I've got a Totally Unoriginal Gaming Show on Youtube now

[TordelBack]

Great choice for a review - I whiled away many bus journeys playing Battleship when I was too tired for Tetris or too drunk for chess.  Gameboy games were so insanely expensive (I was  a student) that I only ever seemed to have games that no-one else wanted. It's notable that I put every GB/GBC/GBA game onto my MP3 player about 10 years ago, but have never yet played Battleship again. Maybe today's the day!

[HdE]

Gameboy games were so insanely expensive (I was  a student) that I only ever seemed to have games that no-one else wanted.

And little has changed! I was at EGX a couple of weeks back, and I was surprised to see the prices of some of the Gameboy games being sold there. The more desirable ones have really held their value, it seems.

In a bizarre turn of events, 15 year old HdE actually ended up with two Gameboys back in the day. I don't know how that happened, but I remember being puzzled at the time as to why the games commanded such a hefty price considering the limitations foisted upon them. I always found them difficult to see on the dot matrix screen, and as a result, I very quickly lost interest in the console. In hindsight, it's a shame, because so many of the Gameboy's ports and original releases had a unique charm.

There's more Gameboy content in the works. I've just got to finalise bits and pieces here and there and work out how best to present the games.

[Pyroxian]

In a bizarre turn of events, 15 year old HdE actually ended up with two Gameboys back in the day. I don't know how that happened, but I remember being puzzled at the time as to why the games commanded such a hefty price considering the limitations foisted upon them. I always found them difficult to see on the dot matrix screen, and as a result, I very quickly lost interest in the console. In hindsight, it's a shame, because so many of the Gameboy's ports and original releases had a unique charm.

Most of the time it was because Nintendo charged a £10 manufacturing fee for the cartridge (or more if you wanted battery saves etc.), so after retail had taken it's cut, that didn't leave the developer with much change from £25...

[HdE]

Most of the time it was because Nintendo charged a £10 manufacturing fee for the cartridge (or more if you wanted battery saves etc.), so after retail had taken it's cut, that didn't leave the developer with much change from £25...

Wouldn't surprise me in the least, sadly.

Actually, that comment puts me in mind of this article from the Digitiser 2000 website - written by the legendary Mr. Biffo himself:

https://www.digitiser2000.com/main-page/is-nintendo-a-dick

[HdE]

I've got a new video up on the channel - and this one's a bit of an experiment. It's still gaming related, but this week, I review the novel XCOM 2: RESURRECTION.



Link to review:
https://youtu.be/doFlgd3tVb8

[GrudgeJohnDeed]

Good review! I'm often suprised by how many franchises have books. I really enjoyed Enemy Unknown on 360, but not played Xcom 2. The gaps between my strategy game moods are usually measured in years and one's not come around again yet! I have been thinking about Advance Wars a lot though recently, might have to dig that out and see if it sparks me off..

[HdE]

Good review! I'm often suprised by how many franchises have books. I really enjoyed Enemy Unknown on 360, but not played Xcom 2. The gaps between my strategy game moods are usually measured in years and one's not come around again yet! I have been thinking about Advance Wars a lot though recently, might have to dig that out and see if it sparks me off.

Glad you enjoyed it, Grudge!

If it helps any, here's a bit of a risky confession: I don't very often play video games strictly for my own pleasure these days. (I don't get a whole lot of time, to be honest!) But I DID grab a copy of XCOM 2 for the Playstation 4 a while back. There was even some talk of me doing a long, flashy playthrough and posting it on Youtube as an ongoing thing before Google ripped the bottom out of it as a business platform.

So, I DID end up playing a whole lot of thegame. And it's great! Surprisingly dfferent to Enemy Unknown in terms of difficulty curves and content. The shtick of fighting back after the aliens have already won influences things in a meaningful way. It's very, VERY good.

[HdE]

FORSOOTH! A new video has slopped onto the deck from the depths of my metaphorical loins!

This latest one is a review of the mighty PAC-MAN on the NES. Complete with a meditation of sorts on its DEEPLY disturbing implications.



Link to review:
https://youtu.be/C9CvYKI7aJc

By the way, folks - if you're subbed to the channel, and never want to miss an update, don't forget to click on the notification bell icon. I'm currently sitting at 402 subscribers, but only dependably get about 40 views per video. You can probably see that that's not a good thing.

Anyways - enjoy the video!

[Tiplodocus]

Caught up on Battleships the other night. Good review with some nice points but went on a little too long and repeated itself slightly. Not by much. Still good stuff.

[HdE]

Got some more goodies to share, folks!

Here's a double whammy of videos for you. To begin with here's the latest review - a look back at the 8 bit Sega Master System version of MARBLE MADNESS (which was an absolute PIG to capture from.) Probably worth a watch if only to see how bady I suck at the game!



Watch it here:
https://youtu.be/uJJKxmyGAOs

And here, from a few weeks ago, is a little bit of reportage from EGX, which I attended back in September. For those not in the know, EGX is the UK's largest gaming event. And I spotted a couple of interesting indie games there.

No thumbnail for this one, as Youtube won't let me copy it for some reason - but you can find the video here:
https://youtu.be/5gkAzzNCv8E

[HdE]

More video bits have been uploaderized into the Youtube-o-tron tonight. This one ought to make folks feel old (including me.)

This week's review is of Activision's BEAMRIDER on the Atari 2600. A game that first debuted on the Intellivision console (which was ace!) but soon got ported over to other systems. You might even see a few other versions reviewed on the channel if I can swing it.

Anyway! Pretty picture:


Actual review link:
https://youtu.be/qmiBXzwp6ZI

[HdE]

'Allo, Twothers! Just popping back in for a bit to pimp the latest video on the channel. I suffered a few setbacks recently which meant I had a hiccup in my production schedule, so this one comes a bit later than I'd have liked.

Anyways - here it is: a look at the dubiously conceived Super Nintendo exclusive SUPER R-TYPE.

Is it super? Or merely a pooper?
(Clue: I just referred to it as 'dubiously conceived.')



Direct link to video:
https://youtu.be/XTLFWB-1u0U

By the way, guys - and this is quite important: YouTube have been erroneously deleting subscribers from a lot of channels over the last 48 hours, flagging them as 'spam accounts.' I've lost a few, so you might want to check your subscriptions to make sure they're still active. And make sure you click on that grey notification bell as well - otherwise, in it's infinite un-wisdom, YouTube won't actually tell you when new videos have gone up.

Yeah. I dunno which genius had that idea, either.

Anyway! ENJOY! There's only one video left before this season wraps up.

[GrudgeJohnDeed]

Great stuff, before I got my own SNES I remember my brother's friend bringing over theirs and Super R-Type when I was a kid. It definitely doesn't look like a stone cold stunner now, but at the time these were some of the best graphics I had ever seen

That's always been my thing with Shmups, I love the graphics and sound and the role of the daring fighter pilot taking on armies in space, but I've never found them very satisfying. It's my problem of course, I'm just not very good at them. If I'd ever paid the full price to buy one new back in their console hay-day I probably would've forced myself to learn it though, and maybe I'd be a genre maniac now! Because like you say in the video a big part of these games, and a lot of old hard games, is level memorisation. I suppose I always came to them wanting instant gratification, but they take work. I did get good at the Shmup levels in Cuphead though!

As for the lack of continues (edit - checkpoints sorry), it might have something to do with it being a short game. With arcade games being short, some ports from arcade to console were made harder to lengthen the thing to make them seem more worth their console price. Totally agree that its a pretty thoughtless, arbitrary way to do it. Another thing that happened with some Japanese games too, is their western versions were made harder in these cheap ways because of game rentals in the west, which Japan didn't have. Checkpoints, lives, continues etc. removed just to lower the chance somebody would rent it and finish it. Happened a lot on the NES in my experience!

I have to namedrop Nevryon from 1990, the problematic R-type clone on Acorn. No wonder I thought Super R-type looked insane! Still love dat theme tune doe - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnMr_Ozeoso

crank it up!

[TordelBack]

Only ever played R-Type in the arcade (unless, maybe there was a crappy Amiga version..?) , but by heck I played the stuffing out of it.  Along with Gauntlet it had the single biggest impact on my adolescent finances of any game.  Very interesting to see the SNES iteration dissected, cheers!

[HdE]

Cheers for the comments, guys - I've been REALLY slammed for time these last few weeks, so apologies for taking a while to pop back in and catch up on them.

GrudgeJohnDeed - you're spot on about the bizarro changes that would be made to games with regard to rentals. I found out (typically) shortly after signing off on the script for this review that this was indeed part of the reasoning behind the removal of checkpoints from Super R-Type. Absolutely astonishing that this kind of thing never generated mre uproar back in the day!

And Tordelback - the Amiga did indeed receive conversions of R-Type and R-Type II. They were anything but crappy!

Also, a version of Gauntlet was recently donated to me for the show. Whether it'll feature anytime soon, I wouldn't like to say. But I'm committed to another season's worth of content once this current run is up. So you might get to see it then!