Hmmm...

It's alive...

I have not forgotten about you NES blog. I still have 3 NES games to play through and even though Miracle Piano will probably never be truly finished, I will still take down Uncharted Waters and Silent Service at some point.

Currently I am enjoying playing through some Genesis RPG/Adventure games that I've been curious about for the last 20 years, like Super Hydlide, Sword of Vermillion and Beyond Oasis, but I'll always return back to my true love when it is all said and done.

As for real life, I am single and loving it. My kids are my focal point right now and I am enjoying doing all the things that the ex used to fret over, like getting them ready in the morning for school and giving them all the attention they deserve. When you elect to bring a child into this world they really should be the center of your universe, so a big fuck you to all the self-centered asshole parents who neglect their children and see them as a hassle.

On a lighter note, props to anyone who knows what game the above pic is from.

Gemfire (#4)

Wow, after beating Gemfire (thanks to GForce and his hex skills!) I only have one Koei game left to finish, Uncharted Waters. Not sure if I will finish that or Silent Service first. The Miracle Gorilla Teaching System will definitely be last.






I was talking with my cousin Garret at Aquaboggan, one of the local waterslide parks, the other day and he got me thinking how much I used to love playing RPGs for the SNES. Breath of Fire (1 & 2), Lufia, Final Fantasy III, Soul Blazer...that system had it all. When I got on the net back in '95 I went on a spending spree on newsgroup auctions/sales, then eBay when it first came out as well as email auctions that various sellers would have and amassed quite a collection of games for NES, SNES, SMS, Gameboy, etc. I sold most everything I had, but for some reason kept the SNES RPGs like Robotrek, Tecmo Secret of the Stars, Final Fantasy II and a slew of others for that proverbial rainy day way off in the future. That day may not be so far off, so it seems.

However, I will definitely try and knock out those last 2 emulated NES games and then get off my lazy ass and finally hook that damned piano up. If you would have told me in January that I would have knocked 8 games off my list I would've thought you were crazy, but miraculously here I am.

I'm not at my creative best right now and if I started in with my usual profane rants I'd probably go to a place that I'd regret with it, so I'll just leave you with this:

Nobunaga's Ambition II (#5)

Life often catches you unprepared for certain things. Let's just hope I recover better than Nobunaga did in this campaign.






He did a lot more in 50 years than most people do in...I don't know, 60?






So another one falls by the wayside. With all the shit going on lately in my personal life, I still find time to knock out one of the final 5 (thanks to Rey, again). I won't get into details about my problems, but let's just say knocking off another one of these was cathartic for me and that I'll have a lot more gaming time to myself soon enough.






If only you could make hex codes to modify things in real life.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms II (#6)

My day started by dragging my sick ass out of bed for a long day of work. I had slept the previous 31 out of 35 hours after getting some kind of flu/fever combination and after about 30 minutes at work I threw in the towel and called someone in to cover me. I had the cold sweats and my valiant attempt at fighting them off ended with me right back in that bed, searching for the one spot I felt comfortable in.

By afternoon the fever was gone and even the aches and pains started to abate. I had to pick up the kids at a house I had never been to before (friend's birthday party), so I was trying to gather the energy to get up and shower. I made it through the shower without getting dizzy and picked the kids up without incident (though the parents at the party probably thought I was a zombie dad, as I weaved through the kids to gather my own and hustled them out rather quickly).

The wife gets home a bit later and tells me the kids are having friends over for the night and if I want to go to my mom's or something to escape the bedlam, it might be a good idea. *Click* "How 'bout I just shut myself up in my den and you all pretend I'm not home?" Somehow this logic worked with the wife and I figured I would finally have a solid chunk of time to knock off one of my 6 remaining games.

Good ol' Rey had posted some codes for Romance of the Three Kingdoms II at thegshi.org recently, so I might as well go after that one. I had no idea how long my energy would last and I assumed that at the first sign of game failure I would just slink into the bedroom and get another 15 hours of sleep before work tomorrow.

2 hours (and a shitload of rice codes) later, Romance II finds it's way off the "Games Left To Beat" list. I'd love to say I beat this game fair and square, but since most people now view my quest as null and void since I have used cheat codes and emulators to beat games over the last several years, my goal now is to just fight my way to the ending by any means necessary. There are now only 5 US released NES games that I have not seen the endings to.

Gemfire
Miracle Piano Teaching System
Nobunaga's Ambition II
Silent Service
Uncharted Waters

A few months ago, Koei was my worst enemy. Now with 3 of the Koei games off the list, the remaining 3 actually seem friendly compared to the Miracle Piano gorilla and that pesky little submarine game. It's too bad Konami/Ultra decided to put a sub simulator out for the NES, rather than a cool sub game, like that one for the Sega Master System. Oh well.


I'm glad your journey is over friend. Mine still continues on....

Pirates! (#7)

This isn't a really satisfying victory, as there is no ending sequence or credits when you achieve the best score (or any score for that matter). Your name goes into the Hall of Fame and then you can actually continue your game if you feel like sailing the high seas for more adventure.

I'm glad this wasn't one of my last couple of games because of the lack of that definitive ending. It seems like Silent Service has the same deal going for it as well, as from what I have read you just get ranked based upon how well you do in the game but there is no ending sequence, so maybe I should take my medecine and tackle that one next before the 4 Koei games. As much as I rag on Koei, at least they have ending.

As for Miracle Piano, I'm pretty certain there is no ending to it, like if you pass all the lessons or even beat the sub games they throw in for fun, but that WILL be the last game I tackle. It has to be. None of the other 5 games remaining on the list come even close to being as infamous as the piano game. Like I teased in my last post, the unit has been rediscovered in my garage attic. I didn't even look inside of it, I just gingerly placed it back on top of the boxes it slid down from. I'm hoping I was smart enough to put the loose cartridge in the box though. You see, I had the loose cartridge first and then I won the unit on eBay WITHOUT the cart, which worked out fine since I had it anyway and is probably why I got the high bid on it. Hopefully it has the manual/book with it, but at least some masochist at nintendoage scanned the whole f'ing thing.

L'Empereur (#8)

Let me just get this out of the way. ReyVGM is one persistent motherfucker. I went on indefinite video game hiatus a month or so ago for several reasons. I was a lazy no good around the house when it came to chores, most likely because I was up to 2am in the morning beating these bottom of my crusty video game barrel games trying to knock the final 11 off my list. Usually I would have to wake up for work several hours after going to bed or spend the day taking care of my twins, which sometimes can be harder than work depending on how much energy they have that day.

So Rey, who unfortunately will be retiring from the NES video gaming scene once he procures the few remaining ending pics he needs, keeps churning out codes and info on various games and now decides he's going after Koei's ball bag. Without getting into specifics he not only figures out how to hamstring opponents in these games by setting their food supply to ZERO, making any opponent instantly ineffective, but he figures out that each land (there are like 40+ lands in L'Empereur) has their own individual codes for everything: food, gold, soldiers, prostitutes, boats, commerce...you name it. He spends what must have been hours posting this shit to thegshi.org for the gaming community's disposal and gets rewarded with little fanfare, other than the usual praise from me and grand master G-Force (who may end up beating all the games before I do!). Years from now some dude is gonna wonder how the hell he can beat L'Empereur and will stumble across the hundreds of codes Rey made for this and will wonder who this code king was.

By the way, Rey, don't die on us before making Gemfire codes. And don't forget to thank the mods when they get around to adding the codes to the site or they will become angry and self-righteous even though you are the one fueling their site with your body of work ;)

I forget where I was headed with this shit...

*looks back at 1st paragraph*

Oh yeah, so anyway, in true Godfather fashion, I get pulled back into the video gaming zone. For a good month I was getting 8-9 hours of sleep, being a great dad, getting shit done around the house. Gutters got cleaned out, got a guy to put in a garbage disposal my wife's been begging me for, went through my closets and drawers and got rid of about half of my clothes I'd been hoarding for over 10 years that no longer fit because I am getting fatter and older (37 fucking years old tomorrow...wtf!?!). I even found the cool shirt stuffed in the back of the dresser that says PLEASE TELL YOUR TITS TO STOP STARING AT MY EYES! Now that's fucking class right there I tell ya! I've had a ton of energy at work and just basically have been getting it done and making the wife happy.

So thanks Rey for sucking me back in and turning me into the sluggish zombie I was a couple months ago. I owe you one buddy! Honorable mention goes out as well to the aforementioned GarrettForce for the occasion gaming related email that I take way too long to reply to, yet keeps me anchored in the gaming zone.

In all seriousness, I'm down to 7 games left to beat because of Rey and he has my eternal gratitude for making this 20+ year quest to see every US NES game ending a reality, even though I have to cheat like hell to get through these last few games.


Sorry Austria.

Oh yeah, I was putting stuff up in my garage and a long, heavy box slid off some boxes and landed at my feet. Miracle...Piano...Teaching...System...