retrorussell

Ugh.. I remember the ONE time I was about to beat him in the arcade. I was slugging him in the gut and his energy was almost zero. The game FROZE. Don't know how it happened. But I was pissed. I've since beaten him on MAME. He's still a pain, though.

"Ganbare" (gone-bar-ay) is "go for it" in Japanese. I can imagine the "abwaak" sound in my head (like when you get hit by a flowerpot) but I'm not sure what that is. The "Ah nahhhh…" sound when you fall is weird. I prefer the American voices.

Next: Woah-- how did I forget my favorite game when it came out? CRAZY CLIMBER (1980, Nichibutsu/Taito) I loved it when it was new at Malibu Gran Prix (saw the Taito version so it was probably 1981), even though I couldn't even beat the first building back then. I finally got better but.. Those girders and barbells.. God they piss me off! One of my favorite double-joystick games. They move your hands as you climb up buildings and avoid things dropped on you and closing windows-- and even King Kong-- that try to make you fall. Original Nichibutsu cabinet (which I first saw at the Rose Festival in Portland OR): More common in the US (and with less-weird sound effects/voices), the Taito cabinet: I remember not long after playing it at Malibu Gran Prix they had it at Chuck E Cheese. Man, Chuck E's pizza was hot garbage but they had the best selection of arcade games!

Another one for this week: GAPLUS/GALAGA 3 (1984, Namco/Bally/Midway) One of the last handful of games that Namco let Bally/Midway distribute in the US, due to the latter company ripping off the Pac-Man likeness from the former too many times. Regardless of that, this was a worthy sequel to Galaxian/Galaga. Here you can fly your ship anywhere in the bottom half of the screen! Enemies have new and strange flight patterns (and your ship flies backwards at various intervals). Various power-ups include a "hypno-ray" where you can turn the enemies into option fighters for you, a "corkscrew" ray that collects enemies and you can shoot them for increasing bonus points, and a super-fast double shot. Secret bonuses and 1ups can be uncovered. The bonus stage allows you to "juggle" enemies with your shots as much as you can to spell out a word (like "Bonus", "Lucky", etc.). I saw this first as GALAGA 3 at a 7-11 a mile and a half or so from my house. Later in the mid-late 80s as GAPLUS at a Seattle-area bowling alley.

I wasn't really a fan back then of using the joystick to jump. Little did I know that VS. fighting games later on would make this the norm.

Another one, to chew on for this week: KICKER/SHAOLIN'S ROAD, 1985 Konami What a mindless beat-em-up that you can just jump right into-- but what a fun game (although pretty easy)! Your kung fu fighter kicks all manners of enemies that make an appearance in a multi-floored establishment that scrolls a bit left and right. Some, colored green, will give you a limited power up. They are able to kick you as well, and it's a good idea to let them drop down/come up to your floor and deal with them before they can react. Boss characters will immediately start coming after you, which is unusual for the time (you usually have to reach the end of a stage before you face them). You have 3 hits you can take before you are a one-hit kill, and the game makes certain you know how damaged you are. Successful completion of a stage makes your fighter flex proudly and utter "GUTS!", which cracked me up to no end. Great Konami classic. Pretty sure I first saw this at my dad's Fred Meyer department store in Tigard, OR. ^That looks like a SCRAMBLE conversion.

ROLLING THUNDER 2 COMMANDO (Sega) CHARLIE NINJA all arcade

One of the early games of the NES playable with "ROB the Robot Operating Buddy" STACK-UP, changed to..

Next game: KANGAROO, 1982 Sun Electronics/Atari Very cutesy game with the titular marsupial hopping up various multi-floored structures to rescue her baby Joey. A gang of monkeys (whom are called "Nasties" IIRC on the bezel) try to throw a monkey wrench in your endeavor (pun intended, I guess) by throwing apple cores at you (well, I guess it's better than poop). Whereas kangaroos normally are more renowned for their leg strength, here you punch your adversaries with boxing gloves on (perhaps inspired by the kangaroo in the Sylvester cartoons). I remember this appearing at just about every arcade BITD, and on occasion grocery store/laundromat/restaurant. Very cute with cute sound effects and graphics, though it does rip off Donkey Kong a bit (save for the odd stage 3, where you have to take out a column of monkeys holding up the cage with Joey). "Turkey In The Straw" is played with each successful rescue. I think the first place I saw this was either the Fred Meyer department store in Tigard, OR or Malibu Gran Prix less than 10 miles from there.