Skippy B. Coyote

So I got a rather lovely condition copy of NBA Jam: Tournament Edition for the Genesis in the mail the other day, and the first thing I did was check to see if the save system was still working. I powered on the game, went to the saved initials list, and sure enough there were still a dozen or so saved games on the cart. Pleased that the save system was working I decided to clear out all the previous owner's saves by deleting them, then went and started my own game. It didn't take long to realize that the cart wasn't saving my initials and records after turning it off, and a little research revealed that when there are no saves on the cart it needs to be first "initialized" by playing one full head-to-head game with the initials XXX then one full head-to-head game with the initials NBA before it will start saving your games. I followed the instructions to the letter, but every time I power off the cart all the saves (including the one for NBA, it never records a save for XXX at all) are gone. Now clearly the previous owner was able to save their games just fine, but it seems that by deleting the original XXX and NBA initial save files I may have inadvertently killed the cart's ability to save games. Is there any way to fix this or have I just permanently bricked the cart's ability to save by deleting those original XXX and NBA save files? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Today's pickups include reacquiring a copy of what is likely my second favorite shoot 'em up on any system, Raiden Trad, and one of my childhood favorite Genesis games NBA Jam: Tournament Edition! With those two games my Genesis library now sits nicely at 30 titles, so I'll have to do a full library pic for my collection thread at some point in the not too distant future.

Ugh, for the second week in a row I am too sick to do a proper picture and writeup this week. I kept waiting all day to see if I would feel better and could get out of bed and get something done, but no dice. Maybe next week I suppose. For now, here's my household's times for the week. Ineligible The Activision Decathlon (Atari 2600) - 6 minutes Barnstorming (Atari 2600) - 5 minutes Boxing (Atari 2600) - 5 minutes Eternal Champions (Sega Genesis) - 58 minutes Freeway (Atari 2600) - 3 minutes Grand Prix (Atari 2600) - 4 minutes The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Game Boy) - 70 minutes Mortal Kombat (Sega Genesis) - 43 minutes Splatterhouse 2 (Sega Genesis) - 147 minutes Tomb Raider II (PlayStation) - 163 minutes Nintendo Wii Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles - 573 minutes Total Video Game Play Time This Week 1,077 minutes (17 hours 57 minutes) [573 minutes eligible] Individual System Play Times This Week Nintendo Wii: 573 minutes Sega Genesis: 248 minutes PlayStation: 163 minutes Game Boy: 70 minutes Atari 2600: 23 minutes

Ugh, for the second week in a row I am too sick to do a proper picture and writeup this week. I kept waiting all day to see if I would feel better and could get out of bed and get something done, but no dice. Maybe next week I suppose. For now, here's my household's times for the week. Ineligible Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles - 573 minutes Atari 2600 The Activision Decathlon - 6 minutes Barnstorming - 5 minutes Boxing - 5 minutes Freeway - 3 minutes Grand Prix - 4 minutes Game Boy The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - 70 minutes PlayStation Tomb Raider II - 163 minutes Sega Genesis Eternal Champions - 58 minutes Mortal Kombat - 43 minutes Splatterhouse 2 - 147 minutes Total Video Game Play Time This Week 1,077 minutes (17 hours 57 minutes) [504 minutes eligible] Individual System Play Times This Week Nintendo Wii: 573 minutes Sega Genesis: 248 minutes PlayStation: 163 minutes Game Boy: 70 minutes Atari 2600: 23 minutes

Once again I completely forgot to play in the High Score Club until 45 minutes before midnight on the last night, so I gave each game one or two tries and called it. Basically just participation points this round. Boxing (Game 1, B/B Difficulty): 97 - 91 Freeway (Game 8, B/B Difficulty): 24 Decathlon (Javelin, 4 Player Score Total): 4,005 Grand Prix (Game 1, B/B Difficulty): 40.52 Barnstorming (Game 3, B/B Difficulty): 56.67

That's actually one of the games that I used to own as a kid and is on my "to buy back" list for this year. If you wanna PM me with some pictures of the front and top label to check the condition I'll take it off your hands if the label is in good shape. As you can probably guess from my pickups pictures I am pretty picky about condition, but there's no white wear marks on the label edges I'd be happy to give it a good home and play it.

It is an utterly awesome game, though insanely hard until you learn exactly what to do to defeat each of the bosses. The first time I played it via emulation around Halloween last year I got really frustrated with it and didn't like it very much at all, but after learning some boss strategies and coming back to it last month I was eventually able to beat it with a lot of practice. When I got my real physical copy today I sat down and played it right away, and beat it on just two continues now that I knew what I was doing. It was a ton of fun and this is definitely one of those games that I know I'll play through at least once a year every year, so it was totally worth the high price tag to have.

Last game pickup of January, and oh is it ever a good one!

It's been 26 years since it was first released, and to this day I don't think there has ever been any joypad controller as perfectly suited to fighting games as the official Sega Genesis / Mega Drive 6 Button Arcade Pad.

Apologies for my lateness, I've been laid out in bed with bronchitis for the last 3 days and haven't been online much. I'm still feeling pretty miserable, so for the time being here's my household's stats for the week then I'll come back and do the usual picture and writeup for the week later when I'm feeling better. Game Boy The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - 210 minutes PlayStation Tomb Raider II - 422 minutes Sega Genesis Lethal Enforcers - 29 minutes Samurai Shodown - 148 minutes Total Video Game Play Time This Week 809 minutes (13 hours 29 minutes) [809 minutes eligible] Individual System Play Times This Week PlayStation: 422 minutes Game Boy: 210 minutes Sega Genesis: 177 minutes

It's been a couple weeks since I did a video game pickups post, so I think it's about time for one! Eh, Poppy. "Woof."

Definitely the Jaguar, it's just a shame that they cost a small fortune to get into these days. The 7800 would be my second place pick, but it's not faring much better price wise as of the past year or so.

Out of curiosity, does anyone here by chance know what the best ColecoVision emulator for the GBA is? I'd really like to be able to play the ColecoVision version of Venture on my GBA when I get an EverDrive GBA X5 later this year but I'm not sure which of the emulator options has the best compatibility/reliability.

It was back to our usual gaming routine around here this past week, with a little over 16 hours of gaming time logged. Ineligible Jurassic Park (Sega Genesis) - 81 minutes The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Game Boy) - 97 minutes Spider Fighter (Atari 2600) - 56 minutes Splatterhouse 2 (Sega Genesis, Emulated on Nintendo Wii) - 158 minutes Super Street Fighter II (Sega Genesis) - 104 minutes Thunder Force III (Sega Genesis) - 43 minutes Tomb Raider II (PlayStation) - 326 minutes Nintendo 3DS 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - 126 minutes Total Video Game Play Time This Week 991 minutes (16 hours 31 minutes) [126 minutes eligible] Individual System Play Times This Week Sega Genesis: 386 minutes PlayStation: 326 minutes Nintendo 3DS: 126 minutes Game Boy: 97 minutes Atari 2600: 56 minutes This week the misses got back to her game of Tomb Raider II in earnest, and I spent most of the week just durdling around playing a handful of different Sega games and trying to decide on what to play next. First I started playing 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the 3DS whenever I had a few minutes of spare time, but for some reason in spite of my love for the classic Sonic games I just wasn't having very much fun playing it this time around so I took a few days off from gaming. Midweek the misses got a copy of Super Street Fighter II for the Genesis in the mail, so we played that together for a while, then the next day I got a copy of Jurassic Park in the mail so I spent some time with that game as well until I eventually got stuck on the third level; which I'm pretty sure is the level I always got stuck on and could never beat when I had this game as a kid. I wasn't feeling much up to banging my head against a proverbial brick wall this week, so Jurassic Park went back in the game drawer and I decided to play through Thunder Force III on hard difficulty. I don't think I had ever beaten it on hard before, but I managed to pull it off this time and only used one continue to boot. Looking for something to play next I settled in on my old favorite Game Boy game, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. I guess I just wasn't feeling terribly enthused about gaming this week though, because I only played it for an hour and a half before saying, "Meh, that's enough," and putting it back in the drawer. I did end the week on a good note though, revisiting Splatterhouse 2 via emulation (which really kicked my butt when I played it last October) and actually managing to beat it this time! It's a super tough game and I feel no shame in admitting that I had to use a guide to figure out how to beat every boss from about the third level onward, because even once I knew how to beat them it still took me a couple dozen tries to actually pull it off. It was still a lot of fun though and I think I'd like to track down a physical copy of Splatterhouse 2 at some point. Well, I think that about covers everything for this week! Until next time, and as always, best wishes and happy gaming to you and yours.

It was back to our usual gaming routine around here this past week, with a little over 16 hours of gaming time logged. Ineligible 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Nintendo 3DS) - 126 minutes Atari 2600 Spider Fighter - 56 minutes Game Boy The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - 97 minutes PlayStation Tomb Raider II - 326 minutes Sega Genesis Splatterhouse 2 (Emulated on Nintendo Wii) - 158 minutes Super Street Fighter II - 104 minutes Jurassic Park - 81 minutes Thunder Force III - 43 minutes Total Video Game Play Time This Week 991 minutes (16 hours 31 minutes) [865 minutes eligible] Individual System Play Times This Week Sega Genesis: 386 minutes PlayStation: 326 minutes Nintendo 3DS: 126 minutes Game Boy: 97 minutes Atari 2600: 56 minutes This week the misses got back to her game of Tomb Raider II in earnest, and I spent most of the week just durdling around playing a handful of different Sega games and trying to decide on what to play next. First I started playing 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the 3DS whenever I had a few minutes of spare time, but for some reason in spite of my love for the classic Sonic games I just wasn't having very much fun playing it this time around so I took a few days off from gaming. Midweek the misses got a copy of Super Street Fighter II for the Genesis in the mail, so we played that together for a while, then the next day I got a copy of Jurassic Park in the mail so I spent some time with that game as well until I eventually got stuck on the third level; which I'm pretty sure is the level I always got stuck on and could never beat when I had this game as a kid. I wasn't feeling much up to banging my head against a proverbial brick wall this week, so Jurassic Park went back in the game drawer and I decided to play through Thunder Force III on hard difficulty. I don't think I had ever beaten it on hard before, but I managed to pull it off this time and only used one continue to boot. Looking for something to play next I settled in on my old favorite Game Boy game, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. I guess I just wasn't feeling terribly enthused about gaming this week though, because I only played it for an hour and a half before saying, "Meh, that's enough," and putting it back in the drawer. I did end the week on a good note though, revisiting Splatterhouse 2 via emulation (which really kicked my butt when I played it last October) and actually managing to beat it this time! It's a super tough game and I feel no shame in admitting that I had to use a guide to figure out how to beat every boss from about the third level onward, because even once I knew how to beat them it still took me a couple dozen tries to actually pull it off. It was still a lot of fun though and I think I'd like to track down a physical copy of Splatterhouse 2 at some point. Well, I think that about covers everything for this week! Until next time, and as always, best wishes and happy gaming to you and yours.

Almost forgot to play this week! I can't say I've ever cared for Spider Fighter, since once you learn the patterns and where to sit while shooting it's pretty much just a game of endurance to see how long you can keep mashing the fire button. I decided that I wanted to still be able to use my hands tomorrow so I called it at 150,000 Spider Fighter (Game 1, B/B Difficulty): 150,060

D'aww, thanks! It's my very first 'sona commission, that I got from my favoritest artist Reva the Scarf back in August. It's cropped for avatar use but you can find the full version here, and don't worry, it's SFW. Your new avatar is wonderful too, the eyes in particular are really beautiful! While I wait for the new demo I'll have to check out the latest build tomorrow when I'm not so sleepy. Carrot Kingdom is definitely my #1 most looked forward to upcoming Atari game!

Sweet! I've finally got a Harmony cart again so I'll be really looking forward to checking out the new demo when it's up! Jinny is best 8-bit kitty

Thunder Force III (Sega Genesis) The Ultimate Doom (PC-DOS) Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (Sega Genesis)

I'm usually fine with one controller per system, barring speciality ones like trackballs, light guns, and arcade sticks. It's really a need based thing for me, asking myself the question "Can I think of any situation under which I would actually need more than one controller for this system?" and the answer is usually "no". There are some exceptions though, like how I have two Atari 2600 CX-40 style joysticks because I know they're prone to breaking or how I have two Wii remotes because there are light gun games on the Wii that let you dual wield with two guns at once. For the most part though one controller is fine by me.

No modern gaming in my household this past week I'm sorry to say, though we did log a little bit of time for the classic gaming tracker so Carlsson would still have something to do.

It was a very small week for gaming around here this past week, possibly the smallest week my household has had in the last couple years. PC-DOS (Emulated on Nintendo Wii) The Ultimate Doom - 163 minutes PlayStation Tomb Raider II - 190 minutes Sega Genesis Thunder Force III - 126 minutes Total Video Game Play Time This Week 479 minutes (7 hours 59 minutes) [479 minutes eligible] Individual System Play Times This Week PlayStation: 190 minutes PC-DOS: 163 minutes Sega Genesis: 126 minutes With only three games played and just 2 or 3 hours logged in each there's not going to be a whole lot to talk about this week. First the misses got a copy of Thunder Force III for the Sega Genesis in the mail, which we sat down and played together until we had each beaten the game on normal difficulty. I used to own a copy of Thunder Force III a few years back before I did a big collection liquidation and it was always my favorite horizontal scrolling shooter on any system ever, so it was totally cool of her to buy another copy of it. She's never been big into shoot 'em up games but she ended up having quite a bit of fun with this one, which isn't surprising since the low difficulty level makes Thunder Force III it a an excellent entry point for people who aren't too familiar with the genre and the game just plays marvelously. Great graphics, great music, a nice power-up selection, and a generous amount of extra lives and continues. Next up the misses logged few hours in Tomb Raider II, beating three or four more levels this week, then I finally got around to finishing up The Ultimate Doom via emulation on the Wii. I always play through at least one version of Doom every year, and the classic DOS original with the addition of the 4th episode Thy Flesh Consumed is always a good choice. At this point I've beaten every version of Doom on Ultra Violence difficulty so many times that it's a very routine by-the-numbers sort of experience playing through it, but I still have fun and enjoy my yearly excursion through the martian hellscape. Well, I think that's all I've got to talk about this week! Who knows, maybe next week will be a bit more exciting. Until then, and as always, best wishes and happy gaming to you and yours!