Diamakaimura (SuperGrafx)

Reproductions and clone systems are the norm in today's retro gaming circles. While this avenue isn't for everyone, it has opened the doors to let gamers play games that often elude our grasps because of their scarcity and or high price tag on the secondary market. Reproduction games have come a long was well. My first exposure to repros were the cheap Mega Drive games you can pick up at various places online.

Recently I've been seeing some new TurboGrafx-16 and PC Engine repros on Facebook from a group calling themselves Turbo Reproductions. I reached out to Sakhan Shawn Yith and asked if he could make a SuperGrafx reproduction of Diamakaimura. He was more than happy to oblige. Well it arrived today and I eagerly popped it in my Retro Freak console once the kids were in bed and...nothing. The clone console didn't recognize the HuCard unfortunately. While I'd love to own an actual SuperGrafx and use that to upgrade my CoreGrafx II I have attached to my Super CD-ROM 2, that day will just have to wait.

Even though I may not have been successful at playing the game this evening, I still wanted to give the guys at Turbo Reproduction a huge shout out. The quality of the product they produced is top notch. First of all their HuCard has some heft to it. It's a little thicker than a standard HuCard and while I'm not sure what it's made of, it's not just plastic. It had a tight fit in both the Retro Freak and my PCE, but not a death grip. The label applied, while upside down from it's normal orientation, is of a high quality and looks great on the card. The case is fantastic. They use the same case and format for the insert that Peter Tuttle of Onslaught Reproductions uses. The game looked great on my shelf with my other cases I purchased from Peter earlier.

Overall I'm very impressed with the total package. They are letting me exchange the game for another of my choosing and I believe the next card will be their new black/gold HuCard! Stay tuned for more info from Turbo Reproductions and their products.

Tokyuu Shirei Solbrain (Nintendo Famicom)

Who didn't like the NES growing up? I have vivid memories of playing my Nintendo as a young kid and when it was time to head down to the local Toys 'R Us to buy a new game it was indeed a special day. Long before video game reviews were the norm, many people I suspect would buy a game based off a rental they made had previously made or by the box art of the game alone. The NES library had some wild artwork and one of the games that drew me in was Shatterhand.

As a kid I thought this looked pretty awesome. Today...yeah it has a bit of that cheesy element going on, but I've seen worse. Being that Shatterhand was one of my all time favorite NES games, I was thrilled when I found out several years ago that in Japan Shatterhand was a slightly different game. Based off a sentai show, Super Rescue Solbrain, the game looks different but pretty much plays the same.

I love the blue Famicom cart with its sentai character on the front label. It took me awhile to track down even a loose copy of this game for a reasonable price.

Developed by Angel, a now defunct subsidiary of Bandai. Solbrain features a different opening scene from Shatterhand. Instead of a dude wearing shades, a t-shirt and jeans you get to control a Power Rangers looking character.

The game starts immediately on this construction yard. Unlike most games of the time, instead of attacking your enemies with a gun or other type of weapon you get to punch your way through the level. Your character can jump, kneel and punch. After pressing the B button 3 or 4 times, your quick jabs turn into a slower, but more powerful punch. As long as you are standing in one place your punches will continue to be the slower variety.

Once you defeat the boss at the end of the opening level, you are taken to a level select screen. This reminded me of Mega Man in that you can pick the order of the levels you take on. Notice the level in the upper right hand corner. This is a carnival level, exclusive to the Famicom game. In Shatterhand, this level was replaced with a submarine level. Nintendo was known for it's censorship and I imagine the boss of the carnival level is why this part of the game was changed for it's North American release...

...you fight two women that leap around the room. Sorry for the blurry picture, I was trying to snap the picture quickly, so fast that my camera didn't have a chance to focus. It's been awhile since I've played Shatterhand, but from what I remember I found this carnival level and it's boss to be more entertaining that the submarine level.

As you progress through the level you'll find white boxes that you can punch open to reveal a few different things. Greek letters can be collected to aid you in your fight. When three letters are collected, a drone is created and hovers over you. Depending on the combination of letters, your drone may attack with a grenade, boomerangs, a laser, fire or another form of attack. Trying to remember the different combinations to create your favorite drone can be tough. 

Also found in the boxes are orange boxes with a "P" in the middle. This is basically the game's form of currency. The amount of "money" you have is shown in the bottom left corner of the screen, just below your health. At times you'll find a large white box with a "P" in the middle. If you continue to punch it you'll get several of the orange currency boxes, larger boxes when your punches turn to the stronger version. Be careful however because some white boxes may contain a grenade that will explode once revealed.

The currency can be used to replenish your life, power up your attack or buy another life. You'll find white boxes on the ground with a number value on them. The money you collect on each level does not carry over to the next level so you might as well spend it when you can.

My personal favorite drone type to create is this one that hurls a grenade in a downward fashion in front of you. This one is created when you collect 3 of the Greek "b" letters. I should also mention that regardless of the drone you create, if you press down and A & B together, your drone will hover directly over your character and pick you up and flies you straight up into the air. This is a feature that I never knew of until my recent play through.

If you have a drone and collect a different collection of 3 letters, your current drone will simply be replaced with the new one. However if you collect the same 3 letters as the drone you currently have, it will be replaced with a larger, more powerful hand held weapon. In the case of collecting 6 "b" letters, you'll get a bazooka like weapon. I was able to make quick work of many enemies, even a few bosses with this weapon. This new firepower however is on a timer and will eventually run out and be replaced with your drone again.

Once you are able to complete all 5 stages, your selection screen shows a what appears to be a missile silo. I hope you are ready for a challenge because this level is tough!

By now I hope you have a cheat sheet handy of which combination of letters creates which drone because you are going to need some offensive help! There are many hazards on the level and the enemy characters are strategically placed to give you a fit. I got the grenade drone once or twice and it helped me make it through what I thought was the half way point. I had to fight the same boss again from the opening level of the game. Once I took him out, the level kept going. It wasn't long before I died and I expected to start right where I beat the boss...but nope! The game sent me back to the beginning of the level. Argh! I hate it when games do this.

Overall I love this game from beginning to the end. The difficulty curve isn't too bad. It's not punishingly hard, but it's not a cake walk either. Most of the enemies do follow a pattern, as do the bosses. Thankfully the enemies don't regenerate if you backtrack a little to pick up that item they drop. There doesn't seem to be a limit to the number of continues so that does help the replay ability of the game.

The game isn't that different from Shatterhand, minus the carnival level. With the high price tag of the game I can't really recommend it unless you are a huge fan. Go and pick up Shatterhand if you want to play the game. I hate the term "hidden gem", but it's a game that seems to be overlooked and it's a lot of fun to play.

Subor Mega Drive Portable (Famiclone handheld)

** This was originally posted on my toy blog, Random Toy Reviews

By now most retro video game collectors and enthusiasts know that Nintendo's patent on the old 8-bit video game technology has expired. For some time now various companies have been making different variations of consoles using Nintendo's 8-bit platform. Some have been better than others (Messiah's Generation NEX comes to mind as being one of the better clone systems), some of them are down right garbage.

I myself use a Hyperkin clone system to play my NES games for a few reasons. 1) Its size. The thing is tiny, about the size of a few CD jewel cases stacked on top of each other. 2) It was cheap. I think I paid maybe $20 for it 10+ years ago. 3) Its reliable. I've owned many "toaster" NES consoles and even replacing the 72 pin connector would only go so far in reliability for me. I like the top loader version, but the lack of AV inputs still makes me scratch my head.

When I decided to branch out into the world of collecting Famicom games, I looked at the various Famiclones as they are called to see what was the best option. I looked at the Generation NEX as well as some of the consoles manufactured by Hyperkin and Retro-Bit. I ultimately went with a genuine Nintendo Famicom AV console I scored for a great price direct from Japan. A little later I even added the Disk Drive add-on. All set now, right? Well kind of.

After watching several reviews online of the portable Super Nintendo handhelds, I wondered about a portable Famicom. Was there such a thing? Sure enough there are several entries in this category, none of the official though. No surprise there. After trying to do my home work and find something that was of a half decent quality AND find something that I could afford using my eBay budget, I landed on a handheld manufactured my a company called Subor...or Zhongshan Subor Educational Electronics Co., LTD. Man that's a mouth full!

This handheld (I believe) is officially called the Subor Mega Drive Portable, SB-Z12. Not sure why the Mega Drive name is included as this only plays Nintendo 8-bit Famicom games. I was able to purchase this direct from Hong Kong via AliExpress.com. For a mere $30 bucks shipped I'm now the proud owner of a working, portable Famiclone system!

The system was shipped to me in a small cardboard shipping box. No outer packaging whatsoever. I saw the same system recently being sold by a seller on eBay and his had some decent looking packaging, so I'm not sure what gives here. For what I paid I really can't complain though. In the shipping box was the console, instruction manual and a cord that allows you to connect the console to a TV. The console operates on 4 AA batteries and of course these were not included.

Upon opening the box I was surprised at how small, yet how big the thing was. Remember the very first Game Boy and how small, yet big/chunky it was? The system itself measures approximately 6 inches long, 3 inches tall and 1 1/2 inches thick. Yeah, it's not that little. However even with batteries installed, it's not that heavy.

On the face of the system you'll find a 1 1/2 x 2 inch color LED screen complete with 4 button directional pad on the left and Select, A & B buttons on the right. The two small buttons are Start/Pause and Reset. Some reviews complained about the small Reset button being located so close to the A & B buttons, but in my use with the system I haven't come near accidentally pushing the Reset button during game play. Underneath the button layout are two small stereo speakers.

On top of the system is the On/Off switch on the left and the A/V out port on the right. The cartridge slot itself has a dust cover flap that completely covers the 60 pin connector inside. This is one of the features that I really liked. The door features a spring and smoothly disappears when a cartridge is inserted.

On the bottom of the system is a stereo headphone jack on the left and the volume control knob on the right.

Another nice feature that surprised me was found on the back. There are 3 little indented finger tip grips if you will on each side of the system. While not covered in rubber or anything like that, it does make it a little more comfortable gripping the device. So far the longest I think I've played a game in one sitting was about 45 minutes and never did my hands start to cramp or feel uncomfortable.

Here are a few comparison shots to hopefully give you an idea of the system's overall size. I apologize that I didn't pull out any of my Nintendo handhelds as most of them are currently scattered across the house. I did have my recently recapped NEC Turbo Express handy though. If you've seen the Turbo Express in person, then you know it's not a little system.

OK, so it looks good enough, but how does it play? Is it good? Or better yet is it worth buying? So far I have to say Yes to all accounts.

(My original post didn't contain any game play footage. I grabbed Sqoon off the shelve and popped it in so I could provide some video of the hardware in action for this updated post.)

I've got near 40 authentic Famicom games in my collection and while I haven't tried them all yet, everything I've thrown at it has worked. My first attempt was playing Konami's Parodius. The small screen may not be ideal for shooters, but it looked, sounded and controlled good. Next I tried a few other random games including Downtown Nekketsu Koshin Kyoku: Soreyuke Dai Undokai (it's a game in the series that gave us the awesome River City Ransom!). Again everything worked perfectly. The only glitch I had was when I played Tokkyu Shirei Soruburein (or Super Rescue Solbrain). It's the Famicom version of the NES classic, Shatterhand. The game ran fine, but it seemed like the cartridge rattled around in the game slot a little more than the the games. Eventually the screen was garbled and it froze. I got it working again, but I don't think the problem was with the handheld. I popped the same game into my Famicom AV console and pretty much had the same problems with the game not loading or having jumbled images on screen. With a little fiddling of the cartridge on both the Famicom and the handheld I was able to get it working and enjoy some robust game time.

Another nice feature about the system is the height that which the cartridges stick out when inserted. Some of the other clone handhelds I've seen just look goofy with their extra add-ons inserted or even with a big 8-bit NES game sticking out. Thanks to the smaller Famicom carts, you don't have to worry about having some obtrusive game sticking out the top. Even the slightly larger Namcot carts don't look too bad. I did run into trouble trying to fit a Jaleco cart (The Lord of King) into the cartridge slot. The odd shape of the cartridge prevented it from making contact w/ the pins inside the handheld.

I would have rather the system had a traditional solid D-Pad instead of the Sony Playstation like 4 directional buttons, but the controls were rather responsive and the buttons didn't seem to be mushy feeling. Same goes for the larger A & B buttons. They felt comfortable underneath my thumbs and the on screen actions seemed to happen at the same time the buttons were pressed.

I will say that I haven't tried out the A/V hook up yet as every single A/V input on the TVs in my room are strategically set up. Having near 20 consoles hooked up at the same time means lots and lots of cords with multiple switch boxes everywhere! I do want to try this out however as I'm curious to how well it translates over to the big screen.

Recently I sat down to play and I plugged in a pair of headphones I use w/ my iPhone. I was surprised at how good the stereo sound was. There was a little distortion when adjusting the volume up and down, but once I found the level I was comfortable with everything sounded great.

Overall I've got to say that I'm impressed. The quality of the build isn't Nintendo quality, but it's far more solid than the little Hyperkin clone I use to play my NES games on. For the price I paid of $30, which included (overseas) shipping, I think it's a great deal. If you like to play your games on the go and are tired of playing dedicated portable games, then why not give this a try?

Jurassic Park (Arcade)

The last week of March 2016, my wife and I spent the week on the Carnival Sensation and set sail from Miami, FL and sailed to a few islands. While most of the time spent on the ship was eating, relaxing, taking in various shows there was one afternoon where I escaped to the arcade for my own idea of a little R&R!

As most of us know the arcade of today isn't what it used to be. Very rarely do you see games now that don't command a peripheral device or one that doesn't dispense tickets. The same could be said for this arcade on the cruise ship. The area was small and housed maybe 4 "traditional" games, with the rest being those games of skill/luck to win a prize. The largest machine in the room was this massive Pac-Man / air hockey hybrid for up to 4 players.

The first game that I tried my hand on was this Terminator light gun game. I've played it before. It was decent, but it just didn't hold my attention. Looking past a motorcycle and boat racing games I saw the massive Jurassic Park arcade sit in cabinet. Oh yeah! Let the fun finally begin.

I love light gun games of any kind. It's one of my favorite genres so at least I can usually find one game in today's modern arcades that will provide me some fun. The Jurassic Park arcade game is one of those that has the mounted double grip guns. It's got a good range of motion as you can aim it up, down and to the left and right to cover the entire large screen. While the game is more fun played with two people, I tackled the game solo and in less than $10.00 I was able to trounce right through the game.

Swiping a plastic card to get started or to continue when you will inevitably die just doesn't have the same nostalgic feel of plopping quarters in the slot, but alas this is one of the new modern trends. On the cruise ship the game cost $1 per swipe and I assume this would be the going rate in any arcade. Once you fire up the game it begins to present to you a story that honestly I can't remember much of. Something like an earthquake has activated a volcano where Jurassic Park once was and some of hte dinosaurs were in danger and your team's job is to capture 3 large dinosaurs. While you are trying to save these dinos, you basically get to obliterate any others that get in your way.

Throughout the game you have split seconds to shoot point multiplier and health icons, in addition to some really fun weapon upgrades. Your main weapon is the X-22 Renegade. It fires at a healthy pace and dispatches most of the dinosaurs with ease...though some larger enemies will take multiple shots. The Titan 2000 is a minigun and fires a barrage of bullets at a very fast pace speed. It's great for mowing down herds of velociraptors or the swarms of insects/spiders, of which you'll come across a lot of. The Shockbolt fires streams of electricity and fries whatever it touches. My personal favorite weapon in the game is the Frostbite Cannon. This gun fires streams of cold (liquid nitrogen?) and freezes anything it touches. Shoot it again and the frozen dinosaur explodes into smaller, frozen pieces. The last weapon you can pick up is called the Triple Threat and it fires like a shotgun, only in three directions. The shot's rate of speed is slow, but it packs a punch and is great for close up enemies.

The game only has three levels, however each level is divided up into three parts. The point to each level is to face and capture one of three dinosaurs. Level 1 you are after a triceratops. Level 2 you are after a spinosaurus and in level 3 you face off against the mighty t-rex. 

While playing the game you get to take on multiple perspectives. What I mean by that is you start off jumping into a helicopter, leaning out of the side to shoot down the dinos. You also get to ride in the back of an SUV on several different occasions as well. One of the levels features you jumping out of your destroyed helicopter and deploying your parachute, only for a pteranodon to swoop down and grab your chute. He proceeds to carry you around for a time which makes for a lot of fun. 

There are many times throughout the game when you engage in some close quarter battle where green targets appear on the screen. In sections like this you have a limited amount of time to shoot each target or you suffer a hit. Other times you may find projectiles or other foreign objects flying at the screen, outlined in red, that require to be shot down before they hit you. I've seen this method used in many other light gun games such as this. Two players really helps as each player can handle one part of the screen, but I found myself handling everything just fine by myself.

In less than 45 minutes I was able to beat all 3 levels and capture the dinosaurs. I had a lot of fun (especially since the alternative was to sit with my wife and watch some high school dance team perform) and surprisingly I didn't break the bank either. When you are just swiping a card quickly to continue your game it's easy to lose track of just how much money you are spending...especially when your card is tied to your credit card and there are no credits on the card you are swiping! If you've never played this game you ought to at least give it try. The play mechanics aren't anything new, but there is just something so satisfying about mowing down dinosaurs with a gun.

Golden Axe (WonderSwan Color)

Golden Axe

Sega / Bandai (2002)

Today we'll look at one of my favorite gaming franchises on a handheld system that many may not be familiar with, Bandai's WonderSwan. Designed by a former Nintendo developer & Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi this little handheld never caught much steam outside of it's native Japan. Just like the Game Boy, the WonderSwan started off as a simple black & white console before getting a color upgrade model and lastly the Swan Crystal version. I was able to track down both a B&W model as well as a color system for relatively cheap years ago, but English friendly games are hard to come by no matter what model system you have. I remember finding out years ago that one of my favorite gaming franchises was ported over to the WonderSwan Color and I had to track it down. It took me awhile before I was finally able to do so (and afford the game), but I'm happy to share a few thoughts now that I've had a chance to hold the game in my hands and play it.

First off let me say how much I love the artwork for the packaging. I already own the first Golden Axe game in several varieties and I don't think I have seen this art before purchasing this game. All 3 characters are drawn very well and have that edgy look. The back of the box features some very iconic artwork of the game's villain Death Adder along with some standard fare screen shots.

So what does this game look like on a tiny handheld system you may wonder? Take a look at the video below I found on YouTube of the actual gameplay.

I do have to say that the graphics are better than what is shown in the video. I'd say the graphics are on par with your average Game Boy Advance game. I was playing the game on my WonderSwan Color handheld and the colors are very vibrant. What surprised me when playing the game was the sound quality. The system features one small speaker on the upper right hand corner, but it just belted out the iconic Golden Axe theme music when the titled rolled onto the screen. The controls are also pretty good on this system.  It's a little odd getting used to using 4 buttons in the layout of a plus when most of us are used to having a solid plus shaped piece of plastic for movement of the characters and such. The jump and attack buttons are also a tad on the small side, but they were very responsive none the less.

If you love Golden Axe then you should love this port of the game as it stays very faithful to the arcade version. The game can be hard to track down and a tad pricey at times, but it is a great addition to anyone's handheld library.

Nekketsu Oyako (Sony Playstation)

Nekketsi Oyako

Technosoft (1995)

The beat 'em up genre has always been a favorite of mine, but it seems after the 16-bit generation there just weren't as many games to choose from. While researching this genre for new games I ran across Nekketsu Oyako and was instantly interested. The game was never released in the US, but it was released for both the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation. Already having an import friendly Saturn I sought out the game, but was turned off by it's high price tag.

  

Enter the Playstation version. Last year I grabbed a NTSC-JP Playstation for cheap and started to look to build my import PSX library. I ran across this game again and was glad to see it's price was about half of what it still goes for on the Saturn. I've actually noticed several games that were released on both platforms always seem to be cheaper on the Sony side.

Nekketsu Oyako comes packaged in the thicker Playstation cases. It seems this was a common move for many of the PS1 games released outside of the US. Some of the Japanese games have the game title in English on the opposite spine, but this is not one of those. My copy of the game didn't come with the spine card either.

Released in 1994 by Technosoft (of Thunder Force fame), this beat 'em up plays and feels a lot like Capcom's Final Fight or Sega's Streets of Rage. At the start of the game you have animated scenes setting up the story, followed by a player select screen. Each character has their own move set along with rankings for Power, Speed and Skill. 

You've got your typical big muscle guy, strong, but slow. You have your female character that is quick on her feet, but not as powerful and then you have your average Joe type character. I chose to go through my first play through with him.

The game has 5 levels total and while you may think that isn't many levels to traverse through, they are of a good variety and of a decent length. Like many games in the genre, there are items that you can break to reveal items that increase your score, replenish your health or weapons to help you take out the enemies. Right off the bat I found my first weapon, a rifle! I was expecting a bat, or chains or something you usually see. This weapon was brought onto the screen from one of the henchmen in the game and was dropped upon being hit. There aren't many shots in the gun and it didn't seem to do as much damage as I thought it would, but it's a refreshing change of pace from the normal weapons found in a beat 'em up.

The first level has you fighting in a park while the second level has you fighting downtown in some city. At the end of each level you fight a boss. None of them really wowed me, but they did whip my butt! This steroid laced woman approaches you on a bridge at the end of the second level, accompanied by a helicopter. If fighting her wasn't enough you also have to contend with the helicopter hovering in the background laying down cover fire.

The third level is where some of the level design charm really comes into play. After you defeat the boss at the end of the second level, you fall to the sea underneath the bridge and are swallowed by a whale, Jonah style! The first part of the third level takes place in the belly of the whale. I had a picture taken, but I didn't realize it turned out crappy so I had to nix it. Inside the belly of the whale you are introduced to our first new enemy, boxing glove wearing bi-pedal octopus. I'm beginning to see why this game never made it outside of Japan!

Once you fight your way through the belly, the whale swallows some water and you are rushed off the screen only to be blown out the blow hole on a spout of water. You land on back end of the whale and are forced to fight on top of the whale now. As I was making my way across the back of the barnacle laced whale, I found a beverage that would replace my health! However when I pushed the attack button to pick it up, I was treated with this 'Adult Only!' prompt. Upon closer inspection that beverage was actually a can of beer! I guess only the big guy character is able to drink beer.

Once you fight this karate looking boss a top the whale, you end up back on land and at a amusement park for the fourth level. About half way through the level you end up jumping onto a roller coaster and are attacked by a lot of the common boxer grunts. With the roller coaster car is going up and down on the tracks and the number of enemies on the screen, this is the first time I experienced some slow down to the game. It wasn't too bad, but having to fight so many guys in such a small space while it was going up and down and all around, it was a little hard to find my character in all of the chaos. 

The roller coaster ends up going off rail and crashing into a mountain. You end up fighting the last part of the fourth level inside what appears to be a volcano and at the end you face the boss, Hammer. He was the most menacing looking boss yet, but was actually a push over.

The fifth and final level starts off on the first floor of a high rise building. Without knowing this is the last level you can kind of sense you are working your way to the final boss just by the look of the building you're in. You do end up re-fighting the level bosses on each floor, but it seems as if they were much easier to take out this time around. When you finally make it to the top, you find this big bald white dude sitting in a chair watching some monitors. The look of this guy really reminded me of the Kingpen from the Marvel Daredevil comics or even a little of Big Boss from the animated/toy series, C.O.P.S.

In typical fashion, he starts off sitting there and lets others do his dirty work. He whistles in large groups of enemies to dispatch and finally after a few waves he gets up to take you on himself. He was a formidable final boss and I actually ran out of continues by this point. This is where I had to quickly change my controller to player 2 so I could continue. This explains my my character changed in the screen shots.

After you finally take him out and start to have that feeling of accomplishment, the final boss reappears dressed in a very 90's comic book type costume. How that rotund boss reappears as a muscle bound character such as this is pretty comical. This guy was tough too and I ended up continuing several times before I finally was able to widdle his health down to zero.

Apparently the building you were fighting in was on floating island in the sky and after you defeat the final boss you are treated to nice little animated scene of the building collapsing and blowing up.

I'm not sure who I rescued and how I got off a floating island and back down to the ground, but the other two characters thought I was dead by their facial expressions only to be surprised/happy to see me walking up over the horizon. The game ends with several more scenes complete with text, but since I can't read Japanese I really don't know what was going on.

In closing I enjoyed this game. The game play is a little sluggish as your character moves fairly slow. There isn't a lot of variety when it comes to your moves or enemies you fight, however I think the level design helps breath a little life into a slightly above average game. The Playstation didn't get a lot of beat 'em ups like this so for that reason alone it's worth adding to your game library. I like the variety of weapons you can pick up, from knives to guns to grenades; my favorite weapon was this bladed hoop that acted like a boomerang when thrown. As long as you weren't punching when the weapon returned, your character would catch it so you could throw it again. I was able to take out 2 bosses fairly easy with this weapon alone.

I haven't researched to see if the game looks or plays any better on the Saturn, but I do know this Playstation version was ported over to the Saturn in 1995. I also know that the PSX version usually can be had for about half of what the Saturn version sells for. Being that I'm new to the Playstation 1 import scene this was an easy selection for me and it's one that I enjoyed. I do look forward to playing through it again as the girl or seeing if my wife will play with me as it is a two player game, however I can the game will have a low replay ability. If you are fan of the beat 'em up genre I encourage you to check this out.

Arcade Works Blinking Light Win

Sometime last year I remember coming across I believe it was someone's YouTube video of a Kickstarter funded item called Blinking Light Win. What it was in a nutshell was a way to fix your original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and eliminate that dreaded blinking red light on your NES when you tried to play your favorite game.

After doing a little research, I found that the company behind this product were called Arcade Works. After visiting their site, I believe I have stumbled across them before when I was researching some Neo Geo AES vs. MVS things. I took a look at their online store and saw they had pre-orders for the Blinking Light Win so I dropped the $30 they were asking and waited...

...and waited and waited and waited some more. Looking back at my original PayPal transaction receipt, I paid for the item at the end of July 2015. Well finally the package arrived two weeks ago and last weekend I sat down to install it.

The Blinking Light Win comes packaged in a small bag, nothing fancy. Inside the bag you'll find a new 72 pin connector, a new cartridge tray, a sticker and a very basic set of instructions.

To get started, simply flip over your NES and remove the 6 screws with a Phillips head screwdriver. Once you have the lid off, you simply unscrew the 9 Phillips screws to remove the RF shielding and the cartridge tray.

I should have taken more pictures while I was installing this thing, but hey I was in a hurry to play some NES games as my console hasn't worked properly in almost a year.

Once you have the original, spring loaded cartridge tray removed you have to remove the 72 pin connector from the main board. This proved to be fairly tough as it had a very snug attachment. Once I got it off, I set it aside and grabbed the new board/72 pin connector supplied in my package. You simply plug it onto the main board where you just previously removed the old connector. Then the new cartridge tray just slides down over the connector. That's it! Now simply put the RF shielding back and screw everything down. Now you're ready to put the top back on and tighten those screws and you're ready to game once again!

Once you have your NES re-assembled, there is a small gray sticker you can apply to your NES that reminds you to not press down on your cartridge. No longer will you have to press down on your inserted NES game. This process is what bent the original connection pins and would cause the game cartridge and console to not properly make a connection. Now you simply insert your game and power on!

Changing games I did notice it has a good grip on your game, but nothing too bad. I would still recommend you clean all your games before inserting them into your rejuvenated NES, but oh how sweet it was to pop in Powerblade and power on the console and it fired up the game on the first time!

I used to use a clone NES, but I was shamed by someone in the gaming community for not using the original hardware. I went out and picked up an original NES, but it didn't take long before it quit working. I'd take it apart to clean it and clean all the games, yet it still wasn't reliable. I went out and purchased the top loader model NES and was going to have it modded for at least composite since I wasn't sure if my Blinking Light Win order was ever going to be filled. However now that I have it installed and I've been using it now for about a week, I'm very happy w/ this product. It was well worth the $30 it cost me to breath life back into one of the consoles that got me into gaming. Now I just wish I hadn't sold some of my harder to find NES games!

If you are curious and want to order your own Blinking Light Win, you can check out Arcade Works' online store and place your order today!