Parteibuch Aggregator Feed - Items from date 2010-07-14

Brian Ashcraft: Would You Buy This Arcade Cabinet? [Luxury]

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:30:00 +0000

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Chrome-plated dash. Aluminum and rubber wheels. Painted racing strips. This isn't a sports car, but a luxury arcade cabinet. More »

Summertime Retro Recollection: Trojan for the NES

Summertime Retro Recollection — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:39:37 +0000

As the summer drags on and the days get hotter and thermometers burst and spurt mercury okay, not really , I continue to think back on the summertime hijinks of my youth.

In all honesty, there weren't many. Summer's too danged hot for hijinks.

There was, however, plenty of gaming. I had my own stable of games, but sometimes I'd visit a friend to mix hot and cool summer fun. What's better than splashing around in a pool and then retreating inside to play some Nintendo games? Now that I'm an adult who frets over her figure in a bathing suit and stresses over time management while on dry land, a lot things. But when I was a kid, that kind of simple pleasure was enough to convince me that a decent God ruled over Heaven.

One pool-possessing friend I visited often over the summer also had a substantial collection of Nintendo games. One of these was Trojan, by Capcom.

Trojan was an odd game, and I suitably had an odd relationship with it. First came mockery. I started with the title's cover art.

Of course, I was young and lacked the taste and foresight to recognize the artistic brilliance of Capcom's NES-era cover art. This is vintage '80s stuff. City burned to waste under the fire of the Apocalypse? Check. Tight leather vest with cut-off sleeves? Check. Humankind's regression from nuclear arms to swords and shields? Check. Red-eyed villain leering at the hero from behind an iron mask? Check. Denim jeans swaddled so tightly around the hero's thighs that a boa constrictor would blanch in shock to see them? Oh baby, check.

Making fun of the game's cover art felt strangely empty even when I was an ignorant kid, so I moved on and puzzled over the game's story. The Earth has gone kablooey, as usual, but with an interesting side effect: Spirits of vengeful war lords have taken advantage of humanity's weakest moment and possessed a few "chosen" bodies to wreak further havoc. Necessity breeds a hero, the "Trojan", who is immune to possession and trained in the martial arts. The Trojan must wend his way through ruined cities, forests, and factories to confront the evil Achilles in a showdown that will determine mankind's fate.

What this basically translates to is a beat-em-up game that's steeped in cyberpunk memes. Your Trojan pal walks from left to right and dispatches all takers with his sword. "A" slashed his weapon, and "B" brought up his shield, which was very effective for blocking projectiles and even some melee attacks. "Up" on the d-pad was jump.

The game's enemies were a curious bunch,which further mystified me as a child. Knights in full armor came after the Trojan wielding maces, but were easily killed with one hit. Tougher minions commanded guns and sometimes popped out of manholes or threw bombs out of ruined windows. If the Trojan dared to take a detour into the sewers that some levels offered, he'd fight particularly nasty animal hybrids, like a bomb-chucking troll or a hedgehog-man with razor quills. Going out of the way to take care of the underworld's vermin wasn't necessary, but it could yield valuable power-ups that let the Trojan jump high, walk fast, or attack more fiercely.

Trojan originally showed up in the arcades around 1986, where it didn't hang around too long before being ported to the NES. The flyer for the cabinet boasted a diverse fighting system: If the Trojan lost his sword and shield to an enemy, he'd have to resort to fisticuffs. Supposedly enemies in the NES adaptation could similarly yank away the Trojan's weapons, but it never happened to me.

Yes, I finished Trojan. I borrowed it from my friend and stuck with it until I beat Achilles. Make no mistake, I was making fun of the game the whole way through, and not in a teasing manner. I mocked the hero, the story, the gameplay, the enemies. But I kept on playing, and I can't even use summertime boredom as an excuse. Deep down inside, I dug the game's unique environment and distinct soundtrack.

No. I didn't just "dig" Trojan. I loved Trojan. I was just too frightened, too proud, to admit it to myself.

*Sob.*

Pictures from NES Guide and Console Classix

DOS Month Day 12: Mario & Luigi

DOS Month Day 12 — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:26:00 +0000

Another one of the more occult games that were released in later times also made this month's list. Mario & Luigi takes Mario into the PC engine with a lot to desire. The game is great with the classic Mario power ups such as mushrooms and flowers. The game also features PC speaker sound which is a nice feature as you have probably never heard the Mario sounds using a PC speaker. The lack of levels though makes you wish there was more to it. With a very low level count and no music, the game falls short from being one of the great but it's still good to be able to play some classic Mario on your old machine. Enjoy this one!

DOS Month Day 11: Day of the Tentacle

DOS Month Day 11 — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:19:00 +0000

One classic that has always made you come back for more is Day of the Tentacle. If you are familiar with the Maniac Mansion for the NES, I'm sure you have heard of this game which is also connected to Day of the Tentacle. The game itself is a classic from start to finish and is always fun to beat from beginning to end as there are different ways to reach your goal. Altogether, this is another classic that must be at least analyzed by any adventure game fan if you haven't done so already.

RetroRaider II: Lara’s Quest Continues

RetroRaider II — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:14:12 +0000

It’s celebration time for Jayenkai and he’s given us all a present; 200 GAMES! Yes folks, that’s two zero zero. Just writing that number and I need a lie down.

With his latest he’s continuing his theme of taking some of the best and making them betterer; NeoPlat2, Did I mention that before? No. Well spank my bottom and call me Shirley ['Later' - Ed] , MICROBE2 Phew, got that one and now RetroRaider II.

If Lara Croft got funky with Harry from Pitfall and named their love child Lara. This would be her story. Get it. Play it. Love it. Then tell Jayenkai.

Oh, did I mention it’s for Linux, Windows and Intel Mac? Jay, with these games you’re really spoiling us!

JC Fletcher: Atari's Haunted House returns to scare PC, Xbox 360 and Wii

JC Fletcher — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:30:00 +0000

Filed under: Weird But True, Opinions, New In Pop Culture

Atari is finally bringing back its classic Haunted House franchise for a new XBLA, downloadable PC, and Wii game. For those of you who aren't ancient, Haunted House is a maze game about a kid exploring a mysterious mansion in order to put an urn back together, hindered both by aggressive ghosts and total inability to see items or exits without lighting a match.

The new version benefits from 29 years of technological advancement by, among other things, displaying the player avatar as a person instead of simply disembodied cartoon eyes. The gameplay still involves avoiding ghosts and looking for pieces of a broken urn, but now also includes puzzles, bosses, and what sounds like a much larger environment than the original house, with "towers, basements and catacombs."

The new Haunted House will be out in September, and you can see a spooky trailer after the break. Now that Atari's started remaking its old games again, what's next? Circus Atari for Kinect? It would make more sense than that other Kinect circus thing.

[Update: Shacknews confirmed with Atari that Haunted House will be a retail Wii game -- not WiiWare.]

Gallery: Haunted House XBLA, PC, Wii

Continue reading Atari's Haunted House returns to scare PC, Xbox 360 and Wii

Atari's Haunted House returns to scare PC, Xbox 360 and Wii originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Griffin McElroy: Real life snowboarding meets old-school gaming in 'Gnarcade'

Griffin McElroy — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:33:00 +0000

Our knowledge of the fast-paced, edgy world of extreme sports is limited to "standing on moving, thin slivers of wood is really difficult," though we don't need to know much more than that to appreciate the gaming-influenced video posted below.

Continue reading Real life snowboarding meets old-school gaming in 'Gnarcade'

Real life snowboarding meets old-school gaming in 'Gnarcade' originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Destructoid: Classic Atari 2600 game Haunted House getting 3D update

Destructoid — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:10:00 +0000

The Atari 2600 classic Haunted House is getting the makeover treatment, Atari has announced today. The title is being "re-imagined" for Wii, Xbox LIVE Arcade, and PC download.

The title isn't a direct port or really an upgrade, instead a 3D title that "pays homage" to the classic. It's also a bit of a sequel -- gamers play as the grandchildren of the original characters who were lost in the early-80s title, exploring the Graves Mansion and fending off otherworldly baddies. Atari says the game will feature varied environments, hidden treasures, puzzles, and boss battles. Please let one of them be a giant spider.

Haunted House is out this September. But for best results, I'd suggest not playing it until Halloween.

Brian Ashcraft: To Build A Nintendo, You Needed Cigarettes, Robots And Nice Japanese Ladies [Top]

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:00:00 +0000

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Once upon a time, Nintendo made its home consoles in Japan, and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto was not a millionaire. Here is a look back on that time. More »