Informal Poll

[Ken]

You are right, in a halfway sorta way. The code does end with BA, but there are two of them. I don't know why I care though, the challenge was to play that game without continuing. I did it, once, and only once. The stress from that is still with me.<P><P>------------------
Ken
Those Who Can't Draw

[Twon]

Last semester I accomplished this twice. Straight. Somewhere a friend has a photo of the screen (I used a real NES, not an emulator). I actually got real wired on coffee and decided to keep playing after I beat it the first time and the game looped. I had some ridiculous score at the end.<P>Actually, I found the capture!
<A HREF="http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~mseabury/archives/contra.jpg" TARGET=_blank>http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~mseabury/archives/contra.jpg</A> <P>It's kinda fuzzy, but definitely 7 digits (something like 1,520,000). This was after the 2nd lap through the game.

[MetalMan]

The code we were referring to was the 27(?) lives code, right? I don't know what AB does, if it's different from BA. Anyways, you beat it with 27(?) lives, or 4 (*cough IMPOSSIBLE *cough). Anyways, Excitebike is cool, haven't gotten a chance to play it in a while. What about Castlequest? Talk about a hella hard game...

[Ken]

Hey, I beat it once on three lives, that's how many you start the game with, but only once. My dad on the other hand did it repeatedly, let me assure you it is possible. And it is a 30 life code, you start the game with 30 lives.<P>------------------
Ken
Those Who Can't Draw

[Jammon]

A Boy and His Blob . Big white glob of an alien that eats jellybeans and turns into weapons and parachutes and stuff . 'Nuff said .

[The2ndQuest]

Contra, by far the best sidescroller..hell, probably the best game ever, I mean, who doesn't remember this totally ruling the gaming scape?<P>I thought it was AB though... hmm...<P>Super C was cool but they only gave ya 10 lives, almost impossible to play with.<P>I think of Zelda 2 very fondly as it was so hard, long and justplain tough. I mean the whole getting the Hammer thing was a milestone achievment, then you manage to beat a couple Palaces and think you're nearing the end of the game when- BAM! You discover a WHOLE NEW CONTINENT to explore and you're like- man! how much more can there BE? Granted it's beens urpased since then but having such a huge game was very impressive back then- and frustrating::)
So frustrating that it's the only game I had to use Game Genie on to beat (well, I used GG to skip that too-damn-impossible 3rd level "Speeder Bike" level in Battletoads too, but thats just because that was rodiculous!) and I can't see how someone could make it to the great palace alive and still have enough power to beat both the plaace AND Thunderbird AND Link's Shadow. <P>SMB2 rocked also- I await Wart's Revenge one day::)<P>------------------
Billy Buehler
http://www.denimfilms.com

[EmperorBako]

The code was uu dd lr lr ba start, The way I remembered this was how difficult it was to play 2 player and get that select button in before the screen stopped scrolling.<P>Mischief Makers was a great 2-d experience for the 64.<P>Mario 3 and the original Mega Man are my favorite 8-bit goodness. Mario because it had so many innovations for an 8-bit game and Mega Man because it is one of the harder ones made.<P>------------------
Gameplay over Eyecandy

[EmperorBako]

The code was uu dd lr lr ba start, The way I remembered this was how difficult it was to play 2 player and get that select button in before the screen stopped scrolling.<P>Mischief Makers was a great 2-d experience for the 64.<P>Mario 3 and the original Mega Man are my favorite 8-bit goodness. Mario because it had so many innovations for an 8-bit game and Mega Man because it is one of the harder ones made.

[Jackie Lee]

And who can forget the Metal Slug series for the neo geo? That was amazing. I hear they are coming out with one for the playstation, Metal Slug X or some such edge name. I think it is a souped up metal slug 2 or something. Any info?<P>Jackie "I'll break your teeth" Lee

[Allan_ecker]

I think what bugged me about Zelda 2 was its departure from the birds eye view perspective of the original. I did like the size, and I did like the difficulty, but the Zelda games are not, should never be, games where you can lose a life by timing a jump thirty miliseconds off. And although I too pine for the days of side scrollers (N64 is really missing out by not making more BEAUTIFUL games like Yoshi), I genuinely LIKE the 3-D Zeldas. I just can't wait until the game cube brings us a Zelda game with lots of full-motion video cinema scenes. Mmmmm... Drama...<P>------------------
Visit the home of the half straight fox! <A HREF="http://umlauthouse.keenspace.com" TARGET=_blank>Umlaut House</A>

[Rufus Burrus]

I would have to say Bionic Commando. There's just no feeling in the world like blowing up Hitler's chopper then seeing his head explode.
On a side note, does anyone remember the Worlds of Power video game books? The Bionic Commando book is sweet: Super Joe gets captured by a bunch of ninjas, and Ladd injures his arm while falling from a 50 story window into a swimming pool, you see a ninja threw a shuriken at him and hit him in the arm on the way down. Great book.<P>------------------
"If I had known it was harmless, I would have killed it myself."
-Philip K. Dick, "A Scanner Darkly"

[The_Ninja]

Well personally I think that the Ninja Gaiden series had the best controlls and story compared to the rest 2-D platforms...<P>------------------
Expect betrayal and your friends won't disappoint you

[Muzzy Roberto]

The Guardian Legend has to score some points, just for being a lovely mixture of 1942 shooter/Zelda adventure. Not too many people have played it, and I'm the pround owner of the cartridge, so I'm going to have to pull it as my favorite