RFGen 2019 NES Challenge

[MetalFRO]

More progress in Lolo 3 - levels 5 & 6 done! Slowly chipping away at this one.

[Crabmaster2000]

Sorry I've been a bit MIA lately. We had a bit a family emergency a few days ago followed by my daughter's birthday this weekend with a little bit of extra stuff going on at work to top it off. All of that is behind me now so I should be back daily again.

@Disposed Hero - totally agree. Dragon Spirit is a pretty decent little shmup. I always love when a shmup finds a way to go with a theme that isn't just spaceships, even though I love spaceships.

@Wempster - I'm gonna count that. Looks like you've got him locked down to me.

@Schlibby - That's crazy, I didn't know about the select thing. I agree it's not in the spirit of the challenge, but still very interesting.

@MetalFRO - You're making some good progress! Some of the puzzles are incredibly challenging so I totally get taking your time and playing it in chunks. Keep at it!

I've still been trying to get Championship Pool done and it's a nightmare. I've gotten close a couple times, but if you make any mistake against the final 2 guys you just lose and since there is a always a chance to make a mistake on any shot because of the random element of each shot I just need a lucky run it seems. Pretty lame. I think I'm going to just give it one try each night and if it doesn't go well I'll move on and play something else and just hopefully get that lucky game eventually.

[Schlibby]

I’m working on Solstice so I’ll lay a claim to that

[Crabmaster2000]

After tonights failed attempt at Championship Pool I started working on Lemmings tonight. I used to play it a lot on our old 486 when I was a kid. It was pretty nostalgic to play again. Really enjoying it.

[douglie007]

So I'm jumping back in and Gargoyle's Quest II will be my choice. I hope summer gives me some more time.

[Crabmaster2000]

EDIT - This is why everyone should check the claims list before putting time into a game. I totally spent the last several days on Lemmings and didn't remember shane had laid claim to this title earlier in the month. I gotta be more careful going forward.

Finished off Lemmings tonight. Took much longer than I thought it would because of the Mayhem difficulty puzzles. Half the game is very enjoyable and a lot of fun and the other half is frustrating because even when you solve the puzzle and know what to do you need a lot of luck to get the lemmings to do specific actions at specific points when there are large clusters of the little guys.

[img width=639 height=480]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47971593982_9d96371f2b_z.jpg[/img]

[Crabmaster2000]

Need some advice from the group. Our progress has dropped off substantially as of late. I'm going to stop bothering with the community goal as we've missed that target several months running now. Do you guys enjoy the personal goals? Do they motivate you to participate or pick games you may not have otherwise? I may just scrap that one too and the few of us that are left playing can just plug away at our own pace and convenience. Any thoughts?

[Schlibby]

Need some advice from the group. Our progress has dropped off substantially as of late. I'm going to stop bothering with the community goal as we've missed that target several months running now. Do you guys enjoy the personal goals? Do they motivate you to participate or pick games you may not have otherwise? I may just scrap that one too and the few of us that are left playing can just plug away at our own pace and convenience. Any thoughts?

Personally I don't go for the personal goals. My selections are based on a few criterea of my own. I'm playing on actual carts, and even though I have the complete PAL A collection thats only about half the NTSC set. I also prefer to play the games I have CIB over loose cart to get the full experience. My selection then also has to be a game that hasnt been completed or claimed by anyone else, a game I think I can beat without save states (I'm a rubbish player), and something I actually want to play. So my choices end up quite small.

But I'm hardly the biggest contributor to the challenge. Others may very well be following the personal goals more and I do think its a nice idea. Especially if it prevents us being left with only certain kinds of games at the end.

I'm wondering where everyone has gone though. I understand a lot of quick easy games were knocked off at the start. But there seemed to be a lot more joining in. At the current rate we wont even hit 400 by the end of the year

[douglie007]

My picks are usually from games I know of but never beat.

[Disposed Hero]

The community goals are a great idea in theory, but it doesn't seem to be pushing anybody (myself included) to reach that mark, so maybe it's not really worth it. I think the personal goals are a good idea just for the purpose of bringing some obscure games to the attention of those who have never heard of them before, but whether this actually motivates people to play them or not is a good question.

At any rate, I'm kind of burnt out myself and have been playing some modern stuff over the last couple of weeks. Not sure when I'll get back to the NES games, but I'm sure I will sooner or later. I'm going to go ahead and vacate my claim on StarTropics in case anybody else wants to jump on it.

[Normatron]

I think it was good at first because everyone was excited to dip there hands in a bunch of nes games, like "this challenge is going on so I have to play  nes" but then It became overwhelming after beating a few. I know I was gun-ho right off the bat but then life slapped me in the face. I had to give myself a break. DW2 kind of broke me. Hoping to get back to my  zoda's revenge next month  though.

[Wempster]

I liked the personal goals because I wouldnt have likely picked up some games from it otherwise like chessmaster.  I dont think it does much for motivating people to beat them though. I'm kinda with Schlibby in that I'm playing on carts so my games I can beat are limited to what I have minus what's already been beaten/claimed.  Regardless we can continue to plug away at games. 

[EZ Racer]

To be honest I had been playing a ton of NES through April, and in May between the Shmup club and a few new games I picked up for other systems, it took up most of my time. Now that I'm a little more refreshed I'm ready to get back to it.

That said I can say that I'm already starting to be in the same boat as Schlibby and Wempster. I don't play on emulation (unless it's official re-release) and while I have quite a few carts it's nowhere near the full library. I'll do as much as I can to help plug away at it.

It's still a fun challenge and I want to help make it happen.

[Misto]

Took me a bit longer than expected - but I finished 1943 today:

[img width=700 height=603]https://imgur.com/9KFxNJg.png[/img]

[img width=700 height=607]https://imgur.com/boHO5iO.png[/img]

[img width=700 height=609]https://imgur.com/wKCqpGJ.png[/img]

It was pretty fun - although frustrating at times.  Not really a fan of the reliance on having enemies show up behind you in shmups, but it happens all the time in this game.  The final levels took me awhile.  Having to survive all the bosses in a row was difficult and not getting a password between levels 23 and 24 didn't help.

[Schlibby]

Solstice complete

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/eqdutTI.jpg[/img]

A pretty fun puzzle game. A bit like metroid with the combat taken out. Explore a castle looking for 6 pieces of a staff. There’s over 250 rooms to explore, many of which have puzzles. Most puzzles involve picking up blocks and then using them to jump to greater heights. There’s also enemies to avoid and 4 potions can be used to provide a power until you leave the room.

The continue system is pretty weird. There are a few coins dotted about the castle. Picking these up creates a continue point. However these can only be used once. Loss of all your lives sees you going back to the last unused continue point and you have to collect everything again from that point onwards (apart from the coins which don’t return).

It would have been nice to have seen some more Metroid like features. The only item to collect which allows you to access new areas is some high jump boots which you get right at the start. Maybe more items like this, a longer game and some save points or passwords would have been nice.

But overall a fun game. Not too difficult but must be completed in one sitting. Also has replay value as at the end you are given a percentage completion combining rooms explored and items collected