NRF Gamer

Back in the 1980’s the arcade was Castle if you wanted the latest in video game entertainment. With Atari definitely King of this Castle and at the top of it’s game. Way before the many disastrous decisions to come that brought it to it’s current day barely recognisable brand.
During these heady days Atari brought 3D games to a sticky floored arcade near you. For me none more special than the 1981 classic Tempest. 
The game was originally programmed and designed by Dave Theurer who is also well know for Missile Command (the reason to own a USB trackball today if you are into your emulation).
Tempest was special - it used a vertical hires (for the day) colour vector monitor and a spinner controller. This game looked like it belonged in the future when everything around it was flat 2D sprites and many still monochrome. The immediacy of the spinner control gives this game a competitive and challenging appeal which goes some way to explaining why a hacked version with harder levels by arcade owner Duncan Brown was quickly circulating after release.

The hardcore gamers loved this 3D precision escapism. The game was a big success and no wonder Atari looked to a sequel when their under appreciated Jaguar console came to market. If you can - the Atari Jaguar is a cheap hit on eBay and well worth it if you want to revisit the buzz of Tempest 2000 (sometimes called Tempest 2K). Jeff Minter of Llamasoft fame was responsible for coding this official sequel and it kicked arse - big time. It really has not aged either - sparking up my Jaguar and connecting a hacked spinner controller I was playing this masterpiece for several hours recently.

I've been a fan of emulation for as long as I can remember. There were some early efforts that held my attention on the Commodore Amiga for a short while, but it was really MAME ( http://www.mame.net/ ) which really solidified the potential in this coders art for me. Knowing I could always play Mr. Do. or Snow Bros regardless of access to the original arcade cabinets or the Jamma boards was a revelation.

This love of emulation was recently rekindled with my Arcade Bartop (see earlier blogs) and that left me wondering how emulation was progressing on the Mac as OSX has always played second fiddle to Windows emulators (mostly due to DirectX being a coders delight). Well the good news is that OSX Emulation is now a joy too (with MAME having a very impressive SDL version) with the arrival of OpenEmu http://openemu.org/

A really nice black finished OSX frontend for emulation which handles multiple emulators in one frontend by adding additional Cores to the setup. These Cores are from many of the top names in emulation coding and are simply selected from a list and seconds later are added to the interface.

Better still is the simplicity with which you can add ROMS - drag and drop, make folders for various collections, add artwork automatically or from you own images. All the emulators use the full range of OSX inputs including any gamepads you plug in with USB and as if that wasn't enough you can also pair up a Nintendo Wiimote.

Emulation speed is everything and the Cores do not disappoint all being very capable on my MacBook Pro i7 without dropping frames.

Super Mario Kart 1992 on the SNES was amazing - fast, mode 7 graphics and enough nuanced skill to keep you going back time and time again. It still plays like a dream but seems slower than I remembered it.

Mario Kart 64 in stunning 3D was fresh and yet familiar when it hit the N64 in 1996. Looking back now the 3D tracks look very sparse but it still plays well. Though if I am honest it is easily the weakest of the set and only really has merit for the move to 3D.

Mario Kart Super Circuit on the Gameboy Advance was the reason I bought that purple pocket SNES - which is what most of the games felt like and amazing to be able to pack that into your bag and take it with you  to hook up with some mates. 2001 was a good gaming year for this reason alone.

Mario Kart Double Dash a GameCube system seller for sure back in 2003 and it has aged pretty well. Introducing a lot of finesse that has been stock content in the series since then.

Mario Kart DS comes racing along in 2005 and repeats the magic of Mario Kart Super Circuit by shifting the 3D Karting bonanza from Mario Kart 64 almost lock and stock on the shiny new dual screen hand-held. That second screen was perfect for working out relative positions and timing those short cuts.

Mario Kart Wii - the only reason I bought a Wii (but luck for me it turned out to be a good investment with those glorious Super Mario Galaxy games too). The Wiimote was a surprisingly effective controller with or without the steering wheel shell back in 2008. More importantly this game looked amazing and really brought the Karting series up to the modern gaming standard.

Mario Kart 3DS - almost perfect - an amazing track selection - brilliant wifi play local and internet all wrapped up in a shiny almost perfect portable version of the Gamecube masterpiece with the new trappings of the Wii version. It seems Nintendo could do no wrong with this series. It was a great Christmas in 2011 playing this for hours.

Mario Kart 8 2014 and almost here - May 30th to be precise. It's looking great to. Introducing motorbikes and what looks to be more than a nod to the anti gravity racing king F-Zero. With its' roots as much in the Arcade version of Mario Kart Arcade GP DX (which I must keep watching eBay for - one day for the games room). If this is true to form - and there is no reason to doubt it given the previous 7 games in the home karting series have been stunning - it is once more reason to buy a Nintendo console and could be the saving grace for the Wiiu. The big unanswered question is will the WiiU Gamepad add anything worthwile or will we all be reaching for our Wiimotes again? Not long before we find out.

At last the reason I got a PS4 on launch day gets a new release date. Originally planned to be a launch line up title it was pushed back to give Ubisoft the time to really make it shine. With GTA V rewriting the rule book on openworld sandbox games this was probably the best move they could have made.

Judging by this new trailer: http://youtu.be/DtAXMxEB13A the time has been well spent. The graphics seem a step up from the previous trailers and the lighting is notably improved. Also the world seems even more alive than it did in the early trailers. Things are looking good.

Prepare... Prepare... I am prepared... I've seen the videos from E3, read the various tidbits leaking out and played the now closed beta. I have rarely been so prepared.

Respawn Entertainment http://www.respawn.com is well documented as a new developer with it's history firmly rooted in the original Call of Duty titles. So the logic goes they know what they are doing when it comes to a FPS... and do they... YES! The beta definitely leaves you wanting more - the two maps gives you a taste of the amazing wall jumping and verticality that Call of Duty could only dream of. Mix in the grunts and the Titans and you have a fresh take on an old favourite.

With three types of Titan available their is the inevitable balance of strength, speed and range to consider. But the most controversial element of the new are the grunts. AI - but perhaps that should be Artifical Dumbness as these guys are cannon fodder all the way. They add  a means to rank up quickly and can be a problem when you are squaring off with a human opponent but otherwise they are toast in seconds.

The big news here is that the XBOX One finally has a game that is platform exclusive and worth the cash. The fanboys for COD will no doubt  decry its' move from the purist FPS but for my money the new can't come soon enough. Bring on March 14th 2014.

Three very respectable Batman titles sit in my game stack with by far the best of the three being Arkham City. These games brought strong characterisation and styling which was in keeping with the Dark Knight comic books. The addition of playable Joker and Harley Quinn kept fans happy with the replay value.

Finally a PS4 original title that looks like it was made for the next gen or should that be now gen? The latest game-play trailer just released looks very atmospheric, has some great steam punk sound effects and hopefully plays as good as it looks. But on that last point only time will tell - and that is the problem - this isn't with us until Q3 2014 and that probably means October/November given how much Sony attention this title is getting.

Take a look at the game-play video here: http://youtu.be/W9OfQvB_AwQ

So far what we have seen reminds me of a Dishonored Uncharted hybrid with a palette of colour not far off what is used in the current Thief reboot.

There is a great video here which explains the creative vision for the game and makes me want it even more!

Finally got time to work on the Mame Bartop a little more and the result is a fully working arcade cabinet that will happily sit on my office desk. Nice. The 12mm MDF body took several coats of spray and still looked poor so the decision was made to cover the whole in vinyl graphics. This lead me on a quest for decent artwork in a scalable format. Sadly there was not much to choose from as most sites held back on the content or did not have a full set for any one game. I wanted to go with one of my favourites and so that narrowed the list down to Snow Bros, Bubble Bobble, Robotron, Defender or Galaxians. I came very close with Snow Bros but could not quite get the marquee right and the control panel was a little dull. Finally I found a decent set of images for the bezel, side panels and marquee for Robotron - that clinched the deal. I went on a mission to get a good control panel and finally did a custom version which was a lot more work than I had intended as I used InkScape for the first time to get the SVG format I wanted. The buttons I had purchased previously for the build were a mix of colours and looked awful on the new vinyl covered cabinet (also the micro switches were in built and of a low quality). Fortunately on a day out to the Retro Revival event in Wolverhampton I picked up a set of white buttons to replace them. Much better - leaving just two red side buttons for pinball or coin add (these fit well with the side art so am happy with the variation).

The perfect fusion of new and retro is coming to a handheld very soon. The GCW-Zero (http://www.gcw-zero.com/) handheld is a Kickstarter funded handheld that is perfectly formed to satisfy the needs of the home-brew and emulator scenes.

With a very successful Kickstarter campaign (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gcw/gcw-zero-open-source-gaming-handheld) clocking in $238,498 of a hoped for $130,000 was quite a result and has meant the developers are able to improve on the original intentions for the machine. Packing in 512MB of RAM, a Class 10 16GB SDHC card for storage along with a mini-HDMI cable too (it does TV out!). They have designed the handheld around the Ingenic JZ4770 1GHz MIPS Processor which has already proven itself in previous iterations in other lesser handhelds. This gives the developers and coders in the emulator scene a head start and means they now have the raw grunt to really push those emulation cycles. Take a look at this superb video showing Chrono Trigger (RPG Porn if ever there was) running extremely smoothly with good frame rates and finally a decent sound emulation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY_DFEJ6abA).

The machine is touted as completely open source and barring a little caveat on OpenGL it seems to be true to the open source promise. I sadly have not got one of these yet but am keenly watching the sites for first dibs on the kit when it goes on sale. May 2013 is the estimated date when the GCW Zero will be available to the general public. The device will be sold at http://www.gcw-zero.com, along with http://www.dragonbox.de and http://www.ithic.com as official resellers with more to follow apparently. I can't wait to get my Chrono Trigger fix on the train can you? No affiliation just blatant gadget lust so I hope you will forgive me the plug below - if they deliver on all the promise they will deserve this and much more:

I dug out the Commodore 64 from the games room storage (read junk room) and powered it up for a little entertainment. This was to give me a break between various stages of stripping speakers, assembling cabinets and disassembling monitors in preparation for the MAME Bartop cabinet.

Now was the perfect moment to do so as I recently received a SD2IEC interface (http://www.sd2iec.co.uk/id6.html) with connectors for Vic 20, C64, C128, C16 and Plus 4. This brilliant little device allows SD Cards to be read directly on the Commodore as if it were a disk drive. I especially like the effort Rod has gone to so that the SD2IEC looks like a little floppy drive - cool :-). Usual commands work just as if it were a real drive and I quickly had it up and running with a stack of disk images and a file browser programme. A few taps of the still lovely to type on C64 left me looking at a colourful blue and lilac screen and the code LOAD "FB",8 staring back at me. A quick tap of enter and then RUN and I had a full but basic browser showing the images on the SD card.

Picking the C64 out of this list of compatible machines was easy as I wanted to revisit Rockford and the timeless classic Boulder Dash (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiEVfa1OK_o). The SD2IEC loads at normal C64 disk speeds - so quicker than cassette but compared to high speed drives of today still sluggish. This can apparently be improved on and is a result of the perfect emulation of the disk drive. I rather liked the authentic loading times. This is a great device and I cannot recommend it highly enough certainly well worth the £48 or so. I am really into SD cards accessible via various devices on my retro computers and consoles, I must write more soon on the Everdrives I have coming.

Although Boulder Dash was originally an Atari game from way back in 1984 I wanted to try the C64 version as I remember a few rainy weekends back in the mid 80's where we had some great times on this classic. Would it still be as sweet as I remember?

In short - YES! This was a sublime mix of rushing around collecting gems and dodgy weird sprites to get to the exit. Made all the more strategic by the tumbling boulders of the title. These were often set off in some kaleidoscopic display by a dash to grab a gem that was recently out of reach. What a game - I must take a look at the newer versions of this especially the latest on the 3DS (take a look at about a minute in on this video for a full retro mode in the remake - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i0BRCiACiw). A job for another day.

Holy cow - or should that be holy llama? The long time games house that is Llamasoft headed up by Jeff Minter have announced (here http://minotaurproject.co.uk/blog/?p=372) that the masterpiece that is Tempest 2K from the Atari Jaguar (and to a lesser degree the Nuon Tempest 3K (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS9alQbHHPk) is getting an update on the PS Vita.

One day I hope to track down a Nuon enabled DVD Player and Tempest 3000 disc for my love of all things runs deep. I adored the original Atari masterpiece which can be enjoyed online in your browser right here: http://chrome.atari.com/tempest/

This love affair has also been at the forefront of my planning for the MAME Bartop which I have already shared with you. I hope to install a suitable arcade spinner on the panel to ensure that Tempest feels just like it did in the arcades.

Imagine it now - shiny Tempest graphics on that beautiful OLED screen. Perhaps some rear touch panel use for the jump function and mix in some of the typically sublime sound effects that we love of Llamasoft and WOW! I am in some kind of NRF heaven.

The blog makes for good reading and reminded me to go and power up the XBOX 360 for some Space Giraffe too (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1o-Hwyjol8).

The artwork for the announcement looks great too as per the below and crafted by Rod Steele http://www.rodsteele.com/ who has a great style judging by his website.

In short bring it on Llamasoft I am super excited.

So we know the next Playstation is coming after the recent Sony reveal. We know there will be some slick games to play on it (with KillZone Shadowfall looking especially hot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TptSxiFRAM). We also know the favourite dual-shock controller has had an overhaul and some refinements in the handling, a touch-panel along with a couple of new buttons for sharing and options. A new camera sensor bar to ensure the light from the new control pad can be accurately tracked in 3d space.

We really know quite a bit about the software, the pad and the interface (as it stands in a clearly pre-release state) - what we have no idea of is what the  box will look like. It's going to have a few USB 3.0 ports and a Blu-Ray drive so there is some basic form we can assume but with so much already revealed it is telling that the box itself is so elusive. I think the reason for this is that Sony wanted to steal a march on Microsoft and knew that it was all or nothing on timing with Sony having an itchy trigger finger. If anything this early reveal leaves Microsoft in a stronger position when it does show its' hand as it knows what it is up against. With a little more time between me writing this and the XBOX 720 (or whatever it gets called) being officially revealed we can only hope that the Microsoft reveal is more complete and we see their full hardware offering.

With both machines sharing such similar architecture from a CPU and GPU point of view according to the various specifications bouncing around the net, the software platform for the next generation is as close to a harmonised platform now as it has ever been - perhaps Trip Hawkins 3DO dream is almost a reality after-all. It will certainly be easier for developers to deliver a single engine with minor tweaks between the two systems with them being essentially desktop PC's in console clothing and that can only mean new games on both systems get off to a flying start without the typical learning curve of a new piece of hardware.

Will I buy a PS4? Sure - why not - I am a gamer - it represents the next step and so far each step Sony has made in the full console experience has been well placed (not so with its handhelds, but I think that is likely to change with tighter integration between PS Vita and PS4 being suggested).

A quick trawl of the web after playing some Bit.Trip Runner 2 ( http://www.runner2.com/ )on the WiiU and I stumbled across the long standing flash masterpiece Adam Atomic and Baranowsky's 'Canabalt' http://www.adamatomic.com/canabalt/ which Runner 2 has more than a passing resemblance to (but don't let that belittle how great Runner 2 is).

Being the retro head I am I was very impressed to see that a Paul Koeller had made a conversion was made for the C64 that humble little 8-Bit hero turns in an amazing performance thanks to all the hard work that Paul has put in. Now I have to mention the soundtrack - that wonderful SID chip which still sounds incredible today turns in an ominous rendition of the original Danny's 'RUN'. That superb recreation is thanks to a Mikkel Hastrup. There is an alternative version with a new soundtrack but for me the SID version of 'RUN' makes it all the more complete. Take a look at it in all it's 8 bit glory here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1INJ2tAEsc

Now the icing on the cake. You can get this retro remake on genuine commodore cartridge or as a disk image or tape image. But how could it be better as a genuine cartridge for £20? Full fat retro creamy goodnes all wrapped up in a very professional looking pack. Now I just need to finish playing it long enough to order one myself!

I've been a fan of the classic arcade games since I was an 8 year old and found many ways to fritter away my pocket money in the arcades of Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Falling in love with several titles along the way each being unceremoniously dumped for the next eye candy cabinet to seduce me. A few have stuck in my memory more than others - Mr. Do, Snow Bros, Pac Mania, Pang, Gauntlet, Robotron, Defender and Marble Madness.

For the most part these have one thing in common - I spent much of the time playing these games with my friends or my now wife (with the exception of Marble Madness which no one else seemed to like). They were a social experience in the then vibrant arcades (not like the arcades of today which are often grimy, sticky carpeted slot machine hells). Many a day was lost inside these old school arcades with flashing attract modes and random sounds going off all around you. The end of the day stumbling into the sunshine with half closed eyes was like a return from some techology fuelled hibernation.

With a tidy up on the games room much overdue I decided it was time to get rid of my full sized Jamma cabinet which had a Snow Bros board installed in it and go the more space friendly route of making a bartop MAME (http:\\www.mame.net ) machine so I could cover all the classic games including those I did not get around to buying a Jamma board for (mostly because some of those things go for serious cash now).

I had a few old computers gathering dust and a swift purchase of some eBay essentials has me with a pile of components all waiting to drop into the baby cabinet. Over the next couple of weeks I will be setting this up to run a full version of the brilliant emulator MAME with special attention to those games already mentioned.

Right now I am researching suitable artwork for the cabinet and marquee. Next I will be downloading all the necessary files to get the PC end of the machine working as I want it - probably using a Hyperspin frontend (http:\\www.hyperspin-fe.com)

When there is more to see than bits on the office floor I will post a picture or two here. The below is an image off eBay for something similar to what I am aiming for - let's see how close I get :-)

So that little machine which everyone thought a gimmick enhanced version of the DS has become the hottest thing to game on. 3D or not you surely can't fail to notice that this machine has a wealth of hot titles now and coming during the summer.

I have been spending a lot of time with Luigi's Mansion 2 and have been impressed with the subtle 3D effect but mostly I have played it with the 3D off. The game looks great, carries on much of the magic personality of the original Gamecube title and has a wealth of replay value with the hidden collectables and the multiplayer options.

Downtime has also seen me enjoying the excellent Sonic Generations and the Tetris version for the 3DS. I can't tell you how many hours I have ploughed into Markio Kart 7 on my original 3DS so much so that it tempted me to buy a 3DS XL Limited Edition with the game pre-installed so that my wife and I could play head to head on this great version of the karting classic.

I've also found the Super Mario 3D Land to be a great distraction when I have a few minutes. The levels are perfectly suited to quick bursts of fun when waiting on the real world.

Now we get to the really hot stuff - shortly I will be playing Donkey Country on the 3DS. What looks like a very nice enhanced conversion of the often overlooked Wii classic. Donkey Kong is promptly followed by the next version of a game I fell in love with on the original DS... Animal Crossing. The new version out here on June 14th looks incredible and is the perfect escapism on the perfect platform.

Take a look a little further into the future and you see more of my long time love affair rekindled with Zelda Oracle of Ages and Zelda Oracle of Seasons (both incredible on the Gameboy Color). Then as if they knew I was smitten with the little green capped fellow they drop the bomb... Legend of Zelda A Link to the past remake with all new dungeons with an enhanced graphical style which looks so sweet...

Finally. The PS Vita has a must own title. Whilst MotoRacer RC was good and Hustle Kings slick, neither were anything that would truly make me spend the £200+ on Sony's under appreciated handheld.

LittleBigPlanet PS Vita on the other hand is a full PS3 quality title with additions to the basic LBP mechanics which are a result of the unique hardware of the Vita. The single player game is a blast, with all of the character and charm of the PS3 versions. The win here though is the longevity offered by the editing and sharing of levels. The PS Vita was made for this - touch screen controls work so much better than the control pad on the PS3. The innovation from the front and rear touch pads is first class and gives a whole new dimension to twist those levels.

Combine the touch features with the ever present camera and suddenly you have a level design tool that is hard to imagine bettered.The real world and the LBP world suddenly blur into one. I have started looking at things when I am out thinking - "that would be great in a LBP level with cowboys" and equally bizarre ideas.

Digital Distribution sucks. There I have said it. It sucks and we are getting shafted. All likelihood is that this will continue and only get worse. At least with Retail products we have a thriving second hand market, a collectors market and a competitive market which ensures we get great prices for our gaming purchases.

Don't get me wrong here - the idea is brilliant and should deliver greater variety at a lower cost to the developer. Digital distribution should allow for more innovation with smaller developers able to reach a wide audience - taking risks and deviating form the accepted standards of gaming. Look at Journey on the PS3 - stunning (as too are Flower and Flow). Now without digital distribution these would not have reached the audience they had and would almost certainly have not made it onto anywhere near as many consoles as they have currently. So much so that their success has seen retail versions of these three bundled together and those who would prefer their content on disc can experience them (take a look here)

What really gets me is how the digital download is so poorly implemented by the console manufacturers. With some few exceptions the titles are more expensive by some margin to their retail equivalent - that is despite that fact you do not get the box, disc, manual, the resale potential or the collectors value. Not to mention the fact that it has not had to make its' way to a distributor, a retail outlet or through some postal service. How is that a good reflection on the relative costs of distribution and production?

Worse still - when a title ages past the initial launch fever you can often pick up some first rate titles at around £25 whereas on the digital stores from the big three players these same titles sit on their launch price (the RRP and not even a competitive price to begin with) for eternity.

I really appreciate the idea of getting my content in this way at a great price ready to play on day one (it can download in advance so it is ready for whatever window of launch has been determined). What I really want is my cake and to eat it. I want to be playing top class titles with as much variation and innovation as is possible - downloaded on day 1 ready to play first thing in the morning at a really great price reflective of the reduced cost to get to me. But sometimes I also want the physical product especially when that has something to add to the experience - such as the artwork books we see with some of the special editions. Though as I have paid for the game content already I don't expect to have to pay for that again - just the pack in content... Perhaps this is too much - but the answer is surely not so far off?

Finally as a retro collector I wonder how in the future I can acquire some of these classic games if the model is digital download only? What happens when the machine reaches the end of its' life and my content is digital and locked to the console never to be seen again? What if the machine subsequently expires and I replace it with another and the content is locked to the first machine - no longer available and therefore lost to me? How about as a game collector in 2018 I want to lay my hands on obscure title "x" for some retro console from 2012 - how do I do that?