NES ROM Images

Posted on March 14, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

I have a major technical fascination with video games. Before discovering multimedia full motion video files I was interested in old 8-bit NES games. At one point, I disassembled a number of game cartridges and scan their ROM printed circuit boards. If you’re a gaming tech nerd like me, you might find my gallery of NES ROM images. This is what Super Mario Bros. looks like, the simplest, most unadorned type of PCB:

The interesting thing about many of the PCBs is the special hardware present on the board to extend the capabilities of the standard NES, usually in the form of extended memory.

Got Me A PS2

Posted on February 24, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

I got a brand new PlayStation 2 yesterday and just finished hooking it up. This is the first Sony gaming console I have ever owned. Indeed, it may be the first time I have ever touched a PlayStation console at all.

I have the slim one on the left

You know what this likely means: I can now accumulate all manner of obscure PS1/PS2 titles from the last 12 years. This GP experiment could well continue for a long time.

I had never planned to get any PlayStation console, although I do possess a smattering of PlayStation 1 & 2 games collected for the purposes of multimedia study. My impetus for this purchase was that I wanted a new standalone DVD player to replace one that I don’t like very much (also made by Sony). A friend recommended that I just go ahead and get a slim PS2 so that I can also play the used copy of the legendary PS1 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night game that I happen to own, and that he thinks I should rightfully experience in its full glory. So I got the console and the DVD remote accessory. I have heard tales that the original PS2 was not a good DVD player but the slim PS2 was markedly improved. Fortunately, I’m not the type who can discern variance in video quality very well and I’m quite happy with the DVD playback thus far. All the annoyances of the old standalone unit seem to have vanished.

And I’m pleased to report that Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is incredible; at least the early levels that I got to play operate like a super-duper NES remake of the classic Castlevania stages.

I actually bought this system new, which is quite uncharacteristic of me. It got me to thinking of the other consoles I have purchased, and when was the last time a purchased a new console. I have never exactly been on the cutting edge. My first console was the NES Action Set (with Zapper gun) in 1989… purchased new on March 11, but who’s keeping score? Next console was a Super Nintendo, purchased used in August, 1997. Next was a Sega Saturn, purchased in early 1999 well after they had been discontinued. It’s a blur, but I might have actually gotten this one new, though very cheap. Next was a Sega Dreamcast in April, 2001. These had been discontinued at the time but I heard that they were easily programmable which was my primary reason for purchasing one. However, the Sega Dreamcast (and Resident Evil: Code: Veronica) got me back into casual video gaming. I can’t remember exactly when I picked up a Nintendo GameCube but I know it was used (not much cheaper than new at the time, but it was the principle). My latest acquisition before the PS2 was an old Sega Genesis pawned off on me by a coworker.

There’s a first time for everything. Who knows? Perhaps one day, I will think of a reason to pick up a used Microsoft console.

See Also:

At MobyGames:

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

No Different Than Gambling

Posted on January 19, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

Considering the recent exposure to gambling themes in this blog’s games, as well as playing a Darkstalkers franchise title for the experiment, I am reminded of an experience from college: I rather enjoyed playing the Darkstalkers game in the Student Union video arcade. Every now and then, a friend from math class would notice this frivolous exercise and chastise me. “That’s no different than gambling, you know.”

She was an excellent math student so I expected her to know better. “Actually,” I retorted, “if this activity bore any similarity to gambling, I would have at least some probability of regaining some of the coins I have dumped into this machine. As it stands, I am quite certain that they are gone forever.”

Favorite Pellet-Muncher?

Posted on January 9, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

Tonight’s Gap-themed Snow Day game — with it’s Pac-Man, umm, homage — got me thinking about other Pac-Man clones. Surely, countless clones have come and gone through the years. This one, that I discovered through a bulletin board back around 1992 or so, is CD-Man by Creative Dimensions and is my favorite clone:

It had detailed, high-resolution, and colorful graphics, smooth animation, spider enemies, and new features such as a gated community for which your character needs a key to enter in order to complete the maze. The second maze of the game is water-themed with sharks as enemies.

Around the same time I discovered this game I also downloaded a 3D first-person perspective Pac-Man style game, which was not the first of its kind (I seem to recall an arcade game with the same theme as early as 1989). It was novel in the way that 3D graphics were always novel back then. But when I think back on it now, I don’t know if it was really an idea that worked.

How about you? What is your favorite member of the official Pac-Man family (whose franchise thrives to this day), or perhaps favorite Pac-Man clone?

Doom For Everyone

Posted on January 8, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

Thanks again to Mans for furnishing a FreeDOS VMware image that enabled me to try Lost Eden without resorting to an actual vintage machine. The image came with the now-GPL’d Doom in order to verify that FreeDOS could play a DOS4GW-based game. Since it was there, I had to give it a go for old time’s sake: A brief diversion that’s still fun. I started to wonder why it maintains its enjoyability. Here’s one factor:

You go up the stairs from where you begin into a turret with some body armor. Outside the windows, you can see expansive, isolating mountains. It’s atmospheric. It grabs you. The manner in which the mountains are presented gives a real sense of depth. I just love those mountains. I remember seeing this game — and those mountains — in action in the early days of its release at a local computer shop that was showcasing it on a very large monitor (19″, maybe 21″, whatever it was, it was ridiculously HUGE at the time when 14″ tubes were the norm). And that mountain scene is what made me remember the moment.

Its simplicity is the next engaging aspect. It’s not difficult for a newbie to dive right in and start killing monsters. Story time: In the spring semester of 1997 I was a teaching assistant for an experimental course called Internet For Everyone (incredible! The University of Colorado still maintains a record of the courses for that semester). Despite its high course number, it was actually just a basic internet exposure course in the early days of the WWW. One of the lab exercises dealt with (get ready for it) finding games on the internet. One of the students in my lab found the Macintosh port of Doom sensibly titled MacDoom. She started playing…

I witnessed a curious transformation in the span of a few minutes. She bumbled around the first room where there are few offensive threats to your health. Eventually, she found the door that leads to danger. An alien spits fireballs. She’s sustaining damage. “Ah! What do I do?!”

“Shoot back! Ctrl key,” I bark back. She does so. Monster dies.

Brief calm after the storm… then, wide-eyed, the student exclaims, “That was awesome! What else can I kill?!”

So, yeah, she aced that lesson.

(Here’s an old copy of the Internet For Everyone course materials; note one of the course textbooks on the syllabus: “The Road Ahead” by Bill Gates.)

Gaming Pathology

Piles Of Games, Copious Free Time, No Standards

Category: Gaming Memories

NES ROM Images

Got Me A PS2

No Different Than Gambling

Favorite Pellet-Muncher?

Doom For Everyone