Archive for the ‘NES’ Category
Retro Game Night: New Ghostbusters II, DecapAttack, and Kid Dracula
This week’s late Retro Game Night features the Famicom title New Ghostbusters II by HAL Laboratories (they made Kirby and Lolo), DecapAttack for the Genesis, and finally the Famicom version of Kid Dracula.
Podcast: Zombies Ate My Podcast
Traditionally horror and comedy are entwined, faithfully representing a laughable moment of relief to accompany the graphic depictions of death that follow. Although more rare, there is also room for comedy with horror elements and this week Fred and Jam are celebrating the games that get it right. From some of LucasArts classic hybrids to bikini clad samurai warriors, there’s no lack of hilarity in gaming for those not looking for a scare.
Podcast: I Have No Mouse and I Must Scream
This week Fred and Jam are joined by Kole Ross of the Watch Out For Fireballs (WOFF) podcast to discuss point-and-click adventure horror games. Whether it was your first go with early Mac titles like Uninvited, the eventual movement to traditional titles like I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, or the love of the FMV cult favorites like Phantasmagoria or Ripper, horror and adventure were quite the match. Combining graphic elements with deep storytelling (at least for games of the 80s and 90s) these titles certainly are a niche, but great, addition to video game history.
Podcast: Ghouls, Ghosts, ‘N Goblins
This week Fred and Jam are discussing the Capcom series Ghosts’N Goblins (or Makaimura if you prefer). Easily one of the most punishing franchises ever created, the boys tackle the trials and tribulations of Sir Arthur on a never ending quest to save his girlfriend. Along the path he will traverse to various worlds, see terrible beings, and of course battle the many derivatives of the Devil.
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And just for fun, have a video of me cussing out the original for two hours:
Retro Game Night: Splatterhouse
This week Fred is playing two versions of Splatterhouse. The first is the US Turbografx-16 port of the Japanese arcade title, slightly modified to avoid lawsuits in regards to lead character Rick’s similarity to Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th. The second was only released in Japan on the Famicom (NES) due possibly to some even more obvious legal concerns. It was titled Wanpaku Graffiti. Enjoy!
Podcast: Now You’re Playing With Power
This week Fred and Jam are talking about the other 8-bit console that graced the late 1980s, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). While it was just another console option in Japan (albeit a massively popular one), the NES had a strong presence in Europe and a massive overtaking in the United States. It wasn’t just the games, business practices in the US and overall control over game development assisted in making the NES (and in Japan, Famicom) one of the most influential video game consoles of all time.
Retro Game Night: Jaws Games
This week, for no particular reason, we decided to tackle Jaws games. There were three, but given time constraints we only tackled two: Jaws for the NES and Jaws Unleashed for the PS2. There may be a follow-up for Jaws: Ultimate Predator on the Wii.
Retro Game Night: Fire’n Ice and Skyblazer
This week the “$130 episode” features the NES sequel to Solomon’s Key Fire’n Ice and the recently featured Retronauts favorite Skyblazer for the SNES.
Retro Game Night: Sega Master System Brawl, Streets of Rage 2 hack, and Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic!
This week we’re covering a lot of ground in a little bit of time. Not to be outdone by the upcoming Wii U Smash Bros, Sega fans made a Genesis/Mega Drive homebrew of classic Master System characters and levels duking it out entitled Sega Master System Brawl and we check it out. Then we move on to a color enhancing hack on Streets of Rage 2 that is said to bring it closer to SNES quality (and we put the original’s gameplay in the corner for comparison). Finally we play the Famicom Disk System (FDS) title Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic! which you all probably know better as it released in the US as Super Mario Bros 2 on the NES. Like Streets of Rage, we put the original gameplay in the corner for comparison. This was played on original hardware with either original games or a flash cart for homebrew/hacks, no emulation.
Podcast: Data Easy Meets West
No it’s not a typo (just an inside joke), but we are actually talking about Data East and Data West. This includes the games they developed, published, and even the pinball titles available. It may not seem it, but Data East was a limited and significant developer of the mid-late 80s and just about all of the 90s.
Special thanks to Retronauts Episode 88 (1up Run), Brandon Sheffield (and his blog/podcast Insert Credit), as well as Topless Robot for your Data East and extensive Data West information.
Also be sure to check out the ASCII RPG/roguelike Sanctuary, for free, at the following address: http://blackshellgames.itch.io/srpg
Gaming History 101 