Is a rebirth coming?

So we're at it again.  If anyone ever said the NES is going to go away, oh how wrong they were.  Myself, Steve, and a few others are on the verge of yet another "rebirth" of the NES in our lives.  While it is at the very beginning stages, I can assure you that this is for real.  It began with a rediscovery of our other passions from times past, and the NES was just a natural choice to follow.  I would say the beginning came about 2 months ago when Steve was in town visiting and we pulled out Rampart for old times sake.  Since then, I personally have been enthralled with the idea of bringing the NES to the center of my life once again.  While it has come slowly, it has begun.  I now have ringtones of Double Dragon and Megman 2 on my phone, and have spent time getting reacquainted with those games recently.  Last night I beat Ninja Gaiden 2 for the first time in 2-3 years, reminding myself that I am still very good at NES games.  Now we need to continue. 

The plan is to kick this thing off by Steve and I each buying a new game that neither of us has played before and racing to see who can beat it first.  I encourage anyone reading this to try something of the sort, as I think this will be an incredibly rewarding and competitive project.  NES nights and new games will come this summer, and hopefully by the time June rolls around the rebirth of the NES once again will be in full swing!!

Is turbo cheating?
After Andy and I got together last time he was in town, we decided to play a
round of Track & Field. We wanted to try and beat the High Jump world
record which of course takes 5 times going through the game. We made it
through 3 times and then failed on the High Jump itself. The whole time we
were playing, we were using a normal rectangular controller as is the norm
when we play NES. I had a NES Max and NES Advantage on tap but we decided
not to use them. The question arose, is it CHEATING to use these turbo
controllers? It's a tough question. Many will have different opinions
about this. Even purests can argue that the Max and Advantage were made by
Nintendo, thus they must be OK. I personally say 'YES', turbo is cheating
in a sense. I feel that high scores and such are hindered by the presence
of a turbo controller and is a lot like steroids in baseball. Yeah, you
threw the javelin 100+ yards, but the NES Advantage had your speed as high
as it could go with you doing little to no work to achieve it. Such games
as Contra and Commando are further hindered by turbo controllers as you can
just walk through levels with your gun spraying everywhere with, again,
little to no effort. Turbo should be looked at like a game genie and not
like a NES-given tool. That's just my opinion, though, what's yours?

An Old Friend
Over the past few months, since mine and my cousin's obsession with Nintendo has re-established itself, a question has been burning in my mind. How long will this be a part of our lives?? If you think about it, the NES has been around for over 20 years. There are a number of other systems that were around before the NES, most notably Atari, Intellivision, and Pong, but none have had the continued widespread popularity of the NES. There are still Atari's around, and in large numbers, but I know so many more people who still have their original NES. Recent systems seem to come and go...Playstation has been replaced by PS2. Does anyone still have a Dreamcast?? What about GameGear?? In a few years, no one will have an X-Box because there will something new to replace it. But in those same few years, people will still have their NES. Though some will put them away, and others will go years without playing, they will always be there. Just like myself and my cousin. Our NES never went away, and we still played them, but they have definitely had a resurgence of popularity in our lives. Even more amazing is the fact that both of us have a lot more on our plates than the last time NES was a prominent part of our lives. So my question remains, how long will it last?? I'm sure this resurgence will not last forever, but I'm just as sure that in due time there will be another resurgence. I just wonder how many 60 year-old men a few decades from now will still be playing their NES and taking crap from their grandchildren for how old-fashioned that gray box is. One thing I do know, is that no matter how long I go without playing my NES, it will always be there for me, like an old friend.

The number 22
It just occurred to me that there's a strange reoccurrence of the number 22
throughout many of our high scores (hton the Masters page. I [Steve] have the Zelda record of 1 hour and 22
minutes, Jim has the SMB record of 9 minutes and 22 seconds. Andrew holds
the Castlevania record of 16 minutes and 22 seconds and our current NES Open
score to obtain is -22. I find this extremely odd. Perhaps this is some
sort of weird omen from the makers of Nintendo telling us that 22 will
always be the number to beat. Mark my words, if anyone will shatter these
"22" records, it's us!



I recently obtained a lot of 6 new games from my fiancee's grandpa. I'm
pumped to say I finally own a true NES classIC: Baseball Stars! I can't
wait to get going on this game. I remember borrowing it from a buddy of
mine and making this team just sickly good. I can't wait to demolish this
game and see just how bad it can beaten to a pulp. Nes rules.



Finally, I have to talk about the NES high scores site mentioned above.
Please feel free to hit up the site and share your own achievements with us.
I'm sure many of you out there have scores that are just madness that the
world needs to hear about, so let's see em! Look for a new look to that
site here soon.

The Best There IS
This may sound arrogant, but I don't know if there's anyone on the planet better than me at Castlevania. I used to say this as a joke because I was better than all of my friends at the game, but lately I have come to take this statement more seriously. For a number of years I have held the record among my friends as the fastest to beat Castlevania. This race began with my cousin Steve, who as we were growing up bragged to be able to beat the game in under 19 minutes. Much like my Mike Tyson's Punch-Out experience, I felt the need to beat Steve's record. I began to put a stop-watch on my Castlevania playing and after weeks of work, set the record of 16:55. Years later I would destroy this record with the current record of 16:22. I still believe I can beat the game in under 16 minutes but that is yet to be done. More recently I have been looking towards a new goal. In my fast games, I always had triple boomerangs through much of the game, but I wondered if I could beat the game using no weapons at all except the whip. Once again, I was up to the challenge and within two weeks of setting out on this goal, I once again established myself as a master of Castlevania. I don't know what else I can do to Master this game, but anyone who believes I am in error in calling myself the best Castlevania player on the planet, please let me know so I can tell you just how wrong you are.

Raising the Bar
Now I know we've all heard this term in one form or another. "Raising the
Bar". This time, I'm going to talk about it for the NES. Andy puts it well
in his "Masters" section when he says "A Master is a person who can dominate
a game so much that a single mistake results in immediate use of the reset
button". Beating Final Fantasy for the first time is relieving, pounding
down Mike Tyson with 3 seconds to go in Round 3 is heart-stopping, and
taking down the Red Falcon with 1 life left in your 30 life code makes you
jump around the room like some kind of crazed animal, but that was circa
1989! So what do we do now that those first-time, heart-throbbing moments
are 15-20 years gone? We "Raise the Bar" my friends. We strive to be the
masters of the games that once challenged our limits of patience and time
and take "beating" those games to a new level. I promise you that if you
set mad goals for games, that you will be inclined to play your games over
and over again until you reach what seems ridiculous. Remember the days
when beating Dracula and Death was something that NO ONE on your block had
accomplished? Well how about beating them without getting hit? How about
beating the whole game in under 20 minutes? It can be done, it takes just
as much time accomplishing such a feat as it did to originally beat the
game, but it's worth it. NES games were built in such a way to set these
goals and for us to take them on and continue to breathe new life into our
games every couple of years when someone else comes up with some disgusting
goal in a classic game. So if you're feeling that the same classic NES
games are getting old and tiresome, raise the bar on yourself and set out to
punish the games that once punished you. Here's some great goals to get you
started on some all time classics!



* NES OPEN - shoot -20 or better
* CONTRA - go through the entire game without dying, if you so
desire, keep going! How many levels can you beat without getting hit? The
man they call Joey once did 16+!
* MIKE TYSON'S PUNCH OUT!! - Of course, the ultimate goal set by
Andrew in beating the game without getting hit. He's done it twice now.
This one promises to keep you entertained for a LONG time.
* ZELDA - Beat the game without dying. After that, start going for
time trials. I was able to beat it in 1 hour, 22 minutes without dying.
Beating that will keep the game alive for me.
* SMB1 - Beat the game without dying.straight through. I've never
even tried this, but it promises to make for a good time.
* METROID - Beat the game as quick as you can. I did it in 4 hours
once, but this isn't very good and I know it. A Metroid fanatic could
possibly break the 2 hour barrier.
* CASTLEVANIA - Time trials is the best way to go. Andrews record
stands tall at 16:22 from what I can see on the internet.

Like Riding A Bicycle
Did you ever notice how playing NES is just like riding a bicycle?? It seems that no matter how long I go without playing my NES (though it's never very long) I am still very good at most of the games. There have been times where I have gone months without playing a certain game and come back to tear through it like it's nobody's business. One example of this is Castlevania, a game which I consider myself to be among the best players around (but I will write more on that at a later date). Another game is Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! This game is among my top games ever and I can brag of a very good accomplishment. I have, not once but twice, beaten this game without getting hit by a single opponent. The very first time can be read about on the NES Temple site under "Tales of Greatness." The second time came quite unexpectedly. I had let a friend of mine borrow the game and did not get it back for 7 months. The reason I let him borrow the game was because I had not played it in months anyway. So when I finally got the game back, it had been probably roughly 9 months since I had last played. I picked it up while talking on the phone and proceeded to play with the phone balanced between my ear and shoulder. After a while, I realized I had not gotten hit and my excitement began to build. The first two circuits are not difficult, but to get through them flawlessly is still a good sign. After I had disposed of second Bald Bull I knew something bid was happening, and my excitement began to grow even more. Second Don Flaminco soon fell with no offense and I began to get nervous. This is the stage of the game where you must begin to take it very seriously. Though I was excited, I continued to talk on the phone as my #1 contender's bout with Sandman began. For only the third time in my life, I disposed of Sandman without being hit and I knew this thing really may happen. My title bout with Macho Man was hardly memorable. If not taken seriously, he can get in a cheap punch and end my hopes of a perfect game, but alas I knew my foe too well and disposed of him with no problem. At this point, my excitement finally go the better of me. I suddenly yelled into my phone, "I'll call you back" and quickly hung up. My bout with Tyson was about to begin and I was ready to once again make history. The first 1:30 passed without me getting hit by a knockout blow and I had gotten some solid jabs in on Tyson. I knocked him down in the first round and entered the second ready for victory. By this point my body was shaking with excitement. I knew I had to TKO Tyson in the second round because he is unpredictable in the third round and I would be unlikely to avoid every third round punch. Fortunately for me, Little Mac was up to the challenge. His feet were swift and his punches solid and before the bell rang to end the second round, I had TKO's Mike Tyson flawlessly. I threw the control on the ground and jumped up in celebration. I was once again the king of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!

So everyone has a time where they get on a kick and play a game over and
over again. This is one of the greatest things about the NES that has kept
us playing it for over 20 years now. The games have replay value that CAN
NOT be matched! My personal recent kick here has been NES Open. What a
great game. The replay value of this game by far exceeds any other sports
game ever created in my opinion (rivaled closely by Punch Out! And Ice
Hockey. I once shot a -21 on the UK course in 2001, but have yet to match
that amazing feat. I think that one could possibly pull off a -23 assuming
birdies on every hole and 5 eagles. A tough challenge. I ashamed to say
that although I've played rounds upon rounds of this game, I can't tell you
exactly how many par 5s each course holds, which would provide us with the
number of easily obtainable eagles in a single round of play, thus giving us
the target score which I'd like to get. If you've never played this game,
check it out, practice up, and shoot to beat the -21.

My Opening Statements
Well, I'm hoping this Blog becomes a staple of this website. Time will tell. I plan on myself and my cousing Steve to be the main posters on this, with our thoughts and feelings on NES as a whole and specific games. I hope all of my loyal NES fans enjoy this. Steve and I have been playing NES again with a vengeance, with NES Open being our current games of choice. If you would like to see our NES credentials, view the NES All-Star Players page on the Temple of the NES. Of course, that is only half the tale as we have made many more accomplishments since that was last updated, and they are too many to put on one page. The first actual NES post will be up shortly. Until then, play on NES fans!!