KingMike

@dartmonkey I am very bothered that I don't think that Ninja Gaiden math works out.
They only added Ninja Gaiden II. I presume they haven't added them out of order, so if they added one and are adding the second, that's double or 100% more Ninja Gaiden. When they add the third game, then it's 50% more.

@Nitwit13 They actually redesigned the eject mechanism, which is why cartridges made from about spring 1993 and on are differently shaped.
The initial carts were made (as was the Japanese/PAL carts) with the locking hole meant to prevent you from ejecting the cart with the power turned on. The later design was meant to force the power switch to the off position if you tried to pull a cart out while the power was turned on.

But with a newer cart on an older console, you can just pull it out. I even did that once after reading about in a magazine as a kid. But even as a kid, I had a feeling it probably wasn't healthy for the console to do that.

@Dev-N The 3DS get the 3D Classics version of the original Kid Icarus which was based on the Famicom Disk System version (save feature and different music).

Japan gets the better deal because they get the version of Battletoads that is more finishable by mortal humans.

@SillyG Game prices haven't actually increased that much in overall history if you consider inflation. We just had lower prices for a generation or two.
Toys 'R Us might have asked only $34.99 for The Goonies II on NES in 1987, but if you check the inflation factor, it comes in the range of those $90 Switch 2 game prices.
SNES games were the equivalent of up to and over $150 in modern currency for the most expensive games.

@GFalcon "Back in the day, if the game didn't fit on one physical medium, they would bundle two together."
That or rework the game into something that does fit.

@HammerGalladeBro I thought SF2T was the overall preferred out of the three SNES versions, over SSF2.
Not the least being, well, Turbo.
But everyone will have different preferences.

What is even stranger is that something in the music engine was changed in the localization of SSF2 for the SNES, causing different-sounding music.

@Potimarron I believe StarFox 2 is initially locked. From what I read, you have to finish a stage of the first game to unlock the sequel or something.

@Dom_31 "Who decided to go with that?"
We actually know that. Lance Barr. I'm sure there's plenty of information online.

@Olliemar28 Why are the age ratings so big? Germany is the answer, I hear.
I hear in Germany (where I've heard the age ratings are legally enforceable) they want to make ABSOLUTELY SURE they're visible.

@MamaSymphonia Yosemite isn't using a billion dollar IP to attract visitors, either.
It doesn't create a good look when you're a commercial entity doing it but it's definitely at least good of them to warn people.

@Ralek85 It still has to be something along that line. It's obviously not running Switch 1 programs from 100% (or even close to that number) compatible chips, or there wouldn't be a problem where they'd need regular compatibility updates.
There obviously is some kind of code reinterpretation thus it is at least SOME FORM of emulation, even if it's completely an "emulator".

@Gabe250 It would only even be possible on consoles where the game data is loaded into RAM and run from there.
I think the DS did that but I'm not certain.
I know GBA and earlier you couldn't do that because the CPU was running code directly off the cartridge (once you pull it out, the CPU nothing to run).

@Ampelmann Most of the game data had to be duplicated on each CD, with different cutscenes on each disc.
To avoid frequent disc swapping, games would be designed around that limitation. That is, FF7 was designed so that you could play the game through and in one playthrough, you would only need to change the discs after certain story progression.

@Serpenterror It's not different than emulator development, surely. Fix one game and you probably break another.
It sounds much like how older SNES emulators that focused on getting "popular" games working ended up taking shortcuts that didn't really fix the problems. They just found ways to fudge the numbers but that created a bigger mess long-term. Not until Higan came and said no fixes, popular games broken stood broken until they could figure out what was really wrong with it.

@MTMike87 That wasn't the only Zelda rap. The Japanese A Link to the Past commercial and the US Link's Awakening commercial were also raps.

@Olliemar28 "the 8Bit and 5800 versions amped up the quality"
Don't think there's a 5800 unless it's a variant I'm not aware of (such as 2800, which was the very short lived Japanese version of 2600 that launched only a couple months before the Famicom)

But can we get trapped on Giovanni's Wild Ride for 36 hours like Twitch Plays Pokemon?
That'll be the true test!

What happened to the Japanese art?
Are there two planets in close proximity to each other?

Or did the artist's pen have tracking problems (or wow, I feel old. How many here have even experienced such old TVs to even know that that problem is? )

@N64-ROX The French cover (as far I know, the "Europe" version was exclusive to France) was like "well our art only takes up the middle of the box. We have to fill the rest with SOMETHING."

Pity vote for North America because I already tell where that was going.

@Twilite9 They don't want you even opening their products anymore, let alone make it clearly visible what's inside their devices!

@Damo I'm glad this list is for Nintendo-hardware games and not necessarily Nintendo-published games.
I was counting the games in the headline photo and counted about 2/3rds Nintendo-published games in that photo (from what I could identify).

"the narrative is relatively linear by today’s standards"
Excuse me? ALttP had relatively little in-game narrative. Much of its narrative was not required for game progression.
Then what does that make the followup games that did their best to force the player along the scripted progression.

Did Nintendo not get why people make fun of Navi so much? Do they not understand why that "Hey! Listen!" is so **** irritating? Even if it just once half an hour, it's still a nag to progress in a game about exploration.
Now that I'm aware of it was a region exclusive, it absolutely makes me PO'd that for Minish Cap, Nintendo went to the extent for the US version to make the game remind the player what they're supposed to do every time they load a save file.
I don't need the f***** textbox to open ASAP when I just want to play the game. If I need it, I'll push the g****** help button myself. Yes, I know Pokemon FRLG did that thing before that, but that was a little more tact and also was not a region-exclusive nuisance.
You made America wait two months longer for the game so you could add that garbage, Nintendo? Oh, and also DELETE the alternate language options from the European version. I know the EU versions are usually so later so they can add those. But WTF would you REMOVE them when that more accessible version was released first?

If someone sent Nintendo Power Fire Emblem fanart in the '90s, that would have to be a pretty dedicated fan!

I wonder if some of my awful art is still there. If it is, thanks.

@vio The last time Konami released TurboGrafx games digitally, they did that on the 3DS. In Japan only. They lasted the release of four games. One of them was The Kung Fu (China Warrior) and none of them were PC-Genjin (Bonk).

Don't suppose there's a chance they could get us its Famicom predecessor Cocoron while they're at it?
That game was even more unique in that you buy create a character with a bunch of different body/head (and arm?) parts which obviously affects how the character plays. Which is crazy for a 1991 NES game!

@Moonvalley2006 Splitting attacks to use Physical or Special stats instead of Type in the DS era was one of the single best things to balance the game.
Many a Pokemon had some pretty garbage movesets before that.

And Gold/Silver didn't even want to make evolution stones easily available. Like, you had to trade and evolve in Gen 1 (possibly requiring deleting moves, and how late in the game was the Move Deleter?) or I hear get really lucky with Mystery Trade. What were they thinking?
And some Pokemon Types not well represented by Pokemon or Moves.
Maybe I'm only judging because I didn't have Gen 2 nostalgia (I only played Gen 1 and it was okay, didn't play again until Gen 4, but later went back to play the earlier games).

I know one the first things I think of about Dragon Quest 1 is the battle music since at least in the original, you were going to be hearing that probably the most. And it was honestly kind of grating. But perhaps unavoidable given that (on the Famicom) Chun Soft had only a 32KB program ROM to fit an entire RPG program and non-graphic data into.
I've listed to a modern remix of that, and maybe it's just my nerves from playing the original a few times through, it's like smoother but still a bit jarring.

@Bunkerneath Wasn't that kind of what happened with NBA Elite 11? I know one of the most famous clips was a YouTuber who tried the demo and it stopped acknowledging Andrew Bynum's mortal existence.
(and so EA recalled the game just after they shipped it to retailers, leaving the few copies to have escaped the scrapper making it one of the rarest games in existence.)

@ElkinFencer10 I have no idea how the software works, but I thought I remember reading they did sell copies of the 3DS software in the souvenir shop, in multiple languages. Though I'd imagine English would have sold out. I thought I read that on a Discord post from another collector.

But the 3DS does fold, so you COULD wear it as a hat.
Though I don't know if that is advisable, as by that point I don't think their consoles were made of Nintendium anymore.

No, you wouldn't be able to play a 3DS in prison as it technically has online capabilities, and online devices are forbidden.
It does have a web browser which I would believe technically still works, barring the fact that as time goes on fewer websites are going to work on it.
I remember in the early days of the 3DS, I used the web browser on mine to browse eBay to buy the SNES Star Wars carts so I could jokingly say I bought Super Star Wars on my 3DS. No way that browser is still compatible today.

@SabreLevant I can remember a time in my life when I wanted to get into programming. I thought it was just me not understanding things, and I think it is just I don't like a style of "having to review what is presented to me". I would think that not a productive direction than just being able to write something correct the first time.
That and in the 2000s, it seemed like Microsoft was coming out with a new set of libraries or whatever you call them like every year. How much junk would one now to have to find and download off shady websites to get 2000s Windows apps working? DirectX, Visual Basic runtimes, Visual C++ runtimes, .NET (multiple versions), SilverLight, I don't even remember what else I was asked to download in that time.
Were Macs or Linux as much of a hot mess as Microsoft's Windows development environment seems to be in retrospect?

I said it before and we can repeat it again, these aren't the same kind of "electronic arts" that were envisioned in 1982.
I know it's been a real long time since EA valued arts made WITH electronics, now they want us to buy their "arts" made BY electronics.

@EarthboundBenjy It doesn't like they even had room to finish "Nintendo GameCube" regardless of getting cut off by the CERO icon.

And with that, EA has become a complete slap in the face to the 1980s company they were founded as.
You see mid 1980s EA games packaging where they cared about their developers as actual "electronic artists".
Forty years later and they announce the least care they can.

@ShieldHero All I remember about the original Dragon Warrior Monsters, when I played it when it was new, was that the boss battles were callbacks to previous games.
At least I learned that sometime later, as that was the first DQ game I played (since I only had a SNES and GB as a kid). Sadly it was a pretty bland Pokemon-inspired game so I didn't finish it (the dungeon randomizer couldn't even avoid repeating even within the same dungeon!) What I've seen of the sequel (which I passed up when it was new) looked like a better game.

@electrolite77 At least this one, you can kind of understand. The voice recognition thing would've surely added a significant amount of extra localization work.

It's kind of a wash, they're both fairly bland.

But I went with Japan just because the front of the box doesn't tell me I'm TOO OLD to play the game.

The only one I missed was Tecmo Super Bowl.
The responses seem to indicate agreement. The covers are too similar between the two Tecmo Bowl games that most who aren't big fans wouldn't tell the difference.

It was lenient for the Dragon Warrior III one to not do the same with the answers.

5% though thinking that Kirby's Adventure was Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic? On a NES game box legitimately? But I suppose now it is just so normal for Sonic to be on a Nintendo console it doesn't seem strange.

@Bass_X0 I'm not quite sure I understand how it works. How would the 3DS access the games if they aren't downloads.
Would the Switch stream them to the 3DS?

I've heard the 3DS version of Dragon Quest XI was a cloud gaming app, and I heard the resolution of the video it received was pretty terrible (including difficult to read text, assuming one could read Japanese). I don't know if that was because of the port or hardware limits.

@gaga64 Is Nintendo going to try to stop them with another patent on things that have already been invented?
Two screens at once has been done as long as there have been fan emulators, picture-in-picture was around on high end '90s TVs, and I've seen streamers do "switch between screens" streaming DS games before.

I have original consoles and tons of carts but I prefer emulation because it's easier to access.
(having to find old carts as well as dig out the cords and controllers and also have technical issues keeping them running)

@dartmonkey MAD sounds like a good game for the NES! (I know that is surely Spy vs. Spy, much like how Jaleco for some reason preferred to put their name on the top label of Bases Loaded.)

@Olliemar28 No voice work? Black and White 2 has a couple tracks that would disagree with you.
I wonder if he doesn't know about Dogars, and I guess he hasn't given Elesa what she needs. Also the Village Bridge and Ghetsis.
Though I suppose of those, Village Bridge is pushing the most towards actual acting and not simple voice effects.
(Dogars is the Japanese name for Koffing, but that only became a meme for English speakers because that track was first heard in its Japanese version and it sounds like it really blew up upon its Japanese release. I'm not surprised they went for an indirect localization, probably to have to record for multiple languages but also because directly following the pattern for its English name... probably would have a lot more... questionable... result.)

@Smithicus Scambaiters exist on Youtube because authorities won't shut down organized telephone scammer operations. So its up to the scambaiters to call and annoy the scammers and do what the police won't do to break up their operations.

Leaking code to 30 year old games is one thing but stuff that isn't even out yet isn't cool.

I've been told the actual game was cheapened for Europe, having less than the 32 megabits advertised on the US box and cutting some characters as a result.

@Mana_Knight Probably not since the '80s when games wanted to boast about how many "screens" they had. The era when Sega wanted to boast about many megabits their Master System games had (as how many "Mega Powers").
Which of source SNK followed on to an even greater degree on the NeoGeo.

@HammerGalladeBro Dying was kind of a gimmick in that game. Probably one of the reasons they gave you nine lives. They gave Bubsy a lot of Looney Tunes deaths.
Bubsy II added a health mechanic, but also reduced the default lives count to a more typical value.

Yes, as mentioned, that Glide button in Bubsy should probably be used about as much as the run button in Mario.