Tero's Classic Gaming

NES DuckTales 2

2012-01-28T13:52:00.002-05:00

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Here we have the little-known sequel to DuckTales. Compared to Rescue Rangers 2, this is definitely closer in quality to the original game, and it makes some additions that are somewhat interesting. Most notably, the game is much less linear than its predecessor, it takes some decent exploration to complete the treasure map.

The price of this game has also really shot up in recent years. I paid $30 only a few years ago, and you'd be lucky to land this game for less than $75 now. I guess this just highlights why it's better to buy retro games sooner rather than later.

DOS XMas Skyroads

2011-12-24T14:50:00.004-05:00

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Well, the fans demanded it, this video has commentary attached to it. It's not a particularly interesting commentary, but hopefully this should stop some of the requests.

Anyway, Skyroads was an early 3D game, predating the N64 by two whole years. The gameplay is very simple, you just have to make it to the end of the stages without falling off, blowing up, or running out of fuel, but it is extremely difficult. Even clearing the first 10 stages as in the video here is no walk in the park.

SNES Pocky and Rocky

2011-10-29T17:42:00.004-04:00

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Continuing my foray into shmups, here's Pocky and Rocky. This is a game that's frequently called a "cute-em-up" for its visuals, but it's quite difficult just the same. I was originally going to do this playthrough on hard, but the cutscenes were driving me nuts so I eventually went back to normal and got this great run.

NES SCAT

2011-09-17T15:05:00.003-04:00

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We now return to more NES videos, but at least it's in a genre I don't record often. SCAT is a really technically impressive NES shmup, it looks great, has a ton of stuff on the screen, and virtually never has slowdown or flicker (in one player mode, at least).

It's not an especially hard game, but I definitely think it's underappreciated, so I wanted to do a video of it to let people see what kind of action the NES was really capable of.

GEN Puggsy

2011-08-20T19:57:00.003-04:00

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I thought you would probably be getting tired of all the NES videos by now, so here's a break for some Genesis. Puggsy is an innovative puzzle/platformer with a neat physics engine and some clever level design. Unlike most puzzle/platformers, many of the levels have multiple solutions, too, which should make this a bit more interesting to watch then some of them might be.

This is a pretty long game, so I do everything I can to keep deaths to a minimum.

SNES Ganbare Goemon 2

2011-06-18T12:49:00.003-04:00

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I thought you could use a break from all the NES games, so here's a SNES game instead. It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the Goemon series, and I recently picked up a lot of the Japanese titles. A lot of the stuff from Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon has its roots here, so it's been pretty interesting to play through them.

Playthrough is now complete.

Photo thread update

2011-06-12T15:07:00.002-04:00

I've been inventorying my games lately, so I finally got around to taking some pictures of my handheld collections. You can find them here

NES Galaxy 5000

2011-05-29T02:01:00.003-04:00

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It's another game you've probably never heard of! Galaxy 5000 is basically a spiritual predecessor to Rock n' Roll Racing and Biker Mice from Mars. That means you can expect a lot of vehicular carnage and unsafe driving. All the things I like in a racing game!

GB Trip World

2011-05-07T23:54:00.002-04:00

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Here's something totally unexpected, how many of you have even heard of this game? Trip World is a mostly forgotten platformer from Sunsoft that had a number of interesting ideas. Most of the game's enemies are indifferent towards the main character unless he attacks them, and you can also transform into a lot of different forms. Unfortunately, the game is pretty short, so many of these concepts aren't used heavily, but it's an interesting diversion while it lasts.

The Great Migration

2011-04-30T13:52:00.029-04:00

Not long after completing the migration of my movies on Veoh to Youtube, I receive an email that Google Video is planning to stop hosting the videos on their site, so it seems I'm going to have to move all of them as well.

Since I have so many videos hosted there, I'm not going to move them all at once, they'll be gradually moved as I continue to post new content. I may also re-record some of them, for various reasons.

Videos moved so far:

Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers (New)
Super Robin Hood
Darkwing Duck
Stunt Kids
Snake Rattle 'n Roll
DuckTales
Super Mario Bros
Paperboy
Jackal
MC Kids
Contra
Super C
Little Nemo: The Dream Master
Bonkers
The Jetsons: Cogswell's Caper
The Little Mermaid
Bishi Bashi Special 2 (New)
Cool Spot
Battle Dodgeball
Penny Racers (New)
Bubsy (Fixed)
Battletoads and Double Dragon
TailSpin
Mega Man 2
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (New)
Super James Pond
Adventure Island 3
Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off-Road

NES Felix the Cat

2011-04-23T15:25:00.003-04:00

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Here's a video which was an (unusually) long time coming - Felix the Cat. This was one of the first videos I intended to do way back when I started this site, but for some reason I never got around to it. It's another licensed platformer, from back in the days when they were good.

N64 Pokemon Puzzle League

2011-04-09T15:45:00.003-04:00

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We now return to Tero's Puzzle Gaming. Since Puzzle games seem to be my most popular videos, and Pokemon Puzzle League is probably my best puzzle game, this seemed like a logical choice. However, it took a lot more work than I expected to get this no continue run. The fact that you have to win 16 games in a row and you can lose a game in the span of 2 seconds probably has something to do with that.

NES KickMaster

2011-04-02T11:13:00.003-04:00

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Today's game is KickMaster, a little-known gem from Taito. This game has a lot of depth to it, with a pretty cool levelling system and great hit detection. Definitely recommended to all platformer fans. There's lots of room for showing off, too, so this one should be fun to watch.

NES Eliminator Boat Duel

2011-03-27T23:46:00.004-04:00

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And we're finally on to new stuff! Eliminator Boat Duel isn't a super popular game, but I think the gameplay is still fairly exciting and I've always had a soft spot for vehicular carnage. It's also got some of the NES's wackiest dialogue.

Although this is played on "easy", the difficulty selection only determines how far into the game you start (easy starts you at the very beginning, and is the only way to play the full game). The racers themselves are always the same strength.

Classic Tero's Classic Gaming

2011-01-01T18:48:00.013-05:00

Veoh continues to turn more and more into a porn site with every passing day, and apparently some people can't even see the videos there, so starting this week I'm going to be moving the videos I have on Veoh over to youtube. This post will continue to be updated with links to the transferred videos as I do it. Or you can just check my youtube channel, which is here.

Videos moved so far:

Pocket Fighter (New Content)
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
Jazz Jackrabbit (New Content)
Mario Kart 64
Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures
The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse
Choro Q2
Yoshi's Cookie
Snowboard Kids
Megaman Zero

This will also give me a bit of a break from updating to practice up at some new games, though I might add some new content to some of my older videos.

Every game has now been moved, so there will be a new run up next week.

N64 Diddy Kong Racing

2010-12-24T10:12:00.005-05:00

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And now, for a bonus Christmas update - Diddy Kong Racing! This was one of my favourites back in the day, and an annual Christmas tradition. This is an especially polished video, I race all 20 tracks in succession and win every last one. It's a Christmas miracle - or maybe I just practiced it a lot.

NES Ninja Gaiden

2010-12-18T15:27:00.003-05:00

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More Gaiden this week, but a significantly more famous one this time. In order to prove I haven't gone soft, here's one of the hardest NES games, Ninja Gaiden. This was a pretty stressful one to record, if you die on any of the last bosses, that's it for the run.

SNES Tetris Battle Gaiden

2010-12-11T20:36:00.002-05:00

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Since everyone loves puzzle games, here's another one that you probably haven't heard of. Tetris Battle Gaiden is a Tetris spinoff focused around competitive battles. With both players drawing from a common pool of pieces and using special powers to attack each other, you can expect a lot of hard-fought battles and general zaniness.

SNES Demon's Crest

2010-11-27T15:11:00.004-05:00

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Gargoyle's Quest is a heavily underappreciated series. It combines solid platforming and some interesting hover / flight mechanics with Adventure and RPG elements. Demon's Crest, the third (and currently last) game in the series, is definitely one of the most impressive platformers on the SNES.

This run took me a lot of tries to record because I insisted on completing the game without dying. Nevertheless, here it is.

GEN Knuckles Chaotix

2010-11-06T21:48:00.006-04:00

SMS Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon's Trap

2010-10-02T13:35:00.007-04:00

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I don't usually do two games in the same series so close together, but the connection between this game and Wonder Boy in Monster Land is too cool to ignore. Wonder Boy 3 begins right at the end of Wonder Boy 2, complete with a remake of the final stage and music. But the similiarities to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night don't end there, this is also a very early Metroidvania that was very advanced for its time.

I probably didn't need to break this up over three weeks, the first part of the game went much faster than I expected. It's a lot shorter when you don't die. At least it gave time for my next game to arrive.

SMS Wonder Boy in Monster Land

2010-09-11T12:50:00.005-04:00

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Even more Sega goodness, this time on the oft-forgotten Sega Master System. The SMS didn't get nearly as many games in total as the NES, but it was more powerful from a hardware standpoint and some of the games it had were pretty far ahead of their time. This game is a good example, it's a platformer / RPG from 1988, and it's also probably my favourite Master System game.

I don't actually own a Master System, this is recorded via the PS2 "Monster World Complete Collection", which also explains why it's in Japanese. There's also an Arcade version of this game which is much the same (also included in the collection). It's too bad the arcade game never left Japan, it would have been neat to play a game like this in an arcade.

Tero's Top Ten - GC

2010-09-04T18:46:00.002-04:00

I was sick this week and spent most of my time trying to catch up on sleep rather than playing games. Not that I haven't given up sleep to play games before, but I prefer to do that when I'm healthy. So it's time for another one of these top 10 posts. Gamecube videos will likely never be on this site, but I have played the system extensively and it gives you a look as to where my tastes in modern games lie.

Although the GC is, in my opinion, the weakest of all Nintendo consoles, you wouldn't really know it from the top 10. I suppose it's probably the case that all systems can field 10 very strong games, and the real test is what they can do beyond that.

1 - F-Zero GX
2 - Super Smash Bros Melee
3 - Tales of Symphonia
4 - Pikmin
5 - Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
6 - Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
7 - Need For Speed Underground 2
8 - Phantasy Star Online: Episode 1 and 2
9 - Super Monkey Ball 2
10 - Mario Power Tennis

This was actually somewhat harder to make than I thought it would be. The GC essentially served two major functions, which were to play a limited number of spectacular exclusives, and to serve as one of the best party systems ever created. It's sometimes hard to know how to rate predominantly single-player games against multiplayer ones, but I've done the best I can here.

F-Zero GX and Super Smash Bros Melee are, I think, the obvious top 2 picks, it's just a matter of ordering for them. While I undeniably spent longer playing Melee and it probably had greater impact at the time, I just can't overlook the insane labour of love that is F-Zero GX. They're both 10.0 games for sure either way.

The next three games make a clear second tier to my mind. Tales of Symphonia almost definitely comes first, its scope and replay value significantly exceed the other two. The choice between Pikmin and TTYD isn't obvious, I feel that Pikmin has the better atmosphere and is more innovative, whereas TTYD has better polish. In the end I went with Pikmin because I felt it was slightly more memorable.

Now we come to the parts of the list that were hard to make. Sonic Adventure 2's placement on this list is undeniably controversial since it's a very polarizing game, but I feel that it's a good example of a game where the whole is more than the sum of its parts, the game has good pacing and flows together well. It's also singlehandedly responsible for convincing me to buy every other 3D Sonic released since then, even though none of them have been as good.

This was a great generation for racing games. In addition to F-Zero GX, there was also NFS Underground 2 and Burnout 2 (which I debated for a long time, it would probably be the 11th pick on this list). Both of these games were very well polished and really showed how the newer technology could make racing games a lot more intense.

Phantasy Star Online is a remarkable game in that even when played offline it still manages to edge out most of the GC's RPGs. Definitely one of the best MMOs ever.

The last two games on this list are classics of multiplayer. Of the two, I think Mario Power Tennis's multiplayer is actually better, but Monkey Ball 2 has far better single player to make up for it. Actually, Power Tennis being on this list at all is a bit surprising, initially there's no way I would have put it above its compatriot, Mario Golf Toadstool Tour, but over time I've come to appreciate just how much staying power this game really has. It's multiplayer is easy for anyone to get into and endlessly entertaining, almost to the same extent as something like NBA Jam. Precious few games hold their appeal like this.

A couple other games that narrowly missed the list were Burnout 2, Baten Kaitos, Kirby Air Ride, Beyond Good and Evil, and Nintendo Puzzle Collection. And no, I didn't forget the Metroid Prime or Zelda titles, I've just never been a fan of either 3D Metroid or 3D Zelda. Well, pre-Other M 3D Metroid, anyway.

GEN Castlevania Bloodlines

2010-08-21T14:34:00.004-04:00

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I've been doing these videos for a rather long time without ever doing a Castlevania game, so it's time to rectify that situation. Castlevania Bloodlines is probably my favourite of the "classic" Castlevanias, while still old-school in design it doesn't control nearly as stiffly as the other games.

This had all the makings of a phenominal run, but my old "last boss" curse comes back to haunt me yet again, and I come within inches of blowing it all. I've actually cut out a solid 10 minutes of failure at the last boss, so you can't really tell, but you can see that I go from having lots of lives to having none. Still, there was no way I was starting this over again.

GEN Rocket Knight Adventures

2010-08-07T21:27:00.003-04:00

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Well, here's the game that was hinted at last week, Rocket Knight Adventures. Unfortunately, I still wasn't ever able to convince my capture card to work with it, I just had to settle for using an emulator. It doesn't help that my keyboard skills have gotten rusty.

Oh well, it's a good game anyway and well worth checking out.

The best laid plans of men and possums

2010-08-01T03:25:00.002-04:00

Well, I was going to record something this week with my shiny new Genesis (see the Photo post, below), but unfortunately my Genesis and my Capture Card have taken an immediate dislike to each other and refuse to cooperate.

I'll probably try to fiddle around with the capturing software some more to see if there's any way I can make it capture the signal properly but for the moment there is no run to speak of. Which is annoying because I was all practiced and everything.

However, I have taken some new pictures of my gaming stuff, including a new picture of my more decked-out entertainment center. You can see the new pictures in the post linked below:

Gaming Collection Photos

(You can also probably guess what the game was going to be)

N64 Sin and Punishment

2010-07-17T19:29:00.004-04:00

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Sin and Punishment is a shooter from Treasure, which means insane action and non-stop explosions. This is a playthrough of the game's normal mode, which is still pretty grueling.

N64 Super Mario 64

2010-06-05T14:02:00.007-04:00

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It's my 60th run, so it's time for a classic - Super Mario 64. I suppose 64th might have made more sense, but I also wanted this to be in time for the comparison with Super Mario Galaxy 2 to be relevant. I really prefer this game, because it gives you a lot more freedom in how you want to accomplish the tasks it gives you. Watching the way I go about things should make that obvious.

SNES NBA Jam TE

2010-05-22T13:40:00.003-04:00

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And now for what is easily my favourite sports game ever, NBA Jam TE. This game can pack more fun into 12 minutes than most games can fit in several hours, so it seemed like the perfect choice after a long week. My capture card was being a pain in the neck, too, so it was nice to do something I wouldn't have to attempt many times.

This is also kinda done in celebration of the upcoming NBA Jam for Wii. I hope it's as good as this game is.

Bust A Move 99 updated

2010-05-08T13:25:00.002-04:00

I've added a second part to my run of Bust A Move 99, showing the Win Contest Mode.

Click here to jump to the entry

NES Double Dragon 2

2010-04-24T11:55:00.003-04:00

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Here's an old favourite - Double Dragon 2! This is a great example of old-school gaming, it's just you, 4 lives, some nasty jumps, and a mountain of badguys in an all out war for beat-em-up supremacy.

Actually, I had kinda forgotten how tough this game was on the hands. This game is a gauntlet in more ways than one.

SNES Sparkster

2010-04-10T16:19:00.004-04:00

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So, I finally decided to check out a recommendation from an old friend, and I really should have done so sooner. Despite looking like your average 90s Mascot platformer, Sparkster (for SNES, the Genesis game is totally different) is an awesome high-speed platformer with great play control.

There's one part of the game I really don't like (and you'll see why), but this is otherwise a very solid game. I'll have to ask my friend if she has any more obscure platformer recommendations the next time I see her.

Photo thread updated again

2010-04-02T01:17:00.002-04:00

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It was a crazy week which left me little to no time to play classic games, but I figured I could update the photo thread with a few pictures of new stuff.

Still nothing from GB or GBA, mostly because of how the games are stored.

PSX Snowboard Kids Plus

2010-03-27T11:57:00.006-04:00

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Those who've been following this site carefully may have noticed that I've mentioned the PSX version of Snowboard Kids a few times. For a while, I was intending to do a run of this game for comparison with the N64 version (which is already up), and here it finally is.

You'll notice that this version is much easier than the N64 version, and that the frame rate isn't nearly as good. Still, I like the fact that there's a lot more content to the game, the N64 game is a lot of fun but it's pretty short.

SNES UN Squadron

2010-03-13T19:19:00.005-05:00

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A while back, I posted a run of the game "Biker Mice From Mars", a hidden gem I found through a thread discussing Capcom vs Konami on the SNES. This was the other game I bought from that discussion, a relatively unknown shmup made by Capcom.

I don't do shmups often, because I'm not as good at them as I am at some other genres, and there's a lot of people out there who dedicate their entire lives to shmup games and make the rest of us look like complete hacks. So enjoy this run while you can, who knows when another game of this type is coming.

NES Widget

2010-02-27T12:29:00.003-05:00

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After that extremely long last run, I wanted to do something real short, so I went for a game I had picked up and beaten recently, Widget. It's a vaguely metroid-like platformer that not a lot of people have heard of.

PSX Spryo 2: Ripto's Rage

2010-01-16T13:17:00.008-05:00

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After a long gap between them, here's another PSX game. And it's a fairly famous one, Spyro 2. I've always liked this game, even if it isn't quite as involved as some other 3D platformers on N64. Perhaps I'm biased because I always thought Elora was a cutie.

This run is finally complete. That was a long haul, eh?

How to Buy Retro Games

2010-01-09T14:42:00.003-05:00

Some stuff came up this week and I didn't have time to record any videos, so I thought I'd write kind of a sister article to the one about how to clean games, this is about how to get them in the first place. This seems kind of obvious, but this topic comes up surprisingly often.

Step 1 - Know Your Prices

The most important thing when it comes to buying retro games is to know how much they're worth. The easiest way to do this is to go to EBay and search for the game (include the name of the system in your search if the game has a generic name), and look for auctions that have a "Buy it Now" price listed. Assuming that you find a bunch, the game's value is going to be roughly equal to the low-end prices it's being offered for.

In the event that you're searching for a game that not many people are selling (perhaps you only found one or no copies), the price can be harder to determine. The next step is to look for "completed listings", which you can find in the Advanced Search link on Ebay (do note that you require an Ebay account to see these). Here you can see what kind of prices this game has actually sold for.

If this still turns up nothing, you'll just have to use your own judgement. Clearly, the game you are looking for does not show up often and you may not be able to shop around anyway.

There's also the issue of complete prices (complete refers to having the box and instructions). In general, cart-only games are worth about half as much as complete games (disc-only games are worth even less), but for very rare games the complete price skyrockets. You can use this simple rule of thumb to determine if a complete game is a good buy or not.

Step 2 - Decide Where To Shop

Retro games are sold at a lot of places. Now that you know the value of the games that you're looking for, you are adequately prepared to shop for them.

By far, the best deals on games to be had are found at garage sales, flea markets, craigslist, and pawn shops, because the sellers here frequently have no idea what the games are worth and often sell rare games way below their true value. Of course, the downside is that you are in no way guaranteed to find what you want, so you've got to do a bit more searching, but if you're looking for a ton of games this is a good way to start out. Do be aware though that not every bargain will be good, but generally if games are super cheap ($2 or less) it's usually worth it regardless of system because you'd pay that much in shipping costs anywhere online.

Your next best option is probably online auctions or online stores, such as Ebay and Amazon Marketplace. Here, you must be very savvy when it comes to prices, because most sellers are aware of the value of their games and will purposely overcharge the unwary (or in the case of auctions, people may bid them too high). Still, there are still bargains to be had, and you can't beat the conviencence of having almost every game you could want right at your fingertips.

As for Ebay, a good way to get bargains is to buy a lot of games from the same seller, as most offer discounts on shipping or other goodies like free dust covers on bulk orders (don't forget to make sure the prices are acceptable on each game that you buy). You can also look at buying lots (multiple games bundled together), these can be helpful if you want all of the offered games, but make sure the combined price is a good one.

Another rare, but great opportunity to load up on games is when a collector dumps all of their stock on on auction site. You see this once every few months or so, when checking a auction listing you may see someone mention they're selling off their whole collection for whatever reason. This is an amazing time to load up on common or moderately common games for well below their standard prices, because other bidders will be too busy fighting over the rares. Collectors also generally keep their games in great shape.

Oh, and don't forget to check the seller's feedback when buying from online stores. I've only had problems once or twice in all of the time I've been buying games online, but bad sellers are out there and you want to avoid them. If someone has a ton of positive reputation, it's simply not worth it for them to screw you over and so you're pretty safe.

Of course, your last option (and it should usually be last) is to shop in a traditional game store. First of all, the number of stores selling old games is quickly decreasing, and those that do generally charge ridiculous prices for whatever games they do have. I almost never hear about good bargains coming out of game stores.

Step 3 - Purchase the Game

Okay, this is easy when you're dealing with any kind of store, but when using an auction site there is some work to be done here. The trick to auction sites is always to bid late (within the last 30 seconds if your connection can manage it), and bid the entire amount you're willing to pay. This way, people have very little chance of beating you before the time runs out (particularly because most people will just try to raise the price by a dollar or so). If you have to bid earlier for some reason, you'll just have to hope no one else wants the game as much as you do. Thanks to bid increments, people may leave you alone on a common game if they would have to pay more than the next cheapest option to take it from you.

Hopefully with the aid of these tips you should be able to find some great bargains on classic games. Just don't forget to keep an eye on your wallet, online shopping can be dangeously addictive.

SNES Biker Mice From Mars

2010-01-02T15:57:00.003-05:00

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And here to celebrate the New Year, we have a game that's a real breath of fresh air. I recently discovered this game, and I was really amazed by how good it is. Everyone should watch this video and give it a try.

Much thanks to whomever it was at the GameFAQs SNES board who recommended this game, it's a real hidden gem if ever there was one.

DOS Holiday Hare

2009-12-19T17:35:00.004-05:00

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Just in time for Christmas, it's a Christmas-themed game. This is a holiday level pack for Jazz Jackrabbit which was originally released as a standalone.

So grab a cup of eggnog or hot chocolate, and watch Jazz blast zombies and other beasties to the tune of popular Christmas carols. Just like the Christmases of old.

Merry Christmas from Tero's Classic Gaming

Nothing new this week

2009-12-12T22:55:00.001-05:00

Well, I tried to record something this week, but with no success, and I've also been really busy with holiday preparations.

Hopefully there should be a new video up next week.

SNES Plok

2009-11-28T13:06:00.004-05:00

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It's my 50th game run! To commemorate this occasion I'm going to attempt one of the most difficult platformers out there, Plok. This game has haunted me since my childhood with its malicious level design and punishing gameplay mechanics.

This is a very good run. There are some mishaps, but considering that this game has no checkpoints and some stages take close to 10 minutes it could be a lot worse. Plus, there's a lot of really tense moments where I somehow come out on top, those are always entertaining.

Well, another painful chapter from my past finally closed. It's satisfying, in an "I'm never going to play this game again" kind of way.

GB Megaman V

2009-11-21T13:17:00.004-05:00

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More Megaman. This particular game introduces the Mega Arm and P-Chips. It also features the easiest incarnation of the Yellow Devil in existence.

It's also a pretty expensive game, which is made doubly plainful by the fact that I have now owned this game on 3 separate occasions. Game seems to have a mind of its own.

Tero's Top 10 - GBA

2009-11-14T12:23:00.003-05:00

Well, I need an extra week to practice something that I'm working on, and I haven't done one of these in a while, so I thought I'd try to write up one of these top 10s for GBA.

There's obviously some debate as to whether GBA would count as a classic system, since it's currently only one generation old. It certainly plays like one, but even you don't think it would count, you can see what types of games retro gamers like in a more modern system.

1 - Megaman Battle Network 2
2 - Summon Night: Swordcraft Story
3 - Sonic Advance 3
4 - Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
5 - Game and Watch Gallery 4
6 - Advance Wars 2
7 - Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
8 - Rhythm Tengoku
9 - Megaman Zero 3
10 - Yu-Gi-Oh: The Eternal Duelist's Soul

This is a pretty diverse list. It actually might not have been, because the GBA is very much a franchise system - most games that appear on this list have at least 3 installments - but I generally tend to list the best one in the series and not the others unless they're very different. To some extent, the placing of the various games here represents their franchises as well as the individual games.

Megaman Battle Network is a bit of a divisive franchise because there's no question it starts to get milked later on, but by MMBN2 the series was still really hot. MMBN2 expands the original in basically every way you could ever want and is an amazingly polished game. It basically gets the nod over 3 because it came out a year earlier.

Summon Night Swordcraft Story is a Tales clone of sorts that's built around weapon crafting, and basically everyone who's played it agrees that it's one of the best GBA games. This is a rare RPG that I've actually completed 100%, complete with grinding everything to the maximum level. And I've actually beaten the game a couple more times beyond that. It's just a really awesome title.

Sonic Advance 3, is, in my opinion, the second-best 2D Sonic (after Sonic 2), which should explain its position here. The game is very fast, has great music, and the addition of the "partner powers" is pretty cool and makes Time Trials much more interesting than they have been in other games. This is a really solid package and those who've dismissed Sonic for a while should give it a try (it's also much better than the DS Sonics).

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is another game that's kind of divisive. At the center of this debate is the story, which is a vaguely philosophical examination of escapism vs reality. However, many people seem to miss the deeper undertones and consider it childish. One thing everyone should be able to agree upon though is that the gameplay is great and there's an absolute ton of content in this package. I'm sure I spent well over 100 hours getting everything in this game.

Game and Watch Gallery 4 suffers from some degree of recycled content, but at least they pick the best games from the previous collections to offer again (and the new games they give are pretty good, too). If you're ever going on a long car trip or something, this is your game. It also tends to be the resident of the GBA slot in my DS.

There's not much to say about Advance Wars 2 or Megaman Zero 3. These are super popular franchises and with good reason. I picked Zero 3 because it shows the most polish and the story actually manages to be pretty interesting.

Everyone knew a Castlevania game would be on here, but I'm sure the choice of Circle of the Moon over Aria of Sorrow is one that would draw criticism. Essentially, CotM is on here for its time of release, it came out really early at a time when there wasn't too much else to play on GBA, and it pretty much ruled the roost for a while. Plus, the ability to play the game over many different times with drastically different skillsets was pretty cool, it forced you to learn the ins and outs of all of the game's mechanics.

Rhythm Tengoku is an import music game, which most people probably have not played or even heard of, though they may have heard of its DS sequel, Rhythm Heaven. This is a very quirky music game (think Warioware, but with music), and it's a load of fun and very addictive. I'd also give it a slight nod over the DS game because the buttons work better than the touch screen for a game as picky as this one.

And last, but not least (well maybe least), we have Yu-Gi-Oh EDS. I'm sure lots of people groaned at this, particularly those who most associate the franchise with its show, but this is a really awesome card battle game. Yu-Gi-Oh has a really accessible ruleset that keeps battles exciting, and the progression structure in this game is really well laid out. Though I've never bought any physical Yu-Gi-Oh cards, I was hooked on the game franchise for a long time. EDS gets listed here over the half dozen other GBA games because it was the first and I liked it's ruleset the best.

A couple titles here are conspicuous in their absense. The most obvious is Pokemon Third-Gen (RuSaE and FrLg), which I'm sure tops many people's lists, but I was never really that into it. To me, the Pokemon formula felt like it was beginning to get stale at this point, few major additions were really made to third-gen beyond adding a lot more pokemon. I did, however, enjoy the third-gen pokemon games for GC, the use of double battles kept them interesting (if not balanced, double battle is kind of broken). Thankfully, fourth-gen (DPP, HgSs) shakes up the pokemon world to a massive extent and that was enough to get me to put over 400 hours into it.

There's also Golden Sun. Let's not get into this one, suffice it to say I could rant for several paragraphs about why I feel this is one of the most overrated games of all time.

As usual, some games just can't make the list, there are only 10 spots. The next five games would probably be, in some order: Fire Emblem, Mario Golf Advance Tour, Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure, Mario and Luigi: Super Star Saga, and Riviera: The Promised Land.

SNES Wario's Woods

2009-11-07T18:38:00.004-05:00

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Here we have Toad's 15 minutes of fame, Wario's Woods. It's an action-puzzle game that bears some resemblance to Dr Mario, but it plays a lot faster since you can move your pieces around more directly.

Actually, it's more like 90 minutes of fame. This game is extremely long for a puzzle game.

SNES Donkey Kong Country

2009-10-17T13:41:00.006-04:00

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Next up is Donkey Kong Country, a game I'm not particularly crazy about. Prior to this posting, I have never achieved 101% in this game, despite many hours of trying. As a symbolic fresh start, I have deleted my previous save files; it's time to do it right.

The fact that I have never properly cleared this game is the main reason I chose this over its sequels, both of which I feel are superior to the original. Also, I suppose it is more iconic.

This playthrough is now complete.

SNES Tiny Toon Adventures Buster Busts Loose

2009-10-10T17:29:00.004-04:00

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As promised, this game isn't an action-platformer, it's back to regular platformers (the list of games that make for good viewing doesn't encompass a huge range of genres). This game is a lot like the Capcom Disney games, except made by Konami, so you can expect a fairly easy game with a lot of opportunities for hotdogging (a few of which result in my demise).

GB Batman

2009-10-03T12:47:00.003-04:00

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Well, here's yet another action-platformer (I'll have to make sure the next game I do is from some other genre). After all the recent press around Batman from Arkham Asylum, I figured I'd get in on the Bat-action with Batman for Game Boy.

This is played via Super Game Boy, I've even set the border to the theatre one so you can feel like you're watching the original Tim Burton movie. Except without the plot and with a lot more guns.

NES Journey to Silius

2009-09-26T12:01:00.002-04:00

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Okay, this is pretty similar to the last game I posted. Maybe I was just in an action-platformer kind of mood.

This is a pretty impressive playthrough, I don't die at all in this run.

Tero's Top 10 - GB(C)

2009-09-12T07:21:00.001-04:00

Gameboy is a system I've yet to cover here as of this writing, but it may be appearing soon. With that in mind, here's a list of my favourite Gameboy and Gameboy Colour games (most sources, including Nintendo, treat these two as though they were the same system).

1 - Pokemon RBY
2 - Dragon Warrior 3
3 - Legend of the River King
4 - Pokemon GSC
5 - Link's Awakening (DX)
6 - Kirby's Dreamland 2
7 - Game and Watch Gallery 3
8 - Mega Man V
9 - Super Mario Land 2
10 - Shantae

Okay, this is maybe not the most interesting list ever. There's really only two games you might be surprised to find on here, Dragon Warrior 3 and Legend of the River King.

DW3 is an extremely good game, the only strange thing about listing it here is that it should maybe count as an NES game. Still, there's a lot added to this remake, particularly the monster medals, that give it a lot more life than the NES version had, and I consider the GBC version the definitive one.

Legend of the River King is a game that a lot of people probably don't know, it's a fishing RPG from Natsume. It's a pretty unique game, and the Gameboy versions are very well done, it still holds up well after all this time.

The rest of the games are obvious, though I spent a while considering the last game. Also under consideration was Mario Golf, Donkey Kong (94), the Wario Land games, and Xtreme Sports, but in the end I went with Shantae, mostly because it's a very neat game and it's not too well known.

Anyway, generally I feel that Gameboy games don't hold up quite as well as some of the other systems. These games do, but it doesn't feel like there's quite as many choices here as you would expect when you consider how many games are available for Game Boy. It probably had something to do with production values, handheld games tended to be seen as being of lesser importance, so you didn't see quite the same amount of polish into most of them. This made the ones that did get that extra level of attention stand out that much more.

NES GI Joe

2009-09-05T14:51:00.004-04:00

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It's been quite a long time since I did a run of an NES game, and I was playing this recently, so it seemed like a good choice. This game is an action platformer, kind of like Contra or Megaman, except starring the heroes of everyone's favourite series of Public Service Announcements.

I was worried the video quality on this one might not be that great, but it's amazingly clear, so enjoy.

N64 Bust a Move 99

2009-08-29T12:15:00.004-04:00

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I wanted to do a Bust a Move game, and I picked this one up recently, so it seemed like a logical choice. The Vs Com mode is also shorter than Bust a Move 2, which helps make a no-continue run possible.

This is by far the most popular video I've uploaded in a while, so I decided to do my first ever follow-up video, the second set of videos shows the Win Contest Mode, and I unlock the ever-elusive final character.

SNES Super Mario World

2009-07-25T14:26:00.009-04:00

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We're back! And speaking of back, I'm getting back to my roots by posting videos of very easy games where I show off a lot.

Super Mario World is, in my opinion, at least in high contention for the title of Best 2D Platformer of All Time. Save for simultaneous multiplayer, it's pretty well got it all. Lots of levels, lots of secrets, lots of powerups, and Yoshi! What a winning formula.

And this run is finally complete. Next week will be a new game.

Photo Thread Update

2009-07-13T18:12:00.003-04:00

As promised (elsewhere), I have updated my photo thread (which you can find on channel 4) based on the new shelf I got that weekend. If you just want to see the new pictures they are here:

1
2
3

Please continue to leave your thoughts on Youtube in the poll (Channel 6), so I can figure out where I should dump my next video.

Veoh Gets on my Nerves

2009-07-04T16:49:00.002-04:00

A new video is up, see the post below this one if you haven't yet.

Anyway, I've gone through all of the videos I had posted on Veoh and changed the category to "Entertainment" because the "Tech and Gaming" category was starting to become filled with adult videos (they show up in the sidebar). Things should now be worksafe again.

Still, a further annoyance is that Veoh has apparently started showing 5-10 second ads prior to every video, they're not very long, but it's still annoying.

Ultimately, I'm kind of considering switching sites (also partially because no one ever uses Veoh, I get a fraction of the views I used to get here), probably to Youtube this time. I've put up another poll (you can reach the polls by setting the channel thing on the right to 6), asking for your thoughts on this issue, please check it out.

You can also comment on this entry.

GBA Megaman Zero

2009-07-04T16:23:00.006-04:00

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It's Megaman Zero! Whether or not GBA counts as a "classic" system is a matter of some debate, I suppose, but this game is 7 years old, and it certainly plays like a retro game.

This is another video that you may have known was coming if you read the articles I put up. I went to all the trouble of replacing the battery for this game, so I thought I might as well do a video of it.

Anyway, this is played on the Ultimate mode, which, despite the name and how hard it is to unlock, is actually by far the easiest. It's funny how if you play this game with no Cyber Elves, it's easily the hardest Megaman game, but if you play with them all, it's probably even easier than Megaman X.

Tero's Top 10 - PSX

2009-06-27T22:28:00.004-04:00

Okay, it hasn't been long since the last one of these, but I've had a very busy weekend so it'll have to do.

The PSX, I would say, is a very solid choice for "best system of all time". In a lot of ways, it represents a continuation of what the SNES was (and what the N64 wasn't), but it also brings about a shift in the focus of gaming - rather than seeing it as a hobby for children and "geeks", the Playstation began to agressively target a mainstream teenage demographic, expanding the market beyond what it had ever been before. It sold ridiculously well, and with this, a gargantuan software library was produced, spanning over 4000 titles. That's more than 10 times more games than were produced for N64!

1 - Tales of Phantasia
2 - Choro Q2
3 - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
4 - Chrono Cross
5 - Monster Rancher 2
6 - Final Fantasy Tactics
7 - Final Fantasy 7
8 - Suikoden 2
9 - Parappa the Rapper
10 - Snowboard Kids Plus

Obviously, with a system library like this, making this list isn't easy, it's basically a long process of "think of a game, see if I'd take it over any of the current games, shift down". I'm apparently reasonably consistent, though, because I later found another list I had posted for PSX and it contains roughly the same games (though in a different order).

One thing you'll immediately notice about this list is that it contains a fair number of imports, in particular, the top two slots, which are about the only ones I'm consistent on. Tales of Phantasia is very similar to Tales of Destiny (which is an awesome co-op RPG, compare to how I also rank Secret of Mana very high for SNES), except better in basically every respect. Choro Q2 is my favourite game in the Choro Q series, it's similar to Gran Turismo except it has more content and is more arcadey.

Positions 3-8 contain a lot of PS1 all-stars, and it's really just a matter of their placement in the list. Symphony being third isn't a big surprise, though I used to rate this a bit lower since it'd been a long time since I'd played it and I'd forgotten to some extent just how awesome it was.

Of all the games on this list, the one that moves by far the most is Chrono Cross. Most of the games here are extremely solid in all respects, but CC is more of an unbalanced game. In particular, the gameplay and story of CC are not spectacular, but it has fantastic presentation, in particular, I'd say it has the best soundtrack ever composed - it's powerful, it's artsy, it conveys the thematic differences between the two worlds brilliantly, and the game is easily worth playing for it alone. I would totally pick the theme from Home Arni Village for the first dance at my wedding (to the confusion of all present), it's that good. Where I place Chrono Cross on the list depends on my perception of the relative importance of Presentation vs Gameplay at any given time. I would, however, generally pick Chrono Trigger as the superior game.

Monster Rancher 2 is really the only other surprising pick in this group, and if you've played it, I don't think it's too much of a stretch. Of all the pokemon clones, this is definitely my favourite one, it's basically Pokemon + action RPG + simulation.

Parappa is a late addition to this list. It's kind of an odd choice, because it's such a short game, but to me at least, it's probably the funniest game of all time. When I think of all the enjoyment I've gotten out of freestyling on this game, I just can't leave it off the list.

I guess one other thing of note is that while my N64 list omits the "biggest name", my PSX list doesn't. I've always liked FF7 far more than Ocarina of Time, FF7 is one of my favourite FFs. The thing I like most about FF7 is the atmosphere, it combines artistic design and music in a way that I think makes it more immersive than any game to come beforehand, and it still holds up pretty well all this time later. It's kind of like Chrono Cross that way, except it trades some music quality for much better gameplay (as such, I waiver on which one I rate higher).

The final slot is definitely the biggest battle here, just like on the N64 list (and probably every list) there's a whole next stratum of games which battle for this slot. Snowboard Kids Plus is an upgrade to Snowboard Kids for the PS1 (you'll notice I said in the N64 list that SBK's absense has something to do with the PSX), which adds some very needed length to the game. I can't really give any justification for why this comes above the games listed below, they're all very even.

Once again, I can easily list 5 more games that I was considering for this list, Bishi Bashi Special 2, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Star Ocean: The Second Story, Marvel vs Capcom, Megaman X4.

N64 Snowboard Kids

2009-06-20T19:22:00.007-04:00

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Not long after Mario Kart 64, of course, comes another wacky N64 racing game, Snowboard Kids!

This game was constantly compared to Mario Kart 64 (well, it basically is Mario Kart on Snowboards), and usually unfavourably, but it does have something of a cult following and it and its sequel are frequently recommended by N64 enthusiasts. It also has great music.

This game is even more luck-based than Mario Kart ever could be, though, so making a video of it is a pretty imposing task. I actually got this run in one attempt, and it's remarkably close to perfect, except for the fifth part, which is pretty sad, but there's enough awesome moments in the first two to make it worth it.

SNES Yoshi's Cookie

2009-06-13T15:19:00.006-04:00

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I admit, there are times when I'm tired or I haven't been playing much lately and I try to pick something easy to accomplish. However, this usually backfires spectacularly and an hour later I realize I've set myself some Herculean task that's going to take at least a full evening.

This is one of those times. I had apparently forgotten just how hard (and unbalanced) this game is after playing the Gamecube version a lot. I must have lost at least 10 times (and each attempt takes close to half an hour) before the planets aligned and I was able to win.

On the plus side, the extremely difficulty level of this game and how close it often is should at least keep this video interesting. I did smoke the computer pretty bad this time, though.

My capture card continues to be annoying on SNES games, but thankfully it stops wavering after the first match.

Power Struggle

2009-06-10T18:35:00.002-04:00

For years, I've always known this day would come. I just never knew when. Or what it would be.

But then, lo and behold, I was greeted by this:

Can you tell what option should be in this picture?

A copy of Megaman Zero which I had recently picked up wasn't saving properly. At first, I assumed the cart must be damaged, or the Gameboy Player on the GC wasn't working right. This theory was supported when it did save okay a few times in my DS, but it lost the save later.

I was about to return the cart (I'd have to ship it back, at my own expense), when something occured to me. Is it possible this cart uses a battery?

It's always the one you least suspect

I would never have guessed, because battery-backed RAM was already almost totally phased out by 2000, and this game came out in 2002, but it turns out that a number of early GBA games actually do use batteries. And this one was totally drained, outputting a mere 0.3V instead of the 3V it's supposed to provide. And so, it was time for my first ever foray into battery changing.

First, I had to buy the battery. GBA games use CR1616s, which are a common type of watch battery, so buying one was no trouble (it cost me $6). The next step was to desolder the old battery, which is also not very difficult (though you want to go a bit easy on it, you don't want to fry the board).

Here's what the board looks like with no battery on it

(There are no more pictures because I was too busy soldering things)

The next step is to remove the leads from the battery. This requires some chiselling, but isn't too difficult. Then, the leads need to be hammered back into their original shape (thankfully, they're pretty malleable).

The next part is the really hard part, which is getting the leads on the new battery. Soldering to a battery is not easy in the first place (you put a little solder on the lead, a little on the battery, push the lead on top of the battery, then heat the lead), but in the case of a GBA game it's FAR harder than normal because the battery fits in the case only by the absolute slimmest of margins (see the photo of the open case above, there's a tiny slit cut in the top cover, that's for the lead, to give you an idea of how tight it is). If the leads aren't super tight to the battery, it's not going to fit.

There's a trick to this, which is to put a little piece of electrical tape over the rim of the battery where the top lead would touch the sides (you can't allow it to touch the sides, or you'll form a circuit between the top and bottom of the battery and it will short). With the tape there, there's no risk of the leads touching, and thus you can push the lead right to the edge rather than having to bend it up. I didn't realize this the first time and had to de-solder it, but you can learn from my experience.

Anyway, eventually the leads were on the new battery and it was ready to solder back to the board, this is comparatively easy. The case still didn't shut perfectly (it's still a touch too tall), but it does close and the game fits in the system, I consider that close enough.

If you were doing a game for a different system, you'd have more space, and you might be able to simply use electrical tape to put the leads on - GBA is not an easy one to start with. Also, apparently you can buy batteries that come with the leads on them, and this would cut out 75% of the work, just unsolder the old battery and solder in the new, easy as pie. I need to find out where you can get those from.

Anyway, so begins the moment of truth. The game starts up, and I'm able to complete the first level, that's a good sign.

But the real test is what happens after I turn it off

Success! My save is still there! And hopefully next time it will be easier!

And on the plus side, I played the first stage so much that I'm a total master of it now.

Does the S stand for Soldering?

Tero's Top 10 - N64

2009-06-06T20:06:00.007-04:00

Well, it's been an exhausting week and I have nothing ready, so it's time for another filler post. I really went all out on this one, though, and I've actually gone back and made the previous top 10 posts longer (click on Channel 4 to find them).

The N64 is an interesting system. On one hand, it's often cited as the system where Nintendo went bad, this generation saw the birth of Playstation and a ton of Nintendo franchises left and never came back, on the other it has a number of absolute masterpieces on it. It also has an extremely small library, containing only 400 games total (most other systems have >1000), and yet naming 50 high-quality games would not be difficult.

1 - Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
2 - Banjo-Kazooie
3 - Super Mario 64
4 - Pokemon Puzzle League
5 - Road Rash 64
6 - Super Smash Bros
7 - Mario Kart 64
8 - NBA Hangtime
9 - Mischief Makers
10 - Blast Corps

With the exception of the top 3 picks, this was agonizing. Obviously, the first thing that must be mentioned is that there's an obvious omission here - This list does not contain either of the Zelda games. I've never liked 3D Zelda, most particularly not on N64, I've always found Ocarina of Time boring, despite repeated attempts to like it. I think the fact that Link is so slow and effectively has his feet glued to the ground kills it for me, here you have this huge, expansive 3D world, and you're stuck exploring the very bottom of it at a snail's pace. There's also far too much dungeon crawling. I've always felt 3D Zelda would be much better if it was basically the same as Mystical Ninja.

Speaking of which, the top pick is, perhaps, the most obvious top pick ever. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon is probably the best game of all time by a fairly significant margin. Even if we ignore the fact that it came out in 1998, I still think it compares favourably to just about every other platform and adventure game ever. Even something like Okami still couldn't quite compare on even terms, and it came out almost a decade later. It's a timeless masterpiece in every sense of the word.

Mario 64 and BK are, I think, relatively obvious for slots 2 and 3. The ordering of them is definitely debatable, I think Banjo-Kazooie is a better game overall, but Mario 64 was first and it's definitely more iconic. In the end, you have to choose one or the other.

The other 7 games, as much as I agonized over the placement, are sorted near-randomly. Every time I alter the order, I feel it puts one of the games too low. You'll just have to accept that the difference in quality between slot 4 and slot 10 is extremely small.

Interestingly, some of my favourite obscure games for the N64 have actually been squeezed out of this ordering. Every time I hastily made a list of best N64 games, Flying Dragon, Penny Racers, and Snowboard Kids would tend to place in it. However, as much as I love them, the more I poured over the list of N64 games, the more obvious it became that there are some games that are a little better. Some of this also has to do with the PSX, you'll see how when I make that list.

Ironically, this actually took almost as long to write as it would take me to beat an easy game. Since I worked on it for so long, I might as well state that those 3 games in the previous paragraph, plus Diddy Kong Racing and Mario Golf would be my top 15.

PSX Choro Q2

2009-05-16T19:37:00.008-04:00

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And it's another Choro Q video, this time for Choro Q2, which I feel is the best one. This game is much closer to simulation-style racing than Choro Q 64 (Penny Racers), so it might not be as exciting to watch, but I find this game grows on people. In half an hour I've seen people go from "What is this stupid game?" to "Come on! You can pass him!"

I was originally going to do Choro Q1, but I realized that people probably aren't going to sit through a half-dozen of these, so I might as well bring out the big guns.

This run is now complete, enjoy.

SNES The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse

2009-05-09T14:00:00.007-04:00

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You may have had a tipoff that this would be the next game if you read my previous article.

It's been a long time since I posted a video for a Capcom Disney game, so I felt I was due. Magical Quest is kind of a fusion between Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers and Bonkers, with maybe a touch of Bionic Commando thrown in.

At any rate, this is a very good run, I barely die at all here. There's also some pretty slick moves that I pull off on some of the bosses (boss 4 in particular). And my capture card behaves pretty well this time, it only has problems during the intro cutscene.

Case Wars

2009-05-01T21:06:00.003-04:00

As some of you may be aware, there exists a chemical defect in many of the first Super Nintendos to be released in America. Apparently, a flame-retardant chemical used in the plasting casing eventually breaks down, causing the system to change from its usual grey to an undesireable sort of yellow colour. You can see the difference in the picture below

Coloured SNES on left, normal SNES on right

The SNES on the left is the one I've had for ages, so as you can see it suffers from the yellowing syndrome (there are some that are worse, though). The one on the right is a garage sale SNES that cost me $3.

It would have been easy to simply exchange my old SNES for the one here, except I'm kind of attached to it and the other SNES doesn't actually even work. So, I'm going to do the next logical thing and swap the outside casing on the two systems.

Getting the SNES open is something of a pain, much like the N64 it uses an unconventional type of screw. Thankfully, one of the many zillions of screwdriver bits I have lying around will grip them and getting the system apart is not difficult.

A SNES, taken apart

As you can see, all of the innards are all screwed to the bottom casing. Rather than risk unscrewing these and having everything get out of place, I decide to only switch the tops. The top is the piece that suffers from the heaviest discolouration, anyway.

Here it is, screwed back together

The two halves are still very slightly different colours but you have to look real close to see it. At least the two-tone colour scheme looks better with the browner plastic on the bottom.

Of course, the most important question is, does it work?

And there you have it. $3 well spent. And as an added bonus, it came with a copy of Super Star Wars.

Addendum: Oops, it later occured to me that in the process, I re-region locked my SNES (the region lockout is part of the top half of the SNES). A short tab cutting later and it's back to playing Japanese games.

SNES Pac-Man 2 The New Adventures

2009-04-25T14:20:00.007-04:00

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Well, here's a game that's very different from the ones I've uploaded so far. Pac-Man 2 is almost a point-and-click game, but it has some key differences from the genre and it's a bit more action-oriented. It's pretty much a one-of-a-kind game, and I've always enjoyed it (it still holds up pretty well, too).

Once again, my capture card has a bit of trouble locking on to the SNES signal (it gets it after about 90 seconds). I might consider going back to an emulator for SNES games that aren't very action-oriented because it gets a slightly crisper picture.

N64 Mario Kart 64

2009-04-18T12:42:00.006-04:00

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Finally, a Mario Kart video! I picked Mario Kart 64 because it was easy, but the goal I chose for myself was to beat all 4 cups consecutively, and it took far more tries than I would have thought. I was also very rusty because Mario Kart 64 has a number of key differences from the later titles.

I eventually decided to give up and just do all four cups separately, but of course, upon deciding to do that I actually got them all in a row (but on different vids), so I decided to see if I could do it again. I got it this run on my next try, and while there are tense moments, I generally dominate the game. Except for the boost start, for some reason I just can't pull it off. And I've lost my shortcut skills.

In the end, I finally got my Mario Kart 64 groove back, but now I bet I couldn't play Mario Kart Wii to save my life.

Nothing New This Week

2009-04-12T12:56:00.002-04:00

Well, I tried several things, but I just have no luck this weekend. Everyone has their off times, I guess.

I'll try to find something that works for next weekend, until then, Happy Easter to Internet land.

DOS Jazz Jackrabbit

2009-04-04T02:05:00.006-04:00

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Well, this is a surprise, it's a video from a DOS game! (unsurprisingly, it's a mascot platformer)

Jazz Jackrabbit is one of 2 especially notable platformers on PC from this era (PC gamers should be able to identify the other one). It's a pretty cool game and I especially like its soundtrack.

When I moved this to youtube, I decided to record the second episode as well. The second episode is a real nightmare, so it took a ton of tries to get this to go right.

Tero's Top 10 - SNES

2009-03-28T18:34:00.008-04:00

Well, I'm taking a one-week break from videos, so now here's another filler post for you all.

The SNES is probably my favourite of all systems. It basically takes what the NES did well and expands on it in every way. There's just such an amazing line up of classics for this thing.

1 - Megaman X
2 - Secret of Mana
3 - Super Mario World
4 - Chrono Trigger
5 - Kirby Super Star
6 - NBA Jam TE
7 - Biker Mice from Mars
8 - Super Mario RPG
9 - Seiken Densetsu 3
10 - Robotrek

Actually, I've always considered the SNES a "boring" system to make a list of best games for, you can see there's absolutely nothing surprising in the top 5 except for "what order they go in".

Speaking of ordering, I have retroactively changed this entry so that Megaman X is in slot 1. I've always been debating MMX vs SoM for slot 1 on SNES, but as time has gone on, I've shifted towards MMX more and more. For one thing, I've always had trouble calling SoM a 10.0 game (I think I'd give it about 9.9 or 9.8, as good as it is, there are some definite detractions), but I don't feel that way about Megaman X. Megaman X is an easy 10.0.

The bottom 5 is where the list gets somewhat personalized. SD3 being on here shouldn't surprise anyone, seeing as how Secret of Mana is such a favourite of mine. NBA Jam TE is here because it's a fantastic multiplayer game, and perhaps moreso than any other game it can cheer me up in minutes no matter what the issue is. The other two games you probably haven't ever heard of, but they're great - Biker Mice from Mars is what you'd get if you took Rock and Roll Racing and made every part of it better.

I spent ages on Robotrek vs EVO for slot 10, they're both quirky favourites, one is an odd RPG based on making robots, the other is a platformer based on Evolution. In the end I went with the one I've played through more times.

It's probably considered scandalous that Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Final Fantasy 6, and Donkey Kong Country aren't here. You'd probably see all of them if the list was expanded to the top 20, they just don't quite make my top 10. As mentioned above, I consider SNES to have the strongest library ever, so all of its top 25 would probably be top 10 material on some other systems.

Interestingly, almost all of these are games I played when I was younger (including SD3, I had a Japanese friend who had the cart). I don't think this is so much indicative of bias so much as I just happened to have very good taste even back then. After all, by the time I was 12 I had probably played as many games as many people will play in their entire lives. The only exception to this is Biker Mice from Mars, which was recommended to me only recently, but I knew it would have to go on the list the moment I played it (it ended up bumping fellow SNES racer F1 ROC 2 off the list).

It's a good thing I bought Chrono Trigger back when it was cheap, too.

50 Posts and 1000 Hits

2009-03-08T20:43:00.004-04:00

My site has finally reached 1000 hits! And they aren't all me! The counter doesn't count me!

Thanks to everyone who has visited this site, and special thanks to all of those who came back after the first time. I hope you're enjoying it.

Anyway, my run of Mystical Ninja continues to be updated (I think it should be done 2 weeks from now) and I've put up a new poll regarding Veoh. Please let me know what you think, though I think I'm going to stick with it.

N64 Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon

2009-02-28T19:44:00.009-05:00

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It's Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon! This is one of my favourite games of all time, in my opinion it's both the best N64 game and the best 3D platformer ever. It's also hilariously Japanese and has a lot of funny dialogue. It's really just an amazing tale with almost infinite replayability.

It's also much longer than any game I've done before, so I have to split this one into parts. This video is comprised of 20 individual parts, but the playlist will allow you to watch them all back-to-back.

So sit back and enjoy, this is one heck of a game.

Something Big is Coming

2009-02-21T00:37:00.002-05:00

Okay, I spent most of tonight recording a new video, but I'm not posting it yet for a mysterious reason (and no, it's not ENTIRELY just to build suspense).

To tide you over until next week, here's a filler post. I'll probably get around to writing up all the systems I've spent a fair amount of time with eventually.

Tero's Top 10 - NES

2009-02-21T00:11:00.007-05:00

The question "what are your favourite games" is one that comes up a lot in games communities (I've even joked it's the gamer's equivalent of "What's your sign"). My answers change constantly, both because I'm always playing new games and because I can't remember what I answered last time.

Still, it seems like a good thing to go in a blog about Classic Gaming because blogs are supposed to be vaguely personal and it's something I've made reference to a lot of times. It also buys me several posts worth of filler. Don't be surprised if these posts randomly change in the future.

And of course, you'll probably disagree. That's not surprising. Note that it says "favourite games", not necessarily "what do you think are the best games".

I'll start with the NES, because it's the system I've covered the most here.

1 - Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
2 - Snake Rattle n' Roll
3 - Bubble Bobble
4 - River City Ransom
5 - Double Dragon 2
6 - Super Mario Bros
7 - Kirby's Adventure
8 - Stunt Kids
9 - Mega Man 3
10 - MC Kids

Apart from the top 2 slots, this is very difficult to choose, but I forced myself to only pick 10. One pattern is that the top 5 games all have simultaneous co-op - the NES is one of the greatest co-op systems available, and you can see that dominance reflected here.

Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers has always been my favourite NES game, and it's definitely the single game I've beaten the most times total. It's a very easy game, but it's extremely well made and is still fun even when you're extremely good at it. I always recommend it to anyone who is just starting at gaming, because I believe it's the best game ever at what it does.

Snake Rattle 'n Roll is pretty much on the opposite end of the spectrum. Where CnD is just extremely solid but conventional, SRnR (what is it with NES and 'n?) is extremely unique. It's an isometric platformer with gameplay that can really only be called bizarre. Still, it's very fun, and most people I know who know what it is rate it pretty high. It's also pretty hard, actually, I only beat it for the first time a few weeks before I made the video of it and I've had it since childhood.

Of course, I'm sure I'll take some flak for including MC Kids and not Super Mario Bros 3. I've always slightly preferred MC Kids to SMB3, mostly because of its emphasis on exploration. I prefer SMW to SMB3 (and to MC Kids, for that matter) for mostly the same reason.

Most of the rest of the choices should be familiar to NES fans. Astute viewers may notice that I eventually subbed out DuckTales for Kirby's Adventure, it just didn't feel right leaving Kirby off the list after I went back and played it again.

PSX Pocket Fighter

2009-02-14T23:13:00.006-05:00

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Pocket Fighter is a fun little fighting game. It's incredibly simple, but it's still kind of entertaining. Hopefully you'll be entertained.

Also, Happy Valentine's Day, Internet land. You can follow Felicia's search for fame and romance in this video (here's a hint, she doesn't have any success either).

I initially picked this as a test video for Veoh. However, I've sinced moved it over to Youtube. Since this was fun to do, I've added a second playthrough using Tessa.

SNES Megaman X

2009-02-01T00:25:00.004-05:00

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It's my 30th upload spectacular! Megaman X!

Of particular note is the fact that I now own a capture card, and as such, this video was not created using an emulator. Nothing against emulators, mind you, but a game like Megaman X is significantly harder to play with a keyboard. Now you can really get a good feel for my abilities (though not at the very end of the video, ugh). This also allows me to get around all further emulator compatibility problems, so it's a handy thing to have.

Megaman X is one of my all-time favourites, but it's hard to play with a keyboard because the shoulder buttons are really important. As such, it was a natural choice for my first capture card video. The game is also fairly easy so I wouldn't have to attempt it a ton of times.

There's still a couple bugs to work out in the process, though, the card really doesn't like the explosion effect used by this game and the video gets a little wobbly after it happens. Sometimes it takes the card a little while to lock back on to the signal, which is worst in Boomer Kuwanger's level. I've been fiddling with the settings and have managed to reduce how often this happens, but not totally eliminate it. Thankfully, this problem doesn't seem to exist on systems from the N64 era and onward. Must be something different about how the SNES sends the signal.

On another note, this will probably be my last video for Google Video (see the post below this one). It's a shame GV is closing, it was a good service for this kind of thing. I hope I'll be able to find something else that works as well. At least this is a good note to end on.

RIP Google Video

2009-01-31T23:40:00.002-05:00

Unfortunately, Google Video posted recently that they're shutting down uploads to Google Video.

This is bad for me because I host my videos there and there really aren't many other good places for game runs. I'm looking into other places, but it's difficult to find something suitable.

You can help, actually, if you know of a good video hosting site.

My needs in a video site are as follows:
- Allows game videos (many sites don't)
- Maximum file size is at least 500 megs.
- Maximum video length is at least an hour

I would also prefer it to be somewhat well-known and not a total pain to use.

So far, the one I'm most considering is Veoh. They don't limit the size or length, and video game movies are allowed, but there's a catch - you have to install a web player in order to watch movies that exceed 30 minutes.

NES Metal Storm

2009-01-24T16:55:00.005-05:00

Watch the Video

And we're back to platformers. This is a pretty short game, but there's a number of interesting things about it. The graphics are quite good for NES (and GV didn't really butcher them), and it has an interesting gravity flipping mechanic that adds a bit more puzzle into what would otherwise be a straightforward action game.

This is a game most people probably haven't heard of, but it's a short video, so you can watch it and get some idea what this game is all about.

NES Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road

2009-01-18T00:33:00.005-05:00

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I wanted to do something not a platformer to break it up, but it's hard choosing something that'll be interesting to watch (and also fast to learn how to do, I've been a bit busy lately). Eventually I came up with this.

You could argue that I don't actually "beat" this game, but it never ends, past this point it would simply repeat forever.

Oh, and I'm the pink car, in case you're confused.

NES Adventure Island 3

2009-01-04T20:59:00.005-05:00

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This is a game I've been attempting every now and then for a while, which explains the somewhat unusual timing of this upload. I almost always lose all of my Clubs on the last stage of World 7 and have to restart my run (the boss of World 7 is very hard without one), this was one time where everything actually went smoothly.

This is actually the first time I've totally beaten the game, so I was just winging it for the last couple levels.

New Poll

2008-12-30T15:12:00.002-05:00

I've put up a new poll, this one concerns runs of series games like Mario, Megaman, Sonic, etc.

There should be a new run up this weekend or the next.

SNES Super James Pond

2008-12-24T08:20:00.006-05:00

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Bonus Christmas Update!

Did the name of this video fool you into thinking it was James Bond? I know it fooled me all those years ago. When I first got this game, I thought it was based on the cartoon "James Bond Jr" and I naturally assumed it would be bad. Thankfully for me, it turned out to be the sequel to an obscure game from the Amiga and it's actually pretty decent.

This is a Christmas-themed game, so this was the natural time for me to do a run of it. As you would expect, it's very colourful and has a lot of diverse locales. It's also crammed full of more secrets than any other game I can think of (eat your heart out Castlevania).

Anyway, this is my Christmas gift to all of you. If you don't like it, remember, it's the thought that counts (or you can watch my Sonic 2 run instead). Merry Christmas internet land.

GEN Sonic the Hedgehog 2

2008-12-20T21:35:00.005-05:00

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It's finally my 25th video! Sorry to keep you waiting so long.

I re-recorded this because the original video featured a pretty lame battle against the final boss. It's much more polished now, which is fitting for my favourite Genesis game.

So Close

2008-12-14T23:45:00.003-05:00

Well, I almost had my next run tonight, but I blew it on the final boss. How aggrivating.

Also, I have a headache and both my arms are tired (it's quite an intense game), so I think it's time for a break. I work hard for your entertainment.

Of course, by break, I mean I'll probably play an RPG or something light. I never really stop gaming.

How I Record My Videos

2008-12-14T15:46:00.005-05:00

I've had a couple of questions about this, so I thought I'd share how I record my videos.

Edit:

I have a capture card now, so I use that to record most of my videos now. Emulators do still have a couple advantages, for example it's easier to blank your save data in some cases, but for the most part the card is always better. I'll leave up the emulator information for the curious, though.

NES:

I use VirtuaNES for NES videos. VirtuaNES is a dream to work with, its video recording is extremely stable and it doesn't have many game-related issues. The only problem is that some NES games have minor display issues, and while you can correct these through the emulator options, these settings are not preserved when it creates the video.

SNES:

I use ZSNES and SNES9x. ZSNES has to be at least version 1.5 to record videos. ZSNES works pretty well for games that it will run, but unfortunately version 1.5 has tons of compatibility issues that aren't present in older versions. If a game won't run on ZSNES, I use SNES9x. SNES9x's video recording is extremely unreliable (I've tried numerous versions and they all have desync issues, either in video or audio), so when using SNES9x I record my videos using direct screen capture (see below).

Genesis:

I use a modified version of Gens called Gens Video. Although it renders videos a bit slow, so far I haven't had any trouble with it.

N64:

I use Project64 for N64 videos. Though there seem to be some video recording options in some of the plugins, I just use screen capture for these.

PSX:

I use ePSXe for PSX videos. A couple plugins allow you to create videos, but I haven't gotten good results out of them, so I just use screen capture for these.

Screen Capture:

The screen capture program I use is called "CamStudio", it's a freeware program that captures part of the screen and any audio output. It produces a very good quality video, though it has some minor audio desync problems (it tends to get about a second off per hour). I haven't actually tried any other screen capture programs yet, maybe I should give them a try at some point.

Codec:

All of my videos are encoded using XVid. XVid provides good compression while still maintaining video quality, and it works well with Google Video. I encode audio using Lame MP3.

I'll add more to this post if I start recording videos for a new system.

Nothing new this week

2008-12-08T02:21:00.002-05:00

Between being sick and having a ton of people over, there wasn't a ton of time for (console) gaming this week. I did put in a solid amount of hours with my PSP (I think I recharged it every day), but I only had a little time to practice for my next run (which is something difficult, it's going to take a little while).

I did get a fair bit of cleaning done, I'm proud to say I now have very few games left sitting on the floor. I've uploaded a handful of new pictures to that post about my gaming collection, which you can visit by clicking here or locating it using the knob on the right. In case you haven't noticed, Channel 4 is now active, it contains a listing of non-game run posts that I've made, except for pointless little filler posts like this one.

This leaves only Channel 7 unused at this point, I'm not sure what I plan to do with that one.

NES Megaman 2

2008-11-29T01:20:00.004-05:00

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Okay, I originally had no intention of doing a Megaman 2 run, because everyone and their mother has already done one, but my Laptop died this week, leaving me with no way to record anything other than NES videos. As such, I needed something I could do in a hurry, and as per that article I wrote a couple weeks back about cleaning NES games, I had played MM2 recently and it was fresh in my mind.

This is a pretty good run. It's not perfect or anything, because I didn't take too many attempts here, but hopefully it should keep you entertained until I can find another way to record stuff.

NES TailSpin

2008-11-22T00:12:00.005-05:00

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TaleSpin is yet another Capcom Disney game. Unlike most of the others, it's not a platformer, it's a horizontally scrolling shooter. It's a bit different from most shooters, though, for one thing you can turn around and take more than one hit.

I'll admit that I was wrong about this game. When I first played it, I called it "the worst of the Capcom Disney games". That was unfair, which I realize after playing it some more. That title should definitely go to "Mickey Mousecapades". TaleSpin is actually pretty fun after you learn how to play it.

How To Clean Your NES Games

2008-11-14T20:26:00.003-05:00

Well, I got some new games yesterday, and this is a question that comes up fairly often, so I thought I'd show you how to clean your NES games. This also gives me an excuse to link my own site more often.

What you will need

You'll need the following:
-A game to clean (I'm using perennial favourite Megaman 2)
-Rubbing Alcohol
-Q-Tips
-Contact cleaner (not strictly necessary, but helpful. Mine came from the NES Repair Shop)
-NES Game Bit (Also got this from the NES Repair Shop)
-A clean working area (not pictured here)

The first thing to do is open up the cart

You use the Game Bit for this. Sometimes those screws can be in there pretty good, so you might want to use a socket wrench or a screwdriver handle for this.

Certain games use different types of screws, particularly very old games and unlicensed titles. You'll usually just need a small flathead screwdriver for those.

Next, remove the circuit board

Obviously, hold it by the edges. Note which way the microchips were facing when you take it out, they usually face the front, but some carts may go the other way. This one has some dirt on it, you can see discoloured areas on the connector pins. There's work to be done here.

Put some cleaner on a paper towel

If you hold the bottle and the paper towel like this, you just need to give it a little shake to get enough on the paper towel. Then, gently rub the connector pins with the cleaner until most of it ends up on the paper towel (the paper towel will turn grey or black if dirt is coming off). If it takes a ton off, you probably have to repeat it, but don't scrub too hard or you can actually take the gold-plating off the pins.

Dip a Q-Tip in the Alcohol

You can see parts of the paper towel are grey here. Anyway, dip the Q-Tip in the alcohol, and rub it over the connectors. This will remove any extra cleaner and it also helps to clean the pins. Afterwards, use the other end of the Q-Tip to dry it. If the Q-Tip turns grey or black, it's probably not clean enough, and you may need to Q-Tip it again or use more cleaner. After you are satisfied with one side, you have to do the other side.

Put the board back in and close the cart

After you have polished both sides to your satisfaction, you're done! Now you just have to put the cart back together (remember, the microchips face the front of the cart on most games! Some carts let you put the board in the wrong way!). Use the game bit to close the cart. Don't overtighten: If the edge of the cart is bending inwards, you've tightened too much.

Try it out!

If it didn't work, then it's probably not clean enough, unless all your games don't work, in which case you probably have a bad connector on your system. You'll need to repair or replace it, which is another guide.

For most games, this process takes 5 to 15 minutes. Now, you just have to repeat this for every game that you own, and you'll have a perfectly working NES library (isn't retro gaming fun?) You should definitely invest in dust jackets, they're cheap and they keep your games clean. Otherwise you'll be cleaning them every couple years.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to teach a certain Doctor a lesson.

SNES Battletoads and Double Dragon

2008-11-08T14:11:00.005-05:00

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Hooray! It's my first single credit run on a game with "Battletoads" in the title! I feel good about myself, despite the fact that this is the easiest one.

This one was also an adventure to record. No, wait, "adventure" implies it was fun - I think I'm looking for "ordeal". The first time I recorded this, it desynced, which was extremely frustrating (the first run was a bit more consistent than this and about 15 seconds faster overall, but I had 1 less life at the end). I was going to give up and do something else, but in the end I decided to record this one in real time and avoid the "playback" part entirely.

This worked great, except that I had to play the game in a tiny window at best the size of a cell phone screen and at times I could barely see what I was doing.

Next time I'm going to do an NES game. Those are so much easier to record and convert.

Community Access (Polling) Channel

2008-11-02T15:52:00.002-05:00

I've added a new channel to the site, where you can vote among a small list of choices for which game you'd like to see done. It's set to channel 6.

I'll take this under consideration when doing new runs, but I can't guarantee the results will directly affect the order in which runs get put up.

SNES Bubsy

2008-10-29T09:00:00.007-04:00

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Bubsy is a fairly standard (if a bit difficult) SNES platformer. There's also a fairly vocal segment of the SNES community that really hates this game, for a reason I don't quite understand. Apparently it had something to do with pre-release hype, but I bought this game used from a rental store a couple years after it came out so that never affected me. I've always kind of liked it.

At any rate, this video was a nightmare to record. It all started because the emulator I usually use doesn't run this game, so I had to use a new one. The first two times I attempted the record a video, the video itself desynced, and then even after I got one that worked, the sound didn't sync properly. Upon re-uploading this to youtube, I've fixed the sound sync, so it finally sounds as it ought to.

In spite of my frustration of having to re-record my video so many times, the run is greatly improved by it. The first time I just barely squeaked by, but with all this extra practice the run you see here totally dominates the game. There's a lot more polish here than on most of my videos - this is me at my best.

Besides, I worked really hard to get this one to work.

Almost there

2008-10-24T23:23:00.007-04:00

Well, I did have a new video (which I spent most of the night recording), but I found that during the playback the movie becomes desynchronized and thus all of my work is probably for nothing.

It's not terribly surprising, I had to use a different emulator because the emulator I usually use doesn't support this game, and it looks like this emulator's movie recording is simply buggy.

I'll try the convert one more time in case it was a freak accident, but I suspect this is going to mean no update for at least another week (and this particular game may not be uploaded at all, unless the other emulator decides to support it).

Update:

After re-recording the video 2 more times (my run has substantially improved in the progress), I have managed to record a run that doesn't desync. Unfortunately, my efforts to encode it have so far resulted in severe audio desync. I'm trying a different method now, hopefully it will yield slightly better results.

Yet another update:

Okay, I captured the video using a straight screen capture. This provides much better results, the audio still gets a little slow near the end but it's not by that much and it's probably the best it's going to get.

The problem? Google video is down right now. I'll upload the video when I can.

Final update:

It's finally back. Video is now uploaded.

SNES Battle Dodgeball

2008-10-11T12:59:00.005-04:00

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Continuing my quest to bring you a wide variety of games, here's Battle Dodgeball.

Battle Dodgeball is basically the same as the game "Super Dodgeball", except with Gundams instead of Kunio and friends.

This is a pretty short video because I figured it would get repetative to watch after a while.

Oh, it just occurs to me that this is my 20th video. Maybe I should have done something a little more notable. Oh well, maybe for 25. Or maybe I'll forget again.

N64 Penny Racers

2008-10-05T16:20:00.005-04:00

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Here's a video of one of my old favourites, Penny Racers. It's part of the Choro Q series, though this game is a bit of an oddball in the franchise in that it plays a lot like Mario Kart.

I re-recorded this video for youtube because I had originally recorded it using an emulator, and this game doesn't exactly play easily using digital controls. This is authentic gameplay now, and the sound stays synced, too.

It was pretty hard to re-record, though, I failed this run like 10 times before I finally got this.

SNES Cool Spot

2008-09-28T14:05:00.006-04:00

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Cool Spot is another food-related platformer from Virgin Games. It's probably remembered best for the awesome song that plays during the bonus levels.

Anyway, this run gets the best ending possible - that requires you to beat the game on hard with no continue and beat all the bonus levels, a significantly more difficult task than beating it on normal.

This is a pretty good game, but man is it ever long. This is a pretty good run, and I don't waste any time, but it still takes close to 2 hours to beat the game.

PSX Bishi Bashi Special 2

2008-09-20T19:08:00.006-04:00

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Bishi Bashi Special 2 is a minigame collection. A crazy, heavily Japanese minigame collection. This run has been updated and now shows both modes.

Okay, so this is a strange pick, but I wanted something to test my method of recording PSX games. There's another game there I've been working on, but it's hard, and I wouldn't want to go to all that work to beat the game and then find out that it produced a bad video.

NES The Little Mermaid

2008-09-17T21:23:00.005-04:00

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Okay, I hadn't been having great luck with my game runs lately, so I went to something I knew I could do in a few hours to placate my audience while I work on the other ones.

This is another one of the Capcom Disney games, but it's actually even easier than Rescue Rangers. It's still not bad for more advanced gamers, though, because there's a lot of secrets hidden in the levels.

The Battle for Battle City

2008-09-13T00:07:00.004-04:00

Well, I spent all night tonight putting the finishing touches on my secret project.

As you may or may not be aware, NES games and Famicom games are extremely similar in nature but they have a different number of connector pins, and thus some kind of adaptor is needed to play one type of game on the other hardware.

There are also certain NES games that are basically just a converter with a Famicom game inside. This was apparently done due to a shortage on NES boards for some holiday season. As such, if you got a hold of one of those, you could switch the enclosed Famicom game and you'd have a method of playing Famicom games on an NES.

It sounds easy in theory, at any rate. The game I wanted to convert is Battle City, a classic arcade game that has never been available in America in any form despite being totally in English.

The first challenge was to get the games apart. NES games are easy since they have screws, but Famicom games are designed with all sorts of tabs that fit into each other, clearly never meant to be opened. I had to use a lot of prying and sawing to get Battle City Open.

Here are the two carts side by side. I already removed the original famicom game.

Now I just had to put them together. This requires a lot more force than you might think.

Here is the assembled unit.

So we're done now, right? Wrong. First of all, the case wouldn't shut - you can see a little plastic piece that goes through the middle of the famicom cart on the grey NES case in the first shot. This doesn't go in the right place for Battle City, so I had to snip it off.

After closing the case, I tried out the game, and it gave me the purple screen of death. I took it back apart, cleaned both the NES and the Famicom games until the pins sparkled, and still nothing.

The problem is actually that the Famicom cart was UPSIDE-DOWN. Yes, it looks normal in the second picture, the chips face the front of the cart like every other NES game and like the Famicom game that was originally in there, but it's wrong. Namco manufactures their chips facing the other way, I assume only to confuse you. You clearly weren't meant to get the game open.

This is the way it needed to go.

This worked first try (of course).

So in the end, I got my NES cart that plays Battle City, but man, it was a lot of work. And expensive. I don't really want to say how much this project cost in total, but suffice it to say it probably would have been substantially easier and cheaper just to get one of those "1000 in 1" pirate carts that always contain this game.

Oh well, Classic Gaming is always a labour of love. And intense frustration.

(I apologize for the poor picture quality. Gaming is where my skill lies, not photography.)

NES Jetsons Cogswell's Caper

2008-09-03T18:04:00.005-04:00

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(Warning: This game makes frequent use of a strobe-like effect and those who are photosensitive probably shouldn't watch it).

This run was a LONG time in coming. Seriously, I've been working on this one for about 4 months and I've probably attempted it at least 150 times in that period. This game is really, really hard.

This still isn't the world's best run, but I'll take it. Two levels are less than great, but I don't think I die anywhere on the other nine.

Wow, it feels so strange to have this run finished. I feel like I still need to work on this game.

SNES Bonkers

2008-08-28T21:20:00.004-04:00

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I bet you thought this site was only going to contain NES videos, right? Well, I have the technology to record SNES games now.

Bonkers is another Capcom Disney game. It stars a hyperactive bobcat who throws bombs everywhere. That should really be all you need to know.

I chose this game largely because it is very easy and I was testing out the SNES recording process.

More importantly, with the posting of this video, my blog is now totally caught up on the runs I have already posted to Google Video!

*fanfare plays*

There will now be posts about the games I'm attempting from time to time, though generally runs will tend to come slower than 2 per week.