Indholdsfortegnelse for No. 250 i Retro Gamer

We were saddened to learn that John Gibson, a well-respected and long-tenured member of the British game development community, recently passed away. The veteran programmer first learned to code on a ZX81, and started his career in development at Imagine Software in 1983 – memorably making an appearance in the infamous BBC Commercial Breaks documentary. Though the heavily hyped Bandersnatch never saw release due to the collapse of Imagine, John quickly moved on. He cofounded Denton Designs before moving to Psygnosis, with later moves to Warthog and eventually Sony’s Evolution Studios, before retiring and moving to Thailand. He was involved in a number of memorable games over the years, including Stonkers, Molar Maul, Microcosm and Driveclub. Friends and fans paid tribute to John on social media. Former Warthog programmer Paul…

David L Craddock is the co-director and co-writer of FPS: First-Person Shooter, an ambitious four-and-a-half-hour documentary about the history of the popular genre from CREATORVC. All the biggest names from the genre are interviewed including legends such as John Romero, John Carmack, Becky Heinemann and many more. Retro Gamer spoke with David about his experience making the acclaimed documentary. How did the idea to produce FPS: First-Person Shooter come about? The idea started with Robin Block, the founder of CREATORVC. Growing up, Robin’s favourite first-person shooter was Halo 2. Robin had read an article on the history of the FPS written by Richard Moss and asked him to write a synopsis detailing a narrative throughline for first-person shooters and what games to cover. Richard recommended contacting me based on Rocket…

■ The most infamous lost game of the Ultimate era is Mire Mare, the fifth and final Sabreman adventure. We put this issue to bed back in Retro Gamer 105, confirming that some design work was done and the cover art was created, but no actual coding took place – despite what people have claimed over the years. There were also several conversions that never made it, including a version of Cookie for the BBC Micro by Paul Proctor that went unreleased despite being finished. Later, Ultimate’s final release Bubbler was being converted to the C64 by Lynsoft and was partially complete before the plug was pulled on account of it running too slowly. Both games have since surfaced online. Thanks to Frank Gasking of Games That Weren’t, we’ve also…

■ For one reason or another there were a lot of Rare games that went unpublished during its NES and SNES years, and as yet none of them have seen the light of day. Two of the earliest were the vertical shoot-’em-up Space Hunter and the Stone-Age Olympics title BC Games. Both were NES games developed by Bob and Dave Thomas, the authors of Ultimate’s Sir Arthur Pendragon series. Other unreleased titles from that time were Kevin Bayliss and Paul Machacek’s street wrestling game Wrestlerage for the SNES, and Super Battletoads for the SNES and Game Boy, which were based on the coin-op. Then there was Simon Hallam’s Screwballs Superleague, a crazy sports game for the NES with spinning top players, and The Valley Of The Kings, an impressive NES…

VIVA PIÑATA ■ So sugary sweet it should come with a government health warning, Viva Piñata is a sensational slice of Rare that everyone should experience. With a timeless art style and some staggeringly deep gameplay, Rare’s game boasts a lot of complexity beneath its cheerful exterior. Its Xbox 360 and DS sequels are worthy of your time as well. GRABBED BY THE GHOULIES ■ Creatively impressive and bursting with humour, Grabbed By The Ghoulies simply doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Its combat may be a little basic for hardcore gamers, but Rare’s game is bursting with charm, is incredibly funny and has some great-looking bosses. It’s also filled with secrets hinting back to the Ultimate days. BANJO-KAZOOIE: NUTS & BOLTS ■ It might not have been the game…

It all begins one sunny day in Surbiton. While out randomly prospecting, Miner Willy discovers an ancient mineshaft. Unable to resist plunging into the abyss, Willy explores caverns full of manic mining robots, deadly spiders and treasures beyond his wildest dreams. After his adventure below ground, he emerges blinking into the sunshine, considerably wealthier than when he entered. Now, Willy could finally abandon his back-breaking career and retire to a luxury mansion by the sea. This clifftop abode houses all the trappings for a nouveau-riche socialite like Willy. There’s a large swimming pool, a luxury yacht, an ornate orangery and a conservatory, a huge master bedroom and a well-stocked wine cellar. He has an Italian housekeeper, Maria, a French chef, Andre, and, inevitably, many new friends eager to share in Willy’s…

What did you think of the original Spectrum game? I was a big fan. If I recall correctly, there was a discussion of The Attic bug during my interview at Software Projects and how it would be addressed. But my main recollection was that I really could not believe I was interviewing for a job at the company that produced Jet Set Willy! Did you have any source code to work with? No, and I suppose we’d managed Manic Miner without any, so it seemed natural to do the same with Jet Set Willy. Derrick [Rowson] and I had a go at fixing the ‘Death Loop’ bug [where Willy continually falls to his death] – if I recall correctly, we placed you back on the last platform you were standing…

» MEGA DRIVE » 1996 » AVALANCHE SOFTWARE Mortal Kombat was the first fighting series I ever loved, but I’d be lying if I said that Mortal Kombat 3 didn’t disappoint me a little. It played well, but with the new urban setting and the loss of some of the series’ most recognisable characters, it almost felt as though Shang Tsung himself had ripped the soul of the series away. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was an updated version that brought back classic characters like Scorpion, Reptile and Kitana and added more diverse stage backgrounds, making it considerably more appealing than the original version. In the summer of 1997, it was one of the games I most wanted for my newly acquired Mega Drive. The only problem is that I’d already…

England Vs Germany ■ The first of several Amiga magazine coverdisk spin-offs, England Vs Germany – alternatively titled Sensible Soccer Meets Bulldog Blighty within the Amiga Power issue it accompanied – replaces the ball with a ticking grenade and players with soldiers. Carnage ensues. Unsensible Soccer ■ Packing more vitamin C than an overpriced smoothie, this Amiga Action special pits apples against oranges, with pears in goal and a cherry as the ball. Also included is a far less fruity Norwich versus Manchester United ‘first team to score wins’ match. Moon Soccer ■ Low gravity and crater-pocked pitches make for some unpredictable matches in Sensible World Of Moon Soccer, released with Amiga Action in 1994 as a promotion for Sensible World Of Soccer. Play a friendly or compete in a…

When Steven Spielberg finished shooting Jurassic Park, the producers were not sure it was going to be a hit. Sure, it featured impressive animatronics and expensive computer graphics, but would its story resonate with audiences all over the world? Universal Pictures was definitely hoping that it would, considering how it paid $2 million for the rights to Micheal Crichton’s novel. And that was before it was even published. When Ocean, a company with a long experience in licensed games, got its hands on the coveted Jurassic Park licence for Nintendo consoles, Amiga and PC, it took its own approach with Spielberg’s film. Ocean’s Jurassic Park is, at its core, an action game with exploration and puzzle-solving mechanics. But each platform is slightly different from the other, so as to cater…

STARTING AND STOPPING ■ In the first part of the B-Licence test, you have to stop in the chequered box at the 1,000-metre mark within the time limit. It’s not too hard in the Mazda Demio, but trickier with the more powerful Mitsubishi GTO. For the latter, hit the brakes at the 900-metre mark. BASICS OF CORNERING ■ How hard can it be to go around a corner? The answer is: quite hard. The trick is to approach from the outside edge and quickly jam the brakes just before the corner, then let go and steer towards the apex. Hold the throttle as you approach the apex to power out. BASICS OF MULTIPLE CORNERING ■ In the B-Licence test you’re given an S bend to deal with, although thankfully the…

■ There’s no shortage of amazing vehicles in Gran Turismo, from the elegant Aston Martin DB7 Volante to the entertainingly drifty Nissan R33 Skyline GT-R. But here’s why the Subaru Impreza is the best car of them all. Anyone who followed rally championships in the Nineties would have already known the impressive reputation of the Impreza. The car made its rally debut in 1993, and would go on to win a total of six World Rally titles: indeed, it was the car driven by Colin McRae when he won the World Rally Championship in 1995. In Gran Turismo, the Impreza’s chief advantage is its four-wheel drive, which makes it incredibly grippy on corners. It might lack the straight-line speed of some of the more powerful rear-wheel-drive cars, such as the…

Back when Sony was making a push for success on its first handheld, it was looking to garner all sorts of high-profile games for the PlayStation Portable in the hopes that it could lock in some early owners of the device and dethrone Nintendo’s DS. That’s where the Stories series of GTA games came in, cause if Grand Theft Auto can’t push hardware units then nothing can… First it was Liberty City Stories in 2005, and then Vice City Stories in 2007. In both cases, they are prequels to the games that preceded them with starring roles for characters in the original games that didn’t get much screen time otherwise. In Vice City Stories, that character was Victor (AKA Vic) Vance, the older brother of Lance Vance whom we’re sure…

As the Eighties came to a close, Japanese studio AlfaSystem was beginning to forge an impressive reputation. It was doing considerable work porting or otherwise codeveloping and collaborating on games for NEC’s remarkable PC Engine console line. That proved to establish invaluable experience. In the years that took the team into the following decade, AlfaSystem’s development staff had taken on worlds and works as varied as Populous, the Ys RPGs, the Wonder Boy licence, and SNK’s Art Of Fighting. Having asserted an abundance of talent and ideas through its porting work, it was inevitable that crafting its own games would soon become defining of the studio AlfaSystem was. Almost certainly the most impactful of those original AlfaSystem games was its arcade shooting game Shikigami no Shiro. Back at the time…

» GAMECUBE » 2003 » AMUSEMENT VISION They say that every cloud has a silver lining, but I found it hard to imagine what good could possibly come of Sega’s exit from the console hardware business. It didn’t take that long for the answer to arrive in the form of F-Zero GX. While I’d already seen Sonic running around on a GameCube by this point, Nintendo giving Sega the keys to one of its prized properties still felt somehow unimaginable, and the first trailer with its techno rendition of the Big Blue theme is permanently seared into my memory. At a time when teenage cynicism was even affecting my outlook on games, I fully succumbed to the hype. What I wanted out of F-Zero GX was raw, unadulterated intensity. What…

» System: PC » Buy it for: £6.69, £16.60 (4-pack) » Buy it from: steampowered.com/gog.com We’ve forgotten how brutally tough Flying Shark is. Enemy waves are relentless, tanks fire with unerring accuracy and you’ll be wishing that the spread of your fully powered-up gun was wider. But what a cracking shmup it still is. While this version isn’t quite as comprehensive as M2’s Shottriggers offering, Bitwave Games has still crammed plenty in. You’ve got a practice mode, different regional versions of the game, save options and a host of other parameters to tweak. The emulation looks excellent and there are online leaderboards to master. If you find it too hard, you might was to consider Bitwave’s recently released Fire Shark, otherwise you’ll find this great fun. >> Score 88%…

<BODY> “I was drawing a graphic novel about evil pigs for Humanoids Publishing,” says artist Alain ‘Mauricet’ Jansen about A Pig Quest’s origins. “I discovered Antonio’s skills trying out Fix It Felix Jr. It was so good I had to get in touch about a possible collaboration. I pitched him the idea of a game in multicolour bitmap with a little pig as the hero. It started small with a crude little piggy sprite and some so-so backgrounds, to become this giant production. I guess it’s my love letter to the C64, my most beloved computer. As for inspiration: comics, animation, and videogames of course – Dig Dug, Bubble Bobble, Ghosts ’N Goblins and Zelda: A Link To The Past. I start with lots of doodles and script notes for…

It takes courage to walk away from something exceptional, but in the mid-Eighties Tim and Chris Stamper did exactly that. They left behind the British home-computer games market where they had excelled. They trusted their highly respected Ultimate label to others. They set out on a new path, created a new company and bet everything on a Japanese games console. The gamble would pay off handsomely. According to an article on IGN, the Stampers visited Nintendo and revealed how they had reverse-engineered the Famicom. Nintendo was so impressed that it offered the Stampers an unlimited budget to produce games for the console, free of the restrictions that hindered other developers. Coder Paul Machacek was one of the teenagers that the Stampers hired for their fresh endeavour Rare, and he views…

■ As well as a wealth of licensed titles, Rare created various original one-offs during its formative years. Cobra Triangle for the NES is a good example. Best described as an isometric combat racer, it sends you into troubled waters in an armed speedboat. As well as racing rivals, you tackle logistical challenges, avoid sharks and take on sea monsters. Snake, Rattle ‘N’ Roll (below) is also isometric and for the NES. Its challenge is to navigate patchwork playfields as one of two snakes, gobbling up little creatures with the aim of putting on enough weight to tip a scale that opens the level exit. Digger T Rock is side-on, and takes its cue from Boulder Dash. The goal is to dig, climb, crawl and jump your way through caves,…

■ A number of Rare-developed N64 titles never saw the light of day, though probably the best-known of these, Dinosaur Planet, did evolve into Star Fox Adventures, Rare’s only GameCube title. Before hitting the bottle and developing a potty-mouth, Conker was due to appear in Conker’s Quest (aka Twelve Tales: Conker 64), a typically cute and colourful 3D platformer – perhaps a little too typical, which prompted its transformation into the unexpectedly adult-orientated Conker’s Bad Fur Day. We already know that Diddy Kong Racing was initially planned as more of an adventure game set in a theme park with driving elements than the full-on kart racer it became, but right up until the year of release, the Rare team were basing the game around one of their own NES-era properties.…

■ A shroud of secrecy has surrounded Rare’s games ever since Mire Mare, so it’s no surprise to learn that there are plenty of lost prototypes and cancelled projects from the studio’s last 21 years. Arguably its most famous from this period is the remake of GoldenEye 007, which was planned for Xbox Live Arcade but never arrived. It has since leaked online, while a new remaster of Rare’s iconic game is finally available on Xbox and Switch. Although it was only a prototype, we’ve always been fascinated by Savannah, which tasked you with rearing a lion cub and may have possibly been planned for Kinect. Kameo and Perfect Dark sequels were also planned for Xbox 360 at one point, but never materialised. Other Rare games got lost in the…

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INACCESSIBLE ITEMS ■ Situated left of Under The Roof, Conservatory Roof houses four items, each guarded by a grinning meanie. Willy cannot reach the platform on the left in Under The Roof that gains entry to this screen due to a death bug that prevents entry from the screen below. UNOBTAINABLE ITEM ■ Even if you manage to POKE your way into the Conservatory Roof, there’s another problem. An enemy closely guards the item on the far right, and Willy transfers to the next screen before he can collect it. Plus, that conveyor belt is actually unfinished. INVISIBLE – AND UNOBTAINABLE – ITEM ■ The First Landing will be familiar to even the most casual Jet Set Willy fans, and it nefariously contains an invisible item. Worse, this item is…

THE ATTIC ■ Home of the famous game-breaking bug that lurked inside the original 1984 release of Jet Set Willy. It also contains this impressive Pac-Man snake-type thing. THE BANYAN TREE ■ The room that, even today, causes nightmares in middle-aged gamers everywhere. The stumps of this room, coupled with its fast-moving enemies, make this a claustrophobic nightmare. ENTRANCE TO HADES ■ The product of Matthew Smith’s twisted sense of humour, the Entrance To Hades sits under the Security Guard screen. Anyone foolish enough to descend loses all their lives. THE NIGHTMARE ROOM ■ Few things give Willy worse nightmares than his housekeeper, Maria. In this dangerous room, he transforms into a non-flying flying pig and has to dodge multiple Marias. THE YACHT ■ Saunter past The Beach, and Willy…

■ Before The NewZealand Story was developed, the Taito programmer who worked on it had been toiling on another title – a remake of the 1980 coin-op Crazy Balloon. As you will have discovered from reading the main article, this version of the game was canned (“it is true that the game was not well-received,” says Kazutomo Ishida) but the code was put to good use as the basis for The NewZealand Story. Although this sequence of events has meant that the original code – and, therefore, the actual remade Crazy Balloon game – has been lost to time, we can still get a feel for how it would have played. Junior marketing manager Alice Brocca, who liaised with Taito alongside Derek Reeve for our insight into The NewZealand Story,…

Subbuteo and soft toys were the true starting points for one of the most loved football series in the history of gaming. “As a child I loved Subbuteo,” Jon Hare recounts about the vintage tabletop football game. “My father and grandfather used to play it together in the pub. Every day I would set the Subbuteo up on the floor and ask my dad to play. Sometimes he would say yes but sometimes he would understandably be too tired after work. And the real premise for Sensible Soccer was to not make someone have to do that; to make it so they could have someone to play against any time they wanted. Even earlier than that, the first-ever game I designed was three teddies versus three rabbits with a ping-pong…

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE COMMUNITY, MICHAEL? At the end of the Nineties a group of us at school would play Sensible World Of Soccer together nearly every week. After I started my IT education, my friend Redhair and I created a database and the sensiblesoccer.de website. Then around 2000, we found some other people online to join the project. The original goal was playing some offline tournaments, but when we started online play around 2005 the member count exploded. We now have seven divisions of the Amiga Super League, national leagues such as Polish and Italian leagues, and international cups. We play the Amiga, PC and Xbox versions. TELL US ABOUT THE ANNUAL SENSIBLE DAYS EVENT? Once a year we get together for a big in-person tournament…

» PC » 1996 » ID SOFTWARE My friend Mark is a big PC guy, he always has been. When I graduated from the Amstrad to the Master System, he stuck with home computers, eventually moving from an Atari ST to an IBM 486 which he proudly showed me running Doom. Id Software’s game blew me away, just as it did with everyone else that saw it, but the prohibitive cost of PCs at the time meant I had to wait a few more years for one of my own. I still liked PC gaming though, but my first encounter with Quake wasn’t a particularly enjoyable one. Mark and I had gone to one of his friend’s houses to do some multiplayer gaming and it was there that I learned…

TRIAL MOUNTAIN ■ Arguably the best track in the game, Trial Mountain provides some exciting verticality. Powerful cars can even soar into the air after hitting the bumps on the tree-lined back straight, leading to frantic brake mashing as you approach the hairpin at the bottom of the hill. AUTUMN RING ■ This fairly short course features some seriously tricky corners: in fact, at one point the track loops back upon itself via an overpass at the finale of a seemingly unending 270-degree turn. But its technical nature makes it ideal for cars that boast superior handling in favour of raw power. DEEP FOREST ■ Another fan favourite: along with Trial Mountain and Grand Valley Speedway, Deep Forest has appeared in almost every Gran Turismo game to date. The verdant…

■ Red Art Games is bringing three physical versions of Castle Of Shikigami 2 to the Switch, after the team seized the opportunity of exposing the beloved shooting game to more players. “As our catalogue shows, we love shoot-’em-ups,” enthuses Red Art Games communications manager Romain Mahut. “We also have deep respect for Japanese creators, and it is always an honour for us to work on famous Japanese franchises. Castle Of Shikigami 2 had a relatively confidential release on Western PS2s back in the day, and we felt that it deserved to come back. While we didn’t handle the digital publishing side of things, we believed that a brand-new physical release could help showcase the game.” Castle Of Shikigami 2 is available to preorder now from redartgames.com and the popular…

» System: Switch » Buy it for: £49.99 » Buy it from: Online, retail Captain Olimar is still stranded, but this time you’ll be creating your own rescuer to try to resolve his predicament. You’ll be employing your brilliant new rescue pup Oatchi and a variety of upgrades to tackle the gentle environmental puzzles, as well as using the abilities of the new Ice and Glow Pikmin – the latter of which are key to the night missions, which are essentially brief tower-defence interludes. The oversized environments also look great, without any of the performance problems that can sometimes trouble Switch games. Pikmin 4 is the best entry in the series, and is ideal for existing fans and series newcomers. >> Score 90%…

1ST LEVEL 1 – DAUNTING DUNGEONS <From the peaceful start, Frank descends into the Bat Cave and faces a giant spider, before collecting coloured gems and completing the first statue./> 1ST LEVEL 2 – TERROR IN TOWN <Porkville is burning and Frank must save the residents, dodging phoenixes before finding and loading a cannon to break down the door./> 3RD LEVEL 3 – THE ABBEY OF THE NOT-SO-DEAD <Giant trolls guard the path ahead, along with magical stone barriers removed by finding the matching gem, before entering the Catacombs below./> 12TH LEVEL 4 – THE MOUNTAIN OF MAD THINGS <There are miners to save in this level as Frank heads deeper underground and must use a boat to cross the very deadly rivers of fire./> 13TH LEVEL 5 – SEETHING…

Where some collectors choose the hobby, others stumble into it, and that’s certainly the case for Marc Chaggar. “I’ve never really stopped collecting since I got my first console – a Game Gear – in 1992. I’m a bit of a hoarder and so have never got rid of or sold anything,” he begins. Having been active for decades, he’s been able to take advantage of rock-bottom prices as they came along, telling us “my Master System I and II cost me £5 each, and my Saturn was about a tenner”. Though Marc considers himself a devout Sega and PC fan, he’s amassed quite a collection of Rare games. “I was obviously aware of Rare’s reputation despite not having any Nintendo systems during the Nineties, so when I picked up…

» PC » 2008 » EA REDWOOD SHORES I absolutely adore Dead Space. The original is one of my favourite survival horror games, while Dead Space: Extraction suggested an exciting direction for the lightgun genre that sadly never took off. I’m currently playing EA’s remake of Dead Space and it’s astonishing to think that it’s been over 15 years since I saw the reveal trailer for the original game. Instantly evoking memories of Event Horizon, along with the fast-paced kinetic action of Resident Evil 4, it had me immediately interested and I hungrily devoured anything Dead Space related, from its haunting Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star trailer to the official website’s engaging developer blog. I finally played Dead Space on PS3 and it didn’t disappoint. Wonderfully presented (there’s no HUD at…

= PLAY IT ON RARE REPLAY Rare has an incredibly diverse library of games, across a large number of different systems. In addition to the 60 you’ve already read about, here’s the rest of Rare’s library. As you can see, it’s quite extensive. TRANZ AM (ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro) 1983 LUNAR JETMAN (ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro) 1983 UNDERWURLDE (ZX Spectrum, C64) 1984 ENTOMBED (C64) 1984 COOKIE (ZX Spectrum) 1984 BLACKWYCHE (C64) 1985 NIGHTSHADE (Various) 1985 PENTAGRAM (ZX Spectrum, MSX) 1985 IMHOTEP (C64) 1986 OUTLAWS (C64) 1986 COSMIC BATTLEZONES (BBC Micro) 1986 DRAGONSKULLE (C64) 1986 BUBBLER (ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC) 1987 MARTIANOIDS (Various) 1987 ANTICIPATION (NES) 1988 JEOPARDY! (NES) 1988 WHEEL OF FORTUNE (NES) 1988 THE COLLECTED WORKS (ZX Spectrum) 1988 MARBLE MADNESS (NES) 1989 WORLD GAMES (NES) 1989 SESAME STREET…

Blaze has been one of the most consistently interesting players in the retro-gaming market in recent years, and it has recently announced plenty of new products. Most interesting are the two Super Pocket handheld consoles, to be released under the new Hyper Mega Tech! brand. The Capcom edition features 12 games including Strider, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting and Final Fight, while the Taito edition contains 17 games such as Bubble Bobble, Space Invaders and The NewZealand Story. Both are due for release in October, for £49 each. Andrew Byatt, CEO of Blaze Entertainment, says that the new systems were born from the company’s experience of working on the Evercade. “We have found that along this journey there is a large group of casual players that might want to experience…

When I was growing up, you kind of knew what a videogame was. I was born in 1971 – I know, I don’t look a day over 49 – and that first wave of games were all variations on a theme. Shoot something. Avoid something. Steer something. Admittedly, part of that easy-to-get simplicity was due to gaming’s arcade origins. You wouldn’t get, say, Civilization in an arcade. But as the technology evolved, and moved more into the home, so too did the concept of what a game could be. Before then, games were easier to pick up and play, if not always to master. I’ve always pined for that simplicity. Yes, if you look at today’s indie games there are plenty which harken back to that early purity of concept,…

While UK players began 2007 still waiting for an official PlayStation 3 launch, magazines were busy reviewing the first import releases. Insomniac’s first-person shooter Resistance: Fall Of Man took the top critical honours, though it wasn’t universally acclaimed. Play noted that “the clever array of weapons makes for some outstanding gameplay” and awarded the game 83%, but warned that “there are very few times that you’re truly wowed”, and “it’ll be eclipsed fairly swiftly”. Next3 felt it to be “fast-paced, consistent and entertaining” and gave it 8/10, while Edge gave it 7/10, enjoying the “pump-action pornography” of the weapons but lamenting the distance between checkpoints that “can make you bleed enthusiasm”. Less impressed was games™ which described the game as “unfair tough” and “vastly inferior to a five-year-old Xbox game” in…

» ATARI 2600 » 1984 » ACTIVISION While it’s now known for its yearly Call Of Duty, Activision was once a beehive for diverse, inventive games. Thanks to the likes of David Crane, Steve Cartwright, Garry Kitchen and many others, Activision’s games often stood out on Atari’s 8-bit console and would often surpass Atari’s own releases. While I’ve mentioned the games of David Crane and Steve Cartwright several times in the past, I wanted to mention a real hero of mine: Jon Van Ryzin, who only produced two games for Atari’s system, but both were absolute belters. While Cosmic Commuter deserves its own coverage within these pages, it’s HERO which left the biggest impression on me at the time. Standing for Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation, HERO has you exploring the…

WIZARDS & WARRIORS ■ The platforming in Rare’s mediaeval-themed NES adventure brings to mind Underwurlde, but its gameplay is deeper, thanks to power-ups, boss fights and lock-and-key puzzles. It’s a little like a coin-op, in that while foes constantly drain your energy bar you have unlimited continues. RC PRO-AM ■ The first in a popular series, the objective of RC Pro-Am is to race radio-controlled vehicles along overhead, isometric courses. Its AI drivers provide you with stiff competition, but the game’s long-term appeal comes from the upgrades and weapons that you find on its tracks. BATTLETOADS ■ Designed by Rare to take the fight to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Battletoads has its share of platforming, but also a beat-’em-up element and tests of agility. Rare’s NES classic is famous…

Nowadays, acquisitions of big developers seems like a regular occurrence, whether it’s Microsoft buying Activision for $68.7 billion or Sony buying Bungie for $3.6 billion. In comparison, Microsoft’s purchase of Rare in 2002 for $365 million ($613 million in today’s money) almost seems quaint, but it was a massive deal at the time that sent shock waves through the games industry, as Craig Duncan, Rare’s current studio head, recalls. “I wasn’t at Rare at the time, I was actually running some projects for Codemasters,” he says. “But to me, it was a big statement of intent about Xbox and Microsoft. Like it was, OK, you’re going to acquire one of the most-renowned, well-respected developers in the industry. Just to do that was a bold move. I think it made the…

■ When we were casually asking the team about their favourite Rare games, Christina McGrath, who has now worked at Rare for four years, was quick to point out Rare’s passionate fanbase. “Everyone holds a piece of Rare so closely and dearly in their hearts,” she begins. “I think, certainly for our audiences now, it’s such a formative part of them growing up that it’s not just a game, it’s part of their culture, how they grew up, their lifestyle, those formative years – it means so much more than just a piece of media they once consumed. It’s buried right deep in there.” Christina and her team have built up quite the community for games like Sea Of Thieves and while she’s proud of the community she’s built up…

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JET SET WILLY 16K BY JONATHAN CAULDWELL ■ This is a much pared-down version of Jet Set Willy, albeit with the same memorable gameplay. There’s no sound, fewer enemies and screens, but crucially this makes the game much more accessible, especially for newcomers to the genre. The Banyan Tree is still a pain, however. MARIA VS SOME BASTARDS BY VIDAR ERIKSEN ■ This cracking mod from 2003 hugely modifies the original game graphically. There’s a roaring fire and a mansion full of fresh meanies, including Willy’s arch-enemy, Eugene, from Manic Miner. Superb, but be warned: it’s just as hard, if not harder, than the original! JET SET WILLY 5: ZX HEROES BY IGOR MAKOVSKY ■ This crack uses John Elliott’s adapted 128K engine of Jet Set Willy, and is a…

New Zealand is a lush green country that once put The Hobbit on its national currency. It’s a nation that allows every school to hold a pound of uranium and one that recognises sheep shearing as a sport. It also has the kiwi bird as its national symbol – a flightless species plastered on the side of its military jets. Yet none of that is as bizarre as The NewZealand Story, a violent, mazey run-and-gun platformer that just happens to be stuffed to the brim with cutesy characters. Released in the arcades by Taito in 1988, the game formed part of the developer’s second golden age alongside the likes of Bubble Bobble and Arkanoid. The main character was a kiwi called Tiki whose pals and girlfriend Phee-Phee happened to have…

■ In 2022 Taito released Taito Milestones, a compilation consisting of ten classic arcade games, all coded by the technical wizards at Hamster Corporation. Taito has recently released Taito Milestones 2, which contains another ten titles: The NewZealand Story, Kiki KaiKai, Darius II, Metal Black, Gun Frontier, Ben Bero Beh, Solitary Fighter, The Legend Of Kage, Liquid Kids and Dinorex. It’s available digitally on contemporary systems and there’s a physical release courtesy of ININ Games. Hamster’s president Rin Hamada tells us a little more about the new compilation. HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHAT GAMES WILL FEATURE ON THE COLLECTION? We came up with a rule with the previous Milestone instalment where the first of seven titles would be currently available through Arcade Archives, and three would be newly ported titles,…

WHAT WAS YOUR ROLE ON SENSIBLE WORLD OF SOCCER? I was brought in to add extra graphics to the game. The updated design had provision for crowd graphics at both ends of the pitch plus menu updates; the remaining game art was all Jon Hare. We continued to use the same in-game graphics as the original and we used a palette remapping algorithm that re-coloured the sprites in support of the varying kit options. I added crowd tiles which used the same palette as the players to reflect the respective team colours. That was tricky but turned out OK. It was really satisfying when Chris Chapman got these changes in the game, seeing the crowd change colour! I was over the moon. HOW DID THE GRAPHICS CHANGE IN THE 95 AND 96 UPDATES? I…

“GRAN TURISMO MADE YOU PASS A DRIVING TEST BEFORE IT WOULD LET YOU RACE IN EVEN ITS LOWLIEST OF TOURNAMENTS” We all thought it was photorealistic at the time. On its release in 1997, Gran Turismo shot the racing genre into a higher echelon of fidelity, with incredibly detailed cars and super-smooth replays that seemed almost indistinguishable from watching motor racing on the TV. Well, at least that’s what we thought in 1997. Looking back now, graphics that were once deemed photorealistic are a lot more pixelly than they appear in our collective memory. But in the context of the time, they were revolutionary. Arcade racers like Daytona USA and Ridge Racer had wowed players with their flashy 3D polygon graphics in the early Nineties, which were light years ahead…

KONAMI GB COLLECTION VOL 1 JPN ➧ EUR Japan ➧ Europe KONAMI GB COLLECTION VOL 1 Departing: 1997 FORMAT Game Boy ■ DEVELOPER TOSE/Future Creates ■ YEAR 1998 ■ ORIGIN Japan ■ LOCALISED FOR Europe ■ REASONS Commercial ■ ECONOMY ■ If there’s one thing we love, that would be a surprisingly low number of things to love. We’re definitely fond of a good compilation though – when everything goes well, players get a bundle of games at a bargain price and developers get to wring a bit more cash out of their hard work. In its original Japanese form, Konami GB Collection brings together four past Game Boy releases – Nemesis (renamed to Gradius), Akumajou Dracula, F-1 Spirit (renamed Konami Racing) and Contra. Each game remains in greyscale though…

» System: PC » Buy it for: £6.69, £16.60 (4 pack) » Buy it from: steampowered.com/gog.com Hellfire, along with Slap Fight and Fire Shark, is the final game in Bitwave Games’ latest selection of Toaplan shooters and it’s another banger. It’s a challenging shooter, but one with an inventive mechanic, as your ship can fire lasers from four different configurations and you’ll need to use them all to get through Toaplan’s hard-as-nails game. The lack of any console variants is still disappointing to see, but the sheer wealth of tweakable options and customisation available is hard to ignore. As with Flying Shark, if you don’t own M2’s recent Shottriggers version, this is the best (and cheapest) way to officially experience the game. >> Score 86%…

<Amiga: Jotd’s latest arcade ports to 68000 include Galaxian, Xevious and Pengo. Try them at jotd666.itch.io /> <Amstrad CPC: Roland Goes Demining in this Minesweeper clone from SagaDS. Dig for it by visiting bit.ly/rgd-cpc /> <Atari 2600: Imagine Metroid for the VCS and that’s what Mathan Games have created with Xanthiom. Explore it at bit.ly/xanthiom-2600 /> <BBC Micro: Shaun Lindsley has converted the Llamasoft classic Laser Zone. It’s available at bit.ly/laserzone-bbc /> <MSX: Important news – the GOTO40 celebration in December has changed venue, to t’Zonnehuis in Amsterdam. There’s more info at bit.ly/msx40-location /> <NES: Preorders are open for Sam’s Journey, with merchandise including vinyl and a themed controller from poly.play. Order it now by visiting bit.ly/samsjourney-preorder /> <PET: Recent PET games include Jimbo’s PETSCII Kong (top, requires 32K) at bit.ly/petscii-kong…

THE COVER STAR BANJO-KAZOOIE The bear and bird are central to our Rare cover, and the good news is their first adventure is eminently affordable. Loose PAL cartridges can be had for as little as £5, with complete copies starting at around £20. It’s also included in Rare Replay for Xbox consoles. JET SET WILLY Whether you want this 8-bit classic for ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 or Amstrad CPC, you shouldn’t be paying much. All three versions can sell for under £5, and that’s with postage included. Just remember to check that the tapes have been tested. THE NEWZEALAND STORY This one’s pretty cheep, coming in as little as 99p before postage on home-computer formats. The NewZealand Story Revolution for DS goes as low as £5. The Mega Drive release…

STAR LETTER WISDOM OF YOUTH Good morning Retro Gamer, I’m just taking a break from fencing, decking and horticultural duties (I’m a primary teacher on summer holidays… the work never really stops!) and thought I’d drop you a line. During a lesson towards the back end of last term I used a clip from the beloved Mario 64 in a lesson identifying 3D shapes (the kids having to spot as many as they could within Bobomb Battlefield). This opened up a conversation, not just about properties of shape, but retro gaming. What occurred to us, aside from the usual comparisons about advances in presentation, was just how aware the children were of the ‘purity’ of retro titles (discovered through emulators and digital stores). This time before XP, character skinning, endless…