I have difficulty thinking of the HD consoles (and the Wii) as "retro", but I feel like we're fast approaching the time where these devices have the requisite nostalgia value needed to be considered thus.

I've been playing a bit of Test Drive Unlimited for the last couple of days, because I felt like a nice summery driving game, and that game most definitely qualifies. I was a little surprised to note that it carries a copyright date of 2006, which is fourteen years ago.

Of course, there are plenty of ways in which that game looks a bit dated — most notably the character models… and the fact that the online servers haven't been… err… online for the last eight years — but I'm having a lot of fun playing it, and having a hard time thinking of it as an "old game".

And yet, it's three years older than the Western release of Mana Khemia 2, which I'm currently playing through for the Atelier MegaFeature on MoeGamer. PlayStation 2 is, I think most people would agree, definitely retro — and so going purely on "time" alone, Xbox 360 must surely be thus, too.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter, of course. It's just an interesting thing to ponder. People getting nostalgic for the first generation of HD consoles in the same way that us slightly older folk are nostalgic for 8- and 16-bit pixel art feels like a bit of a milestone for gaming.

If nothing else, it does mean that Xbox 360 and PS3 games are absolutely cheap as chips right now, so if you haven't been down to your local used game emporium lately, I can highly recommend going down there with a big bag to pick up all of those games you didn't want to spend £40 on fifteen years ago… because most of them are now between 50p and £3. That's certainly what I'm going to be doing to celebrate this month's payday!

I acquired a copy of Space Invaders for Atari 2600 today, and have been playing a bit. It's a good version of Space Invaders — certainly very addictive! — but the thing I find amusing about it is that it has a hundred and twelve different game modes.

For those unfamiliar with the Atari 2600, the limitations of the console meant that most games didn't have the kind of "main menu" we tend to expect from a game today. Instead, different ways to play were stored as different "game numbers" that changes the rules of play somewhat.

For example, in Space Invaders, you have versions where it plays normally, where the shields move, where the enemy missiles move more erratically and where the aliens are invisible except for a moment after you hit them. Then you have more versions where there are combinations of those variables. And then, in the case of Space Invaders, there are all those versions all over again for two players playing together. Two players alternating turns. Two players sharing control of a single ship. Two players taking it in turns to fire a single shot from the same ship. And so on.

In total, there are, as noted above, 112 different combinations of all these factors available on that one cartridge — which, as you can imagine, made for wonderful marketing back in the day. Imagine picking up a game box for the Atari 2600 that proudly boasted, as it did, "112 Video Games". All of which are Space Invaders.

Usually, in order to access one of these specific modes of play, you press the "Game Select" switch on the 2600 repeatedly until the number of the game you want appears on screen. Atari was clearly aware that 112 variations would present a bit of a problem to some people, so they actually implemented a system where you could skip through the numbers more quickly by pressing the Game Select and Game Reset buttons at the same time — the latter, when pressed by itself, normally begins a game.

Me? I like Game 1. Although I did come perilously close to maxing out the score at 9999 earlier, so perhaps I need to graduate to something a bit more challenging!

I have a big ol' backlog of visual novels, and playing through a few short ones recently (that you'll be reading about shortly on MoeGamer!) has got me in the mood to enjoy some more. So I'm going to try and reinvent my bedtime routine a bit — and incorporate what I do there with what I write about alongside the main Cover Game/MegaFeature stuff on MoeGamer.

For starters, I have a bunch of Switch visual novels that have been sitting around waiting for me to engage with for a while — including some classics like Little Busters and Yu-No as well as the recently Limited Runned Nurse Love Obsession double-pack of yuri funtimes. Beyond that, I want to look into getting a tablet that I can stream stuff from my PC to. I like playing visual novels on the big screen, but practically speaking, when I'm up and about I tend to find myself playing games with more "active engagement". Bedtime, meanwhile, is a fine time to read — so rather than watching the same old YouTube videos or whatever, I figured I may as well make a start on some of these things cluttering up my backlog.

The question is… where to start? I have quite a selection to choose from, and I don't really want to pick something that incorporates too many in the way of "adventure game" elements, so I suspect something like AI: The Somnium Files is probably out from what little I know of it. I reckon either the aforementioned Little Busters or the two Nurse Love Obsession games are probably as good a place as any to get started,so you know what? I'm going to go and start reading right now.

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend! Tomorrow is another drab, dull Monday, but we'll get through it with the power of friendship or something. That or I'll sleep until midday having pretended to do something useful that took up all morning. Err, forget I said that.

My Dad isn't a gamer, although he was the one who brought a lot of the Atari computers and their games into our household. One piece of software — which he insists "isn't a game" — that he was always very attached to, though, was Flight Simulator, originally in the form of subLOGIC's Flight Simulator II for Atari 8-bit and Atari ST, then later through various incarnations of Microsoft Flight Simulator from version 4.0 onwards on DOS and Windows PCs.

I wouldn't say I got super into Flight Simulator as a kid, but my Dad did take the time to teach me how to fly the virtual Cessna and Learjet in the Atari ST version. As a result, I grew up with actually a rather solid understanding of how a real plane handles, even if I couldn't tell you a lot about the actual science behind it.

"Flying the aeroplane", as my Dad referred to settling down for an evening of taking on some real-time flights in various version of Flight Simulator, was thus something I became very accustomed to as a kid. My Dad clearly enjoyed it both as an opportunity to sit down, relax and do something he liked, but it's also an educational experience, since the whole thing is not only built on a realistic flight model, it also incorporates realistic navigation aids, instrument flight rules and all manner of other good stuff.

I've been following the development of the upcoming brand new version of Microsoft Flight Simulator on and off for a little while. This is actually the first new Flight Simulator release since 2006 — although that previous installment, Flight Simulator X, did get a major overhaul to release on Steam back in 2014 — and it looks like it has the potential to be pretty spectacular.

It's also noteworthy because the market for flight sims on PC is nowhere near as visible as it used to be — back in the late '90s and early '00s, flight sims were the de facto showcase pieces for a new PC, whereas now it tends to be first-person shooters and open-world games. That said, enthusiasts have been quietly continuing to do their thing away from the eyes of the general public for a while, and besides Flight Simulator X, there are also numerous other titles such as Prepar3D and X-Plane out there doing something similar.

The other day, I caught the tail end of the Steam sale, and happened to see the Steam version of Flight Simulator X for a fiver. I haven't bought a PC game for ages, as you all know I'm much more of a fan of collecting, so tend to favour console games. But Flight Simulator X is a uniquely PC experience — even if the new version is also eventually coming to Xbox One — so I let that "unwritten rule" slide this time, especially for a fiver.

I haven't spent a lot of time with Flight Simulator X as yet, but the little time I have spent with it has brought back some fond memories of spending time with my Dad in front of the Atari ST and later, our MS-DOS and Windows 95/98 PCs, learning to "fly". And besides that, it turns out that yes, indeed, he was right; it is an excellent way to just sit down, chill out, relax and leave your worries behind for a little while. (Until you crash. But if you're doing it right that doesn't happen.)

I preordered the 10-disc physical version of the new Flight Simulator yesterday. While I don't have any fancy joysticks, throttle controllers and all that gubbins, I can see myself enjoying an occasional flit through the skies when I just fancy a bit of quiet time to myself — and to be honest, since I grew up using the numeric keypad controls on the Atari ST version of Flight Simulator II, controlling the experience with the keyboard is absolutely the most nostalgic way to play for me!

In the meantime, I'll be occasionally enjoying Flight Simulator X for the odd flight here and there. And I look forward to showing my Dad the new version when my parents are next able to come visit me amid the chaos of the world today!

I'm pleased to report that the 2600 I talked about a few days ago is up and running! A cheap power lead and RF cable from eBay — plus a game of course — got the old boy fired up and, after a quick dust of the cartridge slot, working perfectly.

Here he is in his new pride of place, just behind the Atari XE:

And here's the game I got for testing purposes: Imagic's Cosmic Ark. I'd never played this before so I figured start my collection as I mean to go on: with something weird!

Cosmic Ark is kind of sort of the sequel to Atlantis, which is a game I liked a lot back on the Atari 8-bit. Mechanically it's a pretty simple game, but it's very addictive.

I'm actually quite impressed with the quality of the video signal from the 2600. Obviously it's no RGB SCART, but for an RF connection it's perfectly respectable — and considerably better than the very noisy signal I get from the Philips G7000/Odyssey 2.

Well, time to get collecting, I guess!

I've been playing a bit of the Atari 8-bit version of Space Invaders recently. This was actually my first ever contact with Space Invaders and, for those unaware, it is a very inaccurate port of Taito's classic. The invaders look different, there are no bases to hide behind, there's a weird rocket ship at the side of the screen that the invaders emerge from… and I love it.

I'd always believed that this was a pretty fondly regarded version of Space Invaders, but looking at a few comments from over the last ten years or so it seems that it most certainly is not — primarily for its inaccuracy. Thing is, though, that inaccuracy is precisely why I like this version of Space Invaders. I like it more than the arcade original — perhaps because it was my own first contact (no pun intended) with the game, but also because it offers something unique and distinctive rather than just trying to ape the arcade experience as closely as possible on hardware of the time.

I guess the argument against that is that if you're going to do that, you probably shouldn't call it Space Invaders, but, well, the concept of the game is the same, and the basic mechanics — bases to hide behind aside — are identical. So what if it looks different? I'd much rather play a bunch of different versions of Space Invaders, each of which have their own unique idiosyncrasies, than a bunch of near-identical versions.

I seem to be in the minority for this viewpoint, but that's nothing new, is it? 🙂

My favourite RPG casts are the ones that act as something of a dysfunctional family. And Ulrika's group in Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy is one of the finest groups of idiots I've ever had the pleasure to go adventuring with.

You've got Ulrika, who has enthusiasm and vigour aplenty, though it's often somewhat misdirected. There's her best friend Chloe, who is absolutely terrible at magic, and tends to end up cursing people when she's practising her "incantations". There's Pepperoni, a huge musclebound beastman who thinks he's a tiny fairy. There's Goto, who is… I have no idea, but he appears to possess a small red ball and/or an animal mascot costume. And there's Enna, who seems to be the most relatively normal of the group, but may or may not have been abused by his sister (who is a member of the game's other playable cast) to such a degree that she literally stole his name from him.

What a group. It's a delight to spend time with them, and something of a markedly different feel to what Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis provided. There was certainly dysfunction there, too, but most players would almost certainly find themselves gravitating towards a specific character that they particularly liked. You know, like liked. That's how I ended up going for Jess' ending.

In Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy — at least in the case of Ulrika's route, since I can't speak for Raze's yet — it's not quite that simple. None of these characters are particularly people I feel like I would want to "end up with" in the same way that Vayne and Jess getting together just felt "right", but all of them are absolutely fascinating in their own right, and I want to see their respective stories through to their conclusions.

Thankfully, Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy adopts a slightly different approach to its predecessor; in the first game, you could only complete the last "episode" of one character's personal quests in order to lock in their ending, whereas in Mana Khemia 2 you can complete all the quests, and the ending you get is determined by whoever you speak to first in the game's final chapter. That makes it much easier to make a save just before the final dungeon and be able to see everyone's conclusion.

Anyway, that's something to concern myself with a bit later; I still have a fair way to go. This one's going to take a little longer to cover fully than the previous Atelier games, but we'll take things as they come — no need to rush; I'm in this for the long haul!

I never really appreciated it to this degree back in the day, but the Atari Lynx has an absolutely delightful aesthetic if you blow its visuals up to "TV size". It turns out that the Atari Lynx's look and feel is exactly what a significant number of modern indie developers think all retro games look like. So I thought I'd share a few favourite examples with you today.

Here's Checkered Flag, a Pole Position-esque racing game that many consider to be a highlight of the system. While it may lack undulating roads — which disappointed me a great deal back in the day! — it has some great courses and a wonderful sense of speed.

Here's California Games, a game I never owned my own copy of, but which was the first thing I ever saw running on a Lynx. I don't love the game, but it's a good showcase of what the system can do, and I'm looking forward to revisiting it when the Evercade resurrects a significant proportion of the Lynx's library later this year.

Here's an intro screen from Electro Cop, noteworthy for both its big chunky font and the detailed background, even at that low a resolution.

Here's part of the intro to Gates of Zendocon, showing that hardware sprite scaling off a treat!

And here's an in-game shot of Gates of Zendocon (with a little unwanted input from NVidia in the corner). I love the way this one looks and, again, am looking forward to revisiting it on Evercade.

I never played Ms. Pac-Man on Lynx back in the day because I always felt the system was "better" than simple arcade games. With retrospect, I can now recognise that the system was absolutely perfect for simple arcade games, even if it lacked a little in screen resolution compared to the original!

Here's Ninja Gaiden, a bold attempt to bring the arcade-style belt-scrolling beat 'em up to Lynx — actually a cracking good game.

Here's first-person shooter Turbo Sub, probably one of the smoothest moving, slickest games on the system — and a fabulous blaster to boot.

Here's surprisingly detailed World War I air combat sim Warbirds, which had a good flight model and a variety of missions to take on — although they were all heavily dogfight-based.

And here's gratuitous Wonderboy ripoff Viking Child, one of the most sluggish platformers in existence — but actually a decent game if you can deal with its snail-like pace!

A lot of these are coming back in the two Atari Lynx Collection cartridges for Evercade later in the year, but I'd love to see Turbo Sub and Warbirds make a comeback too — those were some real favourites back in the day.

In the meantime, I can at least enjoy them in all their giant-pixel glory thanks to emulation!

I've taken a bit of time this weekend to get ahead of schedule on videos so I can focus on Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy for the majority of my free time. I've been getting a little behind on it for one reason or another, not because I'm not enjoying it — quite the contrary — but because I've been giving myself a bit too much to do, I think!

Still, it's all good now, and the day job is likely to be pretty quiet for a little while too, so all should be well from this week. I'm hoping they're not going to try and push to get people back in the office yet, what with the easing of some of the restrictions here in the UK; I suspect before long we'll likely be back to full-on lockdown, because the British public has shown on plenty of occasions already that they can't really be trusted even during a global pandemic!

I'm not sure why some companies are so dead-set on getting people back into the office anyway. If the lockdown period has demonstrated anything, it's that employees who don't do anything "physical" can do their job entirely from a home office. Granted, there's always the productivity question, then — and I know I'm certainly a prime example, because my motivation is at an absolute minimum right now — but that is often an issue whether or not you're on the "official premises" for your job. I'd be feeling bored, miserable and dissatisfied if I was sitting in the office — likely more so, in fact, because I wouldn't be able to easily step away for a few minutes and play a game or something.

Ah well. What will be will be and all that; we just have to take each day as it comes right now. And enjoy your time when it's possible to do so!

Can't remember if I mentioned this here before, but the Atari 1050 disk drive that I thought was dead — and which I was rather sad about, since it was the Atari 1050 I grew up with — is no longer dead. I did a bit of reading online and asked the AtariAge forums and the recurring advice was "clean the head", so I… got Andie to clean the head. (I trust her more with delicate electronics than me!)

I'm pleased to report that I once again have a fully functional Atari 8-bit system with 1050 disk drive. I am just missing a SpartaDOS X cartridge, so unfortunately I can't access any of the stuff on the four volumes of "Pete's Disk" right now — which is a shame, as they had a bunch of magazine type-ins on them, along with some of my own programming experiments — but aside from that, most of the 30+ year old disks I have seem to be working just fine!

Sadly, attempts to rescue some of the old, knackered joysticks didn't go so well; my Spectravideo and Konix joysticks all appear to have at least one worn-out microswitch so they don't move in certain directions, and what I believe is actually an Atari 7800 joystick doesn't move at all. (The fire buttons work, though.) Thankfully, I still have the Monster arcade-style joystick I got a while back, so that fulfils all my needs for now… plus I'm pretty sure I have a Zipstik and a Wico Commander(?) somewhere that both work if I happen to ever see another human being ever again.

Emulation is great — particularly for practical purposes like video capture and screenshots — but nothing beats the real thing when you just want to sit down and play something, so I'm very happy everything's back in full working order!