You know, last week, I was so excited to be posting awesome Metal Slug art as part of our first Background Story that I forgot to say it was from Metal Slug. Which, turns out, only made it more fun. So let’s do it again. Guess the city and you’ll be halfway to guessing the…
I have a fetish for old Sega Master System box art. If I could have that pattern made into a tablecloth, curtains and bedsheets, I would, and when my wife complained, I would just stare at her, like what is wrong this stuff is perfect. Some of my favourites from the system, though, are also…
Well, if we’re going to be doing more recent games for Total Recall, we’d better talk about Half-Life 2 sooner rather than later. As is true for so many people, HL2 is one of my favorite games of all time, an evergreen gem that I replay about once a year. It’s hard to put my…
Over at the International House of Mojo, they’ve put together a terrific retrospective on the equally terrific adventure game Grim Fandango. It’s a fun, comprehensive retrospective, but what really grabbed me was the illustration that Colin Panetta did for it, of a skeleton that’s recently been “planted.” Death-by-flowers has long been one of my favorite…
Programming note: Check the arrow for more on “Recent Recall.” These days, Saints Row is very much a household name in gaming. It’s a critically successful franchise, a game that has become notorious through its marketing and gimmickry, but also by being a whole lot of fun. The Saints Row concept really came into its…
Brian Fargo, whose credits include Bard’s Tale and the original Fallout, wants to make a new Wasteland game. This is a very good idea. It’s also a very good idea that Fargo wants to be involved, because there wouldn’t have been a Fallout without Wasteland Released in 1988 on the PC, Wasteland was a pioneering…
You know how outfits like Major League Gaming are full of sponsored kids playing the latest game at breakneck speeds? This is the exact opposite. Welcome to Episode 1 of Retro Rumble, where a bunch of guys play (usually) terrible old video games to see who is the best. Or, least terrible. Today the crew…
I have a nearly irrational dislike for retro video games. I assume most of the old “classics” wasted my youth with their needlessly bottomless pits and/or a hunger for my quarters. Do old video games deserve my scorn? Will no one speak up for the quality of these things? I sought an answer to my…
…than a Nintendo Entertainment System. Which wasn’t really a fair comparison to make, but hey, this was the late 80s. Video game advertising was a killing field back then. Total Recall is a look back at the history of video games through their characters, franchises, developers and trends. You’ll find Total Recall stories every Mon-Fri…
Let’s give a man his dues! For over a decade now, there’s been a kinda-famous song about Zelda on the internet that many people believe was written and performed by System of a Down. It wasn’t. The song, simply called “Zelda”, was actually written (and sung) by a man named Joe Pleiman. It was released…
There are plenty of legends in the world of video games whose names will fly off the tongues of casual fans. Nolan Bushnell. Trip Hawkins. Shigeru Miyamoto. Will Wright. Sid Meier. It’s a shame, then, that so few can name another of the all-time greats, Danielle Bunten Berry. The designer, born in 1949, is important…
Ah, Magical Sound Shower. Could there be a better soundtrack for driving around a two-dimensional landscape in an expensive car with a sexy lady beside you? No. No, there could not. The original piece from the original Outrun was composed by Hiroshi Miyauchi, but I very quietly prefer the campier version from Outrun 2, which…
It’ll bring…well, the complete opposite. Which is a pity. Wall-mounted control pad dispensers in dimly-lit sci-fi corridors would be great! Total Recall is a look back at the history of video games through their characters, franchises, developers and trends. You’ll find Total Recall stories every Mon-Fri between 11pm and Midnight ET.
It sure looks like it. This is Challenger, a Famicom game released in 1985 by Hudson. Look at the cover art and you’d be forgiven for thinking this was some shitty Lucasfilm clone, lifting its two biggest properties and dropping them in an unlicensed video game rip-off. That would be a little harsh. Sure, at…
That amazing place being the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, which in these episodes below went all-out and brought in both Sgt. Slaughter and Rowdy Roddy Piper as guest stars. Aside from their wrestling fame, you may know the Sergeant as a GI Joe character. You should also hopefully know Piper as one of the…
The real stars of video games aren’t the characters. They’re awfully fickle, and easy to kill. But background art? It’s forever. Welcome to Background Story, which will run most days as part of our new, expanded Total Recall programming block [via noirlac]
If you’re the kind of person that believes violence isn’t the answer, then I have just the game for you. I hope you’re good at trivia questions instead, because otherwise you won’t get far in SNK’s 1991 quiz-em-up Quiz Daisousa Sen – The Last Count Down. Also, you’ll be off my team for the pub…
In 1997, EA Sports released a demo disc for the latest iteration of its FIFA football series. Anyone picking this disc up got a lot more than they bargained for. Late last year, Blackbird Interactive’s Yossarian King (whose studio is now working on Hardware) wrote a piece on industry blog #altDevBlogADay about building engines. Tucked…
Cock’in. For the Commodore 64 and Spectrum. You take the eggs, and then the fish bites you on the elbow, and then you wear chicken hats, and what? Oh, that’s just the box art. The actual game had you playing as a cock, protecting your brood of eggs from things like rats and foxes, and…
Before Chris Roberts went crazy and started making terrible movies, he was the genius behind some of the greatest PC games ever made. Some, like Wing Commander, are still remembered fondly today. Others, like Strike Commander, sadly are not. So successful was Roberts’ Wing Commander series, and/or so intent was the man on telling story-driven…
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