Amid record
heat in the western United States we present our July issue! One
thing I want to mention right up top is that if you regularly attend or
host a retrogaming event or show, anywhere in the world, and are
starting to resume operations please let me know! I understand
things are tentative with most shows right now, and the situation is
different everywhere, but when things get going again I want to ensure
that we have a robust events listing in each issue as before.
From the day our first issue went to publication we have always
maintained a listing of retrogaming shows and events - big or small -
and will continue to do so. We have international readership so
even if your show is a small local gathering outside the USA we still
want to put it in our events listing, as we have offered since the
start. Just e-mail me your event details!
We kick off the back half of our publication year with this issue's
cover story, Merman's look at some classic Commodore 64 games played
from the perspective of giant monsters, including a new one.
Donald Lee continues to expand home exercise routine offerings with
Gold's Gym: Cardio Workout for Nintendo Wii. Nintendo recently
announced a new modern Game & Watch equivalent for the classic
Legend of Zelda games and Dan Pettis relays the details of what is sure
to be a hot gift item this November. Nearly three years since it
was last dusted off, the CoolBoy 198 in 1 Famicom multicart finally
returns in A Pirate's Life For Me with the next set of fifteen
games. Following his retrospective reviews of the previous two
Mortal Kombat feature films, Dan Pettis enters the arena with his
review of the new Mortal Kombat film, which promises to finally deliver
the cinematic experience that MK fans have been waiting for. Todd
Friedman presents a special interview with industry legend John Romero,
as they discuss the iconic first person shooter Wolfenstein 3D and
current gaming. Rounding out the original Tomy Pyuuta releases,
both Turpin and Frogger are reviewed in tandem, as two classic Sega
arcade games make the jump to the obscure computer with mixed
results. 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 - ONLINE ONLY
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! - Giant Monsters
by Merman
With the cinema release
of
Godzilla
vs. Kong, my mind turned to giant monsters - especially with the
release of a new C64 game that features kaiju*-style monsters battling
it out. Here is a look back at some classic games where you get to play
the monster.
*kaiju translates
from Japanese as "strange beast," used both for the giant monsters
themselves and the whole monster movie genre in Japanese film-making.
The original Godzilla film from 1954 started Toho Pictures' long
association with this form of movie, using actors in rubber suits.
I am going to kick off
with a special
mention for GODZILLA, a 1983
title that was based on an earlier PET game from CURSOR magazine. Here
you must protect the shores of Japan from the giant lizard, sending in
troops and the air force to stop massive civilian deaths.
Godzilla finally
succumbed
to a long-range missile, but millions are dead.
CRUSH, CRUMBLE
& CHOMP Epyx, 1983
Back in the early
history of Epyx,
its founder Jim Connelley programmed a game engine that allowed titles
to be ported easily between machines. The original release of this game
was in 1981 for TRS-80, Apple-II and Atari 8-bit, before the later
ports to VIC-20, C64 and MS-DOS. (The first versions were under the
original company name Automated Systems, the later ones as Epyx).
The player creates a
giant monster to attack one of four cities - San
Francisco, New York, Washington D.C., and Tokyo. The monster can then
attack the buildings and features across the scrolling 2D city map.
Crunch credits are spent to make the monster grow bigger or buy extra
abilities. The final score is based on the damage caused, even if the
monster is defeated by the defending forces. Among the classic monster
types are giant lizard Goshilla (with fiery breath and radioactive
trail), Kraken (that can only move through water), giant spider
Arachnis (that can tunnel underground), The Glob (based on classic
horror movie The Blob, it can absorb obstacles and use tunnels), alien
robot Mechismo (armed with ray guns but unable to heal itself) and the
flying Mantra (based on Mothra). Except for Mechismo, the flesh
monsters can heal slowly or eat humans to regain strength. The player
can also make their own monster, using the base types and giving it a
name before choosing its abilities. Although it looks quite primitive
and play is quite slow (despite the optional Fast setting), there is
still some fun to be had trying out the different monster types.
Introducing my sea
monster
Mermaniac, which can use its Atomize breath on buildings and people.
THE MOVIE MONSTER
GAME Epyx, 1986
Epyx returned to the
genre with this
follow-up, for Apple-II and Commodore 64. The game menu uses a cinema
marquee, with the player choosing the monster, city location and
scenario. Then the cinema screen is shown, with adverts (for fictional
products and other Epyx titles) appearing before the "Feature
Presentation." The isometric display replaces the 2D map of the earlier
Crush, Crumble & Chomp, with more detailed monster sprites. The
five scenarios are - Berserk (do as much damage as possible), Escape
(get out of the city with the military chasing), Search (find the
monster's offspring hidden in a building), Destroy Landmark (destroy a
specific building) and Lunch (eat humans and vehicles until the
monster's hunger is satisfied). San Francisco, New York, Washington
D.C., and Tokyo are joined by Paris and Moscow as backdrops, with
familiar landmarks present in each.
Choosing the monster,
location, and
scenario outside the cinema before the audience watches adverts for
other Epyx games.
There are also six
different monsters
with their own abilities, although selecting an action can be quite
cumbersome during the gameplay. Godzilla was officially licensed from
Toho Pictures for this game; he is joined by Sphectra the giant wasp,
The Glog (a giant green blob), Tarantus (this game's giant spider),
Mechatron (a giant robot based on Topspin from Transformers), and
finally Mr. Meringue (who resembles the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man made
famous by Ghostbusters). ZZAP's review score of 75% is fair, for a game
with tricky controls and long loading times (thanks to the movie-style
presentation).
Sphectra flies over
St. Basil's
Cathedral in Moscow, and its Sonic Weapon takes time to recharge.
RAMPAGE Activision, 1987
- European & American versions, Rampage Gold 2003
Who would have believed
a 1986 arcade
game about giant monsters would end up as a Hollywood film starring
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson? In the original Midway arcade game, three
humans could play as the giant monsters simultaneously - George the
giant gorilla, Lizzie the giant lizard (based on Ymir from 20 Million
Miles To Earth, not Godzilla) and Ralph the werewolf. George was
transformed by an experimental vitamin, Lizzie by a radioactive lake
and Ralph by a food additive. The game is split into days, with each
day representing a different US or Canadian city (covering 43 US states
and two Canadian provinces). The monsters can punch each other but
would be better suited to damaging the buildings and the military
forces. Humans can be eaten along with food and other bonus items - but
do not eat the cacti or light bulbs! Falling too far or being hit by
bullets reduces energy levels, and when it runs out the monster
humorously transforms back into a naked human that shuffles off the
screen. Once all the buildings are down (either by monster action or
army demolition) the play moves to the next city.
In the USA version of
Rampage, Lizzie
has changed back to human form while George chows down on a soldier he
plucked from a window.
There were two C64
conversions, one
for the US market and one for Europe. There are some minor graphic
differences, and the UK version seems tougher. The pickups seem to
appear less frequently in the US version, and that version also lacks
the ability for the monsters to jump at ground level. The later Rampage
Gold adds support for different adapters including the Protovision
4-player interface, allowing three players at the same time in either
US or UK games - just like the original arcade game.
In the UK version of
Rampage, the
three monsters prepare to cause carnage before Ralph changes back into
human form.
RAMPARTS* US Gold/Go!, 1987
Proving that a good idea
will be
copied, US Gold released Ramparts just months after the home version of
Rampage arrived in Europe. The premise here is that Sir Griswold and
Sir Larkin have been turned into giants by the Evil One's curse and
must now track down the wizard to get him to reverse it. They do this
by destroying all the castle buildings they can find until they can
uncover the cowardly one. Much like Rampage there are enemies firing at
you and flying around to overcome. However, the controls are much
tougher, particularly climbing. Despite an interesting filter option to
tailor the sounds, the music is rather ordinary. It is a poor clone and
not worth playing.
*Ramparts
is not to be confused with the later Atari arcade game Rampart, where
up to three players built a castle from Tetris-like pieces and then
defended it from bombardment - a precursor to the modern "tower
defence" genre. Rampart also got some home conversions.
The knights in
Ramparts are flown in
by winged creatures, but they soon died on level 1 of this game...
THE MUNCHER EATS CHEWITS Gremlin Graphics
/ Beam Software, 1988
Australian developers
Beam Software
had been developing their game T-Wrecks for some time before Gremlin
Graphics became the publisher. With it came a change of name. Gremlin
signed a sponsorship deal with a candy manufacturer, who promoted their
chewy candy Chewits with a giant monster. The game thus became THE
MUNCHER EATS CHEWITS. The large green prehistoric monster is on a
mission to rescue its eggs, fighting off the army with its flame
breath. To replenish its breath power, the monster can eat fuel
tankers. Much like Rampage, the Muncher can climb and damage buildings.
Pressing Down lets you pick up the tiny people to eat, while the giant
monster can also make a surprisingly nimble jump to eat passing
helicopters. Waiting at the end of some levels is another giant monster
to fight with punches and breath power. The main monster sprite is
impressively big, and the screen scrolls smoothly. It does become a
little repetitive and some of the boss battles are tricky. Still, it is
quite satisfying to wreck the levels.
The Muncher has run
out of fire
breath in the first image, while the creature meets a sad demise in
Nintendo Village.
AAAAARGH! Arcadia /
Melbourne House, 1989
Arcadia was an arcade
board based on
Amiga hardware, and became the label for home conversions from that
hardware. UK firm Mastertronic invested a lot of money in the project.
Aaaaargh saw one or two players take the role of a monster - a giant
lizard or a cyclops. On each level the aim was to find the golden egg,
destroying buildings to find it and eating the tiny humans that emerge.
Once the egg had been found, there was a one-on-one battle to see who
kept the egg. Sadly, the home conversion to the C64 was poor, with
terrible graphics (including tiny exclamation marks supposed to
represent the humans) and losing some of the scale of the original
monsters.
The lizard tries to
eat the
tiny people, before the cyclops and lizard battle over possession of a
golden egg.
MONSTRO GIGANTO RGCD / Pirates of
Zanzibar, 2021
And that brings us right
up to date
and the year of Godzilla vs. Kong. Our new release to look at here
features four different monsters. There's giant eyeball Eyeye of
Poughkeepsie (USA), huge lizard Gorgo of Minamiminowa (Japan), sea
creature Jojo of Hellisandur (Iceland) and humungous ape Mojo
(Zanzibar) - plus a secret fifth monster to unlock known as Bogie. You
can battle the computer or another player, with each fight being the
best of three rounds. Each monster can punch, uppercut, headbutt or
block. At the top of the screen are the energy meters gradually
depleted by hits and the fatigue bar that increases with each move
made. So, it becomes tactical, as you have to choose between attack and
defence (blocking also increases your fatigue). Working out the range
of each monster's attack is also crucial so that your blows connect. As
a solo player you keep fighting monsters until defeated. Winning
against all the monsters twice will unlock the Origin tale for that
monster. Unlocking all four Origin tales will then unlock the hidden
monster. The action is all created with PETSCII graphics, the built-in
graphics characters of the C64. They animate smoothly and have a lot of
character, particularly the "dazed" expression for each monster. There
is an excellent musical score, with different pieces for each monster.
Best of all the sampled roars and speech, particularly the long Origin
stories narrated by a professional actor! This all uses up a lot of
memory, so the game is presented on a GMOD cartridge - and is PAL and
NTSC compatible.
Selecting your
fighter (here is giant
ape Mojo), and the two combatants get ready to fight.
The first two batches of
physical
games have sold out from the RGCD website, and a digital image file (in
GMOD and EasyFlash images) is now available to purchase.
Happy July! Hope
everyone is
well. It's actually June 19th as I write this and California has
finally reopened completely. We shall see how things go as there
are a lot of unknowns at this point. Personally, I am vaccinated
and I've done some indoor dining and play outdoor basketball with
friends and have been fine. So speaking of exercise, I've written
about my home exercises in the past year. As I mentioned a few
months ago, I picked up a couple of additional programs for my Nintendo
Wii.
Last
issue, I wrote about Wii Fit Plus and the balance board. This
time I'll talk about Gold's Gym: Cardio Workout. In retrospect
I'm not 100% sure why I picked up the program. After all, I
already had Fitness Boxing and Fitness Boxing 2 on my Nintendo
Switch. However, I had read that Gold's Gym had a couple of
features that sounded interesting. At that point, things weren't
opened up yet so an additional program to add some variety would be
nice. As it turns out, it appears that Gold's Gym was actually
the spiritual predecessor to Fitness Boxing. The original company
that produced Gold's Gym was merged into the company that made Fitness
Boxing so that might explain some of the similarities.
I've
only used the program about five times since I've had it but I have a
good feel for it. The main purpose of the program is to do what
the program calls "shape boxing." It's not 100% clear that
the program involves boxing if you looked at the title. The
original Japanese release of the program was called Shape Boxing but in
the US the program was renamed Gold's Gym: Cardio Workout. The
program has a daily workout for year that lasts about 15 minutes so
through three different workouts or exercises. On the initial few
tries you do some basics and later advance to more advanced
routines. This is quite similar to Fitness Boxing if you've
played it on the Switch. The additional features I saw that I
thought might be cool was that Gold's Gym had some side exercises
besides boxing. There was some jump rope and other exercises that
I haven't 100% unlocked yet. While the additional exercises are a
cool idea in theory, the execution is a bit spotty and I'm not sure how
useful it is to me as I have other programs on both the Wii and Switch
to do jump rope and running in place.
Gold's Gym: Cardio
Workout released in North America (left), Shape Boxing released in
Japan (right)
But
the key portion is the boxing right? For the most part the
program does what it's supposed to do. It's very similar to
Fitness Boxing and if you've used Fitness Boxing then you can jump
right into Gold's Gym without problems. In fact you may have a
slightly better workout as you can use both Wii-motes to punch.
The Wii-motes are a tad heavier than the Joycons on the Switch so
people may prefer them. The downside? Unlike Fitness
Boxing, you can't seem to set the length of the workouts so you're
stuck at about 15 minutes which sucks if you like a longer workout.
To
summarize, Gold's Gym isn't bad and you get a little exercise in with
the boxing. The additional exercises are cool in theory but what
you get out of it may vary with the person. All in all, if you
are looking to get some movement in, it's not a bad pick up for the
Wii. I may not be using it a ton personally as I have other
options but for a quick, short burst, it's worth looking at.
During
Nintendo's latest E3 presentation, the company announced an unexpected
treat for longtime Zelda fans. In the middle of a Nintendo Direct that
featured lots of surprises and new game announcements, there was also a
very exciting blast from the past revealed. A spiffy new green and gold
Zelda themed Game & Watch system was announced and will be released
on November 12th of this year. This system is being released in honor
of the 35th anniversary of the release of the original Legend of Zelda
game. Now you can be the true hero of time with this incredible
collectible!
This
Game & Watch comes packed full of Link's early adventures and other
interesting features. It contains playable versions of the original NES
Legend of Zelda game, divisive side scrolling sequel Zelda II: The
Adventure of Link, the original Game Boy version of The Legend of
Zelda: Link's Awakening, and a special remade version of the classic
1980 Game & Watch game Vermin, where you essentially play
whack-a-mole as Link. Of course it wouldn't be a Game & Watch
without some kind of actual time keeping, and this one has a very
special clock for fans of the series. The internal clock is themed
after the original Legend of Zelda and is actually playable! It also
includes a timer that allows you to play a survival mode in Zelda II to
see how many baddies you can defeat before time runs out. It also
includes both the Japanese and English versions of these games if want
to see the games in their original non-localized forms.
If you
are buying this purely for your collection's sake, this Game &
Watch has another treat for you. The nifty packaging includes a stylish
black frame featuring the iconic image of the Triforce, with a
kickstand that allows you to display the Game & Watch like you
would display a framed picture. So even if you don't actually play the
games and are just buying it to display, this makes it a near perfect
Nintendo desktop clock. That is if you're one of the types who is okay
with taking it out of the box.
This is
the second brand new Game & Watch console featuring one of
Nintendo's marquee franchises, following last year's launch of the
similar Super Mario Bros. themed edition. While that version contained
both the original Super Mario Bros. game and the extra hard sequel
Super Mario Bros. 2, known in America as the Lost Levels, this Zelda
version contains even more content. With three lengthy games, the
display frame, and the playable clock, it has a little extra value and
bang for your gaming buck when compared to the Super Mario version.
Nintendo
is not quite as giving as the old man who generously gave you a sword
for free in the first Zelda game, since it was pretty dangerous to go
without one. Hope you've got extra Rupees saved up, because this Game
& Watch is going to be sold for around $50. Pre-orders are being
taken now online, and with that upcoming November release date, it is
sure to be a highly sought after Christmas gift. For more Zelda
fun on the go than you can shake a sword at, be sure to order yours now!
A
Pirate's Life For Me - Tenth Journey
CoolBoy
198 in
1 Real Game, Games 176 - 190
Welcome back
as we continue our voyage
with the CoolBoy Real Game 198 in 1 bootleg Famicom multicart. If
this is your first journey with us, a bootleg pirate multicart is a
video
game cartridge containing multiple games that would otherwise have
single
cartridge retail releases. Pirate multicarts have become bigger
and
better over the past few years. Although these days you have
options
such as flash memory cartridges if you want to play a bunch of games
off
a single cartridge, there's just something about these bootlegs that
appeal
to me. I've found collecting multicarts a fun collecting sub
genre
since the early to mid 2000's. Two of the most popular
multicarts are branded under the "CoolBoy" name and are generally known
as "198 in 1 Real Game" and "400 in 1 Real Game" and these cartridges
are
usually sold together as a pair.
CoolBoy "198 in 1"
and "400 in 1" cartridges along with a custom made Famicom to NES
converter
While the 400
in 1 cartridge contains more
total games, I find that the 198 in 1 contains a more interesting mix
of
titles with less filler. This is due to the 400 in 1 cartridge
containing
more pirate originals including a rather large library of games
released
by Thin Chen Enterprise, the Taiwanese company better known as Sachen,
history's most prolific producer of unlicensed Famicom games.
While
these games are an interesting collecting sub-genre unto themselves,
and
a sadly forgotten part of modern NES and Famicom collector culture,
they're
not necessarily all that fun to play. It should also be said that
the back half of the game list for each cartridge is generally filled
with
these type of Taiwanese and Chinese pirate original games. The
198
in 1 cartridge isn't too bad in this respect, with fifty or so games
falling
into this category.
This scope of
this ongoing column is to
evaluate the 198 in 1 cartridge, fifteen games at a time, until
the entire list is completed. Additionally each issue will also
evaluate
a single game from the 400 in 1 cartridge that does not appear on the
198
in 1 counterpart. For the entire duration of this column, each
cartridge
will be played on an original toaster-style North American NES
console.
To convert the bootleg Famicom cartridges for play the NES, I will be
using
a Famicom to NES converter cartridge built from parts out of an early
release
copy of Gyromite. The abbreviated title given after the game
number is how it appears in the on-screen menu. As a final note,
many of the games contained on
these bootleg cartridges have their title screens altered to strip away
any copyright dates or the like.
Now, back on to
high seas and high excitement!
Today we have
a pretty mixed bag of titles including some solid action games, a few
odd hacks featuring Mario, an unreleased English prototype, an amazing
Konami game that no one ever talks about, and lots more. Let's
set sail!
CoolBoy
Real Game 198 in 1, Games 176
- 190:
Whomp 'Em and
Wolverine
176.
Whomp'Em - Whomp 'Em is
a strange half-hearted conversion of Saiyuuki World II, the Famicom
game it was originally released as. The first Saiyuuki World was
a clone of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, with the characters and scenario
reworked to reflect the classical Chinese novel Journey to the
West. We'll actually take a look at the first Saiyuuki World game
near the end of the multicart. Saiyuuki World II was an original
title, once again themed after Journey to the West, but with gameplay
more akin to the action games that were popular at the time such as
Mega Man. When Jaleco decided to release the game on the NES it
was readapted since Journey to the West generally isn't as widely known
outside of East Asia. The protagonist was changed to a Native
American named Soaring Eagle, on an adventure to collect seven totems
but very little else in the game was changed to follow the new
narrative. The result of this long journey of localization is a
rather standard action platformer. Soaring Eagle's movements are
quick but his jumping is a bit weighted which makes some of the
platforming more challenging than it should be. The totems are
obtained by defeating stage bosses, again similar to Mega Man, and act
as special weapons and utilities. However unlike Mega Man each
special weapon's energy is unlimited, although most of them aren't very
useful. There are also quite a few power-up items to collect but
they amount to grinding them out very early on to build up your life
meter before setting out. In all Whomp 'Em is a slightly above
average game from a distinctly B-grade developer but I do enjoy the
music.
177.
Wolverine - Based upon the Marvel Comics character of the same
name, Wolverine falls victim
to the pattern of video games based on licensed properties usually not
being very good. Seeing the LJN logo upon startup may make some
people run for the hills and this game being developed by Software
Creations certainly doesn't help much, however they could at least do
competent work on the NES from time to time. Unfortunately
Wolverine isn't an example of anything approaching a competent or
coherent game. The graphics are bland with small sprites that
lack detail, boring level environments, and muddy colors
throughout. Control is somehow both stiff and floaty at the same
time, as while the jumping feels delayed, it also is all too easy to
walk off the edge of a platform to your doom. Level design is
some of the worst seen on the NES as most stages are seemingly just a
bunch of random platforms that eventually lead to the exit door.
Even the soundtrack by Geoff Follin is pretty terrible. However
the worst offense in Wolverine is the combat, which feels broken from
the moment of the first enemy encounter. Not only are your
attacks weak with incredibly short range, using Wolverine's signature
claws actually hurts him with every slash. Additionally there is
no temporary invulnerably when you are damaged, not even a moment's
worth, so Wolverine's health bar can go from full to empty in a matter
of seconds when trying to get close enough to an enemy to attack.
This leads to trying to avoid most enemies rather than fight them,
running completely opposite to the experience one would assume a game
based on Wolverine would feature. Soulless contract work is one
thing, lots of developers did that, but this is an absolutely abysmal
game that shouldn't even be considered and effort at such.
The Legend of Prince
Valiant and Top Gun: Dual Fighters
178.
The Legend of Pri - Based upon the 1990's cartoon series based
on the classic comic strip, The
Legend of Prince Valiant is a European exclusive NES game that
isn't talked about much. Although often labeled as a
side-scrolling action game, The Legend of Prince Valiant has always
reminded me more of a greatly expanded take on the classic Activision
game Pitfall! more than anything else. The game more or less
follows the television show's basic premise, with Prince Valiant on a
quest to find Camelot and become a knight. Most levels involve
running from left to right, jumping over traps, swinging on ropes and
vines, hopping across platforms, and defending yourself from endless
streams of enemies. Control in these areas is decent but a bit
sluggish and Valiant cannot attack while ducking or jumping, which can
get him into trouble. The second level introduces a scrolling
shooter mechanic, viewed from a first person perspective while Valiant
is armed with a crossbow. This stage is nicely done with some
good detail and responsive targeting, playing like a light gun game
without the light gun. This type of gameplay returns in the
fourth level, framed around a naval battle where Valiant must man a
series of cannons against a Viking fleet. While I think the color
palette is a little dark for a game based upon the Prince Valiant
cartoon, the varying types of gameplay and solid game design make this
a decent one. The music plays a little fast on a Famicom or NTSC
NES but isn't distracting, although it does sound much better when
played at the proper frequency. In all, a perfectly serviceable
little game although the amount of enemies and hazards can sometimes
feel overwhelming.
197.
Top Gun - One may assume by the title in the list that this
would be the very well-known NES game based on the 1986 feature film of
the same name. However the game included here is Top Gun: Dual Fighters, the Japanese
version of the sequel better known in the west as Top Gun: The Second
Mission. Outside of the different title, Dual Fighters is the
exact same game as Second Mission and is completely in English.
Maverick is called back to action in his F-14 Tomcat with a new mission
to destroy enemy secret weapons. The mission is comprised of
three
sorties, targeting a high-tech heavy bomber, an advanced helicopter,
and a Buran space shuttle. Although not specifically named as
Soviet targets, each of the three objectives are clearly based on
Soviet hardware. The game plays much like the previous title,
with a cockpit view and gameplay that mostly involves lining up enemies
in the center target reticle and avoiding enemy projectiles. The
Tomcat's loadout consists of a cannon with unlimited rounds and a
selection of one of three different missile types, with more powerful
missiles having a greater lock on area at the cost of increasingly
limited capacity.
Dual Fighters seems to have been
influenced by Sega's After Burner, with far more control input freedom
over the previous game. Holding the A Button increases your
plane's speed, with it automatically reducing and leveling off once
released. A quick double-tap of either left or right on the
directional pad will cause the plane to roll and evade enemy fire, with
the maneuver able to be performed repeatedly and reversed on a
dime. Additionally loops can be performed by climbing or diving,
allowing reacquisition of passing targets. Holding the B Button
fires the cannon in an endless stream, with a double tap firing a
missile once radar lock on a target has been acquired. While this
all sounds great and admittedly makes for frantic gameplay, everything
simply zips around too fast for my liking. There's never really
much of a feeling of being in a dogfight or pursuing enemy planes, it's
more like chasing around little dots to hit them with your other
dots. Surprising, considering a big part of the gameplay is
taking on enemy aces one-on-one but it never feels quite right in my
opinion. The graphics aren't upgraded over the original so much
as
they are just different. Sure you can spin around and fly all
over the place, but the lower horizon is made up of repeating stripes
that really don't look good. Although it too has its flaws, I
still vastly prefer the original Top Gun.
TaleSpin and Squashed
180.
TaleSpin - In addition to their original creations at the time,
Capcom was very respected for developing a series of NES games based
upon Disney properties. Disney animation of the era was bright,
action packed, and the perfect subject material for games from a
developer with a consistent record of quality on the hardware.
This ran counter to the establishing trend of games based on licensed
properties not being the most engaging or enjoyable to play. Yet
in the stack of great Disney games from Capcom, there is one that
sticks out like a bear crammed into a tiny seaplane - TaleSpin. Rather than
following the platforming conventions of Capcom's earlier Disney games,
TaleSpin is a shooter that plays like an automatically scrolling
platformer. The TaleSpin cartoon took characters from The Jungle
Book and dropped them into a neo-1930's world of aviation adventure,
mobsters, pulp heroes, and air pirates. In the series Baloo is a
down on his luck pilot who performs air cargo delivery services in the
Sea Duck, a seaplane he once owned, so it makes sense that a video game
would put him in the air.
The problem with this is that Capcom
didn't go all in and make TaleSpin simply shooter or flying game
featuring elements of the cartoon. Instead you control a
super-deformed Baloo in a tiny Sea Duck as he flies through what seem
more like platforming stages, with the ability to pitch the Sea Duck up
and down and shoot forward. The screen is always scrolling in one
direction or another but its horizontal direction of travel can be
influenced by the direction the Sea Duck is facing. This is
changed by flipping the Sea Duck upside down, yes - the sprite will
simply go inverted at the press of the A Button, which will immediately
reverse the scrolling. In theory this can be used to backtrack
through stages, slow the horizontal progress, or pursue passing enemies
but it doesn't work very well in practice. The problem is the
flip motion feels really jerky as the game will always attempt to give
the Sea Duck forward momentum in the direction it is facing. This
is an immediate and uncontrollable response once the plane is flipped
and often will careen Baloo into an enemy or a pinch spot. No
matter how much I play this mechanic never feels natural or smooths
out, ultimately making the game frustrating and hard to control.
The game looks okay, it actually sounds really good, but it is simply
and completely unfun to play. Perhaps Capcom figured that a
traditional shooter would be too difficult for the target audience and
wanted to try something different but the game that was released is far
more difficult of a game than a straight up TaleSpin shooter would have
been. Kind of a shame this series never had a good video game.
181.
Squashed - One of the more interesting finds on the cartridge, Squashed is actually the unreleased
English prototype of the Famicom game Ninja Jajamaru: Ginga
Daisakusen. Jaleco had great success with their Ninja Jajamaru
series, making Jajamaru essentially Jaleco's unofficial mascot
throughout the Famicom era, and this game was to be his big breakout
into platforming stardom. More or less Ninja Jajamaru: Ginga
Daisakusen was Jaleco's take on Super Mario Bros. 3 from a design,
audio visual, and gameplay perspective. The term "clone" gets
unfairly used a lot for games that resemble others or utilize similar
mechanics but Ginga Daisakusen is absolutely and unapologetically a
Super Mario 3 clone. For the planned US release the title was
changed to Squashed, with Jajamaru's name shortened to Maru and
Princess Sakura's changed to Cori. The newly minted title is a
play on the environments and many enemies in the game being
vegetable-themed, with the rewritten English dialogue absolutely
crammed full of vegetable puns at every turn. For whatever reason
the localized game was never released, with a prototype surfacing many
years later, and that is what is included on the multicart.
After Maru and Cori discover a
crashed spaceship, they are greeted by it's occupant, King Kale who
asks for their assistance in defeating the evil Vegetron - ruler of the
mutant Squashoids. This is accomplished through the usual
platforming gameplay of avoiding hazards and jumping on enemies, all
quite standard by 1991. While the A Button jumps and is utilized
both as a means of platform traversal and for defeating enemies, the B
Button works more like Sonic the Hedgehog 2's spin dash. Briefly
holding the B Button will cause your character to begin to run in
place, then pressing either left or right will cause them to dash off
in that direction, giving both a burst of speed and a higher jump
ceiling. Holding the B Button a bit longer will cause your
character to go into a spin, which in addition to the increased speed
and jump height of the brief hold, will also allow you to plow through
enemies unharmed. If the B Button is held too long without a
directional input, your character will become temporarily stunned as
they catch their breath. The animation for these sequences is
very nice, with little dust clouds being kicked up as they run in place
like something out of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. The speed burst
and spin mechanic is actually used quite a bit throughout the game in
how its platforming is designed, which makes it play a bit different
than other games. Visuals are nice throughout with a really
cutesy style, responsive controls, and good music. Squashed is
honestly a fun platformer that feels like Jaleco's take on gaming
conventions of the time, particularly Mario and Mega Man, but is a far
better game than a patchwork of cloned ideas has any right to be.
While it doesn't do anything new to advance the genre, it is a
perfectly serviceable game that should have been released outside of
Japan as I'm sure it would have found an audience had it been.
The NewZealand Story
and Mission: Impossible
182.
Newzealand Story - A cutesy action platformer, The NewZealand Story plays a bit
like if Taito's earlier Bubble Bobble were stretched out in long form,
with a bigger emphasis on platforming rather than enemy
displacement. Tiki the kiwi bird must rescue his girlfriend Phee
Phee and several of his kiwi friends who have been kidnapped by a blue
seal. Complex mazes must be navigated as Tiki travels throughout
all of New Zealand, freeing his imprisoned friends along his journey to
Phee Phee. While Tiki cannot fly on his own, many of the rather
expansive stages require careful use of flying vehicles to navigate
both vertical and horizontal landscapes, often lined with deadly spikes
or thorns. Enemies constantly pour into the areas and can be
defeated with Tiki's rapid fire arrows, which can also be upgraded to
more powerful weapons as they are picked up. The objective of
each stage is the find the caged kiwi chick but the route to them is
often rather indirect and lined with obstacles and enemies. While
nowhere near as colorful or detailed as the arcade original, the NES
release is a solid conversion that plays well and is very
enjoyable. One drawback to this version is it can sometimes be
difficult to tell the difference between platforms that will hurt Tiki
and those that can be walked on due to them blending into the
background colors. This home conversion was handled by Software
Creations, showing that they were quite capable of doing good work and
making enjoyable games on the NES, although they were few and far
between. My personal favorite home version of The NewZealand
Story is the PC Engine release but as an NES conversion goes I really
can't fault this one, I do enjoy it. This is the European PAL
version so the audio will run faster than intended when played on a
Famicom or an NTSC NES but the game itself plays fine and the music
honestly doesn't sound out of place at the slightly faster tempo.
Some gamers may know this one better as Kiwi Kraze, the title it
carried for its American NES release.
183
. Mission Impossibl - Based upon the 1988 revival of the
television series, Mission: Impossible
is an often overlooked Konami action game with a distinctly ahead of
its time lean toward stealth and espionage. Things open with an
incredible rendition of the 1988 television theme, complete with a
limited re-creation of the opening sequence featuring the likenesses of
the five principal cast members. The game begins with Jim Phelps
receiving the mission assignment for his Impossible Missions Force via
the optical disc device, again something taken directly from the 1988
series. Rather than a lone operative heading out into the field,
three members of Jim's IMF team are at your disposal, each with
different weaponry and special abilities. Max Harte is the heavy
hitter of the team - equipped with a powerful long-range rifle and
remote explosives, however he moves the slowest. Grant Collier is
the technology expert - fighting with his bare hands and equipped with
knock-out gas grenades, he moves the fastest and can disable electronic
locks. Nicholas Black is the disguise specialist - equipped with
medium range boomerangs and the ability to use disguises to blend in
with the enemy unnoticed, he moves at a speed in between that of his
fellow agents.
Most stages involve gathering
intelligence and then finding the exit point, disabling traps and
opening passages along the way. While each of the three team
members can soak up quite a bit of damage and medical kits can be found
to heal them, falling off a ledge or into water will kill an agent
immediately. Attempting to complete a stage while a man or two
down often feels futile, as it greatly limits your tactics in how to
approach each
area. Thankfully the game offers unlimited continues and each
stage features a password, so a couple of critical mistakes are often
best remedied with a restart. If the game can be faulted for
anything it's the somewhat non-standard overhead perspective the
majority of it is played from. While it may not be the most
conventional way to present a game, the graphical detail of the
environments is very good and it allows the maps to be quite expansive
and nonlinear. It's certainly a whole lot better than how the
Golgo 13 games presented their massive worlds. The game is also
excruciatingly difficult, easily one of the most difficult NES games
ever made. It can take a long time to navigate through an area,
completing every objective, and then make one small mistake near the
end and have it all fall apart in an instant. There is a lot of
trial and error in figuring most of the game out, with the enjoyment
factor ultimately falling upon whether you find learning from your
mistakes fun or frustrating. Things are also broken up a bit with
two high speed action sequences, a boat chase and a downhill skiing
area, which add some variety but can be challenging as well.
The license is an odd one as by the
time the game was released in late 1990, the television series had been
off the air for almost a year and I doubt it was very popular with the
NES target audience. Although I read about this one in Nintendo
Power, I never encountered game until almost a decade after it was
released, purchasing a loose copy at a flea market. The
presentation and unique gameplay really surprised me, as did the
respect paid to the source material that it was based on. There's
a lot to like here, including some of the best music Konami ever put in
an NES game and an amazing cover art illustration, but it is a
challenge absolutely not for everyone.
Monster in My Pocket
and Gun-Dec
184
. Monster In My Poc - Probably best known for its series of
pocket-sized action figures, Monster
in My Pocket is an interesting property as although it featured
trading cards, comics, a board game, and tons of toys there was never a
cartoon series outside of a Halloween special. While I don't
believe the franchise was all that popular (I never encountered anyone
that was really into it as a kid) it certainly wasn't for the lack of
trying. It may not be surprising that a video adaptation of the
franchise was released, however what may be surprising is that it was
developed and published by none other than Konami. While not top
tier Konami, the resulting game is actually a really fun and well
designed action game in the vein of Castlevania. Playing as
either Vampire or The Monster, smash your way through hordes of enemies
in an attempt to defeat the evil Warlock who aims to have control over
all monsters. The environments are properly scaled, giving a
clear perspective that all the characters in the game are tiny little
monsters only a couple of inches tall. Animation and detail on
both the player characters and enemies is surprisingly good. Some
items can be picked up and thrown as offensive weapons and play control
is fast and responsive with a double jump mechanic that feels great to
perform right from the start. The coolest thing here by far is
that Monster in My Pocket supports two players simultaneously, quite a
rarity in a platform brawler, and executes this perfectly. Fans
of the franchise will no doubt get a bit more of a kick out of this
game but anyone else looking for a solid action game that can be played
with a friend should give Monster in My Pocket a try. For those
collecting the original games this is also a bit of an odd one as it
featured an exclusive Monster in My Pocket figure, Blemmyae, included
in the box - making a truly complete package extremely rare.
Again, so much crazy merchandising for a property that never really got
moving.
185.
Gun Dec - In an attempt to stand out from the crowd a few
side-scrolling action games tried to change up the formula by mixing in
other genres. The results of these experiments were often mixed
but Gun-Dec is a game that
does it right. This is the Famicom version of the much loved
Vice: Project Doom, a game that opens with a driving stage reminiscent
of the arcade classic Spy Hunter. In fact if you were to go into
the game totally cold you may be surprised when the second stage begins
and the gameplay changes to an action platformer, complete with
multiple weapons, tricky enemy patterns, and devious platforming.
These areas make up the bulk of the game and play very similar to
Sunsoft's Batman or Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden. Gun-Dec actually seems
to draw quite a bit of inspiration from Ninja Gaiden, as it features
long cutscenes filled with detailed visuals and a more involved plot
than the standard Famicom action game. Presentation is top notch
throughout, with a true cinematic feel - the title screen doesn't even
appear after the introduction, first stage, and another dialogue
sequence are seen.
It really cannot be stated enough how
good everything looks, with a consistent visual style even between the
different types of gameplay included. The vehicular sequences
would have made a fun game on their own, and while the shooting
sequences aren't incredible they still look and play fine. No
matter the type of gameplay presented, everything moves at a fast clip
with no flicker or slowdown. The detail in most of the
environments is absolutely spectacular, some of the best seen on the
hardware, with lots of animation and multiplane scrolling.
Unfortunately this game was released during the boom of the 16-bit
generation and was often overlooked, garnering low review scores as it
was on what at the time was deemed aging and inferior hardware.
It's a great playing, expanded cyberpunk take on Ninja Gaiden, with a
mature story and top notch action. Sure doesn't sound like a
generic game on inferior hardware to me. If you've never played
it give this one a try but please do play the English version, as the
story is one of the more compelling seen in this generation of video
games.
Conquest of the
Crystal Palace and Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu
186.
Conquest of the C - Another lesser known action platformer, Conquest of the Crystal Palace is a
quirky game that mixes ancient mysticism with a bit of modern
humor. Farron is on a journey to defeat the evil Zaras and retake
the Crystal Palace, accompanied by Zap, a dog who once served as the
palace's keeper. Along they way they will encounter Kim, a shop
owner who also takes on the persona of a modern television news anchor
to deliver hints, tips, and story advancement. A lot of the
game's personality comes from these interactions with Kim and it wasn't
until many years later that I realized her news segments were a parody
of Japanese TV news. The platforming is rather standard but
Farron is equipped with a limited range sword that takes a bit of
getting used to. Farron also isn't the fastest or most agile
warrior to swing a sword on the NES, as the game has a slower pace than
the best of the genre, although it throws just as many enemies on the
screen as those faster moving games. While I find Conquest of the
Crystal Palace fun, a lot of the sprites tend to blend into the
background at more than a few places during the adventure. This
can make everything look a bit garbled or undetailed when in actuality
the game features a cute style and good sprite work. I find it a
bit of a mixed bag over all but it's certainly a mid-tier NES action
game at the very least and one a lot of people seem to enjoy.
187.
Mario 10 - First up in a small block of three games with "Mario"
in the title that aren't really Mario games is a pretty great
one. This is a hack of Jackie
Chan's Action Kung Fu as "Super Bros. Kung Fu Mari" with a
rather odd, but rather large, Mario sprite taking the place of Jackie
Chan. Mario doesn't look too bad but there are issues with the
animation in his walk cycle that give him a weird shaky split across
his face below his nose. A few other character graphics are
changed up here and there but from a gameplay perspective this Jackie
Chan's Action Kung Fu with very minor edits. The titular martial
arts master must battle his way through five levels of platforming
action to rescue his sister, utilizing special kung fu techniques along
the way. These techniques are acquired by attacking frogs, who
will then spit out a technique orb that gives limited use of that
specific move once collected - kind of like the special powers in a
Kirby game. Jackie can also charge and fire an energy wave that
has very limited usage but can get him out of a tough spot. The
game is very colorful, control is smooth and responsive, the action is
well paced, level design is top notch, and the soundtrack is
outstanding.
One genuinely interesting thing about
this hack is that the special technique energy never decreases, meaning
special abilities can be used constantly. This also applies to
the charge shot, which will eventually run out but only after way more
than the usual five uses. While this doesn't make or break the
game, it does make it easier and adds a couple of built in cheats to
this hack. I have played the game all the way through on the
multicart so at the very least nothing has been changed that makes the
game unbeatable. This is honestly a really fun game that tends to
slide under the radar, both during the NES days due to Jackie Chan's
mainstream obscurity at the time and presently due to being buried
among all the other action platformers on the system. The only
shame with the version included on the multicart is that the strange
hacked sprites are nowhere near as nice or expressive as the
originals. The cutesy, super-deformed Jackie Chan sprite gives
this game a ton of character and that's something a cut-and-paste job
with graphics from the Super Mario Bros. 3 spade panel minigames just
can't equal. This is a great game and everyone should check it
out but I recommend doing so in its original form, along with the
excellent enhanced TurboGrafx-16 version.
Yoshi's Cookie and
Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3
188.
Mario 12 - Yet another hack of an existing game but at least
this one is tangentially a Mario tile. Mario 12 is the Famicom
version of Yoshi's Cookie with
the title graphics mangled and hacked. Interestingly, Yoshi's
Cookie began development as a completely non-Mario puzzle game, with
Nintendo eventually acquiring the rights and redesigning it to feature
Mario series characters and the cookie motif. A tile matching
game at heart, different types of cookies begin in a stack in the lower
left of the playfield. As more cookies are produced by the
factory, they enter the playfield from the top and right, eventually
attaching to the stack in the lower left corner. The objective is
to rotate individual lines of cookies vertically or horizontally, so
that a column or row of cookies matches one another, removing them from
the screen. Once all the cookies in the playfield have been
matched and cleared, the level is completed and things begin again with
a faster pace and more complex starting patterns. If the
playfield becomes overrun with cookies the game ends. A special
Yoshi-shaped cookie, the game's namesake, will clear any row or column
of cookies it comes into contact with. The game is simple and
cute, with some catchy music, but I've never found it one to hold my
attention for very long.
189.
Mario 14 - Back to another completely non-Mario game with a
Mario sprite hack, Super Mario 14 is actually the Famicom game Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3. The
series may seem unfamiliar to most NES players but the first Kaiketsu
Yanchamaru game was localized as the reasonably popular NES game Kid
Niki: Radical Ninja. Each of the three Famicom games look and
feel quite removed from one another, with this third entry being the
biggest departure of the bunch. While a standard action
platformer, Yanchamaru has the ability to catch the edge of platforms
with his attack pole and then spin off them in the opposite
direction. This mixes the platforming up quite a bit and is a
little like a springboard take on the wall jumping from Ninja
Gaiden. In the hack, Yanchamaru's head has been replaced with
that of Mario's from his Super Mario Bros. 3 action sprite.
Unfortunately only Yanchamaru's standard sprite has been reworked, as
any time he performs an action with his attack pole the sprites used
are unhacked, meaning Yanchamaru's head goes back and forth between
Mario's and the original assets. The enemies have been replaced
with those from Super Mario Bros. and Yanchamaru's wave attack is now a
row of fireballs but the over all hacking presentation comes across as
rather sloppy and poorly implemented. Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3 had a
rather clean and bold pen-and-ink style that classic Mario sprites just
don't pair well with. The title screen does crack me up a bit as
it credits "1993 Wario" as the game's developer - yeah, I can totally
see Wario being in on the Famicom bootleg scene. Personally,
Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 2 is my favorite game in the series, although I
don't find any of the Yanchamaru games all that compelling.
Super Werewolf
Chronicle Warwolf and Star Luster
190.
War Wolf - A rather obscure one, Super Werewolf Chronicle Warwolf is
an action platformer that plays a lot like a modern update on the
formula of Altered Beast. The player controls Ken, a seemingly
regular man who can transform into Warwolf, the only hero left in the
world. The transformation is triggered by collecting a power up,
a generic red W, and grants Ken a variety abilities in addition to
growing giant claws to power up his regular attacks. These
include the ability to crawl into small passages, perform spin jumps to
reach higher areas, scale walls, and walk along the ceiling
hand-over-hand while hanging from it. The action is reasonably
fast with some complex platforming that requires accurate use of
Warwolf's skills, but it never quite gets into something like Ninja
Gaiden territory. An interesting aspect of the game is that
fights against bosses and mid bosses don't look much different than
regular enemy encounters, save for some occasional dialogue and the
enemy life bar filling out at the beginning of the battle. The
game was released in English on the NES as Werewolf: The Last Warrior,
with a different story and completely different backgrounds, level
layouts, and enemy placement, although the gameplay is much the
same. As the Famicom version was released over half a year after
the NES game, it appears to have been given a bit more polish with a
better color palette and more refined level design. I've heard
that some people consider this to be an unofficial X-Men game, it's
certainly a lot better than the official Wolverine game featured
earlier on the multicart. While I admit that some of the
cutscenes are nicely done, this is a game I've never really been able
to get into. I never liked Altered Beast either, so maybe I just
don't care for werewolf themed games.
CoolBoy
400 in 1 Real Game, Spotlight
Selection:
091.
Star Luster - My pick this time for a spotlight game included on
the 400 in 1 cartridge is Namco's Star
Luster, an early Famicom release that is often discounted as yet
another clone of Atari's influential 1979 game Star Raiders.
However I consider Star Luster an evolution of the Star Raiders
formula, with streamlined interstellar navigation that allows more
emphasis to be placed on intense space combat. The cockpit
perspective provides a good sense of immersion with a minimal canopy
and a radar display that can show either a long range or local
scan. The long range scan shows the current location of all enemy
squadrons, refueling and repair bases, planets, and asteroid
fields. If you have a stock of photon torpedoes they can be fired
into a sector containing enemies to reduce their numbers from afar,
simply move your cursor over that sector and fire away. To travel
to a sector of space simply move the cursor over it and press the A
Button and your ship will enter hyperspace and be taken there.
Once you arrive, the display will change to the local scan, giving a
representation of nearby objects in 3D space. Holding the A
Button with the scanner in this mode will increase the ship's thrust,
while the B Button fires phasers and the directional pad maneuvers the
ship.
The sensation of movement and speed
is amazing for a Famicom game from 1985, with smooth and fluid movement
as distant stars and near objects swirl around your spacecraft.
Enemy combat is fast and engaging as there is a lot of risk and reward
in pursuing enemy vessels and avoiding their shots. Bases can be
docked with to replenish fuel and upgrade weapon systems but they can
be overrun and destroyed by enemy ships, which are always moving from
sector to sector. Destroying all the enemy squadrons is the basic
objective of the game, which then will award a final score and
ranking. However the "Adventure" game mode greatly expands on the
core game, featuring more enemy squadrons and an extra objective.
To complete Adventure mode, seven planets must be landed on, with a key
collected on each. After obtaining all seven keys a hidden planet
will be revealed, swarming with the most difficult enemy ships.
Defeating the squadron at the hidden planet will complete Adventure
mode, considered as the "true" ending of the game. It has been
speculated that the complex presentation of a 3D perspective, coupled
with requiring the player to constantly adapt to changing conditions on
the long range scanner, was overly advanced compared to what a Famicom
player was accustomed to in 1985. History has been far kinder to
the game since, with it now regarded as an important and influential
title, and Namco even releasing a sequel on the PlayStation in 1999 -
Star Ixiom, which stays unapologetically true to its Star Luster
roots. I find Star Luster infinitely replayable and it although
it
is a very early title it has remained one of my favorite Famicom games.
Next time we'll
head to port as the journey finally comes to an end with the final
fifteen games on the cartridge. These will include a ton of
Nekketsu sports games, three outstanding Konami arcade conversions, a
handful of strange hacks based on Chinese television, and an odd
Japanese fire rescue game I really like. See you then!
Caught On
Film - Mortal Kombat (2021)
A Bloody Good Time
Warning:
This review contains major
spoilers for
the entire plot of the new Mortal Kombat movie: please look away if you
don't want any of the gory details spoiled.
Get over here and I'll get this out
of the
way right away: the new 2021 Mortal Kombat film finally gives fans the
hard R rated MK movie they've been longing for since the dawn of the
game series. It's a stomach churningly brutal film that perfectly
captures the much darker style of the modern next-gen Mortal Kombat
games with plenty of laughs too. It's chock full of incredible fight
scenes, fatalities, tons of blood splattering, and many memorable
performances. It's a worthy successor to the first film, and easily
tops it in many bloody and gruesome ways to create a much more
authentic Mortal Kombat movie. It delivers on fan service too as the
iconic things you'd expect to see are worked in, but not too cheesily.
It's the komplete package, and a contender for the title of best video
game based movie of all time.
An opening prologue set in ancient
Japan
quickly establishes the central blood feud between pallet swapped
ninjas Scorpion and Sub Zero. You soon learn just why they hate each
other so much, and spoiler alert: it's not just their similar fashion
sense. The dark and brutal tone of this movie is established extremely
effectively in this prologue, with easily more blood spilled in this
opening scene than in the entire run time of both of the previous
films. As you may be aware from my previous Mortal Kombat movie
reviews, one of my biggest gripes about the first two movies was how
far to the background these main ninjas were pushed, but this film
wastes no time effectively setting up their rivalry and making Sub-Zero
into the bad kind of dude you don't want to mess with. The film then
makes excellent use of the blue Lin Kuei ninja's ice related freezing
powers throughout.
MMA Fighter Cole
Young is a brand new character created just for this
movie
Although they are all over the
marketing,
the yellow and blue ninjas are not exactly the focal point. In a risky
but bold choice that ultimately pays off, the focus is on a brand new
character, Cole Young, who is played here by Lewis Tan. He has MK
experience from appearing in a Mortal Kombat web series called X
Generations, which set up the tenth game in the mainline game series.
He's an MMA fighter, and sure to be future DLC character, with an
unknown past and a marking shaped suspiciously like the iconic Mortal
Kombat dragon logo. Turns out that marking means he's destined to
compete in the actual Mortal Kombat tournament to decide the fate of
all of the realms. The dragon marking stuff is a sort of silly premise
but works fine enough for me. After Outworld has claimed nine straight
Mortal Kombat victories, Shang Tsung and his group of baddies need just
one more victory to take over Earthrealm and enslave the entire human
race. It's up to Cole and some familiar good guys to unite and save the
day.
Introducing a brand new character to
anchor the film could've backfired spectacularly, but instead pays big
dividends, especially if as has been suggested, this is indeed the
start of a long running new movie series. Cole functions perfectly as
the audience surrogate, much like the role Johnny Cage played in the
original first film. See, Cole is just a pretty regular guy who gets
caught up in this fantastical universe full of mystical gods, ninjas,
vampires, and four armed Shokans. After he's attacked by Sub-Zero, Jax
(Mahcad Brooks) helps him escape to Gary Indiana of all places, where
he meets up with Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), who has her nemesis
Kano (Josh Layson) captured and in chains. From there, the rest of the
group of people with Mortal Kombat dragon markings get together and try
to find their secret special powers to thwart Shang Tsung's plans to
take over the world.
Sub-Zero says "Ice to
see you" as he freezes Jax's gun
mid-fire
This version of Mortal Kombat is
technically a remake, but it feels fresh and I'd say that's mainly due
to the different characters the film gives the spotlight to. Especially
in Liu Kang's case, as the previous protagonist is reduced to more of a
supporting role here. Kang doesn't even appear until close to the
halfway point of the film and his partnership with Raiden, which was so
vital to the first movies, is also minimized. The creative team wisely
switches it up, giving certain characters who barely appeared in the
originals lots more to do here. Like standout actress Sisi Stringer as
the many toothed badass Mileena. They also wisely introduce characters
that should've been no brainers to appear in the originals but didn't,
like Kung Lao, played by Max Huang, and Kabal, who is played by the
combination of Daniel Nelson in live action and voiced by Damon
Herriman.
Although this movie is much darker
and
violent, with a more self serious tone than the first set of movies,
and is perhaps played even straighter, it still finds a lot of time for
the sometimes silly Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) style of humor.
There's lots of Tony Stark style quips, self aware deprecating humor,
and pop culture references that have come to define the Marvel series,
including a pretty hilarious zinger on the franchise's obsession with
the letter K. There's also serious world building and plenty of easter
eggs peppered into the background for longtime fans to salivate and
geek out over, just like in a Marvel movie. It's a wise technique to
try, because if you're going to try to follow the blueprint of any film
series, why not try to be like the biggest blockbuster film series of
our generation?
A beaten up Liu Kang
wields the power of fire in his hands
The breakout character of this film
then
is the one who quips the hardest and that's Josh Layson as the
Australian accented, red eyed, Terminator homage Kano. With his
introduction into the film, the movie fully turns into Marvel Kombat.
With his Thor style accent, posturing, swaggering, and casual swearing
as a mercenary with no manners, Layson takes off with the film. He does
so much wisecracking that he threatens to over do it, but luckily
cracks just the right amount of wise. Despite all the quipping and
Avengers style banter, the movie is still played deadly seriously.
Luckily, there is also not a trace of the camp that crept into the
previous film series and helped kill it off for good.
The fighting is absolutely top notch
and
staged just gorily enough to work without looking like a particularly
violent Looney Tunes cartoon. The fighting looks incredibly painful and
very Mortal Kombat-esque, including some series staple moves like the
classic leg sweeps and lighting fast punches that'll make you feel like
you just mashed the high punch button in the original games. The
characters also look the part, using the special moves and striking the
poses they are known for, especially the coolest lethal hat wearer
since Oddjob, Kung Lao, portrayed here by Max Huang. Many of them get
incredibly accurate looking costumes without looking too goofy, like
many of them did in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Plus the movie
contains actual fatalities, including an absolutely brutal one taken
straight from the games courtesy of Kung Lao.
Also, it's pretty incredible to see
how
far visual effects and computer animation have come especially when
compared to the twenty-five year old effects of the originals. Goro
makes an appearance and now looks a lot less like the rubber outfits
used on the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies and much more like
the Marvel movie version of Hulk. Despite my usual love of practical
effects and puppets, this is a much better look for Goro. Another
character who looks a lot better thanks to modern effects is Jax. Once
he gets his metal arms, the new version of them just look video game
perfect. In addition, the film's use of ice effects involving Sub-Zero
are seriously impressive looking.
The thunder god
Raiden uses his considerable powers to help Earthrealm
survive
When the movie ends, you'll be glad
that
many of the key players are left alive, and a potential sequel is
teased. As longtime followers of the convoluted story of the Mortal
Kombat games know, death is never the end in this universe. Luckily
this funny and fatality filled film breathes new life into the film
franchise, delivering all the goods that fans could hope for. Hopefully
this is the start of a new brutal universe that can rival the cinematic
one that Marvel has built. Get over here indeed.
First-person
shooting games would not be where they are today without John Romero,
who has created some of the most classic FPS games of all time. Most of
the games he created in the 1990's are still played today. John's
resume of games is so long it would take pages to list them all. His
most talked about games are titles such as Quake, Red Faction, and Doom
but it was Wolfenstein 3D in 1992 that changed the whole dynamic of
first-person shooters. John helped create the company "id Software" in
1991 and planned on changing the way PC games were played forever.
Before id Software developed Wolfenstein 3D, Wolfenstein's beginnings
had been created by Muse Software in the 1980's with Castle Wolfenstein
and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein. These games were not first-person
shooters but more like an arcade style shooter similar to Berzerk. The
style of play was exciting for the time and made the Wolfenstein games
very popular. John Romero and id Software took it to the next level. id
Software firmly established the genre of first person shooters with
Wolfenstein 3D and with its ray casting rendering, it created the
illusion of walking around a map through the eyes of the player.
Wolfenstein 3D was a commercial success and has been recognized as one
of the greatest games of all time.
I interviewed John,
talking about Wolfenstein 3D and his opinions on
current gaming and first-person shooters.
When did you know you were going to be
in the video game business?
It was most likely
after I got my Apple II+ in 1982. Making games was
the only thing I wanted to do since then.
Do you remember when you created your
first game and what do you remember about the experience?
The first game I
created was in 1979 when I started learning HP-BASIC
on the community college's mainframe. I was 11 years old and taught
myself how to code in the computer lab. My first game was a simple
adventure game with about 5 rooms. It was really amazing to create
something that ran on a TV screen, and it was so much fun learning the
language.
What were your goals and expectations
when you co-founded id Software?
id was my fourth
startup. The goal was to take the amazing horizontal
scrolling tech that John C. wrote and make games with it. Beyond that,
we were excited to experiment and try to make the best games we could.
The expectation was to have fun making games, no matter what they were.
As long as we all shared the same passion for game development, we knew
we would make magic.
How many people first started working
for id Software and how many people were involved designing Wolfenstein
3D?
At the very
beginning in 1990, three of us created the original
Commander Keen trilogy: me, Tom Hall, and John Carmack. In February
1991, Adrian Carmack joined us when the company officially started. A
year later, it was still just the four of us when we started making
Wolfenstein 3D. What gave you the idea of the look and
feel of Wolfenstein 3D?
We had made two FPS
games before Wolfenstein 3D: Hovertank One, and
Catacomb 3D. We knew with Wolfenstein that you were going to be a
military character who is breaking out of a Nazi castle. I came up with
the idea to make a 3D version of the original Castle Wolfenstein from
1981 because it was such an incredible classic game. I felt that if we
were going to make a state-of-the-art game, we should recreate a
previous state-of-the-art game and design it in a new way.
How long did it take to create
Wolfenstein 3D and was it the time you expected?
We spent four months
from concept to uploading the shareware version.
It took another month for us to finish the other five episodes of
levels and create the hint book. We had no expectations about how long
it was going to take - we were experimenting and working hard at it, so
whenever we finished, we knew we'd have something great to play.
Most critics call Wolfenstein 3D one
of the greatest games ever made. How does it feel that you were
involved in creating it?
Well, we owe a huge
debt to Silas Warner for creating the original. The
design of Castle Wolfenstein is the reason why we wanted to make a new
one, to follow in his legendary footsteps and modify the design to
better fit this new category of game we would eventually call an FPS.
What was your goal for Wolfenstein 3D
when it was released? Did it meet or exceed your expectations?
The goal was for
Wolfenstein 3D to be a really fun game that would make
people want to buy the registered version. We were making decent money
from our Commander Keen sales still and adding Wolfenstein 3D's income
would ensure we could keep making games together. The first month,
Wolfenstein 3D's sales exceeded all our expectations. With no
advertising the game sold 4000 copies in the first month at $60 each.
Some view Wolfenstein 3D as the
pioneer for first person shooters. Do you believe it was the game that
started it all?
Yes, Wolf3D was the
first shooter to embody the speed and violence of
the genre. Wolf3D ran at 70fps on a VGA CRT in 1992 running on a 386
PC. The design of the game was simplified to its core run-and-gun
gameplay. Anything that slowed you down, we removed it. Also important
was the digitized audio we used for the first time on the Sound
Blaster. It so fitting because Castle Wolfenstein in 1981 was the first
Apple II game to use digitized audio and it scared the hell out of you
when a character opened the door and yelled "SS!" That was the cue to
flip the drive door open in case you got caught. The millisecond you
were caught, the disk was updated that you died. Without writing to the
disk, you could resume where you left off after quitting and running
the game again.
Before Wolfenstein 3D, what were some
of your favorite games you worked on and why?
Definitely the
Commander Keen games were lots of fun to make. We
created seven of those and received lots of mail from kids with
hand-drawn pictures of the various characters we put in the games.
Before id, I made a game called Dangerous Dave that ended up being more
popular than DOOM in India and Pakistan due to its installation on
every new PC sold for years. In 1984 and 1985 I made a couple games
named Subnodule and Pyramids of Egypt that I sold in computer stores.
Those were fun games to make because they were bigger than my average
game and were more polished.
Who did the cover art for the game and
what was the vision?
The cover art for
Wolfenstein 3D was painted by Ken Reiger, the artist
that painted the Commander Keen: Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter box cover.
There wasn't really a vision for the cover - we just told him you were
a beefy Schwarzenegger-like soldier with a chaingun blasting your way
through Nazis. Ken figured it out.
What are some interesting and/or funny
stories that happened while working on the game?
You might not
believe it, but Wolfenstein 3D's levels was the most
boring chore for Tom and I to do. The Commander Keen levels were so
much more fun to make because we could directly see the level on the
screen the way we would play it. With Wolfenstein 3D, the level is
abstracted because we created them in 2D from above - to see them in 3D
we had to run the game and see if the level looked and felt good. Our
design palette was limited, so we didn't have much we could do in a
level beside do cool things with sound areas.
Due to the chore of
W3D level design being boring, Tom and I would play
Fatal Fury on the NEOGEO next to us. Or Street Fighter 2 on the SNES.
Or go swimming in the pool. I used to remind Tom we needed to get those
levels done so we didn't have to do them again. This was mostly during
the time we had to create the last 50 levels after we had created the
10 shareware levels.
If you could make a change to
Wolfenstein 3D, what would it be and why?
I would remove the
score items, remove lives, add more weapons, give
away less ammo depending on difficulty, improve melee combat, and lots
of other things. This is for the original DOS game. Those changes would
make the game easier to finish, add more variety to the weapons, and
toughen up the balance.
You have designed and created many
more first-person shooters after Wolfenstein 3D, what are your favorite
and was Wolfenstein the game that influenced the others?
DOOM and Quake were
my favorites after Wolfenstein 3D. Each game was
unique, and its design was informed by the success and failures of the
previous game.
What are your opinions about today's
generation of video games? How do you compare them to older,
classic games?
Today's games are
absolutely incredible. I wish I was growing up right
now - the variety and quality is stunning. Important games have their
place when they are created, and everything ages and becomes
simplistic. There's no need to compare today's games to their
antecedents, just appreciate that they existed so today's games could
likewise exist. Just remember how those games made you feel - that was
entirely their point.
How do you feel about consoles and
handhelds playing Wolfenstein 3D on its platform?
Well, it's great of
course. Being able to play a game that's almost 30
years old on new hardware is always a sign that the game did something
right. People are still playing Tetris!
Do you believe first-person shooter
games are too violent and lead to violence in America?
Absolutely not. If
anything, they were a release valve.
Who is your favorite video game
character of all time and what makes that character special?
I would have to pick
Chrono from Chrono Trigger. The entire story is
designed around Chrono, and he's only trying to save the world from
Lavos with a rag-tag group of friends from various timelines.
Is there a game that you wished you
were on the development team of and why?
I would have loved
to be part of World of Warcraft, and I wish I had
made Minecraft. The reason is simple: both games are incredible and
have had a massive impact on people for a long time.
Doom was inducted into the
International Video Game Hall of Fame in 2019. What was your
thoughts and feelings about it?
I'm definitely
honored that DOOM was one of the recipients of the first
cohort of the IVGHOF. Back in the 90's, Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM were
both added to the Computer Gaming World Hall of Fame, which was the
same thing, only decades earlier. We'll always remember Johnny Wilson
and Scorpia.
In recent years you have created
Romero Games, LTD. Where do you see your next generation of games
going and what are your goals?
Our newest game,
Empire of Sin, [launched] on December 1, 2020. It's an
example of how we always try to do something new, to explore genres and
push them further. Most of all, it represents a really great time
making a game with an exceptional team in a wonderful country, Ireland.
Where do you see video gaming in the
next 10 years?
Better tech, every
genre inching forward, and possibly something
unexpected that changes everything.
While the
first three cartridges released
for the Pyuuta were original games, the other three initial 1982
offerings were all conversions of contemporary arcade titles originally
developed by Konami. The sixth of these games, a conversion of
the 1982 shooter Scramble, would be the only one of the group to have a
Tomy Tutor release (covered in our newsletter's previous incarnation,
Retrogaming Times Monthly issue 105, February 2013). The two
other games are conversions of early arcade action titles Turtles and
Frogger, the former a game that would fall into obscurity and the
latter a game that would become one of the most successful arcade games
of all time. As both releases are fairly simple games, we're
going to cover both of their Pyuuta releases in this article.
Turpin (left) and
Frogger (right)
Turpin is based on a 1981 arcade
game developed by Konami, released in the USA as "Turtles" by Stern
Electronics and in Japan as "Turpin" by Sega. It is a simplified
maze game where the player controls an adult turtle who must guide lost
baby turtles home, one at a time, while avoiding deadly beetles.
The playfield is a rather simple maze filled with question mark boxes
along dead ends. Touching a question mark box will reveal its
contents - either a baby turtle or another beetle. If a beetle
pops out of a box, it must quickly be avoided as it scrambles out to
join the maze patrol with the others. If a baby turtle is
revealed in a box, it will climb on the back of the adult turtle and a
house will appear in a corner of the maze. The baby turtle must
be carried to the house, where it will disembark and award points,
allowing another question mark box to then be opened. The only
defense against the beetles is in the form of bombs that the adult
turtle can drop. If a beetle touches a bomb it will be
temporarily stunned but only one bomb can be deployed at a time.
Bomb stock is limited but more can be picked up at the center of the
maze. After guiding all baby turtles in a stage home, the next
will begin with a fresh group of question mark boxes.
The Pyuuta
version begins with a very limited attract sequence and opening song
that is nice but plays non-stop throughout the entire game, which also
features very basic sound effects even compared to other Pyuuta
games. The arcade's introduction sequence of an adult turtle
entering a high-rise to save baby turtles trapped on the roof is
missing but surprisingly the between floor ladder climbing
intermissions do make the jump to the Pyuuta. Although the
beetles move faster on higher floors, the maze layout always remains
the same on the Pyuuta, removing what little variety the original game
had. Graphics are extremely simple and barely animated, easily
the worst of the early Pyuuta games. Stunned beetles actually use
a recolor of the baby turtle sprite, as if this were an LCD game or
something with limited screen location parameters. The whole
thing feels very amateurish, even for a game as simple as Turpin.
Play control
is okay but movement feels very sticky and often delayed. Turning
corners can sometimes feel labored, as does backing away from beetles
in question boxes. Both SL and SR drop a bomb but this too feels
excruciatingly delayed, especially when evading a chasing beetle, and
often leads to cheap deaths. Turpin isn't the most engaging game
to being with, as its avoidance based gameplay is slow by design, but
the Pyuuta version is even more lethargic. It lacks any of the
visual or auditory charm of the arcade original, which at least had a
lot of nice music. Of the six original Pyuuta games this is by
far the weakest, even compared to something like Saurusland.
Turpin's title screen
shows all you'll ever interact with (left), carrying a baby turtle home
(center), the between floor intermission (right)
At the other
end of the spectrum, Frogger
is based on another 1981 arcade game developed by Konami and released
by Sega, just as with Turpin in Japan. This very well-known
action game involves the player guiding frogs across a busy road and
fast-moving river to their homes on the other side, while avoiding
hazards every hop along the way. Frogger was converted to pretty
much every game system at the time, even an honestly spectacular Coleco
VFD tabletop, and the Pyuuta was no different. Each frog begins
at the bottom of the screen, with the first task to cross a busy
roadway filled with traffic that moves at different speeds. An
embankment divides the road from the river, which itself is populated
with moving logs, diving turtles, and chomping alligators. These
must be hopped across to reach one of five frog homes at the top of the
screen. Getting hit by an automobile, falling into the water,
jumping into the mouth of an alligator, being touched by a snake,
missing the leap into a frog home, or riding an object off screen will
all kill your fragile frog, as will running out of time.
The Pyuuta
version uses its own music, different than the mostly anime-inspired
tunes of
the arcade original (seriously, the most well known Frogger music
is actually from Araiguma Rascal, a 1977 anime series) but pleasant and
fitting just the same. The play area is slightly compressed
compared to the arcade version, with four lanes of traffic rather than
five and three rows of river hazards rather than five. Everything
moves at a good speed but feels a bit spazzy, with questionable hit
detection that will cause some unexpected deaths in the river
area. The whole presentation also feels a bit flickery with all
the objects moving on the screen, something not many Pyuuta games
attempt to tackle. A real attempt was made to translate the
constant movement of the arcade original to the Pyuuta hardware and I
have to respect the effort.
Even with the
compromises, it still plays pretty well and features most of the arcade
gimmicks like insects and alligators appearing in the frog homes and
the lady frog, who can be guided home for bonus points. One
difference I noticed is that the timer runs really fast in this
version, sometimes leading to an unexpected death. When a frog is
killed there is barely a rest in the action, which can be disorienting
even with the iconic skull and crossbones death marker. Graphically there
is a lot less detail than the original but everything is still
identifiable and has a consistent visual style. With all that taken
into consideration the game is a fun and reasonable interpretation of
Frogger. I still much prefer the Atari VCS version by Parker
Brothers but this is a fine early home version of Frogger and would
have done fine with a Tomy Tutor release.
A frog hops along the
third lane of traffic (left), approaching a lady frog on a log
(center), a mistimed jump sends a frog to a watery death (right)
Looking back
at the six original Pyuuta games - Bombman, Monster Inn, Saurusland,
Turpin, Frogger, and Scramble - I will honestly have to say if I were
to pick one for inclusion in the USA library it would be Monster
Inn. Yeah, I know Scramble had a Tomy Tutor release but it's not
a very fun conversion at all. I'm actually kind of shocked that
Monster Inn would be my pick but truthfully it's the game I had the
most fun with. Bombman is also a really fun little game but
Monster Inn had a lot more longevity with me while putting these games
through their paces. None of them will set your world on fire but
for a simple first-generation Tomy Pyuuta game, Monster Inn would be
the one I'd choose to play. Thankfully the next generation of
Pyuuta games would be quite a bit more advanced, with many of them
making their way to the Tomy Tutor. Yet a good number of Pyuuta
games were still left behind in Japan and we'll continue to investigate
them going forward.
As always, 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!
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:
04/30/2021 - WEEK 212 Question: Who is
the only enemy that cannot be destroyed in the arcade game Berzerk?
05/07/2021
- WEEK 213 Question: Who is
Sir Cucumber's sidekick in the NES game Princess Tomato in the Salad
Kingdom?
05/14/2021
- WEEK 214 Question: Big
Forest, Bay Bridge, and Acropolis are all locations you can visit in
what game?
05/21/2021
- WEEK 215 Question: What game
was the final North American release for both the Super Nintendo and
Sega Genesis?
05/28/2021
- WEEK 216 Question: Developed
by Tatsumi, what three-screen driving game was released by Atari as
their unofficial successor to the Pole Position series?
06/04/2021
- WEEK 217 Question: Laurel
Palace, The Hideaway, and The 2020 are all locations in what game?
06/11/2021
- WEEK 218 Question: A song in
Namco's Ridge Racer features an audio sample of what American President?
06/18/2021
- WEEK 219 Question: Clu Clu
Land: Welcome to New Clu Clu Land has the distinction of being the
final commercial release for what platform?
Checking out another casino
in Vegas Stakes
(left), TX-1 was housed in one of the larger cabinets of its time
(right)
Answers: Week 212 Answer: Evil Otto,
although he can be destroyed in the sequel, Frenzy. Week 213 Answer: Percy. (You
should have known that, Boss) Week 214 Answer: Virtua Racing
(1992). Week 215 Answer: Frogger, in
1998 incredibly, although they are both different games. Week 216 Answer: TX-1 (1983). Week 217 Answer: Vegas Stakes
(SNES). Week 218 Answer: Richard Nixon.
The song Speedster samples him speaking to to Neil Armstrong and Buzz
Aldrin on the surface of the Moon, "...in the whole history of man, all
the people on this Earth are truly one." Week 219 Answer: Famicom Disk
System.
Virtua Racing
features three different courses (left), Percy often loses items in
Princess Tomato but it serves as an automatic inventory clean up
(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!
Resuming the
Pirate's Life column after almost three years was a bit of a throwback
in a publication that is all about throwbacks. The converter
cartridge that I use for playing Famicom games on NES hardware also
brought back some memories. It had been known since the mid
1990's that Nintendo repackaged the internals of some early Famicom
games into NES sized shells during the early rollout of the hardware in
North America. It has been theorized that this was to move older
inventory across the Pacific and in the case of the game Stack Up
because not enough cartridges would be needed to produce a rather small
run of the NES version anyway. These cartridges would have the 60
pin Famicom board, a double socketed 60 pin to 60 pin passthrough
connector, and then a 60 pin to NES 72 pin board all in the same
cartridge. The socketed connector and 60 to 72 pin board could be
removed and have any Famicom game connected to them, which would then
work on the NES. Sure, there were other options for this at the
time, most notably the "HoneyBee" converter, but there was something
cool about having a Nintendo-made one - and one that was "free" at that.
Some illustrative pictures from my old
webpage circa 2006, showing the difference between the two cartridges
and how to spot them from the outside
Of course not
every early NES game had the converter parts inside and debates would
often arise about the best way to tell if a cartridge was "converter
rich" without opening it, including comparing label prints and
cartridge weight. In early 2006 I figured out the trick was to
look down inside the cartridge at where the connectors meet the edge of
the board. On an early Nintendo released "black box" game, with a
five screw cartridge shell, if the little assembly tabs on the ends of
the connectors were off to the side rather than in the middle - the
cartridge would always have converter hardware inside. Every
single time. So I would go to flea markets and look through all
the copies of Gyromite, Duck Hunt, Wild Gunman, etc. and check what the
edge connectors looked like. Following my guidelines, I was
always 100% accurate in my purchases. As mentioned above, Stack
Up was only ever released in this fashion but as it was a rather hard
to find game I thought it better not to gut them, while the other early
games were all rather common.
My Mk.I Famicom to NES converter cartridge (left), a copy of
Million Dollar Kid ready to be played on an NES (right)
Now unless you
wanted to swap around and play bare Famicom circuit boards you couldn't
easily use the converter hardware. Even after flipping the 60 pin
passthrough around it was still too thick for most Famicom games to fit
onto it and retrieving the stack of components from inside an NES deck
could be challenging. I decided to remedy this by making fully
finished and sealed "Nintendo parts" converter cartridges. I
would grind down the 60 pin passthrough to match the size of the
Famicom connector socket and then cut the cartridge shell to the
appropriate size so that a Famicom game would saddle onto it at the
perfect distance. After reassembly the entire shell would be
packed with hot glue, then I'd cover up the open areas on the sides
with little panels cut from NES cartridge dust sleeves - keeping things
authentic. Then I would tack a ribbon on the top of the cartridge
to facilitate easy removal from a front loading NES and call it a
day. It doesn't look like much but the process took a long time, between four and
six hours to make a cartridge, carefully making sure the edges were all even
and level and that the fit tolerances were all smooth. I made a
dozen or so of these and would sell them for $50 each, mainly on the
old Digital Press forums where I was a regular for over a decade.
The one pictured above is the prototype I first built and then later
used as the basis for every other one I made. I still have enough
parts to make one more, intended to show the first and last of the
production, but I've never gotten around to making it.
Occasionally I still get an e-mail asking about them - messages from
another time perhaps but I'm still surprised when a request comes
along. If you happen to see this and are curious if I still make
and sell them, the answer is no.
I think people
forget about how cool and small the
retrogaming hobby once was. There were all kinds of us making
stuff
like this and selling it to the community. Some people made these
ventures into commercial products but so many of us did little handmade
limited runs for people who asked, just for fun and because we
could. An example I will always remember was a forum member at
Digital Press who took a Virtual Boy security bit, had a metal shop
grind it down and weld it to the end of a screwdriver shaft so it would
fit into the Virtual Boy housing, used it to fix his Virtual Boy, and
then sold that one-off tool to someone else on the forums for like five
bucks. Those were exceptional times, no doubt.
Thank
you once
again for reading The Retrogaming
Times. We'll be back on September 1st with our next issue.
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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
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retrogaming
tradition!
