GamesYouLoved at Play Expo 2014 - day one

Day one update - www.playexpo.net 

Manchester - 11th October 2014

Magic. Absolute bloody magic. Whether we’re talking atmosphere, cutting edge gaming or arcane retro technology, Play Expo has it all. The team at GamesYouLoved enjoyed today so much, we really had to give you an update tonight.

We had a great time even after a fairly disastrous beginning. After cramming in a quick breakfast with the Funstock team (full English, of course), we jammed a bunch of old school consoles and equipment into the car and headed off. Immediately upon reaching the venue however, our car window refused to close, the mechanism had broken! We hadn’t even set up yet, so picture those stress levels going through the roof. Suddenly we’re in hard mode; getting the stand put together while trying to get the AA on the phone!

Fortunately everything was fixed and good to go soon after the doors opened. What struck me about Play Expo was the amount of space given over to gaming itself, almost half the venue was dedicated to games already released for people to actually play rather than obsessing over new and upcoming releases. This idea of gaming in the present and of course, the past, instead of a fixation on future gaming really speaks to me, the expo certainly lives up to its title.

 

Loads of floorspace was filled with every game under the sun, many of which were multiplayer set ups, you felt like you could start a game with anyone. There were a couple of consoles I hadn’t even heard of before, I tried an FM Towns Marty for the first time, there goes my credibility eh?

There was still a strong presence from the new console generation though, the big three were out in force.

The real hype was radiating from the arcade section: an absolutely mindblowing collection of cabinets, shoot’em ups, racing games, all that good stuff set to free play so you could game as much as you want. Personally the chance to play some real shooters by CAVE on an actual arcade cab was just awesome. With all the score competitions going on there were opportunities for all that bedroom practice to be seen by fellow gamers who genuinely appreciate it too. I’ve got a score to settle with Typing of the Dead tomorrow, that’s for sure.

It was all about playing the games, but also the retro community that surrounds us all. Retro Joe, Tooty UK (Stuart), Rich King Retro, Cybersnake (Jason), Dave 'imagamegeek' to name but a few where there. The GamesYouLoved crew and these guys and others took time out to chat and do some mutual filming too. All in a days work for these massive retrogaming fans. Not only this but we hooked up with Sam (@MrSidC64) to chat about his Commodore book on the www.funstock.co.uk stand - where we fitted in a short interview of this and his new Amiga Kickstarter which begins Monday 13th October.

A little walk through the venue presented me with crazy cosplay karaoke competitions going on in one corner next to a casual Smash Bros tourney run by the Bristol boys who’d come up for the weekend. Alongside this Retro Collect had their many competitions on and kept the energy up all day - great job guys.

There were enough stands selling retro games, quality prints and other merchandise to make me believe my wallet had a mind of its own. There was even a bloke selling swords, but thankfully the cosplayers weren’t all armed to the teeth.

So the end of the day found me back on an arcade cab playing Progear, just dying to finish my credit (it was a good run!) while being asked repeatedly by security to finish up as it was closing time. Eventually I had to relent and abandon my plane to its fate. See you all tomorrow though yeah?

By Ben Cataldo

GamesYouLoved

ET - is it really the worst game?

Worst Game Ever? 
ET The Extra Terrestrial - 1983

If reports are to be believed the worst game ever is ET for the Atari 2600 and it holds the unwanted accolade of potentially causing the collapse of the video game industry in the early eighties. 

Rumours rumbled around for years that thousands of copies of this game were buried in a New Mexico desert with many thinking that was just an urban myth until earlier this year when the site was found and the games excavated....but one of those games found its way to Sussex!!!! 

Your favourite GYL guest reviewers Hedger & Preece have decided to take one for the GYL team and set about the task of seeing just how bad this game really is.

A flick of the power switch takes us straight to the loading, title and intro screen (all cunningly disguised as the same screen with a rendition of the ET theme tune playing sweetly in the background or is that bleeping sweetly? 

In terms of the gameplay I think this game can be best summed up by the word 'toilet' (one that doesn't appear to flush). You have about 5 different screens that appear one after the other, in an unending cycle, as you (playing as the eponymous ET) are chased by an FBI agent, a scientist and Elliott. I think the idea is to collect parts of a spaceship whilst trying to avoid some holes in the ground (yes... I remember that bit in the movie too). I say 'I think', as what appeared to happen, at length, was I'd get picked up by one of these other characters and get taken to a screen that looked like a cross between the Acropolis and a small housing estate. 

Needless to say this game drew a semi-permanent, confused frown from within me as I tried to work out what the hell was going on. Even now, reflecting upon it with the clarity that a cup of tea and a Jaffa Cake bring, I still am at a loss. Still at least I can now say that I have experienced a part of gaming folklore – just quite possibly the worst part of it...






For me the rating for the game are : 

Sound 2 – Only the fact that the title screen had a tune that resembled the ET theme saved this from a 1 

Graphics 2 – ET's head movement is about the only impressive thing 

Playability 1 – You really won't want to play this a second time – even if you know what to do.
Overall 2 – But if I were you I'd score yourself a 1 for a) actually reading a review of the Worst Game Ever™ and b) reading it to the end! 

Reviewed by Dean Hedger and Jon Preece

Atari Flashback 3 in the home – Reviewer Rob Armstrong

Atari Flashback 3 - instructions, controllers and main unit

We gave the Atari Flashback 3 to one of our Team who is getting back into playing retrogames unlike many of us! Here is how he faired playing the Atari Flashback console

"When I was a kid all my friends had the latest Amiga 64 or the Nintendo NES. My parents didn’t want to buy just a games machine and so bought an Acorn Electron, a budget version of the BBC schools computer. Thanks Dad!

So now I have children I was keen to bring joy into our house this Christmas and leave education for the classroom. Which is why I have an Atari Flashback 3 console sitting at the back of the wardrobe but there’s no way I can wait until Christmas to give it go. Once you’ve set up the plug and play system you’re presented with a menu of 60 games to play. I have to be honest some of the games I’ve never played before, however lots of the titles bring back nostalgic feelings. Asteroids, Tic-tac-toe, Centipede, Dodgems and Video Pinball were all games that I spent hours playing at my mates’ houses. 

Many of the games are two player, however they will have to wait until Christmas Day before I can play them properly. There’s a game called ‘Surround’ which is like a 2 player predecessor to Snakes on the old Nokia mobile phones. Its simplicity is infectious but I’ve had to turn the TV volume down because the basic 80’s sound effects become slightly drilling after 20 minutes. I can already see that of the 60 games there are going to be some that see more action in our household than others, plus with so many to choose from, the constant temptation is to constantly try a new one.

If you only played each game for an average of 10 minutes that’s already 10 hours of retro gaming. If you’re interested in getting an Atari Flashback 3, just bear in mind that these are the original games which means the resolution of the image quality isn’t going to be excellent or widescreen, no matter what type of HD TV you play it on. That said if you’re looking for classic retro gaming, with simple yet addictive game play, then this is probably right up your street. There’s not much you could fault about the Atari Flashback 3 however if I could make one recommendation to the manufacturers, I’d point out that the 2 metre controller cable doesn’t quite stretch to the sofa. But theres a new version  the Flashback 4 with wireless controllers to solve this issue!  I’m quite aware that by the evening of Christmas Day my son will probably be better than me at most games. I’d put it down to the amount of time he spends playing on the iPad, which is on a slightly different playing field to my old Acorn Electron. Although for the time being I’ve got a few more weeks of practice."


Thanks to Rob Armstrong for his review of the Atari Flashback 3
To get your hands on a copy click here: http://www.funstock.co.uk/atari-flashback-3-console

To order the wireless Atari Flashback 4 click here http://www.funstock.co.uk/atari-flashback-4-console

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