So yeah, some homebrew is too damn cool to ignore. Take for instance Extra Mario Bros. I only hope that it is real. Someone thought it would be pretty neat to take Mario and place him in a Metroid Type Universe, complete with remixed Metroid Music. All I can say is -- Pure Awesome. Check for yourself:
[youtube=425,350]AbPbvl6g4rc[/youtube]
Again, damn, DO WANT!. Awesomeness of Mario... awesomeness of Super Metroid... combined, wow. Someone find me that game.
From our family to yours - Merry Christmas. May this joyous day be spent with friends and family, and may you find happiness in the day. May the holiday season continue to be a joyous and festive time, and from the staff of RF Generation - Merry Christmas.
I don't know about the rest you, but I tend to be dragged down around this time of year. Being home from school, the cold, the snow, and being around family a little too much drains the life from me. Fortunately I always find the time to get a lot of gaming in, and that, my friends, is what shines this geeks soul. I've been playing a lot of Ridge Racer 6 alone, Halo 3 and Gears of War when I'm with my brother, and some Wii Sports bowling with my parents. Since I haven't gotten my dad to play a game with me since NHL '96 was new, I consider this a breakthrough.
Since it is the holidays, I'll try and keep this short so y'all can get back to your lives. Ridge Racer 6 is the featured game this week. Lots of drifting, and simple gameplay keep the disc spinning in my 360. It can be had for a bargain price now, and is worth a try if you're a fan of the series.
My brother was kind enough to give me an early present, NYKO's Charge Station 360. Rechageable batteries, and battery packs are a must in this new generation of wireless gaming. 3rd party? It doesn't seem to matter much. These batteries fit snugly and do the job. Remember playing with remote control cars and airplanes when you were a kid. Well you can play with them again in Toy Commander. There's even a Chrismas themed level if you are interested in that sort of thing.
Wrapping it up today is a real WINNER collection. Tondog is a good friend of mine and a good member of the RF Generation family. He's a long-time Playstation fan, but isn't against showing the Dreamcast and Nintendo DS some lovin'. His true interests also include overlooked and underappreciated games.
I hope you get to play something fun this week. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from your own channel 3.
So, yeah, Ben Eberle, if that is his real name, has done it again, publicly shaming us with his awesomeness. How the hell do you get 95% on Through the Fire and Flames on expert mode, anyways? Someone should buy that kid a real guitar and hookers, so he can live the real rock life. Okay, maybe not, but yeah, perhaps he can be recruited into a Rock Band? Time shall tell. All I know is damn...
Posted on Dec 24th 2007 at 10:00:03 PM by (hXd) Posted under site news
So I'm up in NY living life large, seeing my old friends and reminiscing about great times, spending much needed time with the rest of my family, and seeing how much my home county has changed since I left. I'll probably blog again when I come back and put up some pictures of my grand adventures. Until then, stay classy.
2007 was the year of hype in gaming. Between Halo 3, Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy, Crysis, and Assassin's Creed, this year has seen the release of some of the most talked up games of all-time. While some of them fell far short of the hype, there were plenty of other far superior games that came out, but received little to no attention from mainstream gamers. So, continuing now and on every Wednesday (or Thursday) (or sometime) until the end of the year, I will be giving you a look at two games released this year that deserve your hard-earned cash and attention. At the end of this five-part series (ending the day after Christmas), I will list them in order of the most overlooked/underrated.
This inclusion might be a little controversial since it is a fairly well known game and will be getting a sequel, but nonetheless, I think it's been overlooked by many gamers. This game would be Skate by EA Black Box and published by EA. The game has only sold less than half a million copies across both the PS3 and the Xbox 360, most likely because the 360 version came out a week before Halo 3 and the PS3 version came out on the same day as Halo 3. Damn you Halo 3 for sabotaging the sales of a great game! Halo bashing aside, Skate may look like a typical skateboarding game like the Tony Hawk series on the surface, but the game takes a completely opposite approach to the sport than the Tony Hawk games. With Skate, EA strived to make the most realistic skateboarding game ever, a goal that was met. In Skate, you can not land a 540 going off a little kicker like you can in Tony Hawk, nor can you easily land a 900 going off a half pipe. It's much more realistic compared to the crazy combos and tricks seen in the Tony Hawk games.
The best part about the game is its extremely innovative control scheme. You can kick with your right foot by pressing the A/X button, kick with your left foot by pressing X/Square (this is a first in any game, at least to my knowledge), and move around with the left analog stick. However, where Skate truly shines is in its trick controls, dubbed by EA as Flickit. With Flickit controls, all of the ollie-based (for you non skaters, an ollie is jumping into the air with your board) tricks to get you into the air are controlled by flicking the right analog sticks in various directions. For example, to do a regular ollie, pull down on the stick then flick it up. A kickflip is done by moving the right stick down then flicking it to the upper left corner. Some of them get very complicated, such as a 360 inward heelflip, which you do by moving the stick slightly below the right position, moving to the downward position, then flicking to the upper right corner. This control scheme is preferable to the typical Tony Hawk press X then press Square and a direction to do the flip because it takes a whole lot more time to master and learn and replicates how the tricks are done in real life. You can apply the same Flickit concept to tweak and setup grabs and setup grinds and transition from one grind into another without leaving the rail. This is the real beauty of Skate, its enormous attention to detail and respect for the art of skateboarding. However, like other skateboarding sims (see Thrasher Skate and Destroy on Playstation), the vert aspect of the game is flawed. The vert skating just feels very clunky at times, however you are able to get used to it with time. I just hope EA improves vert skating in Skate 2. Moving on, the music in the game is actually a pretty damn good cross section of music from artists ranging from Slayer to Sex Pistols to Nirvana to Eric B and Rakim to David Bowie to Rick Ross (EVERYDAY I'M HUSTLIN!). Still doesn't beat the classic rap soundtrack from Thrasher Skate and Destroy, but it's close.
One thing you should be aware of is that the PS3 version of the game is nowhere near as good as the Xbox 360 version. The 360 version runs much more smoothly than the PS3 version, which stutters very often. So, do yourself a favor and buy Skate because it is by far the most realistic skateboarding game ever made.
Next up on the list is Folklore (known as Folksoul in Japan), developed by Game Republic and published by Sony. Folklore is the second Japanese RPG to see release on the Playstation 3 here in the United States, and it's one of the finest RPGs I have ever played. What I like the most about the game is that it foregoes the typical turn-based menu simulation of Final Fantasy and other games of its ilk for more action-based combat. That and the story isn't about some brooding emo kid who gets pissed off and threatens to destroy the world and you're some androgynous emo kid who has to stop him. Instead the game is a mystery story revolving around two people, one named Keats, the other named Ellen (both of which are playable). Keats writes for an occult magazine named Unknown Realms, and Ellen is looking for her mother. They end up in the middle of figuring out a murder mystery and who, or what, did it. In order to solve this mystery, they must travel to the Netherworld, a place where the dead roam. In the Netherworld, they must destroy monsters and capture their souls. I won't say too much else because the story is easily one of the best I've seen in an RPG, especially a Japanese one.
The game plays like a third person action game crossed with an RPG. The combat system is really unique. At any time, you may equip up to four folks, which are souls that you have captured and can use to attack enemies. You are then able to carry out each attack by simply pressing one of the face buttons on the controller. You are able to gain more Folks by defeating enemies and capturing their soul. One of the unique things about this game are the online features. You are able to create your own custom dungeons and share them with people online. In addition to that, there are also two add-on packs up on the Playstation Store as of this writing that add 3-4 hours of gameplay with 4 quests and a new Folk in each pack. Downloadable content is not something I'm a big fan of, but it's nice to get a little bit more out of the game for $4 (or $6 for both packs on the store right now). I hope this explanation made sense because I don't know that it did. Regardless, be sure to check out Folklore if you ever get a Playstation 3.
For the time of release this was a pretty weird game to port back in 1998. This arcade perfect port of Captain Commando supports the Multi-Tap for up to three players playing at once. The arcade game can support up to four players but why couldn't New (the company who ported the game, they also did the great Adventures of Little Ralph on the PS1) add in support for a fourth player? Personally I guess it was Video RAM limitations but I still think New can add in a fourth player to the mix.
Price range: $70-$120 depending on condition.
How much I got it for: $73 without spine card.
Why I purchase it: It's a beat 'em up you play with friends, supports three players, and arcade perfect. I need more Multi-Tap games for the PS1.
Who it's for: For Beat 'em Ups fans only. People who're not into Beat 'em Ups will not enjoy it at all.
The first glimpse at Rez HD for the Xbox 360 (distributed via Xbox Live Arcade) in action has been unleashed onto the internet by GameVideos. Rez HD looks like it will become the version of Rez to get due to its low price, and superior visuals to the PS2 and Dreamcast versions. Or, if you don't like downloadable titles or don't think they count as "having" the game, then go for the PS2 version as it runs much faster than the Dreamcast one and has better audio thanks to the PS2's optical audio output. Anyways, check out the footage of Rez HD for the Xbox 360 right here:
You can also check out these videos in high definition:
All you 360 owners out there who have never played Rez (damn near all of you I bet), you must buy this when it comes out. Rez is one of the most original and enjoyable games ever created, and your purchase may persuade Sega to make a sequel (at least I hope).
[IMG align=right width=250]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/2028517727476d6aab3bee7pope_looks_like_palpatine_02.jpg[/img] I'm horribly confused. At a time where the Catholic Church is falling apart amid scandal, Tony Blair has converted to the faith. I can't help but ask myself why? No before you call me a hater of Catholics, do know that I myself am Catholic. I also went to twelve years of Catholic school, of which four were taught by Jesuits. The Jesuits are the wonderful sect of Catholicism that has no problem showing its students Dogma as a way to point out what is wrong with the Church. Did I mention that Pope Benedict looks like Emperor Palpatine? Must I also mention that Benedict is the last Pope before Peter the II, who is supposed to be the last reigning pope of Catholicism? Read into that how you want. But, yeah, there is one thing that I find deeply profound about Catholicism that is said in Dogma, "You people mourn your faith, as though it is a burden." It's true, check out a Catholic mass. Chances are it will be rather dreary and sad. Sure there are the bright, cheery contemporary masses, but those are in the minority.
So, Tony Blair, why the conversion? I am proud that you have found "your faith", but why Catholicism? Was it the recent reinterpretation of Vatican II that said that only Catholics can receive true salvation? Yeah, it's true that Benedict said that. Never mind the fact that prior to his reinterpretation it was Dogma that God revealed himself to every civilization in the way that best works for that civilization, and everyone could receive true salvation. So yeah, please, the world wants to know. I want to know. Trying to mend bridges? Whatever it is... we would love to know.
So, how's it going EA? Find any new developers to buy up? You broke my heart when you bought Maxis. It further disintegrated when you guys dissolved Maxis into EA Games. You bastard. I hate you. Luckily for you, I am still a die hard Will Wright Fan, and for that reason I'll have a reason periodically to buy a game developed and published by you.
Recently, you released Harmonix's Rock Band to the masses in "North America". It was shortly around launch that you clarified "North America" to mean United States. Now, I am American, but when I think North America, I think three countries:
Canada
Mexico
United States
In addition, Latin America is part of North America, even if we tend to ignore those countries. I feel honored to bring you that geography lesson for today, brought to you by NAFTA. Someone should have given Harmonix / EA this lesson when they decided to announce a release date for Rock Band. If I was Canadian, I'd feel pretty slighted by the fact that EA does not find you part of North America. I'd be even more ticked that Rock Band was delayed all the way to yesterday. But, perhaps EA would make amends by giving you guys a decent launch. Eh? Eh?! Nah, that's not EA's style. Turns out most retailers in Canada did not get a shipment yesterday, much to the disappointment of fans camping out for the game. Furthermore, those retailers that did get a shipment got a horribly reduced release. This slighting would infuriate me if I was Canadian, and I've come up with some conclusions about EA:
EA, you have an identity crisis. I believe that you think that you are Nintendo. Furthermore, I think you have confused Canada with the continent of Europe. What's the deal? Did you guys get hit on your head? Snap out of hit! Stop shafting our friends to the North, where some people call themselves Tan and some people like to say 'Eh?'. It's a lovely country. Stop screwing the pooch. Give them the game. Don't be jerks. It only hurts your sales. Ask Activision, I bet they could give you some pointers on alienating fans.
Sorry Canada, I couldn't snap EA out of their trance. Before you know it, you'll start seeing EA published minigames out the wahzoo and more casually focused games! My God, help us all.
So yeah, kudos to you if you know what the Tunguska Event is. See, in 1908, an asteroid or comet exploded above Siberia, obliterating everything within 830 square miles. It was one of those rare occasions that proved that contrary to what Molotov Cocktease said, it is not always cold in Siberia. Interestingly enough, it is possible that the asteroid / comet was up to 1.2km in diameter. Luckily, since it exploded 5-10 kilometers above Tunguska, the impact event did not bring upon the second dark age (The prior dark age beginning in 500 AD is hypothesized to be a result of a super volcano explosion that separated Java from Sumatra, you may have heard of the volcano... Krakatoa). Certainly, this impact could have been significantly more catastrophic had it happened over a population center. Imagine it hitting London or Tokyo, either city would be wiped off the map. In fact, almost any city would be wiped off the map from a Tunguska type event. Hence, there is a genuine interest to make sure that we can guard against an impact such as the one that occurred in Siberia on June 30, 1908.
Well, CNN is saying that there is a 1 in 75 chance that an asteroid comparable to whatever impacted Tunguska will hit Mars on January 30, 2008. Sure, 1 in 75 is a small probability, but I can assure you that some of you have experienced rarer probabilities at work, such as a 100 year flood. Certainly, any impact on Mars would be rather devastating for what ever exists there (Xenu and his minions), but at the same time it would be a great insight as to what actually happens during these impact events. We know that the Earth has been impacted many times before, how valuable would it be for scientists and engineers to see what occurs during the impact so that they can guard against it. It could be an interesting day in January 30th for any science geek, time will tell.
During the 32-bit era some of Irem's best shmups were ported onto the PSX and Saturn in two different collections. Depending where you go it's either a hit or a partly miss.
Released in the US thanks to ASCII Entertainment (later became known as Agetec), R-Types is perfect port of R-Type and R-Type II on one disc. R-Types comes with a nice intro video, a Museum mode, and of course both games. Shmup fans and arcade fans in general will love the collection because the gameplay is still hard and fun after all these years.
[img width=315 height=279]http://www.retrogame-shop.com/shop/images/image-xing.jpg[/img] Note: Playstation version looks just like the Saturn cover except it has the Playstation logo on it.
Released only in Japan and in Asian counties (Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.), Arcade Gears was Xing's line of retro arcade games that was published in the late 90s. Xing didn't develop any games, they just ported other company's games to mostly the Saturn and some on the Playstation (like Tatio's Gun Frontier, Capcom's Three Wonders, etc.). Image Fight and X-Multiply were two great Irem shmups that were released after R-Type. While these games didn't get the same fanfare as R-Type, they're still fun and hard like R-Type. Image Fight is a vertical shmup where the first five stages are a simulation. Do well in those stages you can go to the final three stages. X-Multiply is more similar to R-Type but it tends to focus a lot more on organic backgrounds and enemy designs (like Konami's Salamander/LifeForce).
Anyway, about the ports. Both the Playstaion and Saturn ports were mostly good except for some few faws. In both versions when playing X-Multiply you have to move the status menu (which tells the score, lives, etc.) by using the L/R buttons in order to see the whole screen. The original arcade game didn't have this problem at all. You can't change button configurations in the Saturn version (only in PSX version). In both versions, when playing Image Fight it appears that the bullets move a little too fast (compared to the arcade version). On the PSX port, when playing Image Fight in TATE mode (true Vertical mode by flipping your TV on its side, aka true Arcade screen mode) you'll sometimes get graphical glitches.
Funny thing because unlike R-Type where the menus look nice, Image Fight & X-Multiply's menus look really rushed. Of course when does having pretty menus mean anything (never)? If you want to get Image Fight & X-Multiply it's going to cost you a good bit of money. The Saturn version goes for $70-$100 and it's more common than the PSX version (but the weird thing is that the PSX version is cheaper, around $60-$80).
The Saturn version was only released in Japan while the PSX version was released in both Japan and in Asian countries.
What started because Hydrobond complained has now come to a ceremonious end with 5000 replies. Ah... memories. This thread started while we were still using yaBB, back when anything over 2000 posts would make the forum cry. Let's try to think of all the things that have happened on the site during the life time of this hallowed thread.
Well I updated the look of my blog and added a description. Im gonna add a few more of my favorite characters to the top but this will do for now. I guess I never introduced myself really so I will here. My name is Jon and I was born and raised here in Minneapolis MN. I've been playing video games for as long as I can remember. I still have my orginal NES and SNES from when I was little. As a matter of fact the only systems I've ever had to replace was a PS2 (darn disc tray) and a Gameboy SP (stolen, which I actully replaced with a DS lite). I believe heavly that gaming should be taken more seriously by the general public. In other words if they wanna pass a law that makes it so you can't but GTA unless your 30, you better do the same with movies and such. But we all know that wouldn't happen so how about just leaving our games alone!
If you look at my collection and wishlist you'll see that my favorite genre of game would probably be RPGs. Although I have games in almost all genres I'm fond of. I've been collecting for about a year and a half now. It all started when my Girlfriend showed me this little shop that sold a lot neat retro video games. Since then I've been researching some of these great games I've never knew about. Unfortuntly I know have a bit of a Ebay addiction but I'm working on it.
Speaking of Ebay I found a Mother 3 Deluxe set on it recently. If I had an extra $200 that Franklin Badge and gameboy Micro would be mine!!!
Well I think thats it for now. I'm gonna try and write in this every day off I get so hopefully 1-2 times a week. Thanks for reading!
Epoch, better know for their game software and toy products, was actually very involved with hardware development in Japan dating back to their first console release in June 1981 - the Epoch Cassette Vision. This very obscure system was actually a hybrid pong/cartridge-based unit - the first of its kind in Japan. Though financial windfalls were never achieved, the moderate success that the Cassette Vision did enjoy was due to one reason - correct price positioning.[img width=300 align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/hardware/J-110/bf/J-110-H-00010-A.jpg[/img]
In 1979, Bandai was the first to release the first programmable game cartridge in Japan with their release of the Super Vision 8000. This new technology (to the Japan market) would cost you $560 USD ($1,300 in 2007 dollars). Epoch, having been a first hand witness to this console's eventual failure, wisely decided to produce a system at an affordable price point for the general buying public. The Cassette Vision was released for $235 USD ($275 USD in 2007 dollars), which was much more palatable to the still relatively virgin Japanese gaming market. The big question - was this a good value?
As stated in my previous overviews, pong based consoles enjoyed a prolonged following in Japan well into the early 1980s while the video game player in the USA had been exposed to the new programmable game cartridge systems much earlier (1976). Epoch attempted to capitalize in both of these arenas - the Cassette Vision supported both pong and programmable game cartridge technology. To be able to adequately describe how this was possible requires a little more information on how the pong game industry evolved.
During the mid to late 1970s, technology was evolving at a very fast pace, primarily on the hardware side. Pong games grew more complex and greater variations were able to be produced. What had occurred in the past was that a new pong console was developed and then released under a new version/name every time a jump in technology was introduced. Obviously, this was a costly venture for the various console manufacturers. At the same time, the size of the new components that were used to drive the machines, and included pong games, decreased. Together, these advances in hardware lead to the development of 'pong on a chip' game cartridges. Essentially, the manufacture could produce a base pong system with a standard set of hardware installed and a new pong game cartridge would contain not only the game itself but also a processing chip. This chip was used to in essence 'upgrade' the base system's hardware to enable game play with the new software. Distributing technology in the form of a game cartridge was much more cost effective, not too mention efficient, for the manufacturer while at the same time saved the consumer plenty as well by not having to upgrade their pong system all the time. Almost all developers and manufacturers in the mid 1970s and early 1980s migrated to this method of upgrade deployment - not just Epoch.
[img width=300 align=left]http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/images/1980s/81_EPOCH_Cassette_Vision/81_EPOCH_Cassette_Games.jpg[/img]It seems that Epoch decided that this may be the most efficient way to support both pong and programmable game cartridges. The Cassette Vision was driven by a 4-bit 6502-A processor that produced both game types (pongprogrammable) at a resolution of 256x192 in 16 colors. This base hardware package was very outdated at the time of release in 1981. The console does produce sounds through a connected display device (television) rather than internally, but I am not sure of the details of the output. The end result was that pong games looked great, but the hardware could only produce below average graphics for the programmable game cartridges.
The console itself is rather odd looking, but has a classy feel about it. The rectangular grey main casing is constructive of heavy plastics and sports a black inverted T faceplate highlighting the various button and toggle switches and controls. The controllers are built into the console. Two paddle-type knobs flank the respective top left and right sides of the console which control horizontal and vertical movement. Lever-1 and Lever-2, toggle-looking controls, are utilized for horizontal movement in some games and are located on the lower right and left. Four action buttons line the bottom front of the console (labeled PUSH-1 through PUSH-4). Other basic push-buttons (power, etc.) are featured in the center of the console. Though this system is not small, measuring in at 13.25" W x 10.50" L 3.25" H (33.66 cm W x 26.67 cm L x 8.26 cm H), it is surprising light (3 lbs / 1.58 kg).
There were a total of 10 games released for this system, the most notable being Kikori No Yosaku, a game that involved the player to chop down trees. The other games were Astro Command, Monster Mansion, Grand Champion, Monster Block, Galaxian, Big Sports 12, Elevator Panic, Baseball and Battle Vader. Most are arcade clones of existing games. Graphics are very basic and could be compared to the first games offered for the Bally Home Computer Library (blocky and pretty bad to be honest).
[img width=300 align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/hardware/J-110/bf/J-110-H-00010-C.jpg[/img]The Cassette Vision enjoyed mild success in Japan, enough to have a second version of the system released in 1983 called the Cassette Vision Jr. This system was technically the same as the original, though much smaller in size and with detachable controllers. Though not compatible with the first two editions, this line did produce in 1984 a fairly successful system in both Japan and Europe called the Super Cassette Vision.
Purchasing an original Cassette Vision can be a costly proposition - not recommended for the standard gamer. Since this, as well as the Cassette Vision Jr. were only released in Japan, shipping costs need to be considered. Expect to pay $275-$350 USD for an original CIB system, plus $65 USD for shipping from Japan to the USA. The Cassette Vision Jr. is more widely available, but will still cost about $200 and $55 USD shipping. Games will range between $65 to $100 USD.
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.
This inclusion might be a little controversial since it is a fairly well known game and will be getting a sequel, but nonetheless, I think it's been overlooked by many gamers. This game would be 
Next up on the list is 
