However, growing up and gaming as a child in the 90s meant I was reliant on my parents for new games. As such, I didn’t get that many nor did I play some of the most fondly-remembered games of that era, whereas adults probably would have. When I earned my own money through legitimate means, we were in the PlayStation 2 generation. And when I could properly feed my gaming habit, I owned a Wii, PS3 and a 360. So, while I love retro games, I never had the chance to check off a number of lauded releases.

That’s changed and I now have a very small collection of games I intend to play for the first time. This Retro Reflection feature will document that process.

Having seen Starwing as a child and shunning it 20 years ago, I’ve decided to give it a fair chance.

I’ve played Lylat Wars many times (and own it), and was obsessed with it on release. So, I’ve tried to treat Starwing exactly as it was: the pioneer.

Starwing actually has one my favourite intros to a game. The music is perfect, setting the tone of the game. It doesn’t hold back – the first thing you see is a couple of friendly ships being destroyed. The scene does remind me of the opening to Star Wars; a smaller ship being pursued by a much larger enemy.

While this is my first proper playthrough of Starwing, I had seen it before. I remember thinking as a child how cool it looked. Having been used to 2D platformers, this was mind-blowing. Considering the tech available at the time, it was impressive stuff for the SNES, but I find it extremely difficult to focus on the game. This is primarily down to resolution and the sheer number of things occurring on screen.

The difficulty in this game lies in perception. Because the 3D polygon graphics were somewhat limited (although brilliant at the time), it’s extremely hard to know where things are in relation to other objects. For instance, an enemy fires at you – it looks like you are safe. Then, out of nowhere, the bloody laser/ball of fiery mass hits you. Or, I will dodge one object and fly into something that was previously offscreen. It can be very frustrating – much like Jessica Alba’s no-nudity movie contracts (sigh).

Stating the obvious, Lylat Wars is a far clearer game in terms of overall picture clarity, which means I can’t blame a fuzzy picture for my lack of skill. With Starwing I can and very often do. But there’s something about its laudable attempt at 3D polygon graphics – I forgive it for its unwavering punishment, simply because it’s a damn good game.

I like that its not too linear, relatively speaking. Rather than complete one level, save and eventually progress to the end, there are actually three routes to the final showdown. Each route represents a different difficulty level and each also features unique levels. There are no save points. You simply pick a route and see how far you get, similar to my flirting technique.

For me, that’s not very far… nor do I get very far on Starwing. If you survive a good chunk of the level unscathed, then you have a good chance. Once you start taking hits, it can very quickly go downhill (I’m talking about Starwing, not women). In a bid to avoid enemy fire, I often roll to the left or right. Invariably, what happens is I roll straight into a succession of objects, leaving Arwing-shaped holes in them, and the situation deteriorates rapidly. When I do complete a tougher level, half the time it feels like an accident and not through actual skill. Somehow, I’ve crashed my way through asteroids and enemies, and flown through enough rings to replenish my shield before firing like crazy at the big boss. It reminds me of a clip from the movie Battleship (don’t worry, I haven’t seen it; I hear it’s terrible). My boss fights go something like this.

At this point, I’ll admit I haven’t completed Starwing (boo, hiss). This is primarily down to it giving me sickness-inducing nausea after about 10 minutes of gameplay. I put this entirely down to my difficulty focusing on any part of the screen. In my defence, I have completed Lylat Wars, so I’ll scrape back and gather together some respectability from that.

All in all, I do love this game. It’s technically impressive, the sound is impeccable and it’s just plain fun to play. Despite it making me ill, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed discovering what I missed when I chose Mario and not Fox.

I’ll keep ploughing on and will attempt to complete the game. I guess you could all wish me “Good Luck”.

There is one particular decision that sticks with me. I was the tender age of four. It was leading up to Christmas 1992. My family wasn’t very well-off at the time, so presents were normally simple. However, this Christmas was different. My mum had tirelessly worked in a factory, saving up to buy me a big present. I was even told I’d be getting a big present.

Now, at four-years-old, I’m not sure I knew what a big present constituted. I hadn’t asked for anything other than some WWF spinning tops. I knew there was something different about being told I had a big surprise for Christmas.

My mum and dad took me into Woolworths in Wellingborough. It was about the only decent shop in that town, so this wasn’t unusual. We walked straight to the entertainment section and I was ushered by my mum to look in the direction of a very prominent shelf. There, staring down at me was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

I’d seen the adverts on television, but I didn’t really know what it was. I hadn’t encountered a games console before. All I knew is it looked amazing.

In 1992, Nintendo had various bundles available. I had to choose from the Starwing bundle or the Mario All Stars bundle. Again, I had no idea what these were. One box was black, the other yellow. As a boy, I was probably leaning towards black. That’s the one my dad wanted me to pick. Not in the interests of me though, not because he loved me and wanted me to have the best, but to serve his own interests; that’s the one he wanted to play. Selfish git. It must have been his idea to buy me a SNES because there was no way Mum would let him have one.

“Go on son, pick this one. It has spaceships and lasers and a… a fox.”

Pressure was mounting as my dad remained decidedly bias, while my mum was doing her best to be neutral. Dad even resorted to picking up the box and waving it in my face. I was about to pick Starwing, when Mum shot Dad down with a simple “This one has four games on it.” Sold!
There was no way Dad could recover from that and he knew it. I almost took pleasure in picking the other bundle. To a child, four equals better than one regardless of what it is.

Mario All Stars brought me countless hours of happiness as well as laughter at my dad’s frustration and anger over his inability to complete the “big fish level”. He still hasn’t done it 20 years later.

I didn’t play Super Mario Bros 2 much. It scared the living daylights out of me. I hated those weird spheres protecting the key. If you dare take the key out the jar, they’d be after you, swooping down as you immediately drop the key to shake them off. Then pick it up again and peg it. However, Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros 3 were always the best of the bunch anyway.

I still have my SNES and play it regularly. As fun as a lot of modern games can be, joy is very rarely the reward. Mario All Stars had it in abundance.

The Wordchazer household does intend to get one, eventually, but we’ll wait until the first surge in demand has passed, so that we don’t have to wait too long for it. In the meantime, Alan O’Donohoe and his friends have decided that it’s a good time to found Raspberry Jam, a users’ and enthusiasts’ club based in Preston, Lancashire, England.

If I lived a bit closer, I would be along like a shot, but a three-and-a-half hour journey just isn’t feasible after work!

However, for those of you visiting the delights of Blackpool, in the area for work or leisure reasons, and for the natives who don’t know about it yet, at time of writing there are 16 (free) tickets left for the event and some amazing speakers lined up.

Alan himself is worth hearing, by the way, but he has a wide-reaching network of interesting friends too, some of whom have become involved with this event.

I can only suggest that you give it a try if you’re over there. If not, Alan is available on Twitter and will be happy to answer all questions or share his expertise with your IT, technology or retro club as required.

(In addition, I think my mother-in-law would have been a touch miffed if we’d not been around today as she intends to take us out to dinner tonight.)

Meantime, in matters of retro importance, my Twitter contact Adam Leadbetter has chipped into the collection with this link to the Guardian’s montage of 80s computers.

As I work through the Twitter favorites amassed during a month of serious editing and figures with not much writing, I’m sure I’ll find more links to share, but for now, this is it. Watch out for edits, however. This post is likely to be updated.

A Speccy running Twitter. Do not adjust your screens. VCF-UK, Bletchley Park 2010.

OK, so is there ANYONE reading this who is unaware that today is the 30th birthday of the ZX Spectrum, first gaming addiction of many?

From Google’s Doodle to the BBC and the Guardian (tech article here), Radio 4 and even @Tetley_Teafolk on Twitter (no, I jest not) it seems like more people jumped on the Speccy bandwagon than were commenting about the BBC Micro a few weeks ago (and yes, I know, a detailed series is in the works on that, but end-of-month and assorted other work stuff, freelance editing, a social life and various people’s birthdays have intervened).

The BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones considers the Raspberry Pi to be a successor to that era (video here), Imperica is holding a celebration of all things Spectrum (details here) in a couple of weeks and chip tune musician and Suffolk Creative Computing Club founder @Pixelh8 has produced an iPhone app to celebrate the day.

So, from one Manic Miner to another – what was your favorite Spectrum game? Why not comment and let me know? There’s an app for that, thanks to Pixelh8. There are also a couple of retro-computer organisations which may be able to help with any addictive tendencies, ask @rainbowchazer on Twitter if you have a need to know.

Now, anyone for another round of Jetpack?

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Back in 1989 the only way to play videogames outside was to befriend the rich kid in school who’d managed to con his parents into buying him a Gameboy. You’d wait in the crowd that surrounds him in the playground, desperately hoping you’d get your turn on Tetris before the batteries ran out… Those were, of course, the days.

Fast forward to 2012 and everyone and their dog has a comparative super-computer in their pocket, in the form of an Apple iPhone.
Star Trek lovers are catered for too, with the iPad bringing their futuristic daydreams to life. All we need now a hover-board and we’re set!

Still, what good is an iPhone, or an iPad for that matter, without a bit of retro themed awesomeness? So, to address this most natural of needs, we proudly present you with these awesome Mario inspired retina wallpapers for your iPhone and iPad.

Retina ready and filled with win, these wallpapers will transform your iPhone or your iPad into the must-have accessory of the 1980s. Just use the download links below, upload to your iPhone or your iPad and bask in the retro-themed lovliness.

Download for iPhone – (0.2mb)
Download for iPad - (0.4mb)

At one point today, around 30 people from my 500-odd strong twitter feed were in the main atrium at the ARM building in Cambridge, among the limited number gathered to celebrate the 30th birthday of the BBC Micro. Yours truly, and my husband, known online as Felicemaggie (under which name he has a twitter feed) were there as volunteer event crew members, and in my case, as an interested writerly type with an itch to document the day in detail.

A panel consisting of Christopher Curry, Professor Stephen Furber, Dr Hermann Hauser, Professor Andrew Hopper, Nick Toop, Chris Turner, Dr Sophie Wilson and moderated by Chris Serle (who presented the BBC’s The Computer Programme back in the day) spent the morning answering questions. A talk by Eben Upton, of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, followed lunch, then Richard Gellman from the Retro Computing Museum and Alan O’Donohoe, the founder of Hack to The Future, gave presentations in the lecture theatre to a select number of 40 individuals who rolled up to yours truly for their entry tickets.

Meantime the rest of the guests were rocking on down to a superb selection of music and supping on the Echo Falls wine provided to toast both the first 30 years of the BBC Micro and the first (currently airborne from the factory) shipment of Raspberry Pi machines, UK arrival date mid-week.

I managed to introduce myself to a number of my Twitter feed thanks to a morning spent on the Admissions desk handing out nametags and, therefore, putting faces to names. At lunch I finally cornered Bill Thompson (a geek, film fan, hack and pundit) who has been known to write intelligent articles for BBC Technology pages, and received a very whiskery hug for my troubles as well as the pleasure of sharing a glass of wine with him (he thinks this is better described as what his iPhone suggested as an autocorrect: ‘a glad of wine’, which you may well agree with.)

By around 4pm the last band were playing to the crew who were beginning the tearing down process, and although they were good, the settings were loud thanks to the live drums. Many people had found quieter areas to sit and talk with fellow BBC Micro users, developers, designers, and programmers and there was a sense of a successful day winding slowly down.

More details will follow in coming blogs, for those who crave the information about such things. My head is currently buzzing with detail. At my feet lie a copy of the ticket holders’ list, the running order and the official programme. Said extremities are presently propped on my footstool and throbbing almost visibly, having been stood upon more or less continuously between 9am and 6pm today. And I’m enjoying a(nother) glass of wine and heading towards supper in due course, followed by bed shortly after that, which will help to shake down the amazing memories of today into some kind of order.

• Normality returns in the shape of the start of the Formula 1 season.
• The BBC Micro is almost 30, and the local jungle telegraph has been jangling all week with tales of who is going to attend and just how lavish the celebrations are expected to be.
• There is the usual media coverage of retro computer games, which suddenly appear to be cool these days.
• All is not cool at Game, however, as the High Street retailer struggles amid reports of a falling-out with EA.

Firstly, and entirely non-retro related, is that FORMULA ONE IS BACK…

(That’s enough of that, I’m not going to bore you with my petrolheaded tendencies. You just need to be aware that much of this blog will be typed to the revving sounds of redlining engines for the next few months.)

Secondly is that next weekend is the thirtieth birthday of the BBC Micro. Hosted at the ARM HQ in Cambridge, your intrepid blogger has hopes of being able to provide extensive coverage. For more details of the planned mix of guests, speakers and music, visit the Beeb30 website. Tickets are quite expensive, at nearly £80, but I am hearing that the day will be worth it.

Thirdly, out of left field, the BBC News website provided this article from America about the currently running exhibition The Art of Video Games. It traces the history of graphic art as applied to gaming, from Pac-Man, Pong and visible pixels to Flower in 2009, with its smooth lines and computer code for 200,000 3D blades of grass. Associated with that is a gallery of stills from landmark games to give a taster of the exhibition. If you’re in Washington DC between now and 30 September, catch it at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, or on tour thereafter.

And lastly for this round up, Game. Sadly, the problems which stem from the credit issues the chain was having earlier this year have quickly snowballed. Having been unable to react to several launches in the last few months due to lack of credit, this month the store’s management announced an inability to stock Mass Effect 3, (Newsbeat, 29 February 2012).

In the last few days Rory Cellan-Jones for the BBC provided an overview of the current  situation in the UK (12 March 2012), while the business side of the site produced a sobering account of the company’s fall from grace and the potential outcome.

Perhaps the games industry is in for another shakeup, such as that caused in times past by failure to stock certain in-demand machines or games as required?

Time, no doubt, will tell.

Now there’s no need to play your favourite retro games in a darkened room, surrounded by bland magnolia walls… You can decorate your gaming space with beautiful retro inspired prints from Retro GT!

We have a range of twelve retro prints, from busy retro-themed pixel art masterpieces to minimalist allusions to days spent playing your favourite games – all digitally printed in vibrant colours onto high quality 265gsm stock; ready to frame, hang and admire!

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  Pixel art print: Urban Invasion

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  Pixel art print: Retro Road

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  Retro print: Acknowledged

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  Retro Print: Moving Out

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  Retro print: Woman at arms

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  Retro print: Finish Him

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  Retro print: Waiting for the plumber

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  Retro print: It’s still bloody cheating

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  Retro print: Leave My Sight

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  Retro print: Searching for my princess (M)

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  Retro print: Searching for my princess (Z)

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  Retro print: Lost in service

  £18.00