May 9, 2018

Lots today!  Well, more like a few games in a short period.  But still!

Battletoads in Battlemaniacs: The graphics are great, but the game is a little difficult.  I lost a few lives from running off edges or not pulling off jumps, and I'm not sure if that's a result of slidly controls or my RetroBit controller itself being a little sensitive.

Still, fantastic graphics and a classic SNES sound!  I played up to the second level--surprise, a vertical shaft!--and then called it quits, moving on to Illusion of Gaia.

Link to the Past, The (SNES): You know, I don't think I've ever seriously played this game to any real extent.  That changed today!  I deleted the saves of poor David and Levi (the previous owners of the copy, I assume), where David had not one but TWO completed saves, saved right before the boss.  At some point, he loved this game!  I wonder where he is now?  Was Levi his little brother, or a friend?

Anyway, it starts off rather intense for a Zelda game.  Well, for an early one, at least: you gotta remember, my only significant Zelda experiences are LoZ, The Adventure of Link, Link's Awakening, and the later Orcales games!  It's a dark and storm night, and some guy (your caretaker?  Dad?) marches off with his sword and shield.

You find him in the dungeon, and from there you do some typical Link stuff with swords and boomerangs, till you rescue the princess and escape from the dungeon.  Pretty cool!  Or, rather, it was, until I bit it during our escape.  Whoops!

Looking forward to more!

Illusion of Gaia (SNES): I played this one the longest!  It starts off like a normal RPG, which slightly taller sprites than the usual squashed ones.  You gotta save a princess, you have school chums, blah blah... and then you get to the first dungeon.  It's a rather simplistic action-adventure game from there.  Instead of leveling up, you power up by clearing the entire room of enemies, at which point they'll drop a strength or defense boost.

As a rather cool touch, when you enter the dark world save area and choose not to continue after saving, the game continues on, playing a tune that manages to be both haunting and relaxing.  It makes me think of the old Resident Evil save room tracks from their various entries..

Sweet Home (NES): To start it all off, I gave the English translation of this Resident Evil forefather a go.  The controls are a bit wonky (it could certainly benefit from more buttons), but it's certainly dark and creepy.  I would have loved this as a kid (and been completely freaked out!).

Minor Entries: Black Desert Online (PC), Sword of Chaos (iOS).

May 8, 2018

Gargoyle's Quest II (NES): In continuing with my occasional bits of old-school gaming in the basement, I gave it a quick whirl.  Looks a little more RPG-ish than the first game in the series, starting you off in a town itself!

It seems like a prequel, since Firebrand is being bossed around, called a "trainee", and sent to a training center.  It plays much like I recall the GameBoy one playing, which is quite nice!

After going into the Training Center, all hell broke loose... and I stopped to nap. <_ p="">
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (PC): I spent something like an hour scouring old saves trying to find the latest save I had that was prior to using Skill Books.  Y'see, if your skills get too high, you can't go to low-level trainers for points.  And if you can't get those low level trainer points, you can never max things out.

In the end, I went from a 70-hour save to a 35-hour save.  Eek.  This is why it took me almost two months to return to the game (which I was highly enjoying): I was so disheartened by my dumb mistake (I KNEW better, but forgot!) that I couldn't bring myself to replay so much then, but I'm better now.

Fist Puncher (PC): Tarina bought me this game years ago on Good Old Games.  I made a lot of progress, but unfortunately I lost my save!  (This was well before GOG Galaxy, let alone their cloud saves.)  Since it was a buck on Steam, I picked it back up and gave it a quick whirl...

Sword of Chaos (iOS): In addition to the usual dailies, I asked around if anyone wanted to marry solely for the stats... no luck, alas!

Minor Entries: Black Desert Online (PC).

May 7, 2018

Demon's Crest (SNES): Just a brief go on my RetroDuo.  The game froze at the tutorial boss...

But I really do need to play this, and the game before it.  I ADORED Gargoyle's Quest as a kid, but never got around to the two sequels.

Young Merlin (SNES): Another old favorite.  I actually bought this one cheap from Walmart way back when they had shelves with little bins of old SNES (and, I believe, NES and Genesis) games.  I remember it being fairly fun and unique, and somewhat Zelda-y.

It is indeed somewhat Zelda-y, but with a very early-90s PC vibe.  There are bits of voicework, which is pretty cool, and the animations (such as when Merlin gets tossed across the screen) are smooth, detailed, and cartoony.  There's an old password system, which stinks, and does make me wish I was playing on my Retron 5 instead of my RetroDuo, but I don't want to leave my Retron 5 in the basement for several practical reasons.

Somewhere I have an old gaming magazine with early screenshots of this game.  The scene is very clearly the first scene in the game, but the graphics are much more serious and muted.

Minor Entries: Black Desert Online (PC), Sword of Chaos (iOS).

May 6, 2018

Busy week/weekend over (yay), new work week starting tomorrow (boo), parents gone away again (boo), but time for gaming (yay)!

Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World (SNES): Five games, one entry!  I played this a bit in the basement, having finally decided to set up the old RetroDuo (Famicom Limited Edition!) down there.  I think I gave everything a whirl except for Super Mario Bros., and most of them I only played for a few minutes.

Surprisingly, the clearance RetroBit controllers from Micro Center are pretty good, and I'm pretty comfortable with the one I had been using.

Minor Entries: Black Desert Online (PC), Sword of Chaos (iOS).

May 1 - May 5, 2018

Busy, busy times!  Most of this week was spent cleaning and hitting up school events.  So, with that, very little was done!  I did spend some time chatting with a buddy on Sword of Chaos, but that's about the extent of my serious gaming.  Yikes!

Minor Entries: Black Desert Online (PC), Sword of Chaos (iOS)

April 30, 2018

Stardew Valley (PC): What do you know?  The multiplayer beta came out today!  ...you know, right at the beginning of the busiest week we're going to have in a while (but next week, at least, should smooth out... of course, Pillars of Eternity 2 comes out this week, so...).

Tarina and I played for a bit.  I forgot how much I liked this game!  And it's even neater together.  You can work together, but you can also basically do your own thing.  In a way, that's extra awesome, because it makes the world more alive.  Sort of like an MMO, where there's a world of people going about their own business and goals.

Minor Entries: Black Desert Online (PC), Sword of Chaos (iOS).

April 29, 2018

Sword of Chaos (iOS): A and M were hilarious in chat.  I don't remember why.  They just were!

Minor Entries: Black Desert Online (PC).