Crabmaster2000

@Khromak here's a link to my spreadsheet with the win conditions I used for each game:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RlVezcaP_dn3VHhBeuoOBiH7chx0dLaEchzj5cqhU5M/edit?usp=drivesdk

26 minutes ago, Khromak said:

Really interesting video, thanks for sharing!

IDK if you kept a spreadsheet of your win conditions, but I think something like that, with some notes about your logic/decision-making process, would be REALLY interesting for other people seeking to do this challenge to reference.

I agree with what seems to be the overarching theme of your video, "what counts as a win depends on the person playing and their goals" because it really is incredibly unclear what the "win condition" or "beating" a game means in a large percentage of the games on the system. Some people will nitpick the tiniest difference in the gameplay loop, demand the highest difficulty, include playing every stage, every character, getting the "best" ending, etc. but others are satisfied with lower requirements.

Ultimately, anyone who "beats" a game, or all the games, will have some caveats to it. I doubt anyone is crazy enough (including the guy attempting it on this site and recording it) to actually 100% complete every game, to the satisfaction of every possible nitpick anyone could make, like beating all the baseball games with each team, so there will always be some asterisks involved in saying you "beat" every game or even experienced all the content in every game. It just comes down to the individual (or group in the case of a challenge like we do every year) to draw those lines where they see fit.

Thanks so much for watching and the feedback!

I do have a spreadsheet actually of all the win conditions I ended up using. I'll see about digging it up to share.

There been some really cool discussions on here over the years about win conditions and when I check others players like TMRs win conditions I always find it fascinating when we both have different goals for the same game. Really makes me think hard about why we differ on the few games we do. 

Since what constitutes beating NES games is of great interest to me I finally got around to making a youtube video about how messy it is. If you aren't deep into the "Beat every NES game" threads on here I'd bet you may not know how much grey area there is when trying to beat DOZENS of games on the system. Hoping this video can shed some light on the many circumstance in which it isn't very straightforward to "beat" a game. This is my first attempt at a video like this so I'd appreciate any and all feedback on it too. 

Took the week, but I just finished Cosmic Fantasy 2. I don't know if I've ever played a more uneven RPG in my life. It would go from you having a single party member with no healing spells traversing a tough dungeon all by yourself to having 4 party members with enemies doing 1-6 damage at most to you. One dungeon would be awarding you 1000+ experience points and then the next area AFTER that would only offer 500-600 exp for battles. It was very weirdly paced. Otherwise not overly memorable and not one I'll likely return to. 

Finished up Dungeon Explorer II today. It was a big improvement from the first game. Really liked it. The soundtrack was AMAZING. If you're in the mood for a Gauntlet/Zelda style game, but just a light version of those that can be beaten in about 4-5 hours this'll scratch that itch. There is also a fair amount of optional dungeons and tons of characters to experiment with and a few secret things too. Good way to spend a Sunday. 

Prince of Persia is done. A bit better than the NES version overall. Such an important game and it's cool to see the design and movements, but it's not much fun to play due to the controls and combat. 

Been working on SimEarth A LOT over the past few days. I knew there were credits thanks to @Rishary's channel, but it took me a long time to figure out how to trigger them. It's actually not that hard now that I know what to do, but it took a lot of experimentation to figure it out. At first I was playing through each scenario and I almost finished that, but nothing was triggering credits. Turns out you just have to reach the Migration event off planet, but must be on at least Average difficulty for the credits to trigger. 

This is the most hours I've put into a Sim game in my entire life. Only really dabbled briefly with SimCity as a kid. 

Worked my way through Beyond Shadowgate today. It was actually decent for a console point & click adventure game from the early 90s. Voice acting was alright too. Started and ended pretty strong, but most of the game in the middle was pretty dull, boring or nonsensical. Lots of silly ways to die like in the first Shadowgate, but definitely lacked the cool atmosphere of the original. 

Just beat Lords of Thunder. This is one of my favorite games of all time. Havn't played it in quite a while, but it is EXACTLY as good as I remember it being...amazing. No notes. Probably has my favorite OST ever as well. If you're into shmups and haven't played Lords of Thunder you should check it out. 

Beat both Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 this morning. We own a Pen & Paper version of all of the mysteries on both of these games. It was weird to go back to a really clunky version of them from this era. The FMV actor's were actually mostly decent though. It was just a real pain to navigate and wait for videos to load. The newpapers were the absolute worst part of the game. 

Been working of Forgotten Worlds for the last 2 days. Most of the game isn't much trouble, it's just the final boss who's a huge pain. Lots of runs stopped at that fight before I got a good one. Decent game though with a good variety of power ups to play around with. Pretty easy (other than that final boss fight) after a couple attempts once you start to build up your character. 

Finally beat Monster Lair after working on it for the past several days. Definitely a tough game. Like most Wonder Boy games it had a bunch of parts that just kill you the first time you reach them until you know to work around them. There is also a bit of luck involved with the power ups that drop since some are almost necessary in certain situations so if you don't get a good drop you'll likely have to take a death. Same with the bosses, most are pretty easy with the right power up so if you arrive without a good power up they can be quite challenging in some cases. 

Finally made it to the final boss, but only had one life left and died. Sucks because on that run I lost 2 lives VERY early in dumb places too. 

Finally had a run that made it to the final stage and then I botched it. Lost a lot of unnecessary lives in the 2 stages leading up to it too. There's only two bosses who are giving me trouble now. If I can sort them out I should be home free.

Started working on Monster Lair. Seems like it's gonna be a tough one

Slammed through Final Zone II in one sitting. It was very short and easy. Pretty bland overall, nothing really notable to talk about. I'm not a huge fan of top down shooters to begin with so I'm thankful it was fast. 

Halfway through the library now!

Worked on Shape Shifter last night and was able to finish it up this morning. It was a real mixed bag. Some of the transformations were cool, others were awful. The hitboxes and movement were kind of bad. Some of the boss fights were alright and others were awful. Music was solid. There is a super weird mechanic where you just get full healed out of the blue every 10 minutes during a new lunar cycle. This means there was a ton of standing around to wait for a heal before moving forward or waiting to get the moon in a certain spot before engaging a very challenging part in order to benefit from the health refill. Have never played another game with that mechanic. Probably would make for some cool speed run stuff since you could time the moon cycle with some parts you could tank a bunch of hits for that refill. 

Finished Camp California today. It's an interesting game. Action platformer with a Beach Boys and talking animals theme. They have a few Beach Boys tunes, but also a bunch of original music and one of the original songs is super metal. There's a bunch of characters that all have special abilities you can save and then use in the next stages. You've got to collect trash to use as fuel for your car during the stages in order to travel on the overworld map. It's a bit weird, but interesting. 

1 hour ago, Red said:

If I ever get my Turbo CD running, this is the first game I want to try.  It looks like one of those games that can be enjoyable just for the campiness.

It's quite weird. If you can appreciate it for that you can have some fun. It does suck though 

Just finished John Madden DUO. They added a bunch of FMV stuff when the ref makes calls or there is a serious tackle. There was also a pretty elaborate 3D stadium/FMV opening. They had FMV moments for touchdowns and good plays too which were funny because it was skinny white people in football uniforms, I'm assuming the production staff. The game played a bit slippery, but it had a TON of play options for those that really want to get into the weeds. 

Finished Shadow of the Beast this morning. This was one that I got stuck on as a kid, but turned out to be very easy, I was just a dumb kid. Its not a good game, but I really dig the visuals and music. Something bizarre and dark and beautiful about it.

Tried out Vasteel and got slaughtered. Decided on Addams Family instead and I'll come back to Vasteel soon. Addams Family was short, but with the crappy movement and hitboxes and sound it wasn't great. Also instead of FMV they would just have a still image with sound over it when a character was talking, seemed lazy. 

Finished It Came From The Desert this morning. Did most of it last night. The FMV parts of the game were fun and campy, but whenever you actually had to play the game it was awful. Really terrible controls and movement. The saves helped a ton since I had to retry the tunnels A LOT. The fake songs made up for the radio were all pretty solid though. 

Finished up Dragon Slayer The Legend of Heroes this afternoon. Its a game that I've been meaning to play for yeas as I've never tried a Legend of Heroes game before so I've been very curious. It was solid with only a few little annoyances throughout, which are easy to overlook considering the age of the game. Looking forward to more games in the series now! It did have the worst voice acting I've ever heard though.