Category Archives: retro gaming

Tetriminos keep falling on my head!

gameboy, nintendo, retro gaming, video games

I was hoping to have written this post earlier, particularly on the release day of the movie.

However I made a decision that I wanted to watch the Tetris movie with Nathan. Which was after the release. That plan fell apart when at Nath’s he had no interest in watching the movie.

My first memories of playing Tetris go all the way back to when it was released on the Atari ST in 1987. I remember playing it whilst down in Brighton and it would have been after I finished Dungeon Master on my heavily upgraded Atari 520STFM (I upgraded the internal drive to 1.44MB, the memory was also increased to 1MB).

But the ST wasn’t the only version I played back then. Two or three times my friends and I played it head to head on the arcade version. All I remember is I got my butt kicked every time.

However Tetris really got it’s teeth into me the next time I owned it.

Like millions of others I got a copy of Tetris when they purchased a Nintendo GameBoy. That was the best bit of business Nintendo ever did. For many all the GameBoy was was a portable Tetris player.

Tetris was one of the games I played a lot of on the GameBoy. Before I eventually moved on to the likes of Zelda Links Awakening, Super Mario Land or Donkey Kong, the most lines I completed before dying was over 111 lines.

Probably as iconic as the game itself was its Type A theme music by Hirokazu Tanaka. Even now as I type this post that tune is playing in my head.

How Tetris ended up on the Nintendo systems at the time is what the Tetris movie is all about. At the time I was oblivious to all those happenings.

It wasn’t until I got a cover mounted extract of the classic book on video game history Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World by David Sheff that I became aware of the surrounding events.

So we are looking at over ten years after the events I was finally reading the story of how Nintendo got their hands on the rights to the console version of Tetris.

I think I’ve owned Tetris on every Nintendo handheld I’ve owned.

But we need a board game link here for this blog to.

Funny enough I think it’s had an impact on board games. If only to give designers the Tetrimino. Think Patch Work, Cottage Garden, Blokus.

Blokus has been a game I’ve wanted to try for a long time. But not one of those “I really got to play this” games. More a “it’d be nice to try this sometime” game.

The only thing this game has in common with Tetris though is the use of tetriminos.

I enjoyed the two player version I played. The games were quick, fun, and puzzley. And I wouldn’t mind a copy to play with Nath. Yes that’s how much I like it. Maybe if I see a copy at UKGE at the start of next month I’ll buy it.

The roll and write wing of my collection has a roll and write based on Tetris called Brikks. Sadly it’s a game that still sits in that pile of shame. I need to rectify that. It promises to be the game that most captures the feel of the video game on the tabletop.

The Tetris movie starring Taron Egerton isn’t the first “movie” about the game there have been one or two documentaries. Probably the most famous of which is the Ecstasy of Order about competitive players of the game. Which if I remember correctly (I watched it years ago) was very captivating, and interesting.

Egerton plays Henk Rogers and his performance is very good. As is the rest of the supporting cast of this movie.

This movie is obviously a dramatisation of the events that took place. Much in the vein of The Social Network (which I love) and Micro Men (which I also love). For me this movie also has a lot in common with biopics such as The Buddy Holly Story, The Doors, Walk the Line, and yes Rocketman!

I think it was Mark Kermode who once said it’s all about how these movies manage those magic moments in the subjects story such when The Doors came up with Light My Fire. Tetris the movie has those moments such as when Rogers is first shown the GameBoy and shows Tetris on it to the engineers.

I love the 8-bit retro look for the brief animated cut aways used through out the movie.

This is a great dramatisation. I really like it. It’s entertaining and manages to appeal to none gamers as well. Who knew the story behind Tetris coming to probably the worlds favourite handheld was so full of drama and intrigue?

A must watch.

“Hey, not too rough” #8

Doom, fps, nintendo, retro gaming, switch, video games

You can find all my previous posts in this project here if you are interested or need to catch up for some reason.

I really do find it shocking that I’ve written so much about this game. Or I haven’t really the game has acted as catalyst to talk about other stuff related to the game.

I’m hoping those that read these posts are enjoying them.

“Chop, chop, chop, a perfect killing machine” Alice Cooper, Chop, chop,chop

E2M7 Spawning Vats

There is a kind of xylophone flurry (I’m not a musician so don’t know the correct way to describe this) with the music as I start this level that catches me by surprise. At first I thought it was coming from the tv and the program I’m watching. It’s almost light, and whimsical. An interesting contrast to the slaughter taking place. I really like this change in tone. A quick google tells me this bit of music is called Waltz of the Demons.

I’ve not really talked about the music. Let’s face it you aren’t playing the game for its soundtrack. However only a fool would dismiss the importance of it.

The music can help set the tone, adds atmosphere, and can build tension.

A lot of the music in Doom is influenced by metal. It reflects the music tastes of the two Johns and the fast paced, peddle to the metal (pun intended) action of Doom itself. It’s as if the two were made for each other.

Which makes these more atmospheric pieces more impactful within the game for me.

I have to admit I’d love to have soundtrack on CD. But my Google skills are letting me down on this one.

E2M8 Tower of Babel

When a level starts by giving you a room full of boxes of rockets. You know nothing good is about to happen. And whatever it is you just might need lots of rockets to take it down.

I’m also not slow in picking up an earlier hint of something bad was on this level. Mutilated barons of hell hanging on doors is a pretty big clue something bigger and badder is ahead.

It’s time to meet the Cyberdemon. A monstrosity of hell that fires rockets. Whose metallic thuds as he stomps around the level are your clue of his whereabouts when you can’t see him.

Fire, run, hide. Repeat. Are the tactics of the hour.

I’m not counting the number of rockets I’ve fired in the general direction of the Cyberdemon. But it’s a lot. I’m having to resupply.

Eventually my final salvo of rockets brings the Cyberdemon to its knees.

Onwards to Hell itself…

Inferno

The third and final scenario of the series. I’m coming to the end of my original journey.

Although there are similarities to the last time I completed Doom up in County Durham. There is very little in common with the very first time I played the game.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then. A tired cliche for sure. But apt. A lot of life has happened over the thirty years since.

I’ve grown a lot. Something my ex-wife would probably disagree with. I am almost a different person.

Looking back I hardly recognise the person I was back in the early nineties.

I’m still trying to handle Dad’s death five years earlier. I don’t know it, or more likely not really acknowledging the signs that I’m depressed.

My only friends are work colleagues who I never socialised with, except on the odd pub crawl that the engineers had once in a while.

Being brutally honest I was a bit (understatement) of a dick back then too. Yeah a much bigger one than I am now. How much was fallout from Dad dying? It had to be some of it. But to be fair I was a dick before that (I owe a lot of people in my past apologies).

A lot of the stuff we did at work is now unacceptable and would have got all of us fired. It can’t just be dismissed as things were different then.

Thankfully the world was changing for the better around us.

Yes I’m ashamed of the person I was back then. I’m glad they no longer exist.

E3M1 Hell Keep

“I went down, down, down and the flames went higher” Johnny Cash, Ring of Fire

Thrown into the deep end against a couple of imps, and a cacodemon! All I have is my fists and a pistol. The fight hardly seems fair.

E3M2 Slough of Despair

I remember this level. Not the details. But the labyrinth of columns with marines, imps, cacodemons, and lost souls round every corner. Or it feels that way. Running around desperate for ammo of any kind.

The level makes very little sense until you look at the level map. It’s a hand!

Somehow I get through the level with the minimum of ammo. It’s a modern day miracle.

E3M3 Pandemonium

Wow some of the imagery on this level falls into dark shit.

There is no doubt where we are.

E3M4 House of Pain

I have a BFG!

Maybe I’d of gotten this weapon earlier if my secret room finding skills were better. I’ll never know unless I get better at finding those hidden rooms.

It one shots the baron of hell I release when I open the door to a room next to where I found the bfg.

Now I just need to make sure I keep it fuelled up ready for moments like this.

Onto the next level…

“Hey, not too rough” #7

Doom, fps, nintendo, retro gaming, switch, video games

You can find all my previous posts in this project here if you are interested or need to catch up for some reason. I’ve written a lot of words now about the game so would totally understand you wanting to skip them.

Ok with that bit of housekeeping out the way it’s time to continue this meandering journey through playing Doom on the Nintendo Switch, it’s boardgame appearances, and some brief reflection.

E2M4 Deimos Lab

These later levels are certainly harder. I’m dying more often. Having to utilise the ol’ save game regularly tactic.

“Day and night, baby, night and day
All hell’s breakin’ loose” All hell’s breakin’ loose, KISS

Cacodemons are more frequent, as are Lost Souls. It’s not just the odd one, but groups of three or more. Last seen at the end of Knee Deep, Barons of Hell are now making a more regular appearance on a level.

Demons are being thrown at me in even bigger quantities. Portals are more frequent as a means to move around the map.

E2M5 Command Centre

The decor of the base is starting to get more corrupt and horrific. Evidence as if we needed it that hell was escaping into our world.

I love how a large carving of the Baron of Hell’s head in the walls foreshadows (or should that be warn?) of the immediate appearance of said being.

E2M6 Halls of the Damned

Getting my hands on a 2016 edition of Doom the board game was more eventful than it should have been.

The online retailer Boardgameguru had a copy which I ordered over a weekend. I knew they would not be sending the game straight away. They were at the end of a warehouse move.

Communication from the company said they would be business as normal that Monday.

I thought allow them a day or two to catch up with any orders. I should with a fair wind have the game by the following weekend.

However it did not arrive.

Another week passes and nothing.

So the following week I sent an email asking for an update. I was greeted by a wall of silence. Well no reply. A couple of days later I sent a follow up email. Still nothing. Not even tumble weed.

But that Friday afternoon I got a marketing email from them.

That infuriated me. It got my hackles up.

I replied to the marketing email with a blunt angry response.

Third time a charm. There was a reply this time.

Allegedly they are were unable to find any trace of my emails.

Apparently in the warehouse move they missed my order, and lost the only copy of the game!

I was given the option to wait for another copy to arrive (not likely for a seven year old game that is basically out of print) or have a refund.

I went the refund route.

But even that took a while to acknowledge. However eventually they did and a refund was issued.

While I was waiting for the refund to be done I posted on a boardgaming Facebook group looking for a second hand copy.

I got lucky. Within minutes some-one I had bought from before had a copy they were happy to sell to me.

That copy arrived whilst I was visiting Nathan.

Now I just need to get this edition to the table.

Another rarity I finished this level with 100% across the board.

This was a hard level. At times I just wanted to get to the exit.

But in doing so somehow I ended up finding and killing everything.

“Hey, not too rough” #3

Doom, fps, nintendo, retro gaming, switch, video games

Welcome back to my dramatic play through of Doom the video game on the Nintendo Switch.

You can find all my previous posts in this project here if you are interested or need to catch up for some reason.

Knee-Deep in the Dead

I don’t think over the numerous times I’ve played Doom I’ve ever played it on anything but “Hurt me plenty”.

There might have been one occasion when I tried “Ultra-Violence” out of curiosity. But I quickly returned to the comfort of “Hurt me plenty”!

For me “Hurt me plenty” offers the perfect mix of difficulty and challenge.

But I’m older now.

Will this difficulty level still be that perfect mix. How will age have affected my reactions?

The other choice is whether to go to the dark side and use any of the available cheats.

Cheats that are made easily accessible from the pause menu.

Thinking back I’m pretty sure back in those early days of playing Doom for the first time I was aware of the cheat codes you had to enter to get one or two of those power ups. Memory fails me as to how I knew about them. It was either from a gaming magazine or a player guide at the time. Not knowing for sure which it was will haunt me. It will eat away until my mind convinces me that I had the player guide. I think it was a player guide, a small pocket one that was once on the cover of one of the magazines at the time. Just not that fancy official one.

I’m not going to succumb to the dark side. I don’t need cheats to be with my old friend.

I press start, and select almost without thinking “Hurt me plenty” and “Knee-deep in the dead”. It’s almost second nature. Muscle memory.

E1M1 Hangar

The screen fades away…

“Hello darkness, my old friend” Sound of Silence, Paul Simon

Within moments an alien corpse, and a barrel lie in front of me. A view that has greeted me countless times.

“And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains” Sound of Silence, Paul Simon

It seems strange that I can remember this first level along with the next two perfectly. The remaining levels I remember but not in as much detail.

I pick up the stat bonuses lying around the room and it’s connecting chamber. I take the chance to look out the window onto the Martian landscape and the beckoning “courtyard” promising a reward if I can get there.

After opening the first door I need to take out the marines in the next room with the pistol I’m armed with. I pick them off at a distance. Dodging any bullets they manage to fire off in reply before dying.

I need to take a raised path through acid pools that has an imp firing fireballs at me from a ledge at the far end of the room, and a marine charging towards me.

I dodge the fireballs and take out the marine, and then the imp.

It’s now safe to cross the room and take the secret exit outside to collect that promised reward.

Back indoors I open the door and take out the awaiting imps before they can land a fireball on me. I press the button to lower the platform the imp was on in the previous room.

Back tracking to the previous room I can now get the spoils revealed by the lowered platform. I have the shotgun.

Returning to the other room I press the button to open the exit and trigger the end of the level.

Still after all these years I only get a 66% complete on the secrets. There is one secret room I always miss. You’d think after all this time I’d be getting 100% and remember where that remaining secret room is.

E1M2 Nuclear Plant

The door opens and I have a room full of marines to clear.

I shoot the barrels. It’s a cliche decades later. But I still shoot the conveniently placed barrels in the room to help reduce the number of marines I need to shoot.

After I clear the room of threats I find the secret room before taking the stairs.

I like the way you can look out side and see tantalising power ups or cool weapons like the chainsaw sitting seemingly unreachable on top of pillars. Usually guarded by numerous enemies that you will have to fight through to get them. The hard part? Finding the secret door to allow you outside.

On reflection I think this is my favourite level of Doom. I get a lot of satisfaction playing it. Whether it’s the level design itself, or just the way it makes me feel. Maybe it’s the familiarity. I just find the level so comforting and enjoyable.

With the chainsaw in my weapons inventory it’s time to move onto another great bit of level design.

E1M3 Toxin Refinery

After blasting the marines that were waiting for me after I opened the door I head to the left and the only door I can open.

This first part of the level introduces the pinkish coloured demon. But before I get to meet this new hellish adversary I have to fight through a classic bit of game design that sees me grabbing a blue key card, the room going dark, and imps appearing en masse from secret rooms.

Doom isn’t one of those games you can play in silence.

The audio design is just as important as any of the visual clues.

For example on this level as you enter the passage way leading to one area you trigger a secret door opening. But your only clue this is happening is the audio of the door opening and closing in the distance.

Unless you run, you can’t get to the open door in time to get the revealed secret room.

But other audio clues you get are the almost grunting like noise the imps make. Often that’s the first clue you get that somewhere in front (or behind) of you awaits a fire ball.

“Set the demons free and watch ’em fly” KISS, War Machine

I love the level design in Doom. From the moment you start the game in E1M1 Hangar, where you are introduced to some elements of the game such as the use of height, lighting, lifts/platforms that go up and down. Which historically tell you this ain’t no Wolfenstein 3D.

Each level introduces some new hellish enemy, some new mechanic. It’s almost a gentle introduction that culminates in the later more complicated and deadly levels.

During the week it strikes me I played Doom on one platform I’d forgotten about.

I think describing it as played is a bit misleading. I had a play around with the Doom piano.

Me as the Fist of Awesome bear playing the Doom piano.

The Doom piano was this incredible project where a real piano had been converted to play Doom. Pressing the keys on the piano controlled what happened you did in game.

I think it was the Eurogamer expo or something like that down in London circa 2013/14 when I helped promote a video game called Fist of Awesome by being dressed up in a bear outfit.

Throughout the weekend folks could have a photo taken fake punching me the bear. Which was then shared on social media promoting the game.

Oh the game was a retro style side scrolling beat ‘em up in the style of Streets of Rage, where as a lumberjack you fought against the ruling bears!

It was a great weekend. I met some awesome developers. Plus I got to play around on the Doom piano.

For the first time in the game I have a decision to make that effects the path I take through the game. Press the button in front of me or track back and press the other one. If my memory isn’t letting me down I haven’t back tracked to the other button in a long long time.

I know the buttons take me to different levels. But which ones I can’t remember. Like so many times before I press the button in front of me instead of back tracking to the other one.

Onto the next level…

A retro video game project started

gameboy, retro gaming

Merry Christmas.

I hope everyone got everything they asked Santa for.

This post isn’t board gaming related at all. It’s about a little “project” I’ve decided to do that sees me jumping into a time machine and revisiting my younger years and video gaming history.

It all started Tuesday when I saw on social media somewhere (most likely Twitter) some art work related to the video game Nebulus from Hewson Consultants.

Now I’m old enough to remember it coming out originally and playing it in the eighties in its 8bit form. But I had a vague impression that it got released on home consoles that included the Nintendo GameBoy. It was probably an old Retro Gamer I was remembering.

As always a couple of minutes on Google and Wikipedia confirmed that there had indeed been a version for the GameBoy. But it had been renamed Castelian for some reason.

Five minutes later a Castelian cartridge had been purchased on eBay. Which means it’ll be with me most likely in the New Year. If I’m lucky before then.

I thought wouldn’t it be cool to revisit some of the old GameBoy games I own while I was waiting for Castelian to arrive.

Finding my old games was the easy bit. The hard bit was remembering where my handheld consoles were. Eventually I found them after some digging around. I even managed to find the correct chargers!

While I put my GameBoy Advance SP (GBA SP) on charge, along with my 3DS lite I sorted through my games collection to select a handful of games to play (see photo below).

I don’t know why I didn’t think of doing this earlier in the year. I could have been playing these during the lockdown.

As I was going through my GameBoy collection I could swear I had Robocop for it. But it was not to be found. Maybe my mind and poor memory were playing tricks on me.

But another visit to eBay saw a GameBoy version of Robocop on its way to me.

Christmas Eve afternoon saw me fire up my GBA SP with Tetris for the GameBoy plugged into the cartridge slot.

Tetris was bundled with the original GameBoy back in the day. It was a classic combo that sold insane numbers. There is an amazing chapter in the book Game Over by David Sheff that goes over the saga of how Nintendo got the license for Tetris and teamed it up with the GameBoy.

For many it was the only game they played on the GameBoy. It was a portable Tetris player.

For me GameBoy Tetris is the definitive version and the yardstick later versions are judged against.

It’s easily been a decade since I’ve played this version. So to clear 75 lines on my first attempt wasn’t too bad for this aging player. My next couple of games I was in the eighties for lines cleared. Back in my younger days I had reached over 120 lines. But that’s with the tetrominos falling at a silly speed.

The music for Tetris on the GameBoy by Hirokazu Tanakais is still iconic and catchy as ever.

While this “project” is going on Tetris is going to be a game I keep coming back to for a break.

Another classic on the GameBoy is Donkey Kong.

Like so many games (and this will be a recurring theme during this “project”) I never completed the game but got pretty far into it.

I like Donkey Kong. It’s an interesting take on the arcade classic.

Donkey Kong starts off with the four levels from the arcade original. And to be honest if they had just recreated the arcade game I would have been happy. But they didn’t.

After you complete the fourth level you start to work through 97 new levels! However although the over all aim is still to rescue Pauline, on each level you now have to collect a key to open the door to advance to the next level. These new levels remind me more of old Spectrum and C64 platformers like Manic Miner or Chuckie Egg.

A nice touch is the ability to save your progress at regular intervals. It aids progressing through the game.

It took a couple attempts before I was sailing through the classic arcade levels without losing a life. It’s amazing how even after all these years it all comes back to you. But the game is still a joy to play.

I’ll write some more on Donkey Kong in the next post about this “project” as I progress through more of the levels.

Until then stay safe.