Archive for Tabletop Gaming

11 May, 2009 | No comments

Monday Morning MAME Club: Metamoqester

This week is a oft missed 1995 unique take on 2d fighters, in Metamoqester you use a character with an assortment of moves not unlike Street Fighter to dispatch various boss monsters. Even better is the fact that you can do this with a friend making for some really interesting combos and serious fun.

“Developed by Pandorabox. This game is known in Japan as “Oni - The Ninja Master” and is an off shoot of the, then popular, Oni series of RPGs by Pandorabox, stretching across the Nintendo Game Boy, Nintendo Super Famicom and Sony PlayStation.” - from Arcade History

Grab the ROM Here, and be sure to talk about it on the Digital Press.

6 May, 2009 | No comments

Commercial Break: Light Guns

After talking so much about “The Justifier” I felt we should look at some light gun commercials. First up is the Famicom light gun (NES Zapper to us Americans). Man, they would never let a gun that looks that real into children’s hands. That and my Zapper never came with a holster. Wonder why such a realistic looking gun toy is no problem in Japan?

Next we have the Menacer, this bizarre binocular construct was Sega’s attempt at light gun action for the Sega Genesis. I honestly do not think I had one friend that owned this peripheral. Maybe the $100 price tag was too much for this wireless wonder.

Finally, the Super Scope. This thing was a massive beast with a hunger for batteries, but the $49.95 suggested retail price made it much more appealing. I will forever remember Shawn Smith teaching me Battle Clash on this thing on lazy summer day…

8 March, 2009 | No comments

Tabletop Games Too, Sure Why Not

So as most retrogamers do from time to time I hit up goodwill. It is kind of like searching the beach with a metal detector usually bottlecaps and things that may have been on someones butt at some point. Sometimes though something interesting shows up, this time surprisingly though the find was not videogaming, but instead classic tabletop gaming. While I will certainly not cover tabletop as much, it does mean alot to me and will show up from time to time. Today I picked up Traveller: 2300 (also known as 2300 AD) which was published by Game Design Workshop.

Traveller 2300 was the title of this First Edition of what can be classified as hard science fiction. Basically this means modern technology and some space travel. Some aliens, but no real lazers and what not. History is based mostly around a third world war and the shift of power afterward. The game had later editions and several additional source books. GDW as a publisher existed from 1973 to 1996, publishing an impressive amount of work. This title is one I never knew anything about until today. Actually the art made me think it was some kind of early Battletech supplement, seriously check out the Sigourney Weaver hair on that woman.

This was a time when you only needed the initial package to get you full up and running, no hunting 3 seperate books plus dice. Out of this box the dice are the only piece missing, there is a player’s guide, referee’s guide, star charts, adventures, overall this is a pretty solid package. For example get a close look at this star chart, this looks like some hard science, right?

Also, what was the best part for me was a star chart, this is supposed to be acurate to real space according to the text. Here are some shots of it.

The great thing about Tabletop gaming is that regardless of age the adventures are as fresh as you choose to make them. The only thing to consider is that the mechanics have become nicer over the years. To make this point clear check out this equation.

Does anyone else still play any older tabletop games?