a game is sold for. So if eBay sells a game too high it changes
the value on the website. It is a good for gathering a range of gaming
prices, but I still look around at others.
What confuses me are
the games that are sold for hundreds of dollars and even thousands in
some cases. Prices are based on rarity, condition, and history. The
condition of a game is sometime the difference between buying a game
for $10 to $45 If it is graded and in mint condition, it could sell for
up to $200 for the same game. For my current goal to get every NES
game, it is not possible unless I get the rarest of rare games, like
Stadium Events (selling for over $9,000) or 1990 Nintendo World
Championships (only a handful of games created and in existence,
selling for over $13,000). Those are considered unlikely on my list.
But there are games like "The Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak"
which I would have never bought as a kid and for sure never kept it
around. It is selling for around $800 for just the game, that does not
include the manual or box. If you want that you need to spend over
$2,000. Last year I was grouping up the current games to see what I
needed and I came across Bonk's Adventure for the NES. At first, I
thought it was a fake and maybe a reproduction game that someone
created. I never did remember Bonk being on the Nintendo, I always
remembered that game on the TurboGrafx-16. I did a search and come to
find out it is one of the hardest games to get for the NES. So, I took
it to the next level and searched the value. When I checked at that
time, it was selling for $600. Mine was in perfect condition just the
game, nothing else. I asked around and gamers told me to make sure the
game was legit and check the board. It seems that gamers are
reproducing the same game with the same cover but with a different
gaming board inside. I am not sure why that fad started, as getting
tricked on the Internet by buying these is cruel to me.
The madness of the
value of video games goes way beyond just Nintendo. For example,
if you happen to have the NBA Elite '11 for the PlayStation 3 (like who
would not, right?), it sold for over $9,000 in an auction because there
were only a limited number produced. Another example is Superman for
the Atari 2600. You may say you do own that, but wait, be careful and
check the label - there was a different version with the same name sold
at Sears back in the day and the Superman lettering was yellow. This
game can go for up to $30,000. A sealed copy of Nintendo's "Super Mario
Bros. 3" has become the most expensive video game ever sold, going for
a whopping $156,000 at an auction.
I was always told
things are only worth what people pay for them. I had baseball cards
back in the 1980's. Rookie cards, complete sets, rare glossy ones that
came in special packs. I packaged them up and put them in binders
knowing one day they will be worth money. A few years later they did
hike up in price and I was very excited. Fast forward to 2021 and a
Mark McGwire rookie card which at one time in the 1980's went for $600,
now goes for maybe $10 if you're lucky. Now of course history had a lot
to do with baseball cards going down, but it was also the idea that
baseball cards are not that cool or popular anymore, devaluing the
amount they were worth. Same with video games, I feel like the last
fives years or so retrogaming is at a peak, and gamers of all ages are
buying, selling, and collecting games for the older generations. This
is spiking the value of the games. Like everything else that was
"rare," after a time the value goes down. This is what I believe will
happen to retrogaming. As games are going more digital and most systems
and portables can download a retrogame in minutes, the originals are
going to go down in value. Collecting games will be like collecting old
pennies. They look cool but are not worth much more than they were 40
years ago. I will keep my Bonk's Adventure for now, but I would have to
gamble and say in the next few years to sell it as twenty years from
now it will probably be worth $12.
Then there is the
current generation who buys games, console, accessories, but does not
open them and weeks later sells them for multiple times the purchase
price. To me, this is not what collecting is all about. That is more of
a fast investment on an item you never really wanted. This has been
seen in items like the new Super Mario Game & Watch, PlayStation 5,
and the NES Mini, which originally retailed for $59.99 and was being
resold for $600 or more. Now you can get them anywhere for that $59.99
or even less.
Collecting is an
obsession. The idea of getting every game or toy lineup, or trading
card, is a rush. The idea of getting something and storing it in good
condition seems very boring as you never get to enjoy it. I admit I
have fell down that trap for video games. However in 2019, it took
courage, but I sold about 2,800 of my retro games. It was just getting
too crowded and I was only playing about 30 of of the over 3,900 games
I owned. I decided to keep a handful of games on each console I
owned and sell the rest - except for the NES. I kept those to try to
collect all of them. I kept it simpler and narrowed down to one system.
So far, I have not paid more than $20 for a game which gets me up to
450 games. I still have a few more that I can get for that price, but
then everything goes up and up and up. I am not sure how I can pull it
off other than spending thousands of dollars to get 80% of the rest of
the games. The other 20% of games that are selling for $400 or more, I
will just wait until they go down.
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:
12/21/2020 - WEEK 195 Question: The
phrase "SHY GYPSY SLYLY SPRYLY TRYST BY MY CRYPT" is the solution to a
puzzle in what classic CD-ROM game?
01/08/2021
- WEEK 196 Question: Where
does the arcade game Virtua Cop take place?
01/15/2021
- WEEK 197 Question: Jonathan
Ingram and Ed Brown are the protagonists of what game?
01/22/2021
- WEEK 198 Question: The
puzzle shooter Quarth was released to arcades outside of Japan under
what title?
01/29/2021
- WEEK 199 Question: What
PlayStation shooter features a soundtrack composed by The Crystal
Method?
02/05/2021
- WEEK 200 Question: The
objective of the arcade game Journey is to collect what type of items?
02/12/2021
- WEEK 201 Question: What
simplified Final Fantasy game was specifically designed for American
audiences?
02/19/2021
- WEEK 202 Question: What game
was introduced as The Real Driving Simulator?
Arranging cans in the
pantry to make a phrase with Y as the only vowel in The 7th Guest
(left), Gran Turismo was marketed as a simulator from the beginning
(right)
Answers: Week 195 Answer: The 7th Guest. Week 196 Answer: Virtua City,
hence the VCPD. Week 197 Answer: Policenauts. Week 198 Answer: Block Hole. Week 199 Answer: N2O: Nitrous
Oxide (1998). Week 200 Answer: Musical
instruments. Week 201 Answer: Final Fantasy
Mystic Quest. Week 202 Answer: Gran Turismo.
The Crystal Method's
involvement with N2O: Nitrous Oxide was promoted as a selling point
(left), Jonathan and Ed in Policenauts are an homage to Lethal Weapon
(right)
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!
I'd be remiss
if I didn't take even just a moment to touch on what March of this year
signifies in the ongoing pandemic. March of 2020 was when the
greater California Bay Area and Silicon Valley, where I reside, first
began "shelter in place" protocols aimed to slow infection rates.
As time went on the optimism of a fast return to normalcy began to
fade, particularly as events all throughout 2020 began to be postponed
or outright canceled. As 2021 began a lot of those same events,
which were holding out hope of resuming this year, have once again had
to postpone - this time to 2022 when it is widely believed they will be
able to resume following current trends.
Now I didn't bring this topic up to step on a soap box concerning
public health - I think most of us escape a bit into recreational
activities such as retrogaming specifically to get away form current
events for a moment. What I do what to emphasize is the impact on
the vendors that make their livings at these shows and events that have
been delayed or discontinued. Many I've talked with said they
could have floated a few months with a delayed convention season but an
entire year has deeply impacted many of them - and it may be another
year before they can resume any form of their regular business.
If there is a vendor or artist at an event you frequent, please
consider reaching out to them to see what you can do to support them
remotely. If a convention or show has open communication
channels, perhaps contact them to see if they can furnish a list of
vendors from their most recent event. While times may not be hard
for everyone right now, things are very different for a lot of
people. Please support convention vendors and artists if you are
willing and able, so that on the other side of this conventions and
shows are able to resume once more.
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
updates and information! Additionally The
Retrogaming Times Info Club on Twitter features up-to-the-moment
news
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!
