MontyMole

Are there any modern games where you need to jump a herd of stampeding cattle? There was a time when it was pretty standard and I never questioned the madness until now.

Shuji Utsumi: “We are not a retro company”.

Seiji Aoki: “Shut up, fool”

@Deuteros I’ve nearly purchased the vinyl a few times now, but I’ve got an mp3 bootleg downloaded from audiogalaxy, I think… It’s wobbly and distorted, just like the tv show, so I’m quite fond of it. A nice clean remastered version somehow seems all wrong.

I feel quite lucky having grown up with all these. My kid chain watches episodes of Paw Patrol and I pity his future nostalgia trips!

@Ristar24 Love the MCOG soundtrack. I recommend having a look at Shuki Levi’s IMDb page to see just how many classic 80s animations he scored. He’s like the Morricone of Saturday morning television.

And in case anyone cares for random facts as much as I do, I just found out that the guys who wrote the Willy Fog theme, also scored a heap of 70s Italian exploitation films and even ended up on the Tarantino movie Deathproof.

@Sketcz Thank you! I already ordered a dvd set, but have absolutely no buyers remorse. I know I’m going to love it.

@Sketcz No, and I can’t believe I’ve never heard of it. I first saw MCOG when it was shown on the BBC in the 80s, but don’t ever recall Spartakus. Regardless, it looks incredible. I’m going to try and track down a DVD with English dubs…

Thanks for mentioning this, I think you made my day!

This looks lovely; I still watch Ulysses 31 to this day. Mysterious Cities of Gold deserves some gaming love too. Secret Paths just doesn’t scratch the itch for me.

@Atariboy Well done for being the one to say it. Cognitive dissonance doesn’t stop innocent people from being raped, tortured, maimed and murdered by a millions strong army of ill disciplined barbarians.

The Ukrainians are not fighting a moral war. They were invaded and are forced to defend themselves against some of the worst violent and unspeakable atrocities committed in the modern age. How is there any other moral stance than to support the defence of those poor people who were just minding their own business when the first bombs tore into their schools, playgrounds, hospitals and homes.

@BausRifle “ Anybody that uses the term "toxicity" should be ignored for they can't cope with the real world.”

I’ll just quietly point out your use of the term “toxicity”, in case anyone missed it.

“ I am allowing that part of my brain to entropy, to waste away. It's like a muscle”

Crikey, I tried so many times to write something that would resonate and appease, but it just boils down to “no”. There is no “that part” of your brain. Atrophy and entropy are different. You would almost certainly become slower or worse at the things you used to do that you might now rely on AI to do for you, but not lose those skills entirely and likely regain them quickly.

Edit… I’m with you all the way on the use of AI being negative for all kinds of reasons duly noted, by the way!

I’m most definitely (almost) the target audience for Playdate and this news makes it even more appealing. It looks like such a fun concept and I feel that the world of gaming is sorely missing what would no doubt be widely called gimmicks.

Nope, this is of no interest to me at all.

Just kidding by the way, before I get lynched by angry speccy fans. I swear I played on the run so many times, I could sing the tape loading data into a microphone, plugged directly into a spectrum next and the game would load perfectly.

@Andee Yep, looks like the deveelopment team are floundering.

@sdelfin Crazy isn’t it? I guess at some point the term made its way to the arcades or PC when developers were competing to make their CPU characters behaviour appear more independent. I recall those oversized PC game boxes being plastered with terms like “advanced enemy AI” at some point in the 90s.

@cawley1 “ This new game looks rubbish”

Have to correct you there… it looks like a load of carp.

“ The new game, which is ironically titled James Pond: Rogue AI”

My take is that the advertising is poking fun at the use of AI in game development. I thought the teaser was pretty funny!

The actual irony may well be that they forgot how much the internet loves to hate!

@sdelfin “ I wonder when the label of AI applied to game logic started.”

It’s thought that the term AI was first used publicly at the Dartmouth Workshop (1956) where Arthur Samuel was invited to speak. (Samuel built a “ checkers” machine several years earlier)

So the label of AI was applied to games from the very beginning.

I always had a problem with Deterministic AI being called intelligence, because it’s clearly not.

Pacman doesn’t kick my arse because the ghosts learn my behavioural patterns. It does so, because I’m too lazy to learn theirs.

@Sketcz Yeah, I’m generally against using the block button. I can cope with sharing a world with people who have opposing views, but some of these comments can’t even be categorised as points of view. They’re just venomous and unjustified.

Some people need to remember that this a computer games website and a place to hang out with others who share the same hobby.

I’m all for freedom of speech, but can’t for the life of me understand how anyone could be offended that someone owns some video games consoles. I’m even more confused that anyone would feel the need to sling dirt at them for it. Imagine if you took a game to trade in and the cashier called you a “douchebag” for doing it.

This is one of the few sites I actually comment on and I thought it would turn into a healthy community, given most of us are probably old enough to understand the value of having manners. If folk don’t like the site, or the news, there are a multitude of toxic places on the internet where they can go to throw abuse at like minded people.

@NoirConceit I never heard that Mr X origin story before, but maybe you’re right. It’s noted on the RE wiki that there are early Capcom development documents that refer to Tyrant X, which were apparently sent to merchandise companies etc.

Sensible Soccer cups with my mates (after an afternoon playing football in the park of course.) Some of the best memories of my life.

This whole story has been lacking in any meaningful information from the beginning. The police don’t just raid you for a box of computer games that you bought at auction.

@GhaleonUnlimited “ Nintendo does a nice job with their core properties, but SEGA in the '90s was ridiculous with making "weird" or even "boring" ideas into AAA game experiences.”

I do miss the golden age of Sega and you’re right, but I think Nintendo have shown that they’re just as capable of the same. Luigi’s mansion for instance, is basically a game where the core mechanic is hoovering and it never stops being a fun thing to do somehow.

$80, of course it is!

There’s something great about this era of golf games, although I’ve surprised myself by realising I’d never played a golden tee game! Most of my 10p collection went to Capcom at that time and maybe the simulation style wasn’t too exciting for me, next to Final Fight.

Looking forward to trying these out at last.

@Ristar24 Killer 7 would have been a joy to play with Wiimote aiming. I’m sure there will be more, but I can only think of one 3rd party GameCube port to Wii; RE4 which is still probably the best way to play it outside of a VR headset.

Why does everything have to cost $80 these days?

A list without Avalon or Dragontorc is no list at all

There’s not a lot of information to go on here. I’m actively involved in film preservation and this kind of thing is standard. The worst people are the ones who have something that’s one of a kind and refuse to share, or even worse, don’t bother storing their film reels properly. A lot of the time, owners sit on their property in the stubborn belief that it’s worth more than it really is. Earl Owensby is a recent example. He died the owner of a huge collection of B films that were never made available because of his idea that they were worth a fortune. They’re now slowly being handed out by his estate who realised quite quickly that the collection wasn’t a financial gold mine.

You can’t blame the seller for wanting to get the best price; that’s why they’re selling in the first place. The main hope is that the new buyer treats them with respect.

And as someone above pointed out, the seller is now marked as unreliable. This will definitely make people wary of doing business with them.

If there was a game that played exactly like that promotional photo looks, I am certain that it would be my favourite game of all time. My main would be the lady with the broom.

I’m happy that people who don’t/won’t engage in piracy will finally get a reasonable option to enjoy these games. Remember that the online subscription service is only a platform to hire and shouldn’t affect the physical collectors market greatly.

@Daniel36 If you like Goldeneye, then there’s a lot to like in this game. The main difference is that there are imposed stealth sections in this one, which I always find tedious. Haven’t played it since it was modern, but I spent a heap of time with it, trying to unlock everything. Much recommend if it’s your thing.

@slider1983

“ Remember the NES only took off around Christmas 1990 because of the great pack in of TMNT with an NES. That was to the NES what the Batman Pack did for the Commodore Amiga.”

Yes! I almost mentioned it, but didn’t want to get carried off on a tangent. I would have loved that bundle, but came from a poorer family and the SMB pack was cheaper no doubt. Just as well, because SMB is a certified classic. A lot of the games that are thought of as popular at the time were actually just less expensive and sold well for that reason alone. My grandparents got me excitebike, simply because it was half the price of other games. Nintendo have tried to milk that franchise, but don’t seem to realise that their sales figures are tied to what people were willing to pay at the time.

Not sure how long I’ve been living under a rock, but this is all news to me and it’s crazy how passionate people seem about it.

I was born in late 70s England. Aside from Atari and Pong machines, I only knew home computers and my friends were pretty much exclusively split between Spectrum and C64 users. The marketing was heavily weighted toward learning to code (especially for us Speccy owners.) Parents were no doubt tempted into buying a product that was educational in this sense and my spectrum came with a manual which taught the basics of “Basic”. When consoles appeared on the market, I remember a lot of grown up tutting that they were going to turn our brains to mush.

Consoles weren’t even really marketed to us until the latter end of the NES. I didn’t even know who Mario was until the early 90s. At that point, they were heavily pushed by retailers and playing SMB on the NES for the first time on Christmas Day was an experience I’ll never forget.

But yeah, my point being that there was no console crash here, simply because there wasn’t a peak yet. Most of us young people were unaware of console gaming.

@PopetheRev28 “ I liked this site better when it didn't have opinions on it”

Loving the irony!

For those not in the know, there’s at least one arcade clone of Gals Panic called Miss World Nude 96 (or something very similar,) which rewarded your diligence with a pixelated photo of a lady from one of the worlds five countries. All the while you’re Pacman on drugs, being chased by a giant tarantula and its babies, with a strangely catchy acid house music sample banging in your ear every few seconds. What’s not to like?

@Cronodoug Mobile gaming was a huge market at the time and it was no doubt all about the money. Many people seriously thought that Nintendo should ditch the handheld hardware and go full on mobile. Would have been horrible. Crazy to think how long ago it actually was!

@RetroMasters Freedom of expression is considered a basic human right. While the gore might not be absolutely necessary to the gameplay, it was a core mechanic of the experience and the artists vision. Removing the gore was a pointless act of censorship in the first place.

Absolutely not. Monkey island predates flash by a few years.

I don’t think Ron Gilbert is stereotyping his audience. He is laying to rest a project that he says has defined him publicly The majority audience is clearly those of us who played it in the 90s.

@Hexapus Thanks for that. I’ve been watching anbernic for a while, but they just release so many, it’s hard to keep up.

I’ll check out your link right away, thanks again.

@ludotaku thank you, I’m off to check,that now.

@slider1983

“ The art for Return is pretty bad so I'm not surprised. It looks cheap.”

The art is how Ron Gilbert originally intended the artwork ro be, all those year ago. Obviously it looks so much better now than it would have.

@slider1983 “ Alas those "middle aged baldies" are the ones who are most likely going to buy the game. Funny how that works”

I’m a middle aged baldy and I did buy the game, which is why I felt emboldened to make the comment. I loved it, even if the ending was a reminder of the fact.

What do people recommend for the best experience in retro handheld emulation thingys? This appeals, but I’d want to be able to run at least up to the PS1 generation at a decent level. It needs thumbsticks too.

Actually, I can’t be alone in saying I’d love to read an article which compares a few of the best, taking into account price, quality, functionality and emulation capability. There are just so many hitting the market in a daily basis and Amazon reviews are full of accounts of units that break in a day or two. Make it happen Time Extension. Pretty please!

@N00BiSH You’re right, I was surprised from my google to find how many people love it too. That certainly hasn’t always been the case.

And yeah, Return gets a lot of unearned criticism. Monkey Island fans are a bit like Star Wars fans on the toxicity scale it seems, which is weird because most of them are middle aged baldies who should have better things to do.

@N00BiSH Hey sweet cheeks, that’s the first time I’ve ever been bubbalah’d!

I hear you, but the detractors are a large and vocal bunch too. Just did a quick google for courage and the first thing I came across was a video by some guy sat in his car, literally shouting venomous hatred about the game. 28 years and the wounds are still fresh.

@Zuljaras Getting the tattooed treasure map is probably my favourite point and click puzzle of all time.

The Curse of… doesn’t get nearly the credit it deserves. Probably the best time I had with any of them, which is saying a lot. Larry Ahern’s art is always phenomenal.

This is already a classic and they haven’t even started making it yet.

@R-K “ Also, Persians at the time widely understood Arabic since it was the dominant literary and scholarly language in the region.”

At what time? This was studied for my language degree, albeit 30 or more years ago, so my memory is beyond hazy. I do remember though that there isn’t a definitive era and as you point out, the origin is murky, coming from a man who heard it from a man, who heard it from a man; criss-crossing cultures and languages etc. I hear your argument, but to say my comment” is just wrong”, just isn’t right.

I guess in your defence, if the question is “would Alladin have spoken Arabic”? The best answer is of course”why not”? He’s a folk tale character that’s been verbally recalled around billions of campfires, over many centuries, across a wealth countries, languages and cultures and was granted 3 wishes by a blue genie with probable adhd, as portrayed by Robin Williams.