The Grand Emperor's Retro Video Gaming Blog

Where were you in 82'? Have you ever seen Tron: Legacy ? Probably one of the best scenes in the movie is when the main character Sam walks into his fathers old video arcade, flips the breaker and all the machines go on and Journeys Seperate Ways  comes on the juke box. For a lover of retro games and old vinyl it gets your heart pumping, and really makes you miss the old days of great video arcades and music on a Saturday night. What's really interesting about the use of this song in Tron: Legacy is not just that it was popular when the first Tron  movie came out in 1982, but that in this movie about video games Journeys   1981 album Escape  had a video game based on it, also in 1982. Thats right? The early 80's classic filled side to side with great music including songs like Seperate Ways , Don't Stop Believing , and Faithfully  had a video game based on it.  Jouney Escape Vinyl Album and Atari 2600 game. Be sure to check out my vinyl reco...

After the Atari 7800 I guess Atari figured that it's numbering system was a bit outdated. I think getting into five digits also made it bit rediculous since Atari 10400 would have been next. So in and era of Super Nintendo, and Genesis, a name had to be divised for Ataris next console. Since the code name of the project already introduced a cats name "Panther", sticking with jungle cats just seemed natural and in 1993 the "Jaguar" was released. Now, as I previously said Atari was known for making bad decisions and the Jaguar was the coffin nail of bad decisions. First of all like the 5200, the Jaguar had a terrible controller and as a matter of fact the Jaguar controller looks like an evolved version of the 5200's  strange number pad, oddly placed firing buttons and all. The actual major downfall of the Jaguar and Atari as a console maker isn't becuase of its controllers, but in reality partly becuase it was offering a product ahead ...

The Playstation arrived on the scene in 1995 to a lot of skepticism. Sony after all made the TV's we played video games on and not the video games themselves. Besides with Sega and Nintendo who needed anything else. It didn't take long for reviewers to sing Playstations praises though, and it went from being the must miss console to the must have pretty quickly. By launch time the Playstation was a huge success and it marked the begining of a new era in gaming systems. Now if you keep up with my blog you'll know that I was a bit war refugee who sought a home in PC gaming in the mid to late 90's. To me the SNES vs Genesis fight and everything that came after was something I was oblivious too, and rightfully so since it was the golden era of PC gaming. But, having to boot up a computer and wait for stuff to load, and all the other crap that goes along just trying to even start a game on a PC got to me and I began to think about the ease of playing a game on a console...

A couple of months back I wrote an article named PS1 Retro or the Start of a New Era  (http://retrovideogamingblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/ps1-retro-or-start-of-new-era.html?m=1) in it I asked why the PS1 is so controversial as a retro gaming system. To say the least I got precisely the reaction I thought I would with 50/50 split down the middle as to the PS1's status as a retro system versus a modern one.   That was early November, and now here we are in January, two plus months firmly intrenched in Gen 8. That means that it's now Gen 6's turn at gaining retro status, but by no means is this any less controversial.    Gen 6 consisted of four main systems the PS2, XBox, GameCube, and Dreamcast. This generation was the first in which all gaming systems in it, used CD drives as their main form of gameplay and media. But CD-ROMs as a primary media source had been used in Gen 5 by both the Sega Saturn and PS1.   But as we look at all four systems I think t...

You know the Atari 5200 gets knocked a lot by retro gamers. The  Angry Video Game Nerds episode on it “ Atari 5200”  was pretty much remorseless towards the old system. I have to say that I loved my Atari 5200 and I know it may sound like sacrilege but it was by all means a better system then the 2600.When I play  Mario Brothers,  or  Berserk  on my 2600 it’s somewhat disappointing compared to how great those same games looked and sounded on the 5200.   The 5200 did have its issues though one of which was its size which to date still makes it one of the largest video came consoles ever made. Also its unusual coaxial/power device just verged on being out and out one of the worst ideas ever. There are also a lot of other complaints about the controllers themselves, the lack of functionality, the weird side buttons, and the keypad at the bottom have all come under fire at one time or another.   First of all let me say this, Atari both in th...

You know I have been able to do a cross over between my Retro Video Gaming blog (http://retrovideogamingblog.blogspot.com/?m=1) and my Diary on an Amateur Vinyl Record Collector blog (http://briankeating1.wordpress.com) with a great deal of ease since when you get down to it both hobbies have the same dogma and goal behind them. But, I never thought I would see the day when I could do a cross over between the Retro Video Gaming blog and my Route 66 Family Fun blog (http://route66forfamily.blogspot.com/?m=1), but now that day has come. Today I am going to talk about a Playstation 2 game by Sega called King of Route 66 .  I think we all know that Route 66 has a huge international following, so it was only a matter if time till Japanese Sega would turn their attentions to Route 66 for a racing game.  Now, if you don't have a Playstation 2, and want to try it this game out you can find emulations out there. CoolRom.com and some other sites have it, just be aware ...

If you read my post on Retro Gaming Resolutions  from December 30th you know one of my resolutions was to get an Atari 5200 and 7800 in 2014. Then I began to think about other systems out there worth collecting and trying. My mind immediately went to the oddball systems, like 3DO, NEOGEO, and Turbografix, but I totally forgot about that Sega legacy after Genesis. Let's be honest things where pretty bleak for Sega after the Genesis, I won't get into why, I already wrote an article about that in  Gen X.5: Part 2 - Gen 4.5 and the Sega Saga (January 17th). Let's just say Sega made a few bad decisions, so systems like the Saturn and Dreamcast didn't sell all that well even though they where on par with competing systems.  As for me you know that I took a duck from the console wars to go to PC gaming, something I don't regret Command & Conquer  alone sinched that one up for me. So well SNES was duking it out with Genesis, and Playstation was making it...

For Christmas this last year we gave my eldest son Mario vs. Sonic: London 2012 Olympics on the Wii. Even though the title has been out over a year it still came with a hefty price tag new, but he's been asking for it a while, and he does deserves it.  But looking at this game got me thinking about the whole Sega/Nintendo thing. To a lot of veterans from the 16-bit era "Console Wars" the Mario and Sonic cooperative is absolutely ludicrous, and verges on sacrilege like a Packers flag over Soldier Field.    I think it was best summed up by James Rolfe who in a recent episode of the Angry Video Game Nerd  called Wishlist  talked about some Sonic titles toward the end of the episode. While reviewing a title he kind of liked called Shadow the Hedgehog , he felt his mind blown due to the fact that he was playing a Sega title on a Nintendo GameCube. Or as he said "It's like Cats and Dogs living together!".  It's kind of sad in a way that Sega's...

What is that title over the top? You have to admit Zaxxon is a great Sci-Fi word. Now that I have that out of my system....... I think we all know that Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope) impacted everything after it came out. And considering it came out during the infancy of video games both arcade and home systems, consumers wanted Star Wars like games. In some instances they got actual Star Wars games, but in many other instances games based on the basic premise where just as good if not better.  Zaxxon  was one of those games. The arcade version was phenomenal giving the player an early attempt and 3D like effects in gaming. The Colecovision version was also good, but both it and the slightly inferior Atati 2600 version still lacked the graphics of their Arcade big brother.  The games premise was, and stop me if this sounds familiar, that you are flying over the enemy base sometimes in a trench shooting at missiles, laser turrets, fuel tanks an...

Between articles I have been reading, podcasts, YouTube videos, retro game stores, and eBay I feel like I missed out on NES a lot. I look through my small and somewhat pitiful collection and wonder what the deal is. Maybe it's the fact that I came into NES late. 1990 was almost the end of NES's heyday, so I guess thats one excuse. Then I look at my collection Super Mario Brothers 3, the pack in Super Mario Brothers/ Duckhunt/ Track and Field, Dr. Mario, Top Gun, RBI, Afterburner.  OK, I guess there is somewhat quality over quantity, but my other games not so much.  Then I take into account that I was one of the first kids in my school to have a Gameboy, and I look at my stack of Gameboy games. There is both quantity and quality here with a lot of the famous NES titles in the mix. So, ok I don't feel to bad, I guess back in the day portable gaming was a little bit more important to me then console gaming. I think it had something to do with not having to fight to us...

Its Friday time to go home relax, and maybe get a few hours of gaming in over the weekend. So I think its a good time to think about your idea of the perfect gaming night. About a year ago my son and I where playing Halo 4, and the subject came up about the perfect gaming night. For him it was just pizza and games, and not much else.    That suddenly sent my back to a foggy memory of being in a friends finished basement with 5 other boys, 4 Little Ceasers pizzas, 2 bottles of Pepsi, 2 game controllers, and one TV and NES with Contra on it. So Pizza and video games seem to go well, even outside pizza parlors, and Chucky Cheese.  Now days of course I'm a grown up, which means I have grown up tastes or I should, access to grown up food and beverages and of course grown up games. So the question is as an adult now, what makes the perfect gaming night. Well, to answer that question I put together a list of requirements that for me make the perfect ...

If you've read my blog before you know I love podcasts about retrogaming. One of the big issues with that is it seems for every really good podcast there must be three that are so-so. The really great ones tend to get a lot of imitators, and as much as they try, you end up yearning for the next episode of one of the better ones. But buck up I've bought you the best so far in this series.  Of course if you've read my blog before you will also know that it's becuase of podcasts that I found out such a thing as a retro-gaming community existed. The Retronauts is the very first podcast I ever listened to on retro-gaming, and for a while it was all I was listening too. I even went back and listened to old episodes as well. The show is engaging, the hosts are more then likable, and the show has some incredibly humorous moments. After the very first episode I listened to I felt like I had been a long time listener, comfortable with the hosts and content. Now if you don't k...

The video game console industry is a really fascinating sector of the consumer electronics industry. From the standpoint of economics it's this little microcosm of monopolistic compitition and where the moves of each compitor can impact the others or even the whole industry. This in laymens terms mean the compitition is tight, the products are similar, and on the move to differentiate product manufacturers make some "interesting" choices.  If we where to walk along the road of home video gaming console history we would find the bodies of countless victims who strove for the brass ring and failed. Some of them where becuase they hit the market past thier prime, others becuase they where way ahead of their time. There is one group however that seems to be a little bit of both and they are the ones that seem to have to corpses of notoriety, infamy, and ridicule you learn about along the way. These are of course the mezzanine consoles or the generation x.5 systems...