Thread by @IndieGamerChick

This is the #IGCvSegaSG1000 Thread #2

What is Sega SG-1000?

It's Sega's 1st game console, releasing in 1983. It came out only in Japan and Australia/New Zealand.

In terms of power, it's pretty much equal to a Colecovision and contains the same CPU and most internal components.

Head over to the first thread:

This thread will cover everything between Championship Lode Runner and Hang-On 2.

Let's get started!

Champion Lode Runner

Lode Runner was the first Famicom third-party game that could be considered a bonafide hit. Everyone wanted their own version of it.

Irem held the distribution rights, but it was Compile (creators of Puyo Puyo) who developed this port. Let's get it on!

Oh my.

Okay, so the graphics are pretty close to the original 8-bit computer version.

And I locked myself in an unwinnable situation right off the bat. Smooth, Cat.

BTW, these graphics can work. Check out my review for the excellent Switch platformer Kuso!

indiegamerchick.com/2019/01/23/kus…

We are talking extreme difficulty here.

To be honest, I'm not sure how you're supposed to beat this. You can't jump, nor can you climb a ladder above your head. There's no way to get back up off the ground level, so it seems like the first level is impossible.

Fuck it, I quit. NEXT

I did figure it out.

Choplifter

People think of Choplifter as a Sega franchise, but in fact, Dan Gorlin designed the original for 8-bit computers and Sega simply saw a winner in it and bought it.

This is a port of the 8-bit original. Sega turned this into a perfectly serviceable game.. in arcade.

Here, I couldn't take-out a single tank. The combat is not good.

The jets just fly in and there's a good chance you won't be able to defend yourself before you're already shot down.

I'm going NO pile. It might be a good port of the PC original, but this isn't great.

I'm skipping a bunch of educational games and going to the next Taiwan bootleg of an MSX game.

It's Circus Charlie, which is one of my favorite underrated games WHEN DONE RIGHT.

When Circus Charlie is bad, it's a freak show.

See what I did there?

You know what? Not bad.

Now, bootlegs on SG-1000 are a bit of a cheat. The SG1K and the MSX (a console/computer hybrid that Konami put the lion's share of their weight behind) were so close that bootleg SG1K consoles had a switch to play both.

Bootlegs were easy port jobs.

The monkey level is brutal. They back up. It's not entirely built like the original.

Circus Charlie on SG-1000 is fine. I imagine when I do #IGCvMSX, it's going to be something along these lines.

So, the Taiwan bootlegs move to 2 for 3. Wow. That's kinda insane.

Congo Bongo

Once upon a time, Sega thought THIS WAS IT!

This was their Donkey Kong. Their Defender. Their defining game that would put them on the map. Congo even looks like Donkey Kong.

It didn't happen. Hell, I'd argue Sega didn't have a generational game until Sonic in 1991

Their take of Congo Bongo is much closer to Donkey Kong than the arcade game, which is basically "Donkey Kong, done isometrically."

The animation is so minimal that I swear it's like playing a Game & Watch.

This is not bad, but the enemy parameters are weirdly done. Like, the snakes don't move back and forth unless you prompt them to.

But, actually..

I kinda like this more than previous ports of Congo Bongo I've played.

Duh, I'm stoned..

Sadly, there's only two levels and they repeat frequently. The jumping physics are truly awful too.

I'm going to go NO pile on Congo Bongo. NEXT!!

Doki Doki Penguin Land

There's ports of this all-over early consoles/computers.

Basically, the idea is you have to get an egg from the top of the screen to the bottom. The egg can fall a few spaces without cracking, but it can't fall *too* far.

So it's an action game and a strategic puzzler. It's unique.

And I've not as of yet been a big fan of it.

There's just so much going on.

The level design is NOT a lay-up, even in level one.

BUT there's several enemies that kill you.

AND if you leave the egg alone too long, a ghost cracks it.

It's just too overboard and doesn't ease you into what's really compelling puzzle design.

Rewind takes the edge off, for sure.

But Penguin Land is actually a bit of a bore. There's SOMETHING there with this concept. No question about it. But it never hits its stride on any platform, let alone this one.

Going NO pile. NEXT!!

The next game is..

ahem..

Dragon Wang 😶

I haven't been this disappointed since I tried Spotted Dick.

It's sort of like Kung-Fu, except the only move is a kick. Fine. That's all I use in Kung-Fu anyway.

But it's VERY slow and extremely clunky. That's usually the story with these bad SG-1000 games: slow & clunky.

Dragon Wang (giggle) even has knife throwers.

I mean this is seriously generic, off-brand Kung-Fu Master, which itself is pretty damn generic to begin with.

AND THE FIRST BOSS HAS A STICK TOO? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is so damn flagrant that it's kind of stunning.

This sucks. Just too dang slow.

Drol

Never heard of it. From appearances, I'd guess it's a their version of Son Son.

My hunch was right: it's Sega's answer to SonSon, right?

Wrong. This predates SonSon by a year. 1983 for this, 1984 for SonSon, which means it's yet another game that is actually the innovator of a concept that was popularized by others.

Explorers get slaughtered.

This is actually really good. I normally am not a fan of this formula, but this one actually balances the action a lot better than most.

And you have to get to these dinosaur things to exit stages. It's fun.

WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?

Hell, this is fantastic! 😶

Okay, so there was a tiny (huge) dick move design choice: if you enter the bottom corridor from any entrance but the far left one, you get gotchakilled by invisible piranha plants.

Drol was cooking up to that point, and hopefully still will. But that's a terrible design choice.

Being a hero is super easy. Just don't do dickish gotcha design choices.

And, the challenge ramps up and levels don't simply repeat. The turtle shell things are new. So hey, meatiness! Yum!

YES pile for Drol. My new favorite game in this genre. Nice. Next!

Elevator Action

It's one of my favorite guilty-pleasure arcade games.

Because, let's be clear: Elevator Action is a BAD game. No Golden Age action game has more downtime, and the nonsensical level design is torture. Read my arcade version review here:
indiegamerchick.com/2019/10/24/arc…

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

How the hell could this not have you climb a rope to reach the building? NO PILE!!

(breathes into paper bag)

I'm calm. I'm calm. I'm perfectly calm.

Okay, so the iconic level entrance isn't there.

The no-pile joke might become real very quickly.

So, this is odd.. the action is actually sped up. Not the elevator speed, but rather how fast the enemies draw their guns and fire. It's almost instant.

It consequently is basically impossible to get to the 29th floor.

This version of Elevator Action is sponsored by Kris Kros because you have to JUMP JUMP if an enemy is riding an elevator upward to survive the gunfire. It's literally the only thing you can do.

Once I figured this out, it's pretty much an off-speed Elevator Action. It's fine.

The gun is still fun to use, and it's so violent for its era. None of that "shooting robots" crap. It's people, and you're shooting them, with a satisfying "pfft" when the bullet hits, and then the person does like a real dead person and gets X eyes and cartwheels to oblivion.

Welp......

(tosses in the YES pile)

Sorry. NEXT!

Exerion

No clue what this is..

(Googles)

A Jaleco shooter. Looks like the generic, off-brand After Burner. Of course, this is the SG-1000 so..

(Googles)

Predates After Burner by 4 years. Of course it does.

It's not what I was expecting. It's basically Galaga with the marching-formation removed, and the background is simply window-dressing.

This has a really clever play mechanic.

In addition to your standard shot, every enemy you kill charges-up a fast-shooting machine gun. One kill = one bullet, which you can save up for tougher-to-kill enemies.

That is SO smart. This is one of the best Invader-Likes I've played!

Because it was released in 1983 (on the same day as the Famicom, nonetheless, OUCH), The Sega SG-1000 is considered a 3rd Generation console.

It's clearly a 2nd gen console, and in that regard, it's probably the most underrated. So many games are surprising me with their quality

I'm going YES pile. Solid, fun gallery shooter with a clever hook. Not a huge variety of enemies, but it plays sharp.

I'm stunned and giggling over here at how out-of-nowhere the SG-1000 is. These games should NOT hold up at all, and they totally are.

Flicky

This is the famous "design by board of directors because they thought Mappy was going to be the be-all, end-all and we need a Mappy-killer" Sega game.

Flicky ended up being the "in the know" cameo master of Sega and was even the co-star of a Sonic game: Sonic 3D Blast.

The concept is simple: get your chicks.. as in baby birds, not mouthy game critics.. and get them to the goal.

The strategy comes from how many you "bank".

The chicks (baby ducks, not Cathys) follow you in a chain, and you have to get them to the goal.

BUT, you get more points for the more chicks (duckies, not me-ies) you bank at once. Once you've collected a chick (a hatchling, not a Vice), it's vulnerable to the cats lurking.

The tough thing with Flicky is using the items. They're flimsy. They work like mugs you slide at enemies. The arcade game handles this smoothly. Here? Not so much.

BUT, as far as relatively stripped-down ports of hardware-intensive arcade games go, this is VERY impressive, guys.

"Flicky is one of the best Sega games from this era. Banking a huge line of flickies is really satisfying."
-@1imeTime

You said it, Joey.

I really like this port too. Another surprising winner. The SG-1000 does a great job of hitting the GAMEPLAY spirit of its ports.

And the bonus round is here too, where you'll almost certainly kill several of your own babies.

But it's okay. Flicky had like.. hundreds.

Being the lover of animals I am, I rewound and got a perfect score. I'm like a reverse Thanos.

Sometimes the levels make banking all ten chicks hard by where the placement is.

And there is some minor slowdown and flicker (ironically).

But Flicky is solid. YES pile. NEXT!!

Girl's Garden

Maybe the most historically important game I'll do in all of #IGCvSegaSG1000

Why?

Girl's Garden is the debut game of Yuji "I created Sonic The Hedgehog" Naka.

You walk around picking flowers while avoiding bears and bees.

It's a little more involved than your typical maze game. First off, the flowers you get must be fully-bloomed. Picking too soon gets you nothing. Picking a wilted flower takes away the ones you've banked.

I was wrong about the bees harming you. They're benevolent and actually drop items.

Girl's Garden was Yuji Naka's first assignment, as he was told to make a game that would appeal to girls.

Naka (who has my vote for most handsome mother fucker in gaming) exceeded expectations.

Actually, I've been killed more by the water than the bears. There is issues with collision and movement.

The object is to gather enough flowers to woo a boy before he meets another girl (THAT BITCH!), who is literally a timer at the top of the screen.

Girl's Garden is actually really, really fun!

There's also a bonus stage where you have to jump over bears.

You can't defeat the bears chasing you. You can only distract them by dropping honey.

Girl's Garden might be the new leader of #IGCvSegaSG1000. One of the most clever takes on the maze-chase genre I've seen. I wonder whatever happened to that Yuji Naka fellow?

YES Pile. NEXT!!

Golgo 13

No relation to the NES games other than being based on the same manga.

Well, I don't know what I was expecting, but this surely wasn't it.

The object is to.. uh..

Well, to shoot out the windows of a train, thus freeing hostages who apparently just get out of a moving train and thank you.

It's a gallery shooter, kinda like Sega's Carnival.

As far as I can tell, nothing shoots back. Instead, the danger is your own bullets ricocheting back at you. Various trains and cars will drive in front of the target train, and you risk shooting yourself if your aim isn't true.

Well, I've never played anything like this. Yea?

This is exactly the type of low-concept, simple premise that Atari-era games thrived with. Now, whether the SG-1000 was *too* advanced for that is your call.

#IGCvSegaSG1000 is my call. Golgo 13 is a novel approach to the gallery shooter, but eh, this is too limited. NO pile.

GP World

Well, Monaco IS this weekend I suppose..

PREPARE TO QUALIFY.....

So yea, Pole Position, only made for home. The qualifying was *significantly* easier, but it feels like an actual, certified home port of Pole Position.

If that's your thing, it's your thing.