I love that Gatbeball is in there with everyone else.
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I will play PC Engine games this weekend. This is a promise to myself. In the meantime, I will think about the beauty of this ad:
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World Jockey
I can’t believe it took this long to get a horse racing game. I mean, we had a kangaroo racing game before we had a horse racing game. This is one where you actually control the horse. There’s a stamina meter and you can kick him to make him go faster but then he runs out of energy. There’s powerups and stuff strewn across the tracks so you can heal your horse buddy. I tried out one mode where I lost every race and another where I won every race. It’s boring, but I love the cartooning in it.
Dragon EGG!
Masaya made a decent game! I co-sign pretty much everything said on lunatic obscurity about it. I played through the whole thing and really enjoyed the fake film-reel credits.
I was reminded of Valis II when I got to an auto-scrolling level without any power-ups. I don’t know what causes someone to do that. It’s probably the same reason that people start fires. I never did get my dragon fully leveld-up, which is a shame. It’s probably best to work up a no-death playthrough then to try and struggle with infinite continues.
1941: Counter Attack
This is the very last game released for the SuperGrafx. I read something saying that the SuperGrafx is almost literally two PC Engines screwed together. That certainly feels right to me, now that I’ve tried all five of its games.
At first, I didn’t think I liked 1941 as much as 1943 Kai, but then I got a feeling for how different it was. This is a rare shooter where turbo isn’t always the best choice. When you hold down fire, it charges up a special shot, like a homing missile spread. I found the best way to fly through the stages was to hold the button for about three seconds at a time to get the most out of spreading bullets and concentrating fire. It makes for an interesting friction as my thumb was keeping time with some kind of cosmic music. In the middle of a tight section of a level, I realized that hitting the wall caused my plane to spin around, sending bullets everywhere. It’s such a weird gimmick, I never figured out how to use it consciously.
After flying through the initial homage to the earlier games, a plain sky filled with fighters, I found that the next set of stages were far more adventurous and detailed. There’s a river canyon with dams and loading docks, a hanger for an experimental aircraft, and a night-lit European city. It’s really nice!
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Huh, and ported from the arcade by Hudson rather than by Capcom themselves.
Lookit the size’a that boss sprite! That’s no moon!
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Oh yeah most of these bigger companies got NEC Avenue, Hudson, Alfa System, or some other third party to port for them. They rarely worked with the system with their own studios. That’s why you have a bunch of Namco games in 1990 but a huge range in quality.
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Capcom did some of their own PCE ports, according to GameFAQS:
1989:
F-1 Dream
Hyper Dyne Side Arms Special
SonSon II
1991:
1943 Kai
1992:
Forgotten Worlds
Quiz Tonosama no Yabou
1993:
Street Fighter II’: Champion Edition
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I’m also going to continue being away this thread as I enter week 2 of the whole family being sick. I played It Came From The Desert for like 10 minutes and it was delightfully cool and weird and i wanted to play more. Maybe the first use of Real Life FMV I’ve seen on this system?
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Whoa yeah, totally redone from the Amiga stuff.
(Time stamped for quote ^ _^)
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Morita Shogi PC
I looked at the title screen and saw that this game was developed by Random House. I thought, “the Random House?” Well, no. It turns out that Random House is the name that Kazuro Morita chose for his game company when he founded it in 1983. I played a match for a long time. I don’t think the enemy is super smart or they would have won the game immediately. Instead, I was allowed to play through this hell for over 20 minutes. We went back and forth, taking each other’s pieces, putting them back on the board, watching each other walk slowly from square to square. I don’t have the knowledge to win efficiently. Judging by the menu, it appears this game actually tries to teach people how to play shogi. Too bad, I don’t want to work that hard!
These two screenshots are from the same match, 20 minutes apart from each other.
Neutopia II
This really is just more Neutopia. I found it charmingly bland at first but then it got just plain boring. After beating the first dungeon and moving to the next section, I was horrified to realize that they really were going to copy the exact sequence for getting new items as they had in the first game. First sword, then bombs, next a fire wand. I don’t know why this game exists. I will say that the two bosses I faced were tough and looked great. I just wish dude was a bit faster so I could rush through the game.
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Sounds like this was not the Star Wars Chess of Shogi i thought it might be.
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Neutopia II has one interesting thing going for it: You have to rescue the main character from the first game, but when you do, he dies
Oh and also, the princess from the first game has her own daughter who is not related to the main guy, so obviously the romance implied at the end of the first game didn’t really go anywhere…
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that owns.
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Yo, Bro
When the game loaded up, I noticed that we are with ICOM once again. I also noticed that it was playing the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys medley proceeded to cycle through about 8 songs. I sat there for ten minutes, shocked that they had put so many Beach Boys chiptunes in here. All the while, a skateboarding bear casually rolled across a never-ending road. They should have made that a game somehow, but they didn’t.
Instead, they made a sick, clunky version of Zombies Ate My Neighbors. What’s that, you say? Zombies Ate My Neighbors wouldn’t come out for two more years? Well, whatever. I’m on a skateboard and I’m a bear. There are evil plants growing around town and helpless children hanging out. I can collect the children and my bear says things like “You should stay at home,” or “Yeah, mon!” The plants grow and repair if I don’t kill them fast enough. I’m constantly wiping out on my board or getting hit by a sprout. “Help Me Rhonda” plays on a loop. This could’ve been perfect which makes it hurt so much more.
Champions Forever
Another American game with an intro that must be seen and heard by modern eyes and ears. I started the career mode and I got to pick someone with 12 wins and 1 loss. The first boxer they put me up against was George Foreman. Getting into the ring, I was at a loss for how to control myself. There’s actually a very large suite of options available despite having just two face buttons and a start button. It didn’t really matter though because the action is more like Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots than anything else. I didn’t stand a chance against George Foreman and that’s why he sells grills and I’m a teacher at a public school.
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Time Cruise
This game is called Time Cruise II in Japan, but as far as I can tell, it’s the only one. It’s video pinball, from FACE. If you have been reading this thread, you know how much this is a recipe for success. More significantly, this is the final game that FACE will make for the PC Engine and it marks the end of their most prolific period.
At first, this game looks quaint compared to the Crush pinballs before it. The time machine boards are plainly themed with flashing lights and switches. The whole set is huge, 3x3 if I’m counting right. But when you get to the top boards, you’ll find rows of time machines. After pushing plugs into the reactor, you can travel through time and these boards are where the artists flex their muscle. Sometimes, there is an error in the machine and you enter a Dalian realm where clocks melt and Roman numerals fly in the sky. This is the best board.
Because the main board is 3x3 and there is only one pit, the game is a fair bit easier than the Crush games. Try it out!
Monster Pro Wrestling
Like Maniac Pro Wrestling*, this is another menu-based wrestler. Once again, the animation and cartooning are great. Monster feels more intuitive. Instead of picking a move whenever you want, you pick a move at the same time as your opponent. The game rolls some dice, and whoever has the higher value wins. This is all an excuse to watch humanoid freaks slam into each other and explode. The story is that Beelzebub is terrorizing Earth so humans started to modify themselves into monsters in order to fight in demon wrestling tournaments. I couldn’t quite grasp what the stats meant, but I found that if I chose one particular move, I would win every dice roll. Seems kind of broken to me!
*Similar name and design, different developer and publisher
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By Yukiyoshi Ike Sato on April 26, 2000 at 10:28PM PDT
Sega of Japan announced today that it would start its Dream Library service, which will let Dreamcast owners download and play Genesis and Turbo Grafx-16 games, at the end of May. Using the latest version of the Dream Passport - which comes with the Japanese DC - Dreamcast owners can access the Dream Library interface on the console and select from more than 300 playable games. Sega acquired licenses from software companies such as Irem Software Engineering, Atlus, Capcom, Quest, Sun Soft, CSK Research Institute, T&E Soft, Hudson, and many others. A total of about 50 titles will be in the software lineup in May and June, and 15 titles will be added every month beginning in July. Players will pay a fee of 150yen (about $1.4US) to download the games, and then the software will be accessible for two days after the download. The game will save onto the Dreamcast RAM but then will disappear when you shut down the system. The game can then be downloaded again without a fee if you do so within the two-day time frame. You will be able to save your progress on the VMU.
Sega had a service in Japan called Dream Library where users could download and play Megadrive/Genesis games as well as PC Engine/TG-16 games. Think of it as a fore runner of Virtual Console. Believe this is the PC Engine emulator they used due to the Target Laboratory - subcontracted by KAZE GDRi according to Wikipedia - splash screens. Could be wrong though. Their Page can be found here: Wayback Machine…
Translates as:
---- We developed an emulator program that allows Sega to enjoy PC engine games on Dreamcast in the Internet distribution service “Dream Library” started in May 2000.Currently delivered game titles were sold at Hu-CARD, and 50 titles are always available on the server. About 15 titles are updated monthly and about 300 titles can be played.
It takes 150 Dream - 150 yen - to download 1 game, and you can play until 24 o’clock the next day. On the dedicated homepage, the operation method of each title and the back technique information are posted.
What is Dream Library?
Accessed on a dedicated site via the Internet using “Dream Passport” which was distributed from Sega in April 2000, it downloads data to the memory of Dreamcast body.
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At that time I was playing every NES game on my Dreamcast. Except strangely Contra which would also be missing from unofficial romsets.
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Shougi: Shoshinsha Muyou
I figured I should get the other shogi game out of the way. This is much harder to understand than the monster one now that I have to rely on kanji to identify the pieces. That’s a shame because the computer thinks much faster, so the game isn’t nearly as slow. There are a bunch of options that I don’t understand and I accidentally set the game up to give each player 10 seconds to respond. Clearly, this is for true shogi heads only.
This game has a cool option where I can load up midway through professional matches in shogi history. Apparently, this game and Shougi: Shodan Icchokusen were both supervised by the Japan Shogi Association. That’s pretty neat. I’m starting to become a shogi head. I’m imagining getting trapped in an hour long match against @meauxdal at the next meetup.
Turrican
We had a French and British game this year, so why not add Germany into the mix. This game is impossible to me. I think it’s meant to be played with cheats; otherwise, it’s just insane. There is no bounce back on hits and enemies take several shots to kill. Sometimes I die because I don’t realize I’m standing on an enemy until my lifebar drains to nothing. The spiky Metroid ball is the only way I can make any sort of progress, but the designers new that this would be how players tried to get ahead, so they placed pits everywhere. I feel insane for how much I do not understand this game that looks so much like so many others I’ve played before. The team that ported this to the Turbografx also ported Turrican II to the Genesis and branded it Universal Soldier.
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The name could be translated as BEGINNERS NEED NOT APPLY, the Muyou being the same Muyou as in Grandpa Anime Tenchi Muyou (Useless Tenchi).
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Lord of Wars
Alpha Soft. The sepia tone is a nice effect on everything but whatever quick options I chose had me playing WW2 Germany and I noped out of a game I wasn’t going to like either way. I see there are two Waring States/3 Kingdoms games with hexagons out there and nah I can’t touch those on a good day.
Ys 3
Finally got into it. I played through the Genesis version back in the heyday of Ys in English On PSP. I don’t know why I thought it was 20 hours long as I got through maybe a quarter of the game tonight. The highlight is still escaping the volcano. I think, but would need to check, this version is just rougher than the Genesis version. It really feels like a Japanese PC Game in a way Ys Book 1 and 2 did not. Don’t expect I’ll go back to my save here, but maybe.
Download 2
I love that the 5 minutes of opening anime is getting to know the guy in your little spaceship. I think I prefer Download one as a game to play. I played the PCEWorks “Remastered” version which did something to the soundtrack. Casual glancing at PCEngine Forums says PCEWorks has a very bad reputation for selling repros and translations without permission.
Good to be back in the PC Engine.
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