If you haven’t picked up Midway Arcade yet and you own an iPhone or iPad, you really should if you get into retro gaming at all.  It includes games such as Defender, Root Beer Tapper, Arch-Rivals, Spy Hunter, Joust, and Rampage, while DLC packs are 99 cents each for a pack of 3 games in genre packs.  One pack includes Gauntlet 1 and 2, plus Wizard of Wor, while the second has APB, Narc, and Total Carnage.

I’m hoping an Android version is released soon, as I love the iPod version but would love to play this one on a tablet.

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Every year the Consumerists lets readers vote in a tiered tournament to determine the worst company in America.  In the finals, EA handily beat the Bank of America, taking over 64% of total votes.  It was voted worse than companies like Wal-mart, AT&T, Comcast, and Citibank.  How evil do you have to be to be voted worse than Wal-Mart?  A qoute from the consumerists announcement read “Readers ultimately decided that the type of greed exhibited by EA, which is supposed to be making the world a more fun place, is worse than Bank of America’s avarice, which some would argue is the entire point of operating a bank.”  Of course, EA tried to reply with “We’re sure that bank presidents, oil, tobacco, and weapons companies are all relieved they weren’t on the list this year. We’re going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people worldwide.”  Sorry EA, but this poll was a reader poll.  Looks like people are tired of the Madden updates and being charged to unlock content in used games.

Read the original announcement at http://consumerist.com/2012/04/congratulations-ea-you-are-the-worst-company-in-america-for-2012.html.

The first two are rehashes of current products available on the market.  First is the iCade Mobile, which turns your iPod (and maybe compatible Android handsets) into a handheld gaming device.  However, I feel that the iControlpad is a much better choice.  The second is the iCade Core, which eliminates most of the arcade cabinet and just leaves the controls with a small platform for your tablet.  The original iCade is a much better look, and I will be skipping the Core model.  However, the third model is the one to get excited about….

The iCade Jr is designed in the same way as the original, only this time sized for your cell phone instead of your tablet.  Sporting four buttons this time and a small joystick, this isn’t nearly as large as the original iCade, but makes a great dock for your cell phone at the office desk and allows you to get some arcade style gametime during your breaks.  This little thing is sure to be a hit just like the original iCade, and perhaps even more so as there are many more smartphone owners than cell phone tablets.  Price and release date are undetermined, but rumor has it that the Jr model will be releasing no later than this summer.

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That should read: we like to keep abreast of technology, and we have moved in to the 21st century with our very own official mobile apps for both Apple iOS and for Android.

The iOS app is compatible with iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad, and the Android device is also compatible with the Kindle Fire.

You can find the iOS app instructions here and the Android App here along with some screenshots.

We have priced the app at the lowest level that Libsyn will allow which is $1.99 / £1.49 and after Apple take their 30% we split the remainder with Libsyn, so this is not a get rich scheme, this is purely to supplement the podcast and keep you up to date on the go.

If you think that $1.99 / £1.49 isn’t enough and you would like to contribute more then you could always help us out with a donation. All your efforts are very much appreciated.

UKMike, SoCalMike and Scott.

Over at www.retrocityrampage.com, you can preorder the new game for $14.99.  Its a tad high for an indie game, but totally worth it when you look at what it is:  an NES style open sandbox game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto.  Pre-ordering the game gets you both the DRM free version as well as the Steam version.  It also scores a few preorder bonuses, such as a 10 track mini-soundtrack, a print ready download for making your own NES style Retro City Rampage box and label, as well as a manual, all pre-made in the proper dimensions, and 20% off any RCR merch.  Not a bad deal, and the music in particular is very well done from the bonus stuff.

The game started life as Grand Theftendo and was actually playable on an NES if using a flash cart.  The author never finished Grand Theftendo and instead ported it to his new project, Retro City Rampage.  Its slated for release this coming May.

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The story has been changed a bit, and strangely doesn’t really match the graphics in the game, likely due to what this game was supposed to be originally.  From Wikipedia:

In the year 0373 of the new space age calendar, overpopulation of Earth has led to increased demand for emigration to space colonies. Jay McCray, the son of a scientist responsible for development of space colony #428 in the Silius Solar System (SSS), prepares to move there in order to follow in his father’s footsteps. However, the space station is obliterated in an explosion, killing the entire research team and destroying all data onboard.

In his father’s home, Jay discovers a floppy disk containing not only the complete SSS colony plans but a personal message from his father asking that he complete the projects should terrorists succeed in destroying the colony. To protect the colony plans and to avenge his father’s death, Jay sets out to fight the terrorists responsible for the space colony’s destruction.

But screw that, playing this as a Terminator game is more fun.  And just look at this screenshot:

Yea, that looks like the future ruins from the Terminator movies a lot more than a terrorist base.  If thats not enough proof for you, just check out this next screenshot:

If thats not a T-101 Endoskeleton in NES form than I don’t know what is.  So just pretend you are playing as Kyle Reese from the first movie, fighting your way to a time portal to take you to save John Connor.  Its much better that way.

The music in this game is phenominal.  Just click here and listen while you are reading this review.  Remember how awesome that NES Batman soundtrack was?  Well, Sunsoft obviously had more where that came from, cause these tracks blow even the Batman soundtrack out of the water.  This is actually music you could headbang to.  I think it’s even better than the music in the NES Mega Man games.  The only thing holding the music back is the lack of tracks, as there is only a few in the entire game.  But what is there is wonderful.

But whats a story and a soundtrack without gameplay?  Journey to Silius delivers here in spades as well.  Its a shooter like Contra, except Sunsoft was nice enough to give you a health bar.  Thats not saying this game is easy though, as there are plenty of enemies and pits to keep you busy, whittling away at that life meter until one gets a lucky shot and takes you out.  But you have some good firepower available.  Your initial weapon has unlimited ammo, but the guns you find later have limited ammo.  With skill, anything can be beaten with that first gun, but its best to hold your larger caliber weapons for when you really need them.

Also, you don’t have full control of your jumps in games such as Super Mario Brothers.  Instead, your jumps have inertia, giving it a slightly more realistic feel.  Just be ready when you jump, as there’s a limited amount of adjusting you can do once you are in mid-air.  I like this more realistic approach in a game such as this though, and feel it fits in a lot better than the Mario-style jumping.

Also, this isn’t a game you are going to plow through the first time around.  I mentioned it is challenging, but it also doesn’t allow you to continue forever.  You start with 3 lives and 3 continues.  Use them all up, and its back to the beginning.  The game gives you a good challenge, but its also a fair challenge.  You get enough lives and continues to make up for a few mistakes, and now so many that you can plow through with no problem.

As you’ve seen from the screenshots, the graphics are really good for an NES game.  Their only falling is that it seems the color green stands out a lot.  It doesn’t detract much from the game though, especially when you are immersed in the gameplay.  And the boss sprites are huge by NES standards as well.

Journey to Silius is a fantastic game that should have kept its license, but Sunsoft persevered and released it anyway as a great title thats an instant, if not overlooked, classic.  I highly recommend you either load up your favorite emulator to give it a try.  Its almost criminal that this game isn’t available on Virtual Console yet, but with Sunsoft releasing Blaster Master on it, there is still hope.  Or if you prefer the original hardware, the game can usually be had from 10 to 15 US dollars, which is a steal for the quality of title this is.

The game story is simple.  Isaac and his mother led a nice life, him content to sit, draw, and play with his toys while his mother watched Christian Broadcasting.  Unfortunately, God spoke to the mother, first taking away his toys, than licking him away in his room, and culminating in grabbing a butcher knife to sacrifice her son in the name of God.  Isaac, thinking quickly, jumps down a trap door into the basement below, which is where the game starts up.

The dungeons in this game are obviously Zelda inspired, from the look of the rooms, the minimap, the hearts as life, and the item buttons.  Gameplay is something similar to Zelda as well, with an overhead look as you go room by room.  Your weapon has a good range though, much like the sword laser in Zelda.  It doesn’t go across the whole screen at first, but like any good dungeon crawler, your character finds many items that upgrade him over time.  The game has a good difficulty setting, not brutally hard but you’ll die a few times before you complete it.

Along with the tongue in cheek dark humor, there’s a ton of extras in this game.  One huge thing is that all levels are randomly generated.  You will never play the same game twice.  This also affects how hard the game can get, as item placement in dungeons can make or break your character.  If you don’t get some good items, the game can get brutally hard, or, if you get lucky early on, the game can be pretty easy if you are familiar with it.  There’s also unlockable characters, so you aren’t stuck only using Isaac to play.

This game is dark though, and not kid friendly (if you haven’t been paying attention to the screenshots.)  You have the change to sacrifice hearts to make deals with the devil to give yourself huge powerups, at the expense of a shorter life bar.  You can use tarot cards you find for special one time abilities.  You can pick up mystery pills that you have no idea will harm or help you until you consume it.  Isaacs initial primary attack is shooting his own tears.  You fight disembodies heads, disfigured fetuses, tumorous children, and other enemies not child friendly.  It feels very tongue-in-cheek to me, but if you are religous this would be one to stay away from.  For the rest of us, its an incredibly fun dungeon crawler that harkens back to the 8-bit era.

The game is available on PC and Steam for $4.99, an incredibly cheap price for a game this good.  It was also made by the same team behind Super Meat Boy, so if you liked that one than this one is a must for you.  If you are still on the fence, you can play a flash based demo over at NewGrounds.

The first is a blast from the past with SoCal and Scott running around Las Vegas in search of Duct Tape.

http://www.retrogamingroundup.com/videos/cge2010_duct_tape.htm

The second is a trailer for a Video Masters TV under the covers interview with Jon St John, the voice of Duke Nukem.

http://www.retrogamingroundup.com/videos/magfest2012_dukenukemundercover.htm

Enjoy

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Games in the bundle are all in the Serious Sam series including The First Encounter, The Second Encounter, Double D, The Random Encounter, The Greek Encounter, and Kamikaze Attack.  This is a tremendous value for the price, and even better, there’s a surprisingly large amount of variety in gameplay considering the fact that all games are in the Serious Sam series.  The First and Second Encounters are FPS style, Random Encounter is old school RPG in nature, and Double D is a sidescrolling shooter, with The Greek Encounter being a retro top-down recreation of the first game.

I’m sure many people out there are upset with Capcom and canceling multiple Mega Man related titles. Maybe you’re even upset that the Blue Bomber didn’t make it into both versions of Marvel vs Capcom 3. Well fear not, your thirst for playing a new Mega Man game is (somewhat) quenched by Japanese indie developer “King”, who has designed a Mega Man style game named Rokko Chan.

Rokko Chan is basically the same story and play mechanics as Mega Man, except with a female main character. It also goes back to the original Mega Man game’s 6 robot masters instead of the typical 8 as found in the rest of the series.

Go ahead and give the game a try. A controller would be highly recommended unless you like using Z, X and C to jump, shoot and dash.

http://king-soukutu.xsrv.jp/flash/rokko.html

-Burgertime-

You can watch the whole video here:  http://recordsetter.com/world-record/perfect-pacman/12868

—Leathco

Now at first glance, it looks like a PS Vita, but upon closer inspection, its missing the second analog stick.  Also, the familiar Sony logo has been replaced by the name Yinlips.  What we have here is a chinese knockoff!  However, this thing may actually be worth the purchase.

What we are looking at is the Yinlips YDPG18.  This thing could be up there with the Pandora as a decently powerful handheld emulation device.   It sports a 5 inch touchscreen display 800 x 480 pixel resolution, gravity sensor, two cameras and 1080p support. Its powered by a 1.2GHz processor, supported by 512MB of RAM.  It has 4 Gigs of storage, HDMI output, and supports Micro SD cards.  And its also running Android 2.2.  Right out of the box it has some emulators for a slew of old-school systems, however many of the emulators are rather outdated.  They can be replaced with newer emulators though, and this little thing has the horsepower to run anything up to PS1 and N64 era stuff without any major problems.  And it’s priced around the $125 dollar range, making it in the same price range as many of the other emulator handhelds, but with a lot more horsepower.  Running Android also gives you access to a wealth of other app options as well.  People have already managed to sideload the Android Market, and it’s rather easy to install Amazons Appstore on this as well.  So if the Pandora is a little too pricey and you aren’t willing to wait months after you pay, this may be a good fallback option.  And I’m sure that the PS Vita carrying cases will fit this as well.  Add a 32 GB Micro SD card and you have a pretty robust gaming platform.

—Leathco

Sega has announced Sonic the Hedgehog 4:  Episode 2, which is set to be released in 2012 for X-Box 360, PS3, and mobile platforms.  The Wii will not be receiving this game, unlike the first episode.

Watch the release trailer by clicking here

Sega is touting a reworked physics engine for this installment, most likely due to the response of the quirks in the physics in the first episode.  In addition, it also marks the return of Tails and Metal Sonic.  I think its funny how the first game was touted as having ONLY Sonic as a playable player, and now the sidekicks are returning again.  I’m happy to see Metal Sonic back though.

I thought the first game, while not perfect, was enjoyable, and was priced appropriately.  I’m looking forward to the second installment.

—Leathco

Sega has released Sonic CD on iOS and Android.  If you haven’t played Sonic CD and are a Sonic fan, this is a must download.  Sonic CD was originally released on the Sega CD and is often heralded as the best game for the system, with some claiming its also the best Sonic game in the series as well.  Its a spectacular display of 2D playforming that plays surprisingly well on touchscreen controls.

There have been a few additions too.  Noticable right away is a widescreen view, which gives a much better view of whats coming up onscreen.  There’s also leaderboards and achievements for the online generation.

Also, if you prefer your retro games a bit more modern, Grand Theft Auto 3 is available for iOS and Android today as well.  Chrono Trigger is coming soon too, making a great time for retro gamers who own modern phones.

The December 2011 RoundUp wings its way through the skies, down your chimney and lands under the tree, just next to that little thing with the kind of raffia work base, that has an attachment…..

I digress. The Christmas In Japan Special is present for your delectation so grab it before they run out.

Editorial: Christmas In Japan – (00:00)
Hardware Flashback Japan – (06:29)
Press Play On Tape – Way Of The Exploding Fist – (51:54)
Zen And The Art Of Donkey Kong – (54:06)
Guinness Gaming Records – (66:47)
Bob Polaro Interview – (68:12)
Top Ten Japanese Arcade Games – (102:34)
Gaming Trivia – (241:56)
The British Hour – (243:01)
SoCal Mike’s Christmas Wrap – (256:08)
Live News And Listener Views – (260:32)
Last Ninja 2097 (Deep Throat) – (394:34)
URLs And EMails – (397:51)

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

The iControlpad, as seen with an iPhone 4

Above is the iControlpad, a Bluetooth controller which can be used with iPods, iPads, iPhones, and Android phones and tablets.  Thhis beauty has a couple of ways to mount devices to it, turning any phone into a portable game console.  iPods need to be jailbroken for most emulators to be installed (although some of the games in the App Market natively support it as well, as it can be used just like an iCade).

Now, the price of admission is not cheap.  Just the bare controller with the rubber sides runs $55 dollars before shipping, and I usually recommend ordering a complete package with both the universal mounting clamp and the mounting sides, which runs $70 dollars.  Add in shipping from the UK at around $25 dollars and you end up with a pricey controller for us on the United States side of the pond.  However, its well worth it.  The controls are made by the same people that are behind the Pandora handheld, which means they are very responsive and very comfortable.  And unlike the Pandora, there’s no pre-order or line for the iControlpad, its readily available.

The back, showing the Universal Mount and the rear shoulder buttons.

Of course, whats a controller and a phone without software?  Jailbroken iOS devices share the best of both worlds, as any app that supports the iCade, such as Ataris Greatest Hits, also supports the iControlpad since both controllers share the same bluetooth interface mode.  However, the emulators that support the controller are fantastic.  A person known as rakashazi has programmed numerous emulators that natively support iControlpads for both iOS and Android.  So far he has released emulators for the NES, PC Engine, SNES, Mega Drive (which includes Master System supprt), Game Boy Color, Neo-Geo pocket, and Atari 2600.  In addition, Android users can also enjoy native support for the iControlpad in fPSE, a Playstation 1 emulator.  The controller is not even a year old yet but there’s a wealth of emulators that ensure you can enjoy using it with a variety of emulated systems for a long time to come.  You can see rakashazis homepage, featuring information on all the emulators he has released, at www.explusalpha.com.

So now we have a quality portable gaming that mounts to our phones, there is no longer any excuse not to enjoy old favorites on breaks at work, when travelling, or even on the can.  Its a quality product I highly recommend for anyone looking to enjoy old school games on the go, and a great addition to any Android phone or jailbroken iPod.

—Leathco

The list we’ve known about for months:
Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island
Mario Kart: Super Circuit
Metroid Fusion
WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames
Mario vs. Donkey Kong

The new list of games added:
F-Zero: Maximum Velocity
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Wario Land 4
Kirby & The Amazing Mirror

If this list remains the same in the US and other regions, we’re looking at a fantastic lineup! Minish Cap and Fire Emblem alone are well worth downloading, even if we had to pay for them.

Look for these games on Friday, December 16th in Japan and Europe.  I will update when I see confirmation for other regions.

Edit: The December 16 date appeared to apply to North American as well.

Seems that Nintendo of America decided not to inform it’s customers, even yesterday going as far as to delete Facebook messages inquiring about the games, and customer service reps replying to emails that they had no information on the subject. My pure speculation: Maybe they kept it on the down low in order to avoid server crashes.

-Burgertime-

December 5th marked the last day of GamePro.com, and the final issue was released in November.  First published in 1989, GamePro enjoyed 22 years on the magazine racks, and also had a decent online presence.  Perhaps only second to Electronic Gaming Monthly in the 90′s, GamePro was one of the magazines that could always be found at a gamers house, drooling over new titles and reading reviews to see what title we wanted to scrounge up money for next.

GamePro relied on a five-point rating system, and readers were familiar with faces that determined the point value, with 5.0 almost looking like an exploding head, and 1.0 being a head nodding off to sleep.  Its had many different sections come and go over the years, with some of my favorites being Buyers Beware, Hot at the Arcades, Role-Players Realm, and The Bonus Levels.

The gaming magazine world has seen many classic magazines shut down after 2000, or change hands or make other concessions to stay alive.  I miss the era of 300 page monthly gaming mags (stuffed full of at least 125 pages of ads).  There was nothing like coming home with a new magazine, thumbing through it for over a week and always finding something new just from the sheer size of the mag.  While GamePro will live on as a section of the PC World team, something has been lost with the death of both the magazine and website, and it will be sorely missed.

For those of you longing for the classic magazine feel, I highly recommend Retro Gamer Magazine, printed in the UK.  You can get a paper subscription or save some cash with the digital version.  It has the same feel of the 90′s magazines and has a decent fan following.

And finally, in my last parting GamePro salute, I gotta thank them for the internet ProTip meme:

—Leathco

Now for Jenga purists, this can be played just like standard Jenga, but whats the fun in that?  This game can be played in Donkey Kong style, so lets check out the rules for it.  All of the blocks have holes on the ends.  These holes are for you to insert your Mario game characters.  Each player spins the wheel, and depending on what you land on determines if you remove one or two blocks, and move your Mario up one or two girders.  The first player to reach the top and reach the tower rescues Pauline!  However, while you are climbing the tower gets taller as you remove blocks and place them at the top.  Also, you always run the risk of toppling the tower (which I’m sure ends in the death of Mario and Pauline, as well as Donkey Kong).

This is a unique twist on the classic Jenga style gameplay that actually improves the game over its standard counterpart, and now I can’t imagine playing just the standard version of Jenga, when the Donkey Kong version is more fun.

You can find this game for around 15 dollars USD on Amazon.com.  I also recorded a video of me and my son playing this game so you guys can get a feel of the gameplay, which is in the link at the end of this post.

—Leathco

Leathco and son play Donkey Kong Jenga

USAopoly, the people behind most of the licensed Monopoly games like The Simpsons and Star Wars, put together a version of Risk based on the Metal Gear Solid series (mostly MGS4). This not only includes the classic Risk game play, but also incorporates new rules that add to the experience.

Limited Edition version. #996 of 2014

Along with the traditional game play, you can hire mercenary bosses to aid you in your conquest. These include characters from Solid Snake, Vamp, to Liquid Ocelot. Each one of them has different stats (shown on boss cards) that all help with different situations. Attacking with Solid Snake on the field for example, allows you to switch out one 6-sided dice for an 8-sided one. It also adds +1 to your attack and defense.

On each turn you’ll be counting up how many armies you have at your disposal. When you do this you’re giving “Drebin points” for each additional army you add to the board on that turn. 7 armies = 7,000 Drebin points for example. These points are used to keep a boss in play (1,000 per turn), hire another boss if your previous one fell in battle (3,000) or to buy a card from the Drebin Shop (3,000). These cards have a variety of uses and times where you can use them. Psychokinesis can be used by spending 1,000 DP just after a dice roll, and allows you to change one dice to it’s highest value. The cardboard box can be played during your maneuver phase for the same cost, and allows you to move through one enemy occupied territory. The cost to play these cards average around 1 to 5k, with the highest cost being 10k for the Konami Code card.

Best old school reverence EVER!!

One new addition I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of during our play was the battleship called Outer Haven. On the first turn of every round, the player tosses a dice to see where the ship will dock. If a large enough army occupies the territory next to where it docks, the player’s army can attempt to take over Outer Haven. The battleship has it’s own smaller board with three territories on it on which NPC army pieces are placed pre game. If you are able to take over all 3 territories, then you gain control of Outer Haven, and can place the ship anywhere you want between the 6 docking points on your next turn.

The can continue to play until one player controls all the territories, or when a player completes 3 objectives and still has control of his/her base. There are minor objectives like “Control Europe” and “Take over Outer Haven in 1 turn” or major objectives like “Take over 10 territories in 1 turn” or “Control 2 complete zones”. Completing an objective also lands you a random reward like gaining the ability to have 2 bosses.

The limited edition of this game has went on sale for pre orders last month for $50 and sold out within at least 12 hours if it going live. The collector’s edition with a different cover and about $10-20 cheaper is currently available. If you’re a fan of Risk or even Metal Gear Solid in general, I highly recommend this set.

-Burgertime-

Get your hand out of that bird and sit back and enjoy our November musings while giving thanks.

Editorial: The Game Room Pt3 – (00:00)
Hardware Flashback – (10:50)
Retro Regurge – (31:13)
Guinness Gaming Records – (44:23)
Wes Johnson & Matthew Mercer Interview – (46:57)
Top Ten Gameboy Colour Games – (132:23)
Gaming Trivia – (282:06)
Atar-Rewind – (283:01)
MAGFest Interview – (297:21)
Live News And Listener Views – (320:49)
Oxygene 4 (Jean Michel Jarre) – (458:47)
URLs And EMails – (462:12)

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

With all the hoopla around the release of Super Mario 3D Land and the PETA incident with it, many are ignoring another major thing that has happened with the games release.  I am sure you noticed upon inserting the game the system prompted you to update your systems firmware.  One of the changes this firmware made is that it now disables the flash cards that previously worked with the 3DS in standard DS mode, such as the R4 4DS Gold.  The R4 team has already announced that the protection can be circumvented as shown in the video below, but as of yet has not released a patch for the cards to re-enable them to work on the 3DS.  With that said, a simple bypass around this is to purchase a DS Lite, which can be found under 50 dollars at most used game shops as well as pawn shops.  You’ll need the DS Lite anyway to install the patch to the card after it releases.

R4 Card Firmware 2.2.0 bypass

In other news, Nintendo has quietly released Kirbys Adventure as a 3D classic in the e-shop.  Its a little more expensive than the other 3D classics, priced at $6.99 USD, but is also a significantly larger game than any of the other 3D classics released to date.  Both fans of retro platformers and Kirby fans should pick this one up, as the game holds up well over time and the 3D effects that have been added in are very nicely done.  Also, the original game often sells for over $10 USD on most auction sites, making the $6.99 a decent deal.

—Leathco

PETA has recently launched a huge campaign against Nintendo called Mario Kills Tanooki.  This campaign includes a flash game made by members of PETA.  Their opinion is that, by wearing Tanooki suits acquired by taking a magic leaf, that Mario is promoting wearing fur here in the real world (you know, the place where magic leaves that let you don a Tanooki suit doesn’t exist.)  The flash game involves a skinless raccoon chasing Mario, who has apparently skinned it.

Here’s a quote from their website:  Tanooki may be just a “suit” in Mario games, but in real life, tanooki are raccoon dogs who are skinned alive for their fur. By wearing tanooki, Mario is sending the message that it’s OK to wear fur. Play Super Tanooki Skin 2D and help Tanooki reclaim his fur

I believe this is not stretching the line, but completely snapping the line.  It takes a special breed of stupid to make a connection between the Tanooki suits in Mario 3D Land and the real life skinning of animals for their fur.  So, I’m going to quote something from the writer of the Alphabet of Manliness, Maddox:  For every animal you don’t eat, I’m going to eat three.  One for me, one for the one you didn’t eat, and one to make it worse than if you had never opened your mouth in the first place.

For more information about the horrible practices that PETA promotes, I highly recommend you hunt down the episode of Penn and Tellers HBO show Bullshit that covers PETA and exposes them for what they really are.  The episodes are available on DVD box sets and available for rent from Netflix, and is very informative.

This book not only takes a look at the popular titles, but takes on almost every game in the respective games series as well.  For example, reading on Myst the author will eventually take you down through remakes of the game like realMyst, as well as Riven, Myst III:  Exile, Myst IV:  Revelation,  Myst V:  End of Ages, and Uru:  Ages Beyond Myst.  I had no clue they had made Myst games past the third one, yet the author gave a great history of the entire series of Myst, even detailing the expectations in Uru and the failure to deliver them.

Anyone looking for a great read about tons of retro adventure games that is perhaps looking for something new in the genre needs to check this one out.  It weighs in at 772 pages and is a good lengthy read, and is also great just as a reference book for adventure game fans.  If you are interested in buying a copy you can find more info at http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/book.html.

The physical version of the book is $27, while the kindle edition is 9.99.

—Leathco

The artwork was very well designed, printed, and applied. For the price of $20 to pay the artist and get his work placed onto an original NES cartidge, I think, it’s a reasonable price if you’re going to pick and choose which games you want that they’ll end up making. I will agree with the concerns about actual cartridges being used for the production of the final work however. I would have to contact the website to see how many copies of each game are being made. It’s almost a guarantee that they’re not making thousands of these. As of this blog, Okami is sold out.

Here's the game with it's real life counterparts

Now you may be asking, “Burgertime, can these cartridges actually be played?”, and the answer is Yes. They don’t have an 8-bit version of the game on them, but because this is meant to be a collectible piece of art for gamers, I can understand not having one on there. They’re releasing so many different games in the old school style that it wouldn’t be realistic to wait for the code for each game to be finished and then put them on the carts.

So what game did I get on the cart?

Yup, good ol’ Major League Baseball. A game I actually don’t have.
So there you go, a quick look at the retro carts over at 72pin.com.

-Burgertime-

If you have legal access to the Atari 2600 ROM game images, an Atari 2600 emulator called 2600.emu was also released on the Android Market this week.  The app can use the touch screen, a Wii controller, or an iControlpad as input devices.  The only issue is the legality of emulators remains a grey area.

For my last Halloween game feature this year, I wanted to look at a game that combined horror, humor, and the feel of the classic B-movie era.  While many games have tried since (Stubbs the Zombie and Destroy All Humans both being fun and decent examples), only one game has ever perfectly taken this combination and made it a fun game.  Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a fantastic example of a great romp on Halloween.

You start out by selecting your playable character, either Zeke or Julie (or both if you have a friend over!).  You’ll have 48 stages to go through in tons of different areas, from the local neighborhood to the mall to hedge mazes to haunted houses.  There’s also a huge variety of enemies.  Just because its called Zombies Ate My Neighbors doesn’t mean Zombies form the meat of the game.  You’ll also deal with giant ants, evil dolls, vampires, UFO’s. even giant infants.  This game has no lack in the variety department.

The game is played from an overhead camera angle.  Your job is not only to survive, but also to save as many people as possible.  You save them simply by touching them.  You also get points for rescuing people, ranging from big points for the hot cheerleader to only a few for the wrinkled teacher.  Be sure to act fast, as whenever a ghoul takes out a person, the effect is cumulative as the levels go on.  You don’t want to start later levels with only one person to save and tons of ghouls between you and them.

Thankfully, you have plenty of options to take the ghouls out.  You start with a water pistol, which is surprisingly effective against the undead.  You also used canned sodas as bombs, which also does surprisingly well.  You can also use a fire extinguisher, weed cutter, a bazooka, dishes and silverware, and even footballs.  Be sure to conserve your ammo, as it becomes scarce in later levels.

This one is a great one to just sit and play a few levels, or to go through the whole thing during a late night gaming session.  If you find yourself up late on Halloween and don’t feel like sitting through another movie, dust this cart off and slap it in your console!   It won’t disappoint.

Complaint #1- The gun stinks! The bullets hit the walls and you can’t hit anything with it!

If you don’t power it up, this is indeed true. Right from the start of the game the first thing you should ever worry about before entering the sewers is to reach the eighth level for your weapon. This attack fills the entire width of most of the corridors you’ll encounter throughout the game with three diamonds side by side. If you have a turbo controller, will tear through most smaller enemies before you even see them on your screen. Enemies like the rats and low level frogs. There are also green slime enemies that will multiply while being attacked, and this weapon will make quick work of them as well.
At one point in the game you’ll get a whip, which can be leveled up as well and is more useful on certain enemies than the gun was. The final whip level gives you a flame whip via Castlevania 2, so yeah, when all else fails, use fire. :p

See the yellow/green bullet? Yeah....get rid of it. Grab that blue "Gun" power up until you're shooting triple barreled diamonds.

Complaint #2- Only 2 hits and you’re dead? You have to start from the beginning after?

You can actually increase your hit boxes to 4. The first upgrade is in the while building prior to the first boss. The second can be found near the Addams Family house through a secret path in the bushes on the left hand side. The most difficult parts of this game are mostly the enemies found later in the game, and the final boss. Everything else is fairly easy. The bosses have a pattern to them that make them almost a joke, with just their health being the biggest concern. You’re also giving potions to heal yourself throughout the game, and there are hotdog stands that you can use to replenish your health.
Heading back to the beginning of the game can stink. If you don’t like replaying areas over again, this can be annoying and can cause you to just stop playing the game. Looking back at the NES days, remember all of those games with limited continues, high difficulty, and maybe a chance that there might be a code to help you out? How many of those games are seen as classics and praised by retro gamers? Yup, Fester’s Quest isn’t as bad when stacked up to those statistics is it?

Sure the game didn’t really win any awards, but for practically $1-5 out of pocket you can easily spend a night or weekend enjoying the game.

–UK Mike

Volume 1 featured Pac-Man, Rally-X, New Rally-X, Galaga, Bosconian, Pole Position, and Toy Pop.  Other than Toy Pop, all of the games were relatively popular games in the market, and having them in the first volume was a great start to the collection.  A little heavy on the Rally-X, but I spent hours on Pac-Man and Pole Position, as well as Galaga.

Volume 2 featured Mappy, Xevious, Gaplus, Grobda, Dragon Buster, and Super Pac-Man.  While having a few smaller titles, most were still very fun, with Mappy, Xevious, and Super Pac-Man all being stand-out titles.

Volume 3 featured Galaxian, Dig Dug, Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position 2, The Tower of Druaga, and Phozon.  While I feel Tower of Druaga is a weak game, the inclusion of Pole Position 2, Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug and Galaxian made this disc one of my favorites in the entire collection.

Volume 4 featured Pac-Land, Assault, Ordyne, The Return to Ishtar, Genji and the Heike Clans, and Assault Plus.  To be honest, this was one of the weaker discs in the series for me, with Pac-Land and Return to Ishtar being the two games I played the most.  All the others are worthy of at least a try though.

Volume 5 featured Pac-Mania, Dragon Spirit, Metro-Cross, Baraduke, and Legend of the Valkyre.  This one was better than Volume 4 just for the inclusion of Pac-Mania and Dragon Spirit, but at this point you could tell Namco was looking very deep in their collection to fill these discs.

The Japanese market got an Encore disc as well, however the only notable inclusion was Rolling Thunder.  If one were to pick up the five US releases, they would have a great collection of every Namco hit from its arcade heyday as well as some bonus games that, while may not have been hits, are still worth playing and might become a favorite that you have never tried before.  You can tell that this collection came out before Namco starting over-charging for just Pac-Man and Galaga.  Anyone who wants to check out Namcos golden era needs to pick up a PS1 or PS2 and hunt down these five discs.

Just wanted to let everyone know Pat and Ian hit 103% of their goal, raising $15,501 dollars for the Childs Play charity.  The charity DID go into overtime, instead of 24 hours it went closer to 30 hours, but those extra hours were well worth it. Lots of kids this year will be happier thanks to the efforts of Pat, Ian, and the 724 people that donated for the event.   Congratulations to all!

–Leathco

Join Pat the NES Punk and Ian playing tons of NES games to benefit the Childs Play charity.  Make a donation as well!  They are also handing out prizes for donators as an extra incentive.  The goal for this year is $15,000, and as of right now they are at $5,288.  I’ll make another post at the end of the marathon.

Last years marathon saw Pat and Ian play every NTSC game in the NES library.  They are switching things up this year, with certain dollar amounts introducing different games to be played.  Here’s the list:

http://www.ustream.tv/nintendomarathon

http://www.thepunkeffect.com

In 1992, Ultima Games (a subsidiary of Konami of America), released a fairly unknown titled called Nightshade. It wouldn’t reach any sort of big sales, bombed, and never went on to receive sequels, even though they put “Part 1:” right on the title screen. However, it’s been said that the game could have ties to the Shadowrun series. Those who have played this game will tell you it’s either one of the worst games they’ve played, or one of those that’s well worth taking a first or second look at. I’m right around the later. Categorizing what type of game this is can be tricky. It’s got the point and click adventure elements like Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island have, but combat puts you into a special battle screen similar to a Double Dragon or Street Fighter.

Nightshade stars a trench coat, fedora and sunglasses wearing superhero of the same name, who’s taking crime into his own hands in Metro City after the city’s actual Superhero, Vortex, goes missing. Crime lords have taking over the city, and Nightshade finds himself at the beginning of the game in the sewers tied to a chair by the crime lord Sutekh. Sutekh has placed a bomb behind him, and he only has seconds left to live. Once you have control of your character, you’ll need to walk yourself in the chair behind a brick wall before the bomb explodes. Failing to do so will take about half your life away.

From here, the game plays out adventure style except you can actually move Nightshade around on your own rather than pointing to where you want him to go. Your A and B buttons bring up the pick up and examine type tools, and stop all action on screen so you can use a cursor. Unfortunately they didn’t design the layout very well.

Select – Brings up your examine, pickup, operate and other such options, as well as inventory.

A- Takes you right to examine, your items and is also your OK/Confirm button

B- Takes you right to operate, and works as the cancel button

Both buttons will take you to your inventory if you press B after.

Pressing Select again at anytime will cancel out the current menu actions you’re doing and take you right back to being able to move Nightshade around.

As you examine items, pick them up, and make your way out of the sewers, you’ll find the city is made up of a 5 by 8 grid, and you’re free to explore within the confines of what you can get past with the items you’ve picked up. You’ll also be denied entry to certain areas or not giving items until your popularity meter fills to certain points. Yes, you gain popularity. This is done by helping out citizens of the city and defeating enemies. Don’t worry, they put a popularity meter right above your life bar so you can keep track.

Mortal Kombaaaaa.....oh wait..wrong game.

Battling in this game throws you into a sort of fast paced beat-em-up style screen after simply touching an enemy. These battles are part of what can make or break the game for some people. They can be difficult unless you learn their patterns, and loosing all of your life means being placed in a trap by Sutekh. There are five traps total to be placed into, with the fifth one being impossible to escape from. Failing means game over, and starting back from the beginning of the game. So yes, you can potentially loose all of your life in the first battle of the game, then die in the first trap.

Nightshade: Do you expect me to talk? Sutekh: No Mr. Lampshade, I expect you to die!

You’ll notice as you play that there’s quite a bit of humor in the game. Characters will refer to you as Lampshade, examining a grate near the beginning of the game brings up the dialog box of “Wow, what a great grate”. Using a bone on a dog to make it stop chasing a cat will make Nightshade say “Knick-knack patty-whack”. For the most part the game doesn’t really take itself seriously, kind of like the Monkey Island series, and you start to wonder if that whole Part 1 at the title screen was also a joke. Even one of the evil plans that Sutekh has in store for the city is ridiculous (I won’t give it away).

Like Crystalis, my previous review, this game can be found on the cheap. Chances are you can pick it up for under $15 or break just over $20 to get it complete in it’s box. Emulation won’t do you much good on this game due to it’s coding, but you can play a pretty good portion of the game if you can ignore the graphical glitches. There’s also plenty of videos around the web that will play through the entire game. On a personal note, I’d love to see this game come back as a revived series in episodic chunks as is popular these days for adventure games.

-Burgertime-

We’re over half-way through the month, and I’m back with another great horror game!  This week we’re going to be looking at Splatterhouse, released as an Arcade game by Namco, than ported to the Turbografx-16 as well as being an unlockable game for the new Splatterhouse on 360 and PS3.  It’s also seen a release on iOS platforms and cell phones.  The series enjoyed two sequels on Segas 16 bit Genesis/Mega Drive, and a reboot on modern systems was released 2010.

But lets look at the original arcade title, my favorite of the series.  Its rather light on story.  The story has been greatly expanded over the years, but I am going to stick with the original story we saw in the arcade version, before the sequels retconned some things.  You play as Rick, who, with your girlfriend Jennifer, has taken refuge in a large mansion from a huge storm outside.  It turns into a house of horrors.  Jennifer is kidnapped, and Rick is left for dead.  A sentient mask bonds with Rick, giving him supernatural powers.  At this point you must fight your way through Zombies, Boreworms, Demons, Ghosts, monsters, and a surprise or two before you can escape the terrors of the mansion and its grounds, and perhaps even hell itself.

The game is a basic sidescroller, with you punching and kicking your way through ghouls.  You can pick up numerous weapons along the way, such as 2 by 4s, knives, a cleaver, spears, even a shotgun (watch your ammo)!  If you take a hit, you lose your weapon, but sometimes can pick it back up.  Unfortunately, you can’t take the weapon with you after you beat a level.  In addition to the normal baddies, there’s also environmental hazards such as acid, spikes, and a mysterious fog that will instantly kill you if you move too slow, so keep on your toes!

The game was also surprisingly dark for the time.  I won’t give it away, but there’s a huge plot twist around 3/4ths of the way through that is just simply great storytelling, especially since this game was so light on story in the first place.  It was the first game to have a warning on the TG-16 platform, and similar warnings followed on the boxes of the Genesis/Mega Drive sequels.

Its also a strange game in the fact that when you first play it can be brutally hard due to the fairly stiff controls, but once you learn the game and the routes through it you can make your way through it rather easily, minus the Biggie Man boss, who is always a challenge.  However, its a fun romp thats fun to revisit at least once a year.  Arcade versions are very hard to find (I think it only saw a US release in limited quantities), but you can enjoy it on all the systems I mentioned earlier, or you can always load up MAME and run through it that way.

If you are interested in more information on the series, be sure to check out http://splatterhouse.kontek.net, which has all the information on the series one could ever ask for.  Its a resource for anyone interested in Splatterhouse or who is looking for deep information on the series.

–Leathco

The Tetris World Championships, held Sunday at the University of Southern California, has ended, and the champions have been crowned!

Jonas Neubauer (far left in picture) took the crown in the NES section of the competition for the second year in a row.  Everyone knew he was a great player going in, but he has cemented himself in Tetris greatness by taking the crown two consecutive years.  It’s gonna take a lot to knock him from the top.

New this year was a Playstation Network Tetris tournament as well, for those modern gamers out there.  John Tran (fourth from left in picture, holding two trophies) had a huge showing, taking not just the Solo title, but also teaming with  Roger Teng to be part of the team to take the Multiplayer PSN tournament as well!

Jonas Wins NES Tournament (Video)

John wins PS3 Tournament (Video)

Congratulations to the winners, and we look forward to next years competition!

–Leathco

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you SoCal Mike and a Top Ten about joysticks.

Editorial: The Game Room Pt2 – (00:00)
Retro Regurge: Miner 2049er – (25:26)
Dragon 32/64 Computers – (29:27)
Hardware Flashback: Williams PHOF (3DS) – (48:51)
Williams PHOF (3DS) Rebuttal – (61:34)
Guinness Gaming Records – (75:40)
Geoff Edwards Interview Pt2 – (77:18)
Top Ten Game Controllers – (124:42)
Gaming Trivia – (257:35)
The British Hour – (259:53)
Live News And Listener Views – (272:49)
20 Questions – (372-54)
You Be My Princess Peach (The Disco King) – (374:53)
URLs And EMails – (377:24)

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

This Sunday marks the onset of the 2011 Tetris World Championships competition!  Last year Jonas Neubauer took home the title, beating out Harry Hong in a great contest.  Surprisingly, Thor Aackerlund, who dominated in the Tetris segment in the 1990 Nintendo World Championships, had some issues making it to the finals last year (although he redeemed himself by breaking the level 29, thought to be impossible to pass previously.)

If you can’t be there, you can watch the live coverage of the event over at NintendoAge.com.

2010 Tetris World Championships finals match, on YouTube.

Steven Paul “Steve” Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco to Joanne Carole Schieble, an American of Swiss and German descent, and Abdulfattah John Jandali, a Syrian. When Schliebe’s father opposed their marriage Steve was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs (née Hagopian) who moved to Mountain View, California when Steve was five years old.

Jobs studied at Cupertino Junior High and Homestead High School in Cupertino, California though he also attended lectures given by Hewlett-Packard and later worked there with Steve Wozniak. In 1972 he dropped out of Reed College in Portland, Oregon after just one semester and would spend his time sleeping on the floor in friends’ rooms, making money for food by returning Coke bottles and getting weekly free meals at the local Hare Krishna temple.

In 1974 Jobs worked as a technician at Atari, Inc. where he intended to earn enough money to travel to India in search of spiritual enlightenment, after which he returned to Atari with shaven head and wearing Indian dress, surprising even those who had got used to seeing him in bare feet.

His first task on his return to Atari was to create a circuit board for the game Breakout and the company wanted him to eliminate as many chips as possible from the design to save money, and Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell was willing to pay $100 for every chip that Jobs could eliminate. In my opinion this is where Jobs’ main strength came to the fore, he realised that he was perhaps not the best engineer in the world, but he did happen to know one of them, and he called upon his friend Steve Wozniak to help him out and promised that they would split the rewards. Woz would work at HP duing the day and went to Atari in the evenings where he managed to save on no less than fifty chips on the design, but when he retells the tale he claims that Jobs told him Atari had only offered to pay $700 rather than the $5,000 they were due so Jobs pocketed the rest. A tale that’s all too believable when one considers Jobs’ reputation.

Ironically I draw a direct comparison between the relationship of Jobs and Wozniak and that of Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney (also an Atari founder). One man has the vision, the drive and the will to make technological ideas happen while the other has the technical know how to actually do it, and this was key in the early days of Apple as Jobs persuaded Woz to help him build a computer and sell it.

This single act forms the very basis of what Steve Jobs does. He wasn’t the only person to know one of the world’s greatest engineers, he wasn’t the only person designing and building computers out of a garage, and like the many ideas that would spawn from Apple throughout their history, he wasn’t the first person to come up with it, but his skill was in knowing which ideas to use and to make his own. He knew what he wanted, he knew who the people were that could help him achieve it and he went out and got them. A prime example being the man he wanted as CEO in 1983, John Sculley, who was with Pepsi-Cola at the time. Jobs asked him “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?” I guess Sculley wanted to change the world, or at least felt Jobs could do it.

A later disagreement between the two saw Jobs leave Apple and start what he describes as “one of the most creative periods of my life.” when he started NeXT, a company that made comparatively highly priced computer hardware that wasn’t adopted by the masses (ring any bells?) but the NeXT was renowned for being used by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN and becoming the first server in the World Wide Web.

In 1986 Jobs bought The Graphics Group (Pixar) from Lucasfilm for $10million and again used a mix of other people’s ideas to “change the world” as he put it, and he contracted with Disney to produce CGI films that Disney would not only finance but also distribute. He didn’t invent film, he didn’t invent animation and he didn’t distribute anything, but he was credited on Pixar’s first film Toy Story as executive producer and followed it up with box office hits like A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E and so on, before selling Pixar to Disney in 2006 for $7.4 billion worth of stock, making him Disney’s largest single shareholder.

In 1996 he returned to Apple when they bought NeXT for $429 million and as interim CEO he killed several projects on the way to making Apple profitable again by launching the iMac among other products, and at the 2000 Macworld Expo he switched officially from interim to permanent CEO, joking that he would be the iCEO.

Perhaps the product most associated with Jobs and his talent for re-inventing other peoples ideas is the iPod and later the iPhone, neither of which do anything new but they captured the imagination of the masses and sold well. Very well.

In August 2011, Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple, his failing health all too obvious at each successive keynote where his familiar black turtle neck jumper seemed to hang more loosely with every product launch, but he remained as chairman of the board. The markets weren’t fooled and they reacted accordingly because within hours the Apple and Disney share prices dropped by 5% and 1.5% respectively.

His final “gift” is of course the iPad which for me, encapsulates everything about the modern day Steve Jobs, the Steve Jobs that takes an idea and convinces people that they want it, nay, need it. The tablet PC has been around for years and has never succeeded, basically because nobody wants one, and why would they?

Steve Jobs made the tablet PC smooth, shiny and put an Apple logo on it and instantly millions of people needed a tablet PC (which ironically the iPad is not). This feverish fanboyism for Apple and Apple products is what drives the tech nerds nuts, because they don’t understand it, and Apple fanboys are some of the most vehement out there. It started out as Mac versus PC, shifted to iPhone versus all other phones and now seems to be centred around iPad versus Android tablet.

What I found most distasteful about the whole episode is the people that think its OK to post videos of Androids dancing for joy at the news of Jobs’ passing, that think its OK to rejoice in Job’s death so that their chosen platform can overtake Apple and its iOS in the marketplace. What these people fail to realise is that they too are fanboys, the only difference being that they haven’t chosen to worship at the altar of Apple. What’s more is that these people generally consider themselves to be tech savvy computer power users, but they seem to have completely lost sight of the influence that Steve Jobs had back in the dawn of the home computer industry.

These same people also seem to be giving Bill Gates a free pass, and forgetting the fact that Gates too failed to invent the BASIC he is credited for, failed to create the DOS that he is credited for and failed to create the Windows that he is credited for, just Google Gary Kildall (and the irony of Googling isn’t lost on me either).

Bill Gates’ major success was to change the way that software was licensed and make a ton of money from doing it. Steve Jobs’ success is summed up in one of his favourite quotes which he used at the Macworld Conference and Expo in January 2007, when he quoted the ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky:

“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.’ And we’ve always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will.”

Gretsky didn’t claim to invent ice hockey, or even the puck, he just had the vision to see where it would be, and I will remember Steve Jobs as one of the pioneers of the home computer industry boom rather than as the man who tried to sell me a very expensive computer, a bespoke phone or a shiny wannabee tablet PC.

I really do love my 80GB iPod Video though.

Thanks Steve

Crystalis, or God Slayer: Haruka Tenkū no Sonata as it’s known in Japan, was published in 1990 by SNK, these days known for games such as King of Fighters and Metal Slug. The game starts out with a description of the “End Day”, October 1, 1997. Civilization is destroyed due to war and the world becomes overrun with monsters. However, the people who survived build a tower in the sky that can be used as a weapon to prevent another war and the world destruction from happening again.

The main character wakes up from a cryogenic sleep 100 years after the war to find a world lacking in technology (aside from the machine he just awoke from). Instead, magic seems to of taken it’s place. As you continue through the game you learn that Draygonia Empire still has technology and wants access to the tower in the sky so they can govern the world through force with the use of it’s weapons. To battle the Empire, and stop them from taking the tower, your hero must collect 4 elemental swords and bring them together to form the sword “Crystalis”.

This game takes the action RPG route in an overhead view much like The Legend of Zelda, except without the screen by screen scrolling. Experience and money are also giving to your character, with the highest level you can reach being 16. By most RPG standards that’s a fairly low number, and if you’re watching the damage you do to your enemies between levels, you’ll notice a significant difference. The amount of EXP (EX in the game) you have to get for each level spikes each time, so you’re not likely to stick around the main area grinding.

You have your normal attack and item buttons, and there’s a lot of items to equip. Not only will you have your 4 swords to equip, but 8 different swords and shields. The section of your inventory designated for items as 24 spaces, and to round it all off there are 8 magic spells. These range from healing, all the way to changing your form.

Ultimately the battle mechanics revolves around the elements of your swords and finding which elements and attacks will kill the enemy or break barriers in dungeons. If you’re not using the correct weapon, a “ping” sound can be heard when you attack, and the enemy won’t take damage. Your sword has 3 power levels as indicated by a force meter. The first level can be reached right after getting the a sword. The second requires getting an elemental orb, and the third level comes from a bracelet that replaces the orb in your inventory.

There was eventually a remake to this game on the Gameboy Color, but sadly, they took a great game and messed it up. The collision detection is off, every enemy can be hurt by all the swords instead of certain elements, and all of the music was changed.

Oh, how could I of forgotten the music? This game has some fantastic music that deserves to be up there with the all the classics. An orchestra such as the one that plays for Video Games Live would have a big hit on their hands if they played the music from this game.

This game can be found for fairly cheap for the NES, with the GBC version going for higher. I think mostly because of a smaller distribution of carts. It’s best played on an actual cart rather than through “other means” because there are problems in the graphics and sound through those means, at least with me. Definitely give this game a try.

Weeeee!!

This game is a progression of text based games, but adds pictures to the style as well as using a menu system to make moves instead of a text parser.  You take action and move using the menu system.  You also have a notepad that allows you to see your inventory and learned spells during the game.  While the game encourages you to explore your surroundings, you must be very cautious which moves you make, because in many cases a single wrong move ends in the death of your character.

The story starts rather dramatically.  You swerve to avoid hitting someone in the road and wreck your vehicle.  You come to in the vehicle, with your passenger missing.  After leaving the car (which you can die in depending on your actions), you discover a large mansion, where you begin the search for your sister (in other versions it wasn’t always your sister you are searching for).  Without spoiling the story too much, your search takes you beyond the mansion to other buildings on the grounds, and you will have to deal with everything from ghosts to zombies, demons, even giant spiders.  You have to be very careful what actions you take in order to get past or defeat these obstacles, as almost all of them can slay your character if you make just a single wrong move.

With all that said, whatever you do, please don’t use a walkthrough to play this game.  Uninvited is best experienced by just jumping in and learning from trial and error.  Besides, one of its best features is the horrid ways your character can meet an untimely end.  Some of these endings are pretty brutal for an NES title, and some of the text descriptions in other versions are even more brutal.

This game, along with the entire Macventure lineup, was both a basic evolution of text based games and a forerunner in the point and click adventure series, made famous by later titles on the PC like Myst and The 7th Guest.  In my opinion though, those games pale in comparison to the games released by the MacVenture team.  Their games have a flow that I feel later point and click games lack.

—Leathco

This past week the computer world lost a legend when Steve Jobs passed away on October 5th, 2011.  Jobs was the definition of a self-made success, starting from building computers without even a casing in his garage alongside Steve Wozniak to controlling one of the early computer industry leaders.  Than he was booted from the company in 1985, and Apple began to slide into ruin.  Jobs returned in 1996, however, and amazingly helmed the company through its darkest hours to once again turn it into a technological leader, this time not just in standard computing but with the help of music players like the iPod, which transformed into a small computer in its own right as time moved on.

For myself, the Apple computer I have the most nostalgic memories of was the Apple ][ (or the Apple II).  In the late 80's these things reigned supreme in every grade school in my area.  I'm sure many of us battled Indians, Bears, rivers, and nature itself in The Oregon Trail.  I also remember playing lots of Word Crunchers and Number Crunchers, made popular by The Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium.  I also had a friend whose parents had purchased an Apple ][, and enjoyed games like Zork, Pac-Man, and Miner 2049er.  Many of these retro classics you can still enjoy today via web browser at http://www.virtualapple.org/.

With the advent of the iPod, iPad, and iOS, games once again were a central part of Apple products.  Angry Birds has taken the world by storm, and companies such as Capcom, Square-Enix, Atari, and Namco have all released some of their older titles on iOS.  There’s even game library apps for systems like the Commodore 64 and Turbografx-16.  While sometimes not obvious, games were always an important part to Apple as a company, something that Steve Jobs realized.

I will always remember Steve Jobs as an innovator, someone that knew how to build a company and bring in the consumers.  He leaves in his wake an incredible legacy, helping create the modern computers we all use today, and giving us some great memories of using that technology for learning as well as entertainment.

–Leathco

In 1987, RPGs like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest were taking Japan by storm.  The games were so popular that Enix, makers of the Draon Quest series, was asked not to release the games during a weekday due to the fear that the release would cause workers and schoolchildren to call in sick to skip their responsibilities to play the game.  Many of these games were ported over to the United States, and gamers like myself were enthralled by the large worlds to explore.  Unfortunately, many titles didn’t make the journey overseas, including what may very well be the scariest game the 8-Bit Famicom had to offer, Sweet Home.

Sweet Home is best described as a Role-Playing Survival Horror game.  It is based on the Japanese film of the same name.  In the game, you control two parties totalling 5 controllable characters attempting to escape a mansion.  Each character has a special skill, such as a vacuum cleaner to clean glass from the floor.  Unlike conventional RPGs, there are no items to bring a player back to life (although there are Hit Point restoring items).  Once a characters Hit Points reach zero, they are dead.  Forever.  No Phoenix Downs to bring them back.  This changes gameplay considerably compared to other RPG series.  There are also five different endings to the game, depending on who is still alive at the end.

The game isn’t all grinding to make your characters overly strong either, as in many other RPGs.  Actually this is impossible because there are a limited number of healing items in the game.  It also plays like a puzzle game.  There are Frescoes (paintings) throughout the mansion that you can take a picture of to give you clues in the game.  Although sometimes the Frescoe can be dirty and you have to use a Broom to clean it.  But remember what I said about there being 2 parties totalling 5 people?  If the person with the broom isn’t in your party, than the other party will have to go to where the other Frescoe is in order to clean it, so the paths your parties choose are very important to how you play the game.

Its all surprisingly deep for a Famicom game.  And there’s not many horror themed games out there from this era, so its almost a breath of fresh air to play a retro RPG fighting Zombies, Ghosts, possessed dolls, and whatnot.  And while this is a Famicom release, its been translated for English speakers to be able to play!  Of course you can always take the ROM download route, but you can also check out www.TimeWalkGames.com and order a Reproduction cart complete with Box, Manual, and Map if you want to play it on original hardware.  Its definately worth the time to look up if you are a fan of RPGs on the NES.

—Leathco

Editorial: The Game Room Part 1 – (00:00)
Hardware Flashback – (20:13)
Guinness Gaming Records – (36:39)
StarCade Magazine Article – (38:16)
Geoff Edwards Interview Part 1 – (44:01)
Tribute to Bill Kunkel, The Game Doctor – (104:20)
Top Ten Text Adventures – (114:59)
Gaming Trivia – (245:09)
Retro Regurge – (246:00)
The British Hour – (252:07)
Live News And Listener Views – (266:00)
20 Questions – (392:19)
Pirate (Combat Dave) – (405:54)
URLs And EMails – (411:18)

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

EGC Editorial – (00:00)
Hardware Flashback – (64:33)
It Came From MAME – (73:46)
Guinness Gaming Records – (82:29)
Top Ten Retro Games (LIVE!) – (84:54)
Insert Coins Interview – (153:05)
Gaming Trivia – (189:01)
EGC Shout Outs – (189:43)
Live News And Listener Views – (197:23)
Electric Nature (Squareway) – (358:41)
URLs And EMails – (362:52)

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

# Hardware Flashback – (00:00)
# It Came From MAME – (72:18)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (91:50)
# CGE Guys Catchup – (94:08)
# Moonraker Fruit Machine – (107:25)
# Top Ten Turbo Grafx Games – (125:23)
# Gaming Trivia – (249:20)
# Pinball Wizard 8 – (250:01)
# Video Game History Museum Interview – (251:21)
# Live News And Listener Views – (263:47)
# Ubey (Snp) – (357:23)
# URLs And EMails – (360:36)

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

# E3 / EGC Editorial – (04:44)
# Hardware Flashback – (29:35)
# It Came From MAME – (110:51)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (123:19)
# Al Alcorn Interview Pt2 – (124:39)
# The British Hour – (193:43)
# Top Ten Video Game Hunks – (203:44)
# Gaming Trivia – (255:30)
# Descendants Of Erdrick Interview – (255:56)
# Pinball Wizard 7 – (277:10)
# News And Listener Views – (279:00)
# Electric Lifeform (Chip Shop Master) – (388:10)
# Keith Apicary Interview – (393:31)
# URLs And EMails – (400:33)

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I didn’t expect the revelation that came back, but then we are talking about the man that said:

“The best activities for your health are pumping and humping.”

I saw a woman wearing a sweatshirt with Guess on it. I said, Thyroid problem?

Arnold Schwarzenegger

If, like me, you have no idea who Jimmy Buffett is, he is an American musician and the owner of Margaritaville.

If, like me, you have no idea what Margaritaville is, it is not only the bar owned by jimmy Buffett, but it is a lifestyle choice.

On the other hand, my American co-hosts know exactly what all of the above means, and they are wetting their American pants at the thought of the upcoming Margaritaville game for Facebook and iPad.

Hear more about it in this special episode.

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

Keeping Up?

Good.

# E3 Wrap Up
# Keith Apicary
# Other Bullshit

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

Hear how they went deep, deep into E3 territory and had meetings.

Can our unlikely heroes keep up the pace through the whole of E3?

I seriously doubt it.

http://www.retrogamingroundup.com/shownotes/2011/roundup033_2011.06.htm

# E3 Wrap Up
# Other Bullshit

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

See for yourselves.

E3 RGR Poster

The US RGR contingent have been bothering people before the show even starts and here’s the evidence.

Don’t forget to listen to the audio version of events on the shownotes page.

E3 Entrance
Walter Day
Paradox Party

# E3 Wrap Up
# Other Bullshit

There doesn’t seem to be enough vowels for a good anagram though.

The Expo takes place at the Los Angeles Convention Centre from June 7th to June 9th 2011.

Details are being finalised at the moment but you can catch up with the stateside hosts of the show at our booth and get your squirt of Stetson while you’re there.

Stay tuned to this blog as we bring you up to the minute news from the show floor as our intrepid heroes go in search of your gaming and consumer electronics news.

We take on the sexiest Video Game Babes and take Live News to a whole new dimension.

# Hardware Flashback – (00:00)
# Atar-Rewind – (19:32)
# Hand Baked Arcade – (45:28)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (63:44)
# Al Alcorn Interview – (67:18)
# Gaming Trivia – (130:46)
# Top Ten Video Game Babes – (132:60)
# Homebrew Game Review – (201:48)
# The British Hour – (207:42)
# News And Listener Views – (222:33)
# URLs And EMails – (309:59)

The April show has landed and features our longest ever Top Ten debate, and something a little unique afterwards. Don’t miss it!

Bi Winning!

Winning!

# EGC (Emergency Gaming Convention) – (00:00)
# Hardware Flashback – (32:57)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (59:28)
# Homebrew Review – (61:06)
# Commando Comics – (70:20)
# Jay Smith Interview – (88:26)
# Top Ten SEGA Mega Drive Games – (135:18)
# The British Hour – (280:12)
# Gaming Trivia – (297:46)
# News And Listener Views – (298:30)
# Fat Man Fever – (407:03)
# URLs And EMails – (410:41)

Hope to see you all there next month. Better get your ustream account ready so you can chat with us.

# Hardware Flashback – (00:00)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (50:04)
# Atar-Rewind – (52:08)
# Midwest Gaming Classic – (63:24)
# Top Ten Nintendo 64 Games – (83:31)
# Pacman Power Pill – (234:46)
# The British Hour – (238:13)
# Jon St John Interview – (240:05)
# Gaming Trivia – (266:26)
# News And Listener Views – (267:23)
# URLs And EMails – (346:55)

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

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Download the February Outtakes.

Stand by your beds, get your weapons out and polish your helmets, because here it is.

# Editorial – (00:00)
# It Came From MAME – (15:27)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (28:34)
# Jay Golden Interview – (33:30)
# Top Ten Military Themed Games – (57:16)
# Hardware Flashback – (185:09)
# The British Hour – (228:57)
# News And Mailbag – (238:32)
# Gaming Trivia – (361:39)
# URLS And Emails – (362:05)

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

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Download the January Outtakes.

The December show is out in time for Christm…. sorry, the holidays.

# Hardware Flashback – (00:00)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (78:38)
# Mike’Up? – (80:28)
# It Came From MAME – (82:26)
# Interview with David Crane And Gary Kitchen – (92:06)
# Tron Special – (135:16)
# Top Ten Game Based Movies – (156:25)
# Gaming Trivia – (284:48)
# News And Mailbag – (285:42)
# URLS And Emails – (351:01)

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

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Download the December Outtakes.

More of what you’ve come to expect this month, with a couple of surprises.

# Hardware Flashback – (00:00)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (40:41)
# Mike’d Up – (42:06)
# MAGFest 9 – (62:53)
# Dirk Dudenbostel Interview – (80:25)
# Top Ten Banned Controversial Games – (110:00)
# Violent Video Games – (205:17)
# Review Of Miner2049er – (207:17)
# It Came From MAME – (216:18)
# Gaming Trivia – (229:48)
# News And Mailbag – (230:35)
# URLS And Emails – (342:37)

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

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Download the November Outtakes.

Our highly skilled team of 1 Mexican Executive Producer turned the show round in double quick time, and without further ado, the October RoundUp is here.

It’s an extra long show as we included the entire Ted Dabney interview in one instalment as it is such compelling listening.

For those who listen on their Blackberry and have a 40MB download limit, we have split the 16k version into 2 parts so be sure to grab both parts.

For you listening pleasuou listening pleasure this month:

# Atari Editorial – (00:00)
# Breaking News! – (40:26)
# Hardware Flashback – (41:48)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (58:02)
# Mike’d Up – (59:27)
# Ted Dabney Interview – (95:08)
# Atar Rewind – (205:14)
# The Desert Dump – (218:18)
# Top Ten Atari Arcade Games -  (231:12)
# Gaming Trivia – (356:03)
# News And Mailbag – (356:57)
# URLS And Emails – (428:27)

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

Join our Facebook Group. Podcatch via the show’s RSS Feed.

Download the October Outtakes.

There was I preparing our October Show when I thought, I didn’t blog the September show, so here it is.

Closely followed (in a couple of days) by the October show which is bigger than a big thing in a big competition.

# Editorial On Real or Emulated – (00:00)
# Hardware Flashback – (23:58)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (53:37)
# Keith Robinson Part 2 – (54:57)
# The British Hour – (109:18)
# Top Ten Intellivision Games – (135:18)
# Top Ten Rebuttal – (241:53)
# Atar-Rewind (243:54)
# Gaming Trivia – (258:15)
# News And Mailbag – (259:00)
# URLS And Emails – (342:16)

See the shownotes page. Donate to the show.

Join our Facebook Group. Podcatch via the show’s RSS Feed.

Here is the awaited August Podcast with the first of our CGE interviews. First in the hot seat is Keith Robinson of Intellivision fame.

When Scott isn’t looking SoCal slips away to the Liberace Museum.

# Hardware Flashback – (00:00)
# Mike’d Up – (32:20)
# The Enigma Machine – (55:53)
# Keith Robinson Part 1 – (75:22)
# The Liberace Museum – (137:01)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (138:03)
# Top Ten Apple 2 Games – (139:27)
# I Dream Of Jeanie – (278:29)
# It Came From MAME (279:20)
# Gaming Trivia – (291:36
# News And Mailbag – (292:18)
# Mega Drive Or Genesis LIVE! – (404:42)
# URLS And Emails – (405:26)

Donate to the show. See the shownotes page.

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SoCal let’s slip a childhood secret, but what will it be?

# The Video Game Crash Part 3 – (00:00)
# Hardware Flashback – (12:13)
# Mike’d Up – (27:28)
# Gorgar Speaks – (52:14)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (55:31)
# Top Ten Gameboy Games – (56:45)
# Tech Questions – (183:08)
# Gaming Trivia – (194:46)
# Atar-Rewind (195:12)
# Review Of The Gizmondo – (210:57)
# News And Mailbag – (225:45)
# URLS And Emails – (324:27)

Donate to the show. See the shownotes page.

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Here is the June show and we’re still in June, so it’s not like it’s even late anyway. D’uh!

# The Video Game Crash Part 1 – (00:00)
# Interview From SC3 – (10:30)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (20:20)
# Tron Radio Show – (22:12)
# Hardware Flashback – (47:53)
# Top Ten Worst Games – (87:15)
# Pinball Fever Part 4 – (184:46)
# Gaming Trivia – (201:05)
# Mike’d Up – (201:31)
# The British Hour – (220:22)
# News And Mailbag – (228:20)
# URLS And Emails – (307:15)

Donate to the show. See the shownotes page.

Join our Facebook Group. Podcatch via the show’s RSS Feed.

Customise your desktop with our wallpaper.

http://www.retrogamingroundup.com/donate.htm

Oh, and donate while you’re there of course.

Thank you.

Anyway, here is our May Show for you enjoyment.

# The Video Game Crash Part 1 – (00:00)
# Interview From SC3 – (10:30)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (20:20)
# Tron Radio Show – (22:12)
# Hardware Flashback – (47:53)
# Top Ten Worst Games – (87:15)
# Pinball Fever Part 4 – (184:46)
# Gaming Trivia – (201:05)
# Mike’d Up – (201:31)
# The British Hour – (220:22)
# News And Mailbag – (228:20)
# URLS And Emails – (307:15)

Donate to the show. See the shownotes page.

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# Interview With Vince Dickinson Pt2 – (00:00)
# iPhone Pinball Games – (52:48)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (82:45)
# Mike’d Up – (84:00)
# Top Ten SEGA Master System Games – (105:39)
# Review Of Data East Arcade Classics – (201:11)
# The British Hour – (209:38)
# Pinball Fever Part 3 – (218:08)
# Gaming Trivia – (252:50)
# News And Mailbag – (253:31)
# URLS And Emails – (340:26)gun.

Donate to the show. See the shownotes page.

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# Interview With Vince Dickinson – (00:00)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (57:04)
# Mike’d Up – (59:04)
# Tech Questions – (82:37)
# It Came From MAME – (100:22)
# The British Hour – (122:32)
# Top Ten NES Games – (133:02)
# Pinball Fever Part 2 – (226:33)
# Gaming Trivia – (278:49)
# News And Mailbag – (279:15)
# Expos – (386:18)
# URLS And Emails – (388:07)

Donate to the show. See the shownotes page.

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# Editorial on Past And Present Gaming Part 3 – (00:00)
# Hardware Flashback – (27:01)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (52:13)
# Mike’d Up – (53:46)
# Review Of Formula One Grand Prix – (70:42)
# Tech Questions – (103:45)
# Chuck E Cheese Hell – (124:24)
# It Came From MAME – (126:46)
# The British Hour – (139:22)
# Top Ten Best Atari 2600 Games – (148:23)
# iPhone Reviews – (273:06)
# Pinball Wizard Part 1 – (289:47)
# Review Of Wii Fitness For Dummies – (340:50)
# Gaming Trivia – (348:20)
# News And Mailbag – (349:02)
# URLS And Emails – (401:48)

Donate to the show. See the shownotes page.

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We spent almost 4 hours playing the online version of the classic game MULE and got drunk in the process. We then edited this carnage down into something listenable and in honour of Groundhog Day, SoCal Mike presents it here for you.

Enjoy!

# Intro
# Drinking while playng online MULE
# Sleep

Show Notes

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For those that don’t know, David “Dave” Cameron is the Conservative Party leader and is vying to become our next Prime Minister. Hopefully hell will freeze over before that happens, but in the mean time have some fun with this site.

http://www.andybarefoot.com/politics/cameron.php

Here is my fourth effort.

For those that don’t know, David “Dave” Cameron is the Conservative Party leader and is vying to become our next Prime Minister. Hopefully hell will freeze over before that happens, but in the mean time have some fun with this site.

http://www.andybarefoot.com/politics/cameron.php

Here is my third effort.

For those that don’t know, David “Dave” Cameron is the Conservative Party leader and is vying to become our next Prime Minister. Hopefully hell will freeze over before that happens, but in the mean time have some fun with this site.

http://www.andybarefoot.com/politics/cameron.php

Here is my second effort.

For those that don’t know, David “Dave” Cameron is the Conservative Party leader and is vying to become our next Prime Minister. Hopefully hell will freeze over before that happens, but in the mean time have some fun with this site.

http://www.andybarefoot.com/politics/cameron.php

Here is my first effort.

Onwards and upwards…..

# Editorial on Past And Present Gaming Part 2 – (00:00)
# Mike’d Up – (20:13)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (51:28)
# Review Of The Amstrad CPC – (53:00)
# Hardware Flashback – (73:30)
# It Came From MAME – (93:11)
# The British Hour – (113:47)
# Top Ten Video Game Anthologies – (119:42)
# Tech Questions – (258:58)
# iPhone Reviews – (292:08)
# Gaming Trivia – (300:42)
# News And Mailbag – (301:25)
# URLS And Emails – (400:26)

January Show Notes

Podcatch via the show’s RSS Feed and please Donate to the show.

Two months running we have special edition, bonus shows.

So what are you waiting for?

# Hello Guvnors
# Alcohol
# The Spirit Of Boxing Day
# Review OF Daze Before Christmas
# SoCal’s Christmas Wrapping
# Time To Relax
# Enjoy The Silence
# Beer Talk
# Mega Drive Or Genesis
# Top Ten Chatter 1
# Everlong
# Top Ten Chatter 2
# Christmas Toilet
# Top Ten Debate
# Rapture
# Top Ten Chatter 3
# Half Man Half Biscuit
# Laundry Rant
# Wrote For Luck
# Extra Ball
# Enjoy The Silence
# Cretans
# There’s No Other Way
# Phantasmagoria
# Breathe
# War Games

Boxing Day Show Notes

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Amazing!.

# Editorial on Past And Present Gaming – (00:00)
# Hardware Flashback – (13:53)
# SoCal Christmas Wishes – (47:48)
# Mike’d Up – (51:34)
# Pacman Christmas Album Part 1 – (83:53)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (88:17)
# Scott Christmas Wishes – (89:50)
# Review Of Bruce Lee – (94:43)
# Pacman Christmas Album Part 2 – (103:49)
# It Came From MAME – (109:50)
# UKMike Christmas Wishes – (118:58)
# The British Hour – (122:33)
# Pacman Christmas Album Part 3 – (131:16)
# Top Ten Multi Player Arcade Games – (136:25)
# UKDerek Christmas Wishes – (236:16)
# iPhone Reviews – (236:32)
# Pacman Christmas Album Part 4 – (254:16)
# Gaming Trivia – (263:17)
# UKKevin Christmas Wishes – (263:46)
# News And Mailbag – (264:02)
# URLS And Emails – (335:12)

December Show Notes

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http://www.retrogamingroundup.com/videos.htm

# Guinness Gaming Records – (00:00)
# Review Of Chunkout 2600 – (04:09)
# SoCal Comes Out? – (11:50)
# The British Hour – (17:28)
# Live At The Auction – (27:49)
# URLs And EMails – (34:50)

Thanksgiving Show Notes

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Here goes the November show for you.

# Editorial on Handhelds – (00:00)
# Hardware Flashback – (54:00)
# Victim Of The Video Arcade – (92:54)
# Review of 1985: The Day After – (96:10)
# iPhone Reviews – (103:34)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (113:34)
# Super Pacman Read Along Book – (115:07)
# Top Ten Cartridge Based Handheld Games – See our results – (123:56)
# The British Hour – (224:22)
# We Fell In Love At The Video Arcade – (233:05)
# News And Mailbag – (237:08)
# URLs And EMails – (281:46)

November Show Notes

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Whatever you do, stick to the roads!!!!!!!!

# Hardware Flashback – (00:00)
# Mic’d Up – (19:36)
# Guinness Gaming Records – (46:24)
# Reviews – (49:05)
# Robin Mihara Interview – (54:01)
# Star Raiders Read Along Book – (63:09)
# Top Ten Horror Themed Games – (70:52)
# Review Of Friday 13th – (179:17)
# Mario Kart Love Song – (202:06)
# Tech Questions – (204:51)
# The British Hour – (225:20)
# 8bit Adventurers Interview – (233:31)
# It Came From MAME – (281:58)
# News And Mailbag – (287:50)
# Gaming Expos – (346:25)
# URLS And Emails – (347:35)

October Show Notes

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The most hotly anticipated homebrew add on track for the game was released yesterday.

The Targa Florio.

If you don’t know about the Targa Florio then you have some reading to do, but it was a road race that took place every year on the island of Sicily on a circuit 277 miles (446 km) long.

Oh, and Stirling Moss won it too.

Like many other circuits and races it was banned following serious accidents and deemed far too dangerous as cars got faster and faster.

GPL Add On

Wikipedia Entry

1969 Targa Video

Honestly, if it had been released before I had left for work I would have taken the day off, and I haven’t done that since I was a young man in my early 20s. That time it was to play the Amiga games John Madden Football and Microprose Formula 1 Grand Prix.

That track has been such a long time coming for several reasons, obviously the production team have been around what is left of the original track and have coded it line by line, but also the original game would not allow tracks longer than 14miles, so before the track could be released we had to wait for a patch that would allow long tracks.

Once that was done the Targa Florio became a reality.

Now I just have to learn the 567 corners and I’ll be good to go.

Obviously the sound quality takes a big hit but the file is only around 40MB, so even Blackberries and people on limited bandwidth can download it.

These small versions won’t be in the rss feed and will only be available on our site, but for the next few months we will put these up alongside the standard version and see how many people are using them.

Current Episode

If you’re a fan of Retro style gaming you may also enjoy playing online casino games either for fun or real money. Finding the best casinos online is no more difficult than visiting CasinoAdvisor.com and browsing though the vast array of casinos listed on their site.

So what are you waiting for?

No drunken antics this month but we do have a secret competition hidden in the show somewhere.

Somebody has got to win it. Why not you?

Grab it from the rss feed here or on the  iTunes store.

Enjoy it people!

What have you done to deserve 2 blog posts in one day?

Make your own mind up about that but here is number 2 for today anyway.

On our home page we now have a new link that takes you to Podcast Central, your own sneak preview behind the scenes here at RetroGaming RoundUp.

My recording rig is pictured set up and the different components explained for you. Now you can see how the show comes about.

Podcast Central

Any questions? Hit the forums and ask away.

RetroGaming RoundUp Forums