Share your hidden gems and insider tips

mediamogul

Apple II: 'Mystery House' (First computer adventure game with graphics)
Arcade: 'Ninja Baseball Batman' (An extremely bizarre and gorgeous beat 'em up)
Atari 800: 'The Goonies' (DataEast puzzle platformer. Very different than Konami's version)
Atari 2600: 'Dolphin' (Unique tone-based sonar mechanic. Player has to listen to where he's going)
Atari 5200: 'Last Starfighter' (Atari prototype based on the film. Highly ambitious for the time)
Atari 7800: 'Midnight Mutants' (Horror-themed Zelda clone where you battle monsters on Halloween to save your Grandpa)
Atari ST: 'Oids' (A mashup of 'Asteroids' and 'Choplifter')
Colecovision: 'War Games' (Based on 'Global Thermonuclear War' from the movie 'War Games')
Commodore64: 'Space Taxi' (The original 'Crazy Taxi'... in space)
Daphne: 'Us Vs Them' (Laserdisc shooter and a brilliant send-up of B-Movie Schlock)
DOS: 'Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective 1-3' (Three of the best Sherlock Holmes games ever made)
Famicom: 'Sweet Home' (Horror survival JRPG by Capcom and the basis for 'Resident Evil')
Gameboy: 'Square Deal' (Falling puzzle game where 52 cards are eliminated in rows based on Poker hands)
GameBoy Advance: 'Drill Dozer' (It loses something without the force feedback, but still amazing)
GameBoy Color: 'Shantae' (It's become a little more recognized recently, but still underrated in my book)
Infocom Z-machine: 'The Lurking Horror' (Based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. One of two zmachine sound games)
Intellivision: 'Dracula' (Rise from your grave, feast on your victims and be home by dawn)
MSX: 'Q-bert' (Little known Konami port/improvement of 'Q-bert's Qubes' with varying stage layouts, power-ups and an amazing two-player mode)
Neo Geo: 'Wind Jammers' (A mashup of competitive Frisbee and 'PONG' with beautiful graphics)
NES: 'Summer Carnival '92: Recca' (Hands down, the best schmup on the NES. A programming miracle)
Nintendo DS: 'Retro Game Master' (Simulates every aspect of what it was like to want, get and play games in the 1980s.)
ScummVM: 'Castle of Dr. Brain' and 'Island of Dr, Brain' (Series of brain games in a unique story-driven presentation)
Sega CD: 'Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors' (Unreleased Penn & Teller game that brings their routine and humor into game form)
Sega Dreamcast: 'Ikaruga' (Vertical shooter with a brilliantly executed binary play mechanic. Often cited as greatest shmup of all time despite its obscurity)
Sega Game Gear: 'Shinobi II: The Silent Fury' (A mashup of 'Shinobi' and 'MegaMan' exclusive to the Game Gear)
Sega Genesis: 'Battle Golfer Yui' (JRPG centered around... Golf)
Sega Master System: 'Sonic the Hedgehog', 'Sonic the Hedgehog II' and 'Sonic Chaos' (Completely different games from the Genesis/Megadrive versions)
Sony Playstation: 'Lego Racers' (Kart racing game that lets you build your own kart out of Lego pieces)
Super Famicom: 'Shiren the Wanderer' (A hardcore roguelike RPG made accessible to all audiences by the same team that developed 'Dragon Quest' I-V)
Super Nintendo: 'Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium' (Simply the best retro wrestling game out there)
TurboGrafx-16: 'Military Madness' (Turn-based tactical warfare... on the moon)
TurboGrafx-CD: 'Gate of Thunder' (Little known, but serious contender for greatest shmup of all time)

thelostsoul

I am still in the process of adding new games. It started a little bit stiff, but I am more forgiving now. Here some recent adds to my RetroPie collection:

Super NES:

Firestriker
Spriggan Powered
Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie
Zelda <rom randomizer hacks> with http://vt.alttp.run/start

Mega Drive:

Blades of Vengeance
Decap Attack
Dick Tracy
Pulseman

NES:

Felix the Cat
Gun Nac
Nightshade
Shatterhand
Summer Carnival '92 - Recca

thelostsoul

First posting in this thread about Arcades, not consoles.

Recently, I decided to add Mame2010 emulator to my list. I opened the compatibility list in the Docs and spent hours scrolling down the list and looking for promising titles by random guess. Then I searched for video snaps in YouTube and if it looked promising, I added it to my collection for testing. While doing this, I discovered some interesting games for FBA and Mame2003 too. I just felt to share with you my findings.

Mame2010

crzrally Crazy Rally (set 1)
osman Osman (World)
riskchal Risky Challenge

Mame2003

gaia Gaia Crusaders
gunbird Gunbird (World)
gunbird2 Gunbird 2
hook Hook (World)
punkshot Punk Shot (US 4 Players)
rocnrope Roc'n Rope

FBA

boogwing Boogie Wings (Euro v1.5, 92.12.07)
calibr50 Caliber 50
charlien Charlie Ninja
kov Knights of Valour / Sangoku Senki (ver. 117) (needs pgm)
mmaulers Monster Maulers (ver EAA)
retofinv Return of the Invaders
vimana Vimana

I must say, a lot of interesting games didn't start or had no or bad sound. So I excluded them. Here are only working games on my over clocked Raspberry Pi 3B RetroPie 4.4. I highly recommend to check some games, like osman, hook, boogwing, calibr50 and kov.

robertvb83

i just came across a really cool game accidentially because i got to fix a clrmamepro missing files for recent mame2003-plus.

never heard of it before this game is called Escape Kids. the gameplay is a lot of fun and it is 4players! you have to hit the run button repeatedly. the faster you hit the button the faster you run. but you will only run if a direction is pressed at the same time. during the game you can collect money and upgrade your character to run faster, get up quicker after falling down, jump higher. Interestingly you can also upgrade the character with real money by entering more credit, what a controversy :-)
try that its really cool!

btw. can you recommend other games with this type of control?

thelostsoul

@robertvb83 Never heard about this game too, but looks really fun with friends. Hell will test it out later. I also never saw a game like this, so cannot recommend anything.

Btw, does he say all the time "FU*K YOU"? :D

robertvb83

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

Btw, does he say all the time "FU*K YOU"? :D

haha i did not notice it until you mentioned it. i dont think so but i hear it too :-)

mediamogul

@robertvb83 said in Share your hidden gems and insider tips:

Interestingly you can also upgrade the character with real money by entering more credit, what a controversy :-)

Very interesting! This would definitely be one of the earliest forms of micro-transactions. From what I've seen, the controversial revenue scheme apparently saw it's early roots in the arcades with games like this. So far, the earliest example I've found is 'Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone' from 1990, where you were allowed to purchase weapons with real money from the various shops. Great find and it looks to be a lot of weird, wild fun too. Can't wait to give it a go.

thelostsoul

@robertvb83 Btw, it reminds me a game for the SNES, but it didn't have this control sheme. It played in the Tiny Toon world I think and was a running game like this with normal control sheme. I just can't find it anymore, don't remember the name of game. I am even not sure if it was really the Tiny Toons franchise... I am searching this game for very long time! Now you found a game which is similar, so I can reference to it!

EDIT: FOUND IT
Hanna Barbera's Turbo Toons
So, it wasn't Tiny Toons, I just remembered it wrong.

Video at 04:43 for this game.

thelostsoul

Found more hidden gems (at least to me) and they look pretty good. Want some of them share with you. Especially the Game Boy Advance games suprised me. I never had one and there are a so many titles I never played on it.

I would say checkout Wade Hixton's Counter Punch, if you like Super Punch Out.
If you want Metal Slug with more comic graphics, then head out to Alien Hominid.
Look for Balloon Kid, if you like Balloon Fight.
Do you like rotating guns on your ship? Then Eco Fighters is the solution.
Kicking an lying opponent? Hell yes! Crime Fighters!!

Mame2003

combasc Combat School - SPORT
crimfght Crime Fighters - SCROLLING BRAWL
punisher The Punisher - SCROLLING BRAWL
rygar Rygar - PLATFORMER ACTION
xybots Xybots - 3D SHOOTER / MAZE ??

FBA

ecofghtr Eco Fighters - SHMUP HORIZONTAL
mwalk Michael Jackson's Moonwalker - ACTION

Mame2010

indytemp Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - ACTION ADVENTURE ?? (needs bios atarisy1)

GB

Battle Unit Zeoth - SHMUP HORIZONTAL
Alien 3 - ACTION ADVENTURE ??
Balloon Kid
Trax - SHMUP

GBA

Alien Hominid - PLATFORMER ACTION
Astro Boy Omega Reaction - PLATFORMER ACTION
Wade Hixton's Counter Punch - SPORT

thelostsoul

57 More Hidden Gems

Time to add some more titles, this time whopping 57 games and these are only the most unusual or interesting ones on top of the ice cake! I have to admit, I got addicted to find new titles. It‘s so fun to search for, read the web, look up in lists, watch videos about them. Here are some of the new entries, which I recommend you to try out.

Arcade / Mame2003 (9 games)

lr-mame2003 (v0.78)

• bubbles Bubbles
Single screen game. You have to clean up with a small bubble each new stage, growing up over time.

• cloak Cloak & Dagger
Twin Stick shooter with several different rooms (and cool animation between them). Very cool.

• dockman Dock Man
There are falling stuff you have to catch them and put it back by throwing.

• eyes Eyes
A Pac Man like maze game, but with very strange graphics and sound effects.

• losttomb Lost Tomb
Twin Stick shooter like control. You have to explore a tomb and collect some treasures. Not sure about this entrie, but it looks so damn interesting.

• phozon Phozon
A very unusual puzzle game never seen before. The player catches and builds up a molecule pattern, which is given in the center of the field.

• rescue Rescue
Reminds me Choplifter, but on see with sharks.

• metamrph Metamorphic Force
A scrolling brawler with quite cool music and graphics and the hero transforms into a badass killer monster like in Altered Beast.

• csclub Capcom Sports Club
3 sport games in 1 with comical graphics and a ridiculous small field, even on the soccer game. That makes it very fast action and fun.

Arcade / Mame2010 (5 games)

lr-mame2010 (v0.139)

• ichir Puzzle & Action Ichidant-R
Typical crazy Japanese mini games to solve in short time by Sega.

• scudhamm Scud Hammer
Strange Japanese game, where you just play Rock-paper-scissors with your opponent and if you win, you can knock him with amusing animations.

• joinem Joinem
Sort of a maze where you control 5 parts of your character at same time and need to bring them together.

• junofrst Juno First
Amazing looking and feeling shmup from ’83.

• sgunner2 Steel Gunner 2
Nothing unusual here, an action packed railgun shooter which works with my regular Arcade stick and don‘t require any gun.

Arcade / FBA (2 games)

lr-fbalpha (v0.2.97.43)

• avspirit Avenging Spirit
Side scrolling game with the twist that you can posses enemies with your soul and control them.

• kingdmgp Kingdom Grandprix
Traditional shmup by Raizing (well known for such games) but with somewhat racing elements and again a nice presentation. Not sure how much racing is there.

Arcade / Neo Geo (2 games)

lr-fbalpha (v0.2.97.43)

• eightman Eight Man
Side scrolling platform brawler. Especially every second running stages are fast action fun.

• ragnagrd Shin-Oh-Ken
Traditional 2 player Fighter with rendered graphics like in Donkey Kong Country. Never heard about this one.

SNES (17 games)

lr-snes9x (v1.54.1)

• BS Zelda Ancient Stone Tablets (Week 1 to 4)
4 short episodes of Zelda in the A Link To The Past world for the BS-X Broadcasting satellaview add-on system. English patch needed.

• BS The Legend of Zelda
This is a remake of the very first Zelda adventure on the NES for the BS-X Broadcasting satellaview add-on system. I think it have different dungeons and half cut overworld map. English patch probably needed.

• B.O.B.
Side scrolling jump and gun with a charming robot and animations. It is nothing special, but feels and looks good.

• Cu-On-Pa
An interesting and polished puzzle game. Its a three dimensional cube, where player have to roll a colored cube over the field. English patch needed for tutorial.

• Ganpuru – Gunman
An Zelda like looking action game set in crazy Wild West. Even if it looks like, it does not have any puzzles, but a scoring mechanic. Need english patch.

• Great Battle IV
Platform action with three in Japanese well known anime characters. You can switch to any of them on any time of the levels. English patch available.

• Great Battle V
This time its in the Wild West and it plays as a gallery shooter. Polished graphics and music, highly recommended by many people. English patch available.

• Heisei Inu Monogatari Bow: Pop'n Smash
Mix between Arkanoid and Tennis, similar to one of these games for the Neo Geo. No need for English patch.

• Sanrio World Smash Ball!
Another mix between Arkanoid and Tennis. This time I use English patch, but I think its not needed anyway.

• Mario & Wario
Japanese exclusive side scrolling puzzle game with Mario franchise. Help Mario finding its way to the goal. I use a Joypad hack, so I don‘t need the mouse.

• Soreyuke Ebisumaru Karakuri Meiro - Kieta Goemon no Nazo!!
An action puzzle game with Goemon. Its Japanese only, but for the puzzles no language needed. Change direction of arrow to control Goemon to the exit.

• Youkai Buster - Ruka no Daibouken
Platformer based on the same game The Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates. Its just a reskin, but I like it more. Suck items and enemies and on the wall to climb it up.

• Zig Zag Cat
This is more like traditional Arkanoid type, where you control a pad on the bottom. But the levels are scrolling upwards. No English patch needed.

• Go Go Ackman 3
Side scrolling action game with funny and typical Japanese anime characters, based on a manga by Akira Toriyama (he looks like Trunks). Couldn‘t find English patch, but not really needed. Or play part 1, where an English patch is available.

• Math Blaster
Thats it, i‘m done! .. oh wait, this isn‘t school. It‘s literally math, where you solve a simple math and shoot to the flying numbers.

• Kishin Douji Zenki - Batoru Raiden
Another side scrolling action game based on a manga in Japan. Looks and sounds great. English patch available.

• Psycho Dream
A stylish and atmospheric side scrolling action game, maybe comparable to something like Castlevania. Its not really that good in gameplay mechanics, but something you probably don‘t know. Japanese, couldn‘t find an English patch, but not needed here.

NES (2 games)

lr-nestopia (v1.49)

• Captain Tsubasa Vol. II - Super Striker
Unique mix of soccer with text based decisions while playing the actual game. It captures the action from the tv series very well. English patch highly recommended.

• Loopz
A simple puzzler, probably not exactly a hidden gem. Connect pipes and get points by building huges pipes

Famicom Disk System (6 games)

lr-nestopia (v1.49)
These games are mostly japanese, but are playable.

• Arumana No Kiseki
Thats what would come out if Castlevania and Indiana Jones would have a baby.

• Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa
Play as a baby in a colorful platformer and crawl to the end of stage. Use the rattle to turn enemies into floating platforms.

• Kick Challenger Air Foot
Control your foots at a top down perspective to get forward and kill enemies. Obscure!

• Knight Move
A puzzle game by the creator of Tetris. Place a jumping chess knight to get the heart on the field.

• Nazo No Murasamejou
Top down action game where you control a ninja. Not sure what to tell, many people recommend this game.

• Otocky
Obscure shmup like music game. Hold down button to use d-pad to punch enemies and collect items. Sounds somewhat get synced with the music or so. Very unique game.

Mega Drive / Genesis (8 games)

lr-genesis-plus-gx (v1.7.4)

• Atomic Runner
You probably know it as Chelnov. Side auto-scrolling jump and shoot.

• Battle Mania Daiginjou
Traditional side scrolling shmup never came out of Japan, besides in Korea. Some crazy stage and boss designs with Japanese anime heroes.

• Combat Cars
I love those over head oldschool games, but most are not balanced. This one is just fun to play. Its like Super Cars, Micro Machines and Rock‘n Roll Racing.

• Crack Down
Plant bombs within a time and get out there. You can even lean to the wall like Snake.

• Mick & Mack as the Global Gladiators
Programmed by DAVID PERRY himself and composer TOMMY TALLARICO, both known from Earthworm Jim! Played this platformer in my youth.

• Phelios
A traditional vertical shmup. The special about it is the whole setting in greek mythology. You fly on Pegasus and fight in example against Medusa.

• Puggsy
A platform puzzler with physics based gameplay. Grab items and move your arms to solve puzzles.

• Skeleton Krew
Really cool twin stick like shooter with detailed graphics and a atmospheric soundtrack.

Game Boy / Color (6 games)

lr-gambatte (v0.5.0)
But I may change over to lr-mgba

• Dexterity
A Puzzle game by SNK. Goal is to transform each platform, but the enemies there will turn them all the time back.

• Volley Fire
Imagine something like a SHMUP but 1vs1 against AI. Not much more to say about it, played it when I was young.

• Banishing Racer
A platformer where you control a really cute car with even boss fights.

• Trip World
Another platformer. Very cute, charming and high quality graphics like Kirby. Hero can transform and have different abilities.

• Hexcite (GB Color)
An unique puzzle game battling an opponent. Put different shapes into board and get points. Simple and addictive.

• Kluster (GB Color)
Tetris platforms falling from all sides and you control your block freely, building a complex with by catching those blocks.

Phew, that's it for today. I am mostly done with searching after such titles, so my next post could take some time, if ever again.

thelostsoul

13 titles
If you think you know every Snes game, there is always someone waiting in the corner to show you that you are wrong.

SNES (unreleased titles)

These games never got a release, even they was finished or almost beeing finished.

• Nightmare Busters
Btw this title got a release a while back, but I consider this as unreleased. Also this game started as a homebrew I think. It plays like a J. J. Squawkers or like Metal Slug. Its not that good, but still impressive.

• Jelly Boy 2
A quality Jump and Run type of game and could easily be a classic, if it would got a release.

• Mr. Tuff
Another platformer with a bit more action on it. Game development not fully finished, but almost. There are two versions out there, one early and the another later.

• Steven Seagal Is The Final Option
Ok, I admit, this game isn't well in gameplay wise. But its a hell of fun playing as Steven Seagal! What could you ask more than for this?!

SNES (translations)

These games are only released in Japan, but thanks to fan translations, we can play them in at least English. Here are some of my favorites from latest add ins.

• Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon - Another Story
A Sailor Moon RPG! I always wanted play this game when it came out, but couldn't. Now I can! But you have to find the right fix, as modern emulators have a problem with the original translation.

• Chaos Seed - Fuusui Kairoki
Some original and unique RPG with dungeon crawling elements. Still didn't fully understand whats going on here, but seems interesting and quality.

• Energy Breaker
Another RPG from Chaos Seed developers. This one is an isometric tactics game, like Final Fantasy Tactics.

• Holy Umbrella - Dondera no Mubo!!
A side scrolling platformer alternating with RPG like top down view. Not sure if this is good, but worth checking out maybe.

• Lennus II - Fuuin no Shito
More RPGs. While the first Lennus seems to have some poor reception, this one gets quite good ratings and makes a quality impression.

• Popeye - Ijiwaru Majo Sea Hag no Maki
You probably never heard of this Popeye game. This is a mixture of side scrolling Jump and Run and board game on the map?! I don't expect quality game, but its worth checking.

• Super Famicom Wars
Yes, a Nintendo game (isn't it?)! Part of the Wars series, you know how this game works if you played Advance Wars.

• Treasure Hunter G
More RPG from my youth I never could play back then. Tactical fighting like adventuring game.

• Wrecking Crew '98
What?! Wrecking Crew does come out for Snes?! This game is completely different and its more like a Match Block puzzle game. Still the original game is included too.

Omnija

Snes
Kaizou Choujin Schbibinman Zero

GBA
Joe Car Battler

Adlibirel

@mediamogul WindJammers is a masterpiece

mediamogul

@adlibirel

I definitely agree. It's a lot of fun and 'PONG' never looked so good.

mediamogul

I just added a recommendation in my previous post for 'Q-bert' on the MSX. I've recently discovered this game and it has completely blown my mind in more ways than one. First of all, while it is an officially licensed port from Konami, it's not actually 'Q-bert' and it doesn't even star Q-bert. At least not the little guy we're familiar with. Instead, this game is a highly improved port of 'Q-bert's Qubes' and it stars a cute little purple dragon who shares the Q-bert name.

Konami took what was already a solid idea and improved on it in every way, much like General Computer Corporation did when they developed 'Pac-Man' into the much-improved 'Ms. Pac-Man'. First of all, the game moves much faster, which really adds a lot of excitement that was arguably missing from the arcade original. Additionally, multiple stage layouts are introduced and power-ups are added to make the gameplay much more dynamic. However, the main attraction here is the stellar two-player mode. I've never considered it before, but both 'Q-bert' and it's sequel had amazing potential for a great two-player experience. Here on the MSX, it's fully realized.

Both players work to complete each stage by turning over a row of cubes to their own designated alignment. Played at face value, this can be a simple race to the finish, but in an additional element of strategy and fun, either player can sabotage the other by rotating a square necessary for their opponent to win, all while competing for the valuable power-ups and avoiding the stage hazards. All in all, this is a Konami hidden gem from a time when they were firing on all cylinders. 'Q-bert' and it's sequel were already very well regarded and no one else thought to improve upon the concept in any way. However, just like 'Ms. Pac-Man', it really paid off here.

VictimRLSH

@mediamogul Agree with Ninja Baseball Batman, goofiest beat em up ever.

VictimRLSH

Just discovered a great shump on the Atari 2600. Demon Attack (Imagic, 1982). INTENSE trigger finger and stick workout. Pulse pounding sound effects and REALLY dodgy and hard to hit targets. A great achievement for a system with such pathetic specs.

mediamogul

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

Just discovered a great shump on the Atari 2600. Demon Attack

I love 'Demon Attack'. It's on my short list of go-to games to play when I can't decide on anything else. It's so simple in its execution, but feels so good to play. I also really love the sound effects and the big deal it makes when you lose your last life. It's a great play in the dark Atari game. Imagic released the title for a few platforms and while none beat the 2600 version in my opinion, the Intellivision does add some interesting twists, such as a demonic end boss before advancing the level of difficulty.

VictimRLSH

One thing I've noticed about the 2600 is that ports tend to suck horribly (with a few exceptions). The best games were designed AROUND the 2600's specs, not limited by them. Demon Attack pulled this off beautifully, much like Yar's Revenge.

mediamogul

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

The best games were designed AROUND the 2600's specs, not limited by them.

I definitely agree. What I always find funny is that many of these same games actually seem to suffer when ported to more capable hardware. 'Demon Attack' is, again, a good example of this, as are most of the Activision titles of the era.