As the player explores more of the area, they will encounter power-ups that can be used to pass the previously encountered obstacles, allowing them to explore further, as well as backtrack, in order to find more power-ups and advance. While players are tempted to complete the game quickly, as there are multiple endings determined by the length of completion time, the concept of gradually increasing abilities and therefore acquiring access to previously inaccessible areas, encourages the player to go back and obtain all available items and power-ups.

\r\n\r\nAnother reason for my desire to play Metroid on the Nintendo Family Computer Disk System is the three-slot save system (as opposed to the Nintendo Entertainment System\’s version that allows players to enter passwords to basically \”save\” their progress and advance in the game).\r\n\r\nMore Famicom Disk System and Metroid in later postings. Ciao for now.\r\n\r\nImage painstakingly (it\’s freakin\’ 87.7 MB!) downloaded from Temple of Doom, a fellow retro video games fanatic. Copyrights to Nintendo Family Computer Disk System and Metroid are owned by Nintendo.

Post from: EveryJoe

I probably would’ve played Metroid

I suddenly remembered playing a couple of boxing matches on a calculator. It turns out that the calculator I remember is also a Casio, the BG-15.

Check out this video:

Post from: EveryJoe

Play boxing … on a calculator

Yeah, those words I scrawled on the image above are exactly what I told my mother, oh, about 25 or so years ago, the age of video gaming discovery when Atari, Coleco and Nintendo dominated the market with their (then) outlandish-looking contraptions. I wasn’t pining for any of those, though. I was after a cool watch.

In this corner of the world, however, we also discovered, to our delight, that we can bring our video games to school with us, and not just leave them at home to gather dust. Well, there was, of course, the Game & Watch, but Nintendo didn’t really take into the account the plight of schoolchildren and their worst fear: confiscation.

Uh-huh, I lost about three Game & Watches—Octopus, Fire, and Helmet—to the grubby fingers of male primary school teachers. Curse them!

Fortunately for us, Casio stepped into the void and introduced the Casio Game-10, shown above in its most basic, uhmm, look. The game that came with it was pretty simple. You controlled a spaceship and you needed to shoot down enemy ships on the other side of the small LCD. It’s so simple that you can only move your ship left or right.

But the Casio Game-10 gave us, the schoolchildren of the 80s, exactly what we needed: A fix for our growing video game addiction and the perfect disguise that shields it from the prying eyes of school teachers.

Post from: EveryJoe

Blast from the past: Casio’s first game watch

Let’s take a closer look at the four games:

Manhole: Like in the original Game & Watch classic, you have a few people walking across a platform riddled with gaps. In this version, though, you must maneuver Yoshi to hold up a manhole cover to fill in the various gaps and prevent Mario, Toad and Donkey Kong Jr. from falling.

Oil Panic: In this game, Mario reprises the role of the pathetic blot of a character catches leaking oil in a bucket and dumps it out a window into the waiting bucket of his accomplice, Yoshi.

Octopus: Mario dives for treasure in this Game & Watch masterpiece while evading the tentacles of a monstrous octopus.

Fire: No burning skyscrapers here. Instead you have a castle burning with Toad, Yoshi and Donkey Kong Jr. jumping out the window to escape the inferno. The game, however, isn’t complete with brothers Mario and Luigi manning the tarp that bounces the three victims to safety.

Well, personally, Mario and the gang, and the once-fancy machine called the Game Boy can’t replace the real thing. But it’s always fun to play different versions of games that we have come to love.

Post from: EveryJoe

Fusion: NES and Game & Watch

\r\nIf only all video game arcade machines look this good, dictators and strongmen across the globe would be hard pressed to ban them.\r\n\r\nImage featuring the concept art for the spanking new Gundam arcade machine downloaded from the web via Destructoid.

Post from: EveryJoe

Re:Start: Getting back into the groove

No, not recently! Duh. Back when I was, oh, hmmm, eight years old … I think. Anyway, I also need to tell you that I ended up empty handed that day—no Game & Watch, no chocolates, and of course, no trip to the nearest McDonald’s. Bummer.

Oh, yeah, you can call me a spoiled brat as many times as you want. I’m sure you did the exact same thing, probably even worse, just to get those shiny handhelds. Heck, you may even still be doing it, just to get a new Playstation 3 or Nintendo Wii. The horror. Haha.

Want to see what turned me into a mild-mannered boy into a raving lunatic?

Shame on you, Mickey Mouse! Haha. Just kidding.

Post from: EveryJoe

Game & Watch turned me into a raving lunatic

How did the current home-console controllers come to be? How have they evolved? You may have noticed some similarities between the current generation controllers, or between them and the previous generations of controllers. So, how do they all tie together?

Let’s try to find out. I’ve put together a chart, or controller family tree, that tries to connect all the current console controllers with their predecessors. Firstly, I don’t think anyone else has tried to do something similar on the Web, and secondly, none of the manufacturers actually come out and tell you who they’re borrowing ideas from. This means that a lot of the information presented here is my opinion. I try to keep things accurate, using facts I know, but also making some of my own conclusions where no hard evidence is available.

Suffice it to say that Sock Master has done a good job at assembling his little project, from the old school Atari 2600 joystick to the sensational Nintendo Wiimote.

Atari 2600 joystick: Grandpa Controller

Nintendo Wiimote: Junior

Here, take a gander at Sock Master’s work.

Post from: EveryJoe

The video game console controller ‘family tree’

Here I am, sitting in front of the computer and thinking about something cool to write about. I can’t seem to think of anything but all the gifts I’ve received since I was born, particularly gifts that have something to do with video games.

Why gifts? Because my birthday’s coming up. Egad! My birthday’s tomorrow and I still can’t think of a cool post!

Hmmm. Search, search, search. Search memories. Search Google. Search Yahoo!.

Aha! Finally, something.

Like I mentioned in my first post on Re:Retro, my first handheld video game platform was a folder-shaped black box that had a big screen and a knob and a button which served as controls.

Although the box, as I came to call it, was perfect for the then eight-year-old Joel Tan, it didn’t really scratch the itch of my video game-crazed curiosity. The result: the box ended up in the trash bin after I disassembled it with the help of my father’s toolbox.

Hey! I only wanted to find out how the darn thing worked.

Thank the Big G for the next generation handheld video game platform—the Game & Watch made by Nintendo and created by designer Gunpei Yokoi.

What the heck is a Game & Watch? If you own a Nintendo DS, then you have in your hands the successor of the first successful handheld electronic game.

Most Game & Watch featured a single game that could be played on an LCD screen roughly the size of a matchbox. Back in the 1980s when the handheld was the in thing, there were no game cartridges or mini-compact discs on which you could store games and play them anytime you wanted on your handheld.

No, each Game & Watch came with just one game … unfortunately. I (or rather, my parents) had to buy a few of them back in the early 80s just to sate my thirst for video games.

Since I need to sate this new thirst for playing old games, and the Game & Watch has been out of production for more than a decade, I’ve decided to look for an alternative (read: emulator).

Fortunately, I’ve found such a site that caters to Game & Watch fanatics. Now, let’s see how well I remember the tricks for the game Octopus. Beat my score?

Post from: EveryJoe

Game & Watch: Granddaddy of all handheld video games