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Hey all! It's that time again! Time for more of my Gaming Adventures! Here we go!
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is essentially an HD-Remake of Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii. However, it does feature SOME extra content from what I've seen so far. As the title implies, the whole idea revolves around hunting monsters, small and large, which is actually more fun than it sounds. With a plethora of different weapons and armor to craft, this one is sure to keep you busy. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten very far yet, so that's all I have to say about this one.
Now we're talking! Soul Hackers is a game I've been greatly anticipating! Coming from the Shin Megami Tensei series of RPGs, I cannot say enough good things about this game! I haven't made it very far yet, but here are some reasons why I can recommend this game. For one, it's challenging, which I think is something we don't see enough of in this day and age. It also manages to suck you in, preventing you from losing interest. Another neat feature is that you can recruit your enemies to fight for you, which essentially means that you can add new Party Members whenever you feel like it. (No, it's NOT like Pokemon. You have to talk or bribe them into joining you. Besides, Shin Megami Tensei came first!). You can also fuse your Party Members together, creating (or losing!) stronger ones in the process. So what the hell are you waiting for?! Go download this game! (I say download because it's becoming increasingly hard already to find it in stores).
That's Etrian Odyssey IV, another RPG from Atlus. What makes this Dungeon-Crawler unique is that you have to draw your own Map on the bottom screen while exploring the dungeons. It's actually more fun than it sounds though. New to the series is an Easy Mode, dubbed "Casual Mode" in-game. It's a welcome addition to the series for those looking to have fun instead of grinding they're way to the top at an extremely slow pace. Overall, I've found this game to be quite fun. Like Soul Hackers, it's hard to find though. I recommend downloading this one too.
Well, that's it for now. See you next entry.
After much thought and back-and-forth deliberation, I finally decided to put Williams' Taxi at the top of the list as my favorite pinball machine ever made. Created in 1988 by Mark Ritchie (Diner, Fish Tales, Sorcerer, Indiana Jones), Taxi is a classic 80's pin that is best known for being tight and difficult. In Taxi, you take on the role of a cab driver whose purpose is to take passengers to the airport. The passengers include a strange and nutty cast of characters that most people during the 80's would recognize: Mikel Gorbachev, Dracula, Santa Claus, Pin*bot (a famous character from an earlier Williams title), and Marylin Monroe (later renamed "Lola" due to issues with Ms. Monroe's estate.....). These passengers are "picked up" by shooting specific area of the playfield, by completing a bank of three drop targets, or via the Spinout skill shot at 25k. Once picked up, a timed jackpot is lit and collected upon shooting the right loop and settling the ball in the upper left saucer. If a player does not make the jackpot shot before the timer runs out, the shot can be reset by picking up Marylin/Lola from the center bank of drop targets. However, the difficulty of obtaining the jackpot is further increased, since all pickups are voided at that end of each ball unless you are able to light and collect a difficult "Carry Passengers" bonus.
Continue reading Banana's Pinball Top 10 - #1 Taxi
I am not a panderer, I do not make lists to drum up views, I look to get fans by trying to write strong content and support my opinions with better reasons than 'Its popular.' I do not like generic 'evil-to-be-evil' villains, they are overdone, tired, and rarely executed competently, let alone excellently. So, expect my list to be quite different from others that you have run across over the years.
10. The Turks (Final Fantasy VII)
Calling this group "villains" is a bit of a stretch. Not all of them have truly villainous acts and blood on their hands, but they are also not the ones in power. The Turks are just a special forces type of group whose job is to take orders and execute them. This doesn't excuse any action but it does provide context, which is all important in narrative.
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What I like about them is that they are the most human of the antagonists of FF7. You don't always fight them when you run into them, hell you can even run into them in a bar and pretend to drink with them if that's how you like it, and go on a side quest within a side quest. You even start off sharing the same goal, chase down the generic genocidal maniac and get in each other's way.
That means a lot Reno.
9. Joker (Persona 2)
Persona 2 is an odd game, it is separated into two distinct parts. The first part, Persona 2: Innocent Sin was only released outside of Japan for the very first time on the PSP, its original release being on PS1. The second part of the game, Eternal Punishment, was released in North America (sorry Europe) back in the PS1 days.
Innocent Sin Joker
Persona has always dealt with some supernatural phenomenon taking hold in some city in Japan, and in this tale rumors become true. Joker is also the only villain here who has two distinct personalities and methods. Innocent Sin has Joker being a clown of sorts who listens to people's inner most desires over the phone, if they tell him something they get it, no matter what it is. If they do not have a true desire, their energy is sucked out from them and they become invisible to all but the party members.
Eternal Punishment Joker
Eternal Punishment is a different beast though, it takes place in a parallel world where only Tatsuya, the main character from Innocent Sin, remembers the events of IS. Like I said, this game is strange and confusing. EP's version of JOKER has him as a more straightforward serial killer who does a sort of body jumping, consciousness stealing maneuvers with those afflicted by the JOKER Curse.
If only rumors really did come true we'd have all men with footlongs in their pants, incredibly super rich, huge collection of kick ass cars, and a mansion filled with a beautiful harem.
8. Kefka (Final Fantasy VI)
Speaking of clowns here's Kefka. Now, I'm not the biggest Kefka fan, unlike Joker above Kefka is probably video gaming's closest version of Batman's Joker (outside of Batman games of course) and is one of the few villains I can enjoy despite being 'evil-because-evil'. There is a lot of underlying insanity and even some dark comedy in some of his acts. The reason for his insanity though is never once brought up, ever. Kefka is the definition of the super evil nihilistic destroyer, but he's the best at it.
Batshit crazy is not analogous to literary potency.
Despite that, Kefka is not original, at least, some of the obviously evil actions that he is lauded for performing were in fact mostly based on a villain from an even older FF game...
7. Emperor of Palamecia (Final Fantasy II)
I dislike playing FFII quite a bit. I hate the leveling system, combat is pre-ATB turn based combat and not bad, the keywords system is fairly nice and gives deeper conversations and is obviously based on the keyword systems of contemporary Western PC RPGs. But, leveling is so atrocious that it completely ruins the experience for me and many potential fans. This is the definitive NES Final Fantasy story though, I put it up there with Dragon Quest IV for the best RPG story of the system.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is painted on those huge nails.
Most of this is the result of the Emperor of Palamecia. This Emperor is one of the main reasons we see the overdone Evil Empire story in RPGs. Well, him and the Sith Empire. You remember when Kefka poisoned an entire town's water supply? Emperor did it first. Cyclones destroying towns, entire nations slaughtered, princesses kidnapped, and Leon, a close ally is converted to his evil cause *cough* Kain *cough*. The reason why this guy ranks higher than Kefka is because some reason is given behind his sudden insanity, he is basically an avatar of Diablo, Beelzebub, Angra Mainyu, Satan, Astaroth, Hades, whoever your Lord of the Underworld happens to be.
Know now the wrath of the fallen!
6. Mother Brain (Phantasy Star II)
How is it possible that a villain with no personality, no motive, no life, no emotion, happens to be better than most who try and do all of that? Well, the idea of a rogue AI as a great villain is hardly new. Rogue AI's have been prevalent in science fiction in general since the early 20th century. Just go search for 'System Shock' and try to find any mention of the games without somebody mentioning how amazing SHODAN is as a villain. The first System Shock came out 5 years after Phantasy Star II for a bit of context.
The lifegiver, and lifestealer.
Mother Brain is on the flipside of the coin though, it is a system that exists to provide a comfortable ecology to the residents of the Algo star system with green, lush, thriving, easy to live on land, along with fresh, clean, sparkling water. However, the AI had been planning to destroy the people of the Algo system from the onset of her programming once the population is completely dependent on the ecological systems and infrastructure control of Mother Brain, she even halts all space traffic.
At last, the final stage of her plan comes to fruition!
What's strange about Mother Brain is that, in destroying her, the main party of Phantasy Star II kind of fulfilled Mother Brain's wish for destruction, as the Great Collapse that followed killed most of the population, rendered most of the once fertile land useless, and ended the high tech societies of the Algo system.
Role Playing games have a rich history with roots in pen-and-paper adventures extending all the way to the latest 50 plus hour hi-def epic. When looking at the history of RPGs 1986 is an appropriate starting point. This year saw the release of Dragon Quest on the Famicom and perhaps the birth of the console RPG genre.
Before making the leap to the home console Role Playing games were played using books which outlined rules, enemy strength, and scenarios for the players; most importantly these games required the use of a person's imagination to create the world and its inhabitants. Dungeons and Dragons, created by Gary Gygax, set the formula for RPGs as a genre. His pen-and-paper games introduced the concepts of character leveling, Hit Points as a representation of health, and random enemy encounters. The core concepts of Gygax's adventures were eventually brought onto the computer with notable games including Akalabeth and Ultima.
Ultima was a huge success in Japan - this game, along with Wizardry, heavily inspired Yuji Horii of Enix. Horii's intent was to create a game that incorporate the same depth and sense of adventure that his favourite computer games portrayed, but using a simpler control scheme.
What Horii and his team created was Dragon Quest, and it took the Japanese Role Playing community by storm. By exploiting the best elements of Ultima and Wizardry, and creating a story about saving a land from the clutches of an evil enemy the console RPG genre was set in motion.
Though these shared similarities to early Role Playing games this new breed of RPGs eschewed the complex control systems of their computer counterparts which required players to type commands to interact with the games' worlds, opting instead to use the basic - and now iconic - directional pad of the Nintendo Famicom's handheld controller. Players could now search chests, battle monsters, and navigate dungeons with a single button press.
The basis of Horii's game became the foundation of future RPGs. Players would now travel across an overworld from town to town encountering monsters along the way. Success in battle was rewarded with Experience Points which enabled a character to gain higher levels, improved statistics, and more powerful skills. Everything that players had to perform prepared them for the final duel against the evil force which was threatening the kingdom. The game outlined the general premise of the plot, but demanded that players discover where they must go and what they must do in order to reach the conclusion of their journey to preserve justice and righteousness. The basis of Dragon Quest would be emulated and expanded upon to create newer and broader adventures.
This set the stage for other developers to experiment with the new style of Role Playing games and led to release of other historic epics such as Final Fantasy and Ys among others.
So as of Feb 22nd I posted a article talking about going for a complete N64 collection Boxed. I have been stalking ebay daily since then checking out what I can get my hands on. I actually feel as if it is a part time job with the amount of time I have spent on there looking. I have been really picky with box condition as well which has also cost me more money then what I would want to pay on alot of these games but I am enjoying every minute of watching as my collection grows.
So during the time of that blog I only owned 12 boxed N64 games and I had about 25 on order.
Well since then I have came a long ways in a sense.
I now have 77 boxed Games total on hand not including duplicates and I have 21 more on order.
My camera sucks so I included some additional photos that can hopefully help you guys see the titles better.
I went into this collection with the mindset that only a few titles are extremely expensive as in Clayfighter 63 1/3 sculptors cut but I have learned that there are handful of titles that are going to eat away at my funds. Two of the more pricy titles out there I do own now.
Super bowling cost me $237.50 and I already owned Clayfighter 63 1/3 sculptors cut but to get the box it ran me $500 dollars. I have seen some better condition boxes going for around $400 now so hopefully it stays lower for the people who still need to get it and if anyone has the manual for it I would love to buy it off you. It still hurts not having it complete.
But moving on as you can see in the photo the games are in protective sleeves. They are pretty pricy as well but are defiantly worth it if you can afford it. I picked up some from multiple users on ebay and realized some come in different sizes which pretty much made some of the ones I own a waste do to my OCD. I would highly recommend purchasing them thru the Ebay user dgodkin. His cases fit the boxes perfect and he is really easy to work with. He also carries sleeves for the Nes, and Gameboy which fit nicely as well.
Well to finish this blog off, I just order 2 additional shelf's on top of the two i own displayed below so once I have them I will be able to display all my games and by the time I get a complete N64 collection It will take a shelf in a half of space up. If anyone has any questions or has any boxed n64 games up for sale or trade, let me know.
I think it's maybe an understatement to say that I'm a fan of Capcom fighting games. Pretty much my entire adoration for the genre comes from my first time playing Street Fighter II back in the day. As such, I've always identified most with that style of gameplay, character design, move-sets and so on. Which is not to say that I don't like other fighting game franchises or developers. It's not even to say I was ignorant of them 'back in the day.' Interestingly enough, I remember playing Art of Fighting (or was it World Heroes?) on a Neo Geo cab in a convenience store not far from my house around the same time. And I also had the SNES port of Fatal Fury in my collection right alongside Super Street Fighter II Turbo.
So then it's probably appropriate that in recent years I've also explored -- and gotten a lot more into SNK fighting games as well. As I mentioned I had certainly been exposed to SNK in the past, but to really tackle these games is daunting considering the sheer number of characters featured in the various games, spin-off's, sequels and crossovers. And while I've found a good handful of SNK games that I can continually come back to (and at least one solid masterpiece in Garou: Mark of the Wolves), I would still say that the six-button Capcom setup is preferred for me over the four-button SNK style.
But what if you're the opposite of me? What if you grew up playing King of Fighters annually with only a passing respect for the various Street Fighter games? What if you're parents really spoiled you and got you an AES instead of a SNES? Well for any of us that fall into either camp, we have this wonderful game to help us meet in the middle.
Capcom Vs. SNK is a perfect balance of both developers' franchises. If you were to look at screens of Street Fighter III: Third Strike and Garou: Mark of the Wolves side-by-side, you could be excused for thinking they were from the same game. Here, that's sort of the philosophy. Surely competition can be good -- and over the years both companies have benefited from competition by pushing each other to constantly attempt to get the one-up on the other. It's only fitting that the combining of both sides would be so great.
Now it's important to note that at its heart, this is still a Capcom game (with SNK's answer being their SNK Vs. Capcom, sadly never ported to the Dreamcast). However for those of you Neo Geo fans thinking this means you'll have to get used to the six-button layout that most Capcom games utilize, fear not! You are actually given the option to choose which play-style (or 'groove') suits you best. Likewise the game can also be played in both regular and Turbo speed settings.
Graphically the game is top-notch, genuinely finding itself rubbing elbows with many of the system's finest examples of 2D fighting visions (the aforementioned Third Strike and Garou come to mind once again). The animations are fast and smooth, the backgrounds are ridiculously detailed, and each match begins with an impressive animation that leads right into the stage setting.
Now I hate to sound like a broken record but running this game through VGA is just astounding. Prior to the Dreamcast port I had played Capcom Vs SNK on the PlayStation and can honestly say they look like completely different games when they're running. This version looks and feels like you're playing an arcade game where the PlayStation port looks quite obviously like a PlayStation port. Though I suppose it's not really fair to compare the handling of such a game on such different hardware.
The music is just as compliment-worthy here, although that should probably be expected considering Capcom's fighter output at that time. Certainly folks would be likely to mention Third Strike and Marvel Vs. Capcom as favorite soundtracks from the genre.
And speaking of Marvel Vs. Capcom, I'm going to go ahead and make a statement here that could ruffle a few feathers: I personally think that the Capcom Vs. SNK games are better than the Marvel Vs. Capcom games. Seriously. Though in fairness I suppose it's true that I'm really not as big a comic book fan as some of you may be. In that regard there's probably way more SNK characters that I'm interested in playing with than their are Marvel characters.
And speaking of Roster, that is of course how many fighting games are measured. Including all the hidden characters, Capcom Vs. SNK sports a total of 35 characters to choose from across three different ratios. The ratios are an interesting tier system included to promote balance. Basically this means that it's possible to see matches where one player might have four characters from Ratio 1 against a single character from Ratio 3. This system certainly makes for interesting match-ups and breath-taking victories.
As if the game itself weren't enough, you've got two different end-bosses to make it through in Arcade Mode, as well as an insane amount of unlockables that will keep you busy for quite some time. I know I've been having a lot of fun experimenting with different characters while unlocking various pallet-swaps. Though sadly, I've yet to figure out how to unlock Morrigan. If it isn't quite obvious from my long-winded post, this is a fighting game well worth your time. Highly, highly recommended!
Well.....I'm down to choosing my final two machines for this countdown and I have to say, this was the hardest decision I had to make so far. After considering several factors, I ultimately decided to put Cactus Canyon in the #2 spot, though it could have easily been listed at #1. To be honest, it even holds the top spot on my Pinside rankings page, but the criteria Pinside uses doesn't take into consideration the three factors that kept this machine out from the top of the podium for this Top 10: affordability, availability, and nostalgia (these factors will be more clear when I post my #1 machine). Rather than knock Cactus Canyon, it is in the #2 spot, which is equally impressive, I'd prefer to spend my time praising it.
Continue reading Banana's Pinball Top 10 - #2 Cactus Canyon
Compendium Entry: Miki Higashino
When you ask an old school or enthusiast gamer what some excellent companies were in the 8 bit era for music and sound effects they will toss out a few names, Nintendo, Capcom, Tecmo, Square, Rare, Sega but I'm going to look at a composer from my personal favorite 8 bit soundtrack powerhouse, Konami.
Miki Higashino is another female composer with her background in piano compositions as was Yoko Shimomura. In her early video game career she got the chance to collaborate with the Konami Kukeiha Club, which is the awesome name of Konami's sound team. Basically she started straight at the top for classic arcade games.
The first game that Miki Higashino worked on is a wonderful and classic horizontal shooter known as Gradius from 1985.
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The same year saw the release of Yie Ar Kung-Fu to the arcades and more Miki music. Higashino got the chance to continue her influence on the Gradius series a year later with the release of Salamander in the arcade.
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She also got the chance to make her first non-arcade soundtrack, doing the music for Knightmare for the MSX home computer. She used this experience in the next year helping with the port of Salamander to the MSX.
Higashino and the Konami Kukeiha club just could not be stopped, but they did take two years separated after the MSX port of Salamander before they all met back up and decided to make some music for the original arcade release of Gradius III.
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Miki Higashino and Mutsuhiko Izumi worked on both Gradius III (as well as others) and the arcade release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the year of 1989. The arcade release of TMNT remember, not the original NES game.
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Izumi went on to do the soundtrack for Konami's arcade TMNT follow up, the amazing Turtles in Time, by himself.
Miki started the 1990s by being on the music team for the interesting arcade game Surprise Attack. In 1992 she came back to work on the team for Contra III: Alien Wars. This was her first foray outside of the arcade since the MSX ports.
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1993 saw another busy year for Miki. She did the limited soundtrack for the arcade game Premier Soccer, lead the composing team for manga licensed RPG Moryo Senki MADARA 2 for the Super Famicom (same team as Contra III). Finally, she also lead the team for the Mega Drive/Genesis port of TMNT: Tournament Fighters.
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The following year sees her branching out even more as she composes the music for another sports game, Double Dribble: The Playoff Edition for the MD/Genesis by herself and works on the team that creates the soundtrack for the PC Engine dating sim Tokimeki Memorial.
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The very middle of the 1990s, 1995 that is, was filled with only one soundtrack with work by Miki. Konami wanted a team to make a soundtrack for their take on the classic console based RPG. So Miki, along with a team of others composed the music for Suikoden.
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She also took on the mighty role of the soundtrack for Suikoden's sequel largely on her own, only 8 of the 105 songs on Suikoden II's massive sequel were not completely made by her alone or at all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bsN9boE0ZY
Between the Suikodens she was a member of the teams behind the music for Vandal Hearts and her first work outside Konami, Moon: Remix RPG Adventure.
http://www.youtube.com/wa...p;list=PL80E9FF4DF38AEFF5
The 21st century began with Miki and Keiko Fukami continuing their work after Suikoden II and releasing the soundtracks for the visual novels Genso Suikogaiden Vol. 1 and 2 in and 2000 and 2001 respectively.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PNjCnoaugM
She left Konami and the industry completely for maternity leave after being a major force in the first four released games in Konami's Suikoden world, building the musical love from Gradius, having a major hand in the TMNT arcade experiences, among many other influences. Many of Konami's biggest arcade successes and cult console classics have seen Miki Higashino working some musical magic up behind the scenes along with a team just as dedicated as her.
Since returning from her maternity leave Miki has only been able to collaborate with Yasunori Mitsuda on the soundtrack for 10,000 Bullets, and on Pop'n Music: Adventure in 2007.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkGbnWkjIs8
I know I've talked on this blog more than once about how Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 was my first introduction to the Dreamcast more than a decade ago. In fact I was so enamored with that game that when my college roommate moved out (and took his Dreamcast with him) I had to get my own copy along with its prequel. Though at the time I had a PlayStation 2 rather than a Dreamcast of my own, so although I was more than familiar with the original Pro Skater, it would be quite a few years before I got to play this particular version. And just recently I decided I was due for another race to the end-credits.
There's a lot to love about Pro Skater. It's got an excellent soundtrack (I really wish an official soundtrack had been released), it's got a pick-up-and-play quality to it, and plays great. That said, it's always slightly tough to go back to the original game because it's easy to forget that manuals weren't introduced until the second game. This means that chaining combos together was actually a far more difficult affair back then. But once you get over this small snag, it's easy to see that the first game was already pretty close to perfection.
The original Pro Skater is also the hardest game of the series, at least as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps it's because there are actually less goals per level, and they can often be tough ones. Take for instance the Downhill Jam. This level is probably the one I'd consider the hardest of the entire series. But of course some of that could be my own personal play style. But what was fun about my recent playthrough of the game was that I purposely forced myself to patiently complete every single goal in the Downhill Jam. That definitely made it feel like a bigger accomplishment than just coasting to the final tournament by completing goals in other levels instead.
So today is day 91 of my 100 NES games in 100 day challenge. Fortunately for me though I finished my 100th game a few days back and successfully completed my second 100 NES game in 100 day challenge!!! What started off with many fairly simple games (children's titles, and game shows mostly) ended up being pretty satisfying overall. I played a lot of great titles that I have been neglecting like Gemfire, Nightshade, Bucky O'Hare and many others. Since my last update these are the game I have finished though:
One of my favorite publishers Taito, put out a cool little puzzler appropriately called Puzznic. In Puzznic you have a time limit in which to figure out how to match 2 or more colored gems together in order to clear the entire play area. What starts of as very simple matching eventually becomes pretty tough in the later few levels. Its a very simple premise and even though you have a time limit that only really matters if you're worried about score. If you just want to progress to the next puzzle its quite a relaxing game as you can take your time experimenting until you come up with the right solution.
In addition to the regular Puzznic game there is also a Gravnic mode. In Gravnic you have the same goal of matching gems, but instead of sliding the gems around the screen individually you change the gravity of the entire room causing all the gems to react at once. If you check out my video you'll see that I spent well over 7 hours playing Puzznic/Gravnic in order to solve all the puzzles. For an NES game I feel the packed a lot of value into this little puzzler. Would have been great to see a 2-player mode, but if you like solo puzzle games its definitely worth checking out.
Track & Field II is a game that I've actually been plugging away at for weeks now. I've mentioned in the past that I don't like using Turbo controllers and that made this game extremely challenging. In fact I'd rank it among the most challenging games I've been able to beat when playing it with a standard controller. The final day of the game was the most taxing for myself with both the Archery and Horizontal Bar giving me a TON of trouble and countless failed attempts. The game is fun when playing against human opponents, but its pretty frustrating when playing to win the single player at times. Not to mention that I had to take 1-2 week breaks in between my attempts to let my poor fingers recover from the massacre they endured by mashing the A button so much. In fact I literally tore a chunk of my fingernail during one attempt. Glad to be done this one.
After Track & Field II it was nice to slow things down again with something like Swords & Serpents. Its a fairly basic First Person Dungeon Crawler. Just the speed of game I was looking for at the time. There is a dragon at the bottom of a 16 floor dungeon and your goal is to slay it. Simple as that. Each floor has a different little theme or trick to it to spice things up a bit. There are check points on the 1st, 5th and 10th floors, but otherwise you must use warps or stairs to traverse down to the bottom. The password system as Bombatomba has pointed out is pretty brutal in this game though. Each of your 4 characters has a code as well as your overall game, and in addition to that you have to rename your characters each time you start the game up. Because of this it takes 3-5 minutes just to start playing again each time. Other than that little hiccup and the 9th floor which I wasn't a big fan of the game was a lot of fun. Very simple, easy to understand, and fun.
To keep things on the same pace as I was still recovering from Track & Field II I popped in Tombs & Treasure. This game is a little hybrid of RPG, Point & Click Adventure, and Dungeon Crawling. Like Swords & Serpents Bombatomba has spoken a bit about it during his summer challenge last year. Like a lot of early adventure games I felt you lacked direction quite often and it was challenging to know where to go and what to do. Not the best example of any of the genres it takes on, but its kind of a neat offering overall. Worth checking out only if you're a big fan of any of the genres or just want to try something a bit unique.
What better way to finish off my 100 day challenge than by slaying yet another Dragon? I was very pleasantly surprise by AD&D Dragon Strike so I thought I'd check out the only other Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game I owned, Heroes of the Lance. Again I was kind of surprised by the style as I had assumed it to be a first person RPG or dungeon crawler of some sort. I was a side scrolling action RPG instead. You have a group of 8 characters who are represented by whomever you have place at the front of your team. Your goal is to traverse a dungeon and slay a dragon with a specific staff that you start the game with.
The team they provide you with is pretty diverse and features warriors, clerics, wizards, dwarfs, elves, etc. Lots of different classes and races to play around with. The game itself was much shorter than I had anticipated though. Once you figure out how to approach different enemies (such as attacking them high, middle or low or what spells are most effective) its a pretty simple game too. The last boss is huge and terrifying, but if you managed to keep the staff with you and use it on him it isn't really a battle. He dies in one hit from it. Definitely didn't do as much for me as Dragon Strike, but still a very interesting game and has been looking forward to trying the other 2 AD&D games.
Here is the full list of 325 NES games beaten since October 2011 when I started my first challenge. This 100 in 100 challenge started with Sesame Street Countdown and ended with AD&D Heroes of the Lance.
Beaten Since Oct.8th 2011
(click on a title to see the video)
Super Mario Bros
Super Mario Bros 2
Super Mario Bros 3
Mega Man
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 6
Castlevania
Adventures in the Magic Kingdom
Duck Tales
Duck Tales 2
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2
Felix the Cat
Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout
Ren and Stimpy Show: Buckaroo$
Double Dragon
Contra
Super C
Contra Force
Power Blade
Power Blade 2
Dynowarz: The Destruction of Spondylus
Metal Storm
Journey to Silius
Air Fortress
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Blaster Master
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltes 2
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3
Legendary Wings
BreakThru
Commando
Guerrilla War
World Games
Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular
Caveman Games
DK Classics
Jaws
Ninja Gaiden
Where's Waldo?
Bonk's Adventure
Panic Restaurant
Bubble Bobble 2
Dr. Mario
Bubble Bobble
MC Kids
Batman
Circus Caper
Roller Games
Widget
Tiny Toon Adventures
Tiny Toon Adventures 2
The Jetsons
The Little Mermaid
Monster in my Pocket
Gremlins 2
Kirby's Adventure
Kickle Cubicle
Kung Fu
Yo! Noid
Xexyz
Puss 'N Boots: Pero's Great Adventure
Wall Street Kid
The Karate Kid
Archon
Golf
Super Dodgeball
Super Spike V'Ball
Jakcie Chan's Action Kung Fu
The Three Stooges
Ice Hockey
Tecmo Bowl
Track & Field
Mario Bros
NARC
North and South
Barbie
Battle Chess
The Simpsons: Bart vs. The World
The Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak
Snow Brothers
Little Samson
Sky Shark
Ninja Gaiden II
Mike Tyson's Punch Out
The Simpsons: Bart Meets Radioactive Man
StarTropics
Little Nemo: The Dream Master
River City Ransom
StarTropics 2: Zoda's Revenge
The Jungle Book
Castlevania III Dracula's Curse
Mario is Missing
Blades of Steel
Hogan's Alley
Wild Gunman
Burger Time
Silver Surfer
Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones
Ghosts n Goblins
Tetris
Pro Wrestling
Gradius
Zanac
Adventure Island
Karnov
Trojan
Excitebike
Baseball
Spy Hunter
Adventure Island II
Tennis
Battletoads
Shadowgate
Battletoads/Double Dragon
Pinball Quest
Section Z
Godzilla
Hydlide
Marble Madness
Back to the Future
Darkman
Terminator 2
Robocop
Total Recall
Predator
Robocop 2
Robocop 3
Hudson Hawk
Home Alone
Home Alone 2
Batman Returns
Ghostbusters II
Ghostbusters
Die Hard
A Nightmare on Elm Street
The Krion Conquest
Adventures of Dino Riki
Ultima: Exodus
Legacy of the Wizard
Ultima: Quest of the Avatar
Darkwing Duck
Ultima: Warriors of Destiny
Legends of the Diamond
Pro Sports Hockey
Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball
Yoshi's Cookie
Kick Master
Zombie Nation
Stadium Events
Super Jeopardy!
Joust
Yoshi
Dance Aerobics
Adventures of Bayou Billy
Pipe Dreams
Ski or Die
Werewolf: The Last Warrior
Simpsons: Bart vs The Space Mutants
City Connection
American Gladiators
Roundball 2-on-2 Challenge
720
Athletic World
Super Team Games
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Gumshoe
Bases Loaded
The Addams Family Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt
Kings of the Beach
The Blues Brothers
Volley Ball
Lode Runner
3D World Runner
Twin Eagle
Dragon's Lair
The Adventures of Rad Gravity
Break Time: The National Pool Tour
Bases Loaded II
Rainbow Islands
Conquest of the Crystal Palace
Peter Pan And The Pirates
Kid Kool and the Quest for the Seven Wonder Herbs
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Dragon Strike
Slalom
Wrath of the Black Manta
Race America
Treasure Master
Krusty's Fun House
King's Knight
Mighty Bomb Jack
Bases Loaded 3
Castelian
Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll
Dirty Harry
Conan
Cobra Triangle
Spider Man Return of the Sinister Six
Tag Team Wrestling
Eliminator Boat Duel
Galaxy 5000
George Foreman's KO Boxing
Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge
Thunder & Lightning
Heavy Shreddin'
Flying Warriors
Rocket Ranger
Roger Clemens MVP Baseball
Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure
Destination Earthstar
Street Cop
Short Order/Eggsplode
Star Voyageur
Days of Thunder
Laser Invasion
Silent Service
Back to the Future 2 & 3
Overlord
High Speed
Sesame Street Countdown
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters
Shooting Range
Space Shuttle Project
Double Dare
Win, Lose or Draw
Othello
Whomp Em
Dragon Fighter
Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle
Family Feud
Tale Spin
Platoon
Gotcha!
Gun Smoke
Kiwi Kraze
10 Yard Fight
Tom & Jerry
Wrecking Crew
Hatris
Time Lord
Orb 3D
Wheel of Fortune Jr
Wheel of Fortune Family Edition
Captain America and the Avengers
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune Featuring Vanna White
The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
Bo Jackson Baseball
Jeopardy! Jr
Jeopardy!
Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary
Cowboy Kid
Crash n The Boys: Street Challenge
Galaga
Color A Dinosaur
Millipede
Popeye
Sesame Street 123
Sesame Street ABC
Sesame Street Hide & Speak
Soccer
Classic Concentration
Fisher Price I Can Remember
Fisher Price Perfect Fit
Mickey's Safari in Letterland
Mickey's Adventure in Numberland
NES Open Golf
Pictionary
Chessmaster
Anticipation
DK Jr Math
Donkey Kong 3
Urban Champion
Balloon Fight
Pinball
Qix
Hollywood Squares
Twin Cobra
Flintstones Rescue of Dino & Hoppy
Tiger-Heli
Winter Games
NES World Cup Soccer
Defender II
M.U.S.C.L.E.
MTV's Remote Control
Spot The Video Game
Spy vs Spy
Taboo The Sixth Sense
Gemfire
Monopoly
Legend of the Ghost Lion
Jackal
Rad Racer
Rad Racer II
Arch Rivals
Deja Vu
Nightshade
Mickey Mousecapade
King's Quest V
Vegas Dreams
Magic Johnson's Fast Break
Touchdown Fever
Caesar's Palace
Casino Kid
Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom
Videomation
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Bucky O'Hare
The Incredible Crash Dummies
Joe &
Totally Rad
Lifeforce
Wolverine
Maniac Mansion
Puzznic
Track & Field II
Swords & Serpents
Tombs & Treasures
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance
BONUS GAMES:
Assimilate
Nomolos: Storming the Catsle
Future Plans - Take a short break from NES and play Batman Arkham Asylum with the rfgen community. Maybe play another modern game or two and then return to the NES, but at a much more relaxed rate. Still craving some slow moving games so I plan to check out some stuff like Wizardy or some of the KOEI games I've been neglecting.
As you all know, we recently held our annual donation drive, which was a huge success, meeting our goal to have enough funds to pay for the server throughout the year. However, something has changed here at RFGen. The Collectorcast has been a runaway success, and while that’s awesome for Duke.Togo, Crabmaster2000, and WildBil52, its putting a strain on our servers. Due to the increased traffic and bandwidth use, our host is requiring us to upgrade to a bigger and faster setup. This as I’m sure you all can guess, means a heftier price tag. Which means the funds we raised earlier will no longer suffice. But we won’t be holding another donation drive this year; instead, we’ve decided to change our business model a bit. Don’t worry, we’re not going to going to be adding ads, we would never resort to that...
We’ll still be funded solely by donations, but instead of the few paying for the many, the many will now be paying for the many. In other words, RFGeneration.com will now be a pay-to-use site. I know, I know, it sounds bad, but here’s the good news, you only have to pay once and you’ll never have to pay again, and you get to choose how much you pay. So click the Donate button in the forums and set your payment amount. Once your payment is verified, you’ll be allowed to access the forum and all those wonderful collection tools you know and love.
We'll still be allowing current members to access the site today so they can make this transition and get their payment in as soon as possible.
And remember, even though we keep it on Channel 3, we’re more like HBO now.
Find Video Game Stores In Your Local Area.
So I was watching a youtube video and in the description it had a link. This link will completely change the way the hunt is. I would of loved to know about this when I was in Nebraska.
So with the link to this site you can type in your Zipcode and it will pop up all the places and addresses within your local area that you can find games. I typed in my old Zipcode in Nebraska and it showed up all the Goodwills, Gamestops, Fleamarkets and everything. If only I would of known about this then. Hopefully this can come of use to my fellow Rfgeners.
http://www.dinkydana.com/...me-stores?location=68123#
Alright so this past month my wife and I moved into our first home. As you might guess this means that March was super-busy, and I really didn't have much time (or disposable income) for collecting. But I did manage to pick up some stuff actually. Let's take a look...
First up was a couple of found surprises. The Sonic comic my wife found while packing. I guess she got it free a few years ago when we went to a video game store on Comic Book day. The Game Gear was mine from childhood and my parents happened to find it in their basement. It works and even has Sonic 2 inside it, though the speaker no longer works. Oh well.
I finally decided to use some Barnes & Noble gift cards I received for Christmas. These are two of the items I purchased. The PSO guide was huge for me as I've been so absorbed in that game lately. Sadly the poster wasn't included in it. The Sega Dreamcast Official Games Guide is a cool book that has tips and tricks for various games.
I also used up some eStarland credit I had been sitting on since before the move. Capcom Vs. SNK has been one of my go-to games this month, and I'm so excited to finally have Grandia II.
Also from eStarland credit was these two complete Neo Geo Pocket Color games. I know NGPC isn't technically Sega, but I consider it the Dreamcast's little sister seeing as how it had connectivity with the console.
While moving I also boxed up a lot of random video game junk I didn't need and finally brought it to my local shop to trade in for credit. So I scored some common Dreamcast games along with Virtua-On which I've actually never seen in the wild before.
...and also got this CIB Make My Video: Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch.
...plus an awesome Blue Mary figurine!
So yeah, all in all a pretty good month and not a dollar of my own money spent on any of it. And really the best addition to my collection this month was that I finally have my own dedicated game room!
Coming in at #3 on the countdown is Williams' Bram Stoker's Dracula ("BSD"). BSD is an odd license in that the film really wasn't a blockbuster in the U.S. in 1992, although it had great success worldwide and won 3 Oscars for Make-up, Effects, and Costume Design, and 5 Saturn awards, including Best Film and Actor (Gary Oldman). I've heard several friends complain about how bad the film is, and though it's an odd take on the Dracula mythology, it's not a horrible film. In pinball community, license can mean everything. This is as true today (if not more true) as it was over 20 years ago. With Sterns most recent release "The Avengers," and their newest announcement "Metallica," to Jersey Jack's new "Wizard of Oz" and recent announcement of "The Hobbit" license for their second pin, new pins tend to sell out via pre-order before any work has been done!
Continue reading Banana's Pinball Top 10 - #3 Bram Stoker's Dracula
Hi. My name's noise. And I'm a PSO addict.
I'll be completely honest here: I never thought I'd see the allure of Phantasy Star Online. In the past I'd heard fellow gamers refer to the game as "video game crack," in which every session left you wanting just a tiny taste more. But to me it just sounded pretty unappealing. For one thing I'm not a fan of extremely long games. So something like PSO with its online world which makes it something of a never-ending game was a turn-off. I'm also not all that interested in hack-n-slash battle systems within RPG settings. Nor have I ever found myself drawn to games that focus on hoarding loot. So while I was certainly a fan of the Phantasy Star brand, I just couldn't see myself interested in an MMO.
But one night several months ago while browsing the Dreamcast-Talk forums I thought it might be fun to get my console online and test it out with PSO. After spending some time Googling for free dial-up ISP's in my area, I was able to configure my conole's modem and get connected to the Sylverant private server. Of course I had never played Phantasy Star Online before, so once connected I hadn't the foggiest clue what I was supposed to be doing. So I just sort of walked around and marveled at the excellent graphics and music.
And then soon enough I noticed two characters just standing and talking to each other. Right away I realized that I was seeing actual players since everything they were saying was being typed into word-bubbles above their heads. I admit that for a moment I was severely intimidated. But i approached, introduced myself and warned them that I was a total n00b. "Wait... right now is your first time playing PSO? You mean, like ever?" And these guys were nice enough to then spend the next hour or so giving me a crash-course in the basics. They had my back with monomates to heal me and watched me hit level 2 while playing the game online.
All in all the experience was fun, but I knew I'd need to spend some time offline with the game to really grasp how things worked and try to get myself to at least a respectable level before attempting to seriously play online. So basically the game sat untouched on my shelf for the next several months. Sure I had a good time messing around with it online that night, but it would be a serious committment to play a game so demanding. Hell, you can't even pause PSO!
A few months later we got hit with a pretty impressive snow storm, and I found myself with one of those lazy snow days that gives you an excuse to dive into a game you normally wouldn't have the time for. Immediately I thought of PSO and popped in my copy. The version of I've been playing by the way is Ver. 2, which is (as I understand it) the same exact game as the original Dreamcast release, but with some bug-fixes and some additional quests.
And so I spent that afternoon going back and forth between shoveling and and exploring Ragol. At first my progress seemed slow and I'd find myself consulting the manual often to try to figure out what all the buttons did and what my objectives were to begin with. But once the ball started rolling I was making my way through quests and getting myself familiar with the Forest and genuinely having a great time to my own surprise. In fact I was having so much fun with the game that as my wife and I packed up all of our belongings to prepare to move into our new house, I spent most of February with Phantasy Star Online being one of only two games I left accessible (the other being Sega Smash Pack).
Which reminds me, I should take a moment to point out that over the months I've spent with PSO, it became a big enough part of my gaming habits to actually justify some further purchases. Perhaps the most obvious is the official Versus Books strategy guide. This book is definitely very handy to have around for reference on such confusing matters such as what to feed your Mag, and of course maps are excellent to have around if you don't want to tie up a big chunk of your screen with the in-game map. PSO also make my decision to obtain a large lot consisting of both the Dreamcast VGA box and Broadband Adapter a much easier one to make. Let me just say that this game looks stunning in VGA mode (though in fairness, so don't most Dreamcast games that take advantage). And although I haven't had the time to hook up the pricey BBA yet, it's certainly nice to have the option to do so.
At any rate, I'm currently making my way through The Mines. I'm now at level 19, and have put about just as many hours into the game. And yet my addiction shows no signs of slowing down. Perhaps the absolute sickest part of it is that I keep thinking that once I get through Offline Mode, I can actually start to play Online. And hey, perhaps I can start a second character when I pick up a copy of Ver. 1...
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We are a community of collectors, gamers and the likes, and some of us enjoy to let the world know what is on our mind. For those members, we have the community blogs, a place where they can publish their thoughts and feelings regarding life, universe, and everything. Some of those members might even choose to write about gaming and collecting! Whatever they write about, you can find it on their blog. You can either see the latest community blog entries in the feed you see to the left, or you can browse for your favorite blog using the menu above. Interested in having your own blog hosted on RF Generation? It's rather simple, first be a registered member, and then click the "My Blog" link that you see in the navigation above. Following those two steps will certainly get you on your way to blogging.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy our entries, rantings, and completely unrelated series of thoughts. We write for you to read, so we certainly hope that you enjoy our material.
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