BortLicensePlate

7 hours ago, Splain said:

To answer all of your questions: I like Tetris!

same

Progress Report:

I find I do best at making progress when I have many games on the go. If I go all in on one game, I find sometimes I get sick of it and abandon it. I do end up favouring one 90% of the time but breaking it up with something else is huge for keeping me invested. I've also learned that though I really like hard games, I also need some easy ones sprinkled in as a breather.

Here's some first impressions for the games I'm currently playing:

Tetris - I used to play NES Tetris very consistently, peaking at about a 500K PB. But I've taken a long break and am now a bit rusty. Was able to crack 250k again, just need to keep workin' my way back up to my PB. Then probably train on level 19 starts before going for the 750k. This goal will probably take the majority of the year, trying here and there to hit, if I even make it, but it's meant to just be a reason to pop this one in occasionally throughout the year. We'll see how close I get.

Rockin Katz - This game is pretty chill, love the art-style and themes they have going on. The swinging mechanic is fun to mess around with but feels a little clunky at first. I've only played a couple levels of this so I wonder how big of a role the swinging will play in the rest of the game.

Quickie World (Super Mario World Kaizo Hack) - Been interested in Kaizo Mario hacks for a while. This one is often cited as one of the easier ones so it felt like a good starting point into these games. I'm about 5 levels in and so far having a blast with it. Super Mario World is a pretty easy game but the mechanics are very nuanced and deep, so taking them to the extreme in a harder version of the game works really well IMO. This is the game taking up the majority of my time currently.

Super Star Soldier - Been really wanting to get into Shooters more so I'm starting with this one on TG16. Beat the first couple levels, and so far its fun. I dig the powerup system, theres a few different weapons available, you can use one at a time, and by grabbing that colour of powerup it gets stronger, but you can always swap weapons by grabbing a different colour and it keeps the same level of power. Its fun playing with the different weapons and getting hit doesn't mean you're totally screwed like in Gradius for example.

On 1/14/2023 at 2:19 PM, CasualCart said:

Oof - I couldn't make it past the final level of Ninja Gaiden [NES] or Blazing Lazers [TG-16], and that lack of closure is still tormenting me to this day...

Good luck, Bort - I believe in you haha.

-CasualCart

haha thanks Cart, I had Ninja Gaiden on my backlog either last year or the year prior I think. It was the first game I tried to tackle and it broke me. I ended up barely beating any games that year. I need the closure

Blazing Lazers I haven't played a ton of, but I want to get more into shooters this year. Made a bit of progress in Super Star Soldier already, and its really fun!

Edit, Also I added in some easy games to break it up. I like tough games but need a break in between

I always end up way overshooting what I can accomplish for my backlog so I'll be keepin it light this time

This should be plenty to keep me busy:

NES
Tetris - Goal: 750k - In Progress
Rockin Katz - In Progress
Ninja Gaiden
Batman

SNES
Chrono Trigger
Sky Blazer
Tetris Attack

SNES (hacks)
Quickie World (Super Mario World Kaizo Hack) - In Progress
Fly Me to the Stars (Super Mario World Kaizo Hack)
Super Riff World (Super Mario World Kaizo Hack)

TG16
Super Star Soldier - In Progress
Blazing Lazers

GBC
Legend of the River King
Survival Kids

I know its a few months old, but I'm glad I read this! 

I'm 30 and our stories have a lot of similarities. I think my best years of gaming were around the Wii era as well, although I strayed a bit from Nintendo and played lots of Xbox 360 and PS3 too.

I am currently picking up lots of PS3 games to revisit as they're super cheap, and playing the much older stuff via emulation. Anyway, belated welcome @Lynda Monica 

4 hours ago, CasualCart said:

28 - Robo-Alien [Xexyz]

@Red - I've always had a soft-spot for Xexyz and it's hopelessly confused space-fantasy theme.

-CasualCart

Xexyz is such a cool game, a liiiiittle bit jank but very cool nonetheless

1 hour ago, CasualCart said:

23 - One-Tooth Dragon [The Legend of Zelda]

@BortLicensePlate - singling out those background tiles was a neat idea! This is my new favorite 2022 Ink-tober entry so far...

-CasualCart

Friggin adorable haha. Great job

Ice Hockey and Blades of Steel are great NES Hockey Games

Oh and the SSX games are pretty cheap too (unless you want them on gamecube), awesome snowboarding games.

Prince of Persia series on Xbox/PS2 is pretty cheap as well

14 hours ago, RH said:

Guitar Hero is still about as fun as it originally was.  Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1-4 are all still enjoyable as well and for just about any system they're all cheap.

Great picks. 2 series I thoroughly enjoyed when they were current 

14 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

2 generations ago is always a good time to pick up the classics. Ps3 and Xbox 360 games are so dirt cheap right now.

Yup been digging into PS3 stuff lately. Found Uncharted 3 and all 3 Resistance games for $1 each the other day

Love this idea for a thread. 
 

I’ll say for dirt cheap games, Sonic 2. 
 

I’m very out of touch with prices these days but that’s always going to be a 5 dollar game 

I say no. I personally like a good challenge but I don’t think people who don’t want the challenge should lose out on the experience. I think Undertale handles this well. The story wraps up nicely but there’s extra content for the more hardcore players afterwards

23 minutes ago, Lynda Monica said:

Game Boy had a lot of cool Europeon exclusives.

Adventures of Lolo, Monster Max, Parodius, Pop'n Twinbee, Trip World, R-Type II, the original Game Boy Gallery, and Magnetic Soccer, the weirdest first party Nintendo title ever.

Had no idea there was a Parodius on gameboy, cool

6 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Yeah, this is how I feel.  Come on guys - McDonalds?!?  Are those joke votes?  Cigarettes literally kill you.  And people who smoke do it every day, many, many times.  Has anyone ever in their life met a person who insists on eating McDonalds every day, never mind repeatedly on the same day?  For this to even be a legit question the comparison would have to be re-enacting the movie "Supersize Me" versus being a regular smoker.  Then maybe you'd have a fair comparison...

This is a great point. While I also believe cigarettes is the right answer, I wonder what a Big Mac every hour or two would do to someone. I am an ex smoker, and I think the biggest killer with smoking is the frequency. You’re going for a smoke at least every hour if not more

Frig I would’ve tossed my hat in this if I knew about it

2 hours ago, Philosoraptor said:

I hate both baked and mashed potatoes. The clear winner, however, is mashed potatoes because the more other stuff you put into it, the less it tastes like sand. See: shepherd's pie.

shepherd's pie sounds good right about now

2 hours ago, phart010 said:

Average rider on an exercise bike can generate 200W. A crt uses around 100W and an lcd screen uses around 60W. Older game consoles use very little power. 

You could easily mod one of the exercise bikes with an alternator. Just hook it up to a car battery then an inverter and you’ll have a mini power plant that can power a tv and game console.

Just sayin’

 

Ah yes I can lose weight AND game  

52 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

On the plus side, the older games don't need an Internet connection to work.

Good point, as long as we figure out the electricity situation we’d be all good  

I prefer a good baked potato. But specifically for thanksgiving it’s gotta be mashed 

On 10/11/2022 at 10:17 AM, CasualCart said:

Glad you guys are enjoying it, but I hope you realize this is all just an annual ploy to boost my XP until I can 1CC VGS.

Just a few more Ink-tobers, and my stats will be high enough to fight the final boss @Gloves and take over the site...

-CasualCart

We should change the site to look like this every Inktober 

On 10/7/2022 at 2:37 PM, docile tapeworm said:

It might be part of your ritual now but as a kid did you do this or did you rip the cart out of the box that then got immediately tossed in the trash? 

Definitely remember tearing into those bastards like Christmas paper. Box, manual, inserts, all trash.

I now mostly collect CIB

22 minutes ago, Estil said:

I don't exactly want to have a bunch of consoles hooked up at once either but there's no real choice if you want to play them in the best way possible.  And you have to play retro consoles on an old fashioned CRT if you don't want input lag.  After all, what good is a shiny showroom condition vehicle if it doesn't drive/handle quite right?  That is, what good does it do to hook up a retro console to a modern screen that might look better and crisper but the controls will feel "off"?

Hey man, totally agree with you! However, its just isn't practical for me anymore  

I am 50-50 on the aesthetic of classic CRT with scan lines vs modern display with crisp pixels. I think both can be beautiful under the right circumstances. For me, my Mister FPGA on my 4k gaming monitor looks great and I haven't had any issue with input lag, I'm sure there is some but not enough for me to notice anything. The FPGA was my choice because of the lack of input lag, any lag would be from the display, but my 144hz gaming monitor is pretty good from what I can tell. It's all about choosing the right display and wired controllers.

I would consider a high quality PVM CRT in the future but they are not cheap. Definitely see the allure of classic CRTs.

But I think these days there are lots of options for playing old games with modern tech

This is going to be a fun one!

I got Resident Evil 4 from the e shop for like 12 bucks

On 9/26/2022 at 1:18 PM, Sumez said:

I love SNES Dracula Xx and PCE Rondo both. I have repeatedly read criticism of the SNES game throughout several decades at this point, and at times I'll start to understand some of it. But then I replay the game yet again, and every single time it's just too much god damn fun to dislike! It's pure classic Castlevania gameplay done to near perfection, and I could never not love that. The controls and level design are both absolute top notch to me, and the absolute only thing that drags it down is the awkward final boss!

I made a ROM hack of the game that fixes the walk speed so it's identical to the PCE DracX, and people who have played it have said they loved playing the game this way. If playing custom hacks isn't something you generally refrain from, hit me up for a copy of the patch, or search for it on the shmups forum - I uploaded it somewhere but can't remember where off the top of my head 

What do you think of Dracula X compared to Super Castlevania 4? I found SC4 veeeery boring compared to nes castlevania