Showing posts with label Mega Drive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mega Drive. Show all posts

Thursday, 1 October 2020

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The collected works of moi

For reasons that now escape me, I once believed it would be a sensible idea to create humongous PDF compilations of all my articles, complete with 637 gazillion pictures. The largest of these megabooks filled several thousand pages, occupying well over a gigabyte of data. Problem is, they were totally layout-locked rather than reflowable as is the modern way, so absolutely painful to read on mobile devices, aside from being a nightmare to update and recompile.

I spent so long designing covers and writing the foreword introductions for these unwieldy doorstops, I thought it would be a shame to bin the 'wrappers' sandwiching them now I've individually split out all the contents into more flexible epub format ebooks. I hereby present a mini-loaf of bread slices minus the meat filling. Perfect for those of you who salivate over the prospect of carb-heavy trailers without watching the full bake-off. You could say it's a few sarnies short of a picnic. You could even descend further into inane gibberish by quoting Yogi bear, only this is wibbly enough and needs to end. Here. Now.

download ebook in epub format

Thursday, 6 August 2020

, , , , , , , , , , ,

And sometimes when we touch...

Gaming history is littered with the broken corpses of failed console/computer joysticks, joypads and other obscure peripherals. Triax's Turbo Touch 360 is a prime example. What seemed like an ingenious 'why has this never been tried before now?' concept, in retrospect, was a bungled misstep. Even now we're all using touchscreen smartphones and other digital devices, apparently, we prefer something that offers genuine haptic feedback when it comes to game controllers.

download ebook in epub format

Wednesday, 5 August 2020

, , , , , , , , , ,

The Games that Weren't Article that Wasn't

Now that the former Game That Wasn't, Ultracore (nee Hardcore), has finally been salvaged from pixel scrapyard oblivion, published for the SEGA Mega Drive, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PS Vita in 2019, people like to ignore the fact that Digital Illusions' run 'n' gun platform shoot 'em up was originally intended for release on the Amiga. Nevermind, I'm just glad it materialised full stop, through whatever means. I'm more disgruntled that its unveiling has made my old 'lost treasure' article redundant. ;)

download ebook in epub format

Friday, 10 July 2020

, , , , , , , , , ,

Looks like there's a new shepherd in town!

Sylvester Stallone is the Demolition Man; a no-nonsense, hard-nosed cop of limited wordage who doesn't believe in treading lightly. Framed for the manslaughter of multiple hostages by a psychopathic career criminal who looks remarkably like Wesley Snipes, the cat and mouse share the same incarcerated fate for their involvement. In 1996 they are cryogenically frozen, subjected to 36 years of subliminal rehabilitation therapy before being revived for a parole hearing. Phoenix (probably played by Snipes in fact), escapes into a seemingly utopian Brave New World where crime has been eliminated. With no experience of real crimefighting, present-day cops are as much use as a chocolate teapot, obliging the powers that be to release Sly into the community to recapture him and restore law and order.

Two years following the theatrical unveiling of the 1993 movie, a licensed platformer of the same name was defrosted for the Genesis, SEGA CD, and SNES courtesy of game developers, Alexandria. A frenetic, 2D, scrolling shoot 'em up action tie-in that manages to improve upon the low bar set by its source material. I risk frostbite to connect the dots, assessing their respective merits side by side.

Saturday, 27 June 2020

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Licensed gaming finds a way

Jurassic Park and the prehistoric lifeforms (hopefully) contained therein. Has there ever been a movie franchise or chief supervillain more suitable for conversion to the medium of video gaming? My pet Tyrannosaurus rex insists the answer is an emphatic no, and who am I to argue? 42 licensed games published between 1993 and 2019revolving around themes emerging from Michael Crichton's novel source material, seemingly concur.

Over the years, every conceivable, popular console and computer has been furnished with at least one playable Jurassic Park venture into dinoland. Because I'm not immortal, here I solely focus on the seminal titles released in conjunction with the first movie, directed by Steven Spielberg. Ocean Software's Amiga top-down/FPS hybrid enjoys the bulk of the attention, whilst games released for other systems are touched upon in between joining the dots between celluloid and pixels.

Monday, 22 June 2020

, , , , , , , , , , ,

I Know Kung-Faux

Contrary to common wisdom, you don't have to visit a parallel universe to witness Ted 'Theodore' Logan playing Jonathan Harker in Bram Stoker's Dracula. It truly-really-genuinely happened back in 1992 and performed pretty well at the box office. Produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola believe it or not.

A year later, Keanu was further immortalised in pixels courtesy of Psygnosis. First in a platform game for the SNES and SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis and once again in 1994, allowing Amiga owners to indulge their bloodlust too.

I gingerly crack open the musty crypt to take a peek at them all, paying special attention to the Amiga incarnation, linking its key elements to their movie-based corollaries.

Wednesday, 17 June 2020

Tuesday, 16 June 2020

Saturday, 6 June 2020

, , , , ,

Fight fire with marshmallows

Toys - the 1992 satirical fantasy film directed by Barry Levinson, starring Robin Williams - is the most bizarre, yet intriguing commercial flop ever committed to celluloid. Fight fire with marshmallows is my (no doubt inadequate) effort to make sense of it, as well as its unlikely adaptation to the world of licensed video games.

Published in 1993 for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was met with an equally bemused critical response. Many gaming aficionados aren't even aware it exists. Those who are, like to pretend it doesn't.

download ebook in epub format