What can be done to prevent the fire sale that sparked the collapse of the GAME group ?

So what has GAME got to do going forward. From the suggestion box these spurt forth like a spurting thing :

• Shutting so many stores was necessary to reduce costs. You cannot continue having 2-3 shops of the same name within yards of each other competing and chasing the same quid. Hopefully now the lesson has been learnt and they should focus on 1 store maximum in any town centre.
• The pricing policy needs looking at immediately. One of the big criticisms of GAME stores was the huge variance in some of the pricing, especially with the second hand stock. Having preowned games on sale for more than brand new copies smacks of laziness. They also need to look hard at the quantities of preowned games they take in, rather than simply take games for the sake of it
• Perhaps the biggest suggestion of all is this : learn from your mistakes. Not everyone is given a second chance like this. Screw it up this time and it really will be GAME over.
• Assess the competition. The pricing strategies of HMV should be lesson enough to ensure that you don’t follow their path. CEX specialise in mainly second hand stuff. The supermarkets will always have the power to offer better deals but most gamers would rather go to a game specialist. Set out your own stall and be unique, but not unique enough to alienate customers.
• Finally there will be many who would have happily seen GAME go to the wall. The suppliers pulling out before administration was viewed in some quarters as “turnabout being fair play” Mend those bridges and be less like the old GAME.

What do I know ? Well not much but I do know we still have a specialist game retailer on the high street who Mum and Dad and Nan can go to on birthdays and Christmas and get the Call of Duty game you wanted rather than the Call of Juarez game you had never heard of.

Its happened to us all which is why we need specialist stores around to prevent it from happening

Embrace change and take the second chance. From the ashes a phoenix can rise but it is entirely within your own destiny. Screw it up this time and no tears will be shed.

NOTE : Since I wrote this article back on 2^nd April, it has been well documented on various forums that GAME have not learnt a thing. Game prices for pre-owned items are back up to ludicrous levels, so much so that you can buy brand new copies at other stores for anything up to £10 less than GAME are selling second hand.

People are now trading back to GAME all the titles they got in the “spring clean / fire sale” a few weeks ago. Gamers are boasting how they have been able to make £30+ in some cases by trading back to GAME what they previously tried to get rid of.

Finally, probably the worst example has been items being put on the shelves with damaged boxes or missing instructions – what would be classed as seconds – and put on sale for quick removal. One store was reported selling these games at higher prices than the pre-owned stock they already had.

Perhaps, after all this, they do deserve to go to the wall after all…………..

Oh no, not again......

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…….

Is it too much to ask for something a little different ? After all if everything is the same over and over again it all becomes a bit safe and predictable. After casting an eye over some of 2012’s big game releases, RetroBear sharpens his claws once again for another attack on modern gaming….

Now wouldn't that be something ?

I did something rather naughty over Christmas and as such I am here to repent my sins. Yes, for one of the very few times in recent memory, I purchased games that were not of the retro variety. Shock ! Horror ! Gasp ! I should be paraded through the local village and pelted with fruit for committing such a crime. However there was indeed method to my madness. Firstly one was a game I had developed a rather unhealthy fetish for and the other seemed to be very appealing and as such seemed worth a go at the price it was offered at.

About as un-Disney a game as you can get

The first game was Epic Mickey for the Wii. The old white wonder has gradually been turning grey due to all the dust it has been gathering since we were kindly gifted it 2 years ago, and I felt it deserved a new game (not that I play any of the ones I already have for it). Ever since I saw the trailer last year for Epic Mickey I was intrigued by the dark approach to a Disney game, and as the price had plummeted it was worth the gamble. All I need now are some batteries for the controllers……

The second game was L A Noire on the PS3, which is essentially Grand Theft Auto but with more trilby hats. This detective romp had caught my eye when it came out and was recommended to me as an essential purchase. I stood 40 minutes in the queue to buy the game 2^nd hand, and then found out it had all the DLC with it as well. Unfortunately an ear infection and limited hearing has meant I have spent more time saying “Eh” and a lot and less time beating confessions out of dodgy looking 1940’s gangsters.

Can't wait to slap on a trilby and get interrogating

The big question I have been asking myself over Christmas though is where is the originality in the games market at the moment ? Casting an eye over the new releases due this year, the answer is a pretty resounding “Not to be seen”. It was whilst playing Sonic Generations that I found myself wondering if this constant regurgitation and repetition is coming to an end. Sonic Generations is a fine game, but it is essentially bog standard Sonic with a twist. Having said that, at least Sega have tried (and failed miserably) in recent years to move Sonic away from ring collecting.

So looking ahead to 2012 here are some of the things that you can look forward to :

RESIDENT EVIL : REVELATIONS – Resident Evil in 3D ? That might be new if we hadn’t had all those first person games from the PS1 onwards. Resident Evil on a handheld however ? Hmmm no it’s been done before on the Game Boy Color, so I am afraid not many marks for originality there.

FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 – Oh joy another FF game to add to the multitudes I have already not played. This is a direct sequel to FFXIII which makes you wonder why it’s not called FFXIV. Now if they made a FF curling simulator that might be a bit different. After all it would be a sort of turn-based-combat…..

SOUL CALIBUR V – Now featuring the dude from Assassin’s Creed, which means no place for Darth Vader or Yoda this time around. It also doesn’t sound a whole lot different either.

THE DARKNESS II – I thought they had split up ? Anyway, no marks for originality as it is a sequel with the added bonus of a 4 player co-op option. So maybe a little different, but not much.

SSX – The snowboarding series gets the next gen makeover. Will it be any good ? I quite enjoyed the old SSX games so it will be interesting to see how this turns out, but where all else fails dust off an old classic, tart it up and watch the wonga roll in i.e. not very original.

Now those are just 5 games I have picked from a list I found on Digital Spy, but aside from SSX they all appear to be sequels. Now unless these are packed with radical new improvements, they are likely to be the same thing aren’t they ? Soul Calibur is going to rely on you kicking the shit out of your opponent unless they have included a supermarket trolley dash as a hidden level. Resident Evil is going to be about gunning down zombies as opposed to forming a close harmony choir and getting a date booked at the Proms.

I haven’t even mentioned the planned update of Amiga classic Syndicate, another installment of Mass Effect, a further volume in the Grand Theft Auto and Mario finally kicking the 3DS into shape with his first 3D true adventure and Mario Kart 7. Yes there is no denying there is public appetite for these games and they will all sell well (Mario is breaking all kinds of records if reports are to be believed). It just makes me sad that the best the industry can do right now is make easy money with sequels.

That'll wipe the silly grin of that plumber's face

It makes me long for the days of original games like Head Over Heels, Saboteur and Wizball, games that were totally different from anything you had seen or played before. Is it because all the good ideas have been done ? Is it because no one wants to take the risk with a bold new title ? I guess the only way we will see any changes is if any of these, and the other major titles, tank on release. If they don’t, expect Mario Kart 35 sometime in the near future.

Never has a truer word been spoken - although I would have had the violence as the biggest share from experience

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

May 2012 make all your dreams and wishes come true

As the holiday season starts to wind down and Retrobear finds he can no longer put off standing on those scales just to see how much he has eaten in 2 weeks, he takes time out to reflect on the year 2011 and looks forward to 2012.

Well it has been a funny old year for yours truly, especially when you consider at the start of 2011 Retrosection didn’t actually exist. We rose from the ashes of the now-defunct Gamefancier site and it’s been a good move. True, perhaps I haven’t been here posting as much as I should have done but I think overall there has been enough content on the site over time to give you a feel of what we are all about here.

2011 has really been a good year for retro. More and more games are being “re-imagined”, or as I prefer to call it “tarted up” for the newer generation so they can enjoy HD renditions of old retro classics. The rise of mobile gaming and the iPad has also seen an influx of re-releases with very mixed results. Whilst there is something that appeals to the gamer in me about the thought of playing Sonic on my mobile as opposed to getting a Mega Drive all hooked up, there is also something that doesn’t appeal to me about it – in the fact I enjoy getting a Mega Drive all hooked up in the first place.

The future of gaming is portable - play Mario and answer the phone at the same time

Retro has certainly caught on, and in many ways that’s good because it shows that even with all the tech we now have available, people’s memories of older games from their childhood are no longer memories and the hardened collectors amongst us will track these old classics down. The result of that is the bad thing : all of a sudden retro has got rather expensive. My outing to the London Gaming Convention in December really brought that into perspective. It is one thing to pick up a few loose carts from a car boot for a couple of quid, but if you want your retro complete with boxes and instructions and in the mintiest of mint conditions, get your wallets out because it ain’t cheap.

Retro has really become collectable in the last 12-18 months - expect to pay top dollar for the good stuff

2011 wasn’t such a good year for me retro-wise as previous years, though my old mate Andy did probably produce the moment of the year for me by giving me a load of his old C64 tapes he had from when we were kids. They go on the Commodorathon pile which as I am sure you are aware still needs whittling down. On the whole though the high prices have put me off a little and whilst 2009 and 2010 produced many bargains this year the retro was thin on the ground, or if around, vastly over priced. Still, there are bargains to be had out there so keep looking !

The Commodorathon will return in 2012 - from a games pile much larger than this impressive collection

So what does 2012 bring us ? Well it will be interesting to see how the current gen market gets on. Gamers are being hit hard by the high prices and Nintendo’s own goal with the 3DS launch has been a lesson harshly learned. The 360 must surely be nearing the end of it’s life, the PS4 is no longer a hushed whisper (the PS3 has had a year to forget following the hacking of the PSN earlier this year) and the Wii-U is just round the corner. Will anyone else try and shoehorn themselves into the market ? Highly unlikely. Will 3D gaming take off ? Well whilst the reviews for Mario Kart and Super Mario have been good, it will come down to how many units they can shift. And has motion sensor gaming had it’s day ? Have Move and Kinect caught the imagination the Wii did when it was launched ? I am not so sure…

An explosive year for games and gaming ? We shall have to see...

As for Retrosection – well the Commodorathon will resume, I have a large stack of games to get through across all formats and I can always offer opinions on subjectes about gaming. So yes there is no excuse and I fully believe that 2012 will be a very busy year for yours truly – if I can’t find the time, I shall make the time. Suddenly lunchtimes at work will be very productive !

So a Happy New Year to you all, keep it retro and see you on the ice !

Retrosection will be in attendance and we hope to have some reviews and pictures of just what went on and what you will miss out on if you don’t go ! So check out the website below and all the details and RetroBear hopes to see you there !

London Gaming Con is fast approaching this 3-4 December. Make sure to Register Now for the event which will bring Gamers together! It will be a 1,000 person-event by fans for fans at the Rocket Complex on Holloway Road, taking place from 11am in the morning right through to well past midnight. Remember, you must be over the age of 18 by 3rd December to attend.

If you register and pay now then you can get Saturday for just £8 and Sunday for just £6. (On the day entry without pre-paying is £10 per day).

Register Here – View Travel Info Here – Full Website Here

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

Driving games are ten a plenty but it is rare to find one that rocked the arcades that also rocks in the comfort of your own home. Those Friday night trips to Stourport-on-Severn must have paid off as RetroBear loads up one of the great Sega games from the last great days of arcade gaming…..

Driving games don't get much better than this and for once the spirit of the arcade original runs through it

There was a time when if you wanted to play the biggest, baddest and best looking games then a trip to your local arcade would suffice. There was always a great deal of interest when one of the games got the home conversion treatment. Of course none of the 8 bit machines could have hoped to replicate the arcade originals in terms of graphics, no matter how many magazines proclaimed these conversions as “arcade perfect”.

In the dying days of the arcade there were many fine games, but because of the shift in the industry to produce consoles capable of being more arcade perfect than ever, slowly but surely with each new release and each failed machine the arcades themselves began to wane. Nowadays these places are full of fruit machines and gamblers and to find one containing working games machines is harder than ever.

As close to arcade perfect as it was at the time, this was far superior to the Saturn conversion of Daytona

That said there were some belting arcade games that came about and Sega produced two fab racers that have lived long in the memory. One was Daytona USA which sadly I don’t have a copy of on the Sega Saturn, but brings fond memories flooding back of 4 machines linked together racing against my friends in the battle to finish first. The other was Sega Rally, which did find itself converted to the Saturn, and some years later an updated version to the Dreamcast.

As with the all best games, the premise is simple : drive your rally car through a variety of terrains – desert, mountain etc – and continually hit the checkpoints to extend the time. Sitting alongside you in voice only is your co-driver, barking out useful things such as “Long easy right, Over jumps, long easy left maybe” – giving you a heads-up on what lurks round the corner. The road surfaces change so you have to get used to sliding round corners and accelerating/breaking at the right time to maximise your speed.

The Saturn conversion of the game is nothing short of spectacular. It’s fast like the arcade original and the graphics were excellent for the time, though now they have lost a lot of their impact. The playability is still there with the “one more go” factor not only there but increasing after every play just to see if you can beat your times and fastest laps. The only downside was the clipped frame rate which added scenery as you went along, but this is a minor gripe.

Looks like a right turn ahead rather than a wrong one

It received rave reviews when released and many arcade fans were grateful that justice had been done. Playing it now it is still a very good racer, though 16 years after it’s original release there are obvious signs of it’s age. One of the first PS3 racers was an updated version, graphically tarted up but with the same core gameplay element still there. As good as it was, up against more modern racers like DIRT and Need For Speed : Hot Pursuit the game didn’t stand up to modern audiences and rather sadly was largely ignored.

Sega Rally stands as a great racer of it’s time, one the last true great arcade games. Dig out a Saturn and a copy of the game and let it rip.

VERDICT : Pole position all the way. It’s still a great racer even by today’s standards, though it is showing it’s age.

NOTES : Complete copies on Amazon for around the £2.00 mark, whilst on eBay prices start around £4.00 for the complete game

UP NEXT : Resist the temptation of the Dark Side – Shadows Of The Empire on the N64

With a craving for barley water running through his veins, REtroBear tackles one of the best sports games out there as well as one of his own pet hates. You’ll see why underneath he is no member of the Andy Murray Fan Club….

If anyone makes any reference to new balls or balls being out there will be trouble

I hate tennis. Its not really a sport to me, more of a minority one that should be tucked away on some obscure satellite sports channel where no one knows it is there. Sport should never be elitist but the only seemingly good tennis players we Brits seem to produce are either toffs, Scots or Canadians. My hatred doesn’t end there – for me tennis is equally dull to play as it is to watch and besides, the only tennis courts round here are used for football.

So why on earth would I even dream of loading up the original Virtua Tennis game on the Dreamcast ? Well having played the arcade original from Sega and been impressed by just how easy it was to pick up and play it seemed only fair to give it the benefit of the doubt. In one of those “too ridiculous to be true” moments I actually found myself enjoying it. This is tennis, Jim but not as we know it.

The great appeal about Virtua Tennis is you don’t have to master a silly number of power shots or specialist moves. All you do is run around the court, position yourself and press the button for the sort of shot you want. That’s it. Get more points than the geezer at the other end and you win. How simple is that ? You can play as one of eight star players, well they were stars then as it was 1999/2000 when it came out, and each player is beautifully recreated to match their real life counterparts. The graphics throughout are fabulous with the courts and stadia in particular quite jaw dropping.

This being Henman you just know he's going to choke on that point....

My only criticism of the game is the fact that although the controls are great it doesn’t take an awful lot to master the game. One of the real failings of the whole series is that the intelligence of the game doesn’t have the means to punish you. For example it may seem you might not make the shot but for some reason you do. That takes some of the realism away, but unless you are sat there drinking barley water and swapping ends with your TV when you play its not going to matter a huge deal.

Overall Virtua Tennis is a cracker to look at, a joy to play and you’ll keep plugging at it until you conquer the tennis world. Just don’t take it too seriously.

Very few sports games have looked as good as this and thankfully it plays pretty well too

VERDICT : Better than a Wimbledon fortnight and a bucket full of strawberries, Virtua Tennis serves and volleys the opposition to Court No.19, leaving it all alone on Centre Court.

NOTES : Plenty of availability with Amazon still selling their original stock at £9.99, though you can get used copies for £1.98. On eBay boxed copies will set you back about £5.00 which is pretty much the average price to pay. Don’t forget both the XBOX 360, PS3 and Wii have VT3 and VT4 available for them if you fancy playing with some more up to date players.

UP NEXT : Truly a retro experience as we go back in time to the 1940’s and Rocket Ranger on the NES.