The super duper retro gaming review thread

Dr Bob · 21-08-2011 10:30PM #1

This might die a horrible death , but a thread geared towards retro reviews?
Either ones we've knocked up , or funny/good found ones

I've been faffing about sampling the best and worst of the home conversions of Outrun.(excluding the PCE/MS/Dos versions), here they (are ..roughly in order of recording so they get slightly better as I go..not much though)

C64

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrugYp5AM7w

Spectrum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkgKgd_HWxo

Amstrad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIfUcY17zBA

Atari St

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m0kqyQM10w

SMS and GG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtv4ddGCFVs

And lastly..
Amiga and Megadrive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2R62RTjBWQ

Sparks43 · 21-08-2011 10:41PM

Excellent
I was thinking about setting up something like this

But i would like to see a Text based review as well as vid

We could also compare the scores from Mag reviews of the time to how the game has aged as well

E.g Boulder Dash scores 92% in 1984

In 2011 it scores 108%:D

Retr0gamer · 21-08-2011 11:44PM

Halo:

Gaylo

Rating: 2%

Goldeneye:

Pinkeye

Rating: 2.5%

Sparks43 · 21-08-2011 11:50PM

Guys there is a civil war going on in Libiya at the mo

Lets not start one here:D

But i agree Halo is ****

Retr0gamer · 22-08-2011 12:09AM

Boulderdash:

Shitsandwich

Sorry couldn't help it :P

James Howlett · 22-08-2011 12:09AM

luas_dublin wrote: »

This might die a horrible death , but a thread geared towards retro reviews?
Either ones we've knocked up , or funny/good found ones

This could make for interesting reading, good idea man.

johnny_ultimate · 22-08-2011 12:35AM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Boulderdash:

Sh[SIZE="2"]i[/SIZE]tsandwich

Sorry couldn't help it :P

While I always appreciate Spinal Tap references, Boulderdash puns are a dime a dozen.

Bouldergash, Boulderrash, Bouldershat...

And of course the simplest and most effective: Balderdash! The latter is most effective when your monocle falls off.

LoGiE · 22-08-2011 10:18AM

Lou lally lou lets play! I'll be giving out special prizes for anyone going on about Halo or Goldeneye for at least another ohhh six months or so.

I have to say I enjoyed your reviews. Outrun is an arcade game I'd played a lot back in the day along with Power Drift in Dublin Airport. I'd forgotten how useless some of the conversions from U.S Gold had been and hadn't even seen the Amstrad version. Why not do an arcade version review just to complete the set?

Dr Bob · 22-08-2011 10:36AM

LoGiE wrote: »

Lou lally lou lets play! I'll be giving out special prizes for anyone going on about Halo or Goldeneye for at least another ohhh six months or so.

I have to say I enjoyed your reviews. Outrun is an arcade game I'd played a lot back in the day along with Power Drift in Dublin Airport. I'd forgotten how useless some of the conversions from U.S Gold had been and hadn't even seen the Amstrad version. Why not do an arcade version review just to complete the set?

Cheers! As for the Arcade version ..I actually am doing it in a little while!
I've a PS2 wheel hooked up to a laptop (with TV) running MAME , which short of building a cockpit and getting my missus and daughter to move it when I steer is as close as I can get to the real thing!.
I want to do one or two smaller reviews , then put the arcade review up.
I'm looking at the conversions of Gauntlet next which means getting it for
Atari 8 bit/c64/spectrum/NES/Amstrad/Atari st/SMS/Meg
(I've about half them so far..)

Retr0gamer · 22-08-2011 10:39AM

You're being really thorough with reviewing every version of the game. Have you thought about writing them up for HG101? I'm sure they'd love a submission like that and they usually require you to be thorough with the playing and reviewing all the ports which you seem to have been.

Sparks43 · 22-08-2011 11:46AM

Game:Cavern Fighter
Format:Zx Spectrum
Released:1983 By Bug Byte Software

Price: £5.95 on release (Can be found now on Ebay for around the same)

One of the early shmups and one of the first games i owned for the speccy.Conversion of the Arcade game Scramble which was a classic game.

Simple game blast the crap out of anything that moves and pick up fuel by shooting the fuel pods and make sure you dont smash into the walls

Its quite a tricky little game that as you will see in the vid i need a bit more practice on.I found myself playing this through 3 cups of coffee so it still has a bit to offer in competition with todays Shmups e.g Chou Aniki R Type Etc

Well worth a play and id suggest finding it on an emulator

Crash Score 1983: 92%

Score 2011: 78%

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMWTqfVK_A4

CiDeRmAn · 22-08-2011 12:59PM

Retr0 can do a review of the various versions of Cho Aniki and what he likes to wear when playing.....

Atavan-Halen · 22-08-2011 07:09PM

I'd like to start doing reviews and things, maybe I'll do a review of something...

Pyongyang · 22-08-2011 07:46PM

Definitely going to do some reviews too. Soon as I can figure out how to get a good recording of the PSP I'll do Darius Burst (once it's arrived).

Retr0gamer · 24-08-2011 08:29PM

Pimping my crappy blog but put up my thoughts on Dragon Quest 1. Currently doing one on goldeneye to be controversial :P

http://lifein16bit.blogspot.com/2011/08/dragon-quest.html

Retr0gamer · 27-08-2011 03:30PM

My thoughts on my recent play through of goldeneye. I've tried to be objective but don't expect a glowing review:

http://lifein16bit.blogspot.com/2011/08/goldeneye-n64.html

Azure_sky · 28-08-2011 07:25AM

Great work, Luas. It would be interesting if you did a comparison on the different ports of SFII. I've been thinking of doing a retro review blog, like Retro Gamer has, for some time now.

Retr0gamer · 28-08-2011 01:49PM

Just go for it, couldn't be easier to set one up and I'm sure people here such as myself will follow it. I've gotten hits from famicomblog which is weird. Mostly it's people leeching my thief and actraiser screenshots on google though

Dr Bob · 29-08-2011 10:38PM

Huzzah! Its another review!
Today Xybots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iixoDHTLjgQ

I'm probably going to do a few standalone ones as I'm planning a big change in the format of the multiformat reviews, (you'll see what I mean in a week or two)
(oh yeah thanks for that , SFII is a good choice , so I've added it to "the list" although theres a lot to get through first)

Myrddin · 30-08-2011 04:03PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

My thoughts on my recent play through of goldeneye all games except Mother3. I've tried to be objective but don't expect glowing reviews:

Aged badly
Horrible textures
Bad antialiasing
Horrible mipmapping
Desperate anisoptric filtering
Appaling physics
Colour depth all wrong
Audio compression too high, resulting in less than studio quality sounds
And thats basically it

Fyp

Optimus Prime · 30-08-2011 04:41PM

luas_dublin wrote: »

Huzzah! Its another review!
Today Xybots

Plus a Xybots unboxing!

Retr0gamer · 30-08-2011 04:50PM

EnterNow wrote: »

Fyp

You forgot the important one, shitty gameplay for goldeneye.

Myrddin · 30-08-2011 05:09PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

You forgot the important one, shitty gameplay for goldeneye.

Again

Goldeneye hasn't aged terribly, in fact no game 'ages' really. It's our perception that changes & our expectations, & no game, at least very few, can stand up against those odds

Retr0gamer · 30-08-2011 05:14PM

Go play it then and tell me in all honesty it hasn't aged badly and that it's not as good as you remembered. All that matters is that when I played it recently it wasn't much fun. However if I go back and play something like Doom 2 it'll be far more enjoyable.

Myrddin · 30-08-2011 05:22PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Go play it then and tell me in all honesty it hasn't aged badly and that it's not as good as you remembered. All that matters is that when I played it recently it wasn't much fun. However if I go back and play something like Doom 2 it'll be far more enjoyable.

Oh I agree don't get me wrong, last time I played Goldneye was a long time ago & I'm not exactly in a hurry to go back and play it. I enjoyed it at the time & for that I'll remember it.

I just don't buy into the mentality that video games are organic, biological things that change & evolve over time. All games from Pong to Crysis 2 are computer programmes, Goldeneye looks exactly the same today as it did in the mid 90's. Its a piece of digital software, & it'll look the exact same in 2050 as it does today. Absolutely nothing about the game, nor its code, has 'aged' in that sense. What has changed, is our perception of the game, & our expectations of it...& in fact every other game too. Some games are so well designed, that they're never affected by the passage of time, or are well protected against it. Others, like Goldeneye just arn't.

Goldeneye looks like pants today, plays like pants, & in fact is pants today...but thats today, what actually matters is that when it was released, it provided a psuedo pc'esque multiplayer experience to those not fortunate enough to have pc's such as myself. I don't think it was ever expected to stand the test of time, it provided fun...& for that, I can't fault it.

Retr0gamer · 30-08-2011 05:36PM

Well that's more the games legacy and I did go into that and can't deny what it did and it's innovations for FPS games and console FPS games. Still I think it's worthwhile commenting on how the games hold up, it shows how far gaming has come. I think it's better to comment on this rather than to be like those people that still believe Goldeneye holds up as one of the best FPS games ever. As much as I give out about Halo I can still go back to that game and play it and have loads of fun. Well until the Library level at least :P I can't really say that about goldeneye.

Also about graphics aging, if there's one thing I hate it's a crap art style. If you have a crap art style once the technology moves on your game is going to look like ass. If you've good art that works around the limitations of the hardware then the game should look great forever. Goldeneye really has terrible art (as do most games that go for a realistic setting). If a game's got **** art then I'm not going to let it get away with it. Even though Goldeneye is impressive technologically for an N64 game (I did give it credit here) it's a terrible looking game in the art department.

o1s1n · 30-08-2011 05:52PM

2007 called, it wants its topic back.

Myrddin · 30-08-2011 05:59PM

o1s1n wrote: »

2007 called, it wants its topic back.

New York called, it wants you back

Myrddin · 30-08-2011 06:02PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Well that's more the games legacy and I did go into that and can't deny what it did and it's innovations for FPS games and console FPS games. Still I think it's worthwhile commenting on how the games hold up, it shows how far gaming has come. I think it's better to comment on this rather than to be like those people that still believe Goldeneye holds up as one of the best FPS games ever. As much as I give out about Halo I can still go back to that game and play it and have loads of fun. Well until the Library level at least :P I can't really say that about goldeneye.

Also about graphics aging, if there's one thing I hate it's a crap art style. If you have a crap art style once the technology moves on your game is going to look like ass. If you've good art that works around the limitations of the hardware then the game should look great forever. Goldeneye really has terrible art (as do most games that go for a realistic setting). If a game's got **** art then I'm not going to let it get away with it. Even though Goldeneye is impressive technologically for an N64 game (I did give it credit here) it's a terrible looking game in the art department.

Agreed there is merit in looking upon how a game has stood the test of time thats true. What I find hard to understand is that people seem to describe the game(s) as ageing in the traditional sense, when in reality games only become 'aged' because something better comes along.

Legend Of Dragoon...now that's timeless.

Retr0gamer · 30-08-2011 06:12PM

Well if there's a better term than aging then I'll use it. Dated maybe?

As for legend of dragoon it really is timeless. It's just as **** as it's ever been.

Myrddin · 30-08-2011 06:14PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Well if there's a better term than aging then I'll use it. Dated maybe?

As for legend of dragoon it really is timeless. It's just as **** as it's ever been.

I think aging is fine, I suppose it is a test of time after all. Nitpicking is all, but you know what I mean. Just irks me when people seem to see that game itself has somehow changed over the passage of time...as in time has actually affected the 1's & 0's of the code :rolleyes::)

The super duper retro gaming review thread

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