ANOTHER DORKLY LOL

The next lot of games is going to take a little bit longer, due to Faxanadu being kinda epic. (For an N.E.S. game, that is) In the meantime, here's Mega Man trying to learn physics. This made me LOL. Enjoy! :-)

EPISODE 9

I know it might sound insane that I could play through five games within three days, but let me assure you, they were all short games (well, except for Bugs Bunny, that's a decent length) and I'm on holidays so I've got more time to play. I'm going to take it easy over the next couple of days. I probably won't start the next week's worth of games for a little while. I'm feeling a bit fatigued.   ;-)

 

I think I completely missed the launch of the Mega Drive. Pretty sure I was aware that it existed, but it just didn't affect me, since I didn't properly get into gaming until 1991, and then it was just Nintendo all the way. It was Sonic that really made me look at the Mega Drive as something that might be awesome. And no sooner did that happen, than the Super N.E.S. came out and that was the end of that.   ;-)

I've played through 26 games so far this year... and it's still January. Crazy. Expect the flow of weeks to slow to a screeching halt come February, when I have to go back to work.

P.S. As an added bonus, this cracked me up. Enjoy!

WEEK SEVEN

So I'm about half-way through the 8-bit era now. Trying to fit 4 games into a single week is pretty exhausting, especially when there's a decent-sized game like CastleVania II. Still, I did manage to complete all of the games this week.

Aaaaand if you'd just like to skip to the scores...

In the coming week, I've got FIVE games to play! (sigh) Thankfully I'm pretty sure most of them are pretty short. Have you played any of these recently? If so, leave a comment.

FRUSTRATIONS...

I've been constantly trying to figure out the best way to get videos of me playing the video games into the computer. I have tried just filming the TV (which looks crap) as well as video recording the games and then dragging the VCR into the office to plug it into the computer via my video camera and firewire cable. (sigh) With the latest video I just found an emulator that exported videos into .AVI files, which saved a couple of extra steps.

I bought an "EasyCap" off eBay, which in theory sounds like a brilliant device. You just plug the composite cables into one end, plug the other end into the computer's USB slot and you can capture video, right? In theory, yes. In reality, no. It's a piece of crap. I've just spent hours trying to make this thing work. On the plus side, I can get games playing through it from both my Australian and American Super N.E.S. consoles. I still can't seem to get sound working though, and when I tried exporting to an .AVI file, it just exported a static black screen. (sigh) Get what you pay for, I suppose.

WEEK SIX

CastleVania is an interesting beast. I'm kind of at a loss to figure out why it became popular. Was it considered "scary" back in the late 80s? It's certainly not a friendly game. It wouldn't be so hard if Simon was just a bit easier to control! He makes Zelda II's Link look like Mario in comparison!

Speaking of Mario... I love Mario 2. Haters gonna hate. It's fun, it's whimsical, it's noice, it's diff'rent, it's unyooj'l. It's a shame they never made any more Doki Doki games in Japan. It was fascinating playing that original version. I'd never actually played it before. They didn't just do a simple character re-skinning like I thought they had. There's quite a lot of subtle differences between Doki Doki and Mario 2. The level layout is identical though.



So if you want to skip the video and go straight to the scores...

I'm really looking forward to the next batch of games. There's a couple of my faves in there. See if you can give them a play this week and post a comment on what you think. See you next time!

AFK...

So I've played through the four games listed under "Week 6" now. Thing is though, I'm about to go camping for about 4 days, so the reflections won't be up until after that. Sorry. While you're waiting, have a play through any of those four yourself and see what you think.

GAMING IN 1990

Ah, this gave me a good laugh!

Video Games | | The Console Wars - XMas 1990

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

WEEK FIVE

Zelda II. For some reason, there's no "the legend of" in this title. It's most often referred to as the "black sheep" of the Zelda family, but it's still a definite part of the series. It's incredibly difficult, but I managed to use a few tricks to make it slightly easier - see the video for more details on that. As far as the (assumed) Legend of Zelda timeline goes, this is the very last story. Ganon was killed in the previous game, and at the end of this one Link returns the Triforce to its full glory. I reckon there's definitely opportunities here for Nintendo to flesh out the story more. Why not tell the long-ago tale of why the Triforce was split, and why Princess Zelda fell into her slumber? Better yet, why not have an adventure set long after The Adventure of Link? I'd love to see a Hyrule more technologically advanced than we've ever seen before. So many possibilities, but they seem content to play it safe.

Well, I can say one thing... Zelda II did not play it safe. It was anything BUT a "cookie-cutter" sequel.

Apologies for the quality of the game footage. I actually filmed a lot more than you see here, but the flickering (due to PAL/NTSC differences) was unbearable. Did anyone else manage to play through it this week? What did you think? Is it as good as you remember it?

It's going to take me a while to get through the next lot of games, but I'll be sure to post as soon as I do. I also added the list on the bar to the right, so it's easily accessible. Happy gaming! :-)

WEEK FOUR

Another week, another bunch of N.E.S. games. Two of them I remember playing a lot, one is fairly new to me.

Do you agree with my scoring? Do you think perhaps Double Dragon was the pinnacle of N.E.S. game design and I'm just an idiot for not appreciating its brilliance? Or maybe you think Rad Racer is a pile of turd and should never be played again by anyone? Have you played any of these games recently? Leave some comments below!

The next adventure once again involves a little elfin fellow dressed in green. Let's see if I'm as hardcore as I used to be...

WEEK THREE

I wonder if Miyamoto-san and his team realised when they made this, how far this legend would end up going. This week I went back to the series' very beginning to see if it was still enjoyable today.

I know this will hardly be a surprise to anyone, but this game...

... stands the test of time. It's far from perfect, but there's still a lot of enjoyment to be had from Link's first Hyrule adventure. Next week there are 3 more N.E.S. games that I'll be checking out: Rad Racer, Double Dragon and the original Metroid. Watch this space!

I Love School Holidays!

Well, I've finished Zelda. Video and rating coming soon. I also received a package in the mail today: my copy of Illusion of Time / Gaia. I ended up buying the American version because... Well, I'll be honest with you. It was cheaper to import than buying the local version. It's now sitting on the shelf waiting for a time later this year when I'll chuck it in and see what I think.

WEEK TWO

Some more early N.E.S. games this week. I used a different method of capturing the video. Instead of filming the television (which let's face it, looked pretty crappy) I've used a video cassette (REMEMBER THEM??) to record myself, and then digitized the video into the computer.

 

So here are this week's scores...

I'm looking forward to playing a "real" game next! The Legend of Zelda! Who else is going to play it? Go on!