Instagram story viewer> @weaponsigma> Tagged
Steve Schofield(@weaponsigma)'s profile avatar HD Profile

Steve Schofield

@weaponsigma

470
followers
599
following
Nerd/Geek (See posts below).
Occasional musician and artist.
Doing it all for the nookie since the 1990's.
Villain.
POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED
Beast Busters - Commodore Amiga Version from 1992! It’s #amigasunday with the downright beastly @garygillgaming , plus it’s #31DaysInTheCrypt with the notorious buster @king_lizzard . This one is also very worthy of #amigaboxart and #RetroBoxArt with the terrifyingly undead @jimmylovesretro and my horribly mutated self… I’ve featured this one before, some time ago, but as it’s one of my favourite arcade ‘on-rails’ shooters, the horror continues once again, with my near-minty copy of the Amiga version, including both disks, fold-out poster/manual the 1991 activision mini-catalog and even the receipt for £7.99 😁 I played the arcade version quite a few times back in the 90s, with its distinctive cabinet featuring realistic UZI’s with force feedback mounted on the front, it was an impressive beast. Though I never quite managed pump in the time and money to complete it in the arcade (plus I would probably have ended up with some sort of repetitive strain injury!). So playing the Amiga version was the next best thing. Graphically it looks pretty decent and playability wise, thanks to mouse-based controls it’s actually feels pretty reactive and fun to play. But the most obviously lacking feature is the sound, if memory serves, it basically has the title music (which sounds decidedly iffy in parts), plus a grand total of TWO sound effects, one gun fire and one scream. This gets pretty repetitive and it’s arguably more fun with the sound turned off! I did actually complete this a few times on the Amiga especially in 2-player co-op, but do remember thinking that some bits, such as the final boss battle seemed almost too brief. Fast forward to the early 2000’s and the age of emulation and I finally got chance to complete the arcade version. Only then did I realise how much was actually missing from the Amiga version in terms of both content and polish. That final boss battle in the arcade is a multi-layered encounter as your enemy is partially defeated, then changes and adapts before attacking again. (Continued in the Comments)
14
Download
Darkstalkers Tribute by Udon books from 2009, plus Bishoujo Felicia & Morrigan from 2022! It’s #31DaysInTheCrypt and it’s #fightinggamefriday with that well known denizen of the darkness @king_lizzard! So here’s a few items from one of my favourite 2D fighting game series outside of Street Fighter - Capcom’s Darkstalkers (AKA ‘Vampire’ in Japan). You’ll no doubt have noticed the Felicia and Morrigan statues from Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo series who have joined us for some #ToysGoneGaming and also for some #ToysGoneDrawing we have the amazing ‘Darkstalkers Tribute’ art book by Udon books, which was originally released way back in 2009. This book came to be after Udon held a global Darkstalkers art contest for the series 15th Anniversary and received no less than 2072 entries from fans and artists around the world. 179 winning entries were selected to appear alongside well known anime, comic & Capcom artists including J. Scott Campbell, Adam Hughes, Jo Chen and more. The book has 298 pages and is crammed cover to cover with amazing artworks in a huge range of styles, from the series anime-style roots, to comic book, cute, abstract, realistic, drawn, painted and even 3D (including sculptures and even knitted characters)! It’s one of those books that you can regularly flick through and spot something you’ve never seen before each time. I’ve even spotted artworks by artists that I wasn’t familiar with at the time of buying the book. But have since discovered their work. These include Warren Louw, Genzoman, Omar Dogan and more. As mentioned earlier we also have the two Bishoujo statues of iconic Darkstalkers characters Felicia and Morrigan. Both of these were released in 2023 and were based on concept artwork by Shunya Yamashita (swipe to the later slides). These are without a doubt some of the best Darkstalkers and anime statues out there, brilliantly stylised and sculpted by ‘Comaccow’, there’s an absolute ton of detail, from Felicia’s oversized anime hair, to the texture of Morrigan’s leathery bat-wings. As tribute items to a great fighting game series, these are about as good as it gets!💪😎🦇🔥💯
28
Download
Zombi - Commodore Amiga version from 1990! It’s #amigasunday with that renowned denizen of the undead @garygillgaming plus it’s #31DaysInTheCrypt with the heavily armed @king_lizzard so let’s step forward into the apocalypse with UBIsoft’s Zombi… Released in 1990, the Amiga version of Zombi is actually a port of the 1986 Amstrad CPC game, featuring more colourful graphics and improved sound. It was also ported to the Atari ST, Dos PCs, Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum. The game is in essence a point & click adventure version of George A Romero’s movie ‘Dawn of the Dead’, which itself was called ‘Zombi’ in some European countries. The game begins with a group of four people who have landed their helicopter on the roof of a shopping mall, which you must explore using your team and solve puzzles along the way. The game’s team is not a carbon copy of the movie characters though, instead they are named after the game’s developers. Unfortunately the game gives you very little help with figuring out what you need to do, instead it is very reliant on the fact that you have watched the movie. The ultimate goal is to find more fuel for your helicopter and take off again, but there are a multitude of tasks you’ll need to perform along the way, whilst all the time avoiding or taking down the zombies who stray into the shopping mall with a headshot from a firearm, or (less than ideal) old fashioned fisticuffs 👊 The game involves a lot of trial and error with a large amounts of clicking on virtually everything to see if it can be picked up, used or activated. Back in the day I meticulously explored the entire game and drew out the playfield as a series of grid-based maps, these included multiple floors of the shopping mall itself, its basement and the outside perimeter. Which revealed that you can safely walk within one square around the outside of the mall, but step outside of that and you’ll be greeted with a zombie horde. It also revealed that there are three trucks, one for each entrance, which can be moved to prevent zombies from entering the mall. (Continued in the Comments)
31
Download
#VersionVs - The Addams Family 1992 - Amiga Vs SNES Versions! It’s #amigasunday with the the mysterious @garygillgaming plus it’s also #31DaysInTheCrypt with the spooky @king_lizzard and of course it must also be time for another #amigaboxart and #RetroBoxArt with the altogether ooky @jimmylovesretro as well as my neat, sweet & petite self 🤔 You’ll also spot a guest appearance from Gomez’ Fez and ‘Thing’ himself, though he is looking a bit rough these days… The Addams Family was released on a multitude of platforms in 1992 by Ocean software and is loosely based on the 1991 movie. The basic plot sees Gomez exploring the huge family home and grounds in order to track down and rescue all the members of his family who have been kidnapped and imprisoned by Abigail Craven, The Judge and Tulley Alford who are trying to steal the Addams family fortune. It was originally intended to be a puzzle game, but after Paramount requested that Ocean develop a platformer for the snes, all the other versions followed suit and had the same format, however some of them did have differences… Today we’re going to investigate the SNES and Amiga versions and see how they compare! Graphically both of these versions are very similar, with chunky stylised sprites, vivid colours, wacky enemies and some nice animation. However there is one major difference, Parallax Scrolling… The Amiga version’s backgrounds are largely black empty voids, however the SNES version fills these dark spaces with colourful details that give each area additional depth. From moonlit tree silhouettes to dungeon-like chains & barred doors, plus even huge statues and stained glass windows. Sound-wise however both games seem almost exactly the same. Despite using completely different audio systems, the tones of the music and distinctive sound effects are virtually identical. The major only difference I noticed was some of the timing, especially on the intro where thing beckons you into his box, though I think this may be caused by the slight delay of loading from floppy disk on the Amiga version. (Continued in the Comments)
45
Download
The Monster Squad - Original VHS (1987) & 20th Anniversary DVD (2007)! It’s #31DaysInTheCrypt with @king_lizzard so it’s once again that time of year where I give a glimpse of my true form whilst I handle some of the more horrifying parts of my collection! So cast your strained and bloodshot eyes over this delightful dose of 1980s Horror/Adventure/Comedy - The Monster Squad from 1987! I don’t ever remember this appearing in cinemas in the uk, but I discovered it randomly sometime around 1990 when I found the VHS copy shown above in a random ‘bargains’ shop which had opened in a disused church of all places… I remember buying it just because I liked the #RetroBoxArt , but on getting home and watching it I was amazed by an absolute gem of a film that I’d never heard of. The VHS copy above is actually an ex-rental copy, but amazingly it was (and still is) in immaculate condition. The vivid red case and that red strip on the front of the case makes it look really distinctive and apparently quite sought after. Upon digging it out again recently I was quite surprised that it actually has a 15 rating too. I got the DVD version back in 2007, which is a U.S. release for the film’s 20th anniversary. It’s a double disc release with commentaries, deleted scenes and remastered audio & video. Directed by Fred Dekker and co-written by Shane Black, It seems that the movie is much better known in the U.S. but I’ve mentioned it to countless people in the U.K. over the years and hardly any had heard of it. In essence this sits somewhere between The Goonies and Ghostbusters with a plot based around a group of kids who are obsessed with the classic Universal movie monsters. But when club leader Sean is given the diary of Abraham Van Helsing, it reveals that these monsters actually exist and that they have been recruited by Dracula to recover an ancient amulet with the power to take over the world! The team enlists help from friends, siblings, their neighbour ‘Scary German Guy’ and one rogue monster in order to battle the Dracula and his minions in a series of equally terrifying and hilarious encounters. (Continued in the Comments)
33
Download
Wing Commander & Dangerous Streets- AmigaCD32 Bundle version from 1993 It’s #amigasunday with Squadron Leader @garygillgaming and this week we have a CD32 bundle game CD that is a *Very* mixed bag. The #amigaboxart and #RetroBoxArt on the game itself largely non-existent too, however the original bundle box for the CD32 Console did have a nice enough comic-style cover that might just be enough to pique the interest of @jimmylovesretro (See last image)🤔 So let’s start with Wing Commander (which I’ll say right now is the *only* good reason this CD is worth owning). WC is pretty highly regarded among Space Combat sims, however the original Amiga release, when run on a stock A500, was an incredibly sluggish experience. However, running the game on the A1200 or in this case CD32 was much more enjoyable. Firstly the game utilises 256 Colour graphics and is noticeably smoother and faster, the CD version also offers faster loading than the Floppy Disk based original, so is clearly a winner. The controls do take some getting used to on the CD32 pad, with the top L & R buttons becoming like ‘shift’ keys that toggle different controls to the face buttons. Given the lack of a keyboard as standard on the CD32, this is actually a pretty ingenious solution for a game with a ton of options. Apparently there’s also a modded version called Wing Commander Enhanced, which gives the CD32 game support for the connection of an A4000 keyboard or PC keyboard with an adapter, so it can be played like the original release. I did notice a little slowdown on the Asteroid based stages, but to be honest that’s a small niggle on what is otherwise an enjoyable port. However, for every sober Yin, there is a raging Yang. Which is in this case, the rage-inducing Dangerous Streets. Some of you may remember my post on the A500 version of this from last year. A game that I swore I would never buy again, yet here we are. But at least it’s only the bundle version. As you probably all know, I’m a big fan of Fighting games in all their weird & wonderful forms, plus I always try to find some positive aspects to most games, but I must admit that I struggle with this one. (Cont’d in the Comments)
38
Download
Zoku: The Legend of Bishin - Super Famicom Version from 1993! It’s #fightinggamefriday with the heavy-hitting @king_lizzard plus it’s #snestember with the notorious post-apocalyptic biker @ezee_pz . It’s time to buff-up your leathers, supercharge your engine and take to the mean streets of Neo Tokyo with another obscure but awesome SFC game - Zoku: The Legend of Bishin. Also, prepare yourselves for epic #retroboxart ! Developed by ‘Magifact’ in 1993, this one is particularly unique as it’s a combination of a Final Fight style beat-em-up, combined with driving sequences that mash up elements of games like Spy Hunter and F-Zero. The plot revolves around an all-female biker gang known as The Bishin, who rose to dominate the landscape of Neo Tokyo after the great depression of 2010 and Mount Fuji’s eruption in 2020. The two main characters are Koji (a former professional boxer) and Risa (a former member of the Bishin, who left the gang). Whichever character you choose will result in your partner being kidnapped by Ryoko the Leader of the Bishin and thus you must race through various maze-like landscapes in your super cool Cobra 429 car in order to reach a set destination within the time limit, take on that area’s boss and to try and track down your missing partner. If your vehicle suffers extensive damage on route, then you’ll have to get out and fight on foot in one of the game’s beat-em-up levels. Here you’ll be relentlessly pursued by Bishin gang members who of course will need to be pummelled into submission. Each area has its own theme and boss character including Desert (with boss Lidera) Forest (bosses: Roller and Dozer), Volcano (boss: Lei-Fan), Super-highway (boss: Miki & Aki), Construction area (boss: Miyabi), Bayside Highway (boss: Flare), and the Streets of Neo-Tokyo (Final boss: Ryoko). There’s also a versus ‘battle mode’ which focuses just on the fighting aspect and features the two main characters and the game’s bosses. (Continued in the Comments)
45
Download
Batman - Commodore Amiga version (1989) and Batman Returns- Super Nintendo Version (1993)! Holy double-whammy bat-fans! It’s #amigasunday with that darkest of knights @garygillgaming and it’s also #snestember with the boy wonder @ezee_pz I’ll also put this one forward for @amigaboxart and @retroboxart with eloquently Alfred-like @jimmylovesretro and my cave-dwelling self. Hopefully somewhere in the world it’s still #batmanday so I thought I’d take the opportunity to celebrate all these hashtags with my two all-time favourite Batman games. You’ll also spot my son’s Kenner Animated Series Batman on the Batcycle joining in for a little #ToysGoneGaming The first game was created as a tie-in game for the ‘89 movie it does an admirable job of roughly following the movie’s plot, whilst adding a little artistic license to create a multi-faceted game that has some delightfully varied levels. It is in essence a mix of platform, puzzle and driving stages based on scenes from the movie. It’s easy to pick up, but challenging to progress. However it is finishable with practice and the Batmobile driving stage is particularly of note for its Chase HQ-like sheer awesomeness 🤩. As for the sequel, the Amiga did receive its own version of Batman Returns, but unfortunately it can’t hold a candle to the SNES game featured here, which is very distinctly SNES styled throughout with superb graphics and atmosphere. This one largely takes the form of a Final Fight style scrolling beat-em-up based around scenes from the movie. The gameplay feels really solid and hard-hitting right from the off. Batman can unleash some devastating combos, throws and screen-clearing test-tube bombs, but I’m also pleased to report that this game also has its own Batmobile stage which plays exactly like an upgraded version of the one from the Amiga game. It’s furiously fast, and this time has you taking down the biker gang members as you race across Gotham in pursuit of the Penguin’s campaign van. 🚐 (Continued in the Comments)
49
Download
Transformers G1 Aerialbot Silverbolt from 1984! Here’s my long overdue Aerialbot Silverbolt post which just so happens to fit in quite nicely for this year’s #transformersday 😉 Like the other Aerialbots, Silverbolt’s body was created using an earth vehicle as a template and given a spark by The super computer Vector Sigma on Cybertron. But much like his comrades he developed a personality with a curious flaw, a distinct fear of heights… Despite his fears, Optimus Prime recognised the positive aspects of Silverbolt’s persona, immediately seeing that he did not consider himself ‘superior’ like some of the others. Hence Prime chose Silverbolt as the commander of the Aerialbot team which both helped him influence the other members and overcome his own phobia. He demonstrated this by pursuing Megatron in a high altitude chase, ultimately resulting in the destruction of the key to Vector Sigma. Despite failing from the sky he was saved by Slingshot who valued his courageous efforts. Silverbolt transforms into a likeness of the iconic Concorde SST Jet, which seems very fitting for leader. Like the rest of his team he was originally designed as part of the pre-transformers Diaclone sub-line ‘Jizai Gattai’ meaning ‘Limitless Combination’. The premise of these toys was to allow combinations from any of the combiner teams. And although they were never successfully launched as Diaclone toys, the premise carried over very well into the Transformers, where we would get quite a few combiner teams. Interestingly, Silverbolt is effectively a triple changer too. Ever wonder what the ramp accessory is for? It attaches to his base mode, which, if you skipped reading the instructions, you would probably never have realised existed. (Swipe through the photos for a better look) It would originally have had a spring-loaded launcher to give the other Aerialbots a bit of a boost. But as with pretty much all of the spring-loaded launchers from Diaclone toys, it was nullified by removing the spring. (Continued in the Comments)
33
Download
Panza Kick Boxing - Commodore Amiga Version from 1991! It’s #amigasunday with the high-kicking @garygillgaming 🦶, plus I’ll include this as a slightly late entry for #fightinggamefriday with the hard-hitting @king_lizzard 👊 It would also be dishonourable to not include this for #amigaboxart and #RetroBoxArt with that master of the low-blow @jimmylovesretro 😣 and my ‘slumped unconscious in the corner’ self 😵‍💫 You’ll also notice that the Jada Toys version of Street Fighter’s resident kick-boxer; Deejay has joined in for some #ToysGoneGaming 👍 Panza Kick Boxing was developed by French software house ‘Future’ and originally published by ‘Loricels’ in France. It was then later published by ‘Kixx’ in other EU countries and ‘NEC’ in the U.S. As the name suggests, the game was endorsed by Kick Boxing champion André Panza who provided technical advice on the game’s movesets and appears as the final opponent. The gameplay itself is quite unique in the Fighting games genre. As it essentially allows you to build your character from scratch and improve them as you go. There are 56 superbly animated attack moves which are based on realistic kickboxing moves (no projectiles here, sorry Deejay 😉). You can pick a selection to assign to your player’s controls, these are performed with a combination of a button press and a joystick direction. The game also allows you to improve your character’s stats and abilities by training them in the gym between fights. You can enhance Strength, Resistance and Reflexes, which will gradually improve their performance in the ring. The fights take place in a kickboxing arena complete with a ring, audience seating, referee and stadium style lighting. Interestingly, the lighting doubles up as effectively representing your energy bar, with the individual lights on your side dimming and going out the more hits you take. Once you’ve taken too many, it’s literally lights out 💥 But if you take down your opponent you can continue to progress and ultimately take on André Panza himself. (Continued in the comments)
59
Download
Alien Breed Tower Assault - Amiga CD32 Version from 1994! It’s #amigasunday with expert xenomorph hunter @garygillgaming, not to mention #amigaboxart and #RetroBoxArt with the darkness-dwelling, hive-minded @jimmylovesretro and my thoroughly cocooned self. So today we’re going to take a look at another of the finest entries in the CD32’s game library, plus this also coincides nicely with @officialcommodore ‘s announcement of an upcoming re-release. But most importantly there’s also a bit of a story behind getting hold of this one… Shortly after I got my CD32 earlier this year, I spotted a big-box for this very game on eBay for a very reasonable price, plus I had also seen an unboxed copy of the game at the same local retro shop where I got the CD32 itself, so in a bid to get the game for a ‘less than usual’ price I set a plan in motion and nabbed the big box. But upon my return to the shop to strike up a deal on the game, I was somewhat miffed to find it had sold the day before I got there. Fudge… So playing the long game as I often do, I kept an eye on eBay and eventually spotted a copy at a reasonable price just last week. But then there was a further twist, as the seller turned out to be none other than my good insta-chum @jimmylovesretro who then offered to send me the game for free! Apparently I’d been quite helpful with his various retro setup woes, (me, helpful? 🤔😆). Sure enough the game arrived just a couple of days ago, so it only seems proper to give it a rundown on this fine #amigasunday . Many thanks Jimmy 💪😎 Anyhoo, returning to the game itself, I’ve been a big fan of the Alien Breed games ever since the first one appeared on the A500 back in 1991. This is one genre of gaming that both the Amiga and CD32 seem to handle very well. Tower Assault is the third game in the series and the story begins with an IPC starship receiving a distress signal from a nearby research facility, thus sending in a squadron of troops to investigate, unfortunately the Tower base’s automated security systems are still active and destroy the entire squadron apart from you and your partner who crash land outside the towers. (Continued in the Comments)
53
Download
Barravento - Commodore Amiga version from 1993! Ay caramba! It’s #amigasunday with that rhythmic rebel @garygillgaming plus it’s a slightly belated #fightinggamefriday with the highly unpredictable @king_lizzard The keen eyed among you will also have spotted that Christie Monteiro from Tekken has joined in for some #ToysGoneGaming but keep reading to find out why… So my quest to uncover the best, worst and most obscure home computer fighting games continues with the wacky wonder known as “Barravento: O Mestre Da Capoeira” which roughly translates as Barravento: The Capoeira Master. So this is obviously not a Tekken spin-off, but it is based around Christie’s Brazilian martial art of Capoeira. Developed by Hitek Software, the game was exclusively released in Brazil, making it incredibly obscure and difficult to find. I don’t often post non-original copies of games, but in all honesty I’ve never even seen photo of a box or disk for this game, all that I’ve found is the advertisement shown in the photos plus the copied disk version a friend gave me in college many years ago… So the game itself is a very mixed bag, graphically it looks to be on an 8-bit level with a kind-of sub-IK+ styling to the characters that really shouldn’t have been the norm for a 1993 game on the Amiga. The backgrounds also look like photos that have been butchered into 8-colour gif images. However, the game’s animation is actually quite good, it looks very much like its’s been rotoscoped and drawn over real Capoeira fighters, who rhythmically and smoothly dance around the stages, transitioning into various attacks. But unfortunately the actual gameplay does not have the same level of polish. Firstly, there is only one opponent in the entire game, who is in essence the same sprite as yourself but with a bald head and beard. Naturally he has some nice palette-swap trousers too which he changes with each round for some variety. (Continued in the Comments)
40
Download
back to up