Posted on July 9, 2021
Livestream 7/8/2021 – Warcraft II
We’ve been playing a lot more “modern” games (and take that with a grain of salt of course we’ve been sticking with pre 2010 games hah) lately and I wanted to turn back the clock a bit. This week that ended up being Warcraft II on PC. There was a veritable explosion of real time strategy, or RTS, games in the mid 90s. Really kicking this off was arguably Command & Conquer and Warcraft II both released in 1995.
They both featured brilliant CGI, high production quality and just an incredibly addictive gameplay setup. One of the main strengths of RTS games is that they are so intuitive and approachable. The learning curve comes from understanding the tech tree and the pros and cons of units versus how to play the game. Most of what you expect from the genre was basically defined with C&C and WC2 being the first smash hits that made it take off. Tons and tons of imitators popped up in the late 90s and the genre quickly got flooded with some decent entries as well as terrible ones to say the least. Still Westwood who made Command & Conquer was quite successful with many sequels launched before they were bought out by EA, chopped out and disbanded. Noone needs to look where Blizzard ended up being part of a multi billion dollar juggernaut more or less printing money at this point. Most of that started in the mid 90s with Warcraft II I believe being one of their early top sellers.
Warcraft II still is a joy to play but as we discovered during the stream some creature comforts one might expect from an RTS were missing at this patch and game level (for example CTRL+number to assign groups) that were added later. Still the game is a blast to play to this day and the stream was a lot of fun. Check out the replay below.
Posted on July 7, 2021
NES Rental Cases
I decided to do an Extra Bit video on some of my old NES rental cases. To give some back story in Sweden (not sure on other countries) they offered NES game rentals in these VHS style cases that had a unique design. They fit NES cartridges perfectly using a small set of plastic tabs holding them in place. I have many memories of perusing this selection trying to decide what game to pick for the weekend.
In my case I was fortunate in that my parents had a business that offered these for rental so I had virtually rent free (with some restrictions obviously so my greedy little kid mind didn’t want them all) access to NES games for a while. Then when they stopped bringing in any money they tried to sell a lot of them dirt cheap but since there were virtually no takers they ended up with the family and finally me. What a different era… the games were stacked high sold for next to nothing and since it was old noone wanted them. I have a feeling things would be different if that was offered for sale today.
Anyway feel free to check out the video below on my NES rental cases!
Posted on July 6, 2021
YouTube Partner
Well I certainly didn’t expect to get to this point when I started making videos for YouTube. Mostly starting out as a hobby and a fun way to sort of get what I do for enjoyment out there it now has grown quite a bit. I finally made YouTube partner as of this weekend!
It’s been just great seeing the growth lately and the community I’m ending up being a part of. I very much appreciate everyone who has supported me, commented, offered insight or literally just watched my videos. Getting to this point hinges solely on the support of the community which I’m so happy to be part of. Plenty more in store for the channel so keep an eye out for more content!
Posted on July 2, 2021
Livestream 7/1/2021 – Metroid Fusion on the MiSTer
It’s nice to be back! After a hiatus for some vacation last week we’re back in the saddle with regular livestreams again. Since we’ve been doing so many retro PC livestreams lately for GPUJune I wanted to take it back to something different. I’m quite excited for the release of Metroid Dread in a few months on the Nintendo Switch. Dread goes back to the 2D roots of Metroid providing the next official installment in the series. That’s right a 2D (well 2.5D it’s 3D rendered just set on a 2D plane) main series Metroid game. And it’s coming soon!
I’m a big fan of Metroidvanias where you have gated progression based on abilities you unlock or gain as you play the game. Think the original one being Super Metroid or Castlevania Symphony of the Night. There are a myriad of entries in that genre and the Gameboy Advance saw a slew of them. There may be more but off the top of my head I know of 2 Metroids and 3 Castlevanias for the system.
So to get in the mood for the release of Dread I figured why not revisit the game that is directly before it with Metroid Fusion? It follows the Metroidvania design very well but this time leans really into the more horror-like aspects considering the Metroid universe at large. A terrific title in a terrific line of games. Thanks to the MiSTer I can play it on a CRT while at the same time streaming the game with ease. The stream was a blast with lots of ongoing conversations and fun. Check out the replay below.
Posted on June 29, 2021
Slipspeed Arrived
After an extended shipping time from the UK my box for Slipspeed finally arrived!
The box itself is quite nice and follows the sizing of say the early Sierra DOS games with the thinner design with of course the wrap around system requirements on the side.
I will say sadly the box isn’t super well glued together and I may take a hair dryer to it to see if I can loosen and then reposition at least one of the flaps on the side. It’s not terrible but someone rushed putting this together it feels like unfortunately. But it’s still a neat box! And packed with goodies!
Included in the box was the game on a floppy (with a old AT&T logo on it, guessing they repurposed some old demo disk!), the soundtrack on CD, a full color manual, a sticker and a pin. Not pictured was a small poster as well that was rolled up but crammed into the box. Overall a good value considering I paid about $40 for it with shipping half across the world. I’m excited to cover the game itself in an actual video soon so keep an eye out for that.
As a reminder the game is a top down arcade style racer sort of like Wipeout with a heavy emphasis on the sliding mechanic. Full DOS compatibility and true OPL3 soundtrack should make it an interesting one to play!
