the_wizard_666

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.

On 2/7/2024 at 12:45 PM, 3rdStrongestMole said:

I've always wanted a barrel since I was like, 8, just because I loved DKC so much.  Finally, I got an old wine barrel from a budy and slapped a DK logo on it to fulfill my childhood dreams lol

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.  

6 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

Whats with the attitude?

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.

51 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

@the_wizard_666 If you want low hanging fruit from your list, Separation Anxiety is the kind of thing that can be cleared in one try 

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.

10 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

I find it really counter-intuitive to the concept of "completing" a game that you guys are all so perfectly fine with skipping large portions of games and then calling them beaten.  It makes me wonder about all of the games that mention in the manual how to choose your level before starting: by the rules of this project, I've listed all of the one-level-completions that I can think of that you guys should be totally fine with:

-Gyromite- select final phase on the menu screen and complete it and you've "beat the game."
-Wrecking Crew- select final stage on the menu screen and complete it and you've "beat the game."
-Ice Climber- select final mountain on the menu screen and complete it and you've "beat the game."
-Guerilla War- select second last stage on the menu screen and complete the final two levels and you've "beat the game."

There are probably a bunch more that I can't think of, but is this how you guys are actually "beating" these games every year for this project - skipping the entire games just because it says how to do it in the manual???  If so, I guess I'm living in a different world than the rest of you NES players, but that's okay; as Kurt said in '91, "Oh well, whatever, nevermind..."

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?

6 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

I didn't know that we were allowed to turn down the difficulty. I thought that at least normal was a must. I remember Burai Fighter being pretty difficult back then.

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.

4 hours ago, scaryice said:

Yes, that's always been the approach I've taken. Gauntlet 2 allows you add players to a game whenever, so it's easy to keep going forever in multiplayer. Can you continue even in a 1P game? I don't see how that works unless I'm missing something...

 

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.

20 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Shit, is continuing in Kung-Fu Heroes actually not allowed here, because I used continues on my run.  I know codes aren't allowed for games, but does holding A when you press start on game over actually count as a code?  I don't use codes for my personal NES completions list, which was my reason for knocking this game out in the first place, and it didn't even occur to me to not count continues when it's just holding down A.

To me continuing in Kung-Fu Heroes is analagous to continuing in Guerrilla War, where you have to press and hold the buttons on game over to continue.  I checked the GW manual, and continuing is not mentioned in the manual, so is continuing in GW disqualifed here as well?  Likewise, Wiz and I used continues on Gauntlet II, even though they are not mentioned in the manual or on the title screen options: you just press A on a game over to continue, so if that counts as a code, then should our Gauntlet II run be disqualified as well?!?

Anyway, all of this is to say that: for full disclosure @scaryice, I used continues on my last two runs, Guantlet II and Kung-Fu Heroes, via methods not mentioned in their respective manuals or on the title screen options of either game, so feel free to reject either or both runs as you feel necessary.  I would ask, though, if either run is removed, for an explanation as to how they differ from continuing in games like Guerrilla War in terms of the no-code rules for this thread, just for the sake of clarity moving forward...

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.

22 minutes ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Puss N Boots is done.

I wasn't planning to do this one again this year, but it's ridiculous to see it still on the board this late.

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.

48 minutes ago, scaryice said:

Right now, there's exactly one point for every year a game wasn't beaten. I hate to just make points up out of thin air. I mean, all of the points are made up, but yeah... I would have to just say no, and just split them like the normal points. Technically, you would be sharing the pain, right?

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.

2 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

The debossed numbers are some sort of factory run code or some such designation and have nothing to do with the title itself.

As for the Rev-A, that signifies a console-wide revision in the cartridge design (to 3 screw) and also has nothing to do with the title itself.

If you want to find a Rambo with the revised code, check the back of every copy you come across until you find a debossed "A" designating the revised code to PRG1...

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.

4 hours ago, snakeyez said:

So after reading this and browsing eBay photos, I do indeed see many carts without any stamping on the back label. Some do have the "A" stamped on the right side of the label! But nearly all of them have the numbers "20" or "21" or something else that looks like "D" stamped on the left side of the label. I'm still new to this all, do the numbers signify anything particular?

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.

Also, it took a few tries, but Track and Field is in the books.  Played two and a half loops, and got every world record except Skeet Shooting, which I had a stone bitch of a time qualifying for.  I do wish it had a practice option for the individual events, but all told, not a bad game.

EDIT: Brain farted...I also didn't get the record on the High Jump.  As there's no way to set the bar, you only jump for the qualifying score, so it takes until the 6th loop to tie the record.  So obviously I missed that as I'm so bad at Skeet Shooting that getting that far is highly unlikely

Hey @scaryice, I just thought of something.  We had tried and failed to beat Kung Fu Heroes together, which has a bunch of pain points.  I was wondering your thoughts on the hypothetical situation where we actually pulled it off.  See, splitting the base points makes sense, but the pain points are meant as a reflection of the "pain" of having to complete them.  As such, would those points be awarded in full, due to both parties enduring the same amount of "pain" to beat it, or would those points be split as well?  Like either scenario works, but it might be interesting to hear both your thoughts and those of the others here, before a precedent needs to be established.