Christmas! …in September?

I cringed a little when I walked into our local Value Village last week and it was full of Halloween decor and costumes.  I’m barely able to accept the idea that summer is leaving us soon and The World is already thrusting holiday commercialism in my direction.  Well, I am guilty of doing one worse than that: I started my Christmas shopping in September.  I’m usually in the mall on Christmas Eve with no idea what to get anyone.  This is a real change for me.

I have a friend who for the past few years has been obsessed with playing Tetris for NES.  It’s one of the games that I’ve never added to my collection because I have it for Game Boy, and on the Game Boy Player it’s pretty much the same thing as the NES version.  I thought at first that my friend might have wanted the Tengen Tetris because he’s a big classical music buff, but he just desperately wanted to play the game.  He asked if I could keep my eyes peeled for a cheap NES with a few games and I swore I would do so.

The ad I was looking for appeared the other day.  It was for an NES with six games, two controllers, and some hookups.  I happily replied to the email and got a quick response from the seller, but my heart quickly sank when I saw who had sent it.  It was from a guy named Sherman, one of the absolute worst sellers I’ve ever dealt with.  He’s the guy who will email you back and say you can have what he’s offering only to never contact you again when you try to make arrangements to actually meet up.  He is also the guy who will arrange to meet you, but not be home when you get there.  I think I must’ve had at least three flop encounters with the guy, and I was really upset to see his name pop up after replying to his ad.

I had offered him $100 for everything he was selling, and he countered with $120.  I agreed and was just waiting for him to let me know when he could meet.  After at least three pushes to reschedule from his end, we finally decided on yesterday morning.  My boyfriend and I went together to meet him, and I finally got to see this guy in the flesh.  He was everything I had built him up to be in my head, which was pretty much the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons.  Voice and all.  It was uncanny!  My boyfriend likened him to the Piggyback Bandit.  Anyway, he gave us the stuff and we gave him our wad of bills, and off he went.  Here is a photo of the NES stuff we picked up!

Thankfully, the two Tetris cartridges are working well.  We got Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3 to work on the first try after some cleaning, but that beat up Super Mario Bros. 1/Duck Hunt is not working at all.  Knowing how Sherman seems to work, I wouldn’t be surprised if I opened up the game and found a piece of bologna inside instead of a PCB.  It doesn’t really matter anyway since I have a few extra copies of that game that I can give to my friend for Christmas.  Unfortunately, the NES itself is questionably functional.  The guy told us when we went to pick it up that it works better if you don’t depress the game as you normally would.  He had apparently adjusted the pins for this, which isn’t too weird since my boyfriend did the same with his NES and his works great.  This NES is very, very finicky and is going to take some fiddling to get it working well.  It only seems to work if the cartridge is depressed beyond where it should be normally.  This will be a challenge, but we will work it out.

On top of the NES stuff, Sherman also had some SNES stuff in his lot of games he was selling.  I was excited about this because he had Mario Paint in really good condition with its manual, and the SNES mouse pad and mouse!  I’m planning to keep those for myself since my friend doesn’t own a SNES.  I’m doubling up on some games so that I can give them to some family down the line when they’ll appreciate it a little more.  I really adored playing Mario Paint as a kid.  Especially the fly game!  I was excited to see the fly game make a return in Super Mario Maker!

I think it’s going to be a wonderful gift.  Hopefully my friend appreciates that I had to face off with my nemesis to acquire these items!  Hopefully we can get that NES working in no time so that I can wrap the box and have one less thing to worry about in the December crunch.

If you have a long weekend this weekend, I hope you’re enjoying it.  Happy (almost) Labour Day!  If your weekend is just a regular non-holiday one, enjoy what’s left of Sunday!

-GG

Entertainer Blogger Award

I am so grateful to LilSamuelJones of Next Level Reviews, I Played the Game and Shelby Steiner of Falcon Reviews for nominating me for the Entertainer Blogger Award.  All three of these blogs are an absolute pleasure to read, so if you haven’t connected with these people, it’s definitely a worthwhile venture.

I’m glad that sharing my experiences is entertaining to you folks out there.  It really does mean a lot to me, so thank you all.  I was never nominated as “Most Entertaining” in high school, but maybe this is an indication that I should have been.  Just kidding.  Not really.

The Rules of The Entertainer Blogger Award:

• Write a post including the award picture.
• Nominate 12 other bloggers who are funny, inspiring, and most importantly ENTERTAINING!
• Add these rules to the post.
• Thank the person who nominated you and leave a link to their blog!

Also, answer the questions down below.

There were two sets of questions from the three nominations, so I’ve consolidated both lists into one.

Why did you start to blog in the first place ?

I’ve talked about this a little before in other posts, but I will say just briefly that this blog for me is a form of connectivity to other people with similar interests. I semi-recently moved away from friends and family, and apart from my boyfriend, there aren’t many people around my age in this city that share a love of video games.  Most people nod and smile at me when I talk about it.  The kicker for me was the best video game find we’ve made to date (for anyone interested, it was the topic of my first blog post that I ever made here.)  That whole experience had me bursting at the seams with excitement, but the people in my life that I shared it with were anything but excited.  Mostly people were concerned with the fact that I had spent over $100 on old games.  It honestly made me feel really alone in my joy.  That’s what prompted me to start writing this stuff down, even if just for myself at first.  I never knew so many people would find my quest to find and play old games so interesting (or entertaining for that matter!).  I’m happy to share these details of my life and see others hit with the same nostalgia and fuzzy feelings I experience when I find these things in the flesh.  I’m happy to spend my time collecting and exploring all that I missed and share the experience here with all of you.

Do you consider yourself a writer, and what inspires you to write? 

I don’t think I’d consider myself a writer.  I used to do lots of creative writing in my youth and lots of technical writing for school, but I’m generally a pretty clumsy writer when it comes to colloquial exchanges.  I try to keep this blog casual.  I wouldn’t say it’s my best work from a technical or professional standpoint, but rather a candid representation of how I communicate in real life.

My inspiration to write comes from being a chatty person that loves telling a good story.  The idea of being able to share parts of my life with people who care and are interested in what I’m doing and what I have to say about it is the fuel to my writing fire.

What is your favourite book and why does it speak to you?

Oh gosh… I hate to admit it, but I haven’t gotten around to reading many books as of late.  I blame university and graduate school for that.  It was really hard to justify reading things outside of my field for those seven years of my life.  When that all came to a close though, I tried catching up on popular fiction like The Hunger Games trilogy.  It was meh.  I used to adore reading horror and suspense novels, and for a very long time I would’ve said my favourite book was Misery by Stephen King.  I haven’t read it as an adult though, so I won’t say that one.  I do have a soft spot for some of the classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.  Anything I had to study in high school or university and gained a deeper understanding of I seem to enjoy more than casual reading.  Books normally speak to me when they’re relatable, and a lot of the classics tell a story of someone rising up against all odds or coming of age.  I’ve done a lot of personal growth the last few years, so those books definitely strike a chord with me.

What genre of film entertains you the most?

I should put this out there: I am not a big modern movie fan.  I have yet to find more than a handful of movies that resonate with me and really draw me in.  Am I allowed to say that movies made before 1990 are my favourite “genre”?  I guess not, but what I’m finding is that I really don’t enjoy many modern day movies in the slightest.  I hate how forced a lot of today’s movies feel.  It’s really hard to describe, but there’s something that leaves me feeling disconnected.  As a result, I’ve  been watching lots of pre-90s action/adventure/science fiction movies and am loving them.  I’m falling hard for movies like Alien, The Terminator, Star Wars, etc. I also love cartoons, and many animated films tend to hang out at the top of my list.

What is your favourite song and why does it speak to you?

Well, it’s hard to put my finger on a particular song.  I really love The Offspring, and one of their songs that is one of my favourites is Gone Away.  It has always captured the grief I’ve felt through many losses and changes in my life.

What is your favourite photograph and why does it speak to you?

I’m not really much of a visual art fan, but I do love photos of trees and birds.  A good tree photograph or painting is what I’d love to hang on every inch of wall space in my house.  Particularly oaks or maples.

What do you dislike the most?

Feeling alone in life is just the worst.  Don’t get me wrong – my relationship with my boyfriend is great.  I also have very supportive friends and family, but they’re just not in the same physical area as me.  I moved to a new city in my late 20s, and I’ve had a really hard time connecting with new people on a personal level.  Most friends I have here I know only because we work together, and many of them are at least 5-10 years older than me with very little in common with me or my boyfriend (this stretches far beyond their lack of interest in video games… their interests are all things I find boring and stuffy.)  I find it so tiring to have to feign interest in other people that I barely know.  There are some okay moments, but I really miss my hometown and having close friends and family nearby.

What is your favourite food item from the mall?

Definitely Italian food.  There is a great chain called Mrs. Vanelli’s that is dotted all over Canada that I always go to when I’m travelling.  The calzone and salad combo is my absolute favourite.  If you ever go and you don’t see any in their display, ask!  They take 7 minutes, but are they ever worth it!

What are your favourite pastimes?

Apart from my obvious love of retro game hunting and playing games, I’m honestly a pretty boring person and don’t have many pastimes.  In the summer months, I try to get out biking or hiking.  I like streaming gameplay on Twitch as well.  The winters where I live are long and miserable, but I’m trying to get into cross-country skiing.  I just hate being outside in winter.

Why did you choose your particular WordPress username?

I just talked about this recently in my post about finishing up my Zelda collection, but Hungry Goriya comes from the 7th labyrinth of The Legend of Zelda for NES.  The Hungry Goriya is an obstacle that you can only get past when you give him a meat stick.  When you walk into the room, he says “grumble, grumble”.  I always thought that his grumbling was indicative of his mood, but it turns out that it’s his stomach grumbling away!  When I used to play through the game, I had no idea what to do at that part.  I tried random things until a meat stick that you could buy at a shop caused him to blink and disappear.  That’s why my avatar is a meat stick…

Here are some nominations for the award.  I will half-heartedly apologize if anyone has previously been nominated.  I’d like to recognize the good work you folks do, but obviously don’t feel obligated to complete the task.

1. AHintofEverything at GamingGirlAndLife
2. Matt at NintendoBound
3. lightningnightnova at Conquering the Gaming Backlog
4. Gaming Picks
5. Mr. Teatime of Critical Teatime
6. Mr. Panda at Mr Pandas Video Game Reviews
7. Retr0pia
8. Van Rockingham of Games Revisited
9. Red Metal of Extra Life Independent Game Reviews
10. veryverygaming
11. Kuribo of NintendoFigures.com
12. benez256 of IHeartOldGames

Once again, thank you to my three nominators: LilSamuelJones of Next Level Reviews, I Played the Game and Shelby Steiner of Falcon Reviews.

I’ve really been enjoying learning a lot about new blogs and the people that write them in these posts.  Thank you to everyone reading, as always!

-GG

Acknowledging Regrets: Pokemon Snap

Last I left you all, I had been going on about how there was a copy of Pokemon Snap in the glass case at Value Village for $20.  I had lamented about its cost and swore that I’d never buy it for that price.  I (for some unknown reason) thought it was a game where you could upload Pokemon from an earlier game and take photos of them in 3D.  Um, what?  I know, right?  After learning about what the game is actually about, I have been trying to think of where I got that notion from because there is not a game like that that exists as far as I know (please correct me if I’m wrong.)  I’ve given my head a shake and have since watched several reviews of Pokemon Snap.  I have to say that I’m a little enamoured with the game’s premise.

I don’t know that I’d call myself a huge Pokemon fan because I didn’t grow up on the Pokemon bandwagon with everyone else.  In fact, I didn’t have a Game Boy until the early 2000s but I sometimes managed to catch the cartoon on television.  I bought my first Pokemon game last year and have been casually collecting the main series games ever since while trying to figure out which titles are remakes and which are original releases (to me, it’s almost as confusing to me as the Final Fantasy game naming fiasco.)  I don’t have the nostalgia factor tied in with my enjoyment of the series, but as a new(ish) player, I adore many aspects of the main series’ titles.  Off the beaten path is Pokemon Snap, a game that’s so unique that it hardly appears to be a game at all to some.  Taking photos of Pokemon on a rail system might seem too contrived for many gamers, but there’s just something about getting that perfect shot of a Pokemon I barely know the name of that’ll garner the approval of that Professor that draws me in and keeps me there.

The long story short is that I did buy it the game.  I had a 10% off coupon, so I saved most of my taxes on the purchase *grumble grumble*.  Here’s a shot of the cartridge I purchased, and the weird vandalism that someone unleashed upon poor Pikachu:

I am not at all artistically inclined, but I’m sure I can manage to muster up two black circles to replace his eyes.  Poor little guy.  I don’t know why anyone would do that to Pikachu of all characters!

Any time I leave a game behind and have regrets this badly, it’s something I need to deal with.  Am I ever happy I picked this one up!  I played through quite a bit of the game last night and it’s taking everything I have to not run upstairs, turn on the game and take a photo of my in-game photo of two Vulpixes smiling with their heads together while chasing an apple.  I figure I’ll spare you for now.  Maybe I’ll post it to Twitter the next time I’m over that way.

As a brief aside, I wanted to mention that I finally won an eBay auction for a game I’ve been wanting for a long while.  I can’t really remember the last time I wasn’t sniped in the final moments of an auction.  I won’t spoil what I’ve ordered, but I will say that I’ve managed to save some cash on a game that was far too expensive at the most recent swap.  It shipped well after most post offices close and might get stuck in the mail if Canada Post goes on strike, but please keep your fingers crossed for it to make it here in a timely fashion!

In the meantime, it’s time for me to sneak off to bed.  Thanks for reading, as always!

-GG

Answering Ads: Pokemon Gold and Crystal

I scour classifieds ads daily since good things tend to come out of the woodwork on a regular basis, especially when approaching the weekend.  Last night, a person had put up about 15 ads for boxed Game Boy Colour games, and many were complete with their manuals.  There were also ads for a GBC and carrying case and a game case (binder style). Some of the prices were too high for my tastes, and most of the games I had no desire to own.  Two of the games were ones I wanted and were conveniently complete with all their goodies: Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Crystal.  Remarkably, the seller was only asking for $40 for each game, and I definitely needed to try to get those at that price!

You all know just how much Pokemon has exploded recently.  Along with tugging on the nostalgia of people my age, Pokemon Go has now extended that franchise to a new generation of people as well.  Over the last few years, I have been casually collecting loose copies of the Pokemon games as I’ve come across them, but the price of those has gone through the roof with the release of Pokemon Go.  Cartridges that used to be $20 have doubled in price, and the “special edition” games of each of the earlier generations (especially generations 1 and 2) have tripled or quadrulpled, especially when they’re boxed with their manuals.  A boxed copy of Pokemon Silver that I picked up earlier in the year was $40 before Pokemon Go was even a sparkle in someone’s eye, and now that game is close to $100 on eBay.  Seeing these two games – especially Crystal here for $40 – got my heart all aflutter.

I replied to the seller and it took her a few hours to get back to me.  I was convinced I had lost out on the opportunity, but she finally replied around 8:30 p.m. and said that I could have them.  Apparently she had gotten a lot of lowballers and was impressed that I had actually agreed to her asking price.  I hate undercutting people if their price is reasonable.  Considering the average price for Pokemon Crystal complete online right now is $200 CAD, I think asking for $40 was totally acceptable!  It was a steal, really.

We went to pick them up before the deal could fall apart somehow, and I’m happy to say that I own all three generation 2 Pokemon games!

You can tell from the photo that to boxes for Crystal and Gold are a little rough around the edges.  They are by no means falling apart, but they were well-loved.  Thankfully, the game labels and manuals are in great shape.  The only major issue I’ve run into with this purchase is that the Gold cartridge doesn’t save.  That’s a risk you always take without testing before you buy, but thankfully Crystal does save without issue.  I think game batteries can be changed out pretty easily, but that brings us back to a consistent issue in our lives: we don’t have a soldering iron!  I haven’t opened up this kind of Game Boy Colour cartridge but I imagine the battery would be soldered into place like the one I observed when we opened up Oracle of Ages not long ago.  Battery replacement might have to wait until we can get our hands on a proper soldering station, but I’m in no rush to run out and buy that just yet.

In more Pokemon news, today I saw a copy of Pokemon Snap hanging around at the thrift store but decided to pass.  Like much of the other Pokemon merchandise I’ve seen around, it felt overpriced to me at $20.  From what I know, it’s a fancy 3D photo-taking game.  I can take pictures of my TV with my phone if I want Pokemon pictures badly enough!  I might have regrets if the game goes up in price 1000%, but I have no regrets for the moment.

In even more Pokemon news, I visited a big city recently and just happened to get onto a new billing cycle for my cell phone the day I left.  That means that my whopping 100 MB of data was available to hunt Pokemon outside of my house for once, and so I did.  I caught Koffing and Shellder for the first time and completely replenished my supply of Pokeballs at the bajillion available Pokestops (what a difference a city makes!).  I’m pretty far behind most people at this point at a sorry level 8, but I catch the same horrible Pokemon every day in my yard.  Unlimited Pidgeys and Rattatas for me!

Thank you very much for reading.  For those of you playing Pokemon Go, I hope your adventures are still feeling fresh and exciting!

-GG

The Game Collection: The Legend of Zelda

Look at this stuff, isn’t it neat? Wouldn’t you think my collection’s complete?  Wouldn’t you think I’m a girl, a girl who has… all the Zeldas?  You’d be right.

Although this blog is dedicated to hunting for retro games and collecting them, I also want to occasionally share some of the different collections I’m working on and end up completing along the way.  As of a few days ago, I have managed to collect all of the games in The Legend of Zelda franchise up to but not including the 3DS installments.  I don’t currently own a 3DS, and truthfully I am waiting to see if they come up with something that’ll allow DS/3DS games to be played on a big screen like they did with the Super Game Boy and the Game Boy Player.  I live for stuff like that, and with the NX rumoured to be a cartridge-based console, maybe, just maybe, my wish will come true.

I want to take a moment to speak to this collection and how it got started.  I was inadvertently put on the path to collecting these games when I was handed the first Zelda game in the early 1990s as a very young girl.  With my trusty Game Genie jammed into the shiny gold cartridge, I played the game constantly alongside other NES classics like the Super Mario Bros. games, Adventure Island II, Faxanadu and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Video Game Adventure to name a few.  Unfortunately my copy of the game doesn’t save, and I found myself leaving my NES on for hours on end.  Another consistent problem I ran into was that every time I’d pick up the Master Sword while playing with the Game Genie, my game would freeze like clockwork.  I’m going to be completely honest here and admit that I have never actually beaten the game without the Game Genie.  My days of cheating are over though, I swear!  I have a second copy of the game that saves, so I now have a chance of being able to get through it without having to start from scratch each time.

Below is a photo of my childhood copy of the game. It’s the Canadian version, but as far as I know, there’s nothing particularly special about that version compared to releases in other countries.  In the manual, some of the enemy names are spelled wrong.  I went my entire life calling Zoras (the lake monsters that shoot red fireballs at you) Zolas instead because of how it was spelled in the manual!  This is similar to how I always called Birdo enemies Ostro because of the mistake in the ending credits of Super Mario Bros. 2, but I digress.

Before the times of the internet and all its helpful hints and walkthroughs, I explored this game endlessly without any guidance.  I wasn’t subscribed to Nintendo Power, so the game’s map fell victim to a small girl that needed to document and record all small details in the game.  Its truly a mess: it’s ripped, taped back together in spots, and I’ve written all over it on the front and back.  I’ve even filled in all the labyrinth maps on the back in the designated spots.  My maps come complete with bomb-able walls and where to find all the goodies!  The collector in me would shudder at finding a copy of a map in this condition, but because it’s a snapshot of the Nintendo-loving kid I was growing up, I am very proud of it!

As a quick aside, if you haven’t picked up on it at all yet, my blog name hungrygoriya comes from this game as well.  In the 7th labyrinth, you run into a literal hungry Goriya that you need to feed to get past him.  You feed him a meat stick, which is my blog’s avatar… you can see where this is going!  As a kid, I got stuck here for the longest time.  When I realized that Grumble Grumble referred to this Goriya’s stomach rather than his mood, my mind was blown.

Images are borrowed from http://www.zeldadungeon.net

After falling completely in love with the first Zelda game and playing it to death my entire childhood, I finally expanded my Zelda collection when my mom bought a Game Boy off of a neighbour and Link’s Awakening came with it. Link’s Awakening quickly became and still is my favourite Zelda game, though I got completely and utterly stumped in Eagle Tower in my early teens.  I put the game down for years but eventually picked it back up again and beat it for the first time very recently.  It was truly a wonderful gaming experience with excellent graphics (I love sprites!), its music, and its interesting story that is truly unique among all the Zelda games.  I have adored listening to orchestrations of the soundtrack from Link’s Awakening, and one composer in particular I’ve come to really enjoy listening to is The Second Narrator.  He has orchestrated the entire Link’s Awakening OST and is definitely worth checking out sometime.

I could go on and on about how I came to own each of the games with photos and all the rest, but I will spare you the details here unless someone is extremely interested, of course – I am happy to do a follow-up post showing the games and their condition and completeness.  For this post, I simply wanted to share a little about how this all got started for me at a very young age and how I grew to love the series.  I am so grateful for having had the opportunity for the Zelda franchise to be a springboard into my lifetime journey of gaming and game collecting.  Now that my collecting for the main series is done, it’s just a matter of finding the time to sit down and play them all!  I’ve managed to get through Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword in recent years, but the other games have been mostly untouched.  I’ve got a lot of fun ahead of me!

Don’t think you’ll never see another Zelda post, though.  I still have peripherals and manuals/guides to track down, as well as some re-releases and adaptations like The Ocarina of Time Master Quest.  A collector’s collecting is never done.

Thank you so much for reading and being on this journey with me.

-GG

The Bountiful Retro Game Harvest: Game Swap Day

Game exchanges/swaps are hands-down my favourite thing to do on a weekend.  Where I live they roll out every few months in cities that are at least a few hours away, so it takes a little bit of planning to make them happen on a regular basis.  Thankfully, we managed to get to one yesterday and it was absolutely glorious.

My boyfriend has been looking for a Sega CD for a very long time.  He has had a few different opportunities to pick one up in town, but they’ve either been absolutely filthy/poorly taken care of, extremely expensive, or the person selling didn’t end up following through with the deal.  Today though, we found one in excellent shape that came along with a model 2 Genesis and almost all the hookups.  It was missing the second boxy power adaptor required for either the genesis or the Sega CD portion.  You’re reading that right.  Even though the console and the Sega CD add-on physically connect to one another, each part needs its own source of power.  That means two giant adaptors to plug into the wall!  Thankfully we have extra Sega stuff at home!  We’ve had bad luck tracking down extra cables at swaps in the past.  The Sega CD, model 2 Genesis console, two controllers (one is just the worst…) and all the hookups came to us for a decent price of $80.  The photo below shows the setup with our model 1 Genesis, which has better sound and picture quality compared to the later releases of the console.

My boyfriend also picked up one Sega CD game: Jurassic Park. We learned that burned games will also work in the Sega CD, so that’s an added plus.  I’m sure we’d both go broke trying to collect the well-loved and worthwhile games for that system.

I didn’t personally pick up any consoles today, but I did luck out tremendously in the games department.  There was one vendor that had several bins of $5 NES games, and we found two in there that felt worthwhile to pick up: Solstice, and Amagon.  Solstice is a game I’ve dabbled in before and enjoyed, while Amagon was my boyfriend’s pick.  Given their level of difficulty in puzzle solving and gameplay mechanics, they’ll be a nice play for a rainy day.  Many of the games in the $5 bins had their original prices on them, and the guy had about 15 copies of Top Gun priced at $12.95 each!  No wonder they weren’t selling!  On the NES front, I also managed to find the manual for StarTropics for $3.  I picked the game up at the last swap.  I’m a bit of a manual junkie.  If I can find them for games I own, I normally get them.

 

There was a really kind vendor who seemed a little desperate to part with some of his PS2 RPGs today.  He had Chrono Cross, Legend of Dragoon and Final Fantasy VII, but they’re ones I already own.  He did have two that I didn’t already have: Vagrant Story and Wild Arms 2.  I shied away from them initially because the inserts and booklets weren’t in very good condition, and disc one of Wild Arms 2 was in questionable shape.  He had them both priced for a pretty significant deal, so after some convincing on his part, I couldn’t turn them down.  It worked out to about $15 for each game.  Vagrant story is complete with a torn insert and missing front/back page of the English manual, while Wild Arms 2 comes with an incomplete insert and no manual.  I have no regrets!

Very excitingly, I’ve finally finished my Zelda collection.  I don’t own a 3DS or care to at this point in time, so when I say my collection’s complete, I mean main entries in the series that don’t include A Link Between Worlds or Triforce Heroes.  The last game I needed to find was for the GameCube, and it was The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.  The vendor had it priced for $55, but with a little discussion and appealing to his kind side, he dropped it down to $40 for me.  The disc is in okay shape with a few little surface scratches, but overall the case and manual are in excellent shape.  It even came with its Nintendo Power subscription insert, which is always fun to read!

I have never looked to Sega for RPG titles but I’ve heard great things about the Phantasy Star series.  I once had an online stranger offer me all four of the Phantasy Star games for $45 US.  My Common Sense got in a big fight with Dangerous Internet Temptation that day, let me tell you.  A part of me desperately wanted to say, “Sure, random man.  Here is my address.  Feel free to send me games and I will send you a money transfer with all my personal banking information.”  Buuuut at the end of the day, I was completely uncomfortable with that arrangement and have been looking for the games ever since to fill that void in my soul.  I have Phantasy Star for the Wii Virtual Console, but I have yet to play it because I’m holding out for when I have all of them.  Today, I conveniently ran into a smokin’ deal for Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom.  The vendor wanted $30 for the game, case and its manual.  They’re all in amazing shape, and though he wouldn’t move from his price at all, I caved and picked it up.  I can’t win them all, and I still think that $30 for it in that condition is a wonderful price.

As you know, I’m always hunting for SNES RPGs.  I’ve amassed quite a few in the last couple of months, but there are some that I still want to pick up.  Today at the swap, I saw some overpriced Act Raiser carts as well as overpriced Soul Blazer.  I didn’t end up getting either of those at $50 and $100, respectively.  They’re that much online, and I could’ve saved a tank of gas and sat at home and waited for them instead of having to deal with other humans if I wanted to pay that price.  The One That  Got Away today was a $40 Secret of Evermore cartridge.  I would’ve asked the guy to go down from $40, but by the time I saw that everyone else’s prices were higher than his, his copy had sold.  Oh well.

Do not despair though… I did strike gold today in the SNES department.  I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about my love of Faxanadu for NES, but I’ve always been searching for games that are similar to it in gameplay and style.  It’s a sidescrolling action RPG for those of you that are unfamiliar with it, and it has a rockin’ soundtrack to boot!  Many people say that Zelda 2 is similar, but it’s just not the same: Faxanadu has magic spell acquisitions, but it also deals with armour and weapon upgrades as well as a numeric levelling system.  Did I mention the soundtrack?  It’s one of my favourites.  At the swap, I found Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, a game that came up in my research about games that are similar to Faxanadu.  It was in good condition and priced at $25.  When I asked the vendor if he’d take $20, he looked at the label and contacts and said, “I’m sorry, this game is very clean.  The lowest I can go is $23.”  I had never had game cleanliness come into play as a factor in a purchase, so some hilarious banter ensued.  I ended up taking it.  I’m sure it’ll be a great game!

Last but certainly not least, I want to talk about my favourite acquisition of the day.  I have been playing E.V.O. Search for Eden for about a week now using the modded Xbox’s emulation capabilities and I’ve absolutely fallen in love with this charming little game.  Because it’s never seen a re-release and the fact that it’s a bit rare has forced an exceptionally steep price on the game.  The cartridge alone goes for $300 Canadian online, and a complete version probably goes for close to $1000.  Not wanting to ever spend that much money on a single cartridge or boxed game, I opted for Trade Bait: doubles and triples of some games that I could use against the cost of a high-priced game.  I brought in two mediocre copies of Mario Kart 64 (one had the dog teeth marks all over the plastic and the other had a faded label from chemical applications), two decent grey cartridge copies of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (I have the gold one and could bear to part with them), as well as a copy of Paper Mario for the N64.

I saw three copies of E.V.O. at the swap.  Two were each priced at $320 and $350 while the third was priced at $300.  There was a fourth boxed copy for $500, but the box was in wretched shape and the vendor gave me the willies: think skittish guy with dead eyes that talks too fast and might be literally on cocaine.  The vendor with the $300 game was the same one from the last swap that had had a copy of E.V.O. for $280 because of “shifts in the market”.  I remembered this and asked him if he’d be willing to drop the price to $280 right away, but he asked me to come back in an hour to see if it had sold yet (I knew it wouldn’t).  After an hour passed, our negotiations began.  Surprisingly, even though the Trade Bait Mario Kart 64 cartridges were sub-par, he gave me $35 x 2 for them.  I was expecting $20 each, so that was a nice surprise!  He offered me $30 x 2 for the two copies of Ocarina of Time which is what I expected, and another $35 for Paper Mario.  I felt a little cheated on the Paper Mario since I had spent $50 on it, but I was sitting pretty overall.  That brought me up to $165 in trades, and I asked if he’d take an even $100 for the remaining cost.  He said yes!  I feel like I got a really nice condition E.V.O. cartridge for $100, though really it was that plus the cost of the games I traded in.  I definitely didn’t pay $165 for all of them, so I did get a bit of a discount in the end.  I am extremely happy with the purchase!

Now do you see why this swap was glorious?  The next one is in a few months, so I’ll have a chance to get a proper list together by then.  Maybe I don’t need to spend so much time preparing after all!

Thanks for reading!

-GG

Award Nominations: Liebster Award and Blogger Recognition Award

There is nothing quite like reading your blog’s name as a nominee in a great author’s award post.  I am flattered to have been nominated twice recently for the Liebster award by benez256 of I Heart Old Games and Mr. Teatime of Critical Teatime, as well as for the Blogger Recognition Award by Mr. Panda of Mr. Panda’s Video Game Reviews!

The Liebster Award

I Heart Old Games is one of the first blogs I came across after joining this site and I was thrilled to find it.  The reviews there are insightful and numerous, so there’s a little something for everyone.  The entries on Critical Teatime combine two of my personal favourite things: tea and gaming.  As a bit of a side note, with this having been one of the hottest summers on record, I’m addicted to making and drinking copious amounts of iced tea these days.  I also have at least one cup of hot tea day to help me get through the cold Canadian winters here.  The author of Critical Teatime also creates excellent content, reviewing all types and kinds of games with a fresh perspective.  Thank you both for thinking of my blog and putting it out there for others to find.  I’m very grateful!

The Liebster award demands that I respond to questions posed by those that have nominated me.  I will start with the questions from I Heart Old Games since I was nominated there first.

1. Question out of the blue: 3*2+6(5*7)/4=?
   The answer is 58.5.  The BEDMAS rules are strong with this one.
2. PC or Consolle? Why?
   I will admit starting out gaming on PC, but over the years I’ve gravitated toward console gaming more and more.  Truthfully, we had an awful family PC growing up which was a pain when trying to run games like Curse of Monkey Island and King’s Quest VI, so I depended on my more reliable consoles to get me my gaming fix.  My boyfriend built me a PC last Christmas, so I finally have a PC that’ll run modern games.  Hooray!
3. What is the last game you played?
   The last game I played was Neo Turf Masters.  I’m a little addicted.  Other than that, I’ve been playing through Earthbound for the first time.
4. Coca-Cola or Pepsi-Cola
   I’m definitely a Pepsi fan.  I find Coke too sweet.
5. Which is you favourte video games character?
   Vivi from FFIX.  I always found him to be incredibly relatable and deep.  He also emanates a lot of my inner fears outwardly, so I felt a connection with him.
6. Which is the brand name of your smartphone?
   I have a Samsung Galaxy.
7. In which historical age would you like to live? Maybe only for a couple of days…
   I think I’d like to live in a time period with good hygiene.  Nothing grosses me out more than looking at old paintings and photographs of people from the past few centuries and thinking about how they rarely bathed.
8. I reeeeally love sauces, dips and dressings. What is your favourite?
   Ohhhhh this one is a hard one.  I’m a huge fan of these things as well, but I have to say that there’s definitely a place in my heart for olive tapenade.  The first time I made it was with green/kalamata olives, feta cheese and some capers for good measure.  My heart really wants to say a seven-layer dip so that I don’t have to choose just one, though.
9. Which X-Men you think you could be?
   I think Beast.  I’m a huge fan of the sciences and really admire people that contribute to the field on a regular basis.
10. Favourite song of the Eighties?
    I don’t know that I could narrow it down!  I will have to be a bit broad here and choose 80s ballads.  Some of my fondest memories of 80s music comes from (don’t laugh!) a Chipmunks and Chipettes album called Born to Rock from my childhood.  Always on My Mind was one of my favourites (I am currently rediscovering that version as I write)!
11. Where you will spend your next holidays?
    I’m really interested in travelling within Canada.  There’s so, so much to see here, and I feel like I’ve barely seen any of it.  I’m hoping to get out to the Maritimes at some time in the near future.

And now the questions from Mr. Teatime!  I take up your call as a combatant!

1. What game melts your cold critic heart? Meaning a game you know is flawed and has issues, but you cannot dislike it and will defend it until the end of time.
   The Lion King for the Sega Genesis.  People seem to have a strong hatred for this game because of its controls and perceived difficulty.  I feel that with practice, any game can be mastered.  I’ve had this one since youth and loved the movie/soundtrack, so the game was a natural extension for me.  I didn’t see or feel the flaws until I read other people’s thoughts about them.  I can get through the game even now without much trouble.  I honestly don’t know what all the fuss is about!
2. What was, in your opinion, the greatest invention in the video game market? This can be hardware, mechanics, and engines, anything that revolutionized gaming for you.
   Definitely the Game Boy Player/Super Game Boy.  I love the idea of compatibility between consoles, and especially love the option of putting handheld games onto a big screen.  As I get older, I can’t handle staring down at my lap for hours on end and much prefer being relaxed on my couch staring at a television or monitor.  I actually owned a Game Boy Player before I owned a GameCube!  That’s how excited I was when I found out about it!
3. What game was your first addiction? Not just a game you would play, but a game that stuck with you and you could not wait to get back to, and you put hours upon hours into it.
   The first game I got completely immersed in was Final Fantasy X.  For my 16th birthday, I got a PS2 and FFX.  It was my first RPG experience.  After hearing the intro music and getting sucked into the story and the gameplay, I was hooked.  I put over 100 hours into that game, maxed out everything I could, and did my best to complete the entire game without a guide or consulting online (with the exception of the ultimate weapons, of course.)  I still put it back on sometimes and beat the final boss just to cry at that ending again.  Sigh.
4. Did a game ever punch you in the guts (metaphorically of course, although I’d love to hear any literal cases)? Meaning a moment (can also be an ending) that made you feel sick/bad/sad/lifeless.
   The character of Vivi from Final Fantasy IX was one that really resonated with me.  In his character, I saw a lot of my own personal fears about mortality and how we live our lives.  Because I connected strongly with Vivi, the ending of FFIX shoved me to the ground and kicked me in the stomach repeatedly (metaphorically, unfortunately… sorry Mr. Teatime… I wish I could give an example of a physical assault-by-game here, but alas…).  I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t played the game, but if you’ve finished it, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.  I couldn’t stop crying for an hour after I finished it.
5. What abstract concept needs a playable version to better understand it? Can we make people understand what depression is like by letting them play it, for instance?
   I think there’s a lot of well-intentioned possibilities here for general public education on topics like mental illnesses, but I feel that there are limitations in this because everyone experiences mental illness uniquely.  There might be some merit in playing through someone’s individual experience, though.  I’ve been seeing more and more videos online lately that try to depict what it’s like to have some form of physical/mental illness or limitation like being autistic, being visually impaired or suffering from anxiety, and they’re quite effective for an educational campaign.  It’d be nice to see that type of awareness-boosting being done using video games as a medium.
6. What was the best soundtrack-visual-gameplay combination moment in a game for you? A moment where music, gameplay, and visuals amplified each other to new heights.
   I’d have to say the final boss fight of Final Fantasy IV did this for me.  There is no song that gets me more pumped up than the one played during that final fight.  The cutscenes leading up to it are also very moving, and the way that the game forces you to really work to win is an excellent challenge for the end of an excellent game.
7. Which sequence would you have loved to play, but sadly it was only a cutscene? Keep in mind that the sequence should also be playable, theoretically at least, within the boundaries of the game.
   I was a little disappointed at lots of the quick time events in Final Fantasy IX.  I loved lots of the characters in that game and though lots of the QTEs kept me up to speed on what the peripheral characters were up to at times that they were separated from the main party, it would’ve been nice to get to take over various characters at certain points.
8. What was the best and worst line of dialogue in a video game for you? Can also be a piece of a conversation.
   This is a hard one to answer since I don’t really seem to retain quotes very well from any medium.  I’m constantly misquoting shows and movies.  I found a lot of the banter in Undertale to be very charming, especially some of the cell phone calls that you can have with different characters in the game.  I won’t spoil any more in case anyone hasn’t played it, but a lot of it is great at developing each character.  One of my favourite songs from a game that is technically a piece of conversation is “A Pirate I was Meant to Be” in The Curse of Monkey Island.  So funny!
   The worst dialogue in a video game would probably have to come from Parasite Eve.  I really didn’t enjoy the game as a whole, and the science in the game was just awful.  I couldn’t get into it at all.
9. A game you would force upon every person to finish, because it would change their life?
   Definitely Undertale.  I had some serious moments of reflection while playing various runs of the game, and it caused me to call a lot of things into question that I hadn’t previously contemplated.  It has definitely affected the way I look at certain aspects of video games.
10. Who is one of the best voice actors in video games for you, plus the performance that sold you on his/her talent?
    I really, really love Dominic Armato.  He does Guybrush Threepwood in the Monkey Island series, and his delivery is always spot on.  If they ever did a Monkey Island game without him, I wouldn’t play it.  It just wouldn’t be the same.  I suppose the performance that sold me on him was in Curse since that was the first Monkey Island game I played.  I fell in love with the humour.
11. Are video games art for you and why / why not?
    Video games are definitely art.  It doesn’t seem to matter what medium they’re on, they’re always beautiful to me (awwww!).  I know that oozes with cheese more than an exploded microwaved pizza pocket, but I do truly feel that way.  I’m not talented at all in the visual arts, so whether it’s 8-bit or high definition graphics, I’m always in awe of what people have created.  I especially have an appreciation for the music in games.  Game music is what gets stuck in my head the most often, and rightfully so!

I am being lazy tonight and have been trying to think up new questions for a while.  None are coming to me, so I will just be lazy and recycle the questions from my last nomination.  I don’t follow many blogs yet and don’t want to re-nominate anyone I nominated last time or below for the Blogger Recognition Award, so I will play it safe and mention three blogs here I’ve been spending a lot of time perusing these days.  You are now my nominees!

1. Kuribo of NintendoFigures.com – An excellent blog that focuses on video game figures.  I’ve actually been eyeballing Amiibo for the first time since starting to read this blog!
2. Peachybaws of Peachy Plays – A nice place for thoughts and insights into games, as well as some solid reviews.
3. Van Rockingham of Games Revisited – A recent follow on my part with a huge archive of reviews to check out.  I’m looking forward to it!

Here are your questions!

1. What fictional character have you related to most?
2. Do you think human life is possible on Mars?  Why or why not?
3. Do you keep indoor plants?  If so, what kind?
4. What’s your favourite campfire food?
5. What new or old animated television show was/is your favourite?
6. What’s the most exciting thing you’ve ever found at a flea market or thrift store?
7. What food dish do you consider to be your best work?
8. Do you have any interesting or funny stories about online gaming with strangers?
9. What’s the first console you personally bought new?
10. If you could acquire a skill with no effort, what would it be?
11. What is your favourite Arnold Schwarzenegger movie?

Obviously, as I mentioned previously, you should also check out my two Liebster Award nominators, Mr. Teatime and benez256 at Critical Teatime and I Heart Old Games, respectively.

Blogger Recognition Award

A huge thank you is due to here to Mr. Panda at Mr. Panda’s Video Game Reviews.  I don’t have enough words to express how genuinely insightful and interesting the content is on Mr. Panda’s blog.  I’ve never felt more welcome on an internet page than I do there.  I cannot thank him enough for his comments and support over the last few months as I’ve gotten my blog rolling.  For anyone that does not follow Mr. Panda’s site, it’s definitely worth a look-see!  You will not be disappointed!

Now for the rules of the award:

• Thank the blogger that nominated you.
• Attach the award to the post.
• Give a brief story of how your blog started.
• Give a piece of advice or two to new bloggers.
• Select 5 other bloggers you want to give the award to.

The Beginnings of hungrygoriya

I’ve only been at this blogging thing since April of this year.  It still all feels very new to me, and thankfully it hasn’t started to feel like work at all!  I think in part it’s the lovely community here that makes writing things down feel more purposeful than just keeping a journal of sorts for myself.  There were a few motivating factors for me when starting up the blog.  The first was something I think many people experience when they start getting older: isolation.  I moved away from my family and friends five years ago and started to feel very disconnected from many people that I had had lifelong friendships with.  The people I have gotten to know in this new city are all older than me, have families, and generally have very different priorities and hobbies than I do.  Other than my lovely boyfriend, much of my love and passion for video games and collecting them seemed to fall on deaf ears.  I was desperately looking to connect with other people that shared a love of video games and gaming.  I love reading reviews of games, but there seemed to be a gap on the topic of retro game hunting.  I love the thrill of finding games in the wild and really wanted to share that experience with others.  My first really amazing find was in April, and sure enough, that’s when the blog was born!

Advice for New Blogger Folks

I don’t know that I’m seasoned enough at this to be doling out advice, but I guess I have made a couple of observations in my short time on this site and in my years on the internet to share the following tidbits.

1. I would say that to have a good blog, you don’t need to update on a regimented schedule for people to like your content.  I have read/watched many different online personalities that pump out as much as they can, and sometimes it starts to feel tired.  Whether it’s videos or blog entries, having fewer quality pieces to me is far better than having many that are slapped together on short notice.  I can only update as often as I find something good enough to write about.  I sometimes feel like I should be posting more often, but I like filling that small niche and focusing on that.  If I wanted to review games, I’d likely start a second blog altogether!
2. Another thing I think is important is to stay focused.  For people wanting to make a living doing this, I think there’s a lot of expectation to constantly be reaching out to a new audience by expanding and diversifying the blog content.  It’s fine to diversify, but only if you want to and not because you feel you have to.  Growing as you write over time may see you go in a different direction than you’re going now, but that doesn’t mean that you have to be in any rush to get there.

Nominations for the Award

As much as I’d love to bounce back the nomination to Mr. Panda, I will try to follow the rules for this award and nominate new people!  Also, because I was being a bit of a pain about following the rules for the Liebster Award above, I will make a 6th nomination here!

1. Shelby Steiner of Falcon Reviews – This site is packed with great entries from opinions to critical reviews of games.
2. Mr. Teatime of Critical Teatime – Tea and games are my favourite things, and I’m sure you’ll love it over here as much as I do.
3. VeryVery Gaming – There are some very insightful thoughts on some excellent games on this particular blog that are a great read!
4. pine717 of The Maximum Utmost – This was the first blog I followed, and it has some of the best essay-style reviews I’ve ever read.
5. I Played the Game – There’s a sense of humour in the reviews and thoughts on this site that are right up my alley!
6. Astro Adam of Video Games Nebula – This is a blog not quite like any other I’ve chanced upon with a story-like approach to the world of gaming.

And there you all have it!  A nice long read to get to know me a little more, and for me to pass the love along to some other great blogs.  If you want to see all the blogs I follow though, there’s a growing list on my blog page.  Click away… you never know what you might stumble upon!

Again, thank you so, so very much to my nominators and to all of you that continue to read my thoughts and experiences while hunting for retro games.  It’s truly a pleasure sharing this hobby with all of you!

-GG

The Retro Gods Giveth – Kirby, Yoshi and The Simpsons

The N64 console is not something I grew up playing, so I don’t have a lot of nostalgic attachment to it or its games, but I know that the system did have some successful installments in big-name franchises that I’m familiar with like Zelda, Super Mario, Kirby, etc.  When I’m scouring shelves in thrift stores or hock shops, it’s those games that stand out to me the most.  Our N64 collection is quite small compared to what we have amassed for the other early Nintendo systems, but unlike a lot of collectors, we only collect games that we’ll actually want to play at some point.  I am not interested in owning entire libraries of games or “shelf pieces”.  I only want to own games that I’ll play.

Recently, I came across Yoshi’s Story and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards in a hock shop.  Given how much I like the earlier Kirby games and Yoshi’s Island for SNES, it was an easy decision to pick up both.  This was one of my first impulse buys in a while.  I normally research games in advance and at least know the approximate going rate for them online before jumping in.  There’s nothing that bugs me more than getting home and seeing that I got gouged on a price for a game.  For example, I’m still feeling bitter about trading too many games for my bad label copy of Earthbound.  At least in this case, although I’m pretty sure I overpaid a little (both cost me $40 and are filthy as sin, though it doesn’t show much in the photo), I was content with the purchase.  The guy I bought from is someone I normally haggle with, so once in a while I feel like I should try to throw him a bone and respect his pricing.  Here’s a photo of both games!

Today I got a nice tip from a friend that works at the thrift store telling me that there were some boxed NES games there.  We hurried over and saw four of them in the glass case.  One was some weird basketball game I had never heard of, and another was Skull & Crossbones.  The latter is a horrible action adventure game that focuses on some pirate folk.  I’ve watched a review on it before and it seemed ridiculously difficult, so we passed on both of those.  Of interest to me was a boxed copy of Kirby’s Adventure and a boxed copy of The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants.  The Kirby game didn’t come with its manual, but with the swap coming up soon, I feel confident I can find one there for $5.  The Simpsons game came complete with all its parts, which I was pretty happy about.  My childhood neighbour owned the game and I haven’t had a chance to play it in years.  I can’t wait to put on my x-ray specs and look for some aliens!  We got the Kirby game for $30, and the Simpsons game for $25.  Here’s a shot of our findings:

Both games are in absolutely excellent shape.  There is virtually no wear at all on each of the boxes, and the game labels are in pristine condition.  It’s really nice to find games that have been well taken care of!

I would love to play something tonight, but my boyfriend is obsessed with Neo Turf Masters!  I can’t seem to sneak in even for a brief moment to take over the Nerd Room for myself.  Hopefully I’ll at least be able to test these four beauties before putting them to rest on the shelves.

Have a lovely evening, and thanks for reading.

-GG

Dabbling in Emulation: Xbox Softmod

At Value Village the other day, my boyfriend and I were disappointed to find a whole bunch of extremely overpriced consoles in the glass case.  $99 for an NES?  $99 for a Wii with some virtual console games on it?  Give me a break!  We thankfully still have our beloved childhood consoles and have been able to find most of our recent console purchases at a fair price.  It’s pretty bad when a second hand store is priced higher than pawn and hock shops.  We couldn’t help but shake our heads on the way to the electronics area of the store.  There, we found a few untested retro consoles with no cords or controllers.  There was a Model 1 Sega Genesis with a questionably functional on/off switch, several PS1 consoles that looked like they had been stored in a pile of mud, and a GameCube that looked to be in top shape (we have four of them now, so I passed.)  On a nearby shelf, my boyfriend spotted an original Xbox that seemed to be in reasonably good condition.  He had been looking for one for the purpose of learning how to perform softmods.  For $5 untested, it was a reasonable gamble to take.

We stopped off at a hock shop on the way home to pick up a controller and AV cord (the Xbox power cord is shared with other console types that we already had so we didn’t need to buy a separate one for this.)  When we got home, we fired up the console and it seemed to work just fine.  The first problem arose when we went to open up the disc tray.  It was stuck!  It didn’t make any angry grinding noises, but it did click a lot and wouldn’t open up at all.  My boyfriend showed me that under almost every disc tray door that there is a slot that you can stick a straight piece of metal into (think open paperclip, open bobby pin) to override the door’s locking mechanism.  If your mind is as blown as mine was, see below for the slot’s location!  This exists on computers and most disc-taking electronics, so if you’re ever in a literal jam, now you know what to do!

To softmod the system, there are several different tactics that can be implemented.  My boyfriend decided to go with a hot swap of hard drives.  He had an extra one hanging around the house, and other methods would’ve required purchasing specific games or USB sticks to facilitate the mod.  The hardest part is “unlocking” the Xbox’s hard drive.  It’s locked to prevent piracy and other nefarious activities.  Unlocking can be done in a number of ways, but my boyfriend had the best luck by forcing the system into Error 12, which involves disconnecting the disc drive from the main system.  After following some very detailed walkthroughs online, he was able to install the most recent version of CoinOps onto the machine.  This version of CoinOps emulates over 4000 games across many different retro consoles!  What a treat to behold such majesty!  Here’s a shot of our professional video monitor displaying the CoinOps interface:

Truthfully, I think I’m addicted to playing the arcade version of Super Burger Time.  That music is so… whimsical?  I think that’s the best word I can muster to capture all my feelings about it.  There’s also something very satisfying in salting/peppering evil sentient foods to death.  We also played a round of Neo Turf Masters, a golf game that for me is reminiscent of a DOS game I played endlessly in my youth called World Class Leaderboard.  Neo Turf Masters is far more modernized with a very overt “narrator” and the best elevator music you’ll ever hear, but I do miss the simplicity of the DOS game.

The most convenient thing for me is the fact that this version of CoinOps comes with many of the SNES RPGs that I want to eventually pick up (Ys III, Soul Blazer, Breath of Fire II, E.V.O., etc.)  Now I can have a little preview of how the gameplay feels before sinking money and time into tracking down and getting to these games.  My want-list is getting smaller and smaller and some of the games are pretty expensive.  Having a controller-in-hand experience is becoming more and more of a priority to me before purchasing.  I don’t think I’d ever emulate an entire RPG using CoinOps, though.  I will always prefer legitimate copies of games on their original hardware, no matter how cheap of an option emulation is.  For playing arcade games though, that’s another story altogether.  I don’t imagine I’ll ever own a property large enough to have a proper arcade room with original machines, or be able to afford them!

I am glad to be learning so much about how things work inside of games and consoles.  In such a wasteful society, it’s nice to be able to rescue things that aren’t working properly and fix them up again rather than see them sit in a dump forever.  Most hardware from the early days of gaming was certainly built to last, and with a little love and effort, their functionality can be maintained.  Maybe electronic repair is my second calling, hmmm?  I seriously doubt it.  I will always mostly be a passive observer in awe of the people in my life that can breathe new life into things that have seemingly expired.

Happy hump day!  I hope the week is running smoothly and happily for everyone.

Thanks for reading!

-GG

Full of Funk and Punny as Heck: Sega Acquisitions

There are a few games that I used to rent constantly as a kid, and one of them was Toejam and Earl in Panic on Funkotron for the Sega Genesis.  At the last few swaps, I’ve felt a bit like a broken record while asking almost every vendor for that game.  Anyone that had a copy didn’t have it in the condition that I wanted or was asking a ridiculous price for only the cartridge.  Things started looking up when someone in town had a complete-in-box copy of the game.  Unfortunately when I inquired about buying it, the guy selling suddenly changed his mind despite my best efforts to convince him that he should part with it.  His friend had told him that because it had its box and manual that it was a collector’s item and that he shouldn’t sell.  Sigh.  I bet it’s just sitting in his closet at home collecting dust.  After months with no luck searching for the game in the wild, I decided to bite the bullet and buy it with its box and manual online.  In addition to that game, I also ended up buying Earthworm Jim on Sega Genesis for my boyfriend.  We have the Super Nintendo version of Earthworm Jim, but it’s simply not as good or fun as the Sega version!  Here’s a picture of both games:

Both of these games captured my heart for similar reasons in my childhood.  Graphically, they are stunning.  Especially notable in Toejam and Earl, the quirkiness of the areas you play through are bright and colourful, as well as interesting with lots of interactivity.  There are so many different mechanics to implement in both games that it keeps things feeling fresh in each and every level.  Most importantly for me was the music.  I’ve never played a game so funk-filled as Toejam and Earl.  Its soundtrack is extremely unique from most other games from its time.  Earthworm Jim’s soundtrack is also packed with many varying music genres ranging from country to classical.  It was in fact the first game in which I heard recognizable classical music: Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata backs the hilariously named level The Villi People (Earthworm Jim has to traverse internal organs, complete with villi… very punny!)  Both games are wonderful in their own right, and I’m happy to own them both!

The next swap is coming up quickly, so I’m hoping to get some new goodies soon.  I’ve been spending many evenings lately watching King of the Hill, but hopefully I’ll get back into a gaming groove soon.

Thanks for reading!

-GG