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

As birthdays come and go, every now and then one of them is a milestone. Be it 16, 18, 21, the dreaded 40 and the even more dreaded 65 – only one stands above them all. That is the Big One and RetroBear joins in the centenary celebrations of Retro Gamer Magazine…..

Happy 100 Retro Gamer !

Usually I shun birthdays as I have no wish to be reminded just how old I am getting and how young I actually used to be. However there is one birthday I shall be raising a crafty glass to this week and that is the milestone reached by Retro Gamer magazine – it’s sparkling, glittering 100^th issue. 8 long years in the making and the publication is still going from strength to strength, packing loads of pages with lots of articles about the games from the past.

When it started in 2004 there would have been much trepidation as to how successful a magazine could be, especially with the subject matter being in the past. There must have been a demand for it, but given how collectable retro gaming has become in the last 2-3 years there can be no doubt that as us gamers who remember all the old games get older we wish to be reminded of just how much fun computer games were back in the day.

The very first issue of Retro Gamer - which is being reprinted and available as a free gift with Issue 100

So how can a modern publication, now published monthly as opposed to quarterly and surviving the collapse of their original publisher in 2005, find articles to fill their pages with. Well it’s quite simple really. There is a news section, a calendar featuring key dates in gaming history, a look back at 2 months in retro history, game reviews, players guides, arcade reviews for those gamers who restore old cabinets. There are also future classics featuring games which will be retro in the future, the compulsory letters page, interviews with programmers, games designers and retro gaming figureheads and reviews of new games, as well as retro reissues.

If you throw all that together, as well as a series of articles looking in depth at how retro consoles came about, you get an idea of the wealth of information that is out there. Many of those previously in the computer and video game industry have stepped forward to be interviewed and talk about their experiences back in the day. The sheer passion they still have comes out in interviews and articles. They must be surprised as anyone at just how their comments and insights are lapped up by gamers, both old and new.

I have been a subscriber for nearly 3 years after picking up my first issue back in the summer of 2008. While I haven’t necessarily been interested in all of the articles and can certainly claim to have gone back and read some of the ones I skipped just because I wanted something to read, a huge proportion of the magazine is of great interest to me and a fabulous read. In the day and age of blogs and websites such as these, one must bow down and accept that Retro Gamer magazine is the bible for gamers from all works of life.

Issue 53 - ah yes the delights of Track and Field, or as it is more commonly know, Sore Wrists and Broken Joysticks

For someone brought up on the likes of Zzap64, C&VG and Amiga Format, Retro Gamer has been the first publication for a very long time I have wanted to read again and again and again.

Gentlemen, RetroSection proudly salutes you and toasts you to 100 more fabulous issues.

Here;s to another 100 !

To close the February Free For All – which in all honesty has been a bit of a disaster content wise but Bear with me because the Mega Drive is up next and I absolutely love that machine – I thought it best to close out with another patented RetroSection list. They are easy to do and don’t require too much taxing of the old brain cells. I can feel the writer’s block gradually lifting and personally cannot wait to get my teeth into the mass of Mega Drive games that await me.

This game is like the February Free For All - a bit of a disaster.....

So join me as we bid farewell to February and welcome the much warmer, brighter and altogether more appreciated March with some more retro musings…..

WHY CAN’T I GET ON WITH……

STREET FIGHTER II – Hailed as one of the best beat em up games ever, and hailed by me as a button mashing nightmare of a game. I for one cannot and will not see the appeal of this side-on fighting game. I resent having to know all the button combinations beyond kick and punch. Too may of my formative years were spent being pulverised by people who knew what they were doing. Nothing was guaranteed to piss me off more than another night playing Street Fighter II on the SNES. Just for the record I tried to play it the other night…..and still couldn’t do any more than punch or kick.

SUPER MARIO KART – It might seem like this is turning into a hatred for all things Nintendo but I can assure you it isn’t. No matter what version of Mario Kart it is, I simply cannot think of anything worse – well maybe a night in playing Street Fighter II. If it wasn’t for the total unfairness of it all, I might like it. My friends have always agreed that there is a certain unpredictability about it and friendships have been strained because of it. I will admit a liking for Double Dash on the Gamecube, however, but that version along with Mario Kart 64 are regarded by many as inferior to the original Super Mario Kart – therefore meaning that I only like crappy versions of Mario Kart, which in my opinion is most of them.

WHY DOES THIS NOT EXCITE ME LIKE IT SHOULD…..

THE PLAYSTATION VITA – Seriously I am about as unexcited about this as I am excited to be getting a new motorised polisher for my car. The 3DS died on its arse when it was launched and only now, because of Mario releases, is it beginning to get noticed. Time will tell on the Vita but for me it’s not something I care two jots about.

N64 AND PS1 GAMES – Some of these games look absolutely  horrible now compared to when we first came across them back in the day. Two examples spring to mind – Turok on the N64 and Spiderman on the PS1 (Probably because I have played these two fairly recently). When Turok first came out it was well received but playing it now sees you running round in a foggy atmosphere with not much going on. Ditto for Spiderman which is ruined by some god awful polygonyish graphics at the start of the game. I know it’s meant to be a comic book but some of this is barely playable. Why have games like these aged so badly? Are they now more unplayable than less technically advanced games i.e. Frogger? Pop a PS1 game in your PS3 and you’ll soon find out.

IT’S TIME TO RUMBLE – SOME REASONS WHY SOME THINGS ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS (AND OTHER FANBOY ARGUMENTS)

WHO WOULD WIN A FIGHT BETWEEN :

C64 V SPECTRUM V AMSTRAD

The C64 had the most awesome music chip of all time
The Amstrad came with a green screen monitor
The Spectrum was responsible for a whole generation of gamers and coders

RESULT : I like music so the C64 just takes it from the Speccy

MEGA DRIVE V SUPER NINTENDO

The Mega Drive came in black whilst the SNES was sort of beigy cream
Sonic AND Mario – two killer games and practically inseparable
The SNES had Mode 7 tucked away to give some fairly impressive 3D stuff
The Mega Drive was the console which revolutionised home gaming and had at least a 12 month head start on the SNES

RESULT : Close to call but I’d have Sega’s black beast winning by a nose

AMIGA V ATARI ST

The Amiga, while occasionally suffering from lazy porting of games from the ST, was superior in graphics, sound and capabilities
The ST was crap

RESULT : Duh…...

GAMEBOY V GAME GEAR V LYNX

Although the Game Boy was monochrome it actually made the portable gaming market its own – and came packaged with Tetris
The Game Gear ate batteries and was the size of a small house
The Lynx did exactly the same as the Game Gear, and didn’t even have a TV Tuner

RESULT : Are you mad ? Game Boy by a distance

PS1 V SEGA SATURN V N64

Sony showed that you could make games using CD’s that were pretty good
The Saturn suffered because it was too late to market, causing irreparable damage to Sega
The N64 was hampered by being cartridge only which came in those silly cardboard boxes. Some games needed you to invest in an expansion pack because the cartridge was bigger in memory terms than a stock N64 could handle

RESULT : No looking beyond the PS1 on this one. The N64 comes a close second though.

DREAMCAST V PS2 V XBOX V GAMECUBE

The Gamecube and the Dreamcast could not play DVD’s
The XBOX was made by Microsoft, which in turn wasn’t all that bad a thing as people made out at the time
The PS2 was first to market, took hold of it and never let go – they were still making games for it in 2011 – and it outlasted all it’s rivals
The Gamecube never took off after a lacklustre launch
The Dreamcast never took off because Sega were last to market and despite making a damn fine machine, had no takers
The XBOX was made by Microsoft which turned out not to be as good a thing as people made out at the time

RESULT : PS2 takes it with the rest fighting amongst themselves for second place.

I’d like to make one thing clear about this retro alphabet thing – by no means at all is this a definitive list. There are going to be omissions, this list is simply a start ; a sort of launchpad if you will. It is something I want to add to as time goes on and yes it will eventually see names like Mario, Sonic and Zelda in there. However if you are a regular RetroSection-ite you will know that we prefer to look at some of the more obscure as opposed to the mass marketed.

Prey continue……..

It does help to be a little different

F IS FOR :

FROGGER : Static but vertical jumping game where the aim is to help a family of frogs cross a dangerous road, then a dangerous river. Often imitated but never bettered, Frogger is one of the most recognisable and copied games of the early days of video games. Yet whilst characters such as Pac-Man and Mario are constantly reinvented, when the Frogger character strays from the norm it’s a disaster. Anyone remember the PS2 3D adventure ? Hmmm me neither…

FLASHBACK : Having the distinction of being both French and weird, this beautiful looking game has you cast as Conrad who must rediscover his memory after waking up in a jungle and eventually will end in deep space. The game looks gorgeous with wonderful roto-scoped character movement, the gameplay is fluid and the whole experience is one where jaws drop constantly. It blew 16 bit owners away in the 1990’s and is still a revered game today.

G IS FOR :

GAUNTLET : Top down dungeon adventure where taking the role of a barbarian, wizard, valkyrie (when they were still called valkyrie and not Xena) or a dwarf, you had to negotiate your way through many levels of treasure hunting, exit finding and don’t-shoot-the-food-ing of medieval magic. Gauntlet started life as a gargantuan 4 player arcade game and was successfully converted to just about every console and computer. Famous for it’s sampled speech (“Red warrior needs food…badly”, “I know I know I can’t find any……argggh you shot the food you imbecile….”), it spawned a version with extra levels and a sequel, and was the sort of game, when playing with your mates, that could divide friendships. Just don’t shoot the food.

GOLF : There have been many variations of the golf game to grace computers over the years. In the early days you would mostly spend time wacking a pixel around a screen made up of mostly green, blue or yellow colours. Thankfully when Leaderboard came along it redefined the genre and golf games would never be so crappy again. Nintendo thought it best to put Mario in their NES games, and there he stayed through many variations over the years. After Leaderboard came the PGA series, which incorporated a grid system for putting so you could see all the contours and slopes. That series would wind up being the Tiger Woods games we know today. For slightly less serious golf types, check out either the Everybody’s Golf games or Outlaw Golf – the latter being one of the most frustrating golf games I have ever played whilst at the same time one of the most hilarious.

H IS FOR :

HORACE : A retro based alphabet wouldn’t be the same is we hadn’t included Horace. Created in 1982 and starring in his own series of games, the Horace games were nothing more than a series of copy/rip offs of popular titles : Horace Goes Skiing (Frogger), Hungry Horace (Pac-Man) and Horace & The Spiders (elements of Pitfall, Smurf and Space Panic). You cannot deny though just how successful these games were and therefore cementing Horace’s place in the Retro Hall Of Fame.

HYPER SPORTS : Responsible for providing a generation of children with wrists well beyond their actual age, this is the game that if you looked up joystick waggler in the dictionary then you would find a picture of Hyper Sports. Track & Field set the bar but when this was converted to all the home micros, joystick sales went through the roof. You had your own methods of course to get the best grip – place the joystick on the table, hold it in the air and waggle it etc – but whichever way you did it, you’d end up knackered. So Hyper Sports – Joystick waggling heaven or arthritis inducing pain. You decide…….

I IS FOR :

IMAGINE SOFTWARE : Set up in 1982, Imagine were well know for their flash image and sailing close to the wind before financially collapsing two years later. If it wasn’t for Imagine then it is likely the image of the computer programmer and games designer would have still remained some beardy, nerdy type rather than young, cool people in Ferraris. That’s the image they had, so when it all went wrong Ocean Software stepped in, bought the group and used the Imagine name on games such as Hyper Sports, Green Beret and Arkanoid, amongst others. When Imagine was sold, former programmers set up Psygnosis and Denton Designs, where such classic games as Shadow Of The Beast, Wipeout and Frankie Goes To Hollywood ended up being created.

J IS FOR :

JOUST : Not many games feature a flying ostrich – in fact I think this is the only one. Created in 1982 and released into arcades, this had you defeating evil knights riding buzzards set in space. It was just that sort of game. It makes you wonder what sort of things people smoked back in the day and purely for it’s great playability and quirky concept, Joust is an early arcade favourite that is still fondly remembered.

JET SET WILLY : One of the most iconic characters in video game history returns after the success of Manic Miner. Whether you loved the game, hated the game or if it reduced you to a gibbering wreck it makes no difference at all. This is one game that people can recall at the drop of a hat when you mention early Spectrum games.

UP NEXT : K to O

A quick look ahead to some of the fun things that are planned here for Retrosection in the next 12 months. Of course there will be other bits and pieces but the idea is to have a nice them for each month. Read on for more details….

12 months is a long time in video gaming...........

Each month this year I am going to have a theme each month. It will be devoted to a different console/computer and it’s games. These will as always take a random form of selection but will also allow me to include all my favourites and a few obscure ones as well :

NES JANUARY CLASSIC : Focussing on Nintendo’s grey box of magic, which whilst not my favourite machine of all time, was more or less responsible for kick-starting the video game craze again after the traumas of 1983

FEBRUARY FREE FOR ALL : Completely random games across the board and from all sorts of places and areas. This will be a lot of fun as I shall be going into unknown waters. Where possible I shall try and avoid any of the other machines making up the 11 other months of the year

MEGADRIVE MARCH MADNESS : One of my favourite consoles, the Mega Drive was one of the machines I was lucky enough to own first time around. Plenty of arcade and original classics and I shall really enjoy giving them a whirl

AMIGA APRIL APOCALYPSE : The first proper computer I ever owned and the machine all my mates had when we went to big school. It will at least give me the chance to dig Kick Off 2 out again – and maybe Sensible Soccer though that is a BIG maybe…..

MASTER SYSTEM MAY MAYHEM : I prefer the Master System over the NES for reasons I cannot actually explain. It will be interesting to see by the end of this if that is very much still the case

N64 JUNE JAMBOREE : My second favourite console of all time. From the moment I first played Goldeneye I was in love with the machine and for me it is the best console Nintendo have ever produced

DREAMCAST JULY JUBILEE : A very underrated console which suffered from release delays and a market which by that point had lost it’s trust in Sega following the launch disaster that was the Saturn. This though for me is probably my favourite Sega console of all

PS1 AUGUST ARMAGEDDON : Some of the games have aged terribly but you cannot deny that the PS1 was something of a phenomenon when it launched. It gave us a new player in the games market and a little grey wonder with some fabulous games

XBOX SEPTEMBER SMASH-UP : Like the Dreamcast, I have always felt the XBOX was underrated and under-appreciated. Yes it weighed a tonne and cost a bomb but it had massive potential. Give me this over the 360 any day

GAMECUBE OCTOBER O.M.G. : You can argue all you want but I class the Cube, XBOX and PS2 as retro simply because I do. The Cube suffered from a lack of decent launch titles and no DVD facility so gamers stayed away and picked up PS2s and XBOXs instead. Its a shame because as we shall find out there were some awesome titles for it

SUPER NINTENDO SUPER NOVEMBER : I had a lot of exposure to the SNES growing up so it does have a fond place in my heart. Most of those involved being pummelled on Street Fighter II but not all the memories were as bad as that

PS2 DECEMBER DEMOLITION : To finish with, arguably the greatest console of them all ? Well we shall see but with a massive back catalogue which is still being added to a trip through some PS2 awesomeness is most definitely called for.

With the nights drawn in and everything going that bit colder, RetroBear dons his Parka jacket, grabs hold of the nearest hammer and goes out to thwack some long haired freaks. No he’s not hippy-bashing, he’s yeti-squashing in Ice Climber……

One of the original launch titles for the NES in the US, Ice Climber originally had you whacking seals with a hammer before someone decided yetis might be a bit more acceptable

With winter coming it only seems appropriate to find a cold weather themed game. Yes I know I have already covered Frostbite on the 2600. So anyway I decided to select one of the earliest games released for the NES. If you like polar bears and eskimos then this is probably the other game for you aside from Frostbite. I am of course wittering on about Ice Climber.

This was one of the launch titles for the NES in the USA and was programmed by Kazuaki Morita, who went on to become one of the main programmers on Super Mario Bros. It follows the adventures of Popo who with the aid of his ice hammer, has to chop holes in the ice ceilings to climb up through 8 levels of ice before reaching the top level. This is a bonus stage where you have a set time to collect bits of fruit (yes fruit – why fruit ?) as part of a bonus level.

Wallop the yetis to give you some more time to dig your holes and move up the levels

Along the way you have to avoid yetis, giant polar bears who wear sunglasses and a red bird called a Nitpicker, which unless I am very much mistaken isn’t a real bird at all. After hacking holes in the ice you have to jump through them. On occasions this will have to be done by jumping onto moving platforms, and once the hole is cut you have to be quick otherwise the yetis fill them in. Adding to your woes are the icy drips that form and plummet at you at a very fast speed indeed. You will certainly need quick reactions and wits in this one.

Sadly for me Ice Climber is very much a product of it’s age. There is no doubt it is a very good game but unfortunately I found some of the collision detection of the jumps to be as ropey as hell. More often than not I appeared to have landed on the platform, only to sail through it and drop back down again. That rather large fault aside, it’s a fun game but I don’t think it’s one I personally will keep going back to.

That is not to say Ice Climber is a forgotten relic of the past. Oh no, many versions have appeared on Nintendo consoles since then : a port of the arcade version, Vs Ice Climber, made its way to the Famicom Disk System in 1988, in 2002 a version was tucked away in the Gamecube version of Animal Crossing, the Gameboy Advance had it’s own version in 2004 and you can access the original via the Virtual Console on the Wii (this was also one of the ROM’s included for 3DS owners who invested in that console at launch).

After you clear 8 platforsm (numbered down the side) the top part is a bonus level where you collect fruit. How original is that ?

So there are plenty of ways of getting hold of this, and certainly its worth some of your time. I just didn’t find it grabbed me in perhaps the way I expected and as such I shan’t be going back to it. Pity because with the cold weather coming, one needs warm feeling games to get you through the bleak midwinter.

VERDICT : Falls through the ice after a while. Stay inside, keep warm and do something less chilly instead.

NOTES : No copies to be found over on Amazon. Over on eBay you can bid from around £3.00, but Buy It Now will cost you a hefty £24.99 and that’s cart only !

UP NEXT : Early mornings and after school deliveries ? Why it must be Paperboy on the Sega Master System.

Simple things appeal to simple minds, and they don’t get much simpler than RetroBear’s. Give him some bongo shaped controllers and a sing-a-long soundtrack and you have the makings of a decent game. Throw in Nintendo’s number one ape and you get Donkey Konga on the Gamecube……

Bongos + Gamecube + TV = Fun for all the family....for a limited time anyway

Its always fun to see a game that tries to be something a little different. An original concept can do wonders for sales especially if the idea catches on quickly. Take the Guitar Hero franchise, which moved fairly rapidly from a single guitar rhythm game and developed into a game where everyone could pick an instrument – providing it was either a guitar or drums – and even sing lead vocals The Singstar series of games capitalised on our love for karaoke and Samba Di Amigo catered for anyone feeling a bit Mexican and delighted in shaking their maracas at anyone stupid enough to look.

Nintendo though decided to be markedly different. What instrument could be more simple to play than a set of bongos ? Everyone can sit there and thwack bongos to their hearts content. Nothing could be more fitting than having a monkey thrash them in time to the music for the purpose of collecting bananas and coins (what is it with coin collecting and games designers ??). Thus Donkey Konga was born and thumped its way onto the Nintendo Gamecube.

Slap the skins in time to the Mario Bros theme tune. Can you get more Nintendo than that ?

There is nothing particularly special about Donkey Konga. Its the simple keep-in-time-with-the-music rhythm game played against some colourful backdrops and a rather varied soundtrack, with tunes ranging from some of Nintendo’s best in game music including the themes to Zelda and Super Mario Brothers, through to more recognised songs such as Don’t Stop Me Now, You Can’t Hurry Love and rather hilariously for game with a giant ape at the heart of it, Wild Thing.

There are even a few mini-games thrown in for good measure, giving you a full range of thrills to experience. Sadly everything is rather on the easy side and those weaned on the more difficult Guitar Hero/RockBand series won’t find anything too testing here. The bongo peripheral is fabulous, making realistic sounds so the neighbours will think you are hammering out proper bongo beats at 3am. Get a couple of sets of these for an incredibly funny two player mode and all in all you have a pretty satisfying package.

Bongos and monkeys - thats all you can ask for.

Nintendo got good mileage from this series as a sequel was released. They even added a third game but this was released in Japan only. Sadly bongo bashing didn’t catch on as much as would hoped and the series was given up on. It’s a shame the bongos can’t be used for anything else really as they are quite a cool piece of kit. I picked up a spare pair last year much to the annoyance of Mrs Bear last year and when asked why I had brought them I simply responded “emergency bongos”. Because you can never have enough of them.

If you like rhythm games this is for you. If not steer well clear.

VERDICT : Thumpingly good fun for a short period but this isn’t one you’ll keep coming back to. It has great novelty value but like all novelties it wears thin quicker than you’d like.

NOTES : Shopping on Amazon will be bag you a copy for just 89p, whilst over on eBay pay just 75p for a complete version. Bongos are cheap enough to find from around £2.00.

UP NEXT : Throw another shrimp on the barbie – it’s Taz-Mania on the Mega Drive

The old foe stands opposite Retrobear – the move tie in. However on this occasion he is more than pleasantly surprised as this one is really rather good. In fact not just rather good but stupendously good. So grab your silencer and your tuxedo as RetroBear goes all Bond on us….

You can tell the quality that went into this game and that is why its a gaming classic

There comes along once in a while a game which defines a system. Everyone will mention Manic Miner or Monty Mole when you talk about 8 bit home computers. They will say Mario for Nintendo and Sonic for Sega. Those games were all groundbreaking titles when they came out for one reason or another : Manic Miner for its platform originality, Monty Mole because of the insane difficulty, Mario for being the world’s most immense platformer and Sonic for its speed and big, bold graphics.

When Nintendo nabbed the rights to Goldeneye more than a few eyebrows were raised. Firstly, there hadn’t been a decent James Bond game, ever. Secondly, how would it be transferred to the console. Thirdly, would it be one of those godawful formulaic platform games that all film tie ins become. And Fourthly would it be any good ?

The first thing Nintendo did was give the game to Rare Software to develop, so a new pair of eyes would be behind the development. Next they ensured the likenesses of then-Bond Pierce Brosnan and co-stars from the film would be included. All very good so far. The game, when it came about, was such a refreshing change from anything that we had seen for Bond before. All the action was viewed from first person, with only Bond’s hand and gun visible on the screen. There was the odd driving section as well. They had tried to cram as much of the film into the game as possible, including the abseil down the dam at the beginning of the film.

Yes that is an N64 version of Sean Bean.

Whilst it all looked a bit grey to start with, the use of colours was excellent. The music was fantastic with a mix of the Bond theme as well as other original tracks. Even Sean Bean is in it, and Robbie Coltrane too. It was amazing, it blew gamers away because not only did it look and sound good, it played brilliantly as well. To top it all off there was a multiplayer game thrown in where you and 3 mates ran round a complex shooting each other. The most deaths you caused, the more chance you had of winning and thus deathmatch multiplayer was brought to the masses.

Its hard to work out which is the best part of Goldeneye – the main game or the multiplayer. I have spoken to people who have never played the main game, just gone shooting with their chums. I spent many long and frustrating hours round friends houses getting my ass kicked on this game. Its only when I got an N64 for myself in 2009 that I was able to play the main game and experience how much fun it actually is.

Goldeneye has dated, there is no doubt. Some of the FPS sections are quite ropey and there is a lot of slowdown when things get a bit busy. However there is no denying this is a killer app for the N64. You know a game is good when there had been rumours of an update for years and years since its release. The Wii and newly released PS3/360 versions tart things up a bit and include the online multiplayer, but to true fans of the game they aren’t quite as good.

Its always a bonus in a game if you can mow down a few communists along the way

Truly and simply, Goldeneye is a gaming classic you cannot be without. If you have an N64 then you should have this.

VERDICT : 00-Amazing. One of the best games of its generation and a must play for fans of FPS but also fans of gaming history.

NOTES : Cartridge only on Amazon will set you back around £5.00. On eBay you can get loose and complete versions from 99p – just don’t expect them to stay there as picking up this game for less than a fiver is pretty good going.

TBC : Bring out the bongos – Donkey Konga on the Nintendo Gamecube

Thanks Maz, it's good to be back....

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…..

When it comes to 3D, frankly my dears gamers don't give a damn

It really comes as no surprise that Nintendo’s launch of the 3DS console has been nothing short of a minor disaster for the company. It wouldn’t be the first time that they have totally overestimated the appeal of a new launch product, or mishandled a new release. I know because I was one of the few who ran out and purchased a Gamecube on launch day (there is another article covering this on this website and it still marks the last time I did such a thing)

I will take you back to the Virtual Boy, which was meant to be the next thing in bringing Virtual Reality into the home. It was meant to bring 3D gaming and a more virtual experience, but instead gave gamers nothing more than a sore neck and crippling headaches. So much so that the creator of the Virtual Boy, – , who had previously been Nintendo’s Golden Boy Gunpei Yoki, lost his job. The console failed to find a market and was a rare blip in the company’s history. Now it is nothing more than a collectable curio and a footnote in gaming history.

Looking cool or looking like a twat ?

The Gamecube suffered from a lack of decent launch titles. The fact the console could not play DVD’s was also a downer, as both the PS2 and XBOX provided that function. If you then factor in that Nintendo were incredibly late in getting the product to market and had seen that particular ship sail into the distance, then you have another failed console on your hands – although to be fair the Gamecube was a pretty decent console.

Which brings me nicely on to the 3DS. We already have the DS, DS Lite and DSi on the market, so why on earth do we need a fourth version ? You may argue that the Gameboy had many variants ; the original brick, the slimline, the Color (yes spelt this way as opposed to Colour), the Pocket, the Advance (which was the one where you couldn’t use Advance cartridges on older machines) and the Micro. However at the end of the day they were fairly similar, and they sold by the bucketload.

An artist's impression of what doesn't happen when you play on the 3DS

The selling point of the 3DS is the fact the games are in 3D, and that my retro friends is the downfall. I have preached this long and hard and as wide as I can but for those of you who haven’t heard me yet, let me tell you this : 3D is a fad. Back in the 1950’s film makers, film studio owners and cinemas came up with a wide variety of technological advances to entice people back to the cinema and to keep them away from the growing success of the television. Of course entertainment options were much simpler back then, television was still relatively new and expensive but it began denting attendance figures.

So they launched 3D, Cinemascope (a wider picture on a bigger screen – which unfortunately sees a film suffer now when shown on television as the film was not made with a small screen in mind), Panavision and even had the novel idea of incorporating large speakers into cinemas to beef up the sound effects – of which a very early example was The Towering Inferno. All well and good I hear you say but it was what the product gave you which is what kept people interested. After a string of highly expensive flops and musicals that no one wanted to see, Hollywood went back to the drawing board to make films we would want to see. In some senses we are still waiting….

Not enticing people to the cinema - the only angry feeling you'll get from this film is when you realise you spent £10 to watch it

The whole 3D thing really hasn’t taken off. I have seen 3D televisions and will admit they do look very good but it doesn’t make me want to run out and buy one. I have no desire to go to the cinema and watch films in 3D (and be charged extra for the privilege) and seeing as there is such little support out there for the format it’s taking a long old time in grabbing the imagination. It’s like HD – you don’t need to see things in HD, so why would I need to see something in 3D I can watch normally ? I just don’t get it.

And herein lies the problem with the 3DS. It’s like a DS except in 3D. All well and good if that’s your sort of thing and sales figures in Europe have been very good. On the flip slide in both the US and Japanese markets, ironically the only numbers that seem to matter one jot when it comes to sales figures, the console has stayed on the shelves. Nintendo have therefore announced sweeping price cuts to boost sales and also offer some free GBA ROMS as a way of sweetening the deal. Now if that doesn’t smell of panic I don’t know what does.

It’s too early to call the 3DS a white elephant but when you are having to slash prices, adjust profit forecasts and see your share price tumble on the basis of that console’ sales alone it might be wise to try and bolt the door before the horse really does get a chance to get through that gate once and for all.

Nintendo 3DS not pictured - but maybe sooner than you think ?