louisg

This is a neat topic! I browsed it, but didn't see a conversation yet about line-shifter road engines like both the original and 3do Road Rash I love those. I DID see a mention of Hover Race, which was really fun back in the late 90s!

Yeah, I think once you find that a room contains Snappers that it tends to be where the slime is dripping downwards. Wow, those maps must have taken forever to draw! I'll probably stick to my own exploration just because it's so much of what makes the game what it is, but that's cool that they're out there now. I'm a bit surprised there hadn't been more FAQs written about this game given that it was pretty well-received at the time.

Ahh ok, so with snappers, the thought process is "oh crap, I died, I better look for environmental clues next time". I wish there were a Snapper Detector that'd give you a sign if you entered a room that contains snappers-- starts beeping or something. But, death in this game is pretty free, so I guess it works out. And for combat, maybe it's not a case of absorbing damage over and over but trying to find a good position where you won't be sprayed by slime if you start popping enemies, right? How about the maggot volcanos? I've been just rushing them, but I think that's not the right strategy. My comparison vs. Xenophobe was more that I think Xenophobe focuses more on combat mechanics (e.g. death isn't cheap), where Slime World is more of a "big picture" game, if that makes sense. Slime World really does have a lot to explore and learn. I think it's going to be more of a taste thing rather than right-or-wrong. I know people like to complain about the control in Slime World, but I quite like it! There is a lot you can do considering it's a 1990 game. Prince of Persia was the cutting edge then, and even that is pretty stiff by today's standards. I think people forget that a lot of platforming moves we take for granted were brand new then and Slime World lets you do way more than the average game did.

Frame rate is an interesting topic because it has a big impact on a game's overall feel-- speeds of objects have to work well with whichever rate you choose. Data East I remember always had pretty low-rate games even in the arcade, like Heavy Barrel. But, they made it work well. It was the same with a game like Duke Nukem 1-- the overall feel was pretty good even though it wasn't all that fluid. But Duke Nukem 2 didn't give the player enough reaction time, which was a combination of things moving too fast for the rate and the camera not being as good as it could've been. 50 or 60 I do think is generally the thing to aim for-- "full rate" rather than half or quarter is how I look at it. Then you've got the most flexibility. But, I love Toki to bits even though it's not silky. Amazing port of a solid platformer, and far better than the NES one. I never did get past that level with those little dino guys who pop out of their shells though-- they could've toned the difficulty down there Anyway, I love showing people the Lynx who are only familiar with GG and GB. Their eyes pop out of their head when they see the realtime 3d scaling environments and hear the digitized sound. Back on topic: One thing I found fascinating was how they were able to do a perspective plane for the ground in Blue Lightning. How did that work? Were they scaling one scanline at a time, or just chunks so small that it looked that way? And I think Warbirds leveraged the sprite skewing hardware to draw the triangles for those polygon pyramids, right? That's an unconventional usage of the hardware for sure. Unless I'm wrong and that's all done on the CPU..? Another creative use was Electrocop. They really made those walls look 3d. Again, that's above-and-beyond what I would think most people would do with sprite skew/scale hw.

GG Aleste 1 & 2 are amazing. I also really liked Sonic 1-- I enjoyed that one more than 2. It was so good that I wanted to play it through again immediately after the end credits rolled. Let's see.. there's a great version of Mappy, Dragon Crystal is a very nice roguelike, Halley Wars is good, there are incredible ports of Gunstar Heroes and Ristar, and the Puyo Puyo games are fun as always. You might also check out Popils, which is a fun puzzle-platformer. Sonic Triple Trouble is also quite impressive but suffers just a bit from trying to cram those 16-bit physics and play mechanics onto the GG, but it's worth trying to see if you like it. And there's Galaga '88-- I mostly played it on Turbografx, but that's an awesome game and I bet the GG one is pretty good. Someone mentioned Road Rash, and that is an incredible port. That and the SMS version both knocked my socks off. If you're coming off of the Lynx, you might be right at home with it. That GG Fantasy Zone is pretty cool, too. And Factory Panic is a clever one. Guys, we don't have to argue Game Gear vs. Lynx. They're both great handhelds that are good at different things. Like as much as I played Space Harrier on GG (probably my most-played GG game back in the day), it probably would've been better on Lynx. And Lynx is probably not going to be able deliver GG Aleste 2, just going off what I've seen from the released Lynx games, because it absolutely needs a high refresh rate. Get them both, love them both .... and keep some spare capacitors handy. Add the GameBoy in and you have 3 really distinct handhelds: The Lynx had a lot of arcade and computer-game-style games (simulators, into-the-screen scrolling games), the GG was all about console-style games (platformers and shmups), and the GameBoy is a treasure trove of great puzzle games.

I have to go for Millipede on 2600 but Centipede for arcade. I'm not great at arcade Millipede, so I have to knock it down a notch I enjoy both quite a lot and often alternate between the games, falling back to Centipede after having my ass handed to me by Millipede. On the 2600, though, that Millipede port is just amazing. It's such a frantic game with so many different elements, and I think the pace is just a bit slower than the arcade one, giving me more time to strategize. I didn't discover it until the 00s, and I was shocked to see the 2600 pulling it off so well. Whoa! There's something I didn't even know existed.

Those are good tips! A lot of the maneuvers I'm already pretty comfortable with. I think though it's the entire way I'm approaching the rooms. I have a feeling that I'm missing cues that an experienced Slime World player might pick up on. It could also be that I'm more of a Xenophobe person than a Slime World person. Like maybe Slime World just does have a lot of sudden death and relies on the frequent checkpoints to compensate, and that's just how it plays..? That said, there's something charming and magnetic about this game that makes you want to keep playing, from the big cartoony art style to the undulating environment, and it's always fun to see the next crazy thing the designer came up with. I did find this video; this player seems like they know what they're doing

I started trying Slime World again thanks to the Atari Lynx HandyCast. People seem to really love this game, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting into it. This is my second attempt to really dig into this title. So far, I feel like I'm mostly just brute-forcing through rooms when possible, either by using the slime shield or rushing through hazards until I find a pool of water I can use. For example, I had no idea how to get past that room where it has that maggot-volcano near the beginning other than just jumping through it and minimizing damage. I got taken out by snappers that I couldn't see, and didn't quite see a general pattern, though I noticed in that particular room that the snappers appeared where slime was dripping downward. I must not be approaching this game correctly. Does anyone have any tips? I'd like to get to the point where I'm not just brute-forcing through hazards or memorizing, but instead playing in a generally smarter way. I'm mostly playing the Exploration level, if that helps.

I've been looking for these two for a decent price forever, with not a lot of luck. If anyone has one they want to get rid of, let me know! I'm mostly looking for it cart-only, considering how much they're worth these days, but I'd consider a boxed copy if it's the only way..

I've got one but it's boxed, almost-complete. PM me if you're interested though; I'd let it go for less than the crazy eBay price. I've also got a bunch of 32x games to get rid of.

Oh wow, I didn't realize it used the digitized sound trick to get the audio out. That makes a lot of sense. Somehow I always assumed there was an audio line on the cart connector like on the Famicom.

That's why I love arcade games so much. Lately, I've been playing a lot of Horizon Chase and recently picked up Darius Burst and Road Redemption when they were on sale. And I mean to get back into Alltynex Second. Quick-play arcade style games are still made! They just don't get lots of exposure.

Oh you mentioned Warlords. That's the game that's always hooked my friends who otherwise wouldn't give Atari a chance. The room goes from "Why are we playing this system?" to "Let's do another match!" real quick with that game

That's the volleyball game on Video Olympics, one of my favorites!

I think Seaquest starts out pretty gentle. When I was a kid I loved Cosmic Ark, too. It's challenging, but I think I could get a couple levels in.

I think to fully appreciate any older game generation you have to embrace whatever the limitations were, and Atari is taking it back really far. For example, I wonder if younger gamers would even appreciate the NES if Nintendo weren't still a household name-- I definitely find a lot of NES games clunky, stiff and repetitive compared to their 16-bit follow-ups. For Atari, you have to be cool with a lack of music, a lack of cute mascot characters, and have to be cool with playing games to improve your score and not to just see the end. I've known younger people where it's a dealbreaker that there's no music and the character of the game is "being immersed into a world of awesome Tron-like glowing pixels" and not "marketable cartoon character". I'm an arcade gamer primarily, and even my favorites on later systems are niche as hell because they're score-focused (stuff like Under Defeat and Alltynex Second), the main characters are basically the space ships, so I'm right at home with Atari stuff. And even though the 2600 was my first system, I also went through my own phase where I thought maybe Atari games hadn't aged very well compared to later systems. But then I discovered enough on it that I really liked. But a lot of the games I had growing up didn't in fact age too great. Like other generations with growing pains, there's a lot of "good for the time" (similar to the PS1/Saturn/N64/3do/32x era). Sometimes getting into systems from those generations means finding the games off the beaten path that might not have been appreciated at the time. I mean, I didn't even know about H.E.R.O. until emulation. I did a whole video about "How to appreciate the Atari" where I compare the simple fun of playing Atari 2600 with today's popular mobile games and go through some of my favorites:

Yeah, that's how I remember it. Home Run is great fun with another player, but I do remember clobbering the computer fairly easily.

It's this Willy dude! Hmmm it sounds like if I want to experience Stunt Cycle, I better get a dedicated console

I've been intrigued by this game for a while, and that Arcade USA episode on it rekindled my interest. I was wondering how close the 2600 proto comes to the gameplay and feel of the standalone console. Or, the arcade version for that matter. I don't have access to a Stunt Cycle console, and it's a bit hard to tell from watching videos. For example: The 2600 one feels a bit strange, with turning the paddle feeling more like shifting through several gears than directly controlling the accelerator (kind of like if 2600 Pole Position had more gears).

Resurrecting this thread to say that, as a fan of Excitebike, Motorodeo is awesome! I just wish it had more tracks.

I agree; E.T. and a lot of those other 2600 adventures were pretty confusing. The original Adventure gets it right though, like you said. If E.T. had other places the pieces were hidden, rather than just pits, that would've gone a long way. I could see it having more hazards in the various locations you go to grab the pieces, too. Think something maybe a little more like Venture: Instead of the blobs on the screen representing pits, maybe they could represent various locations that it'd zoom into.

I've come up with some tips on this game: - The bases start absorbing their own shields once you get the energy low enough. For the later levels, the strategy is to hang out in one of the corners, and then move to the closest side of the screen as the perimeter shrinks and blast away. After the base absorbs its shields, you can more easily move inside to point-blank the core. - The fact that you don't move while shooting is an advantage: Rapidly press the button to inch towards the core once inside the perimeter so that you can get as close as possible - The homing enemies are easier to shoot if you let them pass you, then nail them while they're changing direction - Since the base can only launch one defense at a time, if an enemy isn't bugging you (e.g., one of the snake-like ships that's bouncing mostly vertically), let it hang out as long as possible. - On later levels, try slipping inside the perimeter on the left or right side while the perimeter is small but expanding. Oh nice That's one of the greatest things about emulation and roms: We can discover so many new games from eras that we like which were just below the radar back in the day (if I may fit so many cliches into one sentence).

I totally need to grab that! Also: Check this high score out. I got completely lost in the zone tonight, like I haven't done since Mars Matrix or something. Just totally locked in. And I hit this score:

Aha! So it is a sidekick processor or controller of some sort, just not in the way I assumed Somehow I imagined it having graphical functions on it. This makes the late era 2600 games even more impressive to me.

Yeah, it seems pretty advanced graphically though for such an early title. I'd never even heard of it until recently! But it seems like it's rarely talked about in fan circles, or am I wrong..? It's another one I had no idea about but was pleasantly surprised when I finally played it. I'd combed over the 2600 library so much, too.