Here it is, part 2 of great hucard games for the PC-Engine / TurboGrafx-16.
But just in case you missed it, check out part 1
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Classic retro gaming
PC-Engine and TurboGrafx-16: great hucard games – part 1
Anyone that knows me will know that I have a soft spot for the NEC console known as the PC-Engine (TurboGrafx-16 if you are outside of Japan).
There are bags full of great hucard games on this little beast. Rather than inundating you all with the complete list in one big hit, I thought it would make more sense to break it down into several parts.
So sit back, relax and trawl through part 1 of the great hucard games list for the PC-Engine / TurboGrafx-16 (in alphabetical order):
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Wizard of Wor: Arcade
Who would have thought, a game released in 1981 would still be played and enjoyed in this day and age ! It just proves that quality always trumps quantity.
This game has simple graphics and even simpler sound effects. But what it does have, is oodles of gameplay, and let’s admit it, that is the most important part of any game, retro or new.
Wizard of Wor is a timeless classic. Game play is simple – one or two players, known as Worriors, move around a variety of line-drawn dungeons (mazes), shooting the creatures that wander within. These creatures, or Worlings (Burwors, Garwors and Thorwors), are eliminated so that the player progresses to an even harder dungeon. On each of these levels, there are bonus monsters, called Worluks, and occassionaly, the Wizard makes a special guest appearance – see The Dungeons of Wor.
Each dungeon has different maze patterns, with escape doors that your Worrior can walk through to re-appear on the opposite side of the maze – this is great for when things get tough and you need a quick exit. Be warned though, the Worlings and Worluks can also use these escape doors !
The Dungeons of Wor:
Basic Dungeons – consist of short passages and long corridors.
The Arena – appears after the first bonus Worrior is awarded. The most difficult of the basic dungeons with an open central maze area.
Worlord Dungeons – Dungeons ‘8’ (and subsequent dungeons) are more difficult where the player is likely to engage the Wizard. In these dungeons, the player is addressed as “Worlord”
The Pit – the 13th dungeon appears after the second bonus Worrior is awarded. It is an entirely open area, with no place to hide and requires the greatest skill for survival. Eliminating all Worlings, Worluks and Wizard earns continued play.
If you doubt how good this is game is, I urge you to give it a try. Game play is simple enough for any player to pick up in an instant. Mastering it is another story. I do warn you though, once you enter the dungeon, it is difficult to stop – you will be hooked !
| Graphics | Simplistic, but that doesn’t matter |
75% |
| Sound | The tempo of the effects and droning music picking up as you are about to clear out the last Worling, gets the heart racing ! |
85% |
| Playability | Easy to get into, you just move up – down – left – right and then fire. Sounds simple enough ! |
92% |
| Lastability | If you clear out the Pit dungeon, then you earn continued play. You may find this exhausting and a bit samey, but rest assured, this is the game’s magic – you will want to keep on playing. |
90% |
| Overall | If you do not have access to the arcade version of the game, then hit up the brilliant C64 conversion. WoW is a classic ! |
92% |
Manufacturer:Bally Midway
Year: 1981
Genre: Labyrinth / Maze
Number of simultaneous players: 2
Maximum number of players: 2
Gameplay: Either
Joystick: 4-way
Buttons: 1 (Fire)
Pit-Fighter: Digitised fighting mayhem
Back in 1990, Atari released Pit-Fighter – the first fighting game to include digitised fighting characters. This animation was created through a “bluescreen” process which was a major feat for the day. It was the precursor to Mortal Kombat..
Pit-Fighter has three fighters to choose from: Buzz, the ex-professional wrestler; Ty, the kick-boxing champion; and Kato, the third degree black-belt expert. Each fighter has their own fighting style, strengths, weaknesses and super moves.
The premise of the game is to take your fighter through 15 different fights, with grudge matches (bonus rounds) every three fights. You become champion once you defeat the Masked Warrior.
Pit-Fighter has some interesting twists amongst its gameplay. Firstly, it has sly spectators that get involved in your fights by knifing you. They lurk amongst the crowd, so watch out ! The game also has weapons and objects to use, like: barrels, crates, knives, spiked balls, oil drums, sticks, bar stools and even a motorcycle ! But, beware – these weapons and objects can also be used against you ! If things weren’t interesting enough, there are power pills in later stages that can temporarily make both your fighter and opponent more powerful and difficult to hurt and ultimately, defeat.
Pit-Fighter hasn’t really aged too well, but it does offer nostalgic value with its digitised fighters and interesting gameplay, with crowd involvement and outrageous weapons/objects to use. So, if you want to relive the daddy of digitised fighters, throw in a few coins into Pit-Fighter.
Manufacturer: Atari
Year: 1990
Genre: Fighting
Number of simultaneous players: 3
Maximum number of players: 3
Gameplay: Team
Joystick: 8-way
Buttons: 3 (Punch, Kick and Jump)
Sound: Amplified Mono (single channel)
PC-Engine: list of HuCard games
Following on from the Genealogy of the PC-Engine, the natural progression was to document the list of HuCard games released on this magnificent console.
The list of PC-Engine HuCard games is to assist would-be gamers with details of games released for the console and its TurboGrafx counterpart.
Guerrilla War: the Guevara and Castro connection
Ah yeh, Guerrilla War, released by SNK in 1987, was the first game I played with a rotary joystick. Unlike Ikari Warriors where you had the joystick to move side to side and shoot, Guerrilla War allowed you to move your fighter and at the same time, rotate the gun to shoot in 8 directions ! This rotary “gimmick” seemed to work, as it was used on other games, notably, Heavy Barrel and Midnight Resistance.
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Must watch video gaming documentaries
Seldom do video gamers get any mass produced video games related programs. But the few that have been made and released, should be added to any self respecting video gamers library. The three video games based documentaries that are a must watch are:
Tetris: From Russia with Love
Synopsis: Fortunes were made and lawsuits fought as Tetris swept the world in the 1980s and killed a million conversations. But 20 years after the creation of this technological phenomenon, its inventor Alexey Pajitnov is only just beginning to make any money.
Released: 2004
iMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409371/
website: BBC Four
Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade
Synopsis: In 1982, at the dawn of the video-game age, the world’s giants of gaming gathered together in a now-legendary meeting at Iowa’s Twin Galaxies arcade. This documentary from director Lincoln Ruchti looks at the players then and now, offering an insightful and nostalgic look at the history of gaming fanaticism.
Released: 2007
iMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479879/
website: http://www.chasingghoststhemovie.com/
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Synopsis: The King of Kong follows the exploits of the two best Donkey Kong players in America, the cocky and current world record holder, Billy Mitchell, and the challanger, the ever gracious, Steve Wiebe.
Released: 2007
iMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/
website: http://www.newline.com/properties/kingofkongtheafistfulofquarters.html
Street Fighter II: the 21 year old world champion
On March 8 1991, Capcom unleashed the Street Fighter II coin-op machine to the arcade world, starved of great 2D one-on-one fighting games. This was the sequel to beat all sequels. The original Street Fighter was released in 1987 with some fan fare, but its successor kick started the franchise and popularity of the 2D fighting genre. The rest, as they say, is history. [Read more…] about Street Fighter II: the 21 year old world champion
Truxton: A Classic Shoot’m Up
Truxton, or Tatsujin (Japanese for ‘Expert’), is a viciously addictive vertical shoot’em up that was released by Taito in 1988. For the folks in the US, the game was licensed to Midway and Romstar for manufacture and distribution.
The premise of the Truxton is quite simple – you control a fighter ship, taking power-ups and weapon-selection items along the way, and then using them to blast enemies. When the going gets tough, one press of the Tatsujin-bomb button exterminates every enemy on screen (the motherships and big bosses take more hits to kill).
As you progress through each area, it gets more critical to collect the various power-ups and weapons that come your way. The souped-up weaponry, like the green Tatsujin-beam, assist in killing the motherships with fewer shots. The game has 5 big bosses to defeat across 200 hundred areas (not levels!).
Vertical shoot’em ups have a simple premise, but the devil is in their gameplay detail. Truxton has no shortage of gameplay and the vast areas and different enemy types will keep you occupied for a long while. Put your space-suit on, whack on your helmet and get in that fighter ship – the universe depends on you!
Manufacturer: Toaplan
Year: 1988
Genre: Vertical Shoot’em Up
Maximum number of players: 2
Gameplay: Alternating
Joystick: 8-way
Buttons: 2 (Fire and Bomb)
Control Panel Layout: Single Player
Sound: Amplified Mono (single channel)
Cabinet: Upright Standard
Weapons: Red – Power Shot, Blue – Sun Lader and Green – Tatsujin-Beam
Ghosts’n Goblins: the unforgiving game
The human condition. We are a resilient bunch. If you want to test your resiliency (and your patience), then give the unforgiving and difficult arcade game, Ghosts’n Goblins a spin.
The game sees you, Sir Arthur, a noble knight, run and jump through horizontal and vertical levels to rescue his sweetheart, Princess Guinevere (or Princess Prin Prin in other ports of the game).
Sir Arthur can pick up weapons like: an axe, lance, cross, dagger or firebrand. These weapons can be used to kill Satan’s army of monsters, zombies, bats, ogres, demons and ghosts. Sir Arthur can replace his armour by jumping up at certain hidden spots on some levels. This action causes a pot to appear. It is imperative the armour stays intact. Take two hits, and it is curtains for Sir Arthur. That is exactly why this game is unforgiving and damn difficult to complete.
It is not all doom and gloom if you know some tricks to beat this game. The developers at Capcom weren’t going to be totally cruel to us poor arcade gamers. They left us a few surprises (easter eggs) along the way to help Sir Arthur get further into the game. What were these tricks you ask ? Well, we won’t give away all of them, but one good one can be found on the third cave level. Navigate Sir Arthur to the upper level and move him to the right of the rock, just to the left of the second ladder. Then move left and right, shooting rapidly. A zombie will keep appearing and you can score 100,000 points before time runs out. Don’t worry about the time running out and losing a life, you will be rewarded with two extra lives in the process. Even with this trick, you still have to give up a life to get two back. Those Capcom developers were sadists.
Ghosts’n Goblins was, and still is, a great platform game. It is still difficult and frustrating as ever. So, if you like your games to be difficult and challanging, then you can not go wrong with this one.
Manufacturer: Capcom
Year: 1985
Genre: Platform fighter
Maximum number of simultaneous players: 2
Gameplay: Alternating
Joystick: 8-way
Buttons: 2 (Fire and Jump)
Control Panel Layout: 1 Player Ambidextrous
Sound: Amplified Mono (single channel)
Cabinet: Upright Standard
Monitor: CRT, Raster standard resolution
Levels: Graveyard and forest, town, caves, bridge, castle – lower level, castle – upper level, final boss
