goatdan

You really think that the graphical difference between the PS1 and the PS2 wasn't very much? In my opinion, it was as big as the jump from NES to SNES. You can't compare system to system like that because even though the Xbox may be the most powerful right now, there usually was a "champion" of graphics in each generation. SNES looked nicer than the Gene, for instance. I think that people are just looking at things with rose colored glasses on. Hell, I thought that the NES library had nearly all great games and little crap. Then I started playing games I didn't own. Darn was I wrong... If you are posting to say that people get upset because others don't like their favorite console, that's one thing... but why throw in the Xbox dig then? Personally, I think that at least in the public's eye the Xbox had the best year last year -- the Halo launch overshadowed just about everything. I just find it odd that you say that you don't care, but yet still make that comment...

(thinking about those Jaguar Pro controllers again...) You're saying Dreamcast sucks too then? I don't understand how you got that out of my comments. I noted the fact that the ProController had a ton of buttons, but is nearly the same dimensions and / or you hold it in the same way as a ton of controllers that came after it. Seriously -- if you have a Jaguar controller, take an N64 controller and hold it directly under it to see how they compare. Or a DC controller. Or anything I mentioned. The similiarity is striking, although magazines still "hate" it for that. My favorite controller is probably the Jaguar Pro Controller. Your post said that being ahead of their time caused death for a lot of gamig projects. I agree, and I think the Jaguar controllers are a perfect example of that. And the Dreamcast does not suck in any way. Other than having a complete US Dreamcast collection, I am so enamored by the machine I'm now working with developers on producing games. Long live the little machine that could! (Check out the GOAT Store for more information on our first three releases that are out so far...)

Yes, and gaming mags still make fun of it for that. It wasn't ahead of it's time, it was "the worst controller ever made." Oddly enough, it shares nearly identical dimensions and ways to hold it with the Saturn 3D controller, N64, Dreamcast, GameCube and Xbox S controllers. (thinking about those Jaguar Pro controllers again...) Now, a few comments from the original post: In other words, the PS3 will be underpowered compared to the next Xbox, but it hasn't hurt us in sales so far and allows us to make more money. I think that the NeXtBox might be even more of a step above the current gen just to try to get that market share. Microsoft doesn't give a damn that they're losing money -- they want to invade your TVs. And so far, they're doing a decent job at it. Sony only wants to make money. Built in wireless? WHY? I have a laptop with built-in wireless, and the wireless connection once in a while fades in and out. I don't really mind because if I'm just writing an email, I wait until it's back and then send it. It's cool because it is a LAPTOP... but I still end up plugging into an Ethernet port about 70% of the time, especially if I need network connectivity. I won't be picking up my PS3 and walking around with it to go online. And I don't want to spend $50+ on a nice home network solution just to get online, on top of the cost of broadband. MS Live has been tempting me, but this would never be used by me... Why the hell hasn't Sony caught up with the times and added four ports to their system? I really don't understand. I have four controllers for my N64, four for my Dreamcast, four for my Xbox and four for my GameCube. I would never invest in the stupid four player adaptor for the PS2 to take advantage of the handful of games that support it. If they build it in, they'll make their money back with additional controllers sold. Sometimes, I'm really baffled by things.... Microsoft is planning on removing the hard drive from their systems too, and that's the thing that will probably keep me away from the next gen. Xbox convinced me to get it because of the hard drive, and now I play it the most and have the most games for it because I never have to worry about save space. I wish that instead of using off-the-shelf hard drives, they spent the extra money to get a company to make a drive that ran differently so you couldn't put standard drives in machines. They want to prevent piracy while leaving in usability? Why not that? It wouldn't be too hard to do...

Sony has to push the stupid UMD medium somehow -- Nothing else will take it, so they have to figure out a way to convince people to try to watch movies on it. Personally, I think that's about the dumbest idea ever, but hey, Sony knows better than I do I'm sure about what their customers want (and I'm actually not being sarcastic there). I am also strongly in the camp though that feels that $250.00 is too much for a handheld system. For the same price, I could buy myself a Pocket PC, get more built-in functionality, cheap expandability and play 500 NES ROMs, as well as synch it to my computer and keep a calendar and check email on the go. And with the built-in Media Player addition, I could watch a movie on it if I wanted to, or use it as a portable MP3 player... and get a better battery life. Oh wait, I already have that. For the same price, a PSP is a downgrade for me with the only exception being that it plays 3D games that are the same darn thing that I play at home on my Xbox or GameCube. I like playing my NES collection on the road. I like playing my Xbox and Cube at home. Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand how Sony is going to really push this thing. The DS has the fact that it has possibilities to expand upon the touchscreen, but so far I haven't seen anything to make me want that either... but the price seems more in line with something tempting.

Well, my GBA collection is now officially at two games. I still don't have a GBA, and I won't be getting one (or a DS) until an Earthbound title comes out, but I know that I'll love Advance Wars 2

Since my comments could have been taken in the way that I think MathMurderer described, I'd like to give just a little background on my wife... Before I married her, I gave her a TV with a NES built in. She played SMB, SMB3, Dr. Mario and a bunch of other great old school NES games like mad. I'd hear updates about what she was playing when we went out on dates. It was pretty sweet. I bought her a copy of Tengen Tetris so we could play Tetris cooperatively. We got married. She stopped playing games altogether because, as she says, "I can do so many other things with my time." I don't mind if she is doing other things, but I'd like a game of competitive Tetris once in a while again Lastly, my wife was at one time the ultimate master at Wolfenstein 3D. I had heard from her about how good she was, but didn't believe it because she refused to play (she stated that she played the games so much, for a while all that she dreamt about was running around in a maze and killing Nazi's, so she decided to go cold turkey.) Anyway, she took me through the first level of the game on the Jaguar with 100% everything in just a few seconds over the goal time. I've never done that before, and she knew where all the secrets were. Apparently, at one time she 100%ed the entire game _under_ the time goals. It isn't that I don't think she could be a "mature" gamer, it is just that right now she chooses not to be. I hope Jawbreaker is the first step on the way to her taking me on in Unreal Tournament, telling me why Earthbound is awesome or testing out some new Dreamcast game I'm working on

On the side of the stores... Yeah, I know... It's the unpopular side to take. We all want as much money as we can get for whatever games we decide to sell. But here is the thing: Some games are MUCH more common than others. Some games sell MUCH less often than others. If you go to EB and trade in a copy of Madden 2002, and the clerk rings it up, the idea is that EB also has to house the game and pay for the clerks to work at the store. If they already have 100 copies of Madden 2002 and they have only sold one in the last month for $3.00, why in the world would they give you more than 30 cents for it? They already have one hundred copies, and they'll be holding onto a game for at least a year and probably not get more than $1.00 for it when it finally does sell. That's pretty much nothing. If you trade in newer games, you get a little bit more money -- like $6.00 to $10.00 or more sometimes. But the thing is if the store already has a million copies of the game back, they don't need it. On the flip side, if the store makes $10.00 when the used copy is sold or $10.00 when a new copy is sold, they aren't going to really care which one they have. A new copy is worth the same to them as a used on in that case. Yes, it sucks. But in the end, it is what these stores have to do to stay in business. Personally, I never, ever trade in games regardless of how much I know I'll never play them again. I would rather give the game to a friend or trade it online.

There aren't any reviews... yet. The games just came out, so people just started receiving them within the last couple days. While my standpoint on the game might be a little biased, I think they are both excellent titles. Inhabitants is hard to explain. It isn't like Mahki, Jawbreaker or Sega Swirl, which are all pretty similar. Instead, when you select a tile, you can only eliminate the same color tiles one spot away. The best you can do is eliminating five tiles at a time, which looks like this + and is called a "four way." Four ways give you bonus points for the round. Sometimes, you start a level with a pretty good set of tiles and maybe even one or two four-ways ready to go. Most of the time, you have to figure out how to best drop the tiles around it to make more four ways. It is really addictive, and includes an option for a multiplayer game with up to four friends. Maqiupai is like Shanghai but with a pretty fun twist. You work through the levels in an arcade-like mode where you get an additional 3 seconds per set removed and have Shinobi Jokers that you can use to remove tiles of the same type. If you get stuck, you wait a certain time period and another joker will show up for you to use. After you have unlocked the levels by completing them in challenge mode, you can play the levels in time attack. Time attack is just like Shanghai with no jokers, but you race against the clock. When you complete a level, if it is your best time for it you get a code that you can enter at the Maqiupai Web site to see how you rank. Personally, I'm super addicted to Maqiupai and I've been playing it to getter my scores pretty much constantly since the game was delivered. Hopefully, that will help If you or anyone else has any other questions for me, feel free to ask. If you purchase both by the way, shipping will remain the same on our site -- $4.10 -- and the games will ship to US addresses within 24 hours.

I saw a Game Boy Color for $9.99 today. If you're looking for something that can play GB/GBC games, I'd suggest one of those. It will save you about $140.00, and you won't have to bother with the "gimmicky" touch pad and "useless" second screen, since the Game Boy Color doesn't have those. I guess that I don't understand why you would upgrade to a NDS just to play GBC games when you can get one of those machines for so much cheaper...

Exactly what I'm looking for in a handheld. Something I can play for five minutes on the train. Just for the record, I was intending to get a NDS until I heard that there would be no built-in PDA functionality. A Dual Screen PDA would be SO amazingly useful, so I'm pissed Nintendo didn't do that. Instead, I ended up getting a Pocket PC from work. It has a touch screen too. The games that I have on it right now are excellent. And the ones that were made for it wouldn't work well without the touch pad. I think it *could* be a gimmick only if that is what Nintendo and the developers choose to do with it, but I think my PDA rocks... I play Ghost Recon 2 and Halo 2 on my Xbox every night. I really have no interest in playing games like that on a portable...I want different games on the go, not the same old stuff I play at home. Besides, you'd really need two analog thumbsticks and extra buttons to have a handheld that excelled at first person stuff. Just out of curiousity for both of you guys, have either of you tried Metriod with the control set up? I did at an in-store kiosk because I thought it would be impossible to control, and I was AMAZED by how well I fit in the control scheme. Within about three minutes, I was able to complete one of the demo things they had in quick time. I'll keep waiting to see what games come out for what. I'll probably just stick with my Neo Geo Pocket and Pocket PC like I have since about 1999, but from a gamer standpoint the NDS has stuff that seems like they could really evolve gameplay. The PSP so far has shown me games that I could play at home better. We'll see when it is actually released though. I am reserving judgement...

Inhabitants and Maqiupai, two new Dreamcast games have made their debut. Some more information about the games: Inhabitants by S+F Software Inhabitants is a puzzle game that will put your skills to the test as you work your way through level after level of tile clearing action! Play with three friends in competition mode or play by yourself and unlock many new modes of play. Inhabitants will have you thinking about how to remove tiles and get the best bonuses possible. With millions of opportunities to improve your old scores, Inhabitants will move into your thoughts for a long time! Inhabitants will remind you of many other popular games where you need to remove tiles of the same color, only this time there is a twist – You can only remove tiles one away from the tile you are on. The maximum tiles you can remove is therefore five, and that will give you what is known as a four-way combo. Can you set up the board the right way to get tons of four way combos and get insane scores? Maqiupai by JMD Maqiupai is the classic game of Shanghai with a modern twist. You need to remove all of the tiles in each challenging puzzle before time runs out. You can only remove tiles that match and are free on one side to be removed. You’ll have to use lots of strategy to make your way through this variant of Mahjong that has also gone by the name of Shanghai. What sets Maqiupai apart from the other versions of Shanghai that have been released is how the game is played – there are two modes to Maqiupai: Challenge and Time Attack. In challenge, you will set to the task of removing tiles as quickly as possible. You work as the clock works against you, counting down to your fate. Luckily, you have the use of Shinobi Jokers on your side – tiles that will clear the board of any other tiles like them. After you have unlocked a table in Challenge mode, you will be able to play it in Time Attack and compete with others from around the world by logging onto http://www.goatstore.com/maqiupai/ and submitting your highest scores! --- For all you Dreamcast fans out there, I can also say that we expect there to be as many as 10 more releases over the next two years. We're currently working on preparing two more games for release in the next few months!

My wife just fell in love with a game for the first time since we got married. Unfortunately, it is Jawbreaker on my work PocketPC. She drained my batteries on it four times this weekend! At least she's playing some sort of game

I don't know where you are that the PSOne games around you were cut so cheaply, but around here they have just dropped to the $9.99 level for some of them. Hell, I picked up Final Fantasy Anthology and Origins last week for $15.00 apiece on sale from $20.00. Seems to me that backwards compatibility allows these games to remain priced high. You most definitely still can't buy N64 games anywhere new, yet Best Buy still stocks PSOne games... For the rest of this conversation, like I've said all along if you don't like the fact that the second generation Xbox doesn't do whatever for you -- whether it is play Xbox games or make you breakfast in bed -- then don't buy it. Until that happens though, why does everyone sit around and moan about the fact that the consoles might not do it? Whichever manufacturer (MS in this case) is not marketing to you, and it sounds like they are okay with that. I'm going back to playing games now...

Why was Nintendo not using DVDs in their system a way to screw fans? It was an obvious attempt to thwart pirates from making warez copies, and it worked. If there is one thing that Nintendo did right in this generation, that's it. It has been talked about that the average age of a gamer is now something like 22 years old. While the decision for backwards compatibility might work in your situation, that isn't a majority of people out there. All that backwards compatibility did in this round was make the PS2 more desireable right at launch when there were no good titles. After that, it was all about the games, as it has been with pretty much every generation. The companies that get the "in demand" games on their consoles are the companies that "win" the console war.

We accept Credit Cards, PayPal and Money Orders. Canadian orders, unless you're buying a ton, generally actually ship for the same cost as American orders. If you're getting three Dreamcast games for instance, it would probably be $4.10 for shipping...

For Sega, you skipped the Sega CD and the 32X that would also lower the turnover rate for new consoles. Then, if you go and look at what was the dominate consoles from NES on, you have: NES - 1986 Geni - 1989 SNES - 1991 Playstation - 1995 PS2 - 2000 That gives you 2.8 years between the release of the consoles that were successful. Regardless, if you and many others buy it and if you play it, it will work. If no one gets it, you'll have a failure (like the many consoles that were also released not in your lists -- Jaguar, Turbografx, 3DO, etc.)

If you can afford the real game, I hope that you get the real game instead. Most games (including the 2K2 sports series) can now be had for under $10.00 apiece shipped. Don't pay someone at a flea market to burn you completely illegal copies of the games.

The only version that made it to American shores was the European version that was stocked at both GameStops and EB's for a while. I picked up my copy in EB a few months after release for $40.00 new

Thank you. I was hoping someone would say that. Sony made the PS2 backwards compatible, but beyond a few collectors I don't know of ANYONE that has a huge PSOne game collection that they pull out and play constantly on their PS2. Out of all of the people that I know with PS2s, only two kept any PSOne games, and it was a total of eight between the two. The other thing that I'm surprised that I keep hearing is that it is too soon to bring out the new consoles. Consoles have, for the most part, always been on a four year rotation. If you don't like that, no one is forcing you to purchase one. People keep saying that the Xbox just got on a roll, and now they are going to kill it... If people keep purchasing games for it, they'll keep making games (there are STILL PSOne games being released) and no one is forcing you to disconnect it. If Xbox 2 comes out and you find some reason to upgrade, do it. If Xbox 2 comes out and you think it sucks, buy games for other systems and don't get an Xbox 2. That's the best way to make your opinion known.

It's on sale right now. At the end of the sale, it will return to the $19.99 price. I believe that there are some others like this (OutRun2 srpings to mind. It is $14.99 on sale now in store, but $24.99 used I think). I picked it up for $10, but haven't played it yet. I was told it is pretty cool if you like stealth games.

That was one of the huge downflaws of the Dreamcast, but also the reason that homebrew is so possible for it. Sega left in a "backdoor" for MIL-CD boots. Basically, the idea was that a development company could burn a copy of their game to a CD and distribute it to their playtesters to get immediate opinions. Unfortunately for Sega, fortunately for pirates and the homebrew world, this exploit was soon found out about, and it was in short order able to make discs that booted just fine with no modifications done to your system. That is really odd. From what I understand, only Blue Stinger was bad at launch. I thought that Hydro Thunder worked just fine. Eurocom did the translation... What does the disk itslef look like? The US version is reddish with the name of the game and two boats on it. Do you get all of the music tracks for it? That's the only thing I can think of. My copy of Rush 2049 plays fine, but when you're in a certain battle arena, the music just skips away.

I would completely disagree with you on homebrew games. Most homebrew games are small enough that they can be loaded into memory and then the disk just sits there. If you are thinking of playing a small homebrew game versus a commercial release, the homebrew game will give you less wear and tear. That having been said, for the bigger games there are ways to get around this too. The Dreamcast games that I have published use a special method so that they are no more damaging than a regular commercial game. The reason that warez copies of games load slower is because of how people make them. If you were to pull some of the right tricks with a warez copy, you could get it to perform almost identically to the real release. That having been said, the method for doing this would take you a long, long time to do and I don't think too many pirates are out there attempting to learn how to do it.

In my opinion, it is definitely worth picking up. The glitches are relatively minor with the exception of Tee'd Off as a whole, and it is still worth it for the other games. Tee'd Off seems to have about a million little things wrong though... But for $20 (or $15 on PS2), you can't go wrong.

I'm completely against Dreamcast piracy (for reasons of my own), but the thing about DC pirate copies hurting the Cast is 99% rumor, 1% truth. It has nothing to do with the media or anything like that. It all has to do with how it is burned. Commercial games arrange data in a certain way so that the game doesn't have to continually move around to read it, while warez copies don't necessarily account for that. On the other hand, the Dreamcast is _made_ to move around, so you aren't really "hurting" it, just giving it more of an excercize than it is used to. Regardless, I would suggest buying the real games through eBay. You can get a huge package for only a little bit of money now, and you'll get the cool cases to go with them.

I've been lucky so far. All of the connectors I have replaced have had a 100% success rate. I am still waiting to find ones that don't work, because I heard about how poorly manufactured they were, but so far.... nothing. I do personally think it is totally worth the change.