Horrible games. Why do I keep buying them.
You've seen them before. You walk into Wal-Mart or Target or whoever you go to, and you see this on the shelf for (usually) 20 bucks.
Box picture for 10,000 Games
You know for a FACT going in when you buy this, there's going to be maybe ONE game that's merely "bad" instead of "Oh God, I'd rather rip out my spleen than play this". Most people complete ignore these, but not me. For some reason I have it in my head just to see how utterly f***ing HORRIBLE these are. Sometimes it's multiple LEVELS of some horrid Galaga ripoff shooter with graphics that look like they were done by a 5 year old, all counting as the seperate games. Others are light versions of Flash games. Not to mention thousands of Sudoku variations and hundreds and thousands of other stuff I personally could give two sh*ts less about.
On the off chance the right person sees this.
I'm thinking about starting a podcast of some sort. Not really much of a theme in mind other than gaming and technology. I just need someone else to do such a project WITH because people listening to me talk for half an hour or more would get kinda boring. Trust me, ask any of my friends because there are times where I just don't shut the hell up. ;)
I'd obviously be using Skype to record everything, and I'll have to figure out how to go in with Audacity afterward and add things like music and cuts and edits and whatnot. Just shoot me an email if that seems like something you'd wanna try. Especially if you love the Sega Genesis like me, then we'd have all kinds of stuff to talk about.
It'd probably be a twice a month podcast just because I don't know if such an idea would actually take off or not, it's more or less just like this site. Just kinda something to do for fun.
I'm also thinking about doing video reviews of games that I happen to like. I just don't wanna do the janky sounding commentary plays like you see all the time on Youtube. Something that at least seems SOMEWHAT professional.
And I'm also looking for other people to write stuff for the blog. You can write about just about anything you want, all that I ask is that you try to keep it somewhat friendly as far as language is concerned (as in no F-Bombs and whatnot), no porn or any of that mess and preferably at least 700 words, though it's understandable that some posts just won't be that long. As long as it's interesting I don't care.
I'm not really a dictator about it or anything, and I'm pretty easy to get along with for the most part. Just don't expact me to really care one way or the other about the newest Halo games or the newest Call of Duty games or anything. Not really my thing. :)
My small but proud Genesis collection grew a little bit today.
Just got Sonic Spinball, Super Street Fighter 2 and Quackshot today at the pawn shop a little ways from me.
All of them have the cases, but unfortunately the only game that actually has a manual is Sonic Spinball. Good arcadey-type pinball game, but nothing compared to the excellence that is Dragon's Fury.
And I got a Game Genie for the Genesis for about 4 bucks, even has the code book that originally came with the unit itself and 4 issues of the code updates or whatever. Looks like the box and books came in contact with water at some point, but other than one page in the code updates book they're fully readable . And the genie itself works great.
I've found that even with the power of the Game Genie I STILL can't pass the level in T2 : The Arcade Game where you have to defend John Connor's truck. The weird thing is, it's ONLY the Sega Genesis version where I can't pass that level. I do fine in the arcade, SNES and DOS versions of the game. Very frustrating. Not a very good arcade port since the Genesis unfortunately has issues with sprite scaling, but a good game regardless. And plays great with the standard controller.
One of these days I'll write a full out review of the game itself, and I'm still working on my Outrun for Genesis article. That game has a lot of love from me, so I wanna make sure it's just right.
Gaming of yesterday.
I'm not one to talk too much on this being that I'm only 27 years old. My arcade experience was very limited when I was younger. I do remember playing games like Outrun when I was 7 and 8 years old, and Pac-Man, Asteroids, Q-Bert and whatnot. Later on, I got heavily into fighting games like Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. And Killer Instinct of course. But I was never in the position to just head up to an arcade just for the hell of it because there weren't any within walking or biking distance of where I live. The closest I had was a Pizza Hut up town that had the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. Me and my friends would constantly ride our bikes up there just to shove quarters into the thing and play for what seemed like forever.
Just a quick one …
Here's my collection as of this writing. The picture kinda sucks because all I've got is the camera in my phone.
I know it's not the biggest collection out there, and it's not even everything right now (still got a bunch of PC, Playstation 1 and 2, XBOX, 360, Gamecube etc etc to dig out. Even a couple of Virtual Boy games hehe) but it's still growing. The cases themselves are 2 deep, and package on top of them is a Tiger Woods '97 LCD game that I just stuck up there. In between the Sega CD Mortal Kombat and the Genesis cases is a little tiny binder with some Sega CD games ... Dragon's Lair being one of them.
And then there's the original Nintendo and Nintendo 64. There's some Gameboy and Gameboy Advance games up there too.
Galaxy Force 2 for the Sega Genesis
Back in the 16 bit era, they had half-assed releases of several astonishing arcade games to the home consoles. Some worked out, such as the original Outrun and Afterburner ... others didn't fair so well. Especially to the Genesis. As much as I love this system, they had some terrible arcade ports.
Okay, I think I may have a problem. :)
Just got back from a flea market about half an hour away from my house, and snagged the following:
An original box NES with 2 controllers, the NES Advantage joystick (which, while it works perfectly, has a weird see througgh yellow golf ball lookin' thing instead of the normal ball, but it doesn't affect anything), a zapper and had the games Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt
Something about eBay and First Person Shooters.
I had an auction for an old laptop up on eBay a while back, and one of he people who wanted it just asked me if I could sell it to her outright for a certain amount. So I went ahead and set a Buy it Now price and she bought it saying "Auctions are fun, but who wants to wait."
To which I replied "Yeah, I suppose that auctions COULD be fun ... if it wasn't for the damn snipers."
Think about that the next time you're playing Halo and get shot in the face from a thousand yards away from someone who seems to think that's a "strategy".
It is not a strategy to hide in a corner and get your kills that way. I will say it's a tactic though. It's great if you're someone who just isn't all that great at the game. Gotta get your kills somehow I suppose.
And I'm only using Halo as a general term for first person shooters. Same goes for the overhyped Call of Duty series, Gears of War, Unreal Tournament (which I personally think is an immensely better multiplayer experience than CoD or Halo) ... and my all time favorite : Quake 3 Arena. Which, if you're among the younger crowd, you can play it for free within your browser at Quake Live.
Revenge of Shinobi
How on Earth did this game fall under my radar? Ninjas that burst into flames when they die? On the second level (sadly enough tle level I'm stuck on at the moment) that fly around with bat wings?
The REALLY sad part is the fact that I've OWNED the thing for at least 5 years on that stupid 6 pack thing with that godawful Super Hang-On. Maybe that's why I never tried it. I hate that game.
Podcast Review - RetrofoceGo!
The reason I'm writing this because out of all the podcasts I listen to, this is by far my favorite. I didn't even get an iPod until fairly recently, like, under 6 months. I got a 30GB 5th generation iPod. When I downloaded iTunes, I'd HEARD of podcasts, but I didn't really know what they were. I downloaded a few and listened to them, then I started searching for ones about subjects that I cared about, hoping to find something. And I came across RetroforceGo! one night, and have actually gone through and listened to almost every single back episode because, with the exception of one, I love all the content.
Hosted by the constantly upbeat and positive Chad Concelmo, the quiet, monotone SHMUP master Topher Cantler, the beautiful and outspoken Colette Bennett who, unfotunately, has to play all those god awful horrible WiiWare games ... Anthony Birch who in the early days of the podcast had this awesome rant he did about whatever was pissing him off that week. Now he does a gamer dictionary for the show, which I don't think is anywhere near as good. Although it is still pretty funny to hear what people manage to come up with. Dyson, who is the overall host of the show most of the time. And finally a fan of the show who sent the hosts gifts just out of being a fan has become a regular on the show ... who is quite possibly one of t few people I wouldn't challenge to a match in any fighting game. They've had a few guest people on such as the British foulmouth Jim Sterling, who ... personally is my favorite. He manages to keep that thin line of being extremely foul mouthed (almost as bad as me) and is still able to word things very well, which is important for a writer and podcaster.