Although I've been trying to pack three games into each episode of NES Works Gaiden in order to reach the end of 1985 (and therefore the end of the NES Works Gaiden focus on Famicom chronology leading up to the NES launch), some games ya just gotta hand it to with a standalone episode. Games such as The Tower of Druaga 2022-04-13 12:10:18 +0000 UTC View Post
I've made amends for last week's chronological goof here by returning to Irem's actual first Famicom game. I'm not sure it does any favors for their reputation, though. Zippy Race on Famicom might actually not be as good as the SG-1000 version, despite the fact that the Famicom could generate much nicer-looking graph...
2022-04-06 12:23:00 +0000 UTC View PostI have no idea how we've already reached the end of March. I had hoped to begin posting patron-exclusive videos this month, but that plan hit a bizarre snag. See, I plan to kick off my exclusive videos with Cassette Vision coverage, but making that happen requires more than just modding a console. The Cassette Vision's archit...
2022-03-31 21:04:13 +0000 UTC View Post
How come I only make terrible production goofs when I'm traveling and don't have the means to fix things? I tell you what. You can see what I'm referring to in the YouTube description for this episode, but, well, please look forward to a correction next week.
Anyway, lots of interesting stuff here, even if I got some of...
2022-03-30 12:57:34 +0000 UTC View Post
A pleasant episode this week: All the games here are good, fun, and possibly even noteworthy. I regret to say that it shall not always be so.
2022-03-23 15:14:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Yes, this week's episode once again goes back over a couple of games that have already appeared here—in this case, Elevator Action and Star Force have shown up on both NES Works and Segaiden. I promise I have new things to say about them! Plus, you'll want to stick around for the all-new, all-different
You already know these games under their American titles: Track & Field, Kung-Fu, and, uh, Wrecking Crew. I have to admit I went into this episode with deep concern that I was about to put together a repetitive restatement of previously published information of no real value to anyone—and yet,...
2022-03-09 14:00:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Good morning! Or afternoon! Or evening! I don't know when you're reading this. But I do know that I have another Game Boy Works episode for you. This one kinda kicked my butt—Gremlins 2 is really hard, it turns out. Really hard. Unreasonably so. So, you know, perfect for kids.
The baseball simulator is pretty...
2022-03-02 13:48:23 +0000 UTC View PostWell, it's done. Or at least, almost done—it's still missing two scans, and we're going to give it one final copy edit pass before publication. (I'll send out a notification once this file is replaced with the final version.) Despite those little quibbles, I'm excited to share this monstrosity with you and let you enjoy the...
2022-02-27 14:31:07 +0000 UTC View Post
I know a few people out there have been very excited for this one. Well, maybe like one or two. But they're very vocal.
Anyway, yeah: It's Game Boy Works, and this is Godzilla. It's also Nekojara Monogatari, a game that has never been localized into English... but should be. I have largely strayed from...
2022-02-23 13:02:00 +0000 UTC View Post
I've had a really great time discovering and researching the SG-1000 library, and I hope you have too. If not, well, thanks for bearing with me. And if so, you'll probably enjoy this episode, which replaces the original introductory warm-up piece and also includes a full rundown of the system's library... this time, in actual...
2022-02-16 13:01:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Just look at this cover mock-up. Gosh. I can't wait.
2022-02-12 14:00:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Well, folks, we did it. We did the SG-1000. We've seen all there is to see.
This episode brings us to the end of the SG-1000's life, way in the distant future of March 1987, with the system's last two releases. They are very impressive works in terms of scope, and also games that aren't a whole lot of fun to play in the...
2022-02-09 13:19:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Sometimes, things just fall into place in a way that seems entirely too coincidental for its own good. But, you know, I'll take it. Take this episode, for example. A while back it became clear that I was going to be getting to both Wonder Boy for SG-1000 and Adventure Island for NES at roughly the same time,...
2022-02-02 13:36:45 +0000 UTC View Post
Chúc mừng năm mới, as we say 'round these here parts. Well, not really "we." My relationship with the Vietnamese language is less a matter of pronunciation than of tone-deaf mutilation. But everyone else is kind about it, at least. Here's hoping the year ahead is equally kind to all of you.
As th...
2022-02-01 18:55:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Last week, we looked at Wonder Boy. This week, we take a step away from SG-1000 to... also look at Wonder Boy? Except it's not Wonder Boy. But yeah, it totally is.
Hudson's Adventure Island is also Hudson's NES debut, more than four years after first appearing on Famicom. By this poin...
2022-01-26 13:43:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Some pretty wild stuff this week as the SG-1000 library nears its finale. Video games had changed a lot over the three years since the console's debut, and while this particular hardware really didn't stand a chance against the likes of The Legend of Zelda and After Burner, god bless ’em, Sega's h...
2022-01-19 13:57:32 +0000 UTC View PostFolks, I'm very, very happy to announce that NES Works Vol. III is now content-complete. It's not ready to send to press yet; there are three rounds of copy edits to be done first, and it's still missing a fair few images. But I fully expect to have this book ready to share and submit to press by the end of February....
2022-01-16 22:11:11 +0000 UTC View Post
We have the full assortment of traditional Japanese martial combat weaponry this episode: Shuriken, kunai, bokken, and uh... high-yield short-range missiles? Sure, why not.
After last week's episode, this batch will definitely bring a little disappointment into your life. But that would probably be true as a follo...
2022-01-12 13:24:35 +0000 UTC View Post
We begin the new year with a new year for the SG-1000, which enters 1986 with sound and fury and, most importantly, some danged impressive games. C-So! I could live without, but The Castle and Gulkave are impressive. With only three episodes left in this corner of Segaiden, it's nice to see that Seg...
2022-01-05 13:29:13 +0000 UTC View Post
This week's episode will seem very familiar to long-time viewers. And, I guess, new viewers alike. These games have all appeared on video games other platforms throughout the years, one as recently as last month (Chack'N Pop) and one way back in about 2015 or so (Flappy). Of course, because of my out-of-orde...
2021-12-29 13:10:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello all, and (hopefully) happy holidays! This month's bonus bit is up, and it comes with Some Complications. I was very proud of the latest revision of From the Beginning, which now includes photos of almost every item to...
2021-12-27 14:23:13 +0000 UTC View Post
I always like to post a meaningful or otherwise better-than-average episode around the holidays, and I'm thrilled to say this year's lineup bears that out. Last week's episode was one for the books, and I'm even happier about this one—not least of all because jumping from SG-1000 hardware to Master System (well, Mark III) w...
2021-12-22 13:23:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Update: I have relinked the broken video source material and it SEEMS to have rendered correctly, but I'm at work and don't have time to watch a full video. Hopefully this episode is as intended now!
NOTE: There's a deeply bizarre error in this upload; from what I can tell, Premiere decided...
2021-12-15 12:38:34 +0000 UTC View Post
We have officially reached the SG-1000's salad days. From this point on, the remainder of the system's library is largely good to great. Yeah, there'll be a few duds, but I managed to get about a month ahead on my production schedule over the weekend, and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by all the SG-1000 has going on....
2021-12-08 13:43:36 +0000 UTC View Post
I guess Yie Ar Kung Fu is the bridge game this episode: Like Antarctic Adventure, it comes to us courtesy of the Famicom freshmen at Konami, and like Ninja-Kun, it involves martial arts. Also, its middling quality sits squarely between that of the former game's (quite good!) and the latter's (quite ...
2021-12-01 12:58:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Wow, geez! I almost forgot to upload this one before the month was out.
I've hesitated a little bit to publish this episode, because Zoom muddled my audio in annoying ways, but sometimes you just gotta press ahead and get the straight facts about SG-1000 out into the wild. Thanks to Dylan Cornelius for helping to ...
2021-12-01 03:05:06 +0000 UTC View PostApropos of nothing, I had a sudden urge to let you, my video patrons, know how grateful I am for your support these past, what, seven years? Whew. Your continued support for my little passion project has made it possible for me to venture into areas of gaming history that few people have made a serious effort to explore, and ...
2021-11-25 18:13:55 +0000 UTC View Post
Every couple of years, this video channel undergoes a curious transformation: Suddenly all the games I cover shift a sort of spiritual polarity and begin showing telltale signs of influence from a different formative game. In the early days, it was Heiankyo Alien. A couple of years ago, it shifted to The Tower of...
2021-11-24 12:56:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Maybe this is just the contempt of familiarity speaking, but the only real standout title in this week's episode is the one that hasn't already been covered on my channel: A conversion of Activision's Rock'N Bolt, a breezy and accessible puzzle game whose slow, subtle learning curve steadily ramps up to become fairly...
2021-11-17 12:51:54 +0000 UTC View Post
