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 Introduction Shadowrun (1993) for the Super Nintendo is a loose adaptation of the pencil & paper version of the game (presumably 2nd edition), and the gameplay itself features a unique mix of isometric action RPG and point & click adventure mechanics. We take on the role of a Shadowrunner who's seen better days. Stricken with a deadly case of bullets and a side of amnesia, we need to unravel the mystery of why we were attacked and left for dead in the mean streets of 2050 cyberpunk Seattle. The game was developed by Beam Software and published by Data East. As far as I know it was the first ever Shadowrun video game. Also as a fun side note, the game turned 25 earlier this year. Our protagonist:  About the Playthrough I've played through the game in full at least once or twice, and in part several times more. Suffice to say I'm fairly familiar with the game, and I've also done a bit of research for the playthrough so I can try to show off a couple neat things here and there. The game isn't particularly long if you know what to do for the adventure elements, and I'm going to cut out most if not all the grinding for money and karma that I do. There's a fair bit of talking to NPC's in the game, and I'm going to talk to most of them, but I'm going to try to do it fairly quickly while still paying attention to the story. Something that I think is interesting and of note: I'll be playing an actual cart on my actual Super Nintendo. No emulation for this playthrough. I'll be running RGB from my SNES through a Framemeister for a 5x upscale, using one of FirebrandX's profiles. This game happens to fit perfectly in a 1080p resolution with nothing important of the original 240p image being cut off during gameplay. However playing on a real SNES does mean that there's some analog to digital video conversion happening which leads to some unfortunate flickering / noise in large patches of solid dark colors like blue and black (a byproduct of my upscaler). It's enough to be noticeable at times, but not a huge issue in my opinion. The image will also be a bit softer than an emulator, which is why the pixels might not seem as sharp as you might expect.  Update Schedule The plan is to have a new episode up every Sun / Mon / Wed / Fri. Thread Rules Tag spoilers for this game. I know a bit about the Shadowrun universe, but I'm not a lore expert and I think it's cool, so discuss other Shadowrun stuff at leisure. Episodes Series Playlist
It's video games. Every day...ish. rojovision fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Sep 26, 2018 |
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Aug 27, 2018 13:59
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This is what the game looks like. Box art from The Cover Project.     
rojovision fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Aug 27, 2018 |
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Aug 27, 2018 13:59
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also reserved.
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Aug 27, 2018 13:59
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 Episode 0 - Exordium Just chatting a bit about the game, its relatives, and my experience with Shadowrun. We also check out the game intro starting at 3:29 where I shout briefly for my own amusement. It's the only time that'll likely happen.  Episode 1 - Only Mostly Dead After waking up in the morgue with amnesia, we begin to piece together who we are.
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Aug 27, 2018 14:13
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Boy do I love me some Shadowrun. Even if this game is mechanically almost nothing like the tabletop game.
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Aug 27, 2018 23:07
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CirclMastr posted:Boy do I love me some Shadowrun. Even if this game is mechanically almost nothing like the tabletop game. I haven't played any other editions, but from what I think I remember from 2nd, having 20 body would practically make you a god.
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Aug 27, 2018 23:26
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 Episode 2 - A Foolproof Disguise After a brief bit of killing the neighbors for money and karma off screen, we explore the remainder of our surroundings and meet some more of the locals.
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Aug 27, 2018 23:35
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I've got a story about having a super-high Body stat that may be amusing or help set the tone for the Shadowrun world. When I was in my senior year in college (2001-2002, so probably whatever edition of Shadowrun was around at the time), I got roped into a game with a bunch of students from my Japanese class, GMed by a grad student who lived nearby. I found the role-play potential of the game particularly fascinating, so I created a character with plenty of interesting backstory possibilities and some random skills for characterization. Most of the rest of the group were min-maxers who did things like pump themselves full of cyberware carefully calculated to leave them 0.01 Essence, at which point I believe they should by rights have fit well into a George Romero movie, and when faced with a difficult situation, they'd compare character sheets to decide whose skills and specializations would give them the best mathematical probability of success. I hated that, but you can't really change an entire group. So the GM and I, over Christmas break, role-played my character deciding to leave the group (he'd been setting it up for weeks, possibly recognizing that I'd want to take advantage of the situation) and generated a character more in line with how the rest of the group wanted to play. This was a troll with the racial maximum starting Strength and Body (10 and 11 respectively, I think) and 3 Charisma just so I wouldn't have to boost Intelligence above 1, and being me, I role-played the HELL out of that 1. She was also covered in her full encumbrance in armor and weapons, including a submachine gun usually mounted on a vehicle and a grenade launcher. Now, to fully appreciate the rest of the story, you have to understand how damage works. At least in the version I played, each character has ten boxes of damage and additional "overdamage" boxes equal to their Body stat. Taking ten boxes of damage leaves a character unconscious and bleeding out, and filling the overdamage boxes means they're dead. Attacks are characterized as Light (1 box), Moderate (3 boxes), Serious (6 boxes), and Deadly (10 boxes), and are then adjusted upwards or downwards based on the dice rolls of the attacker and defender - every two dice that match or exceed the target number move the attack one level in that person's favor. Damage that's reduced below Light is negated, and I think that in normal combat, increasing above Deadly just spills into overdamage at one box per additional level. But there is a completely different scale for attacks like torpedoes, called naval damage. Light Naval Damage is 21 boxes if applied to a living being, and it scales from there by 2N+1 per level. Since most characters can't even survive 21, the formula is meaningless - the takeaway is, don't stand in front of a torpedo. My first Karma increase went into building my Body stat to 12 just so I could survive a Light Naval attack, if I got immediate medical attention, and it was spurred by an incident that happened when my character went on her first real mission. We parachuted into a jungle filled with enemy guerillas, who were watching us from the trees but seemed content to just let us stumble around on our own. My character, of course, had an Intelligence stat of 1 and was always looking for a fight. I gave her the presence of mind to ask permission to launch a few grenades into the jungle, at least, but the team leader just seemed to be amused by the idea and let me go ahead and do it. Almost immediately, the enemy presence vanished from the area, and most of the team seemed to think that was a good thing. They realized what was happening at about the time we heard the bombers flying overhead, carpet bombing the jungle for Light Naval Damage, adjusted up to Moderate Naval by the pilot's dice rolls. The rest of the party was spared turning into chunky salsa by GM fiat, perhaps because he didn't want to spend the rest of the session creating that many new characters. My troll, on the other hand, not only survived the attack, but reduced it to plain old Serious damage. When the guerillas showed up with their brooms and dustpans to collect the remains, she was still on her feet and willing to fight back. And that's 11 Body. 20 would probably grant the ability to stand boldly in a hurricane, stop a speeding train with one hand, or bounce bullets off your skin by flexing really hard.
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Aug 28, 2018 02:35
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Haha, that's awesome! So if we were being literal, Jake could almost take a torpedo to the chin without even rolling a single die at max body stat from this game. That's pretty fun to think about.
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Aug 28, 2018 04:16
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Framemeister retro LP crew represent 
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Aug 28, 2018 04:17
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rojogames posted:Haha, that's awesome! So if we were being literal, Jake could almost take a torpedo to the chin without even rolling a single die at max body stat from this game. That's pretty fun to think about. I believe the original quote I heard about Jake's ridiculous Body stat by 1st Ed Shadowrun rules is that he can eat an AT-4 rocket to the chest and grin. But yeah 20 body is not remotely a thing in 2e Shadowrun unless you're a very specifically built troll cyborg/bioware hog.
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Aug 28, 2018 05:18
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Doc M posted:Framemeister retro LP crew represent I was a bit unsure about the purchase initially since they're so expensive, but I'm 100% glad I picked one up. I've got a decent sized collection of older stuff and the quality difference between properly upscaled RGB and composite directly into my TV is staggering. If I didn't own a Framemeister or something similar like the OSSC, I'd definitely be playing this on an emulator instead just due to the video quality difference.
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Aug 28, 2018 05:20
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The Framemeister or OSSC are especially useful when you're LPing something on a system that is difficult to emulate, such as the Saturn. Obviously I didn't buy my Framemeister to do LPs, I got it so I can play my retro consoles on my big HDTV but since I already had an Elgato HD60 I figured I might as well give it a shot.
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Aug 28, 2018 05:37
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 Episode 3 - On the Lam With what seems like an army of hitmen after us, we accept help from an apparent friend in order to lay low for awhile...sort of.
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Aug 30, 2018 04:01
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I have fond memories of grabbing this game from the discount bin at one of those mall stores that no longer exists. Might have been KB Toys. This game and Lawnmower Man, which was...interesting. It had some great music, if nothing else.
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Aug 30, 2018 04:07
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DeathChicken posted:I have fond memories of grabbing this game from the discount bin at one of those mall stores that no longer exists. Might have been KB Toys. This game and Lawnmower Man, which was...interesting. It had some great music, if nothing else. Yeah definitely a solid soundtrack. It feels very thematically appropriate. Edit: I was talking about this game, but it occurred to me you might be talking about the Lawnmower Man music in which case I guess I'll have something to look forward to if I ever pick it up.
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Aug 30, 2018 05:08
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DeathChicken posted:I have fond memories of grabbing this game from the discount bin at one of those mall stores that no longer exists. Might have been KB Toys. This game and Lawnmower Man, which was...interesting. It had some great music, if nothing else. Lawnmower Man! When I was a kid we had that for the Megadrive (Genesis? I never remember what it was called outside of the UK), and to us dumb kids it was completely impossible but strangely compelling. The weird 3D runner segments were hard enough, and then you get to the platforming/exploring parts... it's not a good game, but I remember it fondly. Shadowrun, on the other hand, I've never seen, so I'm following the LP with interest.
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Aug 30, 2018 12:16
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 Episode 4 - Minor Headache To escape the Caryards we'll have to deal with The King in the arena, the toughest opponent we've faced yet. We also get our broken datajack looked at by a street doc with results that are...less than ideal.
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Sep 1, 2018 01:38
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 Episode 5 - Plugged In We get our first taste of the Matrix and return to the Caryards to take on the remaining arena fighters.
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Sep 2, 2018 19:12
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 Episode 6 - The Gang's All Here We make some new friends and explore a couple of the seedier parts of Seattle as we track down the Rust Stilettos.
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Sep 3, 2018 20:48
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 Episode 7 - Dog Be with You We run into an acquaintance of sorts in one of the local clubs, and they help us gain Dog's favor.
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Sep 6, 2018 02:03
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And thus begins Jake's tale of canonically breaking Shadowrun rules on essence vs magic because Dog says so
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Sep 6, 2018 03:15
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DeathChicken posted:And thus begins Jake's tale of canonically breaking Shadowrun rules on essence vs magic because Dog says so All hail the benevolent power of Dog.
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Sep 6, 2018 05:36
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When you said that the hired shadowrunners only stick around for a limited number of fights and each of the random arseholes shooting at you in the street counts, I thought it was going to be one of those super annoying things where you barely have time to use them at all before they piss off home, but it looks like they actually stick around for ages. In fact, this game seems surprisingly playable in general, given its age.
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Sep 6, 2018 12:00
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Tiggum posted:When you said that the hired shadowrunners only stick around for a limited number of fights and each of the random arseholes shooting at you in the street counts, I thought it was going to be one of those super annoying things where you barely have time to use them at all before they piss off home, but it looks like they actually stick around for ages. In fact, this game seems surprisingly playable in general, given its age. It's definitely very playable, but the guys I've hired (so far) are among the most dedicated runners. Most people won't stick around as long...even less than half the time in some cases. Also cost isn't necessarily a good indicator of power so as a new player you can easily get tricked into hiring a nearly useless guy who ditches you sooner than later. Norbert in particular is a top tier hire because he's got everything you'd want...decent durability, good damage, and he sticks around a long time at a cheap price, even without the negotiation or leadership skills. That said, you can absolutely get through the game without hiring anybody and saving that money for other things.
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Sep 6, 2018 12:15
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 Episode 8 - Dirty Rats and Dirtier Cheats We track down the rat shaman with Kitsune, and cheat the system a bit to save time in the future.
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Sep 8, 2018 01:47
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Ah, the strobe... the thing that had me stumped for the longest time. I didn't have much trouble negotiating the puzzles up to this point, and as everyone will see in the next video, most of what you need to do at Dark Blade HQ is doable without it, but when I reached the critical point, I had no idea what to do. I even resorted to digging through a friend's Nintendo Power collection, which covered things like how to get into Dark Blade and how to find the Jester's true name, but if it even mentioned the strobe, it was in terms of "use it at this point, then do this thing", which was unhelpful. Finally, I went back to the usual adventure game strategy of "show everything to everyone" and found that the barman had the information I needed. By that time, I knew what to do for most of the rest of the game. I'm not a big fan of puzzles where there's absolutely no clue in the game telling you where you'd need to go to solve them, and this feels like that to me. I guess "ask everyone in the game about vampires" makes some sense, but come on! I've got a wooden stake for the obvious purpose. What more do I need to know?
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Sep 8, 2018 15:19
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Nidoking posted:Ah, the strobe... the thing that had me stumped for the longest time. I didn't have much trouble negotiating the puzzles up to this point, and as everyone will see in the next video, most of what you need to do at Dark Blade HQ is doable without it, but when I reached the critical point, I had no idea what to do. I even resorted to digging through a friend's Nintendo Power collection, which covered things like how to get into Dark Blade and how to find the Jester's true name, but if it even mentioned the strobe, it was in terms of "use it at this point, then do this thing", which was unhelpful. Finally, I went back to the usual adventure game strategy of "show everything to everyone" and found that the barman had the information I needed. By that time, I knew what to do for most of the rest of the game. I'm not a big fan of puzzles where there's absolutely no clue in the game telling you where you'd need to go to solve them, and this feels like that to me. I guess "ask everyone in the game about vampires" makes some sense, but come on! I've got a wooden stake for the obvious purpose. What more do I need to know? Apparently plenty, I had the strobe and wooden stake as a kid and didn't know you could actually kill the vampire for a boss-level karma award after he spills the beans.
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Sep 8, 2018 17:05
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 Episode 9 - Driving the Point Home We return to Dog for some advice and then head off to the Dark Blade club where there is nothing suspicious afoot, and everyone is very trustworthy.
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Sep 9, 2018 21:47
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Vlad is easily my favorite character in this game. Look at how happy that bastard is. Look at him Well, second favorite, I somehow completely forgot about the Old Town gunshop guy DeathChicken fucked around with this message at 14:33 on Sep 10, 2018 |
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Sep 10, 2018 05:05
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I too got stuck at the part with the strobes the first time through the game. DeathChicken posted:Vlad is easily my favorite character in this game. Look at how happy that bastard is. Look at him With a winning smile like Vlad's how could you not give him the magic fetish? His face must be so tired.
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Sep 10, 2018 16:41
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 Episode 10 - Time to Chill We pick up a couple useful items, and then head to the docks to seek passage to the Bremerton. However, there's one small, but crucial task that I totally forgot about.
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Sep 11, 2018 03:53
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Interesting note about Mermaids in the Shadowrun setting. They are actually awakened sealions. They are not pretty at all. https://imgur.com/a/cQFlhl3 Also the place that the Jester Spirit is hiding is actually the Bremerton Naval Shipyards in Bremerton, Washington. It's across the way from Seattle by boat. You can still get there by land in the Shadowrun world but that is Elf land and you don't want to try sneaking through there if you can handle it. Colander Crotch fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Sep 11, 2018 |
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Sep 11, 2018 04:33
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I should see if I can find my copy of the Shadowrun 'monster manual'. A lot of the awakened animals (or devolved humans) have some pretty unique interpretations.
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Sep 11, 2018 05:30
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Colander Crotch posted:Interesting note about Mermaids in the Shadowrun setting. They are actually awakened sealions. They are not pretty at all. That's interesting. I do vaguely remember Bremerton being a real place, but I forgot that elves have claim to various parts of the land. If I'm remembering correctly Stonehenge is another place they own, though it has nothing to do with the game. I've also definitely never seen a Shadowrun mermaid before and uh...it's not quite what I was expecting, especially given a minor item we're going to be picking up next time. thiswayliesmadness posted:I should see if I can find my copy of the Shadowrun 'monster manual'. A lot of the awakened animals (or devolved humans) have some pretty unique interpretations. That would be cool. I only ever owned the main player book so I don't know much about game master materials / addons. There are at least a couple more non-humanoid foes to encounter so it would be interesting to see if they resemble their p&p counterparts at all when we get there, if they exist. rojovision fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Sep 11, 2018 |
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Sep 11, 2018 06:39
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Well from the Genesis game (which was pretty much true to the source), I remember there are hellhounds. And sasquatches Also devil rats, which...aren't really like the fireball shooting things depicted here, but are just big evil rats. And carry Magic AIDS, so that's fun
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Sep 11, 2018 06:43
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I'd also be curious as to whether the Jester Spirit is a specific kind of creature. Additionally, I haven't played Shadowrun Returns in awhile, but I wonder if the Jester Spirit is at all related to Harlequin from that game.
rojovision fucked around with this message at 06:50 on Sep 11, 2018 |
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Sep 11, 2018 06:47
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rojogames posted:That would be cool. I only ever owned the main player book so I don't know much about game master materials / addons. There are at least a couple more non-humanoid foes to encounter so it would be interesting to see if they resemble their p&p counterparts at all when we get there, if they exist. While I didn't find my copy of Paranormal Creatures of North America, it's very easy to find the .pdfs out there. Think they're 3 editions behind so not surprised at that. Our little octo buddy was called a Kraken, but those have 25' long bodies and 35'+ tentacles. What this seems to have been is an incubus; An awakened octopus that hunts in an urban environment close to water, using it's telepathy and illusion (upgraded intelligence and mimicry) to lure in unsuspecting [meta]humans.  What I love about the guides is that they're basically depicted as an entry in cyberspace so people are commenting on them. Some more useful than others:  DeathChicken posted:Well from the Genesis game (which was pretty much true to the source), I remember there are hellhounds. And sasquatches I know Devil rats are in the NA guide, and I think sasquatches are as well. I'll see about pulling some more entries tomorrow.
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Sep 11, 2018 07:50
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rojogames posted:I'd also be curious as to whether the Jester Spirit is a specific kind of creature. Additionally, I haven't played Shadowrun Returns in awhile, but I wonder if the Jester Spirit is at all related to Harlequin from that game. The Jester Spirit is a Free Spirit; Summoned (or extremely powerful) spirits that get free of their summoner, if sufficiently powerful/smart can just... exist on their own. One in Japan owns a corporation. To my knowledge he's not linked to Harlequin.
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Sep 11, 2018 19:14
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rojogames posted:I haven't played Shadowrun Returns in awhile, but I wonder if the Jester Spirit is at all related to Harlequin from that game.
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Sep 12, 2018 14:59
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