Retro Diary - 25/9/11 - Pootis title here!

By the way, the title has no relation to the topic itself, I just had nothing else to put on it...

This week was "PS1 week", well, that was it's original plan, but since one of my cousins got Gears of War 3, we ended up playing the Xbox 360 in the end.

However, we did play a couple of PS1 games, literally, just 2 games.

• WWF Smackdown 2: Know Your Role
• WCW Mayhem

They were fun, using the Multi-tap to play 4 player and all, but no one was really enthusiastic about it, they started getting enthusiastic when my cousin set up the Xbox 360, playing Gears of War 3 and Call of Duty: Black ops, and that's fine, if they prefer those games, that's alright.

It's just that, no one ever cares about retro games, everyone I know are into modern games like Gears of War 3 and Call of Duty:Black Ops, the type of games that I, quite frankly, hate, I feel so left out!

I can respect other peoples opinion, it's just that I'm the only guy who enjoys retro games, at least in Glasgow, no one else cares, even if I ask them if I want to play something, they'll just say/mumble that I can choose a game, like if they don't care, and want it over and done with.

I guess that's the price to pay for being a retro gamer, people think you're outdated, old fashioned, boring, stuff along those lines. Is it worth it? I'm not sure, I'm not sure at all.

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Speaking of old fashioned, I got myself an official multi tap for the PS1, I forgot to mention, for those who don't know what a multi-tap is, a multi-tap is a device made to extend the amount of controller ports of a console, so now that I have one, I can play up with up to 4 other players on the PS1!

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I also got Destruction Derby 2, which is in my opinion, much better than the original in my opinion, it has much better physics, and the gameplay's much faster, the only fault I can point out about it, is that you don't turn sharp enough, I have to brake every corner, and that's no exaggeration.

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Lastly, I got myself Battlebots: Beyond the Battlebox on GBA, and it isn't as bad as most people put it out to be, although I completed in 2 hours, so although the game's life is short, it's fun, if you're a big fan of robot combat like me and want something new to play, this'll keep you occupied for a while.

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That's all there is to this weeks retro diary, hope things get better next week...

Cobra!

Retro Diary - 18/9/11 - "Just because *I* have a working Atari Jaguar CD!"

Despite the impression you might've got from reading the title, it was actually Sega Saturn week! "Well then why the f*ck did you put the Atari Jaguar CD in the title!?" I hear you ask, well, I'll explain later.

First off, though, it's been quite an eventful(ish) week this week, let me tell you everything that happened in chronological order.

I'm going to skip the arrival of my (working) Atari Jaguar CD, as I've already posted an article all about it. My brother, for practically the whole week, was in my room playing Spiderman 2 for the Playstation 2, I saw practically, I mean every minute where he wasn't in school or sleeping, in some nights, he was even playing until midnight, so yeah, he hogged my TV, but I didn't mind, because I enjoyed watching him play it, especially since he comments as he plays, like a let's play, in fact while I eat, I prefer watching him play it than watching something on the internet.

This is sad, I'm going on about how I enjoy watching my brother play a game while I eat, how low I sunk to!?

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Anyway, on Thursday, after I came home from College, my Gamecube controller arrived, this is the one that is purple at the front, and clear at the back, and this is an official controller, I never knew Nintendo made these kind of controllers!

I've yet to try it out, I will once I get my old one back from my cousin, and play my brother at a game or two or Marvel Nemesis!

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Speaking of college, in college, we play Quake 3 on the PCs at break times, which is cool. Not much to say about that other than, it's alot of fun!

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Before I went to my grans today, I went to a car boot sale, and got myself a few still, some good deals, some bad.

but before that, I want to mention that I saw a bunch of Laserdiscs for sale! If you don't know what they are, you could say they were the precursor to DVDs, because they were discs that played videos, but there was one problem with them, THEY WERE MASSIVE! Seriously, I had to stretch out my hand just to hold it from the centre to the edge! The most surprising thing I think, was that this guy had Toy Story for laserdisc, I would've thought that laserdiscs were well dead by the time Toy Story came out, but it turns out I was wrong.

Anyway I got the Simpsons Movie Soundtrack, Special Edition, brand new, sealed, for just £1, and the seller wasn't a con artist, I checked the disc, not a scratch on it!

I also got Theme Park World and a Multi tap for the PS1 for a total of £4, Theme Park World worked just fine, I'm totally addicted to that, but the multi-tap is useless, it doesn't work, I have 2 game that support multi-tap (Klonoa Beach Volleyball and Cubix: Race n' Robots), and it doesn't work on either.

At lastly, I got the Godfather Trilogy boxset on VHS, unfortunately, this doesn't work, in fact, it's the opposite, it almost ruined my VCR! Luckily, we got it fixed in the end, but I am NEVER going to touch that boxset EVER again!

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When it was time to go to grans, I brought my Sega Saturn, as it was Sega Saturn week, and just in case, my Game Boy Color, we didn't play that though, it was all about the Saturn.

The game we played:

In the order we played them
• NiGHTS: Into Dreams...
• Fighters Megamix
• Resurrection: Rise 2
• Sega Rally
• Virtua Fighter 2
• Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition

The games we enjoyed the most were Fighters Megamix and Virtua Fighter 2. Fighters Megamix, if you don't know, and you probably don't, it's rather obscure, it's basically like a Sega Smash Bros., only it came out before, you can even play as a car from Daytona USA!

I mentioned above that I was going to explain why I mentioned the Atari Jaguar CD in the title, well I will now, when I'm losing in a game again my cousins, for a joke, I go "Just because *I* have a working Atari Jaguar CD!", sorry to dissapoint you Jaguar Fans, that was all I had about the Jaguar CD in this, well, I suppose except we have an in joke where we say "When I grow up, I want to be a *Insert inanimate object here*!" and when we were saying silly stuff like that I said "When I grow up, I want to be an Atari Jaguar CD!"... Well, it was funny at the time.

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That's about it for todays Retro Diary, now if you'll excuse me, I have a Theme Park to attend to...

Cobra!

R.I.P. Steve Merill

I don't usually do articles about anything that isn't retro gaming, but that doesn't mean I'm restricted to it, sure, the picture at the top is my old collection of retro games consoles, (it's extended since) the blog title refers to anything retro, be it games, movies, TV shows, or even Books, Comics or Magazines.

This article is dedicated to the Robot Wars legend Steve Merill, the captain of the Sir Chromalot team, sure, they never made it pass the heats in the competition, but like the Plunderbird and Diotior teams, were they entertaining, they were funny to watch, and they were great sportsmen, I even got goosebumps the whole time watching both them and Plunderbird have a segment, and a battle together in Robot Wars Extreme.

According to some of my friends from within the FMRW (Fan Made Robot Wars) community, he was also great behind the scenes, he always had time for his fans, had he of been working on his own robot, helping other teams or even on the phone to his loved ones, he'd always made time for the fans, he'd give them autographs and have a laugh!

Unfortunately, Steve Merill died of Cancer a few months back, and I had no idea about this, and I was shocked, and of course, sad, I loved watching him in Robot Wars, he never failed to put a smile on my face, and I'm not just saying this because he's passed away, I really mean it!

If you have no idea who he is and what he's done, I pity you, it's never too late to find out click here: http://robotwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sir_Chromalot

R.I.P. Steve Merill, you were a legend! You will be missed!

Cobra!

Retro Arrivals: Atari Jaguar CD and Hover Strike: Unconquered Lands

That's right! I finally got myself an Atari Jaguar CD! At long last!

I've always wanted to get one of these managed to find one on EBay, boxed and with the game Hover Strike: Unconquered lands for £200, it may sound like alot but considering that they usually go for £500, it's a pretty good deal, so naturally, I jumped at the chance, and it arrived today!

The box for it is shorter and narrower than the regular Jaguar box, but it's alot taller, unfortunately, I forgot to take the picture of the 2 for comparison, but the boxes are already stored away, and I can't be bothered to get them out again and take a photo or two because I'm a lazy rascal! I did, however, get a photo of the box on it's on, here you go:


The box for the games themselves are actually BIGGER than the cartridge games, here's a photo of comparisons (by the way, the WWE curtains at the side of the 3rd photo are temporary, just in case you thought I was just some big kid.):


...and what's inside the box that's making it so big... only this:


Here's a photo of the Jaguar CD itself:


A photo with it attached to the Jaguar, I have to admit, it looks pretty cool:


and finally, a picture of the Jag+CD with a cartridge slot at the back, or as I like to call it, the toilet formation:


I know what you're all asking, does it work?...

... yes it does!!! By the way, excuse the amateur taking-a-photo-in-front-of-the-TV style of capturing this, it's because I don't have the Jaguar AV cables, and they're hard to find, so I'm stuck with the RGB SCART, which is a NIGHTMARE to set up, although the quality makes up for it I think.

... but it didn't work at first, it came up with the now notorious red screen of death, but then I figured out that the Jaguar CD was properly attached, at the back, and I had to use a bit of force to get it in, but I managed, and it worked!

I hate being mean to my readers, I really do, but I must make an exception... Get that up youse, AVGN fanboys!!!

Yes, I have proven that Jaguar CDs are in fact NOT self-aware, how did I avoid getting a dodgy JagCD, well the answer in simple, yet many overlook it... I checked the EBay item's description, and made sure the words "Tested, and works properly." appeared, and it did.

In all fairness, I've heard that AVGN DID get a working Jaguar CD after he filmed the review, so good on him, and I'm not hating on AVGN, in fact I'm a huge fan of him myself, it's the fans that annoy me, alot.

So there you have it, it all worked out in the end, I gave a working Jaguar CD a nice home, where it will be played alot. Was it worth the price... not so far, but I didn't want the Jaguar CD for one game, I wanted it for pretty much all of them, they all look brilliant, except for primal rage and baldies. Also, I wanted it to extend my horizon on Jaguar games, to extend the amount of games I can choose from, and stuff like that, I really didn't want it for it rarity...

...Alright, I lied, the rarity attracted me to it even more, but that wasn't the reason I bought it, I'm not a game collector who keeps their valuables in glass cases, waiting for it to be worth more, no, I bought it, so I could play it, I'm probably the only gamer in the world to want a Jaguar CD for that, but there you go, there's a first for everything.

I'll be looking forward to next few years for this baby, buying a bunch of awesome games, digging up some rare gems, that is if the Jag CD lasts though it all, I have faith in it.

Cobra!

Gamestation Rant

I'm not doing this to view whore, or anything like that, I'm really am p*ssed off at these guys!

In my early days as a Retro Gamer, being laughed at and all, and no store were selling them, that was until I discovered Gamestation, and they had a whole wall dedicated to Retro Games, and was so exited, I practically ran over and went to my knees, and slid over and looked at all of them, seeing if any caught my interest, for a year or so it was all good, the games were at a reasonable price and they worked fine.

... that was until recently, I'll give you the whole story, I once bought both Enter the Matrix and Matrix: Path of Neo for Xbox out of Gamestation, Enter the Matrix worked just fine, but Path of Neo was f*cked up, the audio was delayed in FMVs, some sound didn't play at all, it loads way longer than it should, even when the police officer shouts "FREEZE!" in the training mode, it took 5 minutes to load that, and the game couldn't load beyond the first level where you're trying to escape from the Agents at Neo's workplace, I bought another copy off EBay, a promotional one no less, and it didn't have these problems, so it wasn't the game itself.

I took it back, they got the disc cleaned, and guess what, it still didn't work, so I took it back again, and traded it for Halo: Combat Evolved having to pay an extra £4, due to the price being higher, and you'll never believe this, it didn't even have the disc inside the case! I spent a total of £6 for an empty case, I wasn't having it, so I took it back, and got Fable: The Lost Chapters, luckily, that worked just fine, so that was settled, I forgave Gamestation for that.

but then afterwards I took it back, I bought faulty game, after faulty game, after faulty game, and I kept falling for it every time, so I decided to give them one last chance today, and bought Sega Worldwide Soccer 97 on the Sega Saturn, I was surprised they even took Saturn Games on trade in, so I bought it, and guess what... it didn't work!

That's the last time I buy ANYTHING from those arseholes! They don't even have the decency to check if the discs are inside the cases, let alone if they work!

In fact, they don't even check if the case itself is in good condition, as in can it keep the game inside, I once saw a copy of GTA2 on PS1, and the case was the worst I've ever seen, but that was the only game that caught my eye at that point, so I picked it up, and the disc fell out the bottom!

If you were to snap a disc and sell them the smaller or most hazardous half, whichever is worse, with no case, scratched to f*ck, I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if they'd still sell it!

With that said, you're probably hoping that trading in games aren't so bad, I mean, if they'd accept anything, you can make money easily... right?

Sorry, no, they aren't much better in that department, my brother offered to trade in 6 games to save up for football boots, most of them fairly new at the time, and they only offered him just £5 for the lot, he declined, and I don't blame him. Worse even, I remember being in Gamestation once, and I overheard some guy trying to sell some retro games, and they shooed him away, saying they didn't take Retro games, despite having a whole WALL full of them!

Also, they're a bunch of stupid f*cks, I once bought WWF Warzone and WWF Attitude for Nintendo 64, for only £2 I might add, the labels say they were SNES games...

Ok, first of all, neither game was released for that console,
Second, the cartridge size difference is MASSIVE,
and third, it had the N64 logo ON the cartridge, how could they've missed that!?

When I went to the checkout, the guy there said "Sorry, I can't find a price on these SNES games.", I think this a good time a que a facepalm, don't you think?

Frankly, it's the worst store I ever visited, they're a prime example of a company that cares nothing about user satisfaction, but only for money, honestly, you'd be better off going to car boot sales, at least the games you buy there HAVE the games in the cases and, for the most part, WORK!

Oh how I wish for a proper store that sells retro games, one that actually checks if there's a disc/cartridge inside the case, if there is one, and if it works, if there's a store like that in Glasgow, could you PLEASE tell me about it?

Retro Diary - 4/9/11 - "Hmm, I swear I was driving a car just a moment ago..."

This post was originally going to be an announcement to say that there probably wasn't going to be a Retro Diary for 2 weeks simply because of lack of activity, because my gran is going to Italy for a 2 week holiday, and me and my cousins usually meet up there, so basically, the nest 2 weeks would be quiet.

But then I had a thought, I actually did quite a bit this week, I was playing alot of games with my brother as well as completing and digging up some games of by myself.

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I was actually playing alot of games throughout the week with my brother with games on Numerous consoles, here's what we played:

In no particular order:
• Rocky Legends [Xbox]
• Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects [Gamecube]
  
• Driv3r [Playstation 2]
• Pro Evolution Soccer 4 [Playstation 2]
• FIFA Football 2003 [Playstation 2]
• Mortal Kombat Armageddon [Playstation 2]
• Ready 2 Rumble Boxing [Dreamcast]
• 1080 Snowboarding [Nintendo 64]
• Driver 2: Back In The Streets [Playstation]

Yeah, I like calling game by their official names.

So anyway, we had a great time playing those, especially Ready 2 Rumble, that's one of the few games in my collection (in fact the only other games I can think of are Marvel Nemesis and Goldeneye) where it doesn't matter whether or not you win or lose, you're just having too much fun to care! Does anyone else have games like that? Games that are always a guaranteed blast to play in multiplayer, and it only works in local multiplayer, you don't get that feeling if you're playing online, can you?

We also played Driv3r alot too, not so much in multiplayer, but rather just taking turns playing singleplayer take a ride, and laughing at the glitches in the game, Driv3r to us is so bad, it's brilliant!

If you're wondering what the title is all about, I'm referring to a glitch and now possible in-joke from Driv3r, where my brother tried to steal some guys car, IN THE GAME (Another in-joke of ours.) of course, then the guy drove off for a bit, then just got out of the car and closed the door, letting my brother drive off, and then he said, pretending that guy was confused "Hmm, I swear I was driving a car just a moment ago...".

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I also played alot of games on my own, I've completed Wipeout and Destruction Derby on the Sega Saturn, and let me tell you, it wasn't easy, alot of the time, I wanted to give up, put the disc back in it's case, and back onto the shelves no collect dust, but I kept on coming back to it, and then eventually completing both games, and it felt great, that I actually achieved something, that I can actually move on to the next game, because I'm sick of getting sequels to games I've never completed, if you saw my Backloggery profile, 62% of my games are uncompleted!

So from now own, if any games I want to get the sequel of, I'm going to complete the first/previous game before it and I swear on this... that is of course it's an arcade game, such as Sega Rally or Daytona USA, and therefore cannot technically complete it.

Yeah, this edition of Retro Diary is lame, and since there probably won't be one next week, let hope my typing skills and the way I put things have improved, probably won't, but we'll see.