Snowboardin’ Road Trip + Blaster Master

James Dziezynski — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:41:21 +0000

As my bio says on the right over there –> I’m a connoisseur of the adventurous and the nerdish, which brings us to today’s post. In the spirit of adventure, Paul L. is on his way out here to join me for an awesome Colorado snowboard vacation to the south west. Our hit list starts locally with Eldora, A-Basin and Vail then goes out to Snowmass, Wolf Creek, Telluride and ending in Steamboat Springs! Paul should bring his snowboarding passport because he’ll have hit up some of the best resorts in Colorado in one swing! I’m excited too because I’ve never been to Wolf Creek or Telluride in the winter. We may even sneak in a day of ice climbing in Ouray if the conditions are decent and not too warm. Last year we got the bulk of our snow late, all the way into May so I’m hoping we get the start of all that soon. It’s tough to be in a snowboarding frame of mind when it’s 68 degrees out but we’ll get there.

I also have a trip to Belize on the table that I might take in early April, we’ll have to see how it goes. More on that later.

Blaster Master stage 5 boss

And in the nerd world, I’m diving back into one of my favorite NES games of all-time, Blaster Master. I realized with great shame that this is one of the very few games that has an asterisk next to my “NES Completion Records” — for on certain bosses, I used the famous “pause grenade” trick. It’s an incredible game though, smooth play control, huge levels and a good challenge. It’s a shame that it lacks a password or save feature because getting through it in one sitting requires a pretty healthy time commitment. Add to that, without any tricks or cheats, the level 5 and 6 bosses are amongst the hardest in NES lore. Old crabby here on the right was one of the expert challenges at MagFest earlier this year– to defeat him with a no-powered gun is way difficult. But the whole game is fantastic, so I’m “training” on my FCE emulator for the official run on the NES sometime soon.

And one last note: my SEO conference in California was super cool, which I think would suffice as further nerdiness. I learned more about link building (ahem, to great trips like Natural Habitat Adventures Polar Bear Tours and Monarch Butterfly Migration. Subtle, eh?) and the new way search is going to be conducted. With that in mind, I comissioned John to help design my MountainousWords site fo’ real (the blog I’m ok with designing myself, as it shouldn’t look too pretty!) So who knows, maybe I’ll actually get it running soon.

Depend on how long it takes me to defeat the crab boss.

And yes, I’ll be 34 years old in a month.

Winter Dog Days Even though we have to take it easy until he’s...

Top 100 NES Games – The 8 Year Project

James Dziezynski — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:41:09 +0000

Over at Gamefaqs, the NES Board had a very ambitious project that started in 2001 – voting on the top 100 games of all time. When all the votes were tallied, two somewhat predictable but deserving games emerged as the cream of the crop. The list that follows is a great snapshot of the NES community, though in my personal opinion a few exceptional games (like The Magic of Scherazade) deserved to make the cut. Nonetheless, these are the fan favorites of the venerable system, who will celebrate its 25th anniversary in USA in 2010.

Gamefaqs members may view the original topic here.

Top 100 NES Games of All Time
as voted by the GameFAQs NES Board 2001-09

The greatest game of all features a plumber who can turn into a flying, biped raccoon-- makes perfect sense!

TRIPLE PLATINUM
1. Super Mario Bros. 3 ( 3802 )
2. Legend of Zelda, The ( 3336 )

PLATINUM
3. Super Mario Bros. ( 1791 )
4. Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! ( 1520 )
5. Mega Man 2 ( 1486 )
6. Contra ( 1432 )
7. Final Fantasy ( 1404 )
8. Metroid ( 1383 )
9. Super Mario Bros. 2 ( 1065 )
10. Tecmo Super Bowl ( 1055 )

GOLD
11. River City Ransom ( 846 )
12. Mega Man 3 ( 829 )
13. Zelda II: The Adventures of Link ( 802 )
14. Kirby’s Adventure ( 638 )
15. Tetris ( 606 )
16. Ninja Gaiden ( 601 )
17. Castlevania ( 536 )
18. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse ( 531 )

SILVER
19. Crystalis ( 478 )
20. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game ( 463 )
21. Bubble Bobble ( 451 )
22. Dragon Warrior ( 425 )
23. Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest ( 417 )
24. Dragon Warrior IV ( 397 )
25. Bionic Commando ( 390 )
26. Duck Hunt ( 377 )
27. StarTropics ( 371 )
28. Baseball Stars ( 354 )
29. Excitebike ( 352 )
30. Blaster Master ( 350 )
31. Dragon Warrior III ( 344 )
32. Metal Gear ( 336 )
33. Super Dodge Ball ( 334 )
34. Kid Icarus ( 325 )
35. Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos ( 307 )
36. Mega Man ( 298 )
37. Maniac Mansion ( 288 )
38. Battletoads ( 287 )
39. Dr. Mario ( 279 )
40. Super C ( 261 )
41. Guardian Legend, The ( 257 )
42. Double Dragon II ( 253 )

The Guardian Legend, one of the few NES titles to seamlessly blend two genres into a compelling action/adventure game.

BRONZE
43. DuckTales ( 242 )
44. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ( 206 )
45. Ice Hockey ( 197 )
46. Faxanadu ( 196 )
47. Tecmo Bowl ( 193 )
48. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project ( 192 )
49. Double Dragon ( 182 )
50. Mega Man 4 ( 177 )
51. Life Force ( 168 )
52. Dragon Warrior II ( 164 )
53. Blades of Steel ( 146 )
54. Mega Man 5 ( 134 )
55. Adventures of Lolo ( 121 )
56. RC Pro Am ( 121 )
57. Marble Madness ( 110 )
58. Mega Man 6 ( 109 )
58. Metal Storm ( 109 )
60. M.C. Kids ( 108 )
61. Rescue Rangers ( 107 )
62. Ghosts ‘n Goblins ( 105 )
63. RBI Baseball ( 101 )
64. Jackal ( 100 )

Even though it was a lesson in frustration, Ghosts N' Goblins still has a strong following.

HONORABLE MENTION
65. Nintendo World Cup ( 99 )
66. Micro Machines ( 96 )
67. Battle of Olympus, The ( 95 )
68. Goonies II ( 94 )
69. Willow ( 91 )
70. Baseball Simulator 1.000 ( 89 )
71. Kickle Cubicle ( 84 )
72. Snake, Rattle & Roll ( 83 )
73. Little Samson ( 82 )
74. Little Nemo the Dream Master ( 81 )
75. Shadowgate ( 78 )
75. Paperboy ( 78 )
77. Wizards & Warriors ( 77 )
78. Donkey Kong ( 76 )
79. 1943 ( 73 )
80. Superspike V’Ball ( 72 )
81. Bucky O’Hare ( 71 )
81. Balloon Fight ( 71 )
81. Punch-Out!! ( 71 )
84. Batman ( 70 )
85. Mario Bros. ( 69 )
86. Rygar ( 67 )
87. Legacy of the Wizard ( 65 )
88. Pirates! ( 63 )
88. Dusty Diamond’s All-Star Softball ( 63 )
90. Ice Climber ( 61 )
91. Deja Vu ( 60 )
91. Clash at Demonhead ( 60 )
93. North and South ( 59 )
93. Guerilla War ( 59 )
95. NES Open Tournament Golf ( 56 )
96. Gradius ( 54 )
97. Destiny of an Emperor ( 53 )
97. Adventure Island II ( 53 )
97. Monster Party ( 53 )
100. Solstice ( 52 )

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Colorado Mountain Air » Video Games

Snowboardin’ Road Trip + Blaster Master

Top 100 NES Games – The 8 Year Project

Top 100 NES Games of All Time ***as voted by the GameFAQs NES Board 2001-09***

Top 100 NES Games of All Time
as voted by the GameFAQs NES Board 2001-09