Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of all things octogenarian… from a 20th century point of view. The SEGA Genesis is largely remembered as a 90s gaming powerhouse, but it was actually released in 1989. That makes a handful of the console’s early games babies of the 80s. Truxton (aka 達人 or Tatsujin in Japan… which means something like “expert”) is one
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since the creation of Italian sausage. It’s a truly great thing that the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: the Cowabunga Collection is now available from Konami, perhaps for me more so than anyone else on earth. It’s like a pang of guilt has been lifted from my shoulders after a decade of
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Over the weekend, homebrew game publisher Mega Cat Studios announced that an all-new retro-styled puzzle game Roniu’s Tale is now available for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Developed by Kunjee Studio, Roniu’s Tale is inspired by adventure/puzzlers of the 1980s such as Solomon’s Key and The Adventures of Lolo. Here’s the official breakdown of Roniu’s Tale from Mega Cat Studios:
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade. Ever. (Change my mind) Today, we’re going to take a look at Laffin’ Gas Cartoonies issue 3, which was published by Blackthorne Publishing in November 1986. Laffin’ Gas Cartoonies was an ongoing black-and-white anthology featuring several comedy and parody short stories. The book is very much in the spirit of
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since the martians built the pyramids. Today, we’re going to look at Capcom’s very first game, a 2D, vertically scrolling, space shooter titled Vulgus released in 1984. Humanity is under attack! Maybe. Who knows? I wasn’t able to discern any plot from my time with Vulgus, but that was pretty much par for
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Publisher Hamster has announced that Super Volleyball is now available on Nintendo Switch and PS4 as part of the digital Arcade Archives series. Originally released in arcades by Video Systems in 1989, Super Volleyball is a multiplayer sports game that does not feature any fetching beach babes in bikinis. Instead, it recreates the indoor volleyball experience with an approachable arcade
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since fry bread. Before Ronald McDonald starred in his own video games and the Geico Cavemen were given their own ill-fated television show, the marketing minds at CalRab (the California Raisin Advisory Board) decided to expand the presence of their own claymation mascots in pop culture. As
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate! Today, we’re going to look at Thunder Cross, an a side-scrolling shoot ’em up (or simply “shooter,” as we called them back then) released in arcades by Konami in 1988. It’s important to note up front that I am looking specifically at the US
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since Gutenberg invented the printing press! And welcome back to Tale of the Toy, the feature where we tell stories about some of our most cherished childhood toys and action figures. Today, we’re telling the tale of how we originally acquired the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT)
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Atari has hit the ground running this year with revivals of classic franchises. The latest game to get the modern treatment is Yars: Recharged, the fourth game released under their “Recharged” banner. Co-developed by Adamvision Studios and SneakyBox, Yars: Recharged is a re-imagining of the great 1982 Atari 2600 game Yars’ Revenge by legendary creator Howard Scott Warshaw. This new
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since the invention of the hurdy-gurdy. Today we’re going to take a look at Cyborg Hunter, one of the very few third party (sort of) games released for the SEGA Master System. Cyborg Season? Developed by SEGA and published in the United States by Activision in 1988, Cyborg Hunter
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On Sunday, the Clownfish TV crew (known for their work on the Clownfish TV YouTube channel) launched a crowdfunding campaign for Crimson Rhen of the True North, a 130+ page graphic novel inspired by Japanese manga and classic 1980s-style adventures. Crimson Rhen serves as the first in a two-part arc, as well as a prequel story to Clownfish’s Shadowbinders books.
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Sunsoft recently revealed that that a revival of the 1985 Ikki arcade game is coming soon to Steam PC in the form of Ikki Unite. Ikki Unite is an all-new multiplayer game for up to 16 players. Like the first game, Ikki Unite centers around a peasant revolt against an abusive government. Your village’s rice harvest has been decimated by
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since “Big Maps” started their coverup of our true, flat Earth. Today we’re going to take a bittersweet look back at Moon Patrol: The Milky Way Chronicles, a game developed by Wasted Studios which was in-development for the ill-fated Intellivision Amico. As many have already heard, the Intellivision Amico console looks
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When we posted our review of Ninja JaJaMaru-kun earlier this month for our 80s August event, we had no idea that we’d be seeing breaking news about this dormant franchise anytime soon. Well, it’s fair to say that we are pleasantly surprised, as ININ Games recently announced that three compilations of Jaleco’s classic Ninja JaJaMaru games will be coming to
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since the discovery of zero. Today we’re going to look at Shatter Special issue 1, a sci-fi adventure published in June 1985 by First Comics, and billed as the “first computerized comic book.” Set on a gritty, futuristic version of earth, Shatter follows the exploits of a freelance security contractor named
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since bacon. Today, we’re going to take a look at The 3-D Battles of Worldrunner (aka 3-D Worldrunner), a game published by Acclaim for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. Developed by Square before they started making good Final Fantasy games, then bad ones, then good ones
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since We’re marking this festive occasion with an all-new installment of Box Art Bombshells, where we reveal the completely fabricated super really-real events that inspired some of the wackiest and weirdest box art from gaming history. This time, we’re revealing the hidden truth behind Black Belt, the martial arts action game released on
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Behold, the power of mElOnS! Publisher XSEED Games recently released more details for its upcoming multiplatform title, Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories. Developed by independent studio Froach Club, Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories is a retro-inspired adventure featuring a visual aesthetic similar to a 1980s monochrome computer screen or a Nintendo Game Boy. The world of Melon Journey is populated by fruity
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of everything 80s. Derp. Despite being primarily famous as a 90s console the SEGA Genesis (aka Mega Drive) was actually released in 1989, so the launch games and other early titles can still lay claim to being entertainment artifacts of the 80s. One such launch game is Thunder Force II. I know what
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since the chicken laid the first egg… or, wait… Today we’re going to look at Chack’ N Pop, an arcade puzzle platformer released by Taito in 1983. A horde of monsters has stolen all of Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man Chack’n’s hearts, so now they don’t love each other, or something
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While we typically use our 80s August event to focus on entertainment produced during the 1980s, there is also room for covering things that are inspired by the era, too. That’s why today, we’re looking at The Mighty Mascots issues 4-6, which is published by Alterna Comics.
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Konichiwa! Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since the development of opposable thumbs. Today, we’re going to take a look at Ninja JaJaMaru-kun, an arcade style 2D action game developed by Jaleco and released for the Nintendo Famicom in 1985. Ninja JaJaMaru-kun stars the young hero JaJaMaru who must come to the rescue of Princess Sakura, who has
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since the chicken laid the first egg… or, wait… Today we’re going to take a look at ATARI Force issue one published by DC Comics in 1984. Written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by José Luis Garcia Lopez, the DC ATARI Force series actually serves as a sequel to five mini comics that
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Earlier this week, Vector5Games released Jungle Joe, a brand new Commodore 64 game four decades after the system’s heyday. For those out of the know, there is a fairly healthy C64 indie/homebrew scene. She why have I decided to to highlight Jungle Joe? One word: Alliteration! As for Jungle Joe, it’s a puzzle-adventure game where players must build a ladder
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Veteran comic book creator Andrew (Andy) Belanger recently launched a crowdfunding campaign for Mother Trucker: The Double Whammy, the first two issues of a six-issue series. Written and illustrated by “The Animal” Bob Anger and featuring colors by Tatto Caballero, Mother Trucker takes place in a sci-fi world inspired by 80s pro wrestling and monster truck rallies. Here’s the official
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since I found that genie lamp and wished to live forever! We love it when other folks get in the 80s August spirit. Today, we’re going to highlight a splendid video that The Nostalgia Nerd posted covering the mysterious Max Headroom airwave highjacking incident of 1987. Sure,
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since the breakup of Pangea! Since the original RoboCop film was released in July 1987, that makes this year an anniversary of sorts. To celebrate, we’re going to pick apart RoboCop for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Published by Data East in 1989, RoboCop is for NES
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We love our theme events here at The Splintering (the Festival of Dread, Jolly Jinglings, and Monochrome May), but it’s been so long Monochrome May, am I right? So we’re bringing back 80s August for 2022! Starting Monday, we’ll be posting reviews and features celebrating the greatest decade since mankind learned to churn butter. To mark the occasion, we’re featuring
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since Istanbul was still Constantinople! We’re marking this festive occasion by introducing an all-new feature here at The Splintering: Box Art Bombshells, where we reveal the completely fabricated super really-real events that inspired some of the wackiest and weirdest box art from gaming history. We’re kicking off
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