Shot97 Retro

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles NES, 1989 Konami/Ultra $43.95 *My video review for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles *Next article *Previous article *Alphabetical list of writings "Did you beat the swimming level? I beat the swimming level! Isn't driving around in the Turtle Van cool?" The schoolyard banter of some tiny, but surprisingly capable, gamers. Seemed like everyone you knew with a Nintendo Entertainment System had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) in their arsenal of cartridges. In fact, it ranks as the eleventh best selling NES game, with four million units sold. Yet today many would have you believe it was an awful game that nobody liked, and nobody could get too far into. As is often the case with these tall tales designed for humor, a small amount of truth gets distorted, consumed by those who had little experience with said topic, and morphs itself into a perceived reality.  ^Whom will you choose? Guess what? You can play as any of them thr...

SimAnt Amiga, 1992*(N1) Maxis $59.95 *My video review for SimAnt *Next article *Previous article *Alphabetical list of writings *Game designed and best seen in NTSC mode with 4:3 aspect ratio *(N1) Despite 1991 copyright, all research points to 1992 release All of my retained knowledge on ants I owe exclusively to SimAnt. Not even school was as good a teacher on the subject as this 1992 Maxis title. It was the third in the "Sim" line of games. After SimCity and SimEarth, most were thinking universe for the next incarnation, instead it would come on the macro level. Originally designed on the Macintosh, ports to DOS, Windows 3, and the Amiga soon followed. 1993 would even see a console port on the Super Nintendo, albeit in a different form. ^Starting our brood Despite being a part of a franchise, where you have a high risk of being formulaic, SimAnt would become something truly unique. Plopped at the far side of a suburban backyard, you start the g...

Lemmings DMA Design/Psygnosis Amiga, 1991 $44.99 *My video review for Lemmings *Next article *Previous article *Alphabetical list of writings *Full soundtrack recorded from my Amiga *Game designed in PAL mode, is NTSC compatible If somehow you're coming to this one for the first time, prepare yourself for cries of "Oh no!" invading your sleep. Lemmings is an absolute classic, recognized as such from day one and still rightly holding to a claim as one of the greatest games of all time. Computer Gaming World recognized it as such, naming it the twelfth best game in a field of one hundred and fifty, as well as the fourteenth funniest game of all time. Quite high standing for a game where the original goal was simply to make the smallest and most realistic walking animation that was possible. Our heroes are but eight by eight pixels of realistic walking animation, small shoes that few other games could ever fill. ^Games introduction takes up most of ...

DuckTales Capcom/Disney 1989  Nintendo Entertainment System *My video review for DuckTales *Next article *Previous article *Alphabetical list of writings *Full soundtrack recorded from my NES *Friend Gaming Jay's 1st look Certain games can get stuck in your head in a similar way to a song. You see the game, maybe only a tiny portion of it, but you know almost instantaneously that you're not getting it out of your head for the next week. If you add into that game a number of songs that also inscribe themselves into your mind, and you'll have a game you'll both be thinking of playing as well as humming the songs of at all manor of inappropriate times. The blame for getting me to think about this game often enough that only reviewing it might help ease my troubled retro gaming mind, was a Gaming Jay  video  where he was trying it out for the first time. DuckTales had that effect on me back in the day as well. Seeing the show might get that theme s...