the_wizard_666

The problem is the CIB stuff isn't cheap, and it's a lot of work. Quality costs money, and sadly it's rarely cost effective to do repros like that anymore. And now that the repro market itself is oversaturated, it's just not something that's worth the investment to do anymore.

I think you may have hit the nail on the head with the Chinese repros. As someone who makes repros, I'll say my costs on many games are actually higher than the retail price on the carts coming out of China. Basically if I want to try and compete, I have to sell for less than the cost of materials. And since there's no way anyone in their right mind is gonna do that, and many people would just buy the cheap version instead of something of better quality, it pretty much killed the desire to actually release games like that. I can't speak for everyone of course, but it's very hard to compete if you're not making and selling on a large enough scale to get bulk pricing on the materials.

Jesus, makes me wish I had the money for that Hot Slots. I'd crack that case so fast...

Naw, I've been collecting for 25 years and counting. I'm just getting old

I'm getting too old for this shit

I still need Jawbreaker, Tunnel Runner, Miner 2049er and Mines of Minos. Not that I am in a position to acquire them from you, but they're definitely not everyday games. There's actually a ton of fun, playable games in that lot as well. Also, check those unlabelled Apollo carts in the second picture. If one of them happens to be Lochjaw, you're laughing all the way to the bank. It's an incredibly slim chance (most likely they're Final Approach or Infiltrate), but would be enough of a score to check it out. All told, I think it's a great lot...sure there's some tough sells in there, but it's not 50 copies of ET and Combat, so it's not a bad one. Tons of higher end commons/lower end uncommons (the stuff you see frequently enough to not be worth a ton but are not in every bundle under the sun either). If you don't mind sharing, what did the lot set you back? All told it's a good lot, but what you invested will determine whether the deal was merely good or a great one.

Are we really at that point in this hobby? Sheesh.

Funny, all I can find is some modifications to player bios: https://tcrf.net/Tecmo_NBA_Basketball Sounds like a pretty minor adjustment to me...the only thing that should be showing up in your game is Brian Shaw's number being changed from #20 to #22.

Conflict is now done, and is now officially my 250th personal completion. All that work for such a lame ending though...ugh. The credit reel was better than the actual ending screen On the plus side, the game itself isn't terrible, but on the down side, it's a VERY tough game on the high settings...you have very little margin for error. Thankfully, if you turtle and let the enemy come to you, you'll wear them down relatively quickly (as long as the randomized attacks go your way). That said, there's better strategy games on the NES, so I'll likely never come back to it, but I'm happy to have played through it!

I find it incredibly amusing that y'all had been searching for this code, and that with the similarities to the Konami code, nobody actually tried the Konami code I dunno, I feel like that would've been my first thought

It turned into this because my brain ain't wired right, and I end up taking stupid shit personally. No ill will. That said, the ROM is not the emulator, so the fact that it's coded to default to those settings should be enough evidence, regardless of what is used to run the code. It is, after all, the exact same code.

Oh, and had I been playing on an actual cart, I would've had the system on pause for the week doing the exact same thing, and ending up in the same fucking predicament. So again, I don't see how the fact that I was emulating the game changes anything about the goddamn situation.

Let's be realistic @Dr. Morbis, I've been in a suicidal depression since it became clear I had to move back to this shithole. I'm not happy, and one of the few joys in my life is gaming, in any form. And even that is not helping ease the pain all that much anymore. I honestly don't know why I haven't just ended it already, aside from being too much of a goddamn pussy to go through with it...likely because knowing my luck I'd just survive, like my uncle did when he decided to end it by taking a shotgun to the face, blowing half of it off and surviving it. And there ain't nothing worse than trying to end your failure of a life only to realize that you failed in that too.

There you go making assumptions about it. I never once said it's identical. I said it's functionally identical for these purposes. And I don't love playing it on my PC, it's a matter of convenience when my entire world is in flux, and has been for two goddamn years, with no end in sight. Fuck, I'm really regretting not jumping off that bridge.

Point remains, you said it's impossible, where it's clearly possible. But what do I know, I'm just dog shit anyway.

I entered a cheat code that exists on the cartridge...how is that not possible on an unmodified NES? Plug in the cart, input the cheat, and it'll do exactly what happened to me. But what do I know, I'm not you...

Actually, my score was fucked up because I hit "reset" on the emulator instead of doing a power cycle. If you do what I did on a console, it would do the exact same thing until a power cycle was done. It wasn't an emulator issue, it was an issue with how the game was programmed to run. Jesus, you're just never fucking happy are you? Do what I said - pull the battery from your cart, and THEN tell me I'm wrong. For fuck sakes dude, get your head out of your arse.

That is irrelevant to the question at hand. It boots the ROM the same way the NES would. A clean ROM with no save data is functionally identical to opening a factory sealed cart and plugging it into the system. THAT IS HOW CODING WORKS. The only way the ROM would not boot to factory settings is if the ROM itself is altered.

Dude, you don't have to trust the emulator. What you should trust is that the ROM would load up like it was new until there was some save data acquired. As there was no save data on my computer, the ROM would boot up like a clean slate. You can make whatever arguments about differences in running emulators vs hardware, but the ROM image itself would be identical to the cart. Don't believe me? Take 5 minutes and remove the battery from your cart and prove it. Default is 4 minutes on normal speed. Although I would be curious about how big a blowout I could get with 12 minute quarters

I actually have not played the shit out of TSB...in fact, I've only played it a couple times. Honestly, I like Play Action Football better, though that's more nostalgia than anything methinks...I played the shit out of it as a kid, while I never actually played TSB until I met Basil. But yeah, after reading up on it, preseason is pretty much baby mode. That said, @docile tapeworm had suggested using the All-Star teams. You could pick East or West, but would have to play against the other, making it more or less an even field.

Since I loaded up the ROM for the first time and had NEVER played the game prior, I can safely assume that the cart, at factory new, would have Normal speed, and 4 minute quarters. THAT is default settings.

Wait, there's setup options? I just left it at default...I had no idea that it was adjustable Although there's also no mention of what sort of schedule to use...it basically allows you to reduce the schedule to however many games you'd like, allowing you to manipulate the starting matchups. I've been using "regular" seasons, but the other options remove games, making some openers different than what you'd normally have. You can even use "programmed" to customize the length of the season to your liking - setting the number by a team will eliminate that many games. That said, I think the intent was the full season, selecting a team and playing that game. I just think the team(s) should've been previously picked and done in preseason mode instead. Too many variables this way. Anyway, for settings, I would say the defaults (normal speed, 4 minutes) should be the standard. That's what I presume everyone was using to this point anyway. And correct me if I'm wrong @BeaIank, but if the settings aren't specified for a game, that means default anyway, doesn't it?

LOL! Just straight up LOL! I honestly can't remember the last time I watched even 5 minutes of basketball. I even turn off the highlights Anyway, a hundred point differential may be pushing it...then again, I've had games where I've held them to under 60 points and just couldn't get the baskets to make a bigger gap...it may just be a matter of time until I pull it off...that is, unless @0xDEAFC0DE is sitting on a 200 point differential as we speak, in which case it's pretty moot @BeaIank I agree, maybe allowing negative scores will at least get people to post. It only took me two or three games to get a win though, so maybe people just aren't playing? I don't get it though...it's a pretty fun game, and not terribly difficult to pull off a win, so what's the hold up for submissions? Hopefully we see a surge on the weekend...

Well, like I said, I'm fairly consistently getting 20-30 points with Golden State. San Antonio seems to be random...I had a great first game with them and then all of a sudden I can't get anywhere near it. And the team I would expect to completely dominate (Chicago) is pretty garbage outside of Jordan and Pippin. Anyway, my complaint is even just starting the game...Jordan's missed dunk was off the first play of the game. Needless to say, I reset that game, as that was a bad sign But yeah, winning isn't the problem, it's getting a comfortable spread. And honestly, I'm not sure if 50 points is gonna be enough to beat @0xDEAFC0DE on Sunday, which is why I keep playing. Well, that and the game is kinda fun, even though it's frustrating. I'm enjoying it in all honesty.

Yeah, it's happened a bunch. Like I'll take a timeout, and can't hit the resulting dunk, and then they go back and score against me. Like tell me, how does Jordan miss a dunk? EDIT: That said, I'm averaging around 25-30 points differential per game, far better than I had initially thought I could do. I haven't replicated my San Antonio romp though. I can, however, stomp the Nuggets fairly consistently with minimal effort...just can't seem to get much more of a spread. The last game I was doing pretty good, with 30 points, and a solid defensive effort...except Hastings...that motherfucker had 43 points...that's over half the 80 points they put up in that particular game. Not sure what the hell happened there to be honest. It was like he was shooting 100% or something...