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.
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.
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.
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
Game Over
Sorry for the shortened issue this month.
We hope to be back in full force (and health) next month. See you
then!
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 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. 
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. 
Copyright
© 2008 Alan Hewston & Scott Jacobi. All related copyrights and trademarks
are acknowledged.