Dimension Shift will never be released, I guess

Few years ago I posted about homebrew project Dimension Shift – https://theguardianlegend.com/2020/10/dimension-shift-homebrew-nes/

Checked about further development recently. The project is on hold since beginning of the 2021. And I am afraid it will be left from there.

However here is a demo. The game, seems like, based on Shatterhand/Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain ROM. It has features from there, like grabbing the metal grids, health UI, level selector and its animation, medkit usage, the elevator moving up.

What’s cool about it, is the way the backgrounds and foregrounds visually look. Really nice looking stuff. But there are no enemies in there. So it’s a showcase of pretty empty levels. This might be useful for other NES games artists or just overall gaming pixel artists as an inspiration.

Maybe we will never hear about this project again. Or maybe it will be passed to other hands and continue.

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Playing as Casey

This kind of stuff was like a dream in childhood. Using emulator’s cheats we can make what was impossible with the game.

It did upset me Casey could not be chosen to play story mode in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters on NES.

This is possible to do using RAM address of the player position. That also means it is possible to do that with game genie. With Hothead and Shredder that would make the game crash at the battle with Shredder. On emulator it is possible to turn the cheat OFF at the place where the game crash and then turn it ON again.

Here I recorded story mode playthrough with Casey Jones. I also added fun camera edits for more interesting look.

I also prefer this game over Sega and SNES version. It has more fun gameplay and superior physics feel over them.

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Lode Runner 2 (1998)

There are many Lode Runner games out there. I haven’t seen them all.

Stumbled upon this one. And the way it looks is amazing. It’s like Crusader: No Remorse meets Heroes of Might And Magic. Or something like that.

Isometric view with all the classic features and a new ones.

Besides the beautiful visuals the music is really nice too.

You can get the game for free as an Abandonware:

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/lode-runner-2-3m5

It can be played on Windows 10 in compatibility mode.

The game seems not very well known. Have a look at some levels, thanks to Colin12475 recorded them:

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Kingdom Grand Prix

Arcades has some unique title hardly can be found anywhere. This one is a hybrid SHMUP/Racing game where you fly and shoot the enemies to entertain public and outrun opponents. The graphics is super beautiful and the music is great!

There are 8 characters to select. Each one with unique weapon. Each one has a sub weapon which you upgrade by picking powerups. There are 2 types of sub-weapons and when you pick up an upgrade it changes to the one you picked up. “F” gives you more strong but straight shooting sub-weapon and “H” gives you a homing but weaker sub-weapon.

To boost your racing speed you should hold the fire button. That way you don’t fire but fly faster. Also the racing speed depends if you higher on screen.

A lot of enemies don’t kill you by touch but reduce your racing speed. While most of bullets kills you. Some bullets also only reduce racing speed. That’s a bit tricky moment as it’s unclear which stuff do what.

The game has 2 loops. So the first time you complete the game at the 1st place will send you to the next loop, which is harder version of the game.

2 players co-op is available in the game.

The game is also released on Sega Saturn, but it feels like the screen was just cut on top, which makes the view worse.

The game is a second one in the series. The first one is “Sorcer Striker” and 3rd is “Dimahoo.” They are SHMUPs only.

There is a slight connection with The Guardian Legend developers. The company Raizing was formed by Compile and Naxat Soft former staff.

A full play through for some of the characters. However it doesn’t really provide the feel of the game. It is different from usual SHMUPs, tho it may look just so:

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Melkhiors Mansion – isometric ZX Spectrum style goodness

Melkhiors Mansion – is an isometric game in ZX Spectrum style. Inspired by Atic Atac game. You hanging around, shooting endlessly spawning enemies and gotta complete some goal. Each of the characters has a different goal.

I find it a bit annoying that enemies spawn all the time. I have to hold the fire button all the time and always move around, because enemies always around and can spawn over the character.

You can send any feedback like this to the devs on their page in the comments. I did left my thoughts there. Unfortunately at this point the game is not friendly to a general player. It seems rather hardcore one. If developer will consider to make difficulties like easy, normal, hard, then the one how it is now would be hard. At least playing it blind for only what it is, without any tips, hints, FAQ, screenshots.

And the author just banned me(gamebalance) there for my feedback.

You can get the game here and it’s free: https://bitglint.itch.io/melkhiors-mansion

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Minecraft – The Guardian Legend mod

A guy sharing the source for Minecraft – The Guardian Legend mod. He started it a while ago, but has no time to continue. If anyone wants to pick up here are links mentioned in the forum post:

Mod :
https://disk.yandex.ru/d/4PPiJk5MOYkV_w

Shaders with Pom effect:
https://disk.yandex.ru/d/hPgezL4MgYd9MA

Shaders without Pom effect:
https://disk.yandex.ru/d/kaQZC3cCnlIdBg

Resources pack:
https://disk.yandex.ru/d/dd-kY3ZsnEX9_A

Map:
https://disk.yandex.ru/d/o_z6U6nIjoqZ2w
(You can find all crafts and recipes on this map)

Minecraft 1.12.2 ready client:
https://disk.yandex.ru/d/I9Itl5VuROKjGg

Here is a video exhibition of the project:

If Zelda 2 was too hard

Zelda II – Amida’s Curse sets difficulty below the original. And focuses on exploration. There are no cheap deaths and grinding isn’t necessary. So if the original Zelda 2 was too hard for you, maybe this one hack fixes that.

As I understood the game targeted towards to people who wanted to like the original Zelda 2, but found it too difficult.

The hack’s page https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6292/ mentions features:

  • 9 new temples to explore (vs 7 in vanilla Zelda II).
  • 11 new towns to visit (vs 8 in vanilla Zelda II).
  • New soundtrack.
  • Brand new overworld.
  • New story.
  • New graphics.
  • Animated tiles on the overworld.
  • Balanced difficulty, no cheap deaths.
  • No random encounters on the overworld.
  • Loads of gameplay tweaks (building on Zelda II Redux).
  • Lives you find are permanent.
  • No grinding necessary.
  • Enemy rebalancing, no more huge HP pools.
  • Press A as a Fairy to instantly return to your normal form.
  • Temple stones give fixed EXP.
  • Fairy can’t fly through doors.
  • Save anywhere by pressing up and A on the start menu. Be aware though, that you’ll be warped back to the starting point of the game. So, only use this option when you want to stop playing.
  • And so much more…

Watch trailer of the game:

Do you want spoilers? Here is full playthrough:

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Giant Super Mario Bros. (ROM hack)

What a funny idea! Someone created a double height sized giant Mario in the game. Giant Super Mario Bros. it is.

Levels are almost the same. But author said he had to tweak some places to make them possible to walk through.

I am checking the game in the video below. I am sorry for terrible play 🙂 I am not a Mario player. I played it a long long ago and not much. The only Mario game I did beat was Super Mario Bros. 2

You can get the ROM patch here: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6142/

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Heroes of Might and Magic III on vinyl

Personally, I don’t have any admiration for vinyl. Because I am very familiar with music mixing engineering. And I do know what is sound and how it works.

gamemusic.net – released Heroes of Might and Magic III on vinyl. If you are crazy about vinyl, I am not going to try to discourage you.

Anyway. My attention is about the cover art. That does look very nice!

Played Heroes of Might and Magic III quite a lot and the music is a thing which made that game so special.

So have a look. If you liked the game this is for you:

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