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Showing posts from January, 2018

Taito Legends 2 - Respect!

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I’m a bit late to the party with Taito Legends 2, but if you haven’t experienced this wacky selection of sometimes bizarre arcade games, including football champ, with a control setup that includes ‘shoot’, ‘pass’ and ‘punch’. Then you’re really missing out!   I can’t help but gush over Elevator Action Returns, it’s fast, ultra smooth and offers the best elevator experience I’ve ever had. Then there’s the 1995 Space Invaders comeback, Attack of the lunar loonies, where you get a round of applause for completing a stage, before moving into a vertical scrolling shoot-em-up and boss stage, it’s completely bonkers but massively fun and ultimately cute.   Don Doku Don is a game I can’t even remember, but boy is it fun. It’s nothing to look at, but it’s a really good platformer in the style of Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands. Suffice to say, I kept playing because the challenge is fitting nicely within my skill set. Gekirindan is one of my favourite games of the compila...

My letter from Amstrad Action?

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I was just digging through a mountain of my old books and magazines and noticed an old letter I received from Amstrad Action back in the day. Chris Anderson was the publisher and claimed I was one of the first 500 people to have taken out a subscription with Amstrad Action. The letter makes for an interesting read, especially when you consider I renewed and they sent me a free copy of the masterpiece that is Thrust and the wonderful Starstrike 2 . Happy memories and happy days that I thought I'd share with you! Enjoy the contents of this letter from Amstrad Action. 

Take the Bullet - Dreamcast

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Game: Take the Bullet Developer: Scotland based Red Lemon studios System: Sega Dreamcast Dreamcast games I never knew existed? This shooter is set in the sixties, you are a highly trained bodyguard who must protect a presidential candidate, from a well-known gang, called the Children Of Gabrielle. What's amazing is that this game has over twelve missions, over fifteen or more different weapons, with a wonderful option to play from either a first-person mode or third person view, but get this, Red Lemon  were also developing the game to work with the Dreamcast's  official lightgun. The mind boggles at such a thought, can you imagine the likes of Virtua Cop or Confidential Mission where you're fully in control of where you walk? From what I've read thus far, this would require the use of the D-Pad, freely running around in this type of game would have been amazing and most likely a first. That's exactly what the developers were hoping for here, throw the a...

How Nintendo revolutionised gaming

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I found this old Nintendo article the other day, I took it from a free a mag, called Shortlist from back in September 2015. They basically interviewed Shigeru Miyamoto (director and designer) from Nintendo. The article gives massive insight Shigeru Miyamoto and the people who worked with him, it's reassuring to know that the people testing the game just didn't want to go home, played it into the wee hours of the morning, obviously up and being paid overtime for ironing out all of those nasty mushrooms bugs. Anyway, below you'll find a high-resolution scan of the entire article, hopefully, you'll enjoy reading it as much as I did...

The wonderful world of the ZX Spectrum

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Saw this article a while back in Computer Shopper and absolutely loved it. This scan is from issue 348, I had no idea they featured a retro-inspired article once a month in their magazine, I definitely didn't expect to find it here whilst browsing for the latest gadgets. You can click on the image to make it full screen and read it first hand, but it is nice to see a feature on the stuff we grew up with from the eighties. The article talks about the Amstrad models, the 128K Plus 3 with disk drive is the one I had, but I did originally have access to a 48K model, every time we visited my cousin (2-3 times a week) The writer also takes a well-earned playground swipe at Commodore 64 owners, some thirty years later... Great stuff! Make sure you check it out. Well, hopefully, you'll enjoy and it will bring back some amazing childhood memories. It certainly did for me. This guy is a great writer, so look forward to reading more of his articles in future.