the_wizard_666

Radar Mission is done.  Another first time completion for me, and another one I could see myself playing through again.  Game A is basically Battleship, but with a couple extra options that only work in a video game.  Got a bunch of lucky shots in the final round, which helped hunt down all the 2-square enemies.  Game B is a rudimentary submarine action game.  It took a bit to wrap my head around what exactly was going on, but it was a fun game as well.  And with only 3 stages on each game, it never overstays it's welcome!   It's another game added to the list of games I'd recommend

3 hours ago, Splain said:

Yep, sorry, I updated the spreadsheet on Tuesday but then I asked about the Breakthru requirement and boneheaded the actual thread update. I did make a nice pile of GB games to play, so I'll start joining the fun here soon.

No worries, shit happens I figured it was a case of "oh shit, I thought I did it"   I hope I haven't been narrowing your pile down though.  I'm mostly just playing shit on a lark and have no real planning going into it

While I have  no further updates at the moment pertaining to this thread, I figured I'd add that I've knocked off five more games from my personal backlog,  including four more Game Boy games (Caesar's Palace, BreakThru, Monopoly and Ishido), as well as Centurion: Defender of Rome,  which was not only a fantastic game, but one I would've had on this year's list if I had owned it at the time I had compiled it. So now I'm up to 47 games stricken from my backlog on the year, which is an absolutely insane number to me at this point in the year.

@Splain we need an update dude.  We have like 20 or so new entries, and around a full page of updates since the last edit.

2 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

Is there maybe some kind of trick on how to win the matches easily? I'm not good at sports games, but if it's not too difficult and just a long grind, I could give it a try.

For the first Bases Loaded?  There actually is.  It's detailed in the guide on GameFAQs, but basically with specific pitchers, it's possible to perfectly pitch strikeouts.  Using those particular pitchers, you use one pitch for the first 50 pitches (until strike two of the second batter of the sixth inning) and switch to another specific pitch.  I only got about 18 games in back in 2022, because it's incredibly boring, but it's absolutely doable if you care to grind it out.

Centurion: Defender of Rome is done.  Pretty simple strategy game, but with a ton of depth and nuances to it. I'll definitely play it again in the future, as I feel I've barely scratched the surface. 

Spot: The Video Game is done.  It's okay, but way better on the NES with 4 players.  Solo on the GB is pretty meh.

36 minutes ago, nerdynebraskan said:

I also did the first three games of NES Play Action Football today. No one else needs to start that one.

That's honestly my favourite football game on the NES, but playing a full 7 games will never be on my radar again after doing it once.  It really could've done with adjustable game length.

5 hours ago, koifish said:

@the_wizard_666 Thanks for clarification. Mentioning Brain Bender gave me PTSD because I thought at first you were talking about Brain Drain.

Actual photo of me remembering that game:

Watching a video of it, it seems kinda fun to be honest.  But since I don't have a copy, I won't be playing it

4 hours ago, Floating Platforms said:

Yeah, 12 could easily be a typo or looking at other factors, but regardless there's not enough in that post to make me want to take them at their word.  Sadly no, the game is not fun. Once you get used to the controls and everything, it's easy but very tedious and the missions do take about 30-40 minutes each to beat with 25 targets to kill and then landing after.  But yeah, I'll keep exploring as time and mood allows. I think the highest I would ever consider going is to beat level 50. I can't imagine there would be any ending hiding at level 99 and even if there is, it's simply unachievable by normal standards in a game with no passwords or saves or level selects. Someone would have to literally play for over a day straight (possibly 2) without turning the Game Boy off to reach that. Mr. Kitchen would have some explaining to do if he coded that.

I didn't realize it didn't have a save feature.  That makes it far less likely they bothered to code an ending in.  I think the only reason to even attempt going to level 99 would be to confirm whether or not it actually repeats stage 99 like the dude says, or if that was an artifact of hex editing (or a complete fabrication).

2 hours ago, BeaIank said:

Wish I could play again too. Maybe next year with an arcade stick and the bionic hand I can go back to beating some NES games.

Have you attempted using the Quick Shot?  Having a stick with buttons on it that you can press with one hand might be a viable solution.

7 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

Yeah, I remember trying to find if there was a pattern to them and I couldn't find anything.  Its after a set amount of time, but it varies and isn't strictly consistent.   The last room I did was probably the toughest one, so I had to angle myself just right since I had a CV pumping out bad virus near me.  I had put a CM over it but it wasn't one that moved in the same direction.  Plus you cant shoot the super gun thru it, so I only had one tile of space above and below it to wipe out the middle part.  I started on the far right where the other white blood cell things are and did that area easily.  In order to move to the other side I had to pass those proxy white blood cell things, so that means when I got close it shot out, and could potentially kill me.  I passed it and worked on the bottom of the room but got overwhelmed and almost died, so I had to stay to the right area which was mostly safe.  Since the middle area was still active and I only had 1 tile to shoot around, the virus would creep in on me, so it was still pretty dangerous.  I just had to be careful and take my time.  I would probably say that was the hardest room.  All the others just take a while but aren't too bad, and its while you're tackling those rooms that the other ones go haywire, so you'd have to leave, and take care of that, then something else goes etc.  I can get outta hand pretty quickly and if they're rooms far away from each other you can get unlucky there too.

It is random, but only to a point.  It cycles first through all the unentered rooms, then starts hitting the ones you've entered before.  So ideally, clear out rooms you've been in before touching the ones you haven't gone to at all.  Once those are done it starts attacking the rooms you've entered before.  Additionally, there is one room where it always has the same pattern regardless if you've entered or not (think it was one off the starting room IIRC, but it's been several years since I've been in it).  So the ideal plan is to not clear it out until near the end (or when you get to a point that it's too far to backtrack to), as it can be cleared fairly quickly. 

Ishido is done.  Not bad, but could be a LOT better.  Took a bit to figure out what I was doing but it's pretty simple once you figure it out.

13 hours ago, Crabmaster2000 said:

I wouldn't equate them to an adventure game. Those just tend to get creative with their game over screens and still have a very defined ending. With Caesar's Palace and Pirates! it's really up to the player's discretion for how thorough they want to finish. 

I think for CP and Pirates, playing the game should be required.  With CP, I would say the taxi ending isn't good enough because you can get it without playing, but the best ending shouldn't be required either, as that defeats the "get an ending" mindset.  I think the $20K ending should be enough by that criteria.  Pirates is a bit trickier based on the range of rankings available.  Maybe what should happen is to have a few people play a single voyage (end game after dividing plunder) and figure out what the average rank would be.  Or arbitrarily decide on something in the middle.  Obviously some of us will strive for more, but it may incentivize people to play it if they don't feel they have to master it.

On 2/12/2024 at 11:24 PM, Dr. Morbis said:

I still don't understand how you can say that an ending with a different message doesn't count as a different ending.  Are you saying that graphics takes precedence over text?  To me, the fact that they added different text, even before considering the fact that the text tells you there's more to accomplish, means it is literally a different ending - that's the very definition of the word "different."

You and I were talking about Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular the other day, and you were of the mindset that Bronze is good enough because the ending is "the same" except for the medal awarded.  I, on the other hand, feel that being awarded a different medal is a different ending, and especially when you throw in the concept of winning and losing in sports, where getting bronze is not a win - it's THIRD PLACE!  So to actually beat Snoopy, you should technically need to win the Gold, but that brings up the next problem: difficulty.

I think in the final analysis the question is: exactly how difficult do we want to make it on ourselves versus how much fun this is supposed to be, and should we be erring on the side of more casual play for the completions thread?  It's kind of like the Stadium Events debate in full set collecting where you have to wonder how many people don't count it moreso because of how expensive it is to obtain rather than for any other reason.  We wouldn't want to require Gold in Snoopy for the completions thread because it is incredibly difficult, even though that's the true win condition of the game, meanwhile getting bronze takes not much more than an hour to gain a general competency with most of the events on tap.

So that's the question really: should we be focusing on the undisputed victory or focusing on just playing through each game to get some sort of ending and doing it more for fun?

There are certainly great points here.  Snoopy is easy.  It falls into the "any ending vs best ending" argument.  Anything less than bronze and you don't get an ending, so bronze is the minimum to get an ending.  The problem is with looping games and multi-quest games.  Some, like Mystery Quest or Arkista's Ring, give an ending after multiple loops that you don't get.  Those are easy - the goal is to see the end.  I think with games like Gun.Smoke, where there's a finite number of loops but an ending is triggered after the first, those should be fine with one loop.  Then there's stuff like Ghosts and Goblins and the Taxan multi quest games.  I think with G&G, the "ending" of the first loop is more like an in game cutscene that tells you why you need to play the second loop, rather than an actual ending.  With most of the Taxan games, after beating a quest, the story is completed.  The story wraps up the same in each one, and the further quests are just challenges for the player rather than a true closing of the story.  With those, any ending would work for the thread, as all of them are a completion of the story.  That said, if someone wanted to do the third quest of GI Joe instead of the first, there's no reason they couldn't use the password for the start of the third quest, as long as they start from the beginning of whichever quest they want to play.

I'm also thinking of softening my stance on something like Burai Fighter,  as even though it hints at a better end as a reward for beating it on Ace difficulty, the story does still wrap up on lower difficulties.  I think the difficulty shouldn't matter at all, save for instances like Double Dragon Ii where everything less than the highest difficulty would prevent the story from wrapping up, or cases like Little Samson, where it gives an ending, but locks off the back half of the game. So the criteria would be "playing the entire story" rather than getting the best possible ending.

Ultimately, I think the focus should be to err on the side of fun.  Ultimate mastery has never been the goal, and could potentially push some people away rather than enticing them to play.

57 minutes ago, Floating Platforms said:

I've seen that comment as well, and honestly if they're claiming nothing changes after round 12, then it's hard to trust it. Every mission up through 16 will change either the number of enemies you have to destroy and/or the amount of the two special ammos you receive. Everything from level 16 through 23 (so far) has you kill 25 targets with 12 standard 1-shot missiles and 10 1-shot seeking missiles.

They also claim to have used a level select cheat (which I can find no record of anywhere - so maybe he could be editing the code), so I figure I can slowly confirm some of this myself to be extra sure as the source isn't fully reliable in my eyes.

Oh, and I just checked again and the person is answering their own question, so maybe they're trying to get someone else to confirm their findings?

Anyway, I fully expect everything to stay the same and I doubt I'll go as high as 99, but I'm curious if there's a potential ending at either 25 or maybe 32. I doubt I'll keep going past that.

It sounds like he was doing hex editing.  I know some things have shown up later on AdamL's NES ending list that he didn't know about because he hex edited things, so that in itself doesn't confirm anything...he may have skipped beyond where it would end, or the editing messes up other variables that he couldn't forsee.  It's why I always advocate for playing through if at all possible.

Anyway, there's all sorts of reasons why he might have 12 in his head...could be a mistake, especially if there was time between him playing it and posting about it.  He could have also just not noticed the changes, or maybe he was counting new enemy appearances and not quantities.  Regardless, I'd be more inclined to go with the opinion of the guy playing the game currently than someone likely padding their statistics by answering their own question.  I'm thinking 16 is probably where it gets to the maximum based on the information you've provided, but yeah, I'd be curious how high it actually goes.  Like I said, if you're enjoying the game, I'd go for 99 just to put it to rest, but that doesn't have to be done at the expense of anything else either.  Maybe just if you're bored and feel up to it, you pound out a couple levels, until you get to that point.  Again, only if you want to do it. 

On an unrelated note, I fired up Brainbender.  It's an interesting puzzle game.  I spent the last couple hours on it and knocked off the first 40 levels.  There were maybe 3 or 4 total that required some tricky execution, but for the most part it's been straightforward.  The hard part from this point is going to be starting again...retries are based on points - if you fail, you pay 1200 points to continue.  By the time I shut it off, I had over 30K, which would've made it easy enough to finish...but upon using the password, you start at 0 points.  As long as the puzzles remain relatively simple, it shouldn't be hard to build up the points again to have a safety net, but there's no guarantees.  Still, considering when I fired it up I was underwhelmed, I'm surprised it grew on me so quickly.  As long as I can knock off 10 levels at a time to get a new password, though, I shouldn't have too many issues knocking it off.

28 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

I got too far to turn back haha.  It was nerve-wracking because after a few times dying stupidly on the last bit of level 4, I pushed thru to level 5 trying to get a feel for a strategy.  I realized the real enemy is time.  So instead of trying to figure out what CM bombs go with what room, I basically used them in the room they're found in, except for one room because its so easy.  After a few attempts, and dying with 2 rooms left etc, I got to the point where I had my super gun and CM running in the last room I needed with not a lot of life but one extra life needed.  Its a room where if you get too close to 2 areas, it shoots a white bloodcell thing that not only will kill you in one hit, but also add more virus to what you just cleaned.  I died, but had full life left.  I took a chance, did ok but then lost a LOT of life.  SO I had zero lives left and one blip of life left.  Since I had all the other rooms I had time on my side so I was INCREDIBLY careful and took my time.  I ended up doing it and I felt that excitement you only get by barely finishing a tough NES game. 

Now its up to someone to do Ikari Warriors

Fun thing to note in Mutant Virus - the alarm only sounds on incomplete rooms, and the rooms only get threatened if you're not in them.  So when you're in the final room, the internal clock no longer matters.  Having little health in the final room is no issue at all, as long as it's a room where you can safely hold the viruses at bay.  Great job by the way...I've got 349 games on my personal list, and I count The Mutant Virus as the one I feel is the biggest completion on it.

Anyway, no way in hell I'm gonna bother with Ikari Warriors, as I have zero desire to learn it enough to do a 1cc run.  I wish we had @BeaIank back.  It'd be a non issue if she could play again

1 hour ago, Floating Platforms said:

Quick update on Turn & Burn. It's been a long time since I've sat down to emulate more missions, but I was able to do a couple tonight.  So far missions 16-23 have the exact same criteria and ammo loadout. I've maxed out the score and that didn't stop anything.  Right now, it still does look like 16 levels is the "end point" of original content and then it keeps repeating from there with a new mission number.  I'll keep plugging away here and there to at least level 32, but considering each mission takes 30-45 minutes, it's hard to imagine an ending this deep.

Apparently a question was asked and answered about it on GameFAQs.  Dude played through to mission 19 and said nothing seemed to change after mission 12.  He also apparently edited his way to mission 99, and beating that just repeated mission 99 again.  Basically sounds like an infinite looper, especially with the score maxed out.  Given that you're playing it fresh, if you feel 16 is the actual end point for new content, that's probably good enough...though if you're enjoying it, it could be worth confirming that it does that without hex edits.

46 minutes ago, koifish said:

What are the requirement for Sensible Soccer? Don't know this game, but looking at interface I see friendlies, plus a Cup mode and a League mode. Cup has you do up to 4 rounds, up to 2 legs (matches with the same team?) per round, and has most of them computer-decided, minus the ones you play. Win out in all 4 rounds and you win, presumably. League is you picking up to 7 teams, playing each team up to 4 times each, and whomever has the most points at the end of the league is presumably the winner. So you could argue it takes as little as 1 match to "beat" sensible, and as many as 24 matches. Curious what the threshold should be.

The general rule with sports games is typically winning a championship. I would go with either Cup mode or any League.  If you're willing, maybe try doing both so we can confirm whether there are endings, and whether they are the same or different between modes.  Friendlies shouldn't count as they're literally exhibition games and won't count as an ending anyway.

2 hours ago, Splain said:

Would you say one loop through all 6 cities is sufficient, or should it be to get through that 4th loop? I know some stuff changes after the first loop (you stop getting the powerup that clears an entire color from the board, clearing a color doesn't stop it from appearing anymore) maybe it's not a proper loop until then?

I dunno, I'd call one loop enough.  It took me hours to get through six, and felt it was a massive amount of overkill.  I'd say getting to the second loop is fine.

1 minute ago, Splain said:

Ok, this is good info. I guess "loops after 6-4" is a bad way to say that there are 6 cities and 4 levels per city, when the levels are delineated in-game with a city name, loop number? and round number. But I've always wondered if there's an ending after enough loops, and it sounds like it doesn't end or go above 4. Nice job!

No worries.  I actually enjoyed it, so it was worth it to me.  I figured it was a lack of knowledge that led to that, but was thinking maybe there was an ending after 6 loops, which led to the 6-4 distinction.  I'm happy to do my part to help make next year easier

BreakThru is done.  Spent several hours on it, looped it 6 times, and broke 1 million points (I thought it was gonna cap out, but it added a digit and kept going).  Not a bad game, but when I went in blind and didn't have any trouble with it, I would say I'm probably not gonna play it again any time soon.  By the way, the stages aren't numbered up to 6-4.  The way it works is there are six cities, with four phases to complete before going to the next city.  They will all be 1-1 to 1-4, until the full loop is completed.  Additionally, it caps at 4, so after beating Beijing the fourth time, it just goes back to Berlin 4-1 instead of 5-1.  I figured you meant to just have one loop completed, but just in case I powered through the full 6 loops

Interestingly, the game is basically a more souped up version of Chunkout, a GBC homebrew by James Todd.  I find it mildly amusing that he basically made it because he played a similar game and thought it'd be cool to have a Game Boy version of the game.  Go figure that it already existed on some niche 1995 black and white release.  I wonder if he would've made the game if he knew a flashier version already existed?

4 in 1 Fun Pak Vol. 2 is done.  While a bit less interesting overall than the first, it is by no means a bad mix.  Aside from Solitaire, I don't think any of the games can be played elsewhere on the system, and all of them are well programmed, with competent AI and everything.  All told, I think both games are worth having around, as they'd make great time killers on a long flight or road trip.  I could see myself playing it again for cribbage and Yahtzee in the future.

17 minutes ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

@the_wizard_666 I played through it again, but this time against a COM4 who ended up running out of time. There was no different message and also no higher difficulty to unlock.

Well that settles that I figured you'd just dig up a video of it, but it's awesome that you managed to actually do it yourself

37 minutes ago, nerdynebraskan said:

It's only about a two hour commitment. 124 stages, but most can be beaten in 45 seconds to a minute apiece. 

I just remember it being pretty damn tough to do.  I'm pretty crap at the game

@RH I still have Cosmic Spacehead on eBay, photos are in the listing (link in my signature to the store, should be easy to find from there).  For Dizzy, I accepted an offer in April for $4200 Canadian. It shows up on Pricecharting now, but it's listed with the list price, not the accepted offer.

5 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Arkista's Ring is done. 

All 4 loops? Damn dude!

2 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

@the_wizard_666 I looked at other people playing this on COM4 and it didn't seem like there was another mode?

It's possible for sure.  That said, the question is still whether or not COM4 gives an ending message similar to how the NES version does.  On the NES, there's no message at all on levels 1 through 3.  Assuming not, then any difficulty should be okay, but if it does, then I'd say COM4 should be the requirement.