Retrogaming Review of The Year 2014

Retrogaming Review of The Year 2014

2014 was a good year for me, gaming-wise. I cut back a bit on writing reviews for my blog which gave me more time, made specific parts of the week regular gaming periods, and got back into playing, having rediscovered some of the joy. One of the biggest motivators for me was finally working out how to play get DOSBox to work, the free platform that enables you to play old games that are out of copyright and can be downloaded straight to your computer. Months previous I'd had a go, but couldn't get past the coding interface, but I'd always wanted to play the original 'Settlers' on my MacBook, and this year it became possible! Not only that, but many games were suddenly available to me, and it was like I was back in the 90s when we first got our Amigas and suddenly had copious games to go through to see what was worth playing, what worked, what didn't… There were a lot that wouldn't play for whatever reason, or the controls weren't adequate to make it an enjoyable experience, but there were enough to be getting on with. And so I rediscovered some old classics and tried out some new, even buying a SNES USB controller to be able to play some of the platform titles (though it never consistently worked properly, which was a disappointment). It was good to get back into gaming properly for the first time since around 2009/2010.

[Ratings reflect total, historical experience, not just the enjoyment level I got out of them this time.]


January - April: Age of Empires II (2001, MacBook Pro/Powerbook) - Just some multiplayer games, nothing serious, like, say, doing the campaigns again… *****

January - December: UFO: Enemy Unknown (1993, Amiga 1200) - Apparently in this world February has thirty-one days! Regardless, I ploughed on with this game which I'm pretty sure I began in 2005, meaning 2015 will mark ten years of playing the same game file (not to mention the previous file I began around 2002!), though in game time it was coming to the end of 2008. Regularity is the key, and it helps this is one of the best games ever made. In October I attended my 1500th crash site, just to give an idea of how many of those missions I've done in that time… *****

February - July: Need For Speed Underground (2003, GameCube) - I wanted another racer, I got another racer. While not in the same league as 'Burnout 2,' it was good to be able to roar round streets again, though I wish it was daylight racing as it's really bad for my eyes doing it at night with neon lights all over the place! Mind you, it wouldn't be called Underground if it was done in the daytime, I suppose. I will certainly have to play more of these, not because they're amazingly good, just because there's not much choice on the system. ***

May - June: The Settlers (1993, Amiga 1200) - First time since probably 2011 that I played this, though the disk file got corrupted for a game I was playing, so I had to start a new one. But these are the perils of using old technology. Why didn't I jump right into the DOSBox version as soon as I'd figured out how to make it work? I wanted to finish the game I'd started, and by the time I'd done that I'd had my fill of the game for a few months. I discovered a funny little glitch - I'd somehow connected one of my roads with the enemy, perhaps because they were both right next to the boundary, so there were people going back and forth, claiming asylum as I liked to think, and then one of my builders was trying to build something for him! Even knights came over, but when I sent them to attack they switched sides on me and went for my men or entered the enemy buildings rather than attacking it! Ultimately it led to a more serious glitch where my men would stand on a road not moving as if waiting for someone to pass, and worse, they did it outside my castle so I couldn't get anything out, though I'd practically won anyway: I had 75% of all but the knights and as it was impossible to make more since the stores weren't being used, there was no option but to abandon the game. *****

June - July: Frontier: Elite II (1993, DOSBox) - with David Braben back in the news with a new all-singing version of the game for modern machines, it seems fitting that this was also the year I went back to playing this classic of the Amiga age. I'd originally played it back in 2010, I believe, when I had a Hard Drive fitted to my Amiga. After clocking up a number of hours, disaster struck and the HD died! I didn't have the appetite to try again as I'd started with nothing and spent many hours transporting small cargoes in order to eventually upgrade to better ships, so it was too soul-destroying to go back to the bottom. However, with the immediacy of having it on my MacBook, start again I did, and quite enjoyed beginning from scratch once again as enough time had passed. It wasn't as exciting as when I first discovered it, but I persevered, making cargo runs while waiting for matches to start during the World Cup. There were false starts (I thought I could make a quick buck collecting rubbish and then dumping it, but you get attacked by the police for that!), realising the best way was to trade in my ship for an inferior one, dumping my atmospheric shielding to make room for twice the profit potential, though it meant no trips to Earth, and clawed a tiny profit for ages. Unfortunately the monotony of hundreds of short trips took its toll and I lost interest, though I'll admit it was my own fault deciding to play like that - even though I got to the stage where I had a quality ship it had become too much like a job to enjoy! I'm sure I'll go back eventually, though. **

July - August: Curse of Enchantia (1993, DOSBox) - Not such a great experience, this point-and-click adventure, but one I was glad to be able to do, as like last year's replay of 'Elf,' I was able to complete something I'd got stuck on years ago, which was satisfying, even if the game logic often made no sense and could be a right old chore to play. I wrote more about it in my review, suffice to say it was the worst game I played to completion this year, but it sure do look nice! **

August - November: CyClones (1994, DOSBox) - Another game I reviewed (I certainly upped my review quotient this year), but I will say that it was worth playing even though it could be a bit of a slog, and I had to get used to a different control method to what I've always been used to. A first person shooter, basic in many ways, but not bad, and worth a… shot. ***

September - October: Banjo-Kazooie (1998, N64) - Having packed my N64 away a couple of years ago, it was a guy at work that got me interested in it again when he was talking about old games on the system and said he was playing this game on his XBox (Rare were bought by Microsoft back in the early days of the GameCube, so some of their back catalogue is downloadable on that system). He was enjoying it so much, and I was enjoying discussing it that it inspired me to go back and play it again, even though I'd gone through it numerous times years ago trying to improve my time. I was not disappointed, it remains in my Top 10 games of all time, and is certainly the best 3D platformer I've played. *****

November - December: The Settlers (1993, DOSBox) - For the first time ever I started a size 8 world, something I'd always wanted to do, and I'm still playing it on an off, it's so big! I'd got close to it back around 2010 when the Hard Drive was fitted to my Amiga, but I never got around to playing the maximum world before the thing malfunctioned and I was back to disk-based play again! While the DOSBox version doesn't have the bells and whistles of the Amiga's, the music terrible in comparison and the graphics notably less polished, the gameplay shines through, and as most of the sound effects are the same, that's all you need to kick back, relax, and get hypnotised by the little men carrying things in and out of your castle or storerooms. Beautiful, and time-consuming. *****

December: Banjo-Tooie (2000, N64) - I'll have to do a proper review of this, so I won't say much here, except I at first remembered why I hadn't enjoyed this as much as the first one, but eventually I quite enjoyed it, in spite of the irritating flaws in gameplay. ***


There were a number of games on DOSBox I dipped into just to try, and these are the ones worth an honourable mention: 'Civilization' (I just couldn't get going on it, though I tried), 'Crazy Cars III' (only ever had a demo of this on the Amiga, but again, I never really got into it), 'Dalek Attack' (I was curious, but the controls weren't good enough to enjoy it), 'Desert Strike' (that would be a commitment to play properly, but fun to see it running on my Mac), 'Elf' (I'd completed it on Amiga last year, so just had a go to see what this version looked like - inferior), 'Flashback' (again, control issues), 'GODS' (controls!), 'Grand Monster Slam' (difficult to get into), 'The Lion King' (another demo I'd had on Amiga, another game I couldn't settle into), 'Lotus III' (back in the day this was my favourite racing game!), 'Micro Machines' (controls), 'Pang' (fun for a bit), 'Paper Boy 2' (likewise), 'Prince of Persia' (controls), 'Super Karts' (not bad, might have to play it properly), and 'Zool' (colourful, I'll give it that!). There were also days when I wasted a lot of time fruitlessly trying to get games to work, so it wasn't all rose petals when it came to DOSBox, but I can't really complain: it's free and plenty of games did work. Some worked on Boxer, a different frontend, but mainly I used the standard DOSBox setup.


Next Year - My goals have become more numerous than before as I've returned to the joy of playing so much. In terms of last year's goals I only achieved one of them, which was to play another racing game, and still haven't taken on the 'Age of Empires II' campaigns on harder difficulty, nor did I get an XBox 360. However, in 2015 I'd like to:

- Play more 'Cube games…

- Particularly another racing game, and as I'm running out of choices it will have to be another 'Need For Speed.'

- Finish 'Banjo-Tooie' on N64 which I've almost done anyway.

- I'm enjoying the games so much I'd also like to get the only other 'Banjo-Kazooie' game they ever made (as far as I know), 'Grunty's Revenge' on Game Boy Advance.

- Definitely have to play more DOSBox games.

- I'm still tempted to get an XBox 360, but it's a question of time, with so many other games suddenly open to me, so that's not a high priority.