“`html Timothy began the fight before the Zoom meeting was fully loaded. He was defending Time Crisis against Samuel’s extreme dismissal of “gimmicky light gun nonsense.” Joe had his usual Sega bias going strong, claiming OutRun deserved the number one position because “it sold a lifestyle, not just a game.” MARCUS was constantly interrupting everyone to give them details about frame rates and polygon counts that no one asked about. David was quietly supporting Donkey…
You know what makes me angry? The whole notion that everybody has said the NES was a defining console generation and they are correct — and I was NOT part of that generation. When American kids were unwrapping their brand spanking new NES’s in ’85 I was hanging out in Manchester with my ZX Spectrum waiting for Nintendo to release “that magic” machine to the UK for another 18 months. And by the time they…
Timothy here, and I am going to admit something that will likely cause my teammates to roll their eyes. Up until last month, I had never played Time Crisis. Yes, I know, Joe is probably already typing an angry response telling me that I missed out on one of the quintessential arcade experiences of the 90s. However, since I came to this as a newcomer, I can confidently say that Time Crisis has held up…
I am Tim, and I’ve got to say something that is going to make Joe roll his eyes so hard he’ll dislodge them from his eye sockets. For approximately six months, I thought Galaga was nothing more than a straightforward space shooter. In the end, I was completely wrong, and finding out how wrong has been one of my most humbling gaming experiences; it reminded me of why the classics, well, they remain classics. Coming…
I have an excellent memory for when and where I played specific games. When thinking about Metal Gear Solid, I remember it like it was yesterday. Mike’s basement. January 1, 1999. I was hanging out with my friend Mike down in his basement, pizza boxes and all. The smell of old pizza boxes mixed with that distinctive basement stench that no amount of air freshener could hide. He had picked up this new game that…
Christmas of 1985 was not supposed to go like this. I had my heart set on a bike that I had been coveting for months. I made my parents hint at it incessantly. I put little circles around the red Schwinn in the Sears catalogue. I wrote reminders in their calendars to go buy it for me. What I got was a Sega Master System because it was on clearance at Kay-Bee Toys and they…
Marcus here, and I’d like to explain before Carl starts to argue again why Daytona USA is the arcade racing experience that revolutionised our perception of racing games. What I’m going to say has nothing to do with nostalgia – it’s about technical innovation, accessibility and the rare union of leading edge technology and pure arcade entertainment. Daytona USA was released in 1994 (Wikipedia), the first game on the Model 2 arcade system board developed…
Christmas morning, 1987. I’m seven years old. I’m looking at this orange plastic gun that came bundled with our new Nintendo. My brother had been playing Super Mario Bros. for hours on end, but when we popped in that Duck Hunt cartridge everything changed. I aimed the Zapper at the TV — our console TV, a big Zenith with faux wood panelling that weighed about 200lbs — centered the reticle on-screen, pressed the button, and…
I’m Joe, and before Carl gets started telling me OutRun wasn’t a Genesis exclusive (which it really should have been) let me tell you why Sega’s 1986 arcade game OutRun is the best driving game ever created — not the most realistic, nor the most technologically advanced; the best. Where every other racing game was trying to sell you on the fact you’re really racing a car, OutRun was selling you a dream of cruising…
OK. Full disclosure time; I’ve been playing Sonic games since 1991. For reasons I don’t quite understand, I’m still obsessed now almost thirty years later. Well. Ok. Maybe I do know why I got into Sonic all that time ago, just can’t work out why I haven’t mellowed with age. Summer of 1991; Dave’s house in Stockport. His big brother had bought himself a shiny new Sega Mega Drive, along with a game about a…