Every Day is Play. The Celebration of the Video Game - Review

This isn't just a book about gaming...it's a life story

When Matt Keynon set upon a journey of the discovery of gaming - he didn't realise at the beginning it would take him through so many adventures to get to his end goal - a somewhat similar experience to a video game.

Every day is play: The celebration of the Video Game is one of the greatest books we've ever read and reviewed. Let's just get that out there first of all. And we'll tell you why...

This bible of gaming is about Matt's dedication to the spirit of gaming - its art and design and the play and fun associated with what is a passion and obsession for many gamers - including ourselves here at GamesYouLoved. This isn't just a 'hobby'  - it's a way of life.

We did know a little bit about Matt and his homage to gaming previously - having seen some of the Mega Drive Exploded Series and graphic gaming art imagery released a few years back. 

But his story goes back even further than this. In fact it starts when Matt was just 6, having inherited his Uncle's Atari MVS and a batch of games. This initial spark set him on a path of play, discovery and investigation. His intro piece to this in the book describes it beautifully (no spoilers further!).

And this book is a result of his hard work..from the time in 2005 when the idea of producing a book first came to Matt - to now, when we can all enjoy the fruits of his labour.  
With Nolan Bushnell the founding father of Atari and video games writing the foreword - this could only get better. And it does. Visually stunning artwork and design stretches from cover to cover and we love the mix of and variety entries, which for us sums up gaming over the years. It has no limits - to our imagination as gamers and the people who make and develop video games.

From Mario to Sonic, Pac Man to Space Invaders, all the popular characters are here. But even they are not just in typical form as you often see in popular media. Artists, publishers and game developers re-enact these gaming characters in different forms in captivating artwork. You will be surprised, engaged and interrupted (in a good way) with every page turn. And this is no comic or lightweight read. Weighing in at over 300 pages this is heavyweight in every sense of the word. And the print and finishing quality...Well - judge for yourself from these pictures. Anyone into having quality books on their gaming shelf will appreciate what we have here.

In terms of specific content - there are many many entries and contributors to the project. Including Darren Wall's Rom Alerts - showing off the 16-BIT work in 2005 to the Sensible Software book just recently. Edge Magazine has an array of interesting cover artworks that hit you from the beginning too.

Art is a key factor and the likes of Atomike Studio use Mario to great effect, as well as some impressive console art. 

We could go on. 

The imagery here should do the talking. And over the next few weeks we will be releasing more on our Instagram and social channels on Facebook and Twitter.

Finally lets not forget - this book could not have been made without you...the community. As a Kickstarter success this project was successfully delivered by Matt with his massive effort, skill, dedication and determination - and you believed in him.  

Well done - you have a fantastic book to show for it!

Get yours here:

www.fangamer.com

Matt's links:

www.gamepaused.net

@matthewdkenyon

HD Retrovision - A Kickstarter Interview

We spoke to HD Retrovision about their now 'Live' Kickstarter project - its goals and expectations, and why its so important to support retro gaming systems of days gone by.

Tell us why you choose to work on a Sega & Nintendo retro gaming product - rather than a new generation console accessory?

We grew up on these consoles and they're the reason we're gamers today. It saddened us to see them threatened by the lack of support on modern TVs. 

Who are the products designed for?
The products are really designed for anyone who wants a simple, affordable, yet high quality solution to playing their old consoles on new TVs. It's true other solutions exist, but they can be expensive and messy, or require people to have hardware skills they don't have.

What was is about the Genesis and SNES that makes it so special?
The games on those consoles represent the pinnacle of gaming to us in a lot of ways.

The games had enjoyable story lines without hours of cutscenes, and designers were focused more on awesome gameplay than making the game have movie-quality graphics. They also feature some of our favorite video game music of all time. I still hear the Desert Strike theme in my head regularly.

How important are playing games for you when you making a product like this?
Very important. We've tested our cables across on many many games to make sure we don't run into anything unexpected. It's really the only way to know if you're going to run any issues if someone plugs a Sonic 3 into a Sonic & Knuckles into a Game Genie.

How has your background and experience contributed to the development of this Kickstarter?

Besides being avid gamers, we're both electrical engineers and mathematicians by training. This has contributed to us being very precise and methodical in our development of the cables. 

Tell us a bit about the technical details to feature in the product?

The concept behind our cables is not new, but the implementation is radically different. Through careful engineering, we are able to fit our custom electronics into a tight, enclosed space without an additional power source. This approach lowers the cost and headache compared with competing solutions, which we hope will give more people access to high-quality retro-gaming.

Left - composite video, Right with component from HD Retrovision cables

What are your favourite 5 Genesis games of all time?
Streets of Rage, NBA Jam, Kid Chameleon, Toejam & Earl, Earthworm Jim

What are your favourite 5 SNES games of all time?Megaman X, Chrono Trigger, Super Castlevania IV, Shadowrun, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 

What does retrogaming /gaming mean to you?

It's the a link back to our childhood. Retro-gaming brings us back to an era where some of our best memories were formed, often while playing these games with a good friend or sibling.

Back the Kickstarter here: 

Castlevania Review

A Dark Beginning for the Immortal Franchise - Castlevania NES

By Ben “Blinge” Cataldo

If somebody were to name the most famous 2D platformer franchise, the most common responses would be Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog or maybe Megaman. Lurking just outside the window however is Castlevania, one of the oldest series still enjoying new releases today. The original Castlevania was released by Konami on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987.

In Castlevania you assume the role of Simon Belmont, a hero of the Belmont clan of vampire hunters. You have a simple mission; battle your way into Castle Dracula and kill its owner. Although he's Dracula in all but name as the manual simply refers to him as "The Count."

Castlevania was one of the first horror themed console games and achieves this end beautifully. While earlier NES games often looked more primitive than their later 8-bit counterparts, Castlevania remains visually impressive, showing variation in each stage despite the entire game taking place within the castle itself. The NES' colour palette is used tastefully, the backgrounds are detailed enough to avoid being repetitive and the foreground elements pop out enough to be distinct from the backdrop.

As Belmont progresses through the castle he encounters new themes in each stage. First, a zombie infested entrance, an ascent through crumbling stairs and hallways, a race across rooftop parapets, an underground cavern, a grim laboratory and finally the iconic clock tower that has since become a staple of the series. The whole game is replete with gothic imagery and these surroundings are suitably aged as to look like a still-living ruin: the castle itself seems undead.

Indeed the place is teeming with un-life, packed with monsters that aren't exclusively from the vampire mythos. Castle Dracula is described as a "doss house for every monster from every mythology ever" by notorious reviewer Yahtzee Croshaw.

Castlevania arrived on the NES amid a total saturation of 2D scrolling games, but what distinguishes Konami's flagship platformer was its slower pace. Belmont can’t jump on enemies to kill them, neither is he fast enough to avoid the castle denizens, even attempts to jump over enemies will likely cause him damage. Slamming into a crowd of enemies to try and force your way will often lead to death as well. The player is encouraged to take each new enemy or obstacle as its own challenge, whether by using the range of Belmont’s whip, or by experimenting with the various secondary weapons you can find in the castle. 

A great example of this is the throwing axe, which can be found shortly before the first boss – a large vampire bat. The bat usually stays above Belmont before swooping down to attack: while it’s possible to whip it during this dive attack, using the axe and its upwards arc is a more reliable tactic. This is an example of player training as the player should learn that using the different sub-weapons yields better results.

The slow pace contributes to player training again in stage 2 when you find a Bone Pillar waiting at the top of a staircase. This static enemy stands in place like a turret and repeatedly fires two projectiles at a slight interval, but Belmont can safely stand on a lower step beneath the fireball’s trajectory. An observant player should see the Pillar’s pattern of attack, and that it’s possible to hit it safely with the whip from slightly below. Carrying this knowledge into the rest of the game will make future Bone Pillars easier to deal with, as will using the environment to gain an advantage over enemies, thus a slower pace encourages intelligent play, and intelligent play is rewarded. Let it be known however that rushing through Castlevania is possible, as is only using the whip, though this requires a real mastery of the game.

Trial, error and slower gameplay is also the main source of difficulty in Castlevania. While a modern gamer may dismiss Belmont’s sluggish movement as old games having bad controls; slower movement and lack of agility is integral to the balance of the game, and the controls are precise enough to be suited for this purpose. It is usually a player’s rash actions that get them killed rather than Belmont’s speed.

Another source of difficulty is the much bemoaned knockback: upon being hit, Belmont will be stunned for a fraction of a second and stagger backwards. Sometimes this can be disastrous, you might be hit and knocked backwards into an instant death-pit, or bounced between several enemies, taking a lot of damage in the process. However there is a positive aspect to knockback: you’re invincible for the duration of the stun period and slightly longer, saving you from taking fatal levels of damage too quickly and in the second scenario mentioned above, it would be possible to jump to safety or launch a counterattack.

Standard practice for many games at this time was to give the player a limited number of lives and continues; once they’re gone it’s game over. Castlevania offered a concession here as you can continue infinitely from the beginning of the stage you’re on. Stages are made up of smaller sub-areas, dying resets you to the beginning of an area (with 0 ammunition) and continuing after a game-over takes you back to the first area of that stage. 

When considering Castlevania’s difficulty, this is a good system that rewards progress and encourages the player to continue without fear of losing that progress.

Overcoming frustration and learning how to deal with a difficult section to the point where you can beat it every time and progress further is an immensely rewarding experience, it’s what makes Castlevania such a good game and the essence of why we enjoy challenging experiences.

Castlevania’s atmosphere is a fusion of the 2D action game with gothic spookiness, so it can’t be called a pure horror game, despite drawing upon gothic imagery throughout. However, encouraging a new player to take things slowly provides ample time to build some measure of suspense. Music plays a huge part in creating the game’s atmosphere; the brief intro builds tension as Belmont approaches the castle gate, before giving way to the opening blast of Vampire Killer, the catchy and iconic level 1 song. The theme of the whole game is summed up here: a foreboding build up, then straight into the action. In keeping with the gothic atmosphere, the boss theme sounds like classical music through the NES soundchip, which works surprisingly well. That same boss melody is worked into the stage 5 music, Heart of Fire: the perfect example of the feel of a classic Castlevania game.  

The soundtrack does go for a full horror approach when Belmont finally reaches Dracula himself, the final ascent up a long staircase into the Count’s throne room with the music constantly cranking up the tension must have been mind-blowing for somebody playing it for the first time in 1987. The fact that many of these songs have been re-used and rearranged in later games in the series is a testament to the quality of their composition and their popularity among fans. 

The NES revolution brought something that console gaming hadn’t seen before; the ability to pick a theme and run with it, fashioning a coherent gaming experience from that theme. Castlevania does this with gothic horror, it does it with spooky imagery and sounds but doesn’t detract from the fun of a platformer/action game. The gameplay itself even feeds into that theme by encouraging the player to take their time and think about how they’ll tackle each challenge. Many design elements in modern games can be traced back to this pioneering time, or Castlevania itself. One could go as far as to suggest that this game was the Dark Souls of its time.

Come then ye children of the night, those vampires aren’t gonna slay themselves.  

This extended review by Ben “Blinge” Cataldo

Also the web review can be found here: 

www.gamesyouloved.com/game-genre/consoles/nintendo/nintendo-entertainment-system/castlevania/

When Retrogaming meets modern technology

The retro-bit Super Retro Trio arrived in the post this morning. Sick of the delays with the RetroN5, I cancelled my preorder at the weekend after the word got out that the console would not be reaching the UK before September and found this alternative in stock at funstock.co.uk at the very tempting price of £69.99 a full £50 cheaper than its competitor.

The cheaper price tag, however does mean less in the way of features. No save states or built-in cheat systems, no HDMI output. I wasn't interested in the former, and I can live with AV/S-video through my SCART connector. So what do you get for your money? Here's what the official blurb says:

Supports NES/SNES/MEGADRIVE/GENESIS

Compatible with original and third party controllers

Includes 2 controllers

AV / S-Video connectors

AC Adapter

PAL / NTSC / PF / NJ Region Switch

What you get is quite a nice looking console, it feels a bit light and cheap but hey – it was cheap! I have the silver and black model, there is also a red and black version. The top of the unit sports 3 cartridge slots from the back coming forward – NES, SNES and Megadrive/Genesis, in front of these are a reset switch and a power/slot selection switch.

On the front a push releases the cover for the controller ports, here you can plug in original controllers 2xNES, 2xSNES and 2xMegadrive/Genesis. The 2 included controllers plug into the 9 pin Megadrive ports but are shaped like SNES controllers just to keep you on your toes! ;)

The bundled controllers are actually very decent and for that reason will probably see a fair amount of use, the buttons and d-pad give a very similar feel to those on my original controllers. Also behind this front cover is a selector switch for the controllers in use and a region switch for Megadrive/Genesis games for those with region protection. As mentioned there is a cover/door so you can unplug your controllers and close it up to keep things looking all neat and tidy when not in use.

Finally round back there are the DC in socket, S-video and A/V ports. The provided power adaptor has a US plug but does not require a step down converter and an UK adapter was provided for me.

My TV had some issues with the video signal through the A/V (this is not exclusive to the SR3 – I've had this issue in the past) so I use a cheap A/V+S-Video to SCART adapter and it works fine for me.

Now, the big question – compatibility! I don't have a huge pile of carts to test especially on the Nintendo side of things so here's what I have tried all work unless otherwise specified.

Megadrive:

M6 cart (Sega Soccer, Columns, Super Monaco GP, Revenge of Shinobi, Sonic, Streets of Rage) so far played Sonic, Revenge of Shinobi and Super Monaco GP

World Class Leaderboard

T2 The Arcade Game

Golden Axe

Streetfighter 2 Special Champion Edition

Genesis:

Lemmings

NES:

Track and Field 2 (PAL version)

SNES:

PGA Tour Golf (PAL)

Starwing (PAL) 

That's all I've tested on it so far I'm afraid, I need to acquire some more NES and SNES games to try out but it seems to be fine with every Megadrive game I've thrown at it. There is also a Super Retro Advance Adapter (sold seperately) that allows you to play GBA games as well.

In conclusion I'd say it's really good value for what you pay, it looks nice and doesn't look out of place under the TV, the controllers are decent, it might not have all those fancy features or HDMI but it is available now and cheap enough  to be worth a shot.

You can buy your own RetroTrio console here at Funstock.co.uk

Thank you too Jamie Gunn (@highlandboarder) for his time and review!