He finally came through!

Got my copy of Alien Vs. Predator for Jaguar today; only cost me $20 :) The guy couldn't find Nightshade though :( I also bought a copy of NHL 94 for SEGA CD on an impulse ;)

I've spent a little bit of time with AvP already, and it's shaping up to be a solid FPS. Keeping in mind that this game came out less than a year after DOOM and almost two years before Quake, its impressive to see such dynamic gameplay and high-resolution sprites on any system, let alone a gaming console that hadn't even been out for a year. I don't get the feeling that its going to be a great game once I really get into it, but it'll definitely be a pretty unique experience to tackle the FPS genre under the Alien coccoon system and the Predators' honour system... I'll explain more once I've spent some quality time with each race.

Okay, I think this should be it for a while...

I splurged and picked up The Adventures Of Batman & Robin and Light Crusader for Genesis. I also stumbled upon (and subsequently purchased) a copy of Eternal Darkness for GameCube. Then I traded-in my SNES (just the console, which had been filed-down to play imports and is missing a connector in the cartridge slot used by the Super FX chip and the like) towards an SNS-101. The funny thing is that I got more for the bare console in trade-in value than I paid for the system, all the cables, two controllers, and a game ;)

Anyway, I've got a lead on Alien Vs. Predator for Jaguar and Nightshade for PS2 this Saturday. Oh, and Wario Land: Shake It! is tempting, but I really should slow down a bit with all of this, eh? Maybe after the price drops a little on that one...

Let's see if I can remember everything...

I got stuck late at work on Wednesday recovering an employee's e-mail box from a nightly backup, and when there's a 1.2GB Exchange mailbox involved, the recovery process can consist of a lot of waiting... So I went to grab something to drink and ended up stopping by a local independent game shop. That's where I saw an NES-101 in their display case. I ended up buying it (I've never owned an NES before) along with a gray Zapper and a Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridge. Since then, I've picked up Batman, Blaster Master, Kid Icarus, Kirby's Adventure, Little Nemo: The Dream Master, Mighty Final Fight, and Metroid. I remember having a much harder time with Batman when I was younger, and I also remember Little Nemo having much prettier graphics... Otherwise, I'm loving the whole experience. The only real downside is the existance of faint vertical lines on the screen, thanks to the NES-101's shittay RF modulator :\

Anyway, I've also picked up copies of Vigilante for TurboGrafx 16 (traded-in my Master System version), Virtual On and Brain Dead 13 for Saturn ($10 each; the latter is sealed; I love Brain Dead 13), a second Wavebird, and Vectorman 2 for Genesis. Oh, and I went back and got a $5 trade-in value for an NHL 97 Genesis cartridge (I don't think I even paid that much for it), and an additional $15 off the NHL 98/World Series Baseball '98 combo I mentioned three posts back; I didn't feel too bad spending $30 on those two.

I also bought a copy of Batman for Game Boy while I was out. I remembered owning this one back when it first came out, and thought I'd sold it to a friend years ago. Turns out I didn't sell it, so I suddenly had two copies... It was only $7 though, so I gave it to one of my brothers :)

I finally got around to testing a third-party (BEI) Dreamcast lightgun that I purchased used back in May, and it doesn't work. It took me so long to actually test it because my Dreamcast has been hooked up to my HDTV via s-video, and light guns don't work with HDTVs. It was when I set up my new Dreamcast VGA box that I remembered to dust off that lightgun. I wonder if they'll still do an exhcange at this point... P.S. Dreamcast games are pretty at 480p... Especially Dead Or Alive 2 LE.

One last thing: I finished Metroid Prime! So amazing! Dunno what to play next though... Yakuza 2? NiGHTS: Journey Of Dreams? The Darkness? Or should I just jump right into Metroid Prime 2?

Getting there...

So I did pick up copies of Shadow Dancer (complete), The Revenge Of Shinobi (cart only, latest revision) and Shinobi III (cart only) for Genesis... As well as Alex Kidd In Shinobi World for Master System. I talked the place down a bit in price and worked out a decent trade-in value for some old games I never really wanted (Fear Effect 1 & 2 for PSX, Maximum Carnage and Primal Rage for Genesis).

I haven't spent too much time with any of them yet, but Shadow Dancer seems pretty solid, The Revenge Of Shinobi is every bit as awesome (and as difficult) as I remembered, Shinobi III seems a lot easier than its predecessors and I'm not thrilled by the new art direction, and Alex Kidd In Shinobi World is frigging cool :)

Also, even though I'm not a fan of the series (save for Rockman & Forte and The Power Battle), I really would like one of these. 

Frequencies

I was playing with an FM car radio that has "Info", "P-Type" and "Traf" functions. Info displays text messages (such as radio station and song information) that are broadcast with the audio signal on an LCD in the dashboard. P-Type allows users to browse radio stations based on their programming type (talk, rock, r&b, country, etc...), as indicated by data broadcast with the audio signal, effectively bypassing any unwanted genres. Traf allows users to select their preferred station that broadcasts traffic reports, and have the radio automatically tune to that station when a traffic report is broadcast; this only works on stations that broadcast a traffic flag with the audio signal. I dunno about any of you, but I think that's really cool :)

I also just read this. While it's not a great exploration of the subject, it's still a thought-provoking article on the kinds of social commentaries that video games are capable of effectively achieving. It also kinda makes me wanna go out and find a copy of Persona 3 FES, even though I really have no idea when I'd get a chance to play it :\

Anyone remember Polterguy?

Found copies of NHL 98 (complete in the box) and World Series Baseball '98 (with manual, but no box) for Genesis, but they wanted $50 for the pair... Yeah... Not gonna rush to come up with the cash for those.

I did, however, come away with copies of Baku Baku for Saturn, Raiden for Jaguar (no box), Haunting for Genesis (no manual), and Shinobi II and Ristar for Game Gear.

I'm thinking of picking up Shadow Dancer, The Revenge of Shinobi, and Shinobi III for Genesis tomorrow, which would leave me with just Shadow Dancer (SMS), The Cyber Shinobi (SMS), Shinobi Legions (Saturn), and Nightshade (PS2) to complete the series... I know where to pick up a copy of Alex Kidd in Shinobi world as well, but it's going for $30 for just the cartridgde :\

Shiny!

The new iPod Touch is just plan sexy... And I do not use that word lightly when it comes to technology because, really, regarding such things as being sexy is just plain weird ;)

Also, I've been using Google Chrome at work since it came out, and I love it. It's exactly what I want in a browser; basic, lightweight, and fast. I never use plug-ins or any other such add-ons in Firefox or Internet Explorer, and I appreciate effective use of on-screen real estate, so Chrome is right up my alley. The only issue I've run into so far was with FTP access, but that may have been the particular site's fault. I'm also aware of the public outcry regarding Chrome's EULA, but read sections 1, 8, and 11 carefully and you'll see that it 's not as bad as you might've heard.

I've recently worked on a friend's virus-laden Hyper-Threading Pentium 4 machine (they were just gonna buy a new one), a brand new iMac (they're very pretty, and so is Leopard), and a Windows computer with an obscene amount of hard drive partitions... I mean, really, what's wrong with two partitions (one for software and one for data) and a bunch of folders?

Work has seen me digging old machines from before my time there out of the warehouse, and repurposing them as workstations around the building; we had a good number of mid-range Pentium 4 boxes just collecting dust in there.

And what would an update be without mentioning me unhealthy obsession with video games? I snagged a copy of Landstalker for Genesis (good condition, in the box, but no book) for $10, a pirated copy of The Super Shinobi for Mega Drive (Rambo! Godzilla! The Hulk! Spider-Man! Batman!) for $5, Forza Motorsport 2 for 360 for $10, Spore, and Yakuza 2!!! Once I've got Metroid Prime out of the way (just a few more boss fights and artifacts to go), Yakuza 2 is a top priority :)

Epic

I neglected to mention in my last post that the 3D0 I bought was without a controller. I'd seen them online and at various shops, so I figured it was no big deal. The ensuing adventure was of epic proportions: The shipping on eBay was kinda outrageous, the people at the flea market stalls were adamant that these controllers were extremely rare and wanted no less than $25 for used Panasonic-branded controllers, and the specialty shops would only order new ones for $30 + tax... Yeah, not quite worth it to play Shockwave. 

In the end I scoured a ~50km radius around the city of Toronto over a few days. Four stalls at two flea markets, five independent shops downtown, two in Mississauga, one in North York, one in Oshawa, and one in Richmond Hill.

Not only did I finally find a third-party 3D0 controller for $10 at the last shop I checked out, I also picked up a lot of cool stuff along the way.  I bought a pack-in copy of Gex for 3D0 (just to have it on its original system), Wipeout 64 for N64, the Game Boy Color edition of Wario Land II (finally have all five Wario Land games!), and Congo and Last Bronx for Saturn. I was offered a copy of Return Fire for 3D0 for $35, and while it was one of the best games on the system, it's just so readily available everywhere else that I couldn't bring myself to spend that much. Anyway, I saw some completely weird things too, like two model 2 Sega Master Systems, an Odyssey, a Tiger R-Zone Headgear, Atari 7800 Joypads (CX78), a PC Engine CoreGrafx II, copies of Alien Vs. Predator and Power Drive Rally for Jaguar (not for sale, else I'd've bought them), a Famicom Disk System, and probably a bunch of other weird stuff that I'm forgetting about... It was a good nerdy weekend :)

Sins Of The Fathers

I saw this article in the paper on my way to work the other day, and I chuckled. Let's see if you can figure out why. Here's a hint: This game took place primarliy in New Orleans ;)

Unlocking the remaining secrets in Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles has become awfully frustrating, and Echochrome (while still wonderfully interesting) has failed to really hold my attention, so I've moved on to Wipeout Pure and N+, which are both solid, fast-paced, and lots of fun.

Castle Crashers is also great. Totally lives up to my expectations of a highly stylised, old school arcade brawler. 

I don't think I mentioned this before, but I found a copy of Virtua Fighter 5 Online for around $20, so I picked that up too.

Metroid Prime is still amazing. I have only one complaint thus far: A save point on the way to pick up the power bomb would be swell... I know, it's not an impossible section, but it's more challenging and feels a lot longer than a lot of the previous sections, and having to replay it (for the third time, later this evening) just doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the game so far. The experience isn't ruined for me, but what was a nearly perfect experience suddenly feels as though it has a balance issue. Yeah, so I'm wihining about a scuff on an otherwise flawless product... I'm a jerk :)

As for that Dark Sector write-up I talked about not too long ago, here goes: I liked Dark Sector a lot. The fact that I got it for $15 only made the whole thing that much sweeter, but I would've gladly paid up to $40 or so. There were some dissappointing aspects, such as occasional "skating" enemies (is there any excuse for poor walking animations these days?) and questionable hit detection (which just about ruined melee combat, made opening certain doors unreliable, and made breaking small item boxes on the floor needlessly cumbersome), but they didn't ruin the game. What came very close to ruining the game, however, was the poorly-told story. I remember reading early treatments of Dark Sector and being intrigued, and even though the final product was markedly different from those early descriptions, it was still brimming with potential. Unfortunately, all of the immersive plot points were either briefly glossed over or ignored altogether. Important characters appear out of nowhere with minimal backstory, chapter five is just plain perplexing (arbitraily releasing monsters, inexplicably unseen explosions), and the two main plot points hinge on the main character's history, of which we're only given a fragmented executive summary! By the time it's all over, with some note-taking and suspension of disbelief, there's a vaguely interesting narrative to be pieced together, but it's just not worth the effort... Play the game for the gameplay, the pretty graphics, and the score. Try not to think about the story, what it could've been, and how it would've taken this game to a whole new level; it'll just make you sad.

I was about to rant about why I'd never buy a 3D0 (noting how lot of big 3D0 titles, such as Alone In The Dark, Creature Shock, D, The Daedalus Encounter, Gex, The Horde, Killing Time, Need For Speed, Off-World Interceptor, PO'ed, Quarantine, Return Fire, Road Rash, Space Hulk, Star Control II, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Super Wing Commander, and Wolfenstein 3D were either already available on other platforms, or were ported to the likes of the Saturn and PlayStation and improved shortly after their 3D0 release), but then I bought a 3D0. A Goldtsar 3D0, to be exact. It's was an even $40 at a flea market and included Shockwave, so I couldn't say no...

P.S. You can play Psychonauts for free on GameTap. You don't even need to make an account. If you haven't tried Psychonauts yet, please do.