Archive for the ‘Retro Games’ Category
Retro Review: Side Pocket (Genesis / Mega Drive)
Posted by Dimitri | Filed under Retro Games
This was one of the many pool games available back in the 90’s, released for almost every platform, ranging from the Arcade to the Game Boy. All Side Pocket versions were different in terms of graphics and music, however, the gameplay remained almost the same across the different gaming platforms. As one of the major 16 bit consoles at the time, the Genesis also received a version of this game, which is going to be the one this post is reviewing.
This isn’t your standard billiards game. In fact, Side Pocket‘s main mode called Pocket Game has its own rules, that are nothing like 9-ball, 8-ball, snooker or any other pool game played in real life.
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Retro Review: Hauting Starring Polterguy (Genesis)
Posted by Dimitri | Filed under Featured, Retro Games
This game was released back in 1993 for the Sega Genesis. The game features a very unique premise: to scare a family out of their home. As the title states, it’s a “haunting” game, in which the player takes control of a ghost named Polterguy that has the ability to manipulate ordinary objects like chairs, bathtubs and other furniture to generate poltergeist events.
The exact reasons why Polterguy needs to make the Sardini family leave their home are not explained at any point of the game, the introductory animation only describes each member of the family as people that deserve to be hated: Vito, the father, is rich and has a MBA in “sleazy economics”; Flo, the mother, is a selfish housewife that likes to spend money and the kids; Tony and Mimi are just annoying spoiled children. At the beginning of the game, they are all eating at the dinning room when the chandelier falls right into the table where the Sardini was gathered. After a brief tutorial that explains the game’s basics, the player takes control of Polterguy.
Continue reading: “Retro Review: Hauting Starring Polterguy (Genesis)”
Retro Review: Beyond Oasis (Genesis)
Posted by Dimitri | Filed under Retro Games
Beyond Oasis is a Genesis (Mega Drive) game released in 1995 on the U.S.. It is a ‘RPG’ with very unusual gameplay mechanics for a game in this genre. As most RPGs, it starts with a backdrop story, showing Ali (the game’s main character) finding the Gold Armlet inside a cave. Then, it is explained that this armlet was used as a power source to fuel the magic of a sorcerer that defended the Kingdom of Oasis in a war against another powerful wizard that almost destroyed the entire land.
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Revisiting ‘Star Wars: Dark Forces’ with DarkXL
Posted by Dimitri | Filed under Retro Games
The original Star Wars: Dark Forces was released back in 1995. The game is a FPS that takes place in the universe created by the Star Wars saga. It had long levels and impressive cinematic sequences for its time, good graphics and also featured awesome music and sound effects. In short, it has a great replay value, so after almost 16 years, why not play it (again)? Since this is a DOS game, you will need to use a emulator to play it, such as DOSBox. The game works fine with the emulator.
Running the game at an emulated environment is not exactly a bad thing, but what if you could execute Dark Forces natively on Windows, at higher resolutions and with other improvements? That’s why there is DarkXL, an application that does exactly that, created by the talented Lucius. As explained on the DarkXL website: Continue reading: “Revisiting ‘Star Wars: Dark Forces’ with DarkXL”
Retro Review: Vectorman (Genesis)
Posted by Dimitri | Filed under Featured, Retro Games
Vectorman was released back in 1995 for the Sega Genesis. Right from the start, the game shows that it is going to offer a different experience to the player.
Even before the game starts, it is possible to control Vectorman at the “Sega” logo screen, where you can find some of the game’s Easter eggs and input cheat codes. Continue reading: “Retro Review: Vectorman (Genesis)”