Time for another update on the 2009-2010 donation drive. Here's the updated list of donors: Jacob, Nikita, Dominick, Timothy, Kelsy, Anthony, Ben, Aaron, Michael, Jon, Pamela, Terry, Anton, and Brad A special thanks goes out to Mrs. C who also sent in a generous donation.
We're sitting at $410 in the paypal account. Big thanks to all those who have donated, and for those who have not we would really appreciate the support. Again, 100% of donations go directly towards the server costs for the site. Click here to make a donation. As always, keep it on channel 3!
I'm going to change it up a bit this week and cover a game that can still be purchased at retail. Amazing, I know. So if you're looking for some more action on your Wii, and with budget price tag as a bonus, check this game out.
Well, it's been another spectacular month here at RFGen, submissions abounded and good times were had by all. There were a toal of 726 images submitted last month, 324 games were added, and 471 game pages were edited. There was a whopping 1,684 total submissions in November.
There were four members who each submitted over 100 submissions, those members were ApolloBoy, Fuyukaze, Pop Culture Portal, and Spoon. Rounding out the top ten top submitters were ga5ket, Paully3433, Funk_Buddy, Tynstar, dom meatball, and NES_Rules. A special thanks goes out to all of you for taking the time and energy to make all those submissions. And for the 46 of you that made submissions but weren't in the top ten, I thank you as well, every little bit certainly helps. And for those of you who didn't submit anything in the last month, what are you waiting for? Your fellow gamers and collectors need that information you have, so why not submit it and share the knowledge. Even just filling in something as simple as UPC codes is a help.
But as always, submissions do no one any good if there is no one reviewing and approving them. The top approvers last month (with well over 100 approvals each) were Fuyukaze and ApolloBoy.
And if anyone noticed, there was no RFG Thanks for October, this was not intentional, it just completely slipped my mind until I started doing this write up, I can still hardly believe November has come and gone already. And since a late thanks is better than no thanks, thanks to all that submitted stuff in October. The top submitters with over 100 submissions were ApolloBoy, ga5ket, Donkey Kong Kid, and Funk_Buddy. The rest of the top ten submitters was den68, tigerhandheld1989, Spoon, Madir, NES_Rules, and Darth Sidious. Thanks again guys.
The top approvers in October were ga5ket and ApolloBoy, again, both with well over 100 approvals.
If you weren't mentioned for October or November and want to be, there is one way to fix that, make some submissions! And even if you don't make the top ten list for the month, your name will be forever immortalized on the game page you helped make better.
So yeah, I haven't done a blog entry in quite some time, but I figured why not come back with a bang? Here's my yearly Black Friday deals post, a little early this time. As far as I know, everything on this post should be accurate. I used leaked scans from the ads found at blackfriday.info and some info from cheapassgamer.com. However, I did start working on this post about a week and half ago, so deals may have changed last minute. I'll review it on Thanksgiving day to check and see if what I have is correct. If you see any errors, please leave them in the comments.
Items in bold are ones that I think are pretty cool and worth checking out.
First things first: here's some notable deals I want to get out of the way from retailers that don't get a special spot in the listing:
Dualshock 3 for $30 at RadioShack Lego Rock Band FREE when you buy $20 of stuff at Old Navy
For PC gamers, Steam is having day long sales every day for the next five days. They have some GREAT deals right now, like Osmos for only $2 and Batman Arkham Asylum for $25. Check this page every day for new offers.
PS3 owners, Sony is having a sale on various PSN games this week.
$5: Bomberman Ultra Comet Crash Flower The Last Guy Prince of Persia Classic
$7.50 Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao Smash Cars
$15 Fate/Unlimited Codes (PSP)
Killzone 2 DLC sale: Flash and Thunder for $3, DLC Bundle for $10
Anyways, now on to the brick and mortar stores. Click on the link to skip directly to the store you want to see.
Though not a huge game collector, I do tend to invest in software for the more unique systems in my collection. I enter into this fully aware that the games (for the most part) will see limited action and will require me to pay a premium due to their limited availability andor production. This is something we all encounter to various degrees in our respective treasure hunts. That being said, there are some specific consoles that require heavy financial commitment to collect for, regardless of the title.
The systems listed below have software libraries that exceed, at a minimum, 20 titles. It is true that these could hardly be considered mainstream in regards to overall market penetration. With the exception of the Neo Geo AES, the remaining contenders were basically failures in the gaming industry.
One consistent characteristic shines through for each one of these consoles - the high price of their software. Regardless of the title, these systems have the highest average mean when it comes to collecting. This is mostly due to availability as well as how the system was initially marketed and the respective target audience.
Nintendo Virtual Boy System Released: 1995 Games Released: 22
Pioneer LaserActive System Released: 1993 Games Released: 44
In all honesty, I have no idea what the attraction is for this systemgames. Sure, it was innovative for the time, but all I get from an experience with the Virtual Boy is a severe migraine. The games overall are pretty crappy IMHO, but yet most CIB games will run you around $20-$25 at a minimum for the common titles. I am not exactly sure why games for this system fetch a high price tag. Want a Japanese version - tack on another 20% (for most titles) plus the extra shippinghandling .
The second most expensive game system ever released and the games will still hit your wallet pretty hard. It is true that most of the games for this system originally retailed at around $100 USD. In today's market, these Laser Disk games begin at around $40 USD and go on up. None are really anything to write home about, but I do admit that they do look impressive compared to a NES cart. Most of the games have to be imported from Japan, where the Pioneer LaserActive was a much bigger hit than in the USA.
Neo Geo AES System Released: 1990 Games Released: 154
Bandai Pippin System Released: 1995 Games Released: 93
Still regarded as the 2D powerhouse of the home console market, the Neo Geo produced games on cartridges that rival the size of a library book. Ginormous is the only way to describe them. Be prepared to shell out some cash to add some of these beasts into your library. The cheap games will fetch around $20 USD, but on an average you can expect to doll out between $50-$60 USD for most average titles.
Lack of availability completely drives the Bandai Pippin game market. The releases were pretty average for the day, but the system itself failed miserably trying to become the first true consolecomputer hybrid in the market. Most titles were released in Japan, but even there software is scarce. Expect your credit card to get beat on by an average of $50 USD (plus shippinghandling) when getting any title - much more for the true gaming software.
I used a 20 game minimum library to create this list. This takes out the truly obscure systems like the Capcom CPS Changer, Bandai SuperVision 8000 and the RDI Halcyon. Obviously, those systems with under 10 total games released command top buck.
I picked up Power Blade at a garage sale for $1 about 3 months ago. It looked (and still does) very lame from the artwork on the label. Because of this (also because I was moving at the same time) it sat around the bottom of my priority list. Well I've finally gotten around to playing some of the NES games I've been putting off for so long. Man was I wasting my time on some junk in the last 3 months when I could have been playing Power Blade instead.
Special thanks goes out to everyone who donated in the past couple weeks. Here's a list of the people who have made donations so far: Aaron, Michael, Jon, Pamela, Terry, Anton, and Brad. If you're lucky maybe you can match some of them to their usernames.
So far we have $167 raised. Big thanks goes to those who have already made a donation. For those who have not, we could really use your support. Even a small donation would be greatly appreciated. You can follow this link to make a donation. Let's keep RFGen user-supported and ad-free. Thanks in advance!
I haven't heard anyone mention this classic NES title in what seems like years, so I thought I'd make it my job to drudge up any loving memories/haunting nightmares you guys may have that are related to Adventure Island.
Since last week I went with a very well known title in horror gaming, I figured I'd go for something a little bit more obscure, and a bit more mellow. In fact, this odd futuristic ghost story is more sorrowful than anything else. That doesn't mean it's without it's freakier moments, but the gameplay in this title doesn't have all the big action sequences of other titles. It's also the third in the Echo Night series, so if you're familiar with those, you should know what to expect.
In Echo Night: Beyond, you play Richard Osmond, a passenger on a space shuttle heading to a small lunar base. His fiance, Claudia, lives there, and it's their intention to marry once he arrives. But things don't go according to plan. His shuttle crash lands, colliding with the very place you're trying to get. Richard awakens to find himself alone in the wrecked shuttle. He decides to grab a spacesuit and enter the base to find Claudia.
Unfortunately for Richard, it appears everyone inside the base is dead, the power is out, and ghosts are wandering the halls. To progress in the story, you'll have to find various items and appease the wandering spirits so that their souls get released from this mortal coil. To do this, you'll have to talk to them, which is a bit unsettling as they tend to fade in and out depending on how close you are. There's also lots of backtracking in the game, which can become annoying, though much of the game takes place around a central junction, so nothing is ever terribly far away.
So, you're wandering in the dark, there are corpses everywhere, and their ghosts are wandering around. Could it get worse? Well yes, actually. You see, there's a bizarre mist that has spread throughout the base, making ghosts that inhabit it hostile, and if they get near you for long enough, your heart rate will spike and you'll go into cardiac arrest. This means two things: every encounter can be fatal fast, and your only options are to run away. There's no camera to fight with, no proton packs, no nothing. Instead, you have to sneak past them and pray one doesn't find you.
Also, the game's first person view really adds to the tension here, because these ghosts just have to be near you. You don't have to see them, and likely you won't: as your heart rates goes up, your vision blacks out. It can be a harrowing experience to enter a room with one and suddenly scramble for the door, only to realize you can hardly see where you're going. And if you do see it, well...some of these things get downright creepy.
Still, ghosts register on film, so you can use the vast network of security cameras to watch their patterns and discover their routes, since most of them follow set paths. Note I said most: there's one ghost in particular that will stalk you throughout the game, and he knows when you're using a security camera. Whenever you look at him he's got a nasty habit of looking back at you.
And then there's the atmosphere: you'll spend a good chunk of the game wandering around with just a flashlight, though it's not as bad as when you wander outside in my opinion. Once outside, there's little gravity so you jump really far, and the lighting gets a bit odd. The first time outside, I nearly threw myself off a cliff into a crater. To make matters worse, there are quite a few jumping puzzles while outside, and you do still have to look out for spirits.
The lack of action might bother some players, so this game definitely isn't meant for everyone. But if you're a fan of the old point-and-click adventure gameplay or enjoyed titles like Penumbra or other first person horror games, such as Juggernaut, D, or Hellnight, this may be right up your alley. And as an added bonus, it saw release in all three major regions, so getting it shouldn't be too difficult. Just be aware that in Japan it's known as Nebula: Echo Night.
Looking for something a little quirkier to play on your Gamecube? Looking for something a bit out of the normal to play? Looking for a game that has a button that literally makes your character take a dump then and there? Then look no further, Cubivore is here.
The year is 2049 and Humans have left Earth looking to colonize other planets. While gone they have left Orbots behind to clean up pollution and litter for when they return. A high-ranking Orbot becomes insane after accidentally becoming attached to a nuclear missile. He changes his name to Warhead and declares himself ruler of the Earth then begins preparation to exterminate Humans should they return to claim the Earth from him.
As most of you know RFGen is run and supported by volunteers. We dedicate our time and efforts to the site solely because we enjoy it. We are a non-profit organization... well actually we make negative profit, -$85 a month to be exact for the server costs. The entire year up until this past month the site has survived solely on donations. Well those funds have run dry, so now we are asking our faithful community to step up again and help support the site.
As always, 100% of donations will go to covering the server costs. Any funding for contests and prizes that we offer will be provided by the staff. Your money will go directly into supporting the operation of the site. We will continue to strive to keep the site ad-free and community funded for as long as we can, and with the generous donations of our members in the past we have been able to continue to do so. Every little bit helps, so don't worry if you can't donate as much, especially in these hard times. If you're a new donor, be sure to PM myself or one of the other staff so we can give you "donor" status on the forums.
We'll keep you posted on the status of the donation drive. We really appreciate the support the entire community has given us in the past and want to thank all of you in advance for your generous support. Without all of you, this site would not exist and be what it is today.
It's been several weeks since the last post, and I'm going to call it, the 2009 garage sale season is dead. At least around here, maybe in the more mild climates, people are still selling their junk but the cold wind and dropping leaves has brought death to garage sales and the flea markets around here. So here is my treasures from a while ago, I don't even remember when I bought all this stuff, so it's a good thing I wrote each item up when I got instead of trying to do it now. I haven't bought anything in the past two weeks, mainly because I didn't even go saling these last few weekends.
There will be one more of these this year, sometime is December to account for any unexpected finds, and to give a recap on what I thought was this year's best finds.
I figured for the first one of these, I'd post a mainstay to the horror genre. If you're a fan of survival horror, I feel that you must try this game. I'm not going to say it's perfect(no game is), but what Silent Hill did was absolutely phenomenal. I've seen it referred to as "the scariest game of all time", and I feel this title still holds true today. Even if one absolutely detests the game, it should be easy to see the positive impact on the genre. Today the Silent Hill series is one of the two most easily recognized series in survival horror(the other being Resident Evil, of course).
Here's a very brief plot analysis:
"The plot focuses on Harry Mason as he searches for his daughter, Cheryl, who has disappeared following a car accident which left Harry unconscious. He finds Silent Hill to be largely abandoned, shrouded in a thick fog, snowing out of season, filled with monsters and being over taken by a hellish otherworld. As Harry scours the town, he begins learning about the history of Silent Hill and stumbles upon a cult ritual undertaken to bring a God to Earth."
Silent Hill plays entirely from a third-person perspective, with a mix of pre-set and controllable camera angles, depending on the location. Through certain sections of the game, Harry's flashlight is the only lighting, but this has a double effect of also attracting monsters. A radio that Harry has emits static whenever a monster is near, serving as the only means to know when something is approaching.
And then there's the other world. The only real way to describe it is Hell on Earth. There's all kinds of disturbing imagery and audio. To add to it, the developers were influenced and made reference to many other works of horror, fantasy, music, literature, film, and so on. Here's Wikipedia's list of influences and references:
* The surname of Lisa Garland is taken from the actress Judy Garland, Cheryl Mason's first name is based on Twin Peakss actress Sheryl Lee, Michael Kaufmann is a combination of Troma Studios producers' Lloyd Kaufmann and Michael Herz and both Alessa (originally named Asia) and Dahlia (originally named Daria) are names derived from relatives (daughter and former wife respectively) of Italian filmmaker Dario Argento.
* On the side of a garage door near the gas station is painted in blood with the word "REDRUM" painted on it in reference to The Shining.
* Some of the creatures and puzzles were named or designed with the books Alessa was fond of in mind, such as The Lost World and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
* The names originally intended for the characters of Harry and Cheryl were "Humbert" and "Dolores," the narrator and title character of Lolita. The American staff altered the names, given that the names were uncommon.
* At the beginning of the game there is a sign that says Bates Motel, which is a reference to Norman Bates' motel from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho.
* In "normal" version of the Midwich Elementary School one can find a list of teachers. The teachers listed are K.Gordon, T. Moore, L. Ranaldo, and S. Shelley. These names all refer to Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, and Steve Shelley of the rock band Sonic Youth.
* The names of the streets are taken from various science fiction and horror novels or writers, such as Bradbury Street, Bachman Road, Matheson Street, and Midwich Street. These refer to Ray Bradbury, Richard Bachman, Richard Matheson, and The Midwich Cuckoos.
Not bad for a game that was labeled a "Resident Evil clone" before its release. And while it did borrow a few things from Resident Evil in terms of gameplay(which had in turn borrowed from Alone in the Dark), its themes were its own and what it added to the Resident Evil formula helped distance it from the pack of RE-wannabes. Gone were the days of playing a well-trained police officer fighting with superior firepower against an enemy that has, frankly, become campy and overused. Instead, you play an everyman character, someone not proficient with a gun, or able to sprint long distances. Just an average guy.
Also gone was the setting, a plague of science run amok in the real world, something that could be blown away to restore the normal order. In Silent Hill we begin questioning what normal really meant. The trouble in Silent Hill couldn't be shot, stabbed, or beaten to death, because the trouble was with reality. This was normalcy in Silent Hill, at least in our heads. And while the creatures Harry encountered could be killed, there's some suggestion in the series that they weren't monsters at all, depending on who looked at them. And perhaps that's the biggest difference between the two:
Resident Evil gets in your blood. Silent Hill violates your mind.
A couple weeks ago I rediscovered a long lost passion of mine. A game I had almost forgotten. Luckily browsing through the RFGen NES High Score thread reminded me to dig out one of my all time favorite games.
