DragonmasterDan

Yeah, I'm strangely enough in just such a discussion about Lunar with someone else, it's unfortunate especially considering work was at one point underway on an actual Lunar 3. But that's a story I can't tell here.

I have not used the Atari pads, but for some reason I actually like using the sms pads. I just think they are a little more comfortable for me. I am sure everyone has a little differnt likes tho. IMO the SMS pads are a bit loose with the Dpad, the 8 way directional doesn't give the same tight control as the NES pad.

Reliable sales figures prior to say the 32-bit era are sketchy at best outside of in Japan. The reason being NPD didn't consider it in the US for example to be a major point of interest and their TRST (Toy Retail Sales Tracking) numbers mixed in video game sales with GI Joes and Power Ranger figures. The only people who know would be the manufacturers. It's also worth noting that some platforms for example the master system generated most of their sales long after they were past their prime in the market, mostly in lower income parts of the world where it was one of the few products localized for those areas.

The US TurboDuo is capable of playing all US games and all Japanese CDs (except for arcade CDs which require the arcade card). If US HuCards aren't a necessity a Japanese Duo is fine. Yeah, there's a guy named D-Lite famous in the Neo-Geo community who used to do s-video mods for the Duo, by default it's composite out which isn't bad. a regular TurboGrafx uses RF out by default and requires a TurboBooster Plus to do composite. I think there are several pages on modding around the net about it as well. It depends on the system, US Duo's are expensive, imported PCE duos run quite a bit less. TurboGrafx 16s (HuCard only) are cheap. You're looking at 200.000 + for a US Duo. It depends what you like some of my favorites are Ys book I and II, Gate of Thunder (now on virtual console), Blazing Lazers, there's a lot of great stuff but it depends on your tastes. It has an especially deep lineup of import CD games. US Duo's are known to have bad capicitors for sound, this can be repaired, the laser lenses do die as well, this can also be repaired but compatible lenses are hard to find. The systems do not read CDRs very well at all. The PCE Duo-RX supposedly is better as far as the Laser goes. I already named some You absolutely need a TurboTap or Duo tap, it only has one controller port. If you buy a US duo a HuCard convertor isn't a bad purchase either if you want to play PCE HuCards. If you're looking for NEC console fans the boards at PCEngineFX.com are the best community in English. I'm also DragonmasterDan on those forums.

I've always been curious about how this thing works... Is there a boot program you have to run in DOS or Windows to get it to start a 3DO game? Does it need a VGA passthrough cable to do it's graphics? Can you use it with any standard ATAPI CD-ROM, or is it tied to the one it came with? You know I never even tried it out yet, since I got a 3DO anyway, and the Blaster is an ISA board. The 3DO titles are accessed like any Windows application. Only works with the Creative Labs CR-563 CD-ROM, which had to be purchased seperatly. The one in my picture I found in a computer shop for $2.00. Sound Blaster required too. I thought there were a few SCSI CD-roms that would work.

I wasn't aware of many Saturn mod chips, most of the time the board was soldered to change the equivalent of jumper settings on the motherboard to disable disc checking. Added in edit: Actually I'm starting to remember some of the later revisions of the motherboard had the jumpers inaccessible so I'm guessing that's where it was required.

There are also a few odd controllers out there besides sticks, a year or so ago there was a guy on the Neo-Geo.com forums who converted SNES and Saturn pads to Neo Geo. And yes the Neo Geo CD pads are terrible!

The Atari Jaguar also used a Motorola 68K processor. Is it also just a beefed up Genesis? There's a substantial difference in clockspeeds between the Genesis, Neo-Geo, and the Jaguar. Additionally the Neo Geo had custom video and sound chips and a second CPU (a Z80).

Castle Shikigami 2 for PS2 is just AWESOME. It has a completely jibberish translation (with spoken dialogue) to go with an awesome SHMUP! Also Ikaruga for GameCube is a great pickup and play game.

There's a big difference in any game on an HDTV. Hell some games like Dead Rising have unreadable text otherwise.

Their award has no credibility, for the first award show they gave game of the year to Madden, yes Madden.

I think the concept of a hardcore gamer, at least from a publishers marketing standpoint is a gamer who buys double digit software titles at roughly full price every year. In North America the most popular genre for a hardcore gamer to buy presently are first person shooter and adventure games. I think of a hardcore gamer as someone who buys and plays a lot of games, simple as that. But there's a new term that's being thrown around which is a contrast to the "casual gamer" who plays mostly sports games and occasional big releases and only buys small numbers of titles for their system.

If you mean a battery holder then they are too big, unless you know of a really low-profile one. Actually I'd just prefer the correct battery because there is no chance of them losing the connection momentarily, like if the cartridge is dropped or something. I'll probably just order the one from Mouser.com that I linked to. It's weird that Super Metroid already needs a new one, I have 8-bit games with battery backup that still works.

Companies make all sorts of wii crap, from wii swords and shields to fake tennis rackets. Nyko rather famously announced the wireless nunchuck today for example. Also I think there is a PS2 peripheral called Trance that vibrates for pleasure or something.

How do you know this? This was discussed earlier, I was actually incorrect since Microsoft is no longer selling the 360 at a loss (they were at launch) Sony continues to lose money on every PS3 sold, there's actually some links up in the thread about that.

So, would the 8-bit 3D games be akin to the RCA Studio II, graphics wise? RCA Studio II games were extremely simple, even to the point of boredom. Much like many of the 3D games back in the early to mid '80s, which were mostly boring maze games and flight sims. Elite would have been much like Baseball for the system. A very rich, very complex, perhaps a bit too complex for the system to handle, gaming experience. If so, I imagine that the Isometric 3D titles would be, gameplay wise, akin to the ZX81/Timex Sinclair 1000. Very simple, but got the job done, and was at least fun enough to keep you occupied. Yeah, I was actually thinking about some of the old vector 3D games as well as being the Space Wars of 3D gaming.

Yeah I know, the point I was making was that it sucks if you have millions and millions of video game consoles in folks living room, but you can't sell video games. I think the big boys have already hit..Zelda, Mario, Metroid...What's next SS Brawl part (whatever)??? These titles aren't selling near as well as they should when you consider the amount of consoles available to play them on. I don't think bringing back even older more obscure franchises is going to work. The gamers around here when they heard about games like Halo 3 and Mass Effect coming to the 360 started chiming in with all the AWESOME games coming to the Wii. They were citing games like Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and Soul Calibur Legends. SC isn't even in the top 50 and you might miss RE:UC it's at the bottom. Clearly the people buying the Wii have zero interest in them. The $$ is made on the software sales. I'm just speculating maybe Nintendo doesn't ramp up production because the software sales aren't as great as one might think. Also don't think I'm saying the Wii isn't a system for gamers at all, it's great light fluffy fun, but chances are if you have options (Wii isn't your only system) The charm of waving your hands around will wear off quickly, Its kinda hard to say "I've played all the games on that other system" when you don't own the system. I've driven many cars in my life....doesn't mean I have a clue what it's like to own and drive a Lamborghini if I've never had one, regardless what I might think. Nintendo likes to sequelize and there's always Mario Kart, etc. Nintendo has a lot of franchises to move on the Wii and Nintendo moves them in great numbers. I think the problem is kind of what I stated before in that third party companies definitely aren't going to see the Wii as being as profitable since in the past few Generations people have bought Nintendo consoles for Nintendo franchises. I think the business plan works great for Nintendo because they've produced a console that caters more specifically to their core audience. Again I think Nintendo is doing what Nintendo has done the past few generations, trickle out their big name franchises on their own system. If you're a hardcore gamer you absolutely want to have another system besides the Wii. It doesn't have lots of First Person Shooters, RPGs and the many other genres. It's not meant to cater to all the needs of the hardcore gaming community. It's a casual gaming system with Nintendo's franchises on it.

Errrr you're wrong. Very very wrong. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/11/21/Mi..._a_profit_xbox/ http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061116-8239.html Be sure and check the dates on those. It's OK though, apparently many many people think like you do, that MS is losing $$$ on every 360 sold. Honestly this has to be the 5th time I've posted this. Yeah my mistake with regard to losing money on console sales, for a long time it was the case that the Xbox 360 was losing money. I know Sony is definitely still losing money on the PS3, in any event Nintendo sold the Wii at a profit to begin with which was what I was getting at. Yeah, but the chart also counts Forza and Marvel ultimate alliance (packed with premium 360s) as sales as well, that's why those two are so high. If we move the three pack ins off the list Mario Galaxy is the #1 seller and another Wii game (the Guitar Hero port) winds up in the top 10. Sure it's definitely not a hardcore gaming system but that was never really the point of it. Added in edit: Also I think right now Wii sports is moving the system because it's aimed at the casual gaming audence, as time goes on and other Nintendo franchises hit the platform there will be a lot more compelling reasons to own a Wii. I don't think it's ever going to be the system that is going to have tier 1 third party development but that was never really Nintendo's focus.

This is exactly why it makes SENSE to have an artificial shortage. You honestly think the Wii would be this year's "hot" Christmas gift if they'd been readily available for nine or ten months now? No. Short supply *creates* greater demand, it's not that hard to figure out. Nintendo knows that the hype would've died by now if the system was easy to get. Say every store had like ten Wiis in stock at all times. What exactly is the motivation for people to buy them "on the spot, without thinking twice", as some people have recommended? There isn't any, because there simply aren't any "must-have" games yet for the system, with the possible exception of Mario Galaxy. The only reason they are continuing to sell so well is because they're scarce. Nintendo might make more money for a month or so if they increased production, but after that it'd die off quickly. Manufacturer-induced shortages are used all the time to create false demand and hype around a product. Hell, toy companies readily admit to it. I don't see what's so unbelievable about Nintendo doing the exact same thing with a console. And if you non-toy collectors out there are curious, here's how it goes: 1. A toy line is released, with one character hyped ahead of time as being arbitrarily "rare". He's not always bigger or better than the rest, he just gets shortpacked. This creates a HUGE demand. 2. Online retailers sell out of this particular figure before it even releases, often for up to three times what it would have gone for at retail. This has the side effect of hooking the perpetual flow of new idiot toy "investors" and ebay scalpers, who don't understand the way the market works, and will often buy up other figures in the hopes that they'll triple in value as well. 3. Ebay floods with jacked-up auctions for something that's really only been at retail for a week or so. Maybe two. 4. Toy company tries to meet overwhelming fan demand by ramping up production. Stores are then flooded with product they don't need, because after a couple cases only the "shortpacked" figure is selling. 5. Line gets clearanced out or RTVed, line gets cancelled due to "lack of interest". Steps one through three sound at all familiar? The only difference here is that Nintendo is smarter than a company like Mattel or Hasbro, since they're more focused on a single product line, and they know enough to ride step three for all it's worth, because once you hit four there's no going back. Yes but again you're failing to look at the fact that EVENTUALLY the demand would be met after 15 million units if it were just a planned shortage. Since they've sold that many systems already it's apparent that Nintendo hasn't choked the supply of the system at any given point, Nintendo continued selling and shipping hardware throughout the year, you can check the sales statistics. People kept buying the systems all year round almost as fast as they hit the shelves and this is what has led to where we are today, less than three weeks from Christmas with the system practically impossible to find. It seems like a great conspiracy, but considering it's now year TWO and considering the year round demand for the product it's apparent that it isn't a planned shortage. Added in edit: I think you're also failing to realize what others have pointed out earlier on the page with regard to the Wii and a must have title. To a lot of consumers Wii sports IS the must have title.

Now if only Wii games sold like they had 13 million units in folks homes. Too bad a large percentage of the folks buying up the Wii are doing it for one reason. Wii Sports. Thats one issue you run into when casual (read:non-gamers) buy video game systems. The worst part is the $$ is made on the software sales, not the hardware sale. Might explain why production isn't ramped up? Nintendo is making money on the hardware unlike Sony and Microsoft who are selling at a loss. I guess it's also worth noting that game sales are decent for the Wii consideirng it's been out around a year less than the 360 (thus less time for people to buy releases) the attach rate last I heard was around 3 games per console which is decent for a fairly new product.

Well that's usually the case with vintage computers just due to their size, the age and difficulty to replace keyboards or other moving parts etc. they're typically practically worthless. Game consoles are generally smaller and require less to get running so things like the Adam shouldn't really count since it's definitely a computer in my book.

Exactly, the problem is that Wii's disappear off store shelves in minutes, as someone else mentioned he was at a store that got in 72 and not long later they were all gone. Nintendo has increased their production by bringing in outside companies to help manufacturing systems several times in the past year and have now produced more systems than either PS3s or Xbox 360s (in signficantly less time on the market than either) and is still fighting to keep up with overwhelming demand. Added in edit: Oh and to match your link, here's another one that has more up to date information though like any sales tracker service it does rely on estimates. http://www.vgchartz.com/

I'm much the same way, I have almost every post crash system/platform (not necessarily every variation) with a wide release in the US that isn't current gen with the exception of the Laseractive, Amiga CD32 and Gizmondo. Anyway, I own an AES (I also have an MVS four slot but that isn't really a console) I purchased my AES from Funcoland in the mid 90s when they were clearing out the few Neo Geo items they had available at the time since they had quit buying back Neo Geo stuff. I think I paid under 100.00 for the system with a joystick. If you were looking today it depends, I'd recommend checking the Neo Geo boards for a good deal and ebay as well. You also have to decide whether or not you want a Japanese system, a US system, or a system with a modded BIOS. Since I collect personally I own (and would want) a US model AES since it's far less common than a Japanese system. However Japanese AES's are in far greater supply even though the price difference between the two is minor. I'm absolutely happy I bought it and no I didn't overpay (see earlier). And absolutely I would recommend someone to collect it, it is THE collectable system. It's great. It has a completely premium feel to it. The Neo Geo pads originally designed for the CD systems (but work for the AES) are kinda lousy, the Neo Geo CD has an infamously terrible loading time problem, I mean terrible, look up Neo Geo CD on youtube to see what I mean. They're not very collectable and apparently they do wear out over time. As far as games go, the system is fighting game central, there are a lot of games that are other genres on the system, but by around 1995 it was mostly fighting games, a few puzzle titles and the metal slugs (and a few other odd games here and there) on the AES. So most of the other genres (sports, action etc) are older games.

LaserActive. Yep, the Laseractive was mentioned on the first page.

Just to respond to the main topic the game is awesome, it's one of the best games I've played in years. And that says a lot. It's not perfect but it's beyond excellent.