Retrogaming Times Monthly Issue #71 Published

[Albert]

A new issue of Retrogaming Times Monthly has been published and is available to read online. Features from the April 2010 issue (#71) include:

• The Cybernet Society 1995-1997 R.I.P.
  
• Vectrexenstein - Pole Position
  
• Apple II Incider - Mario Bros.
  
• NES'Cade - 720 Degrees
  
• All Eyes On...Super Hang-On
  
• Dual Perspective - Final Fight
  
• Mutated Output: Patsies, Pioneers, and Politics
  
• The Homebrew Sleuth: Atari 2600 Cave In
  
• Modern Retro - Spyro The Dragon
  
• A Pixilated 21st Century!
  
• Arcade Memories
  

You can read these articles and more inside the Retrogaming Times Monthly, now running 151 months in a row! You can also browse the RTM archives to catch up on past issues.

[Tempest]

I have to disagree about the Apple II version of Mario Bros being inferior to the 5200 version. I think it not only looks miles better, but plays better as well. I could never get into the 5200 version, it always looked so bland and small.

 

Tempest

[Christophero Sly]

As several issues have now been published without it, I'm going to conclude that "The Many Faces Of... " feature is no more. That's too bad.

[+jeremiahjt]

As several issues have now been published without it, I'm going to conclude that "The Many Faces Of... " feature is no more. That's too bad.

 

 

Straight from the issue, "One thing to note is that Sal Esquivel was not able to get his The Many Faces Of... review in for this issue due to him being in the hospital. That's okay though, he's recovered and is going to be ready for May. In the meantime, check out last month's issue if you missed the return of The Many Faces Of.... "

Edited April 7, 2010 by jeremiahjt

[Jacob Rose]

Pet Peeve: "pixilated" is not how you spell something that appears blocky due to visible pixels. "Pixilated" is an old word for "confused" and literally meaning "led astray by pixies."

 

Pixel is a modern word formed from "PICture" and "ELement" ("pic-el" would have been confused with the dill delicatessen delicacy, after all). If you want to talk about something having the appearance of pixels, use "pixelated" with an E!

[VectorGamer]

FYI:

 

Game Core 2010 was postponed until the Fall. The issue does not reflect this cancellation.

[Christophero Sly]

As several issues have now been published without it, I'm going to conclude that "The Many Faces Of... " feature is no more. That's too bad.

 

 

Straight from the issue, "One thing to note is that Sal Esquivel was not able to get his The Many Faces Of... review in for this issue due to him being in the hospital. That's okay though, he's recovered and is going to be ready for May. In the meantime, check out last month's issue if you missed the return of The Many Faces Of.... "

Cool! I must have missed the return of this feature in last month's issue. Probably because with the feature's absence for the past year and a half, I had lost interest in the magazine altogether and wasn't reading it anymore. I've always considered "The Many Faces Of... " the best feature in the magazine. Evidently, it's back now with a new author.

 

I hope the absence of screenshots in the previous issue was just a one time thing though.

[Toucan]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I changed "Pixilated" to "Pixelated". I was spelling it the right way initially, but the spell checker kept saying to change it to the other way so I figured the spell checker could not be wrong (well, I guess it was not wrong, but since there was no "pixElated" in its dictionary I went with the I instead. Thanks for the neat background info on the word though, maybe I should change the column name to Pixilated Pixels. Not a bad idea ).

 

I also took off the Game Core information and told Sal Esquivel to include some screen shots in his next column. His responce? He's going to instead make a video with snippits from each game version. I think that's a great idea, let me know what you guys think. Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for the New Many Faces Of... since it is indeed back! Hopefully RTM can rise to the magazine that it started out as. All we need now are more non-review submissions, so if anyone out there has some non-review ideas, send them to bryan@retrogamingtimes.com and I'll be sure to try and work them into May's Retroworks section.

Edited April 8, 2010 by Toucan

[carmel_andrews]

I think there's a slight error in the event's section (relating to baer inventing mattel's 'simon' game) from what i recall, atari had already come up with the 'simon' concept in the arcade's at least, and in revenge for bushnell ripping of tele/video tennis, baer went to mattel with atari's 'simon' game (called touch me) and thought it would be an idea for mattel to do a home or potted version of that game, so technically he didn't 'invent' the game, he merely adapted it for home/handheld use ...or at least mattel did, and from what i recall atari did eventually end up doing a handheld version of touch me (at least that is the way i heard that story)

[Toucan]

I think there's a slight error in the event's section (relating to baer inventing mattel's 'simon' game) from what i recall, atari had already come up with the 'simon' concept in the arcade's at least, and in revenge for bushnell ripping of tele/video tennis, baer went to mattel with atari's 'simon' game (called touch me) and thought it would be an idea for mattel to do a home or potted version of that game, so technically he didn't 'invent' the game, he merely adapted it for home/handheld use ...or at least mattel did, and from what i recall atari did eventually end up doing a handheld version of touch me (at least that is the way i heard that story)

 

Thanks for the correction. The news clip came from the press release for the event itself, so they also had it wrong as well. I'll change it to something more appropriate.

[roberto]

I think there's a slight error in the event's section (relating to baer inventing mattel's 'simon' game) from what i recall, atari had already come up with the 'simon' concept in the arcade's at least, and in revenge for bushnell ripping of tele/video tennis, baer went to mattel with atari's 'simon' game (called touch me) and thought it would be an idea for mattel to do a home or potted version of that game, so technically he didn't 'invent' the game, he merely adapted it for home/handheld use ...or at least mattel did, and from what i recall atari did eventually end up doing a handheld version of touch me (at least that is the way i heard that story)

 

These things tend always to become a bit "blurred"... I remember an interview with Baer saying that he saw the "touch me" and thought it was a cool idea but very badly implemented (it seems it only had bad squeaking noises...) and it then "inspired" him to develop a much better game with musical tones instead, Simon.

I guess we'd say the same for Magnavox's tennis and Atari's Pong. Anyway, without the first we might not have had the second... so thankfully, we see that good ideas can spark even better ones

Edited April 19, 2010 by roberto

[ZIMM]

I think there's a slight error in the event's section (relating to baer inventing mattel's 'simon' game) from what i recall, atari had already come up with the 'simon' concept in the arcade's at least, and in revenge for bushnell ripping of tele/video tennis, baer went to mattel with atari's 'simon' game (called touch me) and thought it would be an idea for mattel to do a home or potted version of that game, so technically he didn't 'invent' the game, he merely adapted it for home/handheld use ...or at least mattel did, and from what i recall atari did eventually end up doing a handheld version of touch me (at least that is the way i heard that story)

 

These things tend always to become a bit "blurred"... I remember an interview with Baer saying that he saw the "touch me" and thought it was a cool idea but very badly implemented (it seems it only had bad squeaking noises...) and it then "inspired" him to develop a much better game with musical tones instead, Simon.

I guess we'd say the same for Magnavox's tennis and Atari's Pong. Anyway, without the first we might not have had the second... so thankfully, we see that good ideas can spark even better ones

yeah, I think this is more like it. Baer was inspired by Touch Me. Mattel did Simon. Atari did Touch Me.

[carmel_andrews]

Atari did Touch Me.

 

 

 

 

 

No homo please, I'm straight

Edited April 21, 2010 by carmel_andrews

[A Sprite]

I'm sorry, but this issue was...disappointing.

 

I'm trying to be fair, but...

 

1. Hang-On is compared, unfavorably, to Rad Racer. Rad Racer was Squaresoft's clone of Yu Suzuki's Outrun, and it was Yu Suzuki who programmed the arcade version of Hang-On, so of course there are going to be similarities. You might as well compare compare Super Mario World's jumping and smashing bricks with his fist to Alex Kidd in Miracle World, who can also jump and break blocks with his fist.

 

2. The article about Final Fight uses a sprite from an entirely different game in the series.

 

If it were IGN or the Angry Video Game Nerd who made these mistakes, they'd be crucified. I realize the Retrogaming Times depends entirely on fan enthusiasm, but shouldn't true fans at least be able to educate others about their hobby?