Retro
For the fourth part of Gaming Week we will be discussing the wonders of Retro Gaming.
Anything older than N64/PS-One is generally considered to be a Retro Game.
As some of you might know, I have access to the following platforms:
Spectrum ZX, Commodore 64, N64, GC, Xbox, Old PC and New PC. Yes, Old and New need capitals. The Old one had such a small amount of memory that whenever I felt like playing Tyrian instead of Doom, I had to uninstall one to make room for the other. Happy days. I also used to have an old Amstrad (gave it to a friend) and an Electron (died).
But the big difference was difficulty. They were Bloody Hard. Modern games are not just a walk in the park by comparison, but they're lying on a floating bed which gently drifts through the Hanging Gardens. While being fanned. Retro games were so damned hard! Some I never got further than around 10% on, but that was still after ages of tough gameplay. But they were enjoyable, and you got more of a sense of satisfaction from doing something right than you do when playing some modern games.
Anything older than N64/PS-One is generally considered to be a Retro Game.
As some of you might know, I have access to the following platforms:
Spectrum ZX, Commodore 64, N64, GC, Xbox, Old PC and New PC. Yes, Old and New need capitals. The Old one had such a small amount of memory that whenever I felt like playing Tyrian instead of Doom, I had to uninstall one to make room for the other. Happy days. I also used to have an old Amstrad (gave it to a friend) and an Electron (died).
There are some big differences between old and new games, and not just the graphics. Retro games are in many ways just as good as new games. The picture below is of Exolon, one of my favourites. For unexplored reasons you were a little guy with a suit who could fire either a machine gun or missiles. The game - especially the later stages - was an incredible test of finger speed as you had to dodge/shoot down bullets lightning-fast.
But the big difference was difficulty. They were Bloody Hard. Modern games are not just a walk in the park by comparison, but they're lying on a floating bed which gently drifts through the Hanging Gardens. While being fanned. Retro games were so damned hard! Some I never got further than around 10% on, but that was still after ages of tough gameplay. But they were enjoyable, and you got more of a sense of satisfaction from doing something right than you do when playing some modern games.
The best series of Retro games I ever played were made by the company Ultimate, and I had them all on my Spectrum ZX. They were Underwurlde, Sabrewulf (below) and Alien 8. Despite being so old they were on tapes rather than CDs (yes, that old), these had massive maps.
I still remember the noise that old games made when loading. For those who don't know, when it was reading off the tape, a series of flickering bars would appear on screen. These would either be red/light blue or a thinner set of dark blue/yellow. As long as the flickering of these was consistent with the horrible churning noise coming out of the speakers (listen to Particia Hewitt for an idea) then the game was loading correctly. We never thought that things could load any faster - and then I got a PC. With C&C 95. Oh how things changed. That's also still a fantastic game, but like many Retro games it was Bloody Hard. After around the fourth level you were getting owned unless you were incredibly quick.
Oh, and there was also a Hobbit game. Fantastic, wasn't it Miles?
Finally, no-one has yet answered the question about why buttering toast is so loud.
I still remember the noise that old games made when loading. For those who don't know, when it was reading off the tape, a series of flickering bars would appear on screen. These would either be red/light blue or a thinner set of dark blue/yellow. As long as the flickering of these was consistent with the horrible churning noise coming out of the speakers (listen to Particia Hewitt for an idea) then the game was loading correctly. We never thought that things could load any faster - and then I got a PC. With C&C 95. Oh how things changed. That's also still a fantastic game, but like many Retro games it was Bloody Hard. After around the fourth level you were getting owned unless you were incredibly quick.Oh, and there was also a Hobbit game. Fantastic, wasn't it Miles?
Finally, no-one has yet answered the question about why buttering toast is so loud.
posted by Mkzrj at 12:00 pm
7 Comments:
Google shows a remarkbale lack of any information regarding the noise create as a result of attempting to spread butter over toast. My guess would be that its infact, nothing to do with the butter at all, and is all to do with the knife catching cripsy (burnt if you can't make toast) bits on the surface. In other words, blame the toaster for the noise.
And yes, retro games were hard. Do I have many? No. Have I played some? Yes. But think about it, in a few years time, the N64 and PSone will be considered retro no doubt. If you talk about games on them, people will turn around and give you an evil, evil glare, like you've mentioned some forbidden moment of history. Just give it time, you know it'll happen.
I'm really slow. I've just realised the lack of replies recently has been down to the fact that 2/3 of my fanbase are on holiday. *sigh* @ me.
Well i consider N64 and PsOne to be retro now.... they are both over 10 years old and thats a huge difference in technology.
Same as you and tom on the retro front, there are some bloody hard retrogames out there... so much that they put me off of them...
Umm err, yeh retro ftw!
Yes, Command and Conquer 95 was extremely tough. As a game, it did actually test your military tactics, whereas later C&C games were designed more towards "get lots of credits, build giant army, pwn pwn pwn".
I think it was the 3rd or 4th mission which had constant attacks giving you just enouh time to build a tank in between, provided you had managed to survive the first wave. And the mission after that when you had to destroy a heavily defended enemy base with only a few tanks and a small amount of men. Tough indeed. But very enjoyable.
But that is not to say that modern games are all too easy.
Certain missions from all the GTA games can be very tough, especially when you have to shoot a load of cars with appaling analogue aim (the opening to Phnom Penh '86 from Vice City was evil!). Resident Evil 4 has its particularly hard moments such as a lot of the game. Devil May Cry 3 is often criticised for being too hard (and I agree entirely. After the first few levels, things get substantially more difficult. I dread to think what "Dante Must Die" difficulty is like). Mark Ecko's "Viagra Game" (Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure by its alternative name) also can be extremely difficult, but mostly because the fighting in it is badly done, so you have no choice but to hammer away at square and triangle buttons in the vain hope that for some reason the computer enemies will stop dodging everything and beating you to a small purple pulp and get hit themselves.
The Hobbit game was not fantastic as most of the time either:
1. The computer did not understand the instruction, leading to hours of trying to find a different way to say "Follow Gandalf" or
2. Whatever instruction you used, the dwarves would sit down and sing a song about gold.
So, from London, I bid you farewell.
*Say "Good-bye*
The dwarves sit down and sing a song about gold.
*Bid a fond farewell*
The dwarves sit down and sing a song about gold.
*Run away*
The dwarves sit down and sing a song about gold.
*Hasta la vista, baby"
The dwarves sit down and sing a song about gold.
ARGH!!!
Fantastic comment!
Well, the first time I played the Hobbit game, after the second key-press I got bitten by a snake and died. From then on, I knew it was something special :P
Hmm. Perfect Agent on the original (and actually good) Perfect Dark was immensly hard. But the weird thing about Retro games was that you didn't feel pissed off when you restarted...
Also - WEIRDNESS. I just came here and noticed it said there was a comment which said I had deleted it, posted at 4:31. I did no such thing. WTF?
Hello, please to meet another retro fan. I'm organizer of Speccy Tour, a Sinclair Spectrum games tournament running since 2001.
May be you'd like to have a look to my blog (http://weblog.speccytour.com) and our site (you have links in the blog). And of course I invite you to take part on the tournament if you like it.
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