This year marks a decade of
Strong Bad Emails, sent from Strong Bad's desk. Next to his computer sits a box of
floppy discs, often displaying game titles. If you missed those titles, the detail-oriented
Homestar Runner wiki (
previously)
provides game titles, summaries, and links. Many of the games are old computer games like
Rise of the Dragon or
Miner 2049er, and some titles are linked to
Lord_Pall's
revived Home of the Underdogs abandonware game archive. Other games have links to
the Videlectrix catalog, where you can see
box art and
play some demos. Or you can go back to the Homestar Runner wiki, and go to the list of
playable Videlectrix titles, like
50k Racewalker (
play online)
Polulation: Tire (
play online) or
Peasant's Quest (
play online) (More previous stuff:
Peasant's Quest and
Where's An Egg?).
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 1, 2011 -
83 comments
BS Zelda Retrospective (SLYT). In honor of Zelda's 25th anniversary this month, this is an interesting look at the live-broadcast
Satellaview games in the Zelda series, which had some compelling and strange tweaks to the Zelda formula. The beginning is an introduction to the service, and the fun bit begins at
8:50.
posted by BlackLeotardFront
on Feb 23, 2011 -
13 comments
YouTube has a fair number of recordings of well-played classic arcade games.
Dig Dug,
Mr Do!,
Mr Do's Castle,
Do! Run Run,
Lady Bug Part 2,
Bagman,
Super Bagman,
Q*bert,
Venture,
Zoo Keeper,
Moon Cresta,
Scramble,
Make Trax,
Phoenix,
Rastan.
click through for more [more inside]
posted by JHarris
on Dec 23, 2010 -
35 comments
Chrontendo is a video podcast in which a guy systematically described and discusses
every Famicom/NES game released. Currently up to 33 episodes and counting, and covering hundreds of games.
[more inside]
posted by JHarris
on Nov 1, 2010 -
23 comments
Old School Color Cycling with HTML5 This was a technology often used in 8-bit video games of the era, to achieve interesting visual effects by cycling (shifting) the color palette. Back then video cards could only render 256 colors at a time, so a palette of selected colors was used. But the programmer could change this palette at will, and all the onscreen colors would instantly change to match. It was fast, and took virtually no memory. [more inside]
posted by crunchland
on Jul 26, 2010 -
40 comments
Hydorah is a delicious shump inspired by the likes of
"Gradius, Castlevania or R-Type, but also from other classics treated worse by the time: Turrican, Enforcer, Space Manbow, Hellfire, Guardian, Hydefos, Armalyte and many others...". Also,
"There is a single dificulty level, based on the 80's standards." Translation: try not to cry on your keyboard.
[Windows] [via Destructoid]
posted by threetoed
on Jun 7, 2010 -
35 comments
Sure you consider yourself a retro 8-bit gaming geek, but have you played Udon Boy in Ramen Land, or Kung Fu Psycho Rider? Don't feel bad, they're from Japanese culture store Meteor's annual
Famicase, an
exhibition of imaginary games.
posted by artifarce
on Jun 5, 2009 -
7 comments
Like sprites? The People's Sprites has the most extensive repository of old game pixel art I've ever seen. Some good examples from:
Battletoads,
Excitebike,
Final Fantasy GBA,
Mega Man,
Metal Slug,
Mortal Kombat,
Punch-Out,
River City Ransom,
Shinobi,
Samurai Shodown,
Super Mario Kart,
Super Mario World, and my favorite,
Super Metroid.
Hundreds more at the site, plus
original and
public domain ones.
posted by BlackLeotardFront
on Mar 30, 2008 -
17 comments
La-Mulana is a Japanese homebrew game, with English translation available, for Windows that exhaustively replicates the experience of playing on an
MSX home computer, a machine not sold in the U.S. but was contemporary with the likes of the Commodore 64 and Amiga in other markets. (Fun fact: the "MS" in MSX stands for Microsoft!) Although it looks very much like retro warez, La-Mulana is freeware. It is also notoriously long and difficult, with a character who controls like old-school Castlevania, enemies that will frequently knock you around like a rag doll, puzzles of amazing deviousness, and traps that think nothing of walling up a player without escape, or forever restricting access to certain powerups.
That said, the game does have charm, and is basically a love letter to the MSX hardware. Those who want to see it without beating their hands bloody against the keyboard can watch
a guy play through the whole game in 85 installments, cursing at it all along the way.
posted by JHarris
on Jun 4, 2007 -
14 comments
Blaster Master ...
Solid NES Gold. Those who remember
the game do so
with fondness. Though
critically lauded on release, and later
spawning several sequels, the game was never as big a hit as its its spiritual predecessors, Metroid and Legend of Zelda. Like
Super Mario Bros. 2/Doki Doki Panic, Blaster Master was based on an obscure Japanese game, in this case
Chōwakuseisenki Metafight although the differences in this case are limited to the story. Blaster Master was also the first (and only "canon") book in the Nintendo
Worlds of Power series, in which various authors
novelized third-party games using the pseudonym "F.X. Nine."
Download the Blaster Master book here (MSWord zipped, "enhanced" by a fan). Lastly, some bonus links:
one,
two, and
three (!)
posted by BlackLeotardFront
on Oct 24, 2006 -
36 comments
The Dot Eaters. A dauntingly comprehensive history of video games, beginning with
proto-PONG and Spacewar!. If it's difficult to navigate through Captain O's prize matrix,
use the handy timeline/scape (the dates don't work, so don't try). It's an interesting site, for sure, but if it doesn't pique your interest maybe the
links page will,
since it's the largest I've ever seen. In just minutes I found the
First Church of Pac-Man,
Super Mario Bros fanfiction (
@), and a great
Robotron shrine. Plus,
this noise (wav).
posted by BlackLeotardFront
on Apr 27, 2006 -
16 comments
Game-Oldies.com features a boatload (approximately) of classic games, playable in Java. Lemmings! Duke Nukem! Toejam and Earl! Trampoline Terror! (What?)
posted by Gator
on Nov 11, 2005 -
30 comments
Doom ,
Doom2,
Duke Nukem 3d,
Heretic,
Hexen,
Hexen II,
Quake,
Quake 2,
Return to Castle Wolfenstein : Enemy Territory, plus
dozens more.
posted by crunchland
on Feb 21, 2005 -
20 comments
Chuckie Egg It’s not quite a Friday Flash Game, and it’s not quite a discussion of the great 8-bit games we played when we were young, but it seems to fall neatly between the two camps, so I thought I’d post it. For those of you on the other side of the pond, Chuckie Egg was one of the biggest selling games here in the U.K. For those of you who hanker for the old days of your BBC Micro, here’s a little bit of ‘80s magic. PC only, but it’s less than 200K of download, and as an extra bonus, it allows you to create your own levels.
posted by seanyboy
on Mar 28, 2003 -
9 comments
Save pinball! "It's an American icon," said Stern, ever the salesman. "Pinball is cool because it is retro. It's a Volkswagen bug, a PT Cruiser, khaki pants."
posted by justgary
on Aug 3, 2002 -
23 comments
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