HoshiChiri

6. TurnOn (Xbox One) This lil' indie game is the first console release from a tiny Russian developer called Brainy Studio. Back at PAX West (then PAX Prime) 2014, I was having lunch when a friend popped into the hotel room. He said the Expo Hall had lost power, so they kicked everyone out. While wandering the still-open parts of the show, he got stopped by a guy with a European accent who wanted him to play his game- which turned out to be about fixing a power outage. He thought the coincidence was funny. His description of the game intrigued me, so I went out and wandered the area until a guy with a European accent stopped me and asked if I wanted to play his game- I said yes, that I had in fact been looking for it, and was lead to a tiny table with a monitor and a PC on it to give the game a try. I was given a flyer promising that it would come 'soon' to Xbox 360. When the game didn't materialize, I forgot about it. Fast-forward to last year- I was cleaning out some things and found that old flyer, and decided to look up the game. Which was kind of hard, since 'turn on xbox' brings a lot of troubleshooting and starter guides... but eventually I found out the game had undergone another 2 years of development, and switched to the Xbox One- but it was out! So I bought it, with the intent to play later... and forgot again. Spotted it on my Xbox when I bought Donut County, and since that one was so short, I started it up. The game is a puzzle platformer where you play a sentient electric spark from space, restoring power to a city with a really dangerous electrical layout. You move across the power lines to reach the various lights & power boxes. A few stages play more akin to an endless runner, where the spark moves on its own & you dodge red lightning symbols (you can collect green ones to refill health if needed.) Later on these two combine and the symbols start showing up in the standard stages, making timing your movement important. It's actually a lot of fun & surprisingly long for such a small team to have made... but at the same time, being such a small team means the game feels rough. I often encountered little glitches where the spark would stop moving, or lose tracking & be floating in mid-air away from any wires. Usually jumping would fix any issues- but I did have to restart one stage becuase I fell off the wire right as I completed a task and it didn't register correctly so I couldn't progress. It's also not terribly challenging- most stages it's a simple matter of systematically covering every wire to hit everything. I didn't mind, though- it gives the game a unique, relaxing feel for most stages. I recommend giving it a look, you may be pleasantly surprised.

I feel the two games play differently enough that deciding between the two is just a matter of personal taste. However- becuase you specifically said you want to try it on the flip grip, I went with Donkey Kong Jr. The vertical setup benefits that game more. Although quite frankly, wouldn't something like Galaga be more appropriate for such a test?

It's not a Duo, it's a Duo-R. It doesn't seem to have one.

The important factor with Moocher's Honor is time- for example, my SNES was a freebie from a friend, and the game collection included some notable titles- Zelda, Mario RPG, and especially Evo. If something came up & I needed to sell these, I would no longer feel guilty about it becuase they've been mine for over a decade, and I've lost contact with said friend. I have satisfactorily met the 'intent to keep & use' part of the code, and could no longer offer a return anyway. So depending on how long it's been & if your neighbor's still around, you may be in the clear! Ain't that the truth- it's why I still have that big box of anime I meant to sell a couple months ago sitting around.

*utter confusion* How do I do that? Also, what headphone jack?

I'm playing by the Moocher's Honor rule- basically, that if one has been offered for free an item of known value, one only accepts with the intent to keep and use said item- to take for the sole purpose of making a profit for yourself is bad form. If later on it becomes apparent that you no longer want to keep this item, depending on the length of time passed, it's preferable to either a) offer to return the item to the original owner so they can sell it if they'd like, or b) give it away yourself.

Eyup… methinks I have a new top spot...

Summon Night 2 is worth $40?! Sheesh, I paid a dollar for mine- and it came with the GBA! Maybe I should play that one of these days...

5. Donut County (Xbox One) This is a fun game- essentially Katamari Damacy backwards- but Good Golly is this SHORT! I know I keep saying that about what I'm playing this year, but I literally bought, downloaded, and played to credits within 90 minutes. You can get more out of it by going for the achievements- and I probably will- but otherwise? Don't pay full price for this, even $12.99 is too much for the length.

4. Liar Princess and the Blind Prince (switch) An adorable little fairytale themed puzzle platformer, reminiscent of Ico. Perhaps a little expensive for the length- you could beat this in 1-2 days without any trouble. You do get some quality extra goodies for the money though, so if you like collector's editions this will do just fine. For me though, my niece's reaction was the real treat. She's super into storybooks right now. She was over while I was plaything this, wandered by & watched the TV for a minute, then went to walk away just as a cutscene started. Cutscenes in this game play out as a narrator reading pages in a book. As soon as the first page-turn noise happened, she turned around, looked at the screen and proclaimed "STORY!" And proceeded to stay while I read her each page of the cutscene (the narration's in Japanese.) I then paused the game to show her the storybook that came with the game- which she immediately grabbed and declared to be hers. I had to recruit help to distract her later to get it back! I'll have to see about getting a separate copy of the book, or at least something similar.

Assuming that the system is in working order with all nessecary hookups/controllers, I really think I'd be hard pressed to say 'no' to a system. Off the top of my head, I might turn down: A 5200- I actually had one a couple years ago & sold it. It didn't have the controllers/hookups and I didn't realize it was so expensive to get said bits. I might take one now, but given the size of the unit & the fragile natures of the controllers meaning I'll likely be in the same boat as before in short order... I might pass. A CDi- once again, it's a big system that would be hard to store, and I've not seen one game for it that looks remotely fun to play. On top of that, the games are somewhat rare & therefore tend to be on the pricey side to boot. I don't want to spend $30-$50 (or more) on a game in the hopes that it might be somewhat enjoyable. A Hyperscan- I typically avoid licensed games like the plague, and this thing is ALL licensed games. A Famicom- ok, unlike the others, this one certainly has fun titles I'd like to have and it's not prohibitively big... but considering I could play most of those interesting games on my top loader with an adapter, I'm not sure I'd be willing to deal with the hardwired cables & fiddliness of hooking up old Japanese systems just to use a famicom specifically.

3. Gris (Switch) This game is short, and melancholy, and goddamn beautiful! It's like the gaming equivalent of hitting up a modern art museum for an afternoon, I highly recommend it. Interesting to me that everything I've finished so far this year is Nintendo digital titles. I've been playing other things, but not things with endings. *shrugs*

Another great deal from Masschamber! Loving the Odyssey 2 bundle I picked up from him. Although I have learned my post office seems to hate his packages, since it got knocked around a bit like the SNES- luckily only the power cable took serious damage, a problem quickly fixed by borrowing my 2600's cord. Still waiting on the postal insurance decision, but it was such a good deal I'm not particularly worried about it. Always a pleasure to deal with masschamber!

Hey! I just picked up an Odyssey 2, but it seems it took a few licks in transit & the AC adapter is dead. I know the unit works, becuase I got it going off of my Atari jr adapter- but since it doesn't run on quite the same specs, I don't really want to keep using it. Any tips on getting a replacement? It's an older odyssey with removeable controllers and a headphone jack/style AC. According to the plug, it's a 'model AJ 9048-BK01, output 11.5 vac 400 mA, input 115 vac 60 hz 12 W.' The only standalone plug I can see immediately on ebay is a barrel tip (so no go) from happiestsellerever (so double no-go!). I'm sure I can something else... As an aside- if anyone's around the Puget Sound Area and wants a nearly-destroyed Odyssey 2 box, I have one up for grabs. It's in such bad shape & I don't keep boxes normally, so it's getting recycled unless someone's actually interested.

Update: so far, no luck- just a lot of inventory errors. Giving this a quick bump in case anyone wants to call their local store & see if they have better luck!

If you're looking to another Ebay seller for another go, may I recommend Nihonretro? Tanooki suggested them to me over on the TG-16 thread. I got my RGB/Region modded/refurbed PC Engine Duo-R just a few days ago, and it's a damn fine machine. I don't have the means to test the RGB mod, but the stock composite cable still works (important thing for me with mods), and it's the clearest picture of any of my composite systems. No units currently available, but they seem to get new turbos in every few weeks, so it shouldn't be a long wait.

Heck of a necropost, that's for sure. But considering I actually just got a turbografx (technically a region modded PC Engine Duo-R), rather timely necroposting!

I've come across that one, but it's strictly a video converter- I need to pull the audio too, so it's not really the right one for me. Food for thought indeed- I have been looking over the retrotink. Mostly for curiosity, but I might need to give it a more serious once-over.

Ooooooo… *looks at pair of old Game Boy Colors* Which one of you to mess with?

Well this was clearly designed to look good in pictures and not be at all functional. Impossible-to-use inputs (those buttons stick out for a reason!), unnecessary screen curve to increase the chance of pressure damage in a pocket or bag, and weird game sticks that will not only be damn near impossible to tell apart, but are somehow a greater choking hazard than a switch cartridge. Not to mention cutting off that corner is going to make it sit oddly in your hands. You want to improve the original game boy? Give a game boy pocket a backlit LCD and a rechargeable battery. Done.

It's been modified to use an 8-pin DIN connector, since that allowed it to retain functionality with the stock cables. I don't believe it's got the booster HDretrovision says is needed for their cables to work on PC Engine. Here's the link to unit I got if it helps. I took Tanooki's suggestion for an Ebay seller- while I haven't powered the thing on yet (a/v cable comes tomorrow), I'm pretty sure it was the right choice. They even put in a paper with photo instructions on formatting the memory before use to make sure I can save my games. I didn't even think about that, I'm glad they brought it up!

Alright, I did it- I splurged over the weekend (and took advantage of Ebay's bucks offer). I picked up a region modded PC Engine Duo-R. Here's the thing: it's also RGB modded, so it shipped with a scart cable. I have zero scart inputs in my setup. I've got an inbound composite cable coming to make do with (the listing said the original able would still work), but it sure would be nice to use that upgrade. So... what do you reccomend for turning the scart signal into something I can use? I've blown most of my turbo savings on games, so cost is a concern (no framemeisters!) I have an open HDMI port left on my TV, but I also have a component switchbox that could stand an upgrade. It's got 4 inputs, but only 3 are actually component, the 4th's composite. This would make a good excuse for a new switch.