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BydoEmpire

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Posts posted by BydoEmpire

  1. Posted · Edited by BydoEmpire

    I've already paired down significantly over the last 10 years.

     

    Kept* & working:

    2600, 7800, Intellivision, SMS, PS1, Gamecube, Wii

     

    Have a spare console sitting around but no (or few) games:

    Genesis, Game Gear

     

    Kept the games, but have no working console:

    Xbox

    PS2

    GBA

     

    Sold:

    Saturn, Dreamcast, Atari 5200, Odyssey 2, ColecoVision, Bally Astrocade, NES, SNES, Nintendo DS

     

    *I have sold some of the more rare/valuable games for these systems, but for the most part I have a decent number and will still buy/collect for.

  5. Posted · Edited by BydoEmpire

    I love seeing old computer ads, it's fun to revisit what was available at what time. Thanks for sharing!

     

    I graduated college in 1995 and bought a Pentium 1, it was great. I want to say it was around $1200 but I could be mis-remembering. I totally splurged on a 17" monitor as well, I used that for 10+ years. Since I was doing some 68000 programming at the time I considered buying a low-end 68k-based Mac but IIRC they had just transitioned to PowerPC machines so it didn't seem like it'd be worth it long-term. Games were a big factor, of course. Good times.

    • Like 4

  7. Posted

    I love the two Shenmue games on the Dreamcast, but imho they're not the running for best games of all times. I'd put Shenmue 2 in my top 50, maybe, but not top 10 or 20. I don't know that I'd enjoy as much if I was playing it for the first time now.

     

    Yes, there were tedious elements.

    Yes, there was some annoying waiting.

    Yes, the dialog was ... stiff.

    Yes, the actual could have been better.

     

    It was still a ton of fun.

     

    The atmosphere was great. I remember running around the shipyard through a flock of pigeons, watching them react and fly out of my way. It was a beautiful little thing that most people probably never did or noticed, but I was enthralled by the attention to detail. Great graphics throughout.

     

    I enjoyed the story as well. Cheesy, sure, but I totally got into it. I liked the characters, for the most part. I wanted to get Lan Di and I wanted to save the girl. As much as you can in a video game game, I cared about them.

     

    I liked the idea of a fighter/adventure game combination. It was something different. I enjoy adventures and I enjoy(ed) fighters, so this was a cool way to bring them together.

     

    The difficulty was just right - there were some challenging bits, but I usually knew what to do next and got through it without being frustrated. It was also meaty enough to feel like good value for the money.

     

    There was lots of side stuff (the arcade games, collecting the capsules, etc).

     

    Shenmue 2 fixed all the annoying bits of Shenmue 1 and made it bigger and better in every way.

    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    7800 & SMS - pause button on the console. Nice to have a pause button, but with my current setup it's inconvenient to have it on the console instead of the controller.

     

    7800 - love the console, but hate the PainLines and the Euro pads aren't any better. Fortunately most games work with 2600 sticks.

     

    Intellivision - love the library, but so many have to be played on level 4 because the other difficulties are sooooo slooooow.

     

    Dreamcast - floaty Dpad. It's awful, although I like the DC controller in general.

    • Like 1

  12. Posted · Edited by BydoEmpire

     

     

    Seriously? How close are you sitting to your TV, with your nose to the glass?

     

    A few feet away. Not unreasonably close. I can "see" the whole screen, it's just hard to pay attention to a million moving objects if they're spread too far apart. My experience my not be your experience, and that's what I've found I liked. 6 feet is too far away for me, personally. If you can play 2600 games like that all the more power to you.

  14. Posted

    I recently got a Seagull 78 and I'm really happy with it. Plug and play. The way I have my console set up, a little ways away from the TV, the '78 also functions as a convenient controller cord extension. I use an ASCIIWare Genny joystick, and for some games it's a real godsend. The Seagull 78 is totally worth the money. I don't use the Prolines at all anymore.

     

    I would like to find a Genny arcade stick with the stick on the right. For some games I'd prefer right-handed control, but it's not a dealbreaker.

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    My consoles are hooked up to a 24" Sanyo CRT, which works fine, but I don't know if I have a good pic. It's the perfect size for 8-bit games imho and while the colors are a little dull the picture is pretty clear with a traditional RF connection.

     

    My XEGS and c64 use this 12" Toshiba, while the //c uses its classic green screen:

    8-bit Computer Setup

    • Like 1

  20. Posted · Edited by BydoEmpire

    It was actually easier to train some users to use DOS-like interfaces than GUIs. I encountered lots of people back in those days that had to use a computer for work, but were kind of tech-phobic. They demanded exact step-by-step instructions to perform any given task. It was easier to give such users such instructions when the key presses reliably worked. With a GUI, the windows/icons could be in different locations than they expected and that would get them flustered. Worse it was nearly impossible to talk them through it over the phone because you couldn't see their screen.

     

    Today, people are much more tech-savvy, and I rarely encounter people like this anymore. But back then, I encountered quite a lot of them.

    I totally agree. My 80+ year old father-in-law wanted to check stocks online and it was really hard for him to navigate the mouse and yahoo website. If it were Compuserver or something I could have said "when this comes up, press '1' for stocks" then type the symbol and hit ENTER." In a lot of ways it was easier. I also find it amusing that these days on my PC I just go to the start menu and type the name of the program I want to run. I very rarely click icons, unless it's one of the handful of things pinned to the bar. It's kind of come full circle.

     

    As for the Amiga, I don't know, maybe they could have provide an Amiga sound/graphics board for the PC, ride the inevitable wave and take the market before Adlip/SoundBlaster/etc. Perhaps they could have supported cross-platform development and eventually migrate native 68k Amiga users over to the PC. Hard to see it being too successful, but who knows.

    • Like 1

  22. Posted · Edited by BydoEmpire

    My 800 has worked flawlessly since 1983 and have only had a 1050 and a 1200XL die over the decades. On the other hand, I stopped buying modern laptops (and XBox) after they all crapped out after thre or four years of light use. Cosmetics be damned! I’ll stick with machines that were built for a lifetime of use.

    I'm with you. My original c64 (from 84-ish) has a "Made in the USA" sticker on the bottom, and outside of a missing 6 key and generally stiff keyboard it still works fine. The keyboard and slow loads are rough in 2018, though. I should look at just replacing the keyboard, I think it'd make a world of difference. My XEGS has a stiff keyboard as well, but works fine.

     

    I have a 2c that I use pretty often w/ a FloppyEmu, I think that's held up well. It works as good as new after all these years... actually, it works better with the FloppyEmu. I was just playing a game on it this weekend. Games look sharp on the tiny green screen.

     

    I think how well a computer holds up is a combination of software library, load times, and keyboard. Those three things will keep me from using a system as often as I might otherwise. They're not deal breakers (I still use and enjoy my XEGS & c64), but they are certainly friction points so to speak. Depends what I do on it, though. The keyboard isn't as big a deal on the c64 because I'm typically playing games that don't use it much. It's not a black and white line.

  23. Posted · Edited by BydoEmpire

    I hear you. I kind of like the game, especially the SMS port which is amazing for an 8-bitter, but the gameplay is really dull. There's not much skill involved, and not much you can do to get better at the game. It's a war of attrition of quarters. I don't generally like that school of arcade game design. On the plus side, there are funny moments and it's satisfying to bring down buildings. It's not a terrible game, imho, but not in my top 20 arcade games... maybe not even top 50.

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