HoshiChiri

Notable moments, in no particular order: -Getting an Xbox 360 from my fiancé for Christmas. He decided to be a dick about it. Why just give the system all normal-like when you can open the box, take everything out and replace it with a couple rocks? Oh, but don't worry, I did get the system right away- it was buried, along with its components, it a 4x3x3 foot cardboard box. It took an hour to get everything out- except the power cord. He saved that for my birthday present a week later. (I should point out, at the time, I was saving for a PS3 and had no intention of owning an Xbox. It sat on the floor for a week while I rearranged to make room for it.) -Me and my sister were going to drive out one morning to a farther Game Crazy location during one of the 'classic plastic' sales were retro titles were 3 for $15. She overslept, then had to run errands, then blew a tire. She asked if I even still wanted to go- I did. It was almost dinner before we got there. My pick of 3? Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX, Vagrant Story... and Suikoden 2. I didn't put it on the counter because I was afraid if I let go of it, they wouldn't give it back- I just held it out for them to scan. -When the local Game Crazy was closing down, my work changed my schedule so on closing day I had to come in for an opening shift. I talked to my manager and explained that I wanted to go to the closing sale at this videogame store, and as such would I go back to the late shift I'd originally had. Not only did he say yes, he gave me a shopping list! -Getting complete-in-box copies of every game I down for disc-based systems. Doesn't sound like a great achievement, but when you need cases and manuals for stuff like Vay and Lunar on Sega CD, Tomba, Suikoden 2... it gets hard to find! I didn't note when I first started this project, but it's been something like 7 years to finally get everything cased up.

Honest answer? Kid me would have tried to bargain to get 1 or 2 presents now, and wait on the rest. Like, I only get half the money later if I open one now. (Kid me had a beach-vacation related epiphany on delayed gratification, so I wasn't too bad at waiting.) I've never questioned the 'why' of the lineup though... some of my best con memories come from sitting in line for hours waiting on a panel or the dealer's hall to open. Being able to get hyped for something you love with like-minded individuals is a great thing. For me personally, though, console camping has too much chance of getting stuck in line with grumpy resellers for too little return (a console that, normally, has no games I want to play at launch and therefore wouldn't even get used anyway.)

While I am quite sure the jugs were funny, as a female I do prefer access to a proper bathroom. I read one guy's story on another site years ago that he got followed by 4 guys after picking up his system. When he and his buddy got to the next store (game-hunting), he made a bit of a show about passing his hunting knife to his friend, who was staying in the car with the PS3. Apparently, as soon as the knife came out, the car with the 4 guys drove off. Chalk that up to another reason I don't intend to system-camp, I guess.

I lined up for the midnight release of Final Fantasy 12 to get my pre-order. That was less because I needed it and more just for the spectacle of it (and to say I'd done it at least once, I guess.) I didn't even play it, I had to open at work the next day. I've never lined up for a console and don't ever intend to. Reason: Nails it on the head right there. I've done the multi-hour campout at cons for events before, and it's annoying enough when you can be safe indoors, warm, and leave to use indoor plumbing knowing you can get back in line. I can't imagine making it worse for myself by turning it into urban camping.

PM sent, even though you're already heading out. Have a nice trip, hope to hear from you when you're back!

I work two retail jobs- one in a department store, one in arts & crafts. Based on what I've seen... this is holiday shopping. I have conferred with every co-worker and similarly employed person I know, and everyone is flummoxed by how early this year's shopping spike occurred (pre-Halloween!) I would imagine, given the difficulty of tracking down older games, those who want to gift them would start even earlier. It doesn't mean that's it for sure- goodness knows, we can be terribly paranoid as mentioned, which could hold prices higher with people seeing everything going up. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if things go back down a bit in the spring when everyone's good and focused on paying holiday credit bills. (Maybe even see supply go up as people sell things to pay those bills.)

Collecting goal #1: revamp the setup Not as major as previous revisions, but I need to get a LCD tv in there for modern systems. Most of this is rearranging my closet to make room for my CRT. I won't be able to have both out, but I know I'll want it for when I have more space. Goal #2: get a PS4 Pretty straightforward- the games I want are out, I need to get one. (It's part of the reason I need the new tv!) Goal #3: MOAR SYSTEMS! I doubt I'll get everything I'm after- that'd be pricey- but there are a few more systems I'd like to add to my set. An original Gameboy, a PSONE with the screen, a Yukievision... plus the pipe dreams of an Oddessey,a Vectrex, and a Saturn. Barring an amazing find in the wild, those aren't really in my price range.

Many craft stores carry blank sheets of shrink dinks for custom projects. There is a variety designed to go through an inkjet printer.

I have owned 3 2600s in my life. The first was a vader that I bought broken from a goodwill freshman year of high school. It hung out in my closet for years in the hopes I'd meet someone who repaired them. Eventually I gave up and took it to a use game shop to trade for system #2, a 4-switch woody. Worked in the store, dead by the time I got home. No idea what happened there. I took it back and traded that for my current Jr. system, which has been running for me for a few years now (and hopefully will continue to.) For reference, my stuff's all plugged into surge protectors, I don't keep the Atari hooked up when I'm not using it, and I typically only play for 30 minutes to an hour in a sitting (I tend to use the Atari when my playtime is short, and the newer systems for longer sessions because they usually need it to get to the next save point.) I also know there's some sort on interference of my line from the ground wire. It was messing with the PS3 when I got it, I have to use an adapter. Hence the focus on good surge protectors over power strips.

A few years back, my fiancé gave me an xbox for Christmas. To be a snot, he individually wrapped each component and nestled them inside a four foot box of bubblewrap. Opening Emehr's box kind of reminded me of that. Everything was handled with an extreme level of care to make sure all arrived in perfect order. The games are also amongst the cleanest carts I've acquired for my 2600, and everything worked perfectly. This is a good guy to buy from!

Or it could end up like Howdy Doody and be nothing more than a footnote of something old people used to like, quickly vanishing from the collective consciousness. I have no expectation of Atari keeping more presence than the pockets of collectors scattered about- but for that to happen, the collectors that exist today have to be willing to share why they like their games with younger collectors. I worry when I see so many just brush off the 'kids' for 'not being there' that in a generation they're won't be enough fans left to carry the flame- even if it's just a candle instead of a torch. Heck, my interest in Atari is mostly a mix of chance.... until I joined this forum, 98% of my Atari collection was random games bought in bagged chunks from thrift stores as visual aids for a freshman project in high school. They sat in my closet unused for a decade because I didn't have a working system. Then I had a double-whammy of interest in the form of a plug n' play driving controller (one of dad's 'crap I forgot stocking stuffers' walgreen's runs, if I remember right), and some guy at a con asking me to play Combat in the retro game room. Even then, I didn't get a system... that didn't happen until after my fiancé's family found and gave me their old Intellivision. I figured, hey- I'm set up for these systems now, and I've got the games, let's try 'em out! It takes effort to play Atari- there's no retron that hooks up to a modern tv to make things easy, you've got to do the research to get the right bits just to set one up, let alone know what the good games are. If we don't share what's fun, no one's going to have a reason to bother. *giggles and runs away*

This is a sentiment that, honestly, I find very worrying. I don't expect that I would have the exact same feelings/appreciation for Atari that the children of the 70s do... but it seems like the feelings/appreciation myself & the other post-crash kids have is getting kinda glazed over because 'you weren't there, man!' All I can think is, 'do you want Atari to die with you?' We're the ones who are gonna be the old guys at cons in 20 year's time, trying to convince the kids and teens why this really old stuff their grandparents and great-grandparents used is still worth their time. Nostalgia can't be the only worthwhile thing about the games if it's going to be remembered down the line. I don't know, I just feel like there's too much 'you can't understand, you're too young' instead of an attempt to let us understand. It's a disservice to what are some very good games, if just presented correctly so we know how to play them!

I once read a post online from a guy who worked at Gamestop a few years back, and had someone come in and- quite seriously- ask for a GameStation X. How they managed to get all 3 combined, he never figured out. Another guy had a mom freak out because he wouldn't sell her Mario for the Playstation. Clearly the issue was him hoarding the game for his friends, not that her 8 year old got the system wrong.

We can always go the 'clueless parent' route: 2006-present: everything is 'xbox' 1995-2006: everything is 'playstation' 1985-1995: everything is 'nintendo' 1972-1985: everything is 'I remember those! My friends and I used to play all the time!'

Dang, that would have made a great surprise Christmas gift for a friend. But, considering we have seen Hyperboy's generosity recently, I say karma working as intended.

That... is genuinely horrifying. Like it's some sort of monster game with a wrestler attacking his own disembodied head.

PM sent for Imagic set!

I have never understood this one. I also got a kick out of the original Demon Attack label. Definitely one of those 'so bad it's awesome' pics.

I never know what counts as obscure in these cases- there's a big difference between an entertaining, but bizarre game that flew under the radar, and a supremely average game that simply isn't memorable. From what's been mentioned, I do own/have played Mr. Mosquito, the Shadow Hearts trilogy, and Tomba... apparently my Tomba is odd somehow because it runs on my PS2, and that's not supposed to work according to what I've read. *shrugs* I love Mischief Makers on N64, but that comes up on every 'hidden games' list I've ever seen for the system, so I don't know how obscure it really is. I also thoroughly enjoyed El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. No one ever brings that up, I'm not sure why. It's not the greatest Devil May Cry clone, but it's not bad, and the art is stunning. (Terrible ending, though.)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=w23oPQdnNH8

Depends- if cheating is allowed, Game Boy Advance- I own 3, so getting rid of one isn't a big deal. Plus, I have a Game Boy Player on my Gamecube, so even if I got rid of all of them I can still play the games. Assuming we are, in fact, being forced to get rid of one in such a way we can no longer play its library... Game Gear. I have nothing against the system or its games, but the screen ghosting makes it so hard to see what's going on I rarely play it as it is. I'd definitely miss it the least. I flat-out do not think I could cut down to 3 systems. I currently have 22 (not counting the extra GBAs), and I do play them all. By my best figuring, I could only cut out 4 or 5 where backwards compatibility helps me out. more then that, though? That's like telling someone you can only eat one food group the rest of your life. You get such different things from all of them, it's not healthy to cut out so much! On a separate note... any of you guys who don't care about your Saturns, let me know if you decide to follow through. I'd be most curious as to your selling price.

I have a sudden urge to see some sort of bizarre Maury Povich thing with the 5200 trying to say the Jaguar is really the Colecovision's kid, he couldn't have possibly had anything to do with it. Then he gets the 'You ARE the father' and mom screams him down. Wait... who the heck IS mom?

Ah, it's been awhile since I've seen a real drag-out, full-on pointless fan fight. This is fun! Can we do 5200 vs.Jaguar now? No one's brought those up yet!

I'm watching the whole 8-bit retro craze with great interest about now... since, as you said, you'd expect at this point for it to be dying down in favor of a 16-bit rush. The overwhelming popularity of the 8-bit NES, coupled with clone systems & the wii virtual console keeping the games playable and relevant has propped up the nostalgia. I'm curious to see if they'll be a sudden turnover at some point, or will we gloss over 16 bit entirely and move on to PS1 retro-worship in another decade? Or will it never go away at all? I also enjoy laughing a bit people describing what the early days were like, if they weren't there for it (or even if they were, sometimes). The one that always gets me is guys with a persecution complex talking about how they had to hide their NES, because having one got them beat up. Right... because Nintendo was popular enough to have McDonald's toys and breakfast cereal, but not popular enough for any kids to admit they liked it?

The biggest 'what if' for me is at the dawn of the 5th generation. I was saving up to buy a Sega Saturn with my Christmas money, because there was a special where you got 3 games free (virtua fighter and a racer, I forget the third.) Plus, my subscription to Game Players promised me a copy of the Christmas Nights demo. The appropriate issue arrived- and I was greeted with a torn cover and a missing disc. Someone stole it before it ever arrived at my house. I was so upset, I scrapped the whole plan. On the one hand, it technically worked out for me. I ended up getting a PlayStation a couple Christmases later, which led to me rediscovering the Final Fantasy series I'd played so briefly on my brother's SNES, getting super into RPGs which greatly affected my gaming choices throughout high school. Doubly so since most kids had the PS1, so there was a lot of shared gaming experiences with it. It also means that there's a nice list of Saturn games I want to own, but can't afford (part of why I don't have the console.) I've often wondered how things would have gone if I'd gotten that demo, or just bought the system anyway- would I still have fallen for its RPGs, resulting in a valuable collection and me happily gathering a less costly PS1 collection later? Would I have bought a Dreamcast on graduation instead of a PS2, and missed those games instead? Or, would the lack of same-game talk amongst my classmates driven me from the hobby over time? It's an odd thought. I don't think Genesis vs. SNES is as big a deal as other system comparisons... at least where I grew up, it was generally considered that the two systems were par for each other. I wonder if there's a difference in game preference (like Genny gamers prefer action titles now or such), but I don't know anyone else who grew up with a Genesis to try and figure out that one.