Video Game of the Week: Robotech (PlayStation 2)

Memory Bank: Star Trek: Voyager: The Arcade Game (2002)

Imagine my delight and surprise, recently, when I was at a local bowling alley in Charlotte with my family, and strayed into a mini-arcade to find a deluxe cabinet version of this fifteen year old franchise game.  

Since the game was still playable, I knew I needed to snap some photos and feature them all here on the blog.

Star Trek: Voyager: The Arcade Game was released in 2002 (after the end of the actual TV series), by Monaco Entertainment and Team Play Inc. It's a first person shooter (FPS)-styled game, though re-modeled appropriately for Star Trek concepts.  The guns (presumably phasers) don't have to be reloaded but rather re-modulated instead (think: fighting the Borg.)

The enemies in the game hail straight from the series, but are not just the Collective, however, but also Species 8472, and the Hirogen.  There also some...imaginative new aliens.

Additionally, some game modules involve space combat with the Borg and feature the customized shuttle, the Delta Flyer. 

In short, if you are a fan of Voyager, this is a great game, in no small part because it recreates the settings (like Voyager's bridge) and characters (Borg, especially, down to their First Contact sphere) of the series.

I was glad to see this game still in service!

Video Game of the Week: The Simpsons Road Rage (Nintendo Game Cube)

Video Game of the Week: Krull (Atari)

Video Game of the Week: Stargate (Sega Genesis; 1994)

Video Game of the Week: Qbert (Coleco)

Video Game of the Week: Captain Planet and the Planeteers (Nintendo)

Video Game of the Week: A View to a Kill (Angelsoft)

Video Game of the Week: The Karate Kid (LJN)

Video Game of the Week: SeaQuest DSV

Video Game of the Week: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Crossroads of Time (Sega Genesis)

Dragon's Lair Video and Arcade Games

Video Game of the Week: Star Trek (2013)

Video Game of the Week: Wacky Races: Crash and Dash

At Flashbaks: When Video Games Became Board Games

This week at Flashbak I also remembered video games that were “ported” to board games in the 1980s.

Here’s a snippet and the url (http://flashbak.com/bored-games-remembering-video-games-became-board-games-1980s-61318/ )

“Just imagine this scenario. The year is 1982 or 1983. You are 11 years old. You beg and plead for your parents -- or your aunt or grandparents for that matter – to buy Pac Man for the Atari 2600, or Donkey Kong if you own Coleco-Vision. 

Your mind immediately conjures images of hours spent in front of your TV and Atari, or other console, having fun with an exciting new game cartridge. You’ll be the envy of all your friends.

Then your birthday arrives, and you unwrap your gifts only to find that you have been swindled. Your relative have given you the board game version of the video game you wanted.

This is no idle nightmare, my friends.

This actually happened to untold numbers of kids in the early 1980s. Game companies such as Milton Bradley and Parker Bros. turned a generation’s favorite video game excitement into “board” -- bored? -- games.

Below are five such offenders from an era when game makers managed to make new video games feel, well, old hat.

Seriously I love (and collect) old board games. They had great art-work and inventive play.  Still, this trend was such a disappointment.

Still, these board editions of video game properties did have one major benefit over their video game originals. 

At least you wouldn’t get Atari’s thumb while playing them…”

Please continue reading at Flashbak.

Video Game of the Week: Starship Troopers

At Flashbak: Remembering the Colecovision Game System (1982-1984)

My second Flashbak this week remembers another great video games system of the Golden Age: The Colecovision.

Here's a snippet and the url (http://flashbak.com/cant-beat-system-remembering-colecovision-game-system-1982-1984-46624/ ) 

"I’ve devoted a lot of space here at Flashbak recently to the Vectrex, Atari 2600 and Intellivision, just a few of the most cherished video game consoles of the late 1970s early 1980s 

When I think of the original, golden age of video games 1978 - 1983, however, I always think in terms of those systems.

But there is another.

Colecovision.

I had a dear friend in middle school and high school who lived on the other side of town and got a Colecovision for Christmas in 1982.

And -- even though I was an Atari Kid -- this system put the 2600 and 5200 to shame.  The Colecovision was amazing.

Colecovision came bundled with Nintendo’s Donkey Kong (where Atari came with…Combat), and that wasn’t the only great game in the system’s stable.  Colecovision’s Zaxxon was -- up to that point, anyway -- the most advanced-looking home video game I had ever seen in terms of graphics and play.  It absolutely lived up to the system’s advertising promise of “arcade quality” games.

Even the ‘super’ controllers for the system seemed a quantum leap forward, with deluxe models that had a roller, a 12-button keyboard, and a trigger grip.

Coleco Industries sold over one million Colecovision unites in one year’s time (1982-1983) and quickly became the most beloved game unit on the market..."

Continue reading at Flashbak.

Airwolf Video Game (Nintendo;Akklaim)

Memory Bank: Star Fire (Exidy; 1979)

One of my earliest (and fondest) arcade memories involves a space-based combat game from the late seventies called Star Fire. 

As a youngster, I lived in New Jersey with my family, and in the summertime, we would often visit the Jersey Shore.. Because of this, there were many opportunities to visit a nearby boardwalk, and more importantly...an arcade.

And the game I wanted to play at that arcade was, simply, Star Fire.  

Today, the game is remembered and beloved by Generation X'ers because Star Fire is the first "cockpit"-style arcade game in history, and apparently, it was also the first game in which one could enter initials in a high-score table.  

But I loved sitting down in the fully-enclosed cockpit -- as though I was in my own fighter craft -- and getting ready for space combat.

The game play was awesome as I remember it...though it's been more than thirty years now.  

The enemy ships in Star Fire very closely resembled the TIE Fighters of Star Wars (1977) as you can see, and if I recall, there was also a Battlestar Galactica (1979 - 1980) Colonial Viper in the mix.
The game was a shoot 'em up, and an incredible one at that. I do remember occasionally feeling frustrated, as my ship was blown out of the stars.

I also remember running out of money and begging my Mom and Dad for just another handful of quarters.

Below,is a video that someone posted on YouTube of the original Star Fire game play.  Seeing this screen brings back a lot of good memories from my Star Wars-infused, misspent youth.

I dream of converting my garage into an old-fashioned arcade play-room for me and Joel one day. And it shouldn't surprise you that Star Fire would own prominent real-estate there...

Video Game of the Week: The Rocketeer (1991; Super Nintendo)