I spent many hours playing Goldeneye with my housemates back in the day. For the first time we had an amazing first person multiplayer shooter console experience, it was way ahead of everything else. Friendships were lost, arguments were settled and lectures were occasionally missed. The game was incredible and became synonymous with that part of my life.
I was very excited to attend an evening at The Centre for Computing History in Cambridge celebrating 25 years of the classic N64 game. A talk was given by some of the original development team, Martin Hollis, Dr. David Doak and Brett Jones.
It was a fascinating insight into the game’s development with loads of interesting snippets. I was intrigued to hear Virtua Cop was a strong influence and that one of the original concept ideas for the game was an on rails shooter.
I took some games along from my collection and was really pleased to get them signed. A massive thanks to The Centre for Computing History for hosting such an amazing event. It’s time to dust off that N64 controller again and play some Goldeneye.
Back in May we went along to the first Norwich Gaming Market, organised by Replay Events.It was my first time to one of these gaming markets.I really enjoyed it and was pleased to come away with some nice games.
The market took place at St Andrews Hall.I got an early entry ticket and arrived just after eleven.The venue was already pretty packed.Initially it was a little hard to get near the stalls, but the crowd did thin out a little as the day progressed.
There were a great selection of traders, selling a nice range of consoles, games and collectibles.
Retro Modzz were showcasing a big collection of modded consoles.I was especially tempted by the Sega Nomad.
I was particularly impressed with Allan’s Japanese Retro Game sales.They had some fantastic stock, and it kind of took me back to the days of rummaging through games in Akihabara!The prices were very reasonable as well, with discounts for multiple items.
Anyways on with the pick ups!
I’m always intrigued by Western games released in Japan.I find the alternative box art and the little differences quite interesting.I’ve been picking up Electronic Arts Japanese Megadrive games for a while now, and it was great to fill a few holes in my collection.I really like how EA used slightly different box and cartridge cases.I also grabbed the Pal release of Urban Strike to finish off my Megadrive Strike trilogy.It’s interesting how the game never received a Japanese release.
The highlight for me though was Gradius for the Famicom, a timeless classic and in lovely condition.The game also features some of my favourite ever box art.
I had a great time and look forward to attending future gaming markets.Here are some more pics from the day.
During a recent port stop in Ostend, the ship I was
working on had a breakdown, and I took the opportunity to checkout Lunapark
Reflex arcade.
The arcade has an awesome selection
of modern arcade games, well maintained and in excellent condition.I liked how the majority of videogames are in
one area, separate from the pushers and redemption machines, giving a proper
arcade feel.This was further enhanced
by cool lighting, which really showed off the machines.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Raw Thrills – 2018
I’ve been really looking
forward to playing this!I have fond
memories of playing Konami’s Turtles arcade games back in the day, and it’s awesome
to see Raw Thrills revive a genre which has been dormant in the arcades for
decades.The cabinet looks fantastic,
and the game plays really well.Best of
all you can throw foot soldiers out towards the screen just like you could in
Turtles in Time.Hopefully we will start
seeing it in UK
arcades soon!
Hummer DX – Sega – 2009
Another nice surprise!Running on Sega Lindbergh hardware, Hummer DX
is an awesome motion based, off road racing game which is pretty uncommon.In fact I’ve never seen one in the UK, and the last time I played one was in Japan back in
2011.
The game features a
cooperative play mode allowing two players to take turns driving with their own
set of controls, similar to OutRun2SP DX.
I’ve always found it slightly
odd how the front of the Hummer is at the back of the cab.
The arcade also had Ghost
Squad, Grid, OutRun2 and Sega Rally 2 DX in the Sega lineup.
It’s always great to play
some OutRun when working away from home!
The arcade also had an
impressive selection of pinball tables.
I enjoyed a few credits on the
new Star Wars table, very cool!
The award-winning
game designer John Romero took the stage at the Centre for Computing History in
Cambridge for a
talk and Q&A session.It was great
to hear John Romero, co-founder of id Software and the man behind such iconic
titles as Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake, talk about his career and his
games.
John Romero was a
really nice guy and I even managed to get a couple of my games signed.
Out of these
items, I was most pleased about getting my Doom 64 signed.Taking place after Final Doom, Doom 64 was
one of the first games I bought for my Nintendo 64 and I absolutely love this
version.The game was developed by
Midway Games, with id Software supervising the project.John’s wife, Brenda, seemed particularly
impressed with my Japanese copy, saying that it’s a version missing from their
collection.
I love the box art
on the Super Famicom version of Wolfenstein 3D.
I must admit I
felt a little star struck and was slightly nervous about asking him to sign my
Japanese N64 Daikatana given its infamously poor reception after all the
hype.Despite the bad press, the game
was extremely ambitious for its time, featuring four distinct time zones, a
wide variety of weapons and AI-controlled sidekicks, and is without doubt a fascinating
piece of gaming history.
I was surprised
when John told me the Game Boy Color had a pretty good version of Daikatana.I never knew this existed and thought he was
joking.It turns out this version is a
Legend of Zelda like top-down action-adventure game, with dungeons, puzzles and
boss battles, along with a text based story.The game was only published in Europe,
and is definitely one I’m going to look out for.
It was interesting
to hear John reflect on Daikatana and its troubled development.However the game is not without merit, with
John commenting that even now the AI developed for the sidekicks is still some
of the most advanced out there.
It was also cool
to listen to John talk about Gunman Taco Truck, a game designed by a then nine
year old Donovan Brathwaite-Romero and co-developed by him with Brenda and John.The game is as mad as it sounds, with the
player blasting their way across a mutant-infested United States in a heavily armored
and weaponised taco truck, selling tacos with mutant-based fillings to survivors.
Some cool
artefacts on display.
Development
notebook contains John’s early notes for games.
Hand drawn map of
Quake.
Doom Project CD
and 5.25 floppy development disk for Wolfenstein 3D.
Doom on the
Commodore VIC-20? Why not!
The beers provided
by Lord Conrad’s Brewery and the slice of pizza from 400° Pizzeria went down well!
A video of the
event can be seen here.
During the day we spent
a couple of hours at the museum, exploring the history of computers, and
playing on various computers, consoles and arcade machines.
Highlights include
the Pixel Wall, some pretty competitive games of Pong with my wife and five
year old daughter, and a few credits on Centipede, Tempest and Xevious.
It was the first
time I had seen a Xevious cab.I love
the design and cool artwork.
Following the 1983
videogame crash, 728,000 unsold games including E.T. were buried in a landfill
site in Alamogordo, New Mexico, marking the symbolic end of Atari
as a video game industry giant.Here are
actual games excavated from the landfill site in April 2014, very cool!
We had a great day
at the museum and I would highly recommend a visit.A massive thanks to John Romero and the
Centre for Computer History for hosting the event.It’s well worth keeping an eye on their
website for upcoming events.
