Elkovsky

Thanks! I'm totally putting this in a text file for posterity so I can give this a shot the next time I give it a try.

Good night, this one gave me a ton of grief the last time I played it. Any pointers you might be able to offer?

I wouldn't mind seeing the unlicensed stuff myself... perhaps added in as sort of a "bonus round" if we make good time on the 677. But that's just me.

Karnov is done. I think if I had grown up with this or were to spend a little longer with it, I would like it a little more, but the game started wearing out its goodwill over time. Still, it's a game where you play a fire-breathing circus strongman, so I can't be *too* mad at it.

You have my respect; BeaIank; that's probably one of the hardest NES games I've ever attempted. I imagine it's fairly low on randomness, though, so probably easier to learn than some of the toughies out there. Oh, and The Legend of Kage is done. A little annoying—I feel like sometimes it's a bit of a crapshoot whether you're going to get hit suddenly by an unexpected projectile, even when you're swinging the kodachi regularly—but at least it was short, even with three loops as a requirement. Oh, another thing: I might take another shot at Evert & Lendl Top Player's Tennis at some point if it doesn't get cleared early on, as the last time I beat it years ago, I don't think I *actually* beat it. The pastebin file for completion requirements says "Must win all tournaments to get the ending (add more details) rank 12 after asmik, rank 8 wimbledon"; would someone who's cleared this in a previous year be able to clarify?

Kabuki: Quantum Fighter is done. Aside from a few moments of fussy platforming, a pretty good game.

Legendary Wings is done. Didn't get the ending pic in time—haven't beaten this one before, so I incorrectly assumed it would freeze on the final screen rather than starting another loop. I have a screenshot of me at the beginning of my second loop with close to a million points, so hopefully that's okay. Just to make sure, one loop *is* enough for completion, right? If not, I can always take a second go at this tomorrow if someone doesn't beat me to it. Also, is anything different on subsequent loops? Increased difficulty? Multiple endings?

Little Nemo: The Dream Master is done!

Looking forward to getting back into NES completion again; I haven't knocked off that many titles in the past several years, but I've been in the mood for shorter, one-sitting games for some reason as of late. I'm planning on knocking out one of my old favorites to kick things off, and I'll see what I have time for from there. I'm in my last semester of doctoral coursework and I might get swamped once things get rolling, but if there's still some stuff on my list by mid-April, I'll see what I can knock off during the summer. See you all in 2021!

After doing Mode 1 in June, I had tried 9-Ball a handful of times but never really got anywhere, and I beat one of the sports modes. As for everything else, all of my completions (including a replay of soccer to get a proper screenshot) were in the span of about four hours yesterday, and before that, I spent maybe an hour or two (might have been more) on 9-Ball in the late evening on December 10. So six months with a long gap in there, but everything other than Mode 1 was more or less in a 24-hour period with some sleep in the middle.

Okay, so I started Michael Andretti's World GP, and, um... whoa man. I was *not* expecting an NES racing game with a learning curve. I'm honestly not sure if I have the time for this right now; even if I kept at it over most of the break, I'm not sure if I'd be able to finish this before the end of the year. Not to let everyone down or anything...

Alright, I have something to show for my efforts. Here we go... For 9-Ball, I figured out that it's possible to game the RNG as far as the initial board setup. If one cues through the title screen and moves through the options pretty quickly, the fifth pattern of bonus multipliers yields four bonus multiplier spots in a decent configuration. Between that and good fortune, I was able to get 42,000 "dollars" after three rounds, and then I wagered away the money I didn't need during rounds 4 and 5. It turns out that a fully powered shot with no nudges afterwards will always drain down the left side, so I was able to avoid accidentally winning money at that point. [] Battle Flipper was novel, but kind of annoying. I couldn't reliably get the flipper to behave correctly on Soccer (it would sometimes flip the balls back at me, even when I thought I was swinging it the right way... not sure how much of that is my stupidity and how much was just janky physics), but I didn't actually need to for Ice Hockey, since winning was mostly a matter of keeping the goalie in the middle and waiting for the AI to make stupid mistakes. Assuming that 3 sets counts as completion for each mode, then, Rock 'n' Ball is done! Even if it isn't, I think I'm going to move on to Michael Andretti's World GP for now, since no one else seems to be claiming it and it's still on my personal list. Anything I should know before starting in?

Alright, I'm back at it again. My own coursework is done and I just have a few little loose ends with grading and such, so I should have a lot more time to help get us through these last few games. Took a few shots at 9-ball in Rock 'n' Ball a little while ago, but no dice. I'm getting a little better with the nudging, but I'm probably going to need good luck on my first two sets to make this happen. Just to clarify, for each of the battle and sports modes, do I need to do a 3-set, 5-set, and 7-set for each mode for those modes to count as finished?

Thank goodness someone is taking this one. Also, it turns out that I haven't beaten Michael Andretti's World Grand Prix; for some reason I thought I had, but it was Al Unser Jr. Turbo Racing that I finished back in... ::consults spreadsheet:: ... 2013. If no one else has claimed it, I am considering doing it after finishing Rock 'n Ball... although I'm looking TMR's completion time and I'm wincing a bit. Does it get particularly difficult towards the end of the Grand Prix mode? I won't be able to resume until December 2 or 3 at the earliest, though; I've still got a couple of final papers to finish and I'll be meeting one-on-one virtually with my own students about their own final projects on Wednesday through Friday. Things will slow way the heck down after that, though.

I'll be finishing up classes this week, so my schedule will be freeing up considerably very soon. I'm planning on coming back to Rock 'n Ball to finish it off, so unless someone is actually eager to play it, I'd be glad to "take one for the team" (and I haven't marked it off of my master list of NES completions yet as it is). Just out of curiosity, what's the word on Bases Loaded? Is anyone working on it right now? I seem to remember that that one takes forever to complete.