Jaden

April 12th, 2024 - Half-Life (Windows) (Any%) (Hard Difficulty) I've gotten a little Doom-ed out and wanted to try another FPS game. Thankfully, Half-Life scratched that itch for more first person action. Not only that, but this game is one of the few that has really gripped me from beginning to end. I was constantly wondering where the story would go, what strange aliens I'd be fighting next, and what puzzles I'd be solving. It's a really great game all the way through... well, except for Xen. Maybe it's because my first playthrough of this game was on hard mode, but Xen kicked my ass quite a few times. It was mainly those stupid flying things that shoot fireballs that drove me up the wall. The final boss also took me a while to figure out. Even after I realized I was supposed to destroy the crystals, I couldn't even tell if I was doing damage to it or not. That final batter was definitely my least favorite part of the game. Other than that, I think this made for an incredible experience. The atmosphere this game provides is unreal, especially for 1998. It genuinely creeped me out and startled me in a few places. And the level design and puzzles are all top notch stuff. My favorite puzzle might actually be the air strike one where you have to blow up these stone walls to get to the next area. Really clever stuff. Anyway, I'm not really sure what to play next. To be honest, my interest in gaming has been kinda fading away for the past few years. I've even contemplated giving up video games for good and selling my entire collection. Half-Life really helped get me back into games again and I'm thankful for it. However, I still feel a bit directionless. I could do Half-Life 2 next, but there's so much other stuff I want to play and I kinda want to take a break from FPS games in general. I don't know. I'm sure I'll think of something.

We have a winner! Love this game. For those who haven't played Jumping Flash and love quirky games like I do, I can't recommend it enough.

Well, the timing on this was pretty bad since the NES weekly contests JUST started. So, I don't expect there to be many guesses. The only guess so far is incorrect. I'll share another picture, but this might be giving it away.

Seems like a pretty neat game! I guess it's my turn now (although it admittedly doesn't feel fair since I had to look up all the Intellivision games to find it). I tried to pick a good one. So, here it goes!

Tower of Doom! I could tell that it was an Intellivision game by the font, but actually figuring out which one was rather tough. It's admittedly not a library I'm familiar with.

Almost looks like something from Darkseed.

Talk about a coincidence. I had actually just finished Metroid as well. This was my first time beating the game. And while it is pretty janky in some spots, I still had a blast playing the game, looking for secrets, and defeating Mother Brain. I think Zelda 1 has aged much better than Metroid, but it's still a great time all around. For the record, I was working on a map for this game but never finished it. In the end, I mainly got around by memory and was still able to finish the game without much trouble. The hardest part for me was those stupid infinitely spawning bugs, but the ice beam thankfully makes them pretty much harmless. So, Guardian Legend next? February 12th, 2024 - Metroid (NES) (Any%)

I was going to make a dedicated thread for all my completed games, but it probably makes more sense to post them all here and not clutter the forum with useless threads nobody will see. January 12th, 2024 - Splatterhouse (TG16) (Normal difficulty) The original Splatterhouse is one of my favorite games of all time, but I've never actually beaten the TurboGrafx-16 version. I'm kinda bummed this never got ported to other consoles like NES and Genesis, but this is still a lovely version of the game. It's easier than the arcade game (though there is a secret hard mode) and there is far less gore on display here. I feel like the controls aren't nearly as tight or responsive as the arcade version either, but that's probably just me being weird. It was still a ton of fun blasting through this game. I cite this as one of the few examples where story and gameplay are perfectly intertwined. This is how you communicate your plot through the action. Great stuff! January 18th, 2024 - A Bug's Life (PS1) (100%) I don't think I could have picked two more different games to group together even if I tried! A Bug's Life was one of my favorite games growing up, but I never got to see the end of it. Now that I have, I can say that it's a pretty solid puzzle platformer all around. The controls are very slippery and it can be hard making some jumps and walking along thin platforms in the later levels. The second to last level is pretty stupid, as the game still expects you to collect all the grain pieces and kill all the enemies while flying through a tunnel at a set speed. You can go back, but only at parts of the level where there are two paths. There is no button to turn around, which makes that level more difficult than it needs to be. But still, there were some pretty decent puzzles here that got me scratching my head. I also finished all three bonus levels, which I literally just learned about today. I saw I still had three locked movie clips and didn't know how to get them. I would have never figured out how to get to these bonus levels as a kid. They're nothing special, but it's nice to get to experience them. As for the next game I'm going to complete, maybe an NES game? I was thinking the original Metroid would be a fun one to tackle. Or possibly The Guardian Legend. I'm not sure. I'll have to think about it. Overall, I'm hoping to finish a lot more games in 2024 than I did in previous years!

I didn't grow up listening to the radio. So, I can happily say that Stairway to Heaven wasn't ruined for me by being overplayed. Really great song, although I slightly prefer When the Levee Breaks and In My Time of Dying when it comes to Zeppelin epics.

Because people care about collecting them, for whatever reason.

Hey man, great work on putting this together! I always knew that a lot of the rarities in the old guides were inaccurate. And seeing some of the differences here really opened my eyes. While there are the obvious outliers like Stadium Events and the Panesian titles, I never really noticed much difference between rarity for those games on the back half of the scale. Like what really is the difference in rarity between something like a Dinosaur Peak and a Pro Sport Hockey? Is some maniac gonna try hunting down every single copy of these games and compare them to try and prove the difference? And even then, what we do with those results would be entirely subjective to the person compiling them and what they classify as the different levels of rarity. So, I agree that we'll never end up with a 100% accurate guide for rarity. Despite this, I still think this could be a great reference to flip through and potentially see how likely you are to come across a certain game. Overall, fantastic job!

Haven't been on the forum for a while, but I did finish another game while I was gone. On August 25th, 2023, I completed the original Dragon Warrior for the NES! While this game certainly has that early RPG jank to it, I still had a lot of fun. When I was actually making progress and not just grinding, it honestly had some really cool moments. And the final battle with the Dragonlord is just epic. I can't wait to try out the rest of the series at some point!

Change that to "all Nintendo consoles suck" and it would be more accurate.

The NES is a good console.

I've legit thought about starting a little Frogger museum. It's a really overlooked franchise, and I don't think many people realize how far the rabbit hole goes and how much merch there is of it. Again, if you want an updated take on the original, definitely try Swampy's Revenge. One of my all time favorite games.

@SumezYeah, it was kinda dumb not to do that. I don't really know what I was thinking there. Sorry about that. It's not that I'm really guilty for liking the series. It's just that I feel lesser for enjoying something that most people would brush off. From what I've seen, the Frogger series is generally treated as shovelware. So, I sometimes question why I play and enjoy them in the first place. @spacepupYou're right. Part of me wishes that some stuff I like would get more attention. But even if it doesn't, that shouldn't stop me from playing it and enjoying it. At least communities like this forum exist for those who like niche old games. Also, nice score on that Frogger demo! I think that's cool that you have so much passion for preserving all the PS1 demos. I'd be interested in seeing what else you find. @rdrunner My favorite Frogger game is Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge. It does a great job at bringing ideas to the original arcade formula with overshadowing the core mechanics that made it so fun in the first place. It feels like a Frogger game, but heavily expanded. Other than that, Frogger's Adventures: The Rescue is an excellent puzzle game with an equally excellent soundtrack. I'd recommend that one to any big puzzle fanatics. @PIII can't blame you there. The original is a classic for a reason! I still find myself getting addicted to it every now and then. If you are interested, definitely check out the two games I mentioned above. @darkchylde28Yeah, I don't even play any adult games like that. I wasn't thinking about those, but I would agree that those should be kept more private. @PekoponTASThat's kinda how I've been my whole life. I've generally avoided playing what's super popular with the kids at school. Not because I thought it sucked, but mainly because I find older games much more interesting. I like working my way back through history and looking for games that I missed out on. And there happens to be tons of great games from the past that most people flat out ignore. It just bums me out that so many games are not given a chance because of arbitrary reasons like age or the system its on. But hey, that doesn't mean that I have to ignore them too. Thank you all for your responses. Really, I know deep down that I should continue to enjoy what I enjoy. I guess sometimes, it helps to gain more perspective by hearing from other people.

Do you guys ever get self-conscious for playing certain games, or try to hide the games you like? I really don't know if anyone else has this issue. I might be a complete idiot for feeling this way, but it's something that's been eating away at me for a while and I just really want to talk about it. For example, I really like Frogger. I think it's not only an arcade classic, but it also spawned a series of great action puzzlers in the early to mid 2000's. However, nobody else seems to know or care about these games. And when they do, they all go "Huh, Frogger had a series??? LMAO". They don't seem to take it seriously, even though the games are actually good. Or when they hear about the Frogger series, their minds just go straight to Great Quest and proceed to mock it. It just kinda bums me out, y'know. I've also seen quite a few people bash NES games because they're old and "don't age well." It just makes me feel like I'm an idiot for even liking these games. It would be more normal for me to get into something like Smash and get into the competitive side of it. But I just can't. I hate Smash Bros., but I like these old games that nobody cares about. I know that I probably shouldn't care about it at all, but I just can't help but feel like something is wrong with me. Does anyone else struggle with this? I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. And if I get insulted a bunch for this... well, I probably deserve it to be honest.

I've finished my first game of the year! Starting off with an all time classic, it's Super Mario Bros. 3! I managed to beat the game in one sitting, which I'm really happy about. I was initially going to use warps as a way to kinda save my progress, since this game has no saves or passwords. But I figured it would be much cooler to finish the whole game without warps. And while world 8 was absolute hell to get through, I'm really happy I beat this one. I'm thinking I'll do something more simple for the next game, like a scrolling shooter. Maybe Star Soldier? We'll see.

I'm a little late again, but here's what I plan on finishing this year. I'm basically going through the other 17 games I didn't get to last year. However, there's a couple new ones I've added to the list to get 20 games. A nice round number. Unlike 2022, I'll be crossing off each game as I finish them, rather than waiting until the end of the year to show my results. Adventure Island Air Fortress Bionic Commando Blaster Master Captain Skyhawk Crystalis Double Dragon 2: The Revenge Dragon Spirit: The New Legend Dragon Warrior Guardian Legend Legacy of the Wizard Ninja Gaiden Punch-Out!! Rolling Thunder Shadowgate Snake Rattle 'n' Roll Star Soldier Super Mario Bros. 3 Wizards and Warriors Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link Another goal I have is to branch out into more genres. I definitely want to try more RPGs this year. I do want to play Dragon Warrior IV this year, but I might also try one of the Final Fantasy games or Chrono Trigger. I've heard great things about them, and I'm excited to try them out this year. Hopefully, I'll be much more active in 2023.

Sorry, I fell asleep earlier and didn't get to post my results. Here are the games I beat in 2022. Castlevania Mega Man 3 Contra So, not many games this year, but I did beat a couple really good ones.

Here's my black box set at the moment. So far, I got 19 out of the 30 games needed to complete the set. And two of those are even in the box, which is pretty cool. Nothing too impressive here, but I'm happy with what I got. The remaining 11 black box games are gonna be pretty tough to get. I still regret not picking up Gumshoe and Urban Champion a couple years ago when I had the chance to. But I'm hoping with enough patience, I can at least complete the set cart only.

I've been looking for this for so long! Thanks for sharing! Only issue is the rarities. Not just that they're inaccurate, but every item has the same rarity across cartridge, manual, and box. So, a game may show the rarity for all three being a 7, but really the cart might be a 7 and the box is like a 9. I think that was just a weird NintendoAge bug. But other than that, this is a great resource to have!

Alright alright, so I was exaggerating a bit. I just hate the current state of retro gaming YouTube now. Who wants to watch a grotesque middle aged man whose wife left them a decade ago talk about games we've already heard about a million times? If you wanna talk about channels that are complete wastes, you might as well add RonnJiggs and The Invincible JohnGrabshiscock to that category. Channels that serve no purpose other than to make unoriginal content and to flaunt their collections. They're the people that make me not want to be a retro game YouTuber. Because I'm afraid that I would be lumped with those pieces of trash. But I guess should bring in some more positivity. I second that Jeremy Parish is one of the few gems in the rough. Not only does he review the games, but the way he analyzes the context of each game and how they shaped them and the games around them is something I haven't seen any other YouTuber do. That's where I first learned about the Nintendo Advanced Video System and Nintendo's potential deal with Atari. The super early history of the Famicom/NES (1983-1987) is endlessly fascinating to me. So, I'm glad that there's a channel that covers all that stuff in depth. I also want to add that Ahoy is an amazing channel, doing full on documentaries for various video game topics. He can make something as simple as a health bar or a type of game box fascinating to learn about. And to this day, I still go through an AVGN binge at least once a year. He's the gold standard for all retro game content for a reason.

All retro game channels suck ass.

Does this list only include instances of games actually being shown or heard, or are spoken references included too? I know that MST3K has had quite a few video game references over the years, although they're far more prevalent in seasons 11 to 13. I saw that Monster Shark was on this list, which was later riffed by Mike and the Bots as Devil Fish. And that episode also featured a pretty funny Parappa the Rapper riff. In the episode of Track of the Moon Beast, you can also see a Parappa poster in Mike's bedroom. If spoken references are being counted, then I can definitely list some more examples of video game riffs in MST3K. Although if you want just visual stuff, there is also an episode where Dr. Forrester and Frank are playing Super Mario Bros. I think it was Godzilla Vs. Megalon.