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

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

Love At First Sight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’ve always been asked what sort of games I prefer. Do I prefer First Person Shooters ? Well I like the original Goldeneye on the N64 and the early Medal Of Honour/Call Of Duty games, but not the modern versions. I love sports games, although playing anything pre Kick Off is now nothing more than a retro chore (with the exception of Emlyn Hughes’ Football). Puzzle games are OK, but give me Tetris and I’ll be happy. I love good arcade conversions and original games but I am not the world’s biggest fan of film and TV tie ins. So this next batch of Amiga games from my youth cover a lot of bases with the usual predictably mixed results…..

Which game genre do you prefer ? Strip poker games not included of course......

GRAND MONSTER SLAM – Loosely based on the ancient arcade game Penguin Wars, Grand Monster Slam tries to be a number of things, with the final result perhaps not quite satisfying enough for all, it remains a jolly good effort trying to be something else. Taking part in what is a cross between a medieval and fantasy world, the basis of the game is to work through a league. Each opponent you face has the same goal as you – kick all their furry creatures (called Beloms) at your opponent, to clear your line, as quickly as possible. Do that and you run at your opponent for victory. You can aim your Beloms at your opponent to knock him down, whilst kicking them into the crowd will result in extra Beloms being added to your remaining ones. Work your way through the league and take part in some weird mini games, one being kicking Beloms into the mouth of waiting monsters, each slightly higher up than the last one. It’s a brave attempt at being different and was good enough to be in the very first Amiga Power 100. However, the sometimes clunky controls and samey gameplay might mean boredom sets in before too long. A good effort and worth a little look.

HYDRA – The Amiga was home to some pretty worthless conversions in it’s time, and this one is no exception. It’s basically STUN Runner on water, or those of you who remember the game based on the James Bond film Live & Let Die, its kinda like that. I actually played this back in the arcade once and it didn’t exactly grab me as being a great game. The whole chasing criminals thing had become a bit dull by this point – this version was around 18 months after Chase HQ had appeared – and although putting it on water is a slightly different approach, a great game it does not make. In fact it gets real dull real quick. The whole thing moves so slowly that any sense of speed the game should create isn’t there and thus it becomes another woeful racing/driving/chase the crims game of very low quality. At least the water effect is nice……

INDY 500 – We touched on Days of Thunder in the previous posting. That was a bad example of what the Amiga could do when it came to vector based racing games. Indy 500 is considerably better, providing you had at least 1MB of memory and reduced the detail in the graphics to the bear minimum. Being a simulation rather than a straight racer there are lots of details such as car set up, testing, practice, qualifying and of course the actual Indianapolis 500, based on the field that entered the 1989 race. Yes, you only get one race to take part in so the lastability comes into question. There is no denying it looks great and was way ahead of anything else at the time, but it might prove a bit too techy for those who just like to plug in and race away.

JIMMY WHITE’S WHIRLWIND SNOOKER – You always wonder with certain sports whether you can replicate the actual fun and feeling of playing it on a computer as opposed to participating in the real thing. Snooker had up till then had a fairly chequered history, with snooker games being basic coloured balls on a green background. The legendary programmer Archer Maclean took the game of snooker and did something rather marvellous – he made it interesting. This is one of the best sports games ever, with so many touches of realism included – cueing angles, needing to chalk the cue, backspin, positional play and even the odd cheeky ball suddenly having a cartoon face and sticking it’ tongue out at you. Throw in some excellent graphics and the ability to view each shot from every angle possible and you have a really excellent piece of software. Even people who hate snooker will love this.

KICK OFF – OK so it’s not Kick Off 2, but it seems only fair to look at the original game which revolutionised how football would be transferred to computers in the future. The big pluses from Kick Off are the sheer speed of how things move and the fact the ball doesn’t stick to your feet all the time. This allows for fluid movement and the ability to change direction with ease. You also get a grid which shows you the whole pitch and where your team mates are, allowing you to build attacks and protect yourself from being caught on the counter attack. It’s not the best looking game, the computer AI is suspect and some of the referees are total bastards, reducing some games to 8 v 8 in a flash if you are a bit twitchy with the old tackling. Kick Off set the bar for future football games and the sequel is the best football game ever made. It’s hard to play anything made before this now. It effectively rendered any other football game of it’s time negligible.

LED STORM – Now here is an arcade game you probably won’t remember – even I can’t recall this one. What I can recall is playing this conversion by US Gold on one of the many compilations I had at the time, and looking back now it’s still a lot of fun. It is by no means perfect at all – the graphics are small, the playing area is minuscule and it’s all a bit monotonous. It’s saving grace is the fact it does hook you right away and the music is pretty awesome. It’s sort of like Spy Hunter mixed with any racing checkpoint game you have played before. It’s not outstanding, it’s nothing special but it is a bit of harmless fun from an obscure arcade machine where can easily while away a couple of hours.

MERV THE MERCILESS – This is cheating slightly as this game was given away free with Zero magazine on the coverdisk. It’s a Public Domain game – games created by programmers that were cheap and cheerful, as long as you don’t expect too much from them. Kinda like the forerunner of PSN exclusives and WiiWare games. Anyway, Merv is a top down collect em up, with the added peril of having to move around a screen which moves in a totally random fashion (very much like having the walls close in on you). Get trapped in a corner, the screen will move in on you and kill you. It has fairly crappy graphics so perhaps the best thing about it is the music and sound effects – you can activate the Neighbours TV theme tune by running over the Neighbours icon, whilst being squashed by the moving play area will result in a comedy sound effect and suitably comical music. It definitely follows the Three C’s very closely – Cheap, Cheerful and Crappy. The only reason it’s included here is because me and my mates found it hilarious back in the day, but it has certainly lost that appeal some 20 years later !

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.

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

Clever that isn't it ?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 !

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…….

Game 42 marks the 10%-ish mark of the Commodorathon. To say it’s been an arduous trek so far is to say that elephants are made of sheet metal. Still it doesn’t help that the six games chosen at random tend to be just that – random. Cacky old arcade conversions, lame film-tie ins and the great, great grandson of Championship Manager lay in wait in this next batch……..

The first landmark of the Commodorathon

GAME 37 : CHASE HQ (1989,OCEAN SOFTWARE)

This is Nancy at Chase Headquarters, we've got a crappy arcade converison here.......

Scum rules the roadways and it’s up to you to track down the criminals and ram them off the road. Armed with a high powered car, fitted with a turbo boost, and in constant communication with Nancy at HQ, you simply have to drive as fast as you can to find the criminals. Once located you have a short time period to ram them from behind until their car explodes and you can make an arrest. There are 5 major criminals out there and only you can stop them.

You get the feeling of the speed of this game from this screenshot, and yes static is a good way to describe it

Given how painstakingly slow this game is, I am amazed you are able to get anywhere near the criminals. This game is an absolute abomination of a conversion. I am really not sure where to begin.

Firstly it’s a multi-load so any level failures and you’ll have to rewind the tape. Secondly, the game looks as if it has been ported across from the Spectrum, as it is all green and yellow, and the backgrounds and course layouts do not change from level to level. Thirdly, the sound effects make your ears bleed and the music is not much better. The absolute undoing of this game, however, is the speed. You cannot have a high speed car chase game where the high speed chase in question is the equivalent of a sloth chasing a worm with a brick tied to its back.

The big red arrow gives the criminals away. You'd have thought they would have removed it before they went on the run

The C64 was home to some pretty torrid conversions of great arcade games. You only have to see how good both the Amstrad and Spectrum conversions were to see just how bad this was. Of course the C64 has limitations, but even so, there is nothing to recommend here other than simply to never play it. A disgrace.

GAME 38 : HARDBALL (1985, ACCOLADE)

Rounders with gloves

Taking yourself out to the ball game, it’s time to wear some silly pyjama type uniforms and spend some time playing the American version of rounders. You play either a friend or the computer over the course of a 9 innings game, with the object being to get more runs than the other team. You take turns at batting and pitching, with the latter being viewed from behind the pitcher. You have a small variety of “ball types” to throw, such as slider, curveball or fastball. You also take control of the fielders, making catches or picking up ground hits and throwing them to the bases.

Despite the limitations and age of the game, this is one of the best baseball games out there

Compared to American Football, baseball is pretty easy to follow, it’s just all the statistics I can’t get to grips with. The good news is that, while Hardball is full of stats it is also incredibly easy to play. You don’t really need to know if a player is left or right handed, or if they have a good average – you just select your team and off you go. Pitching is pretty easy, fielding is strange to start with but easy to pick up but I did find batting quite hard. It seemed almost a miracle to hit the ball hard in any direction. The graphics still look pretty good nearly 30 years since release and the spot tunes and crowd effects actually make you feel you are at a game.

Controlling the fielders does take a bit of getting used to but you'll soon be pulling off catches and whizzing throws back to base

There haven’t been too many memorable baseball games down the years but, even though it is very much a golden oldie, Hardball is one of the best and most playable examples out there.

GAME 39 : POWERDRIFT (1989, ACTIVISION)

The sillier the haircut, the faster the car - so it seems anyway

Taking part in a series of races, in what can only be described as a quad bike/buggy type vehicle, you battle 12 other opponents in your quest to win the racing championship. There are many different levels and courses to choose from, ranging from the more basic tracks to those that go up and over hills, round big bends and down steep inclines. All this is done at a fair pace and with competitive drivers, winning the title is not a forgone conclusion and you will have to battle all the way.

The courses vary greatly and provide a challenge from start to finish

Personally speaking I have always enjoyed the sort of racing games that you can pick up, put your foot down on and just drive. All this changing gear cobblers and slowing down into corners etc – can’t stand it. With Power Drift you get 2 gears and just the warning to avoid contact with other racers and roadside objects. That’s probably the reason I absolutely loved this game back in the day and still do after revisiting it. The whole thing is done in one load which means you can keep going without reloading tracks – you can play all the different levels, choose different drivers etc. It’s just a great package. Obviously, compared to the arcade original, graphically it’s a bit sparse but actually benefits from the lack of detail. I played the Amiga version years ago and that suffered from too much detail. The speed of the game is at the other end of the scale from Chase HQ and the music is awesomely good.

Without trying too hard a top notch conversion was possible and one of the best racers on the C64

This all adds up to one of the best racers on the C64 and a must have. It’s the sort of pick up and play game that I love so much. So imagine my surprise when one casts an eye over the developer – Activision. If you have seen any of my reviews of Activision games here at RetroSection you’ll know that they are responsible for some truly abhorrent C64 arcade conversions. It seems that on this occasion they got it all rather right for a change.

GAME 40 : BLUES BROTHERS (1991, TITUS)

Everybody needs somebody to love (someone to love)....

Jake and Elwood are on the run once again. Through 5 levels of platform mayhem, they have to trek across the city, through a prison and a river to reach freedom. Along the way you need find the missing records to complete your collection. It isn’t an easy task as pretty much everything in this game is against you, including the grannies in the shopping trolleys. All this is done to tunes of the Blues Brothers films so you can bop along whilst gaining your freedom.

This game has little to do with the film and more to do with being fun

In the hands of the wrong developers or a team after a quick buck by cashing in on a licence name this could have been a quite dreadful gaming experience. Whilst it wasn’t as much fun as I remember, it is still a good game to play. It’s easy to play, the graphics are great, the music is quite superb and, whilst it is a little samey and a little easy, there is no denying the charm of the Blues Brothers.

A late addition to the C64 roster but one of the better games

There isn’t a lot here that you couldn’t get anywhere else, but then again not a lot of that has been done as well as this. Titus were not renowned for bringing out quality games but this was a very nice surprise indeed.

GAME 41 : GHOSTBUSTERS II (1989, ACTIVISION)

Who you gonna call ? Anyone but Activision.....oh they did call Activision

5 years since they came to the attention of the world, things are not going well for the Ghostbusters. Reduced to appearing at children’s birthday parties or on dodgy cable TV paranormal programmes, it seems that the almighty heroes are but a distant memory. However, when strange ooze begins appearing in the sewers which changes with the moods of the city’s inhabitants, it soon becomes clear that more ghoulish goings-on are in the pipeline and there are only one set of people you can call.

The opening level does take some mastering but after that it's rapidly downhill

Like many sequels that which made that had you wondering why they had bothered, Ghostbusters 2 the film AND the game of the film are both inferior to the original. The game is multi-load which can only lead to more hair being pulled out. While there is little to complain about in terms of the graphics, the music is mostly hideous and the sound effects just non-existent. The fact the game is only three levels long is unforgivable, although the first two levels do take a little time to master. Once done, there is little challenge or little desire to go back and have another go.

DAMN YOU ACTIVISION !!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a thoroughly unsavoury package courtesy of my old friends Activision. As the police would say – keep moving, there is nothing to see here.

GAME 42 : TRACKSUIT MANAGER (1988, GOLIATH GAMES)

Now you can do a Graham Taylor and call time on Gary Lineker's career - it's not as if it will amount to anything special anyway

You can’t get any tougher job than this – why not try your hand at the England football manager’s job ? Either that or choose from any number of other countries, but your goal is the same ; bring success, and quickly, to your nation after years of failure.

Choosing from a pool of 100 players you pick formation, select tactics, study individual stats and then finally pick your squad. Arrange matches, scout the opposition, suffer squad withdrawals before knuckling down for the important qualifying games. If you get through your group, the cup competition awaits and the fate and the glory of the nation is in your hands.

This is the memo all new England football managers get when they come into the job

At the time there was only one other football management game on the market – the aptly named Football Manager and it’s sequel. This was an area that would get increasingly saturated as time went on and there is no doubt that the success of Tracksuit Manager ultimately had an influence on the successful Championship Manager series.

At the time, the game played out the match in text form, something not done before. There is great depth to the management side, from scouting to selecting players (and having them withdraw – damn you Glenn Hoddle) to picking formation and tactics. For a tape based game there is an awful lot to get your teeth into and your head around.

It might look quite dated but don't forget this is exactly how Championship Manager started out

It is one of the best examples of the management simulation from the 8 bit era. If you can get used to the fact that most of the players in the game are now managers themselves or are involved in the media, and can turn the clock back to 1988, you’ll be in for a treat. Tracksuit Manager is not one of those games left back in the dressing room.

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

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

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

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

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

Yes that is an N64 version of Sean Bean.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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