How I became a retro gamer

Retro gamers weren't always retro gamers, you know.

I cut my teeth on DOS and NES games in the late 80's, which were modern at the time. It would have been odd for me to be playing Atari 2600 stuff at the time   :)

This article will explain my progression of gaming from the beginning through the time that retro games became more important than new games. Lots of screenshots at first, but there's more text below...

Some of my early favorites were formative stuff like:

Miner 2049er (PC, DOS)

Super Mario Bros (NES)

Contra (NES)

In the early 90's I continued progressing with SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, and PC games. Some examples:

Super Ghouls & Ghosts (SNES)

Kid Chameleon (Genesis)

Soul Star (Sega CD)

Hocus Pocus (PC, DOS)

In the mid 90's I started playing more modern 3D games, such as

Descent (PC, DOS) (My #1 game of all time)

Doom (PC, DOS)

Hexen (PC, DOS)

Magic Carpet (PC, DOS)

Lemmings 3D (PC, DOS)

At the time of me playing those 3D games, many of my friends were still mostly into 2D games, so I actually thought myself "more progressive" than they were (at the time). [In retrospect that was a pretty lame/elitist view to have and I regret it]

Later on those friends finally caught up with the 3D trend and we had many great LAN parties with games like:

Quake (PC)

Unreal Tournament (PC)

However I remember one particular instance around 1999 at a LAN party where I was sitting pretty in a comfortable recliner playing 3D games on my PC, and over in the corner were a few of my friends playing this weird 2D game on a small CRT TV. It was about a vampire guy running through a castle and killing all these enemies with a sword. It looked exceedingly boring to me at the time and I wondered why they were even wasting their time playing it.

That game was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

---How little did I know at the time---

In the late 90's early 2000's, Racing games became a bigger thing for me, stuff like

Colin Mcrae 2 (PC)

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 (PC)

Also some favorites were

Rune (PC) (for the multiplayer)

Thief (PC)

In addition to those, I was still playing some amount of 1st person shooters, and also now spending some time playing rhythm games like DDR.

Some time around 2002 or 2003, a friend commented to me and said "I just got done playing Gameboy Advance while laying down on the couch". And it got me to thinking, how awesomely comfortable that would be.

So I did a little research on handheld systems, and I discovered a Korean homebrew handheld called GP32. It could play emulators like NES and other 8 bit systems. This sounded pretty interesting, I could re-live some of the games of my youth, all while on the go! So I bought a GP32 in the summer of 2003. It was neat and good, but unfortunately I got the one without a backlit screen, so it was difficult to see the screen very well. Because of this I decided to sell it that fall.

In 2004, I continued playing many AAA PC games, I call it "The Year of the First Person Shooter". I played an unusually high number of FPS games that year, and also finished them all (which is rare for me).

That year, I played and beat:

Painkiller (PC)

Far Cry (PC) (This was my favorite game this year)

Doom 3 (PC)

Half Life 2 (PC) (Yes I liked Far Cry better than HL2)

Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (PC)

I also played a bit of Thief 3, and Chrome, but didn't finish those.

After 2004, I was totally burned out on First Person Shooters.

In 2005, this thing called PSP came out. There also existed a handheld called Tapwave Zodiac, Nintendo DS, and of course the GP32 with a backlit screen was still an option. So I decided I was finally gonna get a handheld gaming console with the intention of playing some emulation on it, and some of the games designed for the handheld itself. It took me a little while to decide which one I was gonna get.

Once homebrew stuff became available for PSP around July 2005, I decided I was definitely gonna get a PSP (In retrospect, excellent decision and I don't regret it). Those first months with the PSP I played some PSP games, but also quite a bit of NES, Gameboy, Master system and other older consoles on emulation. SNES became fullspeed soon after that. For some reason it took about a year before there was a decent Genesis emulator on PSP, but eventually I was playing a ton of Genesis games on PSP as well. It turned out I was using the PSP for MOSTLY emulation and retro gaming.

The PSP remained relevant for a long time, into the 2010's.

But to continue the original timeline...

In 2006, I got a Geforce 7800 GS AGP for my PC, which was one of the fastest AGP video cards they ever made. I played a bit of Oblivion

 which had some really sweet graphics, but also got heavily into Trackmania Nations

 and played a lot of that in a clan online for the next year or two.

Around the summer of 2007, as I was going through the collection of Genesis games, I started getting a keen interest in shmups. In Fall 2007, I finally discovered bullet hell games such as

Dodonpachi (Arcade)

Terra Diver / Soukyuu Gurentai (Arcade)

Which led to the discovery of PC Doujin shmups like

Flew Fighter (PC)

Warning Forever (PC)

Blue Wish Resurrection (PC)

Shmup mania was in full effect, and my life would never be the same.

From 2008, I was using the PSP to play arcade shmups in emulation (CPS2 emulator) , and I would practice shmups at work on the PSP, and then I would make playthrough attempts at home on the PC. For example I 2CC'ed Gigawing by doing this. The PSP also had a couple interesting homebrew shmup ports like Noiz2sa and Rrootage. Great stuff!!

All the while it was being firmly established that I LOVED 2D platformers in general.

From 2007-2008 on, I was playing new AAA PC titles less and less. I think the last new mainstream PC games I cared about when they were new were STALKER and Bioshock, and they ran a bit slow on my computer.

After that point, I no longer spent money to regularly upgrade my PC's graphics card. I was no longer "in the race".

I bought a Playstation 2 (two) in 2008 so I could play some of the shmup ports for it. PS2 In 2008. PS3 had already been out for several years at this point.

I never bought a PS3 or Xbox 360 or anything newer.    Our family does have a Wii but I don't use it for my personal gaming.

So I would say the year I "crossed over" from regular gamer to "retro gamer" was 2007.

You know what?

It's great!

Now I enjoy indie PC games, and older games from arcade and all the older console systems. I also enjoy a lot of android games because many of them are simple pick-up-and-go type games with an action oriented retro feel. And you know the neatest/weird thing is that "retro games" are always getting newer. As time progresses eventually even PS3 will be considered 'retro' and I'll check that out then, but with no pressure to feel obligated to "Keep up with the chase".

:)

One of the things that really helped me to enjoy retro games even more, is after I read this article about arcade culture. I've already mentioned it in the first post of this blog. Although I don't agree with everything he says or his condescending tone, it really did get me turned on to the idea of limiting the amount of credits that you put into the game. In other words, not abusing savestates. When you abuse savestates, you make the game too easy and take away the challenge/fun and sense of accomplishment of beating the game at its intended difficulty.

For example: If you play a MAME arcade game with unlimited credits, and blast through the entire game, it is not very rewarding. Whereas if you limit yourself to a few credits and get gradually better, it is very rewarding when you finally complete it.

Exactly the same if if you are using a ton of savestates on a NES platformer, saving multiple times during the middle of levels, before hard jumps, etc, then it is taking all the challenge and reward out of the game.

If you want to "detox" yourself from savestates, first try just by only saving at the beginning of each level. And then eventually never.   :)

In conclusion: New games suck and old games rule.  Just kidding, but I can't think of anything more profound or succinct to conclude with at this point   :)   Good thing only one other person reads this blog.

Round 7 - R-Type Leo (US Version)!

Round 7 is: R-Type Leo (US Version).
Goal: See how far you can get on 3 credits.

R-Type Leo is a horizontal shmup developed by Nanao and published by Irem.

This is a fun game that I've had positive experiences with in the past. It's nowhere near as difficult as the original R-Type which is brutally punishing.

There is a US version and a Japanese version. The main difference is that the US version lets you restart where you were when you die, whereas the Japanese version has restart points, similar to the original R-Type.

We decided to go with the US version since we are American and French (and not Japanese robots), so it will give us a better chance of getting to the end   :)

Let's go go go and have fun with this one!!!

Round 6 - My Super Mario Bros 3 - Post Mortem and Screenshots

Sweet. Thanks for humoring me and playing that :)    I've always loved SMB.

My Super Mario Bros 3 was a very difficult SMB level set, at least as hard as "the lost levels" if not harder. World 3-1 was particularly brutal.

Results:

organic io: Finished (World 6 final)
A-Lin: World 3 Castle

I played it again tonight to take screenshots and see if I could discover levels 5-3 and 5-4, however I still couldn't find them, I think they don't exist. It just goes from 5-2 to 6-final.

Screenshot time!


2-1 - This is the extra lives loop exploit   :)

2-2

 

 2-3

 

 Castle 2, make sure you choose the right way to go   :)

 

 3-1 , probably the most difficult level in the game. Massive jumping puzzle at this point and beyond that is very challenging

 

 3-2

 

 3-3

 

 Castle 3. Indeed very difficult. You have to stay on the floating platform and get through all the fireballs and turtles. Intense.

 

 4-1

 

 4-2

 

 4-3

 

 Castle 4. Lots of jumping on moving platforms

 

 5-1

 5-2

 World 6 final. It's the last level. Challenging, but not as bad as 3-1.

Awesome! Tell me what you want to play next?

Retro Lookback: Little Nemo - The Dream Master

Not really a game I want to do for a club round, but just wanted to give some appreciation to one of my favorite platformers of all time. I played this a ton when I was a kid and it is definitely one of the best NES games.

I played through it tonight and took screenshots. The game is highly recommended for its unique atmosphere, graphics, music, and superb gameplay. With the music and the level design, the game really does have a surreal dreamlike quality.

Basically the premise is that you befriend animals by giving them candy, and then you can become the animal and take on their powers temporarily. There are quite a few different animal powers. If they had been around at the time, I'm sure the Wild Kratts would have approved   :)

Each level has an exit which requires a certain number of keys, but you don't know how many keys until you get there. Hopefully you collect them all during the level. Some of the levels have a pseudo non-linear layout so you can do a decent bit of exploration.

Let's get started...   :)

 

 From the catchy title screen music, you know you're in for a treat. 

 

Level 1, Mushroom Forest. Beautiful

 The frog has high jumping powers and is also a strong swimmer

The Mole can dig

 

Level 2: Flower Garden

 

The ape is the strongest animal in the game. Beware, this section is the 1st in the series of "what the heck were they thinking with the level design?"

The Bee can fly and also shoot stingers

 

Level 3: House of Toys. Probably the most iconic level in the game. It has the same theme as the 1st level in the Nemo arcade game. This level is very difficult. 

 

Most of the level has you riding a toy train and dodging various airplanes and hot air balloons

 

This part is #2 in the "what the heck were they thinking" level design decisions. These flying squirrels are hiding behind spikes, and they come out at random times and random heights. You will die many times trying to get past this section.

 Here's what the door at the end of levels looks like

 

Level 4: Night sea. Fairly relaxed atmosphere with some chill music. Not too hard of a level but fun. Lots of swimming involved.

 The crab can burrow under the sand

Cool shipwreck

You can also be this big red fish but it's not very useful since Nemo can already swim

 

Level 5: Nemo's house. This is a difficult level with a fairly non-linear design

 

You'll find yourself switching creatures a lot here

 This is #3 in what the heck were they thinking....   This is about 3/4ths the way through the level and really hard. If you die here from these eggs, you have the start all the way at the beginning.

 

Level 6: Cloud Ruins. The least memorable level of the game. It's just not very challenging or interesting

 Cool fallen clock tower

 

You have to jump down from all these clouds, it just goes on forever..

 Level 7: Topsy-Turvy. It's an upside down house. The shading is pretty clever. It's an OK level but nothing special

 

 Level 8: Nightmare land. It's difficult and full of dangers

 

1st boss: Penguin

 

Next section of nightmare land after you beat the penguin. Shortly after this screenshot is #4 in the what were they thinking series. There is a section where you have to take the lizard through all these fire spouts and it is really difficult to get to the top without dying.

Boss 2: Some weird flying stingray thing. It's really hard because he flies through the middle of the screen to try to hit you 

 

Oh man. I've only been this far a few times. I think (?) this is the last section of nightmare land. But I died, and it took me all the way back to the first section of nightmare land when I continued. When I started dying during the lizard/fire section, I gave up. No wonder I have never beaten this game before. 

One day, Nemo, one day I will beat you!!!!  But that day is not today. 

Nevertheless, Little Nemo: The Dream Master -- An absolute classic and highly recommended to anyone even remotely interested in 2d platformers. 

:)

-organic io