rickjoyce wrote:

Many years ago, me and my mates were still being enthralled by emulators. We had a pretty decent suite of Genesis/Megadrive games that all worked perfectly (56k and smaller internet landscape made the kind of rom collections that roll off the drive today a lot harder to compile.) One game was different however, that game was Back to the Future III. For some reason this was the hardest game ever designed and it was only one level, well we thought it was only one level. You were riding a horse that clopped around 100mph and the game was lost usually in around the first 10 seconds of play.  It became a challenge game, a regular on the roster (the gatherings were based around Money Idol(Puzzle) Exchanger but I used to like to throw on Dick Tracy on the megadrive as it was one of the few game I could beat on Normal pretty handily, there was a second monitor for the other side of the room and it was incredibly surreal seeing way-too-cool girls I was into at some parties, watching me play Dick Tracy like it was some bizarre tv show. "Hey, look there's Madonna!") It wasn't until quite some time later that I realised this BttF was a faulty rom, the sound, which would have been a tip off played at normal speed. The game could be played on normal speed, but damn did it lose its edge. I still remember getting so close through a combination of luck and memorisation. You could even see where you were in relation to Clara on the bottom of the screen, "oh, smashed into birds so fast they couldn't be shot again". That game will always remind me of a happy time in my tumultuous teenage years.

I've tried to complete BttFIII twice now, but according to Gamefaqs I'm missing some pick-ups on the last level and I stupidly saved the game halfway through the stage on my second attempt.  I've reached the DeLorean at the front of the train twice, but the train isn't doing 88mph or something so it's an unwinnable situation.  I won't be playing it again.  I'm not sure what the strongest (least shit) level is - perhaps the crappy train one as it goes - but the plate throwing section is the worst.  Rickjoyce's story made me laugh, and for some reason reminded me of repeatedly watching my mate's long play copy of Watership Down on our non-long play VHS player.  21/100 for Back to the Future III. 

Davyk: I bow down to your 1CC'ing ability. The last two or three levels of Super Aleste were fuckers.

I love the "thrust-em-up" genre which is sadly very small. This is a corker if memory serves and I still have the cartridge (actually think I have the US version).

For some reason I never finished this despite the fact that I really liked it and the small number of levels. It gets a bit puzzly - think I got stuck on a level that involved moving mirrors around to aim a laser - could be wrong though. Will see if I can give it a go later after work.

Not really - Assault Suits Valken is more of a run and gun with a bit of flying (Cybernator in PAL land). Subterrania is more like Thrust or Gravitar. Lunar Jet Man on the NES would be its nearest relation in retro gaming terms.

Available on the PAL Wii VC for download (look for Cybernator) but you'll probably need a classic controller to enjoy it properly as it uses all the SNES controller buttons. Don't think Subterrania is on the VC though......

Yeah, meant Sub Terrania, not Cybernator which I have on SNES. Oh well, sounds good, might pick it up once I eventually get to start an MD collection.

I've always preferred shooters that aren't constantly scrolling.  Sub-Terrania, Cybernator, Ranger X, Bangai-O.  I tried to complete Sub Terrania again a few months ago and failed somewhere near the end.  Will crack it this week.  Red Zone, Zyrinx's other MD game, is even better imo.  Both would be in my top 20 16-bit games.

It's a top-down shooter that effectively plays as two separate games, the first being a Strike-esque tactical helicopter blaster, and the second an on-foot Chaos Engine/Alien Breed type thing. Incredible stuff, some of the best music on the Megadrive too...and a full motion video intro. It was so technically impressive for the machine there was a text disclaimer before the game began, which was basically Zyrinx patting themselves on the back for all the shit they'd got the console to do.

That's probably where I got stuck....

Sub-Terrania took me a while to finish, as it really is tough as nails.  I had to check the net for level cheats just to be sure that my memory of having completed this as a kid wasn't bollocks.  Turns out there are no codes, so I must've finished this back in the day as I remember the ending sequence quite clearly, which was jaw dropping stuff for me, considering the hardware, in 1993.  So well done, thirteen year old me. 

If anything, I appreciate the game even more than I did when it was released, as there have been so few games like it since.  It is very hard.  It's also not a game that will roll over and show you its belly on the back of skillz alone - you need to memorise routes and armour/fuel pickups to retain enough lives to make a reasonable stab at the later levels.  Once you've worked out the best way to tackle each stage, half the battle is won as whilst there is a strong shooter element, I'd say it's predominantly a gravity based maze game.  There are a couple of bosses to dispatch, but with regards to the standard cannon fodder, in a similar way to Sonic (where the weak sauce badniks are intermittently placed throughout the stage), removing them wouldn't alter a hell of a lot gameplay wise, especially towards the end.  It's 20% blasting and 80% manoeuvring. 

The music is excellent; Jesper Kyd excels himself with the MD sound chip on both this and Red Zone.  I recently found out he's the guy behind the Hitman & Assassin's Creed scores, so fair play to him for clearly having the class to go the distance.  The graphics are great throughout.  I read that Zyrinx created their own Megadrive dev kit, using their Amiga demo scene expertise, so they basically knocked up all their tools from scratch and submitted the game to Sega for approval in its technically homebrew form.  Impressive stuff indeed. 

I can't think of a better 16-bit shooter for my personal tastes gameplay-wise, so I'm going to give this a ridiculous 95%, and one of those Mean Machines 'Classic Game' awards.

As an aside, at one point I considered Scavenger (and its two dev teams, Zyrinx and Lemon) to be the shining light of Sega hardware coding.  As an early adopter of the ill-fated 32X, I lapped up images from their tech demo in the mags, and pawed over screen grabs of their (later cancelled) X-Men title.  I've since seen the fabled tech demo on the internet, so here it is.  Try to view it through early/mid 90s 16-bit eyes (LENS FLARE OMG!):



Also, ignore the description beneath, Zyrinx didn't develop Zero Tolerance, that was a company called Tecnopop.

Would've been around Jan '95 that I first saw it.  I've pretty much got no answers for why I was impressed with it in the wake of texture mapped PS1 releases, which I'd obviously seen in mags, other than convincing myself that the 32X under my 14" telly was a sound investment.  I was desperate to believe that the 32X could shift polygons with the best of 'em.

The Official Sega magazine, as good as it was, pimped the 32X hard.  I blame Richard Ledbetter.

all the talk of super alleste, cybernator and un squadron is getting me excited!
keep it up lads.

daviedigi wrote:

all the talk of super alleste, cybernator and un squadron is getting me excited! keep it up lads.

I'll put Cybernator in for you Davie (18/02), and I'll make sure I've got that stuff in the post in plenty of time for that week.  I haven't forgotten, I'm just extremely lazy.

I've also got a terrible memory.....am I waiting for something?  Haha.

Edit: Ah the DS files.  Don't worry about those mate I didn't even give the card to my nephew, it's still in my underwear drawer with other semi-precious things.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I've also got a terrible memory.....am I waiting for something?  Haha. Edit: Ah the DS files.  Don't worry about those mate I didn't even give the card to my nephew, it's still in my underwear drawer with other semi-precious things.

Don't say that! My daughter gave me a guilt trip for getting rid of the DS. Try and put the card to good use!

Ah,screen burn scare stories. We got them too but turned out to be my mother using them as an excuse to not let us use the TV.

Sorry,didn't mean that. It certainly didn't ruin her Christmas. She's 11 and had buried hers for two yrs since getting her iPod touch then suddenly decided to resurrect it! Had contemplated picking another one up but it prob won't last. 
Fairly sure they don't work on 3DS.