Talking Bout' the Old School
Shall we get interactive again? I say it's about time.
I want to go real old school here and talk about the wonderful invention that was brought forth to our living rooms, play dens, basement hang outs and the like. Yes I am talking about the video game console.
For my family the first unit was the Atari 2600. I would bet that the boys over in Japan were responsible for bringing joy to many an American family in the early 80's. Tank was a personal favorite of mine, especially the one where the bullets ricocheted. Frogger was a nice improvement, and it had classic music. And who can forget Kaboom? This was one of those games that required a paddle, taking us beyond the joystick realm. It was all good and fun until....
Nintendo invaded our waking hours. For me NES has always been the way to go. And there is one game in particular that I want to really dig into. But I'm going to make you wait. Because I wanted to talk about a few others first.
How about the best sports game ever: Tecmo Bowl? I was really cheesy and used the Raiders because they had Bo Jackson who would just run through everybody (am I thinking of Super Tecmo Bowl?), great game. Or another classic sports game was of course, Blades of Steel. "Fix your pad. Fix your pad." One of the first games where you could get into a fight and break from the actual game play.
And then there was the ultimate: Tetris and I'm not talking about the NES version. Oh no baby. I'm talking about the Tengen version. This was the one with the Russian music. It was based on the Arcade game. Frankly, no version of Tetris has matched the Tengen version. I used to dream of the puzzle pieces when I slept.
There was also Zelda, with the gold faced cartridge. Oh man that was fun. I could never beat it though. And those stupid blue knights just sucked to beat.
And now without further adieu, I'd like to take some time to talk about the best Video Game ever created. It's still the best today. Nothing can hold water to the beautiful, the wonderful, the fabulous: Megaman 2. This game just captured everything a small child could want in a Friday night. Great music (Bubbleman board in particular), and the whole concept of attaining the weapons of the boss that you destroy was just ingenious and of course the great story line of Megaman and his teacher/mentor/creator, Dr. Light. I have it emulated on my PC at home and I still play it like a little child. I've played the other incarnations of Megaman, and it is quite the series, right up there with the Final Fantasy and Mario Bros. sagas (I forgot to talk about the little Italian bros., oh well), but only Megaman 2 really captured the essence of true electronic entertainment. Love it.
Now, let's have a discussion about our fondest video games. Video game memories, sibling rivalries, joysticks, passwords, game genies. I want to know about all those extra lives you got by hitting the turtles head in Super Mario (I could never do it). I want to know about Zelda, Metroid, Bayou Billy, Duck Hunt. Throw us your stories, secrets, codes. But most importantly let's hear what was your favorite?
Oh yeah, let's try and stay away from current platforms like Playstation, XBox, Jaguar etc...
Keep it Old School.
Have fun with it.
Latron,
Dee
I want to go real old school here and talk about the wonderful invention that was brought forth to our living rooms, play dens, basement hang outs and the like. Yes I am talking about the video game console.
For my family the first unit was the Atari 2600. I would bet that the boys over in Japan were responsible for bringing joy to many an American family in the early 80's. Tank was a personal favorite of mine, especially the one where the bullets ricocheted. Frogger was a nice improvement, and it had classic music. And who can forget Kaboom? This was one of those games that required a paddle, taking us beyond the joystick realm. It was all good and fun until....
Nintendo invaded our waking hours. For me NES has always been the way to go. And there is one game in particular that I want to really dig into. But I'm going to make you wait. Because I wanted to talk about a few others first.
How about the best sports game ever: Tecmo Bowl? I was really cheesy and used the Raiders because they had Bo Jackson who would just run through everybody (am I thinking of Super Tecmo Bowl?), great game. Or another classic sports game was of course, Blades of Steel. "Fix your pad. Fix your pad." One of the first games where you could get into a fight and break from the actual game play.
And then there was the ultimate: Tetris and I'm not talking about the NES version. Oh no baby. I'm talking about the Tengen version. This was the one with the Russian music. It was based on the Arcade game. Frankly, no version of Tetris has matched the Tengen version. I used to dream of the puzzle pieces when I slept.
There was also Zelda, with the gold faced cartridge. Oh man that was fun. I could never beat it though. And those stupid blue knights just sucked to beat.
And now without further adieu, I'd like to take some time to talk about the best Video Game ever created. It's still the best today. Nothing can hold water to the beautiful, the wonderful, the fabulous: Megaman 2. This game just captured everything a small child could want in a Friday night. Great music (Bubbleman board in particular), and the whole concept of attaining the weapons of the boss that you destroy was just ingenious and of course the great story line of Megaman and his teacher/mentor/creator, Dr. Light. I have it emulated on my PC at home and I still play it like a little child. I've played the other incarnations of Megaman, and it is quite the series, right up there with the Final Fantasy and Mario Bros. sagas (I forgot to talk about the little Italian bros., oh well), but only Megaman 2 really captured the essence of true electronic entertainment. Love it.
Now, let's have a discussion about our fondest video games. Video game memories, sibling rivalries, joysticks, passwords, game genies. I want to know about all those extra lives you got by hitting the turtles head in Super Mario (I could never do it). I want to know about Zelda, Metroid, Bayou Billy, Duck Hunt. Throw us your stories, secrets, codes. But most importantly let's hear what was your favorite?
Oh yeah, let's try and stay away from current platforms like Playstation, XBox, Jaguar etc...
Keep it Old School.
Have fun with it.
Latron,
Dee
posted by DeesKnees at 2:20 PM
8 Comments:
Blades of Steel lol "Waynes World...Waynes World"
Interesting...I thought this would be the hottest topic yet. Oh well. I will chime in some more since I can never talk enough about the Old School.
More on the great Tengen Tetris. Here in NYC we have a vintage video game store down on St. Marks. It's like a museum, but the people who work there are like 12 and very much jerk offs. If you want to buy an Atari 2600 you can do so, if you shell out over $120.00.
Anyway, I asked the guy behind the counter once about the existence of a Tengen Tetris. He told me that it was probably one of the most sought after pieces of video game lore. And if I they had it, it would sell for at least $100. That's $100.00 for one game.
I guess the lore comes from the fact that the Nintendo people who bought out The Tengen people, made it a mission to rid the Earth of all Tengen Tetris' so that people would buy their crappy product. The Corporate entitiy swings it's dirty paws our way once more.
Anyway, if you still have a NES and the original Tengen Tetris, consider yourself a collector and lucky. People want that thing bad.
So do I.
Late,
Dee
Update: I did an Ebay search. Tengen Tetris is starting bids at $16 and getting as high as $49. I think the guy at the store was pushing.
Anyway here is the great Tengen Tetris story: http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/special/tetrishist.html
If you belive it.
It's coo.
Late,
Dee
up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b,a, b,a start. Contra. I still remember that cheat to get what was it like 40 lives?
I think it was 30 lives and you could use the same cod for Life Force. That was a pretty kick ass game as well.
Konami was king.
Late
Tecmo Super Bowl and Zelda II are the best games ever made. Beeotch.
I remember the handheld games. Shan used to have a handheld Burgertime. That was fun stuff.
Good to see some voices shouting out for Z2.
Screw Hyrule and all of it's minions.
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