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

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 this video:

Post from: EveryJoe

Play Tetris and Breakout on a piggy bank

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 each turn, the computer will either roll a die or spin a wheel to randomly direct the character to move either one, two or three spaces.

Each space requires a player to either compete in a challenge or puzzle, including shooting arrows and catching bags of flour, or make a strategic decision. If you win a challenge, you move forward. Of course, if you lose, you’ll move backwards.

Oh, and be careful, as you may be attacked by robbers, your pack may be stolen by thieves, or you may meet an evil wizard. Fortunately, there are also random beneficial events, such as meeting other characters who give you tips.

Are you wondering what’s so chivalrous about catching sacks of flour? Haha. Actually, the objective of the player in Chivalry is to rescue the king, who has been captured by the Black Knight.

Post from: EveryJoe

Apple II video game: Chivalry

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 blasters. So when I finally got the chance to play TwinBee again, I was continuously trying to make the little bee fire two shots.

My bad. It turns out you can’t make the twin come out unless you play in two-player mode. Duh.

Here’s a short guide on how to make the most of your TwinBee playing experience:

Like most side-scrolling shooters of its time, TwinBee’s gameplay is very simple. Players use TwinBee in a short string of six levels that repeats infinitely. Of course, the game isn’t complete without the requisite boss monsters at the end. Both characters, or bees, start out with a single shot for aerial enemies, and the ability to launch bombs to destroy targets on the ground. When a bee is hit in the wings, the wings drop off and the bee will lose the ability to drop bombs. Fortunately, an ambulance bee appears to repair the damage. The trick, however, is in catching the ambulance with the ailing bee.

One of the more important features of TwinBee is its power-up system. When a bee shoots its weapon into a cloud, a bell will pop out and drop to the bottom of the screen. Depending on the color of the bell when the bee touches it, a specific power-up or points will be obtained. The color of the bell can be changed by shooting at it continuously until the desired color comes out. Beware, though, as shooting the bell too many times may cause it to turn into a color that can kill the bee that touches it.

Here’s the more exciting part for two-player mode. You can go co-op by combining the two bees side by side. The upside is you get double the firepower, especially if you manage to obtain the double-shot power-up from a bell. The downside, though, is two bees joined at the hip presents a much bigger target for enemies.

Post from: EveryJoe

Can’t get the twin out of TwinBee

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 a mansion full of cutpurses cats to retrieve stolen goods, which include a radio, a television, a computer, a painting, and a safe. The cats, or mewkies as they are known in the game, are not alone, though. Mappy needs to be on the lookout for the boss cat Goro. Bonus points for players who catch Goro hiding behind the stolen items.

Oh, I’ve almost forgotten to mention the trampolines. What trampolines? Why those thin color-changing lines attached between the floors of the mansion. These trampolines are very fragile. If Mappy bounces on any of these four times in a row, it will break and send the little blue mouse crashing to his virtual death—unless, of course, there’s another trampoline under the one that breaks.

Don’t worry too much about the mewkies as doors on each floor can help Mappy fend them off. Many of these doors can temporarily knock out mewkies or Goro if Mappy opens or shuts them at the right time.

Yikes! I better run. I see my daughter prepping up the NES and she’s not about to beat me to mastering Mappy.

Post from: EveryJoe

A round of Mappy on the NES, anyone?

One thing’s for sure, though. I owned both games, and I owned on both of them.

Post from: EveryJoe

Tomy Hit and Missile: Was this my first handheld?

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 little caveman will die if he is hit by these so-called volcanic bombs. He also gets blown to bits if the dinosaur decides to char him for hurling stone axes.

When this happens, the screen first indicates the score up to that point and the number of cavemen (you have four at the start of the game) left, and then the game resumes.

Oh, let me just shut up and show you a video of Tomy Caveman in action:

Post from: EveryJoe

Blast from the past: Tomy Caveman

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 dozens of videos on the Internet.

Take these videos, for example. They feature the final battle of our heroes against the Death Meteor. Enjoy!

Post from: EveryJoe

Zoids Legacy: Final battle versus Death Meteor

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 programs on Basic. One of the programs listed in the book I had been using as a guide was Worms, the original title of the game.”

“Really?” Yes, really.

Here’s a short history lesson, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Snake is a video game that came out in the late 1970s and has maintained popularity since then, becoming somewhat of a classic. The player controls a long, thin creature, resembling a snake, which roams around one a bordered plane, picking up food (or some other item), trying to avoid hitting its own tail or the “walls” that surround the playing area. Each time the snake eats a piece of food, its tail grows longer, making the game increasingly difficult. The user controls the direction of the snake’s head (up, down, left, right), and the snake’s body follows. The player cannot stop the snake from moving while the game is in progress.

Wait! Before I post more about Snake’s history, let me point out that in my Basic version of the game, pressing a key in an attempt to make the snake move in the opposite direction kills the snake as it also, technically, counts as bumping into its body. Anyway …

The Snake variety of games originated with the arcade game Blockade, released by Gremlin in 1976. The first known microcomputer version of Snake, titled Worm, was programmed in 1978 by P. Trefonas on the TRS-80 computer, and published by CLOAD magazine the same year. This was followed shortly afterwards with versions from the same author for the PET and Apple II computers.

So next time you activate Snake on your mobile phone, remember that the Snake was once a Worm.

For more retro gaming goodness, keep reading Re:Retro. Those interested in mobile phones, their accessories and applications, try browsing through Cellphone9, another quality technology blog from b5media.

Image shows Kurt Russel reprising the role of Snake Plissken, the protagonist in the film Escape from L.A. by John Carpenter.

Post from: EveryJoe

When Snake was still a Worm

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 past, as a good emulator for the PC, thanks to your handy browser and the Internet, is already available.

The Internet version isn’t as fun as the real thing, though. The reason for this is the lack of playable modes. Fortunately, young children, the original market for the Speak & Spell, don’t seem to mind. I showed the online version to my daughter, and she liked it. The only thing that matters to them is hearing the virtual contraption speak and praise them whenever they input the right spelling of a word.

It would be great if I could embed a copy of the online version of Speak & Spell on Re:Retro. But since I haven’t obtained permission from Jake Smith, the programmer of the emulator, a link to the site would have to do. Go try it!

For those in the dark about what I’m talking about, here’s a little background:

The Speak & Spell was created by Paul Breedlove, an engineer with Texas Instruments during the late 1970s. Speak & Spell was the first of a three-part talking educational toy series that also included Speak & Read and Speak & Math. The Speak & Spell was sold, with regional variations, in the United States, Canada, Australia, and in Europe.The toy was originally advertised as a tool for helping young children to become literate, learn to spell, and learn the alphabet. The early Speak & Spell units were sold in 1978. Variants included the Speak & Read, which was yellow with blue and green accents and focused on reading comprehension, and the Speak & Math, which was grey with blue and orange and centered on mathematics.

Speak & Spell had five built-in learning games: Spell, Say It, Secret Letter, Mystery Code, and Word. Spell is the classic word spelling game, wherein the participant must spell ten words after hearing them “spoken” by the unit. The Speak & Spell also had the ability to expand its vocabulary using expansion modules that plugged into a slot near the battery compartment. One such expansion module was a tie-in for the toy’s notable appearance in the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and asked young spellers to try such words as “geranium” and “extraterrestrial.”

Post from: EveryJoe

Speak & Spell: The video game (sort off)