Hello everyone! Once more, it is time for my history of video games. In this edition, we will be doing Part 2 of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Before we talking about the next video game series, let's discuss the company that brought this game to the NES. The following is from the official CAPCOM website at www.capcom.com. Capcom began in Japan in 1979 as a manufacturer and distributor of electronic game machines. In 1983 Capcom Co., Ltd was founded and soon built a reputation for introducing cutting-edge technology and software to the video game market. Now an industry leader in the video game industry for 25 years, Capcom's legacy of historic franchises in home and arcade gaming are testaments to an unparalleled commitment to excellence. Building on its origins as a game machine manufacturer, Capcom is now involved in all areas of the video game industry and has offices in Tokyo, Osaka, California, England, Germany and Hong Kong. In 1987, CAPCOM would forever be put into history because of a game. The date was December 17, 1987. The video game was Mega Man. Here's the plot from Wikipedia.
The genius Dr. Light and his assistant, Dr. Wily, co-create the humanoid robot Mega Man alongside six other advanced robots: Cut Man, Guts Man, Ice Man, Bomb Man, Fire Man, and Elec Man. These robots were designed to perform industrial tasks including construction, demolition, logging, electrical operations, or labor in extreme temperatures, for the benefit of Monsteropolis's citizens. Dr. Wily grows disloyal of his partner and reprograms these six robots to aid himself in taking control of the world. Dr. Light sends Mega Man to defeat his fellow creations and stop Dr. Wily. After succeeding, Mega Man returns home to his robot sister Roll and their creator, Dr. Light.
In Mega Man, you're Rock, a robot who decided to take care of these robots in his own way. Each stage has its own challenges. At the end of the stage, you face off against one of the six robot masters. When you beat one of these robot masters, you would get a weapon that Mega Man would be able to use to help him beat the robots easier. After completing the six stages, you would face Dr. Wily in a four stage battle where you need to beat every level before attempting to beat Dr. Wily in the final stage. After defeating Dr. Wily in the final battle, Dr. Wily will surrender. This video game is unique because this version of Mega Man was the only game in where you scored points. This would be the case for all Mega Man games in the series until Mega Man Powered Up was released. Starting in Mega Man 2, the number of robot masters went from six to eight. This series has become one of the most popular of all time for the NES and all systems that had a video game based on the series. There are altered versions of the Mega Man series that you can play on various websites. This series has lasted over twenty-five years! Cheers to Mega Man, The Fighting Robot!!
The next video game I'd like to talk about is a bit simpler. In fact, I played this video game first on the Amiga 1000 computer. I was hooked on this game. It was short, less than five minutes roughly to play it from start to finish. The video game is Marble Madness. This video game which was made by Atari Games and released in December 1984 is a game where you need to get from start to finish as fast as possible. There are six isometric courses in the game: Practice, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Silly, and Ultimate. You had to get to the finish line before the timer expired or it was game over. There were various enemies in the game including a black marbles which if you got off the screen, you scored 1,000 points, acid dissolvers, hammers, green slinky objects that could jump and swallow your marble, and others. There were bonuses in almost every course with various points added to your score. At the end of the game, the final bonuses were added or subtracted to your score. You earned 20,000 points for completing the Ultimate course, 1,000 points times the amount of seconds you had remaining, and -1,000 points times every marble you lost in the game. My highest score in the game is just over 180,000 points. It's a classic and a quick game that I can play anytime and remember the good times.
Let's talk about sequels. As I mentioned above when I was talking about the Mega Man series, there have been a handful of video games that have had at least one sequel or more. A great example is the Super Mario Brothers series. Two more video games, Super Mario Brothers 2 and Super Mario Brothers 3 were produced for the NES. In Super Mario Brothers 2, you could play as Mario, Luigi, Toad, or Princess Peach. In this game, each world had three stages except for the final level which had two. The job was simple, getting from the start to the stage to the end of the stage where you faced a dinosaur like enemy called Birdo which shoots eggs or fireballs. Three hits would end the battle and thus letting you grab the circle gem which would open the eagle’s mouth which would end the level. If you got any coins in the subcon sections of the game where you could get a mushroom to get your health higher, up to four hearts. I could mention more about this game and Super Mario Brothers 3, but instead, I will mention about another game. I had mentioned about Tetris in the last edition. There would be a second video game called Tetris 2. Unlike Tetris, the object of this game was to get rid of the color cubes with a black circle in the middle of them. You got various points for completing the stage. There was another version of the game where one cube was flashing with the challenge of getting to the flashing cube and get three of the same color above or across from the cube to complete the stage.
This concludes Part 4 of my history of video games. Next time, the subject is video games that didn't do so well plus an exciting update from a previous edition of my history of video games. Andrew's History of Video Games will be back with Part 5. Until then, game over.
Andrew's History of Video Games Part 4:
The Nintendo Era Continues: Mega Man, Marble Madness, and Sequels