Oh Man This Artist Conceived Of A Pokemon-like Interpretation Of Ghostbusters And That Is Pretty Much

Gonkaka Project Breakdown: Efiáltis pt. 1

So, this is something I’ve meant to do for a while! If you’ve followed my music close enough over the years, you’ll be familiar with one of the aliases I use, Gonkaka, and how it’s used for Video Game-styled songs and Chiptunes. One of the things I intend to use that alias for is full-fledged faux-soundtrack concept albums- albums styled to appear like they’re soundtracks for “real” games produced by the “company” Gonkaka works for in the lore of my various music aliases, Nincom- that are supplemented by writing and art to both help sell the concept, and give an indication of what the game would be like if it actually were real (so it’s kinda pulling double duty as fiction writing and design document). I’ve flirted with the concept a couple of times over the years- Battlemania: An Evil Supreme OST and Nightmare Busters Prototype Tracks- but I have accumulated a wealth of ideas for Gonkaka projects over the years that I’d like to work on. Problem is, I’ve… not actually written a lot of those ideas out, even the base stuff I’ve thought up that can be expanded on later. This little writing exercise- wherein I describe one of the most fleshed out future Gonkaka projects I’ve got so far, Efiáltis (which is heavily inspired by Splatterhouse, natch) as someone writing a guide / breakdown of it from the outside- was an attempt to actually start documenting these ideas in some concrete form. It’s not fully complete yet- it only goes up to the end of Efiáltis‘ third stage, as that’s where most of the concrete ideas for the project lie- but it will definitely be expanded upon. I will also be doing similar writing type things for the other Nincom titles I’ve dreamed up, again in an attempt to actually get me to document said ideas rather’n just leavin’ ‘em floatin’ ‘round my brain. Enjoy!

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“Efiáltis” (Εφιάλτης; a rough Greek translation of the name “Nightmare House”) is easily Nincom’s most infamous title. Though the company is no stranger to either the horror genre or for games with somewhat depressing or bittersweet stories, Efiáltis is utterly uncompromising in both aspects to the point that it turned a lot of players off when it was first released in 1990, unto a market and an audience that wasn’t used to games as bleak or as graphic. Also controversial was the game’s choice of protagonist and the character that the plot dictated they were to save; they were clearly depicted to be a Lesbian couple, with no uncertainty. The fact that it has gained a tremendous cult following through emulation in recent years, however, suggests that rather then being an out-and-out failure, it was simply ahead of its time.

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THE GHOST, 1983 (estimated) developed by Nintendo (I think). Even though I cleaned the cart’s contacts with a q-tip first, none of my Famicom games work anymore since I tried playing this.

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Raz - PS1 (1998)

This poor clone of Cherryman Generations had little impact on the beloved series

itch.io

Oblique Strategies GB by Nicky Flowers

A port of Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategies cards for Game Boy and Analogue Pocket, made with GB Studio.

Oblique Strategies GB

Oblique Strategies is a deck of cards designed to help artists break up an art block. Each of the 100+ cards contain a possible action to take or a new way of thinking about a creative problem. They were created by artists Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt in the 70s and have been updated with various new editions over the years.

This is a port of that deck of cards for Game Boy, for some reason.

It was made by me, Nicky Flowers, as a way to learn how GB Studio works. Turns out it works pretty well! I boot up the ROM on my DMG when I get stuck working on music or coding or really anything where I'm creating stuff. I hope you might find it useful too!

Super Banjo-Kazooie RPG

A few of these I can elaborate on: 

Astro Robin Hood is an obscure JRPG with a "Robin Hood IN SPACE" theme. Like many RPGs of the era, it's mostly a Dragon Quest clone, but you can a build a party of out several available Merry Men. 

Star Trek - The Atlantis Bone is a Japan-exclusive Star Trek game, framed as if it were an episode of the Original Series. Some claim the story comes from an unfilmed TV script for the show, but this has never been confirmed. Japanese fans say it represents the show better than many of the other Star Trek games of the era. 

Insection - The Arcade Game is based on a bug-themed space shooter made by an obscure European dev. Oddly, the actual arcade game was never finished or released, as the games were developed concurrently and the arcade version was canceled due to financial issues. 

Metal Fighter Blaseball - An oddly misspelled baseball game with a sci-fi theme, similar to Base Wars. Some cute sprites based on tokusatsu characters and aliens, but otherwise a pretty standard baseball game for the era. 

Nigel Mansell’s Font Fighting - Japan-exclusive "action education game" meant to teach kids English and to improve handwriting. Borderline unplayable. No is sure who Nigel Mansell is. EDIT: While some assume the title refers to the race car driver Nigel Mansell, the game doesn’t feature driving a tall, nor does it have Mansell’s likeness, so your guess is as a good as anyone’s.

Fourteen obscure NES/Famicom ROMs that were never released in North America, according to a neural network:

Power Punker (Europe)

Business Gaiden (Japan)

Astro Robin Hood (Japan)

Entity Rad (Europe)

World Championship Shting (Japan)

Star Trek - The Atlantis Bone (Japan)

Insection - The Arcade Game (Europe)

Captain Player Earth (Japan)

Magic Dark Star Hen (Japan)

Murde - The Fingler’s Quest (Europe)

Metal Fighter Blaseball (Japan) (Rev A)

Smurf the Edify (Japan)

Skate or Space Dive Bashboles (Europe)

Chack'van, Ultimate Game of Power Blam (Japan)

Nigel Mansell’s Font Fighting (Japan)

APOGEE - A fictional survival game where you must escape the moon of a Class-V gas giant before it reaches its apogee. 

My Famicase Exhibition 2014 online  ⊟

How exciting! Time to look through all the Famicom cartridge art designed by cool people and displayed at METEOR in Tokyo. There’s no Tiny Cartridge project this year, but there are carts by lots of cool people! Above are carts by Lord Toon, VAGABOND, John-Charles Holmes, Daruma Studio X Game & Graphics, and Matthew Kenyon.

I’m sure we’ll highlight more cool carts as we have time to take in this exhibit! And of course don’t miss Cory Schmitz’s cart, already posted.

BUY Famicom stuff, upcoming games

FELL WOLF

(Two Mouthed Clergyman)

A Monastery unit obtained when using the *Forbidden*. This unit attacks with its hands and can convert enemy units by singing forgotten psalms.

Can carry relics.

This unit has a hero form named Bleydh Du.

When converted by enemy monks, this unit will die.