Retrogaming
Times
Monthly |
| Issue
#47 - April 2008 |
Unfortunately,
we have a truncated issue this month, as many of our authors have been
under the weather. Nevertheless, here is what we were able to
pull together. To be honest, I've been giving a lot of though to
what I would put here this month. Much of my free time has been
spent with Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, and I thought that I
might discuss that a little bit, especially with respect to the
wonderful nostalgia it has brought me by including Pit of Kid Icarus
fame and R.O.B. as two of the combatants. But in the end, I
really couldn't find the words to do the experience of playing the game
justice. You simply have to play it for yourself.
It made me realize that as much as I enjoy writing the introductory
column, it's hard to come up with ideas each month. Even more,
it's hard to guess which topic I have in mind will be the most
interesting for others to read. So I had a thought.
We've asked many times for contributions to RTM from any interested
authors. However, I realize that the idea of coming up with an
article every month is a little daunting to many who might otherwise
wish to contribute. So, for the first time, I would like to offer
this space up to any guest authors who would like to be guest authors
for one month. If you would like to take me up on this offer,
then please email me your editorials. I will select the best one
and feature it in this spot. This is your chance to share your
perspective on retrogaming, and the issues related to it that matter to
you.
So please give this idea some thought, and send your articles to me
through the address connected to my name above. Please make sure
that you put RTM somewhere in the subject, and that you send all
submissions by the 25th of each month. Also, be sure to clearly
indicate how you would like to be credited. Afterall, RTM is not
just our publication, it belongs to every reader and retrogamer out
there. I'm looking forward to reading your submissions.
 |
| The Many
Faces of . . . Robin Hood |
| by Alan
Hewston |
|
We
continue our string of 25th anniversary tributes, with the many faces
of "Robin Hood". A first time appearance by those ever so cool
(or ugly) looking XONOX, double-ender carts. My wife thinks
they are ugly, but there is some beauty to that uniqueness and
largeness. Unfortunately all versions are hard to find on the
original media, but since they were all officially released, and about
equally rare, there’s no need to disqualify any.
Fortunately, they do show up (or are easier to search for) on ebay
often enough, but if not, you can play a few via multi-cart and of
course, all are available via emulation. The cart format is
appropriately paired up as a double-ender with another hero from
British history/folklore - Sir Lancelot.
I must apologize as I had not previously played Robin Hood much and
having only found online the 2600 manual, I probably missed a few nuances on
some versions, but I am confident the scores will work. [The
original manuals are rarer than the carts/disks. If anyone
has these manuals, please scan or retype and send to me and we'll post a summary
next month.] To make things worse, the 4 versions are somewhat
dissimilar, making it even harder to compile and score. Feel free
to blame me if I missed anything significant or if the scores/penalties
seem unfair – I really rushed this issue and was late.
Several of the RTM staff must have had “Spring Fever” too
and with an otherwise light issue, we held up this release until I
finally got my review in.
Fortunately, both of the 1983 carts are similar, and likewise, both of the
1984 released ports are similar. Hopefully this split will make
it easier (albeit more wordy) to follow my review. The goal of
the 1983 releases (Vic 20 & 2600) is to maximize your score and
keep the game going - level after level by avoiding death.
The goal of the 1984 releases (CV & C64) is to earn the highest
possible ranking, which requires you to complete the game in the
fastest time possible. Unknown if the ranking is affected by
a loss of any lives. The highest ranking is probably only be
attainable at difficulty level 4, but you could still try each setting to see
what is the best ranking you can earn. Hopefully I can motivate
you to give them a try, but keep in mind the difference in the goal.
See several classic era screenshots at:
www.mobygames.com/game/robin-hood/screenshots
 |
| Are the Vic 20 XONOX Double-Ender carts the largest and ugliest of the era? |
Home Versions:
All home versions were released by XONOX, with the Atari 2600 being the 1st.
Atari 2600 cart 1983 by Antony R Henderson for XONOX, Rarity 7
Vic 20 cart 1983 by unknown for XONOX, Rarity 6
Commodore 64 disk 1984 by unknown for XONOX, Rarity - unknown
Colecovision cart 1984 by unknown for XONOX, Rarity 6 & 9
Rumor Mill & Classic Era Sequels: None & None
Robin
Hood Home Version Similarities (1983 titles - score the highest - Atari
2600 & Vic 20) - except those in < > these home versions have
a choice of 1 or 2 players <Vic>; with choice of 4 <Vic
(1)> starting difficulty (in reality these are starting rounds or
levels); there's no ability to pause any time during the game; the
startup/title screen displays a demo of sorts; there are three screens
of action each level, the Forest, outside the Castle, and inside the
castle; although there is an endless supply of the Sheriff of
Nottingham’s men, there is only one present at a time on any of
the three screens; in place of the enemy, one of Robin’s own
Merry Men (looks just like you) my make a brief appearance as well; be
careful not to shoot him, or you lose a life; the enemies know exactly
where Robin is and will hunt you down; the graphics are fairly
big/blocky so there is not much room on the screen to maneuver; on the
first 2 screens you receive 16 arrows each life or each time you begin
these screens and must eliminate 11 (in the Forest) and then 6 (outside
the castle) of these enemies to advance to the next screen; if you run
out of arrows, you have nothing left to defend yourself with, and any
contact with the Sheriff’s men or their arrows costs you a life;
each life you get back 16 more arrows; your arrows are fired one at a
time and cannot be fired again until they hit the enemy or clear the
screen; each confrontation is very limited as all arrows are only fired
Left or Right, not in any other direction; everyone can move about in
all 8 directions; (to keep the action really limited?) you are frozen
in your tracks while your arrow is in flight; the same is true for the
enemy movement <Vic 20 (oops they’re never frozen)>; since
these enemies just pop out of thin air, appearing at almost anywhere on
screen, and they know where you are and can come out with arrows
blazing - you are given a slight advantage in both your movement speed
and arrow speed; if your arrow hits them first, their arrow, even if
dead on you, will magically disappear; after you have shot 11 enemies
in the Forest, you’ll be alerted that you can now move to the
right edge of the screen, thus advancing to the next screen (2600 the
score flashes, Vic 20 you’ll hear a new sound when sufficient
enemies have been shot); the Forest has a few trees that obscure the
view beneath them; outside the castle the terrain is mixed and you may
be unable to move freely through any transitional areas; the castle
moat is also deadly, but the 2600 manual claims that you can cross it
and scale the walls; after eliminating 6 enemies outside the castle,
the portcullis (gate) will then go up and down as a hazard; in
addition, an arrow will continuously fly across the width of the
screen; if you attempt to scale the castle walls (2600 only) one of the
henchman will fire an arrow your direction as well; avoid all these
obstacles and gain entrance into the castle; inside the castle no one
has any arrows, and you are defenseless; you must quickly use the
secret passages and/or stairs in your search for the randomly located
treasure or Marian behind two of the 7 doors; a random lock can
come and go - temporarily barring some doors; press the fire button
to open any unbarred door, behind which is either a guard to avoid or a
prize; after finding the treasure or saving Maid Marian (whichever one
you do first), you will complete that level of action and return to the
Forest on the next higher skill setting; the action is faster and the
enemies are smarter; you will hear a jingle and score points for
shooting the Sheriff’s men (2 k) ; also earn points for advancing
to the next screen (8 k) and collecting the treasure (20 k) or rescuing
Maid Marian (20 k); in lieu of advancing to the next screen, you can score
even more points you can stick around the Forest and shoot until you are
out of arrows. There is no music during the game, just a bit at startup
on the 2600. You’ll hear footfalls when you walk, and the sound
of each arrow getting fired and hitting a target. No effects for opening a door or
collecting a prize.
- - - INTERMISSION - - - Sorry this section is long
Now then, Robin Hood Home Version Similarities (1984 - earn the best
rank - Colecovision & Commodore 64) - except those in < >
these home versions have a choice of 1 or 2 players; with a choice of 4
game difficulties; there's no ability to pause any time during the
game; there are four action screens, move to the right each time to get
to the next screen; I’ve named screens 1 to 4 as the Forest, the
Hills, Outside the Castle, and Inside the Castle; once all 4 screens
are completed, you receive your rating; and any contact with the
Sheriff’s men or their arrows costs you a life; lose all your
lives and your rating is always a “Stable Sweep”; an on
screen clock counts up the seconds and minutes of your quest; the less
time spent, the better your rating; (I assume) the higher the skill
level, the higher the possible rating; does not appear that losing a
life impacts the rating, other than losing all of them; in ascending
order, some, but not a complete list of these ratings are: "Stable
Sweep" "Sword Polisher", “Merry Man Jr.”, “Robin
Jr.”; you can move around in any direction and fire arrows
in all 8 directions; on the first two screens you must eliminate all
the (limited number of ) Sheriff of Nottingham’s men to advance;
you have an unlimited supply of arrows (C64 must refill 10 more in the
Forest) throughout the game; both you and the enemies can now fire arrows
and then immediately afterwards move about; you cannot fire again
until the arrow hits its target or clears the screen; the enemies know exactly
where Robin is, but they always arrive fairly far away from the middle of the
screen and you have time to spot them and avoid them; unlike the other
version, the graphics are much smaller and detailed, so there is a lot
more room to maneuver on the screen and dodge the enemy or their
arrows; the enemy are smarter on subsequent levels, so the progression
of difficulty increases nicely; on screens 1 and 3 there are three and
two enemies who fire arrows back at you; screen 2 is new here, (the
Hills, not included on the 2600) where about 10 henchman walk their beat,
back and forth ignoring you, until you confront them; you and they each have
a sword to swing in 3 different positions; taking out these henchman is the
most fun action sequence in the game as you repeatedly hack away until on
of you dramatically slumps to their death; Outside the Castle you can shoot
or avoid the foot archers, but concentrate on the Castle Archers –
after nabbing 5 or 6 of them, the drawbridge can then be sprung; a
change in the drawbridge/door color (or a white blob) gives you that
hint to shoot it, and it then opens up; evade any men/arrows while you
enter the castle; you cannot cross the moat and scale the walls; inside
the Castle there are no secret passages, but now are 12 doors and a few
flights of stairs; none of the doors has a barrier, but you must press
the button to open a door; each door randomly has either a guard to
avoid, or a prize; collect both prizes to complete the screen/game;
after collecting either prize, all the enemies disappear; the prize is then
treated as having been collected and shown near the bottom right of the
screen; multiple enemies can pursue you, and even up the stairs; there
are no footfalls heard and you never see any of Robin’s own Merry
Men in these 2 versions; all exterior screens have some trees, which
obscure the view beneath them; touching any water surface or similar
out of bounds region costs you a life; there is some startup music in the
Forest (which on the CV continues the entire game, changing slightly
(or restarting) each time you advance a screen); there are sound effects
for each arrow fired, each arrow hit, each sword swing, and each
sword hit; each door opened and prize collected.
Have Nots: Vic 20 (31)
 |
| Vic 20 outside the castle - courtesy of Moby Games |
My first
reaction was there was almost no effort to enhance this game. The
footfalls sound better and the animated moat is cool, but most
everything else ends up being worse than the 2600, but cumulatively,
only a 1 point difference. The Gameplay is (6) respectable, with
a plot, and multiple screens, but limited action. There is some
strategy and a chance to improve your skills and go for even more risky
points. But it suffers greatly from only from having only 1 enemy at a
time, firing only L/R, not being able to move after firing, only having a few
doors to chose, and almost no room to maneuver. Wow,
maybe I needed to score it lower after all of that. Unknown why,
but on 3rd level the castle gate does not open after 6 enemies have been
hit. More time is needed to play test and see if this reoccurs.
The Addictiveness (5) is fair, with enough randomness and some chance
that you’ll either have gotten better or luckier by the next game
and score more points. But there is too much luck & reaction
and not enough strategy to keep bringing you back for more.
Graphics (5) are mediocre and blocky which does make the details and
animation visible but at what cost. There is a decent amount of details,
color variety, backgrounds, graphic variety, multi-color and displays.
Of course, smaller, less detailed and less animated graphics would not help
this score, but smaller graphics would really have made the gameplay and
addictiveness a whole lot better. I’d rather have it look worse
and be more playable. Surprise – there is even wasted space
on the edges making the Vic even narrower on screen 2 than the 2600.
The animation is well done, especially the simple animated moat. The
Sound (5) is acceptable, with just enough effects to get some feedback
and thrill of multiple things going on. A nice touch was the addition
of a sound effect once you have eliminated enough enemies to move to the
next screen. The Controls (10) are perfect. An amazing 7
other XONOX titles were released on the Vic 20, and assuming that I do
not miss out on buying the now available multi-cart – the
“Behr Bonz Multicart for Vic 20”, then I’ll be coming
back to a few XONOX reviews, or Lost Faces some day.
Bronze Medal: Atari 2600 (32)
My first reaction was neither the 2600 nor Vic lets you last long
enough on the final screen to learn what the heck is really going
on, but hang in there. The Gameplay is good (6), pretty much
as described for the Vic, but slightly better - having a choice of all 4 start
difficulties, the slightly smaller graphics make for a little more room to
maneuver and plan. The Addictiveness is acceptable (5) with
a little more gradual increase in difficulty as the enemies do not
immediately come at you in round 1, but will do so in later rounds.
Two things that really hurt are the enemies can arrive nearly anywhere on
screen (how rude) and the inability to get onto and stay on or climb
the stairs. The double deaths are unforgivable. I found no
way to climb the moat, but clearly the game changes depending on if you
try to climb the walls or enter the portcullis. There is even
more luck & reaction and less planning than the Vic. The
Graphics are OK (6) with a similar description as the Vic, but with smaller,
better details and backgrounds. There is better use of color and color
variety as well. Sound is adequate (5) with some startup music
and a few effects. Hearing an effect when going to the next screen
is nice, but the footfalls are worse than the Vic. As usual, the
2600 Controls (10) are perfect.
  |
| 2600 Inside & Outside the Castle courtesy of Atarimania & AtariAge |
Gold Medal: Commodore 64 & Colecovision (37)
Colecovision (37)
 |
| Colecovision - Inside the Castle courtesy of Mobygames |
My first
reaction was yes this is a tie, but on a finer point scale the C64 port
would have scored a little higher. The CV has better music, the C64
better detailed graphics. Gameplay is quality (8) with 4 screens
of action and a lot more choices and planning than the 2600
original. Having multiple enemies, arrows, hazards, and room to
maneuver makes these two versions much better. The Addictiveness
is OK (6) as you’ll want to play these versions more. A choice
of 4 somewhat harder difficulties will bring you back to master each skill
level. One drawback is getting used to waiting for each dead
enemy to completely fade from existence – if you touch him, goodbye
to you. The Graphics are effective (7) with more details,
multiple enemies, good displays, nicer animation, some color variety,
good use of multi-color, graphic variety and backgrounds. The Sound
is not bad (6), significanlty improved with a full muscial score, and effects added
for the sword swinging and, opening doors. Instead of unique effects
for “game over”, collecting a prize and starting a new screen,
the musical score is slightly altered to let you know of these events.
Controls were tedious, especially the diagonals using the standard controllers,
but were just about perfect (10) via the Super Action controllers. I
still had trouble ascending the front right doorway, but that appears
to be a graphics glitch not the controller.
Commodore 64 (37)
 |
| See the C64 arrow supply in the Forest - courtesy of Lemon 64. |
My first
thoughts (from back in the 80's) were this game will score low and not
win a medal – but alas no other port was better. The Gameplay
is impressive (8) and as good as the CV, with some minor differences.
The added use of refilling your spent arrows is very nice, as was seeing as
many as 5 enemies in pursuit on the final screen. There is limited
space outside the Castle, forcing the use of a lot of diagonal shot by both
sides. Screen 2 is incredibly hard and time consuming to learn
how to defeat all the henchmen. If they just could have had level
4 this hard and made level 1 easy - that would have been impressive.
Usually the CV is the one guilty of being too hard at level 1 and not gradually
increasing in difficulty. Fortunately one does not lose a life (on screen 2) for
being slain countless time. But it sure does eat up the clock when
you parry poorly. Addictiveness is good (6) matching the CV, but
without the deadly - dead enemy effect.
Graphics are impressive (8) with a lot more detail, adequate displays and
multi-color. There’s great color variety, graphics variety,
backgrounds and good animation. There is more action here than
anywhere else, with as many as five enemies in pursuit and more
frequently where 2 arrows are fired at you. The Sound is slightly
better than the 2600, but still average (5) with some startup music, but not
lasting throughout the game. There are sound effects for collecting a prize,
opening a door and swinging the swords. Controls are perfect (10).
Acknowledgements, Updates and Errata since last month.
- This entire review was added after Scott wrote his Attract Mode, so the issue
is a bit fuller now. Sorry to make you wait an extra 10 days.
- This is one of the lowest scoring games we’ve seen to date
– maybe I was too hard on it – maybe Sound scores should
all be increased by 1 point.
- Technically, some of the air born weapons may be crossbow bolts, and
others may be arrows, but I just called them all arrows for ease of
description. For Star Trek fans, I quote Lt. Worf “I
protest, I am NOT a Merry Man”.
- If bored, you can keep killing enemies outside the castle,
after about 36 have been killed they stop coming and you can then only
shoot the castle archers - which if you shoot lots of them, they too slow down
their replenishment rate.
- I was one of several C64 owners who played this game back in
the day and ditched it because it made no sense. Glad that I gave
it a proper review to figure out on my own how to play and successfully
complete the game.
Come back next month for another 1983 review - the Many Faces of "Sir
Lancelot” on the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Vic 20 and
Colecovision. Contact Alan at: Hewston95@NOSPAMstratos.net or
visit the Many Faces of site:
http://my.stratos.net/~hewston95/RT/ManyFacesHome.htm
Happy
Easter all! As I write this, it is March 27th and Easter had just
passed. Hope everyone had a good safe Easter. if you're on
vacation, I hope you're having a good time.
I had originally planned to write an article on some text based sports
games from Lance Haffner. I had acquired some copies of the games
in the late 90's and had a good time playing them. Unfortunately,
my Apple IIe has fizzled and I couldn't find the games available for an
emulator. It appears Lance Haffner may still be selling his games
(check out http://www.lhgames.com) so maybe I can go that route.
In any case, I looked for a fallback and went for one of my loves after
sports: Science Fiction. Yes, I am a geeky fan of Star Wars, Star
Trek, Battlestat Galactica, among others. Given my love of
Sci-Fi, it would be appropriate to look at the game <b>star Fleet
One: The War Begins</b>. Online sites note the game was
released as early as 1982 by a company by Cygnus but most people are
probably more familiar with the 1985/1986 release by Interstel and this
is the version I am covering.
I
ran across the game around the early 90's and fell in love
immediately. I personally have a pretty vivid imagination and
always imagined being my own "Captain Kirk" and commanding my own
starship. I originally got a chance in the mid 80's when I played
the <b>Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator (star Trek:
SOS)</b> in the arcades.
Star Trek: SOS was entertaining enough, but it was just a lot of button
pushing and there wasn't a ton of strategy involved. You were
there to just blast ships, save and dock with the starbases. Star
Fleet One offered a lot of what Star Trek: SOS offered, but just in a
much more advanced form. Essentially, in Star Trek: SOS, you were
the navigator and the weapons officer. In Star Fleet One, you
were the Captain.
Star Fleet One was easily one of most advanced and complex simulations
produced in the 1980's. Despite the well known Apple II
weaknesses in graphics and sound, the authors did the best they
could. The graphics were simple but done well. There were
displays of your ship and enemy ships. The screens reflected all
the various systems of your ship. The sound effects were simple
but done well enough to cover the bases (torpedos/phasers firing,
shields getting hit, etc, etc).
But
the thing that stands out is the simulation of a starship. You
have full control over your navigation, shields, weapons, tranporters,
engineering and other systems that make a starship run. For a
game that was produced in the era before computer mouses became
popular, the user interface was fantastic. The game offered an
option to use a joystick, but since you weren't playing an arcade game,
you could easily use a keyboard. In fact, I personally preferred
a keyboard over the joystick.
The purpose of the game was essentially to knock a certain amount of
enemies in a given period of time. If you completed your misson,
you would get rated and eventually get promoted. While it would
be tempting to just blast all your enemies away, there were certain
strategies that would improve your ratings. Plus, as you got
promoted to higher levels, the enemies got smarter and smarter.
It got difficult for your ship to simply stand toe to toe against five
enemy ships. Sometimes, retreating and getting your ship repaired
might be the best answer.
All in all, Star Fleet One was one of my favorite games from the 80's
era. Even today, I can sit down and play the game on an emulator
and have a good time. It's worth playing if you have not played
it before.
See you all next month.
Alright, I must say that March was a pretty productive month. I
manage to cover quite a lot of ground, and wrote guides for 9 different
games, and stubs for a few more. In addition to that,
StrategyWiki had a banner month with the release of Super Smash Bros.
Brawl for the Wii driving in lots of traffic. Lets take a look at
some of the info that I uncovered during my authoring efforts this
month.
Let's start with Musashi no Ken, a game that I didn't right a guide
for, but I did do a little research, and I found out more about the
game than I knew when I wrote my review for NES Realm just a few months
ago. It turns out that I was completely wrong about the game,
both in terms of story and content. The game is actually based on
an old anime about a family of Kendo practitioners. The game
focuses on the son of two Kendo champions and his effort to match the
accomplishments of his parents. The side scrolling bit where he
races against his pet dog, collecting weapons along the way is only one
half of the gameplay. After racing through a couple of courses,
he must enter a Kendo tournament. It is here where you realize
the importance of all those weapons he is collecting along the way;
they give him access to special strikes which he can use against his
opponents for decisive victories. It's still not an outstanding
game, but it makes a lot more sense given its story backdrop.
Next up is Jajamau no Daibouken, which is the sequel the second game in
the "Jajamaru" series, and the sequel to Jaleco's earlier game Ninja
Jajamaru Kun. There is a much more noticable influence from the
popularity of Super Mario Bros. on this game. It takes concepts
from the earlier Jajamaru games and tries to infuse it with more side
scrolling elements. I have always enjoyed the Jajamaru series,
but this mix of gameplay styles unfortunately misses the mark a little
bit. It doesn't force you to deal with the enemies like the
earlier games did, and it really doesn't reward you for exploring the
stage like Super Mario Bros. does. In the end, it really compels
you to simply rush through the stages instead of taking your time to
enjoy them. This would not be the last outing for Jajamaru Kun,
as he would continue to appear in a few more games, even as late as a
release in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance which included five of
Jaleco's earliest Famicom games on the cartridge along with a brand new
adventure for the little ninja.
 |
 |
| Musashi no Ken |
Jajamaru no Daibouken |
Next up
comes Sky Kid. Sky Kid has always interested me a little bit
because before I dove into research for the game, I could never quite
figure out if it was intended to be a shooter that just kept going and
going and getting more difficult, or if it had an ending. It
turns out that it does end! But reaching that ending takes a fair
amount of skill and a good helping of patience. There are
actually three different Sky Kids that can be found in the arcades.
The original game was made by Namco in the end of 1985.
Less than one year later, they released an updated version of the
game called Sky Kid Deluxe, which contained four extra "X" missions
inserted between the original missions which introduced new landscapes
like snowy regions, and new mission targets. And finally, there
was Vs. Super Sky Kid, which was the arcade conversion of the
Famicom/NES version of the game. This one departs from the
original in terms of mission layout, but is otherwise quite faithful to
the arcade game, albeit with less colorful graphics. It's funny
to note how the Japanese designers intended for the pilots of the
bi-planes (Red Baron and Blue Max) to
be two birds, and how the American publishers of the game pretty much
down-played this fact to the point where its barely noticable.
I ended up writing a small guide for the Gundam license game Kidou
Senshi Z-Gundam. This game contained a rather interesting attempt
at a first person perspective on the Famicom for two portions of the
game, one on earth and one in space. What is little know about
this game is that it was designed by the famous Xevious designer
Masanobu Endoh, and he only designed the game with these two first
person perspective portions in mind. Unfortunately, the execs at
Bandai thought that the game needed more, and they tacked on this
Thexder-inspired side scrolling maze portion which weakened the game
overall. One could argue that it's a bit disappointing to play a
Mobile Suit Gundam game without ever being able to see the mobile suit,
and that the side scrolling potion was necessary to help bridge that
connection between the game and the anime, but players disagreed.
They disagreed so much that Bandai would later go on to publish a
limited run of the game in a gold cartridge with the side scrolling
portion omitted! All in all, if you're not a fan of the Gundam
series, you may find the gameplay a little hectic and confusing, but
it's still fairly enjoyable.
 |
 |
| Sky Kid |
Kidou Senshi Z-Gundam |
ASO, or
Armored Scrum Object, is better known as Alpha Mission outside of
Japan. It is a fairly typical vertical shooter with a wide array
of power-ups. Other than the fact that it was made by SNK, who
would go on to make the famous Neo-Geo platform (on which a sequel,
Alpha Mission II, would make an appearance), there is very little of
interest or consequence to say about the game.
The same cannot be said, however, for the ill-fated Super Pitfall, a
game so notoriously bad that it almost destroid the license, and a
sequel would not be heard from for over ten years. But what
exactly was it about this game that people felt was so bad? Was
it the fact that Pitfall Harry inexplicably underwent a transformation
that made him look like Mario? Was it the less than smooth
scrolling or jerky controls? Was it the decision to give the
otherwise peaceful archaeologist a gun, a la Indiana Jones? Some
of these points may have had something to do with it, but I contend
that it was the gameplay. Specifically, it was the fact that you
had to jump in completely arbitrary locations in space to reveal the
most useful items in the whole game. Symbols and ammunition were
hidden from sight unless you knew precisely where to jump inside of a
fairly large map, making progress a tedious chore of jumping everywhere
to reveal location of items you haven't yet found (provided you were
keeping a map of items you previously found.) This in the end is
what killed it for me, and why I decided against writing up a
walkthrough for the game. Surpringly, I found a couple of
Japanese websites that go into a great amount of detail on how to
complete the game, with fully diagramed maps.
 |
 |
| ASO / Alpha Mission |
Super Pitfall |
Moving
on, we come to Hudson's Adventure Island, a game who's origin is quite
muddy. Any fan of the game will probably already know this, but
the resemblance between this fondly remembered, yet frustrating NES
game, and Sega's arcade game Wonder Boy is not coincedental.
Wonder Boy was developed for Sega by a development team known as
Escape (who later became known as Westone OneBit Entertaiment).
As was the case in the United States, the Japanese version of the
Sega Master System, the Mark III, was not selling nearly as well as
it's competitor, the Famicom. Therefore, Wonder Boy saw
comparitively few console sales. While Sega owned the rights to
the title and the character of Wonder Boy, Escape owned the rights to
everything else pertaining to the game, so they were free to market the
game as something else on another system, and that's precisely what
they did. They ended up teaming up with Hudson Soft, and
converting the main character to Takahashi Meijin, who was a game
player of some notable fame in Japan, and who later became an executive
at Hudson Soft. With a few necessary extra tweaks, and a title
change, the game was ready for consumption on the most popular platform
in Japan, where it sold quite well. It's ironic to note that both
the Wonder Boy series and the Adventure Island series gained sequels
which developed along entirely different paths. While Adventure
Island was the second instance of the original game, it's sequels
remained truer to the side scrolling format than the Wonder Boy
sequels, which took on more Adventure/RPG elements as it evolved.
King's Knight is another head-scratcher. Here we have a game
developed by Square, a company known throughout the world for it's
tremendous influence on the way RPGs have been developed throughout
history. Many people get excited about finding this historical
gem when they find out it was made by Square... until they play it.
With a name like King's Knight, you may invision medieval
warriors, wizards, and captured princess, and you'd be right on the
money if you anticipated these elements. What you may not be
prepared for is the fact that King's Knight, for all intent purposes,
is a vertically scrolling shooter. That's right, a shooter, not
an RPG. And it's a fairly nonstandard one. In the game, you
are given control over four different characters, all of whom must make
it all the way through their respective stages on one health bar and no
extra lives. Upon completing these four stages, you are given
control over the entire assembled party of survivors in an attempt to
defeat the dragon that has ravaged the land and kidnapped the princess.
Of course, if any one of the four characters has perished, the
final stage is nearly impossible to complete. In addition, it you
failed to collect certain symbols from each of the first four stages,
then members of the assemebled party will not be able to cast the spell
that they would otherwise have access to which substantially aids your
progress to the final boss. In order to complete this game, you
must truly dedicate some time to it and become good enough to survive
each of the first four stages, collecting each of the magical symbols
along the way, and learning which character should be brought to the
front of the party (by way of rotation tiles) in each portion of the
final stage.
 |
 |
| Adventure Island |
King's Knight |
The next
game is Super Xevious: Gunpu no Nazo, which roughly translates to the
Riddle of Gump. This is something of an oddball title that never
quite reached the majesty of the original. That was probably due
to the fact that the designer of the original, Masanobu
Endoh (second mention this month) felt that his original creation
Xevious did not need a sequel. But the game was so hot and
popular that it's hard to blame Namco for wanting to cash in on its
fame. So they made the Riddle of Gump which looks and feels a lot
like its predacessor, but plays a lot different. You were no
longer drifting passively along a predetermined course, travelling from
one stage to the next in traditional shooter style. This time,
there were small puzzles to solve, or rather, unique actions that had
to be taken to trigger consequences that would permit you to advance to
the next stage. Without doing one of these steps, such as flying
through a particular cloud, or destroying all ground targets of a
particular variety, you would be doomed to repeat the same stage over
and over again until you figured out (or stumbled upon) the correct
action that would carry you off to the next stage. It's not
necessarily a bad game, and the power-ups that the Solvalou can collect
are a nice upgrade from the original, but the gameplay isn't entirely
compelling, so you may decide that you don't care why you can't advance
to the next stage after a while.
And finally for this month, one last game that I'm sure is near and
dear to a number of retrogamers' hearts: Ghostbusters. You've
probably played this numerous times on your home computer (i.e. Atari
800, Commodore 64, etc.) and if you were like me, you probably loaded
it up just to watch the bouncing ball announce the lyrics to the
Ghostbusters theme song Karaoke style. Now, you're probably
familiar with something that gamers of the NES period referred to as
the "Nintendo effect" or "Nintendo-ized." This was when games
were somehow transformed for their appearance on the NES. Games
like Double Dragon, Ninja Gaiden, and Bionic Commando were given
different level arrangments than their arcade counterparts, and games
like Commando and Ghost & Goblins were made a little harder but
with more bonuses sprinkled around the game for players to find.
Ghostbusters was far from perfect, but it was a surprisingly well
done movie license game, so you would think that the union of this game
and the NES would be a pretty solid combination. You'd be wrong.
The NES game, which was developed in Japan by a group known as
Tokuma Shoten, a magazine publisher, ruined just about every existing
aspect of the game, and added an intolerable section of gameplay before
the final encounter with Gozer. It's so bad, most people have not
even seen Gozer. Imagine having to press the A button to move one
single step. Imagine having to do that to walk across the screen
and up a flight of steps. Imagine having to do that for 22
stories of a building. And imagine having to avoid ghosts that
move freely and randomly throughout the screen while you attempt to do
this. If you imagine all of this, you'll pretty much have an idea
of how excruciating it is to play Ghostbusters on the NES. Don't
touch this version and stick to your favorite computer version, so as
not to tarnish your memory of David Crane's classic.
 |
 |
| Super Xevious |
Ghostbusters |
 |
| Mastering Sega - Emulators |
|
by Craig Morris |
|
Before I get to far, let me state - for the record - I prefer hardware.
Given the option I prefer to experience a game in its native habitat.
Part of the fun of the old games are the old systems themselves and
their unique features and quirks, like getting off the couch to pause
the game or struggling with an ornery cart to get it to seat.
For many reasons we don't all have access to oem hardware. Emulation
allows many people to try games and systems they may otherwise never be
able to experience. Let's not discount the historical aspect as well.
As time marches forward oem consoles get more difficult to find.
Emulation preserves these old systems so future generations can
experience technology from times past, and perhaps gain greater respect
for the systems they have now.
I use emulators for several reasons. Primarily I use them to capture
the screen shots in my articles. Other times I find them useful when I
have an hour to kill in my increasingly rare time on the road (oem SMS
- not so portable). I also use them to 'preview' games I'm looking for
in the wild. There's a lot of chaff in the classic gaming world and
emulators help me weed it out.
The SMS doesn't see a great deal of emulation, probably due to its
lack of popularity in North America. However, 2 emulators standout for
the SMS - FreezeSMS and Meka.
FreezeSMS
This is a fantastic emulator that not only supports the various
versions of the SMS but also the Game Gear and the ColecoVision. It has
a great interface and loads of functionality. I especially like the
feature that allows you to download info related to the currently
loaded game. Box art, cheat codes, walkthroughs, etc... are available
for many, many games and can be downloaded and displayed directly via
the application.
Another excellent aspect of FreezeSMS is the control configurator.
Clicking on the image of the controller you would like to emulate will
load the corresponding button assignments. Each button can be mapped to
a key or 3rd party controller/gamepad.
My only real issue is its lack of cross-platform support. This is
hardly a criticism; most people have Windows on their destop anyway. I
have had some success running FreezeSMS under wine.
Meka
Meka is typically my favoured SMS emulator; mainly because its been
ported to various operating systems, specifically Linux - my day-to-day
operating system of choice. Meka is stable and easy to use and like
FreezeSMS also supports the Colecovision and the Game Gear.
Meka doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles. It's an emulator that
focuses more on completeness than features. It appears to support
most/all the Sega peripherals including the light gun and the 3D
glasses. Unfortunately I haven't had the time to test this. Plugging
the light phaser into my notebook holds a strange fascination for me.
My only real issue with Meka is that it needs a graphical update.
This is not a criticism of the 'look' of Meka, but of usability. It
runs full-screen only and does not make use of standard window
'widgets' of the supported operating systems. This is probably due to
Meka's legacy as a DOS application. However, the source code has been
opened and allows contributors but I'm a bit mirky on the licensing. It
does not appear to use the somewhat standard GPL/LGPL.
I've only touched on some of the major features of each emulator. Each
has its own features and touches that are worth exploring in greater
detail. I encourage you to try them out for yourself, if not for the
emulator but for the games.
That concludes this month's article. Feel free to send comments/suggestions/reprimands to retro@amalgam.ca
Sorry for the shortened issue this month. We hope to be back in full force (and health) next month. See you then!
Copyright
© 2008 Alan Hewston & Scott Jacobi. All
related copyrights and trademarks are acknowledged.
