nesmaster14

3 minutes ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

I bought Castlevania Chronicles when it came out and it seemed kind of disappointing since it came out after SOTN. It's a solid Castlevania game, just not one of the better ones IMO. I'll probably play Super Castlevania IV myself. I usually try to play through it this time of the year.

Nice.  I'm about halfway through Chronicles at the moment. I'm more into the NES trilogy so it feels like a nice middleground for me between the 8/32-bit games.  I'm not sure how I feel about some of the arrange mode music with its techno vibe; seems a bit unusual for Castlevania, but it's neat haha.

A few of my favorite Zombie / Ghoul films:

• Carnival of Souls (1962)

• The Last Man on Earth (1964)

• Night of the Living Dead (1968)

It's interesting how the term Ghoul was often used in reference to undead creatures until a certain point (maybe in the 70s?).  I'm admittedly not huge in the zombie genre, so I'm not sure when the modern zombie term became widely used. I re-watched a bit of White Zombie the other day, Lugosi's expressions are so iconic.

For games, I recently watched my buddy play Resident Evil: Village (2021), I was surprised how awesome it is.  I also liked the setting, and even noticed a nod to The Last Man on Earth, where hanging garlic is shown in scenes, an otherwise more obscure way to fend off zombies.  Sidenote, it's the 20th anniversary of the original Resident Evil movie.  I might re-watch today; I thought it was cool back in the day, but haven't seen it since.

The more I think of it, maybe the zombie subgenre is kinda cool haha, perhaps the saturation and spoofs have thrown me off.  Cool collection though, I recognize some good ones I haven't seen yet or forgot about. Only complaint is if you're including Cabinet of Dr. Caligari as zombie (this could be a debate in itself lol),  you gotta have Carnival of Souls somewhere . 

RIP

Beat Squad 51 Vs. The Flying Saucers (PC, 2022)  last night.  Really fun cinematic oldschool horizontal shmup! The aesthetics are unique and fun, all set in the 1950s with a live action sci-fi B-movie vibe.  Some of the enemies you'll see strings hanging off, practical effects and such. The gameplay matches the aesthetics and is well thought-out for a shmup fan. This game checks all my boxes so it's one of my favorite shooters now haha.

Castlevania Chronicles (PS1), first time trying to playthrough.  It's basically the Sharp X68000 Castlevania game that plays a bit like a Genesis version of the NES games and perhaps a bit of CV4. 

If I have time I might try and beat Ghosts 'n Goblins (NES) for the first time as well.

 Fun thread! 

I'm not a huge Nirvana fan, but their take on Man Who Sold The World would probably qualify:

How about some Streets of Rage:

(original)

1 

Tecmo should have included Ninja Gaiden sprites as characters.  Tecmo Ninja Bowl, Ryu running across the football field with sword in hand, maybe a fire wheel powerup. 

Discovered this recently, been digging this era of vgm with the vocals and all.  Pretty awesome, haha.  A few songs I liked (timestamps):  Gatcha! Password | Can U Groove Like I Do? | Walking In The Zoo

12 hours ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

I finished second when we played Sqoon back in 2015. @nesmaster14 got the win and beat my score by quite a bit. In 11 seasons, I've still never finished higher than second place during a shooter or puzzle contest. Those two genres always seem to bring out the specialists that can put up ridiculously high scores.

Haha, "specialists". That was a fun season though, nice lineup of shooters and participation was strong. 

I don't remember my thoughts on Stinger, might pop it in later though I'm quite rusty!

Hmm, kinda interesting, but to me it looks like a cart someone used to practice making reproductions.  It being a non-security 5-screw also makes it a bit easier for the average-joe to open. The soldering job looks pretty amateur and there's a bunch of exposed traces and flux everywhere. I'd question if a repair shop or a developer would let that fly. 

 I mean it could be a one-of-a-kind priceless prototype, perhaps if one could check the age of the EPROM stickers or something.  It's interesting that the earliest Dr. Mario prototype however used Intel EPROMs as well.  However, that one is a much cleaner job (rear of proto) than the SMB mentioned.

I'm a pretty casual gamer (I avoid looking up strategies, etc.), but here's a few that took me awhile to beat:

• Ninja Gaiden III (USA, NES) - One January we had a blizzard and were basically snowed in, so I finally attempted to beat the Ninja Gaiden series. I was able to knock down the the first two games over a few days, much to my surprise. Made it to NG3, and well, I finished it by December (yeah, 11 months later, lol). -- To be fair, I don't remember if I played much or forgot about it between then. Really enjoyed it though!  It might be my favorite in the series now.
• Super Star Soldier (TG16) - Another series I went through (played backwards starting with Soldier Blade).   The stages were a fair challenge, but I think I made attempts on the last stage for like a solid week haha.
• Castlevania III (USA, NES) - I wanted to beat the game by Halloween one year, so I had it in my NES much of October.  Was able to beat it the night before Halloween.  Definitely was rewarding and a cool journey.

Honorable Mentions: Gradius (NES), Mr. Gimmick (NES).

Almost: Recca (NES) - Ah, I got to the final boss with the s#*t-your-pants-music and frenetic movement.  I think I had just a few more hits on him... maybe one day.

Here's an NES mod I made years ago.  It allows 15-pin Famicom accessories and adjustable expansion audio:

It's all hidden away behind the black trim piece of the console (easily removes for access).  At the top (far right pic) you can insert a small screwdriver to adjust the expansion audio trimpot.

Internally, it's mounted on a metal bracket and holds securely:

An old incarnation of my setup (currently moving stuff around and some is packed away):

Stellar scrap wood carpentry at its finest^. 

Testing/replacing RAM on an Atari 800, not quite as plug-n-play like today's DDR sticks

Tonight on Man Vs. Wild, CRT Gamer Edition

I commend your effort in saving a CRT from the bin   

It's All About The Pentiums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpMvS1Q1sos (Weird Al song)

My main desktop has 16GB of RAM which is plenty.  I do have a few servers with 96GB (12x 8GB each), mostly for experimenting with virtualization and stuff.  Weird Al still has more than me and that was in 1999.

You'll need this one too:

Saw it just sitting nonchalant on shelf at a local game store awhile back, got a good chuckle.

Cool topic!

Image Fight (PC Engine):

Geist (Gamecube):

Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japan):

I propose a new http 500 error page:

'Gone Skateboarding'

Grand Theft Auto V for PS3 when it first came out, so like 2013.  Didn't realize that game is that old til I looked now lol.  Drove to a Red Box at a grocery store like 6 miles from my town as it was the only one that had it.  Before that it was probably 2002/3 at Blockbuster for some PS2 game.

^ Nice, I enjoyed my visit to Super Bit Video Games in Annandale awhile back.  Very clean and organized store and the staff seemed knowledgeable.  I wanted to support a local store and they gave me a very fair trade-in value as well.

Happy 31st Birthday Sonic

Boy, I've been on an ABBA kick lately. I've long overlooked anything outside of their major hits.  This song/video's pretty mesmerizing. I think I owe/blame/thank the recent @Estil interview for getting me into them!   

Tough choice, if I had to chose without thinking it'd probably be Galaga as it's just so classic/replayable/nostalgic.  Very close nostalgic fun pick would also be Time Crisis. 

With that said, as a collector/enthusiast and tinkerer, SEGA Missile (1969) electro-mechanical or SEGA Jet Rocket (1970) would be pretty cool as it's not really something you can emulate.

Saw this on Geezer Butler's feed, pretty wild: