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This marks the end of week four of my Summer Game Challenge. Before I start, I first want to share a pic of Rollergames I promised a while back. It would have been a part of my challenge, but I started just a little too late. C'est la vie.
After a recommendation from crabmaster2000 I decided on Tombs and Treasure. Judging from the name I really thought it would be a Wizardry-style game. I even dug up some graph paper in anticipation of the challenge. Instead I got.. well, a very unique game.
At the very core Tombs and Treasures (T&T) is a Japanese take on the PC adventure game genre circa 1987. It has all the hallmarks of the adventure genre, from item management to strange, often cryptic clues about how to advance in the game. Where the Japanese twist comes in is a extremely strange leveling and combat system, overhead world movement (with the actual locations within various ruins), and anime-style characters. Doesn't sound bad, does it? Trust me when I say this, it is bad. Clunky controls, seemingly redundant interaction choices, and a overly large overworld that adds at least a few hours to the adventure.
I don't think I want to go on more about the game. Suffice to say that to those that insist on playing T&T without a guide (I turned to one four times), let me give a bit of advice:
1) There is a definite linear progression to the game, so if you have not completed certain actions (and leveled up) the game will not let you progress.
2) Get a notebook. With it make a map of the overworld, a glossary of all items that you find, as well as any conversation that you have.
3) The only place you can save the game is at the Nunnery. This should be the first place you mark on your map.
4) While I am not a huge advocate of overly using FAQs and guides, I think a simple enemy list with the required level to win would go far in making the game more palatable, as this would make it easier to see if you've forgotten an item, an action, or any other myriad of things that keeps you from leveling up (which is completely transparent and behind the scenes). I will be very happy to provide anyone with this information.
Overall the game took me over twenty hours to beat, not counting a few palate cleansing "breaks" (where I managed to beat both Limbo and Bastion).
Whew, that was rough.
Conquest of the Crystal Palace Ironsword Dr. Chaos Total Recall Ultimate Stuntman
Tombs and Treasures Swords and Serpents Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Driver: San Francisco X3: Terran Conflict X3: The Albion Prelude
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Posted on Jun 22nd 2012 at 09:24:59 PM by ( SirPsycho) Posted under death |
The topic of todays post has been in the works for quite some time. And the topic of today is When is a console considered dead?
Traditional logic would say that a console is dead as soon as official support for it dries up and no new games come out from the big publishers. In the more recent generations those usually consist of watered down sports games or low budget niche titles that last for a handful of years after the console is no longer manufactured or sold. Well take a look at a few cases which turn this easy to grasp idea on its head.
First off well take a look at a system which keeps selling, which is still being made despite being over 10 years old and no new official games coming out for it. Im talking of course about the monstrous Playstation 2. Brand new systems can still be purchased directly from Sony and even in retail outlets in larger cities. Why is this? It still sells, slowly sure, but it sells consistently and for a hefty profit. For the budget minded gamer or for collectors the Playstation 2 is the best system out right now because of this reason. Brand new systems are still available and there is a massive library of games that can be found online or in stores for $1-15, a starter set of a brand new system and a dozen games can be had for less than $150 easily.
The rest of this post can be read at my offsite blog: http://whydidiplaythis.wordpress.com/
Before deciding to roll up my power pad and pack it away it only seemed right that I finish up the last 2 power pad titles I have in my collection.
Both of these games gave me a problem that I didnt encounter with the rest of the power pad titles. My running was very twitchy onscreen and jumps seemed less responsive than the other games. Athletic World in particular was quite frustrating, especially the events with animals to jump over. The only event I found particularly enjoyable was the river rapid. The squatting and jumping was fun, but..... the fish you had to dodge ruined the experience for me.
Super Team Games was just boring compared to most of the others. Just what you'd expect. The Skateboarding part had potential, but was ultimately lame.
Now I just need to pick up the last 2 Power Pad titles I'm missing, Street Cop and Short Order/Eggsplode.
NES Games Finished In 2012
(click on a title to view the video)
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 Air Fortress 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
Future Plans - You may not have seen many videos uploaded to the old youtube channel lately, but I havnt been slacking. Been logging many hours into Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Bases Loaded.
Wow, its been a long time. This year has been really dry for me, every time I browse the small scores thread, I get more and more jealous of the finds other people are getting while I'm stuck in a drought. But I suppose its not all that bad since I'm out of room for most of my systems anyway. I've resorted to having some SNES and some Genesis games on the floor because there's just no room left on the shelves for them. The PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, and PS1 are all right behind them, with room for less than 5 games left on each of those systems. Maybe that's why I've been apathetic toward getting up early to hit up garage sales like I used to. This past weekend was the first time I actually woke up early and got out there on Friday and Saturday, but it still didn't do me any good. And don't get me started about the flea market this year, its gone to total crap. It used to be 75% people selling their personal stuff and 25% professional sellers. The last few years its been 50% and 50%, last year was closer to 25% and 75% and this year is more like 99% professional and 1% regular people. At first it seemed like the flea market quadrupling in size was a good thing, but if all they're going to sell is overpriced storage unit junk and crappy Dollar Store junk, it doesn't really matter how big it is. I guess that's just the evolution of flea markets though. They start out small with good stuff, get a bit bigger and have more good stuff, then they get too big and commercialized and the buyers that made them popular quit going and all your left with is people coming from church, retired people, and hipsters that just browse and don't actually buy anything. Before long, the whole thing collapses, and is either gone for good, or the process can start again.
Enough of my rambling, I know that's not why you read these, you want to see those deals! I hope your not too disappointed with my meager finds over the last couple months.
Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles '12 - #2

I decided to skip the inverted castle at the end and just killed Richter. I figured that since I still have 9 games on this list to get through... Though I did save my game right before that battle so I can always come back to it if I have time after beating the others.
I actually really enjoyed SOTN. I did use maps and check the bullet points of a walkthrough to see which items I should be looking for or which bosses are where, etc. So admittedly this made the game more linear for me (which I liked) but now that I'm familiar with the castle I feel like I could come back to it and explore some other time. And I liked the game enough that I can see myself doing so.
Once I figured out the importance of grinding and finding better gear, the game really became a lot of fun. Surprisingly, the only boss that gave me any real challenge was Orlox who I had to fight probably a half-dozen times. Jerk.
Consider this a Summer Gaming victory!

Other progress:
I've played about a half-hour of Sonic Adventure. It seems good, though not as good as the bit of SA2 I've played. It definitely looks great. My biggest complaint is figuring out where I'm supposed to go next. I feel like I spend about five minutes playing a level, then I spent fifteen walking around aimlessly looking for the next level. So we'll see. I've beaten the first Eggman battle in the Ruins, and I found some new sneakers.
Played about fifteen minutes of Jet Set Radio Future. Another great looking game. I basically just did the little tutorial, but I'm not actually sure how to start the game. I feel stuck in the little intro hub. If I try to leave and go to another area, it just sends me back to the hub. I should read the manual though.
Spent about a half hour on Ninja Gaiden Black. Mind = blown, graphically. It doesn't even look last gen to me. The controls feel so smooth as well. The problem was after a half hour I hit a game over, and lost my progress. I'm guessing you can only save at certain points? Again... I should read the manual.
Indigo Prophecy I started with before Symphony of the Night, and am on the third scene I believe. Though I have an odd problem... my PS2 is run through a ViewSonic NextVision N6 to convert the composite signal to VGA. Most games look just fine this way, but Indigo Prophecy seems overly dark. Like so dark that I'm having trouble seeing items or areas of rooms. I tried messing with brightness settings on the monitor to no avail. I'm contemplating just switching to the Xbox version since my 360 is run through HDMI.
And finally Grand Theft Auto: Vice City... I think this will be the main game I focus on from my list right now. I've put in an hour or so and am starting to really enjoy it.
Today, I am proud to announce, that with my acquisition of the NES Game, The Magic of Scheherazade, I have finally completed my goal...100 NES Games are finally mine!! 
Current Games: *100* Remaining: 0
It's been a long, somewhat rough, road to 100, but in the end, I have prevailed. Across many trades and many purchases, I have reached my goal. Along the way, I've met many friends who have helped me reach my goal in one way or another. I would like to take this time to thank them:
slackur - He could be described as my first friend here on RF Generation. I received several NES Games from him as a Christmas Gift one year.
bickman2k - He could be described as incredibly patient. He put up with me so much in the Chat Room, not complaining once about any of my rants.
singlebanana - He could be described as a very generous (and patient) trader. He sold me an Atari 2600, which reignited my passion for gaming during a Gaming Fatigue burnout.
NES_Rules - He could be described as quiet. He traded me an Atari 7800, which led me to study Gaming History more.
Zagnorch - He could be described as funny. While I've never done any deals with him, I did get him to admit that the Power Glove wasn't that bad. (This was in one of his Blog Posts)
Duke.Togo - He could be described as a Collector. When I had some concerns about giving up my Famicom, they disappeared when Duke.Togo contacted me for it. I know it's in good hands with him.
For the people I can't think of descriptions for:
Tynstar Shadow Kisuragi Crabmaster2000 nupoile Marriott_Guy noiseredux
Well, that's it. Thanks for the support everyone. You don't know how much I appreciate it. May my number of NES Games soar higher one day, and hopefully, the rest of this year turns out good here at RF Generation. Well then, as we all say here...
KEEP IT ON CHANNEL 3!!
For the most part this is just some stuff I've found in the last few weeks. All of it could just go into the "small scores" thread but I figured if it was in my blog I could feel free to post a bunch of big pictures and blabber on endlessly.
Continue reading After 20 years, I found it!
Hey everyone! Nothing super exciting to post about but got some goodies. Last week my brother and I went to a Goodwill Electronics store and picked up: *Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis - CIB - $3.99 *Star Wars Dark Forces- Jewel Case Version with Extras for $1.99 *Monopoly Star Wars - $1.99 - ANYONE HAVE AN EXTRA BIG BOX FOR THIS GAME. *Crash Bandicoot PS1 Greatest Hits - $1.99
THEN even with the College World Series going on I found time to go to Gamers and I picked up these beauties I think at a fair prices. *Mario is Missing! - Complete in Box for $19.95 *Super C - Complete in Box for $16.95.
So overall not bad. ALSO!!!!! We have a cart of Mario is Missing! and Super C up on eBay message me if anyone is interested in them.
Here's the pictures and please comment.

Welcome back. As of today, I have decided that Famicom Games WILL count in my quest to get to 100 Games. Why? Well, they were here before NES Games, and since many of them were released in the US anyway, I've decided that they count now.
Current Games: 89 Remaining: 11
Oh, and by the way, if you want to see what games I have, check my collection. Please do not keep asking me here, and yes, I do update it now.
With another 5 Games added to my Collection, I move slowly, but ever closer to my ultimate goal. Victory awaits me at the end of this long road, and man, will it be sweet!
Current Number: 81 Games To Go: 19
...What? That's it. Go home already! I was just updating you all on my quest!
Hey all. I was able to pick up 5 Games at the local Retro Game Store yesterday, kicking up my Number of NES Games to 76. I'm so close to victory, I can almost taste it!
...and that victory, for whatever reason, tastes like a Well-Done Burger from an old restaurant that I wish was still open around here. 
Also, I will be doing Punchout for my next PGGS. You all can thank bickman2k and wildbil52 for that. 
See you next entry.

Remember that Summer Gaming list I posted a couple of weeks ago? Well I had a big change of heart. Mostly because I couldn't seem to get into the majority of the games I started up. So I scrambled and came up with a list I feel much better about:
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Cthulhu Saves the World Daytona USA Garou: Mark of the Wolves Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Indigo Prophecy Jet Set Radio Future Ninja Gaiden Black Sonic Adventure X-Men
Please leave words of encoragement below!
Hey all. Some of you may recall a post of mine from a while back, stating that I wanted to get 100 NES Games, mostly as a personal goal. Well, I'm almost there! I currently have 71, and I'm going NES Game Hunting tomorrow, which should really boost that number upwards.
In other news, I'm gonna do a new entry in my PGGS soon. Please suggest a game for me out of these 3:
Back To The Future The Adventures of Bayou Billy Punchout
That's all for now. Later.
There has been one person on Nintendoage that has had more NES games finished from their list this year than myself. Its been bugging me so I've been pushing hard to catch up and pass him. I was able to knock off 4 more games in the last couple days. All pretty short and relatively easy, but a couple pretty fun ones.
First up was City Connection. Fun little arcade style game that has you jumping your car from streets at different heights trying to make sure you've touched every bit of road before being able to move onto the next stage. While driving around you have to avoid cats and police. With only 6 different stages to see it didnt take long to get them looping, but it was definitely a fun time.

Next game was also surprisingly fun, American Gladiators. I remember catching a show or two when I was younger and each event featured in the game was familiar. Some were more fun than others, but I though that the Wall, Joust and Human Canonball were pretty cool, and the Eliminator round at the end was a blast. Very neat game.

Picked a couple quicky sports games next to help move things along. Roundball 2-on-2 Challenge was the first one. Had some trouble at first until I realized it was very easy to sink 3 point shots. After that I just sat back and just sank basket after basket without worrying about what the opposing team was up to.

Lastly I played through 720, which is a skateboarding game and not a very good one. Like many NES games that have your character rotating 360 degrees I had a very hard time actually landing the spins. Luckily I didnt really need to do spin tricks. The game consists of 4 events in 4 different classes. This one was kind of like Ski or Die in the sense that you can just clear each event and dont necessarily have to do very well.

NES Games Finished In 2012
(click on a title to view the video)
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 Air Fortress 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
Future Plans - Wife and Son are going out of town tonight so I'm going to have several days to myself shortly. Thought I'd use that time to conquer an RPG or Strategy game, possibly something KOEI.

Since writing 30 diffrent blogs seemed excessive, I decided to reduce my SGC updates to 1x a week....
and a busy week it was! Shortly after posting my rant about S&K (read it here: http://www.rfgeneration.c...2-Sonic-Knuckles-2169.php ) I finished Call of duty: MW3.
It was much longer than I had expected, although I wasn't expecting much. The action was great, and it was a worthwile wrap up to the storyline
Yesterday graced my tv with the completion of Starfox for the SNES....and I'm not too sure why I waited this long to play it. The game was fun, exciting, and handled precicely. Can't complaign at all...except for the wacky end boss. Why in the hell is Andross a cube?
Oh well, small complaignts asside, I had a blast with both of these games.
Now to update the list
Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne Borderlands [Game of the Year]
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Rage [Anarchy Edition] Saints Row Diamond 2-Pack Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Legend of Zelda, The: Ocarina of Time Pokemon Snap Legend of Zelda, The: The Wind Waker Metroid Prime Double Dragon II: The Revenge Faxanadu Super C Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project Donkey Kong Country
Star Fox Super Mario World Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time Pikmin Punch-Out!!
Contra: Hard Corps
Sonic & Knuckles Legend of Dragoon, The Star Wars: Rebel Assault II Bully Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Ace Combat 04 Shattered Skies
four games down! woo! Working on Rage right now, and the gf to finish borderlands (just grabbed all the DLC too!..yay xbox deal of the week!) About 12-13 game days into pikmin, and have half the parts. Don't even remember where I left off at in D&D.
Stuck on the last boss in punchout...curse you Mr.Sandman!!! Pokemon snap is on the volcano stage.
Till next time, ~Neo
Backlog Count: 255
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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.
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