Trials Fusion with a Retro Twist [PC, 2014] - It's Play Time! - Ep.#4

Just to show the awesome "Retrospective" track that is part of the "Fault One Zero" downloadable pack! Genious!


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It's a Pixel THING's main theme by LASERS (Amsterdam).

Restoring my old IBM PS/1 486DX2 66MHz - It's a Pixel THING - Ep.#46

The PS/1 line of computers was IBM’s successful return to the home market in 1990 and this specific model from 1993 was the very first time that I saw a tower model, even before the Amiga 4000T arrived. I fell in love with it right away and started saving some money getting also a part-time job just to get one of these! Even so, it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my parents, ‘cause these IBM machines were so freaking expensive, as you can see by the numbers printed in the original invoice that I’ve kept all these years! Its price was three hundred and ninety thousand escudos, around two thousand euros in today’s money!

It came originally with 4 megabytes of ram, one hundred and seventy megabytes of hard disk space and it’s a DX2 with 66 MHz and not a DX/33 as stated in the invoice. Through the years, I’ve managed to get some extra ram, to a total of 16 megabytes, and replaced the original hard drive so that I could get an astonishing number of five hundred and twenty eight megabytes for Windows 95 and games! Later I’ve also got a CD ROM drive and an ISA SoundBlaster compatible sound card that brought a new life to my favorite old DOS games.

Now let’s bring it back from the dead and listen to its startup amazing sounds!

The original PSU from my PS/1 died several years ago and, just now with the tip from my good friend Paulo_Becas, I realized that there are ATX to AT PSU converter cables. So, I’ve bought one of those from amigakit.com for about 15 euros and just used a spare ATX PSU that I had laying around.

Finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for! Let’s try a few classic games, some of my biggest addiction from that Era!

Back then my favorite game genre was the point’n’click adventure type, so, inevitably I had to try some. Starting with Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, the floppy disk edition that has no digitized voice. I have it on steam, though, and finished it recently. Such an amazing adventure!

This is the first time that I’m hearing music from Wolfenstein 3D, and I’m amazed by it! I remember to play this game with only the beeps from the PC speaker! By the way, the IBM PS/1 models have this pretty handy PC speaker volume knob in the front of the case! Awesome thinking! Not everyone had the possibility to buy an audio card. Back then, prices weren’t friendly at all! So, if we’re gonna play games with sound only from the PC speaker, let’s make it with style!

Another awesome point’n’click adventure game from Lucas Arts: Day of the Tentacle, with tons of hilarious unforgettable moments! And this one has some amazing digitized speech throughout the game! Just an amazing accomplishment from Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman, that you know… right?..

Moving on to another game, this time around it’s another title that I’m hearing, for the first time, its music and sounds using a sound card! I remember to play GODS at a friend’s house even before I bought my own IBM. It’s one of the greatest classic from the Bitmap Brothers!

Who hasn’t played the very first Micro Machines? It’s such an entertaining and funny little game that got me hooked for countless hours and even days! I don’t recall this degree of sluggishness.. It’s maybe a sound issue?!? Hummmmm.

I’ve already reviewed this game for my channel, so feel free to check it out clicking on the rectangle shown on your screen.

The Monkey Island franchise brings so many memories from those awesome 3.5 inch floppy disk Era! Such an amazing time and such an awesome piece of programming, again from Lucas Arts and the creative minds of Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman and Ron Gilbert. Did you know that the film series Pirates of the Caribbean somehow drank some inspiration from the Monkey Island games? This is the second installment of the franchise, LeChuck’s Revenge. Another awesome point’n’click adventure classic.

It can’t get more classic that this: DOOM 2, Hell on Earth, the second installment of ID Software’s groundbreaking franchise. There weren’t any big differences in gameplay and graphics from the original DOOM. The Johns – Carmak and Romero – just focused on more complex level design taking advantage from the natural computer hardware evolution. And, someone once stated that “it’s a keep on the hard drive forever game”.

This is the first time I’m trying Speedball 2 Brutal Deluxe on the PC. I used to play this game on the Amiga and it was considered by the press the best game ever made for that platform. Honestly, it’s not my kind of thing and, right now, I’m thinking of a ton more titles that are way better than this. Well, I’m testing it just to hear its main theme that I have on my iPod and absolutely love it.

Now comes a game that I spent so many time playing and enjoying. The very first Warcraft Orc and Humans, from Blizzard. Even today it continues to be so addictive! After I shot these images I spent the rest of the afternoon playing it! This isn’t just a “build base”, “build army” and “destroy enemy” type of RTS. We have also missions where we need to rescue friendly forces and besieged villages and it was a major breakthrough on the genre back in 1994. And it was highly enjoyable to play with a friend in multiplayer mode by modem or over local network.

So, guys! I hope that you’ve enjoyed this return to the past! It feels so good to have my old IBM working again! It was my first PC and, from the minute I’ve pushed the start button, it brought so many great memories from those years of DOS gaming!

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Video Game Pickups #4 - 27 Games + Stuff - It's a Pixel THING - Ep.#45

Let's take a look at the 27 video games, and other gaming related stuff, that I've added to my collection over the last couple of months! There's stuff for the PC, XBOX 360, PlayStation 2, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Sega Dreamcast and for the original Xbox!

Enjoy!


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It's a Pixel THING's main theme by LASERS (Amsterdam).

Gotek Floppy Amiga Emulator Review - It's a Pixel THING - Ep.#44

As everyone knows, the Amiga 600 was intended to be the replacement for the long running and best seller Commodore 64, and it was supposed to be called A300. It was also considered one of the brand’s worst marketing and strategic errors. You can check my retrospective on this theme clicking on the rectangle shown on your screen.

Personally I really like the compact design of the Amiga 600 and the specs are a step up from its older brother, the Amiga 500.

First we need to get to the floppy drive disconnecting two cables and a few screws.

Now it’s time get the Gotek floppy emulator into place, pluggin’ in both cables, that came with the unit, and screws. Placing it isn’t as plug’n’play as I’ve thought that it would be. I had to make two extra holes on the Gotek so that the ones on the back of the Amiga could match. Also, and in order to get the flash drive well placed and connected to the Gotek unit, I had to break a small and thin piece of plastic. I can live with that!

Finally, about half an hour later, I was ready to test this baby! Everything seems to be connected and in place.

Next step is to download a firmware file hosted on this blog: cortexamigafloppydrive.wordpress.com

Just scroll down the main page and you’ll find a docx file that, when downloaded, you’ll have to change its extension to zip to be able to extract the SELECTOR.ADF file. The Gotek unit has already the firmware installed by the vendor on ebay from where I’ve purchased it, so, next step is to get a FAT32 formatted flash drive and copy the SELECTOR.ADF file along with some games also in ADF format.

Nowadays I just use the A600 to play games, so, I think that this solution is perfect for me and for everyone that just wants to use the Amiga as a kind of a games console. And it looks kind of awesome and futuristic, don’t you think?

Now, let’s get right into the good stuff! Games!!!

This is how we get to the main list of all files that we’ve copied to the flash drive. One advice that I can give is to rename those long files. The Gotek firmware doesn’t scroll long names. This is a problem if there’s various ADF files for one game. For example, Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis the Graphic Adventure has 11 disks, 11 ADF files, I mean, and we need to shorten them up to be able to identify them and place them in the exact order in those virtual floppy drives that the Gotek emulates. So, in that particular case, we could simply rename the files to Indy Atlantis disk 1of 11 and so forth.

This game right here, Viage al Centro de la Tierra, from the Spanish developer Topo Soft, was one of my big addictions on my ZED X Spectrum back in the summer of 1989. I just love these exploration and adventure type of games.

Just before we launch another game, we need to check the Gotek’s display and place it in the DF0 position just by pressing one of the two buttons available. Then, simply reset the Amiga by pressing Control and the two Amiga keys simultaneously and we’ll get into the menu.

Now, time for a go on one of my favorite games ever, Batman the Movie.

Loading times are exactly the same. It’s just like using floppy disks, but without the hassle of changing them and completely error free.

This doesn't mean that I'll stop collecting physical Amiga games on those gorgeous big boxes. I simply want to preserve those on my shelves and avoid bad handling.

Shadow Warriors is one of the best beat-em-ups on the Amiga, an extremely well done arcade conversion.

And, who doesn’t know Shinobi? In late 80s these martial arts type of games were really popular, due to the also well received movies American Ninja, Bloodsport and Kickboxer.

Another great classic, Turrican 2. Amazing sound, amazing graphics.. what else could you ask from a videogame?

I’ve never watched the movie, but played a ton The Adams Family on the Amiga back when it was out! Such an entertaining game!

And what about Apidya? Have you played it? No? You should! It’s one of the greatest shoot’em’ups ever made and exclusive to the Amiga!

One great thing about retrogaming is that you can play games that, back then, when they were released, you’ve never had the chance to try. This is one of those examples: Ballistix! The first time I saw its cover was on a Computer & Video Games magazine, back in 1989, and I stood there, just looking at that amazing cover art. This was the first time that I’ve played it, and I enjoyed it a lot!.. I’ll certainly make a review in the future!

So, guys, what do you think of the Gotek floppy emulator? Is it worth it? Or do you prefer using floppies? Well, in my case, and as I said before, it’s great to have a flash drive filled with all my favorite Amiga games, spite continue to collect physical copies. I approve! Tell me what you think in the comments section bellow!

If you're into retro - or not so retro - stuff, please subscribe at http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePixelTHING and visit http://www.facebook.com/PixelThing & http://twitter.com/Pixel_THING

Support the show on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/PixelTHING