I know, I know … it was only a matter of time before the powerful allure of the past caught up with the equally powerful pull of the future, but the news is surprising nonetheless. Yes, retro games are now available for the iPhone, the 4.5 inch by 2.4 inch by 0.48 inch marvel of technology created by Apple, and have been for some time now.\r\n\r\nIGN\’s Levi Buchanan gives us the lowdown on retro video games on the iPhone:\r\n\r\n
The iPhone may be the newest gaming rig on the field, but it\’s starting to host its fair share of yesteryear. Some …read more

I’ve stumbled upon these unique piggy banks that allow you to, well, save while playing two classic video games, Tetris and Breakout. Of course, you need to deposit a coin to play a game, much like the way real arcade game machines function.
Come to think of it, these piggy bank arcade game machines don’t just force you to save but you can probably make them pay for themselves by allowing others to play Tetris and Breakout on them. Hey, at USD 40.74 per piggy bank, that’s not such a bad idea.
Check out the product brochure at Strapya. Oh, and watch …read more

Ahh, yes, Chivalry, a 1983 action role-playing game released for the Apple II by Optimum Resource. There are only three things I can remember about the game: 1) The intro screen (shown in the video above) with a knight on a horse, 2) the intro music (dark and sad but catchy), and 3) being called a “CLUMSY OAF” by the miller for dropping heavy sacks of flour.
Well, here’s a little more background for those who are not of my generation:
Chivalry is similar to a board game. Up to four players can play, but must wait their turn to move. On …read more

I remember playing this classic on the Nintendo Family Computer with my sister Pepper, and we spent countless hours trying to master it. TwinBee, as most of you may recall, is a 1985 side-scrolling shooter released by Konami for the arcade. Fortunately for those who don’t have the funds and the time to spend at the arcades, TwinBee was ported to the Famicom the following year.
Since I had been playing TwinBee with Pepper, I remember having the power to wipe out enemy units—mostly flying fruits and vegetables like eggplants and strawberries and dinnerware such as forks, plates and knives—with twin …read more

After a few rounds of Mappy—yes, the 1983 arcade game by Namco—on the Nintendo Entertainment System, I can safely say that I thoroughly suck at the whole cat and mouse game.
For those of you who are confused and thinking that I’m really into the pest extermination business, let me explain. You see, Mappy is a side-scrolling video game that features cartoon-like characters, mostly cats and mice. The game’s star, of course, is the nimble Mappy, who is a … no, not a cat, you ninny … a mouse!
In the game, you control Mappy the police mouse, making him run around …read more

Now, I’m confused. A few weeks back, I wrote about the Tomy Digital Derby, saying it was my first handheld ‘video’ game. Well, now that I’ve, uhmm, rediscovered another great Tomy game, the Hit and Missile (also known as Missile Strike, Terra-Hit, and Space Attack, I find myself thoroughly confused.
One thing’s for sure, though. I owned both games, and I owned on both of them.

Here’s another gem of a game that’s halfway between simply being electro-mechanical to becoming video. The game is pretty simple: you control a caveman with the use of a lever found on the lower left part of the gaming box.
You can move him left and right, and make him shoot stone axes, primarily at a large fire-breathing dinosaur, the game’s main nemesis.
Unfortunately, there are nasty elements, aside from the aforementioned fire-breathing dinosaur, in Tomy Caveman that your brute either must dodge or deal with.
There’s a large volcano that spews rocks, dubbed in the game as volcanic bombs. Of course, your …read more

I’ve played Zoids: Legacy on the Game Boy Advance since its release, and I’ve got to tell you, it never gets old. Why? Well, I don’t really know. Maybe it’s because of Zoids: Legacy being a RPG-type title. There’s a helluva lot of outcomes for different situations the game throws at you in the course of playing it.
My only regret is playing the game over and over again and not buying its sequel, Zoids: Fuzors. Sigh. The Game Boy Advance and the Zoids: Legacy cartridge are long gone from my hands, but I can still relive the game through the …read more

Whenever you activate the game Snake on your shiny Nokia phone, have you ever paused to think who programmed the game or if the mobile phone is the game’s first platform? No, I didn’t think so.
Well, I did. Not because of curiosity, unfortunately. It’s because I programmed a game just like Snake in Basic language back in the early 80s on my rusty Apple IIc.
“Wait! You mean to say you’re the creator of the first Snake game?”
Duh, no. What I mean is, “I was around 10 years old at that time, and I had been studying how to write different …read more

Remember when the Speak & Spell—yes, that educational toy from Texas Instruments—was the talk of the town, and the kid that owned one, the envy of his (or her) peers? Well, I do, and the memories are quite unpleasant, most of them involving a mash-up of grabbing hands and flailing arms, and one often very abused Speak & Spell.
Sigh. Our children have it so much better. No more overeager classmates trying to tackle your son or daughter just to get their hands on that shiny red and yellow toy. Speak & Spell, the toy, may be a thing of the …read more