Jump to content
  • entries
    313
  • comments
    824
  • views
    63,244

About this blog

I review games... How original...

Entries in this blog

Tunnel Runner (CBS)

While reviewing London Blitz I recall mentioning Tunnel Runner several times as a maze game that did it right, so it seems only fitting that I go in depth as to why I think so. Tunnel Runner is the hardest game to find from CBS Electronics but is well worth it. I found something quite touching actually with this game, I got lucky and snagged a cart with the manual and on the back of said manual there are a couple paragraphs about the programmers themselves (probably written by the programmers th

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Z-Tack (Bomb)

It’s uncommon in this day and age for there to be zero information on something, it seems that everything has a Wikipedia page or an article explaining it somewhere. Bomb has no Wikipedia page nor does it have any articles, Bomb has nothing but word of mouth, and frankly I haven’t heard any of it so I can’t form a proper opinion of the company. From what I can understand these guys were most active over in Europe, due mainly to the fact that 90% of all Bomb carts are PAL. From looking at the ava

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Racquetball (Apollo)

I get the feeling that this will be the final game I review from Apollo in a very long time, there is only one left for me to review after this and it’s Guardian and I don’t have the 100+ dollars lying around to buy it with. The game I’ll be looking at today is Racquetball, and is the perfect example of a good idea executed poorly. I would also say that Racquetball is also a victim of the 2600 hardware itself, a game this complex simply needed better hardware to power it, probably something arou

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Monday Box Review (Data Age)

We can all agree that Data Age was not a very good game publisher, or were at best average. Out of their eight released games I would classify only one of them as great (Frankenstein’s Monster), four of them as good to average (Journey: Escape, Bermuda Triangle, Warplock, and Encounter at L-5), with their three stinkers being Airlock, Bugs, and Sssnake. Despite the bad rep that Data Age had they really tried their best with the packaging, even if the game inside wasn’t worth the circuitry it was

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Demolition Herby (Telesys)

It’s time to finish this up good and proper, the final Telesys game, the only one I’ve yet to review. Demolition Herby was the final game Telesys released before packing up and vanishing from the videogame market altogether. This isn’t a very complicated game so I’ll give it a simple single paragraph review, though this may end up being a giant wall of text. This is an Amidar clone, it’s the same premise of surrounding a square to fill it in, or in Herby’s case, black them out. You are pursued b

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

London Blitz (Avalon Hill)

There were plenty of weird game publishers out there, Amiga, Milton Bradley, and Zimag are the first that come to mind. There is one publisher that I think stands above the rest, or at the very least is on par with the strangest of them, Avalon Hill. Avalon Hill made unique, innovative, and very complex board games, though I’ve never played any of them myself. These guys weren’t a one-and-done publisher; they actually managed to release four games on the 2600 before packing up shop and moving to

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

APF TV Fun Consoles

Pong is a game that needs no introduction whatsoever, so I won’t provide one. We’ve all played Pong since it’s either been bundled with other games, or is so freely available on the internet that I’m surprised Microsoft and Apple don’t include an advertisement filled version with the newest install of their operating systems. I won’t be looking at any modern iterations of Pong though; I’m looking much further back, further than I’ve ever gone before. 1976, the APF TV Fun Model 401 is released, a

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Raft Rider (U.S. Games)

The videogame market was a battleground, everybody and their grandma were duking it out seeing who could get the biggest slice of that delicious money pie. Smaller companies stuck to the burgeoning market of home computers, though some did strike into the more lucrative console market, usually with very mixed results. Larger companies though, had the money to publish on console, usually they would snap up a small videogame company and have them produce games while acting as the publisher and poc

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Warplock (Data Age) Redux

Warplock is not an original game, its premise isn’t original, and its gameplay most assuredly is not original. Despite its unoriginality I can’t really find it in myself to dislike this game. I wrote my original review of this game immediately after buying this game for a second time. I originally overpaid for a copy at my local Pre-Played, only seeing on Ebay a few days later a boxed copy that was listed for the same price as what I paid for loose cart. I was understandably miffed and took it o

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Lady in Wading (Playaround)

As far as I can tell nobody really knows anything about the publisher of today’s game, and the only thing I can find is an essay blocked behind a $36 paywall so that ain’t happening. Playaround is an oddity, instead of taking the hint from Mystique’s predictable end they decided to go full speed ahead, buy the rights to the Mystique titles, and program several of their own. Playaround recycled the box design, the manual design, and even the leather cartridge cases that Mystique used, which has l

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Skeet Shoot (Apollo) Again!?!

A little while back I decided to get ambitious and start putting some of my reviews of Gamefaqs, because I thought they were good enough for the greater internet community, it seems though that my second iteration of my Skeet Shoot review (the first was three paragraphs of me laughing) was rejected as trolling as I was perhaps a bit hard on the game. I rewrote the review to be more professional and lo and behold they snapped it right up. This is my professional take on Skeet Shoot... The game's

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

That's a lotta words!

Ever since the inception of DSRT I've been keeping a Word document with every single review I've written in it, alongside .txt files of every review as well (in case I need them for quick reference), after depositing my most recent review into the Master Document I noticed just how much I've wrote. With double spacing and 11pt font the document comes in at just shy of 440 pages with a word count of 154,098. This realization got me thinking... What if I selected the best of my reviews and condens

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

The Tiger Strikes Back! (LCD handheld games)

I have what might be considered an odd fascination with old LCD handheld games; I just can’t get enough of them they’re just so weird. In today’s world of pocket computers and mobile gaming these things just seem like pointless shitty relics of a bygone era, but they’re not. Each of these games are complex works of art that work together to create a game, perhaps they’re not as complex as console or computer games of the time, but let’s face it, you’re not taking one of those on the plane or on

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Star Strike (Mattel)

I have neglected my other systems for too long and it seems to be about time to remedy that. With my recent acquisition of an Intellivision II system I felt the urge to go back and play through all the games I have for it. I don’t have many Intellivision games and honestly most of them wouldn’t make a very interesting review, but I do have one game that is just so meh that I can’t help but be slightly angered by it. The game in question is Star Strike, and I have incredibly mixed feelings about

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

The Intellivision II (Is it even worth it?)

Videogame consoles are rarely ever small, it doesn’t matter which generation you’re looking at whether it be the first, the eighth, or anywhere in between, these things are monstrous. But a game console rarely ever stays large, as technology get’s better and smaller, the consoles shrink with it, couple this with revised designs, and cheaper parts, and you have the birth of the slim console. A slim console is a console that is sold several years after its original release in a smaller more conden

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Monday Box Review! (Mystique)

Okay so despite already doing a box review this past week I’m still going to do one this Monday, because consistency. Usually I will hem and haw in front of my shelf for several minutes when choosing a box to review but today was different; it almost seemed as if the boxes were calling out to me. It seems that nobody, not even a potato on the internet, can resist the power of pornography. Yes we’re looking at the Mystique boxes today, and even though I only have two of the three I think I can st

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Eggomania (U.S. Games)

When it comes to Catch ‘em games one reigns supreme Kaboom! But we’re not going to be reviewing Kaboom! for a while, we’re looking at one of the games it inspired. Which could be? Could it be Lost Luggage, Eggomania, Big Bird’s Egg Catch, Berenstain Bears, did I find the unreleased prototype of Kickman? (Hint: it’s no). I’ve already looked at two of the more notorious Catch ‘em games, Beat ‘em & Eat ‘em and The Music Machine, and chances are you’ve read the title to this review so you alread

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Oh Dear! I broke my stick!

Well isn’t this a little awkward, today’s subject for review, my recently acquired Datasoft Le Stick, has just stopped working. I have popped open the bottom to get at the wires to see what was going on and my worst suspicions were confirmed. Due to how you use the Le Stick, violently jerking it from side to side, it really does a number on the internal wiring where they all coalesce into the controller cord which leads to wires being severed. Datasoft tried to mitigate this by placing the wires

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Box Review (Taiwan Cooper)

I am well and truly lacking inspiration for a game review today, nothing is jumping out at me in any meaningful way. So instead of doing a review that I don’t really want to I’ll do something else that I keep putting on the backburner, and don’t worry it’s not a new thing for Mondays, it’s just the thing I’m currently doing for Mondays. I’m just going to take a look at some more boxes, there’s always something to talk about with those, and I honestly have fun doing it, I’ve kept them relegated t

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

The Challenge of Nexar (Spectravision)

Spectravision! What is this?!? A Joke? Because I’m not laughing. Why? Well I’ll tell you… The Challenge of Nexar… is actually a pretty decent game; I don’t know why you’d expect me to be angry about it. Nexar is a fairly standard fake first person shooter in the same vein as Survival Run by Milton Bradley, where you move a cursor around the screen and shoot oncoming enemies as they scale towards you. Unlike Survival Run though, Nexar is fast and it’s a challenge (HAH!), the enemies will approach

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Monday Box Review! (Tigervision)

I’ll admit that when it comes to the 2600 library, and actually most game libraries in general, the box designs can get rather samey or at the very least lacking in originality. Some consoles like the NES and 2600 can have very creative box arts, and in a few unique cases box shapes and designs, though the PC still reigns supreme in that respect. Other consoles like the Sega Master System, and SNES had rather boring designs where the art itself is limited to the front of the box while the rest

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Phillip the 2600, What has he defiled today?

Phillip is pain... All it feels is an endless wash of pain. Phillip waits for death patiently and quietly for it knows its death is nigh Data Age Encounter At L-5 – Most sprites are slightly warped but you can see it most on the Data Age logo at the top right. Sounds are mostly the same with an off note here or there, nothing serious. Bugs – Most ‘Bugs’ are intact but some are scrambled to high hell, the transition scene is unaltered. Sounds are intact with nothing seriously

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Ram It (Telesys)

And the award for the second worst game title goes to… … …Ram It! I don’t even know why they went with this name in particular because you don’t actually do any ramming in the game whatsoever. I wish I could give this game a full review but due to the simplistic nature of every aspect of the game a single paragraph will have to do. Graphically the game looks good but doesn’t impress me all too much, sure the amount of colors on display are cool but I’m just not getting any of that Wow Factor lik

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Stargunner (Telesys)

Telesys was an earnest company with humble beginnings; they just wanted to make good, fun games. Unfortunately Telesys also died a very humble death as they did not find their desired success in the games market. Telesys arrived on the scene in 1982; they released six games and were gone by the end of 1983. Sometimes I’m glad when I learn of the unfortunate demise of a game company, Mythicon and Mystique immediately come to mind, and I’m still waiting for EA to just go away already, but with Tel

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

Controllers, Controllers Everywhere.

For the past 175 or so reviews I have focused only on the games, and more recently the packaging. One element of playing games that seems to be often overlooked by anybody is the controller. We all have that one controller that we’ll choose no matter what. So I thought to myself “Do a thing about controllers dsjgbpoiubdsajln nsamldfoi” and then the static set back in. I have a decent selection of Atari 2600 and 2600 compatible controllers, so I thought I’d write a paragraph or so describing them

DoctorSpuds

DoctorSpuds

×
×
  • Create New...