Game:

Contra (1987)

Duration: 12:22

85 views

6

A 1-credit clear of the arcade game Magical Error wo Sagase [magerror], played with WolfMAME 0.264. Score: 7,382. A spot-the-difference arcade game, with some mini-games thrown in for variety!

There are many *possible* differences for each puzzle - even if you've seen the pictures before, you may need to click on a different set of places next time. That, combined with the tight time limit (and punishment for wrong guesses), makes it unreasonably hard to clear the game in one credit in a casual playthrough. I relied on the playthrough from @DangorouNishida to learn how to clear this on one credit. The first trick is that the RNG is determined by when you start the game - so I start the game as soon as possible after it powers up, to get a predictable set of stages. The next trick is that the RNG for stages 4-4 and onward is determined by how long it takes you to finish stage 4-3 (!), so I make sure to finish the Santa stage just as a snowflake hits the top of his toy sack. It's very strange to have a game where the RNG is seeded exactly two times, but once you know that trick, it goes from "impossibly tight time limit" to a straightforward exercise in consulting your memory (or notes) to click through each stage.

VGJunk has an amusing write-up of this game: http://retrovania-vgjunk.blogspot.com/2013/08/magical-error-wo-sagase-arcade.html