Posts Tagged ‘retro’
A New Obsession: Retro Gaming Achievements
Please Note: All screenshots in this post are taken from retroachievements.org and were not created nor are they the property of Gaming History 101. I only used them to demonstrate the wonderful project and site that has been created. Please visit Retro Achievements to take advantage of the software and see for yourself the world described in this blog post. – Fred
retroachievements.org logo
I think the argument over the value of achievements/trophies/accomplishments/arbitrary rewards is all but required to occur at least once a week in video game enthusiast circles. It’s one of the least interesting and most divided discussions happening. At its core, however, it all boils down to one factor: do you or don’t you like achievements. Just because you like them doesn’t mean you’re a so-called “achievement whore” and I’m not saying that those who ignore them completely are getting any less out of their games than others, but it’s always a hotbed topic. I like achievements. I would say I like achievements more than most, especially when it comes to retro games. That’s like the one thing that few developers take the time to integrate into many ports – not remastered editions, but ports – most likely because the games weren’t built for those kind of triggers so retrofitting them must be a pain. It’s for this reason that when I stumbled upon the site retroachievements.org and found a series of emulators that have achievements built into them that I instantly fell in love. Retro gaming achievements just got “real”.
Wax Nostalgic Responsibly
As time ticks by the threshold of what is considered nostalgic and retro grows exponentially. I dare not even define the term or the guidelines one may foolishly attempt to place on what would even be appropriate for a site like this. At the going rate of Internet coverage I could probably justify reviewing a game a month old or that has recently earned a price drop as retro, it’s all relative. Still, there is a place for looking fondly back at gaming days passed but it is important to realize that with the ongoing clutter of fan created gaming sites that we all do our part to stand out. I don’t want to read articles about things I already know, I want to read articles about things no one knows. This is why you don’t see much coverage of Super Mario World or reviews of the latest virtual console releases – too many have already done it before. When you set out to talk about the past, try to impress with what unique items you can bring to the table, not recycling.
It’s a hard road to figure out what to cover and frankly we tend to migrate to what we know best, but remember that as a consumer product there were so many copies of Super Mario Bros. 3 that perhaps one does not need to review it for the thousandth time. I may be off base, but I propose that anyone talking about old games either try to cover what has rarely been touched before or bring a new angle. Also it’s important to understand that with different eras ushers different players and neither is the correct opinion. I scoff at the people who played pinball in the 70s and 80s and tell me that I should play a real man’s game and put aside kiddie video games. In that same regard I know there are plenty of you out there who want to dismiss me immediately for feeling that N64 bred few winners, especially when you find out I like Shadows of the Empire and don’t much care for Goldeneye. It’s all perspective. So here is a fun list of rules I have created when delving into the games of the past that hopefully you will find helpful.
Gaming History X: Speed Round
This week Fred is greeted by a whole bunch of guests: Rob “Trees” from EZ Mode Unlocked, Chip Cella from The B-Team, Eli “Sodoom” of Knuckleballer Radio and Shawn Freeman of both Knuckleballer and Zombie Cast. For this month’s GHX the guys are discussing various topics in speed rounds comparing contemporary game design to retro or classic game design.
Check This Out: Game Vault (Omaha, NE)
At first glance Game Vault, located just outside the core downtown area of Omaha, looks like another clone of GameStop. Upon entering, you may still feel that way as most of the walls are lined with modern PS3, 360, and Wii titles along with a large flat screen television that is displaying an endless playlist of gameplay videos. It wasn’t until I began to browse the large glass cases and have a brief chat with owner Scott, who was the only employee in his store on this brisk Saturday morning, that I learned Omaha has quite a great local game store.
His featured glass case contained a few instantly recognizable gems of retro gaming, such as a boxed complete copy of Earthbound on the SNES (he also had a loose cart for the more budget-conscious), as well as other SNES classics like Super Metroid, Super Mario RPG, and Yoshi’s Island, all boxed and complete. Rarely have I entered a store that not only provided such care on these holy grails of gaming, a few of my friends have been searching for boxed complete copies of these games for years, but his prices were reasonable. It’s not just the SNES that he has to offer, I was stunned to find everything from a stack of Atari 2600 games to a batch of decent 3DO titles and even a Jaguar game or two. In fact, I don’t think it was possible to name a system this guy didn’t have at least a few games for (including PC games, new and old). He even had an import game section that had a mint copy of Dino Crisis on the PS1 from Japan, as if resting on the shelf just for me. Often times when you see stores like this, I remember one in particular in downtown Chicago and another in New York, that you expect heavily inflated prices. Not the case in Game Vault, Scott’s prices are fair, easily topping most of GameStop’s and eBay’s prices, and he doesn’t require a game club membership or anything to get the best price. All in all, Game Vault is one of the most diverse and well stocked used game stores around. I’m now saddened I don’t live in Omaha.
Review: Life of Pixel
Retro “style” has become exponentially popular these days. What started as an amusing aesthetic for Mega Man 9 or upgraded project like Retro City Rampage has spawned a rush of pixelated, sprite-based games that may look like they came from yesteryear but play like anything but. To the untrained eye (or non-technical gamer) these are nothing more than cash-in titles hoping to embrace the nostalgia of gamers like myself and strategically place a casual game in a 1985 wrapping. My only exception to this style probably lies in titles like Retro Game Challenge on the DS, which fully recreated new games that actually play like old games, or titles like Pier Solar on the Genesis, which is an actual title that plays on the console. Life of Pixel rests just in the middle because it plays completely like a game from the past, but also looks like a game of the past as well. The twist: it does this with eight different known consoles/microcomputers.
One of the first systems is the Atari 2600
Released on the Playstation Mobile platform, an odd choice at first but completely appropriate in hindsight, you follow a single pixel lost to the annals of history that rediscovers its value visiting a retro game museum. In this museum he discovers that he was quite useful on international consoles Atari 2600, Gameboy, and NES, along with five microcomputers that dominated 80s gaming in the UK. These work as “worlds” for the game, each containing eight levels of pure retro platforming bliss. In truth the levels are nothing special if not for the fact that each level and console looks and acts just like it did in the past, flaws and all. An easy example is that of the Atari 2600, which cannot scroll its screen in any way and thus the levels are contained in what you see. Additionally microcomputers could not scroll at will like the NES could so you have to move screen to screen. These are just a couple of examples of how the particular console you are on relates to the type of tactics you use in each level. This isn’t the only hook, as game design “grows up” as you progress in the consoles, so do the mechanics and gameplay styles. In the end you’re basically playing the same series and concept of game across 8 consoles and more than a decade of hardware and game design. If that doesn’t speak to the retro style I don’t know what does. Life of Pixel is a full retro experience, complete with visual styles that faithfully resemble the aesthetic of that console – you know how each console seemed to have a “look” – and properly credited music that holds as true as the graphics.
Podcast: Ultimate Play The Game
Fred and Rob “Trees” discuss Rare titles. We actually mean the developer Rare as opposed to video games that are considered “rare.” Originally formed as Ultimate Play The Game, we go over the history and game library of one of the most influential and abundant 2nd party developers on Nintendo’s platforms.
Download this episode (right click and save)
Subscribe: RSS iTunes Google Podbean
As promised, here’s gameplay footage of Nightmare on Elm Street for the NES:
Podcast: Welcome to the Video Zone
Fred and Rob “Trees” from EZ Mode Unlocked get together and talk about the various television game shows and cartoon shows revolving around video games on television in the 1980s and 1990s. With a little time left over, they even get into some of the shows from the UK and Japan.
Podcast: 2013 on the 5s and 10s
Happy New Year! This week we discuss an old Retronauts tradition of delving into the past in 5 and 10 year intervals. We discuss 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, and 2003 including all the significance to gaming Fred can cram into 90 minutes. There’s also an early special announcement of our show going live on All Games starting Sunday, January 6.
Download this episode (right click and save)
Subscribe: Traditional Feed Google Podbean iTunes
Buying Guide: 3DO
We all love our retro consoles, but in many cases the consoles we are buying are because they are cheap enough or we have enough money to purchase what we never were able to in our youth. Unfortunately the business of making used retro items available to the masses can at times be a money grubbing market where consumers are deceived by people they will never meet in real life. As an individual who has spent the last decade scouring the local area, conventions, eBay, and the internet as a whole I have learned many valuable lessons. For that reason I present my buying guide series, which is a handy quick guide to knowing what to purchase and what will cost an arm and a leg to replace.
Historically the 3DO, most commonly associated with Panasonic’s license because it had the largest manufacturing numbers and advertising campaign, is the most expensive video game console of all time. Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts (EA), formed the 3DO company for software development and developed a hardware spec that could be licensed to companies for manufacturing, much like companies have done with VCRs and DVD players. Unfortunately since the profit for manufacturers had to come from the sale of the hardware itself – all other consoles were sold at a reduced price for a loss and software sales would close the gap for profits – and the 3DO sold for the staggering price of $700. As a result, few consoles were actually sold and three companies (Panasonic, Sanyo, and Goldstar) had already manufactured units that weren’t selling. This balance of supply and demand results in the 3DO being the much more reasonable $100-$150 on the used console market these days, but few know what actually came in the box. Here’s what you need to get it working:
Buying Guide: Super Nintendo
We all love our retro consoles, but in many cases the consoles we are buying are because they are cheap enough or we have enough money to purchase what we never were able to in our youth. Unfortunately the business of making used retro items available to the masses can at times be a money grubbing market where consumers are deceived by people they will never meet in real life. As an individual who has spent the last decade scouring the local area, conventions, eBay, and the internet as a whole I have learned many valuable lessons. For that reason I present my buying guide series, which is a handy quick guide to knowing what to purchase and what will cost an arm and a leg to replace.
There’s really no denying the popularity of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES for short). Despite Sega taking a temporary lead over Nintendo in the early 90s, there’s no denying that the SNES was the champion of the 16-bit console generation. This simple machine managed to introduce us to hardcore JRPGs, mode 7 graphics, early polygonal 3D (Starfox), and even faked 3D environments (Donkey Kong Country), all without the multiple add-ons and disc-based media of other consoles at the time. If you’re discouraged in the least by yellowing of the plastic casing for the console, don’t be, it’s a mere chemical reaction with age and actually speaks to the durability of the product. On that same note it’s pretty doubtful that you would need a buyers guide for the SNES as just like most other Nintendo consoles there are few parts, but all the same here’s what you will definitely need:
Gaming History 101 