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From this image, everyone recognizes the 'Player's Choice' label variation. Now, I ask: Is this
really a good thing? In this issue of ask a blog, we will explore the pros and cons of the run-of-the-mill rerelease, and then, you get to tell
US what you think.
When a game is released, the company has two main things in mind: Will this sell well, and will the customer be satisfied? Every so often, a game meets both of these criteria extremely well, selling copies into the hundreds of thousands, or even millions. This is where the typical rerelease comes in.
For example, take the popular SNES game F-Zero. It was released in 1991 in North America. Once it passed the 1,000,000 sell mark, it was rereleased as Player's Choice. Now, what exactly did this do? It allowed them to stop producing the original version, and produce this second version, with slightly different packaging, and one other major difference: no dust cover. Now, this may not seem like a bad thing, but it sets the scale as for what rereleases do to the game. They usually package it poorly, leave special items out such as promotional coins and mini-mags, and may even use a
lower quality product. This allows them to keep production costs down even more, while still making the same amount of money on the other end.
Granted, if a game makes it to player's choice, chances are that you will be able to find an original copy, with no problem. Other types of remakes also exist, such as with
Ikaruga, the shoot-em-up originally released for the Japanese Dreamcast, later ported and rereleased on the Gamecube and Xbox 360. With the release of the 360 version, prices on the GC and DC versions plummeted, even though their rarity was still the same.
So, rereleases make access to either: hard-to-find games more accessible while driving their price down (yet keeping their rarity), or easily found games even easier. Rereleases, in my humble opinion, are a good thing in that they can give access to an unknown game that is very good. The major downfall is that those who own the original are left with a game that may have devalued by half or more. Does either of these outcomes outweigh the other? Only you can decide that.
And now... We want to hear from
you! The reader!!! What are your thoughts and feelings on a rerelease? Are they great, evil, okay, so-so, not too bad, or completely your lifesaver? Post a comment below, and until next time: Keep having an opinion!
Hey Everyone! Happy 5th to RFGen! I've got new games to add to my overall collection and some to add to my Mega CD Collection!! So lets cut the chase and get onto the games!!
[img width=500 height=375]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3346/3610654027_3cd24709eb.jpg?v=0[/img]
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, since I'm a collector for the system I don't see why I shouldn't have this game in my collection. And anyway, I like Sherlock Holmes, I had to do an essay three Sherlock Holmes stories for English and I got an A. I haven't played it yet, AVGN says there isn't much game to it but I'll see that for my self James. This I got for 6.99 with free postage.
[img width=500 height=375]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3080/3610653929_c2678ea67e.jpg?v=0[/img]
I love After Burner, is there anything else I should say? After I got After Burner III for my Mega CD collection, and playing After Burner Climax (best arcade game ever btw
) I thought maybe I should see the earlier games in the series too. I then found After Burner II complete at the local car boot sale which I got for 2.50 (10 with Zool, G&W Gallery 2 CIB and Gameboy Gallery CIB) and then finally this morning the original After Burner for the Master System CIB came in the post this morning! I got that one for 2.99. If I wanted to add to my After Burner collection I should buy the LCD games from Grandstand and Tiger, if I was rich and had the space I would get the arcade cabinets but lets not go overboard.
[img width=500 height=375]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3337/3611467512_7de6eb21d9.jpg?v=0[/img]
OK, before you ask, this is NOT and official Sega Mega CD game, this is a homebrew game from Sonicretro.org which has the gameplay of Sonic CD but with new music, new levels, new sounds, new characters and new moves. I enjoyed playing it on an emulator that I burned it on to a CD (which works ^^) and I thought, "Why not make it look like a proper game?" so I made the front and back cover, I also did a quick spine.
If you want to try out the game, go here:
http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_1_MegamixAmount paid:
Sherlock Holmes: 6.99
Total cost:
305.19 (:wow: I paid this much for 26 games, 11 demos, 1 duplicate, import cartridge and justifier gun? That's a little over 8 per item!)
Wow, it seems like only yesterday, really. Interestingly enough, it's not. In fact, it's been 5 years since we launched. How time flies. Sure, a lot has changed since June 8, 2004, but we're still the same site at heart, and we'll continue to be the site that exists for you, our community.
Of course, some contest ended today. It seems as though in recent history contests start on April 28 and end on June 8. Some sort of symbolism, I guess. I hope you were taking part in that. The winner will be announced soon, basically as soon as I finish recoding the contest tallying script for submissions. Do you think I simply keep manual tabs on such things? Nah.
Hooray! Five years! What's not five more! To the future!
Another spectacular weekend for finds. Judging from Friday's treasures I thought it was going to be a Sega heavy weekend unlike the last couple weeks which were primarily Nintendo games. But, it turned out to be more of a hardware heavy weekend, in fact, I got 2 new systems, one of which is something I never thought I'd find and is a true piece of gaming history.
Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles '09 - #9
Now that the show is over and everyone's gone home, I've done my research and I'm here to talk about what I thought of some key announcements and games that were shown at E3. Well I wasn't at the show, thanks to the marvel of the internet, you can basically be given a pass to the show with all the sites, blogs, and videos that maintain near constant updates over the course of the show, which is great for those of us who simply live too far away, or don't blog for a big enough website to be invited. Anyhow, I'm sure you're all more interested in what I have to say in that article than you are to hear me rant, so without further ado let's get started.
Continue reading E3 '09: Wrap Up
Hey everyone, just a quick update.
I've got my second Japanese game, it came all the way from Hong Kong and best of all, IT'S SEALED...well, sort of. The game is called Garou Densetsu Special. If you are a big SNK or Fighting game fan with Japanese knowledge. Chances you might know what this game is...
Do you know what it is?
Continue reading New Japanese Game and selling things
So a couple of mornings ago I was taking the dog out and he tripped me up (100 ibs of his muscle vs my 180ibs of muscle and flab.) I put my foot down to balance out and CRUNCH! I heard plastic break I look down and see the shifter of my Mad Catz MC2 steering wheel sitting lower than it should be, its what I get for not putting it up. I decided to take it apart to see if I can fix it and luckily I can, as im putting it back together I notice how the shifter works and an idea pops in my head.
I can shorten the shift needed to activate the switches that run the shifter. Hince this mod was born.
The stock length the shifter needs to travel in either direction is over one inch after the mod it takes less than half that and there is room for more. Why you ask? Well ask any hardcore fighting game player that spends 100s of bucks on a fighting game pad the faster the buttons the better, same principle just diffrent kind of game.
How its done. And no you dont have to break your controller to do it and it takes less than 20mins to do.
1. On the bottom of the wheel is a bunch of phillips screws, take them all out and remove the bottom cover (dont worry none of the hardware is connected to the bottom so just pop it off)
2. Look up the shifter shaft (from the bottom), you'll see a small screw in towards the top, take it out and remove the knob
3. On the side of the shift shaft (toward the wheel) theres a plastic piece with two screws in it, this is where one of the dollys of the shift shaft fits, unscrew it and carefully remove it (shifter might come with it)
4. If shifter doesnt come out with last step simply pull shifter out towards the wheel
5. See the plastic peg thats molded to the shift shaft pointing out towards the side of the controller? Thats what is getting modded. It activates the switches that tell the game to shift.
6. The switches are 2 metal tabs connected to the circuit board next to the shifter find them because there the guages of how much modding can be done
7. Heat up glue gun and add glue to the sides of the peg, test fitting the shifter during the process (when the glue is dry!!). When you've shortened the clearence to your liking thats it! The mods done.
8. Reassembly is the reverse of taking all apart.
9.Pick your game and test it it out!
[img width=221 height=198]http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s6/mn12sskiller/steeringwheelmod-1.jpg[/img]
Notes:
Im sure other things will work besides glue, basiclly all your doing is making the peg thicker to shorten the distance between the peg and the switches.
To much glue? Use the tip of the glue gun to melt of the excess, or scrape off with a razor blade
This was done on a Mad Catz MC2 for the Xbox 360 but im pretty sure all Mad Catz wheels with the shifter work the same way.
While its apart, nows a good time to grease up any moving parts in the wheel (springs etc)
Sorry about the sorry drawing I didn't think of taking pics until after the fact
Thanks for reading
Later
25 years ago, on June 6, 1984, the US was in the height of the Cold War with Russia and a Russian by the name of Alexey Pajitnov completed the first version of a time-sucking weapon known as Tetris, arguably the most successful puzzle game of all-time, and one of the best video games ever created.
Almost everything that can play games has received a version of Tetris: ranging from common systems like the NES, Game Boy, and Nintendo DS, to more obscure systems such as the Nuon and Virtual Boy. Of course, there are many ports to devices not normally intended for gaming, such as TI-83 calculators (Ztris got me through so many boring study hall sessions in high school) and just about every cell phone ever made (EA's iPhone version of Tetris is one of the best selling games in the Apple App Store).
So, I ask everyone, to spend some time today and celebrate the legacy of Tetris by playing a few rounds. Whether you play it on your
NES,
iPhone, or simply
in your browser, just play it and remember why it's one of the greatest games ever.
Leave some of your memories of Tetris in the comments. Did it suck up your life? Do you remember playing it when it first came out? Do you think it sucks? Let us know!
In closing, here's a little tribute song to Tetris:
I don't know how they do it (yes it's a two person team), but in a space of less than a month, I have bought five items from them to add to my collection.
So I found he was selling three Mega CD demos, days pass until I noticed in the last 10 minutes of the auction and
none of them had a bid. So as a Mega CD collector I did the most logical thing, place a last minute bid on all three of them, and I won them all, 99p each!! What was also reasonable was that they reduced the posting and packaging price to just less than half (3 to 1.70). Just to let you know, I don't put the postage price on the amounts next to each game, sorry but when I first did this before discovering RFGen, I never bothered with the posting cost.
Anyway, here are the demos
[img width=307 height=489]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3606/3593000686_9f0e74da79.jpg?v=0[/img]
So I now have the earliest demo (Thunderhawk), the Psygnosis Xmas demo and both Rebel Assault Demos!
Finally, another thing off ebay, not from the atticbug. But now playing this game, I'm glad I got it.
MICKEY MANIA!!!!
[img width=500 height=375]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3620/3592996004_e92e557ae2.jpg?v=0[/img]
I remember having a go at the Playstation version when I was younger, and playing this it is just as fun as it was back then!
Prices
Demos: 3.98 total
Mickey Mania: 4.20
Total Price
8.18
Overall Price
297.66
