Bit Trip Runners great great Grandfather?

I was going through some digital PDF scans the other day and thought I’d have a go at a type in game called Acrobat. This listing was featured in Compute! magazine – Feb ’85. Inside there is listing for Atari and C64 but I thought I’d try out the (shorter) VIC-20 version first.

 

The aim of the game is to jump over or duck under obstacles that scroll right to left to gain points. As you progress, your Acrobat VIC.Trip Runner moves further to the right therefore reducing the amount of reaction time you have whether to duck or jump the next eobstacles. It’s VERY basic, but fun all the same and kinda reminds me of Bit Trip Runner.

A corner of my Geek desk setup with my trusty VIC-20, PDF on my Netbook, mug ‘O coffee and some 80′s Synth  to get me into that retro bedroom coder groove.

Time for a break from all those Syntax errors (typical!) and some fun on the real Bit.Trip Runner.

All done, although I’ve  amended the title screen to replace the original Acrobat title.

My Level 1 score ….although <lame excuse mode> all that typing must have worn me out

PC Indie Gaming – Robozerk

Take a 500g of  Robotron:2084 and  500g of Berzerk, mix well and  you have the making of a fantastic vintage dual stick shooter….or the start of a great cake.

Robozerk is just that, a great shooter (but sadly not a cake) and author Bryann380 has done a marvellous job of combining all the elements of these two classics into one PC game. Controls can be a little tricky with the keyboard at first but you soon get the hang of them. Alternatively I found using a freeware keyboard to joystick mapper utility handy so i can use my dual stick gamepad.

 

Both games need little introduction other than to say that all the elements of both  are here including the robotic voices from Berzerk. Clear the level, rescue the humans and choose and exit before…..

 

 

……Oh no, Otto is back! Run!

 

 

The game is not quite complete as the author states there are a few bugs to iron out and it’s with great sadness that the project is marked as abandoned due to lack of interest. Hopefully we can persuaded him to finish if  off so if you like the demo, drop him an email and pledge your support.

A playable demo can be found here -

http://www.64digits.com/users/bryann380/Robozerk_Demo_03b.zip 

Here’s a Youtube video made by Bryann380 of the demo in actual.

A new Flashback HD remake?

Will Conrad B Hart make a return to our computers sporting some new HD threads? Well lets hope so as it would certainly make my year if he did and i’m sure for the many other Flashback fans out there too.

Disappointed when the so called prototype sequel on the GBA surfaced? Yup, me to, but there’s hope yet.

From Eurogamer.net

The 1992 platforming adventure classic Flashback appears to be getting the HD treatment with Flashback Origins.

According to French site Gamalive, Origins will be developed by the original game’s creator Paul Cuisset at his studio VectorCell, with Ubisoft on publishing duties.

There’s even a image too, although its unclear if this is simple a fan made image or not.

Original –

Purposed remake -

Well, I for one will be following this story very closely and if anyone as any further information, please feel free to run and jump about (rotoscope style) and shout it out to the world

Until then, I can only dream, hunt out my FB Amiga discs again and drool over these amazing fan images by artist by tetedebug

Box of memory.

I’ve been going through a few more bags ‘n’ boxes brought back from my parents loft as it’s so much fun to rummage around all my old junk. Some I’d thought lost many years ago and one such item I’ll be keeping much safer this time.

Contents of my latest swag bag.

A couple of Zoids instructions manuals and pages from what looks to be Games Workshops tabletop game – Bloodbowl and one of it’s expansions Death Zone. I’m pretty sure the Zoid models are still up there some place so I’ll make another trip up there again soon.

 

 

 

Me and my mates used to play Bloodbowl quite extensively back in the day. It a tabletop American football type game played usinfg teams from fantasy worlds of humans, elves, orcs and monsters. Rules included the use of a wickedly spiked ball, chainsaws were often commonplace and so was raising the undead for a field kick

On the offensive but need some help? – no problem hire a giant.

 

Originally, Bloodbowl was an all carded game completed with cardboard pitch and carded characters (on plastic bases) but a few years later it was updated and was supplied with plastic miniatures representing Human and Orc teams and, if memory serves me correctly , a three piece polystyrene pitch. Games Workshop produced a whole range of additional teams and individual players to collect and paint and I recall making my own Skeleton team based on a £4.00 cheap box set of Warhammer Skeletons figures that I’d  cut off the weapons and use a fan heater to half melt the plastic so that I can bend and mould them into various kicking, running, catching and charging positions. Add some custom paintwork and my Skeleton Horde was ready for action!

Well whaddayaknow, Bloodbowl is still being sold  today….eek, it certainly wasn’t that expensive back in the day!

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1140161&amp;_requestid=1997155

Oh I remember this one vividly, my old rule book for Dungeons and Dragons.

I think this D&D book game precedes the famous red box set containing rulebook/DM rulebook and a collection of oddly shaped multi sided dice. I’m pretty sure that’s still up there too.

D&D gaming was huge during the late 70′s, early 80′s and many a dungeon was explored with friends (and a huge intake of sugary crap no doubt). Not something you’d admit about  playing back in the day as it was uber-geeky but now i wear it as a retro badge of honour….or should i still keep it quiet

 

How many rules!

Oh dear, I thought this was thrown  out  many years ago – William Shatner’s Tek War PC game.

‘The ultimate in Futuristic 3-D gaming Action’  Hmmmm!

Well I can’t honestly remember why  I brought this pile of old tosh but it was probably something to do with the fact that a) back in the day, churn out an FPS game and some sucker will buy it? (i guess something’s never change) or b) against all the game shopping, I reached in to forbidden bargain bin and took a gamble.

Tekwar, based on the novels by Capt Kirk (and also the short-lived TV show…which I actually quite liked (mental note to seek out a few episodes )) and is all about a wrongly imprisoned ex cop, brought out of cryo stasis, to do something for a giant corporation run by TJ Hooker.It’s highly likely, that missions will result in boldly going where citizens have gone before and shooting the crap out of some Tek pimping perp. Well, it’s been so long since I’ve played this, i have no idea what the plot it. All i recal is that it was bad…real bad…and not it a cool ‘real bad’ type of way either!

Well, I’m game for a laugh and if the CD is still readable, i’ll see if i can getting it running on DOSbox tomorrow.

Moving on….very quickly…

…and onto the best find today and more of a personal from gaming past.

Way way way WAAAAY back, when my parents  brought me my first Commodore 64 for Christmas, it being second hand was a great play by my parents as it came bundled with boxes and boxes of games. I’m guessing that the previous owner,  judging by the sheer amount  of text adventure games included , was a bit partial to adventuring and thus became my introduction to the computer world of D&D.

Amongst all those games was a book –  It was nothing more that a simple notebook you can find in a stationary store but this one was filled with  hand written solutions and detailed maps for many of the adventure games.

The front cover and some of the artwork drawn by the owner. I’ve always wondered who D.Hewitt might have been and you tell that he/she really put some love into this book.

Notes, maps and detailed solutions. A holy grail for the text adventurer!

..and on some of the blank pages at the back of the book, some rather crude Star Wars doodles by yours truly. If I could go back now, I’d slap myself for doing this

So D Hewitt, wherever you are and if by miracle, you happen to come across these pictures on the internet, please get in touch as i’d like to reunite you with your book and say thanks for making my Christmas oh so special all those years ago and to tell you that  your C64 is still very much alive and still in use to this day.

http://stiggyblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/my-very-first-commodore-64-lives-again/

Over the next week or so and  armed with my new secret weapon, I’ll be crawling a few C64 adventures which up until now have laughed off my puny challenge. 4 sided dice at the ready

Road Carnage.

Driving around this morning in the snow you had to have your wits about you as there’s some damn crazy drivers out there. If that wasn’t bad enough pedestrians seem to be jaywalking in abundance without any thought to their own safety and only attempting to flee at the last moment. Their screams ending abruptly as they hit my bumper and explode into wet chunks of red…..Yeah!

No I’m not some crazy psycho driver, twisted by years of exposure to pixel violence brought up on Mortal Kombat, Doom and Grand Theft Auto despite warnings that these titles would bring about the end of civilization.

-side note, what they should have warned us gamers about was the horror of E.T on the Atari 2600 or….and I’m too scared to even bring up these memories again- Double Dragon on the Commodore 64 Arrrrrgh.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Vlad seems to be a little stuck up ahead, throttle down, I’ll give him a gentle push

Nope, Carmeggedon, the classic chaos racer is simple arcade fun on a VDU and not real life…although it’s really tempting when someone cuts you up on the road eh? Mwah ha ha ha.

When Carmeggedon first game out in the mid 90′s I didn’t play that much of it as it was one of those games that really required a beefy PC (unless you could get hold of the 3DFX patch) and my poor DOS PC ran it so slowly it was unplayable. I didn’t really give it that much time until I picked it up again on sale for the original Sony PlayStation where the advanced chips on the little grey box could kick those pixels round at a descent framerate. It was sorta left in the back of the pile though as titles like WipeOut, Ridge Racer, Destruction Derby and Tekken tended to be on my play list back then. A shame really, as going back to it today, it such a fun game!

Getting it to run on more modern PC equipment can be a little bit tricky but thanks to the chaps at Good Old Games , they’ve made this a very simple process and have include a host of patches to run under DOSbox. Unfortunately , on my ageing (non dual anything) PC using the Glide wrapper plugin, the game looks great but runs way to slow – Even Carmegeddon is an old game, running under emulation with smooth 3D graphics will require a much more beefier PC.

However, all is not lost as simply running the patched Carm95.exe under Windows (XP/7) using compatibility mode (set to Win 95) it runs in software mode and although it looks a little chunky, you’re still getting silky smooth fullscreen fun. All of these shots below are captured in this mode.

A mis-timed jump on level two see me flipped and bouncing toward the unsuspecting cows…it got very messy!

Lined up on ‘Maim’ Street ready to begin the first ‘race’. That flag man looks nervous!

Races are won by one of three methods. Either, the traditional way by becoming first after completing a set number of laps, ensuring that you drive under each checkpoint dotted around the track (the map screen helps here if you get lost) until reaching the end. Alternatively you can repeatedly crash into your opponents to inflict so much damage that their engines explode and cannot continue. And finally, a bit more tricky, hunt down and plow into every pedestrian on the track. Can you find them all, there’s an on screen ticker that will indicate how many are left standing.

Take a detour on track one and head into the stadium to disrupt the local football game.

Pitch invasion, run for your lives mwah ha ha haaaaa!

As you mow down the pedestrians of wipe out other race drivers, you gain dollars. These can be used to repair your car on the fly or level up your cars offensive/defensive capabilities between each race. There are also many pickups to be found around each track in the form of colour barrels. Some will aid your race providing temporary speed boost and instant handbreak stopping power but other will work against you with hilarious consequences such as bouncy mode and unruly suspension.

Each track is huge and offers plenty of different routes to explore as well as ramps and jumps to perform a multitude of stunts (which btw earn more dollars).

Carmegeddon might look a bit old these days but, it was certainly revolutionary in its day and hats off (finally) from me to SCI for producing one damn fine sand box racer.

Now is the time to pick up a your own copy of Carmageddon as it’s on sale at the moment at GOG for just $4.99 including the Splat Pack expansion too. As always, GOG have done the release proud by adding additional content to the package including manuals, artwork, music and, papercraft – (yep, there’s an Eagle motor on my desktop right now).

I’ve also been having fun with new the iOS port on my iPad too with improved visuals and touch screen controls which, despite my initial apprehension for touch screen driving controls, actually work really well and take minutes to get used to before you’re able to put up a good fight.

It’s also interesting to read that the Max Carnage and chums could  be coming back to PC screens again, via Carmegeddon Reincarnation. That’s one I’ll certainly be keeping a close eye on.

…but until then, I’m off hunt down that flag man who seems to have done a runner

 

Oh my G.O.G!

Bargains galore to be had at Good old Games at the moment. Check out some of these gaming bundles on sale! Be quick, this particular sale ends soon….mind you, isn’t everything going to end soon?

Spoilt for choice here but there’s three particular bundles I’ll be going for. No wait, Four…..Wooo, didn’t see that one, better make it five….eek, Curstie’s gonna kill me

Bullfrog classics collection sale offer.

Like Bullfrog games? Just been reading Retro Gamer Magazines feature article on the company and want to revisit some of their best games? Head on over to GOG today because there’s a sale on, and today’s time limited offering is Bullfrog Favourites

You get -

Theme Hospital

Syndicate

Populous 1-3

Magic Carpet (try to get hold of some of those red/blue 3d glasses as the 3d mode in MG is trippy )

Dungeon Keeper 1& 2

DRM free for just $11.92

All run on Windows, some on Mac but check the details for compatibility.

A bargain if you ask me but you’ve only got 8 hours (as I write this post) until the deal ends…I wonder what tomorrow’s sale item is? My wallet is a quivering

http://www.gog.com/promo/bullfrog_favourites

Retro Remake: Thrust Xtreme

Right, let’s get all the sniggering out the way first shall we? I’m going to talk about Thrusting….pfffff

You can’t beat a good Thrust session (the game) and the platform of choice for me will either be the C64 version or, as I’m now becoming quite fond of because of the responsive keyboard, the BBC Micro version.

Thrust – C64

However, being a Vectrex fan and therefore a sucker for anything remotely looking like a Vectrex game, my new found favourite at the moment has to be this retro remake called Thrust Xtreme by Wiebo de Wit.

It looks damn fine, sounds damn fine and plays damn fine.

The main menu  is were you’ll find the redefinable controls and various graphic options but I found that my native fullscreen graphics mode wasn’t listed in the menu. However, if you play the game once, exit and then browse to where the game is installed and open the Thrust configuration file, you can enter your preferred resolution. I’m not sure if it works for all resolutions but it certainly worked on my TFT screen at 1920 x 1080.

I’m sure you’ve all played Thrust before so I won’t go into how to play the game h….oh, you haven’t played it…oh, o.k…well, guide your ship to find that orb looking thing below, hook it with whatever key you defined for your hooky thing and drag it up and out to orbit without hitting anything. Extra points are award for shooting and destroying the gun turrets as well as the Reactor plant (dome shaped building). Destroy this last as you’ll only have seconds to reach orbit before the whole planet explodes.

Right, got the orb thingy, need to make a quick exit so better shoot that switch to open the door and get through it fast before it closes again.

Thrust xTreme is just a playable at the original and looks absolutely amazing. It’s a free PC download so what are you waiting for? Thrust away

http://wiebo.wordpress.com/my-pc-games/

Oh and I forgot to mention, there’s a level editor included in download  too if you fancy making your own levels. I’ll certainly be having a go.

Retro Remake: 3D Starstrike.

Back in the days of the old republic, if you wanted to play a recreation of Atari’s Star Wars vector arcade game at home and you happened to own a ZX Spectrum, then 3D Starstrike was the one to play. It wasn’t an official licensed Starwars game but was one damn fine clone.. all thought, not of the Boba Fett type, which was pretty much spot with the arcade original considering the hardware it was running on. It would be another 5 years until Domark released an official home conversion which, to be honest, was far to late and pretty much sucked on most of the platforms .. although the Amiga version was pretty good.

;

3D Starstrike for the ZX Spectrum was released only few years after the arcade game, contained stimulated vector-like graphics and although the sound was terrible, it had all the elements of the arcade original including the dog fight space battle, skimming along the surface of the Death Star (sorry something that sounds like Death Star) whilst shooting the top off the the defence towers and on to the final run down the trench in the hope of hitting the exhaust port and ….well, you know the story. Suffice to say it’s tough, and Capt Solo won’t have your six this time around.

;

A PC remake of the Starstrike 3D was completed a few years but kinda dropped off the radar and as the authors website is no more I’ve located another copy via CNET (link below). It plays just the same as the original Speccy game and as you can see from the screen it looks flippin amazing but wait until you see it moving!

Definitely a moon and NOT a Space Station

;

‘Lock S foils into att….oh, right, we don’t have any of those’.

‘Stay on target’

Torpedoes away now lets run like hell, she’s gonna blow!

Weeeee, this bit is very trippy!

Dim the lights, prep your x-wing fighter,  don’t hum that Movie theme tune and any mystic voices heard during gameplay are probably not of jedi origin but of obi-wife telling you to get off the computer, use the force and get that yard swept’

http://download.cnet.com/3D-Star-Strike/3000-2095_4-10920433.html

Old and new, 3d Starstrike Spectrum via iXpretrum (iPad) and the remake on my PC.

 

Retro Gaming: Arctic Adventure – PC DOS

Arctic Adventure by Apogee Software.

I must have missed Arctic Adventure the first time around as I was really into Apogee software back in the early days of PC gaming. Their revolutionary shareware model meant that floppy disks containing most of Apogee’s shareware games were circulated quite extensively around our college ground. Great gaming for student budgets!

Arctic Adventure is a fun little platform game based on the FAST engine and reminds me a little of Rick Dangerous on the Amiga. I read that it’s a sequel of some sort to one of Apogee’s earlier games – Pharoah’s Tomb which is a game i have played before and you can sorta see the similarities here.

The story goes that a long,long time ago (but not in another galaxy far far away) there was some sort of Viking treasure map and it was split into four pieces and hidden away into different caves for safe keeping. So safe it was lost until our hero, Rick D…I mean Nevada Smith, hears about it and sets off to Arctic to search for said hidden treasure. Maybe when he’s done, he can help me look for our TV remote

;

Each of the four cave starts off at the map room allowing you to select a level of your choice and also to save/restore any progress made. You’re free to complete each level in any order you wish, so you can always come back to the tricky ones when you’ve become accustomed to the controls.

;

;

…and so begins our platform adventure….in CGA spectravision (echo, echo, echo)

Most of the levels are just one screen although there are a few that span across multiple screens. The aim is to navigate your way towards the treasure chests and on towards the exit. You also need to pick up the axes along the way as these are used to smash through any barriers that might hinder your progress. You’re also packing a pistol so look out for ammo crates, you’ll need them.

Each level is full of nasty traps including cannons, spikes, killer seaweed (erm), giant boulders, moving platforms and lots of slippery ice. Basically all the good stuff you find in most platform games and Arctic Adventure has plenty of them to keep you entertained and back for more. Don’t be put off by the crude, simplistic graphics, there’s a great game here which harks back to the days of classic 8-bit classic platformers. Put down Jet Set Willy for a bit and give this one a go.

Even better, a couple of years ago, Arctic Adventure was released as freeware and can be downloaded from the wiki page for use with run DOSbox..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Adventure_(video_game)

Redneck Rampage pack – on offer at G.O.G

YEEEHAAAAAWW

Good Old Games (http://www.gog.com) latest promo see 50% off there Interplay games including  the Redneck Rampage game pack.

 

For just $2.99 (a couple of quid here) you get a DRM free digital download versions of the original game, the two expansion game packs and  the colourful language pack (dubbed the cuss pack). In addition, as with most GOG games they’ve packaged it with plenty of bonus material including soundtracks, HD wallpapers, manuals and avatars.

Plus, GOG’s setup launcher  makes the job of getting these older games (especially DOS games) running quite happily on modern PC’s on later versions of MS Windows and Mac OS with minimal fuss. You’ll often find OpenGL and Glide wrappers included too so you can play the games using modern  hardware graphic acceleration instead of the original chunky graphics if you wish.

I only ever played the shareware version of Redneck Rampage when it first came out on ‘multimedia’ magazine cover CD, so I’m looking forward to seeing more levels in this  ’purdy’ looking FPS.

The sale ends in two days, so if you’ve got a bit of loose change, then go check it out or indeed some of the other Interplay games on offer at the moment. I think I’ll treat myself to Descent 1/2 and Freespace too.

*BTW, Although fine on my main PC, I had problems getting OpenGL to run via the GOG launcher so I used this instead and it worked perfectly - http://code.google.com/p/erampage/

Han Solo Adventures – Demo

Hands up how many of you bookmark interesting things that you find on the internet to read later  and then promptly forget about them….<counting>…Oh, quite a few then, phew, I thought for minute it was my age!

Any-ho, the particular bookmark in question was a link to a  Star War fan project, in which creator Stacy Davidson  is attempting to build an traditional point and click adventure game entitled Han Solo Adventures. You know the type of thing, something along the lines of  The Secret of Monkey island  - except, with this one, the pirate’s ship is called the Millennium Falcon and I’m guessing the only monkey to appear would be of the Kowakian type

Forgot all about it I did <Yoda>, until after reading yet more web chatter about George selling to Disney and all the hype surrounding the new Star Wars trilogy etc etc. After revisiting the site, i spotted that there’s been a playable demo available for download since June.

See me download, install and fire up the this puppy quicker than you can say ‘Han shot first’!
It’s so great to be playing a point-n-click adventure again (mental note to dig out my Lucasart collection again) especially  one based on Star Wars  and the coolest nerf herders their is…although one hopes that badass Fett might appear at some point.

R5 still doesn’t look well does he.

It’s certainly looking good isn’t it, with that familiar look and feel of a  classic point n click adventure and a  Scumm styled interface.

This demo  is just a taste of one of the levels (unknown if it’s the first) and it appears that Capt Solo has been shot down and has crash landed of Tatooine…unless this is another desert planet with twin suns and a Space Port visible from a far? The aim of the demo  is to find some means of transportation that is able or willing to take you on to the Space Port.
I’m don’t want to divulge much more than that or post any more screenshots as I really don’t want to spoil it for you.

Suffice to say, the VGA style blocky graphics are spot getting that classic adventure game looks and feel with some really well drawn characters and backdrops. There’s also plenty of  Star Wars references here and a dollop of humour to keep you smiling.

For those out there who, like myself,  had completely forgotten about this project, head on over to the Han Solo Adventure website and give the demo a go.

 

 

 

 

 

Poor mans pinball table :-)

Now that I can download more Visual Pinball tables, I thought I’d try the high resolution full screen Black Knight table and have my PC monitor rotated vertically.

I originally brought this rotating TFT screen for vertical Mame games but i found that it was way to tall and narrow when rotated. However,  looks great with the fullscreen  Pinball tables that are designed for 16:10 screen.

Black Knight

 

Clearing some space on my desk. I thought it would be cool to have the monitor lying down flat, just like a real pinball table. I have to admit, I’m rather chuffed at the screen image being visible even at this low angle. When I tried my other desktop monitor on my cardboard Pinball prototype, you could hardly see it unless stood at the right angle – See previous blog post http://stiggyblog.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/cardboard-visual-pinball-model/

 

 

My desktop PC has twin video outputs so after digging finding  another DVI cable, I connected my other monitor and set Windows to expand the desktop and use the second screen to display the Black Knight score panel.

 

I’ve also downloaded another  FS table called Tales of Arabian Nights which is another pinball machine I spent some time on at Play:Expo.

 

 

Added Tape, switches, arcade buttons and a iPac

 

 

The poor man pinball tables is complete with working flipper buttons. I can now see the appeal when folk build these PC/Emulators  into  full size pinball tables now. Sure, nothing is going to beat the real thing but it’s been such fun to play around with it this afternoon. Sadly, the desk is looking like a bombs hit it so I really ought to crack on and get everything back in it’s proper place….after a few more goes of course!

For all the files you need, including tables and a great Visual Pinball setup tutorial, here’s the place to go -

http://www.vpforums.org/

Retro Remake: Black Widow

Urgh!, Spiders…not a huge fan myself and as it’s October, those little (big) critter like to drop in for a chat and to scare the living snot out of me and poor Mrs Stiggy. We had one in the bathroom the other week and I kid you not it was so big I could see it smiling at me. Thankfully in this country we don’t have some of those really nasty ones especially those that you wouldn’t want in your sleeping bag on a camping trip.

But I do like a spot of Black Widow though, the classic 1982 Atari arcade game that is.

 

 

I was playing this superb twin stick shooter just the other week on that modern/retro arcade cabinet I came across (see previous blog post - http://stiggyblog.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/retro-arcade-hunt-result/) and so yesterdays unveiling of a pretty spectacular PC remake was most welcome….unlike that one living in my Mame cabinet

The freeware remake is by Sokurah and is yet again, another superb example of a vector based remake to add to his equally superb back catalogue.

Options galore including multiple degrees of vector graphic glow, re-definable and tweakable controls systems including twin analogue stick control pads (my USB Logitec Rumble Pad2 works perfectly with it ) just to get it looking and playing just how you like it.

With afterglow set to ‘Normal’

No afterglow.

Gameplay is the same as the arcade original including the eggs and helpful but money stealing bug slayer.

I’ve been trying to capture some footage with HyperCam2 on my PC but for some reason I can’t capture any sound and the .avi file playback appears as if running at twice the speed no matter if I change the capture fps. Weird, but until I can fix that, I’ve found this gameplay video on Youtube…although, I think the afterglow was set to max here and so you’ll miss some of the detail.

Defend your web at all cost!

If you like this, I highly recommend checking out Sokurah other vector remakes including everyones favourites  Omega Race, Rip Off, Star Castle, Space Fury & Zector.

http://tardis.dk/wordpress/?page_id=854

 

 

Thumbs up G.O.G – Interstate ’76 on offer.

I’ve mentioned a few time before on this blog that I’m a huge fan Interstate ’76 by Activision. It’s a game I’ve played so many times before and was a real eye opener back in the days when PC gamers brought their first gen graphic accelerator card .

Even though the game was quite linear, the sheer fun of being able to drive around free from tracks, barriers or rules and to go wherever you wanted. It was quite rare for a driving game back in the day until titles like Driver and GTA3 came along.

With a simple non force feedback steering wheel I had at the time, it was just cool to drive my suped up 70′s Piranha around the rocky outback, listening to funky whicky-whicky guitar licks and foot tapping bass.

Remember the intro?

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to play Interstate ’76. My original two CD set no longer worked due to the amount of surface scratched on the install CD. Funnily enough the second CD with the music on it and subsequently was the one that was spinning the most in the CD-Rom drive works just perfectly.

You might remember a few weeks back when I picked up a few retro bargains at a boot sale and a boxed copy of Interstate ’76 was included, well I’ve been trying to get it to run this evening and although it installs o.k, it simply crashes on start up. It’s a common problem with this game especially when tried on modern hardware and an O/S that’s above MS Window 98 – In fact, I keep meaning to build myself an old classic DOS/Win95 gaming PC as there’s quite a few others that are a bit tricky to run as well…game like Crimson Skies for example. But that’s for another day!

Any-ho… I’ve been trying the 3D Gold patches for I76 and various other bits and pieces based on advice I’ve read in old forum posts but I’m still no further forward and was about to give up.

All is not lost though as there’s a pre-patched version being sold on Good Old Games which I’ve read as working perfectly on today’s PC configurations.

Not only that but is also includes the excellent Nitro expansion Pack.

….and it looks like I picked the perfect time to browse as GOG are currently having sale with 60% off their current Activision library so I got Interstate ’76 for just of £1.50! HUGE thumbs up GOG!

So lets set the scene again -

It’s 1976… a different ’76. Stretched out before you are thousands of miles of desert – the American Southwest. The massive engine roars as you slam down the throttle. It’s time to get funked up…

You are Groove Champion, auto-vigilante. Your agenda: payback for your dead sister. Your weapon: A 425-horsepower ’72 Picard Piranha with two 50-caliber machine guns on the roof and a flamethrower on the side. You’re one mean dude in an even meaner ride.

They’ve messed with the wrong Champion’

Installation went well, the intro started and the main menu displayed…no crashes, no glitches…so far so good. Lets start the game….got goosebumps.

WOOOHOOOOOOO….we are GO!

GOG also provide a Glide support so you can run I76 with 3D acceleration to get rid of some of the blocky pixelated graphics. However, the screen resolution is fixed at 640 x 480 and so it’s probably not worth it.

Rough Champion.

There’s a forum post that links to a replacement Glide wrapper and after downloading it and installing myself I’m now playing I76 in glorious 1920×1080 with full D3d support.

Smooth Champion!

You can find details here – http://www.gog.com/en/forum/interstate_76_arsenal/i_76_at_high_res_even_widescreen

;

Melee mode, let the games begin.