#retro-cade

Irem, 1983

10-Yard Fight, in its time, was a curious release. An interpretation of the American sport of football from a developer in a country where, even today, the sport is incredibly niche was bound to take a few liberties with the rules, and 10-Yard Fight indeed does just that. While most other football games from American developers were trying to simulate the sport as best they could on some very limited technology, Irem opted to deliver a simplified take that tried to hit some of the highlights. The game was a reasonable success, and when its reworked NES port was made part of the launch line-up in America, 10-Yard Fight’s place in history was assured.

Like most games that try to approximate a real thing, 10-Yard Fight felt hopelessly dated just a few years after it released. By now, it’s practically a relic. Its unique rules and streamlined gameplay mean that I’m more likely to play this than any of its contemporaries in the genre, but to tell the truth, I can’t get much enjoyment out of this title. You only ever play offense, your options are severely limited, and feels like you’re doing the same things again and again after only a couple of minutes. I’m sure there are some people out there who still like this, but I’m not one of them.

Previous: 1943 (Arcade)

A while back, I picked up Retro-Bit’s plug-and-play console, the Super Retro-Cade. For the most part, I like it a lot. The emulation is good on almost all of the games, the controllers are nice, and I like that I can use it with HDMI or standard AV cables. Most importantly, the selection of games is great. You get over 90 games drawn from Capcom, Data East, Technos, and Irem, with a nice mix of well-known stuff and plenty of obscurities. Some of them are arcade titles, but there are plenty of console games here as well. You won’t find any RPGs or anything like that, but if you like action games, it’s a great value. 

Anyway, I feel like I need to update this site more often, but I’m quite busy writing my book. I thought perhaps that taking a look at the Super Retro-Cade’s entire line-up via short daily entries might be something I could do without significantly draining on my other responsibilities, so I’m going to give it a try. It should be noted that I own version 1.0 of the Retro-Cade. Version 1.1 is now available, offering a slightly different set of games. Cobra Command has been dropped, but in its place comes R-Type, R-Type 2, Armed Police Unit Gallop, Crude Buster (AKA Two Crude), and Act-Fancer: Cybernetick Hyper Weapon. Not a bad trade-off. Alas, I have the older version and these articles will be based around that selection. Please check back tomorrow for the first featured game!