Shockingly, it has now been 29 years since CBS introduced Saturday Supercade, a multiple-title Saturday morning cartoon that featured many of the top video game properties of the day.

The series only lasted for two seasons, vanishing into thin air when the Great Video Game Crash of the mid-1980s made anything related to gaming go up in smoke for a couple of years.  Due to licensing and rights issues between the different companies involved in the series, it may never see the light of day again in any sort of complete form.

Funniest thing about the series are the liberties that were taken on the story for each game title.  Plots in video games were not a common thing back in the those days, so the people behind Saturday Supercade made their own.

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The sharp crack of a leathery whip echoes through mausoleum halls, the booming gunshots of an automatic rifle thunder across an alien landscape – these are the signature sights and sounds from two of gaming’s most storied franchises, Castlevania and Contra respectively, both now over 25 years old as first developed and published by Konami.

These hallowed series made their initial mainstream console appearances as cartridges for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), with Castlevania being released in North America in 1987 and Contra in early 1988. The two properties are still going strong, persisting across several different platforms and spanning four different decades so far. Such lasting brand strength offers gamers a unique case study into how a canon successfully strikes a chord with players, even throughout many sequels.

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A long time ago, a famous Japanese company by the name of Nintendo created a character named Mario. Since then, Mario has been best known for his 2D platforming adventures on the various Nintendo consoles. In case you’re not familiar with this relatively obscure character, Mario generally travels from castle to castle, collecting coins, and continues fighting the evil King Koopa and his minions.

But, what’s that? You say Mario was on the personal computer? Mario also starred in games that were nothing like his 2D platforming adventures? You’re absolutely right! Read on, as we go over the many Mario games that have graced the PC platform.
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Hello and welcome to The Gaming Historian!

The Angry Video Game Nerd did an episode on Dark Castle for the Sega Genesis and Philips CD-I, and I couldn’t have been more excited. This game takes me way back, even before my Nintendo days.

Now, you might be asking why I might get excited over a terrible game. Not so fast! Dark Castle is a great game. But the ports on Genesis and CD-I are really bad. The main culprit? The controls are terrible! This game was meant to be played with a keyboard and mouse, and it just doesn’t work on these systems. The Nerd did a good job explaining how the controls work, so I would recommend checking out his video when you get a chance. It is also a good laugh. But for now, lets take a look at Dark Castle on the console it was made for: Macintosh!

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In the 1990’s, PC gaming was dominated by a company called Apogee Software Ltd. Creators and publishers of such series as Duke Nukem, Commander Keen, DOOM, and Death Rally, Apogee dominated with an innovative varied shareware distribution method from the late 1980’s, and into the 1990’s.

So what happened to Apogee games? What are they doing now? Read on dear readers, for the answers lie below!
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