onmode-ky

Hmm, Nariko may have longer hair, but I think Milla wins for overall mass. And I suspect the clerk gave that last case of shampoo to Nariko because she claimed it was for both herself and her friend . . . and the clerk didn't know what this friend Kratos looked like. By the way, moycon, I assume the copy of the game that you're playing is the Collector's Edition you ordered earlier in this topic. What do you think of the bonus goodies? How many tracks is the CD? The CD that comes with the normal, "Limited Edition" is 12 tracks, 42 minutes. onmode-ky

I apologize for going off on a tangent from your main topic here, but I would recommend placing a lower value on Famitsu review scores. A couple of years ago, I went about searching for the actual text from those reviews (I can read a bit of Japanese), because all I ever heard was numbers, and I got nowhere. At around the same time, this article about Famitsu reviews was written and explained why no one ever seemed to talk about the actual reviews themselves: each of the four reviewers provides only a few sentences alongside their score out of 10. From that article (I do recommend reading the whole thing, by the way): "their biographies next to their names are actually longer than the reviews they're presenting." Also, the frequency with which the magazine reviews games, several titles every week, means that even with a fairly large group of reviewers, it is extremely unlikely that the reviews are based on a large amount of time spent with the games. So, in my opinion, it's best to regard Famitsu scores as just first impressions; they're not totally invalid, but they also have a good chance of not properly reflecting a typical player's experience. Incidentally, I never did find a "reliable" Japanese game review outlet. Resorting to user reviews at Amazon.co.jp, I found that they sometimes do a decent job of fleshing out why the reviewer feels X way about a given game, but either I'm somehow mostly looking up games that are generally disliked, or most of those reviewers are harsher than the average player. There's a lot of negativity in the Amazon.co.jp game reviews I've seen. onmode-ky

I briefly considered preordering the Collector's Edition back when it was announced, but I decided that the MSRP was too high for someone who had no particular interest in the included figure (because of already owning the Milla Maxwell figure by Alter). This GameStop deal, I might have gone for it had it not sold out before I heard about it. My games budget for the month is already exhausted, though, so perhaps not. It is indeed a fantastic figure (and holy crap, but she does have a massive amount of hair: down to her knees and wider than her body), but I do wish the pose held the sword at a slightly different angle. As it is, when held in her hand, the nifty design of the sword is only viewable if you're looking at the figure from a very high or very low angle. So, I instead display mine with the sword not gripped by her right hand, but rather standing separately and leaning against her outstretched left hand (see the image). Not only does the blade become easily viewable, but it almost looks like it was meant to be that way . . . though you're left wondering about her right hand. Did she just punch someone--perhaps the store clerk who sold the last case of shampoo to someone else? Or is she waiting for a fist bump? onmode-ky

I think a lot of the sales of the PSV versions are actually coming from new customers. By that, I mean people who either intentionally ignored Minis (e.g., those who actively avoid games that have no Trophies), never had a PSP/PS3, never knew Minis were playable on their PS3s, or simply never heard about the games before due to Minis' lower market awareness. That's really what these remakes are targeting, since the PSV has opened up a new set of players. Let's face it; Minis didn't have all that many people buying them. It was a great program for small developers to get their feet wet in the world of console self-publishing, though, and so several of these little guys have graduated to the PSV. For players interested in rebuying, many of the remakes have slicked-up graphics and online leaderboards, in addition to the requisite Trophy support (and some are actually cheaper than the Minis versions were when they first released), but a few have gone a little further. Velocity Ultra, for example, has an entirely different art style, and explosions have added visual flair for extra punch. OMG HD Zombies! is probably the most significantly different from its original, with new enemies, new levels, new upgrades, and a prestige system for repeatedly beating the whole game. A minor quibble, but Sony's Pinball Heroes games were never Minis. They had online leaderboards even when on the PSP. And another minor quibble: you really should put spaces after your commas and periods. onmode-ky

Considering that I never went looking for obscure GameCube titles, it's honestly a bit bizarre how so much of my relatively small library is mentioned in MJ's Hidden Gem videos/threads. I only have 20 games (plus 3 imports), but 5 of them already have mentions in a video and another 2 in the discussions. I have a Game Boy Player, too. I wouldn't say MGS: The Twin Snakes is a hidden gem, though, given that it achieved Player's Choice status. Incidentally, my copy is signed by the director of the cutscenes, film director Ryuhei Kitamura. I'd also like to note that Baten Kaitos (which I think is pronounced with a "bah" first syllable; it's Arabic) has some of the worst English dubbing I've ever heard from a major publisher. Several characters sound like they're just being forced to read out loud. Also of note, Toys 'R Us had an exclusive edition that included an abridged soundtrack CD. Does Toys 'R Us even do exclusives like that with video games anymore? Regarding Teen Titans, the packaging says "THQ," but the in-game logos have Majesco's instead of THQ's. This is because Majesco produced the game but sold it to THQ before publishing, in the wake of Majesco's massive losses from titles like Advent Rising. Thus, THQ only has their name on the box. onmode-ky

It's questionable whether you would really want to collect for it, but the Mattel Hyperscan from 2006, along with its appropriately tiny library for a quickly failed system, can definitely be had for less than $2000, even seeking out the rarest title. If you also intended to collect all the randomly packed cards associated with the systems' games, that seems like it could also be done for less than $2000. I don't know how many different cards there are (maybe no one knows), but for $2000, I'd hazard that purchasing large quantities of the card booster packs could get you all produced cards . . . and also a crap ton of doubles you couldn't get rid of. onmode-ky

Might I also recommend trying out the golf game on that Jakks Pacific unit prior to hacking it? Personally, I think it was executed rather well. It's quite a jump over Radica's from ~5 years earlier. FYI, back when it (the Jakks model, 2011) was on clearance at retail stores, it could have been had for less than $10, including tax. onmode-ky

If you enjoyed the Ys games on the PSP, absolutely make sure you preorder Ys: Memories of Celceta, Falcom's own take on Ys IV (whose previous versions were all done by other developers). It and Gravity Rush were my primary drivers for getting a PSV. In the way of download-only games, here are my recommendations: - Velocity Ultra - the remake of the outstanding Mini Velocity--which really wasn't very mini in content, considering the remake has a Platinum Trophy - Life of Pixel - (from the PlayStation Mobile section of the PS Store) a very enjoyable platformer built around homages to 9 classic consoles/computers - Dokuro - I enjoyed this puzzle-platformer enough that I worked on it so that the Platinum Trophy unlocked at the same time as 2 Golds and 3 Silvers. - Rock Boshers DX - (from the PlayStation Mobile section) a ZX Spectrum-styled twin-stick shooter with quite a variety of level designs in its campaign The PSV has been very attractive to indie developers lately (Sony has been courting them left and right), so check in the PS Store's indie games section and see if there's anything that catches your eye. There are also several remakes of popular Minis that are either out already (like Velocity Ultra) or coming soon to the North American Store. Flying Hamster HD, Coconut Dodge Revitalised, Floating Cloud God Saves the Pilgrims in HD!, The HD Adventures of Rotating Octopus Character, OMG HD Zombies!, Hungry Giraffe, BreakQuest: Extra Evolution Freemium . . . that might be all of them. Sequels for Zombie Tycoon and Fieldrunners as well. onmode-ky

It's rare, and it's also the only console One Piece game ever released in North America that wasn't either a fighting game, a mini-game collection, or the recent Dynasty Warriors incarnation on the PS3 (which is download-only in North America--incidentally, Europe got more than one of the Wii games, meanwhile, as well as a retail release of the PS3 game). So, if you're a fan of One Piece in North America and want to play a game with exploration/adventure elements, not just beating people up, One Piece: Unlimited Adventure is your only option. I got my copy of it for less than $18 new back in 2008. If I ever sold it, even with it being a used copy, it would net a good return--except I'm not planning on selling it. For one, I haven't even come close to finishing it. I don't think I even broke the 15% mark in the game yet, after tens of hours. Hmm, it seems to go for between $20 and $30 (new) on eBay. I wouldn't say that's all that much, though it's more than the $10 I paid at a Best Buy for my copy. onmode-ky

I tried digging around for info about this game's secrets. No useful results in English. However, the Japanese pages on the Web that I found did mention the ones I talked about earlier, and it seems the bee really is just plain 9800 points (I was amused that the pages that noted this also questioned why the value was so weird). However, only one search result mentioned the Round 4 flowerbeds as harboring a point bonus . . . and all it said was that it occurs if you "do something." :/ There's another secret in Round 4, though: the pool can be drained to reveal treasure you can grab, assuming you get to it before the pool refills. I think draining the pool is done by punching the two fish. Oh, there's also another enemy that I never got to see, a woman who blows lethal kisses. English pages about the game seem to think this is supposed to be Madonna. All the Japanese pages I saw, however, referred to her as Marilyn Monroe. onmode-ky

New high score! 179,655. This was without the 32K secret, and I never did figure out how I triggered it that time. I did find out how to trigger a few other secrets, though: On Round 1, if you collect all the gold and then finish destroying all the gates, four Moai heads will appear in the center planter. Pick them up, by hitting them, for 1500 points each. If you destroy all the gates while having a few pieces of gold left, you get fewer Moai heads. On Round 2, if you walk in front of the statue, it will begin chasing you like any other enemy. You can destroy it, but it rebuilds itself after a few seconds. If you can get it to return to its pedestal (may require going in a specific direction in front of the pedestal), it's 1500 points. Also on Round 2, if you hit the koi in the pond while it's jumping, it releases a bee that starts flying around the playing field haphazardly. If you catch the bee, it's worth 9800 points (the odd point value makes me think it may be a value that decreases with time, but I got 9800 points on at least 2 separate occasions, maybe 3, so it might just be plain 9800). This secret seems to work only once per game, though. The same may be true of the Moai heads. That's the secret I found in Round 3. If you go to the front of Tokyo Tower and keep hitting it, a pile of jewels appears near the middle of the playing field, off the path. Go over to it and hit it until it disappears, and your total score increase seems to be 10,000 points. The 32K that I can't replicate was in Round 4. It has something to do with repeatedly hitting the planters until they completely transform (they end up spelling "YEAH"), but I didn't figure out how to make them destructible in the first place. Getting all the gold first didn't do the trick. onmode-ky

The Golden Tee trackball is pretty sensitive. You can roll very slowly, and the onscreen golfer will indeed animate his/her swing as if in slow motion (which is also a testament to the large number of frames available for that animation). Roll very hard, and you do hit the ball much harder. The reaction of the onscreen ball is to disappear. It was tiny to begin with! The camera then switches angles, and you see the ball come down wherever you hit it. Being accurate, getting the ball to go where you want it to, that's hard, though, and I couldn't really tell whether it was due to bad input reading or a poor understanding of golf shot mechanics on my part. The buttons are not particularly memorable, good or bad. I don't recall them being problematic in any way, though that might be partly due to the fact that they're not used for any intense purposes. I fathom they're sunken in like that to prevent players from accidentally pressing them while rolling the trackball hard. You could be swinging and end up suddenly changing the direction you're facing, for example. Now, for action games, those buttons might result in some frustration. I saw one video where they basically trashed it--but then again, it was one of those things where they went into it intending to trash it. It was 4 people making a video of themselves being kind of nuts hanging out and playing a game together. I think the fundamental source of the bad vibes toward the game was the fact that it looks so primitive compared to modern golf games. It does indeed look like something out of the 90s, but that's because the level of sophistication of the hardware is just about somewhere between the SNES/Genesis and PS1/N64, rudimentary 3D mixed with sprites in VGA-resolution graphics, plus sampled audio. From a technical standpoint, a $40 MSRP toy isn't going to be able to compete with even last-generation console golf. Wow, I got mine at KB for $15, and it was already a sale price. That one uses a C64-on-a-chip, by the way, so it runs the original binaries right on the hardware, as opposed to being all ports or using an emulation layer. However, if I remember right, its implementation of the SID has some resistors connected improperly or something, so you have to do some soldering if you want it to sound correct. onmode-ky

Man, kane, I thought I finally had the top score! 157,474. I found a secret which gave me an extra 32,000 points. onmode-ky

Of your questions, this is the only one I can answer. As I remember it, the ball is a little smaller than a billiards ball. As for the issue you described with excessive rolling needed to move the cursor, isn't that something that could be adjusted in software? Although I suppose if the trackball subsystem were simply physically incapable of detecting small motions, that wouldn't work (does not apply in the case of this game, though). The Jakks Golden Tee plug-n-play can be found for pretty cheap nowadays (though I think the time has passed when it was being cleared out of the big-box stores at less than $10), if you're willing to foot that bill to check it out yourself. If you get it from a store like Walmart and are careful during box opening and system disassembly, you can even return it if it doesn't meet your expectations (or just keep it and play the game itself ). onmode-ky

I just wanted to point out that this is really an Atlus sale, rather than an RPG sale. For example, their Trine 2 and Kenka Bancho are also on sale. Like the recently released Class of Heroes 2 that Monkey Paw and Gaijinworks (Vic Ireland) published. Or at least, I hear that the improvements over the predecessor are numerous. Haven't played much of it yet myself. Sounds like an allergy to Department Heaven. The series has its fans, but I still have yet to try any of the games. Incidentally, one Atlus-published PSP RPG, Generation of Chaos: Pandora's Reflection, is not part of this sale (too recent, I guess), but it was co-developed by the Department Heaven studio, Sting. Well, you were going to need a Memory Stick no matter what, since you would otherwise be completely unable to save in any games at all. Anyway, looks like you got that problem out of the way. For the new PSP user, I'd also recommend downloading Sony's Media Go management program if you have a PC. It's very, very handy for managing and backing up your PSP save data and downloaded games, better than using your PS3 to do that--and unlike the PS3, Media Go can actually handle multiple simultaneous downloads if you shop the PSP PlayStation Store through it. Personally, I was very disappointed when I learned the PSV would not use Media Go and would instead require all file management be done through the PSV itself. onmode-ky P.S. It's my post #444, a very unlucky number in the Eastern world. Hmm. . . .

I don't have access to it anymore, but opening one up is how I determined that the system has an 8-MB SDRAM chip. If you're specifically curious about some aspect of the trackball, though, I don't recall anything really noteworthy about it. . . . Just to clarify, these were ports to different hardware (I believe both of these two particular systems were built on Winbond W55x-series microcontrollers), not ROMs run in emulation. Also, both of these sticks were ported by the same (now defunct) developer, DC Studios. Note the contrast versus the later Atari Paddles plug-n-play, developed by emulation specialists Digital Eclipse, who really did do a partial emulation solution on that project. I know what you mean. As I recommended in my previous post in this thread, you should try to find the wireless Ms. Pac-Man stick, so you can get some good 8-direction Bosconian going. The 4-direction version on the first Namco TV Game is what I played the most, but 8-way gameplay is how it was in the arcade. onmode-ky

I've done another of my periodic updates to my plug-n-play info website, as well as attaching an updated pair of pnpgames*.txt files to the first post in this topic. However, the new content is either disappointing (only one new 2013 plug-n-play product discovered since the last update, for a total of just two upcoming products* I know of) or likely of interest only to data-hoarders like me (newly discovered details about a few unreleased projects from years past). The main reason I'm writing this post is to share a photo. I know there are some people who collect plug-n-play games. My own collection can't possibly compete with theirs in size. However, I've never known of anyone putting their plug-n-play boxes into any kind of display--anyone besides me, that is. Here's what I did with several of my plug-n-play boxes: From left to right, forming a backdrop for a great battle between Duel Maid factions, we have boxes for: - Namco I (Pac-Man - this is the original cardboard box design, with the long "lip") - Namco II (Ms. Pac-Man - one of the first units to use the short "lip" packaging) - Classic Arcade Pinball (3 proprietary tables) - Atari Paddles Deluxe 2-Player - Dragonball Z (can't say I'm very familiar with the manga/anime, but this unit has the best ball-and-paddle game design I've seen since Warlords) - Capcom - Namco III (Super Pac-Man - I'm fortunate I got one of these in the cardboard box packaging, just before Jakks Pacific switched them to blister packs) - [Sakura Taisen GB, Pocket Sakura Pack, with Pocket Sakura on top - not a plug-n-play game, obviously, but going from left to right, this is what's there] - Kenshin Dragon Quest (there's actually a second box behind the visible one; the first one of these I got had a dead sensor array and thus was unplayable--and the second one now has the same problem, actually ) - Taito (Jakks Pacific's model, this plastic box is in front of the Kenshin Dragon Quest; the little white knickknack on top of it, behind its white handle, is just something I put there) There are also some PS3 and PSP special edition game boxes stacked atop the boxes described above. The boxes for my C64 DTV (plastic pyramid box) and Atari Flashback 2 (large cardboard box) are stored elsewhere, not in a "display" environment, and my Namco IV (blister pack) and Namco V (plastic box) are kept at my parents' home. Overall, a row of vividly colorful boxes, fronted by a vividly colorful diorama. Looks good to me. onmode-ky *Both of the upcoming products are light-gun-style games developed by Merge Interactive for Jakks Pacific, a Star Wars: The Clone Wars title and a Duck Commander (Duck Dynasty) title.

This may have happened months ago at this point, but how did it go? Did you manage to get her interested in the World Poker Tour game? And did you try any other games on her afterward? onmode-ky

I contacted Mr. Murphy a couple of weeks ago asking about the fate of the cabinet, and he replied that he had given it to a friend. So no need to worry; it did not end up in the great outdoors. Also kind of interesting, I discovered that he had worked on an unreleased Hasbro plug-n-play system that I had heard about a couple of years ago. onmode-ky

I couldn't get the Romnation ROM to work on my MAME 0.144 (complaint about a single missing file), so I replaced it with one from Edgeemu. 17,840. It really sucks when a round starts off with a whole bunch of birds on the bottom row. Actually, no, it really sucks when the game decides you've been playing too long and then starts a non-stop stream of birds. . . . No way out of that! onmode-ky

The wireless Ms. Pac-Man unit in the video is kind of rare. At the time of release, it was priced as a deluxe model, typically something like $30, compared to the normal plug-n-play price of $20. I got one for my father, but I never got myself one, despite owning all of Jakks' other Namco-series models. That wireless model remains one of the only plug-n-play systems that lets you play Bosconian with an 8-way stick, though, so if you're a Bosconian fan, it's worth seeking out. The only other 8-way stick with Bosconian is Namco Bandai's own Pac-Man Connect-and-Play from last year, which got multiple complaints about the stick (about half of all the system's ratings at Amazon.com are 1 star). Of the two Konami models put out by Majesco, this one is a somewhat prettier-looking stick, but the simultaneously released Konami Arcade Classics model is the better value, since it houses Frogger and 5 other titles. They're all the NES versions, though, either the original NES games from the 80s or newly coded for the NOAC if there wasn't an existing NES port. I returned the one I bought mostly because the stick felt terribly flimsy, and I had expected the arcade versions of the games as well (as depicted in the box's screenshots). A friend of mine got me one of these a few years ago. I'm not all that into Tetris, but I know for sure I'm at least way better than this rendition of the game allows. The controls are simply infuriating on this thing. Radica also put out a Family Tetris model a couple of years afterward (without the terrible joystick), done by a different developer and possessing multiple difficulty levels. You should give it a go. Maybe your opinion will differ from mine, but I thought it was quite well done for the level of technology. The courses are actually modeled in 3D space, with polygonal grounds, and ball trajectories can even go between trees (scaled sprites)--or bounce off one and screw you over. Pac & Pal was the highlight of the Super Pac-Man system for me, too (the game also appears on the two Jakks Namco-series compilations that followed this one). I thought it was more fun than both Super Pac-Man and Pac-Man Plus, and I'd never played any of the three before. onmode-ky

I had known of Gorf for many years, but this was my first time ever playing it. I can't say I'm a fan. The collision detection really feels like it favors enemy bullets; the player ship can't move the full width of the screen, yet enemies can take positions outside the range of player movement; and, unless it's MAME 0.144 doing things improperly, the game stutters constantly (and my CPU never went below 70% idle, so it wasn't a processor bottleneck). Anyway, the best I did was 13,240. onmode-ky

It's in the running, yes, but it's beaten by this revival from earlier this year. And indeed, I actually keep track of the oldest AtariAge forum thread revivals I see. . . . I wonder if I'll someday see the 50-year mark broken. I probably won't live to see the 100-year mark. . . . onmode-ky

I don't have a 3DS, and I don't have any plans to get one anytime soon. Yet, I have had this game preordered for months. Is that a rank beyond "system seller"? SRT:OGS:EF is actually the DS game I've been playing for, um, the past few years (I think I'm finally near the halfway point!). I'm excited for more KOS-MOS, too, and the inclusion of Sakura and the Valkyria Chronicles characters is a major bonus as well. Hurry up and release a silver 3DS XL in North America, Nintendo . . . and then give me one for free. And buy me a house while you're at it. onmode-ky

Setting aside for the moment the fact that Atari is in no shape to do anything these days, the company that currently uses the name doesn't have any manufacturing capacity of its own, anyway. All Atari-labeled plug-n-play systems that have come out in the past 10+ years have been projects brought to Atari by external agents (either licensors or contracted project designers, namely Jakks Pacific, Legacy Engineering, Basic Fun, and AtGames), who were the ones who handled the design and production aspects. This current Atari would probably be happy to have such a product out on shelves, promoting the Atari brand, but it's unable and/or unwilling to do it on its own. Heh, I'd say more like 9 years ago, concurrent with the Atari Paddles system that Jakks Pacific released. The end of 2004 was pretty much the peak of the market; after that, it started slumping and shifting focus. By 2007, the only retro gaming plug-n-play systems still being released were either recompilations of existing Namco material or a re-release of Jakks' 2002 Atari joystick (not including AtGames' Sega systems, which didn't hit mainstream retail markets until more recently), and Jakks' 2011 Taito system didn't lead to any further developments in the retro arena. I wonder if there might have been some design obstacles hindering such a product, too. For games like Centipede and Missile Command, you'd really need a solidly stationary trackball, one that wouldn't slide around the table (since neither hand would be available to hold it down, with one controlling the ball and the other the fire button). You'd need something of fairly large size, like the Golden Tee Golf plug-n-play systems (both), but that would probably be priced beyond the $20 range that the typical retro plug-n-play systems targeted for MSRP. I suppose you could design a purely handheld trackball, but then you might have problems with getting the directions right, since individual players might not hold it with the "proper" orientation the designers were intending. So, simply coming up with something widely playable at the right price might have been problematic. But, I'm just speculating. At any rate, if you really want to get someone to make such a product, I think your best bet these days is AtGames, who have lately been doing the emulation-based Atari Flashbacks. If any company out there might be interested in putting in the R&D and licensing work to do a trackball Atari arcade system today, it would probably be them. Jakks Pacific, though they did the Atari and Activision joystick and paddles systems ~10 years ago, might be a hard sell on the idea--look at their release slate for 2013: a light gun game based on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and a light gun game based on Duck Dynasty. I think they would put out a better designed, better quality product than AtGames would, but they likely wouldn't have the retro gaming interest. onmode-ky