Bringing Past To Present
Posts tagged Amiga 500
30 Days of Gaming – Game 17 : Treasure Island Dizzy (Amiga)
Nov 22nd
Dateline : 17th November 2011
All aboard the good ship Retrosection, and after swigging a bottle of rum and counting his pieces of eight, RetroBear considers the continuing adventures of an egg named Dizzy complete with nautical theme…..
30 Days Of Gaming – Game 12 : Turbo OutRun (Sega Megadrive)
Nov 16th
Dateline : 12th November 2011
The law of diminishing returns applies as RetroBear sees how far a concept can be watered down to the point where it becomes a tarnished memory of a one classic game….
I am sure we all remember the original OutRun game in the arcade. You could hardly miss it especially the big sit down version which looked awesome. The feeling of driving through the USA in a huge red big Ferrari is an endearing image and cemented the game in the annals of video gaming history. Yes it wasn’t all that new a concept – time trial racing – but done with such panache it was hard to ignore.
Then it all went horribly wrong. The home conversions handled by US Gold of all people – a software house with a notorious reputation of screwing up arcade conversions on a level matched only by Activision – ranged from the awful to the downright insulting, with most versions at least missing some parts of the original game.
The Amstrad version arrived nearly 12 months later than the rest and had no sound, the C64 version was pale and lifeless and whilst the 16 bit versions were OK they were nothing special. Arguably the best conversion appeared many years later on the Dreamcast.
With these abominations, so began the bastardisation of OutRun. There was OutRun 3D on the Master System which was pointless unless you had the near £40 3D glasses to go with it. Battle OutRun was OutRun only in name and bore no significance to the original., having more in common with Chase HQ. Then there was OutRun Europa which swapped the scenery for more European locations. Don’t call us, we’ll call you was the verdict of gamers everywhere. It can be argued that until we got to the rather splendid Outrun : Coast to Coast on the PS2 and XBOX, that the spirit of OutRun was found again
Take Turbo OutRun on the Mega Drive. The simple idea being that your Ferrari is now armed with a handy turbo boost enabling you to get to checkpoints quicker. Again it is a simple time attack game and for that it is OK, but it’s not OutRun. You don’t need a turbo boost and you never did with the original. The Mega Drive version is a pretty ropey affair with average graphics, some pretty poor road effects and awful in game music which considering some of the musical masterpieces on this console – Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage – is unforgivable.
One hopes now that OutRun can be laid to rest and that we only remember the original game and the excellent PS2 and XBOX games. Otherwise Turbo OutRun is nothing more than a car game with a flash car and a turbo boost to stop you from reaching for the off switch.
VERDICT : Left in the pits and retiring early once it gets going, Turbo OutRun truly sucks exhausts fumes to a suicidal level
NOTES : Copies available on Amazon start under £2.00 whilst on eBay you’ll have to pay around £5.00.
UP NEXT : One for grapple fans – Super Wrestlemania on the SNES.
30 Days of Gaming – Game 11 : Chase HQ (Amiga)
Nov 13th
Dateline : 11th November 2011
Now this is more like it. Plenty of tyre screeching mayhem, putting the foot to floor and chasing criminals at high speed before ramming them off the road and arresting them. Boy oh boy was Chase HQ a great arcade game ! Surely Ocean can’t screw this one up ? The most anticipated arcade conversion of 1989 comes to the Amiga, and boy is RetroBear in for a shock……..
30 Days of Gaming – Day 4 : Rainbow Islands (Sega Master System)
Nov 4th
Dateline : 4th November 2011
Time for a spot of island hopping, clad in a pair of rather snazzy blue dungarees. It’s the sequel to one the best platform games ever but how will it stand up under the critical eye of Retrobear ? Zippy and Bungle need not apply because this Rainbow Island is a puppet free zone…..
30 Days Of Gaming……
Oct 31st
Hear ye, hear ye. Guess who’s been off on one of his sabbaticals again ?…
I made a promise a few months ago to keep coming back and posting stuff on a regular basis. Shortly after that I decided to do a piece on Football Manager and that’s pretty much where I have been since. Yep I dug out FM 2055 and have spent a lot of my spare time playing that.
Therefore I am devoting some of my run time each day to sit down and play one game for each day in November. It could be any format or any genre (not football management as I have had enough of that for now) but that’s my aim. I’ll post my thoughts on here when I have played the game and let you know how I get on, and also anything else that springs to mind.
So RetroSection still lives, it’s just the Retrobear needs to sort himself out a bit better in the future…..
RetroReview : Top Gear Top Retro
Aug 30th
Sunday nights are not the same without spending an hour in the company of Clarkson, May and Hammond. No they aren’t my solicitors but the presenters of BBC car-fest Top Gear. The series is once again off air but they recently posted to their website 10 retro driving games that they felt were the best. Retrobear loves a challenge and in true Top Gear fashion he picks 10 other games worth taking round the test track….
If you’re a fan, like me, of Top Gear then you might be pleased to see a list appear on their website. Finally after years of not discussing the notion of driving games against real driving (other than to say it doesn’t compare), this week a Top Gear Retro Computer Driving Game list appeared. Now you can see for yourselves what Clarkson, Hammond and May rate as the best games ever made for retro computers, although it might not actually be them and may be one of the website staff writers. Anyway if you are interested here is the link : http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/retro-games-2011-08-09
RetroReview : Views From The Dugout
Jul 30th
No amount of shouting, gesticulation, pointing, waving arms around and wearing a 3/4 length sheepskin coat has any affect on the outcomes of a football management game. Just don’t tell RetroBear that, especially as he wears a suit when playing……yes, it’s the wacky world of PC footie management games.
Way, way back when I was still making my way through the educational minefield (College) I happened to stumble across a game which through one form or another would stay with me for the next 13 years. Other things I have picked up and either dropped or gone back to and wished I hadn’t, but there was something about this one game. I just couldn’t get enough of it no matter how hard I tried. It would come back to batter me senseless at university where it was a toss up between “extra reading” or playing this game. My degree (3rd Class) indicates what won my heart.
Retro Reviews : Odds, Sods, Bits and Bobs
Jul 2nd
You can almost smell the retro in the air. The insane on screen action of an arcade classic, another crappy film tie in and the return of the Blue Blur. RetroBear trips the light fantastic and goes on a well timed rummage through some of the games in his collection…..