|
[img width=230 height=87]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/07362Swoopo_logo.png[/img] is Evil
Everyone wants things on the cheap. After all, we are going through some tough economic times right now. When you see an add that says "Playstation 3 sold for $32.50! Visit now!", you are immediately drawn in. A PS3, for less than list, and it looks legit?! Is this possible?! Well, my friend, I am here to tell you how...
You see, the site we are talking about is none other than Swoopo, which just so happens to be more vile and evil than e(vil)bay itself. Swoopo is a relatively new site, founded in 2005 for German bidders, with it coming to the States in September of 2008. It is not a normal bidding site, AT ALL. See, on a bidding site like ebay, each item is posted by another user. Then, you, the buyer, bids on said item. After that, you pay the buyer, who then pays fees to ebay and ships you the item. That's normal.
This is how Swoopo works:
You are you. Swoopo is swoopo. There is no seller other than swoopo. You buy from the company that is swoopo, not some other seller. Every bid you place raises the price of the item by $0.15, or $0.01, if it is a penny auction. It also, if there is less than 20 seconds left on the auction left, it brings the time back up to 20 seconds. Oh, and I almost forgot... Each bid costs you, the bidder $0.75!
So, we have all of these different factors, correct? What is wrong with this, then? Well, it's the basic fact that, if a penny auction makes it to $175.92, that's 17592 bids at $.75 each, on say, an Item that costs $899.99 for them to buy. That's $13,369.92 income on one item on swoopo's end, which figures to nearly 1400% profit! Meanwhile, 17591 or so people have been shafted because they all payed money to get nothing! Then, the winner has gotten truly lucky, because they managed to bid last and not have anyone else re-bid again, which resets the clock again to 20 seconds.
Well, the authorities in many places have caught on. In England, swoopo was investigated as an unregistered gambling site, and let off the hook. This is where you come in. What are your feelings on this evil, dastardly, bastardly site? Will you sign up, and see if you can nab a deal? If you think so, then you may be right. The chances are slim, but you might just get the deal of your lifetime, or at least, your day.
[IMAGE]
This list will showcase my favorite Master Robot levels from Mega Man 1-6. I will do a later article for Wily's Fortress Levels as I feel they have a different feeling than these ones and therefor should be rated seperately.
Continue reading Top 10 Master Robot Stages
This is the second (technically third) installment of The People of RFGeneration. I went with one of our Canadian members Link41 aka Aaron . It should be noted that the number of members who live in Canadia is small (18 members on the World Map, which more people need to use so i would know how accurate i am being...) but growing. Before they grow any larger we must absorb them into the U.S.of A... and steal their health care!
I've talked with him both inside and outside of the chat and had a pretty strange and interesting convo, mostly related to his college classes. So I decided he could be the next at bat.
Alright lets get to it I guess.
Q:How did you find RFGeneration?
A: I was looking for a site to document my collection online back around Christmas '08, and a fellow member of this site, suggested RFGeneration.
Q:What made you join?
A: I took a look at the site, after receiving info from sunfireman. I was amazed at all the collectors that were here, not only that, but the Database was loaded with games I had and/or needed.
Q:What made you stay?
A: Honestly? The forum and the chat. I am in the chat almost everyday, also I enjoy having my collection right at my fingertips! 
Q:Have you met or personally know any of the other members of the website?
A: I know sunfireman, he is also a parrysounder. I am starting to get to know lots of other members, that is why I'm on the chat so much.
Q:Are you an active game collector? If so anything specific?
A: I am an active game collector, I currently have 11 consoles, and 314 games. I collect alot of Nintendo games and consoles. I am however looking to start collecting the Sega consoles and possibly the Atari consoles. I am looking to catch up to den68, his collection is massive!
Q:Whats your favourite game or series? Why?
A: I have to pick The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time as my favourite game, as for my favourite series, I would go with either: Zelda, Resident Evil, Metroid, or Final Fantasy. Ocarina got me into gaming back in 1998, when it came out. I played everyday after school. After I beat the game I was like "I wonder if any other games are good?" and the rest is history. I love alot of game series, so I narrowed it down to four!
Q:Why is the chat your second home!?!
A: I like meeting new people, and discussing new games. I happen to have found a nice community here, I like chatting on the IRC, and posting on the forum. I have made a few friends on here so far, I'm very impressed with the site thus far.
Q:What are your passions?
A: I LOVE the outdoors, biking, snowmobiling, four-wheeling, swimming, reading, my morning jogs, my schooling, video games, my family, my friends, going to bar with my friends. I guess that pretty much sums it up. I am certainly a pretty common guy
Q:What do you do outside of RFG?
A: I am currently attending school for forensics, I also work part-time at a store 99% of you have never even heard of. Giant Tiger is where I work, it is fun. I like to go and spend time with the girlfriend and my family whenever I get the chance. I have four brothers, so I am used to having a shadow 
Q:What made you decide to go into forensics?
A:At first,I just wanted to become a cop, but I soon realized I wanted more. Over the past few years,I became a fan of CSI, I was amazed at the procedures that went into solving crimes. I enrolled for the course in 2007 and I haven't looked back. 
Q:What is the creepiest thing you have learned so far from this course?
A: lol, gross is a pretty loose term in forensics. I thought assisting in autopsy's would be the worst, but as it turns out there was something worse. I had forgot that after a DB has been dead for around an hour, his muscles begin to relax and urine and feces then come out. That happened during my first examination of a dead body, needless to say I was one of the many students who threw up in class. Not such a great day.
GAMING FIRSTS UPDATE
So i thought of some questions a few nights ago at work. One of my coworkers asked me what the first game i beat was and then the rest of these popped into my head in rapid succession. They will be standard from now on When Eddie sends me back the response i will update his interview as well
Q: What was the first game you played and on what system and how old were you?
A: The very first game I played was Super Mario Bros on NES. I was on my March break in 1995, and my family was visitng some relatives down south and I went to see what my cousins were doing up in their room, it turns out they were playing two player SMB. I just stood in awe over the game, it was like a cartoon only 100 times better!
Q:First console owned?
A: I received my first console at Christmas 1998. I got an Nintendo 64 and a copy of The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. I was hooked on games from that point on! I would rush home from school as fast as possible to play more! I was addicted.
Q:First game you bought yourself?
A: Well I bought my first game and bought my first conole at the same time. I purchased a PS2 in 2003 and I bought WWE Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth to go with it. In the months that followed, I had started to build my collection into the one you can see today.
Q:What made you decide to buy that particular game?
A: I was a HUGE fan of WWE up until 2006, then I jumped to UFC and TNA. I thought the games was awesome, having had a few N64 wrestling games. I wanted to see what the next gen was going to bring to the table.
Q:First game you beat?
A:...hmm. I know! Pokemon Red. I had borrowed my friends Game Boy Color while he went to Florida with his family, so I promised I would get him some good pokemon. I beat the game in just 2 days, I did set him up with the legendarys, who I caught with master balls. I used that missingno cheat on Cinnabar Island, and made 99 master balls!
Q:First time you wanted to destroy something because of a game?
A: I wanted to break my NES Zapper before....I just hate that Duck Hunt dog soooooo much!
Here's a list of all my handhelds comment and tell me what you think, also let me know if you want any gameplay footage of any of them. Here they are:
Tiger Electronics:
1.Double Dragon
2.Double Dragon II: The Revenge (BROKEN)
3.Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone
4.Space Fight
5.Road Race
6.Street Fighter II (With printed copy of instructions)
7.Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (Talking game and Barcodes game no
cards included)
8.Sonic 1
9.Sonic 2 (With printed copy of instructions)
10.Sonic 3 (With printed copy of instructions)
11. Sonic 3-D Blast
12.Sonic Underground (With printed copy of instructions)
13.Mortal Kombat (With printed copy of instructions)
14.Mortal Kombat 3 (With printed copy of instructions)
15.Mortal Kombat Trilogy (With printed copy of instructions)
16.Ninja Gaiden
17.Ninja Gaiden II: The Chaos Sword (Talking game)
18.Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom (With printed copy of instructions)
19.Batman (With printed copy of instructions)
20.Batman Forever: Double Dose of Doom (With printed copy of instructions)
21.Batman Returns (With printed copy of instructions)
22.Gauntlet (With original copy of instructions)
23.Golden Axe
24.Altered Beast
25.Outrun
26.Mega Man 3 (With printed copy of instructions)
27.Area 51 (With printed copy of instructions)
28.Power Rangers (With printed copy of instructions)
29.Primal Rage (1994 release)
30.Bowling (With printed copy of instructions)
31.Bowlorama (Missing bowling pin joystick and instructions)
32.Streets of Rage (Pocket size with original copy of instructions)
33.Virtual Cop (Pocket size with original copy of instructions)
34.Aladdin
35.Castlevania II: Simons Quest
36.Gargoyles: Night Flight (Missing battery cover)
37.Star Trek: The Next Generation (With opened package and original copy of instructions)
38.Resident Evil 2 (With opened package and cant find instructions but have a copy of
them)
39. Jeopardy! (With original copy of instructions)
40.Rampage
41.Pitfall
42.Pinball
43.Nights Into Dreams (Pocket size no instructions)
44.Castlevania Symphony of the Night ( RARE With printed copy of instructions)
45.The Terminator (With printed copy of instructions)
46.Bevis & Butthead (Talking Game)
It Entertainment:
47.Deal or No Deal (With opened package and original instructions)
Radica:
48.Slots
49.Blackjack
50.7 in 1 Casino Games
51.Pocket Slots
Milton Bradly:
52.Uno
53.Connect Four
54.Hangman
Konami:
55. Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (With original cardboard instructions)
56. Contra (Missing battery cover LCD issues)
Acclaim Entertainment:
57. Wizards & Warriors
58. Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II
59. NARC
60.The Simpsons: Barts Cupcake Madness
61. T2: Judgment Day
Micro Games of America:
62. Power Rangers Game Wizard (With all 3 game cartridges: Goldars Revenge, Battle for The Power Morpher, and Battle on the Megazord )
63. Dragonball Z: Battle To Save Namek
64.Dragonball Z: Fire Fight (Keychain Game)
65. Dragonball Z: The Final Showdown (Keychain Game, also has original instructions)
66. Centipede
67. Asteroids
68. Super Breakout
Game & Watch: (Nintendo)
69. Zelda (Multi-Screen)
70. Super Mario Brothers (Has make-shift battery cover taped on)
71. Zelda (Wrist Watch Game)
72. Super Mario Brothers (Mini-Classics Version)
73. Donkey Kong Junior (Mini-Classics Version)
Bandai LSI GAMES (NOTE: ALL OF THE GAMES LISTED UNDER HERE HAVE ORIGINAL BOXES, TRAY INSERTS, WARRANTY CARDS, PLASTIC BAGS AND ORIGINAL INSTRUCTIONS MANUALS, UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE.)
74. DragonBall Z: Gohan VS Garlic Jr (No warranty card)
75. DragonBall Z Gohan VS Perfect Cell and Cell Juniors
76. DragonBall Z Gohan VS Perfect Cell Round 2 (Only has original instructions NO BOX OR WARRANTY CARD it is in a small plastic bag.)
77. DragonBall Z Goku VS Frieza and Captain Ginyu and Jeice
78. DragonBall Z Goku VS Imperfect Cell
79. DragonBall Z Goku VS Perfect Cell
80. DragonBall Z Videls Training
81. DragonBall Z Goku VS Majin Buu
82. DragonBall Z Goku VS Androids #16, #17, #18 (No warranty card)
83. DragonBall Z Vegeta VS Vegeta & Nappa (No warranty card)
Techno Source:
84. Captain America: Canyon Clash (With package and original copy instructions)
85. Iron Man: Android Onslaught (With package and original copy instructions)
86. X-men: Wolverine Sentinel Assault (With package and original copy instructions)
87. Combat Commander (With package and original copy instructions)
88. Spider-Man 3: Escape the Sandman (With package and original copy instructions)
89. The Incredible Hulk (With package and original copy instructions)
90. Street Hunter (With package and original copy instructions)
Troni:
91. Street Hunter
Namco (Vaire/Yemo)
92. Dragon Spirit
93. Galaga '91
Excalibur:
94. Slot Machine (Keychain with opened package)
Note: To see Gameplay footage of some of these go here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/supermetroidlover
I don't get games from America that often, thanks to the price for importing, the exchange rate and the current economy. US Ebay Auctions take advantage by putting the international postage price at up to 30 USD (21 GBP) which is stupid as this example shows you.
Continue reading Postage Rant
Hey guys, you probably noticed that I've been really demeaning and assish for the past few weeks. This can primarily be seen in a lot of the comments I have left.
Without delving too much into it, I'm just going to say I'm sorry and it honestly has nothing to do with you guys at all.
You know, I'm playing through Metroid Fusion for the first time in years and it just hit me-- this is a survival/horror game.
That's right I said it. I don't really know how I didn't realize this. Perhaps it was because that strays so far from people's perception of what Metroid games are 'supposed to be' that they are blinded from seeing what the individual games attempt to be. Take Metroid 2 for example. It is constantly panned for not being like Metroid or Super Metroid. It does it's own thing and people say it doesn't have the Metroid feel. It's kind of funny considering that belief has existed wayyyy before the release of Prime/Fusion etc. Was there ever a set pattern for what the Metroid games are supposed to be?
Not really. The main reason I can think of that people call Metroid 2 and Fusion radical is because they aren't like Super Metroid which is in many peoples' opinion one of the best game ever. Therefore people expect the newer releases to follow suit and attempt to emulate it's success.
And here is where Fusion comes in. It doesn't emulate Super Metroid, and like Metroid 2 it is it's own breed. Because people wanted it to be like Super Metroid or because they had this false perception of what the series 'should be' (me included), they missed what the game really was-- it was a freaking survival horror game.
Am I going mad? Not at all. The story starts out with Samus investigating an explosion on a space station after nearly dying due to a parasite attack which has rendered her extremely weak and without any weapons. From there she must stop the X parasites from inhabiting the other sectors of the research station and overrunning the place.
But then it becomes known that the X parasites are smart and out to kill her. One has mimicked her at full power (the SA-X) while the others begin destroying the download stations so she can't become more powerful to fight them. Pretty much the game turns into Samus fighting for her survival while avoiding the SA-X which is actively hunting her. ADAM (the computer) constantly informs her of her chance of survival (consistently low) and is doing as much in his power to help her survive as he can, all the while trying to have her save the station from destruction.
But really... the majority of the game is Samus running from the SA-X in an attempt to survive and become powerful enough to confront the thing. There are instances where Samus might encounter it and have to run otherwise she'd die instantly. There are instances when the X parasites infiltrate other sectors in an attempt to stop Samus from obtaining upgrades. Often times you have to disobey ADAM in order to avoid being killed by the SA-X.
The game is linear, but this is because Samus only has so many options as to where to go. The download stations available for her upgrades are the ones which the X haven't destroyed, the paths she takes throughout the station are intended to help her flee from her pursuers, and pretty much as ADAM says himself 'survival is your main goal'.
I can't really do justice to this aspect of the game as much as I'd like to. I'm sure if you played the game again and really stopped to think about what is occurring story wise and even gameplay wise (such as where you are exploring and why), you'd realize that the majority of the game focuses on Samus' survival. The other major aspects are slowly unfolded through her attempts at surviving, similar to the way the story in any other survival horror game unfolds.
Comments, criticisms, and flaming all welcome.
Watch and enjoy the video!
Continue reading Byte Back Video
Yesterday I went to a Classic Gaming Convention called Byte Back, which was situated in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, for two reasons.
- I'm a retro gamer so who'd give up a chance like this
- To see if I can find some rare titles to add to my Mega CD Collection
The latter reason is for this saying that I made The internet is an antique shop, outside that antique shop is a very large island, with treasure hidden deep. If you aren't sure what it means, it should be that the internet may be a great place to by Retro games but outside the internet something special is somewhere for collectors to grab.
Continue reading A Journey to remember
Originally popularized in arcades during the nineties, fighting games have remained a popular genre to this day. With the recent release of Street Fighter IV and last weeks news that Midway has put Mortal Kombat up for sale, I've decided to focus the next few articles on these two popular fighting franchises. Street Fighter has been around for more than twenty years and was popularized due to it's fluid control and expertly balanced game play that would become even more polished with each release. This first article will look at the first four games in the Street Fighter series, according to the series timeline, which will cover the original Street Fighter from 1987 and the three Alpha games which were released between 1995 and 1997.
Continue reading Gaming in Retrospect 2: Street Fighter
This week's treasure hunting wasn't particularly successful. I did the rounds of all the usual shops, but I only managed to pick up a couple of PS1 games.
PS1
Trash It
Resident Evil
I only paid GBP1 for each of them, so that was good.
Spurred on by the lack of success I had a look through the cheap end of the games that CeX had in stock, and I picked up this lot for GBP15
XBox
Unreal II: The Awakening
Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon
Black
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
I already had a copy of Broken Sword, but sans manual, so this was a good opportunity to replace it. I'm making good progress on the incompletes, 56 remaining out of a total of 969 games.
PS2
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Getaway
Red Faction II
007 Nightfire
Half-life
Headhunter
There's nothing especially amazing amongst the PS2 stuff, but it was time just to pick up some of the cheap stuff while it's still easily available. On another note I did fantastically well with records, but that's not the point of this post.
Spend for the week: GBP17.00
Month: GBP17.00
Year: GBP295.36
When someone says 'Fire Emblem', many Americans and Europeans may not know what you are talking about. The Fire Emblem franchise was introduced to North America and Europe not too long ago, with a Game Boy Advance release titled Fire Emblem, in 2003/2004. Prior to this date, NA'ers and Europeans had only learned of the series via either the import scene, or Super Smash Brothers: Melee, on the GameCube.
But, what many do not know, is that FE has been a long standing, and quite popular franchise in Japan. Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Ken or Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragons and the Blade of Light in English, was released in 1990 on the Famicom, or NES to the rest of the world. On February 17th, 2009, North America was 3rd to recieve this original game (being released on December the 5th, 2008 in Europe) in an all new, remade format, titled Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.
Utilizing the DS's 2 screen interface, this (practically) new game is incredibly fun to play, and has a wonderful background soundtrack.
Learning Curve:
Quite Easy to start with, but as you approach Chapter 5 - 7, it gets progressivly more difficult. It jumps up to this quite difficult-ness very quickly, instead of slowly getting more difficult.4.5/5
 Gameplay/Story:
Awesome! The story is very fun to read, and you feel as if you are actually part of the game, in a way. I won't spoil it for you, but you basically take on the persona of Prince/King Marth, commanding your forces and Leveling up, to save your kingdom.5/5
Replay Value:
Since I haven't actually beaten it yet, I can't say much on the topic of replay value yet. It seems to me, however, that this would be a game that going back to after you beat it makes it really easy. 4/5
Music:
Brilliant. The music fits the tone of the game amazingly, and the composer did a wonderful job. It also makes great use of the DS's fairly high Audio Quality, sounding very nice even through the speakers. 5/5
To sum it all up, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a great game. It has many qualities that make it highly addicive the moment youy begin to play. For the normal DS game price of $29.99, you can get more than your money's worth out of this game.
18.5/20 or 92.5%
Well, it's been over a month since my last entry in the Treasure Hunt Chronicles, and I blame that solely on the weather. There just are not any garage sales or flea markets in the frozen tundra Northeast Ohio this time of year. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, it's in the 50's today and 60's the next couple days so garage sale season will be here before we know it. Luckily, until then though, I've still got some awesome treasure through some online trading I did through RFGen, Digital Press and GameTZ. So that will be the focus of February's finds.
Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles '09 - February
Hot off the heels of last week's Random Lists #2, I've decided to go ahead with a semi regular article featuring video game music, which will allow me to cut back on Random Lists so I don't step on Tan's feet since he does the List 'em article. Anyway, today I'm looking back at some of the music from the 8-bit era, and since I've never played a PC Engine/Turbo Grafx, I'll be focusing mostly on the Master System, NES, Gameboy, and Game Gear and for now each game will have only one song per article, unless I make an article featuring a certain game or composer.
Continue reading Melodic Notation: 8-bit Classics Part I
With 46 Master Robots to choose from it wasnt actually very difficult to narrow it down to 10. A lot of them are just rehashes of previous robots, really wierd or simply forgettable.
Anyway we'll start at 10 and work our way down.
Continue reading Top 10 Master Robots
|
|
|
|
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
| |
|
![[IMAGE]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/Swoopo_logo.png){kind=link}