Retro Games Collector | About retrogaming for retrogamers | Sinclair, Commodore, Atari, Nintendo, Se

Time 2021-05-12 23:18:40

Web Name: Retro Games Collector | About retrogaming for retrogamers | Sinclair, Commodore, Atari, Nintendo, Se

WebSite: http://www.retrogamescollector.com

ID:176175

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Monument Microgames a closer look The late 80s and early 90s saw the decline of 8bit computers in favour of their more powerful 16bit brethren. Understandably software production for these now defunct machines took a back seat or stopped altogether with software houses concentrating on the next big thing. However, with the resurgence of interest in vintage computing there is also a thirst for new software, something Graz Richards at Monument Microgames was quick to notice and fill that gap. Cheese and chocolate loving*, extreme bus-ride enthusiast Graz, now in his forties, originally started Monument in 1992 as a store to sell second-hand and new-old stock games, moving onto publishing new games in 2012. (*even together apparently!) Brunilda Endless Forms Most Beautiful Traxtor Metal Man Reloaded The games produced by Monument are of the utmost quality and often come with extras only ever previously seen in the big box games of the Amiga/ST era. Badges, CDs, collectible cards and full colour manuals all come as standard and pricing is extremely reasonable considering the amount of work and level of detail that goes into each and every title. Games produced so far on the Monument Microgames label include: Catacombs of Balachor Zombie Calavera Genesis:  Dawn of a New Day Sid Spanners Collection Balachor’s Revenge El Stompo Game about Squares Forest Raider Cherry Cray 5 Future Looter Sir Ababol Phaeton Sam Mallard Traxtor Brunilda PET Snake Endless Forms Most Beautiful MetalMan Multi Dude Seto Taisho Vs Yokai / To Kazan Interview with Graz Richards, owner of Monument Microgames RGC: When did you first become interested in videogames and what was the first videogame you ever played? Graz: It was Pong in 1977-78  I was 4 or 5, and very much aware of the “grown-ups” discussions about the impending microchip revolution.  Seeing Pong was like looking into the future.  I honestly couldn’t believe it at first.  Playable television! RGC: What was the first games console or computer you owned and how old were you? Graz: The first console was an Atari 2600.  It was very much a move on behalf of my parents to, ‘keep up with the Joneses.’  Friends of the family brought the console round to our house one day and showed off, “Missile Command.”  The sounds and graphics, bursting with light and colour were amazing, and the imagery of cities being levelled under mushroom clouds was extremely powerful for my young mind.  I was 8 years old by then. And then, one day, dad bought an Atari home for us, along with the obligatory Combat, plus Space Invaders and Adventure, which is still my favourite game of all time to this day. RGC: When did you first get the idea to publish homebrew titles for the ZX Spectrum? Graz: Since I was 11, although I always imagined that they’d be games I’d written myself.  It wasn’t until 2012 that I actually started getting Monument ready, simply because there was so many great games being made and not enough outlets. RGC: How did the name Monument Microgames come about? Graz: It’s slightly convoluted, but pretty much everything I do has the name Monument.  It all started with Monument Miniatures, which is the name I used (and will use again) for releasing white metal roleplaying figures.  It was originally going to be called, “City of Lead” but I ended up basing the logo on the Cnoc Suil monument from the Spectrum Game, Tir Na Nog.  Unsure whether Cnoc Suil was a real Gaelic place, a legendary oracle, or the property of Gargoyle Games, I ended up just using the word, Monument instead.  It seemed to work quite nicely for the miniatures, and more so for... Read more The Starpath (Arcadia) Supercharger for Atari 2600 a retrospective Atari 2600 Limitations Every console manufacturer at every generation has had a decision to make on how much memory (RAM) could be put in the console with an eye on production costs. The VCS designers back in the 1970s were severely constrained RAM-wise and could afford to add just 128 bytes of RAM to the design. Read-only memory used in game cartridges for the VCS was also expensive and it was only expected that games would use a maximum of 4K (4096 bytes) of ROM in the plug-in cartridges to contain all of the game code. In fact many early games used just 2K of ROM. Now, 4K is not a lot for game program code and 128 bytes of RAM is a real pain. This all meant that probably the biggest concern for a developer was to keep the ROM size down and minimise the number of variables that the game needs to record during gameplay and this would of course lead to compromises in the amount of change that could be fed into the screen graphics. In vintage consoles and computers, larger amounts of RAM mean that less compact code can be produced that can execute faster and so do more in the limited time available to manipulate the screen, potentially even using tricks such as re-writing portions of the code as it executes (self-modifying code) which is impossible in ROM. Enter The Supercharger The Starpath (formerly Arcadia Corporation) Supercharger unit plugs into the 2600 cartridge slot... Read more Spotters Guide to the Atari 2600 Have you played Atari Today? The Atari 2600, arguably the most iconic and enduring of all games consoles is also possibly the most confusing to collect. Not surprising really, when you realise it comes in eight official Atari branded versions (including the Japanese 2800) along with a whole host of clones spanning nearly a decade and a half of production. From the original 1977 CX2600 Heavy Sixer through to the all-black 1986 2600 Junior ... Read more Emulation on the cheap using original XBox Part 1 What it can do As some of you may know I am not only a big fan of gaming on original systems but also like to dabble in the dark art of emulation. Yes, I know many purists will be hitting the back button in disgust but I am of the opinion that emulation has a place in every retro gamer s life. Emulation lets you experience games in near pixel-perfection that you may not ever be able... Read more About RGC Retro Games Collector is a long-running retro gaming blog aimed at anyone who loves old games and anything associated with them. It's first incarnation was way back in the late 90s and it has undergone several changes since, ending up roughly as it appears now back in 2008. Probably due an upgrade, but then again so is the owner, Ant - who has been gaming since he was around 6 years old. His first memories of gaming are of arcades whilst on holiday with his parents in Weymouth. His first console was a Grandstand TV game and his first computer a ZX81. We welcome any new contributors to the site, no matter how big or small the article - just drop us an email at admin [at] retrogamescollector [dot] com. Archives Archives

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