Sut
10-30-2020, 12:01 PM
I am playing through some of Sega's older arcade games after watching Kim Justice's Sega arcade videos on YouTube made me aware of a swath of Sega games I had never played. Using a combination of Sega Mega Drive Collection for PS2 and PSP (via Vita) and Mame I decided to start with the G80 Vector board. Having never ever seen any of these in an arcade here are my thoughts.
Star Trek:
Definitely my favourite of the Vector games, you have to have your eyeballs everywhere but unlike some of the other games Star Trek eases you in with easy early rounds before it gets too overwhelming just as a good coin guzzler of this vintage should do.
Tac/Scan:
Also enjoyed this one, has a bit of a Star Jacker vibe which is one of my favourite games on the SG-1000. You have multiple ships on screen at once which represent your lives, the game also gives plenty of opportunity to acquire new ships. Minor gripes are that if you rapid fire the distance of your shots become shorter which can be annoying when the going gets hectic and the 3D sections can seem unfair on later waves as the enemy shots seem to swerve into you. Like Star Trek you can come off after a few goes in seeing all the screens and having a decent amount of play time per credit and the one more go for high score is strong here.
Zektor:
Love the atmosphere, giant robot kookiness and the very 80's voice synth, pulls on all my nostalgia cords for that decade. The play mechanics are good playing like a variation on Asteroids. But with no continues getting to see all the 8 cool robots is insanely difficult. The only way I managed it was using save states after each wave and even that took some doing ! Spoiler: the last boss is the alien from Space Fury which was cool callback. Unfortunately the difficulty was a slight turn off for me on this one, however the game was still fun.
Space Fury:
Likely predecessor to Zektor with the same Asteroids style mechanics, but here you have to defeat waves of aliens, there is a bit of strategy as after every round you dock with a ship enhancement with different shooting abilities and getting the right one for the right wave requires plenty of experimentation. Another good time for a couple of credits.
Eliminator:
This is the only one I actually really disliked, using Asteroids style mechanics once again but this time you have to destroy a giant base by firing through a narrow gap to the core. I like the concept but in reality the game is infuriating and annoying.
While I wouldn't label any of these as arcade greats, I had fun with all of them except Eliminator.
What are your guys thoughts on the G8O vector games ?
Would love to hear your opinions/memories/experiences with these games, according to Sega Retro there was a sixth game called Battlestar which hasn't been dumped yet or possibly may never have been released.
The G80 Raster games will be my next playthroughs.
Star Trek:
Definitely my favourite of the Vector games, you have to have your eyeballs everywhere but unlike some of the other games Star Trek eases you in with easy early rounds before it gets too overwhelming just as a good coin guzzler of this vintage should do.
Tac/Scan:
Also enjoyed this one, has a bit of a Star Jacker vibe which is one of my favourite games on the SG-1000. You have multiple ships on screen at once which represent your lives, the game also gives plenty of opportunity to acquire new ships. Minor gripes are that if you rapid fire the distance of your shots become shorter which can be annoying when the going gets hectic and the 3D sections can seem unfair on later waves as the enemy shots seem to swerve into you. Like Star Trek you can come off after a few goes in seeing all the screens and having a decent amount of play time per credit and the one more go for high score is strong here.
Zektor:
Love the atmosphere, giant robot kookiness and the very 80's voice synth, pulls on all my nostalgia cords for that decade. The play mechanics are good playing like a variation on Asteroids. But with no continues getting to see all the 8 cool robots is insanely difficult. The only way I managed it was using save states after each wave and even that took some doing ! Spoiler: the last boss is the alien from Space Fury which was cool callback. Unfortunately the difficulty was a slight turn off for me on this one, however the game was still fun.
Space Fury:
Likely predecessor to Zektor with the same Asteroids style mechanics, but here you have to defeat waves of aliens, there is a bit of strategy as after every round you dock with a ship enhancement with different shooting abilities and getting the right one for the right wave requires plenty of experimentation. Another good time for a couple of credits.
Eliminator:
This is the only one I actually really disliked, using Asteroids style mechanics once again but this time you have to destroy a giant base by firing through a narrow gap to the core. I like the concept but in reality the game is infuriating and annoying.
While I wouldn't label any of these as arcade greats, I had fun with all of them except Eliminator.
What are your guys thoughts on the G8O vector games ?
Would love to hear your opinions/memories/experiences with these games, according to Sega Retro there was a sixth game called Battlestar which hasn't been dumped yet or possibly may never have been released.
The G80 Raster games will be my next playthroughs.