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  See the second post for streams and previous challenges Do you remember when you used to have to beat a game in a single sitting or lose all your progress? How about when lives actually meant something? Do you remember when games were so incredibly difficult that beating them could be viewed as an actual accomplishment? If you do, then prepare to re-live those days gone by. Welcome to Retro Game Masters. Based loosely on the popular TV series Game Center CX (known as Retro Game Master outside of Japan), you will be tasked with clearing a difficult game from the past within the span of just one week. Save states and cheats won’t do you any good here. After all, you didn’t use save states when you were a kid, did you? Challenges will range from critically acclaimed classics to unknown gems with the only limitation being the quality of the game itself. Don’t expect to see games like Action 52 being challenged in this thread. The previous thread ran for 44 challenges over the course of three consoles and nearly a year. It featured many different types of challenges, ranging from clearing a game within five days, much shorter lightning rounds, and roulettes where challengers had no idea what games they would be playing until they picked them. All of these challenges are back, as well as a few new types we’ll see later in the season.  The current challenge is:  This challenge will expire on Monday, March 24th at 12:00 AM EDT Challenge Roulette 1! This challenge will expire on Saturday, March 29th at 12:00 AM EDT Keep in mind that there may be multiple challenges at once. Keep an eye on this space to see which challenges are currently running.  These rules must be followed during challenges: 1. If you see a challenge you want to participate in, you must call yourself in before beginning to play. Surprise yourself with the game if you haven’t played it before, absolutely do not start playing until you have called in. This is so it doesn't come out of nowhere when you post about completing a challenge. It also lets other challengers know they can rely on you (and you can rely on them) for help! 2. No late completions will be accepted. All challenges will be based on the Eastern US time zone (EST/EDT). They will be posted on Fridays and end on Thursdays at midnight. If you are even one second late your completion will not count. 3. No save states, no cheats, and no walkthroughs. PERIOD. If the game features a password system, you can use a password to pick up where you left off. If the game features a save system, you are free to use that, but no emulator save states are allowed. For example, using a save station in Super Metroid is okay, but using a save state to pick up right next to Ridley or otherwise skip sections of gameplay is not. 4. If you have played the game previously, you are still allowed to take on the challenge. 5. Use of turbo controllers is disallowed. This means no turbo button setup in an emulator, either. 6. To show that you have completed the challenge, you will need either screenshot or video proof that you have done so. A single screenshot of the ending (or other criteria, if any) will do. 7. Before playing, open up the options menu and make sure you are not set to the easiest difficulty. The easiest difficulty is for chumps and is permanently banned from every challenge without exception. You can play on any difficulty that isn’t the easiest. While I can’t enact punishment on you if you disobey any of these, I absolutely can consider your run invalidated if I find out about it. We’re more or less on the honor system here, so I’d appreciate your honesty. If you have any questions at all about the rules, feel free to send me a PM or ask it here, and I'll make sure to get to it as soon as possible.  I also believe it would be very good if we kept to these guidelines just to keep the thread clean and running smoothly. Again, I cannot threaten you with punishment, these are just here to help the thread along. 1. Challenges are issued by me (Shlapintogan) and other designated Thread ADs. As they are revealed, I will list them here. If their name isn’t here in this guideline, then do not take on their challenge in this thread. The last thread went very well in this regard, and I’d like a repeat performance. 2. Recommendations are not only welcome, they are greatly encouraged. If you have a recommendation for a future challenge, challenge type, or any other suggestions about how the thread can be better, by all means let’s hear them! However, do NOT recommend games that are blatantly bad or that you otherwise wouldn't play yourself. 3. I will do my best to make sure that it is possible to play every game challenged in this thread is playable to completion. It’s universally understood that retro gaming is expensive and that not everyone is going to go hunt down an RGB modded decades-old console so they can play one game. All I ask is that you adhere to the  rules that are in effect everywhere else on the forums. Don’t ask where to get the games, don’t request files, and don’t post links to anything illicit. It is not my fault if you get probated or worse, so be good.4. We welcome any discussion on the current challenge, any previous challenges, and any challenges that may take place in the future. We even encourage it over cheating by using a walkthrough. Think of this thread like your group of friends back in elementary school who you’d trade game secrets with. If you’re stuck or otherwise need help, ask around in the thread! However, keep all other retro game chat over in this thread so that we can keep on topic. 5. Have fun. You don’t have to treat this like a second job. This is for shits and giggles, not for getting all bent out of shape over. So take on challenges, trade strategies with your fellow goons, and most importantly, enjoy the games. Doctor Hospital fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Mar 23, 2014 |
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Oct 18, 2013 11:03
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 We are absolutely open to people streaming their attempts at challenges, so if you stream on a regular basis, I’ll put a link to your stream here.  Challenges that are over will be placed here with links to the starting posts preserved. If you want to unofficially take on a challenge, you can jump to them from here.  Ended on March 15th at 12:00 AM EDT. 12 people challenged this game, 7 succeeded. Season 4 Completion tracker Doctor Hospital fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Mar 17, 2014 |
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Oct 18, 2013 11:03
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 Your first challenge is also SARGM’s first PS1 challenge. Developed in 1997 by Whoopee Camp, your first challenge of the new season is Tomba!  Tomba! is a side scrolling exploration game where you play as a dude with pink hair (is it natural?) who has set out on a quest to retrieve his grandfather’s bracelet from the evil pigs who stole it from him. You do this by solving various missions throughout the world, gaining items and opening new paths along the way. This game is a cult classic which garnered almost universally positive reception the world over, but didn’t sell quite as well as it should have. Thankfully, the game is no longer absurdly rare and can be purchased on the Playstation Network. Your goal in this challenge is to reach the ending! We’ll be starting off simple, but if you’re wanting more complex challenges, they are on their way. In the meantime, enjoy Tomba! This challenge will expire on Friday, October 25th at 12:00 AM EDT with the next challenge being posted on Friday the 25th. Manual Doctor Hospital fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Oct 24, 2013 |
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Oct 18, 2013 11:04
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Going to challenge Tomba!, I had a lot of PS1 games but have never heard of this one. edit: Will be streaming all the games at http://www.twitch.tv/funnyfatguy come watch me fail. FunnyFatGuy fucked around with this message at 11:46 on Oct 18, 2013 |
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Oct 18, 2013 11:19
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I will take the pink haired nude man challenge of Tomba.
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Oct 18, 2013 11:31
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I'm in!
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Oct 18, 2013 11:34
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I'm in.
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Oct 18, 2013 12:02
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I'm in for this one, always meant to go back and beat this game after putting so many hours into the demo. Super excited to see this thread return as well.
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Oct 18, 2013 12:07
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This is an awesome idea, I'm in! I've played probably 2 levels of this game before and it was pretty interesting. Should we use spoilers when talking about our playthroughs?
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Oct 18, 2013 12:40
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There's absolutely 0 chance I'll manage, but whatever, I'm in!
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Oct 18, 2013 12:41
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DiscoMouse posted:This is an awesome idea, I'm in! I've played probably 2 levels of this game before and it was pretty interesting. Should we use spoilers when talking about our playthroughs? If it's story related, then yes. If it's gameplay related, then tag as you feel necessary. Doctor Hospital fucked around with this message at 12:48 on Oct 18, 2013 |
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Oct 18, 2013 12:42
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I'm probably going to give up halfway through but hey whatever I'll try Tomba.
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Oct 18, 2013 13:20
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Tomba would be perfect if two things were changed. Respawn rate. It's common in 2D platformers for defeated enemies to respawn but in Tomba the same instance of an enemy will respawn and you don't even have to move the screen for them to do it! Grabbing onto swings. I don't know why they decided to allow Tomba to stand on swing-able objects. You can't actually jump off them and it serves no purpose other than to make simple jumps harder than they should be. But this game is still great and the only one of its kind. Everybody copies Super Metroid/Symphony of the Night but Tomba is the "Metroidvania" that's peerless.
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Oct 18, 2013 13:29
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I feel sorry for any poor bastards who're going into this game completely blind. There's a lot of important poo poo that the game just never, ever even hints at existing, let alone how to get it. Not very fun to try and figure out what's important and what isn't, though it does make for a very good episode of Watch Out For Fireballs (which contains lots of both gameplay and story spoilers, so I'm not gonna link it, sorry).
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Oct 18, 2013 15:10
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Happy to have this back, I'm in for Tomba!
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Oct 18, 2013 16:32
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Dragonatrix posted:I feel sorry for any poor bastards who're going into this game completely blind. There's a lot of important poo poo that the game just never, ever even hints at existing, let alone how to get it. Not very fun to try and figure out what's important and what isn't, though it does make for a very good episode of Watch Out For Fireballs (which contains lots of both gameplay and story spoilers, so I'm not gonna link it, sorry). Speaking of which, holding L1/R1 and up or down lets you look in that direction. I just saved you a dozen lives in the mushroom forest or stormy mountain.
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Oct 18, 2013 16:47
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I'm in, I've wanted to play this for a while now anyway.
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Oct 18, 2013 16:56
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Welp, already I can't find the dwarf child. Anybody else have any clues?al-azad posted:Tomba would be perfect if two things were changed. Agreed there, I've lost count of how many times I've slipped off the swings and landed on spikes.
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Oct 18, 2013 18:03
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Oh my loving god I was about to call it quits at the Lava cave until I remembered an item a little monkey gave me and now it's piss easy. e: holy poo poo I'm in the jungle being attacked by blue skinned, pink lipped, pony tailed, drum banging, tattooed, spear chucking, whooping humans. They even dance around your body when you're dead. Stay classy, Japan. DiscoMouse posted:Welp, already I can't find the dwarf child. Anybody else have any clues? This hint is brought to you by the letter "L" in the watchtower area! I don't get it easy mode: rotate the L shaped petal in the other direction and see where that gets you. al-azad fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Oct 18, 2013 |
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Oct 18, 2013 18:41
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I hate to be that guy but: You're missing an E in Challenge. Also, while I won't be participating, the reason I came into the thread in the first place was to say that I think this is a neat concept.
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Oct 18, 2013 18:55
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Motherfucker, they said he was in the forest...
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Oct 18, 2013 19:29
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Shadow Ninja 64 posted:I hate to be that guy but: Son of a bitch.
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Oct 18, 2013 22:41
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Awesome, I've been getting the retro gaming itch lately, but I'm terrible at sticking to a single game for any significant amount of time. The last thread really helped me focus and get some neat games off my "gotta play" list. Count me in for Tomba! I've always wanted to see what all the hoopla over this game was about. Hammond Edgar fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Oct 18, 2013 |
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Oct 18, 2013 22:55
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About to start streaming Tomba! over here: http://www.twitch.tv/color_printer
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Oct 19, 2013 00:20
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Yan is one of those trap quests, right? IIRC you have to complete Hide and Go Seek before giving him the lunchbox otherwise you'll be locked out of the former.
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Oct 19, 2013 02:08
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Color Printer posted:About to start streaming Tomba! over here: Know that watching you play for a few seconds was so enjoyable I'm going to seek this game out now. Cool stream thanks. 
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Oct 19, 2013 02:34
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al-azad posted:Respawn rate. It's common in 2D platformers for defeated enemies to respawn but in Tomba the same instance of an enemy will respawn and you don't even have to move the screen for them to do it! After playing for four loving hours straight I have to agree with both of these points. Also gently caress PHOENIX MOUNTAIN, holy poo poo EDIT: al-azad posted:Speaking of which, holding L1/R1 and up or down lets you look in that direction. I just saved you a dozen lives in the mushroom forest or stormy mountain. what 
Color Printer fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Oct 19, 2013 |
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Oct 19, 2013 04:34
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5 pigs down, two to go. I only played this game in its demo form and loved it to death so I'm glad I finally got an excuse to run through it. With that said, the difficulty and pacing is bonkers. It starts off super easy, then it kicks you hard in the nuts at Phoenix Mt., then dives back into the kiddie pool as if nothing happened. I started off strong with 15 lives, went to 4, now I'm hovering around 10 with no deaths except a few moments where I'm not paying attention. Some general non-spoiler tips for people: The evil pig bags are always found in the area they affect but the gates are in the far corners of the universe. A character basically tells you this but unlike most Metroid-style games this one is truly sequence breaking. You get the first pig bag automatically and I spent an hour looking for gate when it's actually one of the later bosses you fight. Explore each area again when you get a new key. It sounds tedious but you can breeze through them, the locked chests usually contain extra lives or a new pig bag, and the designers were smart enough to add quests to previously visited areas so you're constantly seeing new things. Conserve your lives and stack your saves. Run out of lives and it's game over. Save your game with few lives and you just hosed yourself. I would personally reload if you get below 4 lives. Lives are only found in treasure chests and sometimes you get them as quest rewards even though the game never tells you this.
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Oct 19, 2013 07:04
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 Beat it finally. The last boss was the hardest boss i have ever fought in any game.
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Oct 19, 2013 07:06
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FunnyFatGuy posted:Beat it finally. The last boss was the hardest boss i have ever fought in any game. I hope you're being sarcastic because I literally beat him in 5 seconds. The bosses were the most disappointing aspect of this game. They each have cool gimmicks but the method of beating them means it can take anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 minutes. The storm pig involved staying in one spot until he appeared next to me and I got him instantly. Anyway, great game but not for the impatient. I would have loved this back in high school if I actually bought it. 
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Oct 19, 2013 09:23
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Does anyone know of an event/bug/something that disables the use of the teleport items? I keep getting a "Can't use this here." error when I try to nomatter where I am and now that I think I'm nearing the end of the game it's getting really, really annoying.
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Oct 19, 2013 10:36
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Myriad posted:Does anyone know of an event/bug/something that disables the use of the teleport items? I keep getting a "Can't use this here." error when I try to nomatter where I am and now that I think I'm nearing the end of the game it's getting really, really annoying. I had that bug for awhile and couldn't figure out why, i just kept progressing through the game and it eventually started letting me warp again though, and yes i was being sarcastic about the last boss being hard. The only boss i had trouble with was the one with the spikes in the room because i did not want to be patient at first and kept trying to move around the room and use the spinning things.
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Oct 19, 2013 10:47
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This game sounds pretty neat. Count me in.
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Oct 19, 2013 11:07
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And finished. Thankfully the stupid rear end teleport item bug fixed itself so I was able to run around and do some more side quests, 1000% would not have had the patience for them if I had to run to every area manually.
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Oct 19, 2013 13:59
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FunnyFatGuy posted:
al-azad posted:I hope you're being sarcastic because I literally beat him in 5 seconds. The bosses were the most disappointing aspect of this game. They each have cool gimmicks but the method of beating them means it can take anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 minutes. The storm pig involved staying in one spot until he appeared next to me and I got him instantly. Myriad posted:And finished. Thankfully the stupid rear end teleport item bug fixed itself so I was able to run around and do some more side quests, 1000% would not have had the patience for them if I had to run to every area manually. Well that was faster than expected.
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Oct 20, 2013 23:36
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Will there be an appropriately themed game for the last full week of October?
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Oct 21, 2013 00:36
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The next challenge will be appropriately themed, but it won't be starting until e: was slightly off with the day. Doctor Hospital fucked around with this message at 06:13 on Oct 21, 2013 |
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Oct 21, 2013 05:34
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I've kinda hit a brick wall here, and could use some help. I'm at the Lava caves, but I don't know how progress from there. Based on the event list I assume I need to find a pig door and fight a pig boss to get rid of the giant flames in the first room, but I can't seem to find it. Any hints to where to look? Edit: vvv No I haven't been jungle yet. Combat Lobster fucked around with this message at 14:01 on Oct 21, 2013 |
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Oct 21, 2013 13:07
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Combat Lobster posted:I've kinda hit a brick wall here, and could use some help. I'm at the Lava caves, but I don't know how progress from there. Based on the event list I assume I need to find a pig door and fight a pig boss to get rid of the giant flames in the first room, but I can't seem to find it. Any hints to where to look? Have you been to the jungle, yet? If not, you have to proceed through the lava caves until you reach its nest and feed it its favorite food.
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Oct 21, 2013 13:54
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@Combat Lobster: Have you beaten any pig yet? The one connected to the flames in the caves is in the Haunted Mansion, in the room with the big smile at the top. After which, to progress to the jungle you have to do lava caves.
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Oct 21, 2013 14:31
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