VideoGame_Discussion

Thats some bullshizzle but alright I maybe gotta find another way then.

What about on PS3?

Lunar wrote:

I aint online with playstation (or nintendo) but that is a good point i should look into that.

Im not even sure if either PS3 works but if they do I guess thats the easiest route.
In theory anyways.

It's still on PS3. I bought it yesterday.

I added Daytona USA 2001 for Dreamcast to the "Play it on" list. I thought it was a totally new game, but it looks like the original Daytona tracks are included.

Thinking about how the Wii/360/PS3 are older than the Genesis and SNES were when I started collecting. *bones creak*

I loaded up the PS3 remake today, and it's massively easier than the original arcade version. I assume the same can be said for the Xbox 360 port, as I already have all three first place achievements in that one, and I don't remember that being brutal either.

Finished the Beginner track in first, but I wasn't capturing, so I'll do it later for the credit and for badge footage.

Just post a time. I think it'll be interesting to see everyone's time.

Snap a pic of your time at the end.

Definitely controls better and higher fps, the Saturn one is like 23fps or something.

Lunar wrote:

Oh, that sounds like fun.

I'll make a medal badge for each track. Fastest time at the end of the month gets the badge.

So, Y'ALL GO PLAY THE GAME, K?

Not my personal best, I fudgeed up Lap 6.

image

I beat track 1 and 2 tonight. Used emulation of the Saturn title, but I'm still considering digging out my Saturn as the memories flood back.
I'll include some snips once I get track 3 as well. But my times were:
Track 1 - overall: 2:29.32 Best Lap: 18.46
Track 2 - overall: 3:14.24 Best Lap: 46.45
Both I used the Saturn mode that gives you access to other cars that you unlock with different stats and I used the better Blue car with A ratings.
I went back to the Arcade mode for my track 3 attempts and you're only allowed the original car that has like C and D or B and C ratings - I think for grip and power, but I forget.

With more time, I know I can get better, I put so much time into this game, but wow I don't miss digital steering inputs.
I've got the Dreamcast port as well, and I gave that a shot last night but didn't win nor play very long.

Wait, @Renaissance2K do we have to play the Championship Circuit Edition on the ? I owned the original 'vanilla' title and just beat that and then saw you listed the CCE version and tried that and it's rather different - controls differently, has more tracks and more cars. I'm so much more used to the vanilla version that CCE feels icky to me, I mean it's better for sure, but it's just pretty foreign.
I'd even say that the DC version feels a little more like the original Saturn one, but the DC one is SO touchy with the analog stick, at least via emulation with an X1 controller.

Slickriven wrote:

The Wikipedia page for Daytona USA made it sound like it was a re-release of the original with more stuff, so I included it as an option, alongside the other ports. If it's that different, you're still welcome to play it for the badges, but we may want to hold off on using it to compare times.

Ok, yeah the CCE version is more feature rich and different from the arcade versions. I'll stick with the version I own on the console and used for my above posted times. Thanks

Got a personal best tonight: 2'24"60

Recorded too, doesn't change my place on Speedrun but I will submit it anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yGJS_Y3-co

G
A
M
E

O
Voo
E
R

I beat the 3rd track tonight but set difficulty and enemy level to very easy, largely b/c I wanted to go for a cleaner run and that helped for sure. Some of that track is making sure you know each corner well.
Track 3 - overall: 3:43.32 Best Lap: 1:48.54 - on Very Easy

With more runs on that track I'm getting better with things and will up the difficulty/skill and run more. Oh and the cars in Saturn Mode have A-D ranking for Acceleration and Grip and the standard car is Accel: B and Grip: C - after beating the 2nd track I unlocked the B/B car set (auto and manual), need to see if I unlocked more after beating the 3rd track.

OP is finally updated with badges for the three races. I'll create the time trial badges next and compile all the times.

Anybody else planning on getting behind the wheel?

Also, for you achievement/trophy hunters out there, this game is a breeze to 100%.

I'm so far finding it harder than Rayman but only because I only just started playing
it on Tuesday. I wasnt feeling motivated to look for my PS3 so I got drunk and started
Cleaning and found it. I had to set up my PS profile (which it turns out I still had one)
And then was drunk driving in the game for awhile. Don’t try that at home kids!

I only was playing the first track on very easy with automatic but I never got
all 8 laps before the time ran out even though I always finished in first place.
It is a very fun game though and reminded me of why I loved the Dreamcast
so much. It has such an arcade-y feel which makes me happy. I plan on playing more
soon though I’m prolly just not utilizing all my abilities in game so far.
But I do like it, however the attract music track? No thanks y’all.
I only managed one trophy so far though. Prolly my first ever.

As we approach the end of June, here's the list of players that have had the Daytona USA soundtrack stuck in their heads for three weeks straight:

Lunar {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/3Ld2GOd.gif 80 60{imgt} Renaissance2K {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/77BtpHO.gif 89 66{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/3Ld2GOd.gif 80 60{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/LDCcqBR.gif 80 60{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/yDEFz13.gif 80 60{imgt} Slickriven {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/3Ld2GOd.gif 80 60{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/LDCcqBR.gif 80 60{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/yDEFz13.gif 80 60{imgt}

I've been messing around with various versions of Daytona USA, and I very quickly concluded that the badge requirements for this month might be a little rough, given how unforgiving the game can be. Moving forward, finish the race without timing out to earn the badge for the respective circuit. Those of us who are still craving a challenge can continue to post times, and the fastest time in each circuit will earn a medal badge. If that means you should now get a badge given a past race, please post here so I can update your collection.

And yes, I know... I still haven't actually posted the medal badges. It's been quite the month.

In the meantime, let's start taking nominations for the July Game of the Month. What retro game should we all play next month?

We'll start voting on June 26 and call the winner on July 1.

Let's hear some nominees!

I nominate the Pikmin series. Given that Pikmin 4 releases in July and the first two games just got remastered today, now’s the perfect time to play ‘em.

Finally... Here are the medals for best times and the current standings.

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/trTRKFk.png 82 150{imgt} 1. Lunar 2'24"60 2. Renaissance2K 2'28"98 3. Slickriven 2'29"01

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/vxBQJF5.png 82 150{imgt} 1. Slickriven 3'14"24 2. Renaissance2K 3'38"07 3. ---

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/AslEKoO.png 82 150{imgt} 1. Slickriven 3'43"32 2. Renaissance2K 4'13"10 3. ---

Please continue to post your completions and times. Remember: all you need to do is finish the race before time runs out to get the badge for each level.

And don't forget to nominate games for next month!

I nominate Blaster Master: Enemy Below.

3rd place on the first track?!?! I better step up my game and try to do better.

Slickriven wrote:

By 0.03 seconds!

Renaissance2K wrote:

Haha I didn't even notice it was that close.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Took another run and got down to 2:28.13, want to try a few more times to see if I can get closer to Lunar's 2:24, will post my best time via a screen-snip once I stop.

So after a handful of runs and restarting in mid-race a few times after screwing up, thanks to that cool Saturn option of Start > X/Y/Z buttons and then even tweaking the difficulty to be harder so I didn't have as many rolling roadblocks due to other cars that were more of my impediments vs. that final corner - which I started to nail pretty well. I got my time down to 2:26.63, including proof.

I noted that my best lap was only 18.07 and I was more apt to land in the 18.15 - 18.35 range on good laps, since with less traffic you don't get the draft as much and get above 191MPH. With the higher difficulty, I was only finally reaching the leader on the 7th or 8th lap and had less lap traffic, but still had the full 40 car field. When I realized that Lunar's 2:24.6 would mean I would need to average under 18.1 to be really close to that I called it quits with my 2:26.63

Imma nominate two games

Amped 2 (original Xbox)

and

Myst (available almost everywhere including Jaguar CD lol)

Any more nominations? If we don't hit five, I'll amp the list with some games that are getting big anniversaries next month. There are actually some nice choices.

We had four nominees for the July 2023 Game of the Month. While I would normally just pick a game with a big birthday coming up to bring the list to five, there were two options that I simply couldn't decide between; three, if you also count Knights of the Old Republic, but I took pity on this thread after an already RPG-heavy year. Here are the six nominees for July:

Nominees
Pikmin franchise
Blaster Master: Enemy Below
Amped 2
Myst and pretty much every platform that ever existed
Radiant Silvergun (released for Saturn in July 2003)
Bionic Commando (released for NES/Famicom in July 1988)

Either publicly in this thread or privately in a PM to me, give each nominee 0-5 points. Omitting a nominee is equivalent to giving it a vote of 0. The game with the highest score by the end of the month will be the July 2023 GOTM.

Here are my votes:

Pikmin franchise - 3 Blaster Master: Enemy Below - 4 Amped 2 - 3 Myst - 5 Radiant Silvergun - 4 Bionic Commando - 5

Why are you still sitting here reading this post when you could be voting?!

Here's the latest from the Daytona USA leaderboards, following Slickriven's latest jump:

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/trTRKFk.png 82 150{imgt} 1. Lunar 2'24"60 2. Slickriven 2'26"63 3. Renaissance2K 2'28"98

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/vxBQJF5.png 82 150{imgt} 1. Slickriven 3'14"24 2. Renaissance2K 3'38"07 3. ---

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/AslEKoO.png 82 150{imgt} 1. Slickriven 3'43"32 2. Renaissance2K 4'13"10 3. ---

Blaster Master 5

Pikmin franchise - 5
Once again a situation of me not owning the other games, or in Blaster Master’s case, not wanting to play that particular game.

Blaster Master - 5
Radiant - 5

Blaster Master: Enemy Below - 5

Great choice @BloodPuppetX!

SupremeSarna wrote:

I don't blame you for not wanting to pay for a game you may not enjoy, but just for the sake of anyone with the same reservations that wants to play a game legally and not want to pay a lot...

Pikmin 1 is available for $29.99 on the Nintendo eShop.

Blaster Master: Enemy Below is included with Nintendo Switch Online.

Myst: Masterpiece Edition is available for $5.99 on Steam and GOG.

Radiant Silvergun is discounted to $13.99 on the Nintendo eShop and is also available on the Xbox Store for the regular price $14.99.

Bionic Commando: Re-armed is available on Steam for $9.99. It used to be available on the other eShops as well, but I guess it's been de-listed.

I don't think Amped 2 is available anywhere digitally.

Does re Armed count?

Kommie wrote:

For as long as I've been here, we've always allowed remasters/remakes as well as the originals. I remember the Crash Bandicoot collection being used as an example.

Ah, OK. I do have Re Armed on Steam....

Bionic commando: 5
Pikmin: 2

I beat Myst just last year, don't want to play again right now. Beat Blaster Master Zero a few months ago, so meh on the similar GBC version. I suck at Radiant Silvergun that I bought for Xbox a while back.

Bionic Commando - 5

Myst - -10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Bionic Command - 5

Foxhack wrote:

In its defense, it's an important piece of gaming history. Like Superman 64.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Watching paint dry is more entertaining than Myst and only slightly less than playing Superman 64.

Myst was a cool game when I was a kid, the series had an effect on me too, heck it's in part of my username. But even the remastered version that turned the painfully slow 4-panel view into a full first person walking sim with puzzles didn't really change it for the better when it came out. I beat it in 2021 and it's simply not something I want to beat again ~2 years later.

Finished Golden Sun this morning, after a couple of brutal attempts at the final boss. The whole "Using a Djinn makes you less powerful" mechanic was never really a problem until you encounter a handful of subsequent bosses that can kill you in one or two hits.

In any case...

As a GBA launch title and a rare RPG from Nintendo, this was pretty good, and it must have been an awesome companion for a portable. For me, in modern days, I kept wishing things would move a little faster. I didn't like equipping Djinn to unlock "navigation" Psynergy (sup, Growth) and while I think the "use magic to solve puzzles" mechanic is neat, the hitboxes for some of the most-used spells like Catch and Move were really frustrating. I hate not knowing if the issue is with my solution or with what pixel I happen to be standing on.

But I do like hunting down special summons to make myself stronger. I like that you use Djinn to charge up massive summon spells, and that those summons are powerful enough to warrant all the legwork. The casino area was a blast, both in terms of story development and all the little mini-games. And I like that I finally played a game that I've known about since the "Peak GBA" era.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Are you talking about Tolbi? It's the highlight of the game, I find. Great music, fun minigames, it takes a lot of effort to reach (thanks for nothing, Kraken), and it introduces that Colosso obstacle course. Fun and memorable stuff all around!

SupremeSarna wrote:

Yup, definitely Tolbi. I just hit the Tolbi track in the soundtrack (it's my post-game ritual to listen to a game's official soundtrack) and got the warm fuzzies all over again.

Last day for votes! If you're a closet Myst lover, now's your chance to shine.

Pikmin series - 10

Myst - 4

Darn, was really hoping for Blaster Master but it looks like Myst is going to win.

Scott wrote:

I was joking. Myst tanked pretty hard.

That's weird, I could have sworn I remembered several people voting for it. Guess not!

must have myst it.

Myst is absolute rubbish so you guys made a good decision.

I’ve never even played Myst all the way through (I only ever started it a couple times)
but I always wanted to.
I sure af did not nominate it to troll the group. (We swears it) (insert gollum gif here 😉)
Personally, I love chill point and click puzzle type games and
considering how much Myst did to validate the genre I always
wanted to finally play it through. I recently played most of
The Witness and was hoping Myst would be similar.

I don’t care that it doesnt win, I just like there to be
different stuff nominated every month. That being said I might as
well put some points on it since its the last day to vote. 💜

Myst - 5
Amped 2 - 5

So I finally popped back onto the PS3 to beat the beginners track of Daytona USA.
Total time was 2’45”17

As I am posting this that song is making my skin crawl 🤮 just the main guy singing,
The music itself is good and so is the backing vocalist but the main guy? No.

Edit I also finished the advanced cicuit track too just now
Total time was 3’57”50

Another edit I just finished the Expert circuit track too.
Total time was 4’20”57 best lap was 2’06”96

It also got me my second ever trophy on Playstation 😉
Unless you can get Trophies offline in Vita games but I dont count that since
I didn’t have it in mah profile. Oh well. Anyways that was fun mostly 😃

I'm buying Myst tonight in preparation.

Lol 😂

DAYYY-TOOOO-NAAAAAAAAAAAH ... HAS GONE AWAY! (has gone away) Here's the final leaderboard for our time trial challenge:

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/trTRKFk.png 82 150{imgt} 1. Lunar 2'24"60 2. Slickriven 2'26"63 3. Renaissance2K 2'28"98

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/vxBQJF5.png 82 150{imgt} 1. Slickriven 3'14"24 2. Renaissance2K 3'38"07 3. BleedingViolet 3'57"50

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/AslEKoO.png 82 150{imgt} 1. Slickriven 3'43"32 2. Renaissance2K 4'13"10 3. BleedingViolet 4'20"57

Congrats to Lunar and Slickriven for demonstrating that the truth is in the drift. Here's all the badges we've earned this month:

BleedingViolet {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/3Ld2GOd.gif 80 60{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/LDCcqBR.gif 80 60{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/yDEFz13.gif 80 60{imgt} Lunar {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/3Ld2GOd.gif 80 60{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/trTRKFk.png 82 150{imgt} Renaissance2K {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/77BtpHO.gif 89 66{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/3Ld2GOd.gif 80 60{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/LDCcqBR.gif 80 60{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/yDEFz13.gif 80 60{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/NF3MqQj.gif 80 80{imgt} Slickriven {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/3Ld2GOd.gif 80 60{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/LDCcqBR.gif 80 60{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/yDEFz13.gif 80 60{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/vxBQJF5.png 82 150{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/AslEKoO.png 82 150{imgt}

Many thanks to everyone who greased their wheels and listened to the unapologetically-awesome soundtrack.

It was another nailbiting vote, even amidst - or should I say, a-Myst some of the hate for a few of the titles. Nevertheless, here's the tally for July's Game of the Month:

1. Bionic Commando - 20 points
2. Blaster Master: Enemy Below - 19 points
3. Myst - 14 points
4. Pikmin franchise - 10 points
5. Radiant Silvergun - 9 points
6. Amped 2 - 8 points

Bionic Commando swung into arcades intent on being a successor to Capcom's Commando, but the game's protagonist - who used a bionic telescopic arm to swing through levels and get the drop on enemies - made the title stand out among the other run-and-guns on the scene. After a number of direct ports to home computers, Capcom reimagined the game for the NES and Game Boy with more levels, faster gameplay, and unforgettable soundtracks. Both the arcade original and the console versions have been re-released countless times over the years as mainstays in Capcom collections, but Bionic Commando Re-armed for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, a "more than a remaster" reboot that enhances the NES classic's levels and mechanics with modern graphics, gave the franchise a brief second wind and kicked off a generation of retro remakes.

Honestly, I think the arcade game is trash, but it's retro, it's quick, and it's easy to find on nearly every platform so it'd be a shame not to include it in the month's fesitivites. The real gems, though - if you ask me - are the console ports. (Or, you could always play one of each...)

Play the original arcade release of Bionic Commando on
Arcade
MS-DOS
Amiga
Commodore 64
PlayStation 2 (Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1)
Xbox (Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1)
PSP (Capcom Classics Collection Remixed)
Windows (Capcom Arcade Cabinet)
PlayStation 4 (Capcom Arcade Cabinet)
Xbox One (Capcom Arcade Cabinet)
Switch (Capcom Arcade Cabinet)
{imgt}https://mister-devel.github.io/MkDocs_MiSTer/asset... 15 15{imgt} MiSTer
{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/XjIBwho.gif 77 16{imgt} Evercade VS

Play the console releases of Bionic Commando on
NES
Game Boy
Game Boy Advance (Capcom Classics Mini Mix)
3DS (Game Boy Virtual Console)

Play Bionic Commando Re-armed
Windows
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3

Finish Bionic Commando or its remaster to earn the Rad Spencer badge: {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/fnBW63H.gif 132 75{imgt}

It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing, but consider posting a #BeatIt once you complete it.

I haven't really played Bionic Commando on Capcom Arcade, so I'll likely finish that.

Let's get this party started. I booted up the MiSTer, loaded up my first arcade game in a while, and played through the original arcade version of Bionic Commando.

image

Okay, I may have been a little harsh earlier. It's not total trash - the Bionic Commando theme does make an appearance here, which would justify any game's existence - but not being able to chain swings or shoot in the air is a real bummer. The vertical segments where you're just fighting through a mille feuille of enemies are also really annoying.

But it could be worse. It's also relatively painless to credit spam.

I considered getting the GBC game on the 3DS eShop, but ultimately let it go. Guess I shoulda bought it instead of Harvest Moon, huh?

If you have the Capcom Arcade Collection or Arena (99% sure they're free on X1/SX or PS4/5) @SupremeSarna then it's only like $2 for Bionic Commando. I would've gone that route but I've got other means since I didn't apparently have the 360 Rearmed copy which I thought I did.

On the Steams:

https://store.steampowered.com/sub/1898/ - $3.19 for the Reboot and Rearmed

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1556707/Capcom_... $1 for the Arcade one

The reboot on Steam has some issues, but is mostly playable. I haven't touched Rearmed in seven years, though...

Re Armed is apparently not playable on Windows 10, FYI

I bought the xbox one version digitally last night for $1.99.
Since they let you buy each game individually instead of
buying the whole Capcom Collection. I plan to start playing it soon.

Will there be different badges for playing the different versions
or just the one badge for every version like was previously stated?
I don't know that i would play through more than one version
but maybe if there were other badges, or maybe if someone else
wanted to play other versions too idk. Otherwise it looks like
it will be a pretty short gotm convo on here.

Kommie wrote:

The suggestions here fixed it for me:
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Bionic_Commando_...

TL;DR - Install legacy PhysX drivers next to the modern ones, and download a new executable that doesn't use more than 4 CPU cores.

Happy 4th of July, everyone. What better way to show patriotism than to tell a bunch of robotic Nazis to shove it.

As someone who's been a fan of the franchise since I was a teenager but never actually played the NES game until this week, I feel like I just took a bite of a delicious meal that I've been saving. I feel like the mechanics and some of the cutscenes are ever-so-slightly jankier than the Game Boy version, but it was still a lot of fun. Gotta love the soundtrack, too.

Happy 4th to you too! And erryone else as well!

I just beat Bionic Commando which was incredibly easy to
credit spam as mentioned. On series S from the
Capcom Arcade Stadium.

I think this may have been one of the worst games
we’ve played yet. Granted I played the Arcade version but
Its really just an annoying game with terrible implementation
of any of its unique ideas. Like I get that its a really old game
and most things on the NES at the time were prolly equally
as sloppy and slow af but still, if I were playing this in the arcade
(because it was clearly the only game there if I felt compelled to play it)
and it were stealing all my money just to beat it I woulda been furious.
I’m sure theres some rando speed runner out there who
beat it without taking any damage but still, this is not the
game thats worth getting that good at it.
I do plan on playing it more later for achievements
since there are modes like maybe high scores
or ranked. But there are things I wish were better or more fun
or whatever. I dont know how Capcom put this out there.
The NES version HAS TO BE better than this even though
the graphics are prolly much worse in comparison.

Did people vote for this just because it could be beaten in under an hour?
Has anyone here ever played this before?

Yeah, it sucks. I'm up to stage 4 and don't even want to finish it. Maybe the other versions are better. Blaster Master definitely would have been better!

BloodPuppetX wrote:

The NES and GB versions are much, much, much better. It's like comparing Street Fighter: The Movie to Street Fighter II.

I haven't played the GBC version, but I hedge that it's better as well, just because of how low the bar is set by the arcade game.

Street Fighter the movie was actually fun too though.

Hang in there the game is almost over @BloodPuppetX
I know Blaster Master would have been better. I forgot to put any points
on it since I couldnt go back on mobile to see what the other nominees were
or what was looking like it was winning.
Also I kinda get why people were hesitant since it was a Gameboy game.
I think I have it on a memory card for my super retrocade but i would have
rather played it legit just like always if I can.
I loved the original Blaster Master anyways, its like one of my
favorite NES games. Prolly top 10 for me on the system.

BleedingViolet wrote:

The PS1 port is a reskinned and rebalanced Super Street Fighter II. The original arcade game is extremely janky and broken as hell, but it's really fun when played with friends.

I'll see if I can actually reinstall the Bionic Commando reboot later in the week. I wonder how it'll run on my current system...

Yeah, I was referring to the arcade version of Street Fighter: The Movie. Or the movie itself...

Foxhack wrote:

It's almost twenty years old at this point, so whatever hardware you have should handle it without issue. Just make sure you follow the steps here:

Renaissance2K wrote:

Also, it's marked as "Unplayable" for the Steam Deck, but it does work if you use an older Proton version and install the same drivers from the link above. The instructions are on Reddit.

I never actually saw the movie. And yes the original SF2 is also slow and kinda lame too though.
Wasn’t referring to the Arcade version of SF: The Movie. I don’t know if I even saw it in the arcades.
Which is weird since I musta been one of very few people who ever played
Tattoo Assassins in the arcade.
Out of all the original SF2 remakes I still much prefer SF2 Turbo or Hyper Fighting though.
I love rush down with the 100 hand slap 😉

I said the reboot, not Rearmed. :p

BleedingViolet wrote:

It was recently added to the GB app on Switch, so a lot of people would have had access to it on there. I imagine that's why @BloodPuppetX nominated it.


Same!

Yeah, that's why I nominated it. I'll still be playing through Enemy Below this month most likely. I'll try to suffer through a few more levels of Bionic Commando for the badge.

I've never played Bionic Commando but I always thought it was considered one of the better NES games. I'm surprised to hear it's so bad.

I was going to nominate Enemy Below again next month if you didn't @BloodPuppetX

Scott wrote:

It's the arcade version we're calling bad. I'm playing on Capcom Arcade Stadium. I've never played the NES version, but I'm sure it's way better.

Ah, gotcha

Ok, I beat Bionic Commando arcade version. Best thing is it was only 5 stages long.

Holy crap I didn't even last three minutes on that before throwing in the towel. That game is bad.

Also, Bionic Commando Rearmed works without problems on my computer. I guess my hardware is just about old enough that it doesn't have the CPU core issue mentioned?

I read something saying that resolution could be a factor too. Old games are mysterious beasts.

I had an idea that could be an interesting theme for a future month. Mind if I suggest it?

Might as well @SupremeSarna

Sure. I was thinking we could do a month that attempts to replicate the arcade experience by essentially making a GameTZ arcade. We can only nominate arcade games, and 10 will be chosen (so there would be a lot of nominees). We can try to beat each other's high scores, and even listen to arcade ambience (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu6H-qbGOUI) in the background. It puts all the games on the same playing field since they're all pretty short and digestible, so there won't be one person nominating a 50-hour RPG while someone else nominates a 1-hour beat'em-up. It more or less gives every game a fighting chance, which is appealing.

I've been wanting to do an arcade month as well. Let's do an "Arcade August" next month. Like with Daytona, we'll have badges for finishing the game and badges for the highest scores.

Everybody start thinking about your favorite arcade games and what you'll want to play as a group. We'll do nominations and votes at the usual time.

Package from Japan. The really big thing in here for me is the Gamecube cable. I got to see the Prizm cable in action and I wasn't happy with the result. That got me to checking on prices for the Japanese cable again. Ended up getting it and the break out cable (to easily use it on a US display) for about $95 all in on it. Then a bunch of odds and ends mostly, some stuff thrown in for other people and the PC engine is to have one to just leave my recently acquired Super System 3 ODE attached to.

Been getting in a ton of Gamecube action already with it. Going through RE4 again plus some random Mario Golf. Going to grab some more games via trades as well.

image

Gypsy wrote:

What did you notice? Independent of the shady way the cable was designed/released, I didn't have too much of an issue with the visual quality, though I'm using it straight to a CRT and not for capture.

Renaissance2K wrote:

It was noticeably darker. Worth mentioning the HDMI solution (Carby) using GCVideo firmware is really just as good but I didn't want to be locked into HDMI (or buying more random adapters).

I've also heard it mentioned that the audio is awful on the Prism cable. That's easily solved by just using the analog port for audio still though.

Renaissance2K wrote:

This interferes with me (or @BloodPuppetX) nominating Blaster Master: Enemy Below again!

You have 19 days to develop an arcade port.

I'm on my way to the airport, so I have to wait to try this, but it's great news to wake up to:

https://www.dsogaming.com/news/wipeout-gets-unoffi...

Psygnosis has some great source ports and post-sunset dev patches. I'm happy to see one of the OGs get the same treatment. Looking forward to losing on Silverstream on modern hardware.

For those that missed it, Limited Run Games is porting the Gex trilogy to modern consoles. Destructoid responded with a pretty... unique interpretation of the original game.

https://www.destructoid.com/ive-wildly-misundersto...

I grinded through this game on PlayStation back in the day, scribbling down passwords as I went. I remember liking the voice work, wishing they had picked different zone themes (I hate ghost/spooky levels...), and finding everything crazy hard.

I'm just interested if it will be a bit of a remake because they mention bringing it to an "engine". If it's just a port with slightly sharper resolution I'll keep my PS1 games.

ErickRPG wrote:

The Carbon Engine is Limited Run Games' emulation / improvement platform. It's essentially an emulator that lets them add additional content, like videos, text overlays (for translations), video filters and achievements.

https://limitedrungames.com/pages/carbon-engine

There are two games that use it right now: Shantae (the original GBC game that was released for Switch) and River City Girls Zero (A localized version of Shin Nekketsu Kouha: Kunio Tachi no Banka that added cutscenes to shove it into the RCG series ).

So Gex is likely going to run on this emulator. It's pretty likely they'll add modern filters but there's bound to be an original video mode too.

That said, they're gonna have to add a lot of disclaimers due to how... badly a bunch of things from that series have aged.

thanks for the info. Yeah kinda how they did that river city game that never came to america, and added an anime intro, and voice acting?

I def would be interested in this if there were new dana gould lines. But if it's not got really much new at all, I'll skip it since I have both gex 2 and 3 on the PS1 that I collected in near mint condition. and any modern collector would know, it takes time to run accross a near mint copy being sold on ebay for a reasonable price. So getting those 2 games in that condition for about market price was an accomplishment in itself.

That's cool. They'll probably release it physically too, but it's LRG, so...you know. :p

it's awesome for those that don't have a PS1. I recommend them totally. But I already own the 2 games in the series I like.

If they want to go for the three-pointer, they'd record new voice lines with Dana Gould that references modern pop culture, and then let you toggle either that or the original VO.

I'm 99% certain that won't happen, despite it being Dana Gould's biggest gig since the Clinton Administration, but it's nice to dream.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Well, when Gex showed up on the trailer. It really didn't sound like young Dana Gould. So I do have some hope he will record new lines. That would be a huge reason for me to double dip.

Okay, this has been bumped for two weeks now, but I've added badges for the the two other flavors of Bionic Commando, including the version most of us have pla... er, subjected ourselves to.

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/99gx3Ec.gif 160 96{imgt}

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/z0v9Myh.gif 133 80{imgt}

I would have loved to do these on a transparent background like the NES variant, but I couldn't find any prior art, and the sprites for Joe/Rad are actually really complicated. In addition to the different poses for his body, the bionic arm is actually multiple different sprites at different rotations.

I'll update the OP this evening.

I'm in the next to last level in BC: Rearmed and I just can't beat it.

Nope, I'm throwing in the towel on the last level of BC:R. There's a section near the end which is full of platforms that collapse every so often, or that do so when you touch them, and it is -impossible- to see far enough to try to plan a route through it. And to top it off, your lifebar blocks your view too.

And if you lose all your lives there, you have to play the rest of the level again... all 15 minutes of it.

It's a shame, because the rest of the game worked very well and had some great inspiration behind it. They adapted the final stage of the original game, but tacked on that completely unnecessary bullcrap area and welp I'm not going to bother anymore.

Just as July started to get in full swing, it seems like it's already starting to wrap up. Let's take a look at what badges we've earned this month:

BleedingViolet {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/99gx3Ec.gif 160 96{imgt} BloodPuppetX {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/99gx3Ec.gif 160 96{imgt} Renaissance2K {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/99gx3Ec.gif 160 96{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/fnBW63H.gif 132 75{imgt}

If the arcade release still leaves a bad taste in your mouth, don't be scared to try out one of the later ports, which now have their own badges. In the meantime, thanks to all the poor souls who subjected themselves to such madness.

Next month is Arcade August. Nominate some of your favorite arcade games, and we'll use them to assemble our own virtual arcade; sticky floors and creepy quarter guy not included. Beat (or finish one loop of) a game to earn a unique badge. Hold the high score at the end of the month to earn a medal.

We'll start voting on July 26. The ten most wanted games will get prime real estate on our arcade's main floor, far from the broken bathrooms and vending machine.

Start listing some games!

I’ll nominate

The Simpsons

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game

Mortal Kombat 2

Marble Madness

I figure those are all decent and or great!

Three of them have playable ports everywhere and I’m pretty sure The Simpsons is available digitally somewhere too. There’s so many great arcade games out there I had like 5 more I wanted to nominate but that’s too many 😉

I nominate:
Fantasy Zone
Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa Arcade version (sorry, Master System OG)
Bonanza Bros.
Crazy Taxi
Donkey Kong 3
Bosconian

PixelFX's big announcement was a "universal" internal HDMI modfor retro consoles. It's called the Retro Gem, and it will support N64, Dreamcast, PS1, and PS2 at launch. It will cost $99, and is going on sale tomorrow at 10am EDT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWmyPw6gh4U

There's an option to digitally-upgrade each unit for an additional $80 to add 1440p support, motion adaptive deinterlacing, and some other stuff. Obvious joke: they figured out how to add paid transaction to retro games.

They also teased that Wii and Xbox support is in development.

I nominate TRON.

And the three vector graphics Star Wars Arcade games.

Hmm, here's more info from Bob.

https://www.retrorgb.com/pixelfx-retro-gem-playsta...

I guess I'll try one? There's alot of unanswered questions though. Like if this is easy enough to install and can be user installed without sending to a modder. Will analog out be intact? Is it $80 per PCB to upgrade?(Would make it alot easier to swallow the upgrade fee if it's a one time upgrade fee for multiple PCBs)

I've got my retrotink 5x pro and it's good for my Wii, PS2, and I'm even thinking of getting an N64 and Saturn again just because of how great it's making those games look and I want to experience more systems with it!

We're up to 12 arcade nominations so far. Let's keep them coming!

Lunar wrote:

It's a common PCB with a custom flex cable for each platform, so you'll almost certainly need to send it to a modder if you don't have adequate soldering skills yourself. Most of their installs have been Intermediate+ so far.

All their previous solutions preserve - or add - analog video support, so I'd be shocked if this changed now. They even said in the video that the Gem supports the full existing XXXDigital feature set, plus more, which wouldn't be true if they dropped analog video.

I'd also think it's $80 per digital upgrade, not $80 per "account" as it were. They don't have account functionality now, they've spoken out against TerraOnion's practice of locking hardware to accounts, and it'd be hard to implement a household-wide upgrade without such a system if you don't also open the floodgates to abuse.

I don't think it's worth upgrading my existing HDMI-modded consoles - the big get would be 1440p support, and I still haven't found an HDMI switch that works with 1440p capture reliably - but I'm stoked about adding this to my PS2s, and their Wii kit is overdue for an upgrade.

I'll nominate Three Wonders

Lunar wrote:

Seconded, this is actually three games too

I’ll also nominate Sky Skipper, even if it breaks the illusion of this being an actual arcade.

SupremeSarna wrote:

Hey, it's still an arcade game, technically.

Last day for nominations. I'm going to throw my hat in the ring and nominate three games that were important to me in my younger years: Galaga, Burgertime, and Raiden.

If you've already nominated some games and thought of a few more after the fact, feel free to make another post. We want to end up with ten games in our list, so the more the merrier.

Ill nominate some more.



Star Wars Pod Racer

Mace the Dark Age

Primal Rage

Ms Pac-Man

Saturday Night Slam Masters

…

Tattoo Assassins


Idk if Ms Pac-Man ever ends and Tattoo Assassins would be very hard to find and play.

LET'S BUILD AN ARCADE, FOLKS! We collectively nominated 25 classic arcade games for next month's arcade bonanza. Here are all the nominees, along with Wikipedia pages to help with research:

Nominees
Bonanza Bros.
Bosconian
Burgertime
Crazy Taxi
Donkey Kong 3
Fantasy Zone
Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa
Galaga
Mace: The Dark Age
Marble Madness
Mortal Kombat II
Ms. Pac-Man
Primal Rage
Raiden
Saturday Night Slam Masters
The Simpsons
Sky Skipper
Star Wars
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars: Racer Arcade
Tattoo Assassins
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Three Wonders
Tron

Either publicly in this thread or privately in a PM to me, give each nominee 0-5 points. Omitting a nominee is equivalent to giving it a vote of 0. The ten games with the highest score at the end of the month will make up the showroom of Arcade August 2023.

Here are my votes:

Bonanza Bros. - 3 Bosconian - 3 Burgertime - 5 Crazy Taxi - 5 Donkey Kong 3 - 4 Fantasy Zone - 4 Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa - 1 Galaga - 4 Mace: The Dark Age - 4 Marble Madness - 4 Mortal Kombat II - 5 Ms. Pac-Man - 4 Primal Rage - 5 Raiden - 5 Saturday Night Slam Masters - 3 The Simpsons - 5 Sky Skipper - 3 Star Wars - 4 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - 1 Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - 1 Star Wars: Pod Racer - 3 Tattoo Assassins - 2 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 5 Three Wonders - 5 Tron - 3

It's the biggest ballot in this thread's history, but I know you folks can handle it. Let's see what's going to be eating our virtual quarters next month.

TMNT 5
Three Wonders 5

My vote

Bonanza Bros. - 5
Bosconian - 5
Burgertime - 4
Crazy Taxi - 5
Donkey Kong 3 - 5
Fantasy Zone - 5
Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa - 5
Galaga - 3
Ms. Pac-Man - 3
The Simpsons - 4
Sky Skipper - 3
Star Wars - 2
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - 2
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - 2
Star Wars: Pod Racer - 5
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 3

Three Wonders 5
Simpsons 5
Raiden 5

Rounding out our Bionic Commando month, I finished Re-armed for the PlayStation 3 a few nights back.

https://twitter.com/Renaissance2K/status/168479119...

I first played through it shortly after release on the 360, having not played the NES original and assuming it was a pixel-for-pixel remake of it. Now that I've played the NES game, I can see substantial amount of content that was added or changed.

I had a much easier time this run, as well. My original 360 run was just a matter of brute forcing myself to the finish line, but this time, I sought out all the optional upgrades and hamachis. Those routes were usually pretty brutal, but the base game itself was much easier than I remember.

Fabricator 2 is a jerk, though.

Is anyone else gonna vote for arcade games?

Nope

a good opportunity to use my mame cabinet I haven't used in months. .

5 - Bosconian
5 - Mortal Kombat II
5 - Saturday Night Slam Masters
5 - Tron

Burgertime - 5
Crazy Taxi - 5
Fantasy Zone - 5
Galaga - 5
Mace: The Dark Age - 5
Marble Madness - 5
Mortal Kombat II - 5
Ms. Pac-Man - 5
Primal Rage - 5
Saturday Night Slam Masters - 5
The Simpsons - 5
Star Wars: Pod Racer - 5
Tattoo Assassins - 5
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 5
Three Wonders - 5

I normally do the math to see which games are in the lead, but I’m not bothering this time, lol. Hope you’re keeping a running tally, @Renaissance2K .

SupremeSarna wrote:

I have a spreadsheet that updates every time somebody nominates or votes. It's been stealthily linked within every "Start of Month" post I do.

I thought I was done, but I couldn't let Bionic Commando month fade away without playing through my personal favorite of the series, so I knocked out the Game Boy version over the weekend.

https://twitter.com/Renaissance2K/status/168577649...

I also finished a playthrough of Bionic Commando: Elite Forces for Game Boy Color, which I hadn't ever touched until now. It has some great character animations and swinging mechanics, but it's zoomed in way too much and requires an uncomfortable amount of blind swinging to get anywhere. I'll stick with the originals.

LAST HOURS OF ARCADE VOTING! Start shining your quarters!

Bionic Commando has swung its way home. Here are all the badges we earned this month:

BleedingViolet {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/99gx3Ec.gif 160 96{imgt} BloodPuppetX {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/99gx3Ec.gif 160 96{imgt} Renaissance2K {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/99gx3Ec.gif 160 96{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/fnBW63H.gif 132 75{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/z0v9Myh.gif 133 80{imgt}

Many thanks to you who played this month, with a special salute to those who played the atrocious arcade version. We should all be ashamed of ourselves for letting such a turd grace our ranks. The guy in charge should really be taken out back and flogged with a bionic arm or two.

Anyway...

The August Arcade is open! Brace yourselves for a massive info dump!

While we were originally targeting a docket of ten games, a massive five-way tie for tenth place means the cutoff for our Front Room is nine games, but if it makes you feel better, Three Wonders is actually a bundle of three tiles, each of which will be tracked separately. Here's a look at the final vote, including the winners:

1. The Simpsons - 23 points
1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 23 points
1. Three Wonders - 23 points
4. Crazy Taxi - 19 points
5. Burgertime - 17 points
6. Mortal Kombat II - 15 points
6. Ms. Pac-Man - 15 points
8. Fantasy Zone - 14 points
9. Galaga - 14 points
10. Bosconian - 13 points
10. Raiden - 13 points
10. Saturday Night Slam Masters - 13 points
10. Star Wars: Pod Racer - 13 points
10. Tron - 13 points
15. Marble Madness - 11 points
15. Star Wars - 11 points
17. Primal Rage - 10 points
18. Donkey Kong 3 - 9 points
18. Mace: The Dark Age - 9 points
20. Bonanza Bros. - 8 points
20. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - 8 points
20. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - 8 points
23. Tattoo Assassins - 7 points
24. Fantasy Zone II - 6 points
24. Sky Skipper - 6 points

Some of these games have a definite ending where the credits roll. Some of them loop until you run out of quarters or the machine runs out of memory. We'll figure things out as we go, but here's the general plan:

Beat any of the Front Room arcade games (or complete one loop, where appropriate) or one of their home ports to earn the game's Front Room Arcade Machine badge: image image image image image image image image If you play the original arcade release or a direct port, feel free to submit your high score. The holders of the high scores at the end of the month will get bronze, silver, and bronze medal badges for each game.

I was hoping to have more badges ready to go by tonight, but the template I'm using took a bit longer than expected to put together. Hopefully, it was worth it. More badges will be posted in the coming days.

So, that's the Front Room. Does that mean there's a Back Room? Folks, since Lunar began archiving the Games of the Month back in 2018, we've played through a whopping 22 games that began their humble lives in the arcade. Here's the full list, along with when we played them:

Galactic Attack (March 2018)
The Astyanax (April 2018)
Outrun (December 2018)
Ninja Gaiden (September 2019)
Final Fight (November 2019)
Altered Beast (December 2019)
Sunset Riders (January 2020)
Strikers 1945 (February 2020)
Super Dodge Ball (April 2020)
Metal Slug (May 2020)
Renegade (June 2020)
Jackal (January 2021)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (March 2021)
Metal Slug X (April 2021)
Strider (May 2021)
Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire (June 2021)
Splatterhouse (October 2021)
NBA Jam (March 2022)
Dynamite Cop (September 2022)
Virtua Fighter (March 2023)
Daytona USA (June 2023)
Bionic Commando (July 2023)

Since we're diving into the arcade this month, why not take that as an opportunity to dust off some of the coin-op classics that we've visited before?

Beat any of the Back Room arcade games or one of their home ports to earn the game's Back Room Arcade Machine badge. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/tNByof5.gif 84 176{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/RZpK7gj.gif 84 176{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/z4ZSnUm.gif 84 176{imgt}

I won't be tracking high scores for Back Room games; this month is already going to be bonkers, and I have to draw the line somewhere. Also, because I'm not a monster and don't want to see anyone else throwing themselves at that awful Bionic Commando arcade game, folks that have already played the 2023 arcade games this year will have their badges added to the leaderboard once they're created.**

There's a lot going on, a lot of badges to earn, and hopefully, a lot of fun games to be had. I hope everyone finds a game (or three) worth picking up this month. Have fun!

I guess I'm kicking things off with a playthrough of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/b3LcJA0.gif 84 176{imgt}

I got a score of *283*. I think pumping this one is going to depend on your stamina when it comes to the handful of enemies that regenerate endlessly. Baxter's Mousers is probably the easier of the two.

image

I’ll admit, I didn’t think Fantasy Zone would make the cut. Always happy to replay that cute’em-up!

I've been playing Castle of the Winds again lately. I think it might have been the first video game I played and I was having some nostalgia for it.

Can be played via web browser here
https://archive.org/details/win3_CasWin1

Renaissance2K wrote:

What did you play it on?

BleedingViolet wrote:

I played the arcade port in the Cowabunga Collection.

Knocked out a second playthrough this morning, this time for The Simpsons.

image

I played this on MAME and ended up with a score of 252. Like TMNT, I think there are only a few places where you can really pump up your score, like the bonus games, but I could be wrong.

image

I beat Fantasy Zone (specifically the arcade-accurate SEGA AGES Nintendo Switch port).
[imgt w=1280 h=720]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2o1DkKaMAA6pZQ?format...[/imgt]
Did a full loop, died back on Plaleaf in Round 9.
Total score: 1549400

On default settings, this one's really hard. I've always preferred the inferior Master System port, not only because it's how I first played FZ, but also because it has a few key differences that make it more fun/managable. There are two secret exploits that let buy lives super cheap or get infinite time on special weapons (as long as you don't die). Enemy Generators are stationary, and Heavy Bombs fall straight down during boss fights, making it much easier to nuke the last few Aliens on Salfar.

@Renaissance2K There's no Fantasy Zone arcade badge! What is the meaning of this outrage???

SupremeSarna wrote:

I have to assemble each badge from scratch using PCBs, microchips, and authentic arcade-scented particle board. Please be patient.

SupremeSarna wrote:

Okay, okay, the Front Room badges are all done, and you get your Fantasy Zone badge.

image

I'm going to do the Back Room badges on demand because, while I plan on visiting or revisiting a few of those titles, I don't know how many of you will.

On my Steam Deck today, I took first shots at Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man. I'm sure I can do better in both. The kamikaze ships in Galaga kept cornering me and blowing me up. With Ms. Pac-Man, after years of training on my uncle's original cocktail cabinet, I think it may be the only game where I really need an arcade stick to play. I'll try again on MAME with my Arcade Stick Pro.

And then, there's Crazy Taxi...

I've played this more than any other Dreamcast game. It was one of the few that actually gave me blisters. Twenty years ago, I really couldn't get enough of it, but every time I've picked it up in the more modern era, it's been a disaster. The muscle memory is all gone, and even when I look up strategies for the special driving moves, I couldn't manage to get a hang of it.

I tried a few weeks ago while I was on vacation, and fared terribly. I tried earlier today with the PC port, failing miserably. And then, finally, tonight, after another half-hour of mediocrity, something finally started to come back.

image

Still not as good as I used to be, and light years behind those arcade monsters that make a million dollars in one shift, but it's a start.

@Renaissance2K Looks great! Are you planning to play every game? If so, I look forward to you (possibly) besting my score. If you need advice, just ask.

SupremeSarna wrote:

I'm for sure going to play all the games we voted on this month, but I'm not a big score chaser. We'll see how it goes. I love a good shooter.

Man, these arcade badges look amazing! How'd you make them?

Lunar wrote:

Thanks! Turns out that DaVinci Resolve can export direct to GIF.

I found some arcade machine clip art, hollowed out the marquee and screen sections, and put the game appropriate content behind the image. The footage is the attract mode of the game captured from MAME (or whatever other emulator the platform uses).

SupremeSarna wrote:

Last night, I booted up Fantasy Zone on my MiSTer. I really enjoyed the first three levels, even the bosses, but right at Level 4, I feel like the difficulty reached an "oh, there's just no way" magnitude. It's also a super mindscrew that a game that looks so damn adorable can be so ruthless.

Also, that snowman boss can go to Hell.

That's about the time I raided the higher shelves of the Shop and found that 7-way shot, which let me blow through the next few levels in a fraction of the time... which would be awesome, except when things REALLY hit the fan, the weapon cost as much as a new Tesla. Didn't really notice the price going up every time I bought it.

In the end, I made it to the final form of the final boss of the final level and just gave up after a half hour or so of trying. Even after I cracked a strategy for the first forms, I simply couldn't outrun the final one, and didn't have the money to buy a speed boost. I'm not convinced it wouldn't have made me slam into a wall or another enemy before reaching the end, if I did have the funds.

So, I turned it off. I'll try again once my pride recovers, and I'll save my money for the later levels. I'm also now very interested in the 3D port of this that came out for the 3DS. I bet that's a lot of fun.

In other more successful news, I wandered into the Back Room and played through Metal Slug X, which we played back in April 2021. The Steam version runs perfectly on the Steam Deck, which is odd because the original doesn't.

image

Renaissance2K wrote:

I watched a video of the final boss. Dude beat it by dropping a well timed heavy bomb on the super fast one

benstylus wrote:

That’s the recommended strategy for the last Alien. I usually buy two or three, depending on the version I’m playing. The Arcade version has an annoying effect where Heavy Bombs don’t fall straight down, instead falling at a slight southwest angle. Try luring the Alien to the top-left of the screen, then quickly flying right while dropping the bomb almost simultaneously.

As for Poppoos (snowman boss of Polaria), destroy 9 of the Enemy Generators and then die. That way you can buy a fresh 7-Way Shot and use it to destroy the last generator and fight Poppoos.

I’ve played the FZ series for years and still have a seriously tough time winning at FZ1. I recommend the Master System port to newbies since it’s technologically inferior and this made a little easier. 3D Fantasy Zone: Opa-Opa Bros. is also quite good, though it’s mostly just the arcade one with a new mode and stereoscopic 3D.

So that online emu I found didn't have the second part. Had to just set-up Dosbox and I'm playing through it now. Masterpiece.

Well, the nightmare is over.

Not blowing money on fancy weapons in early levels (save for the 7-Way Shot against Poppoos, which was a laughably-fast fight) definitely helped, until I got to Pocarius and ended up so frustrated that I was throwing my ship into the last few bases just to make the madness end. I'm also not sure how I handled Ida 2 so easily during my first run and got stopped dead by it this time, but I was prepared for the final boss this time.

Yes, one Heavy Bomb did the trick against the final alien. Messed up the timing once, but I nailed him the second time.

I don't know what's up with the MiSTer version of this game, but after "The End" flashed on the screen, my score got maxed out. My score before that was 352500. Assuming you get a million points for finishing a loop, I still got thoroughly trounced by @SupremeSarna, as I deserved to, I'm sure.

Renaissance2K wrote:

“Was my victory really worth the price I had to pay?”

Well done! I’m surprised you got it so quickly—even us veterans struggle on the original game! Great work thrashing Poppoos and everyone else in the Fantasy Zone… except for the Strong Tot and Dz Deno Roma, two bosses I’m sure you never saw. Aw well, guess I’ll always be Fantasy Zone’s only true savior.

JK. Hope you had fun with this quirky shmup!

SupremeSarna wrote:

Good God, there are more bosses?!

Thanks to the ancient phenomenon known as Girl's Night Out, I got to spend more in the arcade, managing to squeak out clears in all three of the Three Wonders games.

Midnight Wanderers: 1014406
Chariot: 2517910
Don't Pull: 1493040

I'm probably going to spend some time looking up the story behind this one. My guess is that Midnight Wanderers was the "main game" that was deemed not good enough for some reason, Chariot is something they whipped together quickly using most of the same art assets, and Don't Pull was the equivalent of an intern project that didn't deserve a standalone release.

I love the sprite work in all three games. Chariot was the easiest. Midnight Wanderers had some serious Ghouls 'n Ghosts vibes, though it didn't seem to be trying as hard to be brutally punishing. I liked Don't Pull too, but I had a lot more fun with the first 16 levels before the enemies find that bag of uppers and start zipping around the levels in berserk mode.

I think I need to pick up Mortal Kombat II next. I'm not looking forward to being cheesed out by that AI...

Edit: Fancy that! According to my Backloggery, I played through these three games on PSP many moons ago. I barely remember them, especially Don't Pull.

I started Mortal Kombat II yesterday. I fully expected the AI to be a bunch of cheap nonsense, and I was right, but nothing could have prepared me for how unfair the showdown with Kintaro was going to be. I picked Mileena for my playthrough, hearing that she's a top tier fighter and having barely touched her in the game's heyday, but she got romped in fight after fight. Make one mistake (or, really, just let Kintaro be Kintaro) and one uppercut takes away half of her health.

I read that you can take him down by getting lucky with flying kicks, and that Mileena's Sai Throw is more effective than you'd think. Sure enough, a barrage of the two eventually - and I mean, eventually - took him down. Shao Khan was a breeze in comparison, going down in three attempts vs. Kintaro's ~50.

One wrinkle about Mortal Kombat II is that you don't end the game with any stat worth measuring. No arcade completion time, no score, etc. I don't think we'll be able to win medals for this one.

I wandered into the Back Room. We played Final Fight in this thread way back before the MiSTer got CPS-1 support, so I took this as an opportunity to try that core out. I had a lot of fun playing it on an analog screen with an arcade stick, and within an hour, I had a reason to create another badge.

image

Renaissance2K wrote:


For Arcade games I often measure in terms of $.

MK2 was a 50 cent per play game at my local arcade, so congrats on spending a virtual $25+ to beat it. (Or taking inflation into account, about $53 in today's dollars)

And that totally explains why arcade ports were such a hot commodity in the early to mid 90s.

Okay, so it took me roughly ten grand. Come at me, champions!

Well technically Mortal Kombat 2 has a consecutive wins counter, that could be the medal requirement, no?
Like you said most people consider the game to be super cheap against the AI so the first two
wins are pretty easy but for anyone here to win all their matches against the AI in a row,
That might be an impossible feat. There are dumb tricks that work though making the game easy
until you get to Kintaro and/or Shao Khan (depending on your main of course).

Mileenas my main in Mortal Kombat whenever shes playable (except MK11 because she
Wasnt available at launch and I learned the mechanics online with Jade, so shes my main in MK11)
But she is NOT easy to beat the arcade ladder with in MK2. Kitana is considered easier since
she destroys Kintaro. So congrats on a hard win. I have a ghetto cart of MK2 from the internet
I plan to play on Genesis that has the bosses and secret characters playable. I have yet to try it
but I’m hopeful to beat it with Jade. Would that still count?

image

This was pretty difficult. I don't think I ever beat it before.

Long live King Buttman. Round may he reign.

A bidet in every household of his kingdom.

Been playing a lot of Alien Crush lately as well.

image

Okay, a couple more Arcade August updates...

Sitting on a couch looking for a quick replay, I paid the $2 and downloaded Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire (a.k.a. Darkstalkers 3) from the Capcom Arcade Stadium 2, and played through that twice. I couldn't remember which characters were my favorites when we played through it back in June 2021, so I picked Talbain because werewolf and Morrigan because... well...

The game was notably easier than it was on the MiSTer, which once again makes me wonder if the FPGA implementation or the ROM dump is different somehow.

image

Next from the Back Room was Out Run, which "we" played back in December 2018. I say "we" in the loosest sense because it's back from before I found this thread and started joining you all in your gaming festivities. The stand-up Out Run arcade has some serious nostalgia factor - my family rented it for a reunion when I was seven-years-old, and "Passing Breeze" will live on forever in my brain as a result - but I never sat down to actually play it.

I took a shot at it on MAME and on MiSTer using my racing wheel, but I never convinced myself everything was set up properly, so I loaded up the Sega Ages release on the Switch instead. It doesn't beat playing with a working wheel, but it will do.

I actually didn't have the original Out Run badge for this one because it was before my time, so I added that to my trophy case, along with the new Arcade August badge:

image

Finally, the last Front Room game I had yet to attempt was Burgertime. This game is special to me because it's one of the few games my dad and I would play together when I was little. It was probably the best run I've ever had, completing a loop and making it all the way to the second run of Level 3, where unpredictable pickles served me my demise.

I ended up with a score of 57150.

Man, I'm way behind on the "Beat a Game 2023" thread... That's going to be a big update when I find the time.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Bring it on!

The Simpsons just dropped for MiSTer and the Analogue Pocket!

https://twitter.com/topapate/status/16900107764073...

This month has me messing with my Mame setup, which is cool b/c I really hadn't touched that huge library on my new PC yet. I ended up playing a number of non-RTT selected titles and even beat 2 before finally getting to The Simpsons and completing it. I didn't get a snip of the final screen b/c I had it full screen and the snip&save tool wasn't playing nice, but here's my top score after the fact as proof. I'm not sure how many credits I used, a few more than I would've liked, but I started as Marge and tried to beat a level with each character before switching, which resulted in generally at least 2 credits for each, but then I cycled through them some more as a few bosses stunk, or my approach did, or I had a non-ideal character selected for the fight. Bart and then Lisa were my top choices (with Homer preferred over Marge as well). The seemingly faster play of the kids worked better for me, but who knows.

image

Finished up the fan translation of Yuna on the PC Engine. Delightful and light hearted romp. Minor rpg combat sequences but not so much a game as you are just watching a digital comic. You have to mash confirmation options but it's not like something like FSN or Snatcher where there are choices to really make, it's completely on rails and you are often confined to one area. Looking forward to playing through the second one, which is also translated.

Made another trip to the Back Room to play RayForce, which is the Japanese arcade release of Galactic Attack. Seeing that this game essentially had four different names for the same experience was a bit of interesting trivia, though it made trying to track down the game in MAME, on MiSTer, and elsewhere a bit of a headache.

In a bit of a plot twist, I learned that Rayforce was included on the Taito Egret II Mini and opted for that over Gunlock on MAME. It was the first time I exercised the little bro for a full playthrough. It was fun, but leaning on the auto-fire button for most of the game seemed to mess with the "Lock-on Fire" button next to it. There were a number of times that I'd smash the button and not have an attack register. Not great for such an expensive device.

Oh well. It's another badge in the trophy cabinet.

image

Man, what does it take to 'beat' Burgertown b/c oh my goodness do I dislike that game.
It's just too dang strict on your directions, you can't lead you chef very well to make a turn, at least not when using a controller. I tried with a Dpad and analog stick and neither worked great. I did get the 2nd highest score at over 11k, but I'm not sure my patience can stand much more of that, the chip-tune music doesn't help and I might have nightmares of being chased by chilis, eggs and pickles now.

If you have nightmares about angry pickles, you're playing the game correctly.

Similar to Daytona last month, I think expecting everyone to "beat" any of the 1CC classic games (Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Burgertime, Fantasy Zone) is a little much. It's more reasonable to give a badge to everyone that submits a score.

So @Slickriven, share your Burgertime score, and I'll give you your badge.

Slickriven wrote:

For those classic high score chase Arcade titles with no ending, I typically consider beating the default high score as beating the game.

Sometimes it's laughably easy other times is is quite hard.

I had to use save states to beat the Game Boy version. It was maddening.

I've used save states for Burgertown and the bunny game from the Three Wonders so far, but really just in between stages as I didn't change the default means of doing it for Mame and it's Shift+F7 to save and F7 to load and you can't pause virtually any arcade games. I've also read it has to be the left shift, that's slightly further from the F7 key - I can do it with 1 hand, but was using a controller, so was taking my hand off of that to do it so really saves only really can happen between stages.

I'll give Burgertown a little more time and maybe use a KB instead, but the precision needed to change directions seems to be part of the game and not control type based. I think I only completed the first 2 boards as well, frustrating for sure. Though that bunny game from Three Wonders got played after and was better from a controls standpoint, but ho-lee shoot were the enemies frustratingly persistent.

Renaissance2K wrote:

I ran out of restraint and have to comment on this. The game has a very recent release developed by the absolute best in the business, M2. It's available on Switch, PS4, and soon Steam. There is no acceptable excuse to play it on MAME or MiSTer. If it's worth your time, it's worth a few bucks.

edit: This also applies to Fantasy Zone, though it's only on Switch. It's been $2.79 a whole bunch of times and as low as $1.99.

My intent is not to single you out, but people need to give some thought to their sense of entitlement.

I gave it several more attempts and couldn't get a higher score with the controller, I tried with analog and digital inputs and ended up quitting in frustration. Then I took a small break and switched to WASD controls and muted the music and beat the first 2 levels and learned some tips/techniques from that, though I still wasn't great at it. I ended up setting a new personal high score, but still didn't reach the 28k of 1st place on my MAME setup that is likely default. I did place 2nd and 3rd with my two best runs. I'll just take that and walk away. The WASD input felt slightly better, maybe b/c I could keep holding down and then start with right via a 2nd finger to get a touch better with the change of directions without getting stuck.
One minor help too with using the KB, was that I could hit the left shift and F7 much easier, so I did sneak in some in-level save states in level 2, but with level 3 feeling a lot more chaotic, I didn't get to a point where I could take the time/chance to try for that. I also certainly didn't use the way too limited pepper super well, and also didn't thus send many layers down with any enemies on board to get them to fall further - surely a tactic that could've helped.

Ha, just realized I was calling it Burger town and not Burgertime, oops - top score was 14750

Yoshi wrote:

All's fair in love and Internet posts.

I don't think anybody reading wants to turn this thread into one of those discussions, especially when there are others elsewhere on the site, but I want to clarify the few things:

- The comment was referring to the silliness of one game going by four titles, not a promotion of the "best" way to play it or a humblebrag about my setup.
- I'm old, have terrible reflexes, and do all my gaming in 45 minute chunks.
- M2 is awesome, but excepting the games that they rebuild (vs. those that they emulate), they're still not less laggy than other emulated ports and can't compete with MiSTer or MAME (with runahead) on that front.
- I own the Sega Ages version of Fantasy Zone on Switch but played it on MiSTer for the low lag and easy CRT hookup.
- The M2 port of Layer Section / Galactic Attack on modern platforms adds 5-6 frames of lag, according to Shmups.
- I played RayForce on my (stock) Taito Egret II Mini, in spite of everything I said above.

The best version of a game is the one you have access to and the one you have fun playing, be it an overpriced, underengineered, blurry port of a game that will leave the marketplace in less than two years when the license runs out or the original arcade cabinet with a working CRT and a solid gold joystick.

The post so crape, I made it twice!

I'll play more arcade games when I've beaten Pikmin 4. It seems only fair the long-awaited Pikmin 4 ends up being my 100th beaten game this year, not something like The Simpsons or Crazy Taxi.

A couple more badges for the Back Room.

image image image

The Astyanax was a fun run-and-slash arcade title with lots of "fair" mechanics to offset the stupid amount of enemies respawning and coming at you at any given time. It's probably the only arcade game with a screen clear that I smashed on demand, rather than saving it until it was barely useful anymore.

Altered Beast is Altered Beast. Sure, it's not the best, but like I said a few years back, I don't get why it gets so much hate in a world where Haunted Castle exists.

And then there's Ninja Gaiden... I really loved the NES version of this game, despite how difficult it was, but I have no love for the arcade original. Unforgiving hitboxes, sluggish movement, a death trap that requires you to press a button that was useless for the first half of the game, and annoying bosses... You can't even credit spam it because it uses checkpoints. Oy.

We're nearly three weeks into Arcade August, so let's look at everyone who put their quarters where there mouth is. (Such a choking hazard.)

BleedingViolet {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/RZpK7gj.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/z4ZSnUm.gif 42 88{imgt} BloodPuppetX {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/z4ZSnUm.gif 42 88{imgt} Lunar {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/tNByof5.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/RZpK7gj.gif 42 88{imgt} Renaissance2K {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/tNByof5.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/RZpK7gj.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/z4ZSnUm.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/b3LcJA0.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/Ct2y4XQ.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/MBuWIa1.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/LZOwwhI.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/VFRuFN8.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/MdEb26g.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/7xotKvY.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/r4UiBzR.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/sAYQfEk.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/6TRfIaW.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/tnS7Mwj.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/xIiiDUx.gif 42 88{imgt} image {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/KqUCPK8.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/Ql2kNe2.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/O57ZgKN.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/gtpEWjG.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/cV5ItJb.png 47 51{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/F8hCzgg.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/tOAhzBp.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/YcoK1pt.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/qoAOOzq.gif 42 88{imgt} Slickriven {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/tNByof5.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/RZpK7gj.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/Ct2y4XQ.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/KqUCPK8.gif 42 88{imgt} SupremeSarna {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/VFRuFN8.gif 42 88{imgt}

Don't forget that we're also tracking high scores for our Front Room arcade games. Leaving out the games for which only I've submitted a score so far, here's the leaderboard as it stands today.

Burgertime 1. Renaissance2K - 57150 2. Slickriven - 14750 Fantasy Zone 1. SupremeSarna - 1549400 2. Renaissance2K - 1352500

The conversation got a little busy this month, so if I've missed your score or your completion, please feel free to let me know here. Don't forget that for Burgertime, Fantasy Zone, Galaga, and Ms. Pac-Man, you don't need to finish a "loop" before you can make it to the leaderboard or earn an arcade cabinet badge; just submit your best score.

Let's start taking nominations for the September Game of the Month. Once you've washed all the arcade residue off of your clothes, what game do you want to play next?

We'll start voting on August 26 and call the winners at the start of September. Let's hear some nominees!

I nominate Banjo-Tooie. You've done Kazooie in the past, and this is a worthy sequel.

I wasnt even going to mention it until I played TMNT or Ms Pac-Man
but I did redownload Galaga and my high score was

19480

It wasnt as much as the arcade high score in the version I’m playing but it was only my second attempt.
(Maybe third).

Edit: I also just beat TMNT this morning with Donatello on Switch my score was 317.
Thank goodness they let you have all the free replays you want, it took me a ton of lives.
It was fun but not easy playing 1 player. So thats two games and one I actually got to the ending.

Some more Back Room arcade badges:

image image image image image image image

Only a few more left before we have the full collection available.

SupremeSarna wrote:

Anybody else have something they want to nominate?

I'll nominate Blaster Master Enemy Below again.

I will nominate

Tomb Raider (the original)

Cold Fear

I played a little Ms Pac-Man and got a score of 7380.

Maybe I will play more by the end of the month.

Edit: I played a couple of more times and got a score of 12000.

Last day for September game nominations before we start voting.

As with past months, if we can't come up with five, I'll pad the list with games that are experiencing big anniversaries next month. And there are some pretty notable choices this time around.

I nominate the Driver series. Any of them from the OG on the Playstation to whatever the newest one was.

Edit: Looks like the newest ones were Driver San Francisco for multiple platforms and Driver Renegade for 3DS, both releasing about the same time in 2011

Got a pretty good Ms. Pac-man score - I got alright with the Xbox Pac-man Champ Edition 2 playing with my nephew and wife some in the past year or so.
23750

Hey, hey, come on over! Have some fun with Crrrazy Taxi! Top score: $4,201.31, 21st place.
[imgt w=1536 h=2048]https://i.imgur.com/JKmjQqc.jpg[/imgt]
Try as I might to get a strategy down, the RNG of which customer wants to go where prevented me from getting any higher than an A rank, or even reaching that rank a second time. If you drop off the reverend at the church and anyone afterward chooses KFC as their destination, you've lost. And a lot of people near the church have a chance of asking for KFC. If you can manage to get requests for the helipad and the baseball stadium, you have a decent shot.

How does my score compare to the previous one? I'm dying to know.

SupremeSarna wrote:

I don't think it's RNG... As far as I remember, every customer in the game always has the same destination.

Ben is correct. It's the same every time and you can map out what you want to do. The game is actually pretty challenging.

Use the 10 minute mode to help yourself find the best plan. There are quite a few places you can chain ultra short routes together and build up a pretty decent bank of time.

For sure. When I was really into Crazy Taxi I was taking notes. Game is a masterpiece imo. Knowing all the techniques can help a bit too.

http://www.crazytaxi.net/skills.html @SupremeSarna

There are a handful of customers that may request different destinations, but most of them are predictable.

The issue I had was that the person immediately down the hill from the heliport would flip flop between wanting the baseball stadium (preferred) and wanting KFC (run ender). To make it worse, the person slightly further from him can ask for one of those two destinations. So I don’t know which to take a gamble on.

Backtracking to the KFC will ruin you, as it requires you to turn around, drive a solid distance over hills that slow you down or winding roads with insane traffic, and then drop off the customer. There are very few people around KFC to pick up afterward. One is a reverend who wants to get to the church—a low-fare job—and another wants to get to R.B. Station but doesn’t give enough time for you to make it there and continue on.

There are probably guides for ideal routes, but I’ve played enough for a while. Great game, I must say.

We had an even five nominees for September. Here they are:

Nominees
Banjo-Tooie
Blaster Master: Enemy Below
Tomb Raider *psx*
Cold Fear
Driver franchise *psx*

Either publicly in this thread or privately in a PM to me, give each nominee 0-5 points. Omitting a nominee is equivalent to giving it a vote of 0. The game with the highest score by the end of the month will be the September 2023 GOTM.

Here are my votes:

Banjo-Tooie - 2 Blaster Master: Enemy Below - 4 Tomb Raider - 5 Cold Fear - 2 Driver franchise - 4

Go ahead and post your votes!

Blaster Master 5

Cold Fear - 5

@Renaissance2K Banjo-Tooie is also on and .

I vote Banjo-Tooie (5).
I would’ve voted Tomb Raider as well, but I discovered my disc is too scratched to play.

Cold Fear - 5
Tomb Raider - 3

SupremeSarna wrote:

I don't feel like listing out a zillion platforms for 5+ games, so I just lost the retro platforms when we're nominating and try to be more exhaustive for the game we pick.

Only have three* of the five nominees, so here my votes.

Banjo-Tooie - 1
Tomb Raider - 3
Driver franchise - 5

*technically only two I guess because I have Tomb Raiders, not Tomb Raider.

I played Ms. Pac-Man at a real arcade today. I didn't have much time to devote to every game I wanted, so I stopped after two attempts. My best score was 20230.
[imgt w=1536 h=2048]https://i.imgur.com/c8OvrJD.jpg[/imgt]

Banjo-Tooie - 2
Blaster Master - 1
Tomb Raider - 5
Cold Fear - 3
Driver franchise - 4

Blaster Master: Enemy Below - 5

Well dang I'd best start looking for a copy of blaster master

benstylus wrote:
If you have Nintendo Switch Online, it’s in there.

SupremeSarna wrote:

Oh nice. Because looking online, people want $50 cart only for it. Switch online it is (if it wins)

Well, crap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48Uht_GoRjk

Arc Sys just announced an Asia-exclusive collection with the Double Dragon console games: 1-3 NES, 4 console (the crappy one), Super Double Dragon, and... Double Dragon Advance

Dammit, I HOPE this doesn't stay Asia-only. And that they port it to PC... I want Double Dragon Advance again. :(

I beat the games in 3 Wonders. Here's my score for each:

Chariot 2688022
Midnight Wanderers 908823
Don't Pull 1423180

The arcade at my team event today had a World's Largest Pac-Man/Galaga cabinet/machine/monstrosity available. Despite initially thinking the format sucked because I can't see the whole playfield at once, I did waaaaaaay better than expected.

And then the game crashed without letting me put in my initials. Boo.

Last day for votes! It's a pretty tight race this month, so if you have some points to give, don't hold back.

Also, it's the last day of Arcade August. Submit your scores, and I'll post the final leaderboard on Friday.

Of course, I didn't notice that the medals I made for this month were exported without a transparent background. Bah. I'll fix these later.

The arcade is now closed! Here's the final leaderboard for our score challenge:

image image 1. Renaissance2K 57150 2. Slickriven 14750

image image 1. Renaissance2K $6,260.20 2. SupremeSarna $4,201.31

image image 1. SupremeSarna 1549400 2. Renaissance2K 1352500

image image 1. Renaissance2K 77200 2. BleedingViolet 19480

image image image 1. Slickriven 23750 2. SupremeSarna 20230 3. BleedingViolet 12000

image image 1. BloodPuppetX 317 2. Renaissance2K 283

image image 1. Renaissance2K 1014406 2. BloodPuppetX 908823

image image 1. BloodPuppetX 2688022 2. Renaissance2K 2517910

image image 1. Renaissance2K 1493040 2. BloodPuppetX 1423180

Congrats to SupremeSarna, BloodPuppetX, and BleedingViolet for flexing their quarter-burning muscles. Here's all the badges we've earned this month:

BleedingViolet {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/RZpK7gj.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/z4ZSnUm.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/ERtqb1W.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/QfzpjU7.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/b3LcJA0.gif 42 88{imgt} image image BloodPuppetX {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/z4ZSnUm.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/MdEb26g.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/7xotKvY.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/r4UiBzR.gif 42 88{imgt} image image image image Lunar {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/tNByof5.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/RZpK7gj.gif 42 88{imgt} Renaissance2K {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/tNByof5.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/RZpK7gj.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/z4ZSnUm.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/b3LcJA0.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/Ct2y4XQ.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/MBuWIa1.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/LZOwwhI.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/VFRuFN8.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/MdEb26g.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/7xotKvY.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/r4UiBzR.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/sAYQfEk.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/6TRfIaW.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/tnS7Mwj.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/xIiiDUx.gif 42 88{imgt} image {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/KqUCPK8.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/Ql2kNe2.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/O57ZgKN.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/gtpEWjG.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/cV5ItJb.png 47 51{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/F8hCzgg.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/tOAhzBp.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/YcoK1pt.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/qoAOOzq.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/Yjhgsdr.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/0oI0AEq.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/n6fLEss.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/18ZWrRj.gif 100 75{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/kj9FJHN.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/AUEcNGo.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/3c4VKnt.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/wA2FpMC.gif 42 88{imgt} image image image image image image image image image Slickriven {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/tNByof5.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/RZpK7gj.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/Ct2y4XQ.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/KqUCPK8.gif 42 88{imgt} image image SupremeSarna {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/VFRuFN8.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/QfzpjU7.gif 42 88{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/MBuWIa1.gif 42 88{imgt} image image image

Many thanks to everyone who nominated a game, played a game, or submitted a high score this month. As with other badges in our history, you can continue to earn Front Room and Back Room arcade badges in future months. I'll also continue to make Back Room badges for future nominees that have an arcade version.

The tally for September was another close race with three games competing for the top spot. After a recount to double-check my math, here are the final results:

1. Tomb Raider - 16 points
2. Blaster Master: Enemy Below - 15 points
2. Cold Fear - 15 points
4. Driver series - 13 points
5. Banjo-Tooie - 10 points

Tomb Raider is one of the defining titles of the 32-bit generation, offering gamers a fully-3D third-person action adventure unlike anything they'd seen before. Tomb Raider introduced the world to Lara Croft, who remains even today one of the most recognizable game characters ever, known for her grit, her athletics, and various other... hmmm... aspects to her personality. While the game was launched first for the Saturn, the game is remembered as a pivotal title for the original PlayStation as well as a hallmark for the advent of 3D acceleration on the PC. The franchise spawned numerous sequels, no less than two reboots, and two mediocre forays into Hollywood, though the original game found a new life on mobile devices - including a surprisingly compitant port for the - and a modernized remake for seventh-generation platforms.

Play the original Tomb Raider* on
PlayStation
Saturn
MS-DOS
PlayStation 3 (psOne Classic)
PSP (psOne Classic)
N-Gage

Play Tomb Raider Gold / Tomb Raider: Unfinished Business on
Windows
*ios* iOS
Android

Play Tomb Raider Anniversary on
PlayStation 2
*x360* Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
Windows
PSP
Wii

* The OpenLara project has spawned native ports for a number of additional platforms, but you're on your own to find these.

Finish Tomb Raider or its remake to earn the Lara Croft badge: image

If you manage to keep your cell signal while you're spelunking, don't forget to upload a #BeatIt screenshot to mark your accomplishment. And watch for snakes.