Retro gaming week #9

With all the shenanigans of converting the Jamma arcade machine to a Mame cab just lately, coin-op games have been the staple of this week retro gaming and two classic shooters i’ve re-re-revisiting time and again are in –

Phoenix – Centuri (1980)

Pure nostalgia this one – When I think back to early arcade gaming the first game that springs to mind is Phoenix. Back in the day, it was pretty common to see an upright or cocktail cab in the corners of cafes, student clubs and chip shops. The one I remember the most was in a greasy spoon cafe not too far away from the school yard. It was an upright Centuri cab complete with that terrible faux wood paneling, but despite is looking awful, was incredibly popular during lunch (and unofficial) break.

Being the only game in the cafe, the unspoken rule was one credit if there was a queue behind you and owner of the cafe would jot down the scores and would offer free lunch to the highest monthly score.

I’ve only got to hear ‘Romance de Amor’ and I can picture the starfield scrolling down ready for the first wave of attacking birds and then onto the button bashing finale as you punch a hole through the orange defence shield of momma bird – surely a good test of a new arcade build. I play Pheonix and I’m transported back to that cafe on a Friday lunchtime happy in knowledge that the weekend was just around the corner. Bacon sandwich anyone?

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Here’s the second classic shooter i’ve been playing a lot of this week, and another that I used to drop so many pocket money coins into.

Moon Cresta – Nitchibutsu (1980)

As with Phoenix, the aim is to blast away at everything whilst trying not to get hit yourself. There’s no boss stage with Moon Cresta but after clearing a few stages, you get the chance to upgrade your ships single laser gun by docking with another craft. Sadly the trade off is that your ship is now much bigger therefore so watch that incoming fire!

I may have lost ship one, but two and three docked together makes for one mighty ship.

Moon Cresta is also one handful of games that I could recognise straight away by just one sound effect, the laser fire FX is so memorable!

Incidentally, if you fancy looking at some of home computer conversions, the ZX Spectrum version is almost arcade perfect in gameplay. Sadly the sound effects are a bit feeble.

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Setting up my emulation PC for the Mame cabinet meant transferring a hefty amount of data from my NAS and so to pass the time, I’d got my Commodore Plus/4 setup on the geek desk for a spot of gaming whist I waited. Here’s two games I keep returning too, the first being a conversion of a classic coin-op

Moon Buggy – Anirog (1985)

Moon Buggy was ported to many systems including countless clones and I’ve probably played more versions of this game than I can remember – Some are great and many are really poor. The Plus/4 – Commodore 16 version by Anirog is extremely playable though and a faithful conversion of the arcade classic. The difficulty curve, I think, is just right, starting off nice n easy and then gently increasing and rewards those who dare jump early or late.

The aim off the game is to patrol the the surface of the moon and destroy all invaders you encounter. You moon buggy is equipped with forward facing and surface to air guns as well as jump jets to propel yourself over the many craters and rocks you’ll encounter along the way.

Timing your shots, speed and jump jets is critical to completing a stage as well as keeping an eye on the ground and in the air….yep, lots to do!

Graphically it looks rather nice too with just a hint of parallax scrolling on the background and although your buggy is a simply drawn, this version does have the signature wheel explosions if you happen to fall foul of any lunar obstacles.

I think the only critisim i have is the high pitched sound FX of the enemy can sometimes become tiresome but apart from that, top notch 1/6th gravity fun.

Anirog have produced some great game covers, Moon Buggy is certainly one of them.

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Another Plus/4 game I’ve been playing is one that was only released a few years ago..you’ve gotta love the retro gaming community!

Adventures in time – Psytronic (2010)

It’s one of those games that you’re either going to love or loath due to its necessity on the pixel perfect jump…or leap into the unknown.

Give it time though and once you start to learn the layout of a few screens and the enemy patterns Adventures in Time certainly starts to grow on you and for a Plus/4 game, it looks incredible good too and has some of the best music i’ve heard coming from the TED.

I was first introduced to this last year at a Retro Event in Derby by Chris http://www.commodore16.com/ Snowdon (here’s hoping there’s going to be another one) and have been meaning to sit down with this again whenever I had the Plus/4 setup again.

A great game which all C16/plus4 owners should try.

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On to another game that’s starting to grow on me despite a fustrating start.

Gem Chaser – ZX Spectrum (2013)

There’s been a raft of new games released over at World of Spectrum and this one from a few weeks ago. It’s a remake of an indie Xbox game and all you have to do is run/jump your block around the level collecting the coloured blocks before the timer runs out. Sounds easy right?

Well, you can only collect a coloured block that matches your own colour. Failure to do so will result in a time penalty and as time is very short, you don’t want to be doing that very often.

To change your blocks colour, you need to pass through one of portals dotted around the screen. The trick to completing the level is to figure out the least timing consuming route and not to spend too much time running around haphazard.

Try not to destroy your vintage ZX Spectrum after the frustration this game will bring

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I was reading a review of a this particular game in this months edition of Retro Gamingtimes Monthly and thought i’d revisit on a the system I’d first played it on.

Pooyan – Konami (1982)

Pooyan is one of those games that i’ve heard about for many years but have not actually played it. Last year I was at one of the the Retro Computer Museum events and sat down to a system likewise that really didn’t know too much about either. Said system was the Sord M5 and it so happened to have a Pooyan cartridge loaded.

Suffice to say, I really enjoyed it and have since sourced a copy for my NES…..no chance of owning a Sord M5 myself though as they appear to be quite the collectable and demand a hefty price.

Momma Bear in basket, fires arrows at balloonist wolves……huh?

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….,and finally, after the sad announcement and closure of Lucasarts annouced a few weeks ago, I’ve been looking back at some of their classic adventures on PC and Amiga. This week it’s the four disk Amiga version of ‘Threepwood’s island of Monkey secrets’….or something to that effect

Happy gaming….Yarg!

ZX Spectrum Software Catalogue.

I dug these up the other day after finding  them sandwiched in between some old computer magazines. It’s a software  catalogue that was included in the box of a ZX Spectrum I brought many years ago…although I can’t remember if it was  the 48k Spectrum or the Spectrum + ?

 

Uncle Clive sure had a cool looking man-cave.

Inside are a range of double backed cards providing information on a whole range of software titles by genre. I bet there wasn’t too many kids leaving this section lying about the house for their parents to find and mistake  educational software for the latest arcade hit!

I must admit though, I’m loving the 80′s Sci-Fi styling on some of the covers like ‘Forth’ & ‘Micro Prolog’.

Games, that’s more like it!

I remember reading all the hype about the planned expansion hardware like the Microdrive unit and the huge storage potential they offered and at the time I often wondering if I’d picked the wrong computer (VIC-20). Short-lived though as it turned out, they were a bit naff after all.  It’s one bit of Speccy kit I’d still like to own now though.

These were also amongst the magazines as well.

I think I only ever keyed in a few of the VIC20 programs back in the day. I liked  these particular books because they explained what portions of the  program listing were actually doing and therefore could be modified or used as subroutines in other games.

Maybe I’ll have another go someday?

Crash Magazine #19 Kindle Edition

Yay, after a very long pause this time around, the Crash Online team have released another bumper issue of ZX Spectrum magazine – Crash- in it new shiny Kindle format. If you haven’t seen these before and/or happen to have recieved a sparkling new tablet/e-reader for Christmas, download the Kindle app and then head on over here to download the latest issue (you’ll also find previous editions 1-18 here too ) -

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http://www.crashonline.org.uk/

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Issue #19 from August 1985 contains a nice uplifting summer cover from Oli Frey – perfect, as it’s all drab, damp wintry skies out there today

Highlights for me this issue are -

Software reviews of Clumsy Colin/Action Biker (a game I’ve only every played on the C64 so it should fun to see how it fairs on the Speccy), Nodes of Yesod, Hyper Sports and many more.

There’s the final part in the series charting the ‘The Sinclair Story’ which ends with a look at the C5.

Hardware review of one of the ZX Speccy’s extended family , the Timex 2068.

A look at oftware companies Mirrorsoft and CRL

Even though it’s donkeys years old, for the retro gamer, these magazines are still relevant today and pure fun to read.

Lets hope, Crash online don’t leave it as long before issue #20 is released. Boy i wish someone would do something similar with Zzap64. Maybe I could do some myself?

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El Hobbit – ZX Spectrum

I’ve just been catching up on the latest game releases for the Sinclair Spectrum via WOS and am currently enjoying a little old school platform fun with EL Hobbit which was released a few days ago.

El Hobbit, as you can probably guess is loosely based on J.R.R’s book – The Hobbit,  although the short intro appears to be from Lord of the Rings and had me laughing when I first  saw it. Superb!

Gandalf and the Hobbit’s race to exit, the Mines of Moria visitors centre is about to close!

 

The Dwarves had tunnelled too deeply and unearthed a demon , eek – the Balrog. With commanding cries of ”Stop’ and/or  ’You shall not Pass’, Gandalf the Grey makes a final stand and smites the Balrog o’er whence he came.

Miffed Balrog,   catches Gandalf with his whip and they both fall down into  the darkness below. Da da daaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

El Hobbit is a simple platformer and despite some frustratingly difficult jumps, it’s actually rather good. Movement are classic Q,A,O,P and M will activate whatever object you might be carrying in your inventory. I’ve got no idea what the story is behind level one but our hero (Bilbo?) has got to make his way from his home and duck past the giant pipe to reach the door at the end. Giant Pipe you say?, it must be a some sort of magical and no doubt evil, pipe mind you.

Here’s the first level.

Right, I need to get up there although I can’t reach the moving platform above. I’ll head on right to the next screen to see if there’s a way up.

Fantastic, a set of platforms that will take me up. Back to the first screen, timing my jump onto the moving platform and then up, up and away to the next screen. That pink flying thing is quite happy to take a bite out of Hobbits so  better use the ‘A’ key to duck down until he’s gone. That shiny green key is what I’m after.

Now that I’ve got the key, I can unlock the RED door. I just need to hop over another flying flappy thing. Dammit why did I forget to pack ‘Sting’

Eek, the giant evil Pipe, I better avoid it and press the lever to open the door below. Eek, he’s spotted me…ruuuun, you fool.

…and so end level one..lots more pixel perfect jumping to follow.

Basic looking it may be, but actually rather fun and well worth taking a look at it. You can download for  free at -

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0027993

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.

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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.

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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

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‘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 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!

Comp modded ZX Spectrum.

Am back from our week away exploring Manchester, the Lake District and Liverpool and whilst in the area ‘up north’, I popped in to see my good mate JT and also to take a looksee at his latest retro gaming goodies.

Not only having a one hellava monster Jamma cab, JT now has a lovely new/old Silent Scope gun. Couldn’t shoot for buggery with it myself therefore had to hand it back to the marksmen to see how it’s done

Whilst sampling TMNT 2 on JT’s Capcom Impress cabinet (which might I add, is a pleasure to play on and am seriously thinking about getting one of these cabs myself), modifications on my 48k Speccy began.

Composite modding and the results compared to RF is amazing. Thank you very much mate.

Now maybe JT can explain how this works much better on his own blog than i can, but was hugely impressed with a conversion of the Mega CD FMV classic Road Avenger playing on a standard SNES!

Sd2snes cartridge.

I also collected my MB Vectrex and a few other bits whilst i was thetcance I’ll be testing out my DIY colour overlays before I send it down to the Retro Computer Museum.

…but before that, I still have a few days off work and intend to hook up my DivIDE to my modded Speccy for some static free gaming – thanks again JT!

DivIDE testing.

Oops, I’d forgotten I’d shot this video last saturday after finally getting chance to unboxing my DivIDE and test it out with a few ZX Spectrums. The wait was worth it, outstanding stuff indeed.

This is the new 2k11 model from Lotharek but until I’m next due down at the Retro Computer Museum I won’t be able to compare it with the others.

It’s not clear on the video but there’s a pass thru edge connector on the board which in effect would allow me to daisy chain another interface card. I’ve not tested it yet but it would be great to be able to include my new (old) Currah speech card into the mix of Frankenstein machinery sticking out the back of my 48k Speccy…poor thing looks frightened

DivIDE arrives.

Yay, it finally arrived!

ZX Spectrum DivIDE 5.7 with onboard CF adaptor and a Kempston joystick interface board with passthru edge connector, reset button, audio jack and AY chip for playback of those funky chip tunes.

What I wasn’t expecting was the inclusion of a CF card which will come in handy as my others are all tied up in other devices at the moment and It means that I can crack on and play with this from the off. Hopefully, I’ll have some free time this weekend to get one of my speccy’s out of storage and setup on the geek desk.

Until then, my Sinclair fix comes courtesy of Crash online who have released two more Kindle editions of vintage Crash Magazine ( #16 and #17).

Moon Cresta – ZX Spectrum

If i had to pick only a handful of classic arcade games who sounds effects immeditately takes me back to the arcade halls of the eighties, then Moon Cresta would surely be included for it’s familar intro ditty and Space Invader-esq bullet effects.

On the humble ZX Spectrum, these familar effects are somewhat restricted and nowhere as memorable as its arcade parent – although they do emit those classic early Sinclair mono, baseless sounds.

ZX Loading screen.

So if the sounds aren’t there, what’s left then?…well, how about one hellava great old school shooter that’ll keep you bashing a way up the high score table. Incentive Software really have done a stirling job creating this faithful port included most of the elements from the game including the ship docking bonus sequence. Both keys, joys and take in turns 2-up modes are available.

Sinclair User magazine didn’t score it very well due to the fact that by 1985, games like Moon Cresta where looking a bit dated and games had advanced on the Spectrum at this time. Back then I might have agreed, but today, it’s still remains a great shooter no matter what the age.

The enemy ships in the first two waves are probably the hardest to defeat as they zoom around at random proving difficult to hit. Once you do, they split into Klingon ‘Bird of Prey-esq’ ships and swoop down to destroy. Watch your back here as a ship might appear to be off the screen at the bottom but might pop up again for a dirty cheap shot.

After four waves, you get to try the docking bonus for increased score and firepower. This is one tough cookie to pull off and much much harder than the arcade original. Kudos if you can do it.

D’oh, didn’t make it (again). Loose a ship and the next has more firepower, but is larger and less agile. Tactics win!

Outside of Mame, the chances of getting to play on an original cabinet these days are pretty slim (if you own one I’m not jealous at all ) but Moon Cresta was ported to many home computers so finding a copy shouldn’t difficult.

Robo Sir Clive.

Just for fun whilst dinner cooks, thought I’d Pixlromatic this funky picture of Sir Clive Sinclair from the cover of Sinclair User magazine #35 (Feb 1985).

Crash Magazine #13 – Kindle version released.

After a short break, the team at Crash Online have release another issue of the vintage ZX Spectrum magazine, Crash Magazine in mobi/Kindle format.

You can grab the latest issue (#13 – Feb 1985) and previous twelve conversions here -

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/144646

Once a again, a great Oli Frey cover and a whole treasure chest of articles and software reviews to sinks ones teeth into. In particular, I’m looking forward to the reading the interview with Steve Jackson of Fighting Fantasy fame..remember though adventure books?

As we seem to be heading for a cold and uncommonly white Easter (yup, it’s actually snowing outside as I type this…weird British weather) time to stay indoors and catch up on a little light reading.

Submarine – ZX Spectrum

Loading up Submarine and you’s think, hmm that doesn’t look like much of a game does it? In fact, even for a game made in 1984 it looks, well…..a bit pants – try not to laugh too hard when you hear the ‘music’ However, what Submarine does do really well is recreate those silent moments of suspense found in nearly all Sub vs Boat movies. Ok, so you have use your imagination a little bit so i suggest an afternoon viewing of Das Boot, Enemy Below or Hunt for Red October.

Played from the prospective of the boat Captain (shame it wasn’t the other way around), you have to sniff out what you fear is lurking somewhere down there in the deep below, before he detects you and sends up an invite to join him in the darkness.

Yikes!

Press keys 5 & 8 to steer your boat, Capt.

Press key 0 to activate your sonar and listen to the sound pitch. Low pitch means there’s nothing below and a high pitch means you’re bouncing off metal and you all know what that means!

Steer your ship so that the Sonar signal is the strongest and listen to the timing between beeps between your ship and the sub below.

If there’s a short delay between beeps, then he’s not far below you and a longer delay means he’s lingering further down.

Set the timer delay on your Depth Charge accordingly using keys 6 & 7.

Let one rip with key 2 (although I don’t believe that’s the correct Naval term )

That’s a miss. Adjust position and/or timer delay and launch again.

Boom! Got him!

Victory is short lived as your warning alarms scream out..Torpedo in the water. Do you stay still hoping that it was just a wild shot or move and run the risk of being in harms way?

Damnmit, should have moved. ‘Woot woot, all hands abandon sh….glug glug’

Scoring is based on the amount of times your ship is moved and also the number of Depth Charges used. The less of both used equals a lower (but higher) score.

Here’s my best so far.

ZX Spectrum / C64 30th Anniversary RG Magazine

Phew, I’m still ploughing my way through the latest issue of Retro Gamer Magazine (issue 99) and up pops this on Retro Gamer Daz’s YouTube page.

ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 30th Anniversary Bookazine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xHvTxoIJ9M&feature=youtube_gdata_player

O.k, so it just reprints of selected Speccy and C64 articles from Retro Gamer magazine issues 1-98 and although I own all of these, it’s kinda nice to have them grouped together in one volume. I’m not a huge fan of reprinted magazine anthologies (unless I don’t own the originals) but I think, as a huge fan of both systems, I’m going to pick this one up…especially at £9.99 for all this great content.

https://www.imagineshop.co.uk/bookazines/the-zx-spectrum-commodore-64-book.html

What?…..more game tapes?

Another fun filled day working with the chaps at the Retro Computer Museum. Today we were erecting new shelving and moving the software library to their new homes.

I was on Commodore tape, disk and cartridge duty, sorting, stacking and generally reminiscing with the others every-time we came across another classic game.

The boxes kept on a coming as the shelves began to fill three deep.

Zx spectrum tapes.

Always nice to see and photograph some of the Ultimate games together. Most of our collections for other platforms are complete but our BBC micro collection is missing a few.

We’ve also started to add a few items to the new display cabinets.

I just love this, such a daft item for a portable gaming console and always makes me smile.

Ultimate pimped Gameboy

After lunch and a little later into the afternoon we had a chap arrive with a rather large boot full of Atari goodies including a fully boxed Mega ST with external harddrive units. They might need a bit of tweaking but they’ll make a great addition to the museum. I must admit, always being an Amiga user I’m not overly familiar with the Atari 16 bit computers, especially the Mega variants. I only have a lone Atari ST520 myself. Maybe at the beginning of February when we host our members gaming day, I’ll spend a little bit more time getting to know these pro models a bit better.

All work and no fun so we spent the next few hours doing what we love the most – Retro Gaming. I was found lurking on the C64, Tangerine Oric, TI99a and MSX (I have a soft spot for Penguin Adventure) as multiple vs. bouts of Soul Caliber on the Dreamcast.

Jim, after upteen attempts to get it to load, was determined to show us that he Amstrad CPC464 version of Outrun is actually quite good….and it certainly did look promising until it started to move…..at approx one frame per second. Nice try Jim