NES/Famicom Appreciation Thread

Has anyone here read I Am Error yet? It's really fascinating so far. Tech-focused look back at the NES era, the perspective of this book is really unique for the genre and it's entertaining despite the techiness.
 
Oh no!

It's the ANIMALIZED MEN WRIGGLING EERILY!

ryg2.jpg


ryg3.jpg
 
videodyssey said:
Oh no!

It's the ANIMALIZED MEN WRIGGLING EERILY!

[IG]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BL3lccz4dZ4/T2FuthyEplI/AAAAAAAAA-U/p4sTDcXkLX4/s1600/ryg2.jpg[/IMG]

[IG]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TSqVprqTAi8/T2Fu0dZgDPI/AAAAAAAAA-c/KDm0Wyp8CoQ/s1600/ryg3.jpg[/IMG]
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Haha these are awesome. I might try to find scans of images from the manuals for the next game voted in, if that's not against the ToS.

Speaking of, voting ends tomorrow night. This is your last reminder from me! I'll announce the winner as soon as I log back in following voting close out.
 
mattiewheels said:
Has anyone here read I Am Error yet? It's really fascinating so far. Tech-focused look back at the NES era, the perspective of this book is really unique for the genre and it's entertaining despite the techiness.
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I've read a few chapters into it and I agree it's great so far. I've had to put it down for the moment though because I have other school-related books I have to read, but I can't wait to pick it up again.
 
Had some fun this weekend clearing a couple of Capcom NES/Famicom games on my backlog...

SonSon (Famicom) was the only port the game got until it was bundled in the retro compilations and its ok. Gameplay and content wise its identical to the arcade version but it isn't as smooth and has a ton of slowdown and sprite flicker. I still enjoyed completing it (it feels easier compared to the arcade version) but the slowdown and flicker really hurt the experience for me.

1942 on the other hand was much more fun. Still not as smooth as the arcade version but it controls wonderfully, not too much sprite flicker (far less compared to the so-so home computer ports of the time) and actually features a easier difficulty curve. I only had to continue once in the game, where as usually I'd continue several times to clear the arcade/Spectrum versions. Its also the only home port I've played that let you keep weapons between stages AND had the boss battles intact - the UK Computer ports gutted those bits for some bizarre reason. I've not played the Japanese computer ports though.

So in short. SonSon is ok, 1942 was fantastic fun and controlled like a dream. Currently I'm tracking down a Famicom port of Exed Exes and Capcom's FDS releases (Gun Smoke, Section Z)
 
Well the person who sold me my copy of Tower of Druaga contacted me after I posted in here about the contacts being filthy and wanted to make it up to me by giving me another game.
It was pretty cool of them to reach out! Although I wasn't expecting ebay sellers to read GAF so I was a bit dumb founded for a second.
 
InfiniteNine said:
Well the person who sold me my copy of Tower of Druaga contacted me after I posted in here about the contacts being filthy and wanted to make it up to me by giving me another game.
It was pretty cool of them to reach out! Although I wasn't expecting ebay sellers to read GAF so I was a bit dumb founded for a second.
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Wait, you never left a feedback? Maybe it was someone who actually posts on GAF then?
 
InfiniteNine said:
Well the person who sold me my copy of Tower of Druaga contacted me after I posted in here about the contacts being filthy and wanted to make it up to me by giving me another game.
It was pretty cool of them to reach out! Although I wasn't expecting ebay sellers to read GAF so I was a bit dumb founded for a second.
Click to expand...

You'd be surprised.. Who was it?
 
Teknoman said:
Wait, you never left a feedback? Maybe it was someone who actually posts on GAF then?
Click to expand...

I thought I did my usual of giving good feedback since I didn't think cleaning a cart is too difficult of a job to leave negative feedback but I guess I forgot.

RoryDropkick said:
You'd be surprised.. Who was it?
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waterclocker83, I had actually followed their store since they had a lot of reasonably priced stuff for someone in the US so them going out of their way to make up for the dirty Druaga cart is pretty cool.
 
waterclocker83, I had actually followed their store since they had a lot of reasonably priced stuff for someone in the US so them going out of their way to make up for the dirty Druaga cart is pretty cool.
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I had a feeling. :) I order from him every now and then. I do believe he posts on GAF, in fact he's posted in this thread before when it first started if I'm not mistaken. If he's reading this, hi! *waves*
 
I've bought from waterclocker, too. One of my followed sellers.

If you're watching and want to cut any deals for GAFers, I'll be right here. LOL
 
Getting ready to buy an AV Famicom, anyone wanna talk me out of it and suggest a better solution for an HDTV, or is that the best base for playing Japanese carts you can get?
 
mattiewheels said:
Getting ready to buy an AV Famicom, anyone wanna talk me out of it and suggest a better solution for an HDTV, or is that the best base for playing Japanese carts you can get?
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Out of the box, yes it is the best Famicom. Connection with all Famicom and NES accessories (NES zapper needs a mod), composite output, has the internal connection for the extra Famicom audio channels...

The only thing is that, regardless of Famicom, you'll be back wanting an RGB mod soon enough... ;)
 
BocoDragon said:
The only thing is that, regardless of Famicom, you'll be back wanting an RGB mod soon enough... ;)
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I'm going to eventually put a hi-def nes mod in there. That plus an FDS hooked up sounds like a party.
 
OnPoint said:
Haha these are awesome. I might try to find scans of images from the manuals for the next game voted in, if that's not against the ToS.

Speaking of, voting ends tomorrow night. This is your last reminder from me! I'll announce the winner as soon as I log back in following voting close out.
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It shouldnt be. Next off day I get, gonna really go in on Rygar since im a bit more familiar with it now.

Old mag and manual scans should be just fine.
 
Finally got my non-crappy ntsc version of Rygar, which means I should be able to get back into our monthly pick!
 
I have Rygar on the way. Hope it gets here in time.

Famicom people. Your top ten or more Famicom only games I need to play? If money was no object
 
Rygar holds a special place for me. It was the first game I ever beat. Seeing the Tower of Garba in the background, only to reach and climb that same tower. Then, also discovering the Sky Castle gave a feeling of accomplishment. Great sense of adventure in this game.
 
Timu said:
It's considered to be a hard game from what people say about it.
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Nah, it isn't that hard at all. It's frustrating at parts, sure, but that's more due to the imprecise controls and somewhat bad level design. If you put your nose down and keep playing you can get through it pretty easy.

I had a misconception that the game was hard due to how the continue system works -- if you die on the first couple screens, you start at "the beginning". It seems like you can't continue at all, so my assumption was that if you die, the whole game restarts. This isn't the case, and the game actually has infinite continues (from what I could tell on my playthrough) and checkpoints. It just LOOKS like you're back to the title screen when you die. I wonder how many people also have that misconception.
 
Timu said:
It's considered to be a hard game from what people say about it.
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Wow, had no idea. Now that you mention it though, I do remember a few areas that were tough and took a few days to figure out. I was stuck at one point somewhere near the end, so I took the game to a friend's house and we figured it out. Beating it felt real fulfilling. Good times.
 
OnPoint said:
Nah, it isn't that hard at all. It's frustrating at parts, sure, but that's more due to the imprecise controls and somewhat bad level design. If you put your nose down and keep playing you can get through it pretty easy.

I had a misconception that the game was hard due to how the continue system works -- if you die on the first couple screens, you start at "the beginning". It seems like you can't continue at all, so my assumption was that if you die, the whole game restarts. This isn't the case, and the game actually has infinite continues (from what I could tell on my playthrough) and checkpoints. It just LOOKS like you're back to the title screen when you die. I wonder how many people also have that misconception.
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Ah, so it's not like the arcade game where you die in 1 hit, there's 10+ enemies on screen, and has limited continues which is odd.

Also, thanks for telling me this, I'll keep that in mind when it comes to continues.
 
Timu said:
Ah, so it's not like the arcade game where you die in 1 hit, there's 10+ enemies on screen, and has limited continues which is odd.

Also, thanks for telling me this, I'll keep that in mind when it comes to continues.
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If you want extra challenge, read up on what I wrote about the PAL version and play that one.
 
Timu said:
Ah, so it's not like the arcade game where you die in 1 hit, there's 10+ enemies on screen, and has limited continues which is odd.

Also, thanks for telling me this, I'll keep that in mind when it comes to continues.
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Oh god no. The game slows down quite a bit when there's probably 5 enemies on screen at a time.. .I don't even know how it would handle 10 haha Plus you get several hits, and enemies sometimes drop health.
 
Zello said:
If you want extra challenge, read up on what I wrote about the PAL version and play that one.
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Is it 50hz?=O

OnPoint said:
Oh god no. The game slows down quite a bit when there's probably 5 enemies on screen at a time.. .I don't even know how it would handle 10 haha Plus you get several hits, and enemies sometimes drop health.
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This sounds more manageable than the arcade game.
 
Timu said:
Is it 50hz?=O

This sounds more manageable than the arcade game.
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Of course, but in addition:

... the PAL version is infamously made more difficult due to the fact that it had less memory than the Japanese and the US versions, making it so that you can only get 1023 Tone (your attack power) and Last (defense/hit points) whereas in other versions you can get 4095 (?). This meant that in the PAL version you could only get 8 hitpoints and didn't have as much attack power, making the last area and the last boss notoriously difficult.
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The early PAL NES games are non-optimized, so there's a chance it'll run just normally on a 60 hz console. With some games there are glitches (like Battletoads), but I have no idea if Rygar if one of them. Later, optimized games run super fast or might have really fast music or both.
 
I always wondered why NOA decided to redesign the SF when it came here. I know the story about them wanting the NES to look less like a toy than the Famicom, but anyone heard tales about why they took a pretty classy Japanese design and turned it into that weird thing SNES we got? I can't imagine they had the same fears after dominating the US.
 
I don't find the SNES console to look any weirder than the SFC. It's different in a way that's only better or worse depending on who you talk to and which console design they owned while growing up. Two gray boxes with different hues; one a little rounder, the other boxier; both with lines criss-crossing around the shell; neither a major wow piece.

I do think the SFC controller looks nicer because of the pop of color from the convex buttons, but that's about it. SNES controller looks a little drab in comparison.
 
US SNES's problem isn't just the boxyness, it also has the ruffled skirt and purple buttons and random tiers of plastic. it's just an unnecessary design mess.

The Super Fami/PAL SNES looks like an 80s appliance. Not particularly amazing looking but solid, consistent lines, and is at the very least inoffensive. It's not a totem like the N64 or Mega Drive 1, but not a toy like the Famicom.

It's really like a rounded top-loading NES style design, as can be seen by the actual top loading NES looking quite similar. Quite interesting that the Japanese model was in NES (not Famicom) colours, as NCL likely wanted to unify their designs, but the USA threw that away.

I prefer simple designs (Super Fami, GameCube), or striking designs (Famicom, N64, Mega Drive).
 
Voting is closed!

We have our Game Club selection for the month of February. You might say the victory was a little bit one-sided.

JlCm7W1.png


Shatterhand is what we'll be playing in February. Make arrangements to get a cart now and we'll open discussion on the game and our impressions on February 1. Thanks to everyone who voted!

As an aside, I might shorten the voting period in the future. It looks like the graph shows most people voted early on in the process, and if we ended it earlier, it gives people more time to acquire the selection. Perhaps I'll shorten it by 5 days or so.
 
OnPoint said:
Voting is closed!

We have our Game Club selection for the month of February. You might say the victory was a little bit one-sided.

JlCm7W1.png


Shatterhand is what we'll be playing in February. Make arrangements to get a cart now and we'll open discussion on the game and our impressions on February 1. Thanks to everyone who voted!

As an aside, I might shorten the voting period in the future. It looks like the graph shows most people voted early on in the process, and if we ended it earlier, it gives people more time to acquire the selection. Perhaps I'll shorten it by 5 days or so.
Click to expand...

Great choice! Never really digged into this as I should have done. Love your effort on this OnPoint!
 
In the fastest shipping ever from Japan, I got my Twin Famicom some 3 days later. Won't have time to set it up until the weekend but I'm eager to play it!
 
Pleased about Shatterhand, great game and I don't have to go out and buy it as I have it already. Decent number of people voting too.
 
Huggers said:
I have Rygar on the way. Hope it gets here in time.

Famicom people. Your top ten or more Famicom only games I need to play? If money was no object
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Based on what I own:

Crisis Force
Moon Crystal
Wai Wai World 2
Goonies 1
Arumana No Kiseki (FDS Game)
Ai Senshi Nicol (FDS Game)
Ninja Gaiden 3 (US version was messed with)
Door Door
Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa (FDS Game)
 
Awesome to see nearly 50 votes! I wish I had more time this month for Rygar. Only was able to spend about one evening with it. I'm going to try for a little more this coming Sunday night.

Speaking of Famicom, since so many of us have one, it might be worth thinking about putting an FC exclusive title in the voting, or finding some other way of working them into our play mix. Maybe an informal vote on FC games to play on the side? I only have a handful of games (the best being Goonies) but I will be spending money on more soon.
 
robot said:
Based on what I own:

Crisis Force
Moon Crystal
Wai Wai World 2
Goonies 1
Arumana No Kiseki (FDS Game)
Ai Senshi Nicol (FDS Game)
Ninja Gaiden 3 (US version was messed with)
Door Door
Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa (FDS Game)
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Thanks man. Didn't think anyone was going to get back to me. I'll look into all of those
 
Huggers said:
Thanks man. Didn't think anyone was going to get back to me. I'll look into all of those
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No problem! The best thing about ditching NES and going famicom was discovering all of these games that never came out in the US. And the changes that were made to the ones that did. Check out the famicom version of Contra too. Lots of cool visual stuff we missed out on.
 
OnPoint said:
Voting is closed!

We have our Game Club selection for the month of February. You might say the victory was a little bit one-sided.

JlCm7W1.png


Shatterhand is what we'll be playing in February. Make arrangements to get a cart now and we'll open discussion on the game and our impressions on February 1. Thanks to everyone who voted!
Click to expand...
You guys made the right choice with this one(thank god TMNT didn't win), I'm definitely playing it around my bday!
 
RadarScope1 said:
Awesome to see nearly 50 votes! I wish I had more time this month for Rygar. Only was able to spend about one evening with it. I'm going to try for a little more this coming Sunday night.

Speaking of Famicom, since so many of us have one, it might be worth thinking about putting an FC exclusive title in the voting, or finding some other way of working them into our play mix. Maybe an informal vote on FC games to play on the side? I only have a handful of games (the best being Goonies) but I will be spending money on more soon.
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I like the idea and don't mind setting up a second option on the voting forms, but I'd like a roll call of who would want to participate in this beforehand.

Ironically I don't own a Famicom, I just have the converter pieces for my US toploader. I gotta get an actual Famicom and FDS at some point. Just played through Gun Nac last night... gonna make a post about it in the coming days.
 
robot said:
No problem! The best thing about ditching NES and going famicom was discovering all of these games that never came out in the US. And the changes that were made to the ones that did. Check out the famicom version of Contra too. Lots of cool visual stuff we missed out on.
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Yeah I've had a Famicom AV for months but have only played NES games up until now. Huge waste. Am going to get hold of a good number of Famicom games over the coming weeks. Going to strat with Kid Dracula as I'm a huge CV fan and have never got a chance to play it. Will check out Contra for sure

Timu said:
You guys made the right choice with this one(thank god TMNT didn't win), I'm definitely playing it around my bday!
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TMNT ROBBED, Again!
 
Finally got around to beating both Rescue Ranger games. Was kind of surprised I ended up enjoying them given my first impression made me wish I was playing Ducktales instead.

The first one is more memorable overall and has better music (I swear some of it beyond the main theme sounds ripped from the cartoon itself), but I thought the level design, enemies, and bosses needed a lot of work. That last conveyor belt before the Fat Cat fight just reeks of bad level design & enemy placement.

The sequel is definitely lacking in the music department, but gameplay wise it felt more like a standard platformer. Level gimmicks, more diverse enemies, and actual bosses. IDK in this one I was throwing boxes more than the first where it was just easier to hide in them and wait for the enemy to run into you. Took me a second to realize the whole game was given a graphical update not just the backgrounds like Ducktales 2 or the later Mega Man games.

Definitely not worth shelling out the money for the sequel, unless you go with the Famicom version IMO. I'm just surprised they haven't announced a remake for the first game yet.
 
Triple Dash said:
Definitely not worth shelling out the money for the sequel, unless you go with the Famicom version IMO. I'm just surprised they haven't announced a remake for the first game yet.
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Well, it probably depends on how Ducktales did. They don't want another "MM9 did good, MM10 did bad" situation I'd imagine.
 
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