First two I played for Game Pass rewards. The rest trying to clear up my harddrive. That 111GB Forza Horizon 5 has installed but is not playable yet. That's a lot of Gigabytes - the new norm I'm told for triple-A games.
I was like a vulture today swooping over the local mall, which didn't open in time before I had to go to work, and landing for a quick peck at the dying Toys R Us, which still isn't running a clearance sale, even though they could close any day now. It's just as well, I've been well fed this past week anyway. Over fed, really.
I was playing 1981 games on Midway Arcade Origins, backwards compatible Xbox 360 game on Xbox One, when I discovered Satan's Hollow listed as '81. No matter that wikipedia says '82, I'm going with what the collection says. So I played it and thought it was good.
After playing several other games on Atari Flashback Collection Vol. 2, I looked around for other 1981 games I might have missed and found Stellar Track for Atari 2600. I'd never played it before, so decided to give it a shot. I nearly gave up at first because it seemed too complex but I stuck with it and found a fun game.
Konami's arcade game Strategy X is one I never saw in the arcades or even knew about until I saw it on Game Room on Xbox 360. I'm thankful for Game Room bringing a bunch of Konami games I never heard of.
More than just Activision's Stampede for the Atari 2600, I watched the 1981 film Clash of the Titans and listened to the 1981 Kraftwerk album Computer World.
It's a day early for me to start 1981 for March but I couldn't resist. I made a '81 music mix for my car, watched a classic '81 movie and played an '81 game, Wizardry.
Williams would soon put out a classic video game, but their main interest was pinball. Firepower was a great table out in 1980.
Back in the day, I didn't even notice pinball machines in the arcades. I guess they were there, I just never played them, or rarely, because I don't remember a single one. But now that FarSight Studios has brought these games to consoles, I've become a fan of them. I even go to the local arcade on occasion and play the real thing.
I didn't play Zork until '81 at the earliest because that's when the IBM PC came out. My aunt had an IBM and I played Zork at her house one family visit. I don't remember playing it for very long. It's a text-based adventure where you have to figure things out as you go along. I think I got bored of the obscure solution to the game and went back to pursuing my aunt's huge scifi/fantasy book collection.
The Warp Hive is still being refueled with power pupae from the alien bee queen, so I'll just reminisce about Intellivision's PGA Golf.
Fishing Derby is another Activision game for the Atari 2600 that I played on Activision Anthology for PS2.
This is Skiing for the Atari 2600, made by its first third-party developer Activision. Over the years I've become a bigger and bigger fan of the first generation of Activision developers. I think their game design for the Atari 2600 is perfectly suited to that machine. The graphics are simple and colorful, the gameplay very accessible and easy to understand, and the games are just darn fun, even today. I have seriously considered collecting a complete Activision collection for the Atari for those reasons. Skiiing is one of the earliest examples of this.
In which the Warp Hive breaks and I have to stay in boring old 2018. Thankfully I have a PS2 and Taito Legends 2 to play with.
Wherein I warp to 1980 and the Three Mile Island Nuclear Reactor to gather the Kryton being vented from reactor 2 after the accident in '79. I wanted to make some Kryptonite to keep Superman in check in 2018, where he is running amok.
In which I am warped into an air traffic control tower and questioned by Steve McCroskey.
In which I am heckled for playing Atari 2600 Golf by Al Czervik during a party on his yacht.
In which Richard Chamberlain asks me about arcade game Red Baron while on the set of the Shogun miniseries.
Wherein I am questioned at length about my involvement in an Oahu crime syndicate by Magnum, a private investigator, during a game of Battlezone at the King Kamehamela Club.
Wherein I am asked by Vangelis, during a conversation about the use of his music in the TV show Cosmos hosted by Carl Sagan, about the arcade game Tempest. [apparently this is a 1981 game but I saw it listed otherwise somewhere, which is why I played it. So I'm talking about it anyway]
Not enough time to do my Time Warped blog because I was too busy gaming today. I got another silver slim PS2 to play some retro stuff that I'll mention in a later blog. Then I played more retro stuff on XBO that I'll also mention later. Finally I can quickly mention the other 3 games.
Wherein Ookla the Mok reacts with horror at the game I am playing.
I was shooting some golf at the Bushwood Country Club when head of maitenance, Carl Spackler, came up to me and started talking.
In which, after a recent Dead Kennedys concert and talking to Klaus Flouride about his bass sound on Viva Las Vegas, Klaus asks me about the arcade cabinet he saw me playing before the show.
Where I am questioned about arcade game King & Balloon by a Berg, bored with chasing me to get the Incal.