StarTopic Jeremy Parish's Video Works series |ST|

[Abzeronow]

We turn the page and we have this week's public video with two of the weaker offerings of 1986 for Master System: Marksman Shooting/Trap Shooting which is a lesser take on Nintendo's light gun games. And we also have Rambo, an Ikari Warriors clone that is somehow less fun. Patrons get two more Segaiden episodes. One episode on The Ninja and Pro Wrestling and the other wrapping 1986 for Master System with Super Tennis and Alex Kidd in Miracle World.

Threadmark 70- Segaiden 37: The Ninja and Pro Wrestling
Threadmark 71 - Segaiden 38: Super Tennis and Alex Kidd in Miracle World
Threadmark 72 - Segaiden 39: Great Soccer (JP & EU), Great Golf (JP) and Pit Pot.
Threadmark 73 - Segaiden 40: Comic Machine Gun Joe and High School Kimengumi
Threadmark 74 - Segaiden 41: Great Baseball and Space Harrier
Threadmark 75 - Segaiden 42: Shooting Gallery and Quartet
Threadmark 76 - Segaiden 43: Ghostbusters and Wonder Boy
Threadmark 77 - Segaiden 44: Great Football, Sports Pad Football and Rocky
Threadmark 78 - Segaiden 45: State of the Master System in 1987 and Enduro Racer
Threadmark 79 - Segaiden 46: Gangster Town and Great Volleyball
Threadmark 80 - Segaiden 47: Sega 3-D Glasses and Missile Defense 3-D
Threadmark 81 - Segaiden 49: Kung Fu Kid and Great Golf
Threadmark 82 - Segaiden 50: Zillion
Threadmark 83-Segaiden 51: Great Soccer, Great Basketball and Fantasy Zone II
Threadmark 84 - Segaiden 52: Sukeban Deka II and Mahjong Sengoku Jidai
Threadmark 85 - Segaiden 53: Great Baseball [JP], Satellite 7, Woody Pop and Alex Kidd BMX Trials
Threadmark 86 - Metroidvania Works 15: Rambo and Magic of Scheherazade
Threadmark 87 - Metroidvania Works 16: Battle of Olympus, The Guardian Legend and Exile
Threadmark 88 - Metroidvania Works 17: Blaster Master and Bionic Commando
Threadmark 89 - Metroidvania Works 18: Clash at Demonhead and XZR
Threadmark 90 - Metroidvania Works 19: Strider and Willow
Threadmark 91 - Metroidvania Works 20: Ys III and River City Ransom
Threadmark 92 - Metroidvania Works 21: Wonder Boy III The Dragon's Trap, Neutopia and Golden Axe Warrior
Threadmark 93-Metroidvania Works 22: A Boy and His Blob and Crystalis
Threadmark 94- Metroidvania Works 23: Gargoyle's Quest and Metal Gear 2.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

I am a huge fan of all the work Jeremy puts into making this series and really getting these constant contextual reminders of what was going on at the time of release.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week, we have a follow-up to SG-1000's Ninja Princess in The Ninja which plays better than its predecessor but has a less interesting protagonist. And we also have Pro Wrestling which dumped its women characters for men when it came to Master System. Anyway, Patrons get two more Segaiden episodes, one that wraps 1986 Master System with Super Tennis and Alex Kidd in Miracle World and the other on 1985 Mark III Japanese games that the US didn't get (two Great sports games and Pit Pot).

 

[Mer.Saloon]

This week, we have a follow-up to SG-1000's Ninja Princess in The Ninja which plays better than its predecessor but has a less interesting protagonist. And we also have Pro Wrestling which dumped its women characters for men when it came to Master System. Anyway, Patrons get two more Segaiden episodes, one that wraps 1986 Master System with Super Tennis and Alex Kidd in Miracle World and the other on 1985 Mark III Japanese games that the US didn't get (two Great sports games and Pit Pot).

I wonder if the changes to both games were intentionally done for the Western releases seeing how close together they were done? SEGA didn't seem to want to go through the effort of having two versions of Ninja though and just stuck to the generic western version.

Just a though.

 

[Abzeronow]

In this week's public video, the Master System in 1986 wraps up with Super Tennis, which plays just like Nintendo's Tennis, and Alex Kidd in Miracle World, which could have been a Dragon Ball game but is a post-Mario platformer whose design holds it back from greatness. Patrons get two Segaiden episodes on Mark III games the US never got from 1985 and from 1986. 1986's Japanese exclusives definitely were not good.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

In this week's public video, the Master System in 1986 wraps up with Super Tennis, which plays just like Nintendo's Tennis, and Alex Kidd in Miracle World, which could have been a Dragon Ball game but is a post-Mario platformer whose design holds it back from greatness. Patrons get two Segaiden episodes on Mark III games the US never got from 1985 and from 1986. 1986's Japanese exclusives definitely were not good.

I always respected Alex Kidd even if I never could get into it. It's a series that definitely deserves at least a bit more respect than it gets at SEGA even if its time in the sun is long gone.

I never knew about the Dragon Ball parallel though, but that explains a lot about the oddball design of this first game.

 

[Abzeronow]

And we look at Mark III games from 1985 that the US didn't get in this week's public video. This version of Great Soccer is a much lesser game than what the US got as Great Soccer (which had a different title in Japan and Europe). The Japanese Great Golf is pretty good but also not as player friendly as Nintendo's Golf. The US got a different game as Great Golf (which was titled Masters Golf in Japan). Pit Pot is a game that was inspired by Tower of Druaga and Dig Dug II and is a game that Europeans have nostalgia for. Patrons get two more videos on Sega, one dealing with two games from 1986 the US didn't get (Comical Machine Gun Joe and High School Kimengumi) and the other on two good games that show just how advanced the Master System was for early 1987 in Great Baseball and Space Harrier.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

And we look at Mark III games from 1985 that the US didn't get in this week's public video. This version of Great Soccer is a much lesser game than what the US got as Great Soccer (which had a different title in Japan and Europe). The Japanese Great Golf is pretty good but also not as player friendly as Nintendo's Golf. The US got a different game as Great Golf (which was titled Masters Golf in Japan). Pit Pot is a game that was inspired by Tower of Druaga and Dig Dug II and is a game that Europeans have nostalgia for. Patrons get two more videos on Sega, one dealing with two games from 1986 the US didn't get (Comical Machine Gun Joe and High School Kimengumi) and the other on two good games that show just how advanced the Master System was for early 1987 in Great Baseball and Space Harrier.

It's amazing where you find continuity in these early 80s games.

 

[Abzeronow]

We go to the bottom of the barrel for 1986 in this week's public video with Comic Machine Gun Joe and High School Kimengumi, two Japanese exclusives that haven't aged well and just aren't that good. And 1987 on the Master System is next which Patrons get two videos on. One on Great Baseball and Space Harrier and the other on Shooting Gallery and Quartet.

 

[Abzeronow]

Sega swings for the fences in early 1987 in this week's public video. Great Baseball did what Bases Loaded would do later and brought a Hardball style baseball game to consoles. An actually good 8-bit baseball game. Sega also brought an ambitious port of Space Harrier to Master System. Good stuff. Patrons get two more Segaiden videos, one on Shooting Gallery and Quartet which are two games that are better than you think, and the other on Ghostbusters and Wonder Boy, two ports that came earlier than their counterparts on NES. SMS Ghostbusters actually does justice to David Crane's C64 game.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

Master System really could have been a big hit had the marketing not been fumbled. Just this early lineup alone blows away a lot of early NES games.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video gives us Shooting Gallery, a fun but difficult light gun game and Quartet, which had four players in the arcade but only two on console (the Mark III version was titled Double Target). Quartet kinda compares well with Section Z. Patrons get two more Segaiden videos, one on Ghostbusters and Wonder Boy, two good ports. The other video is on sports games, Great Football, the inexplicable sudden release of Sports Pad Football, and Rocky. Yes, someone at Sega of America must have loved Stallone.

 

[Rick Bruiser]

So is he just doing Gaiden videos these days?

 

[shoptroll]

So is he just doing Gaiden videos these days?

Yes, trying to get Sega up to the same date as NES/Famicom. I believe he’s said on Patreon that this is the focus for 2023?

 

[Abzeronow]

Yes, trying to get Sega up to the same date as NES/Famicom. I believe he’s said on Patreon that this is the focus for 2023?

Yeah, he'll be caught up with the NES later this year. Segaiden just needs to go through the rest of 1987, and then go through all of 1988. 1989 is going to be hectic between NES, Atari, SMS and then potentially the TurboGrafx-16 and the Genesis.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

I really can't wait for the TurboGrafx to get involved. I wasn't feeling the SG-1000 episodes mainly because of how antiquated those games were, as well as distant from what I knew. But these SEGAiden episodes on Master System have been great since I have more of a frame of reference.

 

[shoptroll]

This week's public video gives us Shooting Gallery, a fun but difficult light gun game and Quartet, which had four players in the arcade but only two on console (the Mark III version was titled Double Target). Quartet kinda compares well with Section Z. Patrons get two more Segaiden videos, one on Ghostbusters and Wonder Boy, two good ports. The other video is on sports games, Great Football, the inexplicable sudden release of Sports Pad Football, and Rocky. Yes, someone at Sega of America must have loved Stallone.

Came for the Peter Gabriel, stayed to watch my understanding of gaming history get demolished. A++

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video shows us Sega doing games that showed up on NES much earlier on Master System. Ghostbusters actually feels like David Crane's C64 game and Wonder Boy is just great as always (much better than the SG-1000 version). Patrons get two more Segaiden videos, one on sports games (Great Football, Sports Pad Football and Rocky) and the other on the disappointment that is Enduro Racer and a look at the state of the console wars in 1987.

 

[Abzeronow]

Sports games are the focus of this week's public video which has one game under two titles and two different control schemes, only released a month apart. Neither Great Football or Sports Pad Football are that great really. Rocky is a good, but difficult and short boxing game. Patrons get two more Segaiden episodes with one on Enduro Racer and a look at the state of things in 1987, the other on Gangster Town (good game) and Great Volleyball (bad game).

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video shows us how things were shaping up in 1987. We also see Enduro Racer, a game that the US only got half of compared with the Mark III version and it was a definite downgrade from the arcade version. Patrons get two more Segaiden videos, one on Gangster Town and Great Volleyball, the other on the Sega 3-D Glasses and 3-D Missile Defense. There was also a Patron exclusive episode on the Super Cassette Vision this week with Super Baseball, Super Mahjong and Super Golf, all 1984 games.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video brings us a good game (Gangster Town) and a bad one (Great Volleyball). Such is life. Patrons get two more Segaiden videos, one on the Sega 3D Glasses and 3D Missile Defense and the other on Outrun and the FM Sound Unit (both of which were innovative).

 

[Abzeronow]

The Z-axis enters the fray in this week's public video on the peripheral the Sega 3-D Glasses and a game that used that peripheral, 3-D Missile Defense, which had Mark Cerny working on it. See a game that used two peripherals that don't work on modern TVs complete with Reagan era allusion to SDI. Patrons get two more Segaiden episodes, one on Outrun and the FM Sound Unit and the other on Kung Fu Kid (a sequel to Dragon Wang) and Great Golf (which lives up to its name).

 

[Abzeronow]

Driving and music are the focus of this week's public video on Outrun, the SMS's port of the Super Scalar arcade game and the Japan-only FM Sound Unit which will really make some of these games sound good in future Segaiden episodes. An all-time classic video. Patrons get two more Segaiden episodes, one on Kung Fu Kid and Great Golf and the other on Zillion and a new minisegment called What Did Sega Visions Say? (Sega Challenge newsletter may have started in late 1987). Jeremy is also currently running a poll on Patreon on whether Segaiden continues straight into 1988 or if we take a short break from the Master System. Short break is narrowly winning.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video gives us a sequel to Dragon Wang in Kung Fu Kid, and Great Golf which is actually a good game. Patrons get two more Segaiden episodes with one on Zillion and a minisegment on what Sega's marketing newsletter said about it, and the other on the last three Master System games of 1987: Great Soccer, Great Basketball, and Fantasy Zone II. The sports games are bad but Fantasy Zone II is pretty good so all things in balance. Patrons also got a NES Works Epoch episode on two November 1984 Super Cassette Vision games that are hampered by bad design or the console's spongy controller. There is also a new road map for the rest of this year: we're getting Segaiden 1988 bimonthly, Metroidvania Works is coming back for alternating months up to Super Metroid, and we'll be getting one NES Works 1989 episode a month. So Great Convergence now happens in April 1989.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video has Zillion, which was Sega's attempt at getting in on a multimedia franchise with a video game and anime that were made of it. It's actually not bad for a licensed game. There's also a small look at Sega's marketing efforts. Patrons get two more Segaiden videos, one that ends 1987 with Fantasy Zone II and the subpar Great Soccer and Great Basketball, and the other is an age restricted video on two 1987 Mark III exclusives: Sukeban Déjà and a cleaned up port of an arcade strip mahjong game. Yes, mahjong and age gating strikes again.

 

[shoptroll]

Driving and music are the focus of this week's public video on Outrun, the SMS's port of the Super Scalar arcade game and the Japan-only FM Sound Unit which will really make some of these games sound good in future Segaiden episodes. An all-time classic video. Patrons get two more Segaiden episodes, one on Kung Fu Kid and Great Golf and the other on Zillion and a new minisegment called What Did Sega Visions Say? (Sega Challenge newsletter may have started in late 1987). Jeremy is also currently running a poll on Patreon on whether Segaiden continues straight into 1988 or if we take a short break from the Master System. Short break is narrowly winning.

Late reply, but this was by far one of the best episodes of late (which is saying something since I've really enjoyed the SMS coverage), and it was great to see him bring Rad Racer into the mix to provide some context around that release.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video ends 1987 on the Master System with two clunker sports games: Great Soccer and Great Basketball, and the pretty good Fantasy Zone II. Patrons get two episodes on 1987 Japanese exclusives and as well as two 1985 Mark III games Jeremy had forgotten to include. After those, we dive right into 2 or 3 months of Metroidvania Works which will take us through 1987, 1988 and 1989 and beyond.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video is an aged gated one which deals with two Mark III exclusives from 1987: Sukeban Deka II, which was based on the TV series, and Mahjong Sengoku Jidai, which was a completely clean version of a strip mahjong game (and Jeremy's discussion of the history of those games is the reason for the age gating). Patrons get another Segaiden video that wraps up the 1987 exclusives as well as two 1985 games that were previously omitted and a Metroidvania Works video on two 1987 Famicom releases, Pack In Video's Rambo and Culture Brain's The Magic of Scheherazade.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video gives us two 1985 games that were missed before and wraps up 1987 for the Mark III and puts us on a pause of Segaiden for about a few months. Great Baseball [JP] is a serviceable baseball game for 1985, Satellite 7 is a mediocre Xevious clone that nobody cares about, Woody Pop is an Arkanoid clone that uses a Japan-only paddle controller which is also used for Alex Kidd BMX Trials. Patrons get two Metroidvania Works episodes, one on 1988 Famicom releases Rambo and Magic of Scheherazade and the other that features Battle of Olympus for Famicom/NES, The Guardian Legend for Famicom/NES and Exile for the Acorn Electron and ported to other British micros.

 

[Abzeronow]

We return to Metroidvania Works in this week's public video with the Famicom and later NES games Rambo (Pack-In Video) and Magic of Scheherazade (Culture Brain). Rambo is not the last Zelda 2 clone we'll be encountering. Patrons get two more Metroidvania Works episodes, one is on Battle of Olympus, The Guardian Legend and Exile, the other is on two very familiar games now Blaster Master and Bionic Commando.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video has a Zelda 2 style game in Ancient Greece with The Battle of Olympus, a Zeldalike game that also is a shoot-em-up in Compile's The Guardian Legend, and a British microcomputer game Exile. Patrons get two more Metroidvania Works episodes with one on the familiar Blaster Master and Bionic Commando, the other on Vic Tokai's Clash at Demonhead and Nihon Telenet's XZR.

 

[shoptroll]

Somewhat cross posting this from the Sakurai On Creating Games thread, but this past week I finally caught up on the Patron exclusive videos covering the Epoch Casette Vision. With luck, this video dropped this week from Sakurai's channel:



If you look closely, there's a bunch of ECV references in the video, and it was great to be able to kinda nod my head and say to myself "ah yes, this all makes sense now".

(If you're not a Patreon subscriber, it's totally worth it just for the Epoch stuff)

 

[Abzeronow]

NES hits of 1988 are revisited in this week's public video with Sunsoft's Blaster Master, a game improved by its sequel/remake, and Capcom's Bionic Commando. Patrons get two more Metroidvania Works episodes, one on Vic Tokai's Clash at Demonhead and Nihon Telenet's XZR, and the other on a pair of Capcom games that are different from their arcade versions: Strider and Willow, one of them manages to be a pretty good game too.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video takes us to 1989 with Vic Tokai's Clash at Demonhead, a fun nonlinear action platformer with a humorous protagonist and Nihon Telenet's XZR, a fascinating computer game. Patrons get two more Metroidvania Works episodes, one on Falcon's Strider and Willow, the other on Falcon's Ys III and Technos's River City Ransom, which would define the look for future Kunio-kun games.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video gives us two Capcom NES games, Strider and Willow. They are different from their arcade versions, and one pulls this off better than the other. Patrons get two more Metroidvania Works episodes, one on Ys III and River City Ransom, the other on Sega and Westone's classic Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, and two Zelda clones Golden Axe Warrior and Neutopia. There was also a Patron exclusive video on Super Cassette Vision games Super Soccer and Wheelie Racer, which I don't think we're anybody's favorite games.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video gives us two pretty good games, Nihon Falcom's Ys III which added sidescrolling, and had three different console ports and can excellent remake in Oath in Felghana. Technos's River City Ransom advanced the Kunio-kun series to what we know them as today, it does RPG elements pretty well and it was a childhood favorite. Patrons get two more Metroidvania Works episodes, one on Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, Neutopia and Golden Axe Warrior, the other on David Crane's Adventures of a Boy and His Blob and SNK's Crystalis.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video gives us three non-Nintendo games with Sega and Westone's classic Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap taking up the lion's share. It's a damn fine game from 1989. We also get a look at the Zelda-inspired action RPGs from Hudson (Neutopia) and Sega (Golden Axe Warrior). Patrons also get two more Metroidvania Works episodes, one on A Boy and His Blob and Crystalis, and the other looks at two great games, Capcom's Gargoyle's Quest and Konami's Metal Gear 2. Soon, we'll be getting back to NES Works and Segaiden.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video takes us to 1990 with David Crane's first original game for the NES: A Boy and His Blob. A game that brings some Atari 2600 sensibilities to the 1990s. Also SNK's Crystalis which has been compared with both Zelda and Ys, it plays more like Ys. Patrons get one more Metroidvania Works episode, which deals with two innovative games, Capcom's Gargoyle's Quest and Konami's Metal Gear 2. And NES Works 1989 debuts with two lacklustre games, Hi-Tech Expressions NES debut game, Sesame Street 1-2-3, and Taxan bringing over Hudson's 1986 schmup Star Soldier, which pales in comparison to the Compile and Konami schmups already on NES. Getting closer to an all-time classic game by Tecmo.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

I found it really hard to get into Metroidvania Works. It was tough really getting into the connective throughline for those earlier vids.

But its been growing on me lately, and honestly its been amazing discovering just how the trends/tech of the era affected this sort of collective design.

I find the vids are best when you really do start looking at the bigger picture.

 

[Abzeronow]

I'll post what the NES Works games that will be covered up to April 1989 (Jeremy will also do Segaiden 1988 mostly with an occasional NES Works 1989 episode) Subject to change, of course.

NES Works 106: Sesame Street 1-2-3/Star Soldier
NES Works 107: Tecmo Bowl/Tecmo Baseball
NES Works 108: Ultima Exodus
NES Works 109: WWF Wrestlemania/Bandai Golf: Pebble Beach
NES Works 110: Gyruss/Q*Bert
NES Works 111: Friday the 13th/Kung Fu Heroes
NES Works 112: Ninja Gaiden
NES Works 113: Dance Aerobics/ John Elway Quarterback/Marble Madness
NES Works 114: World Games/Mappy Land/Fist of the North Star.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

I'll post what the NES Works games that will be covered up to April 1989 (Jeremy will also do Segaiden 1988 mostly with an occasional NES Works 1989 episode) Subject to change, of course.

NES Works 106: Sesame Street 1-2-3/Star Soldier
NES Works 107: Tecmo Bowl/Tecmo Baseball
NES Works 108: Ultima Exodus
NES Works 109: WWF Wrestlemania/Bandai Golf: Pebble Beach
NES Works 110: Gyruss/Q*Bert
NES Works 111: Friday the 13th/Kung Fu Heroes
NES Works 112: Ninja Gaiden
NES Works 113: Dance Aerobics/ John Elway Quarterback/Marble Madness
NES Works 114: World Games/Mappy Land/Fist of the North Star.

Episode 106 being the first for 1989 feels very ominous.

 

[Abzeronow]

Episode 106 being the first for 1989 feels very ominous.

1989 is a big year for the NES. Faxanadu, Dragon Warrior, Ninja Gaiden, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Guardian Legend, Mega Man 2, DuckTales, Willow.

 

[Abzeronow]

I'm not going to threadmark it but the first video on the Epoch Cassette Vision is now public. Features Kikori no Yosaku and Baseball

 

[Suiseiseki]

I haven't watched much, would wait for NES works and Gameboy works instead.

 

[shoptroll]

I'm not going to threadmark it but the first video on the Epoch Cassette Vision is now public. Features Kikori no Yosaku and Baseball

Yesssss! The Epoch coverage is super fascinating. Highly recommend it, and it’ll put things like this in perspective:

 

[Abzeronow]

I haven't watched much, would wait for NES works and Gameboy works instead.

The start of NES Works 1989 goes public in less than 2 weeks. I'm a patron so I see episodes ahead of the public. Be prepared for a bunch of episodes on the Master System in 1988 though.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

I haven't watched much, would wait for NES works and Gameboy works instead.

I reccomend at least to binge the SeGA episodes. The perspective of what Nintendo was competiting against really does put things into perspective how impressive their games are.

Having seen the SG-1000 episodes, I can tell you I have a newfound appreciation for the black box games and how... big of a step up they are from their contemporaries.

The fact they came out around the time of the game crash in America when Atari was king, but they frankly look like gold in comparison while SEGA feels like that incremental jump.

Its really cool, like piecing a puzzle of history together.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

i remember the Cassettevision (or rather, it's successor) being known for having the first licensed Dragon Ball game and not much else.
i certainly think Jeremy could probably pull more interesting info out of it than that, though.

 

[Abzeronow]

i remember the Cassettevision (or rather, it's successor) being known for having the first licensed Dragon Ball game and not much else.
i certainly think Jeremy could probably pull more interesting info out of it than that, though.

The Super Cassette Vision might have had the first console port of Boulder Dash. EDIT: It looks like it was second after Colecovision in 1984, since SCV was in 1985. But it was 5 years before the Famicom and NES.

 

[Abzeronow]

This week's public video brings this year's run of Metroidvania Works to a close with two groundbreaking games: Capcom's Gargoyle's Quest for Gameboy and Konami's Metal Gear 2 for MSX. Both would definitely show that exploratory action games would continue to improve in the 1990s. Patrons get two NES Works 1989 episodes with one on Sesame Street 1-2-3 and Star Soldier, and the other on a pair of good Tecmo sports games(Tecmo Baseball and Tecmo Bowl). Also there was a Patron exclusive video on the very weird Gakken TV Boy and the first of its six games: Excite Invader which is Space Invader turned on its side.