Halo 2600 was released at the Classic Gaming Expo
Who says the Atari 2600 is dead. Now … I’ll admit. I’m not a Halo fan. I personally think the game is slow paced and rather boring. But I do like what other people come with in a game. Despite the fact that this is an Atari 2600 game, and the developer limited himself to using 4K of space. So no bankswitching or any of those things to provide more space. He has managed to create an extremely playable and fun game. And even the enemies are recognizable, and of course, Master Chief is instantly recognizable his his pixelated forrm. The graphics (by Atari 2600 standards of course) are extremely good, the sound is what you would expect from the system, and the control is perfect. If you’ve ever played Berzerk, it plays a lot like that. Only you can’t shoot diagonally. Here’s a little excerpt from his thinking behind the game (you can read the quite long post via the link) :
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.
Super C for DOS
Why the DOS version? Why not the arcade version. Or the NES version. Because back in those days I didn’t get to a lot of arcades and I mostly had an old PC to work with, so this is the version of it I would have played if I didn’t have an NES. Don’t judge it by the piss poor EGA graphics though, it plays great and is just as balls hard as any other version of the game. I tried to play it earlier and didn’t even make it past the first level, gonna have to try again once I have a little more patience and can remember where everything is. Considering what PCs were back in 1990, and the fact that they couldn’t force people to buy a 386 for this when most people were still running either an 8088 or a 286, this isn’t a half bad port and is at least worth trying for those of you who are curious about what we had to deal with as far as arcade ports back in the day. I was going to put the original Contra for DOS on here as well, but that’s an unplayable atrocity of a game. Thankfully I never played it back in the day and stuck with the NES version. PCs of the day just weren’t set up to handle a game like that. You just use the arrow keys to move around and aim and use the 0/Insert key on your numerical pad to jump and ./Del to fire.
The sound is pretty good, the graphics, despite the fact that they’re EGA are pretty well detailed. The game manages to keep track of the hectic nature of the overall game great and the music is good. And, above all else, the control is solid. Even the 4 color CGA graphics look halfway decent, though nowadays there’s no reason to even play it that way unless you just want to see it like that for some reason.
Kinda makes me when I had a 286 layin’ around somewhere so I could play this game on it.
If you let it sit for a little bit, it even has the arcade’s corny opening (minus the voices) and is definitely worth a watch. All images via Mobygames beacuse I can’t get far enough in the game to take good screenshots. :)
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.