the_wizard_666

WTF is Manhunt?

When I started collecting, "all games" didn't require "all variants of all games." 15 variants of Mega Man 2 would all play more or less identically, and thus to beat it, any variant suffices. Some things, like SE/WCTM, Tengen vs Mindscape Indy, the Punch Out carts, or combo carts, would be counted as one "game" for the purpose of beating them, because aside from a few cosmetic differences they provide the same experience. Also, if you beat SMB on a combo cart, we would still count it as beating the stand-alone game. Caltron/Myriad contain 6 games that do not have stand alone versions, but there is no difference between the two, so either cart can be used. Then you get an interesting case like Maxi 15, where 14 of the games were available separately, but Stakk'M was only available on the Maxi 15 cart. In that case, the cart is scratched off when Stakk'M is beaten because that is the only unique game on the cart - the other 14 are tracked separately. Seriously, this "issue" was solved the day I posted the initial thread. You're literally just trying to distract from the issue - the removal of <100 games that should be on the list, but aren't because of...well, I honestly don't understand the reason they were ever removed, aside from a bunch of n00b collectors not counting them.

Yeah, I've always assumed that was the way they did their quality control...like damn near every other form of manufacturing. There's no way they 're gonna be able to check every game that comes off the line, but taking a look at randomly selected copies off the line can help identify a bad batch. That's likely what happened - QA opened the box, checked everything was the way it should be, and sent it on it's merry way.

My thinking is this - looking at my first-time completions list, I had the following in 2017: US 202. Caesar's Palace (January 5, 2017) US 203. Capcom's Gold Medal Challenge (March 5, 2017) US 204. Genghis Khan (March 17, 2017) US 205. Nobunaga's Ambition (March 22, 2017) US 206. Gemfire (June 28, 2017) US 207. Incredible Crash Dummies, The (September 16, 2017) Based on having three Koeis on there, I can safely assume that this was the year @Dr. Morbis was focusing on Koei as well...unless I'm mistaken, he knocked off all 9 that year. Can't tell me that wouldn't have been a huge boon to the effort, possibly changing the landscape in December and possibly even preventing failure. Also, I had huge gaps - usually what I would do when I wanted to play a game was to look at the list of remaining games and pick something from that. Without the list, my gaming output dropped significantly - in fact, US 208 wasn't added until January 3, 2021, when I knocked off Overlord; and there wasn't even an entry on my list (I track PAL, Famicom and Homebrew as separate entries chronologically) until December 2020. So basically, without this thread, my interest in actually completing games seriously declined. I was definitely still playing them, but I didn't care enough to actually beat them. So even if nothing else was a factor, I want unlicensed back so that I have another resource to pick a game to play EDIT: For comparison, my first time completions from 2016: US 170. Silent Service (January 1, 2016) US 171. Soccer (January 1, 2016) US 172. Krazy Kreatures (January 1, 2016) US 173. Wall Street Kid (January 7, 2016) US 174. NES Play Action Football (January 9, 2016) US 175. Defender of the Crown (January 10, 2016) US 176. Bandit Kings of Ancient China (January 10, 2016) US 177. Casino Kid (January 13, 2016) US 178. Romance of the Three Kingdoms (January 19, 2016) US 179. Rad Racket: Deluxe Tennis (January 23, 2016) US 180. Where's Waldo (January 30, 2016) US 181. S.C.A.T. (January 31, 2016) US 182. Classic Concentration (February 1, 2016) US 183. Wild Gunman (September 18, 2016) US 184. Faria (September 21, 2016) US 185. Ice Hockey (September 26, 2016) US 186. Anticipation (September 26, 2016) US 187. Double Dare (September 27, 2016) US 188. Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (September 27, 2016) US 189. Darkman (October 2, 2016) US 190. Pictionary (October 2, 2016) US 191. Rollerblade Racer (October 2, 2016) US 192. Shooting Range (October 8, 2016) US 193. Swords & Serpents (No Death Run, October 15, 2016) US 194. Friday the 13th (November 17, 2016) US 195. Hatris (November 18, 2016) US 196. Cyberball (November 19, 2016) US 197. Pinball Quest (November 19, 2016) US 198. Dragon Warrior (November 23, 2016) US 199. Win, Lose or Draw (November 25, 2016) US 200. Castlequest (November 28, 2016) US 201. Xenophobe (December 31, 2016) This is in addition to old favourites that got played through as well. This is just my first-time completions.

I can't commit to beating the games, but I can definitely commit to the attempt. I'm always looking to play new games, but revisiting some old favourites would be welcome as well.

I've played both. ET is nowhere near as bad as the interwebs would have you believe. Superman 64 however, yeah, it's pretty horrid.

That said, his other answer, Superman 64...yeah, that was pretty damn terrible. I don't know if it was bad enough for the topic, but it's certainly up there.

I feel ya man...I just don't understand collectors these days...

I tried that once, and my advice is not to do it. It's a pain in the ass to keep track, and it discourages people from participating. Maybe giving half-points for consecutive years by the same person, but even that gets to be a pain in the ass to deal with. Anyway, I like how you did it in 2016. You had the lists separated out, and had overall standings for each section. I personally would prefer it all being the way I initially had it (one full list), but I'd rather they be there in some fashion than not at all. Unlicensed didn't exist before the NES because nobody had to get a license to make a game until Nintendo came along. With Atari, every game not published by Atari is technically unlicensed. Also, looking through that list, it lists homebrews and bootlegs, which are not "unlicensed" games by definition. An unlicensed game is a contemporary release for a system that was made without authorization from the console's producer but is otherwise a legitimate release (no IP theft or anything like that). The designation removes homebrews due to not being contemporary releases, and also removes bootlegs and pirates, because in those cases the program itself is illegally obtained. The distinction is actually very easily made if you don't want to intentionally muddy the waters.

Re: Infocom - My best guess seems to be that they were trying to capitalize on the brand, releasing a game that was similar to their offerings at a time when they were releasing Infocom compilations on PC. And like you said, Tombs & Treasure wasn't anything like Activision's usual fare, so it was probably less about skirting policies and more about marketing to Infocom's existing fans. Software Toolworks purchased Mindscape in 1990, and it would appear that they did so in order to easily enter the NES marketplace by acquiring a team that could make games for it. It seems they were run separately, with Mindscape publishing games as usual, and Software Toolworks putting out the edutainment releases. Also, Mario is Missing and Mario's Time Machine were published under the Software Toolworks label, not the Mindscape one...but yeah, that one also wasn't about skirting regulations...Mindscape made more of the same sort of games they always did, and ST brought their brand of educational software to the NES.

We can scratch NHL '98 off the list.

THIS ENTIRE DISCUSSION IS ABOUT GENRES! Jesus fuck man!

Single-screen = Arcade (genre) Scrolling screen =/= Arcade (genre) Or how about this definition: Arcade genre is typified by simplicity: in presentation, gameplay environments and rules. Arcade games generally evolve through difficulty rather than the introduction of complexity through new characters, new controls, or new mechanics.

Super Metroid and SotN are both action-adventure games. SotN definitely leaned heavy into the RPG elements, enough so that I would argue that it created it's own genre...oh wait, it DID create a genre. Action adventure games with heavy RPG elements fall into the "Metroidvania" genre.

Dragon's Lair is an adventure game. Gradius is a shooter. Arcade games as a genre are single screen games. How is that so difficult to process?

LJN was a separate company, and was a well known toy brand at the time. Acclaim purchased them in 1990, but they made games for the NES as far back as '87. Near as I can figure based on the info I found (mostly Wikipedia), the company was floundering, and was likely to shut down at the time of the sale. Acclaim essentially bought them, stopped the toy production side, and continued to run them entirely as a video game publisher. But yeah, this isn't a case of a company forming a side brand to get around Nintendo, as LJN already existed at the time Acclaim acquired them (and had for around 2 decades at that point).

Mario Bros. arcade predates the platform genre. It falls squarely into the arcade genre. It influenced the platform genre, but it isn't a platform game. To give you an idea, that would be like arguing that Arthur Brown is heavy metal because he influence Iron Maiden.

@bronzeshield Isn't it harder because there are fewer regular competitors than in previous years? Wouldn't it help immensely to have myself and @Dr. Morbis back contributing to the list? Just throwing that out there.

Arcade as a genre was literally games that were found in arcades at the time (late 70s/early 80s). The vast majority were single screen games a la Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, Galaga, Pac-Man, etc. That is why a game like Galaga is an arcade game and Gradius is a shooter, despite both involving shooting. Single screen games were literally the definition of the arcade genre.

The biggest thing that needs to be done is to define what an RPG is, and what fits better as an adventure instead. The fundamental difference is progression of the character. In Zelda, Link is fundamentally exactly the same at the end as he is at the beginning - his progression is based on what he finds along the way. That would fit as an adventure rather than an RPG. RPGs are defined by the character itself getting stronger through the game through an experience system. That alone doesn't justify the distinction however...a game like Simon's Quest has an experience system, but I wouldn't call that an RPG, as a) the passwords don't actually save your levels, and b) you don't actually have to level up to progress at any point. RPGs not only have experience based progression, but such progression is required to become strong enough to complete the overarching quest. Thus using the prior examples, Zelda would be an Action-Adventure title, Simon's Quest would fit as an Action-Adventure as well, though with some RPG elements to it. Games like Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior are different, as the character's growth is required to progress through - you can have the best gear in the game, but if you aren't sufficiently levelled, you won't be able to survive regardless. That's what I feel constitutes the distinguishing line between Adventure and RPG. Based on that, I'd scratch off two of the three AD&D games right off the top, as Heroes of the Lance is an action-adventure, and Hillsfar is fully in the adventure genre. I don't exactly have time to go through the entire list at the moment, but it shouldn't be tough to adjust it based on the requirements.

Like I said, they're ACTION games. Platformers are a sub-genre of action, as is run-and-gun. Hell, scrolling shooters are also techincally from the action genre (single-screen shooters are technically under arcade, hence the distinction by so many old farts that seems lost on all you youngins ).

Just won Jeopardy! for the first time. Kinda confusing when the AI picked my name right after I put my name in...you'd think there'd be a failsafe to avoid that happening, especially given how common my name actually is...but yeah, it's done. Also, @Reed Rothchild, might be time for an update...there's a few games listed here that aren't scratched off yet, even before my own trifecta.

Gold Medal Challenge is fairly long, but since you only need the overall gold and not every gold, it's entirely doable. It's also one of the longest games of it's kind...but has a battery save feature to make it easier. Honestly, I would've knocked it out myself by now just for fun if I weren't still spiteful. Can't speak to T&F2 though, as I haven't played either of those games, but I'd assume it's something along the lines of "button mashing sports = nope" for most people.

That right there sums up the entire reason I started the thread to begin with. Sure there's a LOT of crap out there, but how many people have found games that they previously never would've considered playing that had become favourites. The unstated goal was never to actually finish the list, rather it was to get people playing new shit. The timeline was a way to get people to participate, but it was never the end goal when I started it off.

Wikipedia isn't exactly a viable source...and I can 100% say that nobody called run and gun games "shooters" back in the day. They were action games, plain and simple. As were platform games - that wasn't even considered a genre of their own until MUCH later.