2005 October | The Games of my Life

Archive for October, 2005

Laser Squad (ZX Spectrum / Commodore 64, 1988)

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2 years, 8 months ago

in 80s games, Commodore 64 games and ZX Spectrum games

. 4 Comments

From Julian Gollop, the author of Chaos, came this masterpiece, in 1988: Laser Squad. Quite probably, the best and most popular turn-based tactical game in the 80s.

What made LS so popular, even with action game fans? Among other things, it was polished, easy to learn, and had arcade-style graphics, instead of the common symbolic representations in strategy games. In other words, the player was able to see things as if he was actually there (only, of course, looking from above). This may seem normal these days (e.g. Jagged Alliance, Pathway to Glory, Gollop’s own later X-Com), but Laser Squad was the first game which showed everything so well. And all was controllable with a mere one-button joystick, or with 5 keys (4 directions plus fire). The graphics were good and realistic, and the explosions were a pleasure to watch - especially if it was an enemy caught in them.

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The Last Ninja 2 (Commodore 64 / ZX Spectrum, 1988)

Published

Dehumanizer

2 years, 8 months ago

in 80s games, Commodore 64 games and ZX Spectrum games

. 1 Comment

No, I haven’t forgotten the C64 - although I only had one quite late in its life, there were some unforgettable masterpieces for that little 1 MHz (!) beast. This, System 3’s The Last Ninja 2 is certainly one of them.

Oddly enough, I played the Spectrum version first, and one tends to get attached to the version he plays first. But the C64 version blew me away. One screen of this game has more atmosphere than many entire games. The music is hauntingly beautiful (all 13 tunes). There’s a sense of almost tangible despair, of being in a world where everyone tries to kill you, yet, everything is familiar - a park, city streets, sewers, an office building, and so on. And the environment is at least as dangerous an enemy as your human enemies. The whole game is hard and unforgiving - no “tutorials where you can’t do wrong”, or any kind of hand-holding here. But the feeling of finally passing a level (after hours or even days), and getting a beautifully drawn loading screen for the next one, complete with a new tune, and the suspense of not knowing what’s next…

Oh, and there’s an alligator in the sewers. I knew it all along.

If you’re not a graphics junkie (or even if you are, but can see games in the context of when they were released), get an emulator and the game, and try it for yourself. You’ll truly appreciate how sad it is that these days there are only first person shooters, sports games and MMORPGs.

Hint: even if you, at the time, finished the Spectrum version (or even another one, such as the Amiga or the PC ports), try the original C64 version. It’s the only one that really “got” it.

New feature: email subscription

Published

Dehumanizer

2 years, 8 months ago

in The Games of my Life (site)

. 0 Comments

See the new email subscription page for info. Basically, if you don’t want to use an RSS reader, you can get new posts from this blog by email (just one email message a day, even if there are more posts).

Gridrunner++ (PC, 2002)

Published

Dehumanizer

2 years, 9 months ago

in 2000s games and PC games

. 1 Comment

In the early 80s, there was a guy from Wales called Jeff Minter, who founded a company called Llamasoft, which still exists today. He programmed for several 8-bit computers, such as the Commodore VIC-20 and the C64, and his games, although weird (even at the time, when games tended to be much more original than in the current age of clones and sequels), were usually very, very playable. And they surely had a lot of personality.

One of his earliest games was Gridrunner, originally for the VIC-20, later ported to other systems. It looked like a Centipede (a really old arcade game) clone, but it had a character of its own - for instance, the game ensured that you couldn’t simply stay in a “safe” place and just shoot enemies as they passed in front of you.

About 20 years later, Jeff created the ultimate version of his classic: Gridrunner++.

Looks weird, doesn’t it? But it’s a shooter, played with the mouse (and that simple fact makes it one of the most playable shooters ever - you’ll never feel comfortable playing one with a gamepad, keyboard or joystick again). There are enemies (quite strange ones, too, such as plush toys, soccer balls and such) to shoot, and sheep to catch (they increase your firepower, just like in real life :)).

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Target: Renegade (ZX Spectrum / Commodore 64, 1988)

Published

Dehumanizer

2 years, 9 months ago

in 80s games, Commodore 64 games and ZX Spectrum games

. 6 Comments

It could be called a Double Dragon clone. It could also be called a River City Ransom clone. But one thing is certain: there’s no better game of this kind on an 8-bit computer than Imagine’s Target: Renegade. Well, the Spectrum version, at least.

T:R isn’t a very complex game - in fact, it’s a sequel to Imagine’s previous “Renegade”, which was a port of the Taito arcade game (but the Spectrum version was much better than the original, which had one of the worst control schemes in history. Don’t believe me? Try the arcade version in MAME, and weep.) The sequel, however, is a completely original game for 8-bit computers, although, as I said, derivative of Double Dragon and others.

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20 years of the Nintendo Entertainment System

Published

Dehumanizer

2 years, 9 months ago

in External articles

. 2 Comments

Introducing the new “External Articles” section, with a fascinating article at 1UP: 20 Years of NES.

I admit, to my shame, that I never had a NES, as I didn’t have enough money at the time - I only had a Videopac, several ZX Spectrums, a C64, and then I moved to a PC. In fact, my first console ever was a Playstation 1. But I love the NES - it gives me a nostalgia for the times, even though I never played those games when I was young. Yes, I’m weird. Nowadays, I have NES emulators on my 2 cell phones (an N-Gage and a 6630), and I’ve played a lot of classic games to the death (or a bit before that).

Anyway, the article linked above is a joy to read. Please do so.

Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy (PC / PS2 / Xbox, 2005)

Published

Dehumanizer

2 years, 9 months ago

in 2000s games, PC games, PS2 games and Xbox games

. 2 Comments

This is the most recent game mentioned in this site, so far. In fact, I bought it less than a month ago. It’s not a huge game, I finished it in about a week, but until I reached the end, I didn’t play any other games at all. Because Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in the U.S.) absorbed me completely.