Another Home for Abandonware Games

A tweet from PCGamer senior editor, Logan Decker:

Holy pixoly! Looks like abandonware's found a proper home after the demise of Home of the Underdogs. www.oldschoolapps.com

Very good news for retrogamers out there. Like me.

Google Trend on ROMs and Emulation

The picture above is the trending topic on search keywords ROMs and Emulation. This explains a lot. Emulation gaming is not what it used to be 4 to 5 years ago.

On a related note, Manga is up on the search trend, but Scanlation is down almost as bad as ROMs and Emulation.

NESguide - A Great Resource for NES Games

If you are a retrogamer and an emulation gamer, NESguide.com is a great site for you to learn about the gameplay of old NES games. The site layout is very clean. You can search for that NES game you want to view by clicking on the letters or using the search box. You will then land on a page with a YouTube video of the gameplay of that game.

Very original concept and very neat. Just viewing old NES games being played is a joy for me.

Mother 1+2 GBA Rom Translation

Look at the glorious Mother 1 and 2 early Rom translation. If you are not familiar with Mother, you might be familiar with the old SNES classic, Earthbound. Mother is a sci-fi RPG set in a 1990's world. You have the main characters with baseball bats and psychic powers and stuff. I have to disclose that I have never played Earthbound on the SNES yet, so I'm not 100% familiar with it. Heck, I'm not even 80% sure what it is. I plan to play it soon after I finish with my KOEI games kick.

FYI, Mother 3 for the GBA is completely translated to English.

Related links: Romhacking GBA translation page for Mother 1+2 & 3

Hurray For Less Ads!

I took off one adsense unit on this site. The truth is, I'm not making any money from this site. I have not seen a dollar or much less a cent from this blog. This is my hobby blog. The ads are just like a small delusion for my brain. It makes me feel like I'm a professional blogger making actual money off this site.

I don't want to play the SEO game. I feel like if the content of this site is inferior so be it. Screw you, this is my site regardless of the quality. I don't want to target keywords or to play keyword zombie for the mighty Google.

I remember blogging to be something better than just playing match the keywords for search engines. Right now, blogging is dying. Not because of Twitter, but because of SEO assholes and Social Media douchebags. Content and voice should be enough. But no, you had to game the system, don't you?

This site will still have some ads, not because I need the money, but again, it's something psychologically pleasing for me to think about. Call me a hypocrite or what have you. I don't give a damn. I stopped giving a damn a long time ago.

BastichOS is still my pet project. I blogged here January 1, 2005, and I will blog here until I can't write anymore.

Image credit: Pearsonified

KOEI strategy games - Gemfire

I have been dabbling in some KOEI strategy games like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Genghis Khan, and Gemfire. I'm trying Gemfire for the NES because a lot of people think this is the easiest KOEI game. So far, I get my butt handed to me by the AI. I really don't see how this can be the easiest game, but then I tried out ROTK, and I got my butt handed to me faster.

I will still try to play this underdog game because I really like the look and feel of games like this. The KOEI Historical Simulation series is the best. Maybe all I really need is to learn how to play properly. Gemfire, for me, has that charm that really makes me want to learn and win the scenarios.

As usual, I'm playing Gemfire on the NES emualtor of my Dingoo a-320. The Snes version of Gemfire don't go so well with the emulator of my Dingoo. However, the NES and Snes versions are rather similar except for the graphics.

Related Link: Isle of Ishmeria

Update: I'm starting to win in Gemfire. I'm still learning the nuances, though.

Lunar Legend - GBA old school RPG

Remember Lunar: Silver Star Story for the Playstation? Lunar Legend is a GBA remake of that game.

The story is about a young lad named Alex. He wants to be a Dragonmaster like his idol, Dyne. As with most RPG stories, Alex is a pure hearted, strong, fighter class guy. There are some hints in between stories that Alex might have some hidden strength that he does not yet know about. Still the standard anime/RPG plot.

But enough of the story. Aside from the mediocre storyline, Lunar Legend proves to be a charming, little old school RPG romp. It has a lighthearted tone with very cute and colorful graphics. The sprites are bigger than usual RPG sprites because the creators wanted more impact in storytelling. Not that the story is fantastic or anything, but because it adds to the charm of the game.

Indeed, Lunar Legend may not be as long as the original Silver Star Story, but it makes up for it in nostalgia factor. The only thing I can complain about this game is the difficulty, or the lack thereof. Lunar Legend is very easy it's almost impossible to die. That's just me nitpicking, though.

Overall this game deserves a 4 out of 5 from me.

Update: I just finished this wonderful game. I'm trying to scour the web for the older Lunar for the Sega disc systems.

Fire Emblem for the GBA

Fire Emblem for the GBA finally hit US shores almost more than a decade when it first launched in Japan. Watch the video above for a look at the history of Fire Emblem. You can also go to Snesorama to get the translated (pre-patched) NES Fire Emblem Gaiden.

It has been years since I played and finished fire Emblem for the GBA. I hardly remember it. All I remember is the difficulty. This game was hard. If your character dies in battle, that's it. No resurrection or healing when they are dead. I remember enjoying this game, though. The tension of the battle is stressful because your characters really die never to come back. There was a lot of resetting from this game because I get characters I like killed almost every time.

This game is awesome for strategy/rpg fans. Give it a try even if you own a Nintendo DS.

Edit: I have been playing Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. Quick review - not as hard as the first Fire Emblem for the GBA.

LOTR GBA - Lord of the Rings Trilogy

You can play as Gandalf, Aragorn, or Legolas. Plus there are lots of unlockable characters. The LOTR Trilogy for the GBA is simply a Diablo clone. It's not the best Diablo clone, but it's good enough for the an old system like the Gameboy Advance.

Like Diablo, you hack and slash your way out of any situation. You have a button where you can activate special attacks to help you kill hordes of goblins and orcs. There are also skill trees and magic, not unlike the Diablo 1 system.

If you want an action/RPG on the go, give the LOTR series a try. You can even play co-op with your friends if you have a link cable. I'm not 100% sure if you can use the wi-fi of a DS to link a game. All in all, this game is a solid 7 out of 10 in my book.

Breath of Fire Endings

I replayed and finished Breath of Fire I just to get to the good ending. Well, I wasn't able to get the good ending, and there is no chance in hell I'm going back again to get it.

The next best thing to getting the good ending is just to watch it on YouTube.

BTW - the Dingoo is great. I love my Dingoo. You will love it too if you are a retro gamer.