Slowly making progress in Zelda 2 on the GBA

Posted Monday, 12th September 2011 under Retrospective game reviews
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So, I’ve had Zelda 2 on the GBA for ages… and I’ve had a cart of the game for the NES for an embarrassing longer period of time 😉 I didn’t have a NES back in the 80s, so playing Zelda 2 for the first time in 2011 is interesting. I tried getting into it before but didn’t have much luck (I was playing it on the DS in a plane and was lazy, so I couldn’t work out where to start :P). However, Wifey and I were recently doing some traveling that involved some more airtime, so I thought I’d give it another go.

I’m not that far into the game, but I’m impressed that I’ve been making some slow progress 🙂 There are certainly some interesting hooks in the localisation (I am error!), but once I set my mind on getting somewhere, it’s been coming together.

What strikes me as interesting is how much of a departure it is to the original, and also how much it reminds me of Lord of the Sword on the Sega Master System. Well, Lord of the Sword was clearly Sega’s take on Zelda 2, but that’s the one I played when I was a kid, so that often hits my brain first. The mixture of side-on and top-down perspectives is an interesting mix, and I’m not minding the platformy bits. Because I’m a bit rubbish I tend to get knocked down and die a little too often, but it’s not completely mean-spirited… more often I feel like the fault is mine rather than the game’s.

So… I should take some time to actually finish the sucker. I hate leaving game’s part-finished.

You’re a collector now. Be proud.

Posted Wednesday, 7th September 2011 under Random nostalgia
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Fellow blogging site Guru Meditation put up a great treatise on the mentality of the retro gamer and our often-obsessive behaviour with this hobby. The following is an excerpt:

Now that first console is just one part of a mammoth collection that consumes your house. Somewhere among the countless games, consoles and peripherals is that first machine you ever picked up, that one that made you feel as though you’d crossed some great boundary, discovered some long hidden gem.

For me, that first console was the Sega Master System in… ’98 or ’99. I was lucky enough to have an SMS in the early 90s, and when my brothers and I wanted to upgrade to the Mega Drive we sold the SMS2, accessories and all our games to cover the cost of the upgrade. By ’98/’99 I was able to drive, so I started hitting up the local video rental stores and my favourite local independent gaming store to see what they had around. I missed out on some gems at one of the video rental stores where they were getting rid of boxed titles for $2 a pop (including Ys III!), though I still managed to grab a few oldies. My local independent was amazing though – bought up most of the stuff on the shelf and he rummaged around the back to find some other great classics (including a very clean boxed copy of Phantasy Star!).

The Master System was the only system I ever sold to fund the next round of gaming. Since the Sega Mega Drive I’ve kept all the systems and most of the games as one generation transitioned into the next.

I’m a shocker of a hoarder, but it pleases me that there others out there who have the bug worse than I!

Anywho, you should go have a read of Ode to the collector. It’s brill 🙂

Atari issuing cease and desist letters to websites – huh?

Posted Monday, 5th September 2011 under Soapbox rants
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This.

My feelings over Atari recent spate of cease and desist letters to websites pertaining to the Atari 2600 are reflected in a far-more articulate response at Atomic PC’s website. I merely wanted to add my voice to the chorus.

Given Atari allegedly gave the community their blessing to develop for and celebrate the history of the Atari 2600 more than a decade ago, it seems a bit petty to go after websites covering the platform. It’s certainly within their legal right to do so, but it does beg an ethical question. Given the enduring value of the brand “Atari” is attributable in part to the ongoing development, discussion and celebration of its legacy by fans, it seems unusually short-sighted to tarnish this reputation by attacking the very people who have assisted in building the ongoing awareness, and by extension value, or Atari.

Hopefully this is the last of such tomfoolery for 2011. It rounds off a trio of arguably anti-consumerist measures by some of the big names in the gaming sector (Sony removing Linux support from the PS3; Capcom’s unoffocial “DRM” for Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D on the 3DS; and now Atari and their IP battle for URLs and websites), so hopefully we can all move on from here.