Mezrabad
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Blog Comments posted by Mezrabad
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On 11/19/2012 at 9:13 PM, Nelio said:I was impressed by Math-a-Magic!, probably because I had no expectations whatsoever. It's good edutainment, and I liked the available "game" modes.
I lost on Echo! after a 23 note sequence. I only played it once, as I had no interest in beating my score (although I was trying to beat yours on that first try
). My sequence was all weird with lots of repeating notes. Also, in 23 notes, the number 2 was only used twice. I'm not sure if this should have actually made it easier for me, but I failed miserably. Maybe I'm just tired. It's 3 AM.
(Most of my posts were written well late at night, when I find the time to chronogame in peace.)
I can't imagine hitting the 33 notes anymore. That was probably a musical talent, certainly not my short term memory ability.
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DAMNIT
In my zeal to delete the entries that kind Nelio had created to indicate the next entry and the previous entry, I accidentally deleted one of Nelio's actual comments. I apologize Nelio. I will try to recreate it from memory.
Neilo quoted me as quoting the manual: "On-screen electronic sensors enable the defensive linesman to follow the ball automatically."
And he said something like "This was so the people of the time didn't mistake what was happening for witchcraft."
Which I think is a valid insight and I'll be more careful in my clean ups moving forward.
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On 11/18/2012 at 8:26 PM, Nelio said:
One funny bug in Sub-Chase: you can still fire when hit, while you're exploding.
LOL
"From hell's heart I stab at thee... for hate's sake - I spit my last breath at thee!" xD
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On 11/18/2012 at 8:00 PM, Nelio said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfenstein_3D_engine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_engine
Interesting reading. ?
I wonder if it was thanks to you that the Studio II and the APF M1000's carts were dumped. They can be easily found today, although I think a few Studio II carts are missing. I was going to write "who cares?", but I actually do care. It's a piece of gaming history, and these games should be easy to find.
Hey, these links ARE interesting reading and I was glad to learn that the term I was trying to find was indeed ray casting (I had wondered if it was ray tracing, that's something else entirely and only 30 years after Wolfenstein are we seeing it in a real-time 3D game. (Minecraft RTX)
And, yes, despite my dislike of the RCA Studio II, it is part of history (Plus I really think its box and actual console design was pretty sweet looking. The way we used to think the future would look. "The way the future was" one could say.)
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On 11/18/2012 at 6:33 PM, Nelio said:
I have started watching the whole Battlestar Galactica series just recently! Yeah, what kind of geek am I that only now I'm watching it...
There's no shame in getting to something late! Obviously, 8.5 years after you mentioned it, I'm getting back to you about it. BG was a good series and I think I'd enjoy it again.
On 8/11/2010 at 1:38 PM, thegoldenband said:My girlfriend and I busted out the O^2 for the first time in ages last night, and played this game (along with Smitheerens and a solo game of UFO). It's no Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack (we missed that shifty-eyed dealer!), but at least it moves along at a decent enough clip.
I may have to get her to play it again so I can blow her mind with the double down bug! I wonder if it works with insurance too?
Looking forward to your return to active blogging! Reading your entries really adds a lot to my experience of a game like LVB!, which hasn't had a lot of ink spilled about it...it makes gaming seem more like a communal/community experience, which is nice.
Sooo many times I thought I'd be coming back, so I'm hesitant to say that I am. This time, at the very least, I'm going to fix all of the formatting on the entries.
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On 11/15/2012 at 10:09 PM, Nelio said:
I've finally got to the Odyssey 2 in my own chronogaming! Woohoo!!!
It took me a while to get here, as I ended up going through a system that you skipped for some reason: the Interton VC 4000 (and its family of similar systems). It was also released in 1978, so I decided to focus on it before starting the Odyssey 2.
I vaguely remember reading about the Interton VC 4000 and I think I'd come up with a reason why I didn't feel I needed to include it. I don't remember what that reason was, but the only thing I can think of at this point was that I must've thought it was something I'd have never seen in the US back in 1978.
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On 11/6/2012 at 8:50 PM, Nelio said:
Interesting! I may read trough his entries when the time comes, and if you haven't covered all those games by then!
( * Laughs in procrastination from the distant future * )
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On 11/3/2012 at 9:51 PM, Nelio said:
I was also
when you said Blackjack's graphics were ugly. It was a Blackjack screenshot that got me interested in the system in the first place, as I noticed the cards featured the suit symbols - proof that this system had better graphics hardware than the previous machines. I'm happy you retracted your original comments. 
Ironically, I couldn't play this one on MESS. All I get is garbled graphics, just like with the built-in game. I think it's one of the system's video modes that isn't emulated yet. ? It's just Blackjack, but I'd still like to see it running myself.
Yah, clearly I was having a bad day or something. xD Well, let it be said I'm not a man that holds on to his opinions when shown evidence of his mistakes.
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On 11/3/2012 at 9:07 PM, Nelio said:
Although MESS still lists the APF 1000 as "not working", I've been able to play all games so far, except for the built-in one. If you're still into playing these games, just download the latest version of MESS, the APF 1000's BIOS, and the games here:
http://www.theoldcomputer.com/roms/index.php?folder=APF/M-1000/Various
Well, holy crap! That's good to know. Even more than a decade later it's good to know.
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On 11/3/2012 at 8:34 PM, Nelio said:
Why do I have this feeling I've played these games before? Oh, wait.
Right? I get the feeling of de ja noose. . .
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On 10/25/2012 at 8:44 PM, Nelio said:
Oh man, every time I see an Othello game it always reminds me of The 7th Guest. That was (and is) one of my favorite games EVER, and there's a puzzle where you play a match of Othello against the AI, and it's sooooo hard to beat! I still remember the feeling of beating it for the first time. What a ride that game was. Damn. *shivers*
I'm embarrassed to admit that I never played 7th Guest. I guess I should!
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On 10/25/2012 at 8:30 PM, Nelio said:
The link you provided to the APF-related page isn't working now. It's now probably this one: http://www.nausicaa.net/~lgreenf/apfpage.htm
Yay! Thank you for finding that other link. I will add it to the entry.
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On 10/6/2012 at 10:46 PM, Nelio said:
Handball, Hockey, and Tennis all ask the number of players when started. Again, they allow you to select 1 player and instead of having an AI playing against you, you find yourself playing alone, with the AI's character/team sitting idle on the screen. I really don't get it. Would it have been hard not to allow the player to select "1"? I'm sure the manual must state the minimum number of players for each of these games, but letting the user select an invalid number just seems lazy to me.
That does seem lazy and strange. I feel they should have just insisted it be a two-player only game and not let the player choose a number.
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On 10/6/2012 at 10:27 PM, Nelio said:
Both games seem to be working perfectly on MESS nowadays, with sound (which again is great!).
I'm surprised you didn't mention, but Red Baron is basically a copy of Channel F's Spitfire. The only difference is that the ground is always visible, hence the vertical wrap-around being disabled.
Panzer Attack is a simple Combat port with just a single mode, for 1 to 4 players. What I found weird as hell in this game, is that if you select 1 player... they are literal about it. It's really just you in the field. And nothing happens. I hope I'm doing something wrong, or this is really stupid.
lol, I didn't remember that you could strafe your tank in Channel F's Desert Fox. That was surely excusable back in 1976, though. ?
I'm glad to hear they were working perfectly in MESS in 2012. I'm so out of the emulation game these days I have no idea how I would play it. I think at some point I got Ward Shrake's Bally Multicart.. so.. maybe I'll go back and try it, if only to hear the sound... assuming my Bally is at all in working order!
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On 10/4/2012 at 10:49 PM, Nelio said:
Oh, it doesn't really scroll. It just switches into a new screen. Even so, that's a first. All games so far had just one fixed screen.
Oooh... hmm.. I wonder why I said scroll, I mean, I know how the difference should look but maybe I got it wrong. It's really good to see you on all these comments. Sorry that I took a decade to read them!
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On 10/3/2012 at 11:54 PM, Nelio said:
HAHA!! That's some serious homebrew you got going on! Do you still have that controller?
hahah omgosh, YES! Here in 2021, I actually still have it and I guess I'll try to use it soon. I'm not as intimidated by the crafty aspect as I used to be (mostly from not trying to do anything crafty for a long time) but maybe I'll just "fix" what I have now.
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On 10/3/2012 at 11:51 PM, Nelio said:
With the latest version of MESS I was able to play Speed Math, Bingo Math, and Lettermatch without any problems. In Speed Math you have a math operation and must type in the missing number (an operator or the result) within a time limit. Bingo Math is for two players and each has a math operation also missing a number. The first one to guess it correctly wins the round. The tricky part is that you have to pick the number from a bingo card, containing lots of unordered numbers, and repetitions. Lettermatch is a memory/concentration game where you match pairs of letters.
I couldn't play Spell'n Score and Crosswords. Both games just wait for my input, as if the keys I'm supposed to press haven't been assigned.
Elementary Math wasn't on the math cart and I don't know where to find it.
I don't think we're missing much here.
Well said, brother! Well said, indeed.
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On 10/3/2012 at 10:43 PM, Nelio said:
I was impressed by Datsun. Wasn't expecting that kind of perspective in this system. Actually, I'm impressed with all games that attempted some sort of tridimensionality in this era. In this particular case I think it worked well, but I'm also not sure if I played the game right. In the emulator I couldn't drive at the top speed. I had to keep releasing the accelerator or I'd immediately bump into the sides if I attempted to keep the car at maximum speed for a more than a couple of seconds.
Is the game really called Datsun 280 Zzzap? I'm asking because I found no references with that full name. Everyone seems to refer to it as simply 280 Zzzap, and even the cartridge's game selection screen omits the brand name.
Dodgem, for some reason, won't run on MESS. I go straight back to the game selection screen if I attempt to run it. But I don't seem to be missing much.
I... don't know if it's really called Datsun 280 Zzzap or not now, though, I wouldn't have made that name up. It's not a very interesting name and I'm not really a car guy. Interesting though. Weird that it would disappear like that.
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On 10/3/2012 at 10:12 PM, Nelio said:
I agree - Gunfight is better than Outlaw's main variant. But Outlaw's additional game modes increase its replayability.
With Checkmate it could have been the same thing, but the audio design is just terrible. Less is more in the audio department, particularly in this era. Some developers had the urge to implement sound effects for every event in these games, even if it meant making them almost unplayable. I never got that.
This is an insightful comment, Nelio, as always, but because this was so long ago, I can barely remember its context. xD
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On 10/2/2012 at 10:06 PM, Nelio said:
Judging for the lack of comments to this post, I'm guessing you had a difficult time finding those games - if you found them at all. I'll find out, eventually.
If you didn't get the games from anyone and didn't write about them, I'll have to see what I can find online. I wonder if 7 years later there's more information - and hopefully the ROMs - for those games you listed.
I'm doing something similar to you. I'm going through each of these entries and after fixing the formatting, looking at the comments. I do remember having an APF and a nice person on the board loaned me the cart that was so difficult to find.
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okay, found it! Play game 14 to 11 points. Then set a new game right away Game 43, to 67 points (maybe someone's birthday?) and the programmers last name appears.
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On 10/1/2012 at 9:55 PM, Nelio said:
Whoa! This IS a good game! I was getting whipped by the AI, but finally got the hang of it and turned the score around!
The numbers on the red squares are the points they are worth when shot through a gate. The higher the number, the more you should focus on that square. The numbers will slowly increase while the squares are in the playing field.
On the easter egg, how do you make it show?
Oh crap... I didn't describe how to do it, did I and I have NO clue anymore how I did. Damn. Now I have to look and try to find out.
I did learn that Spitfire has an Easter Egg in it, but that it's not something can trigger while playing it on the original hardware. I seem to remember triggering the Easter Egg for Whizball while playing on an actual TV and not while using an Emulator. Lots of information out about this stuff now and I remember reading the steps to make the Whizball egg appear, but now I guess I'll have to watch a YouTube video. xD
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On 10/1/2012 at 9:01 PM, Nelio said:
lol, nice entry!
What are the odds that I also got the word BIRTHDAY in a very short game? o.O I didn't get WATER, though.
I'm gonna check that #19 cart now, if you don't mind.
I don't know if I address it, but I do have a #19 cart, but it's not Checkers. It's the German #19 cart. Oddysey in Weltrum, I think.
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On 9/28/2012 at 8:57 PM, Nelio said:
I wasn't able to try all the modes. Something is wrong with either the ROM or the emulator. But I played the "normal" mode, which was enough to get the feeling of it. I liked it, and in some ways prefer it to Breakout. Maybe I'm a terrible Breakout player, but I never managed to clear the board. Mind you that I'm using emulators, and the controls may not be appropriate. Using the keyboard with Pinball Challenge* was no problem at all, and I managed to clear the board.
*The game's title seems to be Pinball Challenge and not Video Pinball, unless it was re-released under a different name at some point.
http://www.superclassicvideogames.com/zen%20cart%20software/zen%20cart/images/scan1606.jpg
At least they kept to the small font, and called them variations!
Oh man, you kill me!
LOL I appreciate you appreciating my gallows humor. xD
And maybe they did rename it for the Zircon release. I never bothered checking afterwards.
I can't believe I missed so many of your comments even after I came back a couple of times in 2014! I'm seeing all of the formatting issues that I think you were talking about and I'm adding paragraph breaks as I go through.
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Sea Wolf, Bally Pro Arcade, 1978
in Chronogamer
A blog by Mezrabad in General
Posted
LOL You are absolutely right! It does serve to show that I really might've benefited from the technical writing course. I did go on to take it and now 15 years later, there's a chance to do some technical writing in my actual job. Since it's been about 15 years since I've done any technical writing (and only for that class) I think I'm going to pass. xD