Retro Club - 8 & 16-bit puzzlers - The Bear and Badger

retroking1981

115,650 on Yar's

retroking1981

an awful 6,000 on first attempt at Sky Skipper

davyK

Re Pitfall I always thought it looked better than it played - but I did play it quite a bit back in the day - was able to score quite well. There is a map online showing the optimal route to getting a max score.

Travelling underground is a lot faster - one screen underground is the same as 3 above ground.

Moot_Geeza

davyK wrote:

Travelling underground is a lot faster - one screen underground is the same as 3 above ground.

I didn't even go underground, I just assumed it wasn't worth losing the 100 points.Â Didn't even think of trying to go down a ladder.Â So I suppose if you can skip three screens by travelling underground, you can cut out many of the screens between, say, the first and second treasure (which was quite a big gap)?Â Interesting.Â

I love playing games where I'm annoyed with myself and not the game.Â I was cursing my own stupidity for most of my Pitfall session earlier.Â I've been playing Spec Ops on 360 this week, which is very good as it goes, but dealing with your AI teammates getting killed through recklessness isn't something you had to contend with in 'proper' games.Â The more I play the titles in this thread the less I fancy the next set of consoles.

davyK

You can go down the ladder by not falling - its just a question of timing when you pull back on the stick as you approach the top of the ladder. You don't have enough time to get all the treasures without using the underground shortcuts if I remember right.

Moot_Geeza

Fortnight twenty five: Cybernator (SNES, Virtual Console)

NSC Corp's mech based scrolling shooter, released in December 1992 on the SNES, which was localised and released by Konami in the west. The game takes place in the future, during a time where earth's fossil fuels has begun to dwindle, and a world war is being fought for control of these resources, and also for territorial rights on the moon. The two warring governments, the Axis and the Federation, have the ability to go into space and create massive space stations/weapons of mass destruction. You control Jake, a soldier drafted into the Pacific States Marine Corp, who pilots a Federation Assault Suit; basically a heavily armoured, highly mobile mech.

Play and discuss, or simply reminisce.

Schedule:

Fortnight twenty six (01/04): Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 3 LOCK-ON! (Megadrive)
Fortnight twenty seven (15/04): Yoshi's Island (SNES)
Fortnight twenty eight: (29/04): Midnight Resistance (arcade, Megadrive, Amiga etc)
Fortnight twenty nine (13/05): Rub you own Rhubarb: Retro Batman week (various)
Week thirty (20/05): Action Fighter, Teddy Boy and The Ninja (Master System)
Week thirty one (27/05): Battletoads (NES)
Fortnight thirty two (03/06): Toki (Arcade, Megadrive, Amiga)
Fortnight thirty three (17/06): Castlevania IV (SNES)
Week thirty four (24/06): Free choice Parodius (various)
Fortnight thirty five (01/07): Scrolling beat 'em up free choice (various)
Fortnight thirty six (15/07): El Viento (Megadrive)
Fortnight thirty seven (29/07): Atari 2600 fortnight returns

davyK

Another top notch SNES game. I never got very far with this one - think I got to level 4 or 5 - it was set in a forest as far as I remember. I remember the 2nd level being a bit annoying and getting cramp in my hands because of the way you have to lock your gun into position because it plays like a hori shmup.

Have the PAL version of this CIB but it plays fine on a modded SNES at 60Hz - will dig it out and rotate my CRT back into normal position. I think the cut scenes are chopped in the PAL version sadly though I never pay much heed to story lines - but I think you get different endings depending on how well you do. There is a story branch on the level in which you have to destroy a huge ship before it escapes (or something like that!)

Moot_Geeza

I've played the first couple of levels of this before, and was also in attandance at one of those swinging parties in the mid to late-90s where the girls never arrived and a craftily packed away console was plugged back into the telly.Â So I've witnessed the full completion of this, probably whilst drinking Two Dogs Lemonade or Diamond White.Â I owned Ranger X on the Megadrive, which I suppose is a reasonable comparison.

davyK

those drinks are certainly of the era

Brooks

An IP I wouldn't resent seeing rebooted (I mean they were still making it, right through 'til PS2). Always thought the robot looked pretty boss:

The OG was well beyond my skills, still is.

Brooks

To my mind though, I've yet to see a studio really capture the particular cosmetic approach of a game like Assault Suit Valken/Cybernator or I suppose Megaman X in 3D. You can't just toonshade it and you have to go very easy in the normal mapping, summat like Hawken is way too detailed, not "airbrushed polystyrene" enough.

JonB

Cybernator eh? I used to own it and completed it a number of times. First impressions weren't great as I recall, but it develops into somethingÂ pretty special and has a unique feel to it.

davyK

I like the big pixelly explosions on the first level - and the teeny tiny people.

The feel of the mech is very well done - you get a great impression and feel of the weight of it when jumping. Excellent work.

A new triple-A pure 2D hand-drawn affair would be most welcome, if rather unlikely.

Moot_Geeza

Just finished the first level (after successfully destroying the escaping ship). So far, so good. Didn't have time to play it for long today.

davyK

That's in the 1st level? The old memory isn't what it was- must have a go later.

Oh - just remembered one of the levels which is very annoying because of instant death syndrome. It happens if you fall off the "bottom" of the level. It made for some nerve wrecking jumps even with the boost control for extending jumps. It was the level in which you pick up the laser for the first time - was pretty tough if memory serves and saw off my credits many a time.

Moot_Geeza

Really struggled with level two of this, to the point where I think maybe the buttons aren't mapped properly on my emulator (yeah I know, blame the pad).Â It was the low gravity space section after the forced scrolling asteroid section that took me while - I got the impression I should be able to rotate the gun whilst manouvering the mech, because the cannon seemed to be pointing wherever it wanted whenever I left the ground.Â Anyway, I managed it with save states, but I used so many it was like UN Squadron all over again and I didn't get any satisfaction when the boss blew up, just relief.

Edit:

From 6.57 on this vid.Â This guy seems to have a lot more control over whether the mech is firing straight or diagonally.

Moot_Geeza

I'm currently struggling with what I think is the final boss on Cybernator, which I've had to approach in the old fashioned way because save states have started to crash the game on my emulator. With regards to the escaping ship, I think Davyk was right - there is one in the first level, but there's also another race against time later on, which I'm assuming has two outcomes. I should have this finished by the end of the day anyway.

Moot_Geeza

Fortnight twenty six: Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 3 LOCK-ON (Megadrive, various compilations, XBLA/PSN)

The ultimate Sonic experience or merely a gimmick combining two average games? Released in 1994, Sonic & Knuckles worked as a standalone title, but the top of the cart could be flipped open for other games to be inserted. Most games would give you seemingly randomly generated versions of the the spherical chaos emerald bonus stages, but if you inserted Sonic 2 or 3, new areas would be opened up for Knuckles - now a playable character - who had the ability to glide and climb. There are large areas in Sonic 3 only accessible when playing as the echidna, but iirc there were also a few TV sets in Sonic 2 that could only be found with Knuckles, which is shows impressive forethought, as I'd imagine they were hidden in the original code. Sonic 3 was clearly delevoped with this add-on in mind, and what was a memorable (albeit short) Sonic experience was turned into a 30+ stage epic, with multiple routes through most levels and an additional Master Emerald quest.

I've always rated this combination quite highly in the series, alongside Sonic 2 and the Master System version of Sonic The Hedgehog, so it'll be nice to see how well it's aged.

Play and discuss, or simply reminisce.

Schedule:

Fortnight twenty seven (15/04): Yoshi's Island (SNES)
Fortnight twenty eight: (29/04): Midnight Resistance (arcade, Megadrive, Amiga etc)
Fortnight twenty nine (13/05): Rub you own Rhubarb: Retro Batman week (various)
Week thirty (20/05): Action Fighter, Teddy Boy and The Ninja (Master System)
Week thirty one (27/05): Battletoads (NES)
Fortnight thirty two (03/06): Toki (Arcade, Megadrive, Amiga)
Fortnight thirty three (17/06): Castlevania IV (SNES)
Week thirty four (24/06): Free choice Parodius (various)
Fortnight thirty five (01/07): Scrolling beat 'em up free choice (various)
Fortnight thirty six (15/07): El Viento (Megadrive)
Fortnight thirty seven (29/07): Atari 2600 fortnight returns

dynamiteReady

Cool pic!

The fuck is a Genesis cleaning system though? Surely you'd need to buy a second one to mop up the snake oil...

Moot_Geeza

I feel like they've missed a trick by not adding a Japanese converter instead of a second copy of S&K though.

[Deleted User]

Sonic 3 + knuckles is easily one of my favourite games ever.

100%ed it

Moot_Geeza

I thought it had some of the best level design (quite varied too, for a Sonic game), and some of the most memorable music in the series.

Back to Cybernator, it turns out I wasn't on the last boss at all, merely a piddly little mid-level boss. Youtube says I'm 10 minutes from the end now, but I'm definitely not going to play any more SNES games on the Snes9x4C handheld emulator. It's gash; you can't even see the beam of your own lazer. Will finish tomorrow, before I start my all-emeralds run of S&K+3.

davyK

I'll be trying this via the wonders of Sonic Jam on the Sega Saturn which supports lock on modes.

Have never really spent much time on the Sonic series beyond the first game and the odd enjoyable round of 2 player versus on Sonic 2 so I'm looking forward to this.

tigersgogrrr

Liveinadive wrote:

Sonic 3 + knuckles is easily one of my favourite games ever. 100%ed it

Same. I love that game so much.

Moot_Geeza

The versions on Sonic Jam are extremely faithful, that's probably the best non-cartridge based way to play it. I'm looking forward to this one as well. I can't decide if I'm going to start again on an emulator, or continue from where I left off on the XBLA versions a year or so ago (Icecap Zone, plenty of emeralds in the bag). At the moment I'm leaning towards starting again.

In Cybernator news, I'm definitely on the final boss now, but it's been routinely messing me up without even breaking a sweat.

davyK

I have Sonic 1 & 2 on cart but I've never really got into Megadrive collecting even though I have a model 1 console with all the toys (RGB, region select, 50/60 select).

Moot_Geeza

Up to the third level on this (Marble Garden), with four emeralds so far. It's still excellent. The 3D sphere bonus stages were the ones I really liked in Sonic games - the into the screen tunnel sections in Sonic 2 were technically impressive, but the lag of Tails mimicking your actions a beat too slow ruined them for me (I only ever finished it properly playing with Sonic alone, as two players made it even more frustrating). Great music in the Sonic 3 levels so far, and I'd forgotten how much fun the three shields are. I'm really quite chuffed to be playing this again actually.

Moot_Geeza

Thanks to save states and a pretty good memory for secret areas, I'm able to turn into Super Sonic by level 3-2. Aboslutely loving it.

davyK

I'm playing this but I have next to no clue what I'm doing,,,,,the controls are a bit floaty compared to Mario but I'm liking it.

The backgrounds are glorious - hard to believe it's on a Megadrive. The PAL version of Sonic Jam has borders of course but it seems quick enough - maybe it got some PAL speed optimisation as most of the AAA Saturn games did.

dynamiteReady

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Thanks to save states and a pretty good memory for secret areas, I'm able to turn into Super Sonic by level 3-2. Aboslutely loving it.

Man... Still prefer the timeless austerity of the first game's art (sound and graphic synergy), but accept that S&K is a good game...

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