spacecadet

Well, it ended at $27, so I wouldn't say it was at $28 "and climbing"... $27 is a bit much for a system with zero accessories or games, though. I paid $43 for mine on Ebay just a few months ago, but mine was boxed, in really good shape with all accessories, and had something like 25 games with it. I know the mindset where you get it in your head that you just WILL NOT pay more than a certain specific amount for a particular system, even if the difference between your price and the going rate is only a few bucks. I think that's probably where your head is right now. Just be a little more flexible, is all I can say. For a long time I had it in my mind that I'd never pay more than $30 for a 7800 with a box. I ended up having to pay $13 more, but I got a bunch of games too, and honestly, $13 is like, a CD. Or two lunches at McDonalds. I mean, it's not a lot of money. Not enough to really justify going without, anyway.

FF8 and FF9 had much smaller budgets than FF7. I don't know about FFX or FFX-2, but FFX-2 was largely the deleted scene reel of FFX, so I would think its budget was a fraction of that of FFX. The obvious point being your statement is just not correct. Unlike most sequels, the budgets for FF go up and down depending on the game. FF7's budget was so large because they had to invent a whole new system to create the game and the cut-scenes - but they then re-used all that equipment and software for FF8 and FF9. FFX-2 would have been even cheaper because even the environments and many character models were able to be re-used. I really don't know why some people seem so upset about Square Enix and Taito. The Japanese game industry is in some major trouble and consolidation is really the only way to keep some of these companies from simply disappearing. (Things have leveled off a bit now, but business is still off about 40% from where it was 10 years ago - that's almost half the industry's revenue wiped out.) I don't know the specifics of Taito's business these days but it doesn't seem likely they'd have agreed to a merger if they were doing particularly well.

Well, it wasn't that much later. The Atari 8 bits and C64 were computers - computers are still open platforms to develop for today. Anybody can make a Windows or a Mac game, there are no licensing fees. And back in the Atari 2600 days, there were no licensing fees because there were no third party developers. It wasn't until Atari sued Activision and lost that the whole prospect of even dealing with third parties really even existed. This was not the same as what was going on with computers; game consoles were always supposed to exist to support games made by the same company, not anybody else. That was the whole point of the game console to begin with, so that company could have a unique and proprietary platform for its games. I don't know who instituted the first licensing scheme. I know it was not Nintendo, although they have the reputation for it... but Mattel was locking out unlicensed third-party carts on the Intellivision II long before the NES ever existed. I have a feeling either the Colecovision or the Atari 5200 was the first console with these sorts of protections (although somebody from the programming forums would probably know better than me), although all of these systems would have been around 1982 or so.

M.U.L.E. is definitely better on the Atari than the C64. I don't remember specifics but I do remember better colors and better music (I think the music had more voices to it, and the colors just looked "shinier"). It always seemed to me that *most* games that were on both machines were better on the Atari. But I don't remember many specific titles anymore; I hardly ever play my Atari 8 bit and only have a few games for it (and none for the C64).

All the better to simulate the real arcade experience! You have no idea how many hours I've spent trying to properly set up some of my MAME games to look *bad* enough on my laptop's LCD screen. They just look way too sharp and well-defined unless you get the graphics settings to approximate the scan lines and blur of a really old CRT properly... Of course, many games used different display hardware, which is why those settings are in there... but the games I remember best all had visible scan lines and were pretty blurry by today's standards (unless they were vector).

I would never keep any optical media game in anything but its original case. Something that just doesn't seem right about doing otherwise. By that I don't necessarily mean the same exact case it came in, but at least a replacement case that's exactly the same. The same packaging is the main point. Cartridges you can easily take out of the box and throw around. But knowing you can't do that with CD's, you've gotta keep them protected somehow and it just seems "wrong" to keep them in something other than the original packaging. Even though the Saturn cases are really fragile, I just take really good care of mine. I have replaced a few of my cases with what were at the time brand spanking new, real Sega-produced Saturn replacement cases. I don't think you can get these anymore but if I needed to replace any others, I'd probably just do the sports game thing and buy a bunch of em for the cases, as someone else mentioned. I think I might have one or two new replacement cases left, but after that I'll need to source some more.

Yeah, explain to me how this is going to work, keeping in mind that a swordfight takes place in a 3D space. The only way this could possibly work is if your onscreen "avatar" (i.e. your playable character) was in the *exact* same position as you at all times. Otherwise, you're gonna be missing mighty badly. Either that, or he stands in literally one spot for the entire game, like in Punch-Out. (And come on, I know we're all classic gamers here, but in a modern game that'd be fun for about five minutes and anyway we're the only ones that'd buy it.) I personally think Nintendo is on crack. I understand they think gaming is in a rut, and whatever, and I agree with them. But none of the uses I've seen mentioned for this controller make any sense whatsoever in a gaming context. Cutting sushi?? Yeah, there's a great game. "Sushi Chef 2006", I can see it now. Where do I sign up?? I just can't think of a single use for this in a real gaming context that would be an improvement over a standard controller. Maybe as a light gun replacement, but that's about it. What kind of games would really benefit from this controller? What kind of new types of games can anyone think of that would require a controller like this? (And don't pull a Nintendo and tell me stuff like "washing cars", "mopping floors" or "painting walls" - I want to hear about some actual game experiences that would work better with this controller than a regular pad.)

The man speaks the truth. Easily the worst racing game I've ever played, on any system, at home or in the arcades. And I've played a lot of 'em.

The developers have a lot more cheats than what's been made publicly available But yeah, a cheat menu would be cool. Even I get sick of putting the codes in, and I've had to do it probably thousands of times.

You can't see everything in GTA:SA without cheating. And speaking from a position of some knowledge on the subject, the cheats were meant to be used That said, I think it's pretty common knowledge that you shouldn't save after using any cheat that alters the game world in any way. (Or, you can save, but just don't use that as your main game save. But you can have a cheat save so that you don't need to keep re-entering codes... it's too easy to get confused if you do this, though, IMO.) But, if you want to be a purist, nothing wrong with playing the game through without cheating. Once you beat it and do all the stuff you're "supposed" to do, though, you might want to turn on some cheats just to see what you've missed.

Pretty freakin' sweet, but not totally perfect. I've only watched the first level so far and he missed about 5-7 enemies around 3/4 of the way in... you can see them fall off the bottom of the screen before he can blow them up. Still, whoever played this is obviously a master, and it's fun to watch. I can never get over how beautiful this game is either, so it's great to be able to sit back and enjoy just seeing it rather than having to concentrate on playing myself...

Unless you bought a bunch of them with your system and the dude at the register rang up your games first I tried to look up the Genesis launch lineup just now and this info is often surprisingly hard to find for some systems. Should be in any FAQ IMO, but often isn't. I did find one usenet post where someone listed the launch lineup as: Altered Beast Ghouls N Ghosts Thunder Force II Space Harrier II Tommy Lasorda Baseball Last Battle Super Thunder Blade Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle I don't know if that's 100% trustworthy but it's probably close, at least. Maybe one of these days I'll undertake a project to compile the launch lineups around the world for every major system ever made... seems to be a question that comes up a lot, for a lot of different systems.

From the MegaDrive FAQ: "The first version of the Megadrive was released in Japan in October 1988. The four games available Super Thunderblade, Alex Kidd and the Enchanted Castle, Altered Beast and Space Harrier 2 showed how much better the Megadrive could handle arcade conversions compared to the equivalent home computers." I think it's probably not quite accurate to say that Altered Beast was the "first" Genesis game either... I don't have a list of the US launch games but I seriously doubt Altered Beast was the only one available on day one.

Why? It's a bit of video game history. It shouldn't be forgotten. It's an example of video game/movie licensing gone awry. Publishers still take heed of the lessons from it.

Because a lot of people really like the game and would love to play it with updated graphics? Why is this so difficult to understand? Square's just blowing smoke. This remake has been in the works for years; it was started on the PS2, was put on hold and is now back on for PS3. I'll eat my hat if this thing does not come out within two years. I will actually be surprised if it is not a PS3 launch title. Square's been mining the back catalog for a while now, so all of you thinking they wouldn't do this because they want people to "get on with their lives" have got to explain why they've released no fewer than three Final Fantasy VII side-games in the past year. The re-release of the full game itself will just be the icing on the cake for what they're already doing. 5 years to develop? Please. And presumably it's going to take them less time to do FFXIII from scratch? Ludicrous. If you can't see through this then I've got a bridge to sell you.

Grr - I had another post here but I'm replacing it with this one. I completely got my years screwed up. WSB2K1 was a travesty. WSB2K2 is much better. They were made by different developers. I still think WSB2K2 is kind of dry and boring, but it at least lets you field, it has much better graphics than 2K1 and it's just generally a lot more polished. I don't know of any real arcade-style baseball games for the DC.

I know there are two DDR's, I just thought one of them was actually released here. But I'm probably wrong about that. The OP was specifically looking for games only released in Japan. Rez was released in Europe. I'm not sure about Cosmic Smash. I think the point of the original question was looking for games with no English translation but that would still be playable for a non-Japanese speaker. Euro games have obviously been translated. To kill two birds with one stone: I think this thread is getting off on a tangent and I'm partially guilty of that in my original post too. The OP asked for a couple specific things: 1. Domestic multi-disc games in the fat cases, 2. Euro-exclusives also with multi-discs in the fat cases, and 3. Japan-only games that would be playable to non-Japanese speakers I listed a couple games myself that I had forgotten were single-disc games in the fat cases, and that I wasn't sure even came in the fat cases over here. There are a lot of games from Japan that came in the fat cases even though they were single discs, and we could spend all day listing just those. Giant Gram is one, Sega GT is another, VF3tb as I said earlier, a whole ton of these dating sims, etc. But I don't think that really answers the OP's question. I don't really know why someone would be interested specifically in multi-disc games in fat cases but a lot of collectors have various fetishes, I guess. I think the question of domestic multi-disc games in the fat cases has probably been definitively answered by Ze_ro. So that kills question 1. Question 2 is probably a trick question, because AFAIK every game came in a "fat" case and it was just a question of how many discs they stuck in there. (Their cases are about midway between a standard jewel case and a double-sized multi-disc case, but they could fit two CD's in there.) So probably just a list of all the Euro multi-disc games would suffice to answer that. Question 3 is probably still pretty wide open. I don't think anybody's mentioned the two Godzilla games yet, which are not the best games (I think they're kinda fun, though) but they're definitely playable to a non-Japanese speaker. So you can add them to the list.

Looking at the list posted later just to refresh my memory, I'll say: Alone in the Dark (?) D2 (?) Grandia II Shenmue RE: Code Veronica (?) the other RE's (?) VF3tb (?) The ones with question marks I'm honestly not sure of. I know VF3 in Japan came in a big case but I'm not sure if it did here. The only two I'm sure of are Grandia II and Shenmue. But there were not that many in any case. Japanese, yes; Japan-only, not many. The thing is if a game was easy enough to localize, most of the time it was. If only a minimum of translation was required, somebody would generally make that investment. The games that didn't make it over to either the US or Europe are generally the games that would have required a lot more time and effort. Or they came out late in the system's life. So you have the odd game like Ikaruga that's Japan-only but is thoroughly playable. Puyo Puyo 4 (Puyo Puyo-n) is another one, along with its music-based offshoot Puyo Puyo Da!. Then there's stuff that's *technically* Japan-only, like Dead or Alive 2 LE - this is a different game than the one released in the US, but superficially you obviously can't say DOA2 was never released here or in Europe. There's also a lot of transportation sims, and there's one DDR game that didn't make it over here, and those are probably pretty playable, although the transportation sims can get kind of complex. You can figure them out, though, usually. But most of what got stuck in Japan was dating sims and the like, and they're still actually coming out with those - DC development isn't dead in Japan, it's just all these crap animation-based dating sims. There are probably games I'm forgetting - I have a bunch of imports and I know I have each one for a reason, but I can't think of all the titles right now.

Just from memory, she says "Zettai ni katsu", which roughly means "absolute victory". (It could also mean "ultimate cutlet", but probably doesn't in this context )

I think he's totally overrated. There's another thread going on about "gaming gods" right now and I mentioned Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi - guys who have created dozens of iconic games and hardware that's sold more than a hundred million units - and right afterwards somebody brought up Minter. It was just such a contrast, I immediately thought "man, that guy is not even in the same league." (I didn't say anything because it wasn't worth arguing, but as long as you're gonna come right out and ask if Minter's overrated...) I mean give the guy credit for a few unique ideas, but the way his name is thrown around as if he's a modern-day Nolan Bushnell is just not proportionate to his accomplishments. I mean, here's his gameography: C64 Classix (2005), Magnussoft Deutschland GmbH Defender 2000 (1996), Atari Corporation Tempest X3 (1996), Interplay Tempest 2000 (1994), Atari Corporation Llamatron: 2112 (1991), Llamasoft Ancipital (1984), Llamasoft Attack of the Mutant Camels (1983), Llamasoft Attack of the Mutant Camels (HesWare) (1983), Hesware Hover Bovver (1983), Llamasoft Traxx (1983), Quicksilva Gridrunner (1982), Human Engineered Software A few cool games early in his career and then a bunch of updates to Tempest and Defender - good updates, but still, he didn't do the creative work on those. (I've seen people that actually think he created Tempest just because he did Tempest 2000 and Tempest X3.) Just for contrast, this is Miyamoto's gameography: Star Fox Assault (2005), Nintendo of Canada Ltd. Custom Robo (2004), Nintendo Co., Ltd. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (2004), Nintendo Co., Ltd. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (2004), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario Party 6 (2004), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario Pinball Land (2004), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario Power Tennis (2004), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario vs. Donkey Kong (2004), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (2004), Konami Digital Entertainment America Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Pikmin 2 (2004), Nintendo Co., Ltd. 1080º Avalanche (2003), Nintendo of Europe GmbH F-Zero GX (2003), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Kirby Air Ride (2003), Nintendo Co., Ltd. The Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition (2003), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (2003), Nintendo of America Inc. Mario Kart: Double Dash (2003), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario Party 5 (2003), Nintendo of America Inc. Mario Party-e (2003), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Pokémon Colosseum (2003), The Pokémon Company Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse (2002), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Doshin the Giant (2002), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (2002), Nintendo of Canada Ltd. Hamtaro: Ham Ham Heartbreak (2002), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! (2002), Nintendo Co., Ltd. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario Party 4 (2002), Nintendo of Canada Ltd. Metroid Prime (2002), Nintendo of America Inc. Star Fox Adventures (2002), Nintendo of America Inc. Super Mario Sunshine (2002), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble (2001), Nintendo Co., Ltd. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (2001), Nintendo Co., Ltd. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (2001), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Luigi's Mansion (2001), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario Kart Super Circuit (2001), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Pikmin (2001), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Super Mario Advance (2001), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Super Smash Bros.: Melee (2001), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Wave Race: Blue Storm (2001), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Excitebike 64 (2000), Nintendo Co., Ltd. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario Party 3 (2000), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario Tennis (2000), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario Tennis (2000), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Paper Mario (2000), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Pokémon Stadium 2 (2000), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland (2000), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Donkey Kong 64 (1999), Nintendo of America Inc. Mario Golf (1999), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario Party 2 (1999), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Pokémon Stadium (1999), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (1999), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Super Smash Bros. (1999), Nintendo Co., Ltd. 1080º Snowboarding (1998), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Esoteria (1998), Kirin Entertainments Inc. F-Zero X (1998), Nintendo Co., Ltd. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (1998), Nintendo Co., Ltd. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario Party (1998), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Star Fox 64 (1997), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Yoshi's Story (1997), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Kirby's Block Ball (1996), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Mario Kart 64 (1996), Nintendo Co., Ltd. PilotWings 64 (1996), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Pokémon Blue (1996), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Pokémon Red (1996), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (1996), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Super Mario 64 (1996), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Donkey Kong Land (1995), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Kirby's Dream Land 2 (1995), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Donkey Kong (1994), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Donkey Kong Country (1994), Nintendo Co., Ltd. EarthBound (1994), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Stunt Race FX (1994), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Kirby's Adventure (1993), Nintendo Co., Ltd. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (1993), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Star Fox (1993), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Super Mario Kart (1992), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Wave Race (1992), Nintendo Co., Ltd. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991), Nintendo Co., Ltd. F-Zero (1990), Nintendo Co., Ltd. PilotWings (1990), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Super Mario World (1990), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1987), Nintendo Co., Ltd. The Legend of Zelda (1986), Nintendo Co., Ltd. Super Mario Bros. (1985), Nintendo Co., Ltd. And some of his best games (like the original Donkey Kong!) are not even on that list! I could come up with a similar comparison for a whole bunch of game creators. The truth is there are a lot of game developers who have made as many and as creative games as Jeff Minter that you've probably never even heard of. It really should require something on the level of Miyamoto's output before you get to be a household name among game players; I don't feel like Minter's really deserved it.

Yeah, it'll be about as collectible as Mike Ditka Football for the Genesis

The GameCube is also one of the easiest consoles to mod. All you need is a switch from Radio Shack and a soldering iron to put it in. I had mine done professionally (my hands are not very steady) but a lot of people have done it themselves. No chip is required.

Just ordered one, yay! Can't wait to get it - I actually bought an Atari XL several years ago just for this game but I never actually managed to get my hands on it (I guess it's a little more uncommon than I thought). I always thought the Atari version was better than the C64 version (I've played both, when I was younger). But I'd rather play it on the 5200 anyway.

Did Sega use the "scrawl" style of logo on their boxes, the way Majesco did for the Game Gear and the Genesis 3? 912814[/snapback] Did you look at the page I linked? That's a Majesco box. They did not use the scrawl logo like they did for the Genesis 3. Unless Majesco continued selling old Sega units for a while, but I bought mine brand new from a Toys R US *way* after production turned over (like, 3 or 4 years after Sega stopped producing them), so I don't see how I'd have gotten one different from any of the other Majesco units. Mine's definitely a Majesco unit; it has the Majesco name on various literature and I bought it after TRU had long stopped carrying the original GG and then started carrying the Majesco ones for a little while. They had a whole stack of these and all the boxes were the same. I've never seen a GG box with the scrawl logo. I *have* seen models with the grey face dots, but mine does not have those. Maybe only the later runs had this change.

Me too. I'm kicking myself now - this was still there in the store when I found out about it and I didn't buy. I didn't realize there were only ten.