Oh god. I started compiling a list this morning but because of my start year I ran out of energy very quickly! I’ll get back on it later today.
I was mainly hindered by “I’ve played it” or “no way of playing it”
My list so far:
1972 er???
1973 Gotcha (Atari)
1974 ???
1975 dnd
1976 Blockade
1977 ???
1978 Gee Bee
…
Hmm maybe a better technique might be to start from 2023 and work backwards?
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This was fun to make, after deciding to cheat by skipping years and including almost only pc games!
@“Snowdecahedron”#p103961 Umineko is a real journey, hope you have fun with that one.
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This is what I came up with. I was fairly loose with the release dates as some games were released earlier in japan than they were in the US so I considered both dates as acceptable for the purpose of this list. I also tried not to limit myself to games that I thought I would like and focused on the premise of games Ive never played but knew existed.
This might take a while. Also making this list made me feel old just from how many games it took to make it, but being/feeling old is okay.
@“Toph”#p103968 yeah I think I might have fudged some.of mine with release datesToo but those long long lists of game releases on Wikipedia are headache inducing!
@“JXUA”#p103976 Yeah I tried not to let the release dates hinder me as much as I felt the whole goal of the list was experiencing something new. The date aspect just added a touch of spice to it all I think.
Alright, I've decided to pick this up as a project. Here are my thoughts on 88, 89, and 90. Behind spoilers to avoid clogging up the thread.
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1988: The Guardian Legend (NES)
Played to completion: Yes.
This game’s great! The mandatory one hour is a good idea, because I almost stopped this one at the first level. It’s a difficult first level! However, once you get past that, and start building up your character and getting subweapons, it’s really fun. I think it’s super cool that you’re digging down into this dying planet, getting deeper and deeper from the ocean to the weird guts at the core, so you can kill the demonic aliens and destroy the planet. It’s feels like a big weird journey.
One other thing I really like, and this will sound simple but trust me, is that the some of the shooting stages scroll fast. Like “this is out of control” fast. It’s a really exciting way to make a shooting stage feel tense.
The game’s password system is pretty unforgiving, so I just save stated my way through the whole thing and had a great time. I feel like I still got a pretty satisfying challenge.
I love that you get a carefully animated transformation sequence every time she turns into the space plane.
1989: Sagaia (aka Darius 2, Genesis)
Played to completion: No.
This was my first Darius game. I’ve played a bunch of horizontal shooters, but never got around to Darius. For my first hour, I tried to credit feed through the game and wasn’t successful, and I didn’t really want to try anymore.
It seems like an okay shooter. I like some things about it. I think the enemy placement and movement makes good use of all your tools. I like the fish enemies. I like how some enemies are very small. I like that it’s a trip through the solar system.
But yeah I dunno. Seems okay.
1990: ESWAT: City Under Siege (Genesis)
Played to completion: No.
I really enjoyed the first two levels of this game, where you’re just a little man with a dinky little gun shooting everyone. After you get the power suit and the game wants you to use the jetpack, I just couldn’t hang with it anymore. I don’t like how the jetpack feels to use at all.
Maybe I could learn to like it, but I’m not sure how much I want to work to like this game.
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@“Mnemogenic”#p104046 1988: The Guardian Legend (NES)
I'd never heard of this but when I looked it up it sounded awesome. I don't think I mentioned this before but I've gone through everyone's lists and added a bunch of stuff for my next round of this project. Excited to try this!
Here is my list. This was fun to put together. I tried to stick with games I already had in one way or another and a few of these games I have played a bit. I plan on playing this list throughout the year. I'm sure I will play other things but these 42 will be the focus. I have it listed by Title / Developer or Publisher / System - How I will most likely play it.
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1980 - Wizard of Wor / Midway / Arcade - PS2 via Midway Treasures 2
1981 - Bosconian / Namco / Arcade - PSX via Namco Museum Vol 1 & XBOX360 via Namco Museum Virtual Arcade
1982- Jungle Hunt / Taito / Arcade - PS2 via Taito Legends
1983 - Keystone Capers / Activision / Atari 2600 - PS2 via Activision Anthology
1984 - Grobda / Namco / Arcade - XBOX360 via Namco Museum Virtual Arcade
1985 - Baraduke / Namco / Arcade - XBOX360 via Namco Museum Virtual Arcade
1986 - Alex Kidd in Miracle World / Sega / Master System - MegaSG via Everdrive
1987 - phantasy star / Sega / Master System - MegaSG via Everdrive
1988 - Konami Wai Wai World / Konami / Famicom - NES via Everdrive
1989 - Herzog Zwei/ Technosoft / Mega Drive - Switch via Sega Ages
1990 - Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse / Sega / Genesis - MegaSG via Everdrive
1991 - Rent a Hero / Sega / Mega Drive - MegaSG via Everdrive
1992 - Little Samson / Taito / NES - NES via Everdrive
1993 - Myst / Cyan / Mac - iPad via iOS App Store
1994 - The King of Fighters ‘94 / SNK / NEO GEO - PS5 via Arcade Archives
1995 - Panzer Dragoon / Sega / Saturn - via disc
1996 - Guardian Heroes / Treasure / Saturn - XBOX via XBLA
1997 - Daytona USA Circuit Edition / Sega / Saturn - via disc
1998 - Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit / EA / PSX - via disc
1999 - Pac-Man World: 20th Anniversary / Namco / PSX - via disc
2000 - Ridge Racer V / Namco / PS2 - via disc
2001 - Time Crisis: Project Titan / Namco / PSX - via disc
2002 - Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 / EA / PS2 - via disc
2003 - Panzer Dragoon Orta / Sega / XBOX360 - via disc
2004 - Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy / Midway / XBOX - via disc
2005 - Gran Turismo 4 / Polyphony Digital / PS2 - via disc
2006 - Devil May Cry 3: Dante‘s Awakening Special Edition / Capcom / PS2 - via disc
2007 - Bullet Witch / Cavia & Marvelous / XBOX360 - via disc
2008 - Too Human / Silicon Knights / XBOX360 - via disc
2009 - Madworld / Platinum Games / Wii - via disc
2010 - Dante’s Inferno / EA / XBOX360 - via disc
2011 - Child of Eden / Q Entertainment / XBOX360 - via disc
2012 - Street Fighter X Tekken / Capcom and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 / Namco / XBOX360 - via disc
2013 - Anarchy Reigns / Platinum Games / XBOX360 - via disc
2014 - Sunset Overdrive / Insomniac Games - XBOXONE - via disc
2015 - Batman Arkham Knight / Rocksteady / PS4 - via disc
2016 - Dishonored 2 / Arkane Studios / XBOXONE - via disc
2017 - Resident Evil 7 / Capcom / PS5 - via disc
2018 - Soul Calibur VI / Namco / PS4 - via disc
2019 - Devil May Cry V / Capcom / XBOXONE - via disc
2020 - Doom Eternal / id Software / PS5 - via disc
2021 - Lost Judgement / Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio / PS5 - via disc
2022 - God of War Ragnarok / Santa Monica Studio / PS5 - via disc
Started looking up some of the older games on my list on HG101 and it looks like I picked a few difficult games. I‘m also finding a lot of other games related to what I picked that I’d also like to try out.
@“Coffinwarehouses”#p104054 guardian legend is kind of an all-timer honestly and the japanese box art is incredible
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The first game I had a very good time with (for a while). Made it to round 13 and the last few levels were very difficult in a way that wasn't super fulfilling for me. Mostly just felt frustrated a lot. However the mechanic of building blocks and destroying them with your wand to navigate the level is pretty satisfying. Would definitely recommend to anyone who likes puzzle platformers.
60 Minute Verdict: Would maybe keep playing, though yesterday when I was done I would have said definitely No due to frustration.
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I couldn't get the 1987 Apple II ROM working so I played the VGA release from 92. Instead of fudging the rules a bit I should have just played something else. I was hoping this would be a maybe funny bit of Reagan-era copaganda but it was BOOOOOORING. A huge chunk of the game time was spent driving around looking for where I was supposed to go. The driving is slow and convoluted. Thankfully I got beat to death by a bunch of bikers right as my timer went off.
60 Minute Verdict: Would definitely not play again.
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As expected for this era of JRPG it seems very grind-oriented. Experience points don't scale very satisfyingly though, as the easiest monster you first meet is by far the best for leveling in terms of efficiency. Even once I made it to the dungeon most monsters gave the same or barely more XP for way tougher fights (they give a little more money).
Played for about 75 minutes total because I was hoping to at least finish the first dungeon, but I got lost in all the first-person wanderings and couldn't find Medusa (just looked up a walkthrough and apparently couldn't find her because she's not there! Definitely assumed finding her and defeating her would be the key to unfreezing Odin but the truth is much more complicated). Initially I was too lazy to try doing a hand-drawn map as I was exploring but that's definitely what I should have done. Or looked them up online! I just thought of doing that and that's def the best idea if you want to play this and be lazy.
Really nice aesthetic though definitely my favorite-looking of what I've played so far.
60 Minute Verdict (or in this case 75): Would not keep playing. Don't think I have the patience for grinding anymore and I'm not interested enough in the story so far to just use a walkthrough to speed things up.
@“Coffinwarehouses”#p104399 This is also on my list. I was planning on playing the original, but after thinking about it I am going the get the Sega Ages version on Switch. It has a map on screen during the dungeon sections and a few other updates to mitigate the difficulty.
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@“tomjonjon”#p104401 It has a map on screen during the dungeon sections and a few other updates to mitigate the difficulty.
Ooh this sounds like a very nice quality-of-life update.
@“Coffinwarehouses”#p104406 This Kotaku article list the improvements:
"The Sega Ages version of Phantasy Star is quite unlike other re-released games. It’s not a remake, like the Final Fantasy ones with their upgraded graphics, music, and interfaces. It is the original Master System version running under emulation, and if you want the original, brutal experience, you can have it. You can change around how the game displays, altering the screen size, pixel smoothing, etc. But you can also choose to tweak the gameplay in a variety of ways.
You can play the game in “Ages Mode,” which changes nothing about the game except for, in almost Game Genie-like fashion, making enemy encounters less frequent and bumping up the experience points and money that you receive for each. Now you can get powered up without grinding, and you won’t be interrupted so much when you explore. There’s also a new menu that you can bring up with descriptions of all the game’s items, equipment, and magic spells, which are not described in the game and have severely truncated names. No more wondering what the hell a FRD. MANT is supposed to be.
Most importantly, Phantasy Star’s dungeons now have an auto-mapping feature. This is one of those RPGs with pseudo-3D, first-person dungeon crawling, and the dungeons are sufficiently complex that you would have to literally get out sheets of graph paper and map out the layouts as you played if you wanted to have a snowball’s chance in hell of finding your way through. In the Switch version, a map on the right side of the screen is automatically filled in as you travel through the mazes, making them quite easy to navigate."
Here's my 91, 92, and 93. Overall, this was a great run.
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1991: Mad TV (DOS)
>! Played to completion: No.
Before I play older games, I try to make a point of reading the manual first. I couldn’t find the manual for this anywhere, so I had to watch a 40 minute “tutorial/let’s play” on youtube in order to figure out how to play this game.
Once I knew how to play, I made five attempts at the game (all on the easy difficulty). Every single one ended with my TV station in complete ruin: mired in debt, showing Citizen Kane for the third time that week, interspersed with the news from four days ago and ads for local graphic designers and cleaning products. Failure still makes for fun stories, so I never found the game especially frustrating.
Playing the game is good. There are a lot of interesting choices to make balancing programming budget, ad deals, station reach, running the programming schedule, and making sure your news team has the latest stories from the wire. But I find it impossible to do any of it well.
I will definitely pick up this game again now and then. It has that quality to it that makes you want to give it one more try, this time doing one or two things differently.
1992: Truxton II (FM Towns)
>! Played to completion: No.
This game is way too difficult for me. I spent the first mandatory hour struggling to make any progress. This game uses checkpoints, so you can’t quite credit feed through. The game still expects you to overcome each encounter fair and square.
By the end of the first hour, I was completely demoralized. I think I had beaten one boss and spent maybe 20 or 30 credits.
It’s technically impressive! The game is fast, and it can have dozens of enemies and bullets on screen without slowing down. Unfortunately, all those enemies are trying to run you down and shooting directly at you with bullets just on the wrong side of fast. And your hitbox is huge, so it’s incredibly easy to catch a stray bullet.
I did not have a good time with this. If you’re really good at shooters, you might.
1993: The Punisher (Arcade)
>! Played to completion: Yes.
I’ve never really cared about The Punisher, and the connection between the character and killer cops really puts me off (I have been informed that cops have the character completely wrong, but nonetheless). However, I had a feeling that I had heard this was a good beat ‘em up somewhere, so it went on the list.
And wow, I love this game. It’s a big ridiculous cartoon. When I cleared it (very casually, no 1ccs or anything), I still had time left on my hour, so I played the video game through a second time.
I just want to tell you stuff I love about this game.
It’s colorful! This game has so many cool purples and greens and oranges. Great backgrounds!
Any time The Punisher pulls out a gun (and it’s very funny to me that he’s the one in control of that, not me) it turns into one of the silliest games I’ve ever played.
Enemy types! You’ve got your kung fu man, your punk rocker, your mafia man, your tall robot with a human face, your magical katana lady. Every fight turns into a genre-agnostic spectacle.
This game’s great. Maybe my new favorite beat ‘em up.
@“tomjonjon”#p104401 The Sega Ages version on Switch is 100% the way to go. The quality of life features only serve to improve the experience. I beat it myself a few months ago and it was just Dandy. I recommend looking at the included digital instruction booklet and making heavy use of the magic spell reference table.
This is a really cool idea, so I‘m gonna do it.
I definitely need a bunch of time to make my list, but I’m pretty sure my first one will be 1990's Beverly Hills Cop on DOS.
