Messages

1

General / Re: The gamer you were when you joined VGcollect vs. the gamer you are now in 2023

« on: December 24, 2023, 02:22:34 am »

I sort of drifted here from Neo-Geo.com in 2012... the site had a reputation for drama, and it's definitely warranted. I met some cool people there though.

I've found the more niche the gaming community, the more eccentric, or possible autistic, they can be. There's loads of a weird, petty and incessant drama that follows the Atari Jaguar scene. I imagine with the barrier to entry for Neo Geo it's probably even more pronounced.

I joined Pinside about a year ago when I decided I was going to try and buy a pinball machine and I've observed this as well. There are a ton of "I know what I have" boomers on there that have basements full of pinball machines and like to flaunt their collections like it's an extension of their penises. But the worst are people that freak out over thinking certain machines are good, or even by referring to a pinball machine as a "table" even though that's a pretty standard term. I mostly enjoy that site, but it's far more hostile and ridiculous than it has ever been here.

I didn’t know you were on Pinside! I’ll keep an eye out for ya. I am on there from time to time in different owner threads.

I joined VGCollect in 2014.

I’ve always been a gamer. I’ve always tended to hang on to my stuff. This site helped me immensely as once I started collecting, I had a hard time keeping track of what I already had.

I ended up making several friends on here. We even ended up streaming together, talking to industry legends together. Sharing Christmas’s together.

Thanks to this site and some of the folks in these forums, I  amassed a collection containing everything childhood me ever wanted.

I’m too young to be a boomer but I did become one of those GenX-ers that builds an arcade in his basement, lol.

My collecting itself has slowed down a lot as I have most of what I want and I’ve come to realize I already have more games than I will probably be able to play in my lifetime.

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News / Re: Website Outage January 18/19 2023

« on: January 20, 2023, 07:21:31 pm »

Thanks, Jason!

In the future, feel free to reach out to me too if ya’ll need help. :-)

3

Hardware and Tech / Re: Steam Deck is Glorious - Change my Mind

« on: August 29, 2022, 10:26:39 pm »

I recently saw a thing someone showing that you can even play 3DS games on it where the 3DS's bottom touch screen will display on your Deck and the top screen can display on a connected monitor.

I put in a preorder a month of so back and I've been doing shenanigans to build up Steam credit for as cheap as possible.  I'm at $450 credit with my out of pocket currently at $64.  Will have another ~$150 in a few days at no out of pocket cost.  I'm still sitting at Q4 in the queue, but they keep bumping forward, so either maybe I'll bump into Q3 or at least I'll be early Q4.

You can also play 3DS titles on it in split screen mode, no second monitor needed! :-)

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Hardware and Tech / Re: Steam Deck is Glorious - Change my Mind

« on: August 20, 2022, 02:31:24 am »

I just have zero interest in a handheld or console without physical media.

This uses all of the physical media.

I can dump my GC games to a USB drive with a Wii then drop them on the Deck.
I can use a Retron 5 to dump my NES/SNES/GB/GBC/GBA/GG/Genesis/SMS et cetera.
I can dump PS games to my desktop and then load them on my game drive and cart them around with my deck.

But if it's not your jam that's cool too   Leaves one for someone else in the queue.  Happy gaming!

I have to agree a bit with both of you.

I am a physical is king kinda guy.

That said, bit and chip rot is becoming a real thing with some of my physical media pushing 40+ years old.

I’ve got backups of it all and most of it emulates on the Steam Deck very very well.

Including forgotten gems that never saw physical form like Wayforwards “Lit” for WiiWare.

I’m even able to play DS games like Metroid Prime Pinball and Bravely Default now. Even though my DS gave up the ghost a while back.

5

Hardware and Tech / Re: Steam Deck is Glorious - Change my Mind

« on: August 14, 2022, 12:09:58 pm »

I haven't got one yet, I wanted to see how people fared with it before making the jump to get one - I've always been a console gamer so Steam isn't something I am very familiar with.

Have they released the dock yet? That was also another reason why I didn't jump in as I was hoping to get that component too.

It handles XEmu okay? One of the other points of interest is emulation. I am very eager to get a decent PS2-HD setup as, sadly I can't play my 250+ PS2 games I own due to them looking rubbish on a HDTV. If the Steam Deck can handle PS2/Xbox Emu without drops and gets the dock for a TV then I will be quite eager to get one!

The dock hasn’t been released yet. I know that’s a draw for some but I will rarely play in docked mode.

Xemu is hit and miss. That’s more the state of the emulator and less steam deck. Simpsons Hit n Run runs great. If it shows as playable on the Xemu comparability list, you will probably be okay.

I haven’t tried PS2 yet, but there is an emulator available.

Honestly, the steam deck isn’t perfect. I’m sure you can easily find a lot it can’t do.

But I’ve been consistently and positively surprised as I’ve thrown different things at it.

It can do all it claims and more.

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Hardware and Tech / Steam Deck is Glorious - Change my Mind

« on: August 13, 2022, 06:08:25 pm »

Anybody here got one?

It’s great and can do far more than advertised.

Retro Arch
Xemu
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Epic Game Store
Steam

So far I have played:
Steam:
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (start to finish)
Nier Automata (couple of hours in)
20XX
ReCore
Horizon Zero Dawn
Aperature Desk Job

Steam Streaming from my PC
Crysis

Game Pass
Mortal Kombat

Xemu
Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate
Simpsons Hit n Run

It’s actually gotten me back into PC gaming and tearing through my PC backlog.

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Off Topic / Re: CD's, Vinyl (etc) Music Collectors Unite

« on: August 13, 2022, 04:12:03 pm »

My 19 year old son recently discovered Cassette and he’s fascinated by them.

He’s started getting high end tape decks and walkmans and repairing them. And now he makes mix tapes.

Send help.

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General / Re: What happened to this site?

« on: July 13, 2022, 07:01:23 pm »

Mainly use the site for tracking my collection as RF Gen just became way too slow to submit stuff. Sometimes weeks if not months. I post on a lot of places so I just don't post much here.

Whoah, I totally forgot I have an rf gen account! Thanks for reminding me.

I got a lot of famicom games from folks on there.

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General / Re: What happened to this site?

« on: June 30, 2022, 07:04:50 pm »

I lurk.

Work and life have become pretty intense over the last few years.

I moved across the country. I have slowed down and cooled off on console gaming.

Now I am mostly, Switch, Pinball, and Arcade gaming.

I've been very active on social media like Facebook, twitch, YouTube, and Twitter.

I'm still engaging with many folks from here on those platforms. It's more interactive and realtime there.

I still track my collection here and check the forums for new threads from time to time.

I'm very active on pinside as I do a lot of Pinball modding and maintenance now but not so active on other forums like here and Atari age anymore.

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General / Re: OBTAINED - Earthworm Jim HD was delisted from PSN Store

« on: February 06, 2022, 02:10:21 pm »

- Answering to @Masakarijoe

Unfortunately the game was pulled out from the Store and is not available for sale, anymore.

The only option could be install PS3Hen (Homebrew) and use it for play the full version.

Certainly wonder why they just left the game behind considering it was a quality remaster for a classic game, I could have bought it on Switch for a fair price.

Yeah, it's really unfortunate. I would definitely buy it for PS3 or Nintendo Switch, my kids really want to play it.

Even though it is off of the PS3 store, things that have been previously downloaded can be redownloaded. That is how I was able to redownload the demo that I have now. So, similar to the original poster here, if someone has this downloaded on their PS3 account, I could feasibly obtain that copy by downloading it from them. I understand the concern about sharing account information, but I'm not really sure if there is another way.

But, as already mentioned and realized above. After the account you used for download deauthorizes your machine. You will no longer be able to play the download from that account.

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General / Re: What where the best deals you foolishly passed on?

« on: February 04, 2022, 08:10:00 pm »

The main one that sticks out is the time I saw a Dreamcast in Goodwill for like $10-15.  Who knows if it worked, though.

This is actually why I stopped going to thrift stores.

I can’t pass up deals like this and over a two year period I literally brought home 12 $10 Xboxes. :-P

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General / Re: What where the best deals you foolishly passed on?

« on: February 02, 2022, 07:40:02 pm »

Last night.

Rocky and Bullwinkle Pinball Playfield for $275 on eBay. :-(

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Hardware and Tech / Re: Anyone here collect full size Arcade and/or Pinball machines?

« on: January 19, 2022, 05:15:25 pm »

That’s really cool that you won a tournament. I am honesty terrible at pinball and would never win a tournament. :-)

I've won a few. Hmm IFPA only has 6 wins but I'm fairly certain that I've gotten more than that, oh well. If anything, I'm consistantly just above average but sometimes that is just enough.

I consistently think I may be getting gud only to go on to have embarrassingly trash plays. :-)

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Hardware and Tech / Re: Anyone here collect full size Arcade and/or Pinball machines?

« on: January 18, 2022, 12:08:43 am »

Not sure if this counts but it’s related to pinball…

I forgot to mention, for a couple of years in the mid-2010s I attended the Southern Fried Gameroom Expo in Atlanta. A large hall full of arcade and pinball machines, plus I got to meet people like Walter Day, Jerry Buckner of Buckner & Garcia, Billy Mitchell (haha) and the current Q*Bert record holder.

Anyway, there I bought a stylized poster representing the pinball machine Pin-Bot, autographed by designer Barry Oursler. I just thought it was really unique…I’m guessing there’s not much memorabilia autographed by pinball luminaries 

That’s pretty cool!

I’ve started kind of collecting cheap used up or factory rejected playfields.

I have 3 so far.

Some people get them signed.

I forgot to mention that I do have some arcade "things" besides not having any machines. Such as some arcade marquees and manuals. Also I have the undertable "rug" from Dutch Pinball's The Big Lebowski table. The rug comes with the game and is intended that an owner/operator put the rug underneath the machine. I got it as a prize for winning a Big Lebowski tournament. And of course I do have some pf plastics and keychains. Years ago I got some AC/DC drop target labels and I put them on my car. I also have some translites like Spider-Man VE and World Poker Tour i think.

That’s really cool that you won a tournament. I am honesty terrible at pinball and would never win a tournament. :-)

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Hardware and Tech / Re: Anyone here collect full size Arcade and/or Pinball machines?

« on: January 06, 2022, 07:04:34 pm »

My parents have 2 pinball machines which they purchased when they remodeled their basement about 20 years ago. One is Theatre of Magic, which they bought on my recommendation (possibly my favorite pin ever). They also bought the Star Wars Episode I Pinball 2000 table (with the video projecting onto the glass). They’re planning on moving within the next few years so they said I’m welcome to take the tables, I just have no place to put them ATM.

I did some restoration work on the Theatre of Magic table: replaced most of the lights with LEDs, replaced the trunk and a broken piece of background, partially disassembled the playfield so I could give it a good cleaning, etc. The bumpers were so dirty you could barely see the lights inside them; it was like night and day when I got done. Most of the “flasher” lights didn’t work even back when we bought it, but they do now. Still needs work (badly needs a new plunger) but I live hundreds of miles away so I can’t just pop over to do work on it

Me, I would LOVE to have my own mini-arcade. First thing I’d buy is a Q*Bert arcade machine, either original or an official reproduction that came out about 10 years ago, as long as it has a working voice chip. Q*Bert isn’t Q*Bert without the random vocal sounds
Again, I just don’t have the space or the money to do something like that right now.

That p2k is one I’ve never seen or played in person.

Is the light saber in the cab as cool in person as it looks in pictures?

I have it’s sibling Revenge from Mars. :-) Two in fact. I am in the process of restoring them. :-)