It must be Thursday.

What more can you say?

"By the Power of Grayskull!"

You knew this Masters of the Universe game was going to be the bees knees, it said right on the box that it had New! Super Graphics and considering how well the Intellivision's graphics were normally this must be something to see. Well, they looked pretty much the same as the other Intellivision graphics to me personally but it was a He-Man game at least.

Your goal in the Power of He-Man was to give Skeletor a good whoopin' whither it be by bombing his skeletal face in your Wind Raider or by doding lightning and fireball blasts on land to get close enough to duel with your sword and claim victory in the name of Greyskull.

This was another of those Kay*Bee game bargain bin products. I lent it out to a kid in Jr High but I never got it back.

That's a Moose head!

Man, three posts in one day. But this sequel looks better than the first one!

Go Steve!!!

Just found out that Steve Wiebe has taken the record score for Donkey Kong Jr. with an impressive 1, 139, 800 points. Thanks to Twin Galaxies for the above pic.

"BYE BYE!"

Okay. Up until last night I had never even heard of a game called King and Balloon. Rachel bought me an X-Box 360 game called Namco Museum Virtual Arcade and this was one of the 37 games available to play. Balloons drop Galaxian style towards the King at the bottom of the screen and you play as two men who must defend him. If he is nabbed a balloon he is quickly hauled up and you hear a digitized voice call out "Help!", where as if you fail you receive a "BYE BYE!" and if you pop the balloon you are rewarded with a "Thank You".

For all intents and purposes of the enemies and even sound effects it IS Galaxian. Just Balloons instead of space ships. I played this game a good hour, it is very fun but it is also pretty dang hard. They throw more 'arrows' at you than the Galaxians did lasers so its pretty easy to get hit by a balloon while doding an arrow.

I always enjoy these kind of game collections as gems like this show up, I tried to find a picture of a King and Balloon arcade cabinet but had no luck. I did find out that the game only goes up to level 48. Even Twin Galaxies has no record of a high-score holder for this game.

"You are CHUCK NORRIS..."

Once upon a time, back on the Atari 2600, Chuck Norris had to rescue a famous leader that was being held hostage. To an ancient monastery was Chuck asked to travel to and along the way he had to deal with the entire population of China...with his fists and feet.

This was one of those games that you could get at Kay*Bee toy stores when it first opened for about two dollars. The double-ender cartridge was surely an interesting idea, two games for the price of one, want the other game you just flip the cartridge around and plug it in then play. It didn't seem to catch on though as I believe there were only two sets of game ever made...at least that I can remember.

The Chuck Norris game was actually not that bad and it had some interesting game mechanics for its time. However, this product showed up at the end of the death throes of the Atari 2600 and when you could pick up Metroid at the same time it is easy to understand why most people passed it up...even for two dollars.

Saturday Supercade

I had forgotten they made a hand-held version.

Gozer!

Cannot...wait...for this game!

"Welcome aboard, Captain."

The first time in 1982 that I saw the Star Trek arcade game wasn't at Showbiz Pizza or one of the other little arcades like in the mall but at the Farmington One Stop convenience store. It was also one of the first times I impressed people older than me, college age, while playing the game.

The thing I remember most about this game was the digitized voices of the actors, it truly was awesome to hear Scotty reporting the damage situation as well as Spock at the end of the game. The vector like grahics helped with the game, the bottom portion representing the view screen of the bridge and the info you need, warp drive power, shields, photon torpedoes on the upper left with a mini-map on the top right. Another thing about Star Trek...it was pretty freaking hard. You got one ship per quarter and the only way to make sure you kept your shields was to dock at a space port or save it from attacking Klingons. The play control was nice with one of those spinner knobs.

A little research shows that a set down version was made...and it sure looks neat. Thanks to K.L.O.V. for the pics.

It must be Thursday.

What more can you say?

Knitted Bald Bull wishes Shea a happy B-day!

Now get out there and enjoy your Earth Day!

"Dang that Genie!"

Another golden oldie for arcade games, Arabian, which like Bagman I was able to play for the first time at Showbiz Pizza. I seemed to have the hang of playing this one back in my youth, while not being able to complete the 4th screen I was able to get to the 3rd every time without any loss of lives.

In the game you played a prince that was rushing through a storybook setting to rescue a princess from the palace she is being imprisoned at. Each level started with the opening of a book page. Along the way you had to avoid crows, pink things, and a genie that kept popping up to throw a ball of fire at you.

Looking at the Twin Galaxies scoreboard it seems that a Chuck Futtrell hold the record score for the game with an impressive 219, 750. Apparently the maximum possible score.

Click the arcade cabinet picture to make it super big!

Perhaps I could have won it.

The very first time I entered through those now hallowed halls that was Showbiz Pizza, I found myself looking on a small group of young boys and teenagers lined up in front of a Bagman arcade game. I had never heard nor laid eyes on the machine before but the manager of the Showbiz had a bullhorn in one hand, which was needed as that wonderful and chaotic sounds of yore, 50+ arcade games going at once was quite deafening, and was declaring the Bagman competition was open.

My father had me go stand in line and I waited my turn while trying to scope out all the arcade games around me. Two of these that stood out in my mind were Congo Bongo and Moon Patrol. Finally it was my turn and the manager hit the start button for me...and I played the game as best I could for being my first time with it. I ended up being 7th in place, and I received 25 tokens as a reward, an older boy won, he won the Bagman machine in fact.

Bagman became one of my favorites. The game was a side scroller and you played a criminal who was running through a mine, avoiding cops, and collecting bags of money while you did so. You could take a ride in a mine cart to avoid the long arm of the law but the carts could kill you as well. Plus you could drop the money bags you were carrying and knock out the cops or you could take a pick-axe to them.

To this day and I can't find any evidence of it, but when you were caught and beaten down by the police, Bagman would curse in french.

Saturday Supercade

I remember seeing this at Wal-Mart.

It must be Thursday.

What more can you say?

Which is more dangerous? Bats, Robots, or a giant Spider?

The second game I ever owned for the Intellivision was the now classic Night Stalker. Now when I first ordered it from the catalog I was somehow under the impression it was based on the 70's show with Darren McGavin, remember the Sears catalogs that just had the name of the product, no real picture or anything? Well, upon seeing the cover when I got it I was a little disappointed, but it did have two robots trying to zap a guy in white boots and matching outfit, so it couldn't be all bad.

This ranks up there in the top ten of favorite Intellivision games. In the upper levels the robots would not only get faster but it took more hits to destroy them. One of the nice things about said robots was every level had a different pair of the automatons to contend with, I particulary enjoyed the one that looked like Robbie the Robot. Good times.

Thank you, Jim's Razorback Pizza.

Before renting the crap out of this, I played the sit-down arcade version at Jim's.

First Intellivison game I played...

Lock 'N' Chase is probably one of the greatest Intellivision games produced, sort of like Pac-Man as you can see from the picture above but the innovations made by the creators let it stand on its own.

At the time, 1982, I did not know that Lock 'N' Chase was an arcade port and unfortunately I've yet been able to play one of the stand-up versions. However I can say with all certainty that my Grandmother and I almost wore out the Intellivision controllers while playing this during the summer of '82.

In both versions of the game you are a thief who finds himself within a museum and dead set on looting the entire place by picking up all the coins and the various other treasures that appear randomly. Hot on your heels are the police and your only 'weapon' is the ability to close two gates at a time, timing it so the police are between the gates so you can lock them in place for a short time.


A little bit of reading from the Wiki shows that in the arcade version the policemen or SuperD's are named, Stiffy, Scaredy, Smarty, and Silly. Which goes to show the attempt to make itself more like Pac-Man. There is a bug in the arcade version that allows a player to obtain a million points by entering one of the side gates and quickly pressing up and down on the joystick.

Because I'm working on an Easter Sunday.

Thanks to Atarimania for the above pic. I always wanted the Flight Commander game.

Saturday Supercade

There was a time when you could get a Big Mac and a Centipede game card.

No, really this is one of my favorite SNES games.

I've spent many, many, many hours playing this airplane industry simulator. It was released by Koei in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In it you play the CEO of a start-up International Airlines. Which means you get to decide what airplane manufacturer to purchase your planes from, what type of advertising to pour your money into, how many slots to book with each of the airports across the world, and not be outsold by your rivals. You also had to deal with everything from how friendly your stewardess was being to goverments being overthrown by radicals.

It seems that this game has found a new life due to the PS3 Sega Channel, so I guess its now a cult hit.

It must be Thursday.

What more can you say?

"Go forth, Kuros!"

Ah, Kuros, how thrilling is the life of a Knight of the realm of Elrond! Laying low mighty opponents such as eagles and bees, collecting keys from the tops of tall trees and learning to fall great heights with dignity. True there was also the rescuing of distressed damsels and the bribing of guards to reach the bosses but they pale in comparison to the mighy jumping that Kuros is capable of achieving.

Acclaim released this to the NES in 1987. This is a game I picked up with birthday money, taking the requisite thirty minutes to carefully scan the glass cases at Wal-Mart before making my decision. The game I played when I made it home was a little different than what I had imagined from the cover art and description on the back of the box. However, I grew to really like this game and consider it to be one of the toughest I've played.

This...this will bear further investigation.

The Secret World teaser...kind of what I thought my life would be like when I was young.

Where Unicron started.

This NES game in 1989 is what caused me to adopt Unicron as my name in all console based RPG's...as well as my X-Box Live handle. No real idea why a gigantic planet eating monster's name became the nom de plume for my digital avatars but I still use it for any new RPG I play that doesn't require pen and paper. Maybe it was because you only had a few spaces to come up with a name...and I was never one to put my own in that slot, I mean who would want Vic the Warrior to slay a Slime?

This was a game that took me a couple of weeks to beat, first I had rented it but I soon learned the errors of letting the game go back to the store and picking it up again on the weekend...Unicron had been erased and Buddy had taken his place. Which until now I had never thought about being the digital avatar of Stewed Hamm...Hmmm...perhaps we shall have a confession later this day?

I was finally able to convince my father to buy the game for me since he started looking at the price of the rentals versus owning the cartridge. Then like so many other games of this genre it became a family thing. My Grandmother and I making notes and maps or checking those supplied by the Nintendo Power magazine.

Many a afternoon was spent in my Grandparent's living room, homework thrown to the side, Bacon and Tomato sandwhich in front of me while I pushed Unicron the Warrior to rescue the ball of light and slay a mighty Dragon.

Now here is something I haven't seen before...the Dragon Warrior commercial. Enjoy.

"Tokyo is in my sights!"

In 1984 in the arcades I played quite a bit of 1942, you could generally get a bit of playtime out of a single quarter. Of course when Capcom brought it to the NES in the late 80's I had to pick it up.

From reading the arcade cabinet info you are piloting the 'Super Ace' airplane though as pointed out on the ever reliable Wikipedia its designs resembles the Lockheed P-38 'Lightining'. Of course the main goal of the game is to reach Tokyo and blow the living crap out of it while avoiding fighter planes, flying fortresses, and in my case...people blocking my view as they put their quarters on the top of the arcade glass.

Saturday Supercade

Never had this one, but I did own the Pac-Man and Donkey Kong versions.

Dook was my favorite.

Dook Larue was always my favorite of the Rockafire Explosion band. For my 12th birthday, my father took me to Showbiz and while I had no friends to speak of at least I had cousins that could fill up empty chairs. I received a record along with a ton of tokens, the record had the Beatles cover of Birthday and then a solo with Dook on the other side that was Heartaches. Still have it in fact.

My love of Showbiz Pizza has uncovered that at certain locations towards the end of its run, Yogi and Boo boo began to show up, in place of Billy Bob. Very weird.

It must be Thursday.

What more can you say?

Not an April Fools joke.

The new Zork game is ONLINE!!

http://legendsofzork.com/

Have a Mega April Fools day!

The truth behind it all.

I guess we finally learn what Pac-Man is all about. Space Madness.