Older games you love (to some degree.)

[ByTor, Prince of Ro’den]

I noticed that we really needed a thread like this to talk about old games we love.

     

Here's one I'll always remember playing a lot in the late 80s and through the 90s: Impossible Mission! And no, it has nothing to do with the TV/Film series Mission Impossible.

I have a lot of fond memories playing it and its sequel.

 

[TheRedStranger]

Oh we gotta add Odd and Retroware into this...Gotta be able to talk about thing like the famous SID chip and the weird peripherals too through out the years.

 

 

[F07E]

geez there's so many to choose from!!! well I guess I gotta start with legend of dragoon

me and my brother used to sink so much time into this game, and initially we couldn't beat the stupid shrine of shirley's amazingly simple statue puzzle on disc one, and nearly never beat (insanely OP) lenus on disc two, but it was always a blast to sit back and play.

[Wulfsbane]

I always have a fondness for Crazy Taxi.

 

There's an arcade in Meredith, NH that has the arcade version of the game. I set the high score a year and a half ago, hasnt been beaten since

[Mike Arcade]

Wulfsbane I have Crazy Taxi on my phone and love that series, why haven't I heard of this before? XP
 

Considering By-Tor here posted a Classic PC Game, I actually wanted to get a video of some good MSX Games to follow in line, I'll have to share that later, but I saw this and thought it would be good to share, I always loved the Ecco Series with it's odd yet unique story, with most of it's background in the manuals. I'd recommend to check them out though they are pretty tough, especially the first game. No matter what version you play it's an experience.

Hmm, what other gameplay videos should I post around here? There are the MSX Games, especially the ones from Konami back in the day before they lost themselves, they were Kings on the MSX Computers no joke. Then there are other obscure ones like the Sharp X68000, or the PC-88 and PC-98, and then there are a bunch of others as well I know, I know way too many games.

 

[Ishapar]

How about Afterburner?

[ByTor, Prince of Ro’den]

On 8/24/2016 at 5:20 PM, Ishapar said:

How about Afterburner?

I remember playing that one; one of the early arcade flight sims. The arcade version almost ripped my arm out of its socket from the force feedback; I was quite little at the time.

Anyway, for the 1990s PlayStation era the game Alundra will always have a special place in my heart.

 

[Wulfsbane]

Anyone remember the Simpson's Arcade Game?

[ByTor, Prince of Ro’den]

23 hours ago, Wulfsbane said:

Anyone remember the Simpson's Arcade Game?

Yes, I have it on my PS3. It's a fun little beat-em-up; and I especially like the cameos of Binky and Bongo from Life in Hell.

[Mike Arcade]

I have it on my 360, true story back over at Disneyland in LA I played the game with some teenagers as a kid and got to the very end, on my last quarter I beat the game.
 

Speaking of Beat em ups, gotta love Streets of Rage, the whole series is a classic, with Streets of Rage 2 being even better then Final Fight and overall the best beat em up ever made...yes I realize how big of a claim that is but hey it's true when it comes to classic beat em ups. Also I must mention Streets of Rage Remake, which is essentially a Remake of all 3 games so to speak. That and The Original Trilogy shouldn't be missed, but I highly recommend to use an English Patch to Streets of Rage 3's Japanese version Bare Knuckles III, whihc you can find rather easily. Also this series has some of the best music on the Genesis, right up there with Shinobi (Also done by Yuzo Koshiro), the Sonic Games, and Thunder Force.

[ByTor, Prince of Ro’den]

Streets of Rage is a definite classic. Another Beat-em-up I played a lot back in the day was Final Fight; we had an arcade machine in a local restaurant and I pumped countless quarters in that guy. I eventually got it on the Super Nintendo, but it wasn't as good. The "World" edition arcade is by far the best; The U.S. localization was censored horridly.

 

[TheRedStranger]

 

Who here played The Sims when they were little? I remember playing this all through Middle-School, creating life stories in an open possibility space like this was amazing to experience and, I dare say, helped encourage me to become a writer and an artist. I came to Sims through Simcity 3000 and loved how I could now guide the lives of characters I created.

 

I remember getting several expansions for Christmas (some were Ebay-bought by my well-meaning mother ended up being pirated copies Tagalog :/).  I now have the Complete Edition and still crack it open from time to time, though Sims 2 then 3 stole my heart in late Middle School then Highschool. Making Magic is what really exploded my mind to all sorts of possibilities. It along with Harry Potter fueled my fascination with the concept of Magical Realism, and still informs my work. The thought of making a world with cheery shopping-longer music and white picket fences peppered with pockets of Gypsesque magicscapes was a thrilling concept to me. An unknown world within our known world, fiction in our reality, is a titilating thought that makes you imagine what's out there and what could be. 

 

[WarTraveller]

I remember my sister used to LOVE The Sims. Still does, actually; one of her little jokes is to ask me to buy her The Sims 4. Which I wouldn't because A: It's an Origin product and therefore evil, B: it is also an EA product and therefore evil and C: it has less content than  Sims 3 for a higher price. And is therefore evil.

[Wulfsbane]

On 8/29/2016 at 8:08 AM, WarTraveller said:

I remember my sister used to LOVE The Sims. Still does, actually; one of her little jokes is to ask me to buy her The Sims 4. Which I wouldn't because A: It's an Origin product and therefore evil, B: it is also an EA product and therefore evil and C: it has less content than  Sims 3 for a higher price. And is therefore evil.

Origin isnt terrible it's just not user friendly

[WarTraveller]

8 hours ago, Wulfsbane said:

Origin isnt terrible it's just not user friendly

And neither is uPlay, to be fair.

[Mike Arcade]

Before I go on to more obscure games and consoles some of the time, I must point out this long dormant series Sega acquired when it's developer TechnoSoft went under, that of course being Thunder Force. Though not starting off on a Sega Console, it quickly ended up on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive once it's 2nd Entry ended up ported on there. In fact TechnoSoft was on of the first 3rd Party Developers to work on the MD. Afterwards the 3rd entry came out and that sparked mainstream popularity of it's time, it even got an Arcade and SNES Port, however despite that the Genesis Version of TFIII is the best one in terms of sound, which is usually never the case. TFIV came out afterwards in the middle of the console's life cycle and was the best game yet with a TON of levels, bosses, balanced gameplay with one of the best soundtracks for a Genesis game ever made, not to mention this marked the debut of the most popular ship and the 4th in the Fire-LEO line up, The Rynex, which would make an important appearance in the follow up game years later. TFV is said to be and regarded as the best in the series, coming out for the Sega Saturn and later the PSX the series took a major plot twist from the get go. rather then taking place in a a far away galaxy with the war between The Galaxy Federation and ORN Empire, TFV takes place on Earth, where humanity found the remains of The Rynex in their Asteroid Belt. Upon dubbing it The Vastian's Steel (or Vasteel), they build an artificial island and a Super Computer to reverse engineer it and begin a new era, years afterwards of course it goes straight to hell and you must pilot Earth's own version of The Rynex called the RVR-01 Gauntlet. There was a 6th game made by Sega in house 10 years ago and while that looks pretty good it's doesn't look as good as the 4th and 5th Entries.

While it's original plot was rather standard much like other Shmups of it's hay day, it's gameplay, rocking and wonderful soundtrack, speed, and personality shined through the 16 and 32-bit era. I'd love to see this series again and I'd recommend anyone here to check them out, or at least look up the music, seriously it's great.

With that said in mind I'll see about posting videos and info on some more obscure games and consoles, just to see how that goes for you guys and to share my insane knowledge of obscure gaming and passion for gaming in general, see you then!

[Mike Arcade]

Welcome everybody! It's about time I finally get into more rather obscure Console and PC hardware and games. In this case though I'll be talking about Gradius, which is a well known series among SHMUPS as a forefather of the Horizontal Shooter Genre, this line of sequels however are not that well known internationally as they were made exclusively for the MSX line of PCs, yes I'm talking about the MSX Gradius Series, also known as the Nemesis Series.

The original Gradius was very popular when it came out, so naturally Konami back in their hay day had it ported to just about everything, except toasters. So no surprise that they would port it on the popular MSX PC, however what you may not know about Konami of the past is that they were not only successful in Arcades and later on the Famicom/NES, but before the NES' reign they were mainly KINGS of the MSX. I'm not kidding Konami made a TON of Games and Ports for the MSX and all it's variants, so naturally a port of their new hotcake Gradius would end up on a PC where they ruled. Which was a rather pretty good port of the Arcade Hit, and had a few extras you can do with other Konami Cartridges such as playing as Pentaro from Penguin Adventure or Twinbee from Twinbee. When you bought an MSX Konami game you got your worth, however they did make original games on the system such as Maze of Galious and later on the original Metal Gear, though a funny thing happened that no other company would usually do...they would make a sequel to Gradius exclusively for the MSX.

That might not seem to be all that surprising as sequels do happen with popular games, but not when you make a sequel to an Arcade game that is ALSO having a sequel made for their Arcade Board. So essentially we have in fact TWO Gradius IIs. The one for the MSX however was developed and released first a year before Gradius II, the MSX Developed game become known as Gradius 2 (Notice the lack of a Roman Numeral Number), which is also known as Nemesis 2, Confusing isn't it?

The MSX Gradius/Nemesis Series is an odd beast, but man is it a fun one, you actually get a LOT more plot unlike in the original Gradius, you play as James Burton the pilot of Vic Viper from Gradius 1, who must once more defeat the Bacterian Empire and their new ally Dr. Venom, the creator of The Vic Viper who defected from Gradius after a failed Coup. As James Burton you must pilot the more advanced Metalion fighter that was once developed by Dr. Venom and take him and the Bacterian Empire down. There's a little more to it then that but the story DOES give you more motivation with it's intro then SHMUPS usually give you back then, I'd say it paved the way for more story and lore in SHMUP games such as Thunder Force V, R-Type Final, and Radiant Silvergun for example. Gradius 2 offers more variety, enemies, and bosses then Gradius 1 which are much more tougher this time around. You also can fly into the cores of bosses after you defeat them for a chance to get new weapons for your ship such as the deadly Up Laser and Napalm Missle, which are some of the most effective weapons in the series, they really got it right the 2nd time around.
Speaking of 2nd time around I hope you like the challenge of Ghosts n' Goblins because this game gives you a turnover and has you play the levels in reverse order. @_@

Still it's a wonderful game which gave rise to other MSX Developed Gradius games such as Salamander, which is slightly similar to the arcade game but with different ships, gameplay more similar to Gradius and Life Force then the Arcade Original and more story with it taking place several years after Gradius 2. Gofer's Ambition - Episode II/Nemesis III: Eve of Destruction follows up 200 years after the previous games where as James Burton's Descendant  David Burton must use the Vixen to time travel and prevent Dr. Venom's killing a younger James Burton. Back to the Future Time Shenanigans aside it's said to be the easiest of the MSX Series, which is saying something as these games are TOUGH and throw you some curve balls such as what I mentioned above for Gradius 2 and collecting Hidden Items to beat Salamander and Nemesis 3.

Gradius 2 would end up getting a remake on the Sharp X68000 which is like a PC and Arcade Board in one, that game is known as Nemesis '90 Kai. The game is remade with a few new levels and new bosses; this remake has the same style as the Arcade Originals of Gradius, though it's MUCH more harder as a result. However for those who want a more faithful remake of Gradius 2, some fans made their own remake of it for the Sharp X68000 called Nemesis '94 though it does lack the extras '90 Kai brought over.
Though this version of the series isn't that well known anymore, Konami before they turned on everyone didn't forget about the series unlike everyone internationally did, such as having Venom apparently be the final boss of Gradius V, the Wii game Gradius ReBirth being an interquel of Gradius 1 and MSX Gradius 2, and Dr. Venom himself even appeared in the last Gradius game, Otomedius Excellent.
Overall I'd say you should check out the whole series, you might end up getting a taste for both SHMUP and MSX games for it.

As for me not mentioning the original MSX Parodius game, that's a story for another time...

 

[ByTor, Prince of Ro’den]

Long before Tony Hawk video games came on the scene; many fun events included throughout. Oh for the good 'ol days when we had ECA instead of EA.