Downland1983

Examined and tested a few of my games yesterday (counted my physical collection at 40 games). Here's what I found: No Pinholes: Nintendo Land Madden 13 Super Mario 3D World Pinhole: Super Mario Bros. U Yoshi's Wooly World Super Mario Maker 2 I think I am remembering that right from yesterday afternoon. Regardless, not all of the disks had them for sure. And there didn't seem to be any correlation to age of the disks, and the pinhole being present. Nintendo Land and Madden 13 are some of my oldest games, and they did not have any pinhole, but Super Mario Bros. U which was just as old did. All of the games booted up and went into gameplay as normal with zero issues regardless of whether the disk had a pinhole or not. Most were a single pinhole, but the Yoshi's Wooly World appeared to be a double pinhole (2 pinholes extremely close together so that they converged). Again, Yoshi's Wooly World gave no trouble booting and entering into gameplay despite having a larger pinhole than the others. I can check more, but I am of the opinion that the pinholes were there the whole time, and did not just suddenly appear later. The holes are in a very specific area on all disks they are present on, and there is no indication of flaking on the top of the disks or new pinholes starting to wear through.

I have a pretty extensive Wii U collection. I'll have to check my disks tonight. I've never had an issue with loading one of them. I don't use the system nearly as much as I used to since the Switch came out. But since Madden 13 is the only football game on either system, I've literally logged thousands of hours into it between 2012-2020. My best friend would come over most Friday nights (pre-pandemic), and we have played several years of franchise mode together through a number of different teams. I also recently booted up and played Super Mario Maker with no issues while I was copying one of my courses from there over to Super Mario Maker 2 on my Switch. I'll check for those pinholes and do a boot of each disk and post results.

New course uploaded last night and updated to OP. This is my second and final entry in my "Easy Mode" series. It's a redo of my "Smurf Rescue (Coleco Vision) course. Enemies (bats and spiders) have been removed since they do not appear in the first playthrough of "Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle" by Coleco on Skill Level 1. The Plains offer less difficult jumps, and now Gargamel's Castle in the background on the second stretch of the Plains is no longer an obstruction to your jumps. Even though this is an "easy" version that can be breezed through, just like in my "Dragon Fire Returns (Easy Mode)" course, I still couldn't help but add something for the more completionist/hardcore gamer. There is a completely optional Red Coin Challenge present here as well that also leads to the "True/Top of Flagpole Ending". Easy Versions of Previously Uploaded Courses: Smurf Rescue Coleco (Easy Mode) Course ID: TYC-83W-7NF Description: This is a recreation of my version of "Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle" as if played on Skill Level 1 on Coleco Vision. Smurfette has been kidnapped by Gargamel again. Your Smurf must still leave Smurf Village and travel through a forest and cave to reach Gargamel's Castle to rescue her, but this time there are less difficult jumps, no bats, and no spiders. Two checkpoints have been added. I also added springs before each jump. But you only need to use the springs if you intend to collect the Red Coins which are necessary only for the completely optional "True Ending". Likes: 1 Played By: 4 Clears: 2 Attempts: 14 Clear Rate: 14.28% World Record: 1:04.030 (kirbyboiYT) Uploaded: 6/1/2020

Yeah, I wondered about that too. But, I guess they didn't feel the need to implement it since each creator can only upload 1 World. Yes, I completed all of them. I didn't find all of the shortcuts that Jo Li KMC did though.

Played through your Super World last night. Fun and creative courses with nice use of the theme. I left a Like on all of them.

Sounds cool. I'll check that out later today. Thanks!

New course uploaded over Memorial Day Weekend. This is actually an "Easy Mode" version of my "Dragon Fire Returns" course. Ironically, at the moment, it has a similarly low clear rate to the "harder" version. I'm planning to add an easier version of my "Smurf Rescue (Coleco Vision) to this series as well, but have no plans to take the series further than that. I just wanted to take the 2 games that I had recreated utilizing their most difficult hazards and offer alternate versions at their lowest difficulty for contrast. Easy Versions of Previously Uploaded Courses: Dragon Fire Returns (Easy Mode) Course ID: 85R-2H1-M9G Description: This is a remake of my "Dragon Fire Returns" course at an easier level. There are still 3 drawbridges and treasure vaults, but the drawbridges do not have added hazards on subsequent crossings. Also, 2 checkpoints have been added after the completion of the first and second drawbridges. For completionists, there are Red Coins to collect which will open a True Ending path to the top of the Flagpole, but this is not required to beat the course. Likes: 1 Played By: 5 Clears: 2 Attempts: 15 Clear Rate: 2.79% World Record: 0:52.834 (Jaky20) Uploaded: 5/24/2020

New course I uploaded yesterday. It's my first attempt at a collection of "single screen games" using the 40th Anniversary of the Game Watch as my inspiration. I could have called this "Game & Watch Returns" and included it in my "Returns" Series, but I wanted to properly salute the Anniversary. Recreations of Existing Games (both Retro and Modern): Game & Watch 40th Anniversary Course ID: 0W4-VWC-TTG Description: In celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Game & Watch created by Gunpei Yokoi, I have created 9 unique single screen games played inside variations of Game & Watch handhelds with different skins. The games are "Carnival", "Claw Game", "Super Mario Bros.", "Donkey Kong", "Air Assault", "Inferno", "Crazy Coaster", "Donkey Kong Jr.", and "The Legend of Zelda". Likes: 5 Played By: 11 Clears: 6 Attempts: 50 Clear Rate: 12.00% World Record: 2:10.736 (WD Gast3r) Uploaded: 5/19/2020

Sorry! But, it was the only way to give the Superball Powerup as the Bugspray for Donkey Kong 3 and then take it away before leaving the room. I would have had to resize Mario's Living Room which is only designed for small Mario for you to be able to go any further with a Powerup active. Hope you enjoyed the rest of the course!

Mario Plays Series (compilation of retro recreations): Mario Plays NES Games 3 Course ID: VGR-63W-WWG Description: Mario returns home to enjoy three more classic NES games on his Nintendo Entertainment System. Turn the NES on and hop inside the TV to play a hole in "Golf", and also play a level of "Donkey Kong 3", and "Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA)". In "Golf", time your "Putt" so that your Golf Ball (Beetle Shell) meets the Spring as it passes through the center of the "Accuracy Meter". In "Donkey Kong 3", use the Superball Flower as Stanley the Bugman's "Bug Spray" to defeat Donkey Kong (Boom Boom) while the Beehives (Pipes) release waves of Bugs (Cheep Cheeps) against you. Then, enjoy a complete stage of Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) 1-2 including Subspace, Vase Interiors, and a Cursed Key. Likes: 1 Played By: 2 Clears: 1 Attempts: 4 Clear Rate: 25.00% World Record: 4:08.806 (-iju6) Uploaded: 5/13/2020

New course uploaded this weekend. I'll file it under "Recreations of Existing Games", but it's more specifically part of my "Returns Series". Which means, it's more of a "loose interpretation" than a recreation. I spent some time tweaking this one until I got the mechanics to work just the way I wanted them to. I had some fun with it and hope you will too. Recreations of Existing Games (both Retro and Modern): Blades of Steel Returns Course ID: 33M-JT6-VWF Description: Grab a helmet from the locker room and hit the ice for a Sudden Death OT game of hockey. Be the first to score and win it all. But be warned, the tension is so high that if the opposing teams scores, it will surely trigger a bench-clearing brawl! Likes: 3 Played By: 11 Clears: 5 Attempts: 30 Clear Rate: 16.66% World Record: 0:17.799 (WickedGuru) Uploaded: 5/8/2020

Awesome. I'm glad you enjoyed it! Downland is my all time favorite TRS-80 CoCo game, so I put a lot of care into that recreation to make it as faithful as possible.

No worries, even the lurkers make it worthwhile!

Miss typed the Course ID for Downland (TRS-80 CoCo2) on both the screenshots post and the main post for recreations. Correct Course ID is: YDQ-723-X5G

You're right. Thanks for pointing that out. I flipped 2 of the letters in the first sequence. It should be YDQ-723-X5G

Miss typed the Course ID in OP. Correct ID is: YDQ-723-X5G

I was recently encouraged to start a Super Mario Maker 2 course sharing thread in the Nintendo Switch Forum. While adding screenshots to my courses, I edited all of the Downland Chamber screens into a single map. So, I figured I would update that here as well along with the vintage Downland map found on CoCopedia (http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Map_of_Downland) for comparison.

Downland (TRS-80 CoCo2) Course ID: YQD-723-X5G Description: This is a recreation of the game "Downland" that was published for the TRS-80 Color Computer in 1983. I stretched each chamber to fill 2 vertical screens, so that Mario's jump mechanic wouldn't make the game too easy. Doing something a little different with today's screenshots. Since I recreated all 10 Chambers from the original Downland, I have edited the screenshots into a single "Map" with the connection points of all chambers lined up along with a vintage map found on CoCopedia (CoCopedia Map of Downland) for comparison. Individual screenshots (edited screenshots of top and bottom vertical screens) of each chamber can be found in my Album or the post I had created in the Tandy Computer forum before I had created this thread. Screenshots:

Dragon Fire Returns Course ID: 5CG-BTY-R1H Description: The King's Treasure has been stolen by an Evil Dragon. It is up to the daring Prince to reclaim it. Enter 3 strongholds protected by the Dragon and his Hatchlings. "Dragon Fire" was ported to many systems in the 80's, but I played it on my TRS-80 Color Computer 2. The difficulty level increases with each drawbridge (additional hazard) and stronghold (more difficult "treasure" placement). The original Dragonfire increased the difficulty after ever 2 completions of a drawbridge and stronghold, but I cut that in half due to space limitations. Screenshots:

New course uploaded this weekend. I'll file it under "Recreations of Existing Games", but it's a recreation with a twist. Recreations of Existing Games (both Retro and Modern): Super Mario Bros. (Glitched!) Course ID: KV3-682-72G Description: Imagine pulling out a classic cartridge of the original Super Mario Bros. and popping it into your NES for some good old retro platforming nostalgia. But, no matter how many times you pull the cart in and out of the system and blow into it, you can't seem to get it to work properly. Disaster has struck as garbage pixels infest your screen. The Glitch Gremlin has arrived, and he has "sh*t all over your game" with his glitches. Still, you are determined to power through and enjoy your favorite game in spite of the Glitch Gremlins efforts. Likes: 2 Played By: 11 Clears: 5 Attempts: 23 Clear Rate: 21.73% World Record: 0:34.499 Uploaded: 5/2/2020

Smurf Rescue (Coleco Vision) Course ID: PY3-JQV-7DG Description: My recreation of Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle which was ported to a number of systems in the early 80's, but I played it on my Coleco Vision. Smurfette has been kidnapped by Gargamel. Your Smurf must leave Smurf Village and travel through a forest and cave to reach Gargamel's Castle to rescue her. I recreated the game at one of it's higher levels involving more difficult jumps, bats, and spiders.

I used the diagram of The Pit from the first issue of the GI Joe Marvel comic series for the layout theme of each level. There's a motorized lift in the diagram that connects Training Stage Area (Level 3) to the Main Garage Area (Level 1), so I incorporated it into the course. And, yeah, it's the easiest route to take since the Situation Analysis and Briefing Rooms of Level 2 are swarming with Cobra Troops and the lift allows you to bypass that entire Level. I used the infilatration of The Pit from the movie "GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra" as the inspiration for the Skewers breaking through the walls along both sides of the course. I placed them in a way to render most (but not all) of the Main Elevator shaft unusable. It's supposed to immediately force you into the air ducts connecting the Level 5 Generator and Computer Bank Area to the Level 4 Living Quarters & Armory. The Living Quarters has the first optional air duct route which skips the Armory and goes straight up into the Training Stage Area of Level 3. The visible pipe on the left side of the stage is the "Alternate Escape Route" from the diagram, but I have rendered it completely unusable from the skewers "boaring" through it at multiple points. Speaking of the skewers, I think the Mole Pods (Piloted Drills) in The Rise of Cobra may have been inspired by the Cobra Buzz Boar from Hasbro's GI Joe toy line. The Buzz Boar appeared in both GI Joe games on NES ("GI Joe A Real American" Hero by Taxan & GI Joe: The Atlantis Factor by Capcom).

GI*Joe: Escape from The Pit Level Code: RXP-VBP-63G Description: After the title screen, you start off at the lowest level of GI*Joe's secret underground base, The Pit. Suddenly, Cobra Troops bore their way in through the walls. Fight your way up to the surface, emerging through the Motor Pool above. Fight your way through the invading Cobras on the surface, making sure to blow up the bridge during your daring escape. Screenshots:

Deluxe Versions of Previously Uploaded Courses: Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) Deluxe Course ID: HFH-7D3-DWF Description: This was my fastest creation of a "Deluxe" update to one of my previous levels. But, I had rushed my original SMB2 USA level in order to start crafting my "World" game, so there were a lot of ideas that had been left out. This Deluxe version now incorporates checkpoints, entry points into "Sub-Space" for collecting coins and SMB2 Mushroom Power-ups, Dry Bones at all the "vegetable" spots, Goombas as Red Shyguys and Goombrats as Pink Shyguys, the complete vine climb to the Birdo Boss Battle, and an upgraded Boss Battle with pipes spawning Dry Bones to throw at Birdo (Wendy) and SMB2 Mushroom Power-ups to maintain the ability to pick-up and throw the projectiles for a more authentic Birdo Boss Battle. I also changed the background setting to Forest in this version. I had originally contemplated using the Forest setting while crafting the course the first time, but I decided against it because I didn't want to lose the Blue Sky background. However, the Forest setting has a semi-solid platform that is perfect for Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA), which ultimately led to my reinstating it for this Deluxe course. Likes: 0 Played By: 0 Clears: 0 Attempts: 0 Clear Rate: 0.00% World Record: 0:00.000 Uploaded: 4/29/2020