May 2012 – Obsolete Gamer

The Blackwell Convergence

It has come to my deeply shocked attention that despite the recent Gnome’s Lair reviews of both Blackwell Legacy and Blackwell Unbound, there are still gamers, adventure gamers even, that have yet to try a Blackwell game. How very odd. I mean, it’s not everyday a fully indie, retro-styled, well written and impeccably produced adventure gets made, is it? Of course not. And The Blackwell Convergence is the latest in the Blackwell series, which, as you should have already guessed or known, is an indie, retro-styled, well written and impeccably produced series of adventure games, with Convergence being the third installment.

Modern PC Gaming

Matt McKee

From Russia With Love

A lot of cut-scenes. Well done, and a lot re-created from the original film. The music is perfect. Again, taken from the Bond films and gets your blood pumping throughout the game. Controls, especially with the auto-lock, are done well. The fun-factor is off the charts, a Bond fan or just one of the action-adventure genre.

Humor

J.A. Laraque

The Bain of stickers on Consoles

Today you can find some cool skins for consoles that make them look badass. That is not what my console looked like. At the time, I was also big into baseball cards and some of them came with stickers. I thought it would be cool to put them on the system. For about one day, I thought it was cool and then quickly regretted it. You would think getting stickers out would be easy, but it wasn’t. I ended up with a much worst system than in the first picture and I did not know any of the tricks to clean it up.

Classic Windows Games Computer Games

Dan Epp

Companions of Xanth

The game plays as a standard mouse controlled adventure game. You select what action you want to do from a list of verbs, then select the object with which you want to perform the action. Unlike some Legend adventure games, there is no text input. Inventory management is controlled by the mouse in a similar fashion, by selecting the object and then the action. Graphics are crisp at 256 color VGA, with the player touring various scenic vistas of Xanthian beauty.

TurboGrafx-16

Chris Bucci

Pac-Land

While considered part of the Pac-Man series Pac-Land was a completely different style of game that brought us an early look at a gameplay style that would later become common place. Developed by Namco and released in 1984 Pac-Land showed us a completely new world we had never seen before.

Arcade Games

J.A. Laraque

Cyvern: The Dragon Weapons

Cyvern was released in 1998 by Kaneko, which accounts for the higher level of graphics and sound effects in the game. They kept to the traditional overhead shooter roots in that you have your primary weapon and a limited amount of bombs that kill everything in its blast radius, well, except really big enemies and bosses.

Hardware

J.A. Laraque

Video Game Controllers

Having played a ton of console and computer games, I have of course used a ton of different controllers. This is not so much a listing of the best or even all that I have used, but more of a look at some of the controllers I played the most on and my opinions on them.

TurboGrafx-16

ausretrogamer

R-Type

Your R-9 fighter is equipped with a small gun which can only shoot down the smallest of enemies without firing several shots. But, if you hold down the fire button long enough, you can load up your shot so it releases a massive burst of energy, eliminating all but the strongest enemies in its path. To assist in bringing down tougher Bydo enemies (and help you get further in this tough game), there are souped up weapons that can be collected along the way, like the diagonally firing lasers and the mega powerful circular red laser. When combined with the homing missiles and orbs that protect you, your R-9 becomes a Bydo blasting behemoth.

Obsolete meets Obscure

J.A. Laraque

Shocking Video Collection

HÕFF 2012 trailer – Sexy girl striptease goes wrong!!! What we have here is a girl dancing in front of

Editorials

J.A. Laraque

The Problem with “The Demise of Guys”

Sadly, like most discussions where the person is attacking something, the worst of the worst is shown and then the spotlight is pointed at the everyday gamer with an ominous warning that they are a ticking time bomb, but like everything that can be an addiction, you can learn to par take in moderation and still live a “normal” life.

Blog

J.A. Laraque

Chris Getz and RBI Baseball

With Gamer Profiles, we wanted to show that almost everyone has classic gaming in the past and Obsolete Gamer continues on that trend by brining you news and tidbits of information with a retro twist. To that end, we all at OG HQ thought it was pretty awesome when we found out that Chris Getz from the Kansas City Royals has the theme from RBI Baseball as one of his walk up themes.

Blog

J.A. Laraque

Bundle In A Box: Adventure Bundle

We will exclusively debut the whimsical The Sea Will Claim Everything by Jonas Kyratzes and offer six more games: Gemini Rue, Metal Dead, The Shivah, Ben There, Dan That!, Time Gentlemen, Please! and –for the first time ever – the downloadable version of 1893: A World’s Fair Mystery text-adventure (previously only available as a physical product). Yes, we are indeed hoping to further fuel the current Adventure Game Renaissance!

Editorials

J.A. Laraque

The Downsizing of Star Wars: The Old Republic

“We are bidding farewell to some talented, passionate and exceptionally hard-working people who helped make SWTOR a reality,” said Bioware co-founder, Greg Zeschuk. “We still have a very substantial development team working on supporting and growing the game, and we feel we are in a strong position, with your continued involvement and feedback, to continue to build Star Wars: The Old Republic as one of the most compelling and successful online experiences in the world today.”

Mobile Games

J.A. Laraque

Battle Squadron ONE

The plot and gameplay is classic greatness, your commanders were kidnapped and you have to rescue them by going into the enemy’s base and destroying everything. Oh, did I mention the base is the size of a planet? The game starts off by tossing you right into the fray and you soon realize you need more than your standard gun to take out the hordes of enemies on the screen. You can upgrade your weapon by collecting the cubes dropped by defeated enemies which makes the game much easier especially with the spread shot and if all else fails you have your bombs which creates an area effect pulse of destruction that takes all enemies near you out.

Editorials

Simon Lethbridge

Top Five Alex Kidd Games

This was the first Alex Kidd game I played after I borrowed it from a friend many years ago. I swear I have firm memories of playing it through to completion over that weekend (yep, even with it making you go through the game twice, Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts stylee) but since replaying it for this feature I’m not so sure my memory is accurate – it’s harder than ten angry lions! It is also the most surreal of Alex’s games, requiring him to traverse some strange landscapes and battle some stranger foes while trying to recover the twelve Zodiac signs!

Game Reviews

J.A. Laraque

Just like a dumbfuck, I fell into the trap

Just like a dumbfuck, I fell into the trap. Just like a dumbfuck, I fell into the trap. I was

Blog

J.A. Laraque

Sega Vintage Collection for PSN and XBLA

More retro gaming from the Sega Master System and Sega Genesis are on their way to both PSN and XBLA. Soon you will be able to play the Monster World Collection, which comes with Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy in Monster World and MWIV on May 23. Next up will be the arcade edition of Golden Axe along with Golden Axe 2 & 3 and the Streets of Rage Collection, which will feature all three games. These collections sell for 800 Microsoft Points each.