NES turns 25 today! Come reminisce here!

Athenor

I'm 28. I got my NES at age 6. My dad specifically got one to get me off of his computer.

Every weekend, it was the same ritual: "Dad? Can I please stop by the rental store and rent a game? Pleeeasssee?"


"... we'll see." and I cheered inside.

Then started the race. The race to see if I could beat the game in one weekend flat. After Saturday Morning cartoons were over (yay Captain N and TMNT!), I would plow through the games.

Most of the truly good ones have already been mentioned or are "mainstream," but man... Lo G man, anything with Konami on it, Spelunker, 8x8 eyes, Gargoyle's Quest -- although that came later... I also remember going over to my asshole friend's house and playing Ghosts and Goblins.. Then there was Rygar.. sneaking away from my abusive sitter to play Crysalis with the family on the hill.. Getting banned from my NES for 2 days for cussing to my parents and never saying another cuss word again until High School...

Not exactly NES related, but I remember the pure joy that I felt when I learned I could hook up my NES through those strange round plugs on the TV.. the composite ports. I now am employeed as a computer technician with a side hobby of AV work.

I just threw out my library of Nintendo Power's just this week. It was too much work to lug them around, and while I cherished the ones from 1990 (my earliest on record), I never looked at them, and most were from the Rare/Nintendo days. Just not worth it.

Someday I'll beat The Immortal. I owe that to myself.

Edit: Also? I'm still pissed that my copy of Final Fantasy was stolen/lost somewhere along the line. I still have my Nintendo Power guide for it. I wish I still had my NES Atlas...


I WANT ANOTHER STARTROPICS GAME!

maximumzero

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO8aWqSffLU

Ghosts 'n Goblins on the NES is easily one of the crummiest Arcade-to-NES ports out there, but yet the game is still a blast to play and is hella charming, no matter how freaking difficult it was.

Ferquin

anoffday wrote: »

Find them!

Eh, I have Kid Icarus on Virtual Console, and I have the Japanese NES Classics version for the GBA. So it's not a huge loss.

However, Duck Tales is probably lost to the ages. Although, I do still have the crappy GameBoy version. But it's not the same.

I have photos of my score once when I stayed up super late trying to earn a shitload of money. I think I basically stayed in the Amazon and kept going back and forth to the same screen, breaking a block for a yellow diamond. I'm think I got something like $18,000,000 for a final score.

Shit. Breaks my heart that I no longer have that game. I'm usually really good at keeping all my stuff in good condition. I feel so stupid that I somehow let this slip.

Toxic Toys

I remember getting the NES when I was 8 or 9. It still had the gray zapper and all we had to play that Christmas was Mario & Duck Hunt. And played we did. We played those games like it was our job and we put in overtime. I got so good at clay shooting.

We got more games over the years. I put so much time into those games. I could land and refuel in Top Gun. I could run the first ten tables in Lunar Pool. I remember staying up until 3 o'clock in the morning to beat Zelda 2 using turbo on the Max pad with my dad watching me. Me and my brother getting into a fist fight over Base Wars (we never played that game together again). Us almost getting into another fight over Spy vs. Spy.

So many game I spent wasting my youth over. I so miss it.

Estilo

Just remembered I had the Metal Gear and Blaster Master novels published back in 89... Wish I knew wtf they got to...

I didn't actually get to play the games though :l

stfuad

A crappy picture of the NES games that have survived numerous movings. No longer have Legend of Zelda or some other games...

But talk about awesome nostalgia Time Lord FTW.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajmOLTYmZNM

and some Blaster Master

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkPSDBlLO_o

anoffday

Any game that had Tiny Toons in it was good, even up to the SNES.

Brainiac 8

Hah, I have both Tiny Toons Adventures for the NES and Buster Busts Loose on my SNES at home.

DietarySupplement

Funny story about my NES: My brother and I played it so much at such lengthy periods that the transformer/power plug had melted. If anyone can recall, the transformer was about the size of building block (give or take) and the outer casting was held together by four plastic pillars on the inside. We had one of the original ones that launched so over the years I guess the thing had heated up quite a bit (not to mention our house was an oven due to lack of air conditioning) and those pillars had melted. which resulted in a loose top cover. We eventually found a "new" NES at a yard sale but the lady just wouldn't sell us the power adapter (guess I couldn't blame her) but I'll never forget trying to not get electrocuted every time we needed to plug it in.

I was always curious if that had happened to anyone else.

Brainiac 8

The NES had one of my favorite cases of cross promotional gaming....Yo Noid!

I still play that game on my NES from time to time, it's hard as heck though.

Mostlyjoe13

I think it was 1988/89 when I got my NES. I remember getting the original Megaman as one of my first games. It was HARD as hell. Then I got Zelda and eventually Bubble Bobble. My father and I played the hell out of those games.

Talkc

Kickle Cubicle people.

Kickle Cubicle. If you haven't played it, hunt down a copy. Best action puzzler ever.

Madpanda

DietarySupplement wrote: »

Funny story about my NES: My brother and I played it so much at such lengthy periods that the transformer/power plug had melted. If anyone can recall, the transformer was about the size of building block (give or take) and the outer casting was held together by four plastic pillars on the inside. We had one of the original ones that launched so over the years I guess the thing had heated up quite a bit (not to mention our house was an oven due to lack of air conditioning) and those pillars had melted. which resulted in a loose top cover. We eventually found a "new" NES at a yard sale but the lady just wouldn't sell us the power adapter (guess I couldn't blame her) but I'll never forget trying to not get electrocuted every time we needed to plug it in.

I was always curious if that had happened to anyone else.

I've never seen one melt, I have to turn off my retro console power strip though as most of them stay warm even when the system is off.

Brainiac 8

Talkc wrote: »

Kickle Cubicle people.

Kickle Cubicle. If you haven't played it, hunt down a copy. Best action puzzler ever.

Very fun game, almost Loloish in the way the game played.

Couscous

http://www.1up.com/news/super-mario-bros-25th-miyamoto

- Fair enough, but why is Mario fighting what's essentially a legion of demonic turtles for this game? The answer lies in the original Mario Bros., the 1983 arcade game. "Myself and [Gunpei] Yokoi were coming up with a gameplay concept for Mario Bros. that took advantages of the different floor levels of the playfield," Miyamoto recalls. "Our idea was that direct contact with an enemy would kill you, but hitting them from below could knock them out. That wound up being too boring, so we settled on the final system where you first knock them off their feet, then jump back up to deliver the final blow. So Mario Bros. made it out, and after we reflected upon it, we realized it made no sense that you could get killed in Mario Bros. when you jumped on a turtle's back. If you did that, the turtle would come out the worst from it, wouldn't it? So we decided that, if we had the chance to make another Mario game, we'd definitely have it so that you could jump on turtles all you want."

- SMB's controls -- A to jump, B to shoot fireballs and run -- seem like instinctual second nature to gamers nowadays. Settling upon that control scheme, though, was less than straightforward for the developers. "During much of development, the controls were A for shoot bullets, B to dash, and up on the control pad to jump," said Miyamoto. "The bullets wound up becoming fireballs later -- we originally thought about having a shoot-'em-up stage where Mario jumps on a cloud and shoots at enemies, but we dropped it because we wanted to focus on jumping action. The sky-based bonus stages are the remnants of that idea, you could say. In the end, we realized that being able to shoot all the fireballs you want while running gave Mario too much of an advantage, so instead we had it so you shoot only one fireball when you start running. That freed up the A button, and we made that the jump button. I really wanted to have A be the action button and make you press up to jump, but it definitely worked out better for Mario in the end."

- Was the infinite 1UP trick, the one that involves kicking a turtle shell against a block repeatedly, included in the game on purpose? As a matter of fact, yes. "We did code the game so that a trick like that would be possible," Miyamoto revealed. "We tested it out extensively to figure out how possible pulling the trick off should be and came up with how it is now, but people turned out to be a lot better at pulling the trick off for ages on end than we thought." What about the famed Minus World? "That's a bug, yes, but it's not like it crashes the game, so it's really kind of a feature, too!"

Deaderinred

Couscous wrote: »

http://www.1up.com/news/super-mario-bros-25th-miyamoto

- Fair enough, but why is Mario fighting what's essentially a legion of demonic turtles for this game? The answer lies in the original Mario Bros., the 1983 arcade game. "Myself and [Gunpei] Yokoi were coming up with a gameplay concept for Mario Bros. that took advantages of the different floor levels of the playfield," Miyamoto recalls. "Our idea was that direct contact with an enemy would kill you, but hitting them from below could knock them out. That wound up being too boring, so we settled on the final system where you first knock them off their feet, then jump back up to deliver the final blow. So Mario Bros. made it out, and after we reflected upon it, we realized it made no sense that you could get killed in Mario Bros. when you jumped on a turtle's back. If you did that, the turtle would come out the worst from it, wouldn't it? So we decided that, if we had the chance to make another Mario game, we'd definitely have it so that you could jump on turtles all you want."

- SMB's controls -- A to jump, B to shoot fireballs and run -- seem like instinctual second nature to gamers nowadays. Settling upon that control scheme, though, was less than straightforward for the developers. "During much of development, the controls were A for shoot bullets, B to dash, and up on the control pad to jump," said Miyamoto. "The bullets wound up becoming fireballs later -- we originally thought about having a shoot-'em-up stage where Mario jumps on a cloud and shoots at enemies, but we dropped it because we wanted to focus on jumping action. The sky-based bonus stages are the remnants of that idea, you could say. In the end, we realized that being able to shoot all the fireballs you want while running gave Mario too much of an advantage, so instead we had it so you shoot only one fireball when you start running. That freed up the A button, and we made that the jump button. I really wanted to have A be the action button and make you press up to jump, but it definitely worked out better for Mario in the end."

- Was the infinite 1UP trick, the one that involves kicking a turtle shell against a block repeatedly, included in the game on purpose? As a matter of fact, yes. "We did code the game so that a trick like that would be possible," Miyamoto revealed. "We tested it out extensively to figure out how possible pulling the trick off should be and came up with how it is now, but people turned out to be a lot better at pulling the trick off for ages on end than we thought." What about the famed Minus World? "That's a bug, yes, but it's not like it crashes the game, so it's really kind of a feature, too!"

I'm so going to use this info to pick up chicks at parties scott pilgrim style.

Ragnar Dragonfyre

Deaderinred wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

http://www.1up.com/news/super-mario-bros-25th-miyamoto

- Fair enough, but why is Mario fighting what's essentially a legion of demonic turtles for this game? The answer lies in the original Mario Bros., the 1983 arcade game. "Myself and [Gunpei] Yokoi were coming up with a gameplay concept for Mario Bros. that took advantages of the different floor levels of the playfield," Miyamoto recalls. "Our idea was that direct contact with an enemy would kill you, but hitting them from below could knock them out. That wound up being too boring, so we settled on the final system where you first knock them off their feet, then jump back up to deliver the final blow. So Mario Bros. made it out, and after we reflected upon it, we realized it made no sense that you could get killed in Mario Bros. when you jumped on a turtle's back. If you did that, the turtle would come out the worst from it, wouldn't it? So we decided that, if we had the chance to make another Mario game, we'd definitely have it so that you could jump on turtles all you want."

- SMB's controls -- A to jump, B to shoot fireballs and run -- seem like instinctual second nature to gamers nowadays. Settling upon that control scheme, though, was less than straightforward for the developers. "During much of development, the controls were A for shoot bullets, B to dash, and up on the control pad to jump," said Miyamoto. "The bullets wound up becoming fireballs later -- we originally thought about having a shoot-'em-up stage where Mario jumps on a cloud and shoots at enemies, but we dropped it because we wanted to focus on jumping action. The sky-based bonus stages are the remnants of that idea, you could say. In the end, we realized that being able to shoot all the fireballs you want while running gave Mario too much of an advantage, so instead we had it so you shoot only one fireball when you start running. That freed up the A button, and we made that the jump button. I really wanted to have A be the action button and make you press up to jump, but it definitely worked out better for Mario in the end."

- Was the infinite 1UP trick, the one that involves kicking a turtle shell against a block repeatedly, included in the game on purpose? As a matter of fact, yes. "We did code the game so that a trick like that would be possible," Miyamoto revealed. "We tested it out extensively to figure out how possible pulling the trick off should be and came up with how it is now, but people turned out to be a lot better at pulling the trick off for ages on end than we thought." What about the famed Minus World? "That's a bug, yes, but it's not like it crashes the game, so it's really kind of a feature, too!"

I'm so going to use this info to pick up chicks at parties scott pilgrim style.

Deaderinred: "Hi."
Girl: "Hi."
Deaderinred: "... Did you know that originally in Super Mario pressing up was jump and Mario shot bullets instead of fireballs?"
Girl: o_O
Deaderinred: "I'll leave you alone forever now."
Girl: "Thanks."

reaper234

I still have my NES. I still play it.
I only have like 7 games for it though

Athenor

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Talkc wrote: »

Kickle Cubicle people.

Kickle Cubicle. If you haven't played it, hunt down a copy. Best action puzzler ever.

Very fun game, almost Loloish in the way the game played.

I couldn't remember if that was NES or SNES. That was my go-to game when nothing else was available to rent. I -so- hated that game, because I had to constantly restart every time I returned it. I think I got to the 3rd or 4th world.

Deaderinred

Ragnar Dragonfyre wrote: »

Deaderinred wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

http://www.1up.com/news/super-mario-bros-25th-miyamoto

- Fair enough, but why is Mario fighting what's essentially a legion of demonic turtles for this game? The answer lies in the original Mario Bros., the 1983 arcade game. "Myself and [Gunpei] Yokoi were coming up with a gameplay concept for Mario Bros. that took advantages of the different floor levels of the playfield," Miyamoto recalls. "Our idea was that direct contact with an enemy would kill you, but hitting them from below could knock them out. That wound up being too boring, so we settled on the final system where you first knock them off their feet, then jump back up to deliver the final blow. So Mario Bros. made it out, and after we reflected upon it, we realized it made no sense that you could get killed in Mario Bros. when you jumped on a turtle's back. If you did that, the turtle would come out the worst from it, wouldn't it? So we decided that, if we had the chance to make another Mario game, we'd definitely have it so that you could jump on turtles all you want."

- SMB's controls -- A to jump, B to shoot fireballs and run -- seem like instinctual second nature to gamers nowadays. Settling upon that control scheme, though, was less than straightforward for the developers. "During much of development, the controls were A for shoot bullets, B to dash, and up on the control pad to jump," said Miyamoto. "The bullets wound up becoming fireballs later -- we originally thought about having a shoot-'em-up stage where Mario jumps on a cloud and shoots at enemies, but we dropped it because we wanted to focus on jumping action. The sky-based bonus stages are the remnants of that idea, you could say. In the end, we realized that being able to shoot all the fireballs you want while running gave Mario too much of an advantage, so instead we had it so you shoot only one fireball when you start running. That freed up the A button, and we made that the jump button. I really wanted to have A be the action button and make you press up to jump, but it definitely worked out better for Mario in the end."

- Was the infinite 1UP trick, the one that involves kicking a turtle shell against a block repeatedly, included in the game on purpose? As a matter of fact, yes. "We did code the game so that a trick like that would be possible," Miyamoto revealed. "We tested it out extensively to figure out how possible pulling the trick off should be and came up with how it is now, but people turned out to be a lot better at pulling the trick off for ages on end than we thought." What about the famed Minus World? "That's a bug, yes, but it's not like it crashes the game, so it's really kind of a feature, too!"

I'm so going to use this info to pick up chicks at parties scott pilgrim style.

Deaderinred: "Hi."
Girl: "Hi."
Deaderinred: "... Did you know that originally in Super Mario pressing up was jump and Mario shot bullets instead of fireballs?"
Girl: o_O
Deaderinred: "I'll leave you alone forever now."
Girl: "Thanks."

It will be further then i usually get!

Cameron_Talley

Deaderinred wrote: »

Ragnar Dragonfyre wrote: »

Deaderinred wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

http://www.1up.com/news/super-mario-bros-25th-miyamoto

- Fair enough, but why is Mario fighting what's essentially a legion of demonic turtles for this game? The answer lies in the original Mario Bros., the 1983 arcade game. "Myself and [Gunpei] Yokoi were coming up with a gameplay concept for Mario Bros. that took advantages of the different floor levels of the playfield," Miyamoto recalls. "Our idea was that direct contact with an enemy would kill you, but hitting them from below could knock them out. That wound up being too boring, so we settled on the final system where you first knock them off their feet, then jump back up to deliver the final blow. So Mario Bros. made it out, and after we reflected upon it, we realized it made no sense that you could get killed in Mario Bros. when you jumped on a turtle's back. If you did that, the turtle would come out the worst from it, wouldn't it? So we decided that, if we had the chance to make another Mario game, we'd definitely have it so that you could jump on turtles all you want."

- SMB's controls -- A to jump, B to shoot fireballs and run -- seem like instinctual second nature to gamers nowadays. Settling upon that control scheme, though, was less than straightforward for the developers. "During much of development, the controls were A for shoot bullets, B to dash, and up on the control pad to jump," said Miyamoto. "The bullets wound up becoming fireballs later -- we originally thought about having a shoot-'em-up stage where Mario jumps on a cloud and shoots at enemies, but we dropped it because we wanted to focus on jumping action. The sky-based bonus stages are the remnants of that idea, you could say. In the end, we realized that being able to shoot all the fireballs you want while running gave Mario too much of an advantage, so instead we had it so you shoot only one fireball when you start running. That freed up the A button, and we made that the jump button. I really wanted to have A be the action button and make you press up to jump, but it definitely worked out better for Mario in the end."

- Was the infinite 1UP trick, the one that involves kicking a turtle shell against a block repeatedly, included in the game on purpose? As a matter of fact, yes. "We did code the game so that a trick like that would be possible," Miyamoto revealed. "We tested it out extensively to figure out how possible pulling the trick off should be and came up with how it is now, but people turned out to be a lot better at pulling the trick off for ages on end than we thought." What about the famed Minus World? "That's a bug, yes, but it's not like it crashes the game, so it's really kind of a feature, too!"

I'm so going to use this info to pick up chicks at parties scott pilgrim style.

Deaderinred: "Hi."
Girl: "Hi."
Deaderinred: "... Did you know that originally in Super Mario pressing up was jump and Mario shot bullets instead of fireballs?"
Girl: o_O
Deaderinred: "I'll leave you alone forever now."
Girl: "Thanks."

It will be further then i usually get!

Hey, it worked out for Scott.

Well, except, you know for the whole fighting-the-evil-exes thing.

george-x

maximumzero wrote: »

FunInfusedGames wrote: »

I loved my NES... just wish it worked right without having to blow on cartridges or plug/unplug repeatedly. I find that attaching the Game Genie to those games helps them work more consistently. Contra sadly is really, really hard to make work these days.

I miss the Game Genie too... was always fun to play games in ways not intended.

$12 and a simple 15-minute installation stand between you and a NES that works like a launch-day system.

Edit: I did this myself about 5 years ago and it works like a goddamn charm.

I did this a few years back, and the only game I could get to work was Donkey Kong. NONE of my games worked after the alcohol cleaning, and the new 72 pin connector was super tight fitting. Shrug

Also, I bought one of those knockoff consoles from www.estarland.com and the games still didn't work.

Mugenmidget

I think it depends on where you buy them from (not sure which sites are reliable, the one maximumzero linked would probably be a good one hahaha) plus you have to be careful during installation. For most people, I just recommend the Game Genie trick mentioned earlier. They're relatively cheap, almost guaranteed to make things work better, and lets you play around with cheats. Undoubtedly stresses the pins (really thick PCB), but I've been using one on an NES for a long time and games seem to work really well.

But I've also replaced a 72 pin connector on another NES. As mentioned, the procedure really isn't that bad and it does work well most of the time (again, might vary based on where you got the part/the care you take during installation), so I don't mean to discourage that method.

maximumzero

Mugenmidget wrote: »

I think it depends on where you buy them from (not sure which sites are reliable, the one maximumzero linked would probably be a good one hahaha) plus you have to be careful during installation. For most people, I just recommend the Game Genie trick mentioned earlier. They're relatively cheap, almost guaranteed to make things work better, and lets you play around with cheats. Undoubtedly stresses the pins (really thick PCB), but I've been using one on an NES for a long time and games seem to work really well.

But I've also replaced a 72 pin connector on another NES. As mentioned, the procedure really isn't that bad and it does work well most of the time (again, might vary based on where you got the part/the care you take during installation), so I don't mean to discourage that method.

I linked from the site that I bought it from. So I can vouch for them at least.

Be prepared to receive catalogs from the company though. (Not that it's a big deal, they sell electronic parts, so interesting stuff.)

UnbreakableVow

Talkc wrote: »

Kickle Cubicle people.

Kickle Cubicle. If you haven't played it, hunt down a copy. Best action puzzler ever.

All I remember about this game is that I played it at one point in time, and that it has the best name ever

agoaj

Kickle Cubicle is why I'm here.

Darmak

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

Talkc wrote: »

Kickle Cubicle people.

Kickle Cubicle. If you haven't played it, hunt down a copy. Best action puzzler ever.

All I remember about this game is that I played it at one point in time, and that it has the best name ever

I rented it once and beat it that night. I don't remember much about it but I remember it was hard as shit.

anoffday

Has anyone mentioned Super Dodge Ball yet? That game was a lot of fun. It was a lot like River City Ransom, except turned into a sport.

Krathoon

TMNT was one of those games that made you realize that, sometimes, it is just not worth it. I would have no qualms about tossing that one in a wood chipper.

stfuad

Any of those River City Ransom type sports games were awesome. I had both Super Dodge Ball and the soccer version for the Gameboy.

Regarding TMNT I forget which level it was maybe right after you have to swim through the sewers or whatever and disable bombs. You have to go up a 2/3 floor building with a 1 block space before the exit I think. I tried to jump over that space for so long. Only to realize you could walk over it

Deaderinred

Oh shit guys, i just remembered about this awesome game i used to have and played for months and months and never beat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMPRWGmmQ7o

Yeah! the Belmont's had nothing on his dudes hair whip.

Deaderinred

Here is Jackie Chan Action Kungfu i mentioned earlier in the thread! so awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoKUZyMD0dQ

You kick tigers in the face, people!

anoffday

Ha. Welcome special stage. Your point.

Athenor

I actually got one of my questions to the Nintendo Power help line published... well, two, but one was more common.

Question #!: How do you get past a certain stage in M.C. Kids and get the M? The answer? Ride on the waterfalls, a trick that is described no where in the game and completely counter-intuitive!

(Question #2: What the fuck was written in invisible ink on Dr. Jones' letter?)

Krathoon

Deaderinred wrote: »

Oh shit guys, i just remembered about this awesome game i used to have and played for months and months and never beat.

Yeah! the Belmont's had nothing on his dudes hair whip.

Wow. I have never heard of that one. It is a HAL game though.

Orestus

I think we got our NES in 1987 when I was 7 years old. I'm not sure exactly what version we had but it came w/ the lightgun and at least Super Mario Bros; what I distinctly remember, however, was another game that my parents must have gotten for us with it:



This was a game that required you to shoot the feet of the main character with the lightgun to make him stay in the air as the screen scrolled.

My brother and I could not figure that out, and tried for a week to play it w/ the character just appearing and immediately falling to his death. We were pretty stupid kids I guess Finally by accident I think we clicked the lightgun and saw something happen on the screen, and then realized how the game actually worked. I still remember the frustration!

Brainiac 8

I loved Gumshoe.

Oh, and Tiger Heli was an awesome game.

anoffday

I have Hogan's Alley. It's another cool lightgun game. I remember shooting a can and seeing how you can keep it in the air.

Sir Carcass

I first experienced the NES in around late 87 when a friend of mine got one. I would've been 8. He only had Super Mario Bros, but it was pretty amazing. Of course he'd never want to play when I was over since he could do that whenever. I already had an Atari that I'd had since I was about 4, but I had kinda gotten tired of it by that point, and this rekindled that video game love.

I got mine like the week after third grade let out, in the spring of the next year. I still remember going with my mom to K-mart to get it and bringing it home. She also let me pick out a game for an early birthday present, and for some unknown reason I picked Gotcha!, a horrible, horrible game. I eventually amassed quite a collection, but once I left for college I don't know what happened to it.

Taramoor

To honor the NES.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyyTrjr7f-4