Café på Bit & Retro Gaming in Skellefteå

This weekend I visited a dear friend way up north in Sweden :) I brought an NES so we could try out some adventure games and also play my latest Tetris acquisition, Tengen Tetris, since my friend loves Tetris! ^_^ We had loads of fun with the co-op mode of Tengen Tetris, and also played a bunch of other games, like Xexyz!

Xexyz is an awesome adventure game that merges platforming action with sidescrolling shooting ^_^ It’s also really pretty and colorful, and you get to see fairies in bath tubs! haha ^_^

NES-Xexyz-Fairy

NES-Xexyz-screenshot

NES-Wurm-Journey-to-the-Center-of-the-Earth

NES-Xexyz-Cyborg-Rider

NES-Wurm

Another game that we played was Wurm: Journey to the Center of the Earth which is also really cool :) It is also a merge of platformer/shmup, but it also has a strategic boss battle element :) This dinosaur was really annoying >_<

NES-Wurm-boss

We also played Zen: intergalactic ninja! This game is hard!! But I love how they’re making it all about environmental friendliness haha ^_^ Every stage is about fighting pollution in some way, and in the bonus stages you recycle trash! LOL! I’ve never encountered such an environmentally aware Ninja ;D

NES-Zen-Intergalactic-Ninja

NES-Zen-Intergalactic-Ninja-screenshot

NES-Zen-Intergalactic-Ninja-recycled-heroes

Last game we played was Karnov, and we got stuck on the 5th stage with the dinosaur boss that appears a second time >_< The game was a bit glitchy, we got stuck sometimes inside walls and had to wait for the timer to run out and kill us, lol…

NES-Karnov-screenshot

On Saturday we went into town and visited the GAME store. They had quite a lot of retro games, apart from three big glass cabinets by the entrance they also had more shelves around the counter :D I picked up quite a lot of games here ;D

GAME-skelleftea-1

GAME-Skelleftea-2

At the end of they day we visited a really awesome place called Café på Bit! It’s a café/arcade! Mainly focusing on console gaming but they also had some pinball machines and an arcade machine with Pixelbot Arena (a game produced by a local talent) :)

Cafe-pa-bit-arcade

Apart from all the setups, CRT’s and consoles, they also had a whole wall of games you could choose to play! :D They had the entire NES library that was released in Scandinavia ^_^ And some games were even for sale! I picked up a few great ones ;D I’ll tell you all about them in my next post ^_^

Cafe-pa-bit-games

Cafe-pa-bit-interior

We spent 4 hours there, all three of us were playing the same game, the only game I was interested in playing since I knew I couldn’t play it at home: Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril! I’ve seen the game maybe once before, and I know it’s a new game released for the NES (in 2006 I think) made by one guy. It was extremely difficult! You just had to memorize every step! We were competing on who would finish it first, after four hours none of us were even close to finishing it haha ^_^ I made it the furthest though, to boss no. 2…

Cafe-pa-bit-setup

cafe-pa-bit-battle-kid

Cafe-pa-bit-skelleftea

Café på Bit was really cosy, too bad it’s so far away from me :( Probably around a 15 hour drive! I recommend anyone visiting the north of Sweden to check it out though! ^___^

I’ll get right on writing my next post about my pickups! I came home with almost 20 games! :D

Cartridge Comparison: NES vs Famicom

I don’t usually intend to buy games for various platforms if I already have them for one, unless I know that there are major differences in the game. However, sometimes it happens that I buy a game I already have since the name and label are completely different, making me think it’s a completely different game..

Here are some examples where I haven’t realized it was the same game until I actually played and recognized it! :)

Xexyz VS Kame no Ongaeshi Urashima Densetsu
Xexyz is the american NES release, and in Japan it’s called Kame no Ongaeshi Urashima Densetsu.. I did not see that one coming ^_^ It’s great platforming fun though! 
Xexyz vs Kame no Ongaeshi Urashima Densetsu

Rockin’ Kats VS Nyankies
Rockin’ Kats is the PAL NES release, and when I got Nyankies (which it is called in Japan) I first thought it was some sort of sports game, since it made me think of the New York Yankees (I think that’s a team in some sport.. not my field of expertise though) ;D Man was I happy to realize it wasn’t a sports game but a fun platformer, a bit less exciting that I already had it though … >.<
Rockin Kats vs Nyankies2

The Krion Conquest VS Magical Kids Doropie
Here I actually got the Famicom game first. I had never seen it before and got really excited when I discovered a copy on eBay.. I paid looots of moneys for it >_< It was fun though! Kind of like a female Mega Man, but harder. Just like a month later I found The Krion Conquest, never heard of that one either, and bought it quite cheap at the Swedish Retro Gaming Exhibition.. when I popped it in I realized it was the same game that I had just spent a fortune on >-<
The Krion Conquest vs Magical Kids Doropie

Dino Riki VS Shinjinrui
Here’s another example of the same game bearing a totally different name. In this case however the cover has similar artwork, a boy raging on a dinosaur haha ^_^
Dino Riki vs Shinjinrui

Air Fortress VS Air Fortress
Of course sometimes I do buy games knowing I already own another version of it.. just because it’s a good game at the right price, or perhaps because I’m curious to see if there are any differences in game play ^_^ Like Air Fortress, I enjoy it and didn’t mind owning it on the Famicom as well.
Air Fortress VS Air Fortress