jfitzenr

February 8, 2016

I also think like...

SNES era to PS1 era - OH MY GOD THREE DIMENSIONS

PS1 era to PS2 era - HOLY CRAP THAT LOOKS INSANE I CAN ACTUALLY TELL WHAT THOSE POLYGONS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE

PS2 era to PS3 era - WOW THAT LITERALLY LOOKS LIKE REAL LIFE

PS3 era to PS4 era - damn, that patch of grass is really blowing in the wind in a realistic manner

February 8, 2016

I would've said the current Gen, until I got a Wii-U as a gift and I'm enjoying some Mario Maker, Kart, etc. on it. I'd *sorta* like a PS4 but the cost/benefit seems horrible to me. I'd like to log some hours on Black Ops 3, I'd be obsessed with Gran Turismo 7 when it comes out, I'd like to give SF5 a shot, I'm sure there'll eventually be another Elder Scrolls and GTA game, and I'd enjoy being able to play a Madden game that isn't a few years out of date, but none of that is enough of a big deal to justify the expense for me. I simply can't imagine the next generation does anything groundbreaking enough to really draw me in.

I MAY pick up something from the next gen, or pick up a PS4 in a few years, if only to catch up on the handful of things I've missed in the interim but I'm not really sure. I also, as everybody, hate the modern paradigm with all the updates and freezes and blerg. I own Madden 15 on PS3 but mostly play older versions because during franchise mode the game crashes after games, but before I can save, about 25% of the time.

February 7, 2016

Finally back home to retro gaming after my weeks of Wii-U binging and working too damn hard. (Some of the Zelda playing took place last week... if that's a problem I'll knock off a few hours!)

NES:

Zelda 2 - The Adventure of Link - ~15 Hours

Tecmo Super Bowl (2016 roster hack) ~6 Hours

ARCADE:

Ms Pac Man - 45 Minutes

Great 1000 Mile Rally - 2 Hours

Atari 2600:

Jungle Hunt - 15 Minutes

Frogger - 10 Minutes

Space Invaders - 10 Minutes

Notes: Ugh, these games are hard! Funny enough, a long detour diving deep into NES Remix, NES Remix 2, and Mario Maker on Wii-U (and playing WAY TOO MUCH of them) have actually probably helped me brush up and improve on some of my retro gaming abilities.

I FINALLY BEAT ZELDA 2! This game has haunted me for... what... 28 years now? (Well okay I was only 3 when it came out so... maybe more like 25?) Game is actually even more fun than I remember, and not nearly as hard (though it's still HAAAARD!) If it were slightly less cryptic, just a hair less hard, and the translation/text was better, this game would probably be easily remembered as an elite level classic. It's funny to me how even though when I was a kid I don't ever really remember getting past level 2 or so, all the years of watching my brother play it, reading Nintendo Power, etc. helped me remember quite a bit (still needed a bit of internet assistance.) Yes I did the "duck in the corner" trick on shadow link, as you can guess by my nearly full life meter (that was my last life, and my... third attempt on the palace I believe)

TSB: I decided in honor of the super bowl I'd take my Bears as far as I could on Tecmo... and of course we won it all, even with an injured Jay Cutler. If only video games were real life!

Also, Great 1000 Mile Rally needs to be in everybody's top 10 video games ever and I don't understand why it's not.

I think I might start diving back into my old quest of trying to 1cc Wonderboy in Monster Land soon, so watch out for way too many hours of that logged!

January 25, 2016

Then the game expects you to be okay with jumping through some kind of dimensional gateway for no other reason than to help them. Why? If that's not bad enough, the game keeps doing it over and over. "Here's somebody that we're just telling you that you care about--now, do very difficult and horrible things for them."

Eventually I started to give a rip about the characters in my party (or maybe just the plot twists), and just 'went with' their overly helpful tendencies.

Heh I'm glad I'm not the only one. Not that I ever had any trouble getting into it; i rented it day one and begged my parents for it starting on day two, and it's honestly probably in my top 10 favorites...I think I like the idea that in basically the first act of the game it's kinda you just accidentally tripping over yourselves into new crazy situations through time until the first big plot reveal, but it always did seem like it was done slightly awkwardly. Hey look a blonde girl, she's pretty, time to jump into a science experiment gone wrong and hope I don't die!

I think it was slightly helped by the silent protagonist thing, because you don't have to deal with any heroic nonsensical banter, it's almost as if the game tries to make you feel like YOU'RE the one deciding to dive in headfirst, but still.

Anyway as for the original topic, Oblivion took me a good five or six attempts before I could even tolerate the damned gates and start having fun with the game.

All the Gold Box era games too... I always thought Pool of Radiance was 'cool,' but it took an awful long time before I had the patience to deal with the interface and really dive in.

Gain Ground is probably the most drastic switch for me... I thought the game was awful. A friend had it for either Gen or SMS when I was a kid and I was like "what is this painfully slow mess of garbage." Fast forward to today and I love it.

January 20, 2016

Interesting. Here in the US it's only been referred to that way in recent years.

I had one friend, very American, that always pronounced them as "ness" and "sness" back in the day, so i always assumed it was just some alternate pronunciation. I have no idea where he picked it up or what now, come to think of it. This might be the most useless etymology discussion ever but I'm really, really interested now!

January 20, 2016

Give this a shot because that sounds brilliant! If it works.

I was poking around the 'net, and it seems that xpadder supports the DJ Hero controllers out of the box. I'm not sure exactly how the values would be mapped though, From what little I've read it appears that it might by dumb luck actually be perfect right away that way, as people are reporting confusion with how it's mapped but saying that it appears to both read a direction and a speed... wish I knew more about spinners or had one of the controllers to experiment now.

January 16, 2016

1. Old Tech may be unreliable but CHEAP new-tech is worse

This is probably obvious to most but.... Seriously.

I've always played, bought and sold, etc. NES with original controllers (or the Advantage). They go sticky and bad, and I've replaced plenty of squishy doofers in my time, but this year I bought some third-party new NES knockoff repro controllers, a few cheapo power supplies...

What a complete and utter disaster most of those purchases were. I mean I've had better luck with a broken NES spending 10 minutes with a toothbrush and tweezers fixing a 30 year old 72 Pin Connector than I have with any of the cheap replacements that are ostensibly brand new. What the french, toast? I'm sure there are high-quality modern-manufactured thangs, but wow. Don't buy the cheapo stuff.

2. I'm extremely bad at Donkey Kong. Like really bad.

I seem to realize this every year, but this year was extra special because I managed to play the original DK in the wild at a few different places over the course of the year and holy hell, how can anybody be good at this game? I realize this is not useful to others but I need to express it because I generally consider myself above-average at video games, and very good at some. But DK is fricking hard to the Nth degree and I don't get it and why can't I do it? Damn monkey.

3. If you're going to Save State, learn to Save State

I finally decided to give Kaizo Mario World a real go last year. I didn't finish it yet but made some solid progress... generally I have only used save-states to say, pause a game in new spots, etc and this was my first go at really using/abusing them. I want to stress to anybody that's playing ANYTHING; Save States are a skill too. If you're not careful and don't think things through you will at best cost yourself time and frustration, and at worst (flashbacks to those old adventure games on PC) ruin your game and cost yourself tons of progress. Save States in a very real sense are 'cheating,' but if you're going to use and abuse them for any reason, this is a style of cheating you're going to have to practice at, or else it's going to make you throw controllers.

4. Some of these stupid little games we play are timeless.

I am a musician and teacher. I have a guitar student that was super-stoked that he got an NES and Megaman 2 for Christmas. He's 12. He was trying to figure out the Metal Man tune by ear. When he was BORN, the game was 15 years old. He's 12. Another high-school aged student got an Atari Flashback for Christmas. These games, their graphics, music, vibe, etc. can still captivate people of all ages and that's incredible.

5. A lot of these stupid little games we play are just stupid

Seriously. Try getting anywhere in Donkey Kong. That f**ing game.

January 15, 2016

Hey folks... new to this whole Wii U thang... I honestly haven't bought a 'new' video game console since the Bush administration. Literally.

My ID is "Snoggins"

Spending most of my time on Kart and Mario Maker, but would love to get some folks on the ol friends list to get some suggestions on Maker levels (and tell me how much my own suck!), and some folks to beat up when I get Smash and Splatoon eventually. Word.

January 7, 2016

Well, the original Legend of Zelda is what got me into retro gaming, I played it when I was 8 and I thought it was great. Now I'm 14. It has nothing to do with nostalgia for me. I discovered Zelda and the NES, then got into Ultima through Exodus and found CRPGs and the Apple II, which lead to the Commodore 64, my favorite platform. Somewhere along the line, I got into the 2600, which I also love.

It's funny, Exodus was one of the games that just totally immersed me and drove me to love gaming as a kid... even though I literally could NEVER get ANYWHERE in it. I bet Zelda did that for a lot of gamers too; it wasn't about the game mechanics, it was just that there was this whole entire world waiting for you. There was something magical about that.

January 7, 2016

...stuff...

Maybe I'm misinterpreting, but I think we probably fundamentally agree on most of the concepts being discussed here, if for no other reason than the line "So we're all full of shit anyways, no?"

Because yup, we are! Entirely, totally, and thoroughly. All of us, really, when it comes to stuff like this and I think the world would be a much more enjoyable place if we all realized and accepted this.

I think my main point, to try to shorten it, is that cultural context and our own bullshit opinions need to be taken into account. I might enjoy Dragon Warrior 1, because I grew up with grindy RPGs with little plot. A kid born in 2000 might hate it because the whole idea of grinding being 80% of gameplay is stupid and foreign nowadays. Are we both right? Are we both wrong? Probably 'yes' to both questions.

But I appreciate, or at least accept, the game because I grew up with that stuff. Just like I probably have more of a positive opinion on grunge music because I lived through it and really enjoyed it, you probably have more of a negative opinion because of very similar, yet very opposite, reasons. I'm not saying that older stuff can't be appreciated if you didn't 'live through it,' just that 'living through it' has a very real impact on how you view it, and I don't think that's a bad thing. I love some Motown music, because it's great music. My Mom loves most Motown music, because it's great music, and because it was a cultural touchstone during her teen years that reminds her of her youth, and at the time represented a fundamental sense of rebellion against musical stereotypes and a sense of liberation and acceptance of so-called "black" culture that her parents despised. For me it represents catchy tunes and melodies and great James Jamerson bass lines. For her it represents all that, plus youth and rebellion and god knows what else. I don't think you can ever really judge anything outside of your OWN cultural context, and because of that there's aspects of everything that I feel like, yes, you DID have to 'live through' in order to really grok it.

The real question is, why are we thinking this hard about video games? I feel like I've contributed to making this thread way too serious and I apologize. I DO recognize that video games have become a valid and important art-form and therefore, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go see if I can pause the game at the right time so I can look up Chun-Li's skirt.

January 6, 2016

ARCADE (took a trip to a retro arcade, I swear I could live in one of these places) I can't recall everything I played and logging 2 minutes of Donkey Kong and 25 Seconds of Q-Bert just shows how embarassingly bad I am at these games anyway so... anyway here's the ones that took up most of my time

VS. Hogan's Alley - 45 Minutes (I wasn't letting this one get away without my name on top of the High Score chart. Crushed it!)

Chiller - 20 Minutes (First time I've had the pleasure of playing a real, honest-to-goodness Chiller)

The Simpsons - 20 Minutes (Even worse of a quarter muncher than I remembered, but oh so fun)

Mario Bros - 15 Minutes

Galaga - 25 Minutes

Anyway also just checkin' in, I wanted to say thanks to TGB, last year was my first time ever taking part in this whole thang and it's tons of fun. Sad I got nothing console wise to log recently - nabbed a Wii U for the holidays and Mario Maker, NES Remix, and Shovel Knight are eating up what little free time I've had!

Big ups to BillyHW for giving Mat Mania some love: I haven't played that game in probably ten years, but I was enamored with it back in the day. Maybe time to fire up some MAME over here!

January 6, 2016

My main comparison is this vs. music and movies. I've talked with hundreds of older fans of music and movies about stuff that was out before I was born. I have never, ever, not once had one of these people say to me I didn't get older music because I never lived it. I've never once had someone say, "pssssh, you weren't around in the 1950s, you can't appreciate what Bergman was doing in his religious films". This is strictly a self-centered thing I've only ever encountered in "video game nostalgia". These kids are feeling this way towards 80s games, you're actually feeling this way towards the actual 80s. I don't care where you exist at any point in time, if you play Super Mario 3 for the first time, you just get that feeling. It's the same for everyone who has ever been into it. We all have our own unique experiences, that's great, they're yours, they're mine. But I think it's ridic to try to take anything away from anyone else feeling positive. These creations are timeless. Old grannies aren't the only ones who can say they truly get Wizard of Oz, no?

I have to nitpick a bit here, just because I think it's very interesting and relevant. To a point, yes, you didn't have to 'live it' to enjoy old music. But there's clearly no way to fully understand the impact and relevance of it if you didn't.

My most obvious example is the British Invasion. I love plenty of the music from that era, and recognize that it was very influential in shaping modern music. I enjoy listening to it for the reason most people like music; it's enjoyable. Good harmonies, structures, whatever. But I don't get it. All I get is some grainy black and white footage of girls fainting in front of 20 seconds of a mono Beatles performance. At the time it was a cultural phenomenon, and everything about the music, the style, etc. all represented that. To me it's just more music. I cannot even fathom it being 'controversial,' let alone a radical shift in popular music, style, etc. I was too young to truly appreciate the gravity of it, but the grunge movement in the 90s is another obvious example. Even to a much smaller, less overall important degree, I still remember the first time I saw The Strokes first big breakout video on MTV. I still like some of their music, but there was a revolutionary aspect to that music. In a world of Limp Bizkit and Staind, these kids come out with plinky raw guitar sounds and this vintage vibe, and it flew in the face of what was popular. For a few years, it changed modern tastes.

To use your Wizard of Oz example; sure I think most human beings enjoy that movie. But I know that I cannot appreciate the sheer magic of Dorothy first stepping into Oz when it was a cultural and technological milestone, using developing technology to blow people's minds (and enhance the experience) It is close to timeless because of the storytelling, the catchiness of the songs, etc. etc., but I still feel there's a whole important aspect to it as a piece of culture that many people (myself included) can't really grasp.

Some would argue that with the benefit of time we can finally judge these things objectively. I think that's silly, because I don't think we can eliminate the context, and I don't think we're at all judging them 'objectively' now, we're just judging them in our own, modern context.

To bring it back to video games from this way-too-long tangent; I think there is plenty in the world of art, music, gaming, everything, that is essentially timeless (or much outlasts its contemporaries) for a variety of reasons but I don't necessarily think that makes them objectively better. Low hanging fruit example is, say, the Colecovision port of Donkey Kong. It was an achievement and great, but there's not much reason for it to be particularly appreciated in a modern context. To bring it back to the original LoZ, it was (supposedly) designed to encourage player collaboration, it eschewed hand-holding entirely, etc. (I picture kids meeting in the lunch room trading tips and secrets they discovered the weekend prior) Through modern eyes that seems silly (and with modern technology it's almost moot since you can just google every answer, location, secret, etc) but it's not necessarily a poor design choice, just one that might not resonate or make sense to a modern gamer. (I do still hate with a vile passion the blue candle. Once a screen? Seriously?)

I think this basically just comes down to one question; are there objectively 'good' games, or even objectively 'good' aspects to games? I'm not sure the answer to that, though I lean toward no. I think most of the time when we call something 'timeless,' we're basically just saying that such-and-such from a prior era happens, perhaps entirely coincidentally, to fit into our current tastes and values as well.

December 22, 2015

Didn't play much this week so I refrained from bothering with an update, lots of work and there's this like, holiday coming up. Something about a red nosed fat guy that drinks Coca Cola I think.

I'm totally running into the same "problem" in Christmas Carol too. I feel like I improved a lot in the first couple hours getting used to it, and now I just... am not getting any better! I suck at most arcade style games anyway so it's no surprise. I'll try to put in a more valiant effort this week though.

I actually, coincidentally, have been kicking around the idea of a playthrough of Dragon Warrior 3, so I may have helped knock it down a peg, and then may help bring it back up! I might run the GBC version though, which would ruin the whole plan!

And Goldenband I meant to comment earlier; I absolutely love that you logged 2 minutes of SimAnt. Something about that makes me very happy

December 17, 2015

The funny thing about this thread is thinking about how many people would be answering "Atari 2600" if a broader cross-section of gamers were represented. I would never suggest such a thing personally, but the criticisms leveled at the O2 and Fairchild in this thread about crappy graphics, etc. would be leveled against the 2600 by most gamers that didn't grow up with that system.

I don't like the term "worst", so let's say "most disappointing," and for me, it's unquestionably the Atari 7800.

This is kinda what I was saying with my Virtual Boy thing. Are we talking worst hardware? Worst library? Where does quantity vs quality come into play? I'm far from an expert on the 2600 but it seems like popular consensus is that it was a bitch to program for, underpowered compared to Coleco et al and there was some definite, amazingly terrible crap that came out for it. But it also almost became synonymous with 'video games' because of the great games for it.

Like I mean, at the time I thought the N64 was painfully stupid in so many ways, and I think their choice to stick with carts, etc. cost them so much and was really dumb. I had a visceral hatred of the system for so many reasons. However, there's maybe 5 or 6 games for it that are, to me, amongst the best games of all time, which because they're so damned good, slots it in fairly high as one of my 'favorites.' This whole discussion is just really tough and confusing! I also think the great N64 games tend to hold up better in modern day than the great PS1 games, but at the time I would've said much differently. Ahhh!

It's not a console, but I think I was most consistently disappointed with PC gaming during my youth. I don't think there was a console that had a worse disparity between the great games and the awful ones, and had a worse good:bad ratio than PC.

If it has to be something closer to 'console,' my most disappointing was Virtual Boy, because I really enjoyed the library and think if the system was just a *little* less stupid and marketed differently, a few years of developing a solid library could've made it into a serious cult classic

December 14, 2015

A week of almost no gaming! Poor me.

NES - Tecmo Super Bowl - 1 hour

Intellivison - Christmas Carol - 3 hours

PS2 - ESPN NFL 2k5 - 45 minutes

Christmas Carol is obscenely good. I'm obscenely bad at it, but still. This game is incredible! That ghost is right up there with the most infuriating, trollingliest evil badguys in video game history.

December 12, 2015

Cool vid, and maybe I need to get myself a modded GG now! Some great game choices too, especially Ax Battler - I spent so, so many hours on that as a kid! (and shining force, obv!) I feel like the library was way, way stronger than anybody really gives it credit for.

I know sports games aren't always the realm of the collector/nostalgia fiend, but the GG had some great sports titles. World Series Baseball was one of my favorite baseball video games, full stop, The port of NBA Jam TE was pretty fantastic for a handheld. It may not really be impressive now, but at the time it was the only way to play a reasonable version of the game on handheld and it was FUN!..., and the sports trivia series was frighteningly addicting. Add in the brilliant sonic games... it was phenomenal!

The GG had such a well-rounded library! I loved my gameboy and believe me, couldn't put it down. Stuff like Link's Awakening alone were unbelievable. But I feel like at the time the overall library for Game Gear really trounced the Game Boy. I was just playing through Psychic World the other day!

Most underrated console/handheld out there? I think so!

December 9, 2015

Yeah honestly I agree, I mean just the fact that somebody who was behind some real classics, trying to resurrect a property that fills me with nostalgic goodness, can drum up this much publicity and money from essentially random people in their corner is pretty awesome. It's kinda a testament to how incredible the crowdfunding movement and this whole sorta retro 'scene' is. (I mean it's only tangentially related to this, but it blows my mind that AGDQ can crack a million in a given event... that Pat the NES Punk can play random old NES games for 24 hours and raise $20k. This retro gaming community is pretty incredible)

And even if I think it's a bit weird all around, I think you're right that it's fair and I'm pulling for 'em. I would practically MAKE my nephews watch and then love a Dragon's Lair movie

December 8, 2015

The new campaign video is a million times better, You can tell that they rethought it and the goal has been made much more realistic.

I still don't get the logic of putting a lot time and money into a pitch video for an already established property with plenty of pre-existing footage, but if people want to hand over their hard earned money to facilitate it so be it.

Yeah this is what confuses me. I don't think it looks particularly deceptive, but if it's clearly understood I'm surprised this many people would be willing to pledge this much money for 60 seconds of animation and a prayer. And if Don Bluth still has the cachet required to get a $70m full scale production approved and financed, based on an existing property, would a quarter million dollar campaign with a minute of animation really change anybody's mind? I realize you need some sort of 'proof of concept' and something tangible to show potential investors and studios but I just wonder even if the campaign is successful, what are the REAL chances of the movie ever coming to fruition out of it? He obviously has an amazing track record and this is something that I would love to see, but just seems like a really hard sell.

December 8, 2015

I wonder about Tenchu actually, and I'll have to give it a try. It was an amazing breath of fresh air at the time; a)I had never played a stealth game in that setting obviously and b) I felt like it was the first stealthy type game that actually controlled satisfactorily enough to not make me want to break controllers. I have no idea if the controls and game still hold up now though. Considering it's dirt cheap maybe I'll have to give it a go!

December 7, 2015

I swear you just summed up my childhood! lol. TR2 was fantastic, and the original Tenchu was one of my top five-ten PS1 games. Brilliant.

December 7, 2015

This is part of why I'm drawn to this forum, I keep discovering things I've never even heard of. Compucolor? I thought I had heard of everything, but... not that. That thing looks really interesting! I really wish my family had kept the CoCo we had now!

Anyway...

Genesis - Sword of Vermilion - ~270 minutes

Beat it! I don't think I can recall many video games that are THIS close to brilliant, but just... whiff. I still think the game is really good, and I'm glad that I played through it (thanks to this community for pointing it out to me!) but it's really one of the sad stories of gaming of that era to me. Fantastic ideas all around, fun interface, and the plot both starts and ends fairly strong... I recommend anybody interested in RPGs give it a shot, but it's really one of those games that's disappointing simply because the potential it had is literally like "best game on the console" level. If you're emulating I highly recommend you save-state before each boss battle. I DO highly recommend the game though. I have to put it up there with some of the B-C list RPGs of the era (Lufia, Secret of the Stars, etc.) If you're an RPG fan you really owe it to yourself to give this one a whirl.

NES - Tecmo Super Bowl (2015 Roster Hack) - ~190 minutes

Tecmo Super Bowl is probably, if I'm honest, my favorite video game ever created. I hadn't played the latest hack version this year, but I do it pretty much every year, and I'm thankful there's a whole community around this game. I pretty much HAVE to play a season with my Bears every year. This year, won the Super Bowl, but lost 3 regular season games... the one benefit of liking a bad team is that it makes video games more challenging! Side note: I simmed a season, and it said that Carolina beats New England in the Super Bowl, 27 to 14. So sayeth the Tecmo. That really sounds eerily reasonable, and if it's even close to accurate I'm going to make my accountant re-structure my retirement account and just bet on football based on Tecmo

SNES - Final Fantasy 2. ~130 minutes

I was trying to run through this game just for funsies since I've literally beaten it about 20 times. I tried to run through as fast as I could, even keeping levels low... well shit, I did too well. For those that have played; I got to the Giant of Babil with my highest level character being level 24! I have now found myself ready for the last dungeon at levels 28-29. For those that are curious, it's usually recommended you beat the game in the 60s or 70s. I don't imagine I'm going to ever grind enough to beat it on this save. But this really is one of the best games ever.

NES -

Mega Man 5 - ~70 minutes

TG16 -

Galaga 90 - 35 minutes

SNES -

Super Star Wars - 25 minutes

ARC -

Wonderboy in Monster Land - 50 minutes

Once I beat Megaman 6 (for the what, fifth time?) I'll have beat Sword of Vermilion, all the megamans, and be close to FF2. All my 'projects' will be over! I need a new project. Or "quest" as Zylon puts it.

December 6, 2015

That's cool as hell, awesome I'm jealous, but when this was posted I was taking a badass nap, so, overall I think I still came out okay.

December 3, 2015

I'm almost sorry I contributed to SoV being that high! Actually I really enjoyed that game. My last post I was complaining about it, but I literally complained right before the endgame where it got interesting again. I've since beat it.... more updates to come! (I know, you're all probably on the edge of your seats!)

I have a question that has probably been addressed but I couldn't find it; Tecmo Super Bowl is one of my favorite and most played games ever. I recently have logged a few hours on a hack of TSB that updates the rosters to modern players. Should I log this as Tecmo Super Bowl, or just leave it off?

December 3, 2015

This topic is tough!

I mean, I think Virtual Boy might be the 'worst' console I've ever played. But the game library, tiny as it is, is kinda fun. The design of the system is awful, the marketing was atrocious etc., but the library redeems it I think. I honestly regret not owning one, especially (as mentioned earlier) at the crazy clearance prices it sold at near the end of its lifespan. My parents wouldn't even buy me one when it was $20!

Overall though, I think it ticks most of the boxes. Bad design, poor implementation, hyped-up marketing that oversold it, failing to either fit an existing market or create a new one (it's portable! kinda. but not really. It's... one color! sorta, 3d? what is this?) but while it might be the 'worst' i played in many senses, it's definitely not my least favorite. Gameboy fits a bit into this too; monochrome, no backlight, thing was a piece of crap, but there were some classic games for it, I loved it at the time and now with the benefit of emulation and GBC/etc. we're able to experience them in a much better form and realize some of the games were brilliant. It was still a... mediocre piece of design in a lot of ways though.

So with the caveat that my experiences aren't really fair, I think the least fun I had with a console would be my experiences at my friends' house playing the Bally Astrocade. It just never had the right 'vibe' for me, but this could be only because I didn't experience the right games, though.

December 3, 2015

Woah. Same company!

It's funny... like I really love the SNES controller overall. But back in the day, I would bring the programpad around to friends' houses. I'd get PISSED because my older brother always got dibs on it and I'd have to play with the regular one! Maybe I need to pick one up and see how nice it plays with an SNES to USB adapter...

I'm trying to think of other 3rd party stuff but honestly I mostly had bad luck with 3rd party stuff. I used a lot of 'alternative' stuff but usually first party (like, I played so many games exclusively with the NES Advantage, I almost exclusively used the Super Action controller for Coleco, etc.) I DID almost always use 3rd party high-capacity mem cards for PSX but if you played RPGs that was almost a necessity. And honestly,

Obviously for more modern stuff, arcade sticks are the one 3rd party thing I can think of that really can enhance the experience for some stuff.

PC tho... I was obsessed with my original Gravis Gamepad! And then later, daisy-chaining Sidewinders was the shiz. But I guess by that point pretty much every accessory was by definition 'third party.' Kinda.

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