Games Beaten 2015

[BoneSnapDeez]

I attempted The Count last year and could never finish it. Certain parts are randomized and Dracula kept kicking my ass. I was playing it on VIC-20 though, dunno if the TI port is a bit different.

[dsheinem]

I attempted The Count last year and could never finish it. Certain parts are randomized and Dracula kept kicking my ass. I was playing it on VIC-20 though, dunno if the TI port is a bit different.

Like most adventure games, it has some convoluted things that really require a FAQ. I won't say I loved it, but I will say it was one of the few "C" games from 1981 that could be beaten.

[alienjesus]

Haha, you only started today and you'e already ahead of me on the alphabet challenge.

Still, i just beat game B (I'll post it here when I have another to add alongside it) so at least I'm making progress.

Now I just need to finish up what I'm playing so I can start up game C too...

[dsheinem]

Games Beaten 2015

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call - 3DS
A Bird Story - PC
Quake - PC
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - PS4
Quake: Scourge of Armagon - PC
Quake: Dissolution of Eternity - PC
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis - NDS
Painkiller - PC
Gungrave: Overdose - PS2
Adventure -Atari 2600 (PS2)
Auto Racing - Intellivision (PS2) [1979]
Boxing - Atari 2600 (PS2) [1980]
The Count - TI99/4A (emulated) [1981]
Dragonstomper - Atari 2600/Starpath Supercharger (emulated) [1982] *new*

Total: 14

Previously: 2014 | The First 400 Games

Wow. Just wow.

I recall that when I played Halo 2600 for the first time (shortly after it came out), I was just blown away by the potential and power of the VCS. That homebrew game really deepened my appreciation for the system, and though I play with my VCS with some regularity I haven't really had one of those moments of being completely floored by a game on it since playing Halo 2600.

Dragonstomper gave me that moment, showed me another dimension of the system, and made a strong argument that everything that people love about video games really do have their root in the 2600.

Dragonstomper is an RPG. It isn't an RPG in the sense that Adventure is an RPG (though Adventure is a great game), but rather it is a more traditional RPG in the sense that you have stats, magic and weapons, effects, dungeon crawling, random encounters, party members, and so on. It is somewhat like The Legend of Zelda (a debatable "RPG" of course) in that regard but with some grinding. Yes: grinding in a VCS game.

The game is split up into three area, which you play through in order: the wilderness (where you battle enemies, raise your stats, and collect gold), the town (where you buy things at shops with the money you earned in the previous map), and a dungeon where you are tasked with avoiding traps en route to slaying a dragon.

The game is really very straightforward and most actions are done via menus that animate and respond quickly. There's nothing slow or clunky about the game, and the level of depth is just really something incredible. Of course this was a game that required the Arcadia Starpath addition and played off of a tape, so it had more capabilities than most standard carts. The music and graphics are well done, the dragon looks cool, and the game requires some strategic use of spells/items to clear (I made it to the boss the first time after a few hours and was woefully under prepared, forcing a restart where I did a run with some grinding and got myself set up better for the dungeon).

Dragonstomper (1982) (Starpath)_2.png (2.52 KiB) Viewed 894 times

So this was the "D" game in my alpha-by-year challenge and was a really nice surprise - a game I knew nothing about and from which I expected even less. I'd be curious to know if anyone here has played it (Bone?), what they thought, etc. It is EASILY one of my very favorite games in the VCS library now, and I am strongly considering tracking down a physical copy just to have on the shelf

[BoneSnapDeez]

I'd be curious to know if anyone here has played it (Bone?), what they thought, etc.

Yes! Love that game.

I played it years ago in the Stella emulator. It's brilliant, and I was shocked to see how well they implemented the battle menus with just a 1-button stick.

I immediately went to buying it after playing it and was disappointed to see it wasn't a cart (from what I recall you don't have to boot tape games any differently in Stella, so I had no idea such a thing even existed). Maybe someday...

Oh and you probably know this, but the Supercharger itself isn't a tape player but a RAM expansion cart. You will need a tape player of your own to play the games.

[dsheinem]

I'd be curious to know if anyone here has played it (Bone?), what they thought, etc.

Yes! Love that game.

I played it years ago in the Stella emulator. It's brilliant, and I was shocked to see how well they implemented the battle menus with just a 1-button stick.

I immediately went to buying it after playing it and was disappointed to see it wasn't a cart (from what I recall you don't have to boot tape games any differently in Stella, so I had no idea such a thing even existed). Maybe someday...

Yeah, I played it in Stella.

I've known about the Starpath Supercharger for a long time and keep thinking I should pick one up at some point, but I've just never pulled the trigger for some reason. This brilliant game has renewed my interest considerably (most of the Supercharger games are supposed to be decent to good).

Did you beat it? Did you opt to slay the dragon (which I did) or to shatter the amulet? I was wondering if the ending is any different if you choose the more "peaceful" route.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Yeah I slayed dat dragon! Don't recall the ending. This was some time ago, I don't think I even owned a real 2600 at the time.

[noiseredux]

I've never heard of Dragonstomper, but it looks amazing. Dave, I know you have a very similar fondness and appreciation of VCS games as me. I'm gonna def check this one out post-haste. Thanks for the heads up.

[J T]

A Wolf Among Us (01/03/15)
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ (All courses S ranked on 01/08/15)
Distance (beta 3315, 01/11/15)
Shantae: Risky's Revenge- Director's Cut (01/16/15)
Sega Bass Fishing (01/17/15)
Fairy Bloom Freesia (01/17/15)
BasketBelle (01/18/15)
Tiny & Big: in Grandpa's Leftovers (01/20/15)
Sideway: New York (01/22/15)
Doom 64 EX (01/23/15)
Shadow of the Ninja (NES, 01/29/15)
Shatterhand (NES, 01/30/15)
S.C.A.T. (NES, 01/31/15)
Abadox (NES, 02/01/15)
Never Alone: Kisima Ingitchuna (02/05/15)
Sine Mora (02/09/15)

Sine Mora was an enjoyable little 2.5D horizontal shmup. I'm absolutely in love with the dieselpunk graphics. I posted a bunch of images here. The graphics are crisp and colorful, with clear bullet colors/outlines, making it easy to navigate without sensory overload, which is often the risk of a high-definition 2.5D game. Some environmental hazards were a little visually indistinct from backgrounds, but were easy enough to navigate by noting where your bullets could not penetrate. Later stages have some really cool maze segments where this problem is better controlled and add a bit of a puzzle-navigation challenge to the standard shmup challenge. It reminded me of some of the environmental challenges in Super R-Type, though not as difficult.

Your aircrafts have a bit of weight in this game, which means this isn't as twitchy and fast as many other modern shmups, but I liked the feel of it. It felt more like you controlled an airship rather than a spastic cursor. It was closer to the pace of UN Squadron, which has long been one of my favorites in the genre. It was also low on the bullet hell segments. The gameplay didn't add much novelty to the genre basics, other than a time-slowing mechanic, a need to kill to keep your timer up, and a rotating cast of pilots and aircrafts. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable playthrough. I beat the game on the default difficulty, and I never found it to be too hard, but not boring either. I'm thinking I might go back and try a different difficulty since this first run on 'normal' was pretty easy (by shmup standards).

The one thing I didn't care for with this game was the storytelling. It was kind of boring. There was some interesting moments in the text between levels, but those moments seemed disconnected from the gameplay. The story was also convoluted by the shifting cast of characters. This was fun for gameplay, but made it impossible to know who your character was supposed to be, especially in a voice-only monologue spoken in Hungarian. You can fast-forward through cut scenes, but they still break up the action too much with unnecessary exposition. I fast forwarded through some segments without even having seen them yet, just because they were bland and didn't add to the experience, in fact, I would say they detracted from it. This is all easily passed over though without too much trouble.

The bottom line though is that this is a fun shmup with beautiful graphics that make it a treat to play through.

[dsheinem]

I once published a PROFESSIONAL REVIEW (for which I was not paid) about Sine Mora. With the exception of it looking nice, I disagreed with almost everything you just wrote