Feasel's game notes for SMW Marathon

RENEGADE
*  This game was developed by Technos, and is a technological predecessor of Double Dragon.
*  The original arcade version of Renegade is the inaugural game of the Kunio-kun series, which includes River City Ransom, Super Dogeball, and World Cup Soccer.

SNAKE RATTLE N ROLL
*  Developed by Rare, makers of notoriously difficult games for the NES, and of notoriously awesome games for later consoles.
*  If you look at a map of the game, you'll see the words "Nintendo Gameboy" spelled out in the tiles of Level 7.  http://i.imgur.com/SKv06.png
*  Nibbley Pibbleys are high in fiber but have little nutritional value.
*  The game ends with the snakes taking off in a UFO and the words "Snakes In Space", which is a setup for what Rare had intended to be the sequel.  Unfortunately "Snakes In Space" was never made, but the Megadrive port of this game included an extra level at the end where you play on the moon.

ZELDA 2
*  There are 2 drop counters.  Every 6th large enemy (30XP or more) gives a drop, and every 6th small enemy (less than 30XP) gives a drop.  Whether the drop is an experience bag or a magic potion is essentially random.  Sometimes skippable enemies will be killed just to adjust the drop counters.
*  Level-ups are planned so they'll happen at specific points in the game.  This allows you to skip all of the keys besides those directly on your path, and it lets you get the most out of the end-of-palace experience bonuses.  For this reason, having too much XP can be just as bad as having too little XP.
*  You can crash the game by exiting any screen on the same frame that you get a level-up.
*  Bagu is a good guy to know.

HYDLIDE:
*  Originally made in 1984 for the PC-88, it was ported to the MSX, FM-7, PC-9801, and Famicom before finally being released on the NES in 1989.  Therefore, although it was pretty groundbreaking when it was first made (two years before Zelda 1), by the time American users saw it 5 years later the RPG genre had already moved well past this level of technology, leaving poor Hydlide as a living fossil.
*  The Famicom port was done by Pony Canyon, which also published a variety of other notable games (Super Pitfall, Dr Chaos, Zanac, Ultima I-IV).  In addition to making games, Pony Canyon is also a record label that has produced numerous J-Pop artists over the last 30 years.