But I did that this year. Someone else should take care of it in 2016.
Still, if no man stands up for the task, I shall again slay the Witch-king of Angmar in NES cart form once again, for like Éowyn, shieldmaiden of Rohan, I am no man.

I want to participate and knockout a few games this year... Hopefully I don't get beat to the punch on all my selections!

I will try to contribute a lot this year, but no promises . Definitely not touching Mutant Virus however, somebody else gets that joy for 2016!

I still haven't tried Gemfire, so I can't give any advice there.  Old threads in this forum can be a big help with Koei games as well as some very helpful members on here. 
 

In general Koei games reward you for spending funds to develop your territory, and punish you for premature attacks or cruel policies. ROTK is very straightforward if you know what to do, since combat is essentially broken and heavily favors the defender.

I'd like to give Nobunaga's Ambition or Genghis Khan a shot, but don't know if I'll have the free time to learn a new game this winter/spring.

Wow. Awesome job everyone. I didn't get a chance to contribute this year like I did in 2014 but I'll definitely be coming back for 2016

I'm planning the routes for the games I want to hit:



There's 20 billion timers out there for speed runners, but damned if I could find anything other than paint programs for keeping track of routes, so I'm making my own.

What games are you planning to beat, Ozzy?

I'm going to play Amagon again like I do every year. That's become something of a new year's tradition for me. After that, I'll probably look for some easy games to clear like John Elway's Quarterback.


Here's some stats to mull over while we wait two more days:



Top 25 All Time Most Completions
 

		Total		Licensed	Unl/pal
1	nerdynebraskan	214.5		195	19.5
2	WashYourFace	190.8		142.3	48.5
3	scaryice	173.8		167.8	6
4	Crabmaster2000	173		173	0
5	DoctorNick	147		142	5
6	bimmy lee	130		123	7
7	Bea Iank	116		94	22
8	Red	103		101	2
9	Sukhov	70		68	2
10	tablew/chairs	66		66	0
11	8-bit boice	64		64	0
12	Nightowljrm	62		62	0
13	the wizard 666	59		43	16
14	cdbblw	51		51	0
14	Enternal	51		51	0
16	khog143	42.8		42.8	0
17	gnarblast	42		24	18
18	gutsman004	40		40	0
19	Vectrex280996	34.5		30	4.5
20	Dr. Morbis	33		28	5
21	ruudos	29		29	0
22	Baksteen666	27.5		27.5	0
23	babywuchki	27		27	0
24	bronzeshield	26		24	2
25	Elkovsky	24		24	0

Top 10 Finishers for Each Year

(2012-13 were ranked by games completed, 2014-15 were ranked by points)
 

	2012	2013	2014	2015
2Legit28Bit	10
8-bit boice	3
acromite53			10
Bea Iank				2
bearcat-doug	6
bimmy lee	8	4	9	7
cdbblw				5
Crabmaster2000	1	2
DoctorNick			2	1
Dr. Morbis		9
Enternal		6
gnarblast			7
guitarzombie				8
gutsman004			8
khog143	9	9
nerdynebraskan			1	3
Nightowljrm	4
Ozzy 98				10
Red		3	5
scaryice	2	8	3	9
Sukhov		5	6
tablew/chairs				4
the wizard 666	10	6
TWarwick07	7
WashYourFace	5	1	4	6

Okay, I'm totally stealing that last post for the SNES thread scary

(the more hooks I can come up with, the better the fate of the thread I figure)

Zelda, Metroid, Dragon Warrior, and Final Fantasy are the first 4 I'm going for, they were the first four I beat last year.

lol isn't that your name next to Mutant Virus? Changed your mind?

 

I just finished my 31st nes game today, Firehouse Rescue lame I know

I'm hoping to reach 40 by the end of the year so maybe I can try and do a more obscure titles

I usually beat Punch Out!, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Rolling Thunder and Superman right after New Years eve, but this time I will tackle Mutant Virus instead. I managed to beat it today, so I think I can do it before the weekend again.

I got a lot more games and a much earlier head start this time.

You beat mutant virus?  care to add to the thread i made?

I started trying a bit of Zelda (Damn I'm rusty, but wanted to try out that new program I made), and my TV's picture keeps cutting out. I hope it's just the bulb going bad; I swapped it with a spare I had, but it's not a "known good" spare bulb, it's a "Why do I still have this bulb" bulb. And honestly, I don't want to play on that tiny 32" CRT TV.

Yes, I said it.

Well, if you watch speed runs, you should know about some of the best tricks. I know for Final Fantasy you can level up in the fire cave by fighting the agamas over and over (it's a forced encounter square). That's supposed to be the best leveling spot. And in Dragon Warrior, there's the gold glitch in the first castle which people do for half an hour to get better equipment.
 

You know, a gold glitch in Dragon Warrior sounds like a good idea, but you will need the experience you'd get from playing the game properly and grinding out the gold you need, so it really just makes it take longer to get the experience you need.

If you're doing it optimally the consensis is the gold glitch is SLIGHTLY quicker.  So even the ones who say use the glitch aren't saving that much. Kinda like the door glitch in zelda 1 on nes, it saves a key, but some of the extra keys are so easy to get, you don't even save a second. My current route has like 8 extra keys cause I can't decide which ones to skip yet, and I'm used to grabbing them. 

That said, the usfullness of the gold glitch in DW have changed now to favor using it.  Looks like people have found ways to muntipulate RNG for battles to get metal slime kills early.  Like, level 1 kills of metal slimes.  Unless I was looking at a very mislabeled video last night.  But this level of speedrun is almost cheating to me.  Not that I am aginst cheating, but for what we're doing here, I feel bad even doing the gold bug. Except for the fact it doesn't help that much. 
 

I sat out 2015 need to decide what to play right at the stroke of midnight for 2016 to get back on the board. Anyone claim Shadowgate yet?

Maybe we can change up the Beat every challenge for next year. We're getting them for the NES no problem now it seems.

We could double up on it: Now instead of just one person beating it, two people have to beat each game.
Could throw in a minimalist category: Beat it, someone else beat it without collecting a certain thing/doing a certain task (e.g. Zelda without the sword).

Just a thought :}