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Classic Video Games / Re: Whos buying a Retron 5?!

« on: March 28, 2013, 03:18:39 am »

I'm going to wait until other people get it first to see if it does anything better than a modded Wii can. I'd also like to hear if it manages to run flash carts. That would actually be kind of weird if it did and you did a save state on the flash cart's menu screen...

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Modern Video Games / Re: What Was Your Favorite Console Each Generation You Were Gaming?

« on: March 14, 2013, 04:04:50 am »

2nd Generation - Atari 8-bit (especially XEGS):
I didn't grow up in this time period but got to experience it later. While my first pre-crash experience was an Atari 2600, I really preferred the smoother graphics of the Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit computer line. The XEGS released 2 years after the NES, took that already existing computer line and simplified it to make it seem more like a regular console. The controller was a bit better than the 5200's and there were more games that were not available on the 5200, such as Donkey Kong. I tried many of the other branded consoles but I didn't like any of the others quite as much as the Atari systems.

3rd Generation - NES:
I still didn't have my own gaming system till 1993, so the NES was my great budget system while growing up. So many classics and I was introduced to so many styles of games with this thing. I was lucky I didn't have to expereince any of the bad games during my childhood. My grandma was smart about buying good games only. I didn't get a SMS till years later and have been enjoying some of its games, but NES just has so much more that I am familiar with.

4th Generation - SNES:
My first game console was a Sega Genesis, but all I was ever interested in on that back then were the Sonic games and games featuring cartoon characters. SNES had more of those longer platformer games where you could save your level completion progress to the cart battery and re-play levels you already cleared. RPGs and adventures usually had better graphics and sound than the Genesis offerings of the genre. During this generation I was a kid so I liked the colorful games rather than the mature type fighting games or shooting games. Because of getting NES games cheap, I also had some go-to series I could ask for just because I liked their NES counterparts. While I didn't get any RPGs for it as a kid, Zelda still allowed me to experience some sword-wielding adventuring on it. The RPGs I tried in later years were great though.

5th Generation - Playstation:
My first jump into this generation was the Nintendo 64. I was all excited about the 3D and the exploration involved in games like Super Mario 64 and Goldeneye. But when my stepdad introduced me to his Playstation I enjoyed the great variety and quality games it provided. If I wanted any kind of game 2D or 3D, the Playstation had it. I was a preteen at this point and started to like fighting games and finally understood RPGs well enough to fall in love with the genre. It was also the first system I experienced that had demo discs. Those alone made the system enjoyable as I could really look forward to new games coming out, hoping my stepdad would buy them. When he gave his spare system to me it ended up getting the most play time from then on. It is still probably the system I play the most. Saturn is fun, but I've barely had the time to get into it yet.

6th Generation - Playstation 2:
Take everything that the Playstation offers and boost its graphics. So many more games and many genres to choose from than the competition. Being a teenager this had my first DVD player as well. Playing PS1 games on it was convenient at the time, making my old PS1 system only needed for Gameshark and eventually imports. I had a Dreamcast before PS2, but only really wanted that for Sonic Adventure. Gamecube I was mainly excited about because of Sonic seemingly finding a new home on Nintendo consoles (until he went multiplatform with Sonic Heroes), and the usual Nintendo characters games. I only wanted an Xbox for Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, because one of my favorite Playstation series turned traitor and jumped ship. Playstation 2 ended up being the main system to get all the niche RPGs.

7th Generation - Playstation 3:
It took a while for this to catch up but with all the unplayed material from the previous generation, the backward compatibility of the first model came in handy for backing up my saves. No more worrying about corrupted memory cards! I actually originally bought the system for the convenience of infinite memory cards. Once the niche RPGs started to really favor the console as I had guessed they would due to the brand's previous consoles, I started buying more games for it than the other two. This was the generation that began when I had finished high school and started as an adult. With my disposable income I bought all three systems to try them out. Wii had its interesting Virtual Console to introduce me to TurboGrafx-16 and Neo Geo for the first time and its usual Nintendo characters+ exclusive Sonic games to get me to bite. I didn't really play it much until I modded it for roms. The Xbox 360 didn't really have anything that made me feel like I had to get it. It was more just a thing I purchased because I had the money to and have it just in case there's an exclusive I want. I do like Pac-Man Championship Edition from the Xbox Live compilation disc a lot though, and I scored an exclusive RPG Blue Dragon for $5. There's something to say about familiarity winning when it comes to consoles. The brand jump from SNES to Playstation isn't a big surprise when you compare the button layout of the game controllers.

2nd Generation of handhelds - Game Boy:
It may have been black and white but much like other Nintendo brand systems it had its established franchises to keep me playing it. The save battery useage was similar to that of the SNES games so when compared to Game Gear, the games just seemed longer and more enjoyable. My first Game Boy was the Game Boy pocket in 1997 while I didn't have a Game Gear till 2000. It took longer for me to get handhelds than consoles growing up for some reason.

3rd Generation of handhelds - Game Boy Color:
This one pretty much wins by default. Neo Geo Pocket Color was really good and had better fighting games than any other handheld before it, but there weren't as many games. Game Boy Color didn't even have very many exclusive Nintendo franchise games on it but the few it did have were great. Pokemon, Dragon Warrior and Zelda + a couple platformer remakes was all it needed. That and adding replay value to older games by adding color helped. I still liked my Super Game Boy better for those older games though.

4th Generation of handhelds - Game Boy Advance:
The stuff this thing was competing with really didn't have much recognition in the gaming community. In general, I would say this is the best Game Boy of the three generations of that line when it comes to the games themselves. It really was a leap forward from all handhelds that came before it.

5th Generation of handhelds - Nintendo DS:
I really like my PSP but I gave the Nintendo DS a slight edge for having such a huge library and a large supply of Nintendo franchises, exclusive Sonic games, and even RPGs like the Final Fantasy III, Dragon Quest IV, Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest VI remakes. The PSP seems to have tons of the kinds of games I want though too, so I can see this opinion changing in the future. Closest thing I have to a draw in all of my list actually. The one thing DS has over PSP is longer battery life.

6th Generation of handhelds (so far) - 3DS:
For me right now, this is THE system to own this generation. Even if the consoles and PS Vita don't end up doing so well, this thing already has some really fun games on it.

So yeah pretty much my favorite 2 game companies over the years have been Nintendo and Sony. Sega came close at times, but that was a really long time ago.

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Classic Video Games / Re: Ps1 Imports

« on: February 24, 2013, 06:08:55 pm »

I really liked the first person action RPG King's Field. The first in the series is exclusive to Japan and for the rest of the series they did to us what Squaresoft did with Final Fantasy - falsely renumbered the titles for international audiences. So their 2 is our 1 and their 3 is our 2. It is not very text heavy so with a simple guide or walkthrough it's easy enough to get through. Most of what you do is wander through the dungeons exploring them, finding items and killing monsters for experience points.

The only time I didn't know what to do was when I had to trade an item to a person to get the one needed to continue. A walkthrough and maps helped me figure that one out.

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Classic Video Games / Re: Was FFIII not ported to PS1?

« on: February 24, 2013, 05:04:50 am »

You can actually get a pretty close experience to playing FFIII on Playstation with a modchipped PS1 or use of a swap disc like the PS X-Change 2. There is this program called It Might Be NES where you can burn a disc with NES roms and that emulator then run it on the playstation. Games can be saved to memory card and everything. It is the closest experience you can get to playing FFIII with a Playstation controller like all the rest.

Be warned the final dungeon of the game is very long and also hard, but don't let that stop you from enjoying the bulk of the game.

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Classic Video Games / Re: Retro collecting is dying!

« on: February 24, 2013, 04:42:58 am »

Here's my story as a collector who collected (via presents), stopped collecting, started again (not picky, collecting everything in sight), stopped again, started again (CIB only), stopped again and is now planning to start yet again (only certain titles that I've really really enjoyed and liked my experience so much that I either know I want to play them all the way through again, or have already done so many times):

I am the type of person who loves to collect video games because when I was a kid I was always allowed to keep all my games and systems to replay later. My grandparents were smart and knew if I did that it would save them tons of money on games. Instead of buying me a new game every week or month and trading in old games for pennies, they would only give them to me on birthdays, Christmas or occasional yard sale finds and make sure they chose well. Because of this method I almost never got any bad or boring games in my youth and had plenty of time to become fully interested in each.

In my mid teenage years my grandma went into the hospital and my grandpa was always going there too busy for me, so I started to buy my own games from used game stores and still seemed to have good luck. Then I found out about emulators and sold everything I had that could be emulated well. Basically everything pre-Saturn.

When I got my Safeway job I started buying physical games again, this time having an interest in collecting consoles and getting as many games as I could play on them. I started with Atari 2600 and worked my way to expensive items like Neo Geo AES which I only ever had 3 games for - the ones that came in my system lot. The worst was when Game Crazy started liquidating all their "classic plastic" and I bought every single game I didn't already have since they were so cheap at $1 or less each. I tried every game for about 5 minutes to see which ones were good, mediocre or bad.

Losing my Safeway job and regretting filling up my shelving with junk I decided to get rid of the whole cart/disc only collection and any CIB games I didn't like. I eventually got my first caregiving job and started to collect CIB only, using funds from the carts to get me started. I mainly went after games I had in my original childhood collection and it was great to look at boxes and manuals for games I had cart only as a kid. The problem was that I bought these games too fast. Thinking I'd keep my job forever I started to use credit card funds to get everything "now" while I can still find it and pay it back later. Well that put me in debt, my hours were cut, I lost my job to another employee she liked better and had to look for a new one. I started selling games I had spent all that money on just to support myself and never did pay off those credit cards all the way.

Before I had my apartment I was cooped up in this little room at my current job. I didn't have room in here to collect so I continued my sales even though my cashflow was much higher. Unable to stand working 7 days a week and wanting my own space I had my days cut and got my current apartment. It was just great for a while but then my hours got cut and I started getting low on money. In this time I've sold off almost my entire CIB game collection for everything before this new generation and the one before it + Gamecube (not so easy to run burn discs or run ISOs for that system), turning to modded systems, flashcarts and burned games to keep gaming on through hard times.

With a new job starting and the knowledge that I will have greater income again I will start again, but this time the collection will be much more refined, protected and better displayed. I would like these complete in box top titles to have video game box protectors, guides when available, cart & disc only copies & loose manuals for regular use and maybe even complete in box import versions and re-releases (example - both gold & gray Legend of Zelda & Zelda II + japanese FDS packaging whether the floppies still work or not). And most important of all: decrease the frequency at which I buy games so I can take the time to play or re-play every single game I get. I'd like to record my footage and edit it for some type of series. Having physical differing packaging to show in these videos plus manuals and guides would make it so much more interesting as it would be a bit different from some emulation gamer just doing another boring Let's Play. My girlfriend doesn't have much experience with console games so it is also interesting to her if I would let her play these games as I get them too.

So yeah it would be great if prices were lower when I start up again, but since I will be focusing less on quantity and more on quality experiences (so I don't have another sell-back nightmare of hard work) I will spend less on games each month, making prices for each not matter as much and allowing me to build up some financial cushion reducing the probability that I will have to sell anything again at all. Another good thing about this is that my collection will take up less space, being a bit smaller. If someone could stay dedicated to just one retro game a month and really go all-out collecting items related to just that one game, all of a sudden that one set becomes more attractive and impressive than a giant horde of games that are in random condition and not taken care of. The games become more taken care of and treasured rather than unappreciated junk someone got just to say they have a lot. If someone was to sell a game complete in box with guide and any other related goodies, they can usually get a premium for it rather than just a regular price. People will pay more to get those extra maps and guides that not every CIB copy comes with.

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Site Feedback / Old beta account not used since 2011 is inaccesible with password recovery.

« on: February 11, 2013, 06:15:15 am »

I created this new account for two reasons. #1 I tried to recover my password for the account thegamecollector but for some odd reason none of my email accounts appeared to be registered here. I also tried logging in with every password I've used commonly on websites and that username but none of the combinations worked. My account was created when this site first started and I was a beta user so I don't know if changes took place in the last 2 years as far as accounts go or what.

The second reason kind of makes it less of a big deal because I sold many items since then anyway and got new ones so starting over is not a really big deal. I just wish there was some way to find out what email account is tied to the old account so I could login to use it as a reference if I choose to reacquire what I used to have.

Do any admins have any advice on how I can access that account?

Even if I was told which email account this account was tied to that would be good enough because I could log into that email and do password recovery that way.