Classic 80's Home Video Games Identification & Value Guide

Every Christmas, my parents ask me what I would like under the tree. Usually my wishes are video game related, so I just point them in the direction of my Amazon wish-list. This year, I had left on there a book I was mildly curious about but not expecting as a gift. This book was Classic 80's Home Video Games Identification & Value Guide. I am glad they picked it up though. It's immensely informative and entertaining.

Classic 80's HVGI&VG is more or less a price guide for systems and cartridges from the pre-NES days of console gaming. Naturally, the bulk of the book covers Atari VCS (or 2600) items, but that's only because there's a ton of cartridges and peripherals for the venerable home system. Attention is also given to the Intellivision, Colecovision, Odyssey2, Vectrex and Atari's follow-up consoles, the 5200 and 7800.

It would have been easy for the publisher (Collector Books) to simply list the title of a cartridge, throw a number next to it an call it a day.   However, the authors made sure to includes pictures for most of the listed items, and even lovingly described variations of the same game whenever possible (particularly the many different labels Atari used on its games).   Prices are also listed for boxes, manuals and overlays.

Part of the peril of this book is knowing exactly how much I undersold many of the items in my collection.  I didn't have anything insanely expensive (like the Johnson & Johnson branded Tooth Protectors VCS cartridge that the book values at $2,200 complete-in-box.)   But there are a few Colecovision cartridges I suddenly wish I held onto.

$2,200? For that price I can get my teeth fixed for real. 

Overall this book is an invaluable aid on my quest to add to my collection.  I only wish they had a version of this guide for later-era consoles like the NES.  Sadly, a quick peek at the publisher's website blog shows that they are no longer publishing new titles due to competition with free information that can be found on the internet.

Continue reading ...

Emulation Vs. The Real McCoy

When I speak to others about collecting old consoles and games, I often get asked, "Why not use an emulator instead?"  Certainly, emulators with software both legal and not-so-legal is more convenient and easily accessible than scouring eBay, thrift stores and garage sales for 30-year old games.  But I still prefer it over downloading a bunch of files and hooking up a gamepad to my PC.   Hopefully you can understand why by the end of this post.

If you want to play a particular game right this very moment, you can't beat emulation.   Head over to whatever unsavory section of the internet you happen to frequent and get yourself the game(s) you have a hankering to enjoy.   Maybe a few minutes of setup; a few little tweaks here and an option or two there and you're playing, on your computer with either a keyboard or a control pad hooked into your USB port.  Or, if you're strictly legit, modern consoles like the Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 offer classics for download at a nominal price per game.

Conversely, cartridges, discs or other media for those games you used to play may not be so easily accessible - especially for the more rare titles.  But when it's yours, it's really yours.  You can hold it in your hand, feel it, smell it, or sleep with it if that's your sick desire.  Most importantly, you can sell it.  Indeed many a collector will buy a title for the potential profit rather than enjoyment.  But discounting profit for the purposes of this article, many video game enthusiasts such as myself feel that everything from the label on the front to the PCB in plastic is part of the experience and digital downloads is nothing more than "smoke and mirrors" disguised as classic gaming.

Not Iron Mike.

Let's move on and assume that once you get past the tangible aspect of this debate, at the end of the day you're pretty much playing the same game.  Right?  Not always.  Emulation, as far as it has advanced, is still not always perfect.  Making your computer pretend to be a completely different computer is not an easy feat, as simple as it looks when you see the final result on your monitor.  Glitches present themselves either due to a bad ROM dump or bugs in the emulation software.  Legal emulation for consoles (either through retail package game collections or digital downloads) fare better but may be altered for various reasons, often legal (e.g. Tecmo Bowl without the licensed players or having to play Punch-Out! with Mr. Dream instead of Mike Tyson).

Emulators, however, still have their place.   Emulations preserves gaming history that may otherwise be lost to time as hardware gets older and begins failing.  Many gamers do also appreciate the ability of emulators to save your progress with older games that were long on difficulty but still expected completion in one sitting.  Emulation is also helpful for the purposes of this blog for obtaining screenshots without having to rewire my consoles.  Finally, special mention must be given to MAME (the Multi Arcade Machine Emulator) for bringing home, almost quite literally, the arcade classics where collecting multiple arcade boards or cabinets would otherwise be impossible.  Of course, it plays best with real arcade controls in a cabinet - but that's a topic for another post.

However, at the end of the day, I'd rather be holding an original controller hooked up to real hardware to play  the old favorites.   But until I'm able to collect whatever "holy grail" I am looking for at any given moment, I'm happy to have emulation to fill the void in the meantime.

Continue reading ...

A Tale of Two Zappers

No Nintendo Entertainment System would be complete without its trusty light-gun, the "Zapper".  And while emulation marches on and the Wii is giving us perfect replicas of our 8-bit favorites for downloading, there's been very little success in replicating the functionality of this venerable light gun.  Go ahead.  Try playing Duck Hunt on one of those "Flash game" websites or something similar with your Wiimote.  It's not the same.  No loud click or disoriented screen flash.  It just you... pointing and clicking at something.  Maybe similar enough to satisfy some people. To me - no where near as fun.

The Zapper wasn't the first home light gun, but it was the first one that was iconic.  To this day, everyone still pictures two things where they hear Zapper:  that little futuristic pistol and the snickering dog from Duck Hunt.

The Zapper originally matched the color-scheme of the the NES Control Deck: a nice two-tone grey with orange trigger.  It never looked anything close to menacing but sometime along its lifespan, it had to play by the federal regulations placed on toy guns.  That's why those tardy to Nintendo's party got to sport the unattractive orange pistol.  It matched the control deck quite poorly - as in "not at all".  It was so bright, people can see you playing Gumshoe from six blocks away.  Ugly, ugly thing.

I thought I was being petty with this blinding weapon of mass pixel destruction.  But I was not alone.  I whipped out a copy of Bill Barker's Trick Shooting.  My girlfriend remarked that my orange monstrosity I was pointing at my TV was not "the real Zapper".  I was secretly proud.  I tried using the gray one, but it seems to be nonfunctional.  I put it on eBay without actually knowing it was broken.  Thank goodness it didn't sell.

Our Zappers may look awesome to nostalgia freaks and anyone hanging out around Hogan's Alley, but our toys looked like laughable pieces of nonsense compared to what our friends in Japan got to use:

They don't mess around.  If you're going up against some crazy shooter in Wild Gunman, you don't want to look like a fool with your silly outer space stun gun.  

Sadly, technology is not being kind to our favorite little light gun.  Good luck playing with modern LCD or Plasma displays; you're canine companion will die from excessive fits of giggling considering all the ducks you'll be missing.   Keep that in mind before you throw away your old tube television.   You don't want to play to shooting stages of Bayou Billy with a control pad, now do you?

Continue reading ...

Impossible Mission

Elvin Atombender - an evil genius - is on the loose.  He's sequester himself inside his high-tech stronghold and you, as an acrobatic secret agent, must find a way in.  It won't be easy.  Elvin locked himself in a lair that can only be accessed by finding and assembling puzzle pieces he's hidden in his furniture.  Further complicating the mission, Elvin's maniacal robots are ready to dispatch you if you walk anywhere near them.  And thus begins another six hours of fun with one of the Commodore 64's finest offerings: Impossible Mission.

Epyx box-art was always awesome.

When you start the game, you find yourself standing in an unassuming elevator shaft while being greeted by a sinister voice welcoming you to "stay awhile - STAY FOREVER".  It's time to get to work.  Heading to the first room, you catapult yourself over a hole where the lift would normally rest.  Just clearing it, you find yourself at the business end of a robot's laser.  Dust yourself off and try again, knowing that ten minutes has just been deducted from your time limit.  Too many deaths and Elvin wins.  Best be careful.

You, missing the toilet.

You finally exit the room, with a couple of puzzle pieces in your hand.  You open up your pocket computer and try to make sense of it.  You rotate it, flip it and recolor it - no use.  You need to keep searching.  Time to move onto another room.  You find yourself facing robots that are "jacked up to eleven" and will not let you move a single inch without frying you into sizzling bits of pixels.  Good thing you found a password to put the robots to sleep.  You walk over to a terminal, use the password and now you can search without fear of being zapped... for a short time anyway.

After searching all the rooms, you realize you have enough pieces to get the letters needed to open Elvin's door.  You rush right over and stop him.  Crisis averted.   That is until you restart the game and you suddenly realize the game re-arranged all the rooms, puzzle piece locations and robot behaviors.   You realize victory may not be so assured this time before sighing and heading into the first room again.

Enjoy this screen.  You won't see it very often.

Epyx's Impossible Mission was one of the games that turned the Commodore 64 from a "computer that can play games" to a "computer that can play phenomenal games".  It really pushed the limits of the simple computer with fluid sprite animation and voice synthesis (falling into holes is especially fun) that only serves to enhance the brilliant game play.  And while many C64 have aged poorly rather quickly, this is one of the few titles that still holds up today.

Impossible Mission was eventually ported to other computers and newer consoles such as the Sega Master System.  But in a successful attempt to make the title literal, Atari released a version for their 7800 that was unwinnable due to a bug that hid puzzle pieces behind computer terminals.   Doesn't matter, you should stick with the Commodore 64 version anyway. 

Continue reading ...

Wiz 'N' Liz

The Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive if you're reading this across the pond) has a library full of excellent games, many of which are "must-haves" for any owner of the console.  But you can only play so many action platformers, side-scrolling beat-em ups, adventurous outings and never-ending waves of sports games before you crave some variety.  Maybe you need to try something a little different, albeit fun and addicting.  Allow me to humbly suggest a game sadly overlooked by many a Genesis owner: Wiz 'N' Liz.

The game starts by explaining that all the "wabbits" (as the game calls them) have gone missing due to a magic spell gone awry.  Using either "Wiz" (a wizard) or "Liz" (a witch), your job is to enter each of eight different levels to collect these wabbits.   While you're gathering up these frisky bunnies, you'll be collecting the items they release.  First, they produce letters in a "spell" (some nonsensical word), all of which you must collect before they start releasing fruit.  Collecting enough will give you that fruit for mixing into a spell between levels.  From there the wabbits will move onto releasing stars (used for currency between levels - assuming you open the shop) and clock-icons (for replenishing your time between rounds).  Once you gather up all the wabbits, you jump in the door and start the next round.  Yes, I know it sounds complicated but, trust me, it all becomes routine before you know it.

Sega was really working their system's "blast processing" power with this title.  Wiz and Liz both move blazingly fast and fluidly.  You can fly up, down and across platforms without any hiccups.  And that's a good thing because your time limit is strict (as a matter of fact, it's the game's only "enemy" besides the shoehorned-in boss battles).  Collecting those above-mentioned clock icons the wabbits release are the primary way to replenish your time - and even then it won't take effect until you get to the door.  If you're running low on time, one wabbit will release a special orb that'll give you an extra 30 seconds.   But you have to be nimble to catch it before it floats away.   Running out of time costs you a life.   You will learn soon enough to conserve every second by any means possible.

Spell "Woofy" and then you can start having some real fun!

Once you get back to you house between levels, you have the opportunity to mix the fruits you found for some extra game magic.  Some combinations will give you bonuses or open up shops.  Others may turn the wabbits into a different color or something equally fun but useless.  One combination even gives you an immediate "game over" screen, only for it to be replaced with a "just kidding" message shortly thereafter.   It's fun to mix and match the fruit to see what surprises come up in the game.  It's a nice little diversion before getting back to the frantic action of wabbit-collecting.

Reading the description and looking at the screenshots, you may be thinking that this is a silly, non-violent game is geared towards children.  While it's true the game's "Apprentice" level eases younger and non-experienced players into this surreal game, choosing the game's default difficulty level will test your gaming reflexes.  You'll have to make quick decisions constantly.   Should you stop and grab the bonus items or do you just mow down all the rabbits to conserve time?  Should you mix the fruit now or gather more and hope for a more lucrative combination?   It looks simple and repetitive, but you'll be figuring new ways to play better and get further each time you fire it up.

Get to mixing those fruit to change the game up.

If you find yourself face-to-face with a copy of Wiz 'N' Liz, I highly recommend you pick it up.  It's a nice change of pace from the usual Sega Genesis fare and will provide some quick, goofy - and challenging - fun.

Continue reading ...