SeaFoodAndButter
New member
[Long post ahead; read only if you want to see why I'm an NESMAker financial backer, game-maker, and overall project supporter; and learn of the game I'm working on]
I'm an old school gamer. I remember begging my parents for two straight years back in the mid-80s for an NES. I remember when the first person on my block got an NES in '86 and beat Super Mario Bros. for the first time. When we all saw Bowser get OWNED for the first time, Princess saved, the whole neighborhood went crazy. The same person, for their next feat, well, SHE, yes SHE, beat The Legend of Zelda. This was a true feat of monumental proportions back then, and there was much the same hysteria floating around the "culvasack", as we called it, every time Cindi beat a game. Finally, a kid down the street from me - Kevin - yeah, he beat Mike Tyson! Kevin reached legendary status back then and gave us guys the title back; girls shouldn't have it anyway. The NES is for guys! (Sacacism ppl.)
I can still remember Kevin showing me how to do it, how to beat Tyson. He dodged left, 2 high lefts; dodged right, another two blows; didn't get faked out by Mikes stutter step, and kept it moving til 1:30 seconds. He kept sticking and moving, and finally got a star, hit the START button and I saw Tyson go down! Well, he went down in the NES game anyways. Maybe it was a prophecy of Buster Douglas later on, but anyways, I was stunned and completely shocked! I had never seen anyone beat up Mike Tyson! Let alone in round 2! The best I ever saw up to that point was my friend Jimmy make it 1 min. and hit Tyson like 8 times, that was it! But I did witness a skinny white kid named Kevin from Gig Harbor, about 45 mins or so from Seattle, kick Mike's butt back in like '89! Damn! So many NES memories. We're talking like 30 years ago and I still remember this stuff like it was yesterday! Nintendo Power indeed.
Well, back to it: I kept the heat up on my parents for the NES, I had to wait and wait from '85 to '88. While my friends were playing Excitebike, Bubble Bobble, Kid Icarus, Zelda I-II, and Mike Tyson's Punch out, I was still playing ET, Flight Simulator, and Oregon Trail on stuff like my dad's old Atari 2600, my next door neighbors Commodore 64, or the Macintosh Plus or Se in my school's library!
But, 1988 finally came around and with it my dreams came true! My parents finally caved and bought me an NES for $188.00 USD. A hefty sum back then indeed. Then, they bought me my first three stand alone games that year for $45 a pop: Excitebike, Double Dribble, and Bad Dudes! Next, my parents caved again and got me my first subscription to Nintendo Power. My selling point to them was: It comes with a free game! Dragon Warrior! How can we pass that up?! Looking back, my parents dropped at least $350 on my gaming dreams in mid '88- early '89. Do the math on inflation, that was a hefty score for an 8 year old! Either they loved me dearly, or they were trying to shut me the hell up! Either way, I got the job done!
Once I got my NES in '88, I started trading my baseball, football, and basketball cards for NES games. (Card collecting was BIG back then too.) "Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, and Michael Irvin? I got those. I got some Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg too!" (I always thought it was Ryan, but whatever lol.) Once, I even scored a 1983 Fleer Tony Gwynn rookie card that netted me Styder, Karnov, Contra, and Zelda 1. (The only card I still regret trading to this day was my coveted 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie card. But hey, it netted me an entire SNES system back in late '92, but I still kept collecting NES cause I loved it.) After I realized I could get NES games off the other kids, I started trading for titles like Castlevania, Bayou Billy, and Gun Smoke; I just kept going. Before you knew it, I was in 5th-6th grade with like 60-70 NES games (depending on the current trades and barrows lol), and I got them all because I "wheeled-n-dealed" with kids in my neighborhood and at school. Started with like 4-5 in '88; had like ~65 by early '90. Why?
You see, if you grew up with the NES, you know what I'm saying, you understand the lure (not lore, but lure). You too grew up when gaming was organic and interactive - gaming finally became a truly social/family/friend experience with the NES. Playing the NES with others around us was akin to waiting in line with our family members and friends to go on the next roller coaster ride at 6 Flags or Hershey Park (references to another sign of my age I guess). You keep talking about it while you wait to ride the coaster; just like we would talk about it until we could play the newest and best NES game! Much like a theme park is hyped up with exciting rides and expectations from commercials and word of mouth, people used to line up in their living rooms and patiently wait their turns to be next to play the NES so that they could try to get farther than the previous 'loser' who died did, or beat that boss nobody could defeat. If you could beat Bowser, Ganon, Dr. Wiley, Tyson, or any host of end bosses, well then my friend, female or male, you had a seat and a name in an NES 'champion's chair' and nobody could say different. Who could say anything bad about you? Your social status was set in stone! Back then, we didn't have the internet. Similar to the arcades of the 70s and early 80s, we had to gather together. But unlike the arcades, we gathered together in our houses and formed bonds and memories!
Back in those days, gamers were not at all worried about how fast they could beat a game or if we could finish having never been damaged by an enemy. We were just trying to win the game dammit; what did these programmers try to do to get me?! We were enjoying it all the way through (mostly). We didn't care whether we knew glitches or cheat codes. We just wanted to experience the ride. Just like a roller coaster. Who wants to see how "fast" they can make it through a scary roller coaster ride? Isn't it about the entire trip? Emotions up and down? Not some mathematical calculation mixed with rigid mechanical timing. What kind of damn gaming is that! Imagine watching a movie on fast forward just to see how quick you could watch it. Well sure, I could click on the remote to take me from the first scene to the last scene; one click. Where is the art and creativity in that? That's the stupidity we would have seen in things like "speed running". But I digress.
The NES, IMO, took gaming to it's cultural zenith, and dare I say, gaming's heyday. The NES released or "unleashed" in North America was an animal the likes of that which will never be seen again; not talking hardware, but talking pound for pound PUNCH upon the world. Most people will call me old and chalk my long ranting post up to nostalgia, but I am telling you younger gamers, there was like some sort of magic Nintendo put on the NES and it was insane. Or maybe, they just invented something the likes that no xbox, PS, or Steam account will ever "emulate." No matter what they do.
Today, I think Steam is probably the best gaming "system" ever created; it has to be. Log in, by a game, download it, plug in your XBOX 360 controller (the best controller ever made) and you can play 1440p @165 fps of 4k @ 60 fps and there's no comparison.
However, the NES, imo, is the GREATEST console ever created, not because of overall tech. specs, but because of impact and uniqueness. Like Jesse Owens is the greatest Olympic track and field star in history (Carl Lewis is right behind him), but Usain Bolt, is the biggest fastest, strongest track runner ever. But he's not Jesse Owens or Carl Lewis, he's just not.
The NES will always have a special place in my heart. And that is why I, a 39 year old grown man with a career, wife and family, am here today and want to be a part of this new NESMaker Community.
My dream too is to make an NES game. If I can make the dreams of that kid who begged his parents for two years straight for an NES, traded way all his sports cards away for any NES game he could get his hands on; trading away even his beloved 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie (and I didn't even mention that I also traded away my cassette tapes like LL Cool J " Radio", Beastie Boys "Licensed to Ill", and Run DMC "Run DMC" album), than I'm going for it!
PS So, I can write a little bit and have a full game " narrative" script ready, much art, and a bunch of Famicom music, but I am begging people in this community to help me with 6502 coding script. I have zero knowledge of it. I've been trying to learn it, but there are things I just can't figure out!
I'm an old school gamer. I remember begging my parents for two straight years back in the mid-80s for an NES. I remember when the first person on my block got an NES in '86 and beat Super Mario Bros. for the first time. When we all saw Bowser get OWNED for the first time, Princess saved, the whole neighborhood went crazy. The same person, for their next feat, well, SHE, yes SHE, beat The Legend of Zelda. This was a true feat of monumental proportions back then, and there was much the same hysteria floating around the "culvasack", as we called it, every time Cindi beat a game. Finally, a kid down the street from me - Kevin - yeah, he beat Mike Tyson! Kevin reached legendary status back then and gave us guys the title back; girls shouldn't have it anyway. The NES is for guys! (Sacacism ppl.)
I can still remember Kevin showing me how to do it, how to beat Tyson. He dodged left, 2 high lefts; dodged right, another two blows; didn't get faked out by Mikes stutter step, and kept it moving til 1:30 seconds. He kept sticking and moving, and finally got a star, hit the START button and I saw Tyson go down! Well, he went down in the NES game anyways. Maybe it was a prophecy of Buster Douglas later on, but anyways, I was stunned and completely shocked! I had never seen anyone beat up Mike Tyson! Let alone in round 2! The best I ever saw up to that point was my friend Jimmy make it 1 min. and hit Tyson like 8 times, that was it! But I did witness a skinny white kid named Kevin from Gig Harbor, about 45 mins or so from Seattle, kick Mike's butt back in like '89! Damn! So many NES memories. We're talking like 30 years ago and I still remember this stuff like it was yesterday! Nintendo Power indeed.
Well, back to it: I kept the heat up on my parents for the NES, I had to wait and wait from '85 to '88. While my friends were playing Excitebike, Bubble Bobble, Kid Icarus, Zelda I-II, and Mike Tyson's Punch out, I was still playing ET, Flight Simulator, and Oregon Trail on stuff like my dad's old Atari 2600, my next door neighbors Commodore 64, or the Macintosh Plus or Se in my school's library!
But, 1988 finally came around and with it my dreams came true! My parents finally caved and bought me an NES for $188.00 USD. A hefty sum back then indeed. Then, they bought me my first three stand alone games that year for $45 a pop: Excitebike, Double Dribble, and Bad Dudes! Next, my parents caved again and got me my first subscription to Nintendo Power. My selling point to them was: It comes with a free game! Dragon Warrior! How can we pass that up?! Looking back, my parents dropped at least $350 on my gaming dreams in mid '88- early '89. Do the math on inflation, that was a hefty score for an 8 year old! Either they loved me dearly, or they were trying to shut me the hell up! Either way, I got the job done!
Once I got my NES in '88, I started trading my baseball, football, and basketball cards for NES games. (Card collecting was BIG back then too.) "Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, and Michael Irvin? I got those. I got some Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg too!" (I always thought it was Ryan, but whatever lol.) Once, I even scored a 1983 Fleer Tony Gwynn rookie card that netted me Styder, Karnov, Contra, and Zelda 1. (The only card I still regret trading to this day was my coveted 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie card. But hey, it netted me an entire SNES system back in late '92, but I still kept collecting NES cause I loved it.) After I realized I could get NES games off the other kids, I started trading for titles like Castlevania, Bayou Billy, and Gun Smoke; I just kept going. Before you knew it, I was in 5th-6th grade with like 60-70 NES games (depending on the current trades and barrows lol), and I got them all because I "wheeled-n-dealed" with kids in my neighborhood and at school. Started with like 4-5 in '88; had like ~65 by early '90. Why?
You see, if you grew up with the NES, you know what I'm saying, you understand the lure (not lore, but lure). You too grew up when gaming was organic and interactive - gaming finally became a truly social/family/friend experience with the NES. Playing the NES with others around us was akin to waiting in line with our family members and friends to go on the next roller coaster ride at 6 Flags or Hershey Park (references to another sign of my age I guess). You keep talking about it while you wait to ride the coaster; just like we would talk about it until we could play the newest and best NES game! Much like a theme park is hyped up with exciting rides and expectations from commercials and word of mouth, people used to line up in their living rooms and patiently wait their turns to be next to play the NES so that they could try to get farther than the previous 'loser' who died did, or beat that boss nobody could defeat. If you could beat Bowser, Ganon, Dr. Wiley, Tyson, or any host of end bosses, well then my friend, female or male, you had a seat and a name in an NES 'champion's chair' and nobody could say different. Who could say anything bad about you? Your social status was set in stone! Back then, we didn't have the internet. Similar to the arcades of the 70s and early 80s, we had to gather together. But unlike the arcades, we gathered together in our houses and formed bonds and memories!
Back in those days, gamers were not at all worried about how fast they could beat a game or if we could finish having never been damaged by an enemy. We were just trying to win the game dammit; what did these programmers try to do to get me?! We were enjoying it all the way through (mostly). We didn't care whether we knew glitches or cheat codes. We just wanted to experience the ride. Just like a roller coaster. Who wants to see how "fast" they can make it through a scary roller coaster ride? Isn't it about the entire trip? Emotions up and down? Not some mathematical calculation mixed with rigid mechanical timing. What kind of damn gaming is that! Imagine watching a movie on fast forward just to see how quick you could watch it. Well sure, I could click on the remote to take me from the first scene to the last scene; one click. Where is the art and creativity in that? That's the stupidity we would have seen in things like "speed running". But I digress.
The NES, IMO, took gaming to it's cultural zenith, and dare I say, gaming's heyday. The NES released or "unleashed" in North America was an animal the likes of that which will never be seen again; not talking hardware, but talking pound for pound PUNCH upon the world. Most people will call me old and chalk my long ranting post up to nostalgia, but I am telling you younger gamers, there was like some sort of magic Nintendo put on the NES and it was insane. Or maybe, they just invented something the likes that no xbox, PS, or Steam account will ever "emulate." No matter what they do.
Today, I think Steam is probably the best gaming "system" ever created; it has to be. Log in, by a game, download it, plug in your XBOX 360 controller (the best controller ever made) and you can play 1440p @165 fps of 4k @ 60 fps and there's no comparison.
However, the NES, imo, is the GREATEST console ever created, not because of overall tech. specs, but because of impact and uniqueness. Like Jesse Owens is the greatest Olympic track and field star in history (Carl Lewis is right behind him), but Usain Bolt, is the biggest fastest, strongest track runner ever. But he's not Jesse Owens or Carl Lewis, he's just not.
The NES will always have a special place in my heart. And that is why I, a 39 year old grown man with a career, wife and family, am here today and want to be a part of this new NESMaker Community.
My dream too is to make an NES game. If I can make the dreams of that kid who begged his parents for two years straight for an NES, traded way all his sports cards away for any NES game he could get his hands on; trading away even his beloved 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie (and I didn't even mention that I also traded away my cassette tapes like LL Cool J " Radio", Beastie Boys "Licensed to Ill", and Run DMC "Run DMC" album), than I'm going for it!
PS So, I can write a little bit and have a full game " narrative" script ready, much art, and a bunch of Famicom music, but I am begging people in this community to help me with 6502 coding script. I have zero knowledge of it. I've been trying to learn it, but there are things I just can't figure out!
