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Today marks a true milestone in the history of RFGeneration, for today at 1:39:30 AM, the 50,000th game was added to our database. In under 6 years we've accumulated information on 50,000 games for dozens of systems from all over the world, this is an astounding task when you really think about it. This milestone further cements RFGeneration's place as THE Classic and Modern Video Game Database.
The 50,000th game was Toy Soldiers on Xbox Live Arcade that was submitted by Izret101.
There have literally been hundreds of member from all over the world that have helped us get this achievement, and each one of those people and their submission(s) have been important. Some members have left a huge mark on RFGeneration by contributing over 1000 title and variation additions since we began tracking them in October 2006; and those members are ApolloBoy, Funk_Buddy, Tynstar, Madir and Belgarath.
In celebration of this momentous occasion, I'd like to announce another way to get your daily fill of RFGeneration! This new aspect of RFGeneration is a personal pet project of mine that the donors and I have been using for a little while now. This will hopefully be a tool to help get our name out there in cyber-space as well as keeping our members that decide to use it, some of the latest information pertaining to the site and occasionally the video game industry as a whole. So here it is, http://twitter.com/RFGeneration. That's right RFGeneration is now on Twitter! As you can see from previous tweets, the Twitter page will be used to promote excellent blogs as well as reminding readers of upcoming DB milestones and site news. Now that the page has been announced for everyone, I will be using it more often than I am now, so don't be discouraged by the lack of tweets there already. They should be becoming more frequent.
I'd also like to take a moment to thank Den68 for making the graphics for the Twitter page!
February was not our best month, but even without a huge number of submissions, its still progress and progress is always a good thing. While we did not see our lowest submission numbers last month, it was below the mean number of monthly submissions. So I would like to thank those of you that made some submissions in a slow month to keep us going. Even being below the average, we still managed to crank out over 2,000 submission; 2,094 to be exact. 536 of those were images, 298 were game title additions, and 974 were page edits.
The top ten submitters were Paully3433, Izret101, ga5ket, Madir, Doug Plummer, ApolloBoy, Shadow Kisuragi, Malingo, Spoon and Seno. Out of those ten, nine had over 100 submissions each. Thanks guys, you are the truly dedicated members that keep us going!
The top three staff members approving all those submission with over 100 approvals each were Izret101, ApolloBoy, and NES_Rules.
So, February wasn't a spectacular month for submissions, that means only one thing. We need to make March even better, so get out your games, find them in the database and see what information you can add. If you've got a scanner, that's even better because you can add images if they're missing and your game will be forever immortalized on the pages of RFGeneration.
What are your favorite systems to collect for? I know, I've said this a million times, but I don't consider myself much of a collector. Sure, I do buy and keep pretty much everything that interests me (when I've got the clams, that is), but I've never really went out looking for something in particular. NES, SNES, Genesis, it's all the same to me. But there is one particular kind of game that I enjoy finding more than another, almost to the point that I'd end up buying (relative) crap as long as the box is pretty.
PC games.
Like many of you, I am a child of two worlds: arcade games (mid-eighties to mid-nineties) and consoles (early eighties to current). Unlike in the UK, low priced computer systems never caught on past the C64, and even then that would be a hard sell to my penny-pinching parents. So finding PC software from ANY time period, be it eighties or current, is always thrilling for some reason. One of my favorite finds of all time was when I discovered that the local EB Games sold used PC games. This was just before they were sold to Gamestop, like around a month before or so, but nonetheless I managed to purchase well over 50 games during this period. Everything from the Crusader games to the Silent Hill games and even full boxed copies of the Baldur's Gate games! I must have drove my poor wife crazy, bringing home a couple bags of stuff every Friday for a month with a mad gleam in my eyes.
Well, what about it. Anything you guys tend to look for more than others? A guilty pleasure perhaps?
I spend the bulk of my youth in the South, growing up first in Alabama and them mostly in Mississippi. Sometimes saying that feels like a confession: not necessarily against people in particular, but in reference to how greatly the location of my upbringing clashes with my character and tastes:
I hate humidity and high temperatures.
I don't like or can't eat the majority of southern foods, though I do love N'Orleans style spice and Cajun cuisines.
Though it is by no means exclusive to the south, I had enough of racism to last two lifetimes.
I am not a member of a southern band. That at least would be kind of cool.
I lived in the south well over a decade and never developed a southern accent. Ya'll.
I literally grew up in the high school with the highest teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. No, not cool. Our school mascot was the Trojan. No relation to the product. Obviously.
Also a mortal sin in the South: I can't drink tea, sweet or otherwise.
There is a feel to the South that I can't really describe to those not familiar with it. There is a haze, in the air and sometimes the mind, that seems to perpetuate far down from the Mason Dixon Line. I made some great friends there, and my beloved was born, raised, and has family there, but I never felt connected to the culture. All throughout middle and high school, all the way through college, I felt on the outside, and not just in a quirky nerd way.
I don't really like the South, and the South never cared for me.
I now live happily north in the snow-belt, about an inch from the buckle where it rubs and pinches at times but is necessary to keep the country's pants from sliding down. My wife was not a southern belle, though she is the most beautiful woman in the world, and she doesn't miss the South either, though she does have happier nostalgia for it than I do. We visit our respective families on occasion, and the disconnect we have with the area fuels much discussion.
This brings us up to this week, where we're traveling through to Jackson, MS for my sister-in-law's wedding. Now I normally love our road trips: my Love and I use Google and the Retro Game Map to hit any retro gaming store within 30 miles of our route, and its trips like these that has given us the bulk of our collection. Its our favorite hobby together, along with local and exotic eateries, and these trips are filled with weird stories and fun memories.
This trip started rough: our kids got sick, and we gave them an extra day before leaving, but we all got terribly sick on the road, and stretched the travel time. We still made it to a few strange stores along the way, including a stop at 'Check Outs' in Columbia, TN. It's the only store I've seen where you can buy a water bed, power saw, paintball gun, cell phone, bookshelves, and a few hundred nintendo games in one purchase. And I'm giving special kudos to Zone 1 in Helena, AL. A top-quality store.
But after we got a hotel in Jackson for a few days, and I got to stretch my legs and do a bit of searching online and locally, nothing came up for classic game stores. Not one, anywhere. And I mean nothing. If you look at the Giant Retro Game Map, there's a 150+ mile circle of nothing for stores, and I can attest that it's not due to stores there and not listed. Phone call after phone call, person after person, no dice.
OK, well, when I grew up we had to travel an hour and a half for the nearest EB, through the swamp, uphill, both ways. Seriously. So, I used to collect by going to pawn shops and flea markets, swapping and trading. Not much for flea markets in march, but plenty of pawn shops and Goodwills. Surely, in the absence of a store to trade these old gems in, they would show up where any grandma could dump them, right?
Nope.
Not a NES Super Mario Bros., not an Atari Asteroids, not even a Genesis sports game. Zone 1 was the last worthwhile find, and it was an oasis in a retro game desert. The biggest cache of classic games in the state seemed to be the twenty or so I picked up on the long road out here. I actually got a bit down.
And I remembered how in my youth, how vigilant I was about searching every haunt I found for any title I did not own, and realized my pride in that early collection (before the Great Entertainment Theft) ten years ago was probably aptly earned. I seriously, no kidding, began to get homesick for the north.
I'll be back home soon, and get to visit my little shopping circle where nifty finds pop up at least every month, if not every two or three weeks. But to all who read this, pop the cork, fill 'er up, and pour one out for our fellow collectors in the South. Not only are they suffering economically (you think you've been hit with the recession, these states down here had it rough long before that hit; imagine it now) but they can't find a decent game store selling anything before PS2 for over a hundred and fifty miles in places.
As an odd footnote, to let you know how backwards the gaming community can be down here, one of the Gamestops I entered (to ask about local classic stores) were bragging about their favorite system, how everyone at the store had one, and I needed one. Their system of choice? The PSP Go. The GO. The overpriced, UMDless, smaller screen, even-Game-Informer-had-an-article-wondering-what-was-the-point PSP Go. Both employees showed me theirs, including all of the software they had installed.
AFTER POKING FUN at my iPhone copy of Plants Versus Zombies.
Pray for these people.
Do you ever feel.....sad.....for those loose games out there in the world. They have been passed over time after time after time by countless people. Never to see the light of day in a console ever again? No matter how bad we want it, we still pass it up with hopes of finding the same game complete.
Well yesterday i was out with the kids letting them spend there allowance money. We stopped by gamestop and there in the back was a end rack with some xbox games listed with a 50% off tag. We have been looking for some at some decentprices since i got the Halo Xbox back around christmas. They had some good titles too like Ninja Gaiden Black, King of Fighters, Beyond Good & Evil and then the cheapos. Prices were good for me to buy but..........they were all disc + manual or disc only. I was angry that Ninja Gaiden Black was disc only cause i really wanted that one. Needless to say i sighed and walked away. Not even at 75% off would i buy disc only games. We all associate disc only with those deep and ugly scratches that sometimes bust a console.
I feel so bad for those orphans......
Well, it's nearly time for the Hunting season to begin. Not really (Michigan still has about 2 or 3 months of cold/snowy weather), but it's certainly not too early to start preparations. For me, diet and technique are key to a successful Score season.
I've honed my Hunting abilities over the years, and have augmented them with information I've gleamed from the original Retrogaming Times and the articles and forum posts from this great website. I'd like to share some of my advice, in the hopes that it can be further chipped, molded, and built upon. It all came out in a bit chunk, so it may seem a bit rambley. Please bear with me:
Diet: You have to be early and ready. This means a good breakfast, whether that be that morning, the night before, or a couple nights before. Daily vitamin supplements are also key, along with a carrot or two for supreme eyesight. There's nothing like the ability to spot items in a garage sale drive by, and carrots are the key to that. Every now and then I also enjoy a good chili. I personally make Goldstar with a few additions (cajun spices and more chili powder), but if I have some extra funds I'll visit a reputable Coney Island (Leo's, or Mr. Mike's) and take in a bowl or two. An energy bar would be great, but stay away from anything with an excessive amount of fiber. Trust me on this one, getting off the beaten path for a Number One is one thing, but having to stop for a Number Two is something else. And when you are on the hunt, bring plenty of water.
Technique: Basically you need a plan. Are you going to hit garage sales, thrift stores, flea markets, or a combination of both? Which ones, and by what route will you take? These are all valid questions that must be addressed before leaving. Also think about money. If you plan on hitting a lot of garage sales, it pays to carry a variety of money on your person in various denominations. Nothing sucks more than finding a great haul for $5 and the person telling you they can't break a $20, which translates as either buy more crap you don't want, or give up your loot to the fool watching the exchange from behind the greasy George Formans. That actually brings to mind the other part of technique: the other folks on the Hunt. My theory is that there are three groups of people who get tons of good loot, and you should both familiarize yourself with each group, along with the individuals themselves. You should know and classify your competition, and learn their general look and exactly what to do when you spot one:
The first group are the Plunderers. These folk basically hit every garage sale/thrift store/flea market within reach, with no regard for the look of the place or reputation for items. The Plunderers are systematic and devastating; buying all good and interesting items in their path. If you see a Plunderer at work, I advise you take a quick inventory of the situation (pertaining to items) and exit rapidly. You need to get to the next place before they do. Plunderers can often be spotted driving either fuel efficient vehicles or pick-up trucks with caps on the back to put their phat loot in.
The second group I like to call Raiders. A Raider has a very specific game plan, and is a creature of habit. They will generally hit the same places, at the same times, during the same days. What makes these folk dangerous is their focus. They will know their territory so well that they can often walk very quickly through a store and take a accurate inventory without stopping. While you will not likely be able to outrun one, you can beat a Raider by just going back a different day. It sounds too easy, but it will work. Raiders can be easily spotted by their quick walk (almost a walking-run) and their confident look.
The last group are Tourists. These folk leisurely walk about garage sales, thrift stores, and flea markets, often appearing to be casually taking in the sights. They never start early, never go on the prime days (such as Wednesday for garage sales), and will, at any time, quit and go to lunch. Nevertheless, you need to watch these ones. Why? Many Tourists have a large amount of luck, almost to the point that I will postulate that many of them are latent psychics. They can be spotted by their out-for-a-stroll-on-Sunday look, and can be seen pulling complete Vextrexs' and CDXs' out of giant cardboard boxes filled with shoes. The only consolation here is that if they hit one too many bad sales or empty stores, they will give up.
Well, that's it for now. I'm off to bed, but first a bit of unfinished business: I've discovered that many old games can be played on PC using Virtual PC 2007. Mechwarrior 3, here come!
I'm a little late on this post. Not much new to post anyway, only new game I have is Zelda: Ocarina of time. I've been spending more time playing my games right now rather than collecting them right now, mostly because I have no money for new ones at the moment. The next system I'll go for though is the Super Nintendo, then the Dreamcast, my friend says he has one, I doubt it.
 
As an active member of the forums at http://www.racketboy.com, I try to participate in the Together Retro game club every month. However, as I don't like to bother with emulation and I only collect for Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and Gamecube, I can't always play the chosen game. Luckily what makes the GB collection so fantastic is that almost every major game or series has been ported, remade, or had some kind of sequel or related game land on the little handheld that could. So while the game club spent February with the NES classic Contra, I investigated the monochrome sequels.
 
Operation C was released only two years after the Game Boy surfaced, and yet it's a highly advanced and impressive game. It was a Game Boy exlusive that was obviously inspired by the second NES title, Super C. The attention to detail in the graphics is really a bit of a surprise for such an early release, and the music rivals that of any Contra game released on the NES. Lance is controlled just as smoothly in the NES classic, so if you've played that one you'll have no problem jumping into this. The weapon upgrades include two versions of the spread gun, a homing gun and some kind of single shot flame-thrower. The levels are split between side-scrollers and overhead levels (see above pictures). Although the game is relatively short at just five levels, the difficulty of the levels certainly makes them last. In fact, I couldn't beat level four since I decided to give it a go without using the Konami Code.
 
Released three years later, Contra: The Alien Wars is basically a port of the SNES game of the same title. Obviously the game is stripped down to fit onto the GB hardware, but a ton is stuffed into the little cart. Though Lance's movements aren't quite as fluid as they were in Operation C, he can now do a lot more such as transfer down to platforms below the one he's on, climb walls or hang from ceilings. Because of these new capabilites, the controls take a bit longer to get used to but eventually feel comfortable enough to master. Again, Konami did a great job with both graphics (fire even looks like fire!) and music. In fact, the music in this one might even trump that of Operation C.
The levels again vary between side-scrollers and overheads and have alot of fun twists and turns within them. The boss animation is extremely impressive even when comparing it to the SNES version. The game is again only five levels, but the levels are generally pretty long and extremely hard. In fact, this game offers three difficulty levels to choose from: Easy, Normal or Maniac. After spending a bit of time on Normal I decided to give Easy a try so I could at least take a better survey of the levels (again no Konami Code) but strangely the game reset itself after I defeated the third level boss.
In 2002, Alien Wars was remade for the GBA, which may appeal more to the fans of the SNES game. I haven't played this version, so I can't speak from experience. Ultimately I'd say that both Game Boy releases are worthwhile additions to your collection. And although Alien Wars is perhaps better musically and graphically, my vote goes to Operation C as the better game. I find the controls a bit more natural, and it tends to have the better balance of being difficult without being completely frustrating.
Well, it's been a long time since Roehm posted some more videogame music (I loved those blog entries, it was always great finding new songs to listen to) so I figured I'd try and fill in the gap because it's been a while. I'm not going to delve into a nice description of the songs or anything like I used to... maybe I'll update this when I have more time. I should really be studying.
The Meaning of Birth- Tales of the Abyss
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/w-AoP3NOja0&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/w-AoP3NOja0&rel=0</a>]]>
Metroid Prime 2 Theme- Metroid Prime... 2 (Love Metroid Prime 1's menu theme, but 2's is overlooked a lot for some reason)
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/oLOkc9MwFHs&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/oLOkc9MwFHs&rel=0</a>]]>
I'll Face Myself- Persona 4 (There's another song in the game I like more... but I refrained from posting it since it'll probably lead to spoilers)
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/_58-XYXuJMs&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/_58-XYXuJMs&rel=0</a>]]>
Somnus Reef- Order of Ecclesia (As disappointed as I was with the game, it has some amazing music, plus I have a soft spot for music with a water/snow vibe)
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Nfeb3v1hweA&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Nfeb3v1hweA&rel=0</a>]]>
Hope- Umineko (Pretty sure this is a videogame... some people on the other forum I frequent play it or something. Anyway, beautiful song)
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/xOq7ZNTPVug&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/xOq7ZNTPVug&rel=0</a>]]>
Hybrid- The World Ends With You (I dunno... pretty much every battle song in this game is awesome and really gets you pumped)
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/K__Gs19DSng&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/K__Gs19DSng&rel=0</a>]]>
EDIT- Just realized that a few of the songs I posted were in my previous blog post that I made but forgot about (and they have really long writeups too... guess it just goes to show I liked them enough to still think fondly of them). I'll have to make sure to double check next time.
Well, I've finished Silent Hill: Origins for the PSP. I did enjoy it, despite its various glaring flaws, and planned immediately to restart the game and start working on some of the unlockables. It hit me about five minutes after I started. What hit me, you ask?
The Post-Game Blues (PGB).
PGB. This is the name I give that very special form of almost-depression that strikes me after I finish a game that I really enjoyed. It doesn't happen much these days (which speaks either on my gaming habits, my taste in games, or the quality games today), but when it hits, PGB is quite a bit more intense than when I was younger. When deep in the effects of PGB I can be expected to loaf around, going about my daily activities normally, but basically in a state of confusion as far as gaming is concerned. I want to play something, but I am unable to focus enough to actually play something.
In the past I beat this by organization as well as getting help from my computer. I own a copy of Game Collector (basically a database for your game collection), and when I used to get PGB, I would boot it up and select "Random Game". This solved my problem instantly. Now... things are different. I'm a parent of two children under 5 and a full time student. What time I get is usually on my PSP, or on my junky laptop. I do have CFW installed, so my choices are not as limited as they could be, though.
Is this a common thing among us gamers? Maybe older gamers, or is it just me?
Yes, I've gotten three games and three demos since the last blog, from only THREE PEOPLE! This will take alot of explaining so make sure you read the full blog.
Continue reading MEGA SCORES!
I wrote recently that I've been playing my iPhone n lieu of consoles lately, and while the quality of a few addictive titles are partially to blame, that's not the entire story.
I have three kids, and the oldest is three. For the first two years of his life, I wasn't really worried about playing games around him; I usually only play for a few hours during the week, and he hardly paid it any attention anyway.
But that changed around the time our LAN group got into Borderlands. He would occasionally watch us play, and while the game is certainly violent, the cartoon-esque cell shading art style and goofiness (money springing out of bodies, overblown physics, nutty characters) lend a certain Tom and Jerry Saturday morning cartoon aspect that I thought was probably harmless.
One day while pumping a skag full of SMG rounds, little Zachary looked visibly upset and began shouting, "Ow, kitty! Ow, kitty!" over and over. I paused and looked at him, all serious and staring at the screen, and knew my M-Rated gaming before bedtime was over. If my little guy can empathize with a scraggly vertical-mouthed cartoon hyena critter with red ovals for eyes, I wasn't going to risk how he'd take anything vaguely human-like.
My already limited game time would have to take a backseat to responsible parenting.
Even now, despite not having any handgun type toys, he still builds them out of Lego blocks and audibly pretends to shoot his younger brothers, me and Amy, the TV, the snowblower, and various Thomas the Tank Engines. Usually in the face. Or engine, in Thomas' case.
I've worked in video game retail for nearly a decade, and there is a scenario that always sickens me:
*me staring at five year old, then up to mother*
"Ma'am, we have to inform you that this game is M rated for-"
*I look at ESRB label on the back of the box*
"-Extreme violence, blood and gore, graphic sexual content, nudity, dismemberment, constant swearing, nun beating, pornography, and the ability to intentionally set your physical game console on fire internally."
*mother gets a frown on her face for a fraction of a sentence*
"Really?"
*mother then looks down at little wide-eyed Timmy,*
"Oh well, he plays it at his friends' house anyway, we'll take it."
Perhaps it bothers me even more when, due to store policy mind you, I mention the ESRB rating and the parents wave me off before finishing or even get annoyed at me for saying anything.
Now I'm not saying I'm a better parent that anyone, just that a parent should be the one held responsible for the diet of media their children consume. I do wonder how many five year-olds are playing Heavy Rain, Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto IV, and God of War because the parents are clueless. Do I have the right to tell them what their kids can play? No. I can disagree, and that's where my parenting for my own kids comes in. But how many kids get free passes because of absurd reasons like, 'he'll see it at a friend's house,' or 'he'll see it on the news one day anyway.' ? In my opinion, that's saying 'I let the moral standards of other people dictate what my child is exposed to and learns from.'
And it is their right, of course, and I'm not arguing that. But it does bug me. Which is my right too.
Do violent games cause violent acts? That's another topic entirely, and beyond the scope and point of this little entry.
So when can Zachary play Halo? Well, I'm not sticking to an arbitrary age. I know the psychological generalizations of what ages are typically acceptable, but I prefer to observe my own kids and trust them when I think they are ready. Maybe it will be at seven or eight. Maybe twelve. Fifteen. Maybe he'll have a terrible habit of decapitating Lego men in the Sega CD 2 tray, and I'll just wait till he's out of my house. But I think it's my responsibility to pay attention and make that determination. And based on his current habits of pistol-whipping his two year-old brother with a stuffed Pikachu, I think he has a few more years to go before Call of Duty.
So sorry Bioshock 2, AVP, Dante's Inferno, Modern Warfare 2, Dead Space Extraction, and Left for Dead 2. You'll have to wait until after 9:30 P.M., at least for now. I knew what I was getting into when I said, "wait, THAT's how we get kids?!"
And I wouldn't trade 'em for anything. Even the ability to finally finish my 5000+ backlog.
I have a confession to make.
No, I don't just make up games to put in my collection, 'The Earth Dies Screaming' is a real Atari 2600 game.
No, I'm not a figure skater in real life.
No, I don't buy every copy of Halo Wars and destroy them in a
fruitless attempt to make the price of mine skyrocket.
No, I haven't forsaken my DS and PSP for a N-Gage. But you're getting warmer...
I have, sitting on my shelf, Mass Effect 2, Bio Shock 2, AVP, Darksiders, and Dante's Inferno. I've put a few hours into each, and very much enjoyed my time. But they've all sat on the shelf collecting dust for two or more weeks, despite my excitement to play each title.
Why?
I can't believe I'm typing this, but-
My name is Jesse Miles, and I'm an iPhone Game Addict.
This coming from the guy who, until a few weeks ago, never played a cell phone game more complicated than 'Snake' on a tiny keypad seven years ago.
It started innocently enough, with my wife wanting an iPhone. Now this awesome chick never asks for much of anything for herself, especially techno-oriented. So, when she researched the iPhone and genuinely wanted one but thought it too expensive for her, it made the perfect birthday present. And since it was contractually cheaper for me to replace my own worn out brick of a phone, I got one too.
A month later and she can safely pilot the Space Shuttle through orbit with hers, and I was delighted to find that mine has a calender. (disclosure- I'm not tech-illiterate, I just don't care. It's a phone. I call people. I don't need to command an army of NES R.O.B.s with the thing. Although there's probably an app for that.)
So, I'm researching game sites as per the norm, and I read a review for N.O.V.A.
-FPS for touch controls? No thanks.
-Art design and characters inspired by Halo? Moderately interesting.
-Mix in Dead Space inspired enemies and level design? Um, really?
-Full on multiplayer including Wi-Fi and local? *sits up*
-Generally solid framerate and southpaw control option? Yeah, but it's just a game on a phone...
-Decent campaign length and only $7? *runs out to buy an iTunes card*
It's good. Not just for an iPhone game, it's just good. Sure it's derivative of previous franchises, but it's fun. I liked it better than Moon, Dementium, and even many console FPSs. And the virtual dual analogs work worlds better than I ever assumed they could.
Suddenly I realized, for the first time, the potential of the market. I ALWAYS have my phone on me. I try to keep my DS or PSP along, but I'm always paranoid of breaking them or loosing something, or forgetting Metroid Prime Pinball when I NEED TO PLAY METROID PINBALL. Yes, that's happened. But it's a mute point if this was a one-in-a-million game.
Then I got Plants Vs. Zombies and played. All night. Over and over. You don't understand- I could have slept some of those nights when my 6 week old finally conked out, but I needed to play another round. My entire family could suffer from this game, but it's alright, I got my wife to play it too. If you see our family disappearance on Unsolved Mysteries, you, my friend, know the real truth.
Now I just got Transformers G1 Awakening. Imagine Advance Wars, except replace the characters and plot with the characters and story from the first two seasons of the original Transformers, where the plot is replicated through the mission structure. With great graphics. And a 2 player option. The best Transformers game ever, on a PHONE?!?!
Last night I had a few hours to play, and I was excited to finally get to Bioshock or AVP multiplayer. But I had to see what plant I would get next in PVZ. And it hit me- I was hooked so much my iPhone games were competing with my consoles. I couldn't believe it.
But apparently Shamu jumped out out the water and ate a trainer, so the world's a little topsy-turvy right now.
P.S.
My condolences to the trainer's family, I know she wasn't eaten, it wasn't the actual Shamu, and it is rather sad. But you got to admit that headline made you're eyebrows furrow and wonder if it's thursday because nobody gets the hang of thursdays.
This is how it all began into a downward spiral into the VG collecting scene. This is how I acquired my first Genesis.
"Soo. Here goes nothing"
It was about Mid March of 09. The weather in NC is amazing this time of year. Me staring at my computer with nothing to do. I hear a knock at my room door. My mother asks if I wanted to help her with some errands. With no car and no job to boot. I say what the hell, I need to get out of the house sometime today.
With that in mind I get ready. At the door my father says now hes going and also needs to get out of the house as well.
So we go on about our weekly trip to wall-mart and some place to eat.
After which my mother then admits there is one more place to check out. That being Goodwill.
Personal note:
While I was living back in MD. A couple of my friends would get lucky on there finds @ goodwill every once in a blue moon. Though me being me. I take that with a grain of salt. This trip on the other hand to goodwill would change how I shop @ goodwill forever.
When we arrive at good will. I ask my 5 year old little brother if he wants to go to the toy section.
You already know the answer 5 years old + toys = YES!
This is not to hinder my mother and father while they find him play clothes and other things.
So we go back to the toys/electronics section.(thank god there a rack apart) With the little one in eye sight. I glance over the used junk. I was kinda looking for an old system of sorts or anything video game/computer related. I felt like they had nothing to offer and moved on.
I noticed the used audio section. Looking at the old portable CD players(walkmans). I was thinking to myself about how big they were in the 90s. I push a couple to the side and ruffle through until my hand slips inside the back on one. I'm thinking to myself "wtf! a handle at first". Pulling it out from the very far back of the shelf. I noticed the cd lid open. I'm still in the blind nostalgia of how big these old CD players are. That is about when I shut the lid. I took my hand out of what I thought was the handle. (Mind you, I was trying to keep and eye on the little one and look at this thing.This is NOT EASY).. I put the Cd player down to go chew my brother out about touching the glassware and go sick my father on him. When I come back I noticed a sega logo on the back of that CD player. I picked it up in shock and noticed "CDX" on the cd lid. That is about where I did a sort of victory dance in some respects...
With that in hand. It dawns on me that this possibly takes a different type of power brick then the standard Genesis. I look frantically for it but its nowhere in sight. Then I remember seeing a tub of AC adapters on the other side of the shelf. This tub was just about every wire they had in the store, unwrapped in a Rubbermaid tub. It was a unorganized cluster-f**K and would make any grown man with OCD, cry deeply. I seriously spent like a extra 10 mins undoing each Brick and checking to see if any of them said, that iconic SEGA logo. I grew wary and hunted down my mom to see if I could get just the CDX. Rushing down the isle I run into my mom. I ask "Can you get this for me?" without even breaking a sweat. She then asks "what is it?". That is about when I explain its a "rare Sega genesis". My dad then pops around the isle and says "Sega! another Dreamcast" in a disappointing tone. (Just to note: my dads outlook on Sega was with the failure of the Dreamcast.)
He turns back around and says "If you want it, get it".
With my victory securer then the social security of the US. I let them know I'm going back to look for the power brick. My dad says "hurry it up". I nod and rush back. Looking in more of the terminator style of motion. This time I was on a seek and find mission. I knew it was here if the system is. I then move my attention over to the antique section. Something I missed before just because you never know. Then in the corner of my eye, top self black ac power brick with a White SEGA logo. Not the standard genesis power brick that I'm use too. I read more on the brick just to make sure.
"Class 2 Power Supply For
Use with Genesis CDX"
That is when I exhaled a F**k yeah! and rushed back to check out.
With the sound of the register I ask what's the damage on the of the CDX.
Total=$12.50(US)
You know when you were younger and got something you couldn't wait to get home to play or tinker with.
Well that was me. In the car ride back home.
I lit up a cigarette in the back seat, thinking I hope this works.
As soon as I walked in the door. I got my stuff and scurried to my man cave(aka room). I plugged it in knowing it didn't have any controllers or AV cords. I figured I could check and see if it played CDs OK. I jacked in my klipsch speakers and powered on the unit. To my delight I herd the Sega CD boot music. So I figured it should be ok. There is a Sonata Arctica cd on my media shelf. I grab it and play the disk. The music comes rocking out.
This right here is about where that announcer from Mortal Kombat would have been perfect for that
"Flawless Victory!"
About 2 months later I move back to Baltimore,MD.(I'm working, on my own, and in the process of getting a car now!)
Sadly though I couldn't show my little brother the wonders of the genesis before I moved back.
That doesn't mean I can't on the trip back up there in May for his B-day(he turns 7 then).
Thanks for reading.
-Darren
A part of what makes collecting videeo games so much fun is that getting a package in the mail is exciting. It's always been this way for me. And it goes back to those elementary school days when I would receive my monthly issue of Nintendo Power. Each magazine would be filled with rumors, reviews, tricks & tips about all the latest Nintendo games. And of course there would be feature-length walk-throughs, with screens cut and paste (literally! cut and paste!) of entire levels. Back before the days of the internet and it's endless FAQ's, all we had was Nintendo Power and our friends on the playground.
Two years after the release of the Game Boy, the editors of Nintendo Power released a book that served as an inventory of every Game Boy game released up until that point along with some collected walkthroughs.
Game Boy: Nintendo Player's Guide (1991, 176 pages) is a must-own piece of history for any Game Boy enthusiest. Although I generally tend to stay away from FAQ's, I feel like the walk-throughs contained in these pages are fair game. There's something extremely fun about an old-school paper walk-through straight from the nerdy writers at NP. The back of the book contains cover art and brief reviews of over 130 Game Boy games, which makes for a truly great pick-up-and-thumb-through coffee table (or bathroom) book.
The games that receive In-Depth (generally 6-8 pages) reviews and walk-throughs are:
Batman
Castlevania: The Adventure
Cosmo Tank
Days Of Thunder
Dr. Mario
Double Dragon
Duck Tales
F-1 Race
Final Fantasy: Legend
Fortified Zone
Gargoyle's Quest
Golf
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Kwirk
The Hunt For Red October
Nemesis
Operation C
Quarth
Revenge Of The Gator
R-Type
Solarstriker
Solomon's Club
Super Mario Land
Super RC Pro-Am
Sword Of Hope
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan
Tetris
Ultima: Runes Of Virtue
Three years later, a companion book was released entiteld simply Super Game Boy (1994, 72 pages) which is a little less necessary, but certainly interesting. It mainly focues on the concept of the various color palettes that were made available through use of the SNES Super Game Boy adapter. However it also contains some extended analysis (usually 4-6 pages) for some games that were released after the first book, and especially ones that contained enhanced features for use with the Super Game Boy.
Games outlined:
Alleyway
Donkey Kong
Dr. Mario
Kirby's Dream Land
Kirby's Pinball Land
The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Metriod II: Return Of Samus
Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land
Tennis
Tetris
World Cup
Yoshi
Okay book club, let's read and discuss!
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