Jeremy Parish Presents: Retronauts Video Works (Chronological Retrospective Series)

[imbarkus]

You have to get more than two zombie pixels to qualify for warranty.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Atari 7800 1986/87 (3 of 3): Xevious / Choplifter! / Karateka / One-on-One | NES Works Gaiden #14

While this isn't the end of our side excursions into the Atari 7800 chronology, it's the last for the time being. These four releases bring the console's lineup in line with the current state of NES Works (January 1988), and it would be a while before more games followed. Thankfully for the Atari faithful, the console's lineup with fatten up significantly in 1988 and '89, but there's no getting around the fact that its slow start really hurt the system.

Also of note this episode: The final classic Namco conversion for 7800, and the first batch of (highly faithful) classic computer game adaptations.

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I'm starting to think with the new format, you should cite which scenes you get so we know, well...where we find them. Not all of us were born and raised in the '80s, afterall.

 

[JeremyParish]

I'm starting to think with the new format, you should cite which scenes you get so we know, well...where we find them. Not all of us were born and raised in the '80s, afterall.

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What? I really don't understand what you mean here.

 

[Nerdkiller]

What? I really don't understand what you mean here.

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Oh, the clips used when you do the channel changing thing. Like that one which looked like a Spitting Image puppet near the beginning.

 

[JeremyParish]

Oh, I see. I think it's more fun to let people try to trainspot it in the comments. But the clips will always feature something in the charts during the time frame in which the game(s) being discussed were released. It's just a faster, more eye-catching way to do the "it's Nov. 1986 and Top Gun is big in theaters while Genesis' 'Land of Confusion' is rocketing toward the top of the MTV most-requested list" thing.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Vampire Killer / Haunted Castle / Castlevania IV / X68000: Another Castles | NES Works Gaiden #15

Halloween season is here once again, and you know what that means: Time for more Castlevania-themed NES Works videos. It's the Pumpkin Spice of retrogaming YouTube videos.

This year, we're looking at the OTHER Castlevanias—that is, the other games that relay the exact same story as the original Castlevania (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nealF...), tracking Simon Belmon's trek through Dracula's castle. All of these games cover the same narrative and gameplay beats.

Vampire Killer for MSX is in some ways the game most like Castlevania—it was produced in tandem with the NES game, using many of the same gameplay assets—yet also the least like it. So contradictory!

Haunted Castle feels like the mutant version of the NES game. Not the kind of mutation that leads to super powers like the X-Men. The kind like when that guy falls in the toxic sludge in RoboCop.

Super Castlevania IV—well, no need to belabor the point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eXtQ...

And finally, Castlevania Chronicles, the final (and arguably) greatest exploration of Simon's journey. Mercilessly difficult, but so artfully crafted and filled with inventive moments that you can't help but want to keep dashing yourself helplessly against its proverbial rocks.

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Ahhh, Star Trek IV, I see.

 

[Deleted member 24079]

it's sad to see the 7800 series of videos come and go. The 5200 and 7800 are so weird and of their time. It's one of the few cases where I have more fun reading about their development rather than see gameplay. Great videos Jeremy.

 

[JeremyParish]

The 7800 series isn't done! The next entry will be in a few months, right after City Connection for NES (May 1988).

I notice Nerdkiller didn't update with the latest video, presumably because he's stumped about the "contemporary media" snippet. It's:

Spoiler

1987 OAV Black Magic M-66, based on the Masamune Shirow manga.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Naaa, just forgot about it. Haven't even watched it yet.

Besides, anime isn't really my thing. Unless it's Outlaw Star for whatever reason.

And I guess Sailor Moon, but I haven't seen that since childhood. Long story short, I mostly skip the anime episodes of your compadre's What a Cartoon series.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Power Racer & Painter Momopie retrospective: Leaders of the Pac | Game Boy Works #121

A pair of games that share more in common than they might appear to at first glance. Power Racer traces its history back more than a decade: It's a portable conversion of an arcade dot-gobbler that predates Pac-Man by a year. That might not seem to have much to do with the Japan-only Painter Momopie, a game about a witch with a paint roller, but ultimately both these Game Boy releases belong to the same genre and do a great job of demonstrating the difference a decade made in how a specific type of game concept could be interpreted. These aren't the most beloved or best-known games on the system, but they're worth a look regardless.

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[Nerdkiller]

Elite retrospective: Space odyssey | NES Works Gaiden #16

By patron request of Jon, it's our first (of likely a fair few) full look at a European exclusive for NES: Imagineer's impressive conversion of British microcomputer classic Elite. I won't even pretend to show off the full depth of the game here; it's a complex and intricate game that requires extensive play to master, whereas I struggle with not dying at the hands of marauders the instant I come out of warp in a system local to the game's starting point.

I may not be adept at this particular simulation, but I can recognize how impressive a conversion this is... even if the hardware REALLY wasn't designed for it.

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What an oddity...a Space Oddity, you might say.

 

[Nerdkiller]

PHENOMENAL GAMING POWERRRRRRS...

The Aladdin Deck Enhancer retrospective: Itty-bitty cartridge space | NES Works Gaiden #17

This episode brings the recent run of NES Works Gaiden episodes to a head by being both massive, sprawling, and focused on a European creation. Whew.

The Aladdin Deck Enhancer is one of those NES tidbits that people have probably heard of but most likely only know through second-hand sources, such as The Angry Video Game Nerd. I don't know that I have much to add to the conversation, especially since the Aladdin has low compatibility with FPGA-based clone hardware, but by god, this was a patron request (from Joseph Wawzonek), and I am determined to give Video Works patrons their money's worth.

Honestly, this episode was a lot of fun to put together, despite its technical issues. A few of the games were definitely on the dicey side, but most were solid, and a few are good enough that I want to play them again sometime when I'm not simultaneously freebasing a dozen different unfamiliar games for an episode of a weekly video series.

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[Nerdkiller]

Gun.Smoke retrospective: Wild gunmen | NES Works #073

Another Capcom creation this week. It's not quite up there with the company's best work, but you can see their collective spirit in action here—Gun.Smoke hits on a lot of popular Capcom beats all at once. It's a vertically scrolling shooter, themed around American pop culture (in this case, Western movies), whose home port contains a number of embellishments over the coin-op title to make it better suited for the NES. Despite the compromises it suffered in coming home, Gun.Smoke plays well on NES and makes a lasting impression, making it yet another top-flight creation for a valuable NES third party

Special thanks to Steve Lin of the Video Game History Foundation for providing a look at the game's alternate packaging!

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TATE is pronounced "ta-tay"? My life is a lie.

Next week...

 

[Nerdkiller]

Game Gear 1990 (2 of 3): Zan Gear / Mahjong Haopai / Revenge of Drancon | Game Boy Works Gaiden #10

Moving beyond the three launch-day Japanese releases for Sega's Game Gear, we venture into November 1990 with three more titles that continue checking off the obligatory boxes for a new game platform: Strategy, mahjong, and platformer. Two of these games never made it to the U.S., continuing the precedent set by Pengo: Ultimately, a sizable percentage of Game Gear's library would fail to reach the States.

Not that American kids were necessarily clamoring for a dense strategy title set in the Warring States era of Japan, or for a conversion of a tabletop game typically enjoyed by the elderly. They probably WERE clamoring for a great conversion of Wonder Boy, though! Too bad some of them never realized it was available right from the console's beginnings due to Sega of America's bizarre decision to rename Wonder Boy "Revenge of Drancon." Not to belabor a point, but... what?

Still, another convincing case for Game Gear's merits versus the competition as it hits on some nuts-and-bolts titles that demonstrate both capable technical performance and appealing visuals.

Special thanks to Stone Age Gamer for helping to make this series possible with their EverDrive-GG X7: https://stoneagegamer.com/everdrive-g...

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I guess "Revenge of Drancon, what is the secret of your power?" doesn't roll off the tongue as easily.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Final Fantasy Legend II retrospective: Gift of the MAGI | Game Boy Works #122

The second entry in the Final Fantasy Legend series—or SaGa, if you prefer—amped up the features, narrative, mechanics, and overall design sensibilities of the groundbreaking first game. With new races, an elaborate cosmology, inventive dungeon design, an unconventional death mechanic, and all kinds of poorly explained gameplay systems to grapple with, Final Fantasy Legend II is in some respects a high point of the SaGa series. And with both a SaGa Game Boy compilation and remaster of SaGa Frontier for PlayStation due out in the near future, there's no better time to get acquainted with this sometimes-baffling role-playing series that is well and truly here to stay... whether you like it or not.

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[shoptroll]

Meant to comment on this episode in the Patreon (because Jeremy sounded confused or surprised in the video about this detail), but two thoughts about the Sunsoft re-publishing in the late '90s:
1. I think Sunsoft also did a re-print of Final Fantasy Adventure around the same time, since that's when I finally picked that one up.
2. If these were done in response to the popularity of FF VII then this is after the infamous break between Squaresoft and Nintendo. Sunsoft picking up the publishing duties would've been Squaresoft backdooring these 4 games back onto the Game Boy, either to get around the bad blood with Nintendo or skirting any exclusivity deals with Sony. It also brings to mind how NoA was willing to look the other way when Konami did their Ultra Games label to get around the "X games per year" limit on the NES.

Looking forward to the SaGa collection release this week. These are probably one of the biggest holes in my Game Boy library, and this video got me really excited to give them a go finally.

 

[JeremyParish]

I'm not surprised, as I remember those reissues from when they happened. I just think it's very random that SunSoft of all pubs ended up with them. To my knowledge, those two companies have never had any sort of relationship otherwise.

 

[shoptroll]

I'm not surprised, as I remember those reissues from when they happened. I just think it's very random that SunSoft of all pubs ended up with them. To my knowledge, those two companies have never had any sort of relationship otherwise.

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No worries. I might have misread the tone on the video.

I remember thinking it was pretty weird at the time. Looking at the Wikipedia list of SunSoft releases it's incredibly weird because they hadn't done any Game Boy titles in 4 years prior to those reprints. It does look like they started doing some GBC releases that year as well so maybe they thought it would be a low cost way to dip their toes back into the ecosystem. Or maybe I'm extrapolating something that's simpler to attribute to the Pokemon effect?

Also, since it's close to the end of the year, I just want to say thank you for all the hard work you put into these videos and your streams. Your channel has been a mainstay of my lunch breaks while working from home most of this year and it's one of the little rituals that has helped keep my sanity with everything else going on.

 

[JeremyParish]

Thanks for watching! Wish I actually had time for streaming....

 

[Jugendstil]

Also, since it's close to the end of the year, I just want to say thank you for all the hard work you put into these videos and your streams. Your channel has been a mainstay of my lunch breaks while working from home most of this year and it's one of the little rituals that has helped keep my sanity with everything else going on.

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Agreed! Thank you for all your hard work, Jeremy. It's a pleasure to watch these videos and I really appreciate all the care you put into each of them. They're always a highlight of my week. As a video editor and animator, I've always been impressed with how professional they look, and it's great to see your skills continue to level up too. Keep up the great work!

 

[Radarscope1]

Also, since it's close to the end of the year, I just want to say thank you for all the hard work you put into these videos and your streams. Your channel has been a mainstay of my lunch breaks while working from home most of this year and it's one of the little rituals that has helped keep my sanity with everything else going on.

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Ditto this. Thanks, Jeremy (and the Retronauts crew). Happy new year to you all.

 

[Man God]

I had the reissue of three and one of my good friends beat two during study hall. I have one and two from the original release now and I gave three to a friend for a birthday gift. Three is largely made by the same people that made Mystic Quest and it shows.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Contra retrospective: Alien Predator vs. Commandos | NES Works #074

Konami knocks it out of the park yet again with one of the greatest arcade conversions ever to hit the NES: Cooperative platform shooter Contra. It's a rare example of a coin-op title being ported faithfully to NES and somehow improving on the source material despite the move to inferior hardware. With its tight level design, inventive bosses, impressive weapons, and slightly combative cooperative gameplay, Contra is a true NES classic that continues to be a great time more than 30 years later.

Special thanks to Steve Lin of the Video Game History Foundation for letting me photograph his very shiny and crisp Contra box!

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[Nerdkiller]

R.C. Pro-Am and T&C Surf Designs retrospective: Grody to the NES Max | NES Works #075

Wishing you a Meli Kalikimaka this week, despite my rage over a bad game about wood and water. Thankfully, we have Rare to infuse a little holiday gratitude into the season with a very good, very fun, and very inventive take on racing: R.C. Pro-Am. It doesn't erase the nothing of a game that is T&C Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage from existence, but it does at least provide balance in the Force or whatever.

Also this week: The mysterious NES Max. What could it be??

Special thanks to Steve Lin of the Video Game History Foundation (https://gamehistory.org) for lending use of the game packaging, and to Numskull Designs for the seasonal apparel (http://www.numskull.com/products/stre...).

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Really dreading the incoming games, Jeremy.

 

[Psxphile]

Oof, T&C Surf... a friend of mine owned this game during our grade school days. It was really bad, but our combined NES library was pitiful back then so we made due. I ended getting aggressively good at the surf segment, it was really easy to cheese.

 

[JeremyParish]

A classmate lent me T&C back when it was new and I was shocked by how completely lacking in substance it was. I was hoping that revisiting it with 30+ years of gaming experience would help me discover a heretofore unseen facet of the game, but... nope.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Game Gear 1990 (3 of 3): G-LOC / Soukoban / Dragon Crystal / Shanghai II | Game Boy Works Gaiden #11

This episode brings the Game Gear launch window, as it were, to a finish by wrapping up the final few Japanese releases of 1990. There are a few old favorites ("favorites") here, a compromised arcade port, and a first-of-its-kind release that admittedly hasn't aged especially well. An interesting combination of titles, though, and a pretty good conclusion for a well-rounded introduction for Sega's portable platform.

Special thanks to Stone Age Gamer for helping to make this series possible with their EverDrive-GG X7: https://stoneagegamer.com/everdrive-g...

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[Knurek]

JeremyParish Lynx apparenlty did release in Japan , or rather had an import scene.

 

[Nerdkiller]

The Misadventures of Tron Bonne retrospective: Bonne temps | Game Boy Works Gaiden #12

By patron request of Jon, here's a follow-up to the Mega Man Legends episode from several months back: Its wonderful prequel, the Misadventures of Tron Bonne. No, it's not a Game Boy game. It's fine. You'll be fine.

Misadventures is a weird little game, a shoestring-budget spinoff of a spinoff of a series whose sales figures were already beginning to flag. I have no idea how it was greenlit, how it was localized, and most of all how it turned out so well. But it did! It's a breezy, whimsical game packed with variety and tons of heart. It admittedly doesn't maintain its energy and confidence throughout the entire adventure, but with so many activities and so much optional depth on offer, the weaker moments never bog down the experience—in fact, you can skip them altogether. A truly one-of-a-kind creation from the end of a different era of video game publishing.

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[Nerdkiller]

Dragon Power & Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road retrospective: Monkey's paw | NES Works #076

This week demonstrates the danger inherent in covering two games per episode as fate lands a one-two punch of mediocrity from two of the console's most dire creative combos: TOSE and Bandai, and Micronics and SNK. The results are about what you'd expect. That is to say, not so great.

Dragon Power, of course, is another halfhearted attempt by Bandai to bring a Japanese game based on a manga or anime license to the U.S. without making the effort to license or localize the original work. Where Dragon Power differs from the likes of Chubby Cherub is in the fact that its source material—Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball—would go on to become one of the most successful and beloved Japanese properties in the entire world rather than just a local phenomenon. This makes Dragon Power's superficial changes all the more conspicuous in hindsight.

As for Ikari Warriors II, it's just as crummy as its predecessor. But way more interesting, as developer Micronics made a real effort here to spruce up the NES port with some new mechanics. It wasn't a successful effort by any means, but you have to respect the hustle.

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[Nerdkiller]

Ice Hockey & MLB retrospective: Sports memorabilia | NES Works #077

A pair of old-school sports games this week—one whose quality and playability transcends its visuals, and ones whose quality and playability... do not. Nintendo's Ice Hockey, developed in collaboration with NES Volleyball creators Pax Softnica, distills the essence of the sport into a take whose simplistic style makes possible some truly accessible, fast-paced gameplay that transcends its genre. It's a remarkable game in many respects!

Major League Baseball is a mediocre Famista clone whose sales pitch consists entirely of, "We have real team names." Your mileage will vary, greatly.

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[Worthintendo]

Ice Hockey was one of the first games I really discovered that I never played before back on the Wii Virtual Console. Was a heap of fun playing it against my housemates, as an Australian though I still have no idea what Icing is tbh.

 

[Knurek]

Hey, JeremyParish , I take offence with what you said.
Poland is also a fictional kingdom.

 

[Noema]

I played that NES Ice Hockey game before I even know what Ice Hockey was, as an 8 year old.

 

[krae_man]

Ice Hockey was one of the first games I really discovered that I never played before back on the Wii Virtual Console. Was a heap of fun playing it against my housemates, as an Australian though I still have no idea what Icing is tbh.

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As a Canadian, It's like what that one judge said about pornography. "I can't describe it, but I know it when I see it".

Penalty kill exception, the offending team touching it first waving it exception(but they can't touch it before it crosses the goal line or it's a 2 line pass which is also not allowed), Shots on goal, the defensive team intentionally not touching to try and force an icing exception, new no touch icing rules. The line change restrictions when icing is called. Icing itself is more complicated than some sports in their entirety.

 

[Worthintendo]

As a Canadian, It's like what that one judge said about pornography. "I can't describe it, but I know it when I see it".

Penalty kill exception, the offending team touching it first waving it exception(but they can't touch it before it crosses the goal line or it's a 2 line pass which is also not allowed), Shots on goal, the defensive team intentionally not touching to try and force an icing exception, new no touch icing rules. The line change restrictions when icing is called. Icing itself is more complicated than some sports in their entirety.

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I know those are words and I know that make up a perfectly readable series of sentences but I still have no idea what is being said.

I'm going to assume if I ever tried to watch a game of Ice Hockey outside of in the Might Ducks I might understand it but yeah I'm lost with all of that sorry :D

 

[1upmuffin]

I love these videos, they are very relaxing, it's like ASMR but good.

 

[Nerdkiller]

City Connection & Freedom Force retrospective: Gun it! | NES Works #078

Echoing last week's episode, this week we see a decidedly dated-looking game (City Connection) that nevertheless manages to be entertaining enough to transcend its relative age and sit comfortably in the 1988 NES lineup. On the other hand, Freedom Force is anything but dated, with some of the most stylish visuals seen to this point on NES. I'd rather play City Connection, but there's no denying the primal visual appeal of Freedom Force's attract mode....

Also, a bit of housekeeping: The host segments will be a little unusual for the next few episodes as my office space is currently unavailable for filming, forcing me to tape next to my portable photo box for the time being. Also, I realized while reviewing this episode that I made a point unclearly—I said Freedom Force is the first example on NES of a Japanese and American studio collaborating, which obviously isn't true. It's the first example I can name of the Japanese and American branches *of a single studio* collaborating on a project.

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[KDR_11k]

They're all good but I wish he would cover the Game Boy more, I grew up in a village where maybe one kid had an NES, one had a SNES, one a Master System II but everybody had a Game Boy.

 

[Worthintendo]

They're all good but I wish he would cover the Game Boy more, I grew up in a village where maybe one kid had an NES, one had a SNES, one a Master System II but everybody had a Game Boy.

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You should check out the earlier videos in the series, it was pretty much non stop Game Boy until Jeremy needed a break from black and white for abit.

That said I'm hanging out for GBC Works to pick up again one day for a look from Jeremy into Power Quest on it, pretty sure that was the next game he was due to do for it.

 

[KDR_11k]

You should check out the earlier videos in the series, it was pretty much non stop Game Boy until Jeremy needed a break from black and white for abit.

That said I'm hanging out for GBC Works to pick up again one day for a look from Jeremy into Power Quest on it, pretty sure that was the next game he was due to do for it.

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I've seen them all but some of the GB games that would be up for a video soon played major parts in my childhood....

 

[Nerdkiller]

Rambo retrospective: Stallone in the dark | NES Works #079

In the year 198X, an elite American ex-soldier traveled into the jungle for a stealth mission that ended in a showdown with a Soviet HIND-D helicopter. Sound familiar? No, this isn't Metal Gear (that's next episode), but instead a game based on a film that very clearly has served as a primary text for Hideo Kojima through the years: Rambo, aka First Blood Part II.

Rambo for NES is widely reviled as one of the worst games ever released for the platform. Not only is this a factually incorrect perspective, it grievously sells short the actual ambition behind this game—not to mention the many ways in which it actually pushed the envelope of NES releases (thanks in large part to the lengthy delays that its own inspirations, Zelda II and Castlevania II, suffered en route to their U.S. localizations). Rambo is a long way from being a great game, but it's a game that makes a sincere effort to do something interesting with a licensed property. It trips over its combat-bootlaces more often than not, but you definitely have to respect the hustle... especially within the context of its original release window. And "context" is what this video series is all about.

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[tiesto]

Oh hell yeah.. I like NES Rambo more than most people so this should be a good vid to watch. I'm eagerly awaiting more Game Gear, Lynx, and 7800 vids from Jeremy, as these are some systems that don't really get a lot of coverage from retro youtubers.

 

[Nairume]

I bought Rambo NES last year and managed to play through it. It's a cool little game despite its flaws, so I was really looking forward to Jeremy's video on it and was not disappointed.

It being followed up by Metal Gear does expose the tragedy that Rambo happening just a little bit later would have probably meant that Pack in Video might have copied Metal Gear instead, and that would have been the perfect game to rip off for a Rambo 2 adaptation.

 

[Hieroph]

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Haha, what movie is that?

 

[Apathy]

Haha, what movie is that?

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UHF

 

[Hieroph]

UHF

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Thanks!

 

[JasonV]

Did Parish say US soldiers remained in Vietnam a decade after the war? Because that was Reagan era conspiracy debunked by a Senate investigation in the 80s.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Did Parish say US soldiers remained in Vietnam a decade after the war? Because that was Reagan era conspiracy debunked by a Senate investigation in the 80s.

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No, he was describing the plot of First Blood Part II.

 

[JasonV]

No, he was describing the plot of First Blood Part II.

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He says:
"... the sequel was kind of a reminder that american soldiers remain detained in Vietnam a decade after the end of the war..."