Escolar Documentos
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ZX sPectruM
tm
celebration
the 35 games that have defined the
machine for each year of its life
Medal of
honor
the declassified report on ea’s
AMSTRAD | COMMODORE | SEGA | NINTENDO | ATARI | SINCLAIR | NEO-GEO | SONY | COIN-OP | MOBILE world war ii blockbuster series
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wit Alsoe
insiMdania
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• Son SE T RIDERS
• SUN e ge ar
• gaM se t radio
surviving • je t -l and
night traP
everything you need to know about
• rod enix
• pho
sega’s controversial fmv oddity
I
It will always be Sabre Wulf
for me. It’s the Dark Souls of too, but I first played Gremlin’s astounding. There must have
Spectrum games. excellent puzzle game on the been dark rituals involved; actual I’ve always wanted to put it on the cover
Expertise: Spectrum and that’s magic, you know?
Juggling a gorgeous wife, two the platform I’ll always Expertise: of Retro Gamer. It’s the first ever games
beautiful girls and an award- associate it with. Creating the Optimum Playing
winning magazine Expertise: Distance(™). machine that I truly coveted, and the first
Currently playing: Owning five Master Systems
(I sold two)
Currently playing:
Persona 5
that felt truly special to me as a youngster. I’d
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Favourite game of all time: Currently playing: Favourite game of all time: seen the screenshots of R-Type in the likes of
Strider Sonic Mania Final Fantasy VIII
Favourite game of all time: CVG and the quality of the graphics made me
Sonic The Hedgehog
giddy with excitement. We once screamed
‘Arcade Perfect’ on the cover of Retro
Gamer when we featured the Neo-Geo, but
I’d argue that the tagline was also suitable for
NEC’s delightful console, particularly when
it was placed up against the 8-bit and 16-bit
home computers of the time.
So this month, we’ve spoken to the people
who were on the frontlines when NEC’s
console first arrived, those that were telling
us about this wondrous new console, which
SAM RIBBITS JASON KELK GRAEME MASON sadly never made the impact here that it
Pass. I have fond memories of Crikey… that’s akin to choosing
Expertise: Chronos from ‘back in the day’ your favourite child. Erm, erm... made in its native Japan. I would go on to
Pixels and enjoy picking it up for a I’ll go with Chaos but ask me
Currently playing: blast once in a while. again next week and it’ll be own both a PC Engine and the excellent GT
Life is Strange: Before The Expertise: something else.
Storm Being a homebrew hero Expertise:
handheld model but, like an idiot, I sold them
Favourite game of all time:
Croc: Legend Of The Gobbos
Currently playing:
Wheelin’ Wally
Adjusting the tape azimuth with on. If you are tempted to pick up a PC Engine
a screwdriver
Favourite game of all time: Currently playing: after reading our cover feature then I implore
Io Dying Light
Favourite game of all time: you not to make the same mistake as me.
Resident Evil 4
I also implore you to read the excellent
edition of Super Play that has been
resurrected for a special one-off issue this
month. It’s been lovingly put together by many
of the original members and is an excellent
companion piece for the incoming release of
the SNES Mini. And who knows? If this issue
is well received there’s always
the chance we’ll return to the
Future vaults and revisit more
classic mags.
PAUL DRURY MARTYN CARROLL Enjoy the magazine(s)!
A tie between Jetpac and Manic Jet Set Willy. Exploring Miner
Miner, though if we’re talking Willy’s mansion is one of my
a Speccy exclusive, I’ll say the earliest and fondest gaming
charming and experimental memories.
Knot in 3D. Expertise:
Expertise: Sinclair stuff
Codswallop Currently playing:
Currently playing: The Witness
WipEout: The Omega Favourite game of all time:
Collection Jet Set Willy
Favourite game of all time:
Sheep in Space
CONTENTS
>> Load 172 Breathing new life into classic games
4 | RETRO GAMER
SU OD
Don’t forget to follow us online for all your latest retro updates
Th
T
BS AY
eo
nly
RetroGamerUK @RetroGamer_Mag
CR !A SAV desir
th
ing
IBND E able t
Retro Gamer Magazine @RetroGamerMag darran.jones@futurenet.com
m
or
E
e
ZX Spectrum:
20
35 Years, 35 Games 62
h an
% NE
C’s
co
ns
ole
Ultimate Guide:
44 Night Trap
REVIEWS ESSENTIALS
102 Sonic Mania
86 Subscriptions
It’s better than a five-player
Bomberman session
106 Homebrew
Jason Kelk returns with all the latest on
the popular scene
114 Endgame
Nick runs through the ending of
Star Parodier for you
Ultimate Guide:
Moon Patrol
Graeme Mason explores Irem’s popular arcade
36 game and plays its numerous home conversions
RETRO GAMER | 5
give us two minutes and we'll give you the retro world
CONTENTS
6 FLASHBACK
FLASHBACK STRIKES
STRIKES BACK
Yada Khoongumjorn tells us about the latest
lineup of AtGames’ plug-and-play devices
BACK AtGames reveals brand-new
hardware for 2017
tGames is one of the most new range of hardware with lots
A
8 NEWS WALL
All the latest news, including the revelation prolific manufacturers of improvements. How much of
that Jeff Minter is teaming up with Atari again of plug-and-play retro that is as a reaction to increased
consoles, with more competition in the sector?
10 THE VAULT than a decade of experience in I would say that it’s not so much due
This month’s goodies include an Altered the sector and two major long- to the increased competition as due to
Beast vinyl and a new Fighting Fantasy book
term licensing deals with Atari the increased exposure to the space,
11 COLLECTOR’S CORNER and Sega. While the company has if that makes sense. AtGames has
Our latest collector’s hoard is so big he traditionally made minor tweaks to been manufacturing officially licensed » The presentation of the Atari Flashback is nice and slick.
had to move it into his loft its offerings annually, this year it’s Atari and Sega consoles for many The Nintendo influence is clear.
introducing brand-new hardware with years – our Sega line has been going
12 COLUMN more modern features. To find out on since 2005 – so we have always on the previous consoles does not
Mr Biffo’s talks about his new Found Footage more, we spoke to AtGames’ product known that this is something that lots exist on the new consoles, and on
show and the DIY spirit of the ZX Spectrum
coordinator Yada Khoongumjorn. of people are interested in, something the Atari we have a selection of new
13 A MOMENT WITH... that people love to purchase for games, mainly from Activision.
Andy Remic chats about his new project: AtGames has had heavier themselves, for their husbands and
Memoirs Of A Spectrum Addict competition over the past year wives, to show retro games to their The Atari Flashback 8 Gold comes
than it has experienced in the past, kids. We made some changes to our in two models – a regular edition
14 BACK TO THE and this year you’re marketing a lineup this year and elsewhere in the and an Activision edition. What’s
NOUGHTIES business in response to the increased the difference?
Nick is back in his time machine and this time exposure, definitely. The Activision edition of our Atari
he’s crashing into August 2000
console is done in very close
What are the key new features of partnership with Activision, they’ve
the Atari Flashback 8 Gold and actually never done anything in the
We also started Sega Genesis Flashback this year?
We have a new premium line, in
retro console space before, even
though they have such a big library.
working with addition to the normal line we produce
every year, for both the Sega Genesis
The difference is the normal Atari
Flashback 8 Gold has 20 Activision
Bandai Namco and the Atari 2600. These premium
consoles feature more modern
games, and then it also has a couple
of others like Taito’s Space Invaders
this year » [Mega Drive] HDMI output ensures that games like Sonic
The Hedgehog look better than ever. features, such as HDMI output, which
is something that people have been
and Konami’s Frogger. The Activision
edition only has Atari first-party, and
Yada Khoongumjorn
asking for – for a while, actually. then 39 Activision games.
They feature 2.4GHz wireless
controllers – frankly, I know that the With the Genesis Flashback, you
ones in the past just didn’t work mentioned that the sound has been
very well, they were infrared vastly improved. That’s something
and these are not. They that the classic gaming community
feature vastly improved has recognised as a problem with
sound on the Sega, the old hardware for some time –
the wrong pitch why has it taken until now to fix it?
I believe a large part of it comes down
to increased exposure creating the
incentive to tackle this issue. I’m a
relatively new hire, and it’s definitely
6 | RETRO GAMER
Visit RETROGAMER.NET/FORUM to haVe your say RETRORADAR: FLASHBACK STRIKES BACK
RETRO GAMER | 7
Dispatches from the frontline of retro gaming
NEWS WALL
R announced a brand-new
controller for the N64 and
it’s already annihilated
its Kickstarter target. Rather than
'trident' design of the original pad,
Retro Fighters has instead based its
new build on the Classic Controller
range that Nintendo has made for
its more recent consoles. The new
of $114,747 with 24 days to
go. While we like the look
of the new design, we’re
concerned that the $20
asking price might be a
design also adds Turbo and Clear little too low to create
buttons in addition to those found on the quality product
the original pad. It will be 100 per cent that’s being promised.
compatible with original memory cards It’s also worth noting
and Rumble Paks and backers are that many N64 games
expected to receive their pads within were purposely built around the
12 weeks of the project being funded. original controller, which could affect
Retro Fighters only wanted $13,000 gameplay. Needless to say, we’ll have
» [N64] It will be interesting to see how games like Sin &
to complete funding, but it appears more information once the controller is
Punishment play with the new controller. that there’s a lot of interest in the new finally made available.
8 | RETRO GAMER
THE VAULT
the cool retro stuff that we’ve had our eye on this month
Fighting Fantasy:
The Port Of Peril
You know the deal with Fighting PlayStation Hoodie
Fantasy – the gamebooks popular in the There are few symbols more recognised
Eighties and Nineties have you create in the gaming world than the classic
a hero, then choose your own path PlayStation logo – it’s been visible
through an adventure, flicking back and for over 20 years and on six different
forth through the book to find the next
SmartBoy platforms. So why not wear it across
If you’ve got a library of Game Boy cartridges kicking around but your chest? This hoodie lets you do
section. This is Ian Livingstone’s first
your hardware’s a bit knackered, why not try the SmartBoy? The exactly that, throws the Japanese text
new Fighting Fantasy since 2012’s Blood
USB Type-C accessory gives your phone a cartridge port and for PlayStation in too, and keeps you
Of The Zombies, celebrating the 35th
physical controls, allowing you to enjoy the classics with modern warm while doing all of that.
anniversary of the classic series.
display technology. We’re using it with a Google Pixel here, but it’s Price: £40.00
Price: £6.99
officially only designed for Samsung phones. From: insertcoinclothing.com
From: waterstones.com
Price: £59.99 From: funstockretro.co.uk
10 | RETRO GAMER
COLLECTOR’S CORNER
Spotlighting the greateSt retro collectorS out there
Attic Attack
Readers take us through the retro keyhole
WONDER BOY
“When I was younger I
played this game at an arcade
when I went on holiday with my
parents. I absolutely loved it but forgot
nlike many of our collectors, reader
BIO
NAME: Jamie Monk
Whether it comes with or without a manual, or a
perfect untouched disc. As long as it’s playable,” he
tells us. “A lot of the time I pick up games from local
car boot sales and charity shops without spending
PAID: Free
RETRO GAMER | 11
COLUMN
Featuring Digitiser 2000’s Mr BiFFo
Here’s my bio… Paul Rose
Paul Rose is probably better known as Mr Biffo – the creator and chief writer of legendary teletext
games magazine Digitiser. These days, he mostly writes for kids TV, but can still be found rambling on
about games, old and new, for his daily website, Digitiser2000.com.
Do It Yourself: Speccy-style
ecause I’m clearly mad, I’ve spent the location, it means we can only afford a two-day Spectrum-ified musical tribute to Sir Clive Sinclair,
12 | RETRO GAMER
A MOMENT WITH...
Showing off cool retro-themed Stuff that’S going on
Andy Remic
The fantasy author tells us about his new documentary
CHECK
OUT OURN
REVIEW O
ndy Remic has always p104
RETRO GAMER | 13
AUGUST 2000 – One
hardware death, the gaming
equivalent of a nil-nil draw
on a rainy Sunday afternoon,
a few good games and not
a lot of news. That’s what
we enjoyed during 2000’s
summer holiday – let’s
dive on in…
14 | RETRO GAMER
BACK TO THE NOUGHTIES: AUGUST 2000
AUGUST 2000
NINTENDO 64
1 Perfect Dark
(Nintendo)
[PlayStation] Silent Bomber received strong reviews and 2 Pokémon Stadium (Nintendo)
went on to become a cult favourite.
3 The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina
of the game is in the overall structure, Of Time (Nintendo)
which repeatedly deprives the player 4 Track & Field 2000 (Konami)
of any degree of choice,” the reviewer
5 Turok: Rage Wars (Acclaim)
complained, who felt that the game
[PS2] Premier League visuals meet Sunday league game design in FIFA’s first next-gen outing. was “an abject failure to convey the spirit
PLAYSTATION
of the pen-and-paper original.” Arcade
characterised by extreme speed, screen- standing out amongst a pile of dross went down the middle, offering 3/5 and 1 Colin McRae Rally 2.0
filling special moves and enormous including Ultimate Paintball and Catz. N64 an observation that the multiplayer was (Codemasters)
combos. There was also a huge roster of Magazine felt that it played as well as far better than the single-player. C&VG’s 2 WWF Smackdown
56 characters, taking in the likes of Street Virtual Pool on the N64, while Arcade Maura Sutton felt that it was “one of the (THQ)
Fighter, Resident Evil, Mega Man, X-Men, enjoyed the adult sense of humour. Both most lavish RPGs ever” and gave it 4/5.
3 Euro 2000 (Electronic Arts)
Spider-Man and Iron Man. Despite the magazines scored it 4/5. Still, with Next Month pages touting
game’s quality and competitive longevity, Vampire The Masquerade: the likes of Final Fantasy IX and WWF 4 F1 2000 (Electronic Arts)
the press gave it a surprisingly muted Redemption arrived on PC this month, No Mercy, and the inevitable Christmas 5 Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles
response – GamesMaster could only and nobody could quite agree on how rush coming soon after, it’s not as if (LucasArts)
find space for a 25-word review, despite good it was. The RPG based on the there was a lack of things to look forward
awarding the game 91%, and Arcade tabletop franchise earned the ire of Edge, to in the future. Join us again next time DREAMCAST
gave it 3/5 despite describing it as “2D which gave it 4/10. “The biggest fault to see how those things turned out. 1 Tony Hawk’s
fighting at its very best.” Skateboarding (Crave)
N64 Magazine could only find one UK
release to review this month, Konami’s 2 Resident Evil: Code
basketball sim NBA In The Zone 2000. Veronica (Eidos)
Sadly, it wasn’t anything to shout about – 3 Wacky Races (Infogrames)
despite receiving four pages of coverage 4 Crazy Taxi (Sega)
(likely due to necessity rather than
5 MDK2 (Interplay)
enthusiasm), the game got just 69%
from Alan Maddrell. The kicker was that
MUSIC
NBA Courtside 2 Featuring Kobe Bryant,
an import basketball game reviewed 1 Groovejet [If This Ain’t
immediately afterwards, scored 87% Love] (Spiller)
and would never receive a PAL release. 2 Out Of Your Mind
Also on import, the nostalgia-baiting (True Steppers/
duo of Namco Museum 64 and Space Bowers/Beckham)
Invaders received 70% and 73%
3 Rock DJ (Robbie Williams)
respectively. Game Boy Color owners
had more to choose from but still 4 I Turn To You (Melanie C)
struggled this month, with only Pro Pool [PC] What kind of vampire uses a massive chain gun to take out his enemies? 5 Lucky (Britney Spears)
RETRO GAMER | 15
Palace Of Magic
A DISCOVERY THREE DECADES IN THE MAKING
» BBC MICRO » 1987 » SUPERIOR SOFTWARE seem to suffer from, but it also has decent collision
» RETROREVIVAL
This BBC Micro release escaped my detection, tightly honed controls and a quick fluid pace to
attention on its debut, mainly because it that makes exploring the huge palace a joy rather than
I only knew a few people who owned a a chore. It’s also surprisingly complex with keys and other
BBC Micro when I was a kid. Luckily, we objects slowly opening up new sections of the sprawling
now live in the age of the internet, and it’s palace. I’ve seen it described in the same breath as
possible to discuss games with all sorts of people and even Metroid, but it’s not really on par with Nintendo’s gem, as
see what said games are like without the need to ever pop your main character never really expands his skills beyond
over to someone’s house. the ability to jump. It’s clear that a lot of thought has gone
I first came into contact with Martyn R Howard’s into Palace Of Magic’s level design, though, and if I still had
entertaining adventure game a few months back as it was access to gridded paper, I’d probably feel the itch to map it
being sold on a Facebook group that I’m a member of. It all out so I could uncover every last secret.
immediately caught my attention because there was a frog I came under fire a few months back because I
on the cover (I like frogs) along with a stylish-looking castle. professed my dislike of Chuckie Egg II, suggesting it had
I headed over to YouTube to get a little more information aged poorly (which it has). While I still believe that there
about it and felt it seemed interesting enough to warrant are a fair number of classic home computer games that
actually playing. are nowhere near as good as our rose-tinted memories of
I’m glad I gave it a whirl, because Howard’s game still them, it’s equally satisfying to discover plenty of
holds up exceptionally well today. Yes, it has the garish seemingly-forgotten titles that play as good now as they
eye-assaulting colours that so many BBC Micro games did on their original release.
16 | RETRO GAMER
RETRO GAMER | 17
on
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I m
i ve 0th r
inut its 3 mbe
dim es me l
C’s ach e re of ea
s NE le re y, w tion app
A nso sar ina ade et
co niver combd arcmark Nick
an its m an the . Join at
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18 | RETRO GAMER
PC ENGINE: IMPORT ICON
7 mo dAys
Nintendo and Sega, they are not even a spit in UK magazines in the early days when few (if
the ocean in terms of power and gameplay,” any) others did so. It was expensive with phone
& 4 d between PC Tony Takoushi gushed in his two-page feature calls and shipping but very exciting times,” says
pass
e unch introducing this technical marvel. “I have used all Tony, remembering his writing days. “I saw the
e’s la nd
Engin r 1987) a the superlatives in the past and yet none of them PC Engine in a Japanese magazine while I was
O c tobe ea d Of
(30 me,
D begin to be adequate when you come up against working for Virgin Mastertronic and mentioned it
al ga 2
its fin Brain 1 & the most powerful console in the world.” It’s often to Frank Herman, one of the directors, who was
The 99 9). said that if something sounds too good to be about to go to Japan on business. He returned
ne 1
(3 Ju true, then it usually is. However, hype will always with one and a few games – an RPG, Drunken
Master and a Namco platformer. Wow!” Despite
» [PC Engine] A special adaptor was needed for multiplayer games like
Bomberman ’93 due to the PC Engine only having one controller port. the fact that the console was impossible to
obtain in the UK, Tony continued to cover the PC
Engine in his Mean Machines sections. “I was
very lucky the editor Tim Metcalfe was awesome
and understood the excitement and impact of
these reviews, and letting people know what was
coming (hopefully) to our shores.”
The decision to run with the coverage despite
the machine’s lack of an official presence in the UK
proved to be the right move. “The response was
insane, everyone wanted to get it but NEC had no
plans to release in the UK, they were looking to a
US launch was best I heard. CVG got inundated
with mail asking for more info and reviews,”
remembers Tony. However, not everybody
welcomed the attention that the console was
gathering. “I decided to call NEC and see if they
were going to release/confirm arrival of the
RETRO GAMER | 19
PCE in Europe. I eventually got through to the
relevant person at NEC in Europe who said, ‘So
it was you that did the review… I’m seriously
thinking about putting a contract out on you for
the heat you’ve caused us!’”
Like the public, members of the press quickly
started paying attention to the new machine
based on the coverage it received in CVG. The
Games Machine featured a PC Engine cover
story in issue eight, which included repeated
references to the Mean Machines coverage,
and ACE also began to cover the machine. The
attention from multiformat magazines was
expected, but even the dedicated ZX Spectrum
» [PC Engine] Gate Of Thunder was available as a pack-in game for the American
magazine Crash would find itself giving the PC Turbo Duo alongside Bonk’s Adventure, Bonk’s Revenge and Bomberman.
Engine a few pages before the Eighties were over.
The console was simply too exciting to ignore. being editor of a Commodore 64 magazine,
Zzap!64 editor Julian ‘Jaz’ Rignall was also was starting to be drawn away from the home
paying attention. “I first heard about the PC computers. “At the time I was seriously getting
Engine in early 1988 through Computer & Video into consoles – I had both an NES and a Master
Games magazine’s original Mean Machines System – and this new-generation machine
column, which was written by freelancer Tony sounded very promising indeed.”
Takoushi. He was very enthusiastic about the Julian moved to CVG during 1988, and by the
system and its handful of games, and my end of the year he was a key part of the Mean
interest was well and truly piqued by his hype,” Machines column – and with that move came his
remembers the veteran journalist, who despite first chance to actually check out the PC Engine.
“I persuaded CVG editor Eugene Lacey to let me
expense a PC Engine for the office, and a week or
two later it arrived.” The experience wasn’t quite
what Julian had expected, however. “I was really
excited, but unfortunately it came with just two
669
games: Shanghai and Kato-Chan Ken-Chan.
While the latter was quite amusing for its crude
d
rd an ere sense of humour, neither game blew me away.
HuCa w
ga mes They were just okay.”
OM PC
CD-R ed for the
relea
s
Japan. o what was it that turned this
s
e in
Engin opinion around? “A couple of weeks
later we got hold of R-Type, and that
was absolutely sensational,” Julian
explains. “I loved the coin-op, so
getting the chance to play what felt like a carbon
copy at home was quite the revelation. That game
really showcased the PC Engine’s potential, and
immediately made me a huge fan of the system.
Over the following months more really high-
quality games were released, including Galaga
‘88, Legendary Axe, Alien Crush, Space Harrier and
Dragon Spirit. All helped make the PC Engine – in
my eyes at least – the single most desirable games
machine of the period.”
the complete
Here’s a guide to what you’ll need to play
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Tony Takoushi
lAsErdIsC
ld-rom2
Arcade CD-ROM
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2
11 games
11 games ■ Only playable on a Pioneer Laser
active
255 games ■ arcade Card Duo required on all
PC
■ Playable as standard on all PC
engine les with PC engine expansion module
engine Duo and super CD-RO m² conso
Duo and super CD-ROm² consoles al ■ Contains high-quality analogue video
■ arcade Card Pro required on origin
■ super system Card 3.0 or highe
r ■ Region-free
CD-ROm² add-on
required on original CD-ROm² add-on
RETRO GAMER | 21
“I ACTuAlly lovE
T T Ers ThAT wE dIdN’T
sIZE mA e is a famousl
y dinky
The PC Enginstacks up against other
piec e of gaming har
devices
dware – hAvE AN offICIAl
rElEAsE BECAusE
here’s how it wE goT All ThE
CAr Es
N TITlEs IN ThEIr
TrId
Leng
th: 1
gE
Width 3.3cm
PurEsT forms”
: 12c
Depth m Paul Weller
: 2cm
T
he import market didn’t go
unnoticed. Within a few months,
NEC would take out advertising
that warned users about imported
PC Engine consoles – they were
likely modified without NEC’s consent and the
mEgA company wouldn’t offer warranty support or
drIv repairs for them. Its intent as a deterrent against
Leng E import purchases was obvious, but went
th: 28
Width cm largely unheeded by players. As far as the
: 21.2
3
Depth cm
: 7cm public was concerned, the PC Engine was
available and NEC’s endorsement was
hIPs
no big deal – after all, the company still
N C – hadn’t come forward with any release
mAI gine
rI C En und plans to make waiting worthwhile.
the P
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make 6280A CP 6270
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ly : 27.3cm the H uC
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22 | RETRO GAMER
PC ENGINE: IMPORT ICON
12
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RETRO GAMER | 23
ersions – here’s
The PC Engine was famed for its conv to the originals
Out Run
Galaga ’88 NEC AVENUE, 1990
R-Type NAMCO, 1988 Out Run is generally considered
■ While the PC Engine version of
IREM, 1988 ■ The original p conversions, the arcade
■ This conversion was
to be the best of the early bunch of coin-o
arcade game uses a mons ter and Hudso n’s hardware could never
mindblowing in 1988, and Engine stays horizontal machine was a sprite
quite a 1:1 fit with the arcade vertically-oriented monitor, but the PC realistically hope to match its processing
power. There’s no sprite
it’s still impressive today. While it’s not with some small black borde rs makin g for a square playfield. The ll with this version, and
graph ically, you’d be hard-press ed to notice unless you put quality sprite work with scaling and fewer sprites on screen overa
game
also slightly weaker on the arcade game generally exhibits higher this opening stage misses the sea on the left-ha nd side of the road.
the two side by side. The sound is etic changes don’t mar
arcad e games were using FM superior shading, too. Thankfully, the cosm Still, it’s an admirable effort to say the least.
PC Engin e, which is comm on – most
an excellent blaster.
sound by this point.
emergence of the Super CD-ROM² format in digital comics, RPGs and adventure games with
1991 sent HuCard releases into decline, as the lavish animation and lots of speech. “CD-based
CD format allowed NEC some advantages over games opened up a whole new world which
the explosively popular Super Famicom, but was truly exciting to be a part of. We now had
Paul was still along for the ride. “The PC Engine stunning anime-style visual scenes, amazing
was always designed to have the CD add-on, music and the storage capability that allowed
4 , 8 0l0 and as such it felt like a natural progression of for some incredible games,” says Paul, and
0pr0
had to have one) so I was building up a good and Castlevania: Rondo Of Blood were simply
7 ,8 library of both CD and HuCard games, but mostly fantastic, and the CD-ROM system attracted more
¥5
e on
’s ic focussing on the CDs.” RPG conversions such as Might & Magic III and
² System 88).
ROM
CD- 2/19 /1 While some great arcade conversions were Dungeon Master. It’s hard to disgree when Paul
ch (4
laun released on disc including Pomping World says “To me, a PC Engine without a CD unit is
(better known as Pang) and Gradius II, the high only half a machine.”
capacity of CDs was more commonly used for Still, one last play for the arcade lover’s cash
was made in the form of 1994’s Arcade Card,
a CD-ROM add-on which gave the PC Engine
an additional two megabytes of RAM – a
preposterous amount by the standards of the
day, more suited to next-generation
machines. While it did allow the system
24 | RETRO GAMER
PC ENGINE: IMPORT ICON
9 , 8 030 ice
Fatal ¥ System Card 0/.019’s9p1)r.
Golden Axe Fury 2 Supe
r (25/1
RENOVATION, 1990 unch
0p0
HUDSON SOFT, 1994 on la
¥1de7Ca,r8
■ While many PC Engine ■ This late conversion
original – the PC Engine e on
arcade conversions comes surprisingly close to the Neo-Geo ’s ric
you still need to do your and some background d o 994).
Pr
are great, stinkers like this ensure that sprites aren’t quite as big and don’t scale,
3/1
must have felt well and truly ripped off the Mega Drive and Arca ch (1
2/0
research. CD-ROM owners detail is lost. However, it knocks spots laun
ged music and animated cutscenes do considering the cost of
off – while some nice arran SNES versions, which it frankly should
e well, the slugg ish contro ls and laughable of running it.
utilise the extra storag an Arcade CD-ROM² system capable
graphics ruin the experience.
to host the best conversions of Neo-Geo games, best ever”) and SonSon II.
it didn’t revitalise the system like the advent of “I took it down to Jeff Minter
Super CD-ROM² did – just 11 dedicated Arcade and we literally holed up for
CD-ROM² games came out. two days playing this game
between us and chowed down,
aul is still heavily involved in the one of my best memories from
RETRO GAMER | 25
NES Advantage
» PlAtform: NES » rElEASEd: 1987 » CoSt: £39.95 (lauNch), £30+ (today, boxEd), £10+ (today, looSE)
Nintendo’s official joystick for the NES time, but soon became a popular inclusion on
might not seem like much given the controllers for all formats. Finally, the controller
standard of arcade-style controllers that actually includes two connectors and a switch
would follow, but for the late Eighties it to choose between player 1 and 2, so that
was a trailblazing product. As well as the both players can use the NES Advantage in
small joystick and four regular buttons, the multiplayer games where players take turns.
NES Advantage had some neat tricks of its The NES Advantage is a treat for any fan of
own. First of all, the A and B buttons offered the NES aesthetic, as the design and colour
a turbo fire option, with individual activation scheme mimic those of the console itself.
switches and adjustable speed dials to achieve The large buttons are satisfyingly
the optimum rate of fire. There was also springy, and while the joystick
a switch marked ‘Slow’, which achieved a isn’t microswitched, the
slow-motion effect by rapidly hitting the start ball-top design is at least a
button, pausing and resuming the game in familiar one to regular
progress. This feature was unheard of at the arcadegoers.
PERIPHERAL VISION: NES ADVANTAGE
NES
Advantage
Fact
■ The NES Advantage makes a
memorable cameo during the climax
of Ghostbusters II, as it was used to
control the Statue Of Liberty as
it walked through
New York.
maYinHem
monsterland
ne
Unpaid roYalt ies and a fading C64 sCeto
ConvinCed JoHn and steve rowlands p. rorY
ow-U
self-pUblisH tHeir CreatUres 2 foll nsterland
milne learns How tHeY Created mo
t
he dealings that developers John and
Steve Rowlands had with publisher
Thalamus during the early Nineties is
a story in and of itself. Suffice to say,
that experience, coupled with declining
demand for Commodore 64 games, persuaded the
talented brothers to go down the self-publishing route
for their next project. “We were chasing Thalamus
IN THE for unpaid royalties when they went bankrupt, so we
KNOW never received any royalties for either Creatures title,”
John begins. “After that, we decided to release the
» Publisher: APEX
COMPUTER PRODUCTIONS next game ourselves. The C64 market was reducing
» DeveloPer: – everybody was going on to 16-bit – but we had
STEVE AND JOHN a name for ourselves in the market. We wanted to
ROWLANDS
produce something we were really proud of, and we
» releaseD: 1993
didn’t care if we only sold a fraction of the amount as
» Platform: C64
we were going to get all the money.”
» Genre: PLATFORMER
Equally adept at creating hardcore
shoot-‘em-ups and cartoon-style
platformers, the Rowlands team opted
to keep working in the latter subgenre
for its first self-published title. “By the
time we had finished Retrograde, we
had been in that zone for years doing
28 | RETRO GAMER
THE MAKING OF: MAYHEM IN MONSTERLAND
tHe
remarkable
rowlands
Selected titles from the Rowlands
brothers’ gameography
retrograde 1989
■ There’s more to Retrograde
than its Defender-like core design
might suggest. The game’s twist
is that credits collected from
fallen enemies can be used to buy
upgrades to your character’s initially
underpowered gear. With enough funds, Planetbusters
» [C64] A big green monster feels the busine
ss end of a can be purchased, which give access to vertically-
speeding Mayhem’s horn.
scrolling platformer sections guarded by huge bosses.
RETRO GAMER | 29
» [C64] Having run past an arch to mark his restart point, Mayhem
collects a few stars.
then Theo Saurus does his thing with the magic and
then things change.”
But rather than creating Theo Saurus from scratch,
John recalls him being rescued from a batch of
abandoned projects that the team had previously let
their imaginations run riot on. “They were almost
like sub-games, he says.” Theo Saurus was the
only thing that we recycled from those – the little
a precious life. dinosaur, and he was just a very small part really; he
» [C64] A momentary loss of concentration under a Rockland waterfall costs Mayhem
was there after each stage.” Steve adds: “Mayhem
his environment. “We had come up with the idea of was all dinosaurs anyway, so it was a natural thing
“wizball was tHe having this ‘happy’ and ‘sad’ world,” John remembers.
“Wizball was the inspiration for how we started it off
to do. But it’s not like we had a design for the Theo
Saurus game, other than a big dinosaur stomping on
inspiration for black and white and coloured it in. But with Wizball, it
got coloured and you moved on with no change to the
villagers! I think it was the name, pretty much, that
we took to Mayhem.”
How we started gameplay, we wanted to change the way Mayhem
a
played once it had changed its mode.” s well as reimagining Theo, Steve
it off blaCk Of course, the logistics of how Mayhem would
cheer up Monsterland remained, and so Steve littered
also ensured that Monsterland lived
up to its name by creating a wealth
and wHi te and the plucky little dinosaur’s world with collectible
bags of magic dust and gave him a best friend called
of increasingly challenging monsters
for Mayhem to encounter. “Every new
ColoUred it in” Theo. “The magic dust came from us wanting to do level I had a whole new set of characters to design,
the happy and sad thing, but how did we transition and they got progressively harder. There were three
John Rowlands
between them? So you’ve got to have the magic dust, or four normal monsters and one or two double-sized
ones every level – one of my favourites was the black
cucumber one!”
Besides looking different from one another, Steve’s
monsters also all behaved differently, which John
puts down to their game’s use of multiload. “It was a
blinkY CJ tHe
tHe gHost elepHant
■ Blinky the platforming ghost didn’t ■ Dave Clarke and Jonathan
do anything revolutionary, but his Smyth were something of a C64
capers won plaudits across formats. hits machine, with their two CJ
Blinky’s Scary School is a collect- platformers arguably being their
’em-up, but the more accomplished best-remembered titles. Elephant
sUperkid Titanic Blinky mixes platforming with edd tHe dUCk Antics and CJ In The USA offer nobbY tHe
■ The original Spectrum Superkid shooting and puzzles. ■ Despite being an irritating compelling two-player challenges. aardvark
games reviewed well, but were puppet on children’s TV, Edd The ■ Most C64 platformers fall short
largely overlooked. This is a shame, Duck’s videogame is actually of Mayhem In Monsterland, but
as they provide undemanding fun. pretty decent. Although it channels Nobby The Aardvark is arguably
Admittedly, Superkid lacks replay Rainbow Islands, Zeppelin’s vibrant an exception. As well as tricky
value, but Superkid In Space cleverly vertical platformer is very much an platforming, the aardvark must
riffs on Exolon, and Skatin’ USA original title, which revolves around also pilot everything from a hot-air
offers nicely skewed platforming. amassing stars and freezing foes. balloon to a submarine.
30 | RETRO GAMER
THE MAKING OF: MAYHEM IN MONSTERLAND
» Designer/coder John
Rowlands (left) and
designer/artist /musician
Steve Rowlands (right).
b
chunky. But they came about because we didn’t have ut in order to get the maximum impact
the memory – or sometimes the onscreen sprites.” from the attack, the brothers decided
But given Mayhem’s numerous foes – both big and to throttle Mayhem’s velocity on
small – it seemed only fair that the brothers give their their game’s first level by withholding
baby dinosaur some offensive moves. Steve recollects his charge and making it a level two
a console favourite and John’s need for speed inspiring power-up, as John explains. “The point of the
two quite distinct attacks. “Because Mario had players collecting the charge ability when they had
the jump attack, we had to do that – it was a basic completed the first sad stage and gone into the first
platformer thing. Then once we got the fast scrolling happy stage was that they had spent 20 minutes,
working you were never going to be able to see what half an hour, playing the game at that speed. Then by
was coming. That was when, from a gameplay point introducing them to that ability it was like: ‘Wow!’ So it
of view, Mayhem had to be doing something where was getting them used to what they thought was the
he was killing things – because [otherwise] he could game’s speed and then whacking it right up.”
RETRO GAMER | 31
“we were trYing
to enCoUrage
plaYers to
eXplore and not
JUst take tHings
at faCe valUe”
John Rowlands
t
monsters so you could charge them.” he brothers also devised a novel
But in order to make their game more than a ending for the colourful versions of
high-speed monster mash, the Rowlands brothers their game’s levels, where Mayhem
hid bonuses, such as extra lives and time, around was required to run – or skilfully skid
Monsterland. “We were trying to encourage players – over a chequered section in order
to explore a bit and not just take things at face value,” to complete them. “A lot of people would just run
John reasons. “It wasn’t just charging around at 100 across the line,” Steve notes. “It was hard to time
miles per hour, it had elements of exploring and being the skid to get across them, but it was something to
rewarded for that. And also at that speed you would be do right at the end. Another little bonus.” John adds:
missing out things in the landscape that went past in a “And the chequered line – the look of that – was easy
blur if you were charging.” to identify. Whatever the world looked like, as soon as
you saw the black and white checks you knew that
was where you had to go to. And obviously you
saw it in sad versions of the levels, so you thought:
‘Right, I know when I complete the happy version
where I’m going to.’”
Final touches to the Rowlands’ seemingly ever-
evolving game, by this stage known as Mayhem
In Monsterland, included atmospheric pre-level
animations depicting forthcoming terrains. “The ‘Get
32 | RETRO GAMER
THE MAKING OF: MAYHEM IN MONSTERLAND
maYHem’s
magiC dUst
The Mayhem sequel that you’ve
likely never played
Despite the 11-year
gap between Mayhem
In Monsterland and the
initial incarnation of its
sequel Mayhem’s Magic
Dust, Steve Rowlands and
Robin Ellis’s mobile and
browser-based follow-up
is remarkably faithful to
its predecessor in terms
of both visuals and level of challenge.
Due to Magic Dust’s smartphone origins,
Mayhem’s return sees him restricted to a small
number of actions; he can walk, jump, and duck.
Mayhem’s second outing also proceeds at a far
more sedate pace than his irst. But this is no bad
thing, as the dinosaur’s quest for magic dust is all
about accuracy. Mayhem has to jump on the heads
» [C64] “Don’t you know about the bird? Well everybod of opponents while avoiding the business ends of
y knows that the bird is the word!”
their spikes and beaks. The reward for pulling this
of a set number of times is a bag – or bags – of
Ready’ screen was actually afforded a little bit of John says of Mayhem’s perfect score in Commodore magic dust, which when collected provide Mayhem
memory!” John enthuses. “So we went through quite Format. “It was only afterwards we started to think with Star Strike power-ups. These are essential
a few different ideas for that. Then we hit on a little that it could actually have a negative impact on the when it comes to taking down Magic Dust’s seven
parallax-scrolling window with lightning or whatever. perception of the game. But I don’t think it hindered bosses. A single Star Strike will deplete a boss’s
So there was always a lot of throwing out of ideas, sales, and because we released it ourselves we were energy bar far more successfully than a standard
you had to be willing to invest time and effort before essentially on a hundred percent royalty.” jump, but multiple Star Strikes can be chained
saying: ‘No, that doesn’t work – bin it.’” With the benefit of hindsight, Steve Rowlands now together to devastating efect.
The Rowlands also invested time and effort views Mayhem as a job well done and a project he very Enhancing Magic Dust’s superlative core design
playtesting their game, with the result that they much enjoyed working on. “I’m pleased with Mayhem; are mechanics inherited from Monsterland, such
ended up as expert players of their increasingly it was how we wanted it, other than it being a bit hard as rainbow gates to set restart points, and fresh
challenging platformer. “Because it was the title that to play. I remember it being a pretty good time.” John features like each life consisting of six ‘mini-lives’
we playtested and refined the most, we got quite Rowlands is frustrated that Mayhem In Monsterland is – represented by hearts – that when lost can
good at it,” John says modestly. “And as a side-effect often remembered for a decades-old percentage score, be chased ater and retrieved.
of that we released a game that most other people but he only has fond memories of its development and Play Mayhem’s Magic Dust for free at
took a long time to get good at.” On reflection, Steve dreams of someday creating a full sequel. “Over the mayhemsmagicdust.com.
views Mayhem In Monsterland’s difficulty as being years it’s been controversial because of the 100%
reasonable: “Some levels were harder than others, and score, and it’s taken a little bit away from all
some sections of levels were harder than others – as its achievements. But every couple of
with all sprite-based platformers. But we could do it, years, I have dreams that we’re back
and coming up to the end of the game we wanted to working on a sequel, because it was
give players a challenge.” my favourite game. Those days on
Difficulty curve aside, Mayhem In Monsterland Mayhem were the most creative,
was released to unanimous acclaim, with one review free days we ever had.”
famously giving the game a 100% overall rating. “At
the time, we were ecstatic – we got very drunk!” Many thanks to John and
Steve Rowlands for returning
to Monsterland.
RETRO GAMER | 33
CLASSIC MOMENTS
Phoenix
» Platform: ARCADE » DeveloPer: CENTURI/TAITO » releaseD: 1980
MORE CLASSIC
PHOENIX MOMENTS
Shoot the stomach
The third and fourth stages of
Phoenix has you encountering
large eagle-like Phoenixes
that hatch from eggs and
transform into deadly killer
birds that do their best to turn
your ship into a smouldering
wreck. Shooting off the wings
simply cause them to regenerate, meaning you
need a direct hit on their bellies to split them in
half so you can finish your quest.
BIO
Apparently, no one knows the
developer that was responsible
Shields up! for creating Phoenix. What we
One of the mechanics that do know is that Centuri and Taito
set Phoenix apart from other published the game in arcades
shooters at the time was its with Atari taking control of the sole
shield, which enabled you to home conversion for the Atari 2600.
absorb enemy bullets for a Similar in style to Gorf, Phoenix
few precious moments. While tasks you with shooting your way
it’s typically used as a defence through a number of distinctly
mechanism, if you’re feeling different stages before you finally
ballsy you can use it as a weapon, raising it at encountered one of the first bosses
just the right moment so that an enemy ship flies to ever appear in a videogame.
straight into it. Blam! Needless to say it’s a memory that
would stay with you forever.
HAVE YOUR SAY AT THE
35TH ANNIVERSARY OF
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VOTING OPENS
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Ultimate
gUide
to
1982 was
arcades. a big
titles sUchyear
as in the
scramble
had set
generation the tone,
of games bUt
were a new
pUshing
the limits. strap in to yoUr
it’s time for a moon patrol! bUggy,
t’s a tough life being a police officer in Its six wheels also have a special power – they
» [Arcade] Moon
Patrol ’s city,
sweetly lit up on one
side by the sun.
36 | RETRO GAMER
shoot for the moon
How to survive your excursion onto the satellite
A ROLLING STONE ENEMY MINE
■ Several inclines pepper the moon ■ One touch of these glowing mines
landscape, and while they contain no and it’s wheels everywhere for our
craters, rolling rocks of various sizes brave moon buggy. Naturally, they
must be negotiated. Most simply, must be approached with caution,
they require blasting, but often quick- and the spacing of the mines is often
wheeled jumping is required, too, and demonically narrow. The layouts can be
there are some horrible combinations of conquered first time by taking it slow
rock in the latter levels. and manipulating the buggy mid-air.
RETRO GAMER | 37
coleco cUriosity
We talk to Matthew Householder, author of the completed, but originally
I played it for several
unreleased, Colecovision port of Moon Patrol hours a day
So how did you get involved
with Moon Patrol?
Did you change the game at all?
I added some personal touches. I modelled the
until I could get
I had been hired by Atari to join
their in-house ColecoVision game
irst section’s graphics on my ride to work which
included a series of seemingly-endless foothills
through the
development group. Atarisot
[the division of Atari that published games on
and a coastal mountain range. I also redesigned
the cityscape to have a more modern ‘Jetsons’
beginner course
Matthew Householder
non-Atari systems] was our publishing label feel to it rather than the naturalistic, organic
and I was assigned to convert the arcade sprites of the original. It used fewer graphic
enemies on the ground, in the form of bright
game Vanguard. I spent a month learning elements that way, and I preferred the look, too.
yellow tanks and flying cars. These must be either
the Colecovision hardware and ZAX Z80 The exploding buggy is more elaborate too, with
shot or jumped over, otherwise its curtains for
development system and during that time I a little mini mushroom cloud that morphs into a
your valiant hero. Even worse, the devils have
designed a sotware-scrolling background skull as it collapses.
placed landmines within certain sectors, and have
engine to use with the Vanguard port as the
a propensity for rolling rocks down at the buggy
Colecovision has no hardware scrolling. Then, Sounds like fun! What happened then –
whenever it climbs an incline. The moon is fighting
in September 1983, I was told to drop that and why was the game unreleased?
you, too: some craters are occupied by volcano-
convert Moon Patrol instead. Throughout my employment, it was rumoured
esque plants that try to grab the buggy as it flies
Atari had been losing more than $1 million
over them. This is no ordinary patrol.
What did you think of Moon Patrol? dollars a day. Rumours were spreading that no
I was happier, as it was a better game, but more Atarisot titles would be published ater
oon Patrol was released in arcades in
realised it would be more challenging work,
too. A machine soon turned up in our oice. No
source code or graphics were provided, but I
had the keys to the machine and its operator
manual. I played it for several hours a day
until I could get through the beginner course
and most of the championship course. Then I
set the DIP switches to allow me to pause the
machine as I played in ‘God’ mode, allowing me
some unnamed title, so I slapped a quick title
screen on it and submitted it to testing. But then
it stalled, and in May 1984 Atarisot was closed.
Fortunately, I kept the ROM image and my
design documents and then made a few quick
art changes. In 2014, a reconstructed version of
Moon Patrol was manufactured and distributed
to a handful of fans. I have a copy.
m 1982 by Irem, with Williams handling
distribution in the west. Generally
assumed to have been designed by
Takashi Nishiyama (Kung-Fu Master), it, along
with Taito’s Jungle Hunt, is one of the first side-on
games to contain parallax scrolling. Each of the
three levels of gameplay scroll at a different rate,
giving an excellent impression of depth, despite
the fact that the majority of the action takes place
to reverse engineer how far apart the craters
at the bottom of the screen. The game contains
were, how may UFOs there were, how they
five stages which are made up of a series of
behaved, how high the buggy jumped, and
checkpoints based on the alphabet. Each stage
so on. I employed the sophisticated tools of a
comprises of five letters (except for the last, which
pencil, pad of paper and ruler.
has the extra letter) and these checkpoints mark not
only the player’s progress, but also the restart point
How long did it take?
should a buggy be destroyed. The display above
Through to March 1984. I wrote the code,
the action screen contains the data you’d expect
created the sound efects and drew the
(timeline style map, score, number of lives left)
graphics. All the art was done on graph paper
as well as three coloured indicators that warn the
and then converted by eye into hexadecimal as I » [ColecoVision] The ColecoVision version of Moon Patrol player of incoming hazards. The top light indicates
typed it into the assembly source code iles. surfaced in 2014.
38 | RETRO GAMER
ULTIMATE GUIDE: MOON PATROL
clone Killers
Can’t afford/be bothered with an official licence? Just tweak the game and away you go!
impending attacks from above, the middle one of » The arcade flyer for
Moon Patrol looks
mines ahead, and the final light of an imminent suitably epic and
attack from behind. At the end of each stage, the makes you excited to
player is rewarded for their speediness in crossing play the game.
RETRO GAMER | 39
conversion capers
atari 2600 atari 8-bit
■ This is a decent conversion that plays well. ■ While maybe not as fast as the Atari 5200
The buggy itself may not much resemble its version, that fact helped Moon Patrol on the
arcade parent (it’s sleeker here), but many of 8-bit Atari in the playability stakes. It’s still a
the game’s elements remain, although the tough game, however, but fun to play despite
similarity of the enemy bombs to the player’s lacking certain graphical resemblances to the
own missiles doesn’t help survival. Oh, and original, although there’s a pleasant attempt
the rocks look like doggy poo. at the cityscape and parallax scrolling.
apple ii
■ A propensity for the action to slow down
atari 5200
■ Apart from an ugly attempt at interpreting
when the screen gets busy and a rather jarring the iconic buggy, this is a neat version of
tune ruins what is otherwise a competent Moon Patrol. The graphics, especially the
port. The buggy looks good and the levels are mountainous backdrops, are close to superior
represented well. And, like the original itself, to the arcade original and the game moves at
the hit detection is a little off, sometimes to a very quick pace, retaining many frustrations
the player’s advantage! as well. But that buggy… ugh.
commodore 64
■ This C64 port is an excellent game, despite
msX
■ While it introduces a few extra elements,
lacking some graphical finesse. While it lacks such as a buggy driver popping out of the
the city backdrop, the parallax scrolling is ice-white vehicle every time it crashes, the
emulated well, the buggy is easy to control, MSX version struggles to reproduce the pace
and the action is fast and furious. Just as and excitement of the arcade original. A
rock hard as the arcade original, this is great garish yellow city and some juddery scrolling
blasting fun with some meaty sound effects. don’t help things, either.
colecovision
■ Matthew Householder’s ColecoVision
game boy color
■ Released as part of a double arcade hits
game finally saw the light of day a few years compilation along with Spy Hunter, the Game
ago and is an admirable port, making it a Boy Color proved adept at converting both
shame it wasn’t released back in the day. games, despite a predictable lack of clarity
Despite some ‘odd’ graphics, it copies the in the sound department. Otherwise, it’s
arcade game well. The moon city has a more well-presented and a nice throwaway blaster
modern look to it as well. for the system.
t1-99/4a
■ Okay, so it’s a little cute buggy; apart from
ZX spectrUm
■ This unreleased port to the ZX Spectrum
this strange departure from the original, has been recovered recently and is available
though this is a reasonably faithful port on the online. Visually it looks good, but it plays
Texas Instruments computer. Again, the screen so slowly that virtually every iota of fun is
seems cramped and the high score table is sucked out of the game. This probably went
at the bottom instead of top, but otherwise a unreleased due to Atarisoft’s withdrawal from
decent attempt at recreating the lunar spills. the Spectrum market.
sord m5
■ Outside of the arcade game, this version
vic-20
■ There’s little to recommend in Atarisoft’s
on the Sord M5 computer boasts the jolliest Vic-20 port of Moon Patrol. Most of the
rendition of Moon Patrol’s theme tune. background scenery has gone and the
Published (apparently legitimately, considering gameplay is too slow and cramped to be
it mentions Irem on the front cover) by Takara, truly enjoyable. Plus the buggy makes a
it’s also a respectable take on the game albeit horrible chugging sound that we really could
with some creative level design. have done without.
40 | RETRO GAMER
ULTIMATE GUIDE: MOON PATROL
RETRO GAMER | 41
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Popils: The Blockbusting Challenge
This block-punching puzzle game was originally intended to come to a variety
of platforms, including PC Engine and Famicom, but Tengen only ever released
it for Sega’s handheld platform, making it one of the few great Game Gear
exclusives. The game is the brainchild
of Bubble Bobble designer Fukio
Mitsuji, and contains 100 levels in which
your goal is to rescue the princess.
Unfortunately walls, portals, spikes, bats
and slime monsters stand in your way,
making for a brain-busting challenge. And
if you somehow finish all of those, there’s
an edit mode which allows you to make
your own levels.
44 | RETRO GAMER
HARDWARE HEAVEN: GAME GEAR
Game Gear
» Manufacturer: Sega » Year: 1990 » cost: £99 (launch), £40+ (today)
ega was late to enter the handheld The result of this decision was a system that
RETRO GAMER | 45
35
35 Years
games
zx spectrum
the
1984 lords
of midnight
DEVELOPER: Mike Singleton GENRE: Strategy adventure
Ultimate carried on where it had left visually, thanks to Mike’s inventive
off, releasing several more Spectrum ‘Landscaping’ system), dozens of
classics this year including Atic Atac, playable characters and multiple
Sabre Wulf and the groundbreaking ways of seizing victory, this sprawling
Knight Lore. Any one of those was a strategy adventure shouldn’t really have
contender for 1984’s best game, as were been possible on the Spectrum with
Graftgold’s Avalon and Microsphere’s its limited hardware and meagre 48K
Skool Daze, but there’s one title that memory. But Mike brought the land
comes out on top for being both of Midnight to life and everyone who
technically brilliant and brilliantly fun. trekked, battled, cowered and bluffed
The Lords Of Midnight, developed their way across its icy wastes will
by Mike Singleton and published by know that The Lords Of Midnight was
Beyond, was so advanced that it made simply peerless on release. Even the
The Hobbit look like a type-in listing. follow-up, 1985’s Doomdark’s Revenge,
Featuring 4,000 locations (all depicted struggled to top the seminal original.
1983 Jetpac
DEVELOPER: ultiMate GENRE: Shoot-‘eM-up
‘From famine to feast’: that sums up the Spectrum’s early years. There
1983 basically. The Spectrum was were many single-screen shooters
suddenly everywhere, with Sinclair around at the time, but this was just so
reportedly selling half a million polished, so professional, that it could
machines by August 1983. The userbase have come straight out of the arcades.
exploded and so did the number of The objective of warily refuelling your
amazing games available. Sandy White’s space rocket while blasting aliens was
Ant Attack pioneered the isometric simple yet compulsive. Yes, colours
adventure while Matthew Smith’s Manic clashed and sprites flickered but
Miner redefined the platform game. there’s arguably never been a better
And then a brand-new outfit from the example of a pick-up-and-play game
Midlands went and produced the purest for the Spectrum – and it still holds up
arcade experience yet on the Spectrum. today. Jetpac was just the beginning for
Jetpac was the debut offering Ultimate: Pssst, Cookie, Tranz Am and
from Ultimate Play The Game, the Jetpac sequel Lunar Jetman all arrived
software house that would dominate before the year was out.
RETRO GAMER | 45
1986 turbo esprit
DEVELOPER: durell Software GENRE: driving
In this year Sinclair launched the freely navigate. The objective was to catch
Spectrum 128, a new model that was drug runners but for most players there
supposed to usher in the next generation was joy in simply driving around, obeying
of Speccy games. That didn’t happen, of traffic lights, zebra crossings, junctions
course, as most publishers were happy to and the general rules of the road – or more
continue releasing standard 48K games with likely, flouting them. Even now, we feel
some token 128 improvements (Rainbird’s desperately sorry for those little guys on
Starglider and Mastertronic’s Knight Tyme their ladders, just going about their work.
were two early exceptions). It didn’t matter
too much as the flow of amazing 48K games
continued with gems like The Great Escape,
The Trap Door and Quazatron.
1985 chaos
DEVELOPER: Julian gollop GENRE: turn-BaSed coMBat
Turbo Esprit from programmer
Mike Richardson was another title that
showcased what could be achieved on the
bog-standard Speccy. It was essentially an
With each passing year more and more Julian had been developing the game for 8-bit prototype of Driver from Reflections,
amazing games were made available years, initially as a board game played presenting ‘living’ 3D cities which you could
for the Spectrum. 1985 saw the release between friends, so the computer version
of many fan favourites including Fairlight, was impressively deep and perfectly
Saboteur, Cyclone, Highway Encounter balanced. And when eight human players
and Tau Ceti. This was also the year that were locked in battle, hurling gold
Acornsoft’s all-conquering Elite finally dragons and gooey blobs around the
docked onto the Spectrum and easily place, it was, well, chaos.
justified the hype surrounding it. The game might not have been a hit
1987
In comparison, Chaos was not a game
that people were waiting for. Creator
Julian Gollop was hardly known and
when first released but over the years it
has attracted a devoted following. Many
will have discovered it retrospectively
head over heels
DEVELOPER: ocean Software GENRE: iSoMetric adventure
publisher Games Workshop was better thanks to Your Sinclair magazine, which Isometric adventures were hugely popular characters, with their own strengths
known as a developer of board games included it on two separate cover tapes on the Spectrum. Ultimate showed with and weaknesses, which you could flick
than computer games. The game’s in 1990 and 1993. The magazine billed it Knight Lore and Alien 8 that the Spectrum’s between. And when reunited (which was
appearance certainly didn’t help sell it as a “true classic” and it’s impossible to processor had the grunt to make isometric the game’s first task), you could join them
in the press, thanks to the sparse black argue with that. presentation work well, and then pretty up and take on the evil Blacktooth Empire
backgrounds and tiny, twitching sprites. much everyone else followed its lead. together. Head Over Heels was cute, clever,
But if there was ever a game where Games like Sweevo’s World, Movie and devious and delightful. The graphics and
its design triumphed over graphics Batman not only optimised the technique animation were excellent and so was the
then Chaos was it. Up to eight warring but also added their own unique traits sound (on the 128K version at least). All in
wizards battled it out on the ‘Plane Of and quirks. This progression peaked with all, this was an instant Spectrum classic
Limbo’, taking turns to unleash their Head Over Heels. and yet another hit for Ocean which was
spells and be the last sorcerer standing. Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond’s finding form after a few uneven years.
The spells were randomly apportioned, follow-up to their Batman game may have
so every game played out differently. lacked a popular licence but it was strong
enough to succeed on reputation alone. Its
key feature was to introduce two playable
on spec
Julian gollop
The legendary designer talks about Chaos
On creating Chaos as a computer game
I was able to add an extraordinary game mechanic – the
illusion system. The idea was that you could summon a
creature as an illusion and they would behave as normal but they could be
‘disbelieved’ by any other player. I still saw Chaos as primarily a multiplayer
game, but the AI proved to be pretty cool – something you can’t really do
for a board game. Many players loved to play a co-op game against the AI
wizards before turning on each other.
On the Spectrum
The Speccy was absolutely essential for my career. For strategy games it
was great because you had a whopping 48K available and it was cheaper
than the alternatives. Not only was I able to persuade my parents to buy
me one but I was able to make fairly sophisticated games for it. And the ZX
microdrives never let me down!
46 | RETRO GAMER
THE ZX SPECTRUM: 35 YEARS, 35 GAMES
1989 mYth
Developer: concept aniMationS Genre: adventure
This was the year of Robocop. Ocean’s graphics and animation (the driving rain
blockbuster film tie-in was released and lightning strikes on the Viking stage
at the end of 1988 and dominated the were like something from a 16-bit title).
sales charts throughout 1989. With such The controls were a bit iffy (pressing
emphasis of licensed properties games, down to jump?), and the shoot-’em-up
like Myth, were easy to overlook. But finale felt bolted on, but overall Myth
not here, not now. was an experience that felt like it
Myth was basically a traditional had been crafted with great care and
arcade adventure dressed up to the attention. It was the kind of game you’d
nines. You played a young boy travelling imagine Ultimate would be making had
through time, solving clever puzzles in it not quit the Spectrum scene.
order to defeat demons and dragons
and other mythical beasts. Each
stage was almost like a spectacle that
kept unfolding, and the whole thing
was enlivened by the most fantastic
1988 r-tYpe
Developer: Software StudioS Genre: Shoot-’eM-up
By this point the Spectrum market screen-filling bosses, and squeeze it
was becoming increasingly dominated all onto the Speccy with any degree
by coin-op conversions. That was not of accuracy? Programmer Bob Pape
necessarily a bad thing, as there had somehow managed it, delivering
been genuinely excellent attempts not only the number one coin-op
(Bomb Jack from Elite, Renegade from conversion for the Spectrum but also
Imagine, and Bubble Bobble from one of the best games for the machine
Firebird being just three). Yet the whole period. Some suspect witchcraft was
circus surrounding US Gold’s hopelessly involved in pushing the Spectrum to its
optimistic version of Out Run did leave a absolute limits, but by reading the story
sour taste behind. behind R-Type in Bob’s free PDF book
Hopes weren’t particularly high It’s Behind You, you’ll discover that he
for the Spectrum version of R-Type. was a meticulous coder who chewed
How could anyone conceivably take through problem after problem and
the hottest shooter in the arcades, simply wouldn’t settle for second best.
with its crazy array of weapons and An absolutely sublime conversion.
rainbow
1990
islands Developer: graftgold
Genre: platforMer
on spec
steve turner
The developer looks over the rainbow
Colour clash was the Spectrum problem that never The Spectrum version was handled by Graftgold
went away and one of the most common ways of which made the most of the Spectrum’s vibrant palette, on developing Rainbow Islands
avoiding it was to opt for a two-colour display. This throwing reds, yellows, cyans and magentas all over the at Gratgold
resulted in too many monochrome titles that didn’t clash place. The criminally overlooked ‘bright’ variants were The rainbows were a particular problem as
but looked plain drab. Clearly this wasn’t an option for also splashed about. Obviously, the character sprites they were huge colourful sprites. The game did
Rainbow Islands, as doing it in monochrome would have and the rainbows themselves couldn’t be multi-coloured not suit the Spectrum, but programmer David
caused an outcry (and possibly contravened the UK’s on the Spectrum, but otherwise this was a bright and O’Connor did a brilliant job. He was determined
Trade Descriptions Act in some way). After all, this was beautiful game. It played really well, too, and featured to get the gameplay elements correct so it
a conversion of a coin-op that was almost incandescent. all of the content from the coin-op (bar the three played just like the original. He invented a way
secret islands, as per most of the home conversions). of packing the maps so he could squeeze the data into the
The game also performed admirably, barely slowing Spectrum’s memory. He also understood the key to playability
down even when the screen was really busy, and was was a high framerate.
enhanced for 128K machines with AY tunes and effects
being the main addition. on the Spectrum
Rainbow Islands was published by Ocean which was The Spectrum was an essential element to the beginning of
enjoying another strong year, particularly with its Gratgold. At the time there was no other machine that sold in
coin-op conversions. In addition to Rainbow Islands it the numbers required to give a userbase big enough to make
also published excellent versions of Midnight Resistance games development viable. It was cheap and easy to develop
by Special FX and Pang by Arc Developments. Towards for. It was all down to programming techniques, rather than
the end of the year Ocean announced that it would focus inding tricks with chips. Everything had to be built from the
on 128K-only games going forward. Would this decision ground up, giving a good standing for more complex machines.
spell the end for the trusty 48K Spectrum?
RETRO GAMER | 47
spellbound
1991
dizzY theturbo
1992
tortoise
DEVELOPER: Big red Software GENRE: adventure DEVELOPER: viSual iMpact GENRE: platforMer
Owners of 48K models needn’t animations, but the whole adventure Another year where budget titles heads (or shooting them with a handy
have worried about Ocean’s run perfectly on the standard 48K outshone full-price releases. Ocean’s gun). Waiting at the end of each stage was
decision to overlook them as most iteration of the Speccy. Space Gun and The Addams Family were a large boss which you had to defeat, and
publishers continued to support the This year also saw a couple of pretty solid, as was US Gold’s Indiana there were a number of bonus levels to
original machine. This was particularly high-profile 16-bit releases ported Jones And The Fate of Atlantis, but the big find, too. Turbo The Tortoise was release
true of the budget publishers who began down to the Spectrum in Lemmings and publishers were clearly focusing on the twice – first by Hi-Tec, which went bust
to pick up the slack as the number of North & South. Both were decent versions 16-bit market now. Codemasters was still soon after, before being picking up and put
full-price releases noticeably declined. and showed that the Speccy was still a reliably cranking out budget games like out again by (guess who…) Codemasters.
Codemasters was the king of budget viable platform for the latest hits. Captain Dynamo and Wild West Seymour,
publishers and Dizzy was its prince. This, yet it was this brilliant little platformer
the fifth in the main Dizzy series, was his from Hi-Tec Software that stood out.
biggest adventure yet with 105 screens in Turbo The Tortoise was obviously riffing
total (the original Dizzy had 52 screens in heavily on Sonic The Hedgehog, although
comparison). It was also one of the best in the game had more in common with
the series, featuring some strong puzzles Super Mario Bros. in terms of gameplay
and fun sequences including a mine cart and presentation. As Turbo, you bounded
ride. It was best played on a 128K machine through six horizontally-scrolling stages,
as it included AY music and extra character disposing of baddies by jumping on their
1993
dalek attack 1995 twilight
DEVELOPER: ultraSoft
DEVELOPER: 221B Software GENRE: point-and-click adventure
GENRE: platforMer
Subtitled Land Of Shadows, this was another impressive
In the UK releases reduced to a trickle this year. The release from Ultrasoft that successfully implemented
titles were Nigel Mansell’s World Championship from a point-and-click adventure on the Spectrum. You play
Gremlin and this, Alternative’s long-awaited Doctor Who an astronaut returning to a barren Earth in the distant
game (which was due out in 1992 but kept slipping). future. It doesn’t feature too many locations and can be
Bizarrely it was a run-and-gun platformer but it was fast finished quickly, but
and mostly fun. Dalek
Attack was the last
game to feature on the
1994 towdie
DEVELOPER: the Balara BrotherS
it was an admirable
achievement. A
version of the
cover of Your Sinclair
GENRE: adventure game with the text
magazine which closed While the Spectrum was effectively finished in the United translated into
this year, along with Kingdom, this was not the case elsewhere. Ultrasoft, English was later
Sinclair User. from the former Czechoslovakia, continued to release released.
commercial titles in Central Europe, including the
puzzle game Quadrex and the arcade adventure Towdie.
Although heavily indebted to the Dizzy series (of where
there were many unofficial mods), Towdie was a
great-looking game in which you played a tiny troll on a
mission to slay a dragon.
1997
black raven
DEVELOPER: copper feet
GENRE: real-tiMe Strategy
of prince
1996
persia
DEVELOPER: entropy
The Spectrum remained hugely popular in Eastern
Europe and there was strong demand for new software.
This RTS game from Russian developer Copper Feet
1998 headball
DEVELOPER: Zx MaSterS
GENRE: platforMer was definitely not Stonkers, being based instead on GENRE: SportS
This story behind the belated release probably needs its Warcraft. Despite the monochrome graphics, it played This was a fairly lean year in Spectrum land with just a
own article. Having converted Jordan Mechner’s hit game really well and was steady flow of Russian games to keep things ticking over.
to the SAM Coupe, the programmers shopped around a popular enough to The highlight of the year’s output was this entertaining
Spectrum port in 1993 but there were no takers due to spawn a mission sports game from ZX Masters. Featuring nice chunky
the shrinking market. Three years later this version was disk and an isometric sprites and colourful animated backdrops, two players
somehow acquired and sold commercially in Russia! It sequel (which sadly headed a ball (and later a bomb!) back and forth over a
really is a great version of a classic game, and such a never progressed net, trying to keep it in the air for as long as possible. Not
shame it wasn’t put out properly in 1993. beyond a demo). sophisticated, but a lot of fun – with some nice AY tunes.
48 | RETRO GAMER
THE ZX SPECTRUM: 35 YEARS, 35 GAMES
1999 titanic
DEVELOPER: fatality
2000 existenz
DEVELOPER: triuMph gaMe laBS
2001 one man &
his droid ii
GENRE: puZZle GENRE: Shoot-’eM-up DEVELOPER: clive Brooker
Or Pussy: Love Story From Titanic to give the game its full, It would be remiss GENRE: MaZe gaMe
inexplicable title. This Russian oddity was themed around of us not to highlight According to World of Spectrum, there were fewer games
James Cameron’s movie, yet the two players were based some mods. Existenz released this year than any other. Still, a total of 43 titles
on Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet rather than their was an unofficial arrived in 2001, including this previously unreleased
characters! The game was based on the little-known update of Delfox, sequel. Clive Brooker wrote his follow-up in 1991,
Japanese puzzle the 1988 horizontal but Mastertronic
game Magical shooter from wasn’t interested in
Puzzle Popils which Spanish developer publishing it, so he
was released for the Dinamic Software. In fact, the game is also known as shared it on the web.
Game Gear in 1991. Crazy Delfox and that gives you an idea of what’s going And we should thank
Wait… are those on here. The Russian dev team took the original game Clive, as it’s a
Dragonball Z sprites and ramped up the action to manic proportions and then sequel that deserves
we see!? underlined everything with a thumping AY soundtrack. to be played.
2002 zx heroes
DEVELOPER: igor MakovSky GENRE: platforMer
on spec
igor makovskY
There have been dozens of Jet Set Willy mods Bubble Bobble and Arkanoid. Imagine a bunch The Spectrum superhero stops by for a chat
over the years, with the number increasing of classic game characters crashing a party in
following the initial release of John Elliott’s Willy’s mansion and you get the idea. Another On growing up with non-linear story with
popular JSWED tool in 1996. Where as impressive Speccy release this year was Abe’s the Spectrum the right editor, like the
previously the mods simply added new screens Mission: Escape, a version of the first two A Soviet Spectrum clone (Kvant amazing JSWED.
for the intrepid Miner Willy to explore, the Oddworld games which was the winning entry BK) was my father’s present to me
new editor introduced changes to the way in the Your Game 2002 competition. when I was six years old. Loading On creating ZX Heroes
many game elements worked, leading to tapes, playing games, trying my Jet Set Willy games have a unique
more sophisticated room layouts for players first attempts at coding are deeply rhythm. It’s not too fast and not too
to negotiate. connected with sweet times spent dynamic – cosy and enjoyable to play
This 40-room mod from Igor Makovsky together with my dad. with a cup of tea! I’m fond of making
is one of the very best and needs to be tributes and many games inspired
experienced. It’s basically a respectful tribute On the popularity of Jet Set me when creating ZX Heroes. The
to some of the greatest games from the Willy clones Doom 3 beta was released that year
Spectrum archive including Pyjamarama, It’s easy to create a whole world with and I wanted to show that we can keep
Technician Ted and Dynamite Dan. Some classic custom animations and an interesting, Spectrum games in our hearts.
arcade conversions get a look in too, namely
RETRO GAMER | 49
on spec
Jonathan cauldwell
2006 gamex
DEVELOPER: Jonathan cauldwell GENRE: MinigaMe collection
Another one from Jonathan Cauldwell and tax (too many penalties and it’s game over),
The developer on his love for the Speccy Scene
this was probably his most intriguing and but more importantly you need to keep your
On his favourite creation so many people ambitious game to date. We say ‘game’ when eye on the time as it’s easy to lose track of it
Most of them have something going interested in this is actually a collection of 16 minigames when you are wheelin’ and dealin’ on GameX.
for them. The title which I’m most learning Z80 based on classic arcade concepts (although to The stock market shenanigans returned for a
proud of is Encyclopaedia Galactica assembler or refer to them as mere clones is doing them sequel, subtitled Playing Dividends, which was
Remixed, which sees the player flying using Churrera a disservice, as there are some brilliant little released in 2015
around different star systems and or Arcade Game challenges included).
collecting samples of alien life to Designer in Rather than just be a collection of titles,
document for the eponymous tome. different ways to create new titles. The the games are all connected by the unique
quality is high and some of the games ‘Games Exchange’ element where you buy
On the Spectrum scene developed over recent years would and sell shares in the games on offer. So you
Dozens of new games are created have received rave reviews in the begin by building up some of your capital by
every year with new authors Eighties. Interest in developing new playing a Pac-Man variant and then invest this
appearing to write the game they games just keeps growing and I have in other titles of varying difficulty, using your
wanted to as a child. It’s great to see no plans to stop any time soon. own game-playing skills to amass more and
more resources. You’ll need to watch out for
2011 craY 5
DEVELOPER: retroworkS GENRE: Shoot-’eM-up
This was the strongest year yet for of games for the Spectrum but
homebrew releases, with a glut of Cray 5 was not one of them.
great games arriving. Cray 5 takes Thanks to RetroWorks, this
the crown for being charming, oversight has been corrected –
challenging and just brilliant. with some style. It looks amazing,
The game was originally resembling a Raffaele Cecco
developed by Topo Soft in 1987 game, and the AY soundtrack is
and released for the Amstrad CPC. fantastic. Overall it’s a clear
2010 Topo Soft did release a number cut above the CPC original.
horace in the
mYstic woods
DEVELOPER: BoB SMith
GENRE: platforMer
Horace was a mascot for the Speccy, appearing in three
2012 survivisection
DEVELOPER: SancheZ GENRE: Shoot-‘eM-up
beloved titles. A fourth game was canned in 1985 but that
wasn’t the end. In 1995 Psion hired Michael Ware to write Another year where it’s hard Rather than control your
Horace In The Mystic Woods for the Psion 3 PDA and 15 to select the best game. soldier directly you use a pointer
years later Bob Smith ported the game to the Spectrum. Survivisection from Sanchez to select where he moves and
Horace’s return was the highlight release of this (Aleksander Udotov) has to be fires. And it’s not about shooting
year. The original version was monochrome, but on the singled out, though, for taking the everything, as there’s a degree of
Spectrum all 64 screens of platforming action are daubed theme of Commando and taking strategy and puzzling, too. Plus it
with lovely colour. The controls are excellent, as is the it further than anyone thought looks great, featuring full colour
sound. It’s good to have you back, Horace. possible on the Spectrum. and full-screen scrolling.
50 | RETRO GAMER
THE ZX SPECTRUM: 35 YEARS, 35 GAMES
2013 brunilda
DEVELOPER: retroworkS
GENRE: graphic adventure
In this Zelda-style adventure you This is a pure graphic
play a monk on a pilgrimage who adventure with no battles, and
seeks shelter for the night in a the emphasis is on story, and
village – and it turns into a long the adventure system, with its
2015
night indeed as a mystery unfolds
and you’re called on to converse
colourful environments and
eight-way scrolling, is exceptional.
castlevania:
spectral
with the locals and explore the
surrounding forests and caves.
It’s long and involving but it’s split
into several chapters.
interlude
DEVELOPER: rewind
GENRE: adventure
You could say that the games in this list have been
leading to this moment, when in 2015 Aleksander Udotov
2014 metal man reloaded
DEVELOPER: oleg origin GENRE: Shoot-‘eM-up
unveiled his version of Castlevania for the Spectrum
128K. It was a significant moment, as word of this title
spread far beyond the usual circles. For a while it seemed
There was a time when Robocop was here, oh no. Like many of Ocean’s that everyone was talking about Spectral Interlude: the
held up as one of the most impressive titles, it’s a mix of styles, with on-foot detailed graphics, the incredible 12-song soundtrack, and
games on the Spectrum. Fast forward shooting with puzzle sections and a the fact that this was Castlevania, in all its whip-cracking,
25 years and we have Metal Man, who nifty motorbike sequence. vampire-slaying glory, on the Spectrum.
stomps all over poor Murphy. The If you’re wondering about the title, The game actually started out as a Spectrum version
design is similar to Ocean’s hit but the the original Metal Man was originally of the NES game Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest but soon
graphics are, well, just look at them. released by Oleg Origin in 1997 on a emerged as an original, 150-screen adventure that
There’s no monochrome drabness Russian compilation disk. stands proudly on its own.
2017 and
beYond...
This year is already looking like a The release of the Spectrum Next
promising one for new releases. device at the end of year will signal
Some nice arcade platformers have the arrival of more fresh games,
already been released in the first including some 256-colour ones like
half of the year including The Ship Baggers On Ladders from Jim Bagley
Of Doom from Mat Recardo, Foggy’s and Nodes of Yesod Next from Steve
Quest from John Blythe, and Ooze Wetherill. There’s also Wonderful
from Andy Johns. Looking ahead, Dizzy from the Oliver twins and
both Jonathan Cauldwell (Egghead friends, which was initiated when a
6) and Bob Smith (SokoBAArn) are stretch goal for the Next Kickstarter
busy with new developments. The campaign was met. Which of these
one we’re most looking forward to is games will be the best of 2017, and
No Fate (pictured), an arcade-style what can we expect in future years
brawler from the same team behind following the debut of the Next? We
2016 snake escape
DEVELOPER: einar SaukaS GENRE: puZZle
Castlevania: Spectral Interlude. can’t wait to find out.
Perhaps fuelled by the success of notice that the graphics (by Jarrod
Spectral Interlude, 2016 turned out Bentley) are a lot more colourful than
to be a golden year for releases. usual and that’s because the game
Highlights include the adventure uses Einar’s own Nirvana Engine,
game Sam Mallard, the Boulder Dash a software solution to the Speccy’s
update Tourmaline, and unique driving/ limited colour resolution which lets you
action/puzzle thing Car Wars. And not have up to eight colours per character
forgetting The Dark, the Doom clone square. It’s a truly impressive
from Oleg Origin (which was another effect and it works on any standard
update of one of his experiments). Spectrum. Several other Nirvana
Our top choice is Snake Escape, games, including Dreamwalker,
Einar Saukas’ version of the popular Multidude and Stormfinch, have been
online game Lime Rick in which you released previously and Snake
guide a snake to the apple using its Escape continues this trend for
own coiling body as a platform. You’ll hyper-colourful Spectrum games.
RETRO GAMER | 51
Rod-Land
IN ROD WE TRUST
» AMIGA » 1991 » THE SALES CURVE all about that one-upmanship that is as prevalent in
» RETROREVIVAL
It’s a well-known fact that if you’re teenagers as thinking they know everything.
friends with someone who owns a Marcus had a trump card, though. Marcus had
different gaming system to your own, Rod-Land on the Amiga, and he loaded it up with
you mercilessly rib them for it until a strange smile on his face. A smile I’d rarely seen,
they end up a broken mess. Some and it was because I later realised it was a smile of
see it as mean-spirited, but it’s simply a friendly rivalry satisfaction. The cutscenes, the graphics, the bosses,
that allows you to constantly remind someone that everything seemed perfect to me and while I now
they’ve backed the wrong horse. Sometimes, though, know it’s not as arcade perfect as I remember, it
it backfires, and one of those times involved this certainly seemed that way to 17-year-old me. “Have
cracking conversion by The Sales Curve. you got this on your Mega Drive yet, Darran? It’s
As a Mega Drive owner, I was always able to lord really good,” began Marcus, knowing full well that it
it over my Amiga-owning friend, Marcus, because wasn’t coming out on Sega’s console. “I think it’s out
he had an Amiga and therefore had rubbish versions in Japan,” he pressed. “Maybe you can pop into the
of most of the arcade games we both used to enjoy Video Game Centre and order it from there.”
playing. We also enjoyed shooters, and, again, the A trip later that week to Winton proved that I had
Mega Drive always won out, allowing me a smugness been well and truly stitched up by my good friend. I
that I’m sure my long-standing friend got tired of. had the last laugh though – Rod-Land didn’t exist but I
Granted, there were lots of great games on the Amiga was able to pick up a copy of Streets Of Rage. Game
(I’d later own a 1200), but we were rivals and it was set and match, Darran.
54 | RETRO GAMER
RETRO GAMER | 55
is year
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Ke
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54 | RETRO GAMER
» [Atari 2600] Air Raiders is an impressive
cockpit-viewed shoot-’em-up that was later
rereleased as Bogey Blaster by Telegames.
InsTanT
ExpErT
■ M Network was a division of Mattel
Electronics set up to publish games for
he story starts in 1977, with the release of outside contractors had approached him and
T
rival machines.
of the Atari 2600, which would go onto offered APh some new games for Atari’s console.
■ Many of M Network’s Atari 2600 games
become a massive success. The Design This wasn’t an outright lie, of course, but he was
featured different names to their And Development division of Mattel bending the truth more than many would see as
Intellivision counterparts. Toys looked on with interest and saw enough room reasonable. Mattel Electronics fell for the story and
■ The label was formed out of Mattel in the market for a competitor. So the head of this showed an interest in the games, promising to
external contractor APh wanting more department, Richard Chang, sought out some discuss it with the higher ups in the company. Since
royalties from its games. help from people who were already involved in Glenn would be paying this ‘outside group’ via his
■ M Network licensed several popular the microprocessor and computer programming company, he hired a close friend to head it up. Any
arcade games from Data East, including industry. Richard soon came across a company deal would then allow him to not only demand
the likes of Bump ‘N’ Jump, BurgerTime and by the name of APh Technology Consulting, and money up front, but also royalties based on every
Lock ‘N’ Chase. after some fruitful discussions with its owner Glenn copy sold, which would work out to be far more
Hightower, they came to an agreement to develop lucrative than the Intellivision deal ever was.
■ Other properties licensed by M Network
what would become the Mattel Intellivision. The decision by Mattel to produce 2600
included cult Disney film Tron, Advanced
However, it wasn’t long before this partnership cartridges was controversial within the
Dungeons & Dragons, Rocky And Bullwinkle
started to sour, as APh started to become aware of company. One faction argued that it could
and Masters Of The Universe.
just how big the videogame market had become. be used to help sell its competing game
■ M Network developed an expansion As 1980 rolled around, it was reported that Mattel console by making the games inferior.
module to enhance the abilities of the was raking in around $1.5m revenue per game. While the other side reasoned that it
Atari 2600 but decided against releasing it. With APh being paid just $30,000 per game, Glenn would give consumers less reason
■ Jerry Lawson, the creator of the was understandably annoyed. So he gathered to choose the Intellivision over the
world’s first programmable games console, round his senior staff and decided that they should 2600. At a group meeting, Mattel
the Fairchild Channel F, was a programmer develop games for Mattel’s biggest rival, Atari, formally announced Project Irata
at M Network. instead and then offer them to the highest bidder. (Atari spelled backwards) and a
The problem was that APh was locked into an senior Intellivision programmer
■ After the division was shut down, as a
exclusivity agreement with Mattel that would be
result of the videogames crash, M Network’s
hard to get out of.
vast back catalogue was purchased by mail
Glenn came up with a clever way to get round
order specialists Telegames.
the agreement with Mattel that would hopefully
■ Mattel was known for its highly realistic avoid the ire of its lawyers. He immediately
– for the time, at least – sports games and made all his programmers redundant. He wasn’t
several of these appeared on the Atari 2600. getting rid of them completely, though, he actually
■ Before M Network’s demise there were hired them all back immediately on consultancy
plans to publish games for the ColecoVision, contracts, giving them the top-secret task of reverse
IBM PC, TI-99, Atari 8-bit, Apple II and engineering the Atari 2600’s technology. It wasn’t
Commodore 64. long before Glenn’s team of coders had come up
with some impressive new games and demos for
the 2600, but he then had to decide what to do with
them. After having a change of heart, he decided
that he had nothing to lose by offering these games
» [Atari 2600]
back to Mattel. If Mattel wanted them, then his International
company was in the money, if it didn’t, then he may Soccer was a huge
improvement on
be able to negotiate a termination of the contract. Atari’s Pele Soccer.
He then went to Mattel and told it that a team
RETRO GAMER | 55
quipped back, “That’s errata all right!” But when Mattel Electronics output.” The original games that
it came down to the final decision on whether to APh produced for M Network sold well, averaging
TImElInE progress with this venture, the numbers didn’t lie.
At that time there were 10 million Atari consoles
around 200,000 cartridges each. They featured a
brand-new cartridge design, based on Mattel’s
■ Mattel takes a great interest in the in peoples’ homes, compared to just two million own Intellivision shells and packaging that made
of Mattel’s machine. It made more financial sense the brand very much the focal point. Before long,
19
the Atari 2600. to develop games for the 12 million. And with that Mattel Electronics had to start hiring programmers
savvy decision the M Network label was born, with to produce these new Atari games in-house.
■ External contractor APh Consulting
the M obviously standing for Mattel. The only thing
soon realises that it had got a bad deal from
to decide now was who was going to run the new rogrammer Dave Akers was one of the
Mattel on payments for Intellivision games
venture, Mattel needed to act quickly as several
on the quiet.
of the Blue Sky Rangers, Mattel’s own team of in Star Strike, Bump ‘N’ Jump and
■ APh forms an external group to develop Intellivision programmers, Keith Robinson. Before BurgerTime. It was his very first job in the industry
19
games for the Atari 2600 so it can shop them he passed away we were lucky enough to speak before going on to even greater success with
81
to potential publishers. with Keith about his role at M Network and how he Atari’s coin-op division and titles such as Klax and
felt about producing games for other systems. “It Escape From the Planet Of The Robot Monsters.
■ An agreement is reached between Mattel
was really great,” he said. “It’s always a challenge Dave remembers his route to Mattel well. “I studied
19
games carrying the Advanced Dungeons & the first issue of Electronics Games magazine and
83
Dragons licence to the public. realising that some people were making a living
■ The North American videogame crash at developing games and I thought why couldn’t
hits Mattel hard and it decides to close down I do that? I was living in the Los Angeles area at
the time, and thought I would have to move to
19
label to popular mail order specialists headquarters was about a mile from where I was
85
Telegames which republishes the games. currently working. So I applied for a job there
■ Keith Robinson forms Intellivision and was accepted. As it turns out, they were also
Productions and buys the rights to much looking for Atari programmers too, and this was
the division that I ended up being assigned to.”
19
M Network IP. Another one of the first people through the door at
» [Atari 2600] Bump ‘N’ Jump is an excellent conversion of the incredibly fun M Network was coder Hal Finney, who would go on
■ Intellivision Productions shows off several Data East arcade game of the same name.
to help pioneer Bit Coin. Unfortunately Hal passed
19
DEfInIng gamEs
20
58 | RETRO GAMER
FROM THE ARCHIVES: M NETWORK
Disney never
even looked at
any of the
Tron games
Keith Robinson
RETRO GAMER | 59
Arcade games that never made it home
60 | RETRO GAMER
THE UNCONVERTED
had yet nailed the formula for 3D games, going with squash and Breakout, but
beat-’em-ups, and multi-cabinet the futuristic aesthetic shows that it’s cut from
linked play was a novelty for the a similar cloth to Goalie Ghost. There’s no forced
genre. This spin-off is characterised split-screen element here, though, as Cosmic
by a distinct lack of ambition. Smash is a single-player game all the way.
The game puts you into enclosed
arenas with a few enemies, and
it’s your job to beat them all over
the best of three rounds. There
» [Arcade] The Spikeout formula loses a lot when the
linked cabinets and open stages are stripped away. GOALIE GHOST
DEVELOPER: Bally SenTe YEAR: 1984 GENRE: SporTS
are lots of items scattered about, features like platforms. The
from basketballs to knives and exception is the second stage, set ■ Goalie Ghost is a strange sports
flamethrowers, and enemies drop in a restaurant, which has windows game, sitting somewhere between
power-ups when defeated. you can throw enemies through and football, tennis and air hockey.
The fighting is fine, with lots of is full of tables and chairs to pick up. The aim is simple: defend your
techniques to discover and utilise It’s also a bit too difficult, thanks to goal and put the ball in the other
and eight distinct characters. the fact that enemies can team up player’s goal. Playing the game
However, the arenas in Spikers to juggle your character, inflicting is simple thanks to the intuitive
Battle are dull – simple circular or damage with no way to defend. It’s control scheme, with a trackball for
rectangular areas without even okay, but we can see why there was movement and one button to jump
the most basic of distinguishing no Dreamcast version. – the ball is kicked automatically
» [Arcade] You need to be very quick on the trackball to
when your player collides with it. deal with three balls.
Games are played to a time limit,
CONVERTED ALTERNATIVE and the player who scored the most
goals wins. To spice things up, the
Vaguely nonsensical name
aside, Goalie Ghost is good fun. It’s
POWER STONE 2 game has some special features. A not groundbreaking stuff, for sure,
2000 headed ball will bounce around like but it works well and the futuristic
■ With a more suitable camera and vastly a mad thing, making its height hard visual style holds up relatively
more enjoyable stages, Capcom’s four-player to predict as it heads towards your well. The CPU opponent is a little
brawler is a much better bet for anyone goal. The other big one is that after on the tough side, even on novice
who happens to be in the mood for some a certain amount of time, extra balls difficulty, but if you play against
unconventional fighting action. The fact that it get added into the mix – each kick a friend of a similar skill level you
happens to have better character balance is off can have up to three. should both enjoy the experience.
just icing on the cake, really.
RETRO GAMER | 61
ULTIMATE GUIDE: NIGHT TRAP
creates cash, and Digital anything like it before, but looking at it today
it’s clear that they did not age very well at all.
minutes of talking he asked what I wanted to
do with it so I just blurted out, ‘I want to release
Pictures certainly found that People either forget or don’t know that Night
Trap was made in 1986-1987 for something
this oicially if that’s cool with you,’ and then he
said, ‘Wonderful! Let’s work something out!’
to be true with the original that supported VHS tapes and wasn’t intended
for something that could barely play video ive other than the improved video quality,
full-motion video nasty. Nick years later from a CD-ROM. Age and YouTube what improvements can fans expect
Thorpe looks back at a game could also play a factor in this. One thing I kept
hearing a lot was, ‘I have never played this
from the anniversary edition?
When you’re remaking an FMV game there’s
which found fame with both game before but it sucks,’ which leads me to
believe that this comment is being made by
only so much you can do so I tried to do things
to make it feel more like a game. Load times
players and parents… someone who watched a video on YouTube
of someone else playing the game very badly
are gone, so switching rooms is now instant,
and when you press a button to trap an Auger
and making jokes the whole time, and there’s the game should respond immediately instead
ight Trap is a game that almost
N
a lot of those types of videos out there. I think of having a delayed response when showing
shouldn’t exist. Not because it’s bad if it was released in the late Eighties like it was the trapping sequence. The original game
(although its detractors certainly have originally planned then it probably wouldn’t get was designed to have a good/bad outcome on
some valid points), but because of as much hate as it does now. speciic scenarios but a lot of that was changed
everything that happened to it along its journey when the game switched to Sega, so some
from conception to release, and beyond. How did you get the chance to work on of those elements are put back in there. For
The original design for Night Trap has its roots the anniversary edition? example, there’s a part in the game where a
in Scene Of The Crime, a demo game produced During the summer of 2016 I was looking for member of SCAT goes upstairs and encounters
for the ill-fated Hasbro Control-Vision – a console something new to work on and noticed that an Auger and you can trap the SCAT member.
which interfaced with a VCR for its primary some fans of Night Trap tried to recreate the One complaint I saw in a lot in older reviews
graphical output, allowing players the choice of up game themselves. I was working on some was not being able to watch the main story
to four video tracks, all running simultaneously. mobile games and thought the idea of Night without trapping Augers. The game couldn’t
Scene Of The Crime positioned players as a Trap on a phone was pretty rad, so I created be changed since it was ilmed 30 years
security camera operator, watching a series of a prototype in about three days that ran on an ago, so we created a ‘Theatre’ section in the
feeds with the goal of protecting a wealthy man’s Android device. A friend of mine came up with game where you can now watch all story-
vault. The demo went down well with execs, and the idea of posting a video of it being played related videos without having to worry about
the system was put into production alongside an on YouTube just to see what kind of reaction trapping. Something involving random Augers
expanded version of the camera game concept. it would get. A couple of websites saw it and was another thing that I saw a lot of, so we
The team kept the basic concept, but in order to decided to contact the owners of Night Trap to created a new mode called Survivor. Augers will
inject some interactivity they moved from solving see if they had any information about it or if they now randomly appear throughout the house and
a crime to preventing it. The production version of were even involved. SegaBits.com contacted you go through endless waves and the diiculty
the game would feature ninja burglars, who could Tom Zito and FMVWorld.com contacted Rob increases with each round.
be thwarted with elaborate traps set around the Fulop. Both of them said that they had no
mansion – and instead of just protecting money, involvement, of course, but what stuck out to me Would you vote in favour of a law
you also needed to protect the daughter of the was in Rob’s response to the prototype he said, requiring all karaoke bars to have the
‘The developer of this demo needs to negotiate Night Trap theme available for play?
a licence from the Night Trap copyright holder As a fan? Deinitely. As a developer? Hell no!
RETRO GAMER | 63
household and her friends. However, concerns gaming. Sega’s Mega-CD was powerful enough to
over violence that could be imitated switched run streaming video from the CD, albeit at a much
the setting – first by embracing the supernatural, lower quality than VHS – limitations on colour and
adopting vampires as the antagonistic forces, and resolution gave Mega-CD video a grainy look.
later adding sci-fi weaponry to further remove any Though the video was bad then and is
reproducible aspect of the game’s attacks. practically intolerable now, it’s not hard to
see how Night Trap once felt like the future of
I
n the end, the game turned into Night Trap, a entertainment, because at its heart is a B-movie
pastiche of Eighties horror films. Teenagers that you can watch however you choose. Maybe
have been going missing, and their last known you’ll stick with the main girls and see what they
location is a remote lakeside house owned by get up, or perhaps you’ll follow the kid brother
the Martin family. As a member of the Special who quietly leaves the group to look around the
Control Attack Team, you’ve discovered that the house. You could even choose to visit another
house has an advanced security system with eight room entirely, hoping to catch an intruder or
live feeds and a series of traps. As another six stumble on another member of the family going
teenagers arrive for a sleepover, your goal is to use about their business. It’s no horror classic, but it
this hijacked system to observe the house, use the doesn’t take itself seriously and it’s fun to watch it
traps to protect people from mysterious black-clad a few times over in order to see alternative scenes
intruders that enter the property, and help your and get the whole story, especially given that the
undercover agent Kelly find out what’s going on. game is less than half an hour long.
Despite having shot the footage for both this The problem is the game on top of that
game and a shoot-’em-up project (Sewer Shark), interactive B-movie. The team behind Night Trap
Hasbro dropped plans to release the Control- sought to add a greater deal of interactivity to
Vision, due to rising hardware costs and the videogames based on full-motion video, and they
realisation that game production was set to run succeeded – what you do in Night Trap is a world
e that sci-fi neck to a few million dollars per game. However, the away from the ‘press button to continue movie’
» [3DO] How did Hasbro decid
getting punched?
drills were better than people shelved footage was acquired by a new company formula employed by the likes of Dragon’s Lair.
called Digital Pictures, which would find a new However, the appeal of success in those games
outlet for the games with the advent of CD-ROM was getting to see that movie. Success at
64 | RETRO GAMER
ULTIMATE GUIDE: NIGHT TRAP
Q&A: JOSH FAIRHURST We ind out why Limited Run Games has
taken on the new version of Night Trap
How did you first encounter Night Trap, and what Why did Limited Run Games choose to Why do you think the game remains so popular?
did you make of it? produce Night Trap 25th Anniversary Edition There are a few reasons: it’s a fun game with solid
Growing up, I had a neighbour across the street who had a as a physical game? mechanics, the ilm aspect has the same appeal as any
Sega CD. I had a Genesis but I couldn’t aford the CD add-on I’m a huge Sega fan so having the opportunity to publish B-horror movie, and to a lot of people - this was their
back then – he showed me a few games but the one that something so intrinsically tied to a Sega platform was a big irst experience with CD-ROM gaming. There’s a lot to be
stood out for me was Night Trap. I had never encountered an deal for me. Historically, it’s a pretty important game given nostalgic about with Night Trap.
FMV game at the time so the idea of controlling a movie was its links to the formation of the Entertainment Sotware I’d say that Night Trap is pretty much the grand-
kind of mind-blowing. This may sound kind of ridiculous, but Ratings Board. I also love the game, so there’s that. daddy of the trap-’em-up genre that Five Nights At
I remember that moment as vividly as I remember my irst Freddy’s has popularised. There’s a really solid core in this
experience with Mario 64 on an in-store demo kiosk. Seeing How did you decide on the patch and cassette as game that a lot of people missed due to the controversy. I
a game like Night Trap was eye-opening. extras for the Collector’s Edition? hope with the remaster, more people are able to see
I acquired a Sega CD of my own several years later and I feel like the theme song to the game is almost as infamous and discover what has made Night Trap so popular
became a huge fan of the platform and of Night Trap. as the game itself at this point so I wanted to include it in among its current fans!
some capacity with the Collector’s Edition. Night Trap doesn’t
Were you surprised to discover that the game still really have a full soundtrack so it didn’t really make sense
has an active fan following today? to do a CD with only ive minutes of music – I thought doing
Not really, I’m nostalgic for some stuf I feel like very few a cassette would be more fun. With the patch, I wanted to
are nostalgic for (MegaRace, for example). For nearly half do something thematically linked to the game. In the 3DO
a decade, FMV games were king and sold millions upon release of the game – and only that release – there is a
millions of copies. I don’t think that was just due to the logo for the in-game Special Control Attack Team (SCAT). I
novelty – some of these experiences were legitimately good! thought we could do something cool with that and create a
It doesn’t surprise me at all that people are fond of the genre patch that members of the team could wear on
and Night Trap in particular since I think that game was their gear. The patch is sewn on ballistic ibre so Augers
many people’s gateway into the genre. can’t drill through it!
RETRO GAMER | 65
KITCHEN
3 AUGERS
TRAP MAP ■ FLOOR TRAP Situated over by
the big fridge freezers, there’s another LIVING ROOM
The eight rooms of the Martin household offer lots 20 AUGERS
of traps – here’s a complete look at how you can excellent false floor trap. You will
rarely find that you actually need to ■ BOOKSHELF TRAP Anyone
cleanse this place of intruders… who wanders by the left side of the
use this one, though.
bookshelf is asking for trouble –
the whole shelf revolves, pushing
unwelcome guests into a trap.
HALLWAY 1 ■ FLOOR TRAP The right of the
17 AUGERS room contains a simple but always
■ WALL TRAP A false wall on one effective false floor trap. Down the
side of the hallway opens up, while chasm you go, baddies!
the opposite one extends out to push
intruders into the trap. KITCHEN LIVING ROOM
■ FLOOR TRAP Right by the
security override cable, there’s a
HALL 1
simple false floor trap. Unfortunately,
you can’t protect the override with it.
HALL 2 DRIVEWAY
BEDROOM
DRIVEWAY
10 AUGERS
HALLWAY 2 ■ CATAPULT TRAP Don’t creep
BEDROOM 18 AUGERS around on the Martin family’s roof –
■ CHAMBER TRAP A glass
14 AUGERS you’ll be flung off spectacularly via
■ BED TRAP This elaborate trap uses a false wardrobe to
chamber quickly surrounds you, with catapult if you try.
push the intruder onto a bed, which then flings the helpless red lights alerting you to your imminent
person backwards out of the window. demise by way of a long drop.
■ FLOOR TRAP Closer to the
■ FLOOR TRAP Right between the window and the doorway
to the bathroom, you’ll find another false floor. camera, and the entrance to the
bedroom, lies a regular false floor that
is waiting for anyone who avoided the
containment chamber.
ULTIMATE GUIDE: NIGHT TRAP
CONVERSION
CAPERS
Here’s how the four existing
versions of Night Trap stack up
against one another…
B
ut as we know, that wasn’t the end of the game was somehow only meant for adults. […] enhanced version of Night Trap.
story as controversy over the game erupted Small children bought this at Toys R Us and The presentation has been fully
in the spring of 1993, spreading from USA he [Sega’s Bill White] knows that as well as I overhauled, with a much larger
to the rest of the world. In the UK, the Daily do.” Within days, Toys R Us had withdrawn the video window and better colour reproduction, but
Mail dubbed the game “The Sega Sickener” and game from its US stores, and international press there’s still a grainy quality to the footage.
grabbed some rent-a-quote politicians to condemn attention was focused on the game again – even
the game, including Conservative MP Terry Dicks in the UK, despite the game carrying a 15 rating 3dO
who declared that, “The manufacturers are evil from the BBFC. That said, Sega hardly helped 1994
and ought to be punished for promoting this itself – when questioned by The Independent, a ■ Night Trap on the 3DO offers
game.” Sega Ozisoft declined to release the game spokesman for Sega Europe offered the following slightly clearer and brighter video
in Australia after it came to the attention of various bizarre defence: “Yes there is, how shall I say, than the 32X version of the game,
politicians, but this didn’t do much to quell concerns women in underwear being dragged off by the but the frame rate is reduced by 20
and the game was frequently mentioned during aliens. But the game is so difficult hardly anyone per cent, down to just 12 frames
ever gets that far.” By 1994, the videogame a second. Personal preference will decide which
industry had introduced self-regulated ratings approach you favour. It also sports a touched-up
systems (ESRB in NA, ELSPA in the UK) which version of the new 32X interface.
quietened critics for a time.
25 years later, it all seems so quaint. Similar
FMV games entered the market over the years that
PC
1995
followed, exposing the limitations of the format,
■ A new mouse-driven interface
and the boundaries of taste would be pushed
is introduced for the PC version of
much farther by the likes of Phantasmagoria. But
Night Trap, which speeds up your
Night Trap is a key piece of history – a technically
ability to transition between rooms.
ambitious game that blew people away upon first
You can save, too. The video is the
viewing, made much more enticing by the stamp
worst of the improved versions, with 32X image quality
of parental disapproval. Without it, videogames
and 3DO framerate.
would be a different medium today, and it’s worth
revisiting Night Trap for that reason alone.
RETRO GAMER | 67
CLASSIC MOMENTS
Sunset Riders
» Platform: ARCADE » DeveloPer: KONAMI » releaseD: 1991
BIO
One of Konami’s most beloved Nineties
videogames, Sunset Riders is a rollicking
old-time western adventure starring four
plucky bounty hunters, with eight levels to
traverse. It’s a scrolling shooter in the vein
of the Contra series, and the similarity is no
coincidence. Sunset Riders was directed
by Hideyuki Tsujimoto, who also produced
the Super Contra arcade game, and the
shoot-‘em-up Lightning Fighters. Sunset
Riders is a much more humorous game
than the likes of Contra, though, packed
with gorgeous cartoon style animation.
MORE CLASSIC SUNSET RIDERS MOMENTS
Stampede! Deadly Territory
Halfway through the first While not exactly politically
level you come across a little correct, Sunset Riders does
farmstead on the prairie, throw in a level where you
where you’re greeted by enter a canyon-side Native
the thunderous approach of American encampment,
stampeding cattle. Your only complete with this traditional
escape is to run full tilt along raffia work cable car. This
their backs, which, as any cowboy will tell you, is by far the stage was notably altered for the SNES version, along with the
best way to deal with rampaging bulls. end boss, originally named Chief Scalpem.
EyE of Horus
■ DEVELOPER: DEnton DEsigns ■ YEAR: 1989
■ The Denton Designs story is one that spans quest. Not to fret, as you can also find amulets Whether Eye Of Horus is possibly the last
across the whole of the Eighties and involves that will upgrade your weapon or help you ‘true’ Imagine game or not is a curious subject,
the likes of Imagine and Ocean Software, out in other ways, thus making it easier to but the game is certainly quality. One of the
but by the end of the decade we’re in the cast down these hordes and ultimately get the best things about the ST, oddly, is that you
last chapters – the majority of the studio’s better of your rival deity. could get somewhat Spectrum-esque games
founders had left by now. Still, that didn’t stop The game plays like something of a like this one only with better graphics, but you
Denton from making Eye Of Horus – a game hybrid; we have the classic maze-like arcade keep the Spectrum’s AY synth-based sounds
that might have been a little out of time by adventure, the sort that were a dime a dozen – it’s a strange combination, but it happens to
1989, but still stands as a solid adventure. back in the day, but being able to become a work a lot of the time, certainly in this case.
As you might expect from the name, Eye Of falcon at any time is important in fights, which Eye Of Horus is a compelling adventure with a
Horus has something of an Egyptian theme. often play out like something you’d find in a lot of shooter-based excitement packed into it
You play as Horus (naturally) and you must shoot-’em-up. There’s quite a lot of enemies too, and it’s seldom not fun to fool around and
find the pieces of your father Osiris that are around, and you’ll probably spend more time play as an actual legitimate god. It’s true that
dotted around a labyrinth, before using them in bird form than in regular form, unless you’re by the end of the Eighties, it may have looked
to defeat your dad’s killer, Set – the god of picking up items. It feels in many ways like outdated as a game and something that
‘bad stuff’. Fortunately, however, Horus is an updated version of Imagine Software’s belonged more on the 8-bits – reviews of the
the god of the sky, meaning that he has the classic Alchemist, which covered somewhat time focused on that. Today, it stands as
ability to transform into a falcon and fly around similar ground with another hero capable of a farewell to the 8-bit
whenever he pleases, which comes in handy humanoid/avian metamorphosis – considering arcade adventure
quite often, especially as large groups of that Denton Designs was born from the ashes – one that’s worth
enemies plucked straight from the pages of of Imagine (Alchemist’s designer, the late Ian sacrificing a little
Egyptian lore – scrolls, asps and the like – will Weatherburn, was a part of the group in the bit of your bank
be set upon you as you try to complete your early days), that feels somewhat appropriate. balance for.
70 | RETRO GAMER
MINORITY REPORT: ATARI ST
RETRO GAMER | 71
orK
■ PUBLISHER: Psygnosis ■ YEAR: 1991
■ If you’ve ever wanted to be a blood ■ Golf games tend to work on ■ A puzzle game that seems pretty ■ How do you solve the ST’s issues
cell charged with stopping your host computers because they offer all the easy on the surface – all you have to with horizontal scrolling? Why, just
from becoming one of those bad fun and relaxation of a day out on the do is touch some enemies with your make a game that scrolls vertically!
idiots who goes around catching tees without the extortionate cost of bouncy ball, and you win. However, No Buddies Land is a solid example
diseases, then this is apparently an buying your own clubs or listening to you have to touch them in a specific of the rarer vertical platformer – the
accurate simulation of the process. drunken old club members bellowing order – if you touch any out of order graphics aren’t a whole lot to speak of
In Vaxine, you shoot spheres at other at one another on the 19th hole. they multiply, and the time is pretty and the difficulty is rather unforgiving,
spheres of the same colour on a 3D Microprose Golf is one of the better tight. An engaging game that’s a lot but there’s a cute hero to play as and
grid before they bond with each other ways to do it on the ST with all the trickier than it seems especially as it a tension in the air as you’re forever
and cause you damage. A strange usual options you’d want, and it’s a goes on, but one that’s very addicting chased by a body of water as you
little game that’s very fun once you good alternative to the more famous – it’s incredibly fun to simply bounce make your way up the tower. A solid
figure out what on earth’s going on. likes of PGA Tour and Leaderboard. around everywhere. little diversion.
72 | RETRO GAMER
MINORITY REPORT: ATARI ST
■ It seems like every computer has ■ A must for all those kids who had ■ The future sport genre wouldn’t ■ It’s pretty clear that Skyrider takes
their version of Arkanoid that’s as the board game and enjoyed many exist without the classic Seventies more than a few notes from the pages
good if not better than the original’s an adventure to Barak Tor back in the film Rollerball, in which James Caan of Hewson’s classic Uridium – it’s all
port on said system – the Spectrum’s day, HeroQuest is a fine and accurate and company skated around a track in about short levels where you fly at
Batty is a good example of this, and conversion of the game complete with pursuit of the opponent’s goal. While high speed over a base, with plenty
Tonic Tile fits the bill on the Atari ST. all of the original quests. The Amiga the likes of Speedball 2 are a lot more of enemies to kill and objects to avoid
It’s an obscure release that delivers a and Atari ST versions of this game famous and perhaps better, Killerball while you take out as much of the
decent slice of bat-and-ball action, with are pretty much exactly the same as is as close as you’ll get to playing a ground as you can. Derivative though
the usual power ups included. The each other, but the ST has the bonus future sports game based exactly on it may be, Skyrider is a good stab at
game’s mouse controls are just right for of including that lovely AY synth music Rollerball, complete with lots of highly the game, a neat little budget effort
sensitivity, and it moves fast, if a little from the Speccy version, outshining necessary roughness. An interesting that’ll certainly hold your attention for
choppy. Not bad at all. the Amiga this time around. addition to the genre. a little bit.
RETRO GAMER | 73
74 | RETRO GAMER
Super Hang On
More than just a bog-standard racing gaMe
» MEGA DRIVE » 1989 » SEGA also included an excellent extra called ‘Original Mode’
» RETROREVIVAL
One of the best things about being which let you start off with an absolutely awful bike
a Mega Drive owner in its early and then use your winnings from races to slowly
years was having access to an upgrade it with various new parts. As you’d expect,
amazing array of arcade conversions. those early races can be quite tough, particularly if you
Admittedly, they weren’t quite as want to beat your AI rival into the asphalt, but as you
arcade perfect as we’d tell our friends, but they were slowly build up your reputation you earn more and
typically of a very high quality compared to their home more cash, which you can put towards better parts.
computer alternatives and I lapped them up. It’s a neat system that felt surprisingly comprehensive
In many cases, they were even better than their back in 1989, although it’s nowhere near as in-depth
arcade parents, because while they were usually as the home computer racing simulators that were
aesthetically inferior, they often had all sorts of cool available at the time. Sponsors could be attracted to
extras that made them stand apart from the original help you bring in more cash to upgrade your bike,
game. E-Swat and Shadow Dancer were totally while crashing impacted negatively on you because
redesigned from the ground up, while the likes of now you were buying replacement parts instead of
Golden Axe featured an additional stage that was simply losing precious time like in ‘Arcade’ mode.
exclusive to the console. One such example of a Needless to say I was pretty satisfied with Super
game with extras that went beyond the call of duty Hang On, as that career mode offered some much-
was Sega’s excellent conversion of Super Hang On, needed longevity, making it far easier to justify the
which came with a brand-new game mode. expensive £40 price tag to myself when I purchased it
While it was entirely possible to play a surprisingly from the Video Game Centre. The fact it can now be
authentic version of the original arcade game, Sega purchased for under a fiver is mind-boggling.
RETRO GAMER | 75
here’s a sort of bittersweet irony to was starting to make waves, and DreamWorks
the life of Medal Of Honor. There’s Interactive was looking to garner some success in
no denying the impact it had on the the industry. Like so many videogame tangents of
industry, not only did it turn the film companies at the time, there was excitement
first-person shooter on its head and popularise and eagerness to utilise its silver screen brands
the World War II setting across a spectrum of for interactive entertainment. And it was here
titles, but it also gave the PlayStation a leg up in where Medal Of Honor began, when famed
a genre that was only really at home on PC. But director Steven Spielberg directed a project
consider it now: the franchise is all but dead after away from its original design. The team working
Electronic Arts eventually slowed it to a halt, the on Jurassic Park 2 for the PlayStation took him
brand unable to fend off the competition that it the early prototype, only to find the director
had helped to spawn. Let’s admit it, retro fans are – and cofounder of DreamWorks Interactive –
no strangers to witnessing famed and reputed underwhelmed by the idea. “I was working at
franchises fall by the wayside, but rare are the DreamWorks Interactive at the time,” says Chris
times when it is hubris that sees the fall of a Cross, lead designer on the original Medal Of
beloved series. And yet it all started so well. Honor and six titles that followed thereafter. “I had
The original came out of nowhere, really. just finished a couple of kids titles on PC, first, and
The PlayStation had recently launched and then I floated a little. I worked on Trespasser, to
help get that out of the door and when that was
done the lead designer on what at that time was
the very beginning – like two milestones in – of
what would be Medal Of Honor was like, ‘Ah,
I’m not really into this.’ And there’s a little story
behind that, they went to show Steven Spielberg
– because he was still active at DreamWorks
Interactive at the time. They went to go show
him Jurassic Park 2 for PlayStation and he was
like, ‘Ugh... Jurassic Park, that’s a dead licence.
I’m doing this movie called Saving Private Ryan.
World War II is gonna get hot. You guys should do
GoldenEye World War II’.”
According to Chris, Spielberg was big into
gaming at the time, he and his young son Max
bonding over the burgeoning and exciting
entertainment. Even more than that, he was
MEDAL OF HONOR
Or
attack On pearl Harb
HOw iT reAlly HAPPened: Japanese forces launched a
surprise military operation against the American naval base at Pearl
Harbor in Hawaii. Though the assault is famed for its kamikaze pilots,
in truth, though, there were very limited examples of this.
HOw iT wAS recreATed: Corporal Joseph Griffin wakes to
the attack on board the USS California, begins gunning down several
Japanese planes before being knocked from the ship. He later helps
the USS Nevada escape the harbour.
RETRO GAMER | 77
by the newer machines. Sometimes it was spotty,
you could go through the place where the trigger
was and sometimes it would load and sometimes
But first the task was to get the game it wouldn’t. It was basically so highly optimised for
running on the PlayStation, and there were a lot the PlayStation that there was no guarantee that
of shortcuts and workarounds that needed doing it was going to work on newer machines, it was
to get the 3D engine working. Whether that was specific for those machines, right?”
limitations on the number of enemies that could
be on the screen, the way the player’s weapons hile the programmers and
were modelled to minimise the memory usage or technical artists got to work
simply the way that the controls were mapped to with the engine, however, the
the controller, there was a hell of a lot to consider rest of the team needed to
just to get it to function at all. “Memory was a devise a suitable means of combining the
very, very real consideration for building games spy-based antics of James Bond with a World
on the PlayStation,” recalls Chris. “A significant War II setting, and as they explored options the
amount of the memory was taken up by route they should take became increasingly clear.
background geometry and then probably the most “We were going to make an OSS agent and put
significant after that was the enemy animations. him on secret missions behind enemy lines,” says
We had some engineers and we had one guy who Chris, “which is still on top of the main running
was essentially a down-to-the-metal engineer. theme, a Goldeneye World War II, right? And so
He knew what all the chips did and how to write we took that and it ended up becoming such an
assembly code to access those chips correctly. interesting subject matter. The Offices Of Strategic
In fact, if you load Medal Of Honor on disc onto a Services was a really interesting thing at that time,
PS3 with backwards compatibility, you can reach so we dove really deep into the history of that,
the end of the world where it doesn’t load because and we dove really deep into the historical battles
whatever instructions we were sending to initiate around World War II and then we found ways to
streaming off the disc at the time isn’t recognised insert plausible deniability on the idea that there
78 | RETRO GAMER
MEDAL OF HONOR
was a secret agent there at the time.” This meant war-torn Europe’s more exotic locales. And, like
the most exciting or intriguing events of World most big name console titles of the time, there
War II could become their own missions for the was an obligatory and half-assed Game Boy
game, and since they were played as disparate Advance release, too, a game that was left to dwell
sequences – almost like interactive recreations in history as much as its subject matter.
from the dossiers sat in the war room – there But this wasn’t the only sequel in the works.
was no need to confuse matters with the truth. Medal Of Honor had been a roaring success,
Lieutenant Jimmy Patterson could have been at but this at a time where PC gaming was still the
any of these famous WWII events. primary platform for shooters, when the likes
The result of this was a finely tuned title that of Doom and Wolfenstein had been born on PC
drew on a fantasy that few gamers had been hardware and were still the de facto shooter
given the opportunity to discover so thoroughly, experience. EA still wanted to focus some of its
and so when Medal Of Honor launched it 1999 efforts into this market, and yet Medal Of Honor
it didn’t take much for it to become a flyaway had been so specifically coded for the PlayStation;
success. Chris explains that while the team could it wouldn’t be such an easy task to convert to
never have predicted the popularity, they were keyboard. Chris was in charge of this project too,
at least aware that it was “going to be different”. though he admits he was mostly hands-off when it
The release was praised for its graphics, the came to this platform. “That really came down to,
well-rounded combat mechanics, the compelling ‘Look: I don’t make PC games, here are the pillars
setting and its varied pace and playstyles. But of the game and the essence of the project – see
more than that, it was a booming commercial you later. Cause I’m not gonna tell you guys
success, too, going on to sell over 2 million
copies worldwide. With Electronic Arts as the
publisher behind this new franchise, a sequel was
inevitable. But rather than continue on with the
original’s Lieutenant Jimmy Patterson, the team
saw an opportunity to utilise a protagonist from
the original, casting off the shackles of the trope
of the American saviour and instead opting for
something a little more closer to home: French
resistance fighter Manon Batiste, a character that
had originally been designed around famed real-
world OSS member Hélène Deschamps Adams.
Chris described the release as “a short expansion
project”, and yet while it didn’t change the formula
at all it did at least give players an opportunity to
take control of the intriguing character that had
been previously introduced, have her backstory
fleshed out a little more and take on some of
RETRO GAMER | 79
how to make a PC game. You need to own what
you’re making, it’s all you.’ But it was nice because
I always got first consultant. I watched over the
franchise for seven titles, seven years, something
like that.” The third game in the series in only
three years – Medal Of Honor : Allied Assault – was game at all, explains Chris, and that it was only
released in 2002 on PC, and despite the favourable because the developers of the PC game – Medal
attention it drew, the game – and its 32-person Of Honor: Allied Assault – had done so prior that
multiplayer component – was mostly overlooked its inclusion had been considered at all. “We
and left in obscurity. originally didn’t plan a D-Day level for Frontline,”
What was surprising, however, was the he admits. “That was an Allied Assault PC feature:
suddenness with which EA sought to capitalise on they did that first, and what ended up happening
the success of the original. Chris explains that at was that they basically mimicked Saving Private
the same time that development begun on Medal Ryan shot for shot and put it into the Unreal
Of Honor: Underground, work on what would be Engine. They went and they did a demo for Steven
the first PS2 outing for the franchise started at the [Spielberg] on the set of Saving Private Ryan, and
same time. “We took a full two years for that and he was like: ‘Oh my god, this is the most amazing
the first nine months were really frustrating,” he thing I’ve ever seen!’ It was so powerful at the
recalls. “I got into it with the executives at the time, time to be able to play that, and what ended up
and they were frustrated with our lack of progress. happening was that we were like, ‘Shit, we’ve got
I threw the gauntlet down and said, ‘Fuck you to put that into the console product.’”
guys, it’s gonna be good in January, come back
in January.’ Needless to say we were late for that ut that wasn’t such a simple decision.
milestone anyway, but the progress could be seen, The game itself had been in production
right? I got real hot under the collar.” for months already, and was mostly set
Now if you’ve had any experience with the in stone as to what levels and features
Medal Of Honor franchise, it’s a safe call to would be included. “We had always avoided
suggest that it was the fourth game in the series D-Day because that’s a potential memory hog. On
that you remember the most. If not for its highly PC they had way different memory constraints,
enhanced graphics and improved gameplay, then a different approach to building things and so
at least for that opening segment. But the D-Day building D-Day for them was relatively trivial.
landing stage was never intended to be part of the We had to bring in a separate producer, another
two designers to tack it on in the last half of the
project.” But it was worthwhile. If there’s one thing
anyone recalls about the Medal Of Honor series
it’s Frontline’s D-Day opening cinematic and the
ensuing gameplay. The game itself featured so
many great, compelling moments, the improved
visuals were some of the best on PS2 at the time
and the continuing narrative – rather than a set of
disparate missions – helped to draw that movie-
like sensation out of those that played it, but none
of that mattered. The D-Day landing, however
much of a carbon copy of the same scene from
Saving Private Ryan it was, left such a powerful
impression on anyone that played it. Videogames
had, up until that point, struggled to represent
that same, Spielberg-esque quality; this was a
80 | RETRO GAMER
MEDAL OF HONOR
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RETRO GAMER | 81
How the Hollywood director made his
mark on the series
According to Chris Cross, much of Steven
Spielberg’s input into Medal Of Honor was advisory.
Rather than directly controlling the project and
ensuring certain elements would get implemented,
he would instead make irregular visits into the
development oices – which was intentionally
located of the highway on the way to his studio at
DreamWorks – to catch up on the work of not only
the Medal Of Honor team but the rest of the projects defining moment not only for the franchise, but
at DreamWorks Interactive. the industry as a wider whole. “In hindsight, it was
For the original, many of his suggestions were the right thing to do,” says Chris, who wasn’t quite
more creative, ilmic additions. For example, so happy at the time, “but I fought it the whole
Spielberg would ofer up places where explosive way. It was the right choice to put first because it
barrels should be placed for a easy – and thrilling – was so impactful and so memorable, and it sets
kill on a larger group of enemies. He also suggested up the fantasy of World War II so strongly in the
points where enemies ought to appear, or the player’s brain, kind of like that action scene in the entry of the series. But trouble was brewing, and
placement of stationary gun turrets for moments beginning of a movie. It’s the first thing to set the clash between the historic shooters had only
of excitement to help control the pace of the level. everything up. I’m so happy that we did it, but at just begun to heat up; this was an early victory
Chris also adds that he ofered more broader the time when you’re really close to a product you for EA and DreamWorks Interactive in a war that
reaching suggestions, too, but that many of them fight everything.” they would ultimately be unable to fight. The first
would have proven to be too diicult to implement assault would, ironically, come from EA itself,
with the hardware at the time. rontline released on PS2 in when it teamed up with then-relatively unknown
But Spielberg’s biggest input into the series mid-2002, months after its earlier PC developer DICE to release the first entry in the
was with the development of Frontline. Ater 2015 counterpart had already launched, Battlefield series in September 2002. Utilising the
Inc had showed him their demo of the Normandy and is still undeniably the high point World War II setting and focusing on a large-scale
beach landings in Allied Assault – which was taken for the franchise. The combination of the game’s multiplayer mode, as had been the case with
shot-for-shot from Spielberg’s Saving Private cinematic quality and its rich flowing story – Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault, Battlefield 1942
Ryan – he became enamoured with the idea of which, says Chris, was intended to essentially be quickly built up a following that would one day
playing the same moment interactively. Spielberg A Bridge Too Far – with intense street-to-street work to undo a lot of the recognition that the
guided the cinematography of the inal product, fighting and an excellent use of the historic setting Medal Of Honor franchise had been building. But
while also suggesting to the console team working really raised the title above its competitors, a it wasn’t until 2003, with the release of the first Call
on Frontline that they should also add the D-Day facet that Medal Of Honor was soon going to Of Duty, that Medal Of Honor ’s demise began in
landings to the game, speciically making it the have to contend with. The game went on to sell earnest. Activision’s first competitor in the World
opening section. Despite the project already well well over 6 million copies on PS2 alone, with a War II shooter market leveraged a greater sense of
on the way to completion, Spielberg’s input took further 2 million across its Xbox and GameCube spectacle than Medal Of Honor had been known
interest from EA executives who then ensured that versions and is, to this day, the highest selling for – even after the release of Frontline – and
the segment would be added, bringing that famed before long the series would struggle to keep up
cinematic moment to gamers. with the escalating thrills that COD would offer.
But before all that, EA was riding high on the
success of Frontline. Two expansions to the PC
title were released – one in 2002 and one in 2003
– while the team behind Frontline then utilised the
same engine to quickly release Rising Sun, moving
away from war torn Europe for the first time into
the battles of the Pacific. Courtesy of the series’
82 | RETRO GAMER
MEDAL OF HONOR
RETRO GAMER | 83
WHATEVER
HAPPENED
TO... SA
GAMES THAT NEVE
R
W THE LIGHT OF DA
Y
IN THE
DRAGON SWORD
KNOW
Dragon Sword was set to be an exciting action game
for the Nintendo 64 but it never saw the light of
» PUBLISHER:
MGM Interactive
» DEVELOPER:
C
December 1999 reating videogames is they’re literally ready for release. Dragon the team got to work on its game (then
a tough business – it’s Sword was one such game… known as Dragon Storm). The team
filled with winners and “We were big fans of Gauntlet and started off with just four people, but as
losers. For every triple-A loved creating fantasy words with development ramped up there were
game that receives critical acclaim and medieval-style characters and locations,” 14 people working on Dragon Sword
sales, there are countless others that reveals Philip Oliver about the origins of after eight months of development. The
simply fail to leave a mark on us. Worse his team’s missing N64 game. “With game was due to master for December
yet, there are many games that don’t get the advent of consoles being able to 1998 and there were also options with
off the starting line. Some are cancelled do 3D graphics we felt that players publisher MGM to have versions for
early when it’s clear they’re not going would love to control a warrior in a richly the PlayStation and PC as well. Dragon
anywhere, but others get canned when detailed close-combat action adventure Sword would end up being in production
3D world, [this] was in 1997. Nintendo for around 20 months, which is a long
was the dominant console manufacturer, period for a release from around that
although Sony was rising fast. Like most time, but nowhere near the 12-year
good developers, we had PlayStation gestation period that has been bandied
development kits, but that also meant around the internet.
a lot of competition. Having won the That development time was fraught
contract for Glover on N64, we had with difficulty, too, because the team
several N64 [Dolphin] development were facing numerous issues due to
kits and we had to create a good 3D the software they were using to make
engine and we knew Nintendo would Dragon Sword. “The 3D engine and
market the console well. With other tools were the greatest challenge,”
developers not being able to get dev admits Philip. “We choose not to use
N64 kits, we figured we were in a good the Silicon Graphics suite that Nintendo
position to make another great game on and Rare were using, because they were
this console.” It was a sound plan and so expensive. We’d starting working
ord team
Members of the Dragon Sw
rew Oliver.
pose with Philip and And
84 | RETRO GAMER
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO: DRAGON SWORD
but on the wrong platform” that would have been of huge concern to
the cost-conscious MGM. “Maybe we
unseen64.net suggesting there would
have been a decent market for the game
could have ported it to PlayStation and had it been released. “Fundamentally
with 3D Studio Max on PlayStation, so player deathmatch arena mode and had PC, but MGM owned the title and MGM Dragon Sword was a great game, but on
our artists were used to this and we’d destructible objects. Everything was Interactive was being sold to EA who did the wrong platform,” concludes Philip. “It
already created a 3D engine. The 64-bit going well, but then disaster struck and not want to support the N64 due to the goes to show that success in the games
floating-point main processor on the MGM Interactive (which had already expensive cartridge costs and they had industry, is not just about writing a great
Nintendo 64 was very different to the published the studio’s previous game, little interest in Dragon Sword. Their main game. You need to have a great game,
PlayStation. The biggest problem was Wargames) got cold feet and Dragon reason for purchasing MGM Interactive on the right platforms, at the right price
actually the vastly reduced number of Sword was pulled from the release was for the James Bond licence.” with positive reviews and customers
polygons the Nintendo could display, schedule. “Things had gone relatively excited to spend money.”
D
compared to the PlayStation, but they well with [MGM] on the PlayStation and espite Dragon Sword
were better quality, not suffering from PC [with] Wargames, and they wanted a never getting a release
warping, jiggling and texture distortion.” game on the N64,” reveals Philip. “But, many have now played
The team battled on, though, creating they were struggling to make money as the game as a ROM exists
a solid 3D brawler that catered for a full corporation and their games division for it online, something that Philip is
co-op play and saw you seeking out the wasn’t bringing in enough money. Like aware of. “The game was close to being
fabled Dragon Sword after escaping from other film companies [Disney, Universal, finished and many review and testing
a dungeon during the game’s intro. Like DreamWorks, Time Warner etc] they cartridges were made,” he explains.
Gauntlet Legends, Dragon Sword had were hoping to capitalise on their film “We also had quite a few Nintendo
you smashing generators to stop them franchises, but wanted to see if they cartridges with EPROM chips of the
from spawning monsters; various items could also create some original titles. But, game, and people would borrow these
that could be picked up to enhance your towards the end of development, MGM to play, as they were fun. It’s easy to
warrior and diverse fantasy backdrops Interactive was being closed down and copy these, with the right equipment.
to battle through. While its co-operative it’s assets sold to Electronic Art.” Clearly someone uploaded the ROM
mode only catered for two players, it It was a bitter blow to the team,
mixed things up by including characters particularly as the game had been going
that were distinctly different to control, out for reviews and had received an
various areas that couldn’t be assessed impressive 93% from 64 Magazine,
until you found the right switch and far which then started a petition to try
better bosses. It also included a four-
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» [PC] Jack
works at
this desk
in an early
cutscene.
How We Made
Hotel Hell
We talk to designer Ed Kay and the
with Dark Corners’ infamous escapeothers involved
scene
Ed Kay: I can’t take all the credit
it’s not actually that hard. The
for the idea, but when I came on
voices, and music, got players
board it had already gone through
stressed and panicky. It has an
several iterations. I was given a
element of Simon Says about
partially broken, messily coded,
it but I really loved it, and the
fairly unfun level and had to get
pressure it put you under. It was
it finished, quickly. We could
very clever.
only have six enemies active at
once and they are teleported
Chris Gray: We knew that was
around. We faked other stuff,
going to be challenging to put
too, unowned yelling voices,
together, especially as running
gunshots with no shooter, and so
away is such an unusual concept
“[The challenge] was to make something on. The whole level is smoke and
mirrors. I think the build up to it
for players. Of all the sequences
in the game it probably went
that would interest Cthulhu fans, and is amazing, since it’s previously
about the atmosphere and the
through the most hands, and in all
honesty, we were never entirely
also attract a new audience” player isn’t under any real threat.
Then suddenly, you’re awake in
happy with it. However, I think it’s
a highly original chapter, and if
Andrew Brazier the middle of the night and it goes
you can forgive the frustrations,
from ‘take your time and explore’
it’s a wonderfully terrifying
Dark Corners was to be most closely of role-playing games, and knew that to ‘run for your sodding life’!
experience to play.
based on. “The main reasons were the Lovecraft was a pioneering author,”
cool spooky setting, and that it gave us recalls Chris, “but hadn’t read the books. Gareth Clarke: We wanted to
Ed Kay: Honestly, looking back,
a tangible enemy type in the hybrids That said, I quickly became a fan, partly terrify people and give them the
it was way too hard! With a little
[grotesque half men/fish breeds] and out of necessity, but mostly because sense that this wasn’t like other
more experience and time, we’d
Deep Ones.” As Andrew observes, the mythos is such a rich universe.” games – to feel the pressure.
have playtested it more and
many Lovecraft stories contain creatures Buoyed by ideas from the chat group, Thing is, if you turn off the sound,
pulled the difficulty a bit.
beyond comprehension, making tense the template was a HUD-less stealth
reading, but an unhelpful basis for visual shooter complete with a sanity system
interpretation, despite the author’s efforts and story-based structure. “I remember
at describing the ‘indescribable’. brainstorming meetings where those key recalls Gareth painfully. “We were
concepts were established,” continues pushed towards the concept of a ‘vertical
nnsmouth itself was an Chris, “and the focus put on story, rather slice’ – creating a full set of functionality
RETRO GAMER | 89
HUD-less display and sanity meter. “The
lack of a HUD came from the importance
» [PC] The mystery of Innsmouth begins
… of immersing the player and making sure
there were fewer distractions reminding
you it was a videogame,” Chris recalls.
time – no negativity towards it, but it ever. The team split into two as Simon “This fed naturally into the sanity system;
was in its infancy and we just couldn’t Woodroffe focused on other projects, Developer anything we planned on doing visually
get it to do what we needed it to.” It
was a similar story with the Netimmerse
with Chris Gray assuming design and
other responsibilities on Dark Corners. “It Highlights just felt like it was never going to be as
effective if you had a bunch of elements
game engine. “It wasn’t robust in terms was my job to revise and edit the game SIMON THE on the screen.” Dark Corners’ sanity
of a game engine, unless you were to something shorter – the original plan SORCERER 3D worked in the background, quietly logging
running at 60 frames a second,” says had been 40 hours – and then add in SYSTEM: PC instances of terror against periods of
Gareth, and when publisher Bethesda all the detail and dialogue coordination YEAR: 2002 reassuring calm. “It was a resource,
DEADLANDS
signed the game in 2003, and shifted the with the rest of the design team.” The just like any other health resource,”
SYSTEM: PC
focus from PC to Xbox, it was clear the team spent swathes of time ensuring YEAR: UNRELEASED tells Gareth. “There were field-of-vision
two middlewares would not be suitable. the player felt suitably unwelcome in CALL OF CTHULHU: influences, so if you looked directly at
“By today’s standards, 60 frames would the poisoned town of Innsmouth, its DESTINY’S END a corpse it would degrade your sanity
be fine but on the original Xbox and PCs inhabitants pausing to stare at Jack or SYSTEM: PC, more effectively than if it was in your
of the time you were looking at 30.” confronting him directly with a rough, PLAYSTATION 2, XBOX periphery.” Should the player let Jack
YEAR: UNRELEASED
With a new publisher on board, but gargled warning. The sound design Walters encounter too many horrors,
the extra challenge of in-house game was intrinsic, too, with certain effects the screen would blur, Jack would see
and physics engines, development of containing a specific radius so they visions and mumble to himself. Persist
Dark Corners began to slow with the would fade ghostlike as the player in the behaviour and the character
increased workload on the small team. approached, or random crying behind would take his own life, either by gun,
The first design and ideas had been doors and cellar windows that would or strangulation – a somewhat intense
scribbled down in 1999; now, in late reveal disturbing scenes if spied through. occurrence. “You were supposed to
2003, Headfirst’s exciting vision of the Two key elements in fostering the be able to manage the sanity,” explains
world of Lovecraft was as far away as atmosphere of Dark Corners were the Gareth, “as we wanted players to
Deining Moments
Dagon Attacks
■ Aboard the ship Urania, Jack and the crew must
fend off a clutch of deep ones as they approach, Devil’s
Reef. Pounding the deck, their boss Dagon surfaces
and Jack must avoid his attacks in between letting
off shots from the ship’s deck cannon. Clever effects
give the impression of the boat moving, despite it not
actually going anywhere throughout the level.
90 | RETRO GAMER
THE MAKING OF: CALL OF CTHULHU: DARK CORNERS OF THE EARTH
“We proudly went to the nearest major nature of it. No other game has had its
longevity; every year I see it in lists of
videogame store the week of release and ‘top ten games no one ever played’ or
‘great games for Halloween’. It’s a bit
they didn’t have any copies” of a curiosity, and in some respects I
prefer that it was a commercial failure,
Chris Gray yet a cult success, because it shaped my
enthusiasm for the industry.”
experience it, but not so much that it videogame store the week of release,” Bored of relentless shooting and so-
ends the game.” recalls Chris painfully, “and they didn’t called vulnerable heroes, tooled up to the
have any copies. They hadn’t even heard max with automatic rifles and shotguns?
W
ith the switch of of it. That hurt given how much personal Why not jump into the fragile skin of
publisher, the Xbox time we’d sacrificed.” Even had Dark investigator Jack Walters and attempt to
became the primary Corners been a runaway success, it was uncover the horrible secret of the town
platform with PC and too late for Headfirst, crippled by the of Innsmouth? Just beware of your own
PlayStation 2 versions to follow, the elongated development. “The PC version mind, dear reader, should it recoil in terror
former lead version relegated to very nearly didn’t happen,” says Gareth, at glimpsing those insidious, pervading,
console-port status, as Bethesda “as I was practically the only person left dark corners of the earth.
also pressed Headfirst for a in the building, and hadn’t been paid for
PlayStation 2 version. “We said, months. But we couldn’t stand it not
‘No chance,’” grimaces Gareth, “so coming out after years of work.”
they outsourced it. I recall an awkward Ultimately, despite poor sales, and
conversation when the other developer mixed reviews, Dark Corners remains
phoned up and asked us questions on a game its team are very proud of 12
its feasibility. They’d tried everything, years later. “The production values
but it was clear it would never happen. and polish may not have been great,”
It had half the memory again of the says Chris, “but it was a labour of love
Xbox, so the tech was just hopelessly for us, and there were a lot of original
compromised.” With the change from ideas on display – maybe too many.
PC to Xbox, the game had already In a medium where journalists are
undergone many sacrifices, notably the screaming out for originality, it would
removal of Jack’s arms and optimisation have been nice to receive a bit more
of the game’s ambitious levels. credit for trying something different.”
Dark Corners Of The Earth was finally Gareth, who left for Midlands
released in 2005. Bethesda, delighted by developer Eurocom after Headfirst
the runaway success of the third Elder collapsed, says, “It’s without shadow
Scrolls chapter, Morrowind, had already of a doubt my favourite game I’ve
shifted focus to promoting its sequel. worked on, because of the way the
“We proudly went to the nearest major team gelled together and the original
An Unspeakable Horror
■ Having saved J Edgar, Jack encounters the first of
several large Cthulhu creatures in the bug-eyed, slimy
Shoggoth. It cannot be harmed directly and besides,
staring at the monstrosity for too long will destroy
Jack’s sanity. Only by manipulating the valves and
pipes around it can the Shoggoth be destroyed, but
escape is temporary – its liquefied remains chase the
investigator through the refinery’s corridors. Eek.
modern games you’ll still be playing in years to come
» Featured System: PC
» Year: 2016
» Developer: Playdead
» Key People:
Arnt Jenson (director),
Jeppe Carlson
(design), Martin Stig
Andersen (audio)
» Composer Martin
Stig Anderson routed
Inside’s audio through a
real human skull to help
achieve the sound he
wanted for the game.
» Playdead’s cofounder
Dino Christian Patti left
shortly after Inside’s
release and founded
new studio Jumpship.
uncover why it The genesis for what would become Inside was a
piece of concept art that depicted what we will only
You never hear a word of dialogue uttered in
Inside, nor see a line of explanatory text appear on
classic status. the game, you know what we’re talking about. That
piece of art ended up being the reference point for the
boy’s movements, hear the anxiety in his breathing.
You know that all is not well. Soon, you find yourself
Paul Walker-Emig entire game’s visual style, the gravitational core for
its structure, the revelatory pivot for the themes with
running from masked men trying to hunt you down as
you’re introduced to a dystopian world that’s defined
which it plays. by the crumbling architecture you move through,
takes you Working back from that, Playdead managed to the people you see marching in unison below you
create a game with a rare artistic precision. The team and the puzzles you must solve to progress. Inside
inside… Inside knew where it was going, it knew what it wanted is masterful in the way it paints a picture of its world
to achieve, and it tuned everything with that specific using only the language of games. It is the floorboards
destination in mind. that break under your step, the terror you feel as
92 | RETRO GAMER
FUTURE CLASSIC: INSIDE
» [PC] It’s easy to understand why this scene was used in early trailers.
You want to know what they are looking at!
RETRO GAMER | 93
ER/CON SOLE
FAVOURITE COMPUT
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or at a
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FAVOURITE ALBUM e Jo e G a n g: M
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WHO YOU WAN T TO
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FAVOURITE BOOK: My gi rl fr ie nd
manual r vi nt ag e
ZX Spectru m Ch ec k ou t he
vi nt ag e.c om!
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“ I still want to
do an Atari 2600
DAT E OF BIR TH
1 8/ 1 2/ 70
PLACE OF BIR TH
Su tt o n, game. It’s like
As h fi e ld
unfinished business”
BIOGRA PHY
b eg a n co d i n g
Sp e ct r u m ga m
es at sc h o ol
ie s t o w or k
Adrian Longland
Ad ri a n i n t he Ni n et
b efor e m ov i n g t o t he US
s. He st i l l co d es fo r
io n ti t le
o n 3D O a n d Pl ay St at
modern co ns ol es .
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
94 | RETRO GAMER
Adrian Longland
What cherished games would you take to the island?
He has gone from coding Spectrum were always pushing the envelope. I’d preorder their games
and would phone them up every day to see if they had sent it
games in his bedroom to working out yet! I was a fan. Still am.”
Coding after school and at weekends, Adrian spent over
on the biggest franchise in the a year creating Nuclear Countdown, meticulously designing
each room with a custom level editor he had written and
world. He tells Paul Drury about getting to grips with the isometric perspective through a slightly
cumbersome combination of three screen buffers. “The
answering Uncle Sam’s call graphics and animation for the walking robots are my proudest
part,” he grins. “I’m not an artist or animator and I admire those
guys so much but that one character and animation I think are
D
ear readers, we have an exclusive; worthy of what a true artist and animator would have done.”
before we maroon our latest The game can hold its robot head high in terms of its
castaway, he has agreed to leave visuals and some of the puzzles can be fiendish, requiring
behind an unreleased Spectrum game lateral thinking and finger-mangling dexterity. It was generally
in our safe keeping and it involves well received by the gaming press of the day, with Crash!
assembling a plane to escape from an island – how apt. praising it as “a great little budget game” in issue 38, though it
“I tried to get Cloud Hopper published in Your Sinclair commented that the bargain price of £1.99, it was rather short.
magazine but they turned it down because it “Yes, I should have made more screens,”
Trivia
went over the memory limits they had set,” acknowledges Adrian, “particularly given the
explains coder Adrian Longland, once of British amount of work it was to write the level editor. I
shores but now settled in the USA. “It would should have planned it all out on graph paper…
have taken up a lot of pages and taken ages to but it was my baby and I was really happy
Adrian studied Computer
type in all the machine code and, to be honest, Science at sixth form Nuclear Countdown got published. Then a few
it had missed it’s time. If I came out in the early college in Beeston, weeks after I’d said yes to Atlantis, Mastertronic
just on the outskirts of
days of Cookie and Ah Diddums, it might have Nottingham , and coded replied saying they wanted it! I’ve always
held its own. I made it ridiculously hard, too, but his first Spectrum games regretted not holding out for a bigger publisher.”
bedroom 1, there – quite apt, as the
Adrian’s
I’ve made some tweaks only yesterday…” Nevertheless, the game pocketed Adrian
99
t up in 1 d to
town is where the Spectrum
Three decades later and Adrian is still tinkering £400 and he left his Nottinghamshire home
coding se move
Vega is now manufactured.
ore he with his Spectrum. Cloud Hopper (imagine for Southampton University to study Electronic
just bef Jetpac with more clouds and extra features, such Engineering, dreaming of making arcade
.
the USA as lifts and a wind factor to cope with) is now considerably hardware. He returned with a third-class degree and spent
more fun and forgiving, and you can download the full game the next year pottering around on a government-sponsored
from the excellent gamesthatwerent.com. Enterprise Allowance Scheme, trying to make Amiga games
He sensibly toned down the difficulty for his next effort, without much success. Fortunately, he spotted an advert for
Nuclear Countdown, which did get an official release through Psygnosis which was producing games for the FM Towns
Atlantis as a budget title. An isometric adventure involving a Marty console, one of the first machines to utilise CD-ROM
well-wired robot tasked with defusing warheads, it featured technology. “They wanted someone to port their game
much block-shoving, problem-solving and traversing Microcosm to the 3DO which was just about to be released.
precarious moving platforms. Would it be fair to say you They saw I’d done Speccy games and had a degree, even if it
were somewhat in thrall to Ultimate Play The Game’s was a crappy one, so I went up to join them in Liverpool. I was
offerings like Knight Lore and Alien 8, Adrian? lucky [to get the job] and it was a real turning point in my life.”
“Look at my list of desert island games and you’ll see This early experience of working with the kind of CD
the admiration I have for those guys,” he laughs. “They technology which was about to revolutionise gaming
RETRO GAMER | 95
Cloud Hopper wa
s Adrian’s
unreleased debut
and a pretty
decent game it is.
“ Crystal Dynamics
seemed like Ultimate
in the Spectrum days,
like, ‘Wow, how are
they doing that?’”
Adrian Longland
V
worked on, I did play a hell of a lot
Horde. They kind of seemed like Ultimate had in the Spectrum ideogames can often be unintentionally
of Samurai Shodown on the 3DO
when it first came out. It’s also nice to see that days, like, ‘Wow, how are they doing that!?’ The place sounded hilarious but consciously trying to make
he’s a big fan of Rare’s output as well, and that amazing and I just knew I had to work there… though I’ve got a ‘funny’ game is a difficult act to pull off.
we both share a love for the rather excellent red hair and fair skin so there was no beach for me!” When stand-up comedian Dana Gould agreed to
Banjo-Kazooie.
Hired to work on Off-World Interceptor, Adrian was first provide the voice of Gex, we wonder if Adrian felt hopeful or
asked to help complete the port of Samurai Shodown from the concerned? “I liked what we were trying to do and I like games
Paul Drury
It was great to hear how a fellow Neo-Geo to the 3DO, which having grown up wishing he could with a sense of humour,” he says. “It can give a game a certain
Nottingham boy crossed the work on arcade hardware was pretty damn close to his dream charm, like the quips in Banjo-Kazooie. With Gex, though, it
pond and got involved with the job. The project also involved working with Max Behensky and was hard to see where the humour fell. We had all these lines
emerging CD-based consoles that
would change gaming forever. And though he
Stephanie Mott, the team behind Atari’s seminal Hard Drivin’ from Dana Gould, thousands of them, and we had to take out
now has a Californian twang from living there game, and he learned a lot about 3D technology from these hundreds because we didn’t want to offend this famous person
for 25 years, his homeland vowels did return pioneers, knowledge he could bring to Off-World Interceptor or risk getting sued by this company… we scratched out about
after an hour of talking to me.
when he returned to his original brief. Though the game is a half! It would have been way funnier if we’d just left them all in.
pretty speedy racer, placing you in the driving seat of a heavily There were definitely some tumbleweed moments.
armed moon buggy-turned-super truck, it is most memorable Nonetheless, Adrian remains very proud of Enter The Gecko,
for some especially cheesy FMV scenes. and stuck with the green protagonist for Gex 3: Deep Cover
“When we got the video footage back, it was so bad that Gecko, released in 1999. “Generally with a sequel you’re
we thought, ‘What can we do to save this?” giggles Adrian. constrained because people have certain expectations but I
“There was this American TV show called Mystery Science liked working on this one,” says Adrian. “We had the engine,
96 | RETRO GAMER
the technology and the tools – all the things that take so
That’s me much time – so it was about having more fun with the
Longland on Longland
in the content. Every day you’d come in and the designers would
have a new level or a new boss and you’d be like, ‘Let me
a Cray-1 supercomputer
» Adrian in the early Nineties next to
way.
from the Seventies. We’ve come a long
GEX: ENTER THE GECKO WALT DISNEY WORLD QUEST HAMSTAR GOLF AFRO SAMURAI
■ YEAR:1998 ■ YEAR: 2000 ■ YEAR: 2004 ■ YEAR: 2009
■ FORMAT: PlayStation ■ FORMAT: PlayStation ■ FORMAT: Mobile ■ FORMAT: PS3/360
There was a stampede Adrian’s final game at Crystal A real oddity, this Japan-only An unlikely melding of
of anthropomorphic 3D Dynamics was this surprisingly phone game features the ancient Japanese tradition
platformers following in Crash good Mario Kart clone, with cute titular rodent negotiating with hip-hop beats and
Bandicoot ’s wake but Gex had tracks based on rides from the crazy-ish courses. An banter. Stylish swordplay but
some decent ideas of its own. famous theme parks. above-par obscurity. rather lacking in substance.
RETRO GAMER | 97
v
Readers’ Trivia
to emulate the success of Naughty Dog, dicing, all to a jaunty hip-hop beat, but the action
which also began as a two-man start up. “The can get a little repetitive and the early flush of
Questions
reality was harsh,” sighs Adrian. “We had lots good ideas dry up as the story trudges onward.
of experience with coding and gameplay but we “A magazine summed that game up pretty well,”
The Gex engine Adrian
soon realised that was only a fraction of what was helped develop was used
says Adrian. “They said it did the hard things
needed. We made a 3D engine and had demos for the Tomb Raider games really well but failed to get some of the basics
Merman: As a programmer,
with characters running around but we never got when the franchise landed right. Like, the slicing mechanic with the sword is
how much input did you have at Crystal Dynamics. He’s
into game design? to the point where a publisher could put money in. rather proud that some great and super fun but a lot of the levels aren’t
It’s very much a collaborative We needed a business person, a go-getter, who of his code made it into designed to take advantage of that. We did a
process. The designer has an Lara’s games right up
idea of what they want and the
knew how to get us a deal.” to the Xbox 360 era. lot with a small team and we had people like
Gregg Tavares, who did the work of ten people,
A
programmer has an idea of what
you can do. So you try something s the pair’s savings decreased, it but when you compare it with other games in the
and the designer will give you ended up doing contract work for genre, it doesn’t really stand up.”
feedback, like, ‘I wanted it to be
more like this,’ and you’ll say, ‘Well,
publishers like EA and their old bosses at Adrian is named ‘Longhold’ on the credits for Afro Samurai,
I could do it like this?’ With Speccy Crystal Dynamics, which kept the company hopefully an indication of the rushed nature of its development
games, it was just a programmer going but prevented them pushing ahead with their own rather than the studio’s inability to spell. After a brief spell
and an artist, if you were lucky. ideas for original IP. They did manage to produce Hamstar at EA working on the excellent Dead Space, he joined
Designers are a modern invention.
It very much depends on the Golf for the Japanese mobile phone market but it’s far more Sledgehammer in 2009 and suddenly Adrian found himself
people you’re working with and likely you’ve played their GameCube conversion of From aboard the Call Of Duty juggernaut. The downside of being part
the dynamic in the team. Only this Russia With Love, a pretty varied Bond game which mixes of the biggest franchises in videogaming history is that he is
week, I was brainstorming with the driving, shooting and fisticuffs and includes a jet pack section, not allowed to talk about his role –“The most nerve wracking
designer and I really felt I had some
part in the design… but they had which we hope brought back pleasant memories of Adrian’s [thing about my job is] talking to someone like you, making sure
the vision of what they wanted. So unreleased debut Cloud Hopper. “You know I can’t remember I don’t say anything I’m not supposed to!” he admits – so we
my answer is, ‘Some’! that bit,” he laughs. “If you’re porting a game, you’re so diplomatically don’t mention the war and instead find out about
focussed on making sure that everything works with the code, his current projects away from the office.
Paranoid Marvin: What was the you don’t always play the game through.” Having accumulated four Atari 2600 consoles, Adrian has
thinking behind getting Leslie
Phillips involved in Gex 3D and did
After calling time on their independent venture, Adrian got built an interface board to play custom ROMs and is keen to
you get to meet him? a job at Activision and joined the team working on X-Men: The code on the ancient hardware. “I’ve always wanted to write
No, I didn’t meet him. He has that Official Game, working on code optimisation, before getting an Atari 2600 game,” he smiles. “Trying to make something
campy style and I’ve always been a involved with the interesting cultural mash-up that was Afro fun to play in such a limited amount [of memory] and with
fan. I was excited he was involved
but when I heard him delivering
Samurai. With a distinctive art style and swords as big as the only a few objects is a real challenge but games like River Raid
some of the lines, I wasn’t sure hairstyles, the game does offer some impressive slicing and show it can be done. I’ve also just bought a Timex 1000, the
it made sense. He was rereading US version of the ZX81, and I want to do proper
the lines Dana Gould had said and hi-res graphics on that. I’ve always wanted to
adding a few of his own. To me,
“
they could have made a better know how they did stuff like that back then. It’s
choice even though I love him as
an actor.
The video footage for like unfinished business.”
He might be a Californian now but you’ll
06 Pac-Man (ARcADE)
The arcade was what the Spec
cy games aspired to and this
is my all-time favourite classic.
it quickly gets difficult. It
judged, and sometimes suffe
seem
So
s
red,
easy to start playing but
mos t 8-bit consoles were
base d on the quality of
07 08
Man port s. This was the gold standard.
their Pac-
RETRO GAMER | 99
Jet Set Radio
TRAGICALLY HIP
» DREAMCAST » SMILEBIT » 2000
» RETROREVIVAL
NICK
Sonic Mania
Puyo Puyo Tetris was a » [PS4] It’s the
hard habit to shake, but you return of the ‘Blue
Spheres’ game,
can see above that Sonic which is just as
Mania’s totally different! irritatingly tough as
you remember.
▼ SOMETHING NEW
FREEDOM PLANET (Pc)
Like many Kickstarter projects, Andy It helps that Andy has interviewed a
Remic’s love letter to the ZX Spectrum number of developers who are either
has been a long time coming. We’d argue, extremely engaging or wonderfully frank,
though, that for many of the film’s backers it’s with Simon Butler’s no-nonsense approach
been well worth the wait as it gives a charming to questions like piracy being exceptionally
insight into why so many people love Sir Clive honest and entertaining. It lacks the
Sinclair’s 8-bit micro. professionalism of similar documentaries, but » There’s a great range of developers, including Steve Wetherill. Memoirs Of A
Spectrum Addict does a great job of covering all bases.
If you’re looking for an in-depth history there’s a heart and personality to Memoirs,
lesson on the ZX Spectrum then Memoirs will which is missing from its many peers. This
leave you disappointed. While there’s a small passion is perhaps best summed up in the
segment about the machine’s origins in the first re-enactments, which show a young Andy
chapter (all of the chapters have title cards that opening his first Spectrum and snuggling up
‘boot up’ like a Speccy loading screen) Memoirs in bed to read the latest issue
is more interested in talking to the people who of Crash magazine. There are snippets of
worked on the games, from publishers, like school kids sharing the latest games at
Andrew Hewson, to well-regarded developers school, too, which are bound to get the
like Jim Bagley and the Oliver twins. A large nostalgia juices flowing.
variety of topics are covered, from favourite Memoirs Of A Spectrum Addict is a
games and magazines to discussions on piracy little rough around the edges, but like the
and the issues coders faced working on the Spectrum itself, it just adds to its charm.
machine, but the answers are never dull to It’s a delightful labour of love that won’t
listen to, even when they are topics that we’ve necessarily enlighten you, but will fill you with
seen discussed many times in the past. a warm Ready Brek-like glow. » They take a while to transition, but the start of each chapter is always worth the wait.
Namco Museum
» System: Switch » Cost: £29.99 » Buy it from: Switch eShop
The Namco Museum series has been running
since 1995 and in that time the company behind
Pac-Man, Galaga and Dig Dug has revisited
nearly 40 of its classic arcade games across six
volumes. It’s a pity, then, that so few of them
appear on this latest compendium for the Switch.
The included arcade games are Pac-Man, Galaga,
Dig Dug, The Tower Of Druaga, Sky Kid, Rolling
Thunder, Galaga ’88, Splatterhouse, Rolling
Thunder 2 and Tank Force. Additionally, there’s a
new version of the excellent Pac-Man Vs, which
now features a new three-player option for those though, with the emulation being every bit as
that don’t have access to a second Switch. It’s good as the slick presentation.
a decent library of games, particularly as Rolling We’re also guessing that Namco is a big fan
Thunder 2, Splatterhouse and Tank Force have of Rare Replay, as Namco Museum also features
» [Switch] Galaga ’88 is an excellent exclusion, making the inclusion of never appeared in earlier Museum collections a challenge on each of its games that range
Galaga feel like a wasted game slot.
from the company, but it’s not very diverse, when from rescuing a set amount of ships in Galaga to
it comes to the genres it represents. defeating a boss in Splatterhouse in under five
Fortunately, while the lack of games is minutes. They’re a nice addition to the series,
something of a disappointment, the emulation adding that little bit of extra longevity.
throughout is excellent, allowing you to make The jewel of the crown is the excellent
countless tweaks to the display and sound, rendition of Pac-Man Vs that has been included.
including adjusting the intensity of scanlines or While you can only play as the ghosts on one
even altering the reverb length. It’s even possible Switch, it’s still tremendous fun. The price tag
to switch your Switch (ho-ho) 90 degrees to feels a little steep for the small amount of similar
make better use of the vertical games but Namco games that are available, but there’s no denying
didn’t switch the controls in this option, meaning that Namco Museum is a decent product.
you have to use a detached Joycon, which is,
frankly, rubbish. It’s the only sour point we have >> Score 69%
ON SALE
celebrating over 20 years of the
console that truly brought gaming
to the masses
» [Web] Fighting against gravity, avoiding spikes and trying to get to the portal.
» [Amstrad CPC]
Time for some
bullet hell with
Dragon Attack.
DEVELOPING
is you’re style, how about this?
There’s a significant Inspired by Zenobi Software, I helping out, drawing covers, smile, is
Graha m
Richards
got together with a friend and duplicating tapes, designing Monument
TRAILBLAZER
» foRMat: BBC MICro » DevelopeR: Darren Coles » DownloaD: KIKstart.eu/traIlBlazer-BBC » pRice: free
STAR LETTER
BEAT FOREVER CONFUSED
THE TEAM Hi chaps,
Is it just me that is completely
catalogue and somehow constantly
finds ways to undermine it.
sure why there’s no consistent
quality standard. It shouldn’t
GALAGA ’88 baffled by Sega? They go and Of course, they also have be hard for Sega to get hold of
whip up loads of attention for this those brilliant 3D Classics games a Mega Drive, compare the real
new Sega Forever thing, and the on the 3DS, so they must know deal to the emulation and make
idea sounds amazing (I mean, who what decent emulation looks like. sure that they match up – and
doesn’t want free retro games?) but Why won’t Sega insist on the that’s what it’s going to need
then they go and ruin it with poor same kind of quality in their other to do if retro enthusiasts are
emulation. I’d love to have a version retro releases? going to get on board with Sega
of Altered Beast to play on the train Will Huggett Forever or the hardware clones.
to work, but they’ve made such a
pig’s ear of running the game that it You’re not the only one that’s
just isn’t fun. confused, Will. The company
This is just like with those terrible seemed to have better
Since we’ve done a PC Engine Mega Drive clone consoles that optimised emulation years ago
cover, we chose one of the
console’s many excellent arcade come out every year – how do they with its early iOS releases, and
conversions to compete on. It has keep getting licensed? Surely the we can’t understand why the
proven to be a constant source of NES Mini must have made Sega Sega Forever releases are so
distraction, too… realise that if they did a better job broken now.
with these machines, they’d make a Although it’s probable that
NICK 457,280 lot more money from them. But no, different people are signing off » [iOS] The iOS version of Altered Beast chugs, and it
“Remember, you can get your this company has an amazing back on different projects, we’re not really shouldn’t considering the hardware it’s running on.
blue warp tokens by shooting
down merged enemies. The game gets
harder with each warp but if you can
survive, you’ll score far more points.”
IT’S A DATE adopted by games such as Sakura with them. We’d be failing our
Hi RG, Taisen and Persona. readers if we couldn’t explain the
DREW 360,450 I feel like other readers are going to There’s also a lot of interesting appeal of the games from our
“I knew challenging Nick would laugh at me for asking this, but it history to the genre if you’re willing own experience. Fear not, though
be futile, so I experimented with needs to be asked: isn’t it about to uncover it – for example, SNK – when somebody comes along
accuracy instead. I got this score with a time you guys covered the dating produced a line of dating sims featuring with the correct expertise, we’ll
80.4 per cent hit rate. Not bad!” simulator genre? its female characters, a man once give this much-maligned genre
I know it’s for ‘freaks’ and ‘weirdos’ married his virtual girlfriend, and some fair coverage.
SAM 275,750 but these games have started to filter Konami crowdfunded production of
“I found a useful strategy here through to the West, even if it’s mostly Tokimeki Memorial 3 way before the BUT IS IT RETRO?
was to watch what Nick did because of less serious games like likes of Kickstarter got going. Oi, you lot,
and then do that. Also, the tried-and-tested Hatoful Boyfriend and Dream Daddy. So what do you say? Do I have a Stop it. You know very well what I
method of trolling Darran during his runs But in Japan, games like Tokimeki point, or am I crazy? mean, too – you put a PlayStation 2
seemed to yield positive results.” Memorial, Sentimental Graffiti and Anon game on the cover, as if that’s
LovePlus were big hits, and the somehow retro. I could just about
DARRAN 215,410 genre’s mechanics have been We reckon you do have a point, tolerate seeing the likes of Black and
“Okay, I’m simply not young mystery reader. While it’s not Halo covered in the magazine, but
enough any more. My hands the most mainstream of genres now you’re parading Final Fantasy XII
aren’t what they used to be in my shmup and its fans can be considered as if that’s the sort of game this
heyday. I gave up in the first few moments.” somewhat eccentric, it’s not magazine should be about? Come on,
something we’d be against these are just modern games with
» [PC Engine]Only covering in principle. However, worse graphics and Final Fantasy XII
one of our in-house we don’t feel like we could do the was released basically yesterday.
team can claim
to speak a bit of genre justice right now. If you’re moving away from the
Japanese, and even The problem is that many classic gaming stuff towards this, I
that’s a stretch. If
you’re fluent in
of the important games in the might be forced to reconsider
the language, genre require stronger Japanese buying the magazine. Please don’t
and can string a language skills than we possess, make me do that.
sentence together,
get in touch! so we’re completely unfamiliar Alan Greeves
CONTACT US
Snail Mail: Retro Gamer,
Future Publishing, Richmond House,
33 Richmond Hill, Bournemouth,
Dorset, BH2 6EZ
Email: darran.jones@futurenet.com Future Publishing Limited
Richmond House, 33 Richmond Hill
Bournemouth, Dorset, BH2 6EZ
Editorial
Editor Darran ‘Earthworm Jim enthusiast’ Jones
darran.jones@futurenet.com
We’ll always have a place for the retro gaming community has gone to % 01202 586237
8-bit and 16-bit formats in the great lengths to keep this community DISCUSSED THIS MONTH
Production Editor Drew ‘Sparkster supporter’ Sleep
magazine, but retro gaming is not alive, albeit, a small one. So let’s make Senior Staff Writer Nick ‘Sonic spinner’ Thorpe
a fixed, unchanging thing. The PS2 it grow, together.
DS XS Designer Sam ‘Croc convert’ Ribbits
“Don’t let me buy any games,” declares Darran. Group Editor In Chief Tony Mott
is 17 years old, the most popular So here is my call to arms to a Ten minutes later, he’s off to Bournemouth’s CeX.
Senior Art Editor Warren Brown
console ever, and home to many lost generation of online gamers, “Don’t buy any games,” we all remind him. He
Photographer James Sheppard
comes back with a DS game and a DSi XL. We
great games. The people who get yourselves a DreamPi (a great can’t remember the last time a day passed without Contributors
spent their teenage years on the alternative to the lesser-supported a DS game arriving in the post. Adam Barnes, Mike Bevan, Martyn Carroll, Paul Drury, Kieren
machine are adults now, and we’d and very expensive broadband Hawken, Kim Justice, Jason Kelk, Graeme Mason, Rory Milne,
Paul Rose, Paul Walker-Emig
be doing them a disservice if we adapter), virtually any Pi will do to act Advertising
didn’t cover it. as a Wi-Fi adapter for your DC, get Media packs are available on request
Commercial Director Clare Dove
your Dreamcast back online and join clare.dove@futurenet.com
ALL A DREAM us, whether it be for the first time, or Advertising Director Andrew Church
andrew.church@futurenet.com
It was great to see Retro Gamer returning to the DC. Let’s make this Account Director Kevin Stoddart
kevin.stoddart@futurenet.com
mention Phantasy Star Online community grow, let’s have epic
International
for Dreamcast’s community servers online experiences with this Retro Gamer is available for licensing. Contact the International
in a recent issue. This inspired underrated system with some department to discuss partnership opportunities
International Licensing Director Matt Ellis
me to look into getting myself quality online games. matt.ellis@futurenet.com
a Dreamcast after over-looking the Readers can find an excellent Print Subscriptions & Back Issues
Email enquiries retrogamer@servicehelpline.co.uk
console originally, and to get the thing guide on YouTube on the UK orderline & enquiries 844 848 8412
back online after a decade of the DreamcasticChannel channel and a Overseas order line and enquiries +44 1795 592 872
Online orders & enquiries www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk
official servers being down. I have wealth of resources on Head of subscriptions Sharon Todd
never been happier. dreamcastlive.net. The parts are Circulation
Circulation Director Darren Pearce
I have connected with a long-lost inexpensive, I got mine online for less 01202 586200
community in Phantasy Star Online, than £50 and access is free. Production
where I have found UK and USA Do something really special, get your Head of Production US & UK Mark Constance
Production Project Manager Clare Scott
players more than willing to assist a Dreamcast back online! Advertising Production Manager Joanne Crosby
Digital Editions Controller Jason Hudson
‘n00b’ to level up and have enjoyed Mike Brown Production Controller Vivienne Calvert
fragging sessions in another timeless » [Dreamcast] Phantasy Star Online is sure to strike a Management
classic, Quake III Arena. It seems the You heard the man – give it a go! Creative Director Aaron Asadi
chord with most Dreamcast owners.
Art & Design Director Ross Andrews
Printed by
Printed by Wyndham Bicester, Granville Way, Bicester, OX26 4QZ
Distributed by
fredghostmaster only way I can remember the and Rick Dickinson – and always on my Windows laptop, then ISSN 1742-3155
I mostly play Spectrum Spectrum. Or mag screenshots puts a smile on my face. the Recreated Bluetooth ZX
games on a DS these days. A Spectrum on my tablet, and
Spectrum in your pocket, who stvd PostieDoc finally for that really portable
knew that day would come all My Spectrum usage is still I have a mint-condition Spectrum option ZXDS on my
those years ago! regular via emulation. My PSP +3 with a DivMMC slotted in the Nintendo DS XL!
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01 02 03
» We’re not really sure what your mission » Here are our heroes. The Paro Ceaser » And this is home, apparently – a
is in Star Parodier, really. You just shoot a has come from Star Soldier, which makes gigantic lippin’ Supergrafx, which is the
bunch of stuf and then shoot some more. sense. Bomberman has come from, sort of thing you’d really expect Hudson
Regardless, with the inal boss destroyed well… Bomberman. Then there’s a to be less proud of given that the gaming
your mission – whatever exactly that PC Engine, which shoots HuCards and market thoroughly rejected the console.
entailed – is complete at last. CDs. They’re all of home post-mission. This one’s even got lights and stuf.
04 05
» As they approach the Supergrafx our heroes are greeted by » With a complete disregard for sense, Bomberman decides to
other ships, including the PC Engine Shuttle (again with the failed cut loose and try wakeboarding on the back of Star Ceaser. It’d
hardware?) and a selection of men who utilise bombs. They go just as well without the board, given that there’s no water or
playfully frolic, now that they’ve inished doing whatever it was indeed gravity here, but Bomberman doesn’t care. He’s bored
they were meant to have done. Something about shooting? with your silly concept of physics, okay?
ISSUE
48
OCTOBER 2017
NEW
S TA R REVIEWS
O X 2
F LOUD FINALLY OF SNES
CLASSICS!
FOX McC TO THE SNES! Contra III
RETURwNaSit been wor th it? EarthBound
Has the Final Fantasy III
Secret Of Mana
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario World
Super Metroid
Yoshi’s Island
And more…
MTIEN I
SAN E S S T
N D S-ONE WIN ORIGINAL WIL OVERTON ART, A SNES MINI CONSOLE AND MORE!
H INSID
SUPER EXPRESS ● ANIME WORLD ● IMPORT REVIEWS ● WHAT CART?
1
SUPER EXPRESS
SUPER PLAY EDITORIAL
FROM THE
October 2017 Issue 48
BIG CHAIR
Tel: 01225 442244
TEXANS
Editor: Tony Mott
Senior art editor: Woz Brown
Production editor: Ian Evenden
Cover artist: Wil Overton
PYRAMINTS
Advertising director: Andy Church
Commercial director: Clare Dove Our full contents listing starts just over the page
Account director: Kevin Stoddart 3
TOFFOS
I
’m not really the sort of person Street Fighter II Turbo and Yoshi’s this one-off special edition I thought
Managing director: Zillah Byng-Thorne
to pre-order things on the Island and… well, if you were there, it’d be sensible to follow the same
Creative director: Aaron Asadi
Internet, but when Nintendo you know what I’m on about. approach. So I got in touch with
Art & Design director: Ross Andrews
announced the Classic Mini: SNES I really liked Super Play, too, and former Super Play staff Jason Brookes,
TREETS I buckled like a white plastic chair not only because the subscription Jonathan Davies, Zy Nicholson and
Editorial Neko Jr artwork at a You’ve Been Framed barbecue. deal offered readers a copy of Akira. Wil Overton to invite them back
Jason Brookes Wil Overton Scrabbling to Amazon, I made my (On VHS! Hey, this was 1992.) I liked aboard, along with longtime Nintendo
Jonathan Davies reservation. Ten minutes later, I was it so much, in fact, that one day I experts including Mark Green,
Matt Elliott Additional layout there again, having decided to order called the magazine’s editor to ask Damien McFerran, Jeremy Parish
Mark Green Alvin Weetman another one to give as a Christmas about possible job openings. (Thank and Chris Schilling. The plan, in part:
Darran Jones Rebecca Shaw goodness this was in the days before let’s re-review 20 of the Mini-bound
gift, only to be rejected because the
Keza MacDonald
entire allocation had been hoovered he could have easily ignored an email SNES games in the direct glare of
Helen McCarthy Photography
Damien McFerran
up in a flash. Who knew that from me.) And so it was that I joined 2017, over 20 years on. That all of
Olly Curtis
Zy Nicholson everyone loves this console as much the team. I had very little idea about them were so enthusiastic about the
Jeremy Parish Production as I do? Not Nintendo, presumably. what I was doing, but I wasn’t short idea tells us a good deal about what
Chris Schilling Vivienne Calvert I’d played games on consoles on enthusiasm – which came in pretty this amazing little console represents.
Nick Thorpe Mark Constance since their very early days, but handy given the apparently never-
hardware such as the NES and ending stream of crappy Japanese
Next issue on sale: Master System felt like dress imports no one else wanted to review.
That’s a good one! Uh, let’s say rehearsals for the SNES. I’d enjoyed Back then, I got away with it
sometime in 2042 (if we’re still alive). Mega Drive games such as Thunder because I was among a group of
Super Play has been resurrected from Force III and The Revenge Of Shinobi very patient and Tony Mott
the home of Edge, GamesMaster, games™, well enough, but I connected with extremely talented Editor
Official PlayStation Magazine, Official Super Metroid, A Link To The Past folk, and in
Xbox Magazine, PC Gamer and, of course, and Super Mario World on a different, resurrecting
the balloon-poppingly fine Retro Gamer.
deeper level. And then there was Super Play for
P
REGULARS
CONT
HANDS-ON
SUPER EXPRESS 6
A news section? For a console that’s nearly 27
years old? Look, you received this copy of Super
SNES
4
Play with Retro Gamer. Don’t ask silly questions.
FAN HUNTER
MINI
11 We put Nintendo’s new
Slap on your Mario dungarees, prepare your postal
orders, and allow Chris Schilling to be your guide hardware through its
through the world of Nintendo-focused fanzines.
paces – and discover how it p6
ANIME WORLD greases the wheels when facing up
16
Helen McCarthy returns to Super Play and peers
to even the toughest SNES challenges.
beyond the pulsating tentacles as she recalls the
rise of the UK anime scene in the early 1990s.
UK REVIEWS 18
p8 A SUPER
Twenty of the 21 games headed to the SNES Mini
reassessed. Some hold up. Others… not as much.
Are some even better than we originally thought?
HISTORY
Jason Brookes, who was behind the scenes for
the launch of Super Play in 1992, chronicles the
COMPETITION 45 beginnings of the SNES story, and explains the
ingredients of the very magazine in your hands.
Some amazing SNES-related stuff. That you can
win. If you’re really lucky. Actually, you don’t even
need to be lucky, if only five people send entries in.
P
ENTS ISSUE 48
OCTOBER
2017
p12
STAR
FOX 2
No review for McCloud’s
5
Dylan Cuthbert
I N T E R V I E W SUPER
If we can’t get too deep METROID
into the nitty-gritty of how Jeremy Parish returns to the planet Zebes to dig
below the surface of one of the most critically
Star Fox 2 plays out, we can
p14 at least get the inside story
acclaimed SNES games of them all. With series
fans awaiting the arrival of Switch tour de force ISSUE 48
from one of its developers. Metroid Prime 4, can this resolutely 2D action
adventure still cut the mustard? (Spoiler: OH YES.)
Look, here he is right now.
SECRET p42
OCTOBER 2017
OF MANA
Once more into Square’s verdant
action RPG, with its unique three-
player support. If, er, you can work
out how to use this unique feature
p30 on the two-controllers-only SNES
Mini, by all means let us know. P
SUPER EXPRESS
SUPER
NEWS NETWORK SUPER NINTENDO MINI NEWS NETWORK SUPER
6 SUPER PLAY
PROFILES
NINTENDO
This month, we’re finishing some sentences.
when the action heats up), as is the display option smooths things out and few games capable of holding your allowed to skip through
with the Rewind feature
case across all of the 21 games on offer. emulates scanlines, but if you’re the sort attention for long, and the rumoured N64
depends on how long
of person who uses such modes, you’ll edition, whose controllers would surely you’ve been playing a
LET’S SEE THOSE PIXELS yearn for a variety of treatments rather make it more expensive, and whose game. The timer seems to
If what’s in your hands feels timeless, than the sole method on offer here. visuals might, in a weird way, feel more allow for up to an hour’s
it’s not quite so straightforward up there Younger players may find some of dated than those on display in this 16-bit worth of stored play, but
we haven’t pushed it near
on the screen. Running the hardware on these games’ UI foibles a little weird, emulation. Given that, for £70, you’re
to that during our time
a modern LCD display via its HDMI too. There is no way, for instance, of getting a fat helping of All-Time Hall Of with the hardware so far.
video output leaves no hiding place for remapping Super Metroid’s controls from Famers alongside plenty of games that
anything that was designed with the within the game itself, requiring a reset simply put a big smile on your face,
bleeding glow of phosphor-based CRT back to the title screen. But this has it’s impossible not to recommend.
P
SUPER EXPRESS
THE MACHINE
AND THE
MAGAZINE
One of Super Play’s launch team looks at the birth of
a new type of videogame console – and the creation
of a magazine dedicated to celebrating it. By Jason Brookes
S
uper Famicom, Super Nintendo, It was simple, functional and Super Famicom’s development in Japan Top left: The original
Super Play: the superlative was ubiquitous, thriving on a growing until November 1988. By then, NEC had PAL SNES console with its
new, condensed brother.
massively overused, but perhaps library of abundant, occasionally already sold close to a million of its tiny
deservedly so. Nintendo’s 16-bit console outstanding software from Nintendo’s but formidable PC Engines in just a year, Inset: Early artist
was super. It was almost perfect. Kyoto in-house teams, and from talented delivering a machine boasting near- impressions of what
Amazingly, it’s 25 years since Super developers locked into restrictive pixel-perfect conversions of modern Nintendo’s 16-bit console
Play was launched and it’s so gratifying licensing agreements. This throttling of arcade machines such as R-Type and would look like. Yikes.
that, like the console, the magazine is the competition enabled Nintendo to Galaga ’88. Meanwhile, Sega’s 16-bit
Above: Area 88, Gradius III
still fondly remembered by readers. The own an astonishing two thirds of the Mega Drive had also just arrived in and Final Fight – early SFC
ISSUE 48
launch of the SFC/SNES was clearly a US console market within two years of Japan with its own ambitions. Both NEC releases that reflected the
special and unique time for the gaming the late-’85 NES launch. In Japan it and Sega succeeded in attracting stellar expectations of the early
world, and its profound impact on game acquired an even bigger share, where, support from key arcade developers ’90s, bringing coin-op
design and innovation can still be felt by the middle of 1985, close to four previously tied to Nintendo. action into the home.
today – many key game designers citing million Famicom units had shifted in Ironically, though, tougher new
the console and its games as having the two years since its debut. competition from its rivals likely spurred
been catalysts for their own creativity. But by the second half of the decade, the Kyoto old master to pitch things
But the seeds of 16-bit success didn’t as powerful 16-bit graphics were exactly right as it refined
OCTOBER 2017
sprout from nowhere. They evolved from infiltrating worldwide arcades and prototypes of its world-
the NES/Famicom – a machine that revolutionising home computer gaming, beating console. It
ultimately muscled its way into swathes an expiry date for 8-bit console gaming announced the 16-bit
of Japanese, American and (to a lesser loomed on the horizon. The inevitable Nintendo would include
extent) European households during the leap to 16-bit would be a decision not a revolutionary joypad
1980s. The NES quickly became the taken lightly by Nintendo, though. design with four – instead
backbone of the 8-bit console era – Closely guarding its core business – of the NES’s two – main
bridging the primordial years of home an installed base of 8-bit machines gameplay buttons, but also
‘edutainment’ computers and early which would eventually reach a twin shoulder buttons to boot.
consoles, to the parting shots of more staggering 61 million units – the company Both were features that would become
P advanced 8-bit gaming tech later on. deliberately held off announcing the standardised on future consoles.
SUPER EXPRESS
Left: Just two games
arrived with the Super
Famicom when it launched
on 21 November 1990: the
mighty Super Mario World
and the futuristically styled
Mode 7 showcase Z-Fero.
PLAY TIME annoyance of the art staff, Tracey and Above: It didn’t take long
No matter what territory you were Jez). In between two-player games of for the Super Nintendo
10 playing one in, there were just so many Mario Kart or Rampart with Jonathan game library to grow in
ambition beyond arcade
original and cool ideas packed into the I’d be updating What Cart?, our conversions. Final Fantasy
16-bit Nintendo and its software that it exhaustive international catalogue of IV (released in the US as
infused a sense of wonder, excitement – games, or the Game Freak Q&A pages, FFII) and a fine version of
and happiness – into gaming life that is which unleashed my inner nerd to run SimCity both arrived on
still felt to this day. Launching Super rampant responding to reader questions Japanese shelves in 1991.
Play was a place for us to express all this about SCART, 60Hz and anything
– a monthly meet-up for a passionate, concerning ‘frames per second’.
devoted readership that would feel A smart move by Matt was hunting
proud to own such a landmark machine, down a talented cover artist in the form
and be excited every month for what of Wil Overton (who, naturally enough,
was to come next. is the artist behind this issue’s cover,
Personally speaking, it was a dream too). Combined with our cool, futuristic
come true for a Super Nintendo nut like logo by Jez Bridgeman (partly ripped off,
me to be part of the launch. Super Play’s I think, from Newtype anime magazine),
parent company, Future Publishing, was the covers, perhaps more than any other
in those days headed up by founder and aspect of the mag, helped define the
visionary entrepreneur Chris Anderson unique tone of Super Play from the
(who now owns and runs the TED outset. Every month, when a large, flat
Conference in California), and was art package was delivered to the office,
full of passionate young hobbyists, we all excitedly crowded around the
writers and designers launching table to see what treat Wil had cooked
magazines in all sorts of fields. Most of up for the new issue.
all, there was an overwhelming sense
of fun and friendship at the company
that really blurred the lines between Super Play was a monthly
people’s day jobs and their social lives.
Having about ten pubs on our doorstep meet-up for a passionate,
didn’t hurt much, either.
Above: Wil Overton created The production cycle of the first devoted readership that
the art for every cover in Super issue of Super Play began in a tiny,
Play’s original 47-issue run,
painting the earlier examples
top-floor office during a stiflingly hot would feel proud to own
summer in 1992, under the direction of
by hand and using digital tools
to add backgrounds and other Matt Bielby, former launch editor of such a landmark machine
details. And now you can own Amiga Power and Your Sinclair. Matt
the original art used as the loved magazines of all kinds and was After months of writing reviews of
basis for issue 25! (See p45.) full of fresh ideas to make Super Play hot (and not so hot) new games, and
feel more like a club than a magazine. articles about game music, JRPGs and
He was also a closet anime fan as well exciting SNES CD-ROM accessories that
as a game player. His old mate Jonathan would never happen, I reluctantly left
ISSUE 48
Davies was simply a great writer to Super Play after just nine or ten issues
have on board, as well as a long-time to join the team launching Edge. But
freelance contributor to many of Future’s thankfully a succession of great writing
successful videogame magazines. and editing talents such as Zy Nicholson,
Personally, I was crazy about Japan Tony Mott, James Leach and Alison
and import gaming, and an avid reader Harper continued to keep the Super Play
of videogame mags over the years. I flame alive for almost another 40 issues.
remember really wanting Super Play to I still get a warm, nostalgic glow
OCTOBER 2017
be the kind of magazine I would have when I see the magazine’s early covers –
been excited to buy – warm, friendly or indeed the console’s quirky black logo
and funny, but laser-focused on the with its primary colour blobs (Sony
coolest Super Nintendo happenings. Trinitron, anyone?). And, given a
I helped refine our Super Express chance, preferably over a pint, I will
news section with its monthly lists of happily wax lyrical about the music in
international game charts and release Secret Of Mana, the calming ambience
dates, as well as first glimpses of hot of Pilotwings, and the brilliant fun we
new games – often shamelessly scanned had playing inter-office Street Fighter
out of Japanese magazines (and typically II and Super Mario Kart challenges.
P on the magazine’s deadline, to the Those were indeed super days.
SUPER EXPRESS
MERCHANDISE OF THE MONTH K
B O O
SUPER CASTLEVANIA IV
VINYL SOUNDTRACK
Publisher: Mondotees.com Price: $30
Y O U ’ L L F I N D N O F I N E R FA N Z I N E S By Chris Schilling
Super Play is back, but only for a month. Once it melts into the ether again, to be spoken of only in doleful folk song
and expletive-laced forum threads, you might consider the following packages of Nintendo-related words instead.
speculates about what we can expect from they replay games in their entirety before sit alongside reports on BitSummit in
Metroid Prime 4. Finally, there’s a piece on committing opinion to paper. Sure, you’ll Japan, while the Collector’s Corner page
that awkward moment when Nintendo find online fanzines with better production comes from the man who holds the world
retires the feature that inspired your values, but press your nose to these pages record for the largest hoard of Nintendo
community name, as Streetpass UK and you can almost smell the blood, memorabilia. Now there’s someone
becomes Nintendo Players UK. sweat and passion invested throughout. who knows what he’s talking about.
You can cast your eyes over Switch Player for free at You can grab individual issues of HyperPlay RPG, as Issues and bundles of Nintendo Force can be purchased
issuu.com/switchplayer, while UK readers can pay well as discount bundles and an Art Of RPGs special at www.nintendoforcemagazine.com. Digital issues
$6 to the magazine’s Patreon – www.patreon.com/ issue, from www.hyperplayrpg.com. The team will are naturally the cheapest option; as a US-based mag,
switchplayer – to get a print version delivered. ship overseas, too, so it’s not just for UK readers. it costs $15.99 to have a print edition shipped to the UK.
P
SUPER EXPRESS
STAR FOX 2
Ambitious and unusual, the long-awaited sequel is
almost ready for launch. Time for a preview flight…
12
S
tar Fox 2 hasn’t just been delayed – it’s home planet? Or do you push forward and simple – if you’re patient enough to waddle
been comatose. Twenty-two years later infiltrate the carriers launching waves of through a level, it removes the danger of
than planned, the game is waking to aircraft? The answer is ‘both, eventually’, barrel rolling into the scenery.
meet five different children in an unfamiliar but the initial decision is a bit intimidating. The choice and variety impress, then, but
world. Like the branching routes in the You can take on faster enemy units in first- just as you begin to understand Star Fox 2, it
original, this feels like an illicit glimpse at a person dogfights, which see you destroying ends. A shame, because once the systems
path Nintendo never took; Sliding Doors with missiles or scrapping with pilots from the Star begin to work in unison, there’s a satisfying
a human-like fox replacing Gwyneth Paltrow. Wolf squadron, or push on to invade static rhythm to its strategy. The brevity means that
It’s a strange game, short and subdued, targets. You can almost feel the game straining it suffers from comparisons to both the first
and lacking the opening thrust of the original. at the edges as it struggles to provide non- title and the 3D games that followed, but
Andross is back, Corneria is in danger. Instead linear 3D environments that can be traversed it encourages replaying, to see how the war
of thundering down a tunnel to a Koji Kondo in your transforming Arwings. The walker pans out according to different decisions.
soundtrack, however, you’re met with a real- is a surprise – the controls are smart, and There are more nourishing games in the
time tactical map and strict choices. Do you firepower feels meatier than the Arwing’s SNES Mini line-up, but as a piece of Nintendo
ISSUE 48
take out the ballistic missiles headed for your flimsy blaster. It almost makes things too history, Star Fox 2 is fascinating in its own
right. And there’s something noble about a
creaky, grand old Nintendo series getting one
last run. Its real moment may have passed,
but let’s be thankful that
we get to play it at all.
OCTOBER 2017
Evil simian emperor Andross throws all sorts of hazards into the path of your Arwing, but Star Fox 2 isn’t especially
P difficult once you adjust to its foibles. If you can sail through the first game, you won’t hit too many barriers here.
SUPER EXPRESS
WING CHUM Left: Xxxxxx
xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx
Anthropomorphised wingmen are a staple of the original Star Fox, and the xxxxxxxxxxxx
sequel takes things a step further. At the outset, you choose two pilots to xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx
help you save Corneria, swapping between them as necessary once the action xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx
begins. It’s a second chance if your shields take a hammering and you can’t xxxxx xxxxxx xxxx
get back to the mothership to recharge – or if you come a cropper. Below: xxxx
xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx
xxxxxxxx xxxx
Fox Falco 13
The Ryu of furry pilots, Fox is the The second-best pilot in the team,
default choice but you don’t have and still the most arrogant, Falco is
to pick him. Choose Slippy as your best remembered for complaining
main man instead, and pretend whenever you saved him from Transforming from Arwing to walker sees the controls adapt accordingly: now, rather
you’re playing Star Frog. enemy fighters in the first game. than performing barrel rolls, L and R rotate your stompy attack unit. In the absence
of the full analogue control we’re used to nowadays, it’s an effective compromise.
FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
The walker isn’t the only alternative mode of transport: now you don’t
even need to take the original Arwing into battle if you’re not in the mood.
Peppy Slippy
The chipper bunny from Star Fox Slippy pilots a defensive version of
returns, teaming up with Slippy to the Arwing, great for soaking up all
form Team We’ll Never Get Picked. the damage from constantly having
His defence stats are great, but his enemies on your tail. Except that
face has ‘victim’ written all over it. Slippy doesn’t have a tail, obviously.
Miyu Fay
Miyu is a tomboyish Lynx who At first glance you’d think that Fay
flies a faster, lighter version of was a sheep, not a dog, and you’d be
the standard Arwing. Pick her and almost right. A white sheep was seen
she blows a kiss, which is a) a bit in early screenshots of Star Fox 2 –
weird, and b) not very tomboyish. Fay replaced her later on.
ISSUE 48
Arwing Interceptor (Fay and Miyu)
This faster, lighter version is flown by Fay and Miyu, and comes with twin
blasters along with the special ability to use a barrier for defence. It’s a pretty
flimsy ride, though, with the weakest shield of any of the three craft options.
OCTOBER 2017
Interview
14
Above: Today, Dylan Cuthbert runs Kyoto’s Q-Games, Stationed at Nintendo’s Kyoto HQ in the How did you feel about producing a 3D
creator of titles including the splendid PixelJunk series. early ’90s, Dylan Cuthbert was at the heart polygon-based SNES game at that stage,
of the company’s move into 3D games. knowing that the Nintendo 64 was just
Having worked on innovative wireframe-3D around the corner?
Game Boy title X, released exclusively in
GETTING TECHNICAL Japan in 1992, and then the original Star
Fox, which arrived on the SNES the
Well, at the point of Star Fox 2 [starting
development] there was still no news regarding
the N64, or even the PlayStation for that matter.
following year, he moved on to the sequel – The N64 ended up launching a long time after
WITH THE LEAD this issue’s cover game. However, faced
with the impending arrival of dedicated 3D
my work on Star Fox 2 finished. Nintendo had
only started doing experiments using Silicon
hardware in the form of Sony’s PlayStation, Graphics workstations – not with final N64
PROGRAMMER and chewing over the strategy for its own
new console, the N64, Nintendo chose to
hardware – about a year before we finished up.
The console seemed a long way away.
shelve the 16-bit project. Now, 22 years on What we all didn’t realise was that the
OF THE SEQUEL from the game’s completion, Star Fox 2 is PlayStation was going to launch at the end of
ISSUE 48
ready to see the light of day, and Cuthbert is 1994, and that shook everything up and created
here to tell us the story behind its creation. massive ripples in the industry.
WE’D NEVER SEE The main technical limitation was only being
able to draw in the format for background
characters, and not the sprite format. The Super
OCTOBER 2017
INTERVIEW
original hardware?
It ran at twice the speed and, as I say, it could
render into the internal sprite format
automatically, which was very useful for games
that used the FX Chip in a hybrid kind of
fashion. The original FX chip was meant to run
at 21MHz, too, but because of some problems in
the silicon they dropped it to half, and saved
features for the next iteration.
We also added the ability to clip polygons
along arbitrary planes, and I used this to create
a fake Z-buffer on some of the stages – in a lava
stage, for example, platforms sink in smoothly,
without any flickering. It’s a simple trick and
obvious now but back then it was cutting-edge.
Looking back, which technical achievement Top: Star Fox 2’s Super FX2 chip makes it easier to blend for machine code and a ‘paths’ scripted
were you happiest with? bitmap data with polygons to layer in explosion effects. language with a byte interpreter for simpler ISSUE 48
We ran out of DOS memory during stuff. The strategy macro language built
development because our assembler tools there are – I think it might be about 15? upon years of Argonaut’s internal engines
weren’t really built for such a large project. They’re all starkly different to each other too. and gave us huge flexibility for creating
So in the middle of development, and with a very complex bosses without worrying too
very rudimentary – but quickly supplemented – In terms of straining the hardware, how much about crashing the entire system or
knowledge of C, I wrote a linker in two weeks taxing was the planned two-player mode? screwing up one line of assembly – it basically
using Borland C that meant we could compile Well, the screen area was smaller but still, hid the machine code and relied on a set of
all our modules separately and combine rendering two sets of everything was just a internal rules for safety. I created the paths
OCTOBER 2017
them automatically in a final pass. I still don’t bit too taxing, really. We could get basic language on top of that to enable [Katsuya]
know how I managed to pull that off, two dogfights running and they were fun, but the Eguchi and [Yoichi] Yamada, the two Nintendo-
to three months from finishing the game. screen was so small for each player, and we side directors on the game, to create most of
Apart from that, I’m quite proud of the path couldn’t really fill out the graphics enough to the enemies and simple interactions by
language because it helped fill out the game make it truly interesting, so we concentrated themselves, which really reduced the
tremendously while taking a huge load of grunt on the one-player side of the game and programmers’ workload and also gave
work away from us [the programmers]. It let us dropped the two-player. [Eguchi and Yamada] a lot of freedom in
focus on creating the more complex bosses and terms of creativity at the same time.
gave us the time to concentrate on making them Some of the bosses are huge – how did Looking back at what we did, it was
interesting. The results speak for themselves, you create them? very similar to MIT’s Scratch! Just 20 years
I think. I can’t remember how many bosses We had an ‘alien strategy’ macro language earlier, obviously, and on the SNES.
P
SUPER EXPRESS
16 Above: The 1988 Akira movie is set in the dystopian, cyberpunk-themed Neo-Tokyo of 2019,
which gives us just over a year to become psychic and lay waste to the Japanese capital.
T
he early 1990s: a tech desert by modern
standards. No cheap broadband. Phones
are huge. But there’s one terrific piece
of kit you can get – a videogame console. And
in November 1992 Super Nintendo fans found a
new addiction when Super Play hit newsagents’
counters across the UK.
ISSUE 48
CONTRA III
T H E A L I E N WA R S
Tooled up and sporting vintage special GOOD, BAD OR UGLY?
forces bandanas, can Jimbo and Sully
I always knew they
save the world from alien oblivion? were only kidding
when they said
Two-player mode’s heroes look bewilderingly they were closing
similar. At times the stuff you have to do to Super Play forever.
18 survive seems incredible. But it’s true! And actually, the
break has given me
plenty of time to try to master this, one of
UK Release the most challenging SNES games. Yet
even after 25 years of practice, Contra III
Game: Contra III: The Alien Wars keeps getting the better of me. The pop-up
Publisher: Konami gun turrets still catch me by surprise, and
Developer: In-house the Level Four boss (the one you tackle
Genre: Scrolling shoot-’em-up while hanging in mid-air from exploding
Release: November 1992 missiles) seems borderline preposterous.
Players: 1–2 simultaneously Even after all this time, the controls
ROM size: 8 Mbit respond instantly, letting you duck, leap
and swing from the scenery to avoid the
relentless onslaught. Success is always
Left: The alien invasion is forecast to happen attainable, but only through sheer hard
in 2636 – a date that’s getting perilously close. work, mastering the skill of ducking
under a bullet and then somersaulting
over the head of the guy who fired it while
dispatching him with a downward-aimed
volley. The dazzlingly imaginative bosses
demand analysis followed by exploitation
of their weaknesses. There’s no relying on
luck here: this is all down to you.
Contra III was an early example of a
genre that continues to evolve to this day,
and inspired the likes of Gunstar Heroes,
Metal Slug and, more recently, a host of
indie tributes from Mercenary Kings to
Broforce. Konami’s SNES run-and-gunner
stills shines today, and feels just about
as fresh, tightly designed and expertly
polished as the day I first played it. The
two-player mode was even a hit with the
Mini Davieses (the other thing I’ve been
working on during Super Play’s temporary
absence), who normally turn up their
noses at anything that wasn’t released
within the past five minutes.
● Jonathan Davies
ISSUE 48
UK REVIEW
Game: Donkey Kong Country
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Rare
COUNTRY
This was once one of the prettiest
Diddy and uncle Donkey Kong control
differently and have different moves
– there’s even pass-the-pad multi-player.
MODE 7 TIPS
games in the world, but should 19
■ There is a brilliant urban legend that
we give a monkey’s nowadays? Cranky Kong is the original Donkey Kong
– that is, the one that fought Mario. We
want to believe it. Evidence for this theory
comes from the title sequence, which
shows Cranky playing the original DK
music on a gramophone.
■ To start a game with 50 lives, head to
the File Select screen, select Erase Game
– it should flash – then press B, A, Right,
Right, A, Left. Now choose a game.
amazing 3D-looking sprites using Silicon to land on an enemy’s head or a few pixels 60% SCORE:
Graphics rendering technology. off. Like plenty of tough platformers, there’s
Actually playing Donkey Kong Country a measure of trial and error to its challenge,
again in 2017, however, raises the blood but here, when you’re tempted to snap the VERDICT: Donkey Kong Country is
pressure to uncomfortable levels. Here controller in frustration, it’s the kind of a classic example of style over
are some of its sins: minecart levels irritating that leaves you wanting to substance, but it’s still fun enough
(controversial opinion: minecart levels have conquer it rather than give up. Still, it’s a to justify a place in the Mini line-up.
NEVER been good), save points that force good thing SNES controllers are durable.
you to replay long streaks of difficult levels It doesn’t actually take very long to
if you run out of lives, objects that disappear beat: 40 levels fly by pretty quickly, even ORIGINAL SCORE SP27 90%
as soon as they go off-screen, and enemies when you’re forced to backtrack to stockpile
P
UK REVIEW
EARTHBOUND
Is this off-the-wall adventure from Ape and HAL still the Mother of all JRPGs?
UK Release
Game: EarthBound
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Ape/HAL
Laboratory
Genre: RPG
Release: N/A
Players: 1
20 ROM size: 2 Mbit
EarthBound never officially crossed over yo-yos and slingshots. But the creatures ● Chris Schilling
to these shores, and while its rarity he faces are anything but normal, ranging
contributed to its near-mythic status, the from Titanic Ants to Urban Zombies and
game’s enduring brilliance is the main Struttin’ Evil Mushrooms. GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY
reason it’s so fondly remembered. Its turn-based combat is of its time –
At first you might wonder what all the in other words, fairly simplistic – but it
80% 87% 89%
fuss is about, since so many subsequent rattles along at a fair clip. Though random
RPGs have nicked its best ideas. On the misses still prove frustrating, at least you GAMELIFE OVERALL
89%
OCTOBER 2017
face of things its story, too, is fairly have a chance to avoid your party being 88% SCORE:
conventional rite-of-passage/save-the- wiped out as your HP meter doesn’t
world fare. But you’ll quickly sense instantly drain, meaning you can recover
VERDICT: Much more than the sum
something a little off-key about EarthBound, from what might otherwise have been a
from its outsider view of present-day (or fatal blow by defeating your attacker or
of its modest parts, EarthBound
rather, two decades old) Americana, which using a health top-up. And grinding is has that sprinkling of magic the
feels like an affectionate tribute as much as much simpler than usual, since catching best Nintendo games possess.
a satire, to its oddball magical-realist tone. up to a low-level enemy instantly gives you
It’s set in a world that somehow feels the XP you’d have gained from an easy win.
identifiable and otherworldly all at once, A superb localisation brings Itoi’s ORIGINAL SCORE SP35 88%
P skilfully contrasting the alien with the writing to life, capturing a blend of
Left: Your journey
will eventually take
you to a fight
UK REVIEW
between the rocks
of Stonehenge, in
the best and most
surprising use of
the Wiltshire
monument since
Spinal
¨ Tap.
Below: Hospitals
can revive
unconscious
characters –
assuming you
can afford the
doctor’s fees.
21
FINAL
FANTASY III
Which Final Fantasy is the best? To discuss that,
we’ll be in that bunker, wearing heavy armour. UK Release
Each Final Fantasy stands largely alone, Chocobos A flightless avian steed, Elemental combat Take the idea of Moogles Another mascot of the series,
connected by themes, elements and caught and tamed from the wild. It is a fire bonus versus ice creatures, a Moogle is available to recruit in the
mascots rather than a shared universe. the beast of burden in a world where throw in buffs and status effects, unusually conversant form of Mog.
While some aspects (such as the Active horses are either myths – jivens, a then keep layering on the esoteric Though untranslatable, the meaning of
Time Battle system) have been honed nonicorn! – or capricious demonic tricks – attacking zombies with cures, its cute “Kupo!” call seems unlikely to
ISSUE 48
over time, every title attempts to mark foes (as on Earth). Hire a Chocobo ricocheting spells off shields, or using contain foul oaths or negative criticism.
itself apart through innovation. from town stables for fast travel. an enemy’s attack magic to restore you. “Kupopo!” is another matter.
OCTOBER 2017
Cid When only a deus ex technica can Avatars The greatest powers are Cactuar First introduced here, this Magical tech FF’s fusion of magic and
save the day, you need the recurring drawn from a pantheist grab-bag of needling little succulent is infuriatingly technology tackles Cartesian dualism
figure of an eccentric engineer and collectable titans and demiurges in evasive but usually surrenders by hypothesising consciousness as an
inventor. Hi, Cid! Though perhaps an which garuda and ifrit jostle with something worthwhile when caught. inherent quality of matter subject to
ethics committee should investigate dragons and Norse gods. Equip At this point we should probably admit to scientific laws. Or we could be reading
this Cid for the dubious live-subject Espers to micro-manage levelling owning an official Cactuar plushie. Yes, too much into a fantasy excuse for
P experiments that fried Kefka’s brain. gains, or invoke your avatar in battle. at our age. Yes, you can still buy them. power armour and soul crystals.
MODE 7 TIPS
UK REVIEW
The useful Gogo – a mime, not a dancer – can only be recruited
by deliberately losing a fight and getting yourself gobbled up…
To recruit Gogo in the World of Ruin, Explore the island in search of a Zone
first fly your nifty airship to Triangle Eater. Yes, it hungers for your zones!
Island (you can work that one out for Don’t fight, just defend until everyone
yourself – all the clues are there). has been swallowed whole.
23
F-ZERO
Still, the pace of it. Hit a speed boost
in the top-of-the-line Fire Stingray, and
24 F-Zero can still knot your stomach with
how fast the twists and turns tear
towards you. Which isn’t bad for tracks
that are simply a 2D carpet of pixels,
skewed and spun around you by the
The Fast And The Furiously Ping-Ponging Off SNES’s clever Mode 7 graphics scaling
and rotating ability.
The Tracksides Before Bursting Into Flames. It’s married to a responsiveness
that’s pure Nintendo, the shoulder button
allowing you to jink dinkily around the
Tetronimo-shape bends. And, aptly,
F-Zero is good at showing you the
future: the perspective and pancake-flat
track mean you have a clear view far
ahead, aiding subtle snaking runs around
mines and past rivals, collisions with both
of which will deplete your energy bar. The
control finesse was a revelation in 1990,
and it’s still hypnotic now.
It’s testament to the feel of F-Zero
that track names such as Mute City and
Big Blue still have a sci-fi planetary
magic about them, even when there’s
barely a pixel of real scenery to speak
of. The AI’s brand of magic isn’t quite as
welcome, with rival racers blazing past
suddenly when by rights they should be
a lap behind. At least they remind you
that anything less than white-knuckled
perfection will not be tolerated in F-Zero’s
brutal future.
But even with practice, ricocheting
wildly off walls like microwave popcorn is
a constant in F-Zero, and your tolerance
for it will dictate whether you get as far as
the secret fourth ‘Master’ difficulty. Might
be better to take up something easier
Without scenery to speak of, track identity is all about instead – like bounty hunting.
colour combo. Blue plus purple equals White Land I.
● Mark Green
ISSUE 48
UK REVIEW
Game: Kirby’s Dream Course
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: HAL Laboratory/
25
MODE 7 TIPS
■ Applying the right spin is
vital on lofted shots. A bit
of back lets you hit airborne
enemies and return to safe
Inset: ground; apply plenty of top
The Freeze to skim across water.
ability is a double- ■ Getting a hole in one
edged sword – the may seem impossible but
momentum can slide it nets you an extra life,
you past the hole. so it’s worth trying for.
Kirby off walls and pull off clever trickshots, freeze water, sliding safely across to the 80% SCORE:
it can often feel like you’re playing billiards. other side. The order in which you defeat
It might sound a bit of a mess, but this them is key, too: the last enemy alive
unusual fusion is surprisingly cohesive. becomes the hole, so you’ll often find VERDICT: Finicky challenges take
If you’ve come to expect a lightweight multiple ways to tackle individual courses. the shine off an inventive oddity,
challenge from Kirby games, be warned: It’s maybe a little too exacting: the meaning Kirby’s twist on golf
behind that cute exterior lies a heart of flint. difference between a birdie and a triple- doesn’t quite play like a dream.
Holes are littered with bumps, ramps, water bogey can be a single notch on the
and sand traps – there’s no taking a drop spin-o-meter, and losing a life can leave you
here; you’re forced to play from wherever shy of the ability you need for an under-par ORIGINAL SCORE SP28 86%
Kirby lies. Land in the drink, and it might score on the following hole. No classic, then,
P
UK REVIEW
THE LEGEND
OF ZELDA
A L I N K T O T H E PA S T
Link’s triumphant third outing deserves its classic
Link lifts the Master Sword for the
26 status, and still has a surprise or two in store. first time, and an icon is born. Shame
the pink hair didn’t stay, mind.
UK Release
MODE 7 TIPS
ISSUE 48
UK REVIEW
First, get the Quake Medallion. Get the kindly duck to fly you over to
Throw an item between the ring of Death Mountain. Once there, climb
stones at the Lake Of Ill Omen and up the long ladder towards the west
the catfish gives you the medallion. side and work your way back around
Back in Hyrule, pull out your flute. to the entrance of the Tower of Hera.
27
Keep heading east – using your Hammer all three into the floor,
hammer to whack down the posts starting from the right and moving
– until you reach this point. Lift anticlockwise. Once the left one is
the large rock and move onto the down, a portal will appear. Go inside
ledge with the three stakes. to be whisked to the Dark World.
Now you’re right where you need to Inside, use the Cane of Somaria to
be. Stand on the edge of the roof trigger the moving platforms, and
with the sigil beneath your feet and don’t forget the Magic Cape can be
use the medallion. The turtle’s mouth used to avoid hazards. Use the fire
will open, revealing a set of steps… and ice rods for the dungeon boss.
where the legend that would be retold reuse them several times over. But it’s still
VERDICT: A legend by name and
and revisited in the decades to follow capable of surprising you. You’ll likely have
first started to properly take shape. forgotten its mischievous streak. Take the
reputation, A Link To The Past
It’s a vital historical document, then, moment you’re asked to pull a lever “over boasts two unforgettable
but more importantly it’s still a brilliant there” and you realise there’s two to choose worlds with clever puzzles
game. We’ve explored technically much from; pick the wrong one and a cascade of and memorable encounters
larger versions of Hyrule in terms of real snakes drops down from above. Or when at every turn. Magnificent.
estate, but it still feels huge. Dense and you’re encouraged to speak to the locals,
intricate, it doesn’t waste a single tile and the first villager immediately alerts the
of screen. Dungeons are layered and castle’s soldiers. And how about the fake ORIGINAL SCORE SP2 93%
labyrinthine, looping up and around so Master Swords, gear-snatching thieves and
P
UK REVIEW
KIRBY
GOOD, BAD OR UGLY?
You can trace the
generosity of the
Smash Bros games
back here, Kirby’s
S U P E R S TA R
No need to Kirb your enthusiasm for this
eighth game in four
years. Masahiro
Sakurai has never
been one to stint on ideas, and while you
could complain about the size of the
servings here – unlike Kirby, some of the
charming compendium, which packs in the fun. games are a little on the slender side –
you’re not left wanting for variety. Sakurai
The Beam ability has decent range and can has served up a veritable buffet of Kirby:
hit several enemies within a single arc. UK Release a couple of appetisers, a clutch of slightly
meatier main courses, and the occasional
28 Game: Kirby Super Star amuse-bouche for good measure.
Publisher: Nintendo Most are built around its hero’s Copy
Developer: HAL Laboratory ability, where you ingest enemies to
Genre: Compilation absorb their powers to use as weapons.
Release: March 1996 These range from beam lasers to swords,
hammers to bombs – and more outlandish
Players: 1–2 simultaneously
abilities such as Mike, which essentially
ROM size: 4 Mbit
lets you sing enemies to death. You can
also spend an existing ability to call
in an AI helper, giving you access
to two potentially very different
skills at once, which helps when
it comes to the many boss fights.
The most substantial of
these games is The Great Cave
Right: You have just five Offensive, which sees Kirby
Maximum Tomatoes to collect as many treasures as he
get through the arena, so can (some of which, as with
save them until you’re Smash Bros, nod towards other
desperate for a top-up. Nintendo games). With large levels,
multiple routes and sparse save points,
Inset: Some helpers are it’s also the most challenging game of the
more adept than others, whole package. Milky Way Wishes is
but occasionally you’re similarly hefty, with one key difference:
left with no choice but Kirby doesn’t consume enemies, but
to wade in with a brolly. collects permanent abilities.
Other modes offer slight variations on
your typical Kirby platformer, but then
there’s the exhilarating Gourmet Race
– where Kirby and Dedede sprint to collect
the most food, set to one of the most
memorable themes of the 16-bit era – as
well as an arena battle mode and a pair of
two-player mini-games. Super Star is
unlikely to convert those immune to its
hero’s charms, and a 2008 DS remake
threw in a clutch of extras that make it
the definitive version, but this compilation
captures the essence of Kirby.
ISSUE 48
● Chris Schilling
UK REVIEW
Game: Mega Man X
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: In-house
Genre: Platform shooter
Release: May 1994
Players: 1
ROM size: 12Mbit
MEGA MAN
Mega Man’s formula, expanded and
perfected onto a new generation of
hardware – for both console and hero.
MODE 7 TIPS
X
X’s prologue stage opens the door for a more
involved narrative than in previous Mega Man
games while giving a glimpse of the larger
world (civilian vehicles fleeing in panic).
29
Capcom’s robot hero with fancier graphics Every weapon power-up interacts with 82% SCORE:
and sound; it rebuilt the franchise. In enemies and environments in unexpected
comparison to the woefully predictable ways. Even the order in which you complete
Mega Man 6 (which showed up on the NES the stages can affect later ones. VERDICT: A high-water mark for
at around the same time), Mega Man X felt Poor X had a tendency to feel like a 2D platform shooting, taking full
almost like an entirely new concept. secondary character in his later games advantage of the choose-your-
The overhaul began with Mega Man thanks to the enormous popularity of his pal own-route Mega Man style.
himself. Like the console that powered him, Zero, who debuts (and – spoilers! – dies) in
Mega Man X (X for short) was a whole new this game. Happily, though, the series’ plot
machine. As roboticist Dr Light’s ultimate hadn’t ballooned into a baroque mess with ORIGINAL SCORE SP17 88%
invention, X possessed boundless capacity this first entry, and everything here revolves
P
UK REVIEW
SECRET
OF MANA
It’s dangerous to go alone! Take a friend (or two) along
through Squaresoft’s sprawling multi-player action RPG.
30
Enemies love to use skills that
UK Release take one character temporarily
out of the action, forcing their
Game: Secret of Mana comrades to lend a hand (or at
Publisher: Squaresoft least take up the slack).
Developer: In-house
Genre: Action RPG Below: Good news for this undead
Release: November 1994 hipster demigod: ’90s-style neon-
Players: 1–3 simultaneously green topknots are very in again.
ROM size: 16 Mbit
MODE 7 TIPS
ISSUE 48
Left: Mana’s characters and monsters alike The real secret of Mana is… lots of grinding for every single weapon
P possess ample personality, although sometimes
that personality amounts to “utterly revolting”.
or spell. Worth it when you’re hugely powerful, but time-consuming.
WORLD OF MANA
UK REVIEW
Mana’s central theme is the conflict Before you gain the ability to fly
between technology and nature, around at will on dragon-back,
with the Mana Tree representing the Mana forces you to rely on a rather
power of life and the artificial Mana less encouraging mode of travel:
Fortress powering the bad guys. being fired from a cannon.
31
FOX
A reverby voice
drawls “Good
luck!” at the start
of every mission
– but today, it
feels almost like a
The only thing Fox McCloud and co can’t rescue warning. Star Fox
is still good, in its own distinct ways. But
is the framerate in this Super FX powerhouse. it’s a challenge to enjoy it as starry eyed
players did back in 1993.
Some of the visuals, such as the combinations of It still glows with the imagination and
background images and looming 3D structures, are still UK Release love that blossomed from Nintendo and
impressive and contrast with bare outer-space levels. Argonaut’s partnership. Fox McCloud and
Game: Star Fox
32 Publisher: Nintendo
his anime crew are irresistible, and the 13
planets and zones are a kaleidoscope of
Developer: Argonaut/Nintendo chunky polygonal creativity.
Genre: 3D shoot-’em-up The Super FX chip in Star Fox’s
Release: February 1993 cartridge might have lent the SNES extra
Players: 1 power, but it was overworked. Even if
ROM size: 8 Mbit your eyes can cope with the wobbly
polygons and creaking framerate, your
fingers probably can’t. Aiming your lasers
Above: Right from the off, Star Fox is all isn’t easy when the action is being
cinematic sci-fi attitude. No wonder the delivered almost as a series of postcards.
series is a 24-year fan favourite. Reacting in time to dodge asteroids
and enemies is often impossible – and
Left: A wireframe Arwing means you’ve grabbed through the syrup of sluggish shapes
a shield. Useful against angry sea monsters. you’ll often accidentally blast fellow pilots
Slippy, Peppy and Falco. Or rescue them
without trying, which somehow feels
Clever colour-palette switches worse (despite the adorable “Mind your
create convincing new worlds. own business, Fox!” from perpetual
grump Falco).
Following all three map paths to
tyrannical astro ape Andross is still
rewarding, and Star Fox tries its best to
avoid repetitiveness – bosses get bigger,
bolder and more baffling, culminating in
Fortuna’s bonkers two-headed dragon
popping out Yoshi eggs. Meanwhile, Koji
Kondo’s timeless soundtrack gives every
level a cinematic flair, even if the tunes
stray rather close to the composer’s own
Zelda melodies.
With its younger, never-officially-
released offspring Star Fox 2 finally
emerging from the shadows, the original
Star Fox is looking a little sheepish now.
Yes, there’s probably a fox/sheep joke in
there somewhere, but I’m too lazy to think
of it. (You’re fired, and so on – Ed.)
● Mark Green
ISSUE 48
You’re welcome.
■ Another secret area is accessible from
Level 3, again from the asteroids. Destroy VERDICT: A bit jerky and
the second big space rock, then ram into unresponsive for today’s tastes,
the bird-like thing that appears. Beware, but still a boisterous barrel roll
though: once you’re in the alternate across the galaxy, with atmosphere
dimension, there is no escape. and adventure in spades.
UK REVIEW
Game: Street Fighter II
Turbo: Hyper Fighting
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: In-house
Genre: Fighting
Release: October 1993
Players: 1–2 simultaneously
ROM size: 2.5Mbit
Above: Dhalsim
STREET
II
really wants you
to stay away.
FIGHTER
present and
correct.
of adjustments to existing ones. Ryu and combo timings turned what was once a 76% SCORE:
Ken can Hurricane Kick in the air; Chun-Li truly mass-market phenomenon into a
gets her fireball and an airborne Spinning hardcore (though brilliant) niche.
Bird Kick, which is ludicrous even in the It’s pleasant enough – it is Street Fighter, VERDICT: What was once considered
context of a series with such a profound lack after all – and at least the SNES Mini version one of the best games on the SNES
of interest in the laws of physics. Speaking is a US ROM, running at 60Hz. If all you’re is showing its age these days. Still
of which, Dhalsim gets his teleport here, too. after is a trip down memory lane, then this iconic, but no longer a classic.
At the time, this was a worthwhile will see you just fine. Yet if the real test of
release on the SNES. The console never got games of this era is seeing how well they
a home conversion of Champion Edition, hold up today, prepare to be disappointed. ORIGINAL SCORE SP11 96%
which made the four SFII bosses playable Unlike several of the other games that come
P
UK REVIEW
SUPER
MARIO WORLD
There may be a mind-boggling 96 exits,
but you won’t want to leave this world. UK Release
FASTEST FINISH
You can conquer the game with no more This will take you to Donut Secret 1, Here, at the Donut Secret House, you’ll Reach the door at the top before the
ISSUE 48
than 11 exits unlocked. First, you’ll where you need to carry a P-Switch to need to bring a P-Switch in the second P-Switch timer runs out and you’ll
need to finish all of Yoshi’s Island. a row of blocks with a ?-Block at the area to a central door. Blocks appear, fight a Big Boo by picking up blocks
Then, in Donut Plains 1, grab a cape end. Hit the Switch to reach the block, so stand on the central one and hit the and hurling them up. Hit it three times,
and fly to the top right to find a keyhole. which holds a key to the nearby hole. block above to release a beanstalk. and you’ll be able to access Star Road.
OCTOBER 2017
In Star World 1, spin-jump through the By comparison, Star World 3 is a little Take a blue Yoshi into Star World 4. Now you can stroll down to the warp
rightmost blocks to reach a keyhole. On trickier, but if you can defeat Lakitu by Eat a shell and fly right, spitting it out star, which will take you right to the
the next stage, feed the baby blue Yoshi throwing a block, you can rise through before it gets swallowed. Beneath the door of Bowser’s Castle. Defeat Mario’s
until it’s full-size, then swim below the the gap at the top of the screen. Bear stone blocks you’ll find a keyhole. We arch-nemesis and you’ve completed
green pipe to another keyhole. left to reach yet another keyhole. needn’t tell you where the key lies. the game within just 11 exits.
P
MODE 7 TIPS
UK REVIEW
The summery hues of the world map can be replaced by more autumnal
tones. To make the change, you’ll need to finish the Special World
stages, which you can access via the secret exit of Star World 5. You’ll
need to have visited the four Switch Palaces first. Bring either a cape
or – preferably – a blue Yoshi (which can be easily obtained from Star
World 2) with you, and at the top-right of the level you’ll find a keyhole.
This will unlock the path to a warp to the Special World.
35
different about him. and farther, gaps grow wider and enemies
VERDICT: Super Mario World carries
Many game connoisseurs have and hazards more plentiful – but you do
SMB3 pegged as the plumber’s finest side- have some help to overcome even the
platform games to thrilling heights
scroller, but World pushes its influential toughest tests. There’s Yoshi, of course, where the process of unearthing
predecessor’s ideas that much further. Take always so much more than a quicker way new stages is every bit as
its world map, which has arguably never to get around, alongside perhaps Mario’s enjoyable as completing them.
been bettered, even by Nintendo. It’s a greatest power-up, the Cape Feather. It Still unassailably brilliant.
wondrous, intricate network of paths, might feel a bit like cheating, but then the
hidden exits, keyholes – worlds within art of flight takes some skill to master, from
worlds, even. It’s absolutely stuffed with finding room to accelerate for take-off to ORIGINAL SCORE SP2 94%
secrets, many of which demand a keen eye pushing the D-pad rhythmically to stay
P
UK REVIEW
SUPER
CASTLEVANIA
IV
GOOD, BAD OR UGLY? The ghoulish platformer
that helped define the
Unleashed in Japan
on Hallowe’en 1991, early days of the SNES.
Akumajo Dorakyura
(literally Devil’s Borrowing a great idea from Super Mario
Castle Dracula) was World, it’s possible to use gates to flip your
36 essentially a major way into fenced-off areas in the background.
overhaul of the
original NES game, and one of the last
linear vampire hunts.
Reflecting its arcade-influenced times,
this fourth edition is still pure hack ’n’
slash. Notably, the new, multi-directional UK Release
capability of our hero’s whip/chain grafts
a much more satisfying, powerful range Game: Super Castlevania IV
of attacks (including a projectile block) Publisher: Konami
onto the series’ simplistic core, while its Developer: In-house
secondary purpose, as a grappling hook Genre: Action platform
for crossing gaps, liberates levels from Release: October 1991
tight constraints. The introduction of Players: 1
crouching, plus mid-air direction changes, ROM size: 8 Mbit
further loosens up the controls.
Visually and technically, Castlevania
IV was still relatively early days for
Konami’s 16-bit muscle, but there are still
memorable sections and set-pieces. Flat
early levels are transcended by multi-
parallax backdrops, and the unforgettable,
if gimmicky, rotating Mode 7 levels still
compel gritted jaws to slacken.
Where this sequel raises the wooden
stakes is in its astonishing soundtrack
– a cinematic symphony of organs, drums,
swirling strings, jazzy piano, double bass
and psychedelic synth arrangements. As a
chiptune soundtrack it’s arguably never
been bettered, even 26 years on.
Castlevania IV boldly sets the stage
for what 16-bit console action games
should aspire to be. For overall challenge,
depth and scope it has been eclipsed by a
newer generation, but its punchy arcade
action and surreal atmospherics are like
nails in the coffin of the 8-bit era.
● Jason Brookes
ISSUE 48
UK REVIEW
Game: Super Ghouls ’n Ghosts
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: In-house
Genre: Platform action
Release: December 1992
Players: 1
ROM size: 8Mbit
MODE 7 TIPS
■ In a rare act of leniency, after taking 37
a hit Arthur is allowed to fight on briefly
(geddit?) in his pants – your cue to find
new armour. Bronze armour beefs up his
weapons, while gold gives
him a shield and magic
powers. Anything’s
better than pants.
■ When picking
up the key at the
end of the level,
try pressing Up.
The reopening of the means that to make progress you’ll need to X or Contra III, and save this until you’re at
Super Play office has play each level over and over, mastering the very top of your game.
also reopened some every inch of it and dying thousands of ISSUE 48
old debates. Super times (assuming you’re not using the SNES ● Jonathan Davies
Ghouls ’n Ghosts, Mini’s Rewind jiggery-pokery, naturally).
for example: is On the plus side, the armour upgrade
it “annoyingly process works nicely, with Arthur’s top-of- GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY
unforgiving” and “frustrating to play”? the-range gold outfit giving him magic
Or a finely polished platforming gem for powers and a shield. The jumping isn’t quite
82% 80% 76%
players who relish a challenge? as crude as I made out earlier: a second stab
It’s still harrowingly difficult, that’s for of the button mid-leap lets you jump farther GAMELIFE OVERALL
78%
OCTOBER 2017
sure, not least because of its strangely or even change direction, an important 80% SCORE:
primitive jump system. Once Arthur leaves technique to master. While the graphics
the ground you can’t steer him, so misjudge seem nothing special at first, they really
things and you’re left sailing helplessly to grow on you – level two is particularly VERDICT: The SNES equivalent of
your doom. It’s more 1980s Spectrum than lovely, with its haunted shipwreck rolling a well-known yeasty spread, this
1990s SNES, and takes some serious getting among the waves. And while it’s tricky, will delight expert gamers but
used to. That, combined with the need for it’s generally fair: a genuine test of skill. reduce most others to tears.
pixel-perfect dodging of respawning Maybe don’t make Super Ghouls ’n
baddies, and the femtoseconds you’re Ghosts the first game you try when you
generally given to react to collapsing power up your new SNES Mini. Hone your ORIGINAL SCORE SP2 85%
platforms and other unexpected twists, old-school platforming skills on Mega Man
P
UK REVIEW
YO S H I ’ S
ISLAND
Living proof that classic game design isn’t
just for dinosaurs – though it certainly can be.
UK Release
UK REVIEW
As the first game to use the new Super FX2 chip, you might
standards. Like,
have expected a lot more 3D. But Yoshi’s Island used the
who even knew
add-on’s power for pumping out screen-filling sprites…
that Wigglers
Nintendo originally have a lifecycle
experimented with and moult into
pre-rendered CGI butterflies?!
graphics, but quickly
decided to go a different
direction. The few relics Below: Magikoopa
of these experiments, from Super Mario
seen primarily in story World graduate to
sequences, suggest a leading role. The
that our eyeballs primary villain is
dodged a bullet. Kamek, clearly the
most ambitious
Instead of slick
computer renderings,
of his species. 39
Yoshi’s Island has been
scrawled with childish
strokes. The superficial
crudity of the graphics
belies their visual
sophistication, though:
just look at the pro-level
lighting and shading on
those distant hills!
Sometimes, super-sized
enemies aren’t bosses,
merely reasons to
panic. The giant Chain
Chomps, which pursue
Yoshi relentlessly
through hazard-
packed courses, will
likely make players
rue the very concept Yoshi’s Island eases the burden of collecting with subtle
cues, such as a faint colour cast on the hidden red coins.
of the Super FX.
P
UK REVIEW
SUPER
MARIO KART
Does Nintendo’s pioneering arcade racer stand GOOD, BAD OR UGLY?
up to modern scrutiny, or spin off into oblivion?
It seemed a
preposterous
The feather is easily one of the most useful idea at the time.
items, and essential for the best shortcuts. There The platforming
are also plenty of corner-cutting opportunities, plumber in a kart
40 as long as you’ve got a mushroom to hand. racer? Of course,
it turned out to be
one of Nintendo’s smartest decisions.
UK Release The original is still considered in some
quarters to be the connoisseur’s choice,
Game: Super Mario Kart stripped down to its essentials, and not
Publisher: Nintendo without reason. Sure, you miss the razzle-
Developer: Nintendo EAD dazzle of the latest edition, but SMK is an
Genre: Racing arcade racer in which you need to take
Release: August 1992 your foot off the gas from time to time,
Players: 1–2 simultaneously where you can’t rely on drifts and corner
ROM size: 0.5 Mbit turbos to get by. Its tracks are narrow
enough for almighty scrums on corners,
and a banana in the middle causes panic
Right: Circuits are much shorter and snappier than rather being easily swerved past.
in later entries, leading to more lapping of stragglers. In other respects, it’s showing its age.
Dare we say it’s not much to look at these
days, particularly the murky Choco Island
stages? And the view that it’s a fairer
game than the mayhem of more recent
entries is proved rose-tinted by rubber-
banding and item-spamming CPU racers.
A few track designs are decidedly creaky,
too, the ice blocks strewn across Vanilla
Lake a particularly pointless irritant.
Others, however, are all-time greats.
The dreaded right-angles of the Bowser
Castle tracks make them as tough as they
are unforgettable. The barrier-free Ghost
Valley tracks are the ultimate white-
knuckle time-trial courses, imposing in
theme and design. And the beautiful
Donut Plains 3, a track surely designed
around that genre-defining hop-and-drift,
is still a dazzler, justly revived for Wii U
and Switch. A quarter-century on, it may
no longer be the best, but it certainly
remains a super Mario Kart.
● Chris Schilling
ISSUE 48
UK REVIEW
Game: Super Mario RPG:
Legend Of The Seven Stars
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Square
Genre: RPG
Release: N/A
Players: 1
ROM size: 32 Mbit
MARIO RPG
A collaboration between Square and Nintendo resulted
Super Mario RPG begins the
in one of the most charismatic games on the SNES. way most Mario games end:
with a face-off against Bowser.
MODE 7 TIPS
■ Adding to Super Mario RPG’s dreamlike
qualities are the extraordinarily well-
hidden secrets squirreled away in its
world. There’s a casino, a hidden
superboss, even a Space Invaders
mini-game starring a beetle.
■ The Mushroom Boy’s shop is glitched.
He’s supposed to only accept hard-won
forest mushrooms, but you can get them
from the Mole Lady next door instead.
dreamlike feel to Super Mario RPG, which much to discover. The cute dialogue and 79% SCORE:
fleshes out the abstract Mushroom Kingdom abundant platformy secrets reward the
into a still-beautiful isometric JRPG world of smart and curious player. Super Mario RPG
Yoshis, Toads, Moles and sentient clouds. It is legendary for its esoteric secrets, which VERDICT: The Mushroom Kingdom
is the funniest of any of the Mario games, are thankfully a lot easier to track down in approached with wry wit and a
bar perhaps Thousand Year Door. Bowser the age of YouTube. fresh eye. There’s almost nothing
is reduced to a raving blowhard as his What’s really appealing about Super to dislike about this mash-up.
minions desert him; mute Mario relies on Mario RPG, though, is the amount of
wild facial expressions, hand gestures and amusing scenarios and random minigames
impersonations to communicate in a world and in-jokes and cameos it scatters before ORIGINAL SCORE SP44 81%
of verbose NPCs; and guilt-ridden Goombas you: anyone with any love for Mario
P
UK REVIEW
SUPER
METROID
Exploratory platforming refined to perfection in
a sequel truly deserving of the ‘super’ appellation.
UK Release
floaty for their own good. The game’s few refrains that simply wouldn’t have worked
difficult combat encounters become easy with more traditional chiptunes. It’s a
once you figure out the secret to cheesing dark, lonely game full of ghosts, where the GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY
them. Yet somehow this imperfect collection threat of marauding space pirates never
of attributes has had a far greater influence seems quite so unnerving as the constant
82% 90% 94%
on games and game creators than anything sensation that heroine Samus Aran isn’t
else that was released on the SNES.
Super Metroid excels through the
quite so alone as she seems.
Samus’ quest takes her through the
GAMELIFE
90%
OVERALL
SCORE: 94%
OCTOBER 2017
brilliance with which its disparate pieces ruins of the NES game (left in a sorry state
hang together. Director Yoshio Sakamoto’s by the time bomb she herself triggered at
VERDICT: A haunting adventure
magnum opus offers an incredible study in the end of the first Metroid) and far beyond.
structure, and in the importance of details. Mother Brain’s old lair offers plenty of new
that takes hold and will not let go,
Super Metroid remains memorable (and ground to explore, including a series of Super Metroid still stands tall as
wholly imitable) more than two decades submerged caverns and a wrecked starship one of gaming’s landmark titles.
after its debut for the flawless way in which whose flickering screens suggest it was the
it marries an exploratory trip through a accidental cause of planet Zebes’ metroid
meticulously arranged underground infestation – another of the series’ many ORIGINAL SCORE SP20 92%
labyrinth to the sort of thoughtful minor nods to Alien. All of these things are good
P
Left: Clever boss
A TALE IN SILENCE designs force
you to change
UK REVIEW
One of Super Metroid’s greatest
accomplishments is to tell a tactics throughout
complete story with very few the adventure.
words. Once you make it through Below: While the
the introductory text scroll (which Space Jump
mostly recaps the first two games), power eventually
it’s all pantomime from there on. makes it obsolete,
Samus’ grappling
hook still comes
in handy…
43
1. The first few minutes of the
1 game take place in an isolated
space colony where scientists
hope to learn more about the
baby metroid Samus
recovered in Metroid II.
2. The interior of the colony
shows off the game’s silent
narrative at its best. This is
the third time players see
this room – it shows up on
2 the title screen, where the
researchers lay dead and a
central platform holds the
baby metroid. Now, the
metroid is absent, setting
the plot into motion.
3. Once you reach planet
Zebes, you retrace your steps
through familiar locations ARAN AGAIN (NATURALLY)
3 from the original Metroid.
This time, however, you don’t
encounter any enemies within
the ruins. Instead, eerie
surveillance devices trace
Samus’ every step, building
an intense sensation of dread.
4. While you don’t meet
metroids until the end of the
game, you encounter little
4 hints of the space pirates’
ambitions for the baby
throughout the game. These
weak, simplistic metroid
clones – moctroids – pose
little real threat, but can
certainly freak out
experienced Metroid fans. ISSUE 48
5. Some players may have
been disappointed to find that
5 the end of Super Metroid While Super Metroid spends most of its running
played out largely the same time doing its own thing, the ghosts of its
as the original game, all the predecessors are never too far away. The
way down to Mother Brain’s game deliberately builds off Samus’s first
chamber full of tubes and two adventures, sometimes to create
rings of fire. But the point texture, sometimes to knock players off
OCTOBER 2017
was to soften them up for their feet. The main game begins with a
(warning: spoilers ahead)… reverse trip through the escape shaft from
6. …the big twist, which the NES finale, which takes you past the
begins with Mother Brain shattered remains of Mother Brain’s lair. On the other hand,
6 showing off her new combat your rematch with Kraid finds the dopey little lizard rebuilt
gear and ends with an into a multi-screen titan…
intense climax that brings
the story full circle and A shared setting with Metroid II sees elements return,
results in Samus essentially such as the Spring Ball, while the NES game’s nastiest
turning into a tiny armoured gimmicks, such as trick floors, show up unchanged.
god of destruction.
P
UK REVIEW
SUPER
PUNCH-OUT!!
Nintendo’s belated arcade GOOD, BAD OR UGLY?
port delivers a one-two punch
To think we
of character and challenge. complain about
delays of mere
The graceful pirouette before Bear Hugger (right) collapses is weeks. After the
one of many brilliant animations. Once you’ve learned to read success of arcade
44 an opponent, you can finish a match off within half a minute. Punch-Out!!,
Nintendo rushed
out a sequel in less than a year. It was
in rather less of a hurry to bring it to
consoles. Punch-Out!! reached the NES
in a mere three years; SNES players
had to wait a full decade for Super
Punch-Out!! to arrive.
Like many SNES games, it’s about
refinement rather than reinvention.
You face a cavalcade of cartoon
stereotypes that would be outrageous
if they weren’t so absurd, and the fun’s
in figuring out how to read their fighting
styles before giving them a faceful of
glove. Land enough successive shots and
you’ll build up your Super meter, letting
you launch winding gut punches, meaty
uppercuts and left-right-left flurries to
leave your adversaries in a daze.
Opponents hit hard enough that a
single mistimed duck can be enough to
send you sprawling to the canvas. And
they’re as likely to put you off with their
facial expressions as their dodges and
feints: just try not to laugh at Bald Bull’s
Left: It’s not exactly Queensbury rules, as surprised response to taking one in the
Dragon Chan’s kung-fu approach illustrates. breadbasket. But with sharp reflexes and
a keen eye for recognising tells, you’ll
eventually conquer all four circuits
UK Release – at which point the challenge shifts to
knocking your opponent out in the fastest
Game: Super Punch-Out!! possible time, and bouts are measured in
Publisher: Nintendo seconds, not minutes. Its spirit lives on in
Developer: Nintendo IRD the behind-the-fighter perspective and
Genre: Fighting larger-than-life characters of ARMS – other
Release: January 1995 SNES hits may have aged better, but this
Players: 1 is still thumpingly good fun.
ROM size: 2 Mbit
● Chris Schilling
ISSUE 48
COMPETITION
SOME OF THE FINEST SNES-RELATED STUFF
THE GALAXY HAS EVER SEEN!
45
HOW TO ENTER
To enter, answer this question correctly:
OCTOBER 2017
Which Nintendo designer was responsible for the creation of the Game & Watch series?
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IMPORT REVIEWS
REVIEWS
FIRE EMBLEM: GANBARE GOEMON:
Mystery Of The Emblem Yukihime Kyushutsu Emaki
F K
ire Emblem may be a household nown in the west as The Legend
name in the west today, but back Of The Mystical Ninja, Ganbare
in the early 1990s it was almost Goemon: Yukihime Kyushutsu
unknown – the first entry to be Emaki is yet another example of
officially localised outside Japan was Konami’s willingness to experiment
on the Game Boy Advance in 2003. with traditional gaming concepts.
Mystery Of The Emblem marked the The game is divided into two sections:
debut of the franchise on the Super in towns, you can buy items, gather
T I W
his 1995 puzzle title from Fire t’s easy to see why Super Formation hile European and North
Emblem studio Intelligent Soccer made such an impact when it American SNES Classic Mini
Systems may not be especially launched on the Super Famicom owners get Street Fighter II
familiar to western SNES fans, but they way back in 1991; the sport of football Turbo: Hyper Fighting, in Japan the
will almost certainly recognise its was really beginning to catch on in Super Famicom Mini is shipping with
localised title of Tetris Attack. That Japan thanks to an explosion of interest the next title in the series, Super Street
version stripped out all of the cute in the domestic J-League, and the Fighter II. On the surface this might
fairies seen in the Japanese original game’s unique visuals – which use seem like a clear win, but there are
and replaced them with characters Mode 7 to create the impression of some points to consider here. Super
from the Super Mario universe. Despite perspective on the smoothly scaling Street Fighter II on Nintendo’s home
the presence of ‘Tetris’ in the title, the pitch – ensured it was comfortably the console isn’t capable of hitting the
game actually has nothing to do with most visually alluring soccer game of insane speeds witnessed in Street
Alexey Pajitnov’s seminal line-clearing its time. However, like so many early Fighter II Turbo – that would have to
classic. Instead, the objective is to Japanese-made representations of the wait until Super Street Fighter II Turbo,
remove a series of coloured blocks world’s favourite sport, Super which launched in arcades soon
by matching them in horizontal or Formation Soccer stumbles when it afterwards – and it lacks the super
vertical lines of three or more. The comes to the essentials. The ball pings specials from that title, as well as
catch is that you’re limited to switching around the pitch like a hyperactive additional character Akuma (Gouki
blocks two at a time, and you can move bumble bee, rarely spending any time in Japan). That version was never
them only horizontally. Panel De Pon on the deck. Keeping possession feels released on the SNES, and as a result
showcases a Story Mode which guides like something of a chore thanks to the fans of the franchise often feel torn
the player through the game’s plot, rather crude passing mechanics, and between these two editions. While
while Endless Mode tasks you with the pretty Mode 7 visuals mean that Super Street Fighter II is a bit slower
staying alive for as long as possible as when you’re playing down the pitch than its direct forerunner, it’s still faster
the screen fills with blocks. A Timed you can’t actually see your own than the original arcade version thanks
Mode sets a two-minute limit in which players, making it almost impossible to to various speed settings which can be
you have to rack up as many points as stroke the ball around confidently and selected from the title screen. It’s also
possible, while Stage Clear mode gives make best use of your teammates. It’s a much more handsome title than
you a set line to drop the level of blocks often more sensible to simply dribble Street Fighter II Turbo – the new
down to. Finally, a Puzzle Mode the ball from one end of the pitch to the backgrounds are incredible, and the
presents you with a screen packed with other and score, since trying to involve multiple colour options for each fighter
blocks, asking you to remove them all other players almost always ends in give the game a brighter, more eye-
within a certain number of moves. intercepted passes or a tiresome game catching look. New modes include
Panel De Pon’s gameplay would later of long-ball ping-pong. Renamed Super Group Battle and Time Challenge,
be combined with Pokémon characters Soccer and released alongside the and the epic eight-player Tournament
for games on the Game Boy Color and SNES in the west, this title may have mode from the arcade version also
N64, but it has since gained its own nostalgic value but there are much makes the cut. Both games fall short
identity in the west, where it is now better football games on Nintendo’s when judged against modern entries in ISSUE 48
known as Puzzle League. The SNES 16-bit console – we’d rather have seen the series, but Super Street Fighter II
landscape is hardly short of puzzle International Superstar Soccer Deluxe / looks and sounds great, and having
games, but this is one of the most Jikkyou World Soccer 2: Fighting those four extra characters makes a
accomplished examples. Eleven make the Mini cut instead. considerable difference.
P
WHAT CART?
Which 16-bit hits slipped down the back of Nintendo’s
SNES MINI sofa when it was compiling the SNES Mini line-up?
I
n an ideal world, Nintendo will be inspired by the hunger for its newest retro
II FANTASY console and make a SNES Mini MkII, populating it with this list of 21 titles.
EDITION However, since our existence plays out on an orb advancing towards nuclear
oblivion at terrifying, face-contorting velocity, please use this merely as a guide
to some more great SNES games you should play if you missed them the first time.
48
WHAT CART?
A/ST
ACTRAISER S
AXELAY R
CHRONO TRIGGER
Quintet, 1990 SP2 90% Konami, 1992 SP2 85% Square, 1995 SP37 90%
When a developer combines two gameplay styles One of the best shooters on the SNES, Axelay is One of the finest JRPGs in existence, Chrono
the results are often less than satisfying, but Konami at the height of its 16-bit powers. Not Trigger has all the hallmarks of a Square classic,
ActRaiser is proof that it’s possible. Action- only is it a technical showcase for the developer but goes the extra mile with an epic time-travelling
platforming mixes with Populous-style segments – who could forget that rolling horizon and storyline. Created by a dream team of Hironobu
in which you help your worshippers to thrive. abundance of Mode 7? – but it boasts amazing Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy), Yuji Horii (Dragon Quest)
Yuzo Koshiro’s soundtrack is the cherry on top. music and tight, engaging gameplay to boot. and Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball), this is a stunner.
A
CYBERNATOR A
DEMON’S CREST P
DONKEY KONG COUNTRY 3
Konami, 1992 SP5 91% Capcom, 1994 SP27 80% Rare, 1996 N/A
Japan’s preoccupation with massive robots has A side-story in Capcom’s Ghosts’n Goblins series, Released too late to gain the attention it deserved,
resulted in some fine videogames, with Cybernator Demon’s Crest (or Blazon) places you in the role of Donkey Kong Country 3 is perhaps the most robust
(known in its homeland as Assault Suits Valken) Firebrand, an enemy from G’nG and the star of the entry in the series, bringing with it a larger, less
one of the most notable. The main sprite feels Gargoyle’s Quest sub-series on the Game Boy and linear world map and refined SGI-rendered visuals.
heavy and powerful, and despite its sluggish NES. Great visuals and interesting RPG elements This is a fine – if somewhat under-appreciated –
nature the game is consistently thrilling. are in abundance – this is vintage Capcom. swansong for the series on the SNES.
ISSUE 48
KEY
PZ Puzzle
F Fighting
S Shoot-’em-up
OCTOBER 2017
P Platform
ST Strategy
SP Sport
P
DOREMI FANTASY PZ
KIRBY’S AVALANCHE SP
NBA JAM: TE
SB Scrolling Beat-’em-up Hudson Soft, 1996 N/A HAL Laboratory, 1995 SP33 91% Acclaim, 1994 SP30 90%
A Action
A sequel of sorts to much-loved NES title Milon’s Despite the inclusion of everyone’s favourite pink While it boasts official teams and players from
R RPG Secret Castle, DoReMi Fantasy was released ball of air, this is in actual fact the western release the early-’90s NBA league, this sports title
AR Action RPG exclusively in Japan towards the end of the Super of Super Puyo Puyo, the Compile puzzler whose doesn’t take itself too seriously. Players can
Famicom’s life. A cute platform adventure with a objective is to link up like-hued blobs and rain on leap many feet into the air for dunks, and when
RA Racing musical theme, it tasks Milon with finding a series your opponent’s efforts. Two-player matches make they’re on a roll they can shoot flaming basketballs
P of magical instruments in order to save his friend. this one of the best puzzle titles on the SNES. for additional impact. Boomshakalaka, indeed.
1
INDEPENDENT SUPER NINTENDO MAGAZINE
WHAT CART?
TOPTOP
XXXXX
STRATEGY
XXXXX
ST Ogre Battle:
March Of The Black Queen
Quest, 1993 SP34 80%
An ancestor of acclaimed 1997
PlayStation release Final Fantasy
Tactics, Ogre Battle mixes real-time SP
PILOTWINGS S
R-TYPE III
tactics with RPG-style character Nintendo, 1990 SP1 92% Irem, 1993 SP16 83%
development and progression set in
a medieval fantasy world. Fact: the Alongside F-Zero, Pilotwings was the game that The SNES wasn’t inundated with shooters like the
“The scenario is unique title is inspired by two songs truly sold the possibilities of Mode 7. It’s hard to Mega Drive and PC Engine, but what it lacks in
imagine it being as effective without those rotating quantity it makes up for in quality – as R-Type III
compelling, and it’s from the rock band Queen, both and scaling landscapes, and the game makes a comprehensively proves. This console-exclusive
surprisingly friendly.” SP34 from the 1974 album Queen II. welcome change from the hordes of platformers, release harnesses Mode 7 for some eye-catching 49
racers, RPGs and action titles in the SNES library. effects, but there are plenty of fresh ideas as well.
SUPER BOMBERMAN 3
A/PZ
Hudson Soft, 1995 SP37 89%
AR
SHADOWRUN F
STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 2 enjoyable experience, with a
surprisingly excellent soundtrack.
Beam Software, 1993 SP10 85% Capcom, 1996 N/A
Based on the popular tabletop game of the same The last Street Fighter title to reach the SNES,
name, Shadowrun mixes the world of Blade Alpha 2 is a stunning technical achievement.
Runner with RPG tropes such as magic and Compared to newer console versions it’s a scaled-
monsters. Blessed with an engaging storyline, down affair, but the gameplay has survived intact.
challenging combat system and a massive, All of the characters are present and correct,
believable game world, this is a cult classic. replete with their killer moves and specials.
TERRANIGMA
AR
Quintet, 1996 N/A
S Wild Guns
Natsume, 1996 SP24 87%
OCTOBER 2017
R
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