Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: 90s

Diving Even Deeper to Master System

Posted on by Viljami

Yesterday I got Bubble Bobble for Master System. I was lucky to find it directly from one of the best gaming shops that I often buy retro games from. It did cost a bit. It was 75 euros. But, you know, I had to buy it. I also got Soulcalibur II for GameCube. That’s the fighting game that you can play as Link from  Zelda.

I first encountered Bubble Bobble as a child. I played it on a PC. It was a good game. I really liked it. It would have been nice to have a controller back then. I played with a regular keyboard as I did then with any game. We had some sort of a joystick but it was wack to play with it. It’s been a long time. You start to think how nice things are today. We have lots of variety in gamepads that can be connected to any PC with a USB or even with some kind of a dongle and wireless.

This game originally got released in the 1980s. This Master System version, however, was released as late as 1991. This gives you the correct idea that Master System had many fans. It was an 8-bit gaming system but even in 90s when game consoles were developing fast it held its position as a favorite game console for some gamers.

It is said that this version of Bubble Bobble is the best one. It was released also for Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and PC. This simple game delivers great game play. It even gives you some minor puzzle type challenges. You might have to figure how to get to the upper corners of the level. You have to think different ways to get rid of enemies that are also trying to hurt you.

You get two health points which get increased if you get some more points. You get points by eating different delicacies. I think these are placed almost randomly to the level you are playing. After you have gotten rid of all enemies you have some seconds of time to eat everything you can grasp. Then you have to move on to the next level. There are over 100 levels. I am currently somewhere in level number 40.

You get to continue your play session in a mean of password system. This works pretty well. You can always start the game also from beginning. You have to understand Master Systems limitations. This also makes me think about some remakes. I am not aware of any good remakes as I am writing this. But I definitely have to search for one and find out if there is one.

The screen doesn’t scroll like it does in some games like Super Mario Bros. So this game is not a platformer type of a game. Basic idea is to trap enemies inside of a bubble that shoots out of the main characters mouth. I guess it’s a some sort of a fantasy dragon that you are actually playing as. The gameplay is very nice. This is very good game. While it doesn’t make you play tens of hours without a single break it gives you a challenge for an hour or so at a time. You can play it for some hours but I found myself playing it for about one hour without breaks and then leaving the game for a while just to come back to play it later.

This is clearly the best gaming that Master System can offer. I had some difficulties with the hardware. It makes me want to start playing with a PC and emulator. I even have a matching USB game pad. It is a controller that looks and feels like a Sega Saturn controller. If just there would be some way to digitize legally all these retro games that I own. Then I would definitely switch to playing with emulators. There is this idea of retro games sometime in the future being kind of “public domain”. It think this is already the case with Commodore 64 games and maybe even some of these DOS games. You have to keep up with this progress, you know!

Some Tips for NHL 97 (SNES)

Posted on by Viljami

Be it SNES or Sega Mega Drive – I love NHL 94.  I just like it so much. In its time it was popular and appreciated ice hockey game. NHL 97 for SNES is very similar in many ways. I decided to pick this game and buy it because I liked NHL 94 so much and I hoped it would have a decent season mode.

I start to play this game. I am greeted with some title screens. There appears to be some kind of a menu. I decide to first play an exhibition game to find out how to play this game. Since I have so solid experience from NHL 94 I decide to try to play this in difficulty of Expert which is the toughest difficulty level out of three.

I picked Anaheim Mighty Ducks because I like to play with Selänne and Karyia. They are fast and good players also in overall. After three rounds I haven’t scored a goal. It seems that it is hard to make one. I seem to loose the puck all the time. I didn’t set fighting on but I guess I will have to test playing also with that setting on.

I finally loose the first game in overtime as computer scores the first, and last, goal of overtime. I decide to try to play a season. The menu is a bit confusing. I manage to create a new player and select a team. I also adjust the difficulty level to a bit lower setting.

This game feels a lot like NHL 94. There are many things done a bit differently althought. The graphics and sounds have been moulded a bit. There are fights which do not exist in NHL 94. Scoring a goal is more difficult or at least it is modified. This is all in all a good matter. I have played NHL 94 so much that it would simply be boring for me to keep scoring and winning games 10 to 0.

I have some tips for players of NHL 97. Don’t tackle a player that has a breakaway. If you do the opponent will almost every time get a penalty shot. It isn’t worth mking that risk. Just try to distract the player that has the puck without tackling. You can use pass button but the referee might consider that to be tackling also.

There is a sure way to score in NHL 94. You have to skate with your player that has the puck to the other corner of the ice and then start moving to the other side going on the front of the goal and goal keeper and then shoot the puck while moving from left-to-right or right-to-left depending on the point you started. This way, or at least the game thinks so, the goalie is put to a side-to-side movement and you will definitely score a goal this way.

However I didn’t get to try this. NHL 94 gets boring quickly if you use this method to score like 20 goals in every game. So that is the reason why I avoid using this way to score a goal. I have to play this more to find out more ways to score a goal. One sure way seems to be to get in a breakaway and then press several times left-right-left on the game pad or right-left-right depending once again how you start the combination of key presses.

You have to be careful when your goalie has the puck. Avoid passing the puck when you have the puck near the goal. Don’t pass the puck from another side to the other side so that it passes directly in front of the goal. If your opponent gets to intercept your pass and your goalie is positioned badly this might lead to your opponent to score a goal.

NHL 97 seems to be a different game if you compare it directly to NHL 94. It is a sequel after all. I played the SNES version. I also have a PC big box version which is of course completely different game since you get to run it on such a powerful platform. I am talking about the power of a PC compared to SNES. The PC version has 3D modeled graphics and the gameplay differs also a lot.

NHL 97 is a good hockey game. I think althought that it isn’t one for me to continue playing for a long time. There are better hockey games. Some nice ones are NHL 08 on PS2 and NHL 2000 on PS1. I think you should check them out in case you like ice hockey games. NHL 97 was a cheap one to buy for me. I got it for 15 euros. I ordered some other SNES games with the same order so that’s how it goes this time.

Why Am I a SEGA Person?

Posted on by Viljami

Sega was my key to this whole video gaming hobby. I think it was 1993 when I got my Sega Mega Drive. I played a lot of it. This was of course making me not to play so much NES, SNES and even later Nintendo 64 and GameCube. Lately I have tried to catch up on Nintendo’s retro stuff. I have even studied some Game Boy games.

Nothing created such a rage inside me than a Mega Drive game that I was trying to beat. You can say that Mega Drive games are a bit repetitive in their nature so you had to be perfect on a try and if you failed you had to start all over again until you eventually would run out of lives and after that continues. Yeah. We didn’t have lots of memory for saved games back then.

Sega also made me to be angry to my mates that were playing some Streets of Rage 2 with me in collaboration mode. It became aggresive so suddenly. As I was playing with my brother we had many arguments. We were told that we took the game too seriously. We were separated and we both couldn’t play Mega Drive for that day anymore. This made me think even when I was a small ten-year-old child. And I didn’t take it so seriously. There was just something about how Sega made players a bit frustrated. I think that is some of the appeal of this franchise.

After Sega my life with Nintendo’s gaming products was again pushed towards later times because it happened that I bought a Sony PlayStation in 1997. This of course made me distant also to Sega Saturn. I have only lately been again interested in it. As PlayStation had real 3D games I thought it would absolutely have so much more to offer compared to Saturn. This thinking has changed, maybe just this year, and I have been interested in Saturns games which aren’t actually so much 3D games but it has some very interesting titles that Sony doens’t have.

So these choices made me to play certain games. Today I understand that the variety of different and good or decent game titles are from many different consoles and every consoles have at least some good or decent games be it that many of the best games are released on certain systems. This makes me definitely interested in exclusives. And this interest hasn’t faded when it comes to modern consoles.

What I was essentially missing a lot as a child were mainly NES, SNES and Game Boy titles. Later I missed some Saturn titles and N64 and GameCube titles. I also didn’t ever get a Dreamcast. So what caught my attention was first Sega and then Sony. Did I follow Sony a lot? Maybe not. I never had a PS2. Can you think about this? I hardly can.

All in all we can say that there are for all of us these gaming consoles that brought us to the hobby or maybe to some to the profession. It is your own curiosity that makes you want to dig deep and try to discover some old games that you haven’t yet played. And this is also what makes video gaming interesting.