GamerNode: OLD SKOOL's Columns

The Ups and Downs of the 8-Bit RPG, Part Two: Drag...

Nothing I witnessed or read attracted me to Dragon Warrior. The game itself provides little visual appeal, and when I think back to the articles written for it in Nintendo Power, nothing about Dragon Warrior really captured my imagination or got me excited in the way that Ultima: Exodus had. I think my initial seven-year old reaction was that this game looks like a half-assed Zelda with boring text and less action. In the end I think I only played this game because it received so much exposure, whether it was a top ten list, featured articles, or just available in every store that sold games. This game was all over the place and whether I liked it or not, Dragon Warrior was going to be shoved down my throat and slammed into my Nintendo Entertainment System for my viewing pleasure.

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The Ups and Downs of the 8-Bit RPG, Part One: Ulti...

Today the RPG, or Role Playing Game, is certainly a term most gamers are familiar with. Some of us have even been lucky enough to have the time to plow through many of our favorite RPGs while others quickly gave up on the genre. In the age of the 8-bit machine, the RPG was still in its earliest stages, but it was here that many of the titles and ideas you see today sowed their seeds (and where some of the bad were left to rot, or even worse, REPEAT!).

For the most part, during the age of the 8-bit Nintendo and Sega Master System, the RPG was obscure. Although you did see features in Nintendo Power about Dragon Warrior and much later Final Fantasy, never did any RPG receive the hype that a Mario or Zelda release warranted. If an RPG made it on the radar at all, it was usually forgotten...

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Da Skool of Hard Knocks - Tyson STYLE!

It was not until much later in my life that I had come to the realization that I had played Mike Tyson's Punch out before I ever owned or rented the game.  I must have been only four or five when I first played the game at the local arcade.  The game caught my eye because of the unusual green wireframe character on the screen that represented Little Mac, or in this case, "The Challenger."  Me and my young mind, however, translated the images based on the formula: ugly is bad and not so ugly is good.  I suppose it was the color, but there was something about that wireframe challenger that instantly spoke "bad guy" to me.  Once I found a chair to stand on, I popped in a quarter and pounded those punch buttons like there was no tomorrow. 

With every open hand smackdown on the punch buttons I ...

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Why Smash Bricks When You Can Shoot from da Sword ...

THE REAL LEGEND! 

When I was presented with this opportunity to write about "da Old Skool" I severely wracked my brain about which game to leadoff with.  Super Mario Brothers, for the NES, I thought would be the obvious first choice, but the more I thought about it, the more I did not like the idea one bit.  It was too vanilla, too predictable, and the more I thought about the game itself, the less remarkable I found it.  Sure, it has the original most recognizable icon in Mario and was pretty much guaranteed to be a part of anyone's Nintendo gaming experience, however, for my first choice I went with The Legend of Zelda and that bright, shiny, gold cartridge.  In the end it was like choosing between chess and checkers...needless to say, chess is on the menu. 

From this golden cartridge spa...

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An Introduction to OLD SKOOL and Two Very Scary Sc...

Welcome to OLD SKOOL! 

Hello, my name is George, and here at the OLD SKOOL column I am going to take you on a journey through gaming's past.  Each article will be a combination of videogame review, homage to the greatness of the "Old," and part personal story.  I not only want to break down the nuts and bolts of each game, but I want to tell my own personal story through gaming in hope to touch the other gamers out there who have grown up with video games from their earliest years.   

I Welcome discussion

It is my intention to elicit discussion.  Although many reviewers out there love to break down their vide games into categories in an effort to make their reviews appear rational I truly believe that much of gaming comes down to personal taste.  I do not consider my opinions the end all of ...

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