Skippy B. Coyote

I've been watching CGR for about 3 years now and my wife has been watching for the last 2 years. It's become part of our daily routine to watch the new CGR reviews over breakfast, and it's definitely worth a couple bucks a month to us to not have to lose that part of our everyday lives that we've become so accustomed to. We'll be contributing to Mark's Patreon for sure, and keeping our fingers crossed that Derek decides to do something similar. He was always the misses' favorite. EDF! EDF!

Thank you very much for all the awesome statistics collection and all the hard work you put into the tracker goldenband! It was a ton of fun reading through all of those lists, and really satisfying reflecting on all the games I played this year that I saw on some of Top lists. My hope for 2016 is that we get a Super Nintendo fan to come along and start participating regularly, which would give me a good reason to dust off my Genesis, play it more often, and start collecting for it again. As someone who grew up with the Genesis there's always that silly part of me that wants to play the Geneis more whenever I see someone going on about the SNES, which is especially funny since I do most of my gaming on Nintendo brand handhelds. I guess some things just never change.

Time to wrap up the year with the two games I've been playing the most lately! Here's my play times for the shortened final week of 2015. Game Boy Color Monopoly - 391 minutes PlayStation Tomb Raider III - 329 minutes Total Play Time This Week 720 minutes (12 hours 0 minutes) Individual System Play Times This Week Game Boy Color: 391 minutes PlayStation: 329 minutes

I know everyone wants a good deal, but I'm not that desperate for money. The last loose cart + manual copy of this game on eBay went for $400, so I think I'm being pretty generous asking $249. And again, I am accepting some trades to bring down the price a bit.

Time for another thread update! As of now, all the Atari 2600 accessories (controllers, cables, etc.) have been sold, as have another 11 games. The big news though is that I've dropped the price on the one remaining homebrew title, Princess Rescue, by a whopping $101! Now $249 makes it yours, and I am still accepting either a bronze colored DSi XL or a crimson & black colored DS Lite in trade to reduce the cost. I've also added a ton of Nintendo DS games to the list of things I'm accepting in trade too.

My video game Hell would be nothing but JRPGs for all eternity. Mindless turn based combat, grinding to level up for millennia, and no visual stimulation other than flat-chested prepubescent girls with gravity defying hairstyles, dressed in bizarrely fashionable clothing that gratuitously exposes their panties in every other scene. Staring into the soft cottony abyss for so long that, after eons untold, it actually starts to look kinda hot. That is my video game Hell.

I'll toss in a few Game Boy Color recommendations tonight, and add some original Game Boy gems tomorrow. Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare - If you like horror games then you can't go wrong with this one. The graphics are absolutely astounding for the GBC too, making it possibly the best looking game on the system. Monopoly - As odd as it might sound, I've gotten more play time and enjoyment out of this game than any other for the Game Boy or Game Boy Color. The presentation of the game is great, the 8 different computer AI opponents provide a wide variety of difficulty options, and the replay value is nearly endless. It's definitely my favorite game for whenever I need to pass an hour or so of time. Project S-11 - A vertical scrolling shoot 'em up that really pushes the GBC to it's limits. Tons of sprites on screen at once wirh zero slowdown, awesome music, and a neat power-up selection. If you like Solar Striker then I think you'll really enjoy this one too. Resident Evil: Gaiden - Another horror game recommendation, and this one is definitely my favorite of the two. The graphics aren't nearly as impressive as those of Alone in the Dark, but the gameplay is really solid and challenging and it definitely feels like a Resident Evil game. This is a pricey one, but worth every penny in my opinion. Tomb Raider & Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword - Two really enjoyable 2D action adventure platformer games that capture the feel and gameplay of their home console counterparts very nicely. I like the first one the best, but you can't go wrong with either. Towers: Lord Baniff's Deceit - Imagine an Elder Scrolls game on the GBC and that's pretty much what you'll find here. First person real time combat, dungeon crawling, and a bit of reading to fill in the story await. Be sure to download and read a PDF copy of the manual before playing and keep a pencil and paper handy to write down spell chants. Warlocked - This one was already recommended, but I'll second the recommendation. It's basically Warcraft on the GBC, and that in itself is kind of amazing. This is another one that you'll definitely need to read the manual for before playing.

No picture or writeup today since I'm feeling really crappy and don't have the energy to do either, but here's my household's playtime for the week at least. Maybe I'll do a proper writeup later when I get feeling better. Ineligible Doom II (Game Boy Advance) - 54 minutes The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo DS) - 163 minutes Mario Kart: Super Circuit (Game Boy Advance) - 153 minutes Arcade Centipede - 9 minutes Donkey Kong - 8 minutes Frogger - 15 minutes Galaga - 9 minutes Millipede - 14 minutes Pac-Man - 13 minutes Space Invaders - 4 minutes Game Boy Color Monopoly - 517 minutes SWiV - 72 minutes MS-DOS Wolfenstein 3D (played on Wolfenstein 3D for Game Boy Advance) - 23 minutes PlayStation Alien Trilogy - 129 minutes Tomb Raider III - 250 minutes Total Play Time This Week 1,433 minutes (23 hours 53 minutes) Individual System Play Times This Week Game Boy Color: 589 minutes PlayStation: 379 minutes Game Boy Advance: 207 Nintendo DS: 163 minutes Arcade: 72 minutes MS-DOS: 23 minutes

The video does indeed show the correct way to connect them, and GBAs aren't really picky about the timing of when you power on the second system that the download play data gets transferred to. As long as you connect the second system and power it on at some point before you select the multiplayer game option on the first system it should work fine. There is another option for what could be going wrong other than your link cable or one of your GBAs being defective though. Are you sure the link cable you're trying to use is for the Game Boy Advance and not the Game Boy Pocket/Color? For reference: The cable plug on the left side of the picture is for the Game Boy Advance and the one on the right is for the Game Boy Pocket/Color (the middle is FireWire 400). The Game Boy Pocket/Color cable plug will fit in the Game Boy Advance link cable port but only works for transferring data between original Game Boy and Game Boy Color games being played on the GBA, and if you try to use it with a GBA game it won't work. The same goes for trying to transfer data between two original Game Boy or Game Boy Color games being played on the Game Boy Advance with a GBA link cable, that won't work either. So, before concluding that your cable or one of your systems is defective, I'd recommend checking to make sure that you're using the right kind of link cable for the games you're trying to transfer data between. Original Game Boy and Game Boy Color games require a Game Boy Pocket/Color link cable and GBA games require a GBA link cable. You can tell the cables apart by looking for the little nub protruding from bottom of the plug on GBA link cables. Hope that helps!

This is something I actually pondered and made up my mind on a long while ago, in case of a fire or other emergency. My rule was that I had to be able to throw it all in a standard grocery sized paper bag and be out of the room in 10 seconds or less from the time I went in to get stuff. What I would take would be: 1. Game Boy Color in it's padded travel case. 2. Game Boy Advance SP (AGS-101 backlit version) in it's padded travel case. 3. The small tub containing all my Game Boy/Color/Advance games. Not only are the Game Boy Color and Advance SP my favorite systems, but they'd also be the quickest to grab and take with in the event of an emergency. No cords to unplug or anything, and I always leave them in their travel cases when not in use, so it would just be a "grab and go" procedure.

Ineligible Clubhouse Games (Nintendo DS) - 6 minutes Doom II (Game Boy Advance) - 234 minutes Arcade Centipede (played on Atari Anniversary Advance for Game Boy Advance) - 10 minutes Missile Command (played on Atari Anniversary Advance for Game Boy Advance) - 2 minutes Super Breakout (played on Atari Anniversary Advance for Game Boy Advance) - 7 minutes Game Boy Color Monopoly - 105 minutes Total Play Time This Week 364 minutes (6 hours 4 minutes minutes) Individual System Play Times This Week Game Boy Advance: 234 minutes Game Boy Color: 105 minutes Arcade: 19 minutes Nintendo DS: 6 minutes Not a whole lot of eligible playtime for me this week, since I've been on a bit of a Doom II kick and didn't play much else. I was also really busy getting ready for the holidays and making trips to the post office to ship out items from my Atari 2600 collection that I've been selling, so there wasn't a whole lot of time for gaming. The short time spent playing Clubhouse Games for the DS was just to test out the New 3DS XL that I bought my wife for Christmas, to confirm that it was indeed one of the (now very rare) models with an IPS upper screen instead of a TN one. Not really much to report other than that, though I always continue to wish the tracker accepted systems produced up through 2001 rather than 2000; since the Game Boy Advance is totally a retro system and all the games I play on it are very retro in both style and gameplay, but sadly it missed the cutoff date for the tracker by three months. Ah well, I may not be able to contribute my time for it to the tracker but I can still play the heck out of it and enjoy every minute.

Lots of new things have been sold, including the Atari 2600 system, all cables and accessories, the original Atari joystick and paddle controllers, and the Wico trackball. The $1 off all games $3 and over sale is still going on for a few more days.

Thanks SonicSage! I figured as long as I was on a handheld kick today, I might as well show off all the handhelds in the collection, DS/3DS library, and the little cabinet I store them all in while I'm at it:

I think it's about time for another collection update! This time the update includes all the Game Boy and Game Boy Color games I've acquired since the original post, including one I'm really excited to open up and try out: A new in box imported copy of the European exclusive vertical scrolling shoot 'em up SWiV (A.K.A. Silkworm 4 or Silkworm in Vertical). Along with that are quite a few classic arcade game ports, a couple very nice digital conversions of timeless tabletop games, and the first-person point-and-click adventure RPGs The Sword of Hope and Shadowgate Classic. I'm a huge fan of first-person dungeon crawlers so I'm thrilled to have those two join Towers: Lord Baniff's Deceit in my library of Game Boy/Color games in that genre. Next up I thought it was time for a proper look at my still rather meager Game Boy Advance collection. I ended up selling a few games out of the collection earlier in the year when I was a bit short on cash, so there's a few missing from the picture in the original post that I'll need to reacquire at some point (namely Alien Hominid, Metroid: Fusion, Max Payne, and Grand Theft Auto Advance) but this should still give you a good idea of what kind of games I like to collect for this wonderful little system. Speaking of which, the system itself was originally a graphite colored AGS-101 model backlit Game Boy Advance SP that I refurbished by having new L and R trigger contacts soldered in at a local game store, then I replaced the housing and screen lens myself with shiny brand new aftermarket ones. The earphone adapter below the system is an Intec brand one, which took me nearly two years of searching to track down but was well worth the time and effort. You won't find a better, more compact, or solidly built earphone adapter for the Game Boy Advance SP; and I really dig that little Pelican carrying case too. Lastly, the brand new and still sealed copy of SimCity 2000 will be getting opened and played on Christmas as a little Christmas present to myself.

For those of you who don't get why anyone would camp out for a console release, I'd like to try a little thought experiment. Think back to when you were a kid around this time of year, on the eve of Christmas, Hanukkah, or whatever seasonal holiday your family celebrated. Now, imagine that your parents told you that you could either open your presents tomorrow morning, or you could wait a few more months to open them and get extra presents and some money too. Which would the kid version of you choose? That, in a nutshell, is why people camp out for console releases. It's that feeling of being so excited to get something new and so totally cool that you just have to have it as soon as you can get your hands on it. I think as adults and as retro gamers we far too often lose that zeal and overwhelming excitement that we used to feel as kids when new games and systems came out, because we're pretty used to the things we want having been out for a long time already, being able to pay lower prices for them, and getting to check out the full game library for a system before we think about buying it. Which is nice and practical and all that, but every now and then I think it's a good thing to completely throw practicality and long term planning out the window for the sake of just letting yourself feel like a kid on Christmas morning again. There are some experiences you really can't put a price tag on.

This might be a long shot, but I've been trying to find a new condition bronze colored DSi XL for my wife for Christmas. I know it's the system she wants but I haven't had any luck tracking one down online for a reasonable price ($100 or less) so I figured I'd check here. If anyone has one that they'd be willing to part with just shoot me a PM about it.

A whole slew of games have been sold, including both reproduction cartridges (Shooting Arcade and Halloween) as well as 23 of the loose cart and cart + manual games as indicated above. As a special for the holidays, I am offering $1 off all remaining games priced $3 or more from now through December 23rd! If you're looking for a way to fill out your Atari 2600 library on the cheap this holiday season then I've got the goods.

Just once, and it was for the Nintendo DS Lite. I was 21 at the time, it was the only system I have ever pre-ordered, and I was so excited to get it that I showed up outside of GameStop at midnight and waited in line 9 hours until the store opened in the morning to pick mine up. By the time I got there at midnight there were already 20 or so people in line ahead of me, but that was fine. It was June so the weather was nice, I brought along a comfy folding chair and snacks, and most of the people there had their original DS systems with them so I ended up doing a lot of Metroid Prime: Hunters local multiplayer over the course of the night. When the store opened in the morning and I finally got my Polar White launch model DS Lite I felt like it was completely worth the wait. The style, ergonomics, construction quality, and light weight of the system were fantastic; and the screens' backlights were incomparably better than the ones in the original Nintendo DS. It immediately became my all time favorite game system the moment I first held it in my hands, and 9 years later I think it still is.

All homebrews except for Princess Rescue have been sold, and Mario Bros. has been sold as well.

Wolfenstein VCS: The Next Mission and the Best Electronics Atari Light Gun have now been sold, and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring remains sold pending funds. All other items are still available.

Dungeon has been sold and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and the Best Electronics Atari Light Gun are both sold pending funds.