Life is full of surprises. Good or bad, they come when you least expect it and can potentially change your life forever. Such was the case when Sega released After Burner in the arcade. Coming complete with a hydraulic sit-down cabinet, the game was the first of its kind to successfully take the boredom out of flight simulations. There were no worries about instrument panels, altimeter gauges, or landing sequences. A short while after its arcade debut, the game went on to be ported to a number of home consoles, including the Sega Master System. Sega’s fledgling franchise was such a big hit, that it even saw a release on the NES. Wait…what?! Surpriiiise! That’s probably what Tengen said once their unlicensed version of After Burner hit store shelves for Nintendo’s own console.
This is going to have to be done in three parts. Sorry for the length, but it's impossible when you're playing retro arcade games. You can rip through so many of them so quickly. They were designed to be played in less than five minutes at a time. What are modern games average play time, ten, maybe fifteen hours (not counting phone games of course)?
Greeting again video gamers! More notes as I read Brett Weiss' The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977-1987.
Yes, it's more multimedia notes on Brett Weiss' new book 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977-1987.
I had a pretty reasonable pool of games I wanted to play from 1987. Arcade games: Contra, Street Fighter (begining of the fighting game scene?), Double Dragon, 1943, R-Type, Sky Shark and Xenophobe; NES: Mega Man, Legend of Zelda, Ikari Warriors, Rygar, Arkanoid, Kid Icarus, Wizards and Warriors, R.B.I. Baseball, Metroid and Castlevania (what a year for NES!); Nothing for Sega Master System's debut; and PC games: Leisure Suit Larry, Dungeon Master, Head Over Heels, and Maniac Mansion. I decided to go with Ikari Warriors, but when that went too fast, I added Sky Shark.
I went through a bunch of lists for this year and came up with some titles to consider for my visit to nostalgia land. For NES it was: Commando, Ghosts n' Goblins, and Gradius. Sega Master System it was: Alex Kidd, Space Harrier, and Alien Syndrome. Arcade it was: Return of Ishtar, Arkanoid, Bubble Bobble, Out Run, Rygar, Gauntlet II, Darius, Ikari Warriors, Jackal, Joust 2 and Victory Road (the sequel to Ikari Warriors). PC/Mac it was: Star Flight, Wizard's Crown, Space Quest, Might & Magic Book 1, and Dark Castle.
Since my brother works at what is now AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX, a.k.a. The Spaceship, a.k.a. "Jerry's World," a.k.a. what I'm still going to be calling Cowboys Stadium because it takes so much less time to say than the new "correct" name, he got my family tickets to take a VIP Tour of the stadium. It was my older brother's day off, so his friend L'amont gave us and whoever else the tour. He was funny and everyone liked the tour. I took a shit ton of pictures that I will post with a recap of the tour later.
Oh, Space Harrier, how should I describe you? Should I compare thee to an endless runner? Thou art more lovely and insane. Rough controls do tire the limbs of any gamer, and this title’s fun supply is far too short. But the eternal summer of my nostalgia for this game shall never fade, nor will the death of the ‘80s cast shadows upon its uniqueness.
When R-Type showed up on the arcade scene in 1987, it was a force to be reckoned with. Thanks to its razor-sharp graphics and techno-organic alien atmosphere, the game quickly became considered to be one of the best shoot 'em ups (SHMUPs) of its time, rivaling the popularity of the Gradius series. With this arcade gem's success, it was only logical that it should be ported to every major home console, right? In theory, yes, but in reality, it saw a release on only two video game systems compared to being ported to at least eight personal computer systems at the time. Of the scarce home console releases, the Sega Master System saw a port of R-Type in 1988. Although faithful to the arcade version in terms of content, the game takes a nosedive when the action gets heavy.
Two blogs for the price of one!
In the late eighties, instead of playing Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros., Metroid, or Legend of Zelda on NES, or Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System, I was either in the arcades or playing games on my Apple Macintosh computer. At the time, I had no idea there were new home consoles out on the market. Maybe 'cause I was never home. I was in college. This explains the following list of games that I call my number ones from the late 80's.
My sporadic output is due to a shitty work schedule. I'm only here tonight because I had to cancel my class due to emergency root canal surgery. Pity me! But lucky you, I've got time to tell you about all the obscure games I decided to play this Summer. Here it is in list form!
Here's my schedule: Teach a four hour class at 8 a.m., give an office hour until 1. Drive home, attempt to go for a run (marathon training) and take a nap. Rush back to the school and teach a four hour class from 6-10. Every Monday through Thursday. Add that to the move, and it's been a hectic few weeks. So the laziness in these posts is a reflection of the stress I'm feeling away from here. And instead of actually writing anything of substance, here are some more pictures of games!
So, my girlfriend and I have just about finished moving. 93% of my games are here. The Genesis and Sega Master System games are still in the old place, as are one crate of shitty NES games. And my DS cases are there, but everything else has been successfully transported. So that means more pictures for you, including the rest of my Sega CD and Saturn games; good thing too because I had feared them lost. I'll start with those.
So I am in the process of moving. One good thing about it is I have an excuse to get my game collection all together. I boxed it all up and keep finding random things here and there to add to it.
In today's blog, The Original Ser discovers a trove of "lost" content!
As the years go by, we've seen games go from 8 and 16-bit sprites to full three dimensional models consisting of thousands of polygons, but can gaming continue advancing and innovating at the rate that it has been indefinitely? Let's start by first taking a look at Moore's Law.
Sega is no stranger to porting its greatest games over to new consoles. They re-release their games more than Disney re-releases their animated movies. Luckily, Sega doesn't lock their classics up in a metaphorical vault and in fact are now bundling three of the company's older games into one collection. One of the first in this new approach is Alex Kidd & Co., which includes Alex Kidd in the Miracle World, The Revenge of Shinobi, and Super Hang-On. A slapped together group if there ever was one, but does such a variety of genres work in its favor?
This week's Nintendo Download offers up a total of nine titles - five for DSiWare, three for WiiWare, and one Virtual Console title.
This week's Nintendo Download brings a slew of new titles with Excitebike and Electroplankton leading the pack.
This week's Nintendo Download offers up a total of eight new titles, with three for DSiWare, three for WiiWare and one for the Virtual Console.