![Zanac [NES] - 1CC Full Game Playthrough @psymagearcade](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/L9_eIovQJTo/maxresdefault.jpg)
Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Zanac was originally created by Compile for the MSX but was eventually ported over to the Famicom in 1986 before making its way to the NES overseas the next year. This game is known for having one of the most intricate rank systems seen in a shmup up to that point and performing extremely well for an NES shmup, featuring little to no slowdown.
This is a game I've played on and off for many years but after beating Gun Frontier on one credit, I figured I'd come back to this one since it also has quite the rank system. I think that was a good choice, because this game seemed to click with me a lot better this time around than before.
This run went pretty well overall. I had another 1CC recorded prior for this game, but there was significant stuttering early on in the recording so I did another run. While I failed to keep my main shot powered up to the max for long periods of time and had some deaths here and there, I finished with plenty of lives to spare.
00:00 Intro + Stage 1
04:39 Stage 2
07:10 Stage 3
11:38 Stage 4
17:21 Stage 5
22:21 Stage 6
27:38 Stage 7
31:41 Stage 8
37:13 Stage 9
44:17 Stage 10
50:42 Stage 11
57:41 Stage 12
01:00:03 Final Boss + Ending
Zanac was originally created by Compile for the MSX but was eventually ported over to the Famicom in 1986 before making its way to the NES overseas the next year. This game is known for having one of the most intricate rank systems seen in a shmup up to that point and performing extremely well for an NES shmup, featuring little to no slowdown.
This is a game I've played on and off for many years but after beating Gun Frontier on one credit, I figured I'd come back to this one since it also has quite the rank system. I think that was a good choice, because this game seemed to click with me a lot better this time around than before.
This run went pretty well overall. I had another 1CC recorded prior for this game, but there was significant stuttering early on in the recording so I did another run. While I failed to keep my main shot powered up to the max for long periods of time and had some deaths here and there, I finished with plenty of lives to spare.
00:00 Intro + Stage 1
04:39 Stage 2
07:10 Stage 3
11:38 Stage 4
17:21 Stage 5
22:21 Stage 6
27:38 Stage 7
31:41 Stage 8
37:13 Stage 9
44:17 Stage 10
50:42 Stage 11
57:41 Stage 12
01:00:03 Final Boss + Ending
![Zanac [NES] - 1CC Full Game Playthrough](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/L9_eIovQJTo/mqdefault.jpg "Zanac [NES] - 1CC Full Game Playthrough
Zanac was originally created by Compile for the MSX but was eventually ported over to the Famicom in 1986 before making its way to the NES overseas the next year. This game is known for having one of the most intricate rank systems seen in a shmup up to that point and performing extremely well for an NES shmup, featuring little to no slowdown.
This is a game Ive played on and off for many years but after beating Gun Frontier on one credit, I figured Id come back to this one since it also has quite the rank system. I think that was a good choice, because this game seemed to click with me a lot better this time around than before.
This run went pretty well overall. I had another 1CC recorded prior for this game, but there was significant stuttering early on in the recording so I did another run. While I failed to keep my main shot powered up to the max for long periods of time and had some deaths here and there, I finished with plenty of lives to spare.
00:00 Intro + Stage 1
04:39 Stage 2
07:10 Stage 3
11:38 Stage 4
17:21 Stage 5
22:21 Stage 6
27:38 Stage 7
31:41 Stage 8
37:13 Stage 9
44:17 Stage 10
50:42 Stage 11
57:41 Stage 12
01:00:03 Final Boss + Ending")
![Pole Position II [Gamecube/Arcade] - Test ALL Clear 56,860 pts. (Namco Museum)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LfSq6FNAfro/mqdefault.jpg "Pole Position II [Gamecube/Arcade] - Test ALL Clear 56,860 pts. (Namco Museum)
0:24. Qualifying
1:13. Race
Played on the Dolphin Emulator via Namco Museum using a Hori Fighting Commander.
This is my second clear of a Pole Position II track, with my first one being the insane Suzuka/Wonder course, which you can watch here if you havent seen it:
https://youtu.be/f_2JemsSwXI
Originally, I had cleared the Test Course right after clearing Suzuka last year, but my recording had some weird frame rate issues so I scrapped it. That run had a slightly higher score despite crashing once.
Anyways, the Test Course looks super simple judging from the layout, but it is a bit harder than it looks. It is fairly easy to finish the race for survival like I did here. However, once you start pushing harder for score, this course gets pretty hard because of all the other cars, especially beyond the first lap. This run was clean in terms of not crashing, but it was not the best scoring run by any means. However, this video does illustrate how to play it safe for someone trying to clear the course for the first time.
I do wish my qualifying was better, as Ive struggled with consistency for some reason getting a good qualifying lap. Ive gotten on pole before but never finished a run from pole for some reason.
I may come back to this game to do Fuji/Namco or Long Beach/Seaside in the future. I still have those two tracks left to clear.")
![Salamander [Playstation 1] - First Loop 1CC Playthrough](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/M-sydQZT23s/mqdefault.jpg "Salamander [Playstation 1] - First Loop 1CC Playthrough
Salamander, also known as Life Force in North America, is a shmup created by Konami as a spinoff of the Gradius series and released originally in 1987. This is one of the first games to combine both vertical and horizontal scrolling sections in a shoot em up. I originally beat the first loop of its sequel, Salamander 2, back in 2023, and I decided to play this one on Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus on PSX just like I did with the second game.
This run went pretty well until Stage 6 where I had an unexpected death. However, I did manage to no-miss the rest of the stage including the infamous escape scene. I havent practiced the second loop much, so I ended up dying at that point.
I may create a discussion video about this one as I have quite a bit to say about it. It has its strength but also weaknesses that have caused the game to age a bit more poorly than it should have.
This run was played on default settings.
00:00 Intro + Stage 1
02:29 Stage 2
04:08 Stage 3
06:13 Stage 4
08:02 Stage 5
09:54 Stage 6
13:43 Loop 2 (2-1)")
![Commando [PSP/Arcade] - 1CC Commentary 348,400 pts (Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MlNT0SBCbUs/mqdefault.jpg "Commando [PSP/Arcade] - 1CC Commentary 348,400 pts (Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded)
0:28. Stage 1-1
2:35. Stage 1-2
3:45. Stage 1-3
5:06. Stage 1-4
6:20. Stage 1-5
8:00. Stage 1-6
9:14. Stage 1-7
11:05. Stage 1-8
12:12. Stage 2-1 (Last Stage With Commentary)
14:09. Stage 2-2
15:19. Stage 2-3
16:39. Stage 2-4
18:10. Stage 2-5
19:53. Stage 2-6
Commando, also known as Senjō no Ōkami in Japan, was originally released in 1985 by Capcom. It was an immediate hit for the company and along with Ghost N Goblins, helped grow the companys reputation in their early years. This game also helped popularize the run and gun genre in arcades along with Ikari Warriors.
I only did two takes of the commentary and used the second one, which turned out pretty well overall. There are a couple of smaller things here and there that I could have re-recorded, but I opted not to this time unlike my Hard Drivin video where I re-recorded quite a few different lines. Also, I had some issues editing the fast forwarding of the footage as well as the volume increase after the commentary finished at the end of Stage 2-1 going to 2-2. If there are any flashes or slightly off transitions, thats why. I still have the original footage, but I doubt anyone wants to watch over four minutes of point milking in the beginning.
The run went really well outside of the dumb deaths in 1-5. It turned out that I didnt even need to do the milking in Stage 1 for survival as I finished the first loop with lives to spare. This marks my first top down run and gun 1CC as well.
There are a few things that I didnt get to in the commentary. One, there is more RNG than just the way certain enemies spawn. There are even variations in terms of how many points you get from regular soldiers. Sometimes, its 200 and sometimes, its 300. I do not know why. Also, this version of the game is pretty much arcade perfect except for the lives, grenades, and medals near the bottom of the screen being a bit higher up than they should be. This is also true for the version featured in the PS1 compilation Capcom Generations 4, so I assume both versions are the same. Last, there is remixed music in this version like with Vulgus on this same collection, which I enabled. This is another game on the collection where I really enjoy the remixed soundtrack.
I will do more commentaries, but Im also considering doing commentaries on particular subject matters related to arcade gaming.
Also, special thanks to dumplechan and Pete Hahn because their 1CC runs did help me to learn this game.
dumplechans run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9gNUKhGwXM
Pete Hahns commentary video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIWRXKep-bM")
![Zeta Wing [C64] - Normal Mode 1CC 333,900 pts (NTSC 60 HZ)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MlU2Aho4eTI/mqdefault.jpg "Zeta Wing [C64] - Normal Mode 1CC 333,900 pts (NTSC 60 HZ)
Zeta Wing is a homebrew shmup for the Commodore 64 that was created by Sarah Jane Avory and released back in 2020 on itch.io:
https://sarahjaneavory.itch.io/zeta-wing
This game is loosely inspired by Tecmos Gemini Wing from back in the 80s in terms of its colorful presentation, but it honestly plays closer to something like 1942 because you cannot go higher than about 2/3 of the way up the screen and enemies patterns fly around in a vaguely similar manner at times. However, this game isnt nearly as long as 1942 and not as repetitive.
This game has seven levels total, with each one having a distinct look and feel. The first thing thats obvious is how good this game looks for a C64 game. The parallex scrolling effects are awesome, like on Stage 4. Also, the color palette of the C64 is used to full effect. The graphics overall are fantastic. Plus, it runs extremely well at 60 FPS when playing in NTSC mode in VICE, though that also makes the game a bit harder. The game works fine in either PAL or NTSC, though PAL is a bit slower obviously. The music and sound effects sound good as well.
As far as the gameplay goes, its simple as you only have one button for your shot, but the game does not get boring either. The game throws just enough new wrinkles in the enemy patterns and level design to get things from getting stale. Stages 4 and 6 have environmental hazards in the form of tight passage ways, and they surprisingly work well. The bosses are mostly a pushover, but I did almost choke the run away on the last boss. I kind of forgot my routing for that boss and suffered accordingly, but its not as hard as I made it look.
The game does not punish death harshly either. There is no scoring penalty, no checkpoints, and you only go down one power level, so your shot does not go down to nothing from one death. Also, your shot has 10 possible power levels you can achieve from gathering powerups, but you probably wont get that high unless you no-miss the game.
A couple of smaller notes. One, for some reason, my screen was set to be cropped in VICEs Retroarch core. Thats why the video is cropped. I am going to try to avoid that in the future. Two, I used a CRT filter while playing. It looked better on this game than my usual upscaling shaders do when playing but on some of the stages the scanlines look a bit off, particularly in earlier stages. I do have a couple of extra videos coming up that were recorded with CRT filters, but those held up better somehow. Not sure what happened with this game in particular.
Played in Retroarch using the VICE x64 Fast core with a slightly tweaked version of the Phosphorlut shader preset.
00:31 Stage 1
03:21 Stage 2
06:26 Stage 3
09:15 Stage 4
12:43 Stage 5
15:41 Stage 6
18:30 Stage 7
#c64 #retroarch #shmups #homebrewgames #commodore64")
![Balloon Kid [Game Boy] - Single Play 1CC (Full Playthrough)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MlyZyPdgqO0/mqdefault.jpg "Balloon Kid [Game Boy] - Single Play 1CC (Full Playthrough)
Balloon Kid is a game created by Nintendo for the original Game Boy and released in 1990. It is a sequel to the NES game Balloon Fight. This is one of the few Game Boy games made by Nintendo that was not released in Japan originally, only being released initially in North American and Europe. However, this game would be reskinned into a Hello Kitty game in 1992 for the Famicom and would get a GBC remake in 2000 that was a Japanese exclusive.
As mentioned before, this is a sequel to Balloon Fight on NES and has three modes. The first is Single Play, which has 8 stages and is the main mode of this game. My playthrough is of this mode. You also have a 2-player mode that is similar to the one in Balloon Fight and a Balloon Trip mode that is almost identical to the version featured in Balloon Fight.
The Single Play mode starts with a little cutscene where a young boy named Jim with balloons gets taken up in the air with the wind and his older sister, Alice, has to save him. You then play as Alice and have to get through eight stages, which scroll slowly from right to left. Like in Balloon Fight, you press A to go higher into the air, like youre flapping your wings, but unlike in that game, you can press B to let go of the balloons in order to land somewhere. You have bonus rounds in some stages where you have to grab all of the balloons in order to get a 1-Up. You also have a boss fight at the end of stages 2, 4, 6, and 8, while the odd number stages only require you to get from point A to point B.
The first half of this game is pretty chill. There arent many enemies or things that you can pop your balloons and cause you to land in the water and drown in these earlier stages and the pacing is especially relaxed in the first couple of stages. However, the difficulty spike in the second half of the game is legit and the last stage is pretty challenging, though not excessively difficult because extends are pretty generous in this game. This game even manages to throw in some more traditional platforming where you have to let go of the balloons, like in Stage 6 for example. These platforming sections are some of the hardest parts of the game as the controls are touchy at best and not the most precise as a result. It is much slower paced than Balloon Fight, but a lot of that is probably because of the original Game Boys limitations. Despite that, the level design here still manages to be quite challenging at times despite giving the player plenty of time to think about where to go next.
Overall, this is a great early Game Boy game and more than a worthy sequel to Balloon Fight. I did this run back in October of last year using the SameBoy emulator, configured to emulate a GBC. Then I used a blue color pallet set at the boot screen. Also, this is one of my earliest clears using my Qanba Crystal mixbox setup.
Game Boy Works review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu_7kYiF3gc
Hardcore Gaming 101 article: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/balloon-kid/
00:00 Intro
00:39 Stage 1
04:38 Stage 2
09:49 Stage 3
12:23 Stage 4
18:10 Stage 5
20:54 Stage 6
28:10 Stage 7
31:27 Stage 8
40:28 Ending
#balloonkid #gameboy #nintendo #retrogaming #classicgaming")
![Twinkle Star Sprites [Neo Geo] - Story Mode 1CC Playthrough](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NLVpiRO9SD4/mqdefault.jpg "Twinkle Star Sprites [Neo Geo] - Story Mode 1CC Playthrough
Twinkle Star Sprites is a vertical shmup released in arcades via the Neo Geo MVS in 1996 and on home consoles via the Neo Geo AES and Neo Geo CD the next year. It also received a Sega Saturn port around this time that is practically arcade perfect. Published by SNK and developed by ADK, the makers of the World Heroes series, this game combines the basic gameplay of a shmup with fighting gamed and competitive puzzle games like Puyo Puyo. It is notable for being one of the first and only shmups where two players compete directly against each other on the same screen, albeit divided into two halves like multiplayer Tetris or Puyo Puyo.
The basic gameplay works like this. Enemies appear on your side of the screen in waves. Whenever you kill the first enemy in that wave, you start a chain and other enemies get taken as part of the chain if they are close enough whenever you start it. Whenever you do this, you throw fireballs back onto the opponents side and the better the chain, the more fireballs will be thrown. If your opponent take enough hits from these projectiles thrown on screen, they lose all of their hit points and you win. Your opponent can also do this. Fireballs can also be reflected back to an opponent.
There are other elements like the fact that charged shots can fire projectiles to the other screen and if you charge up a charge shot enough, you can fire a boss attack onto an opponent. Also, the enemies on screen that come in waves cannot kill you, but can take off some hit points and reduce your firepower briefly. You get two bombs that clear the screen like they would in a shmup, and these are important for defensive purposes as you cannot dodge or reflect every projectile.
The game itself has two modes: Character Mode and Story Mode. Character Mode allows you to choose one of several different characters and fight through seven rounds including the last boss and is structured like a fighting game. The Story Mode, which is what I cleared, has you play as Ran, a young witch looking to find the Twinkle Star which was stolen by the evil Mevious.
Story Mode for the most part is pretty easy until you get to the last two or three stages. By Stage 5, the RNG starts to play a heavy role in how the matches play out. Sometimes, the AI is really bad and cant dodge but often times, they dodge incredibly well near the end. Even early on, the AI is sometimes a bit rigged against the player. The erratic nature of the AI also plays a role in your scoring potential as quicker runs might work out in your favor survival wise but result in less scoring. To be fair, this game was probably balanced more for two player matches than single player.
On this run, it was my third time clearing it and while my scoring wasnt as good as previous clears as youll see at the very end after the credits, it was my best survival run as I even managed to get through the final stage without dying.
I did use 25HZ autofire off my Brook board, which I initially thought was extremely helpful but I got stomped later on in Character Mode after this so Im not 100% sure how much of a difference this made compared to 15HZ outside of pointblanking being a little easier.
Played in FBNeo via RetroArch in AES mode instead of MVS mode. Difficulty is set to the standard MVS/Level 4.
00:00 Intro
00:27 Stage 1
02:34 Stage 2
04:03 Stage 3
06:16 Stage 4
07:44 Stage 5
10:07 Stage 6
11:44 Stage 7
13:42 Ending
#neogeo #arcade #neogeomvs #neogeoaes #neogeocd #shmups #snk #snkplaymore #arcadegames #twinklestarsprites
#shootemups")
![NFL Blitz [PC] - Insane Shutout Win vs Rigged AI](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/N_hYa8fym-w/mqdefault.jpg "NFL Blitz [PC] - Insane Shutout Win vs Rigged AI
NFL Blitz is one of the greatest arcade sports games of all time, if not the greatest. While later games in the series would add new gameplay elements, the original game has aged like fine wine outside of the small playbook and not being able to get on fire.
The PC version in particular was just about arcade perfect from a graphics standpoint, with the only issue being the slightly wonky diagonal movement because this version was made with keyboards in mind. It works fine nowadays on modern Windows and even Linux via WINE as long as you use the latest version of NGlide. NGlide can even upscale the game while maintaining the 4:3 aspect ratio.
But anyways, this is the first shutout in this version of the game that Ive done in a long time, if Ive even done one. Ive scored a lot more points before, but shutouts are not common in this game against the AI. However, there were quite a few close calls and things that went comically wrong. The rubber band AI was not happy that I was shutting down its offense throughout the game. It tried to rig the game but did not succeed. The ending in particular is must-see stuff as even I didnt expect it.
Notes: For some reason, the audio here is a bit louder than my usual gameplay footage. My apologies ahead of time. I have no way to control the audio levels in game, and this is straight gameplay footage with no edits. Also, this was played on default settings.
00:00 Intro
00:19 First Half
04:12 Second Half
08:23 Final Stats")
