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NES/Famicom Appreciation Thread

AmyS

Member
Wow, that Life Force thing is amazing. It reminds me about a question that I have always wondered about.

How were the maps in the Nintendo Player's Guides made? Here you can tell they are patched together out of a photograph of each screen, which is a mental job. But the official Nintendo guides had cleaner maps with no discolouration, almost like illustrated.

I never read much of Nintendo Power, other than the first few issues in 1988-1989, but here is Andy Eddy, chief editor of Video Games & Computer Entertainment on Nickelodeon, talking about the magazine with the hosts and their maps got a quick mention.

https://youtu.be/w6p_oEDkfcc?t=10m15s
 

shanafan

Member
Any tips on hard to fix a perhaps dead NES cart?

I have tried cleaning it with rubbing alcohol, vinyl eraser, etc but it is still not working. My other NES carts do work, but this one just won't take. Is there a service that can repair non-working carts, or any other cleaning ideas?

I've even tried brasso.
 
There are several tricks you can try. I am assuming that you can open the cartridge. Some NES carts have slotted screws, which are easy to deal with. If your cart has security screws, then you'll need to order security bits for opening it. You can get them super cheap on Amazon, probably less than 5$, so its really worth it.

1. Try to clean the contacts with sandpaper. If your contacts don't respond to Brasso, you may have damaged surfaces, heavy oxidation, etc. Buy some VERY fine wet sandpaper, 600+ grit, and gently sand the surfaces to remove any issue. This should give you a fresh metal surface.

2. Inspect the chips for damage. Most NES carts have electrolytic capacitors, which may go bad. If you see a leaking cap, simply replace it. A lot of NES games also have several on-board chips, if there is any damage to a MMC, etc, then you should replace it.

3. Bypass the 10NES lockout. On the NES board, there is a security chip known as the 10NES. This chip often causes trouble with booting games. You can disable it by disconnecting pin 14 on the board. The easiest way is to simply cut it with a pair of very small wire cutters. You can also try desoldering, etc. Some people recommend grounding the pin once cut, just connect it to a ground on the board with a jumper wire. This mod is about 10 minutes of work, but will prevent the NES from going to "Blinking light" mode, and should help you boot games more regularly.

If the ROM is damaged (the big chip on the game pcb), you have serious issues. I would say that its time to buy a new game, or you could also buy an eeprom writer, download the game ROM, and solder in a new one.
 

AmyS

Member
All of EGM's coverage of S.C.A.T (aka Final Mission) by Natsume.
8-bit Forgotten Worlds clone that was pretty awesome.

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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/natsume/natsume.htm

S.C.A.T. pays homage to Capcom's arcade classic Forgotten Worlds, featuring two flying soldiers and simultaneous gameplay. Although you can only fire forward and backward, you have little orbs that can be positioned to shoot in any direction. Although there are only four stages, each level is fairly long, although they have a tendency to feel a bit drawn out. The third stage is one big, long vertical trip up an elevator shaft - while the sense of speed is cool, it's just the same green background repeating over and over for five minutes. In spite of some missteps, the final stage is a huge battleship a la R-Type, which is pretty impressive for the NES. Although you can sustain a number of hits before dying and starting the level over, your character is a huge target, and the screen is often filled with projectiles. Despite some occasional frustration, there are a few noteworthy details - your characters portraits make them resemble Arnold Scwarzenegger and Signourney Weaver, and the opening voice clip sets the stage for an exciting game ("You must destroy them! The Earth is counting on you! Good luck!") Just don't mind the silly name.


The American version was published by Natsume, while it was released under the title Action in New York by Infogrames in Europe. The Japanese version, Final Mission, has quite a number of differences. First off, it's much harder - instead of beginning with six life bars, you only have three. The orbs control differently as well - you can either command them to be stationary, or they rotate in the direction you're moving in, instead of cycling automatically. The map screen and character select are gone altogether, and the voice in the beginning is completely unintelligible. It definitely seems like we got the good end of the deal on this one. Also, although technically unrelated, The 2008 Xbox 360 shooter Omega Five, also developed by Natsume, bears a slight reseblance to S.C.A.T.
 

OnPoint

Member
Nominations typically open on the day after I post the monthly featured game post. But I'll count these starting with Alf717's post above. Once we get 5 that aren't out of price range, we haven't already selected, and weren't nominated last voting round, we'll have our voting list.
 
Anyone able to vouch for Custom Game Cases' unique NES cases? Thinking of buying quite a bit, because I'm tired of leaving my games in the open. I am not sure if I should go with the unique cases or the generic UGCs.
 

Timu

Member
I'm not playing NES Rambo again, I rather play the Sega Master System and Sega Genesis ones than that one ever again.
 
I'm not going to nominate one this time, I'll let other people do it since I've managed to pick and have titles get chosen so frequently. I think I'll actually pick Rambo since I own it on FC.
 

D.Lo

Member
this animation from tetsuwan atom is so cute

tumblr_o83hd7zPRo1qd4q8ao1_500.gif
It is, but unfortunately the game is pretty primitive.

Such a shame, I was excited as hell in the 90s when I found out there was a Tetsuwan Atomu game on the Famicom made by the kings of the system KONAMI!

I finally played it on a Hong Kong pirate cart and always wished they had made it a year or so later when all their teams had really found their feet with the hardware. It's Yie Ar Kung Fu/Goemon 1/Goonies level, rather than Dracula/Contra level.
 

Timu

Member
Isn't there some glitch where you don't get a health refill between bosses if you get a game over once?
I never heard of that one. But if you die on one of the final bosses, you never get your health back when you face them again since it was intended to be that way.
 
I never heard of that one. But if you die on one of the final bosses, you never get your health back when you face them again since it was intended to be that way.

Oh, okay. I definitely liked the speed and mechanics of it. I'll have to watch some videos of NG2 as well, but I still have Zelda 2 to play.
 

dcx4610

Member
You can watch my youtube vids and see me beat them without dying once!
NG1
NG2

Nice job. I just learned about one shotting the bosses with the spin attack last year after like 25 years. Any reason you don't use it in your runs or do you just like fighting them normally?
 

Timu

Member
Nice job. I just learned about one shotting the bosses with the spin attack last year after like 25 years. Any reason you don't use it in your runs or do you just like fighting them normally?
Latter, the bosses are easy enough without it, with it it's not even really much of a fight.=p
 
NG2 is the easiest of the NES trilogy for what it's worth. Definitely beatable thanks to the unlimited continues.

Yeah, 2 is the only one of the three I can actually beat. I've gotten near the end of the first one, but those final bosses and last couple of stages are just too much... but 2 eases up enough that I could beat it. Good game, I like it!
 

NOLA_Gaffer

Banned
Haven't bought any Famicom carts since my initial batch back in January when I acquired like 25 through a few purchases.

I have this insane fear that everything has shot up in price in the last six months while I wasn't paying attention.
 

OnPoint

Member
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May brought us Nintendo's black-boxed Wrecking Crew, but the team is
now taking their union-sanctioned retirement from the selection process. We move on to the
newly voted in Conquest of the Crystal Palace for the month of June!​

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Let's get dat Wikipedia description up and moving:
Conquest of the Crystal Palace is an 2D action platform game. At the
beginning of the game the player is given a choice between three crystals: A "Flight"
crystal that increases Farron's jump height, a "Life" crystal that increases Farron's
health, and a "Spirit" crystal that gives Farron unlimited use of a fireball attack. All of the
crystal's effects can be temporarily replicated by power-ups that are dropped by
defeated enemies or purchased through Kim's store. Farron's primary method of attack
is his sword, though scrolls can be found or purchased to give Farron long-range
abilities, and Zap can be summoned to damage enemies.​


Here's how the voting shook out for anyone interested.


It was a pretty close month in terms of voting. Nothing really of note here that
we haven't seen before trendwise. I think 25 votes is probably close to the standard
we're going to see going forward. So keep that in mind when making your selections
I suppose.
[/quote]

Header image by D Lo, Monthly image made
by Wanyodos. Guidelines below by RavenholmDX. Selection Process by OnPoint.
Thanks guys!

NES Game Club Guidelines
The nominated title should be readily available via standard
channels such as eBay, for a reasonable price (Maximum $30,
preferably less to give the majority of people a chance to join
in). The title should be a licensed NES/Famicom title (No hacks,
homebrew, multicarts). Only exception is unlicensed, but readily available titles.
The title should be available in English, and if not, it should at the very least be
playable without knowledge of Japanese.

Due to the nature of the Club, excessively long or grind-heavy
games such as RPGs will be excluded.

Use this site to check prices.

Selection Process
Games can be nominated starting one day after the post for a month's pick
goes live (eg: if a game is posted on March 4, nominations open on March 5).


The first five games suggested after nominations open that have not yet been played,
and were not nominated the month before will be added to the list and will be voted on.

So be sure to come in early to nominate your favorites!

Five days after the nominations open, or when we reach five nominations (whichever
comes first) the nominations are tallied in the following manner:
The list of nominees are checked for infringements of the above
guidelines, and any not meeting the requirements are removed.
The voting list will be shuffled for each member voting.
Voting will take place until the 20th day of the month, at which point the poll will
close and the votes will be tallied.
The winner will be announced as soon as the tally is counted so that members
will have time to pick up the winning game.

Previous months:
- May 2016 - Wrecking Crew
- April 2016 - Street Fighter 2010
- March 2016 -The Guardian Legend
- February 2016 - Shatterhand
- January 2016 - Rygar
- December 2015 - Super Mario 3
- November 2015 - Faxanadu
- October 2015 - Monster Party
 

shanafan

Member
Is the top loader with A/V ports really $200? I'm tempted to get one because playing NES games on the Retron5 is so spotty. Some work, others don't. But they work in a real NES.

I do like that HDMI out though..
 

OnPoint

Member
Was just blazing through Conquest of the Crystal Palace and was on the last level when an unfortunate confluence of events led to the game restarting. What a frustrating moment.

Anyway, my impressions so far are that the game is pretty fun and mostly well designed. It was a good pick for this thread. The game is your basic B-tier platformer. It's got some unique qualities and it's fun, but it's not perfect by any means. The music is good stuff and really jams in some places (I love Stage 2's theme), the graphics are great if a little muddy or overly ambitious at time, and the action is often tense and exciting.

There are a few small things that are irritating enough that add up to bringing its overall quality down, however. First and foremost the way attacking while in the air kills your momentum sucks. Especially in the first level where they throw enemies that jump at you as you're jumping. I've died because of this more times than I care to admit because the game is constantly putting you in situations where you want to attack while jumping, and it just shouldn't work this way.

Second, the level design often feels pretty unfair. There are too many "Gotcha!" moments or poorly telegraphed hazards. Thirdly, that last level is straight garbage in every way. I don't want to say too much but it's just no where near as fun as it needs to be while being as irritating as it is. God damned bird enemies can die in a fire.

I gotta go back and finish it still, but I got up to the part where
the spikes are coming down from the ceiling and you don't have enough time to break the door with your sword. Like, you NEED the fireball
but the game never teaches you or telegraphs this. It's moments like that where the game goes from a B to a C or worse in some places in terms of design.

I realize this post is basically shitting all over it. It's partially my frustration for having to play the entire game through again, and there are elements that will frustrate you, but it is still a fun game.
 

Def Jukie

Member
I got an Analogue NT a couple weeks ago and finally had some time to check it out this weekend. I'm so happy I splurged on it when they had a handful left. The image quality is amazing on my Trinitron through component and it's such a sleek little system.There are some bells and whistles I'm sure I will never use and it was an expensive purchase but it was totally worth it to me. Now I need to pick up some more Famicom carts.

I also just got a bunch of cases from customgamecases.com and they are fantastic. If you are looking for cases that will also hold your manuals they are a great option and way better than Bitboxes. They look great on the shelf and I think they are about the same size as UGCs.

Anyway, I managed to clear 4 games this weekend including Ninja Gaiden which I have never finished before. Feels good to complete a game with a reputation of being so difficult. I don't think it really gets tough until stage 5 and the hell with that final boss kicking you back to the beginning of 6. Brutal. Now that I finished it I checked out your playthrough Timu, very impressive. You cut it pretty close on 6-3, lol.

I also finished Castlevania 1 & 2 and Contra without the 30 lives code which is also a first for me. Feel like I'm on a roll, will probably start another game later today.
 

OnPoint

Member
Anyone else playing Conquest of the Crystal Palace yet? I finished it today but I'd like to hear what other people have to say too!
 
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