StarTopic Jeremy Parish's Video Works series |ST|

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video marks the beginning of Tengen's unlicensed NES carts with their version of Tetris. The legal saga over Tetris has definitely been covered on YouTube by the likes of the Gaming Historian. Jeremy also puts the Famicom version of Tetris by Bulletproof Software (Henk Rogers's company) in context. Patrons also get two more NES Works episodes, one on Airwolf and Operation Wolf, and the other on Hydlide, an historically important game that was very outdated by 1989.

Threadmark 117 - NES Works 123: Airwolf and Operation Wolf
Threadmark 118 - NES Works 124: Hydlide
Threadmark 119 - NES Works 125: Monster Party and Street Cop
Threadmark 120 - NES Works 126: Hoops and Shooting Range
Threadmark 121 - NES Works 127: Mega Man 2
Threadmark 122 - NES Works 128: Super Dodgeball
Threadmark 123 - NES Works 129: The Adventures of Bayou Billy
Threadmark 124 - NES Works 130: Desert Commander and California Games
Threadmark 125 - NES Works 131: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Threadmark 126 - NES Works 132: Thundercade and Guerilla War
Threadmark 127 - NES Works 133: Dragon Warrior
Threadmark 128 - Game Boy Works Vol 2 001: The Game Boy
Threadmark 129 - Game Boy Works Vol 2 002: Tetris

 

[Mer.Saloon]

This episode was fun. Maybe I'm a historical drama hog, but the Tetris story never fails to make me grin.

 

[Abzeronow]

On this week's public video, we have Airwolf and Operation Wolf, two video games with wolf in the title. Neither is particularly good, and Jeremy puts Airwolf in context by discussing how America was dealing with things after the Vietnam War. Patrons get two more NES Works episodes, one on Hydlide and the other on a pair of Human Entertainment and Bandai games, Monster Party and Street Cop, the latter being a Power Pad game.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's episode is about an historically important game that just landed with a thud in 1989, Hydlide. This is essentially Zelda's grandparent if you consider Druaga as Zelda's parent. Hydlide also has an AVGN episode on it. Anyway, patrons get two more NES Works videos, one on Monster Party and Street Cop, the other on Hoops by Jaleco and Shooting Range by Bandai. Also patrons got a timed exclusive video on the Casio PV-1000 and the games Pooyan and Super Cobra.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video has an epic intro, and is about a pair of Human Entertainment and Bandai games, Monster Party, which is a cult classic on NES and shows us that Human could make good games, and also Street Cop, a Power Pad game that has doubly badly aged, in terms of being bound to an accessory and presenting us with a cop protagonist who walks a beat and serves up some police brutality to keep crime down. Patrons get two more NES Works episodes, one on Hoops and Shooting Range, and the other on Mega Man 2, a banger of 1989.

 

[Abzeronow]

More Gakken TV Boy games with Mr. Bomb (a Kaboom clone), Robotan Wars (a Robotron 2084 clone) and Chitaikuu Daisakusen (a port of Konami's Super Cobra)

 

[Abzeronow]

Filler, that's the theme of this week's public video with Jaleco's Hoops and Bandai's Shooting Range. Hoops is also somewhat good. Patrons get two more NES Works episodes, one on Mega Man 2, a banger, and the other on Super Dodgeball, which was the first of the Kunio-kun sports games and the first Sony Imagesoft game published for NES. (I'll edit in Super Dodgeball for June since I somehow missed that).

 

[Abzeronow]

This week, we have Peak NES with Mega Man 2, one of the best games of 1989, and one of the GOATs of NES. Great controls, memorable chiptune soundtrack, awesome weapons (Metal Blade), and mostly great bosses (Airman, the huge Dragon boss). Capcom was in peak form for NES in 1989, and they weren't done as far as bangers on NES in 1989 (DuckTales is still to come). Get equipped with a great game. Patrons get two more NES Works episodes, one on Super Dodgeball, and the other on The Adventures of Bayou Billy, which had great music and a cool concept but gets dragged down by its extreme difficulty. There was also a Patron exclusive Casio PV-1000 episode on Tutankahm and Amidar.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video gives us Super Dodgeball, Sony Imagesoft's first published NES game and the first Kunio-kun sports game on the console. Technos Japan developed a fairly good game here. Patrons get two more NES Works episodes, one on The Adventures of Bayou Billy, and the other on Desert Commander, one of the first strategy games on NES, and on California Games, which was the last port of Epyx's Games series on NES.

 

[Porygon-Z]

This week's public video gives us Super Dodgeball, Sony Imagesoft's first published NES game and the first Kunio-kun sports game on the console. Technos Japan developed a fairly good game here. Patrons get two more NES Works episodes, one on The Adventures of Bayou Billy, and the other on Desert Commander, one of the first strategy games on NES, and on California Games, which was the last port of Epyx's Games series on NES.

This is one of his best videos of the year. Lots of great discussion of development lineages and context that isn't apparent from the game alone.

 

[Abzeronow]

This is one of his best videos of the year. Lots of great discussion of development lineages and context that isn't apparent from the game alone.

There will be other Kunio-kun sports games for NES (Nintendo World Cup; Crash 'N the Boys), and the next Kunio-kun game for NES is a cult classic (River City Ransom) and RCR is a childhood favorite of mine.

 

[Abzeronow]

RIP to Akira Toriyama, whose work could be seen in 1988's NES game Dragon Power and whose character designs were a big part of 1989's NES game Dragon Warrior (which was originally titled Dragon Quest) and the many sequels to Dragon Quest, and of course the 1995 SNES game Chrono Trigger.

 

[Abzeronow]

Jeremy has made public his VHS rip of the V-Jump tape on Chrono Trigger. RIP Akira Toriyama.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video is on the notoriously difficult The Adventures of Bayou Billy, one of the lesser Konami games on NES, although it is technically impressive. You can see the start of anti-rental strategies with this game. Patrons get two more NES Works videos, one on Desert Commander and California Games, the other on Konami's big June 1989 game through their Ultra Games disguise, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video gives us two very different games from two different publishers. First, we have Desert Commander by Kemco, which was a game in which you play as Erwin Rommel in the Famicom version. This was thankfully changed in localization as the 1980s is where we'd at least brutally kill Nazis on film as opposed to seeing them pop up and courted at CPAC. And also, California Games by Rare and Milton Bradley, the last of Epyx's Games series ported to NES. I won't be missing them. Patrons get two more NES Works episodes, one on Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the other on Micronics and American Sammy's Thundercade (bad) and SNK's Guerilla War (good). Looks like we are going to get to Dragon Warrior earlier. RIP Toriyama (and RIP Iwata).

 

[Abzeronow]

Upcoming NES games now that we've reached July 1989:

June 1989:
Nobunaga's Ambition

July 1989:
Baseball Stars
Cobra Triangle
Defender of the Crown
Strider - hinted for Episode 134
Super Sprint (unlicensed Tengen game)
Thundercade - Episode 132

August 1989:
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Dragon Warrior - Episode 133
Faxanadu
Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll
Jordan vs Bird: One on One
The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle

September 1989:
Adventures of Dino Riki
Air Fortress
Back to the Future
Bad Street Brawler
Castlequest
DuckTales
Fester's Quest
Hollywood Squares
King's Knight
NFL
P.O.W: Prisoners of War
Sesame Street ABC
Sky Shark
The Black Bass USA
Who Framed Roger Rabbit

 

[Mer.Saloon]

Upcoming NES games now that we've reached July 1989:

June 1989:
Nobunaga's Ambition

July 1989:
Baseball Stars
Cobra Triangle
Defender of the Crown
Strider
Super Sprint (unlicensed Tengen game)
Thundercade - Episode 132

August 1989:
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Dragon Warrior
Faxanadu
Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll
Jordan vs Bird: One on One
The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle

September 1989:
Adventures of Dino Riki
Air Fortress
Back to the Future
Bad Street Brawler
Castlequest
DuckTales
Fester's Quest
Hollywood Squares
King's Knight
NFL
P.O.W: Prisoners of War
Sesame Street ABC
Sky Shark
The Black Bass USA
Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Argh, potentially waiting until May 22nd for Dragon Warrior is tough. Tough.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video is about Konami's big June 1989 game: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yes, it's under the Ultra label but it's pure Konami. I always had trouble getting past the dam level. The leadup to the Technodrome sounds like a nightmare. Currently 1 other NES episode is available to patrons: one on Thundercade and Guerilla War, the other one delayed slightly for technical reasons but will be 33 minutes long. New Patreon exclusive video on the Casio PV-1000 games Dig Dug and Warp & Warp, two underwhelming Namco ports that would get better versions on Famicom.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video presents a bad arcade port by Micronics with Thundercade which is just a bad game, period, and also SNK's Guerilla War which was their best NES game to date, and a good game. The story got sanitized for the US removing any mention that the playable characters are Che Guevara and Fidel Castro who are fighting to free Cuba from the despotic Batista. Patrons got two more videos, both long, one on Dragon Warrior for the NES, the other is the first video on Game Boy Works Vol. 2 with a video on the US launch of Game Boy, marking the 10th anniversary of Game Boy Works and the 35th anniversary of Game Boy. More US-centric redoes of Game Boy games we got in the US to come starting with Tetris.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

Being of Cuban descent, this episode hit a close spot of dark humor for me.

 

[Abzeronow]

But Thou Must watch this week's public video on Dragon Warrior, the 1989 release for North America of the game that had so much influence on 8bit games from 1986 on, Dragon Quest. Thanks Satoru Iwata and Akira Toriyama for what you had brought to this release. Patrons get two videos on Game Boy, one a look back at the system 35 years on (and 10 for Game Boy Works), the other a revised look at Tetris, the pack-in game for North America.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

This is an episode I have been waiting years for. Sobering and tragic that it finally comes under these circumstances. R.I.P Akira Toriyama.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video covers another big event in August 1989: the Game Boy's American launch. And so we get a timely video on both the Game Boy's 35th anniversary and on the 10th anniversary of Game Boy Works. It looks like the next month is Game Boy Works videos. Patrons get two more videos, one on Tetris, and the other on Baseball and Super Mario Landl

 

[Suiseiseki]

Finally Gameboy Works after years of hiatus.

Been mostly waiting for this rather than the other series aside from SNES Works.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video brings us the pack-in Game Boy game for the US launch: Tetris. This is the version of Tetris I played as a kid. Always nice to revisit it. Patrons get two more Game Boy Works videos covering the rest of the Game Boy launch with Baseball and Super Mario Land on one, and Alleyway and Tennis on the other. And in another week, patrons finally see Jeremy's journey to triangle jumping in Eurasia. Patrons also got a Patron exclusive video on the Casio PV-1000 maze games Turpin and Fighting Bug.