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More new super Gamebot Lives

We have two new episodes to offer up, episodes 9 and 10! These episodes include all the great trivia and classic banter you have come to expect plus Joe & Mac, 7800 trivia, Lode Runner, the "Impressive Human!" Dig Dug II contest, Donkey Kong, Gobots, Target: Renegade, King of Kong and much more! Download them on the media page.

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, answers to trivia, high scores or anything you wanna say, email us! mail@gamebotonline.com or go voice your opinion in the forum.

Venture

Carolina Games Summit

We had a great time at the Carolina Games Summit! This event was located in Goldsboro, NC and featured game contests, game developer panels, VG music artists and more. Even though the CGS was not a retro or classic themed show, we represented the classic by setting up a classic game room. I met lots of interesting characters (as usual) including a Castlevania expert that said he had played every one in the series (and claimed they were too easy) and a gentleman who actually requested to play the Three Stooges for NES (and did well to boot)! Interesting indeed!


I did my best to represent the most popular games systems in history which includes the excellent late 80s/early 90s, the time of the great 16-bit console wars. It is a rivalry that in many hearts continues to this day, so I had to offer up both options to keep the masses happy.

Naturally I hooked up a Super Nintendo and boy, was it a success!

Strangely, the most popular game of the day was the one I expected to be played the least. It was a game I brought purely to represent the shooter genre... Gradius III and it was played non-stop for the bulk of the show. The second one person stopped, someone else would snap it up in a hurry. Shooters really are more popular than I thought, I even had someone offer to buy the cartridge. But it was my own personal copy so no way!

When there was a free moment I quickly changed to Magic Sword. This is one of my favorites as of late and I was curious to see how others felt. The gamers just kept asking me to put Gradius back in. Ouch!

The third game was Super Punchout. It is one of the best games on the system and I had to show it off. The resident Castlevania expert turned out to be a Punchout expert as well. He cleared the entire game in one sitting without losing a single match. Awesome, I got to see the ending!

As stated earlier, The 16-bit console war was a milestone in video game history and resulted in many great games. The Sega Genesis featured many of these on one cart!


The game is called Genesis 6-pack and it is loaded with the biggest hits of the system including Columns, Streets of Rage, Super Hang-On, Golden Axe, Shinobi II and Sonic the Hedgehog.

The most popular of the bunch was Sonic of course with Golden Axe and Streets of Rage tied for second place. Several players took advantage of the beat 'em ups' co-op play. Both Columns and Shinobi were nearly overlooked and Super Hang-On wasn't touched at all.

Another super beat 'em up that tagged along was Mazin Saga Mutant Fighter.

Mazin has fantastic, sound, music, graphics and gameplay. Typical levels have you punch and kick faceless thugs into oblivion and boss battles are fought (in giant form) towering above the cityscape and play more like a simple one on one fighter. Unfortunately, it's missing a two-player mode, a must-have for this genre.

Going back in time is my specialty. The two big guys of the 80s include the Atari 2600 (out in '77 but blossomed in the early 80s) and the immortal Nintendo Entertainment System.



The sad part here is that NES got 10 times more love than the Atari. A fact that is explained best by counting the number of grey hairs on my head. One day the Atari VCS will be the system that time forgot (your time is coming as well XBOX 360)!

Spider Fighter by Activision was the most played Atari game and Pitfall was the most asked for. This is a good time to remind you that Activision made the Atari the legend it is today. Other gems included Defender, M*A*S*H, Moon Patrol, and E.T. The latter I put out simply because it is a fan favorite (for obvious reasons). Throughout the day, I had to show players how to start the game by pressing the "Reset" button and how to hold the joystick. Meanwhile, I replace the batteries in my hearing aid.

For the NES we played Cobra Triangle. This must-have, along with Battletoads, falls under the category of "RARE properties that should be brought to current-gen systems" (Goldeneye?! ha!).

More NES action ensued with Ninja Gaiden, Ultima Exodus (did I say action?), and Jackal. The most requested game was "Super Mario". One customer asked if he could play Super Mario Bros. 3 while he was waiting for his son to stop playing SNES and continued playing a full 30 minutes after said offspring had left the room.

The final system I will mention is not exactly historically significant, but interesting.


The Odyssey 2 was the only console on display that gave a taste of video games of the late seventies. It was released in 1978, a year after the Atari 2600 but never had the success to produce more impressive games. The games of the Odyssey 2 are limited in colors, detail and sound but a few are still worth playing.

From my limited selection of games I offered two: K.C. Munchkin (a Pac-Man inspired maze game) and Speedway/Spinout/Cryptologic, the cart that came with the system featuring three games.

The poor Odyssey 2 was often scoffed at and barely touched. This is not the case at classic game cons, where the system is adored for its silvery sci-fi look and keyboard interface. It has a hardcore following that swears by games like Killer Bees, Pick Axe Pete and the Voice peripheral that makes this beast talk!

Perhaps another Killer Bees tournament was in order. The Halo 3, DDR and Smash Bros. tournaments at the event would have pailed in comparison!

All in all it was another glorious time for Gamebot. I wanted to thank all the supporters for coming out and playing our games. I hope to see you again next year!

- Blake Leftwich, gamebot