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.

Second Playthrough | Birthday 1993: Entering the world of Video Games

Only about a decade and a half late!

As a young child (living in the house I now am back in, renting from my father - we lived her originally until I was 9) my father had an Atari 2600 that he kept in the attic. He would bring it down on the occasional weekend day and let my sister and I take turns playing with on the family TV. This was my first taste of video games and I was hooked immediately. 

In August 1993 I turned 4 years old and my present from my parents was that Atari to have as my own (only like 16 years after the system came out, I was a retro gamer from the beginning!).

1. Missile Command

Initially I had 6 games for the Atari. The game I played the most was Missile Command, I would spend hours shooting missiles out of the sky. I was blissfully ignorant of the fact that the Atari 2600 version was woefully inadequate versus the arcade version - heck I didn't even realize until later that I was playing a game about trying to stave off nuclear annihilation! I simply loved shooting down those missles, and it was a game I could play on my own long after my parents and my sister grew bored and left to do other things.

Going back now, Missile Command is actually kind of hard to play - mainly because like most Atari games they expect you to have read the manual and to figure stuff out on your own so it was difficult to know where to begin. Once you figure out how to use the switches and numbers at the top of the screen to choose your game 'mode' and get into the action though it is pretty simple: the missiles fall from the sky and you move your target indicator around the screen with the joystick and fire with the button. If your missile explosion catches the falling missile it will be destroyed, otherwise you miss. If the missiles find their way to the ground they can destroy your cities (or your main base with enough hits) eventually ending the game.

2. Combat

Combat was a close runner up, especially the Tank game against my sister - although my dad preferred the Jets (he rarely played, but when he did I happily played that game mode). Combat is arguably a better game than Missile Command (even at that age I could tell) and I even enjoyed it more, but it was a two player game and as I mentioned, my father (my mom never played) and sister would eventually get bored and go do other things and Combat was no longer an option - when I had someone to play with though this was awesome!

I've tried to get Combat out recently and play but unfortunately it is much harder to find people to play with now. I have one friend at work into retro games enough to have gotten to play with twice (a few other friends are gamers but to them Retro means N64/PS1 or maybe SNES or NES but they can't stomach older unfortunately). Everyone I talk to about Atari games speaks highly of Combat though and I do enjoy it when I get a chance to play - I also have one of the Atari Flashback consoles and it has Combat 2 on it (I don't think that ever actually came out on the 2600, was only planned).

3. Donkey Kong

I don't remember playing Donkey Kong much on the Atari 2600, I remember we had it and it was the main reason we eventually got it for the Game Boy (and later for other systems) but maybe even then I realized how crappy it was (on the Atari at least). More recently with internet research I have come to learn that the Atari 2600 port was basically intentionally made bad by Coleco as they wanted people to get the version on the Colecovision (which just happened to be their console - talk about conflict of interests).

I pulled out Donkey Kong recently and tried to play it and basically couldn't - the controls are crap, the graphics are horrible even for the Atari (hard to tell what's going on) and having played the Colecovision version (which wasn't that much more powerful than the 2600 really) I can see how they basically put no effort into this game.

4. Video Olympics

The only game I ever really played in Video Olympics was of course Pong, I didn't get to play this much as 1) Combat was better and if I had another player we usually played that and 2) One of our paddle controllers didn't work really well so one player was always at a disadvantage.

5. Circus Atari

I never knew (until later) that Circus Atari was based on the gameplay of Breakout and to be truthful I didn't play Circus Atari much.

6. Bowling

I don't recall playing Bowling much back then, I've plugged it up recently and was not very impressed so I doubt I was then either. It seems to be a faithful representation of the real game of bowling - but the fun in bowling is being with friends, drinking and having a good time - a pixelized representation of it with very little skill involved (or at least it seems to just be luck, didn't try that hard truthfully) wasn't the most fun. They can't all be winners!

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Where to play them now:

There are several options for playing Atari 2600 games now, the best is to get an actual Atari 2600 (or 7800 or heck a Colecovision with the adapter will play the 2600's games too) and an older TV and go to town! 

Alternatively you can download emulators and play on the computer, but the controls are just not the same (unless you mod or get a modded Atari controller that can plug in USB).

There is also the Microsoft Game Room service on the 360. I can't say I've used it but there are quite a few good (and not so good) Atari 2600 games on there.

Second Playthrough | Introduction

About a month ago I turned 25. I got to think about all of the video game experiences I have had during that 25 years (among other things, but that's for another blog).

It was really before my time, but I have many fond memories

My first gaming experiences came on my father's old (even then) Atari 2600 that he would bring down from the Attic on the occasional weekend and allow myself and my sister to play - Missile Command and Donkey Kong I remember well along with a few others. The family also got an original Gameboy sometime in the early 90's (I believe for Tetris) and I remember playing Donkey Kong, Kirby's Dreamland, Super Mario Land and of course hours and hours of Tetris. Later in 1997 (I believe) my parents got us a Super Nintendo for Christmas (it was pretty old by then, but we were young and that just meant the games were cheaper!). I had a blast with Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario World, Zelda A Link to the Past, Mortal Kombat, and so many others. A friend down the street had a Sega Genesis and I loved playing Street Fighter and Sonic with him, but he was always envious of my Super Nintendo. Another neighbor (a little older than us) had an old NES and I snuck games of the Original Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. 3.

Funny how I thought this looked amazing back then, the gameplay still holds up though.

My sister's best friend's house was one that I spent a lot of time at during those years as well (they would hang out and as it happens a lot with siblings close in age I had to tag along) they would do what girls that age do and I would sit down in the family room and play on their N64! They had Mario Kart 64 and GoldenEye 007 (at least those are the two I remember most!). They also had an NES and SNES with a few cool games, but those were old hat by the later 90s. One Christmas (I think 1998) we got Game Boy Colors (my sister and I) along with Pokemon Red and Blue! I've been playing Pokemon games ever since, although Silver (once it came out) quickly became my favorite and remains so to this day (the remake was amazing, and a lot of the newer stuff is cool, but I still love Silver above all)

This is still basically my favorite game of all time (at least tied with the top 3)

In 2000 I saved all summer and bought a PS1 (yeah, the same year the PS2 came out). Final Fantasy VIII was my first Final Fantasy (not VII like most although I did eventually play it) but my true love was Final Fantasy Tactics! That time also coincided with my Yu-Gi-Oh! obsession and Forbidden Memories was an awesome game that I loved. The next year I got a GBA for a belated Christmas (my parents had to delay my christmas a few months for getting in trouble in school) but when it did come it came with DBZ: The Legacy of Goku and I eventually got several DBZ, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon and other awesome games for it.

As I 'grew up' and went to High School I stopped playing console and handheld games as much, although Realtime and Turn-Based strategy games on PC, like Starcraft, Age of Empires, Civilization, etc. kept me occupied during these times. I also played A LOT of Mechwarrior IV and its expansions (I had played Mechwarrior 2 in the early/mid 90's and I am a major BattleTech fan to this day, I own nearly all of the sourcebooks.... but that's a whole other story).

Did I fall for the hype? You bet I did, and I enjoyed every minute of it!

2006 saw my reintroduction to console gaming when I heard about Nintendo's Revolution (as it was called pre-launch) and camped out at the local Wal-Mart midnight on November 19th 2006 to get myself a Wii. I played Wii Sports and then Zelda: Twilight Princess for something like 100 hours over the next two weeks. I was so excited to renter the video game world and had the entire Gamecube library to explore (and I did, Melee, Battalion Wars, Star Fox: Assault and the Rougue Squadron games were some of my favorites). Games like Fire Emblen: Radiant Dawn, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Super Mario Galaxy/2, Mario Kart Wii, DBZ Tenkaichi Budokai 2/3, Brawl and Xenoblade had me enthralled while I also had a blast with the Wii line of games (Sports, Resort, Fit, Play, etc.) and both Guitar Hero and Rock Band which I loved.

The Wii also resparked my interests enough to buy a DS Lite in 2007 (special edition with Phantom Hourglass) and played several Pokemon games, a bunch of RPGs and had a blast! Around this time I also got an iPhone and started playing all of the amazing games on there (and a lot of the stinkers as well, like any popular gaming system it has quite a few) later I got android phones as well.

Then in 2012 I was resparked again with the WiiU (and I got a 3DSXL) and fell in love with console gaming once again. The Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (both), Super Mario 3D World (& Land), Mario Kart (7 & 8), Pokemon X & Y, Fire Emblem Awakening and so many more. I'm still pretty deep into that love right now, although I've also started playing more retro games and I still play a lot of mobile games. I even picked up a PS3 in 2013 to play some of the games I'd missed.

I've gotten excited about games all over again with some of the titles that are coming out. I'm thinking about picking up a PS4 (although I'll likely wait until NEXT holiday season due simply to money - I'm trying to get debt free and own the home I live in, gotta make good financial choices - it's also why I'm resisting the urge to buy an iPhone 6+) but what I have decided to do is to go and play all of my old games.

My plan is to play all the old games I used to love, in the order that I got them (or as close as memory will serve) and I also plan to sprinkle in a few games, systems and experiences I wish I had gotten at the time.

I'm also blogging a timeline of great and/or important video games here: http://ataritozelda.blogspot.com/

but this is not that, this is my own personal 'Second Playthrough' timeline where I will play through all my memories once again and hopefully spark some new ones and a greater appreciation for all that I've had.

Star Wars Commander: Two Weeks In

We continue to grow strong and strike back at the Empire on Tatooine! 

This is a screenshot from last week, we've made some major upgrades and changes since then.

Our base has been reconfigured, we moved the HQ to the south and reorganized the turrets mainly because the campaign defensive missions usually have the Empire forces coming from the north.

Upgrades all around, new walls, shield generator, factory, and barracks along with a bunch of research in the research facility have really added to our strength. I recently upgraded the Hero station and unlocked Leia, haven't used her yet though (I don't raid real people much as the single player is keeping me involved).

We just finished the 'Rebels Shoot First' chapter of the campaign, its the only one I haven't been able to 100% (I went back and 100% the 'Alliance of Convenience' missions with the Jawas, especially the one with the set number of tanks was hard to 3 Star but I eventually did).

I am waiting to start Chapter 9 because the first mission requires a Level 4 factory (mine won't be ready until tomorrow morning). In Chapter 8 we fought some pretty big Empire bases, we've been double crossed by Jabba the Hut, helped out Jawas and fought just about every Tuskan raider camp on the planet - I have to say, especially compared to other mobile games like this, the single player in this game is actually quite fun!

My hope is to have my new Tank and Hero (Leia) researched up to their highest levels, all the walls upgraded and be working on my last few upgrades before going up an HQ level by early this coming week. Hopefully I'll be at that new HQ level and working on new stuff by next weekend!

Until then!

Clash of Clans: Building an Alt. - Three Weeks In

Another week and another Town Hall Level!

This screenshot from last time shows our level 5 Town Hall base, almost everything was upgraded to max so we upgraded!

Our base now at Town Hall lvl 6.

25 new walls (upgraded to Gold), a new Wizard Tower and Mortar and a few new traps were built. We finished the last Laboratory Research for level 3 (The Lightning Spell) and are upgrading it so we can start researching the Lab level 4 upgrades. We also got new resource collectors and I did a few levels of upgrades on them. I'm currently going slow and concentrating on spending elixer to upgrade things and gold for walls. My main account just went to Town Hall Level 8 last week and now that I've built everything in it I am concentrating on raiding and upgrades (want the lvl 5 Barbarian King!)

I think I will post an update on this each weekend, I suspect I'll still be at Town Hall Level 6 next weekend, but I should hopefully have the resource storages upgraded (so I can hold 2 million of each) along with the lab upgraded and some research done, the Heal spell unlocked and possibly the Healer as well and be chipping away at wall upgrades (to light purple!) and a few defensive upgrades.

Until next time!

Clash of Clans: Building an Alt. - Two Weeks In

We've been playing this account for about two weeks, doing pretty well so far!

A screenshot from the last post, just after our last war (we've been quiet all week, think the leaders are taking a break, hopefully we'll be back at war tonight).

Our base currently, maxed walls are the most notable change (as I haven't actually built anything new). However, I've also maxed all of the defenses (except the Air Defense which is upgrading now), traps and army camps. We're working on the second to last Laboratory Research (just Goblins left after Wizards) and the last two barracks are max upgrading right now.

Once the two workers currently working on our barracks finish I will likely start the Town Hall upgrading to level 6! It will take 4 days so in that time I'll finish the Air Defense and work on catching the levels up on my resource collectors (they are a little behind, and the only things not maxed) I haven't been making them a priority due to how lucrative raiding is at these lower levels - however I do need to get them upgraded eventually and hopefully can get quite a few upgrades in while the Town Hall is upgrading.

The next town hall level brings with it a new Wizard Tower and Mortar, 25 new walls (and the ability to go to light purple walls) some new traps and two new resource collectors - we'll have plenty to do!

Star Wars Commander: After a Week

After about a week, Star Wars Commander is starting to pick up some.

This is a screenshot of our base from the last post, we've been able to do a few upgrades and new construction since then.

A more recent screenshot shows the new walls, resource collectors, unit transport and turrets we've built. I've been trying to build and upgrade in a balanced way and I think I'm doing fairly well so far.

I'm slowly working my way through the single player campaign, I basically hit a wall a few stages into Chapter 5 and am waiting until I can bring more and stronger forces to bare.

In the meantime I'm raiding in the PvP mode and doing fairly well (I'm intentionally keeping my ribbons low to face other weaker people like me). This raid got me the resources to start the factory and one shield generator!

After the tutorials and first extremely easy parts of the single player campaign, the game seriously slowed down. A big reason is the capacity of the Credit and Alloy collectors, they max out after about 3 hours so if you can't check it at least that often you are curtailed in your progress (and unfortunately I can't check this game at work) so I'm going to be held back some. However, the pace seems to be picking up some as I unlock more and stronger troops and more building, etc. I'm still having fun and plan to continue to play. I also recently read that over 5 million people have downloaded the game (not bad just a few weeks in). I'm sure that number will continue to grow as they tweak the game to make it better, introduce more stuff and eventually (probably) put it on Android.

Clash of Clans: Building an Alt. - After our first War

We just lost our first war, but we're moving up to Town Hall Level 5 so hopefully can help more next war!

This is a screenshot from last time, we also had a modified War Base that protected the Town Hall and Clan Castle more than the resources.

As you can see we have been busy: A new Spell Factory, Army Camp, Archer Tower, Cannon, Wizard Tower (almost done) and resource collectors. 25 new walls all upgraded (and most of the walls up to the max level for this TH level - Gold Lvl 5). Upgraded the Laboratory so I could start researching Lvl 3 Barbarians, those should be done in the morning and I'll start Archers then Giants. I'll have everything built and upgraded hopefully by the end of the week and this weekend we'll think about moving to Town Hall 6!

On my main account I will be moving up to Town Hall Level 8 this Friday, I have it so that all 5 of my builders will be free and I'm going to enter the level with a bang!

Star Wars Commander: A few days later

I've been playing for a few days now, starting to unlock things but it's going pretty slowly...

This is a screenshot of my base from the last time I posted. I've played for about 4 days since then, unlocked several new missions in the single player campaign and went up a Headquarters level.

As you can see we've added some new building and walls, reorganized just a bit (new Proton Mortars let me spread out the defenses a bit). Just unlocked Chewbacca (and am currently upgrading him to Level 2) and I'm excited to use him soon.

I had a little trouble 3 Starring the last few battles in Chapter 4, and I'm having a bunch of trouble in Chapter 5 (and in the weekend special campaign - The Dandoran Conflict) but I'm hopeful that Upgrading Han Solo and Chewbacca will help me, to get much further though I think I'm going to need to upgrade HQ levels.

I've noticed that resources in this game don't accrue as quickly as in other games like Clash of Clans (and other CoC clones), this makes for not much to do in the game which isn't good - hopefully it picks up soon.

Clash of Clans: Building an Alt. - A week later.

We are preparing to move to Lvl 5 and for our first Clan War with this account!

This is the screenshot from last time, not much has changed layout-wise but we've done quite a few upgrades.

We upgraded the barracks and unlocked Balloons (which I will likely not use at this low level), upgraded our storages, some defenses and the last army camp. Also we've kept the lab churning and just have Balloon research left. We're scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as TH lvl 4 upgrades go, especially since we upgraded our walls completely so I started the TH lvl 5 upgrade that should be done by tomorrow! After that we'll get several new things, most notably the Wizard Tower!

The Clan leader called the weekend war, this will be my first with this account (I'm also a higher level account in the clan though so I've done many wars before). I setup my Clan War Base to protect the defenses and Town Hall over resources, then spaced the extra stuff to have more space between drop zones and walls. This account is #14 in our clan and is about on par with the other clan's #14 - hopefully I can 3 Star their #15 at least with this account! Looking at their #7 and #8 with my main account (which is 6 days away from Town Hall Lvl 8, and I've almost maxed everything for TH Lvl 7!)