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With the list I'm choosing my games from getting insanely close to completion my choices are getting extremely slim. Because Laser Invasion seemed like the last possible game that might be decent on the list I snatched it up quickly before someone beat me to it. One other nintendoage member had put some time into it and wasn't quite able to beat it, but came incredibly close. Because of that he gave me a few tips one of which was extremely helpful. I'm really bad at the Air Sim stages, but he pointed out that you can simply maneuver around every non-boss enemy. That made things a lot easier, and to make things even more cheap you can choose different secondary weapons before each mission including a RADAR scrambler. Between dodging the enemy missiles and activating one of my 10 RADAR scramblers you're pretty much invincible for the majority of the flying stages.
The shooting stages need some quick reflexes, but overall aren't too hard. The maze stages are actually pretty enjoyable since you get a map of the area uncovered as you explore it. Really once I was able to pass the air combat stages it fell pretty quick. Not a great game, but it was ok. It did have one of my favorite types of endings though. The broken English kind!!
Next up this time was everybody's favorite Submarine sim and highly collectable cart...... SILENT SERVICE!!!! I had extremely low expectations going into this game and much to my surprise it wasn't actually that bad  There is a lot of different things going on such as navigating your ship, locating enemies, using the periscope, watching your depth, rationing your ammo, keeping an eye on damage, finding enemy shipping lines, etc. etc. So there is a bit of a learning curve when you first start because of how much you are in control of. Even with all that it was surprisingly intuitive in a very short amount of time. Now there is not really an ending to this game as its all broken up into misions. So to call it finished for my list I beat the weapons training, all 6 convoy missions and one of the 5 war scenarios. Why 1 out of 5? Because each scenario is essentially the same. Same objective, same enemies, same starting stats. The differences are just which shipping lines are most likely to be in use and which starting ports are available, neither of which change the difficulty in the least. Since there is no end screen here is a snap of my WGSC rank (Worlds Greatest Submarine Captain) which is the highest rank available according to the manual.
And one game that a few people have been dreading, Back to the Future 2 & 3, finally fell. You get unlimited continues so the game itself isn't hard to beat. The problem is how annoying it is. You start on a map of 1985 which consists of about 10 long areas. You have to find doors which contain puzzle rooms. After beating a puzzle room you are rewarded with an item. The item must be returned to an unspecified pipe in the different areas. Now times that by 3 because not only do you have to worry about the maze in 1985, but you have to time travel to similar mazes in 1955 and 2015. To make things extra confusing items obtained in one time are almost always returned to areas in the other times and some areas of the maze are only accessible via time travelling in specific areas of specific time zones. And to make things extra extra confusing there are a couple items that you need to go to earlier times to plant seeds in order for a beanstalk to appear so you can even reach some puzzle rooms. And to make things extra extra extra confusing the keys you need to open the puzzle rooms are rarely available in areas that have puzzle rooms so you have to back track and stock up, hoping not to die since if you lose all your lives and have to continue you keep everything except for your stock of keys.
If you're finally able to achieve your goal of returning all 30 items you win, right? WRONG! At that point you're treated to the second part of the game themed after the Back to the Future 3 movie. Luckily there are only 10 less maze-like areas with only 10 items this time. The levels are MUCH harder to walk through though, but luckily they supply you with a key hidden in an enemy at least once in each area. The difficulty of the puzzle rooms is ramped up pretty significantly this time though so don't think it'll be a cake walk. Anyway return your 10 items to get this screen here:
NES Games Finished In 2012
(click on a title to view the video)
Silver Surfer
Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones
Ghosts n Goblins
Tetris
Pro Wrestling
Gradius
Zanac
Adventure Island
Karnov
Trojan
Excitebike
Baseball
Spy Hunter
Adventure Island II
Tennis
Battletoads
Shadowgate
Battletoads/Double Dragon
Pinball Quest
Section Z
Godzilla
Hydlide
Marble Madness
Back to the Future
Darkman
Terminator 2
Robocop
Total Recall
Predator
Robocop 2
Robocop 3
Hudson Hawk
Home Alone
Home Alone 2
Batman Returns
Ghostbusters II
Ghostbusters
Die Hard
A Nightmare on Elm Street
The Krion Conquest
Adventures of Dino Riki
Ultima: Exodus
Legacy of the Wizard
Air Fortress
Ultima: Quest of the Avatar
Darkwing Duck
Ultima: Warriors of Destiny
Legends of the Diamond
Pro Sports Hockey
Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball
Yoshi's Cookie
Kick Master
Zombie Nation
Stadium Events
Super Jeopardy!
Joust
Yoshi
Dance Aerobics
Adventures of Bayou Billy
Pipe Dreams
Ski or Die
Werewolf: The Last Warrior
Simpsons: Bart vs The Space Mutants
City Connection
American Gladiators
Roundball 2-on-2 Challenge
720
Athletic World
Super Team Games
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Gumshoe
Bases Loaded
The Addams Family Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt
Kings of the Beach
The Blues Brothers
Volley Ball
Lode Runner
3D World Runner
Twin Eagle
Dragon's Lair
The Adventures of Rad Gravity
Break Time: The National Pool Tour
Bases Loaded II
Rainbow Islands
Conquest of the Crystal Palace
Peter Pan And The Pirates
Kid Kool and the Quest for the Seven Wonder Herbs
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Dragon Strike
Slalom
Wrath of the Black Manta
Race America
Treasure Master
Krusty's Fun House
King's Knight
Mighty Bomb Jack
Bases Loaded 3
Castelian
Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll
Dirty Harry
Conan
Cobra Triangle
Spider Man Return of the Sinister Six
Tag Team Wrestling
Eliminator Boat Duel
Galaxy 5000
George Foreman's KO Boxing
Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge
Thunder & Lightning
Heavy Shreddin'
Flying Warriors
Rocket Ranger
Roger Clemens MVP Baseball
Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure
Destination Earthstar
Street Cop
Short Order/Eggsplode
Star Voyageur
Days of Thunder
Laser Invasion
Silent Service
Back to the Future 2 & 3
BONUS GAME -
Assimilate
Future Plans - The remaining games I own on the list of 14 games has been knock down to 4. Another person is working on Conflict so I'm gonna leave him to it. I've already attempted Might & Magic and was having trouble with the fundamentals, also someone else has expressed interest in it so he can give it his best try. That leaves me with High Speed and Overlord as my last 2 options before the year is over. A couple weeks ago someone said they were going to try High Speed, but I haven't heard any updates in a while so I'm assuming its been scrapped. The same guy that is trying Might & Magic decided to end his run on Overlord in defeat. Both games seem challenging, but in extremely different ways. I'm gonna go with Overlord as my choice and hope I have a better time with it than the other guy did. Wish me luck!!
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A nice way to end the year would be sitting down, watch Die Hard once or twice, play some good games, visit friends and family, and enjoy the time off from work. So I decide to do none of that for now and instead do everything in my power to cause myself pain.
Today we look at The Bible Game, a late life Xbox and PS2 budget title that is a game about the Holy Bible. I am joined by a close friend, but only sharp eyes will be able to notice his appearance!
If, like me, you crave for a longer experience then have no fear! Episode 10 will hopefully be out a month from now, and will be a full review of an ancient RPG. Until then keep your eyes posted on my blog, Twitter, and Facebook, and don't forget to like and subscribe!
Hey all. This is my Playthrough of Double Dragon for the Arcade, emulated via MAME. I realized I couldn't handle the NES Version at this time, so I did this instead. Enjoy!
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UPDATE:
Hey now, everybody!
Whelp, that pretty much does it for this year. Congrats to mumboking for calling first dibs and taking it all!
-'Late
Post Script: Thanks to a quasi-suggestion by NES_Rules, starting next year the "Holiday Give-Away" will be called "Not-So-Secret Santa." That is, granted I have any extra video game-related junk to offer by then.
Until next year...
...'Later
rf app not syncing to my phone shows wish list but not my collection i made on the site
how to tell if a game is canadian only with the canada flag beside it in the check list
That game is Idolmaster SP: Perfect Sun for the PSP. Released only in Japan, it was fan translated, allowing English-Speakers to enjoy it. It brings with it a unique genre known as the Raising Sim, which you don't see much of here in the US. Where to begin...
The Idolmaster (actually spelled iDOLM@ASTER) series of games are a big hit in Japan, though they are widely unknown in the US, due to none of the games being officially released here. In the games, you take on the role of a Producer whose job is to help girls known as "Idols" become successful. In case you weren't aware, an Idol is a heavily promoted singer or actor, in this case a singer. The only difference with this title in the series is that you only help one girl at a time, as opposed to many at once.
You pick one of three girls to manage, and you have to train her to sing with a rhythm mini-game of sorts, interact with her, and generally manage her day (your day as well). If she becomes successful over the course of 52 weeks (I think it's 52, it's been a while since I've played this one), you win the game.
As mentioned above, this is a Raising Sim, but there's also some Visual Novel elements thrown in, but there's no graphic adult material, so anyone 16 and older should be able to play it.
So why should you play this game? If you live in the US and enjoy Anime, you'll enjoy this, as it's completely fresh and new (at least, it was for me). It's most likely going to be unlike anything you've ever played before.
Movie licensed games are almost always bad, even moreso when theyre for the NES. Im not even upset I played this game though, not one bit. Why? Total Recall is one of those very, very few bad video games that manages to cross over into so-bad-its-good territory. There are countless movies and old campy TV shows like this, but not so much video games. A bad movie can be made enjoyable by a stellar, albeit cheesy performance from the actors, like if I see Christopher Walken in a bad movie Im still going to watch and enjoy it.
Im still surprised theres a movie licensed NES game that LJN had nothing to do with.
A bad video game being enjoyable though? How is that different, and how is it similar? Well bad games are always marred by technical issues, loose controls, bad graphics and music (for its time), and inconsistent and asinine level design among other reasons. But, if a game isnt entirely horrific in those categories, just has some weaknesses across the board then we end up with a good candidate for an enjoyably bad video game. Total Recall is the poster child of awesomely bad games because of this.
As soon as the game starts the player is already confused and just runs to the right where theyre pulled into an alley to fight purple clothed dwarves. But it gets better, what makes Total Recall so enjoyable for me is just how ridiculous everything looks. The graphics are terrible, and because of this a wall that is supposed to be people punching through holes ends up looking like... well I like to call it The Great Wall of Gloryholes.
What puny little cocks you all are.
There is a cool X-Ray effect in the second level (I think its level 2, none of them are labeled). So this shows that the programmers actually knew how to do a few things, just that the level designers were terrible. It seems like this giant X-Ray machine unlocks after a time limit , then Arnold is allowed to work his way through a very confusing subway system. Around this point the game takes on the typical bad video game syndrome, the absurd fun being sucked away by now.
Arnold can also crouch down and punch to the side hes facing, because of the height of many enemies on the main screen this ends up looking the player is making Arnold punch the enemies in the privates. Real classy Acclaim. Its still hilarious to me that a game that can so easily be sexually construed ended up with a Nintendo Seal of Quality. I guess that is just a way to see how little Nintendo actually cared about game quality, and were more concerned with censorship. Oh well, the past is past for a reason.
BOOM! Right in the gonads!
Monday was Nick's Birthday and we made plans to go on a morning game hunt. We visited the usual places, Half Price Books, a couple Gamers locations, and Game Vault.
Half Price Books yielded a couple games for me, a strategy guide, and some manga from the clearance section.
[
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (GC) 4.99
Zone of the Enders (PS2) 9.99
Gran Tourismo 3 A-Spec (PS2) 1.00 in clearance
Gangster Town (SMS) 6.99
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory strat guide 2.00 in clearance
At Gamers 002 I picked up a Sega Master System, a handful of SMS games, a Genesis game, and Pitfall II for 2600 (Nick bought that and gave it to me as part of a later trade.)
Choplifter (SMS) 3.95
Rambo II (SMS) 3.95
Double Dragon (SMS) 3.95
Aerobiz (Genesis) 7.95
Pitfall II (2600) (trade)
Sega Master System 39.95
After leaving Gamers 002, we went over to Gamers 001. I didn't get anything there for myself, but picked up a CIB copy of Nosferatu SNES for Nick's birthday. The moron behind the counter tried to rip off the plastic but we managed to stop him before he totally killed it.
After that we made a run over to Game Vault, picked up a boxed copy of BomberMan 64, and Xenosaga II to complete the set of three.
BomberMan 64 (N64) 19.95
Xenosaga II (PS2) 9.95
The next few items were picked up in trade from Nick at the end of the hunt, random stuff I didn't have, as well as a light gun for my SMS.
Super Bases Loaded w/ manual (SNES)
Iron Tank w/ manual (NES)
Out Run (SMS)
Asterix and The Great Rescue (Genesis)
Captain America and The Avengers (Genesis)
First to Fight (XBox)
Light Gun for the SMS
Later in the week on Wednesday while I was out running errands I stopped at CD Tradepost and found a few odds and ends, they were having a buy one, get one half off sale.
Shadow the Hedgehog players choice (GC) 8.99
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (PS2) 2.99
Pokemon Stadium (N64) 8.99
Twisted Metal 4 (PS1) 2.99
and on a personal note, another milestone in my collection... I broke 600! If I ever get around to adding the rest of my Steam games I'll be past 700 XD
I'm back from my brief trip out of town and back into my NES groove. Got a few games to talk about that I didn't get to write before I left town and one fresh one on top of that.
Since Duke.Togo was able to help me out and score me a sweet, sweet Power Pad to replace my partially functioning one I was able to dig into the last couple Power Pad games on the system. Started off with some Short Order/Eggsplode. Its basically Simon/Whack-a-Mole. If you've played those games you'll know exactly what to expect from these ones. Eggsplode was quick and relatively painless to finish, Short Order on the other hand....... I played the Challenge 99 hoping it had a different ending from the other modes because of the extreme challenge of it, but it didn't. I could have gotten away with a quick and painless 10 levels of Simon, but instead opted for the 2.5 hour, 99 level Simon marathon!! My feet were quite sore at the end, but at least its done.
Luckily for me Street Cop was a lot more enjoyable. Using the pad and controller you wander through 6 different areas busting low-level criminals until you can get the location of their boss. Once you've tracked down and arrested each of the 6 crimelords you've beaten the game. It was very enjoyable and easily one of my favorite games for the Power Pad.
It seems that no one else that is tackling the list of NES games with me over at nintendoage is very fond of space sim type games. So with 2 of them on the list I gave the first one a try, Destination Earthstar. Their are two types of play on this game, the first one being a space sim played out on a grid in first person perspective, and the second being a side scrolling shmup (ala Gradius).
The sim part actually isn't too bad. Its fairly enjoyable, balanced and controls well. You're tasked with destroying all enemies on the grid before gaining access to the enemy base (the shmup areas). You can also explore a bit and find extra fuel and weapons. Each level like this is basically the same, the only difference is more enemies and more hidden goodies. Once you get the hang of it its pretty simple.
The shmup areas leave a lot to be desired though. Your ship can shoot from both the front and back and the powerups you collect will boost your guns for either direction. It does some things right like having varied weapons and giving you the ability to scroll through and previous collected ones if you prefer them (I liked the 3rd upgrade better than the 4th or 5th) and if you die you dont have to start the stage again, just continue from the point you died at. The levels don't seem to bad at first, but they get longer each time until they feel never-ending. On top of that your ship controls rather clunky and enemy hit boxes are pretty small. Luckily the game is pretty generous with the 1ups so as long as you can amass 10+ early enough you can just limp your way through the end like I ended up doing.
While I tackled that space sim no one else stepped up for the other one so I took it too. Star Voyageur was very similar to the sim parts of Destination EarthStar, just a lot crappier in pretty much every way. Firstly it took me a good hour to figure out how to even navigate my damn ship. The warp system is very unintuitive. Secondly you NEED to get two secret and randomly placed items before you can even start attacking enemy ships. So you have to hope to find them early on otherwise the baddies will be too close and you'll lose before you even have a chance to fight. When you finally get all of that down you need to learn to fight pretty decent sized hordes of TIE Fighter clones coupled with Star Destroyer clones. The Star Destroyer type ships are the motherships so you need to take them out otherwise they'll just keep spawning more ships. The combat is pretty fast and frantic which makes it pretty challenging, even with your power ups. Luckily the game is pretty short after you figure out all that stuff though.
Lastly this time around was Days of Thunder. If you've ever played 30 seconds of this game, you've pretty much played the whole darn thing. Just a lot of turning left and eventually struggling through pit stops. Fun!!!
NES Games Finished In 2012
(click on a title to view the video)
Silver Surfer
Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones
Ghosts n Goblins
Tetris
Pro Wrestling
Gradius
Zanac
Adventure Island
Karnov
Trojan
Excitebike
Baseball
Spy Hunter
Adventure Island II
Tennis
Battletoads
Shadowgate
Battletoads/Double Dragon
Pinball Quest
Section Z
Godzilla
Hydlide
Marble Madness
Back to the Future
Darkman
Terminator 2
Robocop
Total Recall
Predator
Robocop 2
Robocop 3
Hudson Hawk
Home Alone
Home Alone 2
Batman Returns
Ghostbusters II
Ghostbusters
Die Hard
A Nightmare on Elm Street
The Krion Conquest
Adventures of Dino Riki
Ultima: Exodus
Legacy of the Wizard
Air Fortress
Ultima: Quest of the Avatar
Darkwing Duck
Ultima: Warriors of Destiny
Legends of the Diamond
Pro Sports Hockey
Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball
Yoshi's Cookie
Kick Master
Zombie Nation
Stadium Events
Super Jeopardy!
Joust
Yoshi
Dance Aerobics
Adventures of Bayou Billy
Pipe Dreams
Ski or Die
Werewolf: The Last Warrior
Simpsons: Bart vs The Space Mutants
City Connection
American Gladiators
Roundball 2-on-2 Challenge
720
Athletic World
Super Team Games
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Gumshoe
Bases Loaded
The Addams Family Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt
Kings of the Beach
The Blues Brothers
Volley Ball
Lode Runner
3D World Runner
Twin Eagle
Dragon's Lair
The Adventures of Rad Gravity
Break Time: The National Pool Tour
Bases Loaded II
Rainbow Islands
Conquest of the Crystal Palace
Peter Pan And The Pirates
Kid Kool and the Quest for the Seven Wonder Herbs
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Dragon Strike
Slalom
Wrath of the Black Manta
Race America
Treasure Master
Krusty's Fun House
King's Knight
Mighty Bomb Jack
Bases Loaded 3
Castelian
Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll
Dirty Harry
Conan
Cobra Triangle
Spider Man Return of the Sinister Six
Tag Team Wrestling
Eliminator Boat Duel
Galaxy 5000
George Foreman's KO Boxing
Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge
Thunder & Lightning
Heavy Shreddin'
Flying Warriors
Rocket Ranger
Roger Clemens MVP Baseball
Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure
Destination Earthstar
Street Cop
Short Order/Eggsplode
Star Voyageur
Days of Thunder
BONUS GAME -
Assimilate
Future Plans - There isn't much hope left of finding hidden gems to play with us nearing 20 games left on the system, only about 6-7 that I even own. I'll probably be trying Laser Invasion and Silent Service *shutter* soon.
Episode 9 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...rum/index.php?topic=10790
Donate to RF Generation: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?action=paypal
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Whether you're just starting out your collecting career or you've been at it for a little while, it can be daunting to tackle an unfamiliar system. Model Revisions, 1st and 3rd party accessories, different territories, software and many other new areas are opened up for you to explore. We'll take one of the most beloved systems of all time, the NES, and break it down so that hopefully people still learning the basics about it can leave the Collectorcast with new found, and vastly useful, knowledge in their collecting quests for this classic system. As an area of focus for all 3 of our collections we hope to pool our combined knowledge and experience with the NES and show that there is a lot more to the Nintendo than one might think. But with a few tricks, a bit of research and some trial and error anyone can dive in and enjoy collecting for the NES in many different capacities if they have the desire.
As usual we'll also spend waaay too much time discussing the plethora of amazing scores that have been posted (and blogged) at RF Generation. It's becoming cliche to keep saying that this month's scores exceeded the last, but fortunately it keeps being true! So check it out and see if you made the cut this time around. And make sure to stay tuned until the end for a special announcement regarding how you can help rfgeneration.com......
Show notes:
Music: Life Force (NES)
Main Topic 1:56:45
Donation Drive 4:05:05
Hey everyone for my birthday today Bill (Engel762) and I decided to do some shopping as I had Gamers hold a complete (not boxed) Sega Master System 1 for him. So after a decent night at work I am exhausted now as I write this (sleep the rest of my bday away I bet lol haha). Today was a great birthday and a great day to go hunting for Bill and I. First off we head to our usual place HPB and Bill picked up some great stuff a lot more than me but it was all cheap he got some Warcraft Manga and some other pretty sweet stuff! I picked up two Manga Disgaea and Disgaea 2 Vol. 1, Bill bought me some Garfield Fat Cat 3 Pack Books (love Garfield lol for Gas) and for trade for a SMS Light Gun he bought me CIB/Mint Beauty & The Beast Roar of the Beast. Then we were off to Gamers and as I mentioned before our main reason to going there today was to pick up his very own SMS 1 system which he has been trying to find complete for a while~well he got one in pretty good shape too. While we were there the ASM whom which is awesome let us dig through a box of games that they had sitting in back. Well there were a ton of NES games, a broken Coleco cord, a dirty ColecoVision and a bunch of other stuff then I saw Three Dirty Dwarves!!! I was stoked as I have been wanting to get this game for a while then we dug through the box some more found a Made In Hong Kong - Basic Version of Mario Bros. on Atari 7800, Pitfall 2 Atari 2600 - I bought that for Bill, Omega Race for Coleco (Previous blog a few weeks ago I picked up Omega Race for Atari 2600). I also picked up Blades of Vengeance - CIB, Captain America and the Avengers -CIB. Also picked up in part of a trade (which I was actually planning on buying myself on Friday - Thanks again Bill!) Romance III - CIB very minty. Also the ASM gave me a bag of manuals mostly SNES free. Then we were off to another Gamers where I got my birthday present from Bill Nosferatu still in the original shrink wrap but opened!!! The Gamers guy wanted to rip it off I am like no don't! But he did start to tear it so I taped it back up NO I DIDN"T CATCH ANY OF THE BOX! But this game is so mint it is practically brand new! This is probably my best bday present in a long long time! Thank a lot Bill!! Then we were off to Game Vault were Bill picked up his first Boxed N64 game at a good price but I will let him tell you his side of the day. But here is the run down! and then Pictures. Please Comment!!!
*HPB -
-Disgaea 1 Manga - $1.00
-Disgaea 2 - V1 - Manga - $1.00
*Beauty & The Beast: Roar of the Beast - Genesis - (Trade) $4.00
*Gamers #1 -
-Three Dirty Dwarves (Partial Trade) - CIB - Sega Saturn - $4.95
-Mario Bros - Atari 7800 - Made in Hong Kong - $1.95
-Omega Race - ColecoVision - $1.95
-Blades of Vengeance - Genesis - CIB - $4.95
-Captain America and the Avengers - Genesis - CIB - $4.95
-Romance of the Three Kingdoms III - Genesis - CIB - (Trade) - $9.95
-N64 Game Storage Case - $0.95 (needs a lot of work)
*Gamers 2 -
-Nosferatu - CIB - SNES - MINT - $34.95 - Birthday Present
Pictures
Hey now, everybody!
A big thanks to everyone who participated in this year's give-away!
As of this posting, all but three of the claims have been shipped.
Happy winter solstice celebration, everybody!
-'Late
I enjoy messing around with numbers and stats, and I recently found a great new project that would combine doing that with game collecting. I had a lot of fun doing it, so I decided to share the results.
Not long ago, I passed the 500-cart mark in my NES collection. As of this writing, I am currently up to 526. This is about the point where it's said that NES collecting gets a lot more difficult. Hard-to-find, expensive titles become all that's left, and while that's rather exciting in its own right, it's an interesting and sometimes frustrating turning point. In my case, I couldn't help but wonder - is that really the case? Are there really just expensive games from here on out? Did I miss some common titles without realizing it? I came up with a good way to find out.
I somewhat arbitrarily decided to go with the list and rarity guide on NintendoAge for this, though any thorough list would certainly work just fine. That list puts the 'complete' NES set at 768 games and rates each game's rarity on a scale from 1 to 10. The 'complete set' total doesn't seem to be universally agreed upon, but this list seems to be as good as any to me. I then split NintendoAge's list up by rarity and counted the number of games at each level. I then checked my collection against each of those to determine where the games I'm missing fall within the different rarities. The results weren't too far from what I expected but still quite interesting:
I knew I didn't have much (any, really) of the really high-end rarities but a decent number of semi-rare titles. As expected, the percentage keeps going up as the rarity goes down, including no missing titles in the 2 or 1 range. Not a lot of surprises, really.
It wasn't a total waste, though. The most interesting information I found was the higher-than-expected totals of 3's and 4's I didn't have. There are 43 games between the two, including quite a few games I've seen and passed on dozens of times. I've somehow never picked up Rocket Ranger, All-Pro Basketball, Yo Noid or Digger T Rock after all these years. In those instances, I think that I simply assumed I'd bought them a long time ago and never gave it a second thought.
Thanks to all this number-crunching, I've learned that I can likely reach 550 without as much trouble as I'd feared. 600 and beyond will be quite the challenge, but I'm feeling up for it. If your NES collection is in this range, I recommend taking stock by rarity to see what easy finds you may have missed.
What just happened? That's pretty much how most rounds of Mars Matrix left me feeling.
The Racketboy forums have a Shmup Of The Month Club which I've participated in over the last year. It's generally a great way to expose yourself to new shmups which you may have been putting off for one reason or another. Perhaps more importantly, it's justification -- that is it gives you an excuse to buy some expensive shmup that you might have avoided otherwise. While I've been into collecting Sega stuff for a good part of the year now, certainly my Dreamcast collection has been my highest priority focus. So I was pleased as punch to have a specific reason why I should pick up a Dreamcast exclusive (outside the arcade) shmup.
 
Mars Matrix is an odd one. Published my Capcom -- who showed the shmup community tons of support on the Dreamcast -- it is presented in a horizontal screen mode, much like the Giga Wing games. This means that it looks pretty fantastic on a widescreen monitor. I actually have a monitor that can rotate, but it's nice to have shmups that are meant to be played on a default monitor.
However the resolution isn't the oddest thing about Mars Matrix -- it's the default controls. You see the game is meant to be played with a single button. Or rather two. But only one button actually shoots and the second will switch shots. It's very confusing to me and I can honestly say that I'd have no chance playing this game if I encountered it in the arcade. Luckily the Dreamcast port offers full customization of controls, so I could set each attack to a separate button.
 
But none of this really matters because I had immense trouble wrapping my head around the game mechanics. So much of Mars Matrix revolves around using a shield to absorb and deflect bullets. The problem is the shield needs to recharge and I just was never able to understand how to properly manage this. Ultimately my high score was about 700 Million which is pitiful compared to some of the scores posted in that thread which were in the Tens of Billions! While I can say that Mars Matrix is an impressive and interesting game, it's just not one that I'm any good at. So I can find it fun in small bursts -- and probably more fun to try to play for survival. But playing for score is pretty out of the question for me unfortunately.
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