Look who's Gakken: Mr. Bomb / Robotan Wars / Chitaikuu Daisakusen | NES Works Gaiden (Gakken) 57
671Big thanks this episode to Seth Robinson (rtsoft.com) for helping me to secure a complete copy of the elusive Robotan Wars!
Our second foray into the epic odyssey that is the Gakken TV Boy brings us three—three!—games in a single painful blow. Well, I guess not totally painful. Admittedly, I can't imagine anyone would actively seek out these three titles in the modern day and age unless they were doing something deranged like trying to cover the entirety of the Gakken TV Boy library in video form, but these cartridges do at least contain competently programmed code... which is more than you can say for many other carts we've look at here.
Mr. Bomb puts an interesting (and ultimately hopeless) spin on Activision's Kaboom! (or maybe Atari's Avalanche?). Robotan Wars does its best to clone Robotron 2084 on wildly inadequate hardware. And finally, there's an actual licensed adaptation of Konami's Super Cobra that, for some bizarre reason, appears under a completely different title. Gakken really didn't seem especially fussed about setting themselves up for success with this console, or so it would appear.
Production notes:
Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! Plus, bonus videos, eBooks, and more!
TV Boy footage recorded from original hardware, modded for S-Video output by Christa Lee of Sound Retro Co. NES/Famicom footage captured from @analogueinc Nt Mini; SG-1000 footage recorded from Analogue Mega Sg Video; arcade footage generally captured from a MiSTer. All capture upscaled to 720 with an xRGB Mini Framemeister.