Hacked Arcade Games

Back just a little before the video game crash of 1983, creating a new hit arcade game was a big challenge, and video game companies were running out of ideas. Well, maybe not the major game companies, but other ameture programmers or just some game designers and creators looking for a fast way to make a buck, by creating the next arcade hit game. Since coming up with a new game was very hard, those other gaming companies decided to create a hack and alter the graphics, sounds etc of classic games to create a new one. For instance, Pac-man is known to be a game that's been hacked soo many times, and turned into games like Piranah, Popeye Pac-man, Caterpillar, etc. At first I thought that it was a new game, but it was just a hacked game.
Other games were mostly copied and had a few things changed, like Donkey Kong. A company known as Falcon had created clones of this classic game called Crazy Kong and Crazy Kong Part 2. Mostly the colors and sounds had been changed, but it's always the same game. I've seen Space Invaders type games that looked different or altered,. Like one version had the invaders individually come out of the ship and fly around in space, and you had to shoot them. You only got one life and it costed 50 cents per play. I think I saw this at a rest stop somewhere. It's just a way to keep the gaming industry running, but are those hacked games worth playing. Well, for the most part, these games are alot cheaper to purchse for store owners looking to make a buck, like grocery stores, or maybe an indoor flea market.
Overall it seems like a good attempt, but in the long range you don't get the value and good quality that makes the origianl more special.
Sometimes, the programmer might do something really stupid to make the game more challenging like speeding up the gameplay, adding a few things, or whatever they can come up with.

Pac Match Party online game

I've gotten Pac-Man fever all over again upon discovering this highly addictive online puzzle game from Namco. All you have to do is flip the images of pac-man, the ghost monsters, treats to match 3 or more of the same kind. Upon matching 3 symbols of presents, you get a special ability to destroy rows and colums of ghost monsters and pacmen. Oh there are solid blocks that must be destroyed as well. Now as you are working on the level, pacman is gobbling up dots around the border outside of the play area. And thee's a slow moving ghost monster moving around the board as well. So each time you make a match, pacman moves ahead, but if the ghost catches up with pacman the game is over. The cool thing is that if you match ghosts nearby pac man symbols, pacman gobbles up the ghosts. It's a very addicvive and fun online game. Try it at Namco.com and look for the online game Pac Match party online game.

Taito Legends

I had gotten a pc cdrom game of Taito Legands from Amazon. It's a great way to relive my fondness of old arcade classics, thank goodness I got a game pad. It comes with 29 games and my all time favorites are Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, Elevator Action, Jungle Hunt, Phoenix, Space Invaders, Space Invaders Part 2, Super Qix, and Zoo Keeper. I admit that I also enjoy The New Zealand Story, which all you have to do is controll a Kiwi bird, and scroll around othe level rescuing your kiwi bird friends that have been captured and imprisoned by a giant walrus. Very similar to Bubble Bobble, only you destroy the monsters with weapon items, and other things you collect for powerups, then you pick up the fruit items left behind for bonus points. I really enjoy this as it works well with Windows 7, and it's made by a company known as Xplosiv.

Game And Watch Gallery Game Lesson "Patience"

This is a fun game packet to play, but I've learned a very important lesson in those games. Yeah, you need to earn stars to unlock the games and cool features, but remember that you only get one star for every 200 points you score. However If you've already earned 3 stars, you get more stars when you score 800 points. The Max is 1,000 points and scoring ranges from 1-2 points for some basic things, and at the most 10-15 points as a bonus for finishing a level. And the level in most of the games like "Rainshower" end when you score 100 points 1 point at at time. So you need patience when playing the classic games as it could take 10-15 minutes or more to score hundreds of points.
The only thing helpful is the "SuperScoring Mode." If you manage to score 300 points in some games or 200 points in other games without missing once, your score will flash temporaily and scoring is doubled. It took me awhile, but I managed to get 150 stars and I have unlocked a new game in the gallery of "Boat Rescue" All it is is that the people are jumping off the boat and you controll a guy who pulls the boat to shore. Just make sure you catch the falling people in the boat and then safely get them to shore. The boat only holds up to 4 people, after that the boat is crowded and the next person you rescue in the boat falls out and is gobbled up by the shark. It's a fun game to play, and to make it more challenging, it's a two screen game and watch game. So in game A, you have one rescue boat for two sides, and game B, you have two boats, one on each end to rescue the falling people.

Classic Arcade Games Venture

I remember this game well, as we had it for Colecovision. I also remember the arcade version, but didn't play it as it wasn't seen much in the arcades. Vaguely, I saw the game in the back row of arcade games at the old indoor flea market in Smithtown ny. The only problem with this machines was that the joystick controller couldn't go right. Then there was the arcade in one of the ferry boats in Port Jefferson Village, as afterwards it was placed into a nearby restaurant next to the ferry dock.
Overall, I must say that the home version for Colecovision was very easy for me to beat the game, as it was repetitive. But the arcade version was more challenging. One time, I did encounter the game again in a stationary store in Centereach N.Y. It was the simplicity of the game's concept that made it fun and memorable, but those deadly hallmonsters still haunt my memory to this day. If you spent more than 10 seconds in a room, a large hallmonster will materialzie and enter and make a strait beedive for you, and he was indestructable. I do miss playing this game, however I did have one other opportunity to play this game, but I had mixed feelings afterwards. Basically, it was from a multi-game cabinet called Gammer-Tek 2K that I saw in a basement video arcade called fun city. Although I was amazed at the ability to play it, the downside is that the game was emulated with Mame. I just found out in 2006 I think that a software company called "Mean Hamster" had purchased the legal rights to all the games made by Exidy. So since Venture was made by Exidy, I will soon be able to play this game again.
Other times I found re-makes of this game, like Venture 2 from My Yosemetie Sam.com. It's a graphic update to the game with more levels, rooms, and monsters to defeat. The plus side is that when the large hallmonster enters the room, you can shoot him down within a few arrow shots. But he reenters seconds later and many large hallmosters come at your really fast. You can still shoot him, but good luck in surviving. It was memorable, but just a stupid knockoff as I heard the Colecovision music of the get ready player one screen. And a really stupid retro remake I found once was called Venture into adventure. this is dumb and stupid version of the game. I'll just wait for the game to be released by Mean Hamster Software.

My holidays with Game and Watch Gallery 4

Remember in the 1980’s when you played all those classic Nintendo handheld Game and Watch Gallery Games? Those games starred Mr. Game and Watch, who was a simple character that had been part of the action of allot of the games. The games had no color, no fancy sounds, except for the bleeps, and maybe a simple musical tune for the intro of the game. The backgrounds were drawn and the animation and graphics of the characters were all solid black. Well, those games were extremely popular during the holiday season, and were a pleasure to get as a gift. As a gamer, I didn’t get the Nintendo Game and Watch games during the holidays, but similar games sold mostly at Radio Shack or at those indoor flea markets. I remember hearing about the release of those games for Gameboy advance, but I didn’t have one at the time, so after I had gotten the Gamecube, and the Gameboy Player adapter (which enabled me to play Game Boy Advance Games on the tv screen.) I had discovered the Nintendo Game and Watch Gallery 4 game cartridge for GBA at Gamestop. I had gotten it used for under $10, and the amount of games you get are more than you would expect to get.
You start out with a few games like Chef, and comes in two different forms. There’s the classic mode, which is the exact Game and Watch gallery game version, and then there is the modern mode, which is a graphical update to the game that stars the Mario Characters, and it’s in full color, great sound effects and memorable music. The thing is that at first, they only give you a few games to start out with, and then you have to unlock all the other games and features. To do this, you have to earn stars, and you get one star for every 200 points you score. And the game’s scoring is usually 1 point for your gaming actions. Some of the classic mode games have super scoring, which means that if you don’t miss upon scoring the games point total to take away all your miss symbols, your score will flash temporarily and the game’s scoring is doubled. This can be difficult as the speed of the game becomes challenging as the speed increases as you score higher points. These games are simple concept and are very easy to play, but difficult to master. The game has one other feature that allows you to view the gallery, where you can listen to ingame music, learn tips and techniques on how to win at the games, and discover when each of the games was originally released. Then there is the gallery itself, where more games are on exhibit, but can you play them? You gotta earn those stars to find out. I’ve had the game for about 2 years, and I’ve managed to collect 141 stars, but it’s very fun and nostalgic to play those games. Sometimes I prefer to play the older games, as apposed to the newer graphical games, since I won’t be playing the game nonstop for hours, just to get to the next level or to the boss at the end of the level. This is a great thing to get and play, especially for the holiday and it will make you fell young again.