NES Completions thread 2022 - 564/677 (bonus games - 83/100)

[nerdynebraskan | 354]

The P'Radikus Conflict is done. This might be my favorite Color Dreams game, unless we're also counting Wisdom Tree titles where it might be a tossup between this and Spiritual Warfare.

[PII | 1,884]

6 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

The P'Radikus Conflict is done. This might be my favorite Color Dreams game

Tell us about it !

[bronzeshield | 293]

With the power of coagulated dairy, Dragon Warrior III is done:

Disappointing that they didn't have a screen with a full rollout of all four character names: AssCheez, Chedarse, ButtBrie, and Camembut.

(Spent the whole game regretting that I didn't name him Camembum. Or, wait, no, I should have named my female priestess BumBrie. Either way.)

It's a trip to realize I last played through this game almost 20 years ago, in October 2002. I don't remember much about it for some reason, probably because I savestated the hell out of it back then. It's a pretty well-designed game, with not too much excess grinding required after the start, though occasionally the "Where the hell am I and what do I do next?" syndrome crops up.

Edited March 20, 2022 by bronzeshield

[nerdynebraskan | 354]

5 hours ago, PII said:

Tell us about [The P'Radikus Conflict] !

Well, for starters, it's probably the most unique game in the Color Dreams/Wisdom Tree library. And there is very little written about it online for a North American NES game (unlicensed or not).

In one line, I would describe it approximately as, "Asteroids II: The Action-RPG." It's a space shooter where your ship is roughly in the center of the screen, where you rotate your ship and accelerate/decelerate a la Asteroids. But the game also plays in a huge galaxy, spanning dozens (if not hundreds) of solar systems full of planets and space stations. Some are friendly, and you can buy equipment and upgrades there. Some are hostile, and you can raid them for plunder.

Luckily, the game has an intuitive and well-labeled map and navigation system. Your fuel cost for jumping to a new star system or sector of star systems is plainly indicated, and is contingent on how far away you are from it and how much you've upgraded your ship's Hyperdrive.

Here's a few hints if you want to play through it quickly:

1) You can refuel for free by visiting a gas-giant planet. Why pay for it in a friendly port, when you could be spending those credits on upgrades and new weapons? The gas giants are the purple planets on your map screen, and they exist in the vast majority of star systems.

2) The cloaking device is your best friend for approaching hostile space stations. The higher-level ones late in the game can really burn through your shields quickly, even if you've fully upgraded them. You have to hold down the B button with your cloak equipped (as it's a sub-weapon), get on top of the enemy station, and then mash the A button to blast its primary defenses with your primary laser weapon. I come to a full stop so I can hold the B button with one hand and mash the A button with my other one.

3) I was able to grind for my upgrades really quickly last night with this great tip I found on the message boards for GameFAQs. Credit goes to the guy calling himself "FatRatKnight":

"I did find a few "V.High" technology friendly bases. Here's one:
[4,4] Sector
[15,13] System
[067,078] Coordinates

The home starbase you start at is only a "High" technology level. Level 4 stuff is the best you get. While poking about the game data, there is a convenient "V.High" base, as above. [4,4] is the home sector, so no trouble getting there even with the Drive-1. The fact it's close to the middle of the map means warping in will often have you fairly close to it. If you're looking to spend your pile of credits on level 5 stuff, this is probably the best spot.

I do have a favorite enemy base to attack, too:
[4,4] Sector
[13,16] System
[033,024] Coordinates

Warp here when you start the game. It's a bit of a trek to the upper-left corner, but once you're there, turbo-mash your attacks against the enemy starbase. You'll get 250 credits for every hit, and after 48 hits (12000 credits), you get 50000 credits on top of that. Now that the base's shields are down, you... well, turn around and don't try to face down the defenses within. You already got your sack of 62000 credits, just fly over to that gas giant on the left, refuel, then warp somewhere. Maybe warp right back here and see if you can get another 62000 credits. And if you die, you weren't playing for all that long anyway."

I found this after I had completed my first mission, where the objective was just to upgrade your ship's Hyperdrive and Shields to Level 2. By raiding his favorite enemy station over and over, I had Level 5 upgrades on my Drive, Shields, and Power Plant as well as the best primary laser weapon and a bunch of subweapons in only about half an hour of grinding. If you do this, especially this early in the game, you will burn through the next several missions without much difficulty.

Here's a little more detail about my farming:  I raided the station two or three times, and immediately upgraded my shields from L2 to L5. Upgrading your shields will increase their maximum strength. At Level 1, your max shields are only 20, and at L5 they now max at 99. (I should have upgraded my lasers first, as it's only about 25,000 credits to buy the best weapon.) Then I went back and upgraded my Power Plant from L1 to L5 (again directly to save time... that station's defenses aren't very strong), because I think your reactor's strength affects how quickly your shields regenerate. Finally, I upgraded my Hyperdrive to L5 (which is the best you can buy). Your (Hyper)Drive upgrades will not just reduce the fuel cost of warping to other star systems/sectors; it will also increase your maximum movement speed in the action screens. You will be able to outrun virtually all enemy ships.

4) To successfully raid a space station or planet, you only need to blow up the turrets at the center of the complex. You'll generally want to find an angle towards the center where you can minimize your amount of fighting and the risks that come with that.

5) The last mission is pretty hard. You will have to raid eight well-defended space stations before raiding the P'Radikan homeworld, and there are no ports to repair your armor or restock your subweapons. You'll want to max out your cloaking device before warping to the P'Radikan system, and you'll want to use them just long enough to creep up on the stations and disable their exterior defenses. You'll want to use the Thunderbolt subweapon inside the space stations because it will even blow up the turrets when they're closed. With any luck, the plunder inside the control tower of one or more of those space stations may give you more cloaking device energy.

Your mission briefing warns you to be stingy with the rare Thunderbolts. Don't believe it! In fact, because of the glitchy Color Dreams programming, you can actually fully recharge your Thunderbolts at any time during the last level just by re-reading your mission briefing.

[PII | 1,884]

@nerdynebraskan

Wow.                            Thank you for that Thesis-Level Dissertation.  I've been curious about this game for a long time but never looked into it before now.  I always got the vibe that it was something more than a standard shmup, action game etc. with a title like P'radikus Conflict.  Asteroids, the action RPG is very succinct.  It also reminds me a little bit of both Xevious and Destination Earthstar, now that I've bothered to have a look at the gameplay.  Overlord also comes to mind...  Looks like a fun one to get into!

[nerdynebraskan | 354]

Magician is done. With this completion, I edge past @BeaIank's 2016 championship effort and my championship score from last year into 6th place all-time. I'm still about 30 points behind Bea's 2015 runner-up effort, which was by far the highest score in the history of second place.

[Tablew/chairs | 242]

The mutant virus

wow! First thanks to @guitarzombie for all the info and the maps posted in hoskats blog were very helpful, although I kinda adapted my own strategy for level for 4.  I had made it there yesterday but had to turn my system off for the night, today my nes has been on since very early and I was  finally able to pass level 4.  I tested level 5 a few times and it didn’t seem so hard, I took a break watched some hoops and went back to it without much of a strategy but I started to develop one and came close a few times(2 rooms left and core broke down).  I decided to give it a few more tries knowing I’d probably end up shutting off the nes for the night but what do you know things fell into place and with my last life I was able to clear the final room(number 8).  It’s a very interesting game if it wasn’t for the controls it really wouldn’t be so hard, id say a top ten difficulty though because of the awkward controls and lack of passwords. Overall it’s a good game and the cut scenes are well done.  I could see my self going back for a replay in the future.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Welcome to the Mutant Virus club man!  I enjoyed it myself back when I did it...left my system on for the better part of a week, and I pretty much had to figure it all out for myself...there simply wasn't much info on the game floating around back then.  I'm probably never going back to it for a full completion, but I do like to fire it up once in a while just for a fun run.  But yeah, it's hard as fuck by the end of it!

[nerdynebraskan | 354]

Faxanadu is done.

@Tablew/chairs

That's a huge one to say you've beaten. How close are you to beating the whole, licensed U.S. set?

[guitarzombie | 924]

3 hours ago, Tablew/chairs said:

The mutant virus

wow! First thanks to @guitarzombie for all the info and the maps posted in hoskats blog were very helpful, although I kinda adapted my own strategy for level for 4.  I had made it there yesterday but had to turn my system off for the night, today my nes has been on since very early and I was  finally able to pass level 4.  I tested level 5 a few times and it didn’t seem so hard, I took a break watched some hoops and went back to it without much of a strategy but I started to develop one and came close a few times(2 rooms left and core broke down).  I decided to give it a few more tries knowing I’d probably end up shutting off the nes for the night but what do you know things fell into place and with my last life I was able to clear the final room(number 8).  It’s a very interesting game if it wasn’t for the controls it really wouldn’t be so hard, id say a top ten difficulty though because of the awkward controls and lack of passwords. Overall it’s a good game and the cut scenes are well done.  I could see my self going back for a replay in the future.

I watched a speedrun of the game recently and was so annoyed how easy they made it look.  Fantastic job.  I still would love to get a solid strat for the last 2 levels.  Did you find my maps/strategy guide on what was left of the NA site?  

Perhaps its time to resurrect this?  Or someone should email the development team and ask them, WTF?  I still don't know how sometimes you shoot the virus and nothing happens, other times you shoot it and somehow you clean a large part of it without any rhyme or reason.  

I had this on the back burner for this year as a maybe but for the few points it got, I wasn't gonna try very hard haha.  If this game had a password feature, the point value would sink all the way to a 3.  Without a way to continue makes this game stupidly challenging.  Wonder how many other games would be much easier with a password?  Blaster Master comes to mind.

[PII | 1,884]

On 3/19/2022 at 11:35 PM, nerdynebraskan said:

Magician is done. With this completion, I edge past @BeaIank's 2016 championship effort and my championship score from last year into 6th place all-time. I'm still about 30 points behind Bea's 2015 runner-up effort, which was by far the highest score in the history of second place.

How did you like Magician?  It's one I have but have not played yet.  I hear that reading the manual is absolutely mandatory...

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Progress Report:

Conflict - Still working on the highest difficulty settings, and have knocked off the fourth mission.  The AI seems pretty crap overall...if you can get them to near zero they actually come at you with the flag tank.  I almost never have to go any more than about 2/3 of the way to the enemy's base area.  By the time I'm able to build the actual good units, the mission ends up done and I get another piece of the final password.  I'm expecting this to get a LOT harder by the end of it, but it's still a pretty fun game.  Reminds me a bit of the Dai Senryaku series, so that's kinda cool. 

Bases Loaded - Got my 8th win earlier today, passing the 10% mark.  I honestly wasn't planning to go with it, but it's a cathartic time sink when I am too tired to sleep.  Wins are guaranteed at this point, as I've given up one hit in 8 games, so it's just a matter of scoring once.  The games only last around 20 minutes or so, so yeah, knocking one or two off each day is definitely doable. 

I've also noticed my hit list is shrinking pretty fast, what with @nerdynebraskan being a goddamn machine.  Guess I'm gonna have to find a few more games that pique my interest on the list there

[Tablew/chairs | 242]

10 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Faxanadu is done.

@Tablew/chairs

That's a huge one to say you've beaten. How close are you to beating the whole, licensed U.S. set?

2! Miracle I’m still on the fence about it. When I started 10 years ago I didn’t plan on doing it because I didn’t consider it a game. The last few years I’ve kinda changed my mind to “might as well” but crabmaster mentioned to me a few of the lessons are glitched there’s a work around but it makes me less inclined to want to do it. Plus last time I looked I couldn’t find the foot pedal thing so that’s still up in the air. The last game will take me about 10 minutes finish.

[Tablew/chairs | 242]

8 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

I watched a speedrun of the game recently and was so annoyed how easy they made it look.  Fantastic job.  I still would love to get a solid strat for the last 2 levels.  Did you find my maps/strategy guide on what was left of the NA site?  

Perhaps its time to resurrect this?  Or someone should email the development team and ask them, WTF?  I still don't know how sometimes you shoot the virus and nothing happens, other times you shoot it and somehow you clean a large part of it without any rhyme or reason.  

I had this on the back burner for this year as a maybe but for the few points it got, I wasn't gonna try very hard haha.  If this game had a password feature, the point value would sink all the way to a 3.  Without a way to continue makes this game stupidly challenging.  Wonder how many other games would be much easier with a password?  Blaster Master comes to mind.

Yeah I found the thread just by searching mutant ‘virus strategy guide nes’ and it pulls it up on some archive site. But the maps aren’t there, I vaguely remembered them and I was able to find them on the guys blog about beating the game he says they’re from NA, I just couldn’t remember if you or some else from the thread made them but they’re almost essential.  If you’re still working on perfecting a run I’ll message you later with what I did on level 5.  

[nerdynebraskan | 354]

9 hours ago, PII said:

How did you like Magician?  It's one I have but have not played yet.  I hear that reading the manual is absolutely mandatory...

I enjoy it enough that I replay it every year for this challenge. You have to keep in mind that Magician is an adventure game masquerading as an Action RPG. I've never had much patience for learning adventure games, but I can enjoy the experience of playing through them while leaning on walkthroughs. 

It's a pleasantly moody game. The music, graphics, and in-game text are all well done. The difficulty is not bad. There are save states. They are limited, but you don't have to be that strict with them. There are no more than a handful of tricky parts. The platforming at the lakes is probably the worst of it. 

[guitarzombie | 924]

1 hour ago, Tablew/chairs said:

Yeah I found the thread just by searching mutant ‘virus strategy guide nes’ and it pulls it up on some archive site. But the maps aren’t there, I vaguely remembered them and I was able to find them on the guys blog about beating the game he says they’re from NA, I just couldn’t remember if you or some else from the thread made them but they’re almost essential.  If you’re still working on perfecting a run I’ll message you later with what I did on level 5.  

I might go back sometime this year.  I'm working on a big music project thats taking a LOT of my time right now.  Been working on it for a year and a half now. 

Also might as well put these here

[McBryce | 370]

Journey to Silius

[nerdynebraskan | 354]

Ghoul School is done.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

3 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Ghoul School is done.

Quit shrinking my hit list damnit! That's like a dozen this month!

But nah, keep it up   It's gonna make me keep going for games I'd never think of playing. I mean, if you told me two months ago I'd be playing through Bases Loaded, I would've laughed in your face As long as you're having fun, that's all that matters, because I sure am!

[nerdynebraskan | 354]

18 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

Quit shrinking my hit list damnit! That's like a dozen this month!

But nah, keep it up

Sorry... I didn't know you were even considering it. You seem to have your hands full with two time-sinks in Bases Loaded and Conflict.

Oh, and hopefully you weren't considering Cobra Command, because it is now done as well.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

21 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Sorry... I didn't know you were even considering it. You seem to have your hands full with two time-sinks in Bases Loaded and Conflict.

Oh, and hopefully you weren't considering Cobra Command, because it is now done as well.

I did until I played it

No worries dude, I had a short list of around 50 games that is now dwindling to almost nothing.  I'm not about to start calling games that I may or may not get to in a reasonable time frame, so play whatever you like and I'll keep plugging away at some time sinks.

[nerdynebraskan | 354]

Aw, c'mon... Cobra Command is fun, and its difficulty is moderate at worst in comparison to most NES shooters in my experience. I may be biased, as I did grow up with the game. Mission 4 (South China Sea) is long, but pretty manageable if you pick up a few extra lives beating the first three missions strongly. Mission 5 is a little tricky, but it's so short. Mission 6 gets kind of ridiculous, but there are good strategies to neutralize most of its hazards and give yourself a good shot at beating it before you run out of continues.

[nerdynebraskan | 354]

The Terminator is done.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

7 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Aw, c'mon... Cobra Command is fun, and its difficulty is moderate at worst in comparison to most NES shooters in my experience. I may be biased, as I did grow up with the game. Mission 4 (South China Sea) is long, but pretty manageable if you pick up a few extra lives beating the first three missions strongly. Mission 5 is a little tricky, but it's so short. Mission 6 gets kind of ridiculous, but there are good strategies to neutralize most of its hazards and give yourself a good shot at beating it before you run out of continues.

I actually really wanted to like it.  I mean, it's basically Choplifter, which is awesome...but the controls threw me off so hard.  Just can't get used to how floaty the chopper feels.

[nerdynebraskan | 354]

Toxic Crusaders is done.