Vic George 2K3

I still like the Atari Force comics, even if they have little to do with the games they came with. Both teams had excellent lineups, but with the latter group we got more diversity through alien characters like Babe, Pakrat, Hukka, Morphea, and Taz (whose gender identity was a real big surprise!), and through an additional human character who had no connection to the original Atari Force team (Blackjak). I just found it interesting that I bought the last issue of the original Atari Force series (the Galaxian issue) at the same time I bought issue #13 of the second series, where the Dark Destroyer reveals not only how he survived death (again), but also how he managed to make himself into the likeness of his adversary Martin Champion. It makes me think of the Reign Of The Supermen story arc in the Superman comics, where Hank Henshaw, a scientist who became an energy being who can manipulate technology to his likening, returns to Earth in the guise of a "cyborg Superman" in order to ruin Superman's name throughout the universe due to the Man of Steel's temporary absence through death. Anyway, the Dark Destroyer returning in the guise of a duplicate Martin Champion sure gave enough of an excuse for the real Martin to give his impostor a well-deserved beating for sucking the life out of his wife Lydia Perez.

One could only wonder if there ever would be a Nicolae Carpathia (the Antichrist character of the LEFT BEHIND book series) of the videogaming market, who buys up every company related to computers and videogaming as this character did all the media sources.

I like the art for Revenge Of The Apes, though it does remind me of the mercenary character image from Ikari Warriors. The Rubik's Cube box image is also interesting.

Sometimes exclusivity can be a real problem in that, if you're like somebody who's just converted from a Nintendo system to a Sony system, for example, you'd be wondering what the heck is really worth playing that is anything like what you've already played. Then again, if you happen to own multiple systems, this wouldn't be your problem unless you're just out to compare similar games. Also, just because a game may also appear on the PC doesn't guarantee that the person who owns a PC will be able to play it without having to make sure their system is fully capable of handling it, which just means more $$$ goes out of your pocket.

The name doesn't make a whole lot to sense to me, even though it's probably supposed to be like the European spelling of "programs" (i.e., "programmes"), but the only thing I don't like about this company is that it comes out with a really good Smurfs game for the Super NES and Nintendo Power gives it some pages and then they don't even release it here in America!

Probably would need an adapter, if that game was made for a Genesis/Mega Drive not in your "region". Don't know what to suggest, though. And yes, they're both the same thing, though Sega's probably got regional lock-outs on those systems to prevent foreign gameware from playing on domestic systems and vice versa.

I pretty much envied anybody who had a ColecoVision until my family got a ColecoVision, and then later I got myself an Adam Family Computer System which spent an entire year being the object of envy at the residential school I was in. I'm not sure I really envied anybody with an Intellivision, except probably for the counselor who introduced me to the system through the afternoon game club that was being held at yet another residential school. I mean, Horse Racing and Armor Battle looked pretty impressive back then.

Just interesting to note that there is an Atari-style symbol that appears among the Japanese-style lettering in Mario Paint for SNES.

Frankly, I was more disappointed with never seeing a translation of Pac-Mania for the SNES...given that there was ample opportunity to work with the Mode 7 feature to create mazes that are like the scrollable map in Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past.

I honesty don't consider Mario Bros. a real "sequel" to Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr...it's more of a spinoff game. Of course, when Mario and Donkey Kong parted ways and did their own series of games, things didn't quite work out well for the crazy ape until the Donkey Kong Country series came along.

Man, those pictures are looking so awesome.

Smurf Rescue In Gargamel's Castle

And probably why console games like the EA Madden football game don't need constant regurgitations of the same product if the only change we're going to see are updated player rosters year after year. Though for a new system coming into the market, it may be necessary.

Looks like the Super Gameboy for the Nintendo 64 that never got released or something! LOL Anyway, I've heard of a similar unit called the Wideboy, which was what the industry used to show off new Gameboy games on through a regular TV.

That I can agree on...as long as enough of the basic elements of what made the original game fun to play are still intact. If there's very little change, a sequel might as rank as nothing more than a rehash or like a game hack of the original.

These days, it's really hard to determine what can be legitimately called a sequel game, since we also have spin-off games, prequel games, games that contain characters from a familiar game series, and just plain rehashes of last year's games (in particular, the EA Madden and hockey and basketball games, where the most change you'll ever really see are the statistical rosters). It didn't help during the time Nintendo was supporting at least three different game systems at the same time when a so-called "sequel game" would appear on a system different than the one its predecessor appeared on, which can really make a game collector and/or historian wonder where these games would really fit into the series they're supposed to be part of. I don't really know what more I can say on the issue.

Enduro for the 2600 (which was the closest thing to the unreleased Turbo game from Coleco) and Super Mario Kart for the SNES.

I think the modern generation systems' potential is being tapped into by the enemy of our souls, since we now have the kind of systems that can produce three-dimensional imagery with characters that are looking much closer to human beings. Being a big fan of the LEFT BEHIND series of books and one who believes in the literal fulfillment of the book of Revelation in our generation, it's possible that whatever gaming output would occur sometime within the Tribulation would make what's coming out now look pretty tame by comparison as far as moral ethics go. Then again, that may also be the end of videogaming, period.

Why would I bother having a window mode for a game? Maybe because I want to have a choice? I work on creating pages for my website, maybe it's easier for me to do screen grabs that way. Maybe you like it fullscreen; well, that's okay. I'd prefer choice over no choice at all.

Definitely the Gameboy, since it's become the Atari 2600/7800 of handhelds.

The second version of the Mr. Pac-Man hack is a bit annoying with the portion of the Pac-Man intro theme playing every time you ate a fruit prize or a ghost. Otherwise, it's an excellent job, and an interesting alternative to the original Pac-Man Arcade hack.

Actually, you don't walk over the caskets...you try to place your player character's hand on the casket and push against it. You'll hear a squeak which means you have opened it.

Personally, I prefer having a choice of either fullscreen or windowed.

Is it really "uncreative" when a company decides to stick with a basic controller design that works best? How many more buttons and stuff do we really need on a basic controller, anyway? I think here the motto, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", would best apply to controllers, and it sure would help people who don't like throwing away their best controllers for a previous system because they won't work or are not compatible with the latest system.

I'm not holding my breath waiting for the next "new generation" of game systems when I haven't yet seen what's currently out there use up its potential through the software output. My brother just bought an X-Box and from what I've seen so far, I think it's a pretty good game system. Probably impresses me even more that it has a built-in hard drive. But I'm not going to give up my Playstation 2 since there's still original Playstation games that I haven't yet played that would interest me in addition to Playstation 2 games. (Right now, I'm trying to plough my way through the original Tomb Raider, and sometimes it feels like Lara moves like a stick!) The Gamecube with its upcoming Gameboy Advance adapter might become a desirable secondary game system for me, but for now I'll settle for what I already have.