Emulator Hour: Dragon Warrior 2

Honestly, I think the Box Art says it all. This cover art represents everything I thought totally awesome when I was ten.  Look at the heroes' sweet horns!  You know those capes are imbued with properties of magical awesomeness causing them to always look cool and never get in the way.  Let's go fight some monsters in an exciting and triumphant fashion like it's what we were born to do!

As I previously said: As a sequel, Dragon Warrior 2 delivered .  Not only is it a true sequel, continuing the story of the previous game, but it has an expanded world and game mechanics.  This is the kind of growth I had always wished for in games and DW2 heavily informed my expectations.  The age at which I played Dragon Warrior 2 does a lot to color my memories.  The game was so BIG.  I remember dedicating hours and hours on weekend rentals getting my first party member, the prince of Middenhal.  That obnoxious prince of Middenhal who always seemed close to death. I remember upgrading my weapon to the iron sickle, feeling pretty badass.  I also remember having some coaching during this game as my other family members were still participating in video game time.  

It's not that I needed the coaching (my pride would not allow it) but it is always nice to have someone along with you for the adventure.  I think it qualifies as a Family Fun Time game, because I remember EMZ helping with and also commenting on the different creature designs.  Gotta love the smiles on the slimes and on the drakees.  There's something funny about that goofy smile on a creature whose only desire is to kill you.

I only ever rented Dragon Warrior 2.  I didn't beat it then, though I tried and tried.  I loved having a party to build, I loved raising levels and I loved that each character was different.  I could usually pick up the sorceress by the end of one rental (at Placer TV Video).   But then I'd have to return it, hoping and praying the save file would still be there next weekend when I aimed to rent it again.

In this way, Dragon Warrior 2 has always been a special title for me.  I owned and beat the first game more than once, but the second was elusive and expanded.  I never knew what the limits of that game were, and it leaves a nice feeling of possibility.

-D

P.S.

Here's the wikipedia article for some background.

Also, a gamasutra article about the history of dragon quest.  For further reading.

As previously mentioned, I will be calling this game and series 'Dragon Warrior' rather than 'dragon quest' to keep with my own experience.  It wasn't until many years later that I learned of the name difference, and that the US games began being called dragon quest.  For me it was always dragon warrior.

Video Game Maps: Dragon Warrior (NES)

Dragon Warrior was released in the US in 1989 for the Nintendo Entertainment System [NES].  It was my first real taste of RPG gaming, and I enjoyed it thoroughly, whiling away many hours in the world of Alefgard.  While I completed the game more than once, many times I would play through only a portion of the game, walking the same areas, collecting the same item, defeating the dragon and rescuing the princess.  Repeat.  In my inaugural edition of the Video Game Maps segment, I'm actually going to focus on two games:  Dragon Warrior and Dragon Warrior 2*

Here is a map of Alefgard, the world of Dragon Warrior:

Cool enough world,  several continental shapes,  complete with geographic obstacles, and town tiles dotting the landscape. This seminal RPG took plenty of time to fight through.  Cleverly, the designers placed a key item at the furthest point counter clockwise from the start, only to send you back the other direction to get to the final battle. The difficulty of the enemies increases as you travel further from your starting point. Because you had limited supplies, it was necessary to return to towns periodically to resupply your healing items and magic points.  This leads to retreading a lot of ground, and an intimate familiarity with the landscape.  I can still, at a glance, pick out the little patch of woods where you harvest gold from the appropriately named Gold Man.   

Dragon Warrior featured a few landscape details. Water, can't walk on that.  Grass, standard walking speed.  Hills, slow walking speed. Swamp, damage every step.  Mountains were impassable.  Desert and forest were just like grass, as I recall.  However, in addition to appearance and walk-speed changes, different enemy encounters were often triggered by changes in landscape tiles.  There is a really cool map with enemy overlay that you should definitely check out if it sounds interesting to you.  That map and many other Dragon Warrior details can be found at The Almighty Guru. 

While assembling this post, I have enjoyed reveling in all these delightful details and memories.  Dragon Warrior is truly a game near and dear to my heart, and I must restrain my enthusiasm in order to stay on topic.  In my next edition of Video Game Maps, I will feature one of the best sequels of all time:  Dragon Warrior 2.   

-D


*please note:  I will be using the name 'Dragon Warrior' as opposed to 'Dragon Quest' because the games that I played, way back in the 80s, were called 'Dragon Warrior.'

Emulator Hour: Faxanadu (NES)

Why do I love Faxanadu so much?  It's one of my favorite games for the NES that I never owned.  I've spent some time thinking about this game, and I think that the graphics are one of my favorite parts of Faxanadu.  They may not seem like much at first glance, but I think they contribute strongly to my reason for carrying a torch for this game.  In addition, the soundtrack is one of the most interesting from the NES era.  

Below I show a progression of some of the different pallets and musical themes from Faxanadu.  The game's action starts at the base of the World Tree, travels up the tree a bit, goes inside the tree, comes back out, then ends up in the branches.  I love the idea of fighting through a giant tree.  This is a game that warrants a good remake.  Emphasis on good.

Muddy brown brick and a sky with a greenish hue characterize the town Eolis, cut off from their source of water and life.  
Eolis theme.  

The contrast is kicked up at the trunk; bright orange and green dominate, with a deep blue sky. The music picks up a bit.  

Overworld Theme. 

Purple foggy good times.  This was the furthest I ever made it on a rental. Delightfully spooky musical accompaniment.  
Mist Theme

Here we are in a branch of the great world tree. The music gets a bit more serious in tone. 
World of Branch Theme

Somehow there's a stone dungeon in the branches of this tree.  Another new pallet.  The music is a variation on the previous dungeon theme.  
Labrynth Theme

Emulator Hour: Nintendo 64 - the return

Hey all, so, when I moved into my new place, I discovered an old friend:  My Nintendo 64!

Nintendo 64 was the first video game system I purchased entirely with my own money.  This system was certainly controversial for being cartridge based in a brave new, cd world.  And for the lack of RPGs, which is totally related.  Or at least it seems to be.  The games were also pretty expensive, most being between 60 and 80 bucks, while the Playstation was pitching out hockey pucks at a cool 50 a piece.

No worries or concerns, that just meant I had to love the games I owned all the more.  And I still do!  Waverace, Pilotwings 64, Goldeneye, just to name a few.  I played the ever loving SHIT out of these games.  got all the qualifiers.  Or... almost all of them.  Still no 2 RCP 90s and there's one gold I can't get on Pilotwings.  But I got some pretty high trick attack scores on Waverace.

So, the unfortunate news is that some of my games are lost.  As in I don't know where they are.  I want to believe I gave them away to some needy collector, during a brief period when I was giving away all my worldly possessions.  Or something.  But the thing is, I can't find my copy of Ocarina of Time, the oft declared Greatest Video Game of All Time.  Nor can I find the gold controller I received with my purchase--  You damn well bet I pre-ordered that game!

Actually, I don't really give a shit.  I will probably change my mind about what kinds of shits I give, but at this moment, I can shrug it off.  I'm pretty sure Jaconian has his gold controller (though it was sacrificed during a period of house-wide 1080 Snowboarding competition)  and also his copies of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.  That's good enough for me.  He kept the fires burning and I succumbed to  the darkness.  Oh well.

It's cool, I'm rebuilding.  That is to say, I saw that the website half.com has a bunch of used n64 games for cheap!  I bought Blast Corps, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Excitebike 64, Turok 2 and Body Harvest.  It cost me about as much as it would have cost me to rent those games in 1998.  If you're too young to remember Video Rental, then I'm sorry.  There were some good times to be had in those stacks.

Anyhow-- the nintendo 64 is a real fun machine.  I had great times alone, and I had even more great times with friends.  It was a joy to play these games again and indulge in some nostalgia.  

-D

On Post-rental gaming

Jack and I have been talking about the Konami code of late, and this discussion has brought up some nostalgia for me.  Now that I don't own a console system, most of the games I play now are by indie developers.  And while that's totally cool, hip, and even hip-ster, I realize that I miss the old days.  The days of video game rental.  That was a fantastic time.

I don't know about you, but for myself, and Jack too, we didn't just buy loads of games.  We couldn't afford it, and our parents certainly weren't going to do that for us, especially not with video game rental.  I played dozens of nes and snes games, but only owned about one - two dozen of each through the entirety of my owning those systems.  I chose to buy, with my meager paper route money, only the best, most guaranteed games.  This usually meant Squaresoft, or Nintendo, and sometimes a random game I rented that I loved, like Snake Rattle N Roll.  Which I think was Rare- the company, and the adjective.

But during the rental period, there were bunches of games that were good, even great, but just not enough to buy.  I loved being surrounded by games I would rate B- to B+.  And I remember growing familiar with the different publishers.  Rare, Hudson Soft, Enix, Konami, Capcom.  There were bunches more, but my memories are fading on the subject.  Each of these companies had a sort of personality that you grew to know.  When you picked up a Konami game, you had an idea of what you were getting into.  Capcom meant action - they probably had one of the most distinctive personality, and it seems to endure today, though I don't know where outside of Street Fighter games.

Back in the rentals, you could just browse through the games.  It was sweet.  There were games that I never bought, but I would rent multiple times.  Sometimes to beat, other times just because your family was going to the video rental store and you were NOT about to pass up a chance to rent a game, whether or not you had anything in mind.  Sure, I'll rent Megaman 2 again!  What the hell, let's try Adventure Island?  Hey, this game over here is by Konami, it's probably good.  Goddammit, is the Sword Master ever coming out?!

I wish sometimes for a modern rental system.  On the other hand, indie games often cost close to the same as a rental did.  Sometimes they're even free!  Games like Angry Birds, Super Crate Box and Realm of the Mad God are all totally fun and totally free, if a bit limited in scope.  Super Meat Boy, Braid and Bit.Trip.Runner have pretty high production values, don't cost much and are great fun.  I'm slowly building a new vocabulary of game publishers.  

And, then, of course, there's emulation.  Where-in any and all games for a past system are available, all at once.  But so far emulator production values have not been strong, and it doesn't feel the same.  I want to see an emulator, in which the Rom library is represented as game-boxes on a bookshelf.  I can click on the box and get a view of it, look at the pictures, read the description and then choose whether or not I want to play it.  That would be totally sweet.  Not the same, but a start.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that there is something about the experience of playing a game that exists outside of the screen and the controller.  This is something that is lost when playing games on my PC, irreplaceable using emulators, and I do miss it.