FAQs/Guides wot you wrote? Confess here, my son.

[BIL]

Dear shmupsforum,

Sitting here smoking my pipe and enjoying a crisp golden ale on this summer's afternoon, I reflect back to a time long ago, when I was fresh out of high school and had two months to kill. The future lay before me. The sun shone bright, and my cock was big. The naive young man I was registered an unfortunately phallic GameFAQs username intended as a Metal Slug tribute, and wrote a Little Nemo (NES) walkthrough before moving on to harder times. Now I am but a hobbled old man, and I wonder if anyone else ever engaged in such fond pursuits? Or perhaps, even still does?

Yours faithfully, BILRZR_0471

(aside from STs and the like for this forum, that is)

Sometimes I feel like writing a few more guides for the commonly slated "OMG impossible" stuff like NES Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania, though I know it'd be like weeing against a tsunami of nostalgia-driven pitywanking as popularised by AVGN et al. For old times' sake!

[Moniker]

Worked on a Breath of Fire 3 (PSX) walkthrough with a buddy for a startup gaming website on angelfire. This was oh, maybe 7th grade. Didn't get all that far, sadly. My moniker then was Prophet24601 (I still cringe when I recall that).

[Fudoh]

Mario World, Mario Collection (SMB1,2,3,USA), Goemon (Mystical Ninja), Final Fantasy IV (II), Axelay and quite a few others. All published in the early 90s in german video game magazines.

[BIL]

Mario World, Mario Collection (SMB1,2,3,USA), Goemon (Mystical Ninja), Final Fantasy IV (II), Axelay and quite a few others. All published in the early 90s in german video game magazines.

Nice! Just got into the first SFC Goemon myself, incidentally.

[Randorama]

The Doki Doki Idol Star Seeker's guide on the first issues of Gamer's quarter.

How about that?

[Edmond Dantes]

I once almost wrote a FAQ for the NES version of Might and Magic: Secret of the Inner Sanctum

More recently I tried to create a strategy guide (with hand-drawn maps and everything) for King's Field. But then my tablet broke.

[Necronopticous]

I got about half way through a guide to playing a "Perfect Game" of Final Fantasy VI Advance. Gave up after new discoveries in the game rendered a large portion of my work incorrect.

[BIL]

The Doki Doki Idol Star Seeker's guide on the first issues of Gamer's quarter.

How about that?

Although I've not read that one, your I Shoot, Therefore I AM Contra article in TGQ #5 was and is inspirational! I might have concluded nobody else loved this stuff anymore and never found this place without it. I'm trying to remember... did you contribute articles on Konami and Rayforce to them, as well? I recall reading both and loving the references to "On Standby" and "The Beginning Of Our History." I think they may have been reposted at Insomnia but it's no longer freely accessible to check.

[Randorama]

I did. Now the question is where on Earth those materials are, on my hard-disk *hint hint nudge nudge*

[Edmond Dantes]

I'd like to read that Contra article. If BIL was inspired by it, it has to be worth reading.

[BIL]

Thanks, just another fan honestly

Here's a a direct PDF download (I don't think the issue is in print any more, would love hard copies of these)

Also a good Silent Hill 3 article in there, another series quite dear to me. Was nice seeing them coexist in the same publication. This was right around the time SH had fallen out of mainstream favour too.

edit: haha, just realised the thread title could be interpreted as "what did you write," not along the lines of Ernie Wise's ol' "Here are some plays wot I wrote" joke.

[xris]

I've written them for myself a couple times, but nothing that's been shared on the web. Mostly just notes for tricky parts of games. The most complete one I've ever done was a guide for speed running the first Fatal Frame on the hardest difficulty with no deaths or saves. Really helped, and was damn well needed, there wasn't much info available at the time. Eventually got it down to an hour and fourteen minutes and an S ranking. Fun as hell, but it took months.
I really appreciate the effort that people put into guides and walkthroughs theses days.

[drauch]

I (think, but probably didn't) started a faq on the NES game Ghoul School, my favorite for the system, but who knows where the hell that ever went. The only one I've ever seen is quite poor, and inaccurate. I'm also pretty sure maybe five people actually like the game, so there's that, too.

[Ed Oscuro]

http://edoscuro.home.comcast.net/~edoscuro/

[BIL]

Never knew you had a personal site Ed. I still hope to make "Colonel William 'BIG WILLY' Rizer's Good-Time Review Shack" a reality, someday... if only to give my sig icons a place of employment!

Akumajo Dracula screenshot: hint on killing Frankenstein

1337 - never thought of that. I mainly studied that rat-bastard Stained Glass Knight in stage 4, and now I've forgotten my no-hit method for him.

[Ed Oscuro]

lol I just realized the yellow-orange-on-green text is invisible @_@

Ah, the good old days when we thought X68000 had a square aspect ratio display

To be fair to myself, that's the way the emulator displayed it back then.

[Herr Schatten]

When I was a kid, I drew a map of the last level of Wonderboy in Monsterland (SMS) that got published in a magazine, but I forgot which magazine that was.

I also once wrote a very basic Walkthrough for Castlevania Bloodlines, but it doesn't seem to be online anymore. It contained a "Drac's last form for idiots" strategy I've never seen in any other FAQ (kneel down at the edge of the screen and spam axes - Drac will never get back on screen before going down).

My old FAQ for Sonic Wings Special is still online, though.

[cj iwakura]

I have a FAQ for Catherine and Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls at GameFAQs. Mine's still the only Catherine FAQ, for some crazy reason.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/605302-catherine/faqs

[Edmond Dantes]

Also a good Silent Hill 3 article in there, another series quite dear to me. Was nice seeing them coexist in the same publication. This was right around the time SH had fallen out of mainstream favour too.

Wait... in Defense of Silent Hill THREE?

I thought it was Fourth game that everyone hated?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Of the first three games, SH3 got a ton of flak for having a weaker plot than SH1 or SH2, for getting away from the general focus on the town of Silent Hill itself that the first two games really helped flesh out and develop, for having less interesting characters, etc. It also lacks the Extra riddle difficulty found in the second game, so you don't have any more puzzles than what the standard three difficulties offer.

SH3 isn't a bad game, but its plot doesn't have the same oomph as the first two. The game mechanics however are a vast improvement and it's clear this is where a lot of the focus was: the unlockable life/stamina bar, the quickuse R3 button, improvements to melee combat that no longer uses the PS2's pressure sensitivity buttons like SH2 melee does to determine whether to swing or thrust, blocking being much less obtuse to figure out (you can actually block melee in SH2, it's just not well explained in the manual, you have to tap square while standing still just before an attack hits, if you did it James will actually do a blocking animation, hold square for too long and he steps back into a pose that doesn't actually do anything, SH3 is much more obvious with how blocking works), and so on. It also features a ton more unlockable 'fun' content in the form of weapons, costumes, and the extremely enjoyable extra battle difficulties. SH3 has the best gameplay of the first three and the best replay in the form of the added difficulty modes... it's just not as good in terms of plot.

[cj iwakura]

SH3 is my favorite of the series. I love how it brings SH1 full circle, and I like Heather as a character a lot more than James.

A lot more fun to play too. It doesn't take itself too seriously. (See: magical girl outfit)

[Edmond Dantes]

I honestly consider SH2 kind of overrated (although by no means terrible). On a technical level its better than the first game, but I prefer the first game for storyline reasons... I never really jibed with the whole "town is basically torturing a guy for his past sins" thing.

[Vexorg]

I did make a few contributions to the rulesheet/FAQ for the Revenge From Mars pinball 2000 table, but that's about it.

[BIL]

I thought it was Fourth game that everyone hated?

SH4 actually always had its devoted fans in the Western SH community. I've grown to love it over the years, but the game design - escort difficulties, over-reliance on combat, merciless inventory system, constant back-and-forth between 302 and outside - does merit criticism. Fans who wrote it off wholesale for being "not like SH" were always dead wrong, however. A surreal horror adventure through a realm of psychological trauma? Yeah WTF, that's not like SH at all!

SH3 and SH4 are a step down chiefly for recycling past material more than contributing their own, understandable with the progressively dwindling dev time Konami allocated the series. They're certainly still extremely good horror games and worthwhile sequels. I like to replay the four KCET titles in release order every couple of winters, when the nights are nice and long.

I honestly consider SH2 kind of overrated (although by no means terrible). On a technical level its better than the first game, but I prefer the first game for storyline reasons... I never really jibed with the whole "town is basically torturing a guy for his past sins" thing.

I think SH1 and SH2's stories are perfect complements. It's the same concept of "a world of someone's nightmarish delusions come to life" Harry identified in SH1, experienced from the third and first-person respectively. Naturally SH1 is detached and terrifying, and SH2 less so but more personal. The contrast makes them two of my favourite games to play back to back.

Since the writers avoided over-exposition, the series is nicely interpretable as about human experience rather than the machinations of Count Chocula. I don't believe the town is torturing anyone, or even sentient. It's just an echo chamber these damaged minds have been drawn into, with a long guest list and centuries of strife preceding them. James certainly isn't shown to be driven or bound by anything other than his own obsessions, nor are Angela, Eddie or Laura. I don't think "God" or other divine figures from the four games' backstory are anything more than manifested dogma, either. Congratulations on finally appearing before our eyes, God! But watch out, that guy has a gun!

[CMoon]

Strider 1, 2 and Battle Circuit faqs. Nothing I'm terribly proud of.