July 27th, 2015 Pickups

This is pretty much a mail call only week. No Game Hunting this week.

We’ll start with the games. The other Club Nintendo ‘Game & Watch Collection’ game arrived. Followed shortly by my import of Japan’s Club Nintendo Platinum Reward ‘Tingles Balloon Fight’.

Next up is the Club Nintendo Platinum Reward Mario Statue I ordered to help complete my Platinum Reward Collection.

Palutena arrived safe and sound in the mail after worries of bad packing. And finally, I spent the morning from 4 A.M. until 10 A.M. waiting in line for non-other than the Dark Pit Amiibo. My first time waiting in line for an Amiibo since it is in-store only, and it was actually quite an enjoyable experience overall. You can keep track of my Amiibo collection on its page.

Atari 2600 Friday’s #32 – Yars’ Revenge

Yars’ Revenge is one of those iconic games I’m surprised didn’t come up sooner. I actually already know how to play this one, but for those of you who don’t, and those who do but may learn some new tricks anyways… let’s take a look.

The Story: Aliens descended from Earth Flies fight an enemy in a far-off galaxy.

From the Manual: There is actually no story in the manual for this one, it goes straight to terminology and how to play. However, the game did come with a comic.

From the Box: “Journey to the Razak Solar System and help the Yars battle an evil enemy. One or Two Players. Super flies fight for their lives.”

The Gameplay: I know that the screenshot below looks a little confusing, so let’s start by clarifying what we are looking at. The whitefly ship looking thing on the left is your character. The middle mess is a safe zone from everything except spirals and you cannot shoot either. The red area is a shield, and the yellow mask on the right is the enemy called a ‘Qotile’. The first thing you need to do is destroy enough of that red shield, you cannot do anything else other than dodge enemy fire until there is a big enough hole in it. At this point, cells will appear. Once you grab one the Zorlon Cannon will show up on the left of the screen and stay in line with your character. You will need to line this up with the mask icon and press the fire button, then move out of the way before you get hit. Remember that the screen wraps top to bottom and you only get four lives.

The Controls: Up/Down/Left/Right movement. Red button fires missiles normally and fires the Zorlon Cannon when it is onscreen.

Post Review: Pretty fun game. First of note is that my game mode was alternating between two levels. The half-circle in the screenshot above, and one with a solid rectangle where the squares move in a ‘spiral’ pattern. The spinner weapon is fast and can be hard to dodge if caught off guard. There is also a tiny line following you throughout the level, homing in on you. As you progress through levels this line weapon moves faster, and it can be hard to spot in the middle chaos. This is something special even among shooters.

The High Score: 45143

July 20, 2015 Pickups

Okay, lately I have been using eBay to work on getting some specific stuff, but let’s get this started with what I have picked up this week and was has arrived in the mail so far.

First, the pickups: First of all, a local game shop had this awesome Japanese copy of Marvel Super Heroes.

Followed by just a few Atari 2600 games and manuals. Something called Private Eye (can’t wait to review this and see what it is), Lock ‘N’ Chase (this one’s manual is a little torn in the upper right corner) and Frogs and Flies.

Now, moving on to the eBay arrivals. First up is a very complete in box Super Famicom Chrono Trigger, it even has all the plastic wrapping.

Game & Watch Collection 2, ordered 1 as well since I missed out on these.

And lastly, I’ve started collecting the couple of Club Nintendo Platinum Rewards I missed, here is the Pin Set.

Atari 2600 Friday’s #31 – Carnival

The Story: A carnival shooting gallery, how fun. Can you win the prize?

From the Manual: “Step right up and prove your skill at hitting targets in this challenging carnival shooting gallery. Take aim to build up your score with careful choice of targets, but watch out for the bullet-eating ducks!”

From the Box: “Ready…aim…fire! It’s the closest thing you’ll ever find to an old-fashioned shooting gallery! You’ll blast away at a wide variety of moving targets, as you test your marksmanship and skill. Track ’em down, line up your shots and fire at will, but use each bullet wisely because your ammunition is limited! How many targets can you hit before you run out of bullets?”

The Gameplay: Rack up points by firing bullets at the moving targets. Targets are Owls, Ducks, Rabbits, and Extra Bullet Boxes. Aim carefully because bullets are limited. The blue line in the screenshot is your bullet supply, which according to the manual maxes out at 40. Watch out because ducks you don’t shoot on the bottom row can fly down and eat (yes, the manual says eat) your bullets. There appear to be pipes the targets come from, you have to clear all targets and the pipes to move on to the next round. The game ends when you run out of bullets.

The Controls: Left or Right to Move the Gun. Red Button to Fire.

Post Review: I never saw the pipes the manual mentioned. But there are occasionally little + and – equations on the top left corner for points and bullets. Make sure you only shoot the + ones of course. Also, on my second game, I’m not sure what prompted it, but the game speed increased around 2000 points, this did not happen on my third game where I reached 3080. The bullet limit is what makes Carnival fun over other shooters, also aside from the ducks that swoop down I was able to step away for two seconds to check a text message.  Carnival, a nice relaxing shooter with a twist.

The High Score: 3080

Atari 2600 Friday’s #30 – Venture

I’m always happiest when I get to a game that I know absolutely nothing about. There are two versions of Venture. A red label cart and the Coleco cart, I have the Coleco cart.

The Story: We have a hero named Winky, who heads into a dungeon in search of treasure. A hero who takes only a bow and arrow as his weapon, no sword or shield nothing else. How will this turn out…

From the Manual: “Mysterious Disappearances!

Authorities Baffled

HAUNTED DUNGEONS, U.S.A.

Over the past few weeks, several professional treasure hunters have disappeared while exploring a dungeon reputed to house the most priceless treasures in the world. The only known survivor has returned with stories of monsters who eliminate anyone who dares enter the dungeon’s halls and complex labyrinth of chambers. But authorities are not taking such reports seriously.

“We have no rational explanation for these disappearances,” one investigator reported. “All we know is that the brave soul who wants to claim those treasures had better be sharp. At this point, the only one I know who’s clever enough for the job is Winky (TM),” he told a crowd of would-be hunters. “Our hero should be ready with bow and arrows. Whoever or whatever is guarding those treasures is determined that no one comes out of there alive.”

From the Box: “Winky – The heroic adventurer – is off to claim the treasures that lay hidden in the depths of the dungeon. In each chamber lies a valuable prize protected by dangerous monsters. Equipped with only a bow and arrow, Winky must ward off the monsters to obtain the treasure. Use the joystick control to maneuver Winky through the halls and into each chamber. Use the control to fire arrows at monsters. If Winky is successful, he moves out and heads for another chamber…and other vicious creatures. In fact, on this treasure hunt, the more he ventures, the more he gains!”

The Gameplay: You begin in a hall of chambers; each chamber holds a treasure guarded by monsters. Your goal s to get the treasure and get out alive. You can enter each chamber in any order, and are locked out of each chamber upon completion. When you enter a chamber, you have to get past the monsters and grab the treasure, you can kill the monsters first but you get more points if you kill them after gaining the treasure. Be warned though, if you touch a monster either dead or alive, you lose a life. That’s not all though, stay in a chamber too long and the unkillable hall monsters will enter the chamber to find you. There is also a tricky wall room with moving electrified walls that can only be traversed through careful timing. Conquer every room and Winky can move on to the next floor full of new and more difficult chambers.

The Controls: Up/Down/Left/Right for movement, Red Button to fire arrows.

Post Review: Winky moves pretty slow and fires arrow slowly. while the monsters more relatively fast and erratically. I was resetting a lot as nine times out of ten I would enter a room and be dead before I could react. It is pretty easy to get stuck on a wall. The hall monsters once in a chamber will home in on you and are allowed to move through walls. While it says you get more points for killing a monster after getting the treasure, I took note that killing monsters first gathers zero points, yes any is more than zero. An interesting game, and while I never know what difficulty or game mode my broken system is set to, games like this make me imagine it’s set at least a little above normal. Go ahead and try it, you might do better.

The High Score: 3200, Almost got past the first floor.

Atari 2600 Friday’s #29 – Home Run

This week we bring you “one of those games that had to come up eventually”. We know not every game can be as glamorous as E.T., and at the same time there are some that are as generic as ‘random sports title’. This week is Home Run.

The Story: Baseball. As American as Apple Pie and Diabeetus.

From the Manual: “Play _HOME RUN_ just as you would play baseball.” That sentence right there is about the only thing describing the game anywhere in the manual.

From the Box: There is absolutely nothing on the back of the box. Just info stating that there are 8 game modes and you can have either 1 or 2 players.

The Gameplay: The game claims it follows Baseball rules, three strikes is an out and four balls are a walk and the batter advances to first base. If the ball is hit, the outfielders can catch the ball and try to get it to first base before the batter for an out. So, you know, your goal as batter is to hit the ball and get around the bases to score a point. While as the pitching team your goal is to out the batters. The white letters on the screen translate to I – innings, O – outs, B – balls, S – strikes. So, this all sounds simple, right?

The Controls: As the batter, swing the bat by choosing a direction on the controller then once you hit the ball press the red button to stop at a base. As a pitcher, press the red button to throw the ball then move the joystick in directions to control the ball. As an outfielder, move around with the directional pad to catch the ball. I think I will mention here that game modes 1-4 are single-player and modes 5-8 are two-player.

Post Review: This is a very simple game and would be much better as a two-player game than it is as a single-player game, I would assume. Hitting the ball is fairly easy, controlling the ball helps a little. all the running from base to base is automated. Once I got used to the controls it was fairly easy to just sit at second base which is the pitcher mound and just catch the ball near there and wait for them to run into you for a strike. However as pitcher, with practice you can always hit the ball away from there to the pitcher has to run for it leaving second wide open for you to pass on through. All in all a fairly simplified version of baseball you would expect from an early console.

The High Score: I managed to beat the PC 10-4 on my first try.

July 3, 2015 Pickups

First, Boxed copies of Terminator 2 (missing the manual) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit for NES.

Second, Terminator 2 arcade game (with manual) for SNES, and Ecco the Dolphin for Dreamcast. Finally, Sport, Wolverine, and Wild Gunman for NES.

Lastly, a GameCube console booklet, some random instruction books I didn’t have, and an NES sleeve.

Atari 2600 Friday’s #28 – Double Dragon

The GF is testing out a number of games for a neighbor to sell, some of which may become ours. I’m going to try to snag the interesting ones that we don’t own yet. In the meantime, I have grabbed one out of the bag for this week’s Atari Fridays. What we have here is a very interesting port of Double Dragon to the Atari 2600, or as The Obsessive Compulsive Gamer mentioned “Hilarious that they tried to port this game. The even more hilarious thing is you could call it anything, Bad News Brawler, Streets of Rage, Bad Dudes.” I say everyone deserves to know the joy of Double Dragon, even if they couldn’t afford an NES in those days.

The Story: As everyone knows Marion has been kidnapped. It is up to Billy and Jimmy Lee to save her.

From the Manual: “The Black Warriors have kidnapped your best girl. That was their first mistake. Challenging you and your twin brother in martial arts combat will be their second. But these thugs don’t play by the rules. Knives, whips, bats, boulders, and dynamite are standard issue with these masters of pain. And their Uzi-toting boss doesn’t believe in happy endings.”

From the Box: “Twin brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee learned to fight the hard way — for survival in the unforgiving city streets. Their brand of combat – classic martial arts maneuvers mixed with anything-goes street brawling – has turned them into walking lethal weapons. Now, the Lees must summon all their fighting abilities and cunning into meeting the greatest challenge of their lives – rescuing Billy’s girlfriend, Marion. She’s been kidnapped by the Black Warriors the savage street gang lead by the mysterious Shadow Boss. The twins pursue the Black Warriors through the city streets and its outskirts. Finally, they fight their way into the Secret Enemy Base. There, Billy and Jimmy meet the Shadow Boss. It’s a battle to the finish, with Marion as the prize.”

The Gameplay: Do we all know how a Beat ’em up works? I hope so, but for those who don’t…Basically, just run around the screen, beat up everything that comes at you and wait for the cue to move on to the next area, with intermittent bosses thrown in to make it harder, and usually a time limit for a sense of urgency (we are trying to rescue Marion here). You have 3 lives to get through the entire game, but don’t worry the time limit resets with each stage. In double dragon, the enemies do drop weapons you can pick up and use: bats, knives, and oil drums are listed for the Atari version.

The Controls: You can Move around the screen using the joystick and perform 4 different attacks on the enemies. Punch: Move the joystick to the right or left (depending on which direction you’re facing) and press the button. Elbow Punch: Move the joystick diagonally up and to the RIGHT and press the button to throw a LEFT elbow punch, and diagonally up and to the LEFT and press the button to throw a RIGHT elbow punch. You’ll throw the elbow punch in the opposite direction from the one you’re facing. Kick: Move the joystick diagonally down and to the right or left, depending on which way you want to kick and press the button. Jump Kick: Move the joystick up and press the button. You’ll leap forward and kick in the direction you’re facing.

Post Review: Now, first of all, this obviously isn’t the prettiest version of Double Dragon and the opening scene of Marion being kidnapped is just gone, the iconic music is still here and the base experience most definitely exists. However, the game itself is probably the hardest version of Double Dragon there is. Normally I can play the series to some extent. In this version, the enemies just beat me down in seconds and gave me no chance to even attack back punching faster than I could and jumping around me like a crazed psycho. Apparently, if you watch YouTube videos, people have figured out very specific strategies to not get ‘pulverized’, however doing so beforehand defeats the purpose of my posts, I go for a first-time play. With some practice and time this could be quite the enjoyable version of Double Dragon, just don’t expect the same experience Neon gave us.

The High Score: Well, in multiple tries I could only defeat one of the two enemies on the very first screen just once through sheer luck, for about 350 points.