The Discarded Dozen

We’ve all heard about it, never thinking– or at least, always hoping– that it could never happen to us.

You have a collection precious to you, pertaining to a much-beloved hobby or pastime; some of the items possess a significant market value, while others are merely sentimental (though in many cases, it’s a combination of both). As long as you draw breath, no harm shall come to that which you’ve acquired, held on to, and cherish as a part of your collection.

Then it happens: When you’re at your most vulnerable, your most helpless to do anything about it… they’re gone. Sometimes it’s a fire, a flood, or a burglary; others, it’s someone who doesn’t understand, appreciate– or worse, just doesn’t care about the value the items hold, whether it be to the market or in the recesses of your own mind. Before you know it, before you can object, before you can do anything, the items have been tossed in a dumpster, hauled to a landfill, or even just sold for mere pennies at a yard sale you never even knew took place.

It’s not unfamiliar territory for me. Not too long ago, I discovered betrayal from a place I never expected as some of my most valued collections of books– about the first 13 years or so of Nintendo Power, the entire run of SEGA Visions, a variety of other video game and wrestling magazines, and my entire complete run of Marvel’s Transformers (Generation 1 and 2) were cast away to a dumpster, with nothing I could do. Nothing except rebuild.

Fortunately, thanks to a fellow member of The Allspark, I was able to at least reacquire most of the Nintendo Power issues and then some, though I still lack the second issue. Bittersweet was that just under a year later, IDW would start Transformers: Regeneration One, a 20-issue continuation/conclusion to the stories I no longer possessed (I still need to get those).

More recently, it happened again. While I would prefer not to get into all the details, I had some small possessions being held at my parents’ house, which was recently sold. Among those items were one dozen complete Nintendo Entertainment System games (box, booklet, game cartridge, inserts, and sometimes even the original cellophane wrapper, carefully cut) which I just had not been able to bring back home with me for one reason or another. Despite my urging that these be held on to, if nothing else, they wound up going with the house. I’ve tried reaching the realtors to find out if they could still be salvaged, and while it’s not strictly hopeless yet, it doesn’t look good.

So, as a means of turning lemons into lemonade while venting simultaneously, I thought I’d write about these 12 games here: My memories of them and what they meant to me, as well as how much it would cost to replace them (since I looked out of curiosity already). For that latter point, I took a quick look over sold (not just completed) auctions on eBay.com for the lowest and highest prices they’ve sold for, not including those that look like they’ve been run over and also not including shipping fees or whether they even sold internationally (though those that do usually tack on about $10+). I’m hopeful that someday I can reacquire at least some of these at some point, though money is generally a bit tight to splurge on this sort of thing.

Also, please note that rather than trying to rank the dozen (which could take me a very, very long time), this list is in alphabetical order.

Cost to replace: $15.50 – $89.99

Significance: Well, we’re starting off with a bang here. Bionic Commando is one of my favorite games of all time. If I could think of a way to describe it, it would be “underappreciated,” both in its own day as well as today. It has its fans, to be sure, and those who know the joys of swinging from a bionic arm which serves as a grappling hook understand its greatness. But then you have those who don’t understand why he doesn’t just jump, leading to such things as a jump button in the more recent Bionic Commando Rearmed 2.

Speaking of which, if there’s one reason this one doesn’t sting quite as much as others, it would be because of the Xbox Live/PlayStation Network release of Bionic Commando Rearmed, a remake of this NES game developed as a prequel to the short-lived Bionic Commando revival. Even though the newer version made a lot of improvements to the game overall, the original just has certain charms unique to it, perhaps on account of being a product of its time.

I mean, how many NES games can you name that feature Adolf Hitler literally cursing at you before you blow him up with a rocket launcher? Not too many, I’m afraid. Not too many at all.

With any luck, whatever spat led to Capcom or Nintendo not releasing this on the Virtual Console will be remedied in due time.

Cost to replace: $7.00 – $66.00

Significance: Like several other games on this list started out when I was a kid, this one basically began as one of my dad’s games. As such, it was also one I was content to basically just lay on the floor (before doing so could be considered a “bad” idea for me) and watch him play through. This would probably be due to him having significantly more patience than I did at the time, ready to deal with stiff controls or whatever the game would throw at him.

The game itself is basically a clone of Namco’s Rolling Thunder at its core, but it has its own unique attributes and charms as well. In particular, the South American setting as you hunt down drug lords while rescuing hostages sets the stage for some nice toe-tapping NES-era Capcom tunes and some graphics which far exceed the NES version of its inspiration– even if it looks like the titular agent Viper looks like he’s not wearing any pants.

And like Bionic Commando, for what it’s worth, this is what would probably have been considered a “mature” NES game before the Entertainment Software Ratings Board even existed. It wasn’t particularly bloody, there wasn’t a lot of cursing or anything, but the storyline had an overall more mature feel that was easy to appreciate as a kid.

More recently, I got to review the game for HonestGamers, and you can find that here.

Interestingly enough, Code Name: Viper is rarely mentioned among Capcom’s archive of games and heroes. It seems potentially fit for a revival or remake of some kind, especially with the style Capcom is going for these days, but there’s not been so much as a Virtual Console release in all the years since.

Cost to replace: $6.50 – $39.99

Significance: Lunar Pool was another “parent purchase”– that is, games they bought for them to play, though I spent plenty of time with this one as well. With a two-player mode, I remember playing this one a lot, either by myself or with my late mother. And with 60 different tables of varying shapes and sizes and a lot of options to tweak, there was plenty to play.

I’m not especially good at pool, but I’m decent at it, at least. Well, better than someone who has never played before, anyway. This is despite having spent a part of my childhood at an arcade/pool hall my parents used to run, which is where I believe I learned to play. Unlike real pool, though, there were a lot of different shapes, sizes, and layouts for the tables here to keep things interesting, and perhaps even level the playing field just a bit.

On the bright side, at least this one is on the Virtual Console– something of a minor miracle, as most games on this list seem like they either should already be but aren’t, or likely never will. Either way, that absence makes their loss all the more regretful.

If you’re interested in my HonestGamers review, here you go.

Cost to replace: $4.99 – $26.00

Significance: I mentioned before that my dad had more patience than I did when I was a kid, including while playing video games, and this title proves it beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Platoon is a game most people won’t even touch, and for good reason: It is absolutely brutal. And yet my dad, a veteran of the war this movie-inspired game was based on, was able to completely beat it. I don’t mean with codes, with Game Genies, with FAQs, or any of that stuff– he did it legit. Some people might hold that claim today, but back then, it seemed practically unheard of, and watching him play was one of those rare treats, almost like one of those Wizard moments when you watch someone not only play, but effectively dominate a game in a way you know you have no hope of matching.

Speaking of FAQs, Fun Fact: I talked about our local video rental store a while back, and well before there were FAQs you could look up online, my dad mapped out and created a guide for getting through the game. He gave a copy to the rental store, and those who rented Platoon usually got the guide with it, as that was the only way anyone could hope to progress.

Sadly, while I’m not 100 percent certain, I fear that the guide (along with the rest my parents made for various games, such as The Legend of Zelda) might have been callously discarded alongside the Nintendo Power magazines. If I turn out to be lucky and come across them, I’ll see about sharing them here sometime if there is interest.

In any case, though, I feel like this game set a bar that established my father as a true “hardcore” gamer– arguably more than I may ever be.

Cost to replace: $11.50 – $37.99

Significance: If you follow me on Twitter (and if you don’t, feel free), you’ve probably seen me crow about Rad Racer time and again, usually with the intent of getting designer Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of the Final Fantasy series) and composer Nobuo Uematsu (who scored many of the Final Fantasy games) to come together again at the former’s new company, Mistwalker, to create a spiritual sequel to this game.

Why a spiritual sequel? Because the original belongs to Square Enix, and while I’m admittedly curious as to what they would do with it, I think I’d be more interested in seeing the original creators get Mighty No. 9 with it. Technology has advanced just a bit in the past 27 years, and I’m curious to see how those two would represent their vision now.

Full disclosure: This was actually one of the first NES games I ever owned, one my parents picked up and played as well, and crappy attempt at replicating the Japanese version’s actually good 3D aside, I still love it. The landscapes and the music are both classic, and while some may consider it a poor man’s OutRun, it’s still pretty good. Good enough to be one of only three games which comprised the 1990 Nintendo World Championships, at that, and the game was already three years old by then!

Strangely, though Nintendo and Square Enix seem to be on good terms now with a decent number of Virtual Console and Nintendo eShop releases, the Nintendo-published Rad Racer (and its sequel, which I never got to play) are not among them.

If you’re curious about my full thoughts on the game, guess what: There’s an HonestGamers review for that.

Cost to replace: $4.25 – $24.05 (sealed)

Significance: Okay, so here’s a confession: I don’t think I ever actually played this one.

Yep, you guessed it: Another one of my dad’s games. Silent Service is a submarine simulator, designed by Sid Meier for home computers and ported to the NES by none other than Rare, under Konami’s “Ultra Games” imprint.

Down Periscope, this wasn’t. As sims tend to be, it was as slow as you can imagine as you sail the waters of the Pacific Ocean during World War II and finding enemy ships to sink with your torpedoes by utilizing realistic tactics, hoping that they don’t do the same to you in the process. I never played it myself, but I did watch on occasion, and can still hear the humming of the submarine’s engines even now.

Naturally, this game serves as another great demonstration of my dad’s patience. However, I honestly have no idea whether he ever actually beat it or not. That said, I think that some of the more interesting/exciting elements of the game and remembering him playing it are what helped spur my interest in Nintendo’s own much simpler submarine series, Steel Diver.

Cost to replace: $9.99 – $19.94

Significance: Admittedly, I haven’t talked as much about Midway/Williams on this site as I should have. I’ll have to make a point to remedy that one day, but suffice to say, they stand out in my mind as a key player, an icon if you will, of the American arcade scene throughout the 80s and the 90s. Granted, their final years were dismal, but thinking back to when you could get some good gaming for a quarter a turn, I think of Midway.

Arguably, one of Midway’s more notable titles during the pre-Mortal Kombat early 90s was Smash TV: A top-down dual-stick shooter which placed you in the role of a contestant on a futuristic television game show which draws inspiration from such movies as The Running Man and RoboCop as you fight hordes of foes for fabulous prizes (and your life)! Fact: The line “I’d buy that for a dollar” makes me think of this game before RoboCop, the film from which it originated.

One interesting tidbit about this particular version of the game is that in order to emulate the dual-joystick controls of the arcade, there is an option allowing you to use two NES controllers at once, utilizing the Dpad on each. On the NES, there’s nothing else quite like it that I know of (the Super NES version’s four face buttons apparently approximated the second joystick well enough).

Believe it or not, this one doesn’t sting quite as much as others on this list. While I’d still love to have it again because I’m a Midway fan (despite the ports being handled by Acclaim), it’s that very fact which eases that pain, seeing as I own all three volumes of Midway Arcade Treasures for the GameCube. That has the original arcade version, and with two analog sticks, it’s about as authentic as you can get.

Incidentally, I hope that Warner Bros. (who purchased Midway’s assets in 2009) will consider including Smash TV as a part of their recently-announced “WB Games Vault” initiative.

Cost to replace: $9.99 – $49.99

Significance: Well, I’ve written on my attachment to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles before, including how it was their break into video games which first led to me being a fan in the first place. But I stopped short of talking about the second NES game, based on their first arcade game.

I mentioned before that for a time, my parents ran an arcade/pool hall, and this was one of the games in it. Well, the original version. While I’m one of a relative few who did enjoy the original NES game, even I could easily recognize that the arcade game was leagues beyond, like playing the actual cartoon. Hence why I would soon after beg my dad to get it for his own arcade. (I also spoke in a recent Nintendo Force of how I teamed with three strangers to beat the game for the first time. Good memories.)

Back in the day, you could get away with releasing a game that didn’t match the arcade original exactly. While the graphics and sound might not have been as flashy and rich, other changes were often incorporated, some of which arguably made the home experience even better than the technically superior arcade originals. Heck, most people seem to prefer the Super NES version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time to the arcade version, despite having half as many players and fewer animations and sound bytes. To this day, people prefer it to the original and the Xbox Live/PlayStation Network remake, though there are a host of other reasons for that.

What Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game brought to the table were two new stages featuring all new foes to fight. Included among these were jumping robotic snowmen and a wolf-like alien bounty hunter named Tora, who took over a snow-covered Central Park with a deluxe version of the same weather satellite seen in the cartoon’s pilot episodes for one new stage. The other was a Japanese castle filled with blade-chucking henchmen and robotic scorpions, all leading to an encounter with the Shogun before one could tackle the Technodrome. TMNT has had numerous formidable duos over the years, from Bebop and Rocksteady to Tokka and Rahzar to Fishface and Dogpound. Tora and Shogun fit right in, but were only ever seen in this particular version of the arcade game.

Unlike the first NES game, this one supported two players, and while I’ve played it with a few others, I still fondly remember my dad actually joining in to give me a hand against the foes I was facing. Which was kind of fitting, as he also watched those first episodes of the cartoon show with me when I would rent them.

I suppose it might also be worth noting that the game came with a coupon for a free Personal Pan Pizza from Pizza Hut, which tied in to this version’s unique in-game advertisements. Despite otherwise keeping my games, booklets, etc. in the best condition possible, I admittedly felt that a free pizza from the Turtles and Konami via one of my favorite games was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up, and had to plead to my parents for us to go to Pizza Hut before it expired. No regrets.

This is one of those games which today seems unlikely to ever see re-release. The original NES game was released on the Virtual Console– a rarity for a licensed game, which is likely why it had a $1 mark-up over the price of most other NES games. It wound up disappearing before the sequel would ever arrive.

Meanwhile, Xbox Live Arcade had the original arcade game, but it too has since been removed. And while I do have that one and appreciate everything it delivers (including a faulty attract mode), you can see here that the NES version clearly has its own set of unique charms and memories attached to it.

Cost to replace: $7.86 – $29.33

Significance: You know, I’ve never seen Top Gun. It’s on my to-do list, as it’s one of those 80s movies that it seems like everyone– at least, everyone from back then– has seen. The NES game, though? This was one of my first, alongside Rad Racer, The Legend of Zelda, and Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt (naturally). And as yet another licensed game, its chances of appearing on the Virtual Console are approximately nil.

I never got too far into it, just into the third level, as it was a tough game (which has been well documented {NSFW}). Unlike the Angry Video Game Nerd, though, my parents and I could land the plane most of the time; we didn’t use the Power Glove, but the Quickshot joystick (which I’ve managed to hold on to) probably helped.

This was another one both of my parents played, and quite a bit. In fact, they managed to make it to the fourth and final stage, though apparently no further than that. (I’m pretty sure they’ve seen the movie, too. I really need to get on that.)

It’s also worth noting that the game had a rather nice soundtrack, one characteristic of Konami games of the day… well, save for the actual flying part, which is basically just white noise. But as one of my first games, it triggers a sense of nostalgia like few other games can.

Cost to replace: $4.99 – $20.00

Significance: Like Bionic Commando and Code Name: Viper, this was one of those “mature” NES games, featuring all sorts of naughtiness that I hadn’t a single clue about when I was a kid. Of course, at the time, I didn’t know that Golgo 13 wasn’t simply a video game character, but was actually the star of a manga which has run from 1968 to the current day (the oldest still in publication, to say nothing of appearances in anime, movies, etc.). Naturally, that’s part of why a re-release on a service like Virtual Console is unlikely to ever happen. That, and Vic Tokai bowing out of gaming back in 1998 probably doesn’t help matters, either.

This was another game that was more my parents’, and which I would simply watch them play. Mostly, this was due to the game having “backwards” controls (B was jump), and I either couldn’t quite wrap my head around such a bizarre scheme, or I just didn’t want to. So watching them play had to do.

Watching was still fun, though, as Golgo 13, aka Duke Togo, was a pretty badass guy. While being a professional assassin is probably not enough to help him stand out among a number of gaming heroes, how many do you know who do the job using a customized M-16 with a scope? Plus, according to Wikipedia, “The name ‘Golgo 13′ is a reference to the death of Jesus Christ. Golgo is short for Golgotha, the place of Jesus’ crucifixion. The number 13 is considered an unlucky number because there were thirteen participants at Jesus’ Last Supper before his execution. Also, Golgo 13’s logo is a skeleton wearing a Crown of Thorns.”

That’s pretty hardcore.

Too hardcore for Nintendo, perhaps. While the inclusion of cyborg Hitler and a Swastika got by their censorship, they at the very least made certain that Togo would not be referred to as an “assassin.” Rather, he was to be referred to as a “spy,” since that’s a little less evocative of violence and gore. Meanwhile, the resurrected Nazi regime was renamed the “DREK” empire– perhaps a sign that the folks localizing the game didn’t think very highly of such censorship? Still other no-nos of the time, such as smoking, sex, and drug use, managed to somehow sneak their way in.

Cost to replace: $11.99 – $32.99

Significance: Unlike Top Gun, I have seen this movie (and have been meaning to get a DVD so my wife can see it, too). Like Top Gun, however, it being a licensed game means that a Virtual Console re-release is pretty unlikely, unless Capcom can manage to get the rights again for a song. Maybe then we could see the arcade version finally get a home port, too.

Whereas the arcade version was a platformer, Willow was basically– for lack of a better term– a Zelda clone. A top-down three-quarters perspective was used as you guided Willow all across the land as he seeks to protect the baby girl prophesized to bring about the downfall of the evil Queen Bavmorda, but elements of more traditional RPGs were present, too. For instance, talking to people had framed cutscenes similar to some encounter screens in other games, and you could level up Willow throughout the game.

While not quite as good as The Legend of Zelda, Willow was still a great game that did some things which almost made it feel like a bridge of sorts between the original NES titles and A Link to the Past on the Super NES. For example, though Zelda II brought talking to people into the series, Willow did it from the more traditional top-down perspective (save for the folks living in caves in the original game). Willow’s strikes with his sword were more varied, too, as he could stab in a fashion similar to Link’s own on the NES, or he could swing his sword in an arc, as Link would go on to do on the Super NES and most games thereafter.

Cost to replace: $7.90 – $41.00

Significance: It’s ironic, in a way, that despite going in alphabetical order to avoid ranking, the game I will likely miss the most would come here. In other words, the best has been saved for last, for lack of a better term.

While some of the other “top” entries on this list at least have alternatives– Bionic Commando has Rearmed, while TMNT II: The Arcade Game has the actual arcade game– Wizards & Warriors was made by Rare, and so now seems to belong to Microsoft, which I lamented a while back as I wrote about properties I wish they’d update. It seems rather unlikely that they’ll ever touch it again, which makes this loss hit hard, but then again, they did outsource Killer Instinct. Personally, I’d love to see WayForward take a stab at reviving it.

One memory that resonates with me about this one is that I remember it being one my mother wanted to play, and joining my dad as we drove around in search of it well before there were GameStops everywhere you look. If I’m not mistaken, we found a copy at a now-defunct discount chain store called Sky City. If memory serves, Sky City wasn’t particularly great as a place for toys, so that they carried NES games would seem to be a sign of how big the NES phenomenon was back in the day.

In any case, I think Rare did a great job with this one, as it became one of my favorite games. It had great graphics and an awesome soundtrack by David Wise, who is well known for his compositions for numerous Rare titles, including the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. It was a little easy, but still fun as you discovered new items and became more powerful, all with a medieval flair.

Unfortunately, sequels became an iffy matter. Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II was contracted out to Zippo Games, and they turned in a much more difficult product, thanks to the limitations placed on lives and continues. While my parents and I did play that one a bit (though they played it more, but never successfully beat it that I’m aware of), none of us got to try out the third title, Wizards & Warriors III: Kuros: Visions of Power, nor the Game Boy installment, Wizards & Warriors X: The Fortress of Fear (though that’s another story).

Naturally, it’s the fondness and the memories I have for this game combined with the franchise seemingly condemned to Microsoft Limbo that make the loss of this game sting extra-hard. Maybe someday I can get this again, and pursue the sequels while I’m at it.

Bonus:

Cost to replace: $1.04 – $25.00

Significance: Okay, this one is admittedly something of a cheat, but I’m including it as a bonus due to the odd circumstances behind it. I’m not quite sure how it happened, but I actually have this game here with me now; the game cartridge and even the instruction manual are here with me, but for some reason, I left the box back at my parents’ place. I guess I only had just enough room left, and opted to go for some of it, rather than none.

Looking on eBay, while I’ve seen numerous boxes being sold alone for games, toys, and more, this is not one of the items for which that is the case. Go figure. Strangely enough, one guy sold the box and all the inserts, but no game, for $23.99– more than getting the entire set can cost you. Weird.

For those who don’t know Casino Kid, it’s basically what you get when you take a Japanese Role Playing Game and place it in a Las Vegas-style casino, replacing turn-based battles with card duels in poker and blackjack. This one was one of my parents’ games early on, and I remember watching them both play it many times over. Strangely enough, though, my parents never checked out the sequel when it was released.

A more thorough look at the game can be found in my HonestGamers review here.

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And there you have it, my 12 recently-lost classic games. With any luck, I’ll hear some good news about them, but I’m not holding my breath at this point. If that does happen, though, I’ll be sure to update this post.

In the meantime, have you ever lost some games, or even toys, comics, magazines, or something else dear to you in such a way? Then share it in the comments! After all, misery loves company.

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Addendum:

Since posting this article, I’ve discovered there were actually two more NES games lost with the lot: Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos.

Suffice to say, these are two classics, and while the Ninja Gaiden games Tecmo are making now are cool and all, these will always be the games foremost in my mind when thinking of the adventures of Ryu Hayabusa, as well as Irene Lew and Robert T.S. As NES games go, these two are fairly iconic.

Fortunately for me, I already have the first on Wii U Virtual Console, thanks to a review I did for Nintendo Force, and hopefully the second will be there soon, along with the third one I never owned. Given how difficult these games are, being able to use the Restore Points is a bit of a blessing here!

Anyway, keeping the alliterative title and just adding these here for my own reference. As for prices… well, these aren’t going to be cheap to replace.

Cost to replace:

Ninja Gaiden – $19.78 – $132.50

Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos – $25.95 – $50.00

Addendum 2: And RoboWarrior. Screw it, I’m not looking it up now, and I have no idea how I missed so many. All the more disappointing, though, I assure you.