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from the Editor... Dear Subscribers, For many of us who love retro gaming, our first vivid memories of playing video games consisted of handheld systems in the backseat of the family car on a road trip. In issue 4 we covered the Game Boy and all of those classic titles such as Tetris (more on this gem in this month’s issue!), Super Mario Land and Dr. Mario.
Classic Console Magazine Montpelier, Vermont, USA T: 802 552 8242 http://classicconsolemag.weebly.com/ MAGAZINE TEAM Editor / Josh LaFrance Deputy Editor / Amy Trinanes Contributing Writer / Elena Garcia Contributing Writer / Ross Sillifant Contributing Writer / Ian N.P.U Contributing Writer / John Meadows Contributing Writer / Thomas Spychalski
There was another best selling series of Game Boy titles that launched a worldwide phenomenon and was the beginning of a highly successful franchise still around to this day: Pokemon.
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From the adventures of Pokemon: Red, Blue and Yellow to the puzzle solving fun of Pokemon Puzzle Challenge, we will look at the first two generations of Pokemon games, now considered by most to be retro gaming gems.
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Distributed byJosh LaFrance Montpelier, Vermont, USA T: 802 552 8242
Reader Mail One question we pose to all of our subscribers on the website is the following question: “Is there anything you want to see in a future issue of the magazine?” Below is a collection of responses we have received from YOU, our subscribers! Any development info for retro games such as the hardships and the successes would be cool. -Steven Survival horror evolution. Maybe some gems for certain consoles. Atari stuff other than Activision.
First of all let me just say that I love your magazine. In this new day of attack journalism and fighting amongst various factions in the gaming community, it is great to see that those who love retro games continue to discuss the hobby we all love with respect and integrity. I look forward to each issue to see what will be featured and to check out the retro adverts. Please, please, please do an article on classic racing games. There are more racing games than just Mario Kart. A few titles come to mind: F-Zero, R.C. Pro Am, Super Off-Road and Pole Position come to mind immediately.
He was a huge figure in the modern world of Nintendo and a heavy weight in the video game industry. However, many don’t realize the influence he had on early retro gaming titles, such as Balloon Fight and Earthbound. He also was one of the driving reasons behind the success of Kirby’s Dream Land. Can you guys please write something on this great man? -Josh F.
-Frank S.
Can’t wait to see what you guys have in this month’s issue. Cheers!
I am very interested in learning how to create basic games such as a game for the Atari 2600? Can we get a feature interviewing a current homebrew developer?
-Tony P.
-Jorge R.
-Yuri H.
Worst Arcade conversions!
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I was very saddened to read of the passing of Nintendo great, Satoru Iwata.
What’s in this Issue... REVIEWS 15
INTERVIEWS 33
Luigi’s Mansion Gamecube
32
Pokemon Red and Blue
39
Croc
40
Protect Me Knight
42
Tempura of the Dead XBOX Indie
XBOX Indie
Nic Cusworth Designer of Argonaut Software Fame
FEATURES
Game Boy
PS1
Classic Console | Issue 6 | 2015
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Gamer Memories Mortal Kombat: the Movie
RETRO ADS 9 Mortal Kombat Arcade (1992) 10 Mortal Kombat the Movie (1995) 14 NES (1986) 18 Luigi’s Mansion Gamecube (2001)
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TOP 5
Failed Video Game Consoles
25 Game Boy (1989)
13
10 FUN FACTS ABOUT.. Nintendo
31 Capcom VS SNK Dreamcast (2000)
13
Loss of a Legend Classic Console Says Goodbye to
46 Turbo Outrun Arcade (1989)
Satoru Iwata
19
Pokemon Gotta Catch ‘Em All!
23
Tetris Tips and Tricks
27
Collecting Retro Games A Beginners Guide
44
Shenmue III Kickstarter The Story Finally Continues..
The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited material lost or damaged in the mail. All articles and content (unless otherwise stated) is the copyright of Classic Console Magazine (Legal Entity- Josh LaFrance). Nothing in this magazine may be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of the publisher. All copyrights are recognized and used specifically for the purpose of critic and review, protected under the “fair use” doctrine. Although the magazine has endeavored to ensure all information is correct at time of print, information is subject to change. This magazine is fully independent and not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein.
Copyright © 2014-2015 Classic Console Magazine (Josh LaFrance)
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Mortal Kombat: The Movie By Josh LaFrance
Over the years there has been a plethora of truly great Comic Book based movies as well as movie adaptations of classic literature and best selling books. If so many other properties have been developed into entertaining and successful movies, what has caused there to be such an absence of great movies based on video games? There has been a few exceptions to the rule, but by and large, video game movies have all been a bomb. (Remember the DOOM movie anyone? Yikes...) Today, we will be reminiscing about one such movie that although receiving mixed reviews by critics, was a box office success as well as a cult classic among gamers. This movie went on to spawn sequels as well as a TV series in 1998. That film is Mortal Kombat: the Movie. Released in 1995, Mortal Kombat: the Movie spent 3 7 | Classic Console
weeks at number one in the United States and grossed $122 million dollars, having been made with a budget of $18 million. The movie then went on to be a favorite at movie rental stores everywhere, ensuring it’s success as a gamer cult classic. Mortal Kombat followed closely the journey of Liu Kang, Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, as they battled through a tournament of evil against villain Shang Tsung and his henchmen. This movie’s plot follows the first 2 Mortal Kombat games very closely. You can really tell that those involved in making the film took their time to study the source material, something which is sorely lacking from many video game movie adaptations. So where does this movie fall short? Why are opinions so mixed when it comes to this film? Let me give you my opinion as to why I think it’s great and hopefully this will inspire debate among our readers. (Have an opinion?
Write to us at classicconsolemag@gmail.com and get featured in next month’s issue!)
Campy Goodness
from previous decades and pop culture. Just take the various possible endings after a fight. Does a game where you can end the fight in friendship rather than a fatality seem like something that takes itself very seriously?
One of the reasons the movie got critiqued so harshly by some was in it’s use of corny one liners and not taking itself seriously. People expected a dark movie with moody lighting, expansive sets and locations and a gritty tone. On top of all that, they expected gore and lots of it, after all isn’t that the draw of the games? First of all, the lighting and sets were fantastic. It really felt like you were watching an extension of the game itself. They nailed the locations in which the movie was filmed and that aesthetic really added to the effectiveness of the film.
Fast Paced Action The strong point of Mortal Kombat is where a film based on the fighting genre matters the most: the action sequences.
Second, it can be understandable why to not have all the gore. Let’s face it, most of us were young when we played Mortal Kombat for the first time. Although we could sneak a gory video game into our homes and play it in the comfort of our own living rooms and bedrooms all over the world, it would have been much harder to get into an rated R movie (as they are known in the US). In other countries with tighter restrictions on violence at the cinema, it would have been even more difficult for Mortal Kombat to reach it’s intended audience, which let’s face it, was video game playing young people everywhere. Now let’s get to the first point made, which was the campiness and one-liners. I don’t think Mortal Kombat the movie needed to take itself very serious to be good. If we were really being honest with ourselves, when did the games ever take themselves serious? Every game in the Mortal Kombat series is filled full of fun (albeit hidden) references to other video games, sci-fi movies
The action is fast and furious and the fights are done in a way that seems to border fantasy. In other words, during parts of the film you wonder to yourself, “Is that really humanly possible?”. It is ok to suspend disbelief for the quick 101 minutes that the film lasts, as it is based on a video game that tends to stretch the limits of what is actually possible. Again, the film stays close to the source material.
A Good, Not Great Film I personally love this movie. Sure, it has it’s flaws but through the eyes of a 12 year old gamer (which I was when I first saw it), this film is just awesome 90’s fun! It gets major points for staying close to the original source material (the first 2 games) and having fantastic fight sequences. It loses some points for occasional poor line delivery and bad acting. At the end of the day, you need to take the time and watch this movie if you call yourself a Mortal Kombat fan and haven’t seen it.
Mortal Kombat (1995)- 3 out of 5
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Classic Advertisement- 1992
OP 5 * TOP 5 * Top 5 * TOP 5 * TOP 5 * Top 5 * TOP
FAILED VIDEO GAME CONSOLES 3DO (1993 -1996) Best GameSuper Street Fighter II Turbo Developed by the 3DO corporation, but manufactured primarily by Panasonic, the 3DO was not just a console but rather a set of specifications for a video game system. (Sort of like VHS which was being manufactured by many companies, 2 other companies besides Panasonic also made 3DO consoles.) 3DO ultimately failed due to a few factors, but primarily it was because of the high asking price of $699, far higher than any other console on the market. The system also suffered from a lack of titles and only had one title available at the time of it’s initial offering.
Dreamcast (1998 -2001) Best GameShenmue Thought by some to be the greatest console of all time, SEGA’s Dreamcast is the grandfather of modern gaming. Online gameplay, amazing sports titles, motion controls, arcade perfect ports, the list goes on and on; the Dreamcast delivered on every level. What ultimately was the Dreamcast’s undoing was not any issue with the console itself but rather Sega being unhealthy financially as a company. The Dreamcast was a last gasp of a dying hardware manufacturer, now unfortunately confined to life as a producer of third party titles for many different systems.
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Virtual Boy (1995 -1996) Best GameVirtual Boy Wario Land Nintendo was on top of the world as king of video games in the mid 90’s and looking to hit another home run as the virtual reality craze hit. Unfortunately, interest in this technology far preceded what was actually at the time possible. (We are barely getting functional VR kits now in the year 2015 with Oculus.) It was an unmitigated disaster. Low sales, complaints of users suffering nausea and headaches, not to mention the horrible monochromatic graphics. Nintendo would like to forget about this one.
Pippin (1995 -1997) Best GameSuper Marathon Much in the same way as the 3DO, computer giant Apple created the Pippin as a platform based on the Apple Macintosh line of computers with the sole purpose of establishing an open platform. Apple licensed the rights to the Pippin to 3rd party manufacturers who would build the systems and handle all marketing. Bandai, Katz Media and Daystar all made versions of the console. Lack of marketing sufficient to compete with the Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn doomed it from the start.
Philips CD-i (1991-1998) Best GameZelda’s Adventure When a company is rumored to have lost nearly a billion dollars from a project, it is safe to assume it was a failure. Philips tried to create a system that would offer greater functionality than a regular CD player or game console, and serve in the same capacity as a home computer, but at a much lower price point. The CD-i suffered from poor graphics and horrible game play in most of it’s titles. Due to a licensing agreement, Philips produced several system exclusive Nintendo titles featuring Zelda and Mario. Classic Console | 12
10 FUN FACTS ABOUT
1. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a manufacturer of playing cards. 2. Nintendo owned a taxi cab company called Daiya in the 60s. 3. In 1964 after the failure of several ventures, Nintendo’s stock plummeted, which caused them to enter the toy industry. 4. Nintendo found major success with a series of light gun games in the early 70’s.
1965
5. The Laser Clay Shooting System was developed for arcades using technology from Nintendo’s home light gun games. 6. In 1977, Nintendo released the Color TV-Game home console, which was essentially a clone of Atari’s Pong. 7. Gunpei Yokoi got the idea for the Game and Watch by observing a businessman playing with an LCD calculator on a train.
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1970
8. Due to the video game crash of 1983, American stores were reluctant to carry the NES. Nintendo at that point decided to bundle in the R.O.B. robot add-on and market the NES as a toy instead of a game console. This is also why the main console is referred to as the “Control Deck”. 9. The Super Mario series of games has sold over 262 million units worldwide.
1972
10. By 1995, Nintendo had sold over one billion cartridges worldwide.
The Loss of a Legend Satoru Iwata (1959 - 2015)
On July 11th, 2015, the gaming world lost one of it’s best and brightest when Satoru Iwata lost his battle to cancer. All of us here at Classic Console Magazine send our best wishes and condolences to Mr. Iwata’s family and friends. We know he will be deeply missed by all those who had the pleasure of knowing him. Most recently known as the man responsible for the rebirth of Nintendo and the release of the Wii and Nintendo DS, Iwata also had involvement in many games that retro gamers know and love. Mr. Iwata took an interest in programming and creating games at a very early age. While attending university he began working part time for HAL Laboratory. Iwata’s involvement helped many titles become successful such as Balloon Fight, NES Open Tournament Golf, Earthbound and especially Kirby’s Dream Land, which at the 13 | Classic Console
time was one of Hal Laboratory’s biggest successes and a classic on the Game Boy. When HAL Laboratory was on the verge of bankruptcy, Iwata was promoted to president. He subsequently turned the company around and helped stabilize it’s finances. Taking over as head of Nintendo in 2002, he continued his success by helping turn around a poor launch of the GameCube, fostering a relationship with Capcom, and overseeing the devlopment of the groundbreaking console the Nintendo Wii.
Classic Advertisement- 1986
By Elena García Méndez I don’t remember exactly how I acquired Luigi’s Mansion. It was probably a birthday present from my parents, but one which I picked out myself! The box art portrayed a frightened-looking Luigi surrounded by different ghosts. I thought that the concept of exploring a mansion, all by yourself, and having to clear up rooms and suction up ghosts with a vacuum cleaner was very funny indeed! I have never regretted getting this game and I continue to go back to it once in a while for a little bit of fun. Up to today, I still regard Luigi’s Mansion as one of the best gifts I ever received from my family.
The Luigi’s Mansion Developer Luigi’s Mansion was developed by the imposingsounding Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, the largest department within the Nintendo Company. The many EAD titles range from Super Mario Bros. (1985), to Donkey Kong (1994) and many Legend of Zelda games. Luigi’s Mansion was released in 2001. Since 2004, the EAD has functioned as five individual Kyoto-based teams and one allied group in Tokyo.
Luigi’s Story It all starts when Luigi wins a mansion in a contest (though, suspiciously, without having entered the competition). Despite this, he decides to celebrate and tells his brother Mario to meet him at their new house. After a spooky trip through the forest, Luigi finds out that Mario is nowhere to be found. He decides to investigate the mansion, when he’s attacked by a ghost, leaving him terrified. A strange man then enters, armed with a vacuum cleaner (the Poltergust 3000), and saves Luigi. However, other ghosts show up and they both have to flee to the man’s workshop. Luigi’s rescuer is none other than Professor E. Gadd. Gadd explains to Luigi how the vacuum works, and reveals that he saw Mario entering the mansion but never exiting it. Luigi resolves to fortify himself with courage, and find his brother. Apart from clearing rooms and searching for Mario, you can gather hidden treasure scattered all over the mansion. With the valuables you collect, you will be able to build a new house at the end of the game. The new house will be fitted with luxuries according to the amount of riches you obtain.
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The Poltergust 3000 and the Game Boy Horror So how does Luigi manage to catch the ghosts he encounters? The Poltergust is the solution to all of his— and your—problems! First, you will need to stun the ghosts with the flashlight you are carrying. The ghost will then freeze for a few seconds, revealing it’s heart. You must then act instantly and suction up the ghost! It’s almost like going fishing, hooking and reeling in the ghost! What a great invention Gadd created! (Though each room of the mansion begins in darkness, once you empty a room of ghosts, the lights come on. In this way, the mansion is incrementally illuminated.)
that amounts to! Here are a few rooms and the ghosts which you will encounter: The Study Room: Here you will find Neville, the bookish father, peacefully reading. Watch out for those flying books! To catch Neville, wait until he yawns!
The Conservatory: Meet the beautiful Melody Pianissima, who will test your soundtrack music knowledge by playing tunes from the Super Mario games for you on her piano!
The next tool you will be using is the Game Boy Horror (based on the Game Boy Color console). Gadd kindly gives this to Luigi to aid him in his quest for Mario. This device has several impressive functions, as follows: It indicates where a Boo, a certain type of ghost, is hiding. If there is a Boo in the room, you will notice a yellow light on your Horror device. If you are very near the Boo the Game Boy will show a red light! That’s when you will have to inspect the furniture and shake any Boos out. Don’t let them escape, Luigi! When a room is Boofree, you will see a calming blue light on your Game Boy Horror. This stupendous tool also allows you to scan around the mansion, enabling you to discover secret rooms. Additionally, the Game Boy Horror will indicate how much treasure you have collected, how many ghosts you have captured, on what floor you are currently, and what key belongs to what room. Gadd, you’re a genius!
The Rec Room: If you want to keep fit, just like Biff Atlas, this is the room for you! While Biff is busy lifting weights, knock him down by hitting him in the face with the punch bag!
A Peek at Some of the Mansion Rooms and Their Ghosts
The Clockwork Room: Here you must activate all the clocks that you find. This starts them playing music, causing three clockwork toy soldiers to appear, who begin moving around the room and attacking you! Use your vacuum to capture their wind-up keys! This will freeze them, allowing you to suction each entire soldier.
The mansion consists of three floors, plus a basement and a roof to explore, so you can imagine how much area
The Guest Room: What has happened here? The room is all upside down! You will see a little ghost girl, Sue Classic Console | 16
Pea, trying to take her nap. If you scan her with your Game Boy Horror, she will tell you that she promises she won’t wet the bed. You will have to throw some water at her to awaken her and vacuum her up!
The Lowdown One of the most noticeable characteristics of this game is the astonishing graphic detail. The rooms are filled with many objects such as furniture, paintings, candles, wallpapers, and so on. And if a window is open, you can admire how the breeze moves the curtains. There is hardly a detail missing in this game! The lighting is really impressive. Having Luigi wander the house in darkness with only a flashlight to guide him is the perfect reason to admire what the developers have managed to achieve. This sets the mood for a haunted house for sure! You’ll even notice how the dust rises when you move furniture while tracking the Boos.
The Artist’s Studio: Vincent Van Gore, the starving artist, resides on the third floor of the mansion. He’s deeply angered at Luigi’s sudden intrusion. He begins to bring his ghost portraits to life, and they attack Luigi. As Luigi madly suctions up these new threats, Van Gore counterattacks by painting more portraits and actuates them into assailing ghosts. Once you’ve beaten all of Van Gore’s ghosts, you must then deal with him.
The originality of this game is also splendid. The mansion is huge with plenty of rooms to visit and many ghosts to vacuum. Every ghost has its own personality and name. Thanks to the simple plot, the makers of Luigi’s Mansion have successfully created a very enjoyable game to play. Regarding the soundtrack, perhaps this is where Luigi’s Mansion doesn’t shine. It only has one main theme which Luigi hums while he’s exploring the house. Overall, you will mostly play the game in silence, with the exception of some sound effects (such as Luigi calling Mario’s name in a trembling voice). Considering the gameplay, Luigi’s Mansion is disappointingly short—it is very likely you’ll finish it in six or less hours. The fun is over much too soon! It is also a fairly easy game to finish, which contributes to a quick completion. As for the replay value, you have the option to try to beat the game in the more difficult Hidden Mansion mode. You could also attempt to collect all the hidden treasure and get a rank A.
Don’t Get Scared Stiff, Luigi! Chase those Boos! Luigi accidentally frees fifty Boos, including King Boo (the one behind Mario’s disappearance), from the Storage Room. Since the damage is done, Luigi has no option but to pursue them with the help of his Game Boy Horror. Again Luigi must inspect the furniture for concealed Boos. The Boos can also attack Luigi or go to other rooms and hide. Each Boo has its own name; for example you will face TamBoorine, Boomerang, Boo La La, PeekaBoo, Bootique, Mr Boojangles, and more. If Luigi manages to catch all 50 of these Boos, he will obtain an enormous, golden-hued diamond as a prize.
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Despite these minor flaws, Luigi’s Mansion surely qualifies as a classic. It is a very fun and entertaining game that you won’t tire of, and it deserves a rating of five stars.
Luigi’s Mansion (2001) Platform: Gamecube Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo EAD 1 Player
Classic Advertisement- 2001
By Josh LaFrance A franchise which is almost 20 years old, responsible for an industry of over 30 billion dollars worth of merchandise such as comics, movies and toys and the sale of 200 million copies of video games is sure to leave a lasting cultural impact. Pokemon swept the world by storm, introduced a whole generation of kids to video games and consumed many of us for years as we attempted to “catch ‘em all�! Pokemon recently hit a milestone, becoming the second most successful video game based media franchise in the world, behind that of our beloved Koopa fighting plumber, Mario. The early Pokemon games are mentioned frequently in the same breath as other great retro gaming titles such as Dragon Quest and The Legend of Zelda. Pokemon brought a new game mechanic to the table combining RolePlaying and Adventure with the fun of collecting. 19 | Classic Console
Early Beginnings Pokemon (translated to “Pocket Monsters” in Japan) began in the mind of Pokemon founder and a man many consider the savior of handheld gaming, Satoshi Tajari. Tajari thought back to his days collecting insects as a child and the friendships and comradery that grew out of that hobby when invsioning the fictional Pokemon universe. The main goal of the games is in the collecting and training of Pokemon, doing battle against wild Pokemon while on your adventure and at stops in towns along the way, battling other trainers at gyms. There are 721 known species of fictional Pokemon monsters and part of the allure of the games is in the strategy that can take place when one is building their team of monsters.
Gotta Catch ‘Em All In most versions of the Pokemon universe a trainer can capture a wild Pokemon by wearing down it’s stamina in battle and utilizing a device known as a Poke Ball (pictured right) to capture the creature. Once captured, the Pokemon is entered as part of your collection. The real strategy lies in figuring out which Pokemon out of your collection will comprise your team and there are many schools of thought in this department. The most common wisdom for beginners however is to strive for relative balance. In the Pokemon universe (at least among the classic games from the first 2 generations we will be talking about in this issue) there are approximately 15 different types of Pokemon. These types are for the most part based on natural elements (i.e. fire, water, ground, electric etc.) and have a huge influence in your success or failure as a trainer. For instance, if fighting a water Pokemon, know that fire Pokemon deal poor damage and are also very vulnerable to attack from water. Another common sense example would be electric Pokemon being unable to do any damage to a ground Pokemon. It is clear from looking at the interaction between varous types of Pokemon that the universe was designed to perfection and every strategic decision one makes has consequences.
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Left: A chart of all Pokemon types from the first 2 generations. Later games added additional types such as Steel and Fairy. 2= Double Damage 1/2= Half Damage 0= No Damage
Training Tip At the beginning of Pokemon Red and Blue you begin by choosing a Pokemon to start with you on your journey. After that it is up to you to capture wild Pokemon to accompany you on your adventure. As you progress through the game you will undoubtably catch some needed Pokemon for your collection that are very low in level. So what does one do to train up weak Pokemon when all you keep running into is level 20 or higher? Here is a little known tip: Set up your team so that the weakest Pokemon is first. That will cause them to come out initially when you run into a wild Pokemon. On your first turn, use it to switch to one of your strong Pokemon. Do not leave the weak one in there to face the attack. Once you defeat the wild Pokemon with the strong one, the game will split experience points up and give them out to each Pokemon that was present during the battle. Even though your little weakling was only present for one turn, it still gets some points and can level up over time.
Practice Makes Perfect The thing most addictive about Pokemon is the strategy and the active community of people who play the game. Back in the days of the original classics Red and Blue (and later Yellow) this consisted of playing with your friends via link cable. But now that emulators exist with online play capability (also the newer titles contain online match making) you can practice against live opponents to hone your skills and test out your different teams. It is the constant strategy, planning and collecting of Pokemon that endears it to millions all over the globe. 21 | Classic Console
Tips and Tricks #1 Learn the piecesInstead of just diving right in and playing, take time to learn the pieces and visualize different combinations that will allow the various pieces to fit together. When playing, think of it as a giant puzzle and always be planning ahead to the next move. Don’t worry about speed, that will come later.
#2 play Horizontally not verticallyTry to place the pieces as low as possible. Don’t build up huge narrow gaps and wait for the I piece to come and save the day. The lower you can keep the wall of blocks the more time you will have to play, especially in later rounds when the gameplay gets more frantic. Give yourself room to work.
Left: Avoid leaving large columns and waiting for an I piece to show up.
Above: Tetris on the Game Boy is one of the top selling video games of all time. 23 | Classic Console
#3 Watch the next spaceSee the space marked next? Make sure you keep an eye on that. Advanced Tetris players are able to keep an eye on the space and figure out where the next piece is going to go before they receive it. Staying one step ahead is the key to the game once the speed picks up.
TETRIS HIGH SCORES 1. Jeff Craggy- 2,072,133 Points 2. Stephen Krogman- 1,648,905 Points 3. James P Clewett- 1,531,771 Points 4. Julian Brummitt- 658,620 Points 5. Zachary B Hample- 572,149 Points 6. Jeffrey D. Lowe, Jr.- 291,077 Points 7. Misty Kowell- 192,041 Points 8. Patrick Scott Patterson- 168,880 Points 9. Ron Corcoran- 110,836 Points 10. David Nelson- 100,545 Points Classic Console | 24
Classic Advertisement- 1989
Guide to Collecting Retro Games By Thomas Spychalski One of the biggest questions you hear across retro gaming communities is where to find games and where to find them cheap. This is not as hard as it sounds but you have to be lucky enough to live an area where decent stuff can be found and also put a little time into it.
know it is something someone else will want and buy or perhaps trade.
I have been playing video games since the days of ColecoVision and Atari and have owned (and sold/lost) many consoles and games over the years, including many I wish I still had. Recently real life has come and bitten me on the backside so having a gaming ‘budget’ is out of the question. Even with a large amount of financial strain though I think I have come out pretty well with semi-limited effort and very limited funds.
Location, Location, Location:
Keep in mind though that primarily I will buy a game or console for two reasons: I want to play it myself or I 27 | Classic Console
I would always love to buy games complete in box but if I see a game loose that I want at cheaper than resale or retail value I will go for it.
The first part is where to find these retro and new gems to add to your collection. The most obvious would of course be a game store and if there is a retro game store near you they might price fairly for items or they may want the higher end of it’s value usually determined by E-Bay auctions and price charting websites. Thrift stores, charity shops, yard/garage sales,
Goodwill and flea markets are the standard places to go out looking for retro gaming items in the ‘wild’ as it is called. Some collectors may have an abundance of choices in this regard while others might find slim pickings depending on their location across the world. Some charity retail shops never have any gaming items or at least anything worthwhile, while others have items that are vastly overpriced. Of course in modern times we have the wonders of the internet and sites like E-Bay where you can virtually shop for all kinds of goods from both stores and individual resellers. There are also various groups and forums all across the internet that have an area where people can buy or trade games with other gamers.
for specific consoles, but on past trips to a local Salvation Army there was no way I am letting a copy of Wii Sports Resort complete in box near mint for four dollars and Tatsunoko VS. Capcom for the Wii for two dollars with a flawless disc go any longer without a home. At worst I could trade for a game I want or resell them myself or (as my Gamecube seems to inching towards death) I could search for a cheap early generation Wii and have two decent games ready to play when I get it. A lot of you guys probably know much of this stuff but the Wii Resort titles still have a decent value and the Capcom “VS” games are still worth a decent amount and are great games to play as well.
Where ever you look for games, first you should probably read up on the subject matter at hand. Kinda Like A Powerup: It is of course a good idea to get yourself some knowledge of what may be out there. If you go to your local charity shop and what you mostly see is PS1 and PS2 games, you might want to know what the rarest titles are, that way a Misadventures of Tron Bonne or Rule of Rose doesn’t slip through your fingers.
A lot of info like this can be gathered by just putting phrases into a search engine like Google: “Rarest Nintendo NES games, top ten rarest video games of all time etc etc etc...” Again, I purchase stuff to play it but I’d feel stupid if I passed up on a game that would let me buy a new retro console and a few games. No Strain, No Games:
In my searches as I said I am looking for games
If you search You Tube for videos where people film their game hunting expeditions, you might be shocked by what people find. I watched a guy who has a show called LGR Thrifts find a copy of Intelligent Cube for the PS1 for under a dollar, a game I have always wanted since my friend had it in my youth Classic Console | 28
and we played the hell out of it. The game is (for my nonexistent budget anyway) a little too highly priced and I cetainly wished I could find stuff like that. If you watch a lot of videos like these you will notice they are driving all over the place and some of these guys have game hunting videos numbering in the hundreds already. They are out there doing this several times a week and across a vast geographical area.
When going to yard/garage/boot sales, ask the people selling if they have any video game items. I usually just say electronics and then also say games because some people might not have any idea what they have and no clue what in the world a ‘Nintendo 64’ is.
Same thing with E-Bay, as even though using my method (which I will explain briefly later) I have not gotten anything mind blowing, I do get good deals. Like a complete Soul Cabilur Two for the PS2 complete with the Namco demo disk for one dollar and thirty one cents with free shipping. Not exactly Stadium Events for a dollar or anything, but still a great copy of a game I wanted at a cheap price and complete as well. A lot of effort was spent losing auctions and seeing things go above what I was willing to pay before I got some really good prices. Patience and time were needed to get good results. So to have a shot at getting some cool stuff you are going to have go early, go often and be diligent... like some kind of kooky game hunting ninja I suppose. Tips & Tricks: I am not by any means an expert on this subject nor will I ever claim to be. I just have a passion for video games and wanted to be able to still have them in my life without having to have a lot of money. That does not mean that through watching others do this online and through research and experience I have not gotten the hang of how some of the basics work: 29 | Classic Console
Search charity stores thoroughly and carefully, even where you might not think there will be games. Games can be stocked with the books, VHS tapes, DVDs and CDs. Consoles are usually in electronics but depending on the store something video game related could be anywhere. Plus if you see a game console, even if you are not interested in buying it, look to see if there is a game in there and if a valuable or rare accessory is attached to it. If you have a smartphone, use it to check prices with your method of choice. If dealing with a seller at a flea market or garage sale, don’t be afraid to talk to ask for a better deal or to haggle a bit. Most people just want cash fast for
the item unless they are a dedicated reseller going by E-Bay prices. Having a set number in mind for what you will pay for a game or console can keep you from overspending. When going to a thrift store I will not pay over five dollars for a game (not that I’m not going to pay more than that for Earthbound or some game I really want to play of course) and twenty dollars for a console.
Good deals can be found on retail game sites like JJ Games and Lukie Games. Search for the systems that have cosmetic damage that function perfectly. Case Study: Let us take a brief look at what this kind of hard work can do if you have patience and time. Earlier this year I decided I wanted a slim PS2 and some games.
baseball game. I messaged the seller and asked if he could switch the baseball title for another one, and he switched it to Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2.
That package was fifty nine dollars and free shipping. However, when the PS2 arrived it had problems playing due to an issue with the hinge on the disk drive cover. So the wonderful reseller sent me another working PS2 and told me to keep the other one for my inconvenience. The ‘broken’ PS2 works if it has a small weight on the drive’s hinge so that is two PS2s and games and a composite cable for under sixty dollars. I now have about thirty plus games for about $150 total with seven months of work. Those items added up to about $300 dollars on the website Video Game Price Charting. Anyone can get at least some of the games they want for not a lot of money if they just take the time to learn about gaming history and thoroughly scour in each dark corner looking for what they want.
Hitting Ebay for about two weeks, looking at a ton of posts and losing quite a few good auctions, I finally won on a decent one: A slim PS2 with the composite A/V cables, one controller, one power cord and a few games. The games were GTA: San Andreas, Simpson’s Hit N’ Run, Narnia, Flushed Away and a random
Hope you enjoyed this beginners guide to cheap game collecting and happy hunting! Stay tuned next month as Classic Console Magazine explores the best options online for buying and trading retro games. Classic Console | 30
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REVIEW POKEMON RED / BLUE GAME BOY
Pokemon started a gaming revolution. With it’s mixture of Action, Strategy, Adventure and RPG gameplay, Pokemon launched a billion dollar franchise and scores of copy-cats. By Josh LaFrance I can remember the first time I ever played Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue. My younger brother received both for Christmas along with a Game Boy. I would sneak into his room after he would go to bed (as he went to sleep earlier than I did, being younger and all) and steal one of the cartridges to play on my Game Boy. (I think I played red first, memory is hazy) The early Pokemon games are truly perfection and it is easy to see why they sold so many copies. One can spend hours playing the game without realizing how much time has actually passed. A quick synopsis: you are a kid named Ash (unless you decided to change your name at the beginning) who dreams of becoming a famous Pokemon trainer. In order to achieve this dream, you travel from Gym to Gym and town to town, battling Pokemon collectors such as yourself and champions on your quest to become a true Pokemon master. Pokemon is a traditional JRPG mixed with adventure and the fun of collecting. In the early Pokemon games such as these, there were 151 Pokemon. It is the personality of the game and the adventure of learning about and collecting all the Pokemon that set this game apart from so many of the other RPGs that existed on handhelds and specifically the Game Boy. There are only slight differences between Pokemon Red and Blue, with the story being exactly the same between both games, so it isn’t necessary to own both as you can still get the full experience with either one. This game deserves a solid 5 out of 5, as it is one of the greatest games of all time and probably the second best title on the Game Boy (behind Tetris of course). The newer Pokemon games are fun as well, but there is something special about the first games, it has that little bit of extra charm that keeps drawing you back to it every time. Classic Console | 32
CLASSIC CONSOLE INTERVIEWS...
NIC CUSWORTH
Ross Sillifant brings us yet another great interview this month as he talks to game designer Nic Cusworth. Nic is currently Lead Designer at Exient Malta, but has previously worked at Real Upte Ltd., Lucasfilm Animation Singapore, as well as Ideal Works 3D. However, it’s his time as Lead designer/Producer at Argonaut Games that Ross really wanted to chat to him about. Ross Sillifant: Vortex was one of the few SNES Games to use the then ‘much-hyped’ Super FX Chip, but by god did it use it to great effect, not only was it technically fantastic, but a rock-solid game to boot. I’ve always been a firm believer that new technology should be paired with solid gameplay. What are your memories of the game and would it be fair to say in some areas it was ahead of it’s time? The Jaguar press (rightfully) praised Cybermorph (ATD) for the morphing craft, but you guys were there 1st with Vortex (though technically Cybermorph started out on the ill-fated Panther console).
but there was very little gameplay designed around it. When I came on to work on it I created new maps for the game to try and make use of the different mechanics associated with the mech. The map design for that game was really interesting. There was no editor per se. Instead, the maps were created as 2D bitmaps in Deluxe Paint on the PC. There was a set palette with each color representing a different 3D prefab that could be used in the scene. It was really tricky to balance getting enough objects in scene versus frame rate and I think we really pushed the version 1 Super FX chip. If I remember correctly we did have it running on the second revision of the Super FX chip but it was too costly for the publisher to make the switch.
Nic Cusworth: Vortex was the first commercial game I worked on and was my first project at Argonaut. Originally it was a game that Michael Powell from Particle Systems was working on out of house but it was brought in-house about 6 or so months before it needed to ship. The team was really small, about 3-4 people and it was a great first experience. The Morphing craft was already there 33 | Classic Console
As a game - it reviewed really well when it came out but I wouldn’t say it stands up today. I took a look at it recently and I couldn’t get along with the controls. My biggest regret though is the ‘Star Fox’ style levels. The engine wasn’t really designed around that kind of gameplay but the publisher really wanted to get them in. To this day I still remember the level skip code so I could skip past the first level. It’s CTGFX :) It was a very odd choice to have the
worst level in the game as the first level you play. There’s also some confusion about Vortex’s origins. Argonaut was working on a Super FX chip Transformers game which never came out. This lead to conclusions that Vortex was the Transformers game but they were completely separate projects. RS: Sticking with the aspect of the Super FX chip, what was it like working on what was then, cutting edge 3D on a console? I know via some clever coding routines the Mega Drive had been doing 3D/ Polygon games before, but the Super FX chip was when things started to get more interesting.
I know Jez (San, founder of Argonaut Games) had hoped a lot more games on SNES would use it and i’m aware that a few tried (Factor 5 with an attempt to do Indy Jones And The Infernal Machine on it, but it proved too slow for what they wanted), but was it kind of frustrating that consoles needed the extra math
chips to do what you wanted? NC: On one hand it was amazing and on the other hand it was pretty limiting. The Super FX was really fantastic for the time, but as a designer you were very limited in what you could do with that amount of processing power. I think the best use of the chip was obviously Star Fox, which is a stunning game, but also Yoshi’s Island which used the chip for all the sprite scaling and rotation. We’d never really considered using it for 2D internally as Argonaut was always focused on 3D games. It was also risky to use for projects as the cost of the carts were significantly more expensive than a standard cart. We had a few interesting ideas internally that never made it beyond paper. And then Star Fox 2 was pulled as well as FX Fighter, which meant there weren’t as many games released for it as there should have been. RS: Were Argonaut aware of the competition, for instance: Sega’s SVP chip, then later platforms like Jaguar, 3DO etc.? I believe Argonaut were supposed to be doing hardware for the CD-i 2, in terms of it’s 3D abilities? (But as I write that’s very vague in my head.) I just wonder if there was ever a feeling of someone else over-taking Argonaut in the realm of console 3D at that time. NC: We were always on top of the new consoles and technology being developed. I’m not sure about the SVP chip and we weren’t developing anything for Sega at the time. I know they took a different approach
architecturally to the Super FX chip, but I’m not a chip designer so I couldn’t really tell you details.
3D for the SNES. Of course all that changed in the next generation of consoles.
We had early 3DO dev kits and Creature Shock was being developed for that. And yes - we were in talks to do the chip set for the CD-i 2 and also a VR Console for Hasbro that never saw the light of day. I remember working on some pitches for games for both devices.
RS: I’m going to have to ask you about Jaguar CD’s Creature Shock, as it’s a game that still often seems to generate a lot of interest within the Jaguar community, as it was heavily promoted by Atari at the time.
Because Argonaut was more than a technology company I don’t think there was ever a feeling of being left behind. The software rendering tech being developed (BRender) was something pretty special so we weren’t betting the company on new hardware for platform holders, I don’t think. I wasn’t heavily involved in those aspects of the company so I might be wrong! RS: Do you think Jez and team came away rather disappointed, regarding the whole Super FX chip era? I remember him talking to C+VG Magazine, saying once that the Konami’s, Capcoms etc. would be keen to try it out but wouldn’t use it, due to the cost. However the likes of Microprose, T+E software etc. would for their polygon-based games and once the market understood what the chip could do, you’d see a widespread uptake of it.. yet this never happened. NC: I don’t know if they were disappointed with the uptake of the SFX chip. It certainly opened a lot of doors developing a chip for Nintendo. You have to remember at the time the likes of Konami and Capcom were primarily 2D developers and I would guess that they were not really tooled up to invest heavily in
I’ve attempted to dig as deep as I can into finding out how far along it got and thus have been lucky enough to speak to the likes of: Mike Fulton, who converted Generic FMV from it to video files the Jaguar could read, along with Darryl Still (Ex-Atari UK PR) who told me Atari wanted it, yet couldn’t sign Jez up for a deal and couldn’t afford to do the game themselves. I’ve also seen interviews with Jez, where in 1998 he told Edge Magazine that he never did ANY Jaguar games, as the platform was far too risky (commercially) to develop for. I later had a good friend of mine put question to him in a RetroGamer Magazine interview in 2015, but Jez admitted his memory was hazy on the subject (understandable given amount of time passed) and
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thinks the game might have been started, (possibly along with other Jaguar projects) but further into the interview he seemed to think the Mega Drive was a ‘ 2D Only box’ , yet lots of polygon games were ported to it from the ST/Amiga.
NC: It was a game of it’s time - and maybe it was a little too late to market to really capitalize on the FMV game market. I wasn’t totally ‘shocked’ by the reviews. It was eye candy before gameplay.
good shooter :)
So.. ANY insights you could add to the jigsaw would be most welcome.
RS: Returning to the Lost Games vibe, I have to ask what ever happened to the likes of: Starsky and Hutch 2 on Xbox/PC/PS2? any information would be most welcome. If you’d rather not talk about projects that sadly never made it, I fully understand.
NC: I know we had dev kits. I can recall them coming in. I remember the tech department were looking at them but I’m not sure they went out to the dev teams. Creature Shock was being ported to anything with a CD and I do think porting work probably started for the Jag.
NC: I’m not sure I’m the best person to talk to about Starsky and Hutch 2 as I only joined the team towards the end of development. I know development was running long and there was a lot of interference. However the city and driving were pretty fun from what I remember!
I can’t speak for Jez but I would assume it never surfaced for a few reasons. We were probably asking a bunch of money for the port and also Jez was smart in always seeing the next thing, and the Jag wasn’t it. Creature Shock was an interesting project and definitely of it’s time. Wouldn’t say it was a great game by any stretch of the imagination but I remember seeing a very early demo of it when I did my interview at Argonaut and it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I was a big fan of Galaxian 3 at the time and we did some development on a game a bit like that, with FMV backgrounds and polys overlaid but it never saw the light of day. RS: What was your involvement with all versions of Creature Shock and going by it’s...ahem, ‘mixed’ reaction from the press at the time, were you surprised to see it appear on so many platforms?. Also, as a designer, did your heart sink when the likes of the UK press pulled the usual stunt: hyping game up at preview, only to lay into it at review?. 35 | Classic Console
Pretty much everyone who worked at Argonaut at the time worked on Creature Shock. I did a couple of weeks work on the PC version scripting the Star Fox style shooter sections. I also worked on the PS1/ Saturn version, again reworking the shooter sections. I remember we created a nice scripting language for the console version. It was pretty flexible and one of the coders created a really great Asteroids clone using it that we wanted to include as an Easter Egg but I think we thought it was too risky to include. RS: Were you ever tempted to do any Mega Drive or MCD coding? And was there anything on either Sega platform at the time that made you ‘up your game’ (no pun intended) on your SNES projects?. NC: I have a feeling we were planning either Creature Shock or Alien Odyssey for the MCD. We had some nice FMV decoding working on it but nothing really in development that I remember. The Saturn was really the first Sega console we worked on. Personally I was a fan of the Mega Drive. Gunstar Heroes is one of my favorite games and Sonic was just stunning looking. There were also some good shooters. Being a PC Engine fan boy I really appreciated a
RS: I couldn’t conduct any sort of ‘interview’ without covering the Croc series, but again here, I’m going to take a different approach, it’s my understanding that Croc not only started out on the Sega Saturn, (gasp!), but was in the very early stages quite a different game.
Is this correct? Also, had things been different.. it, along with Mev Dinc’s (canned) Hodja (on PS1) would have beaten Mario 64 to the stage (something I’m sure Nintendo would not have been happy about). Given your working relationship with Nintendo, was there any feeling they might not be overly keen on Argonaut doing a similar game for ‘rival’ platforms? NC: Croc did indeed start out as a Saturn tech demo. Tony and Lewis
(lead coders on Croc) were tasked with investigating the new hardware that was coming up and they got this demo of a Croc running down some snowy tunnels (at least that’s what I remember) doing some basic movement and jumps. There wasn’t much of a game there at the time. It really was just an investigation of what was possible. Once Creature Shock DX wrapped I got involved and we started work on taking some of that tech to the PS1 and formed a team to make Croc. I’m honestly not familiar with Hodja. I know when we started work on Croc there wasn’t really any reference for what a ‘mascot’ 3D platformer could be. The closest thing was probably Jumping Flash. In approaching the design of Croc we took a 2D platformer approach and added a 3rd dimension. The editor was similar to a 2D editor like TUME but set in a cube. The art team created tiles that fit on a grid and the levels were made out of these prefabs. It’s something you see a lot more of now with games like Pokemon taking their 2D maps into 3D but it was more of an example of not really knowing even how to build a game like that! During development we started to see a few 3D platformers come to market. I remember seeing Bubsy and also E3 footage of Crash Bandicoot. Everyone was exploring
how to make a genre that was pretty much perfected in 2D and bring it into 3D. Of course when Mario 64 came out it set the benchmark that even now few games achieve. I am pretty sure Nintendo has a time machine. I don’t know much about what was going on on the business side of Argonaut at the time but with the PS1 and Saturn coming out we seemed to be doing a lot less work for Nintendo. The last game we started work on for them was FX Fighter
Tomb Raider, which was concept tested a year before BC Racers was finished, was delayed due to the technology that wasn’t avaiable at the time. (Core couldn’t get it to work). How did the Croc Team over come the issue?. NC: Oh man - don’t talk to me about cameras. That was one of the biggest challenges of the time and to see Nintendo nail it in Mario 64 showed just how great they are. It’s still the archetype today. Croc 1 was built around digital controls. We got the PS1 Analog Stick really close to the end of development and it was too late (and too risky) to build the game around an Analog input. The controls ended up being basically remapped to the Analog Stick. So the camera in Croc 1 was pretty simple. It stuck to Croc’s back and had a little bit of damping so it didn’t seem too ridged.
but like Star Fox 2 it was cancelled to make way for the N64 and leave some room for Killer Instinct on the SNES. RS: The one thing that always seemed to come to the fore, when dealing with 3D platformers in the PS1/N64/Saturn era was the issue of how best to implement a workable camera (In fact it was the reason
Croc 2 on the other hand was a complete disaster with regards to the camera. We built the game around the Analog controls this time, which vastly improved the feel of movement, but the camera (on reflection) was just awful. The problem was - we got used to it while we developed the game. The team for Croc 2 was still pretty small, which was probably another mistake, with people wearing lots of different hats. If we’d had more
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resources we could have dedicated someone to the camera system. It’s a real shame as I think there is loads of great content in Croc 2. I’m proud of the variety throughout the game.
around the strengths of the PS1 to work. It was horrible to see and they did an amazing job. So when that infamous bug showed up it was kinda heart breaking as that’s what everyone remembers and it was nothing to do with them. As to why just his head disappears... I have absolutely no idea. RS: As for the game Croc 3, sadly I believe it never got beyond the proposal stages, yet someone seems to have fabricated an entire story claiming other wise online. (and I thought some of the Jaguar/Lynx Lost game claims out there were bizarre) Would you like a crack at Croc 3, via something like Kickstarter I wonder?
There was a lot of ambition. With a few more people on the team and little more time it could have been something really special. I personally prefer it as a game. I really wish the PC port had pushed the draw distance out further. I’d love to have seen some of those levels without the fog. Any hackers out there want to give it go?! RS: I have to ask-how on earth did THAT BUG on Saturn Croc slip out? poor sod had no head :-). NC: It was a bug in the Saturn OS I believe and it would have been impossible for the Saturn team to have replicated it on a dev kit as (from what I remember) it only happens if you boot the console with the disk in - right? I have to give a shout out to the guys who ported Croc to Saturn. It was three guys in a tiny room, struggling with the Saturn’s crazy hardware quirks and trying to get a game built
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NC: You know - as I get older... I’m starting to work with people that grew up playing Croc and loved the game. It was really bitter sweet at the time because the press really ripped into the original game. I think we got a bit disillusioned after Croc 2. And the market was changing to cater for more ‘mature’ games, something I’ve never really found that appealing. If you’d asked me a few years ago I’d have said no one would want it. But there seems to be a lot of people with fond memories of the games. Also - new tools and distribution methods mean you don’t have to make the next big blockbuster to be successful. Personally - I would love to make another 3D platformer, and feel like over the next few years you’re going to see a lot more people start to make them again. I saw some guys from Rare have formed a team to make the spiritual successor to
Banjo - right?
I still remember some of the ideas I pitched for Croc 3 and they were pretty revolutionary and not something I’ve seen too much of outside of MMOs (the pitch doc was circa 2002). Don’t get me wrong - it wasn’t the Croc MMO but it was online... I’ve said too much :) As for seeing Croc 3 on Kickstarter, a lot of things would have to fall into place. I’d only do it if members of the original team were up for it. Croc was that team, and we had a great dynamic. RS: A lot has been said over the years of how poor Saturn was at 3D. Others say, nonsense, you just had to code for it properly. Yet sadly, the tools Sega provided were rubbish, Sega kept the best for themselves, didn’t want external games to look better than in-house stuff (tin foil hats at the ready here)...etc etc. We all know Sega knee-jerked with saturn, thinking Jaguar, 3DO etc were only real competition, then Playstation’s tech specs hit, Just how much of a nightmare was it to work on and could, given time, the hardware been pushed further
in your opinion?. NC: I’m thinking if I ever directly worked on a Saturn game. Creature Shock came out for the Saturn but it was hardly pushing either console. Croc was ported separate as I’ve already mentioned. All I can really say is that the PS1 was a joy to develop for. It still had a few quirks but you could work around them. The Saturn on the other hand just seemed like a nightmare.
NC: This is a difficult question to answer because for some reason free-to-play is really polarizing the industry. I personally don’t get it and I don’t really see why people should care if a game is free to download and then has opportunities to put money into the game if you like it versus paying upfront for something they might/might not like.
challenges. And free-to-play doesn’t mean free-to-develop. These games still cost a lot of money to make and there’s a lot of risk involved in producing high quality free-to-play games.
I can only speak for myself, and my attitude to free-to-play. I got a good education into the how’s and why’s of free-to-play when working out in Singapore on an MMO. Working with a Korean designer he explained that piracy was so bad in the early days of the Korean game industry that companies were going under. So a new pricing model was created that satisfied the markets. Take the game for free and if you like it and want more out of it, pay a little.
there to make the kind of games you want to make, so go do that instead. Don’t waste energy on something that you think is negative. Life’s too short.
So my ‘words of wisdom’ would be for people in the industry, if you don’t like them - don’t make them. There’s so many different opportunities out
There were some great games for the System but it was completely overshadowed by the PS1 hardware and marketing campaign. But hey Radiant Silvergun! RS: All utter long shots, but do you know if any code still exists of the CANNED, 3rd person version of Alien Res. on PS1 or if they ever had started on the planned DC version? Also, how about development of Croc for the Dreamcast? NC: I wasn’t involved with Alien Res so I don’t know if anything exists from back then. I remember the day I walked in to the studio and the game had switched (seemingly overnight) to a 1st person game and it suddenly looked awesome! I don’t know what the plans were for a DC port. Personally - I loved the Dreamcast, and still do. It’s a shame I never got to work on it. I still have one hooked up to the TV. I can say that beyond some discussions, development of Croc for the Dreamcast never started. RS: Moving onto your later works, Angry Birds GO!, now if I said F2P and Cart Racing, lot of my long term gamer friends would inwardly groan, but do you feel there’s a degree of ‘Snobbery’ or ‘Elitism’ within the industry?.
Designing free-to-play games is definitely a challenge and you have to develop a whole new skill set. But the reason I do this job is to learn something new every day. I’ve been making games since I was a kid, and professionally for 22 years. I’d hate to come into work every day and just rinse and repeat my skills. Free-to-play offers unique design
RS: I’ve wasted lordy knows how much money over the years on overhyped, over-scored games that I am told you ‘have’ to enjoy, yet there’s been games that pulled in 4/10 that I just couldn’t stop playing. We aren’t drones and the industry is big enough to support all tastes, right?. So....are we, as gamers, still too wrapped up in review scores and pushing our ideas as to what is quality gaming onto others, I wonder?. NC: I couldn’t agree more. I have so many not-so guilty pleasures. There are a lot of games out there that didn’t get a fair chance because they Classic Console | 38
were reviewed badly, or marketed poorly. I’m going to throw out a leftfield example. ‘MySims Agents’. I absolutely loved that game. It was a great adventure game with humor and charm. I hadn’t played a game to completion for ages but I finished that. People look at me weird when I recommend it but I thought it was great.
and most of the time you’re free to make up your own mind if a game is good because more then likely you can download it for free. It’s a lot like TV.
The games I’ve worked on have often been polarizing. The Clone Wars game for the Nintendo DS is a good example. IGN were the only reviewers to give it a good score. The rest were wrapped up in the whole ‘George Lucas is evil’ and ‘Star Wars is ruined’. I think we created a really authentic Star Wars game that pushed the DS. Sure - I wish we’d had another 2 months on the thing but I’m proud of that game.
RS: What does the future hold for you Nic, Croc 3 via a VR headset perhaps?*
Croc 1 is another good example. The press crushed it but it want on to sell really well and is fondly remembered. What I like about the mobile space is users review games in the App Store
I don’t seek out reviews for a show before I watch it. I watch an episode and see if I like it and make up my own mind.
NC: Ha! Not sure about that. For me, I just look for variety. I like to challenge myself by working in new genres. I really I just want to make games that people have fun playing. VR is interesting and I was an early backer of the Rift. I haven’t had a lot of time to play with it but I did make a version of the 2001 wormhole for it that was a trip :) I guess I’m excited by the tools we have to make games. To think about the amount of work we put into making the Croc engine and then look at something like Unity and Exient’s
internal tech. It’s mind blowing. RS: Finally, any messages for your fans out there Nic?. NC: I’m not sure there are many fans of me out there :) If I’ve working on something you’ve loved, I’m flattered and eternally grateful for your support! From the time I first saw a Space Invaders machine I’ve known this is what I wanted to do with my life and I’m thankful I’ve been able to work with some great people on some great titles. On behalf of myself and everyone at Classic Console Magazine, I would like to thank Nic for taking part in this interview and sharing with us such wonderful insights. It’s been a fantastic interview to do and has delivered some fantastic stories. I hope the readers enjoy reading it as much as I did doing it. Watch for next month, as Ross interviews Harry Holmwood and we learn stories behind the scenes of the Sony Playstation launch, as well as many other things from a game industry veteran.
What happens when you take the best parts of Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot and combine them together in a creative new world? You get Croc: Legend of the Gobbos.
Developer: Argonaut Software Publisher: Fox Interactive Year Released: 1997 Platforms: PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Microsoft Windows
Croc builds upon the best parts of games from the 3d platforming genre. This results in a game that is highly derivative of the titles that influenced it, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing: “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” In a story that borrows from yet another perennial favorite, (think little blue hedgehog), players wage the battle of good vs. evil. Croc’s home is under attack by Baron Dante and his henchmen. Croc’s Gobbo friends are taken hostage by the Baron and Croc is the only one who can save them. As the player fights through each level, they must collect gems. When Croc gets hurt by an enemy or an obstacle, he loses all his gems. Get hit by an enemy without gems and Croc dies.
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This is one game absolutely worth playing!
NEW DOG
OLD TRICKS
By Ian N.P.U. When you think of retro gaming goodness, the XBOX 360 doesn’t instantly spring to mind. The XBOX 360 despite recently loosing its grasp as being a so called ‘Current’ generation system is still a powerhouse of a console and boasts a gigantic armada of games spanning every genre and with something for every player. But those who have dared to venture through the back alleys of it’s Indie channel have been rewarded with a retro scene bursting at the seams with enough goodness to feed even the hungriest of pixelated hearts. Indie games and the Indie community as a whole has exploded over the last ten years and the attitude towards the scene and it’s developers has changed drastically in that time. However many people still have held the perception that the Indie game scene is merely a few guys thrashing out poorly executed games in their bedrooms, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. The big players Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo had seen the tidal wave coming for sometime with some of them responding better than others. Microsoft won this war hands down, creating a huge Indie marketplace for the 360 and one that contains literally thousands of new experiences that can be yours for a very small fee, often for a Dollar/Pound or less. In this new series I am going to be shining the spotlight on all the games that you should be checking
out on the XBOX 360 Indie marketplace. Many of these games follow a very close design to games from all of your favourite retro consoles ranging from Nintendo’s NES to Arcade titles, Turbo Grafx-16 and everything inbetween. To kick off this new segment we are going to begin with a double bill of outstanding titles. These two games are focused on and created in the style of games you would find on the Nintendo NES and it’s Japanese alter ego the Famicom. Let us begin.
PROTECT ME KNIGHT (MAMOTTE KISHI) Protect Me Knight was created by the software design company ‘Ancient’ and was released to the XBLA on 24th of May 2010. Ancient is a design company based in Japan and managed by the legendary Sega composer Classic Console | 40
Yuzo Koshiro . Ancient are responsible for many famous titles across many platforms from 1990 to present day. Some of their most notable offerings being the legendary Shenmue on the Sega Dreamcast, Streets of Rage 2 on the Sega Mega Drive and Actraiser 2 on the Super Famicom/Nintendo. This already gives you an insight into the standard of programmers creating Indie games today.
Ancient harnessed everything we love about retro gaming of that era and slammed it into this beautiful title. The intro music is both dazzling, familiar and yet brand new, it makes you feel like a kid again experiencing those glorious days of 8-bit gaming. The visuals are equally excellent and just take you further back into the heady and beautiful nostalgia trip that is ‘Protect me Knight’. Protect Me Knight at its core is a strategy game but it’s a strategy game that is crossed with a traditional style beat-em-up. When starting a game you must select one of four characters these are the standard mix from Ninja to Mage. The game features RPG style levelling up and customisation of attributes but when starting out the only option you can alter is your player’s colour. The main game play revolves solely around you protecting the princess from the marauding hordes of monsters that continually attack. The princess is situated in the centre of the screen and she is protected by a thin wall of wooden barriers of which the enemy will continually attack in an attempt to gain access to her..
Protect Me Knight is a straight up Nintendo Famicom game make no mistake about it; and once you load up the game it would be impossible to ignore this obvious style for one awesome reason. The first thing you see is a fuzzy CRT television screen closely followed by the sound of someone cycling a power button. Each time they attempt to load the game though the screen crashes, it is at this point that a hand thrusts a Famicom cartridge toward the screen and one simple instruction is given ’BLOW’ . That’s right these guys literally tapped into our hearts and actually incorporated the good old cartridge blowing mechanism into the game. You carry out this task by simply pressing the corresponding on screen button. The cart is then placed back in the console and the game sometimes then loads or you will be asked to continue to ’BLOW’ on the virtual cartridge until it does. Ahhh man this had me literally hooked from here on in. Once the game successfully loads you are greeted with aural and visual treats that make you feel as though you just loaded one of your favourite games, but this is one that you have never seen or played before. 41 | Classic Console
You must continually bash all enemies on screen strategically paying attention to those making more damage to the walls of protection. You are also able to re-build areas of damaged wall or even make them stronger as the levels progress but whilst doing so you are open to attack. Each level features an end boss, some of which are huge screen filling creatures. The action continually ramps up and becomes more frantic as you progress. To
assist you in this combat you are able to increase your strength, speed and attacks at the end of each level. This is metered out by a points system which is related to your performance in the previous level.
The game can be played by 1-4 players simaltaneously and is tons of fun when played with three friends. To surmise Protect me Knight is a beautiful game that provides depth, multi-player and glorious 8-bit retro fun. It costs a couple of pounds or dollars depending on where you are and it was lovingly created by some of the most talented designers, programmers and musicians in the world today.
The game just oozes style from the moment you fire it up. Whilst the graphics are firmly in the 8-bit aesthetic they utilise some of the extra horsepower on tap to factor in some extra layers of scrolling and effects much like we have seen in the amazing Shovel Knight in more recent times. The end result is a super slick experience but at the same time one that makes you feel like you just hit the NES hidden gem jackpot!
The game begins with an awesome intro sequence that plays like an 8-bit B Movie and quickly lays the foundation of the quest you are about to embark on. This is a perfect example of what Indie games are and why you need to play them. So without further ado let’s get onto the second game in this feature.
TEMPURA OF THE DEAD Tempura Of The Dead is a Nintendo NES inspired game created by 8Bit fanatics and released to the XBLA on the 9th of November 2010.
Basically the world has become overrrun by a zombie plague and it’s up to you to save it. Many classic games from the 80’s and 90’s featured Presidents that required rescuing but Tempura of the Dead changes that completely, for in this game the President is one half of the ass kicking duo that you must control. Joining the president on this mission is a sword wielding Samurai. The president’s weapon of choice is a machine gun. You can swap between either player on the fly and you will need to do so to overcome certain areas of the game as they each have strengths and weaknesses. Neither character feels unbalanced and both are very capable Classic Console | 42
of completing most tasks alone. The switch between the sword and the machine gun makes this game truly feel like Ninja gaiden and Contra in one, and that alone should be enough to make you rush off and try it. Both characters can be powered up in abilities, health and weaponry via the shop of which you can visit between levels. When killing zombies you can shoot or chop off their heads and then juggle them several times in the air. Doing so will give you credits to spend and will also if done enough times send you into the ‘TEMPURA’ mode.
here is very evident and it feels just right, giving you that just one more try rather than just one more launch of your gamepad. The game has a pretty good length and overall challenge and will keep both expert and casual gamers entetained.
The soundtrack is catchy and sound fx perfectly toned to complete the whole NES aesthetic perfectly. It’s obvious that this game was crafted with great care and attention to detail. I cannot recommend this game enough; it is in my opinion an essential Indie purchase. This definitely goes toward helping you out with later boss fights but the game never feels too easy or difficult even when powered up. The attention to game balance 43 | Classic Console
Have a retro inspired indie game that you want Ian to cover in a future installment of “New Dog, Old Tricks”? Write to us at: classicconsolemag@gmail.com
CLASSIC KICKSTARTER
After 14 Years, Shenmue III is Finally a Reality By John Meadows
Any Sega Dreamcast fan knows about the game Shenmue. Released in 1999 in Japan and in 2000 in North America and Europe, it was a game like no other. An open world action-adventure game from legendary game designer Yu Suzuki that was originally planned as a four game saga.
#SaveShenmue. On the 3rd of each month, fans would use Twitter and other social media outlets to send out messages along with the hashtag to let the industry know that they wanted to see Shenmue III. The first month, fans reached out to an audience of nearly 10 million people. Jump to June 15, 2015.. Sony’s E3 2015 press conference where Yu Suzuki takes the stage and announces that the Shenmue III Kickstarter has just went live. Within seconds, fans bring down Kickstarter’s site; just nine hours into the campaign they reach their $2 million dollar goal, the fastest to do so in Kickstarter’s history. Within days after the Kickstarter, many people questioned Sony’s part in all this. Sony stated they were fully behind Suzuki-san in getting the game made; but in what way? With Sony as a partner, why have the Kickstarter in the first place?
The first installment was a critical success that many hail as a masterpiece. The game scored an average of 89% with critics and went on to sell 1.2 million copies. But with a rumored budget of $70 million, it was an uphill battle from the start to be a financial success.
Yu Suzuki has made himself available to Q & A’s on both Reddit and Twitch to answer these questions and share his feelings on what he hopes to see in the game. He has stated that Sony is in no way receiving any of the money from Kickstarter, all funds raised will go to fund game development. Sony is helping with many things like marketing, promotion and partly with funding. At the current funding level,
Shenmue II was released in 2001 for the Dreamcast in Japan and Europe and on the Xbox in the US in 2003, again to critical success, averaging 89%. But with Sega out of the console market and now a 3rd party publisher, (plus Suzuki leaving the company in 2011) it seemed that fans of the Shenmue saga would never get their ending. In 2014, a social media campaign was started, Classic Console | 44
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KICKSTARTER
With the spike in eBay prices of Shenmue I & II, (Shenmue I jumping from $20 to over $100) now would be the time for Sega to strike with HD versions while demand is high. He has also stated that Shenmue III is not the end of the story. We do not know if that means he plans on making Shenmue IV, or if the story will continue in some other form. We do know that he is hoping for a release by the end of 2017.
Shenmue III will be more focused on the story. At $5 million, it will include more new features compared to the previous games of the series. At $10 million, there will be more choices available to the player, turning it more open world. I tend to believe that if that goal can’t be hit in the campaign, that Sony will cover the difference to make his vision a reality. (Editors Note: the Kickstarter is now over and was funded with over 6 million dollars pledged) Sega is not involved in any way, they simply gave Suzuki-san permission to use the Shenmue property. To me, this clearly shows that Sega has lost faith in any property other than Sonic. As a huge fan of Sega through the years, this both saddens and confuses me. Somehow, Sega has become blind to fans, or management just doesn’t care. With the outpouring of fans every month for over a year, as well as close to 47,000 backers of the Kickstarter, Sega has shown they are truly done with console gaming. Suzuki-san would personally like to have HD remasters of Shenmue and Shenmue II, but the rights belong to Sega. He will talk to Sega to see if it’s possible.
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As of this writing there is no information about Shenmue III on other consoles like Xbox One or Wii U. For now it is only PS4 and PC. Who is to say that sometime after release it could appear on other platforms? As a fan of the series, I was floored to see a third installment come. I have been one of those that every month Tweet to support #SaveShenmue. There are those out there in the media that believe the campaign is underhanded, that it was set up to take advantage of fans. If Sony is involved, then why don’t they just fund it? What they fail to realize is that the game is a huge risk. Yes, fans have begged for this for years, but with a Kickstarter fans have to put their money where their mouth is. Now Sony can see there is a huge demand for the game and Sega can see they missed out. It is really an exciting time to be a fan and I hope that the Suzuki-san is able to make his vision a reality. If you want to check out the (now-completed) Kickstarter you can find it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/ projects/ysnet/shenmue-3. If you are interested in finding out more about the original games, be sure to subscribe to The Gamers Lounge Twitch page (http://www.twitch. tv/thegamerslounge) where I will be livestreaming my play through of Shenmue I & II throughout the summer as part of The Gamers Lounge Summer Backlog Challenge.
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