PrinceWatercress plays Yamato (SG-1000) - The Longplay

And now, the video with no commentary. Enjoy.

Let's Play

Yamato is a game that first saw action in arcades before being ported over to the SG-1000 in Japan and select European regions.

Left and Right let you move the ship around and aim, which you can also do with Up and Down. You have two target reticles. The cross is for your machine gun, which you will need to fire to get rid of the planes, and the diagonal lines are for the bombs, which you'll need to shoot down the subs and ships. Button 1 lets you shoot the machine guns, and Button 2 shoots the bombs.

As you fight enemies, enemies will fight back. The black things with the white trails that travel towards you are torpedoes, and you do not want those to touch your ship. The missiles from the subs and ships will move diagonally, but the ones fired from the planes will have a brown trail and will move diagonally until they are lined up with you; when that happens, they travel straight down. These missiles also have a diving sound when they fire, too. If a missile hits you, you lose a life. If you lose all your lives, the game is over. A word to the wise: don't stay in the corners for very long, as you can get trapped there by the missiles.

Your score will be in the top of the screen, and your current lives will be in the lower-right corner. To the right of that is your current round and the amount of targets that you've shot down. When you've shot down sixteen targets, you'll go to the next round. As you go from round to round, the time of day goes from day to evening to night and back to day, and the enemies and missiles will get faster. The planes' missiles will get crazy fast when you reach Round 6.

You'll get an extra life at 10,000 points, but it is the only one you get. Also, it is possible to take a hit and keep going, but if you take a second hit, you're down for good.

For some reason, some ships will catch on fire and will require a second bomb to destroy. At least you get points on both hits. Also, the ships and subs give more points than the planes do, despite the fact that the planes are the most dangerous enemy of the three due to their missiles.

This is a pretty simple yet fun arcade game. Sega is known for their arcade games from the mid-to-late 1980s, but there are some fun ones from the early 1980s and this is one of them. The graphics are easily identifiable, you'll constantly hear barrages of missile fire, the gameplay is pretty addicting once you have it figured out, and the action can get frantic before you know it. If you come across this game, give it a shot.

PrinceWatercress plays Yamato (SG-1000)

Are you ready for another arcade game on the SG-1000? Because I sure am.

Longplay

Yamato is a game that first saw action in arcades before being ported over to the SG-1000 in Japan and select European regions.

Left and Right let you move the ship around and aim, which you can also do with Up and Down. You have two target reticles. The cross is for your machine gun, which you will need to fire to get rid of the planes, and the diagonal lines are for the bombs, which you'll need to shoot down the subs and ships. Button 1 lets you shoot the machine guns, and Button 2 shoots the bombs.

As you fight enemies, enemies will fight back. The black things with the white trails that travel towards you are torpedoes, and you do not want those to touch your ship. The missiles from the subs and ships will move diagonally, but the ones fired from the planes will have a brown trail and will move diagonally until they are lined up with you; when that happens, they travel straight down. These missiles also have a diving sound when they fire, too. If a missile hits you, you lose a life. If you lose all your lives, the game is over. A word to the wise: don't stay in the corners for very long, as you can get trapped there by the missiles.

Your score will be in the top of the screen, and your current lives will be in the lower-right corner. To the right of that is your current round and the amount of targets that you've shot down. When you've shot down sixteen targets, you'll go to the next round. As you go from round to round, the time of day goes from day to evening to night and back to day, and the enemies and missiles will get faster. The planes' missiles will get crazy fast when you reach Round 6.

You'll get an extra life at 10,000 points, but it is the only one you get. Also, it is possible to take a hit and keep going, but if you take a second hit, you're down for good.

For some reason, some ships will catch on fire and will require a second bomb to destroy. At least you get points on both hits. Also, the ships and subs give more points than the planes do, despite the fact that the planes are the most dangerous enemy of the three due to their missiles.

This is a pretty simple yet fun arcade game. Sega is known for their arcade games from the mid-to-late 1980s, but there are some fun ones from the early 1980s and this is one of them. The graphics are easily identifiable, you'll constantly hear barrages of missile fire, the gameplay is pretty addicting once you have it figured out, and the action can get frantic before you know it. If you come across this game, give it a shot.

PrinceWatercress plays Drol for SG-1000 - The Longplay

Here's my no-commentary run. This time around, I make it through Round 5...and beyond!

Let's Play

Drol is a platformer/maze game that started out on the Apple II before being ported to other systems and microcomputers from that era. In this game, you play as a little robot that has to go through a temple to save a girl, a boy and their mother from the various jungle nasties that happen to be hanging about.

Button 1 and 2 let you fire. Left and Right let you move around. Up moves you into the air to shoot things in the sky, and you can use Up and Down from there to keep hovering up and down. Pressing Down when in front of a door opens that door. If a door is above you, you can hold up to move up a level.

Besides your current score and lives, you also have a mini-map that shows where enemies are. Use that to keep tabs on any threats that may be coming your way as you keep out for the human family members and the lizard pets that you have to rescue.

In the first section, the game has you saving the little girl. The little girl will always come out from the right side of the screen. Not only that, but you also have to rescue a little green friendly lizard that comes out from the left side. It doesn't matter which order you do it in as long as you rescue them both. The little girl chases a balloon; shoot the balloon for bonus points.

To survive, your best is to hover up and down while firing your gun. This makes it so you can hit stuff more easily as you go around. If any enemies or traps touch you, you'll lose a life and be forced back to the top of the screen, where you will be in your ball form just like when you started. Press Button 1 to get out of your ball form.

For the second section, you'll have a little boy to rescue (he comes from the right and chases a toy helicopter; shoot the helicopter for bonus points) as well as a red lizard (once again, you'll see this lizard coming from the left).

The magnets keep you from firing and can be pretty nasty. Thankfully, going up or down one level will get the magnet off of you.

For the third section, you'll have to make your way to the bottom of the maze - which is harder than in the others due to doors being few and far between, forcing you to take the only way through the maze - to get to the mother who is trapped at the end. As you go from level to level, keep hovering up and down and firing your weapons. This will make it so that you can destroy the swords and daggers and arrows and axes that get tossed at you from the side of the screen. Keep in mind that any weapon that just barely sails over your head will, in fact, kill you, as it will touch your hitbox and obliterate you. When you reach the final doors, be ready to move up when you try to go down. If you see a plant come out of the floor, immediately mash up and try another door. The plants will kill you like all the enemies do, and if you're not fast enough, you won't be able to get away from them. Once you pick the right door, fight your way to the right to save the mother. From there, you'll re-unite the family only for them to be kidnapped again. You'll get an extra life for finishing a round, then you'll start the next one.

You'll get different messages for completing a round in the first five rounds. After the fifth round, you just cycle through the five messages. Later rounds will be harder than previous, as you'll see more enemy types and some enemy types will do new things, such as spitting projectiles that you need to avoid.

I had more fun with this game during the Let's Play than when I played this for Twitter. The graphics are actually pretty good, and you can identify some of the enemies even if they have a cute, anime-like appearance in this game compared to other versions. The sound and music are as arcade-y as anything, but the music here is pretty cheery. The controls are simple, and once you get used to them, you can plow through the rounds of this game like a pro. Your mileage may vary on replay value, but this has the potential to be one of the arcade-style games that you'll play more than most. This game is pretty good on any system you play it, but it's good for sure on SG-1000.

PrinceWatercress plays Drol for SG-1000

This game is fun and addictive. I'm surprised I had as much fun as I did with this one on the Let's Play.

Longplay

Drol is a platformer/maze game that started out on the Apple II before being ported to other systems and microcomputers from that era. In this game, you play as a little robot that has to go through a temple to save a girl, a boy and their mother from the various jungle nasties that happen to be hanging about.

Button 1 and 2 let you fire. Left and Right let you move around. Up moves you into the air to shoot things in the sky, and you can use Up and Down from there to keep hovering up and down. Pressing Down when in front of a door opens that door. If a door is above you, you can hold up to move up a level.

Besides your current score and lives, you also have a mini-map that shows where enemies are. Use that to keep tabs on any threats that may be coming your way as you keep out for the human family members and the lizard pets that you have to rescue.

In the first section, the game has you saving the little girl. The little girl will always come out from the right side of the screen. Not only that, but you also have to rescue a little green friendly lizard that comes out from the left side. It doesn't matter which order you do it in as long as you rescue them both. The little girl chases a balloon; shoot the balloon for bonus points.

To survive, your best is to hover up and down while firing your gun. This makes it so you can hit stuff more easily as you go around. If any enemies or traps touch you, you'll lose a life and be forced back to the top of the screen, where you will be in your ball form just like when you started. Press Button 1 to get out of your ball form.

For the second section, you'll have a little boy to rescue (he comes from the right and chases a toy helicopter; shoot the helicopter for bonus points) as well as a red lizard (once again, you'll see this lizard coming from the left).

The magnets keep you from firing and can be pretty nasty. Thankfully, going up or down one level will get the magnet off of you.

For the third section, you'll have to make your way to the bottom of the maze - which is harder than in the others due to doors being few and far between, forcing you to take the only way through the maze - to get to the mother who is trapped at the end. As you go from level to level, keep hovering up and down and firing your weapons. This will make it so that you can destroy the swords and daggers and arrows and axes that get tossed at you from the side of the screen. Keep in mind that any weapon that just barely sails over your head will, in fact, kill you, as it will touch your hitbox and obliterate you. When you reach the final doors, be ready to move up when you try to go down. If you see a plant come out of the floor, immediately mash up and try another door. The plants will kill you like all the enemies do, and if you're not fast enough, you won't be able to get away from them. Once you pick the right door, fight your way to the right to save the mother. From there, you'll re-unite the family only for them to be kidnapped again. You'll get an extra life for finishing a round, then you'll start the next one.

You'll get different messages for completing a round in the first five rounds. After the fifth round, you just cycle through the five messages. Later rounds will be harder than previous, as you'll see more enemy types and some enemy types will do new things, such as spitting projectiles that you need to avoid.

I had more fun with this game during the Let's Play than when I played this for Twitter. The graphics are actually pretty good, and you can identify some of the enemies even if they have a cute, anime-like appearance in this game compared to other versions. The sound and music are as arcade-y as anything, but the music here is pretty cheery. The controls are simple, and once you get used to them, you can plow through the rounds of this game like a pro. Your mileage may vary on replay value, but this has the potential to be one of the arcade-style games that you'll play more than most. This game is pretty good on any system you play it, but it's good for sure on SG-1000.

PrinceWatercress plays Star Jacker (SG-1000) - Longplay

Enjoy!

Let's Play

Here's an interesting game: it's a vertical shooter where, instead of going through all four of your lives (as opposed to three in the arcades) one by one, you have all four of them lined up like some sort of space convoy...and you move and shoot with all of them at once.

1 shoots, 2 drops bombs and the Control Pad move around. You want to make sure that you don't run any of your ships - not just your lead ships - into anything, and you want to make sure that none of your ships get shot down.

There are a multitude of enemies that you'll be shooting down and avoiding. Some simply come at you, others move in and out and shoot at you, and others split into shrapnel that can take you out when they are destroyed. There is even a There is also a big red spaceship that you need to shoot down. If you shoot it down, your convoy turns into one big ship and you go through the level at warp speed for a ton of points. 

Speaking of points, you'll get an extra ship every 10,000 points, and if you managed to hold on to all four ships as you keep hitting multiples of 10,000, the game will keep tabs on how many extra ships you've accumulated and you'll get a ship from your surplus at the end of the round. The more ships in your convoy at the end of the round, the more points you get, with a total of 8000 points if you get through a round with all four ships in tow (4000 for three, 2000 for two and 1000 for one).

This is a very fast-paced game, and while a session of this game might last for a few minutes, you'll be spending more time than that just to see all that there is in the game, see how good you can really get and you'll soon be spending quite a bit of time on this one if you're into vertical shooters and you like this game's play style. This is one SG-1000 game that has some serious staying power.

PrinceWatercress plays Star Jacker (SG-1000)

It's time for some more arcade fun on the SG-1000. I had some fun with this one, believe it or not.

Longplay

Here's an interesting game: it's a vertical shooter where, instead of going through all four of your lives (as opposed to three in the arcades) one by one, you have all four of them lined up like some sort of space convoy...and you move and shoot with all of them at once.

1 shoots, 2 drops bombs and the Control Pad move around. You want to make sure that you don't run any of your ships - not just your lead ships - into anything, and you want to make sure that none of your ships get shot down.

There are a multitude of enemies that you'll be shooting down and avoiding. Some simply come at you, others move in and out and shoot at you, and others split into shrapnel that can take you out when they are destroyed. There is even a There is also a big red spaceship that you need to shoot down. If you shoot it down, your convoy turns into one big ship and you go through the level at warp speed for a ton of points. 

Speaking of points, you'll get an extra ship every 10,000 points, and if you managed to hold on to all four ships as you keep hitting multiples of 10,000, the game will keep tabs on how many extra ships you've accumulated and you'll get a ship from your surplus at the end of the round. The more ships in your convoy at the end of the round, the more points you get, with a total of 8000 points if you get through a round with all four ships in tow (4000 for three, 2000 for two and 1000 for one).

This is a very fast-paced game, and while a session of this game might last for a few minutes, you'll be spending more time than that just to see all that there is in the game, see how good you can really get and you'll soon be spending quite a bit of time on this one if you're into vertical shooters and you like this game's play style. This is one SG-1000 game that has some serious staying power.

PrinceWatercress plays Congo Bongo for SG-1000 - The Longplay

Enjoy!

Let's Play

According to Wikipedia, 'Congo Bongo is an isometric platform arcade game released by Sega in 1983. The player takes the role of a red-nosed safari hunter who tries to catch an ape named Bongo. The hunter seeks Bongo to exact revenge for an apparent practical joke in which Bongo sets fire to the hunter's tent, giving him a literal "hot foot."'

Controls are simple. Just use the Control Pad to move around and the buttons to jump.

Unlike the arcade version, which had four levels in an isometric view, most of the ports were of a 2D nature and had two or three levels, the SG-1000 version only has two, and once you beat both, you'll start the next loop. The difficulty will get greater reach time, and after the fourth loop, the difficulty stays the same until you lose all your lives.

In the first level, you'll be jumping over monkeys and avoiding coconuts. The monkeys will latch on and slow you down, and the coconuts will nock you down a level. If you fall to the bottom, you will lose a life. You can keep jumping to knock off the monkeys, but you can also knock them off by sliding down the slope that is halfway through the level.

In the second level, you will need to carefully walk on log bridges from island to island while also jumping onto leaves, fish and hippos to get to Bongo and start the next loop. Watch for the snakes; they will charge at you if you are lined up with them. The water will also prove fatal.

In the second loop, the left waterfall bridge is out, and you'll have to jump the gap. In the lake stage, you'll have more snakes.

You will get an extra life at 10,000 points, but it will be the only extra life that the game gives you.

In the third loop, the right waterfall bridge is out. Also, the second monkey drops down after a certain amount of time. In the swamp, the first bridge will be gone.

In the fourth loop, both waterfall bridges will be missing in the first half. In the swamp, the leaf platform in the water near the beginning will be gone, and you will be forced to use the log bridges.

Once you've beaten the fourth gameplay loop (or round), you'll have "beaten" the game, and every loop/round after that will be a repeat of the fourth. Sadly, my gameplay sessions usually end on the fifth round.

This isn't a bad game. It's not the arcade version, and despite gameplay sessions only lasting a few fleeting minutes, this one is easy to play but hard to get really, really good at. I had no problems with the graphics, sound and controls, and this is one for the SG-1000 collection for sure.

PrinceWatercress plays Congo Bongo for SG-1000

This was a fun one on the SG-1000 to play, due to the combination of the short rounds and the effectively increasing difficulty between each one.

Longplay

According to Wikipedia, 'Congo Bongo is an isometric platform arcade game released by Sega in 1983. The player takes the role of a red-nosed safari hunter who tries to catch an ape named Bongo. The hunter seeks Bongo to exact revenge for an apparent practical joke in which Bongo sets fire to the hunter's tent, giving him a literal "hot foot."'

Controls are simple. Just use the Control Pad to move around and the buttons to jump.

Unlike the arcade version, which had four levels in an isometric view, most of the ports were of a 2D nature and had two or three levels, the SG-1000 version only has two, and once you beat both, you'll start the next loop. The difficulty will get greater reach time, and after the fourth loop, the difficulty stays the same until you lose all your lives.

In the first level, you'll be jumping over monkeys and avoiding coconuts. The monkeys will latch on and slow you down, and the coconuts will nock you down a level. If you fall to the bottom, you will lose a life. You can keep jumping to knock off the monkeys, but you can also knock them off by sliding down the slope that is halfway through the level.

In the second level, you will need to carefully walk on log bridges from island to island while also jumping onto leaves, fish and hippos to get to Bongo and start the next loop. Watch for the snakes; they will charge at you if you are lined up with them. The water will also prove fatal.

In the second loop, the left waterfall bridge is out, and you'll have to jump the gap. In the lake stage, you'll have more snakes.

You will get an extra life at 10,000 points, but it will be the only extra life that the game gives you.

In the third loop, the right waterfall bridge is out. Also, the second monkey drops down after a certain amount of time. In the swamp, the first bridge will be gone.

In the fourth loop, both waterfall bridges will be missing in the first half. In the swamp, the leaf platform in the water near the beginning will be gone, and you will be forced to use the log bridges.

Once you've beaten the fourth gameplay loop (or round), you'll have "beaten" the game, and every loop/round after that will be a repeat of the fourth. Sadly, my gameplay sessions usually end on the fifth round.

This isn't a bad game. It's not the arcade version, and despite gameplay sessions only lasting a few fleeting minutes, this one is easy to play but hard to get really, really good at. I had no problems with the graphics, sound and controls, and this is one for the SG-1000 collection for sure.

PrinceWatercress plays Girl's Garden - The Longplay

Enjoy!

Let's Play

This was the first Sega game worked on by Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka and notable Sega music composer Hiroshi Kawaguchi.

The aim of the game is to move around with the Control Pad and collect ten fully-bloomed flowers before returning to the house at the beginning of the stage. All the while, you will need to avoid running into bears or water, and you will also need to avoid running into dead flowers or risk ruining your bouquet, taking flowers away from you and forcing you to collect more flowers until you get ten for the bouquet again.

The bee will drop purple orbs, which can turn into various things. The skulls are the worst, as they take all your flowers and one of your lives away. The big purple heart is an extra Love Heart, or life. There are also fruits that you can pick up for bonus points.

If a bear turns blue, that means that the bear has spotted you. You may have to press 1 or 2 to drop a pot of honey and keep it occupied for a short while. You only get one extra honey pot when you collect.

At the top of the screen if the high score and current score, as well as the timer. When the boy in the top center of the screen goes to the other girl, the game is over regardless of how many Love Hearts (lives) you have. The closer to you that the boy is when you complete a round, the faster you have completed the round and the more points you will get.

At the bottom of the screen, you have the current amount of Love Hearts (lives) that you have, the current amount of honey pots that you have, the current amount of fully-bloomed flowers you have, and the current round you are on. If you fall into water, touch a skull or run into a bear, you will lose one of your lives as well as some of your flowers, but you will come back where you died with the screen cleared of flowers, pick-ups and bears. 

After every two rounds, you'll play a bonus stage where you will have to jump over bears. You will have to jump forward or bounce off the side by leaping into it and then off the wall to get past multiple bears in a row. The more bears you jump over, the more points you get.

There are four distinct flowers in the game, and once you get past the fourth round, you'll loop through the four different flowers again. Also, you'll have three bears on-screen simultaneously instead of two.

That's pretty much all there is to explain about the game. It's a fun one, to be sure, even if it's more popular for who was involved in making it than anything else. The graphics and sound are basic, but okay, and I didn't have any problems with the controls. If you're starting a more tangible collection of SG-1000 paraphernalia, this isn't a bad place to start.

PrinceWatercress plays Girl's Garden

The game may not be the most popular, but it kickstarted no less than two notable video game careers, so there's that. Also, the game isn't that bad, either!

Longplay

This was the first Sega game worked on by Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka and notable Sega music composer Hiroshi Kawaguchi.

The aim of the game is to move around with the Control Pad and collect ten fully-bloomed flowers before returning to the house at the beginning of the stage. All the while, you will need to avoid running into bears or water, and you will also need to avoid running into dead flowers or risk ruining your bouquet, taking flowers away from you and forcing you to collect more flowers until you get ten for the bouquet again.

The bee will drop purple orbs, which can turn into various things. The skulls are the worst, as they take all your flowers and one of your lives away. The big purple heart is an extra Love Heart, or life. There are also fruits that you can pick up for bonus points.

If a bear turns blue, that means that the bear has spotted you. You may have to press 1 or 2 to drop a pot of honey and keep it occupied for a short while. You only get one extra honey pot when you collect.

At the top of the screen if the high score and current score, as well as the timer. When the boy in the top center of the screen goes to the other girl, the game is over regardless of how many Love Hearts (lives) you have. The closer to you that the boy is when you complete a round, the faster you have completed the round and the more points you will get.

At the bottom of the screen, you have the current amount of Love Hearts (lives) that you have, the current amount of honey pots that you have, the current amount of fully-bloomed flowers you have, and the current round you are on. If you fall into water, touch a skull or run into a bear, you will lose one of your lives as well as some of your flowers, but you will come back where you died with the screen cleared of flowers, pick-ups and bears. 

After every two rounds, you'll play a bonus stage where you will have to jump over bears. You will have to jump forward or bounce off the side by leaping into it and then off the wall to get past multiple bears in a row. The more bears you jump over, the more points you get.

There are four distinct flowers in the game, and once you get past the fourth round, you'll loop through the four different flowers again. Also, you'll have three bears on-screen simultaneously instead of two.

That's pretty much all there is to explain about the game. It's a fun one, to be sure, even if it's more popular for who was involved in making it than anything else. The graphics and sound are basic, but okay, and I didn't have any problems with the controls. If you're starting a more tangible collection of SG-1000 paraphernalia, this isn't a bad place to start.