Night Stalker

The trend of reviewing games for terrible old systems continues!

We're beyond scraping the bottom of the barrel now. In fact, when dealing with the Mattel Intellivision, we're scraping the bottom of a big, brightly coloured square, squeaking and flickering as it hopes to one day be as famous as the Atari kegs. This is Night Stalker, circa 1982, and there's a reason that I picked it for review today. Let's take a peek.

An NEC PC-6001 Special

It's twenty-three times the fun today with this NEC PC-6001 Blog Squirrel special spectacular! Marvel at yet another computer which time has tossed aside (though in this case, there's probably a good reason for it).

When Super Mario Bros. Special got into the mainstream press a couple of years ago, many websites started to acknowledge the NEC PC-8801's existence. But that's by no means the only Japanese computer of the early 1980s - there are many, many more, each with their own strange stories and questionable ports of Xevious to share, and the PC-6001 is one of them. I'm low on information regarding the machine, but it's a start.

Though I still haven't found that Donkey Kong clone with robots.

Hyper Pacman

Clones of Pac-Man are nothing new. But finding one that stands out is.

Hyper Pacman, the 1995 arcade game by South Korean company SemiCom. It's all the rage!... and... I've... never really heard of it either. But the real question is, is it a step beyond super?

Digger

Dig Du-oh.. erm.. DIGGER from Windmill software, built for the IBM PC in the glorious year of 1983. A year later Thatcher took on the miner's strike, so digging was a big deal back in the day. It wasn't the fact mines were being closed and trade union laws were being altered like the media might claim - it was because the Conservative administration refused to tackle the threat of Nobbins and Gobbins.

Kangaroo

Because I can't resist a good Donkey Kong clone.

This is Kangaroo for the Atari 800 computer, because it's fun to dip into semi-obscure systems once in a while. It stands as GCC's take on Donkey Kong, minus the apes and carpenters, plus some Kanagroos and fruit. But does this stunning depiction of real life top Nintendo's classic?

Galaxibirds

I'm not making this up

1986 saw Sensible Software, usually a company known for making sensible... software (such as Sensible Soccer), release the not-so-sensible GALAXIBIRDS (or "Galax-i-birds") for the Commodore 64. Once more, man's most feared enemy, the birds, have got themselves into space, and its time to rid the galaxy of this evil once and for all.

Truxton

Not quite Cosmic Carnage.

It's TRUXTON, for the Sega Mega Drive, one of many shoot-'em-ups by Toaplan before the company were... "shot up" by bankruptcy... or something. It's a fairly forgettable shooter by today's standards but this blog is king when it comes to forgettable shoot-'em-ups. Or at least a member of the forgettable shoot-'em-up royal family.

Two Crude Dudes

Because who needs sense in video games?

I often long for a simpler time where you could throw out any old garbage into a video game and still be able to entertain. 1991's Two Crude Dudes (or "Crude Buster", if you're Japanese) is a prime example of something so stupid it can't help but be good, yet it also stands as something the industry would refrain from releasing today. Can't risk scores below seven out of ten!

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2

I paid 800 points for this, mere hours before a 400 points deal showed up. Thanks for that, Microsoft!

It's 2008's Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, sequel to... Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. This was pretty well received a couple of years go, though slightly less of a phenomina since it's been ported in some form to everything under the sun. But is it still good?

Race Drivin'

People like to dismiss the Sega Mega Drive as being a console that can only cope with 2D graphics... and for the most part, there's a good reason for that. It's a lovely system but even with blast processors the world of three dimensions is a little out of its reach. That's not to say people didn't try to make 3D games for it though!

One attempt is 1993's Race Drivin', originally an Atari arcade game. It's a sequel (or "update") to Hard Drivin' which had similar ideas - make a full polygonal driving game to prove that Atari were still industry leaders. Of course, by 1993 they weren't, and Race Drivin' hence falls flat on its face. Here's why.