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toby 
toby Game reviews | Friends | Lists
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Karateka This game had a lot going for it. Imagine Street Fighter II ten years before it came out. Also very nice Japanese settings and feel. Unfortunately it was marred by the Atari 7800 joystick. Apparently it was available on platforms with better controls though. |
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RoboCop Released shortly after the movie, it was a side scroller with fairly incredible graphics for the time. For some reason every pizza restaurant in the late 80s seemed to have this. Hey, I'm not complaining. |
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Joust One of the best two player games ever. Ostriches, lava and knights! Games have been all down hill since the days of the static level layout. |
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DuckTales Believe it or not this was a great game. You could pogo stick on your cane and do other various cool things. I still remember how excited I was when I found the hidden treasure in the mine level. Plus, DuckTales was generally awesome because it taught kids about the value of money (turns out it's pretty valuable). |
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1942 What Galactix was ripping off (only in the future and in space). Best in table-top arcade format. |
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Galactix Simple space shooting shareware but good none the less. Use your claw to grab cool stuff in the x-axis only. |
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SkiFree Alpine Racer may have had realism going for it but SkiFree was actually more fun. If you went far enough a monster would come and beat your ass. |
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Miner VGA I wanted to review this bad enough that I added it to Freebase. It's THAT good. You play a lowly miner looking for love in the local brothel. You get ahead by mining for precious elements and avoiding typical miner dangers (cave-ins, floods...). Also you can buy crap from the store. Another classic single floppy masterpiece. |
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Alpine Racer A lot like Dance Dance Revolution with no dancing and more skiing. Basically it was a huge "novelty" arcade machine that had you standing on skis and weaving back and forth between gates. It was actually quite good, and the graphics were top notch. Some true 3d shit.
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Death Rally Top down was a big thing in the mid-late 90s. Don't ask me why, it's a bit of stiff view imo. That being said, Death Rally ruled. Combat racing with very good graphics for the time. A shareware shocker that apparently has been redone as freeware (although I haven't played it). |
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ActRaiser This may have been the best game ever made. Part Populous, part Altered Beast, 100% amazing. I think it was a launch title for SNES. Had a killer soundtrack (I know I say that a lot in these reviews, but this one is no joke). |
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Dr. Mario Tetris ripoff with a pharmaceutical bent. Had really good split screen competitive play and a funky soundtrack. Technically I don't think Mario is a great surgeon but he seemed effective enough at wiping out the common cold. |
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Neverwinter Nights The original MMORPG. AOL only please. I actually think you could get it for free if you signed up for an account. The box was a hideous gold with ultra-thick stock cardboard. I can't comment too much on gameplay as my AOL dial-in number was long distance at the time, and this wasn't really worth the 25 cents/minute telephone charge to play. |
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Gorillas The ultimate last ditch attempt at having fun on a school controlled computer. |
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T&C Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage Really rubbish Nintendo cart that perpetuated the California lifestyle. This was basically an ad for a surfware company that was at the pinnacle of style in the 80s. You could play an ape that went through cheap California Games ripoff levels. |
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Bonk Flagship platformer for the TurboGrafx 16. Cart format was probably the best part as they were ultra-thin cardlike things and played on the Turbo Express as well. Real gamers only please. |
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Battletoads Toads swingin' pipes. What more could you want? Also quite difficult at times and suffered from "alignment" issues due to having a depth of field. Still it was pretty awesome and definitely pushed the NES to its limits. One of the last generation of games for that platform. |
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Space Hulk I was so excited when I brought this home, the box was amazing! Unfortunately my system barely could handle the cutting edge graphics and sound. After a few days of tweaking, I was up and running with this futuristic real-time, top-down/fps combo. Crazy setup but it had its own thing going on. Recommended for innovation. |
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Hugo's House of Horrors If video games could be the equivalent of b rate movies, this would surely qualify. Shareware adventure that appeared to be created with a make your own adventure game toolkit. Still it gets props for even existing (most adventure didn't slum it as shareware) and spawning a series of sequels. |
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Base Wars Baseball is for the most part only consumable in video game form. Add in angry robot players, violent scuffles, android power-ups and I'm sold. Everything is better with robots (that fight). |
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Bard's Tale Not as good as M&M in my opinion but still warrants a mention. It's possible I don't like it as much because I bought it in a discount bin in 1990 so it was a bit past its prime. |
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Might and Magic: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum The ultimate RPG. I still remember my best party members names (Blood Sloth and Turbo Weapon). This game put me dangerously close to falling into the D&D abyss. Thankfully real life role playing was never as entertaining as endlessly wandering through pixelated mazes. |
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Top Gear Killer SNES driver with split screen mode for racing duels. It's all about tactical breaking and manual transmission (shift with L/R). Contained ubiquitous night racing tracks. |
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Super R-Type SNES based remake of the classic Japanese R-Type arcade. Side-scrolling ultra-futuristic Alien style graphics. Bosses and power-ups galore. |
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Alone in the Dark This what happens when you mix H.P. Lovecraft and flight simulator graphics. Overall it was a great step forward in game concept and design. Some of the camera angles could be difficult to deal with, but definitely a classic. |
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Descent First person more or less true 3d ship based action shoot 'em up. Excellent gameplay and level design that encouraged dogfighting. Caused actual nausea. |
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GoldenEye 007 My friends and I used to get so bored that one of us would shoot a single bullet hole in a wall somewhere, then the others would spend hours wandering around looking for it. I can't say I associate such doldrums with super fun, but it had its moments. |
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Peggle I'll venture from the realm of classic gaming to give this a big thumbs up. Nice touches like the music and slowdown at the end of the level, and weird character design add a lot. Mostly though the game play is some of the best out there. |
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3D Maze FPS FPS! Well not really, but it was a first person maze adventure with slight redraw issues. I used to play this one on the Vic 20. It took about 5 minutes to load off the radical Vic cassette drive. Nothing like playing games off the same media your Survivor albums came on. |
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Duke Nukem 3D Pig cops, pipe bombs, toilet graffiti and great multiplayer! Also a pretty decent level designer (although I don't remember if that was included with the game proper). Personally I thought this was much more fun than Quake which came shortly thereafter. |
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Guilty Gear X High impact 2d fighter for the PS2. At the time 3d was thought to be the be all end all of fighting technology (thanks Tekken). GGX may be the pinnacle of the genre. Very fast game play, excellent characters, animation and music. Might be a bit on the easy side though. |
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Colonization The neglected sibling of Civilization and every bit as good. Rip America a new one as you bring down old world might on new world resources. Great game. |
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Anchorhead Relatively recent (1998) gothic Lovecraftian interactive fiction. I'm still playing it so probably shouldn't review it, but it's very cool so far. Play it on Frotz for the iPhone. They've got a great IF archive browser built in. |
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Knights of Xentar Gold farming with semi-erotic content. Yes! Imported by seminal Megatech Software, I was hooked as soon as I saw the ad in Compute magazine. I'm pretty sure I procured this on a bbs, so that made it even cooler. |
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R.C. Pro-Am Capitalizing on the remote control car craze of the 80s (remember the Punky Brewster episode where Allen had a kick ass rc?), R.C. Pro-Am transcended the fad to provide top notch top down racing. Similar to Super Off Road in the range of power-ups but with slightly less selection. |
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Conquests of the Longbow Excellent Sierra mouse based adventure featuring the highly sought-after VGA graphics (at the time of course). Quite frankly I thought back to this game many times when deciding to move to the UK. |
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One Must Fall: 2097 Kick ass robot based fighting shareware from Epic MegaGames. Post-SFII so this type of thing was all the rage, but OMF2097 stood out. I remember playing against my friend on the same keyboard at the same time! Nothing like some close up fighting action. |
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Sam & Max Hit the Road All of the LucasArts adventure games are amazing but I particularly love this one as it reminds me of my own road trips through the more desolate parts of the US. Visit crazy roadside attractions (e.g. The Biggest Ball of Twine). Early-ish CD game with good voice overs. |
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Star Control II Rebranded as Ur-Quan Masters and released as open source, Star Control II remains one of the best spaced based exploration games. The universe is HUGE and allows for a large degree of free form playing. Explore multiple systems and planets, harvest resources and fight humorous aliens out in deep space. A total winner. |
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B.A.T. Gritty sci-fi cyberpunk adventure rpg. Mouse based controls and often difficult to figure out what to do, B.A.T. highlights included great "set" design that really got across the Total Recall vibe. I think I picked it up for $5 in 1990, so it was definitely a good deal. |
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The Incredible Machine Before there was World of Goo there was the Incredible Machine. Similar in concept but more elaborate, TIM required the construction of Goldberg-esque contraptions that would work to complete a goal. There were also a set of great sequels with my favorite being The Even More Incredible Machine. |
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Epic Pinball One of several pinball games that came out around the time, and definitely the best. The free Android table rocked with others available via shareware upgrade. Lots of opportunity to power up your Android with various ramps and multipliers. Really great game play. |
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Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure Sort of like a cross between Sonic, Zool and Megaman. Cosmo was known for having plunger hands that allowed for various sticking maneuvers. Another game with great music. The second or third level sounds a lot like Van Halen - Dancing in the Streets. |
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Syndicate Very cool isometric action shooter for the computer that allowed for what can only be called megadistruction. An early example of the type. |
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Darkstalkers Post-SFII Capcom fantasy fighter. Morrigan was the way to go. Arcade was the best but you could get a pretty decent version for the PS2. |
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Shinobi Very good arcade ninja sidescroller. The bonus level made the game. First person ninja star tossfest at enemy ninjas that get progressively closer. The death scene when they actually reach you is a classic. |
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Star Wars Great vector based Star Wars multi-mode arcade. Probably the first of many, many Star Wars based games. Often found in extra large sit in arcade machine format. |
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SimTower Another "management" simulator. Excellent cutaway view of a tower lets you peer into the lives of your serf-like residents. |
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Pizza Tycoon Nothing like managing a Pizza joint. Design pies, arrange furniture and the like. A much preferred option to actually working in a restaurant. |
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TradeWars 2002 Great multiperson ANSI BBS turn based intergalactic trading adventure. Normally you'd only get a small amount of time each day as the BBS wouldn't want you tying up their limited number of lines trading spices. |
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Super Off Road Best in the arcade. I remember spending tens of dollars stocking up on nitros and engine upgrades. Steering wheel control that could entertain after you ran out of money by seeing how fast you could spin it. |
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Final Fight Pre-Street Fighter II side scrolling platform but hinting at 2d fighting games to come. Definitive subway fighting stage. |
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Willow Zelda-esque top down adventure. Best sword upgrade path I've ever seen. Willow was pretty bad ass once he got the flaming sword. Many, many hours of game play to beat. |
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The 7th Guest One of the first games on two cds, costs an exorbitant $99. The game kind of sucked although the "full motion video" wasn't bad. The best part by far was the hidden soundtrack on disc 2. Found out about it by putting the cd in my stereo. It still rocks. |
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Food Fight Great food action arcade port for the Atari 7800. Ice cream was particularly dangerous if I remember correctly. |
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Wings of Fury Absolutely brilliant WWII arcade flyer for mid-80s computers. Side perspective with two "zoom" settings. Best aircraft carrier takeoff and landing gameplay ever. |
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The Black Cauldron Great adventure game for Apple II based on the movie. Sort of like Kings Quest with a bit more structure. I vaguely remember something about sheep. |
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The Duel: Test Drive II By far the best racing game for the Apple IIgs. Good 80s car selection and controls. Sort of had a Penthouse advertising glossy look. |
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Stunt Island More or less entirely dedicated to filming "instant replays" that were popular at the time. Published by Disney!? but don't let that be a deterrent. |
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Street Fighter II Still the best fighting game (although later permutations were better). I want to live in Balrog's Las Vegas. |
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Winter Games The biathalon with the Atari 7800 controller would be deemed a finable offense by OSHA today. Still this is by far the best winter game simulator. Bobsledding and ski jumping! |
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NARC "Winners don't use drugs", but they blow the shit out of prostitutes in meth labs using rocket launchers. Amazing Porche driving action. |
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Crossbow Old Atari cart, shooter ala Hogan's Alley. I always really liked the venues. I never played it with a gun (I'm not even sure one existed for the 7800) but it was fun enough with the stock controller. |
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720° Great skateboarding arcade game with psychotic (but usable) rotating joystick. Compete in events for cash and stock up on gear. A must play if you can find a working machine. |
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Indianapolis 500: The Simulation One hell of a racing game. Do the Indy 500 in real time! Also very good instant replay recording options with multiple camera angles. That was a popular racing game feature at the time, but never ceased to be entertaining. |
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Scorched Earth Turn based tank shooting classic. Amazing weapon selection and optional "speech" packs. Nothing like blasting your friend with a MIRV and having your tank say "Momma said knock you out!". |
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Rise of the Triad Post-Doom, pre-Duke Nukem 3D. One of Apogees first forays into first person shooters. Very cool weapons and great vibe. |
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4D Sports Boxing The best boxing game ever made and probably one of the best sports games. Best to use the num pad. Having your boxers ability peak and then decay with age provides a massive challenge. I've never seen anyone beat the game. |
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Zool Crazy platform action with tons of in game product placement from Chupa Chups! Weird and amazing. |
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Raptor: Call of the Shadows Very high end Apogee action shareware for its time. Still plays great. |
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Cannon Fodder Another great shareware action game. Mid 90s with unique music and wild action. Love the graveyard score keeping. |
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Police Quest I: In Pursuit of the Death Angel I recommend playing the original with the text based input. A Sierra classic and one of the better adventure games out there. |
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Neo Turf Masters Very good vibe and game play. The music is awesome and relaxing, very Japanese. |
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toby
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