Together Retro July 2020 - Retro Games by Black Creators

[marurun]

I may have been off a couple years. I don't actually know of any work he did specifically in the 90s.

[Nemoide]

I appreciate this theme, but it's tough to get information about this sort of thing... still there's one game I have my eye on this month - 1942: Joint Strike (2008) for Xbox 360 with Marcus Montgomery as the lead designer! It'll be fun to add to my 360 shmup collection and even though the game doesn't have great reviews, I expect it'll be fun. There's also Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3, also by Marcus Montgomery... we'll see what I'm in the mood for!

The other options I know I have in my collection is Jungle Strike or Urban Strike for Sega Genesis with design by Antonio Barnes. He also worked on Desert Strike, but only as a production assistant, so I feel like the sequels would be better options.

I look forward to seeing what other folks play!

[dsheinem]

Article is up: https://medium.com/@DrHeineman/retro-ga ... 8dcd5bcb3f

[pook99]

I appreciate this theme, but it's tough to get information about this sort of thing... still there's one game I have my eye on this month - 1942: Joint Strike (2008) for Xbox 360 with Marcus Montgomery as the lead designer! It'll be fun to add to my 360 shmup collection and even though the game doesn't have great reviews, I expect it'll be fun. There's also Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3, also by Marcus Montgomery... we'll see what I'm in the mood for!

The other options I know I have in my collection is Jungle Strike or Urban Strike for Sega Genesis with design by Antonio Barnes. He also worked on Desert Strike, but only as a production assistant, so I feel like the sequels would be better options.

I look forward to seeing what other folks play!

I'm way too lazy to read all the links posted here but wold of the battlefield is a game I am interested in as are the strike series so if I do play something for this month it will likely be one of those.

[Syndicate]

Article is up: https://medium.com/@DrHeineman/retro-ga ... 8dcd5bcb3f

...that's a good read, thanks for sharing it.

[Nemoide]

Okay, I finally tried 1942: Joint Strike on Xbox Live Arcade for the 360!

It's... okay I guess. I know the 360 gained the reputation as the ultimate shmup system over its life, but this was from 2008, making it one of the earlier shmups available to Americans on the platform. I've never really gotten serious into the 1942 series so I don't know where I'd rank it among other games in the series, but like the others, this game doesn't strongly appeal to me. The graphics are serviceable 3D models in a slightly awkward widescreen vertical shmup. The music is kind of bland but I found myself having to go to the options and lower the obnoxious sound effects volume in order to hear it. The gameplay feels fine, but very old fashioned. My biggest annoyance is that there's no rapid-fire button, holding the attack button just charges your attack, so you need to constantly tap the A button; my thumb got tired pretty quickly so I might switch to a stick.

I tried playing three times: the default difficulty, the easiest difficulty, and the hardest. I didn't clear it because there are no continues, but I'm pretty confident I'll clear it on the easiest next time I try and I'd like to at least clear that as all three planes to get an idea of things. I feel like I'll have to try two-player with my girlfriend and see how the titular "joint strike" works, but my expectations aren't very high.

**shrug**

[BoneSnapDeez]

Alright boyos, I dusted off the Channel F, which comes courtesy of one Jerry Lawson.

For those who don't typically play games this ancient, this is generally regarded as the second home console, released four years after the Odyssey and one year before the Atari 2600.

I gotta say, there are a couple things about the hardware I absolutely love. First, there's a cartridge eject button. Similar to what's on the SNES, except this is a side-loading machine. I adore this and have no idea why it never became standardized across all gaming systems. Second, the cartridges themselves are amazing. They're big and hefty with spring-loaded dust covers that can actually be flipped up with your fingers (no sticking a steak knife into a "slot" like Atari games). As such, all my Channel F games are in great condition, minus some label mottling.

Okay, on to some gamez. The system has some built in, which is additionally fantastic. Tennis is basically Pong designed to resemble a game of tennis, but Hockey is something else altogether. Again, it's like Pong, but each player controls two hockey players (one of whom is the goalie) with one controller. How? Well, you have to understand something: the Channel F controller, like the Odyssey controller, is one odd duck. This was released before the days of the d-pad, before the "telephone" controllers, and when a joystick was something a pilot used. Channel F controllers consist of an ergonomic grip and a "top" that can moved in cardinal directions, twisted, or "plunged" up and down. It takes some getting used to, but once it clicks it's quite the satisfying experience.

I also played some Videocart 1: Tic-Tac-Toe / Shooting Gallery / Doodle / Quadra-Doodle, which I believe is technically the first commercial game cartridge (the Odyssey game cards are not actually ROM cartridges). So, a lot of Channel F games are really a collection of minigames, this one being no exception. Tic-Tac-Toe is somewhat self-explanatory. It's one player versus the computer AI. Worth losing once on purpose to see the YOU LOSE TURKEY message. Shooting Gallery has the player controlling a "gun" which resembles a Pong paddle, shooting at ducks. You can't actually move the gun-paddle, so you'll have time your shots to ricochet off the walls to hit the targets. After a successful hit the game changes the position and angle of the gun-paddle. Game "modes" that alter how much time each round lasts can be chosen by pressing buttons on the console itself (Atari style). Doodle is a very primitive paint program. The controls aren't exactly intuitive, and if you don't know what you're doing you'll likely delete your image repeatedly. Quadra-Doodle is more like a tech demo, where the game creates elaborate geometric designs.

Graphics are as primitive as you'd expect. The sound (boops and beeps) comes from the console itself. In fact, I have to mute my TV when playing this otherwise I hear an extremely irritating hiss/buzz. Something to do with a 40+ year old system on a modern TV.

I also tried out the emulation the Games Professor provided in a link. Took a few minutes to get it going (holla at me if you want the BIOS) but it works well. You really can't grasp the weirdness of the controls via emulation though. The same is surely true of the Odyssey, which has an "English" (spin) knob on the controllers.

Overall, it's hard to rate these games "objectively" in 2020, but I find the Channel F quite charming. And, needless to say, the creation of ROM cartridges was an enormous innovation.

[Nemoide]

I spent more time with 1942: Joint Strike and that game does become more fun if you sink more time into it and get used to it. The high speed plane is fun to play as but I don't have the skill to effectively stay alive with it. I played with my girlfriend to experience the titular joint strike attack and it's a pretty interesting mechanic: you lose the ability to shoot ahead of you but you attack between the two planes (I chose lighting which stays for a while but deals weak damage, she chose a shot which is just one brief shot but deals more damage). It's tough to really coordinate using them effectively, especially since you lose the ability to shoot forward, but I can imagine that two players who are equally committed to improving their skills could have a lot of fun with it. But I feel like the single-player missile attack is more effective.

Still, even though I grew to like the game more, it still isn't that good, I'm not inclined to seek high scores or beat it on higher difficulties.
I feel like the game might be worthwhile to a dedicated fan of the 1942 series, but it just feels too clunky for me.