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

[scaryice | 589]

To the Earth is definitely one of them. I'd say Q-Bert is up there with it. That's a game you need to be very skilled at to have a chance. Maybe Athena, Last Starfighter, and Super Glove Ball?

I don't think Flight of the Intruder and the other flight sims are among the hardest games, people just hate playing them. Look at how many of them are left...

Edited May 10, 2020 by scaryice

[Daniel_Doyce | 475]

54 minutes ago, scaryice said:

To the Earth is definitely one of them. I'd say Q-Bert is up there with it. That's a game you need to be very skilled at to have a chance. Maybe Athena, Last Starfighter, and Super Glove Ball?

I don't think Flight of the Intruder and the other flight sims are among the hardest games, people just hate playing them. Look at how many of them are left...

I'll keep that in mind. I played way too much Microsoft Flight Simulator and Red Baron and X-Wing back in the day (yes I am old), so I may actually like some of them.

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

For NESfiend, Goal! TWO

This wasn't too hard after a bit of practice

[Gloves | 11,795]

Friendly reminder that if a console thread meets its completion goal, all who participated in getting it done will earn a Charm on their profile! These will be unique to each time the goal is accomplished! 

[NESfiend | 1,515]

29 minutes ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

For NESfiend, Goal! TWO

This wasn't too hard after a bit of practice

Holy crap that was fast!!! Thanks much! 

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

13 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

Holy crap that was fast!!! Thanks much! 

It's not a long game. The games are only 10 minutes. Pool play is 3 games (of which I only won one but it was good enough, lol). Then the bracket of 16 teams takes four games. Being a bit more practiced, I only had to replay the semifinal game. So the whole thing probably only took two hours (with an hour beforehand practicing the controls since I've never played either of the Goals before). 

[NESfiend | 1,515]

12 minutes ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

It's not a long game. The games are only 10 minutes. Pool play is 3 games (of which I only won one but it was good enough, lol). Then the bracket of 16 teams takes four games. Being a bit more practiced, I only had to replay the semifinal game. So the whole thing probably only took two hours (with an hour beforehand practicing the controls since I've never played either of the Goals before). 

3 hours is still a really nice commitment to do at the drop of reading a post though. And the controls are frustrating. I never played Goal games either. Popped in Goal 2 earlier in the competition when I was going through a handful of games looking for something enjoyable. That thing was out of the console fast for what should be a very straight forward game. Thanks again. I was just hoping someone would claim it. Seeing it beat that quick was a cool surprise!

[guitarzombie | 924]

I want one from my win for GB and NES in the same year from some years ago @Gloves!  

*edit* Well I thought I posted this but never submitted the reply.  Anyway I finished off Knight Rider just so I can get a little do-dad.

 

@scaryice can you show us the history of Knight Rider in these contests?  Haha

[bronzeshield | 293]

Shooting Range is done:

There's a case to be made that getting silver might be enough of a win condition to meet our standards, but in any event I got the gold.

Pretty thin game, but at least I was able to win it without getting a perfect score in the bonus round. What a weird bottleneck -- to make a "bonus" round nearly mandatory to get a decent ending.

Edited May 11, 2020 by bronzeshield

[PII | 1,886]

I was trying to beat shooting range about a week ago and no matter how well I did at the bonus level (shooting every bottle), it would never award me the 10,000 bonus.  I'd always clock in around 36,000 or so..

[bronzeshield | 293]

2 hours ago, PII said:

I was trying to beat shooting range about a week ago and no matter how well I did at the bonus level (shooting every bottle), it would never award me the 10,000 bonus.  I'd always clock in around 36,000 or so..

From what I understand, the trick is to shoot every bottle without missing even once. I've never done it, but I think arnpoly has.

The problem is, the Zapper just isn't reliable enough to demand perfection in any light gun game. (Really, no light gun is -- and all light gun games should have been designed accordingly, from the Atari 2600 through the 3DO and beyond.)

Plus the bonus stage is dickish in that it flashes the bottles off and on -- and though it gets easier as the stage progresses, the first and last bottles always seem reluctant to register a hit. I could get every other bottle perfectly and miss the first and last.

I don't really know what I did to break 40k on my winning run, but I'm glad I did.

Edited May 11, 2020 by bronzeshield
fixed random capital letter

[scaryice | 589]

6 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

@scaryice can you show us the history of Knight Rider in these contests?  Haha

 

Nightowljrm beat it in 2012. Unbeaten in 2013. Then you beat it five straight years (2014-18). tablew/chairs in 2019, and you again just now. It was worth 10 points at first, and thanks to your efforts it's all the way down to 4 now. Although, it'll go back up to 6 next year.

I don't remember hearing any interesting stories about it, in this contest or anywhere else. One of those games that just exists, I guess. It does have a Famicom version, surprisingly enough.

Edited May 11, 2020 by scaryice

[PII | 1,886]

Ah, I was afraid that might be the case (w/o missing a shot.) lol.  I played through the game several times but eventually lost my patience with that level.  Oh well, thanks for the word.  Well done to you on the comp!et¡on!

[guitarzombie | 924]

13 minutes ago, scaryice said:

 

Nightowljrm beat it in 2012. Unbeaten in 2013. Then you beat it five straight years (2014-18). tablew/chairs in 2019, and you again just now. It was worth 10 points at first, and thanks to your efforts it's all the way down to 4 now. Although, it'll go back up to 6 next year.

I don't remember hearing any interesting stories about it, in this contest or anywhere else. One of those games that just exists, I guess. It does have a Famicom version, surprisingly enough.

Im pretty sure it was the first game I ever beat on here cuz I looked at it and said "a 10?!  This aint a 10!" lol.  So yeah, I think I beat it enough to put it at a real point value.  But why raise it since its been beaten so many times, especially by one person?  Its really not that hard of a game.  It practically taught me how to drive!  One interesting thing I did find out as a kid, dunno how common it is though, but when you run out of time, the game doesn't stop, your car slows down.  If you have plenty of gas, you can keep turbo jumping for speed and as long as you dont hit anything you can travel a bit and eventually if you're close get to the boss and all your stats refill.  In fact thats what I had to do to get to the final boss in the game.

[Daniel_Doyce | 475]

@guitarzombie The score reflects the difficulty and also willingness to play. Scary alluded to this when I brought up Flight of the Intruder. If we start dictating scores directly by central planning, the score system won't reflect true the desire of the competitors. Some people will artificially distort games like Mutant Virus, but it should correct itself over a few years' time.

[NESfiend | 1,515]

19 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

 @Gloves

Anyway I finished off Knight Rider just so I can get a little do-dad

@scaryice 

I read or watched a review of knight rider a long time ago and the person said there is glitch or major imperfection with the controls that make it inevitable you will hit certain enemies and take damage. And that advancing in spite of that makes the game unreasonably difficult. Is that true?

Edit: Also, is there a way to edit out people's names when you quote someone? Feel bad 2 people were notified who I'm sure couldn't care less. 

Edited May 11, 2020 by NESfiend

[BriGuy82 | 771]

On 5/9/2020 at 10:54 PM, BriGuy82 said:

Deadly Towers 

 

@rdrunner I used your walkthrough to beat this game. You did a really nice job with that write up. I went old school and printed it up and referenced it while I was playing. I hadn't played this game since the Chicago Bears won the superbowl! It was a hot new release back then. It felt very aimless when I used to play it when I was a kid. I'm glad I got to complete 30+ years later. 

Edited May 11, 2020 by BriGuy82

[guitarzombie | 924]

1 hour ago, NESfiend said:

I read or watched a review of knight rider a long time ago and the person said there is glitch or major imperfection with the controls that make it inevitable you will hit certain enemies and take damage. And that advancing in spite of that makes the game unreasonably difficult. Is that true?

Edit: Also, is there a way to edit out people's names when you quote someone? Feel bad 2 people were notified who I'm sure couldn't care less. 

If I knew what that person was talking about I could probably help.  But it sounds like he's just bad at the game haha.  Of course you can take some hits but its totally wrong to say 'inevitable', especially around tight turns where theres a lot of cars and you're trying to not fly off the road and hit the signs on the side.  The damage you take from hitting cars is more minimal than taking damage from enemy weapons.  For the most part, I stock up on shield and gas first.  Engine only helps with time.  And when I get to about Denver I buy one thing of missiles because its easier to fight the first helicopter boss.  In Phoenix there is one part were the barrels are placed randomly in the road and if you hit them you stop completely, but the last time I didn't hit them once and I have no idea how they're placed.  It was just on how you drive and reaction time.

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

All Pro Basketball is finally done.

I've now beaten it with three of the eight teams in the game. In all three playthroughs, I went undefeated and still only got credited with a 34-1 final record on the end screen. Kind of an annoying glitch...

Edited May 11, 2020 by nerdynebraskan

[BriGuy82 | 771]

Cobra Triangle 

 

[rdrunner | 422]

9 hours ago, BriGuy82 said:

@rdrunner I used your walkthrough to beat this game. You did a really nice job with that write up. I went old school and printed it up and referenced it while I was playing. I hadn't played this game since the Chicago Bears won the superbowl! It was a hot new release back then. It felt very aimless when I used to play it when I was a kid. I'm glad I got to complete 30+ years later. 

Glad I was able to help!  Deadly Towers gets a lot of (mostly deserved) grief, but it's not the worst game ever either. I had a lot of fun figuring the game out, even if it took a few thousand deaths.

I never played this as a kid, so no idea what that must have been like.  Still, I grew up liking Bayou Billy, so you never know.

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

So, what are folks playing right now?

I haven't had a lot of time the past several days, so what little time I had was spent on All Pro Basketball. I want to continue working on Gauntlet and Mighty Bomb Jack. The only game left on the list that I've done before is Mission: Impossible, but that one is tough enough that it could be a major battle to clear it again.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

Good luck on Gauntlet and Mighty Bomb Jack, @nerdynebraskan. Those are extremely difficult.

I'm still playing AD&D: Pool of Radiance. So far I like it quite a bit. The battle system is very similar to the one in Ultima III, but the whole leveling and equipment system is just so much better. I also enjoy how they've added more flavor to the dungeon exploring. Visually everything mostly looks the same, but there are frequent descriptive texts explaining what is in those rooms, hallways etc., so that you can get an understanding of the locales. They feel more like actual places and less like random dungeons, if that makes sense. There are also quests and some minor adventure elements to provide a change of pace instead of just constant fighting. The only real annoying part right now is that so many enemies can cause fatal status effects. This has me saving after every successful battle and constantly reloading if something goes wrong. Because healing paralysis, poison etc. costs thousands of gold and an enemy encounter usually provides gold in the single or double digits and so far there hasn't been a spell that can undo these status effects. Status effects are some of the most annoying parts of RPGs and here they are especially annoying. At least they work on the enemies as well so that I can put them to sleep and one-shot them. Later D&D games however would greatly improve upon this formular and make it so much more balanced and fun. Still, this is a good early attempt and a bit more fun to me than The Bard's Tale. Not sure how long it will take me though.

[Daniel_Doyce | 475]

Still working on Might & Magic. I'm saving up gold to level up and buy better armor. I'm nowhere near finished but it's not intolerable now that I'm not resetting a lot from dying in random encounters.

[NESfiend | 1,515]

@nerdynebraskan - I'm 50-3 in bases loaded 2. I need to get my pace back up, but its drained me to the point where even one set of back to back games at night is a real chore. I thought Scary knocking me out of the top 5 would create some determination to power through and get it done. Unfortunately, it hasn't. 

@Gaia Gensouki - it really cracks me up that you can grind out and enjoy pool of radiance, which you say is only slightly more fun than bards tale. Around the same day, you played one game of Goal 2 and had just had it. I like RPGs like final fantasy games, chronotrigger, earthbound, dragon warriors 3 and 4, original pokemon, etc.  But those really primitive NES rpgs are just crazy. I'd rather play a crappy sports game for NES. SNES is opposite. With a few exceptions like NBA jam, EA games and griffey, the sports games are generally not very good, but the RPGs are.  

Edited May 13, 2020 by NESfiend