schuwalker

You guys got me on the Raiders kick! Lol. I've been watching various runs of this game and technically... I think this game can be had under 5 minutes. Spoiler Alert! Pick up chute a marketplace right away, get medallion, get Ankh and two bags of coins in treasure room. Next step is to hit map room. I noticed the sun pops up first around the 1:35 mark so you have to be quick. (This is crucial otherwise there's downtime waiting again.) Hit black market and purchase shovel, wrap around through marketplace and get Ankh again and Chai. Got to mesa via Ankh and traverse to saucer mesa. Here's the trick I wasn't aware of. Instead of dropping the Ankh, grapple just outside the mesa and fall (use chai) but you still retain the Ankh. So, technically, the hourglass is not needed which I see some use for the easter egg. Next find the ark mesa and voila! Now this is contingent on how good your parachute game is (I'm sloppy) and the particular mesa the ark resides in.

I'm really digging Game Player's Magazine from the late '80s era to the '90 window right before they switched to a newer font. They also have a great PC rendition I actually starting to go back a collect the missing issues I never purchased. Looking back at reviews of all these gaming periodicals... with adult eyes it makes me chuckle at some of the reviews. There was a certain issue of EGM (think it was when Madden '92 came out) the reviewer bashed it since he's not a sports fan. Kinda unfair bias there... why are you even the reviewer then??? Take those reviews with a grain of salt. In hindsight, I'm not sure these guys had a part of my purchasing selections and choices.

Agree with the majority here... definitely the third one. The amount of enemies it throws at you alone makes it difficult - act 5 for instance. I never really cared for Ninja Gaiden III back then and even now. Difficulty wasn't the issue for me but the whole sci-fi theme doesn't work. Some levels even look bland compared to the second one. Does it also seems like this one plays slower than the predecessors? Ninja Gaiden I and II are on par for me difficulty wise... maybe a slight edge to the first one more difficult than the first.

I believe this title is still m.i.a.

You sum up it very well... VGCE covered the whole oeuvre of gaming. Late '88, I really got into the DOS gaming scene and by '89 I was sucked in. Mind you, I was still heavy into the console gaming scene. That's why I give this certain periodical a step above the rest...

Oh man, I love VGCE mags! In fact, it might be my favorite gaming periodical. I find their reviews not so bias as compared to say - EGM.

I get a kick out of when I came across a boxed 2600 game with price stickers from Walmart, Venture or Target. Living in Chicagoland area, we didn't get either one till a year or two in the NES lifespan.

Pboland, hit it on the head... KLOV is probably the best arcade forum nowadays although site traffic has been down a few years. RGVAC will still always hold the honor of formally being the best one out there -RIP

Eh, I don't mind that at all especially with the amount of stuff he has... What did you do bitd? You would be hard pressed to find an arcade not packed back then.

Pretty cool piece of history there. Zayre and Venture were definitely two independent store chains - meaning they didn't share the same parent company.

Definitely not uncommon... I swapped tubes recently with one that had Track & Field burn in.

I'll preface this by saying... I'm in awe you have a cabinet for Pitfall II. I do have the whole kit sans the cab and those earlier Sega cabs - good lick finding one. I played the arcade version at a 7-11 once or twice. It wasn't bad, of course being coin-op, the difficulty is higher... my biggest gripe about the game was those graphics - seemed a little cartoony for me at least.

True for the most part for me as well. But in defense, what made some of those earlier B&W games was the the cabinet and the control itself. My local roller rink had a Atari Skydiver with those hoop controls - that's a thing that you just can't replicate on the 2600. It came down, at least to me, was getting say Combat with an amalgamation of different arcade games; Canyon Bomber is another good one with a version of Atari Destroyer.

Initially, I bought a N64 for Goldeneye. Later on... I purchased Shadows of the Empire and Rogue Squadron. Being a fan of the N64 latter game, I bought a Gamecube for the sequel to Squadron which eventually led to Rebel Strike.

My buddy was an route operator (also ran a small arcade in town) had a MVS 4 slot Neo Geo cab - think this was late '90 since I was still in school. I told this story before on the other thread... initially he kept in the arcade for a year or two before sending it to one of his routes. I'm pretty sure he had Riding Hero, Art of Fighting, Super Spy (one I played the most), I want to say the other was Baseball Stars. Not the best lineup per se , it was we went to another arcade on college campus, place had a 4 slot with Nam '75, Crossed Swords and Magician Lord. I was in love with both, moreso, Magician Lord. Like 128k mentioned it was Magician Lord for the most part... well it was those early round of Neo Geo games that bring that wave of Neo Geo nostalgia to me. It was real bummer that we never got a sequel to Magician Lord.

I was heavy into the Genesis scene since it's release up to around the early '90s. For the life of me, I don't ever recall purchasing a Genesis era game at all from one of their stores. I got me to thinking... I don't even remember seeing any Sega stuff from them bitd. I asked about this before in passing in one of the other topics but never pursued it. I tried to look for any sales flyers from Walmart circa that era - they were non existent. Anybody chime in and tell me their Walmart and Genesis tales? Maybe my local Walmarts were just too Nintendo centric - not sure

Seems some choices on here are based because of the control scheme from the arcade to more of a simplified version on the 2600. I still prefer the arcade on the majority of these... Space Invaders while a good port, something about the added deep bass from the arcade makes it more enjoyable for me Asteroids...nothing will ever trump vector monitors, more points for the deep bass from the arcade version. My choices are some the earlier black and white arcade games. Sears Target Fun/Air Sea Battle with the added different target choices over Atari Antiaircraft; Combat over the earlier Kee Tank games which also includes Atari Jetfighter and Biplane crammed into one cart.

Some interesting tidbits on the Swordquest games. It does a deeper dive on Fireworld... it does touch on some elements from Earthworld.

I believe the Fireworld winner was/is a member here - had some great stories from the contest. Having owned both of these bitd while the contest was still running, I really tried to love these games. I really have more nostalgia for Earthworld moreso than Fireworld. I actually prefer Earthworlds mini games over Fireworlds. The latter seems a like a collision detection nightmare. I, like the majority here, believe item placement is completely arbitrary. I tried to look for interviews from Tod Frye on the swordquest games and their completion factor - came up with nothing. I didn't have Waterword bitd (regretfully passed on it), but can someone chime in - is it easier to solve than the predecessors?

I never knew about this rare bundled version with Blue Thunder? Even when these were started to be discounted, the stores that I saw the clearanced consoles were with Sonic Fury. I know I tried to find Blue Thunder bitd... wasn't till early Ebay till I got my copy. Are you saying Blue Thunder only came out with the bundled console?

The jump mechanic does take time to get used to. Once you're committed, you're committed. I never really had an issue with the hit detection though... The game sorta was unfinished and rushed out the door. Music was fubared in the arcade version initially. Level 1's music was repeated on stage 3; I think stage 5 was repeated. A big one which I believe still needs attention is the overlapping of the intermission voice overs...really noticeable in stage 4 conclusion. I bitched a moaned bitd that I wanted a Strider sequel around '91 or '92 not knowing the creator split ties with Capcom. I'm sure Capcom rushing the game didn't help matters at all.

Hard is a understatement. He is one boss I've still never figured out some sort of pattern all these years. His attacks are completely random which makes it worse and combine that w/ later dragons (loops), he's not only unpredictable now but faster. The whole fourth level is absolutely insane the further you loop the game.

Funny thing was Raiders was of the the games listed on Ebay from the Alamogordo dig. If I recall, not exactly E.T. price, but it did go for quite a bit of monies..

I do think Kung Fu is probably my favorite port of "Master" but better than the arcade? Let' not get crazy here. Are you playing this on MAME? One thing I noticed after using my Xarcade stick is I hate micro switch controllers. I play this fairly often @ Galloping Ghost arcade - they have the dedicated Data East version. My gameplay is such an improvement there compared to at home; I really believe it lies with the actually joystick using leaf switches. I watched some Youtube videos of the two versions. NES one is easier, even on the B difficulty, compared to it's arcade counterpart. Take the fourth level boss, the NES one the magician generally throws his magic fireballs at the head; the arcade one, he's switching between head and body shots at a rapid pace. He also conjures up his doppelganger more often - does he do this on the NES? It comes down to do you prefer a easier version of Kungfu Master? Stick with the NES. Harder... the arcade.

I love this particular era (CPS 1) of Capcom. Our local Aladdin's Castle had a Ghouls n Ghosts which eventually became a Strider... later that was converted to a UN Squadrun. Back To Strider, I always afix that summer of '89 playing this at the aforementioned arcade. My Strider prowess improved overtime where I could beat it on a quarter. If you can retain the drone options, even one for that matter, you will plow through the game in no time. The Genesis version I picked up at Babbage's; I think I paid around $70 for it. The big one for those in the know, the Genesis version had the complete soundtrack corrected; the arcade version had a bug where some stage level's music repeated on other stages. I'm not sure I knew this at the time or not... Strider was gone from my arcades around the release of the Genesis version. And like Ghouls n Ghosts, Sega programmed this one in house not Capcom - and a wonderful job they did! NE mentioned Cannon Dancer/Osman... I consider that a true sequel to Strider and much better than the official version that came out in the late '90s - never cared for the sequel myself. It's funny people mentioning they loathed the Genesis version since they played the NES one first. I was the other way around... I absolutely hated the NES version. My stance now is I did a complete 180 and cherish the NES version, great soundtrack too.. I really wish Capcom pushed a NES sequel instead of the piece of garbage Tiertex/US Gold pushed on Genesis/Megadrive owners.