8-bit Awesomeness: Part 1

I love 8-bit games as much as the next 30-something guy.  Everyone has their favorites.   One of mine happens to be the game in the video below, Blaster Master.  As a kid, I was the only one of my friends who owned or had any interest in this game.  Shockingly, this game was popular across the broader spectrum of gamers in the late 80’s, but with no internet it was hard to judge and communicate with like minded kids.  What a shame, right?  The propaganda Sunsoft (the actual developer of this gem) sent me in the mail told me this game was awesome, so I was confused why the kids in my neighborhood could care less.  I mean come on, this was the same company that developed “Fester’s Quest,” and that game was the tits.

I spent hours, weeks and months figuring this game out and finally after many late nights toiling over it, laboring through labyrinth after labyrinth and threatened with sunlight from my mom, I finally beat it.  And while the person who plays through this specific video was a cheater, it’s still fun to watch it.

Back in the day there was no such thing as Gamefly to rent games and I certainly didn’t have enough money to buy a game whenever I wanted.  And if you were lucky enough to live in South Dakota, there was no Blockbuster, either.  For us at the time of 8-bit Nintendo on the Great Planes, we had video game mecca’s like Video Mania and Popingo Video.  When it came to renting games you had maybe a weekend to beat them before they had to be returned on Sunday, which isn’t a ton of time.  Most kids turned to shortcuts, which probably explains the rampant slackerism in my generation.  Now, if you’re the type of person who never entered a cheat code or circumvented hair pulling impossible portions of early Nintendo games you’re either a) insane b) a masochist or most likely c) a dirty liar.

You had options though.  Word of mouth in your neighborhood from some kid whose parents purchased a cheat code magazine for him for starters. If you had a Nintendo Power subscription you had access to the Classified Information section or Counselors Corner.  You could even call the toll number in the back of the issues to talk to a live video game expert (some post publishing research found Nintendo’s Game Councilors lasted until 2005, which for a toll service this day in age is mind blowing).  Remember those?  I used it once then was promptly grounded when the phone bill showed up.  Just a side note, does anyone else find it amazing that I ended up finding a woman who would marry me?  Just sayin’.  One other option at said video store above was to rent strategy videos.  Yes, they existed.  Like this one which I not only rented, but wrote all the codes and work arounds down on pieces of paper and sold them to neighborhood kids for fifty cents, I think.  No, I’m not kidding…

I shouldn’t be stunned this video is on the web, but then again I sort of am.  But kudos to the guy who put it on YouTube.  The fact someone assembled a team of mullet sporting video game “experts” and made them all matching red, white and blue track suits is beyond hysterical today.  But when you’re seven, you wanted to be these guys, and women wanted to be with them.  Right ladies?  At least that’s what I thought at the time.  Kids are dumb though.  Note the knock off NES Advantage controllers.

I understand not watching all of the Blaster Master video, because most people who read this are not still incredibly large nerds like yours truly.  I highly encourage you to watch the video game tricks videos because it’s a nice little trip down memory lane, and it is hilarious for many different reasons.  Also, it has some god awful games in it.  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for one.  Also, 3D World Runner may be the most ridiculous game ever made.

Along with Blaster Master, another highly recommended game often overlooked in the pantheon of NES classics is Startropics.  I know I’m risking alienating people who have been reading this blog with this post, but I don’t care.  For some reason today, I want to be eight again.

And if I were eight again, I would listen to this band on my Walkman…