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Hey guys! I know this isn't too game related, but I started a new podcast!
As Someone Who Doesn't Read Comics - a podcast from the perspective of newbies to the comic world. Come join Becca, Paul, and Myself as we delve into the world of comics in a non-jaded manner!
If you are hurting for something to listen to in between the amazing RFGen podcast and community wrap up, come give us a listen!
P.S: I'll have more video game retaliated things soon!
https://www.youtube.com/c.../UCSzxf1vyW8hBBnd0i1o3dnw
[img width=700 height=393]http://i.imgur.com/GCZYz43.png[/img]
With the release of Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth on the horizon, I thought it would be an appropriate time to look at the game that Beyond Earth has its roots in. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri was released in 1999 , between Civilization II and III, for Windows and was later ported to Mac and Linux. No need to fire up DOSBox for this one.
Continue reading Dust Off Your DOSBox and Play Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
[[img width=350 height=492]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-075/bf/U-075-S-03690-A.jpg[/img]
Sequels for horror movies rarely match the feel of the original. Sure, some of them are better, but are they as scary? I feel that in a attempt to recapture the feel (and audience) of the original film, most horror sequels are content with following the same basic formula of the original. So how do we get over such a thing? In the scope of this article, the answer is to create a movie sequel in the form of a video game. But does it work? Can the same kind of horror that stalks us on the silver screen translate to a completely different format, one that tends to rely on completely different ways to frighten the participant? The Thing attempts to incorporate the same survival aspects and monster design featured in parts of the film and couple it with squad-based shooter elements and team management into what is hoped to be a winning title. Did Computer Artworks succeed with such a lofty ambition or was this project doomed to failure from the onset? To find out, we'll have to fly south to see what has happened since the original film ended. Bring your coat, as I fear the cold can get overwhelming rather quickly.
**DISCLAIMER** - PICTURES AND VIDEOS BEYOND THIS BREAK CONTAIN VIOLENCE, BLOOD AND GORE, AND ADULT LANGUAGE THAT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AUDIENCES. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Continue reading Review: The Thing
[img width=600 height=425]http://i.imgur.com/gGnQTAK.jpg[/img]
For years now the Xbox 360 controller has been the de facto controller of choice for PC gamers. It's sturdy, comfortable, and because it's made by Microsoft, it had plug and play drivers for Windows right out of the box. It's been the standard to such a degree that the vast majority of PC games even use its buttons' colors and lettering scheme by default. It's now just assumed that this is the controller that you're using. So when the Xbox One was announced, along with a new controller, it was a bit exciting for PC gamers as well. However, there were no drivers to use it on PC available at launch. Until now. So let's take a look at how it stands up as the new PC controller of choice, shall we?
Continue reading Review: Xbox One Controller
[img width=250 height=450]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-060/ms/U-060-S-00560-A.jpg[/img]
Welcome back to a world of horror and fright. You may remember last year when I did a review of a game (Thief: The Dark Project [http://www.rfgeneration.c...The-Dark-Project-2639.php]) that many would not consider when pondering their options to step into a good atmosphere that sends chills down your spine and squeals up your throat. The real "horror" came from the masterpiece's years spent in "Development Hell" where its focus was changed about a half dozen times. In contrast to a jumbled mess of juxtaposed design and experimentation that somehow worked brilliantly, this year I bring you D. Just "D." The letter "D." No more. No less. "D."
Continue reading Spooky Plays: D
[img width=610 height=343]http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/o736/Fleach/e4264144-ecfc-48b1-aaf1-cc5092151304_zpsc7e03d54.png[/img] Is this a collection?
I'm facing a dilemma, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Digitally distributed games are saturating the market, and as a collector, I feel a little strange.
Continue reading With Games Up in the Cloud, I Feel Down in the Dumps
[img width=636 height=358]http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--kIlJenQf--/lf4j5ck0puv41zl3dodl.png[/img]
Funny thing about us humans, we do a lot of things without asking why we do it. The same goes for continuing to do something without asking ourselves if we should have stopped long, long ago. For all of the things humanity has studied with great introspection, one thing most people tend to be terrible at is questioning their own actions and adjusting their lives accordingly.
If there's a whirling fan, someone's put their finger close to it. If it exists in the material world, it's been in someone's mouth. If you have young children, you learn daily how the simplest task can go horribly awry. And to the point of this article, if you're a gamer, chances are at least once you've stared at a Game Over screen and wondered why you feel compelled to press a button to continue.
Continue reading Continue?
[img width=640 height=424]http://i.imgur.com/YZT5PMRl.jpg[/img]
I like to take things apart and put them back together again. Always have. My parents would come home from running a few errands and would find any number of electronics items from throughout the house disassembled on the dining room table. VCR, Computer, Stereo, anything I could get my hands on. Oddly enough, I never took apart a video game system when I was young. I was so afraid that it wouldn't work after I put everything back together and I didn't want to deal with the emotional turmoil of not being able to play RBI Baseball or Blades of Steel. Flash forward a few years and I have no issues taking a game console apart. So imagine my surprise when I do a little searching online for a Sega 32X teardown so I know what I'm getting into and I can't find one. I'm sure there a few out there, but if I search for something on the internet and what I'm looking for isn't in the top 4 or 5 returned pages, it might as well not exist.
Here we go, I'm sacrificing this 32X just to get a closer look at all of the little bits.
Continue reading 32X, Show Me Your RISC Chips
So it is coming up on one year, since I decided to embark on a Game Quest (pun intended), and threw my hat into the world of game collecting. It was all driven by the same need for nostalgia as all of my other collections and started as a goal to reacquire all the games I once owned. Many of you have seen my small scores posts, or had a look at my collection and can see that for the most part, that I heavily favor the NES.
For me, the NES was the time of my life that features very prominently in my memory of childhood, as the most fun and excitement I ever had gaming. I had gotten my own Atari JR. for christmas in '85 and was pumped, because I had often played on relatives Heavy Sixers, but had longed for my own VCS. Two months later the NES came to the Great White North, and I had no knowledge of its existence at that point. In April of 1986, my cousin Colin got a NES Control Deck Set and upon viewing Super Mario Bros. for the first time, my life was forever changed. Cliche' but true.
Unfortunately, I have only really taken a collectors side to gaming in the past year, as I had always sold off most of game systems and games I had as a kid. Last summer i had 4 NES titles and probably 60 or so total games? Somehow, the fever of game collecting took me full force in the past year, my colection has boomed, and now I find myself writing my first blog on RF Generation about my newest collecting goal
NES: 10 to 300. Basically, I have crazily acquired 290 mostly loose, NES carts in the past 12 months. I am unabashed in admitting I make good money in my line of work, and am not shy about going after some of the uncommon and somewhat pricier NES titles, especially if it pays for a really good guys son to go to a decent college.
Which brings me to the point and title. The 10 to 300 (in no particular order)
1. Mighty Final Fight
[img width=450 height=630]http://i1375.photobucket.com/albums/ag478/michaelrancourt/mighty_zps3d2120d2.jpg[/img]
This one is the last of the big and rare, for my Capcom subset.
2. TMNT: Tournament Fighters
Pending 30 day hold. grrrrrr.. The biggest Konami subset game left other than...
3. Contra Force
Gonna have to FORCE myself to add this critically panned part of the Contra series
4. Zombie Nation
[img width=550 height=773]http://i1375.photobucket.com/albums/ag478/michaelrancourt/zombienation_zps8b55448a.jpg[/img]
This one, will be the most expensive of all of the 10, and in some ways, the one that I am most intrigued to try.
5. Fire N' Ice
Not sure why this is on the 10. I guess my OCD compels me to get it now, then try and get Solomon's Key after 300, then play Solomon's Key first....Moving ON!!
6. Ninja Gaiden III
Want to complete this series. Sorry, all I got for this one.
7. Jetsons: Cogswells Caper
Compared to Flinstones: The Surprise at Dino Peak and Little Samson, this Taito title will be easy on the wallet!
8. Gun*Nac
[img width=256 height=224]http://i1375.photobucket.com/albums/ag478/michaelrancourt/bunny_zps807fe725.png[/img]
This one is on its way to me and is officially, the first of the 10 that I am acquiring. I look forward to blasting robotic bunnies!
9. Bomberman II
I have long been a fan of the bomberman series. This guy, Saturn bomberman, and Super Bomberman III are the priciest of the series I want to acquire.
last but not least
10. SCAT
I like shooters. Looks fun. Co'op!?!?!
[img align=left width=81 height=110]http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y359/necrom99/banana_zps34b800e7.jpeg[/img]Dear RFGeneration Members, as you might have noticed over the past few months, one of our long-time (since 2009) and active members on the site, bombatomba, has had a few of his most recent blog posts promoted to our front page. Our staff has enjoyed reading his work, has followed his blog closely, and used his posts to fill in dates at times when more content was needed. We are happy to announce that bombatomba has accepted our offer to join the blog writing staff and you will be seeing more of his work in the future. Please join our staff in congratulating him and welcoming him to the RFGeneration staff!
[img width=350 height=582]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-060/ms/U-060-S-02190-A.jpg[/img]
Three Dirty Dwarves is a side-scrolling, action game, somewhat in the vein of Golden Axe/Streets of Rage, that was released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn and PC. On the surface, it has lots of great animation, especially for the main characters, a goofy visual aesthetic, amusing sound effects, and co-op for up to three players. However, underneath beats the heart of an arcade game that never was. Be it good or bad, at the end of the day we are left with this somewhat amusing game that remains fun (with a group) yet is nonetheless flawed. So let's go ahead and roll in the dirt a bit and explore Three Dirty Dwarves for the Sega Saturn.
Continue reading Three Dirty Dwarves: A Review
[img width=700 height=393]http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/73499800165275086/C8B25DDAF3FEA1B512FE031F6313AEFABFD55FF1/[/img]
Escape Goat 2
2014, Magical Time Bean
There's a really popular indie game about goats that came out this year. It's a glitchy, open-world mess of a game. And Escape Goat 2 isn't it. Instead, Escape Goat 2 is an amazing puzzle-platformer with tight controls, excellent level design, an old school sensibility, and gorgeous HD visuals. Also, it has a mouse that wears a hat. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's slow down and take a look at this excellent game.
Continue reading Review: Escape Goat 2
[img width=600 height=440]http://logoblink.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/atari-logo.jpg[/img]
Let me ask you something...if you had been the Boss of Atari in the 70s and 80s, what would you have done different, and do you think that it would have saved Atari as a Hardware Developer? Well, here's how I would have handled it...
DISCLAIMER: This entry is meant for humor (maybe...) and friendly discussion of how things could have been. Try not to take it too seriously. Also, if you happened to notice the time that this was posted, give me a break! It's late at night and I'm bored as hell! 
Right then...The first thing I would do is give credit to anyone who made a game for my company. Atari was notorious for not giving credit to game designers. In fact, Secret Quest's box says it's by Nolan Bushnell (Founder of Atari), but this is incorrect. It was actually programmed by Steve DeFrisco.
The next thing I would have done is allowed more time for games to be developed. This move would have probably made Pac-Man for the 2600 and E.T. into good, or at least decent games. These were just two of several games that were rushed out to my knowledge.
Third, I would have toned down the marketing attitude somewhat. While it's true that a Console and it's games NEED to be advertised in one way or another, why waste money on marketing entirely? Today, it costs over 1 Million US Dollars for 30 Seconds of Airtime during the Super Bowl. That's 1 Million Dollars that could have gone to funding better technology and games. Perhaps this is a minor point, but I still feel that it's relevant.
Next, I wouldn't have been a dick to my employees. This may sound harsh, but it's true. At one point, an employee called The Czar (Ray Kassar) called every Atari Programmer "High-Strung Prima Donnas". What a jerk! Another guy, Jack Tramiel, fired over 1000 Employees, including the CEO. Why he did this, I don't know, but it still seems rather much to me.
FIVE! Kill the idea of "Adult Games" right away! This clearly caused much controversy, and many problems for Atari. Despite being unlicensed, they still happened. I would have used all manner of means at my disposal to prevent them from appearing on my console.
Number Six! I'd make sure games were actually finished. There were plenty of games that were never finished or released for the 2600. Each one for it's own reasons, but if I start something, I expect to finish it one way or another. More on this idea, I'd have also spent a ton less money on that Swordquest Contest. I've read that Atari used REAL Jewels to make the prizes...WHY?! Who thought that was necessary?!
Problem Seven! The Supercharger! Okay...I like the Supercharger. It's cool, but it's short supported life was stupid, in my honest opinion. I feel that if more time was taken to learn it, and it used something OTHER than Cassette Tapes, it might have done so much better. I know options for media were limited back then, but I feel that, given enough time, CDs could have been officially utilized with it.
NUMBER NINE--(Coughs loudly)--...5200 Controllers! These things are pretty junky unless rebuilt. Also, the Number Pad is too much. I'd lose it. I could think of at least a couple ways that the Number Pad could have been made obsolete, but that's a minor issue. The big issue is the build quality of these devices. They're Prototypes were built so much better, and received favorable reception. So why then did Atari change them? I would have actually listened to the customer, and kept it the way it was.
Last, but not least...The Epilogue! Perhaps all this is very much easier said than done, but that certainly doesn't mean it's impossible. I feel that if these steps and more were taken, Atari could still be the Giant that it was back in the 80s today. Still, I could be wrong. Perhaps they were doomed from the start, I don't know. As the Tootsie-Pop Commercials say..."The World may never know."
Well, that's all for now. What are some steps that you would have taken in this matter?
Many of us Video Game collectors and enthusiasts toy with the idea of having our own Game Store, or at least working at someone else's store. It's definitely more of an option at a younger age, but some of us have trouble letting go of this idea.
On May 4, 2013, I posted a thread here on rfgen asking for ideas and opinions about opening my own local Video Game store and it was met with great supportive response. Flash forward to September 1, 2014 and I was celebrating my first successful year of running a such a business.
Continue reading Blog Quest
[img width=350 height=582]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-060/ms/U-060-S-00700-A.jpg[/img]
Dragon Force is a rather unique strategy game for the Sega Saturn that mixes turn based strategy with real time tactical movement, decision making, and party building. Development for this game was started by J-Force, but Sega eventually took it over and finished it. In North America, it was localized and released by Working Designs. Sega used Working Designs' English translation for the European release of the game.
Dragon Force focuses on a continent-wide war between the various kingdoms and empires of Legendra (terrible name...). There are eight total kingdoms to choose from, but only six are initially available; the other two are unlocked after your first time beating the game.
Continue reading Psychotic Reviews: Dragon Force
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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.
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