Starbase Leicester’s Top 5 Retro Games

We recently held our first Retro Games Night (oh, the arguments about what qualifies as Retro!) and I hope we do this again because I re-discovered a lot of great games which I’d forgotten about. It’s staggering to think that I’ve been playing video games for over 25 years! I can remember playing Chuckie Egg on a BBC Micro in the computer room when I was supposed to be doing my computer homework. Whenever the teacher came in everyone would hit ‘reset’, but if you were too slow you’d get thrown out for “misusing the computers”. I never did pass that computer exam, thus saving me from a lifetime of misery working in IT.

5:  Asteroids (Atari 1979)

I didn’t play this much at the time since in 1979 I hadn’t even seen a computer, let alone dreamed of ever owning one, but Arcade Games were around. Unfortunately the places they were in were places that a nine year old me wasn’t allowed to go.

This was one of the first games to use ‘vectors’ instead of sprites, which meant it had a very smooth and slick gameplay. What I love about it is the simplicity. It’s such a pure gaming experience. Your ship floats around the screen and spins gracefully, spitting out white dots at the asteroids floating around you. You are in a sort of dance with them, constantly dodging the inevitable collision. There’s only one ending; your ship hits something and explodes. The only unlockable is the next screen, with more rocks to avoid and in the end it’s all about that hi-score table. - Garak

4:  Descent II (Interplay 1996)

An FPS game with two distinct differences; 1, you piloted a space ship and 2, because of this you could move in all directions, and possibly end up flying upside-down.

The plot: Well ok being a sequel means the plot made no sense unless you'd played the first or at least heard of it, but essentially you're a mercenary being employed by a huge ore mining company to investigate (or descend into) several mines where the robots have gone, well, mad.

I'd played the demo of this, so wanted to play the full game. My word it was hard, especially when the robots start firing flash missiles at you (think flash bang grenades with out the bang and missiles not grenades). One of the best bits was the use of a small help bot, which could help you detect weapons, health, keys and the like and an annoying thief bot that'd run up to you, snatch any current weapon you had and promptly run off, making you chase it to get your stuff back.

There was a sequel to this which was more of the same, but it involved a bit of surface fighting as well. - Jake Cobb

3: UFO: Enemy Unknown (MicroProse 1994)

UFO is just one of those 'retro' games like Elite or Doom which everyone bangs on about as being one of the greatest games - but it's a title well deserved. The game is very simple really; build a base, run it, look for UFOs, then either shoot them down or wait for them to land and go to the crash site.

All the combat is turn based so it's a lot like playing a game of Space Hulk or something, but if you're the sort of person who likes to take your time with things, plan out your pieces on the board, decided what equipment to take, this is the game for you. It’s more like chess than a full blown shooter, but chess where your opponent can use mind control on your pieces and make them lob grenades inside your drop-ship!

The clever part is that as you go through the game and find stuff you can research the alien tech and start using it for yourself. You also start to find out where the aliens are coming from, what each race’s function within the alien society is and most importantly what each of their weaknesses in combat are. (My particular favourite being the very tough huge beasts which it turns out have highly flammable fur.)

If you don't perform well enough at combating the invasion in the various countries who are funding you (you're sort of like Torchwood & UNIT all in one) they will gradually cut their funding and you will struggle to pay to keep your operation running. Some countries might even go over to the alien’s side and you agents will find bases which you can then go on a mission to capture.

Conversely the aliens can attack your base, which can happen when your main combat forces are out on a mission, leaving you with whoever and whatever you left behind to defend it - so if you gave all the good weapons to your team and sent them off on a mission, you end up having to defend your base with 5 wounded men with pistols and stun-rods.

The thing this game has, and the reason people are still playing it now, is really excellent gameplay. You control everything from how much ammo you have to where you build your base and success or failure is all down to you! It feels like you have total control and though I’m sure a lot of people who hate these sort of resource management games would rather just play a basic ‘shoot-em-up’, the success or failure of each mission really can come down to what standard of troops you have (Rookies tend to panic when they see a 7 foot green alien for the first time) what weapons you’ve researched and whether you remembered to pack the electroflares. - Garak

2: Final Fantasy VIII (Square 1999)

It was the 'first' game to get me into consoles and I started off watching instead of playing. I lived in a rented house that had three of the four people living there that were interested in the game. It was played in the lounge instead of watching TV, whilst people smoked and drank lots and lots of coke. (We also used to inadvertantly play “guess which coke can I’ve put my cigarette out in?" which is why now I always dent the can that i've been drinking from, when i finish it.)

So Final Fantasy 8 is the epitome of my retro fixations. It still plays bloody brilliantly, spurned on by the epic storyline. The graphics were a huge step forward from the blocky figures that adorned Final Fantasy 7 and the FMVs still look as good now as they did then. I payed £8.00 for it from the PSN store (as a download) and it's not surprising that some people pay in excess of £20.00 for a physical copy of this game. - Kaltak

1: Steel Battalion (Capcom 2003)

I've overheard many a conversation and read many articles about 'real gamers' in the past few weeks. These range from a few words about the “stupid fadish wii” to how “we’re sick of party games.” These ‘real gamers’ love intense action, incredible graphics, immersive multiplayer and the thrill of pwning some noob. They buy the latest kit and the latest, most expensive 'collectors' games. 

Yet few have ever played - or owned - Steel Battalion.

Steel Battalion is one of the few experience games. The kind of game that should be number 1 on any 'games to play before you die' lists. Created by Capcom for the original Xbox, Steel Battalion is similar to another old classic -  Mech Warrior. Except for a few crucial differences.

First, Mech Warrior didn't retail at £200. Second, Mech Warrior was rubbish, and lastly you never had to assemble the controller for Mech Warrior. 

Behold Steel Battalion's controller. It was a work of art. A colossus. A real gamers pad where you'd play on your widescreen telly, 5.1 booming behind a control desk. The ultimate in immersive gaming. 

It was a hard game - there was a long start-up procedure to follow, the VTs (vartical tanks - mechs) were difficult to get to grips with but it was utterly rewarding as you played through fulfilling missions. The online play was a laugh too. 

Inevitably, any comment on the game always comes back to the controls. They came in 4 parts, the pedals to control acceleration and righting, the central pad for radio and readout, the gears (which you actually have to be pretty strong to get 'in') and the two joysticks - one for targeting and one for movement. The control pad came with an Allan key and cables to connect them up.

The difficulty was in the controls mixed with the unforgiving combat. The VT's torso operates independently of the legs, so you can be walking north and shooting south. The HUD of your mech would have a camera for this which you have to use to target the enemy with a vast array of weapons, customisable before the mission. From thumping railguns to spritely missiles; Dolby made the difference - in some cases a pop behind your left ear would be the only indication that a prowling marine unit was pummelling you with RPGs.

Every button did something. From the radio controls to call for backup or to berate your friends in online-multiplayer to the eject button - encased to prevent you from doing it by accident. If you were about to die, and you didn't eject, the game would start over from mission 1. This game spanks all other 'real gamers' games in terms of difficulty, but that was part of its job - why should a game that costs £200 be easy? Mastering it was the most fulfilling gaming moment I ever had.

Play it before you die because there will be nothing else like it again; truly 'retro' for that reason alone. (Oh yeah, and it is the only game to date where I had to read the manual - just to turn the VerticalTank on - the switch had to be set in the right way before you fired the three point ignition!) - Blane

Also worth checking out:

Rez (United Game Artists 2001) This ‘Cyberpunk’ inspired game combined gorgeous graphics with a thumping soundtrack, imagine if Kandinsky had directed Tron and then got Underworld to write the music. - Kaltak

Hard Drivin’ (Atari 1988) This hit the arcades just when I was learning to drive and I swear it helped me with my clutch control! Based on a proper driving simulator it was the first game to have force feedback steering, a gearshift and a clutch. It was very difficult to even make 1 lap without crashing, even landing off a ramp too quickly would wreck the car. - Garak

Grim Fandango (LucasArts 1998) The highly underrated tale of lost life as you take control of Manny Calavera to solve generally annoying puzzles, and collect many obscure and pointless objects. Initially you are employed by the Department of Death to help souls that recently shuffled the mortal coil travel to the Ninth Underworld as their final resting place. But, as tends to be with Lucas Arts, there are other things afoot. It has an excellent film noir feel to it, and has the Lucas Arts humour running throughout, although jokes are sometimes more subtle than the humour in Monkey Island, for example. - Kendorage