Yesterday, I was going through a Wikipedia page that lists every Nintendo Entertainment System game with a North American release (even some that were canceled or came out as 2017 "homebrews"). I came up with a smaller list of about 34 games that might give me a good idea of what was available for that system. That might be conservative, since I didn't write down any sequels to games where I probably haven't played the original (notably, "Castlevania," "Contra," "Double Dragon," the "Mega Man" series and "Ninja Gaiden"). TMNT is a little different, because parts II and III don't really feel like the same genre as the first game. I can't remember having trouble in the electric seaweed. There was this place where you need missiles for the Turtle Van, and I had no idea that you walk across a hole, instead of trying to jump (which makes you fall down).
Well, I compared that list against a store called DKOldies.com and the Virtual Console - even the NES Classic (assuming I might ever find one for the retail price). For some reason (the low price?), I just wanted to jump on a few VC games to get an idea of how the emulation works on Wii U. Those picks were the classic "Super Mario Bros." (not actually their first game together), "Kirby's Adventure" (his first console game, or even the first in the whole series?), and "Metroid" (possibly my favorite series, period - which I know based on not playing the original?). "Metroid" is kind of weird when I try to analyze it "logically." I have no stomach for horror movies, or "survival horror" games about zombies. Isn't "Metroid" kind of a survival horror game, except with sci-fi elements? The sci-fi overrides everything else, then?
So, I only played "Super Mario Bros." tonight for about 50 minutes. That was after watching a few videos of some amazing hardware emulation on the Analogue NT mini. They were going into details about your multiplier, ratio, scanlines (not selectable in Virtual Console, unless I missed that menu) and other neat stuff. All I know is that my TV is a 768p model. The closest full number from 240 rows of pixels to expand up to 768 would be 3x, with some black bars on the top and the bottom. That's kind of what I remember (although, I was more interested in watching Mario). The blue in the sky kind of has a purple tone from a certain angle, which I think is true to using an NES on a CRT TV set. I might prefer an emulator that would let you change the color palette to a more pale blue. I think even the "NES Remix" mini-games with "SMB" have a nice shade of light blue.
I know that the frames can't really match a CRT, since I think the NES ran at 60.08 frames per second. An LCD screen like mine expects exactly 60 frames in one second. It was hard to notice the game running at a different speed, though (I'm trying to figure out if it would be faster at lower frames or a little slower).
It's been a while since I played the original, but what kind of music would it play when you climb a vine into the clouds? On the VC, I couldn't remember getting a Star man power-up, but the music changed to the invincible soundtrack up in the clouds for the whole time I was there. It made me wonder if that could be a "bug" in the emulator, accessing the wrong sound file.
The other thing that seemed like a "bug" was how I died inside a castle when it looked like there were black pixels between myself and Bowser. Maybe he had spit a fireball, but it didn't animate on the screen? That was just some weird "hit detection" that made me wonder how accurate the original game was in deciding whether you touched his sprite or not.
The music and the sound effects were the way I remember (other than that cloud area). I think my receiver was actually lighting the LED for "digital" or surround sound, which was weird to me, since I think NES was only one channel (monaural) repeating in two speakers (if your TV had more than one). I was only hearing it on the left channel, but that's because my system at home has pinched or faulty wires on the center and right channels that cut in and out.
In terms of the game itself, I think I died in area 2-2 on my first play attempt. The furthest I got was maybe to 3-3 or 3-4. I'm assuming you're supposed to be running through each stage like a 100 yard dash. My OCD is saying, "try to break every block" or "you missed a coin." Then the music speeds up because the timer keeps running low. The swimming controls are awkward as a large Mario. It doesn't make sense that fireballs travel through water, but I think the game always used that rule. When Fire Mario takes a hit, he turns small again. I feel like, in "SMB3" and the later games, you had two extra hits when you went beyond the red mushroom. First, you'd lose your extra power. Then, you'd shrink. On the third hit, you'd die. "SMB2" was overly generous with up to three mistakes if you got both bonus mushrooms.
The only other thing might be how I would die sometimes and restart in the middle of a stage (sort of like an invisible "checkpoint"), and that had me questioning what happens in the original.
Basically, not too bad of an experience. At first, I thought the ROM was altered to prevent you from playing a 2 player game (but it still says 2 players on the title screen). Then I pressed "-" on the Wii remote (it would be select on the NES pad?) and it moved down. I didn't have two controllers synced up, though. The Wii remote is kind of bulky to hold sideways and my hands were sweaty. Even if the NES Classic console is rare, I wish they had made more of those extra controllers with the Wii remote plug on the end. I mean, they didn't sell a huge number of Wii U's, but how many of the 100,000,000 Wiis are still floating around? Wouldn't it be compatible with them?
That probably has to be all for tonight. I wanted to post more about what I've been reading and learning about retro gaming and all the options for how you can acquire the out of print games (plus have the hardware to play them). It kind of makes sense why Nintendo tries to discourage you from using an SD card to save emulated games (transferring and copying are probably impossible). The thing is, they're assuming the WORST (putting illegal copies of ROMs online), instead of what's the BEST case scenario (being able to play a ROM of the game you paid for on a PC emulator or a hardware clone system with HD video and digital audio). That might not be how software licenses work, though.
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WWE 2K18 ROSTER & MATCH TYPES | ||||
If you see multiple of the same name, it just means different versions that can be in the ring together. Names highlighted in blue are Cruiserweights | ||||
1 Up Man Adam Cole Aerostar Aiden English AJ Styles Akam Akira Tozawa Albert Aleister Black Alexander Wolfe Andrade "Cien" Almas Andre The Giant Angelo Dawkins Animal Apollo Crews Ariya Daivari Arnold T101 Austin Aries B Brian Blair Bam Bam Bigelow Baron Corbin Barron Blade Batista '10 Beautiful Bobby Eaton Big Boss Man '91 Big Boss Man '99 Big Cass Big E Big Show Big Show '00 Bo Dallas Bobby Fish Bobby Roode Booker T Braun Strowman Bray Wyatt Bret Hart '97 Bret Hart '98 Brian Kendrick British Bulldog Brock Lesnar Brutus Beefcake Bryan Danielson Buddy Roberts Butch Cactus Jack '92 Cactus Jack '98 Captain Jobber Cedric Alexander Cesaro Chad Gable Chris Jericho |
Chris Jericho '00 Christian Col Sanders Cole Quinn Curt Hawkins Curtis Axel Daniel Bryan Dark Link Darren Young Dash Wilder DDP '92 DDP '98 Dean Ambrose Dennis Condrey Diesel Doc Louis Dolph Ziggler Donatello Drago Drew Gulak Drew McIntyre Dude Love Dusty Rhodes Earthquake Eddie Guerrero Edge El Mago Elias Enzo Amore Epico Colon Eric Young Erick Rowan Fandango Finn Balor Finn Balor Demon The Godfather Goldberg Goldust Gorgeous George Gran Metalik Greg Valentine Hawk Heath Slater Hideo Itami Hurricane Jack Gallagher Jake Roberts Jason Jordan JBL Jeff Hardy Jey Uso Jim Brunzell |
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VALETS & MANAGERS Anyone above can be a "manager" plus... | ||||
Bobby Heenan Lana |
Mr. McMahon Paul Ellering Paul Heyman |
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MATCH TYPES | ||||
*** ONE ON ONE *** Normal |
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*** 6-MAN *** Tag Team *** HANDICAP *** One on Two Tag |
MATCH MODIFIERS | ||||
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Over the Top Rope On, Off K.O. Last Man Standing |
Perform Finisher to Win On, Off First Blood Climb out of Cage (Cage Match Only) DQ |
Rope Break (Automatic) On, Off Ring Out Elimination |
Falls Count Anywhere On, Off Time Limit Entrance Interval (Chamber/Rumble) |
SUPER SMASH BROS. ROSTER & SETTINGS | |||
Akira Alph Austin Powers Bayonetta Bob Ross Bowser Bowser Jr Burger King Captain Falcon Charizard Charlie Brown Chuck Norris Cloud Col Sanders Corrin Dark Pit Diddy Kong Donkey Kong Dr. Mario Dracula Drew Carey |
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BATTLE TYPES TIME BATTLE: All characters battle for a set amount of time scoring one point per KO and LOSING one point each time they are KO'ed. STOCK BATTLE: All characters have a set number of lives and when they run out, they're done. When combined with a time limit whomever has more lives left when time runs out wins. COIN BATTLE: For 2-4 characters ONLY! Coins are knocked out of characters as they battle. After a fixed time limit whomever has the most coins wins. SETTINGS TIME LIMIT: Can be from 1 to 15 minutes. |