Mega CD (Sega CD), repair, impressions and gameplay

I got a Mega CD recently.

It didn't work so I took it apart and replaced some components on the power board that looked like they corroded the board. After that it powered up, but there was problems with the tray. It didn't move in and move out smoothly and the CD didn't read.

So I took a look at http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?22027-Sega-CD-systems-repair-thread
Sega CD systems repair thread. It listed a whole bunch of things that could be wrong. But it didn't say what was most common. This is typical of people with less experience who start to replace every possible component.

Suppose your car doesn't start. If you ask some random guy on a forum he might give you 25 reasons that could be wrong, in all kindness. But even I who don't have a car knows that first you should check the battery, then maybe oil, etc, before you start replacing every single component.

People also give long threads about how to move the wheels around and so on. But i know from my experience of calibrating FDS that in 90% of cases, the calibration depends on 2-3 things, and that people who don't know will give you around 20 things they suggest you  should do when in reality the problem is usually careful adjustment of those 2-3 things.

Luckily, I found a thread at digitpress and at the bottom a guy with some experience said he always suggested replacing the drive belt.http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?159943-Sega-CD-Model-1-Repair&p=1914116&viewfull=1#post1914116 . Thank you "oldskool". I went back to the sega-16 thread and saw some suggestions for replacement belts (with some suspicious suggestions in between), of which I chose to buy a "DVD Drive Tray Motor Rubber Belt for XBox 360 Slim" from eBay for 2.5$ and it arrived in about a week.

Worked perfectly, and the the tray moves smooth and with a strong movement. So that was excellent, and it reads perfectly too.

The one little problem is a studdering in the sound, a dudududu sound that is noticeable in some games such as Night Trap. It might actually be that the console makes this sound by default because it seems to be an early model without grounding. I tried replacing a bunch of capacitors ("caps"), and I tried to ground some things in very rudimentary way with wires, but NO CHANGE what so ever... I decided against spending 20 hours more on this, if it might even be the default behavior. Anyways, it is fully playable and I thought it was good enough to sell.

Now, I am going to make the opposite of the AVGN... Here is his "review". He took some games, said they sucked (although he briefly said Sonic CD is the best Sonic game, and Sol-Feace and Terminator were good game) , and then scream that "the Sega CD FUCKING SUCKS!"

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First of all, I made a review of Night Trap in my last post, so I won't mention that game here again. But I enjoyed it, the way I enjoy many "crappy" games (it might not be for everyone...). In that blog post I also wrote why I like the Mega CD, so do check it out, because I won't write the same here again.

First of all, I want to say that these gameplay videos were recorded with RCA cables and have MUCH worse quality than an RGB cable would have.  

Sol-Feace is a rather generic shooter game. The soundtrack improves the game, I think. A cheap game, around 10$.

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Bari-Arm is a Mega-CD exclusive. I am not a shoot'em up fan in general, so I'll just link to hardcore gaming to explain why this is a must-own game: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bariarm/bariarm.htm


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Sold for 159 SEK (24$, incl 25% VAT). The usual list price is twice that, but this game had the nasties manual I have ever seen. It literally has mold on the pages.

Earnest Evans. It is an Indiana Jones type of game. Not a great game and I wish they would have done a better CD-quality soundtrack, but I think a platforming fan would enjoy it after they learn the controls. (this game is also sold already, for around 15$)
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Prince of Persia. First it required me to free some save game space on the console so I had to try to do that for the first time, but I did it without much difficulty. You see, the console has save game space built in, just like a Sega Saturn.

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No special addition to the original here, it is simply Prince of Persia, if you enjoy that.

Sonic CD - I spent a couple of hours with.
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The higher speed compared to previous Sonic games, more colors, and CD sound shows how to make the most of a 2D sonic game. If you are a Nintendo fan, imagine if someone would have done the same with the Mega Man series. (we didn't need any lame 3D versions of those games, thank you!)

I also played a little of the excellent port of Final Fight. Better than the SNES version in my opinion.
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I tried some other FMV (Full motion video) games, and they were boring, as is well known. However, I think a console should be evaluated by its good games and not by its unplayable stuff.

Well, my Sega CD is already sold (999 SEK, or 150$ incl 25% VAT) but I liked it so I'm going to be buying more of it. The Mega CD 2 is more reliable so I might try that next, although I suspect most Mega CD 1 can be fixed by simple methods.

Night Trap, Mega CD (Sega CD)

I recently got a Mega CD, and after a lot of work with it, I got it to play games. I will write about the the Mega CD some other time. It doesn't work perfectly, as you can hear from the audio below there is some drumming noise. It should have been a wind sound... I am still working on fixing that, if possible.

For this blogpost, I will only be talking about one game I played -- Night Trap (or Nighttrap).

I will just briefly give my impressions of Mega CD (or Sega CD). I have previously written about how I find Mega Drive games to lack in story and sort of feel empty in that way. I also find that the graphics and sound doesn't impress me... So what about the Mega CD? I am impressed! The graphics feels slightly improved (even if it may not technically be), the CD quality music is a big improvement, and the games have nice video intros and cut scenes. This is how the Mega Drive should have been!

The video quality of the Mega CD is of course not up to standard with modern video, but it was released one year after the SNES and one could compare those two. The SNES didn't even have video intros, only sprites moving against a fixed background. Too bad the Mega CD didn't have a better fate. Today it is known as another one of Segas failed consoles... Mostly because Sega quickly released another add-on, the 32X, and after that it became known that they were developing the Saturn interest for the Mega CD died down.

So, now let's review Night Trap.
The story surrounding Night Trap is part of popular culture, at least in the US (for more information, see Wikipedia or the link below). Also public opinion is that the game is really crappy... As so often, I think this is likely an indicator of an interesting game, and I hope that you will agree with me. I am at least not alone in thinking that the game is actually a fun "camp" game.

Some argue of its terribleness, and it frequently appears on "Worst Games of All Time" lists. Unfortunately these lists are drawn up by people who have totally missed the charm of the game - the same charm you'll find in Troma flicks like The Toxic Avenger. Night Trap is camp, it's silly, it's low budget, and it's pretty dire at times, but it seems to know it and turns itself into a strange send up the slasher genre. It's all a bit of good fun. -- http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/nighttrap/nighttrap.htm

I agree. And the more I can copy and paste from other sources, the less I have to write myself.

The game has a nice intro that isn't shown in my videos. One reason is because if you watch the video, the time goes so you won't be able to trap the bad guys.Here is some one else's video, English version. (the Japanese version speaks Japanese and that's another reason why there isn't any point to show it)

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It is quite enjoyable to play the game, and the game has several interesting concepts that I haven't found in other games. One is that you are playing a movie, but if you decide to watch the plot you won't be able to catch the "bad guys".  Let me quote again:

The basic concept is you watch footage of a low budget horror film and are required to press a button at certain times to save the characters as they are being attacked. If you do this correctly, footage of them escaping will be shown and the film will continue, giving the impression that you have had some control of the movie. What makes Night Trap more clever than today's DVD games or the FMV titles that followed it, is that you also have to tear yourself away from the movie, which isn't too hard, to check over locations in the film where the main action currently isn't. At certain times, these locations show footage of invading monsters, and require you to press a button at the right time to capture these too. Failure to do so will result in a Game Over. -- http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/nighttrap/nighttrap.htm

The main problem may be that to get the best ending you need to catch all the bad guys... As well as avoiding the many pitfalls that results in an immediate game over! This is almost impossible without following a guide.

Also a bummer is that the best ending is Sheila telling you that no one has ever been perfect and walks away. The less good ending is Sheila telling you that you could do better and walks away... Come on! A game deserves a decent ending, even more if it is supposed to be a movie-game.

I played the game in Japanese of course and I couldn't understand any of the plot. From what I've read, the acting is so bad, it might not be a loss to play it in Japanese!
But I wanted to see if it was playable in Japanese and I think there is no great difficulty because you have to follow the guide anyways. I had a few problems that I will describe how to fix:

Problem 1. How to play
When you see an intruder, wait for the meter to reach red. Then press B to spring the trap.

The C button changes color code. This brings us to problem 2.

Problem 2. Color codes
The color code always starts with Blue. After a while it will change to another randomly chosen color. I recommend following the gamefaq guides if you want a chance of getting the time for change. In the Japanese version, they will speak the codes in Japanese. Please see video part 1 below at around 08:12, where she says "Aka", and at 12:50 where he literally says "Code change" and "Orange".

Orange is called "Orange" ( オレンジ ), blue is called Aoi ( アオイ ), green is Midori ( ミドリ ). Red is Aka ( アカ ). And so on... There aren't that many colors, so one can guess and if the code gives error then try another. Or pay attention to what they say...

At the end of part 1 the code changed again and i didn't hear to what. I think they said the color after I stopped watching, after 14:16 in-game time (20:35 in the video). I tried and failed two colors, and had I not got it when I did a main character would have died and I would have gotten game over. But luckily I got it right with Green. 

Problem 3. Trapping the right people and not trapping the wrong people.
This is trial and error even in the English version, if you don't have a guide. So, follow the guide is my recommendation.

Problem 4. The game ends around 13:00
That seems to be if one doesn't catch enough bad guys. I didn't see this described in the gamefaqs, but it happened to me.


Here are two videos of me playing through the game. As mentioned, there is some sound problem but other than that it played fine.

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I got to the ending alright as you can see below, it is one of the "good" endings. Then climax scene starts around 11:40 in the video. After the ending credits, I used a trick to see an easter egg (Press Up, then A five times).

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Guides. 
 They have some different stuff in them, so look at both, and print them out so you can follow them as you are playing.
* http://www.gamefaqs.com/segacd/920185-night-trap/faqs/45159
* http://www.gamefaqs.com/segacd/920185-night-trap/faqs/53217

Metal Flame Psy Buster, famicom

So I sat down to play another "crappy" and unbeloved game, Metal Mech.

Metal Flame: Psy Buster, 7$

 

Known in Japan by its longer name Metal Flame: Psy Buster, whatever that means.
Of course I thought the game was awesome. Such an original idea, amazing graphics, and bullets flying everywhere, and you just keep moving fast. Amazing.

I had a lot of problems at first trying to understand what the shit was about. But then I read the guide on gamefaqs (seems like I say this in every blogpost) and really got a good understanding on how to play this game enjoyably.

What I enjoyed the most was how powerful the robot is, so you can walk around with the robot for most of the time and ignore all the enemies. Imagine if Contra had been like that, wow.
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In case you don't have the manual and have no clue, I will provide for you the basics.

1. You need the key in each level in order to exit it. If you don't know where the key is, you could spend weeks looking for it. On level 1, the key in in the sewers. On level 2, it is at the most top right of the level, in a camera. In level 3, it isn't the far from the exit. In level 4, you need to take a special powerup before you enter the water, or else you will die. Also, there is a teleporter (big black opening) you enter by pressing Up, and the key is if you walk left from there. On Level 5, the key is if you keep going on the left side while you walk down (sort of). Level 6 however, is a very hard shooter stage that I couldn't beat.

2. Press Select while in the machine to change weapons. Unfortunately, it changes automatically back to a weak weapon every time you exit the machine so you have to change back. For example, I forgot this in the video above around 18:30 so I had difficulty killing the enemies.

3. Press Select + A to eject from the machine. If you die your guy, you restart by the mech. If both Mech and Gyu die, you have to restart the level. If only Mech dies, you can continue on your own without Mech for a while.

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The levels are pretty big and feel advanced. A bit like Metroid. The last level was too hard for me, but at the end of it there is the mother-alien of some sort you have to defeat. I don't enjoy shoot'em up stages with difficult controls though, so I won't be trying more of beating the last level. Up to that point the game was very much fun.

StorCon 2014

Författare: Kristin Loman. Foto: Martin Nyberg.

Årets första mässa tog oss till Storvreta där vi blivit erbjudna ett helt eget spelrum med utställning och försäljning. StorCon hölls den 27-29 Juni och lockade hundratals tjejer och killar i alla tänkbara åldrar.


Vår traditionella skylt åkte upp bredvid vårt rum. En extra notis fick läggas till då många verkade blyga :)

Själva området var mycket stort då eventet hölls på en skola. Det fanns gott om utrymmen och alla utställare blev tilldelade varsitt rum medans de som endast hade försäljning delade på de största salarna.

Vi dekorerade vårt rum med space invaders figurer, lavalampor och ljusslingor samt inredde med kuddar och filtar, för att skapa en mysig spelstämning.


Så här kunde det se ut ibland i vårt lilla rum. Som tur var hade jag assistants av Martin.

Flödet med folk kunde variera väldigt mycket, vissa stunder var vårt rum fullt med folk som ville spela och fynda spel, medan andra stunder, gissningsvis beroende på andra händelser på schemat, kunde det vara lugnare.


GameBoy kunde spelas på vår Super Gameboy. På N64an blev det mycket 2-player-spelande!

Vi demade Famicom, Super Famicom, Nintendo 64, GameBoy, Sega Mega Drive och DreamCast. Överlägset populärast blev Mario Kart, Pokemon och Tetris, och det var Game Boy och Nintendo 64 som sålde mest.

Efter tre långa dagar bar det av tillbaka till Stockholm. Vi hoppas att folk hade kul i vårt spelrum och att vi ses igen i höst på nästa event!


Dreamcast Mr. Driller till vänster. Till höger det vanliga "behind the scenes" kaoset som lätt uppstår :D

Youkai Club, famicom

Hmm, youkai, that sounds familiar from other games, such as Youkai Yashiki, FDS or Youkai Douchuuki (pc engine, famicom, arcade). Yokai means something like "mythical japanese creatures".

Famicom console with Youkai Club

Youkai Club is a standard action/platforming game. I could compare it to a Castlevania type of game if I wanted to be nice, but there are many other similar games, such as some ninja games I wrote about recently.

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At first the game seems pretty standard, but you'll notice there is an Experience bar as well as a health meter. You think it is an action/RPG game? No, not really. If you lose your health, you will lose a part of the experience points and be restored. If you lose all Exp points, you are game over. Also, if you don't have enough experience points at the end, you won't be able to complete the game.

Thankfully gamefaqs has this walkthrough: http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/578411-youkai-club/faqs/62167. The walkthrough also explains the different items you collect and which items are essential for being able to beat the game. It says:

Sunglasses: This item should be used in stage 6 when you require 

more EXP to move blocks out of
your way.

So keep that in mind.

Activate items by selecting it with Start, and then press B+Up (a bit tricky to figure out on your own).

At times it can be difficult to find the way around but I think it isn't too challenging. Figuring out I had to go down the well (08:30) was something I found by accident when I ducked for the fox.

There is nothing in the game that is amazing but it is still a nice little game to play around with. Nothing really bad to say. The controls are alright, the graphics is typical from this "middle era" famicom games, and while the music isn't memorable it is still alright.

As the gamefaqs article says:

I have enjoyed writing this guide and playing the game, and wish that anyone
using this guide finds the game just as fun and this guide helpful.  Good luck
with the game.

I found this facebook post too: https://www.facebook.com/opcfg/posts/10202714089234735?stream_ref=10 

Youkai Club, released by Jaleco in 1987. It's a horror-themed side-scrolling platformer, but has a few minor RPG elements that help it stand out from other, similar games released at the time. It's pretty fun, and worth checking out if you can.

 And this http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Youkai_Club

While fun to play, it is otherwise a rather unnoteworthy release for the system. The player controls a character who must make it through six stages filled with apparitions and other afterlife creatures in an attempt to save the world. He attacks by throwing a weapon known as the Psycho Stinger. It was never release outside of Japan.

I think what is lacking is that there isn't any real story to it; no real intro and no great ending. You won't feel any intense atmosphere. And the level design is not too inspired either, albeit okay.

It is still a fun game to play around with. A nice touch is the way you die: you lose Exp points but can still play on. At the last stage you have to have full Exp so you might have to grind there for a while. But as you improve your skill, you probably can play through the earlier stages without losing Exp. This method of playing is more pleasant than having one-death and need to restart the level.

However, the game has no continues, so don't die too much. Also, if you fall into a hole, you are game over. I read there is a cheat that allows you to start on stage 2 or 3 though.

I only played the first two stages so I can't say how hard the game becomes later on. The first two stages felt relaxed with many powerups and nothing really demanding.

The game was only released in Japan but is relatively unknown to most, so it is inexpensive. Around 10$ loose or 25$ boxed. I recommend that you give it a try if you enjoy Castlevania style games. Let's call it Castlevania light.

Galaxy Odyssey, famicom disk system

I asked at the famicomworld forum about this game and was told that it is quite playable.

Ginga Densou: Galaxy Odyssey

So I tried it out and recorded a video.



Here's how it works.
In the shooter stage you collect some kind of power, I will call it Air, that you use when you are walking on the ground (top-down stage).

You collect air either by taking K letter in the shooting stage. You can also collect the glass bottles from enemies in the top-down stage and activate them in the shooter stage as I did the video around 00:10, to fill up the Air meter.

There are some other glass bottles too that I don't know what they do, and I have a talisman that I think increases the gold you collect, but I'm not sure.

In each top-down stage it seems that if you go as far north as possible, you collect that letter for that stage. It will then be shown in white in the select screen. From the manual, I suspect that if one collect all letters A-D, it is then possible to press the WARP option and change around the lit letters, and maybe reach new levels. That's my speculation.

The game has a varied shooter/top-down perspective, and in that sense it is somewhat similar to Guardian Legend that is also a shooter/top-down hybrid with some RPG elements.

Galaxy Odyssey was released with a cassette tape you could listen to. I don't have it though. The manual is half art/text book, with a 100 page story in traditional Japanese writing top to bottom. It has a diagram that explains what cryptic alien writing is in the Japanese hiragana alphabet. I feel sorry that I can't understand any of this. Possibly it is necessary to understand.

I feel that the game is a story driven adventure game more than anything. You are uncovering a story. I haven't played enough to say more.

The shooting stage is quite easy if you have a turbo controller, as I did.

Hudson extension port controller, Famicom

Without a turbo controller you need to have enduring fingers because there is a lot of shooting. Apart from that, the enemies are not hard and you don't need fast reflexes.

The top-down stages are not particularly hard either. With trial and error, and pen and paper, you can get through most of them in 3-4 tries and find everything in them. At least in the earlier A-D stages that I played. But be prepared that they are long ...

If the stages go on through all the letters in the alphabet it might get harder and longer. The game could be quite long. If you enjoy playing longer adventure games where you always seem to be making progress, then this could be worth a try. Personally, I might not be the biggest fan but someone at Famicom World Forum said he loved it!

In the manual there is a screenshot of someone at level 8. It took me an hour to reach level 2 with ONE weapon (20:50 in the video)... The stages feel like a very, very long cave in the Legend of Zelda maybe.

Because of the save function, you will always make progress. So, again, it is like a action/RPG hybrid, but I still feel that due to how simple the action stages are, it is more like a adventure game.

I haven't found out exactly how the Select screen works but I don't think it is too hard to figure out. The game isn't deep enough to be overly complicated. It shouldn't be much problem to play for a non-Japanese speaker, unless it has some hidden secrets somewhere. It is a pity that a non-Japanese won't understand the story then.

Because the game is quite unknown to most, it can often be found at a cheap price. Loose disk 5$. With manual and box 15-20$. Complete with cassette tape is more expensive, around 50$.

Athena, famicom

Athena

I was asked "why is Athena so expensive? It doesn't look fun."
Athena for famicom costs around 20$. Well, it isn't very common for one thing. I thought I should try it out and write about it.

After googling around, Athena is known as a pretty bad game... The game was released on NES in the US.


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The game does have several typical things for crappy games:

• No invincibility when hit. You can die all your health just from bouncing on one arrow or being cornered by an enemy.
• Graphics is badly drawn, as if a child created some of the enemies.
• Graphics jumps around sometimes and screen flashes.
• Pressing Select brings up a black screen... Some items get put there, but no one knows what use they have.
• Weird jumping system. The first jump is small, then second and third jump is high.
• Really hard bosses! After two hours I finally beat the first level boss. I didn't even know if I was hitting him but I think I'd keep on trying and suddenly he died. From what I've read, many later bosses become almost impossible.

All of this would have been okay had it not been for one problem: No continues! It says "continue" at the start screen, but you can't select it. I have searched the internet. As a result, very few people have beaten this game. I read one comment on a blog post who said it was the hardest of over 200 NES games he had finished ([unrealitymag]).

However, the game is definitely playable. I played it for two hours and it felt okay. While it is hard, it also has some charm to it, and it isn't unfairly hard like Fudou Myououden (Demon Sword) that still has me scarred ([blogpost]).

It isn't all bad either. Trust me! I have played many really bad famicom games. The A button jumps and B attacks, as they should. And the controls are definitely playable.

Gameplay is a bit like Makaimura (Ghosts n Goblins). The charm of the game is that you pick up different rather cool powerups. I felt it was rewarding that as I played the first level, I always found new powerups that made it interesting. And it is fun to go around breaking stuff.

I didn't make it very far and I won't be playing it more so I can't say much about the stages after the second. A good thing is that the first two stages are short. I made it to the end of stage two in the video, as you can see, and it was my second try ever.

If you are one of those people who enjoy playing the same stuff over and over, such as Makaimura, and you want a challenge, I think Athena might be worth trying out. Not everyone hates it, as can be seen from gamefaqs reviews.

Other reviews:
* http://voices.yahoo.com/retro-video-game-reviews-athena-nes-7712838.html?cat=37 ("This video game looks like the aborted student project in coding class by a high schooler who never paid attention.")
* http://www.flyingomelette.com/reviews/nes/athena.html ("The game is somewhat playable, until you reach the third level, where the play control becomes even more impossible to manage when you have to swim")