Curious on the last two categories you mentioned here.
For Unlicensed Game, are you talking about something like a fan game or something that wasn’t supposed to be on the system? For example, for the former, something like the recent TMNT game someone made where it has every character from the series in there but clearly wasn’t licensed by Nickelodeon or the series creators. For the latter, thinking of games like the Tengen NES titles or something similar.
As for the Regionally Different Games, how minute do you want to go? For example, Metroid on NES has different music compared to the Famicom Disk System version or TMNT on SNES in the US was Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in Europe. Would those be good enough for what you’re thinking?
For the record, I’m liking these suggestions from everyone. I’m terrible at suggesting things myself so I appreciate everyone else pitching in
For Unlicensed Game, are you talking about something like a fan game or something that wasn’t supposed to be on the system?
This is how I break it down: (thoughts welcome. Keep in mind I am talking about older games.) Unlicensed/Independent: Today its any indie game that is self published (or any fan game you might pick up at a place like Comiket) But with older games they were never officially published for various reasons. I think its an interchangeable concept really with both old games and new ones.
For the latter, thinking of games like the Tengen NES titles or something similar.
Yes! Tengen was an unlicensed publisher. The most notable example is prob Tetris, which Nintendo developed their own, While Tengen Published a version developed by the dreaded arch-enemy of Nintendo Atari’s Version! There are also god knows how many versions of Tetris completely unlicensed by Nintendo made. Bootleg/Pirate: Similar. Illegal game in sense it features licensed characters or trademarks of another game or is similar to another game in which it masquerades as. Your TNMNT rescue-palooza is the typical indie game that is inspired by other sources, but its not a port or masquerading as another title, so its not a bootleg. I am not sure what the modern day equivalent would be. Maybe a leaked game of some sort that someone stole and released as their own. (Just think it could have happened with Half-Life 2!) Or if an xbox exclusive showed up on PC, it would be a Pirate port in same sense it always was. Clone/Variant Similar to above: These are just code-cloned copies of other games with small changes, usually just visual. Many games resemble other games and are called clones (doom, minecraft) but these are not operating off the same code. Hacks Similar to above. But the changes are done for personal amusement or for cheating. Games these days generally do not have integrated cheats or hacks by third parties but they used to. Prototypes Another form of unusual publishing in the sense they usually are not.
I suppose every one of these would fall under the umbrella-term of unlicensed though.
As for the Regionally Different Games, how minute do you want to go? For example, Metroid on NES has different music compared to the Famicom Disk System version or TMNT on SNES in the US was Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in Europe. Would those be good enough for what you’re thinking?
Leave it up to the user to decide what they want to slate for Regionally different! Part of the fun is looking for something. For me, I would likely pick something never released in the US. Or i’d pick something I came across that I see has a very very weird or politically incorrect regional difference of some kind. The Metroid example sounds like a good one for the metroid fan btw. (also nice its on an obscure platform)
Thanks for the explanation. I like where you’re going with this so now I’m certainly in favor of throwing these into the mix.
Also, for those wondering, if you have a Switch you can actually access the Japanese eShop by making an account aimed for that region. You can grab the SNES and NES programs from their eShop and completely play it on a US account provided you have Nintendo Online access. The NES in particular carries the Famicom Disk System versions for some of these titles so if you could stand loading times, hearing The Legend of Zelda or Metroid with richer soundtracks is worth it.
I’m going to make little changes to old categories and add new. I think about extra “Tier system” - Sort groups into easy - medium - hard - hardcore.
In tier challenges you need to beat a few easy groups to move to medium etc.
I’m definitely will post the list this weekend
How do you think we should advertise this on the main site? I can pin your final category list and explanation here on the forums when you get to it, but I want to point some people to it on the main site because I think it’s a cool idea that more people might like to do.
I didn’t use the forums much prior so I completely missed the 2019 challenge - I think a mention on the main site would be quite helpful!
In terms of the challenge, if we started the games in 2019 but finished in 2020 - do they count? I have already finished 3 games this year haha, going for the no life :’)
It’s up to you and your “sense of completion”.
It’s no race against other people but a mission to conquer your pile of shame and to discover games you normally wouldn’t think about. Trying new things is really refreshing
OK, I’ve made an attempt to make our challenge more interesting
I’m waiting for opinions.
English is not my first language, so feel free to tell me about mistakes!
This is awesome! It expands so much - I cannot wait for the games I find!
One item though - I think the intermediate / expert should be reversed, in terms of difficulty those within the intermediate section will be far more difficult/niche to find.
For me “intermediate” is definitely easier than last group - it gives you more space to interpret titles and it’s based on the visible game aspects. You can find those games by casualy searching through Steam or game magazines. The “Quest” must be important part of a game but it doesn’t have to be it’s 100% theme. For example “Lava” can be a game with single but meaningful fire level or a volcano. You can play “Endless Legend” with “Inferno” expansion that gives you a tribe living on volcanic terrain or “Puddle” - puzzle game with various liquids, like lava, weedkiller or coffee It’s up to you how much strict you want to be.
Man, there’s no way I’ll be able to complete even the Classic Casual category with my game habits.
I like it
As for bugs/corrections/suggestions:
-TIER 2 - GROUP 1 - The title for this may be better if it was titled “MY GAME IS GOOD FOR MY HEALTH”
-TIER 2 - GROUP 5 - Entry 8 may be better if it was titled “…the plot makes no sense”
-TIER 3 - GROUP 4 - Entry 3 would read better if the word “have” was replaced with “has”
-TIER 3 - GROUP 4 - Entry 8’s final word should be spelled “motif”
-TIER 3 - GROUP 6 - More of a question but do you want entry 4 restricted to just the Commodore 64 or would it be better served as an entry for all pre-Windows games instead?
you could just do a site popup or notice.
thank you @summer.azure i will be looking and probably incorporate yours into the one i drafted. this looks fun your literary analysis type framing remind me of an english teacher i had
