Digital Christmas
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Every year I have some online friends that I exchange digital gifts with and this year I went with a retro-gaming theme. Seeing as how the fine folks here have been known to play a retro game or two, I thought it would be in keeping with the holiday spirit to spread the good cheer a little wider. So, whether you're celebrating the holidays, or just trying to keep Christmas from coming to Whoville, here's a couple of digital doodads I put together to act as a distraction until someone is able to spike the eggnog.
First up is somewhat of a response to the infamous 'NES Classic' shortage situation. We all know RetroPie is the better alternative anyway, but what about that neat case? If you don't have access to a digital printer or simply want to avoid gutting a perfectly good NES, how about a very keen NES-styled Lego Pi2/3 case alternative that anyone can have fun assembling? A variation of this design has been floating around for some time, but if you were to order the required parts, you'd find that a few of the pieces have been discontinued. While there are many resources for these types of Lego problems online, I made a few alterations to the plans that allow the entire kit to be ordered directly from Lego for under $15.00.
The plans, parts list and building instructions can be found here.
It's no fun to have a console without a pack-in title, which brings me to the second item on the list. Having been a retro gamer for some time now, I've learned that if there's one thing that many of us enjoy doing more than playing a good game, it's playing a bad game ironically. This can especially be fun with a group of friends for a good laugh. Now, the uninitiated will try to tell you that 'E.T.' for the Atari 2600 is the worst game of all time. However, those who have played substantially more retro titles know that, while definitely not a masterpiece, 'E.T.' is not even the worst game on the 2600. While the title of "worst game of all time" is the topic of much debate, there are few who deny that 'Cheetahmen II' for the NES could easily make the top five, with many believing it to hold the top spot.
One of the issues with the game is that it's legitimately broken. Once you reach the boss fight in stage four with the Ape Man, the game does not progress to the next level once he's been defeated. Heck, sometimes the Ape Man just permanently wanders off screen before the fight is over and you're left all alone with only the soundtrack to keep you company. All in all, the game is so terrible that it has become somewhat of a legend, like 'Plan 9 from Outer Space' or 'Manos: The Hands of Fate'. A successful Kickstarter campaign saw the physical release of a "fixed" version of the game and those copies now command a hefty price. This was a somewhat controversial achievement though, as it was discovered that the release was plagiarized using a freely available ROM hack by the romhacking.net user, PacoChan.
To it's limited credit, the Kickstarter release eliminated the "improved graphics" that were added by PacoChan, resulting in a version of 'Cheetahmen II' that was graphically authentic to the original, yet able to be completed. What's funny is that no one would have known they stole PacoChan's work at all, had they not forgotten to correct a misspelling in the opening text that PacoChan himself had overlooked.
My part in all this came from the desire to play the game myself to completion, without additional graphics and without lining the pockets of thieves. So, I taught myself just enough about hex-editing to remove PacoChan's graphical changes from his patch file and correct the final misspelling. So, what I offer up here is a version of the game that is still every bit as terrible, but represents the bare minimum of what's expected in a final release. That being the ability to A) actually finish the game and B) have sensible spell-corrected text. I call my version of the game 'Cheetahmen II: Sterilized' to separate it from the two previous "Fixed" versions. I also converted the existing Game Genie codes for the game to the RetroArch cheat file format for easy integration with RetroPie. These allow for "Infinite Lives" and/or "Infinite Energy" for every stage.
For those unfamiliar with this type of release, you'll need to download an IPS patch utility and apply my patch file to the original game ROM, found elsewhere.
The IPS patch file, game genie codes and RetroArch cheat file can be found here.
I hope everyone has a good time this weekend and try not to shoot your eye out.
Hee Haw and Merry Christmas!
RetroPie v4.5 • RPi3 Model B • 5.1V 2.5A PSU • 16GB SanDisk microSD • 512GB External Drive
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This is a great post!
(although the tags are way over my head, is this something I'd need a cheetah, electrical or otherwise, for to understand?) -
the tags are way over my head
Hah, sorry. It was more of a joke to myself. I forgot the tags are visible on the page. It's a reference to my favorite Christmas movie, 'Scrooged'.
RetroPie v4.5 • RPi3 Model B • 5.1V 2.5A PSU • 16GB SanDisk microSD • 512GB External Drive
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Cool!
Have a good Christmas! -
You too.
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Have a happy retro-gaming Christmas everyone! :-)
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Great post! You caught me by surprise and now I think I don't have anything that cool to share...
@mediamogul said in Digital Christmas:
It's a reference to my favorite Christmas movie
By the way, my top favorite Christ related movie (also the only musical movie I like): Jesus Christ Superstar.
To be honest I watch it several times through the year. :-)One of my favorite parts:
Judas has a great voice!
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Merry Christmas to everyone!
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OMG, I love this thread and my son and I had this same discussion the other day. Merry Christmas and Cheetahmen forever!!! Action 52!!!!
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In the spirit of this thread I give away 1 Steam key.
Here it is:Wacky Wheels AEAR6-XXZH8-GTH0J
happy xmas to all.
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@mediamogul This is great! May try a Lego build myself over Christmas, I'm sure there'll be plenty of it under the tree;) I've even had to have a look at ET, boy is that something else! Going to show my boy just to show him how good his scratch projects are in comparison;) Now to find Cheetahmen... there's something quite amusing about finding the worst games. Could be an alternative rom of the week thread!!
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@Fruitybit said in Digital Christmas:
I've even had to have a look at ET, boy is that something else!
The game's creator (Howard Scott Warshaw) has a great sense of humor about the whole thing. Having also created 'Yar's Revenge', which is known to be one of the best games on the 2600, he often jokes about having the widest range of any game developer out there.
The best synopsis of the whole E.T. phenomenon has to be this segment from 'The Video Game Years'.
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@mediamogul In the end ET carts where found. Atari did actually bury these in New Mexico desert ! Crazy story.
Merry Xmas to everybody.
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@UDb23 said in Digital Christmas:
Crazy story.
So crazy, you'd have to make it up if it weren't true. Alongside the documentary from Xbox Entertainment Studios, James Rolfe also made a highly fictionalized feature film based on a race to uncover the extraterrestrial truth behind the burial in ''Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie". He even gives his long-awaited review of the game during the end credits. It's unbelievably impressive for an independent Sci-Fi film.
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fun video focused on the cheetahmen
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@mediamogul i am probably going to mostly use the instructions to make a lego nes (not for the pi or anything else) with a controller and cartridge.
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fun video focused on the cheetahmen
That is a great video. I love 'The Game Chasers'. It's like 'American Pickers' for retro games.
That sounds great. Be sure to look at the black climbing rope pieces. They'd make perfect controller cords. If you do end up building it, I'd love to see some pics.
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@mediamogul definitely. Thanks for the cord tip. I was trying to think of how i was going to do it.
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I ordered the pieces for the Lego Case from Lego today. Looking forward to see how it turns out.
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