The Unofficial SNES/ Super Nintendo Visual Compendium- Book Review

Gamers like me have an affinity for pixel art as we grew up with it, nostalgia is a wonderful thing and we don't need to apologise for it. Pixel art itself was born out of necessity, this economy of design came about due to the various technical limitations but often where there are limitations that is where creativity prospers and thrives.

Over the last few years there has been a boom in quality books celebrating retro video game culture, including pixel art. Bitmap Books, one of the most profilic and consistently excellent producers of such books, have just released what is arguably the console which showcased the peak of pixel art... we are, of course, talking about the might Super Nintendo Entertainment System (the Super Famicom as it was known in Japan or the SNES to Brits like me who like to abbreviate everything). 

I kickstarted the softcover edition of the book for £25 and for this I got:

  • a softcover book
  • a scan line bookmark
  • a multimedia version of the PDF, which I was able to download
  • my name in the book
  • access to the backer updates

However what of the book itself? Well, the entire package is a thing of beauty as it comes coming protected in a tough slipcase with a snazzy lenticular cover. The book itself is a snug fit and has a spot varnish cover which gives it a feel of real class. The pages themselves are vivid and brightly coloured and make no mistake, this is a weighty tome with high quality paper that feels great to the touch.

Over the course of 529 pages the SNES/ Super Famicom: A Visual Compendium showcases the very best pixel art and box art. The book features over 100 classic games, with articles from leading developers, interviews with key figures in the industry and mini-features on subjects such as homebrew games, unreleased games (including the very recently released Starfox 2) and company profiles.

This all sounds great, and it is, but a real highlights are the occasional fold-out sections on games such as Street Fighter 2, Super Mario World and Chrono Trigger which showcase the beautiful pixel art in all its stunning glory.

The interviews with creators, programmers and various people involved in the industry gives real insight in small 200 word mouthfuls that break up the artwork nicely, offering a look inside the industry at the time.

The compendium is another excellent addition to the Bitmap Books roster of video game art books and it well worth the price. Buy it now as you won't be disappointed!

Video Game Papercuts

I love video games and I also like taking photographs, so the idea of merging the two appealed to me. Over the past several months I have been taking characters from various video games and placing them in the real world and these are the results so far. It's a small portfolio but hopefully I'll add to it over time.

Drone Racing: A Sport of the Future?

Drones are everywhere. In the past couple of years the commercial availability of drones has risen whilst their prices have dropped, this has led to this past year being the Year of the Drone, with the gadget high on many people's Christmas list. As a teacher and the Future Technology lead at my school, charged with preparing our pupils for the future and potentially disruptive technology which could change the way we use and think about technology, I have been following the emergence and rise of drones closely and thinking about how they could be used in an educational environment.

As an avid gamer I think it was the game Wipeout which first attracted me to the idea of racing through tech-filled landscapes in futuristic hovering machines in fluorescent colours, it may have been F-Zero on the SNES but Wipeout on the original PlayStation was the game where I was first woken to the possibility of such a sport.

I am obviously not alone as the past year has seen a huge interest in drone racing as a sport, with the Drone Racing League, the National Drone Racing Championships and the Dubai World Drone Prix forming. In fact the Dubai World Drone Prix had a prize winning pot of $1 million, a record for the fledgling sport, which was won by a British 'pilot'. Many entrepreneurs are seeing the potential of the sport and are staking their claim to be the next Bernie Ecclestone whilst others see their chance to make money from their hobby, much like e-sports.

As teachers we should encourage our pupils to take part in whatever interests them and so in this spirit my school purchased 3 Hubsan X4 H107C to develop their basic piloting skills, 2 Hubsan X4 Mini FPV to develop their first person flying skills, 2 Boblov Eachine FPV flight goggles and a few air-gates to practice our skills. The whole package came in at under £500 and was researched to be the most cost effective and accessible way into the sport. 

I have been testing some of the equipment myself over the past few days but tomorrow will be working alongside my colleague to get our Digital Leaders, pupils with an interest in Computing and all things tech, to look through our resources and plan a course of action of starting our own Drone Racing League, with the intention of starting an inter-school competition sometime in the near future.

Flying drones whilst wearing FPV (First Person View) googles is an unsettling, dreamlike experience but once you get used to it truly immersive and engaging. I hope that this sport does take off and by providing our pupils with the resources and skills needed to compete in the sport maybe we will inspire our pupils to engage with the sport and maybe create future pilots.

Top Chiptune Soundtracks You Don't Know

Soundtracks nowadays are similar in style and vein to movie scores, full of cinematic scope and bombast, which is great as it leads to fantastic scores like the ones for Journey, Thomas Was Alone or DMC. However there was a simpler time where space was limited and the sound files had to be compressed and optimised to fit on a cartridge with 8 or 16 megs. This economy of scale led to thoughtful and creative masterpieces that are still iconic even today.

Now we could rattle off the famous game soundtracks that usually fit into many of the 'greatest Megadrive / SNES / NES soundtrack compilations' which you can find on YouTube but I want to choose a few pieces that time has forgotten. This is away from the usual Castlevania, Sonic, Megaman and Mario soundtrack scores as everyone knows them and loves them. I'm talking about the rarely heard soundtracks of yore. Here are a few of my favourites, maybe you could tell me yours!

This music plays during the Underwater levels from the Disney game World Of Illusion. It also plays during Mickey's Coral Reef section.

Music from R-Type 1987 by Irem- this level could be described as looking like the contents of a stomach, possibly after eating genetically modified food.

Thunder Force 3 - Stage 5: Ellis. This music was so upbeat and rocking that I loved leaving it to last!

Bullet Heaven- Shoot 'em Up Games

I picked up the latest issue of Retro Gamer and was excited to see that as well as featuring awesome art by Oliver Fray (who I have really like)  it had an article on shoot 'em ups. Whilst reading the article and munching on old skool treats I got to thinking about the genre. My first experience at the arcade was when I was 6 and it was at my local video store, there was Pacman and Space Invaders. I suppose that was my first intro to shoot 'em up games, that little sit down cocktail cabinet.

Retro Gamer and retro sweets, a winning combination.

They've always held a special place in my heart as once the enemy patterns are learnt and memorised you can look like a boss completing a game. I have a vivid memory of playing Rtype at Heathrow airport and getting to level 3, that huge base ship. I bought the game on the Amstrad CPC 464 and felt like a bad-ass as my little ship  took down a warship that was bigger than a screen, in fact it was a whole level in and of itself. Over the years I bought RType again on the Master System and then progressed to the Megadrive where I continued my love of shoot 'em ups.
Unfortunately over the last few years bullet hell games have taken over, I like them as I feel Zen when I play them but they are not the same as shoot 'em ups. Bullet hell games, especially the ones that have made their way West in the last few years on console including Deathsmile and Akai Katana have a place but they do feel stagnant compared to Dodonpachi and Ikaruga, the true exciting innovators of bullet hell. But generally bullet hell games have a different feel and mechanics.

So here these are some of my favourite shoot 'em ups, there are no SNES shoot 'em ups as I only had a Master System and Megadrive growing up and only got a SNES later in life. I'm playing some of the SNES shoot 'em ups now so this list will be updated later.

RType

Fantasy Zone

Ranger X

Thunderforce III

Thunderforce IV

Zero Wing

Keeper of Classic Gaming

As a teacher and a parent many feel that it is my role to impart my knowledge and wisdom to the younger generation. However I got to a-thinking, apart from being older than those I teach what gives me the right to feel that what I say is correct or the choices I present are the correct ones for my wards? Rather shouldn't I help to educate the children so that they can make informed choices independently? These are profound questions which came from a very 'unprofound' place; gaming. What games should I introduce to my nephew as he gained an interest in gaming? My brother asked me to introduce his son to gaming as he had shown a keen interest in the PSP he had been playing.

Now being the Keeper of the Gateway to Classic Gaming, who am I to decide what games he should play? Of course I want him to experience stone-cold classics like Pacman, Sonic and Super Mario Bros. but maybe he should have a chance to experience gaming organically. This could include 'bad' games, like Dragons Lair on the NES or ET on the Atari.

In my formative years I played lots of 'bad' games but isn't taste objective? One only has to look online to find difference of opinion on just about anything. A prime example would be Deadly Premonition, I absolutely loved this game and in my opinion it was one of the best games of the last generation however in much of the gaming media the game was slated for being shonky and awkward. It was one of the most divisive games of the last generation garnering 10/10 on Destructoid whilst also gaining 2/10 on IGN.

Children are explorers, they like to find things out for themselves and decide what they like and don't like. I am not the Keeper of the Gateway of Classic Gaming, rather I am an observer and adviser. If the children ask me what games to play I can advise but I should not impose my tastes on them... let them explore and find their own interests organically.

Retron 5 Review

The Retron 5 has been a long time coming to the UK. Initially planned to be released in early 2014 the clone console was delayed, when the initial shipment was produced the machines went to America to fulfill orders there, unsettling those in the UK. And so we arrive, a year later than expected... But was it worth the wait?

First the preliminaries, the Retron 5 is a clone console which means it plays original hardware using emulation.
The machine has HDMI output and it is excellent, the picture clarity is superb and whilst it wont match the costlier upscalers it does a darned fine job making your old game gleam like they have never gleamed before.
The extensive menus also allow you to tinker with the visuals and add filters which significantly change the look of the game and you can screen capture images.

However its trump card is that it has 6 pad ports for SNES, Mega drive and NES controllers, for many this is the main attraction of the machine. This is just as well as the machine looks like a hideous toaster and comes packed in with a horrible controller which is best used to just navigate the menus.

Remapping joypad buttons is a treat for the games that had the jump button not keyed on for optimum ease and it also lets you save your progress at any time. For the Gameboy games you can change the screen colours and save your progress from cartridges with batteries (brilliant for saving your Pokemon progress from the mid 90s whose battery packs are dying, however this doesn't work at the moment but has been promised as a firmware update).
The machine has an SD card slot and it will only be a matter of time before some hackers figure out a way of allowing you to play the ROMs you want but may not have hard copies of.

So would I recommend the machine? In a word yes! Even though it is quite costly (£129.99) the Retron 5 is a space saving smart solution to playing your old games in the high fidelity you remember from your childhood but even better.

I have started a Retro Games Club in my school and we have been playing a different game each week. We started off with Street Fighter 2 on the SNES, then moved onto Golden Axe on the Megadrive and both games looked stunning on the HD 52 inch screen (for the article on this click here). This is what the machine is best for, not to replace your old original systems but to offer a way to play the games you loved in your youth in the simplest possible way,  As a soon to be father I want to make sure my child has access to the games of my youth to appreciate modern gaming. I look forward to sharing my passion for retro games without it taking over my living room and life.

Original Hardware, Emulators or Clone Hardware?

Playing old computer games is pretty easy nowadays with many games being available online through digital download services such as GOG, Steam and the numerous legal download services, as well as illegal emulator sites too. However when playing computer games there's nothing like to have the real thing, many of the retro games are available to play but the real problem lies with the joypads. There is nothing like playing a game with the controller it was meant for. Also for many gamers space is a premium and the problems associated with compatibility with modern television sets comes into play too.

The Retron5 comes in a very cool looking box

The Retron5 comes in a very cool looking box

I am a collector and have many of the original computers, consoles and games from my childhood but with my room being converted into a nursery for our imminent firstborn space is at a premium. So I purchased a Retron5 Clone Console, a machine that plays the original games AND uses the original controllers of the Famicom, NES, SNES, Megadrive, Gameboy, Gameboy Colour and Gameboy Advanced. The aspect I am most looking forward to is the fact that it is usable on the current television sets and upscales to 720p. Also with fatherhood around the corner the use of Save States will come in very useful I'm sure.

I will be testing the system over the next couple of weeks and will be providing my opinions and feedback here.