Retro Bloginator

Hi everyone! Welcome back to my retro blog. Back in 1993, I upgraded my brown Commodore 64 to a console I was so eager to get my hands on. A Sega Mega Drive. My uncle Adrian had recently got one with PGA Tour Golf II and Lotus Turbo Challenge. I’d played Streets of Rage at my mate Aaron’s house. I needed this console badly. Then my uncle Adrian contacted my Mum and said that he could get one for me. My Mum and Dad said that I could have it, but I would have to sell my C64. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my C64, but when you’re 12 you want the latest and coolest thing. It was a done deal. I remember I had the option of having Sonic the Hedgehog or The Terminator with it. I went with The Terminator. Sonic is an awesome game, but The Terminator sounded so cool. So, I got the Mega Drive. I remember playing The Terminator on this old 14-inch beige CRT TV, with a dial to tune in the RF signal output from the Mega Drive. The graphics were awesome. The music was awesome. My cousin Marcus came ove...

Welcome back to the Retro Bloginator! Let's start with the fact I'm a huge fan of The Terminator, hence the blog name. Although I do love Terminator 2: Judgment Day, "THE Terminator" movie from 1984 will always be my favourite. I could list a hundred reasons why, but my main 3 are: 1) Arnold Schwarzenegger as a bad guy. If you want to epitomise "unstoppable cyborg", then the large frame of Arnie is it. As much as Lance Henriksen (who ended up playing Detective Hal Vukovich) being The Terminator and blending into the crowd would have been a great concept (later mastered by Robert Patrick as the T-1000 in T2), you actually believe Arnie will not stop, ever, until Sarah Connor is dead. That is truly terrifying. 2) The "Tech-Noir" tone of the film. A spin on "Film-Noir", the darkness and gritty backdrop of downtown Los Angeles mixed with human's dependence on machines and technology is blended seamlessly. Even the ending has a melancholic...

Welcome. My name is Adam and welcome to “The Retro Bloginator”. This first blog is about Virgin Games’ “Yomp”, released in 1983 for the Spectrum 16K and 48K. This is one of Virgin Games first releases as indicated by the catalogue number VGA 1001 on the spine. The other games released at the same time were VGA 1002 “Starfire”, VGA 1003 “Sheepwalk” and VGA 1004 “Golf”, all for the Spectrum. The inlay is very typical of Virgin Games’ early releases. The bi-colour diagonal stripes featured on all releases, with the blue and pink stripes indicating it was software for the Spectrum. Here are examples of games for other computers: Bug Bomb for the BBC B (VGA 2001) Mission Mercury for the VIC 20 (VGA 3001) I Ching for the Dragon 32 (VGB 4002) Killer Caverns for the Oric 16/48K (VGC 5001) Falcon Patrol for the Commodore 64 (VGB 6001) Robopods for the TI99/4A (VGB 7001) The comic style picture depicting what the game is about was also common. The description on the rear reads: YOMP: COMMAND THE...