NES Completions thread 2021 - 665/677

[scaryice | 584]

19 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

Recently I couldn't play much due to moving and other issues. Is anybody still trying to go for some games or is this year's challenge lost? Or maybe some people haven't found their way here since the server troubles?

Sadly, it seems out of reach at this point. The server trouble didn't help, but it the odds were probably against us at that point regardless.

[Tulpa | 3,490]

On 12/18/2021 at 8:08 PM, the_wizard_666 said:

IIRC, Tengen actually won that lawsuit as well.  Reverse engineering a console falls within fair use of your own property.  Although I may be mistaken on that, but for some reason that's what sticks in my brain.

They sort of won. Atari/Tengen's reverse engineering was fair use, but their method of obtaining the chip data (by lying to the US copyright office) killed off their attempt to use a copyright misuse defense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Games_Corp._v._Nintendo_of_America_Inc.#Fair_use_defense_of_reverse_engineering

[scaryice | 584]

For 2022, I think I'm going to include a list of 100 bonus games (replacing the current bonus points system). This will include a bunch of unlicensed games - all of the Tengen games for sure, and then more from other publishers. There will also be some PAL and Famicom games, maybe some FDS and homebrews since we haven't done any of those before... Rather than include everything, it's gonna be more of a "best of the rest" selection.

[Daniel_Doyce | 470]

It looks like we ran out of steam in December instead of the normal holiday time rally.

There are also a lot more contests popping up, so the collective effort of the community is more and more diluted every year.

[scaryice | 584]

Ok, here's the list of 100 bonus games that I put together for next year's competition. It breaks down as follows:

 

Unlicensed	40
PAL	15
Famicom	15
FDS	10
Homebrew	10
Hack	5
Unreleased	5
Total	100

 

Each game will be worth 4 points, for a total of 400 bonus points, in order to be right in line with how many there usually are. I tried to pick mostly unlicensed games that weren't too difficult or terrible. I avoided most of the ones that were unbeaten previously, as well as the multicarts (annoying to keep track of) and stuff like sports games that fewer people want to play. Same for PAL. I haven't played any of the homebrews, but I just went by reputation and what stood out to me gameplay-wise.

 

Unlicensed	Adventures of Captain Comic
Unlicensed	After Burner
Unlicensed	Alien Syndrome
Unlicensed	Baby Boomer
Unlicensed	Bible Adventures
Unlicensed	Big Nose Freaks Out
Unlicensed	Big Nose the Caveman
Unlicensed	Castle of Deceit
Unlicensed	Dizzy the Adventurer
Unlicensed	Double Strike
Unlicensed	Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy
Unlicensed	Fantasy Zone
Unlicensed	Fire Hawk
Unlicensed	King Neptune's Adventure
Unlicensed	King of Kings Early Years
Unlicensed	Klax
Unlicensed	Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu
Unlicensed	Metal Fighter
Unlicensed	Micro Machines
Unlicensed	Mission Cobra
Unlicensed	Ms. Pac-Man
Unlicensed	Pac-Mania
Unlicensed	Pesterminator
Unlicensed	P'radikus Conflict
Unlicensed	R.B.I. Baseball 2
Unlicensed	R.B.I. Baseball 3
Unlicensed	Raid 2020
Unlicensed	Road Runner
Unlicensed	Rolling Thunder
Unlicensed	Shinobi
Unlicensed	Shockwave
Unlicensed	Silent Assault
Unlicensed	Skull & Crossbones
Unlicensed	Spiritual Warfare
Unlicensed	Super Sprint
Unlicensed	Tetris
Unlicensed	Toobin'
Unlicensed	Ultimate Stuntman
Unlicensed	Vindicators
Unlicensed	Wally Bear and the No! Gang
PAL	Asterix
PAL	Banana Prince
PAL	Beauty and the Beast
PAL	Devil World
PAL	Hammerin' Harry
PAL	Legend of Prince Valiant
PAL	Mr. Gimmick
PAL	New Ghostbusters II
PAL	Over Horizon
PAL	Parasol Stars
PAL	Parodius Da
PAL	Rod Land
PAL	Smurfs
PAL	Super Turrican
PAL	Ufouria: The Saga
Famicom	Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun
Famicom	Cocoron
Famicom	Crisis Force
Famicom	Crossfire
Famicom	Getsu Fuuma Den
Famicom	Goonies
Famicom	Gradius II
Famicom	Grand Master
Famicom	Hello Kitty World
Famicom	Kyattou Ninden Teyandee
Famicom	Metal Max
Famicom	Moon Crystal
Famicom	Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken
Famicom	Spartan X2
Famicom	Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti
FDS	Ai Senshi Nicol
FDS	Armana no Kiseki
FDS	Dirty Pair
FDS	Esper Dream
FDS	Kiki Kaikai
FDS	Meikyuu Jin Dababa
FDS	Monty on the Run
FDS	Nazo no Murasame-jou
FDS	Otocky
FDS	Super Mario Bros. 2 (JP)
Homebrew	Battle Kid
Homebrew	Battle Kid 2
Homebrew	Blade Buster
Homebrew	Bobl
Homebrew	Driar
Homebrew	Legends of Owlia
Homebrew	Lizard
Homebrew	Micro Mages
Homebrew	Nebs 'n Debs
Homebrew	Twin Dragons
Hack	Castlevania: The Holy Relics
Hack	Legend of Zelda: Outlands
Hack	Mario Adventure
Hack	Metroid: Rogue Dawn
Hack	Rockman 4 Minus Infinity
Unreleased	Bio Force Ape
Unreleased	California Raisins
Unreleased	Secret Ties
Unreleased	Sunman
Unreleased	Time Diver: Eon Man

 

 

...

Edited December 31, 2021 by scaryice

[PII | 1,884]

@scaryice Why would this list replace Pain Points?  You should keep Pain points in, It's a great motivator and a great way to learn about the most challenging games on the NES.

[Strikezone1 | 154]

Dang, after blazing through 80% of the library by end of February, the thread still came up short. Oh well. More proof that it's a matter of clearing those 100-150 highly challenging/frustrating/tedious games that makes the difference.

 

I too do really like the pain points. Hate to see em go. Any little extra motivator to take out the harder games helps..... That said, It's cool to change it up and keep things fresh. I like the new bonus list with a nice mix of variety.

[scaryice | 584]

5 hours ago, PII said:

@scaryice Why would this list replace Pain Points?  You should keep Pain points in, It's a great motivator and a great way to learn about the most challenging games on the NES.

I'm not sure that it does much to motivate people after all. Those games with some combination of hard/tedious/bad/rare are still going to be the last ones no matter how many points they're worth. And like I said, I want to have around the same number of bonus points (or non-licensed points) as we normally do:

2014	477
2015	181.5
2016	664
2017	401.5
2018	601.5
2019	300
2020	427
2021	427

Actually, it looks like the average is closer to 450, so I'll make the list worth 4.5 each instead of 4.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

So we get an arbitrary selection instead of proper inclusion of every North American release?  *sigh* Guess I'm still out.  Good luck next year though

EDIT: Actually, y'know what?  No, I'm gonna go in after all.  I'm gonna make my focus be the unlicensed list, and try and get the other 30ish games included in 2023.  Still, I don't like how it came down to an arbitrary selection instead of a community poll, but whatever.  Not sure about @Dr. Morbis though, but he probably feels the same as I do.  But yeah, I miss participating, and at least there's some unlicensed there.

Edited December 31, 2021 by the_wizard_666

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

1 hour ago, the_wizard_666 said:

I don't like how it came down to an arbitrary selection instead of a community poll, but whatever.

Yeah, that's my issue, picking random "bonus" games when we don't even have all the US games included to begin with.  But I hope you have fun with it, Mike; it was your baby to begin with, too bad it didn't grow up the way you intended...

[Reed Rothchild | 9,511]

1 minute ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Yeah, that's my issue, picking random "bonus" games when we don't even have all the US games included to begin with.  But I hope you have fun with it, Mike; it was your baby to begin with, too bad it didn't grow up the way you intended...

With all due respect, scary is the one who has been doing the heavy lifting for years , and it's a pretty thankless job.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

With all due respect, scary is the one who has been doing the heavy lifting for years , and it's a pretty thankless job.

No doubt; I've said time and again that he does an absolutely amazing job and there is no one who could come even remotely close to replacing him at the level of dedication he puts in.

For me, it's a personal issue.  Totally me - I'm the weirdo.  It's like if someone invited me over to help him beat Battletoads and then shut off the game at the start of Clinger Winger because it's glitched on 2p so he doesn't count it, and I'm like, "no we gotta beat the whole game!"  And he's like, nope, my house, my rules: the game is glitched so we're calling it beaten at Clinger Winger.  Most people would be like, "whatever, I don't really care," but I'm the one guy who actually cares and would be pissed off about his decision.

So TLDR: I agree Scaryice is awesome and I'm the old curmudgeon who refuses to cooperate... 

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

2 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

With all due respect, scary is the one who has been doing the heavy lifting for years , and it's a pretty thankless job.

There's nobody better to run this than @scaryice.  I (obviously) don't always agree with how he does it, but he's doing infinitely better than I did the first few years when I was running it.  I take too many hiatuses, so it only made sense to pass the reins, and I couldn't have handed them to a better guy.  Which is why I'm gonna do what I can to knock off some of the unlicensed games, in order to add the rest for 2023.

I am questioning the FDS additions though...mainly because I'm unsure about how to emulate them.  Physical FDS releases are a crapshoot if they even still work, so emulation may be the only way...so if anyone knows a good FDS emulator...

Also, I don't like the addition of hacks, but again, I'm not outright against it.  It's cool to try something different, and it's not like there's an overabundance of them on the list, so it's hard to really argue with it.

@Dr. Morbis I'd really like to see you back in the fold man...and really, what better way is there to show Scary that the unlicensed games should be added en masse than to finish off the project.  Either way, I get it, but your skillset is much broader than mine is, and could be a bigger boon than my intermittent gaming will be.

[WashYourFace | 80]

Sorry I didn't ever get back to playing games on this list. Work (and other stuff) overwhelmed me halfway through the year, and never let up. Hopefully I can finally find some free time for retro gaming again in the new year.

[scaryice | 584]

6 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

I am questioning the FDS additions though...mainly because I'm unsure about how to emulate them.  Physical FDS releases are a crapshoot if they even still work, so emulation may be the only way...so if anyone knows a good FDS emulator...

It's very easy to emulate, you just need the FDS bios file to be able to play those roms. I use FCEUX and Bizhawk to play NES games and it works like any other game once you have that set up. You do have to go into the menus to eject/insert the disk and flip sides and all that.

[scaryice | 584]

So, we end up with 12 unbeaten games. First time unbeaten for Boulder Dash and Gold Medal Challenge.

Congrats again to Nerdynebraskan for the 4th straight title, and 5th overall! And also to Gaia Gensouki for a second straight runner up finish, as well as Khromak rounding out the top 3! It looks like PII was the only first time top ten finisher, and Bearcat-Doug and NESfriend got their highest positions ever this year.

The new thread is up!

 

 

Edited January 1, 2022 by scaryice