Games reviewed twice in Zzap!

Did you agree with them etc.
CraigGrannell
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Post by CraigGrannell »

gordon wrote:Yep, it was sarcastic -- it should *definitely* have been a Gold Medal. What a great game, and what a cop out to let it Sizzle
I wonder why it did miss a Gold Medal? IIRC, the only low mark was hookability.

As for the Bubble Bobble budget version, wasn't the first one just £1.99? Rating than any lower than a Gold Medal was also daft (and, yes, I know that budget stuff only got Silver Medals regardless at the time, but I was referring to the rating).
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PGTips
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That Delta Mark

Post by PGTips »

Hello everyone,

Just thought I'd pop my head around the door.

That Delta mark, I must admit, was at least partly based on my memories of buying and playing the game as a punter when it first came out.

At the time I was desperate for a Nemesis-style shooter and Delta was the nearest thing to it, being, I think, one of the first C64 shooters to give the player weapon pick-ups. So I did enjoy the gameplay, even though it was difficult. However, it was the music and graphics that really took it to another level. I would put the game on just to play amongst the abstract light-show graphics and listen to Rob's trippy Koyaanisqatsi music.

It sounds like Craig is trying to get me under the terms of the old reviewer's law of "Graphics Do Not A Great Game Make" :wink: . For me, though, the whole graphics and sound thing was a big part of the enjoyment of Delta.

When I put the game back on to review it last year those strengths still came through, hence the high mark. And there might also have been a small element of me finally getting the chance to right what I saw as an old reviewing wrong. :wink:

Gordon, it WAS Traz, but I think we were the only ones who enjoyed it, and Jaz WAS the Editor, and we'd only been there a week, so... We'll just have to put it down to experience. It was cool though. Kind of like Delta.

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gordon
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Re: That Delta Mark

Post by gordon »

Hey Paul

How're things? Are you up for some Zzap!108 action?*
PGTips wrote:Gordon, it WAS Traz, but I think we were the only ones who enjoyed it, and Jaz WAS the Editor, and we'd only been there a week, so... We'll just have to put it down to experience. It was cool though. Kind of like Delta.
Yeah, I'm not bitter to the core about it ;), but I do remember both of us being a bit miffed at the time... That whole editor thing was overplayed anyway -- I remember when I was in the seat, I was basically just a fat bloke with too much power who hid PC Engines under the table before sneaking them home.

g.

*Given that a) it ever happens, b) we're all alive in 2005, c) we haven't decided it's an idiotic idea by then.
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Lloyd Mangram
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Post by Lloyd Mangram »

Hi!
Hats off to PG for finally doing justice to Delta.
And a 'Boooh hissss' to everyone who still doesn't agree. :D

What's even better: the recognition that TRAZ actually should have 'sizzled'. I knew it, I KNEW it! (lovely game, especially with two players)
At the time I was desperate for a Nemesis-style shooter and Delta was the nearest thing to it...
Speaking of Nemesis, I though that the 80% mark Zzap gave it was also a little too cautious. It was a great conversion! I play it on MAME now but I have difficulties selecting the extra weapons. :( (anyone??)
Salamander's nice too, although the loading 'system' on the c64 totally ruined it. I'm trying it out with MAME now, first impression is that Nemesis is the better game.

The cool thing about MAME is that we're now able to check out the 'originals' instead of the c64 conversions. Why play Out Run on your c64 if you can play the arcade version?
On the other hand I was always impressed by the screen shots of Wec Le Mans, but now I'm playing it and I'm not too pleased with the gameplay!

Quartet & Enduro Racer got terrible reviews in Zzap as conversions, but now I understand the original games weren't up too much either.
Eyeopeners really.

Arcade originals that still seem to deliver the goods (IMO) are: 720, out run, bubble bobble, gauntlet, supersprint, defender & nemesis.
( I only have checked a small amount of roms, so there must be more....any tips?)

Btw, I heard Lee talking about Final Lap on his website, so I downloaded it only to discover what a wet dog of a game it really is!
Lee, did you really enjoy that game?

Ta, folks!
Rob
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CraigGrannell
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Post by CraigGrannell »

biggestjim wrote:Speaking of Nemesis, I though that the 80% mark Zzap gave it was also a little too cautious. It was a great conversion!
*Choke* really? I thought it was awful, although Salamander was pretty good.
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Post by Lloyd Mangram »

biggestjim wrote:
Speaking of Nemesis, I though that the 80% mark Zzap gave it was also a little too cautious. It was a great conversion!


*Choke* really? I thought it was awful, although Salamander was pretty good.
Funny, I really liked Nemesis. :)
But don't you remember the loadingsystem of Salamander?
Everytime you die you had to reload the whole level, even if you died after a split second (like me, all the time) and even on a diskdrive it took aaaaages. Spoilt all the fun for me.
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Post by LeeT »

I really liked Nemesis too - Though the C64 version has aged slightly since release. Plus I thought that Traz was really good - There was a lot of great Breakout games around that time (Arknanoid,Revenge of Doh, Batty, Krakout etc).
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Post by gordon »

biggestjim wrote:But don't you remember the loadingsystem of Salamander? Everytime you die you had to reload the whole level, even if you died after a split second (like me, all the time) and even on a diskdrive it took aaaaages. Spoilt all the fun for me.
Yep -- it was a stinking loading system for a beautiful game (a pity, because apart from that it was one of the best horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up conversions for the C64).

As for Nemesis... I never liked the original much (I much prefer Vulcan Venture, which is just weird), but the 64 was a decent attempt at converting it, IMO.

g.
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Re: That Delta Mark

Post by CraigGrannell »

PGTips wrote:It sounds like Craig is trying to get me under the terms of the old reviewer's law of "Graphics Do Not A Great Game Make" :wink: . For me, though, the whole graphics and sound thing was a big part of the enjoyment of Delta.
Fair enough! :) Mind you, I put the game on for the music, too, sometimes, although I'd pause it and read or something. More playable that way. ;)
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Post by Fiery Phoenix »

Gotta agree about playing the games on the MAME emulator - it`s great to play the arcade versions and see which games still cut the mustard. For me Paperboy is still up there, the ace graphics and speech make it which the C64 version lacked, APB, Bomjack, Ghosts n' Goblins, Combat School, Double Dragon, R-Type, Rastan, Renegade and Robocop - ALL still high on the playability stakes - especially ( for me personally ) G & G and Bombjack - the Elite coverversion of G & G was pretty damn good, but it`s great to play the original. Who can forget going into the arcades and seeing the arcade versions of Outrun and wishing you could play that at home and not the shitty C64 version where the women does`nt even have blond hair!! Or seeing those ads for the games and thinking the graphics look really good on the C64 version and then seeing the small print those immortal words " screenshots from arcade version " Nooooooo!

Regarding selecting the extra weapons in Nemesis - I take it you are talking about the Mame version, best thing is just to press the tab key and re-config the control for button 2. I`ve got a microsoft Sidewinder pad and it`s just a press of button 2 to select the weapons.

Regarding sites, it`s really really hard to get any decent ROM sites now. The best one MAME.dk closed down a while ago now and they had the FULL set! You could try these, but I`m getting errors on some of them when I select them ( maybe coz I`m using Netscape now and not IE - not sure! )

http://www.mameman.emuita.it/

http://www.classicgaming.com/vault/arcaderoms-QT.shtml

http://1010011010.org/m2r2

Hope that helps
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Post by LeeT »

Erm, Mame.dk hasnt actually closed down - I know they have a sign up saying they have, but try it!.... 8)
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Post by Fiery Phoenix »

What I meant when I said " closed down " is that the on-line ROM section has now gone. The site is still up and running and you can download the latest emulator there, but no ROMS. Shame as it was the best MAME site around for ROMS.
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Post by LeeT »

Apparently you CAN still download the game ROMS - They only put the notice up to stop the hassle from the companies! :wink:
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Post by Fiery Phoenix »

Someone clarify this!!!!!!!! I defo can`t download from MAME.dk - the mousepointer glides over the ROMS to select to download screen, so u can`t select them.....well that's what is happening when I try and it`s been like that since the start of the year.
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Post by Mayhem »

Are you logged in? You can only access stuff if you have a username setup with them...
Another visitor... stay awhile... stay forever!
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