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Rowsdower70

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Posts posted by Rowsdower70

  4. Altered Beast is underrated

    in Sega

    Posted

    It helps to look at the market at the time to get context.  For example, Combat was a good transitional choice at the time -- "Tank" games were new in the arcades then.  And Atari was inventing the industry.  Plus the original VCS lineup of games was pretty weak.  LV Poker and Blackjack showcased what Intellivision was capable of with nice graphics and a lot of game options. 

     

    But "Super Breakout" with 5200 really stands out as an odd choice.  By that time, breakout games were several years old and really tired.  Why did they have a breakout game at all on the system?  And the competition of Colecovision, which came with "Donkey Kong", was almost a knockout punch right out of the gate.  I really think the 5200 would have had a better chance if it came with Pac Man as the pack-in game originally. 

     

    One of my favorites was Dreamcast, which came with THREE excellent sports games. 

     

    But I think the very best pack-in game of all time has to go to the Wii with "Wii Sports".  Talk about a perfect game to showcase what a system was all about.  My gosh, we still fire up Wii Sports when Grandma comes over for a few rounds of Wii Bowling. 

     

    And then there's the phenomena of companies that switch the pack-in game during the life of a system, and it ends up being like flooring the gas pedal.  "Sonic" with Genesis, "Super Mario Brothers" with NES are two great examples. 

    I'm not familiar with Wii Sports.  Never purchased a Wii new.    

     

    I'm trying to think of my favorite pack-in game, and I guess it would be Tetris for the GameBoy.     It was just perfect, and the timing was too.

  5. Altered Beast is underrated

    in Sega

    Posted

    Wow, I had forgotten that the 5200 went with Super Breakout as a pack-in.    I think that beats Las Vegas Poker&Blackjack for worst pack-in game ever.   What were they thinking? 
    "Lets put in a game that could be played on a calculator as our pack in to really show people what the 5200 can do!"    

    Intellivision deserves its own share of scorn for a poker game, but it was fun for my dad, I guess lol  Heck, Combat was a poor choice for the Atari 2600 if you ask me....they needed something an only child could enjoy.  Thankfully my Dad was smart enough to get us Space Battle when we got our Intellivision!

    As much  as I love the Atari generation of gaming, NES and later gens did a MUCH better job with pack in games.

  6. Sears is Closing The Very First & My Hometown Kmart

    in Retro

    Posted

    I remember when the Christian music store in Winnipeg closed.  It closed mainly due to bad parking, but the building was amazing.  I got a lot of great music from there.  They closed back in 2014, but reopened in a dfferent location a year later.  Although I'm glad they're back, it just isn't the same.

     

    It's always sad when a store from your childhood closes.

    Since you are a fan of Christian music, here's me and the Mrs with someone you might recognize.   Also the shirt is a (somewhat) obscure Christian prog band. :)

    1052505_10200153881591761_2119847729_o.j

  10. Seven Pinball Books Worth Reading

    in Pinball

    Posted

    From Brett Weiss' blog:
     

     

    Invented during The Great Depression, when Americans needed cheap, escapist entertainment, pinball has been around almost as long as the talkies, but there are very few books on the subject when compared to the film industry. Fortunately, there are some worth recommending.

     
     

    http://www.brettweisswords.com/2017/02/pinball-books-worth-reading_16.html

  15. 2:30AM at a 7-11 near Disney World, 1987

    in Retro

    Posted

    Ummm.  Hello!  I spent a ton of late nights at 7-11 1986 -> 1990 goofing off, drinking Slurpees and playing Double Dragon. 

     

    Kids today have just as much fun if they want.  It's just that we're too old and krusty (and in bed at 2am) to notice. 

    I worked at C-stores off and on in the late 80s early 90s.   Part of me wants to strangle people just hanging out in the store because 2:30 is when I'd be getting some work done! This place had a couple of cashiers working so it wasn't that bad, plus I'm sure being close to Disney World they are prepared for interesting customers. 

     

  20. John Carpenter's "The Thing"

    in Television & Movies

    Posted

    I'll make sure to post a review once I watch it again (hopefully soon).  It has been a long time. 

     

    Teenage me didn't really know or care about movie critic reviews at the time, which is probably a good thing.  This movie was not only awesome, it was TERRIFYING.  I loved it.   I saw it in the theater and again a few times on VHS...but not since. 

     

    Some movies I loved at the time don't really hold up if I watch them now.  Example:  Star Trek 2 - The Wrath of Khan.  It seems really pokey (plot-wise) and the computer effects are pretty bad (although they were cutting edge at the time, I'm sure).  Plus, everything is BIGGER in ST:2.  Communicators, phasers, computers....doesn't seem very futuristic when you watch it now.  Still a great movie, but gained a little tarnish over time.  Ricardo Montalbano as Khan is one of the all-time great movie-villain performances in any case.  

     

    You all have any other examples?  

    I still love ST2, but I do have one example.   Dark Crystal was a favorite of mine growing up, and then Jennifer and I watched it together and I didn't get nearly as much out of it.   The "muppets" and effects are still decent enough, but its really choppy and so-so story wise.

     

    I should warn that the original is a lot different than the JC version (of the Thing).   The first one is very much a sci-fi suspense movie, while JC puts the horror spin on it.  I actually hear that JC's version is more true to the novella. 

  23. John Carpenter's "The Thing"

    in Television & Movies

    Posted

    This is one old movie I don't have.  I vaguely remember this movie since I watched it in a drive-in movie theater when I was very little.  I didn't start to watch home versions of these movies until I was about 23 when I inherited a few CED players and tons of movies.  Only then did I start to adventure into the movies my family members were buying.  In Praise of Older Women was about dumb, I loved Singin' In The Rain, and I discovered the original Fog and Escape From New York.  The latter two were really good movies and still declare the original Fog the best one because it let's the imagination play along...something that the remake does not do.  

     

    So...in my opinion, the more the imagination is allowed to play the more the movie will play with the senses.  Signs scared me more than any Nightmare sequels just because it played with the imagination.  The Thing was probably "bad mouthed" because compared to Carpenter's previous releases it might have seemed poorly made.  As time moved on and more film tools became available The Thing's original reviews probably changed for the simple fact that it does something most of today's movies don't do...play with the human imagination.  

     

    I'd join you if I had it to watch but it's one of those films I would want to watch it with what I would have had available when it came out or shortly there after.  I really don't like watching classics on modern TVs and gear.  It just seems to lose that charm done that way.  

    I loved the Fog.  I had it on video disc and watched it a lot as a kid.   Adrienne Barbeau...hubba hubba! 

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