Hoskat

The guys sit down for a sequel to last years popular non-mainstream horror movie episode. 20 more under-appreciated horror gems are uncovered and discussed. NOTE - We had some audio issues for a lot of the episode. Everything is still able to be heard but just isn't up to our normal audio standards.

Genre: Multiplayer Party Publisher: Batlab Electronics Total time played: 30 Minutes Short review: A party game where you and your friends try to live longer than the digital cowboy in this game of Russian Roulette. Interesting links related to Super Russian Roulette Kickstarter Commerical Well, This Has Never Been Done Before One of the coolest things about the homebrew community is it allows inventive people to create NES games that no one could have thought of 25 years ago or Nintendo would have never approved of. I think you can see by title alone that Super Russian Roulette fits into both categories. Short and Sweet This is a party game and lasts under 10 minutes, sometimes much quicker. It isn’t really something you’ll probably play often or unless you are with a group but it will definitely get you some laughs and be entertaining for a short time. How Do You Play? First thing, you get to configure the loud mouthed cowboy who will be your computer opponent in the game. There aren’t a lot of options, but, the fact there are options at all makes me happy. I love configurable players and you don’t see that much on the NES. Regardless of how he looks he will taunt you the same way. After all the human players enter their initials the cowboy will tell you whose turn it is and all you have to do is hold the NES light gun to your head and pull the trigger. Of course, if you want to be lame you could just pull the trigger without pointing the gun to you head. My college roommate did this for Wii Bowling, he would just sit on the couch and twitch his arm. That removed all the fun for me. I liked to move the coffee table and go all out like I was really on a bowling alley. Anyway, the last player left standing wins! If you are lucky you will see this screen and live to play another round. This means game over for you. Cowboy! The cowboy will taunt you throughout the game and actually has some pretty good one liners. Surprisingly when he speaks you can understand him decently well (by NES standards). Luckily, there are also subtitles. Now it is the cowboy’s turn Surprisingly good animation on this screen. If you see this it means you won! I am not sure if the cowboy can lose before only 1 player remains but in the 3-4 times I played through the game it always came down to the cowboy and 1 more player. Final Thoughts For originality this game gets a perfect score. Unfortunately, the excitement and fun only lasts for a few minutes. It is definitely an interesting enough concept that all of your friends will want to give it a try but the game play is so one note it probably wont’ be something you will visit over and over. View the full article

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE The guys discuss the lost art of commercials and commercial jingles. With DVR and streaming the classic commercials taking the world by storm has gone away. McDonalds Halloween Best of “Mac-Tonight” Time Life Mysteries Smokey the Bear PSA Mr Bucket NAPA Know How Best of Terry Crews Old Spice KMart Ship My Pants Mentos Compilation Rally’s Cha-Ching with Seth Green Duracell Family Big Red Doublemint Gum Juicy Fruit Crocodile Mile G.I. Joe Toy Compilation My Buddy Doll MJ and Larry Bird Play Horse View the full article

The guys discuss the lost art of commercials and commercial jingles. With DVR and streaming being so commonplace in the 21st century the classic commercials taking the world by storm has gone away.

The guys discuss the lost art of commercials and commercial jingles. With DVR and streaming being so commonplace in the 21st century the classic commercials taking the world by storm has gone away.

Genre: Puzzle Publisher: Khan Games Total time played: 3 Hours Short review: A point and click adventure in the vein of Shadowgate where your only job is to escape! Interesting links related to Nescape Kickstarter Project A New Game! It has been 25 years since the NES had an officially released game but since then dozens, if not hundreds of “homebrew” games made by small teams, or in some cases, a single person are still coding out and releasing new games using antiquated assembly language. Seeing what these developers can do to push the boundaries of the NES hardware is pretty incredible. What is it? NESCAPE, developed by Khan Games takes a simple point and click formula and combines it with real life escape logic to create a new and unique puzzle game. The game, at first seems pretty simple, you are trapped in a room and must escape. The room is full of puzzles that must be solved in a specific order to get out. Although the entire game takes place in a single room there are 4 screens that you click between, each represents a wall in the room. And, there are 4 phases for each of the 4 walls so there is definitely more to do than you see at first. Every kid I knew had one of these, but, this is the first time I’ve seen one in an NES game. Eww, a bug The first time I played the game I accidentally turned on my flashlight and then traveled in a specific direction causing the game to lock up. Luckily it happened 2 minutes after I started so a simple reset wasn’t a big deal. A quick search online let me know that I wasn’t alone, the games developer didn’t know about this bug until the game shipped. He has agreed to fix all copies of the game if you want to ship back to him. But, since it requires such a small specific group of steps that is easily avoided, I’ll probably just keep my copy with the bug in tact. Even with the bug, the game is still much more polished than a lot of officially released NES games. How Do You Know What To Do? You don’t, and that is the point. The game starts you off in a pitch black room, all you can see if your cursor which is an eyeball. Luckily the answer to the first puzzle, where the light switch can be found, is in the instruction manual. If it wasn’t you would spend a lot of time poking around in the dark. At the start of the game my advice is just to click on everything and see what you find. There are several puzzles scattered along the 4 walls and the game gives you just enough information to be able to deduce which puzzle requires your attention next. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t play The Simpson’s theme song on this thing. Fast Paced The game itself isn’t fast paced but because it is a new game it was able to avoid all the programming pitfalls that slowed down older games. Playing some older games is tough today because of how slow the cursor moves or how many extra steps are needed to complete a simple task. With 25 years of programming from the last official NES game the new developers can really make new games more fun for newer audiences and streamline the commands needed to complete tasks. Across the bottom of the screen is a spot to hold up to 8 items. To select an item you simply click on it to highlight it. Until you click the item again or click another item you have the item in hand. This saves some time when trying to figure out which lock a key belongs in. Select the key once and try all the locks, older game would have made you select the key before testing each lock. These symbols have to mean something. Gross, A Slide Puzzle As a kid it seemed like every restaurant, toy store or friends bedroom had some form of a slide puzzle game. I was never any good at them even though I’ve probably spent dozens of hours of my life trying to figure them out. When I saw one pop up early in Nescape I was afraid this would be the end of my journey. The puzzle is a 3×4 picture of a mask. I actually solved the puzzle my first time (it took 15 minutes) but even so I spent an hour or so laying in bed that night watching videos on YouTube of strategies to solve slide puzzles that I hoped would make solving the in game slide puzzle easier. Unfortunately I never found a video for a 4×3 slide puzzle so the tips I found only went so far. The dreaded slide puzzle!! Of all the puzzles in the game this is the one that took the longest to get past every time I played. Luckily the game is pretty short (if you know what to do) and I only had to complete the puzzle 5 times as that is how many attempts it took me to escape. Why Do The Lights Keep Going Off? Throughout the game the room goes through 4 transformations. I think of these as 4 different stages. Once you solve certain puzzles all the lights turn off and you are taken back to the pink wall where you must again find the light switch (it is in the same spot every time). Each time this happens there are subtle changes across the 4 walls and new puzzles are revealed. Impossible There were 3 times in the game where I had to rely on the internet for help. None of these were things I couldn’t have figured out on my own, in fact, I knew exactly what to do, I just couldn’t deduce something because of hardware limitations. I played this game on a real NES on a tube TV that is pushing 25 years old. I didn’t realize it at the time but apparently the color on the TV isn’t as good as it once was. There was a puzzle in the game that featured some colored lights on the wall and some candles with different colored flames. One of the flames and colored lights on the wall was red but it looked gray on my TV. So, I was confused why there were 2 gray lights and candles. When I looked up a screenshot online I noticed right away that my TV was the issue, not my brain. That second row is red…it looked dark gray/black on my TV. The other item that messed me up was the walkman. At three different times in the game you find tapes for the walkman that play a single word that you must use to solve a puzzle. The first word came through pretty clear but the second and third words were impossible to decipher through my crappy tv speakers and the NES’s crappy sound chip. So, again, I knew what to do I just couldn’t understand the word the game was yelling at me. There were a couple of other graphical limitations that made some puzzles harder than they needed to be, but nothing impossible. Final Thoughts I’m a big fan of escape rooms. I have done 9 different rooms and as of now I have never not escaped. This is not because I’m great at them, but because I make sure I play with smart people who are easy to work with. This NES game feels very similar to an escape room. It takes elements of other point and click adventures like Shadowgate and cleans up the things that slowed that game down. It adds a clock that makes it the perfect game for modern speed runners to try to keep besting their high score. But, the game isn’t without its issues. The biggest one being what I mentioned above with the bad sound chip and color/graphical limitations of the system making a couple of the puzzles harder to solve than they need to be. Also, once you figure out what to do the game can be beaten very very quickly making subsequent playthroughs less satisfying (this is also true of real life escape rooms). Also, there wasn’t really much of a story other than you need to escape the room. Honestly, I am not much for stories in older games but having just a little something more would have really made this game stand out. But, the game designers should be very proud. They made a game that is highly playable in 2019 and is much better and more polished than over half of the games from the NES library. I will definitely pull this one off the shelf to show friends when we have a game night. Spoilers (Walkthrough) If you get stuck and need a little guidance I have a rough layout of how to navigate through the puzzles below. Highlight the text to reveal. But, please, try to play through the game on your own. There is nothing more satisfying than solving puzzles on your own. Plus, the developers put a lot of time and effort into making the game and cheating makes their effort less valuable. Turn on light (located just to the left of where your cursor starts the game) Pick up flashlight and hairdryer on white vanity Use the flashlight on all 4 walls to reveal shapes on the photos hung on the wall. Find the order that makes sense for the pictures and enter the shapes into the blue box get key, paper and walkman from the blue box use key on desk with statue sitting on it get extension cord combine hairdryer, extension cord and use on the outlet on the wall. use hairdryer on the statue to reveal a key. use key on the chest by the clock to reveal the dread slide puzzle solve puzzle and pick up tape and paper combine two papers together use the code on the paper to move the grandfather clock hands pull lever inside clock Turn on light (switch is in the same spot as before) pick up the 4 paintings and place them on the wall where the frame outlines can be seen. putting paintings on the wall reveals a panel in the wall with 4 buttons each with 4 positions. Listen for the note in each column that is different. Play those notes on the piano get the ball from the piano Use ball on maze on the left side of the pink wall Get key Use key on blue wall desk Get batteries combine batteries, walkman and tape select walkman and press anywhere in the room to hear a word. enter the word in the typewriter (YOU) turn on the lights (switch is in the same place) pick up matches inside typwriter arrange newly visible wall switches to where each row has a white light light candles in the order of the white light switches (using the color behind the light where it matches the light of the flame). When all candles are lit and stay lit examine the tree get symbols off tree branches (notice how many leaves on each branch) Pull books out of shelf where the symbols match what you saw on the tree. Play game located above white vanity where you find the differences in photos. Pick up key near grandfather clock on the wall. Use key on white vanity pick up tape and play in walkman enter word you hear in the typewriter (SHIVER) Turn on light (switch in same spot as before) rearrange the pic over the phone (not a slide puzzle) pic up hammer on shelf use hammer on piggy bank pick up 3 coins look at typewriter and solve the fiddle (look at first letter of each word) use 3 coins in phone enter number from typewriter view the rearranged pic with the flashlight to reveal morse code alphabet decode message playing over phone. enter decoded word in silver box with word lock Play simon says (write down the order as it is about 10 sequences long) get tape enter word in typewriter (WARMS) turn on light (switch is in same spot as before) use key in lock in the door on the pink wall The end View the full article

Genre: Racing Publisher: Acclaim Total time played: 10 Hours Short review: Billed as a racing simulator it is more of a generic racing game with simple controls. Interesting links related to Ferrari Grand Prix Soundtrack Full Playthrough (The Mexican Runner) Story There isn’t one. But, I’ll make one up. You are the new guy on the track and have to prove yourself in your rookie season over 16 courses around the world to win the most points at the end of the year and be crowned the F1 champion. Controls The controls are simple. A goes, B stops and the D-Pad steers. If you really want to torture yourself you can select to play with a 3 speed manual transmission where Up and Down shirt gears. There is an advantage of the car’s top speed being 10km/h faster if you select the manual transmission but it isn’t worth the headache. Also, you can forget about braking with the B button as I never once used it in the embarrassing number of hours I played this game. In fact, it wasn’t until today (8/25/19) when my daughter woke up from her nap and came into the living room and saw me playing the game and wanted to play that I noticed the car had a brake light. Instead of racing the track she was obsessed with hitting the B button and saying “ray uh uh bake ight” (red circle brake light) and driving the car in the grass. She didn’t care about winning a race. Qualifying Before each race you must do a single lap around the track to prove you are worthy to drive in the race. Before the race begins you will see the track record and the slowest time needed to qualify. Qualifying is a joke. Of the 16 races (and dozens and dozens of attempts) only 3 things happened during the qualifying lap. I barely let my tire run into the grass for a split second somewhere on the lap and did not qualify for the race. I qualified for the race but start in 26th position (last place) I raced a near perfect lap, cutting corners, never letting off the gas and was fast enough to start the race in 18th place. Seriously, those are the only 3 scenarios, in fact, I would venture to say it is impossible to get the pole position on any of the qualifying laps. If anyone has a video of someone doing this I’d love to see it. To Rub Is To Race Your car is red, the other racers are red, blue or yellow. There doesn’t seem to be any other distinctions between the cars. The goal is to finish in first place, or as close to first as possible. The first 6 place finishers earn points toward their season total with first place being 10 points, 6th place being 1 point and 2nd-5th place getting some number of points between 1 and 10. Of the 16 courses in the game I finished first in exactly 1 race. I’m honestly not sure if this is because I’m just not good at this game or if it is rigged like qualifying where you just aren’t capable of winning sometimes. Pretty much every track looks just like this. Ahead of Its Time While racing there were a couple of neat little things that were pointless, but inventive. First, there is a rearview mirror where you can see behind your car. This is the earliest game I can remember having this feature. Unfortunately it is very small and only shows a car for a split second before it blows right past you. It is pretty pointless, but still cool to have. Below the rearview mirror is a radio which displays text of hazards on the track such as oil, lets you know if your tires need to be changed and congratulates you for making a good move by passing a racer or scolding you for making a bad move. There is also a map of the track that shows where on the map you are as well as the 3 racers in first second and third place. Using this map is crucial to know when sharp turns are coming or if you are getting close to finishing on the podium. Pit Stop You start each race with a new set of tires and can basically floor the gas pedal and still easily go around each turn. As you run off the track, hit oil spots or wreck into other cars your tires begin to wear. This happens quickly and you will notice that it is much harder to control the car which requires you to make a pit stop. The pit stop is a mini game where you alternate between the A and B buttons as quickly as possible while 8 guys remove and replace your tires. Just like a real pit stop the other racers keep going and you will lose a few places while you pit. I read online of a guy who could get through the pit stop in about 2.5 seconds. I averaged 4.5 and was as slow as 6 seconds. I guess my reflexes just aren’t what they used to be. Pit Stop The good thing is, the more you play the better you get at the game and the better you get the less you have to make a pit stop. In fact, on my final run, most races I never once had to pit which meant I saved several seconds and usually finished in a higher position. That Yellow Car!! I never found a rhyme or reason, but, every few races one of the yellow cars that was around position 10 would randomly burst into flames and wildly ping pong back and forth across the track. If you touch this car you also catch on fire and the race immediately ends. The car isn’t usually on fire as you approach it and when it bursts into flames you have less than a second to maneuver perfectly. More times than not I failed and this ended the race for me. Thank Goodness For The Password After each race you get a password that allows you to restart the game from that race and ranking. If it weren’t for this I don’t know if I could have finished the game. Much like in Prince of Persia I used the strategy of practicing a race until I mastered it and then capturing the password. I would then do the same with the next race using the password to restart when needed. This way I could practice each race multiple times without having to start over. The one headache with the password is that it doesn’t save your name. So, each time after entering the password you have to re-enter your name. The Final Standings A perfect score would be beating all 16 races in first place and earning 160 points. I finished the game 57 points. Thankfully the game is forgiving in this way as I don’t know how long it would have taken to win all 16 races. At least one race ended because I caught fire and at least one race I didn’t qualify so didn’t even get a chance. Yet another race ended when I was too far back to win so the race ended. That is another interesting feature. Every time you would hit a checkpoint your radio would set a race position limit, if you dropped below that limit at any time the race ends. I’m not sure why this feature existed, my guess is because of system limitations. The game may not have been able to have 26 finishers and record their times and position, this way the game only has to display the top 6 finishers of each race. Final Thoughts As far as racing games go this one is very mediocre. The music is subpar and the action isn’t nearly as good as a game like R.C. Pro Am or Rad Racer. I did like that you raced through an entire season and your results were cumulative, but it wasn’t enough to save the game. The graphics were pretty bland with only the top half of the screen really changing between races. sure, I saw the Eiffel Tower and Leaning Tower of Pisa and some bridges throughout the 16 levels but 80% of the screen never changed. It may be worth racing once or twice just to say you did but I wouldn’t bother trying to complete the game unless you are a glutton for punishment. View the full article

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE The guys discuss and poorly sing their favorite music and music related events from 1983. Matt provides lots of Matt’s Stats and Jason enjoys singing the Matt’s Stats theme song a little too much. Spotify playlist of all songs on the list: Apple Music playlist of all songs on the list Matt’s #5 – Tears For Fears – Mad World Matt’s #4 – Dio – Holy Diver Matt’s #3 – Ozzy Osbourne – Bark at the Moon Matt’s #2 – Lionel Richie – Hello Matt’s #1 – Huey Lewis and the News – The Heart of Rock n Roll Jason’s #5 – Stevie Nicks – Stand Bank Jason’s #4 – Tears For Fears – Change Jason’s #3 – Kajagoogoo – Hang On Now Jason’s #2 – Real Life – Catch Me I’m Falling Jason #1 – Duran Duran – Union of the Snake Luke’s #5 – Romantics – Talking In Your Sleep Luke’s #4 – Pat Benatar – Love Is A Battlefield Luke’s #3 – Lionel Richie – All Night Long Luke #2 – Elton John – I’m Still Standing Luke’s #1 – Yes – Owner Of A Lonely Heart View the full article

The guys sit down to talk about the music of 1983 that has impacted their lives the most. They discuss and sing horrible renditions of songs from Elton John, Huey Lewis, Tears for Fears, Lionel Richie and more.

The guys sit down to talk about the music of 1983 that has impacted their lives the most. They discuss and sing horrible renditions of songs from Elton John, Huey Lewis, Tears for Fears, Lionel Richie and more.

Genre: Adventure Publisher: Virgin Interactive Total time played: 5 Hours Short review: A port of a classic computer game that features some innovative ideas but clunky controls hold it back from being great. Interesting links related to Speedrun (21min 42sec) History and Review by Arnpoly Soundtrack It’s Hard to Go Backwards In 2003 I bought Prince of Persia: Sands of Time on the XBOX and played the heck out of it. It was so fun, fast paced and innovative. You could run on walls, you could slow and reverse time and fight all the bad guys you wanted. About this same time I found a copy of Prince of Persia on the NES and tried it out. I was very disappointed in the bad graphics and clunky controls so never even made it past the first level. It was hard to appreciate the original when I saw the difference a large budget and 15+ years of graphical and mechanic improvements made on the game. It was 16 years before I gave the original another shot. By this point I have forgotten most of the XBOX game and am able to play the original with fresh eyes…and, it is actually pretty good. This XBOX game looks a bit better than the NES version. It’s Like Playing A Movie The game developers used a concept called “rotoscoping” to make the character animations feel more fluid and life like. I believe it is the only NES game to use the technique. Learn more about the history of the game by reading Arnpoly’s review. In game graphics showing the rotoscoped character jumping. Grainy footage of the actual capture session for Prince of Persia taken in 1985. This still was colored and digitized and used in the game. Basically, the developers filmed a man performing all of the moves from the game and then colored over the film and digitized it. It definitely makes the character’s in game motions feel more fluid and life like and gives an interesting look to the graphics. The same technique has been used by Richard Linklater in his movies A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life. A Scanner Darkly – the movie was filmed and then each frame was hand colored to give it an animated look. The other reason the game plays like a movie is that the controls are so stiff and delayed that when you hit a button you have to wait so long to see the character perform the action you never really feel like you are in control and feel more like you are watching someone else play the game. Controls See the photo below for the game controls. They are pretty complex for the NES. The only issue, as stated above, is that the controller response is really laggy. Many times I would try to tap forward or jump and the character wouldn’t move so I would do it again and he would then move twice and fall off a cliff or walk into spikes. You have to be very patient, as they say, slow and steady wins the race. Straight from the horses mouth aka instruction manual. Plot Basically your job is to save the princess, how original. The catch is, you only have 60 minutes. 60 Minutes The game design is fairly unique. For one, you have 60 minutes to complete all 12 levels. That means if you beat a level too slowly you stand no chance of beating the game. Luckily after each stage you get a password. The strategy I used was as follows: Play through level one over and over until I could beat it in about 2 minutes. Record the password on my best run through the level. Play through level 2 until I could beat it quickly and then reset the game and enter the password I got for beating level 1 quickly. Record the password after beating level 2 quickly, practice level 3…rinse and repeat. This way I didn’t have to beat all 12 levels in a single play through by playing perfectly. This would be nearly impossible as sometimes jumps would be really hard, and sometimes they would be easy and sometimes enemies would destroy me in seconds and sometimes I would destroy them in seconds. With more responsive controls I would have been much more likely to play through all 12 levels without exploiting the passwords. Traps and Enemies Each level is a unique maze where your goal is to find the path to the exit. But, along the way you must find the button to open the exit door and avoid all the traps. Learning the levels and trap locations wasn’t too difficult. The hard part was making all of the hard jumps and defeating all of the enemies. Neither of these tasks would have been difficult with more responsive controls. Floor Buttons – In order to open doors you must find and step on the special floor tiles that are actually buttons. Some buttons close doors as well, so you have to be careful where you step. Spikes – Look closely at the floor tiles, some of them have small black holes, if you walk over these spikes shoot through the floor and kill you. You can tap the B button to tiptoe past these without getting hurt or you can jump over them. Enemies – There are a few enemies that appear throughout the game and require you to engage in a sword battle (you find the sword in level 1). A swings the sword, B blocks and you can move left and right. I personally found no difference in animation between the A and B button and the block didn’t seem to work. There also was no rhyme or reason to when I would hit an enemy and they would hit me. Some fights I was killed very quickly, others I killed them easily. These battles are really quirky and on the verge of being glitchy. I personally never found satisfaction in the battles and don’t feel like they added any value to the game. I would have been fine with just the traps and mazes. Level 6 To beat each level you must find the exit door and enter it. For some reason level 6 ended with a dead end that left only one option…to jump into a large pit. So, I made a leap of faith and jumped. The game immediately showed me a password and continued by showing my character falling into what looked to be the previous level where I had to grab a ledge or fall to my death. This is the end of the stage…just jump in the hole. I actually thought the game had glitched out so I looked up online what was happening and it turns out it was just a weird way to end/start those levels. It is the only game I can think of that starts a level where you have to immediately grab a ledge as you fall or get a game over. This is how level 7 starts…with you falling from the ceiling. Grab the ledge or it is game over. Level 12 and the Final Battle Level 12 is the biggest level in the game and also the hardest. The path you need to take is pretty straight forward but the issue is that you are constantly climbing up and if you miss a jump you will fall through multiple screens to your death. There are 2 jumps in the level that gave me a lot of trouble and hitting them both perfectly took probably 30ish attempts. I ended up watching a few YouTube videos and counted the footsteps I heard before the jump and tried to do the same. Again, the issue is that from the time you hit the jump button until your character jumps is delayed way more than you expect so you have to jump way earlier than you need to and finding the sweet spot is tough. After both of the hard jumps you fight a skeleton, which, if my memory serves me correctly it is the only enemy you fight in the game who looks different than the guy you usually fight. After you beat the skeleton you don’t enter a door to exit the level, you just walk off screen and are taken to level 13 which is really short and features the final boss fight. This boss looks just like every other enemy you fight and on top of that he is no more difficult than a regular enemy. It was kind of a letdown. Final Thoughts You know, this game is actually pretty fun. I know I keep mentioning the controls, but that is the only thing keeping the game from being great. Even with the slow to respond controls the game was pretty fun and innovative. View the full article

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE TO YOUR COMPUTER The guys sit down to discuss one of the 1980’s and early 1990’s biggest icon’s, Pee-Wee Herman. They go into the man behind the gray suit, Paul Reuben, as well as all of the movies and TV shows the character was associated with. 1950’s TV character Pinky Lee inspired Pee-Wee Herman’s style. Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. Check out that thumb.Pee-Wee agreed to dress in drag to help this hardened criminal get through a roadblock. He escaped prison after cutting the “do not remove under penalty of law” tag off of a mattress.Francis has a HUGE bathtub.Is this not the coolest bike on the planet?The man, the myth, the legend!There is not a 80’s kid in the world who wasn’t scared by Large Marge.Pee-Wee with his co-creator Phil Hartman on the set of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.Ricardo was a regular at the play house.Larry Fishburne as Cowboy Curtis and Miss Yvonne in the Playhouse.Not sure what is happening here, but this is the kind of wacky antics we would look forward to every Saturday morning.Pee-Wee sitting on Chairy.Conky spitting out the word of the day.Paul Reuben’s in Buffy the Vampire Slayer…a much different character than Pee-Wee Herman.Arrested after an unfortunate incident in a movie theater.Not a great follow up to Pee Wee’s Big AdventureHalloween 2010, Matt as Pee-Wee Herman and Jenny as Antoine Dodson.He couldn’t resist taking this picture. View the full article

In episode 29 the guys sit down to talk about one of the biggest cultural icons of the 80's, Pee-Wee Herman, and the man who created him, Paul Reubens.

In episode 29 the guys sit down to talk about one of the biggest cultural icons of the 80's, Pee-Wee Herman, and the man who created him, Paul Reubens.

Genre: Racing Publisher: Rare Total time played: 25 Hours Short review: Dodge road hazards and collect upgrades to your remote control car in this fast paced racing game. Interesting links related to Race Track Maps Speedrun (20min 44sec) Tool Assisted Speedrun – All GoldMedals (39min 06 sec) Soundtrack Oh, I Get It! I played R.C. Pro Am for a long time as a kid before I got the gimmick of the game. The R.C. stands for Remote Control and you use your NES controller as simulacra for the hand held remote controller that would pilot a real life remote control car. So, for accuracy sake, there is no more accurate game on the NES for mimicking a real life activity. At the start of each race you even see little radio waves hitting the antenna sticking out the top of your car to let you know that you are no controlling the car remotely. See the radio waves? What attention to detail! How To The goal of the game is to finish in 1st, 2nd or 3rd place. There are only 4 racers, so basically, if you don’t come in last you move on to the next race. This is really easy to do in the first several races and then becomes easier said than done as the game progresses. The game features a top down view that takes a few minutes to get used to. But, once you do, the game is pretty simple (not to be confused with easy) and the controls are perfect. B is used to make your car go forward, you steer with right and left as if you were sitting in the drivers seat of the car. What this means is that if the car is driving towards the bottom of the TV screen you use the right controller button to turn towards the left side of the TV because from the perspective of the drivers seat you would be turning right. The A button is used to shoot projectiles you pick up at your enemies, kind of like a very early Mario Kart prototype, your enemies don’t get the luxury of projectiles so this gives you an advantage. How to Beat the Game I never realized how many NES games don’t have true endings. According to the cover art of the game box there are 32 tracks so one would assume that after the 32nd race the game would end, that is not the case. From what I’ve read and watched online there are not 32 tracks, there are 24 tracks and after finishing the 24th the tracks loop, so, track 25 looks the same as track 1. But, that also isn’t quite right. Some of the 24 tracks are the same and just feature hazards in different spots. Anyway, most people agree, after track 24 you have beaten the game. If I was really hardcore I would try to fill up the trophy screen with 48 trophies (the most it can hold). And, if I was REALLY hardcore I’d try to fill the trophy room with 48 gold trophies. I found a tool assisted video online where a guy does this, I’m not sure I would be ever good enough to do this, but, the room looks so good this way… Screenshot from a tool assisted YouTube video. I wish I was good enough to do this. Powerups Tires – Increasing the stickiness of your tires making steering easier. The more you collect (up to 4) the better your steering gets. Sticky tires follow you from race to race, until your car is upgraded. Each time you pick this item up you get a short speed boost as well. Turbo Acceleration – Increasing the acceleration of your car allowing you to get to your top speed faster. The more you collect (up to 4) the better your acceleration gets. Turbo acceleration follows you from race to race, until your car is upgraded. Each time you pick this item up you get a short speed boost as well. Higher Top Speed – Increasing the top speed of your car. The more you collect (up to 4) the higher your top speed gets. Higher Top Speed follows you from race to race, until your car is upgraded. Each time you pick this item up you get a short speed boost as well. Collect power-ups to make your car faster. Letter Block – Each level contains a letter that eventually spells out the word Nintendo. If you collect all 8 letters your car is upgraded from a truck to a jeep. If you spell out Nintendo again it is upgraded from a Jeep to a race car. Each car is a little better than the last. To be successful you need to collect these letters in the first 16 levels so you get the fastest car in the game on level 17. This gives you several levels to pick up power-ups you will need to beat the game. The later in the game you get the fastest car the fewer power-ups you will be able to pick up. Missile – This power-up gives you the ability to shoot missiles at cars in front of you, be careful you only have a limited amount of shots. Bomb – Much like the missile, the bomb allows you to attack other cars, this time the bomb drops behind your car stopping approaching cars before they can pass you. Star – A star adds one shot to your missiles or your bombs. Roll Cage – Picking this up makes your car invincible from wrecking for several seconds. This is also the only power up in the game that the other cars can pick up. Zippers – Red arrows scattered throughout certain courses that act as short turbo boosts for your car. These items aren’t actually picked up, they stay on the track and are necessary to hit on multiple laps in some of the later races if you want to win. Hazards Water Puddle – Blue puddles that slow your car down. While annoying, these are the least dangerous hazards in the game. Oil Slick – Hitting these black patches cause your car to spin in a circle. You don’t lose momentum but you lose the ability to steer for a few moments. If you are on a long straight away these aren’t a big deal, but, if you hit one around a curve you will wreck and it takes a second or two for your car to be fixed. If you have the roll bar power-up your car won’t crash. Hard to believe anyone could live through a mangled wreck like this. Skull and Crossbones – Slows you down and takes away one missile or bomb Pop Up Barriers – On long straight aways a small barrier will go up and down in the middle of the track, sometimes you get lucky and it is lowered when you pass, other times you crash into it. Rain Clouds – Moves back and forth across the track, if you hit them you slow down. That Orange Car!!! Every once in a while the Orange Car gets an insane speed boost that lasts the rest of the race. There is literally no way to catch the car and many times he will lap the other racers and finish the race a lot earlier than you expect. The game is a little different from most racers in that when the first car crosses the finish line the race ends for everyone. So, if the Orange Car is going H.A.M. you have to be conscious of what place you are in the entire time. You may be on lap 3 of 5 when the Orange Car finishes and if you are in 4th place it is game over for you. It took me a long time to realize that I had control over when the car speeds up. Every 10 times you shoot a missile or bomb (or maybe hit the other cars, I’m not positive) the car takes off. The count continues between races so sometimes the car explodes with speed the first time you hit another racer with a missile or bomb. Some players use this to their advantage by getting the car to go fast from the start of a difficult race so the race is shorter for everyone. Since the Orange Car will finish at least one lap ahead of you that means you have one lap less to race and less racing means less obstacles to avoid. I never used this strategy because I liked saving my projectiles for the last few races. Game Genie In the 4th grade I stayed the night with my friend Brandon who owned this game. This was the first time I played the game and Brandon told me it never ended. I didn’t believe him so we spent hours trying to see how far we could get and prove there was an ending. Of course we were only 9 so probably didn’t even get to race 10. Brandon had a trick up his sleeve to prove it to me. He had a game genie and he knew the code to make the other cars go crazy. So, we popped in the game genie and put in the code and just as he said the computer racers just drove in circles once the race started meaning there was no competition for us. We played for a long time getting to level 50 and we just couldn’t play anymore. So, we hooked up the NES Advantage controller, leaned a heavy jar of pennies on the controller and on the B button and just let the game play all night. It wasn’t pretty but the car scraping along the walls eventually made it to the finish line in first place. The next morning when we awoke we found the game was still going and the level count in the bottom left of the screen showed some gibberish. It was either a letter/number or number/symbol combo, it was almost 30 years ago so I don’t remember exactly. But, I do remember that Brandon was right, the game does indeed go on forever. My Biggest Struggles Level 22 There are a few tough levels in the game but I found this to be the toughest. The track is one you have seen before (Level 17 maybe??) and features 4 oil slicks on the first turn. The race is 5 laps and you must play perfectly to win. The other cars are much faster than you so if you hit those oil slicks one time or miss the zippers on the straight away you don’t stand much of a chance. It is possible to overcome a couple of minor mistakes but you have to hit all the curves perfectly. Most of my good runs ended here. Level 24 The final level is the longest, both in course length and number of laps (9). It may just be me, but I felt all the turns to be backwards on this race. I felt like I was writing with my left hand, riding goofy foot on a skateboard or hitting a backhand in tennis. It just didn’t feel natural to me and took a lot of failed attempts to get the hang of it. On top of this there are no power-ups or stars (ammo for your projectiles) on this course. So, if you don’t have a maxed out car and a lot of projectiles to spare this race is going to be tough. All of the cars drive nearly perfectly and are just a little faster than you are. Since you only get two continues before starting over it takes a lot of time to practice this race enough to beat it. NES Limitations Without going into specifics (both because I don’t fully understand and don’t feel like typing it all out) the NES is limited to a specific number of sprites (car, road hazards, power-ups) on screen at once. To get around this, the programmers coded in sprite flickering that allows more than the NES limit of sprites on screen at once. What happens is the sprites flicker at different intervals very quickly so that no more than the limit are on screen at the same time. Because they flicker so quickly the human eye doesn’t really notice, or notice enough to hinder gameplay. The problem with this is that R.C. Pro Am moves really fast so the sprites are only on screen for a split second before you have driven past them. Even with the fast flicker you sometimes just don’t see items. This is a problem if you don’t see a water puddle or oil slick which can slow you down and is also a problem if you can’t see a letter or power-up that you need to progress in the game. It isn’t hindering by any means but you really need to know the courses like the back of your hand so you know where the power-ups are even if you can’t see them. Conclusion After 25 hours of playing over 3 months I’m still not sick of this game. There are not many games that remain fun after that many hours. If you are looking for a fun game to kill 15-20 minutes you will be hard pressed to find one better than this. But, if you want to beat all 24 levels you are in for an uphill battle. Even with the difficulty though the game isn’t unfair and the difficulty curve feels perfect. 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CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE TO YOUR COMPUTER The guys sit down to discuss their favorite movies of 1998. Jason sits this episode out and fan favorite Justin joins the crew to talk about all of the dark and depressing movies he enjoys. Matt’s #5 – Rush Hour Matt’s #4 – A Simple Plan Matt’s #3 – There’s Something About Mary Matt’s #2 – What Dreams May Come Matt’s #1 – American History X Justin’s #5 – American History X Justin’s #4 – Run Lola Run Justin’s #3 – Pi Justin’s #2 – Dark City Justin’s #1 – The Big Lebowski Luke’s #5 – Half Baked Luke’s #4 – Fallen Luke’s #3 – Halloween H20 Luke’s #2 – Saving Private Ryan Luke’s #1 – What Dreams May Come View the full article

The guys sit down to talk about the movies of 1998 with special guest Justin (from the action figures episode).

The guys sit down to talk about the movies of 1998 with special guest Justin (from the action figures episode).

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE TO YOUR COMPUTER The guys discuss the video games that they still play over 30 years after they came out. Matt believes this is his favorite year of video game ever. Matt’s #5 – Castlevania Matt’s review after beating the game. Matt’s #4 – Final Fantasy Matt’s review after beating the game. Chronologically confused about the Final Fantasy timeline Matt’s #3 – Contra Matt’s review after beating the game. Matt and Luke beat Contra on Easter Sunday 2013. The band “Vomitron” performs a heavy metal Contra meldey Matt’s #2 – The Legend of Zelda Matt’s review after beating the game. Matt’s mom made him a Link costume from The Legend of Zelda game.Matt’s #1 – Mike Tyson’s Punch Out Matt’s review after beating the game. Think you are good at Punch Out? This guy beats it blindfolded. Jason’s #5 – Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest Matt’s review after beating the game. Jason’s #4 – The Karate Kid Matt’s review after beating the game Jason’s #3 – Zelda II: The Adventures of Link Matt’s review after beating the game. Jason’s #2 – Mike Tyson’s Punch Out Matt’s review after beating the game. Think you are good at Punch Out? This guy beats it blindfolded. Jason’s #1 – Mega Man Matt’s review after beating the game. Luke’s #5 – Contra Matt’s review after beating the game. The band “Vomitron” performs a heavy metal Contra medley Luke’s #4 – Mike Tyson’s Punch Out Matt’s review after beating the game. Think you are good at Punch Out? This guy beats it blindfolded. Luke’s #3 – Double Dragon Matt’s review after beating the game. Luke’s #2 – Wizards and Warriors Matt’s review after beating the game. Luke’s #1 – Final Fantasy Matt’s review after beating the game. Chronologically confused about the Final Fantasy timeline View the full article

The guys discuss the video games that they still play over 30 years after they came out. Matt believes this is his favorite year of video game ever.

The guys discuss the video games that they still play over 30 years after they came out. Matt believes this is his favorite year of video game ever.

Genre: Arcade Publisher: Bandai Total time played: 2 Hours Short review: An arcade classic that is easy to learn, tough to master and a ton of fun to play. Interesting links related to 100k Point Speed Run (3min 46sec) Video Review (Classic Game Room) Soundtrack Demons of Death!! The subtitle to Galaga is “Demons of Death” which I never realized even though it is right there on the box and front of the game cartridge. But, for some reason the title screen of the game just says Galaga. Not a big deal, just something I found interesting. Less is More There are a lot of very simple yet challenging games and Galaga is close to the top of the list. Every stage is the same, enemy ships fly in from all sides of the screen and fly around until settling near the top of the screen. They shoot projectiles at your ship which is at the bottom of the screen. You move left and right and shoot vertically with either the A or B button and try to destroy the ships. If you take too long to defeat the ships they will fly down in seemingly random patterns and try to destroy you. The game only requires 3 buttons…left, right and shoot. It doesn’t get much easier than that and somehow it is still challenging and very fun. There is an art in creating something so fun and timeless that is also as simple as it is. Shoot them before they shoot you. Captured The “Galaga” ships are the green ships that always sit at the top of the screen and take 2 hits to kill. If you shoot them one time they turn blue, the second shot makes them explode. Every once in a while one of the ships comes down just past the midway point on the screen and shoots out a beam that if you touch it causes you to lose control of the ship as it attaches to the top of the Galaga ship. If you are on your last life when this happens you will get a game over. If not you lose a life. But…if you shoot the Galaga ship that has captured your ship it returns to you and attaches to your current ship. This makes your ship twice as wide and allows you to shoot two bullets at a time. Enter the beam to maybe get a nice double ship advantage. But, only if it isn’t your last life and you don’t accidentally shoot yourself. This is a double edged sword as it greatly increases your chance of shooting the enemies but it also doubles their chance of shooting you. In my experience it is well worth it to do this. You have to be careful though, if you accidentally shoot your own ship and not the Galaga you get 1,000 points but blow up your captured ship and lose that life. How Do You Beat the Game? This question depends on who you ask. According to www.NintendoAge.com the game loops after 3 stages so after 3 stages you have seen all the game has to offer. The arcade purists say you need to get to the “kill” screen where the game runs out of memory. This happens sometime after level 200 (this may only apply to the arcade version). The Mexican Runner, well known to be the first person to beat every NES game and record video of each says to beat the game you need to play to level 32. The reason for this is that after every 3 stages you go to a “Challenging Stage” which is a short bonus stage where 40 ships weave around the screen. If you shoot them all you get a 10,000 point bonus which helps out a lot as you get an extra life at 30,000 points, 70,000 points and every 70,000 points after that. After playing through 9 different “Challenging Stages” the pattern and ship types repeat. So, after all of those stages you have seen literally everything the game has to offer. What did I do? Well, I really like this game and I know if I let myself I could play an hour every night indefinitely and just kind of zone out. I’m not great at the game and I don’t want to waste too many hours on it so I just played for a couple of hours and consider it beaten since I beat the in game high score of 30,000, in fact I more than doubled that score (even though, this is still a low score to many better gamers than me). The farthest stage I reached was 12. Sure, maybe it is cheap to wuss out on not playing to stage 32, but, with 500+ more NES games to beat I have to move on before I get obsessed with this game again. Friday Nights Back in elementary school I spent a lot of weekends staying the night with my friend Jimmy. We both were huge into Nintendo and spent most of our time playing games. He had around 20 NES games and I had around 10 so I was like a kid in a candy store at his house. Galaga was one of the games he had that we would spend a lot of time playing because it was quick and easy to pick up and play. In fact, the copy of the game I have today is the copy we used to play as kids. I don’t think either of us were great at the game but it was a short enough game that we could easily take turns and neither got bored. Move your ship along the bottom of the screen and destroy everything. Geometry Wars 15 years after those Friday nights playing Galaga I lived with another friend named Jeremy who was the first person I knew that owned an XBOX 360 and he bought a digital only game called “Geometry Wars” which has a similar game play style to Galaga. In this game you control a ship that can freely move around the screen and your only job is to shoot enemies which come at you from all directions. We spent an embarrassing amount of hours taking turns playing this game and going for high scores. It wasn’t until YouTube came around that we realized our high scores were not so high at all. There is something humbling about finding out you suck at something you thought you had mastered. It looks like a lot is going on but the game is simple. Shoot bullets out of your little white ship and destroy everything on screen. Stats One thing I really enjoy about Galaga is that when you get game over the game presents you with a few in game stats. It tells you how many shots you made, how many hit a target and the percentage of hits you had. In games today it is very common for dozens of stats to be kept but in early NES days it was a unique and interesting bonus to a really fun game. Final Thoughts Of all of the arcade classics that were made to make the player keep popping quarters and were later ported to home consoles, I think this is my favorite. The true goal of the game is just to get the highest score possible. As there is no true end I never feel satisfied that I’ve “beaten” it. Even if a game is not fun and has a sub-par ending I still feel satisfaction that I’ve completed it. So, even though I enjoy playing Galaga more than most games I don’t get that endorphin rush that I’ve beaten it. It’s definitely a classic and I can’t wait to play it again in the future. In fact, my daughter showed some interest in Galaga today so I let her try and on her first attempt she got 2,000 points. Of course she wasn’t really looking at the TV and just kept saying “Ree” (which is red in her language) referring to the color of the button she was hitting on the controller. View the full article

Genre: Board Game Publisher: Data East Total time played: 1.5 Hours Short review: If you are a fan of chess and looking for a challenge this game will give it to you. But, if you want to play a 30 year old chess game there are better options. Interesting links related to Speedrun (3min 29seconds) Video Review (CGRundertow) Soundtrack Let’s Talk Box Art If you were a kid in the early 90’s and a fan of video games the cover art of this game would really grab your attention as it looks like an action role playing game. If I saw the box without the title I would guess it was a Gauntlet or Golden Axe game. If I had rented this game as a kid I would have been very mad when I got home. It’s Chess This is chess, nothing more (well, a little more that I’ll complain about later). If you look at it as a chess game only it is ok. But, there are a couple of major issues. First, it is very very slow. When you make a move it can take the computer up to a full minute to make their move. Yes, I realize that this is realistic to actual chess, but this is a video game and if you can’t improve on the real world version of the game then it shouldn’t exist. One Thing Sets It Apart The one thing that sets Battle Chess apart from other chess games is related to the “3d” game mode where all of the pieces have a bit more detail and when one piece captures another you are treated with a short animation battle between the pieces. The animations are actually pretty good for the NES but they are very slow and you will get tired of watching them before the first game is over. Thankfully the developers realized that not everyone would want to see the animations and allows the player to turn them off. But, turning the animations off removes the only thing that differentiates this game from other chess games. What’s that brown blob that appeared after the pawn jumped? Speaking of, the game Archon (which as of April 2019 I have not played for this blog) features chess battles where the player actually controls their piece in battle and has to defeat the enemy. So, if you want to play just chess, The Chessmaster is a much better game and if you want to control chess pieces that fight, Archon is the better game. Take Your Time Conceptually I understand why it takes so long for the computer to make a move in this game. There are near infinite possibilities for moves and there is obviously some logic happening behind the scenes to make sure the computer makes a move that is competent for the difficulty setting the player is playing on. I could forgive this if I hadn’t played The Chessmaster which looks better, plays better and has many more difficulty settings without the long wait between each moves. Difficulty There are 6 difficulty levels. Novice and Level 1-5. I decided to give Level 2 a try as I figure it would be like playing on Medium difficulty. After about 10 attempts I realized I was not that good at chess so I dropped down to level 1. I attempted a few more times and wasn’t getting any closer to outsmarting the computer. I’m honestly not sure if I am that bad at chess or if the computer is just insanely hard. So, I ended up playing on novice and still losing more than a few times before finally beating the computer. This has been a rather humbling experience for my confidence in my chess skills. Final Thoughts I’ve pretty much said everything that needs to be said…If you are looking for a great chess simulator, play The Chessmaster, if you are looking for an action game based around chess, play Archon. If you are looking to be disappointed by an overly difficult game with cool box art play Battle Chess. View the full article

Genre: Golf Publisher: Nintendo Total time played: 30+ Hours Short review: Easily the most fun, most accurate and prettiest Golf game on the NES. Interesting links related to NES Open Tournament Golf Soundtrack Video Review (Drink A Beer and Play A Game) Instruction Manual (PDF) Wow! When I saw I was going to have to play a golf game that required winning $1,000,000 I was not looking forward to it. I have played a few golf game on the NES over the years and all were mildly entertaining and have very little replay value. I should have known that the game with Mario on the cover was going to be great. In fact, this may be the best sports game on the entire NES (Excluding Mike Tyson’s Punch Out). Why Is It So Good? First off, the graphics are good enough to pass for an early 16 bit game and the controls are easy to understand but deep enough to satisfy seasoned golfers (I am not a seasoned golfer). Unlike most other golf games on the NES there are also multiple modes of play. These modes may be fun to pick up and play but if you want to earn $1,000,000 as quickly as possible you will most likely not see everything the game has to offer. Seeing the ball enter the cup never got old. Let’s Win Some Money The goal of the game is to win $1,000,000. You earn money by playing in tournaments or betting on a single hole. Depending on your rank you can win some pretty good money but it takes a long time. The first several tournaments I played in I came in 37th, which I am pretty sure is last place. For coming in last you win $500. Only 2,000 rounds of golf to get $1,000,000!! I was getting pretty discouraged early on but kept practicing and eventually got good enough to win a tournament. Of the 27 complete rounds I played I probably won 3 tournaments. I probably also reset about 200 times when I wasn’t doing well. Knowing you are going to come in last after 4 holes it is hard to play 14 more holes. The reset button is your friend. This was a rare screen during my play through. Of course, I did this a lot before I realized in the “Club House” menu you could see stats. My stats are greatly skewed, I kind of wish I had played through each round now, but, if I did that you would never read this review as I would have never beaten the game. Page from the manual showing some ways to win money. So Many Choices First off, you can choose 14 clubs to keep in your bag from a total 16 clubs. Once you pick your clubs you can set additional defaults such as swing speed and putting power as well as whether to put top/back spin on the ball. Choose your club (14 choices) The distance the club can hit in perfect conditions will be shown as well as your distance to the hole. Choose your swing speed (3 choices – slow, med, fast) As you would expect, the faster you swing the farther you can hit the ball. But, it comes with a trade off of being harder to hit the ball straight. Choose where to hit the ball (5 choices – top 2, top 1, center, back 1, back 2) You can hit dead center, put top spin or backspin on the ball. Backspin means when the ball lands it will roll backwards and top spin means it will roll forward. Choose the direction to hit the ball (infinite) Based on the hole direction and wind speed you can face different directions. Now that you have your settings the view changes from showing an aerial view of the hole to showing Mario teed up and ready to go. But, your choices aren’t over yet. Choose whether to hit the ball high, low or in the middle. This determines the height of the shot. I ALWAYS hit in the middle, unless there was a tree directly in front of me in which case I’d hit high to try to clear the tree. You can fine tune the angle of your shot on this screen as well aiming more to the left or the right. Finally you are ready to swing. Tap A once to see a white line move to the left across a horizontal meter at the bottom of the screen. The farther left the line goes the more power you put into your shot, but, be careful because if you wait too long you will miss the shot and get a 1 stroke penalty. When the white line is at the desired power level tap A again and the line moves back to the right. Try to stop the line by tapping A a 3rd time in the sweet spot of your horizontal meter. Depending on swing speed this is easier said than done. It is super easy to slice or hook the ball. So pretty for an NES game. If you have the 1 wood club equipped and you are able to tap A perfectly 3 times (full power and directly in the sweet spot) you hit a “super shot” which travels farther than a regular shot. The farthest I hit was around 330 yards, without the super shot 269 was my average. In the Zone Sometimes I’d play a round of golf and just be nailing every shot straight ahead and sinking putts even when the terrain was tricky. Other times I couldn’t hit a straight shot to save my life. I definitely had more bad rounds than good rounds over the course of the game. The saving grace was the bonus challenges…and the reset button: 2 holes each round would provide an extra challenge. One challenge was “Longest Drive” and the other was “Closest to the pin”. If you won either of these challenges you would get the chance to win some bonus money by sinking a putt into one of 3 holes. There is no skill involved as Mario will always sink the putt, the goal is to randomly pick the hole with the most money. With these two challenges you could win up to $10,000 (each one paid differently but the overall max was $10,000, at least at the amateur level) Such an Amateur The money you win changes based on your status. You start as a beginner and as you would guess this ranking pays out the least. Once you feel you are good enough you have to play two rounds of golf and score below a certain score to increase your rank to Amateur. You do not win money for these two rounds of golf. I was able to be promoted fairly early on which increased the amount of money I could win. I never tried to go Semi-Pro or Pro because I worried the tournaments would get much harder and I’d end up winning less money in the long run. The only difference I noticed between beginner and amateur is that the wind seemed to be more erratic at the amateur level. Fore! “I played golf once. I did not get a hole in one, but I did hit a guy. That’s way more satisfying. You’re supposed to yell, “Fore!” I was too busy yelling, “There ain’t no way that’s gonna hit him!” – Mitch Hedberg Unlike Mitch Hedberg, I did hit a hole in one. In fact, I hit a bunch of them, maybe 7 or 8. I even hit two in a single round, but somehow still finished above par. There were 2-3 par 3 courses on the US course that if the wind was mild and you swing perfectly you could hit a hole in one. The stars had to be aligned, but I was able to do it multiple time. While hitting a hole in one is satisfying it is even more so when you realize you get to win extra money like winning the longest drive and closest to the pin challenges. This is easily the most money you can win at once in the game. In fact, at the amateur level, I had a 33% chance to win $55,000 for hitting a hole in one, the minimum is $20,000. This was my favorite screen in the game, it means I was about to win a lot of money. Oh yea, 2 under par. Money! Every time you would earn a milestone amount of money you would automatically go to the bank to deposit with who I assume is Donkey Kong. He would usually say a cute phrase about the amount of money you have. My favorite and the most outdated was after winning either 200k or 250k he told me I had enough money to buy a small house in California…pretty sure that isn’t the case anymore. Just making a deposit. Different Ways to Win There are 3 courses you can play but you do not win more money on one course vs the others. So, I only played the US course as I figured I’d master that instead of being mediocre at all 3 courses. You have the option to play a tournament with 30+ golfers and can do either an 18 or 36 hole tournament. You win more money for playing 2 18 hole tournaments than a 36 hole tournament so I never did the longer option. You can also play a round against just one other golfer. The downfall here is that you win less money overall AND you have to watch the other golfer actually play the course. So, playing 18 holes takes the same time as playing 36 holes by yourself in a regular tournament. I only played 1 one on one tournament for this reason, which included 5 sudden death holes and I lost…so, I basically played 23 holes for nothing. You can also bet on a single hole. The betting values start at $1,000 and go up with each hole you win. It is definitely a gamble as the computer seems to get better with each hole. But, if you lose you actually lose money so I didn’t do this option much. I did however end the game playing the 1 hole bet as I was only $11,000 short of $1,000,000 and figured winning that last bit would be quicker one hole at a time instead of playing 18 holes again. NES Can Do That? If you visit the club house in the options menu you can view a lot of information. The game is very detailed and allows you to set up many defaults as well as name every golfer who plays in the tournament with you. You can also view instant replays of your last hole in one, albatross, eagle and maybe even birdie. In fact, I think you can watch an instant replay of any shot after you take it, pretty sure no other NES game allows this. Even with only 3 courses the added touch of the hole moving on the green each time you played meant you had to actually study the greens as you never knew what the terrain would be. This game is very deep and has a lot of customizable options and fun add ons that don’t really do anything to change how you play but are really impressive for an 8 bit game. Basically, no stone was left unturned, there is more attention to detail here than in any other game I can think of on the NES. Conclusion I spent a lot of time playing this game but was ready to move on by the end. Even so, it is hands down a classic that I never hear others mention. It feels like the first game in the Mario Golf series even though it doesn’t have that title. It is pretty, it is fun and it offers a lot of variety. My only gripe is that it doesn’t have a career mode. I would have liked to have been forced into playing the 36 hole tournaments and the one-on-one tournaments and the additional courses just so I could see everything the game has to offer. The fact I could play the same tournament 27 times on the same course and beat the game almost feels unfair, but, with over 500 games left to beat I can’t waste a lot of time, I have to take every shortcut I can without cheating. View the full article

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE TO YOUR COMPUTER The guys sit down and talk about some classic game show hosts, game show cheaters, and some obscure shows they enjoy watching. These guys may never solve this puzzle. One of the most famous “cheaters” in game show history. Turns out he just was really good at pattern recognition. Trailer for the fascinating documentary on Amazon Prime about the best “The Price Is Right” player in history. There was once a serial killer on The Dating Game Who’s Line Is It Anyway? – more of an improv comedy troupe than a gameshow…but, they award points so we count it!Probably the most well known gameshow host, Alex TrebekDid you know that Bob Barker hosted another game show for almost 20 years before he hosted The Price is Right?There is not a better name in game shows than Elvis’ close friend, Wink Martindale.Chuck Woolery seemed to host everything in the 80’s.Solitary – a psychology experiment where contestants are trapped in this small room for weeks with no outside contact.Naked Attraction – a dating show where everyone is naked…the how does not censor anything.Singled Out – Jenny McCarthy and Chris Hardwick’s breakout roles. They hosted a dating game with 50 contestants that played out like a live action game of Guess Who? View the full article