Favorite single-screen games

[Stevens]

My brother and I were playing Bomberman 2 on the SNES. Much shit talking ensued.

[Sima Tuna]

Is there a version of bomberman that's available on modern systems and doesn't suck?

How is Exvania? I see it's on arcade archives.

[Randorama]

I am by no means an expert on the Bomberman series, but I looked up some info and found out that the series is now 40 years old (!!!) (read here and here). It started at Hudson Soft but Konami now handles the series' rights. The series includes a lot of tie-ins (e.g. an anime), too. I personally have a very limited experience of the series: I agree with Sumez that the two Irem arcade titles are brilliant (see here and here), and I also liked the Neo Geo entry (i.e. Neo Bomberman, by Hudson Soft).

I remember having irrational amounts of fun playing Saturn Bomberman, since it has co-op and a story mode that makes the game play a bit like an arcade game. Besides, it is a beautiful game. A random "best list" I found online suggests that the SNES/Saturn titles represent the peak of the series, and that the passage to Konami has acted as a death sentence for the series (...I can believe that). If it is an option, I would go for the arcade titles plus the old console titles. No idea if the entries in 3D and/or anything newer than fifth generation consoles (i.e. PS1, Saturn) are good, frankly.

...I admit that I really, really suck at Bomberman, in general. It is one of those games that hinge on a mechanic that I will never really learn properly, but I always loved nevertheless

[Sumez]

I am by no means an expert on the Bomberman series, but I looked up some info and found out that the series is now 40 years old (!!!)

I have nearly every Bomberman game ever released physically, so of course I got ya


The only ones I'm missing are 3-D Bomberman (the first person game which was actually the second game of the series), Net de Bomberman (game can't even start now when servers are offline), and the N-Gage one.

Spoiler

The Saturn version is a clear fan favorite when it comes to Bomberman's battle mode mostly because you can play 10 people at the same time. But these days, fan project Power Bomberman kind of obsoletes that.
I think Single Player Bomberman is really underrated, but also it's kind of broken in most entries of the series, so maybe that is understandable.
My favourites outside of Bomber Man World, are Super Bomberman 5, Super Bomberman 2, and Bomberman GB3.
Saturn's singleplayer mode is really cool and beautiful, but suffers from the typical issue of you becoming invincible the moment you get remote trigger bombs.

How is Exvania? I see it's on arcade archives.

Not very exhilarating unfortunately. The idea is cool though. I wish there were more Bombermanlikes.

[D]

A month back, I played 10 player Saturn Bomberman on a 120" projection screen with some crappy projector. I even made several custom ISO versions with different music. Mostly with different music from within Saturn Bomberman, but also one with the ending theme to Bomberman 64.
It was legendary
projection screen was below 100 bucks from amazon and worked quite well.
projectors can be bought second hand for a couple of tens
So no huge investment to get this up and running (after you have the Saturn set up already)

Speaking of Bomberman GB3, for all of you music fans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nme8m77 ... p=iAQB8AUB
How hard does this track go? (Deserves it's own thread)

[Sumez]

So no huge investment to get this up and running (after you have the Saturn set up already)

Well you also need two multitaps and 10 controllers, which is usually the biggest obstacle.
I've had the fortune to try this setup (always with a projector) several times throughout history though, and it's always been a blast!

[Randorama]

Whoa Sumez, that's one impressive collection The remarkably trivial question of the day is: are there any entries that offer interesting score-driven experiences? I remember these two friends of mine who played the two Irem games a lot, but I don't remember if they were focusing on the 1-CC only, or if they also cared about score. Does it make sense to play those entries for this latter aspect?

[Sumez]

are there any entries that offer interesting score-driven experiences? I remember these two friends of mine who played the two Irem games a lot, but I don't remember if they were focusing on the 1-CC only, or if they also cared about score. Does it make sense to play those entries for this latter aspect?

The Irem games are probably the best for scoring, but there's not much depth to it - it basically just measures how far you get and how well you managed to not die, since your remaining lives is used as a multiplier for your stage score bonus. Time is also a multiplier though, and of course you don't want to miss any of the BONUS letters that gives you the bonus stage for a potential 1UP. But there are no real "risky expert strats" to get notably faster times that I'm aware of. And of course anything other than a 1LC is not going to be competitive.

Neo Bomberman has an actual scoring system, but IMO it's stupid as fuck. Basically, the more enemy kills you're able to chain while explosions are still on screen, the higher your point bonus for the kill, since each chained kill doubles the value.
I think this mechanic might be intended to reward setting up bomb chain reactions, but in reality the superior strategy is getting block pass and remote trigger, and run around the entire stage setting up bombs near every enemy before you start blowing up any of the blocks. And then you trigger them all in quick succession, so the enemies die in a """chain""", each of them increasing your score exponentially.
Not particularly fun IMO, and if you die once and lose your powerups, your lose your ability to do this.

[Randorama]

OK, then my friends spent tons of time trying to get the 1-LC on both Irem games. I remember them succeeding, as they literally played each title for months on end but ultimately getting their goal ("the best score") a few times. I also remember playing Neo Bomberman in my uncle's arcade a bit (summer 1997, probably), but never going far (3 stages, max?), and those two friends of mine liking it. They were fans of the series, but I do not remember how dedicated they were (certainly they had the SFC/GB/etc. titles).

I like the series and the basic concept, but again I never really learnt to play any of the titles very well: it is one of those games that will probably remain inscrutable to me, period. NB's scoring system sounds "broken", for a lack of a better label. I imagine that once players have the right power-ups, they simply do not need to try to manipulate enemies and bombs so that they create smartly designed chains. Maybe it was popular, after all. I do think that it would be cool to have more "bomberman-like" games, but I also wonder if there are games with a similar vs. concept (or similar single-mode player? Clear single-screen stages, use weapon that can kill the character too, etc.).

[1KMS]

There was a versus action puzzle game similar to Bomberman on Sega Saturn called NOON that I recall being pretty fun, though I only ever played against the CPU.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzeeT1x1zGc
(I can't find quality play, so this is just for footage.)

The first Super Bomberman is gloriously unbalanced. You're given roughly 10 seconds of invincibility at the start of every stage, which you can exploit to go on a rampage. Here's a demonstration by bubufubu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7bF35e ... 8F&index=2

[Sumez]

The first Super Bomberman is gloriously unbalanced. You're given roughly 10 seconds of invincibility at the start of every stage, which you can exploit to go on a rampage. Here's a demonstration by bubufubu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7bF35e ... 8F&index=2

While this is a popular speedrun strategy, I think the game seriously suffers from the fact that it's also an extremely obvious strategy for casual players. There's even a a big chance you need to make use of it due to how enemy spawns work (if one or more coins spawn near you, there is no way to survive without starting bomb blasts during your invincibility)

While it seems funny at first, it's also the reason I consider Super Bomberman 1 one of the worse games of the franchise

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The PC Engine Super CD-Rom2 based "Card Angels" is a single-screen based game in dealing with several card games including Speed and Black Jack. If you play on "Free Play" mode and select the BJ game (on "Easy" difficulty setting) along with a CPU character to play against, it's seems that the CPU always has the "upper hand" to beat the player on any given round by just a point or two over the player's dealt hand -- it's quite possible that the CPU BJ dealer can score 21 twice in a row back-to-back from time-to-time (especially within a 10 round BJ gaming session indeed). It's also possible to win a single BJ round with a hand of 14, 15 or even 16 (but that doesn't happen that often in reality). The player has to assume that he or she will end up getting a high card of a King, Queen, Jack or a Ten to play against the two cards already dealt with and end up going "Burst" (aka "Bust" as the CPU hilariously likes to "call it" when the player goes over 21).

----------
Every once in a great while you'll end up beating the "Card Angels" CPU BJ dealer but most of the time, it'll end up winning instead -- why is that? The game developer, Fujicom Co. Ltd., was the group of folks whom made the SCD game of "Card Angels" and it's a fun way to play BJ to "pass the time" on the venerable PCE gaming platform given it's 1994 initial release in Japan at the time.
----------

What's cool about the PCE SCD of Card Angels is, it has support for both the optional Nec Avenue Pad 3 & the Nec Avenue Pad 6 in utilizing buttons I, II & III for the card game of "Speed." How cool is that? You can still use an traditional 2-button endowed PCE gamepad and use the Run button as button III when playing the game of Speed if it needed be.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[PC Engine Fan X!]

So no huge investment to get this up and running (after you have the Saturn set up already)

Well you also need two multitaps and 10 controllers, which is usually the biggest obstacle.
I've had the fortune to try this setup (always with a projector) several times throughout history though, and it's always been a blast!

Bomberman '94 and Bomberman '93 on the PC Engine and TurboGrafx-16 with a Hu-Card convertor were awesome to play 5 vs 5 "all-out" battles, especially when money's involved & given to the winner to "spice things up." Of course, to host such a 5 vs 5 match requires either a PCE multi-tap (or a Turbo Tap as with the TG-16) along with five PCE gamepads (or five Turbo Pads) and the heated matches will commence. It's quite fun to have a 5 vs 5 match played to five rounds maximum for ultimate bragging rights.

Yes, hooking up a PCE or TG-16 to an LCD screen projector for such Bomberman matches is quite fun & priceless indeed. It's also fun to watch the CPU battle itself out amongst five CPU controlled opponents as sometimes, a round will end up being a "draw" -- the "High Speed" matches played with Bomberman '94 with 5 vs 5 CPU foes are awesome to watch unfold in real time as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Randorama]

Greg has posted a beautiful thread about Pac-Man's 45th anniversary event in Tokyo (see here). I acknowledge that I mentioned about starting to write posts about maze games, but real offline life is again putting a dent in my fictional online plans. Greg, if you are reading this and you feel in the mood to start a conversation about Pac-Man and its legacy, I would be delighted and you would probably have a wide audience: this thread is quite successful, I daresay

[greg]

Greg, if you are reading this and you feel in the mood to start a conversation about Pac-Man and its legacy, I would be delighted and you would probably have a wide audience: this thread is quite successful, I daresay

Well, I can't speak with expertise, but rather just my personal opinion. I think the Americans at Midway did better to build on the Pac-Man legacy than Namco did in Japan. The original Pac-Man was a classic, but what came next?

In Japan, next came Super Pac-Man. As a little kid, I failed to grasp the appeal to this game. No more eating dots (boring), and instead you must get keys to unlock doors. When you get a Super Pac-Man powerup, you just get real big and can go through doors, but you still can't kill the ghosts. They just get flat. If you can get the regular powerup after the super powerup, then that's great. Still, no dots.

Next came Pac & Pal, which I call "Come back here with my strawberry, you sonovabitch!" It builds upon Super Pac-Man, but it's just dumb. That little shit takes off with your fruit and you must chase him down before he takes it into the ghost box. There's that mystery zone where you can hide (I guess), but the main point is just opening doors again. Powerups can give you rays or a smokescreen from the Rally X powerup. Big deal.

Meanwhile in America, we got the fantastic Ms. Pac-Man. Superior to the original. The maze changes every few level, breaking up the monotony. Stellar game, and the fruit travels about the maze. Great stuff.

Pac-Man Plus was an interesting upgrade to the original Pac-Man. Color swaps, randomized powerups. Instead of the fruit you get a can of Coca-Cola, so now Pac-Man gets to bite the wax tadpole. This acts as a randomized powerup. Ghosts turn invisible, but if you eat them, you get bonus points. Kinda fun.

Baby Pac-Man was a fantastic pinball/video game hybrid. Super fun stuff. Recently there was a decent Atari 7800 homebrew version released.

Jr. Pac-Man was fun stuff. The maze now scrolls and the difficulty is ramped up. Fun stuff. The Atari 2600 version of this game was actually decent, unlike the notoriously bad Pac-Man rush job game. The sound effects are pretty close to the arcade's too. I never owned the 2600 game back in the day, but I wish i did.

Pac-Man Arrangement was real fun. I would play it at Pizza Hut in my college years in the late '90s, and was happy to get it for my 1st gen Xbox.

I have Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 on Steam. Gimmicky. Kinda fun.

Currently I'm enjoying Pac-Man 256 on Steam. It's an endless escape from the ever-encroaching glitch. I like it a lot.

[Marc]

Pac Man Champion Edition 2 was gimmicky. Pac Man Champion Edition DX+ is one of the greatest videogames ever coded, and I will look crossly in the direction of anyone that suggests otherwise.

[Randorama]

Hello lads and thanks for the input.

I want to start with some shameless self-promotion. This the newest squib of the week, on Data East's Diet Go Go.

Re: the Pac-Man series. Thanks a lot for the write-up Greg, I am definitely going back to the whole series once I have some gaming time. I must however ask: what about Pac Land and Pac Mania? I always sucked at both, but they are beloved games of mine along with Pac-Man Arrangement, a game that I will one day 1-CC, I swear (...I wrote this comment already in 2022, in this very thread. Ahem).

Pac-Mania is the pseudo-isometric game with a cool OST but also the quirky "jump" mechanics: Pac-Man can jump over ghosts. It has considerable differences between the J(a)P(an) version and the EU(rope) and US(a) versions, if I recall correctly. Briefly:

In the JP version, the game has four "worlds", with each world except the first one ("Block Town", I believe) having three stages. The game also has a second loop, for a total of (2+3+3+3)*2=22 Stages.
In the EU/US versions (or, just US?), each world has one stage less. Thus, the total number of stages is (1+2+2+2)*2=14 Stages. These versions are however harder, as if the game is set up at "hard" difficulty.
Sadly, I don't remember much else except that I tend to associate this game with pizza fragrance: my uncle would not use the "jump" button and sometimes clear the game (US/EU version) while eating a slice of pizza (!).
In case you wonder, he owned the arcade. So, of he felt authorised to break the "no food and drinks on cabs" policy

Pac Land...memories are really hazy, so any input is welcome.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Hello lads and thanks for the input.

I want to start with some shameless self-promotion. This the newest squib of the week, on Data East's Diet Go Go.

Re: the Pac-Man series. Thanks a lot for the write-up Greg, I am definitely going back to the whole series once I have some gaming time. I must however ask: what about Pac Land and Pac Mania? I always sucked at both, but they are beloved games of mine along with Pac-Man Arrangement, a game that I will one day 1-CC, I swear (...I wrote this comment already in 2022, in this very thread. Ahem).

Pac-Mania is the pseudo-isometric game with a cool OST but also the quirky "jump" mechanics: Pac-Man can jump over ghosts. It has considerable differences between the J(a)P(an) version and the EU(rope) and US(a) versions, if I recall correctly. Briefly:

In the JP version, the game has four "worlds", with each world except the first one ("Block Town", I believe) having three stages. The game also has a second loop, for a total of (2+3+3+3)*2=22 Stages.
In the EU/US versions (or, just US?), each world has one stage less. Thus, the total number of stages is (1+2+2+2)*2=14 Stages. These versions are however harder, as if the game is set up at "hard" difficulty.
Sadly, I don't remember much else except that I tend to associate this game with pizza fragrance: my uncle would not use the "jump" button and sometimes clear the game (US/EU version) while eating a slice of pizza (!).
In case you wonder, he owned the arcade. So, of he felt authorised to break the "no food and drinks on cabs" policy

Pac Land...memories are really hazy, so any input is welcome.

The jamma pcb release of Namco's 20 Anniversary of Ms. Pac-Man & Galaga "Class of 1981" has the cool sped-up version of Ms. Pac-Man which is a lot of fun to play -- it also saves your high score upon being powered down for the night (which is a very nice "perk" to have) + you can continue on your last level as well. Just for fun, I entered a high score of 666,000 points on the 20th Anniversary "Class of 1981" Ms. Pac-Man arcade game cab at the local Boomers arcade joint back in the mid-2010s era.

Yes, that Steam port of Pac-Man 256 is quite fun with it's addictive "just one more attempt" factor. It was made by the same dev team whom did Crossy Road.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[D]

You guys do all know about the official demake of PM Championship, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLMBdrCkHdI
Also Gaplus was demade offcially and both play excellent on a famicom

[Randorama]

Shameless self-promotion: the revised squib dedicated to Funky Jet is now up.

[Randorama]

I am aware that I promised DW and anyone who is reading this thread on a semi-regular basis that I would attempt to discuss “maze” games like Pac-Man. Greg’s recent post offered an interesting discussion of what might be the “King of maze games”, so I am going to procrastinate by offering an overview of “breakout” games. Breakout games represent a quite prototypical iteration of the “single screen philosophy”, as a 1-player variants of Pong. In Pong, two players control their respective “paddle”, and use it to make a ball bounce behind the other player’s goal line. The winning player is the one with the most goals once time ends. In Breakout-style games, a player controls a paddle and must make a ball bounce against “bricks”, obstacles that disappear after one or more ball hits, and that occur in Stage-specific formations.

My method to collect the list appearing in this post was as follows. I decided to check Moby Games, a games’ database, for arcade breakout games. I am aware that there are other websites/databases, but I am lazy enough to leave aside confirmation via multiple sources (eh!). I clicked on “genres” in the “browse” function, clicked the “Paddle/Pong” value in the “Gameplay” attribute, and then restricted by search with the “arcade” value in the “platform” attribute. The search engine returned 161 results, with 50 games per four pages. I ignored all games released before Atari’s Breakout, 1976, and read the entries for each remaining game to confirm that they were breakout games. I obtained 22 titles, though I admit that I may have overlooked some game that belongs to the genre, in the evaluation process. C’est la vie.

I am offering a brief commentary for each title, as I happen to have played all the games in this list. Personally, I always like the genre but I also always sucked badly at it. Most breakout games require a dedicated controller, in the form of a dial that players can rotate to the left or to the right in order to move the paddle/character. From childhood to adult age, my ability to control movement via dial has been horrible. More in general, I always sucked at games that did not involve a joystick and two-three buttons as key control. You can make your own inferences about how troubled is my relation with fighting games, indeed. The list is as follows, with games in chronological order of release:

1. Breakout: The original Breakout game from Atari, with ports across tons of systems (1976). The game is extremely simple and has no music, but I remember it being hypnotic in its simplicity. I am sure that I played this game on my uncle’s old Atari 2600. Please check the credits for some impressive surprises;
2. Block Buster: Interesting variant from “Mirco games”, Germany (1978). Players can play co-op and destroy the blocks at the centre of the screen via their respective balls and paddles. I tried this one via emulation, but I guess that the original game was much more interesting due to its use of a cocktail cab;
3. Double-Break: Another early cocktail game by “Automaten”, a German producer (1978). I tried this one via emulation, too;
4. Super BreakOut: Sequel of the original game from Atari (1978). The game introduces different game modes, including a mode in which blocks slowly go down the screen. Be sure to clear blocks quickly, indeed. I tried this via emulation, unlike the first title;
5. ZunZunBlock: Taito’s first attempt at the genre (1979). It mostly plays like Breakout but the ball speeds up after bouncing in close quarters. I tried this via emulation;
6. Double-Block-T3: Sega’s first title in this genre (1979), also based on a cocktail cab. Players control three paddles and balls on different sides of the screen and need to destroy blocks in centre of the screen. I tried this via emulation: it feels chaotic but fun;
7. Space Micon Kit: Very basic variant of the formula by SNK, when they were using their original extended name (“Shin Nihon Kikaku”). I tried this via emulation and I could not notice any distinctive mechanics;
8. Gee Bee: Namco’s first independently released game (i.e. not in collaboration with Atari or Midway: 1981). The game combines ideas from pinball games (e.g. bumpers) and has two paddles: one at the bottom of the screen, and one in the centre. Players control both at once, so be careful with controller. I only tried this game via emulation, as I am not old enough to have seen it in arcades, I was one, at the time of release. Intriguing idea, but it is a 1981 (i.e. very basic) game, indeed;
9. Arkanoid: Taito’s take on the genre, with lots of Stages, enemies floating on the screen and causing trouble, and various types of power-ups. I do not remember when and how I played this game, but I do remember my father being great at it. Final Boss “Doh” appears in Rainbow Islands’s Stage five, along with the various enemies;
10. Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh: Taito’s direct sequel to their earlier hit (1987). It has better graphics, new Stages, better music, and so on. I also do not remember when and how I played this game, but I am sure that my father also mastered it;
11. Tournament Arkanoid: “Extra/arrangement” version of the second title for the US market, and I guess for tournaments of some sort (1987). I tried this one via emulation, but that’s about it;
12. Quester: Namco’s second attempt at the genre, and one that feels like a clone of Arkanoid. I tried this one via emulation and felt like Namco were not really trying hard;
13. Goindol: title from Sun A, a Korean manufacturer with a penchant for pilfering material from other games (1987). Goindol is tough but quite interesting because it imports some mechanics from pinball games (e.g. bumpers against which the ball can bounce). I remember finding this title very hard, so I would only watch my uncle playing it. It has something like 100 levels, so a 1-CC is an ordeal. Fun Fact: Goindol is Korean for Dolmen, and the game has a ‘prehistoric’ theme of sorts;
14. Thunder & Lighning First breakout game from Visco (1990). The game features “Mr. Chin”, a vaguely Chinese-looking guy holding a board and using it as a paddle, and apparently fighting against “Thunder Warrior” to rescue some girl. Fun but hard, with lots of interesting power-ups. I remember loving this one and the next entry, as they switched the focus to actual characters and more elaborate plots;
15. Ghox: Toaplan’s attempt at the genre (1991). I remember this game being quite interesting, as it included co-op play, Stage progression via branching paths, bosses, a great fantasy/horror theme, lovely pixel art, and many interesting innovations. My uncle adored it, too, and we would often play it in co-op;
16. Block Block: Capcom’s attempt at the genre (1991), with some pinball elements across stages. Bright and colourful, with decent music, I tried to like it as a kid but I found it particularly difficult. My uncle enjoyed teasing me about how bad I was at it;
17. Twin Squash: Sega’s second title in the genre and a true innovator (1991). The game introduces a versus mode in which players can clear the Stage/pit from blocks and send these blocks to the other player’s Stage/pit. Very colourful and with good music, I remember this one being relatively popular at my uncle’s arcade in versus mode. I do not think that I have ever won a match, unsurprisingly so;
18. Blocken: cute anime-style game with a “quest” plot and a versus mode, from Visco (1994). Players must guide a girl through a magical kingdom to recover her lost artefacts. Blocks move towards the bottom if the player is slow in clearing the Stage. In versus mode, players send the blocks they clear to the other player’s field. I tried this via emulation, and found it adorable but tough;
19. Bal Cube: Interesting variant on the formula by Metro Corporation (1996). Players control a paddle and a spinning cube, and there are several shields at the bottom of the Stage/field. Shield disappear if the player misses the cube, and the cube bounces against one or more shield. It is “Game Over” if the cube progresses to the bottom. I tried this one via emulation;
20. Arkanoid Returns: As I mentioned in the Elevator Action Returns squib, Taito’s F3 hardware feature impressive 2.5D graphics and sound, and lots of excellent sequels. This game was released in 1997 and offers an update of the original titles with gorgeous audio-visuals but no Boss battles (so, no Doh). I remember playing this in summer of 1998, after completing my studies at the Naval College Morosini. By that time, my uncle’s arcade looked more like a graveyard for cabs, sadly;
21. Puchi Carat: Taito’s final hurrah on the F3 along with my beloved Land Maker. The game features adorable manga-style illustrations in lovely pastel colours, a beautiful fantasy/steampunk world, and a glorious OST by Zuntata’s Yasuhisa Watanabe/YACK. It only features a versus mode that works similarly to Twin Squash or Blocken. It includes Patoraco/Cleopatra from Taito/Natsume’s puzzle legend Cleopatra’s Fortune as a secret character;
22. Gunbarich: Glorious last hurrah from Psykio, apparently (2001). The game features Marion from the Gunbird series in a magical adventure, and mixes pinball mechanics (players use paddles and flippers!), some shmup aspects (bosses shoot stunning bullets) and more standard breakout fare. It includes a great scoring system with chains, tons of power-ups, beautiful graphics and an adorable OST. It is of course really though, for those of us who suck at Psikyo games and this genre;

I believe that there are many other titles on different platforms that have brought this micro-genre into the 21st century. My personal take is that the titles stretching from Arkanoid to Puchi Carat offer “modern enough” takes on the genre that may be entertaining for any player who can master the specific type of control that the genre uses. I admit that when I use the keyboard to play any of these games I tend to perform relatively decently, but I do not think that I will ever 1-CC one of these titles (…except for the “Novice” mode in Puchi Carat, OK). I find it interesting that cross-genre/mechanics pollination with other genres (pinball, versus modes) also appeared very early on in the genre’s history. Sometimes I feel like videogame genres are like a giant middle finger (or giant object in the posterior…) to Jacques Derrida’s notorious ideas on genre, indeed.

I know that squibs tend to be more detailed, but I hope that this post was OK. More posts like this one may appear, in the future. Be sure to pay in ale and jolly, Rubenesque harlots, in the usual manner.

(1716 words, or 4.3 pages, times new roman, size 12, single space; the usual disclaimers apply. Just in case: I tend to find Derrida and other continental philosophers as excellent alternatives to laxative pills, though I generally do not suffer from constipation. I kept thinking that I had to post the “middle finger” comment sooner or later, as I had it in my mind for years on end. This post and thread is as good as any other post or thread, right? One day I however plan to publish a moderately more polite variant in some more high-brow publication, and get away with it. I will keep everyone posted, of course. By the way, this is my way of procrastinating rather than working on squibs, but material relevant to this thread is coming soon; do not hold your breath).

[PC Engine Fan X!]

It's fun to play Puchi Carat 2 with a proper arcade spinner setup -- if you go to arcade operator's settings, you can select either to play with a joystick or spinner setup (the kind with ball bearings installed for that slick & super silky-smooth rotary spinning action) -- via Mame emulation. Even playing Tempest/Tempest Tubes with an usb arcade spinner setup is quite impressive nevertheless.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Sima Tuna]

I enjoy the small updates, Rando. I can actually read these little summaries without dedicating an afternoon to it. Not that I don't appreciate effortposts, but those do take some time to plow through.

Breakout clones are a subgenre I've never really enjoyed or been any good at. I lump them in with all the other puzzle games I can't enjoy. Aside from Mole Mania and Lumines, there aren't many puzzle games I do like. Although I suppose the single-screen puzzle platformer is technically a puzzle game. But there's something more "adventurous" about Bubble Bobble, Super Burger Time or Saboten Bombers. I'm not just a square block playing handball against the computer: I'm a little green dino guy shooting bubbles. Always felt... I guess "more immersive" is the word I'm looking for, although arcade games are still driven largely by mechanics.

I love Lumines because it combines music and puzzling in a way that just clicked with me. I remember "heavenly star" playing in the background on Lumines PSP and what a magical experience it was. The combinations of music and gameplay can create some transcendent moments. That's what REZ was all about too.

[Randorama]

PC Engine Fan X!:

I always played Puchi Carat with a joystick on PS1 and with a keyboard on MAME. I think that one day I will actually 1-CC the game by simply sitting down and...getting used to the controls, once and for all. Players really have to make one early mistake and get more that they should clear with the "root" principle, i.e. destroy the one block from which multiple blocks are hanging, for a "multiple block" clearance. When this happens, players will send blocks in a given attacking formation Most adversaries will struggle to survive early attacks, so a 1-CC really revolves around mastering this one technique.

The PS1 version has a short anime introducing the story and one for the ending, as you can see from this 1-CC video that also shows the aforementioned technique. Personally, I always found the OST absolutely fantastic, to the point that I bought the Zuntata CD of it. It is very delicate, pastel-coloured and a bit nostalgic jazzy J-Pop, but on the right spring/summer day, it is just perfectly nostalgic. Puchi Carat is also possibly the easiest title in the genre, I guess.

By the way: Data East's Ghostlop is a prototype/unreleased title in this genre (1996). The game mixes breakout mechanics with a polarity-switching mechanics akin to Treasure's Silhouette Mirage (1997): destroy "ghost blocks" by matching the ball's colour with the ghost's. I tried it in MAME and it is great, but I understand that DECO was struggling deeply, by 1996, and somehow renounced to release this title. Please note the release notes, by the way...

Sima Tuna: Ah! Rando's Random Rants (ahem squibs) are meant to be mini chapters of a virtual encyclopaedia that might appear sometime in the future, and thus exhaustive if superficial articles. Bullet point lists seem like a potential alternative for cases in which I want to discuss the genre at a general level, instead. Certainly, they take less time: I wrote a text covering 22 games in the time I normally write a squib (roughly, four hours).

Regarding immersion: I think that MTJ made a similar point in this very old roundtable about immersivity and finding a balance in how challenges and rewards are presented to the player. With characters, everything tends to be more concrete and immersive, I guess, for the simple reason that players can identify with the characters. Personally, i would say that single-screen platformers were cross-genre titles until 1990 or so. Toaplan's Snow Bros introduced what I can the "gordian knot style of play", i.e. the possibility to clear a Stage/level with a single well-placed attack. Until then, most single-screeners always had that degree of "puzzle-oriented" solutions to each stage. More modern titles like Lumines and Rez seem to return to this model by also being more "multi-modal", i.e. by allowing people to interact with one Facet (ahem, "Aspect" ) of the game: their music/OST. Then again, modern games can also exploit more powerful hardware and decades of collective experience on game design, after all.

On a tangent: does anyone know how to add one line of empty space between bullet points? The list format is useful but looks ugly as sin, honestly. I am also not finding it very readable.

[Steven]

Ghox is very, very frustrating to play after the halfway point. First half is pretty cool, and it uses a spinner that can also tilt up and down that may or may not be unique. Definitely play it on PCB with this spinner if you get the chance, but the controller with this special spinner is very rare indeed, so you're probably never going to see it, and if you do, it's probably a custom-made controller and not the original. The PCB is actually not that hard to find and also not too expensive, however.

I've heard there is a lever version, but I've only played it with the spinner. It's a very unique game, and it's kind of amazing that Toaplan would make a game like this. Unfortunately, I have nothing to really add because I don't know too much else about it; don't even know who made it, so it's probably the Toaplan game that I know the least about, surpassing even some of the games that were never released at all.

[Randorama]

Thanks Steven, I wanted to ask you if you knew more about Ghox: serendipity and so on.

My uncle had a version with a spinner that allowed players to tilt the characters up and down, but I am 100% that it was something custom-made, if only because I remember him making constant adjustments and complaining about it. I do not think that he ever 1-CC'ed the game, or even progressed that far for that matter, but we had quite a bit of fun in co-op mode. I actually believe that it was part of a concerted effort by Toaplan people to diversify their offer: Snow Bros is 1990, Pipi & Bibis is also 1990, Teki Paki and Ghox are 1991, and then there was...Knuckle Bash in 1992

I believe that one day I will actually play Pipi & Bibis again and 1-CC the bloody game, but it will probably involve me memorising the "solutions" to the last Stage and its levels. Back in the day, I reached 6-1 once or twice but gave up after having no idea on how to overcome it (same for the 6-2, 6-3 and 6-4, really). Personally, I really liked Toaplan's non-shmup titles, but most of them were acquired tastes (e.g. my uncle adored Teki Paki and everybody else of the regulars at his arcade thought that he was insane ). Just in case: yes, I played Pipi & Bibis when I was too young to do so, but I was mainly interested "in the game". Ahem

EDIT: Tangent on immersion in games and so on: this is one paper on the topic, open access and therefore free to read. Lots of further references for those who want to read more on the topic. Personally, one abstract game that gives me a full immersion feeling is BlockOut. The combination of 3D mechanics, psychedelic backgrounds and ambient/muzak combo OST invariably gives me the feeling that I am manipulating the pieces with my hands, after 10 stages or so. It is the closest I would call to a "trippy game".

[Steven]

I think Toaplan was definitely trying to break away from the image of being a shooting game company. There was some interview with someone somewhere where a Toaplanner (Yuge-san, perhaps) mentioned something similar to this. Two of the seven Toaplan games that I consider to be S-tier Toaplan games are non-shooting: Teki-Paki and both versions of Horror Story. I know someone will ask, so the other five are Out Zone, Slap Fight, Kyuukyoku Tiger, Hishouzame, and Same! Same! Same! 1P.

On topic, Ghox is just weird. It's fun as hell until you get to the second half. Then you have to make shots where the screen is partially covered, so you can't see anything and... well, it becomes kind of miserable. I only played it twice, but I did not enjoy it much because of the second half. Whoopee!!/Pipi & Bibi's is one of two released non-bootleg Toaplan games that I have never played, with the other also being a single screen game: Mahjong Sisters. Don't know how to play mahjong, so I couldn't do much even if I saw it in an arcade, which I have, a single time, at Mikado.

I have played the Whoopee!! remake, Spy Bros, on PC, however. It's much more difficult than it looks and I have not played it that much. I've heard that some of the balance is off on the remake, but I'm not sure how that works. Toaplan's first non-bootleg is also a single-screen game: Performan. A friend has the (quite rare) PCB for this, and he says that no emulator emulates the sound of this game properly, and that you must read the instructions or you'll practically insta-game over, as this is another quite difficult game. I know it is for sure because that's what happened to me when I played it (emulated, sadly).

[Randorama]

Performan (1985) is possibly an ideal example of the type of game that seamlessly fits in this thread, though perhaps it is lamentably obscure (40 years old, poor emulation, no ports that I know of...). No scrolling, each Stage is a relatively complex puzzle to solve, and proper understanding of the game's mechanics is fundamental, or ending a credit after 60 seconds is very possible.

My "game in a nutshell" summary would be this: all Stages take place in what seem to be open grass fields with mines located around the fields. The main character, "Performan" (?), can walk on the grass but also dig holes and thus burrow tunnels underground. Various enemies chase Performan around the Stage/field and will kill the hero upon touch. Performan can activate mines when underground, with the mines' blast potentially killing enemies and Performan alike (so, do not activate them at random). Performan should also be able to shoot some kind of bullets when walking on the grass, but enemies seem to be incredibly good at dodging the bullets; shoot wisely.

I do not think that I ever reached the fifth Stage, and that was ages ago (2008?). So, the summary might not be very accurate. Still, I remember the game being potentially very funny, in its being a cross of early Bomberman titles and perhaps Namco's Dig Dug (1982).

Early 1980s (e.g. 1979-1985) featured a lot of these "single screeners" with highly distinctive if not unique mechanics and strongly puzzle-oriented Stage design. I admit that I am not old enough to have had direct experience of many of these titles.

Case in point, I remember playing several titles like Dig Dug or PopEye (Nintendo, 1982) when I was in elementary school (i.e. 1986 onwards) and these games were in a sense already "retro/old". My uncle even had one room in his arcade dedicated to "older" titles with credits at half price. Small cafes/bars/pizza parlours and other places with the odd one/two cabs were also a good source for "old games", because owners could rent boards at a cheap price in the hope that the games would attract odd customers ("let's play a game while we wait for the pizza").

Toaplan's half a dozen titles in this mould were all great, in my opinion, even if difficult (...not a surprise, really). About Mahjong Sisters: I can play decent Mahjong though I dislike playing it arcade form: I remember this one being though, unsurprisingly so. I think that is an OK "striptease cards game", which technically is one of those "single screen" sub-genres that somehow would also fall within the conceptual domain of this topic. We had a discussion of the Gals Panic series, after all. I might stick to a "promise" I made earlier in this thread (2024?) and start digging more info on the topic, though