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ZX Spectrum: Happy 30th Birthday

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Happy 30th birthday to you, ZX Spectrum

April 23, 1982: Sir Clive Sinclair gave the world, the ZX Spectrum. This 8-bit wonder took the UK by storm. It proved so popular that it was in production till 1992. It celebrates its 30th birthday today. So, to you, the ZX Speccy, we wish you a happy 30th birthday. May you celebrate many more to come !

 

By the numbers:
Launch Date: 23 April 1982
Launch Price: £125 (16KB), £175 (48KB)
Dimensions: 232x144x30mm
Weight: 552g
Processor: Zilog Z80A (running at 3.5MHz)
RAM: 16/48KB
ROM: 16KB
Onboard Language: Sinclair BASIC
Display: 32×24 characters, 256×192 pixels
Colours: Eight available (plus seven variations)
Sound: Internal speaker (buzzing)
Interesting key technical component: The ULA (Uncommitted Logic Array) chip, aka: the ‘glue chip’, combines the functions of several chips and controls the I/O functions.

 

 

Genealogy of the PC-Engine

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Welcome to the PC-Engine Family Tree

Have you tried to understand the NEC PC-Engine range of consoles and been totally confused or lost ? Don’t worry, you are not alone.

We have tapped our inner genealogist and have created the NEC PC-Engine Family Tree. The tree shows the lineage of native consoles, per region, and their media type.

Hopefully, this family tree makes things clearer and a tad easier to understand the NEC PC-Engine console range.

click above image to expand it to its full glory!

 

Note:

  • The PC-Engine family tree does not include any add-ons that enhance the consoles. It also excludes the UK PAL TurboGrafx console released by Telegames.
  • This NEC PC-Engine family tree only covers native NEC systems that play PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 game formats.

 

Contra: celebrating 25 years of awesomeness

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In dedication to the fabulous Konami scrolling fighter, Contra – Happy 25th Birthday !

Midnight, September 12 2631. The Marines catch sight of a small-sized meteorite that is fast approaching Earth. The meteorite plummets 20km north-east of New Zealand, at the Gal Mosquito Archipelago. The command keep watch of the meteorite.

Two years later, in December 2633, an intruder known as the Red Falcon is occupying the Gal Mosquito Archipelago and is planning the fall of mankind. Command orders confidential investigations at the enemy’s front base. The marine post orders two “Contra” soldiers, Private First Class Bill “Mad Dog” Rizer and Private First Class Lance “Scorpion” Bean on a mission. The mission being: penetrate the insides of the enemy, destroy the front base and the entire centre of operation.

Manufacturer: Konami Developer: Konami
Year: 1987 (Feb)
Genre: Scrolling Fighter / Run and Gun shooter
Maximum number of players: 2
Gameplay: Joint
Joystick: 8-way
Buttons: 2 (Shoot and Jump)
Sound: Amplified Mono (single channel)
Cabinet: Upright Standard

 

Retrospective: Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja

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“The President has been kidnapped by Ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue The President?”

The opening line uttered by the Secret Service agent immediately stirs the street fighter within you. Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja can be played in single player mode as Blade (in white pants); or in two player co-op mode – the second player controlling Striker (in green pants).

  

Blade and Striker’s mission is simple: rescue President Ronnie by pummeling all kinds of evil martial artists across seven levels within the allotted time. The attack moves at your disposal are fairly basic: low, middle, and high kicks. Each fighter can also perform a mega punch by holding down the attack button.

  

Should Blade or Striker get the better of their armed opponent, they can pick up the dropped weapon, be it a knife or nunchuks, and use it to extend their attack range. This comes in handy for the end-of-level bosses. Speaking of bosses, even Karnov makes an appearance.

Once you have ploughed through evil-doers across seven levels, you reach the final boss – the one and only, Mr Dragon Ninja himself. Defeat this evil kingpin and it is happy times as President Ronnie is freed from his kidnappers.

After the popularity of Double Dragon in 1987, it was inevitable that arcade developers would make 1988 a co-op beat’em up fest to cash in on the genre’s popularity.
The late 80’s was truly the Golden Era of beat’em ups. Grab a mate, and hit Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja.

 

Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja:

Manufacturer: Nihon Bussan / AV Japan
Developer: Data East
Year: 1988
Genre: Beat’em Up (side scrolling fighter)
Maximum number of players: 2
Gameplay: Joint (co-operative)
Joystick: 8-way
Buttons: 2 (Attack and Jump)
Sound: Amplified Mono (single channel)
Cabinet: Upright Standard
Levels: 7 (Street, Truck, Sewers, Forest, Train, Cave and Dragon Ninja HQ / helicopter)

 

 

PC-Engine: must have games

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The PC-Engine console, a collaboration between Hudson Soft and NEC, was released late 1987 in Japan and mid 1989 in North America. NEC changed the name in the US to the TurboGrafx-16. The US unit also had a facelift, it was bulkier (and uglier) compared to its smaller, sleeker Japanese counterpart.

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Atari Lynx: the first colour handheld device

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The Handy from Epyx was the brainchild of David Morse, Dave Needle and the legendary RJ Mical. All three were the masterminds behind the Amiga. The collaboration of the handheld device was done on a napkin in August 1986 – well before anyone else had thought of a portable gaming device like this. The Handy was the first full colour, 16-bit portable device. There are arguments till this day about how many ‘bits’ this device had. For me, it was, and still is 16-bit.

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Commodore 64: The 8-Bit Computing King

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It was 1986 when I got my grubby mits on the new, sleek and all beige Commodore 64C. Like numerous others around the world, I affectionately called it the C64.
The Family Pack it came in was the ‘America’s Cup’ edition. It included various peripherals (joysticks, paddles, datasette) and games (Howzat Cricket, Arnie Armchair’s America’s Cup Challenge, Le Mans and International Soccer) to get started in 8-bit computing and gaming. I truly thought this was gaming nirvana (and a much better option than the Atari 2600).

Our Commodore 64C

The C64 was a versatile machine – it could load games via cartridge, cassette and 5.25″ floppy diskettes.

Loading games on tape wasn’t fun – they took ages to load, and there was a propensity for them to fail. Nothing drove me insanely mad than having to rewind and reload a game and wait another 30+ minutes for it to load. Oh well, it was one way of ensuring we got to play outside while we waited for the games to load.

The best way to experience games was either on cartridge or floppy disks. The majority of games were available on both cassette and disk. Cartridges were too expensive to manufacture and limiting when compared to tape or disk.

The C64 enjoyed many arcade conversions and film tie-in games, like Robocop, Batman, and The Untouchables. Unfortunately, many of the other film tie-in games were sub-par or completely crap. Nevertheless, the trusty C64 had plenty of great games to satisfy everyone’s taste.

In 1987, when the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Sega Master System were released, I had thoughts about selling the C64 and shelling out for the shiny new grey Nintendo shoebox. Finding it hard to part with the C64, I ended up keeping it – which was a great decision!

After all these years, I still have my original C64, I just wish I had kept the box. It has lost some of its beautiful beige colour, but it still looks good to me. It has aged gracefully. I eventually jumped ship onto the Atari ST and then console gaming via the Sega Mega Drive, but the C64 was always close by.

The Commodore 64 had a number of peers in the 8-bit computing market, namely the Amstrad CPC464 and the ZX Spectrum. But at the end of the day, enjoying total global dominance, the C64 was ensured the 8-bit computing throne and its place in retro computing history.

Long live the Commodore 64!

 

Sexiest retro gaming cartridges

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Here is your chance to vote for the ‘Sexiest retro gaming cartridges’. You can be biased, or you could vote on the cart that oozes the most sex appeal. The limited edition carts are not part of this poll (ie: Gold Legend of Zelda NES cart – I admit, that was seeeexy !). I also did not have the Brazilian version of the NES cart.

So, go forth and vote now as this poll will close in one week:

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Double Dragon – Happy 25th Birthday

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Double Dragon ! Just saying those two words invokes memories of seedy arcade joints down some dark alley. That never stopped me entering these seedy joints and pumping 20 cent coins into the machine and play as Billy Lee (aka Hammer). If I had a mate with me, he would play as Billy’s twin brother, Jimmy (aka Spike). Double Dragon was the first beat’em up to introduce two-player co-operative play.

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