Americans love a good monkey tale. From the legendary “King Kong” to “Planet of the Apes”, and other various cartoons, movies and television shows based on apes & monkeys. Americans are fascinated with these hairy creatures. So when Midway’s Pac-Man craze was...

I'm going to be blunt, the kind of blunt that comes from years of making my way through the trenches of gaming consumerism, and is delivered with the tone of one of those "back in my day" speeches. Today's video game advertising is neutered. Sure we get bombarded with...

It’s 1993. The Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis are warring over territory. The industry is growing and a name from the past aims to recapture what it once owned. The tactic? Raw power. The play? Hail Mary. The player? Atari. Atari made one last comeback attempt into...

The Pink Panther was born in the opening sequence of the eponymous 1963 United Artists film comedy starring David Niven and Peter Sellers. However, in the film, the Pink Panther was the name of a priceless jewel that thief David Niven was determined to pilfer and the...

1972 was a very boring year. I Googled it and it was utterly depressing. The free spirit of the 60‟s was coming to an end, calculators were $150, and I wasn't born yet. It was simply a very bad year. Luckily, in 1973, NASA decided to take a break from the unimportant...

For Atari in the late 70s, the phrase, ―10 Years Ahead of Its Time‖ best describes the Atari 800 computer. To help bring the arcade home in the early ̳80‘s, Atari used the technology of their Atari 400 computer for the new Atari 5200 Game system, the best phrase to...

Enough green already, sheesh! I don‘t know about you, but when I see or hear those words...Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...I can‘t help but sing the whole song whether it‘s in my head or out loud! In fact, I‘ve sang it so much that my...

Let me first tell you that this series of reviews was originally published in the Retrogaming Times, and then continued into the Retrogaming Times Monthly magazines. [Editor’s note: Retrogaming Times Monthly is a GREAT magazine, check out Alan’s Bio on the contents...

The early-to-mid 1990's were an amazing time if you were a video gamer. For starters, there were a LOT of options for your gaming dollar. At the turn of the decade, the market was bombarded by a flood of companies, all eager to take a slice of the freshly baked and...

There‘s a saying on the Internet that goes something like this: If you laugh, no one sees. If you cry, no one cares. But fart just one time.... The editor wanted an article on the history of Nintendo‘s Virtual Boy game system, and the request landed on my desk with a...

When Roger Ebert said that he doesn’t believe video games can be art, the Internet went into an uproar. Bloggers flipped. Message boards howled. And choice three, four, and five letter words were tossed at Mr. Ebert, who probably never received said messages. And here...

Anyone who keeps ear toward the industry knows that sex is a hot topic for video games. Brenda Brathwaite, for example, has in the past vocalized her desire to see more sex in games. But despite the allegations that games should be considered on equal footing as film,...

Ever read the saying on a T-Shirt that happened to get your mind turning, pondering its meaning? I'm not talking about something quite profound like the secret of the universe or something as important like asking if I saved a seal today or if I'm aware of [insert...

Hello all, if my inbox is going to be filled with hate mail, here it comes. I hate shoot em ups (smups) games. I mean I can’t stand planning them at all. I see them in an arcade, plunk in a quarter or two, and then get bored with them. For some reason whenever I bring...