Retro Gaming Australia

Did you know that there were two Ghostbusters II games for the NES – one by Activision and one by HAL Laboratory? HAL’s version was never released in North America due to Activision tying up exclusivity there. Neither was particularly well received.

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.

Rampage is one of Midway’s best arcade games from the late 1980s. Its popularity resulted in it being a hot license when it came to producing home versions, which is why it’s on every console and computer format of the era. This particular ad is for the Atari 7800 version, which is not very good.

I wonder how many magazines perished as a result of this ad. None, probably.

Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions is one of those really pretty looking games that plays like an absolute dog. When it was released, it was one of the most technically impressive games around, but the gameplay was insultingly basic and quite dull. Despite being successful, Activision neglected to bring over its sequel, making Double S.T.E.A.L. 2 one of only a handful of Japanese exclusive Xbox games.

Word has come through the grapevine that a number of Activision’s Atari VCS classics such as River Raid and Pitfall! can be found in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and are fully playable.

The video above will show you all you need to know to get a taste of VCS goodness.

Via Retrospekt

Netmech is an expansion pack for Mechwarrior 2 which adds multiplayer support, either over LAN or dial-up modem. Yes, once upon a time Activision would ship games without slapped on multiplayer, even flagship titles like Mechwarrior 2.

The newly-formed mobile division over at Activision is revisiting the old Activision classic Pitfall!

Originally released back in 1982 for the Atari 2600 (and ported to just about everything else 8-bit), Pitfall! was a big success – it was the second highest selling game for the Atari 2600 and is adored by fans still to this day.

“We’ve been working on Pitfall since earlier in the year when we set up and it has been really good to revisit that and bring it to a modern audience” Activision’s Martyn Brown told MCV, keen to dispel last week’s rumours that a Call of Duty for smartphones was underway instead. “Pitfall for smartphones is a fresh take” he continued, however no details as to what this entails have yet be provided.

Pitfall! turns 30 in September of this year – 3 months ahead of me. We are old.

Pixar’s worst film, A Bug’s Life, also happens to be a subpar video game. What a surprise!

Activision Classics is a compilation of 30 of the company’s biggest 2600 hits. It’s not quite as fully featured as later Activision collections, but it was one of the biggest compilation titles when it was released.