I wish I could see something like this in person.
I’m a retro gamer at heart. Through and through. I just love those older classic games. Some of my favorites being Missile Command for the Atari 2600, any version of Millipede, Rampage, Gauntlet … the list goes on and on. Since I was born in 1981 I missed out being aware of the Atari 2600. At that young of an age … it was just something I saw occasionally since I wasn’t able to have one of my own. My earliest gaming memories from a store come from seeing NES games and whatnot at Wal-Mart … not even a game specific store. I just remember seeing them behind a case and never being able to get them because I’ve ALWAYS been a cheap bastard and just got them when people got tired of them or from yard sales.
And the electronic games are another one. Sure, I played the old Tiger Electronics games. Who didn’t at least play ONE. And some of the ones I had as a kid I wish I still had like Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. Oh, and that one … I don’t remember the exact name of it off the top of my head … I’m sure I could find it if I actually did some research. I think it was called the Tiger VR Zone or something. It was this headset you wrapped around your head, you stuck a little cartridge in it and the Tiger game would show up in sort of a pseudo 3D on a little red screen in front of your face.
Either way, these pictures are very telling and make me wish I could go back in time to actually see this in person. It’s just not the same anymore. Yeah, you walk into a store and it might look somewhat similar … but just doesn’t have the same charm. All the pictures courtesy of GameGavel.com’s forums. Which is, ironically enough, the adopted forums of The Wasted Seconds Podcast for those of you who want a kickass crowd of people to shoot the shit with about retro and modern gaming.
Bio Menace for DOS
Yet another one of those old shareware games that I never got to play the full version of until recently. Bio Menace. Honestly, I don’t know a whole lot about this game other than the fact it (obviously. Something that I noticed even back in the day) uses the Commander Keen engine. But it’s also the first game I played at home with any sort of blood and guts in it. Bodies are strewn about the blasted landscape, when the aliens die they blow up into little meaty bits and eyeballs and the like. When you think about it, this is a rather violent and disturbing game. But you can learn a lot more than I could ever tell you about this on the Wikipedia page. But great graphics (for the time), great music by Bobby Prince, decent sidescrolling run and gun gameplay. While it’s not perfect, and is actually pretty hard it’s definitely worth trying. And the main character’s name is Snake and he has a mullet. You can’t get much cheesier than that. I’m going through it again now because I never got the chance to back in the day. Back then I don’t even remember passing the first level to be perfectly honest. :) As usual, all the screenshots are courtesy of MobyGames and you can find the full version download at the bottom.
Major Stryker for DOS
This is one of those games that I never played the full version of until recently. In all honesty I had almost completely forgotten about it. I snagged this off of a bulletin board back in 1993 and I remembered LOVING it. Now, granted, a lot of these old PC games don’t fare too well nowadays. But this is one of those games that definitely stands the test of time. Another thing that made this game special to me back in the day and really helped turn me on to PC gaming was the fact that I had a PC that could run this … and a Nintendo. I didn’t have a Sega Genesis or SNES, it was the PC and the Nintendo … and the Atari 2600. And it was games like this and the original Duke Nukem games that showed me that the Nintendo wasn’t all there was out there in my little world.
While there isn’t anything particularly SPECIAL about it, it’s a fully playable and damned impressive vertically scrolling shmup with sharp, detailed 16 color EGA graphics (with parallax scrolling. Trust me, it was a big deal back in the day.) and some GREAT music by Bobby Prince that I unfortunately never got to experience until today because the PC I had to play this game at the time didn’t have a sound card. Hell, the music alone is worth the download, and I wish I had it to stick on my iPod, it’s that good with a monstrous 20 song soundtrack (granted, a few of them are the typical short “You’re dead.” tunes that I tend to hear a lot) … and there are a grand total of 30 sound effects in the entire game. With one voice sample that says “Game over, man!”
Gameplay isn’t anything you haven’t played before, you move around and shoot straight up. There are powerups in the game that give you different types of shots (including the ability to shoot behind yourself). But even on the beginner level this is one hell of a hard game. At least it is to me. I’ve never had this many problems with a shmup, not even the bullet hell style games. :)
Great game with some even better music. And is well worth the price of free because it was released as such at one point. If you like shmups or good video game music, it’s definitely worth a try. It may look dated, but fun games are fun games. All screenshots courtesy of MobyGames. Hit the jump to see them and download the game.
Double Dragon for the the PC
Back in the day, this was my introduction to the Double Dragon series. Not the arcade version (though I knew it was an arcade port), and not the NES version. THIS particular port. And I remember having such HORRID memories of the game. Maybe I just couldn’t stand the constant gangups (if you’ve got enemies on either side of you, prepare for a beating). Maybe I just wasn’t that much into beat ‘em ups at the time. I don’t know. Or maybe it was the keyboard control scheme for it. Unlike the more popular NES version, this one actually supports two player cooperative play, which was a big draw for the day. And that made it slightly more arcade like in it’s experience.
Just a quick one …
Here's my collection as of this writing. The picture kinda sucks because all I've got is the camera in my phone.
I know it's not the biggest collection out there, and it's not even everything right now (still got a bunch of PC, Playstation 1 and 2, XBOX, 360, Gamecube etc etc to dig out. Even a couple of Virtual Boy games hehe) but it's still growing. The cases themselves are 2 deep, and package on top of them is a Tiger Woods '97 LCD game that I just stuck up there. In between the Sega CD Mortal Kombat and the Genesis cases is a little tiny binder with some Sega CD games ... Dragon's Lair being one of them.
And then there's the original Nintendo and Nintendo 64. There's some Gameboy and Gameboy Advance games up there too.
Galaxy Force 2 for the Sega Genesis
Back in the 16 bit era, they had half-assed releases of several astonishing arcade games to the home consoles. Some worked out, such as the original Outrun and Afterburner ... others didn't fair so well. Especially to the Genesis. As much as I love this system, they had some terrible arcade ports.
Okay, I think I may have a problem. :)
Just got back from a flea market about half an hour away from my house, and snagged the following:
An original box NES with 2 controllers, the NES Advantage joystick (which, while it works perfectly, has a weird see througgh yellow golf ball lookin' thing instead of the normal ball, but it doesn't affect anything), a zapper and had the games Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt
Hardware review - The Retro Duo Twin Video Game System v2.0
I originally wrote this on Amazon after I ordered it (and I use it all lthe time by the way hehe). I've changed it a bit for here considering I've gotten extra stuff for it, but ... yeah.
I ordered this mostly to save space and the lifespan of my NES systems. It came in pretty attractive and functional packaging, it was pretty cool flip up the cardboard cover and see everything.