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Hoskat

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  1. Hoskat

    Baseball

    By Hoskat,

    Genre: Sports
    Publisher: Nintendo
    Total time played: 45 Minutes
    Short review: The first baseball game on the NES which was probably revolutionary in 1985 but has not aged gracefully.
    Interesting links related to Baseball
    Playthrough (The Mexican Runner) Video Review (CGRundertow) Soundtrack First
    This is the first of 20 baseball games released on the NES and while it is almost unplayable in 2018 it did set the foundation for every single baseball game that came after it.
    Something To Be Proud Of
    The game is very very thin, here are some things that would be inexcusable in a current baseball game.
    Teams don’t have names, they are represented by a single letter. Players don’t have names Players don’t have stats There are no substitutions Pitchers never get tired You cannot be hit by a pitch (at least I never did) You don’t control the players in the field There is no season, a single game is all you get. The game moves painfully slowly With all of that said, in 1985 creating a baseball game that actually resembles the game was a very admirable thing to accomplish. What was set as a foundation in this game was used in every other game on the system. Think of this as a V1 beta release of a baseball game and the Baseball Stars game as the final version.
    Things It Got Right
    The pitcher animations are pretty decent, including him shaking his head at the catcher’s signs. You can steal bases and the pitcher can attempt to pick off the runners. Although, stealing bases is tough, I never successfully did it and the pitcher attempts to pick off the runner way too much. Sometimes he would attempt a pick up 5 or more times before throwing a pitch. The batter can move around in the batters box Homeruns are rewarded with fireworks. Another Random Game
    It has been a few months since I’ve beaten an NES game because the game I randomly drew to play is a nightmare, I’m 60% of the way through it but felt I needed to build some confidence and add another game to my beaten list. So, I drew another random game and it turned out to be this (thankfully) short and simple game. Sure, it took a few tries to finally win a game but it was worth it, confidence has been restored.
    Final Thoughts
    It is really hard to play a game that is 33 years old as if the hundreds of better baseball games that have come out since don’t exist. The best I can say is that the game was innovative for the time but there is no reason to play it today. It is slow, boring, simple, and the fielding controls are so bad I was never sure if I ever had control of the players. It doesn’t take much time to see everything the game has to offer, but, with over 600 NES games left to beat sometimes a short and simple game is just what the doctor ordered.

     

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  3. Hoskat
    The guys switch up the format for this seasonly appropriate episode. Instead of discussing their nostalgic view on a topic they take a deep dive into the zeitgeist of the American collective and how the fears of the day shaped the horror trends of each decade.
  4. Hoskat
    The guys (and special guest Suzy) sit down to talk about their favorite non-mainstream horror movies as well as a classic film that today's generation may have forgotten about. Matt tells the story of the Halloween night he was almost murdered by a real life Michael Myers
  8. Hoskat

    Destination Earthstar

    By Hoskat,

    Genre: Simulation
    Publisher: Acclaim
    Total time played: 20 Hours
    Short review: A space simulator and a side scrolling shooter. Both game play types are passable, neither are great. Prepare to be bored by the vastness of space and frustrated by the side scrolling difficulty.
    Interesting links related to Destination Earthstar
    Video Review (CGUndertow)  Playthrough (TheMexicanRunner) Speedrun (1hr 27min) Sountrack Two Games in One
    There are 16 stages in the game. Unless I missed something there is no place on the screen that tells you which stage you are on. All I can tell you is the odd numbered stages are a passable space simulator and the even numbered stages are an average side scrolling space shooter. I will describe each of the styles of stage below. Each subsequent stage is longer than the last making the game much longer than it needs to be and beating 8 of the 16 stages doesn’t put you halfway through the game, probably more like 35%.
    Never Seen This Before
    In the side scrolling stages you can earn extra lives, in the space simulator stage it is one life and you are dead, no continues, no way to earn extra lives. It is the only game I can think of that has different extra life counts on the different level types. Let me tell you, there is nothing more frustrating than have 9+ lives in the side scrolling stages and dying in the space simulator stage. Luckily I only died 3 total times in these stages (out of the 20+ times I played the game).

    I’m New, I Don’t Know What To Do
    When I first put this game in I had no idea what to expect. The start screen appeared so briefly it took me several seconds to realize I was playing the game. There is a lot of things happening on the screen, so much so that half of the screen is your status bar.
    Good luck making sense of this without the manual. 
    Where to Begin (Space Simulator Stages)
    What you are reading below is what I learned by playing the game, I very briefly read the manual so take most of this with a grain of salt. I’m sure some of it is wrong.
    Let’s start with the grid filled with A, B, 1, 2 and 0 which acts as your map.
    A is a planet that will refill your weapons supply B is a planet that will refill you energy and heal your damaged ship 0 is a planet which is either uninhabited which does nothing but waste time or partially refills your health, fuel or weapons. There is no way to know unless you land on the planet. Any number other than 0 is an enemy ship which must be destroyed. The number denotes the number of ships in that sector. The ships can move from square to square so be prepared to fly all over the map. B with a green background is the hidden enemy base. This appears when you have killed all enemy ships on the screen. To land on a planet you must travel to the square where the planet it, line it up directly in front of you and slow down almost to a stop. It isn’t hard to do once you figure it out but it really slows down the pace of the game. You can only land on each planet one time per stage.
    Red Text – Line 1 – Position
    The 1650 and 1480 on the screen above are you X and Y coordinates. Each square on the map is 1,000 wide and 1,000 tall. So with 1650 and 1480 coordinates your ship is up one square and over one square from the bottom left square.
    Red Text – Line 2 – Height
    I never used this line but it denotes the height of your ship. The two vertically stacked boxes to the right of the large box on the right side of the screen also denote height. When tracking down an enemy ship you must be in the same square as well as the same height position to attack. You will know you are lined up with the ship when the entire ship appears inside one of the two squares on the right. Since I could see the ship I never needed the numerical height to know where to go.
    Red Text – Line 3 – Speed
    This line is your speed. The red dashes on the right side of the screen also show your speed. In the image above you are one speed click away from light speed which is the speed you will travel the most since it helps you move quickly around the map.
    Red Text – Line 4 – Weapon
    Shows your current active weapon. If you press the select button the entire red text changes to show you all possible weapons. If you press the start button it will change your currently equipped weapon.
    Red Text – Line 5 – Enemies
    Denotes the number of enemy ships left to destroy. I never used this line as you can see all ships on the map (1, 2, 3, etc.) much easier.
    Red Text – Line 6 – Fuel
    You start with 1,000,000 fuel on each stage. When you fly around your fuel goes down. The faster you go the faster you burn fuel. To replenish fuel you must land on the B planet or hope one of the 0 planets refills some of your fuel.
    Score
    As you probably guessed, this is your score. I’m sure you get an extra life after getting to a certain score (on the side scrolling stages only) but I never figured out what the magic number was.
    Squares on the right side
    The large square is a larger view of the square you are in on the map. It does not show where in the square a planet is located but enemy ships will show as red dots in this screen. The smaller squares will show a front view of the enemy ships. These 3 squares make it manageable to find enemy ships, line up with them making them easier to destroy.
    6 Small Squares Under the 3 Large Squares
    This is your damage. Each time an enemy ship hits you one of these squares turns red. If they all light up you die.
    Green bars
    These bars show the heat of your weapons. If you shoot your weapon multiple times in a short time period they will overheat and you can shoot no more until the heat dissipates.
    900 Words Later You Are Ready to Play
    Now that you understand the map here are a few things to know.
    To beat a level you must destroy all enemy ships on the map which makes the enemy base appear as a green square with the letter “B”. Travel there to go to the next stage. The faster you fly the faster your fuel decreases. When traveling at light speed you cannot see planets, enemy ships, shoot your weapon, change you weapon or change directions. But, you will need to travel light speed to avoid going mad from the boredom of flying through space. You can only land on each planet once so make it count I typically would head towards the B planet to re-fuel once I got down around 400,000 fuel. The enemy ships are faster and move around much more the further into the game you get. It seems that there was always one ship that would move around so much it took longer to destroy than every other ship in the level. The laser weapons were my favorite (5 hits to destroy a ship). You can shoot multiple times quickly and it is fairly easy to hit your target. The other weapons shoot slower and are harder to control (at least for me). To pause the game you must hit A+B. To my knowledge this is the only game on the NES that uses this button input for pausing. I accidentally figured this out on my own as I hit every button combination trying to figure out how to play the game. If you pause and un-pause twice in quick succession the game music turns off…not sure if this is a feature or a bug. Side Scroller
    After finally defeating all enemy ships in the space simulator stage you are treated to a pretty decent cut scene of your ship landing on a planet. Now the real fun begins.
    So much black and blue
    How to Play
    the D-Pad moves the ship up, down, left and right. The A button shoots forward and the B button shoots backwards. Notice in the image above how close the left side of the screen your ship flies. This makes it nearly impossible to avoid ships that come at you from behind. Thankfully this doesn’t happen THAT often.
    Power-Ups
    Throughout the stage you will run across bright yellow power-ups:
    Star – Extra Life. The number of lives is shown on the bottom left of the screen. Once you get more than 9 lives (good luck), the number changes to an arrow making it impossible to know how many lives you have. Circle – Shield. Gives you one extra hit, you can collect multiple shields but I never got more than 2. Right Arrow – Increases the power of your forward firing weapon. Left Arrow – Increases the power of your backward firing weapon. The stage features one hit kills (unless your ship is protected by a shield, which makes the ship glow yellow). You can die if you hit the floor, ceiling, an enemy ship or are hit by an enemy weapon.
    Most of the floor/ceiling can be destroyed by shooting it, this means you can carve a path if you choose, but, I wouldn’t recommend it. I typically stayed close to the ground and would shoot any small juts shooting up out of the ground just so I didn’t have to maneuver up/down quite as much.
    You can change your weapon by pausing the game with the Start button and selecting left and right on the controller. The selected weapon is displayed on the top of the screen between the two arrows. The top arrows are your front weapon and the bottom arrows are your backwards weapon. I didn’t bother changing the backwards weapons much, but I would alternate between the double shot and ground shot for front weapons depending on the type of enemies on screen.
    Cheap Deaths
    If the ships only attacked from the front these levels wouldn’t be too bad. But, there are ground enemies that shoot weapons up. These enemies seem to fire at an insane rate and are near impossible to dodge consistently. If you can maneuver your ship low enough and kill these enemies it is much easier than trying to time your ship to go between the vertically fired projectiles.
    Each stage can have enemies that attack from behind. If this happens you will almost always lose a life because the ship flies so close to the left side of the screen you have very little time to react.
    Oh, Come On!
    The extra lives that appear as a star on the screen feature one of the most infuriating things I can think of. In the later stages if a projectile hits the extra life before you get it then it disappears. Extra lives are so precious and missing one is heartbreaking.
    Maps Maps Maps
    After dying over and over on these side scrolling stages I started to map them out. As you travel through the stages the floor/ceiling will change from red to blue to brown or from large circles to small circles. There are branching paths where you must go either up or down. There doesn’t seem to be much difference in backgrounds or paths as far as difficulty goes.
    I would go through each stage and map where the extra lives were and where the ships attacked from behind so I could be ready when it happened. Doing this mapping of each stage greatly decreased the difficulty, but, greatly increased the play time since I was constantly pausing to see what was around the next corner. Without this strategy I could have never beaten the game.
    Bosses
    Each side scrolling stage features an end boss. Theses bosses are typically two shapes on the right side of the screen that move up and down quickly and shoot projectiles at you. They never change pattern and the never move left to right on the screen. Theses bosses are all a joke and I never once died while facing them. Honestly I’m glad the bosses are easy as the stages are really hard, it was a nice breather.
    The Final Stage
    Power Ups
    Throughout the side scrolling stages you pick up right and left arrows to strengthen your front and rear facing weapons. Whatever weapon you finish a stage with is the weapon you start the next stage with. If you die,  your weapon sometimes stays powered up and sometimes it retracts back to a weaker weapon. If you die a few times in a row it retracts back to the weakest weapon in the game.
    Honestly, this weak weapon isn’t that big of a deal in stages 1-7. But, if you don’t start stage 7 with the stronger weapon it is impossible. The weak weapon is not strong enough to carve a path through the landscape of the level and the way level 8 is laid out that is necessary.
    The first few times I got to the final level I had the weakest weapon due to dying a lot at the end of level 7. No matter how many lives I had I lost them within 30 seconds of starting level 8. In the attempt where I beat the game I had the strong weapon at the start of level 8 and I didn’t die once. That is, until I reached the boss.
    Except For That Last Boss
    After 7 side scrolling stages and dozens of attempts I never once died fighting a boss until the final boss of the game. I only made it to the boss one time and luckily I had 7 lives when I did. The projectiles this boss shoots out don’t seem to have a pattern and I died, a lot. In fact, I was on my last life when I finally beat the boss. I think if I had gotten a game over at that point it would have been the most upset I have ever been in a video game.
    So…Long
    The first 3 or 4 stages are pretty fun and a good length. Just as you start getting tired of the space exploration you get a break by playing the side scrolling stages. But, each level is longer than the last. By the time you get to level 6-8 it can take an eternity to get through a level. The side scrolling stages 7 and 8 take close to 10 minutes to get through. This is way too long. There are people who can beat Ninja Gaiden or Contra or Batman in the time it takes to get through a single stage in Destination Earthstar.
    If the game were more fun or had more variety it wouldn’t be so bad, but these later stages are very monotonous.
    Final Thoughts
    It took way too many attempts to finally beat this game. I wanted to give up on many occasions as I would get to level 6 or 7 or 8 and get a game over. It takes close to an hour to get that far and when you get a game over you have to start all over. Because of the game length and monotony I didn’t have the mental energy to do more than one attempt every couple of days. I’m glad to have this one in the rear-view. It isn’t a bad game to pick up and play but it is much too long.


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  9. Hoskat
    The guys sit down with actor and professional stuntman, Neimah Djourabchi, to discuss the art of special effects in the pre-CGI era. They discuss the most influential effects artists in film history and Neimah tells on set stories.
  10. Hoskat
    Genre: Educational – Chlidren
    Publisher: Hi-Tech Expressions
    Total time played: 30 minutes
    Short review: A children’s game with mediocre gameplay graphics. The game is short and simple, perfect for young kids, kind of a bore for men in their mid 30’s.
    Interesting links related to Mickey’s Adventure in Numberland
    Soundtrack Video playthrough (24 minutes 32 seconds) Cheating My Own System
    It has been almost 2 months since I completed Ninja Kid and since then I have not finished a single NES game. I had decided to make things more interesting when I beat a game by randomly selecting the next game to play. The game I chose after Ninja Kid I am going to keep secret but let’s just say I’ve had a hard time completing it.
    As my quest to collect every NES is winding down there are very few games I need. This week I ordered two of those games off of eBay. First, I got Magician and second I got Mickey’s Adventure In Numberland. I always clean and test games when I get them and like many of the other children’s games in the library I beat this game on my first try.
    Stage select screen. That red brick building appears to have the SS Nazi logo for some reason.

    Numbers and Letters
    I had previously beaten Mickey’s Safari in Letterland and Mickey Mousecapade. Both of those games I liked more than this one. Both Numberland and Letterland are slightly educational where the child (or 35 year old man) play the game they learn about letters or numbers. The point of this game is to play through 10 levels (actually 5 levels 2 times each) and collect the magic number.
    The levels are littered with obstacles that are easily avoidable and a bunch of numbers. You must find the number shown at the bottom of the screen and then find the elevator to exit the stage. If you exit the stage before finding the number you must play the stage again.
    Mediocre graphics
    Difficulty
    I decided to just play the game on the hardest setting, SUPER ADVANCED. And, like I expected it was still very easy. Even with a 1 year old running around my living room I was able to beat the game only losing one life, and that life should not have been lost. I think the only difference in difficulty is on easy there are no stage obstacles.
    The best enemy in the game is a ringing telephone. If you hit the phone you lose a hit point. Unfortunately the game features no boss battles.
    Mickey has never looked better on the NES.

    How to play
    Like most easy platform games on the system you move with the D-pad, jump with A and shoot your projectile (in this case, bubble gum) with B.
    Each level is the NES version of “open world” You can go up, down, left and right. You will need to explore every inch of each stage to find the hidden number. There are false floors and false walls. But, even with all of that, the stages are all small enough to explore in just a couple of minutes. I never ran into an issue of not being able to find the number.
    After completing the stage you must answer a simple math problem. Not bad since I know my arithmetic but may be a bit tough for young players. Luckily it is multiple choice.
    Nice try Nintendo, trying to sneak math into a game.

    Collectibles
    There are a few things to collect in each stage, only one is mandatory.
    bubble gum – The more gum (red dots floating up and down) that you collect the more bubbles you can blow. Bubbles kill all enemies in a single hit. There are very few enemies and they are easily avoidable so the gum isn’t really that big of a deal. Numbers – There are red boxes littering the stage that move left to right and have a counting number. If you jump on the box when the stages hidden number is displayed you earn a star. Stars and Bubble Gum act as points that are tallied at the end of each stage. Hearts – You start each stage with 3 hearts, that means you get hit 3 times before die. You can collect additional hearts that replenish your health. Secret Number – You must find the secret number (displayed next to your life bar at the bottom of the screen) in order to complete the stage. Once the number is collected you can exit the stage.  
    Final Thoughts
    Title screen and cut scenes have brilliant a depiction of Mickey Mouse. The in game graphics are very average. The music is better than I expected but not super memorable. The controls are slippery, jumps are high and slow and I felt like I slid on the ground a lot. But, the game is short and easy enough for none of these to become an issue. There is some voice work in the game and it is all easy to understand, a rare feat on the NES.
    Definitely not a game for adults but as a small child (6 and under) I think the game could pose a moderate challenge and a small amount of fun.
     


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  11. Hoskat

    #11 Summer Vacation

    By Hoskat,

    The guys talk about the best time in any kids life, the three month summer break from school. Baseball, cookouts, swimming pools, exploring sewers like a ninja turtle, video games, eating junk food around a dumpster, saving firemen and all the things kids did before the internet.
  12. Hoskat

    #10 Movies of 1997

    By Hoskat,

    The guys discuss their top 5 movies of 1997. Special guest Suzy (Luke's wife) stops by to talk about her favorite movies as well.) Matt tells a story about a school pageant he was in and the gang discusses how great the year was for Jake Busey.
  13. Hoskat
    The guys reminisce about some of their favorite TV show theme songs and discuss the reason there aren't as many classic theme songs in the 21st century. There are a lot of great videos mentioned in this episode that can be watched at thelostartofpodcast.wordpress.com
  14. Hoskat

    #8 Land Lines

    By Hoskat,

    The guy's get together to talk about all things landlines and life before cell phones. Everyone tells their favorite stories and embarrassing moments while talking on the phone. Luke's wife Suzy stops by to tell some stories of spying on her brother on the phone.
  15. Hoskat

    Ninja Kid

    By Hoskat,

    Genre: Action
    Publisher: Bandai
    Total time played: 8 Hours
    Short review: An infuriating action platformer with randomly generated levels. It’s fast paced and fairly enjoyable as a “pick up and play” title, but, trying to actually complete the game is really tough.
    Interesting links related to Ninja Kid
    Speedrun (25 minutes 35 seconds) Video Review (NES Works) Soundtrack RNG
    In the past decade, a community of gamers has been growing in popularity. They are called “Speed Runners” and their sole existence revolves around beating video games faster and faster. It will sound like a ridiculous comparison, but the elite speed runners train just as hard as Olympic athletes, and much like Olympic athletes, if they can shave a 1/10th of a second off of the time it takes to beat a game it is time for a huge celebration.
    Some of these speed runners will play through a game for 10+ hours per day looking for any exploits to shave a few seconds off of their completion time. Most of the games famous for speed running have one thing in common, they are the same experience every time you play them. If you watch a speed run video on YouTube you may hear “this next part has some RNG, and only 20% of the time do we get the best scenario.”
    What this means is that the game code has a “random number generator”  aka RNG where a certain screen in the game or enemy movement is generated based based on a digital role of the dice. The general player of the game will never notice this but the speed runners have combed through every line of code to know which enemies act the same with every encounter and which act differently depending on the RNG of that specific play through. Some games, like Zelda have RNG that can be manipulated to make enemies drop certain items.
    Basically, the less RNG in a game the more likely it is that there is a speedrunning community around that game because you can train for specific scenarios and not have to deal with RNG that may kill your chance of beating the game in a timely fashion.
    What Does This Have to do With Ninja Kid?
    Ninja Kid is 100% RNG. It is almost as if the game developers had just learned how to randomly generate items, enemies, and levels and decided to make a game showcasing this ability.
    The game features 8 worlds, each with several levels. Each of the levels within those worlds are randomly generated. This means that on that world map the placement of the levels is different every time. It also means that when you enter one of those levels you never know what the level will be.
    Limitations
    The NES is limited in how much information can fit on the cartridge, and a game that came out in 1986, less than a year after the NES, isn’t optimized to efficiently use what slim resources the NES actually has. What this means is that even though each level is randomly generated there are only a few possibilities for levels.
    Gameplay
    Walk to a level on the world map to enter the stage. Once inside A jumps, B attacks and that’s about it. The goal of each stage is to either defeat a specific number of enemies to open two doors that exit the stage. One door takes you back to the world map, the other takes you to a boss fight. The goal is to fight as few bosses as possible in order to preserve as many lives as you can because extra ones aren’t easy to come by.
    One stage on each world map requires you to collect a scroll, which looks kind of like an upside down poop emoji. This item randomly appears in one of the stages by falling from the top of the screen. If you collect this item you can go straight to the main boss on the world map which is denoted as a different colored level (gold hut by the water in the photo below).
    Sometimes the scroll appears in the first level you enter on a map, sometimes it is the 4th. If you are lucky enough that the scroll appears in the first level you enter you don’t have to play the other levels at all…unless one is blocking your path to the final level (ex. top left level in the image below)
    Once you find the poop scroll you can enter the boss level.
    Slow and Steady
    The game is kind of fun but, because the game is so random it was hard for me to hone my skills. Some levels seemed to appear more often than others and I always seemed to pick the door to the boss instead of the door back to the world map.
    As you run around each stage collecting items for points and power-ups your ninja slides almost like he is on ice. More times than not I found myself unable to avoid an enemy who was appearing at the edge of the screen as I ran across. I decided I should just move slowly through each stage to avoid this scenario.
    Unfortunately, the game designers read my mind. If you don’t finish specific stages fast enough it begins to rain projectiles from the top of the screen and a flying enemy appears on screen. Once the enemy is killed the projectiles stop. These projectiles are small and many times blend in with the background. While it is possible to avoid the projectiles I found that I died almost as often running haphazardly through the stage as I did going slow and getting hit with near invisible projectiles.
    Bosses
    There are two types of bosses in the game, the level end mini-bosses that can be avoided completely if you are lucky enough to pick the right door to exit each stage or if you are lucky enough to pick up the hidden item that may appear in each level which tells you the correct door to avoid the boss battle. But, because of my luck I fought more bosses than I would have liked.
    The bosses are all pretty similar. You start at the bottom of the screen and must jump up through a fairly simple platforming stage while avoiding a single enemy (two enemies in later worlds). When you reach the top of the platforming section there is a boss that requires just a few hits to dispatch. Most of the time the bosses are really simple, the thing that killed me the most was the single enemy dropping down directly on me, impossible to avoid.
    Climb the tower, shoot the cyclops in the eye = mini-boss will die
    The main bosses are fought after collecting the scroll hidden in one of the levels and giving the scroll to the old man in the hut and entering the boss level. These bosses look pretty cool but all die really quickly with just a few shots from your projectile.
    World 1 boss. Avoid his guitar notes and shoot him a few times to take him out.
    Level Variety
    There are a few different levels you will encounter multiple times throughout the game. The most common requires you to defeat 10 enemies. If you die you start the stage over but the number of enemies you killed previously remains. I’m embarrassed to admit how many times I killed the 10 enemies and died before getting to one of the two exit doors.
    There are also shooter stages where you appear to be on a flying carpet. This is the same as the other “kill 10 enemies” stages. I did find this Dog Fight stages a bit harder than the stages where my feet were firmly planted on the ground.
    A very simple side scrolling shooter stage. Kill 10 enemies to beat the level.
    There are a couple of stages that require you to light 10 candles. A small floating flame follows you around the stage that you must direct on top of the candles to light them. These stages aren’t too bad but they are the only stages that feature holes that you can fall into.
    A small flame follows you around, stand in front of the candles to light them. Once all candles are lit the stage ends.
    A couple of the stages require you to collect 10 flying sperm  ghosts. These stages I have a love/hate relationship with. If the ghosts appear quickly these stages are quick and easy. If the ghosts appear slowly these can be some of the hardest stages in the game.
    Collect 10 ghosts to beat this stage.
    Weapons
    Throughout the stages you will collect a few different weapons including ninja stars, boomerangs, fire and feathers. These weapons didn’t really do much to make the stages any easier because every enemy dies form a single hit from any of the weapons. The one benefit is that a few of the weapons you collect give you 20 seconds of invincibility. If I picked up one of these weapons I would run through as quickly as possible trying to kill the 10 enemies before the invincibility wore off.
    The weapons do help against the bosses. For most of the bosses I found the fire weapon to be the most effective. But, honestly, even with the regular weapon none of the bosses are super difficult.
    Helpers
    Sometimes in a level when you have killed 9 of the 10 enemies or collected 9 of the 10 ghosts or lit 9 of the 10 candles an item would drop down from the top of the screen that looks like some kind of flute. You can collect up to 3 of these items in each world and they come in handy against the final boss of each world.
    To use these secret helpers you must move to the far left of the screen and press down (how intuitive is that??). First, a unicorn appears which will absorb and projectiles and acts a shield. After the unicorn dies a chicken appears that freezes the enemy in place. And, the third helper I never saw because either me or the boss died before I ever got a chance to see it.
    Items
    Every 60,000 points you earn an extra life, but sometimes that didn’t seem to be the case. This is easier said than done. I would say 80% of the time I got game over before receiving a single extra life.
    Birdhouse: 500 points. Black Bird: Worth 1000 points and shows which exit avoids the boss. Symbol Box: 500 to 3000 points. Pumpkin Head: 5000 points. Red Panda: Worth 5000 points and shows which exit door avoids the boss. White Haired Doll: Run fast for a short time. White Bear: 1000 points. Sunglasses: Allow you to see a hidden ghost worth 5000 points. Brown Scroll: Collect this to challenge the boss of the world. Flute: Each of the 3 identical flutes allow you to call a helper during the boss battle Floating blobs: Every once in a while two white blobs appear. One is smooth, the other rough. If you collect the smooth one you get an extra life, if you collect the rough one you lose a life. Final Thoughts
    For 1986 this game isn’t too bad. I appreciate how the game is random which gives it a bit of replay value. But, I also hate that the game is random because it is a lot harder to anticipate which levels you will have to fight or how many mini-bosses you will encounter. Ninja Kid is fairly well polished for an early NES game but there are still way better ways to spend your time.
    **Note**
    The game has no true “end”. After 8 stages the boss battles start over and the game loops. In the top left of the photo below the “M 9” denotes this is the 9th world or 9th game map. The bottom photo shows my score when I got game over which happened in the first level of the 9th map.

     

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  16. Hoskat
    The guy's get together to talk about their gaming memories from the year 1990. This was the last year the NES ruled the world and the gaming market began fragmenting into the Super Nintendo vs. Sega Genesis crowd. Matt discusses the time he met Weird Al Yankovic and the guys share similar stories of having to inconveniently hold the reset button in on the NES because someone got mad and tried to turn off their game.
  17. Hoskat

    #6 Action Figures

    By Hoskat,

    The guys bring on a special guest who has an extensive background in Star Wars toys. They also discuss Barbie, G.I. Joe, Ghostbusters and many other action figures and their impact on society.
  18. Hoskat

    #5 Mortal Kombat

    By Hoskat,

    The guys sit down to talk about Mortal Kombat and its stranglehold on teen boys in the early to mid 1990s. Matt gets sidetracked talking about the time he visited Ernest P. Worrell's gravesite.
  19. Hoskat
    Genre: Action
    Publisher: Culture Brain
    Total time played: 7 Hours
    Short review: The best tournament fighter on the NES mixed with a very forgettable side scroller. If it weren’t for a few gripes this game would be a classic.
    Interesting links related to Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll
    Video Walkthrough Video Review (CGR Undertow) Soundtrack  
    Two Games In One!
    Throughout the course of Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll you will play two distinct games, one is a side scrolling platformer that plays like Karate Kid or Kid Niki. It is pretty bare bones, quick and easy.
    The second is a early Street Fighter prototype that features 1 on 1 fighting that requires a little strategy, but, a lot of luck and quick fingers.
    Tutorial Stage
    The first time I turned the game on I decided to play it blindly. I quickly ran through the first side scrolling stage and was presented with a tutorial for the Street Fighting section of the game. You then play through 3 training matches.
    My first attempt was not good and I ended up getting game over. I was given the option to continue or get a password. I decided to call it a night and wrote down the 4 digit password. The next night I tried again, the password takes you to the start of the game, there was no difference in just hitting “game start”
    It took a few tries to get the hang of the fighting stages and even with the tutorial it doesn’t teach you everything you need to know for later in the game.
    This tutorial is long and boring, doesn’t tell you everything you need to know and if you fail the next stage you must watch it all again.
    What it Takes to Win
    On the surface the game is really straight forward. You plow through the Journey stages and then defeat all of the enemies in the one on one fighting. But, if you don’t pay close attention you will never truly beat the game.
    You have to collect 6 scrolls throughout the game. Some of them you get just for beating a stage but most you get by defeating an enemy in a very specific way. If you explore the Journey stage well enough you will get a clue to how to defeat the fighter who holds the scroll. These clues are actually pretty decent but unless you know you can’t beat the game without following the instructions you won’t know what you are missing. Each enemy that must be defeated in a specific way can also be beaten the regular way. If you do this the game goes on but you don’t earn the scroll you need to get the true ending.
    Side Scroller
    There really isn’t much to these levels.
    Up jumps, A and B attack.
    Every normal enemy moves quickly from one side of the screen to the other, a single punch or kick defeats them. Once 5 enemies are killed the screen darkens and a mini-boss appears. The mini-bosses all have a unique look but are all dispatched in the same way. Punch and kick them until their life bar is gone, try to avoid their projectiles, but if you can’t, it’s not a big deal because you have a much longer health bar than they do.
    Throughout the 3-4 Journey stages I only died a handful of times.
    Not much to see here, just a simple side scrolling level.
    Each boss you defeat drops an item. The items are used to make the stage easier. There are 5 items to collect, the first 4 make the stage easier and the 5th item is a key that you need to exit the level.
    I didn’t pay much attention to what the scrolls did, I know one makes you jump higher and one allows you to shoot a projectile. The other two didn’t do enough for me to notice.
    The levels are all very short and if you don’t defeat enough enemies to make the boss appear before reaching the door the stage scrolls back to the beginning. The key here is to stand at the beginning of the stage and move as little as possible. Stand in a single spot and kill enemies until the boss appears, defeat the boss, get the item and repeat.
    My goal was to have all 4 upgrade items and the key before I walked halfway through the stage.
    After every 5 enemies the screen darkens and a mini-boss appears.
    The only other advice I have for this stage is to punch every statue in the level. There are hidden items in many of them. These include a health refill, a 1-UP, and a couple of small upgrades to make these stages easier.
    Also, if you collect all 5 items and kill 5 more enemies the mini-bosses still show up. So, once you collect all the items you need don’t kill any other enemies to avoid unnecessary mini-boss battles.
    One on One Fighter
    This is the meat of the game, I’d say 90% of my time was spent defeating the 12 opponents in these one on one tournaments.
    The Basics
    The fighting basics are really straight forward. If a red circle appears on your head press UP to block, if the red circle is on your mid-section press RIGHT to block, if it is on your feet press down to block. UP also jumps if there is no red circle on you.
    If a red circle appears on your enemy press UP, RIGHT or DOWN plus A or B to attack them. This is what the tutorial tells you.
    90% of my time was spent on these tournament levels.
    More Than the Basics
    While you are fighting bottles will fly around the screen, if you grab the bottle  it will appear as a white shape below the 6 squares in the top right of the screen. Pressing SELECT will use a bottle which refills a bit of your health. The bottles you collect will follow you to the next battle if they aren’t used. I found it necessary to hoard the bottles until the final battle as it was by far the toughest.
    There is a KO meter across the top of the screen. As you hit your enemy the meter fills up, as you get hit it goes down. If the meter fills up all the way you can perform a couple of special attacks. Pressing UP+A+B will perform a spinning kick that if it lands will take off a significant portion of the bosses health. Pressing DOWN+A+B will performing a spinning foot sweep which is more powerful than the traditional kick.
    The most useful attack in the game is the throw. To perform this you must perfectly block an attack at your head by pressing UP as your enemy attacks. If you do it properly you will hold the arm of your opponent for about a half second. While holding the arm you must quickly press DOWN+A to throw the enemy over your head. This takes off a significant amount of your enemies health.
    A few enemies throughout the game will have a blue circle appear on them instead of a red circle. If you hit this blue dot a few seconds later a red star will appear. Hitting this red star will defeat the enemy in a single hit.
    But There’s More
    There are 3 enemies who must be defeated in a specific manner in order to collect their scroll:
    Scroll 3 – Defeat the 3rd opponent of the 2nd tournament by doing the following:
    Do not attack the enemy at all. After 5-10 seconds a red star will appear somewhere on his body. Hit this star to immediately transform the enemy into his true form. Defeat this form to collect the scroll.
    Scroll 4 – Defeat the 3rd opponent of the 3rd tournament by doing the following:
    Do not attack the enemy that much as you will want him to grab before you defeat him. The grab doesn’t happen too often. If you defeat him before this happens you won’t get the scroll. There is no warning that he is about to grab you, it is the only move in the game that doesn’t first show a red circle on your body. When he grabs you must quickly tap LEFT and RIGHT over and over to escape the hold. If done correctly the enemies true form appears. Defeat this form to get the scroll.
    Scroll 5 – Defeat the 2nd opponent of the 1st round of the 4th tournament by doing the following:
    Build up your KO meter all the way and perform the spinning kick when the enemy has just a few bars of life left. This will turn him into his true form. Defeat him to collect the scroll. As a side note, this was by far the hardest enemy to defeat and collect the scroll. He had a few moves that are hard to dodge making it hard to fill up the KO meter.
    Scroll 6 – Defeat the 1st enemy of the 2nd round of the 4th tournament by doing the following:
    Perform two throws in a row by blocking an attack on your head and quickly pressing DOWN+A. After the 2nd throw a red star appears on your enemies feet. Perform a spinning sweep by pressing DOWN+A+B, if this move lands the enemy will turn into his true form. Defeat him to collect the scroll
    A red circle on your head means to block by hitting up on the controller.
    Oh, It’s One of Those Games…
    After beating the Journey stages and Tournament stages and collecting all the scrolls you are rewarded with an ending screen and then told that in order to really save the day you must play through the game again, pick up the same 6 scrolls as before but this time also find 4 Crystal Balls hidden throughout the Journey stages.
    The Crystals are found by punching statues found throughout the Journey stages and are really simple to find. It is just a shame you have to play through every level again to see the true ending, which, is just a single screen shown after the screen you saw by beating the game the first time. The only change in the 2nd quest is you don’t have to play through the fighting tutorial again which saves a few minutes.
    Password
    From what I experienced while playing and saw online there are only a few passwords in the game. They aren’t even useful. They never start you in a place that saves you much time from just starting over. The only password I found useful was “BAAA” which took you to the first of the final 6 Street Fight matches in the first playthrough of the game.
    Once you beat the game once you have to beat it again, because I was afraid the password I was given would not start me on the second quest I ended up playing through the second quest several times in a row until I beat it, just to be sure.
     
    Severe Frustration
    A few of the one on one fights are tough but fair. If it weren’t for having to defeat a few select enemies in a specific way this game would have been great. I would guess that 50% of my play time was trying to collect scroll 5. Even if I collected this scroll I would usually get so excited and miss die on the next boss. After collecting scroll 5 there are till 4 additional fights and 1 additional scroll to collect. If you get a game over you go back to the side scrolling stage before the final 6 person tournament. This was very frustrating as that last stage and tournament were half of the games length. It was almost not worth having continues or passwords.
    Final Thoughts
    The side scrolling portion of the game is very forgettable. The fighting portion of the game is the best 8-bit version of a Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat game I’ve ever played. This game came out before either of those making it a pioneer in the tournament fighter genre. Honestly, the game would have been just as good if it were just a fighter. It make other NES fighters Urban Champion and Karate Champ look like the developers didn’t even try. If it weren’t for the frustration of beating enemies in a specific way this game would almost be a classic.
    **Note**
    The screen in the photo below is shown after both the first and 2nd quests. The ending screen that is unique to the 2nd playthrough disappeared before I could snap a photo. I am not wanting to play through the entire game again to get a picture of that screen which was a let down anyway. So, you all will just have to take my word that I got the true ending.

     

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  20. Hoskat

    #4 Music of 1985

    By Hoskat,

    The guys talk about their top 5 songs released in 1985. As expected, Matt and Luke have similar tastes and Jason likes songs Matt and Luke have never heard. Matt also tells the story about the time he met the other guy from Wham!
  21. Hoskat

    #3 Cassette Tapes

    By Hoskat,

    The guys discuss The Lost Art Of cassette tapes, listening to albums straight through, making mix tapes and other aspects of cassette tape culture. Matt tells a story about Lisa Loeb and the musical guest is a recording Matt and Luke found on an old cassette tape of their dad's band performing a 90's rap classic.
  22. Hoskat

    Jurassic Park

    By Hoskat,

    Genre: Action
    Publisher: Ocean
    Total time played: 6 Hours
    Short review: A top down action adventure featuring a good mix of action and scavenger hunts throughout its well designed levels. One of the best licensed movie games on the NES.
    Interesting links related to Jurassic Park
    Speedrun (27 minutes 02 seconds) Walkthrough and Level Maps Video Review (Angry Video Game Nerd)  
    Why Wasn’t This Game Popular?
    Of all of the licensed movie games on the NES this may be the best. Jurassic Park is one of the most popular movies of the 1990’s and the NES was a mainstay in almost every kid’s home in the 1980’s and 1990’s. But, because the game game out in 1993, after the release of the Super Nintendo it didn’t gain the notoriety it deserved and was quickly forgotten.
    What Do I Do?
    I was given this game by a high school friend in the mid 1990’s and popped it in for a few minutes to make sure it worked. I didn’t touch it again until 2018. It isn’t immediately obvious what the goal of the game is. I wandered around the large stage aimlessly shooting dinosaurs and picking up eggs and ? boxes but couldn’t figure out the goal of the stage.
    A little reading of the manual told me that the goal is to collect or destroy every egg in each stage. There is a counter under your health bar that tells you how many eggs are left. It isn’t labeled and is fairly small so it isn’t obvious what the counter is, but once you know it is nice that is small to not distract from the great graphics. Collecting eggs isn’t the only goal of each stage but it was enough to get me going.
    Stage Breakdown
    Stage 1
    Collect all eggs, pick up a keycard from the last egg Enter building 1 Collect all eggs inside, pick up keycard from the last egg Enter building 2 Collect all eggs inside Access the computer inside building 2 to open the gate Return to the beginning of the stage and enter gate Avoid Triceratops stampede  
    Collect the eggs and open this gate.
    Avoid the Triceratops to beat the stage.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Stage 2
    Collect the eggs and pickup the keycard Enter Building 1, collect the eggs and pickup the keycard Ride a raft upstream avoiding dinosaurs and logs. Defeat the T-Rex without getting eaten I couldn’t believe how big and awesome the Triceratops in stage 1 and T-Rex in stage 2 were. I couldn’t wait to see what other bosses were in the game. As it turns out, there are no other bosses.
    The T-Rex fight isn’t that bad. What makes it hard is that you have to protect a kid who has a mind of his own and continually walks into the path of the T-Rex and gets eaten. I found the best strategy is to stand by the tuft of grass near the top right corner. When standing here the T-Rex was never able to eat me or the kid I was protecting.
    Avoid the logs and dinosaurs to stay alive. Thankfully you never have to interact with the Medusa Trees.
    Stand here to avoid getting eaten.
    Stage 3
    Collect the eggs and pickup the keycard Enter the building and turn on the power Enter another building and turn on each computer in a specific order. This level is a bit tedious. Once you collect the eggs and turn on the power you aren’t even halfway done. You must turn on 8 computers in a specific order. The only way to know the order is trial and error. The 8 computer are spread across a fairly large area. Luckily if you select the wrong computer it will either tell you that you have already turned it on or that it is not the correct computer.
    The first time I played through this level it probably took 30 minutes to turn all the computers on. Of course I didn’t take notes and didn’t remember the order the next time through so it took just as long. After the 3rd attempt I just looked up the order online to speed things up.
    Stage 4
    Collect all the eggs and pickup the keycard while avoiding the volcanoes. Enter the building and pickup three explosive devises. Enter each of 3 caves, pick up all the eggs and leave the explosive devise on the ‘X’ Stage 5
    Follow the linear path across the boat docks and pick up all eggs. The Triceratops stampede is back. Avoid the much faster triceratops to proceed. Collect all eggs on the boat and pickup keycard. Enter door 1 and collect all eggs and pickup keycard. Enter door 2 and collect all eggs and pickup keycard. Enter door 3. Stage 6 (Final Stage)
    This level is slightly different. The entire stage, both indoors and outdoors is one giant area. For the first time you don’t have to pick up all eggs to enter the building. Also, there are way more dinosaurs to kill on this level making it a bit harder. This is how I completed the level:
    Pickup all outside eggs. Enter building, collect all eggs, pick up keycard. Enter door inside building to access rooftop. Pickup eggs and keycard Enter other door on the roof Collect all eggs and pickup keycard. Enter door to second rooftop. Pickup eggs and keycard Backtrack to the first building and enter door to a second rooftop Pickup eggs and keycard Go back to the building after the second rooftop and enter door to last roofop. Pickup eggs and keycard Exit building and enter second building at the top of the game map. Collect final 2 eggs that are hidden in the bushes Fight T-Rex while protecting two kids. This level seems confusing and is really large but after a little bit of exploring you realize there is only one path to take. The hardest part is dealing with the hoards of dinosaurs. The final T-Rex is a nightmare because he is faster and now you have two kids to protect. No matter how many lives I made it to this boss with within a minute they were all exhausted and the T-Rex was full of kid meat.
    It took me about 10 tries to finally beat the T-Rex. This wouldn’t be so horrible if the game wasn’t so long. It takes 30-40 minutes to play through and there is nothing more frustrating than just having to start over. Turns out the same strategy as before works, just stand near the tuft of grass in the top right of the screen.
    Weapons
    In order to dispatch the dinosaurs throughout the game you have to pick up bullets and shoot them to smithereens.
    Yellow – the most common to be discovered and dropped by dead dinos (alliteration!) Green – more powerful than yellow and also more rare Blue – This bullet is really strong and once it kills a dino keeps traveling across the screen killing anything in its path. Red – Shoots 3 bullets at once in a spread. ? Blocks
    One of the most annoying parts of the game are these question blocks. Inside them is either a health refill, an extra life or a bomb. There is no way to tell which box contains which. Luckily, the items inside do not change between playthroughs so it is possible to learn where the good boxes are.
    But, each stage contains 10 or boxes meaning you need to memorize the contents of 60 or so boxes throughout the game; not an easy task.
    Also, most of the 1-up boxes are hidden behind walls. So, in order to find them you have to literally explore every nook and cranny of every stage. You pick them up without ever seeing the box. I would have never known there were 1-ups in the game if I hadn’t seen someone pick one up in a video online.
    Game Over
    You get 3 lives and 4 continues. Once you are out of lives it is game over. Be prepared to play through this game a lot to beat it.
    Final Thoughts
    This game reminds me of Zombie’s Ate My Neighbors. It has a similar top down view. Instead of collecting neighbors you collect eggs. The game is hard and it took me several attempts to learn the nuances of how to play. But, once I got the hang of it I started to really like the game. It is tough but fair, it has great graphics and sound and is probably the best late release game and best licensed movie game on the NES. If it weren’t for the random nature of the two kids you protect in the last T-Rex fight this would be a near perfect game.
     


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  24. Hoskat
    Genre: Education – Children
    Publisher: THQ
    Total time played: 15 Minutes
    Short review: Superior to the near unplayable Where’s Waldo but still not nearly as good as the best selling Waldo books.
    Interesting links related to The Great Waldo Search
    Speedrun (1 minutes 15 seconds)  
    Rounding the Final Corner
    The Great Waldo Search is one of the final affordable NES games I needed to complete my collection. When it showed up in the mail I spent a few minutes cleaning the cart and then playing it to make sure it worked. It worked, I got sucked in and 15 minutes later I beat it.
    A Huge Step Forward
    Where’s Waldo is not a good Waldo game. The images are too small, there is no variety in gameplay and sometimes when you find Waldo it is by luck because what you click on doesn’t look like Waldo.
    This game is a huge step forward in graphics and gameplay but somehow has some of the worst music I’ve ever heard.
    Look at the detail!
    A screenshot from Where’s Waldo, where is the detail?
    Gameplay
    The goal of the game is to locate Waldo and a hidden scroll in every level before time runs out. This is achieved by moving a cursor with the D-Pad around the screen. The levels can scroll quite a ways left and right so the game screen is much larger than it first appears.
    When you start the game you select either Normal or Expert mode. The only difference I could tell was that in Normal mode Waldo and the hidden scroll is always in the foreground. In Expert mode Waldo and the hidden scroll can be hiding behind a character making them slightly harder to find.
    There are only about 5 levels in the game but each provides a unique detailed (by NES standards) background with many on screen characters. Sometimes you are transported to a bonus stage where, for some reason, you are a dog on a flying carpet collecting point blocks.
    From what I can tell the points don’t matter other than bragging rights. After you find Waldo and the scroll in every level you win.
    This makes sense…
    Like the Book
    The best part about the Waldo books was finding all the other hidden items on the page. The books usually came with a checklist that would say “Find the man with 3 arms”. Before the internet this is how me and my friends spent our weekends, squinting at hundreds of hand drawn characters looking for a guy holding an ice cream cone upside down.
    The game features a similar feature. If you collect enough hidden clocks to fill up your time meter and then collect another clock, the screen freezes and a message appears asking you to find something on screen. It is usually pretty easy to do because the game scrolls from left to right and is zoomed in pretty far. So, when you don’t have to scroll the thing you are looking for is right in front of you.
    The Final Level
    Just like the book, the final level/page is comprised of nothing but Waldo and you must find the real Waldo. In the game it is the Waldo missing a shoe. I admit, it took me two playthroughs to find him but as the game is only 5 levels it didn’t take long.
    Find the Waldo with the missing shoe
    Final Thoughts
    This game is light years better than the other Waldo game on the NES and as close to the book experience as the NES could produce. I do not fault the game designers for my 3.5 heart rating, I fault the limitations of the NES.

     
     
     

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  25. Hoskat

    #1 Video Store Memories

    By Hoskat,

    In the premier episode of The Lost Art Of Podcast the guys introduce themselves and talk briefly about the history of video stores before diving into fond memories about spending every weekend browsing the aisles of their local small town video store.
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