Khromak

I'll be getting back about ~11k, ~8k of which comes from the solar tax credit for putting solar panels on my roof last year. I'll be spending most of it to pay off the last of the loans I took out to pay for the solar panels, which seems counter-intuitive but I'll have solar panels for another 30+ years so let the savings roll in! I will be picking up a couple things for myself though, like a new phone I kinda need. No video game tapes though, I'm in a pretty good place with my collection and am not really hunting anything right now.

Just beat smash tv, in my first try, without even looking at maps. This game's for babies! In fact, the game said I might be the best smash tv player ever. Not sure how it would know that, but I'll take it Edit: I thought I would try this game on Playchoice via Powerpak, but unfortunately since the game thinks you're holding the controllers sideways, the joysticks don't line up with screen directions. It might be possible to re-train your brain, or I guess you could re-wire your joystick, but it would be very difficult. I was really hoping for true twin-stick action.

Just finished mystery quest. It's not great but not too bad once you get used to the controls. There's no reason they had to make it loop 4 times to get the ending though, that's just silly.

The answer here is pretty obvious: sellers put "rare" in their listings to increase attention/price/interest. It's marketing fluff to try to increase the perceived value of their goods, not an objective measure of the relative rarity of any item compared to all other carts.

Just finished Fire 'N Ice. This one's great. Simple mechanics but somehow they still come up with really tough levels, but not so tough that i feel like i have to give up. One of the best puzzle games for the system

Excited? How much have you played it before? I really enjoy the 3d space-shooter sections where you're flying around taking out tie-fighters, but the shooter sections are brutally difficult for me. I was practicing the game with save states at the beginning of each level but God damn some of those sections are really unforgiving. Even trying them dozens of times in a row, I still found myself dying regularly to the same stage. Trying to string 8(?) of those together in a row would be an absolute mess. I quickly realized why it's got 7 pain points. This was a couple years ago so I can't remember all the details but damn was it a doozy. I'm sure if you can memorize enough of those sections and/or have better reactions than me, it might not be so bad but boy howdy did that game hand me my ass. On a more positive note...I'm halfway through world 8 in Fire 'N Ice, so that one should be done soon. Either tomorrow or this weekend, depending how busy I am tomorrow.

Good for you. I picked it up the other day to try to go through it since I'd never played it before but lots of people said good things about it and the gameplay looked interesting. Once they started spawning enemies behind me, I folded like a wet napkin and had basically no chance of making it through the end of the game (I presumed) so I gave up on it. It doesn't help that I'm terrible at shmups in general and have no patience, I might've been able to do it with enough persistence but the game won.

Tiny Toon Adventures is done, what a frustrating game. Maybe it's just because I'm tired, but I was definitely screaming at my TV for seconds of this one. There were a couple parts where as soon as I saw the level entrance I knew I was gonna be pissed, remembering past traumas. Turns out I was right

Solstice is done. I normally really enjoy this game, but this time I was following a different guide and it had terrible advice for the last puzzle so I spent almost an hour trying to do his shitty strategy before I looked up another guide with much better advice. Guess I probably could've figured it out myself, but the isometric angle makes it hard to tell what you can and can't do. That last part is my review of the game too: I love the graphics and sound, the controls are tight, and the mechanics are fun, but the isometric angle that makes it so memorable also makes it really frustrating at points

Lolo 3 is done. I had to look up hints for a couple levels and the solution for the final level (it's insane no human could figure that out), but overall did better than most years in terms of spoilers. The game is very tough, bordering on the line of unfun for a couple levels. I prefer the earlier games, but this one is still good

This is incredibly good news because I've tried the intended method and it is a slog, plus quite difficult. I'd definitely like to knock this one out using this strategy, it's haunted me for a while after a few attempts. It was on my list to try to beat this year.

I'm on the last few stages of Lolo 3 but got distracted earlier in the day so I won't finish it until tomorrow at the earliest. After that I have a few more lined up but haven't picked anything yet.

I still have almost 50 games left on my list of games I'd like to beat this year that are still on the list. Some for points, some first time clears for me personally. That definitely won't happen, I'm sure other people will clear half+ of them before I get to them, but they should get done one way or the other. I think we're gonna crush it this year! Maybe once we finish the list we can add bonus games later in the year to celebrate.

Beat ren n Stimpy, and for the first time (I think) i 1cc'd it, with 8 lives to spare at the end. I'm entirely too good at this game considering how bad it is. Looks like I made 47 million dollars, not bad

8 eyes is done, another one which coincidentally falls victim to comparison. If it wasn't so similar to castlevania, I think it would be held in higher regard. Pretty decent game judged on its own merits

Beat deadly towers. I quite like this game, despite some of the cheap deaths. The early game is fraught with danger, but once you get all the good equipment you feel like a beast. Without maps and shop info, it would probably be quite a bit more frustrating

Contra force is done. Worst thing this game did was name itself contra. The frame rate is obviously awful, but other than that it's a fairly competent game. When compared to contra though, oof.

Surprised it was still on the list, but zelda 2 is now done. I beat it with 7/7/8, due to taking some gambles with my exp and taking some bad deaths, and also not using the palace bonuses too well. It's nothing compared to the challenge from last year

True, but how many times has a cart sold for hundreds/thousands since then? Nowadays I guess the cart is mostly a collector's item and the price -> rarity situation still applies.

I think part of the difference is you can get a Battle Kid 2 rom and you can't get a Starkeeper rom. If you want to play Starkeeper you have to have a cart, so the demand is higher, and supply is lower. Economics will tell us what happens from there.

I love Pool of Radiance and I've beaten it several times, it's really awesome. It's definitely not balanced, as you said the incapacitating spells are just broken AF and it probably overstays its welcome, but I always enjoyed the exploration, writing, and the combat is quite involved and engaging, despite the imbalance. I typically go for a pile of F/M, some F/C, and one straight cleric, just to speed up the healing process. There are probably tons of viable compositions though; shame Thief is utterly worthless.

Dragon warrior 3 is done again this year. This time I went with a very plain Jane, efficient setup with no craziness, pilgrim 2 goof-off into 3 sages and I left them as sages all the way to the end. Interestingly this time I forgot to pick up the shield of heroes, but I don't think it would've made much of a difference. Love this game, can't get enough of it

Dragon Warrior 3 will be done tomorrow...and I answered my own question, turns out I'm an idiot. You can't change jobs INTO Goof-off, you can only start as a Goof-off. So it's impossible to have a Goof-off transform into another class, unfortunately. I'm geared to the max and probably leveled enough to finish off the final boss, but I'm going to grind a LITTLE bit more before making the dive to take him out. @Gaia Gensouki @guitarzombie and @nerdynebraskan are absolute monsters now, we're tearing it up! Edit: In DW3. Also in the contest, but in this context I meant their avatars in DW3 lol

You mean once I told you that it was much, much easier. Just kidding, glad you finally got him, fuck that guy! I'm also glad to hear my memory was correct on that guy. I definitely fought him many, many times before figuring out WTF was going on. The first 2 are easy enough with the strat I was using that I didn't have to understand his mechanics, but the third one threw me for a loop for a while until I figured that out because I was throwing tons of bullets right at his invincible section and getting murdered.

I don't remember which form was which, I think the first two had patterns you could memorize, but the third one might've been random and you have to react to it? In the end I think the key was making sure I was attacking as much as possible. Iirc each form had a different weak spot and/or would counter if you attacked in a specific spot