Category: Games

After finally getting an X1 tape drive, I can now play Laser Planet! I bought it a few months ago on Mercari even though I couldn’t immediately use it, because it was a good deal.

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However, one doesn’t simply play Laser Planet. It requires dB-BASIC in order to run. So you load dB-BASIC first and then you change the tape and load Laser Planet.

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I don’t generally expect a lot from BASIC games because I tend to assume it’s too slow to push graphics around in an exciting way, but this game manages to pull it off well. I suppose that’s the advantage of the programmable character generator, it isn’t pushing graphics around so much as it’s pushing characters around, which BASIC can do pretty well.

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The object is to bomb targets to make the lase beams disappear, allowing you to proceed to the next target. Bomb all the targets and land your spacecraft to claim victory! I think. I haven’t beat level one yet.

Growing up in America, I thought Mahjong was a game of picking up matching tiles. I had OS/2 and it included a game called Mahjong which was exactly that. But in Japan, Mahjong is very different, a complicated game of strategy often centered around covert gambling that I don’t even remotely understand. In Japan, what we call Mahjong, they call Shanghai, and is often played with Mahjong tiles.

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This game is simple and the only sound effect it produces is a beep, hardly fitting of the machine’s multimedia capabilities. But actually, it is designed for the Turbo series. It probably works on older machines, too, but it uses two features that the Turbo series has to offer: high-res graphics mode and the mouse.

High-res graphics are not unusual for the Turbo series. But this is a shining example of how different it is. On a tile, there are a variety of objects and pictures: numbers 1 to 9 in various formats, directions (North, South, East, West), trees (orchid, bamboo, plum, chrysanthemum), etc. The high-res graphics mode offers such a crisper image that makes them much easier on the eyes.

Mouse support, on the other hand, that’s rare! The graphics tool and music composer that were included with the X1 Turbo Z both use it, but as for games, this is the only one I’ve run across so far that has mouse support. It can also be played with the joystick or keyboard, but the mouse is o much more natural for this kind of game.

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Shanghai appears to be a game of mere chance and persistence, but actually there is a bit of strategy involved, too. For example, usually you have to pick up identical tiles, but the four trees and the four seasons can be matched amongst themselves, so it pays to leave those until you need to play them, so you know which ones will be most beneficial. Or if there are three of a tile free, making sure you pick the tile that will allow access to a new tile, or get you closer to a tile that you want to access. Still, there are definitely unwinnable rounds, because two matching tiles can be stacked upon one another at the end.

Here is a progression of the board as I go down from 100% to 75% to 50% to 25% to 12.5%.

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And finally the winning screen. I didn’t actually win tonight’s game, I got stuck at 12.5%, but I’d won and taken a picture of it before, so there it is, the reward for my persistence.

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Don’t think of it as a spoiler, it looks much nicer in person! Give it a (few) tries!

I am not big on cockpit-view flight games of any kind, but this game has a very pleasant aesthetic and I enjoyed it a bit just to see how the scenes changed throughout the game. As expected, it’s a bit sluggish as it’s trying to render even these simple graphics, it is how I remember every flight sim of the day. But it has a certain charm. Not a bad way to have spent thirty minutes. Don’t think I’ll be rushing back to it, but I won’t say I’ll never try it again.

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Now this is a fairly odd one. It is definitely Mario Bros., but at the same time, kind of different. The main premise of this game is, instead of jumping, you throw a ball at your enemies to flip them over. Then you can kick them off the level like usual. You can still jump, but that’s not the way to kill your enemies. Although kind of counter-intuitive, there is only one button active in this game, so you have to learn the timing to make sure you’re jumping when you want to jump, and throwing when you want to throw.

The coin level on phase three is nearly the same. The same selection of baddies try to attack you. The fireballs come out at level three. Your partner in crime – Luigi, is also available for the fight. So there is a lot of familiarity in this game if you’ve played Mario Bros. before.

But sometimes there are surprises, too. For example, the top and bottom platforms on level 5 move, which is something you really need to take into consideration when an enemy may stay on the platform longer or shorter than expected depending on the direction of the movement. Another example, instead of a coin coming along after you kill every enemy, a single coin appears at the top of the screen. However, it doesn’t move, and if you don’t get the coin after each enemy, you lose the opportunity to collect that enemy’s coin.

Another unique point about this game is that it runs in 400-line (high-res) mode. This is the first arcade classic (albeit with a big twist) that I’ve encountered where you can choose to run in 400-line mode.

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