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.
Another video for the NES style Left 4 Dead de-make
This little game is looking to be REALLY cool stuff. In the last video we just saw zombies and Boomers. This one has all that, with a ramped up difficulty and Witches, Smokers and Hunters. Seeing them do their thing in 8 bit is awesome. And how cool would it be if you could play this online (I have a feeling that’s wishful thinking if they’re sticking with what the NES actually could do). In a little over a month, this will be up for free download, and I’m definitely checking this out. Would be able to get my Left 4 Dead on with my little netbook, because this is looking like it’s going to be awesome.
via Destructoid
A really cool looking Left 4 Dead de-make
I got Left 4 Dead 2 yesterday, and I’m slowly but surely making my way through the campaigns. I took a little break, headed over to Destructoid and saw this video.
Now, yeah, the zombie reaction times are a bit slow, and obviously there aren’t hundreds of them coming after you all at once, but this is supposed to be the game as it would be seen on the NES. And that’s the reason I want it.
And apparently it IS in fact a free game that is supposed to come out early January by PixelForce. It’s supposed to have all four campaigns and all of the special infected. And judging from the care they took with the Boomer in the video, I can’t wait to see what they do with the others. Especially the Tank and the Witch.
So long as the zombies have a quicker reaction time I’ll be happy. And wouldn’t it be wicked to see this with online play? Yeah yeah, you only see up to two players on the title screen above … but most NES games can only either be played by one or two players since the four player adapter wasn’t utilized enough. In fact, the only four player game I can even think of off the top of my head is NES Play Action Football.
But yeah, I’m definitely looking forward to this. It looks like it could be a great amount of fun for the short time it’d last. Because, honestly, do you really see yourself playing this over and over and over like you do the Xbox 360/PC game? Probably not.
On a side note about Left 4 Dead 2, it’s better than the original in just about every conceivable way. Hell, the first CAMPAIGN is better than anything the entire first game had to offer.
But I’m still playing the hell out of the first one because there are literally hundreds of free campaigns you can download off the net. So the PC version of that game is going to last me a long, LONG time.