Recent Discoveries…..

For me one of the great things about having retrogaming as a hobby is that I’m constantly learning and discovering something new, whether it’s a game I’ve never played or a new system and recently I’ve not only discovered an excellent sports game I’ve never played but also two new systems which run great on my Steam Deck.

Firstly, the sports game, this I think might be one of the best sports games I’ve ever played, it’s called Beach Spikers : Virtua Beach Volleyball and was released on Gamecube (also available on the Sega Naomi 2 arcade board but more on that shortly), surprisingly for a game like this the controls are extremely simple making it very easy to pick up and play, there’s a serve meter and simply press A when at the desired level and A again to hit the ball over the net and then the A button again to make your shot, it really is that easy!  As you can see from the screenshot above the graphics are excellent and there’s something really satisfying about completing a smash over the net to see it land the other side for a point! This game really is an absolute gem and I highly recommend it!

Next on to the new systems I’ve discovered, there’s two : both arcade boards used by Sega to create some stunning arcade games, Naomi and Naomi 2, and amazingly most run perfectly on the Steam Deck although you need the BIOS files for both systems for the games to work, and there’s some really cracking titles all of which have that trademark Sega style to them, there’s Virtua Striker 3, Virtua Fighter 4, The King of Route 66 - an excellent truck driving game, and my personal favourites, Wave Runner GP - a jet-ski racer (and regular readers will know already that I love a good jet-ski racer!) , Wild Riders - a motorbike getaway game and Spikers Battle - a fighting game unlike any other I’ve ever played, it’s basically a one on three bout in a variety of locations with some very satisfying moves!   The above mentioned Beach Spikers is also available but to be honest I can’t see much difference graphically between this and the Gamecube version, they both look great! There are many more games available for both systems but so far I’ve only tried a small selection of them, if you’re interested Internet Archive is a good place to find them.

With my discovery a while ago of the impressive Sega Model 2 and Model 3 games as well I’m now pretty spoilt for choice for entertaining arcade games on my Steam Deck!  Will be playing a lot of these!