Posts Tagged ‘panzer dragoon’
Video Game Purists Ep 75: Nothing Happening
This week was relatively uneventful for our hosts, but that doesn’t stop the discussion. From the demonic nature of the loon to bandoleers of beer, life finds a way. On the gaming front Trees has upgraded his DLC in Car Mechanic Simlator, explored Billions Road further, and continues to grind Minecraft Dungeons with his son. This transitions to a dual discussion on Maneater, which Fred has also started this week. Fred also wraps up Cold War, enjoys some retro on the MiSTer, and has a serious fit over the Panzer Dragoon franchise, particularly Orta. It all wraps with some quick words on Sackboy’s Big Adventure and the addicting but also slow moving nature of Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Video Game Purists Ep. 73: MOA Burger
This week has been pretty boring for both our hosts, but there’s still chat about life, shopping, and entertainment. On the gaming front Trees continues his addiction to Car Mechanic Simulator, which is spreading. He also got back into Darkest Dungeon and tried the Xbox version of Tetris Effect Connected. Fred has been playing It Takes Two with his daughter, went retro with Panzer Dragoon, and burned through most of Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PS5. He also played a chunk of Ninja Blade by From Software, but the story is more than it initially seemed.
Jam’s Collecting Story
The great thing about video game collecting is there are all sorts of collectors with different goals and different reasons for getting into the hobby. If your new to the hobby this article is a introduction into my own personal story in collecting.
I have been playing games since the UK’s micro computer boom period but I didn’t start purchasing games myself till I owned a Sega Mega Drive. That is how I managed to build my first collection. I brought games and just never really sold them. I was always just kinda nostalgic for the system even before it got old. I was still playing on the system long into the original Playstation‘s life cycle. Being a generation behind is a pattern that remains today. Up to this point I was by no means a hardcore collector I pretty much just brought games I wanted to play and didn’t mind if they were cart only. When it came to the PS2 era I started delving into selling games. If you collect games you will probably be familiar with this tale, I sold my entire Dreamcast collection just to get a PS2. This was decision I still regret to this day as I haven’t been able to salvage some of the games I sold on. I would continue to trade games well into the PS2 life cycle I infamously brought the Onimusha series and sold it on twice. I now own a copy of the complete collection which I will not sell due to the likely pattern I’ll miss the game and want to play it again. When I went to University I did not care for collecting any more which was a little silly of me as it meant my brother could do as he pleased with my Mega Drive collection. During this five year vacation from gaming I lost some treasures like Sunset Riders and one of my all time favourites Rocket Knight Adventures. I also lost my entire N64 collection which included several cart only games and the expansion bay. I had left it at home so it meant anyone could have at it. Of course at the time I didn’t care but to this day I am yet to find a reasonably priced Sunset Riders on Mega Drive and replace many of the N64 carts I had collected.
Day 6
On the sixth day of Christmas my memories gave to me…
Six Launch Games!
It’s almost sad how poor Sega handled the Saturn launch in America. Without delving too deep into the history of it, the console was supposed to release Saturday, September 2, 1995 – dubbed “Saturnday” by the various marketing items that hit toy and gaming stores in the Spring. At E3 that summer, they announced in their press conference that Saturn would be releasing the same day, Thursday, May 11, instead. Select retailers were let in on the event, but the many who weren’t, including my choice gaming store K.B. Toys, were so hurt they refused to carry the Saturn. As usual none of us regular kids who dropped by the mall were let in on the elaborate fights and decisions being made behind the scenes, so it wasn’t until I walked into a Toys R Us and saw it on shelves that I even noticed it was out. I was a Sega fan through and through back then, my devotion going so far as to keep me saving up paychecks from my crappy part-time job and even some Christmas money from a returned 32x. Since Sega was the only developer that knew the Saturn was releasing early, it was only Sega games available at launch.
I purchased the console near the end of the summer for a whopping $400, my mother begging me not to waste my job earnings on it (I did save half my earnings for college, mind you). Saturn came bundled with Virtua Fighter and 5 other Sega properties joined it to be the six launch titles: Daytona USA, Clockwork Knight, Panzer Dragoon, Worldwide Soccer and Pebble Beach Golf Links. As a typical teenage gamer I couldn’t have cared less for the sports titles, leaving only three true titles available at launch. It didn’t matter anyway because all the money I had spent on the console, which didn’t even leave enough for a second controller to fight people in Virtua Fighter, left me broke all the way up to Christmas. By then there were supposed to be tons of launch titles from other 3rd party developers, Tomb Raider and X-Men: Children of the Atom were hyped, but the stores told a different tale. Since I only trusted games I knew for the console I asked for Daytona USA and Virtua Cop because I hadn’t had time to read reviews or see anything else I liked. Tomb Raider was supposed to be cool but full 3D titles still intimidated me and re-releases of FMV titles I already owned like Double Switch or Corpse Killer: Graveyard Edition couldn’t sell me.
For all intents and purposes, the list of launch titles I so very much desired just weren’t there. I read in an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly that there were some amazing Japanese Saturn titles, both launch and third-party, but almost none of them were coming stateside anytime soon. Later on it would turn out that none of them were coming, and to import required both hardware modification and the high expense to get these games stateside. Although Sega kept assuring us Saturn gamers that we would eventually be seeing non-launch Sega titles, the retail stores told a different story, especially for my Christmas shopping parents. Not only that, but I had to make the switch to Babbage’s for my video games since K.B. Toys refused to carry Saturn games.
Gaming History 101 