Archive for Uncategorized

24 August, 2009 | 1 comment

Monday Morning MAME Club: Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder

FROM Wiki: “Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder is a side-scrolling arcade hack ‘n’ slash game released in 1992 by Sega. It was the first 32-bit game in the series. Despite its high quality and popularity, as of 2009, the game remains arcade exclusive.

Only Gilius Thunderhead makes a return, riding the back of new character, Goah the giant. The rest of the cast is all new and includes Sternblade the barbarian, Dora the female Centaur, and Little Trix, a young elf lad who carries a pitch fork. The main enemy is once again Death Adder.

The game is an overall improvement on the original with better sound, graphics, and gameplay. As well as introducing multiple paths to the franchise, the magic aspect was adjusted. Though still found in the classic Golden Axe pots, the magic spells did not increase in power with the number of pots collected but required a set number to work. The Revenge of Death Adder was the only Golden Axe game in which one of the magic attacks was not offensive, as Trix grew apple trees with fruit that replenished health.”

Get it HERE.

18 August, 2009 | 2 comments

Monday Morning MAME Club: Raiden

Everyone know this classic 1990 vertical shooter from Seibu Kaihatsu, but do you know how many systems it has been ported to?

Via Wiki “Raiden was ported to the FM Towns Marty, NEC PC Engine, Sega Mega Drive (Raiden Densetsu), Nintendo Super Famicom (Raiden Densetsu), Super NES (Raiden Trad), Atari Jaguar, PlayStation as The Raiden Project, Atari Lynx, Amiga, MS-DOS, and the mobile phone. The MS-DOS port was coded by Nigel ‘Freddy’ Conroy, Steve Cullen and Martin Randall, and was spearheaded by Martin Hooley. The original Raiden (not the Raiden Project) is available as a download from the Japanese Playstation Network store. The downloadable version can be played on the Playstation 3 console or PSP.”

Get the ROM of the original HERE. Be sure to stop by The Digital Press for the discussion.

4 August, 2009 | 1 comment

Monday Morning MAME Club: Super Contra

December 2634: A year has passed since Bill and Lance defeated the Alien Menace know as Red Falcon. However, Red Falcon is back and this time he has taken over a local military base and its army. Now it’s up to Bill and Lance to take out Red Falcon once again.

Get the mission here.

27 July, 2009 | 1 comment

Monday Morning MAME Club: Joust 2

Wiki knows more than I on this one.

“Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest is an arcade game produced by Williams Electronics in 1986 as the sequel to Joust. Although most Williams Electronics games in the 1980s used horizontal video monitors, vertical monitors like those in Pac-Man and Galaga were very common. Recognizing the need to create games that could be packaged as conversion kits for vertical cabinets, Williams asked Joust designer John Newcomer to create a vertical-screen game. The result was Joust 2. Released during the waning days of the golden age of arcade games, Joust 2 did not achieve nearly the level of success that Joust had.

Joust 2 is much more complicated than Joust, featuring more characters, 100 distinct waves (levels), music (composed by Chris Granner), and digitized voices. Perhaps the most significant change is the “Transform” button. At any point in the game, a player can choose to transform his/her ostrich mount into a pegasus and back again. The pegasus falls much more quickly than the ostrich and can be used to quickly attack an opponent from above.”

Grab the ROM Here.

6 July, 2009 | No comments

Monday Morning MAME Club - The Cliffhanger Edward Randy!

Yes, the character is Mister Randy, not Stallone. This side-scroller beat-em up is a Indiana Jones knock off with crazy stages always taking place on or in moving vehicles. Very colorful and over the top, this 1990 release is sure to please.

The guys at the Digital Press will be specifically discussing the Japanese version. However you will need both files ONE and TWO to make this happen. Enjoy!

22 June, 2009 | 2 comments

Monday Morning MAME Club: The Real Ghostbusters

Yup, a little known arcade title from DataEast, release in 1987 and based off of the hit cartoon series. Check it out in 2 or 3 player varitey.

Rom 2Player and Rom 3Player.

Talk it out on the Digital Press.

1 June, 2009 | 1 comment

History of Controllers: Part I

Electronic gaming has one thing that makes it what it is in the world of entertainment, and that is interactivity. Without being able to influence the outcome of the sports game, or the battle movements of a ninja master, we are just watching a movie. To achieve the interactivity of gaming, engineers had to design a control scheme for instant response. In some cases, these controllers have become icons of the gaming past-time while others have wallowed in obscurity only brought out to be laughed at.

1 Dimensional controllers:

Yes, believe it or not, the first controllers were only one dimensional. What could you do with that one dimension, though? You had a world of Tennis, Hockey, Football and any other sport you could convince people Pong represented. Giving credit where credit is due though, everyone was used to knobs. Knobs exist on stereos and TVs the same skills you used to get a certain station to come in transferred nicely to electronic table tennis. Using the same principals of any other knob (a potentiometer) nothing was really considered for ergonomics or general comfort of the user. Most Pong machines did not even use wired controllers, instead the knobs were usually only on the console itself.

Early Consoles:

The Fairchild Channel F, the first home console to offer interchangeable consoles, debuted in 1976. The Fairchild produced by Fairchild Semiconductor offered a controller that is closer to the Wii nunchaku than any full controller that one can imagine. It has a shaft that is held in the players hand that has no buttons and is only topped with a short joystick. In addition to the movement normally alloted to a joystick, the Fairchild’s controller allowed users to both press and pull on the stick to get the “effect” of buttons. Not only was this an unusual option, making any button mashing difficult, this controller is further hampered by being hardwired with flimsy wiring at that.

A year later, Atari released the VCS (Video Computer System AKA Atari 2600) and it came with a controller that really needs no introduction. While still having paddle controllers that were synonyms with Pong, the Atari 2600 Joystick with its rubber grip and bright orange button is a permanent gaming icon. This controller was quite sturdy in design and was not hardwired to the console, however it did only offer 4 directions of control. While the square shape of the base is not exactly built for the human hand, the Atari 2600 Joystick is easily manageable even for marathon gaming sessions. About the only thing that was certainly changed was the idea of the “action” button being positioned on the left.

Next, in 1980 Mattel delivered the Intellivision with a seriously large shift in controller design. In place of any kind of joystick, we have a sort of golden disc that will move your avatar, and for buttons you have an entire number pad and in case you still needed more buttons, four action buttons adorn the upper sides. The golden disk did offer an amazing sixteen directions of movement, however it could not be read at the same time as the number pad that many games used to fire weapons (this meant stopping movement whenever you wanted to fire). This controller definitely was not made with players in mind. Not only with the awkward layout, but with buttons that simply wear the fingers out with the force required to press them. I cannot help but think that simply turning this controller long ways with the disk on the left would have been a move in a better direction, but this move would have to originate elsewhere.

1982 brought two more players to the market, the Colecovision and the Vectrex. The Colecovision had a controller that quickly reminds one of the Intellivision. It too has an entire number pad and side action buttons, but this time we have a real joystick toward the top of the controller. Holding and using one of these controllers again seems as though no human used it before it was manufactured. I know that this was a new market, but aside from the pointless number pads that so many felt their controllers needed, there is no effective and more importantly, comfortable way to use this thing. These number pads were used normally by each game coming with a plastic sheet that fit over them to show the functions (this is also true of the Intellivision number pad).

The Vectrex brought a surprising amount of simple thought to control method. Smith Engineering, the creators of Vectrex, simply tried to bring home the arcade experience by creating a smaller version of the controls everyone loved. While the joystick was rather small, it could be used while easily getting to the four action buttons the controller offered. Not only a sideways rectangle that would become standard, but also action buttons that were clearly labeled

All of this brings us to the home gaming collapse of 1983, I have not touched on every console released, instead just pointed out trends and innovations. Join me next time for the great D-pad invasion and the true begins of what we know as a game controller today.

27 May, 2009 | 1 comment

Commercial Break: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons

Just finished DMing my weekly D&D game, and yup now I am updating a Retrogaming website. My coolness aside, I figured I would find a videogame ad for a favorite pasttime of mine. This commercial seems really confused. Not only in that the children seems almost bored playing the game, but also that it is being pitched to a little girl. Was this a reach for wider gaming audiences, much like the free Cabbage Patch Kids with the purchase of various game systems. I guess however they could get a console in the house. I’m sorry dragon…

26 May, 2009 | No comments

Monday Morning MAME Club: SENGOKU

Sorry for missing the Monday, Holiday and all. Anyway we got us a beat’em up this week in the name of Sengoku.

According to Wiki ” Although each of the games in the series do not seem to follow a connected plot, the games all involve the undead forces of feudal Japanese warriors attacking the protagonists.

In the first two games, the player could play as a ninja or a Western cowboy. In the games, the player can gain powerups so that the player can change into more powerful forms, such as a samurai-like being, an armor-clad wolf, or a more traditionally-themed ninja to attack the opposing forces of the undead. Power ups in the form of different colored orbs included being able to wield one katana (red orb), a pair of katanas (blue orb), a broadsword (purple orb), or to launch an energy-based attack (yellow orb). (Note: Power up effects differed depending on which form the player used. Those listed are for the standard form.)

The third game did not have a similar premise to the previous two games, instead, it was about a ninja clan who had to stop a worldwide outbreak of the Japanese demons before the world would be engulfed in chaos.”

Check it out and see for yourself get the ROM HERE, and talk it up on the Digital Press.

18 May, 2009 | No comments

Monday Morning MAME Club: Gunbarich

This is a game I can find no real details about, Gunbarich is from 2001 according to the game developer Psikyo’s wiki page. Gunbarich is a unique twist on the classic Arknoid formula, by adding flippers and a heavy coating of magical drop, you end up with a fun candy-like game. Easy to play, but I imagine a lot to master. Enjoy Gunbarich, get the ROM HERE and talk about it on the Digital Press.

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