The Nintendo classic (not so) mini thread

[importaku]

Just finished up this evening revisiting a couple of pinball games, the super famicom has a small selection of pinball games but in that selection it has 2 extremely good ones.

Jaki crush is in the same family as devil crush on the pc engine, love the demon aesthetic of jaki crush which uses a lot from Japanese mythlogy especially in the boss levels. There's only one table but the game makes up for it by making the thing huge & packed with secrets, takes a long time to see everything.


Probably my fave on the system is battle pinball, it has a handful of tables all based around various characters, gundam/kamen rider ect.. this one takes a long time to fully complete as you have to beat all tables which means staying alive long enough to get to the boss on each of them before the final battle unlocks i have only once managed to do this & it was without save states but now with the mini i can have a better go at it. Each table is packed with fun stuff to trigger. This evening managed to clear 3 of the 4 tables i shall try to beat the fighter roa table till then i thankfully have a save state to bookmark my progress.


A bit of digital pinball is a nice way to unwind when you don't want something too taxing. Still making my way through the super fami pachinko games list to see if there's any good ones in there.

[Leon Retro]

Jaki crush is in the same family as devil crush on the pc engine, love the demon aesthetic of jaki crush which uses a lot from Japanese mythlogy especially in the boss levels. There's only one table but the game makes up for it by making the thing huge & packed with secrets, takes a long time to see everything.

I went back to Jaki Crush today - and I still think it's unfair and therefore too difficult. I definitely prefer Alien and Devil Crush on the PC Engine. The SFC version looks quite good, with some decent music, but to me it's not as fun as the PCE games.

I'll take a look at Battle Pinball - looks like it has some nice graphics.

[importaku]

Battle pinball is a fun one, some of the tables are pretty tough to get to the top of but that's half the fun as only when you are up on the top most part do you have chance of getting to the boss level. It does require patching though as the fighter roa underwater table has a glitch that makes the screen go black when you get a game over, it's supposed to goto the high score table but instead it sits at a black screen. The patch url here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tck...wDeKT_1HE/view it's also listed on the snes compatibility google spreadsheet The patch works and fixes that paticular emulation bug, yeah jaki crush is pretty hard if you want to level the playing field you can use the password BALLUGOK when you play a game if you press X the ball will stop & you can move it anywhere you like with another press of X it will go back into motion but it does totally destroy any difficulty lol. Can also cause the table to bug out and make the ball get stuck. Here's all of the passwords if you want to have some fun

8888888S 100 000 000 points, 85 balls
CCCCCCCS 210 000 000 points, 9 balls
4444444Y 333 333 300 points, 33 balls
KKKKKKKS 420 000 000 points, 15 balls
6666666C 80 000 000 points, 45 balls
55555555 840 000 000 points, 21 balls
MENERABU Adds a level select to the options menu
BALLUGOK Allows the ball to be moved anywhere by pressing X
MONOZUKI Makes most of the table black and white
SHINKON4 Start with 34 balls
CRUSHEND 999,999,000 points, score 900 more points to see the ending

I knew that some satellaview games would work on the mini as i have tested a few like mario bunbun stadium but i had no idea till i found this video that you can get get the bios to work as well so you can launch them from inside. It's very cool to see it up & running with the St Giga splash screen, sadly it will never be 100% functional as the transmission data is lost to time but thanks to emulation the games that were never meant to be saved are all archived (well the ones found & dumped so far). If it was left to Nintendo this part of gaming history would be lost forever, at least some still work even if not fully as intended. Still not quite sure how it all works as i'd need to upgrade my version of hakchi to the ce version to even begin exploring it, something which i'm reluctant to do as i have heard people having problems jumping between the older cluster version and the newer ce one. Still something on the list for future tinkering. Seems that sufami turbo games have been made to work properly too, wonder if you can swap out the game roms and mix them up like the cart allows.


Still enjoying going through the rather large selection of pachinko games that the super famicom has, kind of a ignored genre. Some are utter cack but others are suprisingly fun. Well if you like pachinko to start with, the pachio kun special series are pretty fun. Using my sacrificial uk snes mini as a testing ground for them all before i properly add them to my super famicom version.

[Leon Retro]

Well if you like pachinko to start with, the pachio kun special series are pretty fun.

I got a Pachinko game for free with a SFC a while back, but I didn't bother to play it. It's something that doesn't appeal to me from what I've seen of it in videos of people playing Pachinko machines. Maybe I'm missing out, so I might play the kun special games and see what I think.

[importaku]

There are so many for the super famicom i have yet to get through them all, they sure do love those gambling games in Japan. There's probably just as many pachislot games too. Pachinko is one of those things i have to be in the mood for it can be pretty frustrating at times. But saying that it's interesting to see how the games work as some have weird story modes tied around them i prefer those versions to the straight up sim kinds. Some of them are pretty bad though when they only have a couple of tables and the sounds are painful on the ears, do have to give some of the games credit for totally nailing the sounds there's a chunk noise as the plunger fires which is dead on as is the clattering sound of the balls hitting the glass on the way down i was pretty impressed when i heard that. I have a pachinko machine in my room so i'm used to hearing those sounds i never thought a super famicom game would totally nail the sounds just right.

[Leon Retro]

I have a pachinko machine in my room so i'm used to hearing those sounds i never thought a super famicom game would totally nail the sounds just right.

I was going to buy a Fist of the North Star pachinko machine a while back. They were quite small machines that you'd put on a table, some seller on eBay had UK stock and was selling them off quite cheap. But I resisted the temptation to get one.

[importaku]

Been exploring some of the other famicom stuff out there, even now there are still games been made for it along with some other carts. Columbus circle have been publishing various games over the past few years kind of neat that new stuff is still been made.

Kira kira star night is a very simple score attack collecting game where you have to collect as many stars as possible before the time runs out if you meet the set quota you get to goto the next level, the graphics are pretty nice, makes you wonder what the games would have been like if the programmers knew of the cool graphical tricks you can do with the famicom nowdays back when it was still a new thing. The chiptune soundtrack is fantastic in this game.





Speaking of chiptunes there's actually 2 music albums released on famicom carts, was tempted to see how they worked on the mini in regards to sound emulation. Turns out they sound fantastic, just a shame there isn't a way to rig in the speaker adapter like on the original famicom as with one of the albums releases they sold a dongle that plugs into the famicom ext port which then allows you to add a pair of speakers via a headphone jack.

[importaku]

Just come across a good resource for usa snes box art seems to be a full set and from the test pics i have clicked on they are of decent quality.

https://github.com/ramiabraham/cover-art-collection/tree/master/snes

shall leave it here in case needed later.

[Leon Retro]

The chiptune soundtrack is fantastic in this game.

I'm definitely putting it on my NES later today.

[importaku]

If you struggle to track it down send us a pm. Sound like a bit of a broken record nowdays but i have put a hell of a lot of playtime in to the super famicom this past week, seeing as i have 3 weeks holiday off work i thought i'd catch up on some leisurely gaming.

Finally completed hoshi no Kirby 3, probably the most graphically pretty platform game on the super fami but wagan paradise comes a close second. The amount of graphical layers and transparency effects used in Kirby is crazy it's just so lovely combined with all that wobbling hand drawn looking art. Managed to complete it but have yet to see the true ending as im missing a lot of the hearts in the levels so i shall be going back to get those. A tricky one to get running properly on the mini as you have to sacrifice the SRAM save capability to make it fully work but seeing that if you soft reset (L,R,start,select) before you shut it off it will force the game to SRAM save before you leave, needs a few tweaks to set it up but runs amazing. Just to be safe i use save states as well.






Had Gunmans proof sat there for quite a while but i had yet to make a start but i have been enjoying going through it, i'm currently only at the 2nd dungeon so far but it's a lot of fun. The english translation is really really good, the western accents are fab. That horses accent lol. Seem to struggle with not getting hit though, the 2nd dungeon is destroying my ass as everything is hitting me all over the place. Figured out how to duck from bullets but it's still tricky manouvering without getting whacked repetedly but it's a quality Zelda style game the dungeon are fun to explore.


Worked my way through 20+ pachinko games over the past week to see what was any good. It's not every single game as there might be more out there but i haven't found them yet. They are all firmly in kusogame territory but there are some that are cream of the slop lol. Some are truly dire with only 2 tables to play, if i had bought that back in the day at full retail i'd have been crying but saying that there are some that if you like pachinko they are indeed fun.

Pachinko challenger V, this one i rather enjoyed as you take part in some form of pachinko olympics lol. I'm still working on this as i have no idea how to progress the story despite destroying the first two tables but they control well and it's easy to figure out the table operation at least. Not sure how many tables are in this game as in the first hall there is only two to practise on.




The next one is gindama oyakata no pachinko hisshouhou, this one sadly only has 5 tables in the game the sound is absolutely dead on for the plunger and the sound of the balls tapping against the glass as they fall. Seems to have minimal story but you can travel around Japan on a map visiting various parlours but seeing as there's only 5 tables it seems a bit pointless but i guess it breaks up been in the same location all the time. The tables are fun to play though so that's a huge plus.


Probably my favourites out of all the pachinko games are the pachiokun special series of games there's 3 of them on the super famicom and 5 on the regular famicom, the tables & locations are pretty fun. The first game is revolves around getting the kings super ball back the second takes place in an amusement park and the 3rd game seems to be some weird flashback where you visit locations from the 8bit famicom Pachiokun games. There is a decent selection of tables in these games & they are nice to play, best of all the scoring system is easy to learn as you have to amass a set amount of balls to clear a table obviously using your starting budget. These 3 now take up slots on my mini where game space is hotly fought over by various games hehe, wish i could add more without folders but 63 is the absolute limit. That first box art was substantially cleaned up of jpeg artifacts as i couldn't find a better quality one online so i had to work with what i could find although i don't think many wil be rushing to put these on their minis lol.




A few screens from the various games

[Leon Retro]

Kira kira star night

I put it on my Mini. Feels like a 'bit Generations' game for the GBA. The music is absolutely brilliant; I'd describe it as 'Japanese Rave' music. I also like the graphics that change with each stage.

I managed to get to Stage 8. I will keep coming back to the game, because it's nice simple fun. I might even buy a copy if it works properly with an American NES. £45 is a bit steep though.

[Leon Retro]

Finally completed hoshi no Kirby 3, probably the most graphically pretty platform game on the super fami

Yeah, a great looking game. It uses the SA1 chip, so lots more processing power to enable more stuff on the screen. I really like Kirby, so made sure to have it in my SFC collection. I will definitely add it to my Mini.

Those pachinko games do look interesting, so I might check a few of them out. I think 'gindama oyakata no pachinko hisshouhou' could be the one for me.

[importaku]

Hmmm what's that sound? Oh it's just the sound of battle pinball getting it's ass kicked lol.

Finally beat all 4 tables and took out the bosses on each, managed to get to the final boss which compared to the others is not too hard at all it's kind of a battle with 2 sets of flippers as the table is divided into 2 if the ball crosses over to the bosses side the gravity flips & they get to try and aim at the centre drain on your side, you have to do the same to him. Hit him 4 times in the drain hole and he's toast.

You get a quick ending sequence before it goes back to the table menu & you continue on the 4 tables again with the remainder of your balls.




Next time the game tries to pull any crap on me i'll remind it this time i'm armed with save states & rewind lolololol. Really fun game and pretty much the best pinball game on the super famicom.

[importaku]

Not been posting much on this thread but been playing crazy amounts of retro games still, decided to see how the snes mini coped with rom hacks. Seems pretty well is the answer, decided to give the beta version of super mario world a try as i have never played it. Sure in the age of mario maker it seems a tad basic but it's really cool playing the beta version of what may have been.

A lot of the beta elements from various magazine screenshots have been recreated, along with enemies how they were originally intended as during development they reused assets from mario 3. Did a quick hack for some box art that suits it, not many levels in there but it's fun going through & spotting all the beta elements. Nobody besides Nintendo truly knows what the beta levels looked like beyond the screenshots but this is a fun attempt. Used my uk snes to mess around on as it's a mix of stuff on there as i test various stuff out.






Remember seeing this screen in magazines a long time ago.


A lot more open looking than the final version.


Beta giant bullet bills and mario 3 goombas.


Weird donut clouds.


The racoon leaf from mario 3 before they decided to add the cape in instead.


Yoshi coins were once just big yellow ones.


Small Mario used to have a retro look compared to the final version.


Flying red coins, there are also blue ones in the game too.


Yoshi is in here too.


Except in the no Yoshi allowed levels.


Metal triangle blocks used to be there before the nicer pink ones.


The fire flower used to look like it's mario 3 incarnation.

There is more hidden in the game but didn't want to post it all.

[Nico87]

Those are some really interesting screenshots, importaku. I kinda like the NES/SNES graphics combination for some reason.

Had to unplug my SNES Classic with two new current-gen consoles in the house. My living room can only handle my GC, Wii U, Switch, One X and PS4 Pro at the same time, and I don’t even have a HDMI port available for the GC now without unplugging something else.

I do have a 24 inch 1080p Dell SuperSharp in another room but it’s only got one HDMI port and I have my PS3 Super Slim hooked up to it for PS1 games. In an ideal world I’d have everything connected to the same TV but my reasonable half has set her foot down.

Oh well, at least I know that I’m only about a minute of unplugging/plugging work away when I get the SNES urge back. I’m really into some of the current gen stuff right now though. Nintendo couldn’t cover all my bases after all.

I think my biggest issue with the SNES Classic is that I hacked it! So hard to focus on just one or two games when you have 40 other excellent games a button press away. I could actually sit there for 3 hours and just juggle between games and come bedtime I had barely made any progress in any! Think I’ll need to narrow down my games list a bit the next time I’m on my computer.