RG16 Cover UK.qxd:RG16 Cover UK.qxd 20/9/06 13:06 Page 1 er gamer retro COMMODORE • SEGA • NINTENDO • ATARI • SINCLAIR • ARCADE *
VOLUME TWO ISSUE FOUR
Nintendo Famicom Is this the best console of all time? Indiana Jones Opening the gaming ark Rare’s GoldenEye 007 heaven on the N64 Pong Wars A brief history of videogames
Retro Gamer 16 £5.99 UK $14.95 AUS V2 $27.70 NZ 04 Untitled-1 1 1/9/06 12:55:47 RG16 Intro/Contents.qxd:RG16 Intro/Contents.qxd 20/9/06 14:27 Page 3
Retro Gamer, ISSN number 1742 3155, is published monthly (twelve times per year) by Live Publishing at 1320 Route 9, Champlain, N.Y. 12919 for US$123 per year. Periodicals postage paid at Champlain, NY. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Retro Gamer c/o Express Mag, P.O. Box 2769, Plattsburgh, NY 12901-1329.
q 3 q RG16 Intro/Contents.qxd:RG16 Intro/Contents.qxd 20/9/06 14:27 Page 4
>Content v2.04
Retro Revival p18 The Family Computer p30 Aaron Birch ventures into Gauntlet’s deepest John Szczepaniak examines the original dungeons in search of gaming treasure Japanese Famicom and its Disk System sibling
Next Level Gaming p44 Indiana Jones and the Gaming Ark p48 Martyn Carroll rounds up the games available Robert Mellor follows Indy’s adventures in for the Amstrad CPC-6128 interative entertainment
A Brief History of Videogames p60 Shadowrun p72 Spanner Spencer charts the early work on John Szczepaniak explores the Shadowrun which today’s videogame industry is founded universe, revealing three very different games
q 4 q RG16 Intro/Contents.qxd:RG16 Intro/Contents.qxd 20/9/06 14:27 Page 5
>Regulars Retro News p06 Two pages of the latest retro news
Back to the Eighties p08 A look back at what was happening in the gaming world 20 years ago this month
King Mario p38 Retro Rated p12 Alicia Ashby and Geson Hatchett look at the Retro Gamer reviews the latest commercial incredible impact of the NES in America hardware and software releases
Japan Happy Play Noise p20 A look at Japanese retro sports games
Desert Island Disks p22 Paul Drury talks to Digitiser’s Mr Biffo and Mr Hairs
Son of Arcade Hunt p68 Retro Gamer goes in seach of classic coin-ops
Killer Apps p78 Rare’s GoldenEye – the best Bond game ever Gilsoft p56 Games That Weren’t p80 Chris Wild talks to the guys behind Gilsoft, Frank Gasking takes a stroll through the creators of The Quill gaming graveyard
Strange Games p82 The bizarre Chou Aniki series of games...
Retro Scene p92 The latest news from the retro community
High Score p96 Paul Drury talks to Roy Shildt, holder of the Missile Command world record
Retro Auction Watch p99 Richard Burton keeps his eye on eBay Feel the Force p85 We present a little piece of Newsfield history in Retro Forum p100 the form of Nintendo Force magazine Reader feedback and Web forum posts
Retro Coverdisc p106 A getting started guide to Elder Scrolls: Arena
Endgame p114
q 5 q Another issue draws to a close RG16 Retro News.qxd:RG16 Retro News.qxd 20/9/06 15:06 Page 6
Return of the Pac 25 years and still eating…
Pac-Man, eh? Who’d have thought hit arcades, the ever-hungry hero that a simple yellow circle could is set to return once more. have had such an impact? Pac-Man’s leash holder, Besides becoming one of the Namco, recently announced that most recognisable videogame the latest adventure in the combine, and darkness will reign players will run into several characters ever created, Pac-Man popular Pac-Man World series will forever. “Mu-ha-ha-ha,” as evil blasts from the past, and will was one of the key players in be due out towards the end of genius’s are fond of saying. even meet some old enemies. We bringing gaming to the the year, just in time to celebrate Pac-Man World 3 will be a would also strongly suspect mainstream audience. And now, a his 25th birthday. full 3D platforming affair, that some classic Pac- quarter of a century since he first The new game will see Pac- as you’d Man games will make Man on a quest to save the expect. But it their way into the world from Erwin, your everyday will still final game in some evil genius. In a bid for power, feature all form or another, the screwy scientist has created a of the usual probably as device that can open a doorway Pac-Man unlockable to the spectral realm. But this elements, such as bonuses. device has malfunctioned, power-pills, dots and fruit, Pac-Man causing the ghostly dimension to as well as new features like World 3 will be collapse and seep into the real power-up smoothies (!) and out in the autumn world. If things aren’t fixed soon, the Pactrometer (!!). On for PC, Xbox, GameCube, then the two worlds will the way, though, PS2 and PSP.
returning FFVII star, Vincent on a console. In fact, you can Valentine. Details are sketchy at now find the spiky-haired hero Devil May Fantasise the moment, but it looks as hitting the slopes on the new though Shinra Inc’s military special mobile phone game Final Fantasy Final Fantasy VII stands by for action forces, SOLDIER are up to no VII Snowboarding. Yes, that cool good, and a great meteor has hit a little sub-game from FFVII is back The hugely popular and long- there are as yet no clear details small peaceful village, causing the and is doing the rounds on running Japanese RPG monster regarding the actual game, from heroic vampire to get involved. mobile. If you want to find out that is Final Fantasy looks set to what we’ve seen, it looks set to Early screens already suggest more FF information, visit dip its turn-based toe into arcade replicate the action seen in that the game is very likely to be a www.square-enix.com. action once again (remember Capcom’s Devil May Cry. third-person scrapper of some sort, Ergheiz?). Final Fantasy VII: Dirge Taking place three years after and should see the return of many of Cerberus is the new title being the events seen in Final Fantasy of FFVII’s characters and locations. thrown around, and although VII, the game will revolve around With this action-heavy gameplay, it’s not certain how much, if any, RPG gameplay will remain. But maybe it’s time for the series to try a change in pace… Also making a return to the gaming world is Cloud, the main character from FFVII. However, his appearance isn’t in an RPG or an action adventure – he’s not even
q 6 q RG16 Retro News.qxd:RG16 Retro News.qxd 20/9/06 15:06 Page 7
REGULAR | RETRO NEWS Brand new All the latest news from the retro world Mario Nintendo’s figurehead in new 2D platformer
If you prefer the good old days of Mario’s exploits before his leap into 3D, then you’ll be happy to know that Nintendo is developing a new DS title starring the lovable plumber. Tentatively titled New Super Mario, the DS incarnation will ditch the 3D perspective, making it the first new 2D Namco a go-go Mario game since Yoshi’s Island on the Super Nintendo. Sadly, nothing of Arcade classics on the move significance is known about the game at the moment. Until that changes, why not Got an import PSP? Hungry for Namco hits Pac-Man, Dig Dug, gaze at these mouth-watering screenshots. some mobile retro gaming? Then Galaga and more. However, the guys at Namco have got the Western gamers will get an even answer. The games giant has bigger dose of arcade history as recently announced that it intends the US version (and presumably to release a retro-fuelled collection the UK one too) will not only of its all time greats onto Sony’s feature all of the original Japanese handheld. The release, titled titles, but will also contain an Namco Museum Battle Collection, extra 10 classics. These will with the original Japanese release, originally went on sale earlier in include Xevious, Mappy, Dig Dug each game will come in its original the year in Japan and featured 2, Bosconian and more. And, as form, as well as an updated and reworked edition. The compilation will also make full use of the PSP’s wireless connectivity too, allowing multiple players to connect for some classic multiplayer action. You’ll even be able to share the fun by using the Game Sharing Mode, which will let you transfer titles wirelessly to another PSP. No release date has been confirmed at the time of writing but rest assured, we’ll have a full Ones to review when it arrives. watch 1,000s of hooky NES Two new retro games on systems seized the radar Retro pirates raided! A couple of interesting titles have appeared Authorities recently raided a went undercover as potential on the Web over the last few weeks, and number of locations in the US, buyers, informing the suspects while there are no real details to report or and rather than finding the that they wished to distribute the screens to show, the names alone are expected PC, PS2 and Xbox goods throughout NY and the enough to get us excited. The two are Taito games, they uncovered a Midwest. It’s alleged that the Legends and Bubble Bobble DS. whopping 60,000 bootleg NES defendants actually imported We can only imagine that Taito Legends systems! The raids, which took more than 280,000 illegal game will be a collection of the arcade games place in New York and New consoles into the US in 2004 and created by the legendary developer, and Jersey, un-earthed many pirated that the piracy scam cost we hope that greats such as Phoenix, Qix, NES games too, including Duck Nintendo millions in lost revenue. Arkanoid, Slap Fight and Renegade are Hunt, Donkey Kong and the So there you go. As well as included. Bubble Bobble DS on the other original Mario Bros. bringing America’s most wanted hand is a little more predictable, and we Four people were to justice, and looking for extra- should have a faithful recreation of the arrested following the terrestrial life forms, the FBI is hugely popular hit for the new mobile operation, in which FBI agents now onto retro game pirates too. platform. More news as we get it.
q 7 q RETRO16 Back to the 80s:RETRO16 Back to the 80s 20/9/06 13:04 Page 8
Retro Gamer ushers ay 1985 was the formerly known as Samurai, which plans for a new arcade arm. The month we finally later changed to Elan and then label, to be called Monolith, you back to May found out about the once more to the comedic sponge- revealed that its first release would 1985, when big- long-awaited pricing based offering of Flan, released its be Rockford’s Riot, the follow-up to memory computers M structure of Atari’s new 128KB version of the original the hugely successful Boulderdash. and KP Skips were new 512KB ST range. Atari planned Enterprise computer, giving it a After the rousing reception to bundle the 520ST with a steep £250 price tag. The older Starion received from the reviewers flavour of the monochrome monitor and a disk 64KB version was reduced to £180. this month, Melbourne House month. And the drive for £899. It hoped the Although a rather good machine, revealed details of its next big main points of the package would hit the shelves the Enterprise was introduced to game. Marketed as a martial-arts news were… around September time. the computer marketplace a bit too simulation rather than a beat-em- Two further setup variations late in the day to make an impact up, the forthcoming Way Of The would also be available. Package and neither system ever gained a Exploding Fist would be available two would comprise of a 520ST foothold on the computing ladder. next month for C64, Spectrum and minus the monitor but with a built- Interesting Enterprise Fact #71: Amstrad. Just stick with the in RF modulator that would set you the machine’s sound chip is crouched leg sweep and you back a slightly lower £699, whilst a called Dave. can’t fail… third option of the computer Still flushed with the success of complete with a colour monitor, Games watch Everyone’s A Wally, Mikro-Gen albeit of a lower resolution than unveiled its next release in the the monochrome model, would Beyond, responsible for such series, Herbert’s Dummy Run. With also be available for £899. crackers as Lords Of Midnight and a release date set for June, the Despite the news, Atari wasn’t Doomdark’s Revenge, announced wandering, dribbly offspring of about to ditch its 8-bit range just yet. In direct competition with the >Game & Watch? swathe of new 128KB systems (specifically the recently announced Welcome to the future! Oh yes, 50 compilation for under a Commodore 128), the 130XE arrived it was here in 1985, with the tenner and bag yourself a in shops with a £169.99 price tag. release of a computerised wrist fantastic calculator digital So with Atari, Amstrad, terminal by Seiko. The RC-1000 watch which, let’s face it, was Sinclair and Commodore was a digital watch compatible the only reason for buying all bringing out new with the Commodore 64. It had that cassette full of crap in the machines, another an absolutely enormous memory first place. challenger felt it was time capacity of 2KB RAM which to enter the fray. Enterprise would enable you to keep Computers, the company important titbits of information like notes to yourself, telephone numbers and schedule alarms Atari announced for those all-important business its new 16-bit meetings. It connected to your computer, the C64 with a cable and came ST, while the Enterprise with software to set up your 128KB wrist terminal – all for just £120. computer joined Failing that, you could buy the 8-bit party Cascade’s infamous Cassette
q 8 q RETRO16 Back to the 80s:RETRO16 Back to the 80s 20/9/06 13:04 Page 9
REGULAR | BACK TO THE EIGHTIES
Wally and Wilma Week should first issue made an instant impact prove to offer more of the same and was a roaring success straight head-scratching puzzle antics seen from the off. in previous games. Editor Chris Anderson would, The month of May seemed to however, shortly be making his be suffering from tie-in mania with own impact on the publishing several software houses world. After a short spell as the announcing licensing agreements Zzap editor he would leave to start with film, TV and prawn cocktail a small publishing company of his flavoured snacks. Dk’Tronics own, Future Publications, with its revealed they were ready to bring first magazine being Amstrad Minder to the Spectrum, whilst US Action. That’s for another Gold aimed higher with a deal for time though… exclusive rights to all Walt Disney’s In its first issue the Zzap team characters. reviewed Firebird’s Elite, giving it a Beyond also cashed in on the whopping 95% and also tie-in trend with a Superman bestowing on it the honour of the licence of its own for its new first-ever Zzap Gold Medal Award. Monolith label. The TV series, In a cracking month for US Gold, Robin Of Sherwood, was another three of its releases attained glory title to be acquired, this time by in the form of a hot and throbbing Adventure International, who would Sizzler award. The triumphant trio be turning it into a graphic were Bounty Bob Strikes Back adventure. No big surprise with 89% and Spy Hunter and there then. Super Huey both notching up a Meanwhile Mastertronic, respectable 87%. cheapo games maestros, Just to prove that US Gold announced an unusual union wasn’t completely dominant, between themselves and KP Beyond managed a Sizzler with Skips. The character of Clumsy Shadowfire scoring 91%. Strangely, Colin, who appears on Skips both Lords Of Midnight, also by packaging, would be the main Beyond, and Tir Na Nog (Gargoyle character in a game called Games) scored 91%, but couldn’t Action Biker to be released attain Sizzledom. Jeff Minter’s latest sometime in June on the C64 Llamasoft release, Mama Llama, and Spectrum. received a fairly lukewarm response The first issue of Zzap carried reviews of several classic C64 titles, from the computing press, including Elite, Bounty Bob Strikes Back and Spy Hunter Zzaptastic including Zzap, who he had just started writing a regular column for. impressive 94% it earned (Ultimate) were finally available to May 1985 was a historic month for Computer and Video Games programmer David Webb and new audiences and received a followers of the Commodore 64. also had a splattering of top- Starion a coveted Crash Smash. warm welcome from both camps. The long-awaited first issue of scoring reviews including, rather Other Spectrum games to hit the The multi-format release of Zzap!64, sister magazine to belatedly, the Soft Aid compilation, same lofty heights were Bruce Lee Confuzion (Incentive) hit the shops, Newsfield’s Crash, was finally which scored 10 out of 10 in every (US Gold), World Series Baseball while Grand National (Elite) for the available in newsagents. With section. Realistic reviewing or were (Imagine), Dragontorc (Hewson), Spectrum was also under starter’s illustrious names such as Gary they just being very charitable… Spy Hunter (US Gold) and Emerald orders, but fell at the second-last Penn, Julian Rignall and Bob Wade Over in Crash land, the biggest Isle (Level 9). and was declared lame after an controlling games reviews and release of the month was Starion Both BBC and Amstrad initial good showing. Chris Anderson at the helm, the from Melbourne House. With an conversions of Knight Lore And that was May 1985. >Top Five Charts (May 1985)
Commodore 64 Spectrum Amstrad UK singles chart
1 Everyone’s A Wally 1 Booty 1 Daley Thompson’s Decathlon 1 19 (Mikro-Gen) (Firebird) (Ocean) (Paul Hardcastle) 2 Grog’s Revenge 2 Bruce Lee 2 Sir Lancelot 2 Move Closer (US Gold) (US Gold) (Melbourne House) (Phyllis Nelson) 3 Bounty Bob Strikes Back 3 Raid Over Moscow 3 Combat Lynx 3 I Feel Love (US Gold) (US Gold) (Durell) (Bronski Beat & Marc Almond) 4 Master Of The Lamps 4 Gyron 4 Sorcery 4 Everybody Wants To Rule (Activision) (Firebird) (Virgin) The World (Tears For Fears) 5 Airwolf 5 Confuzion 5 Dark Star 5 Feel So Real (Elite) (Incentive) (Design Design) (Steve Arrington)
q 9 q RETRO16 Back to the 80s:RETRO16 Back to the 80s 20/9/06 13:04 Page 10
Gameof the With Shadowfire, Denton Designs rewrote theMonth adventure game, and a new genre was born
nnovation is a word location, and no battling with used an awful lot dodgy syntax. Why? Because these days, with Denton implemented a developers always revolutionary icon control system. I keen to claim that Using a series of icon-driven their game boasts truly original menu screens, you control each and innovative ideas. This is very member one at a time, issuing rarely the case, but occasionally a commands using the various game comes along that genuinely mini-menus. A small top-down offers the gaming world something view shows the character’s new to chew on, something so location, and a status panel different you just have to stand up indicates the activities of all party and take notice. Shadowfire was members. Each character has one such game, and its arrival specific skills, can use certain heralded a huge change in the items that others cannot (Manto adventure-gaming world. Okay, so is the only one capable of using we know that the C64 version of the transporters for example), and Elite also came out at the same has unique strength, agility and time, but you really don’t need stamina levels. telling how great that particular Shadowfire is a deep and game is. Shadowfire, on the other complex game that is as rewarding hand, is a little gem you may as it is challenging. Getting to have overlooked. grips with the icon control system Taking control of the Enigma can take a little longer than it Force, you have to rescue the perhaps should, but we’d strongly Kryxix ambassador from the evil recommend you persevere as this General Zoff. Your targets are is a truly groundbreaking game. aboard the Zoff 5 spacestation and Special mention should also go to you have 100 minutes (counting the great soundtrack by down in real time) to complete Fred Gray. your mission. Taking the classic adventure by Developer Denton Designs the horns, Denton decided to Format C64/Spectrum ditch all of the preconceptions Price £9.95 >It’s an enigma that usually go with the genre. Players There’s no text input, no long- One control system is again called winded descriptions of your SCORE 8/10 into play, but this time character movement isn’t limited to a small top-down view. Instead, the unfolding action takes place in the top half of the screen and is viewed side- on. Enigma Force may be the Shadowfire didn’t shift sequel to Shadowfire, but significant numbers of copies, technically and visually it is in a but it did well enough to league of its own. warrant a sequel the following year. Enigma Force once again places you in control of the fearless team from the first game, albeit slightly streamlined as not all the members are present second time around. The icon-driven
q 10 q Untitled-1 1 1/9/06 12:55:47 RG16 Retro reviews:RG16 Retro reviews 20/9/06 15:11 Page 12
p Retro
Welcome to the Retro Gamer reviews section. Read on to discover the Ratedteam’s opinion on the latest commercial releases... p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p Gametech PocketFami
Got some old NES games tucked away in a cupboard? Dig them out and play them again with this little Japanese wonder
Developer: Gametech p Format: n/a p Price: £49.99 p Players: One-Two
The Famicom/NES is one of the Slot it in most successful consoles of all time, with sales of the unit No doubt the keener retro fans topping 50 million. The system amongst you already recognise served as a platform for many this intriguing device, as it has gaming icons, including Megaman, been around for a while in Japan. Samus Arran, Link and of course, But now, thanks to Blaze, the Mario and friends. It was also unit is coming to Western shores. home to the biggest-selling game The PocketFami is a small of all time – Super Mario Bros. 3, handheld unit, about the same which sold in excess of 18 million size as the Sega GameGear. It units worldwide. has a 2.5in TFT screen, standard The system was eventually D-pad, A and B buttons, rapid-fire superseded in 1990 by the buttons and a headphone socket. more powerful Super NES, but When it comes to games, the games were still developed for PocketFami is a little different to the older 8-bit system for the rest of the handheld pack as another four years, such was its it takes the original big-as-a- huge popularity in Japan and the house NES game paks, which are US. And now, thanks to the almost twice the size of the miracles of miniaturised system itself. The smaller technology, you can play all Japanese games fit snugly those classic games again on into the unit’s cartridge slot, the go, with the PocketFami – while Euro and US carts a handheld Nintendo require the use of a special Entertainment System. adaptor that comes bundled
q 12 q RG16 Retro reviews:RG16 Retro reviews 20/9/06 15:11 Page 13
REGULAR | RETRO RATED
>Beware the Big N
The PocketFami is far removed from the seedy and unscrupulous worlds of knock- off NES systems that claim to contain 100s of games, so there are no worries about the legality of the product. After all, it doesn’t come with any games, and you need original cartridges to use it. It’s also been out in Japan for a while already. However, Nintendo has a very colourful past record with third-party releases that feed off its own properties (legal or not), and there have already little too blurry to use for any been reports online that prolonged period. It suffers from Nintendo is none too happy the same speed blurring effect about the PocketFami. Quite that plagued the GameBoy’s how far Nintnedo will take its original monochrome screen. In concerns isn’t yet known, colour the effect is more however. So, even if you don’t noticeable, and makes the unit intend to buy a PocketFami to turning it into a fully functional the adaptor and a game, you’re hard on the eyes. play old NES games on, it multi-region NES. Nice one. left holding the gaming Thankfully though, the ability may be worth investing in a equivalent of a water dousing to use the PocketFami connected unit for your retro collection. Super size me rod, with the cart sticking out like to a TV saves the unit from You never know, they may a mutant thumb – hardly a great damnation, and in this mode it’s not be as readily available in Although the PocketFami certainly design for those busy days on a perfect NES, especially if you the future… sounds like a brilliant idea, it’s the bus. And, aside from looking have your old controllers. But flawed in a couple areas. The slightly ridiculous, it also feels let’s face it, you could look on with the device. In effect this most glaringly obvious of which rather unsteady, with the cart eBay and grab an original NES means that you have a region- is the use of original cartridges. wobbling all over the place. with games for around the same free games console. This is even While this works well with the The second problem is the price (maybe less), so buying more impressive when you take tiny Japanese carts, Western screen. The low-cost 2.5in display this may not be the best option into account the fact that the players are saddled with just isn’t good enough, especially after all. A very good idea, but PocketFami also features control oversized games that are twice when you consider the quality sadly let down by a poor ports for original NES controllers, the size of their Eastern screens available in mobile build quality. and can be connected to a TV, counterparts. So, after slotting in devices these days, and it’s a Rating: pppppppppp >Size matters?
As we mentioned in the main review, one of the downsides of the PocketFami is the sheer size of the NES carts you slot in. But why are the NES and Famicom carts so different? Well, the simple truth is that there is very little reason behind the difference aside from region limitation. The Euro and US carts were deliberately made different to the Japanese versions in order to cut down on illegal game imports. Japanese Famicom carts have 60 pins, while the Western NES carts have 72. Out of the box, a standard NES could only play games from its region, until various adaptors surfaced some years later (similar to the interface that comes with the PocketFami). Quite why the Western carts had to be so huge (half of the cart has nothing in it – the actual game boards are the same) is a mystery, and the size is seemingly a straightforward design option. Maybe Nintendo execs thought that bigger was better and more likely to sell as people would feel they were getting more for their money. Whatever the reason, Gametech certainly didn’t take the size of Western carts into account when designing the PocketFami, and it clearly shows.
q 13 q RG16 Retro reviews:RG16 Retro reviews 20/9/06 15:11 Page 14
p First Star Software’s Greatest Hits
The popular US developer dusts down 14 of its old titles and releases them in one value pack
Developer: First Star p Format: PC p Price: £9.99 p Players: One-Two
years. They are, of course, you only know which format the Boulder Dash and Spy vs Spy. Yet game is for by selecting a title >The gory details while Rockford is well and then waiting to see which represented here – the original emulator launches. If VICE opens The frontend isn’t much help, Boulder Dash game, its first then you know it’s a C64 title. If so we’ve decided to list all the sequel, and the later Constructive Steem opens then it’s an ST games along with the format Kit are included – the black and game. The fact that you can they’re on. If some of your white spies have slinked actually see freeware emulators favourite games are listed here completely out of sight. OK, so running certainly takes away the then maybe, just maybe, this it’s not exactly a mystery why shine you’d expect from a collection might be worth they’re missing (the MAD licence commercial product. Surely it considering. is now owned by Take2 who would have been better to recently released a new Spy vs display the front-end full-screen Astro Chase (C64) Spy game for consoles), but that and have the emulators open Boing! (Atari 2600) doesn’t make it any more invisibly in the background. At Boulder Dash (C64) acceptable. After all, a First Star least then the process of Boulder Dash II (C64) collection without Spy vs Spy is selecting and playing a game Boulder Dash Construction Kit A collection with a title like this like a System 3 collection without would have been seamless. (Atari ST) doesn’t really need much The Last Ninja. Or like a Team 17 Bristles (C64) explaining, does it? It’s basically collection without Worms. Or a C64-centric Flip & Flop (C64) the best of First Star Software’s Sensible Software collection Millenium Warriors (C64) back catalogue, served up on a without Sensible Soccer. It’s just So far, so bad. Another Omnicron Conspiracy (Atari ST) shiny silver platter for your PC, too big a hole to simply ignore. annoyance is that nine of the 14 Panic Button (C64) right? Well, not exactly… So what exactly do we get? games are for the Commodore Rent Wars (Atari 8-bit) First Star has been developing Besides the Boulderdash games, 64. This is not necessarily a bad Rockford (DOS) software since 1982. Like a lot of there are a further 11 titles thing, it’s just that First Star Security Alert (C64) 80s software houses, these days across a variety of formats. made its name as publishers of US Adventure (C64) it’s dabbling in the mobile phone However, it’s difficult to Atari 8-bit software, with many of market, and is best remembered determine which format thanks its most popular titles debuting for a couple of classic titles to the simple front-end that on the Atari 400/800. A collection released during its formative gives very little a way. Ultimately of Atari originals would have been much more apt. There is one Atari 8-bit title however – a previously unreleased game called Rent Wars. At the very least, First Star should be congratulated for digging up this little gem. The other bonus features are bangs on about mobile phone half-hearted at best. There are a ventures and publishing partners. number of scans, including game If you hadn’t gathered, this artwork and promotional items, release doesn’t exactly have us some of which are interesting jumping in the aisles. To be and no doubt rare. There’s also a perfectly honest it’s a lazy couple of grainy video clips that collection that you can live run for less than a minute each. without, even at this low price. Even more disappointing is a text Spy vs Spy may be missing, but file that proclaims to profile the as it turns out, the black and white history of First Star, but is in fact duo have had a lucky escape. a re-jigged press release which Rating: pppppppppp
q 14 q RG16 Retro reviews:RG16 Retro reviews 20/9/06 15:11 Page 15
REGULAR | RETRO RATED Space Invaders to location, with many taken from the best of both worlds. There’s Taito’s own sequels, including the original game, faithfully some that blink in and out of reproduced for the DS, plus the Revolution view, and others than split into new expanded mode that stands two separate aliens when shot. perfectly well on its own two The most famous shoot-em-up ever blazes its way onto the There’s a host of new types too, feet. OK, so it’s maybe not Nintendo DS, complete with new modes and gameplay including tiny Invaders, heavily exactly full-blown Revolution, but armoured Invaders, colour-coded it’s certainly superior to last
Developer: Dreams p Format: DS p Price: £29.99 p Players: One Invaders (you have to shoot them year’s Space Invaders Anniversary in the correct order) and massive Collection, which took the by most developers for the mother ship Invaders that have to original arcade game and bolted platform. What you get is the be blasted away piece by piece. on an embarrassing 3D customary alien-blasting action in Some challenges work better arrangement. Revolution offers the top screen and a than others, but on the whole it’s much more than that, and representation of an arcade a lot of fun. This is mainly thanks deserves pride of place in the control panel at the bottom. It’s to the increased speed of the long-running series – at least possible to manipulate these on- game. Rounds are now fast and until the next iteration arrives. screen controls using the stylus frantic, testing your reflexes in Rating: pppppppppp or wrist strap, but it certainly ways the original couldn’t hope doesn’t feel intuitive or natural, to. In fact, after you’ve played coming across as more of a New Age Mode for any amount of >Close encounters It’s almost like some kind of gimmick than anything else. The time, returning to the original unwritten videogame law, that D-pad will do us fine, thank you game proves to be a painful When people think of Space every new platform must be very much. Everything else is spot experience. Your heart tells you Invaders, they rarely look home to an official version of on however, from the recreation it’s still a classic but your head beyond the arcade original, the Taito’s celebrated shooter. It’s of the multicoloured plastic begs to differ. very similar sequel (Space also an edict that any new overlay to the thud-thud bass There’s no danger of Invaders Part II/Deluxe), and version must mess with the sound of the Invaders’ slow disowning the original, however, the millions of unofficial home timeless formula, as if to justify advance, which sounds as the points you earn in Classic variants. However, Taito did its very existence. Space Invaders particularly impressive through Mode unlock special weapon release another three arcade Revolution fully abides by both the DS’ little stereo speakers. power-ups in the New Age game. sequels – Return of the rules, arriving only a couple of You can equip your turret with a Invaders (1985), Super Space months after the release of the Global invasion laser, for example, or call on Invaders ‘91 (1990) and Space DS and adding a bunch of additional support ships to fight Invaders ‘95 (1995). Each game new features. So that’s the Classic Mode alongside you. Power-ups drain introduced new Invader types Of course, at its core is the covered. Which brings us to the energy though, so they can only and bonus stages, but the core 1978 original, untouched and scary-sounding New Age Mode. be used for a short amount of gameplay remained largely the untainted. Admittedly, it does You’re basically presented with a time, adding a welcome element same. There was also a curious struggle to make use of the DS’ world map which displays of strategy to the proceedings. semi-official sequel from second screen, but then this is a countries under alien attack. The Space Invaders Revolution Midway (distributors of Space problem that will be encountered Invader types vary from location works in that it really does offer Invaders outside of Japan) simply entitled Space Invaders II (1980), that allowed for simultaneous two-player action.
q 15 q RG16 Retro revival.qxd:RG16 Retro revival.qxd 20/9/06 15:13 Page 16
The granddaddy of all multiplayer games is heading back to our screens, and a new generation of gamers will run the Gauntlet once more. As a prelude to the release of the new game, Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, Aaron Birch looks at the history of the long-running series
antasy settings along that thrust swords and battle their way through 100 grinning more than the kids and videogames sorcery into the arcade. The different dungeons on an playing the game. have always made game was Gauntlet. endless quest against all sorts The four player co-op is good bedfellows, of relentless beasties. great, and is further enhanced F with many titles The arcade originals Chief amongst Gauntlet’s by excellent use of sound and scouring the D&D universe for innovations was four-player speech. As you fight through ideas and inspiration. From this Gauntlet was something of a support. This really made the mazes of foes, the game rich source, game developers revolution in many different game something special, informs players of various have crafted many worlds for ways – except for the story, enabling you and three mates to events and warnings, alerting gamers to explore. But this that is, because there wasn’t one. take on the evil dungeon them when one of their team is inspiration hasn’t always been Players take on the role of one dwellers as a single unified about to bite the big one, or limited to stodgy turn-based of four heroes. These fearsome force. And thanks to the unique telling trigger-happy gamers adventures and complex RPGs. combatants are Thor (the buy-in feature, players could join not to shoot the food. What While the world of beards and Barbarian), Questor (the Elf), the fray at will, ensuring that made the game even more of a big hats may seem like the Merlin (the Wizard) and Thyra the machine was continually crowd puller is the fantastic dwelling of bespectacled (the Valkyrie). With character plied with 10-pence pieces. innovation of random levels. teenagers, in 1985 a game came chosen, punters then have to Arcade operators were no doubt After players clear level eight of
q 16 q RG16 Retro revival.qxd:RG16 Retro revival.qxd 20/9/06 15:13 Page 17
REGULAR | RETRO REVIVAL
the game, further stages are chosen at random from the available levels, meaning two >Been there, done that… games are rarely the same. Oddly though, the game is One of the most memorable things about top scorers would then stand a chance of also made fantastically easy Gauntlet II was the competition Atari ran with the winning a trendy Gauntlet II t-shirt, or even a thanks to a design bug in the game. During play, the game would provide you US$5,000 savings bond. Although the game which was bodged in the with clues to find secret rooms. If you found competition ended in 1986, many of the units truest sense of the word. Due these, you’d be awarded extra points which still display this competition screen (although to the possibility of getting would see you scale the high score table. The this can be hidden using dip switches). totally stuck on a level thanks to a flawed key collecting system, the development team implemented a loophole. Stand still and lose 30 health points and all of the doors in the current stage open. Or even better, if you stand still until you lose 200 health every wall in the level becomes an exit! This makes those harder levels a breeze. Gauntlet was an instant hit in the arcades, turning in big profits for operators thanks to its clever buy-in system. players to choose any character, foe doesn’t attack you, or steal the most impressive of which Unsurprisingly, a sequel even if their weapon of choice is your health. Instead, any player has to be the fire-breathing (available as both a standalone already in play. This is made touched by this enemy is ‘it’ dragon, the deadliest foe in the machine and an upgrade kit for possible thanks to a colour- and every monster in the game, and an enemy that gives the original) appeared a year coding system, so there are no current level only attacks the great rewards (such as a ton of later. For Gauntlet II, Atari more arguments about who tagged player. To get rid of this loot and an everlasting potion). didn’t make too many major plays as Thyra. But this curse, you have to tag one of Also new to the game is the changes, preferring to stick newfound calm between friends your mates, who then becomes ability to bounce shots off walls, with the winning formula. can’t last long, as the game ‘it’. Cue much arguing and giving players the ability to One of the noticeable introduces a very devious new falling out… attack enemies from a much additions is the ability for threat – the ‘it’ monster. This Other monsters also appear, safer distance.
q 17 q RG16 Retro revival.qxd:RG16 Retro revival.qxd 20/9/06 15:13 Page 18
Homeward bound elements are implemented. classic Arcade Mode, Gauntlet IV Gauntlet Legends debuted in Joining the original four character also features additional game the arcade and was ported to the Because of its huge success in classes are four new heroes – modes. Quest Mode introduces PlayStation, Dreamcast and the arcades, it wasn’t long before Lizard, Stoneman, Iceman and some basic adventure elements Nintendo 64 in 1999. The following Gauntlet I and II reached the Neptune. Many levels introduce and free-roaming levels made up year, the fourth arcade game, home computing scene, and new gameplay mechanics, and of floors, and even has shops in Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, was versions of the multiplayer battler it’s no longer a matter of simply which you can buy better ushered into arcades. found their way to Commodore reaching the exit, as some quests weapons, while Battle Mode is a Furthering the advancements 64, Amstrad, Spectrum, Amiga, have to be completed along the deathmatch-style event where up made by Legends, Dark Legacy ST, PC, Master System, GameBoy way. True, these are mainly to four players fight to the death. pushes the 3D viewpoint even and NES in one form or another. simple object collection affairs, This is old-skool Gauntlet at further and features a range of The original Gauntlet also but it is a step towards making heart though, and is much better camera angles. The gameplay received its own expansion called the game more varied. than the flawed third game. remains essentially the same Deeper Dungeons, which added a Sadly though, an isometric though, still consisting of massive 512 extra levels to the Gauntlet just doesn’t work. While A new age hunting down monsters while already huge game. not exactly a bad idea, it fails finding keys, treasure and food. With no new arcade sequel, mainly due to the over-ambitious In 1998, the series finally returned Joining the fray are four new US Gold, publishers of the home goal of producing such a to the arcades in the form of characters – Knight, Dwarf, computer versions of Gauntlet, graphically intensive game on Gauntlet Legends. The game once Sorceress and Jester. Bosses are revived the series in 1991 with the limited formats of the time. again attempted to bring the implemented again, and scripted the release of Gauntlet III: The The ST and Amiga versions licence into the more mainstream sequences attempt to add a little Final Quest on 8/16-bit computers. aren’t too bad, but the 8-bit ports modern gaming arena, and is a spice to the rapidly ageing This third outing took the are slow and almost unplayable. 3D creation that boasts great formula. Players can also save foundations of the series and Not a good successor to the graphics and a much more their characters’ experiences, so smashed them to bits. After all excellent originals. involved quest. Featuring non- the more you play, the better sorts of redesigns, the result Despite the subtitle of the linear play over multiple worlds, your chosen fighter becomes. was a very different beast to the third game, the series wasn’t several bosses, character And now, five years after the first two titles. about to slope off and grow old upgrades, end-of-level cutscenes last adventure, we are due to Replacing the classic top- gracefully just yet. The next and four-player support, Gauntlet face the endless mass of ghosts down view of the original, outing arrived in 1993 on the Legends is a successful modern and demons once more. John Gauntlet III opts for a scrolling Sega Megadrive, courtesy of interpretation of the arcade Romero, of Doom and Quake isometric viewpoint instead and Tengen. Instead of trying to original. Of particular note is the fame, is heading up the project, the graphics are beefed up improve upon the third game’s evolution of the four long standing and we’re promised the most considerably, with better ideas, Gauntlet IV is a basic port characters. The Warrior is now a enjoyable and absorbing Gauntlet animation and more detailed of the original games, restoring blond beefcake, the Wizard a black yet. On top of the classic environments. Much of the the classic top-down action. But pharaoh looky-like, the Elf a sultry gameplay, Gauntlet: Seven monster-bashing gameplay this doesn’t mean that nothing female archer and the Valkyrie a Sorrows will feature enhanced remains, but several new new is introduced. As well as the buxom brunette. RPG elements, a new ‘junction’
q 18 q RG16 Retro revival.qxd:RG16 Retro revival.qxd 20/9/06 15:13 Page 19
REGULAR | RETRO REVIVAL
system, and for the first time Gauntlet isn’t the first game you arrives exclusively on PC, ever, players will be able to fight think of when you consider PlayStation 2 and Xbox to see if alongside others online. We’re careful planning and thought. this new take lives up to its also told to expect elements of We’ll have to wait until later promise. Until then, we’re off to
strategy too, although let’s face it, this winter when Seven Sorrows play tag with the ‘it’ monster…e >Third Encounter
In 1990 handheld gamers would see their very own version of Gauntlet in the form of The Third Encounter. This spin-off from the core series was available on the Atari Lynx and developed by Epyx. Oddly though, the game was originally going to be a standalone title called Time Quests and Treasure Chests, but after Atari saw the similarity between the new Epyx game and Gauntlet, a deal was struck to rebrand the title. This version of the game is very well done in many ways, features four-player support via link up, and even makes full use of the Lynx’s large screen by flipping the display 90 degrees. Sadly though, one of the key elements of Gauntlet – the random level selection and item placement – is sorely missing, and every play through is identical to the last.
q 19 q RG16 Japan happy.qxd:RG16 Japan happy.qxd 20/9/06 14:28 Page 20
Welcome back! This month, Jonti Davies delvesItadakimasu! into the nylon-wearing world of retro sports games in Japan. >Retro champions
ummer is almost huge. Golf is also held in high here. That might regard, as are football, tennis sound a bit far- and horse racing. fetched if you The first competent baseball S happen to live in simulation was Nintendo’s own Britain. Believe me, though, the take on the sport. Famicom Nintendo’s Baseball appeared on the Japanese Famicom in 1983 weather here in Osaka is great. Baseball is a very playable title People are jogging, playing with clever gameplay design – its enjoyed great success: the first the previous 10 installments, baseball and generally ‘getting system assigns an almost analog- game sold over 2 million copies don’t miss Powerful Pro Yakyuu sporty’. So what better time to like dexterity to the Famicom’s and the subsequent 87 and 88 11 on the PlayStation 2! consider the great and quirky tough D-pad. Fielding is easy, revisions were million-sellers. sports games that have become a while bowling (if that’s what it’s On the SFC, its commercial Grappling fans part of Japanese gaming culture? called) is similarly instinctive; success was diminished even Baseball, referred to here as controlling the velocity and spin though the 16-bit games were Sumo is the most inherently yakyuu, is the number one sport of the ball is simply a matter of much better. Japanese of sports. Simulations in Japan. All other sports tend to holding the D-pad while the ball In response, Konami first appeared on the 8-bit form an orderly queue, lining up is in flight. Nifty! introduced its own baseball Famicom, with Tecmo’s for the famed signature of pro The baseball genre matured series – Powerful Pro Yakyuu. imaginatively titled Sumo yakyuu. But although baseball in the 16-bit era. At this point in You may be familiar with this, as winning the first round (see this leads the way, many of the other the early 90s, Namco honed its the game features giant-freak- month’s Daihitto!). Tecmo games are very popular – and bright and cartoony Family headed players. The series is updated the series on the Super some are veritable Japanese Stadium series on the Super still going strong today, and Famicom, but Imagineer’s Waka institutions. Sumo, for example, Famicom. On the original remarkably, it hasn’t changed a Taka Sumo Brothers (best game is (for want of a less apt term) Famicom, Family Stadium had bit. If you haven’t played any of name ever?) must be the Super
q 20 q RG16 Japan happy.qxd:RG16 Japan happy.qxd 20/9/06 14:28 Page 21
REGULAR | JAPAN HAPPY PLAY NOISE >The Tokyo Web >Daihitto! The best of Japan’s Internet sites will blow you away Award ASCII text art is very popular among Japan’s otaku; there’s even an This month’s ‘big hit’ occasional TV programme dedicated to the medium. Check out Retrogame’s Text Art Gallery (http://homepage2.nifty.com/retro-game) honours go to Tecmo’s for a great introduction to the beauty of ASCII. The recreation of scenes original Famicom title, Sumo from legendary Famicom RPGs are especially worthwhile. From a 21st century vantage point, it seems there’s so much cool Beautiful Japanese script is imprinted on the screen and it becomes retro stuff in Japan that there’s no sure way of appreciating it all. The perfectly clear that this is the videogame crystallisation of centuries of retro scene isn’t limited to games, either. The anime tradition has Japanese history. Sumo (released in 1987) is to the sport of podgers spawned a world of paraphernalia and past trends had their own what Nintendo’s Famicom Baseball is to the corrupted game of rounders. distinctive impact on Japanese culture. The wealth of retro goodies is It’s definitive. depicted beautifully at the Shokugan Spirit online museum at www. The game’s greatest achievement is its blend of the beat-em-up and butsuyoku.net/shokugan/index.html. wrestling styles of gameplay. Combos can be executed with simple If you’re in the market for some first-rate parody action, check out Street Fighter-esque tap, tap, tap routines. However, it’s also possible to the Sega Fantasy VI project – www.hcn.zaq.ne.jp/cabic508/rsf/ perform holds and there’s a fair bit of face slapping. Of course, the frame1.html – which offers a rare insight into the mindset of many objective in sumo is simply to chuck the opponent out of the ring. The Japanese gamers. Old formats such as the Saturn and PC Engine CPU-controlled competitors have primitive AI – this is a Famicom game, clearly have great significance even today – they’re not merely curios or after all – but plug in a second controller and hours of traditional relics. Watch the Sega Fantasy VI movie and you’ll see what we mean. Japanese fun will ensue. Finally, be sure to visit the website of Susumu Matsushita Sumo’s graphics are surprisingly detailed – check out those (www.susumumatsushita.com). Matsushita-san is the artistic genius spectators! – and the sound is strangely atmospheric. It’s one of those behind the cartoon characters of Japan’s legendary Weekly Famitsu rare games that combines a strong sense of history and tradition with magazine, and he’s also worked as a lead artist on many triple-A the simple pleasures of button tapping. And, even more remarkably, it Japanese games. Go and pay your dues! has a very good level of depth. There are so many characters here, and they each look different and have unique strengths and weaknesses. For an 8-bit Famicom fighting game, Sumo is incredibly good.
Famicom’s ‘Yokozuna’ (Yokozuna Famicom controller ensure that Post games and Jaleco’s arcade-y Japanese sporting culture = champion of sumo.) Family Tennis is an even better Gallop Racer titles. The first few infiltrates many areas of the retro On the court, Family Tennis is package than its successors. Derby Stallion releases were scene, and some of these old arguably the finest Namco sports Horse racing games have only million-sellers in the early 90s. games are great fun. Next month title on the Super Famicom. Yes, recently started to appear in the Fans of Susumu Matsushita’s work we’ll look at another culture/ it’s basic, but the core tennis West, but previously they were will be impressed with the games crossover as we examine gameplay is just about perfect. largely the domain of Japanese artwork on the Derby Stallion Japanese folklore, historical This is where Smash Court was gamers. ASCII’s Derby Stallion games’ packaging. As for the characters that appear in classic born really, but the gimmick-free games on the Super Famicom games in the boxes… um, well, Japanese games, and much gameplay and the sublime Super paved the way for Sega’s Winning they’re horse racing games. more besides. e
Family Tennis was the forerunner to the Smash Court Horse racing titles like Derby Stallion are amazingly Tennis games that are still released today popular in Japan, often topping the game charts
q 21 q RG16 Desert Island Disks.qxd:RG16 Desert Island Disks.qxd 20/9/06 14:09 Page 22
Desert Island
Over the course of one evening and several pints, Paul Drury talked DisksTeletext with Mr Biffo and Mr Hairs, the guys behind Digitiser
Man Diary – AD 2005 If this paragraph brings back and missed out on a decade of I have managed to get a job as happy memories of the eminently surreal humour, sparkling wit a games journalist on Teletext employable ‘The Man’ and his and the unexpected inclusion of and the long hours and strange tales of clown shoe minor EastEnders character constant beatings I receive from shops and pet swans, then Mr Danny Taurus as a centrefold, management have resulted in Biffo (aka Paul Rose) and sporting a hairstyle which bore me having intense Digitiser, the Teletext games an uncanny resemblance to an hallucinations. I recently section he co-founded and erect penis. Oh, and they wrote thought I saw the ghostly form presided over between 1993 and about games too. of Noel Edmonds floating above 2003, will be familiar to you. “The funny stuff wasn’t my Megadrive and imagined I Maybe it became an integral part planned,” explains Biffo. “We was playing a Mario fighting of your daily routine – get up, were just trying to do stuff that game with the moustached use toilet, put kettle on, check shouldn’t be there, that made no plumber wearing bondage gear. Digi – and you’re already sense being there at all. I don’t Then, somehow, I made Dirty reminiscing about the terrible know if I’m annoyed the games Den say the C-word on jokes of The Man’s Daddy, the coverage is less remembered. Not EastEnders. mumbling Zombie Dave and the really. But without that, it Imagine my surprise when I fake film script extracts. wouldn’t have worked.” found out it wasn’t an If none of this is making any And it certainly did work. hallucination at all! sense, then you’ve messed up Despite Biffo describing Teletext as “the scrag end of journalism”, the pages attracted an audience of 1.5 million viewers at Digitiser’s height in the mid-90s and boasted some celebrity fans. TV presenter Violet Berlin gushingly describes Biffo and his partner in crime, Tim ‘Mr Hairs’ Moore, as “the best videogame journalists in the world”, and admits to stalking them before becoming a regular Digi columnist. Then there’s Alex Garland, author of The Beach, who successfully won a competition involving holding up a placard bearing the legend ‘Digitiser = Filth’ in an exotic location (he persuaded a friend to do just this atop a temple in
q 22 q RG16 Desert Island Disks.qxd:RG16 Desert Island Disks.qxd 20/9/06 14:09 Page 23
REGULAR | DESERT ISLAND DISKS
Thailand), and was planning a feature on the Digi phenomenon for The Independent before he hit the big time. But how do you describe a job that involves knocking out daily updates on videogames and industry news, and accompanying them with a cast of nonsense-spouting characters rendered in the primitive blocks of Teletext graphics? “When people asked what I did, I tended to mumble and change the subject. Tim called it the ‘choke on the cashew moment’. To this day, my mum doesn’t know what I actually did for a living.” Earning stripes
It should be expected then that the route to such an unusual career would not be straight- forward. Though Biffo’s childhood in London, which he still calls home, did involve many hours Mr Biffo (right) and Mr Hairs, presumably celebrating Digitiser’s 10 years at the top playing on an Atari 2600 and later a Spectrum, his likely. At 15, he got a part-time just won the contract from Oracle programming didn’t go much job at Ladbrokes producing and were actively looking for >Web-Me-Doo beyond writing rude words on images for its in-house new ideas. the shop display computers in information service and even “I ended up sitting opposite There are several Digi John Menzies, though he does succeeded in creating a Pole this guy Tim Moore, who I appreciation sites on the Web, recall with a grimace his one Position pastiche spread over thought was a bit stand-offish but the one we’re most drawn attempt at game design. six screens – quite an and a bit flash – he dressed well to is located at www.moleman. “This is terrible, and I was achievement with only 16 frames and I didn’t, and he just seemed freeserve.co.uk. Featuring the only 11 and didn’t really know of animation on a loop. His more experienced and worldly complete cast of characters what the word meant, but I did increasing ability in the archaic, wise. I didn’t know what to make and some classic pages from produce a design on paper for highly specialised niche of of him. He was writing for the the Digi’s glorious past, it’s a ‘Ronnie the Rapist’. It was Teletext-style graphics led to a teen section, which included fitting tribute to the toil of loosely based on the Horace job creating images for the game reviews, and being a Biffo and Hairs. games and I did a series of Wembley scoreboard (“probably games fan, I suggested to him screenshots of mazes in parks the cushiest job I’ve ever had – we did a whole games section, and bushes… you can gather my boss was at the other end even though I hadn’t ever done what happened. Shameful.” of the stadium and I never saw any writing before. He just Biffo spent much of his time him.”) and at the end of 1992, shrugged – he was kind of non- at school drawing and a career he secured a position at committal and saw it as a job, in graphic design seemed most Teletext. The company had whereas I was this enthusiastic 21-year-old – but he said OK, as it got him away from writing about lipstick.” the editor’s office, looking over The management also said each other’s shoulders and yes, and soon the pair were tinkering, just trying to out-do inseparable. “I clicked with Tim each other.” straight away when we started It was an unorthodox setup writing together. We shared that and helped to make Digitiser sense of humour and were unique. The limit of 60 words per basically naughty little boys page and daily deadlines meant trying to make each other laugh, there was no room for waffle. which was weird because we The lack of screenshots left space were both parents. And we were for the array of colourful both aware that Teletext was shit, characters and their bizarre yet we had this ludicrously good insights. A lead time of three job of reviewing games with minutes gave them a huge complete autonomy. We decided advantage over printed games everything and no one saw it magazines when it came to before it went out. We sat in this revealing industry developments. cubicle in the corner away from Perhaps most tellingly, the very
q 23 q RG16 Desert Island Disks.qxd:RG16 Desert Island Disks.qxd 20/9/06 14:09 Page 24
nature of the medium – pages owners complaining and we were visible for a day, then gone relented – in fact we managed to forever, with no record ever kept blag a free Amiga out of it all”), (though later, fan sites would and had little truck with self- lovingly archive much of the important PR reps, as Biffo’s material) – meant it wasn’t even a retelling of a visit to Sega’s PR case of becoming tomorrow’s fish company illustrates. and chip wrappers. “The bloke had kept us “We didn’t endlessly rewrite waiting in reception for ages and stuff – we’d do it, chuck it up on we overheard what games were screen and forget it. We didn’t going to be bundled with the care as much about what we 32X, which we reported. He was wrote because it was so livid. Then we saw a pre-release disposable and in an ironic way, copy of Mario 64 playing in his the fact it doesn’t exist anywhere office. We reported that and he has meant it’s endured. People was livid again. And we drew a will always remember it as big cock in his notebook when slightly better than it was. I have he wasn’t looking. I imagine this feeling that a lot was just he wasn’t best pleased with being self-indulgent, Tim and I that either.” making each other laugh. But it Interestingly, Teletext The suits, the squares one of you the push and as Biffo seemed to strike a chord.” management was initially very was vitally useful to Teletext as a positive about Digitiser, with the The ongoing interference from whole for his graphics work, it To be this good… features editor taking Biffo and management manifested itself in was Mr Hairs who was to get the Hairs out to lunch and declaring the frequent removal of whole boot first… Their humour, honesty and “You boys are the saviours of pages of Digitiser, without …And right on cue, in walks fearless independence led to a Teletext!” The honeymoon was informing the boys, or even the the man himself, Tim ‘Mr Hairs’ devoted following of readers, short lived though, after Digitiser changing of punch lines to the Moore, as charming and dapper though Biffo admits if they’d made an apparently innocuous already barely understandable as Biffo had described, and known just how many people were remark about someone playing on jokes of The Man’s Daddy. It proceeds to retell the strange tale running downstairs in a morning a Megadrive, when an image of appears the hatred was mainly of how former GamesMaster extra to switch on, they probably Noel Edmonds had mysteriously borne out of a lack of and games hack Dave Perry got wouldn’t have been so funny. appeared above the console. understanding – the powers that him the sack. “We didn’t know people were “The same editor rang me up be just didn’t get the jokes, and “Dave was on our case watching, certainly not till near and asked if it was supposed to that made them angry – though because we’d called one of the the end. Yeah, we got loads of be satire. I mean, ‘No, he really you have to have some sympathy mags he worked on ‘irrelevant’. letters, but they tended to come did come out of a Megadrive!?’ for the hapless sub-editors who One of his lackeys phoned up from the same people. We But somehow, this led to a were responsible for sifting and threatened to sue, so we thought there was about 19 headline in The Sun saying through the pages of esoteric changed it to ‘irreverent’. Then an people totally obsessed by us ‘Teletext Rapped Over Sick innuendos and catchphrases. industry insider we knew told us and everyone else wasn’t Videogame Joke’. We were “They were paranoid we were Dave had been hauled over the bothered. That’s probably how immediately labelled as sneaking in filth – which just coals by his boss about poor we managed to put so many troublemakers. It was a constant made us want to do it more. And circulation figures. I got dragged noses out of joint.” battle after that, and we were they’d usually miss the really into my editor’s office – Biffo Right from the off, the pair only a month old. There were dodgy stuff, and overact crazily was off on paternity leave – and incurred the wrath of the Amiga forces in Teletext that really when I mentioned ‘the 3 RRRs’ or he demanded I tell him my community by declaring they hated us. We weren’t being said ‘finger the index’. source. I refused and got fired. weren’t covering a “dying format” paranoid – we’ve seen the secret “I remember one sub-ed They even frog-marched me off (“We had loads of irate Amiga memos that got sent round.” called Emma – subs changed the premises, in case I tried to every week or so – and we’d just put a spunking cock on the done this spoof French-English Teletext index page, which was dictionary. It was Friday afternoon viewed by 25 million people and she’d had a whole week of daily. To be fair, we had got that wondering ‘What does that word graphic all ready for just this sort mean?’ and ‘Is that rude?’, which of occasion.” had obviously worn her down. With Mr Hairs gone, Biffo Her eyes were sunken and she kept on writing, though he just said ‘Please, I can’t be describes the next four years as bothered to read it, just take it “a long drawn out death”, a off and put it on next week when rather harsh verdict, as Digitiser it’s someone else’s job’.” retained its inimitable style and Yes, producing Digitiser was a in fact the accolades from fans job like no other, and Biffo fondly and complaints from detractors remembers those first four years actually increased. The roller working with Mr Hairs as “the coaster ride continued unabated best time I’ve had doing until the tragic events of anything.” But all good things September 11th. With the come to an end, particularly if holiday advertising revenue that your bosses are looking to give Teletext relied on so heavily in
q 24 q RG16 Desert Island Disks.qxd:RG16 Desert Island Disks.qxd 20/9/06 14:09 Page 25
REGULAR | DESERT ISLAND DISKS >Casting call
It had a cast of thousands, but when Digitiser is rightfully made into a Hollywood movie, who would Biffo like to see in the lead roles? “Simon Callow playing Edward Lear and Jean Reno starring as Le Chef. And The Man’s Daddy would have to be in it. He was always my favourite – he wasn’t funny and that’s why he was funny. I knew half the people reading it would be scratching their heads, going ‘What’s this?’ But as he was a half elephant, half insect hybrid, he’d have to appear as a special effect. terminal decline after the back to how they once were. No human could portray him.” terrorist attacks, Biffo was Mr Hairs can’t resist chipping unceremoniously told by his in: “I don’t miss Teletext at all, superiors that Digi’s content was but I’d have loved to have been back some lovely images of T’zer then them admitting they were to be halved and he must remove at that meeting, shovelling in short skirts.” wrong and letting me go out on a all the humour. humble pie down their throats.” high was just the perfect ending. “This horrible Irish troll, who’d It’s a poignant reminder of the Moc-moc-a-moc! And I did get to use that spunking only been in the job two weeks, bond between these two hugely cock after all.” told me of the decision. He was talented friends. When Biffo goes So as Digitiser approached its Yes, Turner the Worm ‘being aggressive, offensive and to the bar, Hairs is quick to praise 10th anniversary, it was restored sick’ did indeed grace the final needlessly nasty. He said the his partner’s passion for games, to its former glory, at least for a Digi page, but Biffo hadn’t quite ‘Python-esque humour’ excluded which kept the whole thing going, while. Then Biffo received an left games journalism behind. He people and it had to go. I should and when it’s time for Hairs’ ominous call from his editor on 8 still writes a regular column for try and make Digitiser ‘bland’. round, Biffo eulogises on how December 2003, stating they Edge magazine, where the What kind of ludicrous editorial much Tim taught him about the were “planning some changes” in anarchic spirit that made Digitiser edict is that?” art of writing, describing their the new year. such an adored institution lives Demoralised, but still time working together as ‘my “I turned to my wife and said on, and some of that pushing appreciating the pretty good university’ (Tim’s way with words ‘They’re doing it again’. I just against authority continues in his money Teletext paid and the free recently bagged him ‘Travel Writer didn’t want the stress, plus I’d just script writing for My Parents Are games, Biffo continued ‘out of of the Year’ at the Press Awards). got job offers from Eastenders and Aliens and EastEnders. So, just habit’, until the following And the mutual back-slapping a kid’s TV show and I didn’t need how did he get Dirty Den to summer, when the sheer volume continues as I get the drinks in, the money. It just seemed the swear on national TV? of complaints about the new and Biffo enthuses about our own right time to call it a day. Digitiser “I wrote the line ‘We’ll be sanitised Digitiser forced the Retro Gamer. had been 10 years of my life. It alright with these two big management to make an abrupt “When I got the issue with was kind of like a play – Tim Constables’ and Lesley Grantham volte-face. He was called into a the Your Sinclair tribute, I leaving was the ‘oh fuck’ moment said it perfectly – he almost meeting, where the bosses realised how much it must have at the end of Act One, then having hyphenated it. Bless him.” acknowledged their mistake and influenced how I write. I was to remove the humour was the ‘oh As last orders is called at the pleaded with him to put things genuinely moved. And it brought shit’ at the close of Act Two, and Glasshouse Stores in Soho where
“This horrible Irish troll, who’d only been in the job two weeks, told me of the decision. He was aggressive, offensive and needlessly nasty. He said the ‘Python-esque humour’ excluded people and it had to go. I should try and make Digitiser ‘bland’. What kind of ludicrous editorial edict is that?”
q 25 q RG16 Desert Island Disks.qxd:RG16 Desert Island Disks.qxd 20/9/06 14:09 Page 26
Ocean Software did this fantastic was, and by then it was over. It trip to an Oasis gig, and I spent was one of the best nights of my Since the days of Digitiser, Paul spends his time writing scripts for TV, hours looking at a biscuit…” life, but I wouldn’t want that all radio and, yes, videogames confesses Biffo. the time. It was like being in a As we sup up, Biffo regales freakshow. Alex Garland was we’ve been drinking all night, I writing was ever enhanced by the me with one final anecdote, a there, people from Zed Two… and decide it was appropriate to get a liberal use of alcohol? testament to the devotion of there I was chatting with this round of gin and tonics in, the “No’” they both assure me. “It Digitser’s readership. bloke, when suddenly he hugged drink so often praised in the was all done on tea, coffee and “When I finally left, I me and said ‘Thank you, I grew pages of Digitiser, and wonder, Quavers.” So, describing announced on the Edge forum I up reading Digitiser’. It was as Biffo and Hairs frequently themselves memorably as “pilled- was having a leaving do here, in slightly surreal. I mean, it was used the excuse of “being drunk” up Jacobites” was also factually this pub, and people came from only this pissy little Teletext if readers disagreed with their inaccurate then? There’s a pause. all over the country. I think it was thing.” Maybe, chaps. But it verdict on a game, whether their “Well there was this time when only then I realised how big Digi seemed so much more. e >Mr Biffo’s Desert Island Disks
Alex Kidd in Miracle World Sega, Master System, 1986 Undoubtedly, there have been better platform games both before and since, but Alex Kidd was the first game I bought on my Master System, and my Master System was the first thing I bought with my first ever wage packet. I’d just got a job working for Ladbrokes Racing as a graphic designer, and couldn’t believe quite how much I was getting paid. I hadn’t realised at the time that the idea was to make it last the whole month. But Alex Kidd, and the Alex Kidd music, always bring back happy memories of my marginally more innocent days. Plus I’m a firm believer that the side-on platformer is a genre in need of a proper resurrection.
Underwurlde Ultimate, Spectrum, 1984 Terrible confession time now. I can remember going to Brent Cross shopping centre with my Mum, and having to entertain myself while she bought my Christmas presents. I can remember going into John Menzies, and picking up a copy of Do They Know It’s Christmas. And I can remember getting home, sneaking into my parents’ bedroom, sneaking back to my bedroom with the copy of Underwurld she’d bought me, and loading it up. And then having to act surprised when I unwrapped it on Christmas morning. Shocking.
q 26 q RG16 Desert Island Disks.qxd:RG16 Desert Island Disks.qxd 20/9/06 14:10 Page 27
REGULAR | DESERT ISLAND DISKS
Outlaws LucasArts, PC, 1997 Whilst Half-Life is probably my favourite game of all time, Outlaw gets on this list by virtue of being the underdog. It’s one of the most underrated games of all time, and pioneered the use of sniper scopes, and train levels – both elements of the first-person shooter which are still being recycled today. It was incredibly atmospheric. I’ll always remember being trapped inside a fort, down to my last sliver of health, barely any bullets, surrounded by bandits calling me out…
Horace and the Scrabble Spiders Ubisoft, GBA, 2002 I stumbled upon this Psion, Spectrum, 1982 quite by accident, Christmas morning, 1982. I came when I was staying in downstairs to see our TV flashing the a hotel room in message “Merry Christmas, Paul”, Brighton a couple of courtesy of a brand new years ago. I don’t even Spectrum my dad had sat up know where it came programming the night from – it was sitting at before. Horace and the the bottom of my daughter’s GBA carry Spiders was the first game I case, but I certainly don’t remember loaded up (I also got 3D buying it. It was the only game I could Haunted Hedges). Whilst I’ll play and actually see what I was doing – gladly admit it’s a pile of the GBA was never designed for low-light gritty turds, for the sheer conditions. I was immediately addicted. nostalgic twangs it invokes, it After Tetris it’s probably the most pure has to be in this list. handheld game there is.
Castle Master Castle of Illusion Incentive, Atari ST, 1990 starring Mickey Mouse I’m a first-person shooter addict, and it’s probably fair to say that it all started with Sega, Megadrive, 1990 Castle Master. Ground-breaking 3D graphics To this day I still think this is one of the best- made for a stunningly eerie environment that looking, best-sounding platform games ever. For literally gave me nightmares. You’ve not had me it was the game a bad dream until that finally justified you’ve dreamt the £189 I paid for my there’s a giant, fire- Megadrive – a breathing polygon controversial purchase living in your attic. I at the time, given that also remember there my girlfriend was was a hollow expecting a baby. The wooden cow in there parallax scrolling made somewhere. The my hair stand on end, game, not the and the final boss dream. Or my bed. level is truly creepy.
Skool Daze/Back 2 Skool Microsphere, Spectrum, 1985 Despite the confusing, convoluted controls and simplistic graphics, these are without a doubt my most fondly remembered games. They’re an absolute pain to play – with a different key for each specific action – but as a 12 year old it was sublime to play a game with a setting that I could relate to. You can stick Trashman and Everyone’s A Wally in that category too – fantastic exponents of mundane, British suburbia. Do today’s kids really relate to ghetto pimps, and micro- skirted zombie killers?
q 27 q RG16 Famicom.qxd:RG16 Famicom.qxd 20/9/06 15:34 Page 30
q 30 q RG16 Famicom.qxd:RG16 Famicom.qxd 20/9/06 15:34 Page 31
FEATURE: HARDWARE | THE FAMILY COMPUTER
With over 50 million units sold worldwide, the Famicom/NES is one of the most popular consoles of all time and maintained production for an amazing 20 years. During this time the system was home to many of today’s biggest franchises and pioneered several hardware innovations. John Szczepaniak examines the original Japanese Famicom and its Disk System sibling
he Japanese Famicom fever The Famicom. The counterpart to the original Japanese West’s Nintendo The Famicom was launched on 15 design was deemed too Entertainment July 1983. Initially, only a handful toy-like for T System was of games were released for the Western superior in almost every respect. system, including Donkey Kong tastes It’s perhaps surprising, then, that and Popeye. Designed based on few people outside Japan know the ideology that “form is the full impact it had on gaming superior to mass”, Nintendo history. Production of the wanted to avoid Atari’s mistake of Famicom was discontinued in releasing vast quantities of low- late 2003, having outlasted every quality games that had eventually other console ever developed. crashed the US games market. It Even then, the assembly line believed that in order for the was only stopped due to system to succeed, the software difficulty in obtaining the would have to be of the highest necessary electronic components. quality. The Famicom was an To commemorate the Famicom’s instant success, with long queues popular well into passing, various groups set about forming and shipments selling the 1990s, so much so that creating dedication memorabilia. out as fast as they could be Nintendo was reluctant to release The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum delivered. To maintain quality, its successor, the Super Famicom, of Photography held a Famicom Nintendo placed very strict and only did so due to the arts exhibition from 4 December licensing restrictions on pressure of rival companies 2003 to 8 February 2004, prospective developers. Licensing releasing their own superior however, continued until 2003, showcasing every game released costs were high and licencees hardware. Regardless of this, the long after its Western for the Japanese machine, along were only allowed to release a fascination with the Famicom counterpart’s sales had ground to with various peripherals and certain number of games per year remained, and in 1993 the a halt. In fact, in the years model versions. Enterbrain, in to ensure that the titles were of a console was remodelled to leading up to the machine’s 20th association with Famitsu (the relatively high quality. celebrate its 10th anniversary. anniversary, output actually had famous Japanese gaming Japan was suddenly hooked. Many features were removed in to be increased to meet the magazine), commissioned a Everyone, from schoolchildren to order to lower the cost, but the demands of the many adults who commemorative Famicom DVD, salary men, was playing the Famicom AV had a much sleeker were buying the machines anew featuring interviews, the televised Famicom, the lure of Shogi and and more compact appearance. in order to relive their childhood StarSoldier tournament from 1986, Mario simply proving too strong. Software development for the gaming memories. and the results of a Famitsu poll In Japan, gaming was not merely system officially halted in the of Japan’s 100 favourite Famicom a child’s pastime and even mid-90s and the final game Making a mark games (not surprisingly, it professionals, such as the released in Japan was Takahashi consisted heavily of RPGs and famous copywriter Shigesato Itoi Meijin no Boukenjima IV (aka The Famicom is a landmark shoot-em-ups), which included in- (Mother series), had their Adventure Island 4) on 24 June system, not least because it game footage. interests peaked by the 1994. Hardware production, introduced many innovations now possibility of increasing their ‘creative assets’ by writing good games. Many of today’s established games designers started producing titles for the system during this time. Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokémon, first cut his teeth on the Famicom hardware back in the 80s, creating the cult classic Quinty. To do this, Tajiri bought old circuit boards from Akihabara junk shops and combined them with parts from his Famicom system. The legendary Shigeru Miyamoto also began his console career on the Famicom and Hideo Kojima hoped to be The commemorative DVD, assigned to the machine when featuring Japan’s best-loved he joined Konami. The Famicom AV appeared in 1993, featuring AV Famicom games The Famicom was still very composite output (hence the name)
q 31 q RG16 Famicom.qxd:RG16 Famicom.qxd 20/9/06 15:34 Page 32
quality software. Famous be given to the Famicom. franchises such as Final Fantasy, Advances in technology and Dragon Quest and Metroid design scope meant Famicom started life on the Famicom, and and FDS games could increase though first released on the MSX, in size and quality. Games series like Goemon, Castlevania began incorporating unique and Metal Gear also made their gameplay elements – a good console debut on the system. example of this is Otocky. A Readers might be unaware that a music-influenced product Biohazard/Resident Evil semi- combined with classic shooter prequel was also made for it. gameplay, Otocky was described Entitled Sweet Home, it was an as a cross between media art and RPG by Capcom that featured videogames – Rez is its closest several key gameplay elements modern-day equivalent. that would go on to heavily Though not quite so boast- influence the survival horror worthy today, the Famicom also In Japan, the Famicom came with illustrated comic books explaining usage series that followed. Many had a hefty list of licences and would argue that survival horror franchise endorsements. A game taken for granted. Even today, the the system (so various connection started with Alone in the Dark, featuring the antics of Kiss- cross-shaped directional pad and setups could be used), enabling but some credit should at least influenced rockers Seikima Start/Select buttons are used on users to check text messages and modern controller layouts, such horse-racing results. Sadly, online as the GameBoy Advance and gaming was never implemented. PlayStation 2 – Nintendo’s As the Family Computer name >Disky handheld Game & Watch series claims, it was also possible to was the first to utilise D-pad turn the console into a form of technology. It was also the first semi-computer, complete with its business system to use voice-recognition own unique programming technology via a small software (Family BASIC) and microphone built in to the control keyboard. This enabled many In February 1986, Nintendo took the bold pad. In Bungeling Bay the second users to start programming their step of releasing a Disk System add-on for the player could control his fighters own simple homemade games Famicom. Although this wasn’t as successful as it could or indeed by shouting into it, while Kid and get a taste for the hardware. should have been, it had the potential to change the face of Icarus was able to gain discounts Speaking of hardware, its gaming forever. Created to lower the price of games by using if the player spoke directly to the Western equivalent also set proprietary-made rewritable disks, it was possible to purchase new game’s merchants. In Takeshi no precedents – specifically, the games on a regular basis as easily and cheaply as renting VHS or Chousenjou, the player was told region lock-out that stopped US DVD movies today. Gamers could buy a blank disk from Nintendo to sing Karaoke-style into the games being played on a costing Y2,000 (around £10) and for Y500 (£2.50) write any of the microphone in order to progress European NES and vice versa, supported titles onto this disk via small vending machines found in further, though few succeeded which infuriated gamers and stores throughout Japan. Pre-loaded disk games complete with since the voice technology wasn’t went on to become a console manuals were also available from around Y3,000 (£15), but some entirely reliable. standard of the present day. FDS titles were exclusively download only. This effectively reduced Whilst many believe the Sega the cost of cartridge production, which at the time was very Dreamcast was the first console Classic gaming expensive, thereby lowering prices considerably and allowing for to go online, the Famicom the production of much larger games. As the disks were rewritable, actually got there first. Several Games-wise, Nintendo made it meant that any game you didn’t like could be easily replaced network adaptors and modems good on its promise and released with a new one and game data saved without the need for costly were released that plugged into large amounts of extremely high- battery backup. Titles such as Metroid, which in the West had a complex password system, could incorporate save features in Japan because of this. Many games were converted from cartridge and several disk exclusives were also produced, including Super Mario Bros. 2 (Lost Levels). Sadly though, pirates soon found ways of copying the disks, and the market was flooded with cheap bootlegs. In addition, the cost of cartridge manufacturing started decreasing, resulting in bigger cartridges that surpassed the memory limits of the disks. All of this resulted in companies slowly abandoning the FDS. Another problem for the hardware was that its drive belts were notorious for breaking. Later, combined cartridge-and-disk systems were released by companies such as Sharp, but it was too late. FDS software development was eventually One of the many stopped, and in 1993 the vending machines Disk Writer machines that were dismantled. Had it been more successful, gamers could use Family BASIC, Famicom coding at your fingertips. A tape recorder was the gaming world would probably be a very to download the also released, allowing users to back up their precious programs different place. latest FDS games
q 32 q RG16 Famicom.qxd:RG16 Famicom.qxd 20/9/06 15:34 Page 33
FEATURE: HARDWARE | THE FAMILY COMPUTER
(Seikima II: Akuma no Gyakushu), >Pocket pleasure received surprising acclaim. F MICOM Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano had a game To commemorate the end of designed to his specifications, Famicom production, Nintendo F VOURITES and congressman Masuzoe released a special-edition created a game about “intra- Famicom-themed gold and So which Famicom office politics” that “taught you burgundy GBA SP in very games did the the art of how to get ahead in limited quantities (it was not life” (conversely, congressmen in meant for general sale). It also Japanese public the US more often than not try to mass-produced another special- vote as their ban videogames). A multitude of edition SP in the style of the favourite in the manga and anime licences were Famicom AV for the masses, released, such as Dirty Pair and and then a later one based on Famitsu poll? the rather excellent Patlabor. the NES for the Western Here are the top Several major licences were to market. To coincide with these, 40 titles… remain unknown outside of Nintendo converted and re- Japan though, such as Master released the best Famicom Takahashi. Having participated in titles as the GBA Famicom Mini 1 Dragon Quest 3 and been crowned winner of series. There were three sets 2 Super Mario Bros. Hudson’s StarSoldier National released consisting of 10 3 Super Mario Bros. 3 Rally 16-Blast championship games each, with the final set 4 Final Fantasy 3 tournament, the hero of the dedicated exclusively to the 5 Dragon Quest 4 game went on to star as the lead FDS – the were even produced 6 Dragon Quest 2 character in Takahashi Meijin no on yellow cartridges that 7 Dragon Quest Boukenjima, and was recognised mimicked the old disks. 8 Legend of Zelda by children across Japan. Rather Just some of the titles that Despite being relatively pricey debuted on the Famicom. From 9 Mother than setting up a similar top to bottom: Super Mario Bros, (ranging from US$20 to US$30) 10 Mario Bros. tournament in the West, Hudson Zelda and Metroid for what are basically 20-year- 11 Final Fantasy localised the game – Takahashi old games, for the ardent 12 Kirby was changed to Master Higgins, and difficulty levels changed collector nothing less than the 13 Kunio in Feudal Japan and the game title became for reasons that have never full boxed set will suffice. 14 Kunio Sports Adventure Island. Interestingly become apparent. 15 Spartan X enough, the game was released 16 Super Mario Bros. 2 in arcades as Wonderboy. Lasting appeal 17 Kunio Dodgeball On the whole, the Japanese 18 Final Fantasy 2 Famicom games were vastly The popularity of Nintendo’s first 19 Fire Emblem superior to their Western interchangeable games console is 20 Sanma no Meitantei localised equivalents. Apart from plain to see if you take a quick 21 Xevious the fact that only a small look at the Internet – there’s a 22 Ice Climber proportion of the available vast array of dedicated fan sites, 23 Spelunker triple-A titles were brought over, chronicling even the most 24 Castlevania nearly all of them had butchered obscure and bizarre facts 25 Gradius cover art (Mega Man), were (bootleg system designs and 26 Goonies censored to some degree (Ice overclocking the processor 27 Captain Tsubasa Climber), or suffered from the anyone?). The availability of 28 Konami Wai Wai World most bastardised translations software in the emulation scene 29 Metroid ever witnessed (Metal Gear). The is also very revealing – there are 30 Takeshi no Chousenjou regular re-interpretation and more emulators for the 31 Final Fantasy 1 + 2 modification of games was Famicom/NES than perhaps any 32 Portpia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken wholly unnecessary – stages other console or computer. The 33 Nekketsu Kouha Kunio Kun were removed, sprites redrawn continued recognition and legacy 34 Bomberman of the Famicom has caused 35 Ganbare Goemon developers to realise that older- 36 Wizardry style games are still profitable. 37 Donkey Kong Many companies have recently 38 Hokkaidou Rensa Satsujin released compilations of their 39 Pro Yakkyu Family Stadium past hits, such as Capcom’s Mega 40 Twinbee Man collection and Hudson’s 12 of the Famicom Mini games remakes of Adventure were released in the West to Island and StarSoldier. make up the NES Classics And let’s not forget the range. Here are both versions three sets of Famicom of the Metroid re-release Mini games released for the GBA. their visions and dreams using it, The Famicom’s impact we would have no Metroid or on console gaming is Zelda, no Mario or his rival Sonic, The original hardwired control pads. therefore obvious. and Final Fantasy would be little Controller II featured a built-in Without it and the many more than a twinkling in Leapfrogging Mario to the top microphone and volume control developers who began painting Yoshitaka Amano’s eye. >>>> of the poll, Enix Corporation’s Dragon Quest 3
q 33 q RG16 Famicom.qxd:RG16 Famicom.qxd 20/9/06 15:34 Page 34
>Famicom unsung top 10 Over 1,200 titles were released, so trying to whittle it down to 10 of the best would be an unenviable task and some readers would no doubt be outraged that their favourite title had been left out. Instead, we’re going to list what we consider to be the 10 unsung greats, since virtually everyone knows the classics such as Mario, Zelda, Contra and Final Fantasy. Number order is not important – what is important is gamers can discover some of the gems that are out there
Takeshi no Chousenjou Utsurun desu kawauso Hawaii e iku
The worst game ever designed or a twisted work of genius? Another game that tries to break away from convention, Utsurun Takeshi no Chousenjou was the first and only game that film has its own take on the platforming genre. When booted up it director Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano ever created. Despite the fact that the reveals two fake title screens, and later in the game the player is player has to perform near-impossible tasks such as singing forced to take a blind leap of faith into a pit of spikes, only to realise that the background forms a bridge of safety. Enemies are karaoke (leaving the control pad untouched for an hour) and also attacked in an unusual way – to activate the variety of moves hitting an enemy 20,000 times to kill it, the Japanese public still available, the attack button has to be held down for varying voted it into the top 50 Famicom games of all time. Designed with lengths of time as the game cycles through each one, with the the intention of breaking as many gaming rules as possible and by most powerful only available for a short time. But that’s nothing someone who claims to hate videogames, it’s an example of the compared to the characters, the main one of which seems to be a experimental design techniques that no longer exist in today’s middle-aged man in a rubber otter suit. There are many other climate of risk aversion. bizarre elements found within, all of which are wrapped in the kind of surrealism only the Japanese can get away with.
Crisis Force Kunio Kun series Old-fashioned shoot-em-up gaming from the people who brought One of the best things to come out of Technos was its Kunio series you Parodius and Twinbee. This is another title that regularly of games. These games involved everything from sports to high- reaches the higher echelons of the Famicom shooter charts. school gang brawls, and all of them featured super-deformed Smooth parallax scrolling and luscious graphics, coupled with a character designs that would become synonymous with Technos typically excellent Konami soundtrack, set this apart from many of games. Some of the titles from the series went on to be localised the other Famicom games in this genre. As is standard for a good and released abroad as River City Ransom titles, but many greats, shooter, there is a suitably impressive weapons power-up system – such as Jidaigeki dayo Zenin Shuugou (pictured), were exclusive to based around your craft being able to transform into one of three Japan. Sport aside, Kunio games took the form of stats-based attack configurations at the press of a button – and, of course, brawlers and were a joy to play. Featuring large characters, there’s the screen-filling power bomb. Crisis Force is incredibly fast outrageous special moves, and detailed scenery which could be paced and is all about raising weapon power to ridiculous levels, used as weapons, it was the definitive beat-em-up series. Later so that single shots can take out fleets of enemies. games even supported simultaneous four-player fights, making it an unrivalled series of fighters on the Famicom.
q 34 q RG16 Famicom.qxd:RG16 Famicom.qxd 20/9/06 15:34 Page 35
FEATURE: HARDWARE | THE FAMILY COMPUTER
Quinty Gun-Dec This isn’t a Japan-only title as it was released in the West under Released in the West under the title Vice: Project Doom, this the moniker Mendel Palace, but it’s of such a high quality it excellent Ninja Gaiden clone just has to be included. With amazing deserves a mention. Quinty was the very first game designed by cutscenes and flawlessly crafted gameplay, this is a title that Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri. The game’s packed with small actually surpasses the game that inspired it. Gameplay is kept details and delicate character animation, and the aesthetics can fresh throughout via a combination of side-scrolling action, driving still impress. Gameplay, meanwhile, is deceptively simple and and Operation Wolf-style shooting sections, all of which create one drags you in – you’re soon kicking cards around to collect bonus perfectly formed package. Those who manage to complete it also items and trying to splat enemies against the walls. To call it an get to enjoy the grand conclusion to this surprisingly dark plot action-based puzzle game would be a very loose description as filled with red herrings. there’s nothing else quite like it.
Konami Wai Wai World Mother
Everyone loves character compilation games and almost everyone Released exclusively for the Famicom, this is a fine example of why loves Konami game characters, so it’s strange that while Japan was games should be regarded as modern art. Written by the blessed twice with the Wai Wai games, neither title made it to the legendary Shigesato Itoi, it’s set in the present day and includes West. The game is a send-up of everything you love about Konami. many emotional themes running throughout. Though an RPG by Featuring a selection of well-known characters, such as Simon nature, it avoids many modern clichés such as levelling and gold Belmont, Goemon and even Twinbee, the game also throws a hunting, instead replacing them with growing up and gaining a number of new ones into the mix. Each of the many stages is regular allowance from a father who’s never at home. It would be a themed around an entire game from Konami’s much-loved back severe injustice to try to describe the sum of parts that is the catalogue and the production values are extremely high, especially Mother series. The only way to fully understand it is to persevere in the second title of the series. with the game until the grand finale.
Huang Di Sweet Home
Possibly the greatest game to come out of China during the Combine the gameplay mechanics of Final Fantasy with the original Famicom era, Huang Di is as enjoyable to play as it is difficult to Biohazard/Resident Evil house scenario and improve it by track down. An unlicensed bootleg-only cartridge, the game was incorporating an innovative ‘team’ system, then integrate a truly released in limited quantities. Though it can be tentatively disturbing plot about a deranged female artist who has been described as a platform action game, it’s innovative in that it allows kidnapping and burning local children alive, and you’ve got Sweet the player limitless flight and spell casting. Huang Di also contains Home. Made by Capcom and bearing more than a striking some truly breathtaking levels, bosses, set pieces and cutscenes. resemblance to the aforementioned PlayStation/Saturn hit, it’s a Flying over a village of headless warriors, traversing a fungi jungle thrilling game from beginning to end, particularly the fan and battling a wildcat under the cover of moonlight are just some of translation. One of the many great RPGs that were never localised, the gaming treats players will never forget. Sweet Home is now highly sought after.
q 35 q RG16 Famicom.qxd:RG16 Famicom.qxd 20/9/06 15:34 Page 36
>FDS famous five Compiling a rundown of the best Famicom Disk System games is difficult since the majority of its triple-A titles are available on cartridge in the West. There are several FDS-only games that deserve special mention though
Kineko: The Monitor Puzzle Super Mario Bros. 2
A sedate and very relaxing Commonly known as the Lost Levels puzzler containing what is thanks to the SNES Mario All-Stars arguably the closest thing to compilation, this is the true sequel to FMV during that era. The player the original Super Mario Bros. is presented with a short looping Though there are a few new film that’s been divided up into additions, such as poisonous tiles – their task is to mushrooms and a graphics overhaul, reassemble them in the correct the gameplay is nearly identical to pattern. Technically speaking, it’s that of its predecessor, proving to be nothing short of brilliant for something produced on such as fluid and playable as ever. antiquated technology. Each of the separate squares continues to Officially this is only available on the play their individual section of film as they’re manipulated, so FDS, but in the early 90s hackers sharp eyes are needed to see where edges connect. Time attack, managed to convert it to cartridge multiple difficulties and a variety of very different films make for a then mass produced it – these are well-rounded puzzle game. now highly sought after.
Otocky This is a highly ambitious game that has been described as an attempt to combine videogames with organic composition. The game takes the form of side-scrolling shooter in which the main weapon is a music ball (with its size representing the player’s physical energy) that can be fired in eight directions, producing a different musical note for each one. The musical theme runs throughout – one of the power-ups is a tempo increase that speeds up on- screen action, and a plethora of others change the sound of the main weapon (there’s a total of 16 unique sounds). Unlike other shooters, the goal is not to survive until a boss is reached but rather to collect musical energy. Once enough has been collected, the player is transported to a massive musical note filled with holes, the goal being to shoot the energy into the holes to repair it. This makes for a very distinctive experience, since it affects how you approach the game, focusing less on destroying enemies and more on collecting the notes. Alongside the main game is a Free mode, in which the levels are devoid of enemies, and a Freestyle Music mode, where players can create their own veritable symphony.
Doki Doki Panic Nazo no Murasamejou As well as the official sequel This Zelda-style overhead adventure, released only two months to SMB, the FDS also played after the Hyrulian epic, is often ignored in favour of Miyamoto’s host to the unofficial sequel. aforementioned masterpiece. This is unfair because despite being a Knowing a good thing when smaller, more linear (and therefore, easier) game, the overall it saw one, Nintendo bought quality is on a par with the well-known Zelda title. The game is set all the rights to the game in feudal Japan and features shuriken-throwing ninjas and (something Fuji TV no doubt authentic-sounding Eastern music. The player is also able to cast still regrets, having magic and deflect projectiles with his witnessed the recent money- sword, like a true samurai master. And making re-releases of the old that’s what makes this game such a franchise) and then repackaged it as SMB2 for the Western market joy for Western players – it adheres to by replacing the four main characters with Mario and friends (this the assumed stereotypes of ancient was later re-released in Japan on cartridge as Super Mario USA). Japan, giving them exactly what they’d Despite the fact that Nintendo was seemingly keen to ignore the expect and want to see, and making it origins of the title, this is still the same enjoyable game albeit with the perfect balance against Zelda’s unaltered sprites and gameplay. more medieval-themed setting.
q 36 q Untitled-1 1 1/9/06 12:55:47 RG16 King Mario:RG16 King Mario 20/9/06 14:30 Page 38
How Nintendo Conquered America
q 38 q RG16 King Mario:RG16 King Mario 20/9/06 14:30 Page 39
FEATURE: SOFTWARE | KING MARIO
Continuing our Nintendo coverage, Alicia Ashby and Geson Hatchett look at the incredible impact of the NES in America, revealing the skilful marketing, ruthless domination of third-party developers and distinctly shady business practices that saw Nintendo take total control of the US videogame market
f you’ve ever console in 1977 that really sparked spoken with an a nationwide videogame craze. American gamer Within a few years rivals including who was born Coleco and Mattel developed I around the late competing consoles, and by 1983, 70s, you’ve probably observed the entire American videogame that person waxing nostalgic market was clocking up about the Nintendo Entertainment yearly sales of US$3.2 billion. System and its games. Although As most gamers know, there were PC games, arcades, this peak was followed by a and other home consoles horrible crash. Atari began available in the 1980s, none of flooding the market with new them inspire the intense game cartridges in 1982, and nostalgia with twenty-something many gamers and retailers Americans the Nintendo name complained the glut was resulting does. If you were a child during in lots of poorly made games. that period, there simply were Demand sharply contracted, and no other videogames to match suddenly retailers were left with Arriving Nintendo; there was even a huge inventories of videogames in 1986, as brief period where playing any that could not be shifted. Atari shifted its videogame, regardless of Companies folded, retailers and focus to the 16-bit home computer market, platform, would be referred to as investors lost gigantic sums of the NES had a clear run in the “playing Nintendo”. money, and the American media US console market Part of this fixation is simple was quick to pronounce the entire nostalgia, but there’s a deeper videogame ‘fad’ completely dead. significance to it as well. Children By 1985, yearly sales had shrunk of the 80s who love Nintendo do to an abysmal US$100 million. so because they were carefully Japan, however, suffered no trained to, through a program of such massive market contraction. relentless multimedia marketing. Since Atari’s releases there were Nintendo was also careful to make managed by Japanese companies sure that no competitor could ever acting as middlemen, the present a serious threat to its oversupply of cartridges never control of the industry, by locking happened. It was in this friendlier top software developers in iron- environment that a toy company clad exclusivity contracts and called Nintendo began to market a resorting to a wide variety of product called the Famicom. A true deceptive sales tactics. Since low- 8-bit system, the Famicom cost computers never really took delivered faster and more visually off with middle-class Americans, appealing games than any of the the NES usually ended up being consoles that competed with Atari’s the only videogame system most VCS; only the ColecoVision came children could experience. close. Nintendo was able to For a generation, Nintendo quickly saturate the Japanese completely conquered the hearts market with its products, and had and minds of American gamers. to look toward foreign markets to How it did so is still the stuff of keep growing. legend, poorly understood even by The logical next market for the the gamers who emerged from that Famicom was America. Nintendo’s country and that generation. Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong However, delving into the history Junior arcade games had turned of the American gaming industry immense profits there despite the and the memories of the ‘Nintendo diminishing market, earning generation’ does much to reveal US$200 million in sales and how King Mario got his crown. US$55 million in marketing revenues in 1982 alone. The secret Playing with power of Nintendo’s arcade success over larger competitors like Atari and The home videogame industry was Bally was to only release a few born with the introduction of the high-quality titles in a given year, Magnavox Odyssey in 1971, though when standard industry practice Thanks to the success of its Donkey Kong arcade games, Nintendo it was the release of Atari’s VCS was to release as many as 20. It was confident of conquering the US home videogame market
q 39 q RG16 King Mario:RG16 King Mario 20/9/06 14:30 Page 40
companies and Japanese firms a licensed breakfast cereal. In could tolerate the Nintendo the American market, and constraints, smaller American particularly during the 1980s, only software firms were basically the most wildly popular locked out. If you didn’t have the franchises were pursued for cereal money to make games Nintendo’s licenses, creating products like way, you simply couldn’t make the Flintstones-themed Fruity games for the NES. Pebbles. Before Ralston-Purina’s As Nintendo reached the peak Nintendo Cereal System in 1989, of its influence over the American no piece of videogame hardware videogame industry, a NES was had been popular enough to earn present in 17% of all American the distinction. households. The American market The Nintendo Cereal System was performing so strongly that featured two cereals based on its the parent company in Kyoto was top games: Super Mario Bros. and able to post record profits and The Legend of Zelda. According to give shareholders 100% dividends. the box, the Zelda cereal was Licensees swallowed their pride berry-flavoured, while the Mario and dealt with Nintendo’s cereal was fruit-flavoured rigorous licensing requirements, (mushroom-flavoured cereal since demand for the Nintendo obviously didn’t meet the taste brand was too strong to make testers’ approval). The prominent competition viable. Nintendo of use of screenshots on the box America’s Peter Main was conveyed the notion that it was declared Marketer of the Year by just like playing your favourite Adweek, and rightfully so. The Nintendo games… only in a bowlful advertising programs he helmed of milk. through the 80s created an Another defining sign of the insatiable hunger for Nintendo- Nintendo craze’s magnitude was branded products in young the production of a series of American NES owners. A big part animated cartoons. These were of that marketing program was immense hits, among the most multimedia licensing. popular animated productions on Last month, an unopened box of Nintendo Cereal System dating from TV when initially released. The first 1988 fetched US$129 on eBay US. We wonder if it was still crunchy Nintendo generation was the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, which debuted in 1989 and stood to reason that if Nintendo scrambling to expand their For the generation of children who divided itself between cartoon approached making games for an commitment to the Nintendo line owned an NES in 1989, you did shorts and live-action bumper American version of the Famicom of products. Sales rose to over not merely play Nintendo. You ate, segments. For the cartoons, Mario in the same way, ensuring quality US$1 billion and the NES was slept, and breathed Nintendo. The and Luigi were portrayed as over quantity, it would be a named the top toy of 1987, with passion for the system and the pasta-gulping plumbers. Along trend-bucking success. other toy makers complaining that characters was all-consuming, and with a red-headed redesign of In order to help the American Nintendo’s success was coming at soon expanded far beyond a Princess Toadstool and her loyal market accept the product, the expense of their own offerings. simple desire for NES games. If it mushroom retainer Toad, the Nintendo felt it should redesign it By 1988, sales had climbed to sounds a bit like a frightening heroic duo foiled King Koopa’s evil to make it seem less like one of US$2.3 billion and Nintendo’s obsession, well… it could be. plots. Usually he was out to the old home videogame consoles, products accounted for over 75% The first licensed product that conquer something, but whether and more like some kind of space- of all videogame sales in the US. signalled the enormity of the it was the Mushroom Kingdom or age gadget. So Nintendo launched Third-party software developers Nintendo craze was, of all things, the world varied from episode to the console alongside a cool- lined up to exploit the console’s looking but basically useless robot success, but they often found addition called R.O.B. (Robotic working with Nintendo difficult and Operating Buddy) as a peripheral frustrating. Nintendo controlled for its new system, along with a manufacture of the custom NES redesigned American version of game paks, and charged hefty fees Nintendo’s popular Beam Gun toy per cartridge. This control of the called the Zapper. The planned manufacturing side also let ‘Nintendo Advanced Video System’ Nintendo dictate how many units name was altered to ‘Nintendo of a particular title were made, as Entertainment System’, and the well as how many new games a cartridges renamed ‘game paks’. company could release in a year. Introduced into toy stores Games released for the NES had to nationwide in 1986, the NES be exclusive, and couldn’t be quickly became a rampaging ported to other system for five success with children – and more years. Most devious of all, the NES than a few adults – across was equipped with a patented America. By the end of spring lockout chip that would only play 1987, American retail chains like officially made Nintendo game Episodes of Super Show were later released Walmart and Circuit City were paks. While large American on videotape, and more recently, DVD
q 40 q RG16 King Mario:RG16 King Mario 20/9/06 14:31 Page 41
FEATURE: SOFTWARE | KING MARIO
episode. Every Friday, the Mario cartoons were set aside to instead run cartoons based on The Legend of Zelda. The animated series was a sort of ultra-sarcastic take on the classic swords-and-sorcery game, with Ganon up to typical cartoon villainy in every episode. The live-action bumper segments that padded the cartoons were something like a miniature Nintendo sitcom, complete with canned laughter. The stories, such as they were, focused on the Mario Brothers’ misadventures as plumbers in and nicknames that the show’s Brooklyn. In this version, Mario writers seem to have fabricated and Luigi were (respectively) out of whole cloth. For instance, played by former World Wrestling Wendy O was referred to as Cootie Federation manager ‘Captain’ Lou Pie Koopa, and Morton Koopa Jr Albano and an ageing character was dubbed Big Mouth Koopa. The actor named Danny Wells. At the mania for Super Mario Bros. 3 at end of the show, the live-action the time was immense, and the Mario would encourage watchers cartoon was yet another Nintendo to do ‘The Mario’, a bizarre dance smash hit. set to the Super Show’s equally strange theme song. When Mario stumbled The Super Show was overwhelmingly popular in From 1990 onwards, Nintendo’s syndication, and prompted the success in both America and Japan creation of a Saturday morning began to slowly diminish. In some Tengen and Color Dreams were just two companies who released incarnation that ditched the live- respects this was inevitable; games without the coveted ‘Nintendo Seal of Approval’ action segments. This cartoon was keeping up such a monstrous called The Adventures of Super market share would have been and the company was quick to for their maturing tastes. Mario Bros. 3, and used the then difficult even under the best of realise it’d have to look outside of At the same time, Nintendo red-hot new game as its basis. It conditions. While Nintendo had its core audience – children – to was deep in multiple lawsuits in was essentially identical to the been focusing on bombarding make new NES sales. Nintendo the American courts. It was Super Show’s Mario cartoons, but American children with licensed developed plans to try to market wrapped up in litigation with added the newly renamed King products, marketing conditions had to adults in the US, and began to Atari Games Inc and its subsidiary ‘Bowser’ Koopa’s seven children begun to quietly worsen. finally put some effort into Tengen over the home videogame to the cast. The children were The most immediate problem promoting the NES in Canada and rights to Tetris, with both parties supposedly modelled on the ones was market saturation. Perhaps Europe. Sadly, these efforts failed suing each other and asking for who served as level bosses in the 30% of American homes had an to deliver the same success as the injunctions to keep its rival from game, but each had personalities NES as Nintendo entered the 90s, American release. Nintendo of putting a version of the game on Canada was poorly managed, while the market. Nintendo was also Nintendo of Europe had difficulty suing Blockbuster, alleging that dealing with the multiplicity of its rental of NES game paks nations it sold in. Adults infringed upon Nintendo’s everywhere perceived the NES as copyrights. By the end of the year too much of a child’s plaything to Nintendo had even managed to be taken seriously. get into legal trouble with the US Another problem was the government, as the Chairman of looming birth of the 16-bit era. the House of Representatives Sega and NEC picked 1989 to Antitrust committee, Dennis Eckart, rush out their 16-bit systems, but accused the company of being an Nintendo felt no need to take abusive, anti-American monopoly. these competitors seriously while The centrepiece of the accusations the NES remained profitable. This was the Nintendo licensing was a correct instinct with NEC’s policies, and alleged policies of TurboGrafx-16, but Nintendo using intimidation tactics against made a terrible mistake by retailers that dared to carry non- underestimating Sega’s Genesis/ licensed Nintendo games. More Megadrive. Sega smartly legal action followed in 1990, countered Nintendo’s marketing with Nintendo suing Galoob for with its own campaigns, which attempting to market the Game addressed ageing NES owners Genie device that let players enter The short-lived Super Mario Brothers 3 who were beginning to find codes to manipulate the gameplay animated series ran for just 26 episodes in 1990 Nintendo’s offerings too childish rules in their NES games.
q 41 q RG16 King Mario:RG16 King Mario 20/9/06 14:31 Page 42
>Box Office Bros.
The Hollywood treatment of Super Mario Bros. that Nintendo had been working on ever since the Super Show’s monstrous success was met with a crushingly lukewarm reception when it finally debuted in 1993. The movie’s critical flaw was that it radically re- interpreted the Mario storyline to allow for more human characters, and in the process The Tetris court case resulted in two versions of the game available created something that was for the NES, one from Nintendo (left) and one from Tengen (right) nothing like the game. The few fans that went to see the Nothing seemed to work out season. A cartoon that had been second-hand gaming stores and film were confronted with a Nintendo’s way in these legal popular for so long suddenly flea markets. Despite the bizarre storyline about an conflicts. While Nintendo won the seemed full of grating voices and proliferation of NES ROMs and alternative universe created suit with Tengen, third-party painfully screwball antics. emulators, the actual hardware is by a meteor that crashed into developers used it as an excuse still prized for delivering a the Earth millions of years to publicly cry foul over Nintendo’s Fallen empire superior gameplay experience. ago, supposedly killing off licensing schemes. The King Mario may have used the dinosaurs. The ‘Mushroom simultaneous antitrust proceedings In February 1992, a young Sony litigation, ruthless marketing, and Kingdom’ was actually a did nothing to improve Nintendo’s executive who would go on to be oppressive licensing to his twisted version of New York rapidly tarnishing image, even part of the electronics giant’s advantage, but he also won his City run by sentient hyper- though the outcome of the videogame business wrote: “The kingdom by providing the greatest evolved dinosaurs. Toad was hearings was little more than a industry is at a watershed. videogames that Americans had a hippie, Goombas were giant slap on the wrist (Nintendo had Nintendo’s superiority is ever seen. Many American retro humanoids, and Bowser was to send US$5-off coupons to all crumbling.” The executive in gamers would argue that the a blatantly uninterested NES owners). The lawsuits with question was Ken Kutaragi, sheer quality and vitality of the Dennis Hopper. Blockbuster and Galoob, which creator of the PlayStation, and NES and its game library haven’t Nintendo didn’t win, made many coming years would prove him been matched by any console gamers feel that Nintendo had painfully right. since. It’s unlikely that a Nintendo become grasping and greedy. The mid-90s saw the Megadrive console will ever dominate the Talk of artificially inflated edge ahead of the SNES in overall American market in the same way, cartridge prices began to swirl sales, while Sega’s Sonic begin to but the NES and all the hype that along with increasingly eclipse Mario in popularity as a went with it will be remembered exaggerated rumours about mascot. In the generation of fondly for as long as the Nintendo Nintendo’s monopolistic practices. consoles that followed, Sony’s generation endures. e As a result of all these factors, PlayStation debuted on the market people began to grow to soundly trounce Nintendo’s fundamentally tired of, and in offering, the Nintendo 64. The some cases hostile to the Nintendo Generation, by then in Nintendo brand name. The 16-bit high school and college, had not Super NES received a relatively been replaced by more young lukewarm reception in America, gamers who would buy into which had a withering effect on Nintendo’s marketing schemes. The core cast was the Nintendo licensing machine. An Instead, they had simply moved on shockingly recognisable in attempt to update the Saturday to Sony’s offerings. contrast, with Bob Hoskins morning Super Mario cartoon to Still, the shadow and John Leguizamo doing include elements from the new the NES casts on the surprisingly believable jobs as Super Mario World game led to the mind of the American Mario and Luigi. The movie cartoon’s cancellation after a gamer is long. The also featured a well-cast Nintendo Daisy, but relied on some Generation is tortuous plot twists to get her pushing 30 by now, into the Princess Toadstool but still you’ll find role. Ultimately, young fans many who fondly were confused and audiences remember the stayed away. The film was Nintendo Cereal considered a major flop, only System and the Super recouping $US20 million of its Mario Bros. Super estimated $US42 million Show. Websites that pay budget, and a concrete sign Although the SNES was homage to great NES games and that the value of the Nintendo technically superior to the Nintendo’s old marketing name had diminished. Megadrive, it came second in the schemes are common. The NES is 16-bit console race even still sold widely, both in
q 42 q RG16 King Mario:RG16 King Mario 20/9/06 14:31 Page 43
FEATURE: SOFTWARE | KING MARIO
q 43 q RG16 NLG Amstrad.qxd:RG16 NLG Amstrad.qxd 20/9/06 14:48 Page 44
Next Level Gaming:
Twenty years ago, Amstrad released the CPC664, successor to the popular 464 model. But after just six months on sale, Sir Alan Sugar presumably called the 664 into his boardroom, stabbed a finger in its direction and declared “You’re fired!” Its replacement was the CPC6128, a computer with double the amount of RAM. And this extra memory surely opened the door to bigger and better games…
he 6128 was more professional look. In fact, launched in August adverts were created showing 1985, and, as with the 464 and the 6128 side by the earlier models, side, with the older machine Having replaced the 664, the 6128 was advertised as Amstrad’s T was available with running an arcade game and ‘serious’ alternative to the 464 either a monochrome or colour the spanking new model monitor. Besides the memory displaying a 3D graph. It was for games – bigger and better access to a growing catalogue of boost, the core CPC components obvious that the 6128 was games that would blow the 8-bit disk-based software. It took a remained the same – a trusty old Amstrad’s more ‘serious’ competition away. Well, that was little while longer for dedicated Z80 processor running at 4MHz, computer, and it even came the hope anyway. 6128 software to appear, and three-channel sound and a bundled with a new version of With the introduction of the even then it was more of a trickle palette of 27 colours (16 of which CP/M (v.3.0) that utilised the 664 and its built-in 3in disk than a flood. could be displayed simultaneously machine’s extra memory and drive, many games were now on screen in the lowest of the opened the door to even more appearing on floppy disk. This It’s alive! three resolution modes). application software. But for CPC negated the need for troublesome Other changes were purely gamers, the additional 64KB of tapes, ensuring that software The CPC range was extremely cosmetic. Most noticeably, the RAM wasn’t intended for word could be loaded quickly and popular in France, so it was famous coloured keys were processors, spreadsheets and easily. The 6128 was fully hardly surprising when the first dropped, giving the computer a databases. No, it was purely backwards compatible with the 6128 game came courtesy of earlier models, so owners of the Ubisoft. Released in late 1986, new machine immediately had Zombi was an arcade adventure based on the classic horror flick Dawn of the Dead, featuring a
q 44 q RG16 NLG Amstrad.qxd:RG16 NLG Amstrad.qxd 20/9/06 14:48 Page 45
FEATURE:SOFTWARE | NEXT LEVEL GAMING
The location graphics in the 128KB version of Zombi (right) feature much more detail
group of survivors, a gang of became clear that the extended 64KB version the screen display Hell’s Angels and an army of version was packed with extra was reduced by about 40%, zombies all fighting for control of detail. The location graphics in making it more difficult to a huge shopping mall. Much like the stripped-down 64KB version pinpoint enemies before they the movie, there was a standard were sparse by comparison. returned fire. The 128KB version version and an extended edition, The next game of note was also introduced a between-stages and the latter would only run on Prohibition from Infogrammes, bonus section in which you the 128KB CPC. Initial differences another French publisher. This actually entered the crime lord’s between the two versions were shooting-gallery game saw you den and shot him dead. minor – the icon-driven interface gunning down the enemy gangs The 6128 had been on sale had been tweaked for 6128 users, of New York, a job that was far for 18 months and yet Zombi and making it easier to select options – easier on the 6128 version as the Prohibition were the only games but as you began to explore, it action filled the screen. In the really worth shouting about. Meanwhile, on the Spectrum side >Upgrade options of the fence, Spectrum 128 owners had been enjoying a Pirates!, a game of such scope Amstrad’s approach to home steady flow of dedicated 128KB and depth that it would only run computers was undeniably software. To make matters worse, on a CPC with 128KB of memory. smart. While the standard Amstrad had earlier acquired Advertised as “The World’s First CPC464 model was provided Sinclair and its focus had shifted Swashbuckling Simulation”, the as a complete all-in-one to the new Spectrum models. In game offered much more than package, with built-in tape particular, the new Spectrum +3 mere swordplay, blending action, deck and bundled monitor, was almost a carbon copy of the adventure, strategy and role- the computer was easily 6128, with 128KB of RAM and a playing into one highly expandable. If you wanted to built-in 3in disk drive. memorable title. And the fact use disk software there was Amstrad may have overlooked that it was a 128KB exclusive no need to upgrade to a 664 the 6128, but thankfully third- certainly gave 6128 owners that or a 6128 as the standalone party publishers weren’t so warm feeling they’d been craving DDI-1 drive was available. eager to jump ship. In 1987, for so long. Similarly, if you wanted the MicroProse released Sid Meier’s Sadly, the release of Pirates! extra memory of the 6128, didn’t open the floodgates, but you could purchase a 64KB that trickle we spoke about RAM pack that slotted into earlier continued to seep the back of the 464. through. Computer Scrabble However, there was no way Deluxe was also released in of upgrading the old CPC to 1987. This 128KB version of the run Plus software, but then original had an expanded again, this was perhaps no dictionary of 20,000 words and great loss. high-resolution graphics. Considerably less yawn-inducing were versions of Dragon Ninja and Chase HQ, both of which featured additional speech samples when loaded on a 128KB machine – who could forget the “Let’s Go Mr Driver!” line from Chase HQ? On tape, both games also loaded in one Prohibition on the 6128 featured a larger screen display, making it go, so there was no painful easier to target enemies in the allotted time loading between stages.
q 45 q RG16 NLG Amstrad.qxd:RG16 NLG Amstrad.qxd 20/9/06 14:48 Page 46
>Plus power
In 1990, Amstrad superseded the CPC line with the sleek new Plus range of machines. The 464 Plus and 6128 Plus computers were fully backwards compatible with the older models, although exclusive new hardware was introduced. Scrolling and sprites were now handled by the hardware, freeing up processor power, and there was an increased palette of 4,096 colours. Amstrad also released the GX4000, a flash-looking console with Plus capabilities. Hundreds of enhanced Plus games were promised, but the resounding failure of the GX4000 (see Retro Gamer issue 11), killed the range stone dead. Still, a small number of exclusive Plus cartridges did creep out, including Burnin’ Rubber (the bundled The 6128 disk version of Stunt Car Racer came complete with an extra game), Robocop 2 and Pang, all of which were a cut above multiplayer mode standard CPC fare. However, the majority of Plus games were lazy CPC ports with little or no enhancements. The main exception was Expanding horizons games were released with the Gremlin’s Switch Blade, which was noticeably better when running 6128 in mind. Some titles were on a Plus machine, on a par even with the 16-bit versions. From 1990 onwards, the CPC fell designed to run exclusively on more in line with the Spectrum the expanded machine and these market and the majority of included Command (Rainbird), Wild Streets (Titus), Gremlins 2 (Elite), Lotus Esprit Turbo >Double dutch Challenge (Gremlin), Midnight Resistance (Ocean), Iron Lord We covered the strange case (Ubisoft), European Superleague of Double Dragon on the CPC (CDS), Space Crusade (Gremlin), back in issue 13, but in case Viz (Virgin), The Addams you missed it, here’s the Family (Ocean) and Nigel mysterious story once again. Mansell’s World Championship Basically two completely (Gremlin). Gremlin nearly canned different versions of the game the Nigel Mansell game, were released – a dodgy port preferring to concentrate on the for standard 64KB CPCs and a 16-bit market instead, only for superior conversion for 128KB Amstrad Action readers to swamp machines – and both were the publisher with letters developed by Binary Design. demanding its release. It later Anyway, the guys at Double appeared for the 6128, filling Dragon Dojo did a little both sides of a 3in disk. Crammond’s superb Stunt Car Tennis on the 6128 introduced digging and it turns out that Other titles would run on all Racer featured a multiplayer an extra ‘season’ mode and the 128KB version was CPC machines but with mode and a ‘hall of fame’ featured different music. converted from the ST and enhancements if the extra gallery which were both Paperboy 2 also boasted released for the French market. memory was available. The stripped out of the standard additional in-game music, The 64KB version, meanwhile, 128KB version of Geoff 64KB game. International 3D and it was the same story was ported from the Spectrum with Supercars which played and shovelled into UK shops. an excellent techno-style Like Big Boss Willie, the chief tune throughout. boss in Double Dragon, it was The final game worthy of best avoided. mention was released in 1993 when the CPC market was on the wane. Zap T Balls by Elmar Kreiger (author of Super Cauldron and Prehistorik 2) was a colourful 128KB clone of Ocean’s Pang. Pang was only available on cartridge for the CPC Plus machines, so Elmar effectively opened up the game to software-starved 6128 owners. Best of all, Zap T Balls looked as good as any Plus game, ensuring that one of the last commercial CPC Zap T Balls, one of the last great CPC games, was sold via an games was also one of the independent mail order company called Sentinel most memorable.
q 46 q RG16 NLG Amstrad.qxd:RG16 NLG Amstrad.qxd 20/9/06 14:48 Page 47
FEATURE:SOFTWARE | NEXT LEVEL GAMING >Ubisoft’s B.A.T.
B.A.T. is essentially an interactive graphic novel made up of several static locations. You can talk to various characters to gain information, and you must also learn to defend yourself as the city is a rough place. There’s a whole host of mini-games in there too, including a bizarre disco-dancing challenge and a alarm or attack alert. It’s very, vehicular jaunt through the very impressive. wastelands of the planet. You can Visually, the game lacks the buy items from shops, use detail and colour of the 16-bit vending machines, get your versions, but every location is pockets picked, drink in a pub, faithfully recreated, and it’s hard visit a seedy porn cinema and to believe that the developer B.A.T. has to go down in history available on disk (filling both more… All in a day’s work for a has managed to reproduce the as one of the most under- sides of two 3in floppies!). space-cadet secret agent. game in this form. Sadly, the appreciated games ever made, As an agent for the Bureau of One of B.A.T.’s best features same can’t be said for sound, as and to this day remains a title Astral Troubleshooting, you’re (and the most ahead of its time) there isn’t any… at all. Audio is the majority of gamers have sent to the planet Selenia to is B.O.B., a computer grafted into completely absent from this never heard of, let alone track down a rogue scientist by your character’s forearm. Using port, so the adventure lacks played. Originally appearing on the name of Vrangor, who this you can monitor your status atmosphere as you wander the ST and Amiga, B.A.T. was recently escaped from prison. All and health, keep track of your around in total silence. an adventure far ahead of its you have to go on is a hologram experiences, and switch between But, aside from the lack of time. It was surprising, then, of Mergio, Vrangor’s fellow the two available translation any sound, you can’t help but when Ubisoft ported it to the 8- escapee, and your own skills of modes (robot and alien). But far be drawn into this intriguing bit Amstrad in 1991, and even investigation. It’s up to you to more interesting is the adventure, and you certainly more so when it turned out to explore the alien city, question its programming section in which won’t find anything else like be an extremely faithful inhabitants, find leads to you can actually come up with this on the Amstrad. One for conversion. However, due to its Vrangor’s whereabouts and your own small programs, such as the disk drive owners to
depth and scope, it was only eventually bring him to justice. an auto translator, health warning brag about. e
q 47 q RG16 Indiana Jones:RG16 Indiana Jones 20/9/06 14:24 Page 48
Since he first burst onto the screen in 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, the man with the whip and weather-beaten fedora has had a prolific tie with videogames. From simple text-based games to groundbreaking graphic adventures, Henry Jones Junior has seen and done it all on the majority of popular systems from the early 1980s onwards. As LucasArts begins work on a new title for next-gen consoles, and progress on the proposed fourth film gathers pace, Robert Mellor charts Indy’s adventures in interactive entertainment
q 48 q RG16 Indiana Jones:RG16 Indiana Jones 20/9/06 14:24 Page 49
FEATURE | INDIANA JONES Raiders of the Lost Ark Atari 2600, 1982
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Graphics are rudimentary, as Taking the most basic and you’d expect, but serve their generic elements of the film’s purpose well enough and are plot, the game places adventurers certainly colourful. into an overhead playing field, When shown the finished not dissimilar to that later seen game, director Steven Spielberg’s in early RPG games, setting them response was to say that he was off on a task to recover various expecting something more along treasures and evade a pesky the lines of Pac-Man. His attitude baddy known only as ‘The Thief’. soon changed when Warshaw The title is a one-player game, demonstrated a complete run- uniquely using the first joystick to through of the title, however, control Indy himself and the after which Spielberg famously second to access the various exclaimed, “It’s just like a movie!” items in the player’s inventory. Well done Steve…
Indy’s first official videogame outing appeared on Atari’s well- established 2600 console and was released one year after the film. One of the earliest examples of a movie licence (hot on the heels of Parker Brothers’ popular Empire Strikes Back videogame), the title was programmed by Atari legend Howard Scott Warshaw, the man also responsible for the mega-hit Yars’ Revenge and the infamous Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom Commodore 64, 1984
Released by Mindscape, this title contained within each of the six playing areas, ranging from an oceanic was the first Indiana Jones game to scene plagued by giant vampire bats to a room full of deadly be based on an original concept bouncing balls. rather than being an actual movie This promising game proves to be a mixed bag. Some of the scenes licence (despite using the Temple of found within are highly enjoyable, such as the one in which Indy is Doom teaser poster as box art). The pitted against a hideous green dragon. Others, in particular the originality didn’t stop there, though, cavernous landscape littered with bad guys, are deeply frustrating. The with the documentation proudly mysterious and unorthodox nature of the game works well to a point, proclaiming, “The ultimate but becomes somewhat ridiculous with the realisation that even the challenge. Nobody told Indiana basic controls themselves change from room to room. Graphics are Jones the rules. And no one will tell acceptable for the time, as is the sound, which features some especially you.” This meant that the piercing shrieks from the enemy characters. Play can prove sluggish and instruction manual included only sticky, however, and the game’s poor collision detection doesn’t exactly annotated playing controls, without help matters, making this a flawed but admirably unique and often so much as a hint on how to complete the various challenges within endearing title. the game. Beginning with a faithful rendition of John William’s famous Raiders theme, a text introduction brings players up to speed, informing them that Indy is deep within the undergrowth of a dense jungle, desperately searching for a sacred treasure that holds the key to a long-lost civilisation, with arch-rival Erik Peters not too far behind him. Stumbling across a mysterious castle not documented on any map, Dr Jones decides to venture inside in search of the artefact – nicely illustrated by the game with a brief graphical cutscene. A few options screens later, and it is completely down to the player to solve the devilish puzzles
q 49 q RG16 Indiana Jones:RG16 Indiana Jones 20/9/06 14:24 Page 50
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Arcade, 1985
Manufactured by Atari on its superb for its time. The game’s System 1 hardware, this remains representation of the scenes in the only arcade outing for Indiana the movie is pleasingly accurate, Jones to this day. This is while many facets of John surprising when you consider that William’s wonderful score are it was a highly successful title recreated in all their glory, along that spawned equally popular with an impressive selection of home versions. sampled speech. Play is also a Like Atari’s original Star Wars strong point, combining a varied coin-op, the game is structured mix of platform, maze, driving in a succession of waves. The and action elements to create an one of three difficulty settings player has to traverse the extremely addictive experience. that also alter scenery and level thuggee mines in a platform- Presentation, meanwhile, is top- dynamics accordingly. and-ladders setting, take a notch and features the option of Home conversions naturally thrilling isometric mine cart ride, either three or seven lives followed and were handled by and finally collect the first of (depending on credits), a bonus software giant US Gold in 1987. three Sankara stones from the round awarded for the game’s Sadly, despite the relatively altar of Kali. Having done so, completion and also the simplistic nature of the original, wave one is complete and the comparatively rare ability in an none of them turned out to be Despite not appearing on UK action continues until Indy has arcade game to actually choose of any real merit. The 8-bit shores, an Amiga port was later recovered all three of the versions released for the released in America by stones. Another trip through the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC Mindscape. Like a lot of US- mines and a final mine cart and Spectrum were burdened based software, it failed to take chase take you to the rope with sluggish play and horrific full advantage of the Amiga’s bridge seen in the film’s climax multi-load, while the Atari ST hardware capabilities which, on and the final showdown with evil port seemingly vanished from top of arduous gameplay similar Mola Ram himself. sight soon after release, never to the other home versions, In terms of both sound and turning up on the Kixx budget meant it fared little better than graphics, Temple of Doom is label as its 8-bit cousins did. US Gold’s efforts.
q 50 q RG16 Indiana Jones:RG16 Indiana Jones 20/9/06 14:24 Page 51
FEATURE | INDIANA JONES Indiana Jones Indiana Jones and the Temple and the Revenge of Doom of the Ancients NES, 1988 PC, 1987
officially licensed but, apart from adventures, this is a fast-paced its differing box art, proved to be game that throws a constant exactly the same game as the barrage of situations at the player, Tengen release. hardly giving them time to think. Naturally based on the film of It’s also completely unforgiving, the same name, the game also has with the computer killing you off a tenuous link with Atari’s coin-op, pronto if you take a second too despite not being a direct long to think out a puzzle or input conversion. The slave mines and an incorrect command. mine cart chase sequences both On reflection, the game is a fair feature, much like the arcade attempt to implement a pure Indy game, but the altar of Kali scene adventure as opposed to the does not appear until close to the action games that paved the way game’s end, with the initial two before it, but as you might expect, sequences just looping for what A text adventure released by it’s set back by the usual trappings seems like an eternity. Several new Angelsoft and Mindscape in 1987, of the text adventure genre. In Something of an oddity and a elements not featured in Atari’s Revenge of the Ancients sees Indy fact, the introduction of timed constant source of headaches for game are thrown into the mix, embarking on a quest to track responses actually worsen collectors, this title was actually though, such as a selection of down a ‘power key’ with the ability proceedings, as you rarely have released twice in 1988 by two alternative weapons featuring to control the Earth’s pulse. It’s no time to logically think through a separate publishers – once by knives, guns and even dynamite. great surprise that the Nazis are problem (and then enter the Tengen and again by Mindscape. A jump action is also added to also on the trail of this coveted correct commands) before you are The rarer of the two proved to be the title, but this ends up making prize and it’s once again down to crushed/impaled/ burnt etc. Tengen’s edition, as it was actually gameplay infinitely more Dr Jones to beat them to the an unlicensed release without the infuriating because of the way punch. Thankfully, Indy is able to obligatory Nintendo Seal Of Indy jumps downwards by default, call on the help of old flame Approval emblazoned on the box leading to many a clumsy tumble Marion Ravenwood and together and cartridge. This version was into rivers of molten lava. This is the pair set off to save the world subsequently withdrawn after legal not a patch on the arcade game, from certain fate at the hands of action from Nintendo, making it a with problematic play, gaudy the Third Reich. very cherished item for NES and graphics, basic sound and Unlike most sedate text-based Indy fans alike. Mindscape’s laborious level design. It’s version, on the other hand, was seemingly endless too…
q 51 q RG16 Indiana Jones:RG16 Indiana Jones 20/9/06 14:24 Page 52
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Various 8/16-bit systems, 1989
sequences from the blockbuster movie. Players start off controlling young Indy on his quest for the Cross of Coronado in the caves of Utah, moving on to his subsequent escape atop a moving circus train. The game then progresses to the main plot of the film and adult Indy’s search for his missing father and the Holy Grail, which takes players to the rat-infested catacombs of Venice, the treacherous walls of Nazi- Despite a rather unsuccessful occupied Castle Brunwald, a attempt at porting Atari’s Temple of Zeppelin airship in mid-flight and Doom coin-op, the game had sold the final destination of the Grail well for US Gold (no doubt on the Temple itself. strength of the original) and the While slightly sluggish, the the Sega Megadrive (1993). Most Using Lucasfilm’s innovative software publisher decided to pick game is enjoyable enough and the versions are more or less generic point-and-click interface, this is up rights for home computer main platform-based levels prove updates of the original computer perhaps the first licence to versions of the third (and final?) to be difficult yet addictive and game, with slight alterations in allow the player to really step Indiana Jones movie. In an inspired fun, with the final level presented graphics and sound. But the jewel into Indy’s well-worn boots, even move to appeal to both arcade as an isometric puzzle-solver. The in the crown is without question to the point where the game and role-playing fans, US Gold title met with mixed reviews upon the Megadrive version, which takes gives the player a rating known as and Lucasfilm collaborated to its release in the autumn of 1989, the basic concept of the original an ‘Indy Quotient’ at various make not one, but two separate but is certainly a cut above US game and enhances it with intervals. The graphics are titles – an action title and an Gold’s interpretation of Atari’s coin- improved graphics, in-game music, stunningly detailed, recreating adventure game. op. The Amiga version is the most fluid animation and superior every major scene from the visually impressive, while the gameplay that feels infinitely movie in great depth, as well as The Action Game C64 version is more fun to play slicker. End-of-level baddies are offering an abundance of and makes better use of the also added to the 16-bit Sega port, additional set pieces not seen in With software coders Tiertex at the machine – though the absence of with other extras thrown into the the film. On top of the adventure, helm, the game recreates many of a young Indy sprite on the level designs such as a brief but exploration and puzzle-solving the more memorable action opening two levels of all 8-bit highly exhilarating rendezvous with elements that feature in these versions might be rather jarring for a mine cart in the opening level. types of games, the title also the more observant. Interestingly, the NES was throws in a selection of action Following the success of The home to a second Last Crusade sequences for good measure, Action Game for 8/16-bit home action title released by Taito in ranging from practice boxing micros, the title was later ported 1990 that bears little resemblance bouts with the coach at Indy’s to a variety of console formats to the other games, mixing puzzle, university to full-on bare-knuckle including the NES (1990), the Sega driving and platforming elements fights with sinister Nazi Master System/Game Gear (1992), to good effect. henchmen. Audio is stellar too, the Nintendo GameBoy (1993) and with intricately reproduced music The Adventure Game from the movie and suitable FX mixed into the soundtrack. While The Action Game appeared As if all that isn’t enough, the on all popular formats, The game is beautifully presented, Adventure Game surfaced only on with striking packaging and a the Atari ST, Amiga and PC. full hard-copy reproduction of Produced by Lucasfilm and Henry Senior’s Grail Diary, as seen distributed by US Gold, the title in the movie, further immersing followed on from Lucasfilm’s earlier players into the experience. The adventure games such as Zak game serves as a wonderful McCracken and Maniac Mansion. companion piece to the movie Not only did it come to be that not only faithfully recreates regarded as one of the best it on the computer screen, but Indiana Jones games, but it also also expands on it in ways proved to be one of the best previously unimagined in the adventure games, period. software industry.
q 52 q RG16 Indiana Jones:RG16 Indiana Jones 20/9/06 14:24 Page 53
FEATURE | INDIANA JONES Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Various 8/16-bit systems, 1991-1993
The Action Game ultimately Atlantis itself, the locations to be exotic locations sadly could not explored, puzzles The Last Crusade Action Game is save this game. to be solved and a successful (if not entirely whip-cracking outstanding) attempt at an The Adventure Game adventure to be arcade-style Indy title, yet had. Player 1991’s Fate of Atlantis fell flat on Taking full advantage of interaction with its face by attempting to be a LucasArts’ revolutionary iMUSE computer jack-of-all-trades and master of and SCUMM systems, the Fate of characters is none. Released on 8/16-bit home Atlantis Graphic Adventure is excellent with a computers, the title ditches the possibly the pinnacle of point- choice of 2D platform format in favour of and-click gaming. The fact that questions and an isometric 3D viewpoint. The the release didn’t have a movie responses to gameplay mixes both action and plot to rely on makes it even select from rather puzzle elements, resulting in a more impressive that such a well- than endless Obviously overjoyed with the confused title that sits in neither rounded experience with so much fumbling with success of its collaboration on one genre nor the other. Action depth could be created. The random phrases the two Last Crusade games, fans were bored by the Amiga platform proved to have as seen in earlier Lucasfilm (now LucasArts) and cumbersome tasks that better the definitive version initially with text-based US Gold teamed up once more suited the slow-burning style of its 1992 debut, but it was later adventures. Surprisingly for an between 1991 and 1993 to adventure games, while RPG bettered by an upgraded CD-ROM adventure game, the replay factor release another set of Indy fans had the far superior release on the PC in 1993, which also scores highly due to the action and adventure games. Graphic Adventure release to included enhanced sound with differing ways in which the game This time, however, there was focus their attention on. In-game fully implemented dialogue. can be completed, with players no movie to fall back on, so visuals are generally poor on all The game was a massive able to take paths dictated by attention was turned to the systems, with an annoyingly success upon release – it was action, logic and team strategies Fate of Atlantis series of comic obtrusive border cramping the loved by not only die-hard Indy at specific junctures. books released by Dark Horse playing area. Set across five fans but also passive adventure Also of note was the marketing in the early 1990s. Following levels that feature such gamers as well. It remains one of campaign employed by LucasArts, the source text closely, the diverse scenarios as a Nazi the best examples of an early which saw the production of game sees Dr Jones and his submarine, Monte Carlo and interactive movie, with many realistic movie-style posters to new companion, Sophia promote the game, fuelling ever Hapgood, searching for the more speculation that Fate of fabled aquatic city of ancient Atlantis was in fact the next Indy times and the powerful machine film in production. A sequel to that sank it to the bottom of this game, also based on a series the ocean. Set amidst the chaos of Dark Horse comics, was of World War II, the Nazis actually rumoured. Entitled Indiana predictably have an interest in Jones and the Spear of Destiny, it acquiring this weapon would no doubt have proved to themselves, and yet again be another popular entry into the it is left to Indy to save the adventure game genre, but sadly free world. nothing ever came of it.
q 53 q RG16 Indiana Jones:RG16 Indiana Jones 20/9/06 14:24 Page 54
The Young Indiana The Instruments Jones Chronicles of Chaos NES, 1992 Megadrive, 1994
Released in 1992 by LucasArts for the 8-bit Nintendo, but is Eager to market the Young incarnation of the intrepid and Jaleco, this NES unfortunately a little stale in Indiana Jones TV show in any archaeologist, rather than the cart was based on that it bears a striking way possible, LucasArts and Sega teenage version. the popular series resemblance to many produced this tie-in title for the Interestingly, an enhanced of TV movies other pedestrian NES Megadrive. It’s similar to the NES Mega-CD version of the game bearing the same platform games that game in that it uses the platform was put into production (no name, encompassing came before it, genre as its basis and incorporates doubt featuring choppy footage many of the action with everything it elements of the TV series into the from the show), but was sequences from the show has to offer having settings, this time pitting young quickly cancelled when the over a succession of levels. been done a Indy against the German Kaiser Megadrive upgrade failed to take A simple side-scrolling million times before. during World War I. off as expected. platformer, the title was a The title sees young The graphics and sound are sure indication that the NES Indy punching, whipping and obviously superior to the NES was nearing the end of its jumping his way through a game effort, but the gameplay is lifespan and was ready to be that looks like it was taken similarly unimaginative and overthrown by Nintendo’s from the leftovers of the unquestionably boring – perhaps replacement SNES console. Castlevania series, and is partly stemming from the fact The title features acceptable subsequently not a very that players would much rather graphics, sound and gameplay inspiring or exciting experience. be controlling the adult
Indiana Jones’ Greatest Adventures SNES, 1994
Created by LucasArts and Factor 5 for the Super Nintendo console, this is easily one of the best Indiana Jones games ever produced. With the success of JVC’s Super Star Wars trilogy of games on the 16-bit Nintendo, LucasArts decided to give the man with the whip and the hat the SNES treatment as well when it created this stunning slice of action gaming. The title is truly epic and implements every major action sequence from the motion picture trilogy as scenes for each of its 25 challenging levels. For years, fans had been longing to experience the boulder chase in the Peruvian temple, the frantic shootout on the streets of Shanghai and the Alexandretta desert battle. Finally they could. The game is absolutely massive and includes every set piece an Indy fan could possibly want, even going so far as to feature several 3D driving sections rendered using Mode 7 graphics. The title’s presentation is impressive as well, with lots of speech, every
q 54 q RG16 Indiana Jones:RG16 Indiana Jones 20/9/06 14:24 Page 55
FEATURE | INDIANA JONES Indiana Jones and his Indiana Jones and the Desktop Adventures Infernal Machine PC, 1996 PC/N64/GameBoy Color, 1999
Intended as a quick fix for busy using the mouse in a series of 15 Dr Jones in a Tomb Raider-style Indy fans, this package was short adventure challenges that environment and really step into a released as a budget title by each last about half an hour. Basic hero’s world. LucasArts. Essentially a series of tasks include interacting with However, while the graphics and simple games that could be played computer characters, fighting bad sound are expectedly impressive, in a small window on a user’s guys and searching for those ever- the gameplay turns out to be desktop, it was basically a elusive artefacts in a variety of problematic due to a glitch-ridden glamorous alternative to playing surroundings that the game control system. Basic exploration is Solitaire or Minesweeper. randomly generates. not an issue, but timing jumps and Viewed from an overhead Graphics and sound are OK swinging across bottomless pits are perspective, players control Indy and although this game is a a different matter – both are suitable enough way to pass the annoyingly cumbersome processes time during lunch breaks in the that require exact positioning to office, it is ultimately tiring and avoid instant death. The puzzle has a limited lifespan compared to elements are also not designed as LucasArts’ full-blown adventure After a period of absence during well as they could have been, with releases. In its defence, however, the late 90s, LucasArts rounded off the necessity for Indy to go back the package was good value when the decade by proudly announcing and forth between different settings released, thanks to its budget “The Return of the Original Tomb repeatedly cropping up. price tag. Raider” in his first fully interactive In retrospect, the game is sadly 3D adventure game. Set after the not too original, simply re-treading events of the films and the Fate of old ground that the Tomb Raider Atlantis storyline, the game takes series covered several years place in the Nazi-free year of 1947 earlier, rather than taking that with the Cold War well and truly specific gaming engine and underway. The Soviets, ever eager improving on it. Nevertheless, the to get the upper hand on the title is an enjoyable excursion Western world, are searching out overall and it was great to see the legendary Tower Of Babel, a everyone’s favourite adventurer possible resting place of the back in the arena. Infernal Machine – a device with The follow-up, Indiana Jones and the ability to unlock a dimension the Emperor’s Tomb, appeared in gate and swing the balance of 2003 but that’s far too new for power to the East. Approached by inclusion in this feature. Besides, the CIA and a familiar face in the modern PC and console owners form of Sophia Hapgood, Indy is have access to all Indy’s earlier, and naturally asked to track down the better, escapades thanks to the deadly weapon before the Soviets. wonders of emulation. In particular, The Infernal Machine was the the ScummVM emulator (www. game that brought Indiana Jones scummvm.org) resurrects the superb significant piece of music from the trilogy, cutscenes explaining the right up to speed with the modern Last Crusade and Fate of Atlantis plot of the films and a generous helping of digitised movie stills. In- world of interactive entertainment. adventure games on a number of game graphics are bold and aptly drawn, while play is fast, fluid and Having been accustomed to more platforms, including PC, Mac and responsive with plenty of action and the odd puzzle element thrown basic 2D action and adventure Dreamcast. The fourth film may be a into the mix. games, it was evidently a thrill for while off, but for now at least, the
Overall, this game probably ranks level with Atari’s Temple of players to finally be able to control man with the hat is back. e Doom arcade game as the joint-best Indy action title. About the only criticism that could be aimed at the release was that Indy fans were arguably short-changed compared to Star Wars followers, who got a unique game for each instalment of their beloved trilogy.
q 55 q RG16 Gilsoft.qxd:RG16 Gilsoft.qxd 20/9/06 14:16 Page 56
As a short coda to last month’s Delta 4 feature, Chris Wild talks to the guys behind Gilsoft, creators of The Quill Adventure Writing System
or any aspiring version of BASIC that came code that were quicker and more released commercially as The author looking to bundled with your computer to complex. How could the bedroom Quill. Amateurs could now write create a game on build a simple adventure. But programmer compete? The answer fast, responsive, commercial- their 8-bit BASIC was slow and inefficient, was The Quill from Gilsoft, ‘The quality adventures without F computer, the text resulting in limited, laggy Welsh Wizards of Adventure’. entering a single line of code. adventure was always the adventures that filled the Gilsoft was set up in the early The program was completely easiest option. Providing you had available memory in no time at 80s by 17-year-old Tim Gilberts menu-driven, and although the a half-decent command of the all. Meanwhile, publishers were using money from his father. His chunky manual was slightly English language and a fairly putting out commercial father ran an electronic device scary, it didn’t take long for logical mind, you could use the adventures written in machine company, selling household items users to find their feet and like door chimes, and one day author their first adventure challenged Tim by saying: “Let’s game. It really was a clever put my money where your mouth piece of kit, and the specialist is.” Gilsoft started off very much press was full of praise. “Once in as a family business. Tim was a while, a product comes along Technical Director, his father to revolutionise the whole Managing Director, his mother microcomputer scene,” wrote Company Secretary, and his Micro Adventurer magazine in cousin the accountant. The rest of November 1983. “The Quill is the company was largely made one such product, and will up of friends and neighbours. change the face of micro- In 1982 Graeme Yeandle computer adventures.” joined Gilsoft to write text Revolution came at a price adventures. In order to simplify though. The Quill would set you the process of creating his own back £14.95, a significant sum adventures, he wrote an for any piece of 8-bit software. authoring tool that was later But then, Gilsoft expected no royalties from games created using its software and sold commercially, so a copy of The Quill was all you needed to enter the burgeoning software business. And that’s what many users did, with Quill-penned games flooding onto the market. The quality of the games obviously varied, but many classic adventures were created using The Quill, including The Boggit (Delta 4), Hampstead (Melbourne House), Dracula (CRL) and Tower of Despair (Games Workshop). Following the success of The Quill, Gilsoft released The Together, The Quill and The Illustrator formed the perfect tool for creating quality graphic adventures Illustrator, an add-on pack that
q 56 q RG16 Gilsoft.qxd:RG16 Gilsoft.qxd 20/9/06 14:16 Page 57
FEATURE: PROFILE | GILSOFT
The Quill debuted on the Spectrum, but versions for other machines quickly followed
demand for games. So I wrote GY: The Quill was written in Z80 rip-offs of most arcade games, and worked on the Sinclair which we soon stopped selling Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Oric due to copyright issues, but there Atmos, QL, and BBC Micro. were a few original ones. There was also a 6502 version for the Commodore 64 which was RG: How did The Quill come sold in North America as about? ‘Adventure Writer’.
Graeme Yeandle: In the early 80s RG: Do you regret not charging a I was playing an adventure game royalty fee for commercially sold by Artic Computing. I had read an Quill games? article in Practical Computing, by Ken Reed, about an adventure- GY: The Quill was a software creating program to make games utility. I looked on it in the same Besides providing the tools to create adventures, Gilsoft also like ‘Adventure’ on large way as selling a C compiler, and released several of its own under the Gold Collection label mainframes, but not on micro- thus we never considered taking computers. The two seemed to royalties for anything developed enabled users to add location parser capable of understanding be linked. I decided then that I with it. graphics to their games, and more complex commands. Tim could write an adventure as good PAW (Professional Adventure and Graeme later worked with as the Artic one. So I wrote Writer), a standalone follow-up Delta 4’s Fergus McNeill to Timeline for Gilsoft. While writing that introduced an enhanced produce SWAN (System Without this it became apparent that I A Name), the third generation of needed a tool to help me develop >Aural pleasure The Quill. Sadly it was only the games. used to create one game As Tim mentions in the (Mindfighter), as the end of the RG: What platforms was The Quill interview, a Quill’d Spectrum 80s witnessed a gradual shift to written for? adventure appeared on The point-and-click adventures. Stranglers’ 1984 album, Aural To this day, there are many Sculpture. Written by Mike adventure-creation packages Turner, with ‘input’ from the available on the Web and they’re band members themselves, all indebted to The Quill and its Aural Quest placed you in the successors. We tracked down Tim shoes of The Stranglers’ tour Gilberts and Graeme Yeandle and manager, and saw you asked them a few questions collecting parts of a giant about their influential programs. ear – or something like that. Still, if you were a Speccy Retro Gamer: What encouraged owner and a Stranglers’ fan, it you to form Gilsoft? was a nice little extra. Tim Gilberts: Gilsoft was set up to try and make some money! I had been knocking together software for the ZX81 for some time, but when I saw the release of the Spectrum, I knew that the One of Gilsoft’s own adventures, Madcap Manor, came machine was going to hit the with an illustrated game on one side of the tape and an mass market and there’d be a expanded text-only version on the other
q 57 q RG16 Gilsoft.qxd:RG16 Gilsoft.qxd 20/9/06 14:16 Page 58
also developed The Patch which simple, and point and click was did a number of tasks, but probably the way to have done it. mainly it included a clever character-compression system TG: I wanted the PAW parser to that allowed text to be be intelligent, so people could significantly reduced in memory, type in English what they wanted giving more text in adventures. to do and the code would do the Usually it was used to free up rest. I never expected people to enough memory to squeeze make the games more difficult – graphics in with The Illustrator! It just to allow people to act more also allowed custom character naturally when playing the game. sets to be used, giving games a unique feel. RG: What are your thoughts on the Graphic Adventure Creator? RG: The Quill’s parser was Commercial companies such as Melbourne House and limited to verb/noun inputs, GY: GAC was a competitor. Users CRL picked up and released Quill’d adventures whereas PAW was expanded to had a choice. also accept adjectives, adverbs TG: It would have made it less Aural Sculpture album sold a lot and pronouns. Was this a TG: It was a competitor, but came popular. We also felt that tools of copies… conscious decision to allow users later to market with an integrated should be unfettered. I think to create more complex toolset – it was competent but today it would be Open Source. RG: Tell us about the available adventures? not my cup of tea. We produced add-ons to The Quill, such as The PAW to combat it. RG: What was the best-selling Illustrator. TG: Graeme and I always Quill-authored game? disagreed about extending the RG: What can you tell us about TG: The Illustrator provided a parser from the standard the SWAN system developed for TG: I don’t know what the best- way of adding pictures to Quill’d verb/noun to the mechanic used Delta 4? selling Quill game was, but games using a vector graphics in PAW. I’ll let him explain why. from the number of help-desk format with a fast shape shader – TG: The SWAN was a custom calls we received, Denis I was amazed at how good the GY: “Get the sharp knife and kill work to make extra actions and Through the Drinking Glass graphics could be with it in the the large Orc with it” is too bitmap graphics work in a slick must have been very popular. I hands of a professional, which I complicated for a user to have to fashion on all the interpreters we suppose that the adventure wasn’t. And they occupied only a type in and get right. Entering had. As a result, Delta 4 could included on The Stranglers’ few hundred bytes. Phil Wade commands needed to be kept write a game on one platform
q 58 q RG16 Gilsoft.qxd:RG16 Gilsoft.qxd 20/9/06 14:16 Page 59
FEATURE: PROFILE | GILSOFT
forward, but being a purist I didn’t RG: Any final thoughts? take it any further – silly really. TG: Well, I wish I was still RG: What do you think of the writing games and not looking in various remakes that are now despair at the quality of available? applications sold today by big companies. But with Gilsoft I had GY: I have no problem at all with a great time and feel I was part The Quill remakes. It’s nice that of something that affected a lot people are still interested enough of people. e to want to do this.
TG: It’s great, but I should comment on the copyright issues >Programmers as each individual creator will wanted! have copyright on their works. Surely one of the strangest adventures ever. Playing Technically we only licensed the Did you ever use a DIY utility as Denis Thatcher, you had to make your way to the code for the editor portions so like The Quill to create a pub while avoiding wife Maggie! that is not clearly defined, game? Or did you actually although I am happy for my program a game yourself from and then use the same data on RG: Did you ever consider portions of code to be distributed scratch? If so, did you send it all machines, including some creating point-and-click adventure as is. Quill (and PAW) PC to a software house in an such as MSX for which there games? remakes have been a labour of audacious bid to get it was no version of The Quill or love and it is quite humbling to published (with vague hopes PAW available. GY: We did, but to do it properly feel that people liked the product of becoming a teenage would have taken a lot of money that much. squillionaire)? Yes? Then RG: So what became of Gilsoft? and I’m not sure there was a Retro Gamer would like to market for it then. RG: Looking back, what’s your hear your experiences. And TG: In the end, Gilsoft folded as personal favourite Quill’d game? we’d be doubley pleased if it was a limited company. We all TG: Yes, but by then the market you could provide scans of went our own ways and my was changing to development TG: Out of ours, probably Madcap acceptance/rejection letters. father started selling homebrew teams rather than individuals. Manor. I’d choose Dambusters for Send your stories and any wine and beer-making supplies. I While working with Aventuras AD unusual use. Delta 4 did the best associated material to now work for the fire service. in Spain I looked at this as a route adventures though! [email protected].
q 59 q RG16 A Brief History.qxd:RG16 A Brief History.qxd 20/9/06 12:47 Page 60
A Brief History of
VIDEOGAMESIn the first of an exhaustive three-part feature, Spanner Spencer charts the pioneering early work on which today’s videogame industry is founded. The story begins in 1951, with the origins of the great grandfather of home consoles, the Magnavox Odyssey, and follows the winding breadcrumb trail of illustrious ping-pong games and evocative ROM-less delights that lead to the videogame revolution
q 60 q RG16 A Brief History.qxd:RG16 A Brief History.qxd 20/9/06 12:47 Page 61
FEATURE: HARDWARE | A BRIEF HISTORY OF VIDEOGAMES
n 1952, AS Douglas wrote a PhD paper at Cambridge University on I human-computer interaction. To demonstrate his thesis he used the university’s EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) valve-driven analog computer, fitted with a cathode-ray tube display divided into a matrix of 35x16 dots (or ‘pixels’, as we prefer these days), to play noughts and crosses against a human competitor. This is considered to be the earliest known computer Ralph Baer, the man behind the game ever created. infamous Brown Box, and the In 1958, William Higinbotham granddaddy of videogames was head of Instrumentation Division at Brookhaven National due to the circumstances under Laboratory. Using an analog which the game was developed, computer combined with a custom Steve Russell never made a PCB (Printed Circuit Board), he put penny from his program. together Tennis for Two, a simple It is a matter of some game to spice up the increasingly deliberation and a great deal of tedious open days held at the personal interpretation as to lab. The game was viewed from who can be credited with the side on a 5in oscilloscope founding the electronic game screen. Players had to ‘hit’ a ball concept. What is certain is that back and forth using handheld none of these three pioneers buttons to return the ball and a developed their projects into rotary potentiometer to set the marketable products, or apparently A schematic of Ralph Baer’s TV Game, dated 6th September 1966 angle of deflection. If the ball had any intention of ever doing was missed or hit the central so. They were present at the Bachelor of Science degree in TV waiting for the ideal industrial net, it would return at an embryonic stages, but were not Engineering, the first qualification soil in which to grow. ‘unnatural’ angle. Higinbotham involved with either the chicken of its kind. By 1966 Ralph was Chief never took out a patent on the or the egg. Working on various types of Engineer for Equipment Design invention, despite its immense It was Ralph H Baer who first electro-medical equipment until at Sanders Associates, a high- popularity at the shows. If he had the notion of creating a 1951, including RF generators for tech defence electronics had, there is a very real possibility dedicated videogame system, as tissue cutting and ablation, he consultancy. While waiting at a the US government would now he called it, to play games on a moved on to Lorel Electronics to bus depot for another Sanders own the rights to anything standard television set instead of become its senior engineer engineer, he jotted down some considered a ‘computer game’. the early computers that were working on IBM time-punch notes detailing his old idea of At the Massachusetts Institute practically inaccessible to the clocks and an analog military an interactive TV game, including of Technology in 1962, Steve general public. The idea shows computer for submarine-tracking what type of games would be Russell wrote a program called the differentiation between radar systems. feasible and how they would Spacewar on a PDP-1 mini computer games and videogames, At Lorel he was approached be displayed on a home interactive computer donated by and shows the brilliance of with the rather ambiguous television set. the manufacturer, DEC. It had his vision. specification of developing ‘the By September of that year he been given to MIT’s think tank best television set in the world’. had a simple schematic diagram so that it could come up with In the beginning… During the concept stage of this showing how a ‘chase game’ an impressive use for the world-beating TV he had the circuit would operate and could machine that would help with Ralph was born in Germany in notion of being able to play an be transmitted on the VHF sales, though a spaceship game 1922 and emigrated to New York interactive game on the set channel three or four RF carrier, was not what it expected. with his family in 1938. He itself, an idea that was displaying two user-controlled Ultimately, DEC supplied the graduated from the National immediately and expectedly squares chasing each other game to customers to use as a Radio Institute as a technician rubbished by his employers. For against a coloured background diagnostic test. and ran several radio service the next 15 years, the seed of on a standard television set. Spacewar was inspired by the shops around the New York his creative vision lay dormant, Assigning one of his technicians, science-fiction writer EE ‘Doc’ area, before being drafted into Smith and required players to fly the US Army. Ralph served for spaceships around the CRT three years with the American “It is a matter of some deliberation and display while firing at the Military Intelligence, one in the opponent and avoiding the US and two in Europe. Upon a great deal of personal interpretation gravitational pull of the ‘sun’ in completion of his service he as to who can be credited with the centre of the screen. The attended the American Television computer program for Spacewar Institute of Technology in founding the electronic game concept” took 200 hours to write, but Chicago, graduating with a
q 61 q RG16 A Brief History.qxd:RG16 A Brief History.qxd 20/9/06 12:47 Page 62
Bob Tremblay, to the job of second spot generator and a with the project he came up with spots. Before this could be fully building a circuit capable of coincidence detector that could an idea that would dominate the integrated, however, the more generating the user-controlled dot make one spot disappear when videogame market for over a pressing matter of marketing the meant that by February of 1967 touched by the other, giving decade: a third, system-controlled ‘TV Game’ took precedence. his concept was finally visible on more of a purpose to the chase spot. This meant bat-and-ball Sanders, being primarily a TV screen. game. The light gun was also games could be played, and the involved in military electronics, The development team was redeveloped to make a target- first idea he put on paper was was not the ideal company to increased to four technicians, shooting game possible. called Ping-Pong. market this product and was including Ralph, and they set about Management at Sanders was looking for a licensee to put it redesigning the original valve- impressed and Ralph decided to The Brown Box out. Ralph had the idea of driven circuit into a transistorised develop a unit #3, a simple incorporating the system with version. With the idea of creating games system that would retail The project was briefly delayed cable TV equipment, as the multiple-choice games in mind, for US$25. This was a revised becaue engineers were required providers could transmit a the team built an optical sensor version of the second unit, on other projects, but unit #4 photorealistic background (such into a toy pistol to use as an simplified to increase stability was ready for November 1967. as a tennis court) on the interface device, pointing it at and reduce cost. It was capable The unit played Ping-Pong using appropriate channel for TV Game the screen and pulling the trigger of playing the chase and light Bill Rusch’s third system spot to superimpose its video signal to make a selection. gun games in black and white, generator, but his diode-based onto. This bright idea was of By May of that year, the team as the colour generator circuits designs (that produced far more real interest to some of the had succeeded in creating a had been removed for cost- aesthetically pleasing round dots cable providers. Unfortunately, ‘pumping game’ that used a effectiveness. They also adopted as opposed to the usual they were all going through screen overlay depicting a fireman a modular design system to rectangular ones) had to be difficult times and were unable or and a house on fire. One player simplify test and manufacture of replaced due to their unwilling to risk the endeavour, pumped water in an attempt to the PCBs. susceptibility to thermal changes, regardless of how it might expand the blue lower half of Unfortunately, the new version causing dots to drift around and rejuvenate their business. the screen while the other cost US$16 to produce, meaning change shape as the circuit Funding continued for the player worked to expand the red a retail price of around US$50 warmed up. project until early 1968, allowing upper half. was more likely. This was a major Work quickly began on a fifth for a couple of hardware A second design attempted to setback, as the unit would have unit that would incorporate refinements and some extra incorporate its own RF oscillator to include some far more enticing differential and comparator game development (mostly and sync generators to create games to justify that kind of circuitry to apply realistic ‘reactions’ derivatives of Ping-Pong), until the TV picture (previously they price. Bill Rusch was brought on to the system spot, changing its funds were not only cut, but all had re-engineered an off-the-shelf board due to his renowned parameters depending on the lab time was stopped. For the TV modulator to generate the creative streak. Within a few direction and velocity of its next eight months, the TV Game video signal). It also included a weeks of familiarising himself coincidence with the user-controlled project sat untouched. >Gaming Godfathers
AS Douglas, the Wilkes at Cambridge University crystal transducers at either end tube displays were attached, one EDSAC, and Noughts and ran its first program on 6 (not unlike a speaker and of which monitored the contents and Crosses May 1946. microphone) that would pulse of the delay lines. Each tank The system used 32 mercury when data was received from the stored 16 words of 35 bits, so The EDSAC (Electronic Delay delay lines for its memory core. computer. The pulse travelled the display was configured as a Storage Automatic Calculator) These consisted of a column of through the mercury (used due matrix of 35x16 dots that were was constructed by Maurice mercury with piezo-electric to its acoustic properties being illuminated appropriately to almost identical to that of the display the data contained in a quartz crystals) and would be specific line. converted back into electrical While attending Cambridge, ‘data’ by the piezo at the other AS Douglas was writing a end. Additional circuitry could thesis on Human-Computer send the pulse back and forth Interaction and was lucky between the crystals, thereby enough to have access to one of indefinitely sustaining the data Britain’s few working computers, as long as power was applied. which he used to demonstrate When the computer wanted the his point. His ingenious idea data back, it compared the pulse was to use the mercury tank times to a master clock and monitor as a 35x16 dot extracted the data from the graphical display. His program appropriate delay line. played noughts and crosses Logic circuits were built using against a human component valves and relays, since using a telephone pulse dialler transistors had only just been as an input device. By applying Anyone wanting to know a bit more about the EDSAC can download invented and it would be a long data to the delay lines in such an emulator that comes packaged with AS Douglas’ game at time before they were in a way (not particularly relevant www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~edsac common use. Three cathode-ray to the program) he was able
q 62 q RG16 A Brief History.qxd:RG16 A Brief History.qxd 20/9/06 12:47 Page 63
FEATURE: HARDWARE | A BRIEF HISTORY OF VIDEOGAMES
Unit #8 was an add-on that plugged into unit #7. It incorporate the differential and comparator circuitry, providing dynamic motion effects for the ball games. By this point, Sanders Associates hada working TV Game system, but still no one to sell it to. Boxing clever
Ralph was as convinced as ever that this product should be the domain of the television industry, so Louis Etlinger (Sanders’ Corporate Director of Patents) invited representatives from all the major TV manufacturers in America to come for a demonstration. Of all those who attended, only Magnavox showed any genuine interest. However, It still took until March 1971 for the deal to be finalised and design data to be turned over to Magnavox engineers. The two teams worked Before the Odyssey was the Brown Box, seen here with dual controllers and light gun closely together and the first prototype of the Magnavox In September 1968, finances with a rotary switch, used for 16 game variations. This was the Odyssey Model 1TL200 TV Game improved and unit #6 was built. game selection. This prototype unit tastefully – at least by 1960s’ was ready for the third quarter of This was a rudimentary update of made clear the importance of standards – covered in wood 1971. It was essentially a direct the various components that had accessibility to the games and effect Fablon (inspiration for the copy of the Brown Box, with the been tweaked since the previous unit #7 was fitted with slide Atari VCS?) and duly dubbed the colour generators removed in version, and was also graced switches, allowing for a choice of Brown Box. favour of plastic screen overlays
that people could play, and which would convey the message that our scientific endeavours have relevance for society.” His division had a small analog computer that contained 10 hardwired operational amplifiers. Using an additional circuit of his own design (comprising resistors, valves, capacitors and relays), he and fellow technician Bob Dvorak were able to display different curves on an oscilloscope’s tube. Four of the op-amps were used to generate the realistic, gravitationally affected ‘ball’ motions, while the others William Higinbotham created Cambridge University’s EDSAC, shortly after completion in 1949 handled collision of the ball Tennis for Two while working (Photograph copyright Cambridge University Computer Laboratory) with the ground or net. In at the Brookhaven National order for the scope to draw the Laboratory to ‘draw’ the game board, Germany. Therefore, he was game, it had to multiplex making the first ever graphical present at the first atomic between the court, net and received an upgrade in its computer game. bomb test in New Mexico with ball. Valves and relays were second year to a 10 or 15in Robert Oppenheimer before not responsive enough to scope and had adjustable William Higinbotham, moving on to the Brookhaven handle this, so Higinbotham gravity effects proportional to BHL & Tennis for Two National Laboratory. made pioneering use of the playing on either the moon The lab regularly held visitors’ relatively new semi-conductor or Jupiter. As the system Previously, William had worked days, which mostly consisted of ‘transistor’ technology. used rather expensive as a physicist for the Manhattan static data displays. In 1958, Tennis for Two was kept on components, it was eventually Project, racing to develop the Higinbotham said: “It might liven display for two years and was dismantled and its parts used first atomic bomb before up the place to have a game very popular with visitors. It also for other projects.
q 63 q RG16 A Brief History.qxd:RG16 A Brief History.qxd 20/9/06 12:47 Page 64
and the slide switches for game only supply through authorised selection replaced with plug-in dealers, and with the unit ‘program’ cards. retailing at a whopping US$100 The system had no CPU, so it with six program cards (and a relied on links being made at further US$25 if you wanted the specific points within the circuit redesigned light gun), its market that set the parameters for the was seriously limited. An various components’ interactions, additional 10 games were thereby generating different games. available to buy separately, These cards actually didn’t contain though sales staff were not any programs (or components) at adequately trained to advise all, but were double-sided PCBs customers about the games and with linking tracks that determined very few were sold. how the unit would operate. In A mistake was also made in retrospect, any electronics buff the TV advertising campaign when could have put together a Magnavox insinuated (purposely ‘programmable’ card with or not, we guess we’ll never know) definable jumpers that would play that the system would only work any and all the system’s games, if with a Magnavox television. Even they knew which of the two sets after handcuffing itself to that of 22 connections to bridge. This particular radiator, Magnavox still turned out to be an excellent managed to shift over 80,000 marketing manoeuvre as it made Odyssey units and 20,000 light after-sales of games possible. guns. Add to this encouraging Sadly, not all Magnavox’s sales overseas sales (beginning in policies were so shrewd. 1973) and the Odyssey’s success Initial press and advertising for quickly became apparent. the Odyssey was handled well and Success, of course, brought reaction from the various trade robust competition. shows hosted across the country was excellent. By the summer of The Atari age 1972, Magnavox was shipping production models of the As a young engineering student Odyssey to its selected dealers. at Stanford University, Nolan The Magnavox Odyssey – “the electronic game of the future” It was Magnavox’s policy to Bushnell had seen the Spacewar
Steve Russell, the and Steve ‘Slug’ Russell) decided PDP-1 and Spacewar to involve onlookers by creating a game. Their love of ‘soap opera’ One of the first DEC Programmed sci-fi (mainly EE ‘Doc’ Smith, who Data Processors, costing a had a degree in chemical massive US$120,000, was engineering and was the man installed at the Massachusetts who first figured out how to Institute of Technology for make powdered sugar stick to scholars to create dynamic, doughnuts) meant there could be alluring demonstration software only one type of game: a to help sell the beast. spacewar adventure! After Still before the days of fetching a tape from the integrated circuits, the PDP-1 was manufacturers that contained built using discrete transistors cos/sin mathematical routines for and core memory. ROM was the PDP, programming could begin. handled by way of user input, in The dynamic motion of the the form of tape, punchcards or two ships (named ‘wedge’ and teletype. The system’s RAM was ‘pencil’ after their shapes) was built of 18-bitword core memory, based on actual physical theory, comprising three wires running such as a frictionless through three ferrite cores. Two environment, mass, fuel wires applied power to the cores consumption, gravity and inertia. while the third magnetised and To eliminate the opponent, demagnetised the ferrite rings in ‘proximity-detonated’ torpedoes order to read and write data. were fired across the screen. The Reading in this manner was velocity of the torpedoes was very slow, but core memory did calculated by adding a set have the advantage of being propulsion rate for the missile to non-volatile. the current velocity of the ship. Before the machine was even This meant clever tricks could be running, a group of students (J performed, like propelling the A rare photograph of Tennis for Two running at BNL in 1958 Martin Greatz, Wayne Witanen ship very quickly then turning
q 64 q RG16 A Brief History.qxd:RG16 A Brief History.qxd 20/9/06 12:47 Page 65
FEATURE: HARDWARE | A BRIEF HISTORY OF VIDEOGAMES
computer program running on half-cut beer jockeys were not the resident PDP-1 (and willing to stand at an arcade probably met Steve Russell who machine reading an instruction by then worked at the university), manual before inserting quarters. a program that would become the The gameplay had to be simple basis for the first ever coin- from the outset, so Atari’s first operated game, Computer employee, Allan Alcorn, was put Space. Rather than using to the task of developing a software, Computer Space more ‘immediate’ machine. consisted of a dedicated PCB In only a few weeks Alcorn packed full of logic gates that had put together Nolan’s played a simplified version of proposed ‘tennis’ game using Spacewar, with the gravitational over 60 digital logic ICs, making effects removed. for a clean, stable but Bushnell developed the considerably more expensive game at home and Nutting videogame than had previously Associates was selling it by been seen. As this was destined 1971. Although it flopped, it did for the arcades rather than set the standard for arcade living rooms, the elevated cabinet design and also costs were acceptable if it prompted Bushnell to form Atari meant a reliable system and with Ted Dabney. playable game. Examples of Computer Space Atari’s red and black can be seen in the movies prototype was installed at a Soylent Green (1973) and Jaws local pub called Andy Capp’s (1975), two films that both Tavern to gauge public reactions. The Odyssey in action. Early adverts promoted involved people being eaten, The unit was mounted on the console’s multiplayer possibilities though we’re sure that’s not pinball machine legs, kept the Nolan Bushnell’s influence. The score digitally on the screen and the game demanded attention. packed full of money that it had directors were obviously people used ‘paddle’ controls which In about a week, Alcorn jammed up the makeshift coin of considerable vision and kind of worked like an Etch-A- received a call from Andy Capp’s mechanism and stopped the inadvertently immortalised Sketch. Named ‘Pong’ due to the saying the game was out of system from registering new Nolan’s failed machine. hollow ringing noise made by order. A brief investigation found players. The machine was a After the Computer Space the ball (and the fact that Ping- that rather than there being a success and, in late 1972, endeavour, Nolan realised that Pong was already copyrighted) fault, the machine was so production began.
so slow movement of the ships wrote it into the non-volatile could be picked out. The star RAM before shipping a PDP. field was an accurate depiction That way, customers knew their of the night sky seen from Earth machine was working if they and scrolled across the display switched it on and Spacewar at about one day per hour. started playing. Finally, the game had a Steve Russell is rather ‘hyperspace’ routine, so the modest about his role in ships could be made to videogame history. “If I hadn’t disappear briefly before done [Spacewar], someone reappearing on the same would’ve done something trajectory and speed, in the hope equally exciting if not better in of avoiding an accurate shot. the next six months,” he is Although it wasn’t what it quoted as saying. “I just expected, DEC took Spacewar and happened to get there first.”
If you want to try Spacewar, there’s a Java version you can play in your Web browser located at http://lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/ el/projects/spacewar
round and firing a torpedo a strong, realistic, gravitational backwards, leaving an almost pull on the ships. If players sat stationary ‘mine’ floating in space. still they would be pulled into Strategies were soon formed the sun, and since there was a whereby players sat in their limited amount of fuel, escape respective corners and fired from the event horizon could torpedoes at each other. To stop become difficult. this, a ‘dark star’ was placed at To help with visual acuity, a the centre of the screen exerting star field background was applied Scholarly types enjoying a game of Spacewar at MIT
q 65 q RG16 A Brief History.qxd:RG16 A Brief History.qxd 20/9/06 12:47 Page 66
legal issue with the onslaught US$700,000 ‘paid up licence’ to >Next month of clones, Magnavox unleashed Magnavox, a one-off expense for its own lawyers. the right to carry on producing The massive emergence of Pong games. Future licensees home videogame systems Pong wars would pay on a royalty basis, so makes the new industry in retrospect, Atari certainly billions. In 1978, Ping-Pong At the Magnavox Profit Caravan came out better with this one- game sales dry up, and it’s product show in Burlingame, off payment. ‘make or break’ time for California on May 24th 1972, By 1974, the Odyssey was manufacturers. The Atari VCS the guest book was signed by selling well in America and and Magnavox Odyssey 2 none other than Nolan Bushnell – parts of Europe. Atari was mark the next stage in one month before Atari was an shifting Pong coin-op machines videogame technology, and officially registered company. It by the thousand and dozens of Nintendo appears as a new seems Nolan had visited the other companies were getting contender. Arcade games set show and had a hands-on in on the video tennis craze, the standards with Space Atari founder Nolan Bushnell experience of the Odyssey and both on the home and commercial Invaders, Asteroids, Tank, was successfully sued by its Ping-Pong game. scenes. The videogame age Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. Magnavox for ‘borrowing’ Baer’s The first ever videogame had well and truly begun, 25 Fierce competition drives game designs lawsuit (although many more long years after it was first prices into discount and loss, were to follow) was filed by thought of. and the market suddenly Pong was massive, and Magnavox against Atari for But the public would only be drops away. Many companies before Atari could patent its patent infringement of its happy to keep playing Ping-Pong go bust, while others game, copies were being electronic bat and ball-style games for so long. Whoever was (including Magnavox) get churned out at a rate of knots. games. Nolan Bushnell insisted first to give them something out, causing the great Variations of the game were that Pong was not copied from better would be crowned the videogame crash… appearing in cocktail cabinets, the Odyssey game, but after Silicone King, while all others uprights, even mounted in seeing his name in the guest would be sent to the block. old barrels, all within a few book and comparing the Everyone wanted that prize, and weeks of the first production similarity of the two games, the they were willing to do whatever models going on sale. But judge ruled in favour of Baer. it took to get it. before Atari had chance to take Atari agreed to pay a shin-kicking War was was on its way. e
Despite its striking appearance, Computer Space passed without Following a successful trial run in 1972, Pong much notice. Not even a sexy lady in a see-though dress could save it machines were shipped all over the world
q 66 q Untitled-1 1 1/9/06 12:55:47 RG16 Arcade Hunt.qxd:RG16 Arcade Hunt.qxd 20/9/06 13:02 Page 68
Son of ArcadeArcade HuntHunt
For a limited time only, Arcade Hunt returns to track down more classic coin-ops still in commercial use. We resume our journey in North Wales, home of the very first Arcade Hunt
Two of the most interesting coin-op cabs ever devised found in the same caravan park arcade!
he North Wales coastline seems to be stuck in some kind of time warp. T Whereas many other seaside resorts have been because anybody who holidayed modernised for the new here as a kid will find that not a millennium, the towns from lot has changed. And yes, that Llandudno up to Prestatyn look means that the bright and brash and feel the same now as they did arcades lining the seafront are still 20 years ago, with tacky souvenir packed with retro arcade machines. shops lining the streets and the Back in issue five, we visited sounds of old wooden Rhyl for our first Arcade Hunt, rollercoasters (and other deadly and found that many of the looking fairground rides) filling the amusement arcades had scrapped air. This is not a criticism but retro games in favour of fruit rather something to savour, machines and toy grabbers.
q 68 q RG16 Arcade Hunt.qxd:RG16 Arcade Hunt.qxd 20/9/06 13:02 Page 69
REGULAR | ARCADE HUNT >Reader report
Mark Stewart visits the superb-sounding Space City in Camber, Sussex
Last week I visited an arcade at the little coastal town of Camber, near Rye in Sussex, and was very impressed by some of the retro machines residing there. Space City is located in a car park only yards from Camber’s sandy beach. Despite the sign proclaiming that it offers “The Latest Videos”, I was delighted to find this wasn’t the case. In total there are about a dozen retro games, including some absolute gems playing at approximately 20 pence per credit. The units that were running when I visited were 1942, Afterburner (stand-up), Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, X-Men, Street Fighter II Championship Edition, Operation Thunderbolt, Gun Fighters: Lethal Enforcers 2, Street Hoop Basketball, Terminator 2 and Virtua Striker. There were also two NeoGeo cabs (running Thrash Rally and Metal Slug), and, best of all, an original 1979 Asteroids, which my eight-year-old daughter Jade was particularly taken with. All the units are in perfect working order. I spoke to the owners, Paul and Tim, who were extremely helpful and friendly, and they told me that the machines are checked and serviced at least a couple of times a week. Paul also told me he was expecting a Galaxians machine in very soon. The guys said they had only recently bought the arcade and had a few expansion plans for it. They’d be acquiring some more up-to-date games, but also continuing to maintain the classics, and would certainly prefer unproductive machines to go to collectors rather than be scrapped. Tim in particular would like to add a few of his favourites from the past, including Sinistar, Peter Packrat and Ikari Warriors. So that’s about it. If you’re in the area, why not check it out?
Don’t let the kiddie rides put you off – the small arcade at Palins Holiday Park is home to many great games
There were gems to be found parallel to the coast, and though, lurking in the dark Sandbank Road, which cuts down recesses at the back of some of to the beach. The majority of the larger arcades. We were later arcades are located on these two told (by a Retro Gamer reader) roads, but experience has told us that Towyn, a smaller resort a never to ignore caravan parks, as couple of miles down the coast these are often home to their from Rhyl, was a much better own arcades. Approaching the hunting ground for classic town from the direction of Rhyl cabinets. So on the hot Easter (along the A548), you come to a weekend at the beginning of April narrow bridge that leads to we set off with a digital camera Towyn Road. On the right before and a pocket full of change. the bridge, however, is the Golden Sands Holiday Park. In Hunting ground the small on-site arcade we immediately found the superb sit- Towyn basically consists of two down versions of Sega’s Hang-On roads – Towyn Road, which runs and Konami’s WEC Le Mans 24
q 69 q RG16 Arcade Hunt.qxd:RG16 Arcade Hunt.qxd 20/9/06 13:02 Page 70
(remember, the one modelled on are Sega’s Wonderboy (housed in the front of an actual Le Mans a cab with a Shinobi marquee) racing car and that turned 180 and Midway’s GORF (in its degrees from side to side?). Both original dedicated cab, although are in excellent working because of its position you can’t condition, which is surprising see the amazing side panel art). considering the number of GORF is just 10 pence a go, so penniless kids who’ve tried to we enjoyed a good five minutes ‘play’ them in attract mode over of play for the same price as a the years. Having said that, we’re single spin on the fruit machine pretty sure that WEC didn’t ship next to it. with Welsh Dragon and Union Playing GORF again was great, Jack stickers… Still, a great start but the highlight had to be Taito’s to our search. Darius. This two-player side- Leaving the camp, we crossed scrolling shoot-em-up is uniquely the bridge and saw Palins played on three horizontal Holiday Park on the left. The on- monitors, so the cabinet is really site arcade here is packed with wide and imposing, with great retro cabinets, including (deep panel artwork. Due to its size (it breath) Operation Wolf, Line of must weigh an absolute ton!) you Fire, Lethal Enforcers, WWF rarely ever see Darius these days, Superstars, Golden Axe, Sunset making this a significant find. Riders, Ironman Ivan Stewart’s Super Off Road, Virtua Racing, Shady Sonic Final Lap 2, Suzuka 8 Hours, Indy 500, 1,000 Mile Rally, Pit Fighter Our final stop was Knightley’s and Street Fighter II Hyper Leisure, located at the far end of Fighting Edition. Some of the Sandbank Road. Inside we found games are in generic cabinets, Blood Brothers (the sequel to but the majority are dedicated Cabal), Area 51, House of the cabinets in generally good shape. Dead and Sonic the Hedgehog. Better still, they’re all 20 pence a That’s right – Sonic in an arcade play! Also pleasing was the sight cab. Not Sonic Championship (the of younger gamers, no doubt VF2-style beat-em-up) or born and bred on PlayStation, SegaSonic the Hedgehog (the enjoying these relatively simple machines. The arcades dotted along Towyn Road are less rewarding, with the ever-popular Sega Rally 2 and Time Crisis 2 being about the oldest machines on show. The Black Cat arcade is the exception – it offers Ridge Racer 2, Final Lap 3 and Suzuka 8 Hours (the four-player version). Better by far is Black Cat II, situated around the corner on Sandbank Road. The number of retro cabinets in On the right is here is amazing, with many the impressive ageing but well-maintained DIY version of classics. Greeting you as you walk Sonic the through the door is Namco’s Hedgehog Lucky & Wild, a bonkers cross residing in Knightley’s between Chase HQ and Operation Wolf, and a couple of dedicated Sega cabs in the shape of Rad Mobile and Sky Target. Venturing further into the arcade reveals machines of increasing age, beginning with Prop Cycle, Alpine Racer, Sega Rally and Ridge Racer, then leading to Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, Hard Drivin’, Operation Thunderbolt, and Roadblasters. However, the real finds are located right at the Is Black Cat II the best retro arcade in North Wales? back. Sandwiched between a Quite possibly, if this little lot is anything to go by couple of soulless fruit machines
q 70 q RG16 Arcade Hunt.qxd:RG16 Arcade Hunt.qxd 20/9/06 13:02 Page 71
REGULAR | ARCADE HUNT
isometric arcade outing), but the original Megadrive Sonic. Searching for information, we >Reader report asked a guy fixing one of the machines, and he told us that he’d built six of the machines Arcade Hunt regular Ant Cooke sends word of back in the early 90s (and used retro games in Majorca. Wish you were there? the profit made to buy a second- hand Range Rover, no less). He’d basically worked out how to display the Megadrive output on an RGB monitor, then stuffed the console and Sonic game inside a generic cab. The example in Knightley’s is the prototype on which the other five models were based, and he told us with more than a little satisfaction that the game had been running almost every day for the last 15 years and never needed maintenance. He also revealed that he created Some might question why I’ve been searching out Moving out of the hotel, there’s Rodger’s Fun and sold a single Sonic 2 arcades in Majorca, but I was going there on Palace, which has another Hyper NeoGeo 64 game machine, so that too may be still holiday, so any excuse really! and Hyper Tommy Gun 64 (better known as Beast running somewhere. One particular type of machine appeared in Busters: Second Nightmare), which is also in perfect The Sonic story was the several arcades I visited – 33-in-One (sometimes condition. Another arcade near the beach has Soul perfect end to a great day. Towyn also known as Game History) offers many games, Calibur (though it’s in poor condition) and a huge- is certainly worth a visit this including titles like Bubble Bobble, Puzzle Bobble, monitor version of House of the Dead (complete with summer, and it doesn’t even Super Pang, Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins, Blazing Star and a hilarious message on the side – “Keep Away! The matter if it’s pouring down Vendetta. From a menu, you can pick any of the shooting game strikes fear into people’s hearts!”). outside (which it probably will games (the titles vary slightly from machine to Finally, on the stretch of road that leads to Golf be), because with so many machine), insert your coin, and after a brief pause Fantasia, there are two arcades. In the first, Tropica classic coin-ops to play, the (during which the games presumably load via Arcade, lies Double Dragon (the NeoGeo one-on-one beach and beer garden won’t be emulation) you can begin playing. However, these fighter), Tecmo World Cup ‘90 and another copy of on the agenda anyway. e machines are far from perfect. Some games (like Road’s Edge, again in brilliant condition. The other The Punisher and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs) have no arcade, Golden Bells, has one of the 33-In-One sound, while others (all the Metal Slug games and machines, as well as Wonderboy and a stand-up Insector X) suffer from sound and slowdown OutRun 2. Not exactly a retro game, but still… problems. Torrenova, next to Palma Nova, also has a few I visited three main areas in Majorca – Palma machines of interest. In a nameless arcade there Nova, Torrenova, and Magaluf. Palma Nova has was another 33-In-One machine, as well Sega’s rare several interesting arcades. In the hotel Lunamarr, Moto Raid, Namco’s Tokyo Wars, and one of those where I stayed, there’s a Puzzle Bobble 3 machine cheap, tacky Real Puncher rip-offs, Photo Punch alongside the Hyper NeoGeo 64 game Road’s Edge 2000. Another nameless arcade near the top of the (which is in beautiful condition – no screen burn, no hill in the town has a Puzzle Bobble 3 machine damage to the machine itself, nothing). (with an awful monitor that has lost nearly all its colour), Kick & Kick by Konami, and another Real Puncher machine. Finally, Magaluf has only one real arcade – the bizarrely named Benny Hill Place. As well as offering another 33-In-One machine, it’s also got Daytona USA, Puzzle Bobble, Die Hard Arcade and House of the Dead. However, there are several ‘dead’ machines in the arcade, all of which have their monitor cases packed with cardboard. These include Maximum Force, Sega Touring Cars, Arctic Thunder, and Taito’s original Sonic Blast Man, complete with a sign challenging people to punch harder than 130 megatons to win a bottle of whisky! The hunt is on!
If you’re on holiday this year and stumble across a abroad, please share the location with us. Send retro arcade, why not jot down the details, take a anything arcade related to arcadehunt@ few photos and send them to us? Alternatively, if retrogamer.net and we’ll compile the findings in a you know of a similar resort to Towyn, home or future issue.
q 71 q RG16 Shadowrun.qxd:RG16 Shadowrun.qxd 20/9/06 15:17 Page 72
Deckers, Mr Johnsons, Black ICE and Nuyen are just some of the buzzwords that excite Shadowrun fans who enjoyed these console games back in the day. But the story behind the licence is obscured by the ominous silhouette of MegaCorps, leaving ordinary Shaikujin unable to discern fact from fiction. Retro Gamer’s esteemed street Samurai, John Szczepaniak, invites you to sit back and read the real Paydata on the Shadowrun universe over a cup of Soykaf
icensed games, how to craft a good console especially those RPG, which is ironic since the from the 8- and USA practically created the genre. 16-bit eras, have a Western RPGs that were effective L reputation for were primarily the domain of being poorly crafted and of a computers – Dungeon Master and very low quality. Often a Eye of the Beholder, for example, trademark is licensed simply to were laborious games that elevate an otherwise terrible despite offering more sandbox- game out of commercial failure style gameplay with a strong by cashing in on people’s sense of freedom, lacked the familiarity with the brand. cohesive and involving narratives Sometimes these games have offered by far more exciting very little to do with any of the Japanese-developed console source material, so we have Arnie RPGs. With the likes of Enix and fighting shark-like blobs in Ape Inc creating the phenomenal Predator on the NES, for example. Dragon Quest series and Mother At other times the source is games respectively, Western used extensively, but not in a companies simply couldn’t way that lends itself to good compete. Even the US branch of game design, leaving us with a the much-loved Squaresoft could title containing many elements only produce the abysmal Secret that simply don’t work within the of Evermore. framework of the game. Very All this meant that when rarely do they utilise the content released, the Shadowrun games in a way that benefits good had double the impact – not only design ethos. In short, were they licensed products, but Shadowrun videogames simply the first two titles were RPGs shouldn’t work, particularly since created in the West that actually the first two were RPGs of matched and, to a degree, bested Western origin. their Japanese contemporaries. Right up until very recently Despite such bold claims though, the West simply did not know the deeply convoluted origins of
q 72 q RG16 Shadowrun.qxd:RG16 Shadowrun.qxd 20/9/06 15:17 Page 73
FEATURE: SOFTWARE I SHADOWRUN
the series are unknown to many several new species of human, is the premier publisher of student’s IT project, and a poor players, and the licence now lies each with their own customs Germany’s equivalent to hacking game called Decker for in shreds, torn apart by corporate and cultures. The game even Dungeons & Dragons, and also the PC that is seemingly set in takeovers and partial buyouts. took the unprecedented step of deals with the translation and the Shadowrun world. Then introducing fantasy elements into distribution of Shadowrun there’s the standard plethora of Paper wealth a futuristic setting. But above all products in Germany, where it’s various ‘inspired by’ games else, the whole thing seemed to hugely popular. available for the PC. Despite the In 1989, Shadowrun was have a grounding in reality and promise of such Shadowrun- conceptualised by several people logic (even the magic users). It Gaming legacy related videogames, only the at FASA Corporation (founded by is this solid foundation that three officially released titles are Jordan Weisman and Ross enabled the Shadowrun Sadly, the history of the actual worth playing if you’re a purist. Babcock) as a table-top, pen-and- videogames to reach such high videogames themselves is no The first to be released was paper RPG game. The universe of levels of quality and much- less complicated – three non- Shadowrun on the Super Shadowrun can be loosely deserved critical acclaim. sequential games were developed Nintendo in 1993 for the described as a fusion of Tolkien- Toward the end of the 90s, long for three different systems by American market. It was esque settings with the futuristic after the Shadowrun videogames three companies and published published by DataEast and cyberpunk world of Bladerunner were released, FASA began to by at least three other developed by Beam Software. and Gibson’s Neuromancer novel. falter. In 1998, Microsoft acquired companies, each with their own Beam was a highly successful Cybernetically enhanced Yakuza FASA Interactive (a separate interpretation of the Shadowrun Australian company famous for mercenaries brush shoulders branch to FASA Corporation universe and sporting wildly text adventures based on with spell-casting elves, while formed in 1995, which had rights different gameplay mechanics. Tolkien’s works (such as The Dragons populate the skies of to all FASA Corporation IP on The situation is made worse by Hobbit) that were published in decayed Seattle in the year digital gaming platforms) and all unusual, fan-made pieces of Europe by its local distribution 2050. But such generalisations rights that went with it. This work, including a Commodore 64 arm, Melbourne House. simply can’t describe just how meant Microsoft could make all game involving the collection of Eventually, in 1993 it completed perfectly fleshed out the official decisions regarding any swords, an Australian university work on two FASA licences: narrative really is. Shadowrun computer/videogames. The back story starts in 1999 It was also this purchase that and goes right up to the mid- gave Microsoft control over the 2060s – that’s over 60 years MechCommander property. worth of plot covering the entire FASA Corporation finally planet and its many warring sub- closed its doors for good in 2001, factions. Suffice to say the after 25 years of successful storyline had a lot more depth operation despite previous shake- than the average RPG of the ups. WizKids Inc then acquired time. As well as global coverage, all of the intellectual property it also boasted a specially rights to Shadowrun. WizKid is, created slang language and in turn, owned by Topps, manufacturer of trading cards (amongst other things). Since 2001, WizKids has been licensing out the Shadowrun pen and paper game to FanPro LL, which is based in Chicago. FanPro, meanwhile, is the sister company of Germany-based Fantasy Productions GmbH. The company
The SNES Shadowrun game debuted in the US, before being localised for and released in various European countries
q 73 q RG16 Shadowrun.qxd:RG16 Shadowrun.qxd 20/9/06 15:17 Page 74
Shadowrun and the first-person US. Contrary to popular belief, Genesis version is regarded as (mercenary, mage and decker). action game Mechwarrior, both the Genesis version is not the more non-linear and faithful to The SNES version, on the other for the SNES. Beam continued to sequel to the SNES game and the FASA source material. The hand, had a very unique and develop other titles until 1999, has absolutely no connection to it SNES version, meanwhile, is intuitive icon-driven real-time when the newly named Beam at all apart from the title and commonly felt to have the battle system that allowed you to International sold Melbourne licensed source material. In fact, superior and more atmospheric target any object or enemy on House (and subsequent the entire design of the game is plotline, and certain gameplay screen, with the fluidity of a videogame connections) to wholly different to its SNES liberties were also taken to mouse pointer. It also introduced Infogrames. Beam International counterpart. It was developed by optimise it for the SNES. Those an ingenious communication went out of business entirely Blue Sky Entertainment Inc., who support the Genesis version system, the earliest and closest sometime around 2002. about which there is very little tend to be Shadowrun purists equivalent being in Final Fantasy A year after the initial SNES documented information (despite who have followed it for years, II on the Nintendo Famicom, game, the Genesis version of the fact that it developed several while the SNES fans are usually which allowed you to question Shadowrun was released in the games). Although it received regular gamers who’ve never various NPCs about any keyword critical acclaim, the game was not heard of it before. you’d previously heard, and released on either the European added a subtle collecting element or Japanese Megadrives. Diff’rent strokes to proceedings. It is these two titles that have But both games also share generated the most page Rather than attempt to compare many great traits, such as the coverage due to people’s views one with the other, the games bold visuals when interacting on them. They’re also a perfect should really be enjoyed equally with different characters and example of the playground on their own merits. The Genesis the original setting that was mentality that can creep into version’s open-ended gameplay like a breath of fresh air games regarding which vastly and random mission-generation compared to the other more diverse version is better. The system allows for almost total medieval-style RPGs of the time. lines are clearly drawn in the freedom throughout the game – Special mention must also be sand, with both games having some people even go so far as to made of the dynamic music, very vocal followers who loudly compare its gang-filled cities to which included a variety of proclaim their preferred version those of Grand Theft Auto but genres ranging from heavy rock to be superior. It must be noted without vehicles. The SNES and techno to atmospheric that while both are very good version, meanwhile, has a far ambient sounds. The titles in their own right, the more linear, though much larger atmosphere of both games was game world to explore, more dark and foreboding, while closely resembling traditional simultaneously being familiar to J-RPG designs. The one you those raised on other RPGs favour depends on the kind of thanks to the inclusion of orcs, gaming experience you’re after – elves and dragons. the sandbox approach of the Genesis version or the defined Neo Tokyo path of the SNES game. Both were undeniably The third and possibly most innovative in what they did interesting game in the series though. The Genesis game was released on the Japanese gave you the ability to save Mega-CD in 1996 (making it not anywhere you wanted, generated only the final Shadowrun title, random missions that actually but also the last sanctioned game worked well and also allowed ever to be officially released on for the heavy customisation of the Mega-CD). Published by your character to fit with one of Compile, Shadowrun: Tokyo takes three different professions a completely different approach
The Genesis version of Shadowrun. Compare and contrast with the earlier Super Nintendo version
q 74 q RG16 Shadowrun.qxd:RG16 Shadowrun.qxd 20/9/06 15:17 Page 75
FEATURE: SOFTWARE I SHADOWRUN >Merchandise ahoy!
No good licence would be without its own range of increasingly unusual merchandise, and Shadowrun is no exception. It’s loved internationally, so most countries have their own distinctive range of paraphernalia, especially European countries such as France and Germany. Even Japan has its own underground Shadowrun fan community. In total, approximately 150 different English language books have been printed for Shadowrun – over 40 of these are novels produced by ROC in conjunction with FASA (written by a variety of different authors). Fact hunters will be interested to know that the Secrets of Power trilogy was penned by Bob Charrette, who was credited in the Genesis game and was one of the co-creators of the concept way back in 1989. Fans of the videogames might be disappointed though, since the books have absolutely no connection to the games, and often no connection to each other, apart from being set in the same universe. WizKids is also officially looking into the possibility of making a Shadowrun film (not to be confused with the Shadowrun competition for short films made in Germany), but has no other The Genesis version of news to reveal. There’s also an assortment of action figures Shadowrun. Compare and available to buy for a low price and there was even a Collectable contrast it with the earlier Super Card Game during the mid-90s, which WizKids has no plan to Nintendo version re-release. Some comic/manga books were released, though to recreating the Shadowrun only in Japan. world, not least because it forsakes the traditional Seattle setting in favour of Tokyo. In this game, the gritty tone of the others is merged with some truly beautiful Japanese anime styling and art direction, giving it a very unique atmosphere that’s enhanced by subtle capabilities to good use. touches, such as the addition of Occasionally, at key points, the humorous explanatory sketches game’s truly breathtaking vistas in the manual. switch to a more traditional top- The game is divided into four down viewpoint, from which you different styles of play, all of can move the four main which work surprisingly well characters around at leisure, together and form a cohesive exploring and investigating that whole. The first is easily particular area. recognisable, taking the form of It’s normally from here that an interactive digital comic that battles start. There are no plays exactly like Hideo Kojima’s random fights, but from this view Snatcher. At each section you’re enemies can be seen standing given a beautifully drawn view of motionless – venture too close the surroundings and menu and a battle scene is triggered. options that enable you to Fights will be familiar to Mega-CD examine things, speak to people fans since they take their cue etc. These Snatcher-style scenes from the Shining Force strategy really put the Mega-CD’s combat system. The screen is
q 75 q RG16 Shadowrun.qxd:RG16 Shadowrun.qxd 20/9/06 15:17 Page 76
Hacking into the Matrix and searching for data files can be a dangerous pastime
divided into an invisible grid also have little affect on your way, providing a menu from with a preset diamond shape overall status or money earned which you can select actions, for movement, and each for the mission. and choose various attack and character takes it in turns to defence programs to use against move, then perform an action. Enter the Matrix them. Unfortunately, the CG- Mao the street Shaman can cast rendered FMV used in these magic, while the rest of the The final portion of gameplay is sections is some of the worst characters rely on a range of made up of the Matrix-hacking looking found on the guns to do the job. Selecting sections (in Shadowrun, the Mega-CD, with poor Shoot brings up a reticule that Matrix is the equivalent of the compression and also has a diamond-shaped Internet, and the term was a low resolution. range of movement relevant to coined long before anything the The sections are your position – this is then Wachowski bothers created). enjoyable to used to highlight the chosen Here, Retro Gamer can bring you play though enemy. The key element that something of an exclusive, and are affects these attacks is the dice since no magazine outside Japan separated by system, which is a throwback to has ever covered this section of various other the old table-top Shadowrun the game. parts of the game. Anywhere between four Regular exploration in safe game. and ten dice are rolled, stopping communication hubs is handled The real only after several button presses. much like the earlier Snatcher beauty of the Quite what effect each number sections, but instead of hand- game though lies rolled has on the outcome of drawn surroundings you are not in the sum of the attack is never made clear, faced with some very crudely its parts, but in the and the results seem almost rendered CG images. The combat way it tackles various random at times, making the sections, played during actual design concepts. There are no urge to switch this off quite hacking missions, are similar to random fights and, in turn, no strong. Battles can occasionally those in the Genesis version. money is earned from the pre- frustrate since the Mega-CD The sprite-based visuals are scripted ones. Instead, the version has more stats that need replaced by constantly running game is divided into chapters, to be managed than either of the FMV showing a first-person view with each chapter being a other games – the weapons of your character moving through single ‘Shadowrun’ or alone have close to a dozen slots the computer system, until it mission that needs and numbers that affect either comes across security accomplishing. After performance. Fights are forces or the much-sought after completing (or in some thankfully infrequent and easily data stores. Security attacks are cases, failing) the avoided most of the time. They also handled in much the same mission, you’re given
q 76 q RG16 Shadowrun.qxd:RG16 Shadowrun.qxd 20/9/06 15:17 Page 77
FEATURE: SOFTWARE I SHADOWRUN
time to regroup at the Silvermoon experience Shadowrun: Tokyo that someday gamers will be originally made these games no bar, count your pay (if the unless they buy it on import. able to patch their own longer exist. mission was successful), then The good news though, is that it Shadowrun CD to run in English As for the future release of proceed to the cybernetic, magic has been officially confirmed that on non-Japanese systems. Shadowrun games, there’s been and weapons stores to gear up it works with the invaluable many a rumour floating around for the next ‘run’. Access is also Mega-CD patching program Silent running on the Internet. Some people granted to the ‘info-net’ to view ConvSCD (www.retrodev.com), have suggested that because of news stories that develop in- meaning anyone who has the The Shadowrun trilogy is a Microsoft’s attempted acquisition game, which sometimes aids the game and a little technical skill shining example of good game of the trademark it will be completion of a given mission. with CD burners can make a new design and the ability to put a developing a Shadowrun title for Phone calls can also be made to patched version that will run on licence to amazing use. Perhaps the Xbox much as it did with local contacts for info or to buy their locally bought Mega-CD no other licence before it has Crimson Skies. One of the more special pass codes and other machine. Of course, this doesn’t ever managed to do such justice persistent rumours (coming, in relevant material. All of this solve the problem of the to the source material while also one instance, from a semi-reliable gives you a feeling of control language barrier, since at least a creating something that keeps source) is that an updated over the situation, and every basic knowledge of Japanese will games fans happy. All three titles Shadowrun game is being mission has multiple choice be required for inventory are worth tracking down by retro worked on and will launch paths that can fundamentally management and weapons enthusiasts and RPG gamers alongside Xbox 2, with everyone affect how that mission upgrades. There is hope on the especially since the first two in from Bungie and Day 1 Studios to progresses. Players are often horizon though, since there has the series can be bought FASA itself being touted as the faced with the choice of either: been some talk among translation reasonably cheaply second-hand. developer. However, like all talking or blasting their way groups of creating an English But what of the future of exciting rumours, they’re based through an NPC encounter; language patch much like those Shadowrun games? The answer on very little fact. breaking into a building and available for other Japanese isn’t clear, as Microsoft now Which means that as its name fighting security or stealing a RPGs. The more interest people owns all rights to the game suggests, this licence is likely to pass card and sneaking in; pay in the game, the more likely series. This means any remain forgotten in the shadows hacking files from a computer or it is that fan groups will make compilations containing the three of MegaCorps. At least for the bribing someone to give them to the effort to translate it. games might only appear on the time being. e you. These subtle touches may Considering the incredibly high Xbox or its successor. It also not seem important in the greater quality of other fan translations greatly lowers the chances of the Special thanks to Rob Boyle for scheme of things but they go (and the ongoing translation of appearance of handheld ports his invaluable assistance and some way to alleviating the other CD-based games, such as that fans have been demanding, also FASA, FanPro and WizKids problems of linearity found in Policenauts), which in some as Microsoft is notorious for for their help. For further reading such games. cases are superior to the official tightly holding onto its owned and information take a look at Unfortunately, few people ones produced by bigger licences. And, of course, there’s www.shadowrunrpg.com and outside Japan will ever get to corporations, it’s highly possible the fact that the companies that www.wizkidsgames.com.
q 77 q RG16 Games that weren't.qxd:RG16 Games that weren't.qxd 20/9/06 14:15 Page 80
Frank Gasking returns to the gaming graveyard, exhuming more games that were doomed to an early death. This month goes to prove that licences don’t always do the business, and that the timing of your classic sequel games that weren t can be crucial… ’ This rare promotional poster Daffy Duck was obtained by RG contributor Mat Allen. (Artwork Copyright© Warner Bros.) Hi-Tec Software, 1992, C64/Spectrum/Amstrad/Amiga/ST/PC
Back in the day, Hi-Tec Software had access to a range of different meeting new characters. The was the king of cartoon-licensed costumes (such as a spacesuit for magazine awarded the games. Deals with Warner Bros. the Mars level). Other Warner game 94%. and Hanna-Barbera led to Bros. characters also featured, Tragically, as many superb cartoon conversions at a including Bugs Bunny and Road prepared to splash out, budget price. Hi-Tec secured Runner, and Daffy would have to Hi-Tec crashed out of the Daffy Duck for an arcade interact with them in order to software market. A adventure subtitled ‘The Great solve puzzles. Each level posed promised financial package Paint Caper’, and although the many problems – mazes of doors, never materialised, leading game was advertised for release electric force fields, floating to severe cash flow on several formats, the only platforms, hidden objects, problems and, in the end, version that made the press was missing eggs and deadly aliens Hi-Tec simply ran out of for the Commodore 64 (coded by on Mars. Daffy had to deal with money. Although some Dave Saunders, with graphics by all these whilst jumping on titles were salvaged by Andy Routeledge and music by various creatures to temporarily other publishers, Daffy Gerard Gourley). stun them. Duck was canned before Featuring seven slickly Zzap!64 magazine reviewed reaching stores. designed levels, Daffy had to visit the C64 version, describing the For years, attempts were made associated artwork. Could Daffy a film studio, a sewer, a desert, a game as nothing revolutionary to find Daffy but to no avail. really make his way onto screens farmyard, a city, a forest and finally or tough, but excellently Recently, however, Hi-Tec’s at last? There are obstacles to the planet Mars. The game was implemented with simple controls director Dave Palmer has overcome, but there is light at graphically impressive – Daffy and gameplay. Incentives were surprised everyone by revealing the end of the tunnel. We’ll just was perfectly animated and he discovering new levels and he has the C64 master disks and have to wait with breath baited.
q 80 q RG16 Games that weren't.qxd:RG16 Games that weren't.qxd 20/9/06 14:15 Page 81
FEATURE:REGULAR | GAMES THAT WEREN’T Universal Apocalypse II Monsters Nintendo, 1997, SNES Ten years after Mega Apocalypse, the Ocean Software, 1992, Amiga/ST awesome Mad Planets conversion, original author Simon Nicol planned a It seemed that that characters sequel for the Super Nintendo. Ocean was were lifelike, so Apocalypse II was born – a game always announcing sprites and tiles best described as a one- or two- yet another film were stretched player mixture of Gyruss and licence, so when as a result. Asteroids. You had to destroy waves manager Gary Instead of static of planets that hurtled along and Bracey asked screens, the grew in size if you didn’t manage to shoot them soon enough. artist Simon game scrolled in Looking at the sequel, visuals are the obvious enhancement over Butler to design four directions the original, with Herman Serrano producing excellent graphics to an original to cope with the modernise proceedings. The main ship looks and animates extremely concept, he larger graphics, well, and planets are larger and far deadlier than before. Mike jumped at the which worked Clarke’s great remix of Rob Hubbard’s classic tune brings back chance. Simon, a brilliantly. Amiga memories, and sound effects are faithful with the original speech huge Ultimate magazine The effects retained and enhanced. However, not a lot was added to the fan, began One released a formula. Besides a new shield-based power-up and various other producing a playable tweaks, the only real changes were to the sound and graphics. Could Knightlore- preview on its more have been added? Maybe, but its original appeal remains, and inspired isometric game, February 1993 coverdisk, showing clocking up high scores has never been more fun. something he always wanted to a very promising game. However, One thing you may find is that the game is harder than the original. do. The Inspectre was born, with a over-complicated tiles created a Planets are much larger, so when four or five swarm onto the screen, it’s Ghostbusters-style hero ridding a confusing perspective at times, almost impossible to survive. Planets also continue to swell when you large spooky mansion of various making jumps rather difficult lose lives (a bit mean!) and we can imagine more than a few SNES ghosties. “But as with all best laid to achieve. controllers being thrown at the TV. plans, a spanner comes along and After two years in development, Although Apocalypse II was 100% complete and ready for release, by gets thrown into the works,” Mike began to struggle with the 1997 the SNES was a dying breed. The Nintendo 64 and PlayStation were Simon proclaims. code and eventually threw in the beginning to dominate and no one wanted to publish SNES titles anymore. With the 50th anniversary of towel with the game 90% Simon was left with a complete Universal Studios looming, Ocean complete (he later left Ocean for game that would go to waste. felt that there was an opportunity Software Creations). Simon Simon did plan to release the for some kind of licensing attempted to finish the code, but game as shareware, allowing gamers deal. The team now had to to no avail. Ocean then stepped in to play Apocalypse II via emulation, transform Inspectre into Universal and cancelled the title. “It was a but this never happened. Maybe Monsters. As a result, the main series of bad decisions that turned Simon will one day put the idea into character became more like a simple idea into an unworkable action and finally release the game Indiana Jones, while the ghosts mess,” Simon recalls. Maybe the to the world. For now, check out the turned into Dracula, Wolfman, original concept would have video clip on the coverdisc to see Frankenstein, The Mummy and worked better for Ocean had it what you’re missing. other ghoulish characters. been left alone. Simon and Martin MacDonald Apart from the preview, a beta provided imprssive artwork, version (claimed to be the full including well-drawn monsters and version) also did the rounds. Is isometric backdrops. Mike Halsall there more to find? The ST version was the brains behind the coding, perhaps? Mike Halsall is probably while Barry Leitch wrote his first the last hope for those searching music score for Ocean. Universal for it, but for now the preview is made work difficult by requesting all that remains…
The fast and frantic Apocalypse II was sadly If you’re eager to see Universal Monsters in action, don’t miss denied a release on the aging SNES the five minutes of video footage on our cover CD
q 81 q RG16 Strange games.qxd:RG16 Strange games.qxd 20/9/06 15:20 Page 82
There’s no easy way to describe NCS’s Chou Aniki series to Westerners. It’s easy for the Japanese because they have a word for everything: they can simply label a game ‘kuso-ge’ and it falls neatly into a category. This term doesn’t have any connotations in our society, but the direct translation does offer a certain indication of what to expect: ‘shit games’. Per Arne Sandvik gets his hands good and dirty…
here are games the world of videogames that are shattered into a million pieces, Brothers in arms inadvertently bad, and rising from the genitalian and there are rubble were the twin brothers The brothers have a somewhat T games that Adon and Samson. Gone were odd fighting style. Basically, they gleefully dive into their own main characters Ideran and fly through space wearing rubbishness and splash about. Benran, giving way to the nothing but thongs and shooting The Chou Aniki games are part strongman siblings who were globs of white fluid through holes of the latter category. The more out to shake things up and on top of their bald, glistening the elements clash and the wilder never stop. heads. To perform special the graphics, the better. attacks, they buff themselves up NCS’s first game in the series, by flexing their muscles until they released in 1992 for the PC release a stream of deadly Engine, was a Gradius-like discharge from the shooter simply called Chou aforementioned blowholes. To Aniki. The title roughly translates turn subtext into text: they are to ‘Super Big Brother’, a anthropomorphications of the somewhat puzzling name that male genitalia. Erect ones. Their doesn’t in any way describe the enemies follow in the same content of the game. Compared suit: giants wearing nothing but to the later entries, this one is jock straps and traffic cones; relatively straightforward and pirate spaceships manned by tame, with two characters: the tiny naked space pirates; and male Ideran and female Benran. to drive the point home, male The pair fly through outer space couples rolling around with shooting down spaceships and their faces buried in each other enemies. others’ crotches. Then came the 1995 sequel Also released in 1995 was the Ai Chou Aniki (‘Love Super Big Super Famicom title Chou Aniki: Brother’). At this point, the rusty Bakaretsu Rantouden, which lock keeping tons of phallic Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the wonderful world of Chou translates as either ‘Strange imagery from crashing down on Aniki, and the beefcake brothers Adon and Samson Battle Explosion’ or possibly
q 82 q RG16 Strange games.qxd:RG16 Strange games.qxd 20/9/06 15:21 Page 83
REGULAR | STRANGE GAMES
>Fight for food If you feel there’s simply not enough Chou Aniki in the world, Winds’ Gourmet Sentai Bara Yarou for the Super Famicom might be your ticket to happiness. This is a beat-em-up in the tradition of Double Dragon, only Double Dragon doesn’t have floating robot heads that bite your crotch, mechanical Tanuki raccoons with impressive, erm, tails, or flying cyborg wasp-people who inject you with liquids from their groin syringes. Strange enemies aside, this fun but relentless game is somewhat conventional gameplay-wise, except for the fact that enemies drop groceries when you defeat them. After each level, a Hold onto giant robotic chef will let you pick two ingredients and make you a your delicious candlelit dinner. Salads give you the most health, but monocles – you can also have him prepare a tasty turkey platter. Or, if you the series feel like it, you can simply have a big bowl of raw flour or a pound minces its of margarine. way onto the PlayStation
anything, like the aforementioned geisha or Samson’s hip swings whose only function seems to be to make you dizzy and open to attack. It’s still a pretty good game though. Pretty as a picture
A year later, the first Chou Aniki seems the gents at the urinals was remade for the PlayStation, are too busy to help you out this time under the name Chou though), and you can participate Aniki: Kyuukyoku Muteki Ginga in card-game duels. It would Saikyou Otoko (‘Ultimate appear that the way to succeed Invincible Milky Way’s Strongest in this game is to win all Man’). There was also a Saturn these duels. version that added the words ‘Legend of the Silly Oval characters. Of course, you also ‘Counter Attack’ to the already And beyond Tombstone Edge’ (Japanese is have to deal with the backgrounds, mind-bending title for good notoriously difficult to translate). which range from pink flowery measure. This outing followed Moving from the past to the Unlike the previous releases, this meadows with naked dancing Mortal Kombat’s example by present day, another title was is a one-on-one fighting game in pixie giants, a railway station using digitised graphics, much recently released for the PS2. the Street Fighter vein, except all with passing trains consisting of to the dismay of the more The suggestively titled Chou the characters fly and most have man-shaped carts linked in an squeamish among us. Aniki: Seinaru Protein Densetsu a distinct homoerotic quality. endless chain, and a temple with, Considering that the boss of the (‘Legend of the Holy Protein’) is Ideran and Benran, the original again, naked giants thrusting first level is a giant naked man, yet another shooter, and it looks main characters, return, as do their pelvises downwards. There sporting a comb-over and absolutely terrible considering the brothers. The other members are also some odd attacks that wearing a metal nappy, who the system’s power. We’ve of the character gallery are either don’t seem to actually do attacks by bashing you with his never had a chance to play newly invented or are bosses man-shaped penis while this particular title, but with from previous games. They writhing in agony, the its lava-urinating blindfolded include Adam, a naked man with photorealistic graphics could be giants, walking sharks and half a meteor for a vehicle and a a bit too much. cosmic streams of many naked cannon for a penis, Mami19 the But the Chou Aniki dream men cradling each other human star ship (complete with a still wasn’t dead. Another game, it’s safe to say that little crew consisting of tiny naked Chou Aniki: Otoko no Tamafuda has changed. acrobats), and Sabu. Sabu is a (probably ‘Man with Medallion’) So, what does the future centaur-like creature, with a was released for the handheld have in store for Chou Aniki? It Japanese temple mounted on a WonderSwan, and once again seems like there is a market for rocket engine replacing the Samson, Adon and the rest of this particular piece of kuso-ge, horse part and half a robotic the characters spread their so the motley crew may very Elvis Presley in front. He has a wings (and legs) and made their well make an appearance on the hatch in his abdomen which way into yet another genre. next Sony console. On the releases a scissor lift with a Otoko no Tamafuda is a Final other hand, the official webpage boot attached, and another Fantasy-esque RPG adventure, has disappeared completely. hatch on his roof which and this shift in style makes it Could this be the end of sometimes displays a tiny very hard to get into for those Samson and friends? Only time dancing geisha. ‘Peculiar’ doesn’t of us who don’t read Japanese. will tell. Until then, we can all quite cover it. By walking into buildings and take comfort in the fact that Bakaretsu Rantouden is Chou Aniki migrated onto the talking to people randomly they’re out there somewhere, actually a pretty fun fighter once Super Famicom, but the all- you’ll find some exotic locations defending the Earth from giant
you get past the oddness of the round weirdness remained intact like a men’s portable toilet (it robot crotches. e
q 83 q Untitled-1 1 1/9/06 12:55:47 RG16 Feel the Force.qxd:RG16 Feel the Force.qxd 20/9/06 14:14 Page 85
FEATURE I FEEL THE FORCE
To complete this issue’s Nintendo coverage, we present a little piece of Newsfield history in the form of Nintendo Force, a magazine that never made it off the starting block. But Retro Gamer has uncovered a review of Probotector written for the unpublished magazine, and we have the great pleasure of including it here for your >End of the line perusal – 14 years after it was originally written and laid out As you probably know, Europress bought up most of Newsfield’s assets and n the late party products, and that formed Europress Impact. summer/early included unofficial magazines. But what happened to the autumn of 1991, Later in the day, Future popular magazines like Newsfield was in Publishing broke Nintendo’s Crash and Zzap!64? Well, trouble. The stranglehold on third-party Impact continued to publish publisher, which had turned the magazines with the release of a further five issues of UK games magazine market on Total, and Impact followed suit Crash, before it was sold to its head in the mid-80s with by releasing N-Force. Emap and rather crudely classic titles like Crash and So where do these scans fit incorporated into issue 123 Zzap!64, was struggling to in? Well, they’re an unfinished of Sinclair User (SU finally survive in an increasingly review from the magazine that closed in April 1993, competitive market. But rather would’ve been Nintendo Force, presumably taking Crash than going down with a whimper, written by Will Evans (who is also with it). Newsfield began fighting a credited with writing a review in Zzap!64 fared slightly rearguard action with two Zzap!64 issue 78, the last better, as Impact continued planned launches aimed at the Newsfield-published issue of the to publish the title, Crash was incorporated into emerging console market. Sega magazine). The review was laid changing its name to former rival Sinclair User, but Force and Nintendo Force were out in August 1991 just before the Commodore Force in this was really little more than a due to hit the shelves in October. bomb dropped. December 1992 to fall in branding exercise The publisher even went as far Sadly, the review is unfinished line with Europress Impact’s as hiring extra reviewing staff to (several boxouts and captions are other games magazines like work on the new titles. missing), but it gives a very good Sega Force and Amiga Alas, it was not to be. On 17 idea of what the ill-fated Force. In March 1994, September 1991, the company Nintendo Force, and its sister Impact itself went into went bust, with neither magazine publication Sega Force, would receivership, with the last anywhere near completion. have looked like. You’ll notice the issue of Commodore Force layout bears little resemblance to being #16. What happened Picking up the pieces the console magazines eventually to Commodore Force/Zzap!64 published by Impact. It’s far more after that is not entirely When Impact Magazines rose cute and cuddly, an approach clear, although various from the ashes of Newsfield, the abandoned at some point online sources suggest it management bought up the between Newsfield’s collapse and was snapped up by Future rights to Newsfield’s profitable Impact’s emergence. Publishing. Regardless, titles, and also to Sega Force, These scans are almost Zzap!64 lives on with the which had yet to launch. certainly the only copies in release of issue 107, created Nintendo Force was abandoned existence, so here for the very by fans of the magazine. It’s due to legal threats from first time is a glimpse of available as a free download The last issue of Zzap!64 before Nintendo, which was at the time Newsfield’s long-lost Nintendo (in PDF format) from Impact renamed the magazine very restrictive regarding third- Force magazine. Enjoy! >>>> www.zzap64.co.uk. Commodore Force
q 85 q RG16 Feel the Force.qxd:RG16 Feel the Force.qxd 20/9/06 14:14 Page 86
q 86 q RG16 Feel the Force.qxd:RG16 Feel the Force.qxd 20/9/06 14:14 Page 87
FEATURE I FEEL THE FORCE
q 87 q RG16 Feel the Force.qxd:RG16 Feel the Force.qxd 20/9/06 14:14 Page 88
q 88 q Untitled-1 1 1/9/06 12:55:47 RG16 Retro scene.qxd:RG16 Retro scene.qxd 20/9/06 15:14 Page 92
Retro The latest news and releases from the retro gaming community Scene CGE alive and kicking New date and venue announced
We hope your calendar is one of was inevitably pointed at EA, as run later into the evening this the plastic wipe-clean kinds, is the tradition these days), Game year.” Talking of special guests, because the date of the second Zone Live recently slipped limply Matthew Smith will be returning, Classic Gaming Expo has moved into the Thames. But thank the Bullfrog’s Andy Nuttal will be once again. Originally to take Lord – or failing that, CGE there, and it’s hoped earlier place at the end of July, the show organiser Chris Millard (pictured) confirmed guests (Archer was shifted back to the – the show was saved from a Maclean, Jeff Minter and the lads beginning of September in order watery grave and will now be from Ocean) will be able to than last year’s successful debut. to tie in with the Game Zone Live held at the Fairfield Halls, make the re-arranged date. More Last time, 1,200 people visited consumer event. Then, for Croydon, on 13 August 2005. guests are to be unveiled in the and it’s hoped that three or four reasons we don’t really However, unlike last year’s coming weeks… In fact, just as times that amount will flock to understand (although the finger show, the event will take place we were going to press, it was Fairfield Halls this year. Cancel on a single Saturday rather announced that Gary Whelan, your summer holiday, bring your than over the weekend. “Better holder of the Galaxian world family along, convince your one day than not at all,” Chris record, will be attempting to beat mates to come too. Chris and the told us, “and we’re going to his own high score of 399,920 at CGE need your support! make sure that the day goes with the show. Tickets will be available shortly. a bang. Loads of special guests Chris is confident that CGE For the latest information, visit are lined up and the show will 2005 will be bigger and better the website at www.cgeuk.com.
q 92 q RG16 Retro scene.qxd:RG16 Retro scene.qxd 20/9/06 15:14 Page 93
REGULAR | RETRO SCENE Rockford returns EMULATION Boulder Dash arrives on the 5200 Fans of Boulder Dash are in for Hamster Software (www.mean UPDATE a treat thanks to retro gaming hamstersoftware.com) has website www.atari2600.com. The converted the game to run on site is selling Atari 5200 carts of the 5200, and has made it Boulder Dash II: Rockford’s available exclusively through Atari DC Revenge by First Star Software Atari2600.com. There’s a brand new version of the (whose recent PC compilation is The pack is a professional Dreamcast’s Atari ST emulator, DCaSTaway, reviewed this month). release, complete with full-colour available on the official site (http:// The sequel to the massively cart label and instruction manual, chui.dcemu.co.uk/dcastaway.shtml). popular original title introduced and box. And for the collectors, the Marked up as a release candidate, this new caves to explore and more game is available in four different version packs in a large number of two-player madness. It originally colours – yellow, red, black and improvements and tweaks. ran on Atari’s 8-bit home bright pink! Boulder Dash II: Support for MSA and ST disk images is computers, but now Mean Rockford’s Revenge costs £40. now included, as is support for the Dreamcast’s own keyboard and mouse, for that real ST feel. Zip files are now compatible and the control system has been overhauled and improved. There’s Hopping mad even a new file manager with subdirectory access and a menu system. To get more Big-nosed Q*bert is back info about this new update, or for instructions on how to get the emulator up A new release on the joke originally, but Ken started in the game are the red balls, and running, visit the website. homebrew scene is currently to work on the project and which are made all the more under development for the made enough progress to challenging due to the increase Atari 7800. This port of Q*Bert consider making it for real. in speed allowed on the more is being developed by Ken The current version of the powerful system. This is looking Siders, who recently finished game is still in the early stages, very nice indeed even at this Beef Drop, a port of but it already has a working title early stage, and we look forward Burgertime. The announcement screen, as well as a complete to seeing the full version when was actually an April Fool’s level. The only enemies currently it’s completed. New Mega Dream Emulation fans looking for a decent Megadrive emulator for the Dreamcast have been a little starved in the past, with only a few half-finished emus making it onto the Web. But now, things are set to change. Ian Micheal (coder of such projects as Quakecast, Mamecast and NeoGeo CD, along with his fellow Cast team) has released the Retro news online first version of his very own MD emulator for the DC – Gencast. This new Sega Roll up for your monthly dose emulator promises true 100% performance in both sound and speed, and features a If you’ve never had the pleasure of visiting the website of very impressive front-end GUI, high- Retrogaming Times Monthly, then you should hop on over resolution gaming mode (640x480), two- to http://my.stratos.net/~hewston95/RTM/RTM_Home.htm player support, ROM disc access (ROMs and take a look at the latest edition (issue 11) of the online burned to a separate CD) and the ability to retro magazine edited by Adam King. The current issue load games from archives. The whole thing contains in-depth features on Battlezone (and the many oozes professional quality, and is compatible faces of the classic, now celebrating its 25th anniversary), with a high percentage of MD games. Tetris, arcade clones, a look at some new VIC-20 releases Finally, a decent Megadrive emulator for and more. As well as the current issue, you can also the DC. For more information and the rummage through the previous issues of the magazine. download link visit www.gencast.info.
q 93 q RG16 Covertapes.qxd:RG16 Covertapes.qxd 20/9/06 13:07 Page 94
>With moreCover and more bands covering Tapes classic videogame tunes, Ashley Day recommends some of the more unusual examples to add to your playlist
odern games named Korobeiniki. Ozma remain publishers are faithful to the theme’s heritage by running out of ideas utilising the balalaika – a – not gameplay classical, triangular-shaped lute M ideas but soundtrack that is very popular in Eastern however, is the way the song ideas. Many of today’s publishers Europe. Heavy drums, fuzzy muddies the morally correct waters lazily opt to use existing pop guitars and keyboard contribute a nowhere in the Williams coin-op of the classic platformer. Benefit songs to draw in the casual crowd modern feel that complements the does anyone screech “Theme from uses every word in the four-letter or fill the game with dull and traditional sound and creates what Narc!”, but we can forgive him dictionary to convince us that unobtrusive background music. is surely one of the best because his version of the 1988 Mario’s real aim was to get Peach There are exceptions of course but, videogame covers available. tune features all the excitement into the sack, and after listening to let’s face it, the days of slogging This should come as little and tension you would expect the song you’ll never be able to your way through a game just to surprise to existing Ozma fans. from a Pixies song. Joey play Super Mario Bros. again hear the next stage’s theme tune The Californian quintet’s albums Santiago’s guitar crunches through without thinking dirty things about (Streets of Rage II-style) are long are littered with references to retro the Narc theme with a reckless plumbers and princesses. gone. There’s something quite gaming, particularly the NES, glee that lesser bands would be special about classic game music which lead singer Daniel Brummel too respectful to follow through, Pac-Man – Powerpill and it isn’t just the hardcore is most fond of. Mario, Luigi and whilst Black’s trademark screams gamers that are in the know, as an Link are all name-checked along conjure the image of a thousand Better known as Richard D James ever-increasing number of popular the way and Ozma’s final album drug-dealing perps being blown or Aphex Twin, Powerpill released musicians are beginning to cover even includes a song called Game away by a single rocket blast. the Pac-Man EP in 1992 and the game tunes in their own style. Over that compares the trials and Theme from Narc clocks in at a title track went on to become a Listed below are four cover tribulations of gaming to the ups lean 1:48, just enough time to short-lived rave hit. The track versions that need to be heard by and downs of a romantic remind you of how good Narc was mixed the main theme from the any retro gamer with an ear for a relationship. Anyone with an and to consider loading up arcade sensation with sound decent tune. affectionate interest in gaming Midway’s Arcade Treasures 2 for a effects from the game and a would do well to try at least one quick blast. That, of course, is the sample of James himself saying Korobeiniki – Ozma of Ozma’s albums. highest compliment that can be “Pac-Man” over and over. Like all paid to any videogame cover track. the best rave tunes it was The Tetris theme is probably the Theme from Narc – incredibly annoying and not one of most covered videogame tune in Pixies Warp to World 6-9 – the Aphex Twin’s better efforts, but history. Though many of those Benefit it did get the pill munchers going covers are unimaginative techno In the liner notes for Complete B- in the early 90s and is perhaps interpretations, Ozma’s rock Sides, Pixies lead singer Frank In light of Nintendo’s recent legal one of the clearest examples of rendition of the classic theme is Black writes, “Narc is a videogame action against the soft-porn website how well a videogame tune can be by far the best. The tune was about narcotics officers catching Suicide Girls (for tainting the family appropriated into another culture. actually written many years before the bad guys. This is what you image of its products), it is extra- Now it’s only a matter of time Alexy Pajitnov invented the block- heard when you blew ‘em away.” surprising that Benefit’s Warp to before the World Cup opens to the puzzle genre and is traditionally He wasn’t being entirely honest – World 6-9 has gone unnoticed by Sensible Soccer theme tune. the Big N. Set to a sample of the original Super Mario Bros. theme, the currently unsigned rapper recounts the tale of his six-year-old self spending the entire summer helping Mario to rescue Princess Peach so they can get up to some serious, ahem, plumbing. Koji Kondo’s original theme tune provides the perfect beat for the rap, and the jingle that plays when Mario is paused is used effectively to bookend a dramatic pause in the song. What’s most striking,
q 94 q RG16 Covertapes.qxd:RG16 Covertapes.qxd 20/9/06 13:07 Page 95
REGULAR I RETRO SCENE >The Boys from Brazil
MegaDriver interview
Nino MegaDriver (real name Antonio F Tornisiello) is the lead guitarist and founder of MegaDriver. As well as being a talented musician, he is a skilled coder as his website and Metal MAME project show. Here he offers his thoughts on game music and his own covers. like Altered Beast and Golden Retro Gamer: What is it about Axe have fantastic soundtracks. videogame music that makes you want to cover it? RG: What has the fan response been to your music? Nino MegaDriver: I love the games I’ve created remixes from. NM: MegaDriver is like my Music is one of the most hobby. I’ve created the songs important parts of a game; it’s for personal fun, but it’s great responsible for most of the to know my work is also being emotion you feel while you play. enjoyed by others. I’m used to So, in my opinion, a good game receiving many messages every must have a great soundtrack. day from people all around the Just like videogames, heavy metal world. Most messages are has been part of my life since I compliments and requests for was a kid – I bought my first covering more soundtracks. metal album when I was about This inspires me to push the 13 years old. One day I started project on. MegaDriver are a Brazilian make hacking your way through thinking how some game music metal band who are absolutely Golden Axe just that little bit sounds so much like some heavy RG: Tell us more about obsessed with classic more satisfying. metal songs and how it would Metal MAME. videogames. Having released It’s worth checking out the sound if played by a real band, several ‘metallized’ versions of band’s main website at with guitars, bass, drums, etc. NM: Something like Metal retro game theme tunes www.megadriver.com.br where This was how the MegaDriver MAME is an old dream of mine straight to their website, their other game covers can be project was born. – to be able to play classic presence on these pages is obtained. The Street Fighter II games with a new heavy metal automatically deserved. Their tune Shou Ken would be a good RG: In your opinion, which games soundtrack. I started playing contribution to the retro scene start; it features a brilliant, have the best music and why? with the MAME source code runs much deeper than a few galloping Iron Maiden-style riff years ago and, when the idea well-played covers though, and and if Capcom ever gets round to NM: That’s a very difficult came, I knew it would be that’s where their 2004 Metal making a Street Fighter IV question, but I’m a big Sega fan. possible. I started with four of Axe album comes in. The then this tune has to be in Videogame music is one of the my favourite games: Metal album is available as a full there somewhere. things Sega does best. Games Beast (Altered Beast), Metal Axe download and expertly (Golden Axe), Metal Contra and recreates the Golden Axe tunes Speed Metal Gyruss. in a style that suits the game perfectly. In fact, the songs fit RG: What’s next for the Metal so well that MegaDriver MAME project? decided that their natural home would actually be in the NM: I’m currently working on game itself. Double Dragon, but I don’t have Fellow metal-gamers may a ‘Metal’ name for it yet. It will wish to head over to be like ‘Double Metal’ or www.metalmame.com where ‘Dragon Metal’ – what do you they’ll be able to acquire a think? The programming is customised version of MAME almost done and I’ve already that allows MegaDriver’s new recorded two songs. This time tunes to be played as an I’m using new recording alternative soundtrack to the equipment so the fans should original arcade ROMs. Metal expect better sound quality. I’m Axe works particularly well and hoping to finish it all in the pumps up the tempo enough to next few months. e
q 95 q RG16 High Score.qxd:RG16 High Score.qxd 20/9/06 14:19 Page 96
1UP HIGH SCORE THE STORIES BEHIND THE SCORES
With a score of 1,695,265 on the ultra-difficult tournament setting, Roy Shildt has held the Missile Command world record for 20 years. Paul Drury spoke to the man himself about this incredible, and controversial, achievement
ith a nod to Sigmund Freud, Roy Shildt explains: “Missile W Command has a subconscious attraction due to its phallic association. It’s a unique ‘shoot and explode’ type of game where you can really get your rockets off. It takes balls to play it, pure and simple.” Roy in his youth, when the At Retro Gamer we know that world was black and white to become a world champion on any arcade game requires years, Keeping score sometimes decades, of dedicated practice, and for a player to Roy’s gruelling regime and devote so much of their life to a incredible trackball skills led to game means it must occupy a his first world record in 1982, special place in their heart. But when after 38 hours and 24 we weren’t expecting the appeal minutes of solid play, he clocked to be in the loins. Roy confesses, up 60 million points. He is fairly though, that Missile Command dismissive of this feat, however, became an obsession. as it was achieved with the “I dedicated my life to the machine on the standard factory game. It was in the lobby of the setting, which awards bonus student dorm at the University of cities. California, Los Angeles, where I “Marathon game records are was studying, and I was playing it irrelevant. They’re pretty easy to three or four hours a day for five get if the machine is giving you a years. I graduated college a year free city every 10,000 points. and a half later than I should have Then at around 800,000 there’s a just so I could carry on playing it.” bug in the game that gives you a
q 96 q RG16 High Score.qxd:RG16 High Score.qxd 20/9/06 14:19 Page 97
REGULAR | HIGH SCORE
whole stack of extra cities, videogame player has been Indeed, as the role of US >Tricking the 2600 making those big scores basically featured (“I’m a relentless, President includes being worthless.” obsessive guy and sent a photo Commander-in-Chief – the man in Ladies and Gentlemen, we In response to this, Twin of myself to Guinness, which charge of the world’s largest have a new contender. Retro Galaxies, the official guardian of luckily they used”), the nuclear arsenal – having Gamer reader Tony ‘TT’ world record videogame scores, controversy raged on. Decades superhuman Missile Command Temple from Derbyshire, declared a new ‘tournament’ later, the validity of the score skills should surely be an England, has come a long way setting for Missile Command in itself has even been queried, essential attribute for any serious since first playing Missile 1983, which didn’t award any mention of which causes Roy to candidate? Command in Rita’s Cafe in bonus cities, just the six you launch a vitriolic tirade against “That’s an interesting Bristol in 1981. Having begin with. Undeterred, Roy his detractors. The full force of concept,” muses Roy. “It wouldn’t survived years of passive continued to hone his skills. He his wrath is directed at Billy hurt. Hey, if an idiot like Bush smoking and greasy developed new strategies in ‘Perfect Pac-Man’ Mitchell, who can get elected, why can’t I?” breakfasts, he spent nine response to this far harder he describes as “insanely In case his dextrous fingers hours in 1984 racking up a setting, including protecting just jealous” of Roy’s induction into should ever be called upon to marathon score of 14 million. the one city to the left of the the Hall of Fame, and whilst his save the Free World, Roy has Last September, after two central base against the potentially libellous allegations of recently bought a Missile decades apart, he acquired relentless barrage of enemy fire. corruption are best left to the Command cabinet and is back in his own machine, beautifully A tournament in 1984 saw him courtroom, Roy does see the practice. His scores are already restored by Archer MacLean to reach 1.4 million, an bigger picture. exceeding 1 million, though he mint condition, and tries to accomplishment which led to him “Some people are trying to does acknowledge his record is play a few hours every day. becoming the first inductee to the say it never happened, that it’s breakable. “No two games are the Videogame Hall of Fame. So an impossible score. It’s a prime “My score can definitely be same,” says Tony. “That’s travelling up to Johnny Zee’s example of the heinously beaten, but it’s going to take a lot what keeps me coming back Family Fun Centre in Victoria, dishonest bullshit that goes on in of work. You need someone with for more. I’ve been playing on British Columbia, Canada, for the America today. The OJ Simpson talent and intelligence. I have an tournament setting for three Videogame Masters Tournament trial – what a joke. The IQ of 138, which is half a per cent months now. Tournament is in the summer of 1985, Roy felt Presidential election corruption in less than a genius. I have a about as hard as it gets on understandably confident. Florida – everyone knows Bush mathematical brain and good pool any machine – it’s just “Yeah, I knew I could improve cheated. Then the lies over skills. I’m a talented guy.” relentless. I’m up to 1,315,000 my score, but when I got there, Weapons of Mass Destruction – Well, even if that someone points, verified on videotape, there was no Missile Command there never were any. And now can be found it’s unlikely they which is pretty close. Playing machine! Once the owner saw I’d this – the cherry on the top of will be as colourful, entertaining the machine, I realise just arrived, he went and got one, but the bullshit cake.” and outspoken as Roy. For more how phenomenal Roy’s record it didn’t come in till the second Roy’s is understandably irate on this remarkable man, go to is – the game is so day of the tournament. Then that his integrity should come www.royawesome.com where you unforgiving after 500,000 there was a problem with the into question. He is intensely can order his autobiography, The points. But just give me a few trackball. The mechanic was proud of his record and even has Comic Book Life of Roy Shildt. more weeks…” great, but didn’t fix it until the an alter-ego to advertise the fact. And he may yet end up with his day after, so I’d missed out on “You know how pro-wrestlers finger on the big red button… three days of play that the other give themselves names and dress contestants had had. But it was up to make it more interesting? OK, as Walter Day [Twin Galaxies Well, I wanted to do the same for scorelord] said I could have extra videogames. I’ve got this kind of time. I didn’t go round discussing military uniform, like something that with the other players – out of Sergeant Pepper’s, and I most of them were teenagers – ride round in an ‘Awesome so when I did get 1.6 million on Mobile’ calling myself ‘The 3rd July, a lot of people thought Missile Commander’.” it wasn’t fair because I’d had extra time, but then they didn’t Position of power know the circumstances.” So whilst that amazing score Not content with appearing on was officially recognised and the Howard Stern show in 2000, Representing the UK, Tony appeared in the Guinness Book of Roy now harbours presidential Get good at videogames and Temple and his weapon of World Records in 1986 along with ambitions and is seeking the you too can enjoy fast cars choice, Missile Command Roy’s picture, the only time a Democratic Nomination for 2008. and even faster women…
q 97 q Untitled-1 1 1/9/06 12:55:47 RG16 Auction Watch.qxd:RG16 Auction Watch.qxd 20/9/06 15:15 Page 99
REGULAR | AUCTION WATCH
Richard Burton once again sifts through the myriad of online retro auctions, sniffing out the unique items and interesting stories so you don’t have to
t’s a dark and is this a case of ghosts in the could only pull in a relatively stormy night. machine or cash in the bank? lacklustre £72. Concealed The story goes that the Another Commodore game amongst the supposedly haunted NES was swelling the bank balance of its I shadows of a given to a US thrift shop by the owner is the infamous The Great dank and musty bedroom lurks father of a recently deceased Giana Sisters from Rainbow Arts. a dust-covered NES console. The son. The auction listing goes on Released for the C64 and, rumour owner enters warily and to weave a tale of horrible has it, the Spectrum, the game had switches on the system with happenings and trouser-filling to be swiftly withdrawn from the trepidation and unease. The moments not seen since the 8- The rarity of Moonstone is shops once the mighty Nintendo power light flickers on and the bit conversions of OutRun were no doubt due to the game clapped eyes on it. The fact that gut-wrenching horror engulfs released. What has completely being unavailable in the US the gameplay had more than a him like an infinite death fall in amazed us is the sheer number (Mindscape didn’t release passing resemblance to another the game Stateside because Jet Set Willy. There are ghostly of people that have taken an of its high gore content) game featuring a moustachioed voices mumbling and laughing interest in the item. The end character of Italian extraction with a in the background of games, price was finally laid to rest at penchant for u-bends was enough pets fleeing for their lives from just over US$225, with the Buy it now! to make Nintendo flex its corporate the very sight of the cursed auction receiving over 145,000 muscle and have the game console, and even games hits. The X-Files has certainly Staying in the US, a ZX80 tape consigned to the scrapheap. picking their own options. But got a lot to answer for… from the Learning Lab series Unfortunately for Nintendo, it recently went under the virtual wasn’t quite quick enough and >School project hammer on eBay USA. With original several hundred copies found their ZX80 software being a fairly rare way into the gaming wilderness. We’re guessing that some Philips LV-ROM player in commodity, the final price of With extremely limited numbers of readers will have taken part in conjunction with a BBC Master US$60 wasn’t surprising. The Great Giana Sisters available, the 1986 BBC Domesday Project 128 computer, which had been A perennial Auction Watch collectors pay a tidy sum when it while at secondary school. This souped up with an extra favourite and dead cert to line makes a rare appearance on eBay. involved a few days away from processor your pockets is Ultimate’s sub- This copy went under the hammer the classroom spent wandering and SCSI card. With the standard offering Bubbler. This for a very reasonable £38.50. Just the community doing surveys systems costing around £4,000 time the intermittent appearance don’t tell Nintendo… e and gathering information. The when released, this worthy of the Amstrad CPC version point of it all was to store project was mainly restricted to managed to rake in a very pictures, stories and local data schools, universities and reasonable £43 for its seller. from your area to give future libraries. Another seller who will be generations a unique national Over the years the machines extremely pleased with his and regional insight into life in have been superseded. Many auction takings this month is the 1980s. have probably been long since Paul Cawley, who contacted us This information was stored ditched by unsuspecting regarding the incredibly pleasing on laserdiscs and played on a teachers clad in corduroy price his Amiga game achieved. jackets with brown patches on Moonstone by Mindscape the elbows and a faint whiff of International is certainly a rare Cutter’s Choice about them. The game to find, although I think Domesday Project was part of everyone was caught unawares our nostalgic school days and by the stupendous end price of the final bid price of £555 for £226. Needless to say, another the system is a good result for copy of the game appeared The ever-reliable Great Giana the seller and a rare and whilst Paul’s auction was going Sisters, clocking up a nice interesting purchase for the through the roof and when that £38.50 when recently buyer. Everyone’s a winner. ended a week or so later, it auctioned on eBay
q 99 q RG16 Letters.qxd:RG16 Letters.qxd 20/9/06 14:50 Page 100
The
RetroHave your say… Send us a letter or Forum make yourself heard on the forum
2, Moonstone and Mortal Kombat. port of the popular cross-platform for this event. As for myself, I I would be mega-grateful if Amiga emulator and can be found own quite a few Amigas, starting you could let me know of any at www.volny.cz/molej/ with an A1500. I also own three such an emulator. Keep up the ps2/uae.htm. The emulator is still A500s, three A500+ systems, an good work – the magazine’s great! in the early stages of A600HD and two A1200HDs, as Gary, Chester development, so we cannot well as a Commodore 64 and a guarantee that it will work 100% VIC-20. All of which are in fully RG: We’ve had a rummage correctly, but it is looking working order along with plentiful around for you, and as luck promising. Obviously though, amounts of software, most of would have it, there is an Amiga you’ll need a modified PS2 to run which is original and in very good emulator available for the the emulator, and copies of the condition. I also have an A570 PlayStation 2. UAE for PS2 is a actual games as disk images. CD-ROM drive (sadly, not working) and a 1GB GVP A500- HD8+ hard drive, plus a Vidi Amiga anniversary Amiga 12 screen grabber and a G-Soft Audio imager, again, in PS2 Amigo As a regular reader of your very full working order. fine magazine (I am now on issue The main reason why I am I walked into my local 12 – please keep up the very writing to you is to find out what newsagents the other day and good work), I feel that I must you are planning (if anything) for couldn’t believe it when I saw write you. Also, this is the first the Amiga’s birthday. I am willing your magazine on the shelf. time that I have ever written to to loan you one or more of my Better still, it had an Amiga any type of magazine, so please beloved Amigas to put on show, emulator with it. The problem is, take it easy on me. if you wish to do so that is. Also, I don’t have a PC, so I was As you may or may not know, I use my Amigas almost every wondering if there is such a thing the Amiga is celebrating its 20th day along with my IBM clones as an Amiga emulator for the anniversary this year (25th July and also my Sega Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 that would let me 1985 – 25th July 2005) and I was Saturn and Nintendo 64. The one play games like Barbarian 1 and wondering what you had planned thing I am missing is a CN2 http://from.the.retro.forums This month on the forums we asked you to share stories of your best retro finds. Have you found an ultra rare game lying at the bottom of a bargain bucket? Or has a trip to eBay yielded an amazing lot full of retro rarities? Here are some of your posts ID:
q 100 q RG16 Letters.qxd:RG16 Letters.qxd 20/9/06 14:50 Page 101
REGULAR | FORUM
Oh, the horror! CONTACTUS Just a quick email to mention something you printed in issue 15 email: about the Rocky Horror Picture Show comparisons on C64 feedback@ and C128. I don’t know about retrogamer.net you lot, but I’d hardly call the C128 version an update. It looks more like a blocky sickly toffee snailmail: banana nightmare! Retro Gamer Look again at the detail Live Publishing Datacassette RG: That’s of the C64 version, the Rocky Europa House recorder and a 1541 disk certainly an Horror Show text at the bottom Adlington Park drive, so if anybody out there impressive of the screen, the detailed Macclesfield can help me out, I would be Commodore graphics… OK fair enough, the very happy. collection you have there! Rest colour is not as good, but is that SK10 4NP I am hoping to arrange an assured, the Amiga’s 25th a bad thing? Amiga day at my local library, as I anniversary hasn’t escaped us, It’s like they’ve sacrificed RG: What are you talking about believe the Amiga range of home and we will have some more detail for colour (bad move). I Daz? The C64 version is clearly computers should be Amiga coverage very soon. It never played the Commodore 128 just a lazy port of the rubbish remembered. And, as it was the won’t be an Amiga history type version, but I can imagine the monochrome Spectrum version, Amiga A1000/A500 that really feature (we covered that back in graphics collision detection with a splash of colour thrown in. started the ball rolling, I think issue 8), but we have a little would be worse than the C64 The C128 version, on the other the Amiga should be remembered something planned. version. It’s bizarre that hand, was obviously developed on TV and radio as well as on Your emulator problem sounds something more powerful could from the ground up and features the Net. quite simple really. We suspect look so much worse… more colourful graphics and more Also, I have just bought issue that the Sega Saturn emulator Daz Bamf, Streatham detailed character sprites. There 13 (volume two, issue one) of simply doesn’t support your magazine and I like the new commercial games, as the Saturn format. Thank you for the is very hard to emulate, so you Amiga Forever coverdisc, which is may need to wait for a better by far the best disc you given version to arrive. Gens however, away so far. does support the Mega-CD, but, On a side note, I also have getting it to work can be a real one of two problems with some pain. The most common problem emulators, most specifically the is your PC’s CD-ROM drivers. You Sega Saturn emulator, which I may need to make sure that you cannot get to work at all. Gens have the latest ASPI drivers (the Megadrive emulator) also installed (search Google), refuses to play Mega-CD games, otherwise Gens won’t actually although the readme file claims detect your CD drive. For more that it can. Could you please help information, we suggest you me with this? check out the official Gens forums DP Kendall, Ellesmere Port at http://gens.consolemul.com.
shop in Sheffield, it ID:
q 101 q RG16 Letters.qxd:RG16 Letters.qxd 20/9/06 14:50 Page 102
is even a couple of extra buy it (it was around a fiver, locations not included in the C64 which was a bit steep for a game, making it the better magazine back then). Click was version overall – in our humble edited by Tony Dillon who opinion at least. worked for Emap, contributing to such magazines as Sinclair User. Although many of the reviews Right click were a little on the flaky side, the content was generally very I’m writing to find out if you good, and it makes for great know anything about the Click viewing if you want to see games video magazine. I have issue 2 of yesteryear up and running. from 1992, but I have no idea Bizarrely enough, one of the how long the series lasted or if presenters/reviewers on the show anyone else knows anything was Jake Wood, who would go on about it. The video itself contains to star in various TV shows such reviews, features and cheats. as Red Dwarf and Press Gang. Please help shed some light on this. Thanks and keep up the good work. Sonic legends is still going Steven Rance, via email today, and Thank you for the excellent the UK’s RG: We do remember Click and review of Sonic Mega Collection own Sonic have watched the first issue on Plus. I’ve had it for a while and the Comic VHS. Sadly, it only ran for two already I’m going back to my (which I used to issues before it was canned, middle school days when I was collect)? You could presumably as people just didn’t a Megadrive owner and me and also look at the different my mate loved everything to do cartoons he has stared in over with Sonic and anything the years from The Adventures Of RG: Thanks for your letter Megadrive related. Even today Sonic the Hedgehog to the more Daniel. Sonic Mega Collection I’m still a big Sonic fan and I am action-packed Sonic the Plus brought back some fond always looking forward to the Hedgehog, and Sonic X which is memories for us too, and we blue guy’s next adventure now being shown on Jetix. And totally agree that Sega’s mascot (although Sonic Heroes was a how about an interview with is more than worthy of his very little disappointing when I got Sonic creator Yuji Naka, maybe own feature. He’s certainly to play it). within the feature itself or for appeared in more games than So, I was wondering if Retro your Desert Island Disks section most other characters (even Gamer would do a feature on of your magazine? I know it’s a Mario), and his impact on the Sonic? A feature covering all the tall order but maybe if it’s too big gaming world can still be seen games he’s stared in, the cameos you can spilt it into two or more today. We’re sure that at some from other Sega games he’s been features like you did with the point in the future the blue in and maybe even take a look at Level 9 feature? Whatever you ‘hog will race onto the pages the other Sonic-related decide to do on the subject I of Retro Gamer, perhaps to merchandise. Why not take a think the blue guy deserves it. tie-in with the release of the look at the comic book from Keep up the good work! upcoming Shadow the Archie Comic Publications, which Daniel Heath, Surrey Hedgehog game.
ID:
q 102 q RG16 Letters.qxd:RG16 Letters.qxd 20/9/06 14:51 Page 103
REGULAR | FORUM Star Letter
Want to grab yourself a quality piece of retro- gaming merchandise? Each month we’ll select our was the only football game that RG: It’s always heartening to hear favourite letter – one that makes us smile or think has ever appealed to me and that articles in the magazine have – and the winner can select one of our I’ve yet to play another footy stirred up emotions – we guess it retro-themed T-shirts for free… game, even though I now own means we’re doing a good job. all the current next-gen While not the most prolific 8-bit consoles. I don’t really know programmer, Jon Ritman certainly Ritman crazy what that says about me had a hand in some classic I thought I’d drop you a quick (although I can guess what Pro games, most noticeably Match email (on behalf of my credit Evolution Soccer fans will be Day and Head over Heels. Getting card company) to say many screaming), but what I do know hold of his back catalogue thanks for the feature on Jon is that it gave me many hours of shouldn’t prove too difficult, Ritman in issue 15. As a pleasure throughout a long although some of his early Artic result of that interview, I have hit weekend. It’s funny how a titles (in particular Namtir eBay and various shops with simple screenshot of a much- Raiders, which was released on such force (on a scale never loved game can bring back so the ZX81) may take a bit of seen before in my household) many happy memories. I’m now tracking down. for anything ‘Jon Ritman’ looking forward to tracking As it sounds as though you’ll related. I just hope that the down more of Jon Ritman’s be operating on a tight budget wife is out when the next credit games that I missed all those from now on, you’d better have card bill is due! years ago. a Retro Gamer T-shirt on us to Match Day for the Spectrum Richard Matthews, via email keep yourself warm.
Commodore 69 up and running long before the Oric lore Internet, with lots of lovely ladies I’ve found a strange little C64 porn parading themselves on 8-bit I was reading Retro Gamer just site at http://girls.c64.org. Is it just computers all over the world. We now and noticed a mention of me, or is there anyone else know that the guys at Cronosoft in the Retro Scene interested in seeing pictures of dirty Commodore Scene put on a mini- section. I then noticed it women on antique computers? Any magazine featuring galleries of mentioned that a new game is chance of an article on this? C64 porn images and it was one being developed for the Oric. Michael Braisher, via email of their most popular titles, so Whilst this is cool, it is not no, you’re not alone. We’re not breaking news. I am currently RG: Erm… very interesting. Yes, sure we could get away with a around 75% through writing a the computer porn industry was similar feature in RG however… conversion of Times of Lore for
the back to my flat when I will cheer you up no end. was when I had been round the noticed a skip with a large TV Last week I went into my whole of my local car boot and in it. It had started raining, but local GS and bought a few had seen nothing, and was kinda I though “Hmmm worth a games. One of which was a starting to feel like I’d be going look.” You would not believe boxed Streets of Rage 2. The home empty handed, till the last what I found – a bin liner full smug guy behind the counter car I came to had a rubber-keyed of Spectrum games, an Amiga told me that SOR 3 was the Spectrum sticking out of a box. CD32 and a Nintendo Virtual rare one to which I replied On closer inspection there were Boy! Unfortunately the CD32 “Yes, I know.” After paying two Spectrum 48Ks which both didn’t work, but the Spectrum the princely sum of £4.99 I worked fine, two Spectrum+ games did and after a bit of sold it a week later on eBay systems (one which worked, the cleaning up the Virtual Boy did for £20. other didn’t), a Sinclair Interface too! It’s amazing what people My best boot find was a 1, a Multiface 128, joysticks, tape will throw away, but as long as lovely copy of Tombi for the decks and about 50 or so boxed they do it where I can find it PS1 which cost me 50p and I games ! The price – a very I’m quite happy. later sold for £38. reasonable £10! Made my day!
ID:
After much Gamestation I’ve had many a good find at Best deal for me was a few years bashing on this forum this car boot sales, but the best ago when I was doing volunteer
q 103 q RG16 Letters.qxd:RG16 Letters.qxd 20/9/06 14:51 Page 104
give you some thirst quenchers. RG: Thank you for your letter, Racer capable of speeds that Times of Lore is planned for a although we’re not too sure what actually make your eyes water mid-2005 release. you would like. Retro Gamer whilst you play! Jonathan Bristow, via email covers as many formats as As I say, it just seemed a bit possible, but the coverdisc is for of a sad note to end a feature by RG: Thanks for the heads up PC only (and sometimes Mac mentioning one of the worst Star Jonathan – we admit we were too). Unfortunately, we cannot Wars games ever (Episode 1: The unaware that Oric games are still provide the coverdisc for other Action Game), when the same being developed. Let us know formats. Sorry! movie also inspired one of the when your version of Times of best ever (Episode 1: Racer). Lore is finished and we’ll feature Maybe I’m just being a little it in Retro Scene. Where’s Racer? fanatical though. Either way, the magazine is still a great read. I know this is a little late, but Keep up the good work. Disc-ommunication I’ve moved house recently and ToxieDogg, via email have only just had a chance the Oric (ported from the I am writing to let you know that to sit down and read the issue RG: Good to hear from you again C64 version). I have only recently seen your 15 properly. Terrence. Yours is not the only Whilst at this stage I am a magazine in the shops. I am very It’s only a small gripe, but a email to point out that we little concerned about copyright interested in buying it, but the gripe nonetheless. I realise you skipped Racer from our final Star problems (it was written in 1988 problem I have is the coverdisc. I couldn’t have included every Wars feature. The idea was to – does the 10-year rule apply?), have an Amiga and a Commodore single Star Wars game ever made just briefly mention the later Star I’m not interested in profit 64, but they won’t take in the feature, particularly as Wars game, with the Episode 1 anyway, just maybe a little the disc. Please more and more are being made action game getting a small feedback and publicity. Whilst will you let me all the time, but it was a mention because it was such a Times of Lore is still in know what I little unfair to mention the let-down. However, in a couple of production, there have been a should do. terrible Star Wars years’ time there may be some few other games I have Mr A Hicks, Episode 1 action games mileage in a feature looking at produced over the last few years Barnsley without giving any futuristic racers like F-Zero, for the Oric. ZipNZap was written mention to the superb Wipeout and Racer. around 1999, and Pulsoids in Star Wars 2002 (possibly my most popular, Episode but not the most technically 1: Racer released advanced game), with additional on the Nintendo 64 help from Defence Force (The (and later, Dreamcast). Oric Demo Group!). And before It’s a game I still play a that was Magnetix in 1997, lot today and is a very which took five years to write worthy rival to the F-Zero but which got little feedback. If series (and much more you want more information on than a match for this and other games, Wipeout) – particularly please visit www.oric.org. Once I by the time you reach figure out how to capture the full length Boonta screenshots from my latest Eve Classic race near the game (under Windows XP end of the game, with a everything is different), I will fully powered-up Pod
work. A place was shutting down (including my favourite, “just give me £2.” I and they had a BBC computer, L-Game!) and all the manuals now regularly play monitor, double disk drive, and everything! the Vectrex (I’ve printer and over 400 floppy disks. I was gutted when it died a bought more games They were about to throw it away few days ago… from eBay). when I asked how much they I also got this wanted for it, and they gave it to ID:
q 104 q RETRO16 Coverdisc:RETRO16 Coverdisc 20/9/06 13:08 Page 106 RetroCoverdisc This month we’ve teamed up with Bethesda Softworks to bring you Arena, the first game in the epic Elder Scrolls series. This is no demo or time-limited trial – it’s the full version, and one of the largest game worlds ever
conceived awaits you. Place the coverdisc into your CD/DVD drive Full instructions on how to install and run step and it should start automatically. If not, select step The Elder Scrolls: Arena (using the DOXBox Before you begin you’ll Run from the Start menu and enter utility) are included on the opposite page. If first need to install D:\browser.exe (assuming that D: is the letter you wish to access the usual Retro Gamer 1 of your CD/DVD drive). After a brief pause the 2 coverdisc browser, simply click the Launch DOSBox, a DOS main coverdisc menu will appear. Browser button. emulator that will allow Arena to run on modern PCs. To help you get started, we’ve provided this guide to installing and running this mammoth RPG. Enjoy!
Some of the games/programs are provided as Many games/programs are stored in zipped step executable files and these will run or install step archives, so you might need an archive straight from the disc. If a setup wizard manager like WinZip, which is under the Utilities appears, simply follow the on-screen prompts browser tab. Extract all the files from the 3 and then wait while the files are copied to 4 archive using the Extract feature and place them your hard drive. in an empty folder, then run the executable file.
Coverdisc helpline Problem solving 01625 855051 If you’re having a problem with a particular program on our coverdisc, please [email protected] view the help file in the program for assistance. You might also consider (Monday-Friday 10am-4pm) visiting the website of the program author for further help. Otherwise, email [email protected]. Helpline for coverdisc problems only If you are having problems with the CD, first check that it is not dirty or scratched. CDs can be cleaned by holding them under the cold water tap and DISCLAIMER
gently rubbing the silver side with a tissue. Dry it carefully with another tissue. Some of the programs on the Retro Gamer disc interact with your PC on a If the disc still doesn’t work, then it may be faulty. Faulty discs should be fundamental level. We strongly advise you back up your personal data before using the disc. Due to the way the Retro Gamer disc is compiled, Retro Gamer, Live returned to Retro Gamer, Live Publishing International Ltd, Europa House, Publishing International Limited and/or any associated company and/or individual cannot take responsibility for damage to your PC or otherwise arising from use of the Adlington Park, Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK, SK10 4NP. We will replace all coverdisc. You use the programs on the disc at your own risk. genuinely faulty discs.
q 106 q RETRO16 Coverdisc:RETRO16 Coverdisc 20/9/06 13:08 Page 107
REGULAR | COVERDISC Running The Elder Scrolls: Arena
You first need to install the game from the coverdisc. Select Install TES Once done you’ll also need to install DOSBox (this can also be accessed step step Arena from the main coverdisc menu and the installer will appear. You from the main coverdisc menu). Install this utility and then launch it from can change the installation destination if you wish, but for this guide your Start menu. Now, you’ll need to mount a drive for DOSBox to use. 1 we’re going to leave it as C:\. Click Install to begin. 2 So, type in mount c c:\ (assuming you installed to C).
Your C drive will be accessible in DOSBox now, so type in c: and press The game will now launch. However, it will most likely run in a window step step Enter. Now type cd arena and press Enter to access the game’s directory. which will be quite small. To change this and run the game in full screen Finally type arena and hit Enter again. DOSBox will now run the game in mode, press Alt+Enter. This will resize the window to full screen mode. 3 its emulated DOS mode. 4 To return to a windowed view press Alt+Enter again.
To get started in the game itself, you must begin by choosing a character Once your character is set up, you’re off into the world of The Elder Scrolls, step step type (by double clicking on your chosen class), or you can answer but first you need to escape the dungeon you begin in. If the game is questions to determine your ideal character. Once chosen, enter a name, running too slowly, press CTRL+F12 to speed up the emulation. A speed of 5 choose a home province and then tailor your avatar to suit you. 6 around 15,000 cycles should be about right for most modern PCs.
q 107 q RETRO16 Coverdisc:RETRO16 Coverdisc 20/9/06 13:08 Page 108
Getting
Can’tStarted wait to start the first Elder Scrolls adventure? Then follow our guide and head into the vast world of Tamriel The story so far… Game controls Up arrow ...... Walk forward Uriel Septim, the emperor of Tamriel, is betrayed by one of his closet Down arrow...... Walk backward allies, Jagar Tharn. Tharn is the battlemage to the Emperor, and using an Left arrow...... Turn left ancient artefact known as the Staff of Chaos, banishes Septim to an Right arrow ...... Turn right alternate dimension. With his master now disposed of, Tharn takes over Ctrl + arrow ...... Run forward/backward the Emperor’s identity and takes his place in the throne. ESC...... Setup menu However, this terrible deed does not go unnoticed, as you and another F1...... Character sheet of Septim’s associates, Ria Silmane, discover Tharn’s plot and aim to F8 ...... Toggle compass on/off expose the evil pretender. But before you can achieve this goal, Tharn F3 ...... Change damage mode discovers your plans and kills Ria, then imprisons you in the Imperial A...... Attack dungeons. He then destroys the Staff of Chaos, the only item that can C...... Cast return the true Emperor, and splits it into eight pieces, which are then J...... Jump spread over the whole of Tamriel. L ...... Logbook But all is not lost, and with the help of Ria’s ghost, you manage to M...... Automap escape your shackles and set off on a great journey to recover the pieces P...... Pick/steal of the Staff of Chaos and to defeat the evil tyrant once and for all. Now R...... Rest/camp option your lifeforce is green, your cause is just. Face the dungeon door and step S...... Status of character boldly forward… U...... Use
Please note: Mouse is required. Double-click the left mouse button to use/pick up objects and to interact with the world. Press the right mouse button and move mouse to attack (having pressed A to draw weapon). For in-depth control information please read the Arena106 setup.doc file found in the Docs folder in Arena’s installation directory.
SPELL NAME COST SPELL NAME COST Copy protection Spell Breaker ...... 2230 Lord’s Mail ...... 2075 Spell Drain...... 180 Medusa’s Gaze ...... 840 During play, the game will ask for the cost of a spell. Use the table and Spell Drain ...... 630 enter the value associated with the spell to proceed. Necromancer’s Amulet...... 1825 Open...... 300 Spell Shield ...... 400 SPELL NAME COST SPELL NAME COST Orc Strength ...... 125 Staff of Magnus ...... 2525 Passwall ...... 600 Stamina ...... 60 Auriel’s Bow ...... 4487 Force Wall...... 600 Pitfalls ...... 600 Strength Leech...... 225 Auriel’s Shield...... 3275 Free Action ...... 260 Purify...... 2590 Toxic Cloud...... 700 Cause Disease...... 975 God’s Fire ...... 3750 Resist Cold...... 300 Troll’s Blood...... 450 Chrysamere ...... 4725 Heal ...... 125 Resist Fire ...... 300 Voldendrung...... 1620 Cure Poison ...... 350 Heal True ...... 445 Resist Poison ...... 550 Wanderlight...... 150 Earth Wall ...... 400 Ice Bolt...... 367 Resist Shock ...... 300 Warlock’s Ring ...... 2840 Ebony Blade ...... 8125 Ice Storm...... 487 Ring Of Khajiit ...... 4490 Wildfire...... 607 Ebony Mail ...... 2420 Invisibility...... 150 Ring Of Phynaster...... 1800 Wizard’s Fire...... 187 Far Silence ...... 675 Levitate ...... 50 Sanctuary ...... 300 Fireball ...... 325 Lifesteal...... 675 Shalidor’s Mirror...... 775 Witch’s Curse ...... 300 Fire Dart ...... 375 Light ...... 120 Shield...... 250 Wizard Lock ...... 300 Firestorm ...... 490 Light Heal ...... 70 Shock ...... 225 Wizard Rend...... 740 Force Bolt ...... 1050 Lightning...... 780 Silence...... 450 Wyvern’s Sting ...... 525
q 108 q RG16 Retro Mart.qxd:RG16 Retro Mart.qxd 20/9/06 14:52 Page 110
RetroLooking for that elusive piece of retro goodness? Got an attic full of forgotten treasures to sell? Lucky for you, Retro Mart is here to help
Atari for sale California Games for MegMarta Drive K– U Controllers – For PS2, brand new. £35 Other Wanted version, boxed with instructions, each (four in a set – Ken Ryu Chun Li Atari 7800, boxed, in excellent decent condition. £3 + £1 insured P&P. Akuma). Postage £5 each. Paypal and Zzap 64 magazines – In red binder condition – With two controllers and Call 07840 819253 or email Nochex welcome. Please call from the year 1986. If you have the five games. Please email Simon at [email protected] for 07748961899 and ask for Peter mags for the year in the binder I’m [email protected] with photo/details willing to pay £100. Please call 0131 your offers Panasonic Q (JAP/USA & Multi DVD 4454051 and ask for Paul Micro Machines for Mega Drive K– U region modified) DVD – Plus Atari 2600 console – With joypads, version, boxed with instructions, good GameCube in one with lots of games, SAM Coupe SCADS – Must be plus 21 games, including Pac-Man, condition. £2 + £1 insured P&P. call memory cards and pads. £450. Please complete with manual. Also interested Asteroids, Mario Bros, Wizard of Wor. 07840 819253 or email call Peter on 07748961899 in any other SAM software/Hardware. May split games. £50 ono. Please call [email protected] for E-Mail [email protected] Lee on 07795630745 photo/details Retro Gamer issue 2 – Mint condition, coverdisc never removed. Open to Retro gaming stuff wanted for online Commodore wanted Fatal Fury II for Arcade CD-ROM – offers. Email [email protected] auction – Please email details of what Japanese version, boxed with you have to chriswright@ At least two Saitek Megagrip MX-220 instructions, excellent condition. £8 + Huge retro gaming collection for sale – bidvision.com. Putting together a large Joysticks – Town of Tunes CD. Please £1 insured P&P. Call 07840 819253 or Atari, Commodore, Sega, Sinclair etc. sale at www.bidvision.com call Ian on 01992 418625 email garethcrowley@ Too much to list. Please mail me on amiga.e7even.com for photo/details [email protected] for Retro Gaming Clubs Sinclair for sale details and/or requests Sega wanted PHILIPS G7000 Videopac – The world’s Sabrewolf and Knightlore –n I Sam Coupe – The Super Spectrum! – best Videopac support site is there for excellent condition (original not re- Many Sega Saturn Games – Wanted Boxed in original polystyrene you to browse, join and enjoy at issues). £20 ono. Email me at for my collection including, Baku Baku, packaging. Very rare. Good Condition. www.videopac.org [email protected] Sonic 3D, Die Hard Trilogy and more. £130 plus postage. E-mail Other Sega games also wanted. Please [email protected] SNESLand.com – SNES website Sinclair 128 +2 – With many top call Danny on 07916115481 featuring over 600 games, top 25 games. Open to offers. Email me at Retro Gamer Magazine issue one – Near games, forums and more. Go to [email protected] Nintendo for sale mint condition, complete with coverdisc. www.snesland.com £60 or swap for PSone Castlevania Mario Kart Remote Controlled – Mario Perfect condition, never used boxed Symphony of the Night UK/USA only. Come and join our video games and Yoshi both boxed mint condition. second edition Nintendo 64DD – Very Please email [email protected] or text trading community – It’s free and £40 ono each. Email me at rare. Plus Jap N64 (also boxed in 07875283630 you’ll get £5 free credit! Visit [email protected] perfect condition). Please email www.gamescult.com. We have game [email protected] to receive pics Retro magazines – ACE, EGM, auctions, forums, an arcade, a Web Full range of Sinclair cassette software and info Gamepro, Game Zone, Super Play and directory and more – Came with Spectrum+ pack loads of SNES mags. Email (Flight Sim, Othello etc). Never used. Nintendo wanted [email protected]. Open to offers Jamma+ Forums – Specialist forums for 10 tapes £20 ono. Call Ian on retro arcade machine enthusiasts. Find 07742895287 Super Nintendo Gundam Wing Endless Barcode Battler – £10 ono. Also Radica us at www.jammaplus.com Duel – Will pay up to AUD$50 I-Racer headset game (v-rare). Like Sega for sale complete, or AUD$30 for cart. Also Virtual Boy but LCD racer with lots of Anything else Metal Warriors, will pay up to AUD$30 tracks. £25 ono. Email me at Dreamcast tenth birthday pack (Jap) – complete. Send email to [email protected]. Pics available Free games in retro style from Limited. Can be used on any [email protected] WildSnake Software – For your instant Dreamcast. £25 with postage. Call Dizzy: This Is Your Life – A 68-page fun. Soccer Stars pinball, Invasion Peter on 07748961899 for details Other for sale publication including interviews with and Invasion 2 pinball, Christmas Oliver Twins. Buy it and a range of Tree pinball, Invasion Waves and Golden Axe 3 for Mega Drive – Sonic Pocket for Neo-Geo Pocket Color great clothes, mugs, hats and badges Breakout. Please visit Jp/Asian version, boxed with – Brand new game in plastic case only at www.pacificpublications.co.uk www.wildsnake.com instructions, excellent condition. £15 with postage. Paypal and Nochex £20 + £1 insured P&P. Call 07840 welcome. Also have Fatal Fury for NGPC. Over 1500 various titles – SNES, Mega Love retro? – Then check out the retro 819253 or email garethcrowley@ Call 07748961899 and ask for Peter Drive, NES, Master System, 3DO, books, retro games, t-shirts, mugs, amiga.e7even.com for photographs Vectrex, Atari 2600, Intellivision etc. mouse mats and teddies at and/or details Ultra Limited Edition Street Fighter Call 07973 552398 www.pacificpublications.co.uk
To advertise on this page, fill out the online form at www.retrogamer.net
q 110 q Untitled-1 1 1/9/06 12:55:47 RG16 Endgame:RG16 Endgame 20/9/06 14:10 Page 114
>>>Endgame<<<
This is it – the end of the game. First, destroy the Giger reject…
…then run through the tunnel, somersaulting over the spiky red things…
…and finally unload all your ammo into the beating heart of the alien
This month, the rather unexpected With a job well done, you can sit back and enjoy the well-earned end sequence conclusion to Ocean’s Gryzor on the Amstrad CPC, created by programmers with a wicked sense of humour
thathappening in the Bah! We don’t remember arcade version. Oh well, nevermind
q 114 q