Gaming Bits: Star Wars Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series

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ATATATATA!!!!!! 2-HIT COMBO!!!!!!

Star Wars is easily the biggest Hollywood franchise out there, You could argue that the Marvel Cinematic Universe surpassed it recent years, But without Star Wars, we wouldn't have Franchising, Merchandising (Especially since they invented the modern action figure), or Long term serialization and expansions to the story. So in other words Genre films wouldn't be  the same without Star Wars. That being said however, one form of merchandise is video games, with sub series that could be Gaming Bits onto themselves, but one series might be my personal Favorite (and no I'm not talking about the Sega game from the 90s, though it is my favorite Star Wars game), I'm talking about the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight Series...

Gaming Bits Quickie: Nazo no Murasame-Jou

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Cham Chambara! Chambara! Chambara Bara! Chambara! NAZO NO MURASAME-JOU!!!!! In 1986 the Famicom Disk System Was Released, It was launched with Mystery of Murasame Castle. It became a success, It was released on the NES as "Quest to Murasame Castle". It spawned a franchise that still goes on to this day up to this day, to the Wii U and 3DS, or that's what I would say if this game had been a success, What happened?

Gaming Bits: Flash/Shockwave games from my childhood (GB Topic Buffet Vol. 1)...

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Sooooooooo, How 'bout that NX Reveal (which is now named Switch (a better name than Wii U Indeed)? It was... Interesting, we don't know it's full lineup for the first year, or the price, or an exact release date... But look at all the 3rd parties on board, you can play it as a console or a handheld, and a chip by NVidia, but yeah color me hopeful, not exactly on board yet, but hopeful....

Gaming Bits Quickie: Why the Sonic Adventure duology is still (relatively) awesome

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In 1997, Sonic was set to release his first 3D outing ever, it had great graphics for the Sega Saturn, but it wasn't meant to be. sonic wasn't meant for the Saturn, and the so called Sonic X-Treme was never released... but Sonic did have sort of a tech demo for the first true 3D outing on the Dreamcast, while it was once praised for it's fast paced 3D gameplay, it was later criticized for being glitchy, the second game was more of the same, just with bad fanfiction like storylines, but was it really that bad?

Gaming Bits: In Defense of Donkey Kong 64...

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There have been many games that were once praised when they first came out that people just don't think are that good anymore. Just look at the Sonic Adventure Duology (which I'll probably get to to fill in the need for Sonic 25th anniversary stuff on this blog), and Super Mario Sunshine. But there's also games that are essentially guilty pleasures despite being panned at launch (See ET, Superman 64, and Sonic 06). But one game has gotten an unfair rap in recent years... So in honor of DK turning 35 years old, lets defend Donkey Kong 64...

Gaming Bits Quickie: Zone Of the Enders...

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A moment of silence, to the ones we lost 15 years ago today at 9/11...
































In the Early 2000s, Mechs were the biggest thing worldwide. They were big for decades in japan, but When Gundam came to Toonami, Gunplas became big in America for a while, there was a demand for mecha anime in the west unseen in years before. We've gone from the crappy Dubs of Dangaioh, and Giant Robo to the amazing Dubs of Gundam Wing and Evangelion, along this new found demand came new games... MechaWarrior 2 was good but it was pretty slow paceed in Comparison of...

Gaming Bits: Nintendo Satellaview

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Has anyone in the early 90s who have been the right age to be a Nintendo kid and wanted a Sega channel like service for the SNES? What if I told you that was a thing,, but only in Japan. If you got some foreign exchange student to get you a Super Famicom Plus a Satellaview back in the day and wondered why it didn't work, which none of that happened to any of you, but it's totally hypothetical, but if it did happen to you, here's what happened...

Gaming Bits: Famicom Data Recorder and Family BASIC...

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I honestly don't know if I can dedicate a whole segment to this thing, but I said I'd do this because right as I post a new gaming bits, I have to stick with the next segment idea until it gets written, and only then do Ideas come to my head, after that once I write a segment, My mind crashes, burns, and goes blank, so I'm forced to write stupid crap like this, here it's not stupid so much as it's not the best. Then again I dedicated a whole third of a year on a bunch of the most interesting consoles of the late 90s... Ah well, here's the Famicom data recorder...

Gaming Bits: Ratchet & Clank core series (Da F**K's a Lombax?)

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First a Ottsel, now a Lombax, When will Sony stop presenting me with these weird Pokemon things, it's bad enough that Sega introduced the Echidna to existence, I mean jeebus, there's a whole world of species to introdu...

Yoshiette 1: Ummmmmm...... The Echidna already exists...

A. Yoshi: Next you're going to tell me that Pikachu's exists...

YE1: THEY DO!!!!!

AY: WHERE?!

YE1: Pikachu Island, somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

AY: Prove it, See you never!

Gaming Bits: Jak & Daxter series

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The year was 2000, the most successful console of all time was released, it could play DVDs, It had hits in every genre, every 3rd party franchise (old and new), it had great graphics, and could play all your PlayStation 1 games. it was known as the PlayStation 2 (real creative name, amirite). Sony along with every 3rd part publisher joined the fun, one of those masterpieces was the Jak and Daxter series. how was this series created? what were it's games like? and  whatever happened to this series? All this and more on Gaming Bits...

Gaming Bits: The Nintendo 64DD (N64 20th anniversary special)

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I Already discussed the 64 several times on this blog, but did you know that the 64 had an add on? It was only released in Japan, and pretty much bombed there too. What happened? What makes this console so interesting? Is it worth buying today? Find out all this and more on Gaming Bits...

Gaming Bits: the winners and losers of E3 2016...

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So another E3 came and went, and it was... Interesting? I don't know, There was some good announcements, bad announcements, and there were were some major WTFs this year. Let's get to the meat and potatoes of E3 this year...

Gaming Bits: Getting the best image quality out of your retro games, Exploring your options...

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RGB: Red, Green, and Blue, The national colors of gaming. OK once upon a time it was all the primary colors, now it's green and brown at least in western regions, but that's for another day. Red, Green, and Blue allows for millions of colors, from yellows, to cyans, to magentas, but what's the best way to get all these colors on older systems. Time to explore your options...

Gaming Bits: History of the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16: Part 3: Ambitious Endings (1994-1999) (56k Warning)

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In the mid 90s, the PC-Engine was a formidable competitor to the Super Famicom, but in 1994 the new fifth generation consoles were on their way, most notable the Playstation, the Saturn, and the Nintendo 64. NEC was more than ready, they had 2 big ideas, they were an upgrade to the PC Engine and a true 32 bit successor to the PC Engine. Lets get to the conclusion of this epic, right now!!!

Gaming Bits: History of the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16: Part 2: The Heyday of the Console (1989-1994) (56k Warning)

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When we last left off, The PC-Engine was the king of the home Console market, with it being more successful than the Famicom and Mega Drive, It couldn't help but mature against a pressurized market with a success or of the Famicom on the horizon, and The console feeling a little dated by 1989, so NEC Was at work of a successor, which turned out to be...

Gaming Bits: History of the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16: Part 1: Dethroning The Big N (1987-1989) (56k Warning)

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I did this YEARS AGO!!!!! DO I HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN?! I did a history piece on the PC Engine years ago for all 2 of you who remember the Real Gaming News Network, but I want to make a newer version of this so yeah, this month on the A. Yoshi Blog is PC-Engine Month!!!!! In 1987, The Nintendo Famicom was at it's peak, with exclusives like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, The Mysterious Murasame Castle, along with other 3rd party hits like Castlevania, Mega Man, Bubble Bobble, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and many others. But NEC and Hudson Soft had an idea to make a more powerful console. This had everything going for it, but it was only really successful in japan, and a decade later, Hudson was back to hardware only. What was this mysterious console's story? What did it have going for it? Find out on PC-Engine Month!!!!!

Gaming Bits: A SuperNerd's Guide to Japanese Computers: Part 3: The Fujitsu FM-7/FM-77/FM-77AV/FM Towns (56k Warning)

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PREVIOUSLY ON GAMING BITS...

ARCADE PORTS!!!!!

Now onto the final part of this miniseries.

Gaming Bits: A SuperNerd's Guide to Japanese Computers: Part 2:The Sharp X1/X1 Turbo/X68000 (56k Warning)

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PREVIOUSLY ON GAMING BITS...

GAMES WITH BOOBIES, BUTTS, BRAS, PANTIES, BIKINIS, and, oh, Games with a massive language barrier you're better off playing elsewhe...

A. Yoshi: GET LOST, YOU STUPID CREEP!!!!!

Joe Tokugawa: Shut up, You're no better as evident by you're likes, favorites on several so...

AY: SHUT UP, UGLY NERD!!!!!

JT: And don't let me get started on your relationship with...

AY: F**K YOU, YOU'RE SO DEAD!!!!!

*Joe disappears with a popping sound effect and without moving*

DAMMIT!! WHERE DID YOU GO?!

Gaming Bits: A SuperNerd's Guide to Japanese Computers: Part 1: The NEC PC-8801/9801/9821 (56k Warning)

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ATATATATA!!!!!! 2-HIT COMBO!!!!!!
READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!

If you look at how many Japanese Game Companies started out making computer games, the list is actually pretty astonishing. Square, Enix, Koei, HAL Laboratory, ASCII, T&E Soft, Compile, Hudson, Micro Cabin, Bothtec, Nihon Falcom, Game Arts, among others, some of who I'm going to have top dedicate a whole Gaming Bits Series on. Heck Nintendo Initially marketed the Famicom in Japan as a sort of Computer, even Sega Converted the SG-1000 as a Computer with accessories to boot. I already talked about the MSX (which I have to revisit someday), but this computer dominice wouldn't have been a thing without computers like the NEC PC Series.

Gaming Bits: Chip's Challenge

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There's many great games in the Windows Entertainment Pack. It had many solitaire variations like Golf, Tut's Tomb, Cruel, Freecell, TriPeaks, and other puzzle and card games, like Dr. Blackjack Taipei (a mahjong type of game), Jezzball, Maxwell's Maniac, Klotski (a sliding blocks game), Pipe Dream, Rodent's Revenge, Rattler Race, Stones, and more, but My favorites are SkiFree, Fuji Golf, and of course, Chip's Challenge. SkiFree should be it's own gaming bits someday, but here we're talking solely Chip's Challenge...