The Together Retro Game Club has passed the four month mark and the growing community has already had some great times enjoying some games many of us just never made the time for previously.  However, two of the major challenges with a game club are the different amounts of free time and genre preferences between the members.

First of all, depending on what point you are in your life and what responsibilities you have (school/career/family/etc), you may have only a small portion of your week to actually devote to gaming, or you may have lots of free time that lets you explore all sorts of games.  And as an off-shoot of that concept, many people don’t have the time, attention span, or desire to play longer story-driven games like RPGs.

Because of this, we have had a handful of debates about how quick the pace should be for Together Retro and how many RPGs should be included.  After these discussions, we have decided to try having to different Together Retro paths.  The main one, which is most similar to the way we have been arranging it so far, will consist mostly of shorter games that are easy to play every now and each game will jump around between genres.  The second path will focus on longer games such as RPG, and possibly some more involved action/adventure games.

The beauty of this setup is that you don’t necessarily have to choose one or the other.  If you have a lot of free time and want to get the most of the club, you can play both the longer games and sprinkle in the shorter games for variety.  However, if you are more limited on free time, like myself, you can just stick with the shorter games.  And of course, if you a just a lover of story-driven games, you’re free to stick with that path.

I’m hoping this concept works out well and the discussions for each game will still be strong and helpful to those involved.  Of course, if you have any suggestions along the way, feel free to start bring something up in the General Together Retro discussion thread.

Anyway, to kick off this story-based path with a good RPG, I want to let everyone vote for the game they would most like to play first.  As usual, keep in mind that we are not necessarily voting for which game is the best out of the bunch, but which one you think that most of us haven’t already played recently, but would enjoy diving into.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

If you’re ever wondered what Rez would be like in 2D, Space Invaders Extreme is one of the closest examples you will find.   That’s right, this is not another one of those vanilla Space Invaders remakes.  The masterminds at Taito and Square/Enix have put a fresh spin on the pioneering game to bring it more into the league of the modern arcade shooters on XBLA and PSN like Geometry Wars and Everyday Shooter.  Much like Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s masterpiece, Space Invaders Extreme is a wonderful mix of rapid shooting, a juxtaposition of colors, and a dynamic audio experience that is partially created by you’re the rhythm of your shooting..

Gameplay: 9

While most of the stages in Extreme have the classic Space Invaders enemy patterns, they usually have a unique spin on them in order to keep things fresh and interesting.   There are also a variety of special weapons (lasers, bombs, wide shot, etc) that keeps your appetite for destruction going strong.

Every so often, you will see a flashing rainbow UFO traveling across the top of the screen.  If you shoot it, you are thrown into a bonus stage that takes more liberties with the enemy patters and gives you different objectives to meet within a short period of time.  If you are successful in meeting the goal, you are treated to a Fever Mode back in the normal game that gives you rapid-firing bonus weapons for a limited amount of time.  Not only does the Fever Mode let you fly through some of the level quickly and easily, but it also give you the opportunity to rack up your score – especially with the Jackpot bonuses for shooting UFOs.

Also at the end of every stage, there are bosses to defeat.  Even the bosses remind me a bit of the ones in Rez.  Nothing too difficult (at least in the first part of the game), but a bit more challenging and engaging than your standard enemies.

Space Invaders Extreme also does a great job of increasing the difficulty as you progress through the levels.  Later levels don’t simply get faster, there are also more complex enemy formations, shielded enemies (require more than one shot), and some new types of enemies that will require you to shoot a bit more strategically.

I also felt that Space Invaders Extreme was a very fair game.  I had many moments when I struggled to get past a level, but it was always my fault.  It seemed that if I didn’t stay focused on both what I was shooting at and what projectiles were coming at me, I would get in trouble (primarily when your bullets quickly return back to after bouncing off of certain shields).   I guess many of these game concepts apply to most shmups, but I think it is especially true in this case.

The scoring system in Space Invaders Extreme is also very deep when it comes to chain combos and such.  However, to be honest, I have yet to really memorize/pay attention to them to the point of optimizing my scores just yet.  If you are a modern shmup fan, you’ll probably catch on a lot quicker and will appreciate what Taito has done with the game.  If you’d like to read a more detailed explanation of the scoring system, I would recommend RyanDG’s lengthy review on Arcade Renaissance.

Technicalities aside, Space Invaders is full of extremely fun, challenging, and satisfying gameplay.  Like most great games, it’s extremely easy to pick up but you can spend a long time mastering your skills.

Graphics/Presentation: 8

Space Invaders Extreme is oh so colorful.  It is definitely inspired by the likes of Geometry Wars, Meteos and Rez, but it still has its iconic Space Invaders charm.  The backgrounds are interesting and colorful, but nothing that will blow you away.  To be honest, Extreme could have made a bit better use of the DS hardware while maintaining the 2D look and feel, but I’ll let them off the hook for being a budget title.

The overall presentation and menu system has a modern look that suits the game well and is easy to navigate.  Not big surprise coming from Taito and Square/Enix, but it’s still appreciated.

Audio
As I mentioned before, the audio in Space Invaders Extreme seems to be heavily inspired by Rez, but doesn’t quite go far as far as they could have – It’s more like a watered-down Rez vibe.  Still very good, but there’s room for improvement.  (From what I’ve heard, the PSP version has better audio)

Multiplayer : 7

I heard a few guys in the forums talking about how they liked the multiplayer (whether it be online or local wireless) as it reminded them of a vs puzzle game setup like Puyo Puyo Fever.  Because that word of mouth and my adoration for the single-player game, I had very high hopes for the multiplayer modes.  Now, don’t get me wrong, the Multiplayer mode isn’t bad, it’s just not as good as the single-player mode, in my opinion.

As I mentioned before, some of the aspects that make the single player mode so good is the flood of weapons, bonus rounds/fever modes, and bosses that are sprinkled throughout the core gameplay.   It seemed to me like the Multiplayer modes lacked most of that.

You still have the weapon upgrades, but they seem far less abundant and I often found myself trying to peck away at a bunch of shielded enemies with my normal weapon.  I suppose that’s all well and good if you’re an old-school Space Invaders purist, but it got a bit old for me.

From what I’ve heard and read, the key to success in the multiplayer mode was supposed to be shooting the UFOs (which are more abundant) in order to hurt your opponent.  The impression I got was that the more UFOs you shoot, the more enemies will show up in on your opponents screen.  I was trying to watch for this effect, but I just couldn’t see any difference between when I shot lots of UFOs and when I didn’t shoot any.  If this does have some effect on opponents, the developers should have given us a visual cue to this effect like having some enemies swoop from our bottom screen to the top (where we can view our opponent) , much like Puyo Puyo Fever.

Considering how the Bonus Rounds and Fever Modes worked in the single player mode, I was thinking it would be logical to transition that to the Multiplayer just like (again) Puyo Puyo Fever.

Again, most of these complains are due to high expectations and nitpicking.  In the end, my wife has bugged me numerous times to play against her.  That’s gotta be worth something.

Value: 10

If Space Invaders Extreme was $30, I would probably only recommend it to fans of old-school 2D shooting.  However at the budget price of $20, I have to recommend this gem to anyone that would frequent this site.  I’m far from a shmup expert, but I thought Space Invaders Extreme is one of the best values on the DS right now.  The game also happens to be very easy to find even in big retailers like Wal-Mart or Target.
You can also order it easily at Amazon.com

Overall: 9

The bottom line is that if you are into old-school games with a modern flair, Space Invaders Extreme is practically a required purchase for your DS library.  While I haven’t played the PSP port, I would strongly recommend PSP owners give it a try.  At $20, you really can’t go wrong with Space Invaders Extreme.

Presented by: Fastbilly1, Marurun, & Racketboy
New To Together Retro? Check out the introduction to the club

If you have been reading Racketboy for the past year you would have already heard some of our opinions on this title. Yes the blockbuster vehicular combat game, R.C. Pro-AM makes yet another appearance on the front page of Racketboy. However this time around we are asking everyone in Together Retro to give it a whirl.

About The Game

Released in 1988 R.C. Pro-AM is an isometric vehicular combat game that in really brought the genre to the general gaming populace. Rareware, known for their amazing Spectrum games, took a bold leap onto the NES and it paid off in spades. While it is not as well known as their later offerings, it did jumpstart a genre and is still a staple of the type. Featuring four different vehicles racing around thirty two tracks of a dastardly caliber, RC Pro-AM is a bare knuckle run of intense RC action.

Using simple controls and hard action, RC Pro-AM is simply elegant. Not elegant like a fine wine or an M.G. Turbo, but elegant because of its simplistic approach and expert execution of the genre. With only an accelerator and a trigger, it some how coaxes a level of depth from the controls that is sublime. Drifting, while essential, is an artform. Timing for the attacks is a skill that must be honed, while the timing for the hazards must come from hard experience. While it may seem pale compared to more modern combat racing games, as I have already said, its simplicity is what makes it amazing. With only a handful of powerups and some of the most difficult tracks for any 8bit game, the game is less about winning by a mile and more about winning by a fraction of a second. Quite often you will find that the race comes down to the last corner for atleast three of the racers (Blue is usually alittle slower than Green and Yellow).

If you’d like to learn more about this game, Fastbilly1 actually wrote a full review for the site a while back.

Recommended Ports

We will be playing the NES version, but if you grow weary of the same courses you can give the following sequels/remakes a try:

• RC Pro-AM 2 - The brilliant NES sequel that features four player action.
• Super RC Pro-AM – Four player portable sequel care of the Gameboy platform.
• Championship Pro-AM – The Genesis remake with enhanced graphics, five opponents, and numerous gameplay tweaks.

Emulation for RC Pro AM

If you don’t have an NES, emulation is are very viable option. NES emulators are a dime a dozen and available for just about any platform. The best NES emulators really come down to personal preference.  All of the major ones run the game fine so really it comes down to choice in user interfaces.

For the PC, I like NNNesterJ, namely since it supports Kalleria, however UltraFCE is a very popular choice, and who can forget Nesticle.  They are all drop and play emulators with very little configuration needed.

However if you are clever and would rather play it on a portable or even the Dreamcast, check out the racketboy links below.  If you need assitance setting up any emulator, please post your question in the Emulation section of the forum

• Play NES Games on the Dreamcast with NesterDC
• Play NES Games on the Nintendo DS with nesDS

How To Play / Controls

This isn’t your typical racer, so the steering might take a little getting used to.  Other than that, it’s pretty straightforward.  Here’s the run-down.

• D-Pad: Your steering is always relative to you car’s current position, not which way you want to go on the screen.
• A Button: Horn or Missile/Bomb
• B Button: Accelerate

There are only a handful of things you will need to keep track of during the races. Most importantly are the three weapons and four powerups.

The Weapons

• Rockets (forward attacks)
• Bombs (rear attacks)
• Roll Cages (invulnerability)

While Powerups

• Gears (acceleration)
• Engine (top speed)
• Tire (grip)
• Letters (car upgrade)

While the powerups effectiveness is debatable, except for the Letters (after completing the word NINTENDO your car is upgraded - Truck to Van to Racecar). Weapons are always useful and while some prefer bombs to rockets the majority find rockets the easiest to use. As for the obstacles, I will leave those up for you to discover on during your races.

Together Retro Discussion

Instead of posting in the comments section of the blog, we will be using the forum for all of our discussion in order to keep things more organized. So play RC Pro-AM and talk to us about your thoughts and play experiences in the forums. We want to know your tactics, your strategies, your successes and your failures

• RC Pro AM General Discussion
• Post Your Best Times / Progress
• Extra Credit: The Sequels and Spinoffs

Presented by: Mozgus, Ivo, and Racketboy
New To Together Retro? Check out the introduction to the club

What’s The Deal With This “Special Weekend Edition”?

Motivated by Blizzard’s announcement of Diablo 3 (and the rather enticing gameplay video), forum regular Mozgus suggested a revival of playing Diablo 2 on Battle.net (most likely, playing with the expansion, Lord of Destruction which noticeably improves the original). Also, Blizzard recently released patch 1.12, which conveniently lets you play without the CDs (you obviously still need to have legit CD-keys!)

The idea was basically to play with other members of our community rather than with unknown people. Anyone interested in this is welcome to join channel “racketboy” on Battle.net’s US East. Other members will hopefully gather in that channel before / between games, or try directly joining games named “racketboy”, (or, if there’s need for it “racketboy1″ etc), with password “retro”.

Although anyone is obviously free to join whenever and create their “racketboy” games, without set times and dates it is relatively unlikely that many people will be online to play together - for this reason we decided to make this blog post to give the idea more notoriety, and also to suggest weekend “official” sessions, which I decided dub with a silly name to help people remember it: ORDERS (”Official” Racketboy Diablo 2 East Revival Sessions).

The Goal

The idea is to play D2+LoD from start to finish with the same party of seven players, one with each class (details: normal difficulty only, Ladder characters on Battle.net’s realm US East. Those characters are meant to only be used in the group sessions, until it is finished when you can then use them for anything else)

When To Play

I’m counting on two Sundays. I want to start on the Sunday 13th, and conclude on Sunday 20th (we might have to play a bit more to complete Act 5 on the 20th).

Starting Time of First Session

9:30 EST = 15:30 BST = 14:30 GMT

(then after finishing Act 1 on the session 1 (13th) we decide together how much time we need for a break and reconvene for Act 2;
the session 3 (20th) starts again at 9:30 EST, and we decide how much time until we reconvene for Act 4, and Act 5.
Depending on how long each Act takes us, we don’t need to be too strict in this other than everyone showing up on the STARTING TIME)

Further Details

This concept was kinda a spontaneous idea, so not all the information has been finalized for this post.  Check these forum threads for more discussion of times, teams, and other details…

• Diablo 2 Weekly Weekend Get-Together Thread
• Diablo 2 “7 Player Team” Thread

Obtaining Diablo II from Blizzard

Mozgus writes, “I suggest also mentioning that people with legit keys can register them at http://blizzard.com/store/, after registering for an account. This lists the game as legally owned and gives you access to the new digital download version of Diablo 2 and Lord of Destruction. This disc-less installer is much more modern and slick, installs much faster thanks to it not asking you to swap multiple discs during the process, and it also installs pre-patched to 1.12, which obviously will never ask you for a disc. When you register your CDkey, there will be a link that says Show Key, which actually shows a new 26 digit key, which replaces your old 16 digit CDkey.

I followed this process with Warcraft 3, Frozen Throne, StarCraft, and Brood War. All 6 games nicely fit on one DVD-R, if you remove the Direct X installers. You can always use the 300KB DX web update exe from Microsoft. Some installers will mention the DX portion is missing, but just proceed anyway.
Another tip: All my machines run Diablo 2 poorly in Direct3D mode, so run the Vid Test from the Start menu, then select DirectDraw instead. Runs much better, and looks the same aside from D3D’s “perspective” mode being enabled, which just makes me go cross-eyed anyway.”

Finding Diablo II In Retail

Even though the game has been around for a while, you should be able to find it in just about any major retailer that sells games.  This includes the likes of Wal-Mart, Target, and GameStop.  You will probably be most likely to find the Diablo II Battle Chest.

How To Play Diablo II

Instead of spending too much time trying to explain the games, check out these guides at the useful StrategyWiki

• Diablo II
• Diablo II: Lord of Destruction

Note from racketboy:  You can definitely tell when Fastbilly1 is passionate about a topic…. This time he shares his thoughts and research of an oft-overlooked component of the Nintendo Entertainment Systems, the Select Button.

Often it is shoved to the side, disregarded, or the target of outright hatred.  Many gamers do not believe it is useful and many more have never cared to think about it.  That little button, often right in the middle of the controller, called select always gets a “bad rap.”  Well being that I am currently on a NES kick I decided I would attempt to dispel some of the misguided hate toward this controller oddity.  The following is a list of games in which I have found that the select button is used (be it in the Menu or in the game).  It is not a complete list but I think it is enough to finally put to rest the statement that the button is completely useless.   Whether or not it still need’s to be on controllers apart from the NES is a whole other topic altogether.

I would like to remind everyone that this is not a definitive list and may possibly have factually inaccuracies.  If you have any comments or wish to add or correct, please comment.  This is mostly US NES games, if you have information for Japanese or European only releases I would love to hear them.   A large chunk of the information was obtained from the files hosted by the good folks at ReproductionDocs.com.  If you ever need an old manual, they are the best source for them in the world.

In-Game Use:

• A Boy and His Blob - Change Jelly Bean Types (Jelly Beans are used to transform the blob)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street - Change between Dreamwarriors (as the teenagers it is not used)
• Adventures of Lolo 1-3 - Used to start room over
• Airwolf - Decrease your speed
• Alien 3 - Select Weapon
• Alpha Mission - Select Weapon
• Amagon - To transform into Megagon (if you have the Mega-Key)
• Metroid - Selects missiles
• Batman -Pause (start cycles weapons)
• Captain American and the Avengers - Pause (start cycles through characters)
• Captain Comic - Allows you to teleport (only if you have the Magic Wand)
• Captain Skyhawk - Used in conjunction with left or right to barrel roll
• Castlevania II: Simons Quest - Hard pause (start brings up your inventory)
• Castlevania III - Menu use and to transform into a Spirit
• Caveman Games - Restarts event (only when already paused)
• Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers - Display stats
• Cobra Command - Display Subscreen
• Cobra Triangle - Activates flashing powerup
• Crystalis - Display Subscreen
• Cybernoid - Weapon select
• Darkwing Duck - Select Special Gas
• Days of Thunder - Pauses game (start button is unused)
• Dick Tracy - Get out of car and cycle weapons
• Double Dragon III - Change Weapons/Fighters
• Dr Chaos - Cycle Weapons while in the Warp Zones and Hallways
• Dragons Lair - Used on Menu and to pause
• Dynowarz - Satellite Attack (screen clearer)
• Elite - Activate Powerup
• Family Feud - Buzzes In
• Faxanadu - Displays the Item Screen
• Final Fantasy - Displays the Character Order screen
• Flight of the Intruder - When in the map, will allow you to skip waypoints
• Flying Dragon - Skip dialogue
• Friday the 13th - Select option while exploring
• Gauntlet II - Pauses the game (Start also pauses)
• Home Alone 2 - Select weapon
• Jack Nicklaus Greatest 18 holes - To check the money chart in a skins game
• Jurassic Park - Change Dart Types
• Kart Fighter - Switches buttons from punches to kicks (and vice versa)
• Kickle Cubicle - Kills stuck character and Menu Use
• Kid Icarus - Switch weapons
• Kings Knight - Used in conjunction with the reset button to enable Continue mode
• Kirby’s Adventure - Exhale enemy ability
• Legacy of the Wizard - Item select
• Maniac Mansion - Every thing
• Metal Gear - Brings up the Mode Selection menu and Menu Use
• Metroid - Activate missiles
• Mike Tyson’s Punchout/Punchout - Faster shoulder rub (recover health between rounds)
• Monopoly - Bring up Main Menu (start pauses)
• M.U.L.E. - Pauses Game
• NFL Football - Scrolls down lists
• Nightshade - Brings up Icon Menu
• Operation Wolf - Speed of cursor (in controller mode)
• PinBot - Bumps the cabinet to the right
• Puzzle - Toggles Music and Helpfile
• Pyramid - Toggles Music
• Rygar - Pauses Game (start brings up menu)
• Shadowgate - Displays hints
• Shingen the Ruler - Change parameters for the condition of the territory
• Solstice - Brings up select menu
• Strider - Changes “tricks”
• Super Glove Ball - Hold Down to clear a wall.  Hit to fire bullets
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Switch weapons
• Tetris (Nintendo) - Hides next block
• The Addams Family - To control Thing
• The Black Bass - Take the fish off the hook
• The Blue Marlin - To see Menu
• The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout - Pauses the game (start also pauses)
• The Flintstones - Use special items
• The Goonies II - Pauses the game (start switches to the auxiliary scene)
• The Legend of Zelda - Menu use and hard pause (start brought up the item screen)
• The Mafat Conspiracy - Menu use and to skip dialogues
• The Punisher - Select functions
• The Simpsons: Bart vs the Space Mutants - Switch items
• The Simpsons: Bart vs the World - Exit Minigame
• Wayne Gretzky Hockey - Menu use and to change players
• Wizard and Warriors - Use items or magic
• Wolverine - Extend Claws and/or Call Havoc
• Wrath of the Black Manta - Display Ninpo attacks
• Zen Intergalactic Ninja - Use health item

Menu Use:

• 1942
• 3d World Runner - Enable 3d mode
• 8 Eyes
• Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• Bad Dudes
• Balloon Fight
• Bases Loaded 1-4
• Battletoads
• Burgertime
• Castlevania
• Championship Rally - Brings up Password Menu
• Contra
• Double Dragon
• Dr Mario
• Duck Hunt
• Excitebike
• Ghost N Goblins
• Gradius
• Golf
• Gyromite
• Heavy Barrel
• Hook
• Ice Climber
• Ice Hockey
• KungFu
• Mach Rider
• Marble Madness
• Mario Bros.
• Mikey Mousecapades - Used with Dpad for level select
• Mission Impossible
• Pictionary
• P.O.W.
• Pro Wrestling
• Qix
• Rad Racer - Enable 3d Mode
• Raid on Bungeling Bay
• RBI Baseball
• Renegade
• Ring King
• Robocop
• Rolling Thunder
• Stealth ATF
• Super Mario Bros
• Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt
• Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet
• Super Mario Bros 3
• Tetris (Tengen)
• Tetris 2
• The Legend of Zelda II: Adventures of Link
• The New Zealand Story
• Thundercade
• Track and Field
• Volleyball
• WrestleMania: Steel Cage Challenge - Used to go to Next Menu
• Xevious
• Yoshi
• Zombie Nation - Select Difficulty (start actually starts the game)