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Post by 1upsuper on Apr 23, 2019 0:27:04 GMT -5
...or Rainbow Islands? I was recently reading about the insane amount of secrets these two games have as well as how obscure they can be to uncover or activate. Major spoilers are inbound for these games.
Bubble Bobble has an incredible amount of power ups given its age. Players also have the ability to spawn these items at will once they learn the triggers which is so cool. Plus you have the secret Super mode which swaps the enemies around and leads to the special ending. Then you have the secret rooms that are very hard to get to. If you're clever you might realize there's a secret message and a cypher in these rooms that gives you a hint to getting the true ending in 2P Super mode. Secrets within secrets to reach a new secret! Plus you have title screen cheats but I'm not sure how you actually discover those.
Then Rainbow Islands has a similar deal where you have to collect diamonds in the ROYGBIV order to spawn secret rooms that then in turn give you hints at more secrets. Then there's ANOTHER layer to the secrets here because you can forgo picking up the item in the hidden room to get more points. Similar to Bubble Bobble there are also secret codes you can activate on the title screen. The Extra edition of the game takes things to a whole new level of obscurity by adding more arcane hints and the last two in particular are real doozies. In short, you have to know the names of all the enemies in Bubble Bobble in order to decipher the hint that then leads you on the mother of all wild goose chases: you must play through the game seven times, doing one minor thing different each time in order to s l o w l y piece together the seven title screen codes you really want.
Phew!
I can't believe how deep these games are, both in terms of the skill ceiling and the player's ability to manipulate things to their advantage once they learn how, and also the sheer amount of nested secrets within secrets, requiring multiple playthroughs and different challenges and behaviors to slowly piece together the workings of the games. And that's assuming you are smart enough to even notice the game is trying to nudge you in certain directions. It's a level of incentivizing repeated play that applies only to the most hardcore of the hardcore.
Now lots of shmups have arcane and super deep scoring systems and secrets to uncover, but few of those even have the level of secrets within secrets like these games have.
Are there any other arcade games that have this level of depth and secrets hidden in secrets? It's like you are slowly discovering the secrets of the universe in these two games. Did other Taito games do stuff like this? I don't think the sequels to these games had stuff like that, did they?
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Post by edmonddantes on Apr 23, 2019 5:01:44 GMT -5
I think to uncover all the things hidden in these games, you're gonna have to use the power of your friendship.
That is, it'll probably take a large team of dedicated data miners and code researchers to find everything.
Watched the Ancient DOS Games review of the PC version of Bubble Bobble, and even the different ports have their own secrets. Its insane. I doubt any modern game has this many secrets.
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Post by retr0gamer on Apr 23, 2019 7:05:31 GMT -5
Apparently a lot of home computer ports left out most of the secrets as they didn't know they even existed
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Post by psygnosis8 on Apr 23, 2019 8:05:57 GMT -5
The MSX version has a whole other crazy thing at the end where the more secrets you find, the more of a secret message is unscrambled. To do this, you have to essentially complete the whole game without dying.
A.P.B. Is super deep for an arcade game...
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Post by acidonia on Apr 23, 2019 13:44:03 GMT -5
You had to do something insane like beat the game without dying and go though a certain stage route to Reach the ending to get also its a Taito game.
The whole Bubble bobble genre seemed to love hiding content behind odd codes and secrets. Rodland the whole second half of the game was accessed in arcades though a code if you beat that part using the code you get the true final boss and ending and was only way to see staff credits. Yet all console ports only ever had the first part of the game so was half the game. It wasn't a until a I phone port we got the full game but that was because it was directly the arcade rom.
Speaking of Bubble bobble clones what is with the Second ending in Yoyo's puzzle park was this in the Japanese version or is this just JVC who did the European localisation putING in a bunch of weird jokes.
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Post by retr0gamer on Apr 23, 2019 14:11:08 GMT -5
Pretty sure this all stemmed from tower of duraga and how Japanese players would leave notes and secrets in a communal notebook
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Post by jorpho on Apr 24, 2019 9:22:26 GMT -5
The first time I read of Druaga was in web.archive.org/web/20090809191059/http://www.ntsc-uk.com/feature.php?featuretype=edi&fea=Druaga . It sounds very silly indeed. Milon's Secret Castle also seems to rely overmuch on ridiculous tricks, but people finished that back in the day, apparently. The New Zealand Story is another Taito game with secrets too obscure. And maybe Capcom's Magic Sword? To cite a more modern example, I have a hard time believing someone found the secrets in Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure without some kind of hint – but once you know what to do, actually pulling it off isn't difficult at all. But for sheer ridiculousness, it's pretty hard to top Blue Ice. The story goes that there was originally supposed to be some sort of contest associated with the game, but they couldn't quite get it sorted out. www.the-spoiler.com/OTHER/Psygnosis/blue.ice.3/EDIT: Of course, I suppose those aren't arcade games. But speaking of rabbit holes, it seems no one even figured out what the heck was going on in Hareraiser. Ashens makes a case for it being the worst game ever. Quite the yarn. (Or try www.filfre.net/2016/05/kit-williamss-golden-hare-part-2-the-aftermath/ if you don't like videos.)
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Post by psygnosis8 on Apr 24, 2019 15:57:22 GMT -5
Pretty sure this all stemmed from tower of duraga and how Japanese players would leave notes and secrets in a communal notebook Tower of Druaga is indeed ridiculous. If you use a guide to do everything correctly though, it’s actually pretty fun. I don’t know if return of ishtar is as over the top to get the best ending, but the gameplay itself is nuts.
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Post by jorpho on Apr 24, 2019 20:08:57 GMT -5
Bloodstorm also comes to mind, now that I think about it – I've heard some suggest that the developers thought the secrets in Mortal Kombat were clever, so they should ramp it up to eleven. It is also a rather crappy game, of course.
I seem to recall that Revolution X required some odd maneuvers to get its best ending. I reckon the same might apply to Area 51 and Target: Terror, but then why would you play those?
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Post by acidonia on Apr 25, 2019 12:10:26 GMT -5
Area 51/Maximum Force and Target: Terror though that last one was pretty much a unofficial sequel all worked the same way. In that they was hidden mini bonus rounds that just loaded up once you did certain things like shoot so many windows.Even Carnevil had features like this which was midways last? arcade light gun game.Though another odd feature that had was a dipswitch that changed the Giant mutant baby bosses model into a Dinosaur yet the game had no switches to turn off blood and gore.
Pac Land had alot of weird secrets to like walking into certain fire hydrants on purpose spawned items. Genpei Tōma Den had alot of hidden levels including which im guessing one had pictures of the developers inside that you raached by walking into a certain oddly placed set of statues if you beat that level it gave the the mirror item that stopped lighting bolts hurting you. Then it jumped you to the stage to get the sword that prevents weapon damage. But you could also get the mirror in the same stage by attacking a certain wall near the end of it.
I noticed with that game if you fall down any hole you vist hell but the first enemy spawner never runs out of enemies. If you reach max gold by picking them up from dropped enemy's in this stage. If you walk into the lava pit with max gold you jump to the final game check point with a message on screen going even hell depends on money. You can usually do this a few times per a credit so its a good way to get sword power up. I really do not know how i figured out these at all mind you.
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Post by psygnosis8 on Apr 25, 2019 14:45:45 GMT -5
Area 51/Maximum Force and Target: Terror though that last one was pretty much a unofficial sequel all worked the same way. In that they was hidden mini bonus rounds that just loaded up once you did certain things like shoot so many windows.Even Carnevil had features like this which was midways last? arcade light gun game.Though another odd feature that had was a dipswitch that changed the Giant mutant baby bosses model into a Dinosaur yet the game had no switches to turn off blood and gore. Pac Land had alot of weird secrets to like walking into certain fire hydrants on purpose spawned items. Genpei Tōma Den had alot of hidden levels including which im guessing one had pictures of the developers inside that you raached by walking into a certain oddly placed set of statues if you beat that level it gave the the mirror item that stopped lighting bolts hurting you. Then it jumped you to the stage to get the sword that prevents weapon damage. But you could also get the mirror in the same stage by attacking a certain wall near the end of it. I noticed with that game if you fall down any hole you vist hell but the first enemy spawner never runs out of enemies. If you reach max gold by picking them up from dropped enemy's in this stage. If you walk into the lava pit with max gold you jump to the final game check point with a message on screen going even hell depends on money. You can usually do this a few times per a credit so its a good way to get sword power up. I really do not know how i figured out these at all mind you. Not to derail but you are a man after my heart. Those are 2 of my favorite games. I even scored a genpei board. I had no idea about all those tricks. I need to look into that.
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Post by Woody Alien on Apr 27, 2019 15:04:29 GMT -5
The whole Bubble bobble genre seemed to love hiding content behind odd codes and secrets. Rodland the whole second half of the game was accessed in arcades though a code if you beat that part using the code you get the true final boss and ending and was only way to see staff credits. Yet all console ports only ever had the first part of the game so was half the game. It wasn't a until a I phone port we got the full game but that was because it was directly the arcade rom. If I remember correctly Don Doko Don (and yes it's another Taito game) did the same thing i.e. the game ended at level 50 with the fake final boss, but then you would receive (or had to find, don't remember) a password made of symbols that you had to input in a new game, by finding a secret stage and breaking the pots containing those symbols to input it. Then you would play the levels 51-101 that were a harder second loop with the true boss at the end, the king being transformed by magic into a bull/cow person.
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Post by ReyVGM on Apr 27, 2019 17:01:51 GMT -5
Bushido Blade has to be the game with the most obscure and complicated way to get the good ending.
It's a fighting game, so you'd never think you could actually run away from your opponent, but you can. You also have to run out of the stage, and go through each stage (while still running from your opponent), then jump into an almost hidden well, then defeat everyone down there without getting hit, and then finally you'll face the real last boss and get the good ending. I don't know who the hell figured that out on their own!
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Post by jorpho on Apr 27, 2019 21:14:42 GMT -5
The whole Bubble bobble genre seemed to love hiding content behind odd codes and secrets. Rodland the whole second half of the game was accessed in arcades though a code if you beat that part using the code you get the true final boss and ending and was only way to see staff credits. There's a curious lack of detail about this game out there. Apparently there's an extra-secret (but rather boring) final boss? It turns up in this video, but it looks like there must be some weird way to trigger it. I would be completely ready to believe that there's actually a means to save "Dad" with such obscure conditions that no one out there has bothered to document them. On that note, we could probably add Solomon's Key to the list of single-screen platformers with silly conditions. EDIT: This Italian page suggests it's just a matter of setting the right dip switches and using the secret code.
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Post by 1upsuper on Apr 28, 2019 0:09:52 GMT -5
Thanks for all the contributions, everyone! I've really enjoyed looking into all these games.
Tower of Druaga completely slipped my mind but it's definitely one of the foundational secret-filled arcade games. To many players' palates it almost feels like kusoge, but I love how the game revels in its absurdity, and it's fun to play with a guide.
Druaga also inspired games like The Demon Crystal 2: Knither, which is basically a 2D sidescrolling version of Druaga, full of weird requirements to unlock essential power-ups. Coincidentally, this game got a remake on Switch and Steam recently, which is pretty good!
I'm particularly interested in this Rodland game. The mystery around it has a certain allure.
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