TAPPER
[img width=300 height=347]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-005/bf/U-005-S-04750-A.jpg[/img]
Specs:
Game: Tapper
Year: 1984
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Bally-Midway Manufacturing Co., Inc.
Designer(s): Marvin Glass
Rarity (according to AtariAge): 6 = rare+
Controls: Joystick
Number of Players: 1 - 2 (turn based)
Average Cost: currently, usually $10 - $30 loose, depending on condition
Also Available On: Arcade cabinet, Atari 8-bit, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, PC, Mobile phone, Xbox 360 (XBLA); also released in the compilation "Midway Arcade Treasures" for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and the PC.
Tagline/Description:
"Side-splitting, soda-flinging laughs and spills!
The Official Home Version of Bally/Midway's Arcade Sensation.
Five belly-busting screens of Soda Fountain Fun, including:
-- Four mad-capped barrooms of soda-starved, clamoring cowboys, sports fans, punks, and space creatures.
-- Plus a head-spinning Soda Bandit Bonus Round
Awesome color-packed action graphics.
Just try to keep your cool as hot-headed, crazy customers blitz your bar for another cold one."
In Tapper, you control a beer tapper (bartender) and have to serve beer to demanding customers. Customers shuffle up the four bars toward your beer taps and you must slide them drinks in order to keep them satisfied and make them go away. You start out with 5 lives and these lives are lost as follows: (1) if a bar patron reaches the end of the bar without receiving their beer, (2) if you slide an extra beer when there is no customer and accidentally spill beer needlessly, and (3) if a patron throws you back an empty mug and you fail to catch it. You can score additional points by competing in a bonus round between every few stages. In these bonus rounds, a masked bandit creeps into the bar and shakes up all but one, of six available cans. The cans then flip around in a shell-game fashion and you must keep your eye on the one that was not shaken. You then select the can you deem undisturbed and the bartender opens it; if you are correct, you are awarded bonus points, if you are wrong, the tapper receives a heady bath.
Tapper was originally a coin-op machine marketed in conjunction with Budweiser and intended to be sold only to bars; many of the cabinets were designed to look like bars with a brass rail footrest and drink holders. The controller was designed to look like the tap handles on a real keg (see photos below). It's also rumored that digitized belches were also recorded, but never used. In order to broaden their target market (and to not lure the kiddies toward the "sauce"), Bally/Midway created coin-op cabinets and tabletops known as Root Beer Tapper. The Atari 2600 version is simply called Tapper, which apparently leaves it up to the consumer, or pre-video game advisory warning parents, to determine which frothy beverage bar patrons are actually chugging in game. However, in between clearing a few stages there is a bonus stage, brought to you courtesy of your good friends at Mountain Dew. It's not clear whether or not Tapper on the 2600 was trying to "C.I.A." by employing the soda company's logo, but by doing so, the ad's presence resulted in one of the earliest examples of marketing within a video game.
[img width=300 height=347]http://ggdb.com/img/ggdb/vol2/3027_1_fs_cp[/img][img width=300 height=347]http://i441.photobucket.com/albums/qq134/Krajkerjak/Tapper/0132.jpg[/img]
Tapper is a great game and probably one of the best ports to the Atari 2600. Not only is the concept original and the gameplay simple and attractive, but the sound effects and music (yes, actual music on a 2600 game) are wild west saloon-like and second to none. The graphics are as good as they can be due to the limitations of the system and all characters and settings are well defined and recognizable. My only real knock on this game is the controls. You use the joystick to move the tapper up and down, while using the orange button to fire off brewskies. Like many other 2600 games, Tapper is hampered by the rough and often rigorous directional tapping of the joystick. Because the action is so fast paced, and gets even quicker as you progress through multiple stages, the 2600 joystick cannot keep up and it often results in a few misfired mugs. One would do well in achieving higher scores by obtaining a European CX78 controller and popping this game into the ole 7800.
Even though the controls can be a bit sticky, Tapper is still one of the best games for the 2600. Though the rarity and price point make it a harder game to come by, you can easily snag a loose copy at a good deal with a last minute, no reserve auction bid. No matter what price you pay due to condition or completeness, Tapper will be one of those games that you will be proud to own.
**video courtesy of Hairman9252
RATINGS (on a scale of 1-4: 4 being the highest):
Controls: 2
Graphics: 4
Sound Effects/Music: 4
Concept: 4
Replay Value: 3
Cart/Box Art: 4
Overall Score: 3.50
We have a new episode out with our first interview. This is another first for us, both on our delivery and for the recording itself. Please let us know if you had any issues actually hearing anything as well as any topic suggestions, interview suggestions, or anything else you want us to talk about in the locations below.
The Episode:
- 0:00: Intro
- 0:57: ReddMcKnight Interview
- 7:39: What's New on Channel 3?
- 8:32: Gaming News
- 26:52: Gaming Shoutout!/I'm Sorry...
- 36:50: Top 5
- 37:40: Outro
You can comment in the forums, comment in this blog post, e-mail us, and even call us. We hope to be able to take your quick questions over any subject via e-mail at podcast@rfgeneration.com. You can also call us and leave a message! We can play your question or comment in the episode and we'll even respond to it! That number is (318) RFG-TIP5 or (318) 734-8475.
Here is the forum thread to comment: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?topic=10730.0
The podcast, as usual, can be found and subscribed at http://rfgeneration.podomatic.com as well as in iTunes!
[img width=300 height=300]http://i.imgur.com/2vROt.jpg[/img]
The Together Retro game club at http://Racketboy.com spent January playing through Riviera: The Promised Land, which gave me an excuse to finally put some serious time into the GBA version which had been sitting on my shelf collecting dust for far too long. First: a bit of history. Riviera is the first title in a five-game series collectively referred to as Dept. Heaven. So far only the second (Yggdra Union) and fourth (Knights In The Nightmare) entries in the series have been released alongside this one.
Riviera was developed by Sting Entertainment, who are well-known for creating interesting mash-ups of genres, especially within the Dept. Heaven games. Although it's easiest to refer to Riviera as an RPG, there's actually a lot of other elements that are also present from other genres. The game also plays against the confines of the stereotypical RPG conventions. The biggest difference is that there is very little flexibility to the progression of the story. The plot is extremely linear, and feels a bit closer to a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure than a Final Fantasy. Though in a sense there's a certain simplicity to Riviera that's akin to the infamous SNES release Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest. Though whereas Mystic Quest's goal in being basic was to act as a gateway to more complicated RPG's, Riviera tends to use restrictions to focus on really thinking ahead. For instance you can bring three characters into battle, but you can only bring four items including weapons. If you want to bring a healing item or something other than a weapon, then an option may be to have two characters learn to use the same weapon, though all items including weapons have a limited number of uses. These sort of gameplay restrictions can be either awesomely challenging or extremely frustrating, depending on which camp you're in.
(Note: some content after the jump may be considered slightly NSFW. You've been warned.)
Continue reading Riviera: The Promised Land
[img width=378 height=500]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/26/62617529_e9957554a6.jpg[/img]
SPECS:
Game: Space Cavern
Year: 1981
Publisher: Apollo, Inc.
Developer: Apollo, Inc.
Designer: Dan Oliver
Rarity (according to AtariAge): 3 = scarce
Controls: Joystick
Number of Players: 1 -2 (turn-based)
Average Cost: approx $1 - $5 loose
Also Available On: exclusive to the Atari 2600
Tagline/Description: "You command an intergalactic starcruiser that has landed on a mysterious planet riddled with smokey caverns and inhabited by savage Electrosauri whose horns generate deadly electro-molecular charges. The Elecrosauri stalk you, their horns crackling and sizzling. If even one blast of energy strikes you, your skeleton will glow as you disintegrate. Warning: Beware the shaggy marsupods [last sentence added for blue cartridge version only]."
Space Cavern is a very simple space shooter created by Apollo Games. Apollo only officially released 10 games for the 2600, which does not include three (3) unreleased prototypes and an original (and very rare) version of Shark Attack called Lochjaw, that was removed early on from the shelves due to a lawsuit claiming that it's title was too similar to the movie "Jaws." Two versions of Space Cavern exist, a red box/cartridge and a blue box/cartridge. Neither version is more rare than the other, the blue version was released by Apollo later only as a means of cutting costs by using a simpler and more cost-effective color palate.
[img width=331 height=260]http://www.atariage.com/2600/labels/l_ApolloNormal.jpg[/img]
[img width=333 height=259]http://www.atariage.com/2600/labels/l_ApolloBlue.jpg[/img]
Unlike the more popular Atari space shooters, in Space Cavern, you do not control a ship fending off enemy starships in outer space, but instead, command laser wielding astronauts who have crash landed on an alien planet. Sounds cool right? Well, that's certainly the draw. Apollo was masterful in their marketing; if you don't believe me, take a look at the cover art for such super lackluster games as Lost Luggage, Infiltrate, or Final Approach (heck yeah a game about landing planes). I mean what early 80's video game playing kid wouldn't want to buy Space Cavern after seeing it in the store? Badass cover art - check! Cool description - check! Being hit by deadly "electro-molecular charges" and disintegrating - I don't even know what the hell those are, but DOUBLE CHECK!!!! The reality is that Space Cavern isn't all that great, but for an Atari fiend like me, it isn't all that bad either.
[img width=225 height=225]http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSww8HMNGeaF8ASX8LNB4IBSMrtSQGNmhPlSuqUzOR9rjm7YJI7&t=1[/img]
(Apparently someone took out their frustrations for being duped by this game.)
There are three (3) enemies that commonly fill the sky of Space Cavern and they are collectively called Electrosauri; however in my adolescence, they were affectionately named: egg beaters, toilets, and scissors -- I'll let you figure out which enemies fit these descriptions. By pressing the orange button, your astronaut fires his laser into the sky and is awarded 115 points (wow, random) for each Electrosauri he/she shoots down. These particular enemies are fairly colorful and typically either bounce in an up and down pattern or diagonally across the screen. When you zap one, they change to a pale blue and actually fall from the sky, which is pretty creative. After 20,000 points, smaller and much harder to hit versions of Electrosauri appear in the sky; at each 20,000 points you are also awarded an extra life.
The only other enemy in the game is the Marsupod (200 points each), which are dull gray in color and come out of the caves from the left and right corners of the screen. Since the orange button only allows you to fire into the sky, your must press the joystick up or down (up = left: down = right) to fire at and dispense with Marsupods - pushing the orange button to fire left to right is not necessary. Though you'll fire the wrong way several times, recovery time from firing is quick and becomes second nature after continued play.
There are 48 variations of gameplay, which can be set to adjust the number of participants, the number of Electrosauri that appear in the sky at one time (4 max), the presence of Marsupods, the random angles of enemy lasers, and the difficulty (i.e. speed of the enemies).
Space Cavern is tough to review, since I get a bit nostalgic when returning to play it (**see eggbeater, toilet, scissor discussion above). The controls are perfect for the 2600 system, since you only use the four (4) main directional positions on the joystick and the fire button. The sound effects are pretty good: shooting down an Electrosauri sounds like R2-D2 speaking in tongues and blasting a Marsupod is rather blunt and effective. There is really nothing that bad about this game, other than the replay value. Let's face it, there's not a whole lot going on in this game, and after about three to four rounds, you'll probably want to put it away if you are playing it alone. As far as Apollo releases are concerned, I'd put Space Cavern at the top with the Pac-Man clone, Shark Attack. If you're a serious collector, or just a casual 2600 gamer, the small price tag makes Space Cavern worth picking up.
**video courtesy of Highretrogamelord89 (this video does not represent the more difficult setting which includes Marsupods) **
RATINGS (on a scale of 1-4: 4 being the highest):
Controls: 4
Graphics: 2
Sound Effects/Music: 2
Concept: 3
Replay Value: 2
Cart/Box Art: 4
Overall Score: 2.83
[img width=250 height=347]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-005/bf/U-005-S-01590-A.jpg[/img]
Specs:
Game: Entombed
Year: 1982
Publisher: U.S. Games
Developer: Western Technologies
Designer(s): Jeff Corsiglia & Tom Sloper
Rarity (according to AtariAge): 4 = scarce+
Controls: Joystick
Number of Players: 1 - 2
Average Cost: approx $3 - $8 loose
Also Available On: 2600 only
Tagline/Description: "You and your team of archeologists have fallen into the "catacombs of the zombies." There's no time to look around; these guys are after you, and they mean business! Your only salvation is that you have discovered the secret to the "make-break." Grab them, and you can break through walls when you get stuck, or create a wall behind you - if you are being chased. The longer you survive, the faster you have to move. Explore alone, or two archeologists can work together or compete in a frenzied trek through the catacombs."
There was probably no more diverse or stranger catalog of games than the fourteen (14) titles released by U.S. Games, a subsidiary of Quaker Oats (uhhhh....yeah), for the Atari 2600. Like several other companies (i.e. Purina, Johnson & Johnson, etc.), but with a larger volume than most, the Quaker Oats Company tried to cash in on the video gaming craze of the early 80's. Titles released by U.S. Games include:
Entombed;
Sneak n' Peek (a game of hide and seek);
Space Jockey (a horizontal, UFO shooter);
Word Zapper (a spelling shooter);
Commando Raid (a parachuting android shooter);
Eggomania (a Kaboom clone where you can fire back);
Piece o' Cake (a cake decorating game);
Picnic (a fly shooter);
Raft Rider (a river rafting game);
Gopher (a vegetable protecting game, similar to Activision's Oink!);
Squeeze Box (a prisoner trying to escape a constantly closing Tron MCP Cone);
Towering Inferno (a firefighting/rescue game);
M.A.D. (an improved version of Atlantis); and
Name This Game (an octopus shooter).
[img width=299 height=208]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_tCCK5wYrFr4/TMWPms5g3lI/AAAAAAAACA0/J8idkdOHPB0/s1600/608quaker-oats1.jpg[/img]
While some believe that a few of these games are among the worst titles for the 2600, I'd have to say that the overall catalog is pretty creative and solid (and fairly cheap). Where else can you fend off an octopus and fill your diving tank with air from a guy with long, flowing hair in a speed boat?
Entombed is another of these strange games in which you control an archeologist trying to escape a zombie-filled catacomb. While navigating a random, vertically scrolling maze, your only defense from zombies and dead end walls is an item referred to as a "make-break." A make-break allows you to knock down a square section of wall or place a similar section of wall in an open area to fend off zombies (similar to Lock n' Chase). However, make-breaks are not abundant and are collected 3 at-a-time in the form of side-to-side moving rectangles, throughout the maze. Scoring in Entombed, for the 1-player game, is determined by how deep into the maze your archeologist goes. You are awarded one point for making it through an undefined section of the maze; there are no treasures to collect or points for killing zombies. As you might have noticed, scoring is not one of the stronger features of this game.
Another poor feature of the game is it's graphics. Zombies, which should be very cool, instead look like arachnids, your archeologist is merely a semi-mobile stick figure, and the make-breaks are, well, just blocks (a hammer, or some sort of device would have been cooler). There is no music and the only sound effects are a series of extremely monotone beeps (only when zombies are near) and an electronic gurgle when you pick up a make-break.
With all of its faults, Entombed is a pretty good game (yeah, stick with me here). I remember loving this game as a kid and playing it every time I went to my neighbor's house. When I saw it in a pawn shop several months ago I grabbed it up quickly, even though it had a bit of label damage. So what is it that I liked so much about this game? Well for one, I enjoyed the pace of the game (how it continues to get faster as you complete every level) and the frantic dodging/escaping from zombies while collecting make-breaks to ensure mobility; you lose lives by either running into a zombie or by being forced into the top of the scrolling screen when you are out of make-breaks and are unable to escape a dead end. The controls are adequate for a 2600 game, since your only movements through the maze are vertical and horizontal; however, setting make-breaks correctly in open areas to avoid zombies can sometimes present a challenge.
While the originality of the game is great, the best feature of Entombed has to be its 2-player option. In two player mode, both participants play at the same time, instead of the Atari turn-based style that is typical with most 2600 games. Two player mode can be played in two different ways (as determined by the participants): (1) you can battle against each other to see who can make it deeper into the maze (whoever dies first loses), or (2) you can work with each other, hoarding and best using make-breaks, to see how far you both can go. Being somewhat of an a%$, and torturer of my wife and friends, I tend to prefer the former.
Though there is nothing particularly exceptional in terms of graphics and sound in Entombed, the gameplay is fairly solid and the cost of the game is typically low. For a few bucks, Entombed should be worth heavy consideration if found in the wild.
**video courtesy of Highretrogamelord89**
RATINGS (on a scale of 1-4: 4 being the highest):
Controls: 3
Graphics: 2
Sound Effects/Music: 1
Concept: 3
Replay Value: 2
Cart/Box Art: 3
Overall Score: 2.34
[img width=300 height=432]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Recca.jpg[/img]
Continue reading Unloved #?: Summer Carnival 92' Recca
You knew by the time I got to writing for my blog again, it'd be long-winded. So let's hope I get on a more regular writing schedule again so as not to store all this up...
Trials HD. Demon's Souls. The Etrian Odyssey series. Getting through New Super Mario Bros with four players and not strangling the person next to you.
Despite complaints along the lines of, "Video Games Today are Too Easy," there is still a consistent flow of releases earmarked specifically for their notable challenge. (Not counting the mental duress of trying to play through much of the Wii and DS shovel-ware.)
On the other hand, its now almost standard that a game ship with easier difficulties, and recently the concept of a player's avatar's death may be removed entirely.
No two recent games may represent this disparity better than Kirby's Epic Yarn and Super Meat Boy. Released only days apart, both titles are highly praised platformers with light puzzle solving and exploratory elements, and each sport bold or unique visual styles. Considering both of these games remove the traditional life count or continuing at a setback routine, on the surface both these games would appear to target the same audience.
In truth the design philosophy is radically different. While Super Meat Boy expects hundreds or even thousands of constant failures (read: avatar deaths) to happen in the course of learning how to overcoming tough yet fair levels, in Kirby's Epic Yarn death of the avatar isn't even an option.
Kirby's Epic Yarn can certainly be challenging, mainly due to the mechanic of loosing items upon mistakes such as touching an enemy, and those items are used to unlock other elements of the game. However, the main game itself can be simply played through to completion without any real fear of lost progress.
The distinct design philosophies of these two very different yet critically loved gameplay experiences show how difficulty in gaming can be used in a myriad of functional ways. Super Meat Boy is designed around the 'I can do this, just one more try' hook that develops into a frustrating but skill-developing addiction. Kirby's Epic Yarn celebrates the oft-used Nintendo approach of a game anyone can play, with extra challenges for those hungry for more.
The popular lament of a lack of gameplay challenge does have relevance. Demon's Souls, a recent PS3 release largely noted for its difficulty and what is often now referred to as an 'old school challenge', cleanly divided player interest because of such. Many critics and players lauded a game unafraid to require absolute precision, memorization, and expensive experimentation. Just as many people refused to pour the needed time into a game that had no options to play nice. Demon's Souls, like more current spiritual precursors Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry 3, made some gamers wax nostalgic for a time when options were limited, timing had to be exact, and progress only came about through pure effort and occasional luck. Others bemoaned the lack of now-expected easy settings, the unforgiving small timing windows of interaction, and frequent loss of progress.
Designing a game with the opposite intention creates not only division, but derision. 2008's Prince of Persia was highly praised over beautiful art direction, fluid animation, exceptional writing, and even great voice acting. Yet there was a persistent complaint often heard from critics and players alike: the player couldn't really 'die' in the traditional sense. Fall off a cliff or to an enemy, and the avatar 'magically' reappears, set back just a few steps before the misstep. This lead to a common gripe that the player couldn't really lose, and so any sense of challenge was completely void.
This latter response was quite surprising to me. While Demon's Souls tends to earn a begrudging respect even from its detractors, I rarely hear Prince of Persia defenders, instead of long-time gamers grumbling about their beloved Sands of Time trilogy being neutered. The 2008 version culled much of what annoys fans of platformers: having to reload lost progress. Mess up too much in the classic Sands of Time trilogy and you may get aggravatingly dumped to the last checkpoint or worse, the beginning of that story chapter, but never are you forced to stare at the title screen, with no recourse but to slog through the entire game up to where you lost. (Unless you just started, of course.) The 2008 variant simply removed the extra time lost in frustration, and dropped the player back in place to get correct what was just failed. By trimming out the downtime between failures and allowing the player to simply focus on overcoming the obstacle, ideally the player could better immerse themselves in the experience. Perhaps Prince of Persia suffered from trying to change too much at once; a play control timing more akin to a rhythm game, a story disconnected from the beloved series it continued, and gameplay with story mechanics surrounding a, AI co-operative relationship may have compiled too many changes to gamers who had since moved to Sony's less whimsical and more brutal God of War and its sequel.
Maybe I'm reaching, but the highly praised Super Meat Boy also features a continue system of respawning immediately after death and I've yet to read a complaint about said mechanic. (To be fair, life restrictions do factor in bonus levels, but not for necessary progress.) Now, the platforming in Super Meat Boy is inarguably more challenging than Prince of Persia, but the argument still holds: you only 'lose' when you turn the game off, since the only thing hindering your progress is giving up.
Which, of course, could be said of most video games. We may run out of 'lives' or chances to continue from our previous point of progress, but out of all of the video games ever made, only fewer than a dozen games out of tens of thousands do we lose the ability to simply start over and try again by design. The fun, the friction between an obstacle and our ability to overcome it, is where the greatest hook lies; for some of us, its Super Meat Boy's infuriating precision that we're convinced we can master. For Prince of Persia, its more about telling a fantastical story in which we play a simple, interactive part. One is like a sculpture, shaped from countless little cuts of avatar deaths until perfection is realized. The other, an interactive storybook whose greatest friction lies between the imagination of the player who's along for the ride and the game that's playing the narrator.
It's this latter field whose development often makes us 'traditionalists' feel as though aliens have invaded our turf, strange things like Farmville, Angry Birds, and Flower fighting to share space under the same umbrella of entertainment as Final Fantasy, Super Mario, and Starcraft. We often want to pretend that these 'casual' things aren't really games at all.
You know who I like to watch play games? The "Casual Gamer". Now there is a person who can enjoy the hobby. Unfettered by the expectation of new, better, harder, faster, the casual gamer goofs off, has fun, and gets on with life. They can spend $200+ on a Wii just for Wii Sports, and still get their money's worth because they don't really need anything else. For us 'hardcore', why would we be offended from someone else enjoying themselves? Maybe Bejeweled or Peggle will be the gateway, opening them up to the joys of LAN parties, Demon's Souls, Monster Hunter, and slipping in the verbal venom of online play. But if not, why should that bother us?
I stopped trying to convince my mom she needed surround sound because she was just as happy with a tinny radio speaker. It may hurt my technophile heart, but she's just so darn happy with what she already has. The Bilbos out there will bravely and nervously venture out unto the wild frontier of gaming, but there are thousands more hobbits just as content to live out their lives in simpler pleasures.
These folks don't have to 'earn' our respect. They don't have to grow up and into 'hardcore'. We're all in it to have fun, or should be. That'll be a different experience for all of us. Besides, spending more time with gaming and even with a game in particular doesn't mean we earned any more stature. I've been playing Battletoads off and on for literally two decades and I still can't finish it. I can't blame my mom for not being the type for that challenge. But Kirby? She can have a blast with a well designed game, and I can even play co-op with her and go for the real challenge of trying to gain more unlockables by not getting hit.
Then I can go home and play I Wanna Be The Guy. You know, to unwind.
[img width=400 height=300]http://i.imgur.com/64GRm.jpg[/img]
Tetris. It's an infamous title. Perhaps the original "casual game." The one that caused moms to buy their own Game Boys. The one that caused many of us to report seeing falling blocks on our inner eyelids upon attempting to fall asleep. It was first pack-in game when the Game Boy was released, and in many ways proved to be a killer app. So what would be the smart thing to do then? Make a whole bunch of variants for each Game Boy system of course. Although the original Game Boy is the biggest perpetuation of Tetris-fever, even its colorized big brothers got in on the fun. Let's take a look shall we?
Continue reading Tetris GB Series
Well I am very pleased to announce that due to the huge response we've gotten from the community we have already reached our goal of keeping the site funded throughout the rest of the year. Over the past week, we've raised a total of $505 from 17 different donors. As agreed, I will throw in the remaining $300 or so to cover the costs for the remainder of the year. It's now official that RFGen is safely funded until 2012. We will continue accepting donations through the rest of January and throughout the rest of the year. These donations will go towards keeping the site running next year, so no matter when you donate you can be sure you're helping secure the future of the site.
Special thanks goes out to all of our donors who generously donated in our time of need: Ben, Brian, James, Michael, Peter, Scott, James, Scott, Ryan, Terry, Adam, Ryan, Stuart, Chris, Richard, Den, and Cobra Blade. It's through your support (in both donations of time and money) that RFGen has become the great site and community it is today. Again, if you donated and I haven't been able to add you to the donor group in the forums, please PM me so I can add you.
A big thanks to everyone that pitched in and as always, keep it on channel 3!
What's this? A new episode within 30 days of the last one? That's right! With the new year, we're going to try to get on a schedule!
The Episode:
- 0:00: Intro
- 1:26: Site News
- 2:23: Gaming News and Discussion
- 26:13: Gaming History Museum
- 29:39: Top 5
- 30:24: Outro
You can comment in the forums, comment in this blog post, e-mail us, and even call us. We hope to be able to take your quick questions over any subject via e-mail at podcast@rfgeneration.com. You can also call us and leave a message! We can play your question or comment in the episode and we'll even respond to it! That number is (318) RFG-TIP5 or (318) 734-8475.
Here is the forum thread to comment: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?topic=10730.0
The podcast, as usual, can be found and subscribed at http://rfgeneration.podomatic.com as well as in iTunes!
EDIT: Going to try this. PodOmatic has an embedded player if you don't want to go to the site or use iTunes.
Double Dragon. That's all you need to say and 30-year old dudes turn into 10-year old ninjas. The first two NES games are iconic. As Billy and Jimmy Lee you made your way through some mean streets and beat the tar out of anyone who crossed your path. Sure they were stripped way down in comparison to the arcades. But honestly they were so cool that it didn't matter. Who needed the arcade, man? Not me. And not a whole slew of other kids who blew the time after school and before dinner with some NES Double Dragon.
Now what we didn't know back then was that video games were a business. And sometimes games materialized not because they were good and deserved to exist, but instead because they'd make somebody else some money. It was a good lesson for us though. I know the 10-year old me had to learn that sometimes life just wasn't fair. Sometimes it punched your girlfriend in the stomach and threw her over its shoulder and carried her off fireman-style and then you and your brother had to go rescue her and then sometimes even he was a jerk too!
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The first Double Dragon game was ported to the Game Boy in 1990 by Tecmo, and it's actually kind of good. It's basically a miniaturized version of the NES game. It's got different level layouts, but they're basically all inspired by levels from the NES game. All of the characters from the NES release are also pretty much recognizable here as well. Of course it's not as good as the cult-classic, but it actually does a great job of being what it sets out to be: a portable substitute. It knows that it's a little-brother, and it's okay with that identity. If you want to have a good time playing a brief version of Double Dragon, well here it is.
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Then things got worse. You see the NES release of Double Dragon II was a huge hit. It remains the coolest game in the series. Just owning the cartridge literally figuratively put hair on your chest. So Acclaim knew they had to release a Game Boy port of the game. They had two options: (1) they could pay a developer to re-create the awesome experience of Double Dragon II on the Game Boy in a similar fashion to the first GB game. Or (2) they could just take a really abysmal River City Ransom sequel that had already been released in Japan, change the sprites to look like a Double Dragon game, keep all the horrible gameplay and call it Double Dragon II. Guess which one they felt would be more cost-effective?
However Double Dragon II does have one thing going for it; it's not Double Dragon 3: The Arcade Game.
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Double Dragon 3: The Arcade Game is bad. I mean really bad. Like if you ever find yourself on a long car-ride with a Game Boy that has this game loaded in it, you'll just start counting cars instead. It's biggest problem is the AI. You will be constantly surrounded by unmerciful enemies that will beat you to death really quickly. And considering the poor controls, you really have no choice but to just take it.
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After two total letdowns, it's surprising that the Double Dragon license lived on on the Game Boy, but surprisingly Battletoads/Double Dragon actually turned out pretty good. It's an ambitious port of the SNES title, and features all three 'toads along with both Lees as playable characters. The levels take cues from both series, and the gameplay is actually quite good on the Game Boy. Of course this comes from experience on the part of Tradewest who had already published two excellent Battletoads games on the Game Boy. If anything, they were kind enough to pull the Double Dragon name out of the mud with this one.
And then nothing happened for ten years.
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In 2003 Double Dragon Advance was published by Atlus for the GBA. This came as a total shock as the series had been dead on Game Boy systems for the last decade. Even as other classic NES titles like Super Mario Bros., Ghosts 'N Goblins, and 1942 were seeing re-releases on the portable-NES-ish Game Boy Color, nobody dared bring up Double Dragon. So what a relief this one was when it finally saw the light of day. It was actually a very faithful port of the arcade original which is actually quite impressive in and of itself, considering the NES version being the most recognized in this day and age. Though this would prove to be the final Game Boy-related release for the series, at least it went out on the sort of dignified high-note that the series deserves.
A couple of months ago, we held the annual donation drive to raise money to pay the server bills for the coming year. Throughout the two months, we raised a total of $218, which at a rate of $85/month is enough to get us halfway through March before we run out. So as a last ditch effort, we're making a final push to raise donations so that RFGen can make it through another year.
As we have said time and time before, this site is run completely by volunteers and operated on donations from the community. Any money donated is strictly used for paying off the operating costs of running the site (aka the server bill). It's because of the generous support of the RFGen community that we've been able to provide the tools and community forums that we have all come to love.
As an added incentive, I will personally match all donations given in the month of January until we raise enough to pay off the the bills for the remainder of the year. Let's keep this thing going for another year!
You can follow this link to make a donation.
Thanks in advance and remember to keep it on channel 3!
PS: If you've donated and aren't a member of the donor group in the forums, remember to send me a PM so I can get you added.
As of the New Year I've begun doing a bit of house-cleaning. Over the past six months I've been working on a really big and project so I've hoarded a rather ridiculous number of Game Boy carts that I'll never touch again, so it's time I figure out which ones those are and start making room for new ones. As I've been going through all these carts, I've also found some interesting occurrences in the little Gray Brick's library. Take the arcade classic Centipede for instance. Sure it's a solid little fixed-screen shooter. But for the life of me I can't understand why the game was ported to the original Game Boy three times!
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The first version of Centipede was released in 1992 by Accolade who were also responsible for designing the Game Boy port. The music is great and the sprites are just big enough to work well on the GB's tiny screen. However this particular version has become a collector's item as it is extremely rare that it pops up on eBay even. Really the only people who are going to be after it are completionists though.
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Three years later Majesco re-released Centipede as the second volume in their Arcade Classic series of Game Boy cartridges. This time it was coupled with a port of its sequel Millipede as well. But guess what? Although published by Majesco, a glance at the title screen reveals that this port of Centipede was in fact developed by Accolade! If you just want a port of the game to go, then this is your best bet since you get two games for one.
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Here's where the story really starts to get strange. In 1998 Majesco decided to re-release Centipede once again, but this time without Millipede. So really, this is basically just a re-release of the original 1992 version that Accolade had published. However, they also went through the trouble of designing brand new artwork for this version as well. This is the most common of the Game Boy versions.
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As a bit of an addendum, and to make the history even more confusing, that very same year Majesco went ahead and colorized their "new" version of Centipede and managed to get it released as part of the Game Boy Color's launch in the US. This GBC cart was one of the early black cartridges that was fully backwards compatible with the original Game Boy, meaning that it just contained an optional color palette which was accessed when inserted into the GBC hardware, rather than taking advantage of the GBC's full potential. So in a sense, this would be the fourth time that the same version of Centipede made it to market in a single decade.
Stay tuned for more bizarre tales of Game Boy gluttony.
Hello and welcome to Super Nintendo Land!
So while I wait for my Super Famicom to arrive (more info on that at a later date), I decided to start posting my experiences on SNES collecting.
As any retro gamer knows, when buying a retro console it a good idea to research which one you'll be buying. Should I get the Mega Drive 1 or 2? Should I get the GBA SP or the smaller GBA Micro? Oh wait the Micro doesn't support GB and GBC games let me think this through.
So when I decided to get a SNES, besides looking at each region's exclusive games (although removing the lockout chip cancels out that factor, which is exactly what I did) I looked around to see what options I have hardware wise.
First factor was money. As anyone who has made it through middle school can tell you, prices are a matter of supply vs demand. How does that apply to retro gaming? First of all demand will always fluctuate. It can depend on a plethora of factors, with the most important in my mind being coverage. A single mention of a game as a hidden gem on Racket Boy or Retro Gamer might hike the price of said game on ebay. Likewise a recent release of a game on the Virtual Console might push some people to look for the original cart online. So it really all depends on luck with these out of production consoles.
But supply is much easier to calculate. Simply put, the more a console has sold the easier it is to find one. Gameboys are as cheap as chips and I've bought magazines that cost more than what the PS1 is going for right now on ebay. Anyway let's look at the regional sales of the SNES.
According to this document ( http://www.webcitation.org/5nXieXX2B ) which I shamelessly took from wikipedia, the SNES sales break down like this:
| America | 23 Million | | Japan | 17 Million | | Other | 8.5 Million |
So understandably it's much cheaper to look for a Super Famicom or an American SNES than a PAL or Korean one. I got my Super Famicom for 25 British Pounds (38$/30 Euro). On the various European ebay sites (co.uk .fr .es .it .de) a PAL Super Nintendo usually goes for at least 40 Euro (33 British Pounds/52$) In both cases with a single controller and the cables included. But price wise the crown goes to the American SNES. Right now it is being sold on ebay, for way less than the JP and EU models. The original SNES seems to go for about 20$ (15 Euro/13 British Pounds). Unfortunately I could not find any SNES SNS-101 (the redesigned model, which wasn't released in Europe btw) for sale, but only a couple of clones (I'll cover this issue in a minute), and the Super Famicom Junior is selling right now for crazy amounts of money (at least on the Western ebay sites, I don't know how much it costs in Japan).
So with price out of the way, let's look at what we collector's really care about (besides the games library). The design (aka the "looks") of a console. There are 3 main contenders in this category.
The original Super Famicom/ Super Nintendo PAL design
These are nearly identical to each other, with the only difference being the logo on the console itself and the controller (the PAL one has the Nintendo logo inside the ring thingy and it says Super Nintendo with big letters instead of Super Famicom with smaller ones. Here's a picture for comparison's sake http://upload.wikimedia.o...00.jpg/700px-SNES_800.jpg. Pictures, as always, shamelessly taken from Wikipedia).
So what do I like about this design. Well basically it's playfulness. This and the PSone have been the only console designs that basically say Hi there, I'm a box of joy. Everything, from the curvy design to the colorful logo and buttons says that when you'll interact with this magical machine you'll be having a great time. I also like how each button on the console is a totally different shape, to emphasize its different use (god knows how many times I pressed the wrong button on the Gamecube... well 2 or 3 times, but I was trying to make a point)
Next we have the American SNES
God what an ugly beast. Yup this is stereotypically American. You guys like your stuff big and that's perfectly fine (you're the only ones with space to put it in anyway. Try driving your cars in European capitals or in Tokyo). But all jokes aside, it's not the size I have a problem with. It's the overall design. First of all, why purple? Ok you wanted to promote it as a more serious machine, so the colorful details had to go, but you chose to replace them with purple buttons? WTF Nintendo? Nintendo Red goes sooooo well with dark gray, so why didn't you go with that instead? It's not like purple means less kiddy than red. What's up with Nintendo and purple anyway? The Gamecube was mostly pushed as a purple console, likewise with the GBA (the clear purple color was what most Europeans got anyway).
But by far the worst offender is the design itself. Once more I understand they needed to promote it as a more serious machine (to combat Sega's Marketing campaign), so with that in mind it makes perfect sense that they changed the buttons to look alike. But why did they have to place the reset button down there? And why is the front so loaded and the back so empty? I do like the curvy cartridge slot, but that's an element taken from the original design and I don't like that it's so clumsily elevated.
Lastly there's the Super Famicom Jr/ Super Nintendo SNS-101
This time they barely changed anything for the North American release, other than the color of the buttons and the logo (http://www.spaghettioh.co...tent/snes/snes_model2.jpg). I don't know which design I like more though. Well the SNS-101 is actually a huge improvement on the NA Super Nintendo so it's a good choice for someone in the market for an American SNES, plus the small purple buttons look kind of cute. On the other hand the Super Famicom Jr looks bad imo. The colorful logo this time makes it look like a baby's Super Famicom. I don't like either version much, but if I had to choose between these 2 I'd probably get the American version (with a PAL/JP controller  ).
A word of warning for those in the market for an SNES SNS-101. A wide variety of clone machines have been based on its design, so be careful when buying a SNS-101 from ebay, that you don't end up with a clone instead.
Finally there are the technical differences between models. In this regard the PAL consoles are inferior to all other regions, because they run at 50Hz. You can mod the console to make it run the games at 60Hz, but unless you have the technical skills to do that (or know someone who is willing to do that for you (for free or with payment)) I'd stick away from the PAL machines if you are given the option of choosing among the 3 regions (as always game libraries are not taken into account since you can make your SNES region free more easily than the 50/60Hz mod), unless you really like the design and your machine MUST say Super Nintendo on it.
Both Super Famicom and NA SNES run at 60Hz and can output composite video, S-Video and RGB signals, as well as RF with an external RF modulator. (All together now, "Shamelessly taken from Wikipedia"). On the other hand the Super Famicom Jr and the SNES SNS-101 don't output S-Video and RGB signal and don't feature an expansion port (although with the Satellaview service discontinued in 2000 there's no real need for one anyway).
So after taking account of the price, design and hardware factors I personally decided I wanted a Super Famicom. I'd have preferred a PAL Super Nintendo (I'm getting a mod for 50/60Hz switch anyway) but they are a bit more expensive and I'd rather spend that money on some games.
Thanks for reading. I'll try to update this blog whenever I have the time and I'm in a good mood, with my experiences in SNES collecting and its games in general.
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Much like the Wii's Virtual Console, the inclusion of the Game Boy Player add-on makes the GameCube a fantastic way to re-discover many retro games. There's a pile of Super Mario Bros., Sonic The Hedgehog, and just about every other 8 and 16-bit mascot out there to be played and yet the sad fact is that the GameCube's standard controller just doesn't seem all that great for retro gaming. Sure many of us just get used to it, and admittedly the added bulk and lack of wires makes the it easy to love the WaveBird, but there's certainly many other options out there, some of which you may not have thought of.
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The obvious choice is the Hori Digital Pad, also know as the Game Boy Player Controller. Generally speaking, this is the controller that all GB Player enthusiasts find a must-own. It's quite obvious that it's modeled quite liberally after the SNES pad. The size, shape and bulk are all very similar. The D-Pad is about the same size as well, which is a vast improvement over the GameCube's tiny D-Pad. The only thing that really differentiates it from the SNES pad is that the A, B, X and Y buttons all keep their GameCube layout. There's really nothing but good things to say about this one, except that its price-tag isn't for the faint of heart. Sadly because it was an import-only controller, and because Hori has a certain reputation, it's not uncommon for eBay auctions on one of these to hit triple digits.
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Luckily Pellican ripped off Hori's fantastic design and made a far more affordable alternative called the GC Retro Pad. It's almost the same exact size and shape as the Hori, and keeps the same GameCube-style A, B, X and Y layout. It moves the Z-Button to the center, which is actually slightly more convenient than on the Hori in fact. The major difference is that the D-Pad uses a Sega Genesis style instead of the traditional Nintendo cross-style. Although the plastic that makes up the controller is noticeably cheaper quality, the controller itself actually works quite well, and the fact that it can be found for the price of four Hori Pads makes it even more appealing.
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With a simple adapter called the Retro Port made available from http://RetroUSB.com you can actually just use a standard SNES controller. This option will be a bit more expensive than the Pellican pad, but it could certainly save you a bit if you want to avoid going the Hori route. It's hard to compete with the build-quality and layout-perfection of the original SNES pad, and considering the magnitude of SNES games ported to the GameCube, it's almost an obvious choice (though surprisingly it's an oft-overlooked solution it seems). The same site also sells a similar adapter for using a NES pad on the Cube as well, although seeing as how a NES pad only has two buttons this means that many GBA games won't be supported.
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If you do decide to go the SNES-adapter route then you'll also have access to another pricey Hori import, this time in the form of the Super Game Boy Controller. This strange creature was also a Japan-only accessory and features a unique layout and buttons that actually feel directly ripped out of an original Game Boy. Although it's an impressive show-piece, it's also not quite as comfortable as a standard SNES pad, as it's actually quite a bit bulkier (maybe in tribute to the gray brick).
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Speaking of adapters, PS2-to-GameCube controller adapters are actually quite cheap these days. A friend of mine does all of his retro Cubing using a PS1 controller and swears by it. It's easy to understand why as the PS1 controller certainly seems to have matured from the embryonic state of the SNES pad.
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Of course that same cheapo PS2 adapter means you could also track down the MadCatz Retrocon, which has a bit of a cult-following for PS2 retro-gamers. It's quite obviously modeled after the classic NES pad, but incorporates elements of the PS2 pad as well. It's made from a rubbery molding which although small, is also pretty comfortable and even offers up two analog controllers as well. Impressive.
So that about wraps it up, although there may be other options out there that I haven't myself tried. Does anybody else know of any hidden gems when it comes to retro controllers on the Cube?
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