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 Commodore Amiga – a phrase that brings tears of happiness to the eyes of myself. Oh how many happy hours were wiled away in front of my monitor playing on a computer system which had been purchased purely for educational purposes. Yeah right, as if that was going to happen. You know that’s gone out of the window when your Dad starts buying American Civil War games and wants you to come off so he can have a quick pop at E-Motion.

The sort of photo that weeps nostalgia - many happy hours were spent loading this up

If the Spectrum was the must have for the 8-bit era, then the Amiga was it’s 16-bit era alternative, at least until the rise of the consoles in the early 1990’s. PC’s were not yet fully functioning games machines and they cost a fortune. You could have gone for an Atari ST, but for some reason that machine never really stayed in the imagination of gamers once the power of the Amiga took over. I remember people at school having ST’s and I was the only one with an Amiga. Within 18 months that had changed and there was barely an ST owner out there.

The Amiga could boast having superior sound and fabulous looking visuals. It is one thing to hear speech on an 8-bit game for the first time, but great swathes of speech were found on the Amiga. Throw in support from all the major software players of the day – EA, Ocean, US Gold, Elite, Gremlin, Domark, Activision (OK maybe scrub that last one) – the computer went from strength to strength, despite it costing well over £100 more than the ST. It seemed people were quite happy to pay that bit extra back in the day.

On the left one of the best computers ever made, and on the right some vague pale imitation from Atari

That’s not to say the Amiga was perfect. Games used to come on anything up to 10 floppy discs, which meant you needed a second, external, floppy drive to cut down on disc swapping. Those infernal password protect systems, designed to cut down on piracy, had you scanning through the manuals or playing around with the included wagon wheels so you could get the correct code to actually get into the damn game. All very commendable but it didn’t stop games being swapped rapidly in playgrounds around the country. There was also a sense with some games that they looked great but played crap, substituting the audio and visual aspect for actual playability. It was also the case that the Amiga suffered from lazy porting of games from the ST, meaning some inferior conversions not making use of the extra technology available.

Oh and I forgot to mention that the basic model was 512K and as the Amiga grew more popular the need to have at least 1MB of memory got bigger, so much so you had to fork out an extra £30 to buy the memory needed. Oh yes, and it needed a TV modulator to play games on your TV set, otherwise you’d need to fork out a couple of hundred quid for a decent monitor. Yes, 16 bit games may have been the way to go but the move did require a hefty cash investment from gamers – as ever!

Advertising has absolutely no affect on me at all. Ever.

The Amiga seemed to go from strength to strength. While the Atari ST 520 was upgraded to 1040 to show off more powerful capabilities, Commodore decided to add to the Amiga range. You could have an Amiga 500 in 512K or 1MB version, the Amiga 500+ (a disaster as a lot of old software wouldn’t work on it), the Amiga 600 (slightly better, with more backward compatibility) and the Amiga 1200 (with designated software titles that you could only play on a 1200 and the capability to install a hard drive meaning you could store data on it, making it more like a PC).

It is an era I remember fondly, with the dross games far being outweighed by the glorious games that memories are made of. So during the course of this month I shall look back at a few games, some good, some not so good, and hope that you will revel in them as much as I do.

Let the Games begin…….

Don't worry there won't be any athletics involved, just good old fashioned joystick and mouse action

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.

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…………..

So we come to P, then Q, R, S and T. If it gets any more like Sesame Street I will have to change my name to Count Retro Bear. Well maybe not, although any similarity between a Muppet and myself are purely coincidental…….

3 ! 3DS ! Ha ha ha.....

P IS FOR :

PENGUINS : Pengo was one of the first arcade games I can remember. Pushing blocks of ice around a screen might not seem like very sophisticated stuff but the arcade machine in my local chip shop introduced me to gaming in a big way. Since then penguins have gone on to be the mascot for Linux, as well as appearing in many other games ; Attack of The Mutant Penguins, Penguin Adventure, Amazing Penguin, Club Penguin and even the bloody Penguins From Madagascar. Proof enough that slapping a penguin in something means it’s going to sell. The same cannot be said for any games based around sloths……except for one of the Ice Age games….

PICTIONARY : Picture this. It is 1990 and with Christmas fast approaching you are faced with a dilemma. Do you fork out £24.99 for the Amiga version of the popular party game where you draw pictures of items for your team or partner to guess, or do you pay less than a couple of quid for some paper and different colour pens ? If you selected the first option, you are quite clearly a buffoon. A pointless licence.

POPEYE : Ancient arcade game which stars everyone’s favourite cartoon sailor who has to rescue Olive Oyl from the clutches of Bluto. You do this by jumping up and down a series of platforms collecting musical notes, hearts and the letters spelling out HELP as quickly as possible. Along the way you can eat cans of spinach and go and give Bluto a good hiding. There are also cameos from other Popeye characters like Wimpey and Sweet Pea. If you can’t stand Popeye the cartoon, and believe me I can’t, you’d be thinking this is a waste of your time. Shame on you then because this is actually a very fun game to play, if a little basic by today’s standards.

Q IS FOR :

QUACKSHOT : If Mickey Mouse had Castle of Illusion then Donald Duck had Quackshot. This was when Disney characters began appearing in good games that weren’t shameless cash-ins. Casting Donald as an intrepid adventurer in a platform style game was a good move. The game looked terrific and played extremely well, proving that you could throw a pretty tired idea into the mix and come out with something rather good.

R IS FOR :

RENEGADE : A series spawning three games must have had some impact back in the day and there is no doubt the 1980’s were very much the time of the vigilante after revenge. Of course each entry in the series had it’s own appeal ; the first game had you attempting to rescue your girlfriend, the second had you avenging your brother’s death and the third had you again going after your girlfriend, except this time she had been captured and taken back through time. The last two games in the series were strictly home versions only, as only the first game was an arcade conversion. The third game is also one of the worst pieces of software ever to grace a computer.

REPTON : The BBC wasn’t known for it’s killer games or wondrous arcade conversions. It was more associated with educational software and the fact that a lot of Britain’s schools had their IT departments filled with them. That doesn’t mean one can discount some of the pieces of software that have appeared on that machine. One of the best examples is Repton, which is not a clone of Boulderdash as is commonly misconstrued. The game is very similar, casting a lizard man in the main role who has to collect gems and diamonds from underground caves. OK so it does sound very similar, but there was more of a puzzle solving element to Repton and this was further emphasised in the number of sequels that followed the game. Fondly remembered by the few who had BBC Micros, because their parents wanted an educational machine.

S IS FOR :

SAMANTHA FOX STRIP POKER : Let’s put it this way – if you are a young man discovering the joys of life, at a certain age and for a few quid you can buy a game licensed around the hottest Page 3 girl of her time, what would YOU do ? Forget the fact you can’t play poker, it’s a computer game AND there are badly pixalated scantily clad women……. nuff said!

SIMPSONS : Everyone’s favourite yellow family have had a rather chequered gaming history. Very few titles using this licence have actually been much good. The original arcade game in 1990 was a great hulking 4 player game which never got converted to the home computers. Early titles like Bart vs The Space Mutants were fun but not really involving. The rash of titles for the Mega Drive and SNES – Bart’s Nightmare, Virtual Bart – were notorious for their crapiness and when finally it does seem like the developers hit on a good idea – Simpsons Road Rage – what you are actually playing is a Simpson version of Crazy Taxi. The less said about Simpsons Wrestling, the better.

T IS FOR :

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES : There are a couple of things to remember when it comes to Turtles games. Firstly, the platform game that was released on every single format is rubbish. The arcade original is totally awesome, if you never played the 4 player version then you really missed out. The home conversions varied from amazing to you-must-be-joking. The Turtles in Time games on the Mega Drive and SNES were different from each other but still ruled, while fight fans enjoyed the Tournament Fighters game. All in all a much better gaming history than the Simpsons.

THEME PARK : If you have ever fancied creating and owning your own theme park then this was the game for you. Create your own rides, set prices, build concession stands and in the 16 bit version even go on your own rides. This was the game which helped spawn titles like Theme Hospital and Jurassic Park : Operation Genesis. If you have the time to put in then these are the games for you and tend to be more easy to get into than God simulator games like Populous.

UP NEXT : U, V, W, X, Y and Z.

The best way to deal with writer’s block – which, as some of you may have noticed, is why there hasn’t been an update for a week – is to get some sort of list going that will stimulate the writing juices. It’s either that or finally give in and play some well known games for a change as opposed to the obscure ones. Argh No! So join me now as we go through the Retro Alphabet with as many glaring omissions as there are inclusions, I am sure :

Says it all really....

A IS FOR:

ARKANOID : Breakout update from the 1980’s. Not simply bat and ball, as collecting power ups will allow you to have an extra ball on screen or develop lasers. Set in space this is a worthy update to an arcade classic, and also spawned a sequel

ANGRY VIDEO GAME NERD : The player of some of the worst games known to man is a worthy entry in the Retro Alphabet. If you can get beyond some of the more tasteless gags, swearing and use of bodily functions, James Rolfe has done a lot for bringing video games reviewing, albeit angrily, into the new millennium. He’s even making a film about the Nerd.

ATARI : Once great, video games giant that introduced the world to the wooden wonder of the 2600. Did Atari single handedly bring about the Games Crash of 1983, or were they merely one of the casualties ? How time treats them is another matter but they were never quite the same again, as neither the colour handheld Lynx or the hard to program for Jaguar made any impression on gamers in the 1990’s. More likely now remembered for arcade classics like Star Wars and STUN Runner.

B IS FOR :

BANJO : The musical bear from the Banjo games from Rare for the N64 in the late 1990’s. Always accompanied by a bird in a rucksack and attempting to defeat the evil witch, Gruntilda Winkybunion (Grunty to her friends), the Banjo games were raved over back in the day. They still provide an excellent challenge and with Rare’s usual high quality graphics, sounds and gameplay these games have turned into classics. However Banjo’s comeback on the Xbox 360 last year was not quite as well received.

BABIES : You might be surprised to see this entry but there are at least 4 Babies that spring to mind : Baby Mario and Baby Luigi (perhaps Nintendo were running out of ideas of how to milk more money from gamers – and this was before WaLuigi), the giant baby in Zombies Ate My Neighbours (if there is one thing that is scary it’s a giant baby) and Jack The Nipper (who terrorised 8 bit owners back in the 1980’s).

BACK TO THE FUTURE : You’d have thought a great film franchise would spawn great games, but that’s where you would be wrong. The first film saw an atrocious NES version that had nothing to do with the film and whilst the C64/Spectrum/Amstrad game went for a different approach, getting George McFly to spend as much time as possible with Lorraine, they couldn’t pull it off. The second film saw yet another hopeless attempt on the 8 bit and 16 bit computers, splitting the game into sub games that, although relevant to the film, suffered from poor controls. For NES owners both the second and third films were lumped into the same game which again bore little resemblance to the original films. The final part of the trilogy was another sub game bonanza for home micros and the Mega Drive – some good, the shooting range, and some bad, the opening level which is about as hard and unfair as first levels get. Definitely a missed opportunity all round.

C IS FOR :

CAPCOM – Legendary Japanese game developer and publisher responsible for the following retro gaming greats : Devil May Cry, Ghosts N Goblins, Ghouls N Ghosts, Street Fighter, Mega Man, Bionic Commando, Final Fight and Resident Evil amongst others. You don’t need to say any more about them than that.

CENTIPEDE : 1980 arcade game that did for small insects what Space Invaders did for green men from outer space. Gun down the centipede as it moves it’s way through the garden. It moves incredibly quickly and you’ll have to be quick to keep up. Shooting it in the wrong place means it will split into two, making this one fast and furious shooter. One of the best vertical shooters of it’s kind and an undisputed classic to this day.

D IS FOR :

DOOM : It’s probably fair to say that the rise of games like Doom and Castle Wolfenstein led us to the current blitz of first person shooters that dominate the market to this day. Looking back now, these original games look incredibly dated, what with their blocky graphics, duff sound and a lack of impact they had back in the day. That doesn’t mean that Doom is any less playable – because it still is. This is probably the best of the 3 games that was released in the series and quite a challenge, but just don’t expect to be blown away like we were in the 1990’s.

E IS FOR :

EDDIE EDWARDS SUPER SKI : A British sporting hero of the 1980’s, if only for his lack of ability. Clearly a case of licensing gone to someone’s head. It’s debatable whether the developers had a skiing game ready to go and just need someone to front it. As skiing games go, it’s not bad but then there isn’t really that much to compare it with. Certainly one of the more curious games one has come across.

ELITE SYSTEMS : Games developer of the 1980’s where they had most of their success. They were responsible for converting a lot of arcade greats back in the day, some of which were better than others ; Buggy Boy, Bomb Jack, Commando, Ghosts N Goblins, Ikari Warriors, Paperboy and Space Harrier. They have also dabbled in the ever growing mobile games market in recent years. It is always good to see a name from the past taking on the technology of today.

END : After battling through many levels, suffering many heartaches and needless deaths along the way, my mate Jim finally completed Shinobi on the Master System which to this day he states is the hardest game he has ever played. After finally finishing the game he was greeted with the following message on screen – GAME OVER. Then the game reset itself. Needless to say he wasn’t a happy chappy, thus this must be a candidate for the world’s worst game ending ????

Coming next – F to I…….