Weekly update: May 21st - 27th, 2012

Good day at the Flea Market!

Nes pickups for the week ending May 27th:

Bases Loaded 2

Goal!

Heavy Shredding

Double Dare

Hoops

Rambo

Rampage

RBI baseball 2

Super Mario Brothers/ Duckhunt/ Worldclass Track Meet

Track and Field

Thundercade

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Player One Score:

You know you go to the flea market too much when you're on a first name basis with the seller(s) you frequent most.

Standouts from this haul would be:  Rampage, Rambo, Thundercade and I guess Track and Field.  

T & F was a blast and my friend and I would always try to come up with new and innovative ways to press the buttons as fast as we could for the 100m dash.  I don't recall if it was he or I, but one of us used a scratch technique across the buttons while the other would pinch their fingers together and tap the button as quickly as possible. Not sure which method won more races back then, but I guess we can figure it out now!

Weekly update: May 14th - 20th, 2012

You'll have to excuse the irony of a weekly update coming 2 weeks after the last installment, but since I had an electronic transfer pending on a purchase of a few games (that took 9 days to clear) from an online source I didn't want to jinx it. I literally could have hand-delivered the payment quicker, but hey gotta love paypal.  I can safely say now that the games are on the way to me and so I can add them to my collection.

My NES pickups for the week ending May 20th, 2012:

Fester's Quest
Knight Rider
Home Alone 2
Commando
Vegas Dream

Looking forward mostly to having Commando in my clutches again as it was a cart I had back in the day and played to death.  Really wish I had a better account of all the games I had as a kid, but I'm pretty sure I've reacquired most if not all of them now.


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Player One Score:

Taboo - or the search for a tawdry trade loophole

In my last entry I wrote about the obsession that we kids of the 80s had with our nintendos and the seemingly ludicrous things that they made us do. But were they really all that crazy?

The games, or rather earning money in order to get them, were great motivators that made us get the grades in school our parents wanted, clean our rooms each week, shovel the neighbor's driveways and keep everyone's lawns cut in the summer.

Since everyone probably had chores, did odd jobs, etc. to get extra money to fuel their video game addiction I won't really get into that but rather the more strange ways that I got my fixes.

Besides nintendo I was into two things mainly: collecting hockey cards and WWF wrestling. One of my favorite past times was staying up late for Saturday Night's Main Event which every now and then would pre-empt Saturday Night Live. For this reason one of the first nintendo games I bought was WWF Wrestlemania.  What a travesty!  You would think that if the World Wrestling Federation was going to put their stamp on it and Nintendo was going to give it the approving nod that between these two powerhouses you should have a realistic looking, imaginative game that captured the full capability of the system.  If you thought that you would be sorely mistaken.  This game was really terrible and not a good use of my $45 or whatever it was at the time.  From there I tried another wrestling title called M.U.S.C.L.E. which was based on a series of toys of the same name. This game had promise... but once again I would be disappointed in it.

Months passed and I had decided that maybe wrestling should only be watched on TV and not played.  If it wasn't for the arcade game Exciting Hour (or Mat Mania) as it's sometimes called I would've lost all faith in 80s wrestling games. If I would have just checked out Nintendo's very own Pro Wrestling cart I could've saved almost $100 childhood bux and several frustrating hours of my life trying to justify the money spent.  Before WWF Wrestlemania even came out there was Pro Wrestling by Nintendo.  In passing when I went to visit a friend of mine I happened to notice that it was a game in his catalogue.  Once I became privy to this I did all I could to ask him to show me the game.  Finally he gave in and loaded it up one day and I was hooked.  Since he had played the game to death it was the last thing that he wanted to do, but eventually I was able to convince him to set   up a gameplay time for hockey card trade that was mutually beneficial.  And so began my first foray into a pay for play pyramid scheme.  This went on for several weeks until I ran out of cards he needed for his OPeeChee hockey card series for that year.

What started out with a small stack of hockey cards in trade for borrowing the game overnight, quickly became bartering for my wall decor. Let's paint a picture..  It's probably about 1988 and like most teenaged boys I was girl crazy.  My bedroom (much to the dismay of my mother) was covered in "girlie" posters. Heather Thomas and the infamous Buns & Roses posters were plastered on the wall opposite my window and tacked to the back of my bedroom door.  Every time my mom would come into my room to gather laundry she would comment on how she hated those things.  My friend however (whom we'll call D) was quite taken by the pictures and proposed a trade... "I'll GIVE you the damn Pro Wrestling game for your posters, whatdya say?"

 Well, I didn't expect that.  What was his angle?  We talked a little more about it and after some coaxing he told me that his mom forbid him to buy such posters for his room. I guess in his mind a TRADE instead of a PURCHASE was a contractual mother-son workaround? If D's mom wouldn't let him spend her hard earned money on them perhaps if they were to fall into his lap or if he was to get them by entirely non-nefarious means then it would be legit?!? At any rate how he planned to defend the circumstances around which he came into these posters was HIS issue now, not mine.  So for 3 paper wall furnishing I inherited my Pro Wrestling cartridge.  It was win-win as my mom was happy to see the state of my room become more minimalist (save for the dozen or so tackholes) and I had scooped up one of my favorite games of the day.

So for you I pose the question:  Have you ever traded something (besides another NES cart) for a game?  If so, what was it?  Post your answers in the comments.

Anticipation - and how it gets the best of us all sometimes.

Christmas '88.

 TV ads had been talking about the sequel to zelda all month and as such my mom had had such a fill of this by the time the week before Christmas rolled around that she must've had no choice but to bend to the whims of her sons and buy the game for us. But how could we be certain?!?

 We'd dropped every hint we could think of. Drew pictures of the game, pointed it out on every trip to the mall we embarked on in the first few weeks of December. I had probably spent more time playing the Legend of Zelda than all of the other titles I had in my library combined. It was, in it's time, an almost flawless game and all of the little visual spoilers that emanated from our 24inch RCA television told me that this sequel would blow the first game out of the water.

 Okay here's a tangent for you, but I promise it will arrive at a point. Have you ever been sitting in a chair and it made a weird squeaking noise and the person nearest you pointed in your direction and announced to everyone else that you had broke wind, floated an air biscuit or whatever phrase was the colloquialism at the time? YOu would plead your case to the room and tell them that it was only the chair and so you would get up and sit back down trying your best to recreate the sound that had occured.. all to no avail. Well trying to record the Zelda tv commercial was alot like that.

 When I wasn't downstairs playing on my NES I had my eyes trained on the TV upstairs, VCR loaded with a fresh blank memorex tape, remote in hand finger poised on the record button. Hoping against hope that I might catch the 30 sec trailer for the long awaited follow-up to Zelda. Of course, just like the mysterious chair noise, the commercial I had seen would not play any time I was tuned into the tv.

Thanks to the interweb, Commercial link here.. where was this in '88?

 The week before Christmas rolled around and the underneath of our Christmas tree started to populate with wrapped goodies. Every calendar in the house mocked me with it's announcement that it was December 18th. It's a good thing that Intervention and Dr. Phil didn't arrive on the scene until much later otherwise the next part of this story might have gone something like this:

 Hi, my name is 8bit Bobby and I'm a nintendo addict. It started out with trading chores for gameplay time, then trading away furnishings for games [blog entry about this to be added later]. Before long I downspiraled into a boy who devised a plan to determine once and for all if his constant gift pesterings had fallen on deaf ears. I had to know if Zelda 2 was under the tree this year or not.

I took my original Legend of Zelda box and headed for the Christmas tree late one night. With my gift-finding size comparator in my hand I began the process of eliminating the gifts under the tree by the size of the box in which they were wrapped. I finally came to a box that resembled a nintendo game. Turning over the package I saw that the tag read that it was for my brother and I.

 By this time I had defeated the original game several times and had also done the 2nd quest (for those of you unaware it's the same thing except the items and dungeons are in different locations. It is accessed by choosing the name Zelda for your username).

 My palms were sweating, my heart was beating fast in my chest, every creak in the floor alarmed me and made me almost jump out my skin. I had to know. Was that the game behind the brightly coloured paper? I gently tore at the seams where the tape fastened the folds of the wrapping together until I could peel away enough to see the spine of the game.....

<<<    The Adventure of Link  >>>


"Holy shit!", I exclaimed and almost woke up everyone in the house. Now one would think that knowing, without a doubt, that the one thing that was on every Christmas list you drafted up all year was yours on Christmas morning would be enough. Sadly, it was not. Now that I was holding my personal holy grail I had to know if it was as good as all of the hype. I carefully unwrapped the game and replaced it with my comparison box, rewrapped it and put it under the tree. I tiptoed downstairs with my treasure in hand knowing full well that I had probably broken several cardinal rules in the process.

 Oh Nintendo... the tagline for your company should've been: "Now your submitting to Power".

 This, my friends, was what Nintendo meant to me (and so many others I'm sure). It kept us up nights and made us do crazy things. I won't bore you with the details, but here's the gist of the next week before Christmas:


 My brother and I managed to beat the game before Christmas morning.
Total hours of sleep for the week:  Probably 20  I am NOT KIDDING...
 I managed to swap it back with the decoy box before anyone was the wiser.
 It was everything I had hoped it would be and fast became my control deck's mainstay.

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Maestro -- cue up the sappy music
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 But it also made me strive to be a better person. A kid who would not deceive those around him for their own selfish gain. I learned about patience and having faith that my mom always did her best to make my brother and I happy despite not really being able to afford to do so.

 That fact haunted me after this little stunt and really made me strive to be a better kid. I might even be more ashamed of this than of my NES controller
body count. Not sure. Have you ever pulled a similar stunt in the name of Nintendo? Leave a comment and let me know.

Weekly update: May 7th-13th, 2012

Just a short update for today.
My NES pickups for the week ending May 13th, 2012:

Firehawk
Tetris
Super C
Super Dodgeball
Monster Party
Super Pitfall
Soccer
Pinball
Taboo the Sixth Sense
Jeopardy 25th anniversary
Sesame St. 1,2,3
Stryder
Legacy of the Wizard
Rescue: Embassy Mission
Hunt for Red October
Xevious
Bases Loaded 3
Anticipation




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Player One Score:




The cartridges above were derived from the flea market, garage sales and a special thanks to my good buddy Mark who helped me add several new games to my collection! Play that Commodore Vic20 in good health my friend.

I feel pretty fortunate to have obtained this many great titles to add to my collection this week.

My favorite pickups from the week would have to be Firehawk, Monster Party and Stryder.   If you'd like me to share pictures of my collection along with my progress just comment this entry.  Happy gaming and happy collecting!

Kid Kool - or so I thought I was...

When I wasn't 'nerding it up' on my NES or playing road hockey I enjoyed jammin' with a buddy on our keyboards.  At the time I had a Casiotone CT-370 and I believe he used an older Yamaha PSR something model if memory serves.  At any rate, one of our favorite things to do was to take a certain piece of music from Ninja Gaiden and embellish it.  I think it was part of the ending sequence. To jog our collective memories the tune was a little bit reminiscent of the "Lonely Man" theme from the Incredible Hulk TV series. Kind of a moody little number that implies some loss and some requirement to carry on, to endure (in spite of that loss) and to overcome.  It's about as uplifting and emotional as MIDI got in those days.

Here's a link to the part of the game I'm referencing:

http://www.nes-snes-sprites.com/NES%20Soundtracks/mp3/Ninja%20Gaiden/Ending_Part_1.mp3

While my friend and I were trying to come up with new edits for the game interludes my brother was feverishly stitching together all of the cut-scenes from the game with our handy dandy VCRs. I've got to say that I think besides the epic music in that game the cut-scenes were one of my favorite features.

Every time I sit down at a piano or keyboard to noodle around it always seems to be the piece I play.  I guess you could say it has ingrained itself on my psyche to the point of being my chopsticks.  Ninja Gaiden is my chopsticks. There you have it.  I will clearly never be a Bach, Beethoven or Chopin and I have long since abandoned my keyboard aspirations for a 6 string hobby, but I'll always have those days. Kid Kool, indeed.

Here's a test to see if anyone out there reads this.  If 3 comments are left on this entry I will dust off my keyboard and post a video of me playing this little ditty from Ninja Gaiden ( or some 'hopefully' reasonable facsimile).

Game review #1 - Dragon Fighter (Sofel, 1992)

I thought I'd start off by digging out a game that is a little less common than others that I have seen and read countless reviews on. There is a little bit of method to my madness.  Since this is my first review I didn't want to say things that had been said a hundred times and I also didn't want to trash a game that many people might hold in high regard.

For my maiden voyage into the game review foray I have chosen Dragon Fighter (Sofel, 1992).

This game was not at all what I expected. Cartridge Artwork looked pretty neat. Kinda reminiscent of Iron Sword (I guess Fabio was busy when Sofel called). Our protagonist looks like a badass Dragon tracker, kneeling down to inspect some droppings.  He's hot on the trail of a dragon and this must be a cool RPG.  Sofel must've looked at the game Dragon Warrior, grabbed
a thesaurus and came up with Dragon Fighter.  I mean Prehistoric Pugilist probably didn't roll of the tongue quite as nicely. So a finely tuned RPG then, right?   WRONG!!!  You ARE the dragon. Or at least you become one when your 'dragon meter' fills up enough. Once you become aware of the game's direction it is a pretty capable side-scroller.

7/10

This is the game's strong suit.  The character's movements are very fluid and precise. The one complaint I have is that you are unable to turn around when in dragon form.  Aside from this, Dragon Fighter does not suffer from the instability that other similar games have of a lag when more than 4 sprites are on the screen at one time.  Because this game relies on both killiing of enemies in front and behind you and also dodging enemy fire (and giant slowflakes.. yup that's right) it requires a simple and effective mobility and it delivers.

10/10

The title screen opens with white noise interspersed with a midi quality nintendo standard.  Unfortunately that squelching that can only be compared to the generic 'crowd' sound effect from earlier nintendo titles
obscures the opening notes that should serve to grab the gamer's attention and draw them in. Thankfully from here on out the music is quite enjoyable and the sound effects well placed.

8/10

At first glance our hero resembles baraka from the Mortal Kombat series with the sword just kind of protruding from his arm. As for his clothes.... I'm not sure what is up with him wearing Batman's boots and that unfortunate hat. At least he can morph into a dragon from time to time to hide the shame of this dress-up debacle. The backgrounds are adequate, and the enemies look pretty good.  The depictions of the character's movements (like the controls) are very well done. One thing I really like about the gameplay graphics are the little touches they added. For example when you crouch with your character your sword goes up to your eyeline and when you strike you actually get the sense that his arm and shoulder are swinging.  I also enjoyed what appears to be mocking laughter coming from the green ogres as well as the little skiffs of snow they kick up when they charge at you.

9/10

I found the game quite challenging and though I did not play through past the first level I would have to make the observation that the game is hampered a little by the fact that (though you can continue) you can't
continue from where you died.  You get one turn before it is game over and then you have the option to continue up to 3 times.  This would be fine, but if I get to the boss and die right away because 98% of my life was spent in the comission of getting that far I can't continue there (a la Megaman) but rather I have to go all the way back to the start. I would have to assume that once you defeat the first boss the continue option will allow you to return to the furthest stage you made it to. So, on the one hand, the frustrations I encountered might make me not want to pick this game up again, but the fact that there are 6 levels and I have only seen a handful of the baddies and stages tells me that there is a whole lot more in store.  The creators of this game have also offered up a fair amount of easter eggs.  Included is a hardmode, a stage select and a cheat that will allow players to regain their life.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587244-dragon-fighter/cheats


7/10

Overall this game is pretty good.  I won't say it is 'as advertised' but I was pleasantly surprised with it.  It is fairly challenging (so far),  the background graphics and music offer a nice landscape to the gameplay and the controls will not frustrate the player to the point of destroying their controller or hurtling the cartridge into traffic.  I wanted to get this up there, but through research and introspection I've determined that I will pick this game up again and try to press on.  Perhaps I will update this entry with a completion date if I make it that far.... without the cheats of course.

8/10

Wrecking Crew meets Rampage - or the lifespan of an NES controller

Let me preface this entry by saying that these games were ridiculously difficult back in the day and have stood the test of time as equally if not more so now. Those of us who found our way through without the aid of game genies or cheat codes did not do so without our fair share of adversity. Like any war there were casualties and a fair amount of collateral damage. That being said I'm still not altogether proud of what this installment says about me and the level of patience I had for these games as a teenager. If you've ever seen any of James "the nerd" Rolfe's  (AVGN hereafter) videos (link below) you know that the creators of the games wanted to torture us as much as entertain us.

http://cinemassacre.com/category/avgn/


It would be easy to blame my actions on raging hormones or one too many sodas, but truth be told I was in control and very aware of what I was doing. If I found that in some way the game had cheated me I would see red.  My controller would be launched from my clutches headlong into the wall of my playroom.  To paraphrase AVGN (and the numerous examples he gives in his review videos)


If you fell into the water  ->  you died
If you stepped on the wrong thing -> you died
If that thing that looked entirely benign hit you -> you died
If you didn't keep up with the scrolling of the screen -> you died
If any of the 15 enemies on the screen touched you -> you died
If you didn't pick up all of the impossible to reach items -> you died.

The games were set up with sometimes clumsy controls that would require you to perform multiple actions for a simple character reaction, like pull back when jumping or pressing both buttons simultaneously for this or that. In addition the designers thought it was hilarious to create some levels on some games that either lacked a checkpoint or had the checkpoint beyond a part that was so difficult to get through that the checkpoint was a moot one.

Now I'm not trying to justify my actions, but rather illustrate that myself, AVGN, and scores of others were fighting against impossible odds to complete these games.  I would liken success on some titles about equal to finding a piece of dental floss on a snow-covered football field.

One such game that I developed a love-hate relationship with was Megaman and I'm quite certain  this game alone was responsible for the loss of at least 2 nintendo controllers.  Now I know what you're thinking.  what a spoiled brat!  He lost his precious game, took it out on his controller and mommy and daddy bought him another and another.  Simply, not the case.  At first I had to get really creative and glue the two pieces of the controller together.  Eventually my luck would run out and when they actually stopped working I had to forgo my 2  player games with friends until I could afford to replace my broken joystick.

Bear in mind this was like 87 or 88 and even though flea markets and garage sales were a thing, finding nes controllers at them was most certainly NOT.  By this time the Nes Advantage and max controllers were out and so I had some form of deterrence from skipping them off the floor. As these ones were much more expensive then their predecessors.

I'll never forget the time that I was playing a particularly difficult game and had gotten quite far when I reached a part I could not surpass.  My fruitless efforts were not rewarded for what seemed like hours and just like Bill Murray in Groundhog day I was forced to repeat the same part over and over and over again.  When I had had enough I catapulted my controller and it hit the  machine.  Adding insult to injury it bumped the cartridge enough to knock it loose a little from the pin connector and I was serenaded by what sounded like a set of broken bagpipes. I had lost all of the progress that the 3 previous hours had meant.  The TV screen looked like a tangled lightbright picture.  From that day on I channeled my frustrations in a much different manner. Game controllers everywhere breathed a sigh of relief and did not resort to the fetal position when I drew near to them. Even though
I do not condone the misuse of nintendo controllers (despite the fact that they are lightweight and ergonomically correct for the hurling, but if you find yourself with a controller in need of repair, here is a helpful resource:

http://www.instructables.com/id/HOW-TO-REPAIR-A-BROKEN-NES-CONTROLLER/


Okay if you're reading this I want you to fess up.  Was I just a snot-nosed punk with anger issues or did these near impossible games get the best of you from time to time too?  My body count was probably 3 controllers and more than one drywall touchup. Let me know your score.

Gotcha! - A fluke. Right place, right time personified.

I am certainly in my infancy in terms of the whole collecting thing. And perhaps that's a good thing.    As a kid you are very selective in your choice of games because resources (i.e money) are a finite thing. Christmas and birthdays come but once a year and so gettting the game your best friends are talking about could be a few months away.  With the exception of the titles you get from your Uncle or Aunt (who claim to know you so well).. "gee Uncle George thank you for the Where's Waldo game", you tend to build your collection around the top selling new releases of the day, ports of the arcade classics you pumped quarter after quarter into at your local laundromat, and games that just HAD to be cool by virtue of their title alone: he's not just a man, he's Megaman!

As we get older we invariably afforded ourselves the luxury of sometimes picking up a stinker of a cartridge  because, hey, we were trying to go for quantity now. Sheer numbers along must trump coolness factor, right?  ...

To get back to what I eluded to before, it can be very rewarding to be a novice collector.  Even though I spent countless hours playing these games in the late 80s and early 90s I didn't get into collecting games until the past few years.  As a result, much of the rarer finds are still ahead of me.  I guess I could compare it to reading a good book after someone you know has already finished it.  My wife read such a book recently and then handed it to me when she was done. Not being as voracious a reader as her, I'm taking my time with it and she has asked me a few times what part i am at and "how can [I] stand to put it down".   You see I still have all the best parts ahead of me and she is wishing that she could experience those things again.

Even though I don't have all of the titles out there I have the willingness to try and find them and also the future rushes of finding them to look forward to.
One such ecstatic moment took place in a thrift store that we would visit on about a bi-weekly to monthly basis.  After a few visits I got a pretty good feel as to where they would keep the treasures I was after and so the moment the entry door chimed our arrival to the world I would beeline for the little nes nook.  Unfortunately this visit appeared to be going as most did.  In the little section for computer and video game equipment were the usual suspects.  A few dusty keyboards, a CRT monitor, several pc games on CD that looked like they had been used as coasters and a few copies of Super Mario/Duck hunt.  I kinda sighed and walked out of the section to catch up with my wife.  For the next 20 mins or so we shopped around looking for things that interest her and finally we head back up to the tills.

On the table, right next to the till was a small wicker basket filled with hand held led games, watches with broken straps and a black rectangular case.  If the finish on the case had been less shiny it might not have caught my eye, but I opened it up to discover a black geometrical shape inside the foam keeper that resembled our beloved nes cartridges.  I put it back inside the case, swung the case around and saw the game list printed on the back.  I was holding in my hand the Maxi-15 multi game cartridge. Maxivision 15 was an unlicenced compilation cartridge made by American video Entertainment in 1992.

 To date, this is the rarest find in my collection (as far as I know).  Okay... deep breath.... finding it was only half the battle.  hmm... the proprietor had this relic right up near the cash register.  What is this gonna cost me?

Now my wife will be the first to tell you that I have probably the worst poker face in history.  I wear my emotions on my sleeve and I can't tell a joke without cracking a smile halfway through, but in my best rendition of a nonchalant, uninterested 30 something I asked the shopkeeper.  "How much are you asking for this movie?".  Whether he believed my ignorance or not he did not correct me but simply stated $2.   I just put it down on the table beside her purchases and let him do his thing.   Not sure if I exhaled until we were back in the car, but my silence told my wife everything she needed to know about what transpired back there.

Now I realize for some this is may be a ho-hum moment, maybe some of you have 2 or 3 of these already, but again for a new-ish collector this was like finding the holy grail.  Think back, if you will, to your first find like this and feel free to leave me a comment about it.

Lunar Pool - a Foreward to Backward Thinking

Perhaps it was the deja vu that last night's Super Moon stirred within me that beckoned me back to the late nights I kept as a kid growing up in the 80s when my TV screen was the only light, or just pure lunacy itself. Whatever the reason I decided that I would begin this blog as a means to justify the nintendo obsession welling up within me. To quell and sate the need in me to return to a time that was both formative and informative.  To share in what I hope to be many future discoveries of 8 bit treasures both familiar and unknown.

A much wiser man than me once wrote that you can not step twice into the same river.  True as that may be I want to gaze into the Pool of Radiance and swim again like Mario in world 2-2, back to a time when Link was neither missing nor weak, and a 'Hippo' was King.

I make no apologies for the fact that I may have typed the longest run-on sentences ever put to screen.  My super power was not X-ray vision, nor silver arrows -- but "lungevity" which I credit to the countless times I've blown the dust out of my games. (like so many of us did). Windows has it's blue screen of death and we all had to endure the red flashing square. A blood-shot eyeball winking at us. Mocking.  Good times.


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In the past few years prior to starting this blog I began trying to reaquire many of the games I had as a kid before I left the 'nes't. At present, I stand just shy of 200 nes titles, but I plan to update along the way.  In future installments I will share with you the backstory of this renewed 8bit interest of mine through stories of my first introduction to the system, my trailblazing first games and notes on my various adventures and misadventures in Hyrule and beyond.