When I was 14, I loved watching WWF.  Hulk Hogan caving Jake The Snake Roberts face in.  Macho Man Randy Savage’s ongoing saga with Miss Elizabeth.  The Undertaker locking Ultimate Warrior in an airtight coffin and suffocating him.   All high points and all, along with the fights themselves, 100% real despite my father telling me otherwise.  Now of course, plenty of years later, I know that it’s just big sweaty men, play acting and in a word bollocks. I probably owe my father an apology.  So, with this in mind, I’m approaching this game tentatively.  Modern day “wrestling is wank” Sull is going to have to take a back seat for the time being to 14 year old “wrestling is ace” Sull…

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2 on 2 was released by Midway in 1995 and is essentially an Ice Hockey version of NBA Jam.  I used to throw money into NBA Jam back in the day.  Playing as Scottie Pippen or Shaq, that game captured the speed and frentics of basketball.  2 on 2 probably does the same.  If you like Ice Hockey…  You see, I’m a Brit and we play our hockey on grass.  No one is the UK is interested in Ice Hockey (unless you’re from Sheffield and even then you’d be hard pressed to find 2 people in the same room at any one time who actually goes to watch the Steelers).  So it is with this mindset I approach 2 on 2.

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Developed and released by Capcom in 1995, 19XX is the penultimate entry in the 194X series and the final shoot-em-up (for the time being) in this ridiculous challenge of mine.  And as the rest of the series before it, it’s standard 1942 going ons but according to Wikipedia this one “takes place before a fictional war (Hence, the 19XX) as a lone pilot tries to defeat an entire army/evil organization from starting another World War, which soon escalates to a nuclear apocalypse.”   That sounds an incredibly important mission and ‘evil organisation’ is much more tactful than ‘hordes of Japs’.

The current high score, 4,325,600, is held by Russell Hugo and compared to the rest of the top 10, is pretty high so this could be tricky.

Lets get shooting…again…

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Initially I assumed, what with this being called 1945, that it was further entry in Capcom’s 194X series of games.  Well blow my cock off and call me wrong. It sounds like one, looks like one but it’s not made by Capcom and it has nothing to do with the aforementioned series whatsoever.  It was actually developed and released in 2000 by Olympic Soft and, after a initial few goes, it transpires it’s a pretty nondescript vertical shooter…  The current MAME high score recorded over at Twin Galaxies, held by Antonio Filho, is 3,070,200.

So let’s see where we can get with this one…

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Released in by Capcom in 2000 , this is the 5th in the 194X series of shooters and…look, you know the drill by now. World War II. Pacific Theatre. Fly a P-38. Collect Stuff and shoot the japanese out of the sky without a care in the world (and thus making an empty place at the dinner table this Christmas despite the Japanese not being a Christian country and not celebrating it anyway). And as I’m becoming a bit sick of this series by now and I’ve got another two to play after this so lets crack on shall we…

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1943 – The Battle Of Midway. Released in 1987 and the sequel to Capcom’s 1984 smash hit 1942.  The current MAME top score is 3,533,100 held by Francois Daniel. On first impressions it’s business as usual.  Back in the trusty P-38, you take off from your aircraft carrier (although this has just been fired upon and is now crabbing into the sea somewhat), shoot the green planes for points, red ones for power ups and don’t get killed.  Simple.

This time round there’s no single shot and you die shenanigans.  No way.  This time you get a lovely power gauge / fuel tank which is nice as it gives you some leeway in terms of getting shot at but it’s also another bloody thing to worry about.  This issue is compounded when the power ups arrive.  Collect the POW left by the red planes and it replenishes your power gauge.  However, shoot the POW and it will alternate between a POW and a different weapon.   So it becomes judgement call time.  Power up and shit weapon or superior firepower and risk getting though it?

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This is where it began for the 194X series and where it had almost just begun for Capcom.  Released in 1984 and only their fourth release after Vulgus, Sonson, and Pirate Ship Higemaru. With an almost self-flagellation approach to games design, the Japanese based Capcom essentially allow the player to pilot a western fighter plane to shoot the bejesus out of wave after wave of Japanese planes.  I understand that when basing a game on the pacific dogfights of WWII you have to stay somewhat true to the history but to create a game which sees your own countrymen shot to shit strikes me as odd.  Perhaps they wanted closure?

Heading over to Twin Galaxies, it’s no surprise to see at large amount of submissions for 1942 considering it’s popularity over the years.  Capcom report a total of 1.2 million copies sold across all formats since it’s initial release.  In total there are 64 MAME submissions with the lowest being 6,190 and the highest score being 12,413,510 by Simon Beck.  I first encountered 1942 when my parents had it installed in their pub back in the day.   The day being 1986. Aaaahh the memories.  I was shit at it then.  I wonder if my years of gaming has helped me improve any?

Probably not and I can’t remember my score from 23 years ago anyhow…

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Developed by Capcom (always a stamp of quality in my eyes) and released in 1990 this is the three-quel (?) to the vertical scrolling classic 1942.  (The sequel being 1943: Battle Of Midway).    It’s still a standard vertical shump and as in 1942 the player collects power ups and shoots the hell out of all oncoming enemies whilst avoiding the shit they sling your way.  Not entirely sure it’s a faithful representation of WWII.  I’m certain the Japanese didn’t shoot glowing plasma balls during that particular fracas but hey I’ll overlook that…

The current MAME World Record stands at 2,455,800 and is held by Vicente Morales and every entry in the top 5 are above 1,000,000 so if I’m to make a decent stab of this I need to be aiming for at least that.

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