• Tag Archives retrogaming

  • Sears Tele-Games Video Arcade (Atari 2600)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Sears has this weird thing they do where they contract with outside manufacturers to produce items for their store and then sell it under their own brand name. An example of this is Sears’ Kenmore line of appliances. These are actually made by companies like Whirlpool or whoever Sears happens to be contracted with at the moment. At one time they also did this with video games.

    The Sears Tele-Games Video Arcade was nothing more than an Atari VCS (later known as the Atari 2600) with a different name. Not only did they do this with the system, but they did it with a number of the games as well. For example the Atari branded Combat was known as Tank-Plus under the Sears Tele-Games label and Air-Sea Battle was known as Target Fun. The games and systems were exactly the same except for some labeling differences. A very few games were Tele-Games exclusive but of course these also worked on an Atari VCS/2600.

    This ad from a Sears catalog in 1977 shows what Sears had to offer early in the life of the Atari system. These early ads tend to exaggerate the number of games. Atari 2600 games typically had multiple variations. For example, Combat involves driving a tank around trying to shoot another tank (either another player or the computer). There are multiple game variations that change things like the maze layout, bullet behavior and even the visibility of the mazes and tanks. Many ads portrayed these as different games. In this ad it talks about being able to choose from 27 exciting video games with the Target Fun cartridge. Really that’s just 27 different variations of the same game.

    In 1977 the Atari VCS had just been introduced and there weren’t that many games yet. The days of Activision and other 3rd party developers was yet to come. The games in this ad probably represent most of what was available at the time and they include: Speedway II (Atari’s Street Racer), Outer Space (Atari’s Star Ship), Blackjack (also Blackjack under the Atari label), Tank Plus (Atari’s Combat), Race (Atari’s Indy 500), and Pong Sports (Atari’s Video Olympics).

    Sears Video Arcade (Atari 2600), 1977


    📂This entry was posted in Atari 2600 Retro Games 📎and tagged

  • Mega Man 2 (NES)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Mega Man 2 (Capcom – NES – 1988)

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/170726693167/pixelclash-drips-mega-man-2-capcom-nes

    Although Mega Man is an iconic video game and video game character today, it was really the success of the second game in the series, Mega Man 2, that is responsible for its success. Mega Man 2 was the second and most successful game of the series (so far anyway). While the first Mega Man game was not a huge success, the second sold 1.5 million copies and led to four more Mega Man games being developed on the NES before the series moved on to the Super Nintendo.

    Mega Man 2 is much like the first Mega Man game but with some improvements. It is a typical side-scrolling 2D platform action/adventure game. Mega Man 2 takes place sometime in the 21st century and one year after the original game. In Mega Man 2, Dr. Wily, the main antagonist in the Mega Man games, has created a series of “Robot Masters” including Metal Man, Air Man, Bubble Man, Quick Man, Crash Man, Flash Man, Heat Man and Wood Man. Your goal as Mega Man is to defeat these robots and ultimately Dr. Wiley himself (again).

    Mega Man 2 had a number of improvements that made it better than the original. First, it was a longer game and a password system was added so a game could be continued. Second, the difficulty was adjusted and more helpful items were added for Mega Man to find. Also, both the soundtrack and graphics were improved for the second iteration of the Mega Man series. Mega Man 2 was a huge success but if it had not been for the developers’ insistence on making a sequel and willingness to work on it alongside other project there probably never would have been another Mega Man game as the first one really wasn’t successful enough to justify it.

     

    If you play just one Mega Man game in your life, Mega Man 2 is probably the best one. There are many other very good games in the series so if you like this one you will probably like most of the others too. I think the original NES version released in 1988 is the best one to play but there have been subsequent releases on the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox as part of the Mega Man Anniversary Collection as well as on the Wii Virtual Console. Any of those are reasonable versions to play and are mostly the same as the original. In Japan versions were also created for the PlayStation, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable.





    📂This entry was posted in Nintendo (NES) Retro Games 📎and tagged

  • Rock N’ Roll Racing (Super Nintendo)

    Posted on by Azrael 1 Comment

    ROCK N’ ROLL RACiNG
    Interplay
    Super NES
    1993

    Rock N’ Roll Racing was an underrated racing game released for the Super Nintendo in 1993 by Interplay. It was developed by Silicon & Synapse who later became Blizzard Entertainment. I say underrated but that isn’t really fair. It was awarded best driving game of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly. It just seems like it wasn’t as well known as past popular racers in roughly the same genre like R.C. Pro-Am.

    Rock N’ Roll Racing was originally developed as a sequel to RPM Racing. At the end of development, licensed music was added by the marketing department and the name was changed. Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit fans will be interested to know that the logic and A.I. engine for Rock N’ Roll Racing (and RPM Racing) actually came from Racing Destruction Set which is similar to these games in a lot of ways.

    If you aren’t actually familiar with any of those games, Rock n’ Roll Racing is a vehicular combat racing game. The most popular game that it is close to is probably R.C. Pro-Am. The basic goals are the same. Race other cars while also trying to destroy them and not be destroyed. Between races you can upgrade various aspects of your car (weapons, armor, engine, etc.) It’s huge fun to play against the computer and even more fun to play against a friend. The game also has a password system that allows you to save your game at certain points.

    There were also ports of this game for the Genesis and then much later in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance. The Genesis version is not nearly as good as the Super Nintendo version. The graphics and sound effects are just not up to the standard set by the Super NES. The Game Boy Advance version is very similar to the Super Nintendo version.

    This related series of games has a long lineage starting with Racing Destruction Set and continuing on in various ways almost until today. There was a sequel released in 1997 for the PlayStation titled Red Asphalt (prefixed with Rock & Roll Racing 2 in Europe) but this one really isn’t as good as the original. Then there was an Indiegogo campaign by a company called Yard Team for a game called Motor Rock that was released in 2013. It used many assets from the original Rock N’ Roll Racing in addition to new content. It was released on Steam but pulled at the end of 2013 because of copyright infringement claims from Blizzard. However, their website (yardteam.org) appears to still offer a way to register the game through the Steam app with a key that can be obtained with a “small donation”.

    Rock N’ Roll Racing is definitely a game worth picking up for the Super Nintendo. Avoid the Genesis version and the later PlayStation sequel but the PC/Steam version might be worth a try (I haven’t tried this one yet myself). If you like games like R.C. Pro-Am or RPM Racing or even Racing Destruction Set then Rock N’ Roll Racing should be right up your alley.





    📂This entry was posted in Retro Games Super Nintendo (SNES) 📎and tagged