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 we say goodbye to the Mega Drive, in closing it is worth saying that this is one of my most favourite machines ever. It looked cool, it played your arcade favourites and brought some arcade quality into the home, producing new gems such as Streets of Rage and Sonic that are iconic masterpieces of video games programming.

We've played some classics and we've had some fun but for Sega Mega Drive March Madness we must move on

Of course there are the downsides too. Each game cost around £40.00, it suffered from some lazy conversions compared to the SNES, the Mega Drive II wasn’t as cool as the original console and at the end of the day it was being flogged to death for every last drop of technological advancement it had (the Mega CD and 32X)

One final thought – when the Mega Drive first launched in Japan it was possible to import Mega Drives into the UK Legally. These were known as “grey imports” which led to much confusion. We all thought the Mega Drive was black and wondered if we did get one, it would be a dodgy grey coloured version. Oh how we had much to learn……..and we all waited for the original UK release. Well my mates did, I had to wait until 1994 to buy a second hand version from a chap at college.

Anyway I digress – here are the final few Mega Drive March Madness games………..

SUPER KICK OFF – It’s probably worth remembering that 50% of the games with the word SUPER stuck in front of them were rubbish and the other 50% were great. So how do you go about making the world’s best football game even better ? Well not by sticking the word SUPER in front of it because never have I had a more disappointing gaming experience than when I played this. I couldn’t believe that Kick Off could have two such differing versions. The controls are abysmally awful with the ball constantly running away from you. Everything moves too slowly and the graphics are inferior to the Amiga version. The main thing it lacks is playability and that is what made Kick Off great. I hate to say it but Sensible Soccer happily thrashes Super Kick Off when you put them up against each other.

SUPERMAN : THE MAN OF STEEL – Usually I can find words to summarise a game, good or bad. It might end up with the same old phrases being trotted out, but it comes from the heart. So how do I honestly critique a game which is as average as Clark Kent, about as interesting as watching paint dry and guaranteed to make your enthusiasm for the Man Of Steel wane faster than the excitement of the ability to leap tall buildings with a single leap ? I’m afraid I just did. Move along please, there is nothing to see here……..

THUNDERFORCE 3 – Far too freakin’ hard for the likes of me. It looks fabulous but suffers from graphical slowdown when too much is going on. No matter how many times I had a go at it I couldn’t get any further and threw down my joypad, tears running down my face. I can’t handle games of this intensity, so it’s one for die hard fans of the shoot em up genre and back to silly effeminate looking platform games for me…..If that wasn’t depressing enough, this is regarded as being the easiest in the series !!!

TURRICAN – Anyone who has played this game would have instantly been struck by how fluid it played, how good it looked and the pretty cool soundtrack. The weapons were ace with the rotating fire being the best choice. The way Turrican looked and moved was pretty amazing. The whole intergalactic look was a big hit with gamers and underneath was a very playable game with some real depth to it. The one problem Turrican had on the Mega Drive was that it was simply a straight port of the Amiga version, some near 2 years before. As such, games had moved on quite a lot since then and, compared to the look of Mega Turrican a few years later, the two could be world’s apart. Worth a look though, definitely.

VR TROOPERS – One thing the Mega Drive was full of was sub par Street Fighter type games that simply failed to capture any imagination or originality before being released. This is a fine example of that, a cash-in on the Power Rangers spin off a-like that were plaguing us in the mid 1990’s. So awful is this game that there is absolutely nothing to see here, even if you are a fan of the series. It should be given a wide berth at all costs. This is a sanitised, almost anti Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat game that fails to achieve anything at any level. Avoid.

WOLVERINE : ADAMANTIUM RAGE – I am not all that convinced that as time has gone on there have been that many successful X-Men games. So taking the most popular character and giving him his own game was a rather bold move. Saddling him with adequate graphics and sounds might win favour in some courts, but when you then chuck in appallingly hard levels, impossibly difficult computer AI and some clunky controls, the gaming experience will make wish you had claws coming out of your own hands to poke your own eyes out.

ZOOL – Finally a game which wowed Amiga owners who were desperately seeking an answer to the console dominance of Mario and Sonic. There was nothing as fast or as colourful as Zool and when the game appeared on the Mega Drive nothing had changed. However, console owners were less than impressed by the over sensitive controls, the samey gameplay and the garish graphics. There were many pretenders to Sonic’s throne over the years, and perhaps Zool is the one that should have come closest to taking the crown. The fact it was so far from the mark was one that had many games experts scratching their heads in disbelief.

Sequels and licences, two of my least favourite things. They go together like wood chippings and jam and there are far too many inferior examples of them across all formats of video games. They still produce them to this day, with video game developers chasing that last penny from us all in return for something that stinks worse than last night’s curry.

They don't get much badder than this - and not in a good way

Expect this to be a mix of the sublime and the ridiculous as we enter the next part of Mega Drive March Madness……….

RAMBO III – There can be no denying when I first saw a shot of this game in C&VG back in 1989 I was totally mesmerised. There was Rambo, standing in front of helicopter, trading ammunition blows. Wow, that was mightily impressive. So when you actually play the game itself it really is no more than an extension of the old Ikari Warriors game, where you scroll up and across through wasteland, taking out the bad guys. The problem is, you get one sodding life and that goes pretty quickly. I know I am a lame games player when it comes to be being killed over and over again, but I just found this too hard for my liking. Having said that, everything about it is pretty good – the graphics look amazing, the gameplay follows a traditional format and the music is sublime. So worth a look ? Yeah I would say so, but it might not be everyone’s cup of char.

ROBOCOP III – Having loved the original on the Amiga, hated the sequel on the Amiga and found the C64 version of the original film incredibly frustrating, you can perhaps excuse my apprehension in approaching this title. This is also totally different to the 3D vector graphic driven Amiga version, which may be the reason that this is an awful piece of software. It is just too damned hard to get anywhere in the game. Whilst it looks OK, the controls are hit and miss and Robocop jumps like he weighs 4 tonnes. The odds are unfairly stacked against you and as a result you’ll spend more time bashing your head against the screen than you will progressing further into the game.

SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERY – Well this is different. After presumably looking at the likes of the Monkey Island games and realising that point and click adventures weren’t dead in the water, up pops this title and gives you a nice surprise. With the choice of two adventures and the chance to take part in some of that legendary Scooby Doo humour, you control Scooby and Shaggy as they attempt to solve the mysteries. It’s a decent enough effort and one that will charm fans of the cartoon, but the real let down is the stupid password system, which when you consider that battery back up cartridges were commonplace in 1995 makes it all the more stupid that it wasn’t included here. So give it a whirl if you fancy some fairly non-taxing Scooby style fun, but adventurers wanting a bit more depth might have to pass on this one.

SENSIBLE SOCCER – Regular readers will know that I absolutely hate Sensible Soccer and consider Kick Off 2 to be the king of football games. Having now gone back and played the Mega Drive version of Sensible Soccer, I was actually rather surprised by how playable it was. I can forgive the crappy music and the fact that the player names are badly spelt variations of the real names (owing to copyright), and underneath find this is not a bad game of football. It still has the silly faults I remember, such as ability to score from the halfway line and the goalkeepers sucking. There is no denying though this is not a bad game, it just won’t win me over that easily.

SPLATTERHOUSE 3 – Having never really played the previous two games in the series, I thought it would be a bit of fun to have a stab at this. No one likes mindless violence in video games more than me, and there is plenty of that contained within, albeit with a horror/gothic vibe to proceedings. You simply punch and bash your way through a series of levels, and rather cleverly depending on the route you take and the time you take you can end up with different endings and game patterns. The game is full of gore and guts and although the action does get a bit repetitive after a while, the option to power up and quicken your journey is a welcome relief. Coupled with the massive sprites and cool music this is an excellent adventure beat em up and worthy of your attention.

SUNSET RIDERS – Now this is quite cool ; a game based around cowboys but rather than simply shooting Indians it casts you as a sheriff, scrolling left to right whilst shooting all the bad guys and bringing the villains to justice. Along the way you have to alternate between levels and avoid cattle stampedes. The action is fast and furious and for me it was too much of both of those, meaning that little progress was made and many untimely deaths occurred. However, rather than getting annoyed and fed up with this, it acted more as an incentive to keep going. It is this factor, as well as looking quite stunning, with decent controls allowing you full fire rotation from your standing position, that makes Sunset Riders a recommendation without hesitation.

The great joy with Mega Drive collecting is the fact that there are masses of games to pick up and play. Unlike cassette based games, where tapes may have stretched or warped with time, or disk based games where the disc may be damaged or simply perished due to the age, the only real problem you can find with cartridges is a few dirty connectors. Give them a spruce up and more or less 8 or 9 out of 10 will work without any problems. They are easy to store if out of the original box, and if you aren’t fussy about all the original packaging they can be picked up as cheaply as £1.00, or even less if you get lucky.

Clever that isn't it ?

Anyway here are some more games that may or may not appeal for the Mega Drive as March Madness continues……

MARBLE MADNESS – If you could name two games that used a trackball mounted onto an arcade cabinet, chances are this is one of the games you would name (the others might be Crystal Castles, Missile Command or Tecmo World Cup, or some other game I can’t recall right now). Marble Madness was a fiendishly tricky and at times frustrating puzzle game where you had to negotiate your marble through a maze to the exit. Along the way you’d have to watch out for obstacles, random meanies an of course the edge of the maze. Falling off would simply mean starting from that point, but it was all against the clock. The Mega Drive version is a pretty faithful conversion, but you can’t replace the trackball controller with a joypad. All said, it’s a worthy and noble effort and another one of those games guaranteed a slot in retro history.

MARVEL LAND – I first played this via import from a friend’s copy. Using the Japanese converter, which involved plugging an adaptor into the cartridge slot and then plugging a European game into that before plugging this game into it to get the damn thing to work (the Mega Drive is well remembered for it’s ludicrously complicated add ons). Once it did work, the game itself is bog standard platform fare with big sprites, colourful garish graphics and an annoyingly catchy tune. It is though superior stuff and being a connoisseur of platform games it is one I remember well and enjoyed playing at the time and again here. It of course has all the usual trimmings of it’s ilk – collect items, jump onto and over stuff, jump timing and that feeling of frustration and elation at the same time, but this is bloody good fun and well worth a look.

MEGA BOMBERMAN – There can’t be too many people who have not played an incarnation of this popular and hugely addictive bomb and run series. This was the first Mega Drive outing and was incredibly impressive, keeping the tried and tested gameplay whilst at same time sporting some impressive graphics and bouncy tunes. There is plenty of depth too, as you bomb your way out of mazes to clear the screen of monsters and reach the centre as quickly as possible. Of course where Bomberman games always excel is with a few mates playing and you cannot deny how much fun that is. If you only play one Bomberman game then let this be it, you will not be disappointed.

PAC ATTACK – A mash up of two great video game icons of the 1980’s ; Pac-Man and Tetris. The blocks are substituted for ghosts here with the idea being to link as many ghosts as possible so that when a Pac-Man block comes down he gobbles them up to clear the level. It’s all rather pretty and a doddle to play, but you get the feeling something is missing. Yes it’s fun to combine these two together in what could have been a total disaster of a title, but whilst not that, it’s nothing special either. One for fans of puzzle games only.

PITFALL THE MAYAN ADVENTURE – Yet another iconic 80’s title gets the 90’s makeover and it’s interesting to say the least. It’s also one of the few 32X titles that got a release alongside the regular cartridge version. It is though a world apart from the original series of games, as everything looks absolutely wonderful and sounds great. It is only the game play that lets it down. Yes, Pitfall was all about precision jumping and timing, but this version really does take some mastering and it’s inevitable frustration and annoyance will kick in before progress and delight. If you could find it, you can access the original Atari 2600 hidden in the game, but you might get too wound up before you got that far. If only it wasn’t all so linear and samey then this could have been something really great, as such Pitfall suffers from pitfalls of it’s own making.

QUACKSHOT – We all know Donald Duck is way cooler than Mickey Mouse. After all he doesn’t have a whiny voice, a dog that won’t stop barking and isn’t a complete drip. No Donald knows where he’s best and as such his video game outings have on the whole been better than Mickey’s. Quackshot, with it’s stunning graphics, tight controls and excellent gameplay, it’s one of the Mega Drive’s standout titles. It does have a few flaws – it is not overly long or hard and some of the mapping leaves a lot to be desired as you can end up walking around not knowing where to go. Therefore this is not a perfect game, but it is a pretty damn good one. It goes without saying that you’d be qwackers not to give it a go.

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.

It’s only appropriate on Mother’s Day to post this article. Why ? Well back in the day having seen this following piece of kit shown off in all the magazines and through adverts on the TV, you would have been pestering your Mum to get this for you. And boy you’d be in for a crushing disappointment. It’s the Sega Mega CD….

This should have been the next great technological leap, but ended up being a big step backwards

When a console reaches the end of it’s life cycle in these technologically advanced days, companies will look to the future and bring out a new improved machine to replace it. Granted, this could take a few years of development and testing but once a console’s time has come, it has come and the end is not far off. Back in the day, companies would look to add-ons and expansions to their existing machines to squeeze as much life out of it as possible.

Take the Super Nintendo – not only was there the Super Scope (a rocket launcher light gun type thing) and the Super Game Boy (which allowed you to play Game Boy games on the SNES) – but there were also certain other “adaptors” of a dubious third party nature that would let you play NES games too. The Mega Drive was also no stranger to having bits bolted on, and in this series of articles we shall briefly highlight some of those addons. First up, The Mega CD…..

Released late in 1991, the Mega CD was designed to take gaming to higher levels and provide better graphics and sounds to enhance the gaming experience. This was the first console ever to deliver data on an optical disk. The use of FMV, or Full Motion Video, was very much taken on board and used as much as possible. Also by putting games onto CD’s more and more data would be able to be used and, as such, games should have been a whole lot better. Chuck in a fully functional CD player and you have a pretty dynamic piece of kit.

As always Sega did a grand job in promoting the heck out of the Meag CD but the public simply weren't buying it

However whilst all this sounded mind blowingly awesome back in 1991 when it was launched, the actuality of it all was something of a Mega disappointment. Developers were somewhat surprised by the capacity of the CD’s and after spending so long programming for cartridges, simply did not make enough use of the extra storage available. The decision to incorporate as much FMV as possible was also an error, whilst this might have looked impressive it was very limited in function and most of the games which used a lot of FMV were generally panned.

That’s not to say the system was a total loss. Like the versions of Sonic that appeared on the Master System and Game Gear that were different from the Mega Drive original. Different Mega CD versions of Earthworm Jim and Spiderman Vs The Kingpin saw extra levels and scenes slotted in, and Sonic CD was for many probably the best Sonic game ever (which incidentally has been re-released on XBOX Live and Playstation Network to rave reviews).

At least current gen fans will get to enjoy the beauty and brilliance of Sonic CD after it's release on the PSN and XBOX Live

The Mega CD never realised it’s potential and for many games owners shelling out for a console and expensive games, it was a fad too far. The technology in place was perhaps at the wrong end of the life cycle and found itself struggling to compete with the very markets it was looking to push into, namely competing with PC games. Although initially sales were good, Sega had already turned their attention to other add-ons and had one eye on the next generation of consoles, with the Sega Saturn becoming their next disk based machine to be released a few years later.

Next time we will take a look at the 32X……

This might have looked extreme but if you plugged in all the Sega add ons it would have looked exactly like that

If it’s March, it must be Mega Drive month. Along with the usual batch of game reviews, I am going to look at a few of the other Mega Drive bits and pieces like the Mega CD and 32X. So without further ado here’s what’s been loaded up and played in the last few days……

The Ultimate Mega Drive Set-Up

THE ADVENTURES OF BATMAN & ROBIN – Rather than being based on the (at the time) increasingly lame series of live action films, this is based on the Saturday morning cartoons. You couldn’t get two things further away from each other if you tried. This is a brash, bold, colourful and very well presented side on beat em up that actually looks like a cartoon. Chuck in some fab music and frantic action and it’s all very impressive. However someone cranked the difficulty level up to 11 because this is an incredibly tough game to make any progress into. You cannot fault the presentation, but you can fault the rock hard gameplay.

AFTERBURNER – Well it wouldn’t be much of a Mega Drive month if we didn’t look at one of the all time classics for the system. Whilst Afterburner is, under the hood, an incredibly average game only worsened by not having the benefit of the giant hydraulic chair that made the arcade machine so memorable, it is still good for a blast. It moves incredibly quickly and while things can get a little confusing on screen, this is still a title of high quality. Just don’t expect much more than a high octane thrill that will leave you a little breathless but perhaps wondering what all the fuss was about 20+ years ago.

BEAVIS & BUTTHEAD – Perhaps you are wondering what sort of a glutton for punishment I am. I mean I always seem to be reviewing really crappy licensed tie-in rubbish like this and always end up at the same conclusion. I have but one piece of evidence for the court. At the start of the game before you have even got started there is a sequence in which Butthead asks Beavis to pull his finger. If you can guess the outcome and have fallen off your chair laughing then congratulations my friend this is the game for you. If like me you like a little more depth to your games then steer well clear as this is one stinking turd of a game which gets no better. Not recommended in any way shape or form.

BONKERS – From one licence to another with this one being based on the amazingly popular (OK I am really exaggerating here) Disney animated cartoon series about a cat who is a policeman. Yes that doesn’t make much sense to me either. I don’t even remember the cartoon from the early 1990’s. Playing the game, it starts off quite promisingly, solving various cases in the form of sub games with a view to capturing the villains. The first level has you defending some of the Disney crown jewels (Aladdin’s lamp, Mickey Mouse’s wizards hat from Fantasia etc) from Harry the Handbag and his gang of crooks. By throwing doughnuts, remembering here that you are a policeman, simply hit the crooks and knock them out to complete the level. And then you do it again. And again. And again. It’s like the bloody thing never ends. I think there is more of a game in there but seriously I got bored VERY quickly. Being a Disney game it looks and sounds great but it bored me to tears.

BOOGIE WOOGIE BOWLING – With a real life high score of 203 and a keen bowler back in the day, it was prudent of me to locate this Japanese bowling title. It’s pretty basic stuff that most other bowling games have followed in the past – choose your angle, spin and power and the computer does the best. Chuck in a few Japanese-Anime characters and for some bizarre reason some boogie woogie style music and that’s yer lot. Even more strangely, you can bowl in different conditions like wet, dry and random. Quite why you would bowl in the wet is beyond me. Anyway, I managed 183 on my only go, which leaves me to say not a lot more about this game than can be said about bowling titles in general – if it’s your bag then go for it.

CASTLEVANIA : BLOODLINES – I can’t lay claim to having played too many of the Castlevania titles over the years, I am not sure of the reason why. This is a rip roaringly good game, with fabulous graphics and a soundtrack to die for. It is the only Castlevania game that came to the Mega Drive and it makes use of every last bit of the hardware. It’s a grower in terms of playability too, whilst retaining the usual high level of hardness that all the games in the series seem to have. It will take you a while to get through it, but you will get that bit further each time. The end of level bosses look magnificent and it all adds up to an amazing package which is worth every bit of your attention.

CHUCK ROCK – One of the most fun platformers of the 1990’s and about 100 times funnier than Captain Caveman ever was. Even the start of the game is polished and very impressive, with Chuck and a few of his prehistoric friends jamming along to the theme tune. When you start the game, the whole thing looks amazing, the music and sound effects are spot on and the game plays very well indeed. If it does have a downside it’s a little on the easy side, but when gaming is as good as this you can be a little forgiving. It was good enough to spawn a sequel and both games are fondly remembered by retro gamers today. Definitely worth a look.

DOUBLE DRAGON – Something went wrong with all the home ports of this arcade game legend and the Mega Drive version is no exception. Maybe it is because the other versions I have played have been on the easy side but now it seems like you need to hit the bad guys around 20 times each for them to die. That could just be me but it does sound a little on the unfair side. The whole thing looks OK and the original arcade music is there, but one can’t help but think that something again went wrong in development and we should be sticking to the arcade original instead.

ESCAPE FROM MARS STARRING TAZ – I have said previously that I am sucker for Looney Tunes based games and perhaps one day I will find one that appeals to me. Sadly Escape From Mars is another one of those bog standard platform games that looks great but plays like a box of spanners. Taz at times is uncontrollable and in a game when you are escaping from Mars, why is it you actually end up back there at the end of the game ? The sound effects are poor and the music is rubbish and on top of all that there is nothing here to grabs you, nor does it make you believe that this game is going to get any better. Chalk up another Looney Tune Lame Licence.

FANTASTIC DIZZY – As with Castlevania I can claim to have only played Treasure Island Dizzy, on the Amiga, from this series of games starring the adventurous egg. On the Mega Drive Fantastic Dizzy is a colourful affair with cartoonish graphics and a boppy little soundtrack. It is still infuriating that you can only carry 3 objects at a time and therefore have to keep going back and forth between locations. You also have to collect stars, rather than coins, but my heart did sink a little when told at the start there are 250 to collect. It means a big game but also a LOT of exploring. So all in all not a bad effort if you like games like this but you’ll probably need to make a map of the game in order to find everything you need.

FLASHBACK – I briefly touched on this last month and now finally I have had the chance to play the game again for a longer period of time. It is still an amazing experience when you consider the quality of the gameplay and the visuals, along with the sound effects. Beginning your journey in the jungle you must piece together the remnants of your character’s past and find out why you are where you are, and what you need to do to get home. It does have a frustration level that will have you throwing your pad across the room and you only get one life too, so this is not one for those scared of a long haul. However any gamer worth their salt should play this and make their own minds up. I for one am standing firmly in the genius game camp, even if it is French.

GOLDEN AXE II – When I first had a Mega Drive back in the early 1990’s one of the games I had was Golden Axe II. Until tonight I had mistakenly believed it was the original game I had and not this sequel. Either way this series of hacking valkyries, thumping dwarves and big scary end of level guardians is one of my most favourite. Coming back and playing this for the first time in nearly 20 years I was amazed at how much I had remembered and forgotten with equal measure. I certainly didn’t need 3 credits back in the day ! It is a worthy sequel to the original game and both of them show exactly what set the Mega Drive apart from the competition – the ability to showcase large, arcade style graphics and sound by keeping the playability that made the arcade games great and bringing them into the home for all to see and play. On the downside it will take little to no time at all to get through this and therefore makes it inferior to the original.

To be continued…………..

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.

The following reasons are why Mario is better than Sonic, and why Sonic is better than Mario – at least, for arguments sake, that will give you something to mull over until next time :

It's the battle to end all battles, the rage in the cage, the rumble in the jungle - but who comes out on top ?

MARIO IS BETTER THAN SONIC because : He collects coins, thus ensuring a wealthy journey through his adventures. Sonic collects rings, which unless they are made of a particularly valuable metal, mean that they are worthless.

SONIC IS BETTER THAN MARIO because : He gets there quicker. Seriously if you were hanging around waiting for Mario to show up then you would be waiting a very long time. I am surprised the Princess never died of old age. There is an art to arriving early and with Sonic’s speed he will always be there on time.

SONIC IS BETTER THAN MARIO because : He wears the coolest looking training shoes. Mario wears dungarees which weren’t even fashionable in 1985 when Super Mario Bros arrived on the NES. Mario also has one of those dodgy 1970’s porn film moustaches which, being a plumber, means he may have a second career on the side we don’t know about

MARIO IS BETTER THAN SONIC because : When he opens his mouth he sounds like he looks i.e. A stereotypical Italian. When Sonic opens his trap he sounds like a 7 year old boy, and has done so for many years. It might be a nice idea to have Sonic’s vocal chords be a little more masculine in future

MARIO IS BETTER THAN SONIC because : The spin off games involving Mario and his supporting cast – Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Mario Kart and Mario Party – are considerably better than Sonic’s – Sonic Spinball, Sega Superstar Tennis, Sega All Star Racing and Sonic Shuffle.

SONIC IS BETTER THAN MARIO because : His animated TV series didn’t have a couple of second rate actors pretending to be Mario and Luigi in some poorly scripted inserts before the low quality animation kicked in.

MARIO IS BETTER THAN SONIC because : Mario games make Nintendo consoles. Super Mario Bros was given away with the NES, whilst the third game in that series is one of the greatest games of all time. Super Mario World, again, was bundled with a special version of the SNES. Mario 64 launched the N64. Super Mario Galaxy is going to be a future classic on the Wii and the new Super Mario World 3D is going to shift a lot of handhelds. Sonic no longer has a console to call his own and despite games like Sonic R on the Saturn and Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast being rather good, both those systems died a death.

SONIC IS BETTER THAN MARIO because : He is just so much cooler than Mario. He’s the sort of character who you want to hang out with. Mario isn’t all that appealing and to be honest when all your best friends come from some fantasy world you have to keep visiting then you can’t be all that popular in the first place.

The battles shall of course rage on and the arguments shall continue, but one thing is assured : Mario & Sonic are probably the two most identifiable characters in video game history and shall forever be associated with it. In some ways that’s a pretty damn good thing…….