The Rom Report X: 80s Cartoons and Video Games

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The idea for the 10th Edition of The ROM Report came to me when I was talking to a couple of my colleagues about 80s cartoon series. I remember being glued to the tube and being fed a diet of Thundercats, Transformers, Centurions, and Spiral Zone.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was also a favourite series of mine. I wouldn't really call them turtles, they are more like tortoises but like blondes, turtles seem to be more fun. The cartoon came out in 1987 and the NES game was release in 1989.

It's pretty fun to play, as you can see in the video I've taken earlier of the game.



On the otherhand, I didn't really watch Beetlejuice on TV. However, the video game, released for the NES is a little tough and presents a challenge. See for yourselves:



Now, if you think difficulty levels are over-rated, you have not seen Transformers: Convoy No Nazo. Yup, it's based on the Transformers cartoon series and stars Ultra Magnus.

The game is so tough that I can't even get pass the first level. Here's a video of my attempt:



All 80s inspired games featured in this article can be run on the Nintendo DS with the use of nesDS. Check out the rest of The ROM Report for more information on how to run older generation games on the Nintendo DS.

The ROM Report Part VIII - Addendum

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A big shout out to Pizza Pasta (The New New Era) for a very helpful tip on getting Earthbound Zero to run on the nesDS. I'm quoting his comment verbatim:

You might know this by now but Earthbound Zero is totally playable in NESDS, you just have to mess with it a little on your computer.

All you have to do is open Earthbound Zero in a NES emulator on your computer (I used Nestopia) and get to a point where you can save a file. After you save, transfer the Earthbound Zero SAV file into your NESDS roms folder and you should be able to resume your game in NESDS. Hope this helps.

Yups, it helps! Thanks man. And yeah, portable Mother/Earthbound Zero FTW!!

The Rom Report - Part 2: NES Games on the DS

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As promised, this is Part 2 of the Rom Report, this time featuring NES games run on the Nintendo DS with the help of a Slot-1 Flashcart and a piece of homebrew software called nesDS.

Before I begin, I'll need to clarify that running SNES and NES games on the Nintendo DS are two separate things and you'll require two different homebrew emulator software, SNemulDS for SNES games and nesDS for NES games. The first part of the Rom Report has got the SNES part covered and if you interested in running SNES games, please refer to my guide here.

The NES games I've tried so far are:

• Mappy - This is a really fun game from Namco, where you run about a house as a rat named Mappy, avoiding, if possible, a gang of thieving cats. Don't know who Mappy is? Well I've a 8-bit Dots puzzle depicting him right here.
• Ice Climber - This really is a classic in my book. I used to play this game on my cousin's Micro Genius (a NES clone). On the emulator running on the Nintendo DS, the game is smooth and fast, retaining the sense of excitement and challenge as you try to get your eskimo up the ice mountain.
• Super Mario Bros 3 - If you don't like the SNES make over of Super Mario Bros 3 in Super Mario All-Stars, this is the game for you. The game runs smooth on the emulator but there's just a slight quirkiness with the buttons. I still don't know how progress is saved though, and the emulator (nesDS) lacks a save state function.
• Metroid - Despite having played one of the more recent Metroid games, I can't seem to put a finger on the original Metroid. It is a little boring. But if you were to ask me whether it runs fine, the answer is a definite yes.
  

Overall, the fun factor is there when it comes to these old school games. The only problem is while the emulator, nesDS, can adequately run the games, it is not up to scratch feature wise, lacking the ability to save and load states. Those features are not missing from SNemulDS when it come to running SNES games.