Sturmwind – Sega Dreamcast.

Sturmwind for the Sega Dreamcast has finally been release and so with any luck my order should be making it’s merry way to me soon.

What is Sturmwind? Well, it’s an independant, classic arcade shooter written by Duranik for the Dreamcast catering for the league of fans still devoted to Sega’s last console.

Check out the features list –

16 Levels
3 selectable difficulty levels
configurable controls
adjustable screen position
different weapons selectable
more than 20 large bossenemies
hundreds of different enemies
FMV intro sequence
hybrid 2d/3d game engine
resolution 640×480
PAL50, PAL60, NTSC and VGA (with Adapter) compatible
region free
works with any MIL-CD compatible Dreamcast
CDDA Sound
supports: Joypad, Arcade Stick (Analog/Digital), VMU, Rumble Pack (configurable)
internet WEBcode Hiscore Tables
award Trophy System with unlockable content
SD card support

It’s been a very bumpy ride for Sturmwind, and amongst the frequent setbacks and release dates, I was beginning to think we’d never see it…and what a shame it would have been too because just look at it!

Not bad for a (nearly) 15 year old games console!

So until the postie arrives with package of awesome-ness, this weekend the Dreamcast hits the geek desk because a) its been a while since I’ve used it and it needs a good test – I’d been gutted if Sturmwind arrives only to find my DC has croaked, b) Retro Revival is next month and I’m sure that if myself and fellow RCM chums happen to come across a Dreamcast, then they’ll be plenty of Soul Calibre shenanigans and I could do with a spot of practise (shh, tell no one) and finally c) I’ve had a new bit of Dreamcast kit in my desk drawer for the past six months and haven’t actually tried it out yet!

For more info on Sturmwind checkout the dev site – http://duranik.com/

and to place your order at – http://redspotgames.com/shop/?act=viewProd&productId=19

My Gaming Week #8

Last weekend I was shifting, sorting and dusting down a few older computers, consoles and  games and had started to amass a collection tapes, discs and cartridges on my ‘to play’ pile. Here’s a few that’s been fun to play this week.

First up, is a Megadrive conversion of an arcade game that was a sequel to a huge favourite of mine -phew!

Rolling Thunder 2 – Sega Megadrive (1991).

RT2 Japanese cover as my European cover is just. quite frankly, awful!

The first time I played  Rolling Thunder 2 (and Rolling Thunder 3 on the MD) I thought, meh…it’s not a patch on the original and it wasn’t long before it was shelved. Playing it again this week and after a few sessions on the original courtesy of Mame and am starting to warm to it a little more. It’s still an average run and gun type game, but it does look very nice and still contains elements of the original game mechanics like the make or break jump from lower to upper platform (or vice versa), the limited gun ammo, the high difficulty and those frantic moments were you just make it out alive.

The Megadrive version adds a few extra anime style cut scenes and a few extra levels compared to the arcade version. It certainly is a nicely polished game.

So, it appears that the Geldra organisation is up to no good again and decided to take out earth’s orbiting satellites. As agent Albatross (or additional agent Liela is you wish) of Special Task Force – Rolling Thunder, it’s up to you to track him down and give him what for. To Miami Airport it is then!

The original Rolling Thunder arcade game was said to have been set around the 1960′s but it appears that the sequel is quite a few years into the future judging by some of the visuals.

Forget the mission, I want to drive this truck!

I’ve been running, jumping and shooting my way through this game all week but I can still only reach  level 3. Thankfully there’s a handy password system so at least  I don’t have to restart from the beginning again, and with any luck will make it to the end of the game soon wipe the smile off his greenish himself.

Now for something less challenging!

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Contra (or Gryzor over here…or Probotector) – NES (1988)

Less challenging? Contra is certainly not.   I’ve always wanted to  get into  Contra but could never really got very far past the first level. Being an essential NES game I was eager  to seek out this for my  collection many moons ago, but on playing it,it was quickly boxed and has rarely comes out these days.

However, this week I was feeling lucky…..how did it do? Well, I’ve seen this screen so many times and nothing much past it

So, I was about to shelve it again when I thought….what the heck, lets cheat to buggery and you know what, with the Konami code entered to give you a  whopping 30 lives, it really make gives you chance to try different things out and learn a few attack patterns, . It’s still hard as nails and even with this many lives you still have a hefty challenge on yout hands but one that is almost reachable….who am I kidding, I suck at Contra

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Hunchback – Commodore 64 – (1983)

Hunchback, a real classic on any platform, be it the C64, BBC Micro, Amstrad, Speccy or even Oric-1, it’s a great game and thirty years on I’m still playing it.

Move over Pitfall Harry, it’s Quazzy’s turn. Run from left to right  jumping  and swinging your way to the bells and on to rescuing said damsel in distress (alleged). Don’t hang about for too long though as there’s a Knight on your tail who after the side order of hunch rump…..ew!

One of the fifteen odd screens you’ll encounter. This one is an easy one , jump over the guards at the right moment or  feel the pointy end up your tights. Later on this level is repeated often but adds flaming cannon balls and arrows to the mix.  

Get your timing right and swing to the other side, get it wrong and it’s down to your doom. Top tip, I find that if you jump when the rope is around about the 7 0′clock position, you should make it o.k.  If not, there’s always the Konami code

…and if you want something a little more modern, how about this remake? Are those guards from an Asterix game?

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This next one isn’t a game of sorts but bags of fun for Lego fans, old and new.

Lego Digital Designer - http://ldd.lego.com/

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the software (Mac/Windows/PowerPC) you can then use the simple editor to build virtual Lego models just like you used to do as a kid. There’s 100′s of bricks to choose from  in all manner of o colours and sizes  including many from the classic  Lego era.

But that’s not half the fun, having spent a few minutes browsing around the forums, it appears that there’s a whole community based around recreating many of the classic Lego models. I found many old favourites that you can import into the application or build using digital scans from the original model instructions.

 It was my birthday yesterday and quite fitting to find the model below, which was a birthday gift from a late aunt I received so many many years ago.

6681 – Police Van

I remember this model being so cool for many reasons. Firstly, all Police sets were cool, secondly, it had many moving doors including a hinged cockpit roof. Thirdly, this was one of the first models to have those uber-cool Police walkie talkies and finally, look at those large off road tyres…you can imaging how many other vehicles I created used these.

..and here’s the virtual model…just trying to figure out the correct tyres.

You can also place a model in a 3D environment allowing you to pan and zoom around at leisure. Here’s another of the vintage space sets that I had back in the day.

918 – Space Transport

It’s missing a few details but oh does this bring back memories! It’s not as impressive as it’s bigger brother with the opening cargo bay/lunar buggy but believe me, this Space Transport did some mileage. The hinge tool can be used to manipulate the two hinge bricks, so for example on this model, I can raise the cockpit roof..Good job, the pilot had his helmet on.

What model I’d love to find (or digitally build myself) is the best Lego Space set I ever owned.

6970 – Beta 1 Command Base.

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Back to gaming and this weeks lunch time gaming has been an online version of a classic…with an unexpected twist.

Final Fight – Web/Flash - http://toork.com/classicgames/final-fight/play2

You only get to play as Guy, but who cares, it’s Final Fight and you get to smack Mad Gear and his gang around online.

Right here we g….wait a minute, you lot aren’t familiar, are you new recruits?

I was expecting the odd metal pipe or sword to use as a weapon but look what I found!…this is embarrassing, I’m a hardened Street Fighter!

Aha, the golden doors, time to fight Thrasher…..wait one gawdamn minute, what’s going on here? What are you doing here Ken…oh you do do you, well bring it on then.

Hmm, this is not a part of Metro City that I know…someone forgot to mow everything? Eek, mini raptor and I’m pretty sure that not Roxy or Two-P that’s sneaking up on me.

Driving around in a Cadillac is so much better than the dingy tube.  Woo, what’s the gun for?’

Eek!

It’s a strange game all right, cool, but bizarre. They should call it Final Street Fight Cadillacs and Dungeons.

Happy Gaming….and and btw, Albatross is one cool name.

My Gaming Week #7

I’m having an impromptu afternoon off working this afternoon – yesterday, our central heating boiler decided not to central heat anymore and wasn’t expecting a to be able to find an available heating engineer  so soon considering last weekends rapid drop in  temperatures and the huge dumping of snow we’ve had these past few days. Any-ho, he’s on his way so whilst I wait for him I  thought I’d catch up with my blog posts as free time has been a bit elusive these past few weeks.

Here’s a selection of games that’s been keeping me entertained this week (and the last week too as I didn’t get chance to post then either).

It’s no secret, I do love a good dose of Pinball, be it on a real table or in digital format and there are many digital tables out there which, unbound from any restrictions of a physical table often contain many weird and wonderful designs and features.

One such digital pinball game, really takes this to the max.

Devil Crash (Devil Crush) Sega Megadrive (1990).

Devils crash expands the pinball experience by presenting the main game table in multiple parts. The initial table is split into three sections, each with their own set of goals, bonuses and objectives to shoot for and expands on these by adding even more sub tables, again with there own set of goals. I haven’t managed to visit them all yet, but at the last count, playing Devils Crash is like playing on a pinball table which spans over eight tables.

I’ve only ever seen the PC Engine version running but never played it myself so was hoping that the Megadrive port going to be as good.

Visual, it certainly looks fantastic and although I’m not a horror fan, am loving the Gothic/Splatterhouse/Doom-esq/Gieger/Demonic <insert red stuff> look to the entire table. The sound effects perfectly match the table too with plenty of cliché ghoulish laughing, screams and howls – The background music I find, can be a bit repetitive so i’d decided that anything by Metallica was perfectly suited.

Here’s the bottom of the table, lose the ball here and it’s game over my friend.  Aim for the centre castle to help you seal up the gap between your flippers and/or plant the ball into ‘boney’ mouth on the right.

One of the amazing looking sub-tables.

Am also loving the centre section, which kinda reminds me of Bride of Pinbot where the ladies face changes after hitting certain targets. This time around though, instead of robot to girl, we get girl to vamp to aged vamp and on to demonic snake thing….eek!… I’m sure she’s a lovely person though..just misunderstood

But all that goodness would be wasted if the ball physics and framerate turned out to be a bit iffy and thankfully, Devils Crash on the Megadrive doesn’t suffer with any of this. A great pinball game well worth checking out you ever get the chance.

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Buggy Boy – Commodore 64 (1987)

The first time I played Buggy Boy in the arcades was at Smiths arcade on the East coast. They had the huge  triple screen monster of a cabinet version (although not the largest according to KLOV) and I remember  it had red rope netting added to the rear window and sides to enhance that offroad buggy experience.  I’m not sure if this was added by the arcade operator themselves as I can’t find any reference to it being on as standard but it’s something that has always stuck in my mind. Funny how all the little obscure little details often do.

The port to the C64 by Elite surely ranks up as one of the best arcade racing games on Commie and a sure inclusion to pretty much everyones top lists of C64 games?  Like most, I’ve played this over and over again, but it wasn’t until I  was reminded of the fact that I’ve not actually loaded this in ages after seeing it included in NikNice’s ipad C64 games collection (see previous post - http://stiggyblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/niknices-collection-of-c64-games-for-ipad-and-iphone/

You all know the game so I won’t go into it, but if like myself and its been a while, I hope these will also serve as a reminder to do so again soon.

It might not have the large vehicle graphics of the arcade original but of all the home ports, surely the C64 conversion has got to be one of the best Buggy Boy experiences – especially the speed when comparing it to other home ports.

I’ve always like the look of the the ZX spectrum version too, especially the visuals which despite the lack of colour are pretty darn close to the arcade original. However, it runs incredibly slow and the camera angle is way to low, your Buggy blocks you view. It’s a shame as this could really have been something special. I occasionally play the Amiga version and a friend of mine recommended the Atari ST version so that’s added to the play list for another day.

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I had no idea this game existed until receiving a response  Youtube video featuring an  arcade gaming convention  From the 3 or 4 seconds of game footage  I  thought, woo that looks cool, in a  sorta Salamander-organic way. Little did I know that it was  actual a sequel.

Salamander 2 – Arcade/Mame (1992)

I’ve not really got far into the game yet but so far am looking the levels and bosses.  Sure, apart from a huge graphical update there’s that much extra going on here but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, just more of that Salamander/Gradius goodness.

One ugly mother.

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I’ve also been playing a handful of classic vector based arcade games using an emulator that’s designed to accurately reproduce a little bit better than say with MAME. Games like Asteroids, Rip off, Tempest, Gravitar and Lunar Lander.

The emulator is called Another Arcade Emulator (AAE)  - http://www.zophar.net/marcade/aae.html

Play Asteroids in Mame and then on AAE and you’ll instantly notice the difference.

You need a fairly beefy PC to run some of the games though and some seem to run better than others despite having less objects on screen. Initially I tried tried to run Omega Race on my Netbook and it just groaned and stuttered at 1 – 2 fps but on my main desktop things ran much better and am now toying with the idea of adding this emulator to my own arcade/Mame cabinet (yes I will finish it one day!).

AAE adds lots of new graphics options to closely present what the original arcade machines/monitors produced so for example, you can set screen burn, vector  phosphor glow levels, motion blur and light trail length as well as all manner of tweakable controls to suit your preferences.

Arcade  bezel and overlay art is supported in AAE too and worth tracking down to complete the illusion. You’ll also need to hunt down the rom images as these are not included in the download.

A note on Rom files  -
Out of the box I couldn’t get AAE to work correctly with my Mame set and on closer  inspection of the error/log file that’s produced after running a game, it appears that my roms are named incorrectly – or that they are correct but the AAE uses a different naming convention?

- for example, AAE might call for a rom image called 30210.01 but my image was called 30210-01.fr. Concidering that each game might contain a collection of anything between 6 – 40 rom images, that’s alot of file renaming you might need to do – not including the additional game revisions and prototypes.  It’s a bit of a chore but , the emulator is so good I think the reward is so worth the input.

AAE was last updated in 2008 with little advancements  after that, but there still appears to be a thriving forum community that should be able to answer any questions you might have.

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Lunch time web/flash gaming has mainly collection classics like Frogger and Space Invaders and one i’ve been playing quite a bit of is yet again, another Depth Charge port.

Depth Charge: First Attack - http://potentialtargetproductions.com/flash.html

The same classic mechanics of the arcade original are here – bomb the subs within a set time and avoid the torpedoes. However, this flash version differs somewhat by adding the ability to set the depth of you charge. So not only have you got to get the timing right, you also need to figure out the correct depth too…and don’t think those sub driver will stay at the same depth too…the dirty little rotters!

This version has upgrades too allowing you to outfit your warship with faster engines, increased reloading times and armour plating.

Able Seaman Stiggy at your service Cappy…..is it lunchtime yet?

My top tip, try to upgrade your ships speed first as without that you won’t be able to react quick enough to sink the subs or avoid incoming fire.

Happy gaming

StiGGy

Cannonball – Enhance Sega Outrun Engine.

It might be cold, grey and damp out there today but inside it warm and full of the joys of summer  with clear blue skies, big fluffly white clouds and three tropical soundtracks. Yup, Outrun is back and and this time, thanks to coder DJYT, a new game engine has been released called ‘Cannonball’. Using the original roms Cannaball has many enhancements and improvements over the original and can also used to run Outrun at a very impressive 60 frames per second

You can pick up the Windows binary files here -

http://www.massdestruction.co.uk/outrun/cannonball-v012-w32.zip

You will also need a copy of the MS Visual C++ Runtime Libraries

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5555

and finally a copy of the Outrun Roms (They MUST be revision B).

or alternatively if you wish, you can download the source files and compile your own version of Cannonball via Github -

https://github.com

 

I had issues getting it to run at first but then noticed that Cannonball calls for an Outrun Rom file  called ‘epr-10381a.132′ which is not in the revision B Rom set. Either rename the file to epr-10381b.132 or copy the rom file from Revision A set.

Game Controls are as follow -

• Cursors: Steering
• Z: Accelerate
• X: Brake
• Space: Gear Change
• 5: Insert Coin
• 1: Start
• F1: Pause
• F2: Advance a frame when paused
• F3: Toggle/Freeze timer

 

At first I thought, yeah it looks pretty impressive and smooth at 60 fps but it wasn’t until I switched back to the original 30 fps did I notice that how MUCH of a difference the enhanced version looks. Play, for example the first (left) path  to get to the area with the overhead stone structures…it looks flippin awesome, you won’t go back to Mame again for your Outrun fix

 

Woot woot, party time!

Still shots won’t show how smooth this looks at 60fps but I highly recommend running two version of Cannonball configured at both 30 and 60 fps. Pause both (F1) and run them together.

My desktop –  60fps on the left, 30fps on the right….or it it the other way around

At the moment there’s isn’t a frontend menu system for the game so for example, if you wish to change the graphics properties and other game options you will need to do this by editing the games config file with notepad or similar.

I’ve found that if you select the fullscreen toggle, the audio is effected slightly, therefore I prefer to run Cannonball in Windowed mode but set the scaler mode to either 3 or 4.

 

Here’s what my config looks like – <Widescreen, Windowed, Scale 4, Normal difficulty, Normal traffic, Auto gears.

<?xml version=”1.0″?>

<!–
Video Settings
–>
<video>
<!– FPS
0 = 30 FPS. Optimized Mode (Slow computers)
1 = 30/60 FPS. Original Game Mode. (The original experience)
2 = 60 FPS. Smooth Mode. (Full 60fps)
–>
<fps>2</fps>

<!– Enhanced Widescreen Mode –>
<widescreen>1</widescreen>

<!– Set Screen Mode: 0 is windowed, 1 is full-screen –>
<mode>0</mode>

<!–
Windowed Mode Settings
Scale: Scale or zoom factor for window mode. 1 is original size.
–>
<window>
<scale>4</scale>
</window>

<!–
Fullscreen Mode Settings
Stretch: Set to 1 to stretch the screen and remove borders.
–>
<fullscreen>
<stretch>0</stretch>
</fullscreen>
</video>

<!–
Game Engine Settings
–>

<engine>
<!– Game Time:
0 = Easy (80 seconds)
1 = Normal (75 seconds)
2 = Hard (72 seconds)
3 = Very Hard (70 seconds)
1= Infinite Time
–>
<time>4</time>

<!– Traffic Difficulty:
0 = Easy,
1 = Normal,
2 = Hard,
3 = Very Hard
1 = No Traffic
–>
<traffic>0</traffic>

<!– Advertise Sound In Attract Mode –>
<advertise>1</advertise>

<!– Gears:
0 = Manual (Click to shift, for normal play)
1 = Manual (Hold to shift, for cabinet play)
2 = Automatic
–>
<gear>2</gear>
</engine>

Many thanks to DJYT for the awesome-ness release. For more info, visit the project page -

http://reassembler.blogspot.co.uk/p/cannonball-open-source-outrun-engine.html

I wonder if someone could create a Christmas mod

Retro Gaming Weekend at Derby – Sunday.

Back in Derbyshire for day two of retro gaming and a more gentle start to the day compared to yesterday. After meeting up with chaps and chatting over a morning coffee, we fired up the machines and awaited our visitors.

During the morning I got to take another look at batch of Atari Jaguar games and one in particular was really fun to play. It was a Pinball game called – Ruiner.

Two tables are on offer which span over two or three screen. This is the first table and is based around 1950 cold war era of nuclear war and Defcon shenanigans. Plenty to shoot for to keep you entertained and some brilliant spot FX. Gameplay is a little slower that most pinball games but somehow this makes it more of fun to aim the ball.

The second table is similar to Dungeons and Dragons and again, rather fun to play. I did, however, prefer the first table and it’s this one that I’d really like to play more of in the future.

;

There was also some pretty impressive Commodore hardware on show to and we were treated to a look at the SID chip addon board for the Commodore Plus/4 (have added one of these to my list to Santa!) and literally jaw dropping demonstrations of a Commodore 128D (a very nice machine in itself) which has outfitted with a SuperCPU expansion board.

A stock Commodore 64 runs at about 1 Mhz, so imagine multiplying this by 20 times and you’ve got one powerful machine which is technically faster than the Amiga . That’s what the SuperCPU does and with game like Driller which you probably know runs at about one frame per seconds on a standard c64, now runs just like a modern FPS game at +30 frames per second….fullscreen!

C128 in C64 mode…how much RAM!

In addition, it’s owner, and event co-host Shaun was able to demo some of the software specifically designed to show off the capabilities of a fully pimped C64/C128 including games like awesome-ness that is Metal Dust.

Never thought I see a C64/C128 running a game that looked so impressive, using the full colour pallette with so many objects and scrolling sprites, huge textured rocks, awesome soundtracks and digitised speech all running without flicker or hiccup. Note the FD-2000 Floppy Drive. This was one hellava setup!

I tried to capture Metal Dust on my camera but the monitor sync refresh was producing way too many lines on the recording so here’s a. Youtube video of the game in action.

The SuperCPU is a highly sought after item and can easily fetch up to £2000 so my research leads me to believe. It certainly a piece of Commodore tech that i won’t be owning but rather generously, Shaun has offered to loan his setup for our next RCM event! I can’t wait to take another closer look at it and sample some of the games that have been modified to take advantage of the hardware, such as Stunt Car Racer, Test Drive and Castle Master.

Shaun also demonstrating to Andy, few program tips like this simply three line code on the C64 to produce a very impressive maze display.

I also spent a lot of the BBC Master today, especially some of the arcade ports and was quite amazed at the quality on the ol’ Beeb. Galaxians, Joust and Moon Cresta were particularly fun and on the pin sharp image of the Cub monitor they looked even better.

Also, I’ve never played Thrust on the BBC before and have to say, it’s one of the nicest versions I’ve played to date..even if the controls were a bit odd.

I also spent quite a bit of time on Andy’s Amiga 1200 which has a rather daper 68030 board with 32mb ram, a 4GB CF HDD and plenty WHDLoad funtastic software.

A great afternoon on Sensible Soccer, Chaos Engine, Deluxe Galaga to get the wrists aching and then Pinball Fantasies high score tournament to give them a rest again

Dear Santa, please can I have some Ram for my A1200 please?

We also though it would be run to play on the Nintendo Virtual Boy until our eyes began to bled and them immediately moved on to bright whites on MB Vectrex. I’m glad I wasn’t driving straight until later…the shapes burnt on to my eyeballs were taking time to dissipate

Lots of ‘woo’s ‘ and probably a bit of drooling from Dr Phu and Max in the corner, what’s going on?

;

;

Mmm, Commodore C128D in the nude….purdy!

;

Whilst Andy pumped out some classic SID chiptunes on the C64, I had one last go on Turmoil on the Vic-20 before waving the last visitor goodbye and we set about dismantling everything and moving it down to our parked cars. We were a little short on hands compared to Saturday but we still managed to get everything pack up quite quickly and into three cars plus my MPV.

Thanking our hosts Chris & Shaun for a great weekend, we made the journey back to HQ and thanks to entering the ‘shortest route’ on my Satnav, i took the harrowing route through twisty, narrow country roads with not a street light in sight. A fun drive when you’re lugging 20 odd TV’s and crates of retro gear!

After the ‘rally stage’ and back at HQ, we unpacked and got everything set up again ready for some European visitors who were attending the museum the next day.

Wary but content, we said our goodbyes and headed home.

That was one helluva great gaming weekend and one that also raised a nice amount for charity too. Chris is looking to do this again on a six month basis and I for one will be back again.

The retro gaming doesn’t stop there though as we have our own members weekend event coming up in two weeks time and is always a laugh when the admins, volunteers and RCM members get together. Better get my Dreamcast out, I’ve got some practising to do!

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Retro Gaming Weekend at Derby – Saturday

Phew, a very looooong day today but one that has seen many, many laughs and a whole bunch of retro gaming goodness with friends old and new.

A cold, dark, wet and very  early start for the RCM admins as we needed to meet up at HQ early enough to pack up around 30 computers/consoles, associated games, attachments and monitors, transport them all to the event in Derbyshire and have anything set up  before the doors opened at 10am.

We must be getting good at this after all these years as we soon had everything organised, loaded up and ready to roll within record time. Who says bloke’s aren’t organised!….o.k, I got slightly lost on the way to the venue because I’d forgotten the postcode

We were met on arrival by our hosts Chris Snowden & Shaun Bebbington and got stuck into to setting up the three rooms with everyone’s favourite gaming gear.

Yet another TV for the pile Jim.

 

In this room we had the MB Vectrex, C64, ZX81, Atari 2600, PC Engine, Amiga 1200, Commodore 64GS, Atari 800, Nintendo Gamecube…

…and not forgetting the VIC-20

Into one of the areas linking the next room we had the BBC Master, Nintendo N64 and a Sega Megadrive/Sega CD setup and Karls Everdrive SD cart playing a rather funky looking port of Angry Birds…on a Megadrive!

I didn’t get chance to take a good look at this today but will certainly be giving it a try when I’m back there tomorrow.

The next room housed an Xbox 360, Nintendo Virtual Boy (was being a bit stubborn at the beginning due to a loose mains cable but we managed to get it going in the end), various  hand held electronic games, SNES, NES, Sony PSX, Atari Jaguar and Chris’ iCade with Mame and various emus.

Finally, we had one of the smaller rooms housing a Sega Dreamcast, PS2 with twin steering wheel setup (I rather enjoyed a spot of 2-up rally action with Jim this afternoon), Amstrad CPC 664 and a Sega Master System.

There was also, various Commodore C16/Plus 4 hardware set up from Chris  humongous collection. All in all i think that there was something here for everyone and so with the doors opened and a few eager retro gamers ready to get going, we had a coffee and got cracking.

As the event was being held on the outskirts of Derby City centre and only a stones throw away from where Core Design had their   office, I thought ‘When in Rome’, I’d re-play some of the games they produced including Lara Croft – Tomb Raider, Chuck Rock and the AGA-Tastic Banshee. The latter is  a game I didn’t really play a great deal when it first came out but had since rediscovered it a few years again. It’s certainly one of the finest looking Schmups on the Amiga.

 

A good start to the day

I don’t stand a chance of getting anywhere remotely close to the type of scores that Jackie was racking up on Drop Zone on the Atari.  A real pro in action! Note the cartridge in the the C64GS…it’s a  port of the classic C16 version of Kickstart.

Max was kind enough to show me his (wip) port of Cosmic Ark to the C64. Damn well addictive, can’t wait to see the finished results.

Well, my score on Mayhem on the ZX81 is improving, but my 51 is no match for Stu’s 65. The challenge has been set for tomorrow

After lunch and getting to know a few other folk that arrived this morning and then the now obligatory Soul Caliber tournament  on the Sega Dreamcast. I was also looking at some of the emulators running on the DC, and noted the how well they ran from CD and in particular with VGA box, how crisp they looked. Mental note to investigate further on my own setup.

Checking out some homebrew games for sale. Mmm Commodore games!

Andy sampling a bit of Commodore Plus/4 homebrew gaming with Adventures In Time

Impressive (but unfortunately not complete) this next game plays and looks very similar to Amalyte on the C64 and has an amazing  soundtrack thanks to the use of the SID chip addon cart that Chris has for his Plus/4. I forget the name of the game (X3no, Xe3o?) so I’ll take another look tomorrow and capture some footage.

One system that I don’t really play a lot on is the Atari Jaguar. Apart from the odd game of Tempest, I rarely sit down to explore some of it’s other titles and RCM has got quite a few so I thought I’d take a look at some of them this afternoon. I was certainly impressed by Power Drive Rally, Cybermorph and the conversion of Syndicate so that’s another note to take a closer look into the Jag.

More homebrew and I spotted a few new cartridges for the C64/C64GS including one of my favourites, the truly bonkers –  Quod Init Exit. <see previos blog post - http://stiggyblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/c64-homebrew-quod-init-exit/

That pretty much wraps it up for day one. As always, bags of fun when the RCM chaps get together and nice to meet and chat with a  few new people. Bring on day two!

Oh and one last thing..Beam Rider on the ZX81 – That little black box continues to surprise.

Awesome-ness!

Scud the disposable assassin – Sega Saturn

Since picking up a Sega Saturn console a few weeks back I’ve been adding a few games here and there to my slowly growing collection and have also added a few to my wanted list. This game in particular is on my radar although I suspect I might have a problem if it’s ntsc only?

Scud the Disposable Assassin the game is based on the truely hilarous, yet short lived indie comic series for which i’m a avid fan. I own all issues of the first print including the spin off series – La Cosa Nostroid. Great reading and must get them back out again soon.

If you haven’t read Scud before and comics are your thing, I highly recommend tracking down this particular series down if you can – or certainly the more commonly available trade paperback collections.

Scud is an assassin droid, a series of robots that can be purchased from a vending machine to perform a hit and then self distruct on completion. Quick, clean and no mess.

One such Scud unit is activated to track down and terminate a mutant monster which seems to be causing a few problem in a nearby factory. However, as the hunt begins, this particular Scud unit soon realises that his own ‘life’ will come to an end after completion of the mission. Not taking this too well, he cunningly formulates a plan and on finding said mutant monster he simply blows away it’s limbs rendering it harmless thus prolonging his own life. To keep the monster alive he dumps it into a stasis tank and to fund the running costs, Scud becomes a gun for hire and so our story begins.

Robots, guns, gore, classic movie quotes and a truck full of laughs, brilliant stuff indeed.

Any-ho, so back to the game and with a backstory story like that, it sounds like a good idea for a run and gun game yes? Well it certainly looks the part and it’s nice to finally see a digital representation of Scud on the screen after all these years. I’m yet to play the game myself but research shows that sadly it is a very poor one at that. Still as a fan of the source material, and if I can find it, i’d definately like to add this to my collection.

Do you own this game and what are your thoughts about it?

Hippy Hiku!

Stocking up on Sega Saturn games.

So now that i’ve got a Sega Saturn, I thought I’d expand my meagre game library with a few more titles. I’m not really interested in PSX ports like Wipeout, Destruction Derby and Loaded but am keen to try some of the games either unique to the system or just plain fun!

So…as I’m a bit of a noob with this console, i’ve been researching online and going through back issues of Retro Gaming magazine and digital scans of the official Sega Saturn magazine via the Out of Print Archive website (a must visit for all tablet owning retro gaming fans!).

http://www.outofprintarchive.com

Gaming montages like this from YouTube user Xmehl are a great help too!

Are you a Saturn owner and do you have any recommendations?

Sega Saturn testing.

After what seems like ages, I’m now a Sega Saturn owner once again thanks to Steve R. and last weekends Retro Computer Museum gaming event. Steve always has a bargain or two on his vendor store and I spotted this as soon as I arrived.

I’ve been itching to play just one particular title all week, but due to a busy work week and various other stuff I’ve not had the chance until now. I had it all setup ready to go but for the life of me can’t find my flippin s-video adaptor.

To Maplins and back and I finally get to test it out. I also thought I’d take the opportunity to try out my homemade ‘Blue Peter’ special, iPhone camera tripod’o'rama…with ‘extra blutac just in case’TM. Hopefully, no more wobbly videos!

Streets of Rage remake V5.

The Streets of Rage Remake project has running for a number of years now and  prompted by a car boot pickup this morning of three classic Megadrive games (inc Streets of Rage II) I’m in the mood for some more button-bashing fisticuff action and so I thought I’d look in on the project since my last visit last year.

I’m sure you’re already heard of  the SORR project but if you haven’t,  it’s a fan based remake of the Streets of Rage video game series for Windows PC and Soooooo much more . Just look at all features -

103 STAGES

- 93 stages in story mode
- 5 stages in extra modes
- 5 stages in the Prototype mod (separate download)

19 PLAYABLE CHARACTERS
- SOR1 characters remastered with new moves
- SOR2 characters with new moves
- SOR3 characters with new moves
- New playable characters

64 ENEMIES
- All enemies from SOR1 remastered.
- All enemies SOR2 (RGB color correction).
- All enemies SOR3 (RGB color correction).
- New enemies based on the Game Gear versions and even the cover the game!

REMIXES 83
- 76 in V5.
- 7 in the Prototype mod.

ADDITIONAL CONTENT
- Profile Editor
- Color Editor
- Name Editor
- Sormaker
- Cutscene Viewer
- Profile Viewer (and commands)
- Image Gallery
- 16 cheats
- Battle Mode
- Survival Mode
- Boss Rush mode
- Events Mode (16 events)
- Volleyball Mode
- Allied cpu mode
- And more than 30 customizable options

I can’t wait to complete the game to unlock  some of the bonus content…namely the name editor

I’m currently working on a PC CD case based on various images from around the net. Here’s my mock up so far.

 

Sensible Soccer prediction for tonight’s – Euro 2012.

I’m not really a football fan to be honest (give me Ice Hockey any day) but just for a laugh and ahead of tonight’s game with Sweden, I thought I’d get  Sensible Soccer on my Sega Megadrive to play out the match CPU vs CPU and we’ll see if the prediction comes true*

*except the photo shopped goal scorer of course!

Lets go Bruin’s, lets go….oops wrong sport

 

Retro Gaming: Virtua Fighter – Sega 32x

With the popularity of Sega’s model-1 arcade machines, it’s no surprise that a few years later the proposed home conversion of Virtua Figher was announced and scheduled  for release to coincide with launch of Sega’s newest console the Sega Saturn.

By the time of the release, myself and friends were already hooked on the next generation Sega Model-2 arcade Virtua Fighter 2, so we were really looking forward to a home console port.
It’s a shame then, that when a friend of mine had brought the new Saturn and a copy of Virtua Fighter, we were utterly disappointment  because it turned out to be a bit of a turkey! It was badly drawn, stuttered and the collision detection was awful. Supposedly, it was a rushed port so that it would be available for the consoles release date and to hit the stores before Sony’s PlayStation arrived (especially with Battle Arena Toshinden & Tekken on the way!)

Thankfully, Sega re-released  Virtua Fighter in the form of Virtua Fighter Remix. This was a much improved version which not only fixed all of the the original problems, but provided a much needed graphical make over and was shipped to all registered Saturn owners free of charge – although sadly, my friend never received his
Until this release, the only other home port for those wanting to get there VF fix outside of the arcades was for the Sega Megadrive utilising the often underrated addon adapter,  the 32x.

Even with the limited hardware of Sega’s aging 16-bit console, Virtua Fighter on the 32x is simply stunning and so much playable compared to the original Saturn version.  You would expect, due the technical limitations of the Megadrive, that the number of characters, stages, moves or indeed frame rate would be limited somewhat but nope, they’re all here and presented beautifully.

It’s a shame that the 32x adapter came a little too late in the game for the Sega as as it surely proved with titles like Virtua Fighter, it was capable of some brilliant arcade conversions (Space Harrier and Afterburner). As it stands, it’s a great addon and increased the longevity of the Megadrive during it’s twilight years…. but never out for the count for all that still love it.

Sega Dreamcast VGA Box.

Without a doubt the best bit of 3rd party kit I’ve recently brought for my Sega Dreamcast console is a VGA conversion box. With this I can now connect my DC to a VGA PC monitor, projector or HDTV and have razor sharp 60mhz graphics instead of the a fuzzy RF connection.

To the right, we have composite and s-video output and on the left is a standard VGA D-sub connection as well as a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting to PC speakers/headphones etc. Finally on the front, there’s a selector switch to switch between the two connection types.

Once connected, the VGA box simply plugs into the AV socket on the rear of the Dreamcast.

Games look absolutely stunning, especially the likes of Soul Caliber and a host of shooters like Ikuragu and Zero Gunner.

Retro Gaming: WonderBoy – Sega Master System

I just love those early Sega Master System game box covers!

Another retro gaming gem this time with Sega’s brilliant little platformer, Wonder Boy on the Sega Master System.

‘As Tom-Tom the Wonder Boy, it’s up to you to rescue your girlfriend Tanya from the vile clutches of the monster that has kidnapped her. To do so, you must navigate a series of worlds in a race against time to reach your goal.

Along the way, you’ll battle foes and collect fruit that will add to the amount of time you have to complete your mission. You can also receive helpful power-ups from various eggs, but make sure to avoid the bad eggs and poisonous mushrooms that sap your precious vitality.

Find the magic doll in each level to open up hidden areas, and make it to the very end of your journey to rescue your one true love.’

Back in the 80′s we used to holiday on the east coast and one such amusement arcade (Smiths Arcade) always stocked some of the best and popular arcade machines of the time. Wonderboy was always a firm favorite of mine and became quite good on it that a single credit would last me a good hour (which was also great when you had to manage your hard-earned holiday money as a child).

Next to the original arcade version, the Sega Master System port is by far my favorite with colorful graphics and almost perfect renditions of those catchy game tunes. It still plays as well today and is a cherished cartridge in my collection.  Original copies can be found for next to nothing so if you still have a Master System, I highly recommend you seek one out. Alternatively, the Master System port can be found on VC for the Nintendo Wii.

Right, time to find a hammer.

Level 2, cloud hopping

Level 3, underground

Here’s the first boss, a few hammers thrown into his head should do the trick. Just watch out for the odd fireball he throws.