This episode brings the Game Gear launch window, as it were, to a finish by wrapping up the final few Japanese releases of 1990. There are a few old favorites ("favorites") here, a compromised arcade port, and a first-of-its-kind release that admittedly hasn't aged especially well. An interesting combination of titles, though, and a pretty good conclusion for a well-rounded introduction for Sega's portable platform.

Special thanks to Stone Age Gamer for helping to make this series possible with their EverDrive-GG X7: https://stoneagegamer.com/everdrive-gg-x7-black.html

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

Wishing you a Meli Kalikimaka this week, despite my rage over a bad game about wood and water. Thankfully, we have Rare to infuse a little holiday gratitude into the season with a very good, very fun, and very inventive take on racing: R.C. Pro-Am. It doesn't erase the nothing of a game that is T&C Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage from existence, but it does at least provide balance in the Force or whatever.

Also this week: The mysterious NES Max. What could it be??

Special thanks to Steve Lin of the Video Game History Foundation (https://gamehistory.org) for lending use of the game packaging, and to Numskull Designs for the seasonal apparel (http://www.numskull.com/products/street-fighter-ken-vs-ryu-christmas-jumper-sweater/).

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

The second entry in the Final Fantasy Legend series—or SaGa, if you prefer—amped up the features, narrative, mechanics, and overall design sensibilities of the groundbreaking first game. With new races, an elaborate cosmology, inventive dungeon design, an unconventional death mechanic, and all kinds of poorly explained gameplay systems to grapple with, Final Fantasy Legend II is in some respects a high point of the SaGa series. And with both a SaGa Game Boy compilation and remaster of SaGa Frontier for PlayStation due out in the near future, there's no better time to get acquainted with this sometimes-baffling role-playing series that is well and truly here to stay... whether you like it or not.

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

Konami knocks it out of the park yet again with one of the greatest arcade conversions ever to hit the NES: Cooperative platform shooter Contra. It's a rare example of a coin-op title being ported faithfully to NES and somehow improving on the source material. With its tight level design, inventive bosses, impressive weapons, and slightly combative gameplay, Contra is a true NES classic that continues to be a great time more than 30 years later.

Special thanks to Steve Lin of the Video Game History Foundation for letting me photograph his very shiny Contra box!

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

Moving beyond the three launch-day Japanese releases for Sega's Game Gear, we venture into November 1990 with three more titles that continue checking off the obligatory boxes for a new game platform: Strategy, mahjong, and platformer.

Two of these games never made it to the U.S., continuing the precedent set by Pengo: Ultimately, a sizable percentage of Game Gear's library would fail to reach the States. Not that American kids were necessarily clamoring for a dense strategy title set in the Warring States era of Japan, or for a conversion of a tabletop game typically enjoyed by the elderly. They probably WERE clamoring for a great conversion of Wonder Boy, though! Too bad some of them never realized it was available right from the console's beginnings due to Sega of America's bizarre decision to rename Wonder Boy "Revenge of Drancon." Not to belabor a point, but... what?

Still, another convincing case for Game Gear's merits versus the competition as it hits on some nuts-and-bolts titles that demonstrate both capable technical performance and appealing visuals.

Special thanks to Stone Age Gamer for helping to make this series possible with their EverDrive-GG X7: https://stoneagegamer.com/everdrive-gg-x7-black.html

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

Another Capcom creation this week. It's not quite up there with the company's best work, but you can see their collective spirit in action here—Gun.Smoke hits on a lot of popular Capcom beats all at once. It's a vertically scrolling shooter, themed around American pop culture (in this case, Western movies), whose home port contains a number of embellishments over the coin-op title to make it better suited for the NES. Despite the compromises it suffered in coming home, Gun.Smoke plays well on NES and makes a lasting impression, making it yet another top-flight creation for a valuable NES third party.

Special thanks to Steve Lin of the Video Game History Foundation for providing a look at the game's alternate packaging!

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

This episode brings the recent run of NES Works Gaiden episodes to a head by being both massive, sprawling, and focused on a European creation. Whew.

The Aladdin Deck Enhancer is one of those NES tidbits that people have probably heard of but most likely only know through second-hand sources, such as The Angry Video Game Nerd. I don't know that I have much to add to the conversation, especially since the Aladdin has low compatibility with FPGA-based clone hardware, but by god, this was a patron request (from Joseph Wawzonek), and I am determined to give Video Works patrons their money's worth.

Honestly, this episode was a lot of fun to put together, despite its technical issues. A few of the games were definitely on the dicey side, but most were solid, and a few are good enough that I want to play them again sometime when I'm not simultaneously freebasing a dozen different unfamiliar games for an episode of a weekly video series.

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

By patron request of Jon, it's our first (of likely a fair few) full look at a European exclusive for NES: Imagineer's impressive conversion of British microcomputer classic Elite. I won't even pretend to show off the full depth of the game here; it's a complex and intricate game that requires extensive play to master, whereas I struggle with not dying at the hands of marauders the instant I come out of warp in a system local to the game's starting point.

I may not be adept at this particular simulation, but I can recognize how impressive a conversion this is... even if the hardware REALLY wasn't designed for it.

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

A pair of games that share more in common than they might appear to at first glance. Power Racer traces its history back more than a decade: It's a portable conversion of an arcade dot-gobbler that predates Pac-Man by a year. That might not seem to have much to do with the Japan-only Painter Momopie, a game about a witch with a paint roller, but ultimately both these Game Boy releases belong to the same genre and do a great job of demonstrating the difference a decade made in how a specific type of game concept could be interpreted. These aren't the most beloved or best-known games on the system, but they're worth a look regardless.

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

At last, the "metroidvania" concept begins to live up to its name. Metroid was on-point from the start, but Castlevania was slower to come around to the exploratory action-RPG concept. After the baby steps of the original Castlevania (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nealF8LlXxs) and Vampire Killer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoXEk_vegkc), Castlevania II felt like the first meaningful effort to turn the quest to stop Count Dracula into a proper adventure. It was also kind of a mess, but hey, like I said—baby steps.

Also in this episode, Compile gives us another interesting twist on the action-RPG with Golvellius. It's not really a metroidvania, but that's OK.

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

Halloween season is here once again, and you know what that means: Time for more Castlevania-themed NES Works videos. It's the Pumpkin Spice of retrogaming YouTube videos. This year, we're looking at the OTHER Castlevanias—that is, the other games that relay the exact same story as the original Castlevania (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nealF8LlXxs), tracking Simon Belmon's trek through Dracula's castle. All of these games cover the same narrative and gameplay beats.

Vampire Killer for MSX is in some ways the game most like Castlevania—it was produced in tandem with the NES game, using many of the same gameplay assets—yet also the least like it. So contradictory! Haunted Castle feels like the mutant version of the NES game. Not the kind of mutation that leads to super powers like the X-Men. The kind like when that guy falls in the toxic sludge in RoboCop. Super Castlevania IV—well, no need to belabor the point (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eXtQVjv3uE). And finally, Castlevania Chronicles, the final (and arguably) greatest exploration of Simon's journey. Mercilessly difficult, but so artfully crafted and filled with inventive moments that you can't help but want to keep dashing yourself helplessly against its proverbial rocks.

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

While this isn't the end of our side excursions into the Atari 7800 chronology, it's the last for the time being. These four releases bring the console's lineup in line with the current state of NES Works (January 1988), and it would be a while before more games followed. Thankfully for the Atari faithful, the console's lineup with fatten up significantly in 1988 and ’89, but there's no getting around the fact that its slow start really hurt the system.

Also of note this episode: The final classic Namco conversion for 7800, and the first batch of (highly faithful) classic computer game adaptations.

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

Our second look at the Atari 7800's release chronology takes us through the initial launch lineup and to its first post-launch title. On the whole, though, this set of games shares a lot in common with the previous episodes: Very good renditions of pre-crash arcade classics, dropped upon the world a little after their sell-by date.

Don't let the unfortunate circumstances of the 7800's birth distract you, though; these are some excellent arcade conversions. A couple of them, most notably Food Fight, are arguably best-in-class caliber adaptations. You may notice some changes in how this video is edited and presented compared to other videos. I've steadily been tweaking my approach over the past few months, and I was fortunate enough to have a free weekend to burn through tinkering with a few different concepts. It's coming along nicely, though as always, it could still use a bit more fine-tuning.

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

Before I dive into NES Works 1988 in earnest, it's time for me to set right a historic wrong of sorts. NES Works/Game Boy Works/et al. have focused primarily on Nintendo's legacy, but that has always been more a function of my personal time and resource limitations than any slight to Nintendo's peers in the console space. Now that I've launched my long-overdue Lynx and Game Gear retrospectives, there's no getting around the fact that the core console space deserves the same treatment as handheld gaming. And so, we rewind time about 18 months to mid-1986 this week to begin looking at the early days of the Atari 7800, the first console out of the gates to compete with Nintendo's NES in the U.S. It had a slow start, to say the least—it will only take three episodes of this length to bring these 7800 retrospectives to January 1988 in line with the current NES chronology!

It's hard to see this early 7800 lineup as serious competition to the NES—these few games feel very much like relics of an earlier era. That's because they are, of course. They're the games that would have launched alongside the 7800 in 1984 had Jack Tramiel not put the console on ice for two years. Viewed through that lens, however, the 7800's initial offerings were fairly impressive, and even in 1986 these were the best home ports available for all four of these arcade classics. Was that really the most compelling sales pitch for kids who were already immersed in Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt? Absolutely not! But even if timing and market realities tripped it up right off the starting blocks, the 7800 deserves respect.

Special thanks goes to Kevin Bunch of  @Atari Archive  for the hard work he's invested into sorting out the actual chronology of 7800 releases by researching magazines and newspapers of the late ’80s, allowing us to pinpoint game launches to the month. His works is far more precise than the internet's existing 7800 release info, which is generally no more specific than by year... and often the wrong year at that.

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

This episode is all about the number three: Our third Lynx retrospective, and the second of three for 1990, looking at third-party licensed titles for the year. Of which there were... four. Well, close enough.

Perhaps even more so than the first-party Atari conversions from last episode, these four games really show off the strengths of the Lynx as a platform. Not only are all four games solid and mostly faithful interpretations of coin-op hits, there are one or two that might well be the definitive home adaptations of those particular properties.

Under examination this episode: Namco's (well, GCC's) Ms. Pac-Man, Midway's Rampage and Xenophobe, and Tecmo's Rygar. An eclectic mix of old and (for the time) new. Which ones fare well and which ones fare awesomely? Only by watching this video in its entirety will you know for sure.

(Please do not be alarmed by the presence of a human face introducing each game. He means you no harm and is merely attempting to game the algorithm.)

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

Coming on the heels of the NES's faithful home conversion of the not-so-faithful arcade localization of Kunio-kun/Renegade, we have Data East's almost-classic Karnov: The tale of a fire-breathing Russian strongman (who is actually dead) out to save the world from a dragon by toting around a ladder. A somewhat strange game in the Ghosts ’N Goblins/Wonder Boy II vein, Karnov doesn't quite hit the mark overall, but its NES conversion is surprisingly strong and includes a few welcome quality-of-life tweaks over the coin-op. As for localization, all we lost in the U.S. was the fact that main character Karnov was a big enough bastard in life to merit personal attention from the god of the Hebrews himself.

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

As 1990 winds down for Game Boy Works, it's only proper to explore the major competitor that entered the Japanese market that fall: Sega's Game Gear. Where Atari's Lynx was too poorly supported and too region-specific to pose a serious threat to Nintendo's handheld dominance, Game Gear arrived just as Sega began its meteoric 16-bit ascent in the west. And this trio of Japanese launch titles—a set of arcade conversions running the gamut in terms of original vintage and play styles—demonstrates a canny understanding of what made the handheld gaming market tick. It's a strong debut showing for Sega as they positioned themselves to attack Nintendo's grip on the games industry on two fronts at once.

Special thanks to Stone Age Gamer for helping to make this series possible with their EverDrive-GG X7: https://stoneagegamer.com/everdrive-gg-x7-black.html

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

Ah, Game Boy: The system that ruled the world on the strength of both its portability and its support for multiplayer gaming. Remember Tetris? Remember Pokémon? Remember F-1 Race and its four-player adapter? So naturally, when Taito brought Bubble Bobble—a cooperative arcade game designed to be played (and only fully completed!) with a second player—to Game Boy, naturally they made heavy use of its link capabilities for teaming up with a friend, right? Uh... right?

Oh well. At the least the title screen music for this episode's import title rocks hard enough to make you forget your disappointment in Bubble Bobble.

And yes, this episode I've finally taken advice from years of drive-by commenters and have palced myself briefly on-camera. We'll see if putting a human face in there makes this series more personable or appealing or whatever to the average viewer. It seems unlikely that people actually want to see THIS particular face, but it's the best I can do to obey the rules of gaming YouTube without going full screamy-thumbnail.

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

Our first of third Lynx overviews for 1990 looks at the system's own home-brewed arcade legacy... well, sort of. Here, arcade titles by Atari Games (the game design company) make their way to a system distributed by Atari Corp. (the home computer company). Does the close connection between the two make for memorable coin-op conversions, or is Atari's post-crash selloff a rift that could never be repaired? Spoilers: It's the former.

These are some excellent handheld adaptations of several popular arcade releases from the late ’80s, performing at a technical level that far outstrips anything the Game Boy or Game Gear could manage. The one exception to this rule is the one arcade sequel (sort of) that was originally developed by Epyx as a completely different property. (It shows.)

Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

I had intended to take a deep dive into the history of Mr. Driller once Mr. Driller 2 showed up in Game Boy Works Advance, but then Bandai Namco had to go and remaster the best game in the series before I got there. So I've jumped the gun a bit for this combination retrospective (of the franchise) and review (of Mr. Driller DrillLand). It's terribly self-indulgent and overlong, but I'm afraid that's just how it has to be.

Special thanks to GSK and Quintin Marcelino for their contributions to this episode, and to Bandai Namco for providing a review code of the U.S. release of DrillLand.

A second Double Dragon release for 1990 lands on Game Boy... except not really. In Japan, Double Dragon II was presented as an expanded remake of the original Renegade—which is to say, Kunio-kun's first adventure. Acclaim and Technos gave it a facelift for western release a year later, turning into a Double Dragon game in name if not in fact. Still, while this "sequel" lacks some fundamental essentials found in the arcade game, it does allow for simultaneous play—so that's something. Also this episode: An equally rocky Japan-exclusive conversion of German board game Scotland Yard.

Special thanks this episode to my nephew Speedy Playz for his help with the two-player video capture. Please subscribe to his channel and help encourage him as he learns to create his own video projects! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrBYYIWQIjrUV2-44L4vUdQ/

Game Boy wasn't the most powerful portable on the market back in the early ’90s—that was Atari's Lynx. Just what did Atari have to offer gamers in the place of international hits like Mario and Tetris? With this first Lynx-centric overview, we'll look at Nintendo's contemporary handheld competition and see what the most established name in gaming brought to the table for those who weren't content with murky green monochrome or portable platforms that could actually fit in a pocket.

Metroidvania games and action-RPGs are closely intertwined, and perhaps no developer had more influence on the shape and direction of action-RPGs like Nihon Falcom. This episode is devoted to their follow-ups to the original Dragon Slayer and Xanadu... as well as an all-new property that would become one of the company's best-loved works. Though not all the games here fall into the metroidvania category, it's hard to deny that style of game would look quiet different without all the essential work Falcom did here.

The NES's 1988 lineup begins with the debut of a gaming legacy. Renegade gave us both the River City/Kunio franchise AND the Double Dragon franchise, and given what lies ahead in the near future for both NES and Game Boy, we definitely need to have a look into the origins of these brawly species. Special thanks this episode to Steve Lin and the Video Game History Foundation.

The metroidvania genre expanded greatly in 1987 as developers grew more confident in their design concepts and technology began to expand to accommodate their ambitions. Nintendo's Famicom/Disk System/NES platform proved to be especially fertile ground for innovation, as these three different takes on the format demonstrate. While you could arguably classify Zelda II, Rygar, and The Goonies II as action-RPGs, each one interprets that concept in unique ways. The one thing they have in common? They attempt to push the creative boundaries of the 2D platformer by shifting viewpoints and perspective at various times: Zelda II with an abstracted, Dragon Quest-inspired overworld view, Rygar with a Zelda II-style top-down action format, and The Goonies II with a first-person adventure mode.

The flip side of Midway's U.S.-oriented releases comes with one of the most unique games ever released for Nintendo 64 in Japan: Givro and Enix's Wonder Project J2. A simulation game of sorts, Wonder Project J2 tasks you with helping to rear a naïve robot girl named Josette, teaching her to become self-sufficient—and to integrate naturally into human society, while also helping to undermine the schemes of a military empire. That's a lot to ask for one waif, and her success is entirely up to you. Anyone who followed the N64 around the time of its launch remembers seeing this game plastered all over English-language magazines and websites, making it one of the best-known N64 titles to remain stranded in Japan.

Special thanks to "Ryu", whose excellent fan translation made this video possible! Check it out for yourself at https://www.romhacking.net/translations/1074/

Video Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

A little bit of a sidebar between the genre's foundational works (that is, Castlevania and Metroid) and the major works ahead in 1987. These games are not critical contributors to the genre, but the ideas seen here speak to some solid instincts. We'll see more refined takes on these concepts further along, but for now, here are some noble efforts that don't quite nail it.

Video Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

N64 Works shifts into third gear—third-party gear, that is—with a pair of games that I am wholly unsuited to break down. So instead, this episode dives into the history surrounding them: The so-called N64 Dream Team, the checkered relationship between Nintendo and Mortal Kombat, and what this version of Trilogy says about the N64 when held side-by-side against the PlayStation release.

Video Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

Finally! The Metroidvania Works series arrives at the games that lent the genre its name... or at least early entries in those games' franchises. Metroid brings us the first real taste of the exploratory action platformer, with a complex world that players unlock and explore by upgrading their hero(ine). Meanwhile, Vampire Killer on MSX adapts the NES classic Castlevania to a PC-style framework with (temporary) item collection and intra-stage exploration. And finally, Milon's Secret Castle applies the "search everywhere for invisible items" philosophy of mid ’80s action games to a contiguous, freely traveled world containing multiple self-contained stages. None of these are quite metroidvania games yet... but we're getting there.

Video Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

The metroidvania journey continues with a look at three more games from the mid ’80s that helped pave the way for the genre—none of which, notably, hail from U.S. developers. While the American games industry was reinventing itself in the wake of the Atari crash, British and Japanese developers steamed ahead full throttle with games that combined action, adventure, and exploration all at once, beginning with UK-based Ultimate Play-the-Game's influential isometric classic and ending with a gold-clad game that should require no further introduction to viewers of this channel...

Video Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

Nintendo publishes a football game, and an arcade hit comes to Game Boy after being filtered through the soupy green monochrome of the Amstrad CPC. They're not great! This is not fulfilling video game content! Let's hurry through and get along to the next. OK, thank you, please drive through.

Video Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

They say you have to walk before you can run, and in Game Boy Works, we need to slog through some mediocrity before we get to the good stuff. Neither of these games is terrible by any means; Battle Bull feels like an update to Sega's Pengo or Irem's Kickle Cubicle, while Navy Blue 90 is, y'know, Battleship. However, both end up being let down by some questionable creative choices and frustrating technical issues. Neither lives up to its real potential.

I've been taking a different approach to video production while we're all hunkered down for the pandemic. Some people cope with booze or by binge-watching; I cope by making videos about games I love. Case in point: Mega Man Legends for PlayStation, which is well outside the scope of Video Works... but I'm let it kite along in the slipstream of the recent NES Mega Man retrospective. It's an incredible game—a personal favorite. So, please: Just roll with it.

I said we'd be jumping over to N64 Works, and I meant it... it's just happening, uh, gradually. In this case, we're defining the shape of N64 by what N64 was missing: Specifically, one of the biggest and most popular games of the ’90s. One part historic overview of the business politics of the N64 era, one part look back at the compelling introductory design of Final Fantasy VII's opening chapter, you'd better believe this video was basically just an excuse for me to play a classic game from outside the bounds of the Video Works project in an effort to bolster my spirits during the age of social distancing.

This week's sequence break comes to you by a patron request from Joseph Wawzonek and courtesy of Steve Lin of the Video Game History foundation: A look at the highly coveted import-only collector's item Trip World for Game Boy. SunSoft's charming platformer commands a towering reputation for its quality and its unconventional nature, even if it does come off as slight. Here I explore the origins of the game, contemplate the creative aims behind its unique design, and delight in repeatedly pronouncing its protagonist's name. Thanks again to Joseph and Steve!

By patron request of Brian Larsen, here's something a little different: Rather than look at a single game, this episode takes a wider view of NES culture and fandom, and how fans of the platform have kept the NES alive and vibrant 25 years after its retirement. From the rise of emulation to modern clone platforms, NES devotees continue to make NES accessible and surprising, as this cursory overview explains.

NES Works 1987 ends as it began: With a cool game by Capcom. But let's be real. Mega Man is much cooler than Trojan. There's a reason one series had dozens of sequels and spinoffs and the other... didn't. Capcom's first wholly original creation for NES is one of the most inventive and highly polished games on NES to date, period. With a free stage select sequence, alternate special weapons, and imaginative bosses, Mega Man stands out as a brilliant capper to an incredible year for the NES. And just think: The franchise will only get better from here, as we'll see in NES Works 1989. In, uh, a few years.

Two final middling releases for 1987, one of which is based on a licensed property. Yeah, you can definitely see the future of the NES shaping up here. Neither Top Gun or BreakThru is the worst game we've seen, but neither can quite make up its mind as to what it wants to be. Is Top Gun a flight sim or an aerial combat game? Is BreakThru a side-scrolling platformer or a shooter? Rather than feeling like brilliant hybrids, these both just seem a bit muddled...

Following on from Gotcha!, LJN continues plying the same furrow with two more games based on film properties, developed by Atlus. (Or at least someone pretending to be Atlus, anyway.) Two out of LJN's three 1987 releases are pretty decent, if a bit thin in terms of content, and really only The Karate Kid hints at the kind of crap the company would make its stock in trade over the coming years. Jaws might even be considered genuinely good, if only it had been given a little more time in the oven to allow all its concepts to come together...

Data East (finally) serves up a pretty solid game in the form of Irem's Kid Niki: Radical Ninja, but the real story here is Gotcha!: The Sport. Not only is it the debut release from one of the NES's most questionable publishers, it also very much represents a specific moment in popular and political culture. Gotcha! was based on a movie and a toy line, and its publisher's fortunes were impacted by poor toy sales right as the national conversation began to focus on some unfortunate results from America's gun culture and the early days of the the police's move toward militarization. That's quite a lot to tie to a simple NES Zapper game...

Thanks to Steve Lin for lending the Kid Niki packaging to this endeavor!

While the NES was an improvement over previous console generations in most respects, not everything that showed up on Nintendo's system was a clear winner versus what had come before. Case in point, Super Pitfall: An update of sorts to Pitfall! II, except far, far worse. It's an ambitious reworking of an Atari 2600 classic, but "ambition" doesn't necessarily mean "quality." Another fine mess you've gotten us into, Micronics.

After an amazing summer and autumn for 1987, the NES is well into its year-end doldrums. Don't worry, we've got some bangers (as the kids say) lined up for the grand finale a few episodes from now, but for the moment it's all tepid, dated games that pale in comparison to superior takes on these genres that have been showing up of late. But please don't give up on NES Works just yet. Did I mention Mega Man is on the way? Because it is.

Konami's sixth release for 1987 is interesting in a few ways, not least of which is that NES publishers were supposedly limited to five releases per year. But when you're on fire the way Konami was in 1987, I suppose the rules get a little wobbly. The Goonies II bases its action very (very) loosely on the 1985 movie, but rather than just being some crappy licensed title (like we've seen with M.U.S.C.L.E. or Chubby Cherub), it's one of the most ambitious and complex NES titles to date. It's a bit opaque in the adventure scenes, but despite some parts that haven't aged well, it's... aged pretty well.

Video Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

Nintendo's final release for 1987 is one for the ages: A conversion of minor arcade hit Punch-Out!! So how do you port a cutting-edge arcade game to a console that launched a year before the coin-op machine without losing its essence? If you're Nintendo, you create a fancy new microchip specifically for the task; you radically overhaul the game to emphasize precision and readability; and you enlist the support of the most popular athlete in the world. It's a combo that's hard to top—and the results were so strong that it still holds up even without the endorsement of Mike Tyson.

Special thanks once again to Steve Lin and the Video Game History Foundation (http://www.gamehistory.org) this episode!

Video Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

By request of patron Joseph Wawzonek, this Gaiden episode dives into something that is neither game nor peripheral... it is both. And it is the best. It is... the Game Boy Camera. History's greatest video game gadget! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Video Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut, and even request your own episode topic! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

By request of patron Joseph Wawzonek, this Gaiden episode dives into something that is neither game nor peripheral... it is both. And it is the best. It is... the Game Boy Camera. History's greatest video game gadget! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Video Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut, and even request your own episode topic! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

Squaresoft returns with its second game, and its second game to feature 3D tech. This one's a little different than The 3-D Adventures of WorldRunner, though, even if what we saw in American worked the same. Ah, the rabbit hole of Japan-only Famicom add-ons!

Rad Racer marks the beginning of many things, from the Famicom 3-D System to the career of mad RPG genius Akitoshi Kawazu, but it also brings us to the end of an era. Pour one out for pixellated box art, friends.

Video Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

After a few too many humdrum releases rounding out September 1987, October sees the NES back in proper fighting form with a string of games for the ages. First up, we have the dual debut of legendary developer Compile (under the auspices of FCI) with a pair of lesser-known classics that showcase the unique sensibilities and impressive skills for which the studio would become known.

Video Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

The first post-launch release for N64 proved to be as strong as its two day-one titles. Wave Race 64 arrived mere days after SingleTrac and Sony's Jet Moto, but it felt like a massive leap forward in terms of tech and fluidity. Nintendo's x-treme water racer maximized its sophisticated water programming, creating a series of physically and aesthetically varied tracks that felt like no other racing game before it—and while its frame rate and HUD haven't aged well, it's still a blast to play.

Video Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

SunSoft returns to NES with their first internally developed game for the U.S., though like this episode's back-up feature (Alpha Mission) the game in question (Spy Hunter) actually hails from the arcades. Neither of these vertical shooters offer much in the way of a compelling reason to play them, aside from a pretty good take on the Peter Gunn theme in Spy Hunter. Don't worry, though. SunSoft will get a lot better. And SNK.. will get a little better, at least on NES.

Video Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

NES Works continues (properly back in the year 1987 once again) with another pair of sports games. One is quite good, and the other... is not only kinda bad, but it also means lots of people are going to leave tired jokes about blowjobs here, because there's no 20-year-old Seanbaby joke that isn't made even better by being left as a drive-by YouTube comment.

I will say this for Ring King, though: At least it has an exhibition mode, which means I didn't actually have to play it while recording footage. Quite considerate of Data East, really. 

ideo Works is funded through Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.