tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48624643030129587722024-03-18T21:47:15.299-07:00Mr. Glitch's Retro Reviews<i>Yesterday's games too late!</i> <br>
<a href="https://twitter.com/BewareTheGlitch">@BewareTheGlitch</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-86396208193655923862016-09-11T18:43:00.000-07:002016-09-12T11:29:04.476-07:00RGB Video And Old Game Consoles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGTuMorMKkRSQzw2ZXrkpdtnFauyBWKGGR5WKjzTaLY0IiwjA_iYtYWk7tRTnats0snyQpjEt2fRPh2-VsW8kTKZXRX59eCGYrd17Ku7VlypGrsOBslGutCj-5EAKH6nE39VUdZ2RgasTH/s1600/RGB.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGTuMorMKkRSQzw2ZXrkpdtnFauyBWKGGR5WKjzTaLY0IiwjA_iYtYWk7tRTnats0snyQpjEt2fRPh2-VsW8kTKZXRX59eCGYrd17Ku7VlypGrsOBslGutCj-5EAKH6nE39VUdZ2RgasTH/s640/RGB.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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The connection between an old game console and a television is kind of like a game of Pictionary being played between the two: The game console is doing its damnedest to describe what it has in mind to the television, and the TV is doing its best to interpret what it's being told. But somewhere along the line, communication breaks down. RF connections are like playing with a drunk person over a particularly crappy cell phone connection. Composite video at least get rid of the phone, but the console is still clearly sloshed. <a href="http://mrglitchsreviews.blogspot.com/2013/01/howto-add-s-video-output-to-sega-genesis.html" target="_blank">S-video</a> sobers the console up, but hey, the TV still doesn't quite get that the console is trying to draw 'dignity' here. (After all, it didn't go to <a href="https://frinkiac.com/meme/S08E06/355054.jpg?b64lines=IEknTSBTT1JSWSBJJ00gTk9UIEFTCiBTTUFSVCBBUyBZT1UsIEtJUksuIFdFCiBESUROJ1QgQUxMIEdPIFRPIEdVREdFUgogQ09MTEVHRS4gSVQnUyAiRElHTklUWSEiCiBHQUhIIQ==" target="_blank">Gudger College</a>) But there's one last option, and it's akin to the console just screaming the answer to the whole room. That option is called RGB video!<br />
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Generally speaking, RGB stands for red, green and blue, the three primary colors of light that, when mixed together at varying intensities, create all of the colors we can perceive. In video signaling, an RGB connection has at least one discrete channel per color. RGB connections electrically isolate the red, green and blue intensity signals in order to keep them as pristine as possible, which gives them a huge advantage over composite and s-video in terms of image quality. Typically, it also includes one more discrete signal, called sync, which the display uses to figure out which line on the screen it should be updating at a given moment. In old CRT displays, sync is used to aim the electron guns at the correct spot on the screen, while the RGB intensity signals tell it what color and how bright the spot should be. The frequencies at which the the sync signal operates define the resolution of the display; higher frequencies produce higher resolutions. All of the consoles we're working with output a horizontal sync frequency of 15 kHz. That's an important number to remember, as it will come into play later in the discussion.<br />
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In an effort to reduce both the bandwidth and the number of physical wires required to carry a video signal to a television, old game consoles smushed their raw RGB data down into composite, s-video, or RF, shaving off a whole lot of image detail in the process. Fortunately, the general suckiness of the resulting video signal wasn't entirely disregarded by the folks who designed these old consoles. Many of them, particularly consoles from the 16-bit era on, actually carry RGB signals right to their external AV connections, making connecting them up to a compatible display a relative snap. The following is a list of all the game consoles I'm aware of which support RGB without any special modifications:<br />
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<th class="tg-hgcj">Console</th>
<th class="tg-hgcj">Display Resolution</th>
<th class="tg-hgcj">Notes</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-s6z2">Atari Jaguar</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">240p</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-s6z2">Neo Geo AES/CD/CDZ</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">240p</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">Audio from AV port is mono only</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-s6z2">Nintendo Gamecube</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">240p, 480i, 480p</td>
<td class="tg-031e">PAL units only. NTSC model DOL-001<br />
GCs support component video</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-s6z2">Nintendo SNES/<br />
Super Famicom<br />
model 1</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">240p</td>
<td class="tg-031e"></td>
</tr>
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<td class="tg-s6z2">Sega Dreamcast</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">240p, 480i</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">Also supports VGA @ 480p</td>
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<td class="tg-s6z2">Sega Genesis/Mega <br />
Drive model 1</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">240p</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">Audio from AV port is mono only</td>
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<td class="tg-s6z2">Sega Genesis/Mega<br />
Drive model 2,<br />
model 3, CDX & 32x</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">240p</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-s6z2">Sega Master<br />
System model 1</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">240p</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">AV port pinouts identical<br />
to model 1 Genesis</td>
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<tr>
<td class="tg-s6z2">Sega Saturn</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">240p</td>
<td class="tg-031e"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-s6z2">Sony PS1</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">240p, 480i</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-s6z2">Sony PS2</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">240p, 480i, 480p</td>
<td class="tg-s6z2">Supports component<br />
video natively</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
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Many more game consoles can be modded to output RGB, but that's beyond the scope of this article. The website <a href="http://retrorgb.com/" target="_blank">retrorgb.com</a> has a great deal of excellent information on the subject, including detailed how-to instructions for nearly every game console.</div>
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The Sega Dreamcast supports VGA in addition to RGB, and it's the method I recommend for best results. As VGA is an even higher-quality RGB video standard, the Dreamcast looks spectacular when connected to a VGA-compatible monitor or HDTV. Not all Dreamcast games support VGA, though; the ones that do have 'VGA cord' printed on the back of the jewel case.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Getting RGB to your TV or monitor</span></b></div>
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Connecting RGB may be as simple as plugging in a cable or as complex as building one, depending on your circumstances and goals. I'll cover a few common situations here:<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_DiuogtoM74k1WS9ROz9CNy0rVegjjacxnnxxfa7rtUounu7xGy_IV0vRZIT-jlLUY8iUPvA3q3xWIUXo-6rxlGdBVs48URwg8f67U5qQ9jP1ykJutHVsSzcpP6XTNN6j3yE-tcys9vm0/s1600/scart.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="89" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_DiuogtoM74k1WS9ROz9CNy0rVegjjacxnnxxfa7rtUounu7xGy_IV0vRZIT-jlLUY8iUPvA3q3xWIUXo-6rxlGdBVs48URwg8f67U5qQ9jP1ykJutHVsSzcpP6XTNN6j3yE-tcys9vm0/s200/scart.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A female SCART connector</td></tr>
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<b>Connect directly to a SCART-capable TV: </b>Many European countries adopted a very nifty standard for connecting video devices together in the late 70s, called SCART. SCART, a French acronym for Radio and Television Receiver Manufacturers' Association, is a standard for a 21-pin plug capable of carrying several different types of analog video signals, including RGB. It also carries stereo audio, simplifying the process of connecting up a game console down to attaching one single cable. SCART has been largely supplanted by HDMI these days, but if you still own a television with a SCART connector, you just need to purchase the appropriate cable for your console. Again, <a href="http://www.retrorgb.com/" target="_blank">retrorgb.com</a> is a great source for these cables, and they can also be found on eBay. Be advised that PAL consoles may require different AV cables from their NTSC counterparts. When in doubt, contact the seller.<br />
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<b>Convert RGB to component:</b> If you live in the US, you're unlikely to own a SCART-capable TV. Instead, you might own a TV with component inputs. Component video connectors started appearing on US televisions in the late 90s, as a means of transmitting better-quality video from a DVD player. In the early days of HD television, component cables were also used to connect HDTVs to HD sources. With their red, green and blue RCA plugs, they look like RGB connections, but in fact, they're not. The green cable actually carries luma (the B&W portion of the image) and sync together, while the red & blue cables carry the difference between red & luma and blue & luma, respectively. The TV uses luma along with the red & blue difference signals to internally calculate what portions of the image should be green. In theory, component connections shouldn't look quite as good as RGB, since some of the signals are multiplexed together. In practice, though, the difference is imperceptible.<br />
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In order to use RGB with a component-equipped TV, you need to first convert the signal. SCART comes in handy here too, as RGB SCART-to-component converters are widely available and fairly cheap. The one I own is a model CVS287, purchased off eBay for about $50 shipped. The CVS287 has no audio out jacks, so you'll need to either purchase the SC-890-AV audio breakout box or, if you're handy with a soldering iron, attach audio connections directly to the SCART input plug.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp2iYW8kTQv-DTOgZ9lDIgISZVgONB8lE2QU48xqFJdaDOy0iaqn9dtuFBxpJ4TeBSLsq3VmAhBd6WPge4ylBhd5iBHr9c1dmERfXYnoiXAR27Eb4T_ruK2bMUJ-7oUXZy0PG1V9tG_hK0/s1600/scart-yuv.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp2iYW8kTQv-DTOgZ9lDIgISZVgONB8lE2QU48xqFJdaDOy0iaqn9dtuFBxpJ4TeBSLsq3VmAhBd6WPge4ylBhd5iBHr9c1dmERfXYnoiXAR27Eb4T_ruK2bMUJ-7oUXZy0PG1V9tG_hK0/s200/scart-yuv.JPG" width="200" /></a>When my CVS287 first showed up, its output was tinted green. A quick Google search revealed that these suckers often ship mis-calibrated, and need to be adjusted by rotating one or more of the little dials inside the unit. If you need to make adjustments, make sure to mark your starting point on each dial before you turn it, so you can go back if the image starts looking worse.<br />
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One last gotcha concerning this method: As indicated in the table above, most of these game consoles output a really<i> </i>low display resolution of 240p. An old, standard-def CRT TV equipped with component inputs should handle 240p just fine, but an HDTV may not. Of all the HDTVs I've tried it on, only a 2011-vintage Panasonic plasma TV would accept a 240p signal via its component input. If you're unlucky enough to own an HDTV without 240p support, the next couple of options will be your best bet.<br />
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<b>Convert RGB to HDMI: </b>Once again, SCART comes to the rescue: SCART RGB-to-HDMI converters are just as common and just as cheap as SCART-to-component converters. The unit I own came from Amazon, again costing about $50 shipped. There's no model number to be found on it, but the Amazon ID number is B00MUNIVRO. It accepts a SCART RGB input (and only RGB; it doesn't support composite video) and converts it to a digital HDMI signal at one of several selectable output resolutions. Unlike the CVS287, this converter works with audio, too. It can send stereo audio from the SCART port through HDMI to your TV, as well as output it to a headphone-style analog jack, and a digital S/PDIF coax jack. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiGT2evIqIDacWFjxBH78Qv9YEBTVNZs0XCROqxwNaJsIeGSOF7QohNYaTICceBcsrp7Tljk5pk4fS18eo5Eg8j3qoOAYIiFfM3twlOw_k-ODloTfdzYYvqW7tl4n33emIS8TX0VUscHh3/s1600/scart-hdmi.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiGT2evIqIDacWFjxBH78Qv9YEBTVNZs0XCROqxwNaJsIeGSOF7QohNYaTICceBcsrp7Tljk5pk4fS18eo5Eg8j3qoOAYIiFfM3twlOw_k-ODloTfdzYYvqW7tl4n33emIS8TX0VUscHh3/s200/scart-hdmi.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
The converter I have works great with source resolution from 240p on up, but it does have a couple of annoying problems. First, there's no documentation included at all. It's fairly foolproof to set up & use, but for the button that switches output resolution. It may be labeled "720p/1080p", but it doesn't just toggle between those two resolutions. Pressing it once brings up the converter's on-screen display. Pressing it again in quick succession cycles through several output resolutions, including a few oddballs which may not be supported by your HDTV. If you plug this sucker in & get an error from your television about an invalid signal, try pressing the 720p/1080p button once every couple of seconds until it returns to a supported resolution. </div>
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Its other, bigger problem is that it introduces a brief but noticeable lag to the outputted video. From what I've been able to tell, the lag is about about 2-3 frames long, or roughly 1/30th of a second. That doesn't sound like much, but it can make games that require absolutely perfect timing much more difficult to play. HDTVs themselves introduce a fraction of a second of additional lag, so bear that in mind too. If you go this route, I recommend enabling your TV's 'game' mode to minimize any additional lag. I only have personal experience with this one make of HDMI converter, but others on the Internet have reported that most HDMI converters like this introduce a similar amount of lag. One notable exception is the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/DP3913515-Framemeister-Micomsoft-Upscaler-Japan/dp/B006H39XJS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427000325&sr=8-1&keywords=xrgb+mini" target="_blank">Micomsoft XRGB-Mini</a>. It inserts only about 1 frame of lag, but it'll set you back a cool $375, plus shipping from Japan.<br />
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<b>NOTE: </b>Japan used a very similar-<i>looking</i> connector, called JP-21. However, it is <u>not</u> directly compatible with SCART! <u>Do not</u> connect a SCART cable to a JP-21 device, such as the XRGB-Mini, without using a converter cable, like <a href="https://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/european-scart-to-japanese-scart-converter" target="_blank">this one.</a><br />
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<b>Use a VGA scaler</b>: As I mentioned earlier, VGA is a very high-quality analog video standard, and it's an excellent option if your TV or monitor supports it. To maintain the best image quality possible, it uses five signal lines instead of four; one line each for red, green and blue intensities, plus separate horizontal and vertical sync lines. It also uses higher sync frequencies in order to achieve resolutions greater than 240p or 480i. To use VGA with anything other than the Dreamcast, though, you need a device called a scaler or a scan converter. At the very least, the scaler needs to accept an RGB+S (S in this case stands for composite sync) signal at the lower sync frequency of 15kHz and spit out a RGB+HV signal at sync frequencies high enough to drive a VGA monitor. (31kHz or greater) Additional features include the ability to de-interlace the source signal, (Convert a 480i source to 480p.) overlay fake scan lines, and output multiple resolutions. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvM6Je4duZ4A7xraWZCceStoSelYkMHLMRaAMnw_A4rD5IF-I2IOY2x1OZfYg2OdDnkLduAw40KPXDpmXJsDdRkf544OWH6ZneLDcbXiAQWyBwmU2g6ny0qsxyNvtSA9DcDj647692H5xp/s1600/1414531705314-P-2119603.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvM6Je4duZ4A7xraWZCceStoSelYkMHLMRaAMnw_A4rD5IF-I2IOY2x1OZfYg2OdDnkLduAw40KPXDpmXJsDdRkf544OWH6ZneLDcbXiAQWyBwmU2g6ny0qsxyNvtSA9DcDj647692H5xp/s1600/1414531705314-P-2119603.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gonbes GBS8200</td></tr>
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The scaler I own, a Gonbes GBS8200 is a pretty bare-bones unit. It doesn't insert scan lines, and the quality of its deinterlacing isn't all that great. It doesn't even have a case, as it's intended to be mounted inside an arcade machine's cabinet. Still, it's dirt-cheap and it supports a wide variety of input sources: It accepts CGA, EGA, (Two very old IBM PC video standards) component and 15kHz RGB+S, and it outputs a de-interlaced VGA signal at a number of different selectable resolutions. Unlike the other solutions I've talked about so far, this one doesn't rely on SCART, so you are going to have to build your own AV cables in order to use it. </div>
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If you choose to go down this route, you'll probably want to look into a scaler that can accept composite video as its sync source. Most of the above game consoles don't have a separate sync line; they use their composite video output as a substitute. Composite video contains sync, but it also contains a lot of other garbage that some scalers don't know how to strip away, leading to scrambled video. If your scaler displays garbage or complains about 'no sync' when it's fed composite video as sync, a device called a <a href="http://arcadeforge.net/Scaler-and-Strike-Devices/Sync-Strike::15.html?MODsid=7123f171f86a60d6ee613a9edba992aa" target="_blank">Sync Strike</a>, or a similar board with the LM1881 chip can strip out the extraneous noise, leaving a clean, usable sync signal.<br />
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<b>Use an RGB monitor:</b> Until now, I've focused on converting our consoles' RGB output into a format that more modern displays can work with. The last option I'm going to discuss is connecting a console to what it was intended to use from the start: A good, old-fashioned 15 kHz RGB monitor. Several early home computers, like the Commodore Amiga, the Atari ST, and the Apple IIGS used 15 kHz RGB monitors, or at least supported them in addition to conventional composite monitors. A handful of early-generation VGA monitors also support 15 kHz. If you happen across any monitor on <a href="http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/15KHz_SVGA_Monitors" target="_blank">this list</a>, there's a fairly good chance it'll work with your game console. Avoid any monitor that has a single input labeled 'digital ' or 'TTL'. While technically RGB, these types use a <i>digital</i> signal which is incompatible with any retro game console you're likely to own. Likewise, steer clear of any CGA or EGA monitor unless it specifically has an option for analog RGB.<br />
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Commercial 15kHz RGB monitors were also commonly used in closed-circuit setups, in hospitals as endoscope displays, and in television production studios. Commercial monitors usually have the added benefit of looking <i>very </i>good, since an accurate, distortion-free image is a must, whether you're videotaping a soap opera or the inside of someone's colon. Some of the best standard-def CRT displays ever made are members of the Sony PVM and BVM family of professional monitors. These units sold for of thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars new, so even used, they can be a bit pricey. Most arcade monitors, particularly <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Amusement_Machinery_Manufacturers_Association" target="_blank">JAMMA-compliant</a> ones, operate at 15 kHz too, but arcade boards usually output a higher voltage to their displays than do home consoles. An arcade monitor connected directly to a home console would probably show a very dim image.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhojZxiQfmHentMFLWc7sOrOEq5WtWt1IanoZ0d61Kq6Rjh040TPzPcqzlCHLU2CD8-vUvRRwh1y9txeYnqnpv1sQPw6e9YQ_2lIfN9v8KcuQUZ7HYuS1ovoslCHuKB96YXJFZXP7f2621y/s1600/rgb_mons.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhojZxiQfmHentMFLWc7sOrOEq5WtWt1IanoZ0d61Kq6Rjh040TPzPcqzlCHLU2CD8-vUvRRwh1y9txeYnqnpv1sQPw6e9YQ_2lIfN9v8KcuQUZ7HYuS1ovoslCHuKB96YXJFZXP7f2621y/s640/rgb_mons.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Sony PVM-14M2U (left) & Commodore 1080 (right)</td></tr>
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If you find a compatible RGB monitor, you now need a way to connect it up. Commercial monitors typically use individual <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BNC_connector" target="_blank">BNC</a> jacks for each signal line, and several websites, like <a href="http://www.retrogamingcables.com/sony-pvm-scart-converter-bnc.html" target="_blank">these guys</a>, sell a cable with a female SCART jack on one end, and individual BNC connections for video on the other, as well as RCA connections for audio. You attach your specific console's AV-to-SCART cable to to it, and then it to the monitor.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZN_MD2bCO4HUQDJ1TJKs_U6yz-e40rgo3_wpK3YiM4pceijHbVSoNpNOPdLa1Al-tAiU4jSjD4IWleYLAHwtdqYK7cZ4c-kAv3h1D_-LGWpB3PWNQeo8WSwmPJS1d908yTS4z0nai8Pj4/s1600/mon_cons.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZN_MD2bCO4HUQDJ1TJKs_U6yz-e40rgo3_wpK3YiM4pceijHbVSoNpNOPdLa1Al-tAiU4jSjD4IWleYLAHwtdqYK7cZ4c-kAv3h1D_-LGWpB3PWNQeo8WSwmPJS1d908yTS4z0nai8Pj4/s640/mon_cons.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Sony PVM monitor (top) uses separate BNC connectors for R, G, B & sync.<br />
The Commodore monitor (bottom) condenses R, G, B & sync connections into a 9-pin D-sub connector</td></tr>
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The consumer-grade RGB monitors that old computers used are a little more complicated to work with. Since each manufacturer used its own pinouts & connector styles, you may need to build your own cable to connect it to your console of choice. In either case, expect your RGB monitor to be much less tolerant of garbage on the sync line, so try to use a clean sync signal with it, either directly from the console or with a Sync Strike.<br />
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<b>Note:</b> Not all monitors in Sony's PVM series have RGB inputs, so be sure to do your homework before buying one. Also, you need a monitor with an external sync input. Avoid monitors with only "internal sync", also called "sync-on-green."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVwBXX22M9xctkNH276_vQwJcEKuaAKVGlklRds6EMeBd5lL0Rth-F-2wJW5zyQW9KUpVmnOP6_XF8xKLFonWI51qKSZbX1tleYhzmF-SWVZ-BXGXpi6yjEvp9jiK6-08bXtSHe6VkiZcx/s1600/cables.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVwBXX22M9xctkNH276_vQwJcEKuaAKVGlklRds6EMeBd5lL0Rth-F-2wJW5zyQW9KUpVmnOP6_XF8xKLFonWI51qKSZbX1tleYhzmF-SWVZ-BXGXpi6yjEvp9jiK6-08bXtSHe6VkiZcx/s640/cables.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left: A Super NES-to-SCART cable and a SCART-to-BNC cable with on-board Sync Strike chip.<br />
Right: A home-made SCART-to-Commodore cable, also with on-board Sync Strike chip.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>RGB Compared</b></span></div>
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In this first batch of pictures, I'm using a Sony PVM 20m2u monitor. In addition to having an excellent picture for a CRT, it sports composite video and s-video connections in addition to RGB. The SNES supports all three standards as well, so it'll be our source. Apologies for the dark horizontal bar visible in some of these pictures; it's what happens some times when you photograph a CRT.<br />
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First up is composite video:</div>
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Colors bleed into each other in several places, including the coin counter, the red turtle shell, and the front of Bullet Bill. In addition, a checkerboard pattern, called dot crawl, is visible in the smiling clouds, the timer, and the score counter. Definitely room for improvement here.</div>
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Now let's check out s-video:</div>
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S-video represents a pretty significant bump in image quality. The dot crawl is gone and the colors don't bleed together to nearly the same degree as they did with composite video. The image is also slightly brighter, too. However, sharp borders between light and dark colors, such as the clouds' eyes and Bullet Bill's face against the white background smear together to some extent, causing a slight loss of definition. On solid colors, like the blue sky, a slight checkerboard pattern is visible, too. </div>
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OK, so let's see RGB finally:</div>
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The jump in image quality isn't quite as dramatic as moving from composite to s-video, but it's still impressive. The colors are much richer and more saturated, each individual pixel is clearly-defined, and there is almost no fringing, smearing or bleeding. The only image flaw I noticed is a slight horizontal bleed from the black border around the 'mario' text onto the blue pixels just to the right. </div>
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Next up is a modern HDTV, a Samsung UN48H6350 48" LCD unit. Like most modern HDTVs, it has no s-video input, so I will only be comparing composite video fed directly from the SNES to the RGB-HDMI converter. In both cases, the TV is in game mode. </div>
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First up is the composite video:</div>
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This TV has surprisingly good standard-def image processing. There's no dot crawl, and in most cases, the pixels appear sharp. A notable exception is Mario himself, who is a muddy blob, and the clouds' smiles, which lack definition.</div>
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Now for the HDMI converter:</div>
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Unsurprisingly, it looks excellent by comparison. The pixels are sharp and the colors are nicely saturated. It is almost indistinguishable from the image you might get from an emulator. Again, the only notable image flaw is the same ever-so-slight horizontal bleed from 'mario.' </div>
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As I mentioned earlier, input lag is an issue with pretty much all HDTVs. (It also happens to be the reason why light gun peripherals, like the <a href="http://mrglitchsreviews.blogspot.com/2013/08/how-nes-zapper-works.html" target="_blank">Nintendo Zapper</a>, no longer work.) Generally speaking, the more devices in the signal path, the laggier things get, and my experience with the converter vs the TV's own composite connection bears this out. To demonstrate input lag, I split the output from the SNES, sending it to the HDTV and a reference CRT monitor at the same time. In this first video, the HDTV is connected via composite video:</div>
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The lag is certainly detectable, but at least with Super Mario World, it didn't cause me too much difficulty. </div>
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This next video shows the HDMI converter:</div>
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The lag is much more apparent here, and this time, it did interfere with my ability to effectively time some jumps. I personally would not play a game like SMW using this converter, despite the impressive bump in image quality.<br />
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Input lag is hard to pin down. It can vary wildly from manufacturer to manufacturer and even from model to model. It's often not advertised too, since it has generally trended upward as HDTVs have gotten more sophisticated. Fortunately, TV review sites like <a href="http://www.rtings.com/tv/tests/inputs/input-lag" target="_blank">this one</a> include input lag in their evaluations. I wouldn't recommend buying a new TV just because it has the lowest lag times, but if you plan to use it as a display for any type of game console, old or new, and what you enjoy playing requires the reflexes of a spazzy 8-year-old, it should be a consideration. One of those low-lag HDTVs paired with an XRGB-mini converter might well be the key to retro gaming bliss, in lieu of a CRT display.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com39tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-83165426782486335922015-04-10T01:13:00.000-07:002015-04-10T01:25:56.150-07:00Space Harrier for Sega 32X<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Sega 32X has gotten a lot of flak over the years, for being an under-supported kludgy add-on to the Genesis, and a cynical attempt by Sega to squeeze the last few drops of revenue from a dying platform...<br />
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Anyway, onto the review: <i>Space Harrier</i> is a "2.5-D," on-rails 3rd person shooter, originally released to arcades way back in 1985. Much like <a href="http://mrglitchsreviews.blogspot.com/2012/09/doom-console-ports.html" target="_blank">DOOM</a>, it uses scaling 2D sprites on top of a 3D background to simulate a fully 3D environment. Your character, a blond, be-jetpacked fellow, runs, flies, and shoots his way through wave after wave of robots, cycloptic woolly mammoths, Easter Island statues, laser-shooting orbs, rocks & bushes in a colorful landscape called the Fantasy Zone. It's a simple game, even by arcade shooter standards, but it is very intense, and it excels both in presentation and gameplay. It looks and sounds great even by today's standards, but the smooth-scaling, detailed sprites, the generous use of color and digitized voices, and the fast-paced, fluid action must have been mind-blowing to its original audience.<br />
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Fast-forward to late 1994, when Sega released the 32X add-on, and <i>Space Harrier </i>was among its launch titles. A 10-year-old arcade game may be an odd choice for console launch title, but <i>Space Harrier's </i>fast-paced action really helped show off the 32X's chops. Nostalgic gamers suffering from a decade-long <i>Space Harrier</i> drought finally had their thirst quenched by what turned out to an outstanding port of the arcade. The graphics, sound effects, music, levels and characters are all dead-on perfect, and it even sports the arcade original's disappointingly terse "The End" screen when you beat it. There's just a tiny bit of chug that shows up when too much is happening on-screen at once, and the Genesis' D-pad is a poor substitute for the superb analog flight yoke the arcade machine used.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-85335650515712046462013-08-30T13:27:00.001-07:002013-08-30T14:26:54.041-07:00How The NES Zapper Works<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKAcz8FmP11AV7sdODdGTZcQ2ToVmFdSwnzO5cTpwFrzf-f7sLSHZbLziPRzJpohqf6u1M9SL2Kf85SKRTlMEIZrU5qbN6QYJYsHn6bXCwXdq6HTHfDCce64h4s4wEQMICmR3OMY0xFS9l/s1600/Zapper.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKAcz8FmP11AV7sdODdGTZcQ2ToVmFdSwnzO5cTpwFrzf-f7sLSHZbLziPRzJpohqf6u1M9SL2Kf85SKRTlMEIZrU5qbN6QYJYsHn6bXCwXdq6HTHfDCce64h4s4wEQMICmR3OMY0xFS9l/s640/Zapper.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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I have professed my undying love for the light gun peripheral <a href="http://mrglitchsreviews.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-justifier-and-lethal-enforcers-ii.html" target="_blank">elsewhere</a> on this blog. To me, it remains one of the most natural and immersive ways to interact with a video game, despite its decline in popularity. Though nearly every game console from the mid 80s to the mid 90s had one, the NES Zapper is probably the one most gamers are familiar with.<br />
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Nintendo's involvement with light gun games actually predates the NES by over a decade. In 1973, Nintendo turned several old Japanese bowling alleys into light gun-based <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Clay_Shooting_System" target="_blank">skeet shooting parlors</a>. A year later, Nintendo introduced its first arcade game, <i>Wild Gunman.</i> The purely electro-mechanical <i>Wild Gunman</i> used a couple of 16mm film projectors to show <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmdOHmnbYHw" target="_blank">footage</a> of various Old West bad guys ready to draw and fire on you, the player. Your goal was to wait until their eyes 'flashed', then draw your own pistol & shoot. If you were quick enough, "YOU WON" would be projected on the screen over a shot of the bad guy clutching his chest & crumpling, Sergio Leone-style, to the ground. </div>
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The NES wasn't the first home console to sport a light gun, (that honor belongs to the <a href="http://mrglitchsreviews.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-magnavox-odyssey.html" target="_blank">Odyssey</a>) but it was the first to couple one with complex games, and it has by far the largest library of supported titles. The Zapper is based on the Famicom's light gun, a very convincing-looking black revolver which was itself modeled after the one featured in <i>Wild Gunman. </i>Fearing a potential rise in cases of police-perforated eight-year-olds, Nintendo of America redesigned the Zapper to look more futuristic, and less lethal. The earliest Zappers have a dark gray body, light gray accents, and a red trigger, mimicking the NES' color scheme. Later models have a bright orange body, light gray accents and a black trigger, again in an attempt to make them look even less like real firearms. </div>
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Opening up a Zapper reveals that there's not much to it. A small lens in the barrel focuses light from the TV screen onto a photodiode, a device which generates a small electrical current when exposed to light. An amplifier boosts the current and sends it to the NES console to be processed as input for the game. As simple as it is, the Zapper can't tell if the light it detected came from a TV screen or another source, like a light bulb, so it's up to the NES game to make that determination. The more well-written games use a multi-step process to determine which target on screen has been hit:</div>
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Here, we have two <i>Duck Hunt </i>ducks flying around:</div>
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When the Zapper's trigger is pulled, the NES blanks the entire screen for one frame of video, or roughly 1/30th of a second. This establishes a baseline that the NES uses to make sure the player's not just aiming the Zapper at a lamp. </div>
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Next, the NES draws a white box around the first duck on the screen for one frame:</div>
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The first box is then removed and another one is drawn over the second duck:</div>
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Finally, the NES resumes drawing the game's normal graphics. If the Zapper picked up light from one box or the other, the NES registers a hit and the game murders the targeted duck accordingly.</div>
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This entire process takes a fraction of a second to complete, and is nearly imperceptible to the human eye. You can watch the whole process unfold in this slow-motion footage from <i>Hogan's Alley:</i></div>
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When the trigger is pulled for the first time, the NES blanks the screen and puts a white box in place of the cop first, the professor second and the bad guy third. The NES registers a hit with the bad guy, so he is removes from play. When the trigger is pulled for the second time, only the cop and the professor are left as valid targets, and the NES replaces just those two characters with white boxes.<br />
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It's a simple and effective technique, but it's not fool-proof. The television has to be adjusted so that the image is not too bright or too dark, as either will screw up the baseline or keep the Zapper from picking any light up at all. The targets have to be large enough so their white box can be picked up by the Zapper, and the number of targets on screen are limited to no more than three or four to keep the TV screen from going black too long. The process is also extremely time-sensitive; if there's any significant delay between the time the NES sends the image to the television, and the time that image appears on-screen, the NES won't correctly register hits. This isn't a problem for old-school analog CRT televisions, as they respond pretty much instantaneously. However, digital HDTVs spend a lot of time (relatively speaking) converting the analog signal from the NES into a digital image, and then rendering it on screen, causing a phenomenon known as input lag. In some HDTVs, this lag can be as bad a 1/10th of a second, which is much longer than the 1/30th the NES is expecting to wait. As a result, Zapper games work only spottily with the handful of tube-based HDTVs in existence, and they won't work at all with LCDs, plasmas or projectors. All the more reason to hang on to your old Radiation King, in my opinion.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-28858595804450690632013-08-09T13:23:00.002-07:002013-08-10T20:40:02.879-07:00SolarStriker for Game Boy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I own three copies of <i>SolarStriker.</i> I've actually run across this game in stores, purchased it for dirt-cheap, taken it home & realized I already owned a copy <i>twice</i>. It's not that I have Mel Gibson's <i>Consipracy Theory </i>OCD;<i> </i>it's that this game is so forgettable, it keeps falling out of my brain.<br />
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Another Game Boy launch title, <i>SolarStriker</i> is a vertical spaceship shooter with a standard boilerplate of a plot: You and your super-advanced prototype fighter are Earth's last defense against the overwhelming forces of an invading alien race. You fight your way through waves of enemies until you encounter the level's boss. Once you defeat it, you move on to the next level in the game. In standard shmup fashion, you have no control over how fast the screen scrolls, but you can move up and down in addition to left & right, and the screen scrolls slightly left or right to reveal more of the play field than will fit on-screen at once. You have only one weapon in this game (A & B buttons both fire it.) which can be upgraded from a single shot to twin, triple, and ultimately the high-powered Super Shot by shooting space-crates & collecting the 'P's enclosed within. There are no other types of weapons or power-ups at all in <i>SolarStriker</i><br />
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It's an uncomplicated game to be sure, but it's not easy. You start with only three lives and no continues. Scoring 50,000 points earns you a bonus life, but unless you're really good at dodging enemy fire, that won't be enough to sustain you through all six of its levels. Dodging itself is a problem because, while you can move in any direction, you don't do so very quickly, and you can't outrun enemies at all. The <i>SolarStriker </i>is one pokey little spaceship, but then again the play field is so tiny, there are times when you can't avoid getting hit no matter how fast you move. Maddeningly, you can only shoot straight ahead, while most of your enemies can shoot in any direction. You're usually screwed if you let too many enemies get behind you, because there's no way you can take them out. Oh, how I yearned for a <a href="http://mrglitchsreviews.blogspot.com/2012/08/tempest-2000-for-atari-jaguar.html" target="_blank">Super Zapper</a> or <i>something</i> when this happened! Fortunately, the game is not so cruel as to actually <i>spawn</i> enemies behind you. It's not a thumb-busting button masher either, as you just have to hold A or B down to keep firing. Come to think of it, this may be the first shmup I've played to actually sport that feature.<br />
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The graphics in <i>SolarStriker </i>are basic but clean, and nicely high-contrast. It's very playable on the original Game Boy's notoriously smear-happy screen because nothing moves very quickly. I'm glad the developers chose dim, unobtrusive backgrounds, even if black stars on a white background do look a bit odd. (Nintendo corrected this on the Game Boy Color, Advance & Player.) The sound effects never rise above Atari-style beeps & bloops, but the background music isn't bad. If nothing else, <i>SolarStriker</i> demonstrates the Game Boy's potential to produce some very good chiptunes in subsequent games.<br />
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It's unfair to be too critical of a launch title like this, as developers almost always have a tight schedule & limited budget to work with. <i>SolarStriker </i>certainly feels like a rush job, but there's a germ of a good game here. If it just had a little more variety in its design, a little more balance in its gameplay, and a little more reason to keep the player coming back for more, it wouldn't be so forgettable today. And I wouldn't own three copies of it.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-92181216693848592342013-06-21T09:01:00.001-07:002013-06-21T16:42:25.242-07:00Nintendo Virtual Boy and Mario's Tennis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ahh, Virtual Reality. In the mid 90s, it's possibilities seemed boundless: Entirely new computer-generated worlds were waiting to be discovered, explored and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYkgWJzJ6fE" target="_blank">sexually assaulted</a> in. Yes, with comically large goggles strapped to our faces, Humanity would soon enter a new golden age of infinite possibilities, and Nintendo would lead us there with the Virtual Boy.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG34SG_CzuvqCX9iVA8w_hqYDXVZ0lYAmdDk4zLM9K_A8G0hDvriMBQIGmAjaL9FRaiY90lj5L-gCX3RuuKnxjgljEP4qhUglnG2UQCs2iObLrIX7fyheA2dTR2yWXC3NlvxbfoM6M6mnT/s1600/photo+copy+5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG34SG_CzuvqCX9iVA8w_hqYDXVZ0lYAmdDk4zLM9K_A8G0hDvriMBQIGmAjaL9FRaiY90lj5L-gCX3RuuKnxjgljEP4qhUglnG2UQCs2iObLrIX7fyheA2dTR2yWXC3NlvxbfoM6M6mnT/s320/photo+copy+5.JPG" width="320" /></a>Virtual Boy was the brainchild of Gunpei Yokoi, legendary designer of The Game & Watch series and the original Game Boy, as well as the father of the Metroid and Kid Icarus series. In the mid 90s, most of Nintendo's R&D efforts were tied up in development of the Nintendo 64, but its portable R&D group was relatively idle, since the Game Boy was still selling like crazy. Yokoi came about the idea of developing a 3D virtual reality game system after witnessing a demonstration of a new type of LED-based imaging system created by a company called Reflection Technologies. Yokoi had lofty goals for his new system, like a 3D full-color head-mounted display with full motion tracking capabilities. Cost and technological limitations quickly brought the project down to Earth, and Yokoi ultimately settled on a tabletop system with no head-tracking features and only a red monochrome display for his prototype, which he dubbed the VR-32. Nintendo, eager to put any kind of new hardware on store shelves, rushed the VR-32 prototype to completion, against Yokoi's wishes, and demonstrated it for the first time <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">at the </span></span><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">Shoshinkai Trade Show in 1994. It met with a tepid response from the attendees, who balked at its clunky design, monochrome picture and, worst of all, copious health hazards! Much like the 3DS 15 years later, the Virtual Boy came slathered with warnings that its 3D technology could cause headaches, nausea, and even permanent eyesight damage for players under 7 year of age. Nevertheless, Nintendo released the console in Japan in July of 1995 and in the US one month later for an initial retail price of $180. Customer response was just as tepid, and Virtual Boys languished on store shelves for months. Nintendo began dramatically slashing the price to as low as $99, but it seems they couldn't even give the Virtual Boy away. Discouraged by abysmally low sales and with the release of the Nintendo 64 imminent, Nintendo quietly killed the Virtual Boy in may of 1996, less than a year after it debuted. It was so short-lived that it never reached Europe and only 22 games in total were released</span><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">. Yokoi left Nintendo shortly thereafter, his reputation in tatters despite his insistence that the console needed more time to develop. Nintendo, for its part, now officially had its first epic flop.</span><br />
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The Virtual Boy really is an oddity. It works something like a Viewmaster, in that each eye gets its own display screen, and each screen shows the game's action from a slightly different perspective, creating the illusion of three dimensions. The displays themselves are made up of a single vertical column of high-brightness red LEDs, the light from which is reflected off a mirror that oscillates horizontally about 50 times per second. The result of all this crazy video voodoo is a red monochrome 3D image with an effective resolution of 384x224 per eyeball. The system is battery-powered, but it's not something that can really be played on the go. The player places the Virtual Boy on a desk or table and mashes his face into the viewfinder. A neoprene mask blocks out ambient light, leaving the player able to see nothing but glorious reds and blacks.<br />
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The Virtual Boy's controller is ergonomic and comfortable to hold. It sports two D-pads, allowing the player to move about in a 3D space, though in most games, the right pad isn't used. A, B, Select and Start all make a return, as do two trigger buttons on the controller's underside. Curiously, the Virtual Boy houses its batteries in a removable compartment attached to the controller itself. The compartment houses six AA batteries which are good for only about 6-7 hours of play, and make the controller annoyingly heavy. An AC adapter is also available, but its power cable also plugs into the controller, forcing the player to sit near a wall outlet to use it. <br />
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Viewing a Virtual Boy is a pretty surreal experience. The image fills up only the center of your field of view; everything in the periphery is pitch black and devoid of any visual queues. This effect couples with the 3D images to create an experience I can best describe as being in a darkened theater, watching a play unfold that's lit entirely by red gels. It can be very striking. However, watching in an audience is still a far cry from delivering an immersive VR experience, and it's here that the Virtual Boy falters. Besides the color limitations, the Virtual Boy has no 3D acceleration, and its 32-bit RISC CPU, though state of the art for its time, isn't up to the task of pushing polygons around by itself. As a result, most Virtual Boy games are 2D sprite-based, with only a few 3D gimmicks thrown in. The handful that do use 3D polygons render them as hollow wireframes, reminiscent of <a href="http://mrglitchsreviews.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-vectrex-console-and-cosmic-chasm.html" target="_blank">Vectrex</a> games. Of all the games in the Virtual Boy's library, only <i>Red Alarm </i>and <i>Teleroboxer</i> are played from a first-person point of view, generally considered a mainstay of VR technology.<br />
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The Virtual Boy's sound is also a big disappointment. Ironically, the first thing I noticed when I fired up my eBay-fresh Virtual Boy was how it sounded no better than the Game Boy, a system six years' its elder. I realize that CD-quality audio tracks probably couldn't be squeezed onto those old cartridges, but the SNES' audio quality puts Virtual Boy's to shame, and the Virtual Boy was touted as having a superior, 16-bit wavetable sound chip. If that's really the case, then the games I've played so far seriously under-utilize it.<br />
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Finally, I can happily report that, despite its copious warnings, I did not go blind playing Virtual Boy. I didn't even get a headache or sour stomach. After several marathon play sessions, the worst injury I sustained was a sore neck from craning to look into it. The red-on-black color scheme is distracting at first, but it doesn't take long to get past it, as anyone who's used a monochrome computer screen can attest. Overall, the Virtual Boy has plenty of shortcomings, but it's not the dramatic trainwreck history has made it out to be. It's endearing in its own quirky way, and it does have a few games worth playing. Let's check one out now.<br />
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<b>Mario's Tennis</b><br />
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<i>Mario's Tennis </i>was the Virtual Boy's pack-in title, and the very first game in the <i>Mario Tennis</i> series. You play as one of six Mushroom Kingdom's denizens, and Donkey Kong Jr. for some reason, in a singles or doubles match of tennis. Unlike the games that followed, <i>Mario's Tennis </i>really is just that. No special moves are allowed here, although each character has a set of unique strengths and weaknesses. For example, Mario is once again the jack-of-all-trades, while Yoshi is fastest, but plays with a small racquet. Toad and the koopa troopa can both lunge for the ball and, in my experience, were the hardest to score against. In doubles matches, the computer-controlled teammate is competent enough, though sometime it'll ignore balls hit directly at it. It never gets in the way of your own shot, though, which is a plus. The opponents put up a real fight, particularly in the higher difficulties, and they employ a little bit of strategy in their game. They generally aim for the side of the court you're not occupying, and they will lob the ball over your head if you're too close to the net, or hit it short if you're playing too deep. Unfortunately, a two-player mode is conspicuously absent, since Nintendo never released the cable that allowed two Virtual Boys to communicate.<br />
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The controls in the game are pretty basic. The left D-pad moves you around the court, while the A & B buttons cause you to hit groundstrokes or lobs, respectively. How you swing your racquet (forehand, backhand, smash, etc) depends on where your character's body is in relation to the ball. Pressing a direction on the D-pad mid-swing lets you roughly aim the ball, but you can't precisely pick where on the court to send it, and you can't apply topspin or backspin to the ball.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicyrw87sd9IZJaL_2BZ3dazCQ2XuDnngWJ1zFydHmCwzh5KBQeCoVApWDJcpszRk_gaYAX1eVQ7nDpXKbApdMMqsAFqrY5nkCTOmp5F8__BhPyfXkm79KhimCFhUX3r-ArVb5mfsuJIeSf/s1600/photo+copy+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicyrw87sd9IZJaL_2BZ3dazCQ2XuDnngWJ1zFydHmCwzh5KBQeCoVApWDJcpszRk_gaYAX1eVQ7nDpXKbApdMMqsAFqrY5nkCTOmp5F8__BhPyfXkm79KhimCFhUX3r-ArVb5mfsuJIeSf/s320/photo+copy+2.JPG" width="320" /></a>The graphics are pretty good, even if the color scheme makes it looks like you're playing tennis on the surface of a dying sun.<i> </i>Though the characters are all 2D sprites, they move around on a 3D court that looks convincing enough. The 3D effect helps you zero in on the ball easily despite the low camera angle, though the third-person perspective means the character's body sometimes blocks your view of the ball. The sprites are large and detailed, and they have a pleasant, hand-drawn aesthetic. They're all well animated too; lots of frames went into each of their movements, ensuring they don't just look like static drawings sliding around a tennis court. When they're facing toward you, their expressions change to reflect how they did at that last serve. If they've just scored a particularly difficult point, they'll usually react in some way: Mario flashes a peace symbol, Peach curtseys, Toad spazzes out, and so on. The backgrounds are sparse and don't draw attention away from the game. Occasionally, though, a gaggle of boos will float by or a few fireworks will explode in the distance, just to add a little visual flair.<br />
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Again, the audio is a disappointment. The characters themselves are completely mute, and the sound effects are typical Game Boy-ish bleeps and bloops. The music is unobtrusive, though the same four background songs played on a loop become tiresome to hear during long tournaments. At least the stereo sound is put to good use; sound effects pan and fade to match the action on screen.<br />
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I wonder... Had Nintendo chosen to pack in a game that appealed to a wider audience, would the Virtual Boy been a hit? Excepting perhaps <i>Pong,</i> tennis games haven't had nearly the same cultural impact that games <i>Tetris </i>or <i>Super Mario Bros </i>have. Had a game with more depth or originality been bundled with the Virtual Boy instead, would the future of video gaming really have become goggles on sticks?<br />
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Probably not.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-5620016029365417032013-05-31T13:51:00.001-07:002013-05-31T17:43:05.695-07:00The Magnavox Odyssey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUO4-WYurEDFaK-uEz_NzeCXC_kVPz0I4BkrTaF2J-M66O0Uih6YVni2_tDswXHFkwBjZoXDWv-jt1IfcqPgqbdZyPjZuD0UqGa1kuDoHlet_oe6v5wdOYd7G5horQU8ybJ0BnPQu6IG27/s1600/magnavoxodysseyb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUO4-WYurEDFaK-uEz_NzeCXC_kVPz0I4BkrTaF2J-M66O0Uih6YVni2_tDswXHFkwBjZoXDWv-jt1IfcqPgqbdZyPjZuD0UqGa1kuDoHlet_oe6v5wdOYd7G5horQU8ybJ0BnPQu6IG27/s640/magnavoxodysseyb.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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A particularly memorable episode of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F522GBtZPk" target="_blank">What's My Line?</a> aired in 1972. In it, the panelists try to suss out what host Larry Blyden and his mystery guest are doing with a television that's out of view. It becomes apparent, as they grasp at straws and ask increasingly irreverent questions, that none of the panelists have any earthly idea what the correct answer is. When Blyden finally reveals that they're playing tennis, the confused looks on the panelists' faces show they still don't follow. And why should they? As far as they knew, television was only for watching. Finally, the other shoe drops: The TV is turned around to show the panelists an image of two white boxes batting a third box across a white line in what could charitably be called a tennis simulation. The mystery guest is identified as Product Manager for Magnavox Inc and the strange, white box on the desk is described as the world's first "electronic beam simulator that's attached to a television", the Magnavox Odyssey.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWw_cVgLH77kz85bQjoi7aAcuOE9ty4Fb51J3Pp8N8mV8iqlS6j2NjBnhpGcOH77XJ_2IiRQBBim5bnfn5NUZjftwi4QESkGZ-KNfzvmg0uiLDjbc_u0TSqK-XwqWwI5LHdHkubBF0Z8JB/s1600/ralph_h_baer_2006_06_15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWw_cVgLH77kz85bQjoi7aAcuOE9ty4Fb51J3Pp8N8mV8iqlS6j2NjBnhpGcOH77XJ_2IiRQBBim5bnfn5NUZjftwi4QESkGZ-KNfzvmg0uiLDjbc_u0TSqK-XwqWwI5LHdHkubBF0Z8JB/s320/ralph_h_baer_2006_06_15.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The Odyssey is the brainchild of Ralph H. Baer, a radio repairman-turned engineer and inventor. In 1966, while working for a defense contractor caller Sanders Associates, Baer began to develop his idea for a consumer-level interactive electronic device which used a television as its display. Working with fellow Sanders engineers Bob Solomon and Bob Tremblay, he created the prototype console and nicknamed it the Brown Box. It was initially capable of drawing two boxes on screen which controlled by the players, with the idea that one player would chase the other in a game of electronic tag. Later in its development, a third "ball" box was added which could move around independently, but still be influenced by the players' actions. After a few more tweaks and added features, the Brown Box prototype was ready for prime time by 1968. Baer patented his idea and shopped his prototype around to several major electronics manufacturers. After a deal with RCA fell through, Magnavox purchased Baer's invention and both Baer and Magnavox engineers spent the next four years developing it into a marketable product.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPgLyElmyw4kCj6j725h60y0PnOkP7iSSVtN4IVXF4DyY3GN8M5tSXRwNCXwfoAfYxnHN4kiy6mjGzg5eQOS8d41dqoTsHULyqYVRJiZyCeowPza15qvNJ8KiXivT0WSgJArLFbXn1k_by/s1600/DSCN0326.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPgLyElmyw4kCj6j725h60y0PnOkP7iSSVtN4IVXF4DyY3GN8M5tSXRwNCXwfoAfYxnHN4kiy6mjGzg5eQOS8d41dqoTsHULyqYVRJiZyCeowPza15qvNJ8KiXivT0WSgJArLFbXn1k_by/s320/DSCN0326.JPG" width="320" /></a>The production Odyssey was now completely solid state and capable of only black-and-white images, (the Brown Box supported limited color) but otherwise fairly faithful to Baer's prototype. It hit Magnavox dealers' shelves in August 1972. Unfortunately, it met with a tepid consumer response due in part to poor marketing (The commercials left impression that the Odyssey would only work with a Magnavox television.) and an astronomical price tag of over $550 adjusted dollars. Deep discounts and a renewed ad campaign failed to generate much more consumer interest in the Odyssey, and only about 300,000 units were sold before it was discontinued in 1975. Magnavox kept the Odyssey name alive though, applying it to a series of Pong consoles released in the mid 70s and ultimately to a new, completely programmable game console called the Odyssey 2. Though the Odyssey 2 sold many more units than its predecessor, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983" target="_blank">Great Video Game Crash</a> hit Magnavox hard, and it bowed out of the video game biz altogether in 1983. Ralph Baer went on to develop Milton Bradley's phenomenally popular electronic game, Simon, in 1979. He also spent a great deal of time in court defending his patent from competing game console manufacturers like Atari and Nintendo. He was ultimately successful, and these companies were required to pay royalties for each game console sold, until Baer's patent expired in the early 90s.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8dJjwbp3zlRUwcZ14REpY56iWh7CtPB7cy7fQvKgtDTsOvsH4zE6seAJKZq78R_syUrjozZUxiXZLa89ugVu4lF28-TUyWx4lQf1VYDPRZLcubJjwEoLgUkqUntefsLSigqUOUHY3Iyoz/s1600/DSCN0324.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8dJjwbp3zlRUwcZ14REpY56iWh7CtPB7cy7fQvKgtDTsOvsH4zE6seAJKZq78R_syUrjozZUxiXZLa89ugVu4lF28-TUyWx4lQf1VYDPRZLcubJjwEoLgUkqUntefsLSigqUOUHY3Iyoz/s320/DSCN0324.JPG" width="320" /></a>So now let's check out the Odyssey. At first glance, it doesn't look all that different from later game consoles, though it's battery-powered and it's completely silent. There's a cartridge slot on the front and a couple of ports in the back that connect to two big, chunky controllers. The controllers themselves are a little more unusual: Horizontal and vertical knobs move the player's block around, Etch-A-Sketch style. A third knob, labeled English, allows you to steer the ball as it moves across the screen, while a reset button typically puts the ball back into play if it leaves the screen. A third port on the console connects to Videogaming's very first hardware add-on, a disturbingly realistic-looking light rifle that actually needs to be cocked each time the trigger is pulled.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixu5L0eyIbiHCz-yQ1rJhzgiXOOjsZevOJK43HW2F0n0J48DAiijBjgDhRg9H6Zetl5zECfOESVU_QNh741zecH2030usDgBugBgCWwcDdVDH1guzmqAnbu7k8CmdgQr0_sGUhbfq408U5/s1600/DSCN0332.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixu5L0eyIbiHCz-yQ1rJhzgiXOOjsZevOJK43HW2F0n0J48DAiijBjgDhRg9H6Zetl5zECfOESVU_QNh741zecH2030usDgBugBgCWwcDdVDH1guzmqAnbu7k8CmdgQr0_sGUhbfq408U5/s320/DSCN0332.JPG" width="320" /></a>It also comes loaded with accessories. In addition to the console, the box contains dice, poker chips, game boards, tokens, score counters, card decks, Monopoly money, and several transparent plastic overlays that fit on the TV screen. There are also six game cartridges included in the box, imaginatively named 1 through 6. The rather thick user manual explains the rules for each game, as well as which cartridges, accessories and overlays are needed to play. In total, 12 games are available out of the box: Table Tennis, Tennis, Football, Hockey, Ski, Submarine, Cat & Mouse, Analogic, Roulette, States, and Simon Says. The light gun accessory adds two more, and a handful of additional games were sold separately. That sounds like a lot, but every single game employs some combination the same basic objects: two player-controlled blocks, a ball, and a vertical wall. This is because the game cartridges contain no program data at all, and the Odyssey has nothing remotely approaching a CPU. Each of the above screen objects is quite literally generated by its own discrete circuit board. When inserted, the game carts simply switch the circuits on and connected them together in such a way to create the desired objects. It's incredibly primitive in design, and yet ingenious in its simplicity. It is a video game console in the most basic sense imagineable.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicYzKYVg2q4b1V_c7RNiie_jDoeBkrwP8dE0ZvXUgdwa9ZJeXLOeVXNBAPxNK9KwwyaZjsfQ7FoT-ovGyAwaM09srXnmExR6RZMPKIIkzBCtdn6lxPjwtoj8OjaMC3I4S9nwvQjUPEOtVL/s1600/DSCN0320.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicYzKYVg2q4b1V_c7RNiie_jDoeBkrwP8dE0ZvXUgdwa9ZJeXLOeVXNBAPxNK9KwwyaZjsfQ7FoT-ovGyAwaM09srXnmExR6RZMPKIIkzBCtdn6lxPjwtoj8OjaMC3I4S9nwvQjUPEOtVL/s320/DSCN0320.JPG" title="Shitty old TV courtesy of the dumpster behind the local ARC." width="320" /></a><br />
Of course this means that the Odyssey is dumber than a toaster. It can't keep score or time, enforce a game's rules or even limit where on the screen the players can move. There is of course no AI, so every game requires two people to play. I'll describe a few of the games in detail: In Ski, one player maneuvers his or her dot through a course laid out on the overlay while the other player keeps time and score. It sounds simple enough, but the Etch-A-Sketch controls do add a bit of a challenge. The two tennis games and Hockey are enjoyable, as they play like a sort of proto-Pong. Of course, nothing stops either player from cheating by constantly resetting the ball, noodling with the english knob or running all around the screen. Football is a complicated mess of a game, requiring a game board, several decks of cards, tokens, sticky tape, dice, and about six pages of rules to play. Here, most of the action takes place on the game board, and the Odyssey is basically used as a down marker. At the other end of the difficulty spectrum, States and Simon Says simply involve one player drawing a card and asking the other to point to a specific US state/body part using the Odyssey. These two games are clearly aimed at a much younger crowd, but I have difficulty imagining that any little kid in the '70s would get much out of steering a white block toward Delaware. My guess is that marathon Odyssey-playing sessions eventually devolved into two people noodling around with a couple of glowing blocks on a TV screen and forgetting the rulebook. Maybe that was entertainment enough in 1972, but judging by the sheer number of closet-fresh Odysseys available on eBay, I'm guessing it wasn't.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuJ39UrhD9dOxblhHRJ4UjVnN3lmD2T2s8xTO8aqqKCNN5pZMRZ3ieapzHMGPUg2hFC6-XpY89hTalyUBvJixqtUG62vS61d9PJOIWDOcgHPFW673K-mCFvDQhhyL0vakeTYcQfkgFrQj0/s1600/DSCN0331.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuJ39UrhD9dOxblhHRJ4UjVnN3lmD2T2s8xTO8aqqKCNN5pZMRZ3ieapzHMGPUg2hFC6-XpY89hTalyUBvJixqtUG62vS61d9PJOIWDOcgHPFW673K-mCFvDQhhyL0vakeTYcQfkgFrQj0/s320/DSCN0331.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
So in the end, perhaps the Magnavox Odyssey should be best remembered for what it represented: the birth of a whole new entertainment medium. Edison's earliest films were just glimpses of daily life at the end of the 19th century, but they laid the foundation for a new form of expression and an industry which changed the world overnight. Likewise, the Odyssey demonstrated to the public that there is the potential to do so much more with our televisions than merely watch them. 40 years ago, a panel of celebrities couldn't imagine what life with an interactive electronic device would be like. Today, we can't imagine life without them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwwpTeTQyfgeL2tsABdy-CUMKBig9ud_eLmcAwZfd9jDIwoIxV5d-0fyQHO6YpABhnyR97myoiZi2uaTmGxibVzICuhFMZZPqhyphenhyphen4LqSp0AgcuLWkGDDOUmqftMtit3cD-ZKdHgS9ul2R4j/s1600/DSCN0318.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwwpTeTQyfgeL2tsABdy-CUMKBig9ud_eLmcAwZfd9jDIwoIxV5d-0fyQHO6YpABhnyR97myoiZi2uaTmGxibVzICuhFMZZPqhyphenhyphen4LqSp0AgcuLWkGDDOUmqftMtit3cD-ZKdHgS9ul2R4j/s640/DSCN0318.JPG" title="The future is overlays!" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-10032876678532322812013-05-10T16:22:00.002-07:002013-05-10T20:25:38.754-07:00Super Mario Land for Game Boy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI2umquXT4pM-2G6NrBZSRzPZOn4tnxqeJmiEOgOEP097mwU_PX0Mx3byww9ZxcpewbQTZEFdksNHwr2KwAKy1W1asFp0EyPp9ixT3o1pLf1F6yvlyJlftp-wAxNSf5ZGYhnflAVDs-dSW/s1600/capture_20130509_220017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI2umquXT4pM-2G6NrBZSRzPZOn4tnxqeJmiEOgOEP097mwU_PX0Mx3byww9ZxcpewbQTZEFdksNHwr2KwAKy1W1asFp0EyPp9ixT3o1pLf1F6yvlyJlftp-wAxNSf5ZGYhnflAVDs-dSW/s1600/capture_20130509_220017.jpg" /></a></div>
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On the day the Game Boy and <i>Super Mario Land </i>was announced, a cry of "Holy crap, there's gonna be a portable Mario game? I WAAAAAANT!" echoed from coast to coast. Soon, Mario would lead us all into an golden age where portable gaming was as limitless as its TV-tethered counterpart. Right?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikx3OkzDMkXYp5fAhEr52sUZufQidBQCr2dvlWBHMyCAfkYEkAJwwXMj7kbJF1FZhyO0wwHDGyP2KzUmczxMXVrjASnH8J_7BmhfQpM88MvxuYLN0NInscS0CiM7jJhLPlklE2FDW5WA-U/s1600/capture_20130509_221621.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikx3OkzDMkXYp5fAhEr52sUZufQidBQCr2dvlWBHMyCAfkYEkAJwwXMj7kbJF1FZhyO0wwHDGyP2KzUmczxMXVrjASnH8J_7BmhfQpM88MvxuYLN0NInscS0CiM7jJhLPlklE2FDW5WA-U/s200/capture_20130509_221621.jpg" width="183" /></a></div>
Well, yes and no. <i>Super Mario Land</i> is a good game in its own right, but it's painfully short, and it feels like an also-ran to the NES series. A lot of interesting new ideas found their way in to <i>Super Mario Land</i>, but it ends before any are fully-explored. Developed by Game Boy creator, Gunpei Yokoi, <i>Super Mario Land</i> is set in Sarasaland, a tiny little suburb of the Mushroom Kingdom. Princess Daisy, of "Hi, I'm Daisy" fame, has been kidnapped by space aliens, and Mario sets out to rescue her. Because he was freelancing or something. Anyway, Sarasaland is divided into four worlds with three levels each. At the end of each world, Mario faces off against a unique boss character. Most of the Super Mario mainstays are present in <i>Super Mario Land, </i>such as coins, bricks and item boxes. Super mushrooms still make Mario grow, but the flowers now give Mario the ability to launch dodge balls which ricochet around the screen until they hit an enemy or fly off. They collect coins as they bounce around too, which is quite handy. Mario spends most of the game on foot, but occasionally he will take to the skies in an airplane or dive underwater in a submarine. In these levels, <i>Super Mario Land </i>actually becomes a side-scrolling shooter, as Mario blasts his way through blocks, enemies and anything else that stands in his way. It's an odd choice to turn a Mario game into <i>Gradius </i>for just a couple of levels, but the shooting sequences are a fun diversion from the standard run & jump fare.<br />
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Running and jumping is still at the core of <i>Super Mario Land</i>, though, and it's here that I find the game's other major fault.<i> Super Mario Land</i> is plagued with sluggish and imprecise controls. Mario changes directions like he's running on ball bearings, and he has a floaty jump arc that makes landing tricky jumps extremely frustrating. Mario's movements here <i></i>are very similar to his in the original <i>Mario Brothers, </i>which makes sense given Yokoi designed that game as well. In a sense, Mario has returned to his roots in terms of how he moves. Unfortunately, it was a poor choice to make for this game. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBQzqz0yNVAAE34Qsf5B3QqI6V94fJYGLnbu14AtPZOV46jFb90YiKlGwl7TFb4a46uXnQ_ZP0hCD4jjb_cQjQ9QG2ymFtTC7PMEstYtQOcJylnxpaNKUlbvq44P3TwnKE1BRKpzPUjKwL/s1600/capture_20130509_222815.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBQzqz0yNVAAE34Qsf5B3QqI6V94fJYGLnbu14AtPZOV46jFb90YiKlGwl7TFb4a46uXnQ_ZP0hCD4jjb_cQjQ9QG2ymFtTC7PMEstYtQOcJylnxpaNKUlbvq44P3TwnKE1BRKpzPUjKwL/s200/capture_20130509_222815.jpg" width="186" /></a><br />
Graphics in <i>Super Mario Land </i>are a mixed bag. Each world has a unique theme, like Ancient Egypt or Easter Island, and the backgrounds reflect the theme well. The levels contain much more detail and variety than the repetitious red brick constructs of<i> Super Mario Bros</i>. The enemies are almost completely original too, and most of them are unique
to the world they inhabit; only the Goombahs make a return appearance in
<i>Super Mario Land</i>. However, Mario's own appearance is carried over nearly unchanged from <i>Super Mario Bros</i>, as is the game's camera distance. As a result, Mario is nearly microscopic when viewed on the original Game Boy's screen, and he becomes a smear of pixels when he's in motion. I generally prefer to play these games on their original hardware, but <i>Super Mario Land </i>is an exception. It's nearly unplayable on an original Game Boy.<br />
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<i>Super Mario Land </i>is a short, fun, but flawed little oddball. It's also a pretty daring reinterpretation of the series. made at a time when Nintendo was more willing to take risks with its flagship franchises. Give it a shot; if nothing else, it won't ask for much of your time.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-44925126858532897842013-04-11T21:57:00.003-07:002013-04-11T22:25:51.440-07:00Lunatic Fringe for Macintosh<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZQqxk59CV7VmdbiKcAngJ_BfagCsDQFyE3rnjOyYJQMXV41V_oVQWJdhiHN3wzHJp34X6qS4osqAp_37JTL87Gi5GUYBA2EF9xXf9id7ZBrGnMwQqWRiGH0t8DRnKzOSQ4goF8gdUg-o9/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-04-11+at+7.03.37+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZQqxk59CV7VmdbiKcAngJ_BfagCsDQFyE3rnjOyYJQMXV41V_oVQWJdhiHN3wzHJp34X6qS4osqAp_37JTL87Gi5GUYBA2EF9xXf9id7ZBrGnMwQqWRiGH0t8DRnKzOSQ4goF8gdUg-o9/s640/Screen+Shot+2013-04-11+at+7.03.37+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Screen savers are strange, ephemeral things. They show up to guard your monitor from the heartbreak of burn-in while you're away, and then disappear the moment you return. They often provide a little passive amusement too, in the form of fish swimming, stars shooting, toasters flying, or dogs peeing, but some could be coaxed to stick around a bit and provide a little more interactive diversion. <i>Lunatic Fringe</i> is one such diversion. It's a screen saver module bundled with Mac versions of <i>After Dark</i> released in the early 90s. When it starts, it presents a title screen and a high score table. Like any good screensaver, moving the mouse or pressing most keys on the keyboard immediately dismisses it. But hit the caps lock and you're transported to an incredibly adorable battle for galactic dominance.<br />
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In <i>Lunatic Fringe,</i> you play a tiny, cutesy, retro-futuristic rocketship tasked with defending the Galactic Fringe from evil purple blobs, mace-wielding alien ships, four-way beach ball launchers and the like. In a bit of departure from similar overhead space shooters, your view remains fixed on your spaceship as objects whiz past. Each game starts you at your home base, which you can frequent to refuel and repair battle damage. As you suffer hits, your ships' weapons, RADAR, engines, turn jets, and such become damaged and eventually rendered inoperable. After a couple of hits, you may find yourself spinning helplessly out of control as your ship is mercilessly pounded by enemy fire. If you manage to escape, your ship will slowly repair itself as long as you have parts to spare. Eliminate every enemy in RADAR range and the next level will begin, repopulating the Fringe with a load of new enemies. Even so, your spaceship inhabits a very sparsely populated universe. The Fringe is a very big place, and enemies and obstructions are so few and far between that for most part, the only indications of motion are the dim, single-pixel stars that pass by in the background. Power-ups, like invincibility and weapon boosts are scattered throughout the vastness of <i>Lunatic Fringe</i>, but they're too few and far between to be particularly reliable. Your only real advantage in the game is the fact that your enemies aren't too bright. Most of them won't bother to pursue you for very long, and their weapons fire can be dodged fairly easily if you keep moving. Marathon session of <i>Lunatic Fringe </i>can last a very long time, so long as the enemies don't score a lucky hit on your engines.<br />
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<i>Lunatic Fringe's </i>simple, pre-rendered sprites are colorful and smoothly-animated, with a glossy, plasticky look common to CGI of the era. The sound effects are canned cheers, scream, pops, zaps, thumps, and the like, and they lack any real rhyme or reason. They're aural non-sequiturs which give <i>Lunatic Fringe </i>a whimsical, who-gives-a-shit vibe perfectly in keeping with the tone of <i>After Dark.</i><br />
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Admittedly, there's not much depth to <i>Lunatic Fringe. </i>As you progress through the levels, enemies get only slightly less stupid and more numerous. There's no real objective to meet either, beyond the almighty high score, and you might find yourself losing interest in its repetitive gameplay long before you lose all your lives. Still, it always brought a smile to my face when it would pop up after hours spent banging away at whatever school paper I happened to be working on. Spending a little time each night on the <i>Fringe</i> probably helped me graduate high school.<br />
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<i>After Dark </i>may be dead and gone, but <i>Lunatic Fringe </i>lives on in the <i>Lunatic Fringe Player </i>available <a href="http://www.sealiesoftware.com/fringe/" target="_blank">here</a> for Mac OS X. A web-based version is under development <a href="http://fringe.jamescarnley.com/" target="_blank">here</a>, but it's a work in progress and it's missing most of the original game's features.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-32982411062279791542013-03-17T01:11:00.001-07:002013-03-17T13:30:47.565-07:00Squish 'em Sam For ColecoVision<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The year I was born, George Willig, one of history's great "Human Flies," scaled all 110 stories of the World Trade Center's south tower in under four hours. The stunt earned him worldwide fame, but it cost him a cool $1.10 in fines from the city of New York. The titular Sam would not abide this. He's a human fly who's only in it for the money, and he wants you to know it.<br />
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<i>Squish 'em Sam</i> is one of ColecoVision's rare 3rd party titles, released by Interphase in 1983. It features the titular Sam climbing the girders of an unfinished brick high rise in an attempt to reach a stash of cash left on the top floor. He can slide side to side along the girders, but he can only progress up to the next floor when he reaches a vertical girder, and he can't back down at all. Blocking his path are... bugs? octopuses? who knows, 8-bit beasties of some kind. They slide around erratically, blocking Sam's ascent and generally making life difficult for him. Fortunately, Sam can lift his legs off the girder and smash the monsters into submission. A stomped monster is briefly immobilized, but after a few seconds, it turns white and become invincible, forcing you to keep moving up to avoid it. As you progress up the skyscraper, objects fall from above, preventing you from moving vertically for too long. Occasionally, a bonus... thing pops up on a floor, which can be collected for additional points. As you climb the building, the enemies move faster and more erratically, they stay "dead" for less time, and objects fall out of the sky more frequently, making the overall challenge of the game increase as Sam progresses.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgi2ercuYPYKiKBMl_DFKBzK3Gx8NrE0aZ7tl9MBlRkWZ4xFNp-aKwQvIStVfC6EcbrJoYJ81dljrIgBEcYYsAGrrKWmv0IrAtmTlKJckczd0ZYW0Kr8X2JvOJgYLHpNANrLzZlxA7d_e5/s1600/capture_20130317_020046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgi2ercuYPYKiKBMl_DFKBzK3Gx8NrE0aZ7tl9MBlRkWZ4xFNp-aKwQvIStVfC6EcbrJoYJ81dljrIgBEcYYsAGrrKWmv0IrAtmTlKJckczd0ZYW0Kr8X2JvOJgYLHpNANrLzZlxA7d_e5/s320/capture_20130317_020046.jpg" width="303" /></a>The game play is pretty straightforward, and the graphics are certainly nothing special. However, it does sport one feature that's pretty rare for a game from this era: digitized voices. Curb-stomping monsters generates either a satisfying crunch or a digitized "Squish 'em!" from Sam. When he reaches the booty at the top of the building, he exclaims "Money! Money! Money!" Our man Sam takes adversity in stride too, as getting knocked off the building elicits a flippant "Whoops!" as he plummets to his doom. Digitized sound effects may be commonplace these day (Damn kids, get off my lawn!) but in 1983, it was hot snot. Games with digitized voices on competing consoles typically needed special adapters to to be heard at all, and they were usually a garbled, unintelligible mess. The voices in <i>Squish 'em Sam </i>are reproduced clearly, intelligibly and without the aid of goofy add-ons.<br />
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<i>Squish 'em Sam </i>may not have an arcade pedigree like most in the ColecoVision's library, but it's every bit a classic risk-vs-reward arcade game. It's dead simple to pick up & play, but the difficulty scales up as smoothly as Sam scales each building, eventually offering a serious challenge for advanced players. Ultimately though, it has no goal to meet beyond the almighty high score, and its repetitive gameplay may leave you reaching for a different cartridge once Sam has uttered his last whoops.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-90570338886917899352013-01-27T21:59:00.001-08:002013-02-02T14:32:17.232-08:00Wrecking Crew For NES<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfsu455CLswoFH_Dd7vUOaOWKDi2xYPlvO7luBr4j_f4XwChghq8C8dMj4ifCA1-cYsZqCOEhgHY1Pnyou7t5uP2iXdlMyLoeUEgqY-ZfMrWcArwF1nTW5SLIoNwMmA9nKStQrFAetYsBj/s1600/capture_20130127_222154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfsu455CLswoFH_Dd7vUOaOWKDi2xYPlvO7luBr4j_f4XwChghq8C8dMj4ifCA1-cYsZqCOEhgHY1Pnyou7t5uP2iXdlMyLoeUEgqY-ZfMrWcArwF1nTW5SLIoNwMmA9nKStQrFAetYsBj/s640/capture_20130127_222154.jpg" width="592" /></a></div>
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<i>Super Mario Brothers</i> is the British Invasion of video gaming. By and large, console games released before it played much their arcade counterparts: bite-sized chunks of video entertainment meant to briefly hold the player's attention, but lacking any real goal to meet beyond setting a high score. There's nothing wrong with this style of videogame at all, but once <i>SMB </i>was released, the immersive world its complex, elaborate, and interconnected levels built made older games seem quaint and limited by comparison.<br />
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So why am I yammering on about <i>Super Mario Brothers? </i>Like <i>SMB, Wrecking Crew </i>is an NES launch title, and it features Mario (and Luigi in two-player mode) in a prominent role. However, if <i>SMB</i> is the Beatles, <i>Wrecking Crew </i>is Fabian: It's fun to play, but it feels instantly dated by comparison. Your goal in the very arcade-like <i>Wrecking Crew </i>is to demolish nearly all of the standing objects in each level with your trusty hammer. There are brick walls, cement walls, pylons and breakable ladders that all must be smashed to complete the level. There are also ladders that can't be destroyed, barrels that block your path, and bombs that will blow up all other destructible objects adjacent to them. Hot on your heels are bipedal monkey wrenches, mask-wearing eggplants and big huge jerkface, Foreman Spike. The wrenches and eggplants just hunt you down and kill you, but Spike will ruin your life! He shadows you, occasionally smashing walls in your face and knocking you down, destroying objects critical to finishing the level or stealing your bonus coins. Since this is a family game, you can't cave this asshole's skull in with your hammer, no matter how hard you might like to. Instead, you can only avoid Spike and the other enemies, trap them in dropping barrels, or knock them off ladders. That is, unless you find the game's single power-up, the Golden Hammer. It's more powerful than the stock hammer, and Mario can swing it much more quickly. It can even knock enemies off the level if you're lucky enough to land a blow before they catch you. Unfortunately the Golden Hammer doesn't turn up very often, and you lose it if you die.<br />
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The enemies in <i>Wrecking Crew</i> certainly keep you on your toes, but the real challenge lies its puzzle elements. Mario can't jump or remove obstacles in his path, so you have to avoid trapping him or isolating him from the remaining objects you need to smash in order to complete the level. This is easy to accomplish in the early levels, but as you progress, it becomes clear that the bombs, ladders, pylons and such must be smashed in a very particular order. The upper levels are devilishly clever, so figuring out that order without the aid of a walk-through is a laudable achievement.</div>
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Nintendo generously included 100 official levels, but if that's not enough, a simple level editor is also included. In shades of <i>Lode Runner, </i>you can build up to four <i>Wrecking Crew </i>levels from scratch, and play through them in sequence. Unfortunately, this isn't <i>Load Runner </i>running off a floppy disk; it's <i>Wrecking Crew </i>on an NES cartridge with no battery backup. There's no saving your work here, which may confuse gamers when they try to select 'save' or 'load' from the menu screen. Selecting either option causes the game to freeze--pretty frustrating if you've just put the finishing touches on your own masterpiece of <i>Wrecking Crew</i> devilry. Evidently, the Famicom version included support for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famicom_Data_Recorder" target="_blank">Famicom Data Recorder</a>, a glorified tape recorder similar to the Commodore 64's Datasette. The Data Recorder was never released for the NES, but <i>Wrecking Crew</i> left the Famicom version's save/load functionality in the game, assuming it would be one day. <br />
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Again, <i>Wrecking Crew</i> is an NES release title, and it shows in more ways than just the save/load bug. The NES may not have a huge palette of colors to work with, but it seems even fewer than normal are used in <i>Wrecking Crew. </i>This game would fail to impress if it were running on the Colecovision. The background of each level is a drab, black screen. Mario and Spike look ok, but the enemies lack much in the way of detail or variety. I thought the angry wrench monster was a road-killed dinosaur when I first saw it. Weirdly, Luigi has the same jaundiced skin color he sported in <i>SMB</i>, but now he's decked out in a hot-pink hard hat & overalls<i>.</i> The music and sound effects are lifted almost wholesale from <i>Gyromite, </i>another launch title meant to work with <a href="http://mathmanmustdie.blogspot.com/2012/08/hi-everybody-mr.html" target="_blank">ROB, the NES robot.</a> They're not bad per se; they're just derivative and not really memorable.</div>
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The germ of a really great classic game is hidden in <i>Wrecking Crew, </i>and<i> </i>had it been given more development time, it might have become one<i>.</i><i> </i>It mixes action platforming and problem-solving successfully enough to be quite fun in short doses.Without much variety to the gameplay, though, it gets stale quickly. It's available for download on the Wii and 3DS virtual console where, mercifully, Nintendo has corrected the save/load bug. Give it a whirl if you still prefer the pompadour to the mop-top.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-35069963810471498642013-01-12T21:12:00.001-08:002013-01-29T15:20:22.101-08:00Gunstar Heroes For Sega Genesis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Sj3qEzdUVdTMqw3A1fOWV225mQOCHZgxbj6oKtIJuRwX78mAm1IirMSitIWWV5KP-d7YSCYhhkj1quxBbZDcInkAgAIzgP0YzWle2A0_wf7SbxqVEtW1473JVbS4bVlDoFCQIhQ35XOz/s1600/capture_20130112_202549.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Sj3qEzdUVdTMqw3A1fOWV225mQOCHZgxbj6oKtIJuRwX78mAm1IirMSitIWWV5KP-d7YSCYhhkj1quxBbZDcInkAgAIzgP0YzWle2A0_wf7SbxqVEtW1473JVbS4bVlDoFCQIhQ35XOz/s640/capture_20130112_202549.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
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About 20 years ago, a group of developers at Konami got sick of cranking out run-and-gun <i>Contra </i>sequels, and left to form their own game company. Their freshman effort, <i>Gunstar Heroes</i>, is, well, another run-and-gun shooter. But this one happens to be a fantastic example of the genre, and an all-around great game.<br />
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The Gunstar family has served as guardians of the distant planet Gunstar-9 for generations, free to name their children after primary colors in relative peace. That peace was shattered when Smash Daisaku, an evil dictator with a suspicious resemblance to M. Bison and a fondness for interpretive dance, mind-controls Gunstar brother Green and forces him to steal four Magic McGuffin Gems. The remaining Gunstar brothers, Red and Blue, set out to free Green, defeat Smash, recover the gems and prevent the return of evil robotic uber-baddy, Golden Silver. Also Brown, Orange, Yellow, Pink, Grey, and Black. <br />
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From the get-go, <i>Gunstar Heroes </i>sets itself apart from the typical shooter by offering the player loads of choice. You can select the order in which you play through the first few levels, and pick the weapon you're equipped with at the beginning of each level. You can also choose from two different control styles: Free Shot and Fixed Shot. Free Shot is very similar to <i>Contra's </i>controls in that you can move freely but only shoot in the general direction in which you're facing. Fixed Shot plants your feet while shooting, but allows you to quickly aim in any direction. That may sound like a liability, but when enemies are swarming on you from all sides, the ability to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlAsSyDAWR8" target="_blank">Death Blossom</a> yourself can be a life-saver. Your character has a few useful melee moves as well, like a surprisingly effective belly flop and foot slide. You can grab hapless minions who gets too close and launch them over your head, or dangle from ledges with one hand while spraying lead in any direction. You can even lob bombs back at the enemies who threw them. Smooth controls have often been a weak spot of run-and-gun games, but <i>Gunstar Heroes </i>has no such problem. The Gunstars' jump arcs are smooth and controllable in mid-air; they run at a brisk pace, and their more acrobatic melee moves are easy enough to pull off that they're actually useful. Useful melee attacks in a shooter... who'da thunk it?<br />
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Weapons are handled in a unique manner, too. There are powerful short-ranged flamethrowers, lasers that punch through multiple baddies, homing guns, and deadly high-speed ping pong ball launchers. At the beginning of each level, you can select any one of them to occupy your first weapons slot. This feature is pretty handy by itself, as anyone who's ever lost the <i>Contra </i>spread gun<i> </i>at a critical moment can attest. However, when you pick up another weapon in the level and add it to the second slot, you can use both weapons' effects at once. For example, combining the laser with the homing gun nets you a powerful penetrating weapon with homing ability, while mixing the flamethrower with the ping pong machinegun grants you a fireball launcher with a very high rate of fire. You can even pick up two weapons of the same type to make them much more powerful; picking up two flamethrowers doubles its range, for example. Experimenting with the different weapon combinations is a brilliant way for Treasure to extend the replay value of <i>Gunstar Heroes. </i><br />
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<i>Gunstar Heroes</i> breaks with tradition in another way: You only have one life, but you can take multiple hits. Your hit points, or 'vitality', is represented by a numerical value on the top of the screen; the game ends when it hits zero, but you have unlimited continues. Again, this is a brilliant design choice given the amount of carnage that most levels<i> </i>throws at the player. Not having to sweat instant death by a stray bullet or collision with an enemy makes the levels flow much more smoothly, and it encourages risk-taking, like soaking up a few hits to reach a boss' weak spot.<br />
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Speaking of bosses, <i>Gunstar Heroes </i>is full of them. Sub-bosses and main bosses abound; each more bizarre than the last. For example, the very first one you encounter is a gigantic asparagus stalk named Papaya Dance. Most bosses are made up of a complex assemblage of sprites that scale and rotate to give them an amazing 3D look. Nowhere is this effect put to better use than near the end of the game when a gigantic robot runs around a circular room, smoothly shifting from the background to the foreground in an effect that would look impressive on the Neo Geo.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfjfKWYuLldbLBGuEsW9VJCq91jgUigrIbk5ECgc2lZvRvNkehMzTZASRi2gjJQ89eZXzcWtjfErEVJ29fzS0w5VQYmgoP1oh2ASG6x6mgi3pvMemqrNHE16WglniFETf8JoDifQwDcw2s/s1600/capture_20130112_205426.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfjfKWYuLldbLBGuEsW9VJCq91jgUigrIbk5ECgc2lZvRvNkehMzTZASRi2gjJQ89eZXzcWtjfErEVJ29fzS0w5VQYmgoP1oh2ASG6x6mgi3pvMemqrNHE16WglniFETf8JoDifQwDcw2s/s320/capture_20130112_205426.jpg" width="305" /></a>Getting to the boss battles is just as much fun. There's not a lot of variation in the type of minions you run across, but they're nicely detailed; drawn in an cartoonish style reminiscent of the <i>Metal Gear </i>games, and, as I've mentioned before, loads of them attack at you at once. The typical left-to-right runs on foot are broken up by battles on magnetic mining carts, ascents on gigantic airships in flight, battles in space and, in one particularly memorable level, a series of mini-games played on a life-size board game. The levels tend to be short and intense, and there aren't many more beyond the initial four. On the easier difficulty settings, <i>Gunstar Heroes </i>can be completed in about an hour, though the harder difficulties make it much more challenging and two player mode certainly extends its play value. <i>Gunstar Heroes' </i>brevity may be its only significant failing, but<i> </i>really that's not such a bad problem for a video game to have. There are games I've never finished at all, and there are games I couldn't wait to be over, but <i>Gunstar Heroes</i> kept me riveted, and left me begging for more. No padding, no backtracking, and no impossible levels; just a pure, intense gaming experience from start to finish.<br />
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Being a somewhat poor seller in its day, <i>Gunstar Heroes</i> has flown under the radar of mainstream gaming for a long time, earning only one direct sequel on the Game Boy Advance. However, the fans have spoken, and faithful recreations of this Genesis classic have finally turned up on the Playstation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, the Wii Virtual Console and on iOS devices. <i>Gunstar Heroes </i>is a perfect mix of amazing graphics, tight controls, intense gameplay and a quirky sense of humor. It's one of the best 16-bit titles ever released, and it absolutely should not be missed.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-39773205019991091442013-01-01T00:30:00.000-08:002013-01-28T12:03:19.224-08:00HOWTO: Add S-Video Output To A Sega Genesis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hi everybody, happy new year! I'm back with a whole new stack of crusty old games to review, but first, I'd kick off 2013 with another howto. There are already a number of excellent step-by-step guides on how to mod the Genesis floating around the Internet, including the <a href="http://www.davidhowland.com/mod/#svideo" target="_blank">the one I followed,</a> so mine will contain primarily general information and random musing about my own experience.<br />
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<i><b>Disclaimer time:</b></i><br />
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Use the info in this guide at your own risk. Like the <a href="http://mathmanmustdie.blogspot.com/2012/08/howto-fix-nes-red-light-of-death.html" target="_blank">NES,</a> there are no dangerous voltages inside the Genesis, but it's vulnerable to static electricity once opened. You will be soldering wires directly to components inside the Genesis too, so take care not to cause a short circuit by bridging connections. Also, you need to know how to solder stuff. Probably should have mentioned that right away.<br />
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<i><b>So what's so great about s-video?</b></i><br />
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I'm no video engineer, so I apologize if I make anyone's head explode with my layman's understanding of television signaling. Basically, an analog composite color TV signal contains two synchronized components: luminance (Y) & chrominance (C). Luminance tells the TV how bright to make the dot on the screen at a given moment, and chrominance tells the TV what color to make it. The two signals are multiplexed and either sent directly to the TV set, as in composite video, or modulated into radio frequency and broadcast, as in a television station. The TV set itself is responsible for demultiplexing chrominance & luminance, and converting the two signals into a video image. Unfortunately, the two signals tend to interfere with each other, resulting in video problems, like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_crawl" target="_blank">dot crawl,</a> color bleeding, and so on. In short, composite video kinda sucks.<br />
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S-video is an attempt to deal with this suckage by keeping luminance and chominance electrically separate. S-video passes Y & C from the source device to the TV set on their own wires, avoiding most of the image problems inherent to composite video. Of course, to take advantage of this, you need a TV with an s-video input. They're pretty distinctive, usually consisting of a round plug with four pins; one for Y, one for C and two grounds. They're commonly found in higher-end TVs made in the last couple of decades, though they're becoming increasingly rare as all-digital connections, like HDMI, have come to dominate.<br />
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S-video has been supported by video game consoles and old computers since the Commodore 64. The video encoder chip in the Sega Genesis supports it too, though Sega saw fit not to properly wire it up. No matter, we can lift the signals directly from the chip.<br />
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<i><b>What do we need?</b></i><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcwtkYQDLQFu2I8ybj8ImJCqAyH9aS5Aw0bszIBvf9GKS6C0I5t4uGpXspExyymnykidRVpQhyphenhyphenZDpTTwzXGBjG73iWCVXBA6W5woZzPr98xKAGBPfGwpoe6TKGd0PTmTxdecM_McK-v2-4/s1600/1084011-segagenesis1_super.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcwtkYQDLQFu2I8ybj8ImJCqAyH9aS5Aw0bszIBvf9GKS6C0I5t4uGpXspExyymnykidRVpQhyphenhyphenZDpTTwzXGBjG73iWCVXBA6W5woZzPr98xKAGBPfGwpoe6TKGd0PTmTxdecM_McK-v2-4/s320/1084011-segagenesis1_super.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Model 1 Genesis</td></tr>
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To start, you need a model 1 Sega Genesis. The model 1 genesis is the best unit to own for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Genesis#Audio_and_video" target="_blank">a number of reasons,</a> but for our purposes, the mode 1 is ideal due to its video encoder chip being larger than the model 2's and through-mounted instead of surface-mounted. Be warned, though: a few later revisions of model 1 Genesis units actually contain the guts of model 2 units. To be safe, look for Genesis consoles with "High definition graphics" printed along the top and/or a 9-pin serial connector just left of the 'ch3-ch4' switch, or a noticeable, 3/4" gap where that connector should be. For folks in Europe & Japan, an early-model Mega Drive should also work with this mod, though I can't guarantee it.<br />
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In addition to a model 1 Genesis, you will need most of <a href="http://www.davidhowland.com/mod/#materials" target="_blank">these components</a> to build the Y & C amplifiers. You don't need the LED, phono plugs or oscillator unless you would like to follow the author's complete instructions to overclock the Genesis' CPU and add A/V jacks to it. The project wires, transistors, capacitors, and project boards were readily available at my local Radio Shack, but I couldn't find 110k ohm resistors in stock, so I had to make due with 100k ohm pieces. A female s-video jack was the hardest part to locate, as Radio Shack no longer stocks them. Mine came from a breakout cable used to connect a PC video card to a television, but you can pick one up <a href="http://www.vicksav.com/TecNec-SVHS-4FCM-S-Video-4-Pin-Female-Chassis-Mount-Connector_p_26585.html" target="_blank">here</a> for just a couple of bucks.<br />
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<i><b>Dismantling the Genesis</b></i><br />
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This part is pretty easy. Basically, remove nearly every damn screw that's in the console. Six screws on the underside hold it shut, while a whole bunch more hold the main board to the bottom of the case. Once the case is open, be sure to ground yourself before touching any internal components to prevent static electricity damage to the Genesis. Remove & discard the thin steel RF shield covering the top of the mainboard; it only gets in the way once the mod is complete. There's a thick steel heat sink attached to two power regulators on the left side of the console. Remove the two screws & set the heat sink aside for now. The video encoder chip that we'll be noodling with is located underneath the heat sink. The power LED is permanently attached to the top of the case as well as the mainboard. If you need to completely liberate the mainboard from the case, cut the LED's wires, and splice them back together when you're ready to reassemble.<br />
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<i><b>Building the amps </b></i><br />
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The video encoder chip inside the Genesis, a Sony CXA1145, does indeed generate s-video signals, but not at a power level sufficient to directly drive a television set. We need to build a couple of simple one-transistor amplifier circuits to boost the 1145's s-video signals to a level high enough to drive the TV. <a href="http://www.davidhowland.com/mod/#buildingamps" target="_blank">David Howland's</a> website provides excellent step-by-step instructions on how to turn a pile of parts into two functional amps, and I can't add much more. If you're having trouble following the circuit diagram, just do what I did: make your circuit board look as close as possible to the one in the image. The amp input lines shown on the circuit diagram aren't actually pictured and can be challenging to locate, so I've highlighted them in the following photos.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilL1ZbSEzFfPfNnTRUqN7NPAj9SFXYvMIseIznng8R3nEC-N4ydU-P46iIHocu7ECOhRv9WCX0higkbhsJEx4Vgs9ofLQUCZTqHS8C1HQfsBb4tmy_7TTUF3k3xs405L6UkNR7qqe05TAd/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-12-31+at+6.11.57+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilL1ZbSEzFfPfNnTRUqN7NPAj9SFXYvMIseIznng8R3nEC-N4ydU-P46iIHocu7ECOhRv9WCX0higkbhsJEx4Vgs9ofLQUCZTqHS8C1HQfsBb4tmy_7TTUF3k3xs405L6UkNR7qqe05TAd/s640/Screen+shot+2012-12-31+at+6.11.57+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><b>Connecting the whole mess up</b></i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEd_orck1n04yxus92TwnPsRzb7R_j8aRigfQ8ze4u28CwQjE7OvO-drHhykBRlSbJF_cd85pbs8uZ1jSdVFekFniUp0LE-2HmJmkW2qXlSqqxICo5yndUFCKZ-v1WqcPfpvlKvJlmRN7I/s1600/image2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEd_orck1n04yxus92TwnPsRzb7R_j8aRigfQ8ze4u28CwQjE7OvO-drHhykBRlSbJF_cd85pbs8uZ1jSdVFekFniUp0LE-2HmJmkW2qXlSqqxICo5yndUFCKZ-v1WqcPfpvlKvJlmRN7I/s320/image2.jpeg" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Up in this photo is toward the rear of the Genesis</td></tr>
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Locate the video processor chip. It's on the rear left corner of the mainboard, near the recently-removed heat sink. It's labeled 'CXA1145P' and has 24 pins, of which pin 1, 12, 13 & 24 should be identified by silk-screened labels on the mainboard. We're interested in pins 15 & 16; pin 15 is chrominance, and 16 is luminance. I connected the left amp, the one with a green input & output wire, to pin 15 and the right to 16. It doesn't matter which amp is connected where as long as you keep track of how you connected them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM7_n-IqVn8_LYq0gA1r_mIiVZ3AL7ofEorEatg1y62_f25WejCrNSlf_3wBIuKUf-bVtJkDqCek7rh_D-8iiW8MoDKJ-cW4p7bGfMDgHWEG5BEetsgfnJrZa6VchJm2QpmcYMVWFh5wQ8/s1600/cxa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM7_n-IqVn8_LYq0gA1r_mIiVZ3AL7ofEorEatg1y62_f25WejCrNSlf_3wBIuKUf-bVtJkDqCek7rh_D-8iiW8MoDKJ-cW4p7bGfMDgHWEG5BEetsgfnJrZa6VchJm2QpmcYMVWFh5wQ8/s320/cxa.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHnnjpQQ3BoXjmPSsGZwwU0XqJVi-3l2ad6OhwEx1LpuwH00pCYPwCJXuC63efgg0cF8tI1fR8R1uGlFEQUEqRkMvQKflN0O3TmhVyej4kaQMjMDjXCDdRm1_Y_cim7QyZK9HvAqNnKPum/s1600/image4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHnnjpQQ3BoXjmPSsGZwwU0XqJVi-3l2ad6OhwEx1LpuwH00pCYPwCJXuC63efgg0cF8tI1fR8R1uGlFEQUEqRkMvQKflN0O3TmhVyej4kaQMjMDjXCDdRm1_Y_cim7QyZK9HvAqNnKPum/s320/image4.jpeg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHnnjpQQ3BoXjmPSsGZwwU0XqJVi-3l2ad6OhwEx1LpuwH00pCYPwCJXuC63efgg0cF8tI1fR8R1uGlFEQUEqRkMvQKflN0O3TmhVyej4kaQMjMDjXCDdRm1_Y_cim7QyZK9HvAqNnKPum/s1600/image4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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Next, you need to connect +5v power to the amps. You can lift that from pin 2 of one of the two voltage regulators. Pin 2 is closest to the front of the Genesis, though Sega has conveniently labeled all three pins on both regulators. You can connect the ground wire just about anywhere, like the RF shielding, but pin 3 on the voltage regulator is a good spot. I've found it's best to solder all connections, including ground, to guarantee a solid, noise-free signal. This would also be a good time, while the voltage regulators are exposed, to replace the blue thermal grease that couples them to the heat sink. After 20+ years, the grease tends to harden & lose its ability to conduct heat.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcAR-wrwkO7IJPqYcyXV8gOBin8HKmYuqQ0a1z09M52RIAHJJir8pfJC6zod1d3TjuZ5o6CofkKicQCiggnA8m2qdvMhI3_qB97fKYPhManf5GLTr-PhRmds4Uw4GIJCJHK-d_igKV1tnt/s1600/DSCN0108.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcAR-wrwkO7IJPqYcyXV8gOBin8HKmYuqQ0a1z09M52RIAHJJir8pfJC6zod1d3TjuZ5o6CofkKicQCiggnA8m2qdvMhI3_qB97fKYPhManf5GLTr-PhRmds4Uw4GIJCJHK-d_igKV1tnt/s320/DSCN0108.JPG" width="320" /></a>Now that the amps are wired, it's time to bench-test them. I used a USB TV tuner attached to a laptop as a test bed for convenience sake, but any TV or capture device with s-video inputs should work. If you get no picture at all, recheck pretty much everything. If you get a black & white picture, then luminance is working but chrominance isn't. If you get a picture with lots of vertical & horizontal hold problems, try reversing your Y & C signals. If the picture is visible but noisy or jittery, recheck the solder joints between the Genesis & the amp board you built, particularly power & ground. Once you've verified everything is working and you're ready to mount your amp board, be sure to insulate the bottom with electrical tape to avoid shorting it against any of the Genesis' components. The amp board can be taped or hot-glued to the mainboard in front of the cartridge slot.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8wII5li_Sr6r6AY0JipWYObr28qLCmnu1u05HsyDLRmqbi6uNZA0_zfo_XTqzhUzliK20ElG8T4CXzvSmwVdGrVIolFhh1_tpHinxYtlerrU6wBQuEiBoOvOu8u3dB2rrSZTjd3esSOXG/s1600/svideoplugside.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8wII5li_Sr6r6AY0JipWYObr28qLCmnu1u05HsyDLRmqbi6uNZA0_zfo_XTqzhUzliK20ElG8T4CXzvSmwVdGrVIolFhh1_tpHinxYtlerrU6wBQuEiBoOvOu8u3dB2rrSZTjd3esSOXG/s320/svideoplugside.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
At last, connect the chrominance & luminance amps to the s-video jack according to the diagram. The two ground wires can be combined and connected to the amp board's ground or directly to a ground in the Genesis. If your Genesis has the completely-unused 9-pin serial connection, you can safely remove it to make room for your s-video connector if you want. Otherwise, I'd suggest mounting it in the space just left of the 'ch3-ch4' switch on the back of the console. Try to keep it mounted above the seam on the upper half of the case, in case you need to open the console up again.<br />
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<i><b>So how's it look?</b></i><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3gN-c7wBQKePsWxiGv5Hp_bH163-nL6dnMOufN-DBdyNHeOFl0YxLyeGcE7VilouWCO8biMRl2PP-f1VUdACMGaYr9NRbQYGhyx8uXzW2LO_EivwW7BqjCzilHLRAwpBQkH3xNWoRrsXd/s1600/DSCN0115.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3gN-c7wBQKePsWxiGv5Hp_bH163-nL6dnMOufN-DBdyNHeOFl0YxLyeGcE7VilouWCO8biMRl2PP-f1VUdACMGaYr9NRbQYGhyx8uXzW2LO_EivwW7BqjCzilHLRAwpBQkH3xNWoRrsXd/s320/DSCN0115.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The finished product</td></tr>
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Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the video quality of my Genesis s-video mod. The only significant video problem I've noticed is the presence of 'jail bars', black vertical stripes that appear between the Genesis' rather chunky pixels. I've read that dorking with the resistor values in the amp circuits can minimize this effect, but it's a problem endemic to the CXA1145 chip, and can't be completely eliminated. Otherwise, it looks a damn site better than RF, and is a noticeable improvement over composite. There's no more dot crawl or rainbowing of white text. Black images, such as the black space surrounding the 'Sega' logo on a game's boot really look black, not brown or a smeared mishmash of dim colors. The colors are far more saturated with s-video than composite, and they really pop off the screen. I've included a few screen shots that I hope illustrate the difference between s-video and composite video, when everything else is equal.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDVU8Rkky3dPEicxGLGglflsL7G7YyiDZ2LSELTh-lsSi3ycp1AUkCrtWn0PEIA-IZ9TVW36Us_b2Ld9d3f0sQ_NPoXeoH2IQnp2g9Xdu3AAfNy6QaHhhLRWGuMvyvj30sqQ7XDlkHucoP/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-12-31+at+12.50.19+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDVU8Rkky3dPEicxGLGglflsL7G7YyiDZ2LSELTh-lsSi3ycp1AUkCrtWn0PEIA-IZ9TVW36Us_b2Ld9d3f0sQ_NPoXeoH2IQnp2g9Xdu3AAfNy6QaHhhLRWGuMvyvj30sqQ7XDlkHucoP/s640/Screen+shot+2012-12-31+at+12.50.19+AM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
In NBA Jam, the player's names are clearly legible in s-video, but blur together in composite. However, in the s-video shot, the jail bar effect is clearly visible in the blue border and the green stats bars.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgbaus7HyZIJy_NxV91q6i-nM51DKqAOLJoW4Zy6vxzzKzqEObPx4LwTZ7otTJpmZcYmX1b3gmJJ8YoVZPBA4bCVDvfZOUkahaRbp_YwCc88XEc89Tb7-6L2pwgCejOkM61rzPq1WAF0Ap/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-12-31+at+1.03.34+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgbaus7HyZIJy_NxV91q6i-nM51DKqAOLJoW4Zy6vxzzKzqEObPx4LwTZ7otTJpmZcYmX1b3gmJJ8YoVZPBA4bCVDvfZOUkahaRbp_YwCc88XEc89Tb7-6L2pwgCejOkM61rzPq1WAF0Ap/s640/Screen+shot+2012-12-31+at+1.03.34+AM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
The images in Sonic 3 are much less blurry with s-video. Note the greater detail in in Sonic himself, as well as the grass around him.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqPmizLmfz64RQubt2Ul5MI7mw_Om5PSMufA3J_W-9oiGJuYLJlBUMBrv7-9Ge5TJZnr8J6N1iB4fWfX8yhaXQxuTWTFGaEpCoqkMFvxCIkTztK1TUL7ld4nw_dl1gfWip2ar-avCLuBkM/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-12-31+at+1.11.27+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqPmizLmfz64RQubt2Ul5MI7mw_Om5PSMufA3J_W-9oiGJuYLJlBUMBrv7-9Ge5TJZnr8J6N1iB4fWfX8yhaXQxuTWTFGaEpCoqkMFvxCIkTztK1TUL7ld4nw_dl1gfWip2ar-avCLuBkM/s640/Screen+shot+2012-12-31+at+1.11.27+AM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
Finally, have a look at the level select screen in<i> <a href="http://mathmanmustdie.blogspot.com/2012/08/hi-everybody-mr_4314.html" target="_blank">Lightening Force</a>. </i>The red box around "Daser" shows significant dot crawl in composite video, but not in s-video. Composite video's "softer" look makes the planet in the background appear less jagged, but a lot of detail in its clouds and land masses is lost. Ironically, the Daser level in <i>LF</i> includes a sandstorm which partially obscures the player's view of the action. It looks much better in composite video than s-video because the checkerboard grid of pixels representing the sandstorm blur together, creating a translucent effect. This may well be an example of the developers using composite video's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Graphics_Adapter#Special_effects_on_composite_color_monitors" target="_blank">inherent limitations</a> to their advantage.<br />
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So there you have it. With a little know-how and a raid on Radio Shack's parts bin, you too can enjoy the mighty Sega Genesis in vivid detail. <br />
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Thanks for reading my guide. Stay tuned for more classic game reviews!<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-68094426234121184952012-11-16T18:17:00.001-08:002013-01-12T21:26:10.598-08:00Space Quest III For MS-DOS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsvgGVkud-KQl4gjllPR8kxuYVE08jSSg_0Y1miVoWuCQWF86lAdg9qsMtuwX5Gcq3isfZM68Cy6BJYH2mPE30AEhwXR1Kb5zz3d5GgubZuOu8WIDIs-vLc56OJeQPiyQEZLM2pBCg8ki_/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-11-16+at+6.17.13+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsvgGVkud-KQl4gjllPR8kxuYVE08jSSg_0Y1miVoWuCQWF86lAdg9qsMtuwX5Gcq3isfZM68Cy6BJYH2mPE30AEhwXR1Kb5zz3d5GgubZuOu8WIDIs-vLc56OJeQPiyQEZLM2pBCg8ki_/s640/Screen+shot+2012-11-16+at+6.17.13+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Space Quest III </i>is a remarkable game for a lot of reasons. The PC version was one of the first games to support a mouse and Sound Blaster card, for example. But what I find most remarkable about it is how unremarkable its story is. The other Space Quest games pit you, an everyman shlub, against impossible odds, and the fates of entire galaxies are decided by the actions you take; typical ho-hum adventure game plots. But in <i>Space Quest III,</i> the stakes are far lower and the adversities you face are far more mundane. In many ways, it's a game about nothing in particular, and <i>SQ3 </i>never lets plot get in the way of a good joke. It's <i>Seinfeld </i>in space.<br />
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Like the first two Space Quest games, <i>SQ3</i> is an early graphical adventure game, and as such, it still sports a text parser. You guide the hero, Roger Wilco, using a mouse, joystick, or arrow keys, and you issue commands such as USE OBJECT, PRESS BUTTON or LOOK AROUND by typing them. <i>SQ3's </i>parser has a larger vocabulary than its predecessors, making issuing the right commands to Roger much less an exercise in frustration. As the last in the series to use a text parser and the first to use a mouse, <i>SQ3 </i>marks the beginning of a sea change to the simpler point-and-click style gameplay that now dominates the adventure genre.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigeNLcESr-MF4CTfxDPYivUheC68cvk3xHGPrY1CKSp32iWwIEdjT7jjD2f_bS6mLhwix1sXBsZ71PqGTsUNuQ82XKiYXvAo5s2ARrEfH_gZh0-lviE0c0x8HhgtkVvJUOdB7pOj5gqdJM/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-11-16+at+6.33.15+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigeNLcESr-MF4CTfxDPYivUheC68cvk3xHGPrY1CKSp32iWwIEdjT7jjD2f_bS6mLhwix1sXBsZ71PqGTsUNuQ82XKiYXvAo5s2ARrEfH_gZh0-lviE0c0x8HhgtkVvJUOdB7pOj5gqdJM/s320/Screen+shot+2012-11-16+at+6.33.15+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>Space Quest III</i> picks up shortly after the events of the previous game. Roger is in cryogenic sleep inside an escape pod drifting in space. His pod is retrieved by a robotic garbage scow, which considers it just another piece of space flotsam. Roger wakes up inside the scow, and as the game proper begins, he looks for a means to escape. With a little exploration and puzzle-solving, Roger soon gains access to a new spaceship, the <i>Aluminum Mallard.</i> He hits the spaceways and swings by planet Phleebhut to asks for directions at an alien tourist trap. He runs afoul of an Arnoid model debt-collector robot, grabs a bite to eat at Monolith Burgers, plays a few rounds of <i>Astro Chicken, </i>and after revealing a call for help hidden in the game, finally stumbles into the game's plot. The Two Guys From Andromeda, a couple of game designers modeled after real-life Space Quest creators Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, have been kidnapped by space pirates and forced to make crappy videogames for shady game company, ScumSoft. For reasons never really explained, Roger takes it upon himself to liberate the Two Guys, and thwart the evil machinations of ScumSoft's prepubescent CEO, Elmo Pug.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKD6P5eg0HZA0YCzzcN66D3ZuO0YKBwyg6mhSp2Sm7tXZmsLbyLIusKDmzaYqoz6p8aUHdrANpJxtYTQ3ntDmXTpQQJs5gHIiNnCBzc6bONH_AdifnScQU4DcE9_SVObKgNPQWZRIt1Nw2/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-11-16+at+6.33.54+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKD6P5eg0HZA0YCzzcN66D3ZuO0YKBwyg6mhSp2Sm7tXZmsLbyLIusKDmzaYqoz6p8aUHdrANpJxtYTQ3ntDmXTpQQJs5gHIiNnCBzc6bONH_AdifnScQU4DcE9_SVObKgNPQWZRIt1Nw2/s320/Screen+shot+2012-11-16+at+6.33.54+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
A common complaint with <i>SQ3 </i>is that it's too short; that its plot really gets going just before the game ends. While that's true, the fun of <i>SQ3</i> is in the ride, not its conclusion. The game has a very wry sense of humor, and pop culture references abound. The garbage scow is packed full of derelicts from classic sci-fi movies and TV shows, and LOOKing at every last one of them produces a winking reference or an offhand comment from the narrator. <i>Astro Chicken, SQ3's </i>game-within-a-game, is a deliberately lame sendup of cheap shovelware games. ScumSoft's evil lair is depicted as the kind of soul-crushing corporate cubicle farm Murphy and Crowe felt Sierra On-Line to be back in the 80s. There are some very devious puzzles lurking in <i>SQ3</i>, behind all the jokes and winks. They usually make more sense than the puzzles in the first two games, but make no mistake: this is an old-school adventure game. There's no hand-holding at all, and it's possible at several points to miss some object critical to completing the game. Save early, save often!<br />
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Of course, like all classic Sierra games, <i>Space Quest III </i>will kill you as frequently and creatively as it can. Wrong steps, careless commands, close encounters with nasties, or even loitering will violently launch Roger into an early grave. While a certain perverse pleasure can be derived from viewing all of the many unique ways Roger can die, the fact that it happens so easily and so frequently makes exploring the locations in <i>SQ3 </i>an exercise in frustration. Again, frequent saves are a must to avoid too much backtracking, especially for players unfamiliar with the various hazards in the game. This was common practice for most old adventure games, but the constant threat of death is antithetical to the spirit of exploration that good adventure games should engender. I'm glad the practice fell out of favor with the release of the decidedly non-fatal LucasArts adventure games.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg9n9-f6uzBsE1D17EK_k3syEokd2gM8LcLQapZ9_Que8lFkuLIkzikw85SH_U1l45rLE0MgFBtUeaJSBmSud6VLgufMGX9XtqjYvDhC6MK3nCSE50Jcr8aIgXSyT5o0VYaJyCqt4aVLNR/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-11-16+at+7.03.03+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg9n9-f6uzBsE1D17EK_k3syEokd2gM8LcLQapZ9_Que8lFkuLIkzikw85SH_U1l45rLE0MgFBtUeaJSBmSud6VLgufMGX9XtqjYvDhC6MK3nCSE50Jcr8aIgXSyT5o0VYaJyCqt4aVLNR/s320/Screen+shot+2012-11-16+at+7.03.03+PM.png" title="Monolith Burgers. A finite number served." width="320" /></a></div>
For a 16-color EGA game, <i>Space Quest III </i>looks remarkably good. As the first in the series to abandon support for older 8-bit computers, <i>SQ3</i> supports a higher screen resolution, allowing Roger and the world he inhabits to look much less like a stack of Lego blocks. <i>SQ3</i> employs a pseudo-3D look, as Roger can move behind objects in the foreground, and he scales appropriately while moving closer to or further away from the camera. Given the hardware limitations they had to work within, the artists squeezed a lot of detail into most of the game's graphics. The planets Roger visits look suitably alien and unique from each other. Cheesy slices of Americana, like fast food restaurants and roadside tourist traps are expertly transposed to the futuristic setting of Space Quest without losing their mundane, plasticy charm.<br />
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Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the game's incredibly catchy MIDI soundtrack. Featuring original music composed by ex-Supertramp drummer Bob Siebenberg, <i>SQ3's</i> soundtrack is a cohesive collection of related pieces; closer to a movie score than a typical video game's disjointed of collection background music. The classic Space Quest theme permeates the soundtrack, interpreted as a triumphant opening theme one moment, and as tinkly supermarket muzac the next. Like most games that utilize MIDI tracks, the quality of the music's reproduction varies wildly with the type of computer playing it, or in the PC's case, the sound hardware installed. Played through a lowly Sound Blaster card, <i>SQ3</i> is certainly enjoyable, but gamers lucky enough to have owned a Roland MT-32 synthesizer or LAPC-I card in 1989 were treated to the most spectacular-sounding video game music available.<br />
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As a testament to its lasting appeal, the Space Quest series has remained available in one format or another for over 25 years. Today, GOG.com has a bundle of the first three games available for <a href="http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/space_quest_1_2_3" target="_blank">purchase </a>online. Even better, a collection of all six original games, as well as the VGA remakes of SQ1 & 2 was released on CD-ROM by Sierra in 2006. Though it's now out of print, copies are readily available on eBay, and all games in the collection play superbly inside DOSbox.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-73544414874150704092012-11-11T11:02:00.001-08:002013-01-12T21:26:37.887-08:00Missile Defense 3D For Sega Master Syster<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifM1qqWHkBmAmCEQeojQ51_hPq5bnq4rl1AYM96Mj2ovvnncy9dAytsqTj9p-ebD4sTnUkoU4dMYa66bfqkwjhiR3RvQK-ThpiVHlgI9rjZBBrsJ9T-ZsBNEEwpIQbjzwNtss-ms-a6lGD/s1600/capture_20121111_112720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="593" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifM1qqWHkBmAmCEQeojQ51_hPq5bnq4rl1AYM96Mj2ovvnncy9dAytsqTj9p-ebD4sTnUkoU4dMYa66bfqkwjhiR3RvQK-ThpiVHlgI9rjZBBrsJ9T-ZsBNEEwpIQbjzwNtss-ms-a6lGD/s640/capture_20121111_112720.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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So I've finished tearing apart <i>Zaxxon 3D,</i> a 25-year-old game on a system hardly anyone plays<i> </i>anymore. Now what? Well, I still had my SMS hooked up and one more game with '3D' in the title hanging out on the shelf. Let's dust it off and--hey, it's a lightgun game!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitX3BhTKLvdM8lpEenDuK5Fd9s94d4JmLwN9eCczv2KF9HdVHBeJY2JKT7QrHzKU7k4AAiHu5E4ITDxs2-2qXW3U8VIWnrKSsYWjBK-VrmFvEMlkRnwASvIOCnV9M5rudvoAkY3o-kHvHT/s1600/capture_20121111_112804.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitX3BhTKLvdM8lpEenDuK5Fd9s94d4JmLwN9eCczv2KF9HdVHBeJY2JKT7QrHzKU7k4AAiHu5E4ITDxs2-2qXW3U8VIWnrKSsYWjBK-VrmFvEMlkRnwASvIOCnV9M5rudvoAkY3o-kHvHT/s320/capture_20121111_112804.jpg" title="Comin' at ya!" width="320" /></a></div>
As my huge army of obsessive followers are no doubt aware, I am a huge fan of <a href="http://mathmanmustdie.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-justifier-and-lethal-enforcers-ii.html" target="_blank">lightgun games.</a> <i>Missile Defense </i>is a pretty unique one too, as it also uses the same 3D goggles as <i>Zaxxon 3D.</i> Essentially, it's a 3D first-person game of <i>Missile Command</i> played with the Sega Master System's Light Phaser. Each match in the game is divided into two or three stages. The stage begins at a missile launch site, where your goal is to shoot down as many as possible before they escape or collide with your laser cannon. At the end of the stage, the game tallies the total number of missiles launched and the number that escaped. Stage two pits you against the surviving missiles as they reenter the atmosphere. Stage three is your last chance to destroy the inbound missiles and protect the major metropolitan centers, East City and West City from nuclear annihilation. If a single missile impacts a city or all of your laser cannons are destroyed, the game ends and a summary screen admonishes you for the nuclear holocaust you allowed to happen. <i>A</i>s an allegory for the futility of escalated nuclear conflict, <i>Missile Defense 3D </i>is about as subtle as a brick to the head.<br />
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The 3D effect in <i>Missile Defense 3D</i> is much more convincing than in <i>Zaxxon 3D.</i> Missiles really do appear to launch from silos and fly toward the viewer, travel along deep ice crevasses in the North Pole or spiral down through a cityscape. The doubling effect I noticed in <i>Zaxxon </i>is much less apparent here, since the white missiles aren't as heavily contrasted against the much brighter backgrounds.<br />
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Unfortunately, the accuracy of the Master System's light gun leaves much to be desired. My shots were all over the place; they only hit their targets about 50% of the time, even when the gun was pressed against the TV screen. I don't know if the problem's limited to my gun or if they all suck equally bad, but it quickly made <i>Missile Defense 3D </i>unplayable as the higher levels. Speaking of which, there's not much variation in the levels. Obviously you shoot nothing but missiles in this game, but there's not much variety in either the missile types or the locations in the game. It's fun for a few minutes, but without any variety, it quickly becomes monotonous. A bonus stage or something would've gone a long way towards extending the entertainment value of <i>Missile Defense 3D.</i><br />
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Thanks for reading my review! Next week, we save a couple of pig-faced ingrates from the Pirates of Pestulon in <i>Space Quest III!</i><br />
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<i><br /></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-33328958055030690022012-11-11T10:54:00.000-08:002013-01-12T21:26:57.043-08:00Zaxxon 3D For Sega Master System<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPmc3GqFdkhf_S8F5mjgv7xRwm9MN0cpsZ0A0m86n8O6x3AIwpGUSFp9y36PEHOeeM0uS3nPEyisP3nSPUCYoxc-C0oDs8mQOKBHOeJiYBmEA02JqNkljFTeXX5x4hbC7mMjaV3_dlDxLs/s1600/capture_20121110_223939.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="608" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPmc3GqFdkhf_S8F5mjgv7xRwm9MN0cpsZ0A0m86n8O6x3AIwpGUSFp9y36PEHOeeM0uS3nPEyisP3nSPUCYoxc-C0oDs8mQOKBHOeJiYBmEA02JqNkljFTeXX5x4hbC7mMjaV3_dlDxLs/s640/capture_20121110_223939.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The Master System, Sega's 8-bit also-ran, had an interesting trick up its sleeve when it was released to compete with the NES. Among its handful of accessories was a pair of SegaScope 3D goggles, which plugged into the card slot on the front of the console. 3D wasn't entirely unheard of on the NES, as <i>Rad Racer </i>sported an anaglyph 3D mode. However, Sega's goggles created the 3D effect without screwing with the games' colors... all 32 of them. Only 8 3D games were released, one of which is <i>Zaxxon 3D.</i><br />
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The original <i>Zaxxon</i> was an arcade space shooter released by Sega in 1982. Played from an isometric viewpoint and already sporting pseudo-3D graphics, <i>Zaxxon </i>was a logical choice for a full-3D makeover. <i>Zaxxon 3D </i>is more of a remake than a proper sequel. It keeps much of the original's gameplay intact, but moves the view behind your ship. Like the arcade original, you fight off waves of alien fighters in space, and then assault the aliens' base. At the end of each level, you fight a boss. The fuel gauge also makes an appearance in <i>Zaxxon 3D: </i>you die if it runs out, but it can be refilled by blowing up fuel tanks scattered around the alien base. The only real change to the game is the addition of additional weapons and power-ups. The weapon upgrades increase your rate of fire and the damage you can do per shot, but at the cost of increased fuel consumptions. Power-ups grant you bonus lives and increased maneuvering speed, but again at the cost of faster fuel consumption.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkDwWIZWcU2nIb8Lf2ZkaD4So9894HOsut4uvQZ7DvPCM3cIc4oy8_lXz-YsSg5c_k4Aqhwr6jVvN2acwRc50y_MODLOxttJvRfeZtZpbM-Sd8wqFXfJd6bdm37IOfRKtV1n6CTZMAtCoP/s1600/capture_20121110_224056.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkDwWIZWcU2nIb8Lf2ZkaD4So9894HOsut4uvQZ7DvPCM3cIc4oy8_lXz-YsSg5c_k4Aqhwr6jVvN2acwRc50y_MODLOxttJvRfeZtZpbM-Sd8wqFXfJd6bdm37IOfRKtV1n6CTZMAtCoP/s320/capture_20121110_224056.jpg" width="320" /></a><i>Zaxxon's </i>biggest failing unfortunately makes its way to <i>Zaxxon 3D</i>. Your ship moves at a snail's pace around the screen, making dodging enemy fire and obstacles an exercise in frustration. The speed power-up is a welcome addition, but it comes up too rarely and it sucks your fuel tank empty in a hurry. The weapon upgrades don't do much to help matters, either; I barely noticed a difference between them in terms of effectiveness. The lack of detail in the alien bases is a distinct step down from the arcade original. <i>Zaxxon </i>sported an alien base built on an asteroid and loaded with intricate turrets, missile silos, tanks, and energy barriers. <i>Zaxxon 3D </i>lacks most of these details, instead flying you over an abstract, rectangular blue trench occasionally occupied by a green wall or a handful of very basic-looking enemy sprites. Maybe the extra overhead of creating a 3D environment meant <i>Zaxxon 3D</i>'s graphics had to be scaled back, but frankly I've seen more impressive-looking Intellivision games. Finally, the 3D effect isn't very convincing. The goggles use LCD shutters to block out light to the left & right eye in sequence with the image displayed on screen. Unfortunately, the shutters can't block enough light to completely obscure the TV screen, so bright objects appear blurry and doubled. If you've ever wanted to know what playing a videogame with a concussion looks like, <i>Zaxxon 3D's </i>your game. Pressing the pause button at the title screen brings up a hidden options screen wherein you can disable the 3D effect. Doing so strips the gimmick away, leaving you with a thoroughly mediocre shooter and a poor follow-up to an arcade classic.</div>
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Thanks for reading my review! Up next, another Sega-powered 3D shoot fest, <i>Missile Defense 3D!</i><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-23548434984805439732012-10-27T21:08:00.000-07:002013-01-12T21:27:17.186-08:00The 7th Guest For MS-DOS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOO_fi-4AFdYl6ogB5dKsDy54_pukL7x8FDCq5ghmtCqgWv7rXFgZi8Bj6ISywQR5Un8WNeGBpE4A2q0-207D_8HwiarPb7trUxArBtGjvguKyb1Htfdt-oqB84aXie6zQkrunkb46W_UD/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-10-27+at+6.57.58+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOO_fi-4AFdYl6ogB5dKsDy54_pukL7x8FDCq5ghmtCqgWv7rXFgZi8Bj6ISywQR5Un8WNeGBpE4A2q0-207D_8HwiarPb7trUxArBtGjvguKyb1Htfdt-oqB84aXie6zQkrunkb46W_UD/s640/Screen+shot+2012-10-27+at+6.57.58+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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You're alone and afraid, trapped in a dilapidated gothic mansion with no memory of who you are or how you got there. You wander its lonely, dusty halls in search of escape, all the while antagonized by the ghoulish, disembodied voice of its former owner. Suddenly a flash of movement registers in the corner of your eye. You whirl around and find yourself face to face with the most obscene horror imaginable: A game of <i>Reversi! </i><br />
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So anyway, <i>The 7th Guest</i> is a very early multimedia game for the PC, and the first on the platform to utilize full motion video. The game is set in a small town in upstate New York in the 1920s. A murderous drifter by the name of Henry Stauf had a vision of a beautiful doll one night. He carved his vision into a real doll, took it into town, and sold it to the local bartender. Word of Stauf's amazing dolls spread fast, and soon everyone in town wanted one. Stauf set up shop and quickly became rich off the sale of his unique dolls. Filthy with lucre and now the talk of the town, Stauf built an enormous, imposing mansion on a cliffside overlooking the small hamlet. But then, a strange disease swept through the town's children, killing all of them who owned Stauf's toys. Stauf dropped out of sight and the house fell quiet for years, until six guests received an invitation to spend the night, as well as the promise of winning their hearts' desires if they could solve the mansion's puzzle.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGhcPjSZ2s9utnoTkvA0FWM_IZox7XIxlR8Cauw3Z-8Lkvkdk23HW-4T7uFbWZ5V30JyJgFpISCy-mH1XgTZu4bfmA6fgYoPN9LcW7TWM5fVH04gYyu5CyX1bAsoGVem-OKlLcyLAJMZHs/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-10-27+at+8.17.17+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGhcPjSZ2s9utnoTkvA0FWM_IZox7XIxlR8Cauw3Z-8Lkvkdk23HW-4T7uFbWZ5V30JyJgFpISCy-mH1XgTZu4bfmA6fgYoPN9LcW7TWM5fVH04gYyu5CyX1bAsoGVem-OKlLcyLAJMZHs/s320/Screen+shot+2012-10-27+at+8.17.17+PM.png" width="320" /></a>The game is played in a first-person perspective as you, an entity known only as Ego, travel from room to room in the mansion. Each room contains a puzzle that must be solved in order to advance the plot and unlock more rooms. As you progress, you learn the ultimate fate of each guest, told through FMV cutscenes featuring some of the hammiest, scene chewingest acting ever put to film. The acting is supremely cheesy, but in the context of the story, an old-fashioned gothic horror tale, it works well enough. The puzzles, on the other hand, just don't fit with the theme of the game at all. They're all very stylized and they look great, but despite <i>The 7th Guest's</i> best efforts, there is nothing inherently terrifying about solving a brain-teaser. There's no consequence for losing a puzzle, other than having to start it over, so there's really nothing at stake and no way to lose the game. The hardest puzzle, a You-vs-Stauf game of <i>Ataxx </i>played inside a microscope, can be completely skipped. Too many puzzles rely on tedious, boring repetition to draw out the length of the game. It's cool to see knights materialize out of the bathroom floor's tiles, but after an hour or more spent solving that puzzle, the novelty is long gone. There's not a whole lot of variety in the puzzles, either. Though a few are unique, too many are of the chess piece movement, card/coin flip and picture puzzle variety. There is a book in the library which provides hints, and ultimately solves most of the puzzles for you if you visit it enough. It's a convenient way to finish the game quickly, but it certainly kills the challenge. With long puzzles grinding the game to a halt, <i>The 7th Guest </i>never builds a sense of momentum, and since the rooms and cutscenes can be played out of sequence, the plot is sometimes hard to follow.<br />
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I found simply exploring the haunted Stauf mansion to be the most enjoyable aspect of the game. It's a beautifully-rendered building, and it feels at once fantastical and completely realistic. It has a classic Hollywood haunted house feel to it, where no lamp ever seems to radiate any light, and every hallway disappears into an inky blackness. It's easy to imagine a fake skeleton on a string hiding inside every closet and waiting to jump out at you at Stauf's place. Since you're presumably non-corporeal, you don't so much walk through it as glide, and smooth animations take you from one fixed location to another, like you're in a theme-park ride. You can even travel through secret passageways in the fireplace, behind the walls, or through the plumbing. Most locations have hotspots of spookiness that can be tripped by clicking on them or approaching them at the right moment. These moments, and the mixed feelings of curiosity and dread they engender, are much more entertaining than the puzzles.<br />
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Gameplay issues aside, <i>The 7th Guest</i> was a huge step forward in videogaming. Released to the PC nearly 20 years ago, it was one of the first games to fully exploit the nascent CD-ROM technology. It's an impressive-looking game by today's standards, and in 1993, it was jaw-dropping. There are no particularly horrifying moments in this horror game, (except for the clown in the game room--yeesh!) but the creepy jazz score, the dark hallways and the grainy, transparent videos make for a very atmospheric gaming experience. For a long time, <i>The 7th Guest</i> wasn't playable on a modern computer outside DOSBox, but now that Trilobyte Games is back from the dead, it's making appearances on iOS devices, in the Mac App Store and on <a href="http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/the_7th_guest" target="_blank">Good Old Games.</a><br />
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Thanks for reading my review! Next time, it's <i>Zaxxon 3D </i>for Sega Master System.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-27738143083144876422012-10-27T21:03:00.000-07:002013-01-12T21:27:34.456-08:00Mr. Bones For Sega Saturn<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyi_SvDV18FG_jv-21pt1Jr5mo3entTp9DXVrVDJ_5ryWUer81MaIB-G1_qNb3hNJbFnOxVxiCB0zUPH7Rt2ZC750JaP5zi3kxDTCbtIBORWXQOvcDdQisa-voEJw22TCBF6a08JnWYqes/s1600/capture_20121027_211807.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyi_SvDV18FG_jv-21pt1Jr5mo3entTp9DXVrVDJ_5ryWUer81MaIB-G1_qNb3hNJbFnOxVxiCB0zUPH7Rt2ZC750JaP5zi3kxDTCbtIBORWXQOvcDdQisa-voEJw22TCBF6a08JnWYqes/s1600/capture_20121027_211807.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i>Mr Bones </i>for Sega Saturn is an unusual game to say the least. In it, you play as the skeletal remains of a blues guitarist, the titular Mr. Bones. He abruptly wakes from his eternal slumber and finds himself in a graveyard surrounded by an army of skeletons with glowing red eyes. They've all been reanimated by the evil wizard DaGoulian, who wants to conquer the world. However, Mr. Bones managed to retain his free will, so he takes it upon himself to stop DaGoulian and his freaky deadite army.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTA5mwY_qsOP1mb6ZI0M8vUfzaMscOorciHXT0mtZIIEsLop-68eboSJEuxmEunpDxR5oN_fywDUXwRa5zTS9HznYpJbq1E-twOo-iPENTQrZ92zL_QGMTgps6H9ed2Rj91YPuexYwJ0SX/s1600/capture_20121027_213432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTA5mwY_qsOP1mb6ZI0M8vUfzaMscOorciHXT0mtZIIEsLop-68eboSJEuxmEunpDxR5oN_fywDUXwRa5zTS9HznYpJbq1E-twOo-iPENTQrZ92zL_QGMTgps6H9ed2Rj91YPuexYwJ0SX/s320/capture_20121027_213432.jpg" width="319" /></a><i>Mr. Bones </i>is essentially a collection of 20 some-odd mini games connected by the occasional full motion video cutscene. Most levels in <i>Mr. Bones </i>are of the side-scrolling platforming variety, but it also throws in some rhythm games, memory games, shooters, puzzles, and the like. The amount of variety in the game is impressive; almost no two levels play the same in <i>Mr. Bones. </i>You may be running from a tyrannosaur skeleton in one level, and telling jokes to a crowd in the next. A few common elements tie the levels together, though. For example, Mr. Bones loses bits of himself as he takes hits, to the point where he's reduced to a skull and spine bouncing around the level. Scattered throughout the game are replacement arms, legs, hips & ribcages that Mr. Bones can use to reassemble himself. His only method of attack in levels that have enemies is a short-ranged lightning beam that sucks enemies of their vitality and adds it to his own. It doesn't sound like much, but once acquired, it makes the platforming levels exceptionally easy, as nothing can get close enough to deal damage anymore.<br />
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Given that the main character is an ex blues musician, the game's atmosphere is thick with the blues. Tasty blues guitar licks permeate the game's background music in each level. Our hero gain access to a magical guitar from a blind, blues-playing hermit, and he uses this guitar to liberate the souls of Dagoulian's deadite army with the power of music. Hell, one of the levels even sports a disembodied voice opining at great length on the nature of the Blues. It's all goofy as can be, but in a game as self-effacing and silly as <i>Mr. Bones, </i>it actually works. Mr. Bones himself is eternally unflappable and optimistic in the face of overwhelming undead opposition.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiYSBEy30Z-jf4hv7_t5hnQ6OpTLICLBr5fP4QXYwubBslCmmW2Ou69zYOefYa2VNTfFefmMIUP-xy0w4veOgFB2-Egjd7S-VsRfcK2NRiifGJzNv40bCZbDNFazctgVdY2QDa4H8dO07U/s1600/capture_20121027_213638.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiYSBEy30Z-jf4hv7_t5hnQ6OpTLICLBr5fP4QXYwubBslCmmW2Ou69zYOefYa2VNTfFefmMIUP-xy0w4veOgFB2-Egjd7S-VsRfcK2NRiifGJzNv40bCZbDNFazctgVdY2QDa4H8dO07U/s320/capture_20121027_213638.jpg" width="320" /></a>Unfortunately, the game lacks balance in its levels. Some levels are way too easy, while others are controller-smashing hard. The very first level in the game is frustrating enough to make players swear off <i>Mr. Bones </i>forever. The variety in the levels is nice, but the player is too often dropped into new, confusing, and downright punishing situations that nearly guarantee instant death. It may take three or four playthroughs to even get the gist of what's happening in a level, which is even more frustrating as you only have one life. If you run out of health and die--again--the game ends and, after an agonizingly long loading time, <i>Mr. Bones </i>drops you back to the title screen. You can reload any level you've unlocked from the options screen, but there's no continue option. Mashing the start button, as one is wont to do after dying umpteen times, just starts the game over from level 1. This is <i>Mr. Bones'</i> major failing, and in my opinion, it keeps it from achieving videogaming greatness, despite its clever level design and memorable characters. I firmly believe that, with a little more playtesting, <i>Mr Bones</i> would have been a household name in video gaming. However, if it ever earns a re-release, or if you still have a Saturn lying around, I recommend playing it and experiencing a rare, truly unique video game.<br />
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Thanks for reading my review! Up next is the granddaddy of all CD-ROM games, <i>The 7th Guest.</i><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-17338118887679979952012-10-05T17:59:00.000-07:002013-01-12T21:27:49.271-08:00Splatterhouse For TurboGrafx-16<br />
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If there's ever an award given for most apropos game title, The TurboGrafx-16's <i>Splatterhouse </i>would surely take home the gold. It takes place in a house, and man do things go splat! Adapted from a 1988 Namco arcade game, <i>Splatterhouse </i>may well be the very first truly gory horror game to appear on a console.<br />
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The story of <i>Splatterhouse</i> goes like this: Rick and his girlfriend Jennifer take refuge from a raging storm inside an spooky abandoned mansion. Unbeknownst to the two lovebirds, (or possibly beknownst; the game doesn't really say) this mansion once belonged to the mysterious parapsychologist, Dr. West, who performed grisly occult experiments. They're immediately set upon by freaky demonic monsters, and Rick is knocked unconscious. When he comes to, Jennifer is nowhere to be found and Rick's face has become fused with a freaky red mask that grants him superhuman size and strength. He hauls his ponderous bulk off the floor, picks up the nearest blunt object, and sets about the task of beating every monster that stands between him and his missing girlfriend into a bloody, quivering pulp.<br />
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<i>Splatterhouse</i> is a side-scrolling beat-em-up that plays a bit like <i>Final Fight, </i>but only on a 2D plane. Rick can move left & right, duck or jump, but he can't move up or down within the level. Rick's main methods of attack are a punch, a ducking kick and sliding kick. However, there are several weapons scattered throughout each level, like 2x4s, meat cleavers, rocks, throwing spears and shotguns. Incidentally, the shotguns in <i>Splatterhouse</i> act like actual <i>shotguns </i>and not ping-pong ball shooters, which I'm pretty sure is a gaming first. Anyway, each weapon has certain tradeoffs: The 2x4 and the cleaver give you added reach, but take time to swing, leaving you vulnerable if you don't time your attacks right. The rocks and spears can only be thrown once, and the shotgun has limited ammo.<br />
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The game's seven short levels are laid out in a pretty linear fashion. Some levels automatically scroll forward, while others let you set the pace. Though <i>Splatterhouse </i>never strays from the side-scroller style, it throws a few fun twists into most levels, such as a hall of mirrors, wherein you're attacked by your own reflection. Some of the levels give you different routes to take, and different types of enemies to fight, but all of the routes eventually take you to the same boss battle. Some of the boss battles are fairly clever too, like level two's knife-and-artwork-thowing poltergeist. The monsters you fight range from bloody bats to shambling zombies to ethereal ghosts to grotesque fetuses. Environmental hazards come in the form of spikes that shoot up from the floor, tortured corpses that vomit dangerous viscera at you, ghostly hands that try to drag you underground, and zombified wolves that chew on the remain of the enemies you killed. Yes, there are plenty of terrifying creations lurking the halls of this house.<br />
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Unfortunately, the biggest enemy in <i>Splatterhouse </i>is control. Rick's built like a brick shithouse, but he moves about as fast as one. He lumbers along too slowly to dodge enemy attacks, so when he's unarmed, he has to rely solely on his pathetically short-ranged punches and kicks for defense. It seems that his attacks only connect with enemies on the right frame of animation and on a small part of his fist or foot, often leaving him wide open to cheap hits from enemies. <i>Splatterhouse</i> also seems to have borrowed some of the more annoying control aspects from the <i>Castlevania </i>games: Rick jumps
in the same floaty, hard-to-control manner that Simon Belmont does,
and like Belmont, he gets knocked backward when hit. This often leads to some frustratingly cheap deaths, but mercifully, there's very few platforming moments to be dealt with in <i>Splatterhouse</i>. The weapons do a good job of evening the odds, but only if you can hang onto them. Rick drops whatever he's carrying every time he takes a hit, and if it scrolls off the screen, it's gone for good. The weapons can't be carried from level to level or even from section to section within the same level, leaving you to kickpunch your way through most of the game. You can't backtrack to pick up missed weapons either, even in the levels that don't automatically scroll.<br />
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The graphics and sound are a mixed bag. The game opens with what looks like a tossed-off MS Paint rendering of a house partially obscured by trees or shrubs or just overzealous use of the spray-paint tool. Fortunately, things improve once the game begins. Rick and the baddies are finely detailed, sporting a rich but muted color palette of browns and greens and greys. The enemies have different death animations depending on how you dispatch them: Punch them to death, and they collapse in a heap on the floor. Swing at them with the 2x4 and they fly into the wall, stick momentarily, then slide down into a gooey mess. Blast them with the shotgun, and their torsos explode, leaving only a pair of legs to wander about aimlessly. This goofy, over-the-top violence is a hallmark of the <i>Splatterhouse </i>series, and though the shock value has long since passed, it's still very endearing. The sound effects aren't great, but they get the job done. The 2x4 makes a convincing <i>whoosh </i>when swung, and if it connects with a monster, that monster hits the wall with a mighty <i>splort!</i> On the other hand, Rick makes an annoying, synthesized <i>"Oow!</i>" every time he gets hit, and Jennifer's plaintive cry of <i>"Help me!"</i> sounds like something out of a <i>Popeye</i> cartoon. Likewise, the background music is at turns effective/moody and repetitive/obnoxious. The game is pretty generous with extra life hearts and continues, so it's not too difficult to beat. With a little practice, <i>Splatterhouse </i>could be finished in about a half-hour.<br />
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In short, <i>Splatterhouse</i> is an unabashedly violent gore-fest that can be uneven and frustrating to play, but it still stands out as one of the best games in the TurboGrafx-16's library. If clobbering gooey hellspawn with building materials sounds like good times to you, give <i>Splatterhouse </i>a try.<br />
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Thanks for reading my review! Next week, I sing the blues with <i>Mr. Bones</i> for Sega Saturn.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-58781800759009668862012-09-28T19:27:00.000-07:002013-01-12T21:28:19.034-08:00Metal Slug For Neo Geo CD<div>
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The best parodies not only mimic their inspirations, they improve on them. <i>Young Frankenstein </i>may be the best monster movie Universal never made, while <i>Evil Dead 2</i>'s expert mix of slapstick comedy and legitimate horror practically reinvented both genres as it parodied them. Both movies showed a true passion and admiration for their subjects of ridicule, and so does Nazca's <i>Metal Slug. </i>It's a spot-on parody of run & gun shooters that manages to be one of the best in the genre.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRIJtwNYpG2bon6xT-P30BTsTuV6chXg7RC0acWnU86JR2M2wOerpGO1dwNB3-Jt0A13wPyUehc7FQrkWHtvLMVRBhBgcOUL875oUB0BpNz3bYeggJz7-_FOffTKwWH3fIZoXiWo-QhZMr/s1600/capture_20120928_192804.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRIJtwNYpG2bon6xT-P30BTsTuV6chXg7RC0acWnU86JR2M2wOerpGO1dwNB3-Jt0A13wPyUehc7FQrkWHtvLMVRBhBgcOUL875oUB0BpNz3bYeggJz7-_FOffTKwWH3fIZoXiWo-QhZMr/s320/capture_20120928_192804.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Metal Slug's </i>game play should be pretty familiar to anyone who's played <i>Contra </i>or the like<i>. </i>It's a side-scrolling run & gun shooter that pits your lone character (or your lone character with another lone character in 2-player mode) against an army of easily dispatched enemies. You begin the game with a lowly pistol, but soon gain access to more powerful weapons, like heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, flamethrowers and shotguns. You're also armed with a number of grenades useful for taking out enemy bunkers and vehicles. However, one hit from enemy fire is fatal, causing you to respawn with only your pistol and a handful of those grenades, Periodically throughout the game, you will run across the titular Metal Slugs: personal-sized tanks sporting gatling guns and comically short-ranged cannons. These tanks pack more firepower and can soak up a lot more hits than your character can; they really help even the odds in boss fights if you can hang onto them long enough. Both on foot and in the Metal Slug, you can aim up, down, jump, duck and low-crawl, all while spraying white-hot pixel-y death from your weapon of choice.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSrLUGpZwueC6nTkUNU2VuoVQMKqQXzm2WfQ1aM95fM4glW5NJp2G_veTQOYewbiCiTCOBZsFANidHafz-KFm-j9HW7tiSIAVLI7UVIPQ017c42liV0FvIh1heRUVvaVAeqDEI8byuk-Jn/s1600/capture_20120928_194653.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSrLUGpZwueC6nTkUNU2VuoVQMKqQXzm2WfQ1aM95fM4glW5NJp2G_veTQOYewbiCiTCOBZsFANidHafz-KFm-j9HW7tiSIAVLI7UVIPQ017c42liV0FvIh1heRUVvaVAeqDEI8byuk-Jn/s320/capture_20120928_194653.jpg" width="320" /></a>OK, so far <i>Metal Slug</i> sounds like pretty a standard shooter fare; what sets it apart? The run & gun genre is an inherently absurd one, and <i>Metal Slug</i> fully embraces that absurdity. It packs every inch of the screen with gorgeous, colorful graphics drawn in an over-the-top cartoony style; warfare as imagined by Tex Avery. Ol' Tex would be proud of the animation too, as the amount of detail that went into each character, vehicle and landscape is astounding. Bullet casings eject from your pistol as you fire it. Tanks rock back on their treads from the recoil of their cannons. Powerups are delivered by scruffy POWs who salute before fleeing in terror. Enemies chit-chat with each other over a campfire, sunbathe, or laugh at your misfortune when you die. Background characters go about their daily business, oblivious to the carnage happening around them--until someone drops a building on them. When left to his own devices, your own character yaks on a walkie-talkie, takes swigs from a flask and drags from a cigarette. All of these subtle moment add a whole lot of character to the game, and demonstrate the amazing amount of creativity that went into it.</div>
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Of course, those little moments can be easily missed in all the frenetic action. From the moment you first parachute in, you face bullets and missiles and bombs and bottle rockets flying at you from all directions. You'll be mowing through wave after wave of hapless minions who often demonstrate less than complete devotion to their cause as they duck for cover, try to sneak past you, hold their nose & dive off sinking ships, or just flail around while engulfed in flames. The sheer amount of carnage happening all around you means you'll probably die a whole lot before finishing the game. Yet, it's all such an absurd and stimulating experience that frustration never really seems to set in, even after continuing umpteen times.<br />
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Perhaps <i>Metal Slug's </i>only failing is its rather short length. Its six intense levels fly by, culminating in an epic showdown with the lead bad guy and a surprisingly poignant credit sequence. Then again, as the quintessential arcade quarter-sucker, <i>Metal Slug</i> lasts just as long as it should. It delivers a quick, intese and immensely enjoyable arcade experience, and it leaves you begging for more. Though it's an entirely linear game, <i>Metal Slug </i>is worth playing through more than once just to catch all of the brilliant animations packed into the game. The Neo Geo CD version includes multiple difficulties, from easy to MVS (arcade), as well as a time attack mode to add a little replay value. One last nifty bonus, that I believe is unique to the NGCD release, is a gallery of terrific concept drawings and original artwork from the MS universe, including a few characters and vehicles that turn up in later MS games.<br />
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Thanks for reading my review! Next up, I kick off a month-long Halloween horror-fest with the TG16's <i>Splatterhouse!</i><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-78952616295311164732012-09-21T18:55:00.000-07:002013-01-12T21:28:51.379-08:00The Swordquest Competition For Atari 2600<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When I was a wee glitch, I had a friend with a <i>huge</i> collection of Atari 2600 games. This lucky little punk had them all, from <i>Atlantis </i>to <i>Worm War I, </i>and every summer we'd dutifully march through the width and breadth of his vast library, playing cart after cart until we were chased out of the house by his mom. Most of these games were simple enough for us to just pick up and play, and no matter how abstract the graphics or bizarre the game design, they all made their own kind of sense. But one game, <i>Swordquest: Earthworld, </i>stubbornly defied explanation. We tried for literally tens of minutes to crack the code of this mysterious game before finally getting bored and dropping in <i>Robot Tank.</i> Well, as it turn out, we were missing a few crucial pieces of literature that would have revealed to us <i>Swordquest's</i> true nature as the most epic treasure hunt in gaming history.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAh8RK6m2F8S8rQZRP0sIzZtjvt5BOKV3L8-Mu91WlygTdWokP6d02Rcx1LIhjnhG0YuqAc3azi_GTgOVDk69eKE8MR2G9tAmJCz5Z79fBb-iJK8-0WNMwS9qDXYKPtsDWGeC0BwCdrEDL/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-09-20+at+10.30.24+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAh8RK6m2F8S8rQZRP0sIzZtjvt5BOKV3L8-Mu91WlygTdWokP6d02Rcx1LIhjnhG0YuqAc3azi_GTgOVDk69eKE8MR2G9tAmJCz5Z79fBb-iJK8-0WNMwS9qDXYKPtsDWGeC0BwCdrEDL/s320/Screen+shot+2012-09-20+at+10.30.24+PM.png" width="320" /></a>The <i>Swordquest </i>games began life as a simple sequel to 1979's <i>Adventure, </i>but they quickly grew into their own, with an original storyline and a theme based on ancient mythology.<i> </i>There were to be four games in the series: <i>Earthworld, Fireworld, Waterworld </i>& <i>Airworld. </i>To promote the <i>Swordquest </i>series, Atari planned an epic contest in five parts: There would be a semifinal contest for each game in the series, leading up to a final round for each semifinalist to compete in. Each game included an instruction manual, a poster, a contest entry form, and a DC comic book. The comics told the tale of Princess Tarra and Prince Torr, twin siblings who were orphaned when their mythical kingdom was attacked and their parents dethroned. The comics also contained several words hidden in the artwork, five of which added up to a phrase that was the solution to the puzzle. Players who correctly figured out the solution earned an all-expense-paid trip to Atari's headquarters, and a chance to win <i>actual treasure</i> made from precious metals and gemstones! So how would a player know where to look in the comic book, and what words to use? That's where the game came in.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidA1VGIDktNOndwUhNnHfzeJV1es5-AFDUQvcFXlevB3-LBn7IrIy5rNXPqtMGKAqPMq9iEjqvhM1vbtTfKlh6qisFUt_gcuzTctYY31umocEqkdQzEwhu3WKx2FzpJWls6iVkFebdpen_/s1600/swordquest_earthworld_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidA1VGIDktNOndwUhNnHfzeJV1es5-AFDUQvcFXlevB3-LBn7IrIy5rNXPqtMGKAqPMq9iEjqvhM1vbtTfKlh6qisFUt_gcuzTctYY31umocEqkdQzEwhu3WKx2FzpJWls6iVkFebdpen_/s200/swordquest_earthworld_02.jpg" title="Zoiks! A clue!" width="200" /></a><i>Earthworld, </i>the first game in the series, has 12 rooms in a layout patterned after the 12 signs of the Zodiac. Each room had an inventory of objects that could be accessed by pressing the joystick button. Your goal was to traverse each room, collecting items and depositing them in the correct room in order to reveal the room's clue: two numbers corresponding to the page and panel of the comic book that contained a hidden word. Occasionally, you would encounter a 'trial' consisting of obstacles to be avoided or overcome in order to gain access to that room's objects, such as crossing a raging river by hopping across logs or running through gaps in rainbow-colored waterfalls. There were 10 clues in the game that pointed to hidden words in the comic, but only half of them were right. According to the game's manual, "One more clue, found in the DC booklet will be of help in determining which "word clues" are the correct ones." Casually flipping through the comic book, you might notice that the rambling, incoherent poem on page two contains the words 'prime' and 'number' printed in a slightly different color from the rest. <i>Eureka!</i> Crossing out all of the word clues on non-prime-numbered pages left you with the answer, <i>Quest In Tower Talisman Found, </i>and earned you a place in the semifinals.<br />
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Atari held the <i>Swordquest: Earthworld </i>contest in March of 1983. Out of 5,000 entries received, only 8 contained the correct phrase and were eligible to to attend. The contestants were presented with an all-new, custom version of <i>Earthworld, </i>and given 90 minutes to solve its puzzle. The grand prize winner was a 20-year-old guy from Detroit by the name of Steven Bell. He took home the "Talisman Of Penultimate Truth," a pendant made of 18-karat solid gold, studded with 12 diamonds, as well as the birthstones of the 12 Zodiac symbols. It also contained a small sword made of white gold embedded in its front. All told, this fancy little bauble was valued at $25,000 dollars--in 1983! Sadly, Bell is rumored to have <i>Cash-For-Gold-</i>ed the entire pendant, except for the small sword.<br />
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In February 1983, Atari released the second in the <i>Swordquest </i>series, <i>Fireworld. </i>It was slightly shorter, and it had rooms laid out according to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life#Jewish_sources" target="_blank">Kabbalah's Tree Of Life. </a>The game played essentially the same as <i>Earthworld, </i>but this time, the clues spelled out the phrase <i>Leads To Chalice Power Abounds.</i> The contest for <i>Fireworld, </i>held in August of 1983, received many more correct entries, so Atari held a preliminary round, wherein each contestant would write an essay detailing how awesome Atari is and what they loved best about <i>Swordquest.</i> The top 50 essays earned the chance to compete for <i>Fireworld's</i> ultimate prize, The Chalice Of Light, made of gold & platinum and studded with diamonds, rubies, pearls, and other precious stones. It was also valued at $25,000 and won by Michael Rideout, who had the good sense to hang onto it.<br />
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The third game, <i>Waterworld, </i>saw only a limited, mail-order release through Atari Club, making it a rare treasure itself. It's the shortest game yet, with only seven rooms that follow the seven centers of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra" target="_blank">chakra</a>. Here at least, the trials all have something to do with water: The player must swim through shark-infested oceans, dive past killer squids and hop across icebergs to gather clues pointing to the phrase <i>Hasten Toward Revealed Crown. </i>The grand prize this time was the Crown Of Life, made out of solid gold, studded with rubies, diamonds and aquamarines, and again valued at $25,000.<br />
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Unfortunately, the <i>Waterworld </i>contest never happened. Atari, who was hemorrhaging money due to the video game crash of 1983, canceled the entire contest shortly before <i>Waterworld's </i>competition was scheduled to start, and killed all further development of <i>Airworld. </i>The last comic was never written, and the ultimate fate of twins Torr and Tarra was never revealed. Bell and Rideout, who would have returned to compete for the overall grand prize, a $50,000 gold-and silver sword called The Sword Of Ultimate Sorcery, were instead paid about $15,000 each. <i>Swordquest </i>was quietly and unceremoniously laid to rest at the close of 1983. By 1984, Atari had been sold to Commodore founder, Jack Tramiel, who planned to retool it as a personal computer manufacturer. Without its clout as the world's premier video game maker, (and the income to match) Atari would never again host a contest as extravagant and elaborate as <i>Swordquest.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgirpMfmehkmRFpvd-LKCnBDsEUygNz032i5dAX6ZoAMPBboO7G0QnQtwfuzGu6_tRsovtiYr8u_xbxuh4Ib7hlg0AXNy5FBpdGf97FCI4Dhz8g5wPJykmmen4SBq9CHa9yePBO2-x_UMqc/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-09-20+at+10.32.04+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgirpMfmehkmRFpvd-LKCnBDsEUygNz032i5dAX6ZoAMPBboO7G0QnQtwfuzGu6_tRsovtiYr8u_xbxuh4Ib7hlg0AXNy5FBpdGf97FCI4Dhz8g5wPJykmmen4SBq9CHa9yePBO2-x_UMqc/s320/Screen+shot+2012-09-20+at+10.32.04+PM.png" title="Yep. Logs on a river." width="320" /></a><i> </i>So, 30 years after the contest ended, what does <i>Swordquest</i> have to offer the gamers of today? Frankly, not much. The video games really only exist to provide hints on where to look for clues in the comic. Eagle-eyed players probably spotted most of them without even finishing the video games, anyway. The promise of untold riches was clearly intoxicating enough to sell a whole lot of <i>Earthworld </i>and <i>Fireworld </i>carts back in '82 & '83, but now that promise is gone. What's left is essentially a very basic fetch quest, with a little bit of rudimentary twitch gaming thrown in for good measure. The trials in <i>Earthworld </i>play a lot like <i>Frogger,</i> but without the complexity or nuance. <i>Fireworld</i>'s trials are even more abstract and confusing: One moment, you're trying to stab what I think are birds onto a spike; the next, you <i>are</i> a bird and you're shooting at snakes slithering all around you. <i>Waterworld</i> at least maintains a constant watery theme with its trials, but none of them are particularly fun or memorable enough to play through more than once. Other than the background color, nothing distinguishes one room from another in any of these games, and no hints as to what item goes in which room are ever given--it's pure trial-and-error in its most repetitive form. In short, they're all pretty mediocre games that relied on gimmickry to sell copies, rather than solid game play. It's a deadly sin that Atari committed many times over in the early 80s, and it lead directly to Atari's precipitous fall from grace.<br />
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There's one final puzzle in the <i>Swordquest </i>saga which may never be solved: Whatever happened to the last three treasures? The <i>Waterworld </i>contest never happened, and <i>Airworld</i> never saw the light of day, but there's photographic proof of the existence of <i>Airworld's</i> Philosopher's Stone, (a hunk of white jade encased in a solid gold box) <i>Waterworld's </i>Crown Of Life and the grand prize, The Sword Of Ultimate Truth. For years, rumors persisted that Tramiel kept them in his office, but nothing has ever been confirmed, and no more details have come to light since Tramiel retired in 1995. After 30 years, those lost treasures, and <i>Swordquest </i>itself have truly become the stuff of gaming legend.<br />
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Thanks for reading my review! Next week, we ascend to the heights of comically-violent side-scrolling bliss with <i>Metal Slug!</i><br />
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<i><br /></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-1692658709214447882012-09-15T11:57:00.001-07:002013-01-12T21:29:40.840-08:00DOOM Console Port Roundup<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><i>DOOM!</i></b> No other four-letter (family-friendly) word has had such an impact on the video gaming industry. It's the game that brought first-person action, multi-player online gaming, and fan-created mods to the masses. It's the game that turned me into a die-hard PC snob for a long time, too. After all, no chumpy little toy console could possibly handle the double-barreled BFG telefragging awesomeness that is <i>Doom</i>, right? Well, I'm going to find out, as I play through the <i>Doom </i>console<i> </i>ports I've collected over the years.<br />
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<b>DOOM for Atari Jaguar:</b> <i>Doom</i> was quite a get for Atari's final game console. A launch title released less than a year after the PC original, <i>Doom</i> for Jaguar no doubt moved many consoles by itself, and for good reason: It's a very good port. Written by the great John Carmack himself, the Jaguar version looks and plays very much like the PC original. It makes some concessions to the more limited Jaguar hardware, though. There are fewer levels than in the PC version, and they are generally less complex-looking. (Fewer variety in the wall textures, missing objects like lamps, computer screens, etc.) A few enemies, like the big bad Cyberdemon are no-shows too; he's replaced a bunch of Hell Barons at the end--a major disappointment in my opinion. There's no background music at all, which is weird. Evidently the Jaguar had a problem doing math and playing cheesy midi synth-metal tunes at the same time, so music is only heard at the intermissions between levels. Oh well, <i>Doom </i>is best played over Slayer's <i>Hell Awaits, </i>anyway. The Jaguar controller's otherwise pointless numeric keypad is actually put to some good use here. You can directly select the weapon you want by pressing its number (1 for chainsaw, 2 for pistol, 3 for shotgun, etc.) instead of cycling through them one at a time. You can't save your game in the level, but the Jaguar version will remember the last level you finished, and it will let you start a new game from there, even if the console is shut off.<br />
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For the most part, things move along smoothly in the Jaguar's <i>Doom. </i>The action does tend to chug a bit when too many characters are onscreen at once, but never so much that it's unplayable. All in all, I'd say the Jaguar version is much like playing <i>Doom </i>in low detail mode on a slow 486. That's no small feat considering that, in 1994, even a slow 486 would have cost two to three times as much as the Jaguar. The sound effects are lifted intact from the PC version, and they sound just as good. There doesn't seem to be any loss of fidelity.<br />
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Finally, it's worth noting that this version actually supports two players with a second Jaguar console, a second television and a Jag-Link cable. Though I bet I could count on one hand (after chainsawing all my fingers off) how many multi-player Jaguar Doom sessions history has witnessed, it's still a neat feature to have.<br />
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<b>DOOM for Sega 32X: </b>The 32X add-on was Sega's last desperate attempt to breathe life into the elderly Genesis console. It shows too, as this thing is a kludgy mess! Fully decked out with the Sega CD and the 32X, the Genesis needs three separate AC adapters, a special video cable between the Genesis and the 32X, another video cable from the 32X to the TV and finally, an audio cable from the Sega CD to the television. All to play games that were mediocre at best; mind-numbingly awful at worst.<br />
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The 32X port of <i>Doom</i> falls pretty close to 'at worst.' It's still <i>Doom,</i> but so much of it had to be chopped down to squeeze into that train wreck of a game console that it's just not worth playing. At first glance, it looks a lot like the Jaguar version; the wall textures, level layouts, etc look basically the same. However, all of the action takes place in a small window in the center of the screen. If you've ever wanted to shoot zombies through a keyhole, this is your game. The frame rate is all over the place; at times, it moves faster than the Jaguar version, but when more than a couple of enemies are on screen at once, the 32X version turns into a slideshow. Even more levels are missing in 32X <i>Doom</i>, including the entire 3rd chapter, Inferno. This means the BFG 9000, <i>Doom's</i> über-gun introduced in Chapter 3, is MIA here--even though it's mentioned in the manual! It is technically in the game, but there's no way to get it legitimately; you have to enter a cheat code, and 32X <i>Doom</i> punishes you with a bogus ending if you do.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4c5PTdgNDbAXO7-N-TVEWPzGzMd6cqAm7A__yJuhjsH8xehy-qF_W9IwfOp9QFssIUK6kjpDOAyO63i_fPA-iUQ8fAo75AuNgns_ewLc1W7zdrY1iIkbx_8KrYEdJAFTdFhCqROY7NkOP/s1600/32x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4c5PTdgNDbAXO7-N-TVEWPzGzMd6cqAm7A__yJuhjsH8xehy-qF_W9IwfOp9QFssIUK6kjpDOAyO63i_fPA-iUQ8fAo75AuNgns_ewLc1W7zdrY1iIkbx_8KrYEdJAFTdFhCqROY7NkOP/s320/32x.jpg" title="Sega 32X" width="319" /></a>You may notice while playing 32X <i>Doom</i> that everything appears to be facing you all the time. This is because the developers included only the front sprites for each object and character, so you can never see their sides or backs. Because of this change, it's impossible to sneak up on enemies, and more important, it's impossible to cause them to fight each other. One of <i>Doom's</i> most endearing qualities is the monster infighting. Watching an imp turn around and napalm some poor zombie for his bad aim is sheer gaming joy. To take that away is to rip out the very blackened heart and soul of <i>Doom</i>.<br />
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The last bite of this particular shit sandwich is the background music. It's awful! Buzzy, bleepy, atonal & badly-mangled versions of the original <i>Doom </i>tunes dominate the 32X version's BGMs. Some sounded so awful, I was getting concerned there was something wrong with my television. At least, mercifully, 32X <i>Doom</i> lets you shut the music off without losing all of the sound.<br />
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<b>DOOM For SNES: </b>Compared to the 32X version, <i>Doom</i> for the Super Nintendo is downright elegant. Just drop in the unique, blood-red cartridge and you're playing <i>Doom! </i>Well, almost. Though you don't need the same byzantine mess of wires and adapters to play the SNES version, it makes even more compromises to try to run on a platform that just can't handle it.<br />
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The levels in SNES <i>Doom</i> resemble the PC version more closely than the previous versions, in layout as well as general appearance. The game is once again divided into three distinct chapters, and to my knowledge all of the PC version's levels are present here. Too bad getting through them is such a slog. Like the 32X version, SNES <i>Doom</i> is played in a window instead of full-screen. In addition, the resolution of that little window is lowered to the point where distant objects look more like stacks of Legos. Many of the characters' animation frames are missing, such as when imps throw fireballs or pinky demons take bites out of you. The floors and ceilings have no textures at all, and are simply flat-shaded. Once again, only the front sprites are included, so no sneaking by or inciting demonic civil war. Finally, the sound effects are Edison wax cylinder lo-fi. Despite all of these compromises, it still runs infuriatingly slowly.Your character turns like an oil tanker, when he acknowledges input from the controller at all. When more than two or three bad guys are on screen, the frame rate drops so low that SNES <i>Doom </i>becomes nigh-unplayable. Perhaps to atone for this sin, the developers essentially eliminated to the need to aim your gun. Now you just have to point your weapon of choice in the general direction of the enemy to hit him. Unfortunately, that same advantage is also extended to the enemy, who will take amazingly accurate pot shots at you from clear across the level. This, combined with the lousy frame rates make SNES <i>Doom</i> painfully difficult and not at all fun to play.</div>
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Ironically, the one redeeming quality of SNES <i>Doom </i>is its background music. It's by far the best of the lot so far, and it sounds even better than the PC version's. I know I've mentioned this in the past, but the Super Nintendo's sound capabilities continue to amaze me with its fidelity and versatility. Too bad the rest of the console isn't nearly up to the task of playing <i>Doom.</i><br />
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<b>Final DOOM for Playstation: </b><i>Final Doom </i>started out as an expansion pack built by a fan group called TeamTNT;<i> </i>a group that's still going strong today. In 1995, shortly before it was to be posted online, Id Software bought <i>Final Doom</i> and developed it into a full-blown retail release. With 64 levels in total, <i>Final Doom </i>is nearly as long as <i>Doom </i>and <i>Doom II </i>combined, and is a damned sight harder than both of its predecessors. In its flimsy boilerplate of a plot, humanity's pitiful remnants have once again decided to dork around with inter-dimensional gateways on Jupiter's moon, Io. Of course, demonic shenanigans ensue so you, the universe's unluckiest space marine, are sent to deal with them and save Earth from another invasion. <br />
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The Playstation version of <i>Final Doom </i>keeps the story and most of the levels intact, but dials down the difficulty. It's still no walk in the park, but now it's no more challenging than the later levels of <i>Doom</i> and <i>Doom II</i>. The controls in this version are the best so far. Using the top left & right shoulder buttons in concert with the D-pad, you can circle-strafe, which is a feature sorely lacking in the previous versions. This addition alone makes Playstation's <i>Final Doom </i>the best of the bunch so far, in terms of overall playability.<br />
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Unfortunately, it also suffers in presentation. I expected the Playstation version, running on 3D-accelerated hardware, to be the best-looking one of the bunch, but it's really not. In fact, in many aspects, it looks worse than the Jaguar version. The textures on the walls are very low resolution, disintegrating into a jumbled mess of blocks when viewed up close. The Playstation's notorious lack of texture perspective correction is a real problem for <i>Final Doom, </i>since nearly every object in the game is a texture. Without it, object move around in a very jittery fashion with respect to your point of view, and they often appear to float over the backgrounds. Again, despite the graphical compromises, this game really chugs when several enemies are on screen or you're in a large open area. There are a few eye-candy tricks not present in the PC original, such as transparent enemies and colored lighting effects, but for the most part it's uglier and slower than the PC version, which was rendered without any special hardware. <br />
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The sound is another sticking point for me. Nearly all of the sound effects are different from the PC original, as well as all of the others. The new sound effects certainly don't sound any better than those in the PC version. I know it sounds nit-picky of me, but here's the problem I have: <i>Doom's</i> sounds are a huge part of the game's experience. Every type of hellish critter in the game makes some kind of unique alarm noise when it spots you, and a veteran <i>Doom</i> player can tell exactly what he's up against by listening for those characteristic grunts and growls. Juggling the sound effects around unnecessarily ruins that element of strategy, at least until you get used to them. The background has been completely changed as well. Those synth-metal tracks have been replaced by moody, atmospheric, down-tempo dirges that sound like they belong in a <i>Silent Hill </i>game. They're not bad; they just seem out of place in a game that relies so heavily on fast-paced action.<br />
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Oh yeah, one last thing: You save your progress with yet another too-long, incomprehensible password. Dammit, the Playstation sported memory card slots <i>precisely</i> to put an end the scourge of game passwords!<br />
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<b>DOOM 64 for Nintendo 64: </b>This last version isn't a port of <i>Doom,</i> it's a complete re-imagining. The characters, weapons, levels, and even the game engine received a complete overhaul in <i>Doom 64. </i>Unfortunately, it was released in 1997, in <i>Quake's </i>shadow, so it received little fanfare or love from the critics. Being the consumate <i>Doom </i>snob that I am, I was prepared to turn my nose up at it too, but it has really grown on me. Frankly, this is a very good game.<br />
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The plot is again paper-thin, and I don't know where it falls in the official canon--if there even is such a thing. It involves the Doom Guy heading back to Mars to wipe out some mother demon, or something. In short, you shoot monsters, you grab keys, and you run toward the exit, like in a proper game of <i>Doom.</i><br />
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As I mentioned, this is a complete overhaul. All of the levels are unique to <i>Doom 64</i>, and they contain much more detail than even the PC version. The redesigned game engine is now truly 3D, and it supports much more complex-looking levels, light-sourcing effects, rooms that can exist on top of other rooms, etc. The textures in the walls, floor and ceiling are much higher in resolution than the PC original, and since the N64 supports a primitive form of anti-aliasing, they don't devolve into a mess of blocky pixels when viewed up close. The objects and characters are still sprites, but they've been completely redrawn, and rendered in a higher resolution. In short, this is about the best looking <i>Doom </i>there is.<br />
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Good news on the gameplay front, too. Despite the vastly improved graphics, <i>Doom 64 </i>runs smooth as silk, with nary a slowdown in sight. It seems you're almost always fighting in tight quarters with few enemies on screen at once, but I saw nothing that would suggest <i>Doom 64 </i>couldn't handle a wide-open, monster-packed arena. In fact, the title screen features loads of hellspawn fighting it out on a gigantic DOOM logo, and it looks very impressive.<br />
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Unfortunately, the sound effects are once again a drawback. They're straight out of the Playstation version, but they sound much more lo-fi and muffled here, perhaps due to space restrictions on the cartridge. The music is also the same ambient, dread-inducing spooky tune as the Playstation, though it seems to fit the slower pace and more claustrophobic feel of <i>Doom 64 </i>better.<i> </i>The N64 controller is ill-suited to shooter games in general, but you can remap the buttons as you see fit. Unfortunately, it doesn't save your custom button config anywhere, but it will save your progress between levels if you have a memory pak plugged into controller 1. Rather surprisingly, there's no multiplayer at all in <i>Doom 64</i>. <i>Goldeneye </i>gave us four player split-screen ass-kickery the very same year it was released, so I don't believe for a second that the N64 couldn't handle it. Including multiplayer support would have probably gone a long way toward making <i>Doom 64</i> a more memorable title.<br />
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So what <i>is</i> the best version of <i>Doom, </i>anyway? Well, for my money, I'd say the best version is the one the fans created for themselves, and the one that's still being made today. <i>Doom</i> was designed from the ground up to be easily modified through the use of massive resource files, called WADs. These WAD files, easily edited and readily shared across the fledgeling World Wide Web, led to a groundswell of fan-created content for <i>Doom, </i>ranging from home brewed levels, like the aforementioned TeamTNT's to novelty levels, like <a href="http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=13925">this recreation of the Stauf mansion</a> from <i>The 7th Guest. </i>Some fans even created total conversions, which were WADs that turned <i>Doom </i>into an entirely different, original game. In short order, <i>Doom </i>had become much more than a game; it was a canvas upon which countless modders expressed their own creativity, and in doing so, it laid the groundwork for amazing fan mods, like <i>Team Fortress </i>and <i>Counterstrike.</i><br />
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Incidentally, I dabbled in modding myself, way back in my Glitchy adolescence. I've dug up and posted my very own WAD file, wherein I've replaced the sounds in the shareware episode with whatever I found hilarious back in the early 90s. Check it out <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/filesmathmanmustdie/DOOM1.WAD?attredirects=0&d=1">here</a>. You can download a modern version of the Doom binaries for Mac and Windows <a href="http://zdoom.org/Download">here.</a></div>
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Thanks for reading my review! Next week, I take a look at one of the most fascinating experiments in video game history: Atari's <i>Swordquest </i>competition.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-73653487704720522632012-09-07T13:46:00.001-07:002013-01-12T21:30:09.405-08:00The Justifier and Lethal Enforcers II for Genesis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I love light guns. <i>Love 'em!</i> You can keep your Kinects and your Eye Toys and your Wii Motion Plussesses because video games attained interactive perfection with the NES Zapper. Though I've never shot anything more formidable than a BB gun in real life, nothing gives me greater joy than blowing holes in pixellated bad guys with a gun-shaped hunk of plastic. Unfortunately, light gun games always seem to get short shrift, as they typically make up a small fraction of any console's library. Sega didn't see fit to include a light gun with the Genesis at all, so it fell to Konami to release the Justifier, which was bundled with its Genesis port of the arcade game, <i>Lethal Enforcers.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPrjmA-crleBpoMoNOJqtNM7pr862v8MMHXAnRPL7VE3Ldl4hP4PQvHb04KOCRc1rpOBF_UIhv6n74MvLjUXPBp5-EX5bNoZueWxq4hs8Cref2BNOm0txdIJIPA_ePlkcQQb4ekrZxcvBO/s1600/P9050081.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPrjmA-crleBpoMoNOJqtNM7pr862v8MMHXAnRPL7VE3Ldl4hP4PQvHb04KOCRc1rpOBF_UIhv6n74MvLjUXPBp5-EX5bNoZueWxq4hs8Cref2BNOm0txdIJIPA_ePlkcQQb4ekrZxcvBO/s320/P9050081.JPG" title="You gotta use your hands? That's like a baby's toy." width="320" /></a>There are two versions of the Justifier: a blue revolver that plugs into controller port 2 on the Genesis and a pink revolver that daisy-chains into the blue revolver's butt for two-player games. It's an awkward setup that requires the second player to sit uncomfortably close to both the first player and the Genesis, as neither of the guns' cables are very long. Though not particularly heavy, the Justifier has decent weight and balance, and is comfortable to hold for extended periods. The Justifier's trigger feels mushy and imprecise and it lacks the Zapper's satisfying <i>clang</i> when pulled. Its accuracy is significantly better than the Zapper's, though, and it can't be tricked by aiming it at a light bulb. Of course, you must use a CRT TV set with the Justifier, as it will not work with any other kind of television.<br />
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So now that we know all about the gun, let's talk about a game that uses it. <i>Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters </i>is an on-rails arcade shooter that plays like <i>Hogan's Alley </i>meets <i>Mad Dog McCree. </i>It's 1873, and you're a sheriff sent to fight crime in a nameless spaghetti western town by shooting nearly all of its inhabitants.Your weapon of choice is a revolver that holds six bullets at a time. (Aim the Justifier away from the screen & pull the trigger to reload.) In most levels, the bad guys move around a static background location like a bank or saloon, shooting at you from windows, kicking open doors, jumping out from behind barrels, etc. The criminals run the Old West cliché gamut from scruffy cowboys and outlaws to banditos, indians and even Derringer-packing hookers--and they're all gunning for you. Pick them off in the split-second before they get a bead on you, but watch our for hostages or innocent bystanders who wander onto the screen. You start the game five lives represented by stars at the top of the screen. If you get shot, or you shoot an innocent bystander, you lose a star. Lose all of your stars and it's game over, though you can continue up to nine times. There are several weapon upgrades to be found in each stage, such as a rifle with double the ammo capacity of your revolver, a fully-automatic gatling gun, and a cannon that looks more like a dodgeball launcher. Some weapons, like the rifle, can be reloaded while others, like the gatling gun, are dropped once they're empty. However, all of them disappear the moment you take a hit, so unless you're really quick on the draw, most of your time will be spent wielding the lowly revolver. At the end of each stage, your score is tallied and you're given a rank
from Posse (worst) to US Marshal (best) based on how accurate your aim was and how many innocents survived the onslaught.<br />
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Most of the action in <i>Lethal Enforcers II </i>takes place in the aforementioned static environments, but it does mix in some variety. For example, Stage 2 has you defending a runaway stage coach from outlaws and indians on horseback. Bonus stage awards you big points for shooting as many bottles off a saloon's bar or thrown in the air in a short amount of time. Most levels also end with a boss who will <i>really </i>punish your trigger finger, as you try to land hits on him while fending off his attacks. Many of the object in the background respond to being shot, like signs & paintings that fall off walls and reveal weapon upgrades. Lanterns and bottles explode in showers of glass, chandeliers crash to the floor, and barrels spring leaks when shot, all adding tiny bits of verisimilitude to this otherwise very arcade-y game. Other clever touches include a piano that can be 'played' by shooting it, bad guys who fall down stairs or into horse troughs and the town drunk who wanders through the middle of a gun fight, like some Crazy Guggenheim routine.<br />
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<i>Lethal Enforcers II </i>is, for the most part, an excellent game. There are a few hairy spots that require nearly superhuman reflexes, but it's never so hard as to be unbeatable, and the difficulty can be lowered at the game's title screen. I do have two nagging problems with this game, though, and they're both related to the hardware it's running on. I hate to say it, but this is one of the <i>ugliest</i> Genesis games I've ever played. Most of the characters and backgrounds are digitized photos lifted from the arcade game, but the Genesis, with its low display resolution and measly 64 colors, can't effectively show <i>one</i> photo-realistic image, much less several at once. As a result, the backgrounds are badly-dithered and nearly monochrome. The characters, while a little more colorful, lack detail and look completely out of place on the drab backgrounds; like paper dolls pasted on top of an old daguerreotype. <br />
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<i>Lethal Enforcers II </i>uses recorded samples for most of its sound effects, and they sound better than the average Genesis game. However, there are maybe ten or so spoken lines in the entire game, and they get repeated ad infinitum by the various characters. You may find yourself reaching for the mute button after hearing '<i>You ain't a-gonna get me, Sheriff!'</i> repeated for the umpteenth time. Fortunately, the background music is much more enjoyable. It sounds like a synthesized, up-tempo Ennio Morricone soundtrack, right down to the Good, Bad and Ugly flute sting that plays when you earn an extra life.<br />
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Presentation issues aside, <i>Lethal Enforcers II </i>is a lot of fun to play and well worth owning if you enjoy fast-paced arcade shooters. The Justifier light gun and <i>Lethal Enforcers II</i> sold like crazy back in the day, and are still easy to track down today. I've seen the blue gun and both <i>Lethal Enforcer</i> games sell on eBay for less than 25 bucks. If you're as big a light gun nut as I am, pick up a Justifier, haul the ol' Radiation King out of the attic and bring a little frontier justice to the lawless 16-bit West.<br />
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Thanks for reading my review! Next week, I play DOOM. Lots and lots of DOOM.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-66168393209347801372012-08-31T10:23:00.001-07:002013-01-12T21:32:13.818-08:00Bust-A-Move for SNES<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Bubble Bobble</i> certainly had its day in the sun, earning a direct sequel, at least one remake, and selling loads of copies. However, Bub & Bob's future lay largely in their spinoff games, the most popular being the <i>Bust-A-Move</i> series. Known for their whimsical, addictive gameplay, and occasionally for their <a href="http://archive.gamespy.com/top10/january03/covers/index2.shtml">nightmare-fueling cover art</a>, these games have been going strong for almost 20 years.<br />
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<i>Bust-A-Move</i>, as it's known in the US and <i>Puzzle Bobble </i>everywhere else, is an arcade puzzle game in the style of <i>Puyo Pop </i>or <i>Tetris</i>. Your goal is to eliminate all of the bubbles on the play field by firing bubbles out of a catapult at the bottom of the screen. Matching three or more like-colored bubbles causes them to burst, and any bubbles stuck underneath to fall off the screen. The bubbles can be shot straight at their targets or bounced off the sides of the play field to pull off tricky bank shots. At regular intervals, the play field begins to shake, and then slides down, pushing the bubbles down with it. If at any point a bubble gets as low as the catapult, the game ends in humiliating, pastel defeat. Fortunately, you can continue up to seven times, and a password system lets you pick up where you left off later. To assist with levels you continually whiff, <i>Bust-A-Move </i>gives you a helpful guide that shows exactly where the next bubble you're aiming will land. It takes some of the challenge away from the game, but it only lasts until you finish the level that's giving you grief.<br />
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The SNES version of <i>Bust-A-Move </i>is super-simple to pick up and play. Left & right on the D-pad aims the catapult, while up centers it, and any of the face buttons fire the bubbles. The left & right shoulder buttons let you fine-tune your aim, making it easier to pull off those bank shots. You earn a modest number of point for simply popping bubbles, but you can earn huge point multipliers by knocking large numbers of bubbles loose at once. Therefore, it's usually in your best interest to aim for the bubbles at the top, and work your way down. It's also in your best interest to work fast because you're scored on how long it takes to complete each level. Some levels sport special wild bubbles that, when hit, explode, wipe out a whole line of bubbles, or change all nearby bubbles to a single color. A lucky shot on one of these bubbles can make very short work of the rest. My personal record is a three-second, two-shot win.<br />
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<i>Bust-A-Move </i>for SNES also sports a vs mode, which can be played with another person or against the computer. Here, the goal is to knock the other player out by filling his screen with bubbles. If you pop a certain number of bubbles at once or cause a cascade of bubbles to drop, a bunch of random bubbles will appear on the bottom of your opponent's play field. In addition, lines of bubbles appear at the top of the screen at regular intervals, keeping you from ever completely clearing your own field. To win the match, you have to keep enough dangling bubbles around as ammo, but not so many that your own field fills up. It's a fast-paced nail-biting balancing act that's a lot of fun, and a big departure from the slower, more deliberate single-player mode. Winning a best-of-three match against the computer bumps you up the ladder to more difficult opponents who are faster, less indecisive and less likely to make mistakes. As with the one player game, you can continue as many times as you like, and save your progress with a password.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPB0avSRx3yCzp_1eQvcwsMF6J6178fDfEt_U14PAl-8_Zvf5uSE8EzVr-sUYD79aMffXYS5Fyk7F5W6CDW1g-WmQYopdD1QYX_V0bohXREi4_Gwo3kh_m-_9uxFnnSay_nrze17mIRBzh/s1600/capture_20120830_211347.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPB0avSRx3yCzp_1eQvcwsMF6J6178fDfEt_U14PAl-8_Zvf5uSE8EzVr-sUYD79aMffXYS5Fyk7F5W6CDW1g-WmQYopdD1QYX_V0bohXREi4_Gwo3kh_m-_9uxFnnSay_nrze17mIRBzh/s320/capture_20120830_211347.jpg" title="Eat pastel alien fetal death, Stoners!" width="305" /></a></div>
<i>Bust-A-Move </i>retains <i>Bubble Bobble's </i>light-hearted, whimsical aesthetics, and of course it never takes itself very seriously. The buck-toothed duo (as well as a few of the baddies from <i>Bubble Bobble </i>in the vs mode) work together to crank the catapult back and forth, load bubbles and fire them. They jump for joy at the end of a successful match or run around in goofy bewilderment at a failed one. The animations add nothing to the game play; they're just fun to watch, and they give <i>Bust-A-Move </i>a little more personality than the typical puzzle game. On the other hand, the bubbles, which are supposed to contain the trapped enemies from <i>Bubble Bobble</i>, look more like disturbing, pastel-colored eggs filled with developing alien fetuses--especially when they twitch! Yarg! The background music is another pleasant little ditty played on an endless loop that will remain with you, tormenting your soul until the cold embrace of death finally claims you. But hey, at least it sounds good coming from the SNES. That system really has top-notch sound. <br />
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There's very little to complain about in <i>Bust-A-Move. </i>It's a faithful port of a very simple arcade puzzle game. I would have preferred to see less wasted screen space, and more variety to the levels in the one player game. The catapult changes angles a bit too slowly for the more fast-paced vs mode, too. That dinosaur on crank duty really needs to get the lead out. Other than that, it's simple, fun, cheerful and addictive.<br />
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As I mentioned before, the <i>Bust-A-Move</i> games have been going strong since they first hit shelves and arcades in 1994. They've seen a release on nearly every console and hand-held made since the SNES, so it's easy to find a used copy dirt-cheap. Though the SNES original has yet to appear on the Wii's Virtual Console, a very similar Wiiware version, called <i>Bust-A-Move Plus</i>, is available for less than a sawbuck. Well worth the money if you've never played these games before.<br />
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Thanks for reading my review! Next up: Armed with a plastic six-shooter, we're bring law and order to the Old West in <i>Lethal Enforcers 2: Gun Fighters.</i><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-213260225483497752012-08-24T22:48:00.000-07:002013-01-12T21:32:29.033-08:00Bubble Bobble for NES<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The record for arcade translations on NES is pretty spotty. Some, like <i>Gyruss</i>, are faithful to the arcade version, and a lot of fun to play. Others, like <i>Xenophobe</i>, don't hold a candle to the arcade original. Fortunately, Taito's <i>Bubble Bobble</i> falls squarely in the former category. It may not bring anything new to the table, but it retains the arcade version's simple, addictive gameplay and its cheerful aesthetic. <br />
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<i>Bubble Bobble </i>is a one- or two-player cooperative puzzle platformer. It stars Bub & Bob, two cute, buck-toothed little dinosaurs on a quest to rescue their respective girlfriends from an army of cutesy characters in a game spanning over 100 levels. Their only means of attack is a flip-top head that squirts out enemy-trapping bubbles. Once an enemy is immobilized, Bub or Bob can dispatch it by popping the bubble, turning it into a piece of fruit (or sushi or candy or a necklace or any number of objects) that can be eaten for extra points. Once the room is cleared of baddies, Bub & Bob automatically descend to the next room in the game.<br />
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<i>Bubble Bobble's</i> simple gameplay may make it one of the most accessible game in the NES library, but for those who wish to plumb its depths, there's plenty to be found. As I mentioned, there are over 100 levels in the game, (each level is directly accessible with a mercifully short password) but that's just the beginning. Finishing the game unlocks <i>Super Bubble Bobble</i>, which contains an additional 100+ unique and more challenging levels. Power-ups in <i>Bubble Bobble</i> are triggered when you perform certain actions, such as popping a number of bubbles or taking out a bunch of enemies at once. There are loads of power-ups too, which can turn every enemy on screen into fruit, skip you ahead several levels, double your rate of fire, or just grant you a whole mess of points. There are even multiple endings, the "worst" of which is seen by simply finishing the game, and the others by unlocking secret items and/or finishing the game with both players.<br />
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<i>Bubble Bobble's </i>presentation lost very little in its translation to the NES. The arcade version, with its flat-black background, wasn't exactly a feast for the eyes, but its characters were colorful, nicely detailed, and well animated. The NES version looks nearly as good, with only minor concessions to its more limited color palette, as well as some flickering when too many objects are on-screen at once. The background music is the same single tune as the arcade version, and played on an endless loop. It's a cheery little earworm that will bore into your skull and lay eggs of whimsey in your brain.<br />
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<i>Bubble Bobble</i> is a whole lot of fun, and just as much game as you want it to be, whether that's a marathon run through hundreds of levels, or just a few minutes of classic arcade action.<br />
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Thanks for reading my review! Up next is another entry in the <i>Bubble Bobble </i>canon: <i>Bust-A-Move.</i><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4862464303012958772.post-3560987286348105462012-08-19T17:18:00.000-07:002012-08-19T17:32:53.814-07:00HOWTO: Fix the NES Red Light Of DeathAs anyone who's owned the original NES front-loader knows, it's not the most reliable game console. You drop in Bump 'N Jump expecting to enjoy a little vehicular carnage, but instead you're greeted with a black screen and a blinking red light. Sure, briskly blowing on the game cartridge might get it working just one more time, but ultimately your NES will be so far gone that a leaf blower couldn't move enough air to help. Don't worry though, the fix is incredibly simple. If you can work a screwdriver, you can fix your NES good as new.<br />
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You'll need three basic components:<br />
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1. A philips screwdriver<br />
2. An X-acto knife or similar sharp, pointed blade.<br />
3. A replacement NES 72-pin cartridge connector, available from eBay.<br />
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Make sure you get a new 72-pin connector, and not a refurb. They're available for about 7 to 10 bucks from a number of dealers.<br />
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First, a little background info. To prevent unlicensed games from being played, all front-loading NES consoles have a security lockout chip installed called the 10NES chip. It's designed to read a companion chip in every licensed NES game to verify its authenticity. The Blinking Red Light Of Death, as it's called is a condition whereby the 10NES chip can't authenticate the cartridge at power-on, so it resets the console and tries again every second until it can authenticate. This can happen even if the game is otherwise read properly, causing the title screen to show up briefly between resets. The most common reason why the 10NES chip doesn't receive the authentication signal is that the cartridge connecter inside the console has worn down to the point where it no longer makes a solid connection with the game. When that happens, the connector must be replaced.<br />
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Disclaimer time: <b><i>Proceed at your own risk</i>.</b> There are no dangerous voltages inside the NES when it's unplugged, but the components inside can be damaged by static electricity once they're exposed. Be sure to ground yourself before opening the case, and don't go running around a carpeted floor holding the bare motherboard. It's also a good idea to make note of which screw came from where, when it comes time to reassemble your NES.<br />
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OK, let's begin:<br />
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Step 1: Flip the NES over and remove the six screws along the gray edge of the case. Don't worry about the two screws in the black part underneath the controller jacks.<br />
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Step 2: Flip the NES upright again and lift the top of the case off. Remove the five screws that hold the steel RF shield in place and lift it off. You can now see the black, spring-loaded cartridge holder, the cartridge connector and the NES motherboard.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NES with top cover and RF shield removed</td></tr>
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Step 3: Remove the screws around the cartridge holder and around the RF/AV jacks near the upper-right corner of the NES. Unplug the larger blue connector and the two smaller green connectors on the right side of the motherboard by pulling them straight out. Don't wiggle them or pull on their wires.<br />
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Step 4: Lift the motherboard out of the case. Gently slide the cartridge holder away from the cartridge connector and set it aside. Now you're left with the NES motherboard and the cartridge connector.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NES main board and cartridge connector</td></tr>
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Step 5: Pull the cartridge connector off the motherboard. If you need to, work it loose by rocking it back & forth as you pull.<br />
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Step 6: Slide the replacement cartridge slot onto the motherboard, facing the same direction as the old one.<br />
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<i>At this point, I'd say 90% of your problems will be solved, and you can reassemble your NES. However, if you want to make damn sure that light never blinks at you again, read on.</i><br />
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Step 7: Flip the NES motherboard over so that the chips are facing you.<br />
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Step 8: Hold the motherboard with the cartridge connector and the RF/AV plugs facing down and locate the 10NES chip. It's a small 16-pin chip on the lower-right corner of the motherboard, immediately up & to the left of the metal RF box. The name Nintendo and the number 3193A should be printed on it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 10NES chip above & to the left of the RF box. Cut the circled pin to disable.</td></tr>
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Step 9: On the <b>bottom </b>row of pins--the row of pins closest to the cartridge connector--count <b>four</b> pins in from the left or <b>five </b>pins in from the right. Sever that pin <b>and only that pin </b>with your knife to permanently disable the 10NES chip.<br />
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Step 10: Reassemble your NES and enjoy a blissful blinking light-less lifestyle. That pesky lockout chip will never bother you again, and your NES with its replacement cartridge connector, should play like it's brand new.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0