Author: davegladow

The Oregon Trail — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 18)

So for fun I sometimes sit around and tweak the list of games I’d like to include in this feature. Games get moved up and down all the time, but the overarching principle I use is this: What games should a person experience before they die? And more presently for myself, which games would I want to write about before I die?

It’s morbid, but then, so are many games.

Which leads us to one of the most brutal lessons many people of a certain age ever experienced via the educational game The Oregon Trail: that life is constantly trying to kill you.

It’s not what I’d call a subtle lesson either.

It cracks me up to this day that educators saw fit to knock this lesson into kids’ heads for something like a generation of kids (maybe more?).

“Hey kids? Want to learn about the world? Well here’s this ‘history game’ [wink, wink] that’ll show you how much life sucks sucked. Have a good time getting adjusted!”

The thing is, this game was wildly addictive anyway.

Yeah, it was borderline impossible to avoid snakebites and/or cholera. But the point of the thing was to try to win anyway, and when someone in the class was finally able to confirm that, yes, it was possible to make it all the way to the end without sustaining complete disaster, well that was just the perfect brew of crack cocaine the rest of us needed to continue to come back to it.

Plus it was a video game. In class. As opposed to math worksheets or some other mundane task like collecting rocks.

OF COURSE everyone loved this game.

The Oregon Trail

Genre: Educational
Released: 1985
Platform: Apple
No. 9 on Time’s 50 Best Video Games of All Time
Continue reading The Oregon Trail — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 18)

WhoDatJedi podcast: Han shot first! Until he didn’t!

Han shot first!

That saying gives me the shivers, as it denotes fan entitlement. But there’s no denying that many of George Lucas’ changes to “A New Hope” he debuted with “The Special Edition” in 1997 continue to create frustration for a great many fans.

On this episode we dove into why, whether any of the changes are good, and how this problem came into being in the first place.

Continue reading WhoDatJedi podcast: Han shot first! Until he didn’t!

Tetris — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 17)

Tetris is an essential play for everyone.

This is stipulated here, and pretty much everywhere else too: Tetris is a game everyone must play.

That’s not surprising, or at least it shouldn’t be to anyone currently breathing air. This puzzle game — in which different shapes fall out of the sky and one must arrange them so that you can fill in a line to clear out more room for still more falling blocks — is widely considered the best puzzle game in existence, if not the best video game … period.

Again, so stipulated.

What’s kind of fun about Tetris is that its roots account for some of its pervasiveness. This game has been ported an astounding 65 times and been purchased an even more astounding 202 million times. This fact, that there are dozens of versions of this game and it really doesn’t matter which version you play (unless it’s the Genesis version; that version sucks), is unique in this industry.

Also unique is its backstory, which involved a Russian programmer, the U.S.S.R. government, several gaming companies, and — for some reason — Hungary.

It’s one of the most popular games of all time. And yet, would it have been so popular if its licensing rights hadn’t become so bizarrely entangled?

Possibly not.

It got ported and ported and ported again, because no one knew enough about who owned the thing to be scared enough not to pirate the thing.

And thusly, Tetris spread like a disease.

Tetris

Genre: Puzzle
Released: 1987
Platform: PC (and everything else)
EGM’s No. 1 game of all time
Continue reading Tetris — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 17)

WhoDatJedi Podcast: Is ‘The Mandalorian’ getting TOO much appreciation now? Also, let’s catch up!

We got back in the saddle this week. We got into why we were on hiatus, talked about the newest Star Wars content, and we even asked if “The Mandalorian” is too hyped at this point.

Gasp!

Continue reading WhoDatJedi Podcast: Is ‘The Mandalorian’ getting TOO much appreciation now? Also, let’s catch up!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 16)

I’ve gravitated to brawlers for a very long time, basically since they first started popping up in arcades in the mid-1980s.

The brawler — if you need a primer — is a genre of video game that involves beating up a bunch of bad guys who keep coming at you. Also sometimes referenced as a “beat ’em up” — though I shy from that designation as that to me denotes more of a one-on-one fighter like Street Fighter II — it essentially boils down to mashing punch and kick buttons, often with a teammate(s) helping you, through several stages until you defeat the big bad, probably/possibly rescue a family member/significant other, and live happily ever after (until the sequel).

There’s probably something to unpack there about why I enjoy these games as much as I do [insert analysis about wish fulfillment in regards to settling conflict with one’s fists HERE], but the appeal of the genre runs much deeper than simple violence.

To me, it’s all about how communal they are.

Brawlers, you see, are short, and since multiple people can generally play, they become communal by their very nature. That makes a good brawler a tremendous bonding opportunity, in the same way a sports title can be. You can gather with friends, have a quick, fun experience together, and then move on to other interests or part ways.

Gaming is just more fun when it’s done together.

But brawlers might be even better for cooperative play than sports games. In sports titles, you’re often taking on your friends and family. You’re opponents. In a brawler, you’re united against a common foe. Teamwork carries the day. And while “friendly fire” can be a fun aspect to that sort of experience too, it’s ultimately most rewarding to team up and defeat the game together.

So yeah, I like these kinds of games a LOT. And yet, when I sat down to think about which games are some of my all-time, can’t-miss recommendations, not many were emerging at the top of my list … for various, sound reasons.

Streets of Rage and Double Dragon haven’t aged all that gracefully.

Final Fight and Streets of Rage 2 were never really my jam at the time, so they don’t have that “first love” appeal.

Battletoads? A smidge too tough.

The Golden Ax series? A little too niche.

And honestly, most other arcade brawlers that came along afterward just felt too derivative.

Which is how we ended up with a licensed arcade port sitting here at No. 16.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time

Genre: Brawler
Released: 1992
Platform: SNES
No. 24 on GamesRadar’s Best SNES Games of All Time
Continue reading Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 16)

Ms. Pac-Man — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 15)

The list that I’ve been putting together of games every person should play — the retro gaming essentials — has thus far mostly taken on a personal bent, focusing primarily on games I personally enjoy a great deal. These are, after all, games I am personally recommending to as wide an audience as possible. It would stand to reason they are my personal favorites.

My relationship with Pac-Man is … more complicated than that.

Have I derived fun from playing the series? Absolutely. I have fond memories of playing the games in arcades and pizzerias growing up. The games were just always THERE, whether one played them or not, always in the background, running through gameplay footage and piping noise out into the room. Pac-Man games were a constant. They were reliable. They were present.

That’s comforting.

But gun to my head, is any Pac-Man game getting listed when I’m asked for my personal favorites?

Eh, probably not. At least not for a long time.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t think people should play, or that folks won’t get enjoyment out of them. These are, by definition, ESSENTIAL games.

And the best game in the series is Ms. Pac-Man.

Ms. Pac-Man

Genre: Maze
Released: 1982
Platform: Arcade
No. 5 on Time’s 50 Best Video Games of All Time
Continue reading Ms. Pac-Man — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 15)