Super Mario Bros. Special occupies a strange place in Mario history. It's one of the few Mario games produced for a system other than Nintendo's own, licensed by Hudson Soft for the
Japanese PC-8801 computer system. The system was fairly weak compared to an NES, so it didn't scroll; when Mario gets to the edge of the screen, it flips to the next. The game wasn't always designed with that in mind however, leading to a lot of blind jumps. You can play a hacked version of the original Super Mario Bros. designed to recreate this game using the patch found
here. And here's a video playthrough of the whole game:
World 1,
World 2,
World 3,
World 4,
World 5,
World 6,
World 7,
World 8,
Last level & ending. And here's
a trap room in World 4.
posted by JHarris
on Aug 14, 2012 -
45 comments
スターウルフ, "
Star Wolf," was a half-hour sci-fi TV show produced and aired in Japan in 1978. (
TV Tropes page -- addiction warning) It had somewhat cheesy special effects, understandable being a TV series made just one year after Star Wars, but it made up for it with style, energy, and
ACTION PACKED MUSIC.
American viewers will know it best as the show ripped apart and reassembled into two Fugitive Alien movies by
Sandy Frank Productions, then shown on two memorable episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
(Episodes on YouTube: Fugitive Alien, its sequel.) Although the Japanese show got at least two seasons (the second under the title
Space Hero Star Wolf), only the first four episodes appear to exist on the internet. Here they are:
One -
Two -
Three -
Four. (There are no subtitles, but you should be able to figure out what is going on if you've seen the MST episode.)
[more inside]
posted by JHarris
on Jun 27, 2012 -
26 comments
The video game
SEGAGAGA, a Japan-only release for the Dreamcast, is an incredibly odd bit of gaming history. A business sim (of sorts) it tasks the player to lead Sega to victory over its rival the evil DOGMA Corporation (a thinly veiled analog for Sony). Loaded with in-jokes obvious and obscure, it is a love letter to Sega fans, and it was one of the last Dreamcast games made before Sega went third party. After a four-year hiatus,
the Segagaga fan translation project has resumed work on localizing this most unusual game.
Intro video.
Edge Magazine interviews the director.
[more inside]
posted by JHarris
on Mar 23, 2011 -
24 comments
Amidakuji, or "Ghost Leg," is a lottery party game from Japan. At the top of a sheet there are a number of spaces for people to write their names. At the bottom there are prizes. There are an equal number of each. Between them is a map obscured behind a sheet. The map is made of straight vertical lines connecting the names and prizes. Connecting those lines at random intervals are horizontal lines. When it's time to pick winners, the sheet is removed and players can follow the lines to find their prize. You follow the line from your name down until you encounter any horizontal line, which you must follow, then continue down, continuing to follow all horizontal lines you encounter, until you reach your prize. No two horizontal lines can touch. Provided that, the process is perfectly deterministic and reversable. The same ends are reached whether you follow from the top down or the bottom up. If you have difficulty visualizing this, check
the Wikipedia page.
[more inside]
posted by JHarris
on Dec 24, 2010 -
18 comments
La-Mulana is a Japanese homebrew game, with English translation available, for Windows that exhaustively replicates the experience of playing on an
MSX home computer, a machine not sold in the U.S. but was contemporary with the likes of the Commodore 64 and Amiga in other markets. (Fun fact: the "MS" in MSX stands for Microsoft!) Although it looks very much like retro warez, La-Mulana is freeware. It is also notoriously long and difficult, with a character who controls like old-school Castlevania, enemies that will frequently knock you around like a rag doll, puzzles of amazing deviousness, and traps that think nothing of walling up a player without escape, or forever restricting access to certain powerups.
That said, the game does have charm, and is basically a love letter to the MSX hardware. Those who want to see it without beating their hands bloody against the keyboard can watch
a guy play through the whole game in 85 installments, cursing at it all along the way.
posted by JHarris
on Jun 4, 2007 -
14 comments
Hardcore Gaming 101 has a e-newsletter, but the best things there are the loving introductions to dozens of classic games and game series, all either sadly forgotten or practically unknown to the Western World. Thrill to the serious action of
Compile shooters! Avoid the mocking gazes of friends, roomies and significant others while reading about venerable Konami cute-em-ups
Twinbee and
Parodius! Figure out why the hell so many Namco games have
Valkyrie in them! Try to keep a straight face when confronted with the likes of
Ganbare Goemon,
Phoenix Wright,
The Neverhood,
No One Can Stop Mr. Domino!!!,
Panic!,
Urban Yeti and
Segagaga, the Sega Simulator! Do, uh,
something along with the T&A delights of
Keio Flying Squadron,
Popful Mail and
Valis! All this and
much,
much,
much much more.
posted by JHarris
on Mar 29, 2006 -
26 comments
