Games played at conventions
Over the last few shows, I have played several amazing games. Sadly, I haven’t shown off what I played. So, here is a great list of games that I really enjoyed.
North West Pinball and Arcade Show 2015
Whoa Nellie
The game was designed by semi retired pinball creators who decided to get together and make a single game for the heck of it. The release was limited, so we only a few are in the world. Their humor is placed in the details of the game. The balances for the machine are specially made crushed cans of Whoa Nellie style beer. The board is covered in redneck style ideas.
Playing the game is a lot of fun because it keeps all of the old school ideas within it. You have a single board, with no added hoops or whistles. The ball goes out to an easy spot, and is mostly open. If you want to do well, there won’t be any tricks to figure out, just skill and luck.
Doctor Who
This classic doctor game is very changeable. The central score area changes around, and gives you new goals whenever you complete a task. The coolest part is that the goals rise up to reveal the new goals. It’s a tower of enemies defeated, and it takes all sorts of skill to finish them all.
The aesthetics are classic Who. You are one of the seven doctors sent out to stop an ongoing threat, and somehow the answer is hitting things with a metal ball. It makes no sense, but the show never tried to make too much of that. Classic Who is a great collection of tales, and the references and movements, along with the tower make the game a lot of fun.
Hercules
The game is finicky and difficult to fix. The reason why is how much bigger everything is than a regular pin. I am over six feet tall, and still have to stretch slightly to hit both paddle buttons. How kids played it with their arms wide apart is sort of funny to watch.
The ball is a cue ball from a pool table. The bumpers are big, as is everything else. It is a big lumbering figure that is this game, and you have to take that into account when playing. You have to hit everything with full power, or it won’t be enough. The ball slowly moves along the board, and barely bounces off of things. The only time I didn’t see a line or group of people playing the game, it was broken.
Flash Gordon
This is pretty rare in the US, but seems to have been popular in the UK. You are piloting a ship, and trying to not hit any of the oncoming asteroids, or shoot them. Since it was a 3rd person game, the objects really were getting closer, and it took skill to maneuver correctly around things.
Gem Fighters
This chibi fighting game is hard. You collect gems that are knocked out of your enemy until you are super powered. I loved playing as various Capcom Characters, and the new strategy was fun. I never got very far with it, but it caught my eye several times by the how much fun the graphics and design were.
Arabian
A pacman/Donkey Kong clone. You are sailing on a ship, trying to collect valuables, while escaping other characters. You can run, jump, and climb, but it won’t be enough when they trap you.
Shooter
An early game that requires two players. You aim your gun, and try to shoot your friend. The trick is that both of you can run around, hide, and do what is needed to win. I played this a lot against random folks that needed a sit and some laughs.
Tokyo Cop
You never quite get to your target. Right before you arrive, they swerved out of the way, or you ran out of time. You would play this game for a solid 10 or some minutes, putting in quarter after quarter, just to get one guy. The map is huge, and getting lost is pretty easy. The controls are not perfect, and you never know what you can run over, or what will stop you cold. On the other hand, its a lot of fun and you really do want to keep driving after the enemy.
House of the Dead IV
Another game where you will never stop putting in quarters is this awesome shooter. I was really glad it was set to free to play, or I would have been broke by the second level. This is the final screen to prove i beat it, with a lot of help from random passerbyes. The game keeps changing things up, and hurling new things at you. They each follow the same rules, but bend them to their own needs. After a while its all you can do to survive by putting in credits.
Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2015
WACKO
The slanted design got really annoying to those of us walking around fixing machines. I kept wanting to level it, and then realize it was just fine. The game is a lot like that as well with crazy aliens walking around, trying to hit your character. I controlled my character with a ball, and shot using a joystick. This meant I had a lot of control over moving and shooting, so I could sneak through enemies if I wanted. The enemies moved quickly, and I often smashed into them right before I was able to get out of it.
Wizard of Wor
A two player deathmatch style game. You go through corridors trying to shoot your friend, and whatever else is out there. A classic era game with a lot of fun strategy to it. Do you kill your friend for the score, and take on the enemies, or let him stay for a lower score?
Crazy Taxi
One of my all time favorite games, and in the full sit down cab no less. I played this every chance i got. The goal is to take passengers to their destinations within a certain amount of time. If you do something right, they will reward you with extra points, and more time. Learning the streets and various folks in the area means you can keep going for longer and longer. I have heard of people that could clear the entire thing, but have never seen it. The level has all sorts of different areas, and crazy places for customers, like underwater. If you haven’t played it, you really should.
Prop Cycle
Another all time favorite game. I believe this is the same one from the Seattle Square arcade that I played in my teens. To gain power you peddle, you have to keep enough power to move around, while controlling the machine as much as possible. It blows air in your face, and has multiple levels to master. The goal is to reach all of the floating balls in the sky, which means there is a specific path you need to figure out to gain them all in quick time. The line was always long for this one, even before the show started.
F Zero AX
Not only is this an incredibly difficult game, the seat moves with where your car is. You have intense turns, harsh time limits, and at times you are maneuvering while sideways. The game is Japanese only and thus we couldn’t play all the cool addons to it. What we could play was a fun, but very difficult challenge.
Carnival
All you can do in this game is move back and forth, and then shoot. You have a limited amount of shots, so clearing the level takes some expert timing, and skill. Sometimes the shot has to get between other targets to reach the final target way in the back. It’s a simple, but very fun game.
Super Mario Bros 3
I played this one while half conscious after a long day of work. I was trying to get my faculties up enough to remember how to get home. Apparently I beat it. Great game, has levels that you can memorize and perform while dead. The music is catchy and I would play it while awake any day.
Round 1
Gunslinger Stratos
I only have one picture of the place, but it is a grand time, and you should go see it. Gunslinger Stratos is a great game that requires a lot of skill, and knowledge of the Japanese language if you want to get through the menus. If you get into a battle, there are some tricks to figure out. For example, you will always be facing your opponent, and the control stick on the right merely switches your aim.
Your character is a super flying, gun shooting, insanely awesome person who is taking on all of the others for no reason. You have a team of 4 on your side, and you are trying to get more points than the other. The controls are fun, and have several tricks to figure out as you go. There is a tutorial to learn them all, but its like watching paint dry trying to get through it. I would highly recommend the game, but skip the tutorial and have someone who knows how stand by.
Star Wars Pod Game
An on rails shooter that never feels like that. You are piloting various vehicles around a classic Star Wars battle scene and trying to shoot anything in the way. Even if I got a picture of the outside, the inside was completely different. You have to get inside, and strap yourself in to enjoy it. I only got to play the Death Star, and missed the final shot. I wanted to play it again, but didn’t know if I had enough money, otherwise I would have played it all day.
Gundam
The gundam game was a third person death match style game where you hunted other famous gundam pilots. I have no idea how i got so far, and felt a bit lost at times. On the other hand, I saw all sorts of gundams, and different ways to battle them. Unlike Gunslinger Stratos, you can choose where the camera points, but a lot of the controls are the same. The bigger gundams have super attacks, and you have to be aware of those. It’s supposed to be a simple game, but the simplicity belies a lot of learning you need to do quickly to get ahead.
School of Ragnarok
A 3rd person style fighting game. It’s similar to Gundam and Gunslinger Stratos at points, and a traditional fighter at other times. The camera goes from the side to behind at times, and you have all sorts of special attacks and strategies. If you charge up your character enough, they can be possessed by their god, and take on super powerful shots. You slowly build up the character’s level, and can buy items for them whenever you feel like it. I guess you can bring a save card if you like, but none were available.
NESiCaxLive
Not really a game, but more of a console for arcades. The games for it are mostly modern fighters that were released in the last 10 years. The owner downloads the games he wants, and the player can choose which one. There were a lot to look at, and the set up for the machines was beautiful. It’s a Japanese style lower game where you need a chair to be at the proper level to play it.
North West Pinball and Arcade Show 2016
The Champion Pub
The game is a lot like Doctor Who in style. You have goals, and targets that change around. There are mini games in some spots, and there is an ease to it that others don’t have. It was my favorite Pin of the entire show. You start with a target that looks like a punching bag. If you hit it enough, and other targets with one ball you end up in a match. The punching bag become a brawler, and you are trying to hit him as many times as you can. The mini levels involve speed bags, jumping rope, and brawling random folks. It changed, and kept me on my feet, but was simple enough for me to figure out what was happening.
Medusa
The game is pretty simple until you get the ball into the upper pool above. Then you are trying to knock down all of the gods to gain a big score. I enjoyed the back and forth from mortal to god like play, and taking on the snake headed monster when I could.
You are about to notice that I played a lot of pins. It’s because there weren’t a lot of videogames to play.
Spectrum
You are trying to get a ball into every color, and something will happen. The groovy feel, and different gameplay felt nice.
Game of Thrones
You can actually execute Ned Stark in this game. For a modern game, it is pretty simple, but has a lot of traps and tricks that enjoy popping up. I enjoyed all of the references to the show, and I seemed to be working within the world of Westeros. This was my second or third favorite modern game on display.
The Big Lebowski
You actually have to move a carpet to get ahead. There is a bowling mini game. They are playing lines from the movie. I only got to play this once, because it was the only one in the US, and thus had a huge line of players. Even before the show the volunteers would line up for it. The references to the movie are great, and the ball moves a little slower so I could keep up. A great game to play and up there with Game of Thrones.
Spider man
This one has a strategically placed third flipper that I really enjoyed. It was like adding Spidey’s agility to the game. I like the targets, and the game play. It takes some work, but you can figure it out as you play.
Cross Town
An old school game where you can put all the balls on the playing field if you feel like it. The flippers are smaller, but the targets are easier. You can play it without thinking too hard, but there is a great element of strategy and trying to get the right ticket to the right location.
The Hobbit
The production values for this one are huge. The screen actually plays different parts of the movie. You are maneuvering through different parts of the book, and thus have different goals and aims in the board. Monsters pop up out of the ground, and you need to hit them quickly to defeat them. I enjoyed playing it, but always felt like I was never quite fully playing all of it. The variety is a lot of fun, and it is my second favorite modern pinball game.
Cue Ball Wizard
To get a good score, you need to hit the cueball so it hits the eightball. If you do this right, the ball will hit a color, and you need to hit the same one a couple times. It is a difficult game, and one player said it was a little too over the top. For what it is, the game is a lot of fun and the colors and looks of it are great.
Flipper Football
If you enjoy footy, then this will be great. The goal is not to hit targets all over the board, but to get the ball through the goal on the back of the board. Every time you lose the ball, they score, every time you score a goal, you score. You are trying to score more often than lose. It is intense, and I caught myself laughing at it. Ole Ole Ole Ole Olee Oleeeee.
Sharpshooter
An old school target game from the 50’s and 60’s. Check out that cigarette holder on the right. The gun shoots balls at the moving targets by way of air power. You have to aim, and quickly adjust to get the right shot. It’s timed, and you are trying to get a high score. I got a 280, and hit the fox 3-4 times before the game itself ended early.
The game itself is finicky, both the play, and maintain. So be prepared to learn by experience.
Adams Family Electric Experience
The two control sticks have to be held by either hand, you are trying to hold on as it ‘shocks’ you. Back in the day it really would send electricity through you, but this machine just shakes the sticks really hard and fast. I got through the hard mode, but couldn’t move my hands for a few minutes afterwards. Honestly, I wondered why I was doing it almost the entire way through. Medium and easy stages are way less painful though.
Dino Rally
Each player chooses a color. Then balls are shot out at the same time. Whichever spot is hit first wins. The winner gets a bunch of tickets. It’s a nice relaxing game with very little interacting involved.
Spin Doctor
The seat bolted to it was really nice. I may have played the game just to enjoy the seat. You are trying to get the highest score. If you have matching numbers, it multiplies the score. So you might have low numbers, but the multiply into a much higher thing.
Dino Bonk
A bashing game with dinosaurs popping up, and getting their mouths bonked. It was a lot of fun, and once again fairly relaxing. Sometimes a dinosaur would come out, and then go back in quickly, which meant you had to be ready at all times.
All Star Bowling
This is another old game. You don’t get to control the spin, and the ball sometimes goes too far to the left or the right, but it felt easy enough to figure out. This was a very popular and fun game. It took work to get a strike, or to get a spare.
Macintosh Plus Design your own Pinball
There was no bottom, so the ball never actually fell. This made things a bit awkward to play. You could move things around, make small rooms for the ball to enter, or have a single bumper in a hard to reach spot. The controls worked, and were responsive.
Commodore 64 Build Your Own Pinball
Easier response time, more colors, and it had a bottom. On the other hand, I never really figured out how to edit any board. Luckily they had several prebuilt ones to enjoy.
PinPong
Everything is blocks in this game. The flippers are more of an area than the square that is moving, so you could hit a ball even if the flipper wasn’t touching it. The goals were simple, and the ball was slow, which for a game like this was a good thing.
VR Pinball
This is basically screens set up to look like a pinball table. I played a few of them, and got the highscore on Bob’s Burgers. A friend of mine ended up buying a smaller version of one. They have a nice look them and are way better than the pinpong set up. If you get the chance, you should try them out. They are fun to play, and the animations are fun to watch.
Neo Geo
The Neo Geo cab is great. You could have 5 of them sitting next to each other, and not a single one has the same game. This model allows four games to play. They were Magician Lord, which is a jump and shoot style game in a fantasy feel. Then there was a SHMUP that was fun. Finally was Blue’s Journey which I always get a kick out of. There wasn’t a single fighting game in it, but they were all very fun.
Snow Bros
The origin story of this game is really weird. These are newborn twins touched by magical powers that are taking on demons. I have this one on my list of games I want, but you need a few others around it to truly enjoy.
In Spokane a local game shop had a Snow Bros for sale. I offered to take it to the show, but somehow didn’t feel like getting back to them. Then I saw this guy. It was for sale, and at a cheaper price. Whoever was looking would have bought this one over the other. For all I know, it could be the same one at a lower price, but I don’t think so.
The game itself is a Mario Bros style game where your character can turn enemies into giant snowballs, and then toss them down the ramps. So you are trying to dodge the enemies, and then toss one near the top to get them all for a giant score. There are several levels, and each one is a single screen with a new layout, and enemies to fight. Your goal is to figure out the trick for each level and exploit it. About every tenth level is a boss character. It sounds really simple, but you will need a lot of quarters to beat this one.
Dog Patch
This is basically Pong with shotguns. A tin can is tossed over, and you have to aim your gun to hit the can back to the other side. If it passes the other guy, you score a point. The twist aim adds a lot of strategy and ideas for the game, and makes it sort of difficult to master. You can play against friends, or an AI. Getting the exact shot you want is difficult, and you have to work at it to figure out what you want with reflex. I kept coming back to this one, and enjoying it every time.
Mad Planets
You are shooting at planets that are circling all around you. To make it easier, you can spin your ship around with a twisty knob, and maneuver with another controller. This makes aiming exact, and actually turns the game into a really difficult one to play. The entire game was just me losing, and hoping I had the right shot as I hit fire.
Other players spent more time with it, and figured out how to maneuver and aim much better. It is a Robotron 2084 style game with a SHMUP twist, and is very very hard to figure out. Not only that, you are destroying inhabited planets, which means you are the villain of the game. Not for me, but I am sure someone would really enjoy it.
Tank
One of my all time favorite games from the Atari 2600 was Tank. I loved how the ball bounced sometimes, and trying to figure out the best way to move and shoot. The Wii update was a favorite for my family to play.
Not only that, the controls for this game fit many of my all time favorite arcade games. I challenged random people all the time at this one. It has so much history, both personal, and videogame culture wise that it is a must play. No wonder it was a smash hit when it first came out. Expect a larger article about the control scheme to come out later. The only problem with this game is the lack of AI to battle against. It is two player deathmatch only.
Mr. Driller
It’s just like Tetris only the opposite. Instead of falling blocks, you are trying to destroy blocks to keep moving down. The problem is that you need air, and the blocks drop on top of you if you don’t keep going. So you are searching for air supplies, while trying to avoid falling blocks, and drilling down quickly. It’s intense fun, and works really well. If you ever get the chance, play this one.
Gyruss
A shooter of a different type. Instead of a bunch of enemies, you have one, but it is protected by several walls and shields. You are trying to dig into the shields while dodging various bullets. Like many of these games, the simple description shows an easy way to play, but a hard time to master. If you do defeat the boss in the middle, you simply get a new one with more power ups. The further you get down, the harder the boss will be. Walls will be flying back to replace spots you shot down. All the while you will be standing there, trying to get that perfect shot at the boss.
Final Fight
One of the very first beat em ups. The game started out as a Street Fighter clone, but worked away from that. The two games take place in the same world though, so Haggar and Cody show up in the background of Street Fighter, or even playable characters.
You walk around and beat various baddies up to move forward. You go against giants, rock stars, and even flame breathing maniacs to clean the streets from the Mad Gears, and save the girl. I loved this on Super Nintendo, and the arcade game is even more fun.
This particular game has some show history. Someone decided to set the world record for the game, and even announced it on the NEWS. We scrambled to get the game there, and I worked to get cameras, and knowledge to him.
Golden Axe
I didn’t get a shot of the game, but it was not the original. It was a colorful, and better looking version with a cool looking display. It played just like the original though, so you could enjoy it a great deal. I believe it was Golden Axe: Revenge of the Death Adder, but I could be wrong.
Vector MAME
The MAME Vector unit was really impressive. The colors were bright, and worked really well with just about every game on display. I enjoyed playing several of the games, and couldn’t give you a specific one that won out over the others. They were each awesome. Though you better get used to Asteroid style controls.
The biggest problem was the menu. It took a lot of folks some time to maneuver through, and choose a game properly. I don’t think I had them entirely figured out near the end of the show, so I won’t try to describe it. The games themselves were fun, and the graphics were great, but the menu was a real pain.
End
As you can see, there was a ton of games at each show. I tried to keep it down a bit, and in fact have pictures of other games I enjoyed, but decided to not talk about. Hopefully you saw something that caught your interest, and want to see if you can find one nearby. I really enjoy working at these shows, not only because I get to observe Videogame Culture directly, but also the games themselves are fun to play.
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