Punch Out - Nes Boxing Game

This was an exciting boxing game when I first played it. The action was fast and smooth and the punches felt right. I loved the different characters that you had to fight and I liked the way there was a strategy that was required to beat them.

I still remembered when I got all the way to Mike Tyson and beat him. What joy! What satisfaction! Boy! Was it rewarding.

Magnavox Odyssey - What a Name! What a load of...names.

Philips Videopac G7000 aka Magnavox Odyssey aka Philips Odyssey aka the console I played with my Uncle but couldn't be bothered to remember the name. Only two games were available to me when I was young and those two games I cannot for the life of me remember what their names were. One was a space invaders game, while the other one was a racing game. The powers of the internet meant I could find those games and what a surprise it was. The racing game was called Race and the space invader game was called Space Monster. There was me thinking it was going to be 2D Turbo Racer Driver or Space Fighter Universe.

Schneider 7200 - The Philips VideoPac Variant

Look at this monstrosity of a design! Wow! A built in black and white monitor with a flat keyboard and 2 detachable controllers. In fact there is a white version which looked ridiculously awful. Check out this website that has a comprehensive overview of this unique and rare computer/games machine. If only I was born many years earlier I would have bought one of these and played this to the death!

Castlevania 3 - Dracula's Curse

The music captured the right atmosphere and made me want to enter the castle and bust some skeletons. I couldn't wait to power up my whips and get some random spells that tend to run out towards the end of the level when I'm facing a boss.

The controls are stiff and the character ponders at a leisurely pace. The graphics are nice with some impressive sprite animation and the usual 8 bit finesse but with the somewhat unusual unsatisfying weird Nintendo color palette.

Chuckie Wars - Blood Revolution

Classic games like Chuckie Egg are long gone. They'll probably update or remix this game for the PSP or Xbox Live. Games like these would be called Chuckie Wars - Blood Revolution. Graphics updated from 8 colors to 16 millions colors. Frame rate improvement from 4 to 60. Stereo sound effects of the chicken squawking and a techno epic styled soundtrack. Main character would get a machine gun so he could splatter the birds. Oh, blood and entrails would be required. Instead of collecting eggs, you have to collect powerups that can do even more damage to the birds. Oh, have an end of level boss that looks frightening deformed with a science fiction background. Oh, and the birds would probably have to be replaced with humans.

Chuckie Egg - Best Game Ever

Instant playability. Great jumping compared to other platform games. No stiffy jobs or micro second timing required.

Addictive game play that makes you want to play again and again. Good for 30 seconds and realistically playable for hours.

Simple objective, collect all the eggs and avoid the birds. No bothersome cut scenes or mandatory craptacular puzzles to solve.

Great graphics in terms of simplicity and layout so you know what to do without thinking. Great sound, so basic and simple that it fits the game perfectly.

River City Ransom - River City Rubbish!

Everything from the graphics to the sounds, to the story lines, to the potential martial art power up and special items bought in shops was absolutely lifeless, bland and mind-numbingly dull.

The free roaming feature was just a feature I dreaded in this game as I kept wondering if I was going to do any backtracking.

It felt like work trying to play this game and what ever compels someone to complete this game is beyond me. Maybe it's because I have become so used to current games where beat em ups felt like I was beating something up. This game has been overrated and underrated. To me, I don't know what the fuss is.

The Commodore 64 - The King of 8 Bit Computer Games.

There is no doubt that this was the ultimate 8 bit home computer. It had the best sound, the best graphics in terms of scrolling and sprite capability and the huge software collection made it the best selling home computer.

The home computer was so successful especially in Europe that Commodore kept putting back it's discontinuation date due its demand. Even today, there is still a large fan base with some Eastern Manufacturers making clones of the machine and recently Nintendo started to introduce some of it's games on their online download service.

8 Bit Wars - Spectrum vs Amstrad vs Commodore.

The 8 Bit-era was just simply the best time for home computing. No virus, no booting and no online updates. It was also the era where you knew that if you have the skills you could program a game in the comfort of your bedroom. Nowadays, you have to spend so much money on a computer and the cost of development is absolutely astronomical!

The computers back then were the Spectrum, Amstrad and the Commodore 64. The Spectrum had the cheapest games and were the most playable since the graphics couldn't compete with the other two.

The Amstrad had better graphics than the Spectrum and the sound capabilities could not compete with the Commodore 64. However, when it came to the graphics it had a better palette than the Commodore and most of the software were available on a disk.

The Commodore 64 trounced the other two when it came to sound capabilities and the games had very smooth scrolling which both the Spectrum and the Amstrad seemed to struggle with.

What was interesting about the the three computers was the fact they each had very unique set of buyers. The Spectrum for the those on a budget, the Amstrad for those who needed business applications and the Commodore for those who could afford one.

Operation Wolf - Amstrad Action

This was simply an awesome game. It was the best version amongst the 8 bit trio.
It had the most colors and the action was non stop. The music was fantastic and created enough atmosphere to feel like you wanted to shoot some 8 bit pixellated enemy soldiers.

So what can you do? You can shoot dangerous animals so they can drop useful items. You can shoot helicopters, tanks, soldiers and throw grenades. What you can't do is shoot civilians and hostages as they will deplete your energy.

An absolutely stonking conversion of the original arcade machine!