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  • VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (June 1990)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    VideoGames & Computer Entertainment was my favorite video game magazine of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some of the key people responsible for the original Electronic Games magazine were involved with VG&CE. It eventually evolved into Tips & Tricks which wasn’t really my cup of tea. The June 1990 issue of VG&CE includes:

    Features

    • Total Recall: Acclaim Brings Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Film Role to Video-Game Screens – A detailed look at this NES game based on the movie of the same name. Like most licensed games, this one wasn’t great though I suppose it was better than some. It definitely has the nostalgia factor going for it.
    • Behind the Scenes at the Nintendo World Championships in Dallas – The Nintendo World Championship had to be just about the height of the NES era. It was sort of a case of life imitating art as The Wizard had just been released in theaters the year before.
    • Batman Strategy Guide, Part I – The first part of a detailed strategy guide for Batman: The Video Game for the NES. While licensed games are pretty poor the vast majority of the time, this one bucks the trend and was actually a solid game. The game and the movie are probably still my Batman favorites.
    • In Search of the Evil Place: A Player’s Guide to Faxanadu, Part 2 – The second part of a detailed strategy guide for this classic NES adventure game.
    • Computer Country Club – An overview of available golf and tennis games. Some of the golf games looked at here include Accolade’s Mean 18, Hole-In-One (miniature golf), Mini-Putt, World Tour Golf, World Class Leaderboard, Jack Nicklaus’ Greatest 18 Holes of Major Championship Golf, Table Tennis Simulation, Serve & Volley, and others.
    • Computer-Game Strategies – Brief strategy guides for Double Dragon II (Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC), Populous (Amiga, IBM PC), and Space Harrier (Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC).

    Reviews

    • Video-Game Reviews – Reviews of Heroes of the Lance (NES) – (while I loved the Gold Box series of D&D games, I thought this action oriented game was pretty terrible), Astyanax (NES) – (I actually didn’t care for this one much though it got good reviews), Ninja Gaiden II (NES), Starship Hector (NES), Super C (NES), Pat Riley’s Slammin’ Jammin’ Basketball (Sega Genesis), Neutopia (TurboGrafx-16), Slap Shot (Sega Master System), and Ghostbusters (Sega Genesis).
    • Computer-Game Reviews – Reviews of Tank (Spectrum Holobyte for the IBM PC), Hoyle’s Book of Games (Sierra On-Line for the IBM PC), License to Kill (Domark/Broderbund for the Amiga, Atari ST, IBM PC, and Commodore 64), Sword of the Samurai (Microprose for the IBM PC), The Third Courier (Accolade for the IBM PC), Space Rogue (by Origin for the Apple II, Commodore 64, and IBM PC – I always wanted this one), It Came From the Desert (by Cinemaware for the Amiga, Atari ST, IBM PC), Sands of Fire (by Three-sixty Software for the IBM PC and Macintosh), and Trivial Pursuit (by Parker Brothers for the IBM PC).

    Departments

    • Editor’s Letter – Andy Eddy discusses games based on movies and celebrities in video games.
    • Reader Mail – The letters from readers this month are mostly about Nintendo’s business practices and then current anti-trust issues.
    • Tip Sheet – The inaugural edition of this column includes tips and basic strategies for Kung-Fu Heroes by Culture Brain for the NES.
    • News Bits – Joe Montana signs deal with Sega, new add-on for A-10 Tank Killer, Defender of the Crown creator developing Centurion: Defender of Rome, Atari opens up direct phone line for orders of Atari Lynx and Portfolio products, new newsletter for Amiga gamers, Commodore to market games machine based on Amiga 500, and much more.
    • Easter Egg Hunt – Hidden features and secrets in Double Dragon II (NES), Golden Axe (Genesis), Revenge of Shinobi (Genesis), and Fighting Street (TurboGrafx-16).
    • Destination Arcadia – A look at new games shown at the 1990 Acme Show in Chicago including DJ Boy from American Sammy, WWF Superstars from Technos, Klax from Atari, AmeriDarts from Ameri Corporation, Four Trax from Atari, Badlands from Atari, Metal Hawk from R. H. Belam, Capcom Bowling from Capcom, Buster Bros. from Capcom, Mercs from Capcom, Final Fight from Capcom, Vapor Trail from Data East, Too Crude – Double Dragon from Data East, Rai Den from Irem, Dragon Breed from Irem, R-Type II from Irem, Toki from Irem, Aliens from Konami, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Konami, Off Road from Leland, Trog from Bally/Midway, PlayChoice from Nintendo, Fire Shark from Romstar, Beast Busters from SNK, Neo-Geo System from SNK, Line of Fire from Sega, M.V.P. from Sega, Cadash from Taito, and lots more.
    • Inside Gaming – A look at who might win the upcoming video game battle between Nintendo, Sega, and NEC.
    • Game Doctor – Questions answered about music on the SMS, the NES expansion port, the TurboGrafx-16 CD-ROM add-on, transferring files between an Apple II and IBM PC, and more.

    …and more!


    Amiga Apple ][ Atari ST Commodore 64 Computer Arcana DOS Nintendo (NES) Retro Games Sega Genesis Sega Master System TurboGrafx-16 📎and tagged

  • The TurboExpress

    Posted on by Azrael 1 Comment


    https://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/634645832379105280/yodaprod-nec-pc-engine-gt-turboexpress-1990



    Released in 1990, the Turbo Express was unique among portable systems in that it was the only portable system that consisted of the same basic hardware and played the exact same games as their main console. Nevertheless, this was not enough to save it from failure and relative obscurity. There are a variety of reasons but they essentially come down to cost and available games.

    The TurboExpress featured the same HuC6280 (a variation of the 65C02) running at 7.16 MHz as the TurboGrafx-16 and the same 16-bit HUC6270 graphics processor with 64KB VRAM. It also played the same HuCard games (though obviously not CD based games that event he TurboGrafx-16 needed an add-on for). The screen has a resolution of 400×270 and just like it’s big brother the TurboGrafx Express could display 481 out of a pallet of 512 colors. All pretty impressive for its time.

    So what was the problem? Well, the biggest problem was lack of good games. While the TurboGrafx-16 and by extension the Turbo Express came out of the gate pretty strong as far as quality games go, for most of their commercial lives the games came at a trickle and were hit and miss in terms of quality. At least outside of Japan. In Japan, the TurboGrafx-16 was one of the most popular consoles that ever was. But there was an order of magnitude more games released there, many of which were very good.

    The next problem was price. The Turbo Express was introduced at $249 and rose quickly to $299 before eventually dropping to $249 again. After inflation, that’s the equivalent of $500-$600 today. Pretty steep for a handheld especially given that the Game Boy could be had for less than $100.

    Battery life probably played a role too. Driving a powerful console with a color back-lit LCD took its toll on batteries. 6 AA batteries would only last 3 hours. By contrast, 4 AA batteries powered the Game Boy for up to 40 hours. That’s a massive difference.

    So how does the Turbo Express stack up today? While I think the TurboGrafx-16 is an incredible system, I don’t think the screen on the Turbo Express holds up well today. This is really true of all those other early color handhelds as well like the Nomad, Game Gear and Lynx. No doubt there are a variety of projects to replace those LCDs with more modern equivalents but unless you want to undertake such a project you are probably better off finding an emulator for your android device instead or buying one of the various modern portable retrogaming systems.


    Retro Games TurboGrafx-16 📎and tagged

  • Download (TurboGrafx-16)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment


    Nothing exists in a vacuum, and the cyberpunk-themed PC Engine shoot-em’-ups of the Download series are indeed children of its time. The games were released just a few years after the 1988 Akira movie and the impact of that film along with William Gibson’s Neuromancer novel from 1984 have left clear traces on these games. Unlike the ships and aircrafts of most other shooters, this series has you piloting a red motorcycle that also acts as a network terminal to jack in your brain to the cyberspace — two of the most iconic parts of the aforementioned works. The games also set themselves apart from its peers by its dense story and high amount of cutscenes, which was unusual for the genre at the time.

    https://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/188192372155/hardcore-gaming-101-download-nothing-exists-in



    There’s no doubt that the TurboGrafx-16 was by far the most underrated console of the 16-bit era. For various reasons, only a small percentage of the game released for that system made it to North America. The system had a much longer life and many, many more games in Japan. Download is one of those.

    The TurboGrafx-16, or PC Engine as it was known in Japan, was known for its side-scrolling shooters as much as any genre. Download is a cyberpunk themed shooter with elements reminiscent of other popular cyberpunk works of the time like the earlier Neuromancer and Akira. While the plot doesn’t matter a whole lot, this one reminds me a little of the plot of Ready Player One. Essentially you are fighting criminal organizations in the cyber world via your flying motorcycle which also acts as a terminal.

    Game play is excellent and so are the graphics. Levels consist of “real world” locations along with more abstract cyberspace locations. As is common with these shooters, there are plenty of weapons and enemies. Since this is a Japan only release, cut scenes are in Japanese so it may not be entirely obvious what is going on in terms of the story all of the time. This isn’t really that big of a deal though and the game itself isn’t difficult to play because of the language barrier.

    The good news is that it isn’t too hard to play a PC Engine game on a TurboGrafx-16. All that is required is a relatively simple adapter. Unfortunately, the price for Japanese import games is often quite high and this one is no exception. The PC Engine must be one of the most expensive systems to collect for. However, like most retro systems, this one is easily emulated so if you are content with that then all those games that were never released in North America are at your fingertips today.


    Retro Games TurboGrafx-16 📎and tagged