Tag Archives: Famicom

New Famicom games: Robocco Wars, Gun Nac, Little Mermaid etc

by

9

I’ve spent all day today updating my Famicom library, both adding new games but also changing the layout a bit. Now the library has all big nice images of the games and the information below them, but I have also created a collage where you can see ALL the cartridges thumbnail pictures at once (instead of having to browse through A-Z if you’re not really sure what you’re searching for). It has taken quite some time, since I made all the thumbnail pics have a hover text with the name of the game and also clickable so they take you to the correct letter in the library if you wanna read more about it. So don’t forget to check out the Famicom collage!

I intend to do the same with all my collections once I have the time to scan the rest of it, and upload it all..

Anyway, here are some of the new games I’ve added to the library today as well:
Ganbare Goemon Gaiden_Akuma no Shōtaijō _Cadillac_Captain ED_ Chack'n Pop_ Circus Charlie_ Cobra Command_ Donald Land_ Dora Dora Dora Koufuku wo Yobu Gemu_ Faxanadu_  Galaga_ Gun Nac_ Ide Yousuke Meijin no Jissen Mahjong II_ Ikari II Dogosoken_Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3_ Kame no Ongaeshi Urashima Densetsu_ Kinoe Ryuu Densetsu Virugasuto_ Knight Rider_ Kyūkyoku Tiger_ Little Magic_ Little Mermaid_ Lunar Ball_ Maharaja_ Mario Bros_ Mario Bros-_ Marusa no Onna_   Motocross Champion_ Mottomo Abunai Deka_Paris-Dakar Rally Special_ Peepar Time_ Pinball_ Power Blazer_ Robocco Wars_ Robocop_ RPG Jinsei Game_ Seirei Gari_ Side Pocket_ Solomon no Kagi (Solomon's Key)_ Spot_ Tag-Team Pro-Wrestling_ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles_ V'Ball US Championship_

Some that are a lot of fun and that I’m really happy to have are Robocco Wars (fun platforming action), Gun Nac (entertaining shooter), Kyūkyoku Tiger (another great shooter), Power blazer (Rockman’s fat cousin), Little Mermaid (nice platformer, a bit rare I think, haven’t seen it that often), Peepar Time (weird puzzle game, have never seen it anywhere before), and Donald Land (it’s just weird) ;D

I’ll try to get some time to review some games in more depth soon ^_^

Hector ’87 and Starship Hector

by

6

From May 10th until May 17th HiscoreHeroes are hosting a competition on Instagram to celebrate Hudson’s 40th anniversary! This is the main reason why my interest and also frustration has grown for this game called Hector ’87, also known as Starship Hector in the US.
hector '87 start screen

The goal is to get the best score in the 2 minute score attack mode in either the Japanese version of Hector ´87 or the NTSC NES version Starship Hector. I had the Famicom version since before, never paid much attention to this game until I saw this competition, but I decided to give it a go!

Another very important rule to the competition is that you are not allowed to use any type of turbo fire, you must button mash! So, the right button fires bombs to hit ground targets and the left button fires shots to hit flying targets. After several evenings of button mashing until my entire arm was sore I managed to reach a score of 296.000. But other people have over 350.000!! I know how I could get at least 30.000 more, but the problem is THIS BASTARD:
midboss Hector '87

I’ve tried playing the game with turbo fire just to see if he’s even mortal, and yes he is, but he takes soooo many shots! I haven’t even been able to kill him a single time without turbo fire!! The second problem is the letters.. There are hidden letters under little mud piles that you can collect by bombing with a LOT of bombs, and the last letter will give you 100.000 points! Here’s where you will find them, what the piles looks like and what it looks like when the letters are revealed:
letter1
letter2
letter3
letter4
However, the last letter is located right next to the mid-boss-bastard, so without turbo fire, even if I would be able to kill the bastard, I would have no time to collect the last letter! >_< THIS GAME IS STUPID! IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY! I don’t understand how it would be possible to do both, unless you can button-mash in an incredibly stabile and super-fast-turbo-auto-fire speed! Can you???
I sure as hell can’t… :(

After seeing photos on instagram of all the people reaching scores way above 300k I realized they were all playing the NES NTSC version, Starship Hector. This made me wonder if there were any differences between these two games. Maybe I was playing the more difficult one?? :D So, when going to the Swedish retro gaming exhibition this saturday I only had one big objective, which was to find an NTSC version of Starship Hector. AND I DID! :D
Starship Hector NES_800

That evening me and my friend NinjaBrite played Starship Hector with big hopes of reaching even higher scores . but.. it was just the same. Just as hard, same enemies, same fire rate, same speed, same ship, same damn score, same everything! >_< I give up…

If you have a copy of Hector ’87 or Starship Hector and you want to compete, then you can read more about the competition on HiscoreHeroes instagram :) I hope there will be more competitions soon, this was great fun, even though it has been incredibly frustrating o_O

Some other advice for people trying to reach the high score (cause I’ve given up..)
Don’t kill the bunkers immediately, they will keep spawning flying spike-bombs that explode, however if you manage to shoot and kill one it gives 2.000 points!
There are hidden triggers in the ground that will make everything on screen on the ground explode if you reveal and destroy the triggers with 2 bombs. (You will still get the same score as if you would have shot the enemies) I have found 4 of them and they are in these locations:
secret spot 1
secret spot 2
secret spot 3
secret spot 4

And here’s the points you get for various enemies:

letters
1st letter 10.000
2nd letter 20.000
3rd letter 50.000
4th letter 100.000		 enemies-midboss
Mid-boss 20.000		 enemy-mr guy
This guy 10.000
enemy-mr guy's tiny friend
Mr. Guy’s tiny friend 5.000		 enemy-big amoeba
Big Amoeba 5.000		 enemy-bombs
Spike-bombs 2.000
enemy-squiddy
Squiddy 2.000		 enemy-angry crabhead
Angry crab-head 2.000		 enemy-boss cannon
Boss Cannon 2.000
enemy-bunker
Bunkers 1.000		 enemy-blue amoeba
Tiny Amoeba 1.000		 enemy-ship2
Ship thingy 500
enemy-ship
Round ship 500		 enemy-cannon
Cannons 500		 enemy-boss head
Boss 500 points (x4 for
each bomb-thingy)
enemy-health
Health bars (if you
have full health) 500		 enemy-boss shot
Boss shots 0 points :(

At least this is what I could figure out when watching my replays. Feel free to correct me or fill in if I missed something ^_^

Sega Sunday #2 – 8bit Altered Beast

by

9

I love Altered Beast, I grew up playing it on the Sega Mega Drive. Once I started collecting video games I found out it was originally an arcade game and there were ports to several home consoles. Most people know about the Sega Mega Drive Altered Beast, but it was also released for the Sega Master System, the NEC PC Engine (both on HU-card and on CD-ROM) and finally I have also found a port of the Altered Beast (Jūōki) game for the Famicom! There’s probably  more that I don’t know about..
Altered Beast Famicom, back and front box

This Famicom version surprised me though since Sega and Nintendo were such big competitors and Altered Beast were one of Sega’s pearls. But it actually says copyright Sega really tiny in the bottom of the cartridge.
Jyuuouki (Altered Beast)

Here’s all the Altered Beast games I have and know about:
Altered Beast games

Tonight I’ve been playing the 8-bit versions on Famicom and Sega Master System to compare the two. The Famicom version has been totally re-done by Asmik, and compared to all the other ports of Altered Beast this one really stands out. It’s faster, the character isn’t as stiff as he is in the other Altered Beast games and the sprites have gotten a cute and more rounded makeover, compared to the masculine muscular macho-style of the original ^^ You also have 3 continues which makes the game a bit easier. Here’s a comparison of screenshots from the Famicom version and the Sega Master System version:
Altered Beast - start screen
Altered Beast - Stage 1
Altered Beast - werewolfAltered Beast - Stage 3 vs 2

What’s really interesting though is that in the Famicom version they’ve put in a whole new stage as a second stage, the regular stage that I’m used to where you transform into a dragon is the third stage of the Famicom version. In this stage you transform into a lion and the stage boss is a pig ^^ I think you will be able to transform into a shark in later stages as well (based on the box cover art)
Altered Beast Famicom stage 2
Altered BEast Famicom Stage 2 boss

On the Famicom version I managed to get to the stage where you transform into a bear, which in this version is stage 4. On the Master System version I didn’t even manage to get to the first boss before getting a game over >_< This version is if possible even stiffer than the Mega Drive one. I have beaten the Mega Drive Altered Beast a few years ago after I figured out you could change settings and increase your amount of health and lives, but this Master System version is really really hard and I haven’t found any way to get continues or an easier setting..
Altered Beast - Game Over
The game over text is much cuter in the Famicom version ^_^

I managed to record my efforts on Jūōki for the Famicom, but I was too lazy to bring out the DVD burner to record my failures in the Sega Master System version.. Anyway, here’s the video of my gameplay from Altered Beast on the Famicom, check it out since it’s got some pretty sweet 8-bit Altered Beast tunes! :D

Famicom pirate games #1 – The Last Ninja

by

10

I’ve never been very interested in collecting pirated games for any of my retro consoles. I have always preferred original games, however lately I’ve accidentally come by a few pirated Famciom games. Like the Super Mario IV Armadillo hack, which is basically just the Armadillo game changed to have Mario as the main character, and Caveman Games, which is a NES release ported on a cart for the Famicom.

I know there’s a lot of people that prefer pursuing those rare pirated games, and lately I’ve begun to understand why that is. It’s quite charming, it’s a game just like all the other games I’m collecting, and somebody made it, made an effort to re-code an existing game to their liking, and it’s always intriguing since you never know what to expect form a pirate game. The pirated games are more rare as well, and usually unique, since they weren’t mass produced like many other original releases.

The Last Ninja was a game I saw on Ebay and it intrigued me since I wasn’t completely sure which  game it was and also, my best friend NinjaBrite loves Ninjas! So I bought it hoping that she would enjoy trying it ^_^

The Last Ninja - Game of the Year - Famicom pirate hack

So I cleaned the game up a bit and tried it briefly to make sure it worked and it worked perfectly on the first try ^_^ I looked it up as well and found out that The Last Ninja was actually released for the NES by Jaleco however the game was also firstly released on the Commodore 64 but it was called The Last Ninja 2.
I compared some screenshots from this version and the version on C64. It is lacking a lot of the details from the C64 version. Here’s the comparison of sceneries: (click to enlarge)
The Last Ninja NES-C64 comparison1
 The Last Ninja NES-C64 comparison2
 The Last Ninja NES-C64 comparison3
 The Last Ninja NES-C64 comparison4

If only the C64 didn’t have such darn long loading sequences then I would probably be playing that more often than the 8bit systems! >_<

More Famicom games ^_^

by

1

I’ve been continuing to add all my newly acquired Famicom games to the Famicom Library, here’s some of the new additions! Click an image to find it in the Library ^_^

Air Fortress  Akira  Argus no Senshi_  ASO  Bucky O'Hare_  City Adventure Touch Mystery of Triangle  Dai 2 Ji Super Robot Taisen  Dengeki Bigguban  Devil Man  Dodge Danpei 2  Dragon Ball Z 3 Retsu Sen Jinzoo Ningen  Fantasy Zone  Field Combat  Gradius 2  Great Battle Cyber  Hokuto no Ken  Hudson Hawk  Ikari  Jarinko Chie Bakudan Musume no Shiawase Sagashi  Kuniokun no Jidaigekidayo Senin Shūgō  Magical Taruruutokun 2  Max Warrior  Mike Tyson's Punch Out  Ninja Ryuukenden Pac-man-  Shadowgate  Spy vs Spy Nangoku Shirei  Solstice Sanjimoto Meikyuu no Kyoujuu  Sukeban Keiji III  Taito Chase HQ  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Gekikame Ninja den)  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 Manhattan Project  Ultraman Club Kaijuu Daikessen  Wanpaku Dakku Yume Bōken  
Wily & Light Rockboard

Famicom catalogue update!

by

15

My Famicom collection page was getting so massive that I had problems loading it even when I was just trying to edit! Therefore I have now re-designed the page and split it into sorting games from A-Z! (and yes, I actually have Famicom games in every single letter, except for X…)

This should hopefully make it easier to browse through the games for the visitor as well ^_^ Both in the top and bottom will be an alphabet of links to each page, like this:

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

I have also added a few new games to it. So far there’s 481 games in the list, I do however have a bit above 100 more to put in there under various letters. I’ll get to that soon ^_^

Every game is also labeled with their code on the cartridge, so if you are searching for a certain game that you have but need the name of you can search it in my search box and the correct page will pop up! :D

ang-om
arrows Search
arrows search results
arrows Super Rescue Solbrainarrows
omfg yay!

Oh, and I’ve also added three stars to a few of my personal favorites ^_^ So if you see stars it might actually be a f*cking awesome game!! :D ★★★

So what are you waiting for?? Go check out my new FAMICOM LIBRARY! :D

Christmas gift from Canada!

by

14

Sorry for the lack of posts recently but this holiday has been very busy.

Not only celebrating xmas and spending time with family, but also organizing and cleaning games. I bought quite a lot of games from Ebay recently, and I’m still not done scanning and trying them all out yet..
famicom-games

Also today I received an exciting package from Canada!! It was from Alana at retrogamergirl.com ^_^ It contained some 8 bit bead art that she has created:
8bit bead art Game Boy

And lots of games! :D First an ultraman game for the Super Famicom:
Ultraman game SFC

And a Kirby Fun Pak game for the SNES:
Kirby fun pak SNES

And also 8 famicom cartridges :D
SONY DSC

Apart from my Nintendo 3DS this was the best christmas gift this year :D Thank you Alana!! :D
And not to forget my cute mushroom lamps that I got from my bff ^_^ They fit in perfectly in my Retro Room!
mushrooms
THEY GLOW!!! :D
mushrooms lit
AND CHANGE COLORS!! :D :D
Mushroom lamps lit 2

I’ll be back soon with more posts on all the new games I’ve gotten and also a Game & Watch :D

Updates in the Famicom Collection

by

10

It’s been a busy week.. first I got this huuuge package of games from Japan:
SONY DSC

Sorting, cleaning, organizing and trying them all out has been taking some time. BTW, I really love the japanese store stickers, they are always so easy to just peel off without any effort! :D And from this Ebay seller the stickers even had a corner folded in so it was really easy to grip and rip ^^

Apart from that I have been updating my Famicom Collection, now I am finished with “S” which was the largest letter! 64 games just starting with the letter “S”! I also added a few other new additions like Lot Lot, Mississippi Satsujin Jiken, Madara,  Maniac Mansion, Meikyuu Jima (Kickle Cubicle), Ninja Jajamara Kun, Obake no Q Tarou,  Paaman, Perfect Bowling, Puzslot, Quinty etc.. You can check them all out in my Famicom Collection >>

Some games I would like to highlight:

Paaman_
Paaman
A really fun platformer, where each boss battle is like a boardgame race to the finish line, even though it’s in japanese it’s quite easy to follow ^_^

Puzslot_
Puzslot
A fun puzzle game, kind of like Columns where you have to match colors and shapes falling down in pairs, except here you first have to stop the slot-machine-like pieces so it’s quite random what you will get and if you don’t stop them fast enough you won’t have time to place them correctly.

Salamander (Life Force)_
Salamander (Life Force)
I love this shooter!! Great music, great gameplay ^_^

kyattou ninden teyandee (Samurai Pizza Cats)
Kyattou Ninden Teyandee (Samurai Pizza Cats)
Another game I added today. A really fun platformer where you can change between different cat characters that have various abilities :)

Seikima II; Akuma no Gyakushu
Seikima II: Akuma no Gyakushu
An entertaining platformer based on a heavy metal band. It’s really hard though.

Seirei Densetsu Lickle (Little Samson)
Seirei Densetsu Lickle (Little Samson)
A great platformer that I think most people know about already. It looks really great, and sounds really great and it’s fun to play ^_^

Shufflepuck Café
Shufflepuck Café
A really interesting air hockey type game. I’ve made a review of it here >>

Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti_
Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti 
A really cute but still brutal platformer! I’ve made a review of it here >>

Star Wars
Star Wars
Gotta love Star Wars ^^ This one is a platformer. It’s really hard!! AVGN mentions it in his Star Wars episode >>

Street Fighter 2010_
Street Fighter 2010
A really challenging and well made platformer. AVGN has a great review of this one as well, check it out here >>

Super Mario USA_
Super Mario USA
And of course I have added all of my Super Mario games for the Famicom as well. Super Mario USA is the Japanese release of the PAL/NTSC  Super Mario Bros 2 :)

New Famicom additions: Airwolf, Dragon Spirit, Flipull, Holy Diver etc

by

8

I’m working on updating my Famicom Library with all my recent purchases.. it is time consuming >_< So far I’ve made it up to “K”. Among these new games are:
Airwolf
Anpanman Minna de Hiking Game!
Arabian Dream Scheherezade
Boulder Dash
Dark Lord
Dragon Spirit
Family Jockey
Family Tennis
Famista ’91
Final Fantasy 1 2
Flipull An Exciting Cube Game
Ganbare Goemon Gaiden Kieta Ougon Kiseru
Ghostbusters
Godzilla
Gun Sight
Hirake Ponkikki
Holy Diver
Hydlide Special
Jinsei Gekijou 3
Joust
Kero Kero Keroppi no Daibouken
Kiteretsu Daihyakka
Klax
Kyuukyoku Harakiri Stadium

Games I’d like to mention:

Airwolf
A fun shooter ^_^


Arabian Dream Scheherezade
I like the artwork, it’s an adventure game, wasn’t quite as fun as I had hoped though..


Boulder Dash
A classic puzzle platforming game, I love this game ^_^


Dragon Spirit
This is a really great shooter from Namco, where you play as a Dragon! :D


Flipull: An Exciting Cube Game
Is just what it says, an exciting cube game ;D Well, it’s a decent puzzle at least ^_^


Ganbare Goemon Gaiden Kieta Ougon Kiseru
Now I think I have all the Goemon games for the Famicom, but I’m not sure..


Gun Sight
A shooter to fill out my Konami collection ^_^ It’s in really nice condition!


Holy Diver
A really great platforming game! Lots of fun :D

And last but not least I’m gonna mention a timeless classic:

Joust
This game never gets old! It’s just so much fun to run around on an ostrich and flap about :D

Check out all the other newly added games in my Famicom Collection >>

I have simultaneously been working on a PC Engine collection library, I have so far scanned all the games I have and I’m working on a page for it as well :) coming soon!!

O, P, Q & R! Famicom Collection ^_^

by

5

Updated my Famicom Library up to R tonight! Among some of the updates were of course the Rockman games I have, Rolling Thunder, Puzznic, Red Ariman (which is Gargoyles Quest for NES), Penguin-kun Wars, Pac-Land, and a bunch of great Konami games, like Rampart, Road Fighter and Quarth!!

And much much more, so go check it out! :D

My Castlevania Collection!

by

42


So what’s on this shelf.. well I have scanned all of my Castlevania games, so let’s start with the 8-bits and move forwards ^_^
edit: now my collection is taking up two shelves ^_^


Castlevania
The first Castlevania adventure for the NES. I have finally found a nice complete edition ^_^


Castlevania II Simon’s Quest
The second Castlevania adventure for the NES. Still looking for a complete one…


Castlevania II Simon’s Quest Tiger handheld
Here’s a handheld version of the Simon’s Quest Castlevania game. It’s really nothing like Simon’s Quest for the NES, it’s a very basic sidescrolling beat ‘em up, but still a nice edition to the collection ^_^


Castlevania III Dracula’s Curse for the NES
This one is a PAL edition and it’s complete in box quite nice condition.


Castlevania Blood Moon
This is not an actual release, it’s an NES reproduction cart with a fan-made hack of the Castlevania game.


Castlevania Chorus of Mysteries
This one is also an NES reproduction cart with a fan made hack.


Akumajou no Densetsu 悪魔城伝説 (Castlevania III Dracula’s Curse)
The third Castlevania game, released for the Famicom.


Akumajou Special Boku Dracula-kun 悪魔城すぺしゃる ぼくドラキュラくん
A cute platforming spinnoff of the Castlevania series. Released for the Famicom by Konami.


Akumajou no Dracula 悪魔城ドラキュラ (Castlevania I)
The first Castlevania adventure for the Famicom Disk System. I have this one complete with the outer plastic box and manual, but scanning the complete package with that box looks terrible >_< So I just scanned the inner case with the game and inlay.


Dracula 2 The Accursed Seal (Noroi no Fuuin) ドラキュラII呪いの封印 (Castlevania II Simon’s Quest)
The second Castlevania game on Famicom Disk System. Same here I have it complete in box with manual, but scanned the inner case with game and inlay.


Dracula Densetsu トラキュラ伝説 (Castlevania Adventures)
The first Castlevania game for the Game Boy. I wrote a bit about this game here. One thing that baffles me about this game is that hearts = health, where is the wall chicken?! I have this game in PAL edition as well, however only the loose cartridge.


Dracula Densetsu  II トラキュラ伝説II (The Castlevania Adventure II Belmont’s revenge)
The second Castlevania game for the Game Boy. Great adventure, great music. Shouldn’t be missed out on, all the Castlevania Game Boy games are completely new adventures, not just ports of the NES/Famicom adventures. I have this in PAL as well, but just the cartridge.


Akumajou Dracula Shikkokutaru Zensoukyoku 悪魔城ドラキュラダークナイトプレリュード (Castlevania Legends)
Probably my favourite Castlevania adventure for the Game Boy. I made a video of where I finished it here. Really hard final boss! But thanks to the password system I managed to go back and finally beat him ^_^ Great music in this one! Like most Castlevania games ;D You should really check out my video just to listen to the first stage song, a great remix of the Daylight music from Simon’s Quest! Also the Final Boss brings back the Vampire Killer theme song but in a new version, it’s kickass!! What are you waiting for? Go put on that video in the background to listen to those awesome tunes! ^_^


Castlevania Legends
I also have the PAL edition for Game Boy.


Akumajou no Dracula 悪魔城ドラキュラ (Castlevania)
The Famicom Mini Edition. Castlevania re-released for the Game Boy Advance in Japan.


Castlevania NES CLASSICS
The NES Classics edition for the Game Boy Advance.


Castlevania Aria of Sorrow
My favourite Castlevania adventure for the Game Boy Advance. You can collect the enemies’ souls and gain their powers! :D AWESOME!


Castlevania Circle of the Moon
Also for the Game Boy Advance, also a great adventure with some memorable tunes ^_^


Castlevania Circle of the Moon Soundtrack 悪魔城ドラキュラ 白夜の協奏曲 オリジナルサウンドトラック
The original soundtrack for Circle of the Moon to Game Boy Advance. This one is amazing! Here are some of my favorite Castlevania songs! :D


Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance
The third Castlevania adventure for the Game Boy Advance. There was a Game Boy Advance release that contained both Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance but I haven’t been able to find it yet in decent condition.


Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow
For Nintendo DS. I have the game for Order of Ecclesia as well but without box and manual and I’m still keeping an eye out for Portrait of Ruin..


Castlevania Portrait of Ruin
Another Castlevania game for the DS, I just got this (that’s why it’s scanned with plastic around) so I haven’t been able to try it out yet.


Castlevania Order of Ecclesia
This one is also brand new, another Castlevania game for the DS. This one however I had the game cartridge for previously so I have played it and got pretty far, and it was great! But then I got stuck >_<


Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo 悪魔城ドラキュラX 血の輪廻 (Castlevania Rondo of Blood)
Finally got my hands on the rare Castlevania game, Rondo of Blood for the PC Engine! :D It’s in super nice condition, but unfortunately I am unable to play the game since I don’t have a PC Engine duo or the CD-ROM2 >_< but I’m getting one soon!!


Akumajou Dracula 悪魔城ドラクラ (Super Castlevania IV)
The first Castlevania game for the Super Nintendo / Super Famicom. This is the Japanese release. I have Super Castlevania IV for PAL as well, however only the cartridge :(


Akumajou Dracula XX 悪魔城ドラクラXX (Castlevania Vampire’s Kiss)
One of the rare Castlevania titles. This is a japanese release, complete and in great condition. The PAL version is really hard to find.. but I’m looking ^^


Castlevania The New Generation
The only Castlevania game I know of that was released on Sega. This one is PAL for the Sega Mega Drive, complete and in awesome condition ^^


Castlevania
The first Castlevania game for the Nintendo 64. Definitely not a favourite.. Castlevania games really should stay in the 2D platforming genre…


Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku 悪魔城ドラクラ黙示録 (Castlevania)
I have the N64 Castlevania game in it’s Japanese release as well..


Castlevania Legacy of Darkness
When I finally bought Legacy of Darkness for the N64 I realized it was the same game as Legend of Cornell in Japan.. But now at least I can play it :D

Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku Legend of Cornell 悪魔城ドラクラ黙示録レゲンドオブコーネール (Castlevania Legacy of Darkness)
This one is also for the Nintendo 64, but I don’t know much about it. I don’t have a Japanese N64 so I haven’t been able to try it out yet. But I can’t say I’m in a rush to do so, since the N64 is my least favourite console of all time.. edit: now I’ve found out that Legacy of Darkness and Legend of Cornell is the same game! It wasn’t much better than the previous N64 Castlevania game, same awkward 3D adventure >_<


Castlevania Chronicles
A PAL edition of the Castlevania Chronicles for the Playstation 1 (PS1)


Castlevania Symphony of the Night
A mint complete edition of a PAL SOTN. Here’s where the Metroidvania style of Castlevania games began. I like it alot ^_^ I especially love that they went back to 2D platforming instead of messing around with awkward 3D..


Castlevania Symphony of the Night Tiger handheld
Much like the Simon’s Quest Tiger handheld, this is also just a side-scrolling beat ‘em up game, though a bit more advanced with more options.


Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles
Mint PAL edition for the PSP. This one I was particularly happy about when I got since I would be able to play the rare Rondo of Blood adventure that had been released long ago on the PC Engine, but NOW that I HAVE a PC Engine I am looking for the actual Rondo of Blood for the PC Engine. Soooooon it will most definitely be a part of my Castlevania collection :D edit: I now possess the PC Engine version too ^_^


Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles Soundtrack 悪魔城ドラキュラ Xクロニクル オリジナルサウンドトラック
I also have the original soundtrack from Japan for the PSP game: Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles. This is a 2-disc collection, quite nice ^_^ It bugs me that they put the cover image in the wrong direction..


Castlevania Lament of Innocence
First Castlevania adventure for the Playstation 2. Here they went back to 3D, however I must say it looks better than on the N64 ;D


Castlevania Curse of Darkness
Another Castlevania game for the PS2. Stupid sticker ruining the front… >_<


Castlevania Judgement
This is the only Castlevania game I know of for the Wii and I just recently got it. I don’t really play the Wii that much, but now I have to try this game out ^_^


Castlevania Lords of Shadow
And finally a Castlevania game for the Xbox 360. It’s supposed to be good, but I haven’t actually had the time to try it yet o_O

Additions to the Famicom Collection

by

2

I’m trying to keep up the updating process of my Famicom Library, I’ve still only made it up to the letter “N” but it’s also a process of adding the recent purchases that are on previous letters. Today I’ve added:

1943
A classic shooter by Capcom


Arctic
A very different puzzle game, a bit too smart for my taste O_o


Balloon Fight
A classic Nintendo platformer ^_^


Bats & Terry
An okey side-scrolling platformer.


Contra
An absolute must have from Konami! Great action platformer ^_^

&


Crazy Climber
An arcade type platformer where you have to climb.. It was a bit dodgy though, not sure my copy is working properly, or perhaps I’m just not understanding the controls.. he just… won’t…. MOVE!!!! >_<

Konami games for Famicom & Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa!

by

5


I’ve been going on a retro-gaming-shopping-spree trying to find all the Konami games for the Famicom. It is my favorite game company ^_^ So far I have 34 Konami games for the Famicom and 21 on the Famicom Disk System :D

I love how the Konami cartridges almost always have end labels! It makes it so much easier finding the game you’re looking for. Why doesn’t all the games have that?!

I recently received this batch of Famicom Disk System games, that were all Konami as well :D

I’m really happy I finally bought Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa, since I’ve been eyeing it for quite some time now on Ebay!

Complete and in great condition! Almost like new :D

It’s a really cute platformer, I will record some gameplay footage soon ^^ Meanwhile here’s some images from the manual!




Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti for Famicom

by

10

I’ve been looking for this game since I found out about it’s existence, and it’s always been really expensive.. but finally I found it for a decent price on Ebay :D I paid 48 USD and it’s in excellent condition!

It even had all the little notes inside the box

And the manual is so colourful and filled with cute animations ^_^





I wrote a review about the gameplay on Findyourinnergeek, you can check that our here >>



Pirated Famicom carts – Super Mario IV 4 Armadillo & Caveman Games

by

11

I’ve never been into Pirated games, but the other day I found these quite cheap and I was in a Famicom-cartridge-shop-a-holic state of mind and they just happened to slip into my possession thanks to my itchy auction-bidding-index-finger ^^

The name of the first game intrigued me, so I googled it. Super Mario IV (4) Armadillo is actually the Armadillo (アルマジロ) game for Famicom that has just been hacked to contain Super Mario as the main character instead. It’s basically the same game, I suggest getting Armadillo instead, the cartridge is prettier ^_^

The original Armadillo cartridge looks like this:

And this is what the pirated fusion of Armadillo with Super Mario Bros 3 looks like compared to the original (the original is on the left):


Mario cannot kill enemies by jumping on them, he has to transform into a ball like in the Armadillo game.

When you turn into a ball to kill enemies it’s basically exactly the same game.


They haven’t even bothered to change the life icon from Armadillo’s head to Mario’s..


Caveman games was released for NES with the same name. It’s a fun sports mini games type of game set in the stone age with cavemen. You can choose different characters and different game types.

They have some really funny competitions like Mate Tossing:

Or Clubbing:

Dino Race:

And various other sports:

Caveman Games is a fun game IF you have a friend to play and laugh with.

New Famicom addictions! Crisis Force, Kage, Hitler no Fukkatsu etc..

by

12

This weeks I’ve gotten many packages, but this one got me most excited! :D

The games I got were Kage, Zelda, Battle of Olympus, Doki Doki Yuuenchi, Crisis Force, Street Fighter 2010, 1999 Hore Mitakotoka! Seikimatsu, Great Tank, Hitler no Fukkatsu, Hokuto no Ken 2, Hoshi no Kirby, Abadox and Eggerland (which didn’t fit in the picture).

They were all in such great condition! The ones that I am most happy about are these:

Crisis Force from Konami! A great shooter, and the cartridge looks like new!


Hiter no Fukkatsu! Because Adolf is on the cover! lol


Kage! Because it’s a great Ninja platforming game ^_^


Hoshi no Kirby Yume no Izumi no Monogatari! Because believe it or not I didn’t have this one before! ^_^


Street Fighter 2010 by Capcom, because it’s not really a street fighter game, it’s a really cool futuristic platformer! ^_^


and Zelda no Densetsu, because I might have to give it another try.. even though I don’t like Zelda games.. I’m falling for the group pressure >_<

I will update with more of my additions soon, I also have a lot of new Sega games ^_^

MY FAMICOM LIBRARY!

by

24

Now it’s up, it’s not completely finished, I’ve gotten to ‘M’ right now.. but I will continue to update frequently! It’s still a bit more than halfway through all my Famicom games so far ^_^

You can find the list either through this link >
but it can also be found on my homepage underneath my pages on the right hand side here >>

Enjoy!

My Mega Men..

by

12

Today all my 110.000 beads arrived! :D

So this is what I’ve been up to tonight. I’m particularly pleased with my Megaman or Rockman as I prefer calling him, since I put him next to all my Rockman games for the Famicom ^_^ I even made two! One with a bit more shading..

I have Rockman 3 through 6 for the Famicom and they’re all in pretty nice condition! :D I’m still looking for 1 and 2, but I will find them eventually ^_^



I love the Megaman / Rockman games (probably not as much as Alana though) ;D But they are a lot of fun! I always love jump-and-shoot-games! (<< seriously check that link, it’s awesome funny!) If anyone wishes to see some gameplay from any of the ones that I happen to have just let me know, but I assume that everybody knows about most of the Megaman games already ;D

Tomorrow I’ll try to catch up with blogging about all my recent additions for both Sega Master System, PC Engine, Famicom, Super Famicom and Game Boy games! ^___^

Scanning and sorting.. Hajya no Fuuin

by

2

Collecting japanese games is always a bit tricky, especially if you don’t know any japanese. Fortunately I studied it for 4 years and lived in Tokyo for a little while, hence I can read all the Hiragana and Katakana which are phonetic alphabets. The Kanji’s however are difficult, I only know a few basic ones. Most Famicom games which contain Kanji’s in the name have tiny Hiragana above the Kanjis so you will be able to pronounce it even if you don’t know that particular Kanji.

Like for example on this Altered Beast game:

I don’t know those Kanji’s but above it I can read that it says “Jyu u o u ki”, hence I can sort them game in my excel spreadsheet alphabetically, written in both roman letters and Kanji. The joy! (I’m kind of a freak when it comes to keeping things in order..)

However, one game has really pissed  me off for a couple of weeks now.. namely this one:

It says Fantasy Role Playing, and then the name of the game is in Kanji, without the help of Hiragana or Katana. I was googling and searching through lists of alla ASCII Corp games and alla Kogado Studio games but couldn’t find anything!! Eventually I remembered my japanese digital dictionary that I bought to help my studies!

This thing sure is a blessing! At the bottom you can actually write a Kanji on the touchpad and it will tell you how it’s pronounced and what it means! :D So I tried to write out these Kanjis:

And after some trial and error I finally got a bit of the name and was able to google it to get the whole thing.

A few hours later I remembered something Alana had told me about Googling pictures.. I went to try it out and WOW! I just dragged and dropped the image there and it gave me the name o_O

And I could just copy past the Kanjis into a Kanji converter online which would give me the pronunciation. Why didn’t I try this out earlier?!

It sure saved me a lot of hours today though, because I’ve been scanning and sorting for three days! All my Famicom cartridges now have a picture on my computer labeled with the correct name!

I am hoping to get up a page on my blog where I can help people out by finding names of japanese games by just looking up the image of the cartridge, with big pictures of each game cartridge and name in English / Roman letters / and in japanese plus adding publisher (such as Konami or Namco etc) and what type of game it is! I will also add an extra page with games I have doubles of, in case anybody would wish to trade ^_^

Apart from this three day scanning and sorting project I have acquired a Super Mario Bros. 3 Poster that came from the Swedish Nintendo Magazine back when the game was released. It’s so pretty! :D

And my boyfriend also found my old Nintendo CarryAll case, I haven’t seen it for years! And inside along with a manual and some other stuff I found this pretty poster of the Nintendo Game Plan with ROB! :D

Parodius, Don Doko Don and more!!

by

4

Today I got a package of Famicom games I had bought through a Swedish auction site. First of all four Famicom cartridges, Parodius Da!, Bokosuka Wars, Don Doko Don 2 and Insector X.


And also some Famicom Disk games; Gall Force, Gyruss, Arumana No Kiseki, Falsion and Kiki Kaikai: Dotou Hen with a guidebook:


I can’t wait to try them all out! :D But that will have to wait until tomorrow, since I spent this evening watching Iron Sky (a Finnish/German/American movie set in 2018 about Nazis who had been hiding on the dark side of the moon since 1945).. interesting..

I also got an early birthday present from my favorite japanese import game seller :D He had included a Hudson Turbo Controller for the Famicom  ^__^ YAY!  Perfect for all the shooters I have just bought :D

Famicom Pillow!!!

by

2

Yay! Today I got a parcel! I had forgotten what it was, and I was super happy when I remembered! :D
I had bought a customized Famicom Pillow from Lucy Sparrow!  She makes all kinds of cool stuff out of felt ^_^ But I really think my Famicom Pillow is the best :D

Even my cat loves the pillow (and this cat usually hates change…)

She is even guarding the famicom pillow now, my famicom pillow guardian!!

Thank you Lucy, I’m super happy! And I really liked the bonus hand grenade keychain ^_^ Super cuuuute!


You should check out her shop, lots of cool stuff made out of felt!

Hebereke (へべれけ) for Famicom

by

4

I recently got a new batch of Famicom games I had ordered:

The games are Dig Dug, Ninja-kun: Majou no Bouken, Tetris, Ninja Crusaders, Urban Champion, Karateka, Hebereke, Tetrastar, Wits, Bubble Boobble for Famicom Disk System and Jikai Shounen Met Mag Square complete with a guide book as well ^_^

I’ve played them all a little bit but what I would like to start reviewing is Hebereke. For those of you who didn’t know, Hebereke was released under the name Uforia: The Saga in the PAL region. I tried Ebaying it today but couldn’t find either Hebereke or Uforia, but they are usually quite expensive when you see them. I got mine for about 46 USD.

I hadn’t played Hebereke, or Uforia for that matter, before. It’s a platforming game where you play as Hebe, a cute little white penguin ^_^ He’s quite useless though, he has no attacks, he can’t swim, he can’t jump very high..

He’s cute though.

Even though he can’t swim..

The enemies are also really cute:

There are in total 4 playable characters, which you unlock through gameplay:

I only made it so far to get the second character, O-chan. You have to battle them to get them by your side:

She can swim through water at least! And walk on ice!! But she doesn’t have an attack either..

The whole game is a maze, where you will have to travel back and forth to find new places you couldn’t get to earlier. You will also bump into several dead ends that you can’t pass since you don’t have the correct character yet:

On your way you will find chests.

These are crucial, since you will find items helping you along your way, like for example health potions, increasing your health from 10 to 49.

You can switch between characters anytime in the select menu:

If you’ve found the chest containing the map you can also access it here:

And the first chest you’ll probably find will contain the item generating passwords for you, so you can restart where you left off. The passwords are long and confusing, however there are unlimited continues ^_^

I made it to some giant door, but it was locked and I needed to find a key I think:

I also made it to some mines where you could ride mine carts ^_^

I also found clowns! :D That shot bubbles at me :(

And a giant boss, which I couldn’t hurt.. I guess I have to find yet another playable character first.. maybe one that can shoot!! >_<

The funniest part of this game was the birds that dropped giant turds!!

I eventually got kind of stuck, having tried every possible direction and not being able to proceed.. I will have to give it another shot some other day..

Here’s a video I put together with some gameplay, check it out, it’s really cute! ^_^

Btw, I am now also writing a bit about Famicom games for FYIG (Find Your Inner Geek), you can read it here!

Retro console photo shoot!

by

12

Today the weather was really nice, so I decided to take some of my consoles for a little stroll ^_^







I photographed a few more, but haven’t had time to resize them yet.. tomorrow perhaps ^^

Tokorosan no Mamorumo Semerumo for Famicom

by

6

Here’s a Famicom game called Tokorosan no Mamorumo Semerumo (所さんのまもるもせめるも). Even trying to translate that in google translate makes no sense “I also place blame also protect the” and in a Kanji converter “Mr Tokoro’s *particle Mamoru *particle *verb *particle” what?!?

Anyway, it’s a platforming game starring a guy (I guess Mr. Tokoro) who has a water pistol squirting various enemies such as cats, jumping feet and whales (?!) through different areas of Tokyo city (such as Chiyoda and Shibuya).

There is no password save feature in this game.


The gameplay is kind of fast, and the controls have a nice feeling to them.

The graphics are ok. It looks nice when you’re standing still ;D

The enemy sprites are kind of vague and blurry though.

After passing some enemies you will get to a door that takes you to the boss. It looks like some kind of aqua-guy in old-fashioned diving equipment, but he flashes at you like a camera and no matter where you are in the room you WILL get hit! If you have squirted your gun too much during the stage you will have run out of water, it’s therefore better trying to jump over enemies in the stage instead of shooting them. Save as much life and water as possible for the bosses.


When you’ve taken out the boss you’ll get to a couple of doors, it’s either 3 or 4 to choose from and I guess they take you to different locations on the map. There seems to be various ways of reaching the end:

This is what stage two looks like:

You only have one life, so if you die you are game over. However, you have continues, but they are limited! I didn’t count them but I feel like there was about 4. Which basically means that you only have 4 lives to finish the game o_O

The second boss looks exactly the same, so once again, make sure not to loose too much health during the stage and save up your water!

After several tries I got through the third stage and went into the door at the end, and it didn’t take me to a boss, instead I fell down and was supposed to land on a platform, but I didn’t have time to realize that so I fell into the whole and got game over. That’s when I gave up. I could probably have gotten further in the game, it’s just trial and error and you have to remember what to watch out for in each stage, but I just got really annoyed with it after replaying the first three stages over and over..

The music in the game was ok, but after a while it got extremely frustrating and repetitive because the game was quite hard and I kept dying >_<

Watch this video I uploaded of the gameplay  and music to see what i mean:

Second batch of games from Japan

by

4

So here’s the second batch of games I bought in Japan, a bunch of Famicom Disk games and also some more Famicom games:

Some that I’m really happy with are Star Wars, Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru, Eggerland, Castlevania II, Alien Syndrom and Hatris (which was only 100Yen =about 1.25 USD, in mint condition!!)

This weekend I tried all the games I purchased in Japan out briefly (in total 64 games and one system), and all of them worked, except for one Famicom Disk game (Breeder) which I actually think I broke myself o_O Not really sure what happened there..

Also when I got home I had a package waiting for me, with 4 reproductions I had ordered earlier ^_^

The games are reproductions of Cocoron, Recca and two Castlevania games which are fan-made in 8-bit ^_^ Can’t wait to try them all out!

I’m sorry for the shortness of this post, but I’ve been really busy since I got home, I will try to make a longer post tomorrow ^^

Retro gaming store in Japan

by

16

So today I took another trip to the Super Potato store in Akihabara. This time I spent hours just looking through all the retro gaming goodness they had to offer ^_^ And on the way to the store I took the opportunity to drop by a couple of arcades, like this one:

So here’s a couple of things you could find in the Super Potato store:

Famicom games, 4 shelves (only 2 are in the picture) all organized in alphabetical order.


On the opposite side just as many shelves with Famicom games in original boxes, all in really nice condition.

Super Famicom games, also 4 shelves in alphabetical order.


Super Famicom games in boxes, super nice condition.

Game Boy games! They also had shelves filled with boxed ones, and lots of GBC and GBA games too ^^

Lots and lots of Game & Watch!! ^_^

Nintendo 64′s that looked like new, came with controllers and all cables for like 2000 Yen (about 170 SEK, or 25 USD) o_O

On the first floor they also had a bunch of Sega, everything from 8bit to Dreamcast ^^

On the second floor they had all the PS1, PS2, comics, literature such as walkthroughs and guides, all soundtracks to games and lots more ^^

I really wanted to buy this Super Metroid book, but I had already picked up sooo many games that I had to stop myself somewhere :/

And of course they had all the machines where you can get little game related thingys like straps and keychains, I got some Mario stuff there ^^

On the third floor they had an arcade, and no regular arcade, they only had old games, 8bit and 16bit, like Pacman, Pac-Land, Donkey Kong, Final Fight, Splatterhouse, Ghost n Goblins, Street Fighter, Metal Slug, Space Shooters and lots lots more. I stayed there for a while and tried out most of the games, a japanese guy wanted to play Final Fight with me and we got quite far. It was a lot harder than on the console version O_o They also had this really cool chair made out of Famicom cartridges glued together! I sure hope those games weren’t in working order, otherwise it would be a waste :(

Also Pac-Land was a lot different from the Famicom version which I have previously reviewed here and re-visited here.

Here’s some pictures of the different arcade machines, especially Pac-Land ^^

Ghosts n’ Goblins

XX Mission

Final Fight

Final Fight Game Over :(

Pac-Land!


Twin Famicom & Attack Animal Gakuen

by

6

It’s working! I’m still in Japan, but managed to connect the Twin Famicom I bought yesterday to the TV in my hotel room.

I’m probably not gonna have time to go through and try all the games I bought for Famicom, but at least I know the system is working ^^

The first game I opened up was something called Attack Animal Gakuen (アタックアニマル 学園) and it kind of resembles Space Harrier. Not nearly as good, but still an entertaining game.


I haven’t been able to try the disk station of the console yet, since I didn’t buy any Famicom Disk games, but I will try to find some of those tomorrow so I can make sure it works completely :)

Look at those cute controllers!!!!

OMG Japan!!

by

19

20120426-221054.jpg
Retro gaming store in Tokyo Japan. Three floors just filled with retro heaven! This one was only Famicom ^_^

20120426-221246.jpg
So many things, I just wanted it all!

20120426-221300.jpg
And the prices were reasonable!

20120426-221323.jpg
Akihabara, also known as the ‘Electric Town’ in Tokyo. This is where you will find some of the Retro Gaming stores I’ve been visiting today :)

20120426-221341.jpg
Here’s some of the things I’ve picked up today. A Twin famicom! A bunch of Famicom games, some Super Famicom and a Sega Mega Drive game (just to see if it works on my PAL system).

More Famicom Disk System games

by

28

Now I’ve played all the Famicom Disk System games I have, and also a few new ones I recently got. It’s the first console I have that uses disks instead of cartridges (except for playing floppy disks on PC which I did back in the day) and it’s different in many ways.

Here’s the intro when you start up a Famicom Disk System:

One downside with playing Famicom Disk System games is the load times, which is something you never experienced on the cartridge systems, and sometimes they’re extremely lengthy. However, they only appear in the beginning when starting. Otherwise the music and graphics have to some extent been enhanced in many of the Famicom Disk games.

The most noticeable difference between cartridge games and the disk games is usually the enhanced music. You can hear an example here where I recorded the intro of Metroid on Famicom Disk System:

The biggest benefit of playing a game, that you might as well could have played on a cartridge (like Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania etc), is that you are able to save your progress when playing on the Famicom Disk System. It’s not always an option, but most lengthy games have the feature. I was incredibly happy when I started my Castlevania for the Disk System and realized there were already saved files on there, and this one person had saved the game right before the Dracula battle! ^_^

Here’s the gameplay and stage music of Castlevania for Famicom Disk System:

Here are some various videos of other games I tried out on my Disk System:

Nazo no Murasamejou! Awesome game, with great music ^_^

Some Donkey Kong Jr on the Famicom Disk System (it was the first time I actually played this Donkey Kong game, and it took some time to figure out how the hell it worked):

Patlabor, a platformer game only released in Japan:

A weird platformer called Kinnikuman (not a very good one..):

The intro music for Karate Champ, with some gameplay animations thrown in to create some action ^^

And of course Super Mario Bros:

Famicom Disk System games

by

12

I’ve recently started collecting Famicom Disk System as well.

Here it is connected to the Famicom

I only have 5 games for it so far though

The games that are complete with box and manual are Metroid, Castlevania and Nazu no Murasamejou and the two games without manuals are Kinnikuman and Donkey Kong Jr and Super Mario Bros in one.

My two favorites are Metroid and Castlevania. And it’s really fun to look through the manuals which have a lot of artwork.

Here are some pics from the Castlevania manual


Omnomnom, chicken makes you stronger!

The Metroid manual is also filled with cool artwork :)


Here are the bad guys plotting to take over the universe!



At the end of each manual there’s always instructions on how NOT to treat your Famicom Disks:

AAAAHHH! Don’t touch me!!!

I love the illustrations ^_^

Shufflepuck Café for Famicom

by

3


This is a game I’ve been playing quite a lot lately. It’s fun, entertaining, but super hard o_O


You have a bunch of opponents in some kind of cyber-futuristic café (looks more like a bar) where you can battle each of them in a game of “shufflepuck” which resembles air hockey.

The story: “You are the galaxy’s most successful Krypton-3 salesman on the way to close the biggest sale of your career. Your brand new Nash Sombrero has blown a capacitor in the reactor valve. You exit the gravy and coast down into the wrong side of town. Now all you need to do is find a phone and a repair sled will be on its way. The only signs of life seem to be coming from a shoddy structure three doors down and across the street. Opening the door you make your way down a flight of debris-covered stairs. Something loathsome scampers over your feet on its way to the activities below. A shout of recognition is heard as whatever it was enters the smoke-filled room. You stumble into the room and suddenly it’s as silent as the depths of space. Several pairs of hostile eyes, and a few sets of three, challenge you to enter. The only thing that stands between you and the telephone is eight galactic misfits, and obsolete droid and a few “friendly” games of shuffle puck. Relax, if you lose, you’ll earn their contempt. Win, and you’ll earn their resentment.”

All of the opponents are different, they all have different styles of playing and various difficulty levels (where most of them are ridiculously hard, and some even unbeatable!!)

The only easy one is Skip, some kid that just moves in slow-motion when you’re playing against him.

The goal is to get a score of 15 first. There are only 2 or three other opponents that I have even a chance of beating.

This is Vinnie, winning over me.. .>_<


This is Visine beating me..

This is the grim reaper.. or I mean, Nerval (!?)…

Here’s the drunken Lexon getting wasted whenever he scores…

Here’s the General:

Here’s DC3 the Robot waitress with nipples o_O

And Biff with anger management issues.. damn, he really wants to kick your ass!


I did get a few hits in there though.. ^^ pure luck…

And this is Bejin, the worst opponent there is.. she cheats by using the force!!

All in all, an entertaining game which also brings quite a lot of frustration ;D

Here’s a video I put together of the gameplay, the music is quite good :) in between stages that is, during stages you only have the sound effect of the puck bouncing around >_<

Gorbachev’s Pipeline (or ゴルビーのパイプライン) for Famicom

by

4


Yes, it’s a japanese Famicom game featuring the former President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the goal is to lay a pipeline throughout Russia. Each dot on the map represents a stage, and the difficulty rises progressively.

Gorbachev however only appears on the Title Screen.

It’s actually a quite entertaining game if you like puzzle games. It resembles Tetris a bit, except here you have pieces of two pipes in each falling block and you will have to connect a pipeline from the right wall to the left by rotating and placing the blocks correctly.

There are quite a few games that resembles this one, like for example Pipe Dream for Game Boy. However Gorby’s Pipeline has a uniqueness to it. There’s different music on the stages, I only played through the first three, but they were all different. I guess it will start looping eventually. Both the animation and music has a very USSR feeling to it, the japanese have portrayed a very cosy image of old Russia. It makes me think of ballets like the nutcracker and swan lake, snowy landscapes, and of course the old fashioned Tetris.

It was fairly hard though, if you are not used to puzzle games it will take some time to think where to put the pieces. I myself have played quite a few puzzlers and love the genre, but Tetris is always easier. (Unless you’re playing NotTetris2)

Here’s a movie I put together of the gameplay:

Recording Famicom gameplay and NTSC vs PAL

by

6

I have finally found the optimal solution, and still being able to use the Elgato Video Capture i bought (see previous entry about Playing & recording 8-bit and 16-bit consoles on you Mac / computer). While the Elgato / DVD recorder combination worked excellently with all my PAL systems I still couldn’t get it to work with my NTSC NES and my japanese Famicom, since the DVD recorder was PAL region it messed up the images.

I had to buy rca y cable splitters since the Famicom only had one output of composite image and video cords, now being able to split the signal to two places I can play through connecting the Famicom to a TV while also having it connected to the Elgato, which actually captures the video and image perfectly however generates a black image (“no signal”) while recording. The rya y cable splitters might not be necessary for the regular NES since that console already has two outputs, one for the antenna input in a PAL television and also the composite on the side, however it is more nimble not having to search for the channel and just playing through the AV channel ^_^

If anyone has any questions about this topic feel free to ask me, I’ve been researching into it and going through a lot of trial/error phases to know a thing or two about it by now ;D

Pac Land Re-visited

by

3

Somebody told me that Pac-Land had been an original arcade, preceding even Super Mario and being one of the first side scrolling platform games made. This got me curious, so I went on wikipedia and gained knew knowledge about the game, the story and ALSO the gameplay!

Apparently when you reach the end of stage 3 (Fairy-Land) you have a fairy in your hat which Pac-Man gives to the Fairy Queen and receives Magic Boots in return that can make him jump repeatedly.. this is definitely NOT obvious in the game, there isn’t even a slight animation of anything out of the ordinary happening. Therefore I never made it any further than stage 4, where there’s immediately a giant gap I couldn’t get passed.

Now being able to jump more than once changes everything, I beat that stage in the first try! But then there’s more stages with the same objective, reach Fairy Land, get boots, go back, but they have a higher difficulty level.. so I got stuck on stage 5, where you have once again the ability to only jump ones and there’s a gap that just cannot be crossed.. I give up and this is officially an annoying, frustrating and therefore SHITTY game >_<

Here’s a video of how you get passed the first gap at least, and you get a glimpse of stage 5 ;D It’s also in better quality recording than the last Pac-Land video, but the graphics of the game still suck!! Enjoy!

Pac Land?!

by

1

I still haven’t had the time to go through the Sega Saturn lot, I’ll see if I can do that tomorrow evening.

Tonight my boyfriend agreed to play some Nintendo Famicom with me =) We played some Super Chinese, Xevious, Twin Bee, Road Fighter, Door Door and Pac-Land! I bought a bunch of Famicom games quite recently, and Pac-Land was one of them. I figured it was a similar game to the regular Pac-Man. But no…

Pac-Land (パックランド) is a side scrolling platformer. You are Pac-Man (I assume… with a hat) and the ghosts are there, except they fly airplanes and drop down tiny ghosts on you (kind of like the tiny Goombas that the flying Goombas are dropping in SMB3). There are also cherries to collect, and a tiny Pac-Man head that make the ghosts blink. So far so good…

The weirdest thing about this game is the controls… To walk forward you press A, and to walk left you press B. Why not just use the d-pad for this? No, instead, pressing right left up or down on the D-pad makes Pac-Man with a hat jump. This is just fucked up..

The graphics of the game was pretty dull and simple. Not very much details and the colouring was bad.. Just look at these mountains:

Or the houses with blue windows, AND blue doors:

And at the end of each stage there’s BREAK TIME.. the stages last barely a minute, but I guess the programmers thought people might be sick of this shit after less than a minute, so let’s give them a break from it!

Nice trees…

Well, that’s it for Pac-Land. A bit of a disappointment, since I actually like Pac-Man, which this is NOT.

—

Today I gave this game another shot, just to see if it got any better. Well, after the third stage you don’t get to “Break Time” anymore, instead it’s.. Fairy land?!?

And on stage 4, you get stuck in limbo… it looks like you are back on stage 3 except that you are walking it backwards because you can’t move any further to the right. So I tried going back, but there’s a giant gap. A cherry appears in the pit and I jumped to grab it and I fell to my death. So on the last life I made a leap of faith into the pit to see if I could reach the other side, but I wasn’t even close. So that’s it for this game. Three levels, get to Fairy Land and then there’s no turning back… >_<

Btw, sorry for the crappy quality of my pics and videos, I had to use my ipod touch since my iphone’s memory was full, and I’m working on getting a recording device for my TV so the videos will kick-ass soon! =D