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HoshiChiri

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Posts posted by HoshiChiri

  1. Posted · Edited by HoshiChiri

    I'm honestly a bit puzzled at the people wringing their hands, bemoaning the lack of mature-rated titles as a sure sign that this system will surely fail. Families just use their smartphones! No one but hardcore gamers buy consoles! 

     

    One word: Leapfrog.

     

    If no one buys kid-friendly tech, why does Leapfrog still sell? Becuase not everyone wants to give their 10 & unders a portable with a 3 digit price tag, hoping they won't a) break or lose it, and b) get past the parental filters & find something overly violent and/or sexual they now have to explain. Thing is, once you get past Leapfrog & its preschool edutainment angle, there's no real serious options out there. There IS a niche to be filled here.

     

    Also- who says 'gamers' don't want a family friendly experience? I own God of War & Devil May Cry, I'm not put off by mature content... but you know what I also enjoy? Here's a hint- look at my avatar. Clearly I am an adult who does, in fact, enjoy E-rated, 'childish' games... and if gamers really were bothered by such, Kirby wouldn't be such an icon.

     

    Assuming the games are good, Here's how I see this playing out- Little Billy is having his 8th birthday party. He gets an Amico from his tech-savvy dad who secretly wanted access to the old Inty games of his youth. Billy and friends love the games. They draw in their non-gamer parents to try. Some of said parents keep playing when the kids move on to other toys & cake. After the party, Billy's friends ask their parents for an Amico. They agree, impressed by what they saw at the party. Other kids come over to the friend's houses, and in turn fall for the system & ask their parents for one. A few of them talk about it on the playground & other kids overhear. Word of mouth spreads the system around. It does not come close to the numbers of Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft. No one cares becuase it's turning a profit for the niche system it is. The system establishes as a 'step up' machine for families who want better than Leapfrog, but aren't ready to commit to a full phone/tablet/console for their kids. Once the kids are in their preteen/early teen years & have proven themselves capable of caring for tech & mature enough to navigate adult content with some supervision, the high-end tech comes out, and the amico is pushed to the back of the entertainment center... but gets pulled back out from time to time for parties, grandparent visits, younger cousins, etc. Maybe it lives in the closet after awhile. Maybe one of those younger cousins gleefully takes it home. Either way, it does what it set out to do- make some people happy.

     

    (Speaking of my avatar, I will preorder this thing immediately if you get a new Klonoa on it.)

    • Like 2

  2. Posted

    2 hours ago, pacman000 said:

    Wasn't the Wonderswan ambidextrous too?

    No- while the Wonderswan allowed for rotating the handheld to a vertical position like the Lynx, its button layout meant it couldn't be properly ambidextrous (and I'm not aware of any games supporting such a feature.)

     

    The Lynx's ambidextrous nature was a hardware feature, I'm not aware of anything else that ever did that.

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    7 hours ago, Jin said:

    Holy cow Solatorobo! Amazing pickup! 😮

    That was the Gasp Game this go-round. I try to get one game every con that solicits an audible gasp when I find it- otherwise it's more like grocery shopping than game shopping, y'know?

    5 hours ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

    I'm surprised how stupid the NA cover of Super Star Soldier looks... the PC Engine cover for the game is sooooooo much better! Also, how much did Darius cost?

    $80- A bit on the pricey side, bit it's complete and the disc is pristine, so it was worth a little extra.

     

    Also, I just googled Super Star Soldier for the PC Engine and you are very correct!

    • Like 2

  4. Posted

    I've only just recently become aware of this system- and unlike literally every other retro throwback that's been/being attempted right now, I consider myself 'cautiously optimistic' about this one. It's not just 'here's a CG mockup of a nostalgia-designed console case and some vague allusions to possible content, now give us money'. You seem to have a clear idea of the niche you want to appeal to, and that focus is taking precedence over pushing the Intellivision name. There's still little nods to the old machines though- it's a rather amicable setup (wait a sec...) 

     

    I won't be sold until I see some games, running on a proper physical prototype- but it sounds like you're bringing that content fairly soon, so here's hoping I like what's to come!

    • Like 2

  5. Posted · Edited by HoshiChiri

    Pickups from Seattle Retro today! The Renton show didn't have anything in the way of Turbografx, so I've made up for it 😉

     

    Solatorobo stung to pick up- not because it was priced unfairly or anything. I'd intended to pick it up back at release, decided to wait for a "good sale", and waited myself right into a massive price spike. *sigh* But now I have it, and it's complete, and I don't have to think about the price anymore!

     

    The Hello Kitty & Pac-Man stuff was won at a local arcade. Glad to have my Pac-Man figure set complete again... maybe? This packaging is new and says there's 8 figures, but I've only seen 7- I don't know what I'm missing!

    IMG_0025.JPG

    • Like 3

  8. Posted

     

    I have a friend who does the same. Shot glasses from places he's been to but he doesn't actively seek to add more unless he goes somewhere new. I guess you can have a collection without actually being a collector. If you have a group of things that have some meaning to you or you enjoy but you don't go out of your way to add to it I suppose you can be one without being the other. A collector wants more and makes a conscious effort to do so. In the case of video games, since it's a media that can be enjoyed as opposed to a display case of shot glasses, then obtaining might not just be collecting but just to play.

    I would argue that your shot glass friend is, in fact, a collector- becuase he will seek & buy new ones as travel souvenirs. There's more than one way to be a collector- you can be a casual collector who only adds new items under specific circumstances. I collect coins, but I don't seek out coin dealers on a regular basis- I fish new quarters out of the change till at work. I visit one coin shop, once a year, as part of my PAX convention vacation. I tell people who ask me if I want souvenirs from their travels to get squished pennies. That's pretty much it- it's a very different beast than my far more active game collecting.

     

    One can absolutely have a collection without collecting, though- I have a collection of Woodstock plush like that. You know, the bird from Peanuts? My in-laws got it into their heads that I loved that character (I'm indifferent) and started buying me plush & figures every holiday. I've never actually bought a Woodstock on my own. I just ended up with enough to count as a collection.

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    I think a collector is either someone with more games than the average owner (which my google-fu pegs at 1-2 consoles with 10-15 games each), or someone actively attempting to accquire games for the sheer joy of it (gameplay notwithstanding.) Also, one must be keeping these machines with intent- simply having an 'old Nintendo in storage somewhere' doesn't count for anything.

     

    So- Billy Bob deciding to keep his old consoles hooked up, playing & occasionally acquiring new systems/games for all his consoles, eventually building to half a dozen machines with 20 games each? Collector.

    Jimmy Jam who sold off his childhood machines before college & current owns nothing, but is missing it & decides to re-buy all the games he owned or wanted back them? Collector.

    Lil' Timmy who got a Switch for Christmas with Mario & Zelda, & saved up his birthday money for a Mega Man collection? Passionate maybe, but not yet a collector.

    • Like 3

  10. Posted

    That Game Gear I had has been put to death, it repeatedly attempted to commit suicide one update/repair after another until it hit a wall of unrepairability.

     

    If anyone wants a nice blue shell, a new handheld legend LED strip still bagged up, a glass lens, sega ac adapter, sonic2 and pac-attack in their cases and a 3rd party game gear pouch I've got them.

    Do you need a donor? I've got a plain ol' black Game Gear that was functional at last use (although in need of a recap). I bought a McWill modded one last year so I'm not doing anything with it.

  11. Posted

    It's true there's not much comparison with GameBoy, I was just pointing out that $150 isn't all that much money nowadays.

     

    Indeed- if you started saving now, 10 bucks a week would have you with enough money to do the pre-order by October. It's not a stretch.

     

    And then there's this... didn't take long. lol

     

    https://community.arduboy.com/t/arduboy-crank-mod/7785

     

    My main takeaway from this was 'someone's making a way for my Arduboy to have multiple games' and I'm super into that :-D

  12. Posted

    I just hope they provide a patch to unlock the system before they shut everything down. Bricking something someone's paid for would be wrong.

     

    (3rd place I've said this.)

    That would be nice- I've actually attempted to buy an ouya a couple times this year, but it's always fallen through. I suppose that was a blessing in disguise. I still think I'd kinda like one though, even if it does end up a paperweight.

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    I'll admit, I was only vaguely interested until you said one of the games is from Keita Takahashi- so, now I'm on the mailing list.

     

    As for the "but who's it for?", that's pretty simple- people, probably game collectors, who like unique gaming experiences. Yes, the $150 dollar price tag is steep, but so's a lot of the games I add to my collection these days. What's so different about buying this than buying Swordquest Waterworld, Little Samson, or basically anything for the Sega Saturn & Turbografx CD?

     

    I'm curious to see how this develops- and I'm glad it won't be out until 2020, so I have time to set aside 10 bucks a week in case I decide I want it.

  16. Posted

    8. Crystal Crisis (Switch)

     

    Not the greatest achievement- everybody knows it doesn't take long to finish story mode & roll credits in a puzzle game- but I just wanna talk about this oddball piece of gaming weirdness. Let's break this down: this is an updated (& fun!) take on Super Puzzle Fighter. The indie crossover cast includes: Quote, Curly, & Ballos (Cave Story); Issac (Binding of Issac); Solange (Code of Princess), Aban, Tina & Jim (1001 Spikes), Thompson & Zombie (Tempura of the Dead), Umihara Kawase, Astro Boy & Blackjack (Osama Tezuka creations); Johnny Freakin' Turbo (Turbografx 16 mascot), amongst others... and the whole shebang is narrated by Peter Cullen, voice of Optimus Prime.

     

    This is weird as heck and I LOVE IT.

  17. Posted · Edited by HoshiChiri

    IMG 0029

     

    Renton City Retro pickups! A bit more implusive than I usually go, but the only thing I saw from the want list was that Powerstone 2 there. Not pictured: the copy of Medievil I bought my sister that I can't get to run. I looked it over briefly at the con, and it looked dirty but fine- after cleaning it though, I spotted this odd mark, like an indent instead of a proper scratch? It's not through the data layer, so I'm hoping taking it somewhere for a professional resurfacing will get it going.

     

    Also, I didn't buy the Asteroids- that was a gift from a friend who found it while cleaning. She's never owned an Atari 2600, so it's a bit of a mystery.

    • Like 3

  19. Posted

    I agree with you. But I would like to take it one step further. We should all take a stand to protect kids. Its getting so hard to keep kids away from things they shouldnt see. Even cartoon channels now cant be trusted. You cant hand a child a device you think is safe anymore. All my kids are grown now but we are also foster parents and some of the things these kids have seen and experienced is terrible. Yes its the parents fault but it takes a long time to repair the damage. It would be nice for us parents to not have to constantly monitor everything.

     

    I also agree, but to take it one step further still- it's NEVER been easy to monitor what kids see. Have you looked at what we marketed to kids in the 80s? Alien & Robocop had toy lines. Animal Farm had an animated film made in the 50s, that got 3 VHS home releases.

     

    Anytime you give a kid free access to a media collection you personally didn't curate, they can (and usually will) find inappropriate content. Even if they weren't trying- trust me, I was an anime fan in my teenage years. It's a special kind of awkward to pick out a video with your mom, go home, watch it- and discover it's almost softcore porn. I actually think it's easier today than in the past- the solution these days is to cut off unsupervised internet. Since most other sources of content are gone, kids would then be limited to whatever your home media collection is- which, I would assume, is all vetted. (Unlike when I was a kid, when rental & book stores were still common & easy to walk/bike to.)

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    Picked up some stuff at Gamestop today because of the pro sale. Found a CIB Lollipop Chainsaw for 360, so I grabbed Killer Instinct for the 50% off. Looking at it more closely later, I realized I have the definitive edition discs in the combo breaker case!

     

    Since I've already bought a new 2 disc case for it, I'm hoping someone might have an art insert they'd be willing to sell me for it. (Or maybe just scan into the cover project so I can try making one until I can buy one.)

  21. Posted · Edited by HoshiChiri

    I’d say most gamers are not over 18. When I play call of duty everyone is about 10. Sony taking a stand that benefits kids is their choice. Don’t like it don’t buy their stuff. Simple. Of course I’m probably in the minority here. I believe in God and try to lead a life that reflects that. Watching naked cartoon characters just isn’t something I care about. It doesn’t make the story any better to show women naked so what’s the point? To make sure that the pervs are protected?

     

    The majority of online players, especially in a major modern franchise, is a much different beast than the majority of gamers- I don't play Call of Duty and rarely go online, but I am very much a gamer, as an example.

     

    This is the newest article I can find on the subject, which puts the average gamer in their 30s... which pans out if you consider the ridiculous appeal of Nintendo to kids 30 years ago, and that these wouldn't be the people playing the online modern stuff (for the most part.)

     

    I'm not particularly put off by the censorship- I don't actually like many mature rated games in the first place, and if you're old enough to decide that you want the anime titty game, you're old enough to buy a second console to play it on. I also think, however, that the decision to have said content should be in the consumer's hands, not the console company. Plus, while it's not gonna hurt them right now (Sony really got the importance of exclusives early on & set up the PS4 for success with them), as we start moving into the next generation, choosing to avoid cross-play and censor or disallow mature titles could end up costing them their place in the market.

    • Like 2

  22. Posted

    I think it's good. Kids are exposed to too much already

    I'd disagree- most gamers these days are over 18, & censorship for the sake of a part of the audience isn't right. It's like saying you can't make r-rated movies because kids might see them.

     

    It should be up to the kid's parents to decide what's appropriate for their child to play, & to talk them through any mature content they find (accidentally or otherwise.)

     

    I'm glad Nintendo's letting the people who want their pervy or violent titles have at it.

    • Like 4

  23. Posted

    The one exception to my 'no writing' rule is that I've started writing the word 'fake' on the back of most repro carts (as I do in this repro review video) because I don't want my wife to get flack selling them when I die. I haven't managed to convince myself to do it to my star fox 2, or my fancy tactics ogre repro, my brain will only let me do it to the chinese ones.

    Get some of those cart protector boxes & write "fake" on them. Same result, but clean carts.

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    Nah- my cartridge gaming days were spent on a military base so small, I could practically bike the full length of it. Lending carts wasn't really a thing as a result- you simply went to the other kid's house & played with them. Ironically, we did actually have a game stolen once, so it may have helped- but we ended up getting it back anyway when the other parents got wise to the situation. That's a whole story onto itself, tho'...

     

    I used to have some carts from a friend that she'd written her name on- it did nothing to stop my brother from stealing them, becuase he didn't have them out anywhere for me to prove they were taken. For all I know, he sold them (he went through a bad phase in his teenage years). That resulted in my current habit of keeping a catalog of my collection- I used to have to count my games once a week to make sure nothing was missing.

     

    Personally, I don't mind so much as it can usually be removed. It's just one of those interesting relics of the era. (Now, a disc game with a name written on it would be a hard pass, as I'd be worried about the ink affecting the data layer.)

    • Like 1
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