Mikes gaming Pickups for the 15th October 2015

Hi all!

So this Video is a day late as a result I will be uploading another vid on the Sunday so I still get my five video a week up :)

Today I give you A quick run-through of the latest pickups i have managed to come across A little earlier than planned. 

I hope you enjoy the video and as always thanks for watching!

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Throwback Tuesday - Chuck Rock 2: Son of Chuck

Hi all!

So today's Throwback Tuesday comes to you from the Sega Mega Drive and is A classic Platformer which I can not play to Save my life and that is Chuck Rock 2 Son Of Chuck.

I hope you enjoy the video and thanks for watching!

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Throwback Tuesday - Mortal Kombat 2 - Sega Megadrive

Seeing as Mortal Kombat X has hit the shelf it seemed only right that I take a look at my favourite Mortal Kombat Game of the Past which is Mortal Kombat 2!

Thanks for watching!

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Throwback Tuesday - Garry Kitchen's Super Battle Tank - SNES

So this weeks throwback Tuesday has to be one of the Dullest games I have played in a long time.

Garry kitchen's Super Battle Tank War In The Gulf.
A so called super realistic Combat sim from the 1990s.

I Hope you enjoy the Video.

Thanks for watching.

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Throwback Tuesday - The Legend Of Zelda - NES

Today Mike takes a trip down gaming royalty history with a look at The Legend Of Zelda on the NES for this weeks Throwback Tuesday!

Thanks for watching.

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Throwback Tuesday; Mega Bomberman - Sega Megadrive

Hi everyone today I take a look at and play (Badly) Mega Bomberman, a classic on the Sega Megadrive that I loved to play when I was younger.

I hope you enjoy and thanks for watching.

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Throwback Tuesday: The Ninja - Sega Master System

So it may be a day late but I got the Video done in the end no thanks to some technical glitches. Here is this weeks throwback Tuesday, A classic game on the Sega Master System that only needs one name... The Ninja! A pretty tough game on a awesome system check it out!

A big thank you to KAI7xxx  for the Suggestion of playing this game.

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Play Expo Blackpool 2014 It's a Shaky cam return to form!

So I was at Blackpool Expo checking out some arcade machines, Retro consoles and spending way to much money and as always this comes accompanied with  the standard shaky cam vid and the start of a Play Expo week of wonderful goodies and a lousy title. The Play Expo Blackpool fall out week! Told you it was lousy!
Anyhow here is the first of several vids coming your way!

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Mike visits The Centre for Computer History

So a few weeks back I headed down to Cambridge where I went to a video game retro night.
The idea was bring your own booze and enjoy a ton load of retro video games and thanks to the organizers and what is an awesome museum and everyone had a great time.

The Centre organised a really great event with all proceedings going to the continued support of the centre.

It took me some time but I finally managed to get the video complete and up on the site and here it is. As always it a master piece in shaky cam  but i hope it gets across how awesome the Centre for Computer History is and encourages you to go visit them.

)

For more info on the Centre click HERE
Or find them on Twitter; @computermuseum

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Latest from Play Blackpool!

Crazy Horse Gaming have recently received this latest update from Replay events regarding Play Blackpool.

"The Gremlins are coming!We are thrilled to announce that a number of the original members of legendary British software house Gremlin Graphics will be attending Play Blackpool for a presentation, Q&A and signing session.Founder Ian Stewart, Shaun Hollingworth, Peter Harrap, Tony Crowther and musician Ben Daglish are all confirmed for the show and we expect that further names will be confirmed prior to the event.Gremlin Graphics was founded in 1984 by Ian Stewart and the company created many iconic 8 bit games such as the Monty Mole series, Bounder and Thing on a Spring as well as later titles such as Lotus Esprit, Zool and the Actua Sports titles.There will be a presentation on the history of Gremlin Graphics followed by a public Q&A session where you can fire your questions at the panel. A number of traders will be present at the show selling Gremlin Graphics posters and merchandise and you can bring along your own games for the signing session.We will also be showcasing of some of the best loved Gremlin Graphics games and will have a number of tournaments on games released by the studio."

So if you have not got your tickets then what are you waiting for!

For more info visit:  http://www.playblackpool.com/

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Will Varley- Weddings & Wars Impressive 8 bit Music Video

So every now and then we cover a song or two on Crazy Horse Gaming, but only if we can find some kind of Video gaming angle. This time we not only have a obvious video gaming related music video but in my opinion this is a great looking 8 bit style music video  that has been gathering momentum and popularity on the good old interweb.

The impressive creative Idea of Folk singer/song writer Will Varley  uses a 8 Bit video game inspired stile to create a great video to accompany his song  Weddings & Wars a four minute History of the universe a track Crow from his latest album 'As the Crow Flies'

As the press release for this video describes,

"The video was designed and animated by Varley himself – it took about six weeks of solid work and involved lots of all-night sessions. Designed in a demo version of a 1990s computer program, Will finished the game on the last day of his free trial of the software. The video is influenced heavily by the kind of games Varley played with his brother as a child, and gamers will appreciate quite a few hidden in-jokes (look out for the Commander Keen reference, for example)."
"Super Nintendo gaming enthusiasts will love this video, which uses the same resolution and colour palette of the classic NES and SNES consoles; those interested in evolutionary biology will enjoy the simple and darkly funny explanation of how humankind has progressed from bacterium to killing machine; but above all, music fans will love the track: a witty, melodic and extraordinarily well-crafted take on the meaning – or meaninglessness – of life."

Why not check the video out yourself.

So I think we all can agree a pretty impressive piece of work from a very talented guy. If you would like to know more about Will Varley and his music you can check out his website.

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Replay Arcade comes to Play Blackpool

One of the most popular features at the Play Expo events is always the classic arcade or the ‘Replay Arcade’ as they are often called. Throughout my many years as a Gamer I have spent what must be hundreds of hours and just as many ten pence pieces in arcade cabinets while I was on my yearly holidays to the great British Seaside. So it is really cool to be able to tell you that Replay Events announced that the Replay Arcade will be present and as enjoyable as ever at the Play Blackpool this May.
In a statement on the Website for Play Blackpool the following was said'

"With cabs supplied by arcade specialist RGP (Retro Games Party) we will have an eye popping array of classic and modern cabs, with a number of machines never seen before at events.

We will confirm which machines will be available nearer the time – of course feel free to send over your suggestions to us of what you would like to see. We can’t promise we will be able to bring every cab requested but we’ll do our best to have all your favourites!"


So if there is any Cabinets you would love to see at the Play Blackpool event get your suggestions in as for me I am going to be brushing up on my button mashing skills I will catch you in the Arcade soon!

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Who says Computers Cannot be works of art?

                                                             

So as some of you will be aware of, Crazy Horse Gaming took a quick trip down to Manchester recently to check out the Play Expo and while I was down there I saw loads of pretty cool stuff. One of the Exhibits at the expo that caught my attention was a Little known Computer called the Amiga Walker. Now many of you out there Especially some of the older generation of Gamers like myself will be very familiar with the Amiga brand of home computers and the Hours of awesome gaming that came with them. Sadly Amiga are not around any more to continue with the awesome line of  computers they  produced back in the 80S/90s. However there is one awesome person who has done his absolute best to keep the legacy of Amiga alive and Kicking and he has done a great job. Allow me to introduce you to Justin, Justin has made it a personnel goal to painstakingly build a working model of the last ever hpme computer Amiga planned on releasing which never made it to the general public the Amiga Walker,  Not only has he succeeded in his goal of  building what I consider to be a home computer that is a work of art but Justin is now on a mission to ensure as many Amiga enthusiasts get to see this true piece of Home computer and gaming history by heading to expos up and down the UK displaying the Amiga. Now enough rambling from me I will let Justin tell you more about Amiga and the Amiga Walker as he is the true expert here and can explain it to you guys far better than I ever could so Justin it is over to you.

"The Commodore Amiga was a late 1980s/early 1990s home computer. It featured 16 million on-screen colours; stereo sound and full multi-tasking. This was at a time when the PC was monochrome and the “sound system” was a series of beeps.

The Amiga proved to be a very popular machine throughout Europe, particularly in the UK. The original machine was the A1000 which was followed by the “home version” being the A500. The other machines released over the years were A2000; A3000; A1200; A4000 and the CD32. (There were other models including CDTV but the above were the internationally recognised “Amigas”.

"In the early 1990s Commodore realised, too late, that the A1200 had become too slow and so sought a more powerful user-friendly successor.

The planned successor, the Amiga walker was a prototype machine which was released in late 1995 early 1996 and was to feature the AAA chip set (64 bit; larger sprites; a chunky graphics mode – plus much, much more) and O3O Motorola processor.

Commodore/Escom asked the talented designer Daniel Gilgen to come up with some initial case designs. The design finally approved initially received a very poor public reception, being likened to Darth Vader’s helmet, a vacuum cleaner, or Dr Who’s K9."

"The case design was revolutionary and a few years ahead of its time (think of the I-Mac that was released a few years later to popular acclaim).

The Walker case was designed with the option for future upgrades. There was a tower system designed, which the Walker would sit upon thus giving access to a wide range of add-on cards.

Unfortunately Escom/Commodore went bankrupt before the Walker went on general release.

It is generally believed that there are three Walker cases in existence - two are in private collections and one in the public domain. As I thought that it was a shame that no-one would ever get the chance to see or use one of these machines....... I decided there needed to be a fourth.........

So I embarked on 'Project Amiga Walker'.

The Project took approximately seven months and was designed using the original specifications. The curvature of the case proved very difficult to replicate. It was decided to use aluminium as it is strong and quite easy to work with.

The complicated feet and front and rear panels were made on a CNC machine (with many thanks to Brian Ferguson).

The upper parts of the case were manufactured from 1mm aluminium sheeting and welded together then dressed back by hand (with thanks to Jerry Roe).

The final preparation of the case was carried out by an automotive body-shop as black shows every defect."

Early stages of the Amiga Walkers creation.

"The machine is powered by an Intel dual core E6600 on a Fujitsu motherboard with a custom PSU.

The system boots using the original Amiga Walker Kickstart ROM and the original hard drive images and to finally see an Amiga Walker booting as originally intended was a great feeling."

Shots of the internal make up of the walker and the boot up screen.

"When I later discovered that the Walker design rights are still owned by Klaus Schwagerl I realised I needed to contact him to obtain his permission in respect of the intellectual property rights.

After lengthy email correspondence and upon providing detailed specifications and photographs Klaus very kindly allowed this Amiga Walker to be officially licensed for private use and shows only.

At the Retro Replay 2013 Manchester Event I finally unveiled the Amiga Walker. It received an excellent reception generating a great deal of interest. To see the smiles on the faces of Amiga enthusiasts made the seven months of hard work seem all worthwhile."

   

More shots of the unit powered up and running and final shots of the finished unit.

  

"This licensed Amiga Walker will now go to as many shows as I am able to attend in order that as many enthusiasts as possible get to experience the Amiga Walker in the flesh. If you would like to learn more about this project and follow the original build please go to:

www.amibay.com"

So folks that is the Amiga Walker in my opinion one of the coolest looking Home Computer I have ever seen and Justin has done a great job building this working piece of gaming and computing history.

I would like to give a big Thank you to Justin and his wife for taking the time out to spend with Crazy Horse Gaming and for taking the time to send all the photos and Info regarding the creation of the Amiga Walker so Thank you so much to the both of you .

Please Visit www.amibay.com and show your support for the Amiga Walker and its continuous journey from expo to expo its a great project and a real pleasure to see out there keep up the good work guys.  

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Crazy Horse Gaming is Heading to the Play Expo!

Crazy Horse Gaming will be making the trip to Manchester on the 12th of October to check out the Play Expo.The Play Expo is a video gaming expo that promises the UK most diverse gaming expo with Arcade Machines retro displays as well as previews of new games that are not out yet.

"The UK’s most diverse video gaming expo is back! Play Expo returns to EventCity, Manchester on 12-13 October 2013 after a hugely successful debut last year. Play Expo will expand considerably on last year’s show and will once again feature four distinct events:re.play (retro systems and arcade/pinball machines) now.play (previews of the latest games and hardware) pro.play (casual and competitive tournaments) cos.play (costume competitions and dealers/traders)."

Crazy Horse will be there and we will be reporting back on what we find.

For more info on the Play Expo and Tickets go to; http://www.playexpo.net/

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Ducktales Retrospective

Life is like a Hurricane. Well it is if you live in Duckburg. Also, with all the Racecars, Lasers and Aeroplanes, i'm surprised that Scrooge McDuck can have any time to enjoy his Millions. And now to add to all that, Wayforward & Capcom announed earlier this year that Scrooge will be making a comeback in Ducktales Remastered, a remake of the NES Classic from 1989 which is still considered to be one of the best titles in the NES Library. I myself loved every minute, and the music alone, was iconic, let alone the levels. Scrooge is also bringing back Launchpad, and his Nephews Huey, Duey and Louey along for the ride, and Webby too.

                            

I myself am massively excited to be revisiting the iconic locations such as Transylvania and The Moon amongst others, but in glorious handrawn HD & because of the massive hype I have regarding the upcoming XBLA Release (It is also being released for the Wii U Virtual Console & PSN on PS3), I thought "Why not revisit the classic?"

Ducktales was released for the NES in 1989 and was designed by Keiji Inafune, of Mega Man, Onimusha & Dead Rising fame, and was released for the Gameboy a year later. I did get to play the Gameboy Version, and while the NES Version is the better of the two, the Gameboy Port is an excellent little port, and not much was lost in the transition.

The game saw you play the role of Scrooge McDuck, the leading character from the TV Show we all know and love, as he and Launchpad travel across the world in search of five treasures to add to his already huge vault. Ducktales saw Scrooge visit The Amazon, Transylvania, The Moon, The Himalayas and the African Mines with his trusty Cane for company which you used as a weapon to swing at rocks to take down higher enemies or harder to reach Chests, and also as a Pogo Stick.

While the controls were a bit fiddly at first, the younger version of me found myself taking out Gorillas, Mummys and Spaceducks in no time. For me too, I personally loved The Amazon, and Transylvania levels, as they seemed to have more about them, and more character to them than the others. Although, to this day, I still have fun revisiting all five locations (and swearing a lot too at some of my mistimed jumps). The Soundtrack to the game as mentioned earlier, was a star in it's own right, and it still stands up today as one of the greatest Video Game Sountracks of all time, with each location having it's own theme, with The Moon being a fan favourite amongst millions across the globe.

Jake Kaufman has done a spectacular job of bringing back said pieces of Music for the Remastered Version, and despite having only heard snippets of each piece (at the time of writing), during Preview Videos and the Capcom Duckumentaries, I can honestly say i'm blown away by how he's made them sound so much grander, larger and beautiful, while still retaining the classic 8-bit sound to them that made them so popular in the first place. Ducktales also had you trying to find the two secret areas in each location, which many of us missed the first time around (thank you YouTube) and also had us amassing more Money throughout the game, with one of the endings (the Great one) happening if you managed to collect $10,000,000. The other two endings were triggered by you either just completing the game normally (the Good ending) and for finishing the game with $0 (Bad ending). You also had a Boss Fight at the end of each location to win each of the five Treasures. After collecting all five treasures, you then went back to Transylvania for a final boss fight to end the game.

I think what I loved about the original was that while Mario was undoubtably the king of the Platformers on the NES, Ducktales felt a lot different to most platformers around the same time, and it had a certain addictive quality, and charm, along with the beautiful soundtrack, and great locations, it's no surprise why it's considered one of the best NES games. If you ever played the Disney games on the NES, then you'll have also played the classics Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, and Darkwing Duck, which people are hoping to see be Remastered in the same way that Ducktales is being done, should Ducktakes be successful.

As mentioned, i've played through Ducktales recently, and while my skills as a child didn't transfer completely to now (damn you Himalayas and African Mines!) I still found myself humming the soundtrack whilst playing though the locations again, and loving it even more so now, than when I was a 7 year old Ducktales obsessive having a great time with the NES Controller in my hand Pogoing my way through Magic Mirrors, Minecarts, and through the Snow. Come September 11th, this Man Child here will be "Solving a Mystery" (no might about it) and hoping Capcom have "rewritten history" in a good way.

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