boo boo

Yeah, this is a ripoff of Urbans music thread, but this is for something different.

Music and video games are tied for my most time consuming pastime. I'm a retro gamer. The arcade, NES, Atari, SNES, Genesis, Gameboy, N64, even more obscure platforms like the Master System, MSX and Commodore 64, I play them all.

I too am an angry video game nerd. So this is for all those lost years of childhood fustration.

This won't be in any order, except for number 1.




100: The fact these games didn't have the Konami code

Seriously. WTF. You remember the Konami code for the first Contra for NES right? Press up up down down left right left right B A at the menu screen and you get 30 lives, which is how many lives you should have in the first place, Contra was f*cking hard, especially when you're a kid. You die from one hit, and yet without the code you have 3 lives, going through levels where sh*t is constantly flying at you, bullets, bombs, flame throwers and traps from every direction. Are you f*cking kidding me? 3 lives and death from one hit? There aren't even any shields or anything, holy sh*t. Guys like Nintendo were very generous with their powerups, extra lives and continues but not Konami, Contra was for the hardcore, Contra was like "f*ck you, if you want to play you're gonna have to give it everything you got" and the sequels are no exception. Still, the first game had the damn code so us wimps could have a fighting chance.

So, now you have Contra III for the SNES and Contra Hard Corps for the Genesis and what the hell? NEITHER OF THEM HAVE THE CODE? F*CKING BULLSH*T. These games are even harder too, greater range of enemies and the bosses are insane. Hard Corps especially, so what the hell is this sh*t? Why do they decide to use the code for some Contra games but not all of them? Why the inconsistancy? Hell, didn't they take the time to think and consider that most gamers back then were you know, kids? Sure once you get older, all that trial and error makes these games easier, but when I was a kid, Konami haunted my dreams.

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It's only knock n' knowall, but I like it

http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

mr dave

thing is contra 3 was easier than its predecessors. especially with the fact that you could carry and fire 2 special weapons and spawned with your 2ndary when you died. by removing the code konami also created a much more significant feeling of accomplishment when you beat one of the levels.

besides back in the NES days the point of playing a game was to play it. not to beat it on your 3rd sitting or without having to start over at the beginning. while the games were geared for kids they should have had some decent hand eye coordination by that point. but you're right about some of the bosses they were crazy tough.

if i remember correctly the inclusion of the konami code in the original was a mistake. it was a tool for the testers to make sure the game was beatable and it was left in the final product as an oversight.

i also get the impression you rely on emulators for a lot of your old school gaming. the master system was not obscure in its day and the commodore 64 was most definitely not obscure. then again i'm not retro i'm just old school. hehehe

not sure where it fits in your list but you should have 'being able to get to the last level of the original ninja gaiden without dying and NEVER BEING ABLE TO BEAT THE 2nd TO LAST BOSS.'

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i am the universe

boo boo

99: Ridiculously overcomplicated combos and finishing moves for fighting games

Mortal Kombat is a great example, yeah, those fatalities are awesome, but being able to do them requires having a photographic memory so you can remember the ridiculously extended button sequences you have to do and you have to do them JUST RIGHT, like being at a certain distance.

I mean did it HAVE to be that complicated? I say no. People say it makes it more challenging, but what kind of challenge is that? When I play the game I don't want to stop what I'm f*cking doing so I can look up a damn manual so I can learn how to do the uppercut into a pit fatality. You'd think all you have to do is an uppercut after your enemy is ready for a fatality but no, you gotta do Hold Block (Back, Forward, Forward) Low Kick or Hold Block (Up, Up, Up) High Punch and a variety of overcomplicated combos just to do a f*cking uppercut into the pit, did I mention the button sequence is different for every character?

F*cking bullsh*t, that sh*t pisses me off, I mean how are you supposed to memorize all that? Especially when you're playing in the arcades like I did. It's total guesswork and fighting game moves shouldn't be SO damn complicated that you have to look it up. I hate people that not only tolerate this but even embrace it. It pisses me off further when idiots diss Super Smash Bros for being a "button masher". Why? Because you can actually DO all the damn moves without a f*cking notepad? Because you can actually HAVE FUN playing it because the controls are simple like they should be and you shouldn't have to try and memorize something like up down left block down right just to do a f*cking kick or something?

Don't get me wrong, I say this as a fan of traditional fighting games and Mortal Kombat. Street Fighter didn't make it too overcomplicated for one, but Virtua Fighter is another story. More than anything Soul Calibur and Smash Bros shows how it should really be done.

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It's only knock n' knowall, but I like it

http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

boo boo

Contra 3 is not easier than Contra. Why? Because it didn't have the code, duh.

I mean c'mon, sure it's good for games to be challenging, but it's not like the code makes Contra a walk in the park, and even so, we're talking about an 8 level game that's hard as crap even with a stock full of lives, let alone just 3, if you're one of the hardcore that dosen't use the code then fine, that dosen't excuse not having ANYTHING to help gamers that are not quite as skilled. If the first game did it and was famous for doing so, then it dosen't matter if they indended it or not, as greatly associated with the series as it is it should be available for every game, Contra 4 has the code, they all should have had it.

And yes I use emulators. And no, Master System was not very popular even when it came out, especially in North America.

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It's only knock n' knowall, but I like it

http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

mr dave

as a test don't bother with the code and try both. you'll get further in part 3... because it's an easier game.

the code DID make the original a walk through the park you had to be drunk or disabled to not be able to make it through contra with 90 lives.

the master system might not have sold as much as the NES in its day but it was not obscure or hard to find.

spot on about the combos and currency.

the idea of games absolutely 'needing' endings only really started around the end of the 80s. it was most likely a reaction to the increased PC crap being forced onto anything relating to kids at the time. it was 'detrimental' to their self esteem to actually lose at the game. now the biggest risk of 'losing' at a game is having to reload your last save. it's less like a game and more like an interactive movie the idea of playing with friends for fun seems lost on most developers. at least guitar hero and rockband bucked that current trend.

the generation gap really shows itself with your comment on SMB. i flipped out when i beat that one for the first time. same as all my friends. because it took us weeks or months to finally be good enough at the game to beat it. there was no gamefaqs.com to tell us how to get to the warp zones or which pipes to take in the final castle, no frameskip to slow down the action or save state to never have to restart. there was a sense of accomplishment that is typically lost on most titles that put as much development time and money into a closing cinematic as the actual 'game'.

the original metroid ending wasn't really much more spectacular once you go back to thinking with the head on your shoulders either. it's just the difference of 4 sprites depending on how fast you beat the game.

another big reason those old games didn't have endings was technological limitations. there just wasn't enough memory on the cartridges to handle that. all the other examples you list are from the 16bit generation and up which was a big tech jump from the 8bit days.

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i am the universe

boo boo

Contra (the first one) isn't too hard for me now (but it would be without the code) but when I was a kid it was and that's my main point, the people who played these games back then were kids, and we weren't all like that autistic kid from The Wizard who somef*ckinghow knew where the flute was in SMB3 even though he or no one else had ever played it before.

And I already explained that you get those Metroid endings depending on how fast you beat the game, if you beat it really fast you're rewarded with boobs. Sure it's just an 8/16 bit sprite of a chick in a bikini, but in 1986 it was a giant leap forward from this in pornographic achievement.




So yeah.



I'd hit it.

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It's only knock n' knowall, but I like it

http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

mr dave

a little more old guy perspective.

how about the actual ending from 1986 as opposed to the gameboy remake from a few years ago (metroid was also the first game i got with my NES.) you got this ending if you beat it in less than 90 minutes.

this was another game that got the 'OH MY EFFING GOD!!!' reaction upon completion. when is the last time anyone posting in this thread had a reaction like that at the end of a game? i'm actually seriously curious about this.



still wanna hit it?

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i am the universe

Urban Hat€monger ?

I actually have this game

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The Unfan

I sort of feel the opposite about fighting games. Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat are the height of the genre. Virtua Fighter isn't bad, its just different. Once you get used to it the game flows wonderfully.

Piss Me Off

I'm terrible at video games to be fair but i never got the hang of Mortal Kombat either.

Also Boo Boo, i was hoping for some sort of reply in the Smash Bros thread

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