Retro Gaming Thread

I just played through Bubble Bobble for NES. I cannot believe how difficult that game was, and it's design is so simple, I got Dark Souls level pissed when I died.

So a few days back I decided to play Demon's Crest, a great SNES gem that for whatever reason went under the radar for a lot of people. It's actually the third in a series, with the other two being on GameBoy and NES (both of which are also excellent). Unfortunately, as I was somewhat drunk at the time, I got lost after not too long and couldn't figure out what my next goal was. I decided to try it again last night, with all my wits about me, and had a much better time.

The graphics are gorgeous and seem a little darker and creepier than the Ghosts & Goblins series this is a spinoff from. The animation is spectacular, with Firebrand in particular looking great whether you're walking or flying. The music is very Gothic, with lots of pipe organs. Some of the tracks are downright off-putting in their creepiness. As you play, you unlock transformations for your character that give him different abilities, opening up new secrets and giving you more ways to tackle bosses. The game doesn't explain much about its mechanics, though, so it took a while for me to figure out that you not only have to find an urn, but pay for a potion to fill it with before you can use it in battle, and you not only have to find scrolls but pay to have magic spells assigned to them. Controls are tight, but it can be difficult to properly aim your default fireball attack, and it would have been nice if they let you use L & R to switch between forms instead of having to pause the game each time you want to transform.

So there I was, taking my time and patiently backtracking every time I got a new ability, keeping myself well-stocked on potions and spells, when I found a somewhat tricky boss. After I died a couple of times, I figured maybe I was supposed to come back later. I scoured the world map but couldn't find anywhere else to go that I hadn't already been to, so I challenged the boss again and beat him... Only to trigger a "bad ending" where the Demon Realm ends up in even worse condition than it had been in. My jimmies were definitely rustled.

So I'm going to have to try again and look a little harder for the path I was supposed to take. Modern games are so forgiving that I often forget the nasty tricks old console games would pull once in a while.

I tackled Cool Spot for the SNES today, and it's honestly better than most would expect for a licensed title designed to sell 7up.


The graphics are actually quite good. Since the titular Spot is a small character, the world around you is extra big. This is put to best use in the first level, where you're on a beach navigating giant beach chairs, jumping on 7up cans (which, oddly, have their logos facing away from the camera), and observing cassette tapes playing in Walkmans. The levels tend to get less imaginative from that point on, with themes such as "wall" and "toys" that no longer look like real-world areas but rather sprite sets used to create gargantuan mazes to explore. They also re-use some sprite sets, making the game seem a bit repetitive after a while.

Speaking of exploring, you pretty much have no choice. Each level requires you to find at least 60 of the 100 spots scattered all over the place before you can rescue another Cool Spot trapped in a cage at the end of the level. If you want a shot at the bonus stage (which is necessary if you want to collect all the letters to spell "UNCOLA"), you've got to get at least 85 spots (if I remember correctly). This means searching every nook and cranny, as many spots are hidden behind foreground objects or in other out-of-the-way places. Unfortunately, there is also a time limit, adding some (IMO) unnecessary tension to your playthrough. The time limit seems especially unfair considering enemy placement also prevents briskly moving through the levels. Many, many enemies are placed in cheap locations, and often the only way to progress safely is to methodically and slowly explore every area bit by bit, shooting every enemy you see with your bubbles (which can, thankfully, be fired in 8 directions).

Your character jumps super high and his standing jump doesn't cover much horizontal space. There's no "run" button though, as the only way to move faster is to keep walking in one direction until you gain more momentum. This is really aggravating and makes many jumps more difficult than they need to be. It's especially annoying to have to jump from a rope you're clinging to to a platform without hitting your head on the ceiling. But with a bit of practice it becomes manageable.

I decided to give the game an honest effort and even went so far as to collect all the "UNCOLA" letters in the bonus stages (which are also where you hear the best track in the game). Some levels really pushed my patience, such as a train level where you have to jump from tiny airborne UFO to tiny airborne UFO. The UFOs drop you to the ground if you stand on them for more than a fraction of a second, and since they are temporarily off-screen while you are at the apex of your jump AND the background is scrolling by rapidly, it can get extremely disorienting and lead to re-doing large parts of the level over again if you fall. But I was patient, found plenty of 1ups, even got a bunch of continues I didn't end up needing.

Unfortunately, like Demon's Crest before it, Cool Spot had a nasty surprise in store for me. I beat the game in 2 hours with all the bonus letters, only to be told that I needed to beat it in hard mode to get the ending. Ugh. While I don't think I'll be coming back to it, it's definitely worth playing. It seems super-punishing at first since enemies are everywhere and are very easy to get hit by, but once you realize you've gotta move slowly and be patient, it's really not bad.

Played through Bucky O'Hare again yesterday. God damn, I love that game.


I think one of the things that strikes me is that despite the levels being composed of tiled blocks (like most NES platformers), they really do feel like unique set pieces as opposed to levels that just vary platform placement. One moment you're plummeting down a waterfall, another you're outrunning flowing lava, another you're leaping from one cart zipping along a rail to another, or timing your jumps so as to not get hit by giant beetles who dart out of the ground, or using fireflies to move through a pitch black room, or riding deadly mechanical snakes, or navigating rotating chambers to line up with the exit, or leaping over invincible robots that crash out of tubes in the background, or jumping from asteroid to asteroid, or getting rid of movement-hindering head slugs by jumping into spikes... Really, the game is just packed with unique scenarios (even if many of them are similar to things we've seen in Mega Man).

Although there are cut scenes that tell the plot, I was far more impressed with how the level design and gameplay elements add much to the story. For instance, when you have to escape from prison, it truly feels like you're in a huge prison complex, complete with guards and security drones, prisoners in cells (who become violent if attacked), and multiple paths that lead to elevators that might take you back to previous floors for previously-inaccessible bonuses. It's not just a run & shoot level whose tileset looks like a prison. Similarly, the last level becomes a 2D space shooter, but because you blew up the enemy tanker and their whole base is collapsing, there are enemy grunts trying desperately to jump up and cling to your ship. If they manage to grab you, they pull you downwards until you drag them into some floor spikes... It's actually kind of brutal, but brilliant level design where you're playing through the consequences of your actions on your enemy.

Much has been said about the difficulty of this game. There are definitely some parts that are really difficult. Even after playing it through many times, I lost an embarrassing number of lives at a few parts yesterday. Having said that, there are tons of 1ups in the game, and you regularly get more for accumulating points. You also get infinite continues and a password system, although the problem with both is that your life bar and power meter (which allows each character to use a special move) get reset, making it more difficult to progress. If I hadn't played it so much as a kid, I don't know if I would have the patience to go into it blind as an adult (my patience isn't what it used to be), but It's very much worth playing through.

The graphics and sound are simply Konami at their best. The visuals are super-polished with outstanding color use and more than a few graphical gimmicks (arcing tongues of flame, giant rolling spheres, huge columns that move up and down, etc). The levels look varied and fantastic, and the sprites are great too. The soundtrack is easily one of the best on the NES, containing a generous amount of truly amazing tracks. If you've ever liked the music of any NES game, you've got to give this one a listen. I really can't recommend this game enough, even if you've never seen the Bucky O'Hare show or comic book.

pharmakos said:

Tanoomba, you ever play Little Nemo: The Dream Master on NES?

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Damn straight I did! Outstanding game. In fact, I'll probably play through that again soon.

Tanoomba said:

Damn straight I did! Outstanding game. In fact, I'll probably play through that again soon.

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By "soon", I apparently meant "right now".


Dang, don't play a game for a few years and you start to forget where all the keys are! I struggled a bit with some backtracking, and the upside-down level is pretty punishing in that you have to re-start the level and go through the whole chain of "get this animal to access that animal to get the next animal" all over again when you die.

The platforming itself actually gets very tricky, requiring some extremely precise jumps. Even simply jumping over regular enemies can be really challenging, particularly when you're riding the purple lizard. It's a really satisfying game to get through, though. And, of course, the graphics and music are both excellent. There are some great tracks in there (with a personal favorite being the upside down level theme). Great game.

Noodleface said:

Are you emulating these or playing them on actual systems?

I've considered streaming retro games before from my RPi but I don't know how yet.

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Right now I'm emulating them using FCEUX and playing with the 8BITDO Gamepad (it feels almost exactly like a SNES controller). I'm broadcasting via Open Broadcaster software (after experimenting a bit with ShadowPlay).

Having said that, I'm strictly only playing games I actually own, and I've been abstaining from using any cheats, save states, turbo buttons, etc. I would much rather be able to play the games on their original consoles and stream that but I'm no techie and would have no idea where to start. I don't even know how to connect my consoles to my PC, let alone how to capture the feed.

Plus, as much as I love my NES, games regularly freeze up or randomly restart when I play them on the actual hardware. I like not having to worry about that with emulation.

Erronius said:

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Fuck it, I was inspired.


Lots of fuchsia and baby blue, pretty short and pretty easy, but still all around a more than decent game. Capcom always came through with their NES Disney games, and The Little Mermaid is no exception.

So the main mechanic is that you shoot bubbles with your tail. When you hit enemies with your bubbles you can encapsulate them in a bubble, then pick them up and toss them into other enemies or into niches in the terrain to discover baubles for points (nods to the movie, with forks and pipes and shit). You also find conch shells which are stronger than bubbles and can be used to open treasure chests, where you might find a red or blue pearl. Red pearls increase the strength of your tail bubbles, allowing you to capture enemies in fewer hits or capture larger enemies. Blue pearls add to the distance your tail bobbles will travel (I think).

Graphics are pretty good. Ariel looks good, Flotsam and Jetsam as well as the shark are recognizable as bosses. It definitely could have used more color variation, though. The stages could have been bigger with more variety, too. Soundtrack's great, though (with the first level's tune being my personal favorite).

It's pretty simple. It's pretty easy. But it's also pretty good. It definitely feels unique compared to most NES games.

Szlia said:

Somewhere in my distant memory I seem to have this notion that the Megadrive/Genesis version of Cool Spot was superior to the Super Nintendo / SNES one. Is my brain tricking me?

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Maybe I'm a fanboy, but from what I remember every game that was released on both SNES and Genesis was better on the SNES. I'm sure there are some cases where it's debatable (Mortal Kombat had blood on the Genesis, Earthworm Jim had an extra level, etc), but the graphics and sound hardware on the SNES were just way superior.

Having said that, I may not even have ever played the Genesis version of Cool Spot, and looking into it apparently it is the superior version (in everything except graphics). It was probably developed for the Genesis first then ported to the SNES (the same thing happened with Earthworm Jim).

Based on my wife's suggestion, I played through Super Mario 3 again yesterday.


What can be said about Mario 3 that hasn't been said a billion times already? It's just platforming bliss. What strikes me about it now is how difficult some levels can be, something Nintendo seemed to hold back on with every Mario game since. It's kind of baffling that there's no save game feature, since there is a TON of content here (it took me two hours and 45 minutes to beat every level, and that's with me being very familiar with them). But despite the game being the same every time you play it, it still seems infinitely replayable. It's a perfect blend of flawless controls and brilliant level design. One of the finest games of all time.