Retro Yakking

I say, get me out of here at once! Good heavens.

The modern gamer is spoilt for choice. They can load up the latest news and reviews on any new release they’re looking to buy with a few simple clicks of a mouse via this thing I believe they call the Internet. There are gaming networks with hints, tips and cheats as well as discussion boards and forums so people can chat about their experiences with individual games or consoles.

It wasn’t always like this though - time was you had to rely on magazines, Teletext and word of mouth to find out what a game is like. There was another option, though - a Channel 4 television show for kids (and adults) alike to get their gaming fix. That show was known as GamesMaster, and it was quite literally a juggernaught of its time, spanning seven series and the vast part of a decade.

Of course, GamesMaster wasn’t the only computer and video games show on the telly. Many other series looked to emulate its achievements, with varying success, but none really made quite the same cultural impact as GamesMaster, with its robotic Patrick Moore-voiced computer thingy, cheeky chappie presenter and double entendre-laden dialogue.

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Good news and bad for motorcycle gaming nuts everywhere. The good stuff is that concept footage of a brand new incarnation of retro gaming classic Road Rash has been leaked onto the Internet. The bad news, however, is that sadly the project seems to have been scrapped, at least according to Digital Spy.

Hit the ‘read more’ link for the full video!

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If you think about it, video game fans have been somewhat starved of televisual content recently. Following the technology-obsessed 80s, games went mainstream with the release of the fourth generation (that’s the period 1992-1995 for the non-geeks out there) home consoles, and there were always television shows to suit the attitude of the time; we had BBC Micro Live for the techies out there, and stuff like GamesMaster and Games World for the ‘kiddie’ audience.

Since then, games shows have come and gone quicker than the Virtual Boy, with no really popular ones to speak of in the last ten years or so. Why is it that, even though video games are arguably more popular than ever, there is no mainstream television programme dedicated to the genre?

This is one subject dealt with in Charlie Brooker’s Gameswipe, a one-off BBC4 special showing as part of the station’s retro electronics season. Said protagonist attributes this puzzling situation to the fact producers have never really nailed down a suitable, functional format for the 21st century. For example, how do you cater for both the mainstream, namely your casual gamer that likes to dust off his Wii once in a while, and the enthusiast, who could tell you how to beat each of the Halo games within an hour?

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Just a couple of weeks ago I expressed my surprise at the fact my local video games shop was selling a 20+ year old Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) for marginally more than a second-hand XBOX 360. Well, said 360 has since been removed from the shelf, perhaps because it has been sold but more likely because it had to be trashed.

Elsewhere, I did actually find a Mega Drive II (second edition, newer model) for just ten quid, so I suppose I’ve been made to eat my words in that respect. You know what I did? I bought the thing, partly out of curiosity and partly because I thought it was a good deal. Yep, I already have a Mega Drive but purchased the nice and shiny boxed one behind the glass counter.

I’m not completely stupid though. I have to admit my new(ish) console has a much clearer picture, probably due to the fact it’s been sitting in some attic unused for however many years. My ‘old’ Mega Drive, on the other hand, has endured torturous journeys in a bin bag for fifteen years — my dad made me throw away the original box years ago — to places like Liverpool. Yeah, don’t ask.

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Yes… it’s true. My local video games shop is now selling a Sega Mega Drive (£50) for more than an XBOX 360 (£45). Sure, maybe the latter is rather shop soiled and probably suffers from Red Ring of Death Syndrome, and the former has about thirty games with it, but still, you’d have thought a current-generation console would always sell for more than a 25-year old fourth generation one.

Okay, so perhaps it’s a pretty fair deal, but this doesn’t change the fact that some of these old consoles are becoming unfeasibly expensive. Just a few years ago, the same establishment was flogging their old Mega Drives for less than a tenner as nobody gave a monkey’s about them. It could be the effects of the credit crunch or simply the passing of time, but the cost of retro consoles has really shot up in the last few years.

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