Console Game Poll vol. 1 - Vote for the best 3rd Generation Console Games (NES, Sega Master, Atari 7800) here! (Poll Deadline: October 13th)

Hi everyone! The time has come to cast a ballot for games released during the third generation of consoles. The first two were skipped for now due to interest, but we can revisit them another time.

You have three options for your ballot type. (I stole this from the ILM 20th century songs model, thanks Johnny Fever!)

Ballot types:
- Weighted. You can nominate up to 20 games, in order, and they will receive 40, 38, 36... 6, 4, 2 points respectively.
- Unweighted. You can nominate up to 20 games, in any order, and they will all receive 21 points.
- Hybrid. The first games will receive weighted points (40, 38, 36...) and anything after the "weighted" section will receive the remaining points, split equally.

Send your ballots to the gmail address I created years ago for the PS2 poll: ps2ilx&gmail,com (replace the & and the , and you get a real e-mail address -- try it at home!). For those who find the weighted/unweighted/hybrid system a little overwhelming, I will make a Google spreadsheet which will do the heavy lifting for you and post it later tonight or tomorrow.

Deadline is 11:59PM on October 13th, although I probably won't notice if you're a few hours late. Just don't make me push the poll by 2 years like I did the PS2 one to get ballots.

Thanks to everyone who submitted games to the nomination list, and may the best game win!

LIST OF NOMINATIONS:
10 Yard Fight (NES)
1943: Battle of the Midway (NES)
A Boy and His Blob (NES)
Action Fighter (Sega)
Adventures of Lolo (NES)
Adventures of Lolo 3 (NES)
Alex Kidd in Miracle World (Sega)
Alex Kidd in Shinobi World (Sega)
Altered Beast (Sega)
Bad Dudes (NES)
Balloon Fight (NES)
Banana Prince (NES)
Base Wars (NES)
Baseball Simulator 1.000 (NES)
Baseball Stars (NES)
Bases Loaded (NES)
Batman (NES)
Batman Returns (Sega)
Batman: Return of the Joker (NES)
Battle of Olympus (NES)
Battletoads (NES)
Bionic Commando (NES)
Blades of Steel (NES)
Blaster Master (NES)
Bomberman (NES)
Bubble Bobble (NES)
California Games (NES)
Castlevania (NES)
Castlevania II (NES)
Castlevania III (NES)
Cobra Triangle (NES)
Columns (Sega)
Commando (Atari, NES)
Contra (NES)
Crisis Force (NES)
Crystalis (NES)
Dark Chambers (Atari)
Deja Vu (NES)
Demon Sword (NES)
Desert Falcon (Atari)
Destiny of an Emperor (NES)
Donkey Kong Jr. (Atari, NES)
Double Dragon (NES)
Double Dragon II (NES)
Double Dribble (NES)
Dr. Mario (NES)
Dragon Warrior (NES)
Dragon Warrior II (NES)
Dragon Warrior III (NES)
Dragon Warrior IV (NES)
Duck Hunt (NES)
Ducktales (NES)
Ducktales 2 (NES)
Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball (NES)
Earthbound Zero (NES)
Enduro Racer (Sega)
Excitebike (NES)
Fantastic Dizzy (NES)
Fantasy Zone (Sega)
Faxanadu (NES)
Fester's Quest (NES)
Final Fantasy (NES)
Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy (NES)
Food Fight (Atari)
Friday the 13th (NES)
Galaga (Atari)
Gargoyle's Quest II (NES)
Gauntlet (NES)
Ghostbusters (Sega)
Ghosts 'n' Goblins (NES)
Golden Axe Warrior (Sega)
Golf (NES)
Golgo 13 (NES)
Golvellius: Valley of Doom (Sega)
Goonies II (NES)
Gradius (NES)
Gradius 2 (NES)
Guerilla War (NES)
Gumshoe (NES)
Hogan's Alley (NES)
Holy Diver (NES)
Ice Climber (NES)
Ice Hockey (NES)
Ikari Warriors (NES)
Impossible Mission (NES)
Jackal (NES)
James "Buster" Douglas Knockout Boxing (Sega)
Karnov (NES)
Kick Master (NES)
Kid Icarus (NES)
Kirby's Adventure (NES)
Kung Fu (NES)
Kung Fu Kid (Sega)
Legacy of the Wizard (NES)
Lemmings (NES)
Life Force (NES)
Little League Baseball: Championship Series (NES)
Little Nemo: The Dream Master (NES)
M.C. Kids (NES)
Mach Rider (NES)
Maniac Mansion (NES)
Marble Madness (NES)
Mario Bros. (Atari)
Mega Man (NES)
Mega Man II (NES)
Mega Man III (NES)
Mega Man IV (NES)
Metal Gear (NES)
Metal Gear II (NES)
Metroid (NES)
Mickey Mouse Castle Of Illusion (Sega)
Mike Tyson's Punch Out (NES)
Miracle Warriors (Sega)
Mission Impossible (NES)
NARC (NES)
Ninja Gaiden (NES)
Ninja Gaiden II (NES)
Ninja Gaiden III (NES)
Nobunaga's Ambition (NES)
Operation Wold (Sega)
Otocky (NES)
Over Horizon (NES)
Parodius Da (NES)
Phantasy Star (Sega)
prince of persia (NES)
Pro Wrestling (NES)
Psycho Fox (Sega)
Rad Racer (NES)
Rampage (NES, Sega)
Rampart (Sega)
RBI Baseball (NES)
RC Pro Am (NES)
RC Pro Am II (NES)
Recca (NES)
Rescue Rangers (NES)
Revenge of Shinobi (Sega)
Ring King (NES)
River City Ransom (NES)
Rockin' Kats (NES)
Rocky (Sega)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms (NES)
R-Type (Sega)
Rush 'n' Attack (NES)
Rygar (NES)
Section Z (NES)
Shadow Dancer (Sega)
Shadow of the Beast (Sega)
Shadowgate (NES)
Shinobi (Sega)
Smash TV (NES)
Smash TV (Sega)
Snail Maze (Sega)
Snake, Rattle & Roll (NES)
Solar Jetman (NES)
Sonic Chaos (Sega)
Space Harrier (Sega)
Speedball (Sega)
Speedball 2 (Sega)
Spy Hunter (NES)
Spy vs. Spy (Sega)
StarTropics (NES)
StarTropics 2 (NES)
Strider (NES)
Super C (NES)
Super Dodge Ball (NES)
Super Mario Bros (NES)
Super Mario Bros 2 (NES)
Super Mario Bros 3 (NES)
Super Monaco GP (Sega)
Super Spike V'Ball (NES)
Sweet Home (NES)
Swords and Serpents (NES)
Tecmo Baseball (NES)
Tecmo Bowl (NES)
Teddy Boy (Sega)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I (NES)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II (NES)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (NES)
Tetris (NES)
The Adventures of Rad Gravity (NES)
The Immortal (NES)
The Legend of Zelda (NES)
The Legend of Zelda II (NES)
Tiger Heli (NES)
Tower Toppler (Atari)
Town & Country Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage (NES)
Track and Field (NES)
TransBot (Sega)
Ufouria: The Saga (NES)
Ultima Exodus (NES)
Ultima IV (Sega)
Uninvited (NES)
Urban Champion (NES)
Wall Street Kid (NES)
Willow (NES)
Winter Games (NES)
Wizards and Warriors (NES)
Wizards and Warriors II: Ironsword (NES)
Wonder Boy in Monster World (Sega)
Wonderboy III: The Dragon's Trap (Sega)
Xevious (Atari)
Yoshi (NES)
Yoshi's Cookie (NES)
Ys (Sega)
Zanac (NES)
Zillion (Sega)
Zillion II: The Tri Formation (Sega)

omg no karateka

i call shenanigans. like half of the sega games here are for the genesis/megadrive.

I thought abour nominating North and South, Krusty's Fun House, Captain Skyhawk, Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle, 3D World Runner, Adventure Island 2, Super Off Road, Micro Machines, etc. but you gotta skim something

I sincerely hope that those who vote for games released on Genesis and master system are voting for the SMS version. Re karateka I'm sorry if a month of nominations wasn't long enough!

Genesis is the next generation. Unfortunately I never got the chance to play most of the SMS ports.

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

Cobra Triangle
Legend of Zelda
SMB
SMB 2
SMB 3
Metroid
Blades of Steel
Legend of Zelda 2: Adventure of Link
Ultima Exodus
Ducktales
Metal Gear
Mega Man II
Mega Man III
Bionic Commando
Ring King
River City Ransom
Solar Jetman
Strider
Blaster Master
Deja Vu

Unweighted, unranked, I guess. These are the carts I'd save from the system.

This is how to be some kid's cool uncle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuw6EZdj2tE
I don't even know where to begin. The dude modded 1080p hdmi cables into his NES. I don't understand anything that's going on when I briefly look at his other youtubes. All sorts of mechanical alchemy that leaves me in a state of befuddlement.

OK, so I made this. There might be a more elegant way to share it, but eh, here we go.
All I ask is that you SAVE A COPY and either do it on your own google drive or on your own MS excel, otherwise people might try to do it at the same time :/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-0nAQx5c6bfUjRqQzNTN2h1ZTQ/view?usp=sharing

Basically: if you want help building your ballot (due to the numbering system maybe being a bit complicated) all you have to do is pick your games from dropdown lists, and put ranks (or, if unweighted, don't put ranks).

If your list is all weighted, it'll do the math:
http://i.imgur.com/bZzkQUy.png

If it's all unweighted, it'll also do the math:
http://i.imgur.com/HyeX0s4.png

If it's hybrid, it'll also do the goshdarn math:
http://i.imgur.com/P7K6YBK.png

Just make sure you work on your own copy, otherwise you might be fucking with someone else's ballot or whatever.

Also don't fuck with the "Data" tab

I have a list but I'm slowly moving things around mostly comparing one game from the top of the list to a game at the bottom of the list. What strikes me is the NES has a very high level of quality control. Nintendo's draconian publishing policies are what saved the home game industry at least in the US, and that seal of approval has and still means a quality product. Feels like there are less attempts to fool consumers with extra large sprites, etc. more consideration for the system's strengths and shortcomings and how to make a holistic experience. It has so many games that are a joy to control right at the start.

Plus the scrolling is SMOOTH DAMN SMOOTH. Simon Belmont's strut, as he smoothly and suavely slides across the ground tiles, is so nice. Especially w that NES sound chip. That kick drum/triangle wave rhythm combo is god tier chiptune. John Bonham electro speed metal in so many games. At a time when game soundtracks tended to be in line with ice cream truck music or weird electro minimalism, OSTs to Mega Man 2 and Ninja Gaiden were some of the fastest music ever widely released imo. Most Japanese 8-bit composers had eclectic tastes (prog rock, Deep Purple, YMO, surf/garage Group Sounds, etc.) but I wonder what the influence of early metal was over there.

Some of these games are so carved into my psyche that they really help remember my youth. Friends and places I don't even recall the names of. There was a lot of borrowing systems and trading games that is probably harder to do now that everything is digital/DRM. You might end up with multiple copies of an unpopular game. The male-female divide wasn't so strong imo, I probably played as many videogames w girls as boys back in those days. Thinking back though of course the kid who owned a bow and arrow set at the end of the cul-de-sac was big on Contra, Double Dragon, Metal Gear, etc. I kind of looked up to him I remember the first time I realized one of my friends was older than me when I hadn't seen him in a long time and he showed up and had this long grown out hair and I had never seen that before. It kind of blew my mind. This is the late 80s in the heart of the Bible Belt in Reagan's America. So funny to have these weird Japanese games at that time. There is so much apocalyptic imagery that I now see as maybe created by US bombing of Japan in World War II. Any fan of classic anime knows it is an event that looms large throughout the culture.

On that note I do wonder if the initialization of video games has to do w a subtle (or maybe not subtle, I don't know, there was a lot of Cold War propoganda at the time) anti-Japan bias in US media. Imagine if it was another medium other than games, like suddenly millions of people were really into Japanese films, buying them for their kids, importing rare ones for collections, it would be pretty noteworthy.

It's hard to vote for an Atari game here though, by that time they were clearly losers, shysters, just a business built to make money w little care for the art of the medium. I had a Atarian Magazine subscription and played a lot of stuff on my 7800 though. It was almost like NES/SMS --> arcades in the way that Atari --> NES. You would get Double Dragon but it would be the worst version, and copy of a copy. Weird thing is even though the Atari business practices were predatory it still wasn't corporate in the way it is now, there was a lot of room for weird experiments like "Tower Toppler" or "Desert Falcon". The latter is the only 7800 game on my list at the moment. I have great memories of flying the falcon through psychedelic Egyptian landscapes, sphinx scurrying through the desert below, chasing my shadow while the screen strobes through neon color swaps.

I have played an actual NES somewhere from zero to two times because I am young but I am currently reading I AM ERROR by Nathan Altice, a multidisciplinary technical and cultural study of the NES, and it's fascinating and this

What strikes me is the NES has a very high level of quality control. Nintendo's draconian publishing policies are what saved the home game industry at least in the US, and that seal of approval has and still means a quality product. Feels like there are less attempts to fool consumers with extra large sprites, etc. more consideration for the system's strengths and shortcomings and how to make a holistic experience.

is the sort of thing touched on in the book.

ballot's in. thank goodness for the hybrid option.

i cannot figure out how to rank these mario bros games

it is impossible

they're boring obvious picks that are sure to place so i'm putting them downballot, but even there, in the least prestigious work-in-progress spreadsheet in the entire universe, they wage epic battle against each other

hybrid option, hybrid option, hybrid option

no, i have decided that bros. 3 should receive 2 more points than bros. 2, and 4 more points than bros. 1

i am sorry, bros. 1. you changed my life and now i can't even throw you a few more points

by the way if marble madness doesn't go top ten there will be hell to pay

I may be misjudging based on the version in the PS3 Midway collection, but Marble Madness is hard as eff to play without a trackball. I remember enjoying the NES-era version, though, so the gameplay mechanics may have been different.

loved it in the arcade but not at home

At a time when game soundtracks tended to be in line with ice cream truck music or weird electro minimalism, OSTs to Mega Man 2 and Ninja Gaiden were some of the fastest music ever widely released imo. Most Japanese 8-bit composers had eclectic tastes (prog rock, Deep Purple, YMO, surf/garage Group Sounds, etc.) but I wonder what the influence of early metal was over there.

otm. The NES Mega Man soundtracks are all on Spotify, and re-listening to Mega Man 2 I was struck by how proggy certain sections were.

NES quality control - I get what this is referring to, but mannnn... they did let some shit hit the streets. Very very few games were just abjectly unplayable but there was an awful lot out there that really looks like a scam given what cartridges cost. Licensed titles especially... just wildly inconsistent. I mean you look at the Back to the Future game, or Ghostbusters, and then you flip back to Batman or Duck Tales and it's hard to believe they're even for the same system.

here's a poll thread for everyone to talk about balitos shit because nobody else cares

i have 4 ballots so far, i'd like to get... more than 4

2 MORE WEEKS, ILX

just didn't play enough games on these machines :/

but still interested to watch, honest

you don't have ot pick 20... if you only played 5 and only liked 3 of them, send in a 3 game ballot

that just feels wrong to me...will maybe throw one in if it's still really quiet with a couple of days to go, but i was holding onto my challops for 4th Gen tbh

I never played much SMS so I loaded up an Emulator and wasn't that impressed honestly. Even games I had heard were good controlled awkwardly and had scrolling issues. Maybe it's my emulator but probably not. Shadow Dancer was kind of a let down cos SMS Shinobi was actually really good and SD the characters were too big and it just wasn't fun to play.

Revisiting my 7800 games though.... hoooo boy.... so many good times. "Desert Falcon" on my ballot for sure. Now I'm wishing I had "Ninja Golf" and "Midnight Mutants" when I was a kid.

i will def vote.

Phantasy Star is the best SMS game. Compare it to, say, Dragon Warrior and it really is remarkable how much better the graphics and story are. I can't imagine how mind-blowing it must've been back in 1988.

surprised to find there was only a year and a half between their japanese release dates

although that is still plenty of time, and the sms still more powerful

anyway i'm annoyed i forgot to nominate dragon crystal, everyone do a write in vote for dragon crystal

I have a handful of NES games I want to try before voting, so my ballot close to the deadline.

let's bump this every day

Yeah, it's the only way I'm ever going to remember to vote.

Deal. I shall attempt to do this.

We got a couple more ballots so it's looking a LITTLE BIT less like a non-starter but seriously we need more ballots. IF YR READING THIS, MAKE ONE

I have a ballot filled out, will send it before the deadline

just sent mine in, thanks!

voted.

i voted

I look forward to voting in later polls - just no familiarity at all here.

Meant to post this yesterday...
http://i.imgur.com/6NXFstc.png

http://i.imgur.com/1yQ5xqD.png

And another for today!

i like the production values!

is that first one from Where's Waldo?

Yes. I love the google image reverse-search feature in Chrome.

And the second is total recall.

voted

do you want blurbs?

I made a .rar file of all the NES games on the list (link). It's temporary and will delete in 7 days.

I guess you click 'slow download' twice to receive file

I'm gonna give Deja Vu a whirl. I always wanted to play through that game

the apple II version is on steam

http://i.imgur.com/Dz8zT1S.png

so ... blurbs?

My phone died as I was answering that question! Blurbs ate nice but my no means necessary. I'll post them but last I checked I had none.

heh, tarot.

oh shit i gotta get on this

you definitely should get on this but jsyk you only have
http://i.imgur.com/ezr8cd0.png

loving the jpegs btw - great images from shitty games

i ripped them all from hg101's weekly kusoge

i can't remember if the last one is actually from an NES game, but it is probably one of the best screenshots ever

it's from dick tracy (nes). note the door.

HG101 is already a treasure, the weekly kusoge even better

dick tracy NES game is sooooo bad btw. up there with BTTF in "how did you fuck this up?" cross-promotion licensing deals. like they looked at the first ninja turtles game as a template and said "what if this were even harder, but all the difficulty came from the driving-around-the-city parts being just incomprehensibly brutal and dangerous, and also there could be some bullshit where you have to gather up clues in a particular order." also one of those games that knows how to masquerade as a good game for the purposes of the back of the box and nintendo power coverage - it sounds rich and complex with lots of different stuff you have to do. but it's just shit.

btw 11 ballots so far, pretty good, but CAN WE GET TO 20, ILX?

you can count mine twice if you want, it rules

only if i count mine thrice

http://i.imgur.com/F2jA9c8.png

push start to rich motherfuckers

how is that not a wiz khalifa mixtape title

twelve ppl posted in this thread and didn't send a ballot
of those, ten didn't explicitly say they're not sending a ballot
I'M LOOKING AT YOU, TEN PEOPLE

I might be a late-night balloteer, but I'm definitely still planning on it.

u get my list, will?

I did indeed! Forgot to respond... thanks!

I sent my ballot using my CapL email address

Ballot coming together here! As always with these things it looks like a crazy person wrote it. Also looks nothing like the order I had these same games in in the big poll in 2008. Shifting memories/tastes with time, but also the inevitable "well, this isn't better than THIS..." item-by-item process moving stuff around.

Ballot in, and hopefully not too late... man, that was tough. Already feel like I could flip half of it around and feel just as good about that lineup. At a certain point, with only 20, it really has to be games I really would pick up and play RIGHT NOW and be totally happy with - had to let go a few things that I know are historically important or which really held my attention at the time. Still some narrative/importance feeding in to certain picks of course.

I tried to submit 16 weighted games and 20 unweighted games since that wasn't explicitly prevented by the rules. WillM wasn't having that. Here are the 16 I ended up cutting.

A Boy and His Blob (NES)
Adventures of Lolo (NES)
Batman (NES)
Battletoads (NES)
Castlevania (NES)
Contra (NES)
Ducktales (NES)
Ducktales 2 (NES)
Faxanadu (NES)
Kid Icarus (NES)
Kirby's Adventure (NES)
Metroid (NES)
River City Ransom (NES)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I (NES)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II (NES)
The Legend of Zelda II (NES)

boy and his blob easily one of the most overhyped games of its era imho - at best an "ambitious failure." some of those other ones you have there are stone cold classics though. man, the results of this are going to be interesting.

I agree that the premise of ABahB is better than the actual game.

I sincerely hope that those who vote for games released on Genesis and master system are voting for the SMS version. Re karateka I'm sorry if a month of nominations wasn't long enough!

― Bouncy Castlevania (Will M.),

When I was looking at Sega entries I felt that I couldn't pick any Master System games if they came out on the Genesis at the exact same time unless they were significantly different than the Genesis version.

Ugh, naturally I thought the deadline was today. I can submit a ballot this morning if it isn't too late?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpVKPUoI554

http://s1.postimg.org/mgagou60v/test2.png

press x to PERCY

FIGHT
PRAISE
DUMP

i don't mind more ballots coming in today if you didn't get it done! i won't start posting results until next week anyway.

there are a couple of ppl i emailed back to get their ilx username--one of them i assume is doctor casino, not 100% sure who the other is? check your email and let me know, two people!

Looking forward to talking about the winners!

ballot sent

Thinking again about my ballot, feeling good about it. Felt like I really cut past a lot of the inherited wisdom I've built up in my mind, where Game X is groundbreaking and a classic and so on, but, come down to it, did I actually enjoy it in 1990? Or just grind headachingly against it because it's what I had to play? I think my twenty now look like a pretty good desert island collection and long story short, I am regretting selling off my NES a couple years ago when I was moving to NYC and figured that any and all downsizing was inherently justified.

I've never played any sms/famicom/atari 7800 games, and also haven't played any NES games since the heyday of emulation, so my recollection of all of this was pretty fuzzy.

xp emulation is your friend bro

yeah i know but just ain't the same. i wanna sit on the floor six feet from the TV with an awkward plastic rectangle in my hands and nowhere to be.

i'd just settle for having nowhere to go and nothing to do
fuck we are old now

Really wish I had played Ninja Golf as a kid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYEcJt9Auc8

No way I couldn't vote for the psychedelic Desert Falcon.

Hi all, I was planning on starting this today but due to insane workload it'll probably be later in the week. Don't worry, it'll still be this week :) I've got 5 days planned, I'm thinking it'll be wed-thu-fri, mon-tues or something.

Is it too late to vote?

If you can put in a ballot, like, today, I can count it. I'm going to start the images tonight, though, so it'll have to be soon.

sent

looking forward to this, will, and i think we all understand about workloads and stuff!

i say this in every poll (and may have already posted about it in one of these threads) but i always prefer a really slow rollout (like 1-2 entries a day) anyway. gives a chance to have a conversation about the games, less sense that you "missed" the whole conversation about something because you were at work. there may be some dud days where no one has much to say about a canonical game but ymmv.

We have well over 100 entries in this poll, so 1-2 a day would take months (and I am probably doing C&P 2015, so I'd prefer not to cross over)

Was reckoning 20-25 a day, but I could down that? Is your opinion popular or does everyone else prefer the faster speed?

i'm gonna have to dust off the ol' emulator for this rollout

can't wait!

i'd prefer slower as well (maybe on the order of 5 or 10/day) but you should do whatever's easiest for you. you're the pollmaster!

yeah i would always always defer to the pollmaster's wishes - it shouldn't become work or a burden (as we were just discussing on 'order and timing.') didn't realize it was going to be a 100-item countdown! must have been a good spread of votes, that's exciting. THAT SAID, i would always go for fewer per day. five i can manage. if i 'miss' a day, going back to join the conversation about 25 things is pretty hopeless, so i'll at best toss in selected ~hot takes~ on ones that jump out to me as important. but again, it's up to you and i may be in a severe minority anyway!

For selfish reasons, I'm fine with a quick rollout (always eager for the distraction of a hectic ILX thread while at work).

moreso than with almost anything else, my sense of accuracy and righteousness as regards my ironclad assessment of the truly great iconic NES games is unshakeable and likely different than yours.
basically if you are not down with kid icarus, shadowgate and adventures of lolo, gtfo

I watched a YouTube video last night on hidden NES gems. Have you actually played any of these? I'm 0 for 10.

Cowboy Kid
Kickle Cubicle
Rescue: The Embassy Mission
The Legend of Ghost Lion
Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom
Monster Party
Nightshade
North and South
Wurm: Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Krion Conquest

i played kickle cubicle, princess tomato, monster party and wurm

I played Rescue a little bit, but it was the Atari ST version which was called Hostage. It came in a four-pack of Infogrames games that my dad got when I was a kid. When my parents saw the content of the game (iirc there was sniping involved) they took it away and I didn't get to play it anymore. I was ok with this though because I thought it was scary & I still had Test Drive, Bubble Ghost and Operation Neptune.

Actually, Bubble Ghost gave me the creeps too. And Space Ace. Computer games scared me, apparently.

Test Drive didn't come in that four-pack... now I need to know what that fourth game was.

it was a remake of asteroids, and once i remembered, i typed the four games into google to see if there were any hits, and there was one: me introducing myself to ILG in a 2008 forks thread for ILG to introduce themselves to each other. weird.

Krion Conquest appears to be a clone of Mega Man, except Mega Man is a witch?

North and South is a pretty fun two player game. It's a quick strategy/action mashup.

Nightshade was quite strange but good looking when I watched a friend play it. It's a point and click game with some fighting elements (remember fighting in Indiana Jones And The Fate of Atlantis?). I like how NES games often combined genres. Usually it turned out for the best. I think the fighting was wonky in Nightshade though.

I read about Princess Tomato when I posted the edited Percy tomato picture upthread. It seems like this game might be a bit like Deja Vu which I finished playing a few days ago. (Good game, not top 20 for me though).

Other games I tested out on our nomination list included Strange Home which seems to be quite awesome. It plays like a top-down adventure/rpg in the style of resident evil. I remember watching a video review for that game and having your whole crew survive might be a bit random (unfortunately). Having just played Clock Tower for the SNES a few months ago, I understand what it's like to play through a game and discovering that I could have saved people if I had done one thing slightly different. Either way, I had save states and it wasn't much of a hassle to get alternate endings. Less-than-perfect endings were still enjoyable but I can't help feeling a bit defeated when I don't get a 100% ending.

i'd prefer slower as well (maybe on the order of 5 or 10/day) but you should do whatever's easiest for you. you're the pollmaster!

― 1998 ball boy (Karl Malone), Monday, October 19, 2015 2:02 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this sounds good to me.

Monster Party is pretty cool, not a ballot-maker but a cool overlooked platformer, kinda like Little Nemo or Astyanax in that sense. Higher production value, more concepts than your average title. Also basically all the dialogue rules:

http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/103583-monster-party-nes-screenshot-oooookay.png

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bb/Monster_Party_3.png

http://bogleech.com/monsterparty/mpbig-alreadydead.gif

Shadowgate IMO is kinda cool but basically irritating, far more irrational "puzzles" than the worst of Sierra.

for a kid with no PC until 2001, they were revelatory

oh man, thanks to archive.org my crappy seanbaby knockoff nintendo review page from 2000 is still viewable online, complete with images.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080905143743/http://www.ummagurau.com/writing/video/nesdisc/sg-mirror1.gif
https://web.archive.org/web/20080905143743/http://www.ummagurau.com/writing/video/nesdisc/sg-mirror2.gif
https://web.archive.org/web/20080905143743/http://www.ummagurau.com/writing/video/nesdisc/sg-mirror3.gif

^^^ pretty awesome i admit. this is what happens if you look at a well:

https://web.archive.org/web/20080905143743/http://www.ummagurau.com/writing/video/nesdisc/sg-well.gif

and what the hell, these are great/disturbing too:

https://web.archive.org/web/20080905143743/http://www.ummagurau.com/writing/video/nesdisc/sg-bluedragon.gif

https://web.archive.org/web/20080905143743/http://www.ummagurau.com/writing/video/nesdisc/sg-fountain.gif

https://web.archive.org/web/20080905143743/http://www.ummagurau.com/writing/video/nesdisc/sg-murder.gif

Here's a screen grab I just made from from Deja Vu.

This is what happens if you click -hit- on the unconscious woman you find in the trunk:

http://s11.postimg.org/40n7iyxwj/Deja_Vu2.png

ugggggggggggggggggh

let alone a larynx!

oi

so yeah i would have a preference for 5-10 a day not 20 a day but that's just me

I would rather quicker - the ability of dudes of a certain age (IE me) to wax nostalgic about video games of their youth is not really the guttering flame of free speech on the Internet.

NB I will totally regret this point of view when we get to the PS2.

Alright. I think my plan now is about 15 a day, which isn't slow or really fast either. Starting tomorrow, ending the end of next week (weekend off). Only exceptions will be last day (top 10) and first day (everything below 100). should be something like

We: 1??-101
Th: 100-86
Fr: 85-71
Mo: 70-56
Tu: 55-41
We: 40-26
Th: 25-11
Fr: 10-1

Numbers aren't precise due to some awkwardly placed ties here and there but that's basically my rollout plan, which i am writing down so i have to commit to it.

also i have no idea why i am committed to the BIG SECRET of how many games are in the first day. meh whatever

What are you hiding

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/zelda/images/9/99/Secret_Moblin.png/revision/latest?cb=20090930144719

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgjAt1VZBVo

i'm not generally one for speedruns, but watching the way that person takes the piranha plants like it's nothing... my ten-year-old self would have passed out, and here in the present day my mouth is hanging open.

he also does some weird stutter step backward jumping that looks borderline glitchy

he does a few glitch exploits. kotaku did a short thing on it yesterday, i think (i'd link but it's banned at work), and their article contained a link to the superior twitch.tv version of the video which features his crazy concentration-face as well as a real-time heartrate monitor

lol at the insane heartrate spike in the waterworld and his micdrop at the end

EVERYTHING IS PIXELATED: The top 127 games from the third generation of home video game consoles (Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System, Atari 7800)