spacecadet
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Posts posted by spacecadet
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also what are some standout games for this system?
Three freakin' words:
SIN
AND
PUNISHMENT
That's all you need to know.
Bangaio's good too, Ridge Racer 64 is great (one of the better versions of this game), and F-Zero X is also excellent. Obviously there's the Zelda games, though you can get OOT on the GameCube now (though not Majora's Mask).
To play Bangaio and Sin and Punishment, you will need an import converter, which should cost like $10. I threw out a bunch of em a little while ago (before I started posting here), wish I still had them now for whoever wanted em.
Do you guysthink the Nin64/library will ever have any value?
A few games, maybe. Sin and Punishment seems to be growing in stature as time goes on and you can't get it for any other system (increasingly a rarity these days); it also came out very late in the system's life and didn't sell many copies. But it's also dropping in price; probably just the low ebb as people are still dumping their N64 collections.
Most games will never be worth anything. The N64's library was mostly made up of "big" games, mainly from Nintendo, and it wasn't very popular in Japan, so it doesn't really have a lot of rarer niche titles like you see with more popular systems. Generally developers needed to have some sort of guarantee of sales to justify the cost of developing for it; it was more expensive to publish on than the PSX or even the Saturn because of Nintendo's licensing costs and the costs of the carts. So it doesn't have many rare games that are really worth owning.
Also how does theN64 rate against the Dreamcast?
No contest, DC blows it away in every category. Better games and more of them, better graphics, better controller (I don't much like the DC pad, but I *hate* the N64 pad). The DC was a generation later than the N64 (maybe a half-generation, but it seems like more... the N64 was sort of a "tweener", generationally).
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Look at the bid history - the entire auction took place between three people. Obviously they got into a bidding war, and as none of them have very much feedback they were probably basically just newbies.
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I got a Coleco Telstar Arcade when it first came out and if I remember right my dad paid $80 for it.
Though as someone else mentioned, this was 25 or more years ago... $80 then would be at least $200 or so now.
The original Atari VCS at $200 would be over $600 in 2003 dollars! (NASA, oddly enough, has a little calculator that goes up to 2003 here.)
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Ugh, sorry, HomeTek is their US *home* division, as the name suggests. (I used to deal with these guys all the time a few years ago as part of my job back then... I didn't deal with the arcade machines so I tend to forget that Namco still releases them in the US
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btw, HomeTek is just the name of their US division. I don't know who came up with the name, but it's just what distinguishes the US and Japanese offices.
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P.S. Wouldn't the Japanese pronunciation of Namco simply be "Nah-Mu-Ko?"You're right, it's Na-mu-ko. I wasn't listening closely enough when my wife said "na-mu-ko-to." I just looked on their Japanese web site, though, and they show the katakana above the English name, and it's Na-mu-ko.
I would have thought it was Na-ma-ko because the "ma" would stand for "manufacturing" - they often pronounce the first syllable of a word when they abbreviate it. But they're not doing that in this case.
It's really kind of a weird abbreviation; it's not consistent even within the abbreviation itself.
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Further clarification from the Japanese-speaker in the family - Namcot was apparently the name of the HOME games division. I was wondering why I don't remember it - they apparently used Namco on the arcade games at the same time. I've only ever seen Namco; I don't own any of the old home games.
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Well, judging by the inferior graphics and everything GoatDan said, I'm quite happy to have the obviously superior Jaguar version, becuase gameplay is ALWAYS the most important aspect of any game,
Doesn't sound like you read my post. The Saturn version plays better than the Jaguar version. End. Of. Story.
I think your exaggerating just a bit there...You haven't even played the Saturn version, by your own admission. I own both. Believe what you want.
Sorry if I sound harsh. A question was asked, I answered, and you don't want to hear it.
Next...
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NAMCO stands for Nakamura Manufacturing Concern, so there's no "t" anywhere in the name.Quite a few sources state that NAMCO stands for "North American Company" (from when it was Atari's Japanese division).
So which is it?
It was never "Atari's Japanese division" - I don't know where that's coming from. As it says on Namco's own web site listed just before this, this is a Japanese company founded in the 1950's. It has always been independent. (I didn't realize they owned Italian Tomato, though!)
Let me say, though, that I must have been drunk or something when I said there was no "t" in "manufacturing". But obviously, this is not where the "t" in "Namcot" would have originated - I think what I meant to say was that there's no "t" in "Concern", which is where the "co" comes from, and the "t" obviously comes after "co" in that abbreviation.
Ok, I just asked my wife to translate a couple pages for me. According to this one, Namcot was just a "brand" name that Namco originally used when they started making video games. In Japanese, it would be pronounced (and written) as Na-ma-ko-to. It's not a silent "t" like you'd think it might be in English. I don't know if this was a play on words or something (if you add "-to" to a region name, it means it's a prefecture), or if they thought it sounded cool or what with the two pairs of similar-sounding mora - it doesn't say anywhere that I could find. I don't think it was related to Data East, it doesn't mention anything about that anywhere that I saw.
They may have changed it because it obviously didn't translate in English. We'd look at "Namcot" and either pronounce it "Nam-cott" or would leave the "t" silent (because we know Namco now). If they spelled it "Namcoto" in English, we'd pronounce like "Nam-kodo", which just makes no sense.
The company name was always called Namco, though. "Namcot" was just the name they put on their games for a while. It may have just been the brand name of their games division. Obviously, this is a company that does more than just make games, so they may have just been differentiating their businesses with a cool-sounding brand name (or so they thought).
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What is up with the damn "jumpy graphics" glitch that happens before and after races?!!??This is what I mentioned in my post about it going into low-res mode. The PS2 has this thing where developers can choose to force it into this half-resolution mode rather than accept slowdown. Most developers just let it slow down (and PS2 slowdown is this weird thing where it feels like everything's in slow motion for a minute), but Sony has always forced the half-resolution thing in their games.
The weird thing is a lot of people never mention this at all, which makes me think it's a problem on some PS2's and not others. How old is your PS2? Mine is from the system launch, so it's obviously pretty old. I know they made later models more efficient in a lot of ways, combining chips together and whatnot.
The game was delayed how many times and they couldn't fix that?!?.... WAY too many similar Japanese cars and a total lack of all other countries cars that should have been in the game.
Well, it is a Japanese game, but yes, I'd like to have seen more American cars. The thing that disappoints me about it is that there were still more American cars (that I remember) in GT2 than this. Almost none of the used cars that turn up are American - the only one I've ever seen is the Taurus SHO. They really put almost no effort at all into bringing more American cars into the game. There are a few new ones (the Cadillac Cien concept car, the Delorean), but mostly they're the same ones as GT2, and I think there are actually fewer muscle cars.
Also, there's a ton of those crappy little 50 hp cars....mostly from Japan.......WHY OH WHY do they need to waste their time on these carsProbably because people like me demanded them again after they were removed in GT3
There's nothing more fun than trying to win a race in one of these things. Honestly, how much satisfaction do you really get from just blowing through the entire game with race cars? That's what I did in GT3, it was really boring. A racing game can't just have the fastest cars in the world and be interesting anymore; people buy the GT games for the production models, to try to win races with cars they can actually buy.
I wish they had more US models like this too.
Generally I agree with you, though, the game is a disappointment. I also agree with whoever said it's what GT3 should have been - it's not what GT4 should have been. I'd have expected some significant improvements to the series by now - not just GT2 with upgraded graphics, which is all GT4 really is.
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I have noticed that on some older Namco videogames, the name "Namcot" is used instead. Any videogame historians know why?Which games?
It has to just be a typo from whatever American distributor they were using at the time. (It actually sounds like a French misspelling, but that would just be weird.)
NAMCO stands for Nakamura Manufacturing Concern, so there's no "t" anywhere in the name.
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Gotta love those "Atrai 2600" auctions - find some good deals there.
I can never bring myself to spend this much money at one time but maybe this will interest somebody, and I doubt this guy's gonna get a lot of hits:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...ssPageName=WDVW
I honestly have no idea what the PAL/NTSC situation is on the 2600, and this guy doesn't specify anything, but almost all of these are listed as 4's or 5's here in the rarity guide and a good number of them are "factory sealed".
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It's quite obvious now, that the Jag version appears much smoother.Yeah, it does look better in screenshots, but it is noticeably chuggier and laggier in gameplay. The Saturn version also sounds a whole hell of a lot better - it's no contest in this area, really. The Jag sound effects all sound sort of muffled, like you were listening to it through a paper bag or something (I'm sure the effects are pretty greatly compressed). The Saturn sound effects don't have this problem, there seem to be more of them, and the music's better too.
(and just to be clear, I do own both versions, I'm not basing this off videos or anything.)
Overall I think the Saturn version is the preferable version of the game. The main thing is that it just feels snappier and does not slow down, but it sounds better too. The only thing it has against it is the 16 bit color palette.
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light does not equal cheapBelieve me, I've gone through enough broken Saturn controllers to know what's cheap and what isn't.
the PSX controller has similar problems, with the poor four button arrangement, and a stiff four way d-pad. the saturn controller you show has a proper arcade six button arrangement, and an 8-way d-pad.
The PSX d-pad is an eight way pad - I'm not sure where you're getting that it's four-way. You press it diagonally and you go diagonally.
The six button arrangement of the Saturn pad is better for fighting games, but the buttons themselves just feel really chintzy. I've always found it really difficult to execute quick combos with it - the buttons just don't have the smooth action of the 3D pad. You still need an arcade stick for these kinds of games.
btw while I like a six button face better than the four of the PSX pad, it's not really "proper". There are plenty of arcade games that only use four buttons, three, two or even one. Some arcade games use none. And of course, many, many games over the years were created specifically for the PSX's (and PS2's) controller - look at the Tony Hawk games, for example. So it's not that one is definitively better than the other; it's just whatever you prefer in terms of the games you want to play.
Indeed the controller is on the light side, but i have never had one of these controllers fail. the original "fat" US version, is more solid, but is large and unergonomic.
The original Saturn pad is not more solid - the shoulder buttons were notorious for literally busting right off the controller, and I've got one sitting in a drawer in this condition right now.
The second Saturn pad is better in every way but it's still not among the better controllers ever made. It's about average, IMO.
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There were two types of pads packed with the US Saturn. The one that you have a picture of is the second one, and it's one of the best pads ever made.A lot of people say this but I honestly think it's just because they're comparing it to the original US controller, which was much worse. But I agree with the original post that in an absolute sense, even the second Saturn pad feels cheap. The original PSX control pad, which was what it was competing with at the time, was much better.
The 3D pad, on the other hand, is one of the best controllers ever made. Not only is it extremely comfortable (despite being pretty big... it's ergonomic and surprisingly light), it's well-built, and it has not only great analog but also a great d-pad, and nice springy buttons.
But no, it was never a pack-in. There were only the two pack-ins, as you say.
And no, Majesco never took over Saturn production, to answer that part of the original post. They took over Genesis production and sold some NOS Game Gears too; they talked about producing a cheaper Saturn and even seriously planned to do it at one point, but they never did.
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How about that arcade stick that came out with Soul Calibur 2? Was it crapola too?The American one, yes, it was junk. The Japanese one, no - it was made by Hori and, like all Hori sticks, was pretty gosh-diddly-arn good.
I was shocked that Namco would even lend their name to that Nuby piece of crap. I guess that speaks to the state of not just PC arcade sticks in this country today, but even console arcade sticks. If a better option had been available, I'm sure Namco would have gone with it.
The best bet for a "cheap" stick these days is to import one. There are a ton of good Japanese sticks, and they'll work with a USB adapter. But once you pay the markup for the importation, they're not that cheap anymore (like $60 is probably the least you could find one for here, even sticks that sell for $30 in Japan). So it's marginal whether it's worth it or not.
The one nice thing about buying a console stick and then getting a USB adapter for it is that you can then use your console gamepads too. I use my PS2 dual shock controller on my PC all the time - except for the super-expensive Logitech wireless controllers, there's no PC gamepad better than this. (btw, I have one of those Logitech controllers... it no longer works. They're more fragile than they look.) So it's not a total waste of money buying a USB adapter.
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The RealArcade from Pelican isn't too bad, and it has connectors for PS2, Xbox, and GameCube...I think it's $50 from Gamespot...I almost was gonna mention this. If I was going to buy a console stick and an adapter, this might be the one I'd go for, especially because I could then use it with all my consoles too.
BUT...
You said it "isn't too bad", and to me that's different from "good". I've played around with these in a store and was mildly impressed for the price but the stick is still well below the standards of something like the X-Arcade. It's clearly trying to go for that sort of feel but it still feels cheap in comparison, not like it's using real arcade parts.
For average people the difference is not dramatic, but I'd rather just spend the extra $50 for an X-Arcade. Or the extra $35 for the Virtua Stick, which has a real arcade feel too, just a Japanese one (this is a personal preference thing; some people like the lighter feel of the Japanese arcade machines and the ball type stick... I like both). Especially when considering you still gotta buy a USB adapter for the RealArcade, which is like another $15-$20, making the price difference even less.
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I've bought tons of stuff from them in the past. I love 'em, but no joy on a quick and easy arcade stick. Why oh why doesn't somebody just make one of these.Well, they do, you just don't want to pay for it.
There's the Sega Virtua Stick, which costs $80-$85 (lik-sang and ncsx.com sell them). There's the X-Arcade, which costs $100. There's the Hanaho Hot Rod, which also costs $100. All of these are USB sticks.
You said you wanted to pay $50, but you don't get a good stick for consoles for $50 either, at least not anymore. Certainly not something the level of the X-Arcade. You can get a really cheap, crappy stick for $30, but it's probably not gonna be very satisfying - I have a few of these (including the American Saturn Virtua Stick, which is different than the real Japanese one they make for PC these days) and they're generally just junk.
If you think arcade sticks cost too much that's one thing, but you can't say "why doesn't anybody just make one??" There are plenty of them out there, they just cost more than you said you want to pay. So you're either gonna need to pony up the dough, or buy a cheap junk console stick and get an adapter. Those are your options.
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Some people don't list the games in large lots, like this one here :http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt...me=STRK:MEWA:IT
And if the quality of the picture is not that great and if there are no bigger pictures, how can you find out if there are good, rare games or just common carts in such an auction?
The first thing you do is open the picture up on an image editor and rotate it so all the titles are facing up
Seriously though, it's usually not really worth bothering with for me, but YMMV. Either I can see the titles in the pic or I move on, or sometimes I just take a chance if I'm not sure. But there are too many auctions like this to really put much time into trying to figure out if any rare games are included... you could spend your entire life just going back and forth with sellers about what games they've got in their lots.
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Sega looks like it's picked up ideas from American corporations. Don't hire anyone with experience, they'll want too much money.
No, this is actually a pretty customary Japanese thing. The idea in Japan used to be that once you had a job, you were guaranteed that job for life. So, first of all, it was extremely difficult to find work if you were older and looking for a job, because a) it meant you either quit (and might quit again) or it meant you were fired, and b) you'd have a hard time integrating into a new system.
Today that's less the case, but it is still true that in most industries you need to get a job right out of college and then stay within that company. My wife is a nurse from Japan and she's always telling me that if she ever went back there, she'd just never be able to find a job again because she's too old (she's 34!).
So I don't think this is unique to Sega or to the Japanese video game industry, and it's not something that they learned from us...
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And people say you can't find good deals on NES stuff anymore...
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I would sell my collection for $100,000.
Then I would take $50,000 and put a down payment on a house. I would take another $40,000 and put it in an IRA. I would take another $5,000 and put a down payment on a car. Then I'd use the remaining $5,000 to buy back my game collection piece by piece
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oh and btw, as far as which is more rare, I agree that they're probably both about equal but that Atari models tend to fetch a bit higher prices. I think, though, that that's mostly newbie collectors, because real hardcore collectors either a) have plenty of Atari 2600's already, or b) either don't care about the Sears/Atari distinction (they are both made by Atari, after all, and have the Atari name slapped all over them) or care enough that they have to have both. So I think it's probably newer collectors who are trying to get their hands on a sort-of-special (in their mind) Atari-branded item to show off to their friends that are driving up the prices of Atari-branded heavy sixers.
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Yes, that's way too high. I don't beieve in free-basing which is what I believe anyone who buys for that much is doing on the side.
I was the one who mentioned the auction that he bid on in the first place (just in passing, not as an auction thread or anything), and I don't think $43 is a bad deal for what he got. He got a mint heavy sixer, a mint Sears-brand official storage unit to go with it (at least it looked mint to me), and a bunch of Sears text-label games and IIRC a couple Sears pic label games too.
Every time somebody buys almost anything around here I see people pop up saying "you overpaid, I bought mine for a buck fifty!" or something. I've been guilty of it too, because I've gotten some really good deals on some things in the past. But you have to realize that really good deals are called that for a reason - you don't find them every day.
With heavy sixer prices hovering around $100 these days on average (from what I've seen, and from what I've actually been quoted from sellers here), I don't think $43 for all he got in the condition it seems to be in is bad at all.
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Anyone know anything about the Nintendo 64?
in Classic Console Discussion
Posted
The Saturn was launched in November 1994 - almost two full years earlier than the N64 (September 1996).
The DC was launched in 1999, only a year earlier than the PS2 (2000), 3 years after the N64 and almost 5 full years after the Saturn. Graphically, though, the N64 is much more of a tweener than the DC, IMO - DC games still hold up against PS2 and even Xbox games, whereas N64 games usually looked better than Saturn or PSX games but nowhere close to DC games. I'd definitely put the DC as the first console of the current generation (the fact that it failed in the marketplace doesn't change that). The N64 was somewhere between the current gen and the previous gen. Nintendo even said themselves that they were waiting out the 32 bit era at the time...
btw, I didn't even realize Majora's Mask was available on GameCube. I have OOT but I never got that Zelda Collector's Edition thing with Majora's Mask.