So I was like playing this like 20 year old obscure game and...

We have the "What are you currently playing" topic in some other section of the forum, but that one focusses on gaming in general, which means new games usually.

I thought it could turn out quite intestesting to create a place to talk about games that are not common and that are at least 20 years old. I want to underline the 8-bit/computer factor here, so please don't post about games you play that were released after 1990, because regardless of if this thread still exists in 2020 there won't be any PS2-games being discussed here

I was inspired for this thread because I just played a lot of Gradius 2 (MSX) and I did not find an appropriate place to post a summary of my great Friday evening

Sooo... "I was like playing this like 20 year old obscure game", Gradius 2, and it's just so stunning. Once I'd forgotten the awful MSX scrolling I was captivated by the graphics, sounds and the absolutely original levels! Gradius III (arcade/ps2) felt a little recycled to me to be quite honest. It was looking like a "hard version" of Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou, with the harder Rock-Stage, the harder Moai-Stage, the harder Ice-Stage... it had all been there.
Now Gradius 2 for the MSX (or enhanced X68000 ver.) is so original. I love the antique level with the Roman pillars that can be destroyed to crush down entire floors. It's quite similar to the ice-stage in Gradius Generation (GBA), really... I guess the GBA stage was an allusion to the MSX level.

I finally reached stage 1-7 and died. Then died four more times and did my best to recover at the end of the stage (wtf zomg *adrenaline!111*) and I even managed to reach the first of the two bosses. Unfortunately, I wasn't really prepared where to go when the platforms began to move toward me and my last life was blown away with an awfully hard MSX generated sound *wafWAFWAFWAF* <(^口^)>

Final result: Stage 1-7, 582.000 points. I'm going for the clear, if I take down the bosses in 1-7, I'll have to pass the former stages again (thanks a lot Konami -__-) until 1-13. Only then the real final stage appears, 1-14... agh. Why did shooters have to be so long back in 1987?

Alright. I'm eager to read your reports about ambitious pre-16bit gaming ^____^

 

There were lots of 16 bit machines before 1990 including the Amiga, Atari ST, Megadrive, Intellivision (sort of)...

Last night I was playing Berzerk (on a real arcade machine), trying to get a score over 10,000 points and failing again. The random nature of the screens do mean on the later stages you might have robots on 3 sides so you have to move and fire quick but as the robots lasers are also quick you tend to end up dying...

 

Earlier today I picked out a random game to play, and Journey to Silius for the NES is what I chose mainly because I thought the cover art was cool. I had never heard of anyone mention this game before and after playing for a while I don't understand why it isn't considered an all time awesome game?! The music in it was just amazing and the difficulty is up there pretty high for some of the bosses. The controls are also nicely done almost a perfect medium between the looseness of Contra and the tightness of Castlevania. I would honestly recommend this game to anyone who loves Contra/Mega Man type games. The second boss took me forever to beat though.

 

it is a well known game, and one of my favorites BTW the second boss is not that hard! use the correct weapons and you'll be all set

 

I know, just as well as I could have predicted that you had to correct me right away

But since there are grey areas such as PC-Engine, I thought drawing the line at a certain date rather than loosely bound to hardware-generations would be better.

I think early 16-bit titles (like: before 1990) are as eligible for "old obscure games" as late Famicom games that... were released after 1990.

_l￣l○

Damn, what the hell. Just post games that are clearly old and chunky looking, lol.

 

Be careful Jamtex... you don't want a heart attack!

 

Journey to Sillius suck, because the idiots who did the localization (more like ruining it instead becase the original game is already in english) felt like having an red haired red-neck nerd as hero would cause the kids to be more excited about the game than the original helmet wearing character. Pure bull****.

Look for the real thing: RAF WORLD from Sunsoft for the Family Computer. :lol:

 

i have no clue what are you talking about. here in italy we have a normal localization and the hero has an helmet.

 

I ended up picking up Alex Kidd in Miracle world (along with Zillion and Afterburner) for SMS a few days ago.

What the hell?

I'd never really played an Alex Kidd game up until yesterday...and man...I'm disappointed.

I've always heard that Alex Kidd in Miracle world is a great game---different, but an acceptable substitute for Super Mario Bros....and what I'm finding is a real generic platformer with slippery controls and poor collision detection.

Generally speaking, I found myself prepetually pissed off at the game--not because it was hard, but that is just controlled so poorly. Really weird jumping...and punches that don't often connect where you expect them to. To make sure I wasn't just crazy or not used to playing Master System games, I popped in Ghost Manor (or Ghost House, or whatever its called) and was having a blast. A simpler game (and hard as fuck)...but I was having fun that I just don't see myself having with Alex Kidd.

Maybe Alex Kidd is a "you just had to be there" kind of game. I dunno. Anybody care to explain the appeal to me? Maybe some Brazilian or European can properly put it into context for me.

Man, I love this topic. We never talk about REALLY old stuff here. Next time: Atari 8 bit computers!

 

You see games you played when you were little with completely different eyes than you do see games from the same era you didn't play back then.

 

Well, of course.

I feel I'm pretty objective about Alex Kidd and it's not that great.

I do have much Mario nostalgia, though, so I'm not sure whether my love of Mario is just making Alex Kidd look bad, when it is in fact just about as good.

Seems like the sort of games that you can never get an objective opinion on, perhaps...so many people being devoted to them.

 

Yeah, and usually you notice they aren't quite as good as you remember...

 

True that, especially the graphics :nod:

But most of the time I still dig the games I liked back then, at least game play wise.

 

An example being We're Back A Dinosaur Story for the SNES. I thought that game was awesome when I was a little kid and god I tried it about a month or two ago and it's god awful!

 

Wouldn't it make more sense to wtite: don't post about games you play on consoles that were released after 1990?

This would at least include also those games on 8/16bit consoles which are released on platforms < '91, but itself released > '91. That would include almost all games up to SFC hardware level.

 

every now and then, I play Bank Panic on the good old master system. A very addictive game, one of those "plug and enjoy" that doesn't seem to exist anymore.

 

Nemesis 90 kai (isn't that the 'upgraded x68k' title to msx gradius?) - great game, been playing it a fair bit recently. So much easier if you just limit yourself to two options though!

 

It's the upgraded "Gradius 2" for the MSX - which I am currently playing as I wrote in the first post
'90 Kai looks & sounds so much better than the already great MSX original!! I'd love to play that, but it isn't a good time for an X68k for me right now.

Why does it play better with only two options? Less slowdown? The original MSX game allows the player to obtain only two, but it plays really good with all the extra options. The only time I pray for four options are some of the bosses whose cores are really hard to hit, let alone in 15 seconds (for 2 extra items)! OH:

 

Does the msx version have this track in it? http://www.youtube.com/user/gmintyfresh#p/u/97/anZExnFc_GU

I'm going to have to track the MSX one down by the sound of it. I'm having to emulate it - it seems to be really high in price now, even on yahoo japan - I'm sure it wasn't like that last time I was looking at getting an X68k itself.

About options - the rank in the game is like: obtain an option=bullet/enemy speed X2, even when bullets are already mid flight! In addition bosses get an extra bullet pattern every time you get an option, or even if you just get the laser or double. I think it adds to the game though, makes you think about upgrading/downgrading for specific situations, gives it strategy.

 

Doesn't sound familiar to me. There are a couple of exclusive stages in the X68k version, maybe that track is used in one of them?

Depends on the hardware. A refurb unit with enough power to play all the games and a new PSU goes for 400$+ BIN on YAJ. Therefore it may be good to look for sales from real collectors and not just wholesellers... one may need to replace parts though. But it's such a nice system to look at! And the ports seem fantastic, so perfect for the early 90's.

Oh, that explains the Youtube videos! I've always been wondering why there were so many suicide bullets although the replays are all from the 1st loop.
The MSX version doesn't have rank in the 1st round, or at least I haven't noticed it yet. While it is indeed hard as nails, it's always the same. Which can be VERY tricky in stages like the organic one or 1-7 (Gradius 1's final stage look-alike). For instance, the organic stage throws red blood cells at you that come from behind and are faster than Metalion without power-ups. I might add that those prefer to attack the player in narrow corridors where a lot of sprite flicker occurs. Doesn't that sound like a nice enemy for someone who just respawned? Lol. OH: