@@ThisWeekinRetroHave you played/seen the 2600 version of Boulder Dash 2? It truly has to be seen to be believed. You'd think it was on any system other than the 2600 if you didn't know better.
Hope it all goes well Neil, never commented on one of your videos before, this occasion deserves it. You will be a brilliant dad I have absolutely no doubt about that!
Finally got a chance to catch up after Kickstart - it was great to meet Chris in person! But I do need to have words about Rob Smith. The man is simultaneously an incredibly affable genius and a menace to society. I had the "pleasure" of being on the table next to his floppy cleaning machine - all weekend - and I think Rose Royce's "Car Wash" is going to be haunting me in my sleep for weeks...
Thanks so much for the very kind shoutout, and glad you enjoyed the blog post. It was an interesting topic to ponder, if a little sad in some respects!
Its 1977 - a 7-year old me played his first ever arcade game in the Spanish City in Whitley Bay - it was non other than Killer Shark - it was absolutely amazing - I can vividly remember firing the harpoon gun and the scream of the sharks when you shot them - fantastic
I distinctly remember sticking tanners (6d / 2½p piece) into 2 electro-mechanical machines at an arcade in Penarth and they were Jet Rocket and Periscope (both by Sega). My earliest memory of arcade games! As for Jaws, it was the first thing I ever watched on our shiny new VHS machine!
36:45 We had the same, a fair came around once or twice a year, they had an arcade wagon, They had Moon patrol, always wondered why they had these old games (Was on my CPC at this time), I wanted the Outrun's, Cabal, WWF, Shinobi etc arcades, but I probably did put a coin or two in the older games, because they still fascinated me then and now, but never caught me long enough to spend more than a 5-10 mins on them. Want to get hold of that wagon with content now :) I visited it before covid and it was all claws/crane machines, it was a sad sight to behold, wonder if the bought back the arcades, if people would put coins in them again.
I remember playing a lot of electro-mechanical games at the mini arcade at the caravan park we always stayed at in Cornwall - the one I remember the most was a rifle shooting game that punched holes in a paper sheet with multiple targets on, and then when you were done, it would give you the sheet to assess your sniper proficiency. I would love to give that another go now.
under a killing moon is pinnacle of fmv games mostly because it also has a rather fancy for the time 3d engine to actually PLAY A GAME, in addition to the fmv stuff.
"Not much happened this week", Queue a longer than average episode. I must have watched Jaws a a far too young an age, I didn't even want to go upstairs and clean my teeth after watching it for fear of a Shark jumping out of the sink at me ( I was not a very bright person).
Between it's release on Boxing Day and the New Year in 1975, my father took me to see Jaws. I was 9 years young. I had nightmares for a few days after it. Years later, when the internet appeared, I wondered what certificate it had, wondering if my father had sneaked me in somehow. Turns out it was PG, so I was allowed to see it legally aged 9.
Good luck Neil, I'm sure all will go well for you both. It certainly is a challenge, like trying to figure out a pirate copy Birds Of Prey on the Amiga without the manual but even more rewarding when you do :)
Yep, no green screen shenanigans from Duncan. Hehehe.... Wishing the best to both of you Neil and Lily. A little one definitely changes your life. You're going to do an amazing job as parents.
Wishing you the very best in the final adoption stage, Neil. Some friends of ours went through the same process (i recall we were interviewed on their behalf) and they adopted one..then two...then three children (including siblings) and you couldn't wish to see a happier family. You will be fantastic!
If you're looking for almost exactly the kind of modern indiana jones game you wish for on a big budget then what you want is the uncharted series, especially uncharted 2.
Good luck Neil! It seems like minutes ago that I was in the same position as you, and now my eldest is about to go to high school. It goes by so quickly (much faster than the process seems to!)
Killer Shark was the first arcade cabinet game I can remember playing i also saw it at a traveling fair! I still have the 'Horace In The Mystic Woods' game for the Psion3a (that I got from work at the time, along with a pager!) that was the last official 'Horace' game ever made. Why it was released for the Psion I have no idea. Maybe there's a story in that! I still have three Psion palmtops (3a, 3c, and Senna), but sadly they are all disintegrating now. PS. I also still have the pager.
I have a fuzzy memory of playing shark attack in the early 80's , I might be wrong but I used to visit arcades in seaside resorts in the UK at this time and they often had old cabinets in them.
I wonder if Dave was thinking of the LucasArts game, Night Shift (1990)? It's what I was thinking of as he was talking and I misrembered Indy being in the game in addition to the Star Wars.
In some form or other, everything in an arcade is electro-mechanical - Pinball machines, even the most modern ones, are really all electromechanical entertainment by definition. They combine mechanical parts with electrical ones to create a uniquely tangible gameplay experience. So in reality, electro-mechanical games never really went away - rather they evolved, and in a bid to maintain interest and provide experiences that you could not get at home, arcade game developers returned to their electromechanical roots by providing steering wheels, fishing rods, dance mats, moving cabinets and more, with perhaps the pinnacle being the Sega R360 which housed the player and could move them in all three axes.
Pachinko machines are interesting, and loud. I walked into a Pachinko place in Japan (Osaka I think, but I could be wrong) just to see what it was like and was immediately hit by the wall of noise! Imagine a large arcade full of pinball machines with every one being played. So electromechanical is defenetly still alive there.
The horse racing game I remember the myth if you pressed your horse button like it was track and field it was meant to move it faster. If I saw that in an arcade tho I would play it for nostalgia. It was 10p a go and they had them in Southport in at least 1996.
Ahem, a lil guy named Spielberg also had a little something to do with the Indiana Jones films, not just George Lucas :P And there actually is a new big budget Indy game coming later this year from Machine Games.
Good luck and Congratulations Neil on the adoption. Infernal Machine I’ve got the N64 game (Lucasarts only sold it via mail order in the US and blockbuster stores) which never came out here in the UK. Got a complete in box years ago before it was stupid price. It’s deffo only worth playing on an everdrive if you didn’t get the thing before it went up. It’s not rubbish just not great. You get an exclusive level with an expansion pak installed. The Emperor’s Tomb I played on the PC (well laptop) back in the day and wasn’t keen on that either. The Super Nintendo game Indiana Jones Adventures is decent but stupid hard. It’s not retro hard it’s just unfair.
Re indie games: can’t believe you guys didn’t mention the uncharted games were are basically indie games. And amazing. Sony even filmed Harrison playing that game for promo
