☆Website Of The Day - "Hall Of Light"☆ #RetroGaming #GamersUnite #Amiga

 

 

The Hall Of Light (HOL) 

The HOL Project's Mission is to catalogue all the official games that were released commercially for the Commodore Amiga

When you first visit the site the first thing that springs to mind is that it is minimalist in design as you are presented with a set of search parameters with little fuss made about the presentation of the site itself. 

But you soon learn that less IS more as the database stands at a HUGE 5590 games!

Once you undertake a search you are presented with a really smart and simple screen that shows a screen-shot from the game and then has various tabs to highlight key information about the game such as:

• General Information Tab - Giving Year Of Release, Number Of Disks, Publisher, Number Of Players, Genre etc
• Reviews - Listing the reviews and scores from those reviews with a link to those reviews
• Manual - Where possible, a link to an online manual is given
• Cheat Code - Where possible a Cheatcode is listed
• Web Link - A list of other sites such as Lemon Amiga etc that feature the game
• Screen-shot - Showcases additional screenshots for the game
• Box Scan - A scan of the original Box Art
• Disk Scan - A scan of the original disk
• Misc Shot - A scan of other materials that may be of interest from the original game
• Conversion - Screenshots from other system conversions of the same game
• Game Map - Where one exists a scan of the game map will be included

The website highlights the following re it's marvellous database:

"Most games in the database are of the boxed, commercial variety but there are exceptions:

• Licenceware games are considered commercial enough to be included.
• Shareware, freeware and general Public Domain games are generally not present but they may be added if they form a fuller picture of a commercial person or entity.
• A number of unreleased Amiga games are referenced. The status of these games varies; some exist in a near-complete or demo form while others never progressed beyond the announcement stage.
• Some Open Source conversions (e.g. Doom) and games playable through interpreters (e.g. ScummVM or Exult) are listed. These are considered 'native' Amiga games."

We were lost in RetroGaming Heaven for hours searching out our favourite Amiga games over the years and drooling over the BIG BOX art and the screenshots.

For Any Amiga fan this should be your number one port of all call for all things Amiga, so get on over there now to unearth such gems as "The Bards Tale III" 

 

Tell us what you think of HOL assuming you can tear yourself away from the site! 

 

☆Iconic Video Game Real Estate☆ #RetroGaming #GamersUnite #Share

Houses, Mansions and Castles have played a large part in a lot of video games over the years.

Most of this prime Video Game Real Estate provides a focal point or setting for each of the games they are featured in.

It is also notable that a house, mansion or castle is usually a good setting for a spooky or darn right terrifying game.......

We decided to do a bit of digging around in the gaming history books again to uncover an 13 of the most Iconic examples of video game real estate over the years.

So without further ado "let's go through the keyhole!"

1. Imperial City Palace - Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion

The Imperial Prison inside the Imperial Palace is the starting point for your hero in Elder Scrolls and the Palace cuts a striking image as the White Gold Tower can be seen for miles around. 

It is listed in the Elder Scrolls Wiki as an ancient Ayleid structure, located in the Green Emperor Way District in the Imperial City on the province of Cyrodiil.

2. Curien Mansion - House Of The Dead 

House Of The Dead begins with Agent Thomas Rogan receiving a phone-call from his fiancée, Sophie Richards at the Curien Mansion, the home and laboratory of Dr. Roy Curien.

A series of ominous occurrences and disappearances at the Curien mansion leads Rogan and his partner, Agent G, to discover the estate overrun with hellish beings from the dead!!

3. TenPenny Tower  - Fallout 3

A towering and imposing building, Tenpenny Tower is a luxury hotel used as a private residential building.

It is owned by Allistair Tenpenny, who only permits a certain class of people to reside there. He is prejudiced against ghouls and will not let them reside there.

4. Bowser's Castle - Super Mario Series

Bowser's Castle is scattered throughout the Mario series in one guise or another and is generally the final area that Mario visits to fight it out with Bowser and rescue Princess Peach

5. Luigis Mansion - Luigi's Mansion

The game takes place in a haunted mansion that Luigi wins in a contest that he never entered!

Luigi tells Mario to meet him there to celebrate his victory but Luigi is then sent searching the Mansion for Mario, who is nowhere to be seen!

6. Raccoon City Zombie Mansion - Resident Evil

The first installment in the Resident Evil series introduces Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine as members of the elite S.T.A.R.S.

At the start of the game they become trapped in an old mansion infested with zombies.

As they explore the mysterious and scary mansion, they uncover clues and solve puzzles, battling the various monsters along the way (complete with scary dogs jumping through windows!!)

7. The Lakeview Hotel - Silent Hill 2

The Lakeview Hotel was constructed and opened during Silent Hill's tourist boom, in order to attract guests to visit the town. James Sunderland and his wife, Mary Shepherd-Sunderland are said to have stayed here on vacation prior to the events of Silent Hill 2.

8. The Mansion - Maniac Mansion

The developers of Maniac Mansion based the design of The Mansion on Skywalker Ranch

The SkyWalker ranch is owned by George Lucas acting as a workplace for Lucas and also as a Ranch Film Set!

9. A White House - Zork

When playing Zork the game begins near "A White House"

The White House provides the first obvious point of interest.

When you enter the house,you discover a trap door that leads down into a dark cellar.

That's where the fun starts as the cellar is actually one of many entrances to the Great Underground Empire!

10. The Haunted Mansion Of Derceto - Alone In The Dark

This SurvivalHorror game from 1992 starts your character off inside the mansion and you are then tasked with finding a way out whilst taking on the nasties that currently reside inside The Mansion

11. 55 Central Park West - Ghostbusters (Master System)

Over the years there have been various video games based on the brilliant Ghostbusters film.

The Master System version's aim is to get to Dana's apartment and defeat good old Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

In the games and the film the building where the finale happens is referred to as Dana's Apartment but in real life the building does actually exist at 55 Central Park West and is also known as "The Ghostbuster's Building"

We've rounded up but a few of the most iconic properties from Video Games that we have played over the years.

Can You Think Of Any We Have Missed?

Games Freezer

☆Pang Man's Retrogaming Reminisce - Part 2 "Super Play"☆ @Kosmikat #RetroGaming #Gamersunite

The Awesome Super Play

Pang Man continues to look back at the great Video Games Magazines of the day from the 90's.

In Part 1 we heard all about Pang Man's Love for the iconic Mean Machines Magazine.

Now we pick up with him again for Part 2 and a closer look at the almighty Super Play Magazine.

"Over the years there have been many great gaming magazines.

CVG was one of my favourites in the 90s, whilst I think of the more modern day magazines –Edge is a great read. (Although I did balk at the £5 price!! when it first came out, compared to £3 for its rivals).

However, for a while there was only one magazine that was so unbelievably good , that I would re-read it multiple times. 

That magazine was called Mean Machines and after it stopped publication, I was genuinely sad.

However, in November 1992, a contender to the crown was born.  

I remember looking at the magazines in the local newsagents in Enfield Town before school and one magazine caught my eye (and not the top shelf kind!) 

It had a Japanese looking logo and some cool Anime style characters on the cover. 

It was called “Super Play”

Super Play was a monthly gaming magazine dedicated to the Super Famicom (a.k.a. Super Nintendo). 

At a mere £1.95 it was a bargain. A fantastic read, with a cool design and great reviews. Like Mean Machines it covered imported games yet to be released in the UK/US.

The Cool Anime World

For me though the best thing about Super Play was its promotion of anime and RPGs.

“Anime World” - a monthly article written by “Helen McCarthy” (a foremost anime expert), helped me to develop my interest in anime and opened my eyes to shows such as "3 x 3 Eyes" and "Bubblegum Crisis"

LIVE FROM HELL CITY

A monthly article called “Live from Hell City” written by a British guy living in Tokyo –gave readers a fascinating insight into Japanese culture and gaming. 

Fantasy Quest

Whilst through, “Fantasy Quest”, readers could wet their appetite for the amazing RPGs, just released in the Land of the Rising Sun (e.g. Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest etc)

I must also give a huge shout out to Will Overton who drew the cover illustrations. 

The magazine covers were always hand drawn in an amazing manga style –in fact they were so good –I would have happily bought prints of them to display.

Superb Envelope Art

Super Play also encouraged its readers to send in their artwork –the best entries were then published in a section called “Envelope Art”. 

Some of these entries were of a fantastic standard and still hold up well even today.

Super Play ran until 1996, around the time the N64 superseded the Super Nintendo. 

The writing staff went on to publish N64 Magazine - which again sadly failed to maintain the charm of the original publication.

Was it better than Mean Machines?  

Well I wouldn’t like to choose a favourite but I would say that for me, alongside Mean Machines, Super Play was and still is the best gaming magazine of the 16bit era."

Pang Man

Pang Man has had his say, so now it's over to you....

 

Super Play vs. Mean Machines - Who was the greatest?  

 

"Pang Man Reporting From The Freezer"