Share your hidden gems and insider tips

[VictimRLSH]

I remember playing Solstice on the NES, awesome soundtrack.

The first comment is hilarious:

CobaltBW
2 years ago
0:00 "eh whatever, this is just another sh...y nes soundtrack"
0:09 "WOAH WHAT THE F..., MY MIND"

[thelostsoul]

@victimrlsh I hear its soundtrack for the first time, sounds really good. Looking up in Wikipedia I see its ... off course, Tim Follin. ;-) I am currently at playtime 4:30 or so and love the track. Btw, there is an Solstice 2 on the SNES with a different title "Equinox" (same composer).

[thelostsoul]

New Games

The title of this posting is misleading - 6 "new" finds for you, not new releases. ;-) You may have heard from some of these entries, like Do-Re-Mi Fantasy, as it got a lot of recommendations. Have fun.

NES (1 Game):

lr-nestopia

• Nuts & Milk
  The first third party game for the NES, by Hudson Soft. This is a little old arcade styled single screen jump and run, like Donkey Kong. There is a different version of the game for MSX. That one is from top down, this NES version is a side view.

SNES (5 Games):

lr-snes9x

• Do-Re-Mi Fantasy - Milon no Dokidoki Daibouken
  Japan only side scrolling jump & run. Its very cute and and easy to play, the graphics and sound design is wonderful. Nobody knows why this game from Hudson Soft never left Japan. There is a good English patch for this.

• Ganbare Daiku no Gensan / Hammerin Harry
  A not very known entry in the Hammerin Harry series, because it never left Japan. It is a side scrolling anime styled platformer. The main protagonist have a big hammer and thats the main feature.

• Pieces / Jigsaw Party
  This is an interesting take on the puzzle genre. It is a versus match block like styled game, but you have to solve jigsaw puzzle faster than you opponent.

• Rendering Ranger R2
  A Turrican and Contra like side scrolling Jump and Shooter, by no one else than Manfred Trenz, the Turrican god himself. Graphics are pre rendered and have an unique look. It got only a Japanese release, but its perfectly playable to us too.

• Whirlo / Xandra’s Big Adventure
  A cute side scrolling platformer by Namco. It''s one of those titles which got a EU release, but not a US. The graphics style and art is actually nice to look.

[Clyde]

@mitu @thelostsoul Thanks for your replies about Journey to Silius, and @thelostsoul for the additional information about it.

[Clyde]

@victimrlsh Solstice looks interesting! The music is awesome, the graphics look very nice, and the gameplay reminds me of many similar isometric games that I liked on the Commodore 64. I marked Solstice for further inspection. :)

[VictimRLSH]

@clyde It is NOT an easy game. HINT: use the Stop Time spell in any room that has a brick you can carry. The brick will never fall, allowing you to 'teleport' anywhere in the room just by jumping off the brick as you grab it (yes, this game lets you do that...)

[Cybrasty]

I thought I will share a lesser known beat-em-up that I spent many tokens on back in the day: Metamorphic Force

Turn into were-animals, beat-up lizardmen and other baddies. Just FYI, some mame + rom combos might say that the emulation is not 100% accurate, but I haven't seen any jarring issues when playing.

Also, there is quite an active community making games for European microcomputers. Personally I can recommend games from RGCD.DEV which make really good games for C64, including ports of some indie games, like:

Super Bread Box

C64anabalt

Also for a quick tip - if you are tired of long loading times on C64 - use .crt which is cartridge file that boots instantly. You can find ways to convert your current game files to .crt online pretty easily.

[simpleethat]

@cybrasty I played through Metamorphic Force back in the day while I was on a work trip. Great game!

[VictimRLSH]

Rescue Raiders (Linapple) Terrorists have gotten control of a time machine and have gone back in time to attempt to change the outcome of some of the pivotal battles of WW2 with future technology. Controlling a time machine of your own, you fight against them. The object of each of the 8 levels is to destroy the enemy time machine (apparently they buy theirs in 8 packs). If they destroy yours instead OR you run out of helicopters, it's game over. This is one of the earliest RTS games ever. You deploy Infantry, Tanks, Engineers and other units and they march across the battlefield towards the enemy. Only an Engineer can destroy a time machine. You have a modern helicopter complete with a large calibre machine gun, guided missiles, and air-to-ground bombs. You can't control the ground troops after you deploy them (although you can pick them up in the chopper and airdrop them!) but you have full control of your helicopter. Every 15 seconds you earn a small bag of money to pay for warping troops in with your time machine, four small bags make a large bag. Troops cost varying amounts, but a Helicopter costs 5 large bags. DON'T FORGET TO BUY HELICOPTERS IF YOU HAVE NONE IN RESERVE. Also, it is VERY important to keep your helicopter away from the enemy time machine. Your ground troops can destroy it, but it has unlimited guided missiles and will gladly share them with you. This is a very difficult game, but if you do manage to beat a level, both you AND the terrorists get better tech the next round. Oh, by the way, I almost forgot to mention that the enemy has a helicopter too, and it is also trying to support its troops. Helicopter on Helicopter is possible, but you are very likely to die. Send out some AA trucks every once in a while. The enemy also has to pay for things too, so killing a helicopter with a AA truck is a massive blow. Sometimes there will be an enemy fortification that destroys all incoming vehicles and troops. For these, you have to land your helicopter in front of your advancing infantry until you pick up a maximum load of 5, then airdrop them directly over the fort. This can get bloody, because you are going to lose some men and possibly your chopper. FYI, unless they are about to die, do NOT pick up engineers in the helicopter. They become regular troops after that, and can't destroy the time machine or repair gun emplacements.

EDIT: Demolition trucks can also destroy the time machine.

[Clyde]

@cybrasty said in Share your hidden gems and insider tips:

I thought I will share a lesser known beat-em-up that I spent many tokens on back in the day: Metamorphic Force

Looks really nice, I'll add it to my "co-op games to try" list. :)

C64anabalt

Reeeaaaally nice port, they even got the outstanding music right.

Also, there is quite an active community making games for European microcomputers.

I just learned about Pets Rescue from 2016 for the C16 (with 64k expansion) or Plus/4 yesterday. It's especially remarkable since contrary to the C64, the C16 & Plus/4 didn't have hardware sprites and only 2-channel sound.

[VictimRLSH]

@clyde That looks familiar, somehow... :P

[thelostsoul]

New Games

Some new exciting stuff for you. I searched a little bit Japanese only titles this time, found some other games too. These games aren't must haves, they are just not very well known.

SNES (6 Games):

lr-snes9x

• Ball Bullet Gun (J) - STRATEGY
  A military turn based strategy game broken up in predefined scenarios. You have to build a team, choose the weapons and for each mission select a few of them. The fights are pure luck. The main strategy is about to position and Action Points management. There is a good English patch for this.

• Dark Law - Meaning of Death (J) - RPG
  A quite unusual JRPG with story telling and puzzle solving in the focus and less fights. The game is quite open and broken up in scenarios. I read review where the player can level up in a dungeon without doing scenarios and battle the final boss directly. There is a good English patch for this.

• Gan Gan Ganchan (J) - MAZE
  Pac-Man like maze game, where the player have to collect animals and keys, then bring them to the exit. While doing this a ghost is hunting the player. This game plays like a traditional arcade game and the isometric graphics style is nice, but not anything special. The language is Japanese only, but playable, so no translation needed.

• Ignition Factor, The (U) - ACTION?
  This is the other of the two Firemen games for the SNES. This one is much more realistic and slower pasted less action oriented. It is about choosing the right items, going inside a building and rescuing hostages.

• Kablooey (U) - PUZZLE
  Nothing fancy here, a short level based puzzle game in isometric optic. The graphics will not kick you out of your bed, it got a cute main character. Detonate the bombs in the right order and get to next level.

• Pop'n Twinbee - Rainbow Bell Adventure (J) - JUMPRUN
  Side scrolling platformer in the Twinbee universe. The levels are huge and you can go anywhere, anytime. This never got a US release. The Japanese version have battery save and secrets, where these features are just cut out from the EU version - plus it is 60Hz instead of 50Hz, so a translation is recommended over the European version here. There is a good English patch for this.

[Brigane]

@thelostsoul It's always a pleasure reading your hidden gems suggestions. Thank you :)

[thelostsoul]

@Brigane I am very happy if someone finds it useful too. Thank you also for your kind words.

[Clyde]

@Brigane said in Share your hidden gems and insider tips:

@thelostsoul It's always a pleasure reading your hidden gems suggestions. Thank you :)

I second that wholeheartedly! o/

[IanDaemon]

I have to say Juno First is an awesome game that I never heard of before playing it through MAME.

Super Gem Fighters Mini Mix released in the U.S. as "Pocket FIghters" is a great cartoony one-on-one fighting game.

Espgaluda was a "hidden gem" personally as I'd never got to play it before.

[thelostsoul]

I also discovered Juno First while doing this thread. The game is from 1983 at it is awesome. I love the sound and graphics style. Imagine that for its time back then.
Espagaluda was seen as a sort of indirect sequel to Esprade and seems to be highly respected in the shmup community (a friend of me was there).

[IanDaemon]

@thelostsoul Just my opinion: Esprade is OK. For CAVE shooters I love :

• DoDonPachi (faster and more complicated than DonPachi)
• Espgaluda (great to have something other than 'screen clearing bomb' in a Danmaku game)
• Ketsui (lovely graphics)

[thelostsoul]

@IanDaemon Oh ok, I see you know these games. I only played DoDonPachi (love this game) of them and tried out DonPachi. Both are great games, prefer the sequel too. By the way, I am not an expert here by any means and want try out the other games too (more than just testing if the games are working). Your opinion is much appreciated.

May I ask you which system and computer you use to play these? On the PC there wouldn't be any issue, but I concentrate on Raspberry Pi. I have the Cave games using under FBA emulator and they seem to run just fine. If you run under same environment, do you experience any problems?

[IanDaemon]

@thelostsoul I run all of my retro stuff on a Raspberry Pi 3B+. I was given the shell of an old Golden Tee 2005 cabinet (basically just an MDF box) so I put a TV and a Raspbery Pi in it with an X-arcade Tankstick. I'm running RetroPie 4.4, EmulationStation, and have multiple emulators installed (AdvMAME, FBA, MAME 2003, MAME 2010). I play around and see which one works for which ROM.

Sometimes tinkering is not my friend. I've lost sound before and couldn't get settings to save, but I have all of my ROMs backed up so I could reformat the SD card and re-install the machine in an evening.

I still have to sand and paint a board to replace the kickplate area and the holes for the coin door and dollar-bill acceptor. Last week I made a custom panel to replace the "tournament rules" insert that sits between the speakers. Oh, and I wired the speakers with a new amplifier to use the original speakers with the TV output.