July 2019 Together Retro Poll

[Nemoide]

All right! Time to pick next month's Together Retro! I've got five themes lined up and you guys know the drill: select two!
The poll will run for 8 days and changing votes is not allowed. The first two options are pretty non-traditional for TR, which I hope spices things up and doesn't alienate anyone. Don't worry, other options are a little more traditional! If anyone has questions about any of the categories, let me know! YEAH!

Bemani games!
Konami's music simulation series!
Everyone here is familiar with Konami, but not everyone knows that their rhythm games are the most profitable games in the series of the company. The core Bemani title is Beatmania IIDX, but in the US and Europe the most popular game by far is Dance Dance Revolution. But there's a pretty expansive landscape of Bemani games out there. These games are usually pretty beginner-friendly (IIDX ironically is the big exception) but have addictive gameplay and the difficulty scales up to offer some of the hardest challenges in all of gaming. I think these are some of the best games of all time and would like to see more folks give them a chance!

In keeping with the retro theme, I'd like to stick with games that had their first incarnation at least 10 years ago, but thankfully those are by far the most plentiful games. (the big exceptions are Sound Voltex and Museca). If you can only find a recent version of DDR or IIDX, I say they count because the core gameplay is unchanged. Every console port you can find is going to be old enough to count.

Suggestions: Dance Dance Revolution Extreme (arcade/PS2), Dance Dance Revolution A (arcade), Beatmania (PS2/US), Beatmania (PS1/Europe), Pop'n Music (arcade/Wii), Gitadora (arcade), Jubeat (arcade)

Arcade field trip!
I know a lot of folks here own their own arcade cabinets, MAME machines, or at least collections of arcade classics ported to consoles. For this month, THOSE DON'T COUNT! Your mission is to try to find an arcade and play on a machine out "in the wild." Pinball counts, historical electro-mechanical games count, electronic card-games bars count, and obviously old video games count. If you're REALLY hard-up you should be able to at least find a redemption game or claw-catcher.

Can you find an arcade? Are the machines working? Can you make a serious go at a retro-arcade game? This would have more real-world hurdles than the normal TR, but should lead to some fun adventures! Once you're in the arcade, pick a game and play it for a while! For some games you might aim to beat it, for other games, your goal might just be figuring out the scoring system. Let us know where you went and what your experience was like.

Suggestions: Depends on what's available in your area and how far you're able to travel!
To my knowledge, the best arcade-locator is at Zenius-I-Vanisher, primarily a rhythm game website but they list all kinds of arcades.

It's a dream paradox!
Games about dreams! Dreams are a universal experience and so they've fueled several classic games. Usually "it's a dream" is just a justification for the creators to do whatever kind of crazy thing they want. That's okay! Let's get weird!

Suggestions: NiGHTS into Dreams, Little Nemo: The Dream Master, Yume Nikki, The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare, Nightmare Ned, Super Mario Bros. 2

LucasArts, but not Star Wars
Pretty self-explanatory, games by LucasArts that aren't Star Wars-related. The company may only be a shadow of their former glory, but their classic games deserve to be played. Their point & click adventures are especially great and can easily be played on almost any hardware setup thanks to ScummVM.

Suggestions: Sam & Max Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle, The Curse of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Outlaws, Gladius, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb

I ❤ the monster hero
There are plenty of games where you play as a hero slaying monsters, how about playing one where you ARE the monster?
I don't want to be TOO picky, about what is and isn't a monster: the big requirements are A) not a regular living human or normal animal B) not a robot C) if you're an alien, you should be a menacing alien.

Suggestions: Kid Dracula, Geist, Haunting Starring Polterguy, Altered Beast, Stubbs the Zombie in: Rebel Without a Pulse, Toxic Crusaders, Darkstalkers, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

[Markies]

I went with Arcade Field Trip.

I already visit an Arcade/Pinball place every two weeks, so this would be very easy for me to do.

It has about 60 or so Pinball machines.
Several Mame Machines, but I know those don't count.

However, he also has a Donkey Kong, Asteroids and other Arcade machines as well.

[MrPopo]

I 100% disapprove of the choice that makes me go outside. If I wanted to go outside I wouldn't have gotten into video games in the first place.

If Bemani wins I'm going to cheat and use my Pump It Up machine to compare and contrast with DDR.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Awesome choices, particularly the arcade field trip. My votes are in!

[Gunstar Green]

I chose arcade field trip because I'd love to see what people turn up and I can show off the local arcade stuff and LucasArts because it will give me an excuse to play Outlaws which I picked up on GOG and haven't gotten around to yet.

I didn't choose Bemani because I have PTSD from when my roommate in college played Beatmania IIDX every single day. Every. Single. Day.

[Ack]

As much as I like the field trip idea, I'm more interested in focusing on LucasArts games. Gives me an excuse to finally play Full Throttle. And Outlaws is freaking fantastic.

Question about the dreams category: can this include the likes of a hallucination during a coma, such as in Sanitarium, or can dreams and nightmares play a significant plot role even if the game does not take place in them, such as Dark Seed? I'm curious how expansive you want to go with the options.

[Nemoide]

Several Mame Machines, but I know those don't count.

I'll say that Mame machines can count as long as they're in a business open to the public and not in your basement. They aren't ideal though, so I'd rather folks find other hardware to play on.

Question about the dreams category: can this include the likes of a hallucination during a coma, such as in Sanitarium, or can dreams and nightmares play a significant plot role even if the game does not take place in them, such as Dark Seed? I'm curious how expansive you want to go with the options.

I want the dreams category to be pretty loose so I'd say that hallucinatory games like Sanitarium count (which reminds me that I never actually beat that one). And if dreams/nightmares play a significant plot role, that counts too, it doesn't matter if you're not playing in the dream.

[Nemoide]

The poll is still running for one more day, but we do have a tie, *almost* a three-way tie!
It looks like there are fewer votes than previous months, so even the unpopular Bemani game option has the potential to win! If there's a tie at the end, I'll make the selection from among the winners!

[Nemoide]

We have a winner!


I'm not 100% sure what I'll be playing. Probably Geist for Gamecube to play as a ghost. Maybe I'll convince two friends to play THREE PLAYER RAMPAGE for an afternoon. Either way, it'll be like HALLOWEEN IN JULY! YEAH!

[alienjesus]

Not sure what I'l be playing yet, but I have a few options:

Looney Tunes Collector: Martian Revenge (Aliens count as monsters, right?)
Alien Soldier
Sphinx & The Cursed Mummy
Gremlins 2: The New Batch