After Mega Man had a decent first outing and two not-so-great outings on the Game Boy, Minakuchi Engineering redoubled their efforts and created two of the greatest Mega Man games of all time. The intro alone shows you how much more thought was put into the game this time around...
12/30/2014
Spoony Plays the Mega Man (Game Boy) Pentalogy, Part 2: Mega Man II
The second in the Game Boy Mega Man series was released only two months after the original, in February of 1992. It's also the only game in the franchise developed by Biox and is generally considered one of its weaker entries, for reasons that will become clear as we play it.
Still, it's more entertaining than Mega Man III on Game Boy, a game which intentionally seems to be designed to be as asinine and frustrating as humanly possible...
Still, it's more entertaining than Mega Man III on Game Boy, a game which intentionally seems to be designed to be as asinine and frustrating as humanly possible...
Spoony Plays the Mega Man (Game Boy) Pentalogy, Part 1: Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge
Dusting off an old classic that doesn't get as much attention as its NES counterpart, but is still a pretty solid game. This is the first in the Game Boy Mega Man series (known in Japan as "Rockman World", and was developed by Minakuchi Engineering and released in 1991.
12/28/2014
Spoony Plays Ultima VI: The False Prophet, Part 8 (Finale)
We tie up the last two loose ends and fulfill the prophesied Sacrifice...
Notes on other versions
The SNES port of Ultima 6 is a relatively faithful version, albeit with some instances of censorship in the dialog and imagery (Gargoyles no longer have horns and enemies are "defeated" rather than killed, for example) and a considerably more cumbersome interface owing to the game utilizing a controller instead of a mouse and keyboard. There are also no in-game character portraits owing to memory constraints, and the game lacks a character generation sequence at the beginning.
The Amiga and Atari ST ports are largely the same, albeit with worse visuals and music and shipping on numerous floppy disks which necessitated frequent swapping. The C64 version also utilizes a keyboard interface like the previous games and requires very frequent disc swapping (NPC dialog is stored on a separate disk from the game itself). Numerous items and spells and all of the music and sound effects (save for the intro) were also cut for space constraints.
There is also a Japan-exclusive FM Towns port that has some slightly nicer sounding music and a somewhat simplified dialog system (operating on learned keywords rather than typed ones) as well as being the only version of the game that features voiced dialog (with many characters being voiced by members of the development team themselves, including Richard Garriott as Lord British). The voiceovers are of rather poor quality, but it's a pretty nifty feature nonetheless.
Secret Cheater's Menu
Talk to Iolo and say the phrase "Spam" three times, followed by "Humbug." This will enable a hidden menu that allows you to set game flags, create items, edit your party members and view any NPC's stats and portrait.
Savage Empire and Martian Dreams still have the cheat menu in their code, but it cannot be accessed without modifying the game. Martian Dreams contains a subtle nod to it as well - ask Dr. Spector about Spam and he'll reply that he enjoys eating it.
Other cheat/debug functions
All done by holding down ALT and typing the appropriate combination of numbers on the keypad.
Alt-213 - Shows an overhead view of your surroundings as if you had used a gem, and displays a number in the format KK TTTT XXYYZZ. KK is your karma level, TTTT is the current time of day, and XXYYZZ is your party's current coordinates in hexadecimal.
Alt-214 - Brings up a prompt (in Gargish text) asking for X, Y and Z coordinates (in hexadecimal). Whatever you input, your party will immediately teleport there.
Alt-215 - Advances time by one hour.
Notes on other versions
The SNES port of Ultima 6 is a relatively faithful version, albeit with some instances of censorship in the dialog and imagery (Gargoyles no longer have horns and enemies are "defeated" rather than killed, for example) and a considerably more cumbersome interface owing to the game utilizing a controller instead of a mouse and keyboard. There are also no in-game character portraits owing to memory constraints, and the game lacks a character generation sequence at the beginning.
The Amiga and Atari ST ports are largely the same, albeit with worse visuals and music and shipping on numerous floppy disks which necessitated frequent swapping. The C64 version also utilizes a keyboard interface like the previous games and requires very frequent disc swapping (NPC dialog is stored on a separate disk from the game itself). Numerous items and spells and all of the music and sound effects (save for the intro) were also cut for space constraints.
There is also a Japan-exclusive FM Towns port that has some slightly nicer sounding music and a somewhat simplified dialog system (operating on learned keywords rather than typed ones) as well as being the only version of the game that features voiced dialog (with many characters being voiced by members of the development team themselves, including Richard Garriott as Lord British). The voiceovers are of rather poor quality, but it's a pretty nifty feature nonetheless.
Secret Cheater's Menu
Talk to Iolo and say the phrase "Spam" three times, followed by "Humbug." This will enable a hidden menu that allows you to set game flags, create items, edit your party members and view any NPC's stats and portrait.
Savage Empire and Martian Dreams still have the cheat menu in their code, but it cannot be accessed without modifying the game. Martian Dreams contains a subtle nod to it as well - ask Dr. Spector about Spam and he'll reply that he enjoys eating it.
Other cheat/debug functions
All done by holding down ALT and typing the appropriate combination of numbers on the keypad.
Alt-213 - Shows an overhead view of your surroundings as if you had used a gem, and displays a number in the format KK TTTT XXYYZZ. KK is your karma level, TTTT is the current time of day, and XXYYZZ is your party's current coordinates in hexadecimal.
Alt-214 - Brings up a prompt (in Gargish text) asking for X, Y and Z coordinates (in hexadecimal). Whatever you input, your party will immediately teleport there.
Alt-215 - Advances time by one hour.
Spoony Plays Ultima VI: The False Prophet, Part 7
We come a long way to what little remains of the Underworld and learn the ways of the Gargoyles.
Oh, and for those curious, here's what happens when you give the Storm Cloak to Homer:
Doing so earns you no physical reward, but you get a whopping 30 Karma. Not that you need it at this stage.
Honestly, if you're playing the game legit, you're probably better off just keeping the Cloak. It nullifies all magic when equipped - very useful against Daemons and Dragons!
Oh, and for those curious, here's what happens when you give the Storm Cloak to Homer:
Doing so earns you no physical reward, but you get a whopping 30 Karma. Not that you need it at this stage.
Honestly, if you're playing the game legit, you're probably better off just keeping the Cloak. It nullifies all magic when equipped - very useful against Daemons and Dragons!
Spoony plays Ultima VI: The False Prophet, Part 6
We finally complete the quest for the Silver Tablet, and then the last leg of the story begins.
(I skip ahead a bit here and make the balloon before I'm told I need it in the Underworld - it saves us a trip back.)
(I skip ahead a bit here and make the balloon before I'm told I need it in the Underworld - it saves us a trip back.)
12/22/2014
Spoony Plays Soul Blazer, Part 7 (Finale)
The time has come at last to enter the World of Darkness and face Deathtoll.
Spoony Plays Soul Blazer, Part 6
At last we meet up with Dr. Leo. But our true struggle has yet to begin...
12/18/2014
Spoony Plays Ultima VI: The False Prophet, Part 5
Through many trials and tribulations, the nine map pieces are gathered at last.
Here's a pic of the fully assembled map:
It points us to a small uninhabited island just south of New Magincia. From there, we'll have to follow Homer's instructions to find a hidden entrance, and then the next leg of our journey begins...
Here's a pic of the fully assembled map:
It points us to a small uninhabited island just south of New Magincia. From there, we'll have to follow Homer's instructions to find a hidden entrance, and then the next leg of our journey begins...
12/13/2014
Spoony Plays Soul Blazer, Part 5
Dr. Leo's laboratory is restored, but the good doctor is nowhere to be found. We'll have to go deeper into the breach...
12/09/2014
Spoony Plays Ultima VI: The False Prophet, Part 4
The first three map pieces are secured. Also we find a whole ton of gold, not that we need it.
12/04/2014
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