Getting your game on with the Arcadie #DadApproved

Hi all, 

With fathers day zooming towards us the lovely people at Moonpig invited me to join the Dads' Institute, testing fathers gifts to give your dad the best gift possible. We love hugs and pancakes too, just saying. 

In the name of retro fun we were sent the Arcadie Arcade cabinet from Zeon Tech. While not a full size cab with a Jamma board slapped inside, it makes use of the Apple iPhone and iPod touch to become your portable arcade machine with the ability to play your tunes or make calls in between game time. 

On first appearance it looks true to arcade cabinet from the 80's thankfully without the CRT burn in and cigarette burns on the side. Using this is as simple as loading the game you wish to choose and inserting your device into the docking connector nestled inside when prompted. Once calibrated it's ready to go with this taking very little time in total before playtime.

The Games are all in the Apple A

The controls feel solid, with a satisfying click many of us will remember from the arcades or from posh joysticks with microswitches.

pp store with a mix of free and paid apps from a host of developers and the vast majority are real good fun to play with easy controls.

There is the odd issue with some games, and this with the third party ones - some seem to struggle with the controls. This varied with the iPhone 4s and iPod 4th Gen with the iPod liking more games, I assume this is from the screen protector as some games use carefully positioned touch pads inside the unit to control games.

Even with this in mind, it's an enjoyable addition to your iDevices bringing with it lots of fun and a growing catalogue of  games that ask for nothing more than your imagination and attention. We've been having score contests here. With the loser having to do the housework (me again - pfft!) I can happily say it's Approved by me and the kids! If your dad loves 8bit, arcade and has an iDevice - he'll love this. Click here to buy one from your dad. To learn more about Moonpig's Dad Approved gifts for fathers day click here 

Paul

Throwback Thursday - Secret Of Mana

Today's throwback Thursday brings us back to the land of 16 bit goodness, Nintendo's Super Nes was an amazing bit of hardware, graphically and audio wise.

We're not talking about the console but one of the games.

The epic Secret Of Mana by Squaresoft (Square enix now), it's a spin off from the final fantasy games, with many interlinked components of the original FF series before they moved to the playstation, well it should have stayed with nintendo but the harm the original playstation development between Ninetndo, Sony and Philips caused ruined everything.

Secret of Mana. A game designed to be on the collaberated console, originally developed as a CD game, rushed stupidly to cartridge when Ninetndo decided carts were best, well at the time they were telling the truth as CD's were a gimick. Bad point and clicks and 'interactive' games dampened the appeal. Anyway back to the game.

The game is an amazing creation by the team at Square. The limitation of a cartridge makes the game quirky, fun and somewhat buggy. The bugs are great though as you can see the hard work the devs put into making it work. On top of the quirkyness the game plays perfectly well, it's certainly feel a lot harder than it did 15 years ago.

However. Square made me want to marry them by releasing Secret Of Mana ports for major mobile platforms.

And i'll admit it's the reason the cracks on my ipad got worse before getting it fixed due to the game. Even on a big-assed tablet the immersion was there, the music was as enchanting as the snes soundtrack, bar the poorly made mp3 loops/buffer but i guess it's a limitation of a memory hungry game.

As silly as it sounds the game is amazing even 15 years after beating it the first time i've done it again.

Remember an amazing classic game? Drop us a comment and let us know.

Paul.

Throwback Thursday

Well. This is a strange one today,

This week I was given my fathers old cellphone today and thought I'd give you a treat from 2003. Here is the Nokia 3510i.

A pioneering device from when Nokia acutally made hardcore devices for all sectors, what makes this device more epic is it's one of the first Symbian s40 colour devices sold in the masses, including the variants for CDMA and AMPS, yes many versions were created.
On top of this it was also one of the first phones I knew of that came in with either a mono (3510) or colour (3510i) display and Polyphonic(marketing buzzwork for Midi music files)

This phone has been shelved since my father passed away, but surprisingly on sunday when i charged it it worked fantastically. And has lasted on one charge since.

The screen is clear and bright, well as bright as any nokia was in 2003. The only thing missing which i will be sorting if i can find my fbus data cables is Snake.

The point of this post is the memories. My old man struggled with technology, where i feel he would have thrived now as things get easier to use over time. But he did get a good easy to use device.

Now onto a question for you.

What older device do you miss or still use to this day?
Paul.

P.S. This phone is going to be a special project device for a post i've got on Dadzclub.

PC Gaming! Back Atcha!

Morning all.

Between writing posts I've been playing some old PC games, Doom, The Legacy, Sam and Max hit the road and Pinball Fantasies. They always seem to chill me out somewhat when stressed. But I always get grumbled at for pulling the old IBM PS/2 model 70 out of the shoe cupboard due to the mess I cause in the process.

I've been told by the wife I'm to leave it in there until we move now. To say I'm gutted is an understatement. Trust me, It's sad. But I have to keep tidy while were planning to move I suppose.

This morning I was sent a link to Green Man Gaming, A site you can buy some epic games from companies like Square-Enix, Sega, Ubisoft and more. If you like old school games like me. This will be a heavenly reminiscence. With classic games rejigged to run on newer computers without the need for the old Pc, Dosbox or old console which could be a lucky dip if it works.

Looking more into the site you have a wide list of new games, including the top 10 pc games, Including Independent game houses. This is refreshing to see as many indie game houses are shunned by games sites. It's a true step in the right direction for games.

Looking for a certain genre? Trust me many are covered, from shoot em up's to family games and many more too.

Before you console owners begin to feel unloved. I love my consoles too. I'm happy to tell you that Xbox 360 and Playstation3 games are available on GMG too.

At any time you grow bored of a game you can easily sell it back to GreenMan Gaming with little hassle through their trade in pages. If you use the Capsule tool it gives you an online store right on your pc desktop, with many titles available to download and play within the tool. And again if you get bored of a title you can trade in directly from the program too

One thing I noticed which I liked a lot is how the staff are willing to put their hands up and admit fault when things don't go right.

What do you prefer: Console, Retro, PC, or other games? Tell us in the comments.

Paul

Disclosure:

This post is bought to you with GreenManGaming.com.