MeganJoanne

Cool! Tried it out just a moment ago. Tough to time it but managed to do it 4 times out of several minutes of rapid attempts.

Okay so I finally cleared the Dôme de Lave (Lava Dome) in Mystic Quest Legend. That boss, Dragon Rouge, he was tough, dropped both me and Rubicon a few times. Currently saved at a battlefield on the way back to la Tour Focale (Focus Tower). Having trouble with a couple of Sthéno (Medusas), already lost twice in a row by them because they keep taking us by surprise and getting the first chance to attack and both times we weren't able to even take our turn. Stoned me, stone Rubicon, dead. next time, stoned me, paralysed Rubicon, then paralysed him again, then stoned him. Talk about cheap. got me remembering long ago when I played Dragon Warrior 2, was near the end of the game and rage quit because of all of the enemies that could insta-kill you, and the game was put on hold for a very long time, though eventually did get back to and finish it, I hated the game just for the cheap stuff that all came at the end of it. RPGs, always gotta throw shit like this at you. Anyway, temps 8:38, niveau 25. Actually scratch that, I couldn't let it be, cleared that battlefield, though not without a few reloads because these Sthéno 13itches didn't make it easy, that I ended up saving after every single fight just to be safe. So same level, 8:49 time, just arrived at Pont Liane.

That was a very good controller, if I remember right, I don't recall having any problems with it. I don't have that anymore though, long gone like most things, that's all old stuff from 2011. I got a generic 360 controller currently, it works okay, except that both analog sticks hardly function, thank goodness I don't need those for these old games.

I think Super C is harder than Contra. Funny thing about that one, I struggled at first with it, couldn't beat it, then one day my brother says, let me try, he beats it. Then, right after he did, I guess seeing him play, I beat it. That was back in 2004, and I did it without using continues on that first victory. I guess I just needed the motivation, couldn't let my brother better me at my own game. He tried after that and didn't play as well as I did. I didn't enjoy it as much as Contra, so wasn't into it at first until there was someone to challenge me at it, and even though slow to start in beating it, ultimately I did better in the end. But I still think it is the harder of the two games. Years later, I think it was during a contest, NA pretty sure (actually, yes it was, still got the picture) I go through it 5 times consecutively then called it quits, still had lives left, plenty, just got tired I guess, but still Contra I had done 11 games before getting a continue and then quit. I suppose I could have done the same with Super C but I always liked the first game more, everything, the stages, including the sorta 3D levels which for me were better than the overhead ones, and the music. For me a lot of times how well I do at a game depends on my interest in it as well as my current mood, though sometimes some other source of motivation could be helpful too, otherwise even a game that I am really good at I could totally suck at given my mental state is just not into it. And that does factor into how challenging a game can be for someone as well because it will affect your performance.

Earlier had attempted Castlevania subweapons only again, but then the game froze up on me, urgh, anyway, the moment passed, not into it anymore. I'm thinking, I really did get spoiled by Skyrim and the like, I could play those like nonstop day and night. And perhaps my taste really has changed a bit, that I actually need something deeper and less needed for the challenge. Right now, taking a short break, Mystic Quest Legend. Dôme de Lave, niveau 23, temps 7:40. I am getting my ass whooped in the lava dome, be it turned to stone or confused and then earthquaking myself to death, difficulty of enemies ramped up plus having a hard time finding my way around so wrong path, backtrack and take another, but now have to do it all over again because I accidentally left the area not realizing it was the path that I came into the area, oops. Well, if anything it'll give me more chance to level up.

Speaking of which, Faxanadu, yeah that one needed a sequel too. Yeah, I know about the Dragon Slayer series, problem is they aren't Legacy of the Wizard.

This one is not even close to easy, so not being able to beat it, shit, do you really want to put yourself through that much hell anyway... that game was divised by Satan! I've beaten a lot of really hard games, that one is among them.

Impatienceness, recklessness, wrong approach, repeated mistakes, could all be factors for failure at a game, or the game is just relentlessly really super hard. Shitty controls, yeah, blame it on that, which is why some of the more difficult NES games is why I haven't beaten them yet. Cheap enemy placement, another issue for some of the worst of them. But mostly, all it takes is practice, learning to overcome the flaws of either yourself or the game.

If you are able, do what you can to take care of it now, sell some games that aren't so important to you or something you have of value if you need to, because you seriously don't want zombie breath, it's not pleasant for you nor anyone close by. And the pain plus getting sick from infection isn't good either.

Super Mario Bros is not easy. It is only easy to those who say it is because they got good at it. Super Mario Bros was the first NES game I played, really played, not just tried for a few moments, and also the first one I ever beat, and beat it before owning an NES, a friend had it, I would play over her apartment and it took two weeks going over there for me to beat it the first time, with warps I remember. This friend never beat it, maybe later in life she did, I dunno, but at the time it was hard for her and she owned the game unlike me. But just because I beat it for what the time I would call quickly, given it was my first real NES experience, doesn't make it easy, it was tough. Once my brother and I got an NES I played it all the time to the point of in being easy without warps, practice, lots and lots of practice. It's not really really hard, but still offers a pretty good challenge in some places and comparing to other NES games I would place it at medium difficulty, give or take depending on the person playing it, but easy, hell no. Thing about Mario games, if you don't have a power up, it's one hit and you're dead, and gotta be really good with the jumping and it involves physics that take getting a bit used to to make accurate landings. Everyone is good or poor at something and some actually are going to find a game easy even on their first try, that perhaps they are just good at that kind of game, or could be something else. I never found the first Metroid hard, but many people talk of getting lost in it or having trouble keeping their health up. Castlevania is a game that I excel at, but just because I am pretty good at it doesn't mean it is easy, because like Mario, I've had lots of years of practice. Mario I would need a massive refresher on to get good at it again since over the years I haven't really favorited those style of platformers, thus I do better with ones like Castlevania, Shatterhand or Batman, because I can take more than one hit and can hit stuff, plus cartoony don't do it for me anymore so Mario style games have become harder (just means I'm going to die more often) over the years than those ones that I've played more often later in life. I used to be pretty decent with shmups, but never on the level of some of the more intense ones, eye-hand coordination has to be much better than most other types of games and most shooters involving spaceships or a man with a gun tend to be one hitters and scrolling, but I can do them and have, but none are what I'd ever call easy, just some easier than others, and my right hand sucks for rapid fire. You know what I suck at, puzzle games, I don't mind simple puzzles but if they take too long for me to figure out, it hurts my head and I start getting agitated - guess I am more of a fighter than a thinker, oh sure I do a lot of thinking, ponderings, but rarely they involve heavy puzzle solving. So with Super Mario Bros, what seems to make it most difficult for you, the controls, the one hit, the timer, all of the above and then some? Sometimes one doesn't have to luxury of taking their time in a game and strategizing or finding the right way to go about getting through a tough area, sometimes there are pressures, be it really aggressive foes and/or a timer forcing you to rush, or a scrolling screen (always hated these in platformers) like most shmups have, but if you do have at least some time, don't rush. Get used to the controls, always play around with those first before moving forward (if you are able), then move forward at a decent pace, and if possible one enemy at a time, watch them, learn how they move and think of what you can do to kill it or get past it, and then it's all in the reflexes and timing. NES, many of them are hard because a lot of them will have a timer, though usually in the earlier levels give you enough to work with to learn to play, though even after you've gotten good at those, it's those later levels that kill you over and over because they throw a lot more at you and sometimes also make you have to rush more to finish the stage. But one has to know their flaws, the things they are doing wrong also, what keeps killing you and why, and are you repeating the same mistakes, try a different approach, but think about it, go through the options in head. If that first Goomba kills you it's because you didn't jump on or over it, think about what to do, there's a button right there, yeah that one, that one will allow you to jump and you press this way to move forward, and this button allows you to run when going forward. Okay, got it? No, no, no don't run into it! "Plunk". What happened? Uh, you died. Don't worry you get to try again. Jump, jump button, what, what are you doing, don't just stand there, no you have to press the button, don't wave the controller! "Plunk". Sorry, I was amusing myself with memories of watching someone who wasn't a gamer give Super Mario Bros a try, they never got into gaming. As for what game that most think is easy that I find difficult, um, nah, all the ones I haven't beaten are either really hard and most would agree or I just haven't put enough effort into them be it lack of interest or whatever.

Was playing Friday the 13th for the NES last night, several hours messing around with an old glitch that makes Jason take a massive amount more hits that normal. This morning, Castlevania. I wanted to see if I could do that subweapons only game. This time I forgave myself the one accidental whipping of the hunchback that fights alongside the Franken monster at the end of stage 4, and kept going. Was doing really good in stage 5 until the last section, which resulted in my first death thus putting me back to the door thus having to use my whip to get the boomerang, but didn't whip any enemies. I lost a few lives though before I thought to use the big heart at the start of the final stretch and kept nabbing that and going back down the stairs and back up, getting it and repeating until I had enough to fight my way through that hall of axe knights and medusa heads, though messed up a couple times on the Grim Reaper before I beat him. Start of stage 6, friggin batstards, I hate the big bats, always so inconsistent in their flight and attack pattern, cost me a couple lives, hey, but made it through the rest of the level, rushing and avoiding the eagles and hunchbacks. Whew... made it to Dracula's tower, but no lives and only one hit left, commits suicide. Continue used. I collected the boomerang again and used that to stock up on hearts, fought Drac, ran out of hearts. Try again, died. Again, died. Okay, I'm going to pull your fangs out! Beat it... mostly subweapons only. I will consider this one practice, at least I know for sure it can be done, if it weren't for a few minor mistakes and accidental whippings I could've had this one all the way. Will try again soon.

Fight and kill Jason while on the path, make sure to be near a cabin or a branching path, once Jason loses all of his health (he stops moving, flashes) immediately either enter a cabin or take another path off screen and the next time you encounter him he will have far more hit points than before. Normally with the torch Jason will take 32 hits to kill (each shot takes off one bar from his health meter), but once this glitch is activated he will take 256 hits to take down using the torch. I discovered this glitch back in 2003 and last night after all those years wanted to be sure I could still do it as well as record it. By the way, you do not have to kill off any of your counselors for this to work, I just wanted it to be a long boss battle (and to recount each hit, yeah 256HP with torch). You do not need the torch, but I never had the stamina to outlast him using any of the weaker weapons (came close I think with the axe). Oh, once you defeat him and the next day of the game begins he returns to his normal hit points (but if I remember right, the glitch can be activated on those days too). Fast-forward to 16:00 to see how it's done (I stayed near the lake dock to assure Jason didn't attack me on the path again, not with those amounts of HP), or to about 18:00 for Jason battle. From what I tested, I know the torch does 1 HP bar per shot, the rock has to hit him 5 times to even knock a single bar of health off, machete was 3 shots per bar, so figure the knife would be 4 hits per bar and the axe probably 2 hits per. Now imagine actually fighting this stronger Jason using rocks, if my math is right he'd take over 1280 hits! I had a hard enough time trying to do it, and failing using the axe because my hands and fingers were sweating too much causing me to mess up, and that's a lot of concentration for a long time. Even if I were to be able to endure such a ridiculously long battle, no way would I be able to on the fast Jason of the following days.

Don't really have one now, but for many years when I was NES heavy it was Castlevania, Batman, Bad Dudes, and Shatterhand.

Even though sprite edits, still using a lot of the body details of the originals, they still at the time too a lot of work and several revisions for some of them. I had imagined unlike the actual Dynowarz game that you could walk past other robosaurs and in order for damage to occur there had to be an actual attack happening, so that way the game wouldn't be like the original with a pushing match that somehow always results in the enemy ramming into you and you trying to kill it quickly. Attacks would be with bites, tail swipes, clawing, jumping and assortments of laser weapons, bombs, the launch fist, but also specials for each dino type such as buzzsaw attack for the stegosaure, or flame horn of the pachyrhinosaure or seismic stomp of a brachiosaure, stuff like that. Somewhat like miniboss fights not too different than a game like Castle of Dragon or Sword Master, but you could keep moving through the stage though if you want. And platforming would be better for not just the guy but the cyborasaurus as well. Never did any sea related robosaurs but had plans to have water levels as well with huge underwater sea monster like robos. And sorta like Blaster Master the Cyborasaurus could get upgrades either from an end stage boss or from any of the other robosaurs. Also there would be interactivity with the scenery, so you could smash rocks or cause them to roll, knock over trees, destroy buildings, all sorts of fun shit. And still the game would remain in side view. If only I could do it, it would be a pretty damn good game. And yes, even though the game is very average or under average I've always liked it and thought it had a lot of potential to be so much better, but then I think that about most games I play.

Sure as hell was. Thankfully by the time Super Ghouls & Ghosts came out for the SNES I knew what to expect, and that one while challenging was nowhere near as hard.

Mystic Quest Legend. Dôme de Lave, niveau 21, temps 7:06.

Mystic Quest Legend, SNES. Just reached the volcano. I'm at level 20, time is 6:39.

Friday the 13th 08/26/03-9/1/03 Found a glitch that brings Jason back stronger than ever: beat Jason on the path (side view area), all of his health must be completely gone, then before he disappears, immediately enter a cabin (so make sure to beat him with a cabin a screen). You will see that Jason is in the cabin with you, though he appears to have no health left, but when you encounter him, his health is once again refilled and he will take far more hits to kill than before...256 hits using the torch! Yeah, I actually counted. Anyway, I let him kill off all but Crissy, so that when I next confronted him he wouldn't run away, then after a very long battle I defeated him. This accomplishment was on the 1st day, haven't attempted to beat him like this on the other 2 days. This glitch actually worked every time I tried it, so it's not some random mess up. Now that this topic has come up and got me remembering this, I'm thinking I should try it again.

Some top picks : 8 Eyes Arkista's Ring Bad Dudes Deadly Towers Dr Chaos Dynowarz Low G Man G.I. Joe (always been a top needs-another-sequel for me) Guardian Legend, The Karnov Kick Master Legacy of the Wizard Ninja Gaiden (taking place after NGIII, but on the SNES) Shatterhand Street Fighter 2010 Vice Project Doom Wizards & Warriors (never even got a Super version on the SNES, they just let the series die)

A long time ago I was working on updating the sprites to that game to give them a more modern post Jurassic Park look. I had ideas for making an unofficial sequel, but never got any further than editing the robo dino sprites. Some examples (I did a lot more than these) :

I was thinking shower head too, first and only thought that came to mind.

Ghosts & Goblins, I remember that one so well for that very first time I ever beat it. I was challenged by a cousin or nephew of my father's then girlfriend. This kid had all the really hard games (Ghosts & Goblins, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ikari Warriors to name a few), couldn't beat a single one of them. I told him that I beat every one of my games. He said I bet you can't beat this one. I said sure I can, if I time. Okay, do it!, he dared me. It was G&G. So early morning until sundown I played that game, took over his NES and tv. After a few hours he begged me to quit, that he believed me, said I didn't have to play through the whole thing. Oh, no, you challenged me and I'm going to show you that I can do it, sorry. He and my brother watched, but during times of boredom, well, because I died a lot, probably hundreds of times, they had to find something else to do. I remember the only times I paused the game were to eat lunch or drink something and use the bathroom, and I told my brother to make sure that this boy (don't remember his name) didn't turn the system off on me (my brother at those early years was loyal and he wanted to see me beat it too, he knew I could). Then final many hours later... Yes! Whew, there, beat it! But then... This room is an illusion...blah-blah, needed the cross and had to play through it again to beat it for real. It was a crushing blow to me because I wasn't sure that I wanted to go through that again. But I had to play through it again, afterall it was the only way to truly say I beat it, to that boy's dismay, yeah, he was regretting daring me to beat this game. I was exhausted but also very determined. I remember how dry and bloodshot my eyes were when I final finished it. While I have beaten others really hard games over the years, some even just as harder or harder than Ghosts & Goblins, this game is the one I remember as wearing me down the most, it was rough. I have beaten it a few more times over the years but it's never been a game that ever really got easier. Always hated that they force you to play through it twice, as aside from getting that extra weapon necessary to beat the final boss, there's no difference, just the game designers being sadistic. Pulled one over on me and probably every gamer at that time. Sure we all know the infamy of the game now and having to play through it twice, but back then, it was a surprise, one that drained the life out of you and crushed your spirit. I didn't break so easy though. But because of having to play through it twice is the one big reason I have hardly played this game to completion much, it's just too much work just going through once, no point even playing it unless I want to torture myself that day. Oh, and the damn load time, having to wait for the whole map screen every single time you die, ugh. Actually that may be worst than having to play through it twice, because so much time is wasted on it. And another screwed up thing which could ruin all of your progress, after a game over instead of putting continue first as an option, they start the cursor back on 1 Player, hit that and you begin the game anew, so you couldn't be in a rush to get back into continuing your game, you had to make sure to hit that select button twice, only twice, so make sure that you don't accidentally select 2 Players or 1 Player all over again, must make sure that helmet icon is on "continue", okay, looks safe, now press "start", back where you left off.

Castlevania. Last time I played this game were a bunch of hacks I was trying out earlier this year, but it's been a long while since I played this to beat it. Tonight I was trying for a subweapons only game which is much harder to do than a whip only playthru (that I've done numerous times). I tried the subweapons only thing some years ago, failed to pull it off, had gotten to the Grim Reaper but accidentally lashed my whip once at him thus blowing that challenge, but ended up dying at the start of the very next stage anyway, and dying means losing the subweapon thus failing if you don't have anything else good nearby that you can get without killing anything with the whip or that will actually help you get more hearts. Well gave it a few tries tonight, twice making it to stage 5 but while the boomerang is the best choice of weapon for the most part, especially that it can hit multiple targets in a straight line with two chances at that with the return, against axe knights, not good at all, holy water would be best. And I made the game harder by not allowing any whipping whatsoever once I acquired that first dagger at the beginning, so no whipping of any candles after that point nor blocks thus no food either... really friggin hard. The challenging part besides trying to conserve ammo (timing shots to hit multiple targets be it candles as well as enemies, jumping over enemies when you can, and in some cases scrolling them off screen) is making sure not to accidentally whip anything so always pressing up when attacking, and also if multiple copies of the subweapon usage that you keep count of what is on screen so you don't try to throw another and whip as a result of not being allowed another subweapon active. Maybe I'll try again soon, but if not, the challenge will wait for me.

Back in the day never had that option, the best one could get were in game codes if the game had any codes useful for such a cause. Nowadays we got it so much easier, maybe we've become spoiled, soft, I dunno, but the way I see it now, using a cheat device, code or savestate for exploring or practicing, whatever, no big deal, just speeds up the process and saves one from having to repeat a stage or even the whole of a game over and over just to get good at one really tough spot or few. But we used to have to back in the day, and still do if playing on a game console minus having a Game Genie or such inserted. Long ago if a game was really friggin hard I just kept on working at it from start til game over and retry all over again until I finally beat it. Exemple, Blaster Master, one of my earlier NES games, during a rental I managed to get up to the crab boss, which was pretty good, but that is when things start to really kick up on difficulty too, and once I owned it, took me about 2 months to actually beat it the very first time, of course I was still sorta new at NES games so I was still getting my groove on, but yeah, rinse and repeat, die and try again, game over, no more continues, restart, over and over. And even after I beat it that first time it took ages before I was able to beat it again, but then after that I was already better at it and thus the game wasn't so crazy difficult. Practice makes for a better gamer, could care less how one gained the skill. Heck, you can learn a lot just from watching others play, thus giving you an advantage of what to expect before you yourself actually play through or overcome that part of a game.

Sure, if you are curious to know, I'd be more than happy to look some shit up. Post 'em here, the more eyes and knowledge on them the better. After all, I might know some stuff and how to look stuff up but putting it all together coherently into a translated sentence that makes sense that's something I never had the knack for.