As noted in
the previous issue, this September will be the 25th anniversary of
the original
Retrogaming Times and as we reach that quarter of a century milestone
we will be publishing our final issue. If you or
ANYONE you know
has written for ANY "Retrogaming Times"
family newsletter over the past 25 years, PLEASE
e-mail me! I'm going to attempt to get as many alumni as
possible back to write for that final issue, to write a very special
article in addition to anything else they would like to
contribute. I want us to go out with a grand celebration.
In the next couple weeks I will begin to reach out to as many people as
I
can from our history but as the digital world has changed so much since
1997, finding contacts that are still active can be difficult.
PLEASE put the word out for past Retrogaming Times, Bit Age Times,
Retrogaming Times Monthly and The Retrogaming Times staff to get
in touch with me and take part in celebrating a quarter century of our incredible
newsletter! With that, we have four wonderful issues left
including this one.
That means there are three chances remaining for any of you, our
readers, to contribute to the newsletter and join a great retrogaming
tradition!
The adventure begins this issue with a descent into the depths that lie
below, as Merman explores Rogue and the Commodore 64's
assortment of Roguelike games in More C64! Donald Lee takes a
look back at a fan-favorite column of his from years ago as
Vectrexstein takes a seat at Don's Desk. Bomberman is a series
that has been going strong for almost forty years and is fondly known
as an excellent multiplayer game. However Hudson once attempted
something different with an almost
forgotten single-player action spinoff, Bomber King /
RoboWarrior, that explodes as this issue's cover
story. Classic board and strategy games make the jump to the Sega
Master System as Mateus Fedozzi shares gaming memories, both electronic
and tactile. As the roster in each modern Smash Bros. game grows
larger and larger, Dan Pettis takes a look at his top ten character
picks for the future with a retrogaming twist. The classic video
game movie The Wizard finally receives a deluxe collector's edition
release and we'll detail why it is the definitive version of the
polarizing film. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles go portable in
their first Game Boy game, a very popular title that helped define the
early days of the hardware. ColecoVision may not be the most
popular retrogaming console these days but it featured a diverse
library of unique games. A chance encounter with that library of
games over the course of one summer is remembered, as well as the
friendship that it helped grow. 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!"
NOTICE: Due to the ongoing
COVID-19 situation, 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 19th - 24th 2022,
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
KansasFest is
the world’s only annual convention dedicated to the Apple II computer
that revolutionized the personal computing industry. KansasFest
invites hobbyists, retrocomputing enthusiasts, and diehard aficionados
to gather from all corners of the world.
KansasFest is
about a computer and a camaraderie unlike anything
else. The Apple II attracts people of a certain mindset and
spirit who exhibit a rare creativity, resilience, dedication, history,
and nonconformity. The Apple II has lasted for more than 40
years, and the friendships and memories made at KansasFest will last
even longer.
Classic Game Fest, July 23rd - 24th
2022, Austin, Texas, USA
The biggest
retro gaming event in Texas is back for its 15th anniversary! Enjoy 70,000 square feet of retro video
games and fun at the Palmer Events Center. The annual summer event will feature all
the expected attractions
including special guests, live music, free play games, a massive vendor
hall and more. Ticket information will be available
soon.
If there is a
show or event you would
like listed here, free of charge, please contact David directly at trt@classicplastic.net.
Please include a short official blurb about your event along with any
relevant
links or contact information and it will be published in the next issue
of The Retrogaming Times. The event listing will remain posted
until
the issue following the event date. Big or small, we want to
promote
your show in our newsletter.
Check out
these great events, shows,
and conventions and let them know you read about them in The
Retrogaming
Times!
More
C64! - Going Rogue
by Merman
Rogue and Roguelike
games have been a major fad recently and can trace their roots all the
way back to 1980. The Commodore 64 has also had its fair share of Rogue
games in recent years, and so Merman explores them.
ROGUE(1980, Mainframe)
The original Rogue was
developed on the University of California, Santa Cruz
mainframe by Michael Toy and Glen Wichman, using ASCII graphics to
represent a dungeon and its inhabitants. Monsters were shown as a
capital letter, such as Z for a zombie. The player had to fight their
way down to the bottom level of the dungeon, retrieve the Amulet of
Yendor and then escape. Potions, armour, weapons, and scrolls could all
be found to help (or sometimes hinder) the player. The key features of
the game were the random generation of the level layouts and the
permanent death of the player's character. The original Rogue split its
levels into rooms connected by corridors, with line-of-sight rules
governing what would be shown to the player as they moved. Ken Arnold
at UC Berkeley would also help develop and improve the original Rogue,
with
offshoots including Hack, Moria and Angband following.
The MS-DOS version of
Rogue and the cover of the Epyx version.
Epyx published official
home computer conversions of Rogue in 1985, but
there was no C64 version at this time. Rogue had influenced other Epyx
titles - including the Apshai trilogy and Sword of Fargoal. (Jeff
McCord had released his Gammaquest II game for Commodore PET in 1980,
written in BASIC and with random dungeon generation around the same
time as Rogue. The earliest commercial Rogue-like game was Beneath
Apple Manor in 1978, drawing on an even earlier mainframe game from
1975 known as DND).
This was to all intents
and purposes an upgraded version of the
original Rogue, replacing the ASCII letters with redefined graphics.
The same line of sight rules and random generation are in play, with
rooms connected by corridors. After the hi-res bitmap for the loading
screen, the actual title screen is quite clunky - with rotating
coloured text and the option to input your name spoiled by poor
keyboard response. In game, you move the arrow and point to a square to
move - or select objects from the inventory box on the right side of
the screen. Oddly, this then requires you to use keyboard inputs to
select what you want to do with that item (W to wield a weapon, D to
drop, and so on). Moving up and down stairs requires you to select the
option from the menu bar at the top of the screen. There are also
options to REST and SEARCH here, below the status bar that shows your
character name, amount of gold and dungeon level.
At the bottom of the
screen are your HIT POINTS, STRENGTH and ARMOUR
value (the higher the better). Text appears below this bar describing
what is happening, including what is happening when you encounter an
enemy monster - attacked by walking into it. Another major flaw is that
there is no death animation; the game simply stops and displays your
rank (based on the experience and number of enemies you have killed).
Rogue's
Mastertronic loading screen and starting out on level
1.
The ZZAP! reviewers Paul
Glancey and Gordon Houghton were extremely
critical - comparing it to Gauntlet and similar arcade maze games
rather than a traditional adventure (or indeed the original Rogue).
Maybe it was down to the younger age of the reviewers, who had not had
the experience of the mainframe version? Despite the bugs (see below)
and
jerky scrolling, a final review score of 10% was very harsh. (The
German magazine Power Play gave a slightly higher 27%, comparing it
unfavourably to Hack - the 1984 offshoot of the original Rogue, still
being developed today.)
In 2017, Hokuto Force
released a special updated version of
Mastertronic's Rogue, fixing bugs in the original. You were unable to
use scrolls and potions properly, and it was impossible to climb back
up the stairs and complete the game. Worse still, you could not
actually collect the Amulet of Yendor to win! As well fixing other bugs
and glitches, music by Linus was added (which can be switched on and
off by pressing M).
Choosing
what to do with the mace - and dying as a journeyman
adventurer.
TROGUE: DRAIN OF DOOM(2019, wbochar aka Wolfgang Bochar)
In the 1980s zombies
invaded a small mining town. A daring hero lured
the undead creatures into a mine, blocked the trogue (a type of drain)
and flooded the levels. Unfortunately, an alarm has recently gone off -
somehow the trogue has been removed and the water has drained. The
player must enter the mine, activate the eight water pumps, and flood
the mine once more.
After the opening bitmap
and series of information screens, the player
starts on level 1 of 64. You are equipped with some basic items to
help. Medpacks will heal your wounds, oxygen tanks will help you move
through flooded levels and the Holy Hand Grenade will damage anything
in its explosion radius. More of these items can be found as you
explore, along with the crowbar that will do more damage to enemies.
Trogue's bitmap - and
the Holy Hand Grenade refers to the
classic film Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail.
Enemies are fought by
walking into them. You can also advance the turn
by pressing Space, meaning the enemies move and you don't. This can
move them out of the way or put them in an easier position to attack.
At the top of the screen is shown your current level in the mine, and
the score. Function keys select the current item used by pressing Fire
(shown in the box at the bottom). Your supplies are shown by the series
of numbers bottom right, the hearts show your health level and the rank
your experience level (increased by killing enemies).
Activating a pump
increases the water level, shown by the blue lines in
the border. If you are on a flooded level, each few steps through the
water will cause health damage. This is reduced by having oxygen tanks,
but these gradually deplete and are used up. Find your way to the
stairs to climb up to the next level, trying to reach level 64 and the
top of the mine.
This is nicely presented
in hi-res graphics, with a clever "animated"
disk directory and intro bitmap. Needing to use the function keys can
be a little awkward at the pace of the game, but you get used to it.
The game has multiple difficulty levels and saves your highest scores
to disk. It is quite challenging by Rogue standards, with the water
level forcing you to move quickly.
You need
oxygen tanks to walk through this flooded level - but
fighting this low-level toad should be easy.
Here is a unique idea -
a type-in game released as a PDF. The free
version contains a black & white version of the PDF. Paying for the
premium version gives access to the longer colour PDF, source code,
development notes and a PRG file of the complete program. Control is by
keyboard only, and because it is a BASIC listing there is quite a long
delay when the game first starts as it sets things up and then
generates the dungeon layout. (There is a similar delay between levels
as the new layout is generated).
The
title screen - and fighting a bat.
At the top of the screen
display are your stats - HP (hit points), ATK
and DEF (attack and defence), and FOOD (one unit consumed for each
square moved). At the bottom of the screen is your character's LEVEL,
XP (experience points, earned to increase your level) and DL (dungeon
level). You explore the dungeon, collecting treasure and attacking
enemies. Finding the stairs allows you to go up or down a dungeon
level. As with all classic Rogue games, you only see the parts of the
maze in your line of sight, revealing more of each level of the dungeon
as you explore. Pressing . will climb down the stairs when you find
them, and M will meditate to regain HP (at the cost of Food).
The original preview had
black & white graphics, but the final
type-in has improved colour graphics and some limited sounds. Compared
to the other games here it moves quite slow and can be cumbersome in
terms of movement, but it has an enjoyable atmosphere of its own and is
worth trying out.
This
time you are fighting a snake - dying leads to this game
over screen.
Eight years after the
first preview, the full game arrived - followed
by the v1.1 update, released on GitHub under an MIT license. Control is
from a joystick in port 2, holding down Fire to access the in-game
menus. After the PETSCII title screen, you get a choice of character
class - Warrior, Rogue and Magician. Next you select a God to worship
when you encounter an altar, with each God helping a particular
attribute. Finally, you enter your character's name.The in-game display
shows your name, HP (hit points), SP (Spell Points for casting magic),
C (for coins) and number of Arrows.
The
well-drawn PETSCII title screen and accessing the in-game
menus.
Combat happens when you
walk into a monster, with the commentary
scrolled up by pressing Fire. Status effects such as Pois(oned) and
Conf(used) are shown at the top of the screen. Gold coins are picked up
automatically, but other items must be picked up via the menu system.
In the menus, you can Throw / Shoot an item (such as arrows), check
your
Inventory (to use potions), and look at the Options. These are Status
(showing your attributes and how many experience points you need to go
up a character level), Quit Game (you get a chance to confirm or
cancel), Sound Toggle and Cancel (to go back to the game). Praying at
an altar requires a sacrifice of gold but will boost your attributes
based on the chosen God. Potions are described with an adjective but
have a random effect; you do not know what it will do until you use it.
You can also encounter shops, such as the Fletcher who will sell you
extra arrows.
Finding the staircase
and entering the menu gives you the option to Use
Stairs to change level of the dungeon. This submenu also gives you the
chance to Save Game. The small graphics are effective, especially the
"dots" showing your torchlight/line-of-sight. There is background music
that can be turned off. I particularly enjoyed the "dripping blood"
effect on game over. The random generation gives some very twisty level
layouts, and it feels like a good challenge.
Worshiping
a god at an altar can have a positive benefit,
while you gain experience for each defeated enemy.
Rogue64 started out as
an entry to the Cassette 50 Coding Competition,
cramming a Rogue-style game into less than 4K. Badger Punch Games took
the decision to enhance and improve on that 4K version, publishing a
physical cartridge version through Bitmap Soft in early 2022.
The
original Rogue4K plus the contents of the Bitmap Soft
cartridge version.
After the introduction
with speech and logos, the main menu offers you
the choice of Start Game, Instructions or Credits. The instructions
give a brief description of how to play. Starting the game generates a
random dungeon. Each level of the dungeon is based on a 5x5 grid of
interconnecting rooms, gradually mapped out as you travel around. Each
screen is made of 10x10 squares, with a randomly generated selection of
objects and enemies, and doors on the walls where you can leave to
enter the next screen. Somewhere in each level is a key that will open
the stairs to the next level. You will also find Chests containing
gold. Most actions will boost your score, shown at the top of the
screen.
Rogue
64's main menu and instructions.
Your character has a
Health Rating (starting at 5) and a Strength
rating (starting at 1). Killing enough enemies will drop a Gem, giving
a permanent +1 to Health (refilling it) or Strength. Hearts and Green
Potions will also refill your Health bar. The Blue and Red Potions have
a random effect chosen at the start of each run, which will be the same
until you die. These could include a temporary boost to Strength, a
"Reveal Everything" potion that shows where all the rooms on the
current level are, a Time Freeze potion that freezes enemies and leaves
them vulnerable, a Monster Blast that wipes out all the monsters
currently onscreen or Strong Ale that reverses the controls for a brief
time.
Potions and the key are
stored in your inventory, shown on the left of
the screen under your Health and Strength bars. Holding Fire enters the
inventory, left and right moves to an item and releasing Fire activates
an item. You will be told if it cannot be used there, or you can move
back to the X to leave the inventory. Monsters will freeze while you
access the items, giving you a chance to use a potion on them.
Although the graphics
are small, they are quite well made and the
randomly-generated levels give the feeling of a big dungeon. The enemy
names are funny. The difficulty curve is well designed, with monsters
getting stronger as you progress. Although there is an element of luck
with the potions, it adds to the variety.The music adds to the
atmosphere, with simultaneous sound effects that work well. Having all
the control on a single joystick makes it easy to pick up, and the
challenge of getting a high score draws you back.
You won't know what a
runny potion does till you use it, but
the gem will increase either your Health or Strength permanently.
The physical cartridge
version comes with a glossy instruction booklet,
stickers, and special gifts including a gem and a miniature sword!
Demand has been very high, with the first batch of 50 selling out
quickly and the second batch being sent out in February 2022. Check the
website for availability before ordering.
Note that Rogue
64 is
NOT fully NTSC compatible, although the digital download now has a fix
that allows the .crt image to run on NTSC machines.
We climb the stairs and
leave the C64 Dungeon for another issue. I hope
you have enjoyed this adventure. But a quick mention for a completely
different game.
The brilliant title screen,
and Sonic taking on Robotnik at
the end of Act 1.
In December 2021, an
incredible new release for the C64 happened.
Andreas Varga (Mr. SID, the coder behind the C64 conversion of Prince
of Persia) announced SONIC 64
- with music by Mikkel Haastrup and graphics by Oliver Lindau. This is
a conversion of the Sega Master System's Sonic The Hedgehog. It
requires a RAM Expansion Unit of at least 256K; this can be emulated in
VICE and by the 1541-Ultimate cartridge. Not only does the REU help
create smooth full-screen scrolling, with enough memory the whole game
can be installed to the REU to speed up access between levels. It is a
truly astounding technical achievement and a great version of Sonic
too. Visit https://bit.ly/sonic64
for access to the latest version.
About a week or two ago, I suddenly
got the urge to reread some of my older articles I had written for
Retrogaming Times Monthly back in the earlier days when I started
writing. There wasn't anything in particular I was looking
for, I just wanted to see some of the stuff I had written
before. So I was just clicking through the archives that Editor
David
Lundin, Jr. had put together. It was cool to see some of my old
interests. I had forgotten I had
wrote several columns on the Vectrex gaming system. Since it's
been
quite some time, I thought I would revisit the Vectrex.
Alas, the first and most
disappointing thing is the original emulator I
used (ParaJVE) never got updated beyond 2010. I had used the
emulator on
my old iMac computer for a while. When I tried to download the
emulator and run it I was told it required an older version of
Java, so I think the old emulator may be toast. I found a more
modern one but there wasn't a lot of instructions included and I
didn't really want to spend a lot of time trying to figure things out
at the moment
(maybe in the future). I had a thought that maybe I should search
for some resources for
people interested in the Vectrex and include them here.
With that being said, here's some things I discovered:
Lastly, out of sheer curiosity, I
went to eBay to see if anyone was
selling Vectrex systems. Indeed there are quite a few people
selling used Vectrex systems for several hundred dollars. If
emulation doesn't work for you, maybe get a real system instead.
In any case, that does it for now! See you next issue!
I tend
to have a rather eclectic taste in my favorite games for any
given platform. While a couple mainstream classics sometimes make
their way into a spot here and there, more than often said lists are
made up of games people haven't heard of or are generally dismissed by
the masses for one reason or another. One game that has always
held a place on the shortlist of my favorite Nintendo Entertainment
System games is RoboWarrior, the often overlooked spinoff of Hudson's
Bomberman series. My fascination with the game actually began
just
prior to owning an NES as a kid, when I saw the game briefly covered in
The Game Player's Guide To Nintendo magazine sometime in early
1988. Shortly after that I saw an even larger feature in an issue
of Game Player's Nintendo Strategy Guide. Something in those
screenshots resonated with me - the game was so colorful and weird
and had crazy boss enemies and just so much going on that it
permanently embedded itself in my mind. At that point I had only
seen Nintendo on a couple television commercials, in toy stores, and
briefly at a classmates house (as detailed in our previous
issue). I was used to Atari 2600 and arcade games and this looked
like something different than either of those. After receiving an
NES that Christmas I would finally buy RoboWarrior sometime in 1989.
RoboWarrior for the
NES (left) and Bomber King, the Famicom game it was localized from
(right)
RoboWarrior's
origins lie with a Famicom game titled Bomber King,
released in 1987 as a pseudo sequel and spinoff of Bomberman.
Bomberman was actually first released in 1983 for Japanese computer
systems but didn't gain its more familiar cutesy visual style until a
1985 Famicom conversion, which quite literally exploded in popularity
across Japan. At the time the Bomberman games were still in their
early days and designed to be primarily single player affairs, with the
multiplayer component becoming more prevalent as time went on.
It's following in this style that Bomber King was developed, taking the
concept of bombing through an enemy-filled maze of destructible walls
and expanding it into an arcade style run-and-gun. When planet
Altair's climate control computer hurls the planet into environmental
chaos, the combat android Knight is dispatched to investigate the cause
and remedy the malfunction. When Bomber King was released on the
NES as RoboWarrior in 1988 the story was changed slightly, with the
player controlling a cyborg named ZED. ZED is sent to planet
Altile to
defeat the Xantho Empire, which under the command of its leader Xur
has invaded and begun to terraform Altile for colonization.
RoboWarrior is
played from a three-quarters overhead perspective with
environments that are scrolled by the player's movements. Unlike
a Bomberman game, movement is not confined to a grid. ZED is able
to freely move in eight directions, with movement being very smooth and
responsive. The A Button fires an arm cannon with endless
ammunition that is used to attack both standard enemies and
bosses. The B Button releases a bomb, up to two at a time, which
can be used both as an offensive weapon against enemies and to destroy
terrain. Active bombs are colored red and will detonate a few
seconds after being placed by ZED. Destroyed enemies will leave
behind neutral blue bombs that ZED must collect to replenish his bomb
stock. ZED always fires on his right side, no matter the
direction he is facing. Although this means his shots are always
to the right of center, the hitbox for his shots is very
generous. This generous hitbox also extends to item pickups,
especially blue bombs. In addition to
his cannon and bombing capabilities, ZED can collect a vast array of
power up and utility items. These are activated by pressing the
Select
Button, selecting the item, then returning to the action screen and
pressing the B Button. Most important of these utility items are
energy tanks that fully replenish ZED's energy meter. While
taking
damage from enemies or bomb blasts will deplete the energy meter, it
also slowly drains over time as ZED uses power.
The objective
of each area, referred to as a Period, is to find a key
at the end of the environment to open the door to the exit. Many
areas in RoboWarrior will actually wrap around endlessly, never coming
to an end, unless ZED locates a special Chalice item hidden within the
area. In fact Period 1-1, the very first area in the entire game,
requires uncovering and collecting a Chalice to reach the end.
This can make the game extremely confusing if you don't know what
you're looking for or haven't read the instruction booklet. Even
with the instruction booklet, the illustrations for items contained
within look nothing like the icons in the game, typical of early NES
documentation. After obtaining the Chalice the area will
eventually come to an end, where a key must be uncovered and
collected before the door to the next area will open. It is
impossible to know what areas will require finding a Chalice and what
areas will naturally come to an end without prior play and I can
understand how this frustrates some players. Additionally every
area has underground passages that are uncovered by bombing specific
parts of the terrain. The underground areas are completely dark,
requiring a candle or lantern to illuminate them, but are chock full of
powerup and utility items lying out in the open. While the
varying types of solid ground can't hurt ZED, he will sink like a
stone in water after only a couple moments. The only exception
being areas known as a Well of Hope, which are usually single squares
of water contained within destructible walls. Stepping onto a
Well of Hope will double ZED's inventory of all special items, which is
everything except the super items: Life Vests, Lamps, and Megaton Bombs.
ZED prepares to
collect the Chalice and visit a Well of Hope (left), the Hudson bee
randomly awards a special item (center), fighting the first boss (right)
There are a
lot of nuances to the game that are either misunderstood or
overlooked by many people who then write it off as poorly designed or
too difficult. First and most importantly is not realizing that
uncovering items is a key mechanic of the game. Yes, there is a
ton of terrain to bomb through and tons of items to pick up and you'll
spend most of the game chewing through solid walls. I don't know
why this would come as a surprise - after all, the game is derived from
Bomberman! Keeping an eye on energy depletion, especially
early in the game, is also especially important. An alert will
sound when ZED is down to his last energy pod but by then he's already
hanging on by a thread. A mechanic often missed is that
increasing score builds levels, which builds defense and makes the game
easier. There are actually eight levels of defensive power, which
can be checked on the inventory screen, that naturally build as points
are earned. Building a couple levels early on allows ZED to
better survive being caught in a bomb blast or pummeled by a homing
enemy. Similarly, uncovering and picking up Power Balls increases
the range of ZED's cannon, shown on the inventory screen as the range
statistic. At full range, ZED can fire clear across the screen
and
fire more rapidly as well, allowing him to better manage enemy
threats. Another key is to never leave an area without a full
stock of 99 bombs, which can be quickly farmed by destroying flying
enemies at the end of a stage before exiting. This only takes a
minute and will make ZED far better prepared at the start of the next
area. Lastly are medals, which serve as currency for the shops
that ZED visits at the end of an area. Medals are reasonably
limited in number so every one you can find counts. Equally as
important is spending medals wisely, as they should only be spent on
the rarest items - Lamps or Megaton Bombs. It's also important
not to die in the game, especially early on, as death halves all
inventory upon continuing and resets ZED's cannon rage to level
1. So much of the game is based upon
building inventory throughout the journey, particularly with the super
items, that a great run can be totally decimated by a single mistake at
an inopportune time.
Even with all
the quirks of the game in mind, a common complaint that I
often see is that it's far too easy to die in RoboWarrior and the
constantly draining energy meter only compounds the problem. My
response is that the draining energy meter is actually a replacement
for the timer in Bomberman and it makes RoboWarrior easier than
Bomberman, as it allows for more than a single hit. The Japanese
version, Bomber King, is actually far more difficult to begin in as
bombs cause more damage to the player. A single bomb hit at the
starting defense level will kill you immediately in Bomber King, even
with a full energy meter. This was adjusted for the USA release,
actually making the NES version easier for a change. In
RoboWarrior at the starting defense level, ZED can take two direct bomb
hits with a full energy meter and survive, as the damage bombs cause to
ZED has been reduced. Regardless of the version, the higher your
level, the more damage you can negate. By level 8 (obtained at
1,200,100 points) you can absorb nearly three times as much damage than
at the start of the game, making the mechanic of earning points for
defense a critical aspect of the game. That all said,
RoboWarrior is a very
difficult game that requires real strategy and
planning to get anywhere in. My general strategy is to build up
my inventory so that when I get to the Well of Hope at Period 6-3, I
can double up to near maximum inventory of most items - usually
everything except candles and the super items that the Well of Hope
doesn't increase.
Without a
doubt my favorite aspects of RoboWarrior are the boss designs
and the soundtrack. There are a ton of bosses in the game, and
while they are all large and detailed, a few of them are extremely
large with very impressive animation. The first boss, Globula, is
about six times bigger than ZED and is a perfect sample of what to
expect going forward. Globula has animated movements, its mouth
and eye both go through different expressions as it attacks, and
it spits out tiny versions of itself that hop around the screen.
The serpent dragon Virpides is my favorite of RoboWarrior's bosses and
is extremely impressive. Virpides pops out of a large well at the
center of the screen, moving around the entire screen as its segmented
body stretches out. The individual segments follow the head as it
breathes fire and pursues ZED, while lightning bolts rain down from
above. Pretty insane for a summer 1987 Famicom release!
With the beautiful colors and very detailed sprites featured throughout
the game, this really looks like something a generation ahead, like a
PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 game rather than a Famicom release. As
for the soundtrack, it is excellent, featuring what may be the
catchiest main theme of any 8 bit video game. Incredibly enough,
the main theme actually has lyrics - which are displayed on the screen
in a karaoke mode that shows up as a "Theme Song" option after
continuing in Bomber King. The chorus "Go for break out! Go for
break out!" perfectly represents the core gameplay. I'd say this
Hudson's best audio work on the Famicom / NES, and is as good as or
better than Capcom's Mega Man tracks. The boss theme and the
flourish that leads into it are also something else and really get the
blood pumping.
Navigating a flooded
area presents a new challenge (left), a single-screen area reminiscent
of Bomberman (center), dodging the attacks of Virpides (right)
Admittedly
there are a few things I don't like about the game but they are few and
far between. The game does exhibit slowdown and some flicker when
there are a lot of objects on the screen but generally it doesn't
impede gameplay or input. Truthfully I'm surprised it doesn't
happen more often, given how large the sprites are, how everything
moves at different speeds, and how much animation everything has.
This tends to happen most when there are a lot of blue bombs and
enemies on the screen at the same time. Some enemies move very
fast, especially those that home in on the player, giving little time
to react. This can lead to some cheap shots but is more of an
annoyance than anything. I also have some issues with the Life
Vest item, which allows ZED to walk on water for about twenty
seconds. When it wears off and ZED begins to sink, the inventory
screen cannot be opened to activate another. This means you
either get to dry land in a step or end up drowning. The area of
water beneath ZED will begin to flash when the Life Vest is starting to
expire but it can sometimes be hard to see and it's often easier to
just activate another after about fifteen seconds or so. When I
die on a run it's often because of this.
I've read that
some consider Bomber King part of the Baster Master
series rather than a spin-off of Bomberman, mainly due to the overhead
areas in Blaster Master having a passing resemblance to some of those
in Bomber King. Additionally the lone Game Boy sequel, Bomber
King Scenario 2, was released in the USA as Blaster Master Boy and in
Europe as Blaster Master Jr. However the sequel, as well as the
Blaster Master games, were Sunsoft developed or published titles and
had no involvement from Hudson, although Aicom may have been involved
with both Bomber King games. Makes sense that the Game Boy sequel
would be marketed as a Blaster Master game outside of Japan, as that
game had far more brand recognition internationally than "RoboWarrior"
ever did, and Sunsoft could triple dip and publish it directly across
all regions. However the bundling of Bomber King with Blaster
Master has more to do with a narrow focus on how the games were
released and branded in North America, rather than their original
development and publication origins. Heck, the in-game character
artwork for Scenario 2 essentially grafts the cutesy Bomberman
aesthetic
onto the more detailed Bomber King style. Granted, Blaster Master
is a bit of a mess in this regard, with the series backstory and
narrative moving all over the place due to how popular that series
became outside of Japan. If anything, it's possible that the
creators of Metafight (the Famicom game released as Blaster Master on
the NES) were familiar with Bomber King and were inspired by its
gameplay. This wouldn't be unheard of as Hudson was one of the most
successful and popular game developers in Japan at the time.
Bomber King
had an MSX port that attempts to straight up convert the
Famicom game to the MSX platform. While it makes a commendable
effort to convert the game for the MSX, it's ultimately a pretty big
mess and not very fun to play. What is interesting to note is the
box art for the MSX game uses the NES Bomberman cover as a base, then
adds enemies from Bomber King to it. Looking at those
illustrations, it's clear that the NES Bomberman cover art is based on
adapting the aesthetic of Bomber King. Yet by 1990 the more
familiar
cutesy Bomberman art style had established itself as the series norm
and there was no looking back. All of these aspects should
solidify that Bomber King is most definitely a spinoff of Hudson's
Bomberman series.
Terrain often deforms
in relation to bomb proximity (left), bombing statues to uncover items
in a Room of Idols (center), a boss fight with limited room to move
(right)
As mentioned
earlier, I was smitten with RoboWarrior from the very
first time I saw blurry screenshots of it in those earliest issues of
Game Player's magazine. I can remember finally seeing the game
and picking it out
at Home Express, a long defunct big-box retailer that always had the
best selection of games and accessories. Although Toys "R" Us and
Kay Bee Toys were also sources of video games at the time, Home Express
was by far my favorite place to go for games. Games at Home
Express were displayed in very distinct security cases that were
essentially tall metal cages with the games hanging on peg hooks
within. No matter when we would visit, there would always be tons
of people standing at the cages talking with the attendant, watching
what people were buying, and discussing Nintendo with other
customers. After waiting your turn, the attendant would open the
case and take a game out for you to look at, putting you on the
spot. Others waiting or browsing would usually take a look at the
game as well over your shoulder, and dare I say there was always a bit
of pressure in that moment as a kid, but that was half the fun.
The
weekend evenings were especially busy and it was on one such evening I
left with RoboWarrior.
Funny story,
once I got home I never read the instruction booklet other
than quickly flipping through it maybe once. I played the game a
ton and loved it but as a kid I never got past Period 1-1 as it
scrolled on endlessly. Watching the attract mode showed a bunch
of different areas and even a boss fight, so I figured I just had to
keep going and eventually the first area would end. I went into
the underground areas, discovered the Room of Idols bonus zones, opened
up the Well of Hope... but never found the Chalice. I finally
pulled out the old Game Player's magazines and read through the
strategies, where it specifically explained the mechanics and even
featured a screenshot showing exactly where the Chalice in Period 1-1
is located... and still I never put two and two together way back
then. It wouldn't be until many years later, when I was in high
school and on a FuncoLand-powered NES buying frenzy, that I finally sat
down and learned the mechanics of the game. The deeper I got into
the game the more I enjoyed it, as if it had always been one of my
favorite games, even though as a kid I had only barely scratched its
surface.
The NES cover art for
Bomberman (left) is reused with a few changes and additions for the MSX
conversion of Bomber King (right)
My love for
RoboWarrior / Bomber King has never wained since, as it
continues to be one of my absolute favorite video games. It also
tends to be one of "those" NES games that a lot of people know but
don't care for, considering it to be overly difficult or lacking
depth. To that end it has become the NES game that I can sit down
and marathon for someone, showcasing the strategies and nuances that
often lead to them having a higher opinion of the title. There
are a few other NES games that I like more but RoboWarrior has
become the NES game that people know me for championing.
RoboWarrior isn't a fast or easy game to complete, and it definitely
does have areas that are a slog with wall-to-wall barriers to bomb
through, but I still find it to be a ton of fun. I've always
thought it would have worked well as an arcade game as it straddles the
line between arcade style action and console style depth. Perhaps
if the inventory penalty after death was removed and some of the longer
areas trimmed down a bit it would flow well in an arcade setting.
It has also been a hope of mine that Bomber King would be featured on
the Japanese retrogaming show GameCenter CX since it seems perfect for
the show format: a Hudson Soft game, brutally difficult learning curve,
a giant dragon boss (the show host is infamously fearful of fighting
dragons in games), and a karaoke mode. It'll probably never
happen but hey, a guy can dream. If you've dismissed RoboWarrior
in the past I implore you to give it another try but be sure to read
through the manual or at the very least check out the game mechanics in
a strategy guide. I guarantee you the game will still be
challenging with a couple taxing tricks here and there but for games of
this vintage that's to be expected. Go for break out!!
SMS
Memories: Capitalism and Warfare
Tabletop
Games Go 8-bit
Those of you who follow The
Retrogaming
Times and read my SMS Memories column may remember when I wrote about
my uncle and how he influenced my liking of Sega games. But video
gaming wasn't the only passion he taught me to pursue. He is a fan of
gaming in general, including board gaming. Among his many board games,
one easily impressed kid can find War II, the sequel to the Brazilian
version of the famous Risk.
The original War was released by Grow
Jogos e Brinquedos in 1972, with
modified Risk rules. Grow was founded by four college students who
wished for more mature board games than what have always been staples
in the Brazilian market, mainly Banco Imobiliário (Brazilian
version of Monopoly) and simple roll and move kids games. The
defense is much stronger in War, and the map is different - but it is
mostly the same old Risk game with its dependency on luck and long play
sessions.
When the 80's arrived, Grow decided
to update the game. They called
upon famous Portuguese designer Mário Seabra to fulfill this
task, who completed the game with the help of his son Carlos Seabra and
fellow designer Fernando Moraes Fonseca Junior. War II is a faster
game, thanks to its use of aerial warfare, and new dynamic objectives
for the players. Cuba was added to the map, so the armies can have a
second option to march across the Americas.
Both War and War II became favorites
of mine after my uncle first
unveiled the second game to me and my cousins, in a hot summer
afternoon of 1991/92. They stand proudly among my collection of board
games and... Oh, yes. Video games! This is an article about the Sega
Master System, right? So, for this edition of The Retrogaming Times,
I'll
write some words about my two favorite board game adaptations for the
Sega 8-bit machine: Monopoly and Chess (you guessed, the SMS doesn't
have that many options on the genre).
SMS Monopoly
is interesting as a history piece, because it was the
first console game ever made by Sega of America, the company which is
still around nowadays, still bringing amazing Sega goodness from Japan.
Mind you this is a different company from the original Sega / Gremlin,
which went down with the video game crash. Some people were common to
both versions of the American Sega, among them Steve Hanawa - the guy
who programmed Turbo, Monster Bash and Monopoly itself.
Speaking of the game, it's a nicely
programmed (as any Hanawa game is)
version of the classic, with cute graphics that resemble its board and
its pieces but still have the Master System flavor so typical of the
console. Sound is neutral, and for a board game neutral is perfect. Up
to ten players can take turns on the capitalist action of trying to
monopolize the real estate market. The AI is OK, mainly because
Monopoly depends mostly on luck. Players can interact buying or selling
properties between them. The number of rounds may be customized, but
longer sessions can be saved on the battery backup. Although it's a
simple game, Monopoly is always a treat when all the human players are
in the mood.
Sega
Chess was programmed by the people at Probe, one the most
prolific
Master System developers from Great Britain. Never released in US
territory, the game should work fine on an NTSC machine. I really enjoy
this game's graphics. They're a no-nonsense rendition of the board
game, but the cart opens with the image of a knight carrying a Sega
flag, which kind of creates a cool medieval atmosphere so fitting of
the chess theme. Chess was created in Europe during medieval times, and
the word itself probably is an ancient word for "king."
On the Master System, Chess can
played either on a 2-D or a 3-D board.
Both are very clean, as are the voice effects that permeate the game.
There's music in the intro, there's silence during the match, which is
always the correct choice for board games. The best part is the many
options one may choose for its AI adversary, from the time it spends
thinking to the many levels of difficulty it can be set to. You can
even fight an AI that adapts to your style. Besides the main game, the
player can also try to solve chess problems. It's difficult to imagine
how chess could be better implemented than this on the Master System.
And that's it, dear fellow
(retro)retrogamers of the world. While
there's nothing original like Anticipation for the NES or the dozens of
exclusive and very creative board games for the Famicom, and obviously
nothing that comes close to Mario Party, one can still kill some time
with Monopoly or Chess on the Master System. Especially when they can
find few or no friends around, and that's what virtual board games are
mainly designed for, aren't they?
Top Ten
Retro Characters For The Next Smash Bros. Game
The latest Super Smash Bros game
really did live up to its name as the
Ultimate incarnation of the franchise. The game did a fantastic job of
adding tons of new characters from all corners of the gaming universe
to the roster. There truly was someone for everyone, featuring
crossovers galore, and including lots of characters old school fanatics
have been clamoring for. Characters like Ridley, Simon Belmont,
Sephiroth, Banjo-Kazooie, Kazuya, and King K. Rool all broke the
Internet with their typically incredible and hilarious introduction
videos.
With the recent addition of Sora from
Kingdom Hearts as the seemingly
final downloadable character for Ultimate, hard working director
Masahiro Sakurai can finally rest, with a complete and diverse lineup
of nearly ninety fighters. But wild rumors and speculation can never
rest, and there are still plenty of intriguing options from the world
of retro gaming to join the battle as soon as a new Smash Bros.
installment comes out... whenever that may be. With that in mind, here
are my choices for the top ten old-school cool characters who should
join the fight for the next round.
10.
Mach Rider
Ever since Melee expanded the size of
Smash rosters exponentially,
there's always been at least one incredibly random old school character
revived from the dead by Nintendo and added to each game's lineup.
Forgotten and odd characters like the Ice Climbers in Melee, ROB in
Brawl, the Duck Hunt Dog in the Wii U version, and Piranha Plant in
Ultimate, have been added. So there surely will be another rando in the
mix that the kids of today are unfamiliar with added to the next game.
So how about the dystopian motorcyclist from the original NES era Mach
Rider?
This rad racer first appeared in a
self titled launch game for the
Nintendo Entertainment System, riding a motorcycle through a dystopian
wasteland of rock power trio Rush's favorite year 2112. For his
moveset I think the way that this futuristic hero rides a bike could
be used in a similar way to how Wario's motorcycle is used. It
could be called on as a special move when needed or they could
permanently keep Mach on the bike. Or if Nintendo wanted to go the
route they've gone before, they could take Mach Rider off of the bike
and give a him a variety of guns and blasters. It worked wonders when
they pulled the same move for series favorites Star Fox and Captain
Falcon. The rider has appeared as a trophy in Melee, and as a Spirit in
the
last game, so he has been on the minds of the Smash production team
before. I don't know if it's highly likely that ol' Machy makes an
appearance in the next game, but it would be much appreciated by fans
of deep cut Nintendo games like myself, and could help bring some much
needed attention to the character's only solo game.
Geno and his
introduction in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, deep within
the Forest Maze.
9.
Geno
Memories of the beloved game Super
Mario RPG live on in the hearts and
minds of anyone lucky enough to have played the Super Nintendo classic
as a kid. Mario's first move into the role playing realm expanded the
scope and scale of the Mushroom Kingdom, featuring tons of memorable
original characters. It also opened the door for the other beloved
Mario role playing franchises Paper Mario and the Mario & Luigi
games. Perhaps the coolest of the crop of new characters introduced was
Geno, a child's doll come to life, and once he joined your party this
game got really good really quick.
To be a little blunt, Geno is kind of
a badass. He displays a brash
confidence and an "it" factor that makes him much cooler than the other
new main Mario RPG character, the marshmallow-like character Mallow. He
has pretty high powered moves, a small stature, and lots of speed,
which would surely make him a fan favorite in tournaments where speed
is a prized attribute. His self named Geno attacks like Beam, Blast,
and Flash, would all make great additions to his attack
repertoire. Despite a very public breakup with Nintendo back in
the day, Square has
been making nice with Nintendo again over the past few year. Having
both Cloud and Sephiroth in Smash Bros. Ultimate is a very good sign of
their current working partnership. With Geno's outfit featured as a Mii
Fighter costume in the recent games, it's a very good sign that it
could soon be time for this star from Star Road to shine again. I think
that it's time to take the strings off of this Pinocchio style
character, and bring him to life by adding him into the roster as a
fully playable character next time around.
8.
Ganon
The Zelda franchise has a proud
history in Super Smash Bros. and a
pretty good amount of representation with several characters, stages,
and items. But as one of Nintendo's two most premier franchises,
there's always more room on the roster for Link and his colorful cast
of supporting characters. For my next pick, I'm taking the original
final boss of the Zelda games - the big bad blue pig himself, Ganon.
Ganondorf, the human-esque form of
Hyrule's most wanted has been
playable in the series since Melee, but playing as his original boss
pig form would be a real treat for fans of the monumentally classic
original adventures. To do it right, I think his look should be based
on his original blue pig based appearance and also take some visual
cues from his upgraded look in A Link to the Past. That or perhaps his
look as his final form from the boss battle in Ocarina of Time. He
should also obviously be one of the heaviest characters in the Bowser
sized weight class. Gannon appeared as a gigantic boss character
in Smash Bros. Ultimate's
story mode and fighting against him was a thrill. He'd have to have his
size reduced a little bit to fit to scale with the other characters,
but what worked so well before for Metroid's gigantic flying purple
baddie Ridley, can definitely work again with this blue snout faced
baddie.
Ganon as he appeared
in A Link to the Past and his original reveal at the end of The Legend
of Zelda.
7.
Gengar
The smash gods have been a little
skimpy on Pokémon as playable
characters in Smash Bros lately. Frankly, I don't know why that is,
with Pokémon fever spreading as rapidly now as it did back in
the '90s. They have added lots as assist characters inside of the
Pokeball items, but since most serious Smash players keep the items
off, they are not seen and enjoyed by a large percentage of
gamers. There are so many fantastic retro first generation
Pokémon that
deserve to make the cut for the next Super Smash Bros. Game.
Pokémon like the haymakers Syther, Electabuzz, Hitmonchan,
Machamp, the legendary birds Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres, Mew, and
many more can make an excellent case that they deserve to be playable.
But instead, for a really grave good time, in Smash Bros 6, the ghostly
purple evolution of Ghastly, better known as Gengar, is my pick.
Recently appearing in the epic Switch
game Pokémon Legends
Arceus, and already having proved his perfect fit for a fighting game
on the Wii U in Pokken Tournament, this spooky specter deserves the
chance to Smash. His long disgusting tongue could be put to good use in
his moveset, with a variety of licking tongue based attacks. His
ability to disappear, poison, and hypnotize unsuspecting foes could
also be put to good use with fancy moves. So please Nintendo, give us
more playable Pokémon. I choose you, Gengar!
6.
Dixie Kong
For my money, King K. Rool was one of
the highlights of the batch of
new characters introduced in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He stomped his
way into my heart with his golden gut, blunderbuss, and toss-able
crown. With that said, I think Nintendo needs to dig again into the DK
barrel and pull out another monkey, one who has appeared in many other
Donkey Kong games. It's time for Dixie to step back into the limelight
and out of the shadow of Donkey and Diddy once more. Dixie Kong
was more than just Diddy's girlfriend, in her early playable
appearances, she was a revolutionary fun character. Sailing around
the colorful stages of Donkey Kong Country 2 and 3, floating around
with
her trademark blonde banana shaped ponytail, was a true retro gaming
delight. Developer Rare also gave her some true '90s 'tude, with a
backwards pink beret and having her wailing away on her guitar with a
rockin' memorable guitar solo every time she finished a level. This
happened countless times in the SNES in my childhood home, as she was
my household's go-to Kong.
To diversify her Smash Bros moveset
from Donkey and Diddy's, the animal
allies could also ride in and help out. The parrot Squawks could be
used for air assists and jumping as well. A ramming charge attack from
Rambi could send other players flying off the screen, and there are
plenty more animal helpers from the series to choose from. Her ponytail
and hovering moves also could be put to good use. Also to be honest,
I'm simply dying for another proper Donkey Kong game, and hopefully
this could be a way to drum up more public interest for one. As I'll
get into very very soon, there are other worthy Kongs that could also
make the next Smash Bros. roster but I think it'd be a crime to skip
out on this beloved, historical Kong.
5.
Funky Kong
I'm going to make a double dip into
Kong Country for my next pick. I'm
picking the ape who is practically '90s style personified: the one, the
only, Mr. Funky Kong. In the three Rare developed classics, he was one
of the most valuable Kongs to pay a visit to between stages of killing
Kremlings. The jams he blasted as you rode his flying barrel plan will
stick with you forever. I'm sure those of you who played the first game
can hear that song playing in your heads right now. His floating
surfboard he commonly rides on unlocks many interesting
possibilities for smooth movement and attacks. His barrel plane could
also be used for his jumping and special aerial moves. There could also
be some creative moves made of the items he's sold in other games like
the vehicles he sold to Diddy and Dixie in DKC3.
There's a seemingly vast amount of
nostalgia on social media for his
appearance in Mario Kart Wii as one of the best and toughest to acquire
unlockable drivers. The character also made a recently buzzed about and
meme worthy return appearance as a playable character in the Switch
port of outstanding Wii U game Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. So
Nintendo clearly still sees some value in the character. I think this
Kong would be the perfect character to bring the funk to the Smash
roster.
4.
Paper Mario
Fun fact: the Paper Mario franchise
has made an appearance on every
home Nintendo console with a brand new game since its initial
appearance on the Nintendo 64. Although often seemingly quickly
forgotten after release by the mainstream players of video games, it's
a long running, critically acclaimed series with a passionate fan base.
I'm sure they would love to see this paper thin version of the plumber
make the leap to everyone's favorite 2D platform fighter.
Paper Mario has so many moves that'd
be fun to play around with in
Smash, and plenty of ways to make him more than just a clone of normal
Mario. I'm mainly curious to see all the fun ways Nintendo could use
his trademark hammer and rhythm based moves. A final smash move
featuring Mario calling in help from his many companions from
throughout the series, including Goombella, Peach, Bowser and more
could make for an all time epic move. Nintendo has already perfectly
pulled off a paper thin character before
with the inclusion of Mr. Game & Watch in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
This long-running franchise deserves more recognition from the gaming
community at large and including Paper Mario as a playable character
would be a perfect way to start. If Dr. Mario can make it into the mix,
than how about a much more currently relevant variant of Mario?
Toad's modern design
compared to his first playable appearance in the NES version of Super
Mario Bros. 2.
3.
Toad / Toadette
Despite being one of the four
selectable characters in Super Mario
Bros. 2, Toad has mostly been relegated to the sidelines lately in the
modern era. Ever since the first Mario Party on N64, he's mostly
functioned as the referee or rule reader of most of the Mario get
togethers. Sure there was Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, but that was a
spin-off of the enjoyable adventures of Captain Toad, not the true
Mushroom Retainer. In Super Smash Bros. he's currently shamefully
wasted as a simple projectile blocking move for Peach, screaming for
dear life as he absorbs the blow meant for the Princess. But I think
it's high time for Toad to get a little more respect and to make the
jump to the big leagues and become a fully playable character.
A move set involving Toad providing
himself with his own power ups or
using his mushroomy head (it's not his hat) as a battering ram could be
lots of fun. They could also utilize Toad's speed, and make him one of
the faster characters as he was easily the fastest produce plucker in
Super Mario Bros 2. For a stage idea you could even have everyone fight
inside of one of his trademark power-up houses from Super Mario Bros.
3. I'm also thinking that a dually playable character with a
Toadette skin
would be nice, especially since the female version of Toad is really
old school in her own right, first appearing in Mario Kart Double Dash
twenty years ago. So come on guys and make Toad playable, oh boy!!
2.
Knuckles
The red Echidna made huge waves with
his first appearance in Sonic The
Hedgehog 3 for the Genesis. He originally appeared as an antagonist for
the blue blur, opening the game by stealing Sonic's hard earned Chaos
Emeralds after Dr. Robotnik tricks Knuckles into thinking Sonic was a
villain. With his awesome looking red dreads and oversized fists, it
wasn't long until Knuckles became playable in the revolutionary follow
up game Sonic & Knuckles, featuring lock-on technology to add him
to Sonic 2 and 3 as a playable character when you stuck those games on
top of the cartridge. Just like Boba Fett, Wolverine, Venom, and most
of the best bad guys, he soon became an official part of Sonic's good
guy gang.
As a big fan favorite making his live
action debut in the next Sonic
movie, now would be a perfect time to add him to the Smash ranks. His
giant mitted fists and especially his floaty, immensely fun hovering
ability would be an fun translation to a Smash Bros move set. I mean
his name is Knuckles, fighting is pretty much in his DNA. I think
that logically, Tails the fox will probably make the cut for
the Smash Bros. roster, given that he's been a rumored addition since
Super Smash Bros. Melee, with many gamers of that era tricked into
believing he and Sonic were in the game due to some tricky photoshop
jobs. This was way before the cries for Knuck-Man️️️ to be added to the
team began. But Sonic's multi-tailed foxy sidekick could easily be
folded into Sonic's character in an assisting Duck Hunt Dog sort of way
for jumping. So in my humble opinion, I think the red yin to Sonic's
blue yang deserves to be featured as a playable character instead of
Tails ASAP.
1.
Waluigi
Oh you didn't think I'd forget about
the rest of the Internet's
seemingly number one, possibly semi-ironic choice of a character did
you? If Nintendo truly wants to make an attention grabbing move, and
give a majority of the fans what they truly want, they'll include the
dastardly rascal Waluigi as playable in the next Smash Bros.
game. While Waluigi might seem like the new kid on the Mushroom
Kingdom block
to many long-time Mario players like me, he's actually been hanging out
with the Mario gang for over twenty years, making his debut in the N64
classic sports game Mario Tennis. I have to admit I was skeptical of
Waluigi at first, reading about him in Nintendo Power weeks before
playing the game, but over the years he has won me over with his twisty
mustachioed appearance and his bullying, trolling attitude. As the
polar opposite of the cowardly Luigi, Waluigi is brash, confident,
bold, and just a bit naughty. Along with Wario, he adds a much needed
dose of attitude to the otherwise overly cheery Mario cast of core
characters.
He already has the distinction of
appearing as an assist trophy
character in Smash Bros., messing up the battlefield whenever he makes
a
randomly generated appearance, but the time has come to promote him to
the big leagues and make Luigi's evil counterpart fully playable. Using
a variety of rackets and golf clubs and pranks, Waluigi could become a
true fan favorite character in Smash and a real wildcard at
tournaments. If Nintendo really wants to appease the Waluigi Stans and
move a boatload of extra copies of Smash Bros 6 in the process, they'll
get this guy in the next game for sure.
Honorable Mentions: Chun-Li, Crash
Bandicoot, Skull Kid, Ryu Hyabusa,
Tails, Mr. Dream, & Mega Man Zero.
Caught On
Film - The Wizard
Shout Select Collector's Edition
Blu-ray
Video game
movies generally have a reputation of being poorly conceived or
emotionless cash grabs, whether they are adaptations of a game, framed
around playing games, or a combination of the two. For every
truly solid video game film, there always seems to be a terribly made
one to counteract it. Critics tend to dislike them regardless,
box office returns notwithstanding, and this can effectively cause a
film to develop a poor reputation. Thankfully home video, and
these days instant streaming, often gives these films another chance to
find an audience. This is the case with a lot of video game
movies, which go on to achieve cult status even with everything working
against them. Released during the peak of the Nintendo
Entertainment
System in late 1989, The Wizard is one such film. Regarded by
mainstream film media as little more than a feature-length commercial,
the movie was a very modest success on its Nintendo connection alone
but quickly faded away from the mindset of the general public.
Corey Woods
is a typical teenager with an atypical family, living with
his father Sam and older brother Nick, while isolated from his younger
half-brother Jimmy. After his former stepmother and her new
husband decide to institutionalize Jimmy due to his constant wandering
off, Corey is determined to sneak Jimmy out of the home and embark on a
road trip together. Jimmy often expresses a desire to travel to
California and that's exactly where Corey plans to bring him.
While attempting to purchase a bus ticket, Corey makes an amazing
discovery - Jimmy is naturally adept at playing video games.
Along the way they run into Hailey, a teenager traveling west
herself. After Hailey loses a bet that she could outscore Jimmy
in a game of Double Dragon, the three become stranded together.
Realizing that Jimmy could be one of the most skilled video game
players in the world, Hailey proposes they enter Jimmy in "Video
Armageddon," a video game championship taking place at Universal
Studios Hollywood. Her reasoning is that they could split the
$50,000 prize money in exchange for her streetwise assistance in
getting them to California. As the three kids make their way from
state to state toward Hollywood, Jimmy's mother Christine and
stepfather Mr. Bateman hire Putnam, a child bounty hunter sent to
recover Jimmy. Not liking Putnam's attitude and realizing that no
one else would look for Corey, Sam and Nick also head out in pursuit of
the boys. Hitchhiking and hustling in arcades and restaurants
across the American west, Corey, Hailey, and Jimmy get in and out of
trouble, including a confrontation that reveals more about Jimmy's
tragic past. Eventually they meet Lucas, another video game
master with skills that rival Jimmy's, who is also heading to the
championships with an entire entourage in tow. As all paths
converge at Video Armageddon, the stage is set for not only a video
game showdown but a last attempt to reconcile torn dreams and shattered
homes.
The new Collector's
Edition artwork (left) can be reversed to display the theatrical poster
art (right)
The Wizard
was released on home video a number of times, including on VHS and
LaserDisc throughout the 1990's. Showing the power of the rising
home rental market, it made back what amounted to its production budget
in rentals alone by the mid 1990's. While not a blockbuster by
any stretch, people were obviously interested in watching the
movie. Into the 21st century The Wizard was finally DVD bound but
not in North America. I believe it was a German release under the
localized title "Joy Stick Heroes" and was something I attempted to
purchase at the time but never quite made the right connection.
Eventually a bare-bones North American DVD hit shelves in 2006, with an
almost equally bare-bones Blu-ray over a decade later in 2018.
After fan demand and continual pressure to give the film the Blu-ray
release it deserved, Shout! Factory released a special Collector's
Edition under their Shout Select imprint in 2020, essentially acting
as a 30th anniversary release. This release includes a new 4K
remaster, full audio commentary with director Todd Holland, a
documentary that details the making of the film, a couple of
featurettes, post screening Q&A panels, and an extensive photo
gallery. However the big feature of the Shout Select release is
the inclusion of nearly 40 minutes of deleted scenes that had never
been released before.
Strangely
enough, I never had a chance to see The Wizard during its
theatrical release. I can recall seeing a few commercials
advertising the movie and of course a feature in Nintendo Power but not
much promotion aside from that. I honestly can't remember ever
asking to go see the movie and don't remember it ever coming up in
discussion among my friends. I went to the movies quite a bit as
a kid, heck I was in the audience for the first test screening of Back
to the Future, so perhaps The Wizard had a very limited run in the
area. I first saw the movie once it was broadcast on network
television sometime in very late 1990 or early 1991. My
grandmother had recorded it for me and I watched that TV edit over and
over again for years, until picking up one of the later VHS releases
and eventually stumbling upon a LaserDisc copy. I always really
enjoyed the movie, not for the video game parts, but for the notion of
a group of kids just getting up and going out into the world on an
adventure.
I think a
problem with the film's initial reception is that nearly everyone went
into it expecting a big video
game commercial, non-stop game talk, people playing games at every turn
- for better or worse, I believe that was the assumption. That is
absolutely not the movie that we got nor was that the movie that seems
to have been planned from the start. Critics
couldn't let go of that assumption and saw only the video game portions
of the film. Kids went in expecting to see games and got a
well-crafted family drama instead. That's what The Wizard is, a
family film that involves video games, which were just about the most
popular thing kids were into at the time. Either way, The Wizard
is not a
popcorn movie but I don't believe it was ever advertised as such.
Just
look at the tagline on the poster: "They're
on a cross-country adventure to the world's greatest video
championship. But for these three, it's more than a game... It's
the chance of a lifetime." This is a
kid's road movie, a genre that was once very popular, where video games
become a plot point but never completely the focus. I've also
heard a lot of comments over the years that the dialogue is poorly
written and that the kids talk like stereotypical 80's
businessmen. The thing is, kids don't talk like kids when they're
around other kids - I think this is something that's missed by a lot of
people, whether they don't remember when they were kids themselves or
simply don't want to admit it. Also, you know, it's a movie!
Jimmy (Luke Edwards),
Hailey (Jenny Lewis), and Corey (Fred Savage)
The cast is
pretty incredible, with Fred Savage as Corey, right at the start of his
exploding stardom from The Wonder Years. Jenny Lewis (who I had
the biggest crush on as a kid) plays Hailey and absolutely holds her
own opposite Savage. The film also features Christian Slater,
Beau Bridges, Sam McMurray, and Frank McRae. Will Seltzer is
amazing as Putnam, who just drips with absolute sleaze. The
standout performance however is Luke Edwards as Jimmy Woods.
Edwards plays Jimmy so effortlessly and realistically, with expressions
and looks and mannerisms that don't ever come across as acting.
An adult actor couldn't have pulled that role off any better, let alone
a child actor. I believe critics looked past his performance,
figuring that it was just how he was, that he was differently
abled. Luke Edwards deserved an Academy Award nomination for The
Wizard, without a doubt, his performance is so subtle and
nuanced. The only character that really doesn't seem to fit is
Christine, Jimmy's mother. Wendy Phillips, who portrays her, is a
fine actress but her performance as Christine just never feels like it
matches the tone of the rest of the film at any point. She is
simply always despicable, even more so in the deleted scenes where she
comes across as bigger villain than anyone else in the movie. Any
time there's ever a flicker of redemption for her character, she tosses
it away a moment later, with seemingly no motivation to do so other
than to create friction.
Of course
the real gem of the Shout Select release is the inclusion of over 40
minutes of deleted scenes, many of which are totally completed.
Most of these take place early in the film, showcasing Corey, Nick and
Jimmy's home life just prior to where the narrative begins in the
theatrical release. This serves as an entire first act that was
essentially cut to bring the run time down, and their inclusion would
have definitely slowed the pacing of the film at the start. While
they are great to see, the majority are made unnecessary by shorter
scenes and tighter dialogue in that covers the same information in the
theatrical film. Additionally in many of the deleted scenes Jimmy
has encounters with, and even plays, video games both in an arcade and
at Corey's house. While this shows that he has a curiosity and
aptitude for video games, foreshadowing that they're going to be an
outlet for expression, it greatly reduces the impact of the Double
Dragon scene later in the film. The way the film is cut
theatrically makes it appear that Jimmy's first exposure to video games
is when Corey sets him up at Double Dragon and honestly that reveal of
his skill couldn't have been done better. The rest of the scenes
take place throughout the film and are of varying length. Some of
the dialogue sheds a bit more light on events in the film but most of
them ultimately stall the narrative or were implemented differently for
better flow in the final cut. Additional scenes with Christine
only further have her come across as absolutely despicable and truly
the biggest threat to Jimmy's mental health. It's a good thing
most of these were cut, as they would have made the final parts of the
movie feel so sour in retrospect.
Aside from
two scenes that were cut, I think editing the rest down was the right
choice as it keeps the story moving and focused on the road trip
aspect. As for those two scenes, the first involves Jimmy looking
at a logo just after Hailey misses her bus and is a very clever bit of
foreshadowing that would give a direct payoff at the end of the
movie. It must also once again be said what a stellar
performance Luke Edwards gives in this brief sequence, acting only with
his eyes and body language. The other scene has to do with Nick
and his dad having it out on the road. This is really where the
wall between them starts to come down, as Nick lays everything out on
the line about how tense home life with Christine was for all of them,
even prior to Jimmy's trauma. Perhaps it was cut due to making
Christine out to be some kind of villain but that's not the focus
here. Instead it's about a father and son beginning to reconcile
their differences and heal. Of everything cut from the final
film, I feel this is the one edit that removed something that would
have benefited the movie, as it fills in some missing narrative without
slowing the film down.
Video Armageddon gets
underway, the production design of this set is honestly pretty amazing
Looking
back over thirty years later I still really enjoy The Wizard, in fact I
enjoy it more now than I did as a kid. When I rediscovered the
movie in high school, I was struck by how the The Wizard had some
passing allusions to The Who's Tommy. Tommy at its core is about
hypocrisy in organized religion but his story begins with a broken
home, where witnessing the accidental murder of his father causes him
to seal himself off psychologically as a result of being brainwashed
by his family. After being told he didn't hear anything, won't
ever say anything, and didn't see anything - that's exactly what
happens, as be becomes "deaf, dumb, and blind." Tommy finds his
outlet and salvation through his ability to play pinball, something
very popular at the time. However Tommy isn't really about
pinball, just like The Wizard isn't so much about video games, they're
simply a cultural phenomenon to frame the narrative around. The
Wizard in this case being about kids going on an adventure together to
rise above the cards they were dealt.
Yet also
over thirty years later The Wizard continues to find it hard to shake
the notion that it was nothing but a 90 minute commercial for Nintendo
and how buying their games and accessories will fix everyone's problems
and bring families together. If you're still in that camp there's
probably little that will pull you out of it at this point but I still
say you should give The Wizard a fresh viewing. Other than the
finale and the montage that leads into it, there really isn't all that
much game footage. Interestingly there is way more game footage
in the deleted scenes, with more of a push that video games are going
to be the catalyst to the film's narrative. Truthfully there's
more of a commercial for Nintendo in those cut opening scenes than
anywhere else in the entire film. However I can agree that the
film could have really used one more technical pass to better match
game footage to the dialogue and clean up the terminology a bit.
The worst of these is a deleted scene with Corey talking about Jimmy
playing Super Mario Bros. 2, where he says how Jimmy got to World 7-3,
which doesn't exist. Matching up the game footage to the dialogue
(Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Zelda II being the biggest standouts)
would make some scenes sit better with the Nintendo maniacs who were
obviously in the initial audience. However there's only so much
time to get a film together, especially with child actors, and the
scenes are so quick they don't upend the pacing.
Be sure to
pick up the "Collector's Edition" from the Shout Select imprint, not
an earlier Blu-ray release. Many retailers are still selling old
stock of the 2018 standard Blu-ray which does not feature any of the
special extras or deleted scenes. The Collector's Edition can be
ordered directly from Shout! Factory:
While
ordering it direct will ensure that you're getting the Collector's
Edition, in my experience Shout! Factory has extremely slow order
processing and shipping, in addition to unresponsive customer
care. I love their products but I hate ordering directly from
them. I purchased my copy of The Wizard Collector's Edition from
Amazon. The initial release featured an outer slipcover that now
appears to be out of stock but is otherwise the same as what is
currently shipping, including a reversible cover insert.
Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan
(Game
Boy) - Gaming by the Slice
I can't think
of a
pop culture franchise that remained as evenly popular from the late
1980's into the late 1990's more than Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles. Comics, cartoons, live action movies, tons of
merchandise, music tours, and of course plenty of games. After a
very successful and slightly strange NES game was followed up with an
equally successful coin-op arcade game, Konami did what everyone else
was doing and thought small for the next release. One year after
the NES and arcade outings, Konami brought
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the
portable market under their Ultra Games label in the first of what
would
be a trilogy of games on the original Game Boy.
Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan takes a page from an earlier era
of side scrolling beat 'em ups and actually plays a bit like Irem's
Kung-Fu Master. The game is broken up into five stages with the
option to select any level individually for a quick play, however the
only way to complete the game is to begin at stage one. Stages
are always advanced to the right but some areas do have a bit of
platforming and vertical movement, although the eventual objective will
always be to make it all the way over to the right side of the
stage. All four turtles are present and have their signature
weapons but unlike the NES game they all seem to have equal range and
attack prowess. In addition to their melee weapons, holding down
and pressing the attack button will cause your turtle to toss an
endless stream of throwing stars. Pizza is sometimes
left behind by certain enemies
or can be found floating around boxed in specific areas. Picking
it up will replenish the life bar, with larger quantities of pizza
recovering more units of health.
For the most
part enemy encounters are the usual foot soldiers and mousers, with
other mechanized enemies and hazards here and there. One stage
also takes place almost completely on scrolling logs, which must be
jumped from one to the next to prevent falling into enemy infested
waters. There's some decent variety in this style, such as a
level set atop a convoy of trucks, but they really don't change up the
core "move to the right" mechanic that exists from beginning to
end. At the end
of each stage the player will encounter a boss based off popular enemy
characters from the series. These include Rocksteady, Bebop,
Baxter Stockman (in his Baxter the Fly incarnation), Shredder, and
Krang in his exosuit. Each boss has a different attack pattern
that must be learned but as with the platforming, nothing is very
complex and after a couple moments they can be figured out
easily. On subsequent playthroughs one will probably be able to
defeat every boss in the game without taking a single hit.
Fall of the
Foot Clan was a mid 1990 release for the Game Boy and looks excellent
for being such an early game. The visuals are all nicely detailed
and hold up well to this day, with very large sprites that are clear
representations of familiar characters an enemies - especially in
monochrome. Sprite animation is limited
but there are enough frames for each movement, with things like
Michelangelo
twirling his lead nunchaku during his walking animation adding a nice
touch. The backgrounds are extremely detailed for a title of this
era with both
background and foreground objects that create depth without getting in
the way. Larger indestructible enemies
that scroll by as obstacles can seem static and dull due to lack of
animation
but they usually move by so quickly that one wouldn't think much of
it. Those larger sprites do come at a price however, as a couple
of them on
the screen will cause flicker and breakup to both themselves and any
other
sprites on the same horizontal plain. End of stage bosses are
wonderfully
detailed with multiple animations and do justice to the original
source material, featuring some of the best spritework seen on the Game
Boy. There are also high resolution cutscenes sprinkled
throughout the game that were extremely impressive when this title
was released and are still striking to this day.
Michelangelo
navigates the sewers (left), Donatello faces off against Rocksteady
(center), static cutscenes still look great to this day (right)
Sound effects
are nothing interesting with the usual explosions when enemies are
destroyed and standard jump and attack sounds but they fit the
action. Music on the other hand is really good with an original
soundtrack composed of a few pieces of music, that while recycled
through each stage, perfectly fit the environments where they are
used. Of course the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song is
present and used early in the game, as well as towards the end on the
final rush through the Technodrome. Thankfully the sound effects
don't obscure the music and the over all audio package is exactly what
one would want from a Turtles game on the go. The only
slight drawback I've always had with the game is that directional
control input can be just a bit sluggish, especially when there are a
lot of moving objects on the screen. Interestingly jumping and
attack controls remain fast and responsive regardless of any other
slowdown, so worst case your turtle should be able to slash their way
out of trouble. The attack and jump buttons can be
swapped in the starting configuration menu, a level of customization
rarely seen in an early Game Boy game, especially a beat 'em up.
Jump height is controlled by how long the jump button is held down,
just like with the Turtles NES game, but is much more predictable here.
Unfortunately there isn't a lot of
replay to be had and the game is very short and reasonably easy to
complete inside of twenty minutes or so. On one hand this makes
it a perfect portable game that can be quickly run through in its
entirety, while on the other it makes for a game that can easily become
boring after repeated plays. The only variety comes from a few
secret areas that can be found early on where one of three bonus games
can be played to replenish the life meter. Finding where these
are located may add a bit of extra incentive to come back again but
they're not all that well hidden and don't add much time to a full
run. It's strange, as the five individual levels don't seem short
or light on content when being played. The level design is
actually really good for a simple beat 'em up, the game just could have
used a few more of them.
When I think back to the days of the
original Game Boy, especially those first few years, Fall of the Foot
Clan always comes to mind. I truly seems like a game that
everyone who had a Game Boy then had a copy of. Honestly it's a
shame there wasn't some kind of two player link cable support in the
game, as the opportunity to play Game Boy head to head was a rarity
since my friends and I all tended to have different games - but we all
had this one. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan
is easily one of the best games of the early days of the Game Boy and
it still holds up well, simple as it may be. It may only be a
twenty minute romp but it will hold your attention for that entire
twenty minutes, not bad for a 32 year old handheld game. It may
be a little bit of a platformer and a little bit of a beat 'em up but
it's a good game on both accounts. If you're a Turtles fan and
you somehow missed this one, order a pizza and give it a play - you'll
be done before the delivery arrives at your door.
At the
end of an article last issue I mentioned Zack, my childhood best friend
and cohort during the years of peak NES mania. While we both
received NES systems for Christmas of 1988, we first met one another
and became friends about half a year earlier. At the time I was
playing a lot of Atari 2600 as it was still in a bit of a value
renaissance, with plenty of games available in stores throughout the
area. Zack was a year younger than me and didn't have video games
at home, so while we would play Atari together it wasn't as regular of
a thing for him. Back then most of the time we hung out together
was spent building Ghostbusters equipment out of Construx, playing with
diecast cars, or riding bikes and skateboarding. That summer
Zack's dad brought home a ColecoVision system that a relative had
packed away in storage years before. Thinking back it's clear
that his relative had gone all in on ColecoVision as it was a full
setup - console, extra controllers, Atari 2600 expansion module,
driving expansion module, battery eliminator for the driving module,
and tons of both ColecoVision and Atari 2600 games. I had never
seen a ColecoVision before, as being born in 1981 it was just before my
time in gaming. The ability for Zack to play Atari 2600 games at
his house via the expansion module meant that for the first time ever I
could borrow and lend games with a friend. However it was the
much more exotic ColecoVision and its library of unfamiliar games that
piqued our interest most. Many of them were home conversions of
reasonably obscure arcade games a generation removed, in addition to
unique experiences specific to the hardware. Over the course of
that summer Zack and I became well-versed in those no longer obscure
games - right up until that Christmas, when we became Nintendo fanatics
and the ColecoVision faded away and disappeared. Those
ColecoVision games still made a pretty big impact on me, with many of
them becoming the gateway to discovery of some of my favorite early
arcade games.
Carnival is a simple shooting
gallery game developed by Gremlin / Sega and released to arcades in
1980. The player controls the left and right position of a gun at
the bottom of the screen with the objective to clear racks of scrolling
targets before running out of bullets. Targets are stationary
rabbits, owls, and ducks in addition to bonus letters and extra
bullets. Once a duck makes it to the lowest row it will spring to
life and fly down toward the player, eating some of the reserve bullets
if it is not shot before reaching the bottom of the screen. There
are also rotating clay pipes at the top of the screen that reduce in
point value the longer they are left in play. Bonus stages
feature bears that run back and forth across the screen, changing
direction and increasing in speed each time they are shot. I
remember Zack's dad being really good at Carnival, especially the bonus
stages. I never saw Carnival in an arcade and have only ever
played an arcade cabinet at an arcade show but this was always a
favorite on the ColecoVision. There's not a lot to Cosmic Avenger, and the arcade
original from 1981 wasn't very well-known, but the ColecoVision version
was a pretty popular game in its day. A very early horizontally
scrolling shooter, what kept Zack and I coming back was the ability to
throttle up and careen through enemy ships and projectiles at high
speed. The sound effects were also strangely enticing. It
wasn't just the obscure that ColecoVision introduced me to, as believe
it or not that summer was the first time I had ever played Q*bert. Gottlieb's isometric
pyramid platformer continues to stand out as one of the more unique
arcade games from the golden era. Players guide Q*bert around a
pyramid of cubes with the goal to change the surface of each into a
target color while avoiding obstacles and enemies. It can be a
very challenging platform puzzler that requires a slightly different
skill set than pretty much any other game. The ColecoVision
version is really good and what lead me to jump on the NES version a
few years later and continue to enjoy Q*bert to this day.
Spelling out BONUS in
Carnival (left), flying through a searchlight in Cosmic Avenger
(center), baiting Coily to jump off the pyramid in Q*bert (right)
Exidy was one
of the earliest American arcade game companies and had a
few years in the sun just before golden age hit. A few of their
best known games received very accurate ColecoVision conversions.
My favorite of these is Venture,
an action game in which the player controls Winky, a smiley face armed
with a bow and arrows. Winky must infiltrate three dungeons and
recover treasures from twelve rooms. Each dungeon is shown in a
large overview, where Winky must avoid indestructible Hallmonsters and
make his way into the treasure rooms. Once inside Winky can
dispatch the monsters within using his bow and arrow or attempt to
avoid them and grab the treasure and flee. Touching a monster,
even a dead monster, will kill Winky. As dead monsters take a
moment to decay and will regenerate when shot, they can often block
Winky's path. Spending too long in a room will allow a
Hallmonster to make its way inside, with avoidance the only course of
escape. Venture is just crazy fun, with good visuals, outstanding
sound, clever enemies, and addictive gameplay. Another Exidy game
that was a favorite of Zack and I's on ColecoVision was Mouse Trap. Mouse Trap plays
like Pac-Man with the difference being sets of colored doors throughout
the maze that can be opened or closed at will by the player.
Guide your mouse through the maze, eating all the cheese contained
within, while avoiding the cats that patrol the hallways. The
mouse can pick up bones, which allow it to change into a dog
temporarily and eat the cats, sending them back to their starting
points. To mix things up even more, a hawk will give the player
chase and can only be avoided by heading to the center of the maze and
escaping. Mouse Trap was my first encounter with a game that used
more than just one or two buttons, as in addition to joystick movement
for the mouse, each set of colored doors has a corresponding button to
manipulate them, and a fourth button to eat a bone and turn into the
dog.
I would later
get the Atari 2600 versions of both Venture and Mouse Trap. While
they are fine games for the hardware, neither are anywhere as good as
the ColecoVision versions. Although I saw them a few times in
arcades when I was very young, it wouldn't be until adulthood when I
would finally be able to enjoy Exidy games in their original arcade
form. There is always outstanding representation of Exidy at the
California Extreme arcade show and every year I spend quite a bit of
time playing Venture, Pepper II, Hard Hat, Mouse Trap, Teeter Torture,
Tail Gunner 2 and more.
Clearing a path to a
treasure in Venture (left), plotting a route in Mouse Trap (center),
climbing through the pipe area in Looping (right)
Easily the
most obscure game that I grew to love by playing it on
ColecoVision is Looping.
Looping is an odd hybrid between a plane shooter and what I suppose
could be considered an aerobatics game. The player must fly a
small plane through an obstacle course to an ending point, shooting
enemy objects, navigating passages, and avoiding terrain. What
makes Looping challenging is only the pitch of the plane can be
controlled, hence the title, allowing for only climbs and dives.
The plane's speed can be increased by holding the secondary fire button
but aside from that, control is all up to finesse. High scores
are primarily built up by flying around in an area filled with pipes,
which really plays up the idea that this game is supposed to be about
aerobatics over anything else. I won't say it's a great game or
anything but I think the notion of just how strange it was is what
sparked my attention initially. Years later when I realized it
was originally an arcade game I began to play it a lot more via
emulation, and finally on an original cabinet one year at California
Extreme. Certainly not a game for everyone but I still really
like it. Zack also had a couple games for the driving module
including the pack-in Turbo.
I had actually played Turbo a few times in arcades but then, as now, I
much preferred Pole Position. We still had a lot of fun with it
on ColecoVision just the same but a lot of that had to do with steering
wheel, pedal, and using a controller as the shifter. The game we
played most with the driving module was Destructor, a very odd and obscure
action / driving game. In Destructor the player operates a little
vehicle called the Ram-car, which must ram into neutral insects,
transforming them into energy crystals. The crystals must then be
taken back to your starcrusier, filling a quota to complete the stage,
all the while avoiding enemy insects and Destructor, their master.
I found the game really interesting as it took place in what amounted
to a large open world, at least compared to what I had seen in video
games up to that point. It also felt as if the enemies were
actually patrolling and had some intelligence.
While not
exclusive to the ColecoVision, I first played Mountain King over that summer and
to this day consider it my preferred version. An exploration game
with a difference, Mountain King uses sound as a crucial gameplay
component. The player controls an explorer navigating a vast
diamond mine, as he attempts to recover a Golden Crown, sealed away in
an ancient temple deep within. There are a number of objectives
that must be completed to allow access to the temple, beginning with
obtaining the Flame Spirit. The Flame Spirit will only be
released after a thousand diamonds are collected and even then it
remains in the shadows. This is where sound comes into play -
literally. When the player gets close to the Flame Spirit a
musical cue will begin to play, getting louder as the player gets
closer. Additionally the Flame Spirit will flicker from time to
time. Using the flashlight will reveal the Flame Spirit in shadow
and allow the player to collect it. The player can now descend to
the temple where the Skull Spirit guards the entrance, allowing passage
only after being offered the Flame Spirit. Once inside the temple
the Golden Crown can be collected and the final phase of the game
begins. The player must now exit the temple and ascend to the top
of the mountain where the Perpetual Flame burns. However it's not
that easy, as the many cave bats that inhabit the mine can steal the
crown right off your head, requiring the process to start all over
again. The game famously features melodies of two pieces of music
from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite, Anitra's
Dance (played when searching for the Flame Spirit) and In the Hall of the Mountain King
(played when escaping with the Golden Crown). I remember that
Zack's dad had a CD sampler that had some of Grieg's compositions on it
and we would sometimes put the music on and jump around like we were in
the game.
Approaching the crown
in Mountain King (left), jumping up to Smurfette in Smurf: Rescue
(center), hopping along turtles in B.C.'s Quest for Tires (right)
Many say that
Donkey Kong was the game that defined the ColecoVision
but strangely enough I can't ever remember playing it back then.
I don't know if Zack didn't have a copy of it or what but Donkey Kong
wouldn't be a favorite of ours until the NES release of Donkey Kong
Classics. In my mind the defining game of the ColecoVision is Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle,
which we both played quite a bit. Smurf is a very basic and
simple platforming game in which the player guides a Smurf through
meadows, forests, and caves on a journey to rescue Smurfette from
Gargamel's Castle. While not very complex, Smurf does require
some precise control input and timing to accurately hop over obstacles
and avoid dangers. Nice visuals and good sound round out the
package and I still think this is fun game for a quick play.
Another game we played a lot was B.C.'s
Quest for Tires, although neither of us were very good at
it. Based on characters from Johnny Hart's B.C. comic strip, the
game is a side scrolling test of reaction and obstacle avoidance, as
the player guides Thor atop his prehistoric unicycle on a journey to
rescue Cute Chick from The Dinosaur. If you haven't read B.C. in
awhile, or ever, that probably doesn't make sense but the game plays
almost like a driving platformer. It can be very difficult and
very touchy, requiring absolutely precise moments and input.
Again, no idea why why played it so much as we were both terrible at
it. Perhaps the strange character designs and a desire to see
what still lied ahead were what attracted us.
I tend to
really enjoy obscure games and I suppose one could stay that
began with my exposure to the ColecoVision in the summer of 1988.
Unfortunately I never got back into ColecoVision full force later in
life. This isn't because I wasn't interested in doing so, quite
the opposite. What prevented me from pursuing ColecoVision was
the unreliability of the hardware. I have owned many ColecoVision
systems over the years and no matter their condition, totally beat up
to factory fresh, they all develop problems and require
maintenance. When they were relatively cheap and reasonably
common to find this wasn't anything more than an annoyance but as
prices climbed my desire to mess around with problematic hardware
lessened. That isn't meant to be a knock on the system, after all
it was released almost 40 years ago! While I generally like to
play on original hardware, ColecoVision is one system that I am
perfectly satisfied with using emulation for. I do wonder
whatever happened to that old ColecoVision that Zack had. I
recall a few years later when he came to visit me after I moved out of
the area, that his dad was surprised to see that I still had all my
Atari stuff. I remember him mentioning that he would have given
all the Atari and Coleco stuff to me if he had known. I suppose
it could have went back to the relative where it came from but more
than likely it got donated or tossed. The same fate I'm sure a
lot of ColecoVision collections met in the wake of the NES.
Every Friday on The Retrogaming Times
Facebook
page (facebook.com/theretrogamingtimes),
we present a Weekly Retrogaming Trivia question. This
just-for-fun
trivia challenge provided each week is an opportunity to test your
arcane
and oddball retrogaming knowledge. The answer to the question
from
the previous week is posted along with a new trivia question every
Friday!
Below is the recap of all
questions and
answers posted between this issue and the previous issue:
12/31/2021 - WEEK 244 Question: What is
the only game to star Nintendo Power mascot Nester?
01/07/2022
- WEEK 245 Question: Turtle,
Bear, Horse, Rabbit, Bobcat, and Cheetah are all characters in what NES
game?
01/14/2022
- WEEK 246 Question: What was
the first Atari 2600 game to feature voice synthesis?
01/21/2022
- WEEK 247 Question: What is
the maximum number of players the arcade version of Michael Jackson's
Moonwalker can accommodate?
01/28/2022
- WEEK 248 Question: Who is
the first enemy that Taro Yamada fights in Rent-A-Hero?
02/04/2022
- WEEK 249 Question: The Sega
Mark III game Anmitsu Hime was reworked into what Master System release?
02/11/2022
- WEEK 250 Question: Who is
the star of Donkey Kong 3?
02/18/2022
- WEEK 251 Question: Exidy's
1981 arcade game Venture features how many different rooms?
Unfortunately
Nester's Funky Bowling is only funky in name (left), Taro faces off
against his father at the beginning of Rent-A-Hero (right).
Answers: Week 244 Answer: Nester's Funky
Bowling (Virtual Boy). Week 245 Answer: Stadium Events
/ World Class Track Meet. Week 246 Answer: Quadrun. Week 247 Answer: Three. Week 248 Answer: His father, in
a Godzilla suit. Week 249 Answer: Alex Kidd:
High-Tech World. Week 250 Answer: Stanley. Week 251 Answer: Twelve,
repeated in three sets of four.
The Sega Mark III
game Anmitsu Hime (left), was later reworked with new character designs
and dialogue but little else as an Alex Kidd game (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!
It's no
surprise to anyone these days that the needle that defines an era of
video games as "retrogames" is constantly on the move. Sure, the
late 1970's into the early 1980's will always be the vintage era of
gaming - the time of the Atari VCS, Intellivision, ColecoVision,
Channel F, Odyssey 2 and their lesser contemporaries. Aside from
those however, the notion of what retro is and represents continues to
scale forward, always a few steps back from what is considered current
gaming. Some of that is tied to when one's entry into gaming
was. Often this revolves around what someone first played as a
child but not always. In both the NES and original PlayStation
eras there were plenty of adults getting into gaming for the first
time, as the explosion in popularity of the respective platforms,
during their respective eras, made playing games trendy and popular for
everyone. Interesting thing about those two eras in particular -
if you started gaming with an NES, it would have been considered retro
by the time you were spinning up a disc in a PlayStation. In the
same way, if you started with a PlayStation, you may have considered it
retro by the time you were in the heat of an online multiplayer battle
on an Xbox 360. Depending on how long they are commercially
viable, it seems two to three generations behind the current is where
the edge of retrogaming resides. Even this newsletter uses that
two generation formula as a general guideline.
I bring this
up as just about a week ago I purchased a PlayStation 3 after thinking
about acquiring one for quite a while. For the most part that was
a generation that I skipped, even though it was also an era of which I
was deep in the retail sales trench for. I say "for the most
part" as I did buy a slightly used Wii from my brother, specifically to
play Punch-Out!! and few other specific games. Aside from that I
really didn't have the time to go full in to what was then the current
generation of gaming. Additionally I was spending my gaming money
on expanding out some of my retrogaming interests, and with moving back
to Silicon Valley at the same time there wasn't a lot of it to go
around. A few years ago I got back into current generation gaming
with a PlayStation 4 and slotted right back in without missing a beat. So I suppose
the questions are: Why did you want a PlayStation 3 and why buy it now?
It's true that
a lot of really great games originally released on PS3
have been remastered or remade for PS4, where they are superior in
almost every way (Yakuza 3 is a prime example). However there are
some games that never left the platform such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and
3D Dot Game Heroes. The online marketplace is also entering its
waining days, so the opportunity to make legitimate purchases for what
is still available looks to be passing. Case in point, the 2012
arcade accurate conversion of Sega's Daytona USA. I absolutely
love Daytona USA and have since first playing it in arcades in
1994. Almost thirty years later, there is still no other arcade
racer that is its equal in my mind - nor is there
another game that has held up as well over the years. Daytona USA
machines (if you can keep them maintained) still make money, still draw
crowds, and still bring smiles. It's also the game that cemented
Toshihiro Nagoshi (hey, another Yakuza reference) as a modern-day Yu
Suzuki and made sure arcades always had big Sega games for decades to
come. I will say it was a complete hassle to jump through all the
hoops to legitimately purchase a PS3 PlayStation Store game with how
they've crippled the online marketplace over the years but I still got
it done. Also with official support more than likely
coming to and end soon, it'll be a fun console to softmod and
explore. We all have that missed gaming generation I suppose, I'm
glad I was able to fill mine in recently. What generation did you
miss? Drop me an e-mail and let me know!
Thank
you once
again for reading The Retrogaming
Times. We'll be back on May 1st with our next
issue.
Be sure
to follow The
Retrogaming Times on Facebook and join our community for the latest
updates and information! Additionally The
Retrogaming Times Info Club on Twitter features up-to-the-moment
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and notifications for all things The Retrogaming Times! I
sincerely
hope you enjoyed this issue and that you will return to read the next
issue
and possibly submit an article yourself. Remember, this
newsletter
can only exist with your help. Simply send your articles
directly
to me at trt@classicplastic.net or check out the submission guidelines
on the main page. Submit an article today and join a great
retrogaming
tradition!
