Get ready for a bumper edition of retro gaming goodness with a new guest! This week we think about those games with memorable first levels, discus the recently announce Star Wars Dark Forces Remaster and how could we not look at the new retro console from Atari – the 2600 Plus.
All this and the Community Question Of The Week.
Please visit Glen’s YouTube channel, Casual Retro Gamer, at https://www.youtube.com/@crg to see our guest’s YouTube channel.
The latest issue of Pixel Addict magazine is now available! With a special feature on celebrity gamers or should that be celebrities who like to game?
Visit https://www.pixel.addict.media/ for all the info.
00:00 – Show Opening
12:05 – Level 1 Gaming
Story Link: https://metro.co.uk/2023/08/27/the-15-best-first-levels-in-retro-gaming-readers-feature-19401830/
33:35 – Strike The Empire Back
Story Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b9TTurkH4c
Additional Links:
https://www.xwaupgrade.com/
https://www.moddb.com/mods/xwvm
https://www.moddb.com/mods/tie-fighter-total-conversion-tftc
57:41 – Chris Is Getting A Woody (console)
Story Link: https://atari.com/products/atari-2600-plus
Additional Links:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0609/3658/5381/files/Atari-2600Plus-Compatibility.pdf
https://www.timeextension.com/guides/best-atari-2600-and-7800-games-of-all-time
https://www.t3.com/news/i-played-atari-2600-plus-for-10-seconds-and-its-not-a-games-console-its-a-time-machine
The Ubiquitously Requisite Atari 2600+ : https://youtu.be/0nHwoiRkQE4?si=xH5-cjacPHkvyaRU
01:18:08 – Community Question of the Week
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This Week in Retro is a weekly roundup of the hottest stories from the world of retro gaming and computing, voted on by you, the listener! Hosted by Neil from RMC, Chris from 005 AGIMA and Dave. Edited by Duncan Styles.
Episode Credits
Amiga 060 100Mhz Dark Forces footage courtesy of Amimmortal
Star Wars Stormtrooper Helmet by Freddan755 under CC License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
source
loved the level one discussion. but c'mon guys we're pushing one and a half hours now… as an older gamer (reached 50 this year; got my first walking stick and lifetime supply of Werther's Originals) my concentration span wanes at the 20 min mark (which coincides with my nurse coming in to turn me over to stop the bed sores forming..)
got to respect neil, I can imagine him formatting over a cover disk to pirate a game, while everyone else was at the computer shop buying a box of 10 blanks (then in the early 90's multiple boxes of 10, as the price dropped from £1 a disk to about 10p)
I feel it’s a shame Probotector is forgotten. Yeah here in the U.K. we did have access to imports so I knew what Contra 3 was (rented it even with the converter) but it was Super Probotector I wanted as I had Probotector on the NES. Always a joy to watch every week this show. Best first level might be Mario Bros 1 for me just because I went from an hand me down Pong unit to a Mattel made NES Mario pack in. My grandad went to get me a C64 actually but it wasn’t in stock at Argos so got an NES sending me the console route.
First level – Driver – how many people gave up in car park!?
I'd like to remind you of racing games when it comes to level one. For me it's F Zero and Mario Kart on the SNES. Maybe you'd like to also think about flight sims and the initial missions. But I'd like to finish with reminding you how blown away you were as a youngster the first time you played outrun in an arcade and barely made it past the first checkpoint before the timer ran out.
I finished Gryzor an my amstrad CPC 😉
Yes! Tea Watch is back and Dave is getting a very respectable 9/10 for today's offering 😂
The Crash/Your Sinclair covertapes and later ST/Amiga Format and Amiga Power coverdisks regularly had full-level demos of hyped commercial games that provided all I needed for a quick blast now and again. Of course, I had other 'sources' to provide complete versions but even if I had an illicit version of a game, most of the time I lacked the patience to see it through. Level 1 of Rick Dangerous, Silkworm, Goldrunner, War Hawk, etc. was enough for me 🙂Games the piqued my interest in the arcade was Out Run and Renegade on the Spectrum 128… I waited so long for it to load (and I bought it) so I was determined to get the best out of it 😉
I have a 2600 so the main thing I'm interested in is seeing how the new controllers compare to all the knock offs available that break easily!
Shouldn't it be Gen X shooter? Boomers all had morgages and were grown up by the time FPS came out.
There was an Ewoks cartoon in 1987, and a droids cartoon starring C3PO and R2D2 in '88.
At 37:21 . Doom was never made with a good story in mind. That was basically designed that way from the ground up. Even according to the developers I think. So almost any game has a better story line 😅😊
The 2600+ has appeared on Amazon UK as an exclusive pre-order. I've not pulled the trigger yet as I have a Retron 77, with the community build ver.6.53, I think.
sw extended universe stuff was coming out constantly during the period that xwing, tie fighters etc were coming out. the games really made me pay more attention to zahns books and other stuff. tie fighter had that pretty good feelie novelette with it in the box too! a golden age of star wars if you ask me
Back when the C64 came out I lived in western Canada. There popped up game rental shops. Most people had a 1541 disk drive in Canada so they would buy a few copies of the games and then rent the disk like a video rental shop.
I would rent a few and give them all a try and based on the initial screens decide if I was interested in acquiring a copy of my own.
Can you do a rmc special on dungeon master please. A classic game and sold many Atari st's before converting to almost every computer/ console. The jumper made me think of this 😊
BAR…..BARIAN (for DOS)
It was so frustrating. Unforgettable.
Bioshock…. "Would you kindly" … when you hit that point…. it'll make you go "WTF?!" XD
Could the link for Quake 2 remake be posted? It’s not the same as the upgraded Q2 already on Steam, right?
Oh god, I so want an a500 (or a1200) maxi.
Why does everyone forget the two Ewoks movies, Caravan of Courage (1984), and The Battle For Endor (1985)? There were also the Ewoks and Droids TV series. There wasn't really an interregnum between 1983 and 1993. And Muppet Babies was 'sampling' the Star Wars movies on a weekly basis, so it wasn't really absent from our screens that much.
For me X-Wing Alliance was the ultimate cinematic narrative experience in terms of the flight sims, far more than Tie Fighter.
Its not really a level but i remember at the start of the text adventure Emerald Isle by level 9 you parachute onto the isle. The first puzzle was what to type to get out of the parachute harness. I could not figure out what to type and had to cheat. I think it was in a magazine or a hint sheet with the game
Half Life has the best introduction/first level. It was innovative and really stands out in my memory moving from the mundane train ride to the game. Quake 2 also has a good fmv and start to the game.
Can't wait for the Atari 2600+. Like Harry Potter, we "Bought the lot!"
Better control for controllers, I think I am too old to appreciate that, I don't want to play fps with controllers.
The question I have, which I've not got to the bottom of, is will it play PAL games with the correct speed and colours?
How much more can they milk the 2600er? I guess the redeeming part here is the 7800 part, but if you just want to try 2600 emulate or pick up one of those flashbacks people are trying to give away.
Yes I’ve just pre ordered the Atari 2600+ and the extras. Thanks for the heads up !!
I think, contrary to what Glen said, the new Amiga Dark Forces port is probably playable on an 030 machine – I think it needs an FPU, but by comparison to other 3D shooters on the Amiga, Dark Forces seems to be really well optimised
Great episode (as usual) ! Thanks a lot for inviting CRG. I learned a lot from his amiga recap videos (I'm trying to recap my recently acquired amiga 1200 :)) for Neil's Bioshock journey, he might also like "Atomic Hearts"
I remember playing the demo of Bioshock on xbox360 and instantly wanting the full game! What a first level that was! The rest of the game was fantastic too 😀
Thanks for having me on guys, it was great fun. Finally got past the sewer level in dark forces but now stuck on level 7.
The 8-bit ATARI DOOM port is incredible.
Thanks for the great vid, for the 1st level I will go for ProjextX for the Amega and like the time stamp around 57:24 👍
I predict a much bleaker fate for that 2600. And Dave has been spending too much time in fantasy games.
Dark Forces remaster- by Night Dive Studio (owned by Atari)- 2600+ Atari… they are killing it!
neil you are cracking it, so moody, rambus sounds like n64 3d ~retro on the doom age, wolf3d must run fine on it, or maybe quake, but you can do sideways grid panel crts, tube is flat. actually you can make transparent holo-crt's between two glass panels, shoot the electrons from the sides, easy to make tube.
I like that the 2600 plus aims to be a "one system". it is a way for those of us not interested in keeping an old system working having a go at feeling like you have it! I want one, and I like that they dont preloads it with games on SD-card etc. A perfect product imo. Kind regards from Amiga user 😉
Dark Forces is probably my all time fave FPS. Yes, the backstory and more puzzle like gameplay made it better (IMO) than other FPS.
Chris 'reading' Pixel Addict magazine at the end. 🤣🤣🤣
The 5200 has been ommitted due to the shape of the carts.
Tie Fighter was magnificent. Kept me busy for a summer or two.
Heir to the Empire from 1991 is still the best Star Wars book.