Here are two new Bally Astrocade reviews. Incredible Wizard is a rewrite but Checkmate is new.
Let me know what you think.
2016/1/19: Bally Astrocade: Checkmate, Incredible Wizard, The
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VideoGameCritic
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scotland
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Re: 2016/1/19: Bally Astrocade: Checkmate, Incredible Wizard, The
I really enjoy the Wizard of Wor arcade machine. A simple idea just wonderfully well done. I think the futuristic part reminds me of Thundarr, the Barabrian. Lasers and wizards, put'em together it just makes sense.
Its great that the game has a fine port on the Astrocade. According to Marriot_guy there is a Z80 under the hood, the same chip as in many systems to come up to the GameBoy a decade later. Amazing that all those sprites are software sprites too. The 4k of RAM on the Astrocade blows other consoles of the time out of the water, so they had memory for the sprite, gameplay and the music.
Kudos on another Astrocade review. I think the review should reference the 1980 arcade game and not the 2600 port (at least the parenthetical). The icon says team up, but can you shoot the other player? That icon page for cooperative games does not yet include this one. You did not mention any flicker, how is it?
Speaking of flicker, this game and the 2600 Pac Man may have been on retail shelves at the same time really shows how variable game quality was, and how hard it was to know if your forty dollars was buying a great game or a disappointing one.
Its great that the game has a fine port on the Astrocade. According to Marriot_guy there is a Z80 under the hood, the same chip as in many systems to come up to the GameBoy a decade later. Amazing that all those sprites are software sprites too. The 4k of RAM on the Astrocade blows other consoles of the time out of the water, so they had memory for the sprite, gameplay and the music.
Kudos on another Astrocade review. I think the review should reference the 1980 arcade game and not the 2600 port (at least the parenthetical). The icon says team up, but can you shoot the other player? That icon page for cooperative games does not yet include this one. You did not mention any flicker, how is it?
Speaking of flicker, this game and the 2600 Pac Man may have been on retail shelves at the same time really shows how variable game quality was, and how hard it was to know if your forty dollars was buying a great game or a disappointing one.
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bigladiesman
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Re: 2016/1/19: Bally Astrocade: Checkmate, Incredible Wizard, The
I became acquinted with Wizard of Wor back in the PS2 times, as it was included on Midway Arcade Classics 2. I enjoyed it quite a lot, and was still fresh in my mind when I started emulating the Astrocade using MESS.
And, man, what a version this one is: this is as pixel perfect as it could be back in the time. It looks and even sounds so close to the arcade that one can even forget about the absence of that hilarious synthesized taunting by the Wizard (it was only a gimmick, after all). If this is what the Astrocade was aimed at, then it's too bad it got sunken by its own ambition an a misguided marketing campaign: with ports like this, it could have made the great.
And, man, what a version this one is: this is as pixel perfect as it could be back in the time. It looks and even sounds so close to the arcade that one can even forget about the absence of that hilarious synthesized taunting by the Wizard (it was only a gimmick, after all). If this is what the Astrocade was aimed at, then it's too bad it got sunken by its own ambition an a misguided marketing campaign: with ports like this, it could have made the great.