Sports Video Game Review: Air Hockey-e

Air Hockey-e is an air hockey game by Nintendo. Like real-life air hockey, it is a simple game but is also quite addicting.

In 2001, Nintendo released an add-on for the Game Boy Advance that had a novel way of playing games or adding features to existing games. This device was the e-Reader, not to be confused with the book-reading devices of the same name.

The e-Reader was a scanning device that read cards with a unique dot code system created by Olympus Optical. The dot codes on the cards contained games, add-ons for Nintendo games such as Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3, and even complete Nintendo Entertainment System games.

One of the single card games was Air Hockey-e. In 2002, back when Toys Я Us stores still were a thing in the United States, they handed these cards out for free as a promotion for the e-Reader, which was required to play the game. In 2003, Air Hockey-e was also released in Australia, as a pack-in with every e-Reader purchase.

I was lucky enough to own a Nintendo e-Reader plus a Toys Я Us store near me that participated in the promotion. It is a single-card game that is played by scanning two dot codes into the e-Reader, which then saves the game to the device's memory. Games of this type were simple games that used the hardware of the Game Boy Advance, whereas five card games were Nintendo Entertainment System games that were played on an emulator contained within the e-Reader.

Despite its simplicity, it is an accurate, colorful representation of Air Hockey, which is a game a puck hovers slightly above the playing field on a blanket of air. There are two players, each with a paddle. The trick is to get the puck into the opponent's goal, which is a hole in the middle of the walls of the playfield, representing the net of standard hockey.

As this game uses air, it has a floaty quality as the puck moves slower than it would without wind resistance. That is captured well in this game. The graphics are bright and cheery, with a white and blue speckled playing field with the e-Reader logo positioned in the middle of the center line. The bright graphics make the game easy to distinguish, even on the older models of the Game Boy Advance which didn't have a backlight, which was all of them at the time of this game's release.

The puck was yellow, the opponent's paddle was green, and the player's paddle was red. This wouldn't be as easy to distinguish for people with red/green colorblindness. Thankfully the colors represent the paddles, which aren't allowed to cross the center line, so this won't cause a problem. The AI is not too challenging, but I'm not an air hockey expert, so I did lose the game to the CPU a few times.

Air Hockey-e was a great demonstration of what the e-Reader was capable of doing. It contained a music track that was composed of pleasing electronic drum beats, sound effects, and a well-coded artificial intelligence inside of an accurate representation of air hockey. It is a no-frills experience, but so is real air hockey. 

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Free Shoot 'Em Up Review: Zeplis

Zeplis is a free shoot 'em-up created by Yasuyuki Suzuki for the Sharp MZ series. It was released in the February 1985 issue of the Japanese computer magazine PiO.

Like most games of its era, Zeplis didn't contain an in-game storyline. However, on Suzuki's website, he outlines the story as taking place in the-then future of 2013. As Earth was about to be invaded by aliens, the Federation Defense Forces, five experimental fighter jets were sent to fight off the force. However, with four of them destroyed, the last jet pilot is the last hope for the human race.

It is a fixed-screen shoot 'em up in the vain of Galaga. Like that game, the goal is to defeat all of the enemies flying in formation. A boss battle is at the end of each stage where the goal is to destroy the mothership before it destroys you. 

A challenging stage follows the regular stages. The goal is to shoot as many of the enemies as possible. If a perfect score is earned, a power-up will be earned. Earning the power-ups for the first two stages will award two extra shots for a total of three.  These extra shots will remain until the game is over.

The game works on the Sharp MZ-80K, MZ-80C, MZ-1200, MZ-700, and MZ-1500. It has the black and white, or black and green graphics of the early MZ models. The graphics are well done, considering its early arcade inspirations as well as the capabilities of the hardware. The keyboard keys used by the game will differ based on the hardware. Early models use the letter keys whereas the later models use the cursor keys.

Like the early arcade shoot 'em-ups Zeplis was based upon, the game is easy to pick up and play and highly replayable. As it's an early computer game, getting the game up and running isn't as easy as playing it due to the fact it is run from the command line. If you have the means to play it, whether on authentic hardware, an emulator, an FPGA system, or the PasocomMini MZ-80C, it could be worth playing.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Free Open-Source City-Building Game Mega Review: SimCity/Micropolis

Maxis is well known for its simulation games. The game that started the company was SimCity, the game that popularized the city-building subgenre of simulation games.

The object of the game is to build a functioning city. Residential, commercial, and industrial districts have to be created, as well as either coal or nuclear energy to power them. Public transportation, as well as police and fire departments, need to be built as well. The way these elements have to be placed requires strategy because coal and industrial districts raise pollution. The citizens of the city in the residential districts need these districts at which to shop and work, or else people won't move into the city. Industrial districts raise crime, so police districts need to be placed throughout the city or else people will move out of the city due to high crime. High pollution will also cause people to leave the city.

A finite amount of money is available, so these elements have to be purchased in a fiscally responsible way. At the end of each in-game year, the population will be shown to have grown or shrunk. Negative amounts of growth cause a loss of money. If there isn't enough money to pay them, city functions like police, transportation, and fire department funding will go down. Taxes can be charged to mitigate loss, but if it is raised too high, people will move out of the city.

As the city grows, the citizens request special buildings such as airports, seaports, and gaming stadiums. These are much more expensive than regular buildings and districts, so it will likely be a while before the money is ready to purchase these unless the money has been saved over several years.

There are disasters, both natural and supernatural, that can wreck the city that need your intervention such as earthquakes, fires, floods, monster attacks, nuclear meltdowns, plane crashes, shipwrecks, and tornadoes. These appear at different years throughout the city. Every disaster, plus monster attacks, excluding nuclear meltdowns and shipwrecks, can be let loose at any time by selecting it from the menu. 

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System version is my personal favorite version of the game. The objects to be placed are larger, there's a helper character named after Will Wright, the creator of SimCity, and there are new objects to be placed. These include a house for the mayor, a zoo, a casino, an amusement park, an expo, a police headquarters building, a fire department headquarters building, a big park, a bank, a central railroad station, a landfill, a library, a windmill, and a library.  There are also Nintendo-specific additions and changes. Once the city becomes a megapolis, a Mario statue can be placed. Additionally, the monster attack is changed to an attack by Bowser, King of the Koopa.

The source code and game data for the original SimCity were released as Micropolis, Will Wright's working title for the game. This version has everything from the original SimCity except for the plane crash disaster, which was removed because of September 11, 2001, the date of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the United States.

SimCity is an important historical game since it popularized the city-building genre of video games. It is a slow-paced game compared to modern titles, even on the fastest setting, but it is still fun. I recommend playing the Super Nintendo version in an emulator, as you get the Nintendo-added extras and the ability to fast-forward the game to make the years go by less slowly.

Final Verdict:

4½ of 5

Arcade Maze Game Review: Heiankyo Alien

Heiankyo Alien is an interesting game. It's a maze game that predates Pac-Man that was created by the Theoretical Science Group of the University of Tokyo. It isn't a classic like Pac-Man, and the game doesn't have the grab-and-play mechanics of that game either. However, once the game mechanics are understood, it's enjoyable to play.

The game features a Heian-period police officer who protects the capital city by digging holes to trap aliens and then shoveling dirt on top of them. The gameplay is to dig a hole, lure an alien, and then fill the hole back up before the alien escapes and grabs you. Holes can be dug up to three times. The deeper the hole, the longer the alien stays in it. However, it also takes longer to fill the deep holes too.

I've heard about this game before, because of its historical significance as an early maze game. I hadn't had an opportunity to try it, however, until I picked up the PasocomMini MZ-80C. This console contains the original version of the game for the NEC MZ series. I can see why Denki Onkyō decided to adapt it for the arcade market, and why Sega/Gremlin opted to release it in North America.

It does have an arcade quality to it. Heiankyo Alien drops you right into the game. Without any knowledge of how the game works beforehand, it takes a while to get used to the mechanics. Once the mechanics are understood, it is mostly a fun experience, but the mechanics of the game are a bit wonky, and takes a while to get used to them.

Heiankyo Alien, without a doubt, is a game with historical significance. It is one of the first maze games, and it is fun once you get used to the mechanics. It doesn't reach the levels of the pinnacle of the genre, Pac-Man, as it's not a pick-up-and-play game with infinite replayability. However, if you are a fan of maze games, it might be worth playing.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

System Review: PasocomMini MZ-80C

PasocomMini was a series by HAL Laboratory to make mini consoles designed after computers which were popular in Japan. The first console was modeled on the Sharp MZ-80C.

It used a Raspberry Pi 1 A+ board inside a plastic shell that closely resembled the computer on which it was designed. It included a Micro SD card which contained the custom HAL Monitor operating system, a custom version of SmileBASIC, and five games.

SmileBASIC uses the hardware of the PasocomMini MZ-80C, which allows DS, 3DS, and Switch SmileBASIC programs to be adapted, entered by hand or via a text file, compiled, and run with full color and sound on the system. The HAL Monitor system, accessible by pressing F11 on a USB keyboard, displayed green graphics on a black background of the original MZ-80C system. The included games can be accessed by entering LD, then Enter. This brings up a simple graphical user interface that can be navigated using a USB mouse or by using the arrow keys and the Enter button on a USB keyboard.

The system is strictly nostalgic as the amount of included games is quite low and the green screen is only appealing to gamers of a certain age. That said, the included games are actually quite fun. 

Heiankyo Alien, created by the Theoretical Science Group of the University of Tokyo, was a game that was popular enough to be ported to multiple systems and released worldwide as Digger. It is a maze game that was originally released in 1979, a year before Pac-Man. The object of the game is to dig holes in the ground, trap aliens, and then use the shovel to pile dirt on top.

Cosmic Cavern, known in Japan as The Biggest Underground Operation in the Universe, was developed by Takaya Aria and released in 1980. It was the first sandbox game wherein bases of any shape are built by digging. It then becomes a defense game as the base needs to be defended.

HAL Laboratory also developed a game included in the console, Jupiter Lander, which was released in 1981. As the name implies, it is a Lunar Lander game where the object is to safely land, using thrusters, on the surface of Jupiter.

The last two games are Zeplis and its sequel Zeldis, which were developed and released by Yasuyuki Suzuki in 1985 and 1986, respectively. They were horizontally scrolling shoot 'em-up games set in space.

PasocomMini MZ-80C is an interesting curio, but that's about all. It didn't have as long a retail life as the PasocomMini PC-8001, so it is fairly uncommon. Because of that, it tends to fetch a hefty price. Five games, a custom emulator, and SmileBASIC don't really elevate this beyond more than an original series Raspberry Pi in a cool-looking shell.

January 9, 2022 Addendum: A mandatory USB keyboard and optional USB mouse, as well as the USB power plug, are not included with the system.

Final Verdict:

2½ out of 5