Classic gaming and emulation

Return of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

2007-03-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

As you probably know this past Friday was the release of the much anticipate movie TMNT. This new rendition of the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had a lot of people talking, well maybe not but hey I was excited. If you can’t yet tell I am a TMNT fan and have been since the ever popular cartoon from the 80s.

In case you were wondering, yes I did go see the movie on release night. I was kind of surprised that the theater was not as packed as I thought it would be, obviously not as many people we as anxious for this as I was.

Anyway, I thought the movie was very well done and also very entertaining. Rather than the very lighthearted and happy go lucky cartoons we all know, this movie went back to the roots of the TMNTs more based on the comics that first spawned these awesome turtles. The story and characters are a little darker which I believe made the movie far superior to the first three big screen attempts.

All in all, the entire movie was great and if you are a TMNT fan I recommend you go and watch it. If you aren’t a fan then I still recommend watching it as it is a great movie, especially for the kids.

So to commemorate the return of the Turtles, Javoemulation is going to revisit all the TMNT video games of the past from the NES, SNES and Genesis. Check back soon for the first post of this many part series.

Tecmo Super Bowl - Football at its best

2006-08-11T05:08:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the return of NFL football we are going to take a look at one of the greatest sports games ever made. I think you all know which game I am referring to, that’s right Tecmo Super Bowl. This game was the sequel to the very impressive Tecmo Bowl. The game play was fun, the graphics were great, and the series would rule all other football video games until John Madden Football was released on the Sega Genesis.

The really great thing about Tecmo Super Bowl (TSB) was the season play, and not just the season play but the stat tracking! This was such an awesome feature to be implemented into a sports game; countless hours were spent going over every stat to see where your players ranked compared to the rest of the league. Quarterback rating, rushing yards, Touchdowns, sacks and return yards are just a few of the stats the game was able to track for individual players, but hold on it also kept track of team stats too! This truly was the feature that really got me hooked on the TSB series.

The graphics for TSB were also pretty amazing for the NES. The close ups on big plays and touchdowns really looked great. The game was a smooth emulation of NFL football and playing a full regular season and reaching the big game was very satisfying. This was the true pioneer of all football games to be released.

Another great feature of TSB was the coaching mode. What?! Coaching?! That’s right you could just call the plays and let the computer run the plays. Now I wasn’t big on this but some people really got a kick out of this little feature. Coaching was a great alternative for those who mastered playing and could consistently win by scores of 77-0. The computer controlled QBs and RBs were not the brightest of the bunch. Many times my QB would have a wide open receiver streaking down the sidelines and instead of launching the famous 90 yard pass for a TD he would dump it to the covered RB in the flat and it would be intercepted! Frustrating, but it did add some difficulty to the game.

TSB was in fact the first true NFL football game and also still stands as one of the greatest football games out there. If you still have your old NES system you must find this game and purchase it.

*Jnes emulator used - you must own the actual cartridge to play roms!!

Gaming at its best

2006-08-09T07:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not posting the last week or so, got caught up in that thing called life. Ahh well, you just gotta roll with the punches.

Today I am changing things up a bit, not only will I be bringing you Classic games but I will also start to feature some great new age games, news and some great places for you to download and purchase games and other entertainment.

The first topic I am going to cover is the next gen console war. Xbox, PS3 or Wii. Which of these will reign supreme after it is all said and done?

I am personally rooting for the PS3. I applaud Sony for going out on a limb and offering this brand new technology. I takes a lot of guts for a company to put so much on the line as they are with the Blue ray technology and the other high tech options that will be available on the PS3.

The biggest complaint I hear about Sonys new console is (of course) the price tag. I agree it is a lot of money to put out for a gaming system, but I think most fail to see what you get with this price. A blue ray player (which may or may not be worth it), wireless support, the biggest hard drive for consoles available, and a machine that will most likely be your complete media center, and many other great options. These all make a $600 price tag very appealing to me.

So what about the XBox 360? Don't get me wrong it is a great gaming system, but I believe the fact that it uses current technology will be the reason it will be unable to beat out the PS3 or the Wii. Microsoft took current technology and really mastered it for its console, which is a very safe bet for them and resulted in a very solid system. However, if they really wanted to take over the console gaming industry they should have taken a chance and tried to use some new technology on their console. This is the main reason Sony will once again be the dominant power in the console wars.

Last but certainly not least is the Nintendo Wii. Expect this console to bring Nintendo back to its former glory. Although there is no way the big N will end up on top they will pull in a close second. With the extremely low price and cool new controller idea Nintendo will do extremely well this round, surpassing Microsoft, but it wont be enough to dethrone the king of the consoles, Sony.

So to wrap it up here is my ranking of how the outcome of the console wars will be;
1. Sony Playstation 3
2. Nintendo Wii
3. Microsoft XBox 360
I believe this will be the outcome but I also think the race between 1 and 2 will be very close.
Check out a Great article about Sony and the PS3 here.

Emulation downloads and classic gaming articles

2006-07-21T05:44:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Today I am presenting you three of the best emulation sites that I have found on the web. If you are interested in doing some classic gaming then you simply must check these sites out.

Vimms Lair - This is the absolute greatest site for anything involving NES and SNES roms and emulator.

FreeRoms - This site has a ton of roms to download.

Rom World - This site definitely has the most content. They have almost every system emulator available and tons of roms.

Interesting Articles
Nintendo Entertainment System 20th Anniversary
Join Retro Rogue as he celebrates the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Step back 20 years to October 18th, 1985 and witness the birth of an icon!
Game On Exhibition
Video game developer, enthusiast, and writer Kevin Williams, took the time while in London to visit what has been heralded the first major videogaming historical and cultural exhibition, and supplies his views on the result.
Game Companies Reissue Classics
Video-game software companies, joining the rest of the pop-culture mining industry, are tapping nostalgia for the '80s to introduce compilations of ol'-timey games for modern hardware.
Classic Gaming on the Go
Ah yes, the classics. They never get old. TheyÂre easy to pick up, fun to play in brief spurtsÂwhy not carry them with you at all times? 1UP takes a look at some of the best vintage titles currently and soon-to-be available on your mobile phone.

That's all for today. Happy Gaming to All!

NES - Abadox

2006-07-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome to game three on are journey through the classic games of yesterday. Next up is Abadox, a fairly decent side and vertical scrolling game. That’s right I said side and vertical, pretty amazing isn’t it. To be honest I didn’t remember this game but as I played I found it was pretty entertaining. So now onto Abadox.

What can I say, that opening shot has cool written all over it. Nothing like an oozing title to grab your attention, but will it hold your attention? Only time can answer this question and the quality of the game as well. I found the beginning of this adventure interesting although I really didn’t pay much attention to the story, of course how involved can a side scroller story be. I am guessing you are on an alien planet that is evil and you must destroy the mother brain in order to escape certain death. Original? Not really, but still the game was good.
One thing I notice about this game is that there was diversity in enemies unlike our last game – see previous post. Although the enemies look different they seem to act the same but what else can you expect from an aging NES system. The amount of action that goes on can really make this game difficult, trying to dodge all those aliens and not having much space to maneuver really increase the difficulty in the latter levels.

The bosses for each level looked pretty gruesome and scary although it was all the same. They shoot, you dodge and shoot back, they get hit and shoot again. Repeat said process for easy win.

Watch out for these boss battles they are going to be tough....Not!

After playing the first 5 levels I decided that was enough. I found myself going saying “didn’t I just do this the last four levels?” Yes you guessed it, I did. More repeat levels, but it didn’t take away from the fun of the game. Not a bad gem here, I recommend it if your looking to kill about 20 minutes, after that the fun meter runs out.

I score this game a 20. Nicely done, yes nicely done.
*Jnes emulator used - you must own the actual cartridge to play roms!!

NES - 1942

2006-07-18T05:35:00.000-07:00

Ahhh....1942, one of the greatest NES games to be released. This is one of those games that you can play over and over again trying desperately to beat your last high score. I truly enjoy playing this game and so here it is 1942.

This game is pretty straight forward; you command a 1942 fighter and pretty much destroy everything. Our mysterious fighter pilot takes on the whole Japanese army by himself and with a little luck and some terrible aiming on the enemies' part, he will be victorious.

Right from the start this game is all action. There are lots of enemy planes to destroy who couldn’t hit water if they jumped off a boat, and lots of bullets coming from all directions. Your key is to keep moving and constantly hit the fire button, if things are getting to hot hit your roll button. All the levels are pretty much the same the only difference is the background and it seems the enemies do in fact get tougher as the game progresses.

All in all I enjoy playing this game although some more variety in the types of enemies would have been nice. The graphics were pretty good for NES and I still am trying to beat my high score.

I rate this game 25.
Good, enjoyable but could have been better.
*Jnes emulator used - you must own the actual cartridge to play roms!!

NES - 10 Yard Fight

2006-07-17T09:20:00.000-07:00

Our first game we will look at is 10 Yard Fight. I remember way back when, the first time I played this game, I thought it sucked. Well here am I am giving it another chance, maybe I can find some entertainment in this game but I'm not holding my breath. So without further a due here is 10 Yard Fight.

The opening screen shot turned out to be the best part of this game. I knew this game was terrible and the memories came flooding back to me as I hit the start button to begin the adventure.
Once I hit the start button I choose to play on the high school level simply because it was the first choice and I just wanted to begin the game. Once the game play began I noticed that the graphics really weren’t that bad for an early NES game. The control however was absolutely terrible and my grandma in a wheelchair with no arms could move faster than these guys run!

I was on defense first and as you can see I made some killer tackles, but despite my hard work they scored a touchdown on the opening drive. My teammates were of no help as they just stood around getting blocked while my one lonely trooper ran sideline to sideline making all the tackles.
I received the kickoff after the score and made a fairly good run back until I was caught from behind as my blockers seemed to not notice the opposition running between them. I run a few runs and then I attempted a pass downfield, what a mistake. The throw was no where near my receiver and the defense made an easy interception. At this point my frustration got the best of me and I had to admit defeat and I realize I let an old NES game get the best of me. Oh well, I have too many other games to play to sit and waste time with one of the worst football games ever. Thank god Tecmo Bowl was released to redeem the NES football games.

I give 10 Yard Fight a -23 score. Terrible, just terrible.
Please post any comments
*Jnes emulator used - you must own the actual cartridge to play roms!!