Innholdsfortegnelse for The NES / Master System Book 2nd Edition i The NES / Master System Book

IN THE KNOW » PUBLISHER: NINTENDO » DEVELOPER: CAPCOM » RELEASED: 1990 » GENRE: PLATFORM Mega Man – he’s an invention, built from machine parts by an old guy in a laboratory. He’s the videogame equivalent of Pinocchio, but with the difference being that the puppet’s rubbish in comparison to Capcom’s titular hero. Why? Because the dummy is wooden, has a nose that prevents him from cheating on his marionette girlfriend and has a cockney, top-hat-wearing cricket for a friend. Now Mega Man, on the other hand, is a cool shade of ice-blue with overtly chunky shins, has a laser cannon where a hand lives, and boasts so much bravado he somehow manages to persuade a robotic dog to be his friend. He also goes by more than one name…

The Wizard is very much a guilty pleasure. When the film was released it was panned by critics and flopped at the box office, yet many people still talk about it in hushed, almost revenant tones over 15 years after its release. Although many critics will tell you that it’s nothing more than a Nintendo advert masquerading as a 100-minute feature film, just as many people will talk excitedly about Power Gloves, Ninja Gaiden and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when asked to give their opinion on this much-maligned popcorn flick. Here at Retro Gamer we fall firmly into the latter camp. The Wizard had a profound effect on us, not only because it was the first place we saw Super Mario Bros 3 in action, but because it’s actually pretty good, too. Ironically for a film that…

01 LEMMINGS 02 SHINOBI 03 GALAXY FORCE 04 CLOUD MASTER 05 MORTAL KOMBAT 06 PAPERBOY 07 WONDER BOY 08 ALEX KIDD: THE LOST STARS 09 BLACK BELT 10 DESERT STRIKE 11 FANTASY ZONE 12 MICHAEL JACKSON’S MOONWALKER 13 DICK TRACY 14 POPULOUS 15 CHASE HQ 16 KLAX 17 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 18 PAC-MANIA 19 DOUBLE DRAGON 20 ALF 21 CHOPLIFTER! 22 CHUCK ROCK 23 MARBLE MADNESS 24 PSYCHO FOX 25 VIGILANTE 26 WONDER BOY IN MONSTER LAND 27 DEAD ANGLE 28 ARCADE SMASH HITS 29 THE CYBER SHINOBI 30 JURASSIC PARK 31 PENGUIN LAND 32 BUBBLE BOBBLE 33 ALEX KIDD IN MIRACLE WORLD 34 FIRE & FORGET II 35 STAR WARS 36 THE NEW ZEALAND STORY 37 RAMPAGE 38 BAKU BAKU ANIMAL 39 CAPTAIN SILVER 40 HEROES OF THE…

IN THE KNOW » PUBLISHER: SEGA » DEVELOPER: IN-HOUSE » RELEASED: 1987 » GENRE: ACTION/ADVENTURE ZILLION SITS IN THAT STRANGE REGION OF SOMETHING WHICH BROKE NEW GROUNDS, BUT DUE TO THE CURRENT CLIMATE WILL NEVER BE MADE IN QUITE THE SAME WAY AGAIN The Master System, much like the Game Boy, is not a machine from which it is easy to choose Classic Game coverage. There are countless titles, of course, but it’s always the same few which are mentioned again and again (Phantasy Star for example has already been covered as part of the series). Furthermore, considering the dominance of other companies’ hardware at the time, even if a third of all SMS owners hailed a single game as the greatest on their machine (a one-to-three attachment ratio being…

During the late stages of Queen Victoria’s reign, London was unrecognisable compared to the city it had been during her coronation. The Metropolitan Police had been formed to keep order, the Thames had been cleaned, and a massive population influx had transformed the city into the largest in the world. But all was not well, as the Whitechapel murders grabbed headlines and terrified the populace – and it’s here where Master Of Darkness starts off, as the psychologist and paranormal investigator Dr Ferdinand Social has been doing his own investigations with the help of an ominous Ouija board. Jack The Ripper is just the tip of the evil iceberg as there are supernatural forces at work here, so with dagger in hand he sets out to solve the grotesque murders.…

Batten down the hatches, viewers; this one’s going to be messy. When littleknown coin-op developer Westone created a simple cutesy run ‘n’ gun game called Wonder Boy in 1986, incredibly few videogaming academics predicted the screwed-up rats’ nest of licensing and sub-licensing and rebranding that would result over the following 20 years. This, of course, is largely due to the fact that there WERE no videogaming academics in 1986, but the point still holds. While Wonder Boy’s gameplay could hardly be any less complex (it is, perhaps, one of the least deep videogames ever made), the seemingly-undemanding act of knocking out a few sequels and giving them titles created a twisted trainwreck that makes the world of Contra (see The Definitive Contra in RG35) look like a simple, straightforward place…

Why it’s collectable After a couple of false starts entering the console market, Sega’s third attempt – dubbed the Mark III – would eventually pave the way for things to come. Although the new console was pushed aside by the runaway success of the Nintendo Famicom in Japan, Sega had high hopes for it elsewhere. With revamped looks and rebranded as the ‘Master System’, it was unleashed on North American shores; however, Nintendo was showing no sign of slowing down there either. This left the Master System one relatively untouched territory in which to triumph: Europe. As the hefty price tag of the Nintendo NES – coupled with lacklustre marketing – left a huge gap in the British gaming market, Sega began preparing an unforgettable ambush. Its pre-Christmas ad campaign…

01 DR MARIO 02 PARODIUS 03 SPY VS. SPY 04 DUCK TALES 05 IKARI WARRIORS 06 ROADBLASTERS 07 ARKANOID 08 GALAGA 09 LODE RUNNER 10 SOCCER 11 GUN.SMOKE 12 BALLOON FIGHT 13 MANIAC MANSION 14 ROD.LAND 15 COBRA TRIANGLE 16 KUNG FU 17 THE NEW ZEALAND STORY 18 MIGHTY FINAL FIGHT 19 XEVIOUS 20 LEMMINGS 21 BLUE SHADOW 22 THE GOONIES II 23 PUYO PUYO 24 SUPER MARIO BROS 25 THE LAST NINJA 26 DONKEY KONG 27 PIRATES! 28 SOLOMON’S KEY 29 CASTLEVANIA 30 KICK OFF 31 RAMPAGE 32 GAUNTLET II 33 BASEBALL 34 LIFE FORCE 35 ADVENTURE ISLAND 36 IMPOSSIBLE MISSION II 37 SHATTERHAND 38 DOUBLE DRAGON 39 LUNAR POOL 40 RIVER CITY RANSOM 41 TENNIS 42 METAL GEAR 43 EXCITEBIKE 44 MS PAC-MAN 45 RENEGADE 46 NINJA GAIDEN…

“As with other Nintendo games, it’s a piece of people’s childhoods. Anyone who grew up owning a NES remembers it fondly Jerry Momoda ” Most gamers of a certain age will almost certainly have played Duck Hunt, for one simple reason – it was paired on a pack-in cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System along with one of the most popular and groundbreaking console games of all time, Super Mario Bros. But while Shigeru Miyamoto’s platform classic was undoubtedly the more attention-grabbing title of the compilation, Duck Hunt retains the endearing nostalgia of childhood, a cartoon shooting gallery with a sniggering canine companion and the hapless quacks of animated flapping ducks brought down by the simple act of pulling a plastic trigger. The grinning face of Duck Hunt ’s dog,…

When it comes to videogame trilogies, the NES provided gamers with some of the most memorable. Mario and the Belmont clan are still going strong after carving out their names in Nintendo’s three iconic Super Mario Bros. games and Konami’s trio of classic Castlevania s. Even NES favourite Ninja Gaiden made a longawaited return to the console scene in 2004 with an Xbox adventure, 13 years after Ryu Hayabusa sliced and diced his way through the last of three incredibly challenging NES games from Tecmo. Often forgotten among this list of NES trilogy heroes is Kuros, the valiant knight who first hefted his blade in Rare Ltd.’s Wizards & Warriors, published by Acclaim in North America in 1987, although Europe had to wait until 1990 to play it. Kuros returned…

Like Donkey Kong Country, Battletoads marked a pivotal point in Rare’s journey. In the same way that DKC was Rare’s last hurrah for the SNES – although not its last SNES title – Battletoads was Rare’s swansong of sorts for the NES – although not its final NES effort. Both games were, though, the culmination of everything that Rare learned about the intimate workings of Nintendo’s earliest consoles. And while Rare’s later SNES and NES games innovated in terms of gameplay, they had little scope to improve technically on their iconic predecessors or, indeed, to squeeze more into their carts. “Yeah, it was really full, if you know what I mean,” agrees Kevin Bayliss, Battletoads’ codesigner, “there wasn’t a lot more we could cram in. We were constantly measuring the…

Why it’s collectable In 1983, Nintendo unleashed one of Japan’s finest products to date. The Family Computer (Famicom) was the latest 8-bit console to be released, and it would become the bestselling system available by the end of 1984. Upon its US launch, the rebranded Famicom, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), refuelled the country’s dying videogame industry. Homeward bound, however, what did Europeans have to get excited about with the iconic console? It certainly wasn’t the lack of localised releases, nor the fact that Nintendo really took its time delivering what the rest of the world was already talking about… Prior to the console’s European release, gamers had been drowning in an ocean of low-quality software. Atari had exhausted the 2600 with just about everything its dated hardware could handle,…

Year released: 1986 (US), 1987 (UK and Japan) Original price: £99 (Core Pack) Buy it now for: £15+ Associated magazines: Mean Machines, Computer+Video Games Why the Master System was great: With a far brighter colour pallette than Nintendo’s NES and some superb arcade conversions, the Master System proved to be a cracking purchase if you were a die-hard Sega fan The Sega Master System is something of an enigma. One of the most powerful home consoles of its time, the machine is barely worthy of a footnote when it comes to deconstructing the history of the American and Japanese gaming industries. It sank almost without trace in these two key territories, failing to make even a dent in the seemingly impregnable armour of Nintendo’s NES (or Famicom). However, in other…

Thou must practice here,” says the old master. In a game like Kenseiden we’re fine with the prospect of a little practice – after the tough opening stages, some respite seems welcome. However, this is no simple workout. Kenseiden’s training stages demand incredible precision from players, as only a single hit will end your training session and cause a small loss of life. Considering the relentless barrage of arrows that appears from both sides of the screen and the tricky timing that is required to dodge spear traps, that’s a pretty harsh failure condition. Of course, you’re not taking this risk for no reward – successfully clearing one of these practice stages can bring some massive benefits. In a game where health refills are sparse and extra lives rarer still,…

The Kameo Kidd Alex has popped up in plenty of different Sega games over the years… ALTERED BEAST ▪The names of Alex and girlfriend Stella are chiselled onto gravestones. Spooky prediction of Alex’s death as Sega mascot or a knowing Sega poking fun? KENSEIDEN ▪Another stone-based cameo – this one in the hack-and-slash SMS platformer Kenseiden. On the third stage Alex’s face can be seen hidden in the cave walls. SEGAGAGA ▪Alex’s most memorable cameo was in Segagaga, where he appeared as a videogame store clerk lamenting his treatment by Sega following the arrival of the blue spiky one. SHENMUE ▪Alex collectable capsule toys appear in both Shenmue instalments. Other Sega personalities given the Kinder Egg treatment include Opa-Opa, Ristar and Virtua Fighter cast members. SEGA SUPERSTARS SERIES ▪More recently,…

IN THE KNOW » PUBLISHER: NINTENDO » DEVELOPER: NINTENDO » RELEASED: 1987 » GENRE: SPORT (BOXING) » EXPECT TO PAY: £3+ The 2006 film Rocky Balboa saw the iconic boxer step back in the ring, in a fight that pitted the fibrous veteran against a younger, technically superior opponent. Chicken chasing, meat pounding and inspiring fanfare aside, the film poses the question: if you took two heavyweight fighters, from two different eras, who would prove victorious? So what would happen if you pitted the former Eighties videogame champ Punch-Out!! against a new breed of boxing brawlers? Cue montage. Back in 1984, Nintendo released an innovative arcade boxing game called Punch-Out!!. Its cartoon tale about a transparent pugilist working his way up through a rank of oddball fighters quickly attracted droves…

Sega’s Master System is a misunderstood console that doesn’t get the love it deserves. This misplaced loyalty for Sega’s machine could be down to the fact that it never secured the same success in Japan and America as it did in Europe, or it could be down to people simply not realising how good a console it actually was. In addition to featuring some extremely impressive arcade conversions in the form of Space Harrier, Operation Wolf, Shinobi and Bubble Bobble, it also delivered plenty of original content as well. Phantasy Star, Zillion, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap and Castle Of Illusion were just a few of the original games that harnessed the power of Sega’s 8-bit console, while it’s technology would be largely used to form the inspiration of…

PSYCHO FOX » RELEASED: 1989 » PUBLISHED BY: SEGA » CREATED BY: VIC TOKAI » BY THE SAME DEVELOPER: BLOCK GAL 01 It’s not the greatest platformer ever made, but it was one of the few Master System titles that went on to become synonymous with the system. And any game about a fox battling a god has to make it on to some kind of list. Apparently the prequel to the awesomely entitled Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure (which would later become known as DecapAttack in the West), Psycho Fox is a wonderfully vivid platform adventure that’s quite a bugger to master if we’re being frank. Boasting Mario-style warping and the funniest attack in any videogame ever; a punch which looks a little like Psycho Fox is continually getting…

“SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 101” ▪Sonic’s core offering is platform games, in which the goal is to clear stages en route to a showdown with the nefarious scientist Dr Robotnik, who enslaves animals in robotic shells. Collecting gold rings protects him from death, while grabbing Chaos Emeralds is required to see each game’s best ending. I f there was one thing that Sega craved at the beginning of the Nineties, it was star power. Despite boasting good conversions of some extremely popular arcade games, its Master System had struggled on the world stage for a variety of reasons, one of which was that it lacked a true competitor to Nintendo’s marketing juggernaut Mario. The plumber’s family-friendly appeal was backed with some classic videogames, whereas Sega’s mascot Alex Kidd had suffered from…

Picking on someone your own size is overrated. Sure, picking on someone smaller is obviously detestable and fairness is lovely, but we’re not looking at smaller opposition – we’re looking to go big or go home. Luckily for us, after beating all manner of cannon fodder and some increasingly tough regular enemies, we reach the shrine and find Ankharat – a big, ugly boss character who is in need of a good smiting. If you’re unfamiliar with Ys, the method of beating him might seem flat-out suicidal, as you have to run right into him to deal any damage. Unfortunately for you, that task is complicated by the flame jets shooting from the walls of Ankharat’s lair – you’ll be toast before you can strike the fatal blow if you…