Tildes' Colossal Game Adventure: Inauguration and nominations
Introducing: Colossal Game Adventure
Colossal Game Adventure is Tildes' brand new retro video game club.
Each month we will play a different retro game/games, discuss our thoughts, and bask in the glorious digital experiences of yesteryear!
Colossal Game Adventure is a reference to Colossal Cave Adventure. It's one of the most influential games of all time, one of the first text-based interactive games, and one of the first games to be shared online.
What do we want to do with this group? Play influential games; interact with each other through text; and share the love for retro games online!
It also abbreviates to CGA (because we love chunky pixel art), and its name communicates the Colossal amount of fun and excitement that we have with retro video Games in our shared Adventure of playing them together.
Nominations
In this topic we will be gathering nominations for games to be played.
If you're looking for ideas:
- This Wikipedia list of "games considered the best" is a great place to start.
- RacketBoy has "hidden gem" lists for many retro systems.
Importantly, not all games for CGA have to be "significant" games. Zany, offbeat, and experimental games are welcome too. Anything you think might make for good discussions.
We will also have some "Arcade Special" months where we play several smaller/shorter games together in one batch (e.g. Pac-Man, Frogger, and Galaga). If you're not sure how big/long a game is, HowLongToBeat can help.
Single Game Nomination Rules
- Choose any game you feel is "retro" -- there is no hard and fast rule on what does or doesn't count
- Maximum of TWO game nominations per person
- Link to the game(s) on MobyGames
"Arcade Special" Nomination Rules
An "Arcade Special" is a batch of games that you feel could be played together in the same month.
(They do not have to be proper arcade games and can be from any system or genre.)
You might choose them because they're shorter or don't have as much staying power. You also might choose them based on a theme, series, or franchise. You also might do a completely random grab bag! There's no wrong way to make an Arcade Special (except for choosing games that are too big to fit in a month together).
- 2-5 games per Arcade Special
- Maximum of ONE Arcade Special nomination per person
- Link to the games on MobyGames
So, one person can nominate up to TWO single games and ONE arcade special (of up to five games).
Optional Extras
None of the following are required, but they make things more interesting:
- Explain why you're interested in nominating the games
- Explain why you think they'd be a good choice for the group
- If the game has multiple releases or multiple platforms, you can choose to specify which release/platform to target if you feel it's important. (Note: participants are still free to play whichever version they want.)
- For Arcade Specials: list why you think the games would be a good candidate to be played together.
- For Arcade Specials: give the batch its own cool name!
Next Steps
Nominations will be open for 48 hours from the time of this posting.
The voting topic will open on August 29.
Once the voting is over, we will post the schedule for the next six months and start our first official month on September 1st.
Notifications
If you want to be added to the notification list for our Colossal Game Adventure, simply comment in this topic. I will add all commenters here to the list unless they explicitly mention otherwise.
This is a one-time notification for anyone who participated in the last two topics about a retro game club.
To join the new list for Colossal Gaming Adventure moving forward, do one of the following:
If you do not want to be included in the future notification list, you do not need to do anything.
Notification List
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I'm trying to think of games that are classics to me but also aren't too crazy.
Adventure for the Atari 2600. We won't have trouble getting it running and it won't take us long to experience it.
Star Tropics on the NES. There is one major gameplay section that would require a spoiler unless you've got the original complete in box but we can work around it.
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle in my heart I want to go all the way back to Miracle World but Castle is more memorable to me. It's weird, it involves rock paper scissors, I still have my original cart.
Landstalker the spiritual successor to Alundra, do we have room for a bit longer of an isometric game?
Since we're going to have a million submissions, I don't want to go to crazy or long. I've got plenty more recommendations but I'm trying to stay to shorter games (I promise I won't suggest Legend of Dragoon) and stuff small enough to comfortably add to a phone emulator if needed.
Editing to add: After clicking on the actual post, NOW I see the rules. Way to go me.
(Psst, I’m thinking you might have replied from notifications and missed the rules in the topic text. Limit 2 nominations per person, which helps limit that flooding you mentioned. 😁)
I think games with longer runtimes are fine to nominate. We’ve got a whole month, and I’m sure there’s an appetite among some here for deeper or longer games.
Plus, with the voting system, there’s not really harm in nominating something even if you’re not sure how it will go over, because it’ll only get played if people are interested in it and vote it up. So, suggest whatever you think is worthwhile and we’ll see what shakes out in the end in terms of the whole club’s interests.
I like your recommendations, but one clarification: Landstalker was the predecessor to Alundra, not successor .
Man, I was off my game yesterday.
No worries, it happens!
Which 2 of your games do you want to choose for your nominations? Or maybe some of them could be put together into an Arcade Special?
I'm gonna rework the Adventure recommendation into an Arcade special - I'll take Landstalker off and leave Startropics and Alex Kidd for this go.
New hire at work has me totally at capacity but the Arcade special idea would be "Arcade Classics (Collections)" and included the Midway Arcade Classics collection, Activision Atari Collection and so on.
A recursive Arcade Special! That's very clever.
Just to fully flesh this out before the deadline:
Arcade Classics (Collections)
Midway Arcade Treasures - One of many emulated connections of Midway games but the one I owned back in the day, I think the PSP version is technically the most complete but I'm not gonna split hairs
Activision Anthology - this one is all the vibes. Yeah, the 60+ games are great but the creative menus, the music, I dunno. I don't really find dragster fun but this game makes me want to pop it in for a few runs.
Taito Legends - there's a few different versions of this one but it's worth it for the variety.
Alundra should also be played. I loved Alundra 2 back in the days.
I'm definitely down for the Colossal Gaming Adventure
Here are my first two recommendations
Crystalis (NES)
Sid Meiers Covert Action (DOS)
I had more to recommend, but I realize we're trying to prevent an unmanageable flood of games.
The only game I can think of recommending for its historical importance is Beneath Apple Manor(Apple II) because it an ancestor of Rogue which not many people even know has an ancestor. Its even playable in browser on archive.org
All my suggestions have already been offered up, namely ZORK and Tetris, so im just trying to get on the notification list. Thanks for organizing this :)
Please add me to the list :)
Would love to be added to the list! No nominations this round but will vote!
Replying to stay on the notification list. Thank you for doing this!
Responding to join! Thank you for organizing this!
I've added you to the list. In case you haven't seen it, our first round of voting is open and closes tonight.
Replying to stay on the notification list.
My minor nitpick is contemplating if 48 hours is long enough for a round of voting. I would need to at least skim the summaries for over half of the games, and didn't have a chance to look at the thread until now.
In the future I’m planning on making the nomination and voting cycles longer. We were in a bit of a pinch this time, as I was trying to get it up and running for September.
That said. If you need more time for this round, I can extend voting, as I actually put up this topic earlier than intended, which gives me extra time on the backend.
Good enough for me. No need to extend it for me personally then! :)
I'd like to nominate The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, as it is the only 3D Zelda game I never got around to beating. I was turned off by the art style back in 2003, but I think I'm willing to stick it out now.
Honestly even the remaster is retro at this point, as it came out 12 years ago. I'd say either version would work!
Might be my favorite Zelda.
In the same vein,
all are also must-plays. However you don't want a retro game event only playing Zelda games (though you could lol)
It might be kind of fun to take on a group challenge to play through a long-lasting franchise like Zelda one game at a time in release order. Not as part of this game club, but as like a standalone/spinoff idea later on.
While I’m the one posting this topic, I also want to shout out some collaborators to show this is a group effort:
@preposterous created the initial topic which showed a lot of interest
@boxer_dogs_dance inspired our structure with her great work on the Tildes Book Club
@vili came up with the awesome name
@Akir developed the voting system we’ll be using
@CannibalisticApple came up with the “Arcade Special” concept and the idea of having multiple hosts. She’ll also be hosting the first month!
Also plenty of other people contributed ideas and enthusiasm that helped us arrive at this.
@kfwyre, Thank you for all the kind words. There was some trial and error at the start of the book group. listening to active participants was a big part of what worked for us.
My first nomination is Uplink. It’s a hacker game. It is very dated, but the gameplay is fantastic. There is a modern UI mod that polishes some rough edges, which I would recommend playing with. Also, I didn’t realize it, but it’s the first game by the studio who made prison architect.
I wasn’t sure what to nominate for my second. But in the spirit of the recently completed decompilation, I will go with Lego Island. Because of the decomp, it is now playable in a browser on isle.pizza, which is good since it was very hard to run on modern systems. It is apparently quite short, and I never actually played it myself, but I have followed the decomp effort. There is also an excellent documentary on YouTube by MattKC about the making of Lego Island.
Uplink is fantastic. The UplinkOS mod you mentioned is essential though. I probably shouldn’t mention this online but I’m in the early stages of developing my own hacking sim inspired by Uplink and its spiritual successors like Hacknet. It’s such a unique kind of game, I highly recommend it.
When you finish it, please let me know! I have never found something that scratches the itch that Uplink does. Such a great concept, and very good execution.
I will second the MattKC video series recommendation. This truly has been a work of pure love, and since I never played it, I am curious what about this game has captivated all those people to undertake such a collosal endeavour
Unlink is a game I want to like because I love the idea and the general presentation. But I always find the actual process of playing it kind of boring.
Since of a DOS obsessive, that'll probably be most of my nominations. That said, I know it can be a bit fiddly, so I'll do my best to nominate stuff that either has more modern editions or stuff available on GoG and will install and play easily.
Descent on DOS
There is also a source port. Descent is a classic FPS that was pretty ground breaking at the time with six degress of freedom. There were two more games in the series directly, but as a genre it kind of died out and aside from an Indie game here and there, there's not much else like it. I figure it would be a good choice because it's not too long and again, widely considered a DOS classic.
The Colonel's Bequest on DOS
Available on GoG, installs and plays fine. I haven't played this, but this is considered a classic amongst Adventure Game fans. I don't recall exactly why I want to play it, but as I recall, there are multiple endings and there is a time limit on things; everything you do takes a certain amount of time in game, so you may miss entire storylines on your first run through the game. For the group, I think it would be good because again, I believe it's relatively short, though it helps to have multiple playthroughs, I suppose.
Hard to choose just two nominations!! Don't have any arcade games to add, as I'm not well versed in them, so there we are.
I've been itching for a chance to play Descent for the first time.
Right?! I'm having the hardest time trying to figure out what mine should be, and I'm the one that came up with the rule! XD
In the interest of transparency: the reason behind this rule is that, with each cycle of nominations, we're not going to get rid of previous games that weren't played. They will keep their vote tally from the previous round and be re-eligible to win. As such, I wanted to limit nominations pretty sharply so that our nomination list doesn't get too long. If we added, say, 100 games each time but only play 6-10, we'd have a massively unweildy list over time.
That said, I'm also considering implementing some sort of "culling" rule for nominations that don't move over time. No sense keeping games on that the community has shown it isn't interested in.
Wow I was thinking about nominating Laura Bow 2 The Dagger of Amon Ra. It is a game I grew up with and have hardly seen mentioned anywhere despite how revered Sierras other series are. I have not played the first one yet. After playing through Night Manor in UFO 50, I’m definitely interested in trying this out.
I've heard good things about the entire series which is a big reason I picked-up The Colonel's Bequest earlier this year. Never did get around to properly playing it, but I absolutely want to give it a go sometime in the near future and might not be able to wait until it comes around on the CGA here.
Metroid (1986)
I love metroidvanias, but I've never actually played the game that spearheaded the genre. It's literally right there in the name! I figure this is a good chance to try out this classic and experience the roots of a style of game I now adore.
ActRaiser (1990)
This is a Platformer x City Builder, which is an odd and appealing combination. @J-Chiptunator played this for the Backlog Burner, and @MimicSquid also recommended it here. It's been on my "hmm, interesting" list for a long time now, but I've never actually sat down to play it.
Arcade Special: PSX Oddities
I know very little about these games (with the exception of our Meme King, Pepsiman).
I do know that Vib-Ribbon has this banger of a song because someone made a custom DDR stepfile for it back in the day that I used to love playing.
Incredible Crisis! What a wacky gem. Help four members of a Japanese family get through their day by playing a sequence of mini-games! There's romance, intrigue, aliens, and a shitload of ska!
Looking at the wiki list, I'm shocked that Oregon Trail is that old. I knew the one I grew up playing (for Windows 95, maybe?) wasn't the original, but I thought the '85 version for the Apple II was. Crazy!
Anyway, my first nomination is Sid Meier's Pirates. Specifically the '04 version, since that's a bit more modern, but still arguably retro at 21 years old. It gets a little repetitive in the mid-to-late game, but it's still one of the most fun games I've ever played.
For my second nomination, Zork. I've always wanted to play it, but have never really taken the time to do so. Thinking CGA would be a good excuse to play it and experience it :)
Well, this is interesting. My two nominations were also going to be Sid Meier's Pirates! and Zork!
However, I would very much prefer the original Commodore 64 version of Sid Meier's Pirates!. The 2004 remake has a very different, much more cartoony atmosphere that in my opinion waters down the experience. The original was made the way
godSid intended.As for Zork, I think we need to have it in the mix if we call ourselves the Colossal Game Adventure. Zork basically took the concept and setting of Colossal Cave Adventure and developed it into a more advanced and sellable game, in the process creating the behemoth that became Infocom. And I too thought that it would be a good excuse to finally play through the trilogy (which is basically the original Zork game split into three parts). I never got too far into the first one, probably because the setting interested me less than what some of the other Infocom titles offered.
I'd be down for trying the original! I certainly wouldn't miss the stupid dance mini game from the '04 version!
In general, I'm hoping to use this entire experience as an excuse to finish games I otherwise wouldn't have. The kinds of games where I'd play for half an hour, hit some wall (inconvenient controls, funky graphics, story doesn't immediately grab me, etc.) lack the motivation to stick to it, and then never play it again.
How about a compromise? I grew up with Pirates! Gold which might land right in the sweet spot.
Oh wow, I had totally forgotten about the dancing mini game! Yes, I too could do without that.
@balooga mentioned Pirates Gold as a compromise. I vaguely remember that the PC version was quite buggy and clunky at least at the time of release, but I think some people consider the Sega release of Gold the definitive version of the game. Another option could be the Amiga version of the original Pirates, it has gentle graphics and the original gameplay.
All that said, perhaps the spirit of the game club is to play whatever version you want to or have access to. Or even compare different ones.
Text-based interaction in games like Zork will be interesting to dissect in the age of LLMs. See how far we've come in how computers can misinterpret what you're saying or require you rephrase many times until you get your point across! Eventually the computer can do some cool stuff with the right commands.
Along those lines classic Sierra games like King's Quest deserve some exposure. Frustrating puzzles and text inputs, and Dark Souls-esque falling off cliffs. But great storytelling and could possibly be considered an educational series if played by kids, referencing classic fairy tales and legends and requiring decent English skills (for a kid) to get through. The writing is good though and certainly has jokes written for older players too.
While I'm at it I have to mention Quest for Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness which isn't text based but is a gem for me. Can be played out-of-order skipping the previous entries in the Quest for Glory series. Don't know how well it's aged but such amazing atmosphere, fantastic art direction, and probably scary for kids at times.
In college, a group of friends of mine played Zork collaboratively one evening. Someone had a copy of it for an ancient luggable C64 they'd found somewhere. We turned off the lights and lit a few candles for mood lighting. Then one person drove the keyboard and read the screen, one person was our cartographer sketching maps on paper by the candles, and everyone else helped brainstorm the next command to enter. It was an absolute blast!
I will only vote for Zork if we have to play it in Black Ops.
Kidding, we can get eaten by a Grue in anything and it'll still be fun to see people document struggling with it.
Okay, but all of the NES games mentioned elsewhere need to be played via the original Animal Crossing ;)
Don't act like you're not okay with that.
Added challenge, you have to dig them up yourself.
Main Games
Though these franchises got their start on the earlier NES, I feel like the SNES entries are where things really kind of gelled and the series took off: there's enough machine oomf to allow for more interesting graphics and variety in the enemies and areas. And some of the rougher edges had been polished off of the game play, with more options for overcoming the obstacles.
These are also relatively short and sweet games compared to later entries in their series. (ALttP is a comfort game for me, and one that I still like to play as a palate-cleanser between others every now and then.)
Arcade Special
This is kind of a grab bag, but I remember enjoying ports of all of these as a kid. Arkanoid to me is kind of the trope codifier for the Breakout style of games and one that I played the heck out of. I still remember the sound effects of Defender. Zaxxon was by far the first isometric perspective game I ever played and was pretty neat at the time for its pseudo-3D.
And Bubble Bobble... this one is still something a guilty pleasure for me. For some reason I tend to find myself firing it up most whenever I'm procrastinating from some task.
Rummage Bin
I'm recording here all the other games that I thought of, but didn't nominate this time around. I may rummage through this to nominate some of these in the future, or perhaps they'll inspire someone else. I'll likely to edit this comment to keep adding as things occur to me.
Rummage bin...
Logo / Splash Screen!
This business has inspired me to create a little splash screen for CGA.
Disclosure: I'm not much of an artist when it comes to drawing, so I did start with generative AI as a base. But I know my graphics programming and did a lot on top of that to try to achieve the proper CGA graphics retro look. If an artist wants help CGA-ifying an image, let me know!
AAAAAAAHHHHHH THAT SPLASH SCREEN IS SO COOL!
I love it! Thanks for taking the time to make that for us, Boojum.
I've been patiently waiting a year for my Flippydrive order to ship to give me an excuse to tinker with my GameCube. With that being said I'd like to nominate two classics I've never had the chance to play on the system:
As for arcade games I'd like to nominate Sega Rally Championship because even though it's one of my favorite arcade racers, I'm admittedly pretty bad at it and would love to hear if anyone can get past the Mountain stage.
Another Saturn recommendation! I love that. Sega Rally was the game that convinced me I had to get a Saturn. Those graphics, in 1995, were unbelievable. I had never seen anything like it.
I used to be pretty good at it (y’know, back in 1995). Haven’t played in decades but once upon a time I could beat the whole thing regularly. Probably not now though.
If you're feeling nostalgic for that style of graphics there's an excellent game on steam called Parking Garage Rally Circuit that does a really good job of recreating this classic!
Saw this and I'm pumped to buy it. Have you played it yet?
Yes, I managed to get the gold trophy for each stage for all 3 vehicle classes. It plays really well on the Steam Deck too. Being able to do a quick restart without having to go into the menu is a nice feature to have as you can easily mess up a drift or go flying off stage. The drift mechanic is also sort of like Mario Kart where you get a boost the longer you drift, but it stacks so if you do another drift and keep boosting you kind of start to go insanely fast (which leads to flying off stage).
Awesome, I'm looking forward to this. I wonder if it'll work with my racing wheel.
Do you know how Saturn emulation is these days?
I remember it was rough going for a while (well behind PSX and N64), but my pulse on that is probably a decade out of date at this point because
I'm now at the age where "10 years ago" feels like 2I haven't kept up with it.It's great. If you want the skinny on it all, the emulator Beetle Saturn does a great job. Yaubase also does a fantastic job.
It's harder to emulate than PSX but there are plenty of handheld devices and many PC setups that can
I’ve dabbled with it a bit but not extensively in the past few years. The 2.5D platformer Bug! (a favorite of mine as a kid) seemed fully playable, it looked and ran great in OpenEmu on my MacBook Pro. I don’t recall testing any other games besides that one. Been meaning to poke around some more with others!
The Sega Rally soundtrack has been in my playlist for ages but I've never played the game. Hoping to rock the arcade version when my cabinet is built.
I'm jealous! I had the opportunity to play it on an original cabinet in a small arcade in Japan earlier this year and it was an amazing experience. The soundtrack is indeed a banger and I will always love the "game over yeah!!!" at the end.
"Feel the heartbeat of the land!"
Heads up, you're gonna love the flippy. You got a memcard pro to go with it?
Not yet, but I'm thinking about it. I've got the Dreamcast equivalent of that on preorder so thinking I may see how that one fairs first.
I've also been looking for a reason to play Metroid Prime forever. Would you recommend the Switch version over the GameCube one?
Remastered is very pretty and runs well, but just be aware that the twin stick controls trivialize some of the difficulty that was originally baked in with the GameCube controller and early 00s FPS design ideas.
I've heard very good things about the remastered edition for the Switch so you can't go wrong there! It's also very faithful to the original from what I read online with the option to play with the original controls or a more modern style. For me personally, it's more of an excuse to play on the GameCube more 😅
cc: @kingofsnake
There’s also PrimeHack which is a modified Dolphin emulator that lets you play Metroid Prime with M/KB controls. It works great!
Wow, that'd be ideal!
I found the original controls on the remaster to be a step down since the control scheme is built for a notched joystick that the Switch doesn't have, so not being perfectly centered causes you to turn and drift out of alignment. Walking a straight line was surprisingly difficult!
I've got two suggestions, and apologies that I'm bringing "retro" from the 2000s if that's heretical:
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, 2003 - A single-player Metroidvania for the Game Boy Advance. You are Soma Cruz, a teenage boy with impeccable 2035 fashion sense. A prophecy foretells that Dracula will be reincarnated, and Soma finds himself transported to the castle with a mysterious power to absorb the abilities of monsters' souls...
The genre tends to stand on the shoulders of previous entries, and it's interesting seeing the games smooth themselves out over the years. But despite being within a decade of its own primary progenitor, and quite a bit before an indie explosion took hold of the genre, I think this is still one of the most spotless and effortlessly full Metroidvania games. The map is great, the story is simple but builds off untold stories and cool direction, it pushes a very basic system to an impressive level of aesthetic unity and clarity, it's chock full of secrets... And it's meant to be played on the go, to boot! It's accessible, and the Tactical Soul gimmick is fantastic. (You'll just need a little patience regarding drop rates, as a concept. Or just ignore them. Or mod it..?)
I've been looking for an excuse to replay this, and I think it's a fantastic little game that slots well into the technology it plays on.
Ikaruga, 2001 - An arcade shoot 'em up. Good arcade pairing suggestion, and works solo or co-op!
You are a vengeful pilot who fights an imperialist nation, and to your advantage, your ship is able to switch polarity between black and white. You are immune to shots of the same color as your ship; you will blow up if you hit a shot of the same color - but you do extra damage taking the risk of shooting the opposite color.
It's a stunningly beautiful game that's married to its aesthetic, and despite being a crunchy, tough shooter like Treasure's previous games, it plays as much like a puzzle game figuring out how to bob and weave the shots and color-switching. It's hard, but the difficulty adjustment gives some leeway and you can spam continues as needed to get through. Ikaruga turned me onto the shooter genre past its gameplay entertainment value.
2010 was fifteen years ago(!!!) and is arguably approaching or at retro status now, so you’re well in the clear with early 2000s stuff (in my book, at least).
Also, quite coincidentally: I just finished Aria of Sorrow. Like, literally this weekend. It was fantastic, and I think it would be great for CGA.
It reminded me a lot of Symphony of the Night (which I loved) but I ultimately think I liked it better overall. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (which I also loved) used the same soul system as Aria so it was fun to get to play another (actually, the original) game with it.
If Aria gets picked by the group, I’ll probably dive back in to my save and go for 100% or something. I rolled credits but didn’t get the good ending, nor did I finish the map or get all the souls.
I think Tetris might be an interesting first game. Mostly because core gameplay has been consistent from the old NES and Gameboy version, all the way up to Tetris 99 BR game.
It sets the stage for a wide variety of discussions. Could be peoples first memory of the game, your relationship with it over the years, notable high scores or the many different variations on the formula. Also Tetris Forever is on steam that has a lot of good history and quite a few editions over the years to get first hand experience with.
There is also space to explore games that are strongly inspired by the idea and incorporate it into bigger ideas. Really consider its appeal beyond the original concept or single game. Someone particularly motivated could see any of the git repos out there and make their own modified rules to illustrate ideas.
And most importantly, theres no barrier for entry to anyone wanting to participate in this first event. Just get the game where it's most easy for you and have fun.
Very late edit: forgot to add I second the @hemstergeddon nomination of Zork for my other pick.
Text adventures are an artform of its own and are a completely alien way to play games for most people. It's sort of the opposite extreme to Tetris in that a lot of people could find the game unplayable and would be i interested to explore why.
I like the idea of picking an easily runnable game for the first iteration, so your suggestion of Tetris or @Weldawadyathink 's suggestion of Lego Island are great ideas.
Hi ! I'm your resident Tetris nerd (feel free to stalk me on Tildes, I haven't found the time to properly review TGM4 yet, sorry !) and I approve this nomination.
Let me also demonstrate why it's a subject that's deceptively deep:
I disagree: while it's true that the basis is the same (tetraminos, 20x10 playfield), if you look more clearly at the competitive scene you'll find out that there's in fact 3 different competitive scene: Classic, TGM and Guideline. They all have widely different design goal and gameplay.
Classic Tetris (NES Tetris most predominantly) focus on survival and mechanical execution. In particular with the development of the "rolling" technique in the early 2020s, it's really about surviving as much as possible. High level runs can last hours.
Tetris the Grand Master (TGM for short) is about extrinsinc spped, or in other words making the game as fast as possible while giving you just enough tools to overcome the adversity. A slightly anachronistic comparison would be "the Dark Souls of Tetris". There's also a grading system that brings an excellent meta-game aspect to the experience. Oh, and in those game there's a finite end to the game; the goal is to finish it as fast as possible. Most runs compete in about 13 minutes.
Guideline (every single Tetris since 2001 with the exception of the TGMs) is about intrinsic speed, or giving to the player as much too as possible and letting them play as fast as he can. This makes the game arguably too easy for single player ("casual" but I don't like this term), but this is a very good playing field for multiplayer or for modes like 40 lines. A high level bout is finish in about a minute or so.
Its great to see how deep the rabbit hole goes for what is falling blocks. Especially with the competition and TAS scene.
Personally I play it as more of a solitary experience. Meditation and design inspiration over a skill/competitive game. Had to delete my phone version because I can get a get a little obsessive with too easy access.
Think I'm drawn to the idea of organizing under pressure while also being able dig your way out of unfortunate mistakes. And also the insane number of ways people have explored and built off the formula. Can't resist sinking a few hours into every weird variation I can find. Block Out and 3D Tetris that quickly becomes spatial memory hell. Softbody Tetris being a janky mess. Tricky Towers that makes it a wizard duel with physics. Puzzle Juggle Trouble that I think of as the Tetris version of chess puzzles. Schwerkraftprojektiongerät that's a fancy way of saying 4 Tetris games at once. Drop Dutchy that makes it a city builder game of Rock Paper Sissors.
These days I mostly jump between different ROM versions. Currently on Tetris Plus for the Saturn and its a pretty charming take on the formula with plenty of little puzzles and minigames.
I love (d) Tetris effect, but never had the chops to complete it.
My favourite Tetris was the one on Phillips CDi though. That thing was so chill, will the animated sand dunes and other backgrounds.
The lack of barrier is a good point. However, would Tetris alone be worth a whole month?
To that end, maybe we can start with an Arcade Special with Tetris and other easy accessible games? Lego Island could be a good contender for that, but what else?
Edit: If we're going for the lowest possible barrier to entry... Well, DOOM can run on anything. So that could be a fun one.
I think the lack of barrier also works in terms of time and let's people engage with the project on their terms.
Over a month someone could choose to really dig in. Play several versions of the game and try to master specific parts of it. Can also allow the community to set up game nigths or casual tournaments as a way to engage with the game in ways they likely had not done before.
On the other hand, it let's people participate if they just have an hour or two for it on the last day. Theres no expectation to finish or play correctly, and the utilitarian nature of the game means it's easy to break down the components of the package. For a first event, its an easy hook to maximize participation and let's people build a framework to share what they feel about games.
Chrono Trigger is a beautiful game and imo way ahead of it's time. Not sure if it can be finished in a Month though. It's also available on iOS and Android
It's not a terribly long game actually. That being said, it's a lot to ask of people.
Grind is a special dimension of length. I'm sure there are modern tools to allow players to steamroll the game only for the story
I guess I never felt the need to grind much in CT. You can beat the game and do everything in 25-30 hours, which seems quaint compared to most modern RPGs. As I have gotten older, I have come to appreciate the intended length of most SNES RPGs. FF6 (III in the US at the time) was pretty notable for being a 40 hour game.
Of course, all that goes out the window when you get people wanting to hit level 99 with all the characters for some reason. :)
My favourite game of all time, not even one I played as a kid on the SNES as I'm in the UK and it wasn't officially released in Europe until the DS port.
I played it on an emulator when I was about 17 or 18 and immediately fell in love.
Absolutely beautiful game.
A game that I have never played but has lived in my mind rent free for many years since I first learned of its existence is Seaman. That's my nomination. Caveat is that I have no idea what the current state of PS2 or Dreamcast emulation is so I'm not sure how feasible it is to play today for someone who has neither of those systems.
That one also requires a microphone from what I recall, which adds to the complexity of running it. Between that and the fact it runs in real time with limited gameplay, maybe that one should be saved for an Arcade Special month?
Alright, my nominations:
Another World, which has anniversary editions on Steam and other consoles. I played it on my 3DS during a backlog burner, and was blown away by the cinematic nature.
Then for the second nomination... I have two I want to suggest and not sure which one to nominate, so I'll hold off in hopes someone else recommends one of them. xD
Alright, I haven't seen my other nominations pop up, so I'll add the second one now:
The Last Express is a 1997 adventure game that was recommended by the ever-incredible @kfwyre in a topic I made about dying in the tutorial stage. He gave a very lengthy overview of the game's trial and error gameplay (with some spoilers for the very beginning of gameplay), and compared it to Outer Wilds and Blue Prince in terms of how it's knowledge-gated. The game is set on a train and apparently has many fail-states and bad endings, all based on real-time, so there's a lot of room for discussion of our experiences, people trying to share tips without spoilers as we play, vent over bad endings, etc..
Everything about the game sounds super compelling, but more than that, a game that can spur such a long post full of praise feels like a sign of quality to me. Not every game can incur that level of passion. That genuine love for it, combined with the premise, was enough to convince me to grab the remake/remaster/"Gold Edition" during the Steam summer sale.
The original is available on GOG and can also probably be emulated online through the Internet Archive. I'm on mobile so I just checked to see if it has a page, didn't actually test it. Also the remake is on sale on Steam for $1.39 US until September 1. Side note, the negative reviews seem to be from people who love the original and feel like the remaster cheapens the experience somehow, so even those come from a place of love and passion for the game.
In conclusion: this game seems really unique and underrated, it's definitely retro enough to count, and I now own it and this club would be a great reason to play it. And I'd love to play it alongside others!
❤️
If this gets picked, I’m happy to give people hints if they get stuck! My game knowledge is a little dusty as I haven’t played it in a few years, but I’ve probably played through the whole thing 10+ times in my life, so it wouldn’t be hard for me to brush up on it with another replay (which I’m due for anyway!).
I first played it on the SNES and later on an emulated SNES (On a Toshiba Satellite) and I own multiple copies of that game but I just cannot get into it.
Maybe the peer pressure will help but the only thing I associate that game with is the fake AVGN bit from I Don't Know James Rolfe these days.
I’m hesitant to commit to anything as my free time these days is scarce, but I’m enjoying reading the nominations here so I’ve got to submit a couple of my own! I’m drawing from the rich library of classic Macintosh shareware games, an oft-overlooked treasure trove.
First up is Scarab of RA, a 1st person survival game set in a cursed Egyptian pyramid. Explore the maze within, avoid booby traps and wild beasts, amass priceless loot. Nowadays it would probably be called a roguelike but I don’t think the term was a thing back then. I adore the monochrome artwork and spooky Egyptian vibes. Download or play in-browser at the Internet Archive.
My second nomination is Twisted!, the magnum opus of World Builder legend Ray Dunakin. I’m not sure how to properly describe this one… it’s a point-and-click adventure game parody of The Wizard of Oz, but also so much more than that. It’s a fever dream amalgamation of ‘90s pop culture. It’s hilarious and absurd, with great puzzles and artwork. The definitive version is Twisted! Deluxe, a full-color remake using a different game engine. I couldn’t find a browser-playable version of it but the download is widely available and it runs great in SheepShaver.
I'd like to put forward Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2. Maybe contentious but I'm a 2>1 everyday of the week. It's an absolute genre defining game and a general cracker of a game!
Announcement: Nominations have now closed.
I genuinely was NOT expecting this many nominations!
In order to keep us from being absolutely flooded for the voting round, I'm going to combine some of the shorter games into their own Arcade Special batches.
If your game gets grouped up with others, know that I'm not trying to take away focus on it! It's a pragmatic decision to shorten the voting list to a more manageable size. I'm also trying my best to create each new Arcade Special thoughtfully, in hopes that the groupings will produce interesting conversations.
EDIT: Also, thank you to everyone that used MobyGames links. You're saving me a lot of time!
I recently because caretaker for my special needs uncle. He is nuts for old arcade games. Therefore I am going to nominate his favorite game, Rally-X. Others to be included because they are available for his Switch are Pac-Man, Frogger, Donkey Kong, and Galaga. These are classics among classics, and widely available on multiple platforms.
Did this use an infinity steering wheel in the arcade? Those titles are amazing - I wish that modern wheels had a 'spin endlessly' setting.
Wow, I haven't thought about Rally-X in decades. I should play that again regardless of nomination.
I nominate Flicky, the wholesome, hypnotic, and inevitably heartbreaking platformer for the Sega Genesis (and others). It's also secretly the first Sonic game.
https://www.mobygames.com/game/19653/flicky/
Could you explain why the birds, rabbits and other friends of the forest in Sonic are called Flickys? Is there a link between the games or was it just a convenient name for little forest dudes?
I don't entirely know. I always assumed the game "Flicky" was called that because you kinda "flick" the items (and to a lesser extent the chicks) as part of gameplay. Then since they reused the "flicky" birds in sonic, the name just stuck.
I'm mostly just excited to see a group getting together for this and didn't think about games beforehand, but I think I want to nominate the psx game Threads of Fate.
I played it off and on a lot as a kid and never made it terribly far before getting distracted by other games and restarting it months later (in retrospect this was probably the adhd). The quirky world and dual storyline stuck with me though. I think about it pretty frequently and this would be a great excuse for me to finally finish it and talk to other people about it.
This is one of my all-time favorites from the golden age of Squaresoft!
90% of this thread is filled with games I've always wanted to play, and the other 10% are games that I have played and loved. So this is my official "count me in" comment. 🙂
I could go for a mixture of Flash games, as I remember spending my childhood on addictinggames.com. I feel like a mixture of them could work well for an Arcade Special. A few suggestions of classic flash games that I remember
That QWOP (2008) can be considered retro makes my joints hurt. But you're definitely not wrong about flash games categorically being retro because their entire platform and development community became obsolete, and they deserve preservation with the same intensity of efforts.
Yeah, flash games I feel are starting to push the definition of retro. But they also kind of just had a small window of popularity so I felt like they would be a good inclusion. Also, as I looked into a list of popular flash games (and then cherry picked ones I am nostalgic to) I realized how much impact flash games had on mobile apps, which I feel like would be a fun thing to talk about.
Hard recommend to include Steamshovel Harry from 2009. One of the most flash games of all time.
I have not heard of that one. Although I do feel my list is very limited and would be worth including others. I noticed that my list does not have any parabolic projectile games (I know Raft Wars is one) that there always seemed to be a new reskin of with some slight mechanic variations. I feel like everyone would have a different list of must haves for different flash games of the era, so it might be worth trying to make sure we have a few of the noticeable big names, but also just a good amount of the different formulas that were common
Fighters Megamix is accessible enough for non fans of the genre to get involved and deep enough to keep at it (it's built on the Virtua Fighter 3 engine).
Overall, it's an accessible, quick to play title that I'd always give top billing as a pre-Smash Bros mascot brawler. Easy to play with Retroarch and a PC with average processing power.
Thunder Force IV has a banger soundtrack, incredible visuals for a Genesis game and a sweet cheat code that gives you 99 lives. You can breeze through it in less than an hour.
If chosen, I'd mandate that it be played with headphones 😜😜
I'd be happy to supply both titles.
Did not expect to see Fighters Megamix here! I’ve never met another person IRL who owned a Saturn. That game in particular was ahead of its time, but few have ever heard of it. I remember loving the wackier side of its huge cast of character crossovers from other franchises… you can literally play as the car from Daytona USA or the cop from Virtua Cop (who pulls out a gun and shoots the other fighter) or a giant hovering stuffed panda with no articulated limbs! Total insanity.
Happy to see that I'm not the only enthusiast! I was a weird kid who bought a PSX for FFTactics and 7 then promptly sold it for a Saturn to play... NiGHTS and Dragon Force? Lol.
It was worth it.
I nominate Lord Monarch. Any version will do, but there is a free version for 16 bit windows still on Falcom's website you can play right now, or we could do the upgraded Sega Genesis one which has a silly story added to it, with an english fan translation patch available for it. It's a very simple strategy game that has mechanics that are very unique.
Ooh.
Lode Runner was a favorite back in the day. It’s an early platformer with fun movement. I first played it on C64.
Border Zone is a collection of 3 short Infocom text adventures about espionage during the Cold War. The one that lives rent free in my head involves sneaking across the Iron Curtain while trying to avoid searchlights. It occupies a similar place in my brain as Papers, Please.
I’m good with the og Lode Runner, but figured I’d reply here as I came to nominate the mid 90s Lode Runner Online: The Mad Monk’s Revenge. Was one of my all time favorites, and some wonderful folks rewrote it from scratch to run on modern computers. I am suggesting that version, linked above.
Since Lode Runner Online is sort of like a Remaster+ (it has the original levels plus more), I'm going to collapse these into one nomination. I don't want you to think I'm erasing yours!
Once a game is selected for play, people are free to choose which version they want to play. The "Insert Cartridge" setup topics each month will have the opportunity for people to compare/recommend different versions and link to different tools that help (if they exist), like that awesome rewrite you linked.
On a personal note, LRO was one of my favorite PC games as a kid! I spent dozens of hours in it. Such a good game.
Haven't played an old school adventure game in awhile -- though I've played some newer, indie ones recently -- so I'll recommend Sam & Max: Hit the Road (1993). I don't think the puzzles are too crazy, at least compared to others I've tried. And it's chill and humorous. Though it's been a long time since the last time I played it, so curious if the humor has held up. As an aside, there are some sequels to Sam & Max, which came out over a decade later. I've tried a couple; I don't think they're as good as the OG.
I'll also add Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist (1993). It's another adventure game. And one I never actually played; I just watched my older cousin play it. But it seemed fun and entertaining! Keep in mind, I was elementary-aged at the time. Either way, I'm just looking for a reason to play it myself for once.
Appreciate the ping!
I was going to suggest Freddy Pharkas! Never did play it myself, but the song is burned into my brain all the same, I think from when my dad was playing it.
My nominations are two JRPG's.
Lufia II - Rise of the Sinistrals. A fantastic, oft-overlooked SNES JRPG that features a pretty great story, kick-ass music, and even a sort-of optional roguelike dungeon.
The Way - 6-part RPG Maker 2000 series made mostly by one guy, Luke Wacholtz. While the first one is probably the shortest of them all and maybe the slowest, the rest are great. It has a custom combat system, a secondary duelling system, multiple minigames, and some custom OST and tilesets. This game really broke the mould and was huge at the time but has been mostly forgotten amongst the Omoris, Lisa's, and To The Moons.
Lufia II is probably my favorite RPG in the SNES at this point (which is a bold statement given how many great RPGs that system had).
I totally forgot about Lufia II. I definitely rented that at Blockbuster once or twice as a kid. Didn't get very far, but I do remember being impressed. I would definitely be down to give it another try.
All my retro gaming joy comes from old 80s arcade games, so I'll start with nominating Mr. Do!
Eat all the fruits. Throw all the balls.
https://www.mobygames.com/game/9764/mr-do/
I have a cabinet in my living room and my youngest kid loves Mr. Do. One of the primary games they play on it regularly.
Ah I’d love to build a proper sounding and feeling arcade cab for 80s games. The sound system and the thrum of the arcade was a large part of the draw and the hardest bit to recreate. I’ll never get one though, just not enough room. Or tuits of the round kind, but mostly room. I’d have Bomb Jack, Sinistar, defender, dig dug, Phoenix, Astro blaster, gorf, galaga… too many to list <3
Arcade Special: Bargain Bin
Some of these might also be pretty interesting (I just discovered that this exists):
I think Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden - Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa is one of the best fan made games ever made.
What's the theme of that arcade special set? I think those games are generally longer than intended for the concept as well
It's just a variety pack where the vertical slice can be felt in a couple hours of gameplay.
I don't expect everyone to play them all to completion but one or two might appeal to different people to continue playing after doing a level or two of them all.
(maybe Populous could be swapped with Barkley since that one is more of an RPG but Populous will be more difficult to start playing because it takes longer to learn and you either like Barkley or not after a couple hours--and it is a pretty short game overall)
Just a heads' up: I'm going to separate out your Bargain Bin into individual entries.
I get your line of reasoning for combining them, but I'm thinking there are going to be a good amount of people who try to complete the game(s) for the month, and all of those together is a pretty big imposition (HowLongToBeat says it's a combined total of nearly 50 hours).
If it's spitballing suggestions, Parappa 1+2 would be a great pair for one of the months...
Burnout would also go well with Outrun 2, or another similar bite-sized early 00s arcade racer.
Nice to see it happening!
I nominate Monkey Island 1 and Duke Nukem 3D
I'd nominate a couple of commodore 64 classics, largely because I think they might be a bit under-represented here and they seem like important games.
Paradroid is part-action, part-puzzler. This game stands out to me as unique combination and went on to inspire other games such as System Shock.
Raid on Bungeling Bay was a fantastic action game, and was actually the inspiration for SimCity (you can see the SimCity vibes in it).
Announcement: Nominations will close 24 hours from the time of this comment.
Thank you to all the people who have nominated so far. I’m blown away by the response and the spread of games recommended. The voting topic is going to be fun (and tough!).
I'm not too late! I'll nominate two games for two different reasons:
Prince of Persia — the one I played is the DOS version, but I'm sure versions for other platforms are equivalent in gameplay. I'm nominating this because of all the games I beat as a child, this is the one that kept me the most hooked relative to the amount of perseverance I needed to actually get the success ending. I was not very patient with any other game!
Alley Cat — because CGA. When you mentioned CGA (blocky graphics) this is the game that came to mind first. For a game this old it holds up surprisingly well even today!
Both of these can be played in DosBox.
Here's my two picks for the Colossal Game Adventure:
Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls)
Never released outside Japan, this charming action RPG is one of Nintendo’s hidden gems. The title, a playful nod to Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, sets the tone for a short but memorable journey, about six hours long, filled with humor, quirky NPCs, and clever transformations.
You play as the carefree Prince of Sablé, who gains the ability to transform into both a frog and a snake to solve puzzles and progress. Battles happen automatically: just bump into an enemy, and a dust cloud rises as stats decide the victor. Items can shift the battle in your favor, but success mostly depends on whether you’ve prepared well.
Although it never had a Western release, fan translators have stepped up: ryanbgstl’s English patch makes the game fully playable, with an addendum patch that improves the title screen.
Fun fact: The engine developed for this game became the foundation for The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. In fact, Prince Richard (and his frog army) wander right into Link’s Awakening as cameo characters, creating a unique bridge between the two adventures. Speaking of which...
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
What began as an after-hours experiment, an attempt to put A Link to the Past onto the monochrome Game Boy, soon grew into one of the most beloved Zelda titles of all time. Set on the dreamlike Koholint Island, the story explores themes of identity, fragility, and fleeting dreams, all wrapped in classic Nintendo adventure design.
The formula will feel familiar: a blend of overworld exploration, dungeon crawling, and puzzle-solving, with a steady stream of new items to expand your capabilities. But there’s also a surreal edge: quirky cameos, shifting tone, and that looming mystery of the giant egg atop the island. To progress, Link must conquer eight dungeons, each hiding one of the instruments needed to awaken the island’s fate.
It’s both whimsical and melancholy, an adventure that balances lighthearted charm with a haunting, unforgettable conclusion. The Game Boy original also got its colorful makeover in Game Boy Color with an extra dungeon, as well as the Nintendo Switch remake, complete with toylike 3D visuals and some quality-of-life improvements.
My nomination for an Arcade Special is:
Fixated on Fixed Screen Shooters
This five game set chronicles five years of development in a single arcade game genre, the so-called fixed screen shoot'em'ups. There is one game for each year, with each game building on top of what had gone before. As all games offer scoring, we could (in a very friendly and honour-based way) not only find out who amongst us is the best in each individual game, but also discover our overall Tildes Fixed Screen Hot-Shot™.
As I was thinking about an arcade special for early games, I was trying to decide between these, scrolling shooters and vector based titles. Ultimately, this genre won, mainly because I thought Space Invaders needed to be nominated.
Posting to join in the fun 😊
Struggling to come up with 2 regular nominations so I'm just going with 1 this cycle:
Racing Lagoon - Anyone ever played this? It's a racing game by Squaresoft??? on PS1 with some kind of progression system. My friend has brought it up in conversation a couple times not too long ago, and I've heard some cool music from the game but I've never played it, so I'm nominating it out of my own curiosity.
On a side note, this is NOT a formal nomination yet, but anyone able to think of titles to share an "Arcade Special" category with Panel de Pon or it's clones (Tetris Attack, Pokemon Puzzle League, ACPL, etc)? I was trying to brew one up like "Block Puzzlers" or something but trying not to just recreate Nintendo Puzzle Collection left me scratching my head a bit. Lumines crossed my mind but feels too new. Well, y'all let me know if there's an idea worth brewing there.
Another side note not related to nominations, I just wanna shoutout this neat little piece of software called ShaderGlass. Scroll down the github and take a loot at the screenshots, it's pretty cool, it lets you apply RetroArch type shaders to basically anything. I was messing around with it on 90s anime, indie games that look retro enough, and even using my capture card as an input for modern games. It's never gonna be as accurate as the real deal, especially this type of implementation, but figured some of y'all might like toying with it throughout the Tildes CGA club if it helps you catch a vibe from time to time.
Interesting nomincations. I never got a chance to play Racing Lagoon, but I'd like to mention that Square actually made the famous/infamous Rad Racer for the NES as well before they hopped on the RPG train.
I don't think I'll be able to participate in the actual event, just wanted to say thank you for inspiring me to revisit one of my favourite old games Rick Dangerous (playable in browser). Hope you dont mind.
Don’t mind?! I love this!
The whole point of CGA is to get people playing retro games, and I 100% endorse people like you doing their own thing instead of following the monthly choices if they want to.
Thanks for sharing this! Made my day. 😁
I'd like to get into contacts that get pinged when CGA has new topic. I will surely not attend to every months as I have my other gaming to do (I'm trying to get games from my backlog and invest time heavily into them already), but I may attend here and there or if the game really interests me much.
Having said that, I have some nominations.
Carmageddon (DOS) - I believe everyone here knows this game. It should be finishable in a month withour any problems. I don't know how well it sets up or runs though. It could be bought on Steam fo 8€ and I believe it will work fine. Could be paired with other game(s) in the given month.
Contra (NES) - Another one that is likely known by a lot of people. This could be part of arcade month as it could be finished in an hour. Or never. This varies greatly on skill of the player as this game is the Dark Souls of NES.
Most of the games I wanted to nominate are up here but if there's room, I would like to put forward Einhander for the PS1.