This looks a bit old, but this person apparently successfully ported the real Space Invaders arcade game to a TRS-80 Model 4/4P with hi-res board (the board being the x-factor here and something few of us with TRS-80 collections have (I don't)).

Pretty extraordinary stuff and as the author says, probably the first of its kind ever attempted. As we know, someone did something similar on the far more capable (though no less impressive of a technical achievement) TRS-80 Color Computer 3 with arcade Donkey Kong.

Keep in mind that the Model 4 came out in 1983, based off of a platform first released in 1977, and the Color Computer 3 came out in 1987, based off of a platform first released in 1980!

I've been following this development on the Bally Astrocade (ballyalley) mailing list and it looks like the author will soon be ready to go into production. I'm slightly disappointed that this game is not an original concept, but it looks undeniably great, even with the rash of quality homebrew Warlords clones on Atari systems in recent years (Castle Crisis, Medieval Madness). Paddle games are obviously ideally suited to the Astrocade since it has joysticks that double as spinners. Check out more info and a video here. As you can see, it makes superb use of color and really pushes a system with infamously limited system memory!

Commentary from author Mike G. from the list:

Ground Kontrol Bar: The bar Ground Kontrol also features a smattering of retro consoles for sale.

Somewhat goofy gaming blog Destructoid recently featured an article on a great retro-arcade in Portland, Oregon called Ground Kontrol. The interview with Anthony Ramos, the co-owner, is brief, but makes a good point-- is having a retro-arcade/bar combination the best way for the next generation of arcades to live on?

Since I live in Portland, Ground Kontrol is not too far from me. It's a lot of fun and pretty cheap-- I think all the games are either 25 or 50 cents to play. They feature titles as old as Asteroids or Tron and have a 2nd floor full of pinball games ranging from a simplistic Star Trek board from the 70's to a ultra-complicated Lords of the Rings pinball table. Well worth the visit if anyone stops by in Portland.

LifeLine (Konami, 2004, PS2): Image from GameFlyWell, I must say, it's been very enjoyable gaming for me the past few days, despite having limited time to really get into anything at any length. I'm still chomping at the bit to sit down and play MLB '07 The Show from Sony for the PS2, which I've only had time to dabble in so far, and I only just took a few hours this morning to actually do my family's taxes, as well as there being the ever-present 800-pound gorilla ("the book") in my life and needing to finish organizing my videogame and computer collection (adding to many other things).

So, while these are not in-depth overviews, I wanted to quickly and specifically talk about LifeLine (2004, Konami, PS2), the infamous adventure game driven mostly by voice commands, and Jetpac Refuelled (2007, Rare, Xbox 360), the latest ~$5 release for Xbox Live Arcade based on a classic game.

Without a doubt, the highpoint of my sojourn last week to NYC was stopping off at Bill's home in New Jersey for a day of absolute gaming goodness. As all long-time AA'ers are well aware, Bill has an ginormous collection of vintage computers and consoles, to say nothing of an even more extensive software and game-related book library.

Archon's Amazing Box Cover Art: From WikipediaAh, Archon for 8-bit computers, besides having one of the greatest videogame covers of all time on the famous Electronic Arts album format, was nearly a perfect blend of strategy and action. It's almost like a chess/checkers combination, but where the pieces battle for control of squares in fast action arcade style combat. The game was arguably best on the Atari 8-bit computers and Commodore 64 (C-64), but it was released on many other platforms of the day, including the Atari XEGS (same as the Atari 8-bit version, just on cartridge) and NES consoles. While the game spawned a sequel, Archon II: Adept, in a short amount of time, that *gasp*, tried a totally different angle, it didn't have the same magic as the original. In fact, that would be a problem with other off-shoots and inspired-by's on various platforms, they just didn't capture the same feel as on the Atari 8-bit or C-64 for whatever reason.

Do you like reading Armchair Arcade retro feature articles, loaded with hard-to-find information and first-hand experience? Do you get giddy reading articles that you know only a truly dedicated (some might say obsessed!) retrogamer could ever dream to write? Do you say "AMEN" when you see something in our articles that you know you would never read elsewhere, because those other youngster "critics" have never actually played the games they attempt to write about? If so, keep your eye on this site this weekend. Better yet, just open the site and leave it up! I'm rolling out what I honestly think is my best-ever article, period! In fact, it's going to be so monstrous, so gargantuan, I'm scared I'll never be able to top it! Keep your eyes peeled, because this beast of a mega-article is hitting this site this Saturday. Be warned, though--the traffic might be so thick it might be Monday before you can login to this site to grab it yourself!