Jeremy Parish Presents: Retronauts Video Works (Chronological Retrospective Series)

[Nerdkiller]

Sega SG-1000 retrospective: The real family computer | Segaiden #003

The road to NES Works begins here!

It's difficult to know what the year 2021 has in store for us, but you can at least look forward to one constant (fingers crossed): This comprehensive deep dive into the Sega 8-bit catalog. Beginning this week, most of my effort for much of 2021 will be focused on exploring the history of the Sega SG-1000 before rolling into the American Master System launch, bringing these compact Sega overviews into line with NES Works 1988 (which we'll still be checking in on from time to time!). I'll also be producing extremely brief summaries of the Famicom games released in Japan in parallel to these SG-1000 titles throughout 1984 and '85, all the way through the American NES launch.

This episode kicks things off with an overview of the Sega SG-1000's launch, which happened to fall on the same day as the debut of Nintendo Famicom, and the hardware itself.

Special thanks for this series to: Omar Cornut, segaretro.org, and Analogue Co.

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Segaidan...

 

[Nerdkiller]

Famicom Disk System retrospective: Error 35 | NES Works Gaiden #18

35 years ago this week, Nintendo launched the Disk System expansion for Family Computer—one of the most important (and one of the few successful) console add-ons ever. Boosting the power, capabilities, and storage capacity of the Famicom, the Disk System helped usher in a new generation of console games... and then, console games caught up with the Disk System, rendering it obsolete. Nevertheless, in its brief lifetime, the FDS gave us major franchises like Zelda, Metroid, and Castlevania, while also changing the way players interacted with their television games. This episode pays tribute to the Disk System and its impressive legacy.

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[shoptroll]

Admit it Jeremy, you're proud of inflicting that dad joke in the intro on an unsuspecting audience 😄

 

[JeremyParish]

You gotta get 'em in the first few seconds, before they have a chance to click away.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Borderline / Safari Hunting / N-Sub retrospective: Opening salvo | Segaiden #004

Our first dive into the SG-1000 catalog covers the three games that the internet seems convinced comprised the console's day-one releases. It's difficult to say when SG-1000 titles actually debuted, as Sega hasn't been especially granular with its published historic information. But these three carts are the first three items in the SG-1000 catalog (Borderline, Safari Hunting, and N-Sub are G-1001, G-1002, and G-1003, respectively), so that seems like a good basis for an argument here.

These games share a few details in common. They're all three conversions from the VIC-Dual arcade hardware Sega and Gremlin designed in the late '70s, which was very similar in terms of components and capabilities to the SG-1000; and they all three appear to have been developed by a newly formed studio called "Compile." I don't know, maybe you've heard of them?

Special thanks for this series go to Omar Cornut, segaretro.org, and Analogue Co.

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[Nerdkiller]

OH MY, did I forget about last week? Well, guess I better put a stop to this unintentional delay, starting with last week's...

Mahjong / Champion Golf / Tsumeshogi / Congo Bongo retrospective: Kong done wrong | Segaiden #005

Beyond the initial trio of Compile-developed shooting games for SG-1000, we have the next four titles in the platform's library, all released on some indeterminate date in 1983. While they do help diversify the system's lineup to include something beyond shooting and combat, none of these releases manage to be particularly inspiring nearly four decades later—and one game in particular, which should have been this week's big triumph, misses the mark so badly it's best forgotten about. I promise things will get better from here, though!

Special thanks for this series go to Omar Cornut, the Game Developers Research Institute, segaretro.org, and Analogue Co.

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[Nerdkiller]

And this week's.

Yamato / Champion Tennis / Star Jacker / Champion Baseball retrospective: Jacked up | Segaiden #006

A few more Sega arcade conversions this week, featuring—unbelievably enough!—shooters and sports games. You sense a theme taking shape here, maybe?

Yamato covers a lot of the same ground (so to speak) as SG-1000's earlier ocean warfare shooter, N-Sub, though it mixes things up slightly by focusing on surface warfare. Meanwhile, Star Jacker is a scrolling shooter that plays a little more smoothly than Borderline, though its bizarre central premise and mechanic make for a curious inverted gameplay difficulty curve.

On the sports side, Champion Tennis and Champion Baseball maintain the vibe of Champion Golf: Console ports of someone else's game, decent enough for 1983 but lacking in hindsight due to the massive upheavals and improvements those sports genres had lurking in the wings of history.

All in all, not the most inspiring set of games ever... but definitely better than last episode's.

This series has been made possible in part by the work of Omar Cornut, the Game Developers Research Institute, segaretro.org, iFixRetro, and Analogue Co.

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[JeremyParish]

To be fair, I WISH I could forget last week's games.

 

[Starlatine]

Hey, Congo Bongo is.... just bad

 

[mael]

To be fair, I WISH I could forget last week's games.

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That might seem harsh but I kinda prefer when you handle these obscure bad games that even you can't seem to find anything to redeem with.
Not aggressively bad in that you can meme about it, but like just bad that you can't see anywhere else.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Sindbad Mystery & Monaco GP retrospective: Bringing home the gold | Segaiden #007

Only two games feature in this week's episode, because both are interesting enough (and contain a rich enough history) to merit a more in-depth discussion. First, Sindbad Mystery brings the maze chase genre to SG-1000 by adopting a number of elements seen in early games from the genre—ranging from Heiankyo Alien to Crush Roller—but approaching these concepts in a fresh and entertaining way. And then, of course, there's Monaco GP, one of the real heavy-hitters for this console. While more constrained by technology than its arcade forebear, this SG-1000 racer acquits itself nicely with a great sense of speed and a variety of on-track hazards to manage.

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Disappointed that Sindbad doesn't inexplicably look like Bluto.

 

[Castform]

Sindbad Mystery & Monaco GP retrospective: Bringing home the gold | Segaiden #007



Disappointed that Sindbad doesn't inexplicably look like Bluto.

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This is the first of the SG-1000 videos to really interest me in the system. Nice to see some of its more interesting games.

 

[ReasonableAdult]

I had never seen these videos. I just want to say that this is great, thank you Jeremy for producing.

Does anyone have any favorite episodes or series that they recommend? There are so many to go through!

 

[Nerdkiller]

I had never seen these videos. I just want to say that this is great, thank you Jeremy for producing.

Does anyone have any favorite episodes or series that they recommend? There are so many to go through!

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I've always been a fan of his Heyankyo Alien one in the early days of the show, because you can tell he wanted to do that one the most during that period.

 

[shoptroll]

Heyanko Alien ought to be the unofficial mascot of this video series at this point

 

[Nerdkiller]

Sega Flipper / Pop Flamer / Pacar / Sega-Galaga retrospective: Arcade cavalcade | Segaiden #008

Sega has always been an arcade powerhouse—even now, they run arcades in Japan. They've become fan destinations for more than just playing games; I bought taiyaki in the shape of the Sega logo at their Akihabara location a year ago. And this episode showcases just how heavily Sega plowed the arcade-to-home conversion furrow from the very start, with four games based heavily on arcade properties or concepts:

• Sega Flipper, arguably the first true arcade-style video console pinball game;
• Pop Flamer, a port of a weird Jaleco coin-op;
• Pacar, a sequel in all but name to Head On; and
• Sega-Galaga... which is just Galaga, but for Sega.

They're not all winners, but they're mostly good! Just pretend Pop Flamer never happened. That game could never live up to its delirious box art, anyway.

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[ReasonableAdult]

Jeremy, this is some great work. Thank you for creating all of this!

 

[Nerdkiller]

Space Slalom / Zippy Race / Pachinko / Exerion retrospective: Priced to hell | Segaiden #009

This week we hit on the two most expensive games for the SG-1000. Every console's gotta have at least one of them, right? The ultra-rare collector's chase piece that hits the brakes on any reasonable dream of ever owning a complete set? In this case, those disasterpieces are Space Slalom, a mere slip of an almost-racing game, and Pachinko, the pachinko sim so busted they recalled it. Yes, the great console gaming tradition of incredibly expensive games also being incredibly undesirable for gameplay purposes really begins here, with the SG-1000.

On the plus side, there's also Zippy Race, a pretty good conversion of a minor Irem arcade hit, and Exerion, a Jaleco arcade port that tries really hard, bless its heart. And that wraps it up for 1983! Next up: 1984, surprisingly enough.

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[Nerdkiller]

Famicom 1984, Pt. 1: From Tennis to Nuts & Milk (Feb.-July 1984) | NES Works Gaiden #19

Now that we've seen both Nintendo and Sega's offerings for 1983, we move along to 1984 and the first wave of Famicom releases. All but one of these titles have already put in an appearance on NES Works proper as entries in the 1985 and '86 Black Box NES launch rollout catalog, so the first half of this episode is simple a recap and reminder to give a sense of these games' place in the context of their 1984 debut in Japan.

The second half, however, downshifts into low gear to take a leisurely cruise through a game that is generally regarded as a joke (thanks to its title) outside of Japan, when it's regarded at all: Hudson's Nuts & Milk. My hope is that after viewing this episode, you'll have a better appreciation for the place Nuts & Milk holds in video game history—not simply for how it represents a key change for Nintendo's business model, but also for how radically Hudson reinvented it to appeal to Famicom consumers. (You may, of course, continue to chuckle at its name. Titter, even.)

Games this episode:

• Tennis
• Pinball
• Wild Gunman
• Duck Hunt
• Golf
• Hogan's Alley
• Donkey Kong 3
• Nuts & Milk

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[Nerdkiller]

Pachinko II / Golgo 13 / Orguss / Home Mahjong retrospective: All your redux in a row | Segaiden 010

A couple of follow-ups to 1983 releases this week, as well as a couple of games that appear to have been held over from 1983. Yes, SG-1000 begins 1984 with a hangover.

Pachinko II is the affordable and expanded follow-up to Pachinko.

Golgo 13 is not a sequel, despite the number in the title. It's a tie-in with a long-running manga and anime series, presumably tied to a big theatrical release.

Orguss is another anime property, this one related to Macross and its ilk. You know what that means: Transforming robots.

Home Mahjong brings multiplayer competition to the console mahjong space, using a fascinating physical accessory to make such a thing possible on a single television.

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[Nerdkiller]

Hold on, just catching up.

Lode Runner / Galaxian / Devil World retrospective: Famicom '84 some more | NES Works Gaiden #020

Another step along the Road to NES Works this week as we look again at the next round of software releases for Nintendo Famicom. Unlike last time, only one of these games made its way to the U.S. on NES, the other two (Galaxian and Devil World) seemingly being skipped over due to datedness and, uh, satanism? What was this, 2021?

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[Nerdkiller]

Lode Runner/Safari Race/Champion Boxing/Champion Soccer retrospective: Lock 'n Lode | Segaiden #011

Yet another look at a Lode Runner game? Yes, that's right. It was a pretty big deal back in the early '80s. The upside to this repetition is that the SG-1000 version of the game makes possible a direct comparison against its contemporary release, providing a clear picture of what the two platforms were all about.

Also this episode, Sega finally starts to push beyond the innate limits of the hardware with another racing game and two more Champion sports titles, all of which employ graphical tricks that help make the console look a little more competitive against the competition at Nintendo.

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[JeremyParish]

You posted a Lode Runner video twice?? What's going on

 

[Sixfortyfive]

Broderbund games seemed unusually popular in Japan as far as Western-developed titles from the mid '80s were concerned.

Also JeremyParish I was watching the stream last night and noticed the weird colors. I get similar blown-out greens in OBS when certain settings aren't correct in the capture (limited vs full range, BT601 vs BT709). Have you ever played around with the 240p test suite? It's pretty helpful for diagnosing and configuring TV/capture settings.

 

[Solid SOAP]

Do y'all like watching his Gintendo streams? I find him to be the most relaxing person to watch and listen play games.

 

[JeremyParish]

Broderbund games seemed unusually popular in Japan as far as Western-developed titles from the mid '80s were concerned.

Also JeremyParish I was watching the stream last night and noticed the weird colors. I get similar blown-out greens in OBS when certain settings aren't correct in the capture (limited vs full range, BT601 vs BT709). Have you ever played around with the 240p test suite? It's pretty helpful for diagnosing and configuring TV/capture settings.

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I don't use OBS, and the colors look fine in both my actual capture software and the footage I've recorded through this setup. YouTube streaming continues to suffer from a litany of issues that change from week to week. C'est la vie.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Hustle Chumy / Flicky / Girl's Garden retrospective: Ladies' night | Segaiden #012

Sega embraces its feminine side as 1984 comes to a close, with not one but two games starring a female protagonist, and the result is the single strongest set of games we've seen to date on SG-1000. And there are only three titles this week instead of four, because there was so much to say about each of them!

1984 was a bit of a soft year for SG-1000 (for reasons I speculate on in this episode), but it certainly ends on a strong note. The stage is set for the console to finally come into its own in 1985 as the platform evolves into the Mark III/Master System. I know this series of videos got off to a pretty painful start with some iffy releases, and it didn't help that my video capture setup didn't reproduce the system's colors accurately. But from this point on, the games will be much stronger... and I'm capturing from original hardware now, so everything will look great, too.

This episode's games:

Hustle Chumy would have been a high point in any other episode so far, but here it's a distant third. Just to calibrate your expectations for the other games.

Flicky is a Mappy-inspired arcade platformer converted to SG-1000 quite convincingly. The background color is a little pukey, and it drops the iguana enemies, but it plays great.

Girl's Garden isn't quite as durable as Flicky, but it's a technically impressive game that gave a legendary developer his start.

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[Nerdkiller]

4 Nin Uchi Mahjong / F1 Race / Pac-Man / Xevious retrospective: Pac'n heat | NES Works Gaiden #021

Two Nintendo games and two Namco (Namcot??) titles this week to bring Famicom's 1984 lineup streaking toward its finale. I'm not sure any of these games will set anyone's heart on fire here in 2021, due to (1) the kinda mundane nature of Nintendo's releases and (2) overexposure to Namco's games. But pretend you are a small child in 1984! In that context, these games are pretty great. Except Mahjong. No child wants that.

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[Nerdkiller]

I should have mentioned this but...what's going on here, guv?

 

[JeremyParish]

Careful, I don't think NSFW images are allowed here

 

[Nerdkiller]

Mappy /Urban Champion/Clu Clu Land/Excitebike retrospective: Never sleep | NES Works Gaiden #22

1984 comes to an end for the Famicom with a trio of releases that American fans will recognize from the Black Box launch era of the NES. Arriving singly in 1984 rather than en masse a year or two later amidst dozens of other games with a similar visual vibe, benighted NES releases Urban Champion and Clu Clu Land stand up a bit better here. (Excitebike, of course, rules no matter what the context.)

Also this episode, Namco's Mappy brings the company's most uninspired mascot of the early '80s to Famicom in another respectable home adaptation that flatters the Famicom hardware when held up against contemporary conversions. And that's it for Nintendo and Sega's '84 offerings!

When NES Works Gaiden resumes later this year, we'll be in the heady days of 1985.

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[Nerdkiller]

Knightmare and Metal Gear (MSX) retrospective: Konami kombo | Metroidvania Works #014

I haven't forgotten my other child. Metroidvania Works has reached a weird place in its chronology, where it's kind of entangled and overlapping with NES Works—as you can see from the fact that this episode's back-up feature covers the next title that will appear on that series. Of course, the main event here is a game that never reached the U.S., so it's worth looking at here—especially given how influential it was on at least one major metroidvania work that appeared nearly two decades later.

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I've been on a bit of a Metal Gear kick as of late, so it's nice to see you cover the games.



Also, Indy's Willie on the Knightmare box art.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Ballblazer & Winter Games retrospective: '88 dawns for the 78 (hundred) | NES Works Gaiden #023

You'll notice a change in the hosting segments this week, as I've begun broadcasting them from the year 1994—I'm taking a sort of "man on the scene" approach from now on, except in terms of time rather than space. Apologies about the visual fidelity, but we didn't have high-definition digital cameras back then. Or in fact consumer-grade digital cameras, period.

Before we continue with the Sega and Nintendo stuff, Atari deserves a brief stopover to see what the 7800 was up to for the first half of 1988. As it turns out, the answer is "not a whole heck of a lot." Happily, the one game to ship during this period—Lucasfilm Games' Ballblazer—has more than enough history and content behind it to support most of this episode before we jump into summer '88 and, ironically, Winter Games from Epyx.

And yes, I made some generalizations about the relationship between Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit computers, but I'll be going into more detail on that one of these days, when I tackle the XEGS (which technically counts as a console that debuted post-crash, sort of, making it arguably eligible for inclusion in Video Works).

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[m0therzer0]

Absolutely love Retronauts, and I'd mention I've been stealing bits of Jeremy's insights about games from the shows for years to implement in my own games.

 

[Radarscope1]

Absolutely love Retronauts, and I'd mention I've been stealing bits of Jeremy's insights about games from the shows for years to implement in my own games.

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What are some games you've been a part of creating?

 

[m0therzer0]

What are some games you've been a part of creating?

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I don't want to derail from the topic, but I'd say my claims to fame are being part of a couple top-10 mobile games over the years, and being the actual person you played against during any "Celebrity" matchup against Carmen Electra in NFL 2K5.

Per my use of Retronauts as a reference for work, the show has been immensely helpful over the years, and I probably owe Jeremy the purchase of several of his books, or a higher-tier Patreon subscription.

 

[RoninChaos]

Knightmare and Metal Gear (MSX) retrospective: Konami kombo | Metroidvania Works #014



I've been on a bit of a Metal Gear kick as of late, so it's nice to see you cover the games.



Also, Indy's Willie on the Knightmare box art.

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What in the fuck

 

[jwhit28]

I don't want to derail from the topic, but I'd say my claims to fame are being part of a couple top-10 mobile games over the years, and being the actual person you played against during any "Celebrity" matchup against Carmen Electra in NFL 2K5.

Per my use of Retronauts as a reference for work, the show has been immensely helpful over the years, and I probably owe Jeremy the purchase of several of his books, or a higher-tier Patreon subscription.

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I finished all of those celebrity profile games in 2k5. I bet I still have my crib on a memory card around here somewhere lol.

 

[m0therzer0]

I finished all of those celebrity profile games in 2k5. I bet I still have my crib on a memory card around here somewhere lol.

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Ha yea, fyi you were actually playing against user behaviors built from individual members of the QA team (i.e. Carmen was based on me). The celebrities just did the vocal cameos or whatever.

 

[butalala]

The bird hopping on the ground in the latest episode is my favorite thing.

 

[JeremyParish]

Desert Falcon is pretty neat in general! Flawed. But neat.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Summer Games & Desert Falcon retrospective: Struggling for the bronze | NES Works Gaiden #024

The other two mid-'88 releases for Atari 7800 consist of yet another computer port and—wow!—the console's first original creation. Although this original creation ended up being ported to several other Atari systems, which rather undermines its exclusive appeal. Still, it's good to see a game on 7800 that hadn't already shown up in arcades and on computers four or five years earlier, you know?

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Summer AMPERSAND Games? Come on, Jeremy.

 

[Nerdkiller]

Now, where have I been?

Othello Multivision retrospective pt. 1: A seriously @!#?@! footnote in Sega history | Segaiden #13

While Segaiden has covered every SG-1000 release through the end of 1984 at this point, there's technically still a set of games for the system that need to be touched on. Eight (or technically nine) unique releases for SG-1000 appeared in 1983 and '84, under a non-Sega publisher, branded for release on a different console. Nevertheless, they're a part of SG-1000 history, as each of them runs on the system with no fuss.

Yes, this episode we look at the SG-1000's semi-official clone, the Tsukuda Original Othello Multivision. With eight unique carts and one built-in ROM, it's worth exploring... but only barely. These games are generally of MUCH lower quality than Sega's own releases. In this episode, we explore:

• Othello
• Q*Bert
• Guzzler
• Space Mountain

Buckle in. It's a pretty bumpy ride.

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut!

Special thanks to Omar Cornut for his assistance with this and the next episode!

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[Nerdkiller]

Othello Multivision retrospective pt. 2: Shaken (not stirred) | Segaiden #014

Well, I survived. I made it all the way through the Othello Multivision's library. If you thought the first four games were unimpressive, that's only because you had no idea what Tsukuda Original had up its sleeve for 1984: Yet another mahjong game, a glacial Xevious clone, and Video Works' very first (of many...) horse race-betting sim. But at least there's a somewhat inventive golf title and a solid conversion of a beloved (albeit crazy difficult) James Bond game. This version fixes a titling error from the previous upload.

This episode's titles:

• San Nin Mahjong
• Challenge Derby
• Okamoto Ayako no Match Play Golf
• Space Armor
• James Bond 007

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut!

Special thanks to Omar Cornut for his assistance with this episode!

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[shoptroll]

I really enjoyed the Multivision videos. Absolutely fascinating to see some of these alternate systems that were created that I had no idea existed at one point.

 

[JeremyParish]

I'm just grateful I was able to kill off this collection of games in two episodes. Another of these would have ended me.

 

[E.Balboa]

I really enjoyed the Multivision videos. Absolutely fascinating to see some of these alternate systems that were created that I had no idea existed at one point.

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Yeah me too. I really enjoyed it. This has been one of my favorite youtube playlists in a long while, please keep up the great work, OP! Congrats

 

[Nerdkiller]

Datach Joint ROM System retrospective: Barf-code battler | NES Works Gaiden #025

By patron request, this week's video shifts up the temporal alignment of the NES Works Gaiden series to leap forward from the end of 1984 for Famicom to the end of 1992?! Yes, that's right, we spring forward in time here to look at the Japanese equivalent of the Aladdin Deck Enhancer, except one reliant on an even bigger gimmick than simply packing in universal game chips in order to accept smaller, less expensive sub-cartridges. Bandai dared to push the bleeding edge of what the market would bear here by forcing players to make use of collector cards emblazoned with bar codes in order to be able to play their video game at all. It's a bold innovation! And a terrible one! Learn all about it here.

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[Nerdkiller]

A Brief History of the NES on a Chip: Betcha byte a chip | NES Works Gaiden #026

By request of Joseph Adams, I've attempted this episode to explore the history of (and explain the concept of) devices powered by NES-on-a-chip tech. I'll admit up front that this is by no means a definitive or comprehensive history, as a considerable portion of this topic falls into poorly documented spaces: Unauthorized clone consoles, piracy-focused devices, and ventures in territories veiled behind other languages and cultures (not to mention less methodical documentation than you see for mainstream Western/Japanese consoles like the NES itself). Hopefully I've still assembled an accurate and interesting enough narrative to justify the time and research involved...

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[shoptroll]

Word is finally out about the companion books for Virtual Boy and Super NES Works:

Limited Run Games Is Publishing SNES And Virtual Boy Retrospective Books

Download samples now

www.nintendolife.com

I am loving that SNES Works CE slipcover is a callback to the Good Nintentions cover. Really nice touch!