Beware The Spaceman

Tag: Retro gaming

  • When Nintendo’s Crown Jewels Washed Up with Ocean

    Retro Reaction in ZX Spectrum colours

    The early 80s was a difficult time for gaming. You hear many horror stories about the Video Games Crash of ’83 — those Atari carts of E.T. all being taken to landfill.

    However, these stories all come from the same place: the United States. Across here, there was no video game crash. Instead, we had classroom wars about whether the ZX Spectrum or the Commodore 64 was the best home computer. Gaming was very much still a thing over here, and we were in those years where Nintendo had yet to launch its home console.

    The story is very similar to how Nintendo games ended up on Atari: licensing deals. This era, though, had some UK anomalies. Atari had the US rights to develop games like Mario Bros. Here in the UK, Ocean Software had the converted licences to Nintendo’s crown jewels.

    You’ll hear a lot about Ocean and bad games, but it’s not necessarily true. The Batman 1989 game on the home computers — particularly the Amiga — wasn’t bad. Their versions of Rainbow Islands and Robocop were also pretty good, in my opinion. I’m sure, as the late Queen once said, recollections may vary.

    With the amount of games they were churning out in the early 80s, Ocean acquired licences for anything they could: Robocop, Rambo, Batman, Hook, Jurassic Park, Knight Rider, early WWF… I’m sure there were more. Turnaround times, from what I understand, were fast. If you had a home computer, chances are you had an Ocean game.

    Granted, I’ve now played the Atari version of Donkey Kong, and it’s probably slightly better — only because Mario’s movements seem more precise. I played that one years later on the C64 Mini. But the Ocean version is recognisably Donkey Kong, and had this been my introduction to the game, I wouldn’t have been too disappointed either.

    Plus, all those movie licenses meant that the Ocean games lined up looked like the VHS shelf at Barry’s Video Shop. Speaking of which… we’re approaching the haunting month of Halloween, and we never did get around to discussing those films Barry wouldn’t rent me …

    More next time

  • When Nintendo Were Multiplatform

    Retro Reaction in ZX Spectrum colours

    Mario on Atari

    I’ve always been a Nintendo fan. These days I’m happy to stay a few generations behind (Yes I own a Wii U), but their exclusives have always been fun to play particular with younger family.

    Of course preferring retro games over modern the Super Mario Series is something I’ve gone back to many times.

    Always though these games are locked behind that Nintendo hardware. Want to play Mario, Zelda or Donkey Kong then you need a Nintendo of some description.

    Well that wasn’t always the case.

    In 1983 The Atari 2600 got the legendary Nintendo arcade title Donkey Kong. Here in the UK it was from CB electronics but this stemmed from an American deal Coleco (As in Colecovision Atari’s rival from the 1st console war).

    This 2600 port only featured 2 levels of the Arcade. It’s blocky and Donkey Kong doesn’t look properly like Donkey Kong (yet) but it’s playable and it must have been a hell of an effort considering the 2600 hardware limitations

    We got Donkey Kong Jnr from CB Electronics in the UK under that same licence deal. This time only one stage was missing. Yes it was primitive and missing power ups. But it was another Nintendo title that was introduced to players during the Atari run.

    Then in 1983 the Arari got the Mario Bros. Four years before Super Mario Bros on the NES would redefine the platforming landscape the coop platformer the Mario Bros was on Atari. This coop platform game. For anyone who jumped on from Super Mario Bros this game might seem unrecognisable. For those who jumped on at Mario Bros 3 this will feel like someone made a full game based on that mini game battle mode in that game.

    Actually, Nintendo were making callbacks as early as 1988.

    Mario Bros on the Atari was not a rare game by any stretch. Researching for this blog I can’t find the actual sales number. But most people I know who had an Atari had the Mario Bros it was almost as common as Pac Man.

    Was the port any good. Well, again given the limitations of the 2600, yes the port was very good. Much better too in the 2 player mode.

    There you have it. The Nintendo characters that did appear on a non Nintendo console.

    So what about us home computer fans…

    Well I’m getting to that. Catch you in the next one.