the_wizard_666

I would imagine it does.  That said, World Class Track Meet was released as a stand-alone cart only in bundles with the Power Pad, so I would imagine the number of round seal copies in existence are astronomically small.  You would have had to buy a Power Pad in the few months between it's release and the switch from round seals to oval ones.  As such, it may just be a really difficult variant to snag.

27 minutes ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

Mission: Impossible is done.

 

Quit beating all the games I want to play! This makes like 20 now

Seriously though, any pointers for me?  I've given it so many attempts over the years and yet I've never made it past the first level.

I think the biggest issue I have is I don't really have much in the way of documentation.  I don't even know myself what all is in the mountain of boxes, so even getting a fair estimate would be tough.  I also feel like cashing out isn't the way I want to go either.  While it'd be the best way I have to ensure getting the monetary value, I have more attachment to my stuff than I do to myself.  I would honestly rather die than not have it, so selling would likely be the first step toward the end for me.  Yes, I know that statement is pretty worrisome in it's own right, but it's how I feel about it.  Plus, the money I make would go to fund my existence, and would thus diminish over time, leaving far less behind than I would like.  I have no RRSPs, no insurance, and no real assets outside of the collection, so it's literally all I have.  Probably why I'm so damn worried about it in the first place

1 minute ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Also, tell them about Jeff at the Trader, as you know he's always looking to buy out collections and I'm sure he would give a bereaving family the fair value that they deserve...

That's an excellent point.  I would imagine Jeff would probably give them a more than fair offer on a good amount of it.  Maybe not some of the real oddball niche stuff, but definitely the stuff he could sell.

So I've been thinking lately...when I pass, I want the entirety of my collection to pass to my nieces, whether as a collection or the cash value of it to use as they desire.  This is known all around my family, and I'm certain those wishes will be respected.  The dilemma I'm facing is that, as they grow older, they seem less interested in keeping it as a collection.  And honestly, I doubt my family would have any idea how to dispense with everything in such a way as to get anywhere near what it's actually worth.  I'm physically deteriorating, and mentally I'm arguably getting worse.  I don't want to leave a huge burden behind me, but if I cash out I honestly don't see anything left to keep me moving forward.  How can I get things set up so I can enjoy it, but ensure they get as much value as possible without burdening everyone even more than they already are?

3 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

I don't know how you go from you "mentioning" stuff to me over the years (and long before I had ever played the game to know or care what you were even talking about) to you being responsible for the explicit minute details of every single aspect of the the Demon Lord that are so explicitly detailed in my guide.  How do you make that leap?  You told me you'd fought him and you told me how you triggered a teleport trap to get to him with your whole party; that's  literally it!

It's not like I'm trying to avoid giving credit where it's due; in my Romance II Free Generals Guide I take an entire paragraph to thank DraganAtma for all the information he provided, and I explicitly state that my guide would not even have been possible without all of his hard work... and that's the very first paragraph at the top of the guide!  I definitely give credit where it's due, and if I felt that you had provided even a modicum of that level of detail to me for my Demon Lord guide, I would have 100% given you credit for that, but you didn't.  You confirmed he existed and explained how one could get a whole party to him via a teleport trap, and that's it!  Then, after I spent hours writing a guide that spared not one single detail about every conceivable aspect on the topic, you type out, "you're welcome for the info," as if you were somehow the wellspring from which all of my information had come.

You're a fan of the game who speaks and writes passionately about it, and that's it.  If you actaully want to make a real contribution to the world in the realm of Wizardry KOD, then finish and publish your KOD guide rather than just taking credit for someone else's hours of work.  And if you ever do, feel free to reference my guide when you're detailing the Demon Lord; the more information we have on the internet for NES games, the better...

I HAVE NEVER TAKEN CREDIT FOR THE WORK YOU DID.

Dude, I've known you for what, 20 years now?  Yeah, I told you a bunch of shit about one of my all-time favourite games many, many times in that span.  Again, the fact that you probably forgot 99% of it doesn't make it any less of a fact that I did, indeed, tell you about it.  You didn't use it when you played, fair enough. I'm not asking for any of that. I'm saying that I have freely volunteered info to anyone who ever had a goddamn question about it.  I've provided examples of communications.  Hell, I had over 500 hits on the word "Wizardry" from our back emails.  That does not include PMs on NA or other forums that no longer exist, nor does it include anything we discussed on the phone.  BUT it shows a pattern.  I have attempted two speedruns of the game IN YOUR PRESENCE.  Granted, I failed, but you had to have learned a few things about the game from that.

"You're welcome for the info" is simply me stating that I had provided info that helped you get to the point of writing the guide.  It in ABSOLUTELY NO WAY is me taking credit for you actually DOING THE WORK.  I could give a crap about you giving me credit for the myriad of tips and pointers I had casually dropped over two decades.  Not everything is a goddamn fucking personal slight toward you.

40 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

First, your info to him is erroneous as the stone does not teleport you back to the Castle; it casts Malor which sends you somewhere else in the dungeon based on cooridinates, after which it takes on an entirely different name and properties and casts a different spell, of which you make no mention.  And second, I don't see anything regarding the teleport method to get your whole party through, meaning your info is essentially useless as the amount of levelling required to kill the Demon Lord solo would disqualify just about anyone from choosing that method when a much easier one exists.

So, in a nutshell your factually correct contribution is thus:

"when you finish the game, collect all the KOD armaments a second time, then go through the warp that took you to the Staff of Gnilda with a solo character. This take you to a completely new section of Level 6, at the end of which is the Demon Lord."

Congrats, man!  You successfully confirmed that the Demon Lord actually exists!  I only wish I had already stated in an above post that that was the extent of your actual contribution to the topic, but alas...

 

Couple that with me having told you about accidentally landing on the path after triggering a teleport trap (which you alluded to in your previous post about my "accidentally bumble-fucking" my way to him), but okay.  I have notes from my childhood that detail the stone, that btw only drops from the Demon Lord fight (meaning I had found it as a kid), though clearly I had forgotten about that fight entirely.  Why would that happen?  Well, I would posit that's because the game in no way makes it known that the fight is significant in any way.  There is no way my 15 year old self would have known it was a secret boss fight, so I didn't earmark it as significant.  When I got the guide in '09, the blurb about the Demon Lord showed it was actually a post-game bonus.  Since at the time I didn't want to start from scratch, I played through on the Famicom version (which had some Japanese dude's save file with massively over-levelled characters) and found him with ease.  And given how often I would tell you about it in the eleven years between that and you writing your guide (I still have every email btw), not to mention having done it multiple times myself in that span, and yes, mentioning the teleporting possibility (because Malor cannot be used to traverse Level 6 at all, so it wouldn't normally be an option).

But lets get to the root of this - I was, and am, in no way trying to take credit for any of your actual work.  You did it, multiple times, and documented it beyond anything a normal person would do in the interest of helping others.  That's fucking awesome.  But I planted more than a few seeds over the years, and we both know it.

Oh, and speaking of the emails, I have to thank you for getting me to actually check them.  The walkthrough that I had worked on for over a decade that was lost when my hard drive crashed...turns out I had sent you a copy back in 2011.  So while I lost probably around 40% of the extra stuff (monsters, etc), I recovered 90% of the walkthrough itself.  Oh, and here's an interesting bit from the "Boss Enemies" section of that guide:

So yeah, keep telling yourself I didn't ever mention anything at some point.  Just because you completely forgot shit doesn't mean the shit didn't happen.

Oh, and as an aside, you are correct, the stone casts Malor.  That was my bad, as I used it to teleport to the castle.  But yes, the stone is a one-time use of the Malor spell (stone has a 100% chance of breaking after use).

32 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

You told me a story about how you accidentally bumble-fucked your way to him after having no idea what to do for decades, and that you had emailed Adaml to let him know that the Demon Lord actually exists; I never borrowed your paper guide or even remember looking at it; for that matter, I used my own map of the 6th floor along with a ton of research by way of hours of play-time to plot out the path in my guide and figure out all of the parameters surrounding his war party and the object you obtain after beating him.  You think I received all of those intricate details from a two minute verbal conversation with you?!?  Nice try, buddy; your input was confirming to me that he existed and that you found him via a teleport trap, full stop.

It was nice of you to take credit for my six or so hours of work by spending ten seconds to type out the words, "you're welcome for the info," though.  Almost fitting, actually, since it about matches the percentage of work you contributed to the guide...

I described everything to AdamL:

That's clearly me telling him how to get there long before you wrote your guide, as the update he added it was in 2009, but keep believing you figured it out yourself.

Again, props for doing the work.  But I provided info that got you there.

2 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

You didn't really have any "info" outside of confirming that the Demon Lord existed.  I ended up writing the guide exactly because of the fact that there was literally no information out there about him anywhere on the internet.  Even you, as a self-proclaimed Wizardry superfan, seemed to know absolutely nothing about it.  I did give you a shoutout, however, at the bottom of the guide for introducing me to the game...

Seriously? I told you exactly how to get there.  That it was only accessible (normally) after completing the game.  That accidentally triggering a teleportation trap was the best way to get on the path to him because its the only way to get the entire party there.  Even showed you the exact route via the mail in guide.  Kudos to doing the work to document it, but I definitely had a hand in you actually learning how to find the bastard

15 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I completely agree, and had that epiphany several years ago.

The perfect example is Project X Zone.  I have it in my collection because I found it cheap, it's an interesting little curioso, and it's in a sharp-looking compact package that goes nice on the shelf with the other matching 3DS spines.  It's planned to be a permanent piece of the collection.

BUT, I'm also perfectly aware that it's (allegedly) mediocre at best, and rather lengthy, and the odds are super long that I'd love it.  Simply put, I would be a fool to waste time on it.  40 hours spent there would be 40 hours that could go towards Tears of the Kingdom, or Persona 5, or some other game where there is a 10000% better chance I have a lovely time. 

So for that reason I will never play it, never include it on the backlog, and never give it another thought.  The spreadsheet I maintain even color codes games that fit this use case.

It might still be worth firing it up one day on a lark.  It may not be super appealing to you, but the longshot odds are not zero.  Could be a favorite-in-waiting.

30 minutes ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

Wizardry is definitely one of the game series that I would like to get into some day. But I tried the first game one or two years ago for the challenge and was a bit put off by the challenge. Even on the first floor they gave you endlessly scrolling floors and dark rooms that were tough to map out. Maybe I'll get to it someday.

The thing about the first Wizardy is that 75% of the dungeon is straight up filler.  Dungeon levels 5 through 8 are completely irrelevant, and 9 is only needed to run between the elevator and the chute to level 10.  And with some good RNG, you don't even need to do much power leveling, as you can cast Haman as early as character level 11.  Two more levels and Tiltowait is unlocked, which is absolutely devastating. Basically, it's like grind-get key items-grind-kill boss.  You can skip the majority of the game outside of that.

5 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Nicely done.  If you decide to do KOD to 100% completion and seek out the Demon Lord, I've got a faq up on gamefaqs that's got all the info about him you could ever need and a step by step guide on how and where to find him...

You're welcome for the info btw  

Also like how I was the one who got it added to the Adaml endings guide too.  Not to brag, just bragging  

2 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

What's a good party makeup? I went Fighter, Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Wizard, Mage. It seemed fine except the Wizard really seemed the worst of both worlds. I was thinking of rolling the same swapping out the Wizard for another Mage.

I usually run with that makeup.  A samurai instead of a fighter if I get a good roll.  If you find the Armor of Lord's, invoke it on one of the fighters to turn him into a Lord.  Same with the Dagger of Thieves on your thief to get a Ninja.  They're not necessary, but if you can get one early on (first couple levels) you should be able to recover from the statistic reset, otherwise use the gear to get them.  You can swap the Wizard for another Mage if you'd like, but I would still keep a Wizard for identifying purposes.  It's actually not a bad utility option in the party though, as having extra Katino and Montino castings is always good, especially early on.

Just now, DefaultGen said:

The only reason I lived through Werdna was Mahaman resurrecting my entire party at the opportune moment (although silencing him would sure work). I gotta look into this for KOD though.

I've all but mastered KOD.  It's one of my personal favorites.  If it goes unbeaten I'll probably do it, but I like leaving them for people that haven't played it yet.

But yeah, the Malor spell is mandatory, as it's the only way to get to the Gauntlets.  They function as the key to the door to fight them (and the stairs to level 6 is right behind that fight).  Once they're silenced though, they almost never use a physical attack against you, so it's just a matter of attrition at that point.  Any other pointers you need, feel free to ask.

7 minutes ago, nerdynebraskan said:

C'mon, those don't take more than 30-60 minutes combined when you know what you're doing.

Also, Power Blade is done.

Maybe, but I can't be arsed to bother with it I love the game, but not THAT much

12 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

Wizardry is done. This game is sweet. I put it off my entire life because I thought it was too archaic, but those PLATO D&D nerds were making interesting CRPGs before most genres even existed. With a little less dumbass Murphy's Ghost grinding and a little less instant permadeath, I'd recommend it to almost anyone. You get a lot of powerful spells pretty early on. It actually has nice progression and you don't feel like a chump half the game. It's my favorite NES RPG I've played so far.

Also yes I teleported out with the amulet to beat the game, but the WERDNA kill shot (with every party member alive baby) is so much sweeter.

Here's some maps. I like seeing people's maps.

One trick to make the fight easier is to use the Haman spell in the boss fight.  It costs your Mage a level, but one of the options (the one you want) blocks all enemy magic.  This is even more relevant against the KODs Gauntlets in Wizardry 2, because they can hit you with a double Tiltowait every round and are stupid tough.  But with good RNG you only need to grind enough levels to get the Malor spell in order to beat it.  And in Wizardry I, technically you don't even need to go that high, as Haman is a 5th or 6th level spell.  NOTE: don't use the Mahaman spell for this purpose.  While the effect is possible with it, it's one of 7 possibilities, while there's only 5 with Haman.  And since you get to choose from 3 effects, the odds of it being one of the three is better on the weaker spell.

If the convoys are required, I'll probably just skip it.  I like the game, but not enough to want to do that much grinding lol

Just out of curiosity, what are the conditions for "beating" Silent Service? I'm assuming getting the high score on a War Patrol mission, which is how I counted it on my personal list, but it's not listed on either the Pastebin file or AdamL's endings guide so I wanted to make sure of my aims before firing it up.

Magic Darts is done.

9 hours ago, ikk said:

Pokemon Blue is done. It was fun to revisit this game after so long.

I'm not sure if they're combined on the list, but I feel like Red and Blue should both count as a single listing, since they're functionally the exact same game.  Just curious if that's the case or not.

23 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

It was less difficult but more tedious than I remember, but I finished off Best of the Best Championship Karate.  I kinda remembered all you really needed to do is low kicks mixed with high kicks, but all the training I forgot about, yeesh.  Also You dont need to defeat the Kumite because you get the credits when you beat the champion Cogneur.

Yeah, when we did it for the weekly contest in 2022, I made it a point to finish it off.  Surprisingly an okay game once you figure out how it all works, but it's far longer and more tedious than it really needs to be. 

2 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

Is it allowed to use the Japanese characters as help? If so, I found out which game it is via that. If it's not allowed, ignore this and the spoilers.

  Reveal hidden contents

Power Rangers Pinball, based on the series Chouriki Sentai Ohranger. It basically says, Go! Go! Chouriki Sentai!

 

Honestly, I don't see the problem with that.  It's prominently displayed on the playfield.  You shouldn't be punished because of your ability to read another language.

Super Jeopardy is done.  Probably my pick for the weakest of the four NES games.  Too many repeat categories one game after another, missing answers that were correct (I said singing and got it wrong, they wanted singing songs), etc.  The looser spelling was nice, but not enough for my liking.

1 hour ago, guitarzombie said:

Also I wanted to ask, how many people other than me are using real carts?  Not emulating them, or using an everdrive.

I emulated a couple years ago because I was living in another city away from my collection, and for a short time after returning because I had everything packed up.  But this year, and most other years I've contributed, has been on console.  I'm only missing the Panesians, Cheetahmen 2, and Stadium Events though, so for this challenge I have a functionally complete collection.  

13 minutes ago, Strikezone1 said:

Yep, I've been doing that the whole time. I read it in the manual before first playing the game.

Fair enough.  I only ask because I spent hours trying before I figured that out.  I got pretty close without, but couldn't pull a run together.  Then I saw that and was like "oooooooh"