RFGen 2019 NES Challenge

[Crabmaster2000]

@shane - I thought Nightshade was pretty cool. One of the better adventure games on the NES in my mind. Good luck on Carmen, it sounds like one of the longest games to beat on the system. Rooting for you!

@bombatomba - whoa! That Time Lord win came out of nowhere! That game was so hard for me to finish it took me a very long time to beat back when I was at it. The Cowboy boss and the World War stage/boss and the Pirate stage/boss where are very tough, not to mention obtaining all the orbs. Great job. If you're up for a similar game later on that I think a lot of others aren't going to be jumping up to play maybe try Treasure Master.

@boshamp - you still working on Wario's Woods as well?

@Misto - Space Shuttle Project is a really neat and weird game. Interested to hear your thoughts on it after you're done.

[bombatomba]

@bombatomba - whoa! That Time Lord win came out of nowhere! That game was so hard for me to finish it took me a very long time to beat back when I was at it. The Cowboy boss and the World War stage/boss and the Pirate stage/boss where are very tough, not to mention obtaining all the orbs. Great job. If you're up for a similar game later on that I think a lot of others aren't going to be jumping up to play maybe try Treasure Master.

MCP is brutally boring and wearing on me, especially in light of what I am playing on the side in wait of the release of Dragon Quest Builders 2 (that is Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild).  I keep getting fired before I can finish Week 2.  I hate giving up on things, so I will keep persevering for now.

I had picked up Time Lord briefly (along with Target Renegade) and gave it a try, and I have to admit the lack of polish is what drew me back.  A terrible game, in my opinion, and one that doesn't receive enough attention.  Now the bosses I found mostly had the same weakness, that being the inability to quickly shift up and down, and in most instances I was able to kill them by moving up and down while also left to right (when applicable).  The stupid cowboy boss was brutal, and I think you might have to beat him with the pistol.  Or at least, I shot at him for months (according to the time) and he didn't die.  I think I was only able to complete the game because I had a great run, and had five lives to burn on the final boss.  I think the game was about to end though, as the timer switched over to Jan 1 3000 and the screen started flashing, but I was able to kill the final dragon head-thing and got he final screen.  It was brutal, but at least not boring.

[Crabmaster2000]

Yeah Motor City Patrol is super slow. I found it easiest to route the path that would cover all the hot spots and just drive a continuous circle around to avoid most bad guys from appearing and just catch the necessary guys. Pretty sure I kept my speed upgrade lower than max too to make it easier. Basically the game was driving in circles for 3 hours.

I really expected someone to post something like "How the hell do I do X in Time Lord?" Before it got beaten. Didn't think someone would just slam it down on the table like that. I agree with you totally on it not being great. I do love this song though and it makes my play list often

https://youtu.be/bde7mNPjhlE

[bombatomba]

On Day 3 of Week 5 in Motor City Patrol.  Almost there.

At Crab's recommendation I booted up Treasure Master and was immediately sad I did.  Naturally, if someone doesn't claim it I will likely take it when I am finished with MCP.  More than anything it reminds me of a Dizzy game, which are games that I really want to like (for their importance to the British Micro era of gaming) but just can't into.  I managed to get most of the way through the first level, with some issues (had a hard time getting into the sub so I thought I needed to find another component or something).  Not sure about where all the hate is directed (yet), but this is far more polished than Time Lord in the first level.  I'll play more after I finish MCP.

[shane]

While playing Carmen Sandiego, I was thinking it might be easy enough to create a simple slideshow plugin that mimics the scene transitions in the game. With a half hour on either side of lunch, I was able to reproduce it. http://likeable-hands.surge.sh/neswipe

Much more fun than the actual game.

[bombatomba]

Motor City Patrol is done.  If asked about this game by someone, I would quote Crabby:

Basically the game was driving in circles for 3 hours.

I think if this game would have been out in 1989-1990 I would have loved it and played for hours, just based on the freedom to drive around.  But now it is an interesting diversion that was maybe a little on the long side.  Final Thoughts:  I think it is hilarious that if you accidentally fire your weapon and hit someone innocent you are fired and the game ends, however if you fire on a speeder (something that can be legitimately done to criminals and robbers) you only get a warning.

I'll go ahead and claim Treasure Master.

[bombatomba]

So it turns out I was being a weenie and Sky Kid isn't so bad once you memorize the stages, and remember to hit the up and A and B buttons rapidly to recovery when you get shot down.

Back to Treasure Master

[Misto]

Finished Space Shuttle Project this morning.  I actually liked this one more than I expected.  Its really just a collection of minigames wrapped around the NASA space shuttle missions.  My only gripe is it gets a little repetitive in the end missions.  They did a pretty good job of mixing it up for the first 4, but 5 and 6 were mostly the same.  Another thing to note was the graphics and sound were actually quite good.  I'm not typically a big fan of the 8 bit music usually finding it repetitive and grating most times, but this game was an exception.  With enjoying both this and Ghoul patrol - I might actually pick up copies of these if I find them cheap.

[shane]

Beat Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?. Took a whole lot of catching the same criminals. You end up catching Carmen Sandiego halfway through the game, so the only reason to keep playing is to finish this challenge.

[Crabmaster2000]

@bombatomba - Treasure Master is definitely a more solidly built game than Time Lord. The issues mainly come from the precision gameplay required later in the game. Also make sure you're using the prize code so you get the final level while you play. Just to clarify, did you beat Sky Kid? Your picture link is broken and I can't quite tell from your write up. I have it marked at beaten by you, but please correct me if that isn't the case. Nice job on Motor City Patrol also!

@Misto - Space Shuttle is fairly uncommon, but if you can find a copy they usually aren't very expensive (less than $20). Really glad you jumped in on a couple obscure titles and found some joy in them! That's one of the main drives behind this challenge

@shane - wow! Didn't think you'd have it done so fast. Great work gumshoe!

It was much harder and took me far longer than I anticipated, but I beat Paperboy 2 tonight. Similar to the first one with the big change being you have you deliver papers to both sides of the street this time (alternating sides after each block). Lots of new types of house and obstacles too of course. You start off on Easy Street and have to do 7 days of delivery on this stage that is roughly as long as the first games stage. Then you unlock Middle Road and Hard Way which are 1.5x and 2x the stage length respectively. I played hours of Middle Road until I really got into the groove of which house types I wanted to be up close or far away from in order to either deliver or dodge obstacles. With random layouts every attempt I had to just recognize which house I was approaching and proceed accordingly. After spending so much time on Middle Road learning the game Hard Way didn't take as long, but still took me another good hour worth of attempts. It's not a bad game, just doesn't have that same charm the first title has.



Also tried to play Spelunker tonight, but I couldn't get my cart running so I may have to postpone that one. Popped in Star Soldier also and it may ending being much more of a time sink than I'm up for with my challenge so I'll have to revisit that one later also unless someone else takes it down.

Anyway that puts me at 30 Games in 15 days so far in my 100 NES Games in 100 Days challenge.

[bombatomba]

@bombatomba - Treasure Master is definitely a more solidly built game than Time Lord. The issues mainly come from the precision gameplay required later in the game. Also make sure you're using the prize code so you get the final level while you play. Just to clarify, did you beat Sky Kid? Your picture link is broken and I can't quite tell from your write up. I have it marked at beaten by you, but please correct me if that isn't the case. Nice job on Motor City Patrol also!

Oops!  I was having some issues uploading it to TinyPic so I tried my Google Pics account, which turns out out only I was able to see the link.  I fixed it and the pic for Sky Kid should up and visible now.

I finally was able to make it to the second world of Treasure Master.  So far feels like a British 8-bit adventure game, so not bad, maybe just a little boring.  To alleviate this I tried to play Werewolf yesterday but failed miserably on the third stage boss.  For me this really highlights my own limit when it comes to games:  Anything that requires pinpoint precision (such as the bosses of Werewolf) are nigh impossible for me to play.

I just realized that I am supposed to be participating in the July Playthrough!  I didn't bring my "NES Laptop" to work, so perfect excuse to play Mario Land on lunch.  Sorry!

[shane]

So, umm... I just beat Wayne's World and there's no ending. If you want proof, check out this person's video. Do I still get credit for it? Because this is an awful game to have to play again.

[Misto]

@Misto - Space Shuttle is fairly uncommon, but if you can find a copy they usually aren't very expensive (less than $20). Really glad you jumped in on a couple obscure titles and found some joy in them! That's one of the main drives behind this challenge

That's good to hear - I don't buy too many NES games as I focus my attention elsewhere, but $20 or so is doable.  And since I don't buy many, that exactly why I decided to participate in this a bit.  I'm sure there are lots of titles I overlooked or outright missed completely.

I did start Air Fortress as well,  I got through I think the first 4 levels but I'll be pretty busy in the coming weeks so it may take me awhile to finish it.

[Crabmaster2000]

@shane - you bet that counts. For games like that just try and snap a pic when it loops, or of the high score screen, immediately after the final boss or if there is a transition screen from final stage back to first.

I beat two more tonight. Hammered down and beat Amagon which had bested me in the past. Very weird game where you use your score as a life meter for a second form you can "evolve" into called Megagon. It's a pretty easy game when you have the Megagon transformation and incredibly unforgiving when you are your regular Amagon self. If you can limp your way to stage 4 like I did then you are given the option to use continues, but you start one stage previous to the one you died on. Took many attempts to finally get to stage 4, but once I made it that far I was able to take advantage of those continues and beat it without too much trouble by abusing Megagon every possible chance I had.



The next game was a big miletone for me so I decided to go with an iconic game that I had been holding out on and finally worked my way through Bomberman! I think most of you are probably familiar with this one so I wont get too into it. Gotta beat 50 stages to win. If you can get the upgrade that lets you choose when to detonate your bombs it's pretty easy. I choked on the final stage which lost me some important power ups and ended up digging pretty deep into my 30 some odd free men I had acquired before finally finishing it. Not a bad little action puzzler, just a bit slow compared to most other versions of Bomberman I've played. But the cool thing is that was NES game number 450 for me!



32 games done in 16 days for my 100 NES Games in 100 Days Challenge

[bombatomba]

@Crabmaster2000 - Very nice!  That kind of final moment struggle you faced in Bomberman is what makes the grass grow (for me, anyway).  And congrats on your 450th.  Did you end up recording your run of Bomberman for your Youtube channel?

Slow going on Treasure Master.  I'm still on stage 2.  The challenge isn't so much from the puzzles, rather doing them in a way that sees me at the end of the stage with no loss of life.  Like I said I am not great at precision controls anymore (I often twitch when I don't want to) but am progressing.  I finished Super Mario Land for the July c-play, so back to the NES games for a bit.