Retro Diary - 29/30/12 - "That's happened to me before in real life"

Dear Diary,

On Saturday, I tried something, I tried to get my PS2 online so I could try NBA 2k12 online (No one plays the PC version, either that or the 2K servers are awful.), by - In geeky terms - created a network bridge between the PS2 and the router using my laptop, basically, I'm using my laptop's connection to go online with the PS2. It surprisingly worked when I tested it, but when I tried going online, I had an "Authentication error", after looking it up, it's basically Sony's DNAS not working properly.

On Sunday, it was PS2 week. I played Airblade before my cousins came, I didn't get any further though, it's too hard.

Then me and Steven played Motorstorm: Artic Edge, he got lucky, twice, he was first and I was last in both races...

Then we played a couple of levels of TimSplitters 2 Co-Op, we spent most of the time playing the mini anaconda game on the Terminal Uplink!

Then me, Steven and Giancarlo played the best game ever, WWE All Stars! We had a great laugh! When we were playing it Giancarlo kept saying for a joke that the over the top moves happened to him in real life.

Then me and Giancarlo played a few games of Virua Fighter 4 Evolution,, we had 4 battles I think, I won 3, and he won the last one.

Finally, me and Steven had a quick game of Shawn Palmer's Pro Snowboarder to get our horse of the week, this week it was EPQSC, and he won! He never got a letter, maybe I'm not on top form, I'm having a bad run! It's still 10-5 to me.

After that we had to leave, next week is Xbox week, a rare week when I'm not the one bringing a console!

The games we played:

In the order we played them:
• Airblade
• Motorstorm: Artic Edge
• TimeSplitters 2
• WWE All Stars
• Viruta Fighter 4 Evolution
• Shawn Palmer's Pro Snowboarder

Article By: Cobra!

Recall help provided by: Steven

Retro Diary - 22/4/12 - "Sta-I mean 'Precioustones'!"

Dear Diary,

This week was for the most part all about the Dreamcast!

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Throughout the week, I've been playing through my collection of games, basically testing it to make sure we have no problems this week, and it's been fun, discovering games that I had, but haven't played much of, such as UEFA Dream Soccer, I only played about a minute of that before, now I play it pretty much everyday, I really enjoy it!

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On Saturday, I got my copy of Angry Birds Space on PC that I pre-ordered a month or so ago, however, I had a bit of trouble running it, the activation key didn't work, however, after hours of finding no solution, as I was the only person on green god's earth that had the problem, I resorted to reinstalling it to fix the problem, funnily enough, it did the trick!

The game's great, the best in the series by far in my opinion! The other games were to me just mild entertainment, this one is pure addiction!

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On Sunday, it was Dreamcast week, and for the first time in ages, I remembered everything this week, and we never had any problems, well, except for the fact that the Dreamcast had too many awesome games! We played so many (and we didn't play them all!) that for the most part I forgot what we played and what order!

Me and my brothers started off the week by playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, we just played round in Free-Skate.

Then I played a bit of Shenmue II, I haven't played it in ages, so I spent most of the time trying to remember what I was supposed to do, and I think I got further in the game, just a bit, as in, the now-I-know-what-to-do kind of bit.

My cousins, Steven and Giancarlo came in, then we played Le Mans 24 Hours, and I was surprised the game maintained it's superb graphics in 3 to 4-player split-screen while still running smooth, I have to say, I'm impressed!

Then we played Quake III Arena, we accidentally made it so that the game was never ending, we only noticed this ten minutes in, I guess time flies, because we, or least I was having a blast!

Then we played some ChuChu Rocket, because you can't Dreamcast week without a game or two if ChuChu Rocket! It was fun as always.

Then we played Sonic Shuffle, The game was pretty much the exact same as Mario party, except replace Coins with rings and Stars with "Precoustones.", the game we played was (thankfully) quicker than the usual Mario Party games, it was fun too, but not as much fun unfortunately...

Then we played NBA Showtime, and I was a little disappointed, because it wasn't as fun as I hoped, my cousins weren't too exited about it either...

Then we played Metropolis Street Racer, in 60hz widescreen mode! Nothing can top that, well, except for 1080p HD, but if you have all the right stuff, the Dreamcast can do that as well!

Then we played Sega Rally 2, we played a couple of games.

Then we played Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, which was, as always, fun as heck to play!

Then we played Mortal Kombat Gold, it was fun, but not as much as usual, I guess NBA Showtime and Sonic Shuffle really made the party die down, because no one except for me seemed as exited as before.

Finally we played Sonic Adventure 2, me and Giancarlo played a race of the go-kart mini game, then me and Steven managed to squeeze in a quick game on the Sonic/Shadow action stages before we had to go.

In short, here's what we played:

• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
• Shenmue II
• Quake III Arena
• ChuChu Rocket
• Sonic Shuffle
• NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC
• Metropolis Street Racer
• Sega Rally Championship 2
• Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
• Mortal Kombat Gold
• Sonic Adventure 2

So we, or at least I had a fun week this week, I wish we could make it a 2-week "week" to play all the games we had to miss out, but we can't.

Next week is PS2 week, I probably won't enjoy it as much as Dreamcast week, but it should still be fun, I mean, in it's massive library spanning 12 years of games, there's gotta be some fun to be had, right?

Cobra!

"Retro" Arrivals - Angry Birds Space [PC]

I got a new game today, have you guessed what it is yet?

I pre-ordered this game a while ago, the price has dropped since, which is a bummer, but Amazon refunded the amount discounted, which is awesome!

I'm quite a fan of the Angry Birds games, although I hate smart phones and the ipod touch, I was relived to see you didn't need them to play Angry Birds, because they've released all of the games on PC, in CD form no less!

So anyway, here are some shots of the box I've made:




Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be plying this...

Retro Diary - 15/4/12 - "That's now how you USE a Fire Flower!"

Dear Diary,

Right after I wrote my last entry, I was playing Garry's Mod with my cousin, Steven, we made some new "robots" for our robot wars, I'll make an article with more details.

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On Monday, We went to grans because my gran had leftovers from the night before since it was Easter weekend, Steven was going as well, so I thought I'd bring along a console I wouldn't normally bring, because we're going on a day we don't usually.

So I brought my Amiga CD32 with me, so we can play the game that redefined the fighting genre, Rise of the Robots! We played a bit of that, but we were a bit bored, and there were a whole pile of, albeit burnt, CD32 games that we haven't tried, I haven't even tried them, so we decided to browse through them all to see if there any fun multiplayer games, out of about 20 or even 30, we only found 2 that were multiplayer, or at least playable in multiplayer, and one of them was a football game.

The other game was Shadow Fighter, which was actually pretty good, it wasn't exactly Mortal Kombat, but it was fun to play, although it only used one button, like many CD32 games, and you had to choose between music and sound effects. (although, if you choose music, you still get a few sound effects.)

So we were playing that for the rest of the time we were there, and like I said, it's surprisingly a fun game.

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On Saturday, there were keys given out online to download the new Garry's Mod 13 beta, only 19,000 got it, and me and Steven were luckily among them.

My first impressions were mixed, I understand that it's just a beta and it's mostly for programmers to try out their new entities, props etc. rather than messing about.

The Toybox was absent, and a few garrysmod.com stuff aren't fully compatible, however, the steam workshop is pretty awesome, the menu's improved in my opinion, and the new construct level is pretty awesome, it's far bigger! I still prefer the original, because I think it has a better layout, but I love the new one as well.

I hope they get around to fixing these problems soon.

So we were messing about in that for a while.

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On Sunday, it was N64 week, my other cousin, Giancarlo couldn't be here, I don't know why this time.

This is entirely out of recollection, as I might get some info wrong.

We (me and Steven) started off by playing Goldeneye (There goes the main event... ah well), we played a few game of licence to kill slappers only, as usual, and it was fun, especially since we haven't played it in a while.

We then played wipE'out 64, we played a couple of races, first one I was first, and we was 13th, in the second race, my ship got wrecked, and he reached 11t I think.

Then we played Pokémon Stadium, we played the mini-games, I won the game we had, it was first to 5 wins.

Then we played Super Smash Bros. and we got my uncle, Steven's dad, to play it because he played it with us way back in the day, and I remember he actually at one game scored as low as -34! The lowest he got out of the matches we played was -11 I think, he's improved since the old days!

Then we played WWF Attitude, we had a triple threat match, I stupidly set the time limit to an hour, since I thought the match would end way before then, but as it turns out, it lasted half an hour, but was a fun half an hour, we had a great time!

Then my uncle had to leave, we decided to play a game of TEEEEEN EEEEIGHTY!(1080) Snowboarding, we played a load of games, first few of which I won due to him retiring from taking too much damage, then I say "Oh, Steven's dead... That means Cobra!'s the winner!", it's an in joke we have. The last race he won.

Then we had a couple of races in Star Wars Episode 1 Racer.

Then we played RIIIIIDDGE RAAAAAAACER! 64, and had a couple of races of that.

Finally, we had a quick 2 minute/5 kills game of Perfect Dark, the match ended before either of us got 5 kills, I won due to having more kills.

Then they had to leave.

Overall, it was a fun week, and was problem-free, next week is Dreamcast week, my tied-1st favourite games console ever. (Tied with Playstation.)

Article By: Cobra!

Recall help provided by: Steven

Retro Diary - 8/4/12 - "No Problem..."

Dear Diary,

I have to say, I actually expected this week, at least when it comes to gaming or anything this blog does, would be extremely quiet, but surprisingly, it's kind of been the complete opposite!

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From Wednesday to Friday, I've been to England to see my uncles and aunties that live there, and while I was there, I got Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Assassins Creed 2 on the PC, the latter of which was surprisingly the cheapest, surprising because it's a much bigger game than the Angry Birds games as you might have guessed, Assassins Creed 2 was only £5, the Angry Birds games were £7 each. That's me got all the Angry Birds collection on the PC, apart from the upcoming Space, but I'll be pre-ordering it soon.

Assassins Creed 2 was what surprised me the most, I already had Angry Birds Rio before I got the first 2, so I expected the same awesome gameplay, which it delivered, but with AC2, I didn't know what to expect, I've spent years dissing the series without trying it, and now I've contradicted myself by getting it, I wasn't disappointed in the slightest, it's a fantastic game, very addicting! However, I can't help but think it's just a medieval Grand Theft Auto...

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On Saturday, I went with my cousins to Aberfoyle, and I brought my N-gage with me, but I play it on the way there or there, so I thought it was a waste bringing it, but on the way back, my cousin - Steven - Agreed to play a game of horse on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, on the N-Gage version of the game, you can play horse with the one N-gage, just take turns, passing it back and forth, which is convenient, because I only have one N-gage and I know no one with one.

Horse of the Week - Part 1:

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In this game, instead of "horse", it was JGJMMTJTPJ! I won it, making the current standings 9-2 to me!

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On Sunday, it was PS1 week, but this time, unlike every other week where I would ask my cousins if they wanted to play the games, I decided to wait until they either approach it, or they ask if I want to play a game with them, it was to test if they actually do want to play my games, or if they just say yes just to make me happy.

Unfortunately, my other cousin, Giancarlo, couldn't be there, he was in France, I forgot to ask why...

After lunch, Steven approached the PS1, and that kind of put me in a good mood, I thought he would ignore the whole time!

We first played Formula 1 Arcade, we had a couple of games of that.

Horse of the Week - Part 2:

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We then played Matt Hoffman's Pro BMX, we had a game of horse, instead of horse, it was KKVUFZZA!

...and I lost, in fact I was annihilated, Steven didn't even get a letter! The standings after that were 9-3

After that defeat, I challenged him to a horse game on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, in this game , instead of "horse", it was KKKKCDTDDT!

This time around, it was a little more to my liking, despite my handicap (He's not as good as me.), I was winning by quite a bit, he only had a couple of letters to go.

However, my luck went back to normal: rotten. I had constant little mistakes, like the height dropped was a little too high, or going down a rail backwards, which in this game for some reason mirrors the controls, giving it a higher chance of bailing, and even at one point I bailed for no reason at all! Eventually, he lost, through luck. I suppose he still won, and it kind of balances the standing a bit to be less one-sided: the current standings, speaking of, are 9-4.

After that, I thought I'd gamble a little more, because I refuse to lose! I challenged him to a horse game on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, in this game, instead of "horse", it was SCTUVNFNFN!

During the game, we found out that the Let's do this!!! 'curse' was no longer effective, however, we discovered a new one, just when one of Steven's plays started, he said No Problem..., and almost immediately after saying that, he bailed before doing even one trick, exactly how the original curse was discovered...

...and finally, I got a win! At long last! The standings are now 10-4 to me!

Then me and my brother - Riccardo - wanted a game, I ending up winning without getting a letter, but it was his first game, he has much to learn...

Overall, this week, we both got 2 wins each, since it was a tie, the win from my match against my brother now counts, so I win, Steven's the horse of the week!

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Then we played a good few races of Firebugs, while talking about various things, Firebugs is one of those games you can casually play while talking to the person you're playing against, so we were talking about a couple of things, including Capcom's incident where they found some Street Fighter X Tekken DLC, which was meant to be released 6 months later, on the disc!

Then we played Carmageddon, we played a few games of that, this game's almost the opposite of Firebugs, the games are quite intense!

Then we, or rather Steven played some Vib Ribbon, we were having a laugh while playing this game! It's hard to explain what the game's about, so I'm not going to bother.

Then we played wipEout 3: Special Edition, Steven kept getting his ship destroyed before completing a lap somehow.

Finally, we played Klonoa Beach Volleyball, we surprisingly enjoyed ourselves, despite it being a volleyball game, a sport neither of us are exactly into...

The list of games we played: (a.k.a. tl;dr)

In the order we played them
• Formula One Arcade
• Mat Hoffman's pro BMX
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
• Firebugs
• Carmageddon
• wipEout 3: Special Edition
• Klonoa Beach Volleyball

So I surprisingly had a fun week this week, next week is the week of the console that started it all, the Nintendo 64! Fun is guaranteed! A problem-free week isn't...

Article By: Cobra!
Recall help provided by: Steven

Rant: Video Game Companies war against used game sales - My opinion

These days all I hear is about games companies attempting to combat used games, and I'm getting sick and tired of it, I, as well as many are totally against this, so I decided to make a rant on it, just to get it off my chest.

What's wrong with people buying used games? I mean, you don't see 20th Century fox throwing a fit over people buying used DVDs, or WMG making a big deal out of people buying used CDs, do you?

So why is it such a big problem for games, what makes the games industry so important, the industry's even bigger then the movie industry now, which means generally, you would make more money out of games than movies, so you'd think games companies would be the last companies to be complaining about used game sales, wouldn't you?

Once companies finally combat used games, the industry is just going to fall apart, game stores would end up closing, the idea of lending a game to a friend would be gone, and if you get these consoles and eventually feel nostalgic about them and want to play them again, touch luck, ya can't!

Also, this would mean people would need a constant internet connection to play the game, what about those who don't have an internet connection, and parents who are concerned about their children going online, and don't give them access? they're customers too you know, a 3rd of the world still lacks an internet connection, so that would estimate companies losing a 3rd of their sales.

Take the music industry for example, CDs still take up about 60% of music sales, and I bet a majority of those people did so because they lack an internet connection.

Also, there's that problem with broadband cutting off on you, and just going slow, it happens to us a lot, what if that happened when you were playing a game? Would it cut off, I imagine.

Going into more detail with buying used games years after, they're several problems that totally eliminate any possibilities of playing a game years later for nostalgia without modifying or hacking the console, one thing is that the game would no longer be in production, so they can't play the full game, and plus, the internet service would be down, meaning even if they managed to obtain a new copy, they can't play it.

Speaking of hacking and modifying consoles, people are already planning on doing either or both when the new consoles come out, from an company's point of view, they would end up wasting money on overcoming their problems, when that happens, people would overcome that and so on and so forth and ending up wasting more money than you would probably make by eliminating used game sales anyway.

Have youse noticed that the two companies that are trying to eliminate used games the most, aren't even games companies, Sony and Microsoft, and yet the only actual games company on the hardware market; Nintendo, aren't fussed by it all? or haven't said anything on the matter? At least nothing against it? I'm just saying... that raises a few more points I want to make about different matters, but I don't want to trail off the subject, so, maybe for another rant?

If you ask me, to get more people to buy used games, I think the idea is rather than punishing those who buy it used, reward those who buy it new, rather than convincing them to avoid getting a used copy, convince them to buy a new one. For example, give them exclusive content, or create a premium account for your game's online service, and give new copy buyers free trials, or even better, give them it free period, that would convince me to buy a new copy!

That way it's a win-win situation, people can still lend copies to their friends, people can still play them in retrospect, yet if their friends want to get it and want the full thing, they'll get a new copy, and if they get a used copy, they'll get the premium account.

Not only that, but it would help maintain your reputation, or even raise it, making it all more profitable in the long run, think about that guys... forget it, it's not like they'll ever read this anyway!

Going into more detail on something else I mentioned earlier, if used games are no more, then game stores would be as well, as most stores get their profits out of used games. Most of youse who read this blog will probably know that I prefer to do thing digitally as little as possible, meaning, I'd rather get a physical copy from a real store, with physical money. So as you might have guessed, I'm not happy about this, usually, I would by from Amazon, but only because it's cheaper, but whenever I'm out, if there's one nearby, I'd go into a game store and browse around and maybe buy something, I love doing that, instead of knowing exactly what Amazon has, I'd love browsing through game stores and seeing what they have, that feeling will soon go and we'll have to stick with boring old Amazon!

Also, again, what about those who don't have the internet, they're customers too, and once game stores close, how will they get their games? Answer, they can't, so again, a big chunk of potential customers have been lost, so game sales will go down, eventually maybe even entirely ruin the game industry.

Alright, maybe that wasn't my most angry point end with, but that's my rant done, and I actually feel a lot better now that's it's off my chest, I hope someone's learnt a thing or two, making my research for this rant worth it.

Bottom line: I couldn't be more against it if I tried, but there's absolutely nothing I can do about it, it's happening, and for that, I send my condolences to used media, you've served me well, you were always there when I didn't have money for a new copy, and provided people like me the benefit of retro gaming, awesome games, arguable for the most part better than new games, but for far cheaper. I will miss going into a store and buying an old game used, I will have to cherish those memories, as I soon will never be able to create any more...

I have a few more things I need to get off my chest related to gaming, but you'll have to wait another time, or if you're lucky, it won't come at all...

Retro Diary - 2/3/12 - "Game over Yeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!"

Dear Diary, I've had a fun week this week.

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On Thursday, as I mentioned then, I got Rayman Origins for PC a day before it was supposed to come out, and it's great, the game's good fun!

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It was Sega Saturn Week this week on Sunday,

Surprisingly, this week at our gran's house was mostly problem-free, I say almost, I mean we had a couple of minor problems here and there.

Me and my cousin - Steven - Started off by Playing Sega Worldwide Soccer 98, in world wide soccer 98, when I first played my brother, he accidentally scored a couple of goals just by running in with the ball so we made an in joke by calling that 'pulling a worldwide soccer' even though that was most likely just a one off, but it turns out, it's a common occurrence and is very easy to do, to get past any player, even if it's the goal keeper, just press the print button (L) as you approach him, and in order to shot, you have to hold A for a few seconds, by the time you're about to score, the goal's open, you you just run in with it, like I said, this is a very common occurrence.

Anyway, I beat Steven 3-0, we went as Italy and Germany respectively.

Then we popped in Sega Rally Championship, and we played 3 races, one in each map (They're are 3 maps by the way, spoilt for choice!), and we noticed that when the race is finished the winner's text is red, and the loser's is green, is the game trying to tell us that winning is bad and losing is good? It doesn't exactly help that the Game Over screen is so cheerful!

Then we played Daytona USA, and while we were playing that we were discussing the topic of companies re-releasing their old games onto Xbox Live, PSN and Steam, and how it was depleting the value of the old console by making their exclusives, no longer exclusives, it turns out, Steven agrees with me on that, he says he doesn't like it when companies do that, and that he'd only buy re-released game if it one he really like e.g. Metal Gear Solid HD collection, and that's kind of the same with me, I might consider getting Shenmue 1 & 2 if it comes out on Steam, but that doesn't change my opinion on the matter one bit.

Finally, we played a few races of Sega Touring Car Championship, then we packed up and left.

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After grans, when we were at home, we played a few "Robot Wars" matches on Gmod, since it was late, we only had a couple of matches, but it was fun as always.

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Next week in Playstation week, I hope next week will be problem free, but knowing my luck, that won't be the case...