As a bonus for Patreon donors, I'm presenting an article I wrote nearly five years ago on the history of Westone, which was published in Retro Gamer magazine. (This PDF attached here is actually directly scanned from it.) It's six pages long and includes quotes from Ryuichi Nishizawa, the company co-founder and president. Unfortunately not long after this was published, Westone went bankrupt, though Nishizawa is still around in the gaming sphere.
You can find it in issue 124 of Retro Gamer, wi...
2018-07-10 20:36:04 +0000 UTC
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Join the HG101 gang as they spend several hours in the blurry texture jungle, acclimating to the worst controls on the planet -- with special guest Slowbeef! The Patreon bonus for this episode is Policenauts.
2018-07-10 11:34:12 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/sonic-cd/
Our classic Sonic coverage continues with what's probably the most divisive entry of the 16-bit games. We come on the side of "it's really good, but also kinda messy".
And having grown up with the American soundtrack, it's still the one I prefer...even though there are at least a few really good tracks from the Japanese one.
2018-07-09 14:04:34 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/help-hg101-by-answering-this-poll/
In the past year, we’ve done a lot of work on renovating HG101. From a full website revamp, to adding our books, podcast and Discord more prominently. We’ve also upgraded our Patreon tiers!
We’d love to know what you’d like us to do next. What would you like to see improved? What about new things? We’ll t...
2018-07-07 16:29:38 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/sonic-the-hedgehog/
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/sonic-the-hedgehog-2/
This month marks the start of a rather large feature on the Sonic the Hedgehog games. This has actually been in the works for quite some time, and started last summer around when Sonic Mania came ...
2018-07-07 16:01:19 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/dragon-fighter/
Another one from the NES Cult Classics book, this is one of Natsume's lesser known titles for the system. It's not up to the levels of Shatterhand or Shadow of the Ninja, but you can transform into a dragon, so it's still pretty alright.
2018-07-05 14:24:38 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/shadow-of-the-ninja/
A two-player take on Ninja Gaiden, basically. It doesn't play exactly the same, but it's close enough so that its Game Boy spinoff was taken over by Tecmo as Ninja Gaiden Shadow. Also, one of Natsume's better NES titles.
2018-07-03 02:20:35 +0000 UTC
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Join the HG101 gang as they slowly plod their way toward victory. The Patreon bonus for this episode is Haunted House (2600).
2018-07-02 04:08:33 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wurm/
One of those ambitious NES games that tries different types of genres, as you control a woman named Moby as she explores the world beneath the Earth's crust.
2018-07-01 03:41:01 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/isolated-warrior/
An isometric run-and-gun for the NES from KID, the folks behind Low G Man and KickMaster.
2018-06-29 14:48:02 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bleed-2/
The follow-up to the indie platformer/hack-em-up from back in 2012, which improves on it substantially. Also cheap on the Steam sale going on!
2018-06-29 14:40:15 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/hissatsu/
A Shinobi-type action game for the Saturn based on a long running feudal Japan period drama that originated in the 70s.
2018-06-26 17:50:14 +0000 UTC
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Join the HG101 gang as they swear vengeance upon the Dark Prince of the Beast Kingdom, Kevin. The Patreon bonus for this episode is Her Story
2018-06-25 02:03:11 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/uju-geobukseon/
There aren't many Korean exclusive Mega Drive games, but here's one of them!
2018-06-25 01:56:11 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/first-batch-of-hg101-stickers-has-arrived/
We just started receiving our first batch of goodies! HG101 stickers, with the MSX style logo (thanks for your help, WildWeasel!).
We’re also working on a limited edition of Episode 100 of The Top 47,858 Games of All Time. It’s going to ship on a cassette tape, with a custom made casing, labels,...
2018-06-22 01:53:36 +0000 UTC
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Join the HG101 gang as they shoot slime at a wall of slime in a world of slime. The Patreon bonus for this episode is Crisis Beat. Outro music is from Undeadline Genjuuki (X68000).
Sorry this one's a little late...the RSS feed was updated a few days back so if you get the MP3s there, you already have this, but we're switching over some staff responsibilities and I forgot to upload the copy here.
2018-06-20 18:11:22 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/mass-effect/
The space opera trilogy from Bioware that defined action-RPGs for the last console generation, even though it kinda went out with a (only half deserved) fizzle.
2018-06-20 17:45:42 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/mappy/
Namco's classic arcade series, starring a police mouse hunting a gang of mischievous cats. There are six pieces in total, covering its sequels and spinoffs, as well as the Shiftylook cartoon series.
This is another one of these articles part of New Year's Resolution, since I'd been working on it for something like four years. The main obstacles were covering all of the ...
2018-06-16 12:28:27 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/after-death/
One of the lesser known of the recent indie Metroidvanias, with a fairly dark premise.
2018-06-13 02:48:09 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/alley-cat/
One of Synapse's greatest titles and standout of the Atari 8-bit library, where you control (of course) an Alley Cat, venturing through different houses.
2018-06-10 13:47:41 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/matou-no-houkai/
One of the rare Castlevania II clones, released for the Famicom Disk System.
2018-06-10 13:40:38 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/atlantis-no-nazo/
One of the great legendary kusoges, courtesy of Sunsoft!
2018-06-10 13:38:42 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/into-the-breach/
So hey, I'm finally back from vacation, so it's time to catch up on posting some articles here on Patreon - these were technically already published on the main site over the past week though.
This one here is a mecha strategy game released a few months back from the creators of the modern classic FTL.
2018-06-10 13:34:49 +0000 UTC
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One of the things I did on my vacation is met up with Gamepress, who publishes the HG101 books in Spanish. This presentation is technically for the recently published Spanish edition of the Sega book Service Games, but I pop in around the 45 minute mark to discuss a few of the books that have been published there (I speak in English and then they translate). I'll probably write a bit about the scene when I get home. The publishing industry for books about video games certainly seems stronger in ...
2018-06-03 15:00:37 +0000 UTC
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Robopon, one of the any series of Pokemon clones, this one from Hudson.
2018-06-03 14:17:31 +0000 UTC
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Join the HG101 gang as they explore a classic of the "Violence Man" genre. The Patreon bonus for this episode is Plaque Attack. Outro music is from Urotsuki Doji (X68000).
Sorry this is a little late, wifi has been spotty on my trip. Plus we had to switch editors. Also since I don't have access to FTP, this Patreon file is currently the only way to access this episode. The RSS will be updated when I return next week.
2018-06-03 14:04:02 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/chasm-the-rift/
I want to cover more mid 90s first person shooters since so many of them are basically forgotten. This is one of them, inspired by Quake.
2018-05-30 19:58:15 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/a-d-2044/
A ridiculous text adventure showing a future where feminists took over the world. We only found out about this when GOG gave it out for free last year.
Anyway I'm out on vacation for a bit so updates might be a bit late (plus the podcast might need to wait until I get back). The site is set to auto update though so please continue to check that out!
2018-05-29 06:03:15 +0000 UTC
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http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/kyofu-no-sekai/
A horror adventure game done in the style of an old Macintosh game.
2018-05-27 02:58:17 +0000 UTC
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