Ahhh, the good old times of the Soviet Union, where a bad guy was always available, without having to rely on some weird and uninspired covenant. That's right, today we have a relic from the cold war, the 1985 hit (at least in Finland), Raid Over Moscow. Developed by Access Software, it was published under the US Gold label for the Atari 8-bit series, the C64, the Amstrad CPC, the BBC Micro, the ZX Spectrum and the Apple II.
About the game: The player takes the role of a USAF stealth fighter pilot. The objective is to prevent soviet missiles to reach US cities by destroying their missile silos before the clock runs out, eventually destroying Moscow nuclear facilities. What was great about this game is the fact that each phase had its own gameplay (most games of the time simply add more and/or faster enemies between levels).
The game starts with a overview of the northern hemisphere, where the soviet silos are shown. When the missiles are fired, the player has to take a fighter out of a space station (!), and flight it to the appropriate silo. What is interesting about this is that since the fighters take off from a space station, it is done in vacuum and 0G's, forcing the player to account for inertia. Today, this is very cool; in 1985 it was mindblowing.
In the 2nd phase, one has to navigate through the soviet ground defences. It plays pretty much like a Gradius-style shooter, but you can control altitude as well. If you fly to low, you'll face ground defences, if you fly to high, you'll be picked up by radar and shot down by SAM missiles. Once again, unbelievably cool.
The 3rd and final stage, the player, now on foot, has to destroy the Kremlin defences,in order to gain access to the main nuclear facility, kill the boss, and put an end to the soviet nuclear project. This is done in a bare-chested, testosterone-pumped commando-style, destroying the Kremlin with a shoulder-mounted rocket luncher.
All in all, a very very good game.
The good: almost everything, an excellent game.
The bad: the 2nd phase is very repetitive
The ugly: nothing worth mentioning
Tip: the game is a little tricky. In order to open the hangar doors, gain some altitude and press F8. But be careful, too much altitude and you'll crash above the door.
Trivia: this game became huge in Finland because a communist friendly member of the Finnish Parliament questioned its legality, therefore generating drama, which in turn, generated high sales.
The Commodore 64 version can be found here. Run it on a most excellent C64 emulator and have fun.
Check the retro skills page CCS64 section for instructions on how to set up CCS64 emulator.
Cho Aniki Bakuretsu Ranto Hen, meaning something like "Super Big Brother Whatever" is, unlike its predecessors, a fighting game. Developed by Masaya and published in 1995 by Nipon Computer Systems Corp. for the SNES/SuperFamicon, its the 3rd instalment of the Cho Aniki series.About the game:While the first two titles from the series, Cho Aniki and Ai Cho Aniki (both for the PC-Engine), were horizontal shooters, this title is a street fighter like fighting game. It takes iconic characters, often from the backgrounds, of the previous two games, and pitch them against each other in single combat. The series is renowned for it surreal feeling and homoerotic (!) graphic style. None was lost in this new instalment.BTW, the second game, Ai Cho Aniki has one of the worst box art ever:
(Notice the holes in their foreheads? That's where they fire lasers from.)
In all honesty, the first games might just be slightly more WTF than this one, but I couldn't be arsed to look for them. But all in all, this one is just as good.
The good: it's surreal, the backgrounds, the music, the general sense of WTFness
The bad: the fights, it's a little boring
The ugly: nothing really.
It is Japanese, that says it all.
You can find it here, run it in a proper SNES emulator, like ZSNESW, and have fun!!!
Syndicate aka the best game ever made, was released by the mitical Bullfrog Productions in 1993. Followed by an expansion and a sequel, its fame has endured throughout the years.
In march 31 2009, GamesIndustry.biz has confirmed that Starbreeze was working on a new title of the franchise, possibly a remake. However, no further information has surfaced, until now...
At the United States Copyright Office search:
Doc. Number: V3581 D054 P1
Doc. Number: V3580D346
Doc. Number: V3581 D049 P1-5
(for some stupid reason it does not allow linking)
These are might be good news. Considering what they have done to X-COM, cheerful nostalgia turned into dreaded anticipation.
I’ve been busy. But, due to popular demand (1 person actually, but whose awesomeness makes this worthwhile, you know who you are), I’m back!!!
And with HUGE news!
THE DUKE IS BACK!!!! Yes, Duke Nukem is no longer dead.
2010 PAX will forever be remembered as a day of glory, when Gearbox Software announced that they purchased the rights to the Duke Nukem franchise, with the loooooooonnnnnnnnnggggggg awaited Duke Nukem Forever being released sometime in 2011.
HAIL TO THE KING BABY!!! [Kurt Miller]
P.S. I realise that this is hardly retro, but it would be, had it been released when it was supposed to.
