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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy 100 Retro Gamer !

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here;s to another 100 !

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

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

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

WHY CAN’T I GET ON WITH……

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

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

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

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

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

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

WHO WOULD WIN A FIGHT BETWEEN :

C64 V SPECTRUM V AMSTRAD

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

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

MEGA DRIVE V SUPER NINTENDO

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

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

AMIGA V ATARI ST

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

RESULT : Duh…...

GAMEBOY V GAME GEAR V LYNX

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

RESULT : Are you mad ? Game Boy by a distance

PS1 V SEGA SATURN V N64

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

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

DREAMCAST V PS2 V XBOX V GAMECUBE

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

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

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…….

OK so this is it. The final instalment of my Retro A-Z 2012 edition. It’s been a fun traverse back through some of the weird and wonderful titles and games of yesteryear, and hopefully I’ll have the chance to revisit this again next year. So it’s on with the show as we go U through to Z…..

U IS FOR :

UMBRELLA CORPORATION : The fictional pharmaceutical organisation that brings about the outbreak of T-Virus that leads us into the very first Resident Evil game. If it wasn’t for them, shooting zombies and all manners of warped creatures would not be possible. Nor would we have some of the most wooden voice acting in games history. Funny how the link between Umbrella and Rhianna gives us something truly stomach churning that only our worst imaginations could conjure up…..

V IS FOR :

VIXEN : Truly horrendous platform game from the late 1980’s with the one saving grace being the scantily clad woman on the box and the free poster inside. Further proof that sex sells and the focal point of interest was far better than the mundane offering the game provided.

VIGILANTE : See the entry for Renegade and you pretty much have the spiel for this average beat em up. This game did come with the rather bizarre storyline of having you rescue Madonna – yes THE Madonna of Like A Virgin fame – from a gang of hoodlums. The game implies your girlfriend is actually called Madonna but, seeing as this was the 80’s, it is far too much of a coincidence to be true. Anyway the game was a bit meh and got lost in the glut of rescuing kidnapped girlfriend games so it doesn’t matter all that much.

W IS FOR :

WALUIGI : Possibly the best result of “long night at the office” syndrome. The brain trust must have been absent for this one, as creating Wario to rival Mario made sense. Creating an evil Luigi however must rank as one of the most pointless ideas ever. It’s not as if Luigi is that appealing a character in the first place – after all he’s just Mario’s stupider brother. It would have made more sense putting Crap in front of Luigi and might have been closer to the mark.

WACKY RACES : I have been lucky (or unlucky) enough to have have played 2 versions of games based on the popular 1960’s cartoon series. The first was a platformer on the NES which had you playing as Muttley and had about as much to do with Wacky Races as not at all. The other game was on the PS1 which was more based around the racing side of things but was so easy it didn’t offer the gamer much of a challenge. There have been other versions on the Dreamcast, PS2, Wii and Nintendo DS, proving at least there is life in the series. Perhaps one day we will see a definitive version……

WARLORDS : Classic Atari 2600 which had you and 3 other Warlords (computer controlled or played with your mates) battling in an arena. The idea is to deflect the ball around the arena damaging your opponent’s walls until they are exposed. Then the fun begins as you can catch the ball by holding down the fire button and aim for them. Keep playing till Last Man Stands and you can claim the title of Warlord. A timeless classic which must be played in it’s original format to truly appreciate how cool this game is.

X IS FOR :

XENON 2 : Vastly overrated shoot em up which at the time boasted 3 things that made everyone rave about it. Firstly, the graphics which looked fantastically amazing. Secondly, the music using the sampled track from Bomb The Bass’ hit Megablast. Thirdly, the sheer size of the weaponry on display – it was meaty, huge and downright ludicrous. So perhaps the biggest issue with Xenon 2 came with the speed – for a shooter it’s just too damn slow, and the bigger your weapons and add-ons get, the slower you move. In some cases you can’t actually get through certain sections with too much bolted on. Great for the time but blast fans now will find it hard to get on with.

Y IS FOR :

YOSHI : Dinosaurs are not meant to be cute. Yoshi is. Yoshi rules and for me he is the most appealing character in the Mario games, which makes me wonder why Nintendo have never made more of him.

YARS REVENGE : Another quality Atari 2600 title which sees you take control of a giant, insect type creature who has to nibble away at the fortress of a giant Apollo spacecraft-type alien. You have to do so whilst being tracked by a homing missile which you can take refuge from inside a neutral zone. Once you have nibbled a hole big enough you can fire your missile through it, hopefully hitting and destroying the alien craft. Simple enough, this is one of the best examples of why the Atari 2600 was so successful and the quality of games which were produced within the hardware limitations. Yet, once again, when someone tried to update it to the current generation of consoles the game was lacking in gameplay and hampered by the decision not to stick with original side on view.

Z IS FOR :

ZX SPECTRUM : Putting it as simply as I can, if it wasn’t for the success of this machine then we would not be where we are today. The Speccy is as revered as it is ridiculed, but you cannot ignore the impact it had on consumers. We should all give thanks to Sir Clive on a daily basis for this wondrous hobby that we have. Sir, my hat is doffed in your general direction for your vision, your brilliance and your belief in the home computer.

Not for the C5 though, I have no idea what you were smoking when you came up with that…………..

NB – What happened here is one of those instances where you lose a week. I have no idea where it went nor do I know what happened. Therefore the next post will actually commence with my diary entry for 20^th February 2012.

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…….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Better late than never, RetroBear takes you on a journey by train to “That London” as he attends the first ever London Gaming Convention and has a thoroughly enjoyable time of it….

You may recall towards the end of November I mentioned I had been invited to the first London Gaming Convention not far from Arsenal Football Club. Well the good news is I did manage to attend. The bad news is it took me so long to write an article about it. However I can report that, despite a few teething problems, and those I can’t really comment on as I did not take take part, I found the whole thing to be really rather good.

It was held at the London Metropole University Rocket bar, which seemed to be a rather small venue for what this will hopefully branch out and become. There were various areas where you could go and experience gaming – a modern area for PS3, 360 and Wii fanatics, a LAN area for all the PC gamers, if 10 man Bomberman on the Sega Saturn was your thing then you could join in with that too, and finally a rather well stocked Retro area with more CRT TV’s than I have seen in a long time.

The well stocked retro area

Upstairs, there was a big stage where invited guests such as Guru Larry, Ashens and BrentalFloss all appeared, doing some Q&A sessions for the gathered masses. Elsewhere more modern gaming areas could be found and alongside that, an all out Super Smash Bros Brawl area with again up to 10 players at a time involved. It was also good to see a smattering of traders at the event, though one had to be careful with the wallet as the retro stuff was priced highly but all in rather good nick.

A smattering of traders meant those who brought enough cash with them could leave with a bagful of goodies

The event also ran alongside their usual Anime convention, with the games part being used for the first time. Whilst there is a certain amount of crossover between the two this was definitely more games orientated and the upcoming event in February 2012 plans to focus more heavily on Anime. All in all there was plenty to do and see and have a go on. I managed to revisit my love affair with Point Blank on the PS1 and, whilst some of the retro stuff broke down, there was still plenty of choice to sit down and sample.

The Q&A and audience participation stuff was good fun, but was marred by a lot of technical issues

The only criticism of the event which has been prominent is the organisation. A lot of events were cancelled or pulled at the last minute and upon arriving at the start time of 11am it was at least a further hour before the event managed to kick off. I spent a rather long hour waiting for everything to start while people ran round looking for cables. The bar was well stocked and very busy, and whilst the food on site looked and smelled great I think more thought needs to be given to the catering. There was very little to choose from and a long queue, so unfortunately like many others I preferred to wonder 250 yards down the road to McDonalds instead.

It was a long hour but at least the company was good

So all in all, with any new event starting up there are going to be a few teething issues and so this was not a bad event to go and see. The next event is planned for (to confirm) and if you are in the area it is definitely worth a look. I would once again like to extend my thanks to the team for their kind offer of an invitation and look forward to seeing them again soon. Meanwhile have a look at the images below for some of the goodies that were on general public play !

Atari Jaguar running Tempest 2000

More CRT TV's than you can throw sticks at - remember retro looks a lot better on one of these

You can't have a retro event without Sonic

The small arcade cabinet had literally hundreds of classic arcade games loaded in and was incredibly busy

Well the good stuff didn’t last as RetroBear plays one of the biggest steaming piles of cow dung ever released on the Super Nintendo. The question is why did anyone really both trying to convert a game so shallow as this ?

Well the box looks nice I suppose, but its all downhill when you open it

Do you remember laser discs ? Now that is a fair slice of retro history right there. This was meant to be the technology that revolutionised how we watched movies in our own home, with the chance to have almost cinema quality picture and full channel stereo sound blasting us out of our armchairs. Those in the know say that this was a technology that should have succeeded if only for one small, tiny problem : the laser disc players were the most unreliable piece of machinery that was ever produced.

No bother that you could have the most incredible version of Star Wars or Jurassic Park thundering out of your TV. If your player was throwing a wobbler there was no chance of getting anything out of it. All too soon laser discs lost out to the already established VHS market and, before they had a chance to improve, the DVD came along and did what laser discs should have done in the first place. Gamers though also had their own slice of good fortune when Don Bluth, and ex-Disney studio animator, and his Bluth Studios decided to not only make an arcade game with high quality cartoon graphics but also stick it on laser disc.

Sadly these machines were as unreliable as their home counterparts. Too often machines broke down awaiting repair and at the time charging you £1.00 a go when the average game would give you 3 credits for 50p was extortionate. The games produced, Dragons Lair : Escape From Singe’s Castle, Dragons Lair 2 : Timewarp and Space Ace, were some of the most simple ever made. All you had to do was move the joystick or press the fire button at the right time to move to the next screen. Basically you were playing a cartoon with interaction, and limited interaction at that. You couldn’t fault how the games looked and sounded, but as playing experience it was like being hit with a wet lettuce over again and having someone nick a quid from your pocket for the privilege.

Whilst it all looks very nice it cannot compare to the arcade original in any way shape or form

Some bright spark thought it would be fun to secure the rights to the home conversions and try and make some money. When the third game in the series, Space Ace, was released it had a whopping 9 discs for the 16 bit versions. How on earth could you fit all the tech into one small tape ? Well you couldn’t and anyone expecting a similar experience to the arcade game was living in cloud cuckoo land. Finally, Escape From Singes Castle arrived on the SNES and what a disaster it was.

Rather than make any attempt to recreate the arcade game, the SNES version like the NES one was turned into a side scrolling platform game (The Angry Video Game Nerd has done a pretty scathing review of the NES version). Whilst there is no doubt the game has some nice colourful graphics the fun ends there, when you realise the whole game moves like a slug in treacle with a brick tied to its back. The controls are amongst some of the most unresponsive I have ever experienced, switching from incredibly twitchy to sluggish to just damned unresponsive with each flick of the joypad.

You don’t get any joy from this game at all. It might have been prudent to try and do a straight conversion with the obvious graphical limitations, but when the original has little or no game play in the first place, it makes you wonder why this wasn’t left in the dust covered memories of the past. You might give some small applause for the effort but when platform games are ten-a-penny and as bad as this it really doesn’t bear thinking about. You can now play both Escape From Singes Castle and Dragons Lair 2 via your PS3 should you wish to download them. It must be added that after all these years it’s a straight conversion and as such all you have to do is move the pad or press the button at the right time. Yawn. That’s now like being hit in the face with a case of wet lettuces whilst someone takes £8.00 from your pocket. No thank you.

It is hard to tell whether the game is moving or whether it is a trick of the eye

Dragons Lair at least holds a place in games history for trying to do something technologically advanced. Unfortunately either someone was very greedy or someone simply didn’t think it through properly. Make up your own minds, I’m off to play Asteroids instead.

VERDICT : Hopeless controls and a game speed to rival the 100m final of the snail olympics, this is not recommended at all unless you are a fan of masochism.

NOTES : For those of you who don’t wish to heed my advice you can buy a copy for £2.39 on Amazon whilst you’ll have to pay an insane £4.00 for a loose cart version on eBay.

UP NEXT : Horror of horrors – Footballer Of The Year on the Commodore C16+4

The end is in sight and now is the time to roll out some of the good stuff. Roll around your living room and pop out to shoot the bad guys, it’s Time Crisis…..

The mighty G-Con 45 and Time Crisis - a formidable partnership

Nothing captures the gamer’s imagination more than a giant, hulking arcade cabinet. Those with all the flashy bells and knobs on – cabinets shaped like cars, those with hydraulic mechanisms and those with plastic Uzi 9mms bolted on to them – were likely to gobble up more 20p’s than standard stand up versions. Whether they were any good or not, gamers were lured in by the bells-and-whistles and kept coming back in their droves. The mention of cabinets with mounted guns brings us to our next entry.

Operation Wolf probably defines that game best of all. With it’s Rambo-esque opening sequence and death message of “You have sustained a fatal injury” (Yes thank you for pointing that out) had you pumping more 20p’s in as you wanted to get that bit further into the game. It was a very good game too and had many fine home conversions to go with it. Namco decided a few years later that they could improve on this, by adding a few extra bits and pieces to make this run-and-gun genre a little more interesting, and thus Time Crisis was born.

Its fast and furious and all against the clock

All these types of games, to this point, had one major fatal flaw. It was impossible to avoid enemy fire unless you got to them first, and that wasn’t always easy. By adding a pedal to the arcade cabinet you were now able to hide behind objects, therefore allowing you the time to choose the right moment to leap from behind a crate all guns blazing. The gun for the game was no longer mounted and allowed you free and easy movement when making your shots. Firing off screen reloaded the gun and eliminated the need to shoot objects along the way in order to get more ammunition. Throw in a time limit for each section of the level and it really was a race against the clock.

This is what set Time Crisis apart from the rest of that genre. More freedom for the gamer equalled a more satisfying and fun experience. You could even have 2 players at the same time and this paved the way for more exciting games to come into the market, like The House Of The Dead Series and Virtua Cop. So, when the chance to transfer the success of Time Crisis to the PS2 came about, once again the boffins went to work to make the conversion a success.

Time attack gaming is never usually as much fun as this

Thus the Namco G-Con 45 light gun adaptor was produced and my word what a rather fabulous piece of kit it was. It was lightweight and responsive, something which light guns had not been to that point. Aside from the trigger there was also a button on the side of the gun which activated the hide feature of the arcade game. Throw in some pretty adequate graphics and the excellent game play and you had a cracking little conversion which sold very well.

Time Crisis has now spawned three sequels with the latest once being transferred to the PS3. It’s a game series that revolutionised that ilk of games, whilst at the same time providing some exciting home gun action for those in need of it. This is most definitely worth a revisit with a decent learning curve, although anyone with an eye for this sort of game should blast through it with very few problems.

So make time for Time Crisis, it really is worth it.

VERDICT : Gun toting, bad guy popping, action entertainment of a very high standard. Make sure you get the G-Con peripheral to get the full experience.

NOTES : You can buy the game and gun for £8.00 on Amazon. On eBay this package sees bidding start from 99p whilst a complete set on Buy It Now will cost you £12.99

UP NEXT : The good stuff didn’t last – it’s Dragons Lair on the SNES