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Great Ape Menaces Anguished Pre-Plumber & His Lady Faire Anew
Mario, before he had his name legally changed from Jumpman
Although Pauline now looks suspiciously like Paper Mario Peach and that Mario sprite looks for all the world like one you might have seen Super Mario All-Stars, this is still a pretty neat-o, ground-up, remake of the ultra-classic Donkey Kong1.
The only real downside is there is most certainly something ‘off’ with the jump mechanics since it really seems like I have to jump very early when on the run to clear a barrel (his launch trajectory seems too flat) and this needs to be fixed before it’s given a wholly-meaningless thumbs-up from me.
That said, I have no idea where to find the creator of this little update/remake (the Kong fairy was nice enough to pass this along and he didn’t say from whence it spawned), but it’s pretty cool and if someone would like to claim paternity I would gladly give credit whee it is due.
In the meantime, however, you can grab it right here.
1 Sorry, I’m not linking this one: if you don’t know what Donkey Kong is you should leave this blog now, never to return, banished one!
Alameda…Why Did It Have to be Alameda?
Pinball: Like your Dad I used to play
When it could have been Weirs Beach:
Now featuring over 90 playable, historic pinball machines, the Pacific Pinball Museum has finally become a reality! Our new front entrance at 1510 Webster Street, Alameda, CA is open 6 days a week with extended hours on weekends. We now offer 15 woodrails and 20 wedgeheads from Larry Zartarian’s collection and additional games representing early pinballs from the Mr and Mrs. Gordon Hasse, Dan Miller, and Michael Schiess Collections. The beautiful wall murals are by Dan Fontes assisted by Ed Cassel and many volunteers.
Still of the fan of the old Lucky Ju Ju? Don’t worry…it’s still there! We still offer the “back 40″ on Friday and Saturday nights. Come down and be blown away by the best place to experience pinball in the world! All machines are on freeplay and once admission is paid, you can come and go all day.
New hours: Tuesday through Sunday from 2pm to 9pm. 2pm til midnight on Fridays and Saturday. Closed Mondays.
Our admission is $15 for adults and $7.50 for kids under 12.
If you’re in that neck of the woods, do drop in and then let me know how it is, sigh.
Also: check Arcade Heroes for more up-to-the-quarter news on pinball in general.
h/t: Dave Thompson
AM CS101 Class
That other famous English guy w/ the initials CS
This is a pretty interesting mini-bio on the creator of the Sinclair line of computers (I had one as a wee lad–my very first computer, actually–the Timex Sinclair 10001) which is probably pretty meaningless to you if you aren’t at least my age and also grew up in Europe (which I didn’t):
Clive Sinclair maintains an odd presence in computer history. At his prime, he’s like Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs all rolled up into one person, never missing a chance to bathe in the spotlight yet far more interested in inventions and tinkering than market share and profit margins. In the ’70s and early 1980s, nobody in the European electronics industry was more respected — and reported upon — than he was.
Sinclair got his start producing audio gear in the 1960s and branched out to pocket calculators (1972) and microcomputer kits before kicking off the ZX series of personal computers in 1980. The ZX Spectrum, despite having an abortive and unnoticed launch in America, sold in the millions in Europe — it provided fierce competition for the Commodore 64 and was the 8-bit system that many of today’s game designers and programmers first cut their teeth on. His successes earned Sinclair a knighthood and made him a household name in the UK, but his company was never far from financial ruin and, tiring of having to support a personal-computer business, he sold it to a rival in 1986 and went back to inventing. He’s still at it today, nearing 70 and working on fold-up bicycles and such, although you can’t help but think he’s a little daft when he talks with the press about how he doesn’t handle his own email.
At the height of his public career, in mid-1982, Sinclair gave a speech to the British chapter of Mensa where he discussed his vision of the future. The speech would’ve been perfect as a TED Talk if such a thing existed back then. Reading the article about it (above, from the October ‘82 issue of Sinclair User) is pretty neat just to see how tuned-in and far-out he was, nearly three decades ago:
The key contribution of Sinclair to gaming esoterica was the ZX Spectrum (known as the “Speccy” to aficionados) and was, iirc, the first computer some rather famous names cut their initial programming chops including Dave Perry and the gents that started up Codemasters and Rare, amongst many others.
Thus, in some strained way, that makes Sinclair the godfather of such games as Earthworm Jim, Battletoads/Donkey Kong Country and…uh…whatever it is Codemasters publishes.
1 While I can’t say I ever did much of anything w/ it, it did play a pretty mean game of Frogger (on cassette tape, no less).
“Some galactic defender you are, Space Cadet!”
Game Over Retro Fans1
The end of an era:
…this is officially the final, final release candidate for GORF. Fish gotta fly, birds gotta swim, and I’ve got to move on to new projects.
There’s only one major change to this release…faster quark shots for the player. I was worried about how this change would affect the gameplay, but judging from my playtesting it seems to be an improvement. The game feels a bit peppier than past releases, although if you’ve gotten used to the timing in the earlier versions, you’ll have to retrain yourself.
So that’s it. The last dance, the final countdown, the whipped cream and cherry on the sundae. I may include box artwork and an instruction booklet at a later date, but unless there’s a cataclysmic bug somewhere in the code that I missed, there will be no more work done on GORF.
Personally, I think fish gotta fry (mmm, fish ‘n’ chips) and birds gotta, well, they gotta fry, too, the Colonel demands it! (I’m pretty sure CHI is gonna back me up on both of these, so if you have a problem, you’re going to have to take it up w/ the Hulk’s golden brother.)
Other than that, check out one of the GBA’s swan songs, and then say thanks here.
1 I’m writing this post in the wee hours of the AM after a very long day so, yeah, I’m all outta clever.
A Startling Development
This AM brings a completely out of left field development in the form of a so freshly-translated PC Engine Super CD RPG that the bits are still cooling on the patch–careful! It’s still hot!
If you’d be interested in taking a jaunt through this startling arrival, your odyssey begins here.
H/T: The Arch-Nerd
