4 articles Tag retro

Thrust in Javascript (or just about)

August 9, 2010, 1 comment

I’ve always got one beady eye on Chrome Experiments, Google’s page for cool stuff built with new web tech. JavaScript isn’t exactly your new kid on the block – but how about when you’re using it to build a remake of BBC Micro B beauty Thrust? It’s the handiwork of Jon Combe, and it’ll flood the memory arteries of anyone who smashed up their Beeb after repeatedly catapulting their craft nose-first into a wall. In Thrust, you fought the law of gravity – and the law won. Again, and again, and again.

Jon’s used a smidgen of Flash to get the sound working, but only Steve Jobs is likely to get upset about that. Head straight to the Chrome Experiments page for Thrust – and have a giggle at the poor mites moaning that the controls are rubbish and it’s all too difficult. Welcome to 1986, kids!


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Pixels from the past: Toki

January 10, 2010, 0 comments

toki

Oh gawd, Toki. My main memories of this are playing it on some seedy city centre arcade, on a machine that only let you have two minutes per coin. Two minutes with Toki is nowhere near enough to figure out why Toki exists or what it wants from you. It’s a shooty platformer, yes. But with a fireball-spitting monkey. And zombie monkeys. And monkeys piloting giant floating aztec-style temples with boxing gloves on the bottom. Toki is slow, and it helps you find out exactly how many unfairly-placed deadly exploding stalacmites one game can squeeze in (answer: lots) — but it’s got something, it really has. And to prove it, there’s a sparkled-up version coming for Xbox Live and WiiWare, so this is the ideal time to monkey around with the original. Play Toki (in-browser, Java)

Pixels from the past: R.C. Pro-Am

June 2, 2009, 0 comments

R.C. Pro-Am

What to do about the relative lack of decent browser-based racing games? Either sit and shake your head ruefully until it falls off. Or play R.C. Pro-Am — the 1988 NES game from Banjo-Tooie boys Rare that’s still one of the best racers in racertown. Race surprisingly fast for 20-year-old technology! Skid around with satisfying just-rightness! Aim rockets at dastardly cheat-happy rival racers! And realise that with that happy little between-circuit screen of medals and cups, Rare invented Achievements about 2 decades before the fates intended. Play R.C. Pro-Am (in-browser, Java)

Pixels from the past: Mug Smashers

May 24, 2009, 0 comments

Mug SmashersSo I’m worshipping Easy Retro as my new god now — sacrificing goats, the lot. They’re creating a library of old arcade, console and computer games that you can play right in your browser — none of that faffing about with emulators, which means more time for fun and biscuits. One highlight is obscure ’90s beat-’em-up Mug Smashers, which isn’t as good as Final Fight but obv has a much better name. The array of mugs you have to smash include sailors, street workers, and men wearing little more than leotards and an angry face. SMASH THEM ALL, because these basts think nothing of hanging your trussed-up girlfriend out of a helicopter. Or, slightly less sinisterly, driving her around on the back of a forklift truck. Play Mug Smasher (Flash)