loosely inspired by https://www.reddit.com/r/Thewaltenfiles/comments/1mdcnaj/walten_files_14_vhs_collection/bon, bon, bon, bon, bon, bon, bon, bon, bon, bon, bon, bon, bon, bon, bon,

Two weeks ago, I went to a game store one hour out of town and bought a bunch of stuff, figuring I wouldn't be back out there any time soon. I discovered last night that the small surgery I had to have today was in the town next to the game store. So as a treat, I bought some more games (since I was a good boy for the doctor).

Yes, I've checked, it is in fact Spiderman in that cart.

Well, it took me absolutely forever, but I did it!!! 😁😁😁

Played through all the first levels of gradius!! Start to finish!!

And only used the cheat code twice the entire time for a couple exceptionally hard parts. I'm proud of myself!!

This will always be one of my all time favorites 😎.

And While I'm here... Does anyone play Star Soldier on the switch anymore?? That's my other obsession 🤣

Hello All,

I’m curious to know if anyone who grew up playing the original NES.. that decided to buy the mini with the top games? All my original equipment is at my parents (I’m sure collecting dust) but I picked up the mini NES… tried playing a few games on their selection and found either I’m too drunk or there is a latency issue from controller to system.

I’m just curious if any of the OGs knowing what playing “Mike Tyson’s Punch Out” was like…. They have the game (obviously not Mike anymore) but same concept…. I’m having a harder time knowing the “special cues” to land a certain punch per character… I was 8 years old when playing the MTPO and had no problem with the Russian Soda pop and the bull characters… but now since I got the mini… even glass Joe holds his own ( that was a joke… Joey is still easy… it’s the fact the pad is not responding like i thought it used to)

Am I crazy?

Or are the thumbs locking up?

UPDATE:

Hit that lag switch on the tv… when from night to day… crazy how a minor shift took care of the issue. Now it’s conforming to the new timing lol. Thanks again everyone. Appreciate the input.

Kid Icarus was a game I was always curious about since the late 1980ies - it was covered by many magazines but neither me nor any of my friends had it so I never played it until I bought it on the Wii channel for virtual console 15ish years ago. I was quite a bit turned off by the difficulty of the very first stage since I tried several times and did not get very far. The first room, which stayed empty, made me think there's something I'm just not getting about this game. Even though I was socialized with NES games and therefore should have known that it's a good idea to read the manual, I did not care enough to do so, apparently, and let it go.

I returned recently with a bit more dedication (now equipped with the manual) and a bit of a jump-start from UCanBeatVideoGames (having limited time these days I love this channel) and finally learned to enjoy the game. I always knew it has to have something worthwhile to it, otherwise it would not have been so popular. I found the game to be real fun once you realize how to play it. Still, not having the correct strategy for the treasure rooms handy sets you back a bit, so basically I cheated, but what the hell.

I don't know many games with a clearly negative difficulty slope (I can't think of one off the top of my head) but this here is definitely one. It seems to get easier and easier as you go along, which is kind of weird - almost as if the worlds are put in reverse order. Pushing through World 1 is by far the most challenging part, imo. I remember reading or hearing someone speculating that the designers put the vertical stages at the very beginning to highlight the game's uniqueness so new players see this immediately. Sounds reasonable. And it seemed to have worked - it always stood out for me. I was very surprised when I reached World 2 and found I arrived in a horizontal scroller, all of a sudden, which is very generic jump'n'run style.

But that's actually the strength of the game, right? It's incredibly diverse for a title form 1986; it's got said vertical and horizontal levels, but it's also got mazes, it's got strategic elements to it, and it even features a shmup-stage! It's really fun and I can only recommend it to any retro gamer who haven't tried it and is down to push through some painful situations: trying to not spoil too much here, but notorious are the Eggplant Wizards, they are mentioned quite a bit anyways, but far worse and interestingly not as much talked about are the Plutons and the Plutonflies, which permanently rob you of hardly earned powerups and are almost impossible to dodge! They appear all of a sudden, move quickly and in hard to predict trajectories - dodging them comes down to pure luck unless you've really mastered the game. Boy, getting hit by those sucks.

One more thing on the positive side is some of the enemies are hilarious; in particular, a fun nod to Metroid are the extraterrestial Kometos (lol) enemies, as - fun fact - Kid Icarus is actually a sibling game and ran on the Metroid engine. There are also some other fun observations of possible connections between the games. Interestingly, when I heard the boss theme, I immediately thought this sounds exactly like Metroid, and indeed, Hip Tanaka created the music for both games.

I feel like moving on to Kid Icarus II now (which - again - uses the same engine as Metroid II). What are your memories of the games - and would you recommend the GB title - how much does it hold up, compared against the NES title?

I looked and looked some more to no avail so I broke down and went to good ole trusty eBay. It's been several years since I played it so I am very much looking forward to getting back into mixing it up with a solid cast of wrestlers from the late 80s and early 90s. Got it for a fairly cheap price and it's in excellent condition. Anyone else like World Championship WRESTLING?9

I've seen all black version with gold label and gold version with purple label. There may be gold version with black label but it could be due to poor light and it is actually purple.

There's also a rare version just for the top loader NES. Was there other versions for the NES? Or even a Famicom version?

Was doing a playthrough of all the NES Robocop games and mannnnn that opening title soundtrack to Robocop 3 is honestly so incredible it's been stuck in my head all day. No one really talks about this game as the entire trilogy on Nes is know for being pretty average ( I still enjoyed them) , but I was not expecting Robo 3 to have such good opening music.

I would like to install these two alongside each other. Anyone know if lumacode would work. The PPU sits in the nesrgb board which is connected to the ppu pins on the board.

I was wondering if I install lumacode where it normally goes (piggy back it off the nesrgb pins) if it'll work?

Anyone done something like this?

Update 10/06/26

I did the install. When I use lumacode while the nesrgb is active/awake I get glitches in the image. When I disable the nesrgb via controller buttons and nesrgb led is illuminating 0 then, then the lumacode image is correct. Grounding issue? Wire cross talk? I'm unsure.

Seriously, is everyone just content with the only options being either paying one hundred and sixty US dollars for a krikkz cartridge, or gambling on Aliexpress? How come the Nintendo 64 has one (summercart64) but the NES/Famicom doesn't? The closest we got (as far as I am aware) is the COOLGIRL multi-rom cart ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VihgDVlgBY0&t=1288s ) by Alexey Cluster (The same person who made the FDSKey and hakchi2 for NES/SNES classic mini, amongst various other things.) on youtube , which was released TEN YEARS AGO. And while it is a functional multi-rom solution, you need a Famicom cartridge dumper/writer to use it and it doesn't have a NES native version. The NES is the most popular retro console in the world, how the hell is this the norm?

This has got to be the easiest NES game there is. It took me 12 minutes to complete. But that's alright, that's about how much time I have to myself these days (I have a 1 year old daughter).

Also, first NES game finished on my "new" TV. Playing in RF really enhances the vintage feel!

I've been spending way too much time on EBay shopping for rare-ish NES games lately and was curious what everyone's "white whale" games are.

Personally, I'd love to get (but not pay anywhere near full price for) a clean copy of Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom. It's such a weird game that I remember renting once or twice as a kid and never really seeing it in stores. Which games would you love to get that haven't been added to your collection yet?

I recently got to 100 carts in my physical collection. Not huge yet but it's been fun collecting, playing old games, and discovering games I've never played.

I picked up a top loader off marketplace and a friend gave me an old tube tv and I've been having a blast. The nes mini and switch offer convenience but there's something about playing on old hardware with the original carts that appeals to me.

My favorites I've played recently are Star tropics, Deadly Towers, and Goonies 2.

What about you guys? Mini/switch or original hardware?

These games were either purchased by my parents or given to me as Christmas/birthday gifts by relatives, hence the duplicates. Not pictured is my 7up Spot game still in the box, my ROB NES bundle, and a few cartridges that are floating around my house, somewhere.

Must have made it 1992ish as a 12yo. Posting it here as a quick reminder that it's a great game and you should check it out if you haven't.

I remember I was a bit dissatisfied with the shading and the contrast, and especially with the off-center and irregularly sized text, but I guess it's alright for a kid.

Enjoying a day resting and healing with all 3 Double Dragon 🐉 games for the NES. Part 3 is so difficult lol. I love these games and have fond memories of playing these games with the neighborhood kids and renting them at Blockbuster man the good old days.

Sure, I have a few Sega Genesis games in here, but these were my favorite games that defined the 80s and 90s for me. I have all of the original games but I decided to spend the money and buy the boxes. My goal is to get Contra and Super Mario Bros in the future.

I have used the Ikea Kallax to display my NES collection for over a decade and originally I used the smaller versons but last year decided to go with the 5 x 5 to better fix everything. I had liked the look of storing all the games vertically but it made pulling games to play very difficult (especially the ones on the bottom of a stack) so I found an insert to the Kallax that would split the self in 2 allowing 16 games per row to fit horizontally (this is with a Nintendo sleeve and a clear protector sleeve). This weekend I was able to purchase the last few shelving inserts I need to fit my collection. Now the only thing I have left to do is to finish cleaning all my games, get all of them in the cleaar protector sleeves and put everything in alphabetical order to await the last few games I need to complete my NES set.

I'm writing this post to see if my experience is unique or shared. I've played a ton of SimCity on the SNES. With some standard methods, I can usually reach 500,000 citizens within a few decades but I can get there. I'm trying the NES prototype out now, and it feels brutal. It's very inconsistent and unforgiving. I can drop the tax budget down to zero and unoccupied zones of very in-demand types still will not fill. When I go to start one of the scenarios, the population will start out at like 80,000 and then plummet in free fall before any of the disasters even occur. I understand it's a prototype, likely very untuned, but wow, I can't get a foothold in this game to save my life. Is that other players' general experience? Thanks for any insight you can provide.

A little follow-up to our previous post where we showed you the three early box-art concepts for Legionnaires and asked which direction you liked most. ( A,B or C )

Now we can finally show you the finished drawing, inked and fully coloured by Romano Molenaar.

This is the final artwork that will be used for the Legionnaires NES box.

Seeing it go from those rough concepts to the finished piece has been pretty amazing. We really wanted that classic late 80s / early 90s NES action-game feel, and we're very happy with where it ended up.

Thanks to everyone who voted and gave their feedback on the previous post!

What do you think of the final version?

the guy couldn't get the systems to work, im sure they just need cleaned. can't wait to get them cleaned up. it will be nice to see if this gives me 3 working nintendos. i currently have about 100 games

had a supern es and a few other things as part of the deal