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NES Completions thread 2021 - 665/677


scaryice

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@Khromakheck yes! Pool of Radiance is one of the best RPGs on the system imo. Glad you enjoyed it! Last year I read the paperback that was based on the game so I could get the story fleshed out even more. 

 

@Strikezone1 I consider Zanac one of the best shmups on the system. Sorry you're struggling with it. 

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10 hours ago, scaryice said:

I hate to do this to you, but...

j1D3C8s.jpg

Zanac is defeated. I was working on it last night for a while, and on my first really good run tonight (while you were posting this), I beat it. Of course I used weapon #7 - I think I made it to stage 7 or 8 before dying. Even with 30+ lives going into the last few stages, I still almost screwed it up. I actually didn't beat the level 11 boss, so I had to replay the stage. Entered the final stage with less than 10 lives, but it was easier than 11. I couldn't keep weapon 7, so I ended up using 3 for the level 11 boss and 1 for the final bosses (which somehow worked great).

I actually thought the game was great, and one of the best shooters on the system!

Congrats on beating it! It is a great accomplishment.

Don’t worry about taking the points from me, I don’t consider this thread a competition in the slightest, and Zanac is one my personal list to beat regardless.

Your opinion on it being one of the best on the system is a popular one. And I get it, the game excels in graphics/frame rate especially for being an ‘86/‘87 developed game... and the “A.I.” aspect of it is novel for shmups at the time.

I of course strongly disagree with popular opinion on this one. Overall gameplay experience is what I base my opinion on, and to me Zanac’s good qualities are entirely overshadowed by the design of its difficulty. I could name at least 10 NES shmups that I consider better than Zanac.

I think these Compile games Gun-Nac & Zanac are some of the most overrated games in the NES library. Not bad, just overrated.

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6 minutes ago, Crabmaster2000 said:

@Strikezone1 I consider Zanac one of the best shmups on the system. Sorry you're struggling with it. 

No need to be sorry for me as I am just venting my frustrations, but nevertheless I do appreciate your sentiments.

I of course share a different opinion of Zanac lol (see post above).

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8 minutes ago, WashYourFace said:

Too bad these point and click games/ports from PC (like Maniac Mansion, Shadowgate, Lemmings) didn't have a mouse. Maybe they could have brought more of them to the NES. But trying to control a cursor with a D-pad is really annoying and time-consuming.

The D-pad really is an issue only twice in the game, once when you have to hit the cat with a shoe and you only get one chance, and also throwing peas at the blue Dink thing at Mordack's mansion. Of course you can restore your game pretty quickly if you mess up.

The port itself is a total atrocity. I didn't have an NES growing up, so I only played the CD-ROM version of KQ5 on the computer. The NES port sucks all the vitality and joy out of the game.

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Of course I would beat Zanac right after I gripe about it! I mean, that’s always how it goes, right?! Lol 😆

My opinion of the game doesn’t change, which is despite all its great qualities, the frustration outweighs the fun, but I’m glad to check this one off my personal list.

I got #7 fully powered up by the beginning of area 2, didn’t die til the end of area 8, had about 30 lives built up at that point, and was able to grind it out to the end with a combo of #0, #3, and #5 (none fully powered up of course). Killed the final boss with 2 lives left.

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4 hours ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

I remember someone claimed California Games

I appreciate your letting me take a run at it. I finally got the skateboarding down and scored over 17k (default is 6k and change)! Even if I dont end up finishing it off, its cool to have finally mastered that event. 

My memory of how I good I am was way off. Down to flying disk and surfing. I think I can get flying disc, its just tedious to get a perfect throw and I keep choking on the dive when I do. Any advice on surfing? Default record is 8.2 and I keep topping out at 7.6. Not sure what to do to score more. 

Edited by NESfiend
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41 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

I appreciate your letting me take a run at it. I finally got the skateboarding down and scored over 17k (default is 6k and change)! Even if I dont end up finishing it off, its cool to have finally mastered that event. 

My memory of how I good I am was way off. Down to flying disk and surfing. I think I can get flying disc, its just tedious to get a perfect throw and I keep choking on the dive when I do. Any advice on surfing? Default record is 8.2 and I keep topping out at 7.6. Not sure what to do to score more. 

I think I started with a 360, then you need to stay as close to the breaker as you can while cranking out 90s and 45s, and then try to land cleanly at the end. It's tough for sure.

The flying disk is real tough, since I think you need to do a backwards catch (i.e. towards the left) to get a WR. Catching it straight up in the air like a nudnik gets you an average score.

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Battleship is done. It was a grind because of how long the animations took, and also because for a few levels (2-4?) There are 1 square ships (submarines), limited ways to shoot them,  and no way to detect them so it's just a crap shoot firing almost randomly hoping to hit it. Ironically, the game gets much easier in the later levels as you get new shots and can outmaneuver the terrible AI. I was surprised by how much more advanced the strategy is compared to the board game though, if you haven't played the NES version it's worth taking a crack at it. Maybe start at level 5-1

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51 minutes ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

and then try to land cleanly at the end

I think you need to do a backwards catch (i.e. towards the left) to get a WR. Catching it straight up in the air like a nudnik gets you an average score.

What does that mean about landing cleanly at the end? Is there something you are supposed to do when the wave comes full screen at .00 on the clock?

You can catch it diving backwards? How the heck do you learn to time that? I don't even know what that would look like. You are probably going to end up with the points on this one. The backward diving catch seems near impossible 

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11 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

What does that mean about landing cleanly at the end? Is there something you are supposed to do when the wave comes full screen at .00 on the clock?

You can catch it diving backwards? How the heck do you learn to time that? I don't even know what that would look like. You are probably going to end up with the points on this one. The backward diving catch seems near impossible 

 

Surfing: Did you read the manual? 🙂 "To end your ride cleanly, go over the top of the wave just before time runs out."

Flying Disk: I didn't state that well. You get a lot of points for distance thrown. That's why the overhead catch doesn't work. So you have to do a diving left catch since that allows the disk to travel the furthest. You're not catching it behind your back, just turning back to do a diving left catch.

It's pretty hard to do and it came down to chance for me. Keep trying it and eventually you'll get lucky, that's the only advice I have.

Edited by Daniel_Doyce
surfing
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37 minutes ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

Damn, you must have been grinding through that one on the downlow for a couple of days now. I did that for the contest a few years ago and it's mind-numbing

Yeah, I had been at it all week. I rented it as a kid and I didn't think it was bad. After playing through 80 cases, it gets really boring. 

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47 minutes ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

 

Surfing: Did you read the manual? 🙂 "To end your ride cleanly, go over the top of the wave just before time runs out."

Lol I read the manual for skateboarding and should have revisited it for surfing obviously. So do you jump with the board pointing straight up?

The leftward dive seems herculean. 

Edited by NESfiend
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