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This is the first time I played the game this far, and I'm not sure I ever played the NES version before now. It's a better game than I thought. I didn't even know they had different types of floors or those ice things. 67,000

Tried a couple games, but didn't get very far. 41900

There is a small instruction book/sheet (like 4 pages I think) for Sherlock Holmes, but I don't remember any documentation for the Classics disc. Those flip paks also didn't have any outer sleeve, at least not with my console.

I got much better my 2nd game, but I think I've had as much as I can take. This is a good game though. I remember enjoying it way back, and it's quite a bit more refined than the 1st one. It's frustrating that almost all my deaths were caused by falls. The timed jumps in that castle level (6?) are tricky with the lag. That sort of thing is much easier in Mega Man. 21,620

I used MPlayer / MEncoder and Nero to convert them to MPEG-1 format for VideoCD (the quality of the source material was too low for me to bother with MPEG-2 and DVD, but your tastes may vary). For what it's worth, as long as the resolution etc. meet the DVD specs then you can also use MPEG-1 on a DVD. MPEG-1 is officially part of the DVD specs, even though commercial discs never use it. TMPGEnc can encode MPEG-2 files for a limited trial period. Getting it to recognize the input file might be tricky, I've never tried it with Flash videos.

Kitchen doesn't seem too nerdy to me. At least he looks calm and speaks well. John Carmack, on the other hand... just painfully embarrassing to watch. I saw a video of some Apple event when he demoed Quake 3, and he was about as awkward as anybody could possibly be in front of a crowd. Quite a contrast vs. Steve Jobs who was also up there.

If I understand correctly, I think the YM2151 requires an external DAC to get analog output. If that's the case then it wouldn't be very practical in a cartridge. The YM2413 however has that integrated, and is also only 18-pins. I have no idea about the availability of them though. YM2413 was used in the Japanese SMS Mark III and is a cost reduced version of the OPL2 Sound Blaster chip (YM3812). The YM3812 would be pretty easy to scavenge from old socketed Sound Blasters, even 2 at a time from SBPro cards. But it also requires an external DAC (again unless I've misunderstood how these things work).

Seems to me it would boost interest. Since it wasn't a very popular system originally, many people will be discovering it for the first time. It isn't like the SNES/Genesis which everybody has played before. I don't have a Wii, but from what I've read I think the TG16 downloads are also cheaper than the Genesis/SNES games, so that will encourage people to try them out.

With all the sequels on this system, it might be interesting to play an entire series of games, for example play all the Castlevanias together. Not sure if it would be better to play each of them in succession over several weeks, or just take scores for all of the games during the same week. Maybe a multi-game theme would be better suited for the 2 week format.

40,340 Took me a few tries to get here. It's funny how much I've forgotten about this game. I instinctively felt like I was doing something wrong when I walked past the caves in level 3, but I figured I had to go where the screen scrolls. I totally forgot how it wraps if you don't go in. My next game I got that part right, but had trouble with all the timing stuff in level 4. I guess it's been a long time.

My last CRT was a Trinitron 19", which was normally used at 1280x1024 but could run [email protected] On occasions when I was running games, I really liked running them at 1600x1200 - the detail at that resolution was wonderful and the fuzzier pixels didn't really matter. Unfortunately that monitor didn't last very long. Something I've noticed with CRTs is that as my eyes get tired, it becomes very difficult to read text. Of course it was especially bad on that Sony that was dying, but I've had that problem with other screens also. This is the biggest reason I now prefer an LCD. The pixels are very precise, so I don't have any problem reading even when my eyes are tired. I haven't had any motion smearing or lag, and the brightness/viewing angle are also very good. I don't notice any problem with the screen fading, even from across the room. Those old LCD problems are really in the past as far as I can tell. I do miss being able to run games at higher resolutions, but I don't play them often anyway. Biggest irritation I have is refresh rate issues. My screen has trouble syncing with old video cards. I don't know why it's such a problem, but I have 2 Diamond PCI cards that cause this screen to blink off intermittently. That only happens in old standard text modes, so I guess it's an issue with the 70Hz (or whatever) refresh rate those modes use. Once a higher graphical mode starts up, it doesn't blink anymore. Also, I had to get a new video card to run this monitor properly. My old GF2MX card had an out of spec refresh rate. 60Hz modes would run at 64Hz, 85Hz modes would run at 90, etc. It wasn't a problem with CRT's because they didn't care, but the LCD wouldn't size the screen properly at 64Hz. I couldn't adjust it enough to get it centered. I know that isn't a typical problem, but it still is just another example of LCD being annoyingly picky. A DVI ti4200 card fixed it.

Doesn't even matter if he did make a profit. Whoever wrote that message just sounds like an anti-capitalist crybaby. Maybe the game isn't selling well anymore and he's getting frustrated. That's not your problem - you're a customer not a business partner.

I felt ripped off after saving my allowance money and getting a Genesis with only 1 controller. I think my brother's SNES came with 2. The SNES would have been maybe 1991 or more likely 1992, so I guess that's within the first year.

Don't the PS3 and Xbox 360 (both of which are more expensive) only include one controller as well? Hasn't this been the norm for some time now? I agree that the Wiimotes are hard to find, but not impossible by any means. In my last several visits to two different Wal-Marts they've been in stock just about every time. Same with the nunchucks. ..Al It's been the norm, but for a machine which is marketed as a family room system, it seemed a little more likely they would include more controllers, or at least have loads of them for sale. Meanwhile the system itself is a much more conservative evolution compared to the competition, so there is less chance of them having problems building it. The apparent difficulty of finding controllers as well as consoles just implies the controllers are a major factor limiting the console production. Particularly for this family oriented machine, the stores really should be loaded with controllers like the other accessories. It's either a production problem, or the controllers are so expensive to manufacture that Nintendo just doesn't want to mass produce them much yet. Or maybe they're not as scarce as I thought - from what you say about Wal-Mart maybe they're catching up.

It appears that the wiimotes may be the biggest problem Nintendo is having with their production. That's probably a major reason why they only include one controller with the machine, and it remains as difficult to find extra controllers as it is to find the consoles. I don't think that's just a coincidence.

You might like Rygar. It's an older NES game though and definitely on the glitchy side. The music is also not very pleasant. You have to play straight through - no passwords that I can recall. But it's a fairly enjoyable game.

Yes, this game brings back memories for me as well. It's up there with Castlevania as one of the most aggravating games I ever tried to play. I always got... frustrated... with that jump back into a hole when hit thing. I got to the level 2 boss once, but died. I remember a friend and I getting further into this game when we were younger, but I also used to yell and throw things back then too. 51,200

When you replace the screen cover on a GB Advance, Nintendo includes a plastic gadget with a very sticky foam thing on the end of it. You mash that on the corner of the screen and just peel the screen off. I imagine the same technique would work on an older Game Boy, if you had something that sticks hard enough. Maybe you can glue something to it. My screen cover just fell off many years ago. Maybe yours won't take much convincing to do the same. Sheesh... you mean that's all it was? I had to send my GB in for repair back when it was about 1 year old because half the columns of pixels on the screen were blank, and I think the sprites were sometimes followed by dark vertical lines. I always wondered if they fixed it or gave me a new one. I guess they probably just reseated the cable then.

Is there an emulator that works with this game? I can't get it to run. Maybe my image is just broken.

Yeah, I tend to go somewhat slowly as well. I just get the feeling sometimes that I'm being a wuss for not running. The physics in these games also gives you a hard time if you aren't moving fast at some points, but I'm probably exaggerating when I say "borderline unplayable". It's not quite that bad. But I think the speed in Sonic can be a little excessive/impractical for a 2D side scroller.

Never played them, but I pretty much dislike all the 3D-ified games. I just like 2D gameplay better in most cases. But in Sonic's case, I always found that game borderline unplayable because you can't see where you're going at the speed you're expected to run. So with Sonic it might actually be better in 3D. Put me in the category of "I'd be willing to give it a chance"

I'd imagine all the 1983/1984 copyrighted titles were available at launch, were they not?

It's like a 4-lane highway paved with dirt. 16-bits wide, but slow clock rate.

Yeah, you really need quick and short touches on a D-Pad in this game. Emulation is pretty disadvantaged because of the controls. Thumbsticks are too slow, and most PC D-Pads are more clumsy to use than the NES pad. Trying to play on a keyboard would just be hell.

Cool, thanks for sharing that. Strange to discover a new feature like that after playing the game for all these years. Prince level is harder than I remembered. I played my most recent game on that level, and ended up just barely scraping by. I was fortunate to have a couple of natural chokepoints to protect myself while I stole enemy technologies. I finally started to conquer the SOB in late game, but ran out of time. This is an intense game.