Surprisingly, and to the shock of many veteran gamers, there is an entire generation of up and coming electronic ball busters that are not familiar with the origins of Maximo. It’s a sad-but-true fact that I’m sure many of us would rather just as soon turn a blind eye to. But think about it, this new generation of gamers is going to be raised on an entirely new caliber of quality, and soon new will be old. And the absence of old knowledge will perpetuate Moore’s Law. I don’t mean to go all Hideo Kojima on ya’ll, but the passing on of knowledge is what causes great games like Maximo to be created in the first place.

Maximo was originally intended to be released on the N64, then after the development team realized that the limitations of the N64 hardware would interfere with their creative freedom, they turned their focus to the Dreamcast. After Sega declared the DC DOA, the game was optimized for the PS2 hardware. I’m sure Capcom will make a pretty penny because of this decision, but we’re left thinking Maximo could have been released on the Dreamcast. It brings an oversized Japanimation tear to my eye.

Many gamers have become spoiled with features that are often taken for granted. Back in my day we did not have save-anywhere features. We had to traverse the entirety of a level aided with nothing but our wits and a 2-button control pad. I come from a generation where continues were not passed out like candy at Halloween, we had to work for them! And work we did. Do you know what its like to progress through 80 percent of a game only to be informed that you have to start over again due to lack of continues? Well if you don’t, you will. Maximo throws out the idea that gamers should be hand-held or spoon-fed during the course of the game. While not anywhere near as difficult as Ghosts N’ Goblins, Maximo still retains that old-school ‘if you want it, be prepared to work for it’ philosophy. Luckily, Capcom keeps the experience incredibly entertaining, lubricating the all too common annoyance of having to restart a level (or in some cases the entire game) with smart level design, slick visuals, and an overall feel that brings us back to the good old days of pizza-greased joy pads that would inevitably be thrown on the ground in frustration — only to be immediately picked back up to give it one more shot. Enter Maximo.

Maximo sports some impressive visuals. It’s hard to imagine that Capcom Digital Studios created the foundation of this game to run on the lowly N64 hardware. What may be even more surprising is that they have created this game to load entire levels into the measly 4 MB of video ram of the PS2, it seams developers are finally getting a true sense of the system’s intricacies. You can literally eject the CD from the disc tray and continue playing the game right on to the end of the huge levels; animations, sound effects, secret areas, all intact.

Huge draw distances, reflective metal armor, and an almost cinematic approach to perspective are some of the things you should expect from Maximo graphically. Zombies will abruptly sprout up out of the soil in classic G&G style, ghosts will appear out of the woodwork, and huge environments will violently modify themselves drastically, and without warning. Imagine playing Ghouls & Ghosts on the SNES, now give the game a beautifully rendered 3D makeover, throw in a bounty of new graphical nuances and innovations, set to puree and you’ve got a basic understanding of what to expect from Maximo in the visuals department. This game pays homage to the 8 and 16-bit era of the series while also realizing the potential of the current state of the art.

As expected you will see a lot of Maximo running around in his skivvies, which looks particularly nasty in the Ice World stage of the game. You may find it interesting that Maximo can buy different styles of under garment, everything from the infamous red-heart pattern currently being pimped out in all of Capcom’s advertising attempts to a simple-yet-tasteful cow spot design. The different kinds of underwear have absolutely no effect on anything, and merely serves as an aesthetic diversion from the default boxers.

You may recognize many of the game’s tracks from previous G&G games. Those old-school beats are back in a big way; retooled, tweaked, and modernized for your enjoyment. The music compliments the detailed, eerie, visuals subtly enhancing the overall enjoyment of the game, and doubly so for those who are familiar with the series’ heritage. As many people already know, the memorable soundtracks in the previous games made up a large part of the experience and often would kick around in your head long after you stopped playing, fortunately the same can be said about Maximo.

Sound effects are surprisingly realistic. Swinging your sword at a tree will result in a thick organic ‘thunk’ sound, striking metal will have a clanging, reverberating, realistic metallic sound to it. Supporting the oft-overlooked positional stereo sound, enemies can sometimes be heard rustling in the distance, hearing the direction that monsters are coming from is particularly useful for staying alive.

Character movements are sharp and precise, and death can sometimes be a matter of a few microns. Gameplay is based on the same simple dynamics found in the original game; jumping, double jumping, attacking, and throwing your shield are all executed with ease. Because of the immediate familiarity with the control scheme, you will find Maximo is very easy to pick up and play. So when you die, the blame can rarely be placed on anything but your slippery thumbs. The camera can get distracting on a few small spots in the game but luckily you can kick it into FPS view at (most) any time and look at your surroundings as viewed by Maximo by holding R1. You can also line the camera up with your POV by hitting the L1 button.

Multiple elemental sword power-ups are available to aid you in your quest. Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Armageddon are all available, which increase the potency and effect of your attacks. Fire attacks are particularly devastating on the ice stages — each elemental property has different results on enemies depending on the current atmospheric situation.

Maximo’s levels are huge, requiring multiple attempts to fully explore. Luckily you’ll come across check-points as you progress through each level that are activated by performing a downward stab deep within the soil, allowing you to re-spawn at that point in the event that you come across an untimely death.

Collecting Death Coins is a necessity in furthering your progress of the game. For every 50 Spirits you collect you’ll be awarded one Death Coin, spirits are accumulated by destroying tombstones and various other objects. If you die and have no lives left, you will be sent to the underworld where Death Coins are the only form of currency that the scythe-wielding Grim will accept. At first all that is required to continue is one Death Coin, but every other time you run out of lives the price goes up. If you are unable to ‘pay the Reaper’s toll’ then its game over.

Throughout the duration of one life you gather various power-ups that fill slots in your inventory. You start out with a 3-slot capacity, that number increases by one for each set of levels you complete. Power ups that are locked into a “slot” are permanently saved, however you can utilize as many power-ups as you can get your hands on, but when you die only the ‘locked’ power-ups will remain. It gives an added sense of appreciation for the preservation of just one life. When you find a heart (one free life), you are filled with an urgency to retrieve it by any means necessary. And believe me, this game does not making retrieving free lives easy. You’ll be walking a 2 inch plank on a swaying pirate ship, double jumping over bottomless pits, and for the most part pulling off acrobatic feats that would otherwise only be suitable for a super hero.

Make no mistake, Maximo is a challenging game, luckily it stays consistently entertaining throughout. Every level offers an experience that is unique and challenging, giving you a real sense of accomplishment for progressing. Its possible to blast through the game in just a few hours if you know exactly what your doing at all times, but expect to invest around 15 hours of well spent time your first time around the block.

After defeating an end-boss you will be given the opportunity to; fully power up your armor, save the game, or receive a Sorceresses Kiss. Collecting all the Sorceresses Kisses (4 in all) will unlock an art gallery where you can check out illustrations of characters and designs from the game. Completing the game with 100% of every level explored will open up “Mastery Mode.” In Mastery Mode you will play through the opening level of the game, but this time around you will have to do it backwards with item and enemy placement changed. The monsters are hugely abundant in this mode and require skill and strategic planning to defeat.

Like some of the best side-scrolling platform games of yesteryear, Maximo requires calculating precision to successfully navigate. Keeping you on your toes is something this franchise has always flawlessly executed, and I am happy to report that this reputation is kept firmly intact with Maximo. Uttering foul language and slamming the controller down on the ground in frustration has not been this fun since the SNES days. Long live the double jump!

Force 21 is far from your normal real-time gtrategy game. You don’t have a base where you begin — mining resources, building buildings, which in turn allow you to build certain units. No, it’s nothing like that. Force 21 doesn’t try to be that. It’s something much better.

Force 21, set 15 years in the future, has you in the middle of a war. I know that you may be thinking, “Oh, no. Not another futuristic WWIII scenario,” but this actually seems to be possible. China, thriving off of its economic boom in the 1990s, has become short on natural resources and raw materials. On the other hand, Russia, economy falling from the breakup of the USSR in the 1990’s, is almost on the brink of collapsing. China, taking advantage of this, invades the Republic of Kazakhstan, for much needed materials.

“NUKE ‘EM” is what you’re probably thinking, but that won’t happen. Apparently, missile defenses have been researched so much, that nuclear weapons have become obsolete. The only practical way to fight is by conventional warfare. China, obviously having the advantage over the tumbling Russia, was predicted to barge their way through the Russian army no problem. But the United States of America, trying to get in the middle of it, sends some forces into the area, hoping that they may dissuade China from invading. China decides to attack anyway. That’s where the game begins.

You can either choose to be the invading Chinese army, or the defending US army. Either way you decide to go, you have complete control over 16 different platoons from each army. These platoons are made up of tanks, surveillance, recon, helicopters, artillery, APC’s and electronic warfare units. In some missions, calling for air support is also permitted.

Each side has 15 missions in the campaign, with a briefing before each one, showing you the objectives. Next, you look at what units you are going to bring into the fight. You are also given approximate locations of where the enemy is. As nice as this can be, don’t set up an entire attack based on it. Always scout ahead. The enemy is prone to move around the area.

After all that is done, you are now in the game. You will find your units sitting nice in pretty in front of you. If you have ever played a RTS before, then you already know the basic commands. The only frustrating part of the setup of the game is that you can’t just click on a tank, or any other unit, and order it to do something. If you want to move just one unit around, you must separate it into it’s own platoon. While this is not a big thing to do, just a drag and drop, it gets quite annoying when, in the heat of the battle, you need to move just one unit around. Unlike most RTS games, you just can’t see anything on the map by clicking there. Your point of view is what the commander of the platoon would see. An interesting twist in the game is that requires that you do more recon than in other games.

Now, the grits of the game. The sound is quite good, but the voices of the units get repetitive real fast. The sound detail and quality make you feel like your there, but to take advantage of it, you’ll need a good set of speakers. The graphics in this game are absolutely superb. The detail of each unit is incredibly realistic, which add to the total realism of the game. Explosions are well done, not cheesy looking like a lot of games do. One of my only complaints with the graphics of this game is the distance that you can view off into the horizon. There always seems to be a layer of fog, limiting your visibility range. Sloppy work there takes away from the playing experience. I mean, if you were sitting in a tank, on relatively flat land, I would think that you would be able to see a little further than a couple of hundred of feet. Other than that, kudos to Red Storm on the realism.

The replay value of the missions is not the best, as the missions are mostly the same time after time, the only difference is the exact location of the enemy units.

The single player experience may be the best part of the game. Due to the unpopularity of this game (caused by a bad release date) there is a very small multiplayer base to play against. This is too bad, because this is the kind of game that’s really fun to play with a group of friends. The fact that there is hardly anyone to play with is very odd, seeing as how both Mplayer and Microsoft Gaming Zone support play for the game.

Overall, Force 21 has enough to satisfy both the people who like to sit down and play a realistic war game and those who just want to blow shit up. The ease of play is what really makes this game work. Also, I found absolutely bugs in this game, which is becoming more and more rare these days with companies over hyping games, then throwing crap programming in a box just to get it out.

Turn to page 2 if you want to see how the game ends. We also have a cool game demo available for download.

The fact that we’re still talking about PlayStation 2 and still talking about new games being made only for the PlayStation 2 in the 2008 holiday season speaks volumes about what this console did for our industry. Today nearly 100 percent of children and teens play video games on some level.

Here at Blast, we’re big into nostalgia, but we don’t necessarily look to Pac Man and Space Invaders for our retro fix. PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Nintendo 64 and PC games from the 90s have given us a litany of content to draw from, especially with the entire reviews and news database from ReviewCenter.com.

Here is The Review Center’s PlayStation 2 Launch Guide from February 2000
By Tom Carroll, Review Center Staff

If you haven’t had the chance to play all 28 PlayStation 2 launch titles, now you don’t have to. Nobody has the disposable income to invest in crud, so we’ve taken the liberty of snagging a bit of the cream from the skim. We’ve got the skinny on which titles are phat and which fall flat.

Refreshingly (and unlike the Dreamcast’s launch, which was mostly made up of driving games of dubious distinction) the PS2 launch has a few candidates from each of most popular genres: action, sports, racing, and, surprisingly, RPG.

We also realize that no one wants to read too much at launch. Full reviews of each launch title will follow in short order. For now, strap on your helmet, grab the ol’ dual shock controller, and get ready to have your horizons expanded:

Armored Core 2
Agetec
From Software
Action
1-2 Players

The PlayStation’s main mech, or AC, is back in action with the best-looking ACs ever in a game of this sort. Armored Core 2 is the fourth in the series, but the true sequel to the first game, and the first of the series on PS2. With literally hundreds of parts to improve and alter your mech, and dozens of single player levels to battle in, players can enjoy lone play time, or they can venture into two-player split-screen action. While it plays much like previous games in the series, Armored Core 2 looks fabulous.

DOA2: Hardcore
Tecmo
Fighting
1-4 Players

If you’re only going to buy one fighter for your PS2, this is the one. It has more of everything than anything else out there. You want characters? It’s got ‘em. You want costumes? Ditto. You want arenas, breakaway walls, dramatic falls, slaps, punches, kicks, combos, tag elements (that leave you breathless), well, DOA2: Hardcore lives up the hype and continues shoveling it on long after the others have quit. This game is the sine qua non (for those of you classically challenged, that means, “the bomb”) and it easily tops Namco’s best efforts to date.

Dynasty Warriors 2
Koei
Action
1 Player

If you like your action fast and furious, DW2 may just be the game for you. You take on the persona of one of eight ancient Chinese heroes, each with different skills. Navigating via a huge map, you get to ride a stallion, battle bad boss guys, and formulate a strategy that leads to success. No other game will have as many characters simultaneously on screen, which may be frightening at first. This explains the furious part; the game is also a tad short in terms of gameplay — which explains the fast.

FantaVision
Sony Computer Entertainment America
Puzzle
1 Player

When Konami wanted to have one of its teams learn the PS2 development environment, it said, “Make an update of Gradius III and IV,” which is what happened (the game will be released within the month). When Sony Computer Entertainment International (SCEI) wanted the same thing for one of its teams, it said, “Make me a colorful puzzle game that involves fireworks.” Fanta Vision is the result. You link together same-colored fireworks as they fall from the sky to achieve various point totals. It is a beautiful game and one that will keep adult gamers interested for roughly the same time as a first-run movie. You do the math — movie = $8.50; Fanta Vision = $53.00 (tax included). See you at the movies.

Eternal Ring
Agetec
From Software
RPG
1 Player

Eternal Ring is a Japanese game in search of a US following. Its story involves science and magic, but the uninspired story makes it difficult to imagine that anyone will stay engaged long enough to plumb the more than 100 spells that are available. Less than inspired visuals and localized voiceovers drop this title to the bottom third of the bunch.

ESPN Winter X Games Snowboarding
Konami
KCE Osaka
Sports
1-2 Players

While SSX is the snowboarding king, it is a fanciful look at the sport. For the serious snowboarder who wants more realism in his/her gaming, there is ESPN WXGS (that’s Winter X Games Snowboarding, but we’re tired and we’re not typing that out any more). This game has the real deal: trademarked boards; signature riders; courses modeled after real terra firma. While the controls for this game don’t disappoint and the tricks are the bomb, there are times when you wish this game would just bust a bit more loose. Kudo to the Create-A-Boarder feature; it’s a winner.

Evergrace
Agetec
From Software
1 Player

Now that RPGs are back in vogue for console systems, isn’t it nice that the PS2 gets a capable one at launch. Darius and Sharline are the two main characters in Evergrace. They get involved in some pretty dark deeds, but it’s the game’s unique “Free Growth System” that stands center stage. Using the FGS, you can allocate experience points to any of a number of abilities. Not to be outdone, the game’s “Full Dress System” allows the player to dress his/her character from head to toe prior to battle, all of which affects the way the character fights. While Evergrace is the only true RPG in the launch bunch, you wouldn’t be disappointed if you gave it a try.

Gun Griffon Blaze
Working Designs
Game Arts
Action
1 Player

This should actually be called Fun ‘n Gun Griffon Blaze, becaue it’s a fast start boullion of battles and blasting. The worlds aren’t going to set your hair on fire (because the geometry and textures are somewhat simple, but what a rush it is to fly at one opponent, blast it into smithereens, then jet over to another hotspot and start blasting. You’ve also got a cool zoom feature for targeting that involves speed blur and such. Hot action; cool tech.

Kessen
Electronic Arts
KOEI
Adventure
1 Player

PS2’s launch lineup has room for everyone and everything, it seems. Even Kessen. One of the few original launch titles in Japan, the powers that be must have gone through some real gyrations before deciding to localize it for Western tastes. The results are generally good: the graphics and cinemas are first-rate; the strategy portions, while competent, are a bit tedious. If you measure your gaming pleasure in hours instead of emotions, Kessen may just pass muster.

Madden NFL 2001
Electronic Arts
EA Sports
Sports
1-8 Players

Electronic Arts’ Madden 2K1 is one of the most sophisticated games to launch with the PS2. It has to be. It’s football, for cryin’ out loud. But this is one console that goes much deeper than a new coat of paint and some new spark plugs in the engine. The amount of precision that you have to have to compete has been increased (now you have to not only hit the open man, you have to hit him when his head is turned back toward the passer when the ball is in the air). Skill, fatigue and injury are more of a part of this game than any before because the engine and graphics renderer have the ability to actually turn concepts and theories into gameplay actions. By making launch with more than just a collection of pretty helmets, EA has served notice to Sony’s own that an ordinary GameDay 2K1 will just not do.

Midnight Club: Street Racing
Rockstar Games
Angel Studios
Racing
1-2 Players

Somebody once said, “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.” Perhaps this is true of Midnight Club. At first the visuals and audios impress one as less rather than more. The opening movie is a shambles; the vehicles shine as though they were carved from blocks of plastic. Play the game for a while, however, and the personality of the thing starts to show through. The taunts really do get under your skin; the challenges are easy enough to catch your attention but become tough quickly so as to hold it. If Midnight Club succeeds at all, it will be because substance triumphed over style.

Moto GP
Namco
Racing
1-2 Players

It’s a shame that some games have to betray their roots as quickly as they do. Moto GP is a game that can be mastered in no time, which makes it a disaster for the home market. Such a shame, too, because you’ll never see a prettier game on any platform. The bikes are sweet; nearly every surface is awash in somebody’s logo; tracks are totally trick. If Moto GP succeeds (and racing games are often more popular than they deserve to be) it will be because style triumphed over substance.

NHL 2001
Electronic Arts
EA Sports
Sports
1-8 Players

Both Madden and NHL 2K1 show EA’s desire to deliver more of the “good stuff” right out of the gate. The problem is that sometimes higher polygon counts and richer textures mean a gummed up renderer unable to cope. Such is the case, especially with NHL 2K1. It’s a pretty title, to be sure, but the lack of snappy moves and an AI that’s too cagey with the difficulty setting ramped up will surely doom this game — fast in the past — to a slow start out of the PS2 gate.

Orphen
Activision
Kadokawa Shoten
RPG
1 Player

Orphen tries to be a hybrid of RPG and fighting game. Taken singly or as a whole, it is a failure. Orphen is an unappreciated and underrated sorcerer trying to make his way in the world. He joins up with various folks for various reasons, ultimately taking him (and them) to Chaos Island for some showdowns with various bad guys. The game looks nice, but the battling system is repetitive and boring, making an otherwise engaging story not worth the bother. Save your yen for a better game about some other lost cause.

Q-Ball Billiards Master
Take 2
ASK
Sports
1-2 Players

This game is pool as it’s often played: by the book and with little panache. The physics are steady and the player is given more than enough control to attempt any shot, even if they aren’t all accomplished. If you’re looking to play a bit more fast and loose with the “sport,” try Konami’s Real Pool.

Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2
Midway
Sports
1-2 Players

If you liked the first game in series (on whichever platform you played it on — wasn’t it ported to play on cell phones?) you’ll love the PS2 sequel. All the previou modes are retained; added are a tournament mode and career mode. You can also fight against a teeny slate of celebs — which was better for pre-launch marketing teasers than it actually is in the game. While R2R Boxing: Round 2 won’t be the only boxing game on PS2 forever, it will always be tops in kooky fun.

Ridge Racer V
Namco
Racing
1-2 Players

Namco is guilty, guilty, guilty — of a little bad judgement. The company decided to take a luke warm PS2 J-launch title and seve it up even colder to US audiences. The game lacked antialiasing and had problems with framerate flickering when it was being played in and around Tokyo (and in our office, too, of course). Such techno bugaboos could have been eradicated for the US launch, but Namco decided to put its efforts elsewhere. RRV is a good racing game, especially for those who’ve fallen for past incarnations of the game. However, front end be damned (and the game’s start, selection, and option screens are drop-dead gorgeous) can’t cover over this game’s warts.

Silent Scope
Konami
Shooter
1 Player

A gun! A gun! My kingdom for a gun! This stiff, ultra-formal remake of the arcade hit is just that . a remake of an arcade hit. It suffers mightily from control, as the sniper rifle that made the arcade version so infectiously fun isn’t anywhere to be found (and don’t look for some desperate hardware manufacturer to make one on a whim, either). If you enjoyed the arcade title so much that you want to burn up $53 to have it at home, you won’t be disappointed. If you played all the way through the arcade shooter, you probably don’t have $53 to your name any more . but you really won’t need to bother with it either.

Smuggler’s Run
Rockstar Games
Angel Studios
Racing
1-2 Players

This game is getting good word or mouth because you get to be a smuggler and haul illicit cargoes around various (somewhat) scenic locales. It’s getting good media attention because the environments are humongous and the game’s draw in distance (the farthest point you can see without needing fogging, etc.) is so far. Smuggler’s Run seems to be selling because of both of these reasons, as well as because it’s well crafted and addictively fun. Smuggle one home yourself — if you can find a copy…

SSX
Electronic Arts
EA Canada
Sports
1-2 Players

SSX (we assume that stands for Super Snowboarding Extreme) is the hottest of the 28 launch titles. It’s highly original and addictive. The character and track designs completely blow away everyone else in the pack. The boys (and girls) at EA Canada are to be congratulated on creating a game that will play just as fresh in Boulder, Colorado, Heidelberg, Germany, or Yokahama, Japan. You take you place at the starting line as one of six contestants from far-flung corners of the world. You have to master each course’s layout, flesh out your own skills as ‘boarding and trickstyling, while finishing in the money at the end of each race. Along the way you’ll unlock other characters, new courses, and better equipment. There isn’t a game around (since MTV Snowboarding of a few years back) that allowed you to catch such air and flip out over the tricks like SSX. The game should become one of (if not the) top seller for EA Sports because it has equal appeal for women as for men. Watch out Madden, this one’s gonna leave you stuck in the powder.

Street Fighter EX3
Capcom
Fighting
1-4 Players

If you read any of the reviews of the uninspired PS2 J-launch title, this game ain’t changed much in the interim. Fans of the title’s other better efforts will no doubt pick it up so they can have them all on the shelf, but don’t look for this fighter to set anyone’s knickers on fire.

Summoner
THQ
Volition
1 Player

Summoner is a sprawling mass of RPG gaming. It may have a good story line, but it shows its feet of clay by not being able to render large terrain objects that are really amazingly close to your action. Because of the nasty draw in distances and insane fogging, the summoning part of this game should have been your character summoning huge masses of hillside to appear and dissapear merely by walking toward and away from them. Interesting game design … bad implementation.

Swing Away Golf
Electronic Arts
Sports
1-4 Players

Swing Away Golf is to the game of golf what cotton candy is to a filet minion steak. To say it’s golf lite is to demean the word “lite..” All this having been said, it is a fun little romp with anime characters and a mean little physics engine that really does the job. Other than the game taking a nasty little hop when going from when you use the swing game to the time your character actually swings, it’s all pretty sweet. One word of advice, choose the knowledgeable and sympathetic caddy characters; the others are grist in te wheels of life — at least as far as Swing Away Golf is concerned.

Tekken Tag Tournament
Namco
Fighting
1-2 Players

While this game ain’t no DOA2: Hardcore (see above), it is the best Tekken game ever made. It’s doubtful that Namco set out to set the gaming industry’s collective hair on fire with this one . they just had to give the gamer all the Tekken they wanted without messing up the look, the controls, or the framerate. In this, they have succeeded and this title will sell well because of it. The US version of the game is essentially the same as the Japanese title, allowing Namco to devote its resources to other titles that will appear at or near launch. Caution: If you’re looking for something more out of this game than “Just Plain Tekken” you may be disappointed. If you just want an update and a new coat of paint, it’s the game for you.

TimeSplitters
Free Radical Design, Ltd.
Eidos Interactive
First-Person Shooter
1-4 Players

In the wake of the PS2 launch, TimeSplitters is one game that’s getting noticed. Speed kills and TimeSplitters delivers it at Mach 10. Modelled a bit after GoldenEye and Perfect Dark (no surprise since most of the developers are ex of Rare), this game allows you to be a free radical (pun intended) running and gunning around throughout the halls of history. Split time, not hairs — this is a fun game to play, with or without your friends.

Unreal Tournament
Infogrames
Epic Games
Action
1-4 Players

You want it, you got it, Sony. A launch with a bunch of no-name titles isn’t as much fun as inviting a few of the big boyz to join in. Unreal Tournament (along with Madden 2K1, Tekken Tag, and Ridge Racer V) fills the bill nicely. It’s a lush implementation of the original PC game with bows made to console controls. Various configurations are available, including keyboard and mouse set-ups. Have a lot of spare TVs around, hook up four units, four games, four TVs via I-like and you’ve got a UT party. You don’t even need the Planter’s Peanuts.

Wild Wild Racing
Interplay
Rage Software
1-2 Players

Tired of the same old modified ovals? Ready for a game that has some real off road teeth? Wild Wild Racing is the anti-Ridge Racer … it’s so good at times that it’ll shake you. Interplay’s staff modified the game’s Japanese control setup to emphasize power sliding. The result? You can fly around these off road race courses and hit the turns without

X-Squad
Electronic Arts
Action
1 Player

Inevitably, for every SSX there is an X-Squad. This game really needed a little more time in the bullpen to make it a more complete player. The game has some flashes of competence, but a monster contingent of weapons plus a minimum amount of fun inter- and intra-squad play doesn’t make for a complete game. Visual style aside, the art also needed to be much better to compete with other games (including EA’s own) in the ultra slick PS2 launch lineup. More later on this one . but you really get the picture in a paragraph.

Tom Carroll was one of the top gaming writers for ReviewCenter.com. If you’re still out there, Tom, Blast needs you!

In 1982 Greg Kuperberg and Orion Software put out Paratrooper, an EGA action shooter game on the brand new IBM-PC that put you in a gunner’s turret as helicopters and parachuting soldiers invaded. Before that, in 1981, Mark Allen released Sabotage for the Apple II. They were early examples if a twist on a convention concept: shoot everything to get points, but shooting costs points.

Ten years later, Night Raid was released with a shareware version by Argo Games and Software Creations in 1992 to little fanfare.

In Night Raid, commonly confused as Nite Raid for its DOS 8-character folder abbreviation, which I acquired in the 90s on a plain white 3.5″ floppy put out by Software for Everyone, a company that made their living by repackaging shareware, charging the legally allowed “copying and disk fee.”

The game has good graphics and sound for its time. It’s an addictive style too — you can shoot as many shells as you want, but the real object of the game is to rack up a high score. You get you get two points for shooting paratroopers, five for large, slow airplanes, 10 for smaller, faster planes, and 10 points for shooting down deadly smart bombs. It costs one point for each shell costs you a point, and you will get down to zero quite fast if you’re not quiet.

Of course, if you just want to blow off some steam, go ahead and blast the bejesus out of everything and keep firing those shells … boom, boom, boom, boom.

If one criticism is to be levied against Night Raid, it’s that the shareware is so short, only a handful of levels that takes up about 10 minutes of your gaming day to finish.

The registered version gets progressively harder, with more troopers, planes, and bombs engaging your hapless little bunker.

There is something to be said for the graphics, too. If you shoot the troopers parachute, he waves his arms as he plummets to the ground. During level intermissions, you get entertained by asides like pizza deliveries. For a game that three guys put together, it’s pretty detailed.

This game boasted over a megabyte of 256 color graphics, music, AND two-channel audio.

Ye Olde System Requirements:

• VGA Graphics Card
• 286 or better
• AdLib/SB/SS support
• 386 recommended

Download the readme file

It would have been easy for Capcom to release yet another reboot of the Mega Man series. Instead, Mega Man 9 is a frustrating, pixelated adventure that looks like it’s been sitting in out game collection for the past 15 years.

It’s everything Mega Man should be.

Available for download from the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live and Wii-Ware, Mega Man 9 is a retro treat that brings us back to a time seemingly forgotten by the industry. Everything you remember from the classic Mega Man games is here, from the blaster to the series trademarks disappearing blocks. Somehow though, after all these years, the series still holds up, not just to nostalgia buffs — but as genuine, satisfying game experience.

Borrowing mostly from the original Mega Man and it’s sequel than any of the more recent titles (ie, no charge shot or power slide), MM9 stays true to the game’s true origins though the story does take a radical turn. After yet another robot rampage, Mega Man’s arch nemesis Dr. Wily presents a video of famed scientist and Mega Man’s creator Dr. Light claiming responsibility and plotting world domination. It’s up to Mega Man to not only defeat clear his mentor’s name, but stop yet another robot revolution.

The formula stays the same here – battle your way through a slew of eight themed robo-bosses in any order, obtaining a new signature weapon after defeating each. There-in lies the secret; planning out your course to use your weapons effectively on each boss. While there is no definite right answer, finding a winning combination can prove to be quite taxing. What it comes down to — in most cases, is mere trial and error, very very frustrating trial and error.

Yes, Mega Man 9 is difficult, in fact, at times certain stages will seem damn near impossible.You’ll die often, and odds are you’re going to go through quite a lot of controllers in fits of rage as the game doesn’t forgive failure very easy. Each of the eight stages only features two checkpoints — one around the stage’s halfway point, and the other at the very end boss battle. Luckily, as in previous games in the series, the masochistic difficulty never seems to deter one from playing — it’s a good, frustrating challenge that if you’re willing to stick with, feels incredibly rewarding when finished.

Undoubtedly, playing Mega Man 9 on the Wii feels the most comfortable. Gamers familiar with the series will feel right at home with the sideways Wii remote control scheme (used frequently for other NES era games ported to the Wii), while the PS3 and Xbox 360 version do their best to map out the control’s in a similarly easy way, but it just plain doesn’t feel right, and the Xbox’s clunky and unresponsive d-pad will only add to the frustration.

Mega Man 9 plays like a love letter to not only the world Keiji Inafune created so many years ago, but to the golden age of gaming in general. Proof that even today, games don’t need hi-def graphics and cinematics to be a worthwhile experience — gamers of all ages should pick up Mega Man 9 — if you can take the frustration.

Way back in the mid 1990s, the computer game magazines were full of whole page advertisements in the back of the book for a 3D Dos game called Cylindrix. It wasn’t necessarily a visual marvel, but it was an intuitive game and one of the first real 3D experiences in Dos.

Cylindrix was coded to run in Dos DJGPP Protected Mode so that it could address more than 640 KB of memory, something that the Dos programmers felt was impossible at one point in history.

I had an original copy on 3.5″ diskettes that I sold on eBay for over $100 about eight years ago. I actually wish I held onto it, because it’s a museum piece. But I still have my two-disk demo.

So what is Cylindrix?

Cylindrix is a fast-paced battle game set in a round cylinder. To play the game, you use teamwork and fast reflexes to tap the enemy pylons scattered around the map. Tapping the pylons turns them to your team’s color. The more pylons you have on your side, the most powerful your hover tank’s (did we mention you’re in a hover tank?) weapons become. You’ll find yourself constantly struggling to maintain a favorable pylon count, or your enemies will gain the upper hand.

You play the commander and you have to assign each of your wingman tanks a task like “Get Pylons” or “Attack Enemy Ships.” Knowing which commands to issue and when to issue them is the key to winning the game.

One of the game’s developers, John R. McCawley, obtained permission to license out the game for free. He’s also working on Windows and Linux ports of the game.

Definitely try his new versions, because his team completely rebuilt the game from scratch.

You will absolutely need DOSBox for my version, or it ain’t gonna work.

From the game’s readme.txt file
The playing field

THE CYLINDRIX. This is the playing field in which the game takes place. Your vehicle can either skim along its surface or detach from the surface and fly freely within the Cylindrix. Each end of the Cylindrix is capped with a force shield preventing you from escaping combat.

All of the cylinders are the same size, but the various lighting conditions will make some feel smaller or larger than others. Each square on the surface of the cylinder is 40′ x 40′.

A cylinder’s measurements are: Height: 382 feet high, or approximately 27 stories high Length: 1200 feet, or 87 stories long

Square foot area: 1,440,000
Total cubic feet: 137,000,000

Pylon: Average height, 7 stories
Radar Base: 45 feet high

PYLONS. Towers of energy called pylons jut from the surface of the Cylindrix. When your vehicle collides with a pylon, the pylon becomes charged to the polarity of your team, turning it whatever color your vehicles are. As a result, your teams weapons will do more damage. Capturing pylons is of extreme importance.

RADAR BASES. Each team has a radar base somewhere on the surface of the Cylindrix. The radar bases will fire relentlessly at any enemy vehicles in range. The radar bases control the homing of energy missiles, and update each vehicle’s radar display. If your radar base is destroyed you lose both of these.

ENERGY SQUARE. Each Cylindrix has on its surface an energy square. If you move your vehicle over the square its shields will be recharged.

HEADS UP DISPLAYS
Each of the eight ships has a uniquely designed Heads Up Display, but they all display the same information.

ON SCREEN RADAR DISPLAY. This is an actual 3D display of the cylinder and always moves in relation to your view of the cylinder. Your ship is represented by the white square that is at the bottom of the
cylinder when you are on the ground and when you are in the air the white dot will move in relation to the cylinder. The blue squares represent the blue team, the red squares represent the red team.
Any time your radar locks onto a ship, the square representing that ship will have a yellow box around it. If your radar base is destroyed, your radar disappears.

CROSS HAIRS AND RADAR LOCKING. These cross hairs allow for the aiming of lasers by eye or missiles when your radar is inoperable. When you lock radar on an opponent, a diamond shape will appear between the radar lock box, and your ship. When the cross hairs, the radar lock box, and the diamond are all lined up, then you are facing the enemy directly.

SHIELD STRENGTH DISPLAY. The shield strength level is indicated by the bar on the screen with the ‘S’ on it. Every time your force shield is hit with a laser or a missile it is weakened. If your vehicle is
shot after your energy shield has been depleted, it will be destroyed. There is a brightly colored square on the cylinder’s surface, called the Energy Square. If you move your vehicle on top of it while on the surface, your shield’s strength will recharge.

MISSILE DISPLAY. The number of missiles you hold is displayed here. Missiles regenerate automatically.

WEAPON DAMAGE DISPLAY. The relative amount of damage you are able to do, the number energized pylons you have tagged on the Cylindrix surface (see “The Playing Field” above) is indicated on the bar on the screen with the “D” next to it.

WINGMAN 1 And WINGMAN 2 – COMMAND DISPLAY.
Every time you give a command to your wingman, it is displayed here.

WINGMAN 1 And WINGMAN 2 – SHIELD STRENGTH DISPLAY.
The shield strength of your two wingman is displayed here.

KEY CONTROLS:

NOTE: Cylindrix allows the reassigning of keys, but the default settings are as follows.

AERIAL AND SURFACE CONTROL
“s” Take Off and Land
“v” Change viewpoint, in or out of ship.
“Esc” Pauses game and brings up an options menu.

SURFACE ONLY CONTROLS
Up arrow Move forward
Down arrow Move backwards
Right arrow Rotate right
Left arrow Rotate left
“Alt” Sidestep Right or Left using arrow key (Strafe).

AERIAL ONLY CONTROLS
“a” Throttle Faster
“z” Throttle Slower
Up arrow Nose down
Down arrow Nose up
Right arrow Rotate right (Clockwise).
Left arrow Rotate left (Counterclockwise).
“Alt” + arrow key Step Up, Down, Right, or Left (Strafe).

WEAPONS CONTROLS
“Ctrl” Fire laser
Space Fire energy missile
“x” Engage Special Weapon

COMMANDS TO WINGMEN KEYS
W 1 W 2
F1 F7 Get Pylons
F2 F8 Attack
F3 F9 Attack Enemy Radar Base
F4 F10 Defend Home Radar Base
F5 F11 Group – Surround and Defend
F6 F12 Orders Canceled

Ye Olde System Requirements

• 486/66 DX (SX will not work)
• Soundblaster compatible sound card
• Double speed (2x) CD Rom Drive
• 10MB of HD Space
• 8MB of RAM

The vertical scrolling shooter is a great, classic arcade genre.

In 1992, Epic MegaGames released this almost forgettable little EGA game called Overkill. You, the pilot, are tasked with destroying all the evil alien forces that captured six otherwise peaceful planets, enslaving the populations along the way. Destroy them.

Overkill was developed by Tech-Noir Productions and Ste Cork, and it was the first vertical shooter released by Epic (oh there would be others…). It had some period features including joystick support and MIDI music but was technologically unimpressive. Other games of the time — Commander Keen, the original Duke Nukem I and II — had far superior graphics.

The game gave the player shields/life energy, a contrast to other “one hit you’re dead” scrollers of the time and earlier. You could also collect power ups and boost your fuel, shields and weapons.

This game was a bitch to extract originally. I bought the shareware in the 90s on 3.5″ floppy at one of The Christmas Tree Shops on Cape Cod — one of many bribes from my mother for one of many excursions to the stores, which are basically the perfect visage of an adolescent male hell.

Anyway, do you know how hard it is to pull something off a floppy these days? They’re gone, baby, gone.

Come to find out, Overkill was released into the freeware realm on July 23 by Ste Cork. Now the whole world can have it.

Download the registered version of Overkill free from Blast Magazine. You will need DOSBox.

After scanning, I found the one that I wanted — the one game that started my gaming carrier. My earliest memory with videogames is the first level in Super Mario World. I was 5, and I was feverishly excited by the fact that, by pressing buttons, I could jump on turtles and pop them out of their shell.

I would later find that this does not apply to real life. 

 
When I found out about Yoshi, my 5-year-old life was blown away. I remember the joy I got when I made Yoshi eat an apple, and the laughter I got when I would watch my grandmother try as hard as she could to get on Yoshi, only to fail miserably, throw down the controller, and say words my Mother would say not to use.

Super Mario World became my catalyst, and as the years past, and more and more time was consumed by games, and the greater my parents’ concern grew over that time, my videogame carrier can be traced back to Super Mario World, and the joy and reward it gave me. So, I found it rather befitting that I should pop in the game that started it all. 
 
I blew the cartridge, and flicked the switch. The simple tune of the SNES intro was enough to get me started for an epic journey into my past. I was surprised to find that I still had a save file for this game, and amazed that the SNES still retained all the information for a game I have not played in 10 years or more. I decided to start a new game though, for I desired the full experience. 
 
Everything was as I remembered. The buttons felt comfortable and familiar. Every secret tunnel or area was remembered. In high school, I had a hard time remembering math equations I’d learned the day before. It’s funny that I remembered all the secrets and button schemes from a game I have not played since I was nine. 
 
SMW is a 2D-scroller at its finest. Challenging, but certainly surmountable. Every cannon bullet fired at me and mushroom I collected was a constant reminder as to why I love games so much.

When I was little, nothing else mattered when I was playing that game, and I guess, a little bit of that thought process has stayed with me. When life is brining me down, all I have to do is pop in my Call of Duty or GTA, and nothing else matters.

Super Mario World reminded me what games use to be like. Graphics were not so much the huge focus it is today, it was about game play. I was about challenging and fun level designs, it was more about, what does the played need to do skillfully, to beat this section? Now a days, that seems to be a bit loss. Do not get me wrong, there are plenty of current games that do that, but much has been loss to the ‘graphics’ war.

I guess that is why I am a fan of the Wii. Say what you want about the Wii, – I know it is not the best console – but Nintendo did something wonderful by forcing people to think outside the box. 

Pop in your “first game” sometime. Look at the differences between old school and current generation, because this is the only way to see how far we have come, as in industry and as a daily consumer.

Our needs have changed, and the game industry has changed much to keep up with these demands. I don’t know, maybe I’m just nostalgic – I don’t even think I am old enough to be nostalgic – but it is always good to sit back, kick in an old game, and realize how simple your demands use to be.

The engineer behind this mod used NES-on-a-chip to squeeze the entire gaming system, with AV plugs, power switch and two controller ports, into a single game cartridge.

NES, called Famicom in Asia, was released in the US in 1985.

Kotami has done a ton of retro mods including a USB version of the SNES Mouse and a bunch of wicked cool, colorful case designs.

Viva la France.

(Engadget, technobob)

The Intellivision collection was relaunched on the last generation of consoles — Xbox, PS2, GC — in 2004 to mixed reviews. You have to give Keith Robinson, who runs and basically is wholly responsible for the survival of Intellivision, for keeping these games alive! See the bottom for a few old, old Intellivision commercials.

By: Tom Carroll

This is going to be a very “to the point” review. If you have ever hankered to return to the old days of video games, the days where you didn’t worry too much about a story line or character depth or polygon count or frame rate, buy Intellivision Lives. It’ll get you there faster than the twister delivered Dorothy to Oz.

This game consists of 50 of the best Intellivision games made, and they are true to the originals down to the square pixels and goofy “period” music. There are action games, sports games, kid’s games, and space games and even 21 games that were never released. How can you beat that?!

An added bonus is the extra material that comes on the CD. This is historical material, pictures, video and text-based biographies. Much of this was put together by Keith Robinson, original Mattel Electronics staffer, survivor and now a co-founder of Intellivision Productions, Inc.

Robinson originally joined Mattel Electronics in 1981 after a brief stint in TV and film special effects. After working on TRON Solar Sailer, a game based on a movie that was based within a video game, Robinson became manager of applications where he supervised the programming and graphic design of numerous Intellivision games.

Because Mattel was adamant about its programmers remaining in the shadows, the group was collectively called the “Blue Sky Rangers” in a TV Guide article about Intellivision. The name stuck.

For Intellivision Lives!, Robinson collected a bunch of the wacky videos and interviews that employees participated in during the studio’s heyday.

That’s the good part of the story. When Mattel pulled the plug on Intellivision, Robinson presided over several waves of layoffs. Because of Mattel’s attempt to avoid a media circus atmosphere, Robinson poured gasoline on the situation by handing out pink slips in a clown suit. Mattel Electronics closed its doors in 1984.

Although Intellivision lived on briefly in another incarnation, INTV Corporation, Intellivision was essentially dead.

But now, through the efforts of Robinson and others, the games and the times can live again. Intellivision Lives is a thoroughly entertaining buy and is well worth the cost to anyone who wants a good historical time capsule to keep on the shelf and play whenever the current crop of losers and clones fails to entertain.

Ups

The games look exactly like the originals!
Tons of fun games to play through
A chance to explore an age that will never be seen again

Downs

The games look exactly like the originals!
A list of games isn’t part of the documentation.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Intellivision Productions, Inc.
Developer: Intellivision Productions, Inc.
Platform: PC CD-ROM, PlayStation
Genre: Action/Game collection
Players: 1
Launch Date: April 30, 1999

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1999

By John Guilfoil

Command Software pretty much created a winner with this one. Command Antivirus with F-PROT Professional is an affordable, high quality mercenary that will set out and battle any fiendish viral vermin that threaten your beloved system.

The software is packed up with the latest features including detection of Macro and Polymorphic viruses, detection of 100% of known viruses with a user friendly interface and Y2K and Windows 98 compliance.

Command Antivirus works on a multitude of operating systems and is rather easy to install and run. I recommend it highly, especially for computers with net access.

All computers should have Virus protection and Command Antivirus is one of the better among the many good ones out there.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Command Software
Developer: Command Software
Platform: PC
Genre: Utility/Antivirus

Technical Requirements:
Works with most desktop and server configurations including Windows, Unix, Solaris, OS/2 and Linux

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars

After many battles, a former kingdom has been divided into many small principalities and earldoms. The king’s troops were pushed back into one last royal province, and the rulers of the other provinces waged terrible, destructive wars against one another. The whole land fell into a state of chaos and now the former royal capital itself is under siege by the armies of the rebel lords. You belong to the last remaining group of loyal king’s men, and have been commanded to go to the king in view of the imminent attack.

In my reading of a latest magazine, I had found that it had given Knights and Merchants a poor review. In the advertisements and previews I had seen, however, I found it to be a game deserving of a much higher rating. That is why I rushed to review it, to prove that magazine wrong, or at least to try.

Well, I was right. Knights and Merchants gets a four star review from me. If the game were less complicated, it would have been perfect. The game’s battle system is very complex. A setup like that ought to be its own game. When you throw in the kingdom management, the game becomes very frenzied. Otherwise, it is the greatest detail I’ve ever seen in a game. Until it, Age of Empires was the best. But in Knights and Merchants, your little people do exactly what they should be doing. My favorite was the farmer on the vineyard. He put a basket on his back, walked out into the fields, and he picks the grapes off the vines. Then, he gets back to his house, pours the grapes out into a huge well, removes his shoes, and stomps on the grapes, making wine. That is exactly the kind of game that this is. Everything makes a whole lot of sense. Soldiers and servants need bread, sausage, and wine for food, and the serfs are expected to bring everything to them. Builders require wood and stone as they are working, and they will stop until they get these things from the serfs.

Another good thing about the game is the amount of people needed. In traditional RTS games, there is one servant/peon that will do all your day to day tasks. In Knights and Merchants, serfs only bring commodities to building sites, food to hungry troops, and other things like that. Then, builders only will construct your needed buildings, which are also very numerous. For wood, you need a saw mill; for bread, a windmill and a bakery; etc. There are so many different variations in this game. However for people who don’t like these complicated games, I wouldn’t recommend Knights and Merchants, but if you want a new style of Real-time Strategy, go buy Knights and Merchants.

Download the demo free from Blast Magazine.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Interactive Magic
Developer: JoyMania
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Genre: Real-time strategy
Players: 1
Launch Date: 1998

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1999

Ye Olde System Requirements

• PC Pentium 133
• 7 0MB Disk space
• 24MB RAM or more
• 28.8 modem for net play

Oh what a magazine it was. Launch was mainly a music publication, which offered a Macromedia-powered CD-ROM magazine in the 90s. It was an early form of convergence journalism, and we pay homage to them and their efforts.

Like just about every other good thing in the tech bubble years, it got bought out and bastardized, homogenized and repackaged. Today, Launch is unrecognizable as merely an Internet radio station incorporated into Yahoo! Music. Yahoo! paid $12 million for Launch in 2001.

But Launch CD-ROM did some great things back in the day, and one of the things they did pretty well was throw in video game reviews and game demos.

In Launch 11, which I believe was the February 1997 issue, they included a review and install program for a new action game called Tomb Raider.

To give you a sense of where we were back then, Launch 11 also offered an interview with Silverchair and reviews of cd’s from Bush, Branford Marsalis, Cardigans, Cake and Merril Bainbridge. Also featured, a review of the soundtrack from Romeo and Juliet (by the way, one of the best soundtracks ever made). They also reviewed Waverace 64, Grid Runner, Temptest 2000, Tobal No. 1, Mr. Bones and Drowned God.

The Tomb Raider review (read it here) is a classic early take on Tomb Raider.

Download the Tomb Raider Demo
Download the original readme

By John W. Fletcher

Messiah is probably one of the more unique games I have seen in the last few years — being completely original by not only how it is played but an amazing array of new quirks you have never seen on the PC before.

In this game you are a cute little baby angel named Bob. You have been sent to earth, quite against your will, by God to fight the growing evil of Father Prime.

Despite his cute appearance he can be as much of a bastard as your inner devil wants him to be.

There are some quirks. He has a limited ability to fly — which can get you out of some tight situations. Second, and my favorite, he can possess anybody! You can fly into the back of any unsuspecting victim and take over his soul, forcing him to do whatever hideous evil you want him to do (don’t get any ideas you pervert).

Since there is a massive array of characters the game can get extremely interesting. To get certain places or better weapons you have to possess certain people, which can be good and bad (you’ll see when you play). For instance: As a weak scientist you can’t hurt people for shit but you can get into a needed-entry room. As the biogenetically altered 8-foot tall behemoth you can tear anybody a new asshole.

You can get a lot of gameplay out of this since it is a two-disc game. It took me a long time to beat it. The levels are huge and the difficulty of all the possessing and everything can drive you kind of nuts after a while.

As you proceed you have to do these kind-of maze-like paths to get where you want to go and possess a lot of different people. You even have to possess a rat! It’s difficult because if they see you they will kill you and if they suspect you they will kill you. It’s not as easy as it seems. You have to do a lot of flying puzzles to get places and that is difficult with little, chubby baby wings.

All the weapons you can use are awesome too. You have things like a bazooka you can use, or a harpoon that spears your enemies to a wall! It’s disappointing that Bob himself can’t kill anybody but the fact that you can be a pimp in a club and beat somebody to death with your cane — it’s all forgiven. Overall, it is really fun but very confusing.

You get to all of this in amazingly created and huge levels which are incredibly realistic and make your experience just that much better. I strongly suggest usage of a very fast computer. All of the characters have amazing detail and the scenery is pretty cool too. In the game you are playing from a third person point-of-view which you can toggle close or far. It has an interesting sound system by that there is no music and only fx until you get into fights — when it starts blasting Fear Factory so you can barely here the fighting itself! However, you can here some pretty cool tracks if you pop into your CD player. As for controls it is very good and you have to use a mouse-keyboard combo which can be slightly annoying at times.

Now the bad news. NO multiplayer — sorry, it’s strictly single player. Also it can drag on and on after a while. All the puzzles get really annoying and somebody is always killing me. When you are a cop none of the other cops seem to like you and will kill you if you do so much as sneeze wrong. It seems you can never survive too long — maybe this is just me, somebody try it and tell me because I can never seem to survive in some guy for more than 3 minutes. You always seem to be walking through a war zone in some areas where there are opposing factions and you are always on the wrong side.

I guess that’s part of the game but it just gets to me by the 20th reloading.

Overall it is a very unique and good game. I suggest you give it a spin.

Download the demo free from Blast Magazine.

Quick hits:

Publisher: The late Interplay
Developer: Shiny Entertainment (David Perry’s outfit. They also made Earthworm Jim)
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Genre: Action/Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: March 31, 2000

Playability: 4.5 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 5 out of 5 stars
Support: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 2000

But try as you might, many people just don’t feel the Wiimote — or even the Gamecube controller — feels right. That’s because we played these games for countless hours with the familiar two buttons of the rectangular NES controller and the breakthrough six buttons of the SNES. Or, if we really got fancy, we might have had a NES Advantage arcade-style control platform.

The Wii RetroPorts from RetroZone are simple small wire adapters. You can buy an NES or SNES version. Just plug it into the Wii with your original controller and you’re allset. The adapters don’t come with a controller, but you can use any controller with either a NES or SNES plug. The adapters just plug in as GameCube controllers, and you can use them for any Virtual Console games that are configured for the corresponding amount of buttons. (Genesis?)

I tried a few NES and SNES games in the Virtual Console. They played just the same as the original system. I felt like I was playing my original console games without having to blow on the cartridges.

The Original NES controller feels sooo much better in my hands than the Wii-Mote for Super Mario Brothers.

At $19, this is a perfect product.

Quick hits:

Developer/Distributor: RetroZone
Platform: Wii, Gamecube (Uses NES or SNES-compatible controllers, depending on which one you buy)
Genre: Gaming accessory

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars

Raptor: Call of the Shadows is one of the best Dos-based vertical shooters ever made. The concept was simple and quintessential to a period of gaming where you configured your sound card and never stopped shooting.

It was also fairly advanced for its April 1, 1994 release date. It had stunning graphics, background music and tons of individual sound effects from machine guns to missiles to explosions.

The plot was simple — you were a mercenary paid to eliminate “MegaCorp’s” competitors. Take it from 3D Realms: “In the future as a mercenary flying the super-tech Raptor, you’ll be sent on interplanetary missions to knock off top competitors of MegaCorp. Battle against hordes of relentless enemies. Spend the bounty you receive from their demise to expand your devastating arsenal, which can be upgraded with 14 hard core weapons!”

Raptor was mostly a keyboard-controller game but it supported mouse movement, joysticks and gamepads.

The came is divided into three sectors, giving you some new enemies and scenery in each: Bravo Sector, Tango Sector, and Outer Regions, with 9 levels in each region.

The first episode, the Bravo Sector, is largely urban/jungle, ending with a large enemy oil rig.

Tango Sector, the second campaign, includes some more variety including a chemical plant, farms, city environments and an airbase. In the final episode, Outer Regions, the player travels through moons, ice worlds and volcanic wastelands. The last two sectors also have a “night wave” where you fight at nighttime, adding to the game’s detail.

The Bravo Sector is the easiest of the three, and it allows players to save up money to weapon and shield upgrades to fight effectively in the other two campaigns later.

Raptor and many other classic titles are kept alive by 3D Realms/Apogee today. Developer Scott Host — whose company, Cygnus, worked on Raptor — now markets a windows version of the shooter.

Ye Olde System Requirements:

• 386DX/40 Computer (486DX2/66 strongly recommended)
• 2 meg of free memory (A 4 meg machine is recommended)
• 7.1 meg of Hard Drive Space (for shareware)
• 15.8 meg of Hard Drive Space (for registered)

Download Raptor: Call of the Shadows Shareware Edition free from Blast Magazine.

Updated: 12/7/07: Here’s a GREAT gameplay video.

By Carlos McElfish

I was not expecting much when I brought Agent Under Fire home and lazily plopped it in my PS2. I did not expect to recapture the Bond-magic that GoldenEye so gracefully purported, nor did I assume the storyline would be at all good. But I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Agent Under Fire is actually an entertaining, albeit short, video game.The graphics are nothing to go screaming buck-naked in the streets about. There are some nice reflection algorithms but thats about it. What this game does offer however is a solid, entertaining experience. A game can have all the bells and whistles in the world but if its not fun to play then it might as well be good for nothing. This is basically a good game, composed completely with power cords. So while the visuals in Agent Under Fire could for all intents and purposes have been carbon-copy-ported straight to the Dreamcast, the “fun-ness” it offers more then makes up for its lack of stunning visuals.

The soundtrack for this game is worth mentioning, due mainly to the fact that (aside from the obligatory Bond Theme) there are original tunes and innovative implementation. The music gets more intense as the on-screen action heats up and slows down to a more surreal and calming tone accordingly. It’s nothing new and has been used in high quality games in the past, but it’s a nice touch nonetheless.

Electronic Arts is doing the honors this time around and have, for the most part, given the series fans little to complain about. You guide James Bond through a myriad of different tasks and man the turrets of a tank, chase down objectives in tricked out automobiles and plow down baddies with a multitude of weaponry.

In “Agent,” James Bond looks like a mix between Pierce Bronson and Jet Li. The game is not based on any Bond movies so don’t expect to recreate your favorite theatrical moments.

Agent Under Fire is about two parts FPS, one part Silent Shooter and one part Spy Hunter. Each mode is well executed and mostly enjoyable. You can pretty much plow through the whole game in right around 5 hours, so you might want to think twice about laying down a 50 spot for it (although the multiplayer mode does vastly extend the life of it’s usefulness). The only time you will have any trouble with the difficulty of the game is the notable, but rare, times where it is uncertain how you are supposed to proceed.

When all is said and done Agent Under Fire does come through on many levels. Gameplay is smooth, and transitions between game type are surprisingly good. The Spy Hunter/GTA3-wannabe sequences (complete with bystanders and high-speed matrixed out stunts) offer up the most adrenaline rushes.

The control in FPS mode is nice and tight (with config mode 3) and delivers the most fluid and precise action this side of Halo. Short of a mouse and keyboard your not going to find play control as silky smooth as this in a home console FPS. But again, as is the Tao of Ying and Yang, you will find that the freedom of movement and range of motion is very linear.

At the end of every mission you are scored on severeal criteria including “Bond Moves.” You will have different opportunities in each mission to pull off maneuvers that somehow conform to the stereotypical Bond-stunt. Your overall score will determine what medal you receive: gold, silver or bronze. You are able to unlock different weapons and features with gold medals.

Sadly , the game suffers from uninspired artificial intelligence and yawn inducing gadgetry. Most of Bond’s “stealth” maneuvers are limited to using the “Q-Laser” to open a lock or the “Q-Claw” to grapple yourself from point A to point B — not exactly Bond’s most shining moments. All the stereotypical Bond cliché’s are duly covered, and all the cheesy PG rated female encounters are lubricated with a nice slick trademark Bond retort. “Oh Bond, I don’t know how to repay you” — “I’m sure we can figure something out” — queue instinctive eye rolling. And the development team attempted to integrate (key word: attempted) some sort of “jiggly” sub-routine for the uniformly well-endowed female characters of the game.

On one hand, I really like this game: good solid shooting entertainment, nitro injected driving sequences, head-to-head and cooperative multiplayer modes. On the other hand, the gaggle of faults in the game makes this one a tough sell. The most compelling reason to play it after you have beaten it is the multiplayer mode (which requires the PS2 Multi-Tap to get the most use out of). Overall, I would say this game will be worth every cent you pay for it, for an overnight rental of course.

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Electronic Arts
Platform: Playstation 2
Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: T -Teen
Players: 1-4
Launch Date: 2001

Technical Requirements:
Playstation 2 with Multi-Tap for 3-4 player modes

Playability: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Rock Slide is a Tetris clone puzzle game. The program runs pretty good, except for a slight bug that involves the “Rocks.” If you hold down to get a rock to fall all the way down, then the next group of rocks will automatically fall straight down also.

The graphics that are actually not as good as Tetris’, and there is only one sound effect and no music.

The installation program is just plain bad. You can only install the program to the default directory, which is C:\Rock. This will clutter up your root drive, which will eventually degrade your system performance, slightly.*

The program is pretty user friendly, and there are some cool features like a high scores list. Overall, it’s not worth $10, and if you are satisfied with Microsoft’s version of Tetris, or any other Tetris-style puzzle game, then there is no need to download or buy this software, however, if you really like challenging puzzlers, then you will like to play this game…for a little while.

*Newer versions of this game have corrected the installation problems.

Download the shareware free from Blast!

Publisher: AGCrump Software
Developer: AGCrump Software
Platform: PC
Genre: Puzzle
Players: 1

Playability: 3 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 2 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3 out of 5 stars

So I dug deep into 15 years worth of archives and saving just about every file and found an old version of Instant Messenger from 2000 believed to be AIM 4.x.

Enjoy: [download id="3"]

Also, here’s AIM+
[download id="4"]
Happy Retro-AIMing!

Wikipedia’s list of AIM versions:

• AIM 1.5.234, with an unknown release date (for various Linux distributions)
• AIM 1.5.286, with an unknown release date (for various Linux distributions)
• AIM 4.3, with an unknown release date (for Mac OS 8.6 and earlier)
• AIM 4.3.2229, released in 2000, included with Netscape Communicator.
• AIM 4.7.1333, released on February 18, 2004 (for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9)
• AIM 4.8.2790, released on November 26, 2001 (for Windows 95)
• AIM 5.0.2829, released in September 2002 (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.1.3101, released in November 2002 (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.2.3292, released in July 2003 (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.5.3595, released in May 2004 (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.9.3702, September 2004 (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.9.3797, unknown release date (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.9.3844, unknown release date (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.9.3857, unknown release date (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.9.6089, released on August 31, 2006 (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 6.0.28.1, unknown release date (for Windows 2000/XP/XP/Vista x64)
• AIM 6.1.32.1, released on March 27, 2007 (for Windows 2000/XP/XP/Vista x64)
• AIM 6.1.41.2, released on May 3, 2007 for Windows 2000/XP/XP/Vista x64)
• AIM 6.5.4.16, released on October 10, 2007 for Windows 2000/XP/XP/Vista x64)

• AIM Pro 1.3 build 260, released on November 1, 2006 (for Windows 2000/XP)
• AIM Express, unknown release date, online version.
• AIM ET / LAIM / AIM Lite 0.31 Beta, released on June 9, 2007 (for Windows 2000/XP/Vista)

And if you’re really interested in retro instant messaging, check out the World’s Slowest Instant Messenger.

By John Guilfoil

Don’t be scared off by the name. Virus the Game is a challenging and very addicting arcade puzzler. This is one of the few games where you get to be the bad guy. In Virus the Game, you ARE the virus.

The object of the game is to move around the screen, exposing parts of a hard drive sector looking for data to “eat.” Beware, the anti virus is on the hunt, and if you get into a fight with him, he’ll tear you apart!

The new version of Virus, 1.5 features faster keyboard response as well as sharper graphics than previous versions. The game runs very well on just about any system.

I definitely recommend downloading the shareware, and you might even want to consider purchasing the full version. The full version features 30 levels, 3 secret levels, lasers that track on to you, a top ten scores list and the newest version of Virus whenever it comes out.

The shareware version of Virus lets you to get a taste of the game — you get to create virtual hard drive rampage in the first two levels.

Download the shareware free from Blast!

Publisher: DynoTech Software
Developer: DynoTech Software
Platform: PC
Genre: Strategy/Puzzle
Players: 1

Technical Requirements:
386 or faster CPU, 4MB RAM, Windows 3x, Windows 9x, or OS/2 Warp, 256 Color VGA, Mouse or Joystick, Sound Card (optional, but recommended).

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

Hangsim is a highly realistic flight simulation that was created to simulate flight in hang gliders, paragliders, and ultralights. This game is like flight simulators from around the world, but the difference is that it uses a different category of aircraft. They are tricky to fly because of their low stall speeds and their unwillingness to move fast — no afterburners here.

When you start the game you are presented with a list of options that lets you choose what you want to fly, where you want to fly it, and what kind of flying you will be doing. The game gives you realistic terrain and weather conditions including mountain wind, clouds and fog.

There are four flight options to choose from. Free flight allows you to take any aircraft up and give it a test run. Then there is challenge mode, where you learn how to fly your aircraft in different situations. A competition mode lets you race opponents around aerial race courses in the mountains, on beaches, etc. The last flight option is the Just for Fun option. This option lets you fly against many other competitors and shoot them down with air-to-air rockets. That is pretty fun!

When you play the game, you will notice how good the graphics are. I believe that the good graphics are there to make up for the poor game play. After about 15 minutes, I wanted more things to do, and there wasn’t anything else. Yes, the game is fun and is very realistic, but it does not hit the spot for flight simulation games for me. Maybe I’m just used to combat flight sims with campaigns and missions, but I found Hangsim boring after a while.

Like I said before, the graphics of the game are superior to any other flight simulation game that I have ever seen. When taking hard turns, there is no delay/buffer in the screen that shows that the graphics processor is behind. It feels that you are actually there! When I play games, there is nothing more impressive than good graphics.

I was very impressed with this game, despite the lack of different scenarios. This game would be a more interesting one if they created an expansion pack that had more scenarios and aircraft in it.

Hangsim has many benefits. It uses the latest technology in 3D graphic acceleration through Direct X 5, it uses the 3D graphics accelerators 110% to create the best graphics possible, and the aircraft have easy to use instruments.

Download the demo free from Blast!

Publisher: Wilco
Developer: Wilco
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Genre: Flight simulation
Players: 1
Launch Date: 1999

Technical Requirements:
Pentium 166, Windows 95, 98, Me, XP, Sound card, 100Mb free hard disk space.

Playability: 3 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

By John Guilfoil

Nam is a 3D action game that sets you in the middle of the Vietnam War. Your war machine arsenal consists of the M60 machine gun, M79 grenade launcher, M16 rifles, flame-throwers, C4 plastic explosives, a sniper rifle and more.

You play a roughneck marine in the middle of the war with the aid of medics, soldiers and radiomen. The radios that you will find throughout the jungles and city levels will be most useful as they are used to call for air strikes! This was an exceptionally clever aspect of the game that adds to the realism and overall effect of the game.

The sound effects are excellent and seem to place you in the middle of the Academy Award-winning film Platoon (Best Picture, 1986).

The graphics and controls are exactly the same as Duke Nukem because Nam uses the Duke Nukem 3D “Build” engine.

There are 34 single and multi-player levels and the finale of the last campaign is an extraction of soldiers from the besieged city of Saigon at the very end of the war.

Overall, I recommend this game to all 3D gamers who are looking for something interesting, action-packed and different.

Editor’s note (10/12/07) – As I sit down to look over all these old articles and reviews from “the good old days” I realize that I used to go way too easy on video game developers. In fact, there’s a sporting chance that I was the only reviewer to give Nam a favorable writeup. But I was 10 years younger in 1998.

Between 1998-2000, GT Interactive Software was starting to slip away from relevance — Doom was six years ago and the Duke Nukem franchise entered into what would become the great video game boondoggle.

It wasn’t so much that Nam was a bad game — it just should have been released for $9.99 as a Duke Nukem 3D expansion pack — it was the best that could be done with the terrible Build engine. At the end of the day, Nam went down with the rest of the worthless tripe that GT put out before Infogrames bought them in 2001 and basically eliminated the brand. You know Infogrames today through its American brand: Atari.

Publisher: GT Interactive
Developer: GT Interactive
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Genre: 3D Action/Adventure
Players: 1 (limited multiplayer available)
Launch Date: 1998

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

But are the jaw-dropping graphics and high definition hardware what gamers really want?

The cell processor-toting Playstation 3 was received with much anticipation, but was also criticized for its issues with backward compatibility. Only three percent of games for Playstation and PS2 had issues with playback on the PS3. The newest Playstation also caught heat from consumers for not supporting legacy peripherals from the older platforms.

The Xbox 360, which also boasts an impressive hardware portfolio, is only Microsoft’s second console release. However, the company struggles to obtain full backwards compatibility with both generations. Emulation software, which can actually enhance the graphics on older games, gives the Xbox some backwards compatiblity. Still, the software cannot emulate all games properly, though Microsoft is regularly releasing updates to increase the library of first generation Xbox games that can be played on the 360.

Next up: the Nintendo Wii. While the Wii is not a technological powerhouse, its popularity has grown for other reasons. Most notably, its backward compatibility has thrown late underdog Nintendo back into the spotlight. The console directly accepts previous generation Gamecube controllers, and it also offers an online store where you can purchase ready-to-play games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis and Nintendo 64, all for reasonable prices.

In an age that offers real-time physics processing, 1080p video and internet connectivity, why are gamers still stuck in an 8-bit, side-scrolling state of mind? Is it nostalgia, or do games today just suck? Whatever it is, gamers are doing everything they can to get their fix of retro gaming. From emulation to third party adapters that allow gamers to use original NES controllers on their PCs, the Web is buzzing with retro gaming marketplaces and resources.

Great Games

Back in the day, when retro gaming was state-of-the-art gaming, developers did not have the technology or resources to wow their customers with three dimensional rendering or digital surround sound. The focus was left to the game itself.

Now, clearly not all NES titles were gold. In fact, some were plain terrible, but the platform produced more timeless classics than any other console. Games like Super Mario Brothers and The Legend of Zelda paved the way for many games since, and they basically wrote the book on video game story lines. These are the games that showed people how video games should be developed and what game play should feel like.

Today, the focus is on technical specifications and maximizing the console’s performance. But is this really all that gamers want? Are developers trying too hard to use all the technology available, without looking at the quality of their game and its story? Games can look good and be great, but many of the shiny new 1080p games are lost in mediocrity.

Memories

There is nothing better than pressing start and taking in the sweet midi-driven melodies of your favorite 8-bit games of yesterday. Even if you aren’t playing the cartridge, the side scrollers you probably unwrapped for the first time on your 8th birthday are just fun to sit back and watch.

Who still has the instruction booklets that came with their first game? No one, and you probably tossed it out the first day you got it, because you didn’t need it. The games were so simple. No ridiculous cinematic sequences, no internet connection errors, and no loading screens-just gaming. Everything was self explanatory because it had to be, and the great games made this work. At any time you could pick up the pad and have a blast, regardless of what level you were on or how good you were at playing the game.

Ten years from now, will the kids of today regard the PS3 and Wii as the holy grail of gaming? Perhaps, but that’s only because they will never be able to fully appreciate the true trail blazing retro systems that some of us were lucky enough to grow up playing.