CoinOps & Vision - Bringing the Arcade to your home in spectacular style!

Bringing the arcade to your home

Microsoft's first foray into the console market, the Xbox, appeared in 2001 (or 2002 for us European gamers) and was a huge success. But, while I have fond memories of playing Halo 2, Mercenaries, Brute Force and Tao Feng : Fist of the Lotus with my buddies in our earlier twenties, it is not a console I hold with much regard these days. Aside from the games mentioned above, there isn't much else in the Xbox's library of games that holds any appeal. Even games such as Toejam & Earl 3 and Sega's arcade beat-em-up Strike Out left me extremely disappointed. Add in the fact that it's a fairly ugly brute of a console, with one of the worst official controllers ever made - right up there with the Atari Jaguar and Sega's horrible Dreamcast controller - and you have a machine that I am happy to leave in the past. Until now!

Homebrew Review - Classic Kong (Super NES) with full cartridge release!

Donkey Kong comes to SNES, with actual cartridge release

Unless you have been living under a rock for the majority of your life, or have never played a video game, you will be familiar with Donkey Kong. The classic Nintendo platform game appeared in arcades in 1981 and kick-started the entire platform game genre and the seemingly generic protagonist, Jumpman, would go on to become Mario - you may have heard of him. 

Retro & Indie Christmas Gaming

Retro & Indie Christmas Gaming 

So, Christmas is upon us. Where on Earth did the time go? It feels like yesterday that I was playtesting a plethora of jaunty Christmas games in order to prepare an in-depth article showcasing the most enjoyable festive treats for indie and retro gamers. Now one year later, I have been genuinely surprised by the utter lack of anything new to play. 

Retro Game Music Quiz (Android)

Test your knowledge of retro gaming tunes!

Here's a quick little time waster that will put your memory of retro game music to the test. Retro Game Music Quiz is a free App, available from the Google Play Store, that tasks you with correctly guessing (well, remembering really) the title of 8-bit and 16-bit games from listening to a very short snippet of the game in question's soundtrack.

Obscure Retro Gem - Pieces (Super Nintendo)

There ain't no party like a jigsaw party!

A videogame adaptation of a jigsaw puzzle sounds like an extremely dull prospect, right? Well surprisingly, no, it transpires that it can actually be damn good fun. Pieces (or Jigsaw Party as it is known in Japan) is a puzzle game that simply tasks you with putting the correct pieces of the picture in the right places - I am sure you all know how a jigsaw puzzle works. 

Retro Review - Super Morph (SNES)

Chemistry 101

Some games are instantly fun, others take time to build up a momentum, hooking the player along the way. On the other hand, some games are instantly recognisable as utter balls, but others can lull you into a false sense of security, dragging you in with charming, cartoony graphics, bouncy music, original game mechanics, and enjoyable gameplay before grinding you down over time until you can no longer bare to look it in the face ever again. As if you couldn't guess by this long-winded intro, Super Morph falls solidly into the latter category.

TOP 10 - 2-Player Retro Games To Play With Your Partner

It Takes Two...

I have been lucky enough to have been blessed with a wonderful girlfriend who is also a gamer. Though, obviously, not the borderline obsessive retro gamer I am proud to be, she appreciates games no matter their age or graphics, and enjoys watching me play story driven titles as much as playing the fun 2-player games alongside (or against) me.

Over the years we have played many titles, both old and new, some of which we played through to the end, others just for short bursts. While many games have kept us entertained, the following 10 games are the ones we have enjoyed the most, and the ones I would recommend to anyone else out there who wishes to enjoy retro gaming with their better half.

Coin-Op Classics Special - Mr. Do (Arcade)

Get down with the clown!

Forget Digger, put aside your love of Dig Dug and wipe away those memories of The Pit, for Mr Do is where it's at for all your retro subterranean arcade maze adventures. Mr Do on Super Nintendo is a port of the classic coin-op by Universal that was released way back in 1982 - the time of early character based arcade games like Donkey Kong, Pac Man, and Dig Dug. 

RETRON 5 - Multi-format retro games console - coming soon!

I am sure most of you are aware of these strange retro consoles that keep appearing year after year. Ugly, cheap looking machines with crappy controllers, and emulation that is usually mediocre at best. I have played on several of these machines over the years and I have to say that they are universally awful. I can only assume they are aimed at the very casual retro gamers who won't notice sound issues, graphical abnormalities or other failings that separate these emulator based machines from their genuine counterparts.

Classic Retro Game - Starfox (Super Nintendo) a Super-FX masterpiece

As Starfox is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, I thought it was high time I went back to this classic title and give it the thorough playthrough it deserves.

I am now writing this mere moments after launching my last remaining smart bomb deep into Andross' smug face and putting an end to his reign of terror once and for all. Destroying Andross, and beating Starfox, is something I have shamefully failed to do in the 20 years since I first set eyes on its mind-blowing faux-3D worlds. But after releasing my sweaty grip from the controller and watching the end credits, I can finally tick another classic SNES game off of my 'To-beat' list. A list that has recently seen Super Castlevania 4, Zelda : A Link To The Past, Pilotwings, and now Starfox struck off it.

The Legend of Zelda - A Link Between Worlds (3DS) - Video Trailer

News that a sequel to the Super Nintendo uber-classic, The Legend of Zelda : A Link To The Past, hit the interweb recently, and got everyone excited! The SNES game is one of the greatest games of all time and one I come back to time and time again thanks to it glorious 16-bit visuals, epic soundtrack, and exceptionally polished and fun gameplay. In my opinion, it has never been bettered by any further adventures of Link (and yes, I have played Ocarina of Time before you ask). The Minish Cap on GBA was an excellent adventure, as was Wind Waker on the Gamecube, but other than that, none have managed to grip me like the 3rd game in the series. But that could all change now, with the upcoming release of a 3DS exclusive sequel - now officially entitled A Link Between Worlds.

Obscure Retro Gems - Ninja Warriors Again (Super Nintendo)

Ninja Warriors Again (or just Ninja Warriors, as it was known in the West) is a fantastic side-scrolling 2D beat-em-up game for the Super Nintendo. Released in 1994, it is a re-imagining of the original 1988 Arcade game, The Ninja Warriors. While published by Taito – who made the first game in the series – the SNES version was developed by Natsume, known for other brilliant SNES games such as Wild Guns, Pocky & Rocky 2 and Harvest Moon.

This time around the game is set is a bleak version of the future (aren't they all?) where the people are oppressed and ruled by the military, under the control of a maniac named Banglar. Thankfully, a small underground resistance formulate the genius plan to send in 3 ninja androids to kick ass and assassinate the tyrant. Unfortunately, they were pressed for time and deployed the trio of biomechanical ninjas in an untested state. What could possibly go wrong?

Obscure Retro Gems - Whizz (Super Nintendo)

Whizz is a quirky isometric platform game that was released in 1995 on the Amiga and PC, then later on the SNES (in 1996), and the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation (in 1997). There is supposedly an Amiga CD32 version. It is hard to find any trace of it online, yet people argue that it does exist and can even be downloaded. The version I am focusing on here is the Super Nintendo version. Released super late in the 16-bit console's lifespan, in 1996, it was overlooked by most SNES owners. But thanks to wonder of emulation, no game gets left behind. So I implore you to take Whizz for a spin and see what you missed out on first time around.

Classic Game - Super Castlevania IV (Super Nintendo)

Since I spent the last feature article bashing the crappier side of the Super NES platforming genre, I feel I should rain some positivity down on the 16-bit wonder console. And what better way to do than so than to sink my teeth into two of the finest games for the system, Super Castlevania 4 and Zelda : A Link To The Past? I have recently reacquired both titles and am currently playing through them again. Firstly I will look at the whip cracking, bat whacking adventures of Castlevania.

Special Feature - The Ugly Side of Super Nintendo Platform Gaming

The Super Nintendo is home to some of the best examples of 2D platform games in existence. It is also home to an absolute deluge of shit that simply beggars belief. This week I decided to spend some time checking out a vast array of 2D platform games on the system with the intention of writing about any hidden gems I found. While I did find a few enjoyable titles lurking among the 30+ games I tried, I was quite taken aback by how many truly abysmal games are on SNES. I genuinely had no idea. I am familiar with the hundreds of terrible abominations on the NES, but for some reason I had assumed (incorrectly) that the SNES had upped the quality control and avoided a library consisted of hundreds of piss poor efforts. 

Maybe it was due to the fact that the SNES cartridges were pretty pricey back in the day, so I only got hold of the cream of the crop after doing my research via CvG, Super Play and Total magazine (remember, this was pre-internet) before hassling my parents to fork out for it. Thus my memories of the 16-bit Nintendo machine consisted of a glorious dream-like haze in which I frolicked through a sunny meadow with such lovable characters as Mario, Donkey Kong, Earthworm Jim, Link, Simon Belmont, the guy from Pilotwings and even the 3d rendered unicycles from Unirally.

CHRISTMAS GAMES - Festive Retro Goodness!

Christmas is here, and what better way to celebrate Santa's birthday than to fire up some festive retro gaming goodies! The 'Christmas game' was a popular gimmick in the 8-bit and 16-bit home computer days. Games were cheap to produce and to purchase, so developers could create a quick Christmas game on a small budget and release it at a low enough price for parents to buy for their kids as a stocking filler. There was also the free cover tape given away with the computer magazines at the time. The December issue of a games publication was the perfect place for Christmas games, and well known developers such as Team 17 and Sensible Software produced short, seasonal versions of their hit games for these give-aways. The ZX Spectrum had an excellent Monty Mole game called Moley Christmas, given away with the December 1987 issue of Your Sinclair. The Commodore 64 also got in the holiday spirit, with one memorable title being Frosty The Snowman, given away on the front of Your Commodore magazine in 1990. The Amiga was also home to a wealth of Yuletide treats, with Christmas versions of Cannon Fodder, Lemmings, ATR : All Terrain Racing, and Fire N Ice all gracing cover disks over the years. PC users were not left in the dark either, with an enjoyable Xmas edition of Jetpack, and some frantic platform action in the form of, not one, but three, Jazz Jackrabbit Christmas specials.