Post originally meant to be posted in December of 2017, but I hadn’t finished writing it. It’s finally published, didn’t take long, did it? Moving on…
Oh god! Didn’t it end in the unnumbered post (#6) after Retro style, part 5?
Well, it did, but I decided to milk the cow a little bit more.
Toward the end of my 3 months without a decent computer, I started getting tired of listening to audio books. (in fact, I haven’t listened to another one since)
So I had to look for alternative entertainment. All I could do on my 2nd PC was listen to audio files (music/audio-books) and read text (plain text).
570 words
So I turned to my Jurassic Smartphone (HTC Pico), with it I could at least browse the web, kind of.
And watch youtube videos…kind of.
Many hours of youtubing (a verb that covers both creating content and watching it) were had, but something is still amiss.
I still needed some interaction. I needed…shiny flashing images on a screen that would respond to my input.
Also known as videogames.
The 2nd PC was completely useless for this.
The smartphone wasn’t much better.
I need to play a game, but how?
Enter my old Dingoo A320!
Mine is black instead of white.
I rarely use it as anything other than a mp3 player. (all my gaming, including retro, is usually done on my main PC which was broken)
But it can emulate NES/SNES/GB/GBC/Neo Geo/Mega Drive (and a few others).
Well, I started by playing Bomberman just to kill boredom. But soon 30 minute sessions of Bomberman weren’t enough.
The power of the dumbening warmth of flashing images had taken over me, I needed more games.
I actually already had them on the Dingoo, I just chose not to play them before.
So, obviously I started playing all the SNES Final Fantasy games.
I started by playing Final Fantasy IV, but then started playing other roms, mostly NES stuff I had a cartridge of when I was a kid (Race America; Power Blade II; Cliffhanger and a few others).
And then I found Gran Turismo’s daddy, or granddaddy, whatever.
I’m speaking of course of:
It was no wonder I never heard of it since it’s a North America exclusive title. Which honestly was criminal, it’s a great little racing game.
(yes…many of the same concepts and mechanics are also in Taito Grand Prix, but that one is Japan exclusive, which makes it even worse)
I had way too much fun playing it.
You start driving a basic Mini Cooper.
Which of course, as you win money by winning races, you can upgrade your car for better performance.
You can upgrade the tires, the engine, the chassis (actually it upgrades the car body), etc.
You go around the US racing, trying to become the best driver in the world. Well, the best driver in the US at least.
It’s actually a pretty good game for its time.
Reasonably challenging, but every upgrade you make to your car feels like an accomplishment.
Making money to buy upgrades is obviously a bit of a grind, much like in the Gran Turismo games, but there is enough fun and challenge to keep you playing.
My score: 90/100
Best racing game for the NES. The most entertaining at least.
And this IS the final Retro style post.