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NES/Famicom Appreciation Thread

TeaJay

Member
Believe me, I was really tempted to use savestates, but I've always had a soft spot for Battletoads - even though I'm not a very good player and most often can't finish games that I start, I've always felt like I can do Battletoads pretty well, and aced it when I was a kid, and even now as an adult performed better than many of my friends who say that they can't make it past the Turbo Tunnel. But I wanted to try "legit", and as I wrote, I eased up the process a lot to begin with. The Japanese version is easier, and watching The Mexican Runner play I now notice that there's also less spikes on Terra Tubes cog parts.

Those save states are a blessing in games like Moon Crystal or Holy Diver, though.
 

Lothar

Banned
No save states. See how far you can get. I didn't beat it on my last try either. That's ok.

Advice for new players (I hope there will be new players)
- There's a code for extra lives if you think you need it. Hold A + B + Down + Start at the title screen.
- Headbutt everything. Rarely ever punch. You get more points for punching but it's not worth the extra danger. Plus headbutting is so fun and satisfying. Running at a enemy and sending them flying with one hit. I love doing it.
- You can juggle birds in Stage 2 to get extra lives.
- For the Turbo Tunnels ! platforms where you have to manually jump, never press left when jumping. So many people do that and freak themselves out and make it more harder than it has to be. AVGN has a video where he tries to beat the Turbo Tunnels and he does that over and over. You do not need to touch the directional pad for jumps.
- Obstacles typically have a constant up-down, left-right pattern. If you're in Turbo Tunnels and there's a wall above, chances are the next wall will be below. If you're falling down and seeing spikes on the right, if there are more spikes to come, chances are they will be on the left.
- For every 100,000 points you get a extra life. Points are plentiful. You build up points in the vehicle stages just by being alive. You can cheat a little and max out lives by getting the 1-ups that always appear, getting points, then dying on purpose.
- Hit the rat on the rat race. If you learn the timing to headbutt him as he's running past you to make him hit the wall, you will never lose. I just usually wait on purpose for him to catch up, then keep head butting him into the wall. That makes it one of the easiest stages in the game.
- Take pause breaks every now and then in Clinger Winger to give your thumb a rest. (If it's impossible for you, you can actually break the stage and take all the challenge out of it just by pausing as you hit every turn but try not to do that)
- Snake Pit and Volkmire's Inferno are two of the most brutal stages, Volkmire's Inferno is Turbo Tunnels x 1000, and they can be warped over. Warp is in the second room of the Snake pit. Climb with the first snake, and at the top, blinding jump to the right.
- In Volkmire's Inferno, both in the fireball section and the rocket section, stay on the ground. That way you only have to concentrate on moving out of the way of one line of fire.

There's so many tricks (like juggling birds and hitting the rat) and shortcuts and 1-ups, everyone should be able to do it.
 

Timu

Member
Well, I'm going to kick this thing off: just finished Battletoads for the first time since I was a kid. However:

- I did use warps (albeit I'm confident that I could do the skipped stages too)
- I did use the Japanese version, which is slightly easier (5 lives instead of 3, and Turbo Tunnel doesn't have those ! parts)
- I did use the pause cheat in Clinger Winger, because, you know, f*ck Clinger Winger

But other than that I'm happy that I was able to finally beat it. IMO Terra Tubes (level 9) is where it gets really tough. I was able to beat Rat Race running part on my first try, although I died a few times at the boss.

Also, if you want to farm extra lives at the last stage, just keep destroying the bubbles the pink cloud drops.
Congrats dude!!!
 

Lothar

Banned
Done! Without warps or extra life code.

Damn queen stopped me from beating it in one continue.
unYm4pLm.png

BrZebFNm.png


Luckily, the game developers are super nice and let you start right back at the boss.

M6KKDUOm.png


tcTSquzm.png


ntRl1DXm.png


I suck at the bosses of this game. As you can see, I barely made it there. I made it past Clingerwinger in one try then died 3 times to the Clingerwinger boss. Robomagnus killed me 4 times.
 

Timu

Member
Done! Without warps or extra life code.

Damn queen stopped me from beating it in one continue.
unYm4pLm.png

BrZebFNm.png


Luckily, the game developers are super nice and let you start right back at the boss.

M6KKDUOm.png


tcTSquzm.png


ntRl1DXm.png


I suck at the bosses of this game. As you can see, I barely made it there. I made it past Clingerwinger in one try then died 3 times to the Clingerwinger boss. Robomagnus killed me 4 times.
Congrats, mad props for not using cheats and warps!
 

OnPoint

Member
Man y'all have been busy on Battletoads in this early week! I got some catching up to do. I played the Battletoads arcade game here at MAGFest, and it's not great. So I kinda played Battletoads... lol

Just checked out the trailer for your game, looks cool! I always like seeing what other indie devs are working on.

Thanks man, glad you dug it :)
 

Timu

Member
Man y'all have been busy on Battletoads in this early week! I got some catching up to do. I played the Battletoads arcade game here at MAGFest, and it's not great. So I kinda played Battletoads... lol
I actually liked the arcade game, glad it's on Xbox One thanks to Rare Replay.
 

amnesiac

Member
So, I got out my old NES with about 30 games. A couple years ago I replaced the 72 pin connector and disabled the lockout chip because I wasn't getting games to boot well. I just cleaned all the games the best I could with alcohol and Q-Tips. There are a few games that I can always get to boot on first try, most take some fidgeting to get to work, and another few that are pretty difficult to get working.

My question is, does the fact that I'm able to get a couple games running on first try imply that it is the games that are problematic, or could there still be some hardware problem that is causing me trouble with some games?
 

BTails

Member
I'm jealous of the Battletoads action going on. I just got back from visiting family over Christmas, and was looking forward to getting my toad on.

Well, the day after we got home, the humidifier on my furnace started leaking overnight. This means my entire basement (including all my Retro systems) had to have the floor ripped up, so everything was packed away. No retro games for a couple weeks until I can get it dried up, and new flooring put in.
 

Lothar

Banned
I'm jealous of the Battletoads action going on. I just got back from visiting family over Christmas, and was looking forward to getting my toad on.

Well, the day after we got home, the humidifier on my furnace started leaking overnight. This means my entire basement (including all my Retro systems) had to have the floor ripped up, so everything was packed away. No retro games for a couple weeks until I can get it dried up, and new flooring put in.

That's too bad. But you have a PC. Emulate! No excuses! We're not letting you off that easily.
 

entremet

Member
I'm playing the Rare Replay version on my XB1. It's actually not as hard as I remember it.

Memory really colors perception.

To be fair, I'm using cheats lol. But it seems much doable than the legendary hard status the game has.

Many Souls has toughened me up lol.
 

OnPoint

Member
I'm playing the Rare Replay version on my XB1. It's actually not as hard as I remember it.

Memory really colors perception.

To be fair, I'm using cheats lol. But it seems much doable than the legendary hard status the game has.

Many Souls has toughened me up lol.
"Lol" indeed. It is that hard. You're using cheats
 

Timu

Member
Battletoads is one of those games where you need tons and tons of practice to get anywhere in it and have to git gud, or else beating it would take a long time. I played this game for a long time and mastered various stages so beating it should be do able within given time.
 

Lothar

Banned
Battletoads is one of those games where you need tons and tons of practice to get anywhere in it and have to git gud, or else beating it would take a long time. I played this game for a long time and mastered various stages so beating it should be do able within given time.

How far did you make it the last time you tried? Something near the end that used to cost me a lot of lives was the unkillable gas bags that try to blow you off the tower as you're jumping up. Then I realized you could lure them to the other side of the tower and outrun them back. This is what I love about Battletoads's difficulty. Usually the best thing is to not brute force it.

I think after you beat that final stage once, you'll be surprised you ever thought it was hard.

The enemies that try to ram you and eat you are really pathetic for example. If you hit them and send them back, they'll do a move which stops right before they get to you. So you can just laugh at them and hit them again.
 

Timu

Member
How far did you make it the last time you tried? Something near the end that used to cost me a lot of lives was the unkillable gas bags that try to blow you off the tower as you're jumping up. Then I realized you could lure them to the other side of the tower and outrun them back. This is what I love about Battletoads's difficulty. Usually the best thing is to not brute force it.

I think after you beat that final stage once, you'll be surprised you ever thought it was hard.

The enemies that try to ram you and eat you are really pathetic for example. If you hit them and send them back, they'll do a move which stops right before they get to you. So you can just laugh at them and hit them again.
The last stage. I need to master it though.
 
That said, I'm at MAGFest and we're showing our game, so feel free to stop by and say hi in the MIVS area if you're here and so inclined! Our game is Bruisin Cruisers :)

Looked all around for it only to feel like an idiot when I found it later at like 4am while passing through right near the middle door between rooms. At least I got to play it since you guys leave it on at night. I really liked the artstyle.
neogaf is for chumps

In other related news, both to the thread and magfest, did I have some sort of blind spot and missed people talking about Haunted Halloween 85 and 86? Noticed them being shown off on the merchants floor at magfest and they looked amazing. Didn't even think they were running on real hardware/thought they were pc games made to look like NES games at first. Not really because of the visuals since even though they looked good there were better looking NES games, but with how the gameplay looked and felt. Especially on the second game. Wish I could find some good straight gameplay videos on youtube to link here. Sleep now, look more later.
 
I know speedrunners use flash carts to practice stuff on real hardware. That's why Gimmick runners pefer Power Pack to Everdrive since the EDN8 doesn't allow savestates on games with the 5B mapper chip.
 

OnPoint

Member
I'm finally back. MAGFest is exhausting but I can't recommend it enough. Anyone who can should go next year.

Battletoads real, real soon for this guy.

Looked all around for it only to feel like an idiot when I found it later at like 4am while passing through right near the middle door between rooms. At least I got to play it since you guys leave it on at night. I really liked the artstyle.
neogaf is for chumps

Haha I did get your note, that's awesome. Thanks for tracking it down! If you have any further thoughts, positive or negative, please PM me, I'd love to hear them.
 

Cogwheels

Neo Member
I swore I was going to have a month off collecting to help my bank account recover from Christmas.

Instead I ended up buying:

  • TMNT Tournament Fighters
  • RC Pro AM 2
  • Toki
  • Whomp Em
  • Xexyz
  • Double Dragon 1-3
  • Faxanadu
  • Ufouria

Whoops :/
 

Huggers

Member
^Nice pick ups

I've got flu so the absolute last thing I feel like playing is Battletoads! Hopefully I'll get started with it soonish
 

Lothar

Banned
Battletoads is a great game to play sick. It'll get your mind off of the sickness. Stop making excuses and come on plz. Challenging games are fun!

Has there ever been any Battletoads hacks? I don't like that I'm already done with it. If someone enjoys Metroidvania or open world RPGs or first person shooters, there's a million similar games for them. There's nothing remotely like Battletoads for me. :(
 

Timu

Member
I'm actually doing better runs at Battletoads now, in fact I hardly died on even Stages 7 and 9. I need to keep this up and I'll have enough lives and continues by the end.
 

Cogwheels

Neo Member
I had Battletoads when I was a kid and never could get past the turbo tunnel.

When I rebought an NES a couple of years ago, the first thing I did was pop in Battletoads and somehow I beat the turbo tunnel on my first attempt! I thought the years were supposed to dull my gaming reflexes :)

Had my ass handed to me on the next level of course...
 
I know this is a long shot, and I've asked it before, but nobody in this thread happens to have any NES games with the word SLOCOM (spelling?) carved into the back of them, do they?
 

Lothar

Banned
I had Battletoads when I was a kid and never could get past the turbo tunnel.

When I rebought an NES a couple of years ago, the first thing I did was pop in Battletoads and somehow I beat the turbo tunnel on my first attempt! I thought the years were supposed to dull my gaming reflexes :)

Had my ass handed to me on the next level of course...

Keep it up. You beat that stage and you'll be a 1/3rd of the way through the game.

I don't think it's the years that dull gaming reflexes. It's easy games. I never really went away from NES so I never lost anything.
 

OnPoint

Member
I've said it in here a million times -- the Turbo Tunnel is not that hard. It's definitely where the game ratchets it up, but it's really quite a fun area.
 

Lothar

Banned
I've said it in here a million times -- the Turbo Tunnel is not that hard. It's definitely where the game ratchets it up, but it's really quite a fun area.

Whole game is like that really, except for Volkmire's Inferno. That's the only stage I feel bad for new players on. It needs some memorization. But it can be skipped.

Perhaps the snake pit area too, not sure if someone with really fast reflexes can do for the first time or not. The stage can also be skipped though.
 

OnPoint

Member
Whole game is like that really, except for Volkmire's Inferno. That's the only stage I feel bad for new players on. It needs some memorization. But it can be skipped.

Perhaps the snake pit area too, not sure if someone with really fast reflexes can do for the first time or not. The stage can also be skipped though.

I wholeheartedly disagree. The final stage is absolutely awful. And Clinger Wingers is insanely tough
granted I didn't know about the pause trick before
. Rat Race is not fun. It's not a balanced game at all.
 

Lothar

Banned
I wholeheartedly disagree. The final stage is absolutely awful. And Clinger Wingers is insanely tough
granted I didn't know about the pause trick before
. Rat Race is not fun. It's not a balanced game at all.

I'll try to show that it is if more people attempt playing it. What do you think the most troublesome areas of the final stage are? If you just learn the rhythm to headbutting the rat as he runs past you, he'll never get past you. I think that stage is fun. The dumb rat keeps thinking he has a chance as you make him bounce into the wall. It's funny. The last time I did Clingerwinger, I outran that ball off the screen. I just started turning slightly before the turns came along and I left that thing in the dust.
 

BTails

Member
I never learned the timing of smashing that rat... Alwasy tried to outrun it. I did end up getting pretty good at that stage years ago, I'm probably terrible now though.

I think the snake pit you could beat fist time through: there's no real blind jumps or anything, you just have to have some "video game intuition" and good reflexes. That stage I can usually beat on my first go now.

Volkmire's Inferno definitely needs some memorization though, especially near the end. Thankfully it gives you some 1-ups, so you've got room for error.
 

OnPoint

Member
I'll try to show that it is if more people attempt playing it. What do you think the most troublesome areas of the final stage are? If you just learn the rhythm to headbutting the rat as he runs past you, he'll never get past you. I think that stage is fun. The dumb rat keeps thinking he has a chance as you make him bounce into the wall. It's funny. The last time I did Clingerwinger, I outran that ball off the screen. I just started turning slightly before the turns came along and I left that thing in the dust.
I feel like your experience is blinding you to the truth for people who aren't hardened veterans.

Clinger Wingers is not something you can just react to. You have to learn it piece by piece. It's too fast for straight up reaction time.

The last level's platforming in particular is awful.

I know there are tricks to it all. But that's just it, they're tricks. You have to trick the game into being fun. That's not good.
 

Lothar

Banned
The last level's platforming in particular is awful.

Which parts? I could see how Voltmire's Inferno could be a big problem even though I have it memorized. I don't see that for the final stage. It doesn't require memorization.

You can usually see what's ahead before you jump into the next area. Like you can see the spike going around real fast and the gas bags going around the tower before you get into the part where they can damage you. I think you have to see what's ahead and think about it before jumping up.
 

OnPoint

Member
Which parts? I could see how Voltmire's Inferno could be a big problem even though I have it memorized. I don't see that for the final stage. It doesn't require memorization.

You can usually see what's ahead before you jump into the next area. Like you can see the spike going around real fast and the gas bags going around the tower before you get into the part where they can damage you. I think you have to see what's ahead and think about it before jumping up.

I don't have it in front of me and I haven't played that level in years, so forgive me for not having specifics. I just remember it being horribly frustrating. The game doesn't control well enough for what it asks of you, which is often the game's problem. I think Battletoads was several months of polish away from being a masterpiece. But it never quite got there and now we have these debates 25 years later lol
 

Lothar

Banned
I don't have it in front of me and I haven't played that level in years, so forgive me for not having specifics. I just remember it being horribly frustrating. The game doesn't control well enough for what it asks of you, which is often the game's problem. I think Battletoads was several months of polish away from being a masterpiece. But it never quite got there and now we have these debates 25 years later lol

I bet after you try it this month you'll go "Hey that wasn't so bad."
 

Timu

Member
Rat Race is a fun stage besides the 3rd rat, and even I normally beat it by ramming it before it gets ahead of me.

The last stage is awful because as OnPoint said, the platforming in Battletoads is terrible. I never liked it and that stage highlights the worst of it. Plus the instant kill enemies don't help either.
 

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
Glad to see there are some discussion going on about Battletoads in here! I had to pack down all my gaming stuff because i was going to paint the living room, and yeah, there was lots more stuff to do with the walls, so ive had it all packed down for over a week. Hopefully getting it back up tomorrow though - then its going to be Battletoads-time!
 

OnPoint

Member
Hey all,

For what it's worth, I just realized I never put up the results for Feb.

Double Dragon is your game for Feb.

I'll try to get the numbers up tomorrow. Get your carts. Sorry for the delay.
 

Lothar

Banned
I'm playing Battletoads/Double Dragon and ahhh that Solar Jetman level. That's more brutal than anything in Battletoads. Say what you want about the challenge of Battletoads, the toads definitely control well. It's easy to get them to do what you want. Solar Jetman controls suck. They should have went with a Gradius style level instead.
 
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