NES Collector's Blog

A NES-Bit RSS feed and Twitter

2010-12-12T08:18:00.000-08:00

Seems like the ideal place to mention that my site now has an active RSS feed and a twitter account to follow:

RSS

Twitter Feed

A real NES Collectors site

2010-12-01T09:14:00.000-08:00

Taking some inspiration from writing my blog I decided to sit down and put my writing to good use. The result is a dedicated UK website for the NES collectors scene which can be found here at NES-Bit:

NES-Bit

The aim is to have a complete database of reviews, information, articles, magazines etc You name it and this site will hold it! The database is pretty much complete when it comes to game listings and I've managed to top it up with over 50 reviews, several articles, magazine downloads and some handy hints, just have a look at these links:

Magazines
Reviews
Articles
Database
Forum

Yep I've even thrown in a forum so there's plenty for you lot to get involved in. Please feel free to join up or let me know what you guys think as I really want this to be a success.

It's landed!

2009-04-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

After month's of idling around, trying to learn how to use a camera I can now proudly present my very own Retro gaming channel:

Lorfarius's Retro Channel

My biggest aim is to just to chat, grumble and generally tell you about games I'm interested in as well as what I've been upto in the retro world. My biggest problem with writing the blog was always trying to fire out a couple of thousand words on a regular basis but with the ease of video I'll do my best to offer a more first hand approach to the games I acquire or even own. Please see what you think by following the above link.

An update at last!!!

2009-04-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a heck of a long time since I updated and I'm sure the few that do come here on a regular basis aren't best pleased with the lack of updates. Sadly it seems traffic to the blog has been quite small since it started so I have been giving series consideration to branching out and trying something new.

With this in mind a week or so back I purchased a brand new camcorder and I'm trying my best to learn how to use it as well as fiddle around with PC editing software. The plan is to start a regular Youtube channel with various reviews, thoughts and just plain old gameplay video's which I'm hoping will be of interest to some of you folks.

The NES won't be my primary focus this time I will be adding plenty of info about other Nintendo systems, some of the older Sega consoles, PC Engine and it's CD-Rom counter part plus various other bits from my retro gaming collection. With this in mind I'm hoping to get a load of decent game related footage when I visit Tokyo in August so exciting times ahead!

Some news!

2009-03-14T05:57:00.001-07:00

Havent been around much lately because I have a pretty big project in the works! Just to show I haven't been completely lazy heres an article I have had published on Gaming Verdict in the past few days:

Seaman

Not my usual NES stuff but I was asked to try branching out into different areas. Please, please, please rate my article and comment on the site if you think it's any good!

Nazo No Murasamejou (FDS)

2009-02-24T03:06:00.000-08:00

Despite owning several Famicom disk titles I only realised recently that I’ve only created an entry about one so far! Disk games in general feel like a treat to load each time because even though they can take several seconds (compared to the instant cartridge loading) it always adds to the expectation of what you are about to play plus with the usual unreliability of disk games it’s actually a joy when they load without any errors. I’m a huge fan of Zelda, something about the top down view appeals to me when it comes to adventure games so I always try my best to keep an eye out for similar games which is when I followed a suggestion to try out a game called Nazo No Murasamejou.

It seems to be a relatively common game for the Famicom disk system and I had no issue finding a copy on eBay for just £6 as an added bonus it was in immaculate condition. Published by Nintendo in 1986 and only released in Japan (edit. It seems there was a rerelease for the Gameboy Advance in 2004 for the Famicom mini series) it surprised me to learn that the game never seemed to have much commercial success for what is effectively a Zelda clone with enough differences to make it stand out though it did spawn a Japanese television series which was based around the games plot. I had to rely on the internet to discover the plot because nothing is explained in game basically the whole tale is set in ancient Japan when an alien descends onto Murasame castle, taking over the inhabitants with the use of evil spheres and doing the same to the Lords of four surrounding castles. Your job as Takamaru is to work your way through each castle defeating the Lords and seeking out the alien. Not the most epic of tales but compared to the first Zelda game it does have a bit more thought put into it.

It plays identical to Zelda being in the form of a top down scroller however everything seems to work at a much quicker pace. Enemies appear and rush towards you at some speed and it can require some skill in order to dodge fireballs, throwing stars and other weapons. With one button for the players sword and another for the shuriken there isn’t much choice when it comes to weapons though this does change in the form of power ups that replace the standard throwing stars. These appear every few screens and from what I’ve seen ranged from a fireball, a bomb that clears screens and a cloak that makes you invisible.

You may be wondering if I managed to complete this.....and I have to say no. It’s extremely hard with each screen throwing several enemies at once all having their own types of weapons, usually projectiles. Thankfully Takamaru can deflect some of these with his own sword but you really need to be quick to avoid the onslaught. Starting outside each castle you work your way along its gardens before finally making your way inside only to find a large maze like structure which eventually leads to the Lord. It’s fast, frantic and quite frankly a challenge but this is all in the games favour. When you manage to clear a castle Lord it actually feels like a proper accomplishment and because the game is so fast it’s never a burden to work your way through.

So was it worth the long loading times to play, which I’m sure some of you will notice in the video (sorry I couldn’t resist leaving the loading times in)? Certainly yes, for £6 I was faced with a game that could put some of the newer titles to shame, simple to learn but difficult to master it’s the ideal retro game and a real gem. If you are considering buying a disk system or even a Sharp Twin (you really should, try reading my earlier blog entry about them if you are undecided) then Nazo should be at the top of your shopping list. Highly recommended and well worth finding a copy if you can.

The Legend of Zelda: Outlands

2009-02-12T00:51:00.000-08:00

One thing that has become apparent whilst researching the many games I end up buying is just how big a homebrew community exists for the NES. From what I can tell the console seems to be a lot easier to program for than its successors with many games requiring a strange mix of code and hardware. A few comments on various forums mention things like banks, switches and numerous chips that are built into each NES cartridge capable of running a game. It was during one of these sessions that I noticed a company called Game Reproductions who are able to load a ROM file onto a NES cartridge and provide you with effectively a new game. As well as actually providing the games the company also prints and fits new labels for each title so the finished product can be akin to buying a cartridge back in the day. With the company in mind I decided to look for some of the more popular homebrew games and one title I came across repeatedly was a follow up to the Legend of Zelda, Outlands.

The story follows on directly from the first game one of the bosses from the first title has managed to survived defeat at Link’s hands stealing the Triforce of Power making its escape to the Outlands. In order to find the boss you are quested with seeking out help from 8 captured fairies trapped across the lands dungeons. Thankfully Zelda herself is on hand and will actually provide Link with weapons that can be used to work your way through each dungeon.

With the game being an effective hack of the original Zelda title there isn’t much point into mentioning the game play as it’s effectively identical. However the beauty of this title is the redesign of the whole world, gone are the familiar paths of the over world and the same puzzle filled dungeons. Instead we are presented with a whole new land (the Outlands) to explore and completely different dungeons. On first loading the game Link isn’t even provided with a sword, you have to actually wander the land to find the right cave unlike the predecessor with the sword being readily available. From the off this ads to the overall difficulty taking some effort avoiding enemies that are dotted around the map, when you eventually do discover the wooden sword its apparent that all the enemies react in different ways than players would expect. Some are now immune to the weapon and no matter how many times you strike the weapon will simply have no effect. This can make for some frantic moments as you dash back and forth but mainly provide a refreshing challenge with a much higher difficulty. One item of note that makes an appearance is the Ocarina which is a pleasing nod to fans of the series several items are actually taken from Zelda 2 so it’s a joy to see that the game isn’t limited to taking everything from its predecessor.

Unlike a lot of cart reproduction companies GR doesn’t require you to provide a donor cartridge in order to load a title and I was even given the option of choosing a suitable label for the game. It just didn’t seem right having anything other than the standard Zelda design though but the label that came with the game was of very high quality and sat next to other NES carts you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Pricewise it cost around £20 which included shipping from the US .One thing I will mention as I was worried about this before purchase is the ability to actually save your game during play, seeing as I also bought an RPG (Mother or Earthbound as its also known) my biggest concern had to be spending a couple of hours playing a game but then having to lose my place. Thankfully the cartridges come with inbuilt batteries so if a game requires saving the feature is available. One thing to be wary of is the delivery time as it can actually take up to a month for the company to make each cartridge if they don’t have any in stock. Overall they were easy to deal with and I would recommend them if you decide to buy a few homebrew titles.

As a final note the original Outlands ROM creator has a website that explains in great detail the type of changes he made so I would recommend a visit if you want to learn more:

Outlands

Popeye

2009-02-06T01:35:00.000-08:00

After a long break its time to welcome you all back to the world of Arcade conversions. Popeye was originally created for the arcades by Nintendo in 1982 and was one of the earliest games released for the NES and was ported to just about every system available at the time. I first played the game way back in 1984 on a friend’s Atari 2600 (I would have been around 4 at the time). Thinking back I believe Popeye was the first video game I had ever seen let alone played so it’s to blame for the 20 odd years of interest in games. Because of this it’s always held a sort of Holy Grail status in my mind the one game my parents could never afford to buy (my first foray into games ownership was a Commodore 16 in 85, no consoles until the late 80’s for me) yet would always remain a favourite in mind. The only thing I ever seem able to recall is the first screen and none of the game play so it makes for an interesting trip down memory lane to finally get my hands on a copy for the NES.

Seeming to be one of the mid range titles price wise on eBay I was able to pick up a boxed copy for £7 which is cheap considering I’ve seen it sell for as much as £15 with the instructions as well. The box itself was a bit tatty when it arrived but the cartridge didn’t even require cleaning booting straight away which is always a bonus. One thing I’m becoming used to with the early releases is the basic title screens and Popeye’s was no different, a simple choice between 1 or 2 players with game A or B for both. The B option simply being a much harder version to play but for the purposes of the blog I’ll stick to the A game.

The game is quite basic the goal is to catch a set number of whatever Olive throws down (this comes in the form of hearts, letters or musical notes and missing an item as it falls simply means it sticks to the bottom of the screen in the ocean where you can run by later to pick it up. You might think its just a case of waiting for all the items to fall but it can take a good while for them to descend as they tend to float in a breeze like feathers and with Bluto, Popeye’s nemesis running around you constantly have to keep moving. In total there are 3 stages the first based at Olives home, the second at a port and the third on an actual ship. Completing all three causes them to loop endlessly with the main goal being to make as many points as possible. To help you on your way you can collect tins of spinach with the game kicking in with the Popeye theme from the old cartoons, his muscles growing and the chance to hunt down Bluto and punch him across the screen. Besides Bluto and some birds in the last stage there are no enemies that pose a threat however each screen does have a unique part. The first being a punching bag that can be used to drop a flowerpot on Bluto’s head for more points, a seesaw in the second screen to jump up half the screen and a moving platform in the third which is a bit uncreative though the birds do make up for it. Finally we come to the music besides the Popeye theme there’s the same constant tune hat plays throughout all the levels. I’m not sure if its a rendition of the arcade cabinet but its pretty annoying and doesn’t ever stop.

So the important question for me is whether after all these years it’s actually a good game. For a full priced NES title at the time I would have to say no due to it being short and a bit limited the game itself plays extremely well and I had no problem running around the stages controlling Popeye. Some of the item collection requires quick movements to avoid Bluto and the slick controls mean the player is responsible for being caught rather than poor controls. For an arcade title good controls are an absolute must and Popeye doesn’t disappoint in that regard. I still owe a lot to this game as it really created the gaming urge all those years ago and it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t end up with something like M.U.S.C.L.E!

So what have I been upto?

2009-02-05T03:01:00.000-08:00

Despite my time away I haven't given up on games! Just a week ago I purchased a fully modded SNES and Megadrive from Consolepassion as well as a suitable LCD television to play them on. I then set about converting a closet into a mini retro gaming station, right next to the bed for some late night sessions. I'm quite proud of this lot and with the press of the reset button I can easily change region on either console so theres next to nothing I cant play worldwide (I believe the Super Mario RPG wont work on region fixed consoles).

Not really NES related you might think though I am contemplating moving the NES/Famicom into the same closet the drawers in the lower part of the picture seeming the ideal spot. Plus there are a lot of sequels to NES games that I may divulge in from time to time and post a few entries on, what do you readers think? Would you like to see some SNES postings?

Hiatus

2009-02-02T01:16:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the long break folks, afriad its been really hectic for me this past week so will try to get a decent entry done this week. The next game I will be looking at is Popeye for the NES.

Quick update

2009-01-22T03:21:00.000-08:00

Just a note to say that I've added a gameplay video to the Excite Bike entry. Not 100% happy with the way the video's have turned out so far but its a learning process and I'm sure I'll get there in the end!

Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race (FDS)

2009-01-21T04:43:00.000-08:00

One problem I often come across when it comes to selecting which Famicom game to buy next is actually finding out whether a title is worth purchasing. Usually a quick scout around Google or the Famicom World forums provides plenty of suggestions but there always seems to be the odd game that slips through the net or doesn’t receive much coverage. A quick search on eBay brings up little useful information for F1 Race often the case that the games sequel is mistaken for it but then I guess that’s one of the reasons for this blog. To find and explore these hidden gems that most seem to have passed by.

If it wasn’t for the games sequel I wouldn’t have known that F1 Race even existed and despite the name the two share very little in common besides Mario as a mascot. F1 Race is a top down perspective involving F1 vehicles whilst its successor (FGP 3D Hot Rally) is back behind the vehicle with a choice of Rally cars to drive, two totally different games but from the same series. It was sheer luck that the eBay seller I bought the sequel from had a spare copy of this hanging around and for the small sum of £8 I was sent a pretty decent version. The disk comes with all its original health warning paperwork, manual, case and even the plastic shell cover that protected new titles on shop shelves.

The sharp eyed amongst you may have noticed that the disk is blue with a protective cover over the disk reading section. This works similar to the protective metal sheath on a floppy disk preventing dirt from damaging the disk itself. A God send considering just how easy it can be to damage or wipe the data and it makes me wonder why Nintendo didn’t use these. Some further digging and it appears that Nintendo held several competitions back in the 80’s for its Famicom Disk game series, people would save their highest score (or lap time in this case) to the disk and post it back to Nintendo to win a prize. This ranged from pencil cases to a special release Game & Watch shaped like the Famicom mascot Diskun.

Released in 1987 by Nintendo the game was limited to the Japanese market and from what I could learn on Wikipedia it seems Nintendo did have plans to release the Grand Prix series to other countries but for reasons unknown decided against it, which is sad when you realise just how good the games actually are.

Loading the disk I was presented with a chequered flag motif on the title screen as well as a side scrolling F1 vehicle (take a look at the video to see this in action) which compared to past Famicom games I’ve reviewed is a definite improvement. The two choices we will focus on are time trial and Grand Prix racing, time trial is literally just that. You select a track, the number of laps, other cars and a turbo option then it’s simply a matter of racing around the track trying to get as fast a time as possible. Once finished you save the score to disk and then send it off to Nintendo for a chance to win some prizes. I can’t read a work of Japanese but I can only assume the competition has long since ended!

The Grand Prix section is where the real fun lies. Racing against other cars to gain the fastest lap record each successive win nets you a cash prize that can be used to buy further F1 cars. The controls do take a bit of getting used to with you having to turn the whole car in a direction rather than the steering seeming to curve its just a matter of moments to get past the strange feeling that could even improve as you buy more F1 cars and it wont be long before you are speeding your way past the other racers. It’s not as simple as it sounds however because each car has a level of maintenance or health if you will as well as a lifetime for tyres and having to keep an eye on the fuel gage. The lower each becomes the more unresponsive the car is and you are often faced with the decision of pressing on or risking wasting valuable race time by making a pit stop.

For a Famicom game it does a pretty good job of recreating the Grand Prix experience which stands well in its favour. There is no option for a second player considering the available parts of the track that can be seen at any time it’s understandable. I will say this I’m not a fan of 3D racing games and it’s a joy to go back to the routes of the genre and play some top down racing fun, another game to be added to the regular pile.

On a side note this is the first entry that will include some game play videos. This is all new and I’m experimenting with what I can actually do at the moment but if people would like to see different types of clips then please feel free to post some comments in the requests section. I may even go back and record similar video’s for past blog entries.

Video Updates

2009-01-19T04:54:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas I managed to get my hands on a brand new digital camera which is more than capable of producing video. With this in mind I've purchased a tripod and I am planning to add short video's of each game for every entry. I've already started recording a few trial runs so expect to see these additions soon.

Gameboy Advance SP NES Retro Edition

2009-01-14T00:40:00.000-08:00

I seem to be getting my hands on lots of different types of NES related hardware recently and I thought I’d share my latest acquisition a Gameboy Advance SP. Seeing as my focus of collecting it’s a joy to find hardware so recent that refers back to the golden age of NES gaming. Styled in a similar fashion to the NES console and pads I simply couldn’t resist picking one up.

The main problem I found once I’d discovered there was a NES version of the SP was actually finding one that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. I’ve seen prices range as high as £100 on Amazon and eBay so when I stumbled across an auction on eBay for £30 I just had to snap it up. The unit itself has been well used but the screen has been well taken care of and as close to new as you could expect. The top and bottom left corners of black on the control panel have been removed but in my haste I didn’t notice this on the original auction which was a bit of disappointment. At least it has been well done and no markings or scratches where these small corners were trimmed. I can only think the original owner thought it would be an improvement but it makes me wince to think of him hacking away with a pair of scissors no matter how careful he was.

The SP has a responsive D-Pad which feels similar to the NES pad, the usual Select and Start buttons, A and B with a speaker sat in the middle of the control panel. The large black button beneath the screen simply turns the screen light off which is useful for saving power when you are in a particularly bright area. Make no mistake the screen suffers in normal light just like any other Gameboy to date meaning it can be hard to see what’s going on thanks to glare so I’m in the habit of never turning the light off. The SP’s screen displays brilliantly, sharp LCD and no form of bleeding or colour clash. One of the major problems with the original Gameboy was the poor quality display that literally bled a trail of graphics whenever there was movement however that’s not to be seen on the SP. Along the right hand side is a handy on/off switch and the left holds a volume switch which does a fairly decent job when turned up to full. There is no stereo jack socket and you need to buy an adaptor in order to use headphones.

Another major benefit (and the main reason for me looking to part with my GB Color) is the ability to play any GB, GBC or Advance games. As can be seen from the pictures the cartridge slot takes all types of GB games however with the older GB titles they stick a good distance out of the unit’s base. It looks unsightly but thankfully the console is held naturally by the sides so I found the carts don’t tend to cause problems and don’t get in the way. Buy pressing the L or R buttons (hidden away round the back of the console) you whole screen shrinks or grows to fill the entire screen for GB and GBA games. With the screen filled the games do appear to look stretched so I always go for the smaller and more compact screen (as Pikachu is demonstrating in the picture).

This was also the first portable console where Nintendo did away with the need to replace standard batteries including rechargeable lithium ion battery and a charger. Since buying the console I’ve had around 9 hours play (with the light on) without the need for a recharge so the benefits are obvious.

Yes I am now a Pokemon convert. I really wanted a Gameboy title that seems to push the GB to its limits and what better to start with than Pokemon Gold, one of the first 3 Pokemon games for the system. I’m very impressed with the SP it seems perfect for on the go gaming and its NES design appeals to the collector in me. Perhaps one day I will pick up a fully boxed version despite the cost but for now I’m happy to play on with my portable NES.

Excite Bike (Famicom Cart)

2009-01-12T00:30:00.000-08:00

With today’s entry you may be wondering why I decided to review the Famicom version of Excite Bike instead of its US or PAL counterparts their is always a risk that Famicom games will be unplayable due to Japanese texts but in this case it seemed there was nothing to worry about as there doesn’t seem to be so much as a single Japanese character in the entire game. My real reason for enough buying the game was thanks to an eBay seller including it with a batch of several cartridges so it really cost me next to nothing. Sadly it was just the cartridge on its own and I had to spend several minutes giving it a good clean before I could even get it to load thankfully a good bit of elbow grease later and the cartridge pins were cleaned, ready to play.

Being one of the earliest and even one of the more popular Nintendo games I don’t think there are many Nintendo fans that haven’t played or heard of Excite Bike. The Famicom version was released in 1984 designed by the Mario master himself Shigeru Miyamoto so we can expect something special.

On loading the cartridge I was presented with a plain blue screen and 3 options Selection A, Selection B and Design. A allows you to race each individual track on your own, B pits you against several racers with the aim being to finish in the top 3 to proceed. Design is a unique feature for a Famicom game (especially for the time) where the player can actually change pieces of the racing track and create their own race for playing by themselves or with the computer racers, as an added bonus if you have access to a Famicom Data Recorder (effectively a tape drive) then each track can actually be saved to be replayed at a later date.

The Data Recorder was only released in Japan and never made it overseas but from what I have been able to discover the Design save feature remained for all other copies released outside of Japan with the message "Save and Load menu selections are not operable in this game; they have been programmed in for potential product developments" printed in the game manual. I can only assume that Nintendo planned to release a similar Data Recorder or even the Disk System unit across seas but decide against it in the end. It could have made for some interesting games to say the least. I have included a few pictures that I managed to find on eBay but the unit itself rarely seems to make an appearance in auctions and when it does sells for a tidy sum.

The game itself plays extremely well and for such an old Famicom title the bike responds quickly. Up and down moves the bike between lanes to avoid the various other riders or pitfalls such as ramps, mud pits and jumps. Left and right moves in either direction with pressing too far in either direction resulting in your bike performing a wheelie or falling flat on the riders face after a jump. With the A and B buttons changing your speed, this isn’t a simple matter of breaking at the press of a button. Pressing A moves the bike at a casual speed but holding B selects turbo, propelling you at a much faster speed and especially handy for upcoming jumps. If you are thinking that holding B all the time is the easy way to win then I’m afraid you are in for disappointment as a heat bar at the bottom of the screen increases the more you use the feature. Only driving with A pressed for a time causes it to lower so you actually have to plan your way around each track deciding when to use the boost for big jumps or overtaking other riders. Overheating causes your bike to stop completely and be dragged to the side of the track until the engine cools down, losing precious seconds off that race time.

The game is surprisingly simple to look at and despite the description I’ve given so far it does have a lot of depth too it. Timing and skill is required to successfully navigate some jumps and the other riders always seem to keep you on your toes. The design feature is a little basic with a choice of jumps represented by the letters of the alphabet and all you need do is move in any direction placing or removing obstacles as you like. The main benefit being the ability to race with computer opponents after you have finished by which after a few seconds of messing around I was able to place a ramp that filled most of the screen followed by several mud pits for an interesting jump to say the least (yes I crash and burned but it was worth it for the speed!).

Out of all the Famicom games I have played so far this is right at the top of the list for playability and I always have the cart close to the Twin Famicom for a quick burst play every so often. If you haven’t played this yet then where have you been all these years?

Requests

2009-01-08T07:37:00.000-08:00

Since the blog began I have had several suggestions and requests made for various games to review. To make it a bit easier for readers to leave some comments please feel free to use this section of the blog for any improvements you would like to see, general questions or games that you think need a review.

Requests:

Code Name: Viper - SuperFamiKing - Purchased and waiting review

Super Mario Bros. The Movie

2009-01-08T00:44:00.000-08:00

I should probably start by apologising for this entry mainly because I’m attempting to comment on what’s famously known as the worst video game movie of all time. Except...it’s nowhere near as bad as I remember. Nintendo were world conquering back in the 80’s and early 90’s and I would be remiss if I didn’t give a nod to the fact that no one seems capable of touching them in the Wii era. So it seems only fitting that they would attempt to cross into other mediums with film being the most accessible of all. It certainly wasn’t the first time as previous to the Mario film something similar was attempted with The Wizard (more on this in a later blog entry).

With a cast ranging from Dennis Hopper (King Kooper), Bob Hoskins (Mario), Samantha Mathis (Princess Daisy) and John Leguizamo (Luigi) you could be forgiven for thinking that with such a star studded line up nothing could go wrong. But oh how it does. The plot is rather silly though being based on the Mario games viewers shouldn’t be surprised. Mario and Luigi are two out of luck plumbers, living in Brooklyn New York. No matter how hard they try every job they attempt to reach is completed by a major construction company each time. Then during one unfortunate visit beaten by the Scapelli Company once more the pair meets a young woman called Daisy, an archaeologist being rough housed out of a dig on a nearby Scapelli construction site. What then follows is a date between Daisy and Luigi which is interrupted when the pair goes to check the dig site only to find a few of Scapelli’s men flooding the excavated caverns beneath Brooklyn.

Mario shows up and using his trusty plumbing tools the brothers manage to save the day only to be knocked unconscious by two mysterious strangers called Iggy and Spike who kidnap Daisy. When the brothers awaken, they follow the screams of Daisy finding a dimensional door (sorry no green pipes here) leading to the world of dinosaurs led by Koopa. I want ruin any more of the story for those who haven’t seen it but from here on in things just become even crazier with Toad, Goomba’s more dinosaurs and a lot less sense.

It might shock a few of you to learn that I actually enjoyed this movie, yes it’s silly and the plot makes next to no sense but Hopper and Hoskins do good turns in the roles they are given. It’s pretty mindless and I found if I just let the experience wash over me it didn’t seem anywhere near as bad as people had said. The special effects might not be up to much but considering they had a low production budget they did an adequate job. The film isn’t light when it comes to game references with rocking Goomba’s, Yoshi, Bob-omb, Bullet Bills and even a Super Nintendo Scope repainted as a devolution gun.

Thinking back it’s hard to think just how a good Super Mario film could have been made as the source material is poor to say the least on original story, consisting of simply save the Princess. It’s no surprise that the film makers decided to create an entire world from scratch adding references only to the games and from what was finally released I can see them praying it would be a success. On one hand you have a dark world that the film tries to portray yet the other seems a constant nod to the fact that the whole thing is for kids and maybe if they had concentrated more on the film’s focus it could have turned out a lot differently. Sadly it was a total flop at the box office not even managing to make back its production costs meaning any plans of a sequel were scuppered. Though reading back on a few interviews with the main actors all of them seemed to dislike making the film so perhaps they would have all refused to come back which means we will never know.

On a final note...I liked the final credit’s song. I’ll leave it at that, make of it what you will.

PowerPak

2009-01-05T05:22:00.000-08:00

Recently a friend of mine (a chap called Lloyd who I happened to meet at Retro North many moons ago) made mention of a device he had bought called the PowerPak realising that I was keeping a regular NES blog he offered the cartridge up for a review. So with glee I rubbed my hands together and accepted what is probably the most important piece of emulation hardware that is available for the NES.

For those that don’t know what this wonderful device is its basically a NES cartridge that can take Compact Flash cards and run the vast majority of Famicom, Famicom Disk and NES games including most homebrew titles that are available. The cart itself can be bought for the princely sum of $135 (around £70) from a company called RetroUSB who offer a large range of USB devices for various retro consoles and pieces of NES development kit even homebrew games on their own cartridges.

The PowerPak pictured contains everything that you receive for your $135. A specially developed red cartridge, case, PowerPak manual created in the same style of all NES games, a card reader and 128mb Compact Flash card. Some of you may think that 128mb doesn’t amount to much but with the average size of a NES ROM being around 500kb it’s obvious that the card can hold a huge chunk of the NES library catering for most tastes. As stated in an earlier entry I tend not to agree with emulation and try only to play games that I’ve bought myself but there are always a few titles that are out of reach due to rarity or just plain expense. With this in mind I decided to add Dragon Warrior 4, Mr Gimmick and Rodland to the card as the latter are extremely rare and the former being priced over the £50 bracket. I have considered purchasing DW 4 several times in the past but the high price point has always put me off so it seemed fitting to load a Rom of it onto the cart.

Putting the Rom’s and neccesary files onto the cartridge is simple enough, using a standard directory listing similar to that used in Windows its just a matter of dragging and dropping the required files onto the Compact Flash card. Once this is done you are pretty much good to go and it’s simply a matter of placing the card into the PowerPak. There is a single card slot on top of the cartridge with a black release button and with this in place the PowerPak is ready for the NES.

Turning the NES on to be greeted by a RetroUSB logo and the version number of the PowerPak software, another great thing about the RetroUSB site is that they provide updates to the software meaning if a few games don’t work presently there’s a good chance a future update will fix the issue. After the main screen I was presented with a basic text directory structure and pressing up or down lets you flick through all the available games. Choosing one provides a couple of options a chance to input up to 5 separate Game Genie codes much better than the 1 code the physical GG device actually provides and a start game option. Loading the game takes nothing more than several seconds and once the game has begun there doesn’t seem to be any different to what it looks like on a normal cart. Everything runs at the same speed and out of all the games I tried none of them had any graphical glitches.

The PowerPak doesn’t include a battery backup device instead saving a game to the cart’s memory you simply reset the console and save what’s in the battery memory to a file on the Compact Flash card through the menu system. It can be a bit fiddly (and certainly sounds it from this description) but once you have the hang of it you will be saving various games in no time. With the added benefit being that each save file can be added to or taken from the PowerPak whenever you wish, handy if you want to email someone if you get stuck on part of a game.

So that leads me onto my thoughts for the device. Staying away from emulation I can certainly see the benefits of being able to play pretty much any hard to find game it’s even persuaded me that I need to add DW 4 to my collection sooner rather than later. My only real grumble is how fiddly the save system is but even that becomes second nature after a couple of tries though I would like to point out that hitting the power button instead of reset to save loses everything (Yes it happened twice, I’m a fool). My only other comment would be on the PowerPak’s menu’s which all seem a bit basic, functional but lacking in appearance though this could simply be put down to the limitations of the system rather than the device itself. Another feature I didn’t mention is the removal of region locking from any game the cart runs which pretty much means you can run anything you wish on a NES from the US, UK or even the rest of Europe.

Overall it’s an interesting emulation device which will run most games you throw at it so for those who still want to sit in front of TV with the console and feel a NES pad in their hands its the ideal solution. Once loaded with games you would probably never remove the cartridge again. So it all comes down to value for money. Would I pay this much for it? Personally no as I enjoy actually hunting a cart down, cleaning then firing it up but if I ever had enough money in the bank account spare then I wouldn’t hesitate to pick one up. At the very least it’s a nifty addition to any NES collection with its unique looking cartridge and from what I’m told they don’t come into stock all that often on the RetroZone site making them all that much more desireable.

Family Computer 1983 – 2004 History Book

2008-12-31T03:14:00.000-08:00

I wanted to mention something special for the blog over the Xmas break and by chance I managed to get my hands on the Family Computer History Book a few weeks beforehand. Consisting of 200 pages it reveals every Famicom title ever created with a brief description for most and a picture of each game from cart to Disk. Every title revealed is shot before a black background giving a full view of what each game actually looks like and I don’t think anyone could place even an approximate value of what the collection would cost. Produced by the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography the books aim is to celebrate the 20th active year of the Famicom phenomenon.

Some of you might be confused by that statement but in Japan Nintendo has a policy of providing spare parts/support for a system up to 20 years after its initial release so this book was produced to provide a good look at that 20 year history as well as some publicity for the Museums Level X Video Game Exhibition that ran from December 2003 to February 2004. Sadly despite mentioning the exhibit we are only treated to a brief mention and the pictures included are only of the games.

A shame perhaps but the overall content included more than makes up for it. Usually in this sort of Japanese book the only text provided is in the home territories language but thankfully they decided to branch out and provide full English translations throughout. As can be seen in the pictures the blue text is Japanese and the pink is English. I should probably warn those of you reading that the English isn’t by far perfect and some of the sentences can be a little confusing often making me wonder why they didn’t pay for someone with a greater knowledge of English translations. However you can usually figure out what point is being made and each short paragraph actually provides a small insight to each of the games. In fact I used this a few times to pick some Famicom games which should be coming to the blog sometime in the future.

Starting with a foreword by Hiroshi Yamauchi (Director Executive Advisor for Nintendo) the book is littered with several small interviews from famous Famicom staff/designers over the years. The most prominent being Shigeru Miyamoto and Hideo Kojima with the likes of Shigesato Itoi (creator of Mother which will be appearing the blog soon) each providing their own views on what the Famicom made to gaming also making several points of what programming/design was like for the system.

It makes for some interesting reading and one thing I did find fascinating was the similarity between the 80’s British programming scene and the Japanese one. With a handy bit of kit called the Family Basic cartridge plus keyboard just about anybody could learn how to program for the console and several of the programmers interviewed actually admit to starting out this way. Though it may have been much harder to have a game actually released by a company the likes of games like Quinty showed that the home programming scene had its successes.

I can’t recommend this book enough it’s a wonderful look back at the life of the Famicom and includes lots of information that I’m sure even the most ardent fans won’t know. The translations might be a little off in someplaces and the pages of several game pictures without pointers to the text below can cause a bit of confusion but the fact is theres a wealth of facts worth anyones time.

Bird Week (Famicom Cart)

2008-12-24T16:44:00.000-08:00

Eventually I was bound to come across a game that makes no sense and it should come as no surprise that it is a Famicom title. Browsing eBay one day I came across the Bird Week cartridge and went on to try and find out a bit more about it. From descriptions I could find the game is known as a bird life simulation game so with my curiosity peaked I had to import a copy.

I picked a cart up in rather good condition; the connectors didn’t even seem to require much cleaning besides a quick rub down with Ethanol. Costing just £2 and with several carts from the same seller the shipping costs were minimal so I felt I wouldn’t be losing much even if it was a bad game.

The first names to stand out on the title screen in plain text were EMI/Toshiba/Lenar I was greeted by a plain blue title screen. To say 3 companies created the game you would think they could have at least made some effort on the title screen even if it was only 1986. I promised I wouldn’t judge so soon for the price so decided to get started. Faced with 2 choices Game Start and Study Game I went for the first wondering just what I would find.

Controlling a blue sparrow you have full movement around a scrolling screen which consists of a field, several flying bugs, hawk, and a tree with nest and baby sparrows. Using the pad moves the sparrow quite quickly up, down, left and right with either button causing the legs to squirm. The squirming legs as I call them allow the sparrow to grab mushrooms or rocks and drop them onto the hawks head. Knocking it to the ground and stunning the poor thing for long enough to catch several bugs without being pestered. The whole game involves catching bugs to feed to the baby sparrows that then fly away once they are well fed. I presume this is the life simulation part of the game because once they leave you begin the whole process from scratch in a different area.

Each area has its own unique background from a dry autumn hue, spring time green fields and even an ocean to fly over. A few new enemies do appear throughout each area the hawk is constantly flying back and forth whilst a cat spends time jumping from tree to tree, an unfriendly mole sticks his head out of the ground so it can become quite busy as you try to stay on top of things. You are given 3 lives so even if you are caught by the hawk there’s always chance to carry on.

I had a look at the Game Study option on the main menu but I couldn’t understand what it was meant to be about. It’s basically the game except you never leave the starting area and still feed the baby sparrows. With the study indicated I thought it might be a chance to watch the bug collecting without interaction but it’s just the same game seemingly looped. The whole game is more of a curio, there’s nothing really special here and I can hardly recommend it as anything more so if you want to experience some of that odd Japanese gaming culture then maybe this is the place to start.

Bart vs. the Space Mutants

2008-12-22T09:56:00.000-08:00

If there’s one thing the Simpson’s games have brought to the world of gaming its money. From arcade cabinets to every known console known to man each either has their own Simpson’s game or one of many multiport releases. So it’s no surprise that the NES received one of the earliest and probably oddest games. I received this in exchange for several Retro Gamer magazines of which I’m sure some of you are horrified at the though of losing several issues from such a collection but after the publishers released the magazine compendiums on DVD it felt pointless to me to keep them. Besides I need the space for all my NES goodies!

From the picture I’m sure you can all see that the box is a bit tatty but the manual and cartridge are actually in very good condition. Released in 1991 prior to the entire X-Files craze it seems Bart is in a spot of bother. Space Mutants/Aliens are trying to take over Springfield and only Bart can see them thanks to his trusty X-Ray glasses. The aim of the game is to find all the aliens, beat the boss on each stage and basically save the world. No small order for a 10 year old.

Each level is populated by bouncing aliens that serve no other purpose to get in Bart’s way. Every so often you can use a different weapon (such as the spray can in level 1) to change the colour of purple objects which the Super Mutants can use to take over the world becoming sillier as the game continues with everything from hats to balloons. Bart controls really well and I don’t think the game would be playable at all if the character responded slowly to button presses. Super Mutants are usually in fixed positions floating up and down so pixel perfect timing is key though Bart can take a couple of hits before losing a life. Once you lose all 3 lives the game is over so players might want to make some real effort to grab those extra lives as they play.

The main question for Simpson’s fans is whether or not the game actually covers much of Springfield itself. In that regards the 2D world does a pretty good job of recreating downtown Springfield and the Power plant whereas places like the Shopping Centre seem a bit generic and thrown together. Which is a shame with so many guest stars appearing, all of the Simpsons are included as well as Barney, Grampa, Moe and Nelson the game world is populated with lots of characters but not the general level design/planning isn’t really up to much. The list just goes on and on.

Up to the time of writing this blog I barely made it to level 3, Krustyland. The game is difficult and with some skill need to avoid the aliens on numerous jumps. Having to be as a careful as a balloon in a pin factory is the games greatest fault with the frustration level reaching pad throwing levels throughout. Every level has its own theme playing throughout but not the most enjoyable of tunes they do the job well with the main title screen having the shows theme in a good rendition for an 8Bit system.

I’m still not sure what to make of this game. On one hand its too hard in places and even level 1 can be a tough nut to crack but there are parts like the prank call on Moe, the X-Ray spec vision that reveals humans to be Super Mutants and the way various members of the Simpsons family help out to the end of each level (assuming you collected each of the letters of their name mid level). There’s a lot of fun to be had if you can see past its fault but those with a short fuse might want to stay clear.

Low G Man

2008-12-19T00:52:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a few trades on a couple of forums I have managed to pickup several bundles of games which may include lots of good or even bad games. One game I received was Low G Man, neither a title I had ever heard of or even had a clue as to what it was about. Published by a company called Taxan in 1991 I literally had my fingers crossed when I turned the game on.

Faced with probably the greatest game opening line I’ve ever seen in 25 years of gaming experience “It was a robot producing exploration planet like any other, large cities, and beautiful sunsets. But then they came. We’ll send in the Low G Man”. That’s it in all its glory, a faultless delivery of the plot, nothing more and it left me wondering if the manual had as much imagination in its opening pages.

The G in the main characters name stands for gravity and when you first start to play you can understand why. Holding down A lets you jump to extreme heights with the chance to upgrade this to even sillier heights thanks to a handy pickup and a quick tap of the B button fires off the currently selected weapon several of which can usually be found after killing an enemy. What we have here is the usual run and gun side on scroller, similar to Contra (these type of games must have been ridiculously popular back in the day, it’s the only explanation I have for there being so many) the only difference it offers is the chance to actually steal an enemy vehicle. Jumping onto an enemy and attacking downwards lets you scramble inside a choice of 3 vehicles Robot suit, Hover craft and Spider...legs. Each has its own weapon from a spray of missiles to a flung curve bomb yet none of them seem to be required and I often find myself hitting Select just to abandon the vehicle and carry on foot.

The first few levels are hard paced and can be quite difficult but strangely the further I went the easier the game seemed to be. Mainly thanks to the numerous weapons like the spear, freeze gun, fireball etc. Not even the bosses remain much of a challenge once you have a decent roster of weapons.

Its fun sometimes to just have a mindless game that doesn’t require much concentration and I found myself able to complete it on the same night I started playing but it doesn’t end there. The game difficulty actually increases after each completion creating a whole new challenge for those of you willing to go all the way. Though it has the dreaded password save system (I hate those things with a vengeance) it does mean you can return at any chapter without starting everything from scratch and with 5.3 chapters on offer there’s plenty of need to keep a note of passwords.

Not a game I would have gone out of my way to play had I known anything about it beforehand and once I begun I simply had to see the end. Overall a bit average but enjoyable enough to pass the time of day and a quick glance on eBay shows the game tends to sell for a couple of quid so you could easily pick up a copy.

Index Page

2008-12-17T03:57:00.000-08:00

Articles

Cartridge Collecting
Cleaning NES Cartridges
Emulation
Famicom 1983 - 2004 History Book
NES Wish List
Retro North
Trip to Tokyo, Japan

Famicom Games

Bird Week
Excite Bike
Goonies
Hatris

Famicom Disk Games

Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race
Nazo No Murasamejou

Hardware

A NES Tale
Gameboy Advance SP NES Retro Edition
Gameboy Color with Tetris, Megaman & Game Genie
Miracle Piano Teaching System
NES Advantage Controller
PowerPak
Sharp Twin Famicom

NES Games

Homebrew titles

The Legend of Zelda: Outlands

PAL Territory

Bart Vs. The Space Mutants
Batman The Video Game
Blades of Steel
Darkwing Duck
Donkey Kong Classics
Ducktales
Ikari Warriors
Jackie Chan’s Action Kung Fu
Kirby’s Adventure
Low G Man
Marble Madness
Megaman 2
Popeye
Shadow Warriors/Ninja Gaiden
Super Mario Bros/Tetris/Nintendo World Cup
Snakes Revenge
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
Wizards & Warriors III

US Territory

Kid Icarus
Legend of Zelda
M.U.S.C.L.E.
StarTropics
Vice: Project Doom

Hatris (Famicom Cart)

2008-12-17T01:22:00.001-08:00

I seem to be concentrating on action platformers and RPG’s recently so for a change of pace I decided to fire up the Famicom and try a puzzle game. What better way to start than with a Tetris style game, Hatris. My first thoughts on gazing at the cartridge were simply “It’s a Tetris clone” or in other words a rip off of the theme. On the game title screen I was surprised to see that Alexey Pajitnov (the original creator of Tetris) was behind its conception and even features as part of the main screen graphics, holding several hats in a mad dash to escape a...wall. I’m sure it made sense to them at the time.

Released in 1989 I was expecting it to be one of the better looking titles so late in the Famicom’s life but I was presented with a rather basic game with few colours and drab graphics. I shrugged my shoulders at this as with puzzle games the looks don’t matter but the actual puzzle itself. Two hats appear at the top of the screen and begin to fall you have several seconds to switch them back and forth or speed up the descent by pressing down. Every time you make a column of 5 same hats they disappear with points awarded the main aim of each stage to earn enough points and sell a large number of hats.

Easy to pickup I had no trouble learning how to play. There is practically no Japanese text to be seen so anyone can import without worry. In the early stages there isn’t much challenge to stacking the hats however as you complete each stage the hats that haven’t been taken remain. So after several levels the screen can be literally packed full of hats resulting in all sorts of mad dashes to earn points.

One thing I discovered when I decided to do a bit of research on the game is that the Famicom version is completely different to its NES counterpart. On the NES there appears to be a lot more animation around the main puzzle screen with miniature versions of Alexey Pajitnov hitting switches to deliver and take away the completed hat collections. The Famicom version consists of numbers and nothing more than the actual hats. I couldn’t find out why this was the case so I can only assume it was due to a time difference in release dates. The Famicom version coming out first in Japan then the designers perhaps realising they needed to give the look of the game a bit more oomph. I’ve included pictures of both in today’s post. The sad thing is that after viewing a few videos of the NES game on YouTube it actually looks a lot more fun.

The NES Version in all its glory

I received the cart as part of a bundle from eBay so it didn’t cost me more than a couple of quid at best. I really can’t recommend it not that Hatris is a bad game is just feels very generic and a little pointless, give me Tetris any day.

Trip to Tokyo, Japan

2008-12-15T00:57:00.000-08:00

For years I have always wanted to visit Japan mostly to see the Ancient world mixed with the ultra modern and what better place to go than Tokyo! After pestering a friend for several days we decided to book a trip with Expedia including all flights, tours around Tokyo (as well as a walking tour of Mount Fuji) and staying at the hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku for 2 whole weeks next August. I won’t say how much but my credit card is having a few sleepless nights.

My reason for posting about it here of course is the chance to get my hands on lots of different Famicom games for what I’m hoping will be for a lot less than what would cost me to import them. So roll on next August!

StarTropics (US)

2008-12-12T00:38:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago whilst I was working through the Legend of Zelda I came across a game that apparently shared a similar look and style to both Zelda games and an RPG to boot. A quick nosey around the web showed StarTropics to be a good title so I thought it would be worth the risk of importing. The game was only released in the US during 1990 by Nintendo themselves which explains a lot of what happens in game (which I will get to later). My first port of call was eBay and even with shipping prices of $10 the game was still pretty cheap at around the same. Coming with cart, manual and box although it had the usual scuff marks and battered corners it was in fairly good condition all told. It wasn’t until it arrived that I realised something was actually missing.
A bit of research via Google revealed that the game should come with a piece of parchment, a letter from Uncle Steve to the main game character Mike. Later in the game you are instructed to actually dip the letter in water to reveal a secret message, a code that you need to continue. Reading a bit more about the letter and it appears that most stores tended to rent NES games out in great numbers so a letter like this tended to disappear or the store removed it completely. Which means these parchments must be like gold dust and I still haven’t been able to spot one on eBay since I picked my copy up on several weeks ago. I was able to find a pretty decent scan of a complete one and have added a picture to this blog.

The game story starts off simple enough with you being invited to visit your Uncle Steve on C-Island for a holiday however once you arrive it seems he has disappeared. Based over several chapters it is your job to hunt him down and find out just what’s going on. For an RPG it’s quaint but silly, you even receive a request to save a young dolphins life from its mother though on my first play through I wasn’t able to find him.

Starting out you are presented with a 2D map which seems to use the exact same graphics tiles as the over world of Zelda II with everything being rearranged to make a totally different landscape. The similarities don’t end there however as you continue on your journey you begin to pick up various items that seem to be pinched right from Zelda 1, such as the compass, map, wand etc. The game does switch to more of a Zelda 1 perspective once you are inside a building, cavern, dungeon etc with all the available weapons being laid out in the item bar below. The weapon of choice that you start with is a Yo-Yo but as the game progresses you are given other chances like a baseball.
A God send to NES games the cart uses the battery backup so no lengthy long password codes here with the game being linear (no vast maps to explore just a straight forward RPG) I often found myself completing a chapter or two before saving. The dungeon sections are quite well designed with each having numerous puzzles most requiring you to jump on certain blocks, find a key or kill a set number of enemies finishing with a boss that requires the use of an item you collected earlier. The first boss you come across involves a rather long snake which requires some good timing and a bit of luck to beat so it still offers a challenge from time to time. Although it sounds very much like the first Zelda (pinching a bit from both Zelda games probably down to the designers wanting to save costs and reuse some of their engines) and does follow its basic design in those ways yet there’s something endearing about it all. It is by no means difficult and even with the story becoming sillier as it goes on it leaves you wanting to see the end.
Not one of my favourite games but certainly up there as one of the more enjoyable US NES titles. I believe there’s a sequel and this has peaked my interest so I’ll be adding it to the purchase list.

NES Advantage Controller

2008-12-10T01:07:00.000-08:00

I have a lot of love for the original D Pad controller, its basic design is still used in consoles to this day and long may it reign. There are always a few games that need more than the standard cross, something special to bring the arcade experience home which brings me to the Advantage controller, released in 1987 a rectangular controller similar in appearance to an arcade cabinet controls and strong enough to take the abuse of frenzied gaming.

As well as the rather sturdy stick it also has a few other optional extras, a choice between slow mode which drops the game on screen to a snails pace handy for boss fights and a turbo dial for rapid fire perfect for shooters. The stick can move in 8 directions and one of the first games I tried it with was Ikari Warriors and it didn’t disappoint. Being able to move in all direction without having to press a direction followed by up means the game takes on a whole other level. No more slow meanderings through battle fields I can do diagonals in a flash!

The slow button works on the principal of pausing and un-pausing the game. So any game that freezes the screen whilst pause is pressed will work perfectly with the pad though it’s not without its drawbacks. A game that loads a menu on pressing start simply won’t work with the Slow button pressed down and a side effect for the games it does work with can be a constant flashing screen when in use. For the brief amount of time you would use the feature I can’t see it being problem but if you suffer from any form of seizures then it won’t end well. There is also an extra plug for connecting to port 2 on the NES console which when selected allows a person to flick between alternative players on games that let 2 players take consecutive turns though I don’t think it will be anything that gets much use for me.

I managed to win an eBay auction for this at the grand price of £5 which I was chuffed to say the least. Many a time I have seen this selling for as much as £10 even £20 in some cases and when I saw it going cheap I just couldn’t resist. I tried it with several games on arrival mostly just to see if it would change the way I play NES games but whilst it’s perfect for the likes of Ikari Warriors when I tried it with Super Mario Bros it felt a little strange and the yearning for a standard pad became too much to bare. I think I will save this for the pure arcade titles and stick to the normal pad for everything else but overall I’m pretty pleased with this as a NES accessory as it will actually be useful.

Ikari Warriors

2008-12-08T00:50:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest problems with aiming to collect as many decent games as possible is that some of the really good ones are priced to silly levels. Having recently gone down the Famicom collecting route my wallet was feeling a little sparse this month so in a bid to save some money I posted a message on the Retro Gamer forums asking for NES games in trades for older issues of the magazine. Quite a few people responded and before long I had another pile of (what I hoped were) good games. Ikari Warriors was one of the first games to arrive and actually came in a decent looking box. A quick view on eBay showed it to be quite valuable often hitting the £10 mark for a boxed game with manual so overall not a bad swap for just one issues of RG.

Released by SNK in 1986 Ikari Warriors is an arcade port of the same game. One of my main reasons for trading was a vague memory of playing the arcade game down at the local swimming pool many moons ago. So with this in mind I gave the cart a good clean before slotting it in the console. The first thing I was faced with was a black screen with the game title plastered across with two.....Rambo rip offs (I honestly don’t know what else to call them, both are wearing head bands, one is even red and neither has a shirt on) walk to the middle and begin firing in a circle. Welcome to the gung ho 80’s I guess? You are then treated to a plane crashing in the jungle and our Rambo rip off climbing free. The music for this whole affair is average to say the least.

Usually when I play a NES game for the first time I’m determined to spend a good hour or so working through no matter how bad it seems. However even I had an almost overpowering urge to put the pad down after just a few minutes play. You character moves in a very slow manner with the enemies seeming to be a step or two faster. Being a Space Invaders on wheels type game you would think that the player would need to be quick and nimble but it all feel’s incredibly difficult, much more so than it should be. You start with grenades and a pistol which doesn’t seem enough when you are facing off hundreds of enemies. At least you can hide behind rocks and buildings which you will need to do quite often as one hit kills you. It’s a scrolling shooter from the early days of the NES so I guess you can’t really expect much and I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of you decided to stop reading.....But then you find the tank.

A small cube on wheels with a rotating gun, missiles, crummy looking but impervious to several rounds of enemy fire, this cute little box changes the whole feel of the game. Once inside the tank controls in the same way as the main player except this time you have powerful weapons and can survive several attacks but its main bonus is the speed. The tank can drive all over the screen several times faster than on foot and it actually injects some much needed fun into the game. Travelling up screen you often come across gun turrets and stationary tanks but none can stand up to the power of tank Rambo. The game constantly throws enemies at you, the majority are soldiers but when they can come from any direction you always need to stay on your toes. One thing I’m not sure about is the controls the main character can fire diagonally but it feels awkward having to do it on the move with a NES pad. I think I need to get my hands on a NES Advantage joystick before I can comment further.

Rose tinted glasses and nostalgia can often make you remember funny things about games so I decided to have a look around YouTube at the original arcade game to give me an idea of how the NES conversion compares. It’s surprising just how well the NES can mimic the graphics with everything being in a similar location and despite the low colour ability it does a great job even keeping the opening plane crash in tact. The arcade game has a lot more enemies on screen at any one time and moves a lot faster than the NES counterpart but that’s only to be expected.

I’m still not sure what to make about the game. On one hand once I was driving that tank the game seemed to change completely and became a pretty good jungle romp but on the other those walking sections are a bit dire with the tank not appearing as often as I would hope. I have no idea why this sells for so much on eBay and I can only recommend you pick it up if you see it cheap.

Miracle Piano Teaching System

2008-12-05T00:47:00.000-08:00

Before I start I know this isn’t a game! It’s a nifty bit of software that teaches kid’s how to play the piano via their NES. The reason I bring it up is because a chap from work overheard me mumbling about NES games and said he had a few stashed away in the attic. The very next day he dropped a copy of this in my lap with an apology as they had binned the keyboard (and the rest of his carts) many moons ago. What I was left with was a cart in excellent condition and a large pullout A3 Miracle Piano poster which I presume was some sort of original advertising. A quick glance on eBay shows it to be one of the rarer titles, even more so when the Keyboard is intact (as much as £100 in some cases)

I couldn’t get it to work properly with the pad so I had to rely on information from the internet to dig any deeper. With the Keyboard plugged in it seems you can play a couple of games with hitting the right notes resulting in an action on screen. The first game is Roboman where every correct note results in a bridge being laid correctly and the second is simply duck shooting. Each right note hitting a duck and scoring points. That’s about all I could find out but it’s an interesting curio to own though I do wonder if the A3 poster is worth more than the actual cart as I can't imagine it appears in the wild often. NES game trades anyone!

Goonies (Famicom Cart)

2008-12-03T00:57:00.000-08:00

When I bought my Twin Famicom my first problem with picking games was the language barrier. I can’t read a word of the language and the only word I know is konichiwa which I think is good morning, yep it seems I’m a language Luddite. With this in mind I set out to buy as many text light action games I could get my hands on and the Goonies was in the first pile of games I received. Released by Konami in 1986 I was surprised to learn that the game never made it past the shores of Japan except in the NES Play Choice 10 arcade cabinets. What makes me scratch my head is that the sequel (Goonies 2) was released worldwide and must have confused a lot of kids who couldn’t buy the first game.

The cart itself cost me a couple of pounds and seemed to be in pretty good condition. Although when it came to cleaning the cartridge connecters I had to use 4 cotton buds coated in large amounts of Ethanol. It seemed to be covered in filth but it wasn’t just this game as every Famicom cart I cleaned suffered the same way and seeing as I bought a large amount of games from different eBay sellers I have to wonder just where all this grime came from. So 30 minutes of cleaning later and I finally had chance to play the game!
There is no Japanese text to be seen throughout the game and besides the words Timer, Life and Score on the top bar it’s plain to see that this is a pure arcade platformer.

You play as Mikey, the main character from the film and it’s your job to save all the other Goonies, dodging the Fratelli family, running, jumping, and kicking the various other enemies along the way. Each enemy carries a small blue bomb, by running up to them and planting a kick to the head forces them to drop it. This can then be used to blow open Skull doors that hold a key. The enemies respawn quite often so you only have a few seconds after stealing their bomb and if you don’t pick it up in time another enemy will take it. Once you have 3 keys you can move to the next level but you can also save a fellow Goonie (5 in all) which if you manage to make it to the end of the game with all of them reveals a special ending.

You start in the wooden shack of the film and progress down through to the basement. Each level represents a different part of the story and although it’s limited graphically Konami seem to have the most important sections (such as the waterfalls and caverns) in place with the final level being set on the pirate ship. The game can be quite easy to work through but the aim is to save all the Goonies and make as many points possible so it’s purely a quick pick up and play arcade title. In no time at all I was running through the levels, using bombs, saving the team and all without any form of instructions. It controls really well and reminds me of an old Atari 2600 game (Popeye). I have completed the game several times but it’s more because it’s an enjoyable journey than a need to see the end.

Being my first real entry into the world of Famicom gaming I have my fingers crossed that the rest of the games will be on par with this. I would be interested to know just why this never received a release because there is no translation required as there just isn’t any text that needs it so the only thing I can think that held it back was some sort of license issue. If anyone knows more about this then please feel free to leave a comment.

Snakes Revenge

2008-12-01T01:13:00.000-08:00

This probably counts as the first proper request I’ve had to play a game since starting the blog so you all have Szczep to thank on the Rllmuk forums for this one. After the success of MG1 Konami wanted to make a suitable action sequel quickly for the US market and for some reason decided not to bother informing its creator Hideo Kojima. With no Japan release planned for the game I can only assume they didn’t see the need to let him no and it wasn’t until he bumped into one of the people working on Snake’s Revenge that he even knew it existed. The result being that Hideo went on to create a proper sequel to Metal Gear but that’s another story entirely.

I approached this game with low expectations as it’s generally seen as a rather poor offshoot for the Metal Gear franchise and I’m sure I will pick up a copy of the first game in future but for now let’s concentrate on the sequel. My first grumble has to be the password system mainly because I’ve been spoilt recently with the ability to save often on my Twin Famicom and even on the many NES carts with battery backup so it always makes me groan when I have to type in a huge password just to continue a game. Here’s an example of a password the game actually uses:

MBGQ R9Q7 H4H7 4JPV
8#W3 DP7X 4KT? 35

Just look at the size and complexity of it. I have to wonder why the programmers couldn’t have come up with something much smaller and I can only imagine how crazy it must have driven some kid’s having to copy down a long string of characters like that then re-input it just to continue. The game was released in 1990, way past the NES’s early days so it’s not as if installing a battery backup was a new concept so shame on you Konami.

On starting the game a few codec (Snakes portable radio) conversations explain the story with Snake being part of a 3 man team to infiltrate and steal back the plans for a Metal Gear (a walking tank with nuclear weapons). As the game begins your team mates run off into the jungle leaving you to find an enemy complex to infiltrate, all standard stuff for an action game. The main draw of the Metal Gear games is stealth and while it’s a bit basic on the NES you can still sneak around the game world avoiding all enemies and not setting off alarms. Being spotted by an enemy result in the alarm sounding and up to 3 enemy guards appearing to hunt you down which usually involves a mad dash to escape or frantic fight.

For someone sent behind enemy lines by the US government you would think they would provide more than a handgun and knife for poor Snake to defend himself. Thankfully the controls are relatively simple with a weapon assigned to either the A or B button by the menu and a few hits with your own fist or stab of a knife enough to take out most enemies I encountered. The difficulty does seem a bit overboard though and setting off an alarm can happen just by being in the wrong place when you enter a screen. A few sections of the jungle are shrouded in darkness with spotlights scrolling over the ground.

Stepping in one alerts the guards and even though they keep to the same pattern it can be frustrating to walk into one by accident just by entering the area. You might think this would add to the realism but it becomes a frustrating game mechanic that sometimes can’t be avoided. I must have spent a good 40 minutes wandering around the opening jungle as I couldn’t really gain any sense of where to go and asking for help of the codec didn’t offer much. Eventually through sheer luck I managed to free 2 tied Marines and one of them helped me into the complex.

Once inside the game takes on a whole new feel, looking like an industrial complex you really need to work your way past the numerous guards, cameras etc all the while trying to avoid the dreaded alarm going off. The game has been a top down perspective for all of this but changes briefly for a few sections of the compound. Every so often the game flicks to a 2D side on perspective (such as crawling through the sewers) where you can run, crawl, jump and use your weapons. I’m sure it was meant to come across as being more diverse but the side on sections just feel tacked on and simplistic which is a shame considering the top down view is so well done.

An action game wouldn’t be an action game without bosses and this doesn’t hold back. The first boss consisted of 5 guards that move in synch all of them rush towards you and chase you to a limited extent before backing away. Even using a machine gun and several grenades I’d picked up on my travels didn’t help much and I had to try several times to beat this boss, I have the control pad with teeth marks in to prove it! After what seemed a ridiculous amount of shots one of the guards fell then another and so on until I could walk proudly out of the room into an area filled with even more normal guards. Difficult seems to light a word.

Which brings me round to my overall opinion and besides the difficulty I actually enjoyed sneaking through the complex, taking out guards. It does seem to have received a lot of flak over the years mostly from loyal Hideo fans but I can honestly say it isn’t justified. Konami went out to make a suitable sequel for the US market and by that account they succeeded. Yes the game could have been easier but then it would lose a lot of the challenge and the 2D sections could do with being scrapped altogether thankfully they are few and far between.

The game is one of the higher priced NES titles and the cart alone often goes for close to £10, luckily I managed to win this in a last minute auction for £8, eBay to the rescue. If you are a fan of the older Metal Gear titles and have held off trying this because of all the bad comments then I simply say to ignore them. There’s a lot of challenge to be found here and even if it isn’t in line with the rest of the series it’s still effectively a decent attempt to carry on what the first did so well just be prepared for some incredibly long passwords!

Vice: Project Doom (US)

2008-11-27T01:10:00.001-08:00

Every time I look around the internet trying to find the best NES games to get my mitts on, one title keeps cropping up, Vice: Project Doom. However for such a well loved title it’s strange to see that it only had a US and Famicom release, skipping the UK and Europe entirely. With this in mind I would bet any money that there are a lot of people in the UK who have never even heard of this game before so let me shed some light on it for you.

I could start off by describing the plot but lets be honest it’s an action game so not many will care, having said that it involves aliens, clones, the police and some dodgy illegal substance so the least said in this case the better. The game itself is split between three distinct playing styles the first being a top down view of a car (like A.P.B. or SpyHunter in the arcades) where you have to speed through the streets firing at enemies and avoiding obstacles before taking on a vehicle/boss. This usually deposits you at the scrolling platform stage which is the same sort of style you see in the Contra games. Running, gunning and avoiding enemies with the odd difficult jump thrown in, finally followed by a shooting section where enemies pop out and you have to shoot them.

All three are completely different styles and each could be a game in their own right. The driving sections control extremely well with some brilliant collision detection. Nipping round the front of and down the side of enemy vehicles is possible without damaging the car then firing a load of bullets up their tail pipe to watch them explode is satisfying to say the least. As I mentioned earlier the platform sections could have been taken straight from the Contra games, as you scroll from one side of the screen to another your police officer character is incredibly nimble and with the choice of grenades, laser whip (don’t ask me, its the future) and .44 magnum there’s not much that can stand in your way. The laser whip actually reminds me of the Castlevania games with the benefit being you can jump from stairs!

The shooting sections are quite detailed for a NES title with the controls responding well as you flush the cursor around screen. I don’t have a NES zapper due to my TV (it’s a HD TV so no gun games for me at all) not working with one so I wasn’t able to test if the game lets you use this as an alternative controller for that section. Maybe a reader could help out?

Vice seems to borrow heavily from other games, coming close to becoming a Master of them all this is a huge benefit as it’s so well put together that you end up with a fantastic game within its own right. I would like to mention something else about the game I received it came with a shiny, blue plastic Nintendo cart case. I’ve never seen anything like this before and with it being a US game I’m not sure if it’s because of it being an ex rental title or even if Nintendo actually supplied all of their games like this.

I was able to import this from the US for next to nothing, it came to about £5 for the game itself (including the snazzy blue case and manual) topped off with £4 shipping. If you are tempted to buy yourself or even modify a NES then you couldn’t go far wrong with a copy of this.

Sharp Twin Famicom

2008-11-24T01:20:00.000-08:00

Back in October I posted a NES Wish list and one of the items that I decided I wanted (and shortly after caved in) was a Sharp Twin Famicom. The Famicom is the Japanese equivalent of the NES and due to it being the home country of Nintendo received a lot more games over its lifespan of 20 or so years. Just delving into the Famicom’s long lifespan shows a system that was well loved past the turn of this century with production only halting around 2003/4 because parts were no longer available. What we are left with is a legacy of games (and pirate titles, practically an industry itself) that spans 2 decades. Nintendo aren’t one for licensing their hardware out to other companies but it seem in the mid 80’s they decided to offer such an opportunity to Sharp who went on to build the Twin Famicom unit I now have sitting in my living room.

The TF comes with a Famicom Disk Drive built in as well as the cart slot so you can pretty much play any game available for the Famicom. Much better than buying a Famicom on its own, followed by the expensive Disk Drive add on later.A chap known as Andy-games-Japan on eBay has been my main stay for Famicom goods so far especially a great benefit being that he can understand English. Asking a lot of Japanese importers about the stuff they have for sale can sometimes be a right pain when it comes to crossing the language barrier so Andy has been my choice of call each time. I also went on a bit of a spending spree during my initial Famicom excitement, buying around 12 games, mixed between cart and disk but all of which will be covered here on the blog in due time with Andy more than happy to provide plenty of (cheap) games to keep me going.

You will have to forgive the mobile phone snaps of the box being opened but it felt like Christmas morning peeling back all that cardboard and Japanese newspapers (there’s some in the picture, look at those fancy letters, amaze at the pretty paper) I didn’t want to waste time digging out the proper camera. The box even came with a Panda on the side; consider this my cultural exchange for the year! Finally pulling the console free everything was well packaged and in order. I then spent several minutes slotting in different carts and disks just trying to check they all worked.

However disaster struck! Within 2 days of plugging the system in it refused to work. At first I was in a panic, having spent close to £100 on importing the console it lay there in front of the TV laughing at me and no matter what I seemed to do it wouldn’t switch on. In the end I had to buy a multi-meter (thanks to 133MHz at the Famicom World forums, linked to in the right of this blog, for his help and constantly walking me through every step despite my pestering) a small device that can measure the voltage passing through electrical items. On closer inspection it turned out that the Japanese power convertor I was using had simply blown. Phew the TF was safe. One Universal adaptor later and we were back in action!

Once everything was back to normal and I could finally stop tearing my hair out I thought I’d take a closer look at the system itself. I quite like the design, its sleek for something from the 80’s to one side there’s an expansion port for what I think is a RAM disk, a way of using the TF with a standard Famicom effectively as a Famicom Disk Drive. There’s also a slot for what I think takes extra pads though the description beneath it is in Japanese so I’m only guessing. A quick glance around the back there seems to be an input for S Video but I have vague recollections of a Famicom keyboard add on so it could be solely for that. If anyone knows then please drop a line in the comments section below.

The console itself has the usual reset and power buttons on the front add to this a huge eject button for cartridges which forces them out so fast its like using a toaster as well as a button which forces you to choose between disk or cartridge. This is a bit annoying you can’t leave a cartridge in whilst you use the disc drive as it locks the cart slot out whilst the drive is in use but I’m sure it made sense to someone at Sharp. Now for my main gripe about the console the controller leads. The pads are stored/connected to the back of the console so when you pick them up to play you loose a good chunk of the cable as it stretches forward add to this the cable is around 12 inches long and you practically have to sit on top of the system just to use it. I’m afraid I’m a bit lazy when it comes to playing games and lounge back in my seat but with these short leads I was right in front of the TV (which is a nightmare on a 32” screen).

My answer was to go back to Andy and import a plug in pad, one with a couple of metres long cable. I’m sure you are all worried about the Disk loading times which to be honest depends entirely on the game. Some titles load in a few seconds with others taking up to 30 depending on how big the game actually is follow this by the need to switch from Side A to B of the Disk and it can become a little frustrating with changes required mid level in at times however the main benefit of having a game on Disk is the ability to save straight to the media which usually requires battery backup when it comes to cartridges.

I consider the Famicom a close cousin of the NES they are for all intents and purposes the same system with a very different look. I have no ability to read Japanese so the games will have to be simple/easy to control without the need of instructions. So those epic RPG’s are definitely out. So I aim to treat the Twin as I would the NES and hope to post as many blog entries as I would the other, it will be the perfect chance for us all to learn about some more games from Japan and maybe even discover a few you lot wont of heard of which means plenty of recommendations for future entries please!

Edit: One thing I would like to add is a quick note about the Disk Drives belt, a small black piece of rubber that is prone to melting, breaking with relative ease and sadly quite often. These are usually only available to buy from Japan as they are used quite specifically with the Famicom. I decided to import 2 spare belts as they appear to be relatively easy to replace but thankfully Andy-games-Japan fitted a brand new belt before sending the TF over and even added a few for an extra $6.99 each (about £3.50. A bargain as these things can cost as much as £12 a time).

Donkey Kong Classics

2008-11-21T00:43:00.000-08:00

Pretty much the title that started that started it all for everyone’s favourite game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. The main character Jumpman was later realised to be Mario and I don’t think there’s a person alive who doesn’t know him by now. Starring in over a hundred games it’s interesting to pay a visit to what started it all and see if the game still holds up today.

The NES version of Donkey Kong is one of many ports to home systems of the DK Arcade game however it does miss one of the later stages, the cement factory. It does make up for this by having a couple of difficulty options from the main screen reminiscent of the old hard switches on the Atari 2600’s, game A or B. Game A is the standard game running about, jumping over barrels whilst game B changes the dynamic of the whole game by having lots of floating fireball enemies and turning all of the barrels that hit the furnace at the base of the screen into these as well.

It adds quite a bit of variety as game A can be played by concentrating on the timing of barrels, whilst B requires some skill to work your way past the fireballs that aren’t restricted by floors or objects, they go anywhere they please often resulting in a complete change of tactics or even having to run to earlier parts of the stage to avoid them. Being a port of its arcade cousin the game is bound to be limited at least visually but what’s on offer isn’t anything to turn your nose up at the graphics are simple but functional lacking the sharpness of the arcade yet everything is still as it should be (bar the missing stage!). Jumpman/Mario is just as nimble as his arcade counterpart and the speed of the game may be slightly off in comparison it does more than an adequate job of replicating the arcade machine you never really find yourself thinking it’s anything less than the same game.

There’s a reason this is called Donkey Kong Classics though and that’s because it also includes Donkey Kong Jr on the same cartridge. Sequel to DK this time you have to contend with freeing DK from Jumpman’s clutches. It sounds like more of the same except the stages are built with climbing in mind with Jr able to scale quickly upwards between vines. Jumpman spends most of his time throwing spring loaded alligators your way in a similar fashion to DK’s barrels but this time round they can move up and down the actual vines. Being a larger character than Jumpman means Jr takes up a lot more space when he jumps but it also has the added benefit of being able to grab vines whilst in the air. Makes for a very interesting redesign of the first game and adds a lot more depth.

I have never played DK Jr at the arcades and without a handy MAME installation I can’t try it but if half the attention in porting it as the first game then I don’t doubt it’s a good version worth tracking down. It’s not that difficult to find either with most copies selling for a few quid on eBay. It’s surprising that there are 2 games on the cartridge and it must have been well worth the money back then with most NES games being short, difficult and quick to play. I may even be tempted to track the third game down at some point.

Help required!

2008-11-20T04:28:00.000-08:00

On one of my visits to eBay I noticed one of these for sale, a Mother Ship Nintendo Hand Controller Enhancer:

Now the auction didn't say much about it and it was priced at around the £15 mark so not something I would buy simply out of curiosity. It basically seems to be a bit of plastic that moves against the inserted pad. Have any of you actually owned one of these? If so whats it like? I'm not sure how accurate it would be for playing games but I'd be interested to find out.

Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu

2008-11-19T00:37:00.000-08:00

Jackie Chan + Kung fu. How can you go wrong? I’m a huge fan of Jackie Chan and no matter how poor a film may seem (and God there’s been a lot of them, The Tuxedo comes to mind) there’s always the skill and determination of the man himself in every movie. When I heard of a Jackie Chan game and that it might actually be good I started searching for a copy. My usual haunts are the Retro Gamer forum as a quick request there; I will often get a game I’m after. This time I was out in town when I spotted an Indie DVD shop with a small retro section. Tucked away on a back shelf were several NES games and a copy of JC for just £3. Not bad considering it goes for well over £5 on eBay.

I’m not even sure what the story is about. Something about an evil sorcerer coming back to take over China and kidnapping Jackie’s sister. Along the way you receive help from Jackie’s Kung Fu Master and some weird looking green frogs. At this point I stopped paying attention to the story as it just seemed like some mad cap tale that’s bound not to make any sense. I could only hope the game play would make up for it.

To put it simply I wasn’t disappointed, starting the game with Jackie meditating beneath a waterfall a quick tap of the pad and he’s runs off to the right to be set of on his adventure by his Master (clichéd old wise man with beard, think Miyagi with longer hair). Consisting of 5 levels, each ending with a boss, it’s your job to take Jackie through each stage of this action platformer using his various Kung Fu skills. You can jump, kick, punch and holding up on the pad lets you access a few special moves. The moves I saw ranged from a 360 and 180 degree spin kick, a floating tornado kick and a strange sky attack which attacks an enemy when you leap into the sky. The game controls are delightfully sharp and Jackie acts quickly whenever you tell him to do something. The combat is quite satisfying and killing enemies is never a chore as you send them flying with a well timed kick.

Special mention must go to the bizarre floating cloud bonus stage where you make your way around jumping from cloud to cloud, trying to land on a certain number before the time limit runs out. Accurate, a pain in the backside but a lot of fun, it certainly didn’t make any sense to me either so I’m putting it down to something Jackie had taken. Generally the stages seemed well put together with some tricky jumps and numerous enemies but I quite enjoyed slide kicking my way along the ground, sending a boot in the odd frog’s direction for power ups. Frogs, clouds, parrots, snakes, tigers (yes Mr Chan kicks tigers to death!), soldiers, swordsmen etc a large number of strange enemies get in your way but none of them can stand up to Jackie’s mighty boot.

I love this game and it’s what an action platformer should be all about...well maybe without the drug crazed story. I haven’t played anything like it on the NES so far and its so mad cap and full of odd touches that I’d recommend it to anyone. It might be expensive to buy on eBay but you won’t regret it. Chalk it up as highly recommended by me.

Emulation, to emulate or not

2008-11-18T00:27:00.001-08:00

One thing has become apparent to me whilst viewing several forums and that’s the divide between owning actual cartridges and playing game on an emulator. The main benefit of emulation is just how easy it is to pick up hundreds if not thousands of NES games the world over. A quick glance at several sites shows that a full collection of NES games comes to around 1.5GB in total which in this day and age can be practically stored on a USB memory stick.

There’s something to be said about hunting down a game, researching it, finding a cheap copy and then actually having it pop through the letterbox. It makes the whole experience seem real to me and it always means that I spend time with the actual game, sitting down to play it properly. With emulated games the urge to open several in a row diminishes the experience for me. A good example of this is Dragon Warrior 4, now I recently purchased DW 1 (coming in a future blog entry) from the US after hearing good things about the series. It turns out that the 4th game is extremely rare going for at least £60 a time on eBay and I’ve even seen a few clearing £90 with just a box and cart.

I am really tempted to play this due to it being highly recommended over on Rllmuk Forum but the price means it might be a long time off. Now I suppose I could open an emulator like NESter and play the games straightaway but then I would lose the joy of actually buying the cart, holding it in my own two hands etc which to me seems to be sacrificing a lot.

For the sake of the blog I am not trying to build a complete collection of NES games, rather take my time working through as many decent titles with a write up for each. The only time I will use emulation is if I buy a cart and it breaks or refuses to run but even then it will only be as a last resort. It’s an interesting discussion for NES collectors so I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Gameboy Color with Tetris, Megaman and Game Genie

2008-11-17T00:57:00.000-08:00

Some of you will be pointing the finger at this point and saying “this is NES blog what’s this doing here?” To which I might usually agree but in this case I was led astray by Kid Icarus. Curious as to how its GB sequel would play I thought I’d venture off in another direction for the blog, besides a different Nintendo related entry once in a while won’t hurt things I’m sure!

There are many versions of the Gameboy available but seeing as I didn’t want to commit myself to the console to any degree I decide to limit myself to spending no more than £10 and managed to pick up a GB Color (no I haven’t gone American, Color is the actual release name here) for £8 with a couple of games, silly case (just look at it) and a Game Genie. The great thing about the GB Color is its backward compatibility with the rest of the GB range capable of playing all the previous black & white titles with a limited but clever colour palette. You might wonder why I claim it’s clever but just try playing an old GB game that has a section with water. The console picks up on this and actually displays the water in blue. It is magic!

The GBC I bought was a bit worse for wear and my first task before playing was to take it apart and clean all the contacts. I’m not sure what the previous owner had been doing with it as there was a sticky residue set round all the controls and I had to spent a good while scrubbing it clean with ethanol before it would work properly again. It never occurred to me at the time to take a few pictures of the insides but all I can say is that it wasn’t a pretty picture.

The first game I fired up was Megaman and I have to say I was a bit disappointed. With only 4 bosses and what felt like an insane difficulty level it just wasn’t a patch on MM2 but at least it was interesting to see Capcom was trying to take the series multiplatform for the first time and I can only hope things improved. Sadly I’m not a Megaman collector so where the series went from here I haven’t a clue. It’s not a bad game but something is missing that I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it’s the way the game plays or the lack of bosses it just didn’t feel the same as Megaman 2 to me.

Next was Tetris but there’s not much that can be said about this. A Simple, wonderful, addictive and time consuming puzzle game. I only meant to have a quick blast but before I knew it I’d wasted 30 minutes and didn’t make it much past level 10. Going back to the late 80’s I have vague recollections of it conquering the known gaming world which isn’t surprising.

Included with the auction was a Game Genie. Now this thing is a beast of a plug in, almost two thirds the size of the GB Color it slots into the cartridge slot with the GB games nestled away on top. The idea is that turning it on gives you a menu screen that you can type or effectively change code into the game you are playing. This can range from altering the number of lives, invincibility or making the game even more difficult. I didn’t do much more beyond turning it on and having a play with the main menu and it wasn’t until after I’d taken the photo for the blog that I released that there was a large bible of game codes slotted into the side of the device, very handy. There’s a full alphabetical list of codes in there and I think it covers most of the GB’s games library failing that you can actually make up your own codes but I’d probably need n instruction manual to even attempt that.

I really bought the GB Color out of curiosity and I probably won’t be buying many games for it. I may even pick something up on the cheap from time to time and type something up for the blog.

Retro North

2008-11-14T00:55:00.000-08:00

A few of you may have noticed mention of something called Retro North in my profile. I’d like to interrupt the usual NES blogging and take chance to explain what it was in some detail. It might even inspire some of you to try organising something similar.

A long, long time ago around Christmas 2006 when fuel was 89p a litre (happy times) I sat down with a copy of Retro Gamer and Games TM with an inkling to attend some sort of gaming retro event. To my dismay I couldn’t find a single one and a general wander around internet forums showed a sorry picture with no one planning to hold anything of interest. The 2 years prior to this had offered the Retro Ball and a huge event (which I missed) called CGE UK. It was then the thought struck me that I could try and organise something myself. What followed was a month or two stumbling around forums trying to find out if there would be any interest for a day long event on the 25th August 2007.

The venue Glossop Rugby Union Football Club in Derbyshire required a large deposit of several hundred pounds and I needed to see if I could convince enough people to attend to make it worthwhile. The initial interest was huge and well above what I could have hoped even in the early days offers to provide retro gaming gear for all to play on the day were numerous and I could spend several pages just listing names. So another thank you for all those that helped out and apologies for those who I have forgotten to mention, it has been well over a year since it happened!

Leading up to the event I was able to convince Andy from Console Passion to hold a stall, he even provided a large sum in sponsorship money which helped with actually getting the event going and covering some of the cost. One thing you must be prepared for when organising an event like this is the often large amounts needed for hiring equipment, staff (kitchen staff in this case) and other deposits. It was my goal to donate all profits made from the day to the Diabetes UK charity something I have had experience with myself.

Ste Pickford (left) in the Q+A session

Thanks to several people on the Retro Gamer forums I was able to attract a few people from Weekend Gamer TV, RGCD, Cronosoft as well as their lead programmer Jonathan Caudwell. This was all a few months before the actual event so I was pleased as punch to be able to have so many offers of support from them. Of course my main goal was to try and find a guest star that would be willing to just mingle and possibly take part in a Q&A session. Step in Ste Pickford who helped created the likes of Feud on the Speccy and even working on games for the likes of Rare and Nintendo.

Chris Wilkins who organised the Retro Ball events a couple of years back also helped out by bringing along a Space Invaders MAME cabinet which he also went on to sell afterwards, Colin from the Jamma+ forums brought a stand up cab with numerous plug in boards, there were queues all day long to get on both. To make the day pass more smoothly I also setup a projector connected to a Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360, which most of the time had Guitar Hero on. At least that way no one could complain we didn’t have all bases covered.

About half way through the day I held the Q+A session with our special guest star only for the PA system to die a few minutes before we began. The result was a mad scramble to find something we could use as the venue was pretty noisy with all the games being played and people chatting. In the end we had to half connect some cables to a video camera and out to a speaker just to get any sound at all. It sounded as bad as you would think which meant huge chunks of the Q+A became a struggle to hear. Talking to a few folks afterwards though and they all enjoyed what Ste had to say especially being to learn about what it was actually like to work for Nintendo/Rare back in the day.

The venue itself had a huge bar with pretty much everyone getting a bit sozzled, thankfully I had been able to sort out opening the kitchens (it can be seen to the right of the Console Passion stall) for the day and they were on hand to sell chips, burgers etc to keep everyone sober for at least a couple of hours! Besides a few competitions on Guitar Hero and a couple of playoffs on some fighting games we didn’t really have many events throughout the day. One big hit was a quiz organised by Andy from CP who had many prizes from consoles to games which also provided a great boost for the charity fund.

All in all it was a great day even if it was extremely tiring for me and we managed to earn over £500 for the charity which was well above and beyond what I expected. I spent a lot of time on my feet keep things running but I still managed to have a great time and checking various forums after the event it seems that so did everyone else. Due to getting a new job and moving house early this year I simply couldn’t commit the time needed for organising a sequel but that always leaves next year. Who knows maybe there will be a Retro North 2009.

Batman: The Video Game

2008-11-12T00:21:00.000-08:00

The world of movie license titles is a bit of a sorry one. Every time a big film hits the cinema there’s usually some rubbish game to match mostly because the studio doesn’t have the time or resources to make anything beyond passable instead preferring to get something out there in order to make some quick cash. Sadly it never seems to fail as year in, year out we still see multi format movie releases most of which are pretty poor and this is as true today as it was in the 80’s. However there are always exceptions to the rule and with a cheap eBay auction in sight (another £1 game!) I ventured into the world of Gotham.

Inspired by the 1989 Batman film the game is based in a dark, gritty world with your role being to fight your way through the levels until the showdown in the cathedral with his nemesis the Joker. To aid you along your way you have a total of 3 different weapons the batarang, bat spear gun and batdisk (the guy probably wears bat underpants too) that can be flung at enemies. The whole game is very similar to Shadow Warriors, even the feel of how you control Batman is the same also sharing the ability to cling and pounce from walls, platforms etc. The difficulty is quite high, another trait of Shadow Warriors. The main difference between the two is that Batman’s world is much darker and gritty based solely at night with levels scrolling in all directions.

Batman is a weighty character and not the fastest when it comes to jumping/dodging enemies so the whole thing becomes a bit run n gun as you try and work your way through each stage. From what I’ve seen and looked up on the net there doesn’t appear to be any driving sections with the whole game putting you in control of Batman. The number of weapons may seem to lack choice and limited ammo supply but the game throws pellets to reload them at you quite often. Boy will you need them, everything from machine guns, robots, flamethrowers. You name it and the games enemies are carrying it.

This is another title that I played back in the day and even back then when my gaming thumbs were up to the task I can still remember having major problems getting just half way through. I can see that this is a very good game but the frustration in parts and the unforgiving difficulty level brings me close to throwing the pad across the room which brings my opinion of it down a bit in my mind.

I may just be moaning because I’ve become used to easier games as the years have gone by but some of the stages in this are rage inducing. So would I recommend this? .....Yes. Frustrating and hair tearing it may be yet there’s something special about it, a lure that brings you back to have just one more go. Who knows one day I might just reach the Joker and topple him over the side of the cathedral, until then there’s always YouTube video endings!

Marble Madness

2008-11-10T00:51:00.000-08:00

I’ve never really had an interest in Marble Madness and although I played the arcade game a few times when I was a kid (at a Great Yarmouth arcade) the only really draw for me back then was the interesting control method of the spinning ball to control the marble on screen. I was offered the NES version along with another game for just a few quid so I couldn’t see the harm. Though to be honest I wasn’t expecting much.

Looks wise it’s a pretty decent game and for a NES port of an arcade cab it still manages to keep the same isometric view with all of the levels I played being ones from the arcade. Once the marble starts to roll it does seem quite weighty when you move it via the pad but it still feels slightly wrong playing without a roller ball. If you hold any direction the ball will roll to follow, the physics adjusting depending on speed/momentum and from the first few levels I found it quite easy to work my way through without falling off the side of the mazes. The goal of each maze is simply to reach the exit without dying too many times! Back in the 80’s Nintendo were always releasing various themed peripherals and I can’t see why an extra traction ball wasn’t released.

I did come across a couple of glitches which I expect were down to the NES being a bit underpowered or possibly even dodgy coding. The ball flickered into the shape of a square when close to enemies and the collision detection is off. This isn’t a problem when it comes to just rolling around the landscapes but when you are dependant on a few close encounters and the game glitches or nudges you off in a direction for being close to but not actually touching an enemy then its an issue. Some of the sections are narrow and require some skill to navigate yet when the game designers chose to plop an enemy in the middle that can push you over the edge without actually touching it spoils the fun.

Despite its faults there’s one thing the game has in spades, fun. The problem with bringing arcade games into the home is that the audience is usually a lot different. People don’t want quick fixes or high scores most of the time and want to be able to spend a couple of hours working their way through titles. Marble Madness still retains that unforgiving difficulty of the arcade and it’s this that I think would have pushed people to keep coming back for more.

Since getting my hands on this I’ve actually plugged the cart in several times and I’m tempted to do the same again today which to me makes it a decent enough game to while away the odd 10 minutes. Maybe arcade ports at home aren’t such a bad idea after all and for a game I wasn’t expecting anything from it’s more than delivered. I’ll add this to the return to play later pile that’s for sure.

Kirby's Adventure

2008-11-07T01:06:00.000-08:00

Poking around various forums I heard mention of a great series of video games starring a big, pink powdery puffball called Kirby. It seems there was only one Kirby game ever released on the NES and Kirby’s Adventure was the follow up to Kirby’s Dreamland on the Gameboy. A quick glance on eBay and it seems to be one of the much rarer games available reaching silly Zelda prices. I didn’t let this put me off and £8 later I had a copy winging its way towards me through the post.

When it arrived however the damn thing didn’t work and even after cleaning it numerous times I still couldn’t escape the dreaded white screen. In the end I dabbed a few more drops of ethanol onto the cartridge connector and left it over night and this seemed to do the trick! I was greeted by a rather cutesy animation where a circle is drawn, eyes, and shoes and then colour is added. My first impression wasn’t great I have to say as I was left thinking that this was something purely for 5 year olds but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Starting the game I was offered a simple door to walkthrough that leads into the first level and over a couple of minutes you are easily led down a path akin to a tutorial that shows in a very effective way how Kirby’s abilities work. Basically Kirby can eat any enemy and then use their powers of attack. These can range from sword swings, bombs, karaoke (yes everyone on screen dances in time with your singing), lasers, lightning etc the list goes on.

Once hit you do lose the ability so at best they are only temporary as well there is the standard ability to suck in a load of air then flying around the screen. This ability is one of the games worst problems though as it can be used at anytime giving you the opportunity to simply fly over the entire level without encountering a single enemy. But that’s not all in Kirby’s choice of moves he can also spit enemies back out like a canon and in some parts you can’t proceed unless you steal a certain ability such as a hammer to knock a post down into the ground.

Thankfully the platform sections are so engrossing that you would miss out if you decide to take the easy route though it sort of defeats the object a bit when you are really stuck as you can simply float over the troublesome section. On returning to the main map screen there is chance to play a few mini games to earn extra lives, these involve moving a pair of metal arms to pick up various Kirby dolls, each worth a different number of lives but they aren’t as easy to grasp as you might think.

Graphically this is very impressive for a game released in 1993 and I can only out this down to the fact that the NES console was at the end of its life, programmers the world over would have really known how to squeeze every ounce of power out of the machine and I can only hope that other games released around this time would look half as good. The world of the game is very bright, colourful and detailed with a few occasions I could have been convinced I was playing a SNES game.

By the time of writing I had only managed to get as far as world 5 (there are several sections to each) but what’s on offer is simply surprising for a NES game. Numerous worlds (7 in total) and stages with some tough boss fights, yes I found them difficult in some places as you really need to be quick with their patterns not being predictable. I was constantly reminded of the depth of the SNES game Super Mario World due to their being so much to do and I wish there had been a sequel on the NES. I set out to find games that I would really enjoying playing for this blog and so far this has really been the best of the bunch.

Shadow Warriors/Ninja Gaiden

2008-11-05T00:32:00.000-08:00

At last we come to my first bought boxed game, a title that I hope will stay special to me as it stands all on its lonesome on the NES shelf like a leper as the other carts seeming to shrink away from this beauty. As I have mentioned earlier in this blog I have no intention of going out of my way to buy boxed games as I want to play as many titles as possible without committing to the more serious parts of collecting. So when it came to my next game of choice I wanted to pick one of the more well known games and Shadow Warriors seemed the perfect match. Prices on EBay vary from small to silly in many cases and I was lucky to find a fully boxed copy with manual for just 50p more than a stand alone cart and at that price I thought it would make a good investment to add it to the gaming collection.

Shadow Warriors or Ninja Gaiden as it’s known in every other country (thanks to the silly 80’s UK censorship view that Ninja’s are somewhat naughty, capable of destroying young minds so the word Ninja was always downplayed no matter the media) is a home version of the arcade game similar to Double Dragon, a simple side scroller with the main Ninja character beating 10 shades out of everyone who gets in his way. However Tecmo seem to have done away with this for the home version, remaking the game into more of a platformer/beat em up hybrid. This pays off no end as the arcade game wasn’t anything special and SW really shines in its new form.

The box boasts of it having movie like graphics, high quality cut scenes and surprisingly for a NES game they do a pretty good job of telling the heroes plight. The story is deep for an 8bit game however it is the usual nonsense of finding a missing father, carrying on his legacy and getting revenge but I guess back in the 80’s such themes were not as hackneyed or over used as they are today. This is the decade that brought us the A-Team after all so it’s understandable that action games were all the rage at the time. We may laugh about it now but when most games story was no greater than “Plumber looks for and saves Princess” then you have to admit that Shadow Warriors was something special.
I start off controlling our hero (Ryu Hayabusa) in the streets of New York, running around slashing enemies with a sword like that from the Strider arcade game and throwing the odd optional weapon as I come across them, there’s even a few special moves that can be used once collected which range from flinging fireballs to a sword spin attack. Control wise it’s pretty tightly put together and the main character responds pretty well to whatever you dole out on the controller. One feature of the game that I quite enjoyed is the ability to cling to walls, firing weapons and even jumping onto other surfaces. You can even climb structures this way just by jumping back and forth, gripping each time. Just like...well a Ninja! Each stage comes with a boss to fight and these can be quite difficult until you learn the pattern, however the bosses aren’t the real difficulty of the game it’s the unforgiving levels. Everything from mad dogs, vampires, punks and all types of maniacs are thrown into the mix so each level always feels different to the last.

You are thankfully given unlimited continues because you will need them. The game is very difficult with lots of enemies and jumps that require almost pixel perfect timing to perform. The great thing is once you achieve them you get that thrill of a job well done which adds to the experience. The artwork and general work of the game is genuinely superb and there are a few moments where I was surprised at just how much detail and work must have gone in to the level design. The last 3 acts are well worth the hours of hard play just to see. Music wise it doesn’t let up either and each section holds something special to listen to. For a game that cost me £7 I’ll certainly be getting my value for money from repeat play.

A bit of a snoop around EBay and Wikipedia and it seems there are 3 Ninja Gaiden games available on the NES and the 2 sequels seem to have been US only releases. Which I can imagine being a pain for some but with my modified NES I’ll certainly be picking them up sometime in the future!

Regular updates?

2008-11-04T07:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a few weeks since I started writing this blog and I have been enjoying it for the most part though I don't think my bank balance shares my enthusiasm. From what I've seen of gaming blogs they tend to live or die on the amount of updates. I have literally a stack of NES games waiting for write-ups and I hope to keep expanding the pile so my aim is to update 3 or 4 times or week. So keep checking for new updates folks and I'll do my best to give you all something interesting to read!

Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles

2008-11-03T01:40:00.000-08:00

Here is a game that brings back a lot of memories more from the craze of the time rather than its game play. The Turtles ruled supreme towards the end of the 90’s everything from lunchboxes, bed covers, cartoons, bubble bath, action figures, coin collections and even a decent movie. Yes I’m putting myself into the camp of those who loved the movie. Even today I feel it holds up quite well as a dark film that surpasses all of its light hearted sequels and it wasn’t until the recent CGI effort that we were treated to something on par with the original.

Umpteen years later and faced with a rose tinted view I came across a copy on a shelf in my local Gamestation. For a couple of quid I didn’t think I could go wrong. When I got home I was annoyed to find that the game refused to load and I had to clean it several times with vast amounts of ethanol before it fired up, the cotton bud I used turning pitch black with years of filth from the contacts. The Turtles game was an original pack in cartridge with some NES consoles and Christmas of that year (1989) it was the game every one wanted and they were certainly the Pokémon craze of their day. But the main concern was whether or not the game is actually worth playing!

My first irk was the lack of recognisable theme tune on the title screen. I can still clearly remember the music from the cartoon and was surprised it hadn’t been repeated here. Instead we are treated to a rather dull melody that wouldn’t seem out of place in any standard action platformer. However this is the Turtles game and they deserve a decent legacy!
On starting the game you are given the choice of the 4 main characters Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael each having their trademarks weapons with all having their own different reach and strength. My first choice was Leonardo mainly because he was always my favourite Turtle and who doesn’t like swords! The game drops you into the middle of a top down view map with your Turtle of choice taking centre stage. You can walk around the map and visit different buildings but right next to where you start is a small, open manhole. Expecting to be dropped into the Turtles home I ventured inside.

Instead of hanging out with the rest of the Turtles I was faced with a side on sewer platform section with numerous enemies flying around. They are all quite easy to kill and a quick hit from Leo’s Katana soon puts them down. After scrolling for a few screens I spy a ladder leading out of the sewers and clambering up leads me directly onto the map in a different part of town. This is pretty much the main stay of what the game is about travelling through the sewers, visiting buildings trying to hunt down a mission objective, in the first mission it’s to save the yellow banana coated April, which was bad taste even back in the 80’s, from a pig like creature called Rock Steady.

Controls wise it can’t be faulted, each Turtle responds well and despite the flickering enemies (this is the UK edition so maybe the US one doesn’t suffer from this) its very playable and I can understand why it was so popular back in the day. You effectively have 4 lives to complete each mission as every time a Turtle keels over you get to choose another one and from what I saw, continues were plentiful. Something you will no doubt need when you reach the underwater dam sections. Each consists of swimming through various electrified tunnels to defuse a number of bombs. Not the greatest of design decision as the time limit is quite strict and the number large.

From what I can tell this was made by Palcom (who were actually a company created by Konami to cheat Nintendo’s cart licensing rules and release more games than they were allowed) and it’s not a bad effort all told. However I still feel it could do with a bit of tweaking in places. The collision detection can be slightly dodgy at times, the Turtle’s can’t swim in the sewers but they can in the dam, lower difficulty when it comes to bomb disposal and more recognisable characters! None of the enemies (besides the few bosses) are from the cartoon show that I remember and most of the boss fights are a bit easy. With the wealth of baddies on offer in the cartoon you would think they could have made a much better effort. Not bad but I just wish they’d gone on to make a similar but improved sequel. I’m still in 2 minds about this, compared to the likes of Darkwing Duck and Ducktales it just doesn’t have enough going for it, certainly one worth picking up from the top of a bargain bin though.

20 years on the Turtles aren’t Teenagers anymore and more green skinned geriatrics.

Legend of Zelda (US)

2008-10-30T02:06:00.000-07:00

Now at last we come to one of my old favourites and also one of the most ridiculously priced games I’ve ever seen. Prices for this seem to change at random on eBay. One minute its £5 then the next it’s hitting as high as £15 and that’s not even mentioning the boxed cart prices. Lucky for me I was able to get my hands on a US copy quite cheaply from a forum.

I should start with the most memorable part of this game. Who doesn’t remember the theme from Zelda? It still sends a chill down my spine whenever I think back to all that time over the years spent hunting for rupees, searching for those well known weapons and killing the all too familiar monsters. The Zelda games are famous for drastically changing worlds and game play between incarnations yet still retaining the same familiar core parts that keep the series great. I’m sure every Nintendo fan has a favourite Zelda moment and mine has always been leaping the fence at Lon Lon Ranch on the back of Epona in Ocarina of Time.

But what’s it like going back to where it all began? Starting a new game for the first time and taking Link on the beginning of his adventures? Well I’m glad to say it’s all good and the game can still be said to hold up to play today. Most of the world map can be explored right from the off and none of the enemies are too taxing. The meat of the game so to speak is centred in the 8 dungeons where you get chance to find several pieces of Triforce, battle a dungeon boss and gain a brand new weapon. Out of all the weapons I find myself returning to the boomerang often as it can be a lot of fun firing it out in one corner then running across the screen as it slices through your enemies.

The puzzles are a bit lacking and mostly involve blowing a hole in a wall with a bomb, pushing a few blocks about or finding some keys. Yet you can still see where the idea’s for future games started (such as the ladder for crossing small pools, raft for crossing lakes) as just about everything that appears in the later part of the series is shown here in some way. I did find the game a bit easy and I was able to complete 3 dungeons in just one sitting (barely a couple of hours) though I did find having a download of the top world map came in handy. It’s very easy to get lost when it comes to finding locations as there’s not many directions compared to later games. During play I kept thinking to myself that this was more Zelda light but it’s certainly worth playing to see where it all started.

I actually made the effort to complete this in a few sittings and once complete you do have the option to replay a much harder version. So there’s plenty of fun to be had from the cart. One thing I’ve always wondered (and despite searching the net couldn’t find an answer) is to why the Zelda carts were released in gold, if there was a specific marketing campaign that pushed this or even if any other games were released in similar cart colours. It also leaves me wondering if there are similar games on the NES.

Wizards & Warriors III

2008-10-28T02:06:00.000-07:00

Since the mid 90’s I’ve always been a big fan of RPG’s and the one game that drew me into this fold was the PC Baldur’s Gate series. So I decided to try and find the equivalent for the NES and despite the Ultima games (which I think are US only) there aren’t many that might appeal. However there are plenty of hybrids and W&W III falls into the category of RPG. I’ve never really got on with the Ultima games in the past besides VII on PC (which was a God send) but there is at least 1 Ultima game for the NES and if readers want me to pick a copy up then drop a line in the comments section and I’ll see what I can do.

It’s a strange mix between platformer, action and RPG with elements that cross over all three categories. You start the game as Knight returning from his quest of the previous game in charge of killing some evil wizard Mongo or Mongoid or something similar and a cut scene of sorts is played before the main title screen. The game opens in a town that is built mainly of stilts with each level working its way up towards the Wizards castle. Carrying your trusty sword you can work your way up through the levels by jumping and slashing at various town folk (who tend to retaliate so be careful. Inside the various buildings are guilds that you can join working your way up to becoming a stronger knight, a thief or even a Wizard.

I didn’t have the manual for this and despite searching online I couldn’t find one to download so I was pretty much on my own. Controls wise I couldn’t complain as the main character responds quite well, responsive jumping and using the sword seemed easy enough. But without a manual I was a bit lost and just spent most of my time wandering around the town trying to find something to do. At one point I almost joined the thieves’ guild after picking up some random statue in a house so I must have been doing something right!

A bit of internet research later and I discover that the game is quite detailed with various dungeons, tunnels etc to explore and that you can join 3 different guilds each letting you build a character class. With a bit of time spent exploring further and perhaps concentrating on each guild at a time it should be possible to build an amazing character. It seemed quite accessible but certainly not as pick up and play as other NES titles, one for long rainy nights. I think I’ll be returning to this one quite a lot.

NES Wish List

2008-10-27T02:07:00.000-07:00

Having played various NES games and spotting the odd peripheral that’s been for sale on EBay I think two really stand out for me. They are the Power glove and Aladdin Deck Enhancer. Since watching the Wizard I can only sit back and imagine how truly awesome it must be to wear the Power glove showing how bad I can be with it on...

As for the Aladdin Deck Enhancer I can hardly wait to play the exclusive Dizzy game that comes with it but I’m not too sure about the Quattro sports pak that’s also available.

I’ve also been giving some thought into importing a Sharp Twin Famicom. Basically this is a unit capable of playing Famicom and Famicom Disk System games in one unit. Though a lot of games would suffer from the Japanese language barrier, it was from a time where the majority of games didn’t really require much reading and so should be quite easy to play. It’s just a matter of finding one that doesn’t cost over £100!

Edit. The itch was too great to bare. I've just been and bought a Twin Famicom from Japan and its flying its way over as I type. Will do a full write up with plenty of pics when it gets here!

Kid Icarus (US)

2008-10-24T01:27:00.001-07:00

With my NES more than capable of playing any US games I can get my hands on I thought it best to start including broader searches on the likes of EBay. A forumite from Rllmuk came to my rescue and offered to sell a couple of decent US games for a decent price so I found a copy of Kid Icarus and Zelda winging their way through my letterbox. I will say I didn’t know much about Kid Icarus and most of what I did hear was high praise with many fans of the game still screaming for a sequel to do this day.

The label of the game is a basic pixellated in game character type design, something which all of the early NES games tend to have. Which is a shame as a lot of these games would really benefit from a proper artwork treatment. Having no manual I had to rely on a download for the game instructions but luckily it was quite basic when it came to weapons and controls. The whole story seems to be roughly based on ancient Greek legends but I haven’t a clue if any of its accurate with the aim of the game being to find three sacred treasures (Mirror Shield, Arrow of Light, and Wings of Pegasus) then use them to rescue Palutena the Goddess of light from Medusa (some woman in her late 40’s having a bad hair day and turning all the hairdressers to stone).

The game itself seems quite simple though my initial impressions are more being annoyed than actually having fun. The whole thing seems totally unforgiving and way too hard in places especially with the instant death floor that follows Kid Icarus (or Pit as he’s called). But then there does seem to be a very good game hiding beneath it all and despite the numerous deaths, swearing at the screen and threatening to throw the NES out of a window I couldn’t help but be drawn back.

It’s this “just one more go” mentality that really makes the game shine and despite its flaws once you begin to ascend from the pit (the games equivalent of hell that Nintendo don’t seem to want to name properly) everything changes. Instead of scrolling upwards everything goes to the right and you actually get chance to flap Pit’s wings and fly around causing havoc. Although it has a short fire range I had quite a lot fun bouncing around the levels firing Pit’s bow and arrows. It’s immensely satisfying to plant several arrows into a row of enemies as you rush about.

Originally this was a Famicom Disk System release so came with the opportunity to save at the end of each stage. Being such an early stage of the NES’s life they didn’t seem to have the technical know how to install a battery backup save to the cart so you are reduced to inputting mile long codes, something that really gets on my nerves as I always think to myself that surely they could have come up with a better system than this. Ho hum.

After this came a Gameboy sequel but that sadly seems to be the end of the Kid Icarus series. Maybe one day those patient fans will get a sequel but I wouldn’t keep your hopes up.

Cartridge Collecting

2008-10-23T00:51:00.001-07:00

Some of you may be wondering why I am sticking to carts when it comes to collecting, well so far all the games I have are just the plain old NES grey carts. I’ve decided not to go out of my way for boxed copies + manuals as the problem with Nintendo games back then was their silly policy of selling all games in cardboard boxes rather than the fantastic clamshell cases the Sega Master System had. As you can probably imagine after 20 years these bits of tatty cardboard don’t last and so in order to get my hands on as many decent titles as possible I will be sticking to carts perhaps picking the odd boxed copy up along the way.

Blades of Steel

2008-10-21T00:58:00.000-07:00

In keeping with my run of sports games I wanted to try and find something really special and it seems BoS is such a title. Whether it is different forums, review sites or even YouTube, plenty of folk shout about just how good this game is some even claim it’s one of Konami’s best sports titles. So I eagerly paid a trip to EBay in the hopes of acquiring a copy. It seems to be pretty common thankfully and I had no problems in tracking a cart down for just a couple of quid. The condition of the cart was extremely good with not so much as a scratch on the cart label.

The title screens music is quite catchy and loading the menu for the first time there seems plenty of options from Exhibition to Tournament etc. Being my first play through I select a quick start and go for an Exhibition game, picking 2 teams at random. Now I’ll admit I don’t know a thing about hockey besides it involves skating and big sticks so I had my fingers crossed that I wouldn’t lose my way.

Thankfully it’s pretty straightforward to play and I soon find myself flying across the ice, passing the ball (no idea what it’s actually called) and shooting wildly into the net. There doesn’t seem to be many rules to this game and tackling the other team is a lot of fun. About 5 minutes in I’m constantly pestering another player when the game freezes. A side on view appears and both players throw down their hockey gloves for a fight! Inching forward I start punching the other player and after a few moments he falls flat on his face. For his trouble he gets sent off and the other team is a man down.

I can only think this is all part and parcel of the sport so spend several minutes knocking the hell out of the other team trying to start a fight. Whittling them down by 3 members I’m soon skating round the rink with my team, an unstoppable force as we go on to trounce them. I’m hooked at this point and go on to play several more games, some with less success but overall I’m having a great time with the game.

Just looking at some of the options you can limit the time of the game to 15 minutes down to 5 for some fast play through. A quick glance at the tournament option and I can see I might be on this for hours! There is a 2 player option and sadly I had no neighbour to pester this time (he was out) but I can just imagine how frantic it becomes between two people and it’s no surprise why it’s considered one of the best Konami titles. If I had a recommended list this would be right at the top.

M.U.S.C.L.E. (US)

2008-10-20T01:05:00.000-07:00

I felt at this point that I needed to try something sports related and I vaguely remember the wrestling craze from the 80’s so after a quick visit to Rllmukforum I asked what people would recommend. That’s when someone recommended a US release called M.U.S.C.L.E. or Kinnikuman in Japan. Seeing as I was eager to try my modified NES on different regions games I thought what the hell and went to track a copy down from a US seller. The cartridge is dirt cheap over there, working out at about £2 after the currency exchange and the postage didn’t cost much extra on top either.

After almost a week of waiting it dropped through the letterbox I’m not sure what the seller had actually done to the cart label but it looked like it had been stained with coffee either that or it came from a really cheap print run. I had my fingers crossed when I slotted this into the NES as I had no idea if the region mod would even work but lo and behold it fired up perfectly. US games were a go.

Now at this point I had pretty much no idea what this game was about besides the suggestion that it was a fantastic wrestling game....

“Oh dear” is what came to mind when I began to play. You begin by choosing one of several fighters but from my time playing they didn’t seem any different. The main game screen consists of a large, poorly drawn white wrestling ring with a very blocky background audience that don’t seem to react to anything. Each wrestler is capable of hop, punch, clothesline and slam with a special move that can be performed when a referee throws a glittery power pill into the ring. The main problem is that the standard moves don’t do much damage so what tends to happen is both players start hopping around the ring trying to make contact with a clothesline, even the AI does the same.

From what I saw the whole thing consisted of avoiding your opponent until the power pill appears. The game does have one good part and that’s its 2 player mode. The next door neighbour John came round to borrow some milk and I made him a cuppa followed by a few minutes of pestering to play. What followed were 5 minutes of grumbling and “if I must” then 15 minutes of “well it ain’t half bad”.

Taken as a 2 player game for wasting time away it turns out to be a fairly decent title. I wouldn’t recommend it for the single player mode as there just isn’t anything worth playing for, however if you have a neighbour to pester then it might be worth a purchase.

Darkwing Duck

2008-10-18T02:48:00.000-07:00

Darkwing Duck was a title I had played back in the day. I couldn’t remember much about it besides it was another platformer and a generally good game. After reading a bit more about it on Rllmukforum I thought I would take the plunge and buy a copy. However prices at the time were silly in most cases, one chap was flogging a cart on it’s own for £30 at EBay. Imagine my surprise when I saw a copy being sold for just £1.50! It was only the cart but had a Buy It Now so I just had to grab it quick.

You start the game trying to stop some local villains from taking over DD’s city. The map screen starts with a side on view with 3 hot spots for you to save, more are unlocked as you progress. Each hot spot consists of a level with a construction yard, city streets etc that ends with a boss to fight. Where this really shines is DD’s ability of grasping the base of stuff like a roof saving you from falling to your death, a cape that can be used quickly for cover and the changeable weapons. Most are a bit useless but its fun to zap the enemies with a bit of lightning once in a while.

The levels are designed quite well with nothing being too taxing however the bosses more than hold up their own and I found myself stuck from time to time. I didn’t get round to completing the game though I expect one rainy Saturday afternoon I will push through to the end.
Reading up on the game and it seems it uses the original Megaman engine perhaps even having the same number of bosses. All I’m left with is another Bond type theme digging into my brain all day long. Damn, why do these titles tunes have to be so catchy? I can't help saying DD's catchprase "lets get dangerous" to myself repeatedly.

I think I need a rest from platformers so it’s onto something different for my next entry.

Cleaning NES Cartridges

2008-10-17T01:13:00.000-07:00

Just a quick tip for those of you planning to get into the world of NES games get down to your local builders yard and buy a bottle of Ethanol and some cotton buds. This stuff basically cleans metal contacts on carts then evaporates within a few minutes. Meaning there’s no risk of moisture affecting the contacts. Great stuff and I’ve used it several times.

Ducktales

2008-10-17T01:03:00.000-07:00

Just a brief look at Capcom’s output from the NES era and it seems they were truly the leaders of 3rd party platformers back in the day. At least that’s what Disney must have thought when they signed over the rights to some of their best selling TV shows. Even I can remember the TV adventures of Scrooge McDuck and his nephews. This game doesn’t disappoint as it drops you right into the middle of the action, choosing from several treasure hunt locations it’s up to you to make the old geezer richer, finding treasure along the way. Thanks to Megaman 2 I was really in the mood for another Capcom game and after a bit of web trawling this seemed to be the perfect title to try next.

The game plays well and the controls are pretty precise feeling similar to Megaman 2. The main difference being there is no choice of weapons this time and Scrooge throws himself around the levels bouncing on his walking stick. I hope I’m half as active come his age!
One part that did stand out for me was a brief encounter with Scrooge’s nephews in the mines level.

All 3 are sat in a mine cart waiting for their Uncle to come along. In you jump and send the cart hurtling along, only to jump out at the last minute to avoid some rocks and send the poor kids hurtling into the pit beneath. Social Services eat your heart out.

“Duck tales a whoo hoo” Probably one of the catchiest yet annoying theme tunes of all time and it’s plastered all over the main menu. I couldn’t help but spend all day at work humming the damn thing either. Overall I really enjoyed Ducktales, there’s something captivating about bouncing around on a big wooden stick, killing gorillas with abandon. This is also available cheaply on EBay, managed to get a copy for just £2!

Mega Man 2

2008-10-16T00:50:00.000-07:00

Super Mario Bros put me in the mood for some more platform fun so I thought what better way than to look towards the Megaman series. With the recent release of Megaman 9 on all the current gen consoles it seemed only appropriate to be pay a visit to one of the early games.

I won’t lie; Megaman 9 is hard, very hard. Even attempting one of the so called easy levels I had problems so I started to view MM2 as training for 9. MM2 seems to have an easier learning curve and from the few quick plays I attempted it seemed more than possible to beat a few of the bosses with the plain old mega buster weapon. I was able to blast my way through 2 bosses without much effort and with a total of 8 before the evil Dr Wily was faced I decided to take my time.

Over the course of a few days I decided I would complete 1 or 2 bosses to stretch it out; thankfully the game comes with a password selection system. Based on a grid where you insert big red dots its actually quite easy to input codes with none of the messing about selecting numbers and letters that some games require.

The bosses work by each having their own special weapon. Woodman for instance has a leaf shield that surrounds and can be flung at the player, once defeated you can equip the weapon to use for yourself with the idea being that each boss weapon is strong against another.

The game can be frustrating in places with a few tricky platforming sections but it has that special something that makes you want to have just one more go. I think I will be returning to future Megaman games on the NES as I believe they go up to 5! It would probably do my bank balance a favour too as the Megaman games aren’t the cheapest of titles to buy; this alone cost me close to £8 via EBay with the 5th game reaching as much as £15 in some cases. However I’ll give this series a rest for now as there’s a lot more games to play.

Super Mario Bros/Tetris/Nintendo World Cup

2008-10-15T02:15:00.000-07:00

To kick start my collection I began with this little doozy. 3 games on 1 cartridge (official too! No dodgy copies for me) with Mario being a ghost of my past. Would I still be able to complete Mario in one sitting? Or would the pad end up thrown across the room in a fit of rage with my fingers bent and twisted? A bit of both it seems! I can remember being able to run through this game and complete the damn thing with just 3 lives. Now I can barely struggle to finish the first level in 3. Hold on though it has been 20 odd years and I’m a lot older.

It takes a bit of getting used to but after bashing the pad for a time the old magic seems to return and I’m firing my way through the levels with ease. Rediscovering the hidden warp pipes and still laughing as I recalled where each was. The physics used for jumps in this is still brilliant with the added weight and draw as you lift off the ground. I feel that a lot of modern platformers could still learn a great deal from this game. It may be basic but what it sets out to do it achieves very well. Overall I’m impressed as I am managing to have a lot of fun in short sharp, sometimes frustrating bursts. But this is a taste of 8Bit gaming at its best.

Next it was on to Tetris and I don’t think anyone hasn’t played this game or at least its Game Boy version. It’s a very addictive and competent puzzler but I’m left with the feeling that it’s more suited to the GB screen. So sadly I may not be returning to this one often. I managed to work my way to stage 12 a few times so I think I may find myself bunging this on when I have a few moments to spare.

Nintendo World Cup was the last title to play on the cartridge and to be honest I found it a bit boring. Fat podgy characters kicking a ball around, certainly no Sensible Soccer but with its two player mode I can see this being a joy to play. Sadly I daren’t ask any of my mates to play as they just wouldn’t understand the joy of retro gaming, plus they’d probably laugh at me!

A NES tale

2008-10-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

This will be my first entry in what I hope will become a regular collection of thoughts (random or otherwise) about my growing NES collection. I am in no rush to build a vast catalogue of games as my main interest is to work through a large collection that I love to play. Of course to select these games I won’t be picking them at random but actually doing a bit of research where possible, maybe even taking recommendations from folks that view this blog. Who knows? Only time will tell.

Some of you might even be wondering why I would even pick the NES to collect for. Well for me it goes back many moons to the late 80’s. The NES craze was really starting to take off, kids at school were going nuts to get their hands on them come Xmas morning. I can still remember the frustration of pestering my parents to buy one of the newly released Turtles compilation packs then tearing down the stairs, diving under the tree and tearing off the wrapping to find....a Sega Master System with Enduro Racer.

At the time I was disappointed (I was only 9 years old!) but after a few games on Enduro Racer it was all forgotten. Talking to my folks many years later I was told a sorry tale of how they traversed storm conditions, late night openings and travelling many miles trying to get their hands on a NES yet finding them sold out no matter where they went. I can only compare it to the Buzz Light Year doll of its day. I still have fond memories of that SMS so thanks Mum!

A few months later and a friend of mine managed to get a hold of a NES for a birthday present. It came with Super Mario and Turtles, what followed was months of pestering, hanging round his house and completing whatever game he managed to get his hands on. On a couple of occasions I managed to finish several of his games before he did.

Fast forward 20 or so years later reading the retro section of Rllmukforum and here I was staring at a few listings on EBay at titles I used to own, curious as to what it would be like to play these games again. The problem with the NES on a whole is that hardware wise it’s pretty unreliable. The cartridge connector failing is a well known fault which causes the grey, blinking screens and flashing red light, the 80’s version of the 360’s red rings of death.

Back in August 2007 I organised a retro event called Retro North and whilst there I had a friendly chap called Andy who came along and held a store for his company Consolepassion with a knack for modifying retro systems. Visiting his website I noticed he was selling modified NES consoles with brand new cartridge connectors! A snip at £40 I thought as I wouldn’t have to bother hacking a NES to bits or paying to import the connector. So out came the credit card and one order later the NES was winging its way to me.

Now this modified NES allows me to play any UK or US game, no title is out of reach! So NES games beware, there’s a new blogger in town.