Tanooki

Mad City, bought that about a month ago and is so much more enjoyable. That was Konami's probably most infamous middle finger to the renters. You make your character hit people so that impacts do 4x less damage than the FC title, and in turn allow the enemies to do 2x the damage to your life bar so you die off really fast. Combine the crap they pulled with the actually should be fun driving stages and the game is just awful. Castlevania III also got screwed with bad, very badly which is a shame. Grant made into a joke with a tiny dagger while the oriignal the butter knife thrown out was your weapon, and all four characters take the same damage not far more for support and even more in general on the belmont. Konami really had it out, just like a few others such as the bs they pulled with Ninja Gaiden games. NES games weren't really more difficult, except those largely spiked to mess with the rental market. Not across the board, some are just hard, like Ghosts n Goblins by design, and some due to bad design like the vertical stages with Silver Surfer.

Ehhh I've always stuck to the Fighter, Thief, W and B Mages, just find the whole setup more enjoyable, even if it's not as easy as some builds let alone cheesing it like the post a few up. The B Belt/Monk is fine, and it speeds it along a bit not needing to buy stuff, but I enjoy the fast rate of the thief, but more so when the guy goes Ninja after the class change. I've never found much I've liked about the red mage, can't get the best spells which I'm not a fan of, nor can it use the better upper end of the weapon and armor stuffs either. Both a jack of all trades, but not given they cap out before becoming exceptional at anything.

I mean what it came out I think in 1990 for us like 3 years later than overseas. At that rate I was 13, and I had tried briefly at jr high to do a little classic DnD, so I get the whole nameless faceless built it character so it worked for me. The only thing I ever truly hated in that period, the garbage MP system, I was used to having magic points and rolling for them to hit/save/backfire. The caps just seemed counter intuitive and stupid, forcing me to keep like a crap load of 50HP restore bottles when taking a dungeon or cave seriously. The XP/GP never bothered me in many places, but one that really ground me down was the ogre hunting outside of Elfland to handle that stretch in the area as it felt like an odd wall. So when Origins, Dawn of Souls, mobile popped up I was all over the XP/GP improvement due to lack of as much free time as a kid, and the real magic system to keep things interesting at the same time. Sure it streamlined it, but the core charm of the game outside wasn't tarnished, it's why I keep the cheapo digital copy on iOS all these years since it came out. Like I said I have 2 ratings for it, and averaged it as it seemed most fair. It was a last ditch game for the company, but also a learning game, as much as FF2 (fc) was as much so if not more on what NOT to do (which they didn't bone again so badly until 8.)

Idle hands...oh wait, they're not.

I still own my original manual and poster maps, and I'll say this much. It's an 80 page handbook of a manual with everything you need to get started and go a ways into the game either not totally blind. I also was bored one weekend in the 90s, and I typed the entire thing out, even the image box descriptors all in a text file and uploaded it along with in that era a number of others. It can still be found online, but that one was by far the most time consuming. FF1 just works without personalities and talk, though I do like they seemingly do have actual preferred names for the characters which I only recently discovered. The thing is, it took the D&D approach, create who you want, name it how you want, and YOU be that link, not just more script fed to you.

...now if only someone could finished up Robotech Crystal Dreams the long dead lie of a launch game that honored the old franchise could be realized outside of a very shaky early beta/late alpha that you can play now.

Isn't the pixel remaster the same core setup Dawn of Souls (GBA) had as far as how the bosses, end game, mp, xp, gp, general grind goes? I've considered getting that one, but I have the now canceled FF1 ios release before it got pixely remastered and I thought it kind of crap having to pay full price twice. If anything when they do the christmas period discount on their titles I may pop for FF4 to have it on the go, as it's what I did a year ago for DQ4.

I'm basing this both on the original NES game and the modern since upgrade which dumped the shitty magic system of X turns per magic level for a normal NP system and then averaged it. This means I gave the average an 8. The NES release gets a 7. The GBA, mobile download, back to PS1 release gets a 9. The story is a lot of fun and feels kind of open ended given you can pick a random make-up party of what for a long time we all felt were nameless people. Did you know they have official names Square gave them ages ago? I didn't until more recent years. Fighter = Zest, Thief = Zauber, B. Mage = Daewoo, W. Mage = Floe, B.Belt = Fritz, and R. Mage = Puffy. Just a bit of fun trivia for you all to start the reply trail here. This is quoted out of Final Fantasy Memory of Heroes, a series of short stories from Umemura Takashi, a retelling of the first 3 FF stories. The names are from the novelization. Anyway the game broke ground for me and was meaningful. I never gave a damn about RPGs really, though I did try DND for a year around that time, it's not the same. Coupled with the NP coverage and then the transition to monthly freebie full game guide I really worked to crush this game. The grind was the only problem, a hell of a slog with few GP and XP against some pretty high prices for things. I've always enjoyed a FIghter, Thief(or BB), White and Black Mages party to nail down those best skills. I liked the concepts of a solid setup with the turns, the environments that changed, the quality skill set and magic sets too. The bosses were interesting, the story always kept me going, and the grind while painful wasn't negatively painful enough at least as a kid never to quit. The music was just on another level against much of what the NES had shown off for a time, ever since I've loved a lot of Uematsu's work, particularly what is called the N-Generation stuff by Square. I have CDs of these early games (all but FF3-FC) and made MP3s for my phone to enjoy. I never could finish the NES game more than once, my save was childishly and selfishly erased with malicious intent a day after I cleared the game (which I think took maybe a month around life.) Said younger brother got an ass kicking, and given the loss, even I didn't get in actual trouble for it that time. It took the GBA game to muster the will to go further than usually the vampire/lich area at best to see it through again. The QOL fixes of the revised release with a real magic system coupled with fair amounts of GP and XP per battle made the game still need to grind a bit, but not worse than Dragon Quest obnoxiously so. I finished it again when it came to the GBA Dawn of Souls, did it on PS1 Origins too around the same time. Still yet it retained the quality stages, designs, perked up the colors, audio, and painfully slow and annoying bits of the old game to make it a real gem, a game that must be played. These days I still have my complete (minus box) original copy of FF1, and I have the GBA game too, but for quick mindless action it also rests on my phone with no hurdle to the fun at any time. It's a gem, and I'd recommend it, even the NES release with it's poorly aged mechanics.

^^That's how I've always felt, except now there have been cases the prices become so toxic I didn't feel good being the owner of the item and I got rid of it. My Pokemon Red sealed game I got rid of, didn't like it went into the over $2K mark, felt like it was waiting for someone to walk by, see in the window, and go for it and anything interesting also near by.

That's what I've been doing. I'm at a rate now where I'd have to decide to take a decent personal cut and be like...do I really want to have Sega exit my shelf, do I hate my supervision that much, do I like these specific games anymore on some Nintendo system or perhaps are my mini arcades and LCD handhelds (G&W, TIger, etc) worth bothering or is the $ better? The burden of wasted space and ownership against a toxic environment vs getting the money and relieving it all.

That crossed my mind, but I'd rather not chop the thing either unless I could contact the company and see if they'd sell a spare front plate to restore it undamaged, or if someone else would make them.

I used this on WIndows 10, worked quite well to shut down and block WIn10's shenanigans. https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 The top few on this list in general are a good way to neuter windows from running garbage you don't want to being a snitch. https://www.geckoandfly.com/25083/free-tools-disable-stop-windows-spying-tracking-you/

Well playable is an overly thrown around catch all. I would argue what people called playable was also trying to validate their purchase. The opportune word most likely would be, tolerable.

The color was just a choice, meaningless, as there was no real guidelines for them on the color of it. They did have some rules for form factor to a degree. They had some set designs that Nintendo themselves used if you had them slap the game together. But some developers had the power and control to do their own thing, so you got specific label and form factor moldings, even the unique stuff IREM did with a red LED light on the thing since the FC itself has no power light. Other carts came taller, rounder, even some snapped shut with a cap on the bottom pin space.

Interesting that they took Babel no Tou to be a puzzle game, but if you think it out a bit it kind of is in a way, same with Mendel Palace(Quinty), and Wrecking Crew too. They're more just old school arcade action titles with puzzle like elements to survive the stage. And I'm curious now why no final fantasy game hit that manual list. I just guess I never really went and looked them up, but the huge amount of use, detail, and art FF1 (NES) got I would think it would have been some kind of a local art style/utility gem there too but perhaps not and over 3 releases no less having the last barely make the list.

I can't remember the last time, decade?? even, when a video like this I actually cared about not only most of what's in it, but all of what's in it. A friend of mine slipped me a link to this later yesterday and the nods they did from start to the last second was insane and not just the games. It was playing off the non-jerkoff great periods of advertising they did in previous decades. The next level bit, the eye, the scream... the whole scene in the place with the gentle nods of what to come if you went into the video blind to have that cabinet go insane. All of those even as brief as it is was like a greatest hits of what many would likely shove most/all into their top 10 older franchises and seemingly so far, done well. Shinobi has this stider/metroid dread/sotn/dead cells vibe. The two brawlers are in fine form so far and look appealing at least. Jet Set looks potentially to just be as excellent as maybe the original was too. And Crazy Taxi is back hard core seemingly adding in some NFS3 hot pursuit style thing to it with that cop car. Throw this in with that release last month from the designer of Space Harrier who put out Air Twister on steam which is basically that game in mostly anything but name and it's a girl vs a guy and things are changing. Maybe Sega just needed time off to right the ship and exploit their solid IP better than they have in a very long time. In a way it felt like the cares they had in their better moments of the 90s once more from the 16bit/DC side of things.

I'm aware of it, and if I can get to the movie I intend to go for it, but if I can't it'll be a quite blu ray pickup. I like the rare offshoot, like Shin Godzilla is fantastic (and in that line Shin Ultraman is awesome too, as I'm sure the triad of those Shin Kamen Rider will be as well.) I did read a little summary of the new godzilla, not a plot one to ruin it, but it seems like the angle they worked and time period would make for a very nice alt-history style of Godzilla movie that works.

Well they put a hold on it another year, use the weeks you have left as it's original rules still, and next year the plan is for 5k but I'll believe it when I see that one announced. Currently trying to offload a few dozen items I don't think would easily go for squat around here due to local tastes.

That's it I was confused. Some years back I wanted to grab a copy and we ended up talking and I bought one directly from him, and now that I'm looking at the box it says engagement edition so it's not an earlier release.

I held off due to the timing issue of it not matching the GBC clock rate off by quite a few seconds after not too long a period. The speed it is off is wider than the issue speed runners and sensitive types get fussy over with the SuperGB. I knew it was easily updated with firmware upgrades so I was going to wait. I will order it, when it's in better shape for accurate speeds.

You say retrousb release, did it have more than one run?

I'm awaiting the sad day I have to re-activate my cares with LRG once again. I just saw that via play-asia there's a Valis Collection Vol 3 coming to Switch once more, and again outside of them NOT IN ENGLISH. I wonder when that game will pop up so I can feed the beast again, then see it the following year.

@fcgamer Since I'm going to call LRG boxes homebrew boxes for the sake of the poll, then yes. I kept each box because they're quite sturdy and very helpful in shipping out another more valued game or small item to another person. I'm mostly out, may have 1 or 2 left if that along with a few of the similar play-asia boxes.

Does the value of your collection make you feel guilty for keeping it rather than selling? I want to stick that without reading any posts because I saw the question on the list of posts, and the answer was yes and has increasingly so as the environment got more toxic, selfish, and underhanded. I got to a point where I felt very very uncomfortable holding onto all sorts of stuff, and yes I could really use the money for my own interests, but I didn't make that a factor either. I felt uneasy holding specifically onto all sorts of singular items, games, or series of games(whole console or handheld setup) because of the environment. That same environment also has had the opposite effect, I've latched onto keeping some stuff I'm not overly in love with, but know as I do, I'll want to come back around to it and refuse to pay the stupid fingers prices the stuff has been resting at. Earthbound is a perfect example, I do like it for what it is, but I don't think it's a great game and don't love it as the game and series is more flawed than fine. It's also a game into the hundreds of dollars as is the guide, I have $2 and $60 into them respectively. Like hell I'd ever get them for that again. So I selfishly as it is hold onto them because of that. Yet I've had other things like a sealed Pokemon red if you recall, sold that one off locally for around $1500 in cash when it was worth easily $1K more. It made me nervous having it I didn't want it in a safety box, and having it in a shadowbox as it's my favorite original art felt dangerous like someone could come in and break the window and grab it as a prelude to more next to it. I wanted it gone, the value was so stupid and toxic for such a common title, it was a 100% burden so it went. A lot of it now has ended up a burden over some years. Out has gone the entire collections for PSone+lcd combo and games, the PS3 and games, the NGPC and games, my PCE CG2 and Duo and cards/discs, Dreamcast and Wii. Numerous titles, fluff, accessories for others I've kept, coleco and other old tabletops, handhelds etc. Same with related but not for same mental reasons vintage toys, antiques, and electronics. It just didn't feel right keeping all these expensive toxic priced items as it was a burden having it just sit, have so much inflated value, and theft and manipulation pressures on it as well. I've reverted to nearly exclusively buying video games (domestic) locally and when the price isn't near the online garbage fire. I'm trying to move towards buying and keeping what I only care to use, exceptions for games I've held onto for like 20+ years though that haven't aged poorly.