Return to Zork is one of those special OSS pieces that brings great memories to any point-and-click adventure game enthusiast. This was the first time in the Zork series that they moved away from the text parser to a clickable mouse interface. RTZ also starred a number of celebrities and for that era the graphics were among the best for a 1993 DOS video game.
The story begins with you as a sweepstakes winner on an all paid vacation to the Valley of the Vultures, in Zork. You are first greeted by a wizard in a crystal ball. During you conversation your asked to retrieve a battery for the wizard. The Crystal ball disappears and your quest begins…
Most of us recall the first game we really got into on the PC. My first was Wizardry, a simple (yet complex for the time) dungeon crawler published by Sir-Tech. Although there were some similar games at the time, this would probably be what I considered the first true “dungeon crawl”. You start the game in a podunk town and have to create a party of up to six characters from an assortment of races including humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits and gnomes. This was also one of the first games where you could choose alignment which included good, neutral and evil. You could also choose from four classes for each of your characters including fighter, mage, thief and priest. Later in the game, you could also upgrade certain characters to elite classes.
Hoboken, New Jersey lies on the west bank of the Hudson River just a rock throw away from New York City. Hoboken is the archetypal American port town and has a deep and rich history. Although the city isn’t really known for superhero action, many great people in American history hailed from the city such as Frank Sinatra.
In 1994, a weird DOS based game titled ‘Superhero: League of Hoboken’ hit the scene and it’s one of the few games based on Hoboken that I know about.
If you happened to be on a flight with Japan Airlines in the early to mid 1990s, you probably had the opportunity to play the Sega Mega Jet, which was a portable version of the Mega Drive. Unfortunately, the Mega Jet lacked a screen, but could play several Mega Drive cartridges when plugged into a screen. In 1994, the system went commercial for US$123. The main problem with the system was that it still didn’t have a built-in screen and had to be played with an AC adapter. Another limitation to the system was the fact that you could only play certain games out of the entire Mega Drive collection.
I’m not sure what happened to Nintendo, but their commercials simply aren’t entertaining anymore. I’ve been patiently waiting for them to crank out amusing videos like the old N64 Brawl video below, but it simply doesn’t happen. The comedic approach worked in the old days, so I’m not sure why they don’t try it out again.
Since I have received hate mail because we skipped last weeks’ OSS, I decided to make up and give you guys a treat. You can call it a two for one-fer.
Atari 2600: The first piece is the system that started it all… for me at least. The original Atari 2600, the tag at the end of the commercial is what video gaming dreams are made of. “Have you played Atari Today”
Genesis: Ninetendon’t know why Genisis made this crappy commercial. Yes, they had the big stars, Michael “Moonwalker” Jackson, Joe Montaña (from Waterboy), and Busted Douglas. I watched this and went out like the commercial instructed… before October 31st, and little to my surprise No Extra Game but I was escorted out and told never to return. GameStop Jerks!
I’ve owned a lot of gaming systems in my time. Some were memorable and others were forgettable . For some reason, Action Max is a system that I remember fondly. It was real cheesy, the games were full of “B” acting action, but it was fun for some reason. There was really no way to win any of the games, however. With each tape, you would simply score points for each enemy you were able to hit with the light gun. During the 3rd generation, I owned a NES, SEGA Master System and Action Max console.
HydroSub 2021 was probably my favorite game on the Action Max. VHS games were short lived, but certainly deserve a little remembrance. I actually still have a functioning Action Max boxed away in the basement, but no longer own a functional VHS player.
It’s Sunday and that could only mean one thing. It’s time to appreciate all of the classic games we grew up with. Welcome to Old School Sundays! This is going to be an ongoing feature that puts the spotlight on an old school game every week. This week, I’m paying homage to a classic that some of you might have never heard of. Gladiator!
Gladiator is simple to play, but difficult to master. You control your Gladiator as he moves through the levels. Pushing up/down moves the gladiator’s shield. Left/Right accelerates and decelerates your gladiator. There are three different attack buttons: High, Medium, and Low. As I stated earlier, the gameplay is simple, but during play, you are juggling between defending your opponents attacks and attacking the opponent on a constant basis.
OSS is a piece that was first originated by Gonzalo Perez and fine tuned by Daniel Perez and now currently published here on Kezins.com by William Snizek and myself Juan Perez. Every Sunday, rain or shine, we will post an article dedicated to the great past time of video games. These games might be well known, most hated or rarely seen.
Our mission here is to capture the audience and send them back in a time machine which we will provide to you via an OSS.
Suggestions are welcome, but we hope to keep you, the reader, entertained on our original pieces every Sunday.
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