Gabriel

I highly recommend Jr. Pac Man. Millipede is really fun too, despite the jerky graphics. Missile Command, Countermeasure, Qix, and Defender are some others you should add to your collection. I've also always been rather fond of Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator.

My original one says September 1999 on the bottom. My new one says October 2000 on the bottom.

Wow, the rarest game I have is a R6 (Herzog Zwei). Unlike my other game collections, I have a wide range of rarities in my Genesis cart selection. I disagree with rating Streets of Rage 2 as a R4+. The game is common as dirt. It certainly isn't more rare than X-Perts, which was given a R3. Personally, I feel that Shining Force 2 is a R3 and not an R2. I also have a little bit of problem believing that Ex-Mutants is as common as Altered Beast. I'd also venture that the CD Backup Cart isn't as rare as the list makes it out to be.

All I can assume then is that every DC I've ever seen shipped with a dead battery. The longest I've ever seen a DC keep the clock set for is one week. Constant play and/or VMUs make no difference whatsoever. My original DC requires the clock be set each time the system is powered up. My new current DC requires the clock be set roughly once every two power ups. At least the drive on this "new" one works reliably. Personally, I think the clocks are about the stupidest things on the recent consoles. It's not like you can set the console to do something at a certain time like a VCR, and even if you could, there's no reason to. What are you gonna do? "Oh DAMN! It's vitally important that my DC be running the demo of The Last Blade 2 at noon while I'm at work!"

Not to worry. I have DOA3 and DOAXBV for my X-Box for their 'play value'.

I'll be in line to get it as well. Give me the graphical tour de force and the focus of gameplay of a scrolling shooter any day over some meandering and bland corridor wandering FPS.

Well, the story has a happy ending. Today I returned the second broken ass DC and got a good replacement. This time I tested the machine with a copy of DOA2, and lo and behold it worked flawlessly. It's a little on the loud side, but it actually played the "music video" demo at the start of the game perfectly in sync with the audio track. I haven't seen a DC do that since I first saw a brand new one. Sadly, today I have no one to play Soul Calibur with, so I'll just have to keep my new, non-tempermental DC in reserve until the opportunity presents itself.

OK, that may explain the 2 defective DCs that I've gotten from GameStop, but it certainly doesn't explain my original. It has never had a homeburned CD in it. My original flakey DC is one of the earlier ones. It was purchased right at the time when they first became $150.

Yes, this is true. The only exception is the original Panasonic 3DO. That thing is built like a tank. The only problem I ever had with mine while I had it was the save game memory would periodically erase itself and need to be reformatted. The person I gave the console to confirms that this is still the only quirk it has.

triple post That submit button is just so much fun to press

double post

On a semi-related note, I have Robotron for my 7800. I must say that attempting to play it with two 7800 controllers completely sucks. (So, if I were to use the 5200 controller logic, I would have to say that everything for the 7800 sucks because Robotron is not very playable with two Pro-Line controllers.) But I struck upon the idea of hooking two of my Genesis SG-6 Fighter sticks up to my 7800. They sat nicely on the table and they didn't slip around very much. I have to say that when I played the game with that controller arrangement, the game had a very high arcade feel. It just goes to show, use the right tools for the right job. Just because you can't hammer nails very effectively with a screwdriver doesn't mean the whole toolkit sucks.

$24.95 I remember that figure very well, because I certainly bought enough of them for my original 4 port. My last two lasted from 1983 to sometime in the late 80s. I forget what one of those last two died from. It might have been underuse. The other died in a glorious game of Defender where I played for many hours straight and rolled it a few times. It was also the only one where I actually killed the stick, instead of merely having a few buttons that didn't work.

OK, I need to vent. It amazes me that people harp upon the unreliability of the PS2 when there is an even more unreliable system of recent vintage out there. I'm speaking of the godforsaken Dreamcast. I've owned a Dreamcast for some time, and let me tell you that barring the Adam, it was the most finicky system I've ever owned. At present, my original Dreamcast works, but only sporadically. Sometimes it will boot a disc, sometimes it won't. However, Soul Calibur is worth the effort to keep a Dreamcast around, so today I decided that since GameStop had some Dreamcasts for $40 apiece, I would buy one and enjoy Soul Calibur on a decently running system. The first Dreamcast I got from GameStop had dead controller ports. When you combine this problem with that godforsaken clock that never stays set on the system, then you can't even determine if the system will boot a disc. So, I took that system back, explained the problem and got a replacement. I got the second system home, hooked it up to the TV and... nothing. So, I replaced its AV cable. It turned out the video cable they had given me was dead, but my original one still worked fine. I popped in a disc and then heard... GROWL SNAPP SNAPP SNAPP GROWL WHIRRRRRRRRRR. And the disc wasn't even spinning. The drive was dead as a doornail. So, I must say that I'm severely irritated. I'm irritated at GameStop for knowingly selling completely broken systems. I'm also irritated at Sega for making such a low material quality game system. I'll quite frankly be amazed if any DCs can be found in 2 years that even work considering how prone to breakdown they are. Tomorrow I have to go to GameStop and return the system for the second time and see if I can get one that works. Shit. And all I wanted to do was play Soul Calibur.

The controllers aren't that bad. The main flaws are as follows: 1) They break far too easily. Back when I had my 5200 in the early 80s, I went through about 4 controllers in as many months. The most common problem is that the buttons quit working, usually the lower fire button, start button, and one or two of the keypad buttons. 2) The fire buttons are uncomfortable for some games. Moon Patrol is almost impossible to me because of the way you'd have to fire and jump. However, this is simply because the controller is not particularly suited to that kind of game, just like the GameCube controller isn't suited to Capcom style fighting games. Just about any game that requires constant banging on two or more buttons is not really the best choice to be playing with the 5200 controller 3) Some games just weren't programmed with good control in mind. For example, Super Pac Man is a fantastic game on the 5200, but the control is kind of icky. On the other hand, Jr. Pac Man has fantastic control. Good control was possible in the games, but just like nowadays, sometimes good control on a game doesn't happen for whatever reason. Many games have unbelievably precise control on the 5200 that just wouldn't be possible with another type of controller. 4) The non centering analog stick does take a little bit of getting used to. But it takes far less to get used to the solid 5200 analog control than the goofy little thumbpads on modern controllers. Off the top of my head, I can tell you that the Colecovision, and original NES pads were lots worse (unresponsive and uncomfortable) for playing games than the 5200 controllers. The main problem with 5200 controllers is that they break VERY VERY easily.

I used to love Empire. I used to play that as often as I could on the Apple IIc. Planes wouldn't run out of fuel as long as you didn't use them, so I'd build giant lines across the screen of fighter jets spaced 2 squares apart to detect enemies approaching.

I'd suggest Shining Force 3. Dragon Force is another really good one. Panzer Dragoon Saga, while good, isn't quite deserving of the level of hype that it gets. Considering how much you'd have to pay to get it on eBay, I'd suggest to skip it. If you can get it for $60 or less though, then go ahead.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...3&category=3603 Do they typically go for that kind of price, or is the seller just insane?

Nope. I don't know how to do that. I just know that everytime that I've seen that problem that it's just a bad connection with the Genesis. Is it a front loader or a top loader? Top loaders are flakey anyway.

I've seen a Genesis-Sega CD combo behave like that before. The problem might be the connection between the Sega CD and the Genesis. Clean the expansion port of the Genesis and the connector on the Sega CD. Then make sure that both are firmly connected. Some Sega CDs suffer a little bit from the "jiggle effect". In other words, you have to jiggle them a bit to get just the right kind of contact in the expansion port. The only other thing that I can think of is something on the Sega CD's board is fried.

I also recommend Advance Wars. It's a bad ass little game. Backwards compatibility gives you some really cool games too. Dragon Warrior I & II and Dragon Warrior III are for the GBC, but are also excellent on the GBA. Be sure to get yourself an AC adaptor or rechargable battery for those though. Back in purely GBA territory, the Namco Museum cart is fun. Tekken Advance is also a pretty cool little fighting game. I must even admit that I enjoy the Monster Rancher games. I might recommend some others, but the Dragon Warrior and Monster Rancher games take up the majority of my time on the GBA. So, while I have a shitload of games, some are still unplayed in the shrinkwrap.

Me too. Combat II and Haunted House 3D don't really entice me, but Adventure II sounds like something I gotta get.

Sorry, it doesn't really answer your question, but I've seen a reproduction cart of this game up on eBay, so someone offers it. And there's always the multi-cart. I think Last Starfighter will be the next repro cart I add to my 5200 library. Either that or I'll just break down and get the multi-cart. So far, I think I'd rather have a library of carts with individual labels rather than one cart that does it all.

As not too long ago I lost on a setup very similar to that with a bid of over $100, I'm am very envious.

Nope. Never heard of it. What is it?