Video Game Collecting

As a kid Raiders Of The Lost Ark was another swapmeet dollar purchase.  The game was mysterious and really had a sense of adventure to it.  You could pick up multiple items, whip snakes, blow up a wall and parachute off a cliff!  Since I didn’t have a manual I begged my mom to rent the movie so I could have some vague understanding of the plot and I think for me that was part of the adventure.  I never did beat the game and it would be twenty years until I saw the ending on YouTube and looking back this was the cowards way out.  Recommended!

Crystal Castles for Atari 2600.  Arcade port.  Controls are choppy.  Imagine Q*Bert meets Pac-man.  Decent.  Dont spend more than three bucks.

Pole Position on Atari is a reasonable port.  It has all of the elements of the arcade game but the controls are a little lacking.  Also the graphics of the enemy racers are blocky.  Enduro by Activision did just fine.

I’ve finally picked a date for my 24 hours of Tetris suicide attempt.  If you are unfamiliar with this endeavor make sure you visit http://www.salzmansuicide.com for all the details.  In the mean time enjoy this awesome poster and share it with all of your friends – it would really help me out.  If you need to see a bigger version of this image just click it!

As a kid it seemed the launch of the SEGA Genesis was slow.  I first saw it in a Home Base which was a hardware store eventually bought out by Home Depot.  And somewhere amongst the rolls of astroturf and patio furniture there was a SEGA Genesis kiosk.  In it was Altered Beast – the original pack-in game.  And on a display shelf was Golden Axe.

Both Beast and Axe was released during SEGA’s American Golden Age in the Arcade.  This was a time when SEGA cranked out hit after hit.  And what made Golden Axe such a great game was the variety.  It was as Rastan and Double Dragon had a love child and called it Golden Axe.

Basically some dude named the Death Adder is causing some bad stuff to go down so you, picking from a barbarian, a stripper, and an old dude, set out on a quest to kill him.  Along the way you’ll get a chance to kill a variety of enemies and will pick up potions that do heavy damage to all enemies.

This game feels like an arcade game.  It’s aged well and its subtle music is catchy.  The controls are simple and the game, although repetitive, flows well.  Its fun.  And that is what matters most.

As a kid I always wanted the ColecoVision steering wheel controller and as an adult I can totally understand why.  This thing is awesome.  I actually have a video of it in action that I’ll release soon but in the mean time here are some thoughts on Turbo by SEGA.

It’s a shame that SEGA will always be remembered as the creator of Sonic, because Turbo is an amazing piece of software.  Granted the conversion to the ColecoVision doesn’t have the same excitement and detail of the arcade version but it’s close enough for a home version in the 1980′s.  The premise is similar to other 1980′s racers.  You drive a formula one car while avoiding other cars and oil slicks.  Pass enough cars when time runs out and you get a time extention.

That’s where Turbo stops being like the other racers and starts doing it’s own unique thing.  For starters you are not driving around a boring track.  Instead your zipping along city streets, country sides, around cliffs, through tunnels, and down hills.  But just when you think you’ve seen it all a yellow flag appears on the screen and an ambulance speeds by.  Sometimes the ambulance will wreck into you leaving you to wonder why they are not checking you for injuries as it speeds off into the horizon.

All in all this is a great racer.  The steering wheel controller along with the gas pedal and ColecoVision controller serving as a shifter works surprisingly well together.  Gran Turismo and Forza has sold plenty of steering wheel controllers but none have really improved upon the design of Coleco’s.  Sure, force feedback is a nice gimmick but if you need a gimmick to make a videogame fun then those game designers need to be fired.  Steering Wheel + Turbo = Fun.

Last summer was the game collecting summer to end all game collecting summers!  I had a great time at the Classic Gaming Expo but it was cancelled this year.  I was disappointed at first but now I am glad.

It’s been a rough couple of months with a seemingly endless drain on finances.  Sure, I got a couple great games recently, several of which on Atari 7800 and ColecoVision.  And the best one of all being Double Dragon on Atari 2600 but it’s been what seems like an eternity since I got an awesome find.

Thrift stores have either been over priced or simply had nothing by way of games or the games were junky sports titles.  I did find a decent copy of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!! from a yardsale along with a good copy of CastleVania but that has been mostly it.  There was a huge collection of complete Intellivision games at a Savers and I saw a home made Ecto 3 Ghostbusters car that someone turned a compact into but man – game collecting has dried up in this town!

There is a new retro game store near the Pinball Hall of Fame Museum I still need to check out and I am still working on my Tetris Suicide, so between that and the endless repairs on my car I’ve been busy… and broke… with nothing to buy anyways… except maybe a copy of MASH or Choplifter II.

I’ve been more and more neglectful towards this blog and my other ones but I wanted every one to know I am alive and well and am still planning my suicide by tetris attempt. Details here: Tetris Suicide

Kung Fu Master for the Atari 2600 is a marvel of engineering.  Released late in the life of the 2600 this game is a fantastic port of the arcade game.  Some of the graphics including the floor boards and the dragons rival that of the Nintendo NES version of Kung Fu but the rest of the sprites are much less detailed. 

The music is mostly spot on and the controls, though missing a 2nd button, gets the job done.  Similar to Double Dragon for the 2600 the programmers found a work around by having you press the joystick in a specific direction and then pressing the action button.

This game is killer and a must for any 2600 collector.

About 13 years ago I discovered Sonic The Hedgehog for the Original Game Boy but what I didn’t know at the time was that it was a hack of Speedy Gonzales.

The game play is similar to Sonic.  You can run left or right and you can jump.  Bumpers send you off at high speed.  Other objects such as penguins serve as springs.  Fans keep you from progressing and question signs unlock certain functions on each level.

You don’t collect rings but you do collect cheese.  This is an excellent game!