Lukas
2012-01-11, 17:29
Ahh the retro thread, one of the criminally neglected sections of the website, one that did have a few articles originally, well written, considered and thought out. A decent amount of work went into them....only unfortunately to have been left isolated wasted and under appreciated on the old site.......an avoidable shame.
Putting that behind me, heres an old game I know you will all know well, maybe some of you will love it from older days gone by, I know I do.
My first look at this was on a ZX Spectrum back in the early nineties, the R-Type legacy however began as a good old Coin-Op (in the 80s and early 90s these were the Mecca centers for gamers)
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTZXo34BdybTY4KLXDXr4Phx438FNd5m IRY53TrvradN3ILl900wl_rdNKS5g
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5267/5565161823_15b1ee58f0.jpg
http://wp.appadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/photo-4-copy.png
Back then, 5 quid would give a kid or a young teen hours of fun in one of those joints, with more games and individual play styles than a kid could imagine.
R-Type was hard, a side scrolling 2d space shooter, rich with colourful well designed graphics, an abundance of metallic clashes and plasma sounding weapon fire. It was utterly playable but the canny enemies were far from stupid and demanded your full attention, also the step up between levels brought a much harde test than the level previous.
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQpbvP7wknZK0zroKMfi-PyZ3JBpyFK3S_WNI87QUc7QQ-f4e1m0CQHFIBpmQ
http://s.uvlist.net/l/y2006/04/15752.jpg
http://s.uvlist.net/l/y2006/04/15753.jpg
never blessed with ultimate definition with its visuals, the speccy often made up for it with great playability, even if the player often found himself simply manoeuvering colored blobs away from other more aggressive coloured blobs. Sound wise the speccy often served up strange muffled bleeps and hums as music and sound, the old affordable ZX did its best with the old school shooter.
http://dependentongadgets.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/amstrad_cpc464.jpg
http://gx4000.co.uk/misc/rtype2.jpg
http://gx4000.co.uk/misc/rtype1.jpg
Although the Amstrad offered a little more colour and defined sound effects it wasnt a major improvement on the speccy a bulkier machine (until the speccy 128k came out) with a little more capability it was a very similar experience, Amstrad ended up purchasing Sinclair from what I remember and the CPC464 and 128k Spectrums ended up very similar machines.
http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Commodore_64_540x359.jpg
http://www.capsulecomputers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/r-type-android-screenshot-dotemu-01.png
http://www.intomobile.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/r-type-android.jpg
The Commodore 64 arrived and the evolution of this game matched the improvement of home computers ability to close the gap on coin op performance, and clearly R-Type began to look more like its Arcade mentor, lovely colourful and dynamic graphics, a quick game speed and fantastic immersive sound effects made this game a thoroughly enjoyable is still crushingly hard experience. The 64 was however very steeply priced and gaming of this quality and level was still a little hard to come across for a lower incomed family.
http://racheldangerw.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/commodore_amiga_computer_system.jpg
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/D7l3642QJRQ/0.jpg
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6730/rtype71.jpg
Big Younger Bro....The Commodore Amiga, if the 64 was the most impressive home gaming computer then its younger but bigger brother had it nailed, rivalled by the Atari STE (pictured below) the games on either system were practically identical and were as close a replication to the coin o[ version as you could find. Two home computers very steeply priced but two units way ahead of anything else available to home gamers....these two powerhouses represented the last of the home PC's in a gaming sense as the early nineties saw the rise and domination of the consoles.
http://www.juliendugue.com/images-wordpress/atari-st-ordinateur.gif
Atari STE
http://video-games.elliottback.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/800px-segamegadrive.jpg
http://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/g-type-600x450.png
http://sega-addicts.murnaumusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/RType2.png
The consoles hit, the sleak unsymmetrical Sega megadrive hit the country, a super compact little machine, capable of bettering the Amiga and Atari at game replication, smaller, cheaper, prettier, faster. The Megadrive cleaned up the loose edges of the visuals and vastly improved the sound of R-Type, the original game however had served its time and with the advent of the Super Nintendo R-Types sequels and side stories began to be released to far more graphical capabilty.
Still a super strong title, still mightly respected, a modern day descendant of the fantastic but early and crude Defender R=Type is a stand alone great, a timeless and challenging to the end 2d space shooter from better days gone
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2297/2355943868_6c99279852.jpg
Putting that behind me, heres an old game I know you will all know well, maybe some of you will love it from older days gone by, I know I do.
My first look at this was on a ZX Spectrum back in the early nineties, the R-Type legacy however began as a good old Coin-Op (in the 80s and early 90s these were the Mecca centers for gamers)
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTZXo34BdybTY4KLXDXr4Phx438FNd5m IRY53TrvradN3ILl900wl_rdNKS5g
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5267/5565161823_15b1ee58f0.jpg
http://wp.appadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/photo-4-copy.png
Back then, 5 quid would give a kid or a young teen hours of fun in one of those joints, with more games and individual play styles than a kid could imagine.
R-Type was hard, a side scrolling 2d space shooter, rich with colourful well designed graphics, an abundance of metallic clashes and plasma sounding weapon fire. It was utterly playable but the canny enemies were far from stupid and demanded your full attention, also the step up between levels brought a much harde test than the level previous.
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQpbvP7wknZK0zroKMfi-PyZ3JBpyFK3S_WNI87QUc7QQ-f4e1m0CQHFIBpmQ
http://s.uvlist.net/l/y2006/04/15752.jpg
http://s.uvlist.net/l/y2006/04/15753.jpg
never blessed with ultimate definition with its visuals, the speccy often made up for it with great playability, even if the player often found himself simply manoeuvering colored blobs away from other more aggressive coloured blobs. Sound wise the speccy often served up strange muffled bleeps and hums as music and sound, the old affordable ZX did its best with the old school shooter.
http://dependentongadgets.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/amstrad_cpc464.jpg
http://gx4000.co.uk/misc/rtype2.jpg
http://gx4000.co.uk/misc/rtype1.jpg
Although the Amstrad offered a little more colour and defined sound effects it wasnt a major improvement on the speccy a bulkier machine (until the speccy 128k came out) with a little more capability it was a very similar experience, Amstrad ended up purchasing Sinclair from what I remember and the CPC464 and 128k Spectrums ended up very similar machines.
http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Commodore_64_540x359.jpg
http://www.capsulecomputers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/r-type-android-screenshot-dotemu-01.png
http://www.intomobile.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/r-type-android.jpg
The Commodore 64 arrived and the evolution of this game matched the improvement of home computers ability to close the gap on coin op performance, and clearly R-Type began to look more like its Arcade mentor, lovely colourful and dynamic graphics, a quick game speed and fantastic immersive sound effects made this game a thoroughly enjoyable is still crushingly hard experience. The 64 was however very steeply priced and gaming of this quality and level was still a little hard to come across for a lower incomed family.
http://racheldangerw.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/commodore_amiga_computer_system.jpg
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/D7l3642QJRQ/0.jpg
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6730/rtype71.jpg
Big Younger Bro....The Commodore Amiga, if the 64 was the most impressive home gaming computer then its younger but bigger brother had it nailed, rivalled by the Atari STE (pictured below) the games on either system were practically identical and were as close a replication to the coin o[ version as you could find. Two home computers very steeply priced but two units way ahead of anything else available to home gamers....these two powerhouses represented the last of the home PC's in a gaming sense as the early nineties saw the rise and domination of the consoles.
http://www.juliendugue.com/images-wordpress/atari-st-ordinateur.gif
Atari STE
http://video-games.elliottback.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/800px-segamegadrive.jpg
http://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/g-type-600x450.png
http://sega-addicts.murnaumusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/RType2.png
The consoles hit, the sleak unsymmetrical Sega megadrive hit the country, a super compact little machine, capable of bettering the Amiga and Atari at game replication, smaller, cheaper, prettier, faster. The Megadrive cleaned up the loose edges of the visuals and vastly improved the sound of R-Type, the original game however had served its time and with the advent of the Super Nintendo R-Types sequels and side stories began to be released to far more graphical capabilty.
Still a super strong title, still mightly respected, a modern day descendant of the fantastic but early and crude Defender R=Type is a stand alone great, a timeless and challenging to the end 2d space shooter from better days gone
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2297/2355943868_6c99279852.jpg