Year: 2007

Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge (GB): COMPLETED!

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Another day, another completed Castlevania! So this was a fair bit easier than the last one, although there was a tricky bit near the end with ropes that move up and down and then change direction, with the cogs on either end killing you. The end-of-Dracula’s-castle boss wasn’t Dracula, but Solieyu Belmont, the son of the main character (Christopher Belmont). He was under Dracula’s power, or something, and was actually bloody hard to kill, what with his whip and stuff. …

Stupid design #145: Canon MV930

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The Canon MV930 is a cheap MiniDV camcorder. We buy a couple of camcorders at work each year, and they’re normally Canons. So this one arrived last week. And nice it is too. It’s got all the features we need, and it records onto SD cards and stuff, and is reasonably rugged and simple to use. However. It has one glaring problem. You see the big white button on the back? That’s the Record button. You press it, and it …

Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge (GB)

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No sooner was the first GB Castlevania over and done with, I moved straight onto the sequel. And guess what? It’s ace. Not Aria of Sorrow ace, or even Super Castlevania IV ace, but it’s certainly waaaaay better than The Castlevania Adventure. Yeah, so it’s still slow (although not quite as slow), but it’s easier (so far), not jerky, has more detailed graphics and there aren’t any pixel-perfect jumps! BEST. You have four castles to tackle, before moving on to …

The Castlevania Adventure (GB): COMPLETED!

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Oh my! Only four levels? Just as well as if there were any more, things may have been broken on purpose. Level 3 is the real killer. The spikes are really rather hard to get past. Once you do, however, the rest of the game is pretty easy in comparison. The boss at the end of Level 3 was some sort of Harpy, who was easy to dodge, and then it was on to Level 4. It looked like there …

The Castlevania Adventure (GB)

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What? In? Hell? This has to be the slowest, hardest, most irritating game ever made. Ever. Your character (Simon? It doesn’t tell you) moves as a snails pace. You have no subweapons. You can’t jump very far (and the game is full of pixel-perfect jumps), you only have three lives, often when you die you go back miles, and the whole game jerks and judders all over the place. Ace! So I spent AGES trying to get past the Stepping …

Castlevania (PS2)

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I worked my way through the House of Whatsit (I can’t remember it’s real name) and found three buttons which seem to activate locks. Or parts of them, anyway. I then got to a door that I need a Yellow Dragon Key to open, and generally ran out of places to go. I warped back to the shop, and bought some stuff, before going back into the castle and trying the Anti-Soul Mysteries “level”. No, really. That’s what it’s called. …

Kirby’s Adventure (Wii): COMPLETED!

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Well, it was actually several sessions play today, rather than just one long go, but I reached the end, defeated Dedede, and then beat Nightmare. Hurrah! I noticed that the last level (the one in black and white) was actually some sort of medley of the levels from the original Game Boy Kirby game. I’d never realised that before. I just thought it was black and white for some sort of arty reason. It explains why you don’t get any …

Contact (DS)

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I found an archaeologist, and led him through the pyramid I could get further through than the other one (if you see what I mean). I then found a secret room, and in it, some panels on the floor – one for each attack type. I walked over them all, and the Striking one disappeared and boosted my stats, but I don’t know what to do with the other two. I then left, and bumped up my cooking skills to …

Kirby’s Adventure (Wii)

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Friday, as always, is New Wii Virtual Console day. But the games actually appear at 11pm on Thursday. One of this weeks games, was Kirby’s Adventure, originally for the NES. And, it is of course, Most Ace. Played through all of the first world (which was only actually 4 levels and a boss), but then it was getting late.

Contact (DS)

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Hmm. I seem to be a bit stuck. I’ve explored a load of Aegis, found two pyramids (one of which I can’t do anything in, and the other appears to finish as a dead end), and talked to lots of people, but I don’t know what to do now. I bought some herbs, filled my bottles with water and tried using my recipe for potions. But it doesn’t work. So I thought I’d use my recipe for Thai curry instead …

Castlevania (PS2)

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A new Castlevania game for me to play! And my first 3D Castlevania too. Well, aside from about ten minutes with the abortion that is Castlevania 64. I didn’t really know what to expect. Incidently, in the UK this game is just called “Castlevania“, which kind of makes sense as it’s chronologically the very first “episode” in the series, but elsewhere it has the subtitle “Lament of Innocence“. I’ve not spent long with it yet, having only watched the opening …

Galaksija

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No, I didn’t sneeze. According to “resident” of #spin (a super top-secret geeky IRC channel, for super top-secret geeks, and me) Tom-Cat: Galaksija is a Z80 based computer built in ex-Yugoslavia during the best computer years (80’s 😉 ). I have no idea what it is. At all. Anyway, Mr Cat (I’m not really on first name terms with him) has written a Galaksija emulator. For the Spectrum. As you do. I downloaded it, read the Readme (which didn’t really …

Contact (DS)

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I thought the next boss was going to be Mint, and I certainly met her, but no. It turned out to be a big machine (controlled by a lab technician on the top screen) and a load of soldiers (which kept being “beamed in” by another lab technician). Both were overseen by a man in a hat. And it was the most amazing boss fight ever. You have to kill all the soldiers before you can attack the machine, but …