Favorite single-screen games

[BrianC]

I played it through the end back then (it was one of those day one purchases, really), and while I can sympathize with your analisys, I think much of the charm also is related to the non stellar performance of platforming in the late Gameboy years. It surely felt a novelty while rehashing Wario for the nth take on SM Land was feeling like the beating of a dead horse.

Much of charm of Donkey Kong GB was the puzzle elements and some clever elements like the placeable temporary ladders in some levels. Some fun nods to DK Jr., as well. It was also one of the first games promoting SGB support and made good use of it.

SML games rehashes? They all play different from each other, especially Wario Land 2.

[Sima Tuna]

Satryn DX is pretty fun. I may edit this post later as I play it more.

[Randorama]

Turrican: yes, I agree (of course). I point I made in a previous post is that the ‘all the gaming goals in one screen’ approach brings single-screen games closer to classical, indeed timeless board games such as Chess, Go and so on.

For obvious reasons, many genres started as ‘single screeners’, and then evolved into something else. I believe that OP’s focus was on ‘the classics’, but many ‘limited scrolling’ games are close enough to this approach that discussing them here on the R2RKMF is fine. After all, many of these titles are by now obscure to the masses and risk oblivion

Regarding Contra and Knight Lore MSX, they seem perfect examples for a dual approach. Contra MSX seems like ‘the single screen contra’, i.e. a single-screen run’n gun game and thus a liminal game belonging to both threads. Knight Lore seems like a ‘single screen dungeon crawler’, and thus belonging to this and the dungeon crawler thread. The one issue might be whether anyone aside us actually cares, I guess!

[Sumez]

If you're constantly navigating between screen without scrolling, that sounds like it's entirely outside of the definition to me.

Sure, Bubble Bobble has 100 different screens, but each screen is its own isolated experience, where you'll be going back and forth in the same area, you're never manually going to the next screen.

[Randorama]

Sumez:

I agree, but do MSX Contra and Knight Lore allow players to do that? I understood that players can progress one screen at a time and "always forward", like Bubble Bobble. I didn't bother to check videos of them, to be honest, just screenshots and (short) descriptions.

Fun fact: when checking material for the Pang squib, the expression "platform/puzzle mix" cropped up more often than not. I wonder if it is a "modern" trend of seeing any platformer more complex than Snow Bros as "puzzle-like', in style/approach/whatever.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Not exactly modern in that case as it's an "action puzzle" game for Capcom ever since the PS1 days:



As a friend of mine says, the Cannon Ball formula is a clear deviation of Space Invaders', so it's a bit silly the people have found a platform or a puzzle game on it over a STG.

[evil_ash_xero]

I'm finding Donkey Kong 94 to be pretty damn impressive, but I refuse to play any more of it until the color hack comes out next year. Can't wait.

What color hack are you talking about?

This one.


https://x.com/marc_robledo/status/1817276513802203415

[D]

I'm finding Donkey Kong 94 to be pretty damn impressive, but I refuse to play any more of it until the color hack comes out next year. Can't wait.

What color hack are you talking about?

This one.


https://x.com/marc_robledo/status/1817276513802203415

I'm sure that that will be grand news when it comes out. Thanks for the heads up!
Probably will not be any further enhanced to play on a super game boy, but perhaps nothing more is possible on the super game boy as it is.

[evil_ash_xero]

No problem. I've been looking forward to it for a long time.
Will probably be the best game colorized since Kirby's Dream Land 2.

[velo]

Donut Dodo is great, but short of being a real arcade-style experience of the likes of which it wants to replicate and pay homage to.
I wish the home version had the Exa-exclusive sewer stage, could even have succesfully replaced the ferris wheel stage, which I don't think anyone likes.

My only real complaint is that there's a rather low cap on how much you can score (because there are only two loops and straightforward scoring). The essential game design feels right to me, but I ran out of things to do in the game before I got bored with it. That's better than the other way around! Cash Cow has a more involved scoring system and a marathon mode which I think is endless, so I may end up spending more time with it than Donut Dodo in the long run.

I've been trying to read this thread and understand it the "single-screen" genre is basically as saying "no scrolling".

It doesn't seem that the two terms are felt as exactly equivalent, althought I wouldn't know how to pinpoint it.

so we have several single-screen which are admitted into the single screen while not being comprised of a single screen: Teddy Boy, Rainbow Islands, Parasol Stars and so on, and no one seems to mention games which are bigger in scope but whose action is done through fixed screens, like the whole isometric adventures spawned by Knight Lore (Filmation I engine, and by extent up to Cadaver). Or, in an extreme example, the MSX port of Contra.

With some light mental gymnastics, you can talk yourself into believing that most shmups are disguised single-screen gallery shooters with a few extra bells and whistles. Just pretend that the background doesn't scroll and any physical obstacles are propelling themselves onto the screen.

[dingsbums]

The fact that this thread has 6 pages and nobody mentioned the following games makes me sad:

Magical Drop 2 & 3
Mighty Pang
Blood Bros.
Funky Jet
Bomb Jack Twin
Super Burger Time
Space Bomber
Prism Land
Little Magic
Zipang
Sokoban World
Eggerland / Lolo series
Senkyo / Battle Balls
Aqua Rush
Puzzle Boy
Solomon no Kagi 2

I'm sure whem I'm thinking longer about that topic more games come to mind.

[Randorama]

The fact that this thread has 6 pages and nobody mentioned the following games makes me sad:

Magical Drop 2 & 3
Mighty Pang
Blood Bros.
Funky Jet
Bomb Jack Twin
Super Burger Time
Space Bomber
Prism Land
Little Magic
Zipang
Sokoban World
Eggerland / Lolo series
Senkyo / Battle Balls
Aqua Rush
Puzzle Boy
Solomon no Kagi 2

I'm sure whem I'm thinking longer about that topic more games come to mind.

Thanks for the list! However…

I mentioned Funky Jet here, at some length. Mentions of Super Burger Time, Solomon’s key (the first one) and the whole Pang series can be found in this this post. We discussed Blood Bros. in the R2RKMF thread, at some point, along with a few other “gallery shooters”. I believe that we have a few threads about Space Bomber hiding among the older shmup threads. Certainly we have mentions of Magical Drop games and Bomb Jack titles, somewhere in this thread (Battle Balls, too, somewhere…).

In doubt, though, just please mention a game and possibly discuss it: most threads are ancient and indexing them is a hassle. Some people seem to obsess over what counts as a 1-screener, but a brief glance at the very first post in the thread will tell you that we have a vague definition from OP. So, all is good

[Lord British]

Arkanoid
Arabian (but only when I can map a jump button)
Blood Bros.
Bomberman ('94, SB, and Saturn)
Bomb Jack
Bubble & Puzzle Bobble Series
Burgertime
Chu Chu Rocket
Dead Connection
Donkey Kong (series)
Frogger
Funky Jet
Galaga (or Galaxian if you like) series
Joust
Klax (I've played many ports of this including a nice looking Lynx version, but it plays best on GBA IMO)
Lode Runner (series)
Lunar Rescue
Missile Command (the only arcade machine I own)
Pac-Man (series)
Pengo
Pooyan
Punch-Out (series)
Q*Bert
Qix (series)
Robotron
Roc'n Rope
Satan's Hallow
Smash TV
Solomon's Key
Space Invaders '95
Tron (and Discs)

Note: I'd put Mappy and City Connection on there but they don't fit into one screen

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The Steam port of Pixeljam's "Utopia Must Fall" is a most excellent retro-throwback arcade game that has that old-school vector type of graphical aesthetic going on and feels like that it'd truly belong within the pantheon of the classic early 1980's arcade games of that era -- namely Missile Command (or an off-shoot deraitive clone of it). To play it with color vector graphics is quite an awesome treat (I can imagine if UMF was played on a real Atari manufactured QuadraScan color vector monitor setup circa 1981, it'd truly be the best way to play it with the current existing color vector monitor technology back then). Wow!

UMF would be cool as a dedicated Vectrex released game, indeed, truly pushing it to new heights with it's cool vector ultra-smooth scaling effects and novel use of existing vector based enemies throughout each level. Since UMF is a yoko game to begin with, the Vectrex would have to oriented on it's side to display it properly. The Vectrex port of UMF would require a yoko based color screen overlay as usual to compliment the game itself -- that is a given. The Vectrex control panel with it's built-in analog joystick setup would be perfect to play UMF (or at least a rotary knob spinner setup for those crucial and hectic close-calls with enemy bombardments incoming from all sides).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Randorama]

Hello folks, shameless promotion: I have uploaded a squib about BlockOut, Technos/California Dreams' 3-D Tetris clone. I believe that the game is worth discussing in this thread, but my elucubrations would be in the way. I hope that you can enjoy the squib and that the thread gains visibility again: I am recently fiddling with many several single-screeners, after all. I will edit this thread at a later time to include a link to a revision of my original Land Maker squib. All in due time, of course.

Edit: Please enjoy.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Hello folks, shameless promotion: I have uploaded a squib about BlockOut, Technos/California Dreams' 3-D Tetris clone. I believe that the game is worth discussing in this thread, but my elucubrations would be in the way. I hope that you can enjoy the squib and that the thread gains visibility again: I am recently fiddling with many several single-screeners, after all. I will edit this thread at a later time to include a link to a revision of my original Land Maker squib. All in due time, of course.

Edit: Please enjoy.

Yes, the arcade jamma conversion pcb kit of Techos/California Dreams' BlockOut is a classic -- I used to be able to reach "Round 31" on a single credit back in 1991-1992 with an average score in the 300,000 points range easily (there are 100 separate rounds).

BlockOut Protip: If you bounce your current geometric piece against the set-down blocks, you can earn free extra points added to your overall score -- this was never mentioned on the marquee nor on the accompanying arcade paperworks either.

PC Engine Fan X ^_~

[Randorama]

Thanks for the info PC Engine Fan X, that's intriguing to know. The game is indeed a classic, but I admit that I never played for score - aside aiming at landing "BlockOut" (i.e empty pit) clears so that difficulty would simmer down. I believe that the game loops endlessly, so that after Stage 100 players basically play variants of the ten basic levels but with the most complex pieces thrown in, for good measure. Still, brilliant game ^__^!

[Randorama]

Double post and question time: I hope that people can help me with these types of single screen games. I was wondering if anyone has a decent grasp/knowledge of these genres:

• "Solitary" matching tile games, especially those involving Mahjong (i.e. find and remove tiles with the same symbols);
• Arcade-style Mahjong and card games, especially the erotic ones (or: was Mitchell's/Capcom's Poker Ladies the only poker game outside gambling machines?);
• The Qix style of puzzle games. I know the most famous titles (i.e. Taito's classic line, a few others and Kaneko's Gal's Panic series), but I am not aware of other titles. I have vague memories of games in which players control sprites painting and/or removing paint from the playing surface. More in general, I am curious about this sub-genre of "picture uncovering" puzzle games;
• Billiard and/or single-screen games involving "table sports", as I lack a better term for these games/sports. I have re-discovered that Data East published a few billiard titles in the Side Pocket. Any other similar titles?

Also:

I am releasing some more material in the RRR's thread. I will upload three posts by today, I guess, but for this thread the squib about Momoko 120% has some relevance: please read it here.

The game is partially connected to single-screen types of game: the game scrolls but stages form bounded, endless looping environments like Teddy Boy Blues, a game I also discussed in this thread. I am still open to the idea of having a "limited scrolling" thread, for those who care about these issues.

[AyeYoYoYO]

SATURN BOMBERMAN

Bubble Symphony

[Randorama]

I have posted a revision of the Teddy Boy Blues squib in the squibs thread: Here, as foreshadowed in my previous post. Please enjoy.

[it290]

• Billiard and/or single-screen games involving "table sports", as I lack a better term for these games/sports. I have re-discovered that Data East published a few billiard titles in the Side Pocket. Any other similar titles?

It's not an arcade title, but Team 17's Arcade Pool for the Amiga uses the same overhead perspective and is my favorite billiards game of all time.

[Randorama]

Thanks it290, it's nice to know; I had no idea that they produced a billiards/pool game

I have tried out the arcade versions of Data's East series and they are all quite nice. The first Side Pocket is a straightforward overhead billiard game; Pocket Gal/Side Pocket 2 and Pocket Gal Deluxe add the "strip the girl" part, which can however be skipped. SP2 has the jazzy/smooth synth trademark Data East sound and OST, while PGDx has the more rock-oriented style that they used in the 1990s.

Two Saturn/PS1 exclusives are Voice Idol Maniacs, which mixes pool and...dating sim with idols. The 3D entry Side Pocket 3 drops the stripping part but has tons of extra modes and features. I remember buying and playing the Saturn ports for cheap (no more than 10 euros) and finding them excellent, The dating sim is hilarious: you can get the idol's phone number. I also remember other earlier arcade billiard emulators, but I may try to recover their names at a later time.

The arcade versions are though: players have three lives and can get quite a few extends, but they lose one life for each shot that does not send a ball in the pockets. They are virtuoso games, even if cool ones.

[Randorama]

I have uploaded a revision of the original City Connection squib here, in squibs' thread. I hope that everyone will enjoy the revisions.

I also decided to look up for games that would fall in the Qix sub-genre, which could be described as "move a cursor on the playing field to form geometrical shapes covering a majority of the field while enemies try to destroy your cursor via contact". This page rightfully observes that Qix, CityConnection and similar games are ultimately variants of the "Maze puzzle" sub-genre: players move in a maze to complete lines, shapes or other actions based on the maze's structure, while avoiding deadly touches. Pac-Man was the forerunner, of course, but tons of variations in the single screen (meta-)genre might fall in this genre.

So, about Qix:

Information about the Taito games is here, along with links to other series connected to Qix and related games. Giantbomb has a moderately fragmentary list here, too. Some of you will certainly know Kaneko's Gals Panic series, which is the vaguely erotic version of the game. Briefly, when players form shapes on the playing field, they uncover pictures of naked women.

Interestingly, a game combining ideas from Pac-Man and Qix is Konami's Amidar, which finds a 3D re-interpretation in Namco's elgantly pervy Dancing Eyes.

I suspect that if I go down the rabbit hole of "painting/cutting maze games", I may not come back for a while. I hope that these few links will be enjoyable to single screen fans reading this thread, though.

[BrianC]

So, about Qix:

Information about the Taito games is here, along with links to other series connected to Qix and related games. Giantbomb has a moderately fragmentary list here, too. Some of you will certainly know Kaneko's Gals Panic series, which is the vaguely erotic version of the game. Briefly, when players form shapes on the playing field, they uncover pictures of naked women.

Interesting that the original Qix was developed in the US, Volfied was designed by MTJ, and Super Qix was developed by Kaneko, who later made the Gals Panic games.

[Randorama]

Ah yes, the connections are intriguing. There is a great MTJ interview here here, and it seems that the GP franchise served Kaneko well, in the sense that they were able to publish several games in the series until they sadly had to fold (the arcade business was ruthless, yes).

Speaking of single screeners, Namco's Tinkle Pit is also a game on which MTJ worked apparently as a free-lancer, and features a Qix-like or Amidar-like mechanic. The main character can leave a bell-like object in one place, move around a maze to create a pattern in the form of a red thread, and then call back the bell. This bell will go back to the main character and kill all the enemies that it will hit (a video is here). It becomes quite difficult from the second half of the game on, but it is really fun. It is on Hamster's Arcade archives.

Random thought: a common thread connecting these games with the tile-matching games is that...quite a few titles end up involving eroge/nudity images. I remember that my uncle had an eroge version of Puzznic and that I was attracted to it for the pervy pictures at first, but then for the really smartly designed stages. This might be another pandora's box/rabbit hole I might open at a later stage, but I should focus on the "Mahjong solitaire" sub-genre first

Random musing: it is interesting how one arcade single screen game may start a "genealogy" of variations on the theme and create a multi-platform micro-genre. Recently, I explained to a colleague that the endless Zuma clones should all be variations of Mitchell's Puzz Loop (case in point, the wiki is about the Zuma series).

[Randorama]

Shameless self-promotion: the Super Pang! squib is here. Also, please do not forget to bookmark the Tetris the Grandmaster 4 thread, for obvious reasons.

[Randorama]

Hello folks, I was wondering if someone would be interested in one or more posts focusing on two "flavours" of single screen games:

• Single screen shmups (i.e. the Space Invaders variety);
• Maze games (i.e. Pac-Man but also Rally X or even City Connection);

I would be happy to upload compact posts on a possibly weekly/fortnightly basis and keep posts shorts (i.e. no more than two paragraphs and/or 300 words, plus links). I am just fiddling around with "old games" and I am wondering if someone wants to read my notes, really.

[Daytime Waitress]

Personally, I wouldn't expect there to be a great deal of variety to extract from the single-screen shooter (sub)genre, whereas maze n related are possibly more likely to throw out more novel or at least less anticipated outliers; so my vote would go towards the latter.
But that might be symptomatic of me not being au fait with the genre as a whole, nor its histories/evolutions, so your archeology might uncover latent gems.

tl;dr: more Rando is always a good thing.
More thoughtful analysis on varied subjects is always welcome, whether they're definitive dissertations or cocktail napkin scribblings - your audience knows it will be approached from a place of consideration, if not outright authority.

[Sumez]

SATURN BOMBERMAN

Saturn Bomberman is in fact the first co-op Bomberman game to that *isn't* Single Screen . Before that, Super Bomberman 2 was the last one that would scroll the screen, because it's only playable in single player. Apparently they didn't have any idea how to handle the scrolling when two players can affect it. Saturn Bomberman does it just fine, however.

Of course the battle mode is single screen, and I'm sure that's the mode you had in mind. But I always think it's sad when people reduce Bomberman games to just the battle mode.

On that account, it seems this thread still lacks my usual recommendation of Bomber Man World, the arcade game by Irem.
IMO it's the best approach to single-player (or co-op) Bomberman, and it's a crime only the two Irem games attempted this formula. The enemy and item locations are static on each stage rather than randomized, resulting in a Bubble Bobble/Solomon's Key style action puzzle design where you need to be able to both figure out the best approach for each stage, and pull it off without screwing up.
It's probably my favorite Bomberman game, even though the controls are a bit botched.

My live 1CC

[Randorama]

DW:

Maze games will be tricky, but let's see what we can get. Maybe I can even find the motivation to 1-CC Taito's Raimais and Namco's Pac Man Arrangement, once and for all. Also, +1 for the Irem Bomberman games. I never 1-CC'ed them myself, but I remember these friends of mine who achieved the feat in co-op quite a few times and had tons of funs while playing the games. I also remember liking the Neo Geo version a lot, even if Bomber Man is one of those games/series that I will never learn to play decently