Star Wars Commander: After 1 Month

Both our Rebel and Empire bases are continuing to grow.

Our Rebel Base is getting more and more developed, we are moving more stuff up to Level 5 (max right now) and continuing to work on the Single Player missions (they are starting to get pretty tough!) I unfortunately don't spend much time raiding in this game so the upgrades are fairly incremental, I keep the two workers working and research going in the lab and that's about it.

Our Empire Base is catching up quickly, currently I'm upgrading the Transports for a single player mission and working on maxing out the Level 4 base.

I participated in the Campaign missions last week but didn't get very far after about 5-6 on each side they got a lot harder quickly. Hopefully when the 3rd one pops up I'll be a good bit stronger on each account and can take the time to really try to bust some heads - I would love to get some Campaign prizes! (I got a few this time around but nothing major).

Clash of Clans: Building an Alt - Week 5

We are getting close to moving to Level 7 and continuing to grow.

The base hasn't changed much but we're getting close to having everything Maxed!

I went away on a mini-vacation to the mountains with my friends this weekend so I didn't do much raiding, but I was able to keep all my workers working and we are getting really close to being able to move up to Town Hall Level 7! I have all the Defenses at max (Mortars, Wizard Towers, Cannons and Archer Towers, even the Air Defense), we've done all of the research in the lab and have all the traps and Army Camps upgraded as well. Right now I'm working on a Barracks (to Healer Level) and the Clan Castle. Once those are done I will start the Town Hall upgrade and while its finishing I'll do the other two barracks and mop up some Resource collector upgrades (they are all on 7 or 8 right now) and hopefully get enough to max out all the walls.

Town Hall Level 7 will be a big update. We get two more Canons, an Archer Tower, another Air Defense, Mortar, Barracks, Army Camp, Giant Bomb and two more bombs. Along with a new Seeking Air Bomb, Dark Barracks, Hidden Tesla and 50 new walls - along with the Dark Elixer Storage (and once we can collect 10,000 Dark Elixer) The BARBARIAN KING!

We are also at 737 Gems, I'm hopeful that within a few weeks we will get the 1000 to let us get a 4th builder (as this is my alt I'm not putting any money in, I bought the 4th and 5th builder in my main account).

We are continuing to chip away at the stone, Level 8 has a lot to do!

My weekend off was a little harder on my main account, I still have all my workers working and my lab researching, but I'm going to have a hard time to pay for the next things to do once they finish. I am expecially low on Elixer and despite raiding all day today I am still low (had to crank some dragons for the war this evening so it will be a while until I can get the elixer back). Thankfully I have almost 5 days before the Lab needs restocking so I will concentrate on Elixer and research level 5 Wizards or level 5 Lightning Spell next I believe (just got level 3 Dragons!).

I have Mortars Maxed and all my Wizard Towers and Archer Towers (once they finish) one level below max. My Hidden Teslas, Air Defenses and Canons need several levels of upgrades but they got a few this level so that's to be expected. I am working on getting all of my barracks to Dragon Level (not really interested in P.E.E.K.A.s but I will get them eventually). I have my Resource Collectors all maxed although I could use one more level on my Dark Elixer Drill, I have my gold and elixer storages maxed and Dark Elixer Storage can hold 40000.

I finally got the level 5 Barbarian King! (Iron Fist Ability is awesome!) and have been raiding with 100 of both Lvl 5 Barbarians and Lvl 5 Archers. My plan is to start upgrading Canons next (as they are relatively cheap at 800,000 each) as I build back my storages that were depleted over the weekend. Once they are all done I will work on their next levels along with the next Archer Tower levels to try to max them all out. I hope to be able to do the next Dark Elixer Drill level (2mil Elixer) and Level 5 Shock Spell (2mil Elixer) this weekend when the Level 4 Rage spell finishes. If I can churn Canons and Archer Towers until then and do some good raiding this week I am hopefull I can do this.

Then its off to continue upgrading the big guns (Wizard Towers and Hidden Teslas) along with Air Defenses, Barracks/Dark Barracks and of course walls (which I hope to get all Dark Purple before moving to town hall Level 9). My hope is to have all of that done and be moving to 9 by the end of October!

Second Playthrough | Birthday 1994 - Game Boy Starts gettin' good

The Game Boy eventually had one of the best libraries of any system ever, and in mid-1994 I started to really explore it.

I was highly anticipating my birthday in 1994, I was turning 5 and my mother had promised that it would be a big one. I was about to start school and my parents had told me that doing well in school was my responsibility, but that I would be rewarded - and I was with three new Game Boy games. More importantly (yes even than new games) was that I would start to receive a weekly allowance - contingent on doing all of my chores and doing well in school. Thus began my era of saving money to buy video games (an era that is currently still going on!)

1. Donkey Kong

I talked previously about the fact that we had Donkey Kong on the Atari 2600. That game was incredibly limited, had bad graphics and was just not nearly as fun as other games I had access to even then. However, it was a name my parents knew and the first game I got for my Birthday that year was Donkey Kong for the Game Boy.

This version of Donkey Kong had actually only came out a few months before my August 30th Birthday in 1994 and quickly became my favorite game for the system. It's first level plays very similar to the original Donkey Kong game but then so much more starts happening, there is an overworld with levels bound together by themes, enemies and sub-bosses, different puzzle types and features and great level design.

I put countless hours into Donkey Kong and loved the saving feature (first game I had with one). I don't know if I ever actually beat the game, I replayed it recently to about half-way and had great fun doing so. 

Of the Donkey Kong Games before the venerable Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong for the Game Boy is without a doubt the best in my opinion.

2. Dr. Mario

I am fairly certain my parents went to a store like Best Buy, asked one of the people there 'is there a game like Tetris' and that person pointed them to Dr. Mario - and I am grateful for it! Dr. Mario can be described as like tetris in that it is a puzzle game with pieces falling from the top that need to be arranged, but it is also different in that your goal is not simply to survive by clearing enough of the puzzle to keep making room for more pieces, but to also clear the bottle of viruses and advance to the next stage.

I of course didn't put as much time into Dr. Mario as I had Tetris (I had many other games to play!) but I did love it and it was a great time waster on car trips (or other times when my parents just needed me to be quiet!).

3. Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters

The final game my parents got me in 1994 was Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters. Yet another Nintendo franchise that I began with the Gameboy version before playing the original on the NES (Super Mario and later Metroid and Zelda, and of course Donkey Kong as the 2600 version pales in comparison to the NES version).

Truthfully I don't recall much of this game. I remember liking it and comparing it to Kirby's Dreamland but being much more interested in Donkey Kong (and Metroid and Zelda I got later that year). I have since lost this game and couldn't play it for this blog post - I hope to pick it up again soon as I'm trying to add to my older NES, GB, SNES and Genesis collections so hopefully I can replay it soon.

Second Playthrough | Yardsale 1994 - Or 'Score! Awesome Atari Games'

Atari Games Everywhere!

When I was younger we used to go to yardsales a lot (every other weekend it seemed) and every once in a while I would stumble upon someone selling old video games - this was a great source of games for me when I was that young. It wasn't like it is today with ebay and the rest of the internet making people jack up their prices at yard sales/flea markets, you could really get some deals on games if you looked around. In early 1994 I came upon an Atari 2600 collection and was able to snag some really cool games, later I learned that several of these were highly rated games for the system, seems the guy who was having the yard sale had good taste.

1. Pitfall

When Activision split from Atari they took some of the best programmers Atari had with them, now more free with their creative choices (and receiving credit and royalties) these programmers made some awesome games - Pitfall (by David Crane) was one of these and widely considered one of Activision's best on the Atari 2600 (it also sold the best for them). I popped this into my Atari 2600 to replay for this post and was pleasantly surprised by how well it holds up, the graphics on the 2600 are hard for even a retro gamer like me to stomach but even with those Pitfall's gameplay shines through. The basic concept of the game is a side-scrolling (or at least side-to-side screen transitions) game where you jump over holes (or Pitfalls) along with several other obstacles (logs, snakes, etc.) as you navigate through a jungle to collect treasures. Having explored (just a little) into Atari 2600 programming, it is awesome to see how David Crane utilized some pretty cool techniques to get the multi-colored player sprite and the swinging vines. I very much enjoyed the game then and now!

2. River Raid

Another of Activision's best on the Atari 2600 was River Raid (by Carol Shaw). Besides the significance of being one of the first games made by a female game designer, River Raid was an awesome achievement in that it was a vertical scrolling shooter with much more non-random terrain than was thought possible with the 2600's memory limits. This was made possible by Shaw's use of a procedural generation algorithm that created the terrain based on an equation each time the program was ran (instead of storing the terrain). It also employs a rudimentary random number generator program for the enemies artificial intelligence making them fairly randomized and the experience more of a challenge. I am a sucker for SHMUPs (Shoot 'Em Ups) and this beign one of the earliest makes it quite significant, plus its still a decent game despite its age. Apparently there was a sequel (River Raid II) but I have never been able to get my hands on that.

3. Demon Attack

Activision wasn't the only third-party publisher on the Atari 2600 (eventually there were way too many), they were just the first. The second (both in chronology and likely in significance) was Imagic, who like Atari consisted of largely all former Atari programmers, and also were known for a high standard for their games and giving credit (and royalties) to their programmers. Imagic also had a distinctive cartridge and box designs that made it easy to spot their games.

Demon Attack was Imagic's best selling game and largely most significant. Supposedly loosly based on Galaxian, Demon Attack looked and played very similar to a game called Phoenix that was popular in the arcades at the time (and was eventually made into a 2600 game by Atari) which prompted Atari to sue Imagic (as they had the rights to a home console version of Phoenix), they settled out of court and Demon Attack became Imagic's best seller.

The game itself plays similar to Galaxian and Phoenix (I can see where both were inspirations) with waves of enemies who have different ways of attacking. It is a great game, especially for the time and the system and still a good time even today.

4. Dragonfire

Apparently this yardsale owner was a big fan of Imagic as this is #2 of 4 Imagic games they had. Dragonfire was an awesome game for the time, where you had to make your way across a drawbridge into a castle (while being attacked by a dragon's fireballs), once inside the castle it switches to a top-down view where you have to collect the treasures while dodging more fireballs. If you can collect all the treasures in the throne room you advance to the next level (next castle) where everything is sped up, this process continues until you take enough hits to deplete your 7 lives.

Not only was the game fun and the two different play-rooms cool, Dragonfire was also an example of Imagic's philosophy of utilizing the power of different gaming systems. As opposed to Activision, which had a policy of making all of their games play the same no matter what system they were ported to, Imagic made games in a way where they tried to utilize the full potential of a system. Dragonfire on the Colecovision for instance looks at least twice as good as on the Atari 2600 and is much smoother to play.

5. Atlantis

Atlantis is a variation on the Space Defense games (space invaders, missile command, etc.) that were popular at the time and plays very similar to Taito's Colony7. The basic premise is that you are trying to defend Atlantis (a collection of 7 bases at the bottom of the screen) from flying enemies that drop bombs. 3 of the installations have weapons that can fire at the enemy (two on the sides fire diagonally at a 45 degree angle and the center base fires straight up). The goal is to destroy the enemies before they can destroy all of your bases, if you destroy enough enemies you bases will slowly recover. The game is a high-score game only (in that eventually the waves will increase to a point where you loose) but upon a loss a small ship will raise from the rubble and fly away, forshadowing the sequel to Atlantis - Cosmic Ark.

I have only played the Atari 2600 version, but Atlantis is another example of Imagic making games suited for different systems - the Intellivision version of the game apparently has two gun turrets instead of 3, but they are movable and there is also a friendly flying unit that you can deploy to fight off enemies one-on-one. 

6. Cosmic Ark

Cosmic Ark is the nominal sequel to Atlantis. In the game you pilot a space ship (the Cosmic Ark) which you have to defend while it passes through an asteroid field (similar in playstyle to the arcade game Space Zap). The Cosmic Ark is inhabited by survivors from the city of Atlantis. Once through the asteroid field you make your way to a planet and the goal of this second gameply type is to pilot a lander craft to collect specimen from the planet (presumably to refuel/restock, etc.) while the planet's defenses attempt to gun you down (in kidn of a reversal of the roles in Atlantis). Once you had collected enough specimines you would return to space travel and have to defend the ship from asteroids again. An insteresting part of the game is the starfield background which was apparently an exploit of a hardware bug with the Atari 2600. Earlier systems you can't turn this off, but with later systems the 'TV Type' switch affects this bug and can turn the starfield on and off.

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Where to play them now

Activision absorbed Imagic in the mid 80's, most of these games are available for the XBox360's game room but your best bet is to either download an emulator and the roms or to purchase the carts themselves and play them on an Atari 2600 - they are relatively cheap and easy to find even now.

Star Wars Commander - Week #3

We continue to gain power and fight back against the Evil Empire (and join them....)

This is a screenshot from our last checkin, we've moved up to Headquarters Level 5 since then so there are several new things!

Two new Turrets (Burst Turrets!) a new Shield Generator, a second Factory, 2 new Resource Collectors and some new walls round out the new stuff for this level. I'm working on bringing all those up to the same level as the previous stuff and then maxing them all out. I also upgraded my Research Center and am working on all the Level 5 researches.

In the campaign I'm stalled waiting for my base to get strong enough to let me help out Han Solo in the 'Scoundrels and Savages' missions. I participated some in the Campaign for this last weekend (it's still going on, they are 6 days long it seems) called Campaign 2: Dandoran Escalation. But I was quickly outmatched by the 6th battle or so.

I also started an Empire base! I have two clash of clans accounts and figured why not have two Star Wars Commander accounts. I am having fun playing the campaign missions again as the Empire and doing the exact same fights but to oppress instead of liberate, on orders instead of pleas, etc. decidedly nasty.

I'm well behind my main account here but I'm quickly catching up as I know exactly what to do. I expect this will be caught up and start surpassing the Rebel Base in a week or two (as it will have an extra builder Droid, I was smarter this time and saved every crystal!).

Stay tuned for updates, maybe I'll be lucky enough and be able to fight one with the other, that would be fun!

Clash of Clans: Building an Alt - 1 Month

We're getting stronger - slowly but surely.

This is a screenshot from the last time we checked in on our base. We had just gotten to the Level 6 Town Hall.

As you can see we haven't built anything new in a while, we have however upgraded both Wizard Towers, both Mortars, all the storages, the Lab and Spell Factory, all the research except Balloons (and currently finishing Wall Breakers) and we've upgraded one of the Army Camps and am finishing the Air Defense.

Over the next week I plan to upgrade the other two Army Camps and then the Barracks (to Healer Level, I don't use those so it hasn't been a priority, I do want them all upgraded before we move up however). The Barracks and Army Camps are 700-750,000 a piece so it will take me at least all week (if not into next week) so while I'm doing that I will upgrade the walls and work more on Resource Collectors (those are still behind where they should have been for the last town hall level, I raid a lot so I'm not usually worked about them).

My hope is to move up to Town Hall Level 7 by the end of Next Weekend, but I don't want to rush it so I may hold off - depends on how well raiding goes.

This is a pic of my main account, I am getting things together in Town Hall Level 8, I will have enough Dark Elixer soon for a level 5 Barbarian King, my last Mortar is maxing out and my Dark Elixer Drill is level 2. All of my defenses are max for level 7 now and I'm circling back and working on Archer Towers (plan to do cannons after that as they are cheap as well) then I'll make a pass through and upgrade Wizard Towers and Hidden Telsas to max and by that time I expect it will be mid-late October and I'll be ready to move to Level 9!

Second Playthrough | Christmas 1993: Gaming on the Go!

I never got to see the box (I wish I had!) but this was the set my parents bought 'the family'.

I don't recall when they actually purchased it (heck, it may have been around when it was first released in NA in 1989) but in 1993 for Christmas I got the 'family' gameboy as my own along with the modest game collection they had along with two new games! I was ecstatic, I played the family Game Boy more than anyone and couldn't wait for it to be all 'mine'.

1. Tetris

First up was of course Tetris, it came with the system when my parents originally bought it and it got the most use out of the system (until I got a hold of it of course, don't get me wrong I played Tetris a bunch but eventually Mario, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Pokemon, etc. would get more play time). I broke this out just yesterday (as part of planning to write this down) and the sites and sounds were like a tidal wave of nostalgia. I know I'm not nearly as good as I was back in the day but I played for a little while to try to see how long I could survive (only took a few minutes :) )

If somehow you've never played Tetris (or one of the many sequels) you are missing a simply great puzzle game - go play it now!

2. Golf

Next out of the games we had for the Game Boy was Golf (later games in the series were called Mario Golf, and its obviously Mario you're playing as, but it's just called Golf). This game too had a very distinctive sound when you hit the ball (the crescendo then fall of the music follows the ball, it's great).

3. Jeopardy!

The final game out of the original 3 was Jeopardy! I didn't play this very much if at all when I was younger. I like to catch a Jeopardy episode every now and again today but I was a little young to know the questions (or care really).

4. Super Mario Land

The first game I got new was Super Mario Land. I played this game through from start to finish (you have to, no save function) more times than I can count. I had played Super Mario Bros. 3 some on a friend's NES previous to this but ironically I had never played the original Super Mario Bros. when I first played.

A few cool things that set this game apart were the airplane/sub levels, where you piloted either an airplane (kinda looked like a blimp maybe) in the air or a submarine under the water (the levels played similarly) and could shoot enemies. Also in the normal levels the Fireball powerup allowed you to collect coins (something that doesn't occur on the contemporary NES titles of the time) which allowed some cool secret areas that you needed the Fire Flower to fully exploit.

Super Mario Land was likely the first full length game that I 'beat' all the way through. I loved the game, however  it is a bit short.

5. Kirby's Dream Land

The second game I got new that Christmas was Kirby's Dream Land. This game actually got more playtime than Mario, I loved the platforming with the ability to fly (kinda, 'Kirby' floating/flying) and eating enemies and spitting them back out. I had a lot of fun with this game. I recently pulled it back out and played through the first couple levels to much enjoyment.

Interestingly, this was the first game in the Kirby series and he was yet to be stylized as Pink nor did he have the ability to copy enemies (he could eat and spit them, but no copying). These series trademarks would come in Kirby's Adventure for the NES.


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Where to play them now:

You're best bet if you're looking to recreate the old Gameboy experience is to purchase the games off of Amazon or any number of retro gaming site (unlike other consoles of the time period like the NES, the original Game Boy games are pretty cheap). It can take some time to find a nice looking/working original gameboy (although not too expensive when you find one - much easier to get a Gameboy Color if you're in a hurry and it will play all the original's games). But the feel of a real gameboy and games is very hard to recreate.

There are also of course emulators, however without a physical copy the legality of these (Nintendo and many of the other companies still maintain copyrights on all of their IPs from the era, technically the Roms used in emulators are only usually legal if they are a back-up to a physical copy you own. Many people now emulate old Gameboy games on their PSP's and/or Smartphones - I won't explore this here as I don't support that but it is an option if you are okay with that.

Also many of these games are available on the 3DS Virtual Console, this allows you to be legal, and fairly well recreate the handheld experience - additionally the creators of the games (or at least IP holders) get some of the money from the purchase so more games can be made.