Exploring the PlayStation 4

I have had my PS4 since November or December 2017 which, as the mathematically-gifted among you will know, is getting on for 3 years now, and for pretty much all of that time I've been meaning to write this post. I've already made a 'new arrivals' post, itself coming some 7 or 8 months after the console found its way to me. This was basically detailing what I got, how I got it, and my first impressions, but this post was meant to detail my impressions after more prolonged use.

I guess 2 years could be classed as 'prolonged' but, typically, I still haven't actually used it all that much. This isn't because I've gone off it though. The main culprit is that one that causes me to miss so many other things, gaming-related or otherwise - time, or lack thereof. Another of the culprits for missing stuff - money - is also to blame for the ultra-lateness of this post as well though. I have amassed a reasonable collection of PS4 games as far as title-count is concerned, but most of them have been physical copies of indie games I like. I was planning on buying a 'Triple A' big budget studio game as well, to give myself a more well-rounded PS4 experience. The game I opted for was the apparently-excellent Horizon Zero Dawn but I just... haven't gotten around to buying it yet.

Exploring the PC Engine CD

As most gamers in my neck of the woods will probably agree, the PC Engine was an instant legend from the moment it appeared - nothing had ever been more desirable, not even Counsellor Troi from Star Trek The Next Generation (possibly). But alas, it never saw a proper release in our humble territory. Worsening the despair felt by us considerably was the announcement and subsequent release of the CD-ROM unit for the same console a year-or-so later, which made NEC's box of tricks even more desirable. How could it not? It was a CD-ROM... for a games console!

The now-famous image that so tantalised us in C&VG...

Like the Engine itself, images of the CD-ROM unit began appearing in the mighty C&VG magazine during 1988, and more so upon its release late that year. Technology such as this was still very new at the time and thus had a rather futuristic air about it. What sort of wonders could be in store for lucky Engine gamers? Well, first they would have to pay the hefty sum to import one from Japan (unless they lived in Japan), and this sum was often significantly more than that of the Engine itself at first. Oof! Not many gamers in Europe could even afford to import the PCE itself, never mind its expensive 'other half', but there were a lucky few with sizeable bank balances (or parents with sizeable bank balances, at least) who instantly earned mythical status by owning this dream duo.

Retro News - The Console That Never Was!

As I have no doubt mentioned here more than once previously, my favourite period in gaming is definitely the mid-80's to the mid-90's (roughly), with the odd exception. I have many wonderful memories of this era and most of my favourite games and systems (including, or some might say especially, the arcades) come from it, and it's also where much of my focus goes when planning features for this very blog.

One of the most prolific developers at this time, in arcades as well as on home systems, was Taito who had been one of my favourites ever since my parents had bought me the awesome Taito Coin-Op Hits compilation for my Speccy. In fact, I'd even say they were second only to the mighty Sega in my affections in those days; their generally spiffing titles were nearly always worthy of attention, and I remember thinking on more than one occasion about how cool it would be if they had their own home console. It might not sound terribly realistic for a mere software developer to have their own home system but that's exactly what Sega had done with the Master System, as had SNK with their monstrous NeoGeo 'Advanced Entertainment System'. I still never thought it might actually happen though, so it came as a great surprise to discover not too long ago that they very nearly did have one!

Exploring the Nintendo Wii

If ever any proof was needed of my lack of enthusiasm for modern gaming, it would be this post. Remember the 'New Arrival' post here at Red Parsley regarding my purchase of a Nintendo Wii? Well, that was well over a year ago now and it's taken me this long to get around to playing all the games and writing this feature! In fairness though, as I said in the previous post, I was a purchase I kind of regretted soon afterwards anyway - it was more of an impulse buy really, if it's even possible when ordering stuff online, and indeed, I have used it little.

Actually, that's probably somewhat unfair. I suspect the lengthy delay in my Wii-ing (chortle) is as much down to laziness and lack of time as it is indifference - I've not used my Xbox a huge amount more, for example - but as I've said before there is an awful lot of crap on this unusual system and it can be quite off-putting. Finding something that can even be called a video game is a challenge at times when looking through the Wii section of a game store. There are a few diamonds in the rough though, of course, and it is these that I intend to seek out and play. I've actually already sought out a decent number of them - they are sitting quietly on my sizeable game shelf, their majestic white covers gleaming like pearls, just waiting for me to get around to finishing this feature so I can play them! Just playing the titles below reminded me of something else I've often found a bit off-putting about the Wii though.

Exploring the Funtech Super A'Can

The number '68000' is probably one that means a lot to many retro gamers. It is after all the designation of the processor made by Motorola that's found in many fine 16-bit systems such as the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Sega MegaDrive, and SNK's mighty Neo Geo, but there are also a few lesser-known systems powered by it as well. One of them is the Super A'Can which is made by a company called Funtech.

Looks a bit like a 'Stealth Super NES/Famicom' - sweet!

It's not tremendously surprising if you haven't heard of Funtech as they're a Taiwanese company who were responsible for little of note prior to entering the gaming world, and accordingly, their strangely-named system was released only in their native territory. A strange decision, you might think - gaining a foothold in the console hardware market has always been extremely tough for a newcomer to begin with, never mind if said newcomer restricts themselves to such a limited audience. How in the blue blazes did they ever expect to attract any big name publishers to their system? It was also released rather late for a cartridge-based, 68000-powered system - 1995, no less - by which time the PlayStation and Saturn were striding forth, laying waste to all such systems with their fancy 3D graphics and CD-ROM games. It didn't stand a chance did it? I'd say not and indeed, it wasn't with us for long.

Exploring the Xbox

The days leading up to the launch of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox were among the darkest in my gaming life. My beloved Sega had gone down in flames, as a hardware developer at least, and I was still in mourning by the time Sony's imaginatively-named successor to the PlayStation and Microsoft's debut console arrived. I had a vague knowledge of them and their early titles though, and had always expected that, if I ever did recover from my gaming depression, the one I would go for would be the Xbox, and there were two reasons for this.

Firstly, I had come to hate Sony, especially the PS2 which had received a lot of the blame for the Dreamcast's demise. Secondly, it seemed, from what I had seen, that the Xbox was much closer to the Dreamcast in terms of the titles it had available. Indeed, it almost seemed like a continuation of Sega's mighty machine what with Sega GT 2002, Jet Set Radio Future, Project Gotham Racing, Panzer Dragoon Orta, etc. Despite all this, I never did get around to buying one, even years later when the 360 arrived and the original system received the customary price drop. I did come close about 8-10 years ago - I even bought OutRun 2 (which, amusingly, I still have at my parents house somewhere!) when I saw it for a good price - but I kept holding off on buying the actual console until I found a limited edition green version for a similarly irresistible price, for it was this model that I had decided I must have. And eventually I had it.

Exploring the BBC Micro

For young scamps growing up in the UK in the 80's like me, there were a good few choices with regard to playing these fancy computer games we kept reading about. In my experience the most popular choice was the trusty ZX Spectrum but there were also a good few Commodore 64's and Amstrad CPC's doing the rounds and even a few less popular examples such as the Acorn Electron, Dragon 32, or one of the numerous MSX models. However, whichever choice you made (or had made for you), there's a good chance that the first time most of us used a computer it was none of these. For most, our introduction to computing was with a BBC at school.

It wasn't a looker but those red function keys stood out...

Although most commonly known simply as the 'BBC Micro', it was actually designed and produced by another British company - Acorn - who beat several other computer manufacturers (including Sinclair) to the rights to build the machine for the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. The result of the unlikely collaboration was initially available as the 16kB Model A or the more common Model B which came with either 32kB or 64kB of RAM. The Model B was unsurprisingly the one found in my school's classrooms and it was probably (although I can't be sure) the first real computer I ever laid my grubby mitts on. Unfortunately this was mainly for educational purposes but on the odd special occasion our teacher did allow us to play a game - the only game they had, in fact - Granny's Garden, although even this was a game with an educational slant (those crafty teachers never miss a trick, do they?). Alarmingly, this remains the only BBC game I've played.

Exploring the ColecoVision

Once video games were invented it didn't take too long for home gaming to get established too. A few 'electronic' games had started appearing in the 70's before the first actual home consoles arrived starting with the Magnavox Odyssey which, despite achieving limited success, spurred on others to try the same. Fairchild had their Channel F and later Mattel's Intellivision had been doing respectable business, but it was of course Atari's immense VCS that had destroyed all who stood in its way. By the early 80's even that was starting to look a little old and tired though, and this new breed of enthusiasts known as 'gamers' were eager for a more advanced successor.

This soon arrived in the middle of that decade's third year courtesy of another American company - Coleco. Despite their name, which was a contraction of Connecticut Leather Company, and their history of producing plastic and indeed leather products, they were no strangers to the exciting realm of electronic entertainment. They had already produced a range of standalone consoles in the late 70's called Telstar which each featured a few pre-programmed variations of existing games such as Pong and Tank. Their latest effort was called the ColecoVision and, unlike the Telstar range, offered games on inter-changeable cartridges. In fact, it was bundled with one such game, a conversion of the popular arcade hit Donkey Kong, no less, and its quality soon showed that perhaps this new contender was the system gamers had been waiting for.

Exploring the PlayStation 3

As some of you may already be aware, my time as a gamer was spent on 'current' systems like everyone else right up until my beloved Sega went down as a hardware manufacturer. Indeed, since the untimely demise of their supremely awesome Dreamcast, I've been unable to muster much enthusiasm for any other current systems whether I've liked it or not.

This isn't just because of Sega's absence, obviously - I'm not quite that sad (hopefully!) - I just seem to have gradually been losing interest in them. I think it was a coincidence as much as anything else. It was around that time in my view that the sheer scale of games started exceeding my simple 'short sharp fix' tastes, for one thing. Most of the kind of games released in the 21st century no longer seem to cater for gamers like me. It's not realistic to switch on a PS3 or Xbox 360, have a quick ten minute blast on something, then turn it off again - it would usually take that long to even get to the title screen on most games for these systems, and even then the games themselves usually require hours of attention at a time! Anyway, I'm rambling now - the truth is, I really can't explain why I lost interest in 'modern' gaming, but it is something I've been trying to rectify. I guess I just need that one special game to ensnare me and all the rest will then fall into place...

Exploring the Sharp X68000 - Part 2

Crikey, things have been pretty busy here in RKS Land of late - regular readers may have noticed that the number of posts here has slowed down somewhat. I blame work for making me all stressed and not in the right mood to delve into the world of retro games as often!

One victim of this whole thing has been my X68000 feature, the first part of which was all the way back in March now, which looked at the legendary ability of Sharp's imposing system to cope with conversions of arcade games of the day. It turned out to be more than adept at this, as was already widely known of course, but it's always nice to see for yourself!

Something the X68k is less celebrated for, however, is the quality (or indeed the existence at all) of games which are exclusive to the system, or at least found on very few other formats. Having once again sought the advice of jolly helpful Retro Gamer forum buddy, Oli, I find myself armed with the names of some such titles. Here are the results:

Aquales (1991)

Many X68k games are a mystery to me (titles exclusive to the format, at least) but I was sure I knew at least something about this one. Of course, it turned out I was wrong, but what I discovered was certainly no disappointment! Aquales, you see, places you in command of one of those big mecha things the Japanese love so much. It's not the meanest-looking one of all-time but it's pretty agile as it can shoot a variety of weapons with one arm while the other is equipped with a grapple which can be used to swing around the multi-tiered stages which look gorgeous for the most part - filled with huge sprites, super-parallax scrolling, and all manner of special effects. The music is also fantastic which makes exploring the large, superbly-designed stages a pleasure in spite of a slightly inconsistent difficulty level.

Exploring the Sharp X68000 - Part 1

Sometimes it really is amazing to think of the differences between the Japanese game market and that of the rest of the world. There is of course some tremendous localisation of games, that happens all the time. There's also plenty of Japanese games that never even see the light of day elsewhere (and vice versa to a far-lesser-extent), but how about whole systems? Us European gamers missed out on NEC's amazing PC Engine console but it wasn't restricted to Japan - lucky American gamers also got a redesigned version of the console to which they gave a lukewarm reception. There was, however, a system which was not only released solely in Japan but which was powerful, successful, and jam-packed with quality games, and it would come to be the envy of the rest of us.

Only those of us who actually knew about it, that is. I was already well aware of the splendid Motorola 68000 processor - it was at the heart of my beloved MegaDrive after all - I didn't personally discover the existence of any system actually named after it until many years later and I bought nearly all the games magazines at the time so it must've received practically no coverage. Looking back, this was really strange - even obscure systems like the Sam Coupe and Konix Multisystem commanded many pages of magazines prior to their launch (or not, in the case of the latter). I've therefore had to do a bit of research to find out the secrets of Sharp's fancy computer system. I knew of an early 8-bit micro of theirs known as the X1 and the X68000 is apparently the successor to this quirky machine.

Exploring the Sega SG-1000

Like most gamers, I first encountered the Sega name in various amusement arcades where they had been developing games since the early 80's before hitting the big time with their series of 'Super-Scaler' games. After a good run of success in this demanding environment, it didn't take them long before they decided they wanted a slice of the home-gaming pie as well.

For many years I believed, like many, that their first offering in this field was their splendid Mark III console, better known to those outside Japan as the Master System. If I'd stopped to think about it, however, I would probably have thought... if that's the Mark III, then what happened to the Mark I and II? The obvious answer to this equally obvious question is of course that there were two consoles before it, and the first of them was named the Sega Game 1000, or SG-1000 for short. It was a modestly-powered machine which run from a clone version of the legendary Zilog Z80 processor which means that, like most computers and consoles of the time, it was 8-bit. Its graphical abilities included a resolution of 256x192 and a pallette of sixteen colours. It wasn't blessed with much memory though, so most games were rather basic. The SG-1000 was replaced the following year by the SG-1000 II which was near-enough identical under the hood but had seen an external redesign and was gifted with a less-crippling controller.

Exploring the WonderSwan

I think it's safe to say that if any one company can be credited with not just pioneering handheld gaming, but near enough creating it, it would be Nintendo. The Game & Watch series wasn't really my cup of tea, at least not by the time I got into gaming in the mid-80's, but I was in the minority and it proved to be a big success. Towards the end of that decade the Big N unveiled the spiritual successor to the G&W series, the Game Boy, and this was an even bigger success and has ended up being one of the most successful systems of all-time, handheld or otherwise. Both Atari and Sega tried to get in on the act and both failed. Surely, someone would have to be very brave or just plain crazy to try again?

When I first heard about the WonderSwan, aside from some initial chuckles at the expense of the somewhat unorthodox name, I thought its creators, toy company Bandai, were indeed plain crazy, for here was not just another handheld console vying for a share of the Game Boy's market, but one that was technically inferior to its competition! Okay, its specs made for pretty impressive reading - it had a 16-bit CPU over the 8-bit one in Nintendo's machine, for example - but it had a black & white display for heaven's sake! The long-awaited Game Boy Color had been released the previous year so the decision to launch the WonderSwan with this antiquated screen was frankly baffling. However, when you stop to consider that it was developed by a certain Gunpei Yokoi, the not-insignificant fellow who designed the Game & Watch and Game Boy, then it would be foolish to immediately write it off. Yokoi-san was tragically killed before his latest vision was released but, immediately after its release in 1999, it actually didn't get off to a bad start in Japan.

Exploring the Neo Geo - Part 2

As an avid fan of arcade games it's inevitable I'll have played some Neo Geo games at some point. I did, however, miss out on many of the system's earliest releases owing to my allegiance to Sega's magnificent MegaDrive which was of course ousted as the most powerful home console by SNK's powerhouse (as well as arguably the SNES but that's a topic for another time). Still, time heals all wounds as they say, and here is where I've been taking a look at some of the very earliest games that were released on the Neo Geo hardware to see if they really were better than those available on my beloved MD. Four of the first five I looked at in 'Part 1' were decent enough and now I'll take a look at another five, including:

Fatal Fury (1991)

One-on-one fighting games are arguably what the Neo Geo brand is best known for so it's a wonder it's taken me this long to finally play one! Well, I've played a few before but this is still a first for Red Parsley! I believe this is one of the cheapest AES carts around and that's presumably because it's sequels are so much better, but I still enjoyed this original. I was surprised to find that only three characters are selectable but it still plays well enough in the same sort of way as the original Street Fighter 2 does compared to later games. The graphics and music are quite nice with each fighter's stage fairly memorable. The room for improvement is clear to see but it's a good start for the series and least it actually is one-on-one, unlike those stupid tag battles that tarnish many of the later incarnations. The absence of Mai is hard to get used to though...

Exploring the Neo Geo - Part 1

Back at the very beginning of the 90's, I was a very proud MegaDrive owner. It was the newest and most powerful console ever at that point and I was happy to point this out to anyone who cared enough to listen, and indeed many who couldn't care less. I was in this privileged position for only a short while, however, when I started seeing reports of a new console by some company called SNK. Who the hell were they? Ohhh yeah, now I think about it, weren't they the company behind a few arcade hits like Vanguard and Ikari Warriors? Very impressive, but releasing a few arcade games is one thing, releasing an entire home console system is another thing entirely. I thought the days when any old upstart could (or rather, would) release a new format were long gone, and here was this medium-sized arcade company throwing their hat in the ring. They couldn't possibly pull it off, could they?

It turned out that they meant business! In the kind of move that would make or break the company, they first released their flashy new hardware in the arcades with the MVS (Multi Video System) which was an arcade machine built to a standard configuration and which could be fitted with up to six different games. Following swiftly on from this was the AES (Advanced Entertainment System), the immense home console version of the arcade hardware. The hardware was based on a Motorola 68000 CPU and a Zilog Z80 co-processor which was the same as that used by the MegaDrive. SNK's machine, however, was packed with lots of custom chips which gave it a lot more power than Sega's machine, or indeed some of the consoles that came after it. The games released for the system was direct ports of their arcade counterparts. If any proof was needed of their authenticity, it was possible to buy a memory card, use it at home, save your position in a game, take the memory card to your local arcade, and continue playing there. Impressive stuff!

Exploring the Atari 2600 - Part 2

Unlike the two of the previous 'Exploring' features posted here where I asked fans for recommendations of games to try out on the systems in question, this time I didn't. For the first part, I revisited the only VCS game I had spent a significant amount of time playing, then tried out a few of the more famous games that I'd heard of. This means there was a good chance that they'd be great games though, so for this part I've selected five random games to try out. Here's the ones I chose:

Planet Patrol (1982)
This Spectravideo release was my first pick and I was pleased to find that it's a good one. It plays a lot like River Raid, which I looked at in part one, only turned on its side! Unusually for a horizontal-scroller, it moves from right-to-left and charges you with rescuing downed pilots. To do this you must brave the waves of enemy fighters and missiles, taking down as many as you can, pass over the pilot to rescue him, destroy the enemy city, avoid the ensuing debris, stop to refuel, and repeat! One novel feature is the gradual transition from day to night. During the latter, the enemies are only visible from the flash of your cannon firing! It's a great idea and adds a little variety to an addictive and enjoyable shmup.

Exploring the Atari 2600 - Part 1

The most famous console ever? Certainly if you're my age or older, but it's one I have very little experience of. However, unlike my situations with the Commodore 64 and NES, this time it's not because I was an owner and fan of the competition. The Atari 2600, or VCS as it was originally known, was a bit before my time you see. I was a mere two years old when it was first unveiled, and by the time I had developed an interest in video games, it was on, what were at the time, the modern machines.

Whether I was there to witness it or not, however, there's no question of the enormous impact the VCS had on the industry, for both good and ill. I think it's also the console that most gets its former owners all misty-eyed until they finally play it again and wonder how they used to enjoy the games! For the most part though, I don't have the problem of any of its games having to live up to precious childhood memories. For all intents and purposes, these are new games to me, so however well they may or may not have aged, I can look upon them with a largely impartial eye. Which games to choose was another matter. Unlike my Exploring the NES series, I don't count many VCS fans as friends. Instead, I've decided to split this feature into two parts.

Exploring the NES - Part 4

In my time as a gamer I've owned, or at least used, most of the major computers and consoles, but of the ones I haven't, I think the NES was the most seriously neglected. I'd like to think over the course of the last couple of months I've gone some way to making amends for that here at Red Parsley. With the help of some of my fellow bloggers I've tried and enjoyed many games for the system (although surprisingly still not some of the biggest names), with each instalment featuring the recommendations of one of them. This is the final part of the series and it features the games recommended by Bryan Ochalla (check out his great blog here). So, thanks, Bryan, here's how I got on with your recommendations! :)

Final Fantasy (1987)

Of course, I've heard this one mentioned infinity times over the years but, and this is a bit of an embarrassing admission actually - this is the first time I've played any Final Fantasy game! I did nearly get caught up in the hysteria surrounding the seventh game but the one that started it all off is a very different game, as you might expect. I've heard that it's not aged well and, although I haven't spent a huge amount of time with it yet, I think I've got a pretty good feel for the game and have to agree with that assessment. The graphics and music are quite nice but it's very basic as RPG's go. Of course, it was one of the first ones so it's nothing to hold against the game but to be brutally honest I just don't often have the time for games like this these days, as much as I'd like to. Still, it saved Square and was a smash-hit so I'll persevere for a while more out of respect...

Exploring the NES - Part 3

With the help of my NES-loving friends, Eric and Sean, I have now had a good taster of a wide variety of games for their favourite console. In the process, however, I also received numerous other recommendations from others. So despite the fact that the 'Exploring the NES' feature is now technically concluded, I figured I might as well take a look at the games recommended by others too! These five are the favourites of a splendid fellow you may know as Stiggy (check out his great blog here)...

Double Dragon II (1989)

The entirety of my Double Dragon gaming has so far been done on the Master System's great but flickery port of the original arcade game so I was very interested to see how the sequel fared on the MS's great rival. To my dismay, it's even better! Although differing substantially from its arcade parent, the objective in this version remains the same which sees the Lee Brothers on a mission of revenge after their shared beyatch was killed by the wretched Black Warriors gang. Oh well, at least the game is great fun to play! The music is superb while the graphics, using the distinctive NES colour pallette, are are also great and feature far less flicker than they would on the MS. I was particularly impressed with the stage design which is creative for a game of this type. The first stage, for example, see you climbing up progressively higher rooftops of buildings via ladders until you meet the boss on the top floor! On first impressions, a superb fighting game that I'll definitely return to.

Exploring the NES - Part 2

You know, when I decided to write this feature and ask for some recommendations, I immediately thought any NES fan I spoke to would say Super Mario something, Zelda, Mega Man something, Metroid, etc, etc. The only game I ended up playing that I actually expected to have recommended to me was Contra, but thanks to my Facebook friend and NES fanatic, Eric, I've now had a varied taster of NES-related tomfoolery anyway. However, since the console has such a huge number of games I thought it would be a good idea to ask someone else to recommend some more. Enter my fellow blog-writing friend, Sean (see his fantastic blog here), who had some suggestions even more obscure than Eric's! Here's how I got on with them:

Adventure Island (1986)

The Wonder Boy / Adventure Island games have a very convoluted lineage and indeed, I've actually already spent a fair bit of time playing this game, albeit under its 'correct' name on my Master System! It's been interesting to see another version of it though, and a direct comparison between a game on the two systems should help with my evaluation of the NES. This version certainly doesn't look as nice, but let's face it - the Wonder Boy sprite has never been very appealing, and this isn't really the flashiest game on any format either! The music is as catchy as ever though, and the game plays just as well as I remember, which is very well. It's a very simple game, requiring you to do little more than press 'right' and hit a button every now and then, but it's great fun and very addictive. I'd probably return to the MS version to be honest but both versions play as well as each other.