The Legendary Marathon – Might and Magic Book One: The Longest Documented NES Quest
As an ardent retro gaming archivist, few revelations electrify me more than discovering the boundaries pushed by classic titles back in the day. Recently, one NES epic in particular grabbed my attention as a contender for the console‘s longest documented adventure – Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum. Originally released in 1986 for Apple II systems as a renowned open-world RPG precursor to The Elder Scrolls, this 1990 NES port incredibly clocks completion times averaging 68.5 hours! Let‘s delve into the vast quest laying within and other marathon-like feats from NES legends.
Embarking on The Secret of the Inner Sanctum‘s Sprawling Journey
In an era where scale meant scrolling side to side rather than exploring fully rendered 3D environments, Might and Magic Book One was a pioneering effort. Placing you in control of a custom party of adventurers, its fantasy world spans multiple towns, vast wilderness, and over a dozen maze-like dungeons. As a western proto open-world RPG, playing it to completion requires patience in navigating its first-person grid dungeons, brutal turn-based combat complexity, and cryptic quest design necessitating grid paper note taking.
For capturing both the blessing and curse of its scope, Book One serves as a historical landmark – no other documented NES title has surpassed its average 68.5 hours playtime mark. Let those hours sink in – that equates to over 95 Netflix episodes worth of 8-bit escapism!
The Mexican Runner‘s NES Holy Grail – 714 Games in Under 3 Years
In the speed running community, playing through every game on a system is referred to as a "completionist" run. While popular for newer consoles, tackling such a challenge on a 30+ year old platform with over 700 titles poses a far more brutal proposition. Enter The Mexican Runner – a Twitch streamer who captivated retro gaming fans across 14,000+ broadcasted hours as he systematically conquered the entire NES library across nearly 3 years.
His rules made the run more staggering: playing each title from beginning to end utilizing original NES hardware. Beyond cult classics like Super Mario Bros and Mega Man, his gauntlet forced him through blackbox shovelware, toothgrinding Nintendo Hard epics like Battletoads and Bayou Billy, and even unlicensed Bible Adventures. He saved the legendarily difficult trilogy of Ninja Gaiden for last. On February 26th, 2017, The Mexican Runner at long last achieved the coveted title of first gamer to officially complete every NES game commercially released!
Hardest NES Games – Pushing Players to Their Breaking Point and Beyond
Ah the good ole days, when game developers cared more about crushing souls than coddling them! The NES library contains no shortage of legendarily difficult games bearing reputations that eclipse modern brick wall challenges like Returnal and Elden Ring. Take the infamously unrelenting Battletoads for example – between friend-betraying speedbike racing, sphincter-clenching snake pits, and platforming making Super Meat Boy look forgiving, it symbolizes Nintendo Hard difficulty turned up to 11.
So which NES games stand apart as the most controller smashing punishing based on aggregated difficulty tier lists? According to both completion % and overall survival hardship ratings, the top contenders are:
- Battletoads
- Ninja Gaiden
- Ghosts n‘ Goblins
- Contra
- Castlevania III
- Mega Man 1
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Think you have the reflexes and resilience to conquer even a couple games on this list? Prepare for salty wounds and sweet victories my friend! Just beware of worn out A and B buttons…
Built to Withstand the Apocalypse – NES Cartridge Durability and Lifespans
With near indestructible toughness rivaling today‘s roach, much like Keith Richards the NES simply refuses to die. But can we say the same about the hardware enabling its games like the legendary cartridges? Let‘s investigate why properly stored carts may outlive modern formats.
NES cart shells consist of very durable ABS plastic able to withstand tons of trauma. More importantly, correctly archived games avoid corrosion risks by:
- Removing batteries powering volatile save memory
- Storing in climate/UV controlled environments
- Allowing adequate airflow to combat moisture
Documented examples back this lifespan claim too! Collectors routinely test 30+ year old working titles. In fact, the National Videogame Museum in Texas boasts several verified functional systems and games from even the early 80s!
While the NES console itself presents more longevity concerns contending with aging capacitors and locks, I‘d bet my copy of Contra that with care a complete library could endure easily over 50 years – long enough to one day share with our grandchildren!
Brain Burning Strategy – Contrasting Chess and DotA 2 as Ultimate Challenges
Unlike conventional quick burst arcade experiences dominating the NES, truly skill-testing games leverage strategic decision making under pressure for victory, not just quick thumbs. In terms of legendary strategy benchmarks raising blood pressure for generations, Chess owns eSports predecessor bragging rights as analytical athletics. Compared to even monolith moderns like DotA 2 however, I‘d argue mastering Chess poses the stiffer mental marathon for several reasons:
- Infinite Skill Ceiling: Chess growth trajectory never plateaus with constant reevaluation of evolving meta
- Individual Accountability: Unlike DotA 2 teams, you alone own your success/defeat
- Cold Cost of Errors: Every mistake carries crushing positional consequences with no respawning!
Don‘t get me wrong – I tip my hat to anyone reaching 5K MMR+ glory in DotA! But look within and ask yourself this: which sounds tougher to you – memorizing endless hero matchups/builds or internalizing endless grandmaster programs spanning centuries of evolutions?
The Never Ending Adventures – What Makes Games like Skyrim and Minecraft Endlessly Playable?
While no NES games can realistically match the endless replayability of contemporary RPG sandboxes, their foundation established core pillars enabling literal infinite gameplay potential:
Flexible Character Building: By specializing our protagonist across modular upgrades suited to preferred playstyles, we personalize the journey.
A Livelihood To Maintain: Hunger, sleep, settlements/bases to develop give a sense of routine immersion and ownership.
A World Persisting Without You: Side activities, AI inhabitants continuing life bestow believability in the backdrop.
Emergent Gameplay Moments: Random world events, physics, AI behaviors lead to unexpected outcomes to share.
Mod Support: User generated expansions continuously add quests, items, features so the adventure need never cease!
NES classics like Ultima and Zelda planted seeds for these concepts that fully bloomed modern gaming mainstays like Skyrim and Minecraft into forever franchises. Surely we‘ll one day see their grandeur matched in the Metaverse successors of tomorrow!
So there you have it friends – whether you played back then or just have a passion for gaming history, I hope you enjoyed this tour through some of the NES’ longest, hardest, and most enduring feats! Let me know your thoughts on Might and Magic Book One or what topics you‘d like covered next!
