Custom Covers are a Chore!

So in my previous post I mentioned that Sega's lack of standards in game case labels was frustrating, particularly for the collector who is OCD and trying to build up a collection that looks like a library (which it sort of is). Now normally with a little (or a lot) of Photoshop work I can take most retail scans and convert them into a "vertical red" format, but we hit a bit of a roadblock when there is no original cover scan.

I snagged a Sega Genesis Game Genie for $3 from Half Price books and I have been trying to track down a cover for it for a very long time. Anyone who bought one of these new knows that they came in a chintzy cardboard box that most people threw away. To find a high-resolution, 300dpi scan with no creases or artifacts is next to impossible, but sure enough I tracked one down. Some of the text needed redoing because of the width restrictions of the template I use, but alas, it is now done and is probably the only Shenske-themed Game Genie cover out there. Now to submit it to TheCoverProject.net...

And Another Birthday Gift!

The funniest thing about this gift is that I was just thinking about how much this game bothered me as a child. Released in 1989 the world had no idea how something meant to be fun could be so frustrating. This game is so notorious for being challenging that even AVGN did a video for this. Regardless of this I had to have this game as a child and never got it, so no better time than the present (and a present it was).

I don't have much of a collection of NES games; in fact, I don't even know if my NES works anymore, and I need all of the connections for it. Ideally I would like to get a top loader, dog bone controller, and start up a decent NES collection with the usual black-box classics, Mario, Zelda, Tetris, R.O.B., Contra, etc. The reality is that real collecting and real gaming history started, for many, with the NES, so conquering that will be my next beast after I'm done with my 32X project and a few more SNES pickups.

Am I happy that I got the game? Yes! Am I happy that I have to relive the frustration? Umm....still yes!

Birthday Gift!

So my friend Juan and I are big fans of fighting games. He likes the technical aspects of figuring out combos, mastering different fighters, and getting all of the optional costumes for the fighters (yes, the female fighters' costumes). Personally I am a fan of games that I can pick up and just play for a while to escape my busy life (hence why I like quick games). To me Rock Band and Guitar Hero were great escapes and helped me manage how much game time I was getting in. Fighting games are definitely no exception.

Although Juan and I love Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter (and to a lesser extent Marvel vs. Capcom and Blaz Blue) Juan decided to pick up the latest Tekken game for his birthday a few weeks ago. I wasn't a fan of the difficulty in become proficient in the game, as button mashing won't get you very far. Although characters can be blocky in their movement (no jumping, really?) it actually is a technical fighter, and a decent one at that. Juan decided to get me a copy for my birthday so that we could play it together and hopefully master it. Now to get my Xbox Live subscription updated...

Sports Games...Ugh

I'll just come out and say it. I'm not a fan of sports games. In fact, many hardcore gamers out there (of the retro-collecting variety) don't seem to be either. Sports games consume so much of the market, become obsolete season after season, and drop in value so quickly that they clog up the retro gaming market, and for that they're widely hated. Sifting through these games is easy enough: if you see one just toss it aside and keep looking. The dilemma I have here is that I'm going for a complete collection of games for the Sega 32X, which included several sports games. I was lucky enough to find this game CIB for a reasonable $9.99, although I would never actually buy it for reasons outside of collecting. The real kicker is that I'll need to buy a copy of Deion Sanders' baseball, which is extremely expensive. I guess that's just the cost of being a collector. :/

The Best Mockingbird Shooter You Can Buy

The 32X was notorious for some pretty awful games. Either the technology was rushed or difficult to work with, but either way there were some pretty horrible games released for the system. If you look at the system the graphics weren't even that good--definitely not 32-bit quality and some not even up to par with the Sega Genesis. This alone was a huge source of the demise of the 32X, as well as Sega's empire itself.

That's not to say that all 32X games are awful; it's just that there aren't very many good ones among the slim ~30 game selection for the system. Most Sega-produced games for the console were decent, with Knuckles' Chaotix and Kolibri earning top marks. Kolibri is an interesting (using the word in THAT way) game with some pretty good graphics and an unusual premise. The word itself is Spanish for hummingbird (and in other languages as well) and developed a reputation for being the best hummingbird-based shooter for the 32X (har har). Just like Knuckles' Chaotix this wasn't a cheap find, but it definitely is a must own for the 32X.

Wall Mount Time

I have gathered together a pretty decent assortment of games to play, but as I mentioned in my post on testing the 32X out, I never actually get to play my games. Working two jobs, going to grad school full-time, owning a house, and family obligations keep me pretty busy, but even with the limited time I have I don't actually have a monitor/TV to play my games on. Shopping around at Best Buy it was apparent to me that most TVs were super light (which is nice), energy efficient, cheap(!), but had almost no inputs on the back. There were a few HDMI, sure, and HDMI is awesome (it really is), but there was no s-video, no composite, just one component, no DVI, VGA, optical, etc. A lot of those connections may be superfluous, but having options is nice, especially with older gaming consoles.

The only solution, to me, was to either purchase a CRT (like a real retro-gamer) or to obtain an older LCD. I bought an LG 32" LCD when I first started working out of college for a paltry $1,300 and still have it in my bedroom. A beast weighing in at 50 lbs with the stand this TV has all of the inputs I wanted, plus the nostalgia of being my very first LCD TV. I ended up buying a 37"Samsung LED TV for my bedroom and hung this beast up in my office. I am a bit apprehensive about the whole deal (to say the least), as I'm always scared this thing will come off the wall and smash all my things, but so far things are looking good. :)

Pinballz!

Back in the 1990s you could find an arcade in pretty much every major mall in America. While they ranged in quality you could be guaranteed that most of the classics would be there: Time Crisis, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Ninja Turtles, Simpsons, Terminator, Cruisin' USA (ugh), etc. The sounds, sights, smells (yes, those smells), and the allure of prizes that cost more in tickets than actual retail was intoxicating. It was also incredibly expensive, and many people ultimately realized that you could game at home for much cheaper, and game online, thus the death of the arcade slowly came on. Now you'll either have to track down a standalone arcade or resort to playing Time Crisis at the local Cinemark. For my birthday I decided to track down a decent arcade, and what resulted was none other than Austin's Pinballz arcade.

This arcade was STUNNING. From the old school section featuring Mario, Donkey Kong, and Tron, to the 90s section featuring X-Men, Simpsons, Ninja Turtles (both Turtles in Time and the classic Turtles II) it was absolute bliss. The arcade features a huge assortment of pinball machines, although in all honesty I am not the biggest fan of pinball. $20 lasted me well over two hours and I was able to beat my first arcade game alongside my friends. Being in an arcade like this was a timewarp and cemented for me the very reason why I started doing this game collecting: it's just good, simple fun, and these games defined the games that we have today. Now that's pretty cool to me.