Compare the Intro: Night Trap

Mega CD/Sega CD
This version clearly has the lowest resolution, colour depth and video size. Still not too bad given the tech involved though, especially for a '1st generation' title. (Sega vastly improved the quality of the TruPak video codec as the life cycle of their 16bit CD add on progressed) <
3D0
Clearly running on superior hardware, the quality of the video footage is significantly improved. A few other differences include removing Sega specific references, and using a different control pad to demonstrate the games control mechanism. 
Sega 32x CD
The enhanced capabilities of the 32x system add on make this version of Night Trap look almost as good as the 3D0 variant. The video takes up a smaller piece of screen than the 3D0 version, but the colour depth looks just as vibrant. Interestingly, this version also omits the Sega specific content.

Chrimbo gaming memories....

Given that we are just days away from another Xmas holiday, I thought I'd sahre some of my finest Xmas gaming memories with you all.

First up:


World of Illusion. This was the first game fire dup on the Sega Megadrive 2 that my brother and I received for mas in 1992. After a  hour epic trek around Manchester city centre trying to find said console (we looked everywhere, literally. No one had any left... except Currys IIRC), and many shop assistants trying to fob us off with a SNES (we were both Sega fans at the time... ah the innocence of youth) we finally got one bundled with Segas excellent Disney co-op platformer.

On Xmas morning at the frankly ludicrous time of 5am (as my mother had to go to work...damned NHS!) we set the system up, slipped the cart into the slot and pressed the power switch.

It is still the only time in almost 30 years of gaming that me and my brother have sat and played together without trying to kill each other. See, thats the magic of Disney!

We followed it with this:



Kept us busy playing in shifts the rest of the day..... Good times.

S.O.R. 2 intro comparison

So, as a bit of a cross platform comparison, I thought Id show youa ll the intro movies from the SMS/GG and SMD/Genesis versions of S.O.R. 2.

First up, the SMD/Genesis:

Now the SMS/GG:

All things considered, the SMS/GG does apretty good job of replicating the original SMD/Genesis intro. The graphics look decent, and the music is recogniseably the same piece. Bravo SMS conversion team. Bravo indeed.

Night Trap

Night Trap is like gaming marmite. You either enjoy it, or you don't. Me, I enjoy it. I find it fun to play (given the inherent gameplay limitations, more on which later), endlessly entertaining to watch in a cheesy 80s horror movie way, and the standout title in a short lived but long remembered genre.

Night Trap was the poster child of the 'FMV'/'Interactive Movie' genre. Quite literally, these games allowed gamers to interact in a fairly limited way with pre-recorded video footage. Obviously, given the nature of the footage, and the limited storage capacity of CD based games systems (which were the primary delivery system for FMV titles), these games tended to be relatively simplistic, and brief in nature.

Night Trap plays out in 'real time', with various streams of footage relating to various parts of the game map playing out concurrently, with you switching back and forth as the games puzzles dictate. The plot is straight out of an 80s horor flick: A group of teenagers congregate at the house of one of their friends, who is a vampire, and it is up to you to prevent their deaths, and defeat both the vampire family, and their semi mutated bretheren, the 'Augers'. You do this by hacking into a sophisticated CCTV and trap based security system. As the game progresses, you have to trap as many of the Augers and vamps as possible, whilst keeping as many of the Teens alive as you can. Let too many Teens die, and its game over.

Despite the simplicity of the core gameplay (press the 'trap' button when the enemies are within range to trigger the trap) the game is pretty damned tough, often with multiple traps needing to be triggered in fairly rapid succession to progress.

The games visuals vary greatly depending on which system you manage to play it on. Bottom of the pile is the Sega Mega CD version, being the lowest powered machine this game appeared on. The video footage is this version is relatively small, and suffers from a very limited colour palette. The 32X, 3DO and PC CD-ROM versions are significantly better looking, with a larger video display, and better colour depth. Frankly though, this barely affects the playing of the game at all. It plays the same on all versions, with the PC edition getting an edge due to the availability of mouse control making it easier to switch from room to room.

And, yes, this game was controversial. It is not, however, remotely as violent or perverted as its reputation may indicate. In fact, you don't see any blood, or nudity at all. If it were released as a straight up film, it would probably be a 'PG'.

So give it a try. You might be entertained, or you might not.

5/5 if you like FMV games. 0/5 if you don't.

The PSP...

I have to admit, I was never that impressed with the PSP when it was announced. Sure, it was clearly the most powerful handheld system devised at that point, but the price and proprietary memory stick formet (with the extra expense this implied) left me feeling distinctly meh.

Fast forward a few years, and I picked one up 2nd hand. And, despite owning a 3DS (the glorious Zelda edition), I find myself using the PSP as my main portable system.

First up, I own a PSP Slim & Lite model (PSP2003 to be exact), which is a distinct improvement over the original model (lighter weight, better screen, faster CPU), running a custom firmware (CFW 6.60 ME-1.6).

The PSP S&L 200X was the second iteration of the PSP released, and tis version was improved based on user feedback based on the original units. The revisions released are as follows:

PSP 100X series 'Phat'
PSP 200X series 'S&L' (Slimmer, lighter, better screen, faster CPU, minor alteration to the facsia and button positioning)
PSP 300X series 'S&L v2' (more minor upgrades to the screen and casing)
PSP 'GO' (No UMD drive. Downloadable games only)
PSP E-1000 (low cost model. Mono sound, no wifi)

The CFW is the important part for my purposes. Using the CFW has opened the system up to the wonders of emulation, which is precisely why my PSP gets such a work out.

Being able to play SMD, SMS, NES, and PC-E games on my bus journeys to and from work is a joy. Busy bus, full of annoying teenage girls and disgruntled office workers? No problemo! Fire up the PSP and play some soothig classic games to block out the outside world.

And I should mention the PSPs own library of games, too. Motorstorm Arctic Edge, Final Fantasy 4 Complete, Monster Hunter, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed are probably the most played in my collection at the minute, but with Crisis Core on the horizon (just waiting til pay-day), I reckon that finishing Zelda on the 3Ds is just gonna have to wait a wee while longer.

And, coming soon I shall be reviewing the various emulators I've been using on the PSP, to show what it does well, and what is does not so well (SNES I'm looking at you..).

Games shops....

Back in the mists of time, when I was a young man (or the 1990s in other words. In the 1980s it was all about John Menzies) I used to spend far more time than was probably healthy in games shops. After completing my morning paper round on a Saturday, and collecting my wages, which were a princely £15 a week, I would head off to one of my favourite gaming haunts. Chief amongst these during this 16bit heyday was my local 'swap shop' Mega Mania.

Mega Mania operated a simple system: They stocked pre owned SMD/MCD games, which were displayed on price banded shelves (£25 was the most expensive, down to £4 IIRC). You could either purchase a game for the listed price, or swap one you already owned for it. Swapping wasn't straight forward though. If your game was worth more than the game you wanted, the swap was free. If it was the same price, you paid £2.50 (IIRC) to swap it. If it was cheaper, you paid the difference. At least, thats how I remember it working.

I would often spend a good hour or so deciding what games I would get that particular week. Mostly, I swapped games as the cost to me was minimal, which mean't more sweets and drinks for the marathon gaming session to come. Occasionally I would outright buy a game. Happy days.

Another shop I often visited was near to my school. It was a small back street job, which stocked a veritable cornucopia of imported delights. Many a lunch break was spent in there, looking at the cool Japanese box art, and wishing I had a working region convertor cart. Indeed, my most striking memory of this shop was the first time I laid eyes on Splatterhouse 3. I wanted that game sooo bad it hurt. Took me another 10 years before I finally played it.....

'New' games

So, I already mentioned that my beloved Saturn is now not reading game discs, which was a bit of a bugger as I had just bought a couple of new games from eBay. Thanks to the miracle of emulation, however, I can play the latest additions to my collection:

Athlete Kings: Segas own (quite good) attempt at the multi sports arcade joystick destroyer.

And its sequel:

Winter Heat: More of the same, but with winter sports instead!

 I'll review them once I've given them a solid playthrough.

Good day/bad day...

Good day: My copy of Athlete Kings arrived!

Bad day: My Saturn has decided to stop reading discs. :(

Guess its back on to eBay next payday to find a new one (again)! grr!

The Goonies (NES) mini review

The first time I came across this game was in the early 1990s, when I purchased a 'famiclone' called the Scorpion 8 from my local video rental shop. There were 2 reasons I picked this game up: firstly I'd never heard of it before and secondly, it was the only game on the shelf with an english language title.

And I'm glad I did. The Goonies turned out to be a reasonably playable little platformer. The game sees you traversing a map which spans locations from the Fratellis hideout to One Eyed Willies galleon, rescuing your friends, and avoiding enemies along the way. Each stage (excluding the hideout and the Galleon) is a bit 'Metroid-esque', in that they are not traditional 'linear' scrolling levels. You have to travel back and forth, accessing different sections of each stage to find all your friends, and the required exit keys.

The game itself plays quite well, with responsive controls. Unlike many platformers of this era, the controls don't feel floaty or loose. Looks wise, the game is acceptable. It certainly does not push the NES in any way, shape or form, but remains pleasing on they eyes. Sonically, the game is ok. A nice rendition of Cyndi Laupers Goonies theme is rendered throughout most of the game, with some basic sound effects for certain actions as required.

I have a deep affection for this game, and the only criticism I can lay at its feet is that it is a bit short. A decent gamer should be able to rock through this title in under an hour, easily.

4/5.

Splatterhouse 2

Splatterhouse 2. This is another example of the almost dead side scrolling beat em up genre. And yes, its another MegaDrive game. So sue me. (As a spooky fact: I bought this game at the same time as I bought SoR2).

The first thing anyone who wants to play Splatterhouse 2 should know is that it is a hard game. Damn hard. So damn hard, in fact, that i don't know of anyone who has managed to complete it without resorting to cheating. If you played the 2011 re-boot, then imagine the pain in the arse side scrolling levels. They were difficult, right? Well, imagine an entire game like that. Thats what this is.

To counterbalance that, however, the game looks pretty good. Whilst far from being one of the best looking SMD titles, the graphics suitably convey the dark, gory game world perfectly. The colour palette is muted, allowing the gore to stand out, and lets be honest, gore is this franchises raison d'etre. Yes, the animation isn't as smooth as most would like, but it works. Zombies shuffle convincingly. Various other hell spawn are suitably, well hell spawny.

The games audio is pretty good too. there are some scratchy but effective voice samples used sparingly, and the music is suitably horror movie-esque. This is another soundtrack that sits on my iPod.

As I said before, this is a difficult game, but it still has a replayability, as you just want to see if you can crack one more stage. The story is suitably b grade. After the events of Splatterhouse, our hero Rick returns to his life a somewhat broken man. the mysterious mask returns to haunt him, claiming that Ricks girlfriend isn't actually dead, but is being held in a 2nd, secret house deeper into the woods. Rick meets the mask once more, and begins his journey to defeat the Dark one and rescue his girl. Simple, but effective.

So, if you want a challenge, give this one a try. I guarantee you wan't complete it in 1 sitting.

3.5/5

Retro memories...

I remember very clearly the Xmas my parents bought me and my brother our MegaDrive. It was Xmas 1992, and we were desperate to have one having spent a good number of hours playing on our Cousins and comparing it to our SMS. The hype around Sonic 2 was probably the tipping point in our campaign to gat one for Xmas, so we found ourselves in Manchester City Centre after school one evening about a week before Xmas.....

We tried everywhere. And we just could not find one for love nor money. Beaties, Currys (who tried to sell us a SNES... which wasn't going to happen), Tandy, and finally we went to Dixons. And there they were. Piled up near the tills with a dedicated member of staff, only allowing one system per customer. We purchased the system, which came with a copy of 'World of Illiusion', and headed out to continue shopping. After more nagging, my parents relented and we went into a discount department store ('What Everyone Wants', iirc), and I used the remainder of my birthday money to snag a copy of 'Another World' to expand our library to 2 whole games!

That week was the longest ever. When Xmas Day rolled around, it was the earliest start I ever had. Thanks to my mother having to be in work for 6a.m. (she worked then as now in the local hospital), we were up for 4.30, opening presents. By 5.15, everything was opened, and my brother and myself were already deep into 'World of Illusion'.

I made over £200 in Xmas money from my family that year. By New Years Day all £200 had been spent on games, care of our local game shop 'Mega Mania'. Every game was pre-owned, and prices began at £5. Between me and my brother we probably bought 25 games. Sonic 2, Streets of Rage 2, Madden 92, Flashback, you name it, we bought it.

Best. Xmas. Ever.

WCW/NWO Revenge (N64 mini review)

WCW/NWO Revenge was quite simply the finest WCW videogame ever licensed. Really. Infact, before THQ secured the WWF (as it was back then) license, this was the best wrestling videogame ever.

Compared to modern wrstling games, the career mode is basic in the extreme. You choose a wrestler (who can be a WCW/NWO star, or one of the developers creations, or indeed your own), and work through a ladder of matches to win the various belts on offer. No storylines, no backstage segments, just match after match.

And the matches? Well, this is still one of the most playable wrestling games ever made. The controls manage to be both simple and deep. Beginners can just pick up and play, mashing buttons and winning matches, whereas more experienced gamers can use the games diverse moveset to play a more refined game.

The game is also pretty good looking, especially for an N64 game. The wrestlers are recognizable and the arenas nice and colourful. The character animation is superb, giving the wrestlers real weigt. Compared to its at the time rival title WWF War Zone, this is miles ahead. The games audio isn't too shabby either, perfectly capturing the mood of mid to late 90s wrestling.

I poured hours into this game back when I was a poor university student, such was the replayability. And once you added in a friend for some 2 player action.... Well, you could lose entire daystrying to establish a 'champion'.

If you own an N64, you should track down a copy of this game as a matter of urgency. This is an essential title.

5/5.

Define: Retrogames

Now this is a tricky one to define. Every gamer has his or her own definition of what makes retro.

I've seen gamers who claim that only the 8-bit systems are 'retro' (NES,SMS,C64,ZX Speccy, etc), I've seen those who have retro cover the 16-bit systems too (SMD/Genesis,SNES,PCE, Amiga, etc). And some even allow the 32-bits in as well (SS,PS,N64...I know, its 64bit but it comes from the same generation and its my blog so nerrr!).

Me? As far as I'm concerned anything up to and including the Dreamcast is retro. Why? Simple, really: If the system is commercially dead (ie you can not walk into a retail outlet such as Game, gamestation, HMV) and purchase a new game, then it is a legacy system and as such 'retro'. I'm sure many folks will disagree with this, which is fine, but that's my definition.

And, for what its worth, I'm ambiguous about classifying the original Xbox as retro just yet. Even though it is 6 years since it was effectively killed off by MS, fir some reason it just does not quite feel 'retro' just yet. The same goes for the GameCube.

Naturally, this definition is subject to permanent fluctuation, as both the Xbox and GC will undoubtedly enter the 'retro' classification for this blog sooner or later, Probably when the WiiU arrives for the latter.

Streets Of Rage 2 Review

Before I start, I shall freely admit that I have a major bias for this game. SoR2 is my all time favorite videogame, bar none. The first time I downloaded an emulator, it was a Megadrive one and the first ROM was SoR2.

So, thta being siad, whats the game about? Well, as with most games of the 16bit era, the plot is fairly simple. Uber-villain Mr X has seemingly returned from the dead to claim the city as his own once more. For cops Axel and Blaze team up with ex pro wrestler Max and Skate, the kid brother of their now kidnapped best friend Adam to rid the streets of Mr Xs goons and free the city once more.

Like I said, pretty basic. The game itself is a side scrolling beat em up, taking place over numerous stages set in various locations, such as the titular streets, a bridge, a theme park etc. Every stage contains a boss and a sub-boss, plus a variety of regular foes to despatch. This is done by walking through the levels and punching the crap out of anything that moves. Each character has their own basic set of moves which generally suffice, but should the need arise, they also have 2 special moves which drain a portion of the players health to activate. And thats it. As videogames go, the basic mechanism of play is amongst the simplest imaginable.

And how does it play? Beautifully. This game is easily the pinnacle of the scrolling beat em up genre. It took the template laid down years before in Double Dragon, then refined in Final Fight, and distilled its essence even further. The difficulty curve was just about right (although the legendary Level 2 boss Jet could be a bit of a bastard first time around), and the game had a real 'just one more go' vibe. The fact that it looked amazing certainly helped, with huge, colourful, well animated sprites being thrown around the screen this was one 16bit title which truly looked like an arcade game in your bedroom, easily surpassing its predecessor, and pretty much every other beat em up on the market (including the SNES version of Final Fight) in terms of its visual beauty. And sonically it was no slouch either. A stunning Yuzo Koshiro soundtrack (which graces my iPod even today, despite my hatred of dance music), mixing typical videoga beats with the then current dance/house music sounds complimented the action perfectly. despite some stunning audio pieces such as this, the MegaDrive has a somewhat unfair reputaion amongst 'retrogamers' for its poor audio capabilities. Paly anyone who says so this games OST, and make them eat their words!

I honestly believe that everyone should give this game a whirl, either by emulation (leaglly of course...) or on the original hardware. A true collosus of a now almost dead genre, this will give you hours of pleasure as a gamer.

5/5. Gaming Perfection.

A bit of my gaming history

So, a bit of my gaming history then:

Like so many Brits of my generation, my first major exposure to home videogames came via my primary school, and the legend that is Grannys Garden on the BBC Model B. Hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of gamers got their first hit from this educational title, either in school IT lessons or through a school computer club.

Following that, I recall playing on my neighbours Atari 2600, and wasting many an afternoon on River Raid, instead of playing outside. Then my parents caved in to my incessant demanding and bought me and my brother a Commodore C16. Many a happy hour was spent on Galaxians and BMX Racer. This was my primary platrom for at least 5 years, supplemented with trips to my friend Pauls house to play on his ZX Spectrum 48k.

It was there that I was introduced to the genius of Sabotuer, and one of the best Speccy games ever: Robocop. Eventually, I persuaded my folks to upgrade my home computer to a ZX Spectrum 128 +2a, complete with crappy light gun and James Bond game. I probably had more games for this oe computer than any other format I have ever owned (and will ever likely own). Between tape trading, copying games I borrowed from the local library, and the magazines of the day.

After this, I abandoned home computers for a while and swithced to consoles, initially owning a Sega Master System. This was followed by my all time favorite system, the Sega Megadrive, and my Nintendo Game Boy. At some point We aquired a Famiclone, namely the Scorpion 8. This was my gaming heyday, and thanks to a brilliant shop near my parents house myself and my brother owned over 150 titles for the Megadrive throughout its 'active' period.

I then returned to home computers, having purchased the first in a long line of PCs (a 386sx with 1mb ram and 40mb of HDD). This was followed by a P100 with 4mb of ram, later upgraed to 8mb and a 3dfx Voodoo 3d accelerator. When i moved away to university, I purcheased my own PC for the first time, a Cyrix MII300 based system to which I immediatley added a Voodoo Banshee. On top of this for maximum gaming fun I purched an N64.

After returning home from my 3 years at uni, I quickly added a PSOne to my gaming setup. This was followed about 12 months later by a PS2. I then graduated to a GameCube (of which I have many fond memories), and my brothers Dreamcast. Finally, I added an Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, DS and 3DS to my setup.

Phew.

In the last 12-18 months I have added a few 'gap-fillers' to my collection: Sega Saturn, Xbox, and GBA.

So, my current collection is:

Sony PlayStation (original grey design)
Sony PSOne
Sony PS2 'Phat'
Sony PS3
Sony PSP
Nintendo Game Boy Advance
Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo Wii
Microsoft Xbox
Microsoft Xbox 360
Sega Saturn

Welcome to 8/16/32bit

Yes, I know, it's yet another retro gaming blog by a 30-something bloke who wants a place to ramble on semi coherently about his long past youth.

I'd like to say that this blog will feature content which is radically different to any others out there, but frankly it probably won't. It will feature reviews, maybe a few features, and I can confirm that it will only be updated infrequently (mostly because I'm a lazy bastard).

So yeah, welcome1