Super Mario Bros. NES VS Arcade (Nintendo VS.)

March 31, 2015April 28, 2015 / retrocartsandmore / Leave a comment

Before we get started, here’s a little bit of information from Wikipedia about the Nintendo VS.

The Nintendo VS. System (任天堂VS.システム Nintendō Bāsasu Shisutemu?), called the VS. System (VS.システム Bāsasu Shisutemu?) for short, is a coin-operated video game platform designed for two-player competitive play using the VS. UniSystem or VS. DualSystem, arcade system boards based on the Nintendo Entertainment System.[1] Many of these stand-up or sit-down arcade machines had two screens and controls joined at an angle. These games were ported to arcade hardware from existing home video games for the Family Computer and Nintendo Entertainment System;[1] thus, they could be sold cheaply to arcades in the late 1980s.

Nintendo VS. System – Wikipedia

A decent amount of games were released for the Nintendo VS., Super Mario Bros. (SMB) being one of them, and If you’re lucky you can find the VS. versions in NES cartridges. Check this page out to get a better understanding of how the Nintendo VS. works, I found this page to be very useful for anyone who may want to diversify their Nintendo collection. It’s very informative and definitely a good place to start your research.

A little piece of Mario history that I found to be worth mentioning, when I say Mario history, I mean the Character not the SMB game.

1980

The company created a wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc. in New York. Nintendo began selling the “GAME & WATCH” product line in Japan, the first portable LCD videogames with a microprocessor.

Nintendo artist Shigeru Miyamoto created the game Donkey Kong. The hero, originally called Jumpman, is a carpenter racing to save his girlfriend, Pauline, from a crazed ape. Jumpman was later renamed during the establishment of Nintendo of America’s headquarters by Nintendo Co., Ltd. In honour of Jumpman’s resemblance to their office landlord, Mario Segali, he was later renamed ‘Mario’.

History of Nintendo – Nintendo.co.uk

Another thing no one can agree on or prove is the release date for SMB so I went ahead and found an article that better explains that as well, check it out here.

The main point of this post is to point out the differences in the Nintendo VS. and NES versions, so here we go.

Everybody know’s in SMB for the NES you need to collect 100 coins to get a 1-up. The arcade version has an extra number place in the coin tally, this is so the cost of a 1-up can be set higher. Therefore, 1-up’s are harder to achieve and most likely you will end up shoving more quarters into the machine. After all, spending money on the game was the entire point of putting it in the arcade in the first place.

There are also a lot of changes made to the game play of the VS. version, some that are subtle and others that are, well, not so subtle. Watch me go over all of these changes in my video’s below, don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe if you enjoyed them.

I will add the rest of the Comparison videos as soon as I finish making them and get them uploaded to my YouTube channel.

Thanks for stopping by!

Contra NES Playthrough

March 23, 2015March 30, 2015 / retrocartsandmore / 2 Comments

A little background…

Contra started as a coin operated arcade game in February of 1987; it was released in three different versions, Japanese, American and European. The Japanese and American editions are practically indistinguishable, aside from the title logo. However, the European version was titled Gryzor, it wasn’t created with simultaneous game play for playing with two players, and players have to alternate.

The NES version…

Contra was released for the NES in February of 1988 with various differences made to the game.

Differences between the arcade and NES versions of Contra include; Character design, Power-up icons for the Machine and Laser guns, the commonality of Rapid Bullets and Barrier power-ups, a 7th power-up was added that obliterates all enemies on the screen when acquired (there is only one of those in the entire game though), stage structures were changed, (some were made longer while others had time limits removed) they changed/added bosses, the final stage of the arcade version is now the final 4 stages of the NES version, the background story also had some changes.

Contra was one of the first games to feature the Konami Code, which gives the player 30 lives instead of just 3, the cheat will stay in effect as long as you don’t quit the game.

Now onto the Playthrough…

Watch my playlist of all 8 stages

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Gradius Gaiden

March 23, 2015March 30, 2015 / retrocartsandmore / Leave a comment

The Gradius games were first introduced in 1985, they make up a series of shoot ‘em up video games created by Konami. Konami’s original shoot ’em up is called Scramble, released in 1981 as an arcade game. Scramble was distributed in America by Stern Electronics, and Gradius’ development began as the sequel to Scramble and was supposed to be titled Scramble 2.

Scramble is a complex horizontal scrolling shooter where the player needs to steer a space ship through a string of progressively more challenging caverns, all while shooting fuel canisters to keep the vehicle fueled up. Although, the team of game designers who worked with the head programmer Hiroyasu Machiguchi, decided to take the model in a bit of a different direction by the time it was released in 1985.

When Konami created Gradius they added a power-up system which has a weapon selection meter called the “power meter.” These are ‘powered’ by collecting capsules to acquire additional weapons.

Scramble and Gradius, in many ways, resembled one another, such as; the horizontal scrolling, the checkpoint system which allowed the player to return to an earlier point in the level after losing all their lives, and both have a bomb attack feature which allows the space ship to attack enemies from above.

They also had a few differences, such as; Gradius’ memory was expanded, which was used to add a more extensive selection of weapons and levels. In Gradius you don’t need to shoot fuel to keep your space ship off the ground.

In the majority of the Gradius games, the player is in command of a blue space ship known as the Vic Viper. There is a similar companion ship known as the Lord British. This ship is colored red and makes an appearance in a few of the Gradius games. The Gradius series also features different ships you can choose to play with, such as; the Alpinia, Falchion β, Jade Knight, Metalion, Sabel Tiger, Super Cobra, Thrasher, and the Vixen.

There are over 10 games in the Gradius family, starting with the arcade version and ending with Gradius Rebirth for the WII. You can read more about them all here.

My main focus on this post is the Gradius Gaiden for PlayStation. Although, it wasn’t released until 1997, this version of the game is known for its similarity to the original arcade version from 1985. During its original run for the PlayStation, it was only released in Japan. It was initially intended to be added in, as a bonus, to the American release of the Salamander Deluxe Pack, but the arrangement ended up falling through, much to the annoyance of shoot ‘em up fans everywhere. It finally made its American debut on the Gradius Collection for the PSP in 2006. It’s pretty much a straight port, although it doesn’t include the two player mode. Gradius Gaiden is the first game in the series, since the MSX games, made exclusively for the console market. Therefore, it’s balanced to be challenging but not impossible.
Gradius Gaiden is an incredible game; it’s a great illustration of how to evolve a series. Graphically, it features stunning, marvelously detailed 2D graphics that absolutely out do most other shoot ‘em ups. Other than the improvements made to the graphics, it has lots of recognizable instances with remarkable twists, Gradius Gaiden really outshines the previous versions.

You can choose from four ships; The Vic Viper, which has the typical Gradius payload with the Missile and Double and Laser weapons that we’re accustomed to, The Lord British, which has a Two-Way Missile, a Ripple Laser and a new laser beam called the Disruptor, a new ship called the Jade Knight, which has the Spread Bomb, the Round Laser and the Pulse Laser, lastly, the Falchion Beta, which has the Rolling Missile, Auto Aiming and a Gravity Bullet.

The weapons are not interchangeable between ships, but you can switch between ships when you continue. You can also arrange the order of the power-ups on the weapons bar. That means you can stick useful weapons in the front, and the useless ones at the end, so you can basically arm yourself after collecting a few orbs.
Watch the entire play-through here or watch individual levels below.