Keith Courage in Alpha Zones

Keith Courage has always been one of my favorites. It's a classic in side scrolling action from the long defunct Turbo Grafx 16. Definitely not an easy game and it can be as frustrating as it is fun. My main frustration with it is the fact that you cannot move and attack at the same time but despite this drawback, this game is a unique thrill from the TG collection and one of the first games released for the system.

While it's totally worth the effort to play this game without any cheats, Debug Mode is a nice little trick that will help you if you need it. The info. when in this mode is in Japanese so play around with it a bit and see what you can do! I recommend trying the game without the cheats first and then tweaking it as much as you want in debug mode when you get tired of dying. Have fun!!

Debug Mode: Start up the game and hold Select + Start + 1 + 2 all at the same time. When the "Start" icon shows up on the screen, hit "Up" eight times while still holding the other buttons down. This gets you into Debug Mode. Use button 2 and select to change the values for more life, money, levels, sword, or to cut out the cartoony human sections.

➥Download Keith Courage in Alpha Zones

Golden Axe

Come on! You must remember one of the all time arcade classics! Golden Axe was a two player fantasy adventure game seriously built for the arcade - but the Genesis version rocks as well.


You can choose one of three characters - the buff Warrior, the muscle bound but scantily clad Valkyrie, or the heavy hitting Dwarf. Each character has a different magic attack that is stronger based on how many magic vial you steal from these pesky trolls and otherwise, it's just kick ass or get kicked! Be sure to play this one with the sound turned up!

➥Download Golden Axe

Blazing Lasers

Blazing Lasers is by far one of the most fun and satisfying vertical shooters ever made. It came out on Turbo Grafx-16 and may have been an arcade game as well. With tons of weapon combinations and upgrades to choose from and good old fashioned non-stop space action, you'll find yourself wanting to keep playing until you finish. My personal favorite in the arsenal is weapon III - the giant lasers that level everything in their path. There's not much else to say! If you like shooters, you have to check this game out - especially if you haven't played it before.

➥Download Blazing Lasers

Atomic Robo Kid

Atomic Robo Kid for Sega Genesis is another one of these relatively obscure but very cool games that combines a couple different styles of game play. As the title suggests, you are a robotic...kid - I guess. You can walk which is slow but important for some parts of the game - or you can fly forward, backward, up, and down. You're given a lot of control with the flying because although it is a horizontally scrolling game, you're not limited to the high speed momentum of a spaceship or airplane as in some conventional shooters.


The graphics are great - very bio-robotic - and in the options menu, you can choose easy, normal, or hard. The easy option giving you the most lives and credits (which come in handy because while it is a cool game, it is not a walk in the park!) You get a really nice selection of weapon and defensive upgrades that are generously spread throughout the levels as you kill certain bad guys. If you haven't played this one, be sure to check it out - and if you have, re-visit it for a nice blast to the 16 bit past!!

➥Download Atomic Robo Kid

The Wizard

Ok - for a change of pace, I thought I'd take us down another part of the video game memory lane - The Wizard starring Fred Savage circa 1989. It has been called a 90 minute commercial for Nintendo and Universal but it's nothing that isn't still going on in studio movies today - so just have fun with it. This is just the trailer for the film courtesy of tubedude99 on You Tube in case your memory of this game geek classic of yesteryear is a bit fuzzy. So if you're in the mood for a flashback of a time when films (A film) were made about people PLAYING video games instead of being BASED on video games (Resident Evil, Silent Hill etc...), add this one to your Netflix! Happy New Year!!!!

Guardian Legend

Guardian Legend has always been one of my personal favorites. It's for NES and combines elements of the vertical scrolling shooter and an action game in one. It even has an element of RPG in that you can save your game with an insanely long password and you learn more about your character as you go on. The jist of it is that you are a guy who can transform from a person into a spaceship and you are trying to save your home planet. As you search for keys to open portals into boss areas where you are a spaceship, you come across weapon upgrades that you can buy and mini-bosses. The graphics are pretty impressive - especially during the spaceship section. While it is hard to explain all the details here, it is VERY worth checking out - especially if you have never played it before.

➥Download Guardian Legend

Play Space Invaders Here!

Use your keyboard's arrow buttons to move left and right and the space bar to shoot. Don't let 'em get you!


Ok - now we're talking OLD SCHOOL! This game was originally for the Atari 2600 I believe and is probably one of the first "shooters" to hit the video game market. They only got better from there. This is the 21st century flash version. It's still just as addictive - and just as - ahem - complex.

Astyanax: Invincibility and Level Select

Astyanax was one of those games that I thought only I knew about. It wasn't the most popular game I guess but I loved it. It has kind of a Sega Genesis feel to it even though it is for NES. The character is larger on screen that most Nintendo characters and the music and overall feel is epic. This is a stark contrast to the happy go-lucky feel of Super Mario Brothers or the more cartoony Legend of Zelda.


Astyanax is fun without any codes - and it's definitely beatable - but not without some frustration. The hero has and interesting combination of weapons that have to power up after each hit and 3 different kinds of magic. He's not as agile as the video game warriors of today so watch out for those pits - you fall down (even while invincible) and bye bye!

So with that said, here's the good part. For INVINCIBILITY: On the title screen, hit Up, Up, Up, Down, Left, Right, Up, Start.

If you want to PICK YOUR STARTING LEVEL (but not have invincibility), hit Up, Down, Left, Right, B, B, B, B, Start. You'll go to a screen where you can use the select button to choose where to start. These codes work great with the ROM so have fun!

➥Download Astyanax

Doom INVINCIBILITY (Play Station One)

So I guess Doom is a classic now. Of course I still remember its predecessor, Wolfenstein like it was just yesterday. Well, enough about my old ass. Doom has always been a favorite among computer gaming fans but at some point, Midway offered a cool Doom+Doom II version of the computer hit for the Playstation One. At the time it was just called "Playstation."


Anyway, if you've played the game, you know how insanely difficult and cruel it can be. Well, if you haven't found it already - and you want to kick some demon ass without losing so much as a drop of blood - I've got the code for you here and it works like a charm.

Start the game and set it for the most difficult level (You don't have to do this but why not? You'll be able to handle it). When the game starts, hit pause and then hit DOWN, L2, SQUARE, R1, RIGHT, L1, LEFT, CIRCLE. You'll see "All Powerful Mode On" appear above your stats at the bottom for just a moment. That's it. Just be sure to save your passwords because even with invincibility, this game is loooong and involved. Now go make those demons cry!

Play Duck Hunt Here!

This is a pretty cool widget I found. You can play the long time old school classic "Duck Hunt," now in new school flash form! This one comes with the option for 1 or 2 ducks - no skeet shooting here unfortunately - but some super demented "Dogs" option. You'll just have to figure that one out yourself.

Even after years of not playing the original Nintendo game (which came packaged as an extra game on the same cartridge as SMB in the NES box), it is just as addictive as ever. If you get hooked by the flash game, I'd highly recommend looking for the original where you can use the light gun instead of a mouse cursor. You can buy an old NES or look for one of those "160 in 1" games that they often sell at mall kiosks. It's sure to come with some version of Nintendo's original light gun. Let the hunt begin!

There's Nothing Like the Original!

Obviously things are easier now than they were a few years ago when it comes to classic gaming. For one thing - there is classic gaming. Before, you had to play Pong or Berserk to get that feeling - and it just wasn't all that satisfying. Now you can download emulators and roms and play anything from Atari to Play Station right here on your computer. It's a great convenience.

However, there is nothing quite like the original console to give you the best old school gaming experience. It's like being in an arcade. It's a change of environment. It's the way the games were meant to be played. It's like seeing a movie in the theater instead of on dvd. If you have an old system lying around, try hooking it up to your TV and give it a shot. Especially with some of the 16 bit games, I think the graphics look better and the sound is more arcade-esque.

If you lost your system somewhere along the line, check Ebay or Amazon or your local video game supplier to see if you can find one. You can often find an old system that's brand new due to a decade long overstock. In any case, you'll probably feel like a kid again - or a teen - or whatever you may have been the last time you played an old school game off the console. If you're young enough to never have had that chance, check it out. The games are much less complicated than those found on PS3 or XBOX 360 but no less challenging.

Anyway, while I come up with the next great old game to write about here, I thought I'd throw out that bit of food for thought to munch on. Now get back to that game!

Contra - the Old 30 Life Trick!

Nothing says classic like Contra! One of the first tricks I ever learned in video games (waaaay pre game genie) was how to get 30 lives in Contra. If you've played it, you know that you can use all the lives you can get in this side scrolling/z axis action adventure game. It was ahead of its time with that whole z-axis thing every other level - you know - the parts where you're running into the screen space in a decent attempt at simulated 3D - well, decent for an 8 bit game system in the 80's anyway.


So in case you forgot, here's the code to start Contra with 30 lives - and it still works on the ROM: UP,UP,DOWN,DOWN,LEFT,RIGHT,LEFT,RIGHT,B,A,B,A,START (if you want to play with 2 players make it SELECT,START). Do the whole thing during the opening title and you should be good to go! Now kick some ass!!!

➥Contra ROM Download

Gauntlet: the Old School WOW

I've been playing World of Warcraft lately and it is just as awesome as all the certified geeks and game fanatics have said it is. It's a whole new gaming experience - more of an alternate reality. So as I was running around completing quests and killing Defias thieves with other players from who knows where in the the world, I started thinking about how advanced games have become and where it all started.


I managed to trace the WOW style back at least to a game I loved playing in the arcade at a local pizza parlor when I was a kid - Gauntlet. It's a game that didn't involve huge involved quests and the graphics were...well - graphics weren't the point. The arcade version (and later home version) was 4 players! A 4 player game! Who could imagine such a thing? Well, Gauntlet is a true original. The one I'm posting here is a 2 player version and it's about as basic as you can get in and RPG. Choose the Warrior, the Wizard, the Valkyrie, or the Elf and just start running around. You collect keys and treasure and food and kill a never ending supply of spooks as you make your way through one maze after another. It may seem simple and plain but it can become seriously old school addicting if you let it. So if you need a break from the breathtaking World of Warcraft, relax with Gauntlet and be glad that it's now the 21st century!

➥Gauntlet ROM Download

Splatterhouse for Turbo Grafx-16

Now we're talking old school for the connoisseur. Splatterhouse is a game originally for NEC's now nearly forgotten Turbo Grafx-16 system. It was a system (originally called the PC Engine in Japan) competing with Sega's state of the art 16 bit Genesis console which offered a big step up in graphics from 8 bit systems like NES and Sega Master System and more importantly - gore. Turbo Grafx was ahead of its time in the sense that it was the first major system in the competition made by a non-gaming company (NEC was more of a computer hardware co.) and it put its games on these nifty little cards instead of the big cartridges that we were all so used to.


Anyway, the important thing here is GORE - and Splatterhouse has plenty of that. As a heavy hitting, hockey mask wearing anti-hero, you plow through levels full of vomiting monster corpses and crude zombies. Each time you hit one of these with your fist or a big stick or a chainsaw, you guessed it - they splatter in a blood and gut explosion all over the place. It's very satisfying in a sick way - but very entertaining. Check it out!

➥Splatterhouse ROM Download

Abadox - Invincibility

Abadox is an awesome but somewhat obscure side scrolling shooter originally for NES. It's really a cool idea - you're a guy in a big robotic suit flying into the mouth and then the deep innards of a giant monster. All the bad guys are very biological or robo-bio or whatever. They're pretty gnarly. This is a pretty tough game. I have beat it without the invincibility code but it takes a lot of focus since - like most good shooters - it gets harder and harder to maneuver through swarms of bad guys and dripping toxic monster insides.

So here's the good part: If you want complete invincibility hit these buttons on the second screen - the black one that says "Press Start" - A,A,UP,B,B,DOWN,A,B,START.


Even cooler than playing this game without being touched is the fact that while you are invincible - at any time - press START to pause the game. When you un-pause it, you will have all of the top weapons and defense - lasers, missiles, 4 barriers, and you'll be glowing with "invincibility" even though you don't need it!

➥Abadox ROM Download