Having a Bitmap evening tonight. Couldn't find The Chaos Engine on my rom list but fortunately the ol' memorybanks can still pull up alternative titles for the 8/16-bitters (even though I can't remember half the things I did last week).

Dear me the Master System version of Xenon 2 is shit, by any metric. The music is passable I guess, but it sounds like Assault on Precinct 13 played with a cheap electronic keyboard. Haven't got the 16-bit versions on my rom sets. Was never a game I loved anyway tbh.

Few more retro games recently completed in the 52 games in a year thread:

Super Mario Bros. (NES)

Had to test out my mini consoles on my new TV for input lag, and there's no better game to try out than one you've got massive muscle memory for. Thankfully they all work very well with no noticeable lag.

Anyway,  I ran through World 1 And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run through World 2. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run through World 3. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run through the whole game without warps. And that's what I did. I ran clear through Super Mario Bros.

Going from my Atari to this in the late 80s was mind boggling, and its amazing how well it's aged imo. I love it just as much now as I did back in the 80s. It's my gaming equivalent on watching repeats of The Simpsons or Only Fools, pure comfort.

5/5

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Strikers 1945 (Arcade)

Another hard as nails 2D shoot 'em up.

The arcade nature makes it another coin guzzler by default, if I was actually playing in an arcade I'd have spent (50p?) on about 1 minute of gameplay. Of course at home via emulation it equates to infinite continues and an inevitable completion.

It amazes me how good people can get at these. I'm useless at any of the post 16-Bit entries in the genre, the sprite handling capabilities went through the roof and there's so much going on that I find it hard to keep up and clearly see what's going on.

Like scrolling beat 'em ups they're just a blast in co-op though, and it becomes a contest of who can get the hi-score as oppose to 'can we complete it'. Good mindless fun.

3/5

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Star Wars Episode I Racer (N64)

Another N64 game I wanted back in the day ticked off with the Everdrive.

First and foremost, technically speaking this is bloody good for an N64 game. It's blisteringly fast just like F-Zero X but to be fair to this game, it actually has some detail in the tracks and much more variety.

The tracks do the usual tricks of alternate routes to extend playtime, but I must admit that it's done better here than possibly any other racer I've played. An alternate route here means about 70% new content at a guess, so each race really does feel different.

Yes there's a little fog and pop up, but it really is minimal. The recent re-release still suffers from this which is what made me just play this on the N64 instead of buying it on the Switch or PS4.

The frame rate is also very impressive for it's time and for the most part is silky smooth. Frames can drop when a few pods are on screen at once, but this is very rare.

Which leads nicely into the games biggest issue for me, you rarely feel like you're in a race. I basically went from finishing 10th-12th in new races until I memorised the track enough and then I'd finish 1st. Out of all the races in the game I finished 1st in all but one, and you only need a top 4 finish to progress.

I know track memorisation is a big part of most racing games, but it this is seems to be everything. Once you've got the track down it becomes a breeze, there doesn't seem to be any middle ground, no bad first lap and then chasing the pack down to win. For me it was first or last, I guess that's bad AI? Whatever it is the game may as well have been called Time Trial instead of Racer.

I'm gonna be generous here though, as when your going full speed and weaving in and out of narrow turns at high speeds it's still an adrenaline rush. It's not amazing and F-Zero X is still the king on N64, but for Star Wars fans this might be worth picking up on current gen if the price is right.

By far the best of the N64 racers I've played for the first time this year. Next up... Beetle Adventure Racing.

3/5  

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Dr. Mario (NES)

Off the back of playing Teris Attack this year, I booted this up from time to time over throughout year which has added up to a lot of hours played.

Second only to Tetris as my favourite puzzle game, endlessly fun and addictive.

5/5

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Haven't got the 16-bit versions on my rom sets.

Remember that PS Classic is a lot easier to add games than the Raspberry Pi. Literally get a ROM and put in the folder of the corresponding console on the USB stick.

I've started feeling a little better, so I can get back into these.
I started with the Amiga ROM of Xenon and moved onto the Amiga ROM of Xenon 2 and I can't believe there's only 3 years between Xenon and Gods - when I was a teenager it seemed like an age between them.

I can remember being impressed with the sampled speech in Xenon (that results in a heavy drop in frame rate) and I guess this is a bit of a signature of the Bitmaps' self-promotion - what with them marketing themselves as these leather-jacketed rockstar games devs.

I remember getting to sector 3 without cheats back in the day, but can't get past sector 2 now. I think Xenon stands out as a sign of how most of their later games would be - with twists on the genre. I really liked the ability to switch between air and ground modes and there's a fair bit of problem-solving and strategy. 

Then I played Xenon 2 (which I never owned) and was pretty disappointed. The enemies seemed spongey and the the shop/ upgrade system feels really messy. I guess they were again trying to put their signature spin on the genre, but TBH, Xenon 1 felt fresher. 

Xenon 2 I guess stands out for Dan Malone's signature art style finally evolving (he got much better at distinguishing foreground and background elements by Magic Pockets). It's not a game that I want to play again, though.

I was into both Xenon and Speedball, but the sequels were where things moved from good to great. Xenon 2 was the ultimate shoot-em-up for me, at the time, and Speedball 2 just became a total obsession. I played it daily, to the point where I gave up on other games for well over a year and just played that. It’s probably still my all-time top game.

It’s both. Overlooked because it’s atrocious.

I don't think I played it but I bet it's ultra zoomed in.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I don't think I played it but I bet it's ultra zoomed in.

Yep, but it played better than expected. No point going back to it now, I wouldn’t think. Best to emulate the Amiga version, probably.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

First game to have replays? Speedball 2 has to be in with a shout surely? I'm probably out by a few years but it's an interesting question. Did Kick-Off have them? I can't remember many on consoles at the time.

Atari's Food Fight has them. It was a 1982 arcade game. The 7800 port has the replays intact - but the port is 1986.

You have to have a near death or close scrape to activate the replay. It's a Robotron variant but it has bags of charm. I only remember seeing it in one arcade.

Atari were way ahead of their time. Little touches like the replay tune being synched with the action.. Used the 68000 processor - back in '82....

Off work today isolating so ran through the emails and then played through a few levels in Cadaver. I'd not properly played this outside of seeing if the ROM worked since the 90s when I originally completed the game, and I'm surprised how well it's stood up.
I absolutely loved this game, and I honestly think it still stands up - it's just the shonky isometric action that makes me glad I've got a save state option this time.
I'd love to see this story and setting updated for modern systems - it's the kind of puzzle-solving adventure that really isn't part of the mainstream any more. 

I've just reached level 4 (out of 5) but I've no idea whether I'd be able to have got this far without fuzzy memories of finishing it before.

retroking1981 wrote:

Not a fan of the bitmap bros, most Amiga stuff left me cold tbh.

Will try out Soldiers of Fortune though.

Had a quick 10 mins on Soldiers of Fortune. Seems ok, at least good enough to play more.

I'm gonna hold off on doing that though as it's a co-op game. Obviously that isn't gonna happen anytime soon but I'd rather do that than play single player.

Hopefully it'll be sometime this year, I'll try and remember to give opinions on it whenever that may be.

Am I hallucinating an old memory of Games Master with a 3 player beta of Chaos Engine?

There's deffo a multiplayer strategy re levelling up and character choice that's lost in single player - I can't see any point in not playing as the Navvie and having the priest with the first aid kit as backup.

No recollection of a three player version, retroking is probably the Games Master go-to guy though.

Pretty sure the Navvie is the character I settled on last week. I tried both console versions, preferred the MD one but that could just be unconscious bias.