Khromak

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Wow, Castlequest was quite the elaborate game, I never knew. I thought it might be an interesting one to play some day but then I watched a few minutes of the speedrun and immediately thought the opposite. It seems like a gigantic maze with very few clear goals or checkpoints, just aimless wandering simulator unless you're following a guide. Those who have played it: are there a lot of upgrades/interesting things to collect, or is it literally just pick up colored keys, use them on colored doors?

Will probably be finishing Puzznic tomorrow (and moving on to Gravnic) so within a few days I should have the whole game done, depending how things go with my schedule otherwise and how obnoxiously difficult the levels are. Very fun puzzle game with really unique, simple mechanics. Reminds me of Fire 'N Ice in that the mechanics are utterly simple but they design the stages to be really tricky.

The difference is that Ebay doesn't understand or recognize video games so they're less diligent about it.

Sure, but there's a spectrum...This isn't a black-and-white issue where one thing is wrong and another is perfectly OK. Obviously it's a matter of opinion, this whole topic is, but I think that putting a repro game in a black shell with a label that says "Reproduction" on it, not putting on a back label at all, using different screws, etc. is very different from making something that is exactly the same as the original. That's kind of the whole thread? Some people will say that you shouldn't even make physical copies of homebrew/hacks because "muh purity", for me I think that anything which wasn't an official product is fair game, but once you get into copying original releases with repros, you're doing something wrong, and if you're intentionally trying to make it as realistic as possible it's worse, then when you sell it that's even worse. If you sell it and don't disclosure that's worse...etc. etc. on to infinity until you're murdering orphans while yelling at grandma that it's a true original and she's not a real collector and charging double what the original goes for.

And that's the even worse harm: Even though diligent collectors won't be fooled, tons and tons of people will be. Every time.

I have to admit I haven't read every post because this has blown up, but from what I read last night and what I'm reading this afternoon I think the difference of opinions here boils down to two sides, let me know if I'm way off base here but I think this summarizes pretty cleanly: These 1:1 repros aren't OK at all because, while the person selling it right now may not be trying to, they can be passed off, and harm the hobby in general, because the very fact that this exists makes collectors' lives more difficult 1:1 repro isn't a problem because this seller isn't trying to defraud anyone and is being upfront about what they're selling. People should do their due diligence and there are some ways to tell the difference. Personally, I'm in the camp of #1, but I understand where #2 is coming from. Unfortunately, if they're realistic enough they can catch some buyers and even the possibility of that happening is absolutely not OK. Even if you aren't doing that or trying to do it, you're letting this loose and once, twice, or 50x in the future, your product could be used to do that. That's not OK. You're potentially causing harm down the line. IMHO if you're keeping it for yourself it's less harmful, but even then...you will die and your estate might unknowingly sell it as original. You might be robbed and then it's in the wild... It's like genetic modification, you have to understand that there are ripple effects and even though you're being careful in your sale, it will echo and reverberate.

To the top!

I have to apologize in advance because I know this is someone's favorite game from their childhood but...Fuck Shadow of the Ninja, I'm done playing it (at least for now). Calling it a Ninja Gaiden clone is entirely too kind. The hit detection is awful, powerups are lame and uninspired, i-frames/stunning for enemies is inconsistent, it's just a frustrating experience through and through. Someone else can have those 5 points I'm going to spend my evening stapling my nuts to my desk instead.

I think I played Shadow of the Ninja for like...15 minutes one time and don't realize why I stopped, it seems like a good game. Gonna give it a shot since I've never beaten it. Thanks for helping me narrow down my next game choice dudes (and dudettes where appropriate)

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

Finished smash tv tonight with my buddy, first try! Though we did fail a few times the other night. Tough but VERY fun game

I'm working on Battleship. Seems like a sports game in that it's not difficult, just a slog, so I figured I'd bring it up so we don't duplicate efforts.

I finished pool of radiance this afternoon, boy what a hidden gem! I absolutely loved this game (with maps/guides). Definitely seems like pre-internet it could be frustrating but you can save anywhere so maybe not so bad. With access to information about the mechanics it's an absolute treat

I just picked up Pools of Radiance for the first time this evening. So far I'm enjoying it, but I'm not very deep in so who knows. Any tips would be appreciated.

Attack of the killer tomatoes is done. I'd heard nothing but bad things, but it wasn't that bad. A little clunky controls and very simple gameplay, but not terrible

Bump

I'm not necessarily in a rush to play this game, you can go for it as far as I'm concerned. I may beat it this year regardless just as a personal accomplishment, but it's not on my short list.

Well yeah but grinding in Dragon Warrior games is significantly more engaging and involves a lot more decisions than grinding in Battle of Olympus

It could be that I'm just not that great at platform/action games, but I was still struggling with bats and snakes at the end of the game. There are just so many frustrating enemies in the game; the monkeys, bats, everything seems somewhat random in its movement. They wouldn't be so bad by themselves, but it seems like (especially later on) there's usually 3-5 enemies on the screen at once, and once you get hit half the time you just bounce around helplessly being knocked back as the enemies' patterns aren't synced up with each other so you can't focus on one. Or you just get knocked into a pit. Another thing that didn't bother me that much, but was definitely a hindrance to my enjoyment of the game, were the olives. Since I died constantly (see my comment above about how I suck) I regularly had 0-5 olives, meaning every time I had to buy something I needed to spend about 10-20 minutes farming easy enemies for olives. I'm probably being too harsh on the game; it's not terrible, it's just frustrating/boring at times. Overall I think it's decent, maybe 6.5 or 7/10, but definitely a "screaming at the TV" game sometimes.

Just finished battle of Olympus. God damn was this another frustrating one. The knock back when you get hit is endlessly frustrating from the first boss all the way to the final dungeon. Most people compare it to zelda 2 which is frankly insulting. It's got some similarities but it's very dramatically worse. On the plus side it has decent music, good graphics, a nice big open world and lots of powerups. Just very frustrating and you don't usually have a lot of resources to deal with the challenge

Not sure how far you got, but levels 4 and 6 (the last one) were the ones that really dragged for me. The other ones had some difficult parts, but 4 and 6 were brutally, unfairly difficult. I think I'm reasonably good at platform games but they just demanded such specific strategies and execution to beat..

Just finished tiny toon adventures. My God was this game way too difficult for a game aimed at 7 year olds...

Funny you say that, I'm considering beating Fester's Quest this year as well. I never played it as a kid, but played through a few bosses last year. The bosses are just so clunky I couldn't bring myself to try to make it all the way through at the time, but it's definitely one I want to do.

Just finished blaster master. Very fun game, top 25 imho. I'm surprised it was still left since so many people have it in their top X lists. This was my first time beating it, it seemed so daunting before; it's definitely a walk through or heavy exploration game. The controls are SUPER tight, until the last section when you have the ceiling climb then it's obnoxious.