Greetings
everyone and thank you for reading this issue that is special for a
number of reasons. As described over the past year this will be
our final issue but before we get going with that, I want to say a
couple things. The origin of this newsletter began in 1997,
twenty-five years ago this month. Not only was retrogaming
different then, but the Web as a whole was as well. Fansites,
forums, newsgroups, and chat rooms were generally where you went to
discuss retrogaming and pretty much everything else online.
Looking up information, sharing knowledge, having conversations, and
learning about new stuff was the core of it all - and nearly all of it
was powered by hobbyists. For all the talk about social media in
the current era, it's funny to think back a couple of decades when the
whole online experience was social. The spark of this newsletter
was created during that time and we have tried to carry that flame for
a quarter century.
For
twenty-five years people have written for these newsletters for no
financial gain. In fact, some have sunk large amounts of money
into keeping them going. The biggest investment however hasn't
been financial, but that of time. Everyone who has ever sent in
anything to be published in these electronic pages has invested their
time in doing so. Our readers have invested their time as
well. I am amazed, especially as online publication and
information has changed, that I had the opportunity and privilege to
continue the legacy of this newsletter and to publish so many great
articles from our staff over the years.
This issue is
no exception. For one last time, welcome to The Retrogaming Times!
Our final
issue is not only a celebration of our silver anniversary, it is also
one of our largest issues ever. Much of our staff contributed an
article detailing their favorite game, retro or modern, to mark this
special occasion. Things begin with Merman taking a look at
lightgun games and accessories for the Commodore 64, a genre many may
not associate with the hardware. Donald Lee takes a look back on
how Apple II fandom has changed over his years with the newsletter in
the Apple II Incider. The praises of an Atari 2600 joystick are
sung with an ode to Spectravideo's QuickShot. Mateus Fedozzi
writes about discovering and contributing to the newsletter, in
addition to one of his most important SMS Memories. The
California Extreme arcade and pinball show returned to full strength
this year and our annual show report returns as well to chronicle the
event. Eugenio "TrekMD" Angueira not only covers his favorite
game but also its various home conversions as Bentley Bear dashes
through Crystal Castles. Premiering way back in our second issue,
A Pirate's Life For Me finally reaches its conclusion with the last
games on the CoolBoy 198 in 1 multicart. Dan Pettis returns to a
familiar franchise as he shares his experiences with his favorite
game. Then get recruited by the Star League with a review of The
Last Starfighter, the classic video game film that isn't about a video
game. George "mecha" Spanos presents a complete record of the
partnership between id Software and GT Interactive, giants who brought
the FPS genre to the masses. Merman casts a spell with his
favorite game, a concept that takes the shooter in a unique
direction. Champ Games is given a second spin on Don's
Desk. Set out on a journey across the world that will reshape
reality with a review of Illusion of Gaia. New contributor David
Torres gives an account on the discovery and history of a previously
lost arcade game. Then Donald Lee goes modern with the pick for
his favorite game. In a collaborative article, staff come
together to remember their time with the newsletters and what lies
ahead for them after we wrap. All that and more are ahead in this
final issue of The Retrogaming Times!
This is a
special two page issue, be sure to follow the link at the bottom of the
page to go onto the second half!
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.
~
~ ~
Retropalooza, October 22nd - 23rd
2022, Arlington, Texas, USA
A celebration of all things
retro! Retropalooza was started in 2013 in Arlington, Texas by a
couple of guys who enjoy all things retro; from toys to music, to video
games... especially video games. As video game collectors, they
spent a lot of time and money looking for retro games when they figured
it would be easier to bring the games to them. Thus, Retropalooza
was born.
The goal of Retropalooza is to bring nerds from all walks of life
together for an enjoyable, family friendly time. Good old
fashioned fun with like minded people where it will always be
affordable, and forever improving.
Sac Gamers Expo, December 17th - 18th 2022, Sacramento, California,
USA
A video game convention founded in
2015, created by gamers for gamers. Our show features special guests,
game vendors and artists, game developers, tournaments, free to play
games, a console museum, VR Setups, and so much more! Sac Gamers Expo
is a family oriented event for all levels of gamers!
Thank you to all
the shows and events that contacted us over the years to be listed here!
Big or small, it has been our honor to promote your shows, events, and
gatherings 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! - Let There Be Lightguns
by Merman
Over the years I have
enjoyed playing with lightguns, and I own them for different systems. I
thought for my final More C64 column I would look back at lightgun
games on the Commodore 64.
Note: in the
screenshots, you may notice a small crosshair. This is superimposed by
later versions of the VICE emulator when set to emulate the lightgun.
STACKED
The earliest example of
a lightgun for the C64 was released by Stack in 1983, who also produced
a lightpen and other accessories. The Stack Light Rifle was shaped more
like a traditional rifle than the Nintendo Zapper or other lightguns.
There were three games
released by the company that work with the Stack Rifle, all published
in 1983. They are all quite simple ideas, using the built-in Commodore
font.
GROUSE SHOOT - THE
GLORIOUS TWELFTH
First, you get to choose
the distance and speed of the grouse, setting the difficulty of the
game. Then you see the title screen and pull the trigger to start. The
grouse - in white and yellow - fly up and across the screen. Humans and
dogs are running along the bottom, which you must not shoot. Over time
darkness will descend and the weather will turn worse, until it becomes
too severe for you to continue shooting. Then you are given a score
based on how many hits and misses. The graphics are incredibly simple,
and this is an extremely basic shooting game.
HIGH NOON SHOOTOUT
In this Wild West
inspired game, the varmint is going for the dynamite! You must shoot
him before he reaches the plunger, sending his hat flying into the air.
It's simply a case of scoring as many hits as you can. The graphics
here are even simpler, with a very bland background and a single enemy
sprite. I do like the way his hat flies off and the big bloodstain
appears on his chest though.
THE SHOOTING GALLERY
This is the simplest
game of the three, with a white square trying to bounce out of the
arena. The player has five shots to shoot it before it leaves on either
side. Hitting five squares takes you to the next level, and every six
levels sees the speed increase.
While researching this
article, I found mention of INDIAN ATTACK by Anirog from 1983. This
game sees you shooting waves of Native Americans on horseback, and any
you miss then dropping down the front of the screen to attack you.
Sites online mention the Omega Software re-release as APACHE RAID being
compatible with the Stack Light Rifle, but I was unable to find a copy
that worked with that device under emulation. The same problem applies
to COSMIC COMMANDO also from Anirog, re-released as SPACE PIRATE by
Omega. This is meant to be compatible with the Stack Light Rifle but
isn't working in emulation. Another Anirog title, the Missile
Command-inspired STARBASE DEFENDER is meant to be compatible too (but
this may be the Omega re-release as well).
Other games listed by
Stack in advertisements and referred to online are CROW SHOOT, ESCAPE
FROM ALCATRAZ, and RATS & CATS.
DYNAMIC
Next up in 1988 there
were two releases by the Spanish software house Dinamic. These are
probably the least well-known lightgun titles on the C64 - as they
required Dinamic's own Gun Stick lightgun that was not widely available
outside Spain. These titles and the gun were also available on Amstrad
CPC, ZX Spectrum and MSX.
MIKE GUNNER
In this game, you can
choose between one or two players simultaneously by shooting the target
on the title screen. Then you see the opening level, set in a park. You
are the detective Mike Gunner, and you must clean up the city of
Robbland by shooting enemies. But you must be careful not to shoot
children and policemen; there are also enemies disguised as busking
musicians who will break disguise to shoot at you.
Unfortunately, I was
unable to play this properly as I lacked the correct hardware, and it
is not currently emulated in the VICE emulator. The graphics are quite
good, and the sound is OK though.
TARGET PLUS
This second Dinamic game
also requires the Gun Stick. It has two different modes, selected by
shooting the icon on the title screen. The clay pigeon or skeet leads
to the skeet shooting, which is like the same section from Duck Hunt on
the NES. Shooting the wasp / insect on the title screen leads to the
other game, where you must defend a roast chicken from being attacked
by flies and wasps.
Again, I was unable to
play this properly. The screenshots here are taken from Mobygames and
the Gamebase64 collection.
TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC
We move forward to 1989,
and a trilogy of games from Mindscape. This tied in with the Commodore
"Light Fantastic" package released around the same time. This came with
a Cheetah Defender lightgun, shaped like a futuristic pistol, and 3D
glasses.
There were three games
in this package.
ARMY DAYS
The General gives you a
briefing as you face three days of shooting practice. For each day you
start with a set number of bullets and the required hits to qualify.
Day 1 is the indoor range, with silhouette targets and large square
targets. Day 2 is clay pigeon shooting, and you are told not to shoot
the wildlife (birds and rabbits, but there is no big penalty for
hitting them). Day 3 is the outdoor range, where targets pop up and
then disappear. Complete the three days and you go round again, with a
higher hit target. This is a reasonably good game; the graphics do
their job, and the sound is OK.
GANGSTER
You are the new police
officer in town and there's trouble in three different scenarios. Much
like Army Days, each round has the hits target you need to reach. In
the first scene, Jailbreak, prisoners are escaping from the local jail.
Round 2, Escape, is viewed from overhead as the gangsters make their
escape in cars. You can shoot them but must avoid shooting the police
cars; hitting the cops restarts the round. Occasionally clouds will
float by to obscure your view. Finally, in Rendezvous, the gangster
hole up in Charlie's Bar and you take aim from across the street. Shoot
the bad guys as they pop up in windows and doorways, but don't shoot
the innocent civilians. This is good all around. The first scene is
quite simple and the graphics throughout are adequate at best, but the
later rounds add variety and at higher levels, it becomes taxing.
TIME TRAVELLER
You are the Time
Traveller, and to protect the balance of power in your future world you
must warp to the past and protect it in the three world wars. First,
you must defend the trenches against biplanes. Miss too many planes and
your troops will be depleted. Then, your battleship is under attack
from helicopters. Take too much damage and you sink. Finally, you are
in a spacecraft high above the planet, shooting down missiles. Again,
miss the missiles and the damage will result in your demise. The title
sequence and accompanying music are good, the in-game graphics are
quite good (although not giving a convincing 3D effect) and the
gameplay does get a bit repetitive. However, it is a fun addition to
the pack.
One thing I would
criticise all three games on is that the Light Fantastic version takes
a long while to load, even though it is using the Cyberload fastloader.
In 1995, Polish publisher Marex would release new versions of these
three games that were controlled with a joystick instead of a lightgun.
However, the control here is not as fluid as with the lightgun. The
animated Marex logo is quite good though.
BLAZING SHOT
Also in the Light
Fantastic package from 1989 was Ocean's Blaze Out, compatible with a
lightgun. This gathered sections from five previous games - RoboCop,
Combat School, Hyper Sports, Platoon & Rambo III. They were all
reprogrammed and loaded one after another from the tape. RoboCop had
you trying to rescue a hostage by shooting the bad guy, Combat School's
contribution is three of its shooting galleries, Hyper Sports plays
through the skeet shooting event, Platoon has the Tunnels and Night
Patrol levels, and Rambo III reuses its final first-person level. It is
a fascinating and unusual title, but there are issues with each of the
games. The hostage shootout from Robocop is difficult to beat and
Platoon forces you "on rails" to deal with the Tunnels. Reaching the
points targets in Combat School is tricky too. It all ends with the
ending message of Rambo III edited to say they hoped you have enjoyed
your new gun.
MAGNUM OPUS
Also known as the
Magnum, the Light Phaser was released in 1990 with either a disk or
tape containing six games. Five of these were original titles, created
by Software Creations for the pack. Software Creations were behind the
amazing Bubble Bobble and Bionic Commando (UK) conversions from the
arcade. Each game had a calibration option, by pointing the gun at the
onscreen target and holding / pulling the trigger until it was complete.
The sixth game in the
Action Pack was Operation Wolf. Originally this offered the choice of
joystick or mouse controls. This reprogrammed version offered joystick
or lightgun. It was a particularly good conversion of the Taito arcade
game, and it plays surprisingly well with the gun; you do still need to
press a key to launch the rocket grenades, as the Magnum only has one
fire button. (Sources online claim that the sequel Operation
Thunderbolt is also playable with the Magnum Phaser Lightgun, but I
have not found a working version of that).
The five original games
are:
BABY BLUES
Baby is sitting under
the tree, threatened by the descending spider and swooping birds. Shoot
them to stop them from stealing Baby's milk, which can be replenished
by shooting the milk bottle on the toy train that passes by at the
bottom of the screen. The aim of each level is to pop enough balloons
before you run out of ammo. The targets are tricky and the attacks
relentless. The graphics are good, and the Geoff Follin music is
excellent, but the gameplay is basic
COSMIC STORM
Defend the galaxy by
shooting down waves of enemies against a spiraling starfield
background. If you miss enemies and they leave the screen, you will
accumulate damage and when that reaches 100% it is game over. You have
limited ammo to start with, but you can earn more by shooting the As
that appear now and then, with the golden Gs offering extra points.
Reach the end of the level and there is a bonus based on your accuracy.
Then you enter the bonus round, when you must match shapes hidden on
the screen; for example, two squares and two circles appear then
disappear, shoot a square and you must then find the other square.
Interestingly, the
control panel of this game shows the name "INSPIRALG." Perhaps this was
its working title, or what it was originally going to be called before
it was repurposed for use with a lightgun. There is nice variety in the
enemy sprites and attack patterns, and another nice Geoff Follin tune.
It does get quite tricky after the first couple of rounds though.
GHOSTTOWN
The town of Deadman's
Gulch is haunted - and now the Blackheart Gang is hiding out there. You
slowly walk down the street, your hand shaking as you try to reload.
Shoot the ghosts at the windows but be careful not to shoot the
innocent women (costing you ammunition). Make sure you shoot down the
gang members walking by and take out the hanging men by shooting the
box from under their feet. A macabre tune by Geoff Follin and good
graphics set the tone. Unfortunately, there is only one level to
conquer, and it is repeated with less ammunition each time. Behind the
glossy presentation is another simple shooter.
GOOSEBUSTERS
At the Higgins and
Higgins Country Club, it is time for the annual Goosebusters
competition - but the members have all sworn not to shoot wildlife.
Each round of the competition gives you unlimited ammunition to hit a
certain number of targets. These start off as simple clay pigeons, but
later there are balloons and round targets to hit as well. There are
also bombs and mechanical geese but shooting either of those reduces
your hit score by one. Simply survive to the end of the time limit with
a greater hit count than the qualifying target to move onto the next
round. This is probably the best executed of the original games, with
plenty of targets to hit and satisfying gameplay as you progress.
Graphics are once again good, but the in-game sound is limited to
explosions and simple jingles.
GUNSLINGER
The final original game
also has a Wild West theme. As the new Marshal of Badlands City, you
must take on three types of shooting. At the Corral level, shoot the
pop-up targets of the cowboys. In the Log Cabin level, hit the pop-up
round targets. And finally, take on the Ludlow Gang hiding out in the
Saloon. Each level requires you to hit 50 targets as fast as possible,
offering a reward for remaining ammo. And then, just like Ghosttown,
the levels are repeated with a smaller starting amount of ammo. Praise
must go to Martin Holland Haydn Dalton for the graphics in these
original games, although the Saloon background and enemy sprites here
are recycled from Ghosttown. Another nice Geoff Follin tune is rendered
repetitive because it restarts at the beginning of each level. It's a
fun but short-lived addition to the collection.
These Software Creations
games have also been hacked, adding cheats and joystick control. For
example, Magic Disk 64 published a joystick-controlled version of Baby
Blues in 1994, while Triad produced cracked versions of others (Cosmic
Storm gives you the option of joystick or lightgun control, for
example). Marex also published a joystick version of Ghosttown in 1995.
Triad fixed bugs in the various games too, so these can be the best
version to play.
ODD ONES OUT
There are three more
games to deal with in this round-up, but in the strictest sense, they
do not use a lightgun. The Gamma Strike package from GamesWare had
three titles included - COMPETITION SHOOTOUT, THE ALIEN TEAM, and
VOYAGER 19. These were designed to be played with a special target set
that plugged into the C64. This pressure-sensitive target could be shot
with the enclosed pellet gun, which fired small rubber balls at the
target using air pressure. The target sent co-ordinate information to
the game, which reacted to each hit. It's a very unusual and rare piece
of hardware.
Competition Shootout
simply adds up your scores, with up to four players competing over
between one and nine rounds. Voyager 19 requires you to hit the target,
and the higher your score the faster your rocket moves up the screen.
This can be a one or two-player game, and the cracking group Triad have
at least produced a version that lets you press number keys (1-5, 1
being the bullseye) to register a "hit". Intriguingly Voyager 19 also
has sampled speech and a nice graphic of the target. Games That Weren't
helped to preserve the third game, The Alien Team. This is an unusual
combination of styles. First, the player must choose a "team member" to
defeat. Then they fly through the alien defences controlling a
spaceship with a conventional joystick. This is a horizontally
scrolling shoot ‘em up with some average sprites and a parallax
scrolling effect. Then you face off against the chosen alien team
member (either Snake, Cannibal or Fangs). This is a quick-draw contest
with each side having nine lives. Sadly, this is another one that
doesn't work properly without the target, despite Triad's best efforts
to hack it.
INVENTORY
Of course, the biggest
problem with lightguns (the Wii being an exception) is that they no
longer work with HD televisions - requiring an older CRT. There are
workarounds and solutions, such as the Sinden lightgun. Here's a list
of the lightguns I currently own for various formats.
- C64: Light Phaser - NES: Zapper - Spectrum: Magnum
(essentially the same as the Light Phaser with a different connector;
there was a Spectrum +2 package - the James Bond 007 Action Pack - with
the lightgun and seven games) - SNES: Super Scope with
the 6 Pack of games - PlayStation: G-Con
(bundled with Time Crisis) - Saturn: an official
lightgun bundled with Virtua Cop 2, and an unofficial gun - Dreamcast: The
official lightgun with House of the Dead 2 (in the US, only the Mad
Catz lightgun was available) - PS2: G-Con2 (designed
for use with Time Crisis 2; this gun has a special AV connector that
plugs into the PS2) - Xbox: Mad Catz Blaster
(bought this to play House of the Dead III) - Wii: the official
accessory that came with Link's Crossbow Training & two pistol
grips (designed for use with House of the Dead Overkill; the Wii has
great lightgun games, including Dead Space Extraction and Ghost Squad)
Apple
II Incider - That's a Wrap!
Looking Back at 16 Years at Retrogaming Times
It all began rather innocently back
in 2006. I wrote my first Apple II Incider column for the December
2006 issue of Retrogaming Times Monthly.
With this being the final issue of
The Retrogaming Times, it is appropriate that the final Apple II
Incider column will look back at my involvement with the Retrogaming
Times family of magazines for the past 16 years.
READER
/ FAN
I don't know about the other writers,
but my first exposure to Retrogaming Times Monthly was as a
reader. Its been so long since I started reading the magazine
that I don't even recall how I got exposed to it in the first
place. Thinking back to the late 1990's to early 2000's, I do
recall being interested in playing old arcade games on home
systems. During the late 1990's and early 2000's, the main option
was using MAME on old Windows 95, 98 or newer XP machines. CHAMP
Programming also had their conversions as well. I could imagine
searching the web (using Alta Vista as Google wasn't quite as big yet)
and stumbling upon Retrogaming Times Monthly.
The most memorable part of the
magazine back then was "The Many Faces Of" column. Nothing
against any of the current writers who have all written great content,
but in all long running publications there's always going to be
something that stands out. "The Many Faces Of" is what stands out to
me. As I write this, I wonder if maybe we can get Alan Hewston to
write one final "Many Faces Of" column for us.
WRITER
/ EDITOR
As I noted in the intro, my first
Apple II Incider column was in the December 2006 issue of Retrogaming
Times Monthly. Looking back at the column, I have to say that I
haven't deviated too much from that style of writing through the
years. I just like to share memories instead of writing hard
reviews with scores. The times I tried to write certain topics
were a struggle, as sometimes the topics were a tad more technical and
detailed in nature and that just wasn't how I usually wrote for the
magazine. As a side note, the website I referenced in that first
issue (https://www.angelfire.com/80s/apple2/)
is still active. I haven't touched that Angelfire site in years
but some of my writing is still there for prosperity.
While the Apple II was my first love,
I later delved into topics such as the Atari 5200, the Vectrex, PC
gaming, magazines and other anniversaries (Pac-Man, Atari, etc).
Looking back at some of the old issues in recent months, I'm quite
proud that I discussed so many topics throughout the years. The
era of 1980's gaming was a pretty special time that I got to live
through. While today's modern systems can do more things than any
of us could have imagined back in the 1980's, it's good to remember
where we came from. That being said, knowing the final issue of
magazine was coming, I made sure I revisited some of my old columns one
final time in the past few months before we ended our run.
Also in 2006, there was only one
Apple II magazine: Juiced.gs (http://www.juiced.gs).
Juiced.GS started in 1996 and in 2022 it is still publishing. I
have
to give props to the Apple II community for keeping the Apple II alive
for so many years. I guess the old adage "Apple II Forever" still
applies after all these years. I don’t have as much connection to
the
other retrogaming communities that I wrote about, like the Atari 5200
and Vectrex. But I know the Atari community (especially the 2600
/
VCS) is quite active and will go on for years and years.
While I was primarily a writer, I
briefly took my turn at editing Retrogaming Times Monthly for a few
issues. I don't want to rehash the whole story as I have talked
about it before in past issues, but I took a turn as editor to keep the
magazine going so it wouldn't stop. I felt it was an important
thing that we needed to keep it going. We did manage to keep the
ship running for a while, though Retrogaming Times Monthly did
eventually stop publishing. However, I want to go on record to
thank David Lundin, Jr. for reviving the magazine in its current
iteration and allowing us to write for the past few years and giving us
a chance to give the magazine a proper farewell.
Atari, Mattel Electronics, and
Coleco all have one thing in common when it comes to their home video
game systems - their base controllers all sucked. Some would say
since it was the early days of home video games they should get a free
pass on this, as there was no precedent to follow. Others will
cite the challenges of meeting a price point and hitting mass
production targets. No matter your opinion, the primary
controllers included with these systems were far from ergonomic and had
design decisions that in some cases
bordered on mind-numbing, such as the Intellivision's tiny little fire
buttons. So much
innovation and creativity, only to be saddled with some of the worst
input devices ever.
Subsequent Atari home joysticks for the 5200 and 7800 didn't fare much
better. While elegant in engineering, the Atari 5200 analog
joysticks were an absolutely impractical approach to controlling the
vast majority of home video games at the time, which didn't demand
such input. The pack-in Atari 7800 Pro-Line joysticks were
possibly even worse and may be one of the most uncomfortable controller
designs ever manufactured. At least the Atari 2600 paddles and
driving controllers were
always pretty solid but you can only play so much Super Breakout and
Indy 500.
This is where aftermarket
manufacturers came in, creating all sorts of
replacement joysticks and other control accessories, both for game
consoles and home computers. I can recall an older cousin of mine
having a bat handle Wico Command Control joystick that he would always
have with him. I mean that quite literally, if there was any
possibility of playing Atari somewhere he was going, then he had the
joystick out in the car. He was also very cautious of letting
anyone else use it and handled it very carefully, a prized possession
no doubt. After seeing his more advanced joystick I wanted one
of my own. Later on while at a Kay Bee Toys, where most of my
Atari games came from as a small child, I found one that looked
interesting and was affordable. That joystick was a QuickShot
I, manufactured by Spectravideo. It must have been early 1987,
having received an Atari 2600 Jr. for Christmas just a couple months
earlier, which would make me five-years-old at the time. Although
re-launched as a value gaming system in the wake of more modern
offerings from Japan, most stores in Silicon
Valley still had rather robust game and accessory offerings and I was
pretty much spoiled for choice when it came to Atari stuff. I
remember what intrigued me most about the QuickShot was that it had
suction cups on the bottom. My mom bought it for me and once
giving it a try later that evening, there was no going back to the
little rigid joystick that Atari included with the 2600.
A magazine
advertisement for the QuickShot I
A QuickShot is a relatively simple
joystick at its core and isn't as
overbuilt as a Wico Command Control nor does it feature arcade style
leaf switches like a Wico. The stick's base is a bit larger than
a standard Atari, with fully rounded edges on both the left and
right. The left side has a fire button in the same location as an
Atari stick but there is extra grip molded into the base on this side
that allows it to be held comfortably in the hand, with the fire button
falling just under the thumb. The four suction cups on the base
can easily be removed per player's preference but I've never found them
to be a hindrance when holding the base. When I
was a kid I would usually stick it onto the chair between my legs like
a flight stick, which made playing driving games a lot of fun.
The suction cups are incredibly strong for being for being so small and
pliable and they continue to work to this day. Seriously, if you
stick it down on a clean, smooth surface it simply will not move.
On the other hand, giving one side a bit of a lift or pulling up on the
base will release the suction cups with ease, so it's just a great
design all around.
The actual stick shaft is where the
difference with a QuickShot really
shows. The grip itself is very ergonomic, with smooth ridges that
fall
between the fingers naturally and a shape and contour that is
comfortable to hold. The entire assembly is hard plastic, rather
than a flexible rubber boot as with an Atari stick but feels miles more
comfortable due to how it sits in the palm. A second fire button
is located atop the stick and is pitched back slightly to fall
perfectly under the thumb, with both fire buttons having the same
function and operating independently of one another. Additionally
the stick has a very short throw and extremely positive control,
pivoting smoothly through all directions and allowing instantaneous
movement in any of them. It never feels like you're pushing a
bunch of plastic folds and contacts around like with an Atari
stick. Instead, if you press left for instance, you're at full
left throw immediately. Internally the directional switch
contacts are upward bent metal tabs that are pressed down by the
joystick plunger to make contact. This is why it has such a rapid
response and is almost like a hybrid leaf switch, with one side of the
switch being the circuit board itself. The fire buttons are kind
of interesting too as they are very snappy with very little
resistance. They're somewhat unconventional, as inside each
plastic
button there is a metal assembly that comes to a point at the
center. The button springs rest against this assembly as well as
the circuit board's button contacts, acting as a conductor between the
circuit board and the metal assembly inside the button. When the
button is pressed down, the point at the middle makes contact with the
circuit board and completes the circuit. This also means the only
resistance the button has is the spring, there's no pad to push down or
connector to bend. In essence there really isn't a switch and the
button itself is bridging contacts when it bottoms out against the
circuit board. This gives the button assemblies extremely short
throws and very responsive action. You tap it, you fire -
immediately. In a game like Asteroids you can tear through screen
after screen and you can't hope for faster response in a game like
Demon Attack or Megamania. Truly, it is almost like having rapid
fire.
My love for the QuickShot wasn't
blind, it wasn't as if I didn't have
experience with the standard Atari joystick prior to it or even prior
to receiving an Atari 2600. My first experience with video gaming
was actually a few years earlier with my uncle's Atari VCS and the game
Grand Prix. He had a huge duffel bag full of cartridges and since
it
was around 1983, the home video game industry was on the edge of
falling apart but still quite huge. There was one evening when I
was watching him play games, I believe I was two-years-old at the
time. He asked if I wanted to play a game and dug around in the
duffel bag, retrieving Activision's Grand Prix. He showed me how
the game worked by holding down the fire button to accelerate and
moving up and down to position the car, then handed me the joystick and
reset the game. I was literally off to the races, playing my
first video game. As blue was my favorite color as kid, I avoided
the blue cars while smashing into all the others, referring to them as
"diaper bags" for whatever reason. It's the strangest thing but I
recall it so vividly. After that evening my gaming would be made
up of playing Atari with my uncle occasionally, a Red Baron arcade
cabinet at the local grocery store (which barely ever worked), and
Pac-Man and Millipede cocktail tables in the waiting area of a local
Marie Callender's restaurant. There were of course local arcades
and the much missed Bullwinkle's Family Food 'n Fun location in Santa
Clara, but Activision's Grand Prix is where it all began. I still
have the very cartridge I first played that evening, which my uncle
gave me
along with all his other games a few years later, once his Atari VCS
developed a problem and he had moved on to the Nintendo era.
My original
constantly used QuickShot I and the actual cartridge of the first video
game I ever played
Having one QuickShot joystick wasn't
enough, as any friends or family
wanted to use the same stick when we were playing against one
another. While I would have a second QuickShot, I don't remember
exactly buying it - at least not in the regular sense. Now my
mind is a bit fuzzy on this story but I remember there were some kind
of shenanigans involved. What I do remember is a conversation
with my Mom about returning something to Kay Bee to get another
QuickShot joystick, however something about the process wasn't totally
above board. Perhaps I
received a spare standard Joystick along with my Atari that was never
opened and that's what was returned for store credit, which would be no
big deal. Yet what I've always remembered in part is something
along the lines of putting a regular Atari joystick in the box from the
first QuickShot and then exchanging that for another QuickShot
joystick. This would essentially be a fraudulent exchange but
that's always seemed to me like what went down. Who knows, maybe
the thought was "a joystick is a joystick" but either way I ended up
with a second QuickShot and as I said, there were shenanigans involved.
Over three decades later I still love
the QuickShot I. It has
remained my preferred Atari
2600 / VCS stick for something like
36 years and that same QuickShot from way back then is the one I use to
this day. I've tried and owned many other joysticks for the 2600,
and while I think the Wico offerings are very nice and a properly
rebuilt early standard Atari joystick is okay, nothing matches a
QuickShot I in my opinion. I know it's not the best engineered or
most professionally built joystick in the world but it takes a
practical
approach to making a comfortable and affordable joystick for the home
games of the early 1980's. I actually cleaned up and rebuilt my
original joystick just prior to writing this article, cleaning out
almost 40 years of grime from constant use since I was a kid. The
body, grip housing, joystick shaft, buttons, circuit board - everything
- was obviously used but in immaculate shape inside. The contacts
for both the joystick and fire buttons only had the smallest amount of
oxidation. After applying a tiny bit of molybdenum hobby grease
around the joystick pivot it feels like a brand new stick, although it
was working great even before. With how they've held up over the
years, I wouldn't be surprised my QuickShot joysticks outlive me.
I don't like to say goodbye. I'm not
good with words. I'm not confident around people. Saying goodbye is
difficult, because it is the kind of thing that asks for more... More
words, more feelings, and I don't like to tell how I'm feeling. That's
one of the reasons I won't say the word, even though this is the last
Retrogaming Times you'll read. As the Phoenix and the Super Mario
brothers before it, this newsletter has had a strange power of
returning to life again and again - each time slight different, but
always relevant to the retrogamer.
Starting with Tom Zjaba back in 1997,
the newsletter has always brought retrogaming content with a personal
touch. Zjaba is the person I try to mimic when writing about retrogames
(and I think much of the older RTM and RT staff also did so), because
he always put his personal memories and observations in the texts -
making them feel warmly human. This is no unimportant part of
videogaming: their history is our histories, the gamers' histories.
Telling our personal tales is also a way of game preservation.
Then came others. All of them
important in their own way, each of them with their own preferred
subspace in the retrogaming universe. But two were very important for
me in the way they made me look at older games so as to deeply
understand these classics. One of these authors is Alan Hewston, with
his "Many Faces of..." series of articles, which analyzed the different
versions of a game in depth. You won't find anything like Hewston's
series of articles on the internet - even to this day, I assure you. If
you want to learn how to dissect games in a scientific way, or if you
want to learn everything about arcade game design, I recommend them.
They were the basis for the only game I've ever made, Alien Invaders
(made on Klik & Play!).
The second of these other authors
that influenced me is Scott Jacobi with his "Nintendo Realm" series of
short Famicom reviews written in chronological order. Before his
articles, I'd never put much thought on how a game's year of release
and also its geographical origin are important to make us understand
some of its designer's mechanics and / or artistic choices. Also, his
articles showed how the countries were widely apart in the 80's, with
radically different videogaming preferences - and how the regional
markets had to adapt to these preferences.
These people, as the games they wrote
about, will live as long as the newsletter keeps returning to life. And
it will do exactly this - every time a new reader will open a PDF from
the carefully crafted Legacy Archive (thanks, David!) and navigate all
these sweet written memories. Like what used to happen to a video game
superhero, these authors will come under no shortage of 1UPs. They have
beaten the game of Life's hardest boss... Forgetfulness.
Or maybe this is Life's second to
hardest boss? Because, obviously, the hardest boss is Dr. Robotnik on
Stage 3 of 8-bit Sonic the Hedgehog... At least that's what 10-year old
me would say. To end my series of Master System articles, I shall once
more remember the game which was the very first I ever owned, the game
which I play again and again, whenever I feel tired, sad, sick or mad
at anything, even after all these years, and the game which most
terrorized me when I was a kid... Because of the 3rd stage's boss.
He brought insane days of frustration
over me. My little hands were untrained in the hidden arts of side
scrolling platformers and still he required me to simultaneously avoid
his flying machine above Sonic's head and its bombs moving under
Sonic's feet. Days went by without any progress. Whenever I avoided a
bomb, there came another over Sonic's blue spiky head. Sometimes, I
would get Sonic run over by Robotnik's machine in the middle of a jump.
Worse still, even the bomb's smoke was fatal to the hedgehog, and I
didn't learn this the easy way. A month went by. And suddenly I beat
it. I beat it and then I had to jump over a gap on the floor to reach
the stage's exit and... You guessed, I fell in the gap. There went
Sonic with his eyes wide open - the eyes of a very dead ex-blue blur.
My younger brother beat the game
before me. My uncle visited us and beat the game. A school classmate
who owned an SNES came home and beat the game. It seemed everybody
could beat my game, except me. The thing is... I was afraid of the 3rd
boss. Afraid like we are afraid of doctors and robbers in real life. A
humiliating year went by... Until Taz came along. A completely
different type of hero, Taz couldn't care less about appearances. He
only cared about eating an egg at the end of his 8-bit game, which was
a very easy game, and became the very first game I'd ever beaten.
Thanks to Taz-Mania, I returned to Robotnik, now focusing on what was
happening on the screen, instead of worrying about who had beaten the
game before me. Nothing mattered anymore, the past, the present, the
future... Only the safety of the animals of South Island mattered and,
spending all my energies and reflexes on this objective, I beat the
boss and went straight to the endgame in a single day!
Was that a "goodbye, Sonic?" No! As I
wrote at the beginning of this article, I really don't like goodbyes.
And I could never say goodbye to a game of beautiful sights and
beautiful songs that were the background of a reality quite more
welcome than mine, 3rd boss notwithstanding (it was the year when my
parents divorced, I changed schools and, the worst, the year I lost my
grandfather). Despite the frequent negative feelings brought by
repeated defeat, I felt alive and happy playing Sonic, even if it was
mostly the first three stages over and over. Now, it would be the whole
game over and over. It still is. It always will be, as long as I live.
Sonic is part of me. As is Retrogaming Times, in all of its
incarnations. These are things that will endure, and will be important
parts of many other important lives, because of me, because of you.
Because of David, because of Merman, because of Donald Lee, because of
Dan Pettis. Because of those who came before, because of the internet.
Because of Sega, and Nintendo, and indie developers, and all game
creators. We're story-tellers. And story-tellers don't say goodbye:
they say "see you next game!"
For the
first time since 2019 the California Extreme arcade and pinball show returned to the
Hyatt Regency, Santa Clara on July 30th and 31st. The 2020 show
was postponed due to the unfolding pandemic situation, with a smaller
2021 show held in San Jose. Although I have attended every year
since 2008, I opted to skip last year due to a number of reasons,
including my scheduling not working out and the perceived smaller scale
of the event. However for 2022 the show was back in full force,
returning to the venue that has seemed the perfect fit for the event
since relocating from downtown San Jose in
2009. California Extreme began in 1997 when a group of arcade
enthusiasts and collectors gathered together to exhibit their games,
allowing their games to be played not only by other collectors but the
public as well. The event has continued to grow over the years,
hosting panels with industry veterans, new game announcements, rare and
one-of-a-kind prototypes, vendors and distributors, tournaments,
contests, film screenings, live concerts, and anything else one can
think of related to arcade and classic gaming. At its core
California Extreme remains a grass roots celebration of the arcade era,
the people who created the games, the collectors who restore and
maintain them, and the enthusiasts who continue to play them. All
games at the show are free play, meaning the single entry fee is good
for
two full days of arcade gaming and pinball action.
Prior to 2020
the show had grown to not only occupy the entire Hyatt
Regency event space but also parts of the adjacent Santa Clara
Convention center. For 2022 the entire main ballroom of the Hyatt
was configured as a single massive main showroom where the arcade games
were located, in addition to vendor tables located at the center and
along one side. Unlike the last few years, there was no
additional smaller ballroom just off the main entrance, which wasn't
surprising considering that event attendance is down a bit everywhere
currently. Even with that in mind the main showroom was packed
with games to play and things to do. On the other side of the
Hyatt lobby they had the usual conference room for speakers and panels,
with the room above it used for a number of pinball tournaments.
Across from the pinball tournaments another large ballroom is used as a
console gaming area, including even more vendors, and a stage that
hosts live music performances on Saturday night.
While
California Extreme is a collector and hobbyist convention, built
upon the dedication of arcade enthusiasts who bring their games to the
event every year, vendors also host exhibition areas within the
show. As in recent years, Marco Specialties had a large area
displaying the latest pinball offerings including Stern's biggest new
games - Godzilla, Rush, and The Mandalorian. They had a ton of
these machines on offer and the area was always busy but had short wait
times as there were so many machines. It's a great opportunity to
see the differences between each tier of a machine, comparing how the
game plays and what your extra thousand dollars here and there would
get you. As with the rest of the show, all the machines are on
free play and available to be enjoyed by every attendee.
Naughty Boy (left),
Warp Warp (center), Pleiades (right)
Rather than
attempt to chronicle the hundreds upon hundreds of games
that can be played at the show, I often like to spotlight a few games
in my show report that stood out from the crowd or are my
favorites. Tucked away in the middle of the back row was Jaleco's
Naughty Boy, a reasonably
obscure game that was distributed in the USA by Cinematronics.
The player controls the titular Naughty Boy, who must stun and then
defeat monsters by throwing rocks at them. The first hit will
stop them in their tracks while the second will cause them to explode,
making the rocks seem more like bombs. Destroyed monsters will
eventually return, and while defeating them is the primary way to earn
points, it's not the objective that will clear a level. At the
top
of each vertically scrolling level are a number of flags.
Knocking all the flags down with rocks will cause the fortifications to
burst into flames, again looking more like something caused by bombs,
and advance to the next level. Enemies can be baited away by
destroying randomly appearing question mark areas, adding some
additional strategy, but the throwing physics are what really make the
game unique. The longer the "throw" button is held down, the
farther a thrown rock will travel, landing once the button is
released. If you like blowing stuff up, Rock-Ola's Warp Warp was also on the show
floor. A licensed version of Namco's Warp & Warp that I've
mentioned in previous show reports, it's a maze shooter that plays a
bit like Bomberman of all things. One screen has your character
shooting monsters with a gun, spawning a higher value monster by
shooting three monsters of the same color in a row. After a while
the center area of the screen will activate, serving as a warp to the
alternate screen where now you're armed with bombs. This area
plays pretty much like what would be seen in Bomberman, which was
actually developed around the same time so it's doubtful either game
cloned the other. Pleiades is
a cool shooter and interesting in that the game's title can't seem to
decide how it wants to be spelled, as the title screen reads
"Pleiads." Pleiades was probably the intention, being named after
the star cluster but I suppose no one will ever know. The game
begins simple enough as a ground-based shooter with swarms of enemies
descending from overhead. After they are defeated your ship
blasts off and is met by swooping enemies that grow in size as they
approach, a pretty cool effect. Next is a battle against the
alien
mothership, a stationary target that drops clusters of shots while
aliens work to defend it. Once the mothership is destroyed you
must land at a busy spaceport, weaving through parked ships to set down
on a landing pad before doing it all over again. The game is
surprisingly addictive and I really like the visuals and sounds - one
to try if you haven't played it.
Ponpoko (left), Yue
Ar Kung-Fu (center), Super Speedway (right)
Sigma's Ponpoko is a game I
hadn't heard of before but it's typically strange as most Sigma
developed games go. The player controls a tanuki who must gather
all the fruits and vegetables on a stage while avoiding snakes and
caterpillars. Ponpoko can make a short hop by pressing the jump
button or a longer leap forward when combined with left or right on the
joystick. While Ponpoko can hop over large gaps in the platforms
and the strange number of tacks that litter the ground, he cannot jump
over enemies, so planning movement and positioning is key. That
strategy is what kept me coming back to the game throughout the
weekend, since the game isn't difficult so much as it is tricky.
If you're looking for an influential game, Yie Ar Kung-Fu was one not to be
missed. While Karate Champ (which was also at the show this year)
established the basis for what is considered a two-player fighting
game, Yie Ar Kung-Fu created the spectacle and variety that continues
to be a core part of the genre to this day. The player controls
Oolong, a kung fu master who must defeat eleven other martial arts
masters to claim the title of Grand Master. In addition to having
a unique appearance, each opponent utilizes a different fighting style,
with some of them even using weapons and spiritual techniques.
Oolong has an arsenal of moves at his disposal, activated by a
combination of button actions and joystick movement. The whole
setup is much more conventional in hindsight than the dual joystick
input scheme of Karate Champ but the resulting movements can be equally
as complex. What Yie Ar Kung-Fu established that has continued to
be used in virtually every traditional fighting game that has followed,
is a health meter for both the player and opponent. It's still a
very well designed and fun to play fighting game. Another I kept
returning to was Chicago Coin's Super
Speedway, an electro mechanical driving game. The steering
wheel moves a transparent plastic car on the end of a rod back and
forth. The car is behind three spinning plastic discs - one that
has illustrations of a roadway on it, one that has illustrations of
yellow opponent cars in an outer lane, and one that has illustrations
of blue opponent cars in an inner lane. The discs all spin at
different rates, creating an illusion of movement and speed.
Light is projected through the discs and up to where the player can see
into the cabinet, forcing a perspective that further enhances the
illusion. Pressing down on the pedal increases the rate at which
the discs spin, causing the cars to move at different rates. The
objective is to weave through the traffic, earning points through
distance covered, with what amounts to a free game added by achieving a
high enough score before a timer runs down. I think what kept
bringing me back was the feeling of weight and motion while pressing
down on the accelerator, feeling the motor turn the linkages in the
cabinet. The whole thing was very tangible in a sense, which
added to the sensation of movement and the excitement of carving
through traffic, lifting off just before a collision, and hearing the
score counter tick over. A really fun game and one I saw a lot of
people enjoying over the weekend.
Of course
there were my usual favorites including the Exidy prototype
Teeter Torture and Taito classics Elevator Action, Qix, Zoo Keeper, and
Crazy Climber. I had pretty much my best Qix score ever,
somewhere in the low 40,000's - nothing to write home about but a game
I really like that is infamously unforgiving. A cabaret version
of Bosconian was on the show floor as usual, another of my all time
favorite games and a hugely important and influential title in Namco's
golden age arcade catalog. I put down a decent score of 139,530
points, not bad for not playing in nearly three years. There are
few sounds in arcade gaming that create a sense of dread more than in
Bosconian, when a spy ship gets away and the game continuously
proclaims "CONDITION RED... CONDITION RED..." while enemies swarm your
ship.
Vendor tables
were really good this year and it was nice to spend a bit
of money with those that can be back on the show circuit. There
was a really good mix of arcade and pinball products and merchandise
but also a lot of general video game ephemera that a convention like
this should have. Don't know why the vendor selling bootleg
poster prints is there every year but I digress. Prices were kind
of all over the place, which is a given, but there were some really
solid deals on console games from a larger vendor in the main
ballroom. I've moved to flashcarts and optical drive emulators
for a good deal of my retrogaming but I did pick up some Famicom
cartridges from him to give away as prizes at other events. I was
thinking of buying a lot more but talked myself out of it, as again,
it's unnecessary for me to own a bunch of cartridges. I also
bought
a huge Dig Dug wall tapestry from one of the larger vendors, in
addition to a Pole Position lapel pin. Most vendors were also
selling the 1/6th scale Replicade tabletop arcade cabinets. Them
being available at the show wasn't surprising, nor was seeing virtually
every cabinet in the series for sale there. What was almost
shocking were the prices being asked by some vendors and then attendees
paying those prices. Upwards of $400 for a Replicade
Centipede? I know the games are released in limited quantities,
which I still disagree with as it benefits no one except resellers, but
that's crazy. Granted, I've purchased both a Numskull Quarter
Arcades Dig Dug and Ms. Pac-Man but those were in the $160 range, are
1/4 scale, and are made out of wood. They also went back into
production after the initial quantities of the first games sold
out. When tabletop novelties start to approach the price range of
the full size,
it's time to take a step back. Vendors can ask whatever they want
but in the case of these, it's the buyers are who are causing the
pricing insanity.
The cocktail
game area was back in the main show hall this year, having
been relocated to the secondary ballroom during the past few shows at
the Hyatt. I liked that there was plenty of room between the
cocktail tables this year and that the power cable management was
pretty clean between them. Often the machines are simply too
close to one another to play comfortably or at all. There were
also a few cocktail tables out in the hallway, which is something that
was done away with a few years back. Unfortunately people can't
seem to understand maybe they shouldn't be leaving their trash, food
wrappers, cups, beer bottles, you name it on people's machines - even
if they are cocktails. I
believe this is the reason that the tables were moved into the
ballrooms starting a few years ago. That was also one thing that
I thought was a little lose this year, wristband verification and
preventing people from bringing drinks into the main ballroom.
It wasn't horrible but a bit surprising how many people I saw walking
around with drinks, although I did see a few get stopped at the
door. Every attendee signs and acknowledges the show's house
rules so I don't know why it comes as a surprise to people.
Godzilla (left),
Joust (center), Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man (right)
It's no secret
that there haven't been many new pinball games released in the past
decade or so that I really enjoy. Sure there are some solid
tables and theming that appeals to me and I can have a good time
playing, however there hasn't been anything new that I'd actively seek
out. That changed after playing Stern's Godzilla, especially in Premium
trim, which features more playfield toys than the base Pro
package. The theming of Godzilla is perfect for pinball and the
game represents classic Godzilla films with respect but still
emphasizes the fun of the movies. Seeing Jet Jaguar spin around
on the display when totaling a loop bonus is a perfect example of
this. The game also plays really fast with great flow and
satisfying shots that make the whole package an absolute pleasure to
the play. It really feels like a 90's Data East table in that
regard, which was my favorite era of pinball and my favorite
manufacturer, who was actually born from Stern. A table that is
often at CAX but one I've never had the chance to play until this year
was Joust, a two-player
head-to-head pinball game based on the arcade title. I was able
to get a couple of games in against my wife on Sunday night and found
it to be crazy fun with some surprising strategy involved. Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man is another
pinball that I had never played until this year and also really
enjoyed. It plays like a conventional pinball machine, with a
grid of lights in the center that are used for a more traditional
Pac-Man mode, changing direction with one flipper and advancing a space
with the other. The art package is a little strange but the game
is solid and very entertaining. There was also a good assortment
of rhythm games and and more exotic Japanese imports, including the
2017 version of the train driving game Densha
de Go!! I love the Densha de Go!! games and the 2017
release is not only a new game on its own, it also features recreations
of the first two arcade games. I actually had some time on the
cabinet at another local convention earlier this year, where it was
exhibited by the same vendor who brings many of the large Japanese
games to CAX, Game Saru.
Me playing a modern
game of Densha de Go!! on Saturday morning
Nostalgia is
always a big pull for an event such as this but if arcade events and
classic arcade gaming is to survive, I think it's time to move a bit
beyond nostalgia for a bygone era alone. It's one thing to have
grown up in the golden age of arcades and have a fondness for that
time, but that sensation of ambiance simply can't be the lone driving
force to continue to inspire people to take up the mantle. These
games are still fun, they are still engaging, they are still unique,
they still have beautiful artwork, they still bring out friendly
competition, and above all they are still entertaining. None of
this is because they are old or retro or no longer commonplace.
It's because they are as enjoyable now as when they first rolled off
the assembly line. Getting people to experience that enjoyment is
how we'll capture the next generation of those who will keep them
operating and continue to have the generosity to share them with
everyone else who may want to play.
Three years
after the previous full-on California Extreme it was great to have the
show return as it was before. Even with a little less space, even
with the new challenges that hosting an event like this now brings, I
had a spectacular time. It really felt like a show from the first
couple years when it moved to Santa Clara. Not as crazy busy as
it was from about 2017 onward but with just as many games to play and
as much unique stuff to see. The convention facilities were also
very nice as usual and recently renovated, although with no California
Extreme stuff being hosted on the Santa Clara Convention Center side
this year, they shut that area down pretty early. As always a
tremendous thank you to the Extreme Team, all exhibitors, voulenteers,
vendors, and attendees for keeping this great show going in the Bay
Area.
More information about
California Extreme
can be found at http://www.caextreme.org, maybe I'll see you at next year's show.
Bentley
Bear's Atari
Adventures
Cystal Castles - My
Favorite Game
Back in 1983, I remember going to the
arcade to enjoy some games and I was met with a new game that I had
never seen. That game was Crystal Castles. I was
immediately fascinated with this arcade game and many quarters were
spent controlling Bentley Bear in the many castles where the gems were
scattered. I can easily say this is among my most favorite arcade
games and I'm going to share with you some history about Crystal
Castles in the arcade and the Atari home ports. Sit back, relax,
and enjoy...
The Arcade Game
Crystal Castles was released by Atari
in the arcades on July 8, 1983. The game was designed by Scott
Fuller and programmed by Franz Lanzinger and Sam Lee. Crystal
Castles introduced us to the character of Bentley Bear, a character
that should have become Atari's mascot much like Mario is for Nintendo
or Sonic for Sega. In the game, Bentley Bear is tasked with
collecting gems found on castles, presumably made of crystal, while
avoiding the various enemies that populate these castles. Some of
these enemies will also be collecting gems and it is important for
Bentley to collect the final gem at any given level to get a bonus
score. The player controls Bentley with a trackball and there is
an action button that is used to get Bentley to jump over enemies.
The game includes nine level of play,
each with four castles. There is a tenth level with a single
castle that marks the end of the game should the player finish this
level. This makes Crystal Castles one of the first arcade games
to have an actual ending rather than continued play, as other arcade
games would only end when the player loses all lives. Each castle
is rendered in an isometric view and each one is a different maze-style
structure. On these castles the player will find elevators,
stairs, and tunnels which can be used to reach areas of the castle with
gems or to escape from enemies. If Bentley collects the final gem
at any castle, bonus points are given and a short tune from the
Nutcracker is played. An animation then moves Bentley to the next
castle, which is rendered before the player can start collecting gems.
The enemies Bentley encounters on the
castles include Berthilda the witch, a swarm of bees, Nasty Trees, a
Ghost, Dancing Skeletons, Gem Eaters, and Crystal Balls.
Berthilda only shows up in the final castle of each level.
Berthilda only moves in a certain area of the castle but is deadly to
touch. The swarm of bees will first come down to a honey pot but
will target Bentley aggressively. The Ghost appears in the Hidden
Spiral levels and moves about randomly. The Dancing Skeletons
will show up usually on higher ramps in the castles, while the Gem
Eaters roam around eating gems, as their name suggests. The
animation of these Gem Eaters with the gems moving from their feet up
to their heads is rather cool. While the gems are moving up, the
Eaters can be killed by Bentley if he runs over them. The Crystal
Balls are a bit aggressive and will target Bentley directly, so you
have to move around to avoid them. The Nasty Trees are quick on
their "feet" and can be stunned by Bentley if he jumps over them.
Both the Crystal Balls and the Nasty Trees can also collect gems and
steal the bonus.
Besides the gems, the castles also
have other items that Bentley can collect for points or for other
purposes. The magical hat earns the player 500 points and it
makes Bentley invulnerable to all enemies. It also allows Bentley
to defeat Berthilda. A honey pot will also appear that, if
collected quickly, delays the appearance of the bees. The honey pot is
worth 1000 points, while killing Berthilda is worth 3000 points.
Crystal Castles has a few interesting
features. When Bentley is killed by the enemies, speech balloons
appear that have different messages depending on how many lives are
left. If there are three or more lives left, you'll see the word
"Bye" appear. If there are two lives left, "Oh, no" will
appear. If only one life is left, "Ouch!" appears and if you're
at your last life, the symbols "#?!" appears, implying Bentley is
behaving like Q*bert and uses profanity before dying. Another
interesting feature, which is also a first for arcade games of the
time, is having warps at special locations on the castles that let
Bentley jump to other levels, get extra points, or even get extra
lives. The final feature that is also cool is that the first
castle's shape is modified to include the initials of the player with
the top score.
Crystal Castles is fast-paced and
quite a bit of fun to play. The trackball control is very smooth
and does take some getting used to but it is essential for its
gameplay. The graphics are beautiful and colorful and the music
is well harmonized. The cabinet itself looks fantastic and the
trackball actually lights up in red. The red color does not have
anything to do with gameplay but does look cool. The cabinet does
have a custom trackball controller chip called Leta, which was first
used on this game.
The Atari 2600 Port
Atari released a port of Crystal
Castles for the Atari 2600 in 1984. The game was programmed by
Peter C. Niday, Michael Kosaka (graphics), and Robert Vieira (sound)
and what they accomplished was nothing short of astonishing.
Given the limitations of the 2600, achieving any sort of isometric view
for the castles was nearly impossible, yet the team was able to create
castles that emulate a pseudo-3D environment. None of the castles
look like those of the arcade but that is something I would not have
expected. Despite this, the game retains the gameplay of the
arcade as well as the sound effects and the enemies Bentley faced in
the arcade version.
The castles and the gems (which are
just lines) are rendered in the same color but the castles do have
different colors for each level. The programmers crammed plenty
into the 16K found in this cartridge! The enemies may be
pixelated but they are all easy to recognize. While many of them
(Crystal Balls, Berthilda, Ghosts, Skeletons, and Bees) are rendered in
one color, the Nasty Trees and the Gem Eaters are rendered in two or
more colors. Not only are all these characters recognizable, they
are nicely animated! The Gem Eaters even have the animation of
their eating the gems just like in the arcade! Bentley Bear is
also rendered in one color and is probably the least recognizable of
the characters. Surprisingly, most of the sound effects and music
from the arcade was also adapted to this port. Despite the
system's limitations, the music and every sound is a very recognizable
replica of their arcade counterparts.
Crystal Castles on the 2600 does not
have true trackball control and must be played using a joystick.
This makes the movement of Bentley Bear feel a bit slow but it does
work just fine. You do have the option of playing the game with
the 2600 Trak-Ball controller but it has to be used in "joystick mode"
as there is no algorithm for using it in true Trak-Ball mode.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to hack the game to do this either as
it would require a total rewrite of the game's code. This is
unfortunate as it would have been great to move Bentley as swiftly as
in the arcade version.
Despite the compromises, the 2600
port of Crystal Castles is very well done and quite the feat of
programming. As is the case with many arcade ports to the system,
replicating the arcade original was not possible but capturing the
spirit of the arcade game was. Crystal Castles on the 2600
retains pretty much all the elements of the arcade, making this quite
the fun game to play at home.
The Atari 8-Bit &
XEGS Ports
This port of Crystal Castles did not
see release until 1988 as a cartridge for the Atari XE Game
System. The game was developed in 1984, like the 2600 port, but
it was not completed for release at that time. As one would
expect, this port of the game fares better than the 2600 version.
This port was programmed by William Jahnke and Paul Metz in 1984.
It is unknown who finished the game for the 1988 release as Bill Janhke
had left Atari by this time and Paul Metz declined to complete the
game. There are also two versions of the game, one that works on the
400/800 line of computers (16K) and one that only works on the XEGS
(64K).
The Atari XEGS port of Crystal
Castles is able to replicate all the castles found in the arcade
original, though they do not have the level of detail of the
arcade. Despite this, the castles are all isometric and they are
all beautifully rendered. The gems, though, look like X's and
have the same color as castles themselves. Bentley is rendered in
two colors and is not wearing his boots but he is recognizable as a
bear. All the enemies are easy to recognize and several of them
are rendered in more than one color (Gem Eaters, Nasty Trees,
Berthilda, and the Bee Swarm). All the characters are beautifully
animated as well. For some reason both Bentley and the Nasty
Trees are wider than they are supposed to be but this does not detract
from the gameplay.
There are a number of differences
between the 16K and 64K versions of the game. The graphics for
Bentley Bear, the Nasty Trees, Bees, and Magic Hat are better on the
64K version. The gems change colors to the castle colors on the
XEGS port but remain either red or blue on the 16K version. The
XEGS port has more music and the sound effects are more complete.
Also, when Bentley dies, we do see the speech balloons on the XEGS port
instead of Bentley just standing there while the death music plays seen
on the 16K port.
Like the 2600 port, these versions
are controlled using a joystick. There is support for Atari's
Trak-Ball controller but this is also in joystick mode and not in true
trackball mode. This is unfortunate because this version
replicates the arcade original so well that it would have been great to
be able to move Bentley as quickly as in the arcade version. The
Atari XEGS version of Crystal Castles is quite difficult to find.
Most copies of the game, without a box or manual, sell for over $100 on
eBay. It is possible, however, to find the binaries online to
play the game using a flashcart. I highly recommend playing this
version of the game.
The
Atari ST Port
Atari did also release a version for
the Atari ST but I've never played that version. The ST version
has nice graphics but does not have very good character
animation. It does make some changes to the graphics to make the
characters look better than in the arcade version and it also changes
some of the music. This one can be controlled with the joystick
or the mouse. This port does include the animation of Bentley as
he moves between castles, which is missing on the other Atari ports.
Conclusion
Crystal Castles is a fun game whether
played in the arcade or at home. Despite the limitations of the
2600, the port captures the arcade elements well enough to make it
enjoyable. The 8-Bit version is superior, though, and it is one
of the best versions to enjoy at home. It is unfortunate that
none of the home versions have true trackball control compatibility
because that would make the home versions even more enjoyable.
Regardless, Crystal Castles remains one of my most favorite games to
play.
For
those who prefer a more arcade-accurate version of their games, you can
find Crystal Castles on the Atari Vault, which is available on
Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux using Steam or the Atari
Anniversary Edition for Windows or the Sega Dreamcast. Either
way, have fun gem collecting!
A
Pirate's Life For Me - Eleventh Journey
CoolBoy
198 in
1 Real Game, Games 191 - 204
Welcome back
as we finally complete our voyage
with the CoolBoy Real Game 198 in 1 bootleg Famicom multicart. If
this is your first journey with us, a bootleg pirate multicart is a
video
game cartridge containing multiple games that would otherwise have
single
cartridge retail releases. Pirate multicarts have become bigger
and
better over the past few years. Although these days you have
options
such as flash memory cartridges if you want to play a bunch of games
off
a single cartridge, there's just something about these bootlegs that
appeals
to me. I've found collecting multicarts a fun collecting sub
genre
since the early to mid 2000's. Two very popular
multicarts are branded under the "CoolBoy" name and are generally known
as "198 in 1 Real Game" and "400 in 1 Real Game" and these cartridges
are
usually sold together as a pair.
CoolBoy "198 in 1"
and "400 in 1" cartridges along with a custom made Famicom to NES
converter
While the 400
in 1 cartridge contains more
total games, I find that the 198 in 1 contains a more interesting mix
of
titles with less filler. This is due to the 400 in 1 cartridge
containing
more pirate originals, including a rather large library of games
released
by Thin Chen Enterprise, the Taiwanese company better known as Sachen,
history's most prolific producer of unlicensed Famicom games.
While
these games are an interesting collecting sub-genre unto themselves,
and
a sadly forgotten part of modern NES and Famicom collector culture,
they're
not necessarily all that fun to play. It should also be said that
the back half of the game list for each cartridge is generally filled
with
these type of Taiwanese and Chinese pirate original games. The
198
in 1 cartridge isn't too bad in this respect, with fifty or so games
falling
into this category.
This scope of
this ongoing column is to
evaluate the 198 in 1 cartridge, fifteen games at a time, until
the entire list is completed. Additionally each issue will also
evaluate
a single game from the 400 in 1 cartridge that does not appear on the
198
in 1 counterpart. For the entire duration of this column, each
cartridge
is played on an original toaster-style North American NES
console.
To convert the bootleg Famicom cartridges for play the NES, I use
a Famicom to NES converter cartridge built from parts out of an early
release
copy of Gyromite. The abbreviated title given after the game
number is how it appears in the on-screen menu. As a final note,
many of the games contained on
these bootleg cartridges have their title screens altered to strip away
any copyright dates or the like.
Now, back on to
high seas and high excitement!
Here we are,
land in sight, as we prepare to pull into port and
complete the journey. This column began way back in May of 2016
with the second issue of The Retrogaming Times! Today we have a
whole bunch of Kunio-kun games, a few great Konami titles, some really
strange hacks, and a couple randoms. It has been a long time
coming, and a much more arduous journey than originally planned, but
we're almost ready to drop anchor. Let's get to it!
CoolBoy
Real Game 198 in 1, Games 191
- 204:
Nekketsu! Street
Basket Ganbare Dunk Heroes and Ike Ike! Nekketsu Hockey-bu Subete
Koronde Dairanto
191.
Hot Blood Basketb - This
page of the multicart menu is dominated by titles starting Kunio-kun,
Technos Japan's high school delinquent mascot that is better known in
the USA as the star of River City Ransom. Although many games in
the series were released on the NES, there were tons more left in
Japan, and many of the games that were released stateside had
localization changes. For the most part the games are known as
the Nekketsu series, "nekketsu" generally translated to mean "hot
blooded." The first game here is Nekketsu!
Street Basket Ganbare Dunk Heroes, which sees Kunio and the gang
playing in an over-the-top and ultra physical 2-on-2 basketball
tournament. Each match-up has a different environment based upon
its location, featuring some really cool and comedic details. The
actual basketball mechanics are pretty simple, with a series of stacked
backboards and baskets on the left and right edges of the screen.
Since it's a Kunio game a big part of the action is beating the snot
out of your opponents and fighting just as much as scoring
points. If you've played River City Ransom you should be right at
home here, something that will ring true with many of these
titles. Courts are also littered with various objects that can be
used while fighting, adding a bit of variety to the fisticuffs.
Many people love this game but it has always taken me a while to get
into the rhythm of the game flow.
192.
Hot Blood Ice Hoc - Easily the best known of the Kunio-kun
sports games that wasn't released on the NES, Ike Ike! Nekketsu Hockey-bu Subete Koronde
Dairanto sees the teenage brawlers hit the ice -
literally. Ice hockey is the perfect sport for a series that
began as a beat 'em up and the action here doesn't disappoint.
Strangely enough of all the sports games in the series, this
one has the least emphasis placed on straight up brawling, instead
focusing on very solid 3-on-3 hockey action. The game plays like
a condensed version of Blades of Steel or Nintendo's own Ice Hockey,
with simple controls and fast movement. Input feels good and is
predictable, with players having weight and momentum in addition to
good puck physics. There are just enough special moves and
trademark Kunio-kun fighting to mix things up and keep gameplay from
feeling stale. It is an outrageously fun multiplayer game and
really should have been released on the NES. Apparently a release
was planned at one time, as Crash 'n' the Boys Ice Challenge, but was
sadly scrapped. Hockey video games are generally pretty good,
especially in this era, and this is one to try if you're unfamiliar
with it.
Bikkuri Nekketsu Shin
Kiroku! Harukanaru Kin Medal and Kunio Kun no Nekketsu Soccer League
193.
Hot Blood New Rec - One that should be familiar to most NES
players, this is Bikkuri Nekketsu
Shin Kiroku! Harukanaru Kin Medal, which was reworked for
release in North America under the title Crash 'n' the Boys Street
Challenge. A more logical sports game for a bunch of high school
delinquents, here we see the Kunio cast engaged in track and field
events with a bit of an urban twist. There are a handful of
events that are slight variations on usual high school athletics, with
the expected addition of brawling with your opponents. The
visuals are nice and it's a cool concept but I am absolutely terrible
at this game. My complaint has always been the control input, as
rather than taking a page out of Hyper Olympic / Track & Field, it
is instead controlled like a Kunio-kun brawler. It just doesn't
work very well for this type of game and I have found it frustrating
since renting the NES version as a kid. I've always wondered if
poor reception of that release is why we never got the ice hockey game.
194.
Hot Blood Soccer - This is another one that should seem a bit
familiar to NES players. Kunio
Kun no Nekketsu Soccer League
is the sequel to Nekketsu Koko Dodgeball Bu: Soccer Hen, which was
reworked into Nintendo World Cup for the NES. Nintendo World Cup
was pushed reasonably hard for awhile by Nintendo and it's still my
favorite four-player NES release. The sequel takes the reasonably
standard concept of Kunio and the gang playing soccer and mixes it up
with terrain and environmental hazards. In these games excess
usually adds to the fun and chaos but they may have went a little to
far with this one. All kinds of weather and field status changes
may really mix the game up but they also slow it way down. One of
the reasons I enjoy the first Nekketsu soccer game so much is that it
plays really smoothly, not fast but predictable. That all goes
out the window here as the game is just constantly throwing more
garbage at the player with not much rhyme or reason. While it
looks pretty good I don't find it very much fun as it often feels like
I'm fighting with the controls for input response. They can't all
be great and I recommend the original or the original's NES conversion
instead.
Nekketsu Koko
Dodgeball Bu and Jackal
195.
Hot Blood Volleyb - Here we go, an all-time favorite for
many. Nekketsu Koko Dodgeball Bu
is the game the launched the Kunio sports series, giving a lot more
longevity to the brand. A popular game in all regions, it was
slightly reworked into Super Dodge Ball for the NES by switching the
teams around a bit and dropping the Kunio-kun series references.
The gameplay is reasonably simple, pitting the Nekketsu High School
crew against rival teams in strangely by-the-book (for the series
anyway) dodgeball matches. Each team has a
group of freely moving attackers as well as sideline players on the
opposite side of the court. Players can catch the ball, avoid it,
jump, pass the ball, and of course hurl it at another player.
There are some special moves and more powerful shots that can be
performed with the correct combination of actions. Each player
has a health bar and once it is depleted they are out, with players
becoming winded once their bar becomes low. A team wins once all
attackers on the other team are out. Although the version on the
multicart is reasonably unaltered, it feels like it plays just a bit
slower than the Famicom or NES versions, as if a hack to remove the
title screen hurt the already poor optimization. I say poor
optimization as the game is a pretty big flickery mess but that's how
the real cartridges are. It's still a fun game just the same.
196.
Jackal - Leaving the Kunio-kun series, Jackal kicks off a series of three
Konami arcade conversions on the multicart that were either enhanced or
reworked for their home releases. A vehicular take on the
overhead run-and-gun, Jackal was one of those NES games that everyone
seemed to know when I was a kid. Greatly expanded over the arcade
original, the objective is to drive a jeep into hostile territory,
destroying enemy installations and rescuing POWs. The jeep is
equipped with a machine gun that will always fire upward, while a
secondary explosive weapon will be launched in the direction the jeep
is facing. Rescuing POWs who are officers will upgrade the
secondary weapon, increasing its firing speed, distance, and explosive
range. Jackal has superb visuals, an excellent soundtrack, and
extremely tight gameplay. The NES version is what is included on
the multicart, as the Japanese release was on the Famicom Disk System
and is actually a much smaller and less featured game - a rare instance
of North American gamers getting more than their Japanese counterparts.
Life Force and Rush'n
Attack
197.
Life Force - Another NES favorite, Life Force is a Gradius sequel that
isn't exactly the sequel to Gradius. Originally released to
arcades as Salamander, the game had a number of different revisions
that changed everything from the power-up system and graphics, to the
title and backstory. Additionally every home release seems to be
just a bit different from every other. Eventually it was
converted for the Famicom, taking a bit of the original Salamander and
a little of the Japanese release of Life Force and combining
them. Some new areas and enemies were added and others were
removed. Salamander on Famicom switched to the Gradius-style
power-up system, using collected capsules to advance a selection bar,
rather than individual power-ups of the original arcade release.
This was the version of the game reworked for the NES release, with a
few more tweaks such as reducing the number of "option" power-ups by
one and removing the Famicom's multiple endings. The version of
the game included on the multicart is a pirated release of the NES
version, originally released by the bootleg outfit NTDEC. NTDEC
released many pirated versions of popular Famicom games, manufacturing
tons of bootleg cartridges, including the NES Caltron 6-in-1
multicart. Life Force is a great shooter, easily one of the best
to be released on the NES. It has outstanding music, beautiful
graphics, engaging gameplay, excellent level design, huge bosses, and
is a core two-player experience on the hardware. The NTDEC
version plays as expected, the Konami code works fine, and other than
the modified title screen it's the NES version of Life Force.
198.
Rush'n Attack - A popular title among early Konami offerings on
the NES, Rush'n Attack is a
home conversion of an action game that would be a run-and-gun if the
player didn't primarily use a combat knife. Tasked with
destroying an enemy secret weapon, the player takes on the role of a
Green Beret, parachuting deep behind enemy lines. Very limited
secondary weapons can be obtained by defeating specific enemies,
including a rocket launcher used to clear large groups of enemies, and
grenades that can be used to blow open secret areas. Rush'n
Attack is one of the few games where using Up on the directional pad to
jump actually works fine and responds accurately. What has always
stood out to me most about Rush'n Attack is that it's an action game
that requires a more methodical approach, similar to Irem's Kung-Fu
Master. Success is dependent on understanding how the different
enemy types will attack, getting them to react, and then responding
accordingly at the correct moment. It's a game with a rhythm to
success, again like Kung-Fu Master. Charging head-on into enemies
without understanding this will lead to a quick game over and the game
can feel ruthlessly difficult if played in such a way.
Where Dad Went To and
Boonie Bear 2
199.
Where Dad Wentto - Okay, now we start to get into the really
weird ones on the multicart. Early releases of the 198 in 1
cartridge stopped at exactly 198 games, however later releases have
seven
extra games, for a total of 204. Three of the extra games are
bootleg hacks that apparently reference Chinese TV shows. The
first of these, Where Dad Went To, is a hack of the NES release of Adventure Island II. Sometimes
hacks such as these are pretty decent but that's not the case with this
one. The new sprites are glitchy with strange colors and stray
pixels in addition to very poor graphical design. The player
character, Master Higgins, has been changed to some kind of weird
looking kid. A big part of Adventure Island II is riding around
on dinosaur companions. The replacement sprites for the dinosaurs
are very strange, leading to the player character essentially
piggybacking on pissed off looking dudes with goatees who run around
wearing garish suits. The pteranodon rework is particularly
poorly done and looks absolutely ridiculous. It's not just the
dinosaurs and the player character that look bad. The stone axe
looks like, well there's no other way to say it, a hunk of crap that
the player throws - although it's probably supposed to be some kind of
root vegetable. The new sprites simply don't fit the sizing of
what they replace, making everything feel just a bit off, although the
game plays fine otherwise. The text graphics are slightly tweaked
as well, appearing somewhat corrupted. Interestingly the large
dinosaur that appears on the warp screen is unaltered, showing the bare
minimum was done to change the graphics. Adventure Island II is a
great game but this hack is just strange, regardless of the subject
matter it was intended to represent, and should be avoided.
200.
Boonie Bear 2 - Following suit with game 199, this is a hack of Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima,
known in the west as the original Hudson's Adventure Island.
Another hack apparently based on a Chinese TV property, this one is far
more competent than Where Dad Went To. It features decent sprite
reworks for Takahashi Meijin / Higgins, most enemies, and items.
The new sprites keep similar sizes to the graphics they are replacing,
which maintains the proper aspect for their objects and allows the game
to feel good and play as it should. Even the reworked title
screen looks okay and isn't a glitchy mess - a rarity for most of these
quickie pirate reworks. As with Where Dad Went To, the text
graphics have been messed with a bit, creating a slightly corrupted
appearance but it's not as bad as the other game. It also seems
like the end of level text is now in Spanish, which is pretty
strange. For all the graphical changes put forth, the bosses are
untouched from the original game, a bit of a disappointment to be
honest. I've actually completed Hudson's Adventure Island, one
of the most surprisingly difficult games ever created in my opinion,
and a title that looks like some easy kids game on the surface.
If you have yet to experience how brutal this game quickly becomes,
then I suggest giving it a try, as beating this one years ago remains
one of my personal top gaming accomplishments.
Hero Alliance 2 and
Flying Hero
201.
Hero Alliance 2 - This yet another hack, this time of Ninja Ryukenden III, which is the
game that was reworked into Ninja Gaiden III for the NES. Think
of a Ninja Gaiden game with all the cutscene text removed and all the
story taken out - that's what you have here. The sprite hacks for
Ryu Hayabusa are laughable and look ridiculous, again apparently done
to
re-theme the game after a Chinese TV show. The sprite hacks
aren't even that thorough as half of the time in the cutscenes it's
regular old Ryu, showing double minimal effort. It's hard to
imagine playing what is considered a cinematic game with all the text
missing. I have to give it to the pirate outfit though, they
actually found a way to ruin Ninja Ryukenden III more than the overly
difficult and botched NES release - that's really saying
something. I've always thought the series peaked with Ninja
Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, which is also one of my favorite
games on the platform outright, but I know the third game has its fans,
especially the Famicom version. That doesn't matter here though,
as this hack is totally not worth playing even as a curiosity.
202.
Flying Hero - Getting back to licensed games, this is a fun
one. Flying Hero is a
firefighting and rescue game that plays like a ball and paddle
game. Two firefighters at the bottom of the screen launch a third
up into the air on a trampoline. The player controls the movement
of the firefighters on the ground and the objective is to direct the
airborne firefighter to rescue trapped people, extinguish flames, and
dislodge bonus items. Bonus items must be caught by the team
below to count but if they miss the falling firefighter then the player
will lose a life. One big quirk of the game that seems to often
throw people off, is that the movement of the firefighters on the
ground will automatically speed up if they aren't beneath the flying
firefighter. This can be a bit unpredictable when trying to catch
items and may even come across as a glitch. A number of power-ups
can be collected, many that will be familiar to anyone who has played
Arkanoid. These include trampoline extensions, an additional
flying firefighter, extinguishers that will put out a burning
trampoline, the ability to clear a stage immediately, and others.
One special item will send the flying firefighter inside the building
where he must extinguish flames and search for a key to advance to the
next stage. The interior sections look a bit like a game of
Elevator Action and are a nice addition to mix up the ball and paddle
gameplay. There are quite a few stages in Flying Hero with a lot
of variety and completing the game is a solid challenge. Sega
Mark III collectors may also recognize this game, as it's a semi-sequel
to one of the few Mark III games to require the paddle controller,
Megumi Rescue.
Gun.Smoke and
Saiyuuki World
203.
Gunsmoke - A home conversion of Capcom's Wild West take on their
arcade hit Commando, Gun.Smoke
is another of my absolute favorite NES games. Unique to a
run-and-gun, Gun.Smoke's player character Billy Bob is always in
motion. Additionally while the B and A buttons are used to fire
his guns, the direction shots are fired is in relation to what button
is pressed: B to fire to the left, A to fire to the right, and B and A
together to fire forward. This all makes the game much faster
moving and smoother to control than pretty much any other overhead
shooter on the system. This would be an awesome game to have on
the cartridge if it wasn't for the fact that the European PAL version
is what is included here. Of course this means the game runs too
fast on NTSC hardware, ruining the excellent music and souring the
experience with overly frantic gameplay. It really is a
tremendous shame as Gun.Smoke is a ton of fun, very challenging, with
unique gameplay that makes it totally different than any other
ground-based shooter. If you haven't played it before, check out
the proper version for your region, even if it's only to hear the
awesome theme of the first stage.
204.
Saiyuuki - A Famicom adaptation of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Saiyuuki World is themed after the
Chinese novel Journey to the West, hence the game's name. Many
works have adapted Journey to the West in some form, and Wonder Boy in
Monster Land would be re-adapted many times, so both crossing paths
here is pretty interesting. Control Son Wukong, the monkey king,
as he sets out to free captured monks. We've already seen the
more action oriented sequel, Saiyuuki World II: Tenjokai no Majin,
which
was reworked into Whomp 'Em for the NES and included on the multicart
as game number 176. Saiyuuki World further refines the Monster
Land formula, shedding its arcade confines by finally removing the
timer and expanding the story, creating a more console-specific
experience. There's a lot of Japanese text here but if you've
played Wonder Boy in Monster Land a couple times you may be able to
feel your way through. If the game sounds interesting, there's a
pretty solid English fan translation from 2016 that is worth checking
out. Certainly not a spectacular game, everything does look a bit
flat and the sequel was a significant jump up in visual fidelity, but
it's decently entertaining.
Bases Loaded 4 and
MagMax
205.
Bases Loaded 4 - The very end of the list of over two hundred
games is capped of with a baseball game of all things. Bases
Loaded 4 is the final NES game in the long-running Jaleco
baseball
series, known in Japan under the "Moero!! Pro Yakyuu" banner. If
you've played any of the other games in the series things will be
familiar. The trademark television-style presentation makes its
return, with realistic graphics and good animation. Preference as
to which game in the series is best is all down to individual taste, as
they all are just a bit different with their own quirks. I had a
friend when I was in the fourth grade who absolutely loved the original
Bases Loaded, knew everything about the game, and was spectacular at
it. Based Loaded 4 may not be my favorite NES or Famicom baseball
title (that would be Baseball Stars and Softball Tengoku, respectively)
but it's a solid game and closed out the NES era of Jaleco baseball.
CoolBoy
400 in 1 Real Game, Spotlight
Selection:
112.
Mag Max - My final pick for a spotlight game included on the 400
in 1 cartridge is Nichibutsu's MagMax,
a home conversion of their 1985 side-scrolling arcade shooter. A
few things make MagMax stand our from other contemporary games on the
Famicom, as well as in the arcade. Each stage has both an above
ground and an underground area that can be moved between by riding
transporters that appear throughout the stage. The underground
areas
play like a conventional shooter, while the above ground areas play in
a 3/4 perspective, with the ship skirting the surface of the
terrain. The power-up system is a bit different as well, as it
involves collecting components that allow the ship to be built out into
a giant robot on the fly. These increase the ship's firepower and
will also absorb damage by being blown off if hit. The game
itself is pretty simple and it's actually really short in length,
looping only after a few minutes. However it has always been a
game that comes to mind when I think of early Famicom shooters that are
still fun to play. Strangely enough I never knew anyone back
during the heyday of the NES that had this game. My first
encounter with it was much later in my collecting, when I bought a
bunch of NES games from a friend and co-worker around 2001 or so.
It may not set your world on fire or anything but MagMax is a perfect
quick play shooter, what would have been a perfect rental game back in
the day.
With that we have reached the end of
the cartridge, 204 unique games! I didn't expect it to take so
long! Originally the idea was to get through the entire cartridge
over a couple years of issues, but it became pretty easy to get burned
out on playing and talking about so many games each time. I
honestly don't know how people who cover games chronologically or
play through entire libraries do it. When I began, the CoolBoy
198
in 1 and 400 in 1 multicarts were super popular and a lot of people
were talking about them, becoming almost mainstream among
retrogamers. In the time that has passed since then, bootleg
multicarts have returned to being an extremely niche way to play
games. A big part of that has to do with wider adaptation of
flash memory solutions as they have become more robust and more
affordable. That's the way I play most of my cartridge games
these days. For those who have been here for the entire run of
the "A Pirate's Life For Me" column, thank you very much for
accompanying
me on the journey! Check out some pirate multicarts and set out
on an adventure of your own.
In the era before smart phones, video
game collecting was a completely different beast. Without instant
access to reviews, YouTube videos, and pricing guides, there wasn't a
lot to go off of when you bought a game. Sometimes you looked at the
box art, and if the front was cool looking enough, and the pictures on
the back convincing enough, and you had a good feeling about it, you
just went for it. That is how I acquired my favorite game of all time:
Bucky O'Hare for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Now, I didn't go into this purchase
fully blind. I had seen the cartoon show a few times, and I also
remembered seeing discounted Bucky action figures at Wal-Mart. But what
really launched my Bucky Mania was the Konami Bucky O'Hare arcade game
from 1992. I first played it at the furthest Chuck E. Cheese from my
childhood home in the Milwaukee area. The game was a combination of
many of the best Konami arcade games of the time. It features the
relentless beat 'em up action of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
games, the gun toting combat of Sunset Riders, and the screen clearing
special powers of the X-Men arcade game, and it was all wrapped up in a
sci-fi for kids package. I was instantly hooked.
Imagine my sheer joy, when shortly
after experiencing the arcade game for the first time, I found the
Nintendo Bucky game at a now closed mom and pop game shop. Without any
information to go off of except the rad art on the loose cart, I was
convinced I needed it. For the low price of only twenty dollars, my
parents gladly agreed to purchase it for me. My hopes that the
game would be similar to the arcade game were instantly shattered when
I powered the gray box on. Instead of another high quality Konami
brawler, this game started out with all of Bucky's allies kidnapped and
a selection screen of colored planets to choose from to start your
rescue mission. I was instantly a little disappointed and saddened. But
since I had no real disposable income at the time, and tons of free
time, I decided to give it a shot.
What I found was an arguably even
better experience than the arcade game. It was my first experience with
a Mega Man style, shooting platforming game. The more I played it, the
more I grew to love it based on its own merits. It's a seriously fun
game with tight controls, beautiful pixel art, cinematic cut scenes,
catchy music, and diverse levels. As you rescue your teammates, they
become fully playable on the fly. Blinky the robot can hover and
destroy weak blocks, Jenny the fox fires a psychic beam, Deadeye the
duck can climb walls and has a three way shot, and Willy the human has
a powerfully deadly charged laser beam.
The immense high quality of the game
only fueled my budding Bucky mania. In the Winter, I pretended to be
Blinky the robot, and pretended to break ice blocks on the Blue Planet
with my laser eye. In the Spring, I made a terrible Bucky pinata for a
birthday party out of construction paper that was so poorly constructed
it didn't even break properly. In the hot summer months, I was coloring
in my official Bucky O'Hare coloring books. When I drew doodles of what
kind of video games I wished I could make in the future, they were
totally influenced by this game.
Eventually I grew older, and as the
world forgot about Bucky, so did I. My original Bucky cartridge was
left at my Dad's house and lost when I moved away to college. But many
years later, when I decided to begin playing and collecting games on
the suddenly retro NES, I reacquired the game and rediscovered the same
sense of joy that the game gave me as a weird, dorky kid. Buying the
game again was integral to the re-awakening of my gaming passion. I
also finally managed to complete the game which felt like a true
accomplishment, since I never was able to complete it as a kid, topping
out at the latter parts of the game when it the crew must escape on
mini-space ships in Gradius style levels.
Bucky O'Hare was peak childhood
perfection for me, and will always hold a special place in my heart as
my admittedly sentimental pick for favorite game of all time. It even
helped lead to one of my childhood dreams of writing for a video game
publication coming true, as my first article for The Retrogaming Times
was my retro review of Konami's underappreciated masterpiece. Are there
other games that I've played that are objectively better? Maybe. Lots
of games featuring Mario and Link come to mind. But none of them will
ever match the sheer joy I get every time I fire up Bucky O'Hare for
the NES.