The Backlog - 08/29/2012

Listed in order of urgency.

Immediate Backlog:
PS2 - Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (Tryan Gully)

Recently Completed:
Super Nintendo - Lagoon
NES - Adventures of Lolo 2
TurboGrafx-16 - Bonk's Adventure
TurboGrafx-16 - Final Lap Twin (Quest Mode)
TurboGrafx-16 - Vigilante
TurboGrafx-16 - Ninja Spirit
TurboGrafx-16 - Keith Courage in Alpha Zones

I really need to sit my ass down and write reviews of completed games.  Damn I'm lazy lately!

Wasp x1

I swear, I should get reduced rent or something.  Go out to get the mail and see a wasp flying around, no big deal, see them all the time.  It lands on the parcel lockers, ah, it's building a nest here.  Well, I know no one will take care of it until it's full blown and spread inside the parcel locker, which most also seem to lazy to ever get their mail out of (which is why I had a delivery at the door today).  So I head back up to the apartment.  Don't have any wasp spray, don't have any brake cleaner or engine degreaser (all three have the same effect on wasps and wasp nets, more or less they melt).

Ah, but I do have some WD-40.  If you know me, you know how I feel about WD-40.  It's a shitty lubricant that was never designed to be used as such.  It's good for quick and dirty repairs to potentiometers in things like Atari paddles, repels water and prevents corrosion but that's about it.  However, it will knock out wasps and cripple a wasp nest long enough to crush it.

So I go back out with the WD-40 in hand and there's a guy out there towing a pickup truck.  Don't know if it's just broken down or if the property manager is having it towed for being illegally parked.  Considering he had to pull it out of the space I'd say it's the latter.  Now he's moved the truck out into the middle of the lot to secure it for transport, which is right by the mail boxes.  I start spraying the nest, which the wasp is currently atop of and the two truck guy asks, "Wasps?"  Wow, someone else with a brain that actually gets their hands dirty and takes care of crap!  Anyway, after hosing it down for a couple seconds the wasp was incapacitated and the nest crippled I could knock it down with my foot and mash both objects on the ground.

Game Center CX in USA

After finally watching the "Game Center CX in USA" special episode, and thoroughly enjoying it as usual, I have two things to say (although it's probably old hat at this time)...

Why the hell take Arino and crew to that dump of an indie game store 4Jays?  Wow, the games and display monitors don't work - big surprise.  Staff that doesn't know crap about games, an owner who always seems like he's pissed off someone is in his store, and outrageously overpriced inventory.  Seriously, they didn't seem too proud that their "fine establishment" was being featured on international television, at least they weren't faking for the camera.  Also while I know that the segment was for quick plays of some usually not found in Japan NES games, why was StarTropics not mentioned?  There has to be a copy in there - a game developed by Nintendo, by Japanese game developers working in America, specifically for the American audience.  Never mind that it's my favorite NES / Famicom game, it truly is a unique specimen of NES / Famicom history.

Second, the segment in the laundromat with Ms. Pac-Man.  Really, no one could do research that the reason that Ms. Pac-Man was moving so fast is because the game had a "speed up" chip installed?  It makes me wonder how much research is really done for the games on the show that are featured.  It also goes to show how much we need something like the Video Game History Museum to act as an information repository, open to everyone.

The Backlog - 02/19/2012

Listed in order of urgency.

Immediate Backlog:
PS2 - Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (Tryan Gully)

Recently Completed:
Super Nintendo - Lagoon
NES - Adventures of Lolo 2
TurboGrafx-16 - Bonk's Adventure
TurboGrafx-16 - Final Lap Twin (Quest Mode)

New change, carrying over all the recently completed titles from post to post until I write a review of them.

The Backlog - 02/12/2012

Listed in order of urgency.

Immediate Backlog:
PS2 - Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (Blizzard Peaks)

Recently Completed:
Super Nintendo - Lagoon
NES - Adventures of Lolo 2
TurboGrafx-16 - Bonk's Adventure
TurboGrafx-16 - Final Lap Twin (Quest Mode)

New change, carrying over all the recently completed titles from post to post until I write a review of them.

SM CCG = $$$

Running down auctions for a customizable / collectible card game that went out of production in like 2002 is not a good thing to be obsessed with right now.  Unfortunately I was right on with predicting the trend that the Sailor Moon CCG would shoot up in desire and price with the re-release of the translated manga.  Two years ago you could get sealed cases of the premiere booster packs for $20 - $30.  Now days they hit $60 without even trying.  I'd love to complete my premiere set (only missing two foils) and go after the hard to find Past & Future expansion set and the even harder to find "unlimited" version of the base set.  Basically to fill up the rest of the Past & Future expansion packs, the original premiere set (except for like two cards that were starter box exclusives and the foils) was reprinted as "unlimited" with a different logo in the corner and the rarity listing on each card.  "Unlimited" was kind of a mistake to call the set though since far fewer of them (and the Past & Future expansion which was very hard to find outside of starter decks) were produced than the premiere edition.

Anyway, while I only need two foils for my premiere set, I would still like to go through another entire sealed box just because it's fun.  Some of my foils came from another sealed booster box a few years ago but most came from small lots of random cards purchased on eBay.  I won one such lot this morning and another (no foils but more damage counter beads) ends in an hour or so.  I figure after another premiere box then I can focus on the random cheap auctions and really zeroing in on the missing Past & Future expansion cards.  And in case anyone is wondering, yes I know how to and actually play the game.  I'm not tying to get one of every card and stop, I have boxes and boxes of Sailor Moon CCG cards used to make decks.

I really should have bought all I needed last year but it's good to see Sailor Moon becoming popular again.  Even if it makes the items that became really cheap over the years expensive again.  Let's hope a new DVD release makes the series affordable for everyone once again.

The Backlog - 10/30/2011

Listed in order of urgency.

Immediate Backlog:
PS2 - Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (Dark Ruins)
PS2 - Beyond Good and Evil (after completion of first assignment) - RESTARTING THIS ONE AT A LATER DATE

Recently Completed:
TurboGrafx-16 - Bonk's Adventure
TurboGrafx-16 - Final Lap Twin (Quest Mode)

The two TG-16 completions will be review candidates eventually.  Man did I get a laugh at the name of the world champion at the end of Final Lap Twin's Quest Mode.

Son, Be A Deeennntiiist...

I'm really trying to get back into the swing of updating the site with content.  However, as I am well aware, things rarely go as planned.  Currently I'm fighting one hell of a toothache that has nearly incapacitated me over the past few days.  Well that's really not entirely true, I'm still able to get on with the daily grind but it has a tenancy of sacking me right when I get ready to do something outside of routine.  One of those things would be creating site content.

My commitment is still to DVGI and classicplastic.net - always has been.  However I may miss my RTM column(s) this time around due to not being able to finish them off due to the pain.  Even writing this isn't being accomplished under the best conditions.

What I can say is that I'm changing some of my collecting priorities and getting back into the TurboGrafx-16.  I regretted selling my TurboDuo the same week it left my hands, same goes for the last straight TG-16 lot that I had.  So I'm building it back up, enjoying the games, realizing how the prices have been on a steady increase and don't seem to be leveling off.  I've got a TG-16 system (AV modded it within the first hour of it showing up at my door), TurboTap, a second TurboPad on the way and some of my favorite games.  The big one being Final Lap Twin which regardless of what anyone may say about it, it's my favorite game on the system.

Also have Dungeon Explorer, Vigilante, Victory Run and a few other of the more common classics of the system.  The Legendary Axe, Bonk's Adventure and more are on the way.  I'm going for HuCARDs only right now although I did keep a few CD games when I got rid of everything else a couple years ago.  I'll probably end up region modding my system within the year since I also kept a couple PC Engine games (I think Bari Bari Densetsu is fun, I'm serious).  Right now though it's all about HuCARD games, trying to make sure the titles I get are game / case / booklet - I don't care to go for boxes.  For games that were box / plastic tray and didn't come in cases, then game / booklet is fine by me.

I'm going to keep my spending on it controlled, buy what I like when the price is right, and just really enjoy playing one of my all time favorite consoles (right there with the NES and Vectrex).

Pat The NES Punk Second Annual NES Marathon for Child's Play Charity

Check out thepunkeffect.com to follow Pat and Ian (no relation to the ClassicPlastic.net Ian) as they play NES games to raise money for Child's Play, a great charity.

I was actually able to help out this year (other than donating) as I made a comment to help them start the PowerPad game Super Team Games (you start on pads 5-6 / 7-8 instead of 1-2 / 3-4).  How many man hours I spent as a kid playing Super Team Games will not be disclosed.

Clean Up, Aisle 4

Just did some housekeeping here at the blog, removing a lot of old posts and getting things aligned for the type of content I'd like to have remain here.

Placeholder

Just a placeholder for some links I'm going to need in a week...

http://screwattack.com/shows/Talking-Classics

http://www.themeparkreview.com/spain2007/
http://www.themeparkreview.com/aussietour/
http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=998997#p998997

An Open Comment to De Anza College, Community College Network CCN1

This morning Space Shuttle Discovery returned to Earth from its final mission, completing a lifetime flight record of over 365 days in space.  The broadcast can always be watched on NASA TV over at nasa.gov but NASA also offers free HD broadcast for any television network that chooses to carry it.  Occasionally the local Community College Network channel (CCN1 De Anza) will show the NASA TV stream when they don't have anything else going on - sometimes.  You'd think it would be a perfect program to take up dead air when no distance learning classes are being broadcast but many times there's absolutely nothing being aired.

Amazingly a few nights ago they broadcast the entire launch of the Taurus rocket for the Glory satellite project, which ended in failure due to a failed launch separation.  However the entire time I was watching it I was full on expecting the broadcast to cut away.  That didn't happen, no, they decided to wait for something more momentous for that.

I got up for work early so that I could watch the NASA broadcast from the time that Discovery began its deorbit burn until eventual landing and wheel stop.  Basically I wanted to watch the final operational moments of my favorite of NASA's orbiters.  Deorbit burn was scheduled for 7:52am PST but I was up about an hour before that and began to watch on CCN1.  I was kind of shocked that they were actually showing it but I figured that since it was such an important moment in American spaceflight, De Anza realized they had a duty to provide the free service of the broadcast to the general public.

Then the clock struck 7:45 and the broadcast ended.  Instead of continuing to show the final operational moments of STS-133, De Anza elected to run their usual crap broadcast that can be aired at any time.  Of course I simply went over to my computer and pulled up NASA TV online and proceeded to watch the rest of the landing activities until I had to leave for work a few minutes after touchdown.  However I'm sure someone that may have been simply flipping channels in the morning and came across the Shuttle return, only to have it disappear in its final moments, wouldn't think anything of it.

This is one of the fundamental problems with spaceflight and the general public.  NASA providing a free HD stream for any station to broadcast is a tremendous asset to increase public awareness and involvement but only if the networks that elect to carry it actually pay attention to what is being shown.  I think the final recovery of the most traveled orbital vehicle in human history can trump whatever general broadcasting that was planned for that morning.  I'm sure no one would care, and if anything applaud the act, if the normal scheduled programming was delayed for the less than hour's time that remained until Discovery touched down.  I'm pretty disappointed to say the least in how CCN1 handles their broadcast of NASA TV.

The bigger issue is that more channels should carry NASA TV during their downtime and pay some attention to what is being shown.  It's just not programming that should be used for toss away filler, it's some of the most important things that we are doing as humans.  And it's your tax dollars at work to benefit the quality and convenience of life for all of humanity.

The Backlog - 01/23/2011

Listed in order of urgency.

Immediate Backlog:
PS2 - Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (Dark Ruins)
PS2 - Beyond Good and Evil (after completion of first assignment)

Recently Completed:
Famicom - Mad City (Translation)

The Backlog - 12/11/2010

Listed in order of urgency.

Immediate Backlog:
PS2 - Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (Dark Ruins)
PS2 - Beyond Good and Evil (after completion of first assignment)
PS2 - Gallop Racer 2003: A New Breed (ongoing)

Recently Completed:
NES - BattleToads (reviewed at DVGI)

The Backlog - 12/05/2010

Listed in order of urgency.

Immediate Backlog:
PS2 - Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (Kingdom of Argonia)
PS2 - Beyond Good and Evil (after completion of first assignment)
PS2 - Gallop Racer 2003: A New Breed (ongoing)

Recently Completed:
NES - BattleToads (reviewed at DVGI)
GB - BurgerTime Deluxe (reviewed at DVGI)

Communist Bloc+k

Advance Warning: My mind is just kinda drifting as I type this.  Don't read too far into it.

For quite awhile now I've been in a bit of a writing slump.  I don't seem to want to write for my own site or for the other outlets that I am obligated to do so for.  Then of course, are the blogs, which see maybe a post a year - at best.  I'll be honest when I say it, I really haven't felt like writing for Retrogaming Times Monthly in a long time.  I'm looking for a way to freshen up my duties there to inject it with some new energy but to me it just feels like a bit of a dark / slow time for the newsletter.  (if it is or isn't)  Of course I'm not helping it any by not contributing.

Granted I did write a review of BurgerTime Deluxe for DVGI back on November 7th of this year.  That actually felt really good to do.  I had been playing the game for quite awhile but basically sat down, played it for a couple hours, then wrote a review.  Lock, stock and barrel - that was it.  I recently forced myself to complete Battletoads and I plan on writing a review of it shortly... man how I hate that game, but that can wait.  Shorter, faster reviews are what I'm aiming for now.  I suppose the problem I have is that I always tried to make my reviews REALLY long.  Lately the descriptions run long and then the breakdowns (graphics, sound, etc.) are far shorter but perhaps that flows better in the end anyway.  We'll see how the Battletoads review works out.  I really should buckle down and write that one this Tuesday.

The visual novel I was working on has essentially been canceled so I can move onto a bigger and more interesting game.  However I don't have much more than a basic outline right now and it's really not something I wish to tackle while in such a slump.  Garbage in, garbage out I suppose.

It is a little scary to think that my best writing over the past five years has been on forum posts but that's exactly how I feel.  Not all the time, but when I think back to when the ideas were just bleeding out of my fingertips, that's where most of the best stuff ended up.

I've been playing Dragon Quest VIII again and I'll continue to say that I'm really enjoying it.  I'm not having as good a time as I did with Steambot Chronicles but damn if it isn't fun and engaging.  I've never been a fan of the meat and potatoes grind RPG - like ever.  How people can suffer through RPG games on the NES is beyond my understanding.  Hell, how people can suffer through many RPG games post NES / Famicom is beyond my understanding.  Yes, I've played through many RPG games.  My favorite in the genre is the original Grandia, which many will tell you is an incredible masterpiece.  I've tried my hand at a few NES and Famicom RPG's but often give up about 1/4 the way in.  I've played many of the so called SNES "classics" and found myself falling asleep.  (Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, etc. do not apply - those are great)  There have been PS1 RPG's that I gladly spent hours playing (Final Fantasy VII and VIII do not apply - those not so much great) and a few PS2 RPG's that weren't bad at all (namely Grandia III which was a refreshing change after the "don't give a crap about these characters" Grandia II on the Dreamcast).  I've given other Dragon Quest / Dragon Warrior games a chance in years previous but Dragon Quest VIII is the first one I actually want to play and keep playing, which is saying a lot.  It's just flat out a ton of fun with a very realized world - feels both old and new, kinda like Steambot Chronicles.

Now I do have a back catalog, I always have a back catalog.  However it's nice to actually be playing some games again.  I suppose if anything will get me out of this slump, that's probably what it will be.  Next blog post will start something new, an update of my immediate back catalog as well as games I've completed that I should write a review of.  Two birds with one stone!

Gunpei Yokoi's Invention Was Just That Good

So today I was taking a couple pictures for my site, things for title graphics, and I wanted to have my Game Boy in the picture.  So I unzip the carrying case and everything is covered in black dots.  First reaction "damn, did bugs get in here or something?"  Thankfully the black dots were simply from the foam padding inside the case - after twenty years it had finally degraded.  The Game Boy in the case is just a little older, it's my original Game Boy from Christmas of 1989 and it still works 100%.  I must have logged thousands of hours with it over the years.  It was the summer game platform of choice while I was away from home.  It also underwent a bit of a renaissance when I was between gaming platforms - the void between the Super Nintendo and PlayStation when I didn't buy many console games.

I also have an old original Game Boy AC adapter / battery pack, although that was picked from a knot of miscellaneous cables at a flea market within the past five years.  Amazingly it still holds a charge.  In fact I just let it charge for a little while and then fired up Tetris on my old brick friend.  141 lines and around 98,000 points, not bad for having not played that version in almost ten years.

I'll be honest to say that I'm fairly interested in the upcoming Nintendo 3DS, and I haven't bought a handheld since the original Game Boy Advance (which I later Afterburner modded).  The GBA SP's I've picked up for small cash and trades in the years since don't count since they were acquired used - and the GP2X doesn't count either.

David's Video Game Insanity!! Version 6.0 Goes Live

This is an official announcement that David's Video Game Insanity Version 6.0 has been launched.  There aren't any big changes really, everything has to do with behind the scenes updates that do not effect normal browsing of the site.  Essentially the main difference is how each page is titled.  As DVGI is a site that is heavily dependent on its frames, I never intended any of the pages to be accessed away from the main index.  However, as we all know, that's not how search engines work.  Because of this nearly every page that was not part of the main index was titled "Get outta here!" - what CLU tells his Bit at the beginning of TRON after his Game Tank is disabled.  (I'm sure most browsing this site will get the reference)  Years ago I added a pair of links at the bottom of each page that acts as top index to each section.  The links provide access to the main DVGI index as well as access to the main ClassicPlastic.net index, along with some text pointing out that if the page was accessed through an external source, it is actually part of a much larger site.  Yet gaining access to the information at DVGI via a search engine, unless searching for specific terms, was still greatly hampered by the pages not having unique titles.  That's primarily what the new version addresses, every page has been given a proper title just in case they are accessed outside of the main index and their frames.  I hope it will continue to boost traffic and get the information here into the hands of the people who would like to read it.

The second change has to do with ALT and TITLE tags for mouse over text on images.  For years and years I used ALT to provide popup text when the mouse pointer is left over an image.  Of course this is an incorrect way to do things but as nearly every browser continued to support it, many of us never changed.  When a couple years ago most modern browsers finally cut away using ALT tags in that way, instead wanting the proper TITLE tag for the popup text.  I've gone through the entire site and changed all the tags on the pages where they actually matter.  I know there are still some ALT tags on the RTM archive pages but they serve no purpose so I'm not going to bother.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the 80's...

Check this out!

-As reported at Digital Press forums.

Coco A Go-Go

Keep up to date on all things Conan...

Link here.

Hopefully it all works out but seriously I don't see Conan staying on NBC, regardless of anything, it's just not going to happen. However I sincerely hope that when Conan's next show starts up that he will have the full creative control that he deserves and that most if not all of his cast and crew make the move with him. Conan is a stand up guy and he won't make a deal without his staff being taken care of.

So I suppose after the Olympics that's the end of NBC for me for awhile. Now the moment Jeff Zucker is no longer associated with NBC the ban will be lifted. However I'm done with Jay Leno, it truly is a shame that one of the greatest comedians of his era is going to sour himself so heavily with this act of simply being an asshole.

I suppose Conan, Andy and Max all back together on The Tonight Show was simply too much of a dream come true to really last. Those who know me know that there was nothing more that I was looking forward to for the next decade than Conan and company being on late night TV. I'll follow wherever they go, please make it quick - the time between Late Night and The Tonight Show with no Conan was hell.