Study Hall - Challenge Mode With Zero Deaths

This is Study Hall, a new NES homebrew game that was released in February 2014.  It plays similar to Donkey Kong Junior, but it has enough of its own material to make it unique.  Definitely worth checking out for anyone so still has their NES and wants to play something different.

Anyway, this is me playing through the special Challenge Mode that is unlocked when you beat the game.  It's a very unforgiving set of 8 levels where you get unlimited lives to try and beat the game before the clock runs out.  It took a bit of practice, luck, and plenty of resets, but I managed to play through all of the levels without a single death.

Hope you enjoy it!

Cobra Triangle - My First Win

Finally beat Cobra Triangle without continues for the first time recently.  This game had frustrated me to no end as a kid, but no longer!

This was actually a really clean run, particularly during the second half of the game.  I think I went deathless from stage 14 on.  Only major hiccups were a few bonehead mistakes on stage 9 and missing all of the 1ups in the bonus stages, which also cost me a few hundred thousand points.  Still very happy with the run!

Jumpman Junior Revisited

(Sorry, I know I should post more often.  Hoping to turn this around starting now.)

I had some spare time last night and decided to see just how quickly the points get out of control on Jumpman Junior (Atari 800).  The game features a system where you get bonus points after every level based on the number of lives you have remaining.  If you can bank enough extra lives, these bonus points can make it so that you gain and extra life after every completed stage.  Play on beyond that and it soon becomes two or three.

I played a three-hour game last night.  It took about an hour to reach 150,000 points.  By that time, I had banked roughly 15 lives (it would have been more, but I was a bit rusty and died a lot :) ).  However, I put together a winning streak and suddenly the bank was at 20 lives, then 30, then 40.  By the three-hour mark (just before actually), that count was 105!

This was also where I reached a million points, which seemed like a good place to stop.  The scoreboard rolled over and I was able to get a good screen shot of the lives count, thanks to ending on a level with a nice round bonus (just divide the 10,500 bonus by 100 to get 105).

Here are a few screenshots:

Just before the rollover...

And just after...

Finally, my last lives bonus:

New Video: Ice Climber - 1,665,550

I recently put together a nice run on Ice Climber for the NintendoAge weekly challenge.  I had a good run that was worth uploading, though I plan to do better.

This game has a bit of a funny memory for me.  It was my very first world record with Twin Galaxies.  However, at the time, they were new to the idea of videotaped submissions.  Because of this, I didn't know that I was allowed to keep playing after I rolled over the score.  I just took 999,990, quit, and sent in the tape.  I then got a call asking why in the world I stopped.  Oops. :)

New Video: TMNT 3 - 999,990, Zero Deaths With Mike

Thanks to a recent NintendoAge contest, I went back to one of my old favorites, TMNT 3.  We were playing with special rules where you had to quit after your first death.  No problem, I'll just beat the game without dying. :)

This is actually only the second time that I've beaten TMNT 3 deathless.  The way that special moves drains the player's life meter makes boss battles ridiculously tough to survive.  That just makes beating the game that much more satisfying!

The video can be found here.  Enjoy!

New Q*Bert World Record by George Leutz

Congratulations to George Leutz on breaking the world record on the classic arcade game, Q*Bert.  His score of 37,163,080 breaks a record that has stood for almost 30 years, mostly due to how long it takes to get there.  George's game lasted just over 3 1/2 days!

You can read more about this monumental accomplishment here.

Name That Tune Episode 3 - Game Over

Time for another game of Name That Tune.  This time every tune is from a Game Over screen.  A fitting way to close out the year, I think. :)

The link to the contest can be found here.  Enjoy!