| @cthuluh I own a couple of Bob's original artwork pieces... Wizball for example... didn't actually finally meet him until 2010. |
1
0
Mayhem64
When Nintendo went Hollywood: a casual conversation with the man who helped shape the N64
The making of Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Always on Edge: my life with Jason Brookes
| It was Jason I spoke to at Future in the early days of Super Play when I made some small fleeting contributions to the magazine in the writing and tips department. Lovely guy to deal with, and always made sure my cheque came through! Really sorry to hear of his passing. |
0
0
The 20 best games of the past 20 years (that never get into top 20 lists)
| I own a few of these so... not so forgotten heh. SoA, despite a Dreamcast port, is definitely up there on the Cube, played it to death. |
0
0
Eurogamer Q&A: Our first games
| Binatone Pong clone in 70s classic orange and brown, and then an Atari 2600 with Combat about 1978. |
1
0
Pocket Rumble review - a slim, strange yet fascinating fighter
|
Would be interesting if they were able to somehow port it BACK to the NGPC now heh. Most of the original fighters had lashings of charm within, to make up for the screen size and only two buttons. Probably why I have a complete UK and Japanese software set heh, I loved the little handheld back in the day, despite also being a fan of Nintendo's handheld offerings. Btw anyone with a genuine NGPC and wanting a flashcard solution should look up Retro HQ... |
0
0
Zzap! 64 is returning with an annual later this year
Welcome to the new Eurogamer
| Not working that well if you don't have your browser full screen as I can't see any horizontal scroll bars... bits chopped off on the right! |
2
0
The retro gaming industry could be killing video game preservation
|
It's like the modern equivalent of everyone selling PC emulators and ROMs on CD in the 90s... the methods don't change, just the form in which they take. @polymorph You mean apart from the fact many emulators use chip/BIOS dumps from the original hardware to assist in emulation, and those are not rewritten? Certainly applies to the most well known computer emulators (C64, Spectrum, Amiga etc), if maybe not all the consoles. |
4
2
Remembering Bob Wakelin
| @Mantis41 That's the OTHER cover I bought from Bob heh... I shall try to see about taking a shot of me holding it as well ;) |
3
0
|
"...he couldn't understand why people would be interested in 'this old crap'." He said the same to me when I bought a couple of his pieces back in 2000. My simple response was that it meant a lot to so many people, that it was head and shoulders over most other artwork of that era. As for the Wizball artwork... well, here you go heh...  (yes, that's the original!) |
44
0
Where do downloadable games go when they die?
|
Strangely enough, I've already got all the WiiWare titles mentioned in this article...! Then again, there was some excellent digital only games, which probably explains why. The only way forward will be... funnily enough... people pirating the games and making them available in a form that people will be able to load them onto the console and play. The console manufacturers themselves or even the publishers are not probably going to do the archiving/preservation for the future. |
2
0
Legendary cover artist Bob Wakelin passes away
| I’ve said a few words elsewhere on the net in light of this sad news, but all I can say here is that his artwork was that good, I made sure I purchased the originals. So I’ve been the proud owner of the originals for Wizball and Parallax since 2000 :) |
1
0
Your Amiga games are likely dying
|
I've been involved with the preservation scene for a long time. The companies were never generally interested in preserving their own history, the simple fact is, many games are only out there because other people have copied, pirated and distributed them. Funny huh? Case in point, when Retro Gamer wanted to release certain games on their cover mounts (before Imagine bought the IP), most of the companies never had the originals to be able to distribute. It fell to people such as myself to rip originals to get digital files with no crack intros. But the idea of the article is to encourage 100% transfers of the originals, no cracks, no trainers, no circumventing the copy protection, if you wrote the image back to media, it would perform and behave exactly like the original. That's what some of us are trying to achieve, especially with untainted disks that haven't been written to by the user (high scores, save games etc). |
5
0
What the UK can learn from the Far East's battle with loot boxes
| @betonos Which is the same angle that I take (having played real actual card CCGs in the past). However, if you've got spares or multiples, you can exchange and deal with your friends to get rid of them and get other cards. The same infra-structure doesn't exist in the videogame/digital world yet for that. |
1
0
Cuphead has sold over 1 million copies in the two weeks since it launched
| Might go to show that people are still screaming out for this sort of high quality gaming experience (despite the difficulty level) instead of the usual yearly CoD/FIFA etc. |
5
1
One of Nintendo's most significant curios just snuck out on the Switch
|
Or you could have a Cube with the GBA player instead of the actual GBA, and make it an audience participating event... which we did at Eurocon 2006 event :D Back to back TVs, so Pac-Man player on one side (yes, this meant getting up hah hah) and the three ghosts on the other side. Probably the hit of the event. |
0
0
Watch: The Crackdown game you never knew existed
| Played Crackdown a lot on the C64, never saw the original arcade in all my travels though. Had my tips and maps for the game published in Zzap!64 ;) |
1
0
Watch: The Star Fox games you never knew existed
| I knew the "original" Star Fox game because I own it heh. |
0
0
The original X-COM was cancelled, but development continued in secret
| @ManatuBear To be honest, having played both the original Gollop creations in the 90s and the Firaxis remakes to death, I definitely appreciate some of the simplifications, especially the ammunition counts. You need a balance between being techy and overly techy that puts the general playing public off, and I think the remakes strikes a fair balance. |
0
0
Looks like Mario Kart 8's controversial fire hopping has been nerfed on Switch
| So basically they've removed snaking? |
3
1
From Donkey Kong to Snake Pass: the music of David Wise
| Getting one brilliant composer at a company is fortunate, for Rare to manage to get three at the same time (Kirkhope, Beanland and Wise) is the stuff of legends. Rare's SNES and N64 titles were always a joy to listen to as well as play. |
8
0
Playtonic to ditch JonTron from Yooka-Laylee following anti-immigrant comments
| @Cidi Although to flip that around somewhat, it depends where in the US you are. Whites are the non-majority in California for example. |
0
0
| Considering the USA, as a nation, fought or bought much of the south west of the country from Mexico, I guess he really doesn't know his American history at all. And it doesn't matter about skin colour, the rich tend to dick on the poor regardless of ethnicity. |
25
0
The story of Crash magazine
|
Was always a Zzap!64 person because of the C64, but obviously I know the roots of the magazine from the original Crash days, and have been fortunate to meet both Oli and Roger in the past. The style of the magazine, the candidness of the reviewers, there wasn't anything like it outside of Newsfield, and probably will never be again. And the artwork... I also own several Oli Frey originals because it made such an impression about what an artist could do with the medium, and for videogames of all things. When you have these works on the front of a magazine in 1985, then it really draws you in: http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q167/MayhemUK/zzap1.jpg (US Gold liked the Beach-Head 2 art so much they asked to use it for the actual game packaging!) |
8
0
Gears of War 4's developers have worked out why the Gnasher sometimes misses point blank
| Just to note, the point at which the Gnasher fires from has been there since the first game, it's not new for Gears 4. They are, effectively, addressing an issue that's always been there. And having played a bit last night, I'm getting more consistent shots now, so to me, it's an improvement. |
7
1
How Amstrad Action changed my life
|
@kamakazilucas Cost (games were 30-40 quid) and lack of piracy. Two pretty big factors there me thinks. And there was plenty of crap on the NES as well. |
6
0
|
The Amstrad was a decent piece of hardware, not quite as good as the C64 in a number of aspects, but better in a couple (certainly a more vibrant colour palette!). It just suffered from far too many Speccy ports when it could have shone clearer with built from scratch versions. @BobbyDeNiro Wouldn't be very surprising considering Core Design programmed both Rick Dangerous and Tomb Raider! |
4
1
Burnout Paradise is gaming perfection
| I don't understand the love for 3 at times, I felt it was a step back and down from what had made the series great in the first two games. Far too much emphasis on the crashes, and less emphasis on actual driving skill to get you the first place. Revenge seemed like a step back in the right direction. Never got around to playing Paradise, but one group of friends played it to death when it was originally out, it was one of the most popular online games amongst us. For anyone from there reading this, the term "car cuddles" should be familiar hah hah! |
3
4
Behind the Scenes on Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit
| I went to the filming of the first episode filmed. Not shown, filmed. It's on Monday for those tuning it. Surprised it wasn't the first episode shown considering it features Pong and Pac-Man, two very retro games. |
0
0
The next Professor Layton game stars his daughter
| Okay, so perhaps the biggest mystery is, who did Hershel marry? :p |
1
0
Ace Attorney 6 set for a western release this September
| A spirit medium as an adversary? Cummon, Maya has to cameo here in one case! |
3
0
Phoenix Point is the new game from XCOM creator Julian Gollop
| Will definitely be following this, been a fan of Gollop's games for a long time. |
1
0
Hotel Dusk director announces 3DS detective adventure
| This definitely needs to be released in the West, another Cing fan here :) |
1
0
Kinect, an alleged heist and the original bust of Queen Nefertiti
|
I was actually in Berlin in January and went to the Neues Museum as part of my tour around the city. The bust is actually still in very good condition, probably for the reasons Andrew details - dark room, no photos even without flash. And yes, in a quite sizeable glass case, that does put off reflections from the available light. So I agree, not sure scanning from distance would work. As for the other argument about whether works should remain in Europe that came from Africa, especially Egypt... the current situation in Syria, Iran, Iraq etc does put an unexpected light and twist that they may end up being preserved by simply being displaced a hundred years ago. Also, not everything WAS looted. From reading the documentation at the Berlin museums (unless they are lying), quite a lot of artefacts were extracted with permission (and substantial monetary payment) by the appropriate authorities during the excavations. So the argument about who's at fault there for letting those pieces leave the country lies in an indeterminate area. |
5
0
The best Zelda games: Readers' choice
| Why no Spirits Tracks, or Oracle of Ages/Seasons included in the list? |
0
0
Platinum's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game looks great
| @ClemFandango The game is based on the current IDW TMNT universe. Krang exists, but he looks much different to the old cartoon. Bebop and Rocksteady are serious foes in the comics, way past the comedic relief from the 80s. Art is based on Mateus Santolouco's designs I believe, who is arguably the best artist IDW have had so far do the TMNT comic. |
1
1
Is it too late to start playing Hearthstone?
| I used to play Decipher's Star Wars CCG, which was arguably one of the hardest card games to play, understand, know the rules (and ALL the errata), and produce strategies and counter-strategies for (hint: there were scores of them, literally). By the time Decipher lost the license, I was one of the top players in the UK. And yet, I've managed to resist Hearthstone's charms. I'm not sure how. Maybe because I know it would be such a time and money sink like it was 15 years ago, and I just don't have enough of either nowadays! |
0
0
The Street Fighter 5 beta isn't working
| To be honest, this isn't much of a surprise. Some things you can't properly check until you unleash thousands of people upon a closed system... |
4
3
Sir Christopher Lee dies aged 93
| One of the few folks I had still hoped to meet, because he was an absolute legend :( |
2
0
20 years on, Worms remains a comedy classic
| Ah, comedy gold. Not just from playing, also the samples editor on the PC version you could use to make your own speech packs for the worms to utter. Pretty sure I had a couple of mine featured on the Team 17 website back in the day, including one using sound clips from Noel and Liam Gallagher heh. |
2
0
Mario Kart 8 x Animal Crossing DLC track list and footage
| Baby Park + Bowser Jr + Toad + early snaking in MKDD was just carnage for me playing. Get out in front, and then launch those giant shells behind! :p |
1
0
Rez's perfect 60 minutes
| Rez is an outstanding game. I still think Panzer Dragoon Orta is the BETTER game overall (waits for the negatives), but as a whole package designed to submerge the player in an other-bodily experience, the combination of graphics, audio and gameplay makes Rez sublime. |
7
0
A guide to gaming's most valuable treasures
|
No Pocket Reversi mentioned for NGPC? Had the value of that dropped off so much today compared to 5-10 years ago? Or maybe no complete CIB copies sold on eBay recently? Oh, and I agree, some entries for home computers would be worthwhile too, there are some obvious candidates on the C64 front: Great Giana Sisters, Chuck Rock, Katakis, any Dinamic cartridge, Metal Gear. @ghostgate2001 - that was probably something I wrote. The guy who bought the game at that price recently sold it on eBay, and it still came back in at a respectable $3000. I own a copy of the game as well, I "only" paid $2600 for it by comparison heh. Mad? Maybe. Game's held its value though, probably due to Ultima collectors. |
1
1
Video: 11 actors and the game ads they'd rather forget
| Commodore got a bit lucky with Shatner advertising the Vic20, this was after Star Trek (and just the first movie out), and before TJ Hooker started. So they got him for a reasonable fee instead of something silly. |
1
0
Atari: Game Over review
| @Mike1980 - yes, you may still be able to buy it direct from HSW himself. A little expensive (I think it cost me $20) but well worth it, and you get to see some of the other Atari luminaries including Todd "Pac-Man" Frye and Carla "Warlords" Meninsky talk. |
0
0
Raid Over Moscow left me stuck in a garage in space
|
Elevate the plane a little, then F7 for hangar doors ;) (true, it wasn't the most obvious of sequences mind you!) |
3
0
Double Fine releases 29-minute Massive Chalice dev walkthrough
| Looking forward to CQ2 as well, but I hope there's some explanation about how things were left hanging after the DLC for the first game! |
5
0
Google Play removing "free" label for F2P games with in-app purchases
| Removing the FREE and leaving it blank, most people are still going to think the apps have no cost. I agree, there should be some indicator there are IAP involved. And that doesn't even cover app icons that say "free"... |
4
1
Super Castlevania 4 proved the best Dracula games don't have to be scary
|
Best. Castlevania. Ever. Yes, it does edge out SotN. Always found myself not quite getting on with the Metroidvania style of gameplay as well. Much preferred the traditional get from A to B levels, and work out how to survive as you go along. The music. The level design. The boss enemies. The hidden powerups. All combined to produce a sublime experience. The Mode 7 stuff was the icing on the cake. |
10
0
1 / 6
Next
Mayhem64
2 months ago