NES

Pro tip: Accessing Back to the Future III

Back to the Future 2 and 3 are decent movies, but the NES video game is completely bizarre.

In the Back to the Future 2 part, you have to guide Marty around 1985, 1955, and 2015 to find secret rooms, then clear out all the stuff in said rooms to get key items, then put the key items in other secret rooms all to get access to the second half of the game, Back to the Future 3.

And, assuming you did all of that, you get to go to Back to the Future 3 to do it all again.

But! What if you go to the title screen.

Hold down the B button and press Select

You get a scrambled password screen!

Rearrange the letters like so:

And you'll be able to jump right to the Back to the Future 3 part, which is a little bit shorter, and features Marty wearing a cowboy hat.

Fun times!

Pro tip: Whomp 'Em's sound test

Have you ever been playing Whomp 'Em and thought to yourself that you'd really like to hear all the music that this game has to offer without having to slog though the game proper?

Me either.

But! You totally can anyway.

First, go to the title screen.

Then hold A + B on Controller 2. Press Start on Controller 1 and keep holding A + B on Controller 2 until you get this screen

Now you can listen to all the sounds this game makes to your heart's content.

Pro tip: Continuing in Demon Sword

Demon Sword is a tough game, which means that you're going to be seeing this a lot:

Which means that you're going to have to start the whole thing over... or does it?

Instead of just pressing Start to go back to the title screen, what if you held Down on the D-Pad and pressed B, A, B, A?

A password? And the option to continue? Awesome!

And to put in your passwords?

Go to the title screen

Hold Up on the D-Pad, press A, B, A, B

And you're back at the password entry screen!

Makes progressing so much easier.

Pro tip: finding hidden eggs in Adventure Island

In the NES Adventure Island game, your powerups are hidden in eggs for some reason. The trouble is, though, that some of them are invisible. So how do you find them? Excellent question!

Check out the range you get on these stone axes.

You're going to want to throw them absolutely everywhere because occasionally

They disappear short of where they should go.

So you go to that spot

Jump

And collect whatever was in your Secret Egg

Happy hunting!

Pro tip: Lots of lives for the Lost Levels

Remember a while back that I told you how to get lots of 1ups in the original Super Mario Bros.? Turns out that you can pull off a similar feat in its super-hard sequel, too.

At the very beginning of the game you see this thing.

Which houses a hidden mushroom. Hit it from underneath to pop it out of there.

Then get the koopa over on the right-most block and strategically break the rest like so:

Then, wait until the koopa is about halfway off its platform and jump straight down on it. Done right, you'll start bouncing.

And just like before, you'll eventually start racking up the 1ups!

And the best part is that on the Super NES version, the counter actually stops correctly at 127 lives, so there's no danger of going over and losing them all.

And you're going to need every one of those lives, trust me.

Pro tip: accessing The Legend of Zelda's second quest any time you want

The NES Legend of Zelda holds a special place in the hearts of a lot of people, even the title screen is enough to bring back a flood of fond (and maybe not so fond) memories. Check it out:

Now, if that image didn't bring back floods of memories, then I have a tip you might be interested in.

Normally, after you finish the game once, a new, slightly harder, version of the game is presented to you. Stuff's moved all around, so your maps that you might have made the first time around will be all but useless. Which makes for a new experience.

But, what if you've finished the game before and just want to jump straight to the second quest without having to bother with the first one?

Easy!

Go to the Name Registration screen and enter your name as ZELDA.

You'll see Link holding the telltale sword that shows that he's ready to tackle the second quest.

Good luck. You'll need it.

Pro tip: Listening to Castlevania III's music any time you want

It should probably come as no surprise by now that I like video game music. Especially from games that have good music, like Castlevania III.

You probably recognize the title screen if you've ever played this game:

But, hold down A and B while you press Start and:

Ta da!

You use Up and Down to choose your song, B to play it, and A to stop it. Perfect for making your own mix CD.

Which we'll have to talk about another day.

Pro tip: setting off fireworks in Super Mario Bros.

In the original Super Mario Bros. (and its huge number of remakes) you get to slide down a flagpole at the end of each level.

Once you slide down and go into the mini-fort, you might see some fireworks, which give you 500 points each. There might be one, three, six, or zero.

But what triggers it?

Great question!

The amount of fireworks you get is dependent on the last digit of the timer when you hit the flagpole. If the digit it 1, 3, or 6, then that's how many fireworks you get. Anything else nets zero.

I find that the best way to guarantee a 6 is to stand on the top step as far left as you can. Then, when the timer's last digit hits 9, hold B, run and jump onto the flagpole. Then you get the 5,000 points and six fireworks for 3,000 more, which nets you a total of 8,000 points (plus the bonus for whatever's left on the timer).

Not too bad!

Oh, and this tip only works on levels that actually have a flagpole. So it's a no-go in the big castle levels.

Pro tip: Nightshade: Constructing a Dinosaur

In Nightshade you need to go around doing Good Deeds (tm) to gain popularity. The game's crammed full of them, and some are hidden better than others.

Take this dinosaur skeleton in the museum for example.

If you examine it, you find a loose bone, which you can TAKE, but it causes the skeleton to collapse, which causes you to lose popularity, which is a bad thing.

But, you can then OPERATE the pile of bones left on the floor to create:

The correct dino! Which nets you more popularity than you lost.

The bone you removed was extra, so you get to keep it to use later on in your quest.

Good luck!

Pro tip: finding out who's behind RBI Baseball

Have you ever wondered who made RBI Baseball for the NES? Well, then I have a treat for you!

At the title screen

Hold down A and B, and press Start. Then the credits sequence will start

Which actually only consists of the one screen.

But hey, now you know who to blame for this game.

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