the_wizard_666

Bad endings have always been accepted except in instances where they don't involve actually finishing the game. If we're pushing solely for the good endings in games like those mentioned, we would have to extend that to Metroid, Castlevania II, and a bunch of others. While the good endings are obviously ideal, I wouldn't say you didn't beat any of them if you didn't get the best ending, because you still had to get through the entire game. Again, we're striving to beat every game, not perfect every game. Specifically relating to Rescue though, is there any particular reason Jupiter is required? I just put some research in and it seems that the overall mission is the same, just the number of enemies is increased and the time limit decreases. Since on Training there are also no hostages, I would say that one shouldn't be counted, but I'm curious as to why we can't do Target for this thread. To be clear, I would want to do it on Jupiter myself, and am perfectly okay with the restriction, but since the endings don't change at all, and we're not requiring a good ending, is there a reason it has to be Jupiter?

I'm out west in Calgary.

Well, I just finished the main quest of Oblivion. Honestly, I can still see myself playing the game in the future, but the main quest was pretty damn weak IMO. I didn't really enjoy that portion of the game for whatever reason, but the side quests more than made up for it. But yeah, now that that's done, all that's left is the Shivering Isles expansion, which I will start tomorrow.

I think the only thing that I would've done differently would be to stain the barrel before putting the logo on. But that's still one of the cooler things I've seen in someone's collection!

What part of Canada? There's a few regional contingents around here.

That's his personality. He's always harping on me because on my personal list I don't use the hardest difficulties, use warps, etc. It's just the difference between someone who is content to see the ending (me) and someone who demands near mastery (him). He's even lamented that he'll never beat Chessmaster because he won't count it unless it's on the highest settings, and won't resort to a chess solver to do it that way. Given that his chess skills are average on a good day, that's gonna be an albatross for him. And to be fair, for the purposes of this thread, some games have a lower bar than even I would use. I would never count a golf game as beaten unless I at least tie the par score, except in the case of black box Golf, since it has a built in high score that's significantly more achievable for a golf noob. My personal best of +2 on Bandai Golf would be enough to count it here, but I would never consider that for my personal score. At the end of it, I think he's more confused that a code he deems "acceptable" for his own use is not deemed so for this list, when in so many other metrics, the bar here is significantly lower than on his list.

To complicate matters, many European versions were sold in Canada because of Quebec's language laws. It was cheaper to use Euro copies that already had both French and English text than to make a third variation. The system being region free makes it a smart business decision, though it really complicated shit for collectors. Note that this was also true on the Atari 2600. There's tons of PAL boxes and manuals floating around here because of that.

I don't doubt it, but I might save it for a 2 player day. I know 100% that it doesn't hold a candle to Maximum Carnage, but I still remember liking it last time I played it.

Final Fantasy might also make the sequel cut. Super Mario 2 could make a surprise appearance, assuming FDS is part of it. I could also see Zelda 2 making the list, though I do feel like Dragon Quest 2 will undoubtedly get the top spot.

So I happened to be going through my Backloggery page, and apparently I already had Risk (PS1) marked as beaten. As such, it shouldn't have qualified as a backlog game in the first place. I felt the only viable options would be to either play it or replace it, and feeling a replay would be contrary to the point of the thread, I have instead decided to replace it. I have replaced it with another PS1 board game, Shanghai: True Valor. I felt this would be as similar in both genre and difficulty as possible, thus not messing up the overall balance. I hate that it took me this long to notice my error, but since I haven't fired up the PS1 anyway, it has not been a factor at all in my choices. I just felt in the interest of transparency that I should mention it to the group.

Well, my NES streak has officially died. 38 games in 37 days. I tried to find something that grabbed me, but I think I may be burned out of NES at this point. The final game happened to be another from last year's Backlog Challenge list though, so that's a plus. While some of the titles I did are definitely filler, there were a ton of great games in the mix too. Notable moments: January 7: The Three Stooges - This was the game that broke the 1 week barrier. Previous personal best streak was 6 days. January 21: Astyanax - This was my 22nd completion of the month, beating my prior best of 21, set in January of 2022. January 28: Desert Commander - This marked my 300th unique US completion. Also my third completion for this year's Backlog Challenge, matching last year's output. January 31: Godzilla 2 - Not only did this achieve one completion per calendar days in January, but it also completed the final strategy game I had left to beat in the NES library. So two notables in one day. February 6: The Adventures of Gilligan's Island - The final game beaten in the streak happened to also be the 6th game beaten from the 2023 Backlog Challenge, meaning I doubled last year's output during this run. Regrets: Only one - I lost the drive on the 7th, which would have marked my 350th overall completion had I beaten something. I had mulled over a few games, even fired a few up to try out, but nothing piqued my interest. Ultimately, I think I just checked out. Rather than force myself, it may be best to switch to something else for the time being...though I didn't feel like firing up Oblivion either, and none of my other shelves are grabbing me right now, so maybe I'll just take a couple days off from gaming until get the urge again.

The goal is to get the ending, not fully complete each game. With Wrecking Crew and Ice Climber, it says to beat all the levels, though it doesn't say it has to be in one game. Thus the level select could be used as a "continue" system, which is reasonable. Gyromite doesn't say in the Pastebin, just to beat both modes, but I assume it's the same thing as those two. As for Guerilla War, I didn't realize that you could choose levels. The questionable stuff for me would be things like Spy vs Spy, where you choose a level to play from the start, and the Pastebin says to beat any level. To me, that should fall as being similar to Godzilla 2 or Desert Commander, where every scenario should be beaten to call it a win, even though you technically get the ending after each individual scenario (though I concede that seeing the ending is the primary goal in this thread). We've also said difficulty only matters when it's a requirement for the ending. This is pretty clear cut in the case of Double Dragon II, where you only get the ending on the highest difficulty, but becomes questionable on something like Little Samson, which still gives an ending (though a distinctly lesser one) by playing on easy. To be fair, I don't have an issue with warps. I use them when I beat games, and don't see it as a lesser completion (though a warpless run is an awesome accomplishment on many games, it isn't something that's necessary for the purpose of this thread). But I do agree that there are some backwards ways of checking some games off the list, while making others exceedingly difficult to the point of being unreasonable. Additionally, the Pastebin is woefully out of date, both with requirements (many of the Koei games still list scenario requirements that are no longer considered as necessary), as well as absences that should be there (the aforementioned Godzilla 2 and Desert Commander). Hell, looking at World Champ on there, it says "Compete in all events and get the gold medal in each" as though it's a tournament game. To be clear, it's a boxing game, and has an ending that is unrelated to medals or events. The entry is clearly a mistake. Taking all of this in mind, I also think it's unfair to dump another load of work onto @scaryice in order to get that updated. He has a ton on his plate as it is, what with his statistics tracking and all that fun stuff. I also don't think it's right to change requirements mid-year to address any issues at this point. But I think that maybe the lot of us should work together to work on what should and should not constitute a win for the purposes of this thread in future years. With the exception of @Crabmaster2000, I don't think there's a person who's active here that has played through every game, but I think there's enough experience in the thread that we can put together something that addresses completion requirements that would be fair, reasonable, and most importantly, fun. Because at the end of the day, that's what this should be - fun.

Bio Hazard Battle?

Changing difficulty is fine for most games, but on games where part of the game is locked out, like Double Dragon II or Little Samson, there will be a difficulty requirement listed.

More likely the seller canceled cuz he didn't get what he wanted for it. Otherwise he could've offered it to the next highest bid.

Ðarius Twin? Still no clue, just tossing random shit out there.

Well I'll be damned, I guess you can't continue solo. Unless you bring a new player in right before you die I suppose. That's just brutal!

Well now yall are making me doubt it. I'm not sure now.

Regardless, The Adventures of Gilligan's Island is in the books. Not a particularly good game, but not terrible either. Pretty easy in all honesty, other than the final boss requiring an insane beating to take out. I only got him because I got him trapped against a log and managed to get him in a loop where he'd stand up and get knocked down right away. I could not figure out a way to stick and move like the other boss fights. But yeah, that's another one down.

Gauntlet 2 prompts you to continue, even playing it solo. Iirc, so does Guerilla War. Kung Fu Heroes would be like ABBA in Ikari 1 and 2. It isn't mentioned, and wouldn't reasonably be assumed to exist either within the game or by reading the manual. That's the distinction. Edit: I also want to add that not allowing continues is silly to me, and should be an exemption from the cheat codes rule. The goal is to beat the games, not to master them. I don't feel like continuing violates the spirit of the games in any way, unlike codes for extra lives or level selects do.

Damn, I was hoping that would've outlasted Dragon Fighter. Would've been fun to see the 3 point games done with it still there. Anyway, I'm half way through Gilligan's Island, and will likely get it finished later. Just have some shit to do first.

Yeah, I thought that would be the way to go, I just think about things and it was something that I could see working either way, but figured it would be worth establishing ahead of time.

Shadow of the Beast maybe? No idea.

For clarity, without that A stamp, it should be a PRG-0 copy. Though with back swaps this is not guaranteed thing either, as most people wouldn't care to check those details when doing it. Short of either opening it or playing through a few minutes to get to that point, that may be the best indicator available.

IIRC, the numbers signify which location the carts were assembled at. Mine has a 21, but it's likely irrelevant to which PRG is inside (though it could be). Additionally, if anyone else has the hell version, if they can check for slotted screws, that could help determine the relevance of that detail.