|
With Lebron James signing with Miami this week, the web's been abuzz with basketball talk. And though there's no denying that the James-Miami deal was totally newsworthy no matter how you feel about him or the Cavs, I was far more concerned about Paul Pierce becoming a free agent. You see I'm a big Celtics fan. And Pierce is a pretty big deal to me -- a big enough deal that I bought Backyard Sports Basketball 2007 solely based on the fact that it was the only GBA basketball game to feature Paul Pierce on its cover. Certainly that makes it a nice collectible for me, but how does it stack up as a playable game?
 
Backyard Sports Basketball 2007 features "NBA pros as kids" as its gimmick. But really, what you're getting is super-deformed (big-head-little-body) character sprites. That's perfectly cool with me. It's really just the same formula that developers have used to port fighting games to the Game Boy and make the sprites usable on such a small screen. Similarly, it's not too different from what the upcoming NBA Jam revival title is expected to look like. So while it's easy to pass this one over because it looks like a "kid's game," really it's a lot closer to classic arcade basketball games like Double Dribble or NBA Jam.
 
Mainly Backyard 2007 is a straight up arcade-style game, as made evident by it's three-on-three format. It also features the sort of power-ups (cyclone speed, on-fire ball, etc) and literally unbelievable dunks found only in the arcades. However, the game differentiates itself from the simple concepts of most arcade b-ballers by offering up a rather deep customization menu. Not only can you adjust the difficulty level or the length of the quarters -- you can also toggle fouls, power-ups, fatigue and shot assistance on or off. Basically you can adjust just how "arcade" or realistic you prefer the game to be.
 
Just as impressive as the in-game customization is the rest of the games options. You can create your own player, pick your team roster and manage substitutions. Your team has its own page with pictures of your players hanging out together and fully updated stats based on how your crew is performing throughout the season. Oh, did I forget to mention that? Although it's arcade style basketball, it allows you to follow your team (or three) throughout an entire season. If they're having a tough time keeping their shit together, then you can practice them on three skill-learning mini games.
Ultimately my feeling is that Backyard 2007 is an incredibly impressive and advanced basketball disguised as a so-called "casual game." In fact, up to this point I've yet to find a better basketball game for the GBA. Oh and if you're wondering, my Celtics team naturally features Pierce and KG, but we also picked up Lebron -- and kept him on the bench.
I'm a few days late on this but I realized the other day that I have been a member of RFGen for six years now. I signed up 5th of July 2004. I was the 45th member to join the site and to my knowledge one of the first people who was not grandfathered in from VGB.
In the last 6 years I have:
Finished Sophmore, Junion, Senior year in Highschool
Worked at 8 different jobs all of them overlapping.
Gone to college.
Met a girl.
Left a girl.
Met another girl.
Dropped out of college.
Moved from MA 2k miles south to an island off the coast of southern Texas....
had a son...
and then 2k miles back.
When I joined here I had around 100 games.
I peaked somewhere in the 1200-1300 range. I have slowly dropped lower and lower ever since.
RFGen in this time has...
exploded from ~10,000 titles to nearly 55,000
Added the hardware database.
Gained a few thousand members.
Had almost 149k posts not made by me(just over 163k including mine.)
Had me jump back and forth from staff several times.
Had multiple staff members come and go. All for various reasons. All of them beneficial to the site either in obvious or more behind the scenes ways.
On a more sober note RFGen and many others lost Michael Collins
Many things have changed in these last six years. But RFGeneration has been my constant.
I would like to thank the great members of this community past and present as well as the staff and various administrators who have not only kept the website up and running through all their contributions. Be it financial, database submissions/approvals, posting, blogging, etc.
All of you have made this place my internet home for the last six years and hopefully many more to come.
I would like to note I flipped through some of my older posts. Anyone who has been on the site for a long time should do so. It really makes you realize how much you have changed.
The Game Boy Color's launch in the Winter of 1998 should have been a big deal. It had been nine long years and the original Game Boy's outdated hardware was still chugging along. Finally Nintendo decided to offer up what would basically be a portable version of the NES. And maybe eventually a lot of GBC titles would live up to such standards, but upon the launch of hideously purple Game Boy Color system, there were only four games to choose from. Strangely none of them would really demonstrate exactly why a colorized Game Boy was something to get excited about. My only guess is it's because these early GBC titles were the black-GB cartridge type that were also backwards compatible, so perhaps they were purposefully stripped down games?
 
I often wonder about the board meeting that Nintendo had when planning the Game Boy Color's launch. And I figure it went something like this:
Well it's been nine long, hard years of research and development but we've finally done it! We've created a new Game Boy with a processor twice as fast as the original, with four times as much RAM, that's able to display 56 colors simultaneously on screen from its palette of 32,768! Which means it can play Centipede, a game that looked dated upon its release 18 years ago with absolutely no problem.
I mean honestly. Why Centipede? Even a port of the original Donkey Kong would have made far more sense after the success of Donkey Kong Country on the SNES. But Centipede just looks really shitty with its tiny nondescript little sprites. I just don't get it.
  
Game & Watch Gallery 2 is probably the best looking of the GBC launch titles. The bright colors of the modernized Game & Watch titles is really nice. Admittedly, I'm not the hugest fan of the series, so I may not be the best judge of the game. Although I can admit it can be a brief fun time-killer, at the same time most of the six included games just feel like variations of either juggle-this-stuff or dodge-this-stuff; in both instances pressing only left or right is the only requirement. However, as mentioned the cartridge does include six games to pick from, and each of them record high scores so this could keep you interested for a while if you're one of the many big fans of the series.
  
I actually skipped the GBC launch myself. But if I had a time machine and traveled back in time to the launch and had to choose just one of the four games, it would have been Pocket Bomberman. The Hudson original is a fun little platform-puzzler that takes the classic Bomberman formula and combines it with a side-scrolling quest. The sounds are nothing to write home about, but the graphics are at least passable as an (early) NES game. As mentioned above, Pocket Bomberman certainly doesn't show off exactly what the new GBC hardware was fully capable of, but having said that it is still a fun and overlooked little title.
  
Okay so Tetris DX sort of stumps me as a launch title. Most new adapters of the GBC were upgrading from their original Game Boys, which would pretty much mean that they probably already owned Tetris. And if they popped their original Tetris cart into the GBC, it would be in color, right? Well. Yeah. For the most part Tetris DX is unnecessary. It's the same game as the Game Boy original, minus the awesome music. However there is one thing that makes Tetris DX superior: it saves high scores. Of course that's only going to be a selling point to a certain batch of gamers, but for some of us it's enough to make Tetris DX a must-own cartridge.
So now that we've reviewed these four titles, what do you think? Was the launch an indication that Nintendo was already far more focused on the eventual Game Boy Advance? Was GBC always destined to be the awkward middle-child? Or am I just being over-critical?
So join me on my journey to discover if there is treasure to be found on the CD-I. The system has a rotten reputation, but I am going to dig through some of the titles I have to look for a diamond in the rough. First up, a game that I feel a little dirty playing, Voyeur.
Voyeur is a FMV game that reminds me of Night Trap. In the game you play the role of an investigator spying on Reed Hawke, a Presidential candidate with nefarious intentions, over a weekend stay with his family at Hawke Manor. You begin the game in your apartment across the street from the Manor. From here you have access to your camera for your Peeping Tom-ery, a phone to call the police, a TV with VCR, and a package to send video tapes.
The game plays out over the hours of the weekend. During each time period you can view the different rooms of the mansion with your camera. Different video and audio scenes play out in different places, and time ticks away via a battery meter. This limits you to choosing wisely what you choose to watch.
As you watch, the crazy family play out their own stories, with the candidate Hawke eventually plotting to kill one of the family members. Your job is to capture incriminating video on Hawke to do one of two things: send a tape to the threatened family member to get them to flee and turn over incriminating evidence, or call the police to show them solid proof that Hawke has killed someone.
As I said before, the family is nuts. This game is not for kids, as odd sex traingles run deep. There is no actual sex or nudity shown, but there is some skimpy clothing, S & M, and even a brewing lesbian relationship. With Night Trap and Mortal Kombat getting so much attention by Congress in the US during this time, I can't for the life of me understand how this one slipped under the radar.
The acting is surprisingly good. It's not Academy Award winning, but as FMV games go they did a good job. There isn't really any gameplay to speak of, as the only real interaction you have is choosing which rooms to spy on. Luckily the game does randomize the clips so you don't get the exact same sequence each time, so there is some small replay value. Overall for this type of game I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed my playthrough, and will probably play through it again. You can't save, but the entire weekend of the game takes place over an hour or so which is just about the right length. In the end, if you are looking for something interesting to play on the CD-I I would recommend Voyeur. Even though I do feel a bit like a perv when I play.
My rating: 80%.
WARNING: The following blog post may contain a treasure hunting find that may blow your mind, if you have a weak heart or are the jealous type, do not continue reading.
So I didn't post last week, I was busy Saturday afternoon through Sunday night, and then Monday came around and I didn't feel like writing one up, and before I knew it it was Thursday, so I didn't bother. But don't worry, those finds will be here this week.
But that's not the exciting part, for the most part garage sales were pretty lackluster. The real treasure wasn't found until Sunday (yesterday if you're reading this today on Monday).
If you've been in the chat yesterday much at all, then you know what the super awesome mega haul of a lifetime was, but if you weren't then you'll have to wait until the end of this post. And don't just scroll past everything else, cause I'll know if you do.
Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles 2010 - #6
July's game for the Together Retro game club at http://www.racketboy.com was the Sega classic Outrun which I revisited with glee. Outrun is one of the games I remember always wasting a few quarters on back in the early 90's arcade at my local mall. It's a game of great simplicity -- drive a cool car as fast as you can, or lose. But even looking at the (dated?) game now, it's easy to see the appeal that it would have had on a pre-teen version of myself. Remember, the arcade version put you literally behind the wheel of a Ferrari and let you gun it toward the beach with a blonde in the passenger's seat. Any avid follower of Saved By The Bell and its ilk would have been drawn in.
 
The GBA port of Outrun is excellent in my humble opinion. It has a very 16-bit feel to it that holds up quite well to how my brain remembers the arcade original. The music, which you cannot forget to mention while discussing Outrun is just as great as ever. In fact, I'm now on the hunt for the soundtrack recording by the SST Band, as Outrun is often mentioned in discussions of best-soundtracks-of-all time. And rightly so. The GBA controls are responsive and satisfactory as far as I'm concerned.
 
Speaking of which, when I first started playing the game this past month I decided I would do so using a GameCube racing wheel in an attempt to recapture the feel of the arcade. The wheel I chose was this one, made by Intec. It's a nice smaller sized wheel that doesn't take up a ton of space if you don't have a huge game room. It features lots of buttons on both the left and right side, making it ideal for both lefties and righties -- or for switching between control schemes on the fly while making some crazy turns. Also, its built in suction cups cause it to firmly plant itself on my Ikea desk and integrate itself quite seamlessly with my Game Boy Player set up.
 
Unfortunately as fun as bringing the arcade home was, it turns out that I just could not beat the damn game with the wheel. So eventually I resorted back to my trusty Hori pad. The thing about Outrun is that it's not a terribly long game by any means. I beat it at least three or four times throughout the month in fact (see high-score picture below right for proof!). But what's nice is the choose-your-own-route dynamic of the courses. When you get to the old Robert Frost-style forks, you decide which way to go. I didn't end up beating every combination of courses myself, as I really couldn't keep track of which ones I had done.
 
I'm not sure if a score of 25359300 is actually any good, but it was my (recorded) high score of the month. I can't say I really even mastered the game as the truth is I never even figured out when it would be advantageous to hit the brake. Really my only strategy was to put it in high gear as often as I could take it, and to just ease off the gas whenever I had to take a sharp turn or make a daring pass. Somehow this worked out for me. At any rate, I can definitely say I had a lot of fun with this game, and it's certainly one of my favorite arcade racers of all time.
For the first time of the Summer this year, my wife and I hit the beach this past weekend. We brought drinks and a nice lunch. The water still seemed a bit too chilly for swimming, but it certainly felt nice just laying under the sun. My wife is an avid reader, so she brought a book to pass the time. Surprise! Surprise! -- I brought my Game Boy Advance.
Now the art of selecting a beach game is tricky. As far as I'm concerned I usually need something that isn't too graphically intensive. Remember, you're sitting under a bright sun, so there's considerable glare no matter how you position yourself. Anything that has lots of detail is going to be a burden. Also, I a pause-button or turn-based game is a must. You have to be able to stop at any moment when you're at the beach because of the aforementioned glare, or well... just because this is relaxing time. Not intense time.
My beach game of last Summer was Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. It worked well because each round generally doesn't last that long, you can pause at any time, and although it is a puzzler, it relies more on strategy than on agility. Also, there isn't an overwhelming amount of detail -- really just primary colors.
This year I decided on an RPG. It seemed like since I'd just be laying on the sand, I wouldn't mind taking the extra time to read the text and get into a story. Similarly, the battles would be turn-based, so I wouldn't have to rush anything. So now I'm three hours into DemiKids: Light Version and absolutely loving it.
 
DemKids is a spin-off of the popular Shin Megami Tensei series of games which also includes the cult-classic Persona series. The DemiKids games are certainly influenced by other games, but the result is nothing short of awesome. The game follows a group of elementary school children on a quest that overlaps both the year 20xx and another dimension ruled by demons. The current-day kid vibe seems to be reminiscent of the Mother series. And although I'm not a big Pokemon fan personally, the gimmick of recruiting a party of demons to do your battling for you is intriguing and not overly annoying in a gotta-catch-em-all sort of way either.
I know it's still early in the game, but so far I'm having a great time. A lot of times I won't bother starting an RPG because I feel like I don't have the time to commit to perpetuating the storyline, so I'll eventually lose interest. Of course having it as a beach game just might help.
What are your beach games? What criteria would you use to describe a beach game? Or do you just think I'm nuts for bringing a Game Boy so close to sand and ocean?
No Soup For You!!! | 
As I grow more experienced in life (a.k.a. get old), I find myself becoming less patient and accommodating for daily idiocies that I once blew off without a moment's thought. I'm a pretty easy going guy, but there are quite a few things that are truly beginning to torque me off. o Clueless dolts talking on their cell phone in the check-out line at CVS
o The Fire Sauce Gestapo at the Taco Bell drive through window
o Two foot long receipt for my $0.99 Tic-Tacs purchase
o Idiots taking up three spots because they don't know how to parallel park
o My lady friend for making me sit through the Housewives of New York City When it comes to video gaming, there is one specific pet peeve of mine that is really starting to get my BP fluctuating as of late - the "No Soup For You!!" attitude of game developers. Let me explain.
| |
Like most gamers, I follow certain series and can't wait for the next release. I'd like to think of myself as an investor in these franchises - without forking down my hard-earned coin for their games there would never be any sequel. So what do I get in return for my loyalty, financial backing and continued support? You guessed it - usually NOTTA. There are some exceptions to the rule, but for the most part very few titles in the post 16-bit era allow you to import data from your previous adventure/season/etc. I am not necessarily looking to start off a new gaming venture with my super-human character from a last installment - that would basically ruin the new game experience/fun. But I admit I do want a little "sumthin-sumthin". Give me some bad-ass sword, first pick in the draft, a special mission, whatever. Recognize that I am a loyal follower of your series (as well as a suido-shareholder). I am happy to see new game releases like Mass Effect 2 that will actually take notice and compensate me for beefing up my Shephard in ME1. In my humble opinion, the employment of this "thanks for your loyalty" programming strategy should be the rule rather than the exception. There is no excuse why developers can't show us some love for our continued patronage of their respective gaming series. With today's technology and expanded media formats, they can surely squeeze in a few 0's and 1's to at least recognize our past efforts. It's bad enough that my wallet is getting brutalized like a contestant on Hell's Kitchen for DLC and the like. Throw me a bone (extra lives, cool outfit, a retro car, etc.) - I have earned it!!! Give me my soup!!
| 
The Quest For Glory series allowed me to import and grow Gabriel, my Paladin who dished out more pain than a 24 hour dentist.
Suikoden II did it the best (regarding importing data), rewarding players by being able to welcome back old friends.
| | Is my point of view coming from left field? What are your thoughts? | |
Another great week this week.
While flea market shopping last Sunday with a friend was telling him about how Ive been looking for a working game gear, and how all the ones Ive been finding are broken in some way.
He said he had one sitting in his basement that I can have. He gave it to me this week, and it was a bit more than I expected.
Came with the game gear
Game gear travel case
Game Gear TV Tuner
Game Gear Magnifying Glass (forget the official name)
Original Paperwork,
6 Games, and 5 Instruction books.
Games: Quiz Wiz Movie Trivia
Sonic The Hedgehog
Sonic Chaos
Streets of Rage
Ren & Stimpy Quest for the Shaven Yak
and Choplifter III
Then Friday went to Gamestop for their buy 2 get 1 free on used games.
Picked up all GBA:
Pinball of the Dead
Tactics Ogre (for some reason after reading the GBA Bootleg thread, I think this may be a bootleg, label is a little blurry and game froze 3 times on me already)
Shaman King
Final Fantasy V
Lunar Legend
Rebelstar Tactical Command
Shining Soul
Eye of the Beholder
King of Fighters EX-NEO Blood
CIMA: The Enemy
River City Ransom
Sword of Mana
Phantasy Star Collection
All of this ran me about $38 and some change.
After this came Sunday and it was time for the flea markets.
Had to go to a motocross tournament to see my GFs brother compete at 8am so I only had about 1/2 hour at this huge flea market, sadly I only got to see about 1/2 of the flea market, and was either lucky that I picked up all that I did, or maybe there was a lot more people selling games and I missed some other big finds.
Either way I picked up the following:
PS2 all CIB:
Baulders Gate Dark Alliance
Devil May Cry 2
Red Faction II
Medal of Honor Rising Sun
GT3: A-spec
PS1 all CIB:
Need for Speed III
Cool Boarders 2
Rampage World Tour
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2
and Driver
Also Picked up the GTA San Andreas Strategy Guide
Everything was $1 each, got 10 games and they gave me the Strategy Guide for free.
Next I picked up Super Pitfall for the NES. I saw all of these Nintendo games and started looking through them unaware that he was a pro video game seller only selling video games. When I asked how much he said $10, I said no thank you, then went to $5. I still said no thank you and then he asked how much I wanted to pay for it. I told him I just come to these to find really cheap games and he didnt want to know what I wanted to pay for it. So he said how about you give me a dollar for it.
I said ok, maybe should have seen if he would have given me the other nes games he had that I needed for $1 too but he was making me feel a bit strange so I just walked.
Last place I got to stop before we had to leave I saw some great games,
Picked up
BattleClash & Super Smash TV for the SNES, basically new in box but not wrapped.
Never seen boxes in the great of condition.
Also Picked up Fear Effect, also in pristine condition.
We were in such a rush thank god he showed me the find of the month for me.
I was about to pay for these 3 games and he said check this out, would this be something you would be interesed in.
It was a brand new Intellivision. Box in pristine condition. He said he just opened it to display to sell. Everything still shrink wrapped, all of the paperwork, and 2 games also new looking but opened. Major League Baseball, and Poker & Blackjack.
Picked up the 2snes games, 1 ps game, 2 intellivision games and system all for $25.
Now the BIG question... leave the system sealed and keep looking for a used system to play, or bust this bad boy open and have some fun. Still havent decided.
Continue reading Unloved #13: Rise of the Dragon
So... the CD-I (Compact Disc Interactive). It's a system that I remember briefly from its first life. It seemed a strange time in the industry. Multimedia was the buzzword, and developers seemed at a loss as to what to do with all the massive storage space offered on CD. FMV, CD quality audio, and Encyclopedia's must have been the best ideas they had, because we sure got a lot of it. On the hardware end of the spectrum, the idea of a platform that multiple hardware vendors could build and sell was also en vogue with the 3DO and CD-I.
The model that I recently picked up is the Magnavox CDI-200. The unit itself is huge, approximately the size of an original VCR or early DVD player, with styling to match. Controls on the front are sparse, with a tray open/close button, power button, play and stop buttons, and one controller port. The back includes RF input and output, composite out, stereo out, remote control port, digital video card slot, and the second controller port. Why on earth is the second controller port on the back? I'd almost like an answer, but considering this seems designed to fit into a stereo cabinet instead of plopped in front of the TV I am not surprised.
 
The CD-I branded controller that was with my unit is surprising well made. The round D-pad feels fluid and responsive. Buttons on the unit include buttons I, II, and interestingly a I & II button. Also unique to the CD-I controller is a three position switch that changes the speed of the on screen mouse cursor which you move with the D-pad. Even at the fastest setting it is easy to control, and I can't imagine anyone choosing to use the slower speeds.
The on-screen menu is minimalist. As mentioned before you use an mouse pointer to make selections. Choices are Info (help text), Settings (internal clock, CD player options), Dim (dims the screen), Memory (for internal memory save management), and an Open/Close button for the disc tray. Inserting an audio CD brings up player controls immediately on screen in addition to the previous selections, and inserting a CD-I title brings up a button to play the CD-I disc.
So my thoughts on the system itself? It's a multimedia device, not a game console. I don't think the designers wanted anyone to get the idea that this was only for playing games, and it should hide itself well in a stereo component rack where it will spend a large amount of its time playing CDs. It requires an add-in card to display full screen video on titles that support it, and with it produces good MPEG-1 quality level display. As far as I can tell, the battery for the built in memory is inaccessible without opening the unit's cover, which is held in place by Torx screws making it difficult to service. I don't have a driver yet to open mine up, but if there is anything to note when I do I will post it. Using the system is simplicity itself. I really feel like I am using a 486 era PC attached to my TV with this machine, and I suppose that is what they were going for at the time. I'm not going to consider the software library in my rating of this console. I'll save that for my review of some titles a bit later.
In the end, this is a curiosity piece for collectors. I wouldn't recommend picking one up for real gaming.
My rating of the Magnavox CD-I 200: 60%
One of the biggest requests I get from Game Boy Player Land blog readers is the old "show me your collection." And I promise to get around to that at some point with pictures. But read any video game collection forum and you're bound to find various ongoing conversations about the best way to store Game Boy games. Should they be cart-only (like most of the ones you'll find in the wild) then it gets even tougher since none of the Game Boy line of carts had top-stickers. I personally keep my games in NDS cases with printed artwork, unless I'm lucky enough to have the original boxes. However one clever reader, Tony wrote in and shared these pretty awesome picture as a rather cool way to store -- and more importantly, proudly display his Game Boy collection. Here's a quote:
Here are some pictures of how I store my Gameboy collection. It is a golf ball case that I bought from a craft store chain called Micheal's. If you do not have a Michael's store you can probably find it at another place like Hobby Lobby or Ben Franklin. It cost about $20 but Michael's often has coupons in the mail for 40-50% off one item so I purchased a couple of these. As you can see they will store quite a few original Gameboy carts and a lot more GBA carts if you turn them slightly. There is a glass door with a metal hinge to keep it closed. I included a shot of the hinge. Also they have rear mounts so you can mount them on your wall for display as seen here in the pictures. Overall I have been very happy with this way of displaying my games.
Tony
And now, more importantly -- here are the pictures:
Pretty awesome in my book. What do you guys think?
Since I've been keeping the Game Boy Player Land blog, I've gotten a fair share of messages sent to me with various Game Boy related questions and comments. I love this sort of thing. People might send me a heads up on a rare cart popping up on eBay at a good price, or let me know about a title I've never heard of that I might like. Other times I get questions about various accessories, or technical specs, or similar subjects related to the Game Boy line. However the other day I got a really interesting message that got me thinking that I should share some information here for everybody who may have similar questions.
Here's a quote:
...something I need your help with.
I was very excited to find this at Gamestop and not so excited when I got home. Final Fantasy VI Advance. It has a completely different label on it. I thought it looked weird, but I didn't know what it was supposed to look like. If you study the case hard enough you can notice very small differences. It looks like a professional reprint or whatever you want to call it. The chip inside looks different than I've seen before, but I'm no expert on GBA games. I've only opened a few. It does have Nintendo printed on the chip. Anyway I've included photos. Mainly curious to see if the chip is legit. I'll probably return it either way. Let me know what your input is on it. Thanks a ton!
I no longer have my GBA, so I'll have to wait until I get my Gamecube hooked up before I can test it.
Thanks for the help! Take care!
Best Regards,
Dale
Dale was also thoughtful enough to take some very good pictures of his Final Fantasy Advance VI cart for my inspection, which he was nice enough to give me permission to use in this post:
 
Now right away the label on the cartridge gave me cause for alarm. Every single copy of every installment of the Final Fantasy Advance series that I've ever happened upon has been the same plain-Jane black-text-on-white label. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that this is a bootleg cartridge. Of course there exists limited edition releases, promotional copies, imports, etc. I'm certainly not going to pretend that I've seen every GBA cart in existence.
But that brought me to my first real red flag. I've gotten many messages in the past where people have shown me a picture of a GBA cart label that has Japanese text on it and asked if I could figure out what game it might be. And that's always a breeze. You see every cart has an AGB number on it. The AGB number is like a game's specific catalog number which can very easily be Googled. It's as easy as that.
Example, when I type AGB-AKWE-USA-1 into Google, the first thing that pops up is Konami Krazy Racers. Similarly, when I typed in AGB-ALLE-USA and expected to get Lunar Legend for my example, instead I learned that my copy of Lunar Legend is a bootleg that had fooled me until now.
Which brings me to my next item to look for. Once I realized that the AGB number on my Lunar Legend cart brought up nothing, I flipped the cart over and looked at the chip board under a bright light. Sure enough, the little green board did not say Nintendo. Generally this is a quick and easy test. However, this isn't always the case. Check out that picture above that Dale took of his Final Fantasy VI chip board. You can see that it actually does say Nintendo. And right next to it is an AGB number, which by the way was how I figured out for sure that his cart was a bootleg. Googling AGB-E06-02 brought up a Yahoo! Answers thread about a copy of Pokemon Emerald bought off eBay that -- sure enough -- turned out to be a bootleg.
And what was the telltale sign for our Yahoo! Answers Pokemon Emerald victim? The damn game won't save! That's a very common problem with GBA bootlegs. And in my opinion, it's the biggest problem with them. There's many collectors out there who feel ripped off because they're not getting the official Nintendo-approved product. To be honest, that's not my issue. Sure I enjoy finding a complete-in-box game, but it's not necessary. I have many cart-only games as I'm generally pretty cheap and I'll take what I can get. But if a game won't save, that makes me furious. Especially if it won't save because it's a fake. I should point out that my (apparently bootleg) copy of Lunar Legend saves just fine. Perhaps some bootlegs are of higher quality than others? But who knows how long it'll keep its saves for.
If you're a collector and feel concerned that a game you're after on eBay or at the local flea market might be a bootleg here's a few tips and pointers to help you get better at spotting phony carts in the wild.
First, a few pictures taken from Nintendo's own website on Anti-Piracy, found at http://ap.nintendo.com/de...hotos/gameboy_advance.jsp:
Real:
Fake:
Real:
Fake:
Notice the poor quality of the labels, especially in the case of Super Mario World. This is similar to the weird "fiery" version of Dale's Final Fantasy Advance VI above. But of course, this -- like all of the signs -- are not always present. Such as the case with my Lunar Legend. The label on that cart was very convincing.
Another helpful guide is found on eBay itself, since so many bootlegs carts seem to get distributed there, either knowingly or unknowingly. The full text can be found at http://reviews.ebay.com/B...0QQugidZ10000000000991496 and much like the Nintendo guide, it offers up similar pictures to compare.
 
 
Perhaps you noticed that both the Nintendo guide and the eBay guide both used Golden Sun as an example? That brings us to another valid point. Generally, the more popular the game, the more likely it is that it would get bootlegged. That is to say that there are far more Zelda bootlegs floating around out there than there are Urban Yeti fakes. So keep that in mind when you're out hunting for the classics.
Using the info that I've posted here, as well as the linked articles you should get a lot better at spotting fakes. But you'll also figure out that it's not always quick and easy to notice them. Many boot-jobs are rather well done, and can fool you until you really take the time to inspect it. Case-in-point, my Lunar Legend bootleg that revealed itself to me while writing this very post.
Oh, and if you're wondering how our friend Dale made out with his Final Fantasy VI bootleg that he unwittingly purchased, he sent me this update message just as I was finishing up this post:
Well I took the FFVI game back. I took it to a GS I've never been to before. I went there cause I had to pick up MGS: Twin Snakes. Anyway the people there were really cool about it. They were like "that is definitely a bootleg". They said it was a shame since it was such a good game. I was happy they didn't hassle me about it though.
Also... I think this copy is a little better than the other one.
Another nice week of collecting.
First yard sale of the day got me 6 PS2 games for $10.
Bad Boys, Hitman Contracts, Nightmare Before Christmas, True Crime LA in the NYC Box, God of War, and Ratchet & Clank.
After this went to the flea markets.
There were so many people there selling video games this time, most of these games came from different stands.
Managed to snag:
Mario Nintendo DS Case: $1
Civilization Revolution Xbox 360: $5
Mega Man 4, Bubble Bobble, Ikari III for the NES at $3 Each
Donkey Kong & Pac Man: 2 for $5
Fighting Force 2 PS1: $1
Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition, Bloody Roar 4 for PS2: $2 each
Destroy all Humans 2 Xbox: $2
also picked up some Game boy, and GBA games 5 for $10.
Was very excited about this because I never seem to find portable game cartridges outside of game shops and pawn shops.
Got: Fist of the North Star Game Boy, Metal Walker GBColor, Street Racing Syndicate GBA, MedaBots GBA, and Fire Pro Wrestling GBA.
Also Picked up a Genesis Game Genie: $2
After this I went to Gamestop where I purchased The Guy Game Disk Only, Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX CIB, and Dai Senkyaku VII CIB for a bit over $15.
Also got GTA Episodes, and a 120GB HD for the 360 for free for helping a friend out over the weekend.
Thought this deserved its own picture... at the second flea market of the day I usually dont find much because its already getting late and everything is pretty much picked over, but I found this Oddyssey 300 in almost new condition with the original box and some paperwork, which came with the old tv and the rf switch. I have been having bad luck with purchasing systems lately, (bought a broken Game Gear, and a still not working Atari 2600 over the past few weeks) so I almost passed this off... but I have never seen one of these even at the video game shops, let alone in the box sitting at a flea market... Was marked $30, picked it up for $20. Everything works perfectly, was playing pong with the GF all night.
This weekend didn't result in the finding of anything super rare or awesome, but what I did buy was at really low prices. So don't be surprised if your mind isn't blown away this time, but I think it will be worth your time to take a quick look this week.
Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles 2010 - #5
|
|
|
|
Blog Navigation
Browse Bloggers | My Blog
|
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.
|
|
Hot Community Entries
|
|
Hot RFG Blog Entries
| |
|
