Classic Replay

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/12/archaeologic_amstrad_cpc_464/  via @theregister

I’ve been chasing pixels for as long as I can remember, the craze started with Pole Position and spiralled out of control with Outrun! Ever since then I’ve been firmly shackled to the genre. Racing around in a pixelated Ferrari at breakneck speeds has always been that little bit more achievable than racing in the real world.    The discovery of certain games can happen when you least expect. Whilst answering the call of nature, I stumbled across a Ridge Racer V review in an old issue of Edge. I used to feel like a bit of an interloper when it came to the Playstation and I completely missed Ridge Racer the first time round. You see, I backed a different horse - the Saturn, then later the Dreamcast. I did however still have access to loads of cool games, and I played some great driving games such as Sega Rally, Daytona USA, Ferrari F355 and MSR.  A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to pick-up a shiny, nearly-new, copy of Ridge Racer V, it was found in the 'Billy bar...

Turrican 2 is massive, one of the biggest games I've ever experienced on any computer or console. You traverse ledge after ledge, with most jumps consisting of leaps of faith.  The programming team responsible Enigma House, boasted in (AA71) "Turrican 2 contains a jaw-dropping 1500 screens! Think of it this way - if you laid out 1500 monitors on their backs on the floor, it would cover an area 9240 meters square." Each level took up nearly 60k of code, with a total of five levels, this had to include sound effects and music, I'll let you do the maths! The amazing thing was, this game fitted on a single disk. The basic idea is to explore everywhere and anything, killing all sorts of nasties and giants, collect extra lives, power-up's and extended time, and basically just try to survive in order to reach the next stage. There's an excellent feel for the game, the main protagonist looks and struts along like a proper space trooper, and effortlessly g...

I'm sitting on the sofa staring at the screen, for the third night in a row. I'm really struggling to progress in this apocalyptic future. "This time!" I say to myself, as a stray bullet firmly plan ts itself into my head. I reckon The Last of Us is basically practising for when the dead will one day inherit the Earth, maybe in my lifetime? People like me will be prepared and ready, armed with 'shiv's', and sections of drain pipe! "Bollocks!", I shout! At 3:49am, my girlfriend and I have been playing for nearly six hours straight, and I need to be up for work in a few hours. I don't recall sleeping, but three hours later I was driving to work, listening to Talk Sport, trying to stay awake! Damn you The Last of Us.  You may, or may not already know, The Last of Us is a type of role-playing game set in a post-apocalyptic future, after the human race has been ravaged by an unknown disease, turning its victims into zombie-like creatures - ...

You might not have heard of Amsoft, but you might be familiar with some of their games. As a kid, I had an Amstrad CPC; it was of immeasurable importance to me. I still remember peering through the window of Dixons , past the disorganised arrangement of goods, situated between a Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, was the Amstrad CPC. It stared straight back at me with its large colour screen and towered above its competitors. This machine's primary function was not intended to be gaming, but Renegade, Operation Wolf, ChaseHQ, Wec-le-mans and Robocop soon changed that!  The Amstrad came with a hefty amount of free software, which included Harrier Attack, Sultan's Maze, Roland on the Ropes, and a handful of US Gold classics, thrown in as an extra incentive to buy this machine. My cousin and I spent hours with Harrier Attack, although we had hoped it'd been a two player game! I'd fly hard, low, and fast, bombing a string of hi-rise buildings, before rejoining the fleet. T...

Opening with cold-blooded murder, this game relentlessly pushes your emotional boundaries, as you are taken on a journey of wonder, mystery, and vengeance. Released in 1999, #Shenmue was a #Sega Dreamcast exclusive  from the same team that brought us Sega Rally and Virtua Fighter and was also produced and directed by games designer Yu Suzuki, the same chap responsible for programming the original Space Harrier, Outrun and Hang-on.  Maintaining and average 89% on Game Rankings, Shenmue received the "Excellence Prize for Interactive Art", at the 2000 Japan Media Arts Festival, and was voted "Console Game of the Year" by Game industry News. However, despite the rave reviews and seemingly obvious success, sales simply couldn't justify its staggering budget, which has been estimated to have been between $47 million - $70 million - unheard of at the time, rendering Shenmue, arguably the most highly revered 'flop' in gaming history. During the first sce...

Batman; the hero who offers us everything - drama, emotion, glory and devastation. In its day, it was the game to own. And what games developer could have done a better job of humbling the SNES, by so excellently tra nslating the comic shredding tension, not to mention, gripping plot line of the film, than Konami?  Set against a beautiful, yet eerie backdrop, graphics are sometimes a little messy, but with a dimly lit, grimy feel, the scenery easily makes up for this. Particularly on the SNES, the game effectively manages to re-capture the presentation and atmosphere of the movie and is further testament to how amazing and powerful Nintendo's console really was. The Batman character looks awesome; the best I've ever seen depicted in a video game, other than Arkham. And as you'd expect, he's hard as nails, packed full of gadgets, and can punch faster than a Kangaroo! The game is slightly reminiscent of Streets of Rage, with a splash of Final Fight and Renegade! Y...