Board 8 > Thirty years of video games -- a transience retrospective.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Metal_DK posted...

dont forget Bucky O'Hare for 1992 NES. One of the best games ever made imo, only recently have people been talking about its greatness more.

Criminally under-rated.
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I played that game for the first time last year. not a fan!
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WazzupGenius00 posted...

Hard Drivin' is technically significant but people don't really think the game itself is that great, do they?

It was great in the arcades, Race Drivin was better though

Also Power Drift
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WazzupGenius00 posted...

TMNT 3: The Manhattan Project

Oh man, I love this game. It might be the first game I ever used my Game Genie on, actually.
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transcience posted...

I get the feeling everyone will be real enthusiastic until I get into the back half! not much nostalgia for assassin's creed and bioshock

Opposite for me! My first console was an N64! This is all a history lesson to me
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LeonhartFour posted...

WazzupGenius00 posted...

TMNT 3: The Manhattan Project

Oh man, I love this game. It might be the first game I ever used my Game Genie on, actually.

It was the best turtles game imo
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Best home TMNT game I can see

Turtles in Time arcade is the overall best though IMO
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also I did this weird thing with my Game Genie and Super Street Fighter II

I would put in the code where you can only do damage with throws, and then I'd do an all-CPU tournament with 16 fighters and just watch it play out to see who would win

I would do all-CPU tournaments in just about every SF game actually

maybe there's a market for this on B8 if we do it like Moltar used to do with the Brawl Fighting League and let people "gamble" on the matches
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LeonhartFour posted...

maybe there's a market for this on B8 if we do it like Moltar used to do with the Brawl Fighting League and let people "gamble" on the matches

Yes please.
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My only thing is that I'm not a gambler so I wouldn't really know how to set up everything, so I guess I would need someone's help in that regard!
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Game genie
Oh man

I remember using codes to beat smb3, except like the game froze right after bower died and I remember being SO MAD AND SAD
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Yeah, any code that forces Mario to always have a certain power will freeze up the game at the end when it tries to force you to regular Super Mario. Galoob's code books called this Bowser's Trap or something silly like that
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wouldn't Zangief destroy that? maybe not
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1993
http://i.imgur.com/q165uIL.png

Notable Games:

The 7th Guest
Doom
Gunstar Heroes
Kirby's Adventure
Mortal Kombat (SNES/GEN)
Mortal Kombat II
Myst (Mac)
NBA Jam
Phantasy Star 4
Return to Zork
Samurai Showdown
Secret of Mana
Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting
Shining Force
Star Fox
Virtua Fighter
Zelda: Link's Awakening
Day of the Tentacle

transience’s take:

1 – Street Fighter II Turbo
2 – Mortal Kombat II
3 – Doom
4 – NBA Jam
5 – Return to Zork

Overall: 24th

Media Picks:

Nintendo Power: Mortal Kombat (SNES)
EGM: Samurai Showdown (ARC/Neo Geo)

1993 is a weird gap year, at least on home consoles. There’s no Mario and no Sonic and no Final Fantasy. Zelda came out, but it was black and white. (Some people loved it – not this guy!) The stars of the console space, at least as far as exclusives go, are Secret of Mana and Star Fox on the SNES and Gunstar Heroes, Phantasy Star 4 and Shining Force on the Genesis.

I.. kind of didn’t play any of these. That’s because my life was literally consumed by Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. MK2 came out in arcades in 1993 and made some significant improvements. More characters, better control, multiple fatalities, lots of new moves, FRIENDSHIP? The race to discover everything in MK2 is extremely underrated when looking back on it today. MK had so much weird stuff crammed into it, especially 2. You had the toasty guy. You could knock guys into the acid or the spikes. You had babalities that required you to not press a punch button in the final round. There were secret characters to discover. None of this was explicit and there was no internet – maybe usenet, but not anything that could be sourced. Different versions of the game had different fatalities as they were doing lots of location testing. The race to find everything was real.

On the home consoles, we had MORTAL MONDAY. The general consensus was that the Genesis version was the go-to because it would have blood (unlocked by the famous ABACABB code). The SNES version was more or less similar to the Genesis one but it didn’t have any blood. That was, for some reason, a huge deal. It also helped that MK translated a lot better to a 3 button controller than SF did. The Genesis won the fight on Mortal Kombat and it continued the perception that it was the edgier, “cooler” console. This was the first major win that I can remember – Sonic vs. Mario was an opinion but MK was just a well-known fact that it was better on Genesis.

Me? I didn’t care that much because MK2 was out in the arcades and, more importantly, SF2 Turbo came out on the SNES. I think Champion Edition came out for Genesis this year but it’s barely even worth mentioning compared to its SNES counterpart. SF2 Turbo had the real code of the year – Down R Up L Y B – that unlocked up to ten star speed. You could finally play as the four boss characters. SF2’s biggest issue was its sluggish pace and Turbo fixed that. I played this game to death in a way that I haven’t done before or since – you can pretty much assume that I played this the rest of the decade to the detriment of other big games. It’s most likely my #1 most played game.

The arcade boom that SF2 brought on led to a ton of new games. The big fighting games were Samurai Showdown and Virtua Fighter. NBA Jam took sports games and made them a lot more arcade-y (and expensive!). Ridge Racer and Daytona USA did the same for racing. Arcades were never healthier than they were in 1993 (well, except for the early 80s -- I mean for the duration of this list).
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And despite how huge they were, arcades weren’t the biggest story of 1993.

http://i.imgur.com/GBoSMTA.png

Wolfenstein 3D introduced the idea of the FPS but Doom made it a reality. Wolfenstein’s level design was very 2d - lots of straight geometry and right angles. There was only about five different enemy types. (I love Wolf3d but it’s pretty basic.) Doom made the experience a lot more organic and immersive. It had amazing weapons and speed. It was demonic in an era where that kind of thing wasn’t widespread – we were still losing our minds over blood in Mortal Kombat. Doom changed everything. I consider it the first modern PC game. People are still outfitting it for phones and calculators and ATMs and TVs and you name it. It’s right there with SF2 as a game that singlehandedly pushed things in a totally different direction.

The big technological advance in 1993 was CD technology. PC gaming took advantage of this in the form of full-motion video, mostly for adventure games. The 7th Guest isn’t a game that’s well-known today but it was a formative puzzle game that sold the technology. Myst came out in 1993 but only on Mac – the PC version wouldn’t hit until ’95. Return to Zork took the classic text adventure and set it in a big world complete with goofy as hell voice acting. Day of the Tentacle wasn’t exclusively a CD game but it did continue the LucasArts legacy of great adventure games.

It’s just too bad about the console games. 1993 holds up if you’re big on PC games or arcades, but when it comes to those classic 90s experiences on SNES or Genesis, it really feels like a shocking gap. Secret of Mana fans probably disagree with my take, but whatever!
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transience posted...

wouldn't Zangief destroy that? maybe not

Yeah, usually, although the CPU doesn't understand how Game Genie codes work, so they don't all instinctively go for throws. Zangief has the advantage because his specials are throws. Zangief wasn't always in the tournament though since picking CPU in Tournament mode was always random.
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transience posted...

1993 is a weird gap year, at least on home consoles. There’s ... no Sonic

Technically there's Sonic CD, which I think some people like for some reason.
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oh yeah, the sega cd exists

I almost wrote about night trap for 1992 but skipped it
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ps4 and gunstar heroes are amazing

haven't played shining force though
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1993: Street Fighter II Turbo > NBA Jam >= Mortal Kombat II > Virtua Fighter > Doom > Samurai Shodown

You're right about all the crazy Easter Eggs in MK2. Trying to find them all was a huge deal. Unlocking Jade and Smoke was really cool. Actually, was MK the first game to do "unlockable" characters? I know you could fight Reptile in MK1 if you uppercutted someone into the Pit when you saw a silhouette in the moon (what a weird sentence). Did any game beat MK to the punch on that stuff?

I loved NBA Jam, too. Midway put a lot of unlock codes in that one, too, like being able to play as Bill Clinton of all people. I always thought it was cool as a kid that Tournament Edition came out on SNES on my birthday and my initials are JAM!
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Also, I played a little bit of Star Fox and Secret of Mana, but not enough to rank them.

Oh hey, I had a Sega CD! There was a really cool Spider-Man game and a great wrestling game, too!
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To be fair, Gunstar Heroes/Phantasy Star IV/Shining Force is a legit killer lineup for the Genesis
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both Midway games! 90s Midway was super duper fun.
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transience posted...

both Midway games! 90s Midway was super duper fun.

heck yeah

I've probably played more NBA Jam and NFL Blitz than any other sports game.
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transience posted...

oh yeah, the sega cd exists

I almost wrote about night trap for 1992 but skipped it

You skipped the Lynx and Game Gear in their years too :-(
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PS4 has always been a huge gaming shame for me. my mom got rid of my Genesis in around 1992 or so (I had too many games) so I never got to play later Genesis titles.
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Game Gear another thing I had

Sonic 2 Game Gear might be the most frustrating game I've ever played

I never did figure out how to beat that first boss

Sonic Triple Trouble was great fun though
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I did have a Game Gear and that was what I got MK1 for. 2 1 2 down up! 6 batteries for 1 hour of battery what a system

I also have (present tense) a MASTER CONVERTER which is this frankenstein looking thing that lets you play SMS games on your game gear
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LeonhartFour posted...

Game Gear another thing I had

Sonic 2 Game Gear might be the most frustrating game I've ever played

I never did figure out how to beat that first boss

Play it on the Master System. It's a lot better.
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these writeups are already pretty long so I'm trying to stick to the big guns. I could talk about the Jaguar and CDI and 3DO and Game Gear and Sega CD but they really don't matter too much. the TG16 did feel kind of significant at the time so I included a (real short) blurb about it.
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but yeah, feel free to include anything on other games I am neglecting either intentionally or unintentionally
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transience posted...

It’s just too bad about the console games.

Super Mario All-Stars (+ True Mario 2)
Sonic CD
Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
NHL 94
The Lost Vikings
Super Bomberman
...
I could go on

1993 was really good on consoles too
93 was an overall great year
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How could you omit the NES classic Cheetahmen II?
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also, 1992 had the best selling pinball game of all time with The Addams Family.
That should be noted.

Pinball games always get lost in discussions
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Pinball is a significant part of video game history, but it's not really fair to call most of them "video games"
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Secret of Mana is pretty good, but it certainly can't carry a year!
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LOLIAmAnAlt posted...

also, 1992 had the best selling pinball game of all time with The Addams Family.

oh man this local restaurant had this pinball machine

we used to go there every Sunday after church and I'd play at least two or three games on it while I was there

good times

LOLIAmAnAlt posted...

Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Loved this game, but I don't think I ever beat it!
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I hate pinball. I just don't understand the point.

I did play an unusual amount of Devil's Crush on the TG16 though
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transience posted...

Return to Zork took the classic text adventure and set it in a big world complete with goofy as hell voice acting.

Wow, that takes me back. I remember the ridiculous voice acting, but it was a pretty fun game.

want some rye? course you do
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Great topic. No particular comment at the moment beyond that but maybe I'll have something for later entries now that I'm caught up with it and aware it exists.
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Shining Force is one of my all time faves

Doom was also godly

MK2 hooked me

Secret of Mana was awesome. these gotta be 4 of my top 30ish games including 2 top 10
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Now that we're 25 years since the fighting game wars, we can all admit the Street Fighter II series was better than MK 1-3, right?

I'll give MK the edge in lore, for sure
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SF2 was better if you just wanted to put in your Aladdin's Castle token in and play. MK was a bit more spectacle and a treasure trove of s*** to find and show off. When someone put their token up on the cabinet, in SF2 I was annoyed because they were just gonna pick Ken. In MK2-3 I was like, I don't care if I lose because something funny is going to happen. Unless it was The Pit.
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SF was always better. I did like MK more for a short period of time when 2 came out though.
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Mortal Kombat for the Genesis, the best reason to rent a Genesis from the video store.

I played the hell out of Secret of Mana. It got to the point where I discovered the secret top-level magic animations (not terribly secret, but unless you leveled the hell out of your magic you'd never see them) as well as the level 8 weapon orbs. They never changed the ending, but I kept hoping.

1994
https://i.imgur.com/g7fxS7c.jpg

Notable Games:

Blackthorne
Breath of Fire
Contra: Hard Corps
Darkstalkers
Descent
Donkey Kong Country
Doom 2
Earthworm Jim
Final Fantasy VI
Illusion of Gaia
King of Fighters
Killer Instinct
Lode Runner: The Legend Returns
Marathon
Mega Man X
Shining Force 2
Simcity 2000
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Streets of Rage 3
Super Metroid
Super Punch-Out
Tekken
Uniracers
Warcraft
Wario Land
Wario's Woods
X-Com

transience's take:

1 - Super Metroid
2 - Final Fantasy VI
3 - Lode Runner: The Legend Returns
4 - Uniracers
5 - Doom II

Overall rank: 4

Media Picks:

Nintendo Power: Donkey Kong Country
EGM: Donkey Kong Country

jeeeeeeeeeeeesus christ that's a list of video games. There's no way I can realistically cover even half of them. Heck, I stopped listing them after a while or else I'd break the character limit without writing anything.

1994 was amazing. It was basically the 16 bit version of 1990 - they've figured out the hardware and they are just putting out bangers everywhere. Let's start with Nintendo. Today, the star of 1994 is unquestionably Super Metroid. Super Metroid is probably the most influential game released in 1994. I tend to hate 'ahead of its time' designations but it fits with Super Metroid. Console games, especially action games, just weren't atmospheric like Super Metroid was. Super Metroid has exquisite environmental design. It subtly informs the player of both gameplay and narrative details without being explicit in any way. The game trusted the player to find their way which is a rarity in a 1994 Nintendo game. And, of course, there's the Metroid-y elements - Metroid 1 had most of the functionality that Super Metroid did but Super Metroid presented them in a much more appealing way. I'll stop here because I can go on forever. It's my #1 game.

But in 1994, Super Metroid was secondary to Donkey Kong Country. Oh man, DKC. I'm not sure if any SNES game was more popular or more anticipated than Donkey Kong Country. Those 3d models blew everyone away back then. It's kind of funny to look back on it because the graphics don't break your brain anymore. DKC is a pretty straightforward platformer, not unlike a mainline Mario game, but the visuals and the music made everyone lose their damn mind. Nowadays you don't hear a whole lot about this game - most people rave about its sequel.

Third parties also brought it on the Nintendo side. Square released Final Fantasy VI. FF6 was a pretty huge step forward for the series. It was bleak, it had atmosphere and tone, it had a really engaging story and it looked great. RPGs weren't as popular back then so this wasn't a hugely notable release like DKC but it's clearly gone on to be one of the most popular RPGs of all time. Capcom also released a huge game - Mega Man X. After five NES games (MM6 wouldn't release until later that year), Mega Man X finally changed up the graphics and the formula. You could dash and climb walls and bosses functioned way differently. It was fundamentally the same game but the change in movement and speed changed the series permanently.
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Okay, enough Nintendo for now. Sega also had its big guns in 1994. Sonic 3 and Knuckles hit and is probably Sonic's most popular game in the franchise (at least, if you count them together). Streets of Rage 3 and Shining Force 2 are huge Sega franchises that hit big. Contra got its own Sega exclusive in Hard Corps. Earthworm Jim wasn't an exclusive - though it did come out first on Genesis - but it felt like a Genesis kind of game with its style and feel. The Sega Channel also came out in 1994 which is some kind of magic that I've wondered about for years and never looked up how it actually worked. I refuse to look because in my mind this was literal magic.

Fighting games continued to blossom in arcades. King of Fighters, Killer Instinct and Darkstalkers were all hit new franchises that still play today while Namco came out with Tekken. 3d fighters were starting to come into their own with Virtua Fighter last year and now Tekken. Street Fighter II Super Turbo also hit in 1994 which remains the definitive version of SF2 and still gets a lot of play now. Heck, they're putting out a new version of ST with new a couple of new characters in a couple of months. Man, fighting games were big. I can't even comprehend something like this happening today.

Over on PC you had the first Warcraft game which, at least for me, didn't really seem big until its sequel came out next year. Doom 2 is a hugely notable game for me personally because it was the first game I played with online deathmatch. I used to play for hours against a friend over a lovely 14.4k modem. X-Com, Marathon, System Shock, Simcity 2000 also came out. Those are all really notable. My favorite game, though, was Lode Runner: the Legend Returns, a wonderful reimagining of the 1983 classic. I used to rank this in my top 5 games of all time before it just started to feel too dated to keep it up that high. Lode Runner, for those who don't know, kind of invented the puzzle platformer and invented/popularized level editors. You could even credit it as contributing to the video game crash. Computer games were just better than what they were putting out on Atari.

Let's quickly run down some other wonderful games. Blizzard released Blackthorne and Rockstar North released Uniracers. (What?) I loved both of these games. Blackthorne had a ton of style, especially when you shot behind you. It looked so cool. Uniracers was a wonderful 2d racing game with ultra simple controls that made it really easy to play with friends. Mario Kart wasn't a lot of fun because I was unbelievably good at that game and would lap my friends, but Uniracers leveled the playing field without dumbing down the experience. Breath of Fire was a fun little RPG, Wario's Woods signaled the end of the NES, Illusion of Gaia was cool.. yeah, 1994 was freaking great. Super Metroid led the way and tons of other games fill in the library.
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Save the frames, kill the animals. I wonder just how much money Super Metroid has ended up earning for charities over the years.
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1994: Sonic 3 & Knuckles > Mega Man X > Final Fantasy VI > Donkey Kong Country > Streets of Rage 3 > Tekken > Earthworm Jim > Super Punch-Out
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