1985 saw the release of one of the most influential arcade games of the past few decades. It was quite popular for its time. Matter of fact, you might have even heard about it, or if you’re old enough, you may have even played it. In the game, you (and a few friends) teamed up to smash a never-ending (well, at least until you destroyed the generators) stream of orcs, goblins, and other monsters in a fantasy setting. Your character’s health constantly ticked down, so grabbing food was a must. Also, there were several items spread around that could enhance your player. Players could either choose to cooperate with each other, or could work against each other to get the food and the high scores. This game was made by Atari and was known as Gauntlet. Though it’s simple by today’s standards, Gauntlet’s influence helped shape many other action RPG games, from Square’s Secret of Mana to Blizzard’s Diablo. However, a year after the release of Gauntlet, Konami released this game, Dark Adventure. While it had many similarities to Gauntlet, its high quality graphics, large sprites, and quirkiness made this game even better than Atari’s classic. Sadly, it wasn’t nearly as popular as it should have been.
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One of the major complaints about the Wii is that Nintendo doesn’t cater to the hardcore gamer audience enough. I’m hard pressed to disagree, as I only own 4 games that aren’t Virtual Console titles, and one of them is a port of a 4-year old game whose sequel was just released this past March. With that having been said, I can’t believe how anyone, casual or hardcore alike, could have overlooked this 2008 title from Majesco/Budcat Creations. It’s a classic-style shooter with a very flexible set of creation tools. In fact, I’d almost go as far to say that this is the Wii’s answer to Sony’s Little Big Planet.
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Shownotes Below the Cut!

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In honor of tax day for all Americans, I wanted to do an appropriate article for the occasion. So I thought to myself, “Self, what better way to celebrate tax day than with the return of the Decepticon Energon Auditor, Ratbat!” I mean really, what’s scarier than a Decepticon? How about a Decepticon Auditor!

Read on for lots more!

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Direct Link: Famicom Denshimail – Hookups (2009/04/13)

This week we talk about how to hook up your Famicom or Twin Famicom to your TV. Note: These instructions are for North American NTSC sets only! We will cover (what we know) of NTSC-to-PAL instructions in the future.

Show notes:
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If there was one band whose name was synonymous with Rock ‘n ‘ Roll, it’s Aerosmith. The Boston quintet’s music has been around for decades, and they have even broken down musical barriers with their collaboration with Run DMC, Walk this Way. For me, they hold a special place in my heart as their greatest hits album, Big Ones, was the very first full length music album I got. Last year, Neversoft and Activision have honored the rock legends with a Guitar Hero game centered around them. However, old school gamers know that that disc wasn’t the first time the rockers have been included in a video game. This goofy Midway shoot-em up put the band in digital form well over a decade earlier.
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