Links to the Past for September 7th, 2008
Welcome to the first of our weekly excursions into the gaming blogosphere.
There’s a rather large number of gaming web sites, blogs and journals out there, so separating the wheat from the chaff can be quite a challenge. I thought I’d make your lives a little easier by plundering my Google Reader feeds for articles that may be of interest to my fellow retro gamers.
Here’s what caught my eye this past week:
- If you grew up during the early 1980s and had a penchant for motor racing, there’s a good chance you dabbled with Scalextric or Total Control Racing. (I had both, but preferred the latter for its superior overtaking and cars with working headlights.) Over at Child of the 1980s, Big Boo gets a little misty eyed as he recollects his Scalextric experiences. I thoroughly recommend subscribing to Child of the 1980s if you’re after a regular dose of eighties nostalgia. There’s a bias towards UK eighties culture, but there should be enough of interest to our international cousins.
- My experience with the NES is pretty much limited to Zelda, Metroid, Mario and Mega Man, so I’ll gladly take any opportunity to explore some of the hidden gems the system has to offer. Retro Thing came up trumps this week with a retrospective of a little known shooter called Recca. It’s a technical marvel—the sheer speed and number of sprites being thrown around puts many 16-bit shooters to shame. All in 256KB of code.
- Fans of Microprose’s Kennedy Approach on the C64 will be interested to know that a PC port has arrived on the scene, some 22 years after the game’s initial release. Head on over to Play This Thing for the lowdown on this rather addictive air traffic control game.
- The Hero’s Journey, also known as the monomyth, has long been a mainstay of comparative mythology. It comprises common patterns found within narrative works stretching back thousands of years. There’s an excellent discussion over at Brainy Gamer concerning the use of the monomyth within contemporary gaming; Michael Abbott notes that one important stage is often neglected by developers.
- While the C64 budget classic Thrust tends to be remembered more for its Rob Hubbard soundtrack, it also happened to be an excellent game that presented outstanding value for money. The ever reliable Rock, Paper, Shotgun drew my attention to Gravitron 2, a new and similarly inexpensive title inspired by the likes of Thrust and Gravitar. There’s a free demo and the game itself only costs five bucks. Well worth it for a blast of nostalgia.
- Take 9 were kind enough to give us a list of fan remakes of classic point & click adventures. For the most part they simply give old titles an enhanced visual makeover, although the ones we’re most excited about are the brand new Indiana Jones games inspired by Fate of Atlantis. They’re a long way from completion and will probably be crushed by the legal weight of Lucasfilm Ltd before they see the light of day, but we live in hope.
- With the gaming industry hurtling towards a digital download future, boxed games will soon become a thing of the past. While I certainly prefer the convenience of having all my games, movies and music on digital tap, I will lament the passing of the box & manual era. It’s given us some remarkable examples of packaging design over the years—both inside and outside the box. The Artful Gamer and 1UP both have interesting articles on the art of game packaging and its ongoing demise.
- The entire X-COM series (minus the superfluous Email Games edition) is now available on Steam for a very generous $15. An essential purchase for turn-based tactical shooter fans.
