Scrobins

Added Nix: The Paradox Relic

Bump

Go! (accidentally a day early, but oh well)

The Rise of Amondus Leaderboard Username Score Date Red 230,100 2/15/2020 bertsampson 89,950 2/21/2020 ecmyers 78,800 2/23/2020 driveshaft 66,550 2/22/2020 Ausden 60,150 2/15/2020 Richardhead 47,550 2/17/2020 Deadeye 47,400 2/11/2020 JamesRobot 31,350 2/19/2020 Scrobins 10,750 2/9/2020 zi 8,650 2/23/2020

Homebrew Leader Board Competition 2020 - Game 2: The Rise of Amondus Play Period: Friday, February 7, 2020 - Sunday, February 23, 2020 Play on your cart or download the rom here. Released in summer 2015, The Rise of Amondus served as a prequel to Rob’s (Sly Dog Studios) equally excellent NES homebrew, The Mad Wizard. Though most gaming franchises tend to hover around the same genre, Sly Dog’s Candelabra Epic represents his personal challenge to use each entry to in the series to push the limits what can be done on the NES in every genre. The Rise of Amondus offers a unique take on the horizontal shooter, requiring the player (in the role of The Mad Wizard’s villain) to fill a given quota for capturing goblins before reaching each level’s boss. It’s up to you and your minions to conquer the Primwoods, or else the events of The Mad Wizard can’t come to pass! The Rise of Amondus was initially available in a clear cartridge on RetroUSB, but has since been discontinued. K3VBOT offered a re-release of The Mad Wizard and The Rise of Amondus in his 2019 Kickstarter for Candelabra: Estoscerro, the latest entry in the Candelabra Epic. Missed out on getting your copy of the physical cartridge? Don’t worry, Sly Dog offers the rom on his site, where you can explore and enjoy his entire catalog. Gameplay is innovative, but be careful because with innovation comes complexity. The d-pad controls Amondus’ movement, but hitting the d-pad while holding A moves the reticle used to lock onto and capture goblins. Hitting B while moving as Amondus unleashes your attacks, which vary depending on whether your to the side of or in the middle of the screen. Meanwhile hitting B after locking onto a goblin with the reticle summons Rant who will swoop down and carry the targeted goblin away. Hitting Start switches between the reticle for Rant and the option for helper Charwit. Your goal: meet your goblin capture quota so you can move on to the level’s boss. This round will begin February 7, no score posted before then will be accepted. Please limit your posts to including your scores so as not to clutter the thread. How to submit your score: 1. Scores shall be submitted by posting a picture to that month’s game thread. Screenshots of a computer screen (print screen) are not acceptable. 2. The picture must include the entire screen and have your VGS user name within the picture on a piece of paper. Username can not be added digitally to the picture. 3. Type out your score in bold on your thread post. 4. Scores must be submitted within the posted time frame. 5. Do not submit scores from previous runs. 6. Use one post for your score. You can submit as many as you like by editing your original post. You can bump the thread to announce your new score. Rules: 1. NTSC only, no PAL. This will create a level playing field and not create differences based on timing. 2. OEM, FPGA, and clone consoles are OKAY. 3. Emulators are OKAY. Play game at 100% speed. 4. No save states allowed. 5. Flashcarts (i.e. Everdrive / Power Pak) are OKAY. 6. No turbo or slow motion controllers are allowed. 7. No game genie codes. 8. Do not use glitches in the game to boost your score. 9. Single Player only 10. Do not loop play session into a "New Game Plus" (which carries your score). Reset the game instead. 11. No continues allowed, one play is limited to the 3 lives you receive at the beginning of the game.

Yeah that’s the thing about category 2, they’re done but not available yet or pre-orders closed. Another member had talked about making a few carts of Saturn Smash when he had the bandwidth.

Added Jim Power and Goofy Foot: Power Chiptunes for NES which are available on Kickstarter.

You could just ask Johnnyboy113 if he has any copies left. He has a complete set of the famicom games he’s been making available on NES carts for sale, including that game.

Thanks for making this thread, I hope it leads to more fan threads for other great homebrews! I hope you don’t mind if I use your thread to share my acquisition story. I’ve posted in a number of places around here about various homebrew collecting milestones, and for me Star Keeper was a fun one because it was one of if not the first homebrew I acquired through some serious detective work. I got my copy a couple of years ago on NA. I was just getting my feet wet in homebrew collecting, and was taking stock of the handful of “which homebrews are good” threads. One that came up a lot was Star Keeper. By then I knew it was difficult to find, so I poured over old seller threads and looked for members selling a copy. Any relevant hits in search were a few years old, but I messaged those members asking if their copy was still available and for sale until I found someone. The story behind the making of this game and the mystery surrounding its developer adds so much to this game’s aura.

Bump

I was just reading this Gizmodo article about physical game collecting. The title is clickbaity (though the title when you hover the cursor over the tab is a little more fitting), but it considers an interesting concern: despite the convenience and affordability of digital game collecting, you won't always be able to hold onto it indefinitely. Sometimes you're just an OS update away from being unable to play a cherished game. I'm not concerned that this will necessarily cause people to pursue cart collecting who weren't already, but it's a sort of validation of physical collecting and pushes back against the notion that digital is always better. https://gizmodo.com/you-should-hoard-physical-copies-of-the-video-games-you-1841164715

Initially lived in NY outside NYC until 5 when I moved to CT about an hour outside NYC. I went to just outside Boston for college, NYC for law school, and DC where I am not for work. My life is the Acela line...or at least the Northeast Regional. I had different considerations in mind for each of the moves I chose to make. Going to my college was an insane opportunity, which also fit my initial criteria: in and around a city where I could experience new things and conveniently go home, but a Goldilocks distance from home (not too difficult for my parents to come to me or for me to come home, but far enough away to discourage surprise visits). Coming to NYC for law school meant a good platform for looking for law jobs during the summer and after graduation as well as being closer to my parents, sister, and most extended family. I really tried to stay in NYC but I wasn’t a solid enough candidate that I could get whatever job I wanted, but DC was appealing for the work opportunities and the fact that my uncle (with whom I have a close relationship) was there so I wouldn’t feel totally at sea. My takeaways are that at different times in your life you’ll have different priorities but it’s easier than in the past (for some anyway) to make changes when those priorities change. All you can do is make the best choice based on what’s important to you now and adapt when things change. Most of the regrets I have in life are not necessarily bad choices but choices that made the most sense at the time and which changed in a way I hadn’t anticipated and frankly would have been silly to think would have turned out that way down the line.

Ok I’ll take a crack at it... Scrobins Ballot Iowa caucus (February 3) 1. Biden 2. Sanders 3. Warren 4. Buttigieg New Hampshire primary (February 11) 1. Sanders 2. Biden 3. Warren 4. Buttigieg Nevada caucus (February 22) 1. Biden 2. Sanders 3. Warren 4. Steyer South Carolina primary (February 29) 1. Biden 2. Sanders 3. Warren 4. Steyer

I’ll vote a high number for any band behind a Bond song, and theirs is one of the best!

Good to know, I was using a wireless controller. Weird I always turned in the same direction when it happened.

There were several instances for me where everything was going fine and I guess because of the slope of the shape I was on I would abruptly turn even though I hadn’t hit the d-pad.

The problem is there are a lot of Master System homebrews but few received a legitimate cartridge release because of the difficulty of either obtaining copies to recycle or develop a mold to make new carts.

Updated to include Voyage - A Sorceress' Vacation for the Sega Master System and Shrine Maiden Shizuka for Genesis now that the developers have expressed their interest in a physical run.

Aww shucks, thanks @TylerBarnes and @Lambda

Ooh boy I’ll be on the lookout for my copy!

And that’s time! Good game everyone. Stay tuned for the announcement that will kick off next month’s game: The Rise of Amondus.

Attaboy! Yep you got till midnight

Also a reminder to those playing, post a reply to let me know you’ve updated your score cough cough @driveshaft