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As collectors, we all face the inevitable scenario of duplicates. Some of us insist on keeping everything just in case something happens to the other one, but most of sell or trade off one of the others. I don't know about the rest of you, but I scrutinize both pieces and first check for any variations; assuming they're both the same, I keep the higher quality one and sell the lesser one. However, with my recent acquisition of a near mint boxed Power Pad, I've come to a serious dilemma. See, the problem is that I already have a boxed Power Pad, though the box is in poor condition.
So now, you're probably wondering what the dilemma is. Keep the near mint one and sell the crappy one, case closed. But here's the kicker; the poor condition is the one from my childhood, yep the same Power Pad little 3 year old NES_Rules used to play World Class Track Meet on, also the same pad I learned that you can "run" with your hands a hell of a lot faster than you can with your feet.
So, this week's dilemma is: what to keep, the treasured childhood memory or the near mint treasure that looks a lot nicer on the shelf. So, members of RF Generation, which would YOU keep? Of course, one could just keep both, but for the sake of argument, let's say you can only keep one.
Ed Note: Got to love logical's fervor. -TJSo... Our great site rfgeneration.com has this really awesome thing called a
chat room. And it's just that, AWESOME! I know that personally, I've had some great times in the chat room, and I can assure you all that others have too.
You got a question but don't want to wait for a reply to your post? Then you could go over to the chat and ask. you would get an answer. Bar none. At least, that's how it used to be...
The chat here at rfgeneration has become a ghost town, a miserable excuse for the BEST GAME SITE EVER! Malygris is almost always in there, and I frequently stop by. So do others. But if you're the only one in a chat room, don't you normally leave? Of course you do. It's down right boring.
That's why I am blogging to my fellow rfgen'ers, so that we can revive the chat, make it lively again. At least, I hope thats what everyone gets out of this...
The chat is awesome, and I don't like seeing it go to waste. So, hop on over to the rfgeneration chat room, and get CHATTING!
Why do I bother anymore? Enjoy your week of summer shovelware everyone!
| Playstation 3 | Xbox 360 | Nintendo Wii |
•
Monster Madness: Grave Danger | ... | •Little League World Series
•King of Clubs
•Summer Athletics |
| PSP | Nintendo DS | Playstation 2 |
| ... | •The Cheetah Girls: Passport to Stardom
•GRID
•Little League World Series
•Professor Brainium
•Quick Yoga Training
•Rock Blast | •B-Boy
•Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour |
Asking me to pick a game to get out of those is like forcing me to stab myself in the eye with a rusty knife, so I'm going to highlight Braid, this week's new Xbox Live Arcade game, and recipient of the 2006 Independent Games Festival award for Innovation In Design. The game is a puzzle platformer that features the ability to "rewind" your actions in order to help solve puzzles and correct your mistakes. However, rewinding creates the puzzles. For example, there are objects in the levels that cannot be rewound, alternate realities, and more. I have never played the game, but judging by the videos and various interviews with the game's designer, Jonathan Blow, this is going to be an incredible game. It comes out on XBLA this week and on PC sometime later this year.
Here's a link to the official website of the game:
http://www.braid-game.com/
Look at that box art.
Damn. You know, most people wish for their box art to look somewhere close to what the game is like, but instead, the original
Mega Man's box art is
that. To me, it looks like the artist or marketing team were on an acid trip while going over / creating that box art, and that is why we have
that. Certainly, some creative liberties were taken with that box art.
Anyways, I am not writing this article to talk about
that, but instead
this. Capcom has finally realized that they can make a lot of easy money by rereleasing
Mega Man for the Virtual Console. You know, as a kid, Mario was great and all, but at least for me Mega Man stole the show. I loved that series, and well,
Mega Man 2 is a masterpiece. I bet there are a lot of other people who hold a similar nostalgic value for Mega Man.
Well, fortunately for people like myself, Capcom has decided to start the hype train for the release of
Mega Man 9, the game that is quite possibly going to be the hardest Mega Man of all time, if what they said is to be believed. All I know is that I want the game, and to further make me want the game, Capcom is releasing
Mega Man for the Virtual Console, tomorrow. That's right, tomorrow kids, at least stateside. And even better news for me,
Mega Man 2 is coming out for the Virtual Console in early September.
Let the hype train roll, Capcom, I bet you'll see some healthy sales with those two releases, as well as the release of
Mega Man 9.
The Blue Bomber is coming to Virtual Console [Dtoid]
Saturday was an awesome day of sales, there was simply too many to get to them all so we had to hurry at each one to get to as many as we could. In total, we drove 50 miles of garage saling. But it was worth the $8 in gas for all the stuff we got. The very first house we stopped at had this stuff:
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9803.jpg[/img]
The Captain N and the Double Dragon next to it are still sealed. Everything was marked $1 each, I got my normal 6 for $5.
It was kind of funny getting that stuff, the guy had boxes of VHS tapes, PC games (mostly edutainment), and books. I just happened to see the Sonic R and then the Battletoads VHS so I dug a little deeper and kept pulling out the video game related VHS tapes. Oddly enough though, he didn't have any other video games.
There was a neighborhood sale in the same area but they had one a few weeks ago and it was expensive junk then so this week it was 1/2 off junk. We didn't even stop at the majority of them.
It was a while before I got anything else, but it was worth the wait. For $2:
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9809.jpg[/img]
There's actually 3 copies of Sewer Shark, I have no idea why though. The other game in the jewel case is Sherlock Holmes: consulting detective vol. II. The Genesis games are all CIB and I have no idea what that USB cord is for. I paid asking price on that one. The lady was nice and friendly so I didn't feel like ripping her off more than she already was.
We went to another sale that I knew we have been to before (had nothing the last time) but we were already there so I went up to it anyway and came back with these:
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9804.jpg[/img]
Nothing amazing, but it was only $2 for it all.
Next up was a huge neighborhood sale, two streets long and nearly every house was participating. Of course a lot of it was junk but I managed to find a couple treasures.
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9801.jpg[/img]
These were actually from two different houses. Both are factory sealed although the GBA game is missing some of it's shrink-wrap. I paid the asking price on Trouballs at $1, I offered $1 for the other, we settled on $1.50. Once I got home and peeled off the Trouballs price sticker there was a $0.75 sticker under the $1 sticker. Wish I had known that before, I would have peeled off the $1 sticker.
Also from that neighborhood sale:
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9808.jpg[/img]
Paid asking price of $1 each.
At one of the houses, as we walk up to the garage the woman asks "are you here for the garage sale" we tell her yes, expecting her to say it was closed. But she said that everything in a large pile was free and there was more at the curb. So I went and got the truck and we filled it up with boxes and bags of kids toys. Some of it will go to my niece but we'll probably sell the rest to a guy at the flea market for a few bucks. There was a couple things in there for me as well. The video game related stuff:
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9800.jpg[/img]
Most of the toys are circa 2002 but the Luigi on the cloud is from 1989.
Unfortunately, half way through this neighborhood sale, my mom called us. We had to take some stuff to a golf course for an outing we were having. So we stopped and left my dad's truck (which was pre-packed the night before) there and we continued our expedition.
On the way back to the sales, there was a small unadvertised yard sale but it didn't look like much so my dad wanted to just drive by, and I agreed until I saw a small black fabric case on the table and some cords hanging down. I know I've seen N64 system/game cases before and I just had a hunch that that was what this was. So I backed up to the sale and took a look. The cords turned out to be an old walkman and the case wasn't an N64 one. I was so disappointed that it didn't say N64 on it, I almost didn't see "Sega Game Gear" embroidered onto it. I asked the price, he said $10, that's what I paid.
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9812.jpg[/img]
[img width=599 height=800]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9813.jpg[/img]
The games:
T2: the arcade game
the lion king
dynamite headdy
Ecco the Dolphin
Batman Returns
Greendog: The Beached Surfer Dude
Pac-Man
RoboCop versus Terminator
Star Wars
Taz-Mania
Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Sonic and Tails
Fatal Fury Special
IN noN video game related finds, I got some other goodies too.
For $1 I got this sweet trench coat:
[img width=599 height=800]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/DSCN9811.jpg[/img]
Should be perfect if deer hunting season is as rainy as it was last season.
For $2.50 I got this sizeable box of miscellaneous wires:
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/DSCN9810.jpg[/img]
She was asking $3, I offered $2, we settled on $2.50. I still have to go through it all. There's a lot of composite cables (some high end gold plated ones too), coax cables, and speaker wire.
CDs were from a couple different sales but were all $1 each.
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/DSCN9802.jpg[/img]
And for $0.50 I got this antique coax switcher.
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/DSCN9807.jpg[/img]
Will be perfect for my Genesis and 2600, no more unplugging and switching for me.
The flea market today wasn't spectacular but better than it has been in recent weeks. I'm seeing more and more vendors specializing in overpriced classic games though.
I did manage to get this off a woman for $4:
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9816.jpg[/img]
When I asked the price she whispered $4 and I thought she said $40 but when I asked her to repeat it, I heard her say $4, so I bought it for that. I was prepared to pay $5 for it though. The box is in excellent condition with just minor shelf wear and the pad itself is like new. Now I have to decide if I should keep this one or the one from my childhood which is not as nice condition. She also had what appeared to be a CIB Genesis 2 Core System, but it was $20 and boxed Genesis systems seem to be everywhere.
A few spots away was a guy with a bunch of random stuff but I spotted a PS1 with a couple games, he said $25 for it, I passed on it. But then I saw Caveman Games for the NES sticking out of a box, so I looked inside to see a pair of Genesis systems, a tangle of wires, and a few games. He said the whole box was $2, I didn't even bother looking to see what all the games were.
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9814.jpg[/img]
I guess this weekend was good enough to make up for the deplorable one last weekend. There wasn't anything one thing that was spectacular, but it was all priced very good and I managed to fill in a few holes in my collection so I guess it was a successful treasure hunt.
RF Generation would be nothing without submitters adding stuff to our database. It is you guys that keep the site and its database growing for people to enjoy.
Last month, RF Generation saw 3155 new database submissions. Of those, 3071 were for the game database, and as I mention that I think you can hear the hardware database crying. Why not submit stuff for that database too? Its entries need more friends! Additionally, July saw 888 new images added to the site, which brings that total up to
a lot. Did you know we have over 61000 images? We sure do, and that number grows every month.
Last month saw our staff truly kick ass and take names. Apolloboy ran away with "Most Submissions in July", with 485 submissions. Tan, Fuyukaze, Funk_Buddy, and NES_Rules were the next highest submitters, which shows our staff's commitment to bettering our database. But... it's not just staff bettering our databases, our members do as well. logical123 was our top non-staff submitter, with 229 submissions, followed by James, happyfish, and Pop Culture Portal. (Good to see you around, PCP!) Of course, many more of you submitted stuff, and I'd like to thank those of you who made more than 50 submissions:
Apolloboy, Tan, Fuyukaze, Funk_Buddy, NES_Rules, logical123, James, happyfish, Pop Culture Portal, Darth Sidious, eaglebeak99, Tondog, totalgridlock/
Thank you guys and everyone else who made submissions last month!
Also, I'd like to thank the staff members for approving your submissions, without their approvals all your submissions would just sit in a queue for eternity. Tan, Fuyukaze, and Marriott_guy have done an excellent job approving your submissions, as have many other staff members. Thanks everyone, and keep up the great work!
How many submissions will August bring? Let's hope for lots, and we'll find out in a month!
[img width=250 height=189]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/hardware/J-098/bf/J-098-H-00010-A.jpg[/img]
During the early mid 1990s, the video game market exploded due to the new technology available to developers, specifically the jump in processor speed and the release of the
CD-ROM format. No longer were game programmers limited by the small canvas standard cartridges provided - the
CD-ROM was their dream come true. With this new media format at their disposal, manufacturers began to truly expand the definition of a video game console. Computer hybrids (
Commodore 64 GS,
FM Towns Marty,
Amiga CD32, etc.) and all-inclusive multimedia devices (
Philips CD-i,
Panasonic 3DO,
Pioneer LaserActive, etc.) were designed to target a new, and older, audience. Taking a slightly different approach, popular game developer
Bandai decided to enter the foray with their release of the
Playdia. Instead of following the current trends,
Bandai marketed the
Playdia to children and families. Would this Japanese-only release hit the mark? Far from it as you will see.
[img width=250 height=189]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/hardware/J-098/hw/J-098-H-00010-A_00.jpg[/img]
The
Playdia is a rather unsophisticated looking unit. The rectangular chassis is comprised of medium weight plastics, sporting an indigo-blue top section with a leprechaun-green base. The design is simple and to the point. A simple power and reset switch reside on the left top of the console, with a large banana-yellow 'open' button on the right to open the door of top loading CD drive. There is a rectangular recess directly in front of the unit to park the wireless IR controller (the first system ever to have a wireless controller standard). The weight of this unit is a bid odd, with most of the weight residing in the back. A standard composite output and DC 9V power supply jack adorn the rear of the unit. Though simplistic in appearance, I do have to say it does stand out in a collection due to the unique colors utilized in its construction. But that is the only reason it stands out.
With a younger audience in its sights, the library of games for the
Playdia is comprised of mostly edutainment titles. All games for this system are interactive
FMV movies - there is no real game play with this system with the exception of selecting an action for your character to perform from a lit of presented options. The
FMV titles are really not that bad. The anime sequences are presented well with very little frame rate drop off, but this is easy to accomplish since there is no real-time input from the user during these sequences. Surprising around 40 titles were released for this system. But not all of these were for the kids.
[img width=300 height=350]http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/images/1990s/94_Bandai_Playdia/playdia_dbz_2_11.jpg[/img]
The
Playdia was not succeeding at all and
Bandai began feeling the fiscal repercussions of a failed system. The
Sony Playstation entered the market just months after its debut and sealed this system's fate. Looking to recoup their losses,
Bandai released interactive anime adult titles to stem the negative financial losses incurred in the first two years of this console's life. Odd that a system initially tailored to the family would resort to these measures, but it worked.
Bandai was able to get out with minimal losses after all was said and done in 1996. Plus,
Bandai had significant resources devoted to a bigger project - the
Bandai Pippin. But that is for another article.
The
Bandai Playdia was a short lived and unsuccessful system. Even with devoting their efforts to a rather untapped market (children / families), the
Playdia could not survive the release of the
Sony Playstation. This is definitely not a recommended purchase for the gamer - only for a console collector. Though unique, the unit is not that pricey. $100 USD should net you a CIB system. The
Playdia is nice to look at in your collection, not so much when you fire it up and experience it.
The link to the full review of this system (including ratings, pictures and video):
http://www.videogameconso...rary.com/pg90-playdia.htm
[img align=right width=200]http://www.sofacinema.co.uk/guardian/images/products/1/60241-large.jpg[/img]For my first review, I've decided to take up SSX 3 for the PS2.
SSX 3 is the third installment in the SSX series by EA, following the succesful launch title SSX (2000) and SSX Tricky (2001).
SSX 3 continues on the succesful formula of the previous two games in the series. In short: smooth, fast and easy to pick up gameplay combined with nice graphics and good soundtrack.
New however, is the fact that all tracks are located on the same mountain, devided into three peaks. To get access to the next peak, it is sufficient to complete the challenges in one particular aspect of the game (for example, the race events)
Depending on which character you're playing with; another character will "challenge" you on every peak. In the off-course area called "The Backcountry" you have to show him/her who's boss.
Gameplay of SSX 3 is rock-solid and the main reason I enjoyed this game as much as I did. Learning curve is very short and you'll be throwing out "Uber-tricks" in no time. After doing enough of these to spell out the words "SUPER UBER", you'll get unlimited boost for a relatively long time. The events you can take place in are: "Race", "Slopestyle", "Super Pipe", "Big Air" and "Backcountry".
By winning events and picking up collectibles on the tracks, you get the necessary cash to outfit your character as you see fit or to (more importantly) upgrade his/her attributes such as "Speed", "Tricks", "Acceleration", etc which will noticabilly improve your boarders' abilities.
Graphics of this game are very nice for a PS2 game with the snow and ice beautifully depicted as your rider glides through it. Once at the top of the mountain, you can get to the bottem of it (which takes about 30min) without a single loading screen.
I like the soundtrack of this game, which sets the atmosphere well as you participate in one of the events with songs from Basement Jaxx, Black Eyed Peace, Fatboy Slim and others. Particulary well done is how the music fades out when you're in the air for a longer period of time or when entering a cave. While not racing you get to listen to the never irritating "DJ Atomica" who briefs you in with all the latest updates on the mountain news.
All in all I can say this is a great game with solid gameplay, nice graphics and funky soundtrack which can appeal to both less experienced gamers aswell as the hardcore.
SSX 3 gets a
9.0/10 from me and I recommend it to anyone who owns a PS2.
This week is highlighted by a fighter, a downloadable platformer, and a shooter.
| Playstation 3 | Xbox 360 | Nintendo Wii |
| •Soul Calibur IV | •Soul Calibur IV
•Spectral Force 3 | •King of Clubs
•MLB Power Pros 2008
•Summer Athletics |
| PSP | Nintendo DS | Playstation 2 |
| ... | •Suzuki Superbikes | •MLB Power Pros 2008 |
My pick this week is Soul Calibur IV for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. SCIV is the latest installment in Namco's popular fighting franchise, and features Star Wars characters, Yoda on the 360 and Darth Vader on the PS3. However, that may change since rumor has it that you will be able to purchase the character the other system has via downloadable content. The game is averaging 90% on GameRankings so far.
But my real pick of the week goes to the surreal PS3 downloadable platformer PixelJunk Eden. The demo came out last week, and I was completely blown away by what Dylan and the team at Q Games did with this one. I highly recommend picking it up if you're a PS3 owner looking for something relaxing but challenging...or if you're a Trophy Ho since Eden is the second game on the PS3 to support trophies. For you 360 owners, Geometry Wars 2 comes out this week as well. Geo Wars 2 is the sequel to the wildly successful Xbox Live Arcade original. New features include additional gameplay modes, and four player online co-op.
Well, this is my first blog post as a staff writer and I wish it could be more interesting than it is. However, this weekend was dismal for treasures, so I guess this post will be to show that even I have bad treasure hunting expeditions.
Well, without further ado, my treasure from this weekend's garage sales:
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9789.jpg[/img]
Yep, just two loose games, common ones too.
I paid $3 for both.
Non-gaming related finds weren't much better either:
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/DSCN9790.jpg[/img]
The records were $0.25 each. The Bob Dylan CD was $1 and everything else was $1.
The sale that had the records also had a N64 with about 10 loose commons for $20 but I passed on it, if I had known this weekend would be so bad, I would have bought it.
What really bothers me is that I have no idea why the sales were so bad either. The weather was great, we shopped from 8:00-2:00, and put nearly 75 miles on the truck. There just wasn't anything good, there wasn't even much stuff at high prices. I fear the area is drying up.
The flea market today wasn't any better. I saw a couple Genesis systems with 1 game for $5 but I'm sick of seeing those things. I almost bought a sealed Mega Man 64 for $15 but decided against it. Another woman had a box of PS2 games (around 60) that she wanted $4-5 each for, I offered her $100 for the box full but she declined. One of the usual game vendors had a SMS with hookups and 2 loose games for $42, I really wanted it but that's just too much for me to spend on a system I know I can find for a few dollars eventually.
And to give a little more flesh to this post. I've decided I'm getting rid of all my duplicate games and systems in one fell swoop. I've got a potential buyer for it now for $1000 but if that doesn't work out I'm going to offer the deal to some of the flea market vendors. I think it's a really good deal considering it's over 300 games and 35 systems. But I just need to get rid of it and have more space.
Developer MOSS has announced (again?) that the arcade hit, Raiden IV, will be arriving on the Xbox 360 this fall. It is slated for a September 11 release and should be supercharged with two extra levels. DLC offerings will take the Ace Combat 6 route where you can buy more ships with different weapon selections and capabilities. A much anticipated feature is the ability to save and share replays of successful runs. Additional bells and whistles include the ability to play in TATE mode (sideways), world rankings, and stunning 3D backgrounds made possible by this next-gen system. Also, a soundtrack CD will be bundled with the game for a limited time. The 360 soundtrack will include all the original arcade music plus extras and some remixes.
