Summer Games Challenge 2017 - Begin when ready!

[Key-Glyph]

And remember, if your lives get low you can go back to the first stage and farm 1-ups.

But also remember that the cart doesn't save lives. I once spent a good chunk of time grinding 1-Ups just to restart later and gasp. Unless I'm thinking of another game I played that summer.

And lo, I must begin all Ultima updates with "and lo." I have avhieved enlightenment in all virtues, have located almost all of the special objects I've caught wind of, and am just about ready to try some dungeons. The thing is, though, I'm feeling a bit uninspired at the moment.

Several NPCs have hinted at a place I need to get to, but only nebulously. After wandering around in all those general areas and coming up short, I decided to lean on some friends for a tip. It appears that the only way to enter that area depends on finding a roaming, one-tile whirlpool somewhere in the ocean. I hadn't even known whirlpools were in this game because I haven't seen one yet; all I've seen are twisters, which I actually excitedly mistook for a whirlpool very early in my quest and sailed straight into... resulting in an ass-kicking.

I've been sailing around for ages looking for this thing, and as far as I know, there's no way to locate it. The only technique I haven't checked is if shows up when peering at a gem -- but I kind of doubt it does. I think I just have to luck out.

I'm just a little frustrated, because I wanted to have all my inventory quests done before heading into dungeons. But I'm loosening up and will start picking off dungeons next, because as I sail around for those I might just blunder into the whirlpool along the way, which is way better than fixating on it. Also, it's the sort of thing an Avatar would do.

I'm not really looking for answers, by the way -- just venting.

[strangenova]

And remember, if your lives get low you can go back to the first stage and farm 1-ups.

But also remember that the cart doesn't save lives. I once spent a good chunk of time grinding 1-Ups just to restart later and gasp. Unless I'm thinking of another game I played that summer.

it doesn't save lives. Before you load your file, make the cursor highlight erase game, then push B,A,R,R,A,L

You'll hear a little jingle and then when you load your file you'll have fifty lives

[laurenhiya21]

Thanks for all the tips, guys! I'll make another attempt at it today.

And I'm definitely going to try out that cheat code. I haven't had a chance to use cheats in ages (plus I think I'm going to need the help haha).

[pierrot]

1. Toe Jam & Earl
2. Ecco the Dolphin
3. Devil May Cry
4. Salamander
5. Street Fighter Zero /2(Dash?) -Beat all three of these.
6. Xanadu
7. Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes II -Not as classic as DS:LoH1, but classic.
8. Final Fantasy II
9. The Last Express
10. Ryu ga Gotoku (Yakuza) -Gave myself a head start.


I've been working on Salamander, and Final Fantasy II.

I've also kind of been trying to beat the original Gradius on arcade settings in the Saturn Deluxe Pack to have a slightly more legit 1cc of the game. So I haven't put quite as much into beating Salamander (on that Saturn Deluxe Pack), but was finally able to figure out Stage 3, which is pretty much a joke, now. Stage 4 is ridiculous, though. The biggest roadblock in this game is probably going to be that there's no way to get extra lives, that I can tell. Salamander is probably way harder than Gradius, for that reason. Also, with the instant respawns, it's not too difficult to just lose all three lives, in rapid succession, in one of the hairier spots in a stage. Only six stages in the game, so I'm technically more than half way there.

FFII is a real jerk. I got kind of upset with it, after opening a chest near the end of the attack on the airship, and haven't touched it in a couple weeks. I loaded up my old save from the PS1 version, and I've made it much farther than that (in the Famicom version), but I had each character's main weapon level into the double digits. I can't even imagine how I could have done that before even getting the 'snow mobile.' Anyway, I have to do some grinding in this, and am not to keen on doing that.

[alienjesus]

1. Bionic Commando (NES)
2. Blaster Master (NES)
3. Life Force (NES)
4. Final Fantasy III (SNES)
5. Bonk's Revenge (TG16)
6. Mario Golf (N64)
7. Pilotwings 64 (N64)
8. Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped (PS1)
9. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (GC)
10. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (GC)
11. Devil May Cry (PS3)

First game down. Crash Bandicoot was OK, but there was far too much random driving, waterski-ing and flying stages, and not enough focus on refining the platforming, which is still a bit awkward even by this 3rd game. I liked the first game more overall, but neither is all that great really. They're fun, but not amazing.

I'm thinking I'll jump into The Sands of Time next.

[Exhuminator]

Exhuminator's Disingenuous "Summer Themed" Summer Games Challenge

Adventure Island: The Beginning (Wii)
Aquaria (PC)
Aquanaut's Holiday: Hidden Memories (PS3)
BioShock (360)
Dead Island (360)
Deep Blue (TG16)
Depth Hunter 2 (PC)
Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES)
Dive: The Medes Islands Secret (Wii)
Ecco The Dolphin (Genesis)
Everblue 2 (PS2)
Finny the Fish and the Seven Waters (PS2)
Greendog: The Beached Surfer Dude! (GEN)
Sakura Beach (PC)
Sakura Beach 2 (PC)
StarTropics (NES)
Submarine Attack (SMS)
The Little Mermaid (NES)
Treasures of the Deep (PS1)
Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II (NES)

And that's Dive: The Medes Islands Secret taken care of.

Ultimately I'm gonna shoot for 20 total "ocean/tropical" themed games completed this summer. I think that's challenging enough in and of itself. I'm just doing my own thing here anyway, I know nobody cares about my silly shit. Oh, and earlier today I installed Ecco, Donkey Kong Country 2, Adventure Island: The Beginning, and the two StarTropics games on my Wii via Virtual Console. So those are ready to go. I might hit StarTropics up next.

[marurun]

Exhuminator, have you considered Atlantean for your list? It is a Defender clone set underwater. Home brew game for TG-16/PCE. You can buy a ROM or a custom HuCard (called an ABcard).

http://www.aetherbyte.com/aetherbyte-at ... fx-16.html

[Exhuminator]

Exhuminator, have you considered Atlantean for your list? It is a Defender clone set underwater. Home brew game for TG-16/PCE. You can buy a ROM or a custom HuCard (called an ABcard).

http://www.aetherbyte.com/aetherbyte-at ... fx-16.html

If Depth Hunter 2 turns out as bad as the first one, then I may substitute Atlantean for that. It looks really cool!

[marurun]

The guy who programmed it lives around here and I see him every summer at the local classic gaming gathering. He's also an MSX junkie and wrapping up a new game on that platform, but clones of old arcade games are his forte.

[BoneSnapDeez]

And remember, if your lives get low you can go back to the first stage and farm 1-ups.

But also remember that the cart doesn't save lives. I once spent a good chunk of time grinding 1-Ups just to restart later and gasp. Unless I'm thinking of another game I played that summer.

No you're right. You don't wanna invest too much time into it. Best thing to do is go back to the very first stage, head up to the treetops right away, roll-jump to hit all the balloons, start-select to exit, repeat.

And you, Key, Video Game Master, had to grind for extra lives?