Which cart am I?

[Mxyzptlk]

I read the 70's discography of Joy Division, no luck.

[Gateway]

Ok, I am gonna guess Kite! by Simon Quernhorst

 

*It is PAL only, as far as I know at this writing.

 

*Blue skies on the label, but most of the game screens are black until later in the game

 

*Choose wisely could be referring to the controls for the game, you can choose 1 or 2 joysticks: using 2 joysticks is more authentic to flying a real kite like the one in the game.

 

*excessive enthusiasm or desire could be another way to say Mania or a mental disorder. New Order's/Joy Division's singer suffered epileptic seisures and later commited suicide. You could say he suffered Mental Kombat in his head, a reference to another of Simon's 2600 games(Which has squares and gameplay somewhat similar to Tic-Tac-Toe)

 

*Kite-flying is popular in Pakistan and Afghanistan (when it's not banned by the Taliban, that is).

 

*Somebody who is not depressed could instead be "high as a kite". Let's Go Fly A Kite was the happy song sung at the end of the Mary Poppins film.

 

EDIT: I am having Mental Kombat right as to whether Kite! is the right answer or not, so I am gonna hit reply before I change my mind

[roadrunner]

Just a wild guess Wing War?

[+thegoldenband]

Not Kite, and not Wing War (or Mental Kombat for that matter). But:

 

*excessive enthusiasm or desire could be another way to say Mania

 

Why yes, yes it could! And it can be attached onto the ends of words too, to reflect an excessive enthusiasm or desire for a particular thing.

 

What do the phrase "choose wisely" and the suffix "-mania" have in common, I wonder?

[+Nathan Strum]

It's Seal to Whales.

 

Because at this point, the back of the box makes as much sense to me as the clues do...

 

In the interim that the SEAL is seeking for the Crystals in the severe cold Arctic Ocean with a heap of floating ice blocks, there are coming a shoal of WHALEs arround and waiting for a favorable moment to sorrow the weak and timid SEAL.

Now you have to give the SEAL a hand to push the ice blocks and try to push the ice blocks and try to crush the WHALEs to death, so that the SEAL can find out all the three Crystals and get them arranged in a line.

Can you help the SEAL? The outcome depends on you!

[+thegoldenband]

OK, let me try to help by being more straightforward:

 

This game is a PAL exclusive that was released in three different versions, under three different names. The version I have in mind is, as far as I know, the original release (the others are re-releases or pirates). Some of my clues refer to the alternate versions, i.e. it's not A or B.

 

You won't find a picture of this game's label on Atariage (though there is an entry for the game). You won't find anything about the alternate releases either. But there's another website with "mania" in the name, run by a guy who we might associate with the phrase "choose wisely" if we've seen a movie or two -- and there's something else about that phrase, and that movie, that's relevant to this game and that website.

 

How's that? I don't think the clues I've given are that obscure -- I tried to do everything I could without naming the game outright; I think it's at least partly that the game itself is very obscure. (But actually, it's pretty decent IMHO, certainly better than at least the bottom 15-20% of NTSC-released titles.)

 

Oh, and Joy Division is the right idea. (What were some of their most famous songs again?)

[Omegamatrix]

I'll guess X'Mission, although I have no idea how the clues relate to it.

[Gateway]

I have been searching on Atarimania this whole time,

 

Okay this HAS to be it!

 

Kung Fu Superkicks - Pursuit of the Ninja

 

*The paths or forks in the road on the game screen spread out like branches the further along you get, and looks similar to a menorah with the 8 candles. Also, "Chinese" stars on the XONOX label.

 

*Speaking of XONOX all of your original clues started with the word "NO" which can be spelled even if you flip XONOX upside-down

 

*Also letters X O X O in XONOX can refer to hugs and kisses, but you don't get any! LOL!

 

*CHUCK NORRIS is so tough, he could just sit silent in the center square of Hollywood Squares and you would automatically win prizes, LOL!

 

*If you don't choose wisely the path you take, you may find a barrier blocking your way and you will have to go back and pick a new path. Also if you pick the wrong attack method, the bad guys with whoop your backside!

 

*Telegames released this game PAL only with the XONOX box. Later, it was available for NTSC same box artwork but no mention of XONOX this time.

 

*"Paint it black" could refer to the pursuit of the Ninja(dressed in black) and your goal of earning your Black Belt in the gameplay.

 

*"No staying home" can mean get off of AtariAge! LOL, and look elsewhere.

.

.

.

"Choose wisely, Grasshopper"

[+Nathan Strum]

I had no idea Joy Division even had any famous songs...

[Omegamatrix]

Kung Fu Superkicks isn't a PAL exclusive though. It's just Chuck Norris Superkicks.

[+Nathan Strum]

I'll guess Dice Puzzle. Because a die is vaguely sort-of like a dreidel. And um... there's no scan of the label on AtariAge. Except the end label. And it's PAL only. Except it's not, since the Panda version is NTSC. I think. And there are two other versions called Bingo and Magic Puzzle, which aren't on AtariAge, except for Bingo. And there's some dude on the label which has something to do with something. Maybe he's having a fine time? The box is blue, but the game has a black background. Plus it kind of looks like Tic-Tac-Toe on the back of the box. And there's probably a song about dice or puzzles or something.

 

But that's just a guess.

[Mxyzptlk]

OK, let me try to help by being more straightforward:

 

This game is a PAL exclusive that was released in three different versions, under three different names. The version I have in mind is, as far as I know, the original release (the others are re-releases or pirates). Some of my clues refer to the alternate versions, i.e. it's not A or B.

 

You won't find a picture of this game's label on Atariage (though there is an entry for the game). You won't find anything about the alternate releases either. But there's another website with "mania" in the name, run by a guy who we might associate with the phrase "choose wisely" if we've seen a movie or two -- and there's something else about that phrase, and that movie, that's relevant to this game and that website.

 

How's that? I don't think the clues I've given are that obscure -- I tried to do everything I could without naming the game outright; I think it's at least partly that the game itself is very obscure. (But actually, it's pretty decent IMHO, certainly better than at least the bottom 15-20% of NTSC-released titles.)

 

Oh, and Joy Division is the right idea. (What were some of their most famous songs again?)

From the 70's or what? They started out as Joy Division in the 70's went to New Order in the Eighties and then changed to Joy Division later in the eighties. MANY songs too choose from and all of them went nowhere on Atarimania.

[+thegoldenband]

I'll guess X'Mission, although I have no idea how the clues relate to it.

 

Yes!!! Here's the Atarimania entry, and here's a picture of the cart:

 

 

OK, lemme explain my thinking. I have to try to reconstruct everything I had in mind!

 

1. No Christmas story: just a weak hint of Hanukkah.

 

The first part is a riff on the title and the fact that the preceding puzzle had a Christmas Story clue, but I probably should've said "No Xmas story", because the point was that "X" seems to stand for "trans" and not "Christ". The second part is a reference to the fact that the game scrolls right-to-left, like Hebrew writing (and Arabic writing, which I referenced later), which is very unusual for a shooter.

 

I also wrote "weak" in a different font (Tahoma) from the rest of my post -- something I did a bunch of times, though I guess no one picked up on that. That was a goofy reference to the fact that the X'Mission art has a big red-and-white "18" on it: that's "just a week" before Christmas, and a date that sometimes falls during Hanukkah. But that was kind of a throwaway.

 

2. No Hollywood Squares: and no Hunter either.

 

The two X'Mission clones listed at Atarimania are UFO Patrol and Raumpatrouille. The box cover of UFO Patrol has a 3x3 pattern of boxes, just like Hollywood Squares (or tic-tac-toe). Raumpatrouille is a German show whose full title is "Raumpatrouille - Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion" -- it's their Star Trek, sort of, and the game is trying to cash in on that. And Orion was a hunter, of course.

 

(I amended the clue later -- "...or is there?" -- to hint at our own Rom Hunter.)

 

3. No easy embrace for us: just friendly hugs & kisses for now.

 

In the game, your task is to dock with (i.e. be embraced by) a mothership, but there are obstacles always in the way. When you first turn the game on, the playfield has a pattern whose most distinctive shapes are pairs of X's and O's.

 

I also put the words "us" and "friendly" in the Tahoma font once again: US and PAL, that is. BTW, that's why I kept talking about the "source" of my post -- the BBCode or HTML, to see that the font had been changed for those two words (and other key hint words). I did the font change a few other times:

 

"hopefully someone will get to the source of my inspiration"

"Nice work, amigo" (i.e. PAL)

"I appreciate that you're not tactically shotgunning crazy guesses." (first letters are NTSC, so "not NTSC")

"Perhaps a little extra clue's civilized behavior" -- P, A, L, ex, clue's civ

"No TNT-scattered human projectiles" -- No TNT-sc (not NTSC)

"people are looking exclusively" -- p, a, l, exclusive

And then this post, where the first letter of each sentence spells out PAL ONLY.

 

4. No easy success: it usually backfires.

 

You have to shoot your way through barriers to reach the mothership, but whenever you find your mark, your shot bounces back at you.

 

5. No pastel blue skies: paint it black, 'cause we're having a fine time.

 

The original X'Mission art is a reasonably nice-looking piece that has a black sky (space) and looks to me to have been painted. The art for UFO Patrol and Raumpatrouille, however, is a cheap-looking copy that uses pastel colors, including a pastel blue sky, and may itself have been drawn with pastels (can't 100% tell).

 

"Paint it black" was also a hint that there was a musical clue lurking: the Joy Division song "Transmission" (the song I intended, and one of their best-known tracks) has the line "We could have a fine time". I also hinted at this later: "a ham radio broadcast of some kind, though we'd all be waiting for our sight-seeing souvenirs" -- a ham-radio broadcast is a transmission, and "waiting for our sight" is a line from Transmission that gets repeated 3-4x.

 

6. No staying home: you'll go crazy finding the answer.

7. No easy options: choose wisely to reach your goal.

 

Both references to Atarimania, run by Rom Hunter who uses an Indiana Jones avatar, and which has way more documentation on X'Mission than Atariage does (ergo "No staying home", i.e. Atariage won't give you enough info). "Choose wisely" is a famous line from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where he has to choose which cup is the grail -- and X'Mission is a R10 cart, and as one of the very few "holy grails" on Rom's site, it has a little picture of a grail in its entry.

 

Phew! Sorry that this was so involved and so taxing.

[Schizophretard]

I'll guess X'Mission, although I have no idea how the clues relate to it.

 

Your guess is the same as mine. It is a PAL Holy Grail with three versions. There are X's and O's on the screen. One cart version has a black sky and one has blue. Other things probably fit too.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF2UrYSDb3k

 

Edit: Nevermind. Posted a few minutes too late.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Schizophretard

[Omegamatrix]

A) Four and a half??? people all sat down to enjoy a bite of pie, heated to some degree.

B) One of the people said I don't drink too much, but sometimes a liqueur is quite nice!

C) What would you do, for...

 

 

 

Should be easy.

Edited September 20, 2012 by Omegamatrix

[moycon]

I'll guess Frostbite. Only because it reminds me of Klondikes

[+Nathan Strum]

I'll say Tapper, since every clue you mentioned could involve a bar (diner, tavern, Klondike bar).

[Omegamatrix]

I'll guess Frostbite. Only because it reminds me of Klondikes

Very good! You got it.

 

As to the clues, the first one is the hardest.

 

A) Four and a half??? people all sat down to enjoy a bite of pie, heated to some degree.

pi = 180 degrees, pi divided by 4.5 = 40 degrees, which is the temperature printed on the back of the box. Also, bite is mentioned.

 

B) One of the people said I don't drink too much, but sometimes a liqueur is quite nice!

And the liqueur that gentlemen enjoyed was Bailey's, as in Frostbite Bailey.

 

C) What would you do, for...

A Klondike bar! The easiest clue.

Edited September 20, 2012 by Omegamatrix

[+Nathan Strum]

So... next?

[Fixitguy74]

I say we start guessing even before the clues are given.

[Pioneer4x4]

Don't be "Combat"ative, just wait till you can "Name this Game", any "Private Eye" will tell you that you don't need to be a "Superman" or a "H.E.R.O." in the meantime.

(Lame, I know)

Edited September 25, 2012 by Pioneer4x4

[Schizophretard]

I say we start guessing even before the clues are given.

 

The clues have been given. They have been vague and random. They haven't seemed to point at anything but now I feel stupid for overlooking the obvious. My guess is the Telepathy demo for the mind link controller.

[+thegoldenband]

I'll guess Frostbite. Only because it reminds me of Klondikes

 

The answer is clearly Miner 2049er:

 

1) "Only because it reminds" - "remin" is an anagram for Miner; T is the 20th letter of the alphabet, D is the 4th, and I is the 9th

2) Klondikes = miners

3) moycon = an acronym for the game's key characters and gameplay elements, as detailed in the manual: M = Mounty Monty, O = one player (can't play without you!), Y = Yukon Yohan, C = cleaning lady, O = ore, and N = Nuclear Ned.

 

Assuming I'm right...

[tripletopper]

Red Sea Crossing

[tripletopper]

Sorry I saw a different page.