MetaFilter posts tagged with nes

A general technique for automating NES games

Jpfed — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:58:32 -0800

Automating video game play by examining the contents of RAM.

Don't Go Alone Smoke This

kittensofthenight — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:45:18 -0800

Snoop Fairy's Weed Fountain The Legend of Zelda: Smokarina of Time Punch Out 1, 2 Snooper Mario World, Snooper Weed Bro's Deluxe Seriously Hella Smokeymon. Just in case the source of the meme.

Dendy Chronicles

demiurge — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 20:21:48 -0800

After the huge success of the NES, a whole host of bootleg consoles came out around the world. The Dendy console brought a new age of video gaming to the newly born Russian Federation. Kinaman presents a retrospective of the numerous pirate Mario games on the Dendy system in three parts: 1, 2, 3. (Russian with English subtitles)

Now You’re Playing With Paper!

griphus — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 07:22:22 -0800

"These two Nintendo store binders provide an interesting look into the retail side of the gaming industry." Also there's a sandwich.

Detailed design notes on Zelda, Castlevania and Mega Man

JHarris — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:49:25 -0800

The blog of video game journalist Jeremy Parish, ~~ToastyFrog~~ ~~GameSpite~~ TeleBunny.net, has four in-depth, stage-by-stage, exhaustive examinations of classic 8-bit game design: Castlevania, Castlevania II, The Legend of Zelda, and Castlevania III. They are required reading for prospective game designers. (Complete links inside. Mega Man fans, look here.) Castlevania Simon Belmont's graphics Area 1 (entrance, Vampire Bat) Area 2 (hallways, Medusa) Area 3 (walls, Mummies) Area 4 (tunnels & courtyard, Frankenstein's Monster & Igor) Area 5 (armory, Death) Area 6 (clock tower, Vampire Bat gauntlet, Dracula) Shot Multipliers Castlevania II: Simon's Quest Introduction & Premise Hearts & Day Cycle Towns Mansions Villagers (the lying bastards and the Graveyard Duck) Overworld Simon's abilities, enemy nerfing Castlevania & Dracula The Legend of Zelda Overworld Level 1 (the door trick, Stalfos, Gels, Keeses, Goriyas, Bow, Boomerang, Aquamentus) Level 2 (Ropes, Moldorms, Goriyas, Magic Boomerang, Dodongos) Level 3 (Zols, Red Darknuts, Raft, Manhandla) and Level 4 (Vires, Stepladder, two-headed Gleeok) Treasure Listing Level 5 (Gibdos, Blue Darknuts, Pol's Voice, bomb upgrade, Recorder, Digdogger) Level 6 (Wizzrobes, three-headed Gleeok, Magic Wand, Red Gohma) Level 7 (the "rest level", bomb upgrade, Aquamentus) Secret Caves Level 8 (Blue Darknuts, Blue Gohma, Magic Key, Magic Book, 4-headed Gleeok) Level 9 (huge layout, Silver Arrow, Red Ring, Ganon) Overworld Enemies Underworld Enemies Second Quest Castlevania III Block 1 (town ruins, Skeleton Knight) Block 2 (optional level, town clock tower, going through the level twice, Grant) Block 3 (misty forest & cliffs, Cyclops, collecting Sypha) Block 4 Sypha (ship, Medusa, Mummies and Cyclops) Block 5 Sypha (tower, Frankenstein's Monster) Block 6 Sypha (the waterway, twin Skeleton Dragons) Block 7 Sypha (bridge, Mummies, Cyclops and Gargoyle) Block 4 Alucard (swamps, Vampire Bat) Block 5 Alucard (approach to the castle, Alucard) Block 5-7 Alucard (underground passage, Skeleton Knight, advanced version) Character assessment Block 6 Alucard A (castle cellar, Frankenstein's Monster) Block 6 Alucard B (Roman ruins, rising water, skeleton dragon king [fought twice]) Block 7 Alucard (falling and melting block puzzles, Mummies, Cyclops and Gargoyle bosses) Block 8 (the castle itself, Castlevania 1st level reprise, Death) Block 9 (climbing the castle wall, the Doppelganger) Block A (the Clock Tower, Dracula) BONUS: Forum user Glass Knuckle's epic-length thread A Critical Look At Mega Man Stages (warning: will take days to get through, because he means ALL Mega Man stages, through the sequels) Interesting facts gleaned from the series: - In the first quest, all of Zelda's overworld secret passages are optional except those which lead to dungeons (which have clues). - In Castlevania, every platform that looks like it's floating in the air is actually supported by background scenery. This continues (to a lesser extent) in Castlevania III. - In Castlevania, great care was taken so that the castle is a consistent place. Pillars that extend between two screens match up between them. - In areas with flowing water in Castlevania III, if you happen to have Sypha with you with the Ice magic, you can freeze it, a cool effect that makes these sections much easier. - The most powerful weapon in Castlevania III is Sypha's "weakest" subweapon, the Fire magic, which does twice the damage of the maxxed-out whip. - There is a stage in Castlevania III, the Skeleton Dragon King, where the boss is fought halfway through, but escapes with four health left, which you have to knock off of him at the end of the level (while the water level rises beneath you). Castlevania III was changed in non-trivial ways between the Japanese and American releases. The music is different; although the tunes are generally the same in structue, the Japanese release (which unlike the first two games wasn't originally a Disk System game) includes extra sound hardware in the cartridge that provides extra instruments. Also, Grant's abilities were changed: in Japan, Grant can always throw Daggers. In the US, they gave him the ability to use the Dagger Subweapon, in addition to the Axe. And enemies do damage by creature type in the Japanese version, while in the US version they do damage depending on where in the game you encounter them (like the original game). Because of this, the Japanese version is a little easier than the American version.

The Study of Cartridge Blowing

hot_monster — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 20:35:40 -0800

Did Blowing into Nintendo Cartridges Really Help? Mental_Floss takes a look at what a daily blow does to an NES cartridge.

The Extraordinary Quest to Put All the Super Mario Games On One Timeline

reenum — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 13:27:31 -0800

Stephen Totilo of Kotaku tries to determine the correct chronology for all the games in the Super Mario canon.

They later attached strings.

griphus — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:57:39 -0800

Gamemaster Howard Philips (previously) found a ca. 1984 brochure for the Nintendo Advanced Video System, a pre-NES marketing prototype, and shared it on Facebook: The cover. Pages 2-3. Pages 3-4. Medium-res photo of the whole brochure. And a bit of oddity from the past. (Non-FB link)

Super VCS Bros.

griphus — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 09:28:07 -0800

Over at the AtariAge forums, user Sprybug has been coding an Atari 2600 Super Mario Bros. clone to run on the Harmony Cartridge. Some screenshots. The game running on the cartridge. The game running in an emulator. And some previous discussion on the difficulty of programming for the Atari 2600.

Legends of Localization: The Legend of Zelda

shirobara — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 18:35:31 -0800

Legends of Localization: The Legend of Zelda is a comparison of the Japanese and American versions of The Legend of Zelda. It highlights differences in music and SFX, why the intro story is in English in both versions and why Pols Voice supposedly hated loud noises, what some of those cryptic hints originally said and how Testitart became Manhandla. It was written by Tomato (Clyde Mandelin), a professional anime and game translator whose fan translation of Mother 3 showed up on the blue in 2008. Previous Legends of Localization: Earthbound, Super Mario Brothers. Next up: Final Fantasy IV/II.

The Walls Are Shifting...

naju — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:01:55 -0800

What is Spelunky? Well, it's a game that's "as generous as it is bloodthirsty," with "astonishing creativity and spectacular depth." First appearing as a freeware PC game in 2008, Spelunky (previously) is a hilariously brutal and oddly addicting marriage of roguelike, platformer, and puzzler. A new version was released for Xbox Live Arcade on July 4th, with updated visuals and a warbly soundtrack that recall the days of SNES gaming, as well as a deathmatch mode that's been compared to the mayhem of Bomberman. If you're anything like me, you'll get hopelessly consumed. (Trailer. Original freeware version for PC and Mac.)

Mega Man Tape

reenum — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:12:47 -0800

From 1990: A 12 year old, armed with an NES, video camera and VHS recorder, films a walk through on how to beat Mega Man. (SLYT)

New Google Maps

GuyZero — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 09:13:19 -0800

Google Maps comes to exciting new platform: The 8-bit NES.

Super Morrissey Brothers

The World Famous — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 10:46:03 -0800

This Charming Man by The Smiths, covered in the best way possible.

Saving Zelda

JHarris — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:42:51 -0800

Tevis Thompson writes about Nintendo's video game series The Legend of Zelda. Specifically about how it's gone downhill since Ocarina of Time. (via Kotaku) Thompson's premise is that the games have largely discarded the most important aspects of the original: the awesome sense of discovery, the challenging play, the non-linear structure, and the sense of having to make your own way through a large world. He rails against the artificial world construction of later games, in which items are mostly keys for obvious locks. He writes:

Modern Zeldas do not offer worlds. They offer elaborate contraptions reskinned with a nature theme, a giant nest of interconnected locks. A lock is not only something opened with a silver key. A grapple point is a lock; a hookshot is the key. A cracked rock wall is a lock; a bomb is the key. That wondrous array of items you collect is little more than a building manager’s jangly keyring.
Almost everything in Zelda has a discrete purpose, a tedious teleology. When it all snaps into place, some call this good design. I call it brittle, overdetermined, pale. It’s the work of a singleminded god, a world bled of wonder.
Players are constantly reminded that they’re shackled to a mechanistic land. There is no illusion of freedom because the gears that keep the player and Hyrule in lockstep are eminently legible. You read the landscape all too easily; you know what it’s asking of you. One of the greatest offenders occurred early on with A Link to the Past: most bomb-able walls became visible. What had been a potential site of mystery in the original Legend of Zelda (every rockface) became just another job for your trusty keyring. Insert here. Go on about your business.

Not changed: the Spread Gun is still ridiculous.

Pope Guilty — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 07:16:40 -0800

Super Mario Bros. Crossover 2.0 is out! An expansion on the original game, which let you play as various NES characters transplanted into Super Mario Bros., but using the rules and abilities of those characters from their original games, version 2 offers more special abilities, more characters, and your choice of audiovisual "skins" based on four Mario games from the NES, SNES, and Gameboy, along with one based on Demon Returns. There's even instructions for playing with a gamepad! For more information, see the Super Mario Bros. Crossover Wiki or watch the exciting Super Mario Bros. Crossover trailer! [Previously]

MORE CHEETAHMEN THAN YOU EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE

DoctorFedora — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:32:15 -0800

THE HISTORY (AND MYSTERY!) behind Action 52 and Cheetahmen, FINALLY REVEALED! And, if you have five hundred bucks to spare, NES cartridges of the newly unearthed(?) CHEETAHMEN: THE CREATION is available for sale! VINCE PERRI AT HIS DESIGN BEST, the web site proclaims, though it's unclear what this is expected to mean to us!

NESplosion!

leotrotsky — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:17:26 -0800

Abobo's Big Adventure : apparently the Nintendo Entertainment System DOES blend.

NOW IT IS BEGINNING OF A FANTASTIC STORY

JHarris — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:41:43 -0800

Here are fan-translated Game Center CX (previously) Episodes on YouTube: #1: Atlantis No Nazo, #2: Challenger, #3: Ghosts 'N Goblins, #4: Konami Wai Wai World, #5: Metroid, #6: Solomon's Key, #7 & #8: Prince of Persia: Part 1 - Part 2, #9: Mega Man II, #10: Super Mario 3. Much more after the break.... #13: Tokimeki Memorial #19: Milon's Secret Castle #20: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past #21: Ultraman #22: Final Fight #23: Hudson's Adventure Island #24: Actraiser #25: Quiz: The Feudal Lords' Ambition #26: Doraemon #27 & #28: Super Mario 64: Part 1 - Part 2 #30: Kid Icarus #31: Umihara Kawase (THIS GAME IS AWESOME) #32: Contra #36: Shadow Lands #37: Street Fighter 2 #38: Castlevania III #40: Gargoyle's Quest (in three videos): Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 #41: Mighty Bomb Jack (second attempt, live) #42: Adventure Quiz Hatena's Quest (in four videos): Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 #43: S.O.S. #44: Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa (in four parts): Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 #45: Ultra Seven #48: Out Of This World #49: Legend of the Mystical Ninja (Ganbare Goemon) #50: Arino in Korea #53: Clock Tower #54 & #55: Ki no Bouken: Part 1 - Part 2 #60: Bonk's Adventure #61: The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido #64: Sonic the Hedgehog #65: Trip to Cannes #66: Arino Gets Out of the Hospital #67: Zombie Nation #69: Legacy of the Wizard (Dragon Slayer IV) #73: Lemmings #80: Kirby's Adventure #82 & #83: Mega Man 3: Part 1 - Part 2 #86: Punch-Out!! #96 & #97: Ninja Gaiden II: Part 1 - Part 2 #101: Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode #105: Hokkaido Serial Murders (in four videos): Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 #132: Battletoads (untranslated, but pain is a universal language) Special: Super Mario Bros. Lost Levels: First - Later Extra challenges: Kunio-Kun Samurai (The best-known U.S. Kunio games are Super Dodgeball and River City Ransom) Super Mario Kart Super Metroid (untranslated) Transformers: Mystery of Convoy Door Door Galaga Star Force Roommania AstroRobo SASA Arino in the USA (2 hour special)

A long way to go to lose

JHarris — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:34:26 -0800

Here is a video playthrough of The Legend of Zelda without a sword. It is possible to get right up to the last boss without one, although it requires knowing a lot of tricks. That is exactly what mev1978 does in his playthrough, without dying. And then he does it again in the second quest. First quest (1:61:31) - Second quest (1:13:18) I don't think many of you will watch all the way through these things, but if you try, take my advice. In the first quest video, when he enters the Graveyard, there's going to be a lot of grinding, so start skipping ahead.

Bap Bah Dah Pah Baah Yap Pah!

The Whelk — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 22:58:44 -0800

Nerdcore rock band I Fight Dragons presents I Fight Ganon, a live performance of the Legend Of Zelda Theme song

Game Club 199X

JHarris — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:11:01 -0800

Here is Game Club 19XX, a new monthly podcast from Hardcore Gaming 101 (pre viou sly) in which knowledgeable gamers discuss playing through old video games without FAQs or walkthroughs. Episode 1 is on Snake's Revenge, the forgotten NES sequel to Metal Gear. (MP3 download from MediaFire, 1:27:32)

The Stars of Famicom Games

ignignokt — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:18:39 -0800

Chris Covell translated a Japanese social studies book about the making of Super Mario Bros. 3.

So that's what all the Mario 2 levels look like...

deezil — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:44:21 -0800

NES Maps - for when you have to see exactly how that level of Zelda looks in an overworld view. Complete with full maps, background only maps, or sprites for your perusal. Complete with character names and title cards for most maps. You can even get one to hang on your wall to map out your conquests in Hyrule. Even more maps from VG Maps from a previous posting.

Super Gandhi-o Bros.

schmod — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 20:48:25 -0800

These days, any old fool can beat Super Mario Bros with a record-breaking number of points, or in the shortest amount of time. This guy managed beat the game with the lowest number of points possible. He ran the clock down to zero on each level, always landed at the bottom of the flagpole, collected no coins, killed just one goomba, and somehow managed not to die once during the entire process.