Blaster Master (What the &#%& am I looking at?)

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How many eyes does this thing have?


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Vanessa

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blastermaster.jpg


Look at this thing. Just look at it.


It's the penultimate boss in Blaster Master.

I've recently been on a Let's play all the old classic NES games that I loved as a kid kick that were nearly impossible to beat (about 40% of the titles) and beat them with the magic of save states... woop woop. Honestly, as a kid, it's a testament to childhood free time and a relentless resilience that allowed me to beat the throw-the-controller-at-the-TV games I DID beat back then like Castlevania, Ghouls and Ghosts, Mega Man, Ultima: Exodus, Karnov, Rygar, and more popular but easier titles. But Blaster Master was one title I never bested... was only able to get to the final stage and it was too difficult.

So here I am, able to get to the penultimate boss... and I'm looking at it, remembering a screenshot of this back in Nintendo Power or something and I saw this beast as having 2 tiny eyes then. But then when I'm actually playing it in more high-def, it started to look like a cyclops, actually. Is that nose an eye? Or wait... is that just another eye? Then why did the artist not use black (that's obviously in the 8-bit palette) to highlight eyes if they're eyes at all? Maybe they're just bumps and the thing is an eyeless monster.

Facial pareidolia tells us it's LIKELY 2 eyes with a nose and yet... my adult self is looking at this and literally can't tell anymore, and the more I look at it, the more I get unsure LoL. What we can be SURE of with these limited graphics is that it has a mouth with teeth and two mandible horns. It's eyes though? Wtf~

So... how many eyes does this thing have?
 
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Edaw

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View attachment 353164

Look at this thing. Just look at it.


It's the penultimate boss in Blaster Master.

I've recently been on a Let's play all the old classic NES games that I loved as a kid kick that were nearly impossible to beat (about 40% of the titles) and beat them with the magic of save states... woop woop. Honestly, as a kid, it's a testament to childhood free time and a relentless resilience that allowed me to beat the throw-the-controller-at-the-TV games I DID beat back then like Castlevania, Ghouls and Ghosts, Mega Man, Ultima: Exodus, Karnov, Rygar, and more popular but easier titles. But Blaster Master was one title I never bested... was only able to get to the final stage and it was too difficult.

So here I am, able to get to the penultimate boss... and I'm looking at it, remembering a screenshot of this back in Nintendo Power or something and I saw this beast as having 2 tiny eyes then. But then when I'm actually playing it in more high-def, it started to look like a cyclops, actually. Is that nose an eye? Or wait... is that just another eye? Then why did the artist not use black (that's obviously in the 8-bit palette) to highlight eyes if they're eyes at all? Maybe they're just bumps and the thing is an eyeless monster.

Facial pareidolia tells us it's LIKELY 2 eyes with a nose and yet... my adult self is looking at this and literally can't tell anymore, and the more I look at it, the more I get unsure LoL. What we can be SURE of with these limited graphics is that it has a mouth with teeth and two mandible horns. It's eyes though? Wtf~

So... how many eyes does this thing have?
1000.png
 
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Mist

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View attachment 353164

Look at this thing. Just look at it.


It's the penultimate boss in Blaster Master.

I've recently been on a Let's play all the old classic NES games that I loved as a kid kick that were nearly impossible to beat (about 40% of the titles) and beat them with the magic of save states... woop woop. Honestly, as a kid, it's a testament to childhood free time and a relentless resilience that allowed me to beat the throw-the-controller-at-the-TV games I DID beat back then like Castlevania, Ghouls and Ghosts, Mega Man, Ultima: Exodus, Karnov, Rygar, and more popular but easier titles. But Blaster Master was one title I never bested... was only able to get to the final stage and it was too difficult.

So here I am, able to get to the penultimate boss... and I'm looking at it, remembering a screenshot of this back in Nintendo Power or something and I saw this beast as having 2 tiny eyes then. But then when I'm actually playing it in more high-def, it started to look like a cyclops, actually. Is that nose an eye? Or wait... is that just another eye? Then why did the artist not use black (that's obviously in the 8-bit palette) to highlight eyes if they're eyes at all? Maybe they're just bumps and the thing is an eyeless monster.

Facial pareidolia tells us it's LIKELY 2 eyes with a nose and yet... my adult self is looking at this and literally can't tell anymore, and the more I look at it, the more I get unsure LoL. What we can be SURE of with these limited graphics is that it has a mouth with teeth and two mandible horns. It's eyes though? Wtf~

So... how many eyes does this thing have?
thats a penis GIF
 
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Hateyou

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View attachment 353164

Look at this thing. Just look at it.


It's the penultimate boss in Blaster Master.

I've recently been on a Let's play all the old classic NES games that I loved as a kid kick that were nearly impossible to beat (about 40% of the titles) and beat them with the magic of save states... woop woop. Honestly, as a kid, it's a testament to childhood free time and a relentless resilience that allowed me to beat the throw-the-controller-at-the-TV games I DID beat back then like Castlevania, Ghouls and Ghosts, Mega Man, Ultima: Exodus, Karnov, Rygar, and more popular but easier titles. But Blaster Master was one title I never bested... was only able to get to the final stage and it was too difficult.

So here I am, able to get to the penultimate boss... and I'm looking at it, remembering a screenshot of this back in Nintendo Power or something and I saw this beast as having 2 tiny eyes then. But then when I'm actually playing it in more high-def, it started to look like a cyclops, actually. Is that nose an eye? Or wait... is that just another eye? Then why did the artist not use black (that's obviously in the 8-bit palette) to highlight eyes if they're eyes at all? Maybe they're just bumps and the thing is an eyeless monster.

Facial pareidolia tells us it's LIKELY 2 eyes with a nose and yet... my adult self is looking at this and literally can't tell anymore, and the more I look at it, the more I get unsure LoL. What we can be SURE of with these limited graphics is that it has a mouth with teeth and two mandible horns. It's eyes though? Wtf~

So... how many eyes does this thing have?
I noticed no Battletoads on your list. Pussy.
 
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Vanessa

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Mist Mist

thatsadyke.gif


All's fair in love and tokens, right Mist?

I noticed no Battletoads on your list. Pussy.
Truth... never once owned it or got into it (not even Blockbuster rentals! hah). TMNT was my reptilian gaming experience back then.
 
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Hateyou

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Mist Mist

View attachment 353180

All's fair in love and tokens, right Mist?


Truth... never once owned it or got into it (not even Blockbuster rentals! hah). TMNT was my reptilian gaming experience back then.
It’s probably the hardest game I’ve ever beaten. I tried again as an adult and could only get to level 3 or 4...by using warps...it’s tough. As a kid I had the hover bike section so muscle memoried I didn’t even really look forward. I’d stare at the bike and as objects came in from the right I’d move up and down, jump, etc. The hardest stage for me was the one with pipes and a ball chasing you. Fucking Dark Souls doesn’t have shit on that level.
 

Hateyou

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dude, they put the fucking end boss as the cover art

d46666099c7d2282b903ec48ecfd2713.jpg
Man I remember renting Mega Man 2 and on the back cover it said “all new password feature to save progress” and it had a picture of the passcode grid they used. It showed a passcode to the final stage lol.

It must have been a later box art or something because the online box art images I can find don’t show the password feature.

I remember having a notebook full of passcodes for beating the bosses in various orders. Another game I had mastered as a kid and can’t play for shit now.
 
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Lanx

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Man I remember renting Mega Man 2 and on the back cover it said “all new password feature to save progress” and it had a picture of the passcode grid they used. It showed a passcode to the final stage lol.

It must have been a later box art or something because the online box art images I can find don’t show the password feature.

I remember having a notebook full of passcodes for beating the bosses in various orders. Another game I had mastered as a kid and can’t play for shit now.
they gave you the box when you rented?

my vhs store just put the cartridge in a vhs box
3b78e4b97d043f201b5215ff7736c9be.png


and you just figured shit out, instruction booklet? lulz
 

Hateyou

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they gave you the box when you rented?

my vhs store just put the cartridge in a vhs box
3b78e4b97d043f201b5215ff7736c9be.png


and you just figured shit out, instruction booklet? lulz
Yeah ours was like a vhs case thing with the box art in the sleeve.
 

Hatorade

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Played this a bunch as a kid, I remember finding some weird pause bug where you pause when doing damage and it keeps hurting the bosses.
 
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Runnen

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Played this a bunch as a kid, I remember finding some weird pause bug where you pause when doing damage and it keeps hurting the bosses.

That trick appeared in various games, most infamously in Megaman as a cheap way to beat the otherwise-very-hard Yellow Devil.. fire one elec-beam and keep spamming pause button and it gets damaged every frame you unpause and repause the game.. it's still used to this day in speedruns.
 
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Vanessa

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dude, they put the fucking end boss as the cover art
To be fair, it's the penultimate boss... the end boss is this guy:

bm.jpg


Played this a bunch as a kid, I remember finding some weird pause bug where you pause when doing damage and it keeps hurting the bosses.
Yes! Toss a grenade, hit pause, go grab an Icee pop (LoL), unpause and it's kaput in one shot.

Even as kids we were learning ways to "beat the system"... good stuff.
 

Warr

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Related--a buddy of mine started doing old school NES how-to playthroughs. Some decent trivia along the way as well. Give it a look.

 
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Njals

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There was a remaster and sequel to the remaster on Switch (think it is on everything now). Never played the sequel but the remaster was really enjoyable. Think it was done by the same people who do the 2d Bloodstain games.
 
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Kaige

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There was a remaster and sequel to the remaster on Switch (think it is on everything now). Never played the sequel but the remaster was really enjoyable. Think it was done by the same people who do the 2d Bloodstain games.

Yup, Blaster Master Zero. Not only was it a remake, but they added a little more content. They also added a recharging gun shield that would eat one hit so you didn't lose your gun's blaster level. Good stuff.

I tried the second one but it wasn't any good. Wall jumping with the tank and the dungeons were full of weird mechanics.

They're both available on Steam if anyone wants them. Currently 10 bucks but gets down to 5 bucks on sales.
 
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Mist

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Speaking of which, someone in one of my high school programming classes made his final project a side-scrolling Gradius III clone called "Scrotius VI", and the end boss of the single level was a giant ballsack, but the graphics were a mix of low res and ASCII so the teacher either didn't even notice or didn't care because she was really only like 6-8 years old than us lol.
 
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Hateyou

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Speaking of which, someone in one of my high school programming classes made his final project a side-scrolling Gradius III clone called "Scrotius VI", and the end boss of the single level was a giant ballsack, but the graphics were a mix of low res and ASCII so the teacher either didn't even notice or didn't care because she was really only like 6-8 years old than us lol.
Where can i DL this masterpiece?
 
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Rajaah

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Here's your friend, from one of the Blaster Master Zero games on Switch. Looks like BMZ is an interesting remaster while BMZ2 (seen here, I think) takes things in a different and weird direction.

I've never even played Blaster Master and it's in my top five NES games I still want to go through. I'll probably play it in its NES form rather than the remake.

Others I never played and want to: Crystalis, Ultima 4, Battletoads, SCAT, Totally Rad, Stinger, VICE: Project Doom, Kid Icarus, Street Fighter 2010. I should take a month and do an NES-fest, see if I can finish all ten within that month.