More Bday gift games ^_^ Aleste, Rock N’ Bolt, Kid Icarus, Gun.Smoke etc

June 19, 2013 by stopXwhispering

Here’s a few other games I got for my birthday ^_^

Some Famicom Disk System games, most were complete with manual as well, Kid Icarus, Gall Force, Gun.Smoke and Zanac :) I have a copy of Kid Icarus for the NES, however that one doesn’t always work so I’m really happy for this Disk System one :) I also already had Gun.Smoke for the NES, but it’s a great game and it’s always interesting to see if there are any differences between the disk and the cart version ^_^

Then there were two japanese Sega Master System games, Aleste and Rock N’ Bolt. I’m excited to try these out! Rock N’ Bolt I’ve never heard of before ^_^

Also Columns for japanese Sega Mega Drive:

And a few Famicom games I didn’t previously have: The Blue Marlin, Musashi no Bouken, Jackie Chan, The Lord of King and Great Deal.

And last but not least a bunch of PC Engine games that I didn’t have :D I will upload these to the PC Engine library soon ^_^

Sega Sunday #2 – 8bit Altered Beast

March 25, 2013 by stopXwhispering

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..

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.

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

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:

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)

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..

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

Sega Sunday #1 – Shiten Myooh

March 17, 2013 by stopXwhispering

Sega Sunday has a nice ring to it! I will try to post something Sega related on sundays hereafter ^_^ Just based on the amount of Sega games I own I would be able to make a new Sega Sunday for 7,5 years!! :D haha

The Sega game I will cover today was released in Japan and it’s called Shiten Myooh! I bought it only because of the name, it made me giggle ^^ It turned out to be a pretty cool game though!

Shiten Myooh is a Sega Mega Drive game, and it’s got some pretty cool artwork!

I was so happy when I tried it and found out it was an action platformer where you can play co-op with a friend! :D There’s 4 characters to choose from, if you’re playing solo these 4 characters basically mean you have 4 lives before you’re game over. However if your playing 2 players you only have 2 lives each since there’s still only 4 characters to choose from.

If a characters dies you won’t be able to use them again:

Here are the character profiles (in japanese), scanned from the manual:

There’s 6 main stages, and before each stage you can choose which character you wanna play, they all have different abilities and special powers that can be useful in various situations, so there is probably strategic choices you can make depending on the stage.

During the stages you can pick up powerups. Not until at the very end we realized that depending on the color of the item it belonged to certain characters, and picking them up with the wrong character would just make it disappear. We also figured out that you can change characters during the stages to enable you to pick up the right powerup.

After each stage there’s a boss, some where really difficult, even on the first couple of stages! It was easier when you were 2 players, but if one died and had no characters left you were left alone to finish it. You have unlimited with continues though, so as long as you beat a boss that stage would be cleared.

So I tried this out with my friend Annett first, and we almost beat the game (so we thought)! We just couldn’t get past the forest stage that required simultaneous precision jumping, if one fell both would fail.. However I tried the game a few weeks later with my friend NinjaBrite and we managed to beat that damn Forest stage! That’s when we found out there was also a 7th stage.. and an 8th stage.. and a final boss! Here’s a scan of the manual showing the final stages:

Now after beating the 8th stage we thought we had beat the game since there was this awfully long cutscene, looking like some dude thanking us for our effort. And also after beating the first 6 stages there’s no indication of what’s to come…

The text was all in japanese so we didn’t quite know what was going on, but I started filming the ending, still holding the controller, and BAM! There’s a final boss fight!

So here’s the movie of my reaction to the SURPRISE BOSS FIGHT! :D (excuse the Swedish gibberish) ;D

Twinkle Tale for Sega Mega Drive

February 28, 2013 by stopXwhispering

I recently bought this amazing shooter from FredJ, it’s called Twinkle Tale for Sega Mega Drive! It was released exclusively in Japan in 1992, developed by Zap Corporation and published by WAS (Wonder Amusement Studio). I’ve never heard of any one of these two, but they sure did a great job with this game!

Twinkle Tale is an overhead shmup, but it’s different since your character is walking around on the ground and you can walk in all directions. There are chests to open, narrow paths to follow and different roads to choose from (they all lead to the same end though). At first glance it looks like a fantasy RPG (and you all know how fond I am of RPG’s… >_<) but when you start shooting, feeling the fluent controls and experiencing the amazing graphics and sprites it all changes and you can’t do anything but love this game! ^_^

Since I still can’t record gameplay from my japanese Sega Mega Drive I had to use my iPhone to try and take some screenshots..

You can set the game to various difficult levels, I started on normal, but it was still pretty difficult.. The controls are pretty simple. You have a magic attack which is limited unless you pick up power-ups for it, but 3 is the maximum you can carry. You shoot with the B button and you can change between 3 various shots with C.

The first shot is straight forward and powerful, the second one spreads wider and is a bit less powerful, the third shot is a homing shot that aims directly towards any enemies but is pretty weak. This third one is the one I ended up using mostly during the stages since it took out all the smaller foes and medium foes quickly, but on the bosses I preferred the strong shot. You can level up all your shots to a maximum of lvl 3. If you get hit you loose one lvl of the shot you have equipped. You will quickly find power-ups though, since there are a lot of chests and stuff that carry items in all the stages.

You have three life bars, once you get hit three times it’s Game Over. However you have a couple of credits. You will encounter mobs of enemies coming at you, goblins throwing sticks, bats, mages, giant stone golems, skeletons, gargoyles and various other creatures. The enemies are very varied and well made and you encounter new ones on each stage.

You will also encounter various obstacles throughout the stages, like falling rocks in narrow paths, shooting arrows from the walls etc.

I made it as far as to the second boss on my first couple of credits. I made a few stupid mistakes, like walking right up the path where the boss would come from, thinking that was the way out, and he killed me instantly >_< I bet my second attempt will go much better! I just had to stop to write about it first ^_^ I also took some picture from the manual. It looks like it’s torn all around the edges but that “rip” is actually printed on the paper, I guess to make it look old?

And here’s the first boss, a three headed dragon-lion-thingy:

And the second boss, a giant floating knight casting lightning:

This game is pretty rare, and it wasn’t cheap, but I’m really happy I bought it. It’s an awesome addition to my collection and it has great replay value! I will continue my attempt to advance past the second boss after this post ;D

Secret Sega prize!

February 3, 2013 by stopXwhispering

Today the secret prize has arrived to theSegaDude who won the contest!

For those of you who were curious, then here is what it contained! :D

I actually waited until the winner was announced to decide what the package should contain, since I wanted to optimize the prize for whoever would win ^_^ Since theSegaDude is a Sega collector, the price was Sega inspired! :D

First of all a game, that I don’t think he already had in his collection: Tiny Toons Adventure: Busters Hidden Treasure

Then I made SEGA coasters with perler beads! :D

And then I also made a few artworks from Sega characters such as Sonic and Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone (which is theSegaDude’s avatar) ^_^

Check out the unwrapping of the prize on theSegaDude’s site! :D

Package in the mail today! Atari, Sega, PC Engine & Atomic Robo-kid!

November 21, 2012 by stopXwhispering

Today I got two packages in the mail. It was a treat since I had totally forgot what it was that I had bought ^_^ (Yes my memory is sometimes like the one of a goldfish >_<) Anyway, the first package came in a padded envelope, inside was this really convenient box for the size of a CD case! (Yes, small details and things like this amazes me…)

And in the package was also what looked like a 10.000 ¥en bill?!

But this turned out to be a printed thank-you-for-buying-note! Really clever ^_^ Thank you Game Sensei! It was a true pleasure doing business with you :D And below you can see that the game I had bought was Atomic Robo-kid for PC Engine!

So I tried this game out tonight, and it was a blast!! A great horizontal shooter, with this cute Atomic Robo-kid sprite and cool powerups! It was really fast and fun!

Below follows a montage with screenshots and gifs I made from gameplay footage ^_^ All images are clickable to view larger :)

I got to the second boss, but then I got a Game Over after having used up all my continues >.< It was quite hard, but I will try to give it another go soon ^_^ In the second package I got two Sega games, Gangster Town for Sega Master System and Slime World for Sega Mega Drive. I’ve been looking for Slime World since I saw that TheSegaDude had gotten it ;D And I finally found a decent japanese copy of the game. Can’t wait to try it out! :D

I love the boxart for Slime World!! I have no idea what Gangster Town is.. it was dirt cheap! so I bought it…

Two other games were hiding in the second package! Star Wars Jedi Arena and Millipede for Atari 2600! Millipede also had a manual, something I was not even aware of when I bought it on Ebay ^_^ It’s huuuuge compared to the actual game haha! :D

The Millipede manual actual contains some hints to this incredibly frustrating game ;D It says:
Make sure you keep your eye on the millipede while you’re getting rid of the other pests. The millipede can sneak up on you if you’re not careful (NO SHIT!) so keep it under control.
… Each insect has its own unique sound so listen closely and you can anticipate what will be coming next! (I actually did not know that! Did you?)