Castlevania II: Simon's Quest No-Death Playthrough (Actual NES Capture)

This is a capture of me playing through Castlevania II: Simon's Quest on the NES. This is not an emulator and was not played on the Wii or Wii U Virtual Console. This footage was recorded directly from my front-loading NES using a real Castlevania II cartridge.

Simon's Quest was the game that got me into the Castlevania series. It was also one of my favorite games to rent as a kid (along with Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones). I used to rent it from a video store that was across the street from my house in the early '90s.

However, since I didn't have Nintendo Power, I could never get very far in the game. Usually I would just find the Morning Star and maybe one or two mansions. But even so, I still loved the exploration and RPG elements and the overall mysterious tone that the game had. I would always come back for more, wondering what I'd find each time.

In the late '90s I finally bought all three NES Castlevania games from a guy who was selling his used copies to Funcoland (now known as GameStop). By that time I was able to simply look up guides on the internet, so I finally managed to beat this game. The ending was disappointing, but the game was still enjoyable overall. I hope Konami returns to this game's style some day.

I've included time marks below if you would like to use this video as a guide. I got the best ending since I beat the game quickly.

Town of Jova:
White Crystal - 0:37
Holy Water - 5:53
Thorn Whip - 6:28

Berkeley Mansion - 8:20

Town of Veros:
Dagger - 13:16

Sacred Flame - 15:55

Town of Aljiba:
Laurels - 17:50
Blue Crystal - 19:08
Garlic - 20:40

Silver Knife - 21:35

Rover Mansion - 23:41

Town of Veros:
Chain Whip - 32:07

Diamond - 36:56

Brahm's Mansion - 38:09
Golden Knife - 42:10

Town of Alba:
Laurels - 48:49
Red Crystal - 49:12

Silk Bag - 50:57

Town of Ondol:
Morning Star - 55:09
Laurels - 56:56

Bodley Mansion - 58:32

Flame Whip - 1:04:10

Laruba Mansion - 1:06:14
Magic Cross - 1:08:41

Ruins of Castlevania - 1:18:15
Dracula - 1:19:21

Recorded with the Hauppauge HD PVR and a composite connection at 60 frames per second. I used a Toshiba model D-R550 DVD Recorder to upconvert the NES's native 240p signal to 480i so that the Hauppauge could capture the console's audio/video signal.

I'm using an NES Max turbo controller.