guitarzombie

Out of all the cult type movies, this is something I can never get and have no interest in.  No slight to Tim Curry, he did his best.

Avenging Spirit, Home Alone (although thats not that hard to do), Hammerin Harry,

10 minutes ago, Khromak said:

I feel you on this one. I own all the games on the list and several flash cartridges, but I've never beaten any of the games left on the list at this point, except games that other people are currently working on.

If you want to take the rest of the year off, no problem

I keep going back through the list and trying to pick out games I want to try to beat. I've got a decent list now, but they're all pretty tricky. I'm sure I'll crack a few of them eventually, though my progress will definitely be significantly slowed down based on the list we have and my lack of experience with them.

Yeah, I might have to!  Ill see how it turns out.  Its unfortunate that my points list is 'limited' since I only use games I own, but, I specifically chose only certain games because I would rather have a smaller and impressive collection, than taking up a lot of space.  I COULD get an everdrive, but then why own the carts in the first place?

22 minutes ago, Crabmaster2000 said:

Amazing work on this! Love your dedication to helping others through tough games like this!

I usually do things like these for myself, but decide to share it .  Im still curious for anyone willing to try it and give me some thoughts on it.

1 hour ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Excellent work on the maps.  Have you considered having them posted on vgmaps.com and/or gamefaqs so that they'll be out there for the rest of posterity to use?

I don't mind if someone else does it.  I wanted to kinda cultivate a strategy here with people here before something is definite, but since what I did worked, I say those are ok, and can be put out to the world.

49 minutes ago, NostalgicMachine said:

Those maps are sick, dude!

Thanks!  Luckily with NES games, its pretty easy to combine images and have it look seamless, or even fix parts that didn't come out right.  I could have cleaned it up more but I didn't think that was important.

3 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

I don't know... it looks like you have plenty you could keep busy with to the end of this challenge, if you want to. As someone who has beaten The Mutant Virus, you're probably capable of beating any of these except for maybe Championship Pool. It's a toss-up between CP, Arkanoid, and Ikari Warriors for the hardest game left on the board.

The only ones on this list that I've beaten are Captain America and Kings of the Beach. Captain America is not horrible, but it gets repetitive and the difficulty can be aggravating once you get west of the Misssissippi River. But as long as you know where you can farm extra continues, you can generally play the game for as long as you like. Kings of the Beach is pretty brutal, but it has a password system so you don't have to do it all in one sitting.

I've also reached the final boss of Silk Worm. That game is pretty manageable until the last stage; its difficulty is average at worst in the first 75% of the game. But that last level... yikes. I can't tell you how much I hate how the invincible missiles suddenly spray bullets in multiple directions as well in the last stage.

Theres a reason why I haven't beaten these haha.  I remember getting to the VERY end of Kings of the Beach with my friend in 2 player.  We had a ton of fun, but its comforting to know that its just that challenging at the end.

Good job guys.  I think for me my time is pretty close to the end here, as I don't have much to offer left.  The only games listed I own are:

Alpha Mission

Captain America

Championship Pool

Formula 1 (I think?)

James Bond Jr.

Jungle Book

Kings of the Beach

Silkworm

Star Force

and out of all of those, the only one I've beaten previously is James Bond Jr.  I may give that one a crack at some point.  If I get my hands on a Gold Medal Challenge I could do that, as I enjoy the game.

Great music, one of the best end credit music on the NES and the greatest NES ending of all time.  Plus awesome engrish.  One I didn't grow up with but loved afterwards.  Re-armed was a really well done remake, that gives you a bit more at the very end to make it not a completely 1:1 game.

Oh something I know a bit about!  Kurt has said that he wrote "About A Girl" after listening to his favorite Beatles record, which i think is either Beatles '65 for Beatles 6, but I don't think that, or anything else Kurt wrote sounds like a Beatles song.  Interestingly, I'm a major Nirvana fan and have been in the community for 25 years, and the community was amazed when we heard Kurts cover of "And I Love Her" which we had no idea that existed.

Also someone did mention that "Come and Get It" is a Paul song, which to me is the most Beatlesy' for obvious reasons on that list.  Some of the others sound more like "Post" Beatles songs to me, so its but the only one I can really hear the band playing at the time would be the Cheap Trick one.  It has the normal kinda Beatles harmony to it.

"Lies" is also a really good one but they're obviously VERY much 'ripping off' the style for the time that the Beatles created in the early 60s.  I think "That Thing You Do" tho is probably the closest IMO of all of them.  When I first heard it, it sounded to me like someone did a LOT of Beatles homework to take their harmonic style, and blend it with the look/sound for that time.

I took a break for a few years after 2017, where I just played a handful of games if at all.  Since its been a while this was the year I wanted to replay some old games I haven't touched in a long time.  With that said, I'm surprised at these # of completions I got.

9x - Knight Rider

5x - Bionic Commando / Dick Tracy / Indiana Jones (Ubi) / Swamp Thing / Zombie Nation

4x - Best of the Best / Blaster Master / Frankenstein / Last Action Hero / Maniac Mansion / Metal Storm / Predator / Bart Vs. The Space Mutants / Vegas Dream / Waynes World / Zen

I would have done Swamp Thing and Maniac Mansion already but someone beat me to it haha. 

@scaryice It could be nice if was quick to make a list of the 'tough game expert', or a list of people who've mostly beaten the same tough game every year. 

1 hour ago, Crabmaster2000 said:

Some others that are still super tough that are left are: Athena, Bill Elliot’s NASCAR Challenge, Championship Pool, Boulder Dash, High Speed, Sky Kid, Star Force, Starship Hector, Top Gun 2nd Mission and Xevious. 

 

I can't believe Little Nemo is still on the list. That's game is so good and not too hard. Same with Flying Dragon/Flying Warrior. Those games are fun and not super challenging. 

I forgot to add "and shmups" haha.  My friend Skip loves Little Nemo.  I've seen him beat it before and it never seemed hard.  I'm not that familiar with those others, plus I don't own any of them except for Championshp Pool haha.  I only got it because it was a cheap late release game.

Seeing whats left, aside from obscure RPGs and long games, it seems like the biggest battles left are Arkanoid, To The Earth and Ikari Warriors.

Also someone beat Bump N Jump?  Did the requirements change? I remember that one being really tough?

37 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

I guess different games are harder for different people. Usually it takes me much longer to beat something than it does TMR. I'm impressed that he could beat Heavy Barrel in under an hour and I can't beat it at all.

 

Right.  I mean he was able to remember the elevator maze at the end, and like I said, took Durant out in one shot.  Ive been familiar with the game as a kid and it took me like 20 tries because you basically have to jump far enough ahead on his platform, and shoot him rhythmically so he doesn't kick of you off the side.  He was having trouble with the 2nd to last boss fighting him that way but no issue with Durant.  Just crazy.

22 minutes ago, Crabmaster2000 said:

Amazing job cracking The Last Starfighter! That game gave me SO much trouble!

Give it another shot!  Try my strats :).

22 minutes ago, BriGuy82 said:

Congrats and happy birthday!

Thank you!

3 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

Congrats! It's nice to see people cracking so many of the toughest NES games that nobody wants to play.  Maybe this will get done this year.

 

Thanks!  I mean the only reason why I tried is because it seemed so short.  So I figured with a little bit of research I could figure something out.  I also didn't need to pause buffer like TMR :).

I wanted to make a note about TMR because its so funny how people play games.  I saw him within 3 hrs from never playing Darkman to beating it and beating Durant on his FIRST TRY!  Then SMASHING thru Adventure Island in an hour!  Yet, I see him play Dick Tracy and Knightrider (Two personal favorites) and it took him like 7 hours?!  I wouldn't even consider those games NEARLY as hard as Darkman or some of the other ones he's beaten.  Fascinating. 

I did it on my second real try!  YAY!  Id say my strats worked.  I would hope someone else gives this a shot and lets me know what they think.  I would suggest just farting around with the game to get a feel for it, then give my strats a go.

YES!  I did it!  On my second 'real' attempt I beat "The Last Starfighter", wooo!!

My strats worked!  I was doing good then I bobbled in the middle but said I should just continue with it.  I ended up getting to the 2nd to last level with 3 lives, I died twice but I got another life when I beat it.  On the last level I had 2 lives, I died from a random shot from a spawn but with my last life I did it!  AND on my birthday!  What an exhilarating feeling you can only get from beating a tough NES game.  Is it hard?  Not really, I'd say its more random but my strats work!  I dont think you can use them cold but if you play the game a little and get a feel for it, I think anyone can really do it.  I tried to get a picture of the ending but it scrolled by too fast and I could only get the "Good" out of "Good Shooting Turkey" haha.  

Gah!  I got to the 2nd to last level of Last Starfighter and choked!  But to be honest the first part of Level 14 is the hardest probably in the whole game. 

GAH!  I got to level 14 with 3 lives and choked.  Honestly the beginning of that level is probably the hardest in the whole game because of the mines and ships.

What I noticed was for the first few levels I was trying to farm points by shooting the ships on the ground.  But in turn, doing that made me mess up more.  Once I started just following my guides and ignoring points, I got to level 14.  I only had 1 really dumb death where I got the "Land now" and my ship wasn't landing and some random ship spawn shot me.

With that being said I think my strats are relatively solid.  I'm going to compare them to the speed run.

This whole thread had me like

Just gave it a go and got to level 8, with some silly deaths.  Level 2 is still pretty tricky, but most I beat in one shot or got really close and had bad luck at the end.  Plus I missed one of the bonus things at the end.  Work in progress!

1 hour ago, Crabmaster2000 said:

That's right. Just gotta have the highest medal count at the end. Hope your good at button mashing!

Is that why its so tough?  I always played it against my friend and we used turbo buttons.  Also I have NO idea how to win the Marathon.  Neither of us have ever gotten close to beating it.  I thought I did last time I played it but somehow came in like 4th.  Its RIGGED!!!

46 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Hey, it's no longer jittery! Your smackdown of the game put it in its place!*

 

 

 

*In the garbage.  

I never said it was GOOD, but for how short it is, I figured theres a way to finish this somewhat consistently so it isn't so daunting.  I seem to have a thing for obscure and tough NES games.

Strats added!