PII

PII thinks about 2005 .....draws total blank. PII skims through an entire page of posted 2005 vibes .....draws total blank. Conclusion: PII is pretty sure PII was not on planet Earth circa 2005....

This plate looks SOO good, especially the cheese smeared with "blood" and the ones infused with mold...

I've only played the ColecoVision version of Dragonfire so far. The drawbridge is considerably more difficult with an eventual moving platform and a guy in the parapet shooting arrows at you. I think maybe the flames might be faster/more numerous as well. It's been a little while but I remember that its possible to jump and hit the side of the castle.. And I'm pretty sure the exit door inside the castle can be used at any point w/o having to pick up every piece of treasure.

So the Vacuum cleaner turned on here just as he put the first chip into his mouth and I had to hit pause. It made for quite the mid-season cliffhanger finale.

When he's not hunting spaceships he's busy as an accountant.

I had some meat to thaw out tonight, so it was either sit and stare at the meat for an hour or play this game; therefore: Jack Nicklaus Greatest 18 Holes Of Major Championship Golf is done. I think I finished 43 strokes over par, 20 of which occurred on the first hole before I had any idea what I was doing. I spent the better part of a bakers dozen on hole 8 just putting which is sometimes frustrating in this game. It's difficult to aim properly and there are a few holes that are on a slope so the ball tends to end up rolling down the hill and you can never tell precisely which directions its slanted just by looking at it. Other than that it's not too bad. I've come to like these golf games a bit. So I might very well play it some more at some point. It's sort of relaxing compared to almost everything else I tend to play. Also, you're given the wind's direction but no speed and it doesn't seem to factor in too heavily. I managed to get a couple of birdies but no eagles...

Best guess for 1st is probably "Cave Of The Word Wizard" on Commodore 64. You wander a 4-level cave filled with creepy crawlies to avoid and pits of non-doom that are easier to fall into than it is to find a ladder to take you back up while trying to locate four glowing crystals to finish the game. Meanwhile the "Word Wizard" recurringly materializes to demand that you spell some word. It had 4 difficulty levels if memory suffices. I've since played a few enjoyable "educational" games on the ColecoVision in recent history but COTWW was probably also the last time in my youth that I enjoyed a video game actually intended to educate, unless you wanna count playing "Oregon Trail" on a computer at school. I learned to avoid dysentery. Last game was "Shadow Of The Ninja" (for a brief description see the "Beat The NES Thread.") Intermediate would be College era and that means not a whole lot of time for gaming, but the most frequently beaten game of that time would def. have been "Mario Kart 64" getting beaten at say, 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning for the umpteen-millionth time with one or more friends along for the ride.

@Sumez Ever played the "Wacky Sports Challenge" TT game on SNES? I never have but I kind of want to just because I used to enjoy all the sporty bonus games in Buster Busts Loose, especially the racquet ball. I've never played the one on Genesis either - "Buster's Hidden Treasure." Pretty sure there's a bunch more for successive systems...

The first one is, as you've pointed out, easily the better game and I used to play the crap out of Buster Busts Loose on SNES back in the day, to the point that I'm sure I must have no-deathed or possibly even no-damage ran that game at one point or another, but I have to admit I enjoyed the 2nd Tiny Toon game on NES as well. It's true that 3 of the 4 initial stages are rather easy, particularly the Furball stage, but I still found them enjoyable (well maybe not so much the bumper cars. That one isn't the easiest thing to enjoy) but I really liked the Babs stage with the rollercoaster. It's all speed and memorization which I guess is not everyone's cup of tea. It would have been nice if the unlocking of the 5th stage had lead to a "Dr. Wily-like" series of labyrinthine levels instead of just one. Overall I found it a bit short and not a great game, but pretty good. I almost always enjoy these "door maze" sections when they pop up in games! I particularly like the one on the last level of "Bartman Meets Radioactive Man." Instead of taking notes or something in order to always have these sections down, I like to be able to come back and play them again down the road some time and see if I can remember or intuit the proper path...

NO.

:HALLOWEEN BUMP: I haven't been much in the practice of acquiring great "new" Zombie Films this last year and to prove it here is a pic. of the only zombie movie I've recently acquired: Zombie Diaries. It is "Abraham Lincoln VS Zombies" Baaaaaaad, or perhaps yet even worse. It is not funny-ha-ha bad, it is just bad. I've had a copy of it's sequel sitting around for a couple of years now unwatched, so I only have to wait for an evening in which I'm in the mood to be bored stiff for 90 minutes while having my eyeballs occupied. Inscribed on the back of the DVD case is: "The Best Zombie Film Ever" according to ... -The Dark Side- ... Who or whatever that is, they must not have ever seen a zombie film before this one. On the brighter side I recently discovered "CORPSE EATERS" which is, according to IMDB: "The first Canadian Gore Film About Zombies ...yadda, etc. It was produced on a budget of $36,000, came out in late summer of 1974 and is technically unfinished and considered to be a partially lost film. Best of all you can watch it for free on Youtube. WARNING: contains wild 70's Sex/Nudity and a pretty great soundtrack. https://youtu.be/jagTwHF4w2Q?si=wkoQBMrNzUbfNsOg ¡HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH!

It's been a few years since I've tried playing Shockwave. I haven't beaten it but I remember liking it fairly well and yeah, I also got the "obtuse" vibe. Wasn't sure if it was the game design or just my inexperience with it. Always have had the plan to get back to it at some point...

SHADOW OF THE NINJA is done. This one is pretty fun. It's like Contra and Ninja Gaiden got together and Vice Project Doom decided to get in on the action and this is what popped out. I would say the gameplay feels closest to VPD and there are some enemy elements that feel very Contra-ish and then of course you are a ninja. Overall though I don't feel it is as good as any of those three. It lacks the really consistent fast paced flow of those games just a bit, the bosses are pretty easy and there tend to be spots that are easier to just push through and take a hit or two rather than work through the combat, although having various multi-hit enemies more in line with CastleVania or VPD is a cool element and it is ultimately more fun to figure out how to take on those enemies and or give them the slip. Very good game with a great soundtrack. ..and the Garuda battle at the end runs a bit looooonnnnng.

I know I'm late to the party and all here... There is also the role that tanuki play in Japanese mythology. Together with foxes and cats, they are one of the Big Three shapeshifters in Japanese legends. One of their favorite pastimes is to visit bars and brothels and pay with old leaves magically disguised as money. ...but I just love the idea of a Tanooki strolling into a bar unnoticed for what he is and paying with old leaves before slipping out! In my mind it looks a lot like a piece of @T-Pac artwork. (for any confused by this post, see posts at top of page)

CastleVania In Name Only.

It's easy to imagine this thing swooping down on Buster or Babs, Plucky etc. and that character just being like: "You know your sheet has a rip?"

I actually missed a few myself due to business and or exhaustion. Renegade Week for example. I would have liked to play hard that week. I don't think it likely that I'd have beaten you that week as I seem to recall your performance that week was pretty exceptional, but still, I would have liked to at least try and give you a run for your money, or at least keep up a bit... ..Any favorite moments in particular for you?

This year was a lot of fun with no shortage of memorable weeks. Isolated Warrior week was epic and I particularly enjoyed the downhill skiing during ski or die. Although I Just couldn't keep up with @Richardhead's mad halfpipe skillz! Nice to see Solomon's Key turn up. And too many more, but I think my favorite was Spy Hunter Week, simply because I'd never really given that game a fair shake despite having popped it in a few times over the years and now I consider myself a fan. Thanks @BeaIank, @guillavoie for all the great work!

I will echo the vote for benefactor convenience with preference on the post TG - Xmas time frame.

Thanks. Admittedly, I was not expecting to do quite so well this year. Nearing the end I was just trying to hang on to 2nd. Once the BearCat wakes up he's a persistently brutal foe to have to compete against!

@JamesRobot lol... Alcoholic Marker...

Yeah, ditto. We're either going off the rails here or through the looking glass, not quite sure which...

So it's like "Hermaphrodite-Hugh-Hefner..."

Maybe its PII after a night of intense gaming... !