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

[Nerdkiller]

A Bullet Proof legal argument: Tetris [Tengen] | NES Works Gaiden 061

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjtT5ML_I2I

Well, it's finally happened: Nintendo and Tengen have filed for divorce, in the form of a $100 million lawsuit. But, as it turns out, Nintendo gets to keep the kids. And by "kids" I mean "Tetris." A shame, too, because honestly Tetris turned out a lot better growing up with Tengen—an uglier child, but smarter. Nintendo's had the looks and the charisma, though, and ultimately that's the one people remember. Life isn't fair, but that's how it goes.

In addition to exploring the illegal Tengen version of Tetris, this episode also spends some time with the OTHER version of Tetris for Nintendo's console: The Bullet Proof Software release that only shipped in Japan. When we look back on the NES era, it always feels like American kids got the short end of the stick while their peers in Japan got all the good stuff. Well, this is the exception. Tengen Tetris may offer a good argument for being a superior work to Nintendo's take on the game, but both stomp BPS Tetris into a muddy puddle.

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[Nerdkiller]

Not hungering for this: Operation Wolf & Airwolf | NES Works 123

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xQEMmc9auso

I keep typing "Worf" instead of "wolf" with these games, and I can't tell you how much more interesting those games would have been than these cartridges. Both of them fall short of their potential in very different ways. Airwolf, for example, is a first-person helicopter-based game that attempts to give players an interesting, immersive take on the experience of flying a combat and rescue chopper—think Choplifter in 3D—but totally fumbles it. Operation Wolf, on the other hand, suffers from the NES's technical limitations and fails to deliver the intense, high-energy experience of the original arcade game. As the Klingons say, perhaps it is a good day to skip these.

This video contains a fair amount of strobing lights due to the emphasis on light gun games, so sensitive viewers should approach with caution.

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[Nerdkiller]

A real Jim in the rough: Hydlide | NES Works 124

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8pAAbl7htM

Well, here we are. One of the worst games of all time! A huge disaster that insults the intelligence of anyone who owned an NES!

Nah, not really. Hydlide feels incredibly archaic as a 1989 NES release, but that doesn't reflect on the game itself so much as FCI's weird decision to publish it here so late. I think it probably would have fared well if they'd shipped it alongside Zanac back in 1987. But two years later? Why would anyone want this game when they could play a dozen better, Hydlide-inspired works instead?

Still, this is a game worth experiencing and attempting to understand, because it's pretty much the Rosetta Stone for action-RPGs. Seriously, it was a big deal. Just... not in 1989.

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[Nerdkiller]

A Human work: Monster Party & Street Cop | NES Works 125

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UxIxb0P7E0

I'm sorry to say that this episode brings us EVEN MORE games by Bandai, a publisher not especially known for their creative integrity and dedication to quality. Ah, but we lucked out: They hired Human Entertainment to develop both games. I wouldn't necessarily rank Human in the upper echelons of NES development, but their involvement always means a given game will at least be interesting. Think of them as a counterpart to Pack-In-Video: Their work may be a bit rough, but it certainly doesn't lean on convention.

Of the two, Monster Party holds up best: A bizarre platform game with yet another character transformation mechanic. It seems like everyone wanted a slice of that Doki Doki Pie-nic! I'm sorry, that was a bad attempt at a joke. But the game is good.

Street Cop, on the other hand, doesn't fare quite as well, and not just because who in god's name would want to play the role of a Manhattan LEO in this day and age?! Controversial theming aside, Street Cop attempts to use the Power Pad in an interesting and different way, and it doesn't quite work. Points for the effort, though.

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[Nerdkiller]

Look who's Gakken: Mr. Bomb / Robotan Wars / Chitaikuu Daisakusen | NES Works Gaiden (Gakken) 57

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9egm10yvEQ

Big thanks this episode to Seth Robinson (rtsoft.com) for helping me to secure a complete copy of the elusive Robotan Wars!

Our second foray into the epic odyssey that is the Gakken TV Boy brings us three—three!—games in a single painful blow. Well, I guess not totally painful. Admittedly, I can't imagine anyone would actively seek out these three titles in the modern day and age unless they were doing something deranged like trying to cover the entirety of the Gakken TV Boy library in video form, but these cartridges do at least contain competently programmed code... which is more than you can say for many other carts we've look at here.

Mr. Bomb puts an interesting (and ultimately hopeless) spin on Activision's Kaboom! (or maybe Atari's Avalanche?). Robotan Wars does its best to clone Robotron 2084 on wildly inadequate hardware. And finally, there's an actual licensed adaptation of Konami's Super Cobra that, for some bizarre reason, appears under a completely different title. Gakken really didn't seem especially fussed about setting themselves up for success with this console, or so it would appear.

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[Nerdkiller]

Half-court, half-baked: Hoops & Shooting Range | NES Works 126

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHJ-s7KKGac

Here we have a pair of games that don't do much more than simply exist. Neither is bad, and Hoops in particular has its charms, but they don't move the needle at all outside of giving kids in 1989 something additional (if not something new) to do with their free time. Neither game feels entirely complete as a product, especially Shooting Range, a game that appears to have been hastily edited into a kinder, gentler gun-based experienced at the last second. But neither of these games will give you rabies or anything. They are video game product at its most competent.

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[Nerdkiller]

Get equipped with Master Piece: Mega Man 2 | NES Works 127

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-zxe3dl2i0

One of the finest NES releases for 1989, and in fact for any year, Mega Man 2 redefined run-and-jump single-player action games. Which is funny, because everything here already appeared in the original Mega Man, back in 1987. But it appears BETTER here, with improved visuals, control, music, level design, enemy and weapon designs, and just a general sense of mind-blowing excellence (by 1989 standards). As the NES found itself staring down the barrel of imminent obsolescence thanks to the looming launch of the advanced Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 consoles, Mega Man 2 proved that Nintendo's 8-bit system still had plenty of room left for technical advancement and creative innovation.

To mark this landmark hit, this is the first 4K episode of NES Works. Since I'm working almost entirely with standard definition content (including the host segments, recorded on VHS tape), this is actually a useless change. But, hey, look at that little 4K icon. Isn't it neat?

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[Nerdkiller]

Balls nasty: Super Dodge Ball | NES Works 128

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ3eod8X-Hw

Weird sequels were kind of the NES's thing. Just look at how different Zelda II and Super Mario Bros. 2 were from the games that preceded (and followed!) them. But Super Dodge Ball may just take the prize. Whatever you might have expected from the true follow-up to Renegade... it wasn't this.

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[Nerdkiller]

Hard times in New Orleans Town: The Adventures of Bayou Billy | NES Works 129

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1llfemXreY

I regret to announce that the VHS camcorder I use for my hosting segments (better known as my "VHS filter" to people who have no idea what they're talking about) has given up the ghost. I'm looking into options for a replacement, for the time being, you'll have to put up my mug in 4K. Cool fact: You don't need to comment on it!

I blame Bayou Billy, a game that wants to ruin everybody's day. I survived making this video, in part because I liberally applied cheat codes, but clearly my video camera did not. That's a shame, because there's a lot to admire technically about this game, and its music absolutely rips, but the utterly ridiculous way that Konami rebalanced it for the U.S. overshadows pretty much every other detail about it. A new era of games made vastly more difficult for their American release has begun...

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[Nerdkiller]

Surf; Nazis must die: Desert Commander & California Games | NES Works 130

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kYyiLWsxqY

Two very different takes on sun and sand this week. Desert Commander sends you to North Africa to wage war against (or as...) Rommel's Afrika Korps in the latter days of World War II, guiding armed vehicles and sweaty foot soldiers to their deaths in the trackless wastes of Algeria and Morocco. Meanwhile, California Games is about surfing off the coast of Santa Cruz and kicking hacky sacks around at the Presidio. Man, no wonder the Greatest Generation thought Gen X was a bunch of losers. Please remember to delete your Rommel within 24 hours!

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[Nerdkiller]

In-console-able rage: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | NES Works 131

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK6hw2TwqPM

What's going on with all of these huge NES releases for 1989? You'd think the console was in its prime or something!

Granted, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wasn't on par, quality-wise, with the likes of Ninja Gaiden or Mega Man 2... but it did have the advantage of being the first-ever video game release to tie in with the single hottest kids' media property of the late 1980s. Of course, lots of kids picked it up assuming it would be an adaptation of the incredible arcade game that dominated pizza shops and mini-golf centers, although it is definitely not that game, which has not done any favors for its reputation. But, looking back at the chronology of the year's releases (the raison d'être of this very channel!), it turns out this game predates the arcade machine by nearly half a year. Rather than porting that future coin-op work to NES, this first TMNT release instead connects to an interesting thread of video gaming's past and feels like the end of an era—namely, the end of the era of freewheeling innovation and a willingness to try weird new things with licensed games. Potentially disastrous things, but never boring... which kind of sums up TMNT for NES neatly, I think.

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And with that, I'm finally caught up! YAY ME!

 

[Bengraven]

I was going to comment on this earlier but man, if they weren't apparently as hard if not harder than TMNT, some of those games that the developers worked on before TMNT looked really fun.

 

[Radarscope1]

Get equipped with Master Piece: Mega Man 2 | NES Works 127

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-zxe3dl2i0

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Excellent. Can't wait to settle in and watch this one.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Victory road warriors: Thundercade & Guerrilla War | NES Works 132

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdlqetkIJdo

Man, you just KNOW that some MENSA candidate is going to complain that I should leave politics out my video game retrospectives in response to this video, which is literally about leading a Communist rebellion against an American-backed junta.

For everyone who HASN'T been breathing leaded petroleum fumes lately, please enjoy the interesting contrast of a SNK game that would have been programmed by Micronics a couple of years earlier side-by-side with an actual game programmed by Micronics in the here-and-now (by which I mean 1989). SNK has come a long way since Ikari Warriors, as you can see in the excellent Guerrilla War. Micronics, on the other hand, has clearly NOT come a long way since then, as demonstrated by the utterly dire Thundercade.

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[Bengraven]

I always forget how many "guerrilla" war games there was in the 80s. Like everyone was down to grab a beret and fuck around in the jungle with LMGs.

 

[Man God]

There is only one Guerrilla War. I think it's actually the best shooting game on the NES.

 

[Lowblood]

Somehow I'd never heard of Thundercade before this episode. And now I am burdened with that knowledge.

 

[Goddo Hando]

There is only one Guerrilla War. I think it's actually the best shooting game on the NES.

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you are correct

 

[Polioliolio]

I don't know if there's a human on earth that has the historical relevancy and is as well known as Jeremy Parish, but has as little fame.
I've been casually following Jeremy since his 1up days, and I've been vaguely aware of some of his projects, but because he's too humble for much self promotion, and because all algorhythms reject him, I'm not sure I've watched a single of these NES works videos.
He's like a shadow that is always there, but never really in plain sight.


THIS CHANGES TODAY.

I shall watch one of these NES works videos, because if it weren't for this thread, I'd never know they existed.

There is only one Guerrilla War. I think it's actually the best shooting game on the NES.

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I used to think that when you ran out of lives, you had to slam buttons rapidly and if you did it good enough sometimes you'd get to continue.
Many many years later I realized you just have to choose to continue from a text option that pops up after you die.
And once I realized you get infinite continues, that really put a damper on my enjoyment. Tension, gone.

 

[Bengraven]

There is only one Guerrilla War. I think it's actually the best shooting game on the NES.

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If you're responding to my post, I just mean there were a lot of games inspired by guerrilla warfare in the 80s, which is kind of bizarre.

 

[xir]

Nerdkiller doing g_ds work
reminds me i need to find the william hughs episode of retronauts

 

[Radarscope1]

LOL at "MENSA candidate" … I'm going to have to remember that for future use.

 

[Radarscope1]

The Mega Man 2 episode was great, as expected. Nice little lament right there at the very end, too.

 

[Andrew J]

If you're responding to my post, I just mean there were a lot of games inspired by guerrilla warfare in the 80s, which is kind of bizarre.

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I blame Rambo, Commando, and to a certain extent Predator.

 

[Bengraven]

I've really been enjoying this series a lot. I think I'm going to get the book (s?).

I blame Rambo, Commando, and to a certain extent Predator.

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Yep and stories of fighting in Central and South American countries were all over the news.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Kill the slime, do the time: Dragon Warrior | NES Works 133

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZHhMPN4z1Q

Summer 1989. What a fun, sexy time for NES, huh?

With games like Mega Man 2, TMNT, and DuckTales, the system had no shortage of crowd-pleasers destined to become lifetime favorites for impressionable youngsters during this lively period. And then you had perhaps the biggest summer '89 release of all... though that's more on the Japanese side of things. You know, in Japan, where the game actually shipped in spring '86.

Yes, Dragon Warrior. Or Dragon Quest if you prefer. Yet another 1989 RPG localization for NES that demonstrates the fact that timing truly is everything. This one goes down in the same category as Hydlide and Ultima Exodus... except even more so! This episode explores why Dragon Warrior had such a profound impact in Japan and so little impact here, as well as Nintendo's dogged efforts to make it a big deal.

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[Duane]

I fell for it hard, and I remember friends/my brother completely dumbfounded as to why I'd care about DW. But I loved it and played through it over and over. As simple as DW1 is, I still love replaying it occasionally.

 

[ThlammedCarDoor]

DW1 aged so much better than Final Fantasy 1 in terms of replayability and on the basis of not being obtuse AF.

 

[IrishNinja]

"kill the slime, do the time" jeremy parish must be stopped

Spoiler

i just caught his slap bass seindeld intro/outro bits on SNES works paperboy 2, he remains my favorite gaming historian and honestly frank cifaldi is also a champ but where is his shtick? the bar has been raised

 

[ReyVGM]

and because all algorhythms reject him

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LMAO!!
I gotta show him this post.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Second coming: The Game Boy | Game Boy Works Vol. 2 001

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3KIhVvtRqU

Let's take a second look at Nintendo's second game console. Yes, I've already published a Game Boy system retrospective. About 10 years ago. However, this new video covers the U.S. launch of the system rather than the Japanese—obviously it touches on a lot of the same material, but from a different angle... and with the added insight and detail that I've gleaned in a decade of putting together weekly retrospectives on systems from this era.

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[Man God]

Even in an era where everyone has a device in their hand at all time that can connect wirelessly to millions of other people there is something magic about two systems handshaking over a cable. Null modem games from the early days of pcs up through the original xbox/ps2/dc/gcn generation. Connecting wirelessly is special as well, don't get me wrong but playing a link cable game just feels good.

It is what really separates GB versions of games from NES versions. I started collecting old brick boys around 1997 and while buying them off people who sold them probably for drug money in high school I'd get tons of copies of games that I got to play for the first time linked up. Some people even threw in accessories they had like the 4 way adapter.

I'm one of the only people I know who:

A. Knows that Wave Race started on the Game Boy.
B. Has played a 4 player game of it!

 

[julia crawford]

Second coming: The Game Boy | Game Boy Works Vol. 2 001

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3KIhVvtRqU

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Watched a bit but unfortunately i was very sleepy and closed my eyes one time too many and now i have to watch it all again 😑

 

[Nerdkiller]

Watched a bit but unfortunately i was very sleepy and closed my eyes one time too many and now i have to watch it all again 😑

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Don't be sad. You get to watch a Jeremy Parish video again.

 

[Lowblood]

Today I learned Donkey Kong Hockey was a thing. Damn does that ever need a reboot.

Also, Strider episode delayed again. We're never gonna leave Eurasia alive at this rate.

 

[JeremyParish]

Today I learned Donkey Kong Hockey was a thing. Damn does that ever need a reboot.

Also, Strider episode delayed again. We're never gonna leave Eurasia alive at this rate.

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You'll be happy to know that the Strider episode is written, recorded, and queued up for production. It's going to be about 28 minutes long, half of which is a shaggy-dog anecdote about a tangentially related topic.

 

[Lowblood]

half of which is a shaggy-dog anecdote about a tangentially related topic.

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Ah, so it's the best kind of video, I see.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Content blocked in all regions: Tetris | Game Boy Works Vol. 2 002

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWUL6jdWXBg

We're back at Tetris again. And, just as the simple concept of blocks falling from the sky and piling up until you fill complete rows that cause them to vanish translates into a near-infinitely replayable game, the not-so-simple process of bringing a game created under Soviet collectivism to the West and including it the box with a video game system inspires near-infinite video commentary. Well, something like that. Suffice to say, here comes another one of those block-dropping beats.

Click to shrink...

 

[Bengraven]

Content blocked in all regions: Tetris | Game Boy Works Vol. 2 002

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWUL6jdWXBg

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Oh fantastic, I was just about sit down and do some brainless model building and needed some background history playing.

I imagine it will get me in the feels. The Gameboy episodes always get me in the feels.

You'll be happy to know that the Strider episode is written, recorded, and queued up for production. It's going to be about 28 minutes long, half of which is a shaggy-dog anecdote about a tangentially related topic.

Click to shrink...

I remember when it came out, a friend of mine saying that a selling point of Strider was that "it's the first videogame to have hot pink in it" - which to hot pink obsessed 9 year olds was apparently worldbreaking. It was a bizarre thing to say out of nowhere and with an authority of someone who read a peer reviewed article on the game's release. As if the ads at the time were saying "Strider on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Now you're playing with power. HOT PINK power."

 

[Goddo Hando]

Strider's release on the Genesis had a massive push that it was an 8MB cartridge in EGM and I think that's the first time I started paying attention to stuff like that

 

[Bengraven]

Strider's release on the Genesis had a massive push that it was an 8MB cartridge in EGM and I think that's the first time I started paying attention to stuff like that

Click to shrink...

I remember the box that had the big "8 MB!" logo on it.

And the ads like the ones I'm sure you saw.

Genesis does Strider. The first and only 8-meg game ever.

Source: VideoGames and Computer Entertainment 23 (December 1990) Scan source: RetroMags

cohost.org

 

[Man God]

There's an undeniable nostalgia appeal to GB Tetris.

Since the creation of the Virtual Console We've had, what, almost a dozen platforms on there that had a Tetris game and which one has made the VC/NSO platform each and every time?

It's Not Tetris/Dr. Mario. It's not Tetris 2, Tetris DS, The New Tetris. It's not even Tetris DX, a game that is supposedly an improved version of GB Tetris.

It's the original brick boy Tetris.

 

[Radarscope1]

Second coming: The Game Boy | Game Boy Works Vol. 2 001

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3KIhVvtRqU

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Great, great video. Really enjoyed watching that one.

 

[StrontiumPawg]

I remember when it came out, a friend of mine saying that a selling point of Strider was that "it's the first videogame to have hot pink in it" - which to hot pink obsessed 9 year olds was apparently worldbreaking. It was a bizarre thing to say out of nowhere and with an authority of someone who read a peer reviewed article on the game's release. As if the ads at the time were saying "Strider on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Now you're playing with power. HOT PINK power."

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i mean, even now as a 36 year old, the prominence of hot pink in a game might still be a selling point to me lol

 

[Freshmaker]

I don't know if there's a human on earth that has the historical relevancy and is as well known as Jeremy Parish, but has as little fame.
I've been casually following Jeremy since his 1up days, and I've been vaguely aware of some of his projects, but because he's too humble for much self promotion, and because all algorhythms reject him, I'm not sure I've watched a single of these NES works videos.

Click to shrink...

That's not entirely true. I walked the perfect tightrope of random retro videos and paired up with an unfortunate knee incident landing me on disability leave. I ended up having YouTube serve me these videos on autoplay repeat for three solid weeks.

Great timing as I'd grown completely unable to watch unstructured content in that same three weeks.

 

[Bengraven]

i mean, even now as a 36 year old, the prominence of hot pink in a game might still be a selling point to me lol

Click to shrink...

honestly, same. I love it as a kid but as an adult I think I love it (and fluorescent green - two colors that were EVERYWHERE in the late 90s) more.