Acclaim: An Odd Publishing Company

Acclaim is one of those companies that has an odd history. Many of its terrible games were hidden under the LJN and Flying Edge labels, and it had a long relationship with Midway and WWF/WWE. They did publish some great games, especially the ports of Midway’s arcade games. This is one of the companies thatContinue reading “Acclaim: An Odd Publishing Company”

The Best Retro Games I Played on an Emulator

Emulators were a big part of how I discovered and played retro games in the 1990s. Before I could really go anywhere outside of my hometown, I would wander from website to website downloading NES, SNES, Game Boy, and Genesis ROMs. I don’t remember all of the games I played back then, but some madeContinue reading “The Best Retro Games I Played on an Emulator”

Gauntlet II: A Good Sequel but Nothing New

Gauntlet II isn’t too different from the first game. The gameplay is essentially the same, the same four characters are in the game, and the graphics are mostly the same. This isn’t all that surprising given that the game was released shortly after the first in the arcades. This was a conversion kit for theContinue reading “Gauntlet II: A Good Sequel but Nothing New”

Gauntlet: A Good, not Great, NES Game

Gauntlet was originally released in the arcades by Atari in 1985. It borrows heavily from the game Dandy, which was released on Atari’s 8-bit computers in 1983. Like several other arcade games that Atari released, the rights to this game would eventually be bought by another company. I never had the chance to play thisContinue reading “Gauntlet: A Good, not Great, NES Game”

A Weird Arcade Port from Nintendo

I really like weird games, and Clu Clu Land is definitely a weird one. This is one of the games that I didn’t know about until the 2010s. I don’t remember if I ever saw this game when I was collecting games in the 1990s, and I definitely don’t remember any of my friends talkingContinue reading “A Weird Arcade Port from Nintendo”

Donkey Kong Jr is a Great Arcade-NES Port

Donkey Kong Jr is the sequel to Donkey Kong, and is one of the few games that I first played at an after school babysitter. For some reason, my parents had me go to a neighbor’s house after school when I was in the first grade. There were a bunch of kids there, and IContinue reading “Donkey Kong Jr is a Great Arcade-NES Port”

TMNT III on the NES is Great

TMNT III: The Manhattan Project is one of the NES games I discovered when I started collecting games in the late 1990s and early 2000s. With how big a deal TMNT was when I was a kid, I’m surprised I didn’t know about this one. The only reason I could think of was that myContinue reading “TMNT III on the NES is Great”

TMNT II is a Great Game on the NES

TMNT: The Arcade game is one of the few arcade games I remember playing. That’s because it was everywhere, or at least that is how it felt. I didn’t grow up near an arcade, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t play arcade games. They were at movie theaters, restaurants, bowling alleys, and amusement centers. TheContinue reading “TMNT II is a Great Game on the NES”

Bucky O’Hare on the NES is Great

Bucky O’Hare wasn’t a game that I was aware of growing up. I didn’t know about the NES or Arcade games, the comics, or the cartoon. It was one of many media properties that just slipped through the cracks for me. There were so many cartoons and comics back in the 1980s and 1990s thatContinue reading “Bucky O’Hare on the NES is Great”

Blades of Steel on the NES is Great

Blades of Steel on the NES is a great hockey game. This, along with Ice Hockey, are two of my favorite sports games on the console. I also have a lot of memories of playing this one. I had no idea this was originally an arcade game. Much like the other arcade ports I playedContinue reading “Blades of Steel on the NES is Great”