Blogger Archive: bombatomba 
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I will be the first to admit I was a stupid kid. Between 1990-92 I made a series of shameful visits to the Toys R Us "budget wall" section, where NES games could be had for a pittance. Or $20, which I guess wasn't a pittance. Some of you may remember an earlier article where I detailed the psychological damage caused by purchasing and playing Hydlide in 1991. Would you believe that I had been burned before that piece of horror, not only from a game on the same wall, but in the same way, while looking for an inexpensive version of another game. With Hydlide I was trolling for a RPG experience. This time - the first time - I was looking for something with some action and adventure in it (an action/adventure game, if you will). But I guess there is no point in delaying, as you have already read the title of the article as well as seen the picture above. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you a tale of disappointment and discovery; Budget Wall Chronicles - King's Knight.
Continue reading Budget Wall Chronicles - King's Knight
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You have finished your quest and gained the title of Avatar. You have mastered the eight virtues and successfully retrieved the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom from the horrible depths of the Stygian Abyss, and have been ordered to return to your world and live your life as an example to others. In a flash of darkness, you return to the exact spot of your initial departure, the circle of stones. You return home, realizing that your life has changed forever. But the moongate doesn't appear again, and you go back to the life you had before, not knowing if you will ever see the land of Britannia again. Until one night, you receive a sign that literally drops into your lap. You don your armor, sword, and ankh, and hurry to the old cycle of stones, to the moongate that appears out of thin air, and to a new destiny.
Continue reading A Brief Tour of Ultima: Part 3 - Ultima V: Warrior of Destiny
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The Command & Conquer series stands as an early pioneer in the RTS (real time strategy) genre and one of the most identifiable and iconic game series today. Ask any PC gamer and they will likely first tell you which branch is their favorite (the main series, Red Alert, Generals, etc.) and then regale you with a tale of one of their most memorable moments. For many (including this author), it has to do with the power and charisma of the Commando unit. While most single "grunt" type units died a quick and often pointless death, the Commando would wade into battle, single-shot killing enemies and blowing up enemy structures with ease. Because of this, the Commando missions in the first Command & Conquer title were always my favorites, and often over far too soon. Then one day a Westwood employee spoke up at a meeting:
"What if you could be the Commando, but like in Quake? You know, get right down into the action and see things from his perspective. Right?"
Right indeed.
Continue reading Command & Conquer - Renegade
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The old world has passed away with the death of Mondain, Minax, and Exodus (the villians from Ultimas I-III) and the world has seen great upheaval, literally transforming the very land mass of Sosaria. The Age of Darkness is over. In the wake of this geological event, Lord British has united and consolidated the surviving kingdoms, towns, and villages under his own rule, setting forth with a new vision for law, order, and morality. Gone are the old ways of holding princesses captive and knighting random warriors for slaughtering guards. A new system of governance would be created, utilizing eight virtues, but for it to be fully realized there needs to be a champion, an avatar who could learn and eight virtues to show his kingdom the way.
Continue reading A Brief Tour of Ultima: Part 2 - Ultima IV: Quest for the Avatar
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We all have Christmas gaming stories. Many have two or three, some maybe more. Me, I have several, but the one that's been rolling around my noodle as of late happened back in good old 2001. Remember it? How about you and me sit for a bit, and we can exchange Christmas gaming stories, okay? Great.
Continue reading Christmas 2001 Gaming Memory
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This months article was to feature my plodding (and hopefully, exhaustive) journey through the first three Ultima games, which are generally referred to as "The Age of Darkness." But you know what? Despite my undaunted love for sometimes crusty, old-school RPG games, I find the older Ultima games intimidating and unapproachable, so much so that I had this puppy on the back burner for nearly a year. Well, now is the time for action, I say. So with fully configured and patched downloads from GoG imported into DBGL on my MacBook, I pushed forth to see just what all the hubbub is about.
Continue reading A Brief Tour of Ultima: Part One - The Age of Darkness
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So here we are again; another Halloween, another month to write a deliciously themed article. Luckily this is a game-oriented site, else I would spin tales of true terror; of mortgages and debt, of teething and dirty laundry! Of blistering noise and thunderous silence! Of monkey's paws! Of sump pumps! Alas, I could not incur the wrath of my own conscience for such a deed, and must instead bring you a brief tale of stress and confusion. You would call it Siren for the Sony PlayStation 2.
Continue reading Siren - A Tale of Stress and Confusion
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DOS is dead. Well, about as dead as the Latin language, meaning that while it is still used today for many things, nothing new has been done in quite a while. Searching for DOS on Google will net you a ton of abandonware sites instead of indie projects. Ask your friends and they will wax nostalgic about their favorite games (perhaps many of them not even DOS games). But there is a completed project, believe it or not, and it has recently been released as a physical, limited release game. Yep. A port, no less, of an already successful indie game that has seen physical boxes on the PS4 and PS Vita as well. The name, you ask? It's Retro City Rampage 486.
Continue reading Retro City Rampage 486 Edition
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Almost everyone likes platformers. I literally walked around my work and asked a bunch of my fellow employees if they liked platforming games, and those that did not react with a blank stare gave a, "Yes," "Oh, yeah," or "Yep." One guy also liked them, but only after I described what a platformer was. He then proceeded to regal me with tales of his Atari 800XL, which he drags out of storage every few years to play Frogger and Jumpman with his wife. Everyone else I spoke to talked about Super Mario Brothers, Sonic, and even the platforming sections of Contra.
This article isn't about any of those games.
Continue reading MURI - Indie Retro Goodness
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*From Wallpaperup.com*
Two genre defining games were released within a year of each other, separated by a platform and the first letter of the genre descriptor. One is famous for showing the world a whole new way of presenting visualization and sound in RPGs, the other for forcing a genre twist onto a conservative group of gamers while still keeping both feet rooted firmly in the past. One is a prime example of a JRPG, and the other is a near textbook entry of a CRPG. But we are all gamers, yes? So please put down your tape measures and rulers, and join me for a gentle evening of Baldur's Gate and Final Fantasy VII.
Continue reading A Gentle Evening with Baldur's Gate and Final Fantasy VII
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It's summertime, RFGen! Well, in North America anyway. For many of us, the summer season holds a lot of nostalgia, be it the warmer weather, the vacations, or the increase of free time due to school being over. Or all of the above! For me, summer mostly reminds me of playing video games in some form, and something as simple as waves of cottonwood seeds drifting through the breeze triggers it. Originally, I was going to focus on one game, but the other day when driving home from work, I got a strong whiff of green grass and the leaky lawn mower that cut it and I was instantly back in 1987 playing... Well, we will see. For now, let me welcome you again to summertime, whatever this may mean to you, and also to this little retrospective on my own summer memories.
Continue reading Summertime
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Public Security Section 9, or "Section 9" for short, stands as the most secretive and covert of Japan's Ministry of Home Affairs' internal groups. It exists as an anti-terrorist force capable of both defensive and offensive actions. Its members are considered the "best of the best" in their respective fields, each cybernetically augmented for enhanced abilities in stealth, combat, intelligence, and communication. Basically, these are among the most lethal people on the face of the earth. Their newest member, you, is also considered among the elite, but due to your rookie status in Section 9, you still feel that you have to prove yourself. Luckily, a mission has opened up, allowing you to show off your skills to the other members of Section 9, and thus justify your presence there. Jump into your diminutive spider-like Fuchikoma robot tank and prepare...
What?
Continue reading Ghost in the Shell for PSX
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Everything was fine when you started heading towards the galactic core. Spirits were high, the coffee was strong, and everyone had dollar signs in their eyes. Then your ship, The Clockwork, suffered damage and everything went downhill from there. Well, its important to keep a positive frame of mind (or that is what your shrink used to say), but something just seems... off. The UTA and Cizs are still at each others throats, with Bounty Hunters lurking behind the scenes, but there has been a lot of chatter in the space-waves as of late, talk of infected ships and who knows what else. Man, I hope you are ready for what is out there.
Continue reading Space Pirates and Zombies... and Bounty Hunters!
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Early this year I decided to take on the (perhaps foolish) task of cataloging the variety of space sim games and the myriad of space adventure-RPG games (think StarFlight and Star Control 2) with the purpose of starting a blog centered on those games. Three months into it and I find that I need to step back a bit and breathe. I need a palette cleanser. I thought I would take a look at what the NES and Famicom had to offer in the space sim/space adventure-RPG genres, but after three solid weeks of research and I decided to let it drift free. Perhaps another week. Instead I decided to focus on something fun, challenging, and space-themed...enter Solar Jetman: The Hunt for the Golden Warship. It contains shield management, simulated gravity, and the ability to escape the destruction of your spacecraft as a tiny spaceman to fight another day. The game was also an important title that helped transition me from Star Voyager on the NES to StarFlight on Genesis, which I also rediscovered during my earlier mentioned research cataloging task. Please join me while I take a retrospective look at Solar Jetman and I hope the game fairs better than Star Voyager did.
Continue reading Solar Jetman - Space, Adventure, and Gravity
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Day 24
Last night I heard a gunshot again. Sure enough, come morning my formerly clean yard is swarming with zombies. Luckily they haven't noticed me, but I don't know how long I can go peeking from behind the curtains before I am spotted. To make matters worse, the water has shut off, and there are too many zombies milling around outside for me to dispose of without risking infection. All of my carefully laid plans (fortified shelter, food, weapons, and the beginnings of a garden) have gone to waste. I figure I can last a week with my current supplies. If the swarm doesn't thin out by then I will have to abandon my shelter, trusting that I can eventually evade them and perhaps start over again in another part of Muldraugh. Until then, I have enough books and magazines to keep me sane. If only the power had held out I could read into the night, like when I was a boy. I can only pray that the swarm thins out so I can scavenge for food and water.
Continue reading Project Zomboid - Survival At Its Best
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