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Gamey Goodness of Times Past

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20:16 / 06.10.04

Games have always been a big part of my life. While still being a bit of a nipper, I can remember when all we had to play on was seven variations of pong and these arcades were all fields.

My schoolyears were informed by the likes of Jet Set Willy and home conversions of games like Space Harrier and Bomb Jack. I love modern games, but at heart I yearn for the gaming old skool masseeeevee. As a result my emulators frequently see more use than my consoles (except the old ones).

What games do you remember playing when wee. What soundchip tunes bring a tear to your eye and a tingle to your tadger/tweeter? Alternatively, what games have you discovered recently that you wish you'd known before?

If you turn me on to something new then I'll love you forever.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

22:34 / 06.10.04

You need Thunder Force IV, Alien Soldier and Gunstar Heroes for the Mega Drive/Genesis. Find em, download em and tell me what you reckon, then I'll tailor my other suggestions accordingly.

Oh, and Hellfire.

22:55 / 06.10.04

Larn! One of the greatest little 2-D dungeon action games made up entirely out of ASCII codes... you were the cursor, the alphabet were monsters ('b' was a bugbear, 'H' a hobgoblin, etc.) ...I should see if I can download that somewhere...

In the arcade, Time Pilot was my favourite (shoot other ships in different time periods from 1914 to 2200)

23:27 / 06.10.04

The first game I ever played to completion, Dragon Warrior on the NES. I started playing before I could read. It burned itself into a very special part of my brain. To this day I expect my vision to flash red if I step on muddy, swamp-like ground.

08:26 / 07.10.04

Millenium on the Amiga 500 ate up tons of my time. It snuck into my dreams, had me doodling those buckyball habitats during idle moments at school and woke my parents up at seven on Saturday mornings with the Ding-ding-ding-ding... of the passing time indicator.

Elite, Privateer 1 & 2, in fact any kind of Sci-Fi trading simulation sucked me in mercilessly and wouldn't let go. I credit my understanding of economic theory in later years to the fact that I spent so many hours figuring out what would be most profitable to move at what time. Privateer 1 actually helped me lose weight, because meals for foregone in favour of just one more trading run.

And, last but not least, Morrowind and the expansions have me hooked once more, because my new computer let's me move the detail sliders all the way to maximum without breaking a sweat, making the experience twice as good. When I saw Vivec city coming out of the fog, shadows twisting over rough grained stonework, with the reflections shimmering in the canals, I was literally speechless.

09:00 / 07.10.04

My person faves? You need, Alien Storm, Altered Beast, Sonic 1 and Budokan. If you can find that last one, you NEED to let me know.

For the SNES you can't go wrong with Super Mario World and Mario Kart

09:14 / 07.10.04

I still have my C64 kicking around in Scotland I think, I really should take it down to London next time I'm home... I really liked Bruce Lee, the fact that you could play 2 player and the 2nd player took control of the enemy fighters rocked my world, it was annoying to load though as it was on a tape someone had made up for me and you had to get to the right point on the tape....

Can't go wrong with Double Dragon on the Amstrad used to play that all afternoon with my mate knowing that the final battle where we had to fight each other for the girl was getting closer and closer.

You know what was shit, Ghostbusters II I couldn't complete the first level in fact I could only last about a minute.

Tau Ceti was cool only because someone showed me that if you typed "Fuck You" into the computer terminal it replied "Same to you with Bells on" and "Just because I'm a computer it doesn't mean you can be rude to me" and then it reset the game.

Of course everyone knows that the best game ever is Wrestlefest at the showies which I now have on MAME - Only 1 more match until you face Legion of Doom - HOGANS ON THE TOP ROPE...

Ghostbusters (orginal) was cool though, first game I played on Christmas morning on the C64 - Sonic was the first on the Megadrive.

Toe Jam and Earl was fun on the megadrive, 2nd one wasn't as great but I didn't another mate bought it for his Mega-PC (anyone remember them, Megadrive/PC combined)

I had a 3DO - the less said about that the better.

Whisky Priestess

09:34 / 07.10.04

Chuckie Egg is the only game I was ever any good at on my Dad's old computer, and I remember quite vividly playing it in my bedroom in summer with the window open (fuck playing outside, not my style ...). Birdhouse in My Soul is on a loop. Happy Days.

I also bought a pocket version of Donkey Kong which I beat several times during the course of a boring holiday. And let's not forget the inexplicable gameplay and clunktastic graphics of Castle Master, the only thing that got me through unspeakably long and tedious school holidays exiled to Brussels ...

Actually if anyone has a copy (or emulator) of Castle Master or could tell me more about Starship Titanic, please yell. I'm becoming strangely interested in old games at the moment.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

09:37 / 07.10.04

My person faves? You need, Alien Storm, Altered Beast, Sonic 1 and Budokan. If you can find that last one, you NEED to let me know.

Word up to Sonic 1. Investigate locating a copy of Sonic CD, which is the true sequel to that game in the sense it started to developed before Sonic 2, lacks the input of rank usurper Yuki Naka and has the best soundtrack ever on the japanese cut (the USA release has a different soundtrack of horrible ambient/metal guff). It emulates best in the latest Gens builds, which plays the original CDs or any legal backups you may have made of them. If you need help with Mega CD emulation, PM me.

Gotta take issue with the rest of your selection, however. Altered Beast is terrible and Alien Storm is the least of the sega brawlers. Instead, get Crude Busters (aka Two Crude Dudes) and the Streets of Rage series.

09:50 / 07.10.04

also bought a pocket version of Donkey Kong which I beat several times during the course of a boring holiday.

Apparently these go for around £80 on ebay these days, so I heard the other day.

I think you can still get Starship Titanic, I know someone that has it and played it briefly - I can ask to borrow it if you can't find it anywhere. Remembering the specs on the side I think it would run on a calculator if you could find it

Whisky Priestess

11:10 / 07.10.04

Eighty quid?!

I'm sure it's at home somewhere ... It's a bit beaten up though.

I am going to eBay to look for Starship Titanic and see if someone will swop me. Cheers!

11:24 / 07.10.04

£80's a bit optimistic. Have a poke around eBay (that might not work - I don't know if they let you link directly to pages of search results).

While I love my Megadrive, it's not exactly a schoolyears type of thing. For me, at least - I think I bought it with my first proper wage packet.

The old man used to be a Maths and Computer Studies teacher at a secondary school, so we'd end up with a games-playing machine of some description in the house most weekends and holidays. Starting with the Commodore PET and a Pac-Man/Snake hybrid called Super Glooper.

It was mainly the BBC Micro, though. Repton, Elite, Chuckie Egg, Defender, Alien8, Hunchback, Frogger, Thrust, Daredevil Dennis, Way of the Exploding Fist, Green Beret - these were the games I was weaned on. Then, a bit later, we had access to an Amiga 500 and all the goodness that brought with it. Xenon (the original, which I still believe is far superior to the better-known sequel), Captain Blood, Bubble Bobble, New Zealand Story, Arkanoid, Rainbow Islands, Speedball.

Hattie's Kitchen

11:34 / 07.10.04

When I was a wee bitch, I had a VIC-20, which was so shit graphics-wise there weren't any decent games for it.

Then I had an Atari console, which was mostly used for playing tennis - and by tennis I mean two squares hitting a circle back and forth.

Then I had a new-fangled Spectrum, not the little notebook rubber-keys version, but the one they brought out after that, the one with the proper keyboard - my favourite game to play on that was Saboteur, the archetypal ninja game. Hence my love of Splintercell and all those other sneaky-shooty games.

11:38 / 07.10.04

£80's a bit optimistic

That's what I get for listening to the muppet sitting next to me....I think I prefered Shark Attack anyway or Popeye.

I guess school must be most people's first experience of gaming, first game I played was "Grannies Garden" I wonder if I can find that somewhere.

12:03 / 07.10.04

Heh. I was going to mention Granny's Garden, but figured it was a bit embarrassing. Edutainment. Brr.

It was good, though, despite that tag. Had a surreal, creepy fairy tale atmosphere to it. There's an entire generation been turned slightly odd by that game. Unfortunately, there are new versions around that clean up the graphics and interface, robbing it of its strangeness. Emulation would seem to be the only choice.

12:04 / 07.10.04

I have a special place in my heart for Zelda Link to the Past and Mario three on the SNES. Chrome and Captain Planet on the Atari were ace as well.

12:31 / 07.10.04

Yeah I just checked for Granny's Garden and saw that you can still buy it for school (£35 for single users license) and it does look much crisper but the puzzle with the dragons outside a cave rung a bell.

I'm trying to remember old games but I just keep coming back to arcade games like Final Fight which was completed one afternoon on a school trip to Largs. Happy times.

13:11 / 07.10.04

Oh yes, Granny's Garden. And Mickey's Magic Mixture... Now, did any of you play them using a Quinkey?

Bubble Bobble is the one game that continues to obsess me until I should ever finish it. I played it on my friend's C64, had it for Atari ST and couldn't resist the Playstation version. Found a machine in Brighton last summer which was still 10p per credit and thought the day had finally arrived... but there's some strange continue quirk and suffice to say my sister stole a credit that would have let us play on past level 60-odd or whatever we were on. And it's just too annoying to start again straight away. I think Level 91 was my all time best, on the C64, but then I've never had as good a partner since then. 17 years or so ago...

13:11 / 07.10.04

Dear lord, do I remember Castle Master. So exciting. And then so very very annoying.
As is Starship Titanic. A bad game, made worse by it's own wasted potential. You spend 90% of the time travelling between places and 10% of the time swearing at the stupid illogical puzzles. Douglas Adams made it to punish us.

13:31 / 07.10.04

Anyone but me remember Starship Commander for the BBC Micro? I remember thinking the graphics were terribly classy - I mean, the BBC could do all seven colours, even in the same character-space, but these guys chose to have their game in black and white. Now that’s artistic integrity.

That, and the first starship you get to command looks like the Liberator. God, it was like a dream come true.

13:35 / 07.10.04

Although of course, as I hit post I suddenly realise it was just an Electron game they couldn’t be arsed revamping for the BBC, and so that’s why it was in black and white. Doh! 20 years that penny’s been waiting to drop.

15:13 / 07.10.04

Heh. I was going to mention Granny's Garden, but figured it was a bit embarrassing. Edutainment. Brr.

Not at all! As soon as you said BBC Micro, I saw the witch with that creepy little kissy-kissy thing she did whenever you got caught. Eeek! I think I just resurrected old demons.

Gunstar Heros is something that I've always wanted, but every time I go online it just drops out of my head. Looking now. As for Budokan, watch this space....

Bubble Bobble, what can I say. Possibly my all time favoritest of favorites. You haven't lived until you've been through 100 levels of that game. Even though it repeats over and over, I'll never get tired of that tune. Sabotuer, I used to play that one to death too, never got into the sequel though.

Does anybody remember Rescue for the speccy? I think you had to go about, well, rescuing folk. There were tanks, that you could only kill by dropping a bomb in front of you and then shooting it. I think you had to fix your spaceship too and I remeber coming back to it many a time to find the place infested with tanks that had just destroyed the whole thing.

Also, recently discovered is Umihara Kawase for the Snes. Very Japanese and often frustrating but well worth your time.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

15:24 / 07.10.04

That's the fishing/platformer, right? Weird shit.

15:39 / 07.10.04

That's the fishing/platformer, right? Weird shit.

Yep, that's the one. I love games that give you a coherent physical system and then lets you play about with it, Mario 64 being a good example. All that Umihara swinging appeals to my inner spider-man.

15:42 / 07.10.04

You can pick up Gunstar Heroes on an official Sega 4-in-1 "Classic Collection" cart, alongside Flicky, Altered Beast and one of the Alex Kidd games.

As much as I'm a whore for Treasure, I've recently started to come to the conclusion that Konami's Probotector is the best run 'n' gun game on the Megadrive, being longer and harder than Gunstar and offering more variety than Alien Soldier. It's Contra: Hard Corps with different player sprites and - importantly - no energy bar. Not as colourful or endearing as Gunstar, but even more manic. I bought it as soon as it came out and, to this day, have only ever seen the one ending - it offers alternate routes through by giving you a choice of two decisions at the end of every level (you're captured by the baddies at the end of one and can either choose to go quietly, making your escape when you get a chance, or fight it out there and then, each different choice leading to a different level).

15:58 / 07.10.04

I've never been much of a gamer, but the one that most stands out in my memory is Carrier Command. I bet it would look shocking now, but I just loved it at the time. I even bought Freelancer on the basis of a review that suggested that it would appeal to fans of Carrier Command. That's how much the memory clouds my judgement.

Just seen this though, and it made my nerd heart go pitter pat.

16:06 / 07.10.04

Didn't Carrier Command make you wait 10 minutes or so to travel between islands? There was a cheat to speed it up a little, but it was still pretty long.
My brother was a bigger fan of this than I was. I liked it, but the strategy was a bit beyond me at the time. I usually just took all the fuel out of my mantas and watched them launch from the deck straight into the sea.

16:13 / 07.10.04

Battle Command was the sequel of sorts I think. You controlled a tank and had to kit it out for different missions. Again, my brother's game more than mine.

Shit! Just reminded me of Hunter! Did anyone play this? I had it for the ST, there were three maps full of islands that you had to get around via, speedboats, gunboats, bicycle, hovercraft, jeep, helicopter and the like. At night you had to send up flares for visibility. Each map had an objective you had to meet by travelling all about and doing things for people.

Christ I need to play this again.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

17:23 / 07.10.04

Word up Dupre, Probotector is the shit although I prefer the Contra Hard Corps (J) incarnation - no energy bar means no fun for me. Contra Hard Corps (U) has the original sprites with no energy bar, if you like to strike a happy medium.

17:29 / 07.10.04

Talk of Helicopters and Jeeps reminded me of something, side scrolling shooter was it something like Swiv - many hours were spent on that.

And how about the game about the Quavers character (UK only I imagine!) with a little guy on a motorbike - GTA done years previously.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

17:56 / 07.10.04

Silkworm?

18:26 / 07.10.04

That's the very one...

18:45 / 07.10.04

Never liked 'em. Apart from Chuckie Egg. Very retro, I know.

21:17 / 07.10.04

Arcadians on the BBC B was the only game I ever really liked. I had Doom on a PC when I was at school, but all that happened was that my mate came round to play it and I watched him, so I never really got into it myself - I'd seen it all before.

I did get quite good at Virtua Fighter 2 though, I used to hang around arcades and do "winner stays on". What was that woman with the triple kick? That was always good for humiliating small kids. Pretty good at Virtua Cop, too.

At university it was all Mario Karts and Goldeneye on the N64. I was decent at Karts, but I ruled at Goldeneye, though most of my flatmates didn't play it. Girls.

08:41 / 08.10.04

On the BBC Micro I was a big fan of Elite, though I did always crash when trying to dock, which obviously limited how far I got.
On the Amiga I loved the Monkey Island games and I will always have a soft spot for "It came from the Desert" which was just great. Civilisation ate up entire weekends from the moment I got back from my paper round saturday morning till I went to bed sunday evening.
In my teenage years it was all about the N64, 4 controllers a case of beer and a lot of weed. You could have some stupid, happy evenings like that, though I did nearly get into a fight with my best mate after having played Super-BomberMan too long while too drunk.

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