NES Completions thread 2020 - 677/677 (All Clear!)

[NESfiend | 1,515]

Got through 3 games of tecmo baseball. You have to win 6 games to get to the world series and the teams get tougher as you go. It's not terrible once you get the quirks. Fielding is pretty bad, but the rest is fine. 

Congrats @Gaia Gensouki on climbing into second place! Really impressive run and james bond jr is a fitting way to cap it. That game takes hours. My little brother was a james bond nut and loved it. That got me curious, and I played a ways through, but it is never ending and mediocre. And playing through it twice is just ridiculous. Why did they feel like they needed to add content when the game was plenty long?

Edited April 10, 2020 by NESfiend

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

Thanks @NESfiend and congrats to you as well for making it through Galaxy 5000.

I beat Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends! This was such a miserable experience. It's even worse than Blues Brothers and Wayne's World if that's even possible. How did they even think that this was acceptable for release? At least it has a workable executable file, unlike certain Steam games. But this is just so inconceivably awful that I'm at a loss for words. This feels like a child's first attempt at making a video game. Just look at the ending screen! If this isn't a child messing around with MS paint then I don't know what this is. Just what were they thinking?! This may be the first game I have played that's worthy of the lowest rating of 0.5 out of 5. It's that bad. At least it was very short.

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

Well, I'm officially on self-quarantine from work now that one of my co-workers tested positive for Covid 19. We'll see what I can do here with a little extra time in the game room. Has anyone started Conflict yet? It's enjoyable but a time sink, so only one of us should be screwing with it. I was also thinking about trying Puzznic again, but given its length I'll also ask if anyone has already started that.

I'd also like to say CONGRATULATIONS to @Gaia Gensouki for taking second place and also to @NESfiend for finally conquering Galaxy 5000. And good luck to the fiend on Tecmo Baseball; I had been preparing to do it very soon, but now I'm rooting for you to finish the job. I'd be interested in hearing about your strategy when you're finished. You're right that the fielding is awful, and I'd add that baserunning is, too. I powered through it two years ago on pitching exploits where I was reliably striking out about 15 batters a game, but I've been procrastinating on digging those up to remember exactly how.

I'd also like to wish @Daniel_Doyce well during this ridiculous time. I've seen you on the board recently, but not on this thread. I know you vowed to conquer the Koei games yet again, but you must be swamped with other things right now. Bandit Kings is laughing at you right now, but I know you'll have the last laugh.

[Tablew/chairs | 250]

thanks to scary for recommending Phantom Fighter decent game and pretty quick to play through

[NESfiend | 1,515]

10 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Tecmo Baseball; I had been preparing to do it very soon, but now I'm rooting for you to finish the job. I'd be interested in hearing about your strategy when you're finished. You're right that the fielding is awful, and I'd add that baserunning is, too. I powered through it two years ago on pitching exploits where I was reliably striking out about 15 batters a game, but I've been procrastinating on digging those up to remember exactly how.

 

The base running is fluid once you figure it out. It took me several games to figure out how to do it. And its explained properly absolutely nowhere including the manual. Googled the crap out of this game and even watched the youtube reviews that are available and couldn't believe it wasn't mentioned anywhere.

Most baseball games you press the d pad direction for the base you want to run to along with A. This one you press the d pad direction for the base you are on and B at the same time. There is a slight delay from when you hit the bag to when you can run. That's why that combo didn't work if you tried it. I hold the d pad button down and tap b until he goes. Works fine. Strangely, to go back, you press the direction for the base you want to go back to and A at the same time which is totally inconsistent. That also makes it hard to figure out what you are doing wrong. Haven't come across any pitching exploits, but have noticed that you should utilize 3 to 4 pitchers per game. Big fatigue factor there. 

Edited April 11, 2020 by NESfiend

[Crabmaster2000 | 501]

Anyone have tips for Black Bass? The first 2 lakes went real smooth. Having a lot more trouble on the third though. I can sometimes get the fishes stamina meter down, but even then they tend to jump and break the line.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

@nerdynebraskan Conflict is a strategy game, right? Because it looks somewhat similar to Advance Wars. I wouldn't mind giving it a try, unless of course some one else wants to go at it.

[Tablew/chairs | 250]

42 minutes ago, Crabmaster2000 said:

Anyone have tips for Black Bass? The first 2 lakes went real smooth. Having a lot more trouble on the third though. I can sometimes get the fishes stamina meter down, but even then they tend to jump and break the line.

it's a cruel game, are you using the code from the manual to show how much tension is on the line?  i tried out all the lures but eventually just settled on using red pencil for everything, i didn't find time of day or location or depth to have much affect on lures effectiveness though.  I thought it was harder to get first place on the final tournament than it was to get first place on the same lake earlier in the season.  It seemed like on that last tournament i'd get 3 nice size ones and then everything else i'd hook would be tiny and time would run out.  As far as them jumping it just seemed all luck based sometimes they jump three or four times and it wouldn't break sometimes the first jump broke it.  This is a photo of the biggest bass i caught, i think i also have photos of my daily total from the final tournament i'd have to check i don't think i even caught a 20 lb that final tournament just like 4 or 5 decent size ones.

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

I'm playing Lone Ranger today. I'm enjoying it, but I've gotten killed twice on the third leg of the game. It's pretty brutal to have only one life and lose all the progress of the "chapter" (for lack of a better word) if you get killed.

@NESfiend

I haven't played Tecmo Baseball in almost two years, so I don't quite remember the control scheme to the baserunning. I remember that they were counter-intuitive, and that the game in many places had physics and controls so bad that the game felt only semi-responsive.

@Gaia Gensouki

You haven't finished Bard's Tale yet, and you're already clamoring for your next time sink?

I've not played Advance Wars, because I'm a dinosaur. I've only played a little bit of Famicom Wars, and I didn't quite get the hang of it. Conflict's rules are definitely different, and they took some getting used to. But I wound up getting hooked on the game after beating it for this challenge a couple of times.

How serious are you about wanting to take it on? I was thinking of starting on it in the next few days, but I wasn't expecting to hear from another would-be taker that quickly.

[Daniel_Doyce | 475]

10 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Well, I'm officially on self-quarantine from work now that one of my co-workers tested positive for Covid 19. We'll see what I can do here with a little extra time in the game room. Has anyone started Conflict yet? It's enjoyable but a time sink, so only one of us should be screwing with it. I was also thinking about trying Puzznic again, but given its length I'll also ask if anyone has already started that.

I'd also like to say CONGRATULATIONS to @Gaia Gensouki for taking second place and also to @NESfiend for finally conquering Galaxy 5000. And good luck to the fiend on Tecmo Baseball; I had been preparing to do it very soon, but now I'm rooting for you to finish the job. I'd be interested in hearing about your strategy when you're finished. You're right that the fielding is awful, and I'd add that baserunning is, too. I powered through it two years ago on pitching exploits where I was reliably striking out about 15 batters a game, but I've been procrastinating on digging those up to remember exactly how.

I'd also like to wish @Daniel_Doyce well during this ridiculous time. I've seen you on the board recently, but not on this thread. I know you vowed to conquer the Koei games yet again, but you must be swamped with other things right now. Bandit Kings is laughing at you right now, but I know you'll have the last laugh.

Yeah I had to put it aside for a bit for work, but will pick it up again this weekend. Bandit Kings is such a long slog.

[NESfiend | 1,515]

Tecmo Baseball is done. Playable once you get it. Lots of crazy long homeruns makes it fun despite some imperfect aspects with fielding. The outfield is way too big for the speed your fielders run. Most problematic are grounders that leave the infield and shallow bloops.

If you want a fun way to get good at this game, play dusty diamond. Infield play is the same and very important. And learning to pitch to ground balls to avoid the big outfield is important there too. Turning DPs is big in both games since there are lots of base runners, but harder and more nuanced in this game. 

[NESfiend | 1,515]

@nerdynebraskan

When I bought Lone Ranger, I played through 2 or 3 towns/bosses and thought I had made great progress in that game. Was enjoying it just fine. I went to a video to see something about the next area and realized I was like 15% of the way in. It was fun to that point, but not fun enough to go that distance. Let me know if its worth revisiting when you get done or well into it. 

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

6 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

You haven't finished Bard's Tale yet, and you're already clamoring for your next time sink?

I've not played Advance Wars, because I'm a dinosaur. I've only played a little bit of Famicom Wars, and I didn't quite get the hang of it. Conflict's rules are definitely different, and they took some getting used to. But I wound up getting hooked on the game after beating it for this challenge a couple of times.

How serious are you about wanting to take it on? I was thinking of starting on it in the next few days, but I wasn't expecting to hear from another would-be taker that quickly.

I'm sorry. I guess I was overzealous. I will finish Bard's Tale first and then see what I will play next.

[Crabmaster2000 | 501]

15 hours ago, Tablew/chairs said:

it's a cruel game, are you using the code from the manual to show how much tension is on the line?  i tried out all the lures but eventually just settled on using red pencil for everything, i didn't find time of day or location or depth to have much affect on lures effectiveness though.  I thought it was harder to get first place on the final tournament than it was to get first place on the same lake earlier in the season.  It seemed like on that last tournament i'd get 3 nice size ones and then everything else i'd hook would be tiny and time would run out.  As far as them jumping it just seemed all luck based sometimes they jump three or four times and it wouldn't break sometimes the first jump broke it.  This is a photo of the biggest bass i caught, i think i also have photos of my daily total from the final tournament i'd have to check i don't think i even caught a 20 lb that final tournament just like 4 or 5 decent size ones.

Couple questions. 

Regarding the win condition. It doesn't seem like the ending changes if you get 1st on the final lake. Shouldn't it be fine then to just get a first at some point during the tournament and then just finish all 12? Or maybe get a 1st on each lake at least once?

Does the HBMAX code count for completion? I know it's in the manual, but the manual calls it a "special mode" so I didn't think that would be playing the game on a normal type playthrough. 

Most playthroughs I could find just got the best rank available on all 4 lakes then considered the game "finished". The Mexican Runners playthrough he didn't even bother trying to get 1st on the last day of the tournament and still considered it done for his purposes. Thoughts on the actual ending for anyone familiar with Black Bass?

Edited April 11, 2020 by Crabmaster2000
Spelling error

[Crabmaster2000 | 501]

Another question for anyone who has beaten Black Bass. If we do require a 1st on the final tournament would the easiest way to do that be to keep a B or C ranking all the way until the 11th tournament and then just play the final tournament in A class?

[Tablew/chairs | 250]

2 hours ago, Crabmaster2000 said:

Couple questions. 

Regarding the win condition. It doesn't seem like the ending changes if you get 1st on the final lake. Shouldn't it be fine then to just get a first at some point during the tournament and then just finish all 12? Or maybe get a 1st on each lake at least once?

Does the HBMAX code count for completion? I know it's in the manual, but the manual calls it a "special mode" so I didn't think that would be playing the game on a normal type playthrough. 

Most playthroughs I could find just got the best rank available on all 4 lakes then considered the game "finished". The Mexican Runners playthrough he didn't even bother trying to get 1st on the last day of the tournament and still considered it done for his purposes. Thoughts on the actual ending for anyone familiar with Black Bass?

as far as the win condition i do see it both ways, on one hand the ending does not change even if you get first in the last tournament but on the other thinking of it as a sports game with a season you wouldn't say i was i first place half way through the season so i can lose the rest of the games and call it a win, i just went with the rules we use here which also allows the code, i would say there's certainly a gray area and it's really up to you

 @arnpoly might have some thoughts i know i read his blog post but i don't remember what he did, his reviews are interesting and really in depth so he probably mentions it, mexican runner definitely has some interesting ending conditions i remember him posting a sorta rant about the win condition for some game back on the nintendoage thread

 

 

[NESfiend | 1,515]

@Crabmaster2000

I haven't played black bass, but I did beat blue marlin for this thread. Since there are only two fishing games for the system and both are made by the same company, I thought it was worth mentioning that you have to get first place in each tourney on blue marlin to move on to the next. The same company made different placing requirements to move on for its 2 fishing releases (I dont think they did much else). The different approaches in that respect may have something to do with how often big fish spawn and/or what your chances of getting 1st on a run given the chance element. It may be statistically unlikely to get 1st each time through, even with perfect play, just based on the random elements. May be worth considering as people weigh in. 

As far as the sports element goes, the example that came to my mind, for whatever reason, is mario golf 64. You can advance to the next course with gold, silver, or bronze. Generally people consider the game beat if you medal on every course and I don't think you need gold on the last one to unlock credits. It sounds like that kind of thing. I am not sure how the thread handles those types of situations. It may also be worth noting that the thread doesn't require a first place finish in every race for the racing games I have played through this year. Good luck either way it goes. 

Edited April 11, 2020 by NESfiend

[Crabmaster2000 | 501]

@Tablew/chairs @NESfiend I really like that sports analogy, that is a good way to look at a lot of these games. It's not great in this case though I don't think because once you beat a team you don't replay them again (except in a finals kind of situation). Repeating the 4 lakes 3 times each when nothing about them changes makes this feel different to me. 

Is it possible to just C and B rank your way through and just finish the last lake in 1st? So for example I could just select end day 9 times in a row and then just win the last three lakes to go from 200th to 1st all of the sudden? That seems like the quickest/easiest method to get a first on the final day if that does in fact work.

Thanks for throwing ideas around with me btw. Very much appreciated

 

[NESfiend | 1,515]

Started playing empire strikes back today. Should have made sure no one else is playing it first with the list thinning out. If someone has been playing it, let me know and I'll find something else.

[Daniel_Doyce | 475]

Ok, i powered through today and finished Bandit Kings of Ancient China.

L'Empereur is next.

 

[NESfiend | 1,515]

1 hour ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

Ok, i powered through today and finished Bandit Kings of Ancient China.

L'Empereur is next.

 

 

I think the craziest end screen competition is pretty much over. I dont know how you top a well recieved delivery of a chopped off head. 

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

I finally knocked out The Lone Ranger.

I guess it took me 10-12 hours across two days to finish it. It's a fun concept, with cool level design and it's maybe the best example of a multi-genre game actually getting some polish on the NES. But man, did they have to crank up the difficulty this hard? It reminds me of Snake's Revenge on that level: tons of enemies and traps, you get one life, and the checkpoints are few and far between. It got pretty tedious having to replay chapters over and over and over again. I wish the game had an "easy" mode of some kind, because this could be a legit Top 100 contender with all it has going for it but the sheer brutality of it was something of a turnoff.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

Has someone here beaten Bard's Tale before and can share some advice on how to beat Mangar? I've been trying to beat him several times now and wasted so much time despite max level, but I can't seem to do it. Whenever I manage to deal a bunch of damage he just regenerates himself and everything stats over again with the only exception that I have lost a bunch of Magic Points. Really, this game just gets sadistic. It would have been fun, if they hadn't made such an aweful decision at the end of the game to let a powerful boss constantly heal himself fully and AT RANDOM! Does this really mean, that I can just hope for the RNG to be in my favor? because I have already tried the Lucklaran song which supposedly makes enemy's spells fail, but I couldn't notice any difference. I'm really at a loss here and starting to deeply resent this game.

Edit: Okay, I've been trying this boss for the past few hours, I guess I will just have to ditch my rogue, recruit a second Wizard and level it up to max level again. So much fun!

Edited April 12, 2020 by Gaia Gensouki

[Crabmaster2000 | 501]

3 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

Has someone here beaten Bard's Tale before and can share some advice on how to beat Mangar? I've been trying to beat him several times now and wasted so much time despite max level, but I can't seem to do it. Whenever I manage to deal a bunch of damage he just regenerates himself and everything stats over again with the only exception that I have lost a bunch of Magic Points. Really, this game just gets sadistic. It would have been fun, if they hadn't made such an aweful decision at the end of the game to let a powerful boss constantly heal himself fully and AT RANDOM! Does this really mean, that I can just hope for the RNG to be in my favor? because I have already tried the Lucklaran song which supposedly makes enemy's spells fail, but I couldn't notice any difference. I'm really at a loss here and starting to deeply resent this game.

Edit: Okay, I've been trying this boss for the past few hours, I guess I will just have to ditch my rogue, recruit a second Wizard and level it up to max level again. So much fun!

I went in with heavy offense when I beat him. Lots of Dragons Breath (I only had one Wizard) and I used Falkentyne's Fury with my Bard instead of trying to block his spells. It really is about getting a lucky run though where he doesn't heal. Had the same issue with the last several bosses in Destiny of an Emperor recently where they have full heal spells. Fight took me about 7 minutes so that's a pretty long time to hope he doesn't cast one spell. Good luck!

 

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

@Gaia Gensouki

I have not made a serious run at Bard's Tale, but this video seems helpful:

The fight with Mangar starts around 6:30, meaning that this experienced player fights him for more than 12 minutes. Turn the subtitles on to see the player's strategic notes.

You're so close, dude! Finish this!

Also, I am going to go ahead and start Conflict. I'm eager to do some playing today, but I don't know that I have the nerve for high difficulty after going through Lone Ranger the last couple of days. A more gradual, thinking game sounds nice right now.

Edited April 12, 2020 by nerdynebraskan