Retro Gaming Australia

Blue Stinger is quite an oddball survival horror game that was released as part of the Dreamcast launch lineup in North America and Europe. Originally released by Sega in Japan, it was picked up by Activision for its western release. Said non-Japanese release changed the game’s camera to a more standard 3rd person camera, which some felt removed some of the dramatic tension of the original version.

Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands have been released on just about every platform around. This particular ad was for the PC, PlayStation and Saturn release in 1996. This release is infamous for outing the fact that Taito had lost the original source code for Bubble Bobble – developer Probe was sent an original PCB and had to piece the game together from that.

After Burner was a smash hit in the arcades, prompting Sega to license and/or port it to every format under the sun. This flyer is from the release of the Mark III/Sega Master System version. While technically deficient, the SMS version of the game does have some rather neat boss fights.

Crazy Taxi 3 is the somewhat maligned final numbered entry in the Crazy Taxi series. Originally an Xbox exclusive, it was released to Arcades as the Chihiro driven Crazy Taxi: High Roller, with a PC release following years later. The game takes some of the maps from the first two games and throws in the new Vegas-inspired map, Glitter Oasis.

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance was part of the first wave of “good” games for the PlayStation 2 in late 2001, following a kind of lacking launch lineup. It’s relatively light as far as RPGs go, but it really shines in co-op.

After Sega discontinued the Dreamcast, they spread their development efforts across the competing consoles. One of the titles the Xbox got was Jet Set Radio Future, a sequel to the cult hit Jet Set Radio. It’s a little bit different from the original, offering way bigger stages and a little less emphasis on tagging.

Earthworm Jim: Special Edition is an expanded version of the first game in the series which features an extra level, Big Bruty, 1,000 extra frames of animation, alternate endings and a remixed CD soundtrack. It was originally released for the Mega CD, with a Windows 95-based PC version released some months later.

Like any big name film in the late 80s and early 90s, the Warren Beatty-led incarnation of Dick Tracy received multiple video game incarnations. This ad is for the NES one which is a totally different beast to the Sega published games, focusing more on being a gumshoe than gunning down gangsters.

Berzerk is a popular arcade shooter released by Stern. It’s also remembered for the game that was being played when 19 year old Jeff Dailey died of a heart attack while playing the game.

NARC is one of Midway’s more controversial arcade hits, and, as you’d expect, a cut down version made its way home on the NES courtesy of Rare and Acclaim. The NES version had just about all references to drugs removed by virtue of Nintendo of America’s heavy handed censorship.