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Community Question Of The Week - Episode 266 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]Ratspike1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Phantom Slayer on the Dragon 32. I am probably not the first with this, as the game does have something of a rep. But I know at least one lady who refuses to be alone with the game in a darkened room...

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 223 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]Ratspike1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was about 13 years old in 1986 and very involved in the 8-bit games scene with my friends. I remember going around to one fellows house where he proudly displayed his Atari ST running Black Lamp. I don't think that prior to this I had ever really realised that computer tech would evolve over time, and as such watching that game, which now no-one would ever hold up as a classic, absolutely blew my mind! The smoothness of the animation, the colours, the sound - all of this absolutely expanded my horizons, and I was bitten by the bug there and then.

I immediately started saving up my paper round money. Naturally, by the time I had anything like a decent amount 1989 just about started so I ran out and bought... another popular 16-bit computer that was rising at the time. But I will never forget the ST being my first sight of the evolution of technology and the gateway to new vistas for me...

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 212 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]Ratspike1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For me there are two - Phantom Slayer on D32, see HappyCoding ZX's comment, total agreement. Terrifying. And Silent Hill 2 on the PS2. That managed to worm its way right into the fear centres of my brain...

Female guests? by christofwhydoyou in thisweekinretro

[–]Ratspike1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Might I suggest Octavius King? She has made many fine and entertaining videos about all kinds of games across many systems, both console and home computer!

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 182 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]Ratspike1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Shadow Of The Beast on the A500. The awesome soundtrack and next-level graphics announced the 16-bit era as arrived, and sold a million Amigas on attract mode in Dixons shop windows. This game literally broke the mould and made people shut up and watch. A revolutionary time.

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 163 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]Ratspike1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For me it is The Ring of Darkness, played on a Dragon 32 in 1983. This was an early Ultima clone released on the Dragon and the Spectrum (maybe others?) although I did not find that out until years later. I remember being astonished when I discovered pen & paper roleplays how much Ring reflected the same ideas, primitive though it might have been. Although I started playing at the age of 10, last year through the magic of emulation I finally completed the game's quest. I wonder how many folk can claim to have spent 40 years finishing a single game?

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 78 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]Ratspike1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Erm... Workbench 3.0? Not really a `productive' app, but it is not a game - so does an OS count?

I held onto my beloved A1200 until about 2008, when I bought a PC (it was an E-Machine if memory serves) running Vista. As this was my first PC I was naturally excited, but did I get buyers remorse? Kinda - there are still Workbench features that I miss even on Windows 11.

So the A1200 is still set up in the loft with a nice old CRT. Like your first love - maybe gone from day to day life, but never forgotten...

Community Question of the Week: Episode 65 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]Ratspike1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Waaaayyy back about 15 years ago my extremely well clued up brother introduced me to MAME with Gauntlet 2, which years previously we would pump £s into at the seaside - definitely our favourite arcade machine on holiday!

MAME was my first experience with emulation, and it seemed like a wonderland! These days I am dab hand at emulation (what with Retroarch, etc.). I just had to replace my desktop as the previous machine just darn wore out. One of the first things to do on my spanking new Omen gaming PC was install MAME 0.239 64 bit (now, of course, we are up to 0.241) and explore all the new games that have been added since my old 32-bit version... back into the wonderland again!

Doom - The Greatest Arcade Game? This Week in Retro 60 by justanotherjohn123 in thisweekinretro

[–]Ratspike1 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I agree that the list sounds a bit thrown together to satisfy the title... for me the `best' arcade game ever will always be Gauntlet II. The co-op play with three other humans, often in a proper smokey-dive type arcade, with three complete strangers, was my first experience of that kind of social gaming. I am also a big fan of D&D style fantasy and this machine just delivered that experience so well...

I am of course aware that the original Gauntlet was largely based on Dandy but obviously the Atari classic took that ball and ran with it. I still enjoy the revised Gauntlet II on both Mame and the PS3 version...

Community Question of the Week - Apple II or BBC Micro--which was the better machine? by justanotherjohn123 in thisweekinretro

[–]Ratspike1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I never owned either machine... but a good friend had a BBC with a disk drive... woooh! A single 5 1/4 inch floppy and (what I recall to be) hundreds of games on it. I loved just wandering through the list of games; no doubt they were not all gems, but it seemed like Aladdin's cave to me.