Summer Games Challenge 2015

[laurenhiya21]

Right now I'm not working on the challenge, but once I move next week I should be able to come back to this. Nearly all my games are packed so I can't play anything off my list atm (and I'm not going to try and play Super Mario World with a keyboard lol).

But good luck with Lost Levels, Ack! I wouldn't be able to beat that in a million years

[alienjesus]

1. Fire Emblem: Ankoku no Ryuu to Hikari no Ken (FC)
2. Super Aleste (SNES)
3. Banjo-Tooie (N64)
4. Saturn Bomberman (Saturn)
5. Shenmue (DC)
6. Final Fantasy VIII (PS1)
7. Metroid Zero Mission (GBA)
8. Shinobi (GG)
9. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Vita)
10. The Curse of Monkey Island (PC)

Banjo-Tooie beaten! I'll post more thoughts about it in the Games Beaten thread later, but I enjoyed it quite a bit - enough that I 100% completed it for good measure. It's not as good as the first game, but it's still excellent.

Final Fantasy will come back into focus now I think, I was feeling a bit RPGed out, but it's time to get on with it again. Metal Gear Solid will fill the time in between.

I did try to start Shenmue this evening, but I'm having issues with my Dreamcast - I think it's laser has stopped reading discs reliably - several of my games are having issues,and even games I know to be quite reliable are having problems on occassion. Might be time to invest in new (old) hardware.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Time to get workin' on that first Fire Emblem dawg.

[alienjesus]

Time to get workin' on that first Fire Emblem dawg.

Yup. Gonna polish off FFVIII first because I don't want to play 2 40+ hour RPGs at once.

[Ack]

Have you tried cleaning the lens for your Dreamcast? I have a DC that is finicky. Sometimes that is all it wants. Other times, not so much.

Then again, my DC has a big sticker on the bottom of it that says DEFECTIVE. Huh.

[alienjesus]

Have you tried cleaning the lens for your Dreamcast? I have a DC that is finicky. Sometimes that is all it wants. Other times, not so much.

Then again, my DC has a big sticker on the bottom of it that says DEFECTIVE. Huh.

I haven't because it happened quite late yesterday. I've done so before though.

I'm assuming just a bit of rubbing alcohol on a cotton bud? Anything I should watch out for?

[Ack]

Have you tried cleaning the lens for your Dreamcast? I have a DC that is finicky. Sometimes that is all it wants. Other times, not so much.

Then again, my DC has a big sticker on the bottom of it that says DEFECTIVE. Huh.

I haven't because it happened quite late yesterday. I've done so before though.

I'm assuming just a bit of rubbing alcohol on a cotton bud? Anything I should watch out for?

Go for a very light touch, don't press on the lens at all. There's also a screw in there that can be tightened or loosened to adjust the laser, but I tend to do that only after cleaning and testing. Make sure you don't clean the gears of course. You should be just fine.

[Sarge]

Yeah, I had to mess around with the potentiometer screw to revive a thrift store Dreamcast I picked up. I'd only do that as a last resort.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Blaster Master (NES/PSP)
Earthbound (SNES/WIIU)
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (2600/7800)
Kaboom! (2600/7800)
Galactic Attack/RayForce (SATURN/XBOX)
Half-Life (PC/PS2)
R-Type Delta (PS1/PS3)
Samurai Shodown II (NEOGEO/PS2)
Shining Force II (GENESIS/PS3)
Virtua Racing (ARCADE/PS2)

My family is currently out of town; so, like any red-blooded American male, I decided to spend some time playing video games. I also decided that today would be a great day to finish up R-Type Delta. Sure, I hadn't made a serious attempt at it since last summer, but I was sure that my skills would come back quickly and, with a little practice, I could beat the game. I was correct. I was a little rusty, but I blew through the first four levels and the first half of the fifth level pretty quickly. The second half of the fifth level gave me some problems - just as it used to - but I persevered, and with a little practice I took down the fifth boss. This was the furtherst I had ever made it into the game! I was thrilled! And...then I hit the sixth level...It was hard. Really, really hard. After a lot of practice, I made it thought the first half of the level. After a lot more practice, I made it through the second half of the level. After a lot more practice than that, I beat the sixth boss (who really isn't that hard once you know the tricks for beating him). The seventh level wasn't bad, but the non-traditional boss fight at the very end of the game gave me fits.

I finally saw the end, however, and I will probably never see it again. I started the evening with 8 hours and 36 minutes of play time, and when I cleared the game, this evening, there were 14 hours and 45 minutes on the game clock. Accordingly, it took me nearly 15 hours to clear the game...once...on normal difficulty...and clearing the last two levels required nearly 5 hours of practice...

Nonetheless, I still love R-Type Delta. (I wouldn't have stuck with it if I hadn't.) It is the best game in my favorite shmup series, and I respect its design immensely. Moreover, it still looks and sounds great, and it can be incredibly fun. The last few levels are entirely too difficult for my taste, however, and I consider R-Type Delta to be one of the hardest game I have ever beaten. (I am certain that there are some shmups that are harder to 1CC, but I cannot think of any more difficult to clear.)

I am now off to bed, but I finished the day with a strong sense of accomplishment (which is saying something since I spent 6+ hours playing video games). I have finally, finally conquered both R-Type Delta and every shmup in the R-Type series (except R-Type Leo, but that game doesn't count).

.....

Tomorrow - after doing something that is actually productive - I will jump back into something easy (i.e., Half Life), and I may even finish it. After that, I will probably call it quits on my summer gaming challenge for this year. I really am not in the mood for another shmup right now (sorry, Galactic Attack!), and after Shining Force II, I really don't want to play another RPG (sorry, Earthbound!). I also think I may have topped out at just under 1900 point in Kaboom! (but I plan to keep practicing until next summer), and I just am not feeling Virtua Racing right now (I may get back into that one, however).

[Ack]

To prove that I am still actually playing Lost Levels, I finally sat down and made the push through 8-3 this morning. It took some time to finally figure out the timing on the springs(I tend to hit the jump button half a second before I should), but once I had that down, I started getting farther and farther into the level. I finally cleared it and am now sitting in 8-4, the final boss level of the first run through the game.

I messed around a bit in it to figure out the first jump, but I think this is a level I will have to study a while to figure it out. It's a labyrinth, and I don't have a lot of time. I have to figure out how to navigate it, where the items are so I can take on Bowser with a fire flower, and how to do this as quickly as possible.