PixlBit

Army of Ruin is taking over and keeping me away from my retro plans. I have half a mind to pull the plug on my Xbox to keep me away from it but I want to finish what I can first. However, an intervention may be in order. But, I did play a few retro games in the margins. 

Army of Ruin - Can't stop. Must stop. I'm doing the challenges and it really tests me. I have to rearrange all my upgrades and pick the right character to meet certain conditions like battling without moving, taking no damage, using certain elements exclusively, or avoiding chests. I figured out the one for earning money. I just had to upgrade gold earning and then farm those mini bosses for chests. 

Not my gameplay but just to show how crazy it can get.

I'm unlocking new characters and trinkets/weapons, leveling them up and watching the graphics of their evolved forms. The screen gets all bullet hell crazy when you get several of them going at once. I actually crashed the game once. It's such a specticle that I wish I had an OLED TV to really make it pop out of the screen. Darn I want this on a Vita, but maybe I'll play it on my OLED Switch in handheld mode sometime. 

Mattel Electronics Baseball - This is a LED handheld game from the late 70s I played around 1979. It has two modes of difficulty that just changes the speed of the pitches. I play on the hard difficulty because then the scores look more like real baseball, but it's much harder to hit home runs. I use it as a kind of warm up to my console gaming. 

Breakout (Atari 2600 Junior) - My junior hooks up super old school through the coaxial cable jack on my tv. It's not a great way to do it. Graphics objects aren't as well outlined and you have to adjust the cable connections occasionally to get rid of the flicker from a loose fit. It's the right feel for the time this game made it to the 2600 in 1978 though.

The only problem are the paddle controllers which aren't perfect. There is a sort of dead spot in them which makes movement a little jerky. It's not too terrible though. The real problem is the game itself which ramps up difficulty too soon. If you hit the top two lines of bricks the speed doubles making for very tense action even before you clear one wall. Add to this the one spot where the paddle jiggles because the controller is wonky, and it's tricky to keep the game going. But, I kind of love Breakout anyway.

I love the way the Atari 2600 Junior looks too. It's just the right size and has that rainbow stripe taken from the 7800. 

Not my picture but it's the same model I have. 

Now I just gotta phase out the Xbox and get to more Atari. 

Happy new year!