The Channel has now reviewed over 50 Commodore 64 Games !! Hooray !!!

It doesn't seem that long ago that the channel started reviewing Commodore 64 games, but already we have completed 50 of them. Amazing!

The experience has been both enjoyable and educational comparing the system with the ZX Spectrum I owned growing up which I am ultimately more familiar with. Every time fifty game reviews are completed, we have a fun recap with a special video! Here it is !!!!

Lots of fun seeing them all in a row like this!

I have to say, I am very impressed so far. Had very little knowledge of the C64 before this point and I certainly missed out back in the day. Wouldn't swap this for my childhood memories with the ZX Spectrum of course. Nostalgia is a very strong thing.

What's impressed me most is the sound this 8 bit machine is capable of. It has a designated SID chip where in comparison, the Spectrum just had a basic beeper. It can really kick out some impressive tunes. I later owned a Commodore Amiga so have been finding it very interesting comparing the same games to it's immediate predecessor.

One of the first games I reviewed was The Great Giana Sisters and I was absolutely gobsmacked at how close they got it to look, sound and play like the Commodore Amiga version. Coders back then were capable of some truly wonderful things.

There's been a couple of stinkers along the way too of course. Being new to the system, I've been able to pick the cream of the crop so undoubtedly the quality of the games will drop ever so slightly. Still a vast treasure trove of games to look at though with people recommending new ones in the comments section on a regular basis. When this happens, I certainly add them to the list to cover. Will get to them eventually !!!

Hope you liked the recap video and this trip down memory lane. Here's to the next 50 !!!

Nick :o)

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Road Rash II on the Sega Genesis / Megadrive - a great sequel ?

A short while ago we looked at Road Rash on the Sega Mega Drive and the verdict was, it was pretty awesome. I enjoyed playing it so much. This ground-breaking racing/fighting game was released by EA in 1991. Knowing there was also two sequels, it seemed only right, I'd get to those also. Sensed there was lot more fun yet to be had with this adventure.

This time it was the turn of Road Rash II published two years after the original game, hitting the shelves in 1993. The game was also published by EA.
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Hopes were high after the success of the first one. I was hyped to maximum which isn't always a good thing. Sets you up for disappointment. Remember the Star Wars Phantom Menace movie? Ok, sorry if you'd blocked that film out your memory. Bits of it are okay right? The Podrace... the Darth Maul fight scenes. Think I'm going off on a tangent...

Erm anyway, is the second Road Rash game as good as the first, better or worse?

The sequel is instantly recognisable as Road Rash. They don't drift a huge distance from the winning formula. The game admittedly uses a lot of the original sprites and is clearly based off the same gaming engine. Thankfully it does build from the impressive first outing and offers more.

There are a numerous bikes to save up for by earning cash from races. These gradually increase in horsepower through Classes ranging from Light to Super bikes. You just know as a kid you would have played and played to get the money for the fastest bike in town.

There's a new set of tracks, more aggressive opponents and a variety of weapons to upset your fellow competitors with. Nothing can beat the fun of leaping fifty feet into the air, landing on the road and hitting another rider over the head perfectly with a big chain. The chain is my personal favourite.

It's all clean fun. Kind of. The occasional police officer on the road won't find it very amusing and try to bust you. The aim is to finish in the top through on every track to progress to the next difficulty level. Your bike can get wrecked along the way or you can end up in the hospital if you're not too careful. These are mean streets. Funny though!

This worthy sequel maintains the enjoyment and addictiveness of the first game and adds yet another superb layer. A really really enjoyable game. Shear brilliance !!!

Have a watch of the video review hosted on the channel via Youtube.

Will have to look at Road Rash 3 very soon. What a series so far !!

Nick :o)

Super Trux / SuperTrux - on the ZX Spectrum 48!!

What would Outrun feel like if instead you were in a big unattractive truck?

Well... it would probably feel a lot like this game really. SuperTrux or Super Trux or Elite Supertrux. Why was it known under slightly different names? I haven't a clue. It sometimes happened.

'Supertrux', we will call it, is an 8 bit game on the ZX Spectrum 48K published by Elite Systems in 1988. 

I reviewed this racer (if we can call it that) on the ZX Spectrum 48K. The system is attempting a lot here with the memory available and unfortunately sound had to be sacrificed. So what we have is a racing game with no sound. That's a huge problem. A quiet racing game? Admittedly the game was also released on the 128K spectrum and this probably did have it. I only owned a humble 48K machine however, so for nostalgia reasons, that's the system I generally review games on.

SuperTrux essentially attempts to offer the gameplay of Outrun, but with trucks. Against the clock you must race across Europe, go through checkpoints and get to the end of the game before the time runs out. Then the game starts over from the beginning again.

Quite frustrating to play this. The frame rate isn't brilliant, which I can forgive, but overtaking other vehicles is awkward. It seems you have to leave quite a big gap around them otherwise you're sent skidding and losing valuable time.

I gameplay reviewed this with a POKE on for infinite time to see if the game offered anything more later down the line. Unfortunately it didn't. A mix of race stages against other trucks on the road and obstacles stages involving roadworks and oils spills.

In conclusion, SuperTrux was interesting to look at for historic purposes, but is not one I'd hurry back to. Annoying gameplay and underwhelming. Below is my full review!!

Thank you for visiting the Channel's blog and watching the video!

If you would like to support the Channel, njenkin, please Subscribe on Youtube if you haven't already. It all helps to keep things going!

Many thanks,

Nick :o)

 

TOP 10 - Greatest COMMODORE AMIGA Cockpit View Racers of all TIme !!

I am the greatest !!!  Well, so Muhammad Ali proclaimed. Not sure he was talking about gaming though..

Always a bit of fun these videos on the channel and of course, very subjective. This is a Top 10 List of my favourite Cockpit view racers on the Commodore Amiga. When saying 'cockpit' view, meaning, your perspective is from behind the wheel or handlebars of the vehicle.

Other Top 10s already covered include, Chase View Racers, Vertical Scrolling Shooters and Horizontal Scrolling Shooters. Visit channel njenkin to check these out too!! 

It's pure nostalgia city. Agree with the lists? Disagree? Your more than welcome to put your thoughts in the comment section of this blog or more ideally, on the videos themselves. Retro gaming is always an experience best shared. :o)

If you haven't already, please show you support by subscribing to the channel njenkin !!! 

Many thanks!

Nick :o) 

Dan Dare III - The Escape on the Commodore Amiga

Classic games converted from 8 to 16 Bit sometimes don't work very well

Dan Dare was always a bit of a hero of mine growing up. A character from Eagle comics, Dan was a sort of Flash Gordon, James Bond character in space. A sort of Buck Rogers hero maybe. Although futuristic, the style was that of British films from the fifties. His arch enemy was a green evil alien genius called The Mekon. He was always coming up with clever devilish plans to enslave the Earth and only Dare could possibly save us. I absolutely loved it.

 Around this time came a trilogy of  ZX Spectrum games, Dan Dare : Pilot of the Future, Dan Dare II : Mekon's Revenge and Dan Dare III : The Escape, released 1986, 1988 and 1990. All were published by Virgin games.

Although I wasn't a great fan of the second game in the trilogy, the games were great fun as you battled the Mekon and his evil Treen hordes. Their style was a mixture of Platform gaming and Shooting. Dan Dare III : The Escape was my favourite of the trilogy. Fun to play, colourful and a good ending to the series.

Then Virgin decided to release the third game on the Commodore Amiga... 8 bit to 16 bit. The Amiga was a much more powerful computer than the Spectrum so the game should have been awesome right? Well... below is my gameplay review. See what you think.

 I would definitely choose the Spectrum version first over the Amiga one. The Amiga version appeared to lose a lot of the fun. It works like that sometimes. A game on an earlier system just seems to play better.

If you have any thoughts about this game, feel free to comment below or on the Youtube video itself. If you're logged into that site, please consider subscribing to the Channel njenkin. Every little bit helps!

Have a great day folks!

Nick :o)


  

Bedlam on the ZX Spectrum 128k

In space, it's best to shoot everything you see!

That's very often a wise strategy. Well... in gaming terms anyway. I won't be held responsible if you do it in real life and are then impounded by some strange Federation of the day.

And so we come to Bedlam. A word that means a scene of uproar or confusion.

In this case, Bedlam is a vertical scrolling shoot 'em up on the ZX Spectrum. Published by Go! in 1988. Yes, so we're into classic 8 bit territory here and there is certainly an amount of uproar and confusion about the place.

Normally I would only gameplay review games from the 48K spectrum, but this particular one was only produced for the 128K. It works like that sometimes. What can we say about Bedlam then?

It's fast. It's slick. It's uncomplicated to get into. It's incredibly incredibly difficult. Ultra difficult. In order to get any length to the video, I eventually had to play it with a POKE for increased Lives. Without assistance, the review would have lasted less than about 3 minutes.

Graphically the game is brilliant for the era. Clever coding avoids colour bleed which often happened with many games around this time and before. Sounds are also fantastic. See the video below for my full gameplay review.

Thanks for watching! If you haven't already, please consider subscribing to my Youtube channel njenkin. All support greatly helps.  

Nick :o) 

The Birds and the Bees - ZX Spectrum 48K

Ah the Nostalgia. Times were much simpler back then!

Retro Spectrum gaming from the early eighties. Got a good buzz off this one. Erm, yes.

You can't beat the oldies. It's easy for me to say this though as nostalgia is always a very strong force. You're always going to have stronger feelings for the sort of games you played growing up. Why? Because they're not just games. They're also memories. A warming link to the past. 

So what can we say about this 8 Bit game from 1983? Well, it's a game you certainly couldn't get away with releasing nowadays. But despite it's simplicity and minor flaws, I kind of like it. 

You control Boris the Bee from Birkenhead. It's your job to collect nectar from a row of delicious looking flowers then bring it back to the hive. At the end of the day, it's all about the honey. The more nectar Boris carries, the slower he flies making the task that bit trickier.

Of course, on route there are a number of nasties trying to stop good old Boris. Birds, insects, unfriendly caterpillars, they're all strongly against the process of honey manufacture it seems. Maybe a bug spray would have been good. The farmer of this place really hasn't thought this through. 

Bit of colour bleed in this game when Boris flies over other objects or a Bug Byte advertising plane flies across clouds or the sun. Overall though, a nice piece of gaming history.

Above is my full gameplay review type thing on njenkin. As usual, it's all about fun and sharing the memories. With retrogaming, I find it's always a greater experience once shared. If you have any thoughts or views about this game or similar then feel free to comment below or on the Youtube video if you have an account.

The Birds and the Bees published by Bug Byte in 1983.

Nick :o)
 

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle

SEGA Megadrive Ultimate Collection on the PS3

I never owned a Sega Mega Drive back in the day. I started in the eighties with a ZX Spectrum then later the Commodore Amiga in this era and the Sega Mega Drive sadly passed me by. Being a big fan of Retro Gaming I was later pleased to get hold of the Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection on the Playstation 3 so I could try out all these great classic games I had missed.

 There are a number of absolute gems on this collection. I've already covered some on my Youtube Channel njenkin for you to take a look at. These include the amazing Golden Axe and Streets of Rage trilogies which are definitely worth a watch for nostalgia alone. This week I played and reviewed another classic, Alex Kid in the Enchanted Castle. A cute platformer released on the Mega Drive back in 1989.

Did you own it? Did you play it? Have any good memories? Let me know what you think.

Nick :o) 

Finish Him !!! Game Boy Advance Style

Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance

Enjoyed reviewing this one. Hasn't aged brilliantly when you look at the latest Mortal Kombat releases, but at the time in 2002, Deadly Alliance was a big leap forward over previous GBA titles in the series. 

 Published by Midway Games in 2002, the game offered a whole new fighting engine which worked really well. 12 playable characters, although some need to be unlocked. The game also offered Link cable support. Below is my gameplay review. Never full walkthroughs of course as you know. It's all about nostalgia and having a bit of fun.

  
Enjoy! Feel free to leave any comments below or on Youtube!

Nick :o) 

A New Blog - First one on the Internet I'd Imagine

Hello there!

As the Blog description says, thank you for stopping by. My name is Nick and I run the Youtube gaming Channel njenkin which was rebooted around 3 and half years ago.

It's main aim was not to deliver detailed walkthroughs of old games, but instead to blunder my way through them, review them of sorts and to have fun with an audience who had similar interests. The Channel covers games from the ZX Spectrum, Commodore Amiga, Game Boy Advance and more modern PlayStation. It's good to get a comparison through the generations to see how games have evolved.

Over time the Channel has grown steadily and gained a knowledgeable and friendly audience of which I am most grateful for and I hope this will continue.

It was suggested I start a Blog to further promote the Channel so here it is!  Still doing a bit of tweaking with the design, but I'm sure I'll get it eventually. :P

I also a run a smaller channel called DataPurge which is updated less often and tends to focus on non-gaming issues and Top 10's. Links are on the top right (Well.. I hope so anyway), so if you're on YouTube and want to subscribe, that would be very helpful. Alternatively however, all new videos will be posted onto this Blog also as well as the new FaceBook page at Facebook.com/njenkin7.

Hurruh, well that's the first post done then. Why does Bloggers's spellcheck not recognise the word Blog? It's a mystery. Anyway... Have a great day!

Nick   :o)