Silverfleet

I picked this one up a few weeks back on sale at Target. It's really, really good. I haven't played a JRPG in a while for two reasons: lack of spare time and the over-complex nature these games started getting into past the PS2 Era. This tackles both of those notions head-on. It plays like an old-school JRPG, looks awesome, and I like playing through all the stories of the other characters as you explore the game. One of my favorites on the Switch right now for sure!

A few months back, they were having a big sale on collectibles and retro stuff. I bought all of this for about $25: The Pixel Pals were new and had no issues whatsoever. The games were a mixed bag. The F-Zero cart was near perfect; the thing looked new, and plays perfectly. Altered Beast is the same, and it was complete in box! Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, however, came in a dinky paper sleeve and was resurfaced, and poorly. I can't get it to work on my GC or Wii at all. By the time I play tested it, it was too late to return it. If you buy from them, test things out ASAP.

The PS2 is one of my favorite consoles ever! As soon as they were announced, I wanted one. Problem was, so did everyone else. Finding one was impossible, as all the scalpers bought them up right away because they were hawking them all before the holidays. I wasn't able to find one until the following March at a CompUSA store, which got a handful of them after Sony started shipping them out again. The day I bought it, I went to Gamestop and picked up TimeSplitters and a multitap, called some friends, got a couple pizzas, and stayed up all night playing 4-player deathmatch. It was glorious. About a year and a half later, it started acting up. I was getting the dreaded Disc Read Error on PS1 and non-DVD PS2 games. I tried all the tricks: taking it apart and cleaning the laser, upping the voltage on the laser, putting tape on the games to act as "counterweights" to keep them spinning, and more. Eventually, the thing started getting errors with DVD's, and I tore the connector ribbon while taking it apart after probably the 30th time taking it apart. I was pissed, and wasn't about to drop more money on another "Fat" PS2, so it sat in a box in pieces while I played my Gamecube, Dreamcast, and Xbox. About a year after that, I got a Slim PS2 for Christmas. And by that time, a lot of the games I wanted to play while my Fat PS2 was sitting in a box in pieces were in the bargain bin, so I started amassing a large collection of great games for short money. When the recession hit around 2008-09 and retailers were starting to tank, I was there buying up all their games, including their PS2 titles, for pennies on the dollar. I still have a sizeable horde of sealed PS2 games that I'm afraid to open at this point! My collection stands at 166 games and four PS2's: three Fat (one CIB) and one Slim that's still hooked up to the TV in the game room. It still gets played!

Octopath Traveler finally went on sale, so snagged a copy at Target. While I was there, I took a stroll by the rest of the games, and scored Shenmue I & II out of the clearance bin for $9, and I had to take those pint glasses home!

So yeah, 2018 was a much slower year for collecting for me. Here's what I said last year: Some notes on those goals: -I bought exactly zero new consoles last year outside of the Playstation Classic plug-and-play, if that counts. I just missed a Sears Heavy Sixer and a boxed Fairchild Channel F on the super cheap because "Some Guy" got them first. -All my gaming pickups were from thrifts, gaming stores, online or regular brick and mortar retailers. I didn't pick up a single bulk lot of games; just piecemeal stuff here and there. -I also didn't sell anything off. I did however give a PS2 to a guy at work, so there's that. -I never got that Star Trek: SOS for the Vectrex. I need to get on that! -I did buy A LOT of digital titles, especially for the Switch. I also spent a lot of time messing with emulation, particularly with my Retropie. -One thing I did do was replace my aging CRT with a 42" plasma 1080P TV in the game room. I still have the CRT, as well as another small one kicking around, but they are both in storage now. So far, I haven't missed it. My goals for 2019: -Sell off the extras. It's time for it to go. I need the space. -Keep perfecting emulation with the Retropie and other methods. I got a RPI Zero for Christmas, which would make a fun tabletop arcade cab project. -Speaking of arcade games, I want to pull my Galaga/Galaxian cocktail cab out of hibernation and get to restoring it. That should be fun! It's sat dormant for far too long. -PLAY MY BACKLOG! I have recently been going back and playing my insane backlog of titles, and I need to keep doing that instead of buying new stuff. That's about it. Keeping it simple for 2019.

I played mine last night for a bit, fully stock. I was fully prepared for it to suck, based on all the negativity surrounding it. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. Some quick observations: -Like many have said, the choice of games is strange and mediocre at best. There are some good ones on here, and there's a few decent RPG's, but man, there are so many that should have made the cut! -The controllers are dead-on perfect repros of the originals. But seriously, leaving Dual Shock off the table is a terrible choice. Also, I plugged one into my Retropie and it fully recognized it! I played some Playstation games on the Retropie with it and it felt perfect. -I still can't tell if the Retropie plays Playstation games better than the Playstation Classic. I want to say that it does, but I haven't modded mine yet or changed any of the Retroarch settings, so the jury is still out.

Oh man, looks like they took it down. Just checked my app and instead of "40% off" it says it's $59.99 with the app coupon. Looks like they closed the loophole.

I just asked the guy to match Best Buy, and he pulled out his scanner and opened an app that shows different retailer's prices for the same SKU. He saw that everyone had it (including themselves online) for $59.99, and I told him I had a coupon on the phone and he scanned it from the app. Bam... done. If it was $59.99, I wasn't buying the thing.

Yeah, they aren't really supposed to. The store I usually go to is usually liberal with the discounts, so they didn't question it. The guy that rang me up was impressed that it worked!

Well, crap. They didn't care at my local target about doubling the Cartwheel deal and price matching, so I kinda had to. It will be interesting to see how it stacks up against both my Retropie and my original Playstation. Looking forward to modding it!

I think the Target loophole requires you to price match someplace that has it for $59.99 and then use the 40% off in the Cartwheel app. That brings it into the low $30 range. Also, some stores are wise to it and aren't letting that happen. That's a decent price for it, especially since people have figured out how to mod them. I'm still on the fence because I just spent an entire weekend setting up a 128gb card for my Retropie with about 200 games on it and it uses basically the same emulator.

Not sure if this counts, but whatever... Diablo III (PS3): (no pics, sorry ) Last Saturday afternoon, I found myself grinding away on a Diablo III playthrough on my copy of the Ultimate Evil Edition while setting up a Retropie, and the next thing I know, it's 2:30 AM and I just kicked the crap out of Diablo himself. That stupid game is like video crack. I haven't played a game into the wee hours in a L O N G time. Started the Reaper of Souls campaign and I'm already hooked again.

I used to love Evander Holyfield Boxing on the Genesis back when it was new. I haven't played it in a while, but I highly doubt it holds up too well.

Someone earlier mentioned being "nostalgic for nostalgia". I think I might be, sorta. I started collecting "on purpose" (aka not just hanging onto my old stuff and seeking out older games I didn't have as a kid) back around 2001, mostly when I was on break from college. When I was doing this, I was out hunting with one of my buddies most of the time. We would hit up flea markets and game stores for deals, and it was all part of just hanging out. Afterwards, we would take our respective hauls and play games until the wee hours because we could. There were less responsibilities and more free time to sit for hours on end playing all the old games we used to rent or borrow and now owned because we found them dirt cheap in the wild on a college kid budget. No honey-do lists, no crazy hours at the day job, no absurd prices... just friends, a few beers, and some great games from back in the day. Those were great times, and I'm definitely nostalgic for that.

Yeah, Diablo III is definitely on my Switch list! Also, I have Shantae idling by for when I finish a few other Switch titles. The collector's edition was on clearance at Gamestop recently, so I had to snag it!

I paid a whopping $5 for the PS3 copy out of a Walmart clearance bin earlier this year, so I can't really complain. I basically wanted to see if I liked Diablo after reading about it and hearing about it from friends for years. I'll likely pick it up for the Switch at some point because it offers more content and is portable.

I ordered a 8bitdo SN30 Pro last week for my wife to give to me as a gift along with the Switch adapter. I plan on using it with my Retropie and Switch.

Another one, sorta. Moon Patrol (Arcade via MAME on Retropie): I was waiting for the wife to get ready before going out, and ran through one of my all time favorites and the very 1st arcade game I ever played all those years ago. Right when the Champion's Course started, I had to shut it off, boo!!! One of these days, I'll run through that too!

My year-in-gaming was interesting. I spent a good chunk of time playing games on the 3DS and Switch, mainly because my wife was in and out of the hospital for a good chunk of the summer and fall. She's better now, but I got used to playing games on the go. That said, here are some of the games I liked in no particular order: Owlboy (Switch): I read about this game on Hardcore Gaming 101 a while back, so when it was released on the Switch at a bargain price, I snagged it. It was also the time when I was in the hospital a lot with the wife, and provided something to ease my mind while she was sick. Story was great, gameplay was fun, and the game has some of the best pixel art ever created. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch): I'll come out and say it: I'm not a fan of 3D Mario games. Well, I wasn't until I played this. Every complaint about the 3D Mario games I've played in the past got thrown right out the window. This is easily the best 3D platformer I've ever played, and it's a ton of fun. Turning into enemies and random objects never gets old, and finding secrets and fighting enemies is a ton of fun. As someone who has been playing Mario titles since the very beginning, I appreciated all the callbacks to earlier 2D stuff as well. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (3DS): I had heard really good things about the Shantae games for years, but never owned one until this year, when I saw this on clearance at Gamestop. I still haven't 100-percented this one, but I did play through to the end. It's really, really good, and has a ton of humor in there. One of my favorite modern Metroidvania titles for sure! Golf Story (Switch): Yes, a golf game! This one is one of the most addictive games I've ever played. The golf mechanics are perfect, the story is fun, and it looks great. I'm actually on the very last match of the game right now! Lords of Thunder (Sega CD): After figuring out how to burn Sega CD games and play them on original hardware, I had a field day testing out all sorts of games I missed, like this one here. Holy hell is it awesome! The soundtrack alone gets it up on my favorites list; it's riff-tastic! Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition (PS3): Somehow, I have never played a Diablo game until popping this into my PS3 a few weeks ago (yeah, I know). Suddenly, all my free time has disappeared! I can already say that this game is one of the best I've ever played, and I'm only just a bit into Act II. It's hopelessly addicting. I can see myself putting 100+hrs into this one over the winter. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch): As stated above, this is a Caslevania game in all but name. It's a fun riff on Castlevania 3, specifically, and a lot of fun. Now, where's the REAL Bloodstained? Dragonfire (2600): How could I not mention an Atari game on this site? I got really into Dragonfire early on in the year, and it had it's hooks in me for a few days. It's such a great little game, and very addictive.

So, because of this thread, I went back and fired up Gaplus/Galaga 3 over the weekend. Honestly, it's not bad! The one thing that throws me off is the ability to move up and down; I think it actually makes it harder to avoid diving ships and bullets. In other shooters, you really need the ability to move in all directions, but in Galaga/Galaxian, due to the vertical orientation and smallish playing field, side to side is all you really need. Sucking up 4 ships with the tractor beam and laying waste to everything is pretty cool, too. Still don't like it as much as Galaga, Galaxian, or Galaga '88 though.

That's a nice setup! I wish I had that much space!

Yeah, that's what I meant. I had Galaxian on the brain! Galaxian 3 is that giant sit-in rail shooter game.

I'm going with Galaga as well! One of my favorite games ever. It was "my game" back in the day at the arcade I used to go to every other Friday night. Even though it was the early 90's and fighting games took over most of the floor, they still had an old Galaga machine stuffed in the back. I would walk in and set the high score every time! Later on, my old run-down band practice space had a beat-to-hell Galaga cocktail cabinet with a busted coin door set up in the place. We would all play in between practicing, and write our high scores right on the wall next to the machine. When the building got bought out and was set to be knocked down, everyone (including the owner) abandoned the building, leaving that poor Galaga machine. I wasn't going to let that happen, so I tossed it in the back of my truck and brought it home. It's still sitting in my basement, awaiting restoration. It doesn't power up anymore, so that needs to be addressed. Funny part is that it's actually a Galaxian cab that someone stuffed a Galaga board into; still has the Galaxian chicken head knob controls! I think the old Galaxian hardware is still in there, too. On the other two games... Galaxian is great in its own right, but the added features of Galaga, like the dual ships and the Challenge Stages edge it out. Gaplus/Galaxian 3 is a game I never really got into, but I should revisit it. And while we are at it, Galaga '88/'90 is great as well!

I hit up the local Savers last night looking for a replacement stereo receiver for my parents' 80's Fisher component system. That system is 30 years old this year. Last year for Christmas, I replaced the CD changer that died, and now the receiver is dead, so I'll be replacing that so they can use it again. They mainly use it for playing records these days. Anyway, I walked out with this: It's a 90's Technics home theater receiver, which may be a bit overkill for their needs. It outputs 100w/channel, which is not too shabby for back then. It also might be too large for their stereo cabinet, so I may have to keep it and relinquish my recently purchased 90's Kenwood receiver which I love. Here's a pic of that beast. BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE!!! As I was walking out the door, I checked the glass case for games, which usually leads to disappointment. Not this time! In there were two boxed and complete Genesis games! Nothing crazy, but for $5 each, I had to snag them. Triple Score still had the sweet poster inside too!

Sweet deal! I have always wanted to play this one. Thanks for the heads-up!