Living the High Life

Video Game Diary:

Yesterday Blake, Kris, Scott, Kim, Evan, Tillman and I got together and played some classic video games.

We started off with Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom for the Atari 2600 In Buck Rogers, the player controls a spaceship that must destroy ships and avoid obstacles. Unfortunately, Buck never makes an appearance. The only real resemblance to the Buck Rogers license is the game's outer space setting.

Blake has a notable high score on Buck, 713,995, Level 11. The game was also released for the Atari 5200, Atari XE, Colecovision, Intellivision, MSX and Sega Master System, as well as some computer systems and is a port of the 1982 Sega coin-op.

Next we played Jungle Hunt for the Atari 2600. The game is comparable to Pitfall, although I found the game to be far more sophisticated than Pitfall. The game consists of four scenes.

The player is required to perform carefully timed jumps from vine to vine towards a crocodile-infested river. There, you must keep your oxygen supply in check while either dodging the reptiles or knifing them for bonus points and in scene three, dodging and ducking boulders is the name of the game. Your final task is to jump over the native warriors who have captured your girlfriend while their spear is down. In the end, the four screens start repeating, getting tougher...


After everyone had a turn with this gem of a cart, Tillman had a chance to play the game and was frustrated with scene two, the afore mentioned deadly jungle river. Blake ensured him that this scene was difficult because "those gators are hungry, they've had nothing but fish to eat for 10,000 years!"

Next, we played Wall Street Kid for the Nintendo Entertainment System...

In Wall Street Kid, you're given $500,000 and the goal of successfully investing in stocks. The first challenge is to earn enough money to purchase your uncle's castle before it is sold to restore the family name-time is of the essence! You must also balance your job, girlfriend and still get plenty of exercise. Most of the game is spent in your office buying and selling stocks. However, you can leave your office to go on a date with your "Sweet Heart" to a picnic, shopping, or a local carnival. You can also work out by going swimming or hiking. The time management is strict and difficulty may be a factor in your enjoyment of the game.

Tillman later expressed that this was his favorite game we played that evening. (You can tell Tillman I said he needs to grow some! -ed.)


Next up was Journey to Silius for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was released in 1990. It was produced and developed by Sunsoft. The game is an edited version of Raf World, a Famicom game featuring a different main character. The game was originally supposed to feature the Terminator license, but Sunsoft lost the rights. (this game blew me away with its great presentation, music and graphics. Another great side-scroller adventure for your NES!-ed.)That was the end of our evening of classics. Goodnight, folks!

- Matthew Taylor, gamebot

Venture

Gamebot Live podcast now available!

Gamebot Live is the podcast version of everything you love about gamebotonline. We will keep you posted on upcoming conventions, the newest homebrews, mods and hacks, history, trivia and everything associated with the classic and obscure gaming scene while keeping our standard segments like "Impressive Human!" and "The Hunt and the Haggle" (podcastized as Finds in the Wild). Its time for you guys to listen up then tell us what you think! Contact us with feedback, questions, comments, ideas and what you want more of by emailing us at mail@gamebotonline.com. Write us and you may be immortalized on the show! Feel free to download and share with your friends:


Gamebot Live episode 0

In this episode we cover The Cuttle Cart #3 (for Intellivision), Opcode games and Spider: The Video Game for Playstation. It was our first attempt and was never intended for release, but it turned out pretty good so we decided to after all! Please excuse the lack of a musical guest (even though one is introduced).

Gamebot Live episode 0 (mp3 13.0 MB)


Gamebot Live episode 1

This is the Official first podcast, still shakey and raw but live and entertaining! We chat about two new classic video game movies coming out in 2007, the popularity of "casual" games online, offer up some trivia and speak of games like Skullmonkeys for Playstation, Panic Bomber for Virtual Boy and Missing in Action for the Atari 7800

Gamebot Live episode 1 (mp3 27.9 MB)


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Venture

"For the completely broke"

Its time for an update for the faithful readers and what better way than with a list of games none rare, but still interesting none the less...

No haggling was necessary in the procurement of these carts.

In addition to the title (listed in alphabetical order by system, recorded also is what I paid for it and its current approximate value. Anyone interested in starting a collection for the first time, you'll find that there are lots of games at a flea market near you for a fraction of what you'd pay on ebay!

Nintendo Entertainment System

• 1942 (loose)- paid $1.00 - value $ 6.00
• Millipede (loose) - paid $2.00 - value $ 7.00
• Muppet Adventure "Chaos at the Carnival" (loose)- paid $1.00 - value $ 6.00


Nintendo Virtual Boy

• Golf (loose) - paid $2.00 - value $ 10.00
• Mario's Tennis (loose) - paid $2.00 - value $ 3.00
• Panic Bomber (loose) - paid $2.00 - value $ 10.00
• Teleroboxer (loose) - paid $2.00 - value $ 6.00


Sega Genesis

• Forgotten Worlds (loose) - paid $1.50 - value $ 4.00
• Generations Lost (loose) - paid $1.50 - value $ 4.00
• The Jungle Book (loose) - paid $1.50 - value $ 5.00
• The Lost Vikings (loose) - paid $1.50 - value $ 4.00
• The Pagemaster (loose) - paid $1.50 - value $ 2.00
• Robocop 3 (loose) - paid $1.50 - value $ 5.00
• Super Baseball 2020 (loose) - paid $1.50 - value $ 2.00


Sony Playstation

• Spider (complete in case) - paid $4.00 - value $ 6.00


Systems

• Sears Super Video Arcade Cartridge System with 2 controllers (boxed)
  paid $10.00 - value $ 35.00

And here are the games that I passed up:

Sega Genesis

• Eternal Champions (loose) - paid $3.00 - value $ 1.50
• Lotus 2 (loose) - $3.00 - value $ 4.00
• Ms. Pac-Man (complete in box) - $8.00 - value $9.00
• Super Tecmo Bowl (complete in box) - $3.00 - value $ 3.00

- Blake Leftwich, gamebot