Space Invaders (1994)

I recently bought myself a copy of the 1994 Game Boy edition of the classic game Space Invaders. Previously, I had only played this game on my Nokia N-Gauge as a child, and I wanted the full experience.

The game basics

For those of you that haven't played Space Invaders, it's a game where you have to save the world from an invasion of aliens- using just one ship. You have barriers you can hide behind whilst the aliens shoot at you, or you can be brave and pop outside of the barriers to shoot at them.

Different aliens

There are five different types of aliens, each worth a different amount of points. The points are lower for the closer aliens and they increase as shown below.

Is it fun?

To me, the game is quite fun because I enjoy racking up the points. Some people may not enjoy it, but it's nostalgic and the sounds made by the game are cool too.

MmRed

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Twitch plays Pokemon

Over the last week or so, something like 50k people daily have visited Twitch Plays Pokemon. It's like a cross between a video game and a social experiment.

The nostalgia of the music, graphics and, well, the game, are enough to make you want to watch it for hours, but you have to watch 50k+ people try to control the main character. At the time of writing this, the stream has been going for almost 5 days and the chat is stuck in Team Rocket HQ after somehow obtaining 4 badges. The players have released the starter Pokemon (Charmander), a Spearow and a Rattata. 

With no note on how close the final battle is, this is going to be a fun one to watch.

More info can be found herehttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ka89uCBeLl9VV5GPlAKuW7yF8FGtnVmdbPnIwG8FnQ4/preview?sle=true

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Flappy Bird

The world seems to have been set abuzz by this free flash game. I can't see what all the fuss is about.

I played Flappy Bird for about 5 minutes, and stopped playing because it's a bad ripoff of Helicopter Game.

Yes, it has birds in it. That's it, that's all that's good about it. Except that it isn't good, it's awful. The hit boxes of both the bird and the pipes you have to avoid are about 1mm out of what they should be, meaning that it's virtually impossible to avoid the pipes. 

When you do manage to avoid the pipes, the game makes a sound that's suspiciously similar to the coin block sound from every Mario game ever, and the fact the pipes are identical also irritates me.

To control the flappy bird, you tap the screen. Unlike Helicopter Game, you have to tap continuously. So, the difference between this game and Helicopter Game are as follows:

• You control a bird, not a helicopter
• You avoid pipes, not random floating islands
• You have to tap continuously to stay airborne
• And, finally, it's a phone game rather than an online flash game.

The background changes from day to night and the bird colours change, which is nice. But this isn't a game, it's a waste of time. Yes, it's addictive, but the whole aim of the game seems to be just to get you to beat your high score.

**Note: apparently the creator of Flappy Bird has decided to remove it from app stores. A very odd move considering it was making him quite a bit of money with ad revenue. He may claim that it has nothing to do with legal reasons, but I can't see any other reason to pull a very successful game.*

MmRed

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Ur-Quan Masters HD

This is an interesting free game I found when roaming around the internet. Based on the sourcecode of Star Control II, originally published in 1992, this game has a truly retro feel to it.

A Spathi, one of the alien races you encounter.

The basis of the game

You are a member of a world once colonized by humans, and you must journey back to Earth in order to either help your people or to save humanity (you don't know which is more relevant at the start). Upon reaching Earth, you'll notice that the planet appears to be red- don't worry, it's not become radioactive, it's under a slave shield! Your new mission is to save Earth and free humanity from the clutches of the evil Ur-Quan.

An adventure/ space exploration game

The game revolves around exploring space and making allies/ defeating enemies. You have to build a fleet of ships and ensure that you bring the Ur-Quan to their (equivalent of) knees!

My opinion of the game

I really enjoy Ur-Quan masters HD and I feel that if you're into space-based games or just looking to play a nice game, you should go for this one.

Download it here.

Also, remember to save regularly. And if you have an issue with the game opening after first run, try running it as administrator!

MmRed

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