I love this game

This game is called "Nobunaga's Ambition" by Koei of Japan and it's for the original, classic Nintendo NES system. I've been playing this game off and on since 1989, when it first came out. After 18 years, it is just as good as it was when I played it in college.

The game begins in the Spring of 1560, during Japan's Warring States period. The goal of the game is to unite the Islands of Japan under one ruler, called a daimyo. You.

How you play is simple, or is it? Every season you get to make one decision per fief or territory that you own. Your decisions range the gamut: from buying rice at the market to building your town, maintaining your dams and growing crops to hiring and maintaining an army in order to conquer other fiefs. You can hire ninjas and do stealth damage to other daimyo's fiefs, too. But beware, you can also have ninjas sent against you. You must also avoid disasters, like being struck by typhoons or the plague, which damage your fief. Occasionally your peasants or troops will revolt against you, so you must keep them happy. You win when you unite the country under your leadership - you lose when your daimyo is killed.

Of course, there are many other things that you must do to win the game. I have given you but a sampling. The game comes with a 17 or 50 fief option, so you can either conquer central Japan or all four islands. There are five skill levels and up to eight people can play during any one game. The challenge now for me is conquering the whole island with each daimyo and to do it in as few seasons as possible. Each daimyo has his own set of strengths and weaknesses with which you must contend.

When I was in college, I beat the 17 fief game playing for six hours straight. The 50 fief game takes considerably longer and is by far more challenging. Fortunately, the cartridge allows one game to be saved at a time. There is no score in this game. The picture above is a screen shot of what you see when you actually win the game.

When I bought this game originally the cart cost me $60. Now you can find them on eBay for considerably less. You can even find on occasion, a copy of this game still shrink-wrapped in the original packaging, which is what I was able to do to replace my original cart. If you have an old Nintendo NES system lying around, you should make a small investment in this game. I emailed Koei a few years ago and asked them if this game was available for any other system or in any other format, hoping that there would be a PC version that I could buy. Unfortunately they said no. Oh, well - as long as my NES works, I'll be fine...

Do any of you still own a Nintendo machine from the late 80's - early 90's? (You can pick one up and tons of games on eBay.) If so, what games do you like to play?