12 / 20 / 2023
“I swear by the tip of my spear that I will find Cao Cao in the buffet!” You know, all the Three Kingdoms video games usually start off with the Yellow Turban Rebellion but they don’t mention the corruption caused by the 12 Eunuchs that prompted the whole thing 😳.
Anyway, the 3 Kingdoms: Battle of Red Cliffs slot doesn’t get into any historical aspirations but it’s not really a bad one, just simple and kinda boring. Wacky Wheels HD aspired to revive a cult MS-DOS racing hit from the original Super Mario Kart days, but it didn’t quite get there.
12 / 14 / 2023
“This is my kinda place, crooked and sleazy!” Delving into the world of “sweepstakes casinos” today, a relatively new development that allows for real money gaming in (most of) the US … well at least until The Man cracks down on it. First up is McLuck Casino, and we’ll tack on a couple slot reviews with Jack Hammer and Rage of the Seas.
12 / 7 / 2023
One more Konami 3×5 slot with the alluring Radiant Witch, and two old-school casino game collections of varying quality: Gamblers and Money Grubbers, and Vegas Games.
11 / 13 / 2023
Some more slot reviews coming in with Jumpin Jalapenos and Bounty Bonanza, and the rather obvious Excitebike clone-age of Xtreme Wheels.
10 / 24 / 2023
Well, slot reviews are getting a response already, so let’s forge ahead with Lotus Land and The Munsters … that said I fully understand this is not everyone’s bag o’ milk, so I also have Yu-Gi-Oh: Dark Duel Stories to offer (first video game of the franchise released in English, and helps bolster the fledgling Collectible Card Game section)
10 / 12 / 2023
Adding something a little new today with reviews of slots (filed under the Casino Games page). Starting out with China Mystery, a simple but persistent title from Konami, and returning to monke with Kong: The 8th Wonder of the World
9 / 12 / 2023
Given that I’m an avowed Tecmo Super Bowl enthusiast I guess it’s a little odd that I’ve taken this long to bother checking out Retro Bowl, when you can just open it up and play free in a web browser. Turned out to be for the best though, as you’re just one click away from what is probably the first negative review of it on the internet!
8 / 26 / 2023
Dreamcast Double Feature: Frying high and feering good with Daytona USA, and getting warmed up for the US Open with Virtua Tennis.
8 / 9 / 2023
Every time I watch a video about one of these old Fire Pro games it’s always some narrator insisting “these games are hard but they’re great once you get the timing” and in-game they’re still getting their ass beat all over these french fries. I don’t think anyone actually knows how to play these games, I think everyone just pretends.
Anyway, closing out the initial Turbografx run of the series with Fire Pro Wrestling 3. And Casino Games for the Master System, a surprisingly polished title from Compile that I think is the only officially released game of poker on the system.
7 / 31 / 2023
I decided to throw together a running list of the free NFL pick ’em contests for 2023 ’cause it’s really hard to find these all gathered in one place. Might start doing this annually I dunno.
7 / 30 / 2023
Today, the unreleased Grand Casino (a neat-looking anime casino adventure) and the released-but-not-really-noticed Rags to Riches (simple stock trading and Rules of Acquisition in the manner of Wall Street Kid).
7 / 25 / 2023
Moving on to Trump Castle 2 today, which I can’t say added to Le Donald’s reputation for quality products … and staying on the theme of sequels released in 1991, how about the 2nd Fire Pro Wrestling game, Fire Pro 2: 2nd Bout.
7 / 19 / 2023
Some more unreleased Game Boy Color games today (tons of sports titles in these for some reason) – slot car racer Carrera and fancy horse prancer Equestriad 2001.
7 / 14 / 2023
You know, we always talk about Trump being the first wrestler president, or the first president whose wife did nude pictorials, what goes overlooked is that he was the first with his own line of vidya games as well. Trump Castle was the first of three for computers in the ’90s, honestly it was a pretty low energy start though. Also added a very nice fan project to Turbo Outrun that is rebuilding the game in Unity with neat new stuff (scroll to le bottom).
7 / 8 / 2023
Cracking into some of those leaked Game Boy Color games today with AMF Bowling and Billiard Club
7 / 4 / 2023
I’m getting bah humbug on fireworks in my middle age … and anyway they’re doing the “drone shows” now instead for the big ones and I don’t really wanna see the drones form up into Consoomer Product. So how about a quiet night with some ambient casino gaming in Beat The House, and maybe a game or two of Chinese Checkers (actually an American game by way of Germany).
6 / 26 / 2023
If you want an updated version of NFL Blitz that you can run on pretty much anything check out NFL Blitz 2023, and I swear 3D Pocket Pool isn’t a mistaken update that should have been over at Plumflower.
6 / 19 / 2023
Cracking into Japanese wrestling with a New Japan game, Shin Nihon Pro Wrestling, and the rare soccer title with a very bad soccer game, Soccer Yarou. Also added the Wonderswan version to Side Pocket.
6 / 12 / 2023
Gambling addicts are well-served by mobile games these days, but what did they do prior to smartphones and tablets? They made do with Las Vegas EGA Casino, if they hadn’t gambled away the computer already. The early 90s were a great time if you were into exploding soccer robots though, and I think Soccer Brawl was the first into the arcade space with it.
6 / 6 / 2023
It’s nice baseball and golf weather around here, so why not Pro Yakyuu Rookies (forgotten Japan-only entry in the Bases Loaded series) and Nice On (super simple Wonderswan golf game)
5 / 30 / 2023
We got our first horse racing game today with Stakes Winner … since it’s a very small niche genre I lazily filed it under “Casino Games” for now, but maybe I’ll create a page for it if there’s some rash of titles I’m not aware of or something … also, another wrestling (and Kinnikuman/MUSCLE) game with Kinnikuman 2nd Generation.
5 / 4 / 2023
I love OutRun, and the Cannonball emulator (superior way to play it outside of an arcade machine) has apparently been out since 2014, but I’m just now finding out about it despite being overly online. Well, that’s why I do these sites I guess, to have an index of these things. That’s been added to the OutRun page and we also have Bar Games, which are what the tin says but with some added Spring Break games like a wet t shirt contest.
4 / 27 / 2023
I promise this is it for Final Lap for awhile … what happened was I played Final Lap 2000 and Final Lap Special first, then decided I should go back and play the original. Anyway. That’s the update.
4 / 9 / 2023
SNK and Capcom’s attempt to horn in on the 90s collectible card game craze was recently revived on the Switch, but today we’re starting with the original SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters Clash for the Neo Geo Pocket. Also the forgotten Final Lap, spiritual Pole Position 3 that seems to have gone forgotten due to a combination of being something of a novelty arcade cabinet and the lone console port never making it out of Japan.
3 / 29 / 2023
Couple of foundational titles for their respective genres: Side Pocket was the first at least somewhat accurate “simulation” of pool that I’m aware of, and Super Tennis was the first console tennis game (that I know of offhand) in the 16-bit era and made a substantial jump from what the prior 8-bit titles had offered.
2 / 22 / 2023
In the depths of chilly winter, a man’s thoughts turn toward sunny golf courses and … remote control car races? A couple of landmark games: Mobile Golf is a forgotten entry in the Mario Golf series, and one with online play … RC Pro-Am and RC Pro-Am 2 not only founded the 2D mini-car racing subgenre but Mario Kart also basically cribbed like at least half of its ideas from them.
2 / 10 / 2023
The history of driving sims on computers basically starts with the Test Drive series … prior to that it was pretty much the sole province of the arcades due to the limitations of home hardware. Test Drive came up with a simple formula that still has some basic appeal, expanded on in Test Drive 2.
1 / 26 / 2023
What did they mean by this? 🤔
One more Nintendo oddity for now – Special Tee Shot, which was actually the original concept for Kirby’s Dream Course, but was put on the shelf until it was released as a Satellaview download a few years later.
And Pit Boss II, the second in the series of games that pioneered the whole “bar countertop quasi-fake-gambling” concept.
1 / 18 / 2023
A couple of Nintendo sports rarities today: BS Kirby Baseball and Excitebike Bunbun Mario Battle, which were both Satellaview titles that came out near the end of the system lifespan. The Kirby baseball title is a little mini-game comparable to a phone title, but the Excitebike was one of the big productions with an accompanying live audio broadcast that takes some ROM hacking and patching to get playable again.
1 / 12 / 2023
Some assorted odds and ends today with Animal Boxing, a DS title that’s kinda visually impressive but doesn’t control all that well, and BS F-Zero Grand Prix, a series of Japan-only Satellaview titles.
1 / 3 / 2023
“If a man wants to name his character ASS DINGLEBALLS, damn it, this is a free country, you should respect his wishes” … oh hullo. Starting off the new year with Konami’s Ping Pong, perhaps the first attempt to really simulate table tennis, and Sierra Championship Boxing, perhaps the first attempt to really simulate boxing.