Apart from establishing that the Amiga was far superior to the Atari ST, if you were still playing 8-bit computer games that the Amiga was the way to go and providing an albeit expensive alternative to the fledgling console market, what else have we learned about the Amiga during the merry month of April ?

Well the variety of titles were there. There were plenty of groundbreakers too – Another World, Flashback, Kick Off, Sensible Soccer and Populous to name but a few. The fact that all of these ended up on consoles goes to show the quality of the games and their enduring appeal which very much catered to all markets. The best thing though is that, unlike the PC at the time, the Amiga was very much at it’s best whether it was used for programming, educational uses or games. The PC simply couldn’t hold a candle at this time if you wanted to play games software.

Love At First Sight

So, with a last hoorah we wave farewell to the Amiga with much sadness in the heart, but look forward to May where the Sega Master System steps into the limelight…..

TEAM SUZUKI – It’s probably fair to say that fans of motorbikes were given a pretty shoddy treatment when it came to computer games. The one you’ll all think of is Road Rash, but that had beat em up elements and wasn’t a straight bike game. So Team Suzuki was a rather nice surprise when it rode into view. Using vector graphics, allowing you the choice of mouse or joystick control, the ability to change the view of your rider and the ever popular replay mode were all included and made for a very nice package indeed. The controls take a bit of mastering especially with the mouse, but everything else is done pretty well. By far and away the best bike game at the time, though connoisseurs of more arcadey fare like Hang On will probably do best steering clear.

ULTIMATE SOCCER MANAGER – Being a fan of Premier Manager, which incorporated the Kick Off game engine when going to play matches, and the statistic heavy fledgling Championship Manager series, this was a game I was very much looking forward to. The thing is though, once you get used to a certain style of game, unless one comes along and plays in a way that makes you feel comfortable you tend to feel quite coldly towards other games of that genre. USM is most definitely in that bracket and left me completely unhooked and longing for something else. Its just too laden down with statistics, so you feel the football side is just a small part of it. It does appear to have been done very well and if you fancy being a chairman of a football club it’s probably a good game to practice on. For me though, it’s just too in depth and too stop start. Ultimate Soccer Strategist would be a better title.

VIZ – You know when someone takes a great book and turns it into a fairly underwhelming TV series or movie ? Somehow something gets lost in translation and you end up with a pretty unsatisfactory experience that has you longing for the source material. Well Viz The Game falls firmly and squarely into that hole. There is no denying the original humour of the classic comics is there, as are all the characters. It’s just a series of sub games at the end of the day though and none of them are particularly well done. The main race section is good to start with but laden with unavoidable deaths, which frustrate, and the bonus games for the main characters just consist of joystick waggling. Quite frankly this sort of game was just not up to standard for 1991.

WINGS – Ah the feel of the wind rushing through your hair, the ability to go up-diddly-up and down-diddly-down at your own pleasure. If only those pesky Germans wouldn’t keep engaging you in dogfights and having you go on strafing runs or missions to shoot down barrage balloons. Yes it’s a World War One flying simulator, but from the software house Cinemaware you know you are in for a bit of quality. It’s not your standard shooter either, with a proper storyline and diary sequences which paint the picture of the sort of hell you have entered. The flying scenes are great with quality graphics and little detail touches dotted all around (like your pilot turning his head to show you where the Germans are and the bullet holes appearing in your plane as you get shot at). The strafing scenes are done from an isometric view, and are very well done, as you gun down enemy troops and supplies whilst avoiding shooting Red Cross vans. You can play all the way through too, picking a new name of your own choice for your pilot. At the end of each pilot’s lifespan – and believe me you may find you get through a few – you will be shown a war memorial with your pilot’s names on and their service records, which is very touching. Wings is an experience and by being an arcade style game rather than a simulator is one of the best flying games ever. It’s also one of the Amiga games you must play.

X-OUT – I am no fan of shoot-em ups but X-Out isn’t a bad game to play for a few hours. It conjures up images of R-Type with it’s look and game style which is no bad thing. You can increase your ship’s weaponry with add ons galore, giving you ample firepower to dispose of the alien hordes that come at you. There are some very impressive graphics on display, with an excellent game intro. It all looks superb and plays very nicely indeed. If it does have one flaw it’s that it does take a little getting into, but once you have had a few blasts you should be OK. One of the better shooters on the Amiga and a worthy addition to your collection.

YOGI BEAR & THE GREED MONSTER – I may be scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one, but if you want a colourful, fun, quite large, occasionally difficult and pretty addictive game based on a licence you can do a lot worse than this title. It’s based on the largely forgotten Yogi’s Treasure Hunt TV series. You take Yogi through a number of levels and have to find the key to open a door to release his friends. Along the way you have to collect sweets, which you then use to throw at enemies. It’s very formulaic stuff at the end of the day and hardened gamers will probably breeze through this in no time. However, it’s definitely above average and if you like Yogi and his chums then this is for you as it is undeniably the closest thing you will get to a decent Yogi Bear game.

ZYNAPS – The classic 8-bit era shoot em up comes to the Amiga and my goodness me, did something go horribly wrong. Zynaps was a fun game back on the Spectrum and Amstrad but with the added power of the Amiga everything gets the haphazard treatment. Whilst it looks OK, the controls are far too stiff, which for a game of this genre is not good. How can you move quickly when everything is unresponsive ? The collision detection is ropier than the contents of a rope shop and before long you die another unfair and painful death which has you longing for something better. There was simply no excuse for something like this being churned out when, with a bit of thought, it could have been great. A real disappointment.

When I first got my Amiga it came with just 3 games, of which 2 were awesome Ocean Software releases (Batman The Movie and New Zealand Story). The other was F-18 Interceptor and was my first taste of a flight simulator. It was only enjoyable for it’s San Francisco surroundings and the fact you could roll the plane under the Golden Gate Bridge. Otherwise it was confined to the back of the drawer. The rest of the software was educational and most of it was a waste of time especially the word processor as it needed another 512K worth of memory in order to be able to save things. Thus my first few pages of my first draft of a new Pink Panther movie was never saved. I think considering how the Steve Martin remakes turned out, it was a crying shame mine was never saved and unleashed on the world.

The very package that got me started all those years ago......educational software not pictured

Anyhoooooooo no more crying over spilt milk, time for some more Amiga goodness…….

NEIGHBOURS – You often wonder who thinks up the ideas for games like this. Surely a game based on the incredibly popular (at the time) Aussie soap opera should have been role playing based with some typically bizarre storylines ? Oh no, not on this occasion. It was more apt and therefore more appealing to the kids to have the chance to put Charlene, Henry, Mike, Bronwyn and someone called Matt in a race against each other, using a variety of roller skates, go-karts and skateboards to get from start to finish. You have to avoid children with radio controlled cars, kangaroos, ostriches, Bouncer the dog, Mrs Mangel and Harold Bishop who infiltrate the course and make it harder for you to win. I wish I was making this shit up, but sadly I’m not. There is nothing redeemable at all about this game….well OK the theme tune is vaguely like the original but that’s it. One idea that should have stayed Down Under…….

OPERATION THUNDERBOLT – Operation Wolf had made arcade first person shooters fun again, except it was always going to be hard to replicate the mounted gun on the arcade cabinet in the comfort of your own home. Operation Thunderbolt suffers from the same thing, and this time you can have a mate with you to sympathise if you so wish because this can be a two player experience. The premise is still the same – shoot the bad guys and get to the end of the level, but now you can have a chum with you. It’s all good fun and the Amiga makes a good job of the arcade conversion meaning you feel very happy with the programming. You must make sure it’s played with a mouse though, as always with a joystick games like this are often too difficult and too frustrating. If you’re feeling in the mood to kick some terrorist butt, this is as good a game as any to take out your frustrations on.

PLAGUE, THE – When I first played this I was quite impressed by how it all looked and felt. It was easy enough to play and quite enjoyable. However time has not been kind to The Plague and back in the day I was still able to get through the game quite easily. This definitely has the feeling of a mid 1980’s arcade game with basic moves, basic weaponry, linear levels and an all too easy learning curve. The graphics look great, well drawn but lacking decent animation. The sound effects and music are pretty awful and sadly the whole thing is too damn easy to master. A few tweaks here and there and this could have been a bit good, as such it’s not even averagely average and as side scrolling adventure/shooting games go it’s all a bit bland and crappy. It simply cannot compare to games like the Shadow Of The Beast series it appears to be copying and falls far short on all counts.

QUATTRO SPORTS – The great thing about the Amiga from late 1989 onwards was the arrival of budget games, or older titles re-released at a much more acceptable price. However as with the 8-bit era, budget software usually meant an awful lot of dross floating about that required sifting through to discover the gems. Quattro Sports from Codemasters falls somewhere between the two. BMX Simulator is an OK reworking of their massive 8-bit seller which, despite having tarted up graphics, plays pretty well as you guide your biker round the course in a top down racing style. Advanced Ski Simulator is also not bad, though suffers from some pretty clunky controls and the odd insanely difficult moment. It is pretty solid if unspectacular (you can find a review of the C64 version on the Russian Roulette of Retro). The other two games aren’t much cop. Italia 90, despite having a nifty little training section which is good fun for a short while, is an incredibly awful football simulator with ridiculous game physics (goals from the halfway line are common an the AI of the goalkeepers is woeful), duff graphics and all the lastability of an ice lolly. Pro Tennis Simulator is not much better, using cartoon graphics and a squashed playing area to compensate for a lack of options, a limited selection of shots and a feeling that going out and playing tennis for real is a better option. It’s that last line that does it for me – why on earth would you ever feel the need to play tennis for real ?

RODLAND – Yet another cutesy looking, garishly coloured platform game with a bit of a difference. This time you are armed with a rod of power that, when used, paralyses and traps your enemies. You then have the power to lift them up, whack them a couple of times on the floor before they turn into fruit or collectable items. It’s all done on a single screen, so clear that as quickly as possible and move on to the next one. Fondly remembered by those who played it and largely forgotten now, Rodland does deserve to be mentioned alongside perennial favourites Rainbow Islands and Bubble Bobble because it is good, it is a lot of fun and you keep going back to it. It’s a little on the easy side but you’ll be enjoying yourself too much to notice. Some may find the cutesy look and sugar coated visuals too much – especially if you are a diabetic – but grab a mate and you can guarantee many hours of fun. One of the Top 20 Amiga games you have to play.

SHADOW WARRIORS – Ninja escapades ahoy as you don your ninja suit and go about slashing and hacking bad guys before reaching the end of level boss. Yes we have all seen, heard and played this a thousand times before. This game tries to be a little different, meaning you have a few more moves to hand than just the usual punches and kicks. For example you can swing on lampposts, do somersaults and pick up handy weapons. It doesn’t sound very original and to be honest it isn’t. It all looks very nice, with some very impressive bosses, but the whole thing is on the slow side and, quite frankly, there is nothing ground breaking or new here at all especially if you have already played Final Fight, Double Dragon et al.

This is most definitely a trip down memory lane which I am going to relish. Looking back at some of the old Amiga games I used to play, it’s funny how many come back to surprise you and also some that shock you. I am hoping that the mix of games will at least give you an idea of the wealth of titles, the vast array of styles and a feel for what makes me love this machine so much.

Oooooooo the controversy.....

Just out of interest I have decided to exclude Kick Off 2 from this list, purely because I have banged on about it in the past and I’d like to save it for a footie retrospective once we get to the 2012 European Championships in the summer.

So away we go with our first batch of Amiga games…..

ALIEN BREED – With an overhead viewpoint, which was fairly common back then, and with the sort of title that would be a precursor to horror survival games, Alien Breed was a breakthrough for the software house Team 17. Heavily influenced by the Alien films, you had to battle your way through corridors collecting keys to open doors and escape the level. Your path is blocked constantly by hordes of alien monsters which you have to keep blasting to continue. It’s a real cross between the classic Gauntlet games and Alien the film, but it works. It is tense and dimly lit, the sound effects are creepy and the graphics, while on the small side, are well defined and animated. It’s a tough old game too and was successful enough to warrant a couple of sequels and more recently a couple of current gen makeovers. Make no mistake about it though, this is the definitive Alien Breed game.

BC KID – If you remember the PC Engine console which only ever got a proper full release in Japan but was wowing readers of C&VG and the like back in 1989, you would have seen a prehistoric-themed platform romp called PC Kid. A full 3 years later a version arrived on the Amiga which looked every inch a great conversion of the original game. It’s the usual platform fare with the unique idea that BC Kid goes round headbutting things, rather than the usual Mario idea of jumping on stuff. It’s pretty simplistic stuff and given the late release date (1993 was pretty late in the Amiga’s lifespan) it doesn’t make the best use of the Amiga’s technology. That said, there were many worse platformers around than this but you’d be better off hunting down the original PC Engine version.

CIRCUS GAMES – I’ve always been fascinated by curious games such as this. You get to try your hand at various circus acts such as tightrope walking, riding a horse standing up and flying through the air with the greatest of ease on the trapeze. I guess my nature is to find out just how much fun a computerised version of those things would be, seeing as I have absolutely no interest in doing them for real. Sadly, unless the thrill of endless disc swapping, broken controls, a high difficulty level and the raging feeling inside that you want to punch the next clown you see are how one should feel then don’t play this game. Sometimes it’s best to remain curious and not to know.

DAYS OF THUNDER – Oh joy, yet another film tie in designed to rob you of your cash whilst the game producers sit back and count their profits. Chances are, if you owned an Amiga you’d have a copy of this game because the damn thing was eventually bundled with the machine as part of the various freebie software packages. The only thing this has in common with the awful Tom Cruise film is the racing aspect – so no stolen encounters with Nicole Kidman whilst Maria McKee warbles in the background. The car driving aspect of the game sucks like never before, with everything moving at a rate of 1 frame per second. It’s just too slow to be enjoyable and before you know it it’ll be consigned to memory, never to be resurrected again. Pretty much like the film really. God this game sucks…..

E-MOTION – Right up there in the top 5 of games my Dad has played. That list may stand at perhaps 10 games in the whole history of time. This was a rather novel attempt to make a puzzle game of a different sort, whilst trying to throw a bit of Einstein in there. It’s basically a cross between snooker and the old game Thrust, where you have to link the coloured balls together to clear the screen. Make a mistake and the balls start multiplying. If you are really careless (like me) then you’ll end up with a screen full of balls, a lot of screen slowdown and no chance of completing the level because of the time limit. It is quite a fun game but you get the feeling it’s a bad trip someone had when they dropped a load of acid and then played Asteroids. It gets quite tough quite quickly and the time limits really are unfair. Still if you fancy a weird puzzler then you can do a lot worse than this.

FACE OFF – Ice hockey games really didn’t hit their stride until the EA NHL series on the Mega Drive so this early entry from Anco didn’t quite do the sport justice. You get the feeling, after the success of Kick Off, this was rushed out hoping to have the same winning formula. It’s all a bit rough around the edges, with some lazy programming. The controls aren’t the best and the visuals and sounds are of a very average nature. There are plenty of options but you really need a grasp of the rules, especially so if you play it with the fouls turned on. If that’s the case then you’ll spend alot more time hearing the disc drive load the “sin bin” scene over and over again. Is it a fair effort ? Not really, you are definitely better off with the EA console games than seeking this one out.

The weather in March was lovely. Now we have entered April the weather has turned for the worse. Hail, thunder and torrential rain coupled with colder than average temperatures can mean only one thing. Yes, it’s Car Boot season once again. Ah yes you can almost smell the hotdogs and burgers from the comfort of your own room. Never has there been more fun from being crammed into a tiny field at 7am on a Sunday morning than by going to a booty.

A perfect site for sore retro eyes - there be bargains to be had out there !

So here are a few tips to keep you on your guard during the next few months :

1. Always take a small bag or rucksack with you. I made this mistake many times believing that it was either too late in the season to get any bargains or there won’t be any booters around because it was holiday season. Never underestimate what might be there.
2. Park as close as you can to the car boot as is possible. Nothing hurts more than carrying round a boxed Nintendo Gamecube Donkey Konga set, as I experienced 3 years ago. You can’t always park close but if you do make a large purchase like that don’t man up and think that because you only have a few rows to go it won’t hurt. It does.
3. Get there early. I know some of these things start at stupid o’clock but even arriving an hour after the boot starts means you are likely to have missed something. These places are full of traders and specialists who will be there when Dawn cracks. If you want the best stuff, get there early.
4. Get in early. Almost the same as above. Don’t leave something to chance as in “I’ll come back later”. If it is something you want, buy it there and then. It won’t be there later.
5. Use your own judgement. If you think you are paying too much for something then say so. It’s always best to barter, after all that is what car booting is all about. In most cases the seller will have added a couple of quid to the asking price so if you knock them down they are still getting a good deal. I should take my own advice sometimes – I tend to consider the price and think if it’s fair I’ll pay it. If it’s too much I’ll walk away rather than haggle.
6. Watch out for traders. You’ll know who they are. These are the ones who have priced high and won’t move on it because then you will be eating into their profit margin. Occasionally you can get a good deal if you buy a few things but on most occasions if it is priced highly it is priced to sell and not to be knocked down.
7. Check the condition. This is particularly with disc based games. No one is going to shout at you if you want to look at the state of a disc. If they do, then they have something to hide. Always check the contents of the box too because you might not be getting what you think you are buying, but then again I have had the odd bonus find with an extra disc inside.
8. Be sensible. Nothing pisses people off more at a car boot than someone being aggressive when it comes to haggling on prices. It’ll get you short shrift and leaves a nasty taste in everyone’s mouth. Bite your tongue if someone is being a wanker and move on, don’t get involved and start anything. It will only end in tears. Some of these places are very well marshalled and some I have been to have police officers close at hand.

There are also a couple of tips if you fancy parting with any of your collection :

1. Be realistic with your pricing. Not everyone goes to a booty with £100 in their pocket so just consider this if you think marking up your dusty PS2 with a few FIFA and WWE games at £25 is going to attract many buyers. It won’t and you’ll end up taking it back home. If you want to make that sort of profit then shove it on eBay. Go to a booty, price sensibly so you make a few quid and enjoy it.
2. Beware the trader. We’ve touched on these guys before and they will become very persistent in wanting your stuff before it goes on sale. As soon as you arrive they’ll be hovering round your car, peeking inside and asking questions. You can either do two things – give in or sit inside and wait until they have gone. They’ll want your stuff and will pay only a fraction what you want for it, and you will guarantee walking around afterwards they’ll be selling it on their stall – at a much higher price than you sold it to them. Hold your ground and be strong.
3. Be kind. If someone is trying to rip you off – and this applies to selling as well – just a few kind words and send them on their way. The last thing you want to do is get into a scrap at a booty. If they try and knock down your prices, go with it and drop if you can. If you can’t, say so and be honest. If they get all aggressive about it, just be polite. Don’t let people bully you either – after all unless you are trading or selling for charity you have your own limits set and if they don’t agree with them that is their problem.
4. Do your research. It’s always best to try a few boot fairs as a buyer and see how busy they are. Do some internet searches as well and see if you can find popular sites. The last thing you should do is join a gaming forum and ask people where good ones are. Chances are most retro gamers won’t reveal where they go for fear of an influx of buyers. There is, most definitely, a difference between standing in a field and making a decent wad and standing in a field and making 12 sales all day, believe me I had the latter happen because I didn’t do my research. A good source of information is the local free paper as there always a few adverts about upcoming and long running events

So there you go. This is not a definitive list by any standards, nor should it be taken as gospel. This is simply me passing on my experiences to you. The best advice of all, buying or selling, is to simply go and have a good day and pick up some great bargains or make a few quid.

Now get out there and grab a bargain before they are all gone.....or I get there first

What can be done to prevent the fire sale that sparked the collapse of the GAME group ?

So what has GAME got to do going forward. From the suggestion box these spurt forth like a spurting thing :

• Shutting so many stores was necessary to reduce costs. You cannot continue having 2-3 shops of the same name within yards of each other competing and chasing the same quid. Hopefully now the lesson has been learnt and they should focus on 1 store maximum in any town centre.
• The pricing policy needs looking at immediately. One of the big criticisms of GAME stores was the huge variance in some of the pricing, especially with the second hand stock. Having preowned games on sale for more than brand new copies smacks of laziness. They also need to look hard at the quantities of preowned games they take in, rather than simply take games for the sake of it
• Perhaps the biggest suggestion of all is this : learn from your mistakes. Not everyone is given a second chance like this. Screw it up this time and it really will be GAME over.
• Assess the competition. The pricing strategies of HMV should be lesson enough to ensure that you don’t follow their path. CEX specialise in mainly second hand stuff. The supermarkets will always have the power to offer better deals but most gamers would rather go to a game specialist. Set out your own stall and be unique, but not unique enough to alienate customers.
• Finally there will be many who would have happily seen GAME go to the wall. The suppliers pulling out before administration was viewed in some quarters as “turnabout being fair play” Mend those bridges and be less like the old GAME.

What do I know ? Well not much but I do know we still have a specialist game retailer on the high street who Mum and Dad and Nan can go to on birthdays and Christmas and get the Call of Duty game you wanted rather than the Call of Juarez game you had never heard of.

Its happened to us all which is why we need specialist stores around to prevent it from happening

Embrace change and take the second chance. From the ashes a phoenix can rise but it is entirely within your own destiny. Screw it up this time and no tears will be shed.

NOTE : Since I wrote this article back on 2^nd April, it has been well documented on various forums that GAME have not learnt a thing. Game prices for pre-owned items are back up to ludicrous levels, so much so that you can buy brand new copies at other stores for anything up to £10 less than GAME are selling second hand.

People are now trading back to GAME all the titles they got in the “spring clean / fire sale” a few weeks ago. Gamers are boasting how they have been able to make £30+ in some cases by trading back to GAME what they previously tried to get rid of.

Finally, probably the worst example has been items being put on the shelves with damaged boxes or missing instructions – what would be classed as seconds – and put on sale for quick removal. One store was reported selling these games at higher prices than the pre-owned stock they already had.

Perhaps, after all this, they do deserve to go to the wall after all…………..

Oh no, not again......

Games, games, games. Tonnes of them around and I choose to play all the really old ones. Well someone has to and seeing as I am not overly fond of the way the current games market sits in terms of getting to grips with the modern titles and methods of playing, simply give me a joypad, minimal fire buttons and no motion sensor at all and I’ll be dead happy.

It’s part 2 of this month’s Mega Drive games reviews………….

Sound advice that......

HARD DRIVIN’ – I have played some pretty yucky versions of this vector graphic driven driving game but actually the Mega Drive version isn’t all that bad. The big attraction of Hard Drivin’ when originally in arcades was the big sit down cabinet and the track design. Of course you lose that impact on the home versions, but while most of those suffer with a lack of speed, this version doesn’t so much. Sure it’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination – the handling is abysmal and there is zero lastability beyond a few plays – but it’s worth a look if you have fond memories of the original arcade game.

ITCHY & SCRATCHY – You’d have thought this was one licence, with the emphasis being on cat and mouse violence, that would be a pretty good game but you’d be well off the mark. Twitchy controls (Itchy, Scratchy and Twitchy would be a better title), awful music and mind numbing gameplay leave this Simpson spin off stuck somewhere rather unpleasant. Not even fans of the show will get anything from this, and yet another Simpsons licence is tarnished with the crappy brush.

JAMMIT – I had absolutely zero hope for this digitised graphical, one-on-one basketball game. For me basketball is one game that really had problems transferring from playing the game to playing the video game version. I am no fan of NBA Jam, but that is a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and therefore isn’t a bad game to play. Jammit though did surprise me. It slowly lured me in as I played game after game, constantly losing and having all my street cash and street cred taken from me. It’s kinda like the film White Men Can’t Jump, where you play for cash. Once you work out the controls, which are a bit iffy, you get into the flow of things. Not a great game, but not a bad one.

JUNGLE STRIKE – Redefining the art of isometric shoot em ups and providing some of the best side-on shooting action since Zaxxon, the Strike series of games were massive sellers, back in the day, on the Mega Drive. Taking control of a helicopter and progressing through masses of missions, each more tricky than the last, making sure you don’t run out of fuel, avoiding enemy gunfire and ensuring once more that peace can rule the world, this is one game all Mega Drive owners must own. It’s gorgeous to look at, the controls are great and it plays like a dream.

KING OF THE MONSTERS – Godzilla-type monsters battle each other in a Street Fighter style fighting contest that has you wishing that they had used Godzilla instead. Clunky controls don’t help things and whilst on the whole it looks fairly good, the limited moves you have at your disposal means the thing is quickly reduced to frantic button pressing in the hope you land your blows first. I couldn’t find anything redeeming about this and as such my quest to find a fighting game I enjoy must continue because there isn’t an awful lot to see here.

LETHAL ENFORCERS – Badly showing it’s age in 2012, this was quite the revolutionary Operation Wolf style run and gun when it first came out in the arcades. Helped (or hindered) by the use of digitised graphics, you must shoot the bad guys as they appear whilst avoiding hostages and members of the public who, as always in this type of game, tend to get in the way. You even take part in shoot outs whilst on a moving vehicle, though this sadly is where the game starts to fall away as the amount of bad guys it appears you can fit in one standard 4 door car numbers more than I have fingers. It’s fun but repetition soon gives way to boredom and before long you’ll be reaching for the off switch. Fun for it’s day but only recommended as a curiosity now.

May 2012 make all your dreams and wishes come true

As the holiday season starts to wind down and Retrobear finds he can no longer put off standing on those scales just to see how much he has eaten in 2 weeks, he takes time out to reflect on the year 2011 and looks forward to 2012.

Well it has been a funny old year for yours truly, especially when you consider at the start of 2011 Retrosection didn’t actually exist. We rose from the ashes of the now-defunct Gamefancier site and it’s been a good move. True, perhaps I haven’t been here posting as much as I should have done but I think overall there has been enough content on the site over time to give you a feel of what we are all about here.

2011 has really been a good year for retro. More and more games are being “re-imagined”, or as I prefer to call it “tarted up” for the newer generation so they can enjoy HD renditions of old retro classics. The rise of mobile gaming and the iPad has also seen an influx of re-releases with very mixed results. Whilst there is something that appeals to the gamer in me about the thought of playing Sonic on my mobile as opposed to getting a Mega Drive all hooked up, there is also something that doesn’t appeal to me about it – in the fact I enjoy getting a Mega Drive all hooked up in the first place.

The future of gaming is portable - play Mario and answer the phone at the same time

Retro has certainly caught on, and in many ways that’s good because it shows that even with all the tech we now have available, people’s memories of older games from their childhood are no longer memories and the hardened collectors amongst us will track these old classics down. The result of that is the bad thing : all of a sudden retro has got rather expensive. My outing to the London Gaming Convention in December really brought that into perspective. It is one thing to pick up a few loose carts from a car boot for a couple of quid, but if you want your retro complete with boxes and instructions and in the mintiest of mint conditions, get your wallets out because it ain’t cheap.

Retro has really become collectable in the last 12-18 months - expect to pay top dollar for the good stuff

2011 wasn’t such a good year for me retro-wise as previous years, though my old mate Andy did probably produce the moment of the year for me by giving me a load of his old C64 tapes he had from when we were kids. They go on the Commodorathon pile which as I am sure you are aware still needs whittling down. On the whole though the high prices have put me off a little and whilst 2009 and 2010 produced many bargains this year the retro was thin on the ground, or if around, vastly over priced. Still, there are bargains to be had out there so keep looking !

The Commodorathon will return in 2012 - from a games pile much larger than this impressive collection

So what does 2012 bring us ? Well it will be interesting to see how the current gen market gets on. Gamers are being hit hard by the high prices and Nintendo’s own goal with the 3DS launch has been a lesson harshly learned. The 360 must surely be nearing the end of it’s life, the PS4 is no longer a hushed whisper (the PS3 has had a year to forget following the hacking of the PSN earlier this year) and the Wii-U is just round the corner. Will anyone else try and shoehorn themselves into the market ? Highly unlikely. Will 3D gaming take off ? Well whilst the reviews for Mario Kart and Super Mario have been good, it will come down to how many units they can shift. And has motion sensor gaming had it’s day ? Have Move and Kinect caught the imagination the Wii did when it was launched ? I am not so sure…

An explosive year for games and gaming ? We shall have to see...

As for Retrosection – well the Commodorathon will resume, I have a large stack of games to get through across all formats and I can always offer opinions on subjectes about gaming. So yes there is no excuse and I fully believe that 2012 will be a very busy year for yours truly – if I can’t find the time, I shall make the time. Suddenly lunchtimes at work will be very productive !

So a Happy New Year to you all, keep it retro and see you on the ice !

RetroBear never had a paper round when he was little. It wasn’t the fact he couldn’t wake up early enough, nor was it the fact that he didn’t think he could handle it. No it was more down to the fact that he really couldn’t be bothered……

Don't you just love games that do exactly what they say on the title screen ?

If, like me, you were an avid tea time follower of the game show First Class when you were a child then that would have been probably the first time you saw such NES games as 720 and Hyper Sports. This quiz programme, played by slightly older children than I was at the time, was mostly forgettable except some bright spark at the BBC had the idea of including a video game section. After all, video games were just beginning to catch on again and what better way to get them out and exposed than on national television ?

One other game that was heavily featured was Paperboy, and this seemed rather more fun than the others. By this time the arcade version had been around for a couple of years, so if you knew your arcade games then you’d know all about this game. Just to make sure that it was etched in the memory, the arcade cabinet had handlebars attached to it for a more authentic feel. The object of the game was to ride your bike up the street, firing newspapers at houses. You would have a set number of papers to deliver to the right houses, whilst new subscribers could be gained. Depending on how well you did at the end of the day determined how many more or less houses wanted your paper.

Pick up the bundle of paper, avoid the kid on the go-kart who is going to drive at you and fire your newspaper into the mailbox - not much to do then in this one....

Along the way there were a whole manner of obstacles to avoid – stray remote controlled cars, dogs running off their leash, breakdancers (yes this was the mid 1980’s remember), joggers, people on bikes and when you came to a road crossing, cars. Along the way you could collect bundles of newspapers to replenish your dwindling resources. If you weren’t careful or accurate with your aim, you could break people’s windows, which was not a good idea if you were aiming for their letterbox. Complete your street and you’d be able to attack the assault course at the end, firing your spare newspapers at targets whilst going over speed and water jumps.

Paperboy was converted to just about every system imaginable back in the day and by 1991 the final versions for Game Gear and Mega Drive came out. The Master System version was released in 1990 and I am not playing it for any reason other than it was there. It’s the only version I have, to my knowledge. It’s a very colourful and faithful representation of the arcade original, although as with a lot of Master System games the music is horrendous. One of the problems the game had was just how hard it could be. You had to keep a constant speed up, especially on the bonus assault course at the end. If you went too slow you’d end up crashing or not making the jumps. You also had to time your passage past obstacles because if they moved quicker than you, you had no chance.

Always something going on in this game - you have to keep your eyes peeled, your speed up and your papers delivered otherwise its off to the job centre

It’s a very fun game and definitely worth digging out if you have a copy. There was even a sequel which was only for home computers instead of an arcade follow up release. If you have an XBOX 360, mobile phone or I-Pad then you can also get versions of it for those. It’s a very widely available game. 25 years on from it’s original release, Paperboy can still cut it.

VERDICT : This is a news flash – play Paperboy, it’s jolly good fun.

NOTES : Wow – a penny under £7.00 will net you a complete copy from Amazon, whilst the same deal on eBay will set you back £3.95

UP NEXT : One of my fave C64 games becomes an NES disaster – Commando.

Plenty of choice for all gamers of all tastes, shapes and sizes...

As you’ll know from my scribblings here at RetroSection I am what you would class as a retro traditionalist. That is I don’t like anyone messing around with how things were. I don’t have anything against the silver version of the Atari 2600, I just prefer the original woody model. I love the Gameboy Pocket but I also like the chunky feel of the grey, 4 AA battery original. So it is with interest that over the last few weeks I have been tentatively dipping my retro toe into the world of Plug N Play.

Why, aside from the fact they were cheap at the car boots ? Well, while the cat may wish to hide from curiosity, I’d much rather go and kick it in the shins and take my chances. I should hate myself for playing these types of devices, which plug into the back of your TV set and run off batteries. You get a retro styled arcade stick and a couple of fire buttons and that’s it. You can’t get more basic and simplified than that.

Now let’s be honest – Plug N Play is not a new idea. It’s been around for absolutely yonks and is not a bad way of getting yourself into or back into retro gaming although, depending on where you get the device from, could be a little more costly than you imagine. A quick scan of eBay shows you can get versions of Fifa 96 (why ?), Street Fighter II and a selection of games from the Intellivision console (mental note – Mrs B’s mum has got this and I must borrow it when we go down next). I have actually got 4 of these and I’ll let you in on what they are :

Tell me that handheld does not evoke memories of old arcade cabinets

Space Invaders from Taito – Oh how the word Taito brings back so many memories of great coin-ops of the past. This though is the granddaddy of them all – the original and still the best version of Space Invaders. But wait – you also get Qix, Lunar Rescue, Phoenix and Colony 7 on the same console ! 5 retro arcade classics at the touch of a button.

Namco Plug N Play– Another of the arcade masters with 5 of their classics ; Pac

You don't get more retro than that joystick

Man, Galaxian, Dig Dug, Rally X and Bosconian. I’ll admit to not having played the last one but the first 4 took me back to a bygone era. Namco were really the Kings of Arcade back in the early days and it doesn’t get much better than this.

Or that one

Namco Plug N Play 2 – What’s this ? Perhaps this was aimed at female gamers as it contains Ms Pac Man, along with Pole Position, Galaga, Xevious and Mappy. Again I’ll admit to knowing bugger all about the last title but I have spent quite a long time getting to grips with Pole Position again.

C64 Direct To TV– Now this is scary. It just shows how much technology has

Looks and feels just like the old Zipstick Pro

advanced when you can fit 30 C64 titles into one device. By no means is this a definitive collection (as it is limited to releases from Hewson and Epyx, plus one title from Image Works) but some of the games include Summer Games, Winter Games, Impossible Mission, International Karate, Paradroid, Cybernoid, Uridium and Speedball. Definitely one to get if you remember fondly the time you spent with your C64

As I said it doesn’t end there – there are lots of different Plug N Play devices out there catering for pretty much every taste. There is even a Namco Pac Man-only version, with 4 different varieties of the game and a Pac Man styled joystick. All the games are as they were in looks sound but most important of all, in playability. Hunt these down, plug them in and take yourself back to a more fun, warm and fuzzy time…..

PS I came across this on the internet and thought it was worth sharing :

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/darlington/9158799.Darlington_suspect_package_was_old_computer_console/?ref=mr

Seriously - how much ????

I know it’s been a while but it has been a very busy period in my life. So much has gone on in the last couple of months it’s almost as if my hobby of retro gaming has taken a back seat to some more pressing issues. The good news is that I am able to report that once again I am back up to speed and shall be posting articles as regularly as I did before.

For now the Commodorathon is taking a back seat. Not through lack of interest but simply through lack of time which I don’t have now that I did then (if that makes sense). I shall pick this up again when the time is right as it is still my goal to play through all 400+ games that I have. Maybe it was one shit Activision coin-op conversion too many that wore me down – after all not too many software houses of the 1980’s had such a bad record for ruining great arcade games as Activision.

Besieged by piles.....of games

By now I should have added to my many games with rich pickings from car boot sales. I have either been desperately unlucky or, as I fear, those articles posted in the Daily Mail and The Sun last year about how much they claimed old computers and games are worth have now filtered their way down to the fields of Britain. When I started my collecting in 2009 many great things could be found for a very reasonable price. Now I am faced with masses of PS2 games priced at £5.00 each or ridiculous pricing because people believe these things are worth a fortune.

Seriously if one more person says “I can get more for it on eBay” I’ll scream. If you can get more for it there then why not do it ? Surely it must be a better option for you to stay in your warm bed on a Saturday/Sunday morning, rather than getting up at the crack of dawn and make your money that way than purposely try to fleece some poor soul who believes they are getting a good deal. You know who you are, and let me tell you this : real retro gamers know when they are being taken for a ride. Not only are the prices on eBay falsely driven up, but now you can’t even go to the car boot and bag a bargain. It seems that this is also the problem with charity shops – hey I know it’s for charity but some of the prices are way, way off the mark.

He could be so good to you, only if you want him to

Before you think I am being a self-righteous prick about all this and appear to be crying into my soup that I can no longer buy a Sega Saturn unit (no power lead and no guarantee it would work, which it did as it happens) for £1, I’m not. It just means my hard earned money goes on other things or stays in my pocket. That and the fact I have packed up smoking means I am better off. I have lots of games and machines to play on so I am sorted. Yes it’s nice to add to them but I know when I am buying at the right price. Given the fact I have just purchased a house means that cash is at a premium so any new additions to my collection are going to have to be few and far between.

So where does that leave RetroSection going forward ? Well rather healthily actually. There are plenty of games to plough through, I have an extensive 16 bit console ROM selection and also the MAME arcade programme. Put all those together with a few known sites for playing retro games online and there is plenty for me to talk/rave/rant about. It’s just taken me a bit longer than I would have liked to get back to where I wanted to be.

So stay tuned, as someone once said – RetroSection is alive and kicking !

Playing games and kicking ass - that's the only way to be