My Weekend at the Movies
This weekend I was allowed to see an advance screening of an upcoming summer movie. I did tweet what the film was prior to going to view it, but when I got there a very specific NDA (non-disclosure agreement) has me not wanting to give any more information. There still is a point to this post, I assure you. The thing about NDA’s, for example, is that they are vague and pretty much don’t want you talking about anything, but yet I often feel compelled to follow them provided certain circumstances. I was not brought in to see this movie because of this site or any affiliation, in fact I’m betting the production company doesn’t know or care that this post exists provided I leak no information on what I saw, including the title of the film or my opinion. I also want to point out that while this site does receive review copies of games from time to time, there is no connection between this film and games directly and thus there’s no fear of retaliation associated with my compliance. While quite rare on the Internet, I intend to respect the NDA because it’s the right thing to do. Rest assured I am writing the review while the film is fresh in my mind and it will release when I get the permission to do so.
Collecting Tips to Boot Part 2: To the Stores
In a recent article, I gave my personal tips into how to get the most out of the car boot sale. However, if your hungry for more games finds there’s more than one place to hunt. In this article I’m going to go through the other places I have located gaming deals.
Charity Shops
This has always been a fascinating one to me. I know people that will literally avoid charity shops like the plague because they don’t want to be looking through other peoples junk. This is a real shame as you can genuinely find some amazing deals in charity shops (in America this will be like your Goodwills). In the UK the majority of charity shops are linked to charity like the British Hear Foundation, Oxfam, Cancer research etc. Charity shops take donations usually from the local community, Oxfam however, actually does send stuff to various stores through donation bins found at supermarkets. Most charity shops generally will have a dvd rack somewhere with a couple of games thrown in. Now it will really depend on the the staff at the specific store to whether the games are priced reasonably or not. If there is a volunteer that is into gaming there is actually a possibility they will take the games for themselves and leave the stuff they don’t want for the shelves. This is of course is a pain but its something you just have to put up with. Some staff have no idea about pricing games usually they will sell them for the same value as DVDs or even CDs. But then I have seen examples of staff over pricing video games because they think they are worth more than DVDs. What is quite sad in the UK is I have heard stories of charity shops receiving donations of loose consoles and carts but they consider these junk and throw them away. This doesn’t happen everywhere though, I have actually found loose N64 carts in an Oxfam store before but this is quite a rare occasion. Some advice here is if you feel brave enough you can actually say to the staff you are looking for old games and if they see any loose carts or consoles you will be whiling to take them off their hands. Most of the time the staff will feel uncomfortable with this and will give you nothing. But on that rare occasion someone might take note and even bring out some stuff they were intending on chucking possibly for free. But remember this is a charity shop so its only fair to give a donation if you get lucky here. It’s also only worth doing this with the stores that are close to where you live, unless of course you enjoy travelling far out to stores.
BEST SCORE: A couple of rare N64 loose carts including Mystical Ninja: The legend of Goeman, Mystic Quest, Diddy Kong Racing, Shadowgate 64, and The World is Not Enough
Collecting Tips to Boot
It’s that time of year again where people from all over the country go through their lofts and garages and find various junk they don’t want any more. They then throw it in their car drive to a field somewhere and sell it members of the public. Yes people, car boot season (or flea market if your American) is here. I have been heading to car boots with my lady friend for the last couple of years looking for good deals on video games. As a collector of old video games the car boot is a great chance to possibly find a game for a reasonable price that would otherwise go for some ungodly amount on eBay. In this article I’m going to give my personal tips on how to make the most out of the car boot.
Donkey Kong Country SNES Review
Platform: Super NES, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance – Note: Portable versions have compromised graphics and performance
Released: 1994
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Nintendo
Digital Release? Yes, 800 points on the Virtual Console for Wii and Wii U (optimized for Wii U)
Value: $18.52 (SNES)/$6.51 (GBC)/$10.00 (GBA) – cart only, $38.97 (SNES)/$16.24 (GBC)/$20.00 (GBA) – complete, $80.00 (SNES)/$53.07 (GBC)/$51.00 (GBA) – sealed – According to Price Charting
Donkey Kong Country (DKC) on the SNES is a game held in high regard by a lot of Nintendo fans. Developed by Rare, who at the time was a second party developer to Nintendo and consistently releasing new and unique IPs, which only got better when it came to the follow up console the N64. Nintendo was quite happy for Rare to develop a game starring Donkey Kong, who up to this point was just sitting on Nintendo’s shelf not really doing a lot (development on this title began before the Gameboy re-hash of Donkey Kong ’94). Rare came up with an idea for a platformer that proved to be very successful and led to two additional sequels being developed on the SNES and then a 3D iteration on the N64. It is now time to peel back a banana and see if this SNES game still holds up today.
Rocket Knight Adventures Initial Run/Quick Look
Rocket Knight Adventures is this month’s game club and a highly regarded part of the Genesis/Mega Drive library. Not only does it show off the hardware tricks that Konami was famous for but it’s also tough as nails. Having never played it, Fred jumps onto his console (and with a web cam so you can see all his goofy faces while playing) to make a first attempt at conquering it. Does he succeed?
How Mature
Recently in the UK news there was an article stating that a head teacher would report parents to the local authorities if they discovered any of the children in the school were playing mature rated games, citing that the parents would be accused of “neglect.” While I feel accusing parents of being neglectful is not entirely fair it does pose the question: just how mature are games these days? This article is going to cover my own experiences of mature rated games as I grew up and how I feel about the subject now. [Editor’s Note: Fred wrote an article in the past dissecting mature rated games in the US, that perspective is here.]
MGC 2015: Pinball’s Future is Emulation
Depending on who you ask, perhaps pinball shouldn’t even be on this site. It’s not a video game at all and in truth the only thing pinball even has in common to video games is that they both tended to occupy one another in arcades, bowling alleys, bars, and various other popular locations of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. This doesn’t mean that you can’t appreciate both and thanks to some great physics engines and crafty programming games like Zen Pinball/Pinball FX and Pinball Arcade exist and do a nice job of bringing that thrill home. But it isn’t pinball. No friends, those of us who love pinball and played the games growing up would not consider T2 on Pinball Arcade to be the same as sitting in front of the cold steel original pinball machine with the gun handle for a launcher. At the same time a T2 pinball machine runs you around $2,000-$3,000 and that doesn’t even factor in getting to and into your place of residence, so the relatively cheap $10 price for the table on console is a better option for most of us. If you buy the actual pinball machine you’ll probably enjoy the game for less than six months before it needs service of some kind – assuming it was in perfect working order when you purchased it, which is almost never the case. Even if you have a pristine new Stern pinball machine that gets professionally set up, routine maintenance and cleaning is part of the role that any pinball owner has, whether it’s handled by the owner personally or they have a professional come out for routine service. That’s why pinball is a much larger investment than arcade machines: you have to know how to care for an afford to maintain it. Not only that, but the machines are specific so you can’t just drop a T2′s guts into a Funhouse machine without a lot of time, effort, and basically rebuilding it. All of these factors are why pinball emulation may be the best option for the average pinball enthusiast that’s ready to pony up that initial investment, but doesn’t want all the hassle of actually owning a pinball machine.
Podcast: It’s On Like Donkey Kong
This week, after talking about the controversial Genesis/Mega Drive Top 10 and getting the community list, Fred and Jam run and jump into the world of Donkey Kong. An unfortunately misnamed ape, Donkey Kong marked another strong arcade property for Nintendo that with the help of Rare evolved into the popular platforming series that still lives on today.
Community Choice: Top 10 Genesis/Mega Drive Games
When Jam and I posted the Top 10 Genesis/Mega Drive games we knew that given our two styles and having to find a top 10 was going to be difficult and pretty much hated on without a true Sonic game. What is even better was that you all in the community came together and commented, wrote in, and gave us your favorite top 10s. We then compiled all the games and gave them a point value based on the location on each person’s top ten (number 10 = 1 point, 9 = 2 points, and all the way to number 1 = 10 points) and generated the community top 10. For better or worse, here’s the community voted upon Top 10:
10. Fatal Labyrinth
9. Streets of Rage
8. Vectorman
7. Sonic the Hedgehog 3
6. Mortal Kombat
5. Gunstar Heroes
4. Aladdin
3. Shining Force II
2. Streets of Rage 2
1. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
So there you go, the much more balanced top 10 voted on by all of you out there. In the upcoming months we are going to do the editors versus the community on future top 10’s, all with participants being entered to win a prize, so stick with us for more top 10 criticism.
Sonic Xtreme Prototype Moves From PC to Saturn
Recently a prototype of Sonic Xtreme released that shows off the fisheye cam and is more complete than the basic demo that has been available for years. Unfortunately that prototype was on PC and didn’t have that wonderful Saturn feel, until today. Yep, the Saturn ISO has been released and runs on modded consoles (like mine). Head over to get it or keep an open eye for the video I hope to do later this week. If you want to brush up on your history, we did a podcast that covers the long and sordid history of this game that migrated multiple consoles and dev teams before disappearing completely.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATcm_1oneb0]
Gaming History 101 