Goodbye. Perhaps

So, I already played Archon, and Star Wars, and to be honest, I'm just not feeling it anymore. I'm still going to finish the book, no doubt about it. But perhaps, I think I'll leave the blog to it's own demise.

Hey, if you HAPPENED to like these, or were maybe following them, hit me up with an email. Maybe I'll consider starting this up if people are actually reading this. Until then. It's been fun.

Bye bye.

-Ultimate-Gamer

#0049 I Robot

Alright! Time for the new format of 1001 Games To Play Before You Die. Today we played I Robot, the very first 3d platformer. It was one of the first games ever to use 3d polygons.

Overall, it was okay, it was a tad confusing at first, but after you get used to the strange concept and the controls, it's fairly easy and straight forward. Not that bad, but not great either.

Up next: Archeon

#0048 Sinistar

Alright! Today we finish up 1982 with one of my favorite arcade games, Sinistar, an arcade SHMUP developed by Williams, and is one of the first arcade games to feature not only stereo sound, but voice acting as well. This one isn't actually on the list, but was instead requested by my Mom so shout out to her! This is probably going to be the only time I accept a request though as 1001 is a lot of games as it is.

Sinistar is, and say it with me now, "a game where you play as a small ship in space shooting aliens". Only difference here is that rather than being a "like Space Invaders but..." Game, this is a "like Asteroids but..." Game. It is VERY obvious that this game was directly inspired by Asteroids, not only because of the top down all range motion of your aircraft, but because the main thing you'll be doing is shooting Asteroids. Except, unlike Asteroids, you actually have a reason to be shooting them.

The controls are simple, a control stick, a button for firing bullets, and a button for firing bombs, this control stick is different from other joy sticks of the time, it's a 49 way joystick and I was able to map my controller to it and have nearly full range motion. It's awesome. Another way it's different from other games is that running into normal enemies does not harm you, you just bounce right off them. Most of them ignore you and shoot asteroids and collect the crystals that come out of them. The crystals you collect turn into bombs, and the red drones that you see try to steal them from you, because they're using them to create a FAR more powerful weapon, Sinistar, voiced by_. Sinistar is a SERIOUSLY tough bad guy, and is probably the first enemy on this list to make me legitimately anxious. He's enormous, can fly far faster than you, can kill you in one bite, and it takes dozens of bombs to take him out (that's why you're collecting crystals in the first place), overall, he's very well designed and very intimidating,but killing him is the only way to advance to the next level.

Overall, Damn, this is a FUN game. I seriously enjoyed it. The Graphics are finally at true 16 bit, the sounds and voice acting are incredibly memorable and iconic. The controls are very finely tuned for a game in the 80's. Honestly. It is quite possibly the best game behind Missile Command I have played in this list. It's fast paced, it's addicting and'll have you coming back again and again. Seriously, check this game out.

And that wraps up 1982! A great year it was. Now it's time for my favorite bit, where I name game of the year. Let's look at the contestants:

Gravitar

joust

The Hobbit

Choplifter!

Robron 2084

Dig Dug

Miner 2049er

Moon Patrol

Mr. Do!

Xevious

Sokoban

Tron

Time Pilot

Utopia

Sinistar

And game of the year for 1982 is:

Robotron 2084!

Yep. I couldn't help myself. Not only is this my favorite game this year, it's one of my favorite arcade games of all time. It has so much constant nonstop chaotic action. The duel control sticks is genious and the gameplay is absolutely adicting. I just don't know why I didn't know about it sooner.

Last of all, I think I'm going to be doing these reviews a little differently. Who wants to read huge walls of test about old games? Noboby? Good. I'm thinking of making these reviews more condensed, and more easy to swallow. Easier for the average casual visitor to consume. If you like the original format, leave it in the comments and with that, I'll see all of you in 1983, the year of the great Video Game Crash.

Next up:

I Robot

#0047 Utopia

Ah, finally, you have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do this. The award for the hardest game so far to play goes to, Utopia. A 1982 strategy game developed by Don Daglow for the Intellivision.

I thought Sokoban was hard to find? This game was near impossible. First, it's an Intellivision game, meaning that I needed to find a whole new emulator to play this game. Preferably one that's been updated since 2005. Second, with Intelivision, it's apparently illegal to include the BIOS files with the emulators, meaning that you have to find them separately. Let me tell you, these are NOT easy to find. Intelivision is a fairly obscure system now-days, so support for emulators is fairly limited. I searched maybe a dozen rom sites and downloaded some shady stuff that probably gave me spyware, and I still couldn't find those damn BIOS files, rendering the entire emulator completely usless! But it doesn't stop there, unlike Sokoban, this game has not been ported to many other systems. In fact, back in the day, it was only released on the Intelivision, and the Mattel Aquarius, a home computer that was so unsuccessful that it was discontinued only four months after it's release. But it was my saving grace when it game to this game. I found an Aquarius emulator, and Utopia was bundled right in with the ZIP file! The quality was terrible, and a manual for this rather complex game was completely nonexistent, but hey, I was finally able to play the first real time SIM game.

So how does this game work? Well, you use one half of the keyboard to control one cursor, and the second half of the keyboard to control the other cursor. This game is multilayer only, and while playing alone for a high score is possible, it's just not very fun. The object of the game is to accumulate as many points as possible before the end of your term as set by you at the beginning. You accumulate points by having happy, plentiful residents. You can make your island residents happy by buying a lot of amenities that they might need such as fishing boats, crop fields, factories, hospitals, schools, etc. Keep your residents happy, and your population will rise, make them upset, and they'll start to rebel, lowering your score and possibly even destroying buildings.

So how is it? How is the first real-time SIM game? Eh, it was okay. Although it really wasn't the game's fault here, I had such a hard time figuring out the controls and what the HUD meant that it just really sucked me right out of the experience. Once I finally got the hang of the basic controls, I found that it was nearly impossible to collect money to expand your island. A rain cloud must pass over your crops to earn money from them, and your fishing boat must be anchored over a school of fish to make money. Neither of which are easy to do, especially when you can't figure out the button that allows you to steer the boat. The graphics on the port are terrible, even compared to the Intellivision's lackluster display. At least the colors are nice to look at.

Overall, this was a valiant effort, and was a great attempt at something new. It was the birth of a new genre and I can easily see why it was on the list. While it may not be perfect, and I can't honestly recommend it, I still appreciate the effort and attention to detail that went into creating this game.

Normally this game would be where we wrap up 1982, but I still have one more from this year, a request, from my own Mom actually. Normally I don't accept requests as 1001 is a daunting enough challenge as is, but because I'm not going to count GORF as a game that I must play before I die, I'm substituting it for the game that should have been on the list.

Next up: Sinistar

#0046 Time Pilot

Alright! I think we have a new record holder for hardest game so far! Today I played Time Pilot, a multi-directional scrolling shooter designed by Yoshiki Okamoto (you might remember him as the creator of Street Fighter II) of Konami in 1982.

At first glance, the game seems pretty tame, it asks you to “please” insert a quarter to play. Well! Since you were so polite, I suppose I just might! After I inserted said immaterial quarter though, is where the polite nice guy front ended. Soon I was bombarded by enemy bi-planes from 1918 all trying to gun me down. I tried to out fly them in my futuristic fighter jet, but my 22,000 horse power jet engine was apparently no match against 97 year old propeller engines and they got behind me, I couldn’t turn around, they had me at every turn, until I was shot out of the sky by a bi plane coming in to my left that I didn’t even see. I had lasted ten seconds.

In Time Pilot, you play as some futuristic fighter jet. Your job is to travel through time to rescue pilots from 1918 bi-planes and zeppelins, 1948 mono-planes and B-25 bombers, 1970 heat seeking missile launching helicopters and Boing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knights, 1982 Jets who fire even more homing missiles that travel faster than you do and Boeing B-52 Stratofortress’s, and then finally all the way into 2001 where you fight the UFO’s from Asteroids who fire homing laser orbs that travel twice as fast as you and are near impossible to hit. Did I mention this game doesn’t allow continues?

The controls are simple, but are what threw me off at first. The game is obviously inspired by Asteroids and it definitely shows in the last level with the UFO’s. After playing Asteroids and Gravitar, I was expecting my plane to behave in a similar manner, i.e. the left and right arrows rotate your ship while pressing up thrusts you forward. I was wrong. Instead, the game actually behaves like modern games where pressing a directional arrow takes you in that direction. No Resident Evil controls here folks! After figuring that out, the game was an incredible amount of fun, constant threats coming at you from all sides, intelligent enemies keeping right behind you, it almost feels like a real dog fight. The gimmick of traveling through time is a very fun idea, I really love the idea of going through these different time periods trying to kill planes from that era, and I would love for a game to do that today, kind of makes you appreciate how aerial combat has advanced. The Graphics are nice and crisp with surprisingly smooth animation, overall, the game is a joy to play and one of the most entertaining of ’82 so far.

I do have one or two issues with it but I assure you they’re minimal, like Xevious, I wish this game had a better soundtrack. I don’t actually remember background music at all. I think that would really add to the fun, especially if the music changed with the era. Also, 16 directions is just not enough for a game as crazy as this. I often tried to shoot down planes who were just 15 degrees off from where I was directioned, meaning I had to do some weird maneuvering to make sure I could hit it accurately.

Overall, while the game is stupid hard, it’s at least fair, and a lot of fun to play. Unless you’re a big fan of classic multi-directional shooters, chances are you haven’t heard of this game, but it’s one I suggest. Give it a shot, I think you might be surprised.

Up next: Utopia (ooo an Intelivision game! A multiplayer only intelivision game, not sure how I'm gonna pull this one off.)

#0045 Tron

So today on 1K1VGYMPBYD (I need a shorter title) we look at Tron! A 1982 arcade game based on the hit Disney movie by the same name.

Okay, I gotta be honest here, I've never seen Tron. One of the first movies based on video games and I've never seen it or it's sequel. I heard that it was slow and not that great when I was a kid so I just was never really interested. So to be honest, I couldn't tell you how accurate it really is to the movie, I just know that the game was based on an early script of the film.

So this review is gonna work a little differently as this isn't so much one game as four separate games in one. A neat idea if they can pull it off. You start each game session by being able to choose which “color” you want to play, each color represents a different game, and you don't know what game that is until you play it. So what I'm going to do is do little mini reviews for each of the four games and then an overall review of the game as a whole.

Okay, so the first game in Tron is the I/O Tower. Basically, in this game you play as some dude in a tron costume and you have to make your way to a circle in the middle of the screen while avoiding little spider like creatures that come and attack you. You throw these little disks in order to defend yourself. The closest thing I can compare it to is Venture where you cross a SHMUP with a maze game into something more resembling a top-down adventure game. This one’s okay. You use the joystick to walk around and the dial to aim your disks, it’s a little awkward at first, but after you get used to the controls, it’s really not that bad.

The next game is MCP Clone. In this game you use your disks again to destroy a multicolored wall that slowly moves down the screen. Your goal is to make your way past the wall into a cone at the top while the wall is constantly spinning. Kinda like a mix between Space Invaders and the boss from Phoenix. This one’s okay as well, I found it a tad easy on the first round as all you have to do is fire at an angle in the opposite direction that it’s spinning an you’ll open up a small passage for you to slip by in no time.

The Third game is Battle Tanks. In this game you play as a red tank. Your goal is to kill the other tank on the screen using the joystick to move the tank and the dial to aim the cannon. This one is a lot like Combat for the Atari 2600 except with a computer controlled tank that is far more powerful than you. This one I found frustrating. Remember Combat? Where both tanks were equally powerful? Yeah, I miss that game. In this one the enemy tank takes three or so shots to kill, it’s attack is slower, but that doesn’t make me feel any better when it can kill me in one hit every time.

The last game is by far the best, and most famous. Light Cycles. This is what everyone thinks of when they think of a Tron game. Basically, it’s like a fast paced, competitive version of snake. You drive a motor cycle that trails a wall of light behind it. That wall of light never disappears, and if you run into anything, you lose. Your goal is to get your opponent to crash into a wall while staying alive yourself.

I gotta say, this game was kinda fun. I enjoyed riding side by side with my opponent only to take a sharp right turn at the last minute and then another and finally pulling away at the last second to box it in and just watching that yellow bike scamper around the edges of the walls until he's got nowhere to go. Awesome.

Overall, with the exception of the light cycles, I thought the game was rather underwhelming. I beat every game at least once and when I did that, I really had no motivation to play past that, which a really bad thing for arcade games because they’re entire point is to draw you in and keep you standing at that machine spending quarters as long as they can. If you don’t feel like continuing after a few levels, then you’re going to leave that game to play Donkey Kong again at your next game over. It was okay, I can’t say it was bad, but I just really wished all the games were as fun as the light cycles level.

Up next: Time Pilot

#0044 Sokoban

Man this one took me back. Remember Chip’s Challenge? A puzzle game that was included in the Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows 98? I had no idea that one of the key concepts of that game (pushing blocks) was introduced by a Japanese software house called Thinking Rabbit in 1982. That’s right, today we’re looking at none other than Sokoban!

First off, let me say just how hard this game was to find. Not because it’s rare, not at all. It’s the opposite that’s true really. There are SO many versions of this game, that I was completely unable to tell which version came first. So I settled on a nice flash version that you can see above. Courtesy to Sokoban.info for providing this amazing game free of charge.

Sokoban is a puzzle game developed by Hiroyuki Imabayashi. Basically, it’s “Walmart Truck Crew The Game”. In this game you play as a warehouse foreman, your job is to push crates (you can’t pull them) onto specific dots. When you push all your crates onto all the dots you move on to the next level. It is an extremely simple concept and has been implemented into nearly all genres of games.  All Pokemon Games, nearly all Zelda games, Professor Layton, Prince of Persia, Half-Life (kinda), Tomb Raider, you name it. Basically it’s the block puzzle of all block puzzles.

What can I say, this game is a classic. It is a video game stripped only to its bare essentials. If video games had a minimalist movement, this would be a good contender. It is so simple that you can’t take a single element from it and still have a playable game. Story? None. Music and Sound? Not nesesary.  All it needs are graphics good enough to distinguish what is what. It is so simple that it can be recreated FLAWLESSLY on the Atari 2600. That’s right, a console from 1977 with graphics that couldn’t even perfectly recreate Space Invaders can play this game without any hickups.

Being so simple makes the game nearly flawless, there’s not one bad thing I can say about this game. It’s addicting, I actually had to tear myself away in order to write this review. If you’re a fan of puzzle games, I’m sure you’d get a kick out of this. I’d tell all of you to go play this game, but, let’s face it, in one way or another, you already have. Now go play Pokemon, and move some rocks!

Up next: Tron