Games You’ve (probably) Never Played: Zombie Nation (NES)
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Released: 1991
Developer: KAZe
Publisher: Meldac
Famicom? Yes (as Abarenbou Tengu Translation: Hooligan Tengu)
Instruction Manual: Not necessary – Link
Difficulty: Moderate
Played it as a child? No
Value: $187.49 (used) $127.61 (new) (pricecharting.com)
Digital Release? No
Aside from the steep price tag, there are few games on the NES that are like Zombie Nation. Not only is it it an original horizontal scrolling shmup, but it does many technical tricks not often seen on the console. Starting with the title screen, which has a line effect that resembles many arcade shmups of the time period, there is a lot happening onscreen at any given time. The NES would often suffer stuttering or slowdown when the screen was flooded with only a few enemies – heck, Double Dragon couldn’t have more than three characters on screen at once! Zombie Nation has far more than that with little slowdown and even background effects with everything from burning buildings to guiding lasers. Additionally the boss battles and frantic later levels would dowse the screen in bulletfire, making it a precursor to the popular “danmaku” genre of shmups that emerged in the mid 90s. Did I also mention it’s fun as hell?
Podcast: Happy Birthday to the 3DO
Born on October 4, 1993, the 3DO game system was reponsible for a lot of firsts. One of the first CD-ROM consoles, the first 32-bit console, and the first console that relied solely on 3rd party manufacturing. For all it gets harped on, the 3DO still houses a strong library that borrows from both consoles and PCs as well as paving the way for original titles. Shawn Freeman from Knuckleballer Radio joins us to discuss the glory that was the 3DO.
Extra Credit: Resident Evil Series
Back before Gaming History 101 was a thing, Fred made a solo podcast about the Resident Evil series and it was shockingly less than an hour long.
Podcast: The History of Survival Horror
This week Fred discusses the origins of the survival horror genre.
Video: Let’s Play Double Dragon (NES)
By popular demand (and my own personal affinity toward playing games on a capture card), here’s the Let’s Play of Double Dragon on the NES. I do complete the game but I cut my many attempts at Mission 4 for brevity. If you guys prefer to uncut versions in the future, that’s fine but it’s going to be really repetitive. This definitely demonstrates many gamers’ frustration with the blatantly unfair nature of the final mission. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below. More to come very soon!
Podcast: The Final Countdown – Pt. 4 (finale)
We finally wrap up our “much-longer-than-we-ever-expected” series discussing the stories and cultural relevance of the games in G4’s Top 100 video games of all time. Fred Rojas is yet again joined by Rob “Trees” from EZ Mode Unlocked to wrap up the final games and even have a brief side discussion on games that may be missing.
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Podcast: Birth of the Playstation
This week Fred goes solo and discusses the new format for the podcast, promises more media content on the site, and then tells the history of Sony’s famous powerhouse the Playstation, which premiered this week 17 years ago.
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Retrospective: Psychonauts
Psychonauts has still got to be one of the most interesting cases of game neglect I have ever seen. Okay gamers, lets cut through all the lies we tell ourselves and face facts: when someone tells you a game is a “great game that you should try out”, we rarely do. As hobbyists that claim to have so much in common we are quite fickle when it comes to altering our plans on what we’re currently playing and what we will play. As someone who maintains a site destined to never generate the traffic that I would if I focused on contemporary gaming, it’s almost a waste of breath and writing to mention a title from last generation. This is the world that Psychonauts lives in – no one played it when it released and few will drag themselves back to play it now. It’s a shame because this is an imaginative masterpiece that justifies the, frankly, so-so releases that Double Fine has offered in recent years. Don’t get me wrong, I love most of Double Fine’s efforts more than the average gamer, but most of the studio’s games require some sort of caveat as of late. Not Psychonauts. It’s a complete package. Although it’s a waste of my time, I have to say it: You need to play Psychonauts.
Almost every excuse you can clamor is gone for not playing this game. It’s on every HD platform: Steam, PC download (on gog.com so it’s compatible with Win XP-7), Xbox 360 (it’s an Xbox Original), and as of today it’s on PSN as a PS2 digital release. You won’t even pay more than about $10-$15 for it either. Okay, so it’s easy to get, but you’re still wondering why to play it, right?
How To Be A Japanese Import Gaming Poser
As a retro gamer, it’s inevitable that you have to acknowledge games from other countries, especially Japan. Why? Because many of the foundations of gaming began in the land of the rising sun and lets face it, there’s just something intriguing about integrating completely foreign languages and concepts to a domestic gaming collection. Well and there’s that whole thing about a long list of amazing games that we never saw on our shores. It wasn’t until this console generation that gaming started to go region free (unless you’re talking portables, which ironically just recently started segmenting by region after decades of being region free), and even now it’s really only the PS3 and 360 with plenty of exceptions. Before that games were segmented into different regions for distribution, licensing, and localization, resulting in a diverse list of releases from country to country. On a macro level your release decisions were segmented into three major regions: North America, Europe, and Japan. Import gaming skates an odd line in America because Europe has the common language (English) but a completely different broadcast standard (covered here) that requires special modifications and/or hardware to play games on. Japan has a language many Americans can’t understand (and more importantly in retro games, read) but has similar broadcast standards making most games essentially plug and play. As a result you’re more likely to import a Japanese game than a European game, most likely choosing an action platformer or fighting game over, say, a high-end RPG. But limiting yourself to just those games means all you’re going to play are licensing titles from the Super Famicom like Ultraman or PS1 games like Dragonball Z. That’s where this guide comes in – it’s a cheeky, sarcastic look at the elitist gamer that thrives on Japanese titles and gives you starting hints at how to pretend you are a Japanese gamer in the know. Those of us who love Japanese gaming are guilty of at least a few of these in our lives and who knows, maybe it’ll even give you the starting point you need to enjoy Japanese gaming.
Podcast: The Final Countdown – Part 3
We continue our Final Countdown series that swaps the wonderful stories associated with some of the most beloved games of all time. We still couldn’t quite wrap it up, but we crank through games 39-10 and break down some of the biggest titles ever released. This time around Fred from Gaming History 101 is joined by Trees from EZ Mode Unlocked and Jake/Jacob from Gameranx.
Gaming History 101 