List of chronogaming/library completion projects (reviews, longplays, etc.)

[Leatherrebel5150]

1 hour ago, thegoldenband said:

That could be! Are you in touch with him at all? I see he hasn't updated the channel in a year, but has an active Facebook page. I don't have the bandwidth to do it but it'd be great if someone could reach out to him and find out whether those reviews were copyright-struck, never done, intentionally skipped, or are forthcoming.

 

In the meantime I've updated the first post to add N64 Glenn Plant, and have cleaned house a bit with some inactive sites.

Im not in touch with him, just enjoyed watching his stuff. I don’t have a facebook either or I would offer to try and contact him on there, sorry 

[+thegoldenband]

On 2/19/2023 at 4:48 PM, Leatherrebel5150 said:

Im not in touch with him, just enjoyed watching his stuff. I don’t have a facebook either or I would offer to try and contact him on there, sorry 

I corresponded with Glenn privately and found out that the last few reviews have been delayed for health reasons. I wish him the best and look forward to his return!

 

Meanwhile, I'm adding The PlayStation Experiment by FamiConsumer, which aims to review all games released in all regions for the original PlayStation. FamiConsumer is doing the Chrontendo thing, with multiple games per video. Very glad to see this emerge, since Retro Pals sadly stopped their PlayStation series, leaving a void for someone to take on this (very formidable) task.

[+thegoldenband]

Added another PlayStation project: the Complete Playstation Series by Blue Bidya Game, which is reviewing all games released in all regions for the original PlayStation in alphanumeric order. That's a fun twist, since it'll inevitably cover some games that other projects may not reach.

[seganick]

Hey, this is seganick. 

 

Just saw this thread, and I am very much active on my cartridge archive... trying to beat all NA carts, not just n64.

 

Thanks, and I'll check out some of the others!

[StingX2]

What a bizarre post that uses my Challenger doc as reference but also excludes me. 😅

 

There are many old and abandoned efforts to do these challenges. Yearly about 10 show up and most don't go far. Many do not archive video and instead archive reviews instead. Then you have challengers that archive every second like Sharpie. Adaml on Gamefaqs did a beat all NES games challenge back in the forum era of Gamefaqs and recorded the NES Endings FAQ to help future challengers something TheMexicanRunner did use for reference. A users different goal of recording their success doesn't dismiss the challenge.

 

Also the standard we list Challengers for is beating Sports in Season mode or tournament mode. Not a single game and Sharpie doesn't do that. If you are looking for a challenge user that did that, that'd be MeridianPrime who you list with no footnotes that continues to do that on SNES.

 

Other things missed from the doc for active challengers on twitch
-Sharpie has now finished Saturn as well and is on Dreamcast
-SegaNick doing a beat every North American released cartridge challenge which spans all the way back to Atari 2600
-BPN_Gaming is attempting many challenges as part of a multi system challenge dating back to Atari 2600
-TheMetalBeast doing licensed NES, unlicensed NES, homebrew NES and Famicom. All hard mode/best ending.
-MegatronECS doing all NTSC & PAL NES games
-RetroBladen has been around since TMR popped up and has been doing NES/SNES/Gen/N64/GB since
-Timzy88 has been doing NES/SNES
-Elmastaa is doing systems released in the 90s
-Batista_Harpu has been doing SNES since nearly the start of all twitch streamers and hes including every non translated japanese game as well
-ChazziSE is doing every NA ps1 game, an all Wrestling game challenge, and a chronological Dreamcast challenge
-Retku is doing a ps1 challenge
-Cochese788 is doing an N64 challenge and is half done
-Thabeast721 is doing an N64 challenge and is half done
-MisterRadon is doing an N64 challenge 100% on every game
-PumpkinPieman is also doing an n64 challenge with 100% on every game
-TheDragonOfHatred is doing GBC
-Pshyched Plays PS2 is only on youtube but has been doing ps2 forever
-Cous is doing the NA PS2 library
-Gilgatex is doing the GBA and is closing in on 50%
-Capture1Ditto also doing the GBA
-TheBreadghost also doing the GBA
-DarkLordGonzo also doing the GBA
-Mr_Shasta is almost 100 deep on the NDS
-IceCreamMikey is doing the Xbox 360 in chronological order
-BadWiid is in the closing stretches of finishing every Star Wars game ever made including the most obscure stuff you could ever think of....and in chronological order
-StingX2 is this jerk doing the Playstation 1 since 2015 and although he's far from finishing every game hes beaten every Lightspan game. He is also doing the much more impossible physical PS4.

[+thegoldenband]

22 hours ago, StingX2 said:

What a bizarre post that uses my Challenger doc as reference but also excludes me. 😅

Nothing negative or personal intended by the omission! If you read back through the thread, you'll see that I discovered your doc in August 2021, long after this thread was started:

 

On 8/1/2021 at 11:32 AM, thegoldenband said:

In other news, I recently discovered the existence of this document on Google Docs --

 

Challengers Doc: 2021 Edition

 

-- which reveals that there are far, far more Twitch streamers doing library completion/"beat-'em-all" challenges than I had realized. Not sure how I'll use that information in terms of maintaining this thread, but for now, if you're looking for Twitch streamers doing the whole library for a console or system, definitely check out that Google Doc.

Your doc pretty much mooted that whole part of my thread, since yours is far more up-to-date and comprehensive. Both in my first post and in that post, I make it clear that your Google Doc is the best point of reference.

 

I pretty much gave on the idea of keeping the challenge section fully updated from that point on anyway, but real life has intervened in the 21 months since then -- had a kid, lost a parent, etc. -- so maintaining this thread has been strictly on a piecemeal basis, and mainly focusing on the blogs, video reviews, and message board threads.

 

Does that address your concerns?

 

EDIT: Also, to address the Sharpie thing, I'm not sure if I transcribed that from his rules at the time. If I'm mistaken about the single game thing, my bad. To me, whether beating a tournament suffices to beat a game depends on the game. One example is ATP Tour Championship Tennis, in which Sharpie just played a tournament:

 

https://www.twitch.tv/sharpie/video/161415800

 

In that game, you get a definitive ending -- with a credits roll, etc. -- only after winning three consecutive seasons. It's a slog, but IMO, just beating a tournament isn't enough to call that game "beaten" when an actual ending is available through season mode. Others may disagree; that's fine.

 

(I'd also have to go back and check my notes about the RBI Baseball games, which also caught my attention. As I recall, playing a proper season mode is the only way to face the Tengen team, the best in the game, but it may well be you get the exact same ending, in which case there's no reason to "require" season mode.)

 

22 hours ago, StingX2 said:

There are many old and abandoned efforts to do these challenges. Yearly about 10 show up and most don't go far. Many do not archive video and instead archive reviews instead. Then you have challengers that archive every second like Sharpie. Adaml on Gamefaqs did a beat all NES games challenge back in the forum era of Gamefaqs and recorded the NES Endings FAQ to help future challengers something TheMexicanRunner did use for reference. A users different goal of recording their success doesn't dismiss the challenge.

Could you clarify what you mean by that last section? Not sure what you're referring to. I've got a whole section for people who do blog-based reviews, whether or not they beat the game, so that's not a problem here.

 

I don't know whether AdamL ever finished his challenge -- though he was openly using cheats, wasn't he? -- but it's a funny coincidence that you mention him. Literally yesterday, I just did a count of how many more endings he needed in the North American section of his NES Endings FAQ (about 100).

 

Too bad he hasn't had the chance to finish that FAQ up, but I should probably link it. It's got a few errors but it's a very useful document and contributed a lot.

 

(That said I can't credit him with a challenge/"beat-'em-all" victory if he was using cheats. His goal was to see the ending, not necessarily to earn legit victories over every game.)

[+thegoldenband]

On 5/25/2023 at 1:20 PM, seganick said:

Hey, this is seganick. 

 

Just saw this thread, and I am very much active on my cartridge archive... trying to beat all NA carts, not just n64.

 

Thanks, and I'll check out some of the others!

Hey, seganick, only just saw your post, which I somehow totally missed. I'll move you to the active list! Given that you're doing the earliest systems, I'll actually put you at the top, since my list is sorted roughly chronologically by system.

 

As I mentioned, I haven't been reliably updating the list of Twitch streamers for a few years, because of real life stuff and since StingX2's document is much more up-to-date and comprehensive. I don't remember when I added you to the list but I guess you were inactive at the time. Glad you're back in the game!

[+thegoldenband]

Added two new entries for projects I've run across recently:

• the blog Fifth Generation Gaming (which is "reviewing every North American Playstation, Saturn, 3DO, and Jaguar Game in release order", to quote the page heading)
• and the video review series Dreamcast Files.

[kern]

I believe that Peebs has finished his snes run -- he's doing different kinds of games now. I remember that he had some games that he hadn't played yet because they didn't fit his criteria but he wanted to come back to later...not sure if he will do that.

 

I'm down to about 12 SNES rpgs left so I'm hoping to have that done by early next year (March or so), although it won't truly be "complete" since there are a number of games I skipped due to already having played them, or they were in English. But it will still be 130 SNES RPGs plus the 25 or so I played as strategy RPGs.

Edited October 20, 2023 by kern

[+thegoldenband]

1 hour ago, kern said:

I believe that Peebs has finished his snes run -- he's doing different kinds of games now. I remember that he had some games that he hadn't played yet because they didn't fit his criteria but he wanted to come back to later...not sure if he will do that.

I remember checking his spreadsheet and seeing a small group of Super Scope games he'd set aside, and maybe Miracle Piano too? I assumed it was an issue of needing real hardware to do them properly, but didn't see a quick way to confirm that.

 

Congrats on the approaching finish line, by the way!

[+thegoldenband]

On 2/9/2023 at 5:09 PM, thegoldenband said:

A brief update to add Famidaily by [edit] RndStranger, which I just learned about recently. He's doing video reviews of every Famicom game, and is up to 770 completed -- one heck of a feat!

 

Also noting the disappearance of the Inconsolable Nung blog, and the retirement (or at least long-term hiatus) of the 16bit Chronicles SNES blog. Sorry to see them go.

And I'm pleased to note that today, Famidaily released episode #1041, thus completing its mission. Incredible to see a documentation project with such a huge scope achieve its goal, especially one in which the reviewer clearly approaches every game with an open mind (or at least an interested, even-handed attitude).

 

RndStranger will still be putting out videos, including library reviews of the Famicom Disk System, Epoch Cassette Vision (maybe the Super too?), and I think one other Japanese system is planned as well. No plans for Super Famidaily, though; one man can only take just so much baseball, mahjong, and horse racing sims, I'm sure.

[+thegoldenband]

A few small updates, including the addition of an abandoned PlayStation project in alphabetical order, ABC do PlayStation, that completed 150 videos in Brazilian Portuguese. For those who speak that language, it might be of interest, though the coverage appears superficial (more of a "let's randomly check this out" than a "let's review this with care").

 

Also noting that a bunch of blog and video review projects are approaching the finish line or have just reached it. RndStranger released a full set of Epoch Cassette Vision reviews (with Super Cassette Vision and Famicom Disk System review sets forthcoming), while N64 Glenn Plant is back in action and has less than 10 games left to complete his North American + Europe review set.

 

Swan Song is also proceeding steadily, with almost 90% of the WonderSwan monochrome library now reviewed (I assume WonderSwan Color is in the cards too). Definitely one to check out if you haven't yet seen it -- the level of TLC on that series is high.

 

(To emphasize a point made upthread, blog and video review projects are now the focus of this thread, as the Google Doc linked earlier is a much more up-to-date way of tracking Twitch streamers.)

[+thegoldenband]

I don't track Twitch streamers much since I became aware of the Google Doc linked in the first post ("Challengers Doc: 2023 Edition"), but I randomly ran across RetroMania by Baras441 and added it to the list in the first post, since I don't think it's on the spreadsheet.

 

Google Translate tells me this Russian-language streamer is working on "a challenge to complete all retro games on NES, SNES, Master System, Genesis and Turbografx-16", with 186 games beaten as of this writing.

[+thegoldenband]

A couple completed projects to note, as VideoGameSage successfully completed their 2023 effort to beat the Nintendo 64 library (North American & PAL regions).

 

Meanwhile RndStranger also completed his Epoch Cassette Vision and Super Cassette Vision review sets, in addition to the epic Famidaily project he completed in November 2023.

 

He's now starting on his Famicom Disk System project, The Year of FDS.

 

Finally I added Thabeast721 to the YouTube section. Though mainly a Twitch streamer, he's also been doing some nice reviews of the N64 games he beats, using his VODs with voiceover narration.

[kern]

I'm done with Super Famicom! (or at least the ones I intend to play). I'll never finish the strategy RPGs, though.

[+thegoldenband]

22 minutes ago, kern said:

I'm done with Super Famicom! (or at least the ones I intend to play). I'll never finish the strategy RPGs, though.

Congratulations! I didn't make a new post for it but I did update the first post a little while ago. Really pleased to see you reach the finish line with the PCE/SFC-specific part of the project.

[+thegoldenband]

Added a link to Dave's Videogame Journey, a project putting out videos that each cover an entire year of the NES's North American library.

 

Also updated the first post to note that Jeremy Parish has stopped covering Japanese Game Boy games, allegedly because they're too expensive now and he wants to photograph every game he covers. He'll only cover North American games from now on, but first he's going back and redoing his early Game Boy videos.

 

(Whether other factors -- like an antipathy to pachinko and horse racing games, not really being equipped to deal with the language barrier, and/or the low clickthrough rate on coverage of obscure/unpopular games -- might play a role in this decision, one can only speculate.)

[kern]

On 5/2/2024 at 2:53 PM, thegoldenband said:

(Whether other factors -- like an antipathy to pachinko and horse racing games, not really being equipped to deal with the language barrier, and/or the low clickthrough rate on coverage of obscure/unpopular games -- might play a role in this decision, one can only speculate.)

The number of gambling (pachinko, horse racing, etc) and shogi games released for the SFC is unreal; way back at the beginning when I was doing the "all super famicom games" blog I specifically excluded those kind of games because of how many there seemed to be.

 

[+thegoldenband]

2 hours ago, kern said:

The number of gambling (pachinko, horse racing, etc) and shogi games released for the SFC is unreal; way back at the beginning when I was doing the "all super famicom games" blog I specifically excluded those kind of games because of how many there seemed to be.

Absolutely, it's a formidable obstacle and I can't fault anyone for not wanting to deal with it. I give RndStranger a ton of credit for persevering through the highs and lows of the Famicom library, though I think sugoroku and baseball games were more of a factor in that case.

 

That said, I won't claim it's not disappointing to see Parish (and others like him) succumb to mission creep. The original project, documenting every Game Boy game, was really exciting because no one else was doing it -- and it was also inseparable from the (rather obvious) reality that saying "I'm going to review every Game Boy game!" would mean tons of puzzle and other niche games plus a language barrier. With all due respect to him, that's literally what you sign up for when you do a project like that.

The writing was on the wall as soon as he started covering NES games, and I figured he'd either abandon the Game Boy coverage or stop covering the Japanese library. At least he's still making interesting content, and I appreciate the Epoch, TV Boy, and SG-1000 coverage among other things. But I'm not excited about the production and existence of yet another video about how awesome Zelda and Mario 3 are, or how transcendently insightful Nintendo is and how their games are the best games and stand the test of time, etc., etc.

 

(That's one thing I appreciated a lot about your SFC/PCE RPG blog -- the more famous games were more likely to get passed over, so there was a lot less of that Groundhog Day feeling and I always felt like I was learning something, rather than being congratulated on how awesome I am for feeling nostalgic for the things my friends and I all liked in 1992. )

[kern]

Any kind of chronogaming project is tough because no matter what, it's going to involve as many (or more) low quality as high quality games. I think to do one of these you really have to have a thick skin for boredom, or else just be someone (like peebs and maybe CRPGaddict) who really just likes almost every game they play. Also it's tough to get even a small audience, which can lower your motivation when combined with the potential poor quality.

 

What made it tolerable for me is that I listen to a lot of podcasts, and so I did that frequently while I played the games (I still do this).

 

I have been playing early console RPGs but I don't really want to call it a "chronogaming project" because I'm only playing each one for a few hours, and I'm not committing myself to playing to any particular endpoint. I'm focusing more on the development of the genre rather than playing each game to completion.

[+thegoldenband]

4 hours ago, kern said:

Any kind of chronogaming project is tough because no matter what, it's going to involve as many (or more) low quality as high quality games. I think to do one of these you really have to have a thick skin for boredom, or else just be someone (like peebs and maybe CRPGaddict) who really just likes almost every game they play. Also it's tough to get even a small audience, which can lower your motivation when combined with the potential poor quality.

Agreed, especially that being able to enjoy every game for what it is makes a huge difference. If someone can't find something to enjoy or appreciate about nearly every game in a system's library -- if they're allergic to jank, are turned off by anything that's not top-tier, or see old games as inherently inferior to modern ones -- then they're typically not a good fit for these kinds of projects.

 

(One ongoing project makes me question why the person is even doing it, as he hates almost everything he's reviewing, and seemingly views the entire era with utter contempt.)

 

That said, I think the biggest thing is just being committed to the process itself. When any reviewer or library-completer gets in the mindset of seeing games merely as obstacles to "finishing", something has gone wrong, because they're elevating an extrinsic goal (the trophy of being able to said "I did X!") above the engagement with the medium itself -- like a film reviewer who resents having to watch the movies at all.

 

And of course if a person actively seeks recognition, subscriptions, etc. or wants/needs to monetize their work, then it's tempting to succumb to mission creep or cut corners. I respect RndStranger's total indifference to promoting his channel, which has done OK but still deserves 10 times more subscribers at least; it also saddens me to see similar channels like Swan Song or Sega Masters get barely 10% of that, and a tiny fraction of what they deserve. But those are labors of love, clearly.

 

I've completed a chronogaming-esque project for film that involved over 250 movies, have an ongoing undeclared "beat all the tennis games for consoles/handhelds" project that's about 50% done, and ran the Sega-16 effort (as well as the gameplay tracker here), so I've paid my dues to some extent. I have a lot of respect for streamers like Goati_ who refuse to use spoilers, and will learn entire sports or games (most recently shogi) just to complete a game. I think an attitude of "it takes as long as it takes, and it's OK if I never finish" can help a lot with burnout.

 

When it comes to reviews, I wish some folks would get together and form a consortium on a per-console basis. All the abandoned chrono-reviewing projects have yielded a ton of short-lived channels that showcase a system's launch titles but never get much further, which leads to massive overcoverage of certain games. Having everyone start from scratch seems nutty; better to have a team so that if someone drops out, someone else can take their place.

[kern]

19 hours ago, thegoldenband said:

That said, I think the biggest thing is just being committed to the process itself. When any reviewer or library-completer gets in the mindset of seeing games merely as obstacles to "finishing", something has gone wrong, because they're elevating an extrinsic goal (the trophy of being able to said "I did X!") above the engagement with the medium itself -- like a film reviewer who resents having to watch the movies at all.

I feel like I was in this position by the end of my Super Famicom RPGs playthrough; the games were much worse than I thought they would be (or perhaps, my own tolerance for that era of games was not as strong as I thought it would be). Fortunately I am enjoying the Strategy RPGs much more.

 

CRPGAddict makes it look a lot easier than it is, though.

[+thegoldenband]

18 hours ago, kern said:

CRPGAddict makes it look a lot easier than it is, though.

It helps that his underlying reasons are different from a lot of folks, since he's not trying to leverage his blog into anything else (social media presence, YouTube stardom, massive Patreon, etc.). His blog basically exists to give structure and meaning to his addiction -- to provide a reason to play, and turn it into a more disciplined activity. All the terrific historical and gameplay documentation is largely a byproduct of his meticulous, thoughtful personality. He's very nearly one of a kind!

[kern]

Maybe that's why I've been able to last for so long too -- my primary audience for the posts is myself. I probably wouldn't do it if I had zero readers and nobody ever commented -- of course I would love it if I had more readers, but it's never really been a goal. Especially now that I'm hosting the blog on my own site I'm paying money to have it up there rather than making any.

 

I also have managed to set a schedule of (at least) one post a weekend, and I never force myself to write really long and detailed posts if I don't feel like it. My posts would definitely be better if I spent more time on then but I doubt I would have been able to keep going for this long in that case.

[ubersaurus]

I'll highlight a new project that a friend of mine started recently, documenting the brawler/beat em up genre's development. It's chronological, though he isn't touching on *every* single game.

 

https://www.youtube.com/@BClarkOMP

 

Also germane to the current discussion, I actually find the lesser games interesting to dig into and try to understand what people thought of them and why they just didn't quite gel together... or sometimes, why they were just super niche or aged poorly. I don't have the kind of time to pump out videos at quite my original pace thanks to parenthood, but I do have every intention to keep rolling with my Atari Archive stuff til I just don't have it in me any longer. Though I will say, while it has been very educational learning how to use video editing software... I am a writer at heart and kind of wish I'd just gone that route! I usually have my writeups done well in advance of the actual video production just because of how time consuming it is.