2020-03-16
Virus Rage
Game Review
As of this writing, the COVID-19 pandemic is spreading with everything from sporting events to concerts being cancelled or
re-scheduled and it's recommended you stay in, avoid crowds, and so forth.
So, why not take the opportunity to review an obscure, appropriately themed IBM PC game? For this mini-review I'm inviting you take a look at
Virus Rage which was published by Fantasy Research, Inc. in 1983!
The game is rather tough to find and I'm sure sold few copies so there's a pretty good chance you've never heard of it. As an early IBM PC action game the technical limitations can
make it a little frustrating to play, but the idea is decent enough and it can even be fun to try out for a while.
2020-02-08
David Wolf: Secret Agent
Game Review
Back in the late 1980's, a small company from Eugene, Oregon known as Dynamix was working on ways to bring
more narative and a more cinematic quality to their games. One of their first self-published titles, alongside
A-10 Tank Killer, was the half 3D simulator / half James Bond movie mish-mash David Wolf: Secret Agent.
This oddball game was a bit ambitious for the time, especially for a quasi-small company; Billed as an
“Interactive Movie”, the game's attempt to mix action and story (with live actors) was an interesting experiment.
However, despite a few nice ideas and a decent enough high-level concept, the ultimate combination is rather disappointing.
2020-01-27
January 2020 Updates
New Code Updates, Tags, Package Contents, and More
To start off 2020, I just pushed live the first code update of the year! There's always a lot of work going on behind the scenes,
even though it may not always be immediately visible.
For this update a number of minor bug fixes are included such as layout tweaks, especially to improve pages on mobile devices.
There are also some new
features that are still in the works even if there isn't a completed version that has been released at this time.
A new feature that did make it, and was long overdue, is the ability to tag games that are, in some abstract way, related.
2019-12-20
Happy Holidays!
The PixelatedArcade 2019 End of Year Roundup
Happy holidays everyone! It's been a busy year here with lots of classic gaming fun. We acquired numerous new games to document on
the site, deployed several code revisions including a
new, more responsive layout, added this news feature (including the first two rambling game reviews), and numerous bug fixes
and behind the scenes updates. We're looking forward to 2020 with plenty
more to come; there's still a stack of boxes that haven't been scanned and screenshots to be captured so look for more images,
games, credits, features, and possibly even a few new platforms to be added....
2019-11-27
Tongue of the Fatman
Game Review
Released in 1989 for IBM and compatible computers (and later ported to the Commodore 64 and SEGA Genesis),
Tongue of the Fatman is
a unique and odd game. A one on one fighting game, few titles of this variety existed for the PC at the time and, in my opinion, it wouldn't
be until years later when the genre was refined enough to make some truly solid games (e.g. SoulCalibur). I am not exactly a fighting game aficionado so keep that in
mind if you are; however
I always thought this was actually an original and fun title a little ahead of it's time...
2019-11-08
Cool Stuff 1: Nintendo Golf
The Many Variations of Nintendo's 8-bit Golf Games
Golf games have existed nearly as long as video games themselves, and nearly every system has had some variation of the sport released as a game.
Nintendo is no exception, and their 8-bit offering of the sport has gone through numerous releases and revisions!
Over at the Nerdly Pleasures blog, Great Hierophant has meticulously chronicled Nintendo's 8-bit Obsession with Golf.
2019-10-29
Willow: The Computer Game
Game Review
Not many people remember the movie
Willow these days it seems, and perhaps for good reason; in retrospect, it was rather mediocre. Despite some big names associated, it was met with mixed reviews when it came out
and time hasn't helped its cause. Still, at the time, I was young and absolutely adored the film regardless of any shortcomings; so when
Mindscape came out with their computer
adaptation of the movie I immediately plunked down my hard earned cash. Unfortunately, while the movie may had some redeeming qualities even if it's not a cinematic masterpiece...
2019-10-17
Marketing and Ad Blockers
The Ads You Want to See!
Advertisements are a part of video game history; viewing flyers, magazine ads, product catalogs, and so on can provide a
lot of insight into what the market was like at the time. Sometimes the artwork was amazing and worth preserving just by itself,
but perhaps more often the results are ridiculous and very much a product of the era and provide amusement only in an
MST3K fashion. Either way, it's noteworthy!
We've been adding scans of numerous advertisements to games here at PixelatedArcade; nearly 1000 have been posted as of this writing,
with many more to come! One issue, however,
can occur if you're using an ad blocker (such Adblock Plus)...