It’s amazing that game consoles track your achievements automatically in this day and age. Why, back in my day, I had to document every one of my achievements by hand. And you’d better believe I liked it that way!
I was really proud when I won my first NES game (though I probably shouldn’t have been — it was Konami’s Life Force while using the notorious Konami code). No matter, I still remember it as the first game I ever won. When I had gone on to win my first 10 games, I had no trouble recalling their titles and the order in which I completed them. After about 10, it got harder to keep the list straight in my head, so I started to record the titles on these little yellow pieces of paper and hang them on the wall near my NES.
I recently came across the list neatly rolled up in a box. It’s time to photograph it, post it, and then let the physical item go.
Here are few achievements that stand out now, especially since I have spent the last decade or so reading internet reviews about how ridiculously difficult certain games were (a.k.a. games that were Nintendo Hard):
The Adventures of Bayou Billy
Battletoads
Ninja Gaiden
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
I have read no shortage of retro-reviews indicating that anyone who claims to have won these games is a filthy liar. Well, I did win each one fair and square, back in the day. Never used a Game Genie, although I did often have Nintendo Power advising me. I’m not saying the games weren’t difficult. In fact, Battletoads had me downright stressed one summer as I was determined to win it and rented it 3 times in a row to achieve that goal. Afterwards, I wrote a letter to Nintendo Power with some tips and strategies I discovered along the way and they actually wrote a letter back, congratulating me for finishing Battletoads!
Another achievement I must mention is that I once made it to level 63 in Duck Hunt. Trust me, that’s the kind of accomplishment that comes from a hot summer afternoon of total boredom and nothing else to play. I wouldn’t recommend trying to beat that record.
On the flip side, I thought Mike Tyson was remarkably difficult to beat in Punch-Out!! Here’s a situation where most people I knew claimed they beat him on their very first try. Not me; I worked for weeks to beat him and I was briefed on all his tells and strategies well in advance.
Anyway, here are my achievements: 100+ games completed, mostly during a period of 3 years. Note that I counted the second quest of The Legend of Zelda as a separate game (#4 in this list). That’s controversial. It was certainly different enough to be a separate title.
I recently unloaded a large swath of my personal video game collection. I gave the items to friends and to video game museums, free of charge. As is my custom, I took photos of everything I gave away, just for sentimental effect. I thought I’d post the photos in order to give readers ample opportunity to exclaim “OMG! You should have tried to sell whatever presumably rare item on eBay for hundreds of dollars!” It’s out of my hands now. Don’t worry, though. I didn’t give away all of my video games yet. I basically got rid of everything that’s not on optical media. Here is my complete game collection and I still have around 700 DOS/Windows games.
Click on any image for a much higher resolution photograph.
NES Console Lot
Official NES top loader: The SNES-style NES control deck; it still has the $99.95 price tag on it which is what I paid for it used. Hey, it was worth it. I bought it in (I think) 2002 and the thing was far more reliable than any standard front-loaders that I still owned at the time (all since discarded).
RetroUSB’s NES PowerPak: I was one of the first people to buy one of these. It took me about 3 years to finally get around to trying to use it and I couldn’t make it work. I didn’t try very hard, though, and I didn’t care enough to try harder. I hope the new owner has better luck.
2 new style controllers; 1 old style controller
1 Light Zapper Gun (in the original grey styling; purchased 1989)
NES Cartridge Lot #1
Dragon Warrior II is certainly the most valuable of this lot.
I completed RE4 nearly 2 years ago and then swiftly moved on to something else in my life. When I powered on the game this past weekend, I saw some new menu options that I vaguely recall being unlocked after winning the game. One of the bonus options is called Assignment Ada wherein the player assumes the role of a supporting character named Ada Wong who is tasked with a subquest of collecting 5 MacGuffins.
This <10min quick play on YouTube has me thinking that I worked entirely too hard to clear the Assignment Ada bonus game:
This speed run is predicated on the fact that the enemies in the game are famously slow on the uptake and don’t react quick enough while the player sprints right past them.
The first time I reached the boss of the assignment, I thought he might have been impossible to beat. Much of the battle seemed to consist of so-called quicktime events where failure to press a random pair of buttons at the precise moment when prompted results in immediate death. RE4 is generally a quite popular and accomplished title, which makes it that much more ironic that it has 2 big features that receive so much criticism, including these quicktime events (the other point of contention is the escort mission, which I am probably alone in enjoying). These event junctures instantly transform a game of skill into a game of chance.
I quit in frustration the first night and gave it another go the next night. This time, I mostly honed my combat technique and studied the most efficient and, more importantly, stylized methods for dispatching foes. When I made it to the boss, I was extremely well-equipped with both weapons and health items. With enough practice I finally took him down.
And then I watched the above video and figured out that there was a much quicker way to take care of him. Figures. Reminds me of a certain boss in Resident Evil: Code Veronica (this guy, the Nosferatu)– first time around, he finally succumbed after I threw every single weapon in my cache at him. The second time through the game, I finally noticed the remarkably useful, specialized weapon nearby that the game was doing everything it could to nudge me towards.
Anyway, the good news is that Resident Evil 4 is still fun.
So I finally sat down and tried to actually enjoy a quality game– in this case, Resident Evil remake for the GameCube. Unfortunately, I soured on the game pretty quickly. I think it’s because it began to feel a tad repetitive. It went something like this:
break through to a new “area” to explore
thoroughly explore the area, knock out a few zombies and other new creatures
study the puzzles, bang my head on them
explore some more, make sure I got everything I can possibly collect by studying the colors of rooms on the map
if I can solve the puzzles, proceed onward to a boss battle and then break into a new “area”
otherwise, bang my head on puzzles some more
Yeah, there are walkthroughs out there, but I don’t feel like looking them up. The graphics are phenomenal in this remake. However, they can also get a bit repetitive.
I was heavily into gaming back in the middle 8-bit NES epoch (1989-1992). By 1994, my interest in gaming had pretty much faded. But in 2001, I picked up a used Sega Dreamcast for programming purposes. But I also procured a used copy of Resident Evil: Code Veronica. That game single-handedly revitalized my interest in video games. I hunted down used copies of RE chapters 2 and 3 for the Dreamcast only to find that they were direct PlayStation ports (I’m quite glad I skipped the early 3D epoch of gaming). Then there was Resident Evil 4 for the GameCube which can’t be beat.
So it seems I really ought to enjoy the first RE on the GameCube. There was something else about this game that nagged at me and the problem crystalized when I read this Cracked.com article: The 7 Commandments All Video Games Should Obey, in particular rule #4: Thou shalt make killing fun. I’m quite a ways into the game (though still only on the first of 2 discs) and I still only have a 9mm handgun and a shotgun. I mean, they’re functional, but also a little boring. Well, I have the combat knife too, but that generally stays in cold storage since I don’t have much carrying space to spare. RE:CV was far more generous with the weapons (heck, an early zombie is just carrying a pair of submachine guns for you to take). Handguns, full-auto handgun upgrade, shotgun, crossbow, flaming crossbow, grenade launcher with myriad grenades– those are all just a few of the weapons I remember off the top of my head.
Oh, RE:CV also had a magnum revolver, but that was a special use case. I’m reminded of this because I just got to the point in RE where I obtained a .22 self-defense pistol with 2 rounds. This screams “special use” because it probably wouldn’t even be suitable for shooting one’s own foot.
And of course, Resident Evil 4 switched up the entire series formula in every which way, for the better each time (though I’m probably the only gamer who actually enjoyed the escort mission aspect– I thought it added a fascinating dimension to the gameplay). In fact, I think if I’m looking for a quality after-work diversion game, RE4 might offer some decent replay value.
I saw an ad in for the new PSP version of Final Fantasy and for the first time ever I actually entertained the thought of purchasing said portable console. When it comes right down to it, the original Final Fantasy for the NES has to be my all-time favorite RPG. I sitll have my original copy with all the trimmings which easily qualifies it as one of the most valuable games in my extensive collection (not that that’s saying much).
In order to complete the original game back in 1990, I developed one of the most clever (if I do say so myself) strategies I have ever employed in a video game. My party consisted of a knight, ninja, white wizard, and black wizard. The final dungeon had the party descending down level after level to re-fight the various elementals before making it to the end. My knight was tough and could survive long after the other 3 party members had been finished off. But he couldn’t finish the game all by himself. I reasoned that the knight could make it all the way to the end of the water level to face off with the kraken before more assistance was absolutely required. Though it appeared that I would need to waste more time leveling up so those other 3 could keep up, I figured that it would be nice if I could somehow keep the other 3 party members in reserve and start using them as needed.
Then I realized that I could do exactly that! I could put the ninja and 2 wizards in cold storage and let the knight take care of business until the others’ services were required with the kraken. How? Stoning! Certain monsters had the ability to turn your party members to stone during combat melees. When a character was stoned, they were just frozen– they couldn’t help your party but also couldn’t take any damage. Thus, I went to a section of the overworld where a bunch of cat-like creatures who were known for stoning liked to roam and worked hard to let them stone the other 3 characters. This was a bit tricky, but after it worked (and the correct characters were stoned), I saved the game and was off to complete my quest.
The plan worked famously in the end and I was able to resurrect the ninja first as needed and the wizards even later.
I admire this guy’s ambition– he is endeavoring to play every Zelda game ever and blog about the experience. That sounds almost as nutty as attempting to play one new and usually obscure game every single day and blogging about it. Hats off! He isn’t too far along so far, but he has completed The Legend of Zelda, both the first and second quests (no mean feat, the latter) and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
Through his site, I also learned of Blogging Ultima, a blog with the same goal but with Ultima in mind and which is considerably farther along with its chartered purpose; and Blogging Dragon Quest.
Story time: The Legend of Zelda was the first NES game I actually purchased for my NES (aside from the SMB/Duck Hunt cartridge that came with the NES Action Set). I don’t mind telling you that I was fantastic at Zelda back in the day. I was the master, at least of the first quest (the second quest took me quite a while to complete but I did eventually get through it). How good was I? I once had a classmate call me up and ask me how to complete the game. He was standing at the entrance of the level 9 labyrinth. I was able to guide him — completely from memory — through the dungeon, including how to collect all relevant items (weapons, compass, map). Before he entered a room, I would brief him on how many of which type of enemies he could expect to encounter. And before taking on Gannon, I was able to brief him on exactly how to defeat the big boss. I think he did it on his first try.
Thankfully, these days lazy gamers have the internet and FAQ/walkthroughs.
