Kurt Kalata is an ardent video gamer from New Jersey. He has founded websites such as The Castlevania Dungeon, which focuses on Konami's long running, vampire slaying series, and Hardcore Gaming 101, which gives comprehensive reviews focusing on the history of gaming. In addition to his own sites and books, his writings have appeared in Retro Gamer magazine, The Overstreet Guide to Video Game Collecting, and at 1up, Nintendo Life, Siliconera, and Gamasutra (now Game Developer).

HG101 Presents: Arcade Cult Classics by Kurt Kalata

Ever play an arcade game from decades ago that you saw once and never saw again? Ever wondered about arcade games that were never released in your home land? This book digs into the depths of 1980s and 1990s arcade history, unearthing hidden gems from developers like Irem, ADK, Jaleco, NMK, Westone, UPL, Technos, Gaelco, and TAD. In addition to highlighting forgotten classics when digging through the MAME library, it also catalogues many undersung titles that can be found as part of retro re-releases, like on Hamster's Arcade Archives series or on the Evercade console.

Covered games include: Astyanax, Aurail, Cabal, Blood Bros., Blue's Journey, Clockwork Aquario, The Cliffhanger: Edward Randy, Demon Front, Dolphin Blue, Hammerin' Harry, Kid Niki, Kyros, Magician Lord, Shock Troopers, Momoko 120%, City Connection, Fixeight, Cannon Dancer, Psychic 5, Toki, Avenging Spirit, Mr. Heli, In the Hunt, Dynamite Duke, The Outfoxies, Snow Bros., Ninja Combat, Penguin-kun Wars, Soldier Girl Amazon, Ninja-kun, Thunder Hoop, and many others!

CURATOR'S NOTE

When you see the word "arcade," several classics along with your personal favorites probably come to mind. Hardcore Gaming 101's Arcade Cult Classics looks at many hidden gems from the bygone era of coin-op games, making this one of the publisher's best deep dives. -David L. Craddock, curator, StoryBundle

 
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Released in 1988, The Legendary Axe was one of the first decent action-platformers for the TurboGrafx-16, starring a determined caveman who hacked through prehistoric environments with his trusty axe. While published by Victor Musical Industries, it was actually developed by a small company called Aicom, and directed by a man named Tokuhiro Takemori, who had previously worked on the NES game Amagon. Victor Music commissioned their own sequel of sorts, called The Legendary Axe II in North America, but it was actually made by an entirely separate team at Atlus, and looked and played completely differently. Instead, Takemori and Aicom made The Astyanax, also known as The Lord of King in Japan, published by Jaleco and released in arcades in 1989.

While the setting has changed to a Greek mythological fantasy, and Roche the hero (and his palette-swapped co-op partner) looks like a fair-maned warrior dude, it plays a whole lot like The Legendary Axe, right down to the rhythm of your axe attacks and how enemies bounce and explode when they're killed. They also share the same charge mechanics, where you have a power gauge that charges automatically and is expended whenever you swing your weapon, determining the strength of your attack. For example, the flying demon guys take three hits to kill normally, but if you wait a few seconds for a full charge, which gives your axe a flaming effect, you'll then slay them in a single blow. Power-ups are also obtained by totems, which can grant you single-use magic spells to wipe out several enemies at once.