Archive for the ‘Retro’ Category

Arcade Memories

Wednesday, January 20th, 2021

I’ve been thinking about memories a lot recently, and how most fade and change over time whilst some remain sharp. Recent discussions with mum have shown me some of my childhood memories are flat-out wrong, which makes me wonder about others.

Spend enough time thinking/talking/listening about arcade gaming and you’ll invariably think/say/hear about how most people that were big on gaming in the arcades usually remember exactly where or when they first played a given game. This is true for me as well, be it Exed Exes in a Pacfic Highway fish’n’chip shop in Charlestown or Xain’d Sleena in the grubby foyer of that cinema on Hunter Street that became an evangelical church (and is now closed?) just to name a couple. I spent innumerable hours in arcades in those days playing every game and I can fondly recall so much of it.

But what about the arcades themselves? One of my favourite Youtubers grew up in a British seaside town and – like me – spent his youth in the oceanfront arcades. He has more than once mentioned how he has very specific memories of playing the games but no longer has clear memories of the arcades that he played them in.

Do I? How clearly can I recall the arcades of my youth? Let’s find out.

I’ve picked three for this post: one in Newcastle city and two in Charlestown. These were probably the three I spent the most time in and – one would imagine – the ones I have the strongest memories of. There were of course many others, as well as countless hours spent playing video games in shops/cinemas/malls etc. For each arcade I have attempted to sketch the floorplan and list some memories. I’m relying on BS, AW and MMC to correct me where I (certainly) make mistakes. Let’s go…

Orbit 100 (Newcastle CBD)

Of course we start with Orbit 100, the king of Newcastle arcades in its prime. Even from the very start I will admit a slight tinge of haziness in my memory, since I conflate Orbit 100 and Orbit 600 these days and can’t be sure which was which. But I am 90% sure the Newcastle one was 100 and the Sydney (George Street) one was 600, so I’ll stick with that. (Interestingly in my ‘book’ about my return visit in 2000 I called it Orbit 600!)

I don’t know when it opened, but it was definitely very active in the early 1980s. I regularly visited when I was in high school since it was within (more or less) walking distance. It still existed when I left Australia in 1993, but by my visit in 2000 had become ‘Playtime’ and when next I visited Oz (in 2005) was gone for good.

As you can see in my sketch the arcade was two levels with two doors onto King Street very close to the Tower Cinema (which is now also gone). In the early days the arcade was mostly just standup cabinets with a few pinballs, but by the mid 1980s they had dedicated the areas on the inner front wall to cabinet games (large driving games mostly) and the pinballs had moved from the top level to the lower near the left door. Orbit was a very dark, smoky and noisy place, with small circular windows (like portholes) with darkly tinted glass. And yet it was a welcoming arcade, probably because it was slightly farther from the Hunter Street shopping and therefore only attracted enthusiasts.

A on my diagram was where a massive black & white Sprint cabinet seemed to sit for years. It was an ancient and often broken beast, rarely played, but probably kept as a curiosity. B was the showcase spot – the first game a customer would see – that was for what seemed like forever occupied with Dragon’s Lair. I recall they had a TV sitting on top of the cabinet so people that couldn’t get close could watch: this was how popular Dragon’s Lair was when it was released. Other games I recall taking this position included Gauntlet and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game.

C was where I would often sit on the top level and play imported Japanese cabinets. Of course I had no idea at the time that’s what they were, but Orbit had quite a few untranslated units they must have imported from Japan. These were often shooters, but I recall Tower Of Druaga and (a Japanese) Pac-Land as well. My fondest memories of sitting in the top level included playing Time Pilot and Star Force, both of which I loved in their day.

D was where I sat in 2000 and played Mars Matrix, possibly with AW. This was (and still is) the only time I ever saw or played the arcade version of the game and I remember it was right next to the door since every time someone opened it and walked in the bright sunlight shone onto the screen and irked me ๐Ÿ™‚

The ? in the above pic I am unsure about. I think they had cocktail (ie. sitdown) cabinets there, but for weird reasons I also recall Orbit selling snacks and drinks and maybe having a seating area? I know pinballs used to be on the top but eventually moved to the bottom, but I’ll admit I have vague memories of the part of the arcade where I now drew pinballs.

Timeout/Timezone? (Charlestown Square)

Given how I virtually lived in this arcade in Charlestown Square you’d think I’d at least remember the name! The planets aligned in 1989 when I both lived in a house within walking distance of this arcade and one of my best friends (MMC) worked here. Even better, the manager was mum to another friend! While I very often did pay for my games at this place, equally common were the games free, and those few years were the platinum years of my arcade gaming. (Fun fact: the manager trusted me so much she more than once had me walk the bags of coins over to the bank for donation!)

But… my memories of this floor plan also start to fade. Once again it was two-level, and given it was at a mall the front wall was all glass so the biggest and flashiest cabs were at the front to attract players walking by. It was a very bright and colorful place with the game volumes up loud and a family-friendly atmosphere. I expect I – ‘goth’ that I was in those days – was about as unsavory a character as that place saw. Mind you this was many years since the arcades had shed their reputation as hives of villainy.

A was where Bernard and I sunk dollars into Narc to beat it. We got better and better and while the game was as unfair as they come eventually were successful. B was where I played an arcade installment in the Thunderforce series to completion while some girl about my age watched silently. I was aware she was there but given it was an intense shooter didn’t get a good look at her. When I beat it I glanced around to see her and she was no-where in sight! Was she a ghost? I’ll never know. C was where I often beat Black Tiger, Slap Fight or Tiger Heli on one credit. I was very good at arcade games!

When KLS visited Australia in 1992 I took her here (more than once) and on one memorable occasion as I was playing SF2 (at D) some young goon stuck joined in, picked guile, and pointed to my character on the screen and said (out loud) “Your arse is grass.”  I thrashed him mercilessly and he shuffled off without a word. It was probably the game superiority I demonstrated at that moment that convinced KLS to marry me ๐Ÿ™‚

I can recall that very shortly before I left Australia, possibly the day before, I was in this arcade playing SF2 (as I always did) when I just… stopped and walked away. I could effortlessly beat the game at that point with every character but the urge had left me and I just left the machine mid game.  I think I had gone for a distraction from the giant step I was about to make in my life and even the familiarity of my favourite arcade wasn’t distracting enough.

Hilltop Arcade (Charlestown, next to the cinema)

I have no idea what this place was called, nestled as it was between the Hoyts cinema and Sizzler restaurant, but it was – between about 1990 and 1993 – the biggest arcade that I frequented. And the emptiest, which was one reason I liked it!

While it had a lot of games the floorplan was massive with lots of empty space and given that when I visited I was usually the only person there except for the employees it often felt on the edge of insolvency. I recall it had a lot of pinball machines, all lined up against one wall, and I routinely ignored these in favour of the arcade games. This was the early 1990s so of course the place was dominated by fighting game cabinets (Simpsons, TMNT), shooting games (Operation Wolf etc.) and large driving cabinets but – as with Orbit years earlier – they had their fair share of Japanese imports as well (probably Sega Aero City JAMMA cabs if you’re interested) and it was these more than any other reason which attracted me, since I was able to play all manner of weird and wonderful – and often untranslated – games at this arcade.

A was where I first played Street Fighter 2, which would have been 1991 when the game was released. The arcade had a bunch of machines arranged in a circle and I’d ‘shop around’ for good joysticks before playing. I played SF2 here a lot since the place was so unpopular and – for a time – this was one of the few places you could enjoy the game on your own without some goon joining in to grass your arse!

B was a narrow hallway which led to an exit to a car park. People rarely used this exit, and when I sat in this hallway to play games I was usually alone and undistracted. This was where I played Snow Bros enough to eventually beat it, and also where I played a lot of In The Hunt, R-Type Leo and Cameltry. I also recall trying many weird Japanese action games that I had no idea how to play!

One specific memory I have of this place is when an attendant asked me to keep an eye on things while she (I assumed) went to the loo. It must have been just me and her in there at the time, and I think she just asked me to tell anyone that came in that she’d be back soon. She gave me some credits in whatever I was playing (Golden Axe: Return Of Death Adder perhaps?) before she left and once I had finished – which took a while – she still hadn’t returned! I waited for a while longer before I had to leave myself, and eventually I did. I wonder what she though when she came back!

Even though I’d stay there for sometimes hours at a time I have unusually vague memories of this arcade. The ? on my floor plan are a complete mystery to me, and the wall opposite the pinballs is equally unknown. What was this place called? When did it close? Is it perhaps even still there?

Did it even exist at all?

I could write a post a day on arcade memories and fill a year, but this is enough for now, and it’s time to turn this over to fellow arcade lurkers to correct me and fill in the blanks. I don’t doubt their comments will trigger further memories of my own…

My Collection: PlayStation 2

Friday, January 1st, 2021

The PlayStation 2 (PS2) was Sony’s second game console, and was a dramatic upgrade to the original PlayStation. Released in the USA in late October 2000, I got my first PS2 a few weeks later from Working Designs, since I was then writing content for their website.

It was an extremely successful console – to date the most successful (although it will almost certainly be surpassed by the Switch) – selling over 150 million units in over 12 years of life. It has a massive game library and many extremely successful franchises that continue to this day began on the PS2. Historically, this will always be remembered as one of the most important game consoles in history.

Even though it’s still relatively young, some elements of the console feel archaic today, such as the use of dedicated memory cards for storage, the wired controllers and the lack of any built-in internet support. It did however play DVDs, and for many homes was their first DVD player, which was one reason for its great success.

Over its lifetime I bought well over 150 PS2 games, but I traded many in and my remaining collection (115 games) is shown above. Unsurprisingly this is mostly RPGs (since I was reviewing all of them in those days), and virtually every game you can see was beaten to completion.

The graphics hold up reasonably well these days: certainly much better than the original PlayStation. This was also the era in which cutscenes really took off since loading time and video quality had improved significantly over the previous generation. Playing the games now isn’t too great though since the (first generation) Dual Shock analogue controllers feel slow and stiff, and the memory stick system is clumsy.

The PS2 was also regionless, and this was the era in which I started semi-regular trips to Japan. That said I only bought two PS2 games while I was there, both of which I beat completely despite having not being able to read the text!

As I said there’s a plethora of incredible games on the system, including the mighty Final Fantasy XII, the Ratchet & Clank games, the first Monster Hunter and many others. But for me the Naval Ops series will always be remembered fondly. These are action games in which you develop and fight warships in combat. It starts off realistic enough, but by the end you have star destroyer sized submarines with wave guns and laser cannons. They’re all fantastic!

For an extremely popular system with so many great games there’s relatively few ‘holy grails’ on the system as far as collecting is worth, and the vast majority of games these days can be bought for less than when they first came out. The two shown above are probably the rarest in my collection, each worth over $100, which is modest compared to games on other systems.

As the PlayStation has evolved through the generations (now up to the PlayStation 5) the differences between successive iterations has become less and less. I feel the PS1-to-PS2 jump was the biggest, and for that reason remember this console more fondly than any other PlayStation. That said I’m not overly nostalgic about it (or it’s games) like I am handheld or Nintendo systems.

It was fun getting it out and firing up the games for a spin, but I think if the day arrives I decide to sell more of my collection it’s likely my PS2 games will be on the list.

Space Invaders

Saturday, December 19th, 2020

Space Invaders may not have been the very first video game, but it’s probably the most historic. It took the world by storm and led to an industry that by 2018 had surpassed the movies. I’ve written before how I still remember first playing it about 40 years ago, and to this day the game retains a place in my heart.

So when I saw the line of Micro Arcade handheld games it was a no-brainer which one I would buy.

These are tiny little game systems about the size of a credit card. I believe the same basic hardware is used for the entire range of games which is why this one has two buttons and a four way controller (space invaders only uses left, right and one fire button). The design is very nice: it’s a solid little unit with good buttons and a nifty clear front so you can see the PCB. It contains a rechargeable battery and has separate on/off and sound switches.

The screen is impressive for its tiny size (less than 1 square inch) and the pixels are clearer than they look in this photo. You can see the game simulates the cellophane stripes that added colour to the original monochrome arcade game, which is a nice touch.

It is of course a rewrite of space invaders and not the original code. It controls and plays the same but is fiendishly difficult with very fast enemy shots. Unfortunately the iconic sound and music of the original is not reproduced (this is a major omission) but what is here is good enough. It also doesn’t save high scores when turned off.

All things considered, for the low price ($15) this is much better than I thought it would be and while it’s probably ‘one for the collection’ I’m intrigued enough by the tech to consider buying one of the more complex games they have released.

It’s also notable how advanced this device is especially for such a low price. If you could take this back to 1979 and give it to little me I would have thought it was magic. Imagine the technology the children of today will be using when they’re my age!

My Collection: Wizardry

Sunday, October 4th, 2020

A bit of a change for this post: rather than showcase a particular console collection this time I’m focusing on an entire game series. Here then, all my Wizardry games.

Wizardry was first released in 1981 for the Apple II and would in time be ported to a massive amount of different systems. I recall first playing it on an Apple computer at Charlestown library and falling in love immediately. Here was Dungeons & Dragons and Fighting Fantasy in game form!

The first Wizardry game I owned was the one shown above (which I rebought recently: read about it here) for the C64. I played through a few in the series on the C64 and when Bernard bought a PC I quickly bought and played the newest editions (Wizardry 6 and 7) upon release. I was mad for them!

But even though Wizardry has also been released on consoles I had no idea at the time, and wouldn’t play a console installment until I came to America. Neither did I know the series had a vibrant life in Japan – even more so than in its home country – and it was many years before I started playing Japanese versions.

Here I’ll present the games in my collection in more or less release order, and not the order in which I obtained or played them.

Those are the three NES/Famicom installments, which are ports of Proving Grounds Of The Mad Overlord, Knight of Diamonds and Legacy of Llygamyn (aka. Wizardry 1, 2 and 3). As you can see I have the three Japanese releases and only the cart of the US release of Wiz 1. The second game was released here but I’ve never seen it for sale, and the third never got localized (yes these were all Japanese games localized for the US since even by this point Wiz was bigger in Japan).

These are direct ports of the Apple originals and this is evidenced by the instructions. I have read some of the more USA-centric references (like pop culture puns) were removed to better appeal to the Japanese players, and as time went on their games would get darker and develop their own style whilst retaining the systems of the parent series.

The presentation of these is beautiful, with metallic inks on the boxes and large (over 50 page) detailed manuals. Unfortunately I can’t play the Famicom carts since they don’t work on an NES. One of these days I should buy a Famicom…

These are the three Japanese Game Boy Wizardry games and you can see they’ve deviated from the original series into a spin-off series called Wizardry Gaiden. These are amongst the most prized items in my game collection: they are in pristine condition, are beautiful and fully complete including the massive manuals and the trading cards:

These cards could be a blog post unto themselves! For many years Japanese Wizardry games came with a trading card randomly chosen from a set unique to that release. Collecting these must have been almost impossible since there’s so many of them, and when it comes to buying the games used in Japanese retro shops the versions that still include cards go for a king’s ransom indeed!

Moving into the SNES/Super Famicom era I’ve got the above: versions of Wiz 5 and 6. Heart Of The Maelstrom is a fantastic game on the SNES and I’ve always been meaning to replay it.

There are other SNES Super Famicom installments as well, including the fourth Gaiden game and a port of Wiz 1 through 3 that was purchased at a kiosk and written onto a rewritable cartridge! Obtaining these games today would require very deep pockets.

The above item is interesting: my Japanese hint guide to Wizardry 5 for SNES. When I play it again you’ll bet I’ll be using that for assistance!

I have two of the Wizardry Empire series on GBC, and this system has more installments as well that are too expensive for me (I saw two for over $200 each in a JP retro shop). The Empire games are derived from the Gaiden series (which itself was a spinoff from Wizardry 5) and included some interesting additions such as requiring certain items to switch to specific classes. These are lovely games that I must get around to playing in full one day…

Speaking of high prices a special mention here for the Wonderswan version of Wizardry 1, which is one of the rarest and most collectible games on the system. If you’ve got $400+ gathering dust, why not buy it for me?

Here’s an oddity: the PC version (sans box) of the last US Wizardry game. I bought and played this myself when it was released in 2001, and recall thinking it was quite a good game in it’s day (these are my original discs). The game was not a success, and more or less killed the series on these shores.

There were several installments on the PC-Engine including direct ports of the first 6 games in the main series. I’ve got the above version which includes games 1 and 2. I’ll never play this since I don’t own a PCE or the CD attachment, which is a shame since a look at the robust manual shows the games are entirely in English!

The original PlayStation saw many different Wizardry installments, including another Gaiden sequel, a game called Wizardry Dimgul and a few ports of the original games including the one I own, Crusaders Of The Dark Savant (Wiz 7)! It’s nicely presented and even comes with a map:

Alas it’s apparently poorly coded and very slow to play, which is a shame.

Strangely there was only one ever GBA Wizardry game which I bought during our first trip to Japan (in 2002). I played through and beat it thanks to some translation assistance from Adam’s sister: thanks Amber!

The above is the last physical Wizardry release in the USA, for PS2 back in 2002. It’s a fantastic game with beautiful graphics and the expected difficulty and I devoured it when it came out. Japan had many sequels to this game, but none made it stateside.

The above DS games – again, all Japanese – are installments in the ‘Wizardry renaissance’ that occurred after the original parent company (Sir Tech) went out of business. By now Wizardry as a series had been well and truly claimed by Japan and US releases weren’t even considered. Wizardry Asterisk was a remake of Wizardry 1, and the two games at the bottom (both limited run amazon exclusives) were a self-contained two game series (called Wizardry Semei no Kusabi and Wizardry Bokyaku no Isan) that I paid quite a bit for. They have wonderful graphics and I really should play both…

The above is the PSP port of the fifth game in the empire series (confusingly named Empire III) that I bought several years back in Japan for the most I’ve ever paid for a game (about $100). I recall struggling to play it though, since it has no English and is such an unknown game I could find barely any help on the internet. Maybe I’ll try again one day?

Incidentally I’ve since seen this game selling for considerably more than I paid, so I assume it’s very rare.

In 2011 the final true Wizardry game to be released in the US came out as a digital only game for PS3. Naturally I bought and played it and you can read about it here. As a digital only game for a now obsolete console it basically isn’t playable any more which is a shame. I wish the disc version (which came out in Japan) had been released here.

As I’ve mentioned there are many other Wizardry games that were released in Japan for consoles, Japanese computers (like the PCFX or X68000) and for mobile systems (including a gatcha roguelike which was ported to PC and may even still be on Steam). They even nearly made an IC-card based Wizardry arcade game!

The game has even inspired or directly led to numerous closely related spinoff series (mostly for PSVita) including Class Of Heroes (essentially Wizardry done anime-style; the code apparently calls the game Wizardry 8!), the Operation Abyss series and the Sword City series. Happily most of these were localized and I’ve beaten them all and could easily do an entire post on PSVita Wizardry derivatives!

But even in Japan it’s now been many years since any true Wizardry game saw a physical release, and I suspect there may never again be one. My collection is somewhat complete but has some notable omissions that I’ll always be keeping an eye open for, and I’m already looking forward to the next time I can spend a day browsing the retro shops in Japan looking for a new (old!) game I don’t yet own!

And I swear I’ll play them all one day ๐Ÿ™‚

Castle Grayskull

Sunday, September 27th, 2020

Today I finished building this:

It’s a 3500 piece model of Castle Grayskull from Masters Of The Universe. It looks like LEGO but it’s actually ‘Mega Construx’, which is a LEGO ripoff competitor. The kit came out for $250 but I got it for quite a bit less on Amazon, both because I love the design and because the reviews were overwhelmingly positive.

The packaging is beautiful and opening the massive (and heavy!) box revealed lovely art and a fantastic manual. The 50+ bags of pieces are separated into four smaller boxes each with their own art, and the entire thing screamed quality.

The kit was built in five parts, each of which took 2-3 hours. It wasn’t a trivial build, but not as challenging as the more complex LEGO technic kits. However the mega construx pieces are slightly lower quality than LEGO and occasionally were difficult to actually push together! As a result it was physically more difficult to make this set than your average LEGO kit ๐Ÿ™‚

There’s also the occasional bit of molding flash visible (as you can see above) and the manufacturing of the pieces isn’t as perfect as LEGO, but overall I was extremely impressed with how well the set was designed and went together. I had routinely dismissed LEGO competitors before making this kit, but now I’ll have to keep my eyes open in case anything else of this quality is released.

That’s the front of the finished castle…

And that is the back. Note the curved walls and roof, and the 100+ individual little brown pieces used for roof tiles. It’s a tall kit, very sturdy and heavy. I feel if I dropped it it would hardly break!

Of course it opens and has massive amounts of ‘play features’ including several doors, a jail cell (with creepy inhabitant), a moving throne, a cannon, ladder, moving lift etc. It came with six minifigs (and I bought a few extras myself) which are a good LEGO-scale equivalent of the original guys from the 1980s.

I’ve always loved LEGO castles and for many years have wished for a highly detailed and large kit (perhaps of Neuschwanstein) so when I saw this I bought it as much for it being a castle as the (cool!) MOTU origin.

It was great fun to build and looks wonderful up on my bookshelf. But there’s still a spot free if LEGO is inspired and finally releases a detailed castle of their own…