Posts By Jamie Alston
Destroy the core!
The 1980s was a true renaissance period for the budding video game industry. Arcade games like Xevious, Donkey Kong, and OutRun gave us new levels of visual, audio and strategic detail that took us beyond the comparatively simple mechanics of Pong and Space Invaders. It was indeed the golden age of gaming.
Infinite possibilities; short-lived experience
It's not every day we get a game that encourages the use of imagination in the form of creative writing. There’s no fate for humanity to be won or quest for the ultimate armor to be had. While the game does take place in some quadrant of outer space, there's not a single creature to kill or flying craft to destroy. In fact, there's nary a living soul to interact with at all. Instead, progress is made by using the power of prose.
The Weakest Link
The Legend of Zelda set the bar for the action-adventure genre with its perfect mix of action and the thrill of finding the next dungeon or quest-critical item. It was gaming as golden as the cartridge itself. Then came the sequel. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was originally released for the Family Computer Disk System (FDS) in Japan on January 14, 1987. The game was then converted into a standard cartridge for its release on the NES in North America on December 1, 1988. Though it still had the familiar trappings of exploration, fantasy, and adventure, it also came with some drastic changes that weren't well-received by all--myself included.
The Italian Stallion.....and Luigi.
It’s no secret that some of the best ideas started in Japan. This was certainly true of Nintendo back in the early 80’s. One of their creations was a simple arcade game, Mario Bros., featuring sibling plumbers Mario and Luigi on a quest to rid the screen of pests in the sewer pipes. Due to its success, Nintendo decided to create a bigger adventure based on the two characters for their new cartridge-based home console. Thus, Super Mario Brothers was born on September 13, 1985 in Japan and 1986 in the US, making Mario a household name along with the company that created him.
Lightning strikes thrice.
A while back when I officially started collecting retro consoles and games, I swore that I’d never become one of those elitists in the gaming community who always makes a big deal about his vast, all-encompassing knowledge of video games; at least not in public. However, in my own mind, I was the master of all things retro. Well, that all came to a screeching halt in recent years thanks to Wikipedia when I discovered that, aside from owning the fifth game in the series, I knew next to nothing about the Thunder Force saga. As I learned of its existence on Sega's 16-bit console, it became painfully clear that I had barely gotten my toes wet with Technosoft’s bread and butter. How I missed it back in the day, I will never know. But after playing Thunder Force III, I soon realized that there was a whole ocean I was missing out on: the Genesis was the system for shoot-‘em-ups.
A game that involves some serious fowl play.
Duck Hunt is an interesting relic of times past and one that I have conflicting feelings about. While it was my earliest NES memory and no doubt fun from what I can remember, it also hasn't aged quite as well as I would have hoped. But sometimes, that's just how it goes with the games we played as children. I suppose the biggest letdown is realizing that the game simply isn't as stimulating to me as it once was, mostly due to its limited nature. At its core, you're just shooting the same objects round after round until you fail to reach the required quota. Be that as it may, Duck Hunt's importance in Nintendo's history cannot be overlooked.
Rise of the machines.
The original Mega Man was the perfect NES action game: powerups, platforming, shooting, and controller-tossing difficulty merged with ‘80s story conventions: the convergence of man and machine, greed, and technology gone rogue. I can only imagine what people were thinking when they picked it up in 1987 and saw a silly middle-aged fellow stuck in an uncomfortable pose with his pistol on the box cover; I’ll bet they wouldn’t be thinking that in a few decades there would be people dressed up as Mega Man along the streets of Hollywood, making a quick buck posing with tourists. It all started with a great game that is still great today.
A nostalgic memory lost in translation.
The only reality worse than the inflated asking pricing for an old video game is the one where said game is digitally available for a fraction of the price, but devoid of the context that made it fun to play. Such is the peculiar situation I found myself in upon downloading Tomba 2: The Evil Swine Return (The Wild Adventures in Japan) from the PlayStation Store. Originally released in 1999 by the now-defunct Whoopee Camp, it was re-released earlier this year by Monkey Paw Games. Once the game booted up, it was both recognizable and unfamiliar at the same time. The game looks and plays the same as I remembered, but there was just one problem--it’s all in Japanese.
The staff of PixlBit commemorates five years of the site.
It’s absolutely dumbfounding to think that PixlBit has existed in this world for five years now. I can’t even begin to tell you all how many times Chessa and I considered hanging it up and just moving on with life. But we never did and I’m not sure why that is. The early days were grim at times; visitation was extremely low, the hours invested were high, and my day job was absolutely soul crushing. I guess we always felt there was a light at the end of the tunnel – a point at which it would all pay off. And boy has it.
Not Bad for a Rookie
Alright, let’s get the obvious out of the way: Yes, Metal Gear was originally released on the MSX in Japan. Yes, it looked and played better than the NES version. And yes, the NES version is riddled with typos, inaccurate plot elements, and a counter-intuitive menu system. But let’s be honest-- few, if any of us were aware of the MSX version before internet gaming sites came into full blossom. Be that as it may, the NES version was respected as one of the most innovative (albeit frustrating) games of its time, and rightfully so. Despite the many differences from the MSX version, Metal Gear still provided a unique experience you couldn’t get elsewhere.
