Eltigro

Yep! Loved the music on it. That was a surprise. First one that came on was Everybody's Working for the Weekend.

The system with the smallest library that I have is the Game Wave. It has 13 released titles. I have one of those... and no controllers so I can't even play it. Other systems I can think of with tiny libraries... Virtual Boy, Nuon, Pippin... All of these have less than 30 games, so that's where I'm voting.

Got another couple games at the thrift store. These were stuck in with the DVDs. Five dollars for both. Never heard of the Mace Griffin game, but apparently the main character is voiced by Henry Rollins, so that's cool. As far as the Namco game goes, I think I already have most of these on other collections, but don't think I have Rolling Thunder, Dragon Spirity, or Sky Kid on anything else. Anyway, both actually have the games they are supposed to have and both have the manuals.

I love the fact that the TurboGrafx one is the one that seems to be getting most people riled up. lol

So... I've had this game for a couple years now, and always wondered what was wrong with it. I mean, I'd watch videos on YouTube and they had all these sound effects and voices and stuff... and mine didn't. Well, today, for the first time, I read the manual online here at AtariAge and found that the FX volume on mine was turned all the way down. I would have found this out sooner if the controls for it weren't half hidden... anyway, my first game with sound effects on and I almost doubled my previous high score. Still not close to some others here, but still... 299978 (soooo close to 300000...)

I play solitaire on my phone... and that's about it... As far as portable gaming goes, though, I have my 2600 Flashback portable and my PSP with emulators that have been my portable mainstays lately. I really prefer actual buttons over onscreen stuff. There are still games out there I want, but I don't have a list. When I go to a store or flea market or convention or whatever, I don't say, "Okay, I'm looking for ______ ." I just kinda browse and if something catches my eye and the price is right, I buy it. It may be something that I end up loving. It may be something that sits on a shelf for a while. Eventually, a collection grows enough so that most things sit on a shelf regardless. Even if I loved every single one of the games that I own, I wouldn't have time to regularly play all of them. Some will get priority and get played more often... heavy rotation if you will... others will get an occasional "oh, I haven't played this one in a while" play. It seems like, for some people, the "hardcore" part of the hobby is the collecting, not the gaming. /shrug Everyone's allowed to enjoy the hobby as the like.

I'm not really that interested in them unless they look cool on the shelf. lol I have a few but they rarely get played. My favorite is the Pac Man one that looks like Pac Man. But again, it's mainly for how it looks on the shelf. I haven't been interested really in things like the NES/SNES mini or the Genesis one or whatever. Honestly the Genesis games are available so many different ways now, that I think that one may be saturated. How many more ways do I need to play Sonic 2? But clearly, those things have sold well, so maybe there is still a market. I was given the 2600 Flashback Portable as a gift and I really like it, but it's mainly because of its portability.

I got a label-less copy of 3-D Tic Tac Toe a while back. Included it as a "mystery game" when I sold a 2600. =) Had two 2600s that I sold... the other one had a label-less copy of Chess with it as its mystery game.

Not a lot of time for me this weekend... PSP Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles - 5 min (Was playing this outside while grilling some burgers. Bad idea. The screen on the PSP is pretty reflective and really hard to see sometimes. I got hit by so many bats and things that I couldn't even see, I just gave up.) Darius Burst - 15 min (This one was easier to see for some reason. Brighter backgrounds I guess. I'm not too great at Darius, but did okay for having no practice I guess... okay... probably not... I got to the third level A-B-D, but used a couple or three continues to get there. lol) Star Wars The Force Unleashed - 68 min (If you read the thrift finds thread in the Classic Gaming forum, then you know I would have been playing Jikandia. Anyway, I'm not sad I actually got this. It's an okay game so far, but I got to some Jedi guy and I have no idea how to defeat him. I died about four times then went and did something else for a while.)

Not much from me this week... Jaguar Tempest 2000 - 25 min (Played some for the Jaguar HSC. Got a couple decent scores, I guess. Hard to tell what's good. It's about middle of the pack so far from what I've seen in the HSC, but I'll play more this week and see if I can get better.) Playstation Castlevania SotN - 11 min (Playing as Richter... never really played it very far using him. Jumping is harder and the lack of items and other things will make it more of a challenge. Just beat the first bosses (Slogra and Gabbon or whatever). His whip is more powerful than Alucard's swords at this point, but I'm sure the swords later in the game outpace the whip. We'll see what happens.)

I've got a nice red GameBoy Pocket. I like it but man is it hard to see. I can't believe we used to love this. Want to get others, though... a GB Color, a GBA SP, and a full size original GameBoy, preferably with the clear case like I used to have. Also have a couple of GBAs (one indigo and one glacier), a pink DS Lite that needs a new case and the Mario 25th Anniversary DSiXL.

Yeah... I at least check to make sure there is a disc and what the condition is. Like this one, I checked it was in there and in pretty good shape. Just didn't read the label. lol

It's happened once before that I can remember. Bought what I thought was Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 for my son, but what was really in the case was Marvel vs Capcom 3 Fate of Two Worlds. Very similar games, though, and I doubt my son ever really noticed.

So I'm in the thrift store today and just kind of absent-mindedly going through the DVDs when, surprise surprise, there was a video game! It was a PSP game with the case. Jikandia: The Timeless Land. I had never heard of it so I looked it up. It got kinda mediocre reviews. I checked out the UMD and it looked pretty clean... scratch free and put it back in the case. I debated for a while and decided to ask about the price. They said they'd do $1 on it, and I figured I'd go for it for a dollar. Even if I don't like it, it was only a dollar. I get home and I'm about to put it in the PSP to try it out when I take a closer look at the UMD. It's not Jikandia. It's Star Wars The Force Unleashed. Oh well. I had never played either one of them. I mean, I still haven't played one of them, but either way it's a new game for me.

First, what they said about the TurboGrafx. Second, no, the PS3 (or the PS2) can't replace the original Playstation because they don't have that great start up sound. (Or do they? Been a long time since I tried in my PS2 and my PS3 won't read discs of any kind.)

I don't know if I'm a part of "the scene" or not, honestly. There's not a lot here locally, and often when I meet someone who is into gaming, they're not as into retro as I am and just want to talk about Fortnight or CoD or whatever, or they are and they're one of those know it all kind of annoying ones who got all their info from Buzzfeed or something... hopefully you know the kind... I don't know if I would be considered "a collector" or not when you look at the subset of the population that might be considered "collectors". I mean, I definitely have a lot fewer games than many of you here, but, at the same time, I have a lot more games than just about everyone I actually know in person. I have no interest in "completing" a collection. I buy games that I want to play. If I don't want to play it, I ain't gettin' it. If I have a game on my shelf that I don't really play, it's because I got it in a lot with something I did want and I'm just not interested in playing it. I've been to Retropalooza in Dallas twice. The first time it was a, "Hey, this is going on in Arlington right now. Let's stop by tomorrow before we go home." The second time, it was more planned. I'm going to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo this year. We'll be in Portland for a week, but will only be at the convention one day, so it's not like that was the sole reason for the trip, but it was a factor in deciding where we were going. Besides tickets, I've spent probably about $150 total at the two Retropaloozas. I watch a good bit of YouTube, with a focus on retro games. I also have been watching Twitch lately and enjoying watching others play. (But usually doing something else while it's on in the background... tonight for example I was playing Castlevania while listening to someone play Phantasy Star IV...) I dunno. It's not going on my resume either way. lol

Just finished up Castlevania Symphony of the Night again. What a great game. Yeah, it's kinda pretty easy, but still a lot of fun. Played it on my PSP. Don't have the Playstation disc anymore. It was lost long ago. Had some issues with the PSP's d-pad... it's tough to do diagonals on it consistently. I didn't cast a single spell the entire game (the only one I could ever pull of reliably was Dark Metamorphosis) but don't really need them. Included a few pics. Enjoy!

Just a couple modern games for me this week... XBox Sega GT 2002 - 96 min (Reminds me a good bit of Sega GT for the Dreamcast... I can't imagine why. Anyway, the graphics seem a little muddy... enough to make me start looking up alternative cables for my Xbox. Component maybe? Anyway, the track is hard to see sometimes. It also seems to have carried over some of the negative handling aspects from Sega GT. I tend to kinda fish tail some when trying to adjust steering, but I did get better at it... something that never happened with Sega GT. There are a surprising amount of cars to choose from and unlock, but still not as many as something like Gran Turismo, I think, although I didn't count.) Wii Mario Kart Wii - 24 min (This one was starting to annoy me when I got called away. This does tend to happen when I play racing games that feature weapons. Seriously, can the AI shoot at anyone other than me? And why do I get hit with everything when I'm in first on the last lap? I know it's supposed to be challenging, but this combined with rubber banding makes things frustrating, not fun.)

My times... 2600 (via the Portable Flashback) Bowling - 80 min (Yeah... 80 min on Bowling. lol What is surprising is that my scores in the game are pretty close to the kind of scores I get in real life. I'm not much of a bowler, so these are usually in the upper 100s. There was one outlying game, though where I got 255. It's a simple game. Line up your bowler, hit the button, move the joystick to make the ball turn. But it is difficult to do with consistency. I was sometimes annoyed that the pins didn't bounce the way I thought they should, but I still had fun.) TurboGrafx-CD (via Wii VC) Gate of Thunder - 9 min (Didn't know if TG-CD was a separate category from regular TG games... A fun shooter. Generally regarded, I believe, as one of the best for the system, CD or Hucard. I do wish the audio mix was a little different so you could turn up the jams a little more. I changed the room that the Wii was in from the living room to my game room, so I'll probably play more VC and Wii stuff soon. Was mainly just messing around which is why there is only 9 minutes here.) NeoGeo (via Wii VC of course... I can't afford one of these!) Metal Slug - 9 min (Again, messing around with the Wii. This game needs no explanation. I just wish I was better at it. But that takes practice. And I'm lazy.) Playstation (via PS for PSP) Castlevania SotN - 116 min (Got most of the first castle explored. Got the glasses and defeated the orb above Richter. Got far enough into the inverted castle to save and that's about it so far. I'll play more this next week. Such a great game.)

Not the best deal in the world. But it was complete and in excellent shape (not a scratch on the disc) for $6. I had been wanting more old, older racing games and this seemed like I was getting a "twofer". I didn't know the disc also had several videos for upcoming games like Shenmue II, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and others.

I used to work in a Fluke Electronics service center. They repaired a lot of expensive equipment like calibrators and oscilloscopes and such. Anyway, they were often from locations that were pretty dirty. And like computers, if they're in a dirty environment, that environment is going to be inside and all over the boards. We had a dishwasher in the shipping area that some of the techs would use to wash some of the more grungy boards. It wasn't often, but it did happen. Reminded me of a story... not related to using water to clean electronics, but just about the kind of stuff we got in. We would sometimes get in things like thermometers (Fluke 51 or 52 usually) that had been used at Jack in the Box restaurants that were covered in rancid grease. They smelled terrible. But the worst was when we would get something in that had been used at a water treatment plant and smelled like sewage. Anyway, one time we got a unit in and I unpacked it (I worked in shipping/receiving) and was immediately hit by a new smell. I told my coworker, "Hey Danny, come smell this one." He responded with, "Get the F out of here, no way..." I had to laugh, because this unit, this expensive Fluke calibrator (I think it was a 5500, which is probably about 30 to 40 thousand dollars depending on options) smelled like chocolate. It was from M&M Mars company and had been there long enough to smell like the product.