#DailyRetroGame 65: Fungalouds (1982)

This quality title was surprisingly sophisticated for its era. You darted about, attempting to blow up the titular and rapidly growing enemies, while avoiding flying critters and replenishing your fuel and bomb reserves. With some colour and sound, it’d be a fondly remembered arcade classic. Someone should do a modern remake… but not *too* modern.

Play it on: #ZX81– or online here: https://www.zx-gaming.co.uk/games/fungaloids/default.htm

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OajbNqBLUI

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 64: Mario Kart 64 (1996)

With its iffy draw distances and textures, rubber-banding and wide tracks, MK64 might not appeal to modern gamers. But. There’s some great course design here, and the wider roads make this an excellent starting point for younger racers*, in a way that the original and twitchy SNES game could never be.

* and returning point for, ahem, slightly creaky older players.

Play it on: #Nintendo 64 #N64

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN0V3ZFYJPY

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 63: Ballblazer (1985)

Rather than ripping off Rollerball, as most future sports video games tended to, Ballblazer was a kind of super-fast split-screen 3D blow football. Each player controlled a droid and attempted to grab a floating ball and then blast it into the opponent’s goal. Technically superb on 8-bit Atari machines (and not too shabby on the C64), the game excels in two-player mode.

Play it on #Atari7800

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW62Y3WXC-s

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 62: CJ’s Elephant Antics (1991)

Salvaged from an aborted New Zealand Story conversion, CJ was a budget title that had no business being as good as it was. Four varied levels of leapy/shooty gameplay were augmented by an animated intro and maddeningly tricky between-level bonus biking sections. Alas, sequel CJ In The USA dispensed with extras and feels comparatively ordinary. But the original remains a fun title.

Play it on: #C64

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZD5fKEDxdY

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 61: Sabotage (1981)

The first of a slew of ‘paratrooper’ games, where your fixed turret fends off a relentless tide of helicopters and parachuting foes. Its fast pace remains compelling, as does its black humour – you can shoot parachutes to make paratroopers fall on and squash those who’ve already landed. And that’s handy, because if four make it, they form a human pyramid and blow up your gun, the rotters.

Play it on: #Apple II

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dmSwC2s8YQ

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 60: Tracksuit Manager (1988)

Stupid name. Great game. Despite brutally basic text-based presentation, Tracksuit Manager had plenty of nuance in its commentary, and there was loads of depth regarding squads and tactics –at least for the era. Natch, it was also fun plugging in all the names of your friends into the squad editor – and getting all angry with one of them when they missed a sitter.

Play it on: #C64

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Gur2TnMds

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 59: Skool Daze (1984)

Jet Set Willy meets The Bash Street Kids. Ish. This one gave you a living, breathing ‘skool’ to exist in, all while attempting to whack hanging shields and perform other actions that’d get you into the staffroom safe and at your (terrible) report card. It was quite odd to come home from school and play a game about school, but the game’s character and smarts ensured it got an A grade.

Play it on: #ZXSpectrum

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULCjgUNz6bQ

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 58: Chuckie Egg 2 (1985)

Having loved the frenetic single-screen platformer that was Chuckie Egg, I was disarmed by this sprawling follow-up, which tasked you with exploring a deadly factory to fashion a chocolate egg (with a toy inside) for dispatch. I liked the exploration bits, but the game needed the patience of a saint. That the youTube walkthrough is six hours long tells you all you need to know.

Play it on: #ZXSpectrum

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t8XVKB0ZAc

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 56: Turrican II (1991)

Manfred Trenz was clearly some kind of wizard turned programmer, given what he managed to eke out of the C64. This second Turrican game featured colossal enemies and lightning-fast shoot ’em up sections with buckets of parallax scrolling.

The Amiga version’s perhaps most well-known, but Trenz says the C64 game was the original – and that’s the one I always favoured.

Play it on: #C64, #Amiga

Gameplay (C64): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIaabMWupmQ

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 55: Qwak (1993)

Although originally released for the #BBCMicro in 1989, this fast-paced platformer shone most on Amiga. The frenetic wraparound levels, limited ammo and two-player mode made it a perfect mix of arcade fun and tense on-the-fly tactics.

Although the game appeared on other platforms, it’s relatively little known, which feels criminal for a single-screener that’s bordering on Bubble Bobble tier.

Play it on: #Amiga

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYy3YAuPy9I

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 54: Rick Dangerous (1989)

It says something about this one’s impact that it to this day remains shorthand for an unfair game with unavoidable deaths – at least for those of us of greying hair.

There’s a lot to like regarding the visuals, charm and even much of the level design. But you know something’s off if a game is more fun with infinite lives. The developers should have added a speed-run mode.

Play it on: #Amiga

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17Bs9QJ8aYY

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 53: The Lords of Midnight (1984)

I’ll be honest: Midnight baffled me. I’d sit in front of the screen, knowing this game was important. I’d faff about a bit. And then I’d die. If I was Frodo, I’d apparently walk about 10 meters and fall off a cliff.

None of which takes away from Mike Singleton’s masterpiece, which squeezed a truly epic RPG into 48k. They really don’t make ’em like they used to.

Play it on: #ZXSpectrum

Gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n251r73JIxY

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 52: Lazy Jones (1984)

Long before WarioWare was a twinkle in Nintendo’s eye, Lazy Jones offered gamers a slew of bite-sized minigames. These tiny tributes to arcade classics were played as the protagonist cunningly avoided work, while you, in a meta sense, likely did precisely the same. Top stuff, and the bouncy soundtrack still rocks – when it’s not being ripped off by German techno artists.

Play it on: #C64

Gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8sdPUIMHrM

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 51: Speedball (1988)

Answering the question “What would handball be like if everyone wore armour and punched each other in the face?”, this two-player cyberpunk sports game involved a lot of metal ball throwing, ricochets and decidedly unsporting power-ups. Its more expansive sequel is arguably the better game, but the original still generates exciting, tense bouts in its claustrophobic arenas.

Play it on: #Amiga

Gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NitZrC3ywK8

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 50: Space Invaders (1978)

Although rapidly superseded by faster, more exciting shooters, Space Invaders deserves its place among gaming’s greats. It pioneered multiple lives, background music, and many more things gamers then took for granted. Its tense accuracy-oriented gameplay remains compelling – although do also check out the Atari 2600 home conversion, with its many alternative modes.

Play it on: #arcade, #Atari2600

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGjgxwiemms

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 49: Creatures 2 (1992)

The original Creatures by Thalamus had plodding platform sections and vicious single-screen torture puzzles. The sequel increased the torture screens… but then replaced the platform bits with often tedious action sequences. Still, there’s no doubting the production values in this cartoonish title, and the level intro screen always cheers me up when I’m fleeing glum.

Play it on: #C64

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpV4BIHbseM

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 48: Escape Velocity (1996)

A rare example of a Mac-only title that was great (and remains so) and twangs all the right retro nubbins, EV was more or less a top-down Elite, with a more expansive plot. It was great fun zooming about the screen in a tiny ship, pretending you cared about trading, and then attempting to shoot everything – or boarding a ship and pilfering all its goodies.

h/t @Rantanen

Play it on: #Mac

Livestream with creator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYMZQINXW_s

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 47: Carmageddon (1997)

Controversial and absurd in roughly equal measure, this racer wasn’t fussed with the racing bit. Although you could take the chequered flag, you’d more likely spend time mowing down pedestrians for time extensions, or smashing foes into oblivion. The chaos still makes the game quite fun – although it’s ultimately as braindead as the shuffling zombies in the censored version.

Play it on: #PC

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG7U470mZgw

#retrogaming

#DailyRetroGame 46: F-Zero X (1998)

SNES F-Zero never clicked with me. The angular courses felt like guiding a bumper car around a supermarket. But X on N64, with its dizzying sci-fi rollercoasters, was a perfect blast of speed. With the game dispensing with weapons and deciding to be fun rather than cool, I also found it – and still find it – worth returning to, unlike the tries-too-hard Wipeout.

Play it on: #N64

Gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTQeEzG0tSc

#retrogaming #nintendo

#DailyRetroGame 45: Blood Bros. (1990)

Some dubious depictions of the Wild West aside, Blood Bros. today comes across as a distinctly absurdist take on the co-op shooter. It’s like Cabal hopped up on sherbet as you and a chum take out your enemies – and massive chunks of scenery, including mountings – with your guns, before dancing towards the horizon in victory.

Play it on: arcade

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIWeNQBP00Q

#retrogaming