The iPhone may be the newest gaming rig on the field, but it\’s starting to host its fair share of yesteryear. Some of the biggest names in retro gaming have popped on the touch screen, such as Namco\’s Pac-Man and Atari\’s Missile Command. And in just the last few weeks, the App Store has placed wayback classics like Space War and Adventure within reach of iPhone gamers. But one of the most intriguing trips down memory lane comes courtesy of Sid Player, a to-go jukebox that links you directly to a huge library of classic Commodore 64 music.\r\n\r\nThere is something special about the music of the C64. The Commodore 64 was a wildly successful platform that snuck into many homes as a productivity machine, but was primarily used as a game player. The C64 was built with audio in mind (among other things) and the SID chip was capable of producing some incredible game music. While technically limited when compared to the audio equipment of today, the SID chip, in the right hands, could sing. Some of the greats of the era, such as Rob Hubbard and Paul Norman, coaxed some fantastic music — not game music, but just music — out of the SID. Play The Last V8, Human Race, Aztec Challenge, and Forbidden Forest, and just try to disagree.

\r\n\r\nEven though I don\’t own an iPhone (yeah, it sucks) and didn\’t own a Commodore 64, I could imagine how strange it would feel playing classic or retro video games on a 3.5-inch widescreen at 480 by 320 pixel resolution. Playing these retro games isn\’t about how it looks or sounds, but how it feels, and how it feels right in the hands of a passionate classic or retro gamer.\r\n\r\nIf I owned an iPhone, however, I\’d probably go for retro or classic video games that I had played when I was young … er. Space Invaders and Asteroids, which I originally played on the Atari 2600, are probably two of the games I\’d get for my iPhone.\r\n\r\nScouring the Internet, but staying away from the Apple iPhone App Store, I\’ve found a retro game pack for the gadget at Apptism. The retro game pack has four games—Bricks, Alien Hunter, Tank Wars and Pong—and is downloadable, for a fee, of course, from Apptism.\r\n\r\nBefore you go downloading new retro (boy that sounds so contradictory!) video games to your iPhone, consider viewing this video entitled The Good, Bad & Ugly side of the Apple iPhone App Store from TekieTV:\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOh, and if you\’re looking for a good blog to get news about Apple and the iPhone, check out The After Mac and Cellphone9.

Post from: EveryJoe

Even the iPhone is going retro

Wait! Before you start stoning me, you might want to take a gander at this:

Like I said, unimaginative and boring.

Fortunately for Boulder Dash fans out there, the game has been remade into Boulder Dash: Rocks!, which is, thanks to digital and technological evolution, way better than the original. And thanks to a friend who owns both a Nintendo DS and a copy of Boulder Dash: Rocks!, I found the time to enjoy the classic without the irritating sounds produced by the original Boulder Dash.

Aside from graphics and sound upgrades, there’s also a big change in the background story. Instead of simply being Rockford the Prospector, the hero of Boulder Dash gets a real heroic goal in the guise of Crystal, the girl of his dreams that craves shiny large rocks. Bling! Bling!

Let me just shut up and let a video do the talking:

Post from: EveryJoe

Boulder Dash: Rocks! A rockin’ remake

Post from: EveryJoe

Old school video game commercials

Here’s a brief background for those standing on the far side of the moon:

Moon Patrol is a classic arcade game by Irem that was first released in 1982. It was licensed to Williams for United States of America distribution.

In the game, the player controls a moon buggy, viewing it from the side, that travels over the moon’s surface. While driving it, obstacles such as craters and mines must be avoided. The buggy is also attacked by UFOs from above and tanks on the ground. Moon Patrol was one of the earliest linear side-scrolling shoot ‘em ups and the first arcade game to feature parallax scrolling.

Anyway, in the game, you take the role of a police officer from the city of Luna, mankind’s first metropolis on the moon. As you may have already surmised, you drive around Sector Nine, home of the “toughest thugs in the galaxy,” with the objective of jumping over craters and getting rid of enemies while you’re at it to earn points.

Needless to say, like my Frogger and Space Invaders run, I sucked at Moon Patrol, failing even to hurdle the first stage. A few more days of playing Moon Patrol might give me a little edge, but I’m not keeping my hopes up.

Aside from the arcade version (and the current Flash animation version), Moon Patrol has been ported to a number of consoles, including the Apple II (on which I played Moon Patrol for hours on end), the Atari 800, 2600 and 5200, the Commodore 64, and the Nintendo Game Boy Color.

Post from: EveryJoe

Moon Patrol: Crater upon crater of hopping fun

Well, here’s my list:

Pong, Space Invaders, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Pac-Man, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brothers, Leisure Suite Larry, Afterburner, Double Dragon, Prince of Persia, Tetris, Secret of Monkey Island, Sonic the Hedgehog, Castle Wolfenstein, Super Mario Kart, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Minesweeper, Myst, Rayman, Command & Conquer, Tekken, Tomb Raider, The Sims, Grand Theft Auto, and Total War.

Darn, I think I have to brush up on my video games history and literature again.

Post from: EveryJoe

The History of Video Games in two minutes

Like all things in the corporate world, Strategic Simulations Inc., or SSI, was acquired by a bigger video games development firm. Join me in a virtual tour of the history of SSI, which is, for me, one of the most unforgettable video game developers and publishers.

Strategic Simulations Inc. was founded by war games enthusiast Joel Billings. He hired two notable computer programmers to start the company’s reign in video gamedom: John Lyons, who wrote Computer Bismarck for the Apple II and later the TRS-80 in 1980, and Ed Williger, who wrote Computer Ambush. Both games, Bismarck and Ambush were written in the Basic language. Come to think of it, almost all games in that era were written in Basic.

With its founder being a war games fanatic, SSI naturally launched mostly strategy games in its first two years of operations, from Computer Bismarck to Southern Command. Interestingly, SSI also developed and published sports video games, such Computer Quarterback, a football simulation game for the Apple II and the Commodore 64, and Computer Baseball.

No, not all SSI titles had the word “Computer.” In 1982, SSI launched the RapidFire line of video games, which included Cytron Masters, Cosmic Balance, and Galactic Gladiators. Don’t ring a bell? How about Epidemic!, a real-time strategy game dealing with a global plague?

SSI’s more memorable games, however, came only in 1987 with its acquisition of rights to develop and publish Advanced Dungeons & Dragons video games from TSR. The first such game, Pool of Radiance, came out in 1988. Oooh, Alias and Dragonbait! Oh, wait, that’s Curse of the Azure Bonds, another SSI title.

Of course, who can forget SSI’s powerhouse of strategy games, Panzer General, which spawned a host of other “General” games, like Allied General and Pacific General.

So what happened to SSI after all these successful titles? It was acquired in 1994 by Mindscape. Later, it became part of Mattel, and later still, a division of Ubisoft. Unfortunately, Ubisoft retired the brand name, and thus the world had been robbed of the legacy of SSI.

Post from: EveryJoe

Whatever happened to Strategic Simulations Inc.?

Here’s how you do it:

First, jump towards your opponent and hit him with a fierce kick attack. As soon as you land on the pavement, hopefully behind your opponent, hit him (or her, as the case may be) with a follow-up standing fierce punch. While busting your opponent’s face with the fierce, you should also be holding the joystick (or directional cross key) in the direction of the opponent. Note that Ken should not be moving towards the opponent as doing this will result in a throw.

Now comes the critical part, that of buffering a fierce Dragon Punch into that fierce punch you just landed. This is why you should be holding down the directional key in the direction of your opponent. Remember that Ken’s Dragon Punch (and Ryu’s for that matter) is executed by doing the following: forward, down, down-forward + punch. Doing this to end the first combo will give you four hits on the opponent (more if you’re fighting taller opponents like Sagat and Zangief).

What happens next will seem like a blur to your opponent as Ken steps in with a couple of jabs, a fierce punch, and another Dragon Punch.

Confusing? Here, watch this video:

Post from: EveryJoe

Street Fighter II: Ken’s Touch of Death Combo

The author of this mish-mash, however, missed the entire Apple line of personal computers. I owned an Apple IIc, so I know first-hand that a lot of video games can be played on the machine—that is, if any Apple computer is still intact to this day.

Post from: EveryJoe

Video game consoles, then and now

Admit it, “Leather Godesses of Phobos” has left you entirely stymied… It’s ok, we’ve all been there…

Well, C64 fan, suffer your embarrasment no more, for Gnome has revealed a cave, a secret cave bursting with walkthroughs to all the Commodore 64 games you remember so fondly… And about eleventy billion you’ve never even heard of… I mean, really… “Quest for the Whorehouse Queen“? Are you serious? There has to be something wrong with whoever coded that thing… The walkthrough alone is a chest of horrors I’d rather was kept closed…

But be warned dear gamer, for your shame will be gone, but at what cost? For you see, as gamers we are inexorably bound to adhere to a strict code of conduct lest we be branded l4mez0rr0z (or whatever it is the children are saying these days). In using, gasp, a walkthrough you must jettison your pride and immediately surrender your gaming apparatus to some kind of fun-amnesty.

Although that is a small price to pay to finally figure Ingrid out… I’ve had trouble understanding just what it is she’s been talking about since I started writing for b5 and her walkthrough’s listed, so maybe we’ll be able to converse soon… Although it’s the walkthrough for “Ingrid’s Back“, whereas I wasn’t even aware that she had left us… Oh would that it were true!

Never mind… Go and get a walkthrough, you might finally be able to finish “Frankie Goes to Hollywood“… What the hell was that about anyway?

Post from: EveryJoe

Stuck on “Everyone’s a Wally”?