Orange Krush's Offline Arcade
For those days when the Feds are sniffing around your IP addy, kick back offline with this hand-picked list of classic console entertainments. All Krush-approved, of course!
WIPEOUT (Playstation)
Yo yo, it's the futuristic anti-gravity combat racing game of maximum speed and extreme style! Developed and published by Psygnosis / Studio Liverpool originally in 1995 by Game Designer Nick Burcome, Producer Dominic Mallinson, and Director John White, in conjunction with art genius Keith Hopwood and The Designers Republic.
WIPEOUT is the coolest shit!
As sexy as that debut game was... it was the 1996 sequel WIPEOUT XL (or WIPEOUT 2097 for those of you outside North America) that truly upped the ante and brought WIPEOUT to the world. Many games followed, each strictly adhering to the formula of eyeball-blistering momentum, seizure-inducing screen-pounding effects, and the hottest new electronic techno and trance tracks. The music in this game is so good the first time I played it at a friend's house a spontaneous apartment rave broke out thanks to the hot ass tracks by COLD STORAGE. And the very next morning I started saving up to buy a Playstation.
This game is a prime feature at the secret undergound parties hosted by Terminal Velocity and yours truly, the WIPEOUT CYBERDELIA, where the most elite computer jockeys on the net are known to meet and mingle. A new version is rumored to be launching the upcoming PlayStation®VR2. The WIPEOUT OMEGA COLLECTION on PSVR is one of the most intense gaming experiences ever.
A pre-release version of the first WIPEOUT game was seen in the movie HACKERS... but you phreaks already knew that, didn't you?!
AG-SYS 4 LIFE!
SHADOWRUN (Sega Genesis)
Welcome to the Shadows, Chummer! What could be cooler for your Sega Genesis than this game based on the raddest cyberpunk tabletop RPG ever?
Seattle 2058, the cities of the world have gone on a neon bender and spewed sick all over themselves. Wageslaves for the Corps work in high-rise glass and steel megaplex nightmares while the rest of us scumbags fend for scraps on the streets. The blending of technology and human flesh began in the 20th Century and is an everyday fact of life now. Enhanced bodies, enhanced minds, but only if you’ve got the Nuyen (¥) to pay for it. And here in the dirty, rainy Seattle alleyways, if you're not selling your organs to the ripperdocs and chopshops for a bowl of rice, you're probably stuffing yourself full of 'ware and cyber-enhancements to give you an edge on the hard streets.
But something else has changed the world too.
Magic was reborn into this world in a violent, traumatic Re-Awakening 47 years ago as a five-thousand-year cycle began again. Elves, Dwarfs, and Trolls assumed their true form, throwing off their human guises. Sorcery, mysticism and monsters out of ancient lore are now as commonplace as the black market cyberware vendors on the street corner.
The Sega Genesis game was developed by BlueSky Software based on the ultra-dope tabletop role-playing game by FASA. The game lets you choose to play as a Street Samurai (a high-tech mercenary), a Decker (an elite cyberspace computer hacker), or a Gator Shaman (a street mage blessed by a lizardistic beast-god). This game is vastly superior to the SNES version, especially when decking the Matrix, and you know that's where it's at for folks like you and the Krush. So if you still have your Sega Genny sitting around, you gotta give this one a spin.
Run the shadows. Risk the jobs that no one else will touch. Jack into the Matrix and cyberdeck slice your way through lethal Black IC (ice) to nab some juicy corporate secrets to sell. Take on the mega corporations.
Just don’t get caught with an empty clip in this town, Chummer.
PHANTASY STAR (Sega Master System)
This might be for an old-timey console and deciedly not state-of-the-art these days, but Orange Krush is here to tell you all that PHANTASY STAR is still hella cool!
Phantasy Star is yet another super dope game from the game-making Einsteins at Sega. Last summer, as I wasn't out at the usual clubs each night and was mostly just maxin' and relaxin' at Casa Krush, it turned out to be the perfect time to tackle this ginormously illustrious Japanese RPG, one of the first ever JRPGs released for consoles.
Designers and programmers Kotaro Hayashida, Yuji Naka, Miki Morimoto and writer Chieko Aoki packed this cartridge with four megabits of memorable characters, freaky aliens, random monsters, space ships, amazing music by Rieko Kodama and Tokuhiko Uwabo, and Yuji Naka's system-pushing out-of-this-world 3D dungeons.
The story of Alis on her journey through Algol Star System to defeat the evil interplanetary ruler, King Lassic, after her brother dies at his hands. Teaming up with a sweet-hearted warrior named Odin, a rad gender-bending wizard named Noah, and a butt-kicking smart-mouthed alien cat named Myau. They must travel three planets (the tropical Palma, the dessert Motavia, and the icy and desolate Dezoris) to take down the tyrant king.
The Krush plays this on a still-rockin' Sega Genesis with a Sega Power Base Converter, that enables you to play awesome Master System games like R-Type and SpellCaster and also this first Phantasy Star!
Done old school without a guide or the help of the Net, check out my 72 pages of maps and hand-written notes here. It was a challenge but you know The Krush was up to it! And in the end, with the assistance of the one and only hacker supreme Orange Krush behind the controller, Alis and crew endured and triumphed over evil. Eat it, King Lassic!
FEAR EFFECT 1 & 2 (Playstation)
The most Blade Runner goodness on the PS1 are the cel-shaded horror action-adventure duo of the Fear Effect games. If you've missed these in the past you've got to check 'em out!
Fear Effect - In the first of these beautiful cinematic games, series protagonist Hana Tsu-Vachel, a Franco-Chinese mercenary in near-future Hong Kong working for the Hong Kong Triad. She gets herself and her partners Royce and Deke in some serious hot agua when hired to locate the missing daughter of Triad kingpin Mr. Lam, who attributes his fortune and power to a pact he made with demons. Things quickly go even further south when they learn the girl is intended to be used as a human sacrifice in an arcane ritual. Expect lots of unexpected and clever twists and turns in this cyberpunk adventure.
Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix - As a degenerative global pandemic called EINDS (Environmentally Induced Nucleotides Degeneration Syndrome) is exploding, this prequel game shows how the original cast of Hana, Royce and Deke all met. And also introduces a fourth new playable character, the mysterious Rain Qin, an expert hacker and amnesiac. Of course there's a lot more to her than that... but you don't want these stories spoiled for you, dudes and dudettes!
Sure man, these games can definitely get pretty corny at times. But you'll love the great and completely amoral characters and also those gorgeous Playstation graphics. And you'll be happy to hear Fear Effect also uses the same Tank Controls that you loved in Resident Evil!
TEMPEST (Atari Arcade)
Probably the greatest arcade machine ever made!
Atari programmer Dave Theurer had just finished up the hit game Missile Command. His next game was the legendary Tempest. Being the first in the industry to use the just-invented Wells Gardner Quadra-Scan 6100 Vector Monitor, plus his new Superstar Programmer status at Atari for selling over 14,000 units of Missile Command, and his desire to produce an addictive game that can induce trance-like states while playing, Theurer designed this true arcade classic inspired by recurring nightmares he had of monsters climbing out of a hole in the ground.
Tempest is set in outer space, like so many early arcade video games were, and with abstract, vaguely unsettling, three-dimensional color vector graphics. Players control rapidly-moving claw-shaped "blaster" via a unique Spinner Knob, shooting down sci-fi looking "tubes" at twitchy, ever-encroaching, selections of otherworldly enemies. The incredibly fast and addictive gameplay, and the beautiful vector graphics, was exactly what the doctor ordered, and Theurer had the hit he was hoping for. Tempest broke records and forged new technical ground and helped Atari to continue their domination of the exploding arcade scene.
These Tempest game machines push the early model Quadra-Scan Monitors to their limits. And have a nasty reputation for catching on fire. Which would be heartbreaking as Tempest is also one of sweetest looking arcade cabinet designs of all time!
Tempest is sexy, sexy, sexy. Hot stuff indeed!
Stay Tuned For More of Orange Krush's Offline Arcade!
If the Krush ever gets around to writing more, that is!