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Retro Gaming

Truxton: A Classic Shoot’m Up

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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

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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
Ghosts

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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Where it all started: my first TV gaming system

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It was 1984 when I got this baby. No – it wasn’t an Atari 2600 or an Intellivision (I wish I had one of these at the time!) – it was the Hanimex 666T.

It was basically a home version of Pong. The larger paddle contained the system hardware and the main game controls. These controls were used to select the type of game, the bat size, auto or manual serving, and speed of the game. I never understood the 40 / 20 angle switch as it didn’t make a difference to gameplay as far as I could tell. The smaller paddle could be detached and used by a second player.

I was a sore loser when playing on this system. My sister would start to win and I would get mad and would reset the game only to be beaten again. I eventually got better and started kickin’ ass – that’s when my sister stopped playing video games with me.

This was my introduction to owning a TV gaming system. It served its purpose until I got into the ‘real’ home consoles and computers in the 80’s. The last ‘Where it all started‘ feature will be on the first true 8-bit gaming system which I acquired in 1986. Could it be the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Master System, or the Commodore 64 ?

Welllllllllll, you will just have to wait and see……….

 

Retrospective: Retro games with different region names

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Why do publishers choose to change names of games in certain regions around the world ? That is the million dollar question. They will give you all sorts of reasons and excuses, but it all boils down to the marketing teams and what they think will work in their segment.

I think these games would have an identity crisis if they were human. I mean, some games are known by more than two different names ! C’mon, that is absurd, no matter where you are from.

I have listed a few retro games that are known by various names around the world.
You be the judge of which region names you prefer for the following retro games:

ENJOY !
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Where it all started: Retro Lovin

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Like every other retro gamer, the love of video gaming started early in my childhood. I recall yo-yo’s being the biggest fad back in the early 80’s. I had the Fanta and Coca-Cola yo-yo’s. I thought I was so cool being able to ‘walk the dog’.

Soon enough though, my attention turned towards electronic gaming. The Nintendo Game & Watch series and the various table top games took my fancy. This was a time before Atari became big in Australia – and the NES was still years away (it was released here in 1987). I was totally mesmerised by these Game & Watch and Table Top games my friends were playing and I became hooked. Little did I realise this would grow into a life long love of video gaming, in particular, old/retro games and systems.

I still have my first Game & Watch and Table Top games – and that is where it all started for me. Here they are for your viewing pleasure:

A big thank you to hunksparrow for giving me the idea to write about my collection, and in particular, where this video gaming love all started for me.

Confessions of a Retro Gamer

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I confess, I love retro gaming ! There, that was easy to admit. I love playing (and talking about) the old school consoles from Nintendo, Atari, Sega, SNK and NEC. I would also include the 8-bit and 16-bit computers (yeh, you remember those, the C64, Amstrad, Atari ST, and the Amiga) amongst my retro loves. Add some arcade action in that retro mix and things really start humming. As you can appreciate, I like to spread my retro lovin. Ah, the good old days. I have the latest gaming systems, but nothing brings a smile and those happy memories from my childhood and teenage years than to switch-on the old systems – even if you have to blow into the cartridges to make them work. I will publish all matter of retro gaming articles on here. To keep in the loop, check back here as there will be heaps of retro stuff to satisfy the most ardent retro gamer. For now, enjoy your retro gaming poison and remember to spread the word.