Oldie but goodie

Oldies but Goodies – Astrosmash

Genre:  Arcade
Platform:  Intellivision

As previously mentioned, we had an Intellivision growing up.  I loved it.  This was one of the games that we had, and I remember it fondly, although I am not sure I ever reached the second level.  Games back then were so hard because they had to be – you had to keep players coming back to play, and a good way to do that was the high score.  These days, games rarely even have scores.  But it was an effective way to keep people playing and talking about your game.

This was also one of my mom’s favorites and she could get all the way up to at least level three.  The sky background changed for each level, and you could drop levels as your score was constantly changing as asteroids were either destroyed or hit the ground.  There were also satellites to shoot, an occasional UFO or other space-inspired pixelated blob.  When you shot the larger asteroids, they would break into smaller ones, which you also had to shoot.  It made for chaotic fun, and I have pulled it out from time to time on my GCW Zero.  I can only play it for about two minutes before I’m  ready to throw it across the room, but I still at least remember it as being a positive experience.

Live Astrosmash

This happens when you live near the Space Center in Houston.


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Oldies but Goodies – Jetpack

Genre:  Arcade
Platform:  PC

Oh my gosh I loved this game.  It was freeware, so I grabbed it up early.  This is another DOS-game, so I guess I’m really showing my age in this blog.  No matter.  All of you youngin’s  today missed out on a great generation of games!  You can get it here:  http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/jetpack/.  To play the old DOS games now, though, you will likely need the program DOSBox.  You can get that here:  https://www.dosbox.com/.  It’s a little bit complicated, but the site has some good resources to help.

Anyway, back to Jetpack.  This game had a ton of levels, and you could create your own or get them from other players.  Your goal was to get all of the orbs from platforms throughout the level and go through the door.  As the name suggests, you got a jet pack to help.  However, your fuel is limited.  More fuel packs may pop up on the screen as well as money.  There are also bad guys that are trying to keep you from the goal.

This was a challenging, but fun, game.  My 6th-grade self enjoyed it a lot on our Windows 3.1 computer.  I never beat the game, but that wasn’t my goal.  I was just having fun.

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Hidden Gems – Pinball Quest

Genre:  Arcade/Pinball
Platform:  NES

My parents bought this game for me for Christmas one year.  I loved every new game that I got, but I really loved this one.  It wasn’t until much later that I realized how unique this game was.  Since this is my second post about a pinball game, you could assume, correctly, that I really like pinball.  I’d love to have my own real table one day.

Anyway, this game has three traditional tables – Pop!  Pop!, bowling/pool table; Viva! Golf, a golf table; and Circus, a circus-themed table.  Each had unique elements to them and had some bonus games, which was rare for the time.  All three were very fun and I spent plenty of time on each.

This game really became unique when you played in RPG mode.  This took you to a table that was really a story mode.  When you hit certain characters, text boxes would pop up.  As you played through, you went to new and more difficult tables.  It was a very unique way to present a pinball game and I’ve rarely heard anyone talk about this one.  This is why it’s a hidden gem.  Check it out if you can!

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Oldies but Goodies – Combat

Genre – Shoot ’em Up
Platform – Atari 2600

We’re going way back today, folks.  Most everyone who had an Atari 2600 played Combat at some point because it was the game that came with it.  It is a collection of 27 “different” games, although it’s really only different versions of two main modes – tanks and planes.  As expected from such an early console game – it was simple, but this one was a lot of fun.  Let’s call it World of Tanks 1.0.

My grandma actually had an Atari 2600 and we would play this game together when I would spend the weekend there.  I had a cool grandma.  We would laugh for minutes on end while we played the tank mode where the bullets ricocheted off the walls and made funny noises.  We didn’t care about actually shooting each other, it was more about the funny noise and I guess a time and place thing.  I will forever have fond memories of this game because of that.

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Oldies but Goodies – McKids

Genre – Platformer
Platform – NES

I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of McKids on the Nintendo Entertainment System.  This was a game inspired by McDonald’s, which may have turned a lot of potential gamers away.  Underneath the advertising, however, was a pretty solid game.

My parents rented this for us and my sisters and I played it a lot.  We really had a lot of fun with it.  This is a fairly standard platformer, but it did offer a couple of fun elements like the ability to walk upside down.  The gameplay was fluid and intuitive enough for three kids aged 12, 8 and 7 to figure out.  I’m sure there were a few parts that I had to get through for them, as seems to be the way when playing with younger siblings.

I have very fond memories of this game and the time spent with my sisters.  I have it on my GCW Zero and have played it within the last year or so.  It still holds up after all these years.  Check it out if you can!

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Chey’s Top 25 – #22 – Legend of Zelda II

Genre – RPG
Platform – Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

I can hear fans of the Legend of Zelda series yelling at me already.  But again, this list is about personal preference, not what critics and other fans widely agree upon.  I enjoyed The Legend of Zelda II – The Adventures of Link more than the first Legend of Zelda.  There, I said it.  I feel like I’ve had that on my chest for thirty years.  This game just made more sense to me and I had a lot more fun playing it.

In typical Zelda fashion, you play as Link, a young hero out to save the pricess, Zelda.  While this sounds Mario-ish, it is far different.  In Zelda, your character levels up and allows you to upgrade different aspects of them such as health or magic.  This allows you to move to different parts of the map and fight stronger creatures.  This type of game is called a role-playing game (RPG).

This game introduced me to a part of RPGs that I hadn’t seen before – the grind.  I spent hours walking around simply killing mobs (gamer for enemies) to get experience to level up.  If a bag of experience dropped, it was like the gaming god shined upon me as it was worth 50 experience points.

This game also got difficult.  Like most games, the boss mobs had a weakness, but it took some trial and error to find it.  This was the first game that I remember playing that let you save your progress, so there was no more keeping the Nintendo powered on while at school and praying that Mom didn’t turn it off.

I currently have this game downloaded on my Nintendo 3DS and I do still play it from time to time.  This is a big reason it made my top 25.

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Oldies but Goodies – Lemmings

Lemmings

It’s time for an oldie but goodie!  It’s Lemmings!  This game was introduced back in the DOS days (1991, very early PC).  It has had so many different versions on just about every console.  I have it for my Playstation Portable (PSP), but the version I remember best is that old DOS version.  You can still download it here:  http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/37/Lemmings.html.

Lemmings are a real animal and the story is that they will run off a cliff in mass numbers if they feel threatened enough.  This has since been proven to not be true, but it makes for a fun concept for a video game.  Your job is to save as many of the little critters as you can by guiding them to a safe door, where Twizzlers or whatever lemmings like to eat, are waiting.  However, each level is a bit of a maze.  The lemmings can only fall so far before they die.  You can assign lemmings a specific role, such as blocker or digger, which will aid in your task.  Blockers will prevent a lemming from going a certain direction (and are really cute!) and the diggers will dig.  There are others as well.

The early levels are easy, but it does get challenging later on.  The graphics still hold up today and there is a soundtrack which gets repetitive.  This game didn’t make my top 25, but it sure was fun, anyway.

 

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