Discounted Nintendo Games: Update 1

Earlier I posted about an eBay experiement to win some discounted Nintendo games... so what were the results?  Well  Battletoads had a counter offer of $10.  Maniac Mansion's offer was declined.  I never heard back on Thunder and Lighting or Clu Clu Land.

Ducktales was accepted, as was 1943, which I didn't mentioned in the original post.  Each were accepted for a total of 4.99 a piece (including shipping!)

This is good news as it would mean that 20% of the games offered at $4.99 were accepted.  It could just be a foluke, I don't have a large enough data sample to conclude this... but it is encouraging.  So lets try it again...!

eBay Luck

Well it seems that my eBay experiment resulted in crazy results... so what exactly did I win? Hmm find out soon.

Discounted Nintendo Games

Several months back after I added the "Make As Offer" icon to http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/ I had a wild idea of making ridiculously low offers on a bunch of games to see what kind of return or response I would get.

To do this experiment I've decided on the following rules:

1. The Nintendo game must have an average price of $5.00 or more
2. Shipping for the game must not be more than 3.99
3. There must be 25 copies or more available
4. The seller must have a rating of 98.5% or better
5. No offer will be for more than $1 unless the price with shipping is less than $4.99
6. The game must be located in the 48 states

Anyways, I don't have the worlds largest budget so I'm going to limit this experiment to five games only.  The ones I've picked are as follows:

Game #1: Battletoads... averages about $10.  Shipping is free, so I'm offering $4.99
Game #2: Thunder & Lightning... averages about $11.  Shipping is $2.92 so I'm offering $2.07
Game #3: Duck Tales... averages about $11.  Shipping is $1.90 so I'm offering $3.09
Game #4: Clu Clu Land... averages about $12.  Shipping is $3.00 so I'm offering $1.99
Game #5: Maniac Mansion... averages about $12.  Shipping is free, so I'm offering $4.99

Best offers can run on for 48 hours.  I'll post an update after all five offers expire...

Burgertime Level 2 Grouping

Below are instructions on how to get a tight grouping on level 2 of Burgertime for Nintendo.  A couple things to keep in mind: 1.) Do not attempt this grouping on a full stomach (you'll learn why later.)  2.) As soon as the level starts you need to start walking so already be pressing up when you complete level 1.  As you follow the path do not hesitate or pause, the timing needs to be perfect!  Do not stop moving until you get to the yellow dot in the 2nd screen shot below.

Begin by pressing up then going left as shown below.  Go down then cut across to the right.  Start running up the ladder.  When you get to that platform with the lettuce, go right and be ready to go up the blue ladder that will be to your right...  It will look like you will be killed by a hotdog that will be running up to the same platform you are standing on.  If your timing is perfect, and you have not hesitated he will not kill you.  The top of his head will touch your feet, but just keep pressing up and you will be ok.  Again, make sure you have not had a full stomach before attempting this grouping because that hotdog will make you pollute your underwear...

Once at the top run to the right then go all the way down.  Now before you start running to the left there will be a hotdog and an egg on the same platform getting ready to run up that blue ladder.. the same blue ladder you started to run up at the begining of this screen shot...  Follow the pattern going down the green ladder, across half of the cheese, then down the blue ladder in the middle of the screen.  Once you get to the platform with the two bottom buns walk to the left and stand between the green and blue ladder (indicated by the yellow dot.)

Wait here, and a group of hot dogs and an egg will come down the ladders and follow the yellow arrow.  There will be one hotdog that will be lagging a little behind.  Wait for the precise moment where he gets down the blue ladder and starts to walk to the left... that is your cue to run up the blue ladder (indicated in red) face down and pepper those bitches.  You'll need at least 3 (three) peppers to group them.  Once grouped have them follow you on to the lettuce and the'll be grouped.  I'll post a video when I have time.

How To Clean A Nintendo Game Part 2

I mentioned in an earlier post about cleaning NES games that the best thing to do is to open the cartridge and use a pencil eraser on the contacts.  I don't advocate any type of actual cleaner, and using brasso on a video game is bad because brasso contains an acid.

So what happens when you get a game where there is oxidation on the contacts?  Well, first of all what exactly is oxidation?  It's basically rust.  It happens when an electron is lost between two elements.  It can actually happen to many different things, and not just metal.

Oxidation in a cartridge can only come from two places... the first is from people blowing into the cartridge.  Your saliva is wet and it's gonna ruin the contacts.  The other is simply from living in an extremely humid environment.  It could be because you simply live somewhere humid, or your home is humid such as from a swamp or evaporation cooler.  It would take a few years of this exposure to actually show the oxidation, but since Nintendo games are around two decades old its a common problem to find.

So how do we fix it?  Well with my cheap Terra Cresta I received I had to resort to desperate measures.  The contacts were oxidized...  BADLY!  One of the worst I had ever seen.  So rather than sand it off with a nail file like I've seen elsewhere, I chose to resort to a modification of a tactic I mentioned earlier about cleaning labels.  Your Thumb!  It is one of the most abrasive things in the world (as is all of your fingerprints)  They are constantly being regenerated, and for the purposes of cleaning a cartridge.. well if it doesn't hurt your finger it probably won't hurt your cartridge.

All you need to do is open the cartridge.  Take the board out and set it somewhere.  Pour some Comet or Ajax cleaner into a cup or on a paper plate.  Next, wet your thumb under the sink.  It needs to be wet, but not dripping.  The moisture is only to make the cleanser stick to your finger.  The moisture is not meant to "clean" the cartridge it simply acts as a "glue" to make the abrasive powder stick.  Infact, once you press your wet thumb into the powder, the powder should remain looking dry.  If it darkens because of the wetness then you're thumb was too wet!

With your powdered thumb start rubbing the contants avoiding any area in the green and above.  Go slowly.  Go in circles.  Repeat if necessary.  This will not scratch the contacts at all, and it should leave them super shiny with all oxidation removed.  Use a dry cloth to remove any excess powder that remains.

Thats it, thats all you need to do!  Go clean your Nintendo games.  Do it.  Now!

Burgertime Explaination

Ok, so as you can see it's the start of level three of Burgertime. 100k was achieved on level 1. 75k was achieved on level 2. 12 lives in reserve. Notice that I didn't say earned. Also notice that the screen shot looks different from previous ones. That's because it was achieved on the Nintendo DS. That's right, NES Burgertime on the DS. Don't ask how or why. Just know that I can't and won't claim the score to be legitimate. It's all part of my method to decypher the grouping for level 2.

Rygar and Wrecking Crew: Another Pedro Games Spending Spree

I just bought Rygar, Wrecking Crew and a few other games from http://www.pedrogames.com/.  5 games = $10 shipping, which isn't that bad since most sellers (including Pedro on single games) will charge $3 - $4.

I've been thinking about re-tiling my bathroom with the sunset from Rygar... it just looks so cool:

The NES version kinda looks like a pink football...

The SEGA Master System version (which I never knew existed) kinda looks like an evil pumpkin:

The arcade one looks the best!  But it would probably take thousands of tiles, and I'm lazy, and I'll probably mess it up some how.  So maybe Rygar wouldn't be the best way to decorate a bathroom... because....

The Japanese art for the game speaks for itself!

Burgertime 2nd Stage Grouping

I promised I wouldn't post about Burgertime for a week... well it's been a week! A long one- and I've filled it with stage 2 grouping.... I might have it perfected... It's going to be critical to break 200k and the eventual TwinGalaxies record.

Nintendo Advertisement Sudden Death

When thumbing through an old copy of Gamepro Magazine, I stumbled on this advertisement for Goal! on Nintendo.  I don't know anything about the sport of soccer, but this advertisement teaches me alot.  First of all it teaches me that a kick to the crotch is an acceptable move. I'm being sarcastic of course, but if this was true then soccer just got interesting...

Now does page two of the ad imply that the kick to the crotch has resulted in the fatality of the Goalie?  Sudden Death should be the name of this game.. Not Goal!  Nintendo ads are the best.. and this one just gave me an idea for a new label... details later.

Bubble Bobble For NES Cheap

There are a handful of original Nintendo games that are overpriced for reasons I'll never understand.  Contra and Bubble Bobble always come to mind.  As of this post there are over 100 copies of Bubble Bobble available on eBay and the same goes for Contra as well.  Bubble Bobble is averaging about $17, with contra just a few cents under $17.  I've seen both of these games easily go for $20 in game stores.

This is where http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/ has proven to come in handy.  Just browsing through the list I saw a BuyItNow Bubble Bobble for less than $12 with free shipping.  I bought it.  Why wouldn't I?

The same evening I bought Bubble Bobble, I saw a copy of Terra Cresta (BuyItNow), for $2 (it's currently around $16).  There was also a copy of Lolo for $2 as well (http://cgi.ebay.com/Adventures-of-Lolo-1-Nintendo-NES-Game_W0QQitemZ200385170261QQcategoryZ139973QQcmdZViewItem)  This is currently averaging $14.  I have too many games pending right now to buy it, but it makes me wonder why some games are so inflated.  I can kinda understand Terra Cresta...  there were only 8 copies available, so the supply might be what's increased it's value.  But this doesn't explain Bubble Bobble or Contra.  Were these great games?  Absolutely.  But doubtfully worth $15+

VideoGamePriceGuides.Com

I started Video Game Price Guides after deciding to collect all of the original Nintendo Games.  I started looking up random games from a list I had compiled and then eventually just started doing random searches on eBay for lowest priced Nintendo games and working backwards.  I looked at Nintendo Rarity guides and other sites that claimed to have an accurate price guide, but nothing ever seemed accurate.  So I decided to compile my list of NES games, and make direct links to eBay to make it easier to not only find the games, but to peg a rarity on them and an approximate value.

This went so well, that I expanded it to other systems including Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, all three PlayStations, TG-16, the SEGA systems, and more.  I decided to include a blog for the site that was meant to include updates and another information, but with updating the http://www.salzmafia.com/ blog and a few other sites I'm responsible for I've decided that its time to pull the plug on the http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/ blog.  The site will still function as the Price Guide for Video Games, but with out the silly blog to update.  Besides, I've done many posts on this site concering VGPG that it seems silly to run two sites.  So anyways, in a few weeks, the main splash page to VGPG will change to the archive
 of pages related to VGPG that I've posted here.

I also hope to update the games list and to add the rest of the missing consoles.  There are some errors on some of the pages that are coding related that need to be cleaned up as well (I've only recently figured out how to fix the YouTube code.)

Pedro! Games PedroGames.Com

I've mentioned Pedro! Games frequently here and with good reason: this is currently the only eBay seller I can truly recommend.  My first experience was with Iron Tank, which ended up being a penny auction.  It was a purchase made on a whim, but it was worth it.  The game was in perfect condition, and it was delivered promptly.  Even if it came from North Carolina, all the way to Las Vegas.

But Iron Tank wasn't the only excellent purchase I've made through Pedro!.  Thus far I've purchased 11 titles, and all of them have come in perfect condition.  This says alot since many of these titles are around two and a half decades old.

I found PedroGames.Com originally through the site I created (http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/), and although I do occasionally purchase from other sellers I know I can do no wrong with Pedro!

Anyways, with a major change coming to http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/ I did not want this feedback about Pedro! Games to be forgotten, therefore I've included to original reviews below.

Pedro! Games

VideoGamePriceGuides.Com not only provides you, the user, with game prices, but we also use the guides ourselves. Recently we purchased IRON TANK for the NES from frequent power seller Pedro! on eBay.com.

Anyone who has searched for games on eBay will have no doubt noticed that Pedro! sells tons of games. Not only does he sell vast quantities of games he also seems to always have some fairly rare games as well.

In this instance we bought IRON TANK. It was an auction and it ended for a penny. That's right, one-cent. The game isn't really popular at all, and for a penny with $3.95 shipping we figured it would be an easy purchase to get an idea of Pedro!'s service. The way a seller treats a cheap sell is a good indication of how they treat everyone. Anyways the auction ended on Thursday May 28th. Within minutes of the close of the auction we received the invoice.

It's All Yours! Now Just Send Us A Payment...

It doesn't get much more direct then that does it? There wasn't any delivery confirmation or tracking purchased along with IRON TANK so we can't verify a direct date of shipping, however we did receive an email from Pedro! within an hour of making the payment indicating that 1. positive feedback was left for the buyer, and 2. you should expect to receive your game soon.

Now We Wait...

I have confidence in Pedro! As of writing this he has a score of 18852 with a rating of 100%. My only concern at this point is that Pedro! shows screenshots of the game (with a Pedro! watermark) and not a picture of the actual cartridge. I thought of emailing and asking Pedro! for the condition but with that 18000+ track record I have a hard time bringing myself to believe that the cart will be in deplorable condition.

While we wait for IRON TANK to arrive check out his listings at http://www.pedrogames.com/

Pedro! Games Part 2

Well for an auction that ended Thursday May 28th, and paid for on May 29th, we were amazed that our one cent copy of IRON TANK arrived on Monday June 1st.

The game arrived First-Class in a well protected envelope complete with the Pedro! Games logo on it.

But what about the IRON TANK cartridge? We professed a minor legitimate concern with the first part of this seller review that Pedro! Games shows screenshots of the games rather than the actual cartridge itself. So what was the condition like? Although not 100% mint perfect, the cartridge itself was acceptable. Very acceptable. There was a negligent amount of wear on the label, but not bad considered the cartridge is around two decades old. The pins were shiny and appeared new.

So what criticisms if any did we have? Actually none. This isn't to say we should judge a seller on the basis of one good sale, but in this case we were very pleased, and as an advocate for video game collectors www.videogamepriceguides.com was impressed by this transaction.

Crash N the Boys Street Challenge

I reluctantly visited a local Play N Trade after I was told the original store I went to closed. My experience with the first store was terrible and I would not be surprised if it's demise was some how related to the pushy punk kid who worked there.

Anyways I visited the other store and checked out their NES selection. To my surprise there wasn't fifty copies of Bases Loaded, Fighting Golf, Goal, or Astynax. They had a surprisingly diverse selection. I picked up Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Crash N The Boy Street challenge for $5.00 each. Street Challenge is pretty neat. It's basically Track N Field but from a High School thug's perspective.

It's made by Technos and they are notorious for games featuring cute thugs. The best event is the swimming. The object is to drown your opponent by beating him up and pulling him under water. The coolest thing about this is the fact that the swimmers swim towards you while the scenery floats backwards it's a pretty neat effect!

Mechanized Attack By SNK

As mentioned earlier I got a good deal on Mechanized Attack for Nintendo. I found the auction through http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/. It's not particularly rare but it has seemed to be frequently over priced.

Seeing the title screen is enough to fall in love with this game. I imagine it's the largest Uzi to be featured in a Nintendo game. The game came out in 1990 so the reference to an Uzi is not surprising. Operation Wolf which clearly inspired this game featured an Uzi. There is something genuinely empowering in holding one.

Seconds Away From 100k In Burgertime

I can now say with 100percent confidence that my grouping pattern works for Burgertime for the first level. Again though, I choked on every single level thereafter. It's disgusting. I didn't even finish the sixth level!  This is the 100th official post of this blog, and a good percentage has been Burgertime related... so with that in mind I'm going to give Burgertime a 7 day rest.

Choking On Burgertime

Another choke on Burgertime! Using my new grouping pattern I started level 2 just shy of 100k, and immediately I started dying and wasting peppers. My final demise came on stage 6.

Burgertime Grouping Redux

Tonight I tried something new with my Burgertime pattern (original here).  If you watch the video you know that normally I'll walk up the ladder where the chef is standing in the image below, then walk to the right then press to the left and pepper the Mr. Hotdogs and Mr Egg in a vain attempt to group them.  They would always be grouped but the problem was that they were not grouped tight enough.  So, for the last couple days I've invested a few hours into Burgertime and have modified the pattern.  Instead of doing that "right then left" manuver and peppering the enemies as they come down the ladder I've instead walked to the right, gone up the ladder and when the chef's feet are aligned to the top rung (shown as the red dot below) I'd press down and pepper the enemies.  This has worked alot better, however...

I still choke on the latter stages...

The Guardian Legend

"If someone is reading this I must have failed..." is the opening sentence from the computer on Naju. A "star" in a distant galaxy was over run by aliens and the narrator- who left an account of his ordeal on this computer, tells you in vivid detail of the events that have led up to him (or her) planning on activating a self destruct mechanism on Naju to kill the invaders so that it never happens to another civilization.

Pretty noble stuff, and thank goodness the narrator died else there wouldn't be a game to play!

I like The Guardian Legend on the Nintendo for a variety of reasons. First its a shoot 'em up, and second it's an RPG similar to the original Zelda. But unlike the worthless dialog in Zelda this game takes advantage of the dialog and pushes the story in a direction that stays interesting. It also has great music, a huge overworld map, several dungeons that lead to wild bosses that take up a third of the screen. There are several weapons that work differently on the map and in the dungeon flight mode.

But outside of the actual gameplay The Guardian Legend stirs up a pretty profound concept: speaking from the grave. It would be crazy to influence the world after we die but it happens all the time. We quote dead presidents, dead authors, and even dead prophets. But the earth will one day speak from it's grave. The earth will not be around forever. It's eventual demise is a long way off, but our Sun is a star and it will eventually explode taking Earth along with it.

But what does this have to do with The Guardian Legend? Plenty. In 1977 NASA launched the Voyager space crafts. Using gravity assists ( a technique where a planets gravity sucks an object towards it at a slight angle then catapulting it further and faster into space) the space probe was sent to the edge of the solar system. 32 years later the probes are still sending back information! They are the furthest man made objects in history (actually there is another probe launched after Voyager that some how caught up and surpassed the distance of Voyager 2 thus putting it between them). The probes are estimated to remain powered and functional for about 50 years so they have about 18 more to go. And this is where The Guardian Legend becomes relevant. On the Voyager space craft is a gold record with sounds, photos, and other relevant data that an alien species could learn from if they were able to catch the space craft.

In the darkness of space the probe will remain preserved continuing its journey into the heliosphere. Provided it doesn't collide with anything it will continue to drift away even millions of years from now, long after the Earth has been destroyed, whether by the sun or her inhabitants.

So just like Naju, we have our own "If you read this..." statement.

Burgertime Controller

What do you do when you obtain a filthy controller? You clean it up and re-brand it of course! this first attempt was terrible. I needed a sharper knife and that's why the edges look chewed.

Mechanized Attack

I only need two more games to finish off the SNK collection for the NES. This evening I submitted a best offer on Mechanized Attack and the seller accepted it. Woohoo! All that's left is
Touchdown Fever and Little League baseball. I guess good things come to those who wait.

My phone, which I use for most of my blogging needs took a major dump tonight. In addition to hundreds of video game related photos that I lost I also lost hundreds of photos of my son. Unique photos that I've not had the opportunity to share.

It also deleted Qik which I use for the occasional streaming video and the Iris browser. Technically they were wiped of the micro sd card and not the phone. But I don't care, the photos are lost forever.

One more piece of gaming news concerns my http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/ site. It has gotten too time consuming to maintain it's blog (and this one and the three others I work on) so I've decided to fold them together. More details coming soon...

The Real Burgertime Score

This was the real Burgertime score after I perfected my grouping technique on the first stage. I actually entered stage two with over 100,000 but I kept choking on the subsequent stages... I dunno nerves I guess.



I limped into stage 7 (repeat stage 1) on my last life (down from 8 lives when I started stage 2) and pissed it away trying to group them with the same technique, which proved to be a big mistake as their were enemies all over the screen. It kinda looked like a disturbed wasps nest!

Renegade Nintendo

I mentioned earlier that PedroGames.Com delivers and he sure does. He is certainly my favorite ebay seller. One of the games I got recently was Renegade. This isn't a rare game by any stretch of the imagination but it would have become an necessary purchase eventually if my ultimate goal is to collect every licensed Nintendo game.



This game translated sorta well from the arcade version. About as well as Double Dragon translated to the NES. But I have this facinating obsession with videogame box art and Renegade for Nintendo is an interesting gem. In the actual game you look like a greaser taking on other greasers- sorta like a a deleted scene from the movie Grease. But this box art depicts a calamity that the game just doesn't deliver.



For starters it says something like "the subway is no place to be at 2:00am", well duh, why state the obvious? And I'm assuming the punk in white is supposed to be you, the hero. This guy is clearly a loser. At least the other thugs have weapons. They could have at least have penciled in a knife or a gun! What kind of badass picks fights in a subway at 2am but carries no weapon?



Also the title makes no sense. Isn't a renegade like a rebel? Someone who fights "the establishment"? Is he rebelling against a street gang? Or is he rebelling against society by disturbing the peace?



One last thing that disturbs me is that huge drop off to where the subway tracks are. Someone should post a "watch your step" sign... or something.



There was an old TV show called Renegade with Lorenzo Llamas (which someone compares Billy Mitchell to in the documentary Chasing Ghosts) but this clown on the cover is certainly no Lorenzo.



I know I know... you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but in the case of Renegade for Nintendo, it's too damn fun!

Pacman Ghost

I won this Pacman ghost at a Namco arcade. They had a plush Pacman all four ghosts and this blue ghost. It was a dollar each try in a crane game.

Does PedroGames.Com Deliver?

Does PedroGames.Com deliver?  He sure does.  I just received Track & Field 1 & 2, Bart Meets Radioactiveman, Street Fighter 2010, and Cobra Command.  All in excellent shape though Cobra Comand and Bart both had pieces rattling around inside which I fixed.  No big deal.

Elevator Action World Record

As I mentioned in my previous Elevator Action post, Taito did an excellent port of this game to the NES. It was so well done, that Taito added screen shots of the arcade game to the back of the box:



Arcade screen shot (notice the pink bar at the top and the credits at the bottom)


NES Elevator Screen Shot, no pink bar!


It was common in the industry for game companies to "fib" on their boxes and show arcade screen shots for what was clearly not going to be an experience that even came close to the arcade counterpart. I remember reading somewhere about Street Fighter II being released for the Sinclair with a disclaimer that the actual game would look nothing like the screen shots presented on the box.

Anyways, I started to pick apart the scoring, then I looked up the manual on http://www.nintendoage.com/ and just my luck the manual lists all of the scoring... duh! You get the most points by jump kicking an enemy, especially if the lights are out.

But I did learn something new, apparently there is a 2nd enemy in the game: a security guard! I still haven't seen this character so I can only assume he appears on much later levels of the game.

The current Twin Galaxies world record for this game is 73,400. A casual game for me recently was about 16,000, with about 8000 points per level. In theory I'd only have to make it to the tenth round to accomplish the Elevator Action World Record, however you get a 1000 point bonus multiplied by the level number at the completion of each level. So it might be possible to get it by completing the 8th stage.

In addition to picking apart the points I also made some determination on how the AI works. It's completely random which is good and sucks at the same time. It's good in that you can have an awesomely fantastic game if luck is in your favor, or it can suck if the randomness is so unpredictable that it reaches a point where the game is impossible to advance. Games with random elements ultimately become endurance contests and generally require patience over skill. Speaking of endurance contests... all of this Elevator Action doesn't mean I've given up on the Popeye record... I still work on that pretty often, but I'm to the point on Popeye where its purely an endurance contest more than anything else.

Elevator Action

By becoming satisfied with my Burgertime accomplishment I've decided to find a new game to pick apart. This wasn't easy since there are so many games to conquer. But after much deliberation I've settled on Elevator Action.



I was first exposed to this game in the arcade around 1985, specifically at Wonder World. Wonder World (or WOW for short) had an arcade between it and an Albertson's grocery store. There I played many classics inclusing Rastan, Speed Rumbler, Eyes, Time Soldiers and Choplifter. It also had Elevator Action, which of course is where this story begins.



As an imaginitive child who sought meaning in all things I tried to decipher what Elevator Action was really about. Sure it's easy to say that its about a spy stealing files in a sky scraper while avoiding thugs. At least I think they were thugs, they all work black hats. But perhaps your character is the thug. If you had a right to these files then why are you stealing them? Long story short, I thought the game was about Watergate. What do 8 year olds know about anything anyways?



That connection stuck in my head for a few years until I saw the movie Die Hard. If you've lived in a cave, Die Hard is about a New York cop visiting his estranged wife at a Christmas party in the fictional Nakatomi building in Los Angeles. While relaxing in a guest room terrorists enter the building, take the party goers hostage and for the next two hours the NYC cop dispatches terrorist after terrorist on the different floors of the building. Much of the action takes place on stair wells in elevators and on top of elevators. Visually there are a lot of similarities between Elevator Action and Die Hard, so I like to believe it was the inspiration for the movie.p even though it's probably not.



Anyways the Nintendo version of Elevator Action is an excellent port of the arcade game. The sound is off only slightly but everything else including the AI and Taito font are in there.



One thing I like in particular is that there are only three ways to die. You can get crushed by an elevator, you can fall down a shaft, or you can take a bullet from a thug. Amazingly, since you have complete control over two of those its hard to believe you would die frequently, but you do! Unlike many games that kill you if you touch an enemy, Elevator Action lets you touch the enemies, just don't let them shoot you!



Another neat element are the lights that you can shoot out and send crashing to the floor. (even in Die Hard the cop shot out the spot lights). Drop one of these fixtures on a thug and the next building he protects better have a ramp for his wheel chair.



One last thing this game has that needs to be mentioned is the suspense it stirs. When you go in a red door to steal files you do not know when you will re-emerge. All the while thugs start crowding the hall way, and often times you'll need to be ready for some fancy shooting to kill those sons of bitches. Further, you need to wait for elevators. If Guitar Hero simulates what it's like to play a guitar then Elevator Action certainly simulates waiting for an elevator. Just don't cut one before stepping off of one!

Nintendo Spelunker

When I was in elementary school I started to have a fasination with caves. This facination grew in Junior High after I had did a science report about caves. It was also around this time that I experienced Pitfall II on the Atari 2600, which itself was a huge cave.

For several weeks I played the game every afternoon. Being a naïve kid I hadn't put much thought into the fact that you're goal was to complete the game. Instead, to me it was about exploring a cave. I'd go into the game room with snacks and soda do some exploring and then rest. do some more exploring and rest some more. A cave scenario is a perfect scenario for a video game. They are deep, mysterious, contain plenty of dangers, and can be rewarding as well.

It looks like Spelunker captures the experience quite well. I'm not certain as I haven't bought a copy yet, but I've watched a few youtube videos and played 30 seconds of an emulated version.

Games have gotten too complicated when they really shouldn't have. Consider a game like Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, San Andreas, or 4. You do missions that mimic real life. It's one thing for a game to look and feel more and more real such as the Madden franchise, but when you consider a game about work... it's just work! As games become more real they are going to seem more like real work. The focus is on realism and not fun. Remember when video games were a break from real life?

Spelunker seems different. It has a spirit of adventure. Here is a cave, how deep can you go?

Maybe in some alternate universe someone somewhere is downloading the latest map pack for Spelunker, but only after they upgrade their firmware. Then they will start the game and find the keys to the car. They will drive to the cave while avoiding pedestrians. Then they will get out of the car and walk to the cave. It will take an hour to get to this part of the game so they will use a save point. Then there will be a 12 minute cutscene about the cave and why you must explore it. Then for the next 6 months you will play the game in FPS mode only to find yourself at 98 percent complete and completely pissed off because of a bug in the game prevents 100 percent completion. Then you'll go to the store and buy a new game and start the process again. And while you're upgrading your firmware again I'll be exploring my cave and having FUN.

How To Clean Your Nintendo Games

Since all of the Nintendo games I buy now whether from eBay or else are used, it's rare to get a cartridge that is in perfect condition. There are alot of websites that will give you some BS techniques in cleaning them. Below is photographic evidence of what I use, analong with the techniques I trust.

First of all, anyone who has ever put a sticker on a Nintendo label is a jackass. Removing the sticker is simply a matter of picking it off. What is hard to remove is the glue that remains. When I was in the Army we were required to polish our medals and buttons, etc. My Drill Instructor taught us that the most abrasive material in the world is your thumb print. And its true! Its gentle enough, yet tough enough to remove sticker glue by itself or with a little moisture.

Anyone who puts permanent marker on an NES game is a worst jackass then the one that puts stickers. Yet this is actually easier to remove then you think.

Take a dry-erase marker (make sure its a dry erase!) And write over the permanent marker. Wait about 10 seconds then wipe it off. You'll have to do it a few times if the permanent marker is where the cartridge is texture (as seen below)

Good as New!

And finally, the most important part of cleaning.. the circuit board. Now alot of sites are going to tell you to use rubbing alcohol, or brasso, or other garbage. DON'T! Brasso is an acid, and alcohol stinks! All you need to do to clean your Nintendo game (or any cartridge) is take it out of the case and...

And use an ordinary pencil eraser on the contacts.

Look at that shine!

Ikari Warriors

Ikari Warriors is a badass game. A plane goes down in the jungle and suddenly you are in a war zone. You have a supply of ammo and grenades. You can steal a tank. The plot should have been left at that. But nooooo.. Victory Road (Ikari Warriors 2) has some convoluted space theme, where by you start out by killing robot spiders or some garbage. That monstrosity should have ended the franchise. But nooooo! Ikari Warriors 3 comes out which has an awesome opening cut scene with some artistic effects like seeing the reflection of the convoy in the main character's eyes. By the time the gameplay starts you wonder if the programmers should have focused less on the artistic acheivement and more on the gameplay. Everything starts out with kicks and jumps. Where are the weapons? On site Procurement? That's over played! This isn't Metal Gear!



Anyways enough of the rant. Lets focus on the orignal. Have you listened to that music? The NES version isn't as good as the arcade's but it gets the job done. And what exactly is the job? Killing. And plenty of it. Put a bullet into the enemy and they'll dance around like spastics before giving up the ghost. Steal a tank and squish those sons of bitches. War has never been so colorful with a sixteen color palette. SNK did a fantastic job. The arcade game was perfect. The rotary joysticks made the killing easy. The NES version is presented at a lower frame rate. Similar to Ghosts N Goblins. I believe a 3rd party made both of those titles. But it still gets the job done. And remind me again what the job is- oh that's right: killing!

Burgertime Grouping Performance

Now this performance is not perfect mind you, but the spirit behind it is perfect.

Iron Tank

Iron Tank is underrated. Seriously. As a kid I don't know how I over looked this title.



My Grandfather served in World War II, in the Pacific Theatre of Operations. He knew plenty about the war, not just about Japan but Europe as well. Like most old people he shared his life stories and from that I learned plenty about the war. Probably more so than other children my age.



The stories inspired my interest in war. I played with army men and tanks and jeeps but on a higher level than other children. Videogames dealing with war always captured my interest. 1942, 1943, Land Sea Air Squad, Ikari Warriors, Commando, Guerrilla War, Sky Shark, the list goes on and on...



Then a few months ago I rediscovered Iron Tank. As a child I know I'd have thoroughly loved this game. A functional tank. Enemies abound. Lush landscape! Awesome music!



As a kid you could find all of my war toys in my mother's plants. The 3rd Infantry division would secure the Nativity scene under the Christmas tree while the armored divisions rained fire down onto Santa's Village. The train would help facilitate troop and weapon movement.



Iron Tank reminds me of this. It looks like a toy. Toy tanks toy soldiers and even plastic scenery. Rescue hostages. Communicate on the radio. Win the war!



Iron Tank is fun.