John Dondzila is the founder of Classic Game Creations (CGC), a company that creates homebrew titles for the Vectrex. John currently resides in New Jersey. You can check out his website and purchase his games at: http://www.classicgamecreations.com. John, thanks for your time and for agreeing to do an interview with me.
Continue reading Vectrex Interview Series #3 - John Dondzila
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone in RFGeneration Land! I hope you're all enjoying your time with family and friends, or maybe just a day off work or school. And I know you're going to be tracking all those new games you get right here at RFGen. After you add them to your collection here, you can brag about your holiday scores on our forum. And then you can use your new found games to fill in some missing info in our database. Heck, you can probably spend all day right here, and you know what, in all that time you'll find many things, but there's one thing you will not find, advertisements. It's true, you can turn off your Ad Block Plus and nothing will change, no annoying pop-ups or banner ads. I wish I could say we can do this because it doesn't cost anything to have a website, but unfortunately, it does get rather expensive paying for a host that gives us as much storage space and speed as we need to run a database as large as ours.
In order to stay afloat, we rely solely on the donations of our members. Its those member donations that have kept us online for the past 8 years and hopefully for many more years to come. And even though we have just as many (if not more) video games in our database as Wikipedia, we don't quite need the $16-20 million they raise during their donation drives. But we do need roughly $1000 for a year's worth of hosting, so whether its $1 or $100, every bit helps us out. And every cent donated to us (minus PayPal's fee of course) goes to paying for our server. Our staff doesn't get a dime, despite their hundreds of hours of work, and the money will not pay for any contest prizes, that comes out of own pockets.
Now that you're surely wanting to give us some of your money, I'll sweeten the deal even more for you. Every donor will receive the super awesome Donor rank on the forum, which will give you access to a top secret forum board where you often get to read about upcoming news and features before everyone else. And thanks to the RFGeneration Collectorcast there are some extra special prizes. Everyone donating at least $5 will get their name mentioned on the Podcast, those donating $20 or more will have all of their scores mentioned in the next episode, and those donating $30 or more will get the download to the Episode 0 of the podcast. But wait, there's even more! The person who donates the most during our donation drive will receive an amazing prize pack including two items of their choice from the RFGeneration store, plus some other goodies that will be donated by staff members.
The donation drive will end on February 1st, so you have roughly one month to participate in the contest. If you just want to give and don't care about the contest, feel free to donate $5, $20, or whatever you feel your experience at RFGeneration is worth.
If you're a little burnt out on cash due to the holidays, don't worry, you'll still be able to donate all year long, and it'll be as much appreciated then as it is now. You just may have to wait a little longer to get that sweet Donor rank on the forum, as I'll only be checking for new donations once a month rather than daily.
As many of you already know, we recently passed a milestone here at RFGeneration, 45000 screenshots. We also have almost 90,000 scans of games and hardware. That's more than 130,000 images in our database, something we all should be proud of. Not only because its just a ton of images, but because every single one was taken by one our members. We're not like so many of the other sites out there that steal images from one another and use stock images.
Despite our high standards and those of most our submitters, some people don't quite understand the importance of only submitting original images. It may seem harmless to fill in an empty game page with images from another source, especially from somewhere like Wikipedia that generally doesn't mind others using its images. But stealing or "borrowing" images from other sites isn't just morally wrong, it can put the whole site in jeopardy. If the owner of a stolen image were to feel inclined to do so, they could easily sue us, and since we're only funded by donations, even a small lawsuit could easily wipe us out.
Now, to prevent something like this, our staff members are trained to spot stolen images and keep them from ever getting into the database, but every once in a while, a few do slip through the cracks. So, I'd like to take this time to ask all of our members that if they have ever submitted an image that was not their own, to please come forward. We will remove the images and you will not be punished whatsoever. We will, however, not be so friendly in the future if you're found to have submitted stolen images. As was the case recently with a fairly well known and active member, after repeatedly finding them to be submitting stolen images, they were banned. So if you have submitted images that weren't your own, whether by accident or on purpose, just let us know and there will be no consequences. And if you haven't submitted stolen images, keep up the good work!
Quick! Look over on the right side of your screen, we have exactly 45,000 screenshots in the Database! For those of you reading this in the future when we have more than 45000 screenshots, sorry, but you missed one of the great milestones of your life, better luck next time.
Seriously though, 45,000 screenshots is a lot of screenshots, and they were all submitted by members just like you. So thanks to all of you who have submitted one or more of those 45000 screenshots, without you, we wouldn't be here.
And a special thanks to member Aeroc, for not only submitting lucky number 45,000 but for also submitting what seems like another 20,000 or so screenshots over the years. Really though, this guy has over 11,000 images credited to him in our DB.
So now that we have 45000 screenshots, its only 5000 until we get to the really incredible 50,000 mark, why not help us reach that a little sooner and start submitting some screenshots? We're not super picky, you can use an emulator (just don't ask us where to find one or the ROMs, we can't tell you that), or use a video capture device on the real hardware, you can even set up a camera and take a photo of your TV screen, as long as its a good quality, we'll be glad to add it to the DB.
I ran out of baked goods, so here's Bob Barker instead.
And don't forget about the quest to finish all these milestones by the end of the year. We're half way there, and we have 11 days to finish the other three.
70,000 games45,000 screenshots- 90,000 scans - 1410 to go
- 3000 Collectors on our site (the number of people who have something listed in their collection) - 108 to go
- 5000 hardware entries - 44 to go
5000 members (number of people actively registered on the site/forum)
Not too long ago I blogged about enjoying Fighting Vipers. As such I jumped at the opportunity, when I had the chance to acquire its spin-off sequel. Fighters Megamix is a mash-up of both Fighting Vipers and Virtua Fighter 2. At least that's what I thought it was. But apparently it's a whole lot more.
Let's start from the beginning. Fighting Vipers and Virtua Fighter 2 are both pretty similar games. At least as far as a game engine and appearance goes. So of course this makes for a pretty easy combo deal. You take your eleven Fighting Vipers characters and eleven Virtua Fighter 2 characters, put em together and call it a day. Sure there's some differences as far as physics go between the two games -- but you can even pick which physics engine you want to go with. And each game uses a similar three-button layout, so it's not like you have to learn one fighting style if you're only familiar with the other.
 
So when I first started playing Megamix, I really felt a bit underwhelmed. It just felt to me like Fighting Vipers with double the roster. Not that that's a bad thing of course. But it didn't feel like this amazing new game either. But I was in for a bit of a surprise still.
The single-player mode of Megamix is broken down into various courses. The courses are vaguely themed -- such as playing only Vipers or only females. In each course you'll be fighting through six fighters and then unlocking a hidden boss. This is where things start to get awesome. You see once a hidden boss is unlocked and beaten, they are then also added to the roster. When all is said and done you've got over thirty characters to choose from which is a huge jump from the original Fighting Vipers.
 
It's not just the fact that there are so many unlockable characters that's impressive here though. It's the sheer over-the-top fan service of them that's mind-blowing. You'll get an alternate version of Fighting Vipers' Candy, the Virtua Fighter Kids' version of Akira, along with cameos from Virtua Cop 2, Sonic The Fighters and even Daytona USA. Yes. You read that correctly. You see by the time you make it through the ninth course you'll fight the final boss of the game -- the Hornet car from Daytona USA. This is exactly the kind of insanely ridiculousness that earned Sega so many die hard fans.
My only real complaint about Fighters Megamix is a small one. There is a bit of slowdown that wasn't present in Fighting Vipers. However this only seems to occur on a few particular stages, so it's not a game-breaking deal. But when you take into consideration all the excellent unlockables plus the fact that each of the nine courses save your completion time, there is a huge amount of replayability here. Definitely a highly recommended 3D fighter for the Saturn.
I told you it was coming, and yesterday at 1:42:44 PM EST, it happened.
RFGeneration welcomed its 5000th member, -Goemon43-. Congrats to -Goemon43- for being lucky number 5000, and thank you to the other 4999 people who have registered here at RFGeneration and are currently using the site or have used it in the past.
Now, I challenge all 5000 of you to tell just one friend about RFGeneration. If each of you got just one friend to start using the site, we would be at 10,000 members in no time! Just think of all the new information we could harvest collect from that many more people, not to mention all the new trading opportunities we'd all have.
And don't forget, we've got some other milestones coming up, lets see how many we can cross off before the end of the year!
70,000 games- 45,000 screenshots - 151 to go
- 90,000 scans - 1630 to go
- 3000 Collectors on our site (the number of people who have something listed in their collection) - 141 to go
- 5000 hardware entries - 54 to go
5000 members (number of people actively registered on the site/forum)
Headline says it all.
We are doing a major overhaul of the genres and subgenres. I had alluded to a top secret project a few days ago(a week? more?) in the Unrelated Thoughts thread.
Staff members and VIP have already gotten to say what they think about it. It is now open to the general populace to tell us what they think. Please keep in mind just because you think something should be a subgenre or genre does NOT mean it will happen. But if you do not make any suggestions obviously nothing will change 
JRPG/WRPG for example WILL NOT be subgenres.(You're welcome Sirgin and SirPsycho.)
Discussion is here.
Hello again, everyone!
I alluded to some major changes in the RFG Thanks for November 2012, and for the past couple months, there have been a huge chunk of changes from our DB Staff. Many of these changes have been Game Additions from our own Paully, but a large chunk of changes have been a direct result of our new European regional guidelines with the help of Paully, Sirgin, Bildtstar and myself.
Continue reading Regional Database Changes - European Collectors, Please Read!
Welcome to December, everyone. For those that celebrate it (including our Canadian members), I hope your Thanksgiving left you full and happy. Congrats to those that were able to take advantage of Black Friday here in the US, and for the rest of the world, enjoy the upcoming holidays.
It looks like our members were able to feast on things other than turkey this month. We were able to increase over last month's submissions by 1317 submissions, leaving us just under 5000 at 4977. A large number of these were in the Game Addition and Variation categories. Large shoutout to Paully, Sirgin and Bildtstar for their efforts on those fronts!
Way out in front his month is Paully3433 with 1600 submissions! He's been adding large chunks of Game Boy, Game Boy Color, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation games to the database, so let's give him a hand for his hard work.
Further down the list, with 1/3 of Paully's number, is Bildtstar with 547, Shadow Kisuragi with 513, Sirgin with 452, and Izret101 with 317. Looks like the staff has been busy!
Top 5 Submitters - November 2012
Paully3433 - 1600
Bildtstar - 547
Shadow Kisuragi - 513
Sirgin - 452
Izret101 - 317
Top 5 Submitters (Non-staff) - November 2012
techwizard - 303
Sauza12 - 207
singlebanana - 138
ixtaileddemonfox - 88
CoinCollector - 70 (Thanks for the Steam submissions, and the humorous comments!)
Keep up the good work everyone! Many of the staff edits that we're working on are for a very specific reason - I'll reveal this in another announcement later, but the changes mainly affect folks living in Europe and modifications to our region policies for Europe.
I'll be reading the threads this month, eager to see what everyone receives for gifts, especially those involves in the Secret Santa this year. Last year's Secret Santa was amazing, and I hope to see it topped this year! Enjoy your holidays everyone.
Episode 9 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...rum/index.php?topic=10790
Donate to RF Generation: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?action=paypal
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Whether you're just starting out your collecting career or you've been at it for a little while, it can be daunting to tackle an unfamiliar system. Model Revisions, 1st and 3rd party accessories, different territories, software and many other new areas are opened up for you to explore. We'll take one of the most beloved systems of all time, the NES, and break it down so that hopefully people still learning the basics about it can leave the Collectorcast with new found, and vastly useful, knowledge in their collecting quests for this classic system. As an area of focus for all 3 of our collections we hope to pool our combined knowledge and experience with the NES and show that there is a lot more to the Nintendo than one might think. But with a few tricks, a bit of research and some trial and error anyone can dive in and enjoy collecting for the NES in many different capacities if they have the desire.
As usual we'll also spend waaay too much time discussing the plethora of amazing scores that have been posted (and blogged) at RF Generation. It's becoming cliche to keep saying that this month's scores exceeded the last, but fortunately it keeps being true! So check it out and see if you made the cut this time around. And make sure to stay tuned until the end for a special announcement regarding how you can help rfgeneration.com......
Show notes:
Music: Life Force (NES)
Main Topic 1:56:45
Donation Drive 4:05:05
What just happened? That's pretty much how most rounds of Mars Matrix left me feeling.
The Racketboy forums have a Shmup Of The Month Club which I've participated in over the last year. It's generally a great way to expose yourself to new shmups which you may have been putting off for one reason or another. Perhaps more importantly, it's justification -- that is it gives you an excuse to buy some expensive shmup that you might have avoided otherwise. While I've been into collecting Sega stuff for a good part of the year now, certainly my Dreamcast collection has been my highest priority focus. So I was pleased as punch to have a specific reason why I should pick up a Dreamcast exclusive (outside the arcade) shmup.
 
Mars Matrix is an odd one. Published my Capcom -- who showed the shmup community tons of support on the Dreamcast -- it is presented in a horizontal screen mode, much like the Giga Wing games. This means that it looks pretty fantastic on a widescreen monitor. I actually have a monitor that can rotate, but it's nice to have shmups that are meant to be played on a default monitor.
However the resolution isn't the oddest thing about Mars Matrix -- it's the default controls. You see the game is meant to be played with a single button. Or rather two. But only one button actually shoots and the second will switch shots. It's very confusing to me and I can honestly say that I'd have no chance playing this game if I encountered it in the arcade. Luckily the Dreamcast port offers full customization of controls, so I could set each attack to a separate button.
 
But none of this really matters because I had immense trouble wrapping my head around the game mechanics. So much of Mars Matrix revolves around using a shield to absorb and deflect bullets. The problem is the shield needs to recharge and I just was never able to understand how to properly manage this. Ultimately my high score was about 700 Million which is pitiful compared to some of the scores posted in that thread which were in the Tens of Billions! While I can say that Mars Matrix is an impressive and interesting game, it's just not one that I'm any good at. So I can find it fun in small bursts -- and probably more fun to try to play for survival. But playing for score is pretty out of the question for me unfortunately.
First let me say that Die Hard is a Christmas movie so the picture makes sense. Also, finding the NES game complete would require a Christmas miracle so it's doubly appropriate.
Several users have still not returned their completed forms to Santa. If Santa doesn't get the completed form in time, you simply can't be matched up. THE CUTOFF DATE IS NOV 30th. If your letter is not received by Santa by Nov 30th, Santa cannot guarantee that you will be able to participate.
IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO SIGN UP AS LONG AS YOU RETURN THE COMPLETED FORM BY NOV 30th!!!! Send an email to rfgensanta@gmail.com requesting the sign up form and check out complete details on the Secret Santa thread http://www.rfgeneration.c...10624.msg153376#msg153376
Ah, basketball: The one sport I actually care about in real life. Even in my earliest video game-playing years I was a fan of basketball games. Be it Double Dribble or NBA Jam, I always seemed to have at least one go-to basketball game per system. When I started getting into really collecting games five or so years back, I realized I needed a way to limit which basketball games I'd pick up since sports games are so cheap and abundant for yesteryear's hardware. So the obvious thing was this: if there's a Celtics uniform on the cover, I'll buy it. And this led me adding NBA 2K9 to my Christmas list after the C's won the 2008 Championship, landing Kevin Garnett on the cover. Really at the time I could differentiate between any of the modern NBA series, but that all changed with NBA 2k9. My wife got me the game for PS2 and it pretty much blew my mind just how far basketball games had come. There was so much realism, so much control. It felt like I was a coach watching and directing my team rather than just playing a game.
 
By the time NBA 2K12 was released with Larry Bird as one of the three cover players, I had a PS3 to play it on. And though there were tweaks to the 2K9 formula (and of course now I was playing it in HD) really the game had been perfected already. But certainly it should be no surprise that a game series could refine itself so much over a dozen iterations.
I picked up NBA 2K for around two dollars while eagerly collecting Dreamcast games a few months back. This was the first game in the series -- and one born out of necessity. When the Dreamcast launched EA wanted nothing to do with Sega or their new console. Of course this hurt far more on the football front, as it meant Madden would not be the DC. But this was really a blessing in disguise as Sega launched their Sega Sports line of games and starting supplying gamers with the top-notch 2K franchises.
 
What I find so impressive is that NBA 2K -- the first game in the series -- is completely solid. This new NBA game, built from the ground up, is already near-perfect. And certainly at the time it would have blown its competition out of the water. Even now that I own newer, revised editions of the 2K series, I can have so much fun playing the original and really not feel that I'm stuck with an inferior version. That's saying a lot for a two dollar sports game that's over a decade old.
So much about 2K was brilliant right out of the gate. The visual presentation is that of watching a game on ESPN. The players move realistically, even when the ball isn't in play. The commentators make sense (even if they will get a bit repetitive). The sound is there. The AI is (mostly) believable. Your players have their legit strengths based on their real life counterparts. It's all just so amazing how much effort Sega Sports put into making this a basketball game that felt like basketball rather than just another basketball video game.
Ultimately any of my complaints are nit-picky. Shooting free throws in this game can be a total drag if you're not using a player who's great at them. In order to shoot a free throw you have to apply just the right amount of pressure to the left and right triggers which can be really difficult, especially if beer is involved. Also later iterations of the series let you choose between a horizontal or vertical view of the court. Unless this option is buried in a menu I haven't found yet, it seems that only a vertical view is offered in this initial game which is not my preferred perspective. Again, these are tiny flaws in my book. Far from game-breaking. In fact if this was the only basketball game I owned, I'd still be more than happy to march my team through a full season.
For those of you who don't keep a constant eye on our DB's statistics, we now have over 70,000 games in our little database. I guess it ain't so little any more. Now, if you're like me, you probably want to know what the 70,000th game added to the DB was. Well, I can't tell you. Not because I don't want you to know, but because I wasn't paying close enough attention to the DB stats and let us go 150 games passed 70,000. I'll blame it on you guys though, you're the ones who added 150+ games in the last day, before the stats on the front page could update. So you all better know that I've got my eye on you and your sneaky submitting ways, we're only 78 hardware items away from 5,000 and I'm going to watch it like a hawk, so don't even try and sneak 79 passed me.
Anywho, congratulations to RFGeneration on having 70,000 games. And thank you to every one who has helped to add those 70,000 games.
We're also really close on a few other milestones, let's see how many we can reach by the end of the year!
- 45,000 screenshots - 151 to go
- 90,000 scans - 2308 to go
- 3000 Collectors on our site (the number of people who have something listed in their collection) - 146 to go
- 5000 members (number of people actively registered on the site/forum) - 49 to go
If you are participating in the RF Generation Secret Santa 2012 Extravaganza, PLEASE make sure that you have filled out your form that was sent to you from rfgensanta@gmail.com.
About half of the participating members have been matched up but Santa is still waiting on about a dozen letters before everyone can be matched.
If you haven't signed up and would like to participate, you can send an email to rfgensanta@gmail.com and request the sign up form. YOU WILL NEED TO RETURN THE COMPLETED FORM WITHIN 24 HOURS. That way, there will be enough time to match you up so that you can get shopping!
Details on the RF Generation Secret Santa can be found on this thread-
http://www.rfgeneration.c...10624.msg153376#msg153376
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