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76 Articles

DARRAN JONES It’s no longer practical to play 16-player Halo matches, so I’m going to go with the chaotic brawls of Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Expertise: Juggling a gorgeous wife, two beautiful girls, a SNES-loving cousin and an award-winning magazine, all under one roof! Currently playing: Double Dragon Neon Favourite game of all time: Strider ANDY SALTER There was a period in the mid to late-Noughties when Guitar Hero wasn’t just a party game, it became the reason to have an actual party. Not that I ever played it much myself… it’s not a Total War game, lol. Expertise: Modding games, no ‘vanilla’ versions for me, thanks! Currently playing: M&B2: Bannerlord… Modded of course Favourite game of all time: Rome: Total War GRAEME MASON My sons and I regularly cause mayhem with a…

We all have moments when we feel old and this month’s cover star is certainly making me feel my age. I can remember encountering Super Monkey Ball like it was yesterday and I can still hear the screams of rage and the howls of laughter that accompanied the many games of Monkey Target and Monkey Golf I would play with my mates. Shockingly, both those memories happened around 20 years ago. Dang, Sega’s cute simians are getting old. And yet, while those delightful little critters may be getting on in age, they’ve certainly done well for themselves, spawning several games over the last two decades, including a brand-new HD remaster of the first three console releases, Super Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball 2 and Super Monkey Ball Deluxe, which we…

CONTENTS 6 SMELLS GOOD Paul Murphy chats to us about the popular Nintendo mag Ninty Fresh 8 IAIN LEE Has gaming changed since you were young? It’s certainly transformed for Iain 10 MR BIFFO Paul discovers that the many console retro tribes are still alive and well 12 A MOMENT WITH We speak to Tim Lapetino about his new book which celebrates the 40th anniversary of an arcade icon 14 BACK TO THE NOUGHTIES Nick travels back to December 2004. Will be remember what he got for Christmas? Paul Murphy is a busy man and one who has a clear love for both magazine craft and anything Nintendo-based. His latest co-venture is the popular Ninty Fresh, a magazine that’s dedicated to all things Nintendo and is currently celebrating its fifth…

Among all of us

I’ve just finished an hour-long session on Impostor, the new mode on Fortnite. It’s yet another in a lengthy list of Among Us clones. It’s fun and me and my two boys laughed a lot as we bluffed, double bluffed and triple bluffed our way through eliminating each other every round. Last week I was playing Goose, Goose, Duck – which is, yup, you guessed it, a copy of Among Us. Is that how it works now? You’re allowed to copy any game you want and not get done for it? It reminds me of when we used to holiday in Zakynthos. Every night we’d head to the main square because there was good food and rides for the kids. All of them had Disney characters painted on the side.…

Among all of us

Tribes within tribes

Shortly before settling down to write this month’s missive, I received some backlash on social media over a recent Retro Gamer column, in which I extolled the virtues of the ZX Spectrum over the Commodore 64. Though it all resolved relatively amicably, once I explained that I had just been doing a big silly, I remained taken aback by how seriously my column had been taken. I am a man well into middle age, with myriad more important things going on in my life than caring whether anyone thinks my (admittedly beloved) thing that I owned when I was 13 was or wasn’t better than another thing that other people owned. Presumably, most of you reading this would have left school decades ago. I had thought we were so far…

Tribes within tribes

Writer, designer and ‘geek historian’ Tim Lapetino is co-author of Pac-Man: Birth Of An Icon, which delves deep into the game’s creation and its cultural impact across four decades. He spent all of 2020 playing over a hundred versions of the game and exploring the crazy world of the series’ memorabilia. You can share his journey on Twitter @365ofpac. Tim is also the author of the best-selling book, Art Of Atari. Pac-Man turned 40 last year. Why is he still such an icon? I think the foundation of Pac-Man’s lasting power is the game itself. The gameplay, the design and the overall challenge are still something that players find fun and engaging four decades on. The design choices by Toru Iwatani’s team were particular and specifically minimal and that’s meant…

NEWS DECEMBER 2004

On 15 December, David Blunkett resigned as Home Secretary. His affair with publisher Kimberly Quinn had been exposed months earlier, but fresh allegations that he fast tracked a visa application for Quinn’s nanny ultimately led to his political downfall £26.5 million in cash was stolen from the headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast on 20 December. Bank employees Chris Ward and Kevin McMullan were forced to co-operate with the robbers, with gunmen having taken Ward’s family and McMullan’s wife as hostages. The Provisional IRA was widely blamed for the robbery, but denied any involvement. Though nobody has been convicted of the crime itself, financial adviser Ted Cunningham was found guilty of money laundering in 2014 in connection to the robbery. A 9.1 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia…

NEWS DECEMBER 2004

THE LATEST NEWS FROM DECEMBER 2004

Christmas is a time of peace and goodwill – unless you’re in the ruthless business of selling consoles. That’s probably why the PS2, still comfortably ahead of its rivals, boasted so many compelling exclusives. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was “bigger, more diverse and more freeform than any other videogame”, according to the Official PlayStation 2 Magazine, which gave it 10/10. Edge’s 9/10 review noted that despite flaws, the game was “buoyed by the kind of ambition that sees most games crumbling under the weight of it all”. GamesMaster added a 98% score to the list of accolades too – all of which made rival crime sim The Getaway: Black Monday (3/10 Edge, 8/10 OPS2, 71% GM) look rather second rate. Fans of manly grappling could pick up WWE Smackdown…

THE LATEST NEWS FROM DECEMBER 2004

THIS MONTH IN…

Official Xbox Mag Darren Forman, winner of the European Master Ninja Tournament in Ninja Gaiden, has gone to Japan for the finals and met Tomonobu Itagaki. “Someone who tells reviewers that they couldn’t tell a good game if it was stapled to their ass with a nailgun […] shouldn’t be so incredibly nice to lowly peons such as ourselves. Yet he was!” Edge The Golden Joysticks have been and gone, and Edge felt “it was difficult to feel that compere Matt Lucas was earning his no doubt astronomical appearance fee”. Ouch. Doom 3 won both PC Game Of The Year and Ultimate Game Of The Year, while Burnout 3, Fable and Mario Kart: Double Dash won on the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube respectively. NGC It’s issue 100, and former editor…

DECEMBER 2004 PLAYSTATION 2 1 – Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar) 2 – FIFA Football 2005 (EA) 3 – Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (Konami) 4 – Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 (EA) 5 – Burnout 3: Takedown (EA) XBOX 1 – Halo 2 (Microsoft) 2 – FIFA Football 2005 (EA) 3 – The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age (EA) 4 – Burnout 3: Takedown (EA) 5 – Men Of Valor: The Vietnam War (Vivendi) PC 1 – The Sims 2 (EA) 2 – Rome: Total War (Activision) 3 – Total Club Manager 2005 (EA) 4 – Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War (THQ) 5 – Call Of Duty: United Offensive (Activision) MUSIC 1 – Do They Know It’s Christmas (Band Aid 20) 2 – Father And Son (Ronan…

»RETROREVIVAL » ATARI 2600 » 1982 » ACTIVISION One of the things I love about growing up with videogames is that everything in the Eighties felt fresh and exciting. Even though systems like the Atari 2600 now look graphically primitive by today’s standards, their games often have superb mechanics that feel absolutely timeless. Steve Cartwright’s Barnstorming is one such example and I’d love to see it make a comeback. The concept behind Barnstorming is simplicity itself – you simply take your biplane and fly it through a set number of barns in as quick a time as possible. Despite how basic that sounds, there’s a little bit more to it, meaning it’s an easy game to pick up and play, but is also one that packs a real challenge. Barnstorming’s…

ULTIMATE GUIDE: SUPER MONKEY BALL

Super Monkey Ball was surely the biggest surprise in the GameCube’s launch line-up when the console debuted in 2001. Sega’s game was not an unknown quantity, as positive word of mouth spread following its reveal at the Nintendo Space World show in Tokyo. There, where the public were able to sample GameCube software for the very first time, NGC Magazine reported that, “It was the game of the show for many people.” This was some statement to make, particularly as Sega’s game was competing for attention with two first-party launch games, Luigi’s Mansion and Wave Race: Blue Storm, a sequel to the acclaimed N64 game. Yet, there were still question marks about the name, the look, the whole concept of monkeys rolling around in transparent balls, collecting bananas and trying…

ULTIMATE GUIDE: SUPER MONKEY BALL

MINIGAME MAYHEM

MONKEY TARGET SUPER MONKEY BALL ▪ The obvious place to start, with not just the best minigame in the series, but one of the best ever devised. Players take turns to try and hit the target and score the most points. The format was tweaked in subsequent games, but the original version was already perfect. MONKEY TENNIS SUPER MONKEY BALL 2 ▪ A-ha! We never got to watch simian racket sports on the Beeb but we could play it (providing we spent 2,500 points to unlock it). It’s fairly simple, as you would expect, but very entertaining playing against friends or COMs in singles or double matches. MONKEY RACE SUPER MONKEY BALL ▪ This simple kart-style racing game provides a nice change of pace (literally) to the more tactical minigames.…

MINIGAME MAYHEM

PLAIN OL’ MONKEY BALL

▪ If you wondered why the original GameCube game carried the Super moniker, it’s because it wasn’t the first title in the series. Debuting in Japanese arcades in May 2001, Monkey Ball is perhaps best described as the ‘final beta’ for the GameCube version, which was released four months later. The main game is almost identical, with the same floors in the same order – it just looks a bit prettier on the GameCube. The chief difference is that Monkey Ball was designed for single players, which means no Competition Mode and crucially no minigames. This is why the coin-op only features three playable monkeys – AiAi, MeeMee and Baby – as GonGon was added later to support four-player multiplayer on the GameCube. The one feature the console absolutely couldn’t…

PLAIN OL’ MONKEY BALL

MINIATURE MONKEYS

SUPER MONKEY BALL JR FORMAT GBA YEAR 2002 ▪ The troop’s first handheld outing is a limited version of the first game, featuring seventy-four floors and four minigames. Controlling the game using the d-pad is fine, and the graphics are very good for a system that traditionally struggles with 3D. A pared down Nokia N-Gage version followed. SUPER MONKEY BALL: TOUCH & ROLL FORMAT: DS YEAR: 2006 ▪ This more substantial handheld release features 120 floors (spread across twelve different worlds) and six minigames (three old, three new). It supports stylus control, which works well but ramps up the difficulty, meaning most will cop-out and simply play with the d-pad instead. SUPER MONKEY BALL 3D FORMAT 3DS YEAR 2011 ▪ This 3DS launch title was evidently rushed, with a total of eighty floors and just two…

MINIATURE MONKEYS

IT’S A BIT TRICKY!

EXAM-C FLOOR: EXPERT 7 The third ‘test’ floor is one of gaming’s most famous difficulty spikes. Arriving early in Expert, you’re faced with a sprawling floor that features a nasty ramp and a snaking finish. Compounding all of this is the 60-second time limit. Beat this and you can beat anything. STAMINA MASTER FLOOR: MASTER 3 If you thought Expert level was as tough as it could get, welcome to Master and this little beauty. The opening section is OK, but the goal lies at the foot of that twisting vine and trying to reach it is almost impossible. There’s no technique it seems, just trial and error. BRIDGE MASTER FLOOR: MASTER 9 The coin-op had just a single Master floor, which appeared here as the penultimate Master stage. And…

IT’S A BIT TRICKY!

THE MINI MAKING OF: SUPER MONKEY BALL ADVENTURE

How did Traveller’s Tales become involved in the series? Sega had a long-standing relationship with Traveller’s Tales going back to the Sonic games. I was part of the team at Traveller’s Tales Oxford and we’d not long finished development on Crash Twinsanity. Sega’s producers were apparently looking for a game with a similar style and sense of humour, so Super Monkey Ball Adventure was assigned to us. Where did the idea to produce a storydriven adventure come from? That was part of Sega’s brief. We were given a story bible that had been created by Amusement Vision for the original two games and there were lots of interesting ideas in there to draw from. We talked to Toshihiro Nagoshi a couple of times during production, first about the project as…

THE MINI MAKING OF: SUPER MONKEY BALL ADVENTURE

SUPER MONKEY BALL 2 FORMAT: GAMECUBE ▪ YEAR: 2002 ▪ Arriving in short order, the sequel provides more of everything that made the original a hit. This means more floors with new features (including switches and seesaws), double the number of minigames and even a story mode. For many fans this is the definitive entry. SUPER MONKEY BALL DELUXE FORMAT: PS2/XBOX ▪ YEAR: 2005 ▪ A mid-priced ‘greatest hits’ package for non-Nintendo consoles, including everything from the first two games plus loads of exclusive floors. Playing this on PS2 and Xbox makes you realise that the GameCube’s analogue stick is still the best way to play original games. SUPER MONKEY BALL ADVENTURE FORMAT: VARIOUS ▪ YEAR: 2006 ▪ The game that no-one asked for is not the dud some would…

SUPER MONKEY BALL BANANA MANIA

Super Monkey Ball is back. The revival began in 2019 with the release of Banana Blitz HD, an update of the Nintendo Wii game. And in October 2021 it will be followed by Banana Mania, a modern remake of Super Monkey Ball Deluxe, the 2005 compilation that brought together the two classic GameCube games. It’s a great time to be a Monkey Baller. But if truth be told, the series has never really gone away. In the 20 years since the first game debuted, there have only been seven years when there hasn’t been some kind of release, be it on console, handheld or mobile. The series is currently overseen by Masao Shirosaki, a designer at Sega’s Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio who has previously worked with Super Monkey Ball creator…

SUPER MONKEY BALL BANANA MANIA

MORE THAN MONKEYS

▪ You may remember that Sonic The Hedgehog joined the monkeys in Banana Blitz HD (which memorably changed the bananas to gold rings when you played as him). Well the spiky blue one returns in Banana Mania, only this time he’s joined by sidekick Tails and a bunch of new characters. “There are a lot of appealing characters at Sega, so I wanted as many to appear as possible,” says Shirosaki. “We had Sonic join the previous title and he was extremely popular, so we decided to have Tails join in this time. We also have Beat from Jet Set Radio, which still has a large fanbase. And as the creator of this series, Toshihiro Nagoshi, is the same as the Yakuza series, we decided to have Kazuma Kiryu join…

MORE THAN MONKEYS

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LOST IN TRANSLATION

PRINCE OF PERSIA JPN JPN Japan Rest of World PRINCE OF PERSIA Departing: 1992 FORMAT SNES ■ DEVELOPER Arsys Software ■ YEAR 1992 ■ ORIGIN Japan ■ LOCALISED FOR Japan ■ REASONS Violence, Religion ■ ECONOMY ■ There have been plenty of versions of Jordan Mechner’s classic platform adventure game over the years, but the SNES version of Prince Of Persia is rather different to the rest. The game was published in Japan by Masaya and aimed at that market first and foremost, and features quite a few enhancements over the standard version that most other conversions were based on. There are redesigned stages as well as brand-new ones to bring the total number up to 20, significant graphical enhancements, and even extra bits of story telling. Unfortunately, a few…

LOST IN TRANSLATION

THE EVOLUTION OF NODES OF YESOD

The videogames industry in Liverpool was a lot like musical chairs during the mid-Eighties. The collapse of Imagine Software left its former developers scrabbling for jobs, while the success of Jet Set Willy resulted in Software Projects hiring additional staff. Artist/designer Stuart Fotheringham was taken on by the firm to work with Matthew Smith on a Jet Set Willy sequel, and the company subsequently showed interest in a pitch made by Stuart’s friend Colin Grunes. But as Stuart points out, the pair soon found themselves reconsidering their options. “Colin had animated Noddy, because he wanted to get him into a game, and Software Projects very much liked his design,” Stuart remembers. “So it got in touch with the Enid Blyton estate to license the rights, but the estate said no.…

THE EVOLUTION OF NODES OF YESOD

STAGES OF EVOLUTION: EPIC EXPLORATION

NODES OF YESOD The lunar caves in Nodes Of Yesod are a maze of vertical shafts linked by horizontal tunnels, where you somersault from platform to platform to make progress. You can also direct a mole to munch through the weak spots in the walls, and then use those to access blocked-off caverns. ROBIN OF THE WOOD There aren’t any platforms in Robin Of The Wood, but like the Nodes games there’s a labyrinth to navigate. Unfortunately it’s located in Sherwood Forest, which by design is a mess of indistinct greenery, but there are markers that point you in the direction of notable landmarks. ARC OF YESOD Arc Of Yesod’s platforming is similar to that in Nodes, although it’s set beneath the soil of an alien planet rather than under…

STAGES OF EVOLUTION: EPIC EXPLORATION

STAGES OF EVOLUTION: COOL COLLECTING

NODES OF YESOD The collecting in Nodes Of Yesod starts right away with you trying to catch a mole. You then have to find jewel-like Alchiems of the same shape as a Master Alchiem, which you identify by the fact that it’s all one colour. Lastly, there are extra lives to bag throughout the game. ROBIN OF THE WOOD There’s a lot to collect in Robin Of The Wood, with the gold you steal being the most important, as you trade that with ents for better weapons. There are also flowers to give to hermits and witches in exchange for health and teleportation, plus bonus life wreaths and spare arrows. HEARTLAND As it’s based on magic, it’s no surprise that you have to collect spells in Heartland. Small stars give…

STAGES OF EVOLUTION: COOL COLLECTING

STAGES OF EVOLUTION: FIRE AWAY!

ROBIN OF THE WOOD You’ve got to work hard to get a ranged weapon in Robin Of The Wood, but that reflects how outmatched the hero is in the source material. Firstly, you need to find and rob three sheriffs of their gold, and trade that for a sword and bow, and having done that you need to find arrows. ARC OF YESOD The sidekick in Arc Of Yesod is armed, unlike the mole in Nodes, which has to ram enemies to dispatch them. As well as providing a welcome shoot-’em-up element, this gives Arc’s helper the advantage over the mole of being able to protect its operator from any position on the screen. HEARTLAND Heartland can be unforgiving, even with a permanent weapon in the form of a top…

STAGES OF EVOLUTION: FIRE AWAY!

Expansion Module #2

» PLATFORM: ColecoVision » RELEASED: 1983 » COST: £49.95 (launch), £45+ (today, boxed) £25+ (today, unboxed) Expansion Module #2 fact Unlike Expansion Module #1, an Atari 2600 compatibility module, Expansion Module #2 plugged into the ColecoVision’s regular control ports rather than using the front expansion bay. It’s easy to see that arcade games were central to the sales strategy for the ColecoVision. The console was sold on the quality of its conversion of Donkey Kong, and Coleco soon licensed plenty of other hits from the likes of Data East, Universal, Midway and Sega. The impetus for Expansion Module #2 was provided by the conversion of Sega’s popular driving game Turbo – the arcade game had used a steering wheel and pedals, so to add authenticity to the experience, the home…

Expansion Module #2

Minority Report: Famicom

FAMICOM Plenty of Famicom games crossed the Pacific thanks to Nintendo’s dominance of American console gaming in the latter half of the Eighties, but many still never reached the NES. Nick Thorpe inspects some intriguing imports… BOOBY KIDS ■ DEVELOPER: NICHIBUTSU ■ YEAR: 1987 ■ Do we have your attention now? Good, then we’ll begin by clearing up any misconceptions you might have about this rather unfortunate title – this is a game in which kids set booby-traps. There’s nothing untoward going on here at all. But we’re glad to have piqued your interest, because Booby Kids happens to be a rather neat game that combines elements of other maze games into a unique and fascinating experience of its own. Taking control of a kid, your goal is to run…

Minority Report: Famicom

■ Japanese Famicom owners didn’t have the famous Nintendo seal of quality on their games, largely because buyers didn’t need that kind of assurance. In its absence, we’d imagine many players just looked for the Konami logo as a sign of a good product. Players loved the likes of Gradius, Contra, Castlevania and Metal Gear, and the company made a good deal of money on the platform. Of course the company had the occasional duffer here and there, but one of its best games for the Famicom was unfortunately widely overlooked – this one, in case you hadn’t guessed. Crisis Force was Konami’s final Famicom shoot- ’em-up, and the developer went all out to make it the very best. The game is an audiovisual treat, which is largely because the…

MORE GAMES TO PLAY

» JONGBOU ■ DEV: MICRONICS/SNK ■ YEAR: 1987 ■ Here’s a neat little genre fusion that really couldn’t have made it to the NES library. The game takes the Breakout template and populates most of the field with Mahjong tiles, which will flip over when hit once and fall when hit again. If you catch a tile with your paddle, you can add it to your hand, and if you can complete a winning 14 tile hand then you’ll beat the stage. It’s fun, but only with the requisite knowledge. » GORBY NO PIPELINE DAISAKUSEN ■ DEV: COMPILE ■ YEAR: 1991 ■ Japan and the Soviet Union are building a water pipeline connecting Tokyo to Moscow, and you’re in charge of construction. Pipe pieces fall from the top of the…

MORE GAMES TO PLAY

■ The success of Space Harrier in arcades naturally tempted a few developers to try to imitate it in the home, but the 8-bit machines of the Eighties were not ideally equipped to replicate its impressive scaling graphics. Compared to most efforts, Cosmic Epsilon is a mile ahead – while it might not look like much in still screenshots, the ground whizzes by smoothly and is so impressive as to make a mockery of Takara’s official version of Space Harrier. Enemy sprites can be a little small, but move around relatively smoothly too. The game is also one of the very few that offers support for the Famicom 3D System. Compared to Sega’s arcade hit, there are some gameplay differences to be found. Regular shots don’t have the slight homing…

» RETROREVIVAL ARCADE » 1992 » DATA EAST Do you remember the Mad Max game that came out in 2015? It sold quite well and seemed to find an appreciative audience, despite the fact that critics at the time felt it to be fairly average. The divide came down to one thing – reviewers had played plenty of those Ubisoft-style open world games in quick succession, and had become a bit bored of them. But even if you’re not reviewing games, if you play enough of them you may find that boredom with staple genres is a real threat. That’s why I find myself attracted to oddities and unusual genre fusions. If you can sell me a combination of ‘genre A meets genre B’ that I haven’t encountered before, I’ll…

ULTIMATE GUIDE: CHUCKIE EGG

Throughout the Eighties, rivalries ran deep and often within the UK home computing scene. Of course, ZX Spectrum versus Commodore 64 was one of the biggest conflicts; yet even within each computer’s sphere there were other, smaller skirmishes where fans of a particular game or genre would espouse its virtues over any competitor. [It’s never stopped - Ed] In the early days of the ZX Spectrum in particular, there was one such battle, instigated by the release of two classic platform games: the slower pace and puzzle-solving of Manic Miner versus the quick-fire bird-dodging of Nigel Alderton’s fantastic Chuckie Egg. Chuckie Egg begins quaintly. The scene is a country farmyard, owned by a stout farmer named Hen House Harry. Within each segment of Harry’s hen enclosure there are a selection…

ULTIMATE GUIDE: CHUCKIE EGG

EGG-SHELL-ENT PLAYING TIPS

KNOW THE SCORE While there’s no strict route to Chuckie Egg’s stages, there’s always an optimum method according to the time-stopping corn and the pattern of the ducklings. By the time you’re on the Mother Duck and ducklings a lot of this will go out of the window and it’ll be more about simply staying alive. KEEP AN EYE ON THE SELL BY DATE Those eggs aren’t going to collect themselves, and while the time allotment initially appears generous, later levels can see that counter ticking down a little faster than Harry would like. Some stages such as the one pictured require a lot of backtracking; add in a chasing Mother Duck and Harry really has to keep his eye on the clock. HELL-EVATOR Ah, the lifts. Inspired by the…

EGG-SHELL-ENT PLAYING TIPS

CONVERSION CAPERS

COMMODORE 64 While it doesn’t look too much like the Spectrum original, there’s a certain appeal to the C64 game. The main sprite is ridiculously large (albeit multicoloured), lacks Harry’s ZX zip and has an irritating sound effect every time he jumps. Yet somehow it all hangs together and plays fluently enough. ATARI 800 The Atari 800 game looks substantially different thanks to its impressive pseudo 3D effect platforms. We’ve also probably got the tallest Harry here although fortunately he can still navigate the stages with aplomb, although how that supremely irritating jump sound effect got through is anyone’s guess. BBC MICRO Coded by A ‘n’ F boss Doug Anderson himself, this BBC Micro version of Chuckie Egg is the closest port in terms of display and considered superior in…

CONVERSION CAPERS

DEVELOPER INTERVIEW

How did you get to work on C64 and Atari 800 Chuckie Egg? I worked directly for A ‘n’ F on not only Chuckie Egg but also Chuckie Egg II and Gumshoe. I hadn’t heard of [Chuckie Egg]. My first computer was a VIC-20 followed by the C64 and Atari, so I’d never seen any games for the Spectrum. Obviously I had to play it prior to converting it and I enjoyed it. Nigel did a great job. Speaking of Nigel, did you ever meet him? No, never met him and never had any assistance. However, I did get some help from Mike Webb who was working at A ‘n’ F at the time. Mike had done some of the other conversions so it was very familiar to him. How…

DEVELOPER INTERVIEW

» PLATFORM: NEO GEO » RELEASED: 2000 » DEVELOPER: SNK Sequels are tricky things at the best of times, and they’re harder when you’re trying to squeeze extra performance out of dated technology. Metal Slug 2 is a great example of this, as its wonderful game design is hampered by severe slowdown. Having seen that, many people would have wondered if SNK’s venerable Neo Geo hardware had finally reached the point of obsolescence. To prove the doubters wrong, SNK issued the revised Metal Slug X, a remix of Metal Slug 2 featuring a new engine that fixed the issues of the original release. That engine would go on to power something even more impressive, in the form of Metal Slug 3. This was SNK at the peak of its pixel-pushing power,…

HOW IT PUSHED THE LIMITS…

Smooth Shading The Neo Geo can only use 16 colours in a single palette, but you’d never guess it to look at the sand or the sky here. SNK’s artists were experts at squeezing incredible details from a fairly limited selection of colours. Amazing Animation It looks like there are semi-transparent colours overlaid on the building to the right, doesn’t it? But that’s not the case – the artists simply faked the effect with good animation, drawing lighting effects onto the sprite. Sprite Saving The Neo Geo can only display so many sprites on a single scanline, and backgrounds count towards the limit. Yet even with plenty of overlapping enemies, explosions and other effects, there are no disappearing lines seen here. Consistent Carnage There’s always loads going on in Metal…

HOW IT PUSHED THE LIMITS…

THE MAKING OF theme PARK

When a developer – and not its games – can be described as ‘classic’, that’s when you know you’ve managed to build something special. Bullfrog Productions is a beloved name and not only among us retro gaming enthusiasts: it’s a studio whose creativity, novelty and oh-so-British approach to humour will forever live on aside the very best that gaming has and will ever have to offer. And what’s interesting is the variety on show: there’s a ‘favourite’ Bullfrog game for everyone, from the RTS of Populous or the dark future of Syndicate to its comedic god games Dungeon Keeper or Theme Hospital. Yet while its earliest foray into business games didn’t start with Theme Park, it was this addition to the company’s portfolio that really set it on the road…

THE MAKING OF theme PARK

EXPANDING THEME PARK

DEVELOPER HIGHLIGHTS POPULOUS SYSTEM: PC, VARIOUS YEAR: 1989 SYNDICATE SYSTEM: PC, VARIOUS YEAR: 1993 THEME HOSPITAL (PICTURED) SYSTEM: PC, VARIOUS YEAR: 1997 NINTENDO DS It was a big surprise when the original Theme Park was ported over to Nintendo’s popular dual-screen handheld. And this wasn’t just a cash grab, either, a team in Japan that seriously cared about the original gave this some love and care, and this was a fully polished version that even came with StreetPass connectivity features. If you still have a DS, it’s absolutely worth picking up today. iOS Like so many classic tycoon games lost to the annals of time, somehow Theme Park found itself dredged up from the past and into the smartphone era. While the new 3D engine gave it a fresh look,…

EXPANDING THEME PARK

CONVERSION CAPERS

PC While there are a few issues or disadvantages with the original release that later ports were able to address in a more effective way, this was still the one to beat. Slower PCs would struggle on bigger parks crammed with guests, but otherwise it looked great, played great and was robust. APPLE MAC Everything just feels a little off with the Mac version: it’s missing a few overlooked features – such as the wider view of the park – a missing right-click means just a little extra work and there’s even a typo in “Firewroks Display”. Sure, it’s still the same hugely playable game, just slightly inferior. AMIGA As far as Theme Park ports go, the Amiga version is pretty unique without any other port like it. It has…

CONVERSION CAPERS

Hardware Heaven: Nomad

» MANUFACTURER: Sega » YEAR: 1995 » COST: £229.99 (launch), £216+ (today, boxed), £130+ (today, unboxed) Approaching the mid-Nineties, Sega designed an ambitious new console to solve the problem of having two declining platforms in the market. Code-named Venus, this handheld would succeed the Game Gear, while retaining its design principle of leveraging existing home hardware. But rather than being a reworked version of the Mega Drive, as the Game Gear had been based on the Master System, this console would simply be a Mega Drive – compatible with existing software, and even certain peripherals. It could even output to a TV. The console would therefore launch with a library of hundreds of games and enjoy a considerable technological advantage over other handhelds. The Nomad, to give it its final…

Hardware Heaven: Nomad

GOTTA GO PAST SONIC CD DEVELOPER: SEGA RELEASE: 1993 ■ While Yuji Naka was over in the US developing Sonic 2 for Mega Drive, co-creator Naoto Ohshima remained in Japan and worked on an altogether different Sonic sequel; one powered by the exciting new potential of CD-ROM. Sonic CD was packed to the brim with content, including a gorgeous cartoon quality intro movie, a jaw-dropping bonus stage that used sprite-scaling effects to simulate 3D and, most importantly, three different versions of every stage. By speeding through gates marked past, present or future, Sonic could travel to vastly different versions of each zone, giving players a richer environment to explore, and more reasons to replay. With its hidden depths and slick gameplay, Sonic CD is a fantastic, somewhat underrated Sonic game.…

Mortal Kombat II

» RETROREVIVAL ARCADE » 1993 » MIDWAY I’ve been working on Retro Gamer for a while now, and I’m starting to fondly reminisce about my early days in the office. One of the big things that jumps out to me is being caught abusing the vulnerabilities of the CPU opponents when playing Mortal Kombat II, and having my colleagues chastise me for it. But honestly, I felt forced into it. The game’s difficulty is the only thing that rivals its fatalities for over-the-top brutality, and it was actually one of my first experiences of how ruthlessly hard some arcade games could be. My first encounter with this most merciless of challenges came on a family holiday, in a tiny arcade at a caravan park – one mostly filled with coin…

Mortal Kombat II

THE MAKING OF: MAUI MALLARD

CRAIG ALLEN Craig worked as an associate producer on Maui Mallard. JOHN FIORITO Lead artist duties on Maui Mallard were carried out by John. PATRICK GILMORE » Patrick worked as the senior producer on Maui Mallard. Disney is not a company that kills the goose that lays the golden eggs and nowadays, many of the studio’s projects from the past are gaining sequels and remakes. But once upon a time, Disney itself clipped the wings of a specific mallard, depriving US Genesis owners of a potential blockbuster in the process. When Aladdin launched on Sega’s 16-bit console in late 1993, its incredible sales exceeded all expectations. Realising that games can be a very profitable business, Disney decided to take matters into its own hands. This is how Disney Interactive was…

THE MAKING OF: MAUI MALLARD

BRAZILIAN MYSTERY

In the spring of 1997, Brazilian publisher TecToy released Maui Mallard for its Mega Drive market. The uniqueness of the event was added by the fact that it was the first and only release of the original 16-bit game in its final form The gameplay in the European and Brazilian versions for Mega Drive contained dozens of differences. From hint screens after death in the first two levels to new passwords. A number of bugs were also fixed and several sprites were added that were missing in the European Mega Drive edition (for example, dust under Maui’s feet). Interestingly, all these changes to the Brazilian version are completely similar to the new alterations of the PC version, which was released six months earlier. In 2020, a unique Genesis cartridge was…

BRAZILIAN MYSTERY

CONVERSION CAPERS

SNES Created by the Eurocom team, the SNES version was radically different from the original game, not only in sprites and background graphics, but also in many aspects of the gameplay. The British studio’s version is essentially not a port, but their own vision of the game. PC The Disney Interactive team ported the Genesis version to PC, so, with the exception of improved pixel art, the only significant difference was the change in its music. We’ll praise the use of Red Book CD, which made it possible to use the original high-quality midi files of the composers. GAME BOY Bonsai Entertainment created this rather lacklustre port in 1998 during the final days of Nintendo’s handheld game console. The 8-bit limits of the Game Boy affected not only the gameplay,…

CONVERSION CAPERS

Jon: “We’d never be able to get the SNES version completed on time if we had to rely on the builds and videos we were receiving of the lead Genesis version. This eventually led to the decision to allow the two versions to differ where necessary while still using the same source assets.” Jon: “We had the original game design document but the Disney team made lots of changes along the way when they found things didn’t work. We had to find a way to create a fun bonus level in the shortest possible time so I adapted the organ bounce routines to work on the stage graphics.” Jon: “The speedrun was probably not incorporated into the SNES version as we had a limit on the number of sprites on…

It was pretty cheap, and you could have sworn that you read something good about it in a magazine, but deep down you’ve got a horrible suspicion that Power Diggerz might actually be a duffer. Really, how many great games are there about heavy machinery? Once you switch on the console, the bright menus don’t help dispel the impression that you might have bought a game for children. The initial sand scooping game feels a bit complex, but by the time you get to batter a car, you’re finding yourself getting into it. That’s when you switch to Part-Timer Mode, and are confronted with a set of frankly bizarre job listings. There’s one about being a chef, another about being an “athletic single lane driver” – whatever that might be…

FROM THE ARCHIVES: STRICTLY LIMITED

If you’re a collector of physical videogames, you will almost certainly have come across limited release publishers over the last few years. These companies produce physical versions of games, often those that have proven popular in the digital download market, in small quantities for collectors. These kinds of releases divide opinion, but they’re definitely popular as there are quite a few companies now operating in the space, including Limited Run Games, Special Reserve Games and Super Rare Games. Enter Strictly Limited Games, a German publisher founded in 2017 by both Dennis Mendel and Benedict Braitsch. It operates much like the other companies mentioned, but has a particularly strong tendency towards releasing games in and around the retro gaming scene. After working in education and localisation, Dennis joined Softdistribution, where he…

FROM THE ARCHIVES: STRICTLY LIMITED

Super Smash Bros

» RETROREVIVAL NINTENDO 64 » 1999 » HAL LABORATORY Although it excelled in numerous areas, the N64 was pretty poorly supported when it came to essential fighting games. Granted, Fighters Destiny is an excellent brawler, but many of the big names like Street Fighter didn’t reach the machine so your choices were limited and the few titles that were available were typically quite poor. Thank goodness then for Super Smash Bros, an N64 game that I’ve spent a disgusting amount of time playing over the years. Many will argue that it’s as much a party game as it is a fighting game, but I’ve always found its brawling mechanics to be surprisingly deep and, best of all, it has a rather excellent single-player mode that I’m still happy to sink…

Super Smash Bros

BLUFFER’S GUIDE TO RHYTHM ACTION GAMES

In these Bluffer’s Guides, we sometimes end up complicating simplified narratives that attribute the origin of a genre to one or two particular games, but in the case of rhythm action, there really is one game that defined it. Yes, games existed before that had some relationship with music – Mario Paint on the SNES had a music composition feature when it released in 1992, Break Dance from 1984 on the C64 had you memorising sequences of dance moves that you had to repeat in the fashion of Ralph Bear’s famous call and response memory toy, Simon, and 1987 NES title Dance Aerobics made an early claim for innovating the genre, tasking you with matching your virtual aerobic instructor’s movements on the Power Play controller mat. But in terms of…

BLUFFER’S GUIDE TO RHYTHM ACTION GAMES

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

GUITAR HERO II The introduction of three-note chords and some killer new tracks made Guitar Hero II one of the highlights of the many plastic-peripheral titles. Rock Band 3 is also a contender for king of the plastic-peripheral games, adding keyboard to drums, guitar, bass and vocals, but in truth, the best you can do is pick the one that has got the most songs you like. BEAT SABER This VR smash has you swinging glowing swords to slash coloured blocks flying towards you in time with the beat. It sounds crazy but it works incredibly well and highlights just how flexible the genre can be. The winner of a host of VR awards, it’s one of the best titles you can get for the fledgling technology, and a good…

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

WHAT MAKES A GREAT RHYTHM ACTION GAME?

1 BANGING TUNES It goes without saying that the quality of music in a rhythm action game is of vital importance. It just has to slap! And there’s plenty to choose from. 2 FLOW STATE The best rhythm action games get you into a state of flow where it feels like you are connected to the music, almost symbiotically. 3 REPLAY VALUE Great rhythm action games tend to have intricacies to their mechanics that make coming back and bettering your score a massive part of the appeal. 4 PARTY STARTING Rhythm games don’t have to be social to be good, but it’s impossible to deny that many of the best find a way to help us enjoy music and games together. 5 COMPETITIVE EDGE Of course, many rhythm action games…

WHAT MAKES A GREAT RHYTHM ACTION GAME?

OBSCURE ODDITIES

VIB-RIBBON Released for the PlayStation in 2000 in Europe, this lo-fi curio allowed you to use music from any CD you put in the console to generate its levels, an idea later picked up in titles like Audiosurf and Audioshield. BUST A GROOVE An unusual attempt to blend rhythm action with fighting games, this 1998 PlayStation title was based around dance battles where you had to successfully combo moves to boost your score and defeat your opponents. Including a giant robot. SPACE CHANNEL 5 Another genre mixup, the 1999 Dreamcast title Space Channel 5 has you playing as a reporter in space who has to juggle reporting on alien threats with fighting it. In its Sixties-style visual settings the game hops between beat-match dance sections and combat sections. The series…

OBSCURE ODDITIES

CARVE SNOWBOARDING

If you’re a fan of Nintendo’s platforms, you probably have some familiarity with Giles Goddard’s work. He was a programmer on SNES Super FX games including Star Fox and Stunt Race FX, and he has also worked on the likes of Doshin The Giant and Steel Diver. However, arguably his best known work was on the N64. As well as programming the incredible Mario face title screen for Super Mario 64, he was the main programmer of 1080º Snowboarding, one of the best extreme sports games of the Nineties and a true classic for the console. Over two decades later, Giles and his team at Chuhai Labs have returned to tackle snowboarding once again. For Giles, one of the key factors in deciding to return to snowboarding was the new…

CARVE SNOWBOARDING

CARVING OTHER SLOPES

What’s next for Carve Snowboarding? With the modern era of downloadable patches for all platforms, few games ever finish development once they’re released, and Chuhai Labs has updated Carve Snowboarding a number of times since it launched earlier in 2021. These have mostly been small improvements to the overall experience – new leaderboards, difficulty tweaks, bug fixes and performance improvements for users of the Oculus Quest 2 have all been seen in the patch notes so far. But what about those of us without the Quest hardware? With Giles having already spoken about potential strangulation, would it be safe to say that we won’t be seeing versions of the game for wired headsets? “It’s probably not that much of a problem now that we’ve figured out what actually matters in…

CARVING OTHER SLOPES

For most of the early years of the new millennium, Sega was adjusting to life as a third-party developer and publisher. It started by bringing its Dreamcast library to other platforms, and even developed a few new titles, such as Sonic Team’s Billy Hatcher And The Giant Egg on GameCube, or revived classic IPs such as Shinobi on PS2 and Panzer Dragoon Orta for Xbox. These were all however one-offs that failed to make a real splash in the market, and having exited the console business after five years of financial losses, Sega still found itself in the red. It needed a hit. Of course, it wasn’t the only Japanese company struggling at the time. The Noughties saw the rise of Western studios, as developers who were used to developing…

YAKUZA ON THE BIG SCREEN

Named after the game’s Japanese title, Like A Dragon: The Movie was released in 2007 in Japan as a loose adaptation of the first Yakuza game, albeit condensed into one night in Kamurocho during a heatwave. It also throws in some new bizarre subplots for the film, including a bank robbery led by two rather clueless masked gunmen and a young couple who also turn to armed robbery seemingly for kicks. While Takashi Miike is both a prolific and internationally acclaimed director and no stranger to yakuza flicks, best known for the controversial ultra-violent Ichi The Killer and Audition, this film is a comparably tame affair, often just going through the motions of reenacting scenes from the game with none of the emotional drama. Kiryu’s actor Kazuki Kitamura also looks…

YAKUZA ON THE BIG SCREEN

THINGS TO DO IN KAMUROCHO

HANG OUT IN SERENA 1 Kazuma’s haunt for knocking back a few, seen early on when he joins Nishiki and Yumi for drinks. Serena becomes your hideout where you can rewatch cutscenes and save the game. Mind, it’s not totally safe, as you’ll find yourself getting ambushed there at one point. HIT THE ARCADE 2 There are actually two Club Sega arcades in Kamurocho, but the one on Theater Square gets a substantial expansion in future instalments. While there’s a Virtua Fighter 4 cabinet, it’s sadly not playable. Instead, you can attempt the annoyingly difficult UFO Catcher. HIT SOME HOME RUNS 3 Batter up at the Yoshida Batting Center and try to hit as many homeruns from easy to extra hard modes. The batting centre is incidentally a hangout spot…

THINGS TO DO IN KAMUROCHO

REMAKING YAKUZA

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the series, Yakuza Kiwami was a remake of the first game from the ground up using the same engine for Yakuza 0, an enhanced version of the engine used for Yakuza 5. Besides faithfully retelling the story with enhanced photorealistic graphics, character models and re-recorded dialogue (for longtime fans in the West, this would also be the first time they could experience Yakuza’s story in its original Japanese audio), it also introduces a whole lot more content In the core story, we get flashbacks that better show Nishiki’s arc as he steps out of Kiryu’s shadow for the worse, transforming from meek sworn brother to murderous arch nemesis. Better still, it was an excuse for the writing team (bolstered by fantastic localisation work from…

REMAKING YAKUZA

Street Fighter Alpha 3

» RETROREVIVAL DREAMCAST » 1999 » CAPCOM As much as I loved Street Fighter Zero 3 on the Saturn, its best game mode, World Tour, was an absolute pain to play due to featuring so much Japanese. I struggled through it as the fighting was so solid, but I eventually hit a brick wall and sold my copy on because I felt I was missing out – it’s obviously skyrocketed in price now. Silly me. Needless to say, when I discovered that Capcom’s brawler was heading to Dreamcast and would actually get a Western port I was only too keen to pick it up and I’m bloody glad I did, because even though Street Fighter Alpha 3 is stuffed to the brim with extra game modes beyond the arcade game,…

Street Fighter Alpha 3

>> This month we get to enjoy a brand-new Dreamcast game, return to the gloomy corridors of Quake and find out if Nintendo’s latest WarioWare release is worth the cash PICKS OF THE MONTH DARRAN Quake This sensational FPS still holds up brilliantly and this new version has plenty of great improvements to make it even better. NICK Intrepid Izzy Any new Dreamcast game will always get my attention and I’ve been really pleased with Senile Team’s entertaining platformer this month. INFORMATION » FORMAT REVIEWED DREAMCAST » ALSO ON: PC, PS4 » RELEASED: OUT NOW (DC/PC), TBA (PS4) » PRICE: £14.99 (PC), £29.99 (DREAMCAST) » PUBLISHER: WAVE GAME STUDIOS » DEVELOPER: SENILE TEAM » PLAYERS: 1 Being a fan of the Dreamcast has certainly had its ups and downs. There…

Evercade: Codemasters Collection 1

PICK OF THE MONTH We’ve had our eye on this cart ever since it was first announced and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. Released alongside Mega Cat Studios Collection 2 (reviewed next issue) it’s another excellent addition to the Evercade range thanks to its solid set of games. The presentation is just how you’d expect with the usual frontend menus and control options for Mega Drive games. A nice color manual is included, although 17 games means titles like Mega-Lo-Mania are harder to understand with no prior knowledge. Emulation is to the usual quality, although we did notice distortion occasionally on Psycho Pinball and Sensible Soccer. Ironically, the Codemasters-owned Sensible Software releases make the biggest impact. Sensible Soccer is still brilliant, Mega-Lo-Mania is a solid strategy game, while Cannon Fodder is…

Evercade: Codemasters Collection 1

WarioWare: Get It Together!

» System: Switch » Buy it from: Online, retail » Buy it for: £39.99 This new sequel from Intelligent Systems cleverly evolves the core WarioWare gameplay while ensuring the minigames remain fresh and hectic. The key difference with Get It Together! is that Wario and his friends are now playable and they all have unique moves. Each new level lets you take a certain number of Wario’s mates into a stage and then you just have to complete the mad minigames as normal as you switch between them. While the main Story mode is rather brief, there’s plenty of longevity thanks to an entertaining set of multiplayer-focused games and the ability to set new scores on the 200+ minigames. Overall, a tremendous package that we’ve found very hard to put…

WarioWare: Get It Together!

Polybius Quarter Arcade Cabinet Charger

» Buy it from: numskull.com » Buy it for: £119.99 The latest arcade cabinet from Numskull Designs is different to its previous cabs. It’s not a game at all, but rather a charging hub designed to power up to ten of your Quarter Arcade cabinets (we were able to test four). As you’d expect from the range, the cabinet is well made and designed to fit in with your existing cabinets with a distinctive backlit marquee and artwork based on what the fabled game was rumoured to look like as well as a universal plug. The screen displays a rolling demo of the infamous game along with sinister sound effects which fits well with the conspiracyfuelled rumours that surround Polybius. It’s certainly expensive for what it is, but if you…

Polybius Quarter Arcade Cabinet Charger

id Software’s acclaimed FPS receives a truly stunning remaster by Nightdive Studios. This is a sensational port particularly on Nintendo’s Switch, running at a blistering framerate and packed with a huge number of extras, including all the original expansion packs, a new campaign by MachineGames, cross-play multiplayer and even mod support. Nightdive Studios has added all sorts of extra options as well, meaning you can enjoy the game however you like, including 4K options on systems like the PC and Xbox Series X. Perhaps the most staggering aspect of Nightdive Studios’ remaster is just how cheap it is, something which should hopefully ensure that this incredible classic gets enjoyed by as many new gamers as possible. >> Score 95%…

PLUG IN THE MULTITAP

While games are great fun, they can become even more enjoyable when played with friends – providing of course, no fierce rivalries break out. Nick, Darran and Tim recall some of their favourite multiplayer experiences from over the years, but will they all remain friends afterwards? DARRAN With Super Monkey Ball on the cover it seems a good time to discuss everyone’s favourite multiplayer and party games. NICK I’ve heard Mario Kart is pretty good. I meet up with friends from a Sonic forum frequently, and we never miss a session on whichever handheld one is out at the time. TIM I bought the multitap for Mega Bomberman on the Mega Drive so my friends could all play. Unfortunately for them I only had third-party controllers. I kept the original…

PLUG IN THE MULTITAP

WAVE Game Studios Bomberman! Especially Saturn Bomberman with up to ten players. ACO Gauntlet Legends (N64) and its expanded port, Dark Legacy (PS2, GameCube). Just some mindless fun to play with my siblings growing up and a good stress reliever. Pedro G When it comes to multiplayer games, GoldenEye on the good old N64 will always be my golden choice. Danny Russell Death Tank Zwei, as friends always underestimate how fun and frantic it’ll be. That theme tune too. Dare I say it… the best seven-player game out there! Bryan Focht I played Just Dance when the Wii first came out with my girlfriend (at the time) and now we are married and have kids. Tom Turner I enjoy playing the original Streets Of Rage with anyone, but for more…

BUSMAN’S HOLIDAY

BIO NAME: Matthew Edwards LOCATION: Sutton, UK FAVOURITE GAME: Street Fighter (series) FAVOURITE SYSTEM: PlayStation 2 COLLECTION WORTH: Somewhere in the five figure range TWITTER: @TheStreetWriter Some gamers are motivated to collect because of their love for a certain system or series. For Matthew Edwards, who currently works as a senior community and esports manager for Capcom UK, his own collection largely started because of the job he had in 2003. “I didn’t really start collecting until I started working at Game,” he tells us. “Seeing all the new and used games that flooded the stock room – in addition to having a steady income and a staff discount – motivated me to start collecting.” While Matthew started off with a Mega Drive, which he received when he was six,…

BUSMAN’S HOLIDAY

THE COVER STAR SUPER MONKEY BALL You can pick Super Monkey Ball up for peanuts, with most GameCube copies starting at £6. The Xbox and PS2 versions of Super Monkey Ball Deluxe are even cheaper, starting at just £2. NODES OF YESOD While we’ve seen Nodes sell for as little as £1.50, its cardboard box iteration typically sells for £15, regardless of system. STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3 A complete PAL copy of Capcom’s fighter sells between £32 and £60. The Japanese version starts at £30 while the US release typically starts at £70. CHUCKIE EGG There’s a lot of demand for the Spectrum version and it fetches as much as £15. Other versions seem less desirable and prices typically start at £2-£3 and rarely go above £10. YAKUZA PAL prices…

My interest in the shoot- ’em-up (or shmup) probably began like it did for many others with the introduction of Space Invaders in the late-Seventies. I can’t remember the exact year I played it but I remember being mesmerised by those little blighters and becoming terrified once they started speeding up as my lone fighter decimated their forces. Space Invaders’ impact was immense, not just on me but countless other gamers, and its success meant numerous rip-offs and sequels followed. I played every one I could. For me the shmup is gaming in its purest, most distilled form. You can often play a good shmup on muscle memory alone and while they’re often incredibly easy to understand and play they can be crushingly difficult to master – in my mind,…

Francesco Maida Space Invaders because it was my first shmup on the Atari 2600 and made me feel goose bumps each time an alien ship was running too close to Earth. I couldn’t have more respect than this for a game that genuinely scared me to death. ThatGrumpyGamer X-OUT for the C64, a shooter where you had to spend money upgrading your ship with better firepower. With three subs to choose from it brought a tactical awareness to the genre. Commocore Ikaruga for Dreamcast is one of my favs. The art style, the black and white polarity switching, the XXIII century feel, it keeps me dreaming. Stephen Llewellyn Xenon 2 – awesome sound, great graphics and my first introduction to the fab Bitmap Brothers. Sam Vernon R-Type – so ahead…

WIN! Every month, one lucky writer-in will receive a spanking copy of either our NES/Master System or SNES/Mega Drive books STAR LETTER OBSCURE TREASURES Dear Retro Gamer, I’ve been reading your magazine for years and one thing I really appreciate is that you don’t just cover classic games. While it’s obviously great to learn how Banjo-Kazooie came to be or how the Oliver twins created Dizzy, there are plenty more games that deserve coverage. Take Rise Of The Robots for example. It’s an absolutely awful game, but its creation remains utterly enthralling to read about and it remains one of my favourite articles from the early days of your magazine. During lockdown I’ve been paying more attention to games that passed me by on their original release and I’ve been…

What multiplayer and party games got everyone laughing (or swearing)? Simon Boggy Burton Super Monkey Ball games on the GameCube. Immense fun, frustration and falling out (in a good way) all in one expertly designed gameplay package. Sublime. Jamie ‘reech’ Walker Bishi Bashi Special on PS1. Nothing can beat the amount of swearing that game has produced in the history of the universe. ZX Geoff Owen Admittedly not a retro game, but the Jackbox series of games are always worth playing at parties. vorn182 Any Mario Kart game. Anyone can pick it up and be playing within minutes. SpectrumNez Mashed on the PS2! Incredible game with a bunch of friends – like a super violent Mario Kart/Micro Machines hybrid! PressPlayonTapeNL There is no better retro fun than Bomberman with four…

HOT CHASE For centuries, scholars have wondered what Konami’s Hot Chase is. Could it be something like Chase HQ, but in a warmer climate? Maybe the target is someone attractive, or a person in need of a good ice bath? The consensus was that the truth would never be discovered, but now we have the technology to skip to the end of the game, so that we might glimpse at a slice of reality. 01 The car has smashed through a barrier and come to a halt. And now, it would appear that the door is opening and someone is going to exit the vehicle. He’s a bit far away, but he already looks completely terrifying. 02 Oh lord, oh no. He’s an absolutely hulking, muscular man – the kind…

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