Messages

481

General / Re: Intro thread

« on: February 19, 2016, 04:30:25 pm »

Welcome SHfan!

Obligatory Beware the Soera post and...

..."SH" = Shadow Hearts, by any chance?

Thanks Nearly - love Shadow Hearts but the SH is for survival horror (and, pleasingly, Silent Hill). ZOMG, a Soera! 0.0

482

General / Re: Intro thread

« on: February 19, 2016, 10:36:16 am »

I've been here a few weeks now, I think, and finally managed to get over the 1000 items listed on VG Collect point last night.

I'm British, have been gaming for 30 years and have been collecting for at least 20, on and off, after having a massive clearout several years ago I have mostly replaced what I foolishly sold or traded away and have built on the collection even further, having above 2000 individually boxed video games from the typical 8-bit and 16-bit home computers which dominated the gaming scene in the UK during the 80s and early 90s through to PC games of all ages and consoles/games from the NES/Master System through to current-gen systems. The collection also contains several strategy guides and a smattering of soundtracks and promotional art books.

I'm old fashioned and consider games that don't come on physical media to be un-owned, so the long overdue re-emergence of console budget games and indie titles offering physical releases is extremely welcome.

My main goals as of now are filling up gaps in the collection from the PS2, DS, PS3 and 360 libraries while picking up random retro games of interest, particularly PC games. I don't go for full sets, only games I would actually play, which typically fall into the action and RPG side of things and away from deep strategy or sports. I rarely pay anything more than a few pounds for an individual game unless it's a modern title or I've used finds to trade with retailers - I like 'the hunt' and hate the idea of paying market price for games.

Yeah, so hi guys, looking forward to chatting and rifling through your collections

483

General / Re: The Top 10 Most Wanted Items on Your Wishlist

« on: February 16, 2016, 06:37:49 pm »

In no order, and this is a 'wishlist' because I try to find all my games in the wild except for those I trade for, so there's zero guarantee any of these will be in my collection in the future.

- Grell and Falla [C64 or ZX Spectrum]
- Floating Runner [PS1]
- Turbo the Tortoise [C64 or ZX Spectrum]
- Vandal Hearts [PS1]
- Kuon [PS2]
- Hybrid Heaven [N64]
- Parasite Eve [PS1]
- Hardwar [PC]
- Castlevania: Curse of Darkness [Xbox]
- Zombie Virus [PS2]

484

General / Re: Moral Choices in Games: Are you Good or Evil?

« on: February 09, 2016, 06:20:54 pm »

Almost always good, unless for some reason I dislike the game's NPCs and can use that as leverage to be horrible to them. Being naturally prone to guilt even affects my actions in fantasy land >.<

485

Modern Video Games / Re: When do you think they will kill off the PS3 and Xbox 360 totally?

« on: February 07, 2016, 03:42:53 pm »

Not while there's money to be made. Over here in the UK both the PS1 and PS2 had extended releases long after they were replaced by the newer model - not only annual sports games but also with clutches of budget games - perhaps Sony makes it more cost-effective to release on their older systems as they get wound up? Not sure if the 360 has quite the same staying power, but I can imagine that the PS3 will have some Japanese games which can be translated and released on the cheap, perhaps some previously download-only games put on discs and sold on budget racks? The possibilities of releasing download games this way has finally caught up with publishers/console manufacturers so it may be a thing this time around.

486

Classic Video Games / Re: SNES vs Genesis

« on: February 04, 2016, 07:07:50 pm »

As with a similar topic, I don't pretend to know which is 'better', only which I prefer, and I've got to say it's the Megadrive. A massive amount of the SNES' landmark titles never made it over here to Europe, hell we didn't even get SMRPG, let alone FF IV/VI, Chrono Trigger or Earthbound. We got Lagoon though..

Streets of Rage 2, to me, runs rings around any beat 'em ups on the Megadrive, SNES or anything comparable, it's something I play regularly to this day. Soleil (Crusader of Centy) and Wonderboy in Monster World are both easy to beat and short, but offer some of the slickest, most genuinely fun gaming I've experienced.

That's not to say the SNES doesn't have a place in my heart or is in any way something I don't care about, Zelda III and SMW are two of my favourite games, but the MD's catalogue had a lot more interest for me. The graphics and sound of the MD wasn't a negative thing in my opinion, like a lot of its catalogue it reminds me a lot of slightly earlier games, which is no bad thing.

487

Video Game Database Discussion / Re: Making a listing for D/Generation

« on: February 04, 2016, 03:32:27 pm »

KK, thanks for your input guys

488

Video Game Database Discussion / Re: Making a listing for D/Generation

« on: February 04, 2016, 12:55:32 pm »

When I type D/Generation into the search box the auto-fill suggestion comes up with "null - Amiga CD32 [EU]". Clicking on 'null' leads to a 404 error.

Typing "D Generation" (space instead of a forward slash) the CD32 version comes up in the autofill and clicking on the game title takes you to the game's page fine.

(I'm looking to add the PC 3.5 + 5.25" version to the database).

489

Video Game Database Discussion / Making a listing for D/Generation

« on: February 02, 2016, 07:03:37 pm »

Hi folks, sorry if this is answered somewhere, but how should I create a listing for a game with this title? I've read that forward slash causes problems with the database, yet the Amiga CD32 listing for this game exists.

490

Classic Video Games / Re: What game have you put the most time into?

« on: February 02, 2016, 06:59:43 pm »

That would be Diablo 2 and Age of Empires 2/3 on the PC. Despite mostly being a console gamer and not liking to stick with particular games excessively (used to be I didn't even beat them, now I at least try to finish them), there was a period of time like 15 years ago when these were constantly in front of my eyes. The only other games which might come close are Oblivion (ES IV) and Fallout 3, both of which I've beaten from the beginning a few times.

491

Classic Video Games / Re: Xbox or Gamecube

« on: February 02, 2016, 05:31:13 pm »

Better? No intention of trying to answer that. Which I preferred? Probably the Xbox, though both are superb machines (along with the PS2 and its vast library of exclusives and the GBA and its sublime 2D goodness).

The Gamecube's main strengths to me are its first-party games and it's Japanese-leaning exclusives. The Xbox, on the other hand, was weak in J-flavoured games but still had Sega's "Dreamcast 2" range and interesting exclusives like Voodoo Vince, as well as a large clutch of games which didn't reach the Cube.

That era was definitely one I'll be revisiting for years to come, 3D gaming finally became not-crap and at least the GBA kept 2D alive.

492

Video Game Database Discussion / Re: Style Guide suggestion for UK/BBFC games

« on: January 31, 2016, 05:35:00 pm »

Yes, it's the British Board of Film Classification, they rate films for cinema and home release and have been the UK's statutory ratings body since 1985 according to their website. Rating video games was merely a sideline.

493

Video Game Database Discussion / Re: Category/Platform Requests

« on: January 31, 2016, 01:12:36 pm »

Yeah, it was always "five and a quarter inch disk" for 5.25 disk games here in the UK at least. Might a 3.5/5.25" dual format category be possible? several games were released with both formats in one box during the transition period, one of which I'll be adding to my own collection soon (D/Generation).

Can I put a request in for Acorn Electron please? It's a cut-down BBC Microcomputer in essence, though some games were released as solely BBC Model B, some were released solely as Electron and many were released as both.

494

Video Game Database Discussion / Re: Style Guide suggestion for UK/BBFC games

« on: January 31, 2016, 06:18:09 am »

I'm no expert but from what I can gather:

The BBFC mainly rated games for mature content (IE legally-binding age-ratings) from somewhere during the ELSPA era through till recently. They were sometimes given games to rate which were based on films etc. (for some reason, probably on the publishers' insistence) and handed out 'U' or 'PG' ratings (non-legally binding) on games such as Spongebob, but for the main they were there to stop kids buying GTA and Mortal Kombat over the counter.

Within the past couple of years PEGI was given legally-binding status in the UK and the BBFC withdrew from rating video games - I think that's when PEGI ratings on UK versions of games transitioned from being white on a black background to being the colour-coded ones you see on current releases.

So in short, the BBFC only rated mature audience video games (with a few exceptions) but that is now no longer the case.