I've got it bad... so far this year I've bought over 60 games (at least, probably a bit more than that), and two consoles. ... and I want like five more...
... "but how do you play them all?" Ah, simple! I don't! :D ... okay I'll play them a bit, but most of them just get put down to maybe play sometime. By now I justify it mostly by saying "I'm getting them as much just to HAVE them as I am to actually PLAY them".... which is a reasonable point, though when I don't have much money, have even less income, and keep buying piles of old games... well, I need more money. :D
Just within the last year...
July '05: SNES. I'm up to 35 games.
January '06: PSX. 29 games already... ack...
May '06: Genesis. 21 games now. Less money has been spent here than on the SNES or PSX though... cheaper console ($40 for the SNES with just a controller, $21 for Genesis with two games and a controller), and many cheaper games too.
... and now I'm interested in a Saturn (though that's probably not realistic), Dreamcast (just $40 for a console with controller, memory card, and a couple of games...), and PS2 ($85 for just console, controller, and memory card, or $100 for that with two games)... and I've only got like $400 at the moment, having spent upwards of $300 since getting home from college. Pawn shops and local gaming stores are a mixed blessing. On the one hand now I have all this cool stuff, but on the other hand... well look at all that money gone... :D (well some of that went to Gamestop and EB too, of course, but not nearly all...)
Around here there are a number of used game stores that have a LOT of used Saturns. Keep in mind that the one weakpoint of the Saturn design is that blasted save battery. It drains a tad too quickly and you'll likely need to buy a replacement (just a basic watch battery) when you get one. Go to eBay and search for "memory card" or anything like that you find the SAME IDIOT who's been making money for MONTHS at least selling a standard watch battery as "important replacement part for Saturn memory". It is annoying because he's selling a million at once at any one time and if I'm actually searching for the Saturn memory card it gets flooded out by those entries. The saturn memory card doesn't use a battery, fortunatly.
I saw one Saturn in a local pawn shop, but don't know if it has any cables (power supply, etc) because it was just sitting there by itsself... I could ask next time I'm there though.
Oh, and of course I really, really want a NES, and have since... pretty much forever... but I can't convince myself that one of those Asian NES clones that don't even support real NES controllers is worth it, and real NESes are hard to find. And break quickly. New NESes are cool, but those are really rare...
Quote:Around here there are a number of used game stores that have a LOT of used Saturns. Keep in mind that the one weakpoint of the Saturn design is that blasted save battery. It drains a tad too quickly and you'll likely need to buy a replacement (just a basic watch battery) when you get one. Go to eBay and search for "memory card" or anything like that you find the SAME IDIOT who's been making money for MONTHS at least selling a standard watch battery as "important replacement part for Saturn memory". It is annoying because he's selling a million at once at any one time and if I'm actually searching for the Saturn memory card it gets flooded out by those entries. The saturn memory card doesn't use a battery, fortunatly.
Something to be thankful for, with so many other old consoles that are battery-only or battery-mostly (NES, GB, SNES: battery only. Genesis, battery mostly. 32X: I don't know. Then there's fun stuff like the Sega CD (internal unchangable battery AND memory cards with internal batteries as the only save systems), Sega CD/Turbografx/3D0/CD-i (internal unchangable batteries inside the consoles... at least I think the Turbografx does, like those other ones...), the GBC with mostly battery save carts, the GBA and N64 which split between flash memory and battery save and for the most part it's anyone's guess which games use which (especially for the GBA... at least for N64 we know what uses batteries: the memory cards and 12 games, most all of which are unfortunately quite good and many people have.)
Yeah, the Genesis is weird. Most Genesis games don't have saving, of course. Of the ones that do, I know some use batteries, but others use a type of flash RAM also found on some GBA games called 'FeRAM' or 'Ferroelectric RAM'; I've seen a cart scan of NBA Jam for the Genesis and there's no battery there. But unlike N64 and SNES, I can't find any other Genesis cart scans (not one!), so very frusteratingly I have no idea whatsoever which Genesis games have FeRAM (which I'd assume would last much longer) and which use batteries... and I don't have the screwdriver that can open up the carts. Same goes for 32X. Sega CD I know has an internal battery and I know that I have read that its backup save carts also use batteries. But I'd really like to know which Genesis games save to which type of saving! Bah...
Compared to stuff like that, a battery you've got to change once a year or something, combined with flash memory save carts for backup, doesn't sound too bad... (Saturn)
(Oh, the Dreamcast has an internal rechargable battery you can't change too, but that only runs the clock, which matters for like one game, aside from dates on save files...)
Of course flash memory goes bad too, as anyone who's ever had a PSX/PS2/GC/DC (or Saturn, given how its memory carts are flash) memory card go bad, but at least it doesn't continue to go bad while it's sitting on the shelf, for the most part.
... actually, that brings up a good question. "Why the heck do you buy battery-backed games, knowing that a lot of them are already running dead or dying batteries??" ... and again I have no good answer... umm, for Genesis I only have a few games that have oncart save... for SNES it's a few more and some of them do have bad batteries, but I couldn't resist... but I am using that for one reason that I didn't get LttP yesterday, though. With the others being 'I already have it for GBA and haven't managed to finish it yet, and wouldn't really want to start again' and 'it'll be on Virtual Console for sure...' (those same three reasons are also why I haven't gotten DKC1 and DKC3, though I did get DKC2 -- I did want to have at least one of them...)
On another note, I found a store yesterday that had a lot of great stuff... some boxed NES and SNES games, a bunch of boxed Genesis games, Sega CD stuff, a lot of Atari 2600 carts (and even 2 5200 games and a 7800 game or two).. I've seen plenty of used 2600s though, but I'm just not interested. Maybe if I was five or ten years older...
Sega CD... not exactly much available. :D Loadstar, Sewer Shark, Third World War, a few others even less worth mentioning... Saturn's not in great shape either, with only a few titles. I've seen Clockwork Knight, that motorcycle game from the arcade, Shanghai, Criticom, Street Fighter: The Movie, Blackfire, Stellar Fire (or something like that... Stellar Assualt?), a few others...
What I got yesterday, though, was pretty nice. Axelay, Super Castlevania IV, and F-Zero for the SNES and Contra: Hard Corps (with manual), Golden Axe, Outrun 2019, Phantasy Star II (with manual and map), and The Haunting starring Polterguy for Genesis (all of those Genesis games came in their cases)... I really wanted F-Zero, Axelay, Golden Axe, and Outrun 2019. Great to find them. :)
I also saw (for Genesis), but didn't pick up yet, Lightening Force, Arrow Flash, Kid Chameleon, Street Fighter II SCE (SFII Turbo for SNES too, but I have SSFII for SNES already and the Genesis controller is better), etc... a bunch of stuff...
I also saw a bunch of Master System carts, more than I've seen anywhere around here. Made me have slight interest in a Power Base Converter, if I ever see one...
As the Wii launch gets closer, I'm less and less tempted to buy old SNES games. If I want Demon Crest (and I DO), I think I'll wait for the Wii to come out and see if Capcom stuffed a ROM in there. If I can play whatever games I want on ONE system, and the controller does everything I want it to (and ABF and myself have already discussed the few areas of improvement they could work on with the "SNES" controller), I may not need to worry about buying used games. I'll have a big screen and pretty much all the "original experience" I could want (it's not like I'd have the instruction manual most of the time anyway, though in all honesty they should do the same thing the Sonic collection did and include a high resolution scan of the instruction manual in each game you can digitally page through, and it would be nice if you could use the Wii remote to actually switch between the game and draw maps in a seperate saved image for games like Kid Icarus or Metroid).
In a perfect world, I could shove all my existing carts in a ROM reader made by Nintendo for the Wii and save the game, saved data and all, straight into the Wii's memory unit, and that memory unit would be massive.
The idea is that if I'm using some flash rom to store all the games, then the dying batteries we have dealt with are no longer an issue. Oh, and of course Nintendo and a lot of other companies no longer need to deal with requests like "could you release such and such ancient game I can't find for the Gameboy something or the Playstation thisorthat?" because it'll all be there for download. Even Sony's getting in on the action by putting a lot of old PS1 games online to download. I have a big problem with that though. They have to be altered for the screen, the controls, and you'll need like, a bajillion memory cards to have any decent number of PS1 games.
Quote:(and ABF and myself have already discussed the few areas of improvement they could work on with the "SNES" controller),
Yeah, one reason I got that Genesis recently was for that exact reason... the Genesis controller is fantastic. I really, really love the 6-button Genesis controller (which I have), and that Wii Classic Controller doesn't even come close... I don't want to be playing Genesis games on that thing really... I could, but it wouldn't be as good...
Quote:In a perfect world, I could shove all my existing carts in a ROM reader made by Nintendo for the Wii and save the game, saved data and all, straight into the Wii's memory unit, and that memory unit would be massive.
This would, of course, be unbelievably awesome, but for monetary reasons (ie Nintendo wants you to pay them. Again.) it'll never happen. :(
Quote:I could want (it's not like I'd have the instruction manual most of the time anyway, though in all honesty they should do the same thing the Sonic collection did and include a high resolution scan of the instruction manual in each game you can digitally page through, and it would be nice if you could use the Wii remote to actually switch between the game and draw maps in a seperate saved image for games like Kid Icarus or Metroid).
Yeah, manuals would be awesome... used games usually don't come with them, and while manuals for console games are usually not necessary, they are definitely nice to have... and if I'm paying for a download one, I would like to get the manual in some form, even if it's just a text file.
Quote:Even Sony's getting in on the action by putting a lot of old PS1 games online to download.
Well, they said they will, but they haven't done it yet. I assume that their tendencies to like to DRM things have slowed them down... :)
Action Replay 4-in-1 is a must for Saturn owners.
Why? Games too hard to beat without it?
No DJ, for imports, because there were two or three times more Saturn games released in Japan as there were here, including a lot of the best ones.
Yeah, it looks that way... you can't play KOF'95, but oh well. I like KOF '02 and '03 best anyway, I think... (though '98 is also pretty good) Not being able to play one or two games is a minor price to pay for everything you get... though also having a save cart that games can actually recognize so you don't have to be constantly copying files to the system memory and back seems like it'd be worth it as a time saver (though of course you couldn't use it with import games, but oh well)... I'd assume that no Saturn games have save files larger than the internal memory?
A Black Falcon Wrote:Yeah, one reason I got that Genesis recently was for that exact reason... the Genesis controller is fantastic. I really, really love the 6-button Genesis controller (which I have), and that Wii Classic Controller doesn't even come close... I don't want to be playing Genesis games on that thing really... I could, but it wouldn't be as good...
True. It's why I got the Sonic collection for Gamecube. It doesn't have the full 6 button layout, it is missing two buttons, but the Sonic games only used 3 buttons anyway, and even then they almost always did the exact same thing, so for them it's no biggy. BUT FOR FIGHTING GAMES LIKE STREET FIGHTER, A 6 BUTTON LAYOUT IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO, EVER! People picked Genesis over SNES for that reason a lot of the time, even though SNES versions had more colors and better sound quality. Nintendo should really add two more buttons. C'mon! You know it makes sense!
Quote:This would, of course, be unbelievably awesome, but for monetary reasons (ie Nintendo wants you to pay them. Again.) it'll never happen. :(
I know it'll never happen because of how unlikely it is for them to put any money in such specialist hardware. Even if it was just a "Nintendo Online Store exclusive". They are too busy working on the Wii Finglonger. My little dream would be cool, but it wouldn't be very long.
Quote:Yeah, manuals would be awesome... used games usually don't come with them, and while manuals for console games are usually not necessary, they are definitely nice to have... and if I'm paying for a download one, I would like to get the manual in some form, even if it's just a text file.
I've been to a site that just has text copies of old instruction manuals. Eh. I'm mainly talking about oldies like Kid Icarus where the entire story of the game is held in the manual and not in-game. Or, MGS, where a key secret of the game is a joke about "checking the case" for a key code, which is lost on anyone who just bought the disks used somewhere, and the secret is actually in a picture on the box artwork on the back. That's why a fully scanned image is my preference, even if it'll take up a few megabytes.
Quote:Well, they said they will, but they haven't done it yet. I assume that their tendencies to like to DRM things have slowed them down... :)
Sony hasn't done it yet but there's every reason to expect them to. They've been prepairing for it for some time and RIIIDGE RACER was demonstrated at E3. In fact, the reason they've been so intent on stamping out homebrew so very completely is to prevent anyone from pirating illegal copies of the game (the security key is hard to crack, that impractically hard kind that would take a computer working for many eons to finally solve, hence why homebrew hasn't bothered trying to copy the "liscensed software" tag and have had to find vulnerabilities in order to get their software to run). Again though, the issue is that with games taking up several hundred megabytes, a memory card, even a 4 gig one, isn't going to be much use for more than a few games, less if we are talking multidisk games like Final Fantasy VII or something.
Quote:BUT FOR FIGHTING GAMES LIKE STREET FIGHTER, A 6 BUTTON LAYOUT IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO, EVER! People picked Genesis over SNES for that reason a lot of the time, even though SNES versions had more colors and better sound quality. Nintendo should really add two more buttons. C'mon! You know it makes sense!
Exactly. Gameplay matters most, and while graphics and sound matter, gameplay is more important, and Genesis does 2d fighting games better. Though I must say, Street Fighter was always more popular on the SNES... though that's probably true for the same reason that Mortal Kombat was always more popular on Genesis: the first game was best on that platform, so people kept buying it for that one. MK is clearly better on SNES from MKII on. As for SF, the SNES versions have better graphics by far (especially Super SFII, which looks great), but that controller... the Genesis controller is just so much better for the game... and that's why I want one of the Genesis versions despite the fact that I already have one of the SNES ones. :)
Quote:I've been to a site that just has text copies of old instruction manuals. Eh. I'm mainly talking about oldies like Kid Icarus where the entire story of the game is held in the manual and not in-game. Or, MGS, where a key secret of the game is a joke about "checking the case" for a key code, which is lost on anyone who just bought the disks used somewhere, and the secret is actually in a picture on the box artwork on the back. That's why a fully scanned image is my preference, even if it'll take up a few megabytes.
That's a very good point, for most NES, TG-16, SNES, and Genesis games, the story is in the manual... and often only in the manual... so not having that means that you don't really know what's going on. Oh, you can still play, but it'd be nice to know the plot...
As for full scanned ones, yeah that's best, as it gives you the pictures too and not just the words, but it's also often harder to navigate (like PDFs vs. text) and much, much larger in size, making keeping many of them not as feasible as it is for text files -- those scanned manuals would be MUCH larger than the games themselves, after all... :)
Quote:Sony hasn't done it yet but there's every reason to expect them to. They've been prepairing for it for some time and RIIIDGE RACER was demonstrated at E3. In fact, the reason they've been so intent on stamping out homebrew so very completely is to prevent anyone from pirating illegal copies of the game (the security key is hard to crack, that impractically hard kind that would take a computer working for many eons to finally solve, hence why homebrew hasn't bothered trying to copy the "liscensed software" tag and have had to find vulnerabilities in order to get their software to run). Again though, the issue is that with games taking up several hundred megabytes, a memory card, even a 4 gig one, isn't going to be much use for more than a few games, less if we are talking multidisk games like Final Fantasy VII or something.
That last point is the best one, and it's one Sony will have to solve. I sure don't know the answer, particularly if they're going to run on a PSP...
While, the Action Replay 4-in-1 DOES allow you to enable cheat codes, it also acts as a RAM upgrade, memory card, and it lets you play import games.
Oh, hence the 4 in 1? Interesting, but the issue is the fact that I have "the fear" of unofficial memory card solutions ever since the dark days of the unofficial PS1 memory cards...
I haven't had any problems with it. Besides, it's either that or messing around with watch batteries or trying to hunt down an official memory card. In either of those cases you lose a lot of functionality.
Aren't most unofficial memory card problems with cards that compress data? That is, not 1x cards, but ones that try to fit more on... I have an unofficial N64 memory card (1x) Performance, a brand of ex-company Interact) that has worked just as well as my first-party card since I got it in late 1999... my two PSX cards are Mad Catz (1x) and are fine... and my cousin has a third party PSX card, third party DC card, and third party N64 card (4x), and all have had no major problems... oh, yeah, I have lost save files before, but I've had just as many problems with my official cards (N64 and GC) as my third party ones and have never lost everything on a card. ... well, I did once, I think, but I only had like two games at the time that supported the N64 memory card, so that's not saying much. :)
I have never lost data on a memory card yet, official or unofficial. *Knocks on head* Both of my GameCube memory cards that I leave in the system are Interact cards.
I understand that the only real problem comes from cards that guessed at reverse engineering the original memory card and got it wrong as opposed to getting the basic design specs straight from the company. I also understand I have no idea of knowing which is which outside of seeing that "authorized by" logo, and so I don't bother. But, these days it seems they do things better and there's much less of a risk.
Anyway, my memory cards are now all official, which is fine. Nintendo's latest Gamecube card seems faster as well as bigger.
I lost my Wipeout 64 save once, soon after I got it, but the card was okay because that was years back and the card still works fine.
A few times my N64 cards have had issues and have partially erased themselves -- once I lost Goemon's Great Adventure (soon after I had re-purchased it and was about to get the last ticket... but I replayed it. Twice more, because it's awesome. :)) and a few other less important files (Excitebike 64 tracks, a Gauntlet file or two... (I have like 10... :D)... but as I said, I never had the whole cards erase themselves. I have one Nintendo brand card and one Performance (Interact) 1x card.
Gamecube... once my SpyHunter file corrupted itsself, and once the Midway Arcade Treasures file corrupted itsself (darn you Midway!), but other than that I've had no problems, and those corruptions didn't damage other files on the cards... All three of my cards are first party (59, 251, and 1019, but I don't use the 59 anymore).
Quote:I have never lost data on a memory card yet, official or unofficial. *Knocks on head* Both of my GameCube memory cards that I leave in the system are Interact cards.
You will eventually, if just because your N64 card's batteries die. :) ... unless you back up the files to your PC with a Dexdrive or something similar, that is.
I rarely used my N64 memory card, though. I think I may have had Madden 2000 saves on it, but that might have been it.
I have two, both completely full... it all depends on if you buy third party games. The vast majority of third party N64 games require memory cards.
Going back to the original subject, if I were asked 'which console do you want most, price aside...", I'd probably have to say Neo-Geo... because it has good games and it's so ridiculously expensive (systems and games) that I won't have a real one anytime in the forseeable future. Wish I did, though... :(
Which is why it is great news to hear a NeoGeo emulator is going to be a part of the Wii system there then yet.
I'll say this. XBox Live Arcade's service doesn't really have what I would call "must have titles" in abundance. Maybe later, but as of yet I've obtained only one singular game. It is the one that interested me and the one I, surprisingly, did not already have in some form. That would be Joust. Fun little game that. At least it was cheap.
Also, keep in mind I have no desire at all to actually PAY for the likes of a "skin" or an "icon". I'm not sure what wastes of life actually spend money on things like that for their cell phones (probably the same sorts of people who BOUGHT screen savers back when that was "all the rage", despite a bajillion free ones out there). Also, I hate Microsoft "Disney Dollars". Just tell me the price you idiots and don't make me plunk down more than the minimum amount of money to buy something just to have the "super fun chucky cheese tokens" I need to buy one thing that actually interests me.
It's basically the same idiotic money conversion thing you might see at a real arcade, or a church :D.
Quote:Which is why it is great news to hear a NeoGeo emulator is going to be a part of the Wii system there then yet.
Well, that'd be nice, but as far as we know so far it's just going to be a collection (of the six Neo-Geo Metal Slug games), released on disc, not Neo-Geo games in Virtual Console. And besides, part of what's cool about Neo-Geo is those amazingly large carts... the biggest carts ever for a home console by far... :)
Quote:I'll say this. XBox Live Arcade's service doesn't really have what I would call "must have titles" in abundance. Maybe later, but as of yet I've obtained only one singular game. It is the one that interested me and the one I, surprisingly, did not already have in some form. That would be Joust. Fun little game that. At least it was cheap.
Yeah, haven't they been pretty slow in adding new games? Nintendo shouldn't have that problem on Virtual Console if they spread out their classic game releases... :)
Quote:It's basically the same idiotic money conversion thing you might see at a real arcade, or a church .
Yeah, we don't know if Nintendo is going to do a money conversion thing like the Microsoft points, but it'd make sense, so you can have a unified system instead of having to change the money display for every country... either way would work (since they've got to translate the text anyway), but it'd probably be simpler.
Doubt it. Just have a conversion program. I mean they will have to decide the pricing for each country anyway and still will need to convert it and show how much it costs. Might as well cut out the middle thing. Sorry, I'm not buying that as a good excuse.
It also removes the actual price by one level, making people maybe not quite sure how much they spent, a nice bonus! :D
... okay, that's probably the real reason. :)
That's one thing, but the real reason seems to be the amazing power of NOOOON REEEFUNDABILITY! SEE IT SAVE THE DAY!
You see, something may cost 150 "tokens" but if you can only buy tokens in increments of 500, that leaves 350 left that you have nothing to do with but mindlessly spend away. So basically, anything less than the minimum number of tokens you can buy individually is actually that very same minimum. It is a rare case when everything you want "fits" perfectly in the number of units you would need to get so you don't spend any more than exactly what you wanted to get.
On the practical side, it adds an extra step. I can't just buy something, I have to go through a bunch of extra menus to get to it.
I should just call them reporting this as a "pretty aweful glitch" that needs to be "repaired" for optimul user functionality. It's for the Users! I generally despise when my ability to use a program is hindered by "features" that are not meant to aid the users. This also includes any sort of advertising annoyances. XBox 360 is officially the first console to sport "ad banners". And, these aren't just for games, I'm talking "EL NACHO LIBRE COMING TO THEATERS" taking up a significant portion of the screen in the OS. If they are getting advertising monies, why am I still paying the same amount for Live again?
Moving right along, MS updated Live 360 and now I'm actually able to have full access to original XBox game saves, except I can't copy them to a memory card (which is something that would be very handy). Also they added support for something called the "Live Camera". I suppose they liked the eyetoy enough they wanted to copy it.
What does "full access" mean, then?
It means I am able to actually SEE all the game's saved data just like I was on the original XBox. I just don't have the ability to copy the saved data to a memory card.
Conclusion: Old games are HARD!
... Contra: Hard Corps, Lightening Force, and Mega Man & Bass (I got a GB Player today... $30 used... needed something to replace my failing old original GBA (badly scratched screen and barely functional dpad make playing anything more action-packed than Fire Emblem barely possible...), and I got that. I thought about a used original GBA (since those are just $25, while SPs are quite a bit more), but got this. ... I might get another GBA also (since playing GBA games on a portable is the point, and being just tied to a TV isn't good, no matter how awesome it is...), we'll see, but for now, this is awesome... fullscreen GBA games? They look amazingly good in fullscreen mode... shows the advantage of a console made with a TV aspect ratio instead of the square of the older GBs. :)
The only question is, "would buying a GB Player for $55 or $60 (most of the ones I've seen new are in this price range for some reason) when I saw them months back have been worth it, given how great it is"? I'm not sure... probably, but... $30 is very nice...
It's a double-edged sword, though. Now I can play them on a big, bright TV... but now I have to play Mega Man & Bass... and it's probably the hardest Mega Man game ever... ack... like the aforementioned other two (Genesis) games I got recently... games that are so hard that it's a serious accomplishment to beat the first level... and then you realize that there are seven or eight more and you have only five or so continues until you're sent back to the Sega logo! ... oh wait, at least MM&B isn't quite THAT evil -- though when you're playing it you don't notice, with a difficulty level that high... (Lightening Force: I haven't beaten two levels in one game yet. Contra: Hard Corps: same. MM&B: beaten the intro level and one robot master... the easiest one...)
Even so, all three have to be called really, really awesome games... just ones where most people who play them will probably never see the later levels, unless they put a lot of time into the things.
... but hey, it could be worse! I could be trying to play Battletoads... (no, I don't have it, but I played Battletoads in Battlemaniacs for SNES a few months ago, and it's every bit as hard as advertised... was playing it two player, and after four or five attempts at level one we gave up. Just insane.)
So no, I'm not complaining. One reason for GETTING old games, after all, is to play games that have a serious challenge, in genres that are less popular today... it just gets very frusterating.
So how soon can I get a NES? :D
If you want a portable GBA, I'd go ahead and spend a few extra bucks to get an SP. Seriously consider it.
I don't really dislike the original model GBA though, despite its dark screen, mine just isn't working right...
Wow the DS lite plays GB and GBC games?!
That's sorta what ABF also wants.
Yeah, I want something that can actually play Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble for instance, and my other GBC games... I've still got two original GBs in fine shape, but with the GBC broken and the GBA barely working, the GB Player is all I've got for GBC games now really... of course I only have like twelve, since I lost one and two broke, but still.
... oh, I've noticed a bunch of my GB/GBC games dying on me over the past year... Kirby 2, DK Land, Survival Kids (GB/C), Kirby Pinball (though that might have been a 'flipped it on and off too fast a bunch of times by accident' problem)... I know that they have batteries, but when before the only game that had had save issues was Mole Mania, it's odd that so many more happened in a relatively short period of time. Of course, why are my five Genesis games with batteries all seemingly okay while three or four of my six or seven battery-backed SNES games randomly erase savedata? I don't get it... why do some batteries die after just five or six years (like that six or seven year old copy of Survival Kids) and others are still fine ten or fifteen or more years later (for NES games with still-functional batteries)?
Anyway, Fire Emblem (GBA) also erased itsself, which is really annoying, but I don't know if that's a battery or flash memory game and can't check without opening the cart, and either way no way should any GBA batteries be dead yet, especially a three year old one, so I have no idea what happened there... the same thing that happened to my Mario Bros. Deluxe cart that rendered it useless one day when I went to play it, perhaps (read: nothing I could tell -- it just stopped working)?
Stupid game! (I've had other GB games randomly erased before, too, I think it's happened to Link's Awakening several times... nothing to do with the battery as far as I could tell, my GB games just seem to like to mess up...)
Anyway, to the point. I can see why Nintendo dropped GB/GBC compatibility from the DS: they want to avoid compatibility with systems which are starting to fail because of things like old batteries. Of course price is part of it too, but I bet that was a consideration... the Micro too. As for what I want... uh, good question. Do I want a GBC, so that I can play Bionic Commando: Elite Forces without having to do the annoying workaround every time I turn it on so it doesn't crash when I go into a stage like it will on GBAs otherwise (and to properly play Tilt n Tumble, too!)? A SP, for general GB/GBC/GBA play? And a DS? But that's three systems, what am I supposed to do, carry them all around? No... yeah, it's kind of annoying. Even the GB Player and Super Game Boy aren't completely independant, because of Nintendo's stupid decision to not add in Super Game Boy modes for games that supported them... if I want to play 2 (or 4, if I ever find a multitap) player Bomberman GB, I can only do it on a SGB...
Haha, yeah why doesn't Nintendo make EVERY CONCIEVABLE CONCESSION for backwards compatibility?
Also GR, you forget that the DS is fine for GBA games UNTIL you want to play some multiplayer.
It'd be nice to have "optimus gameboy" the best thing ever'd. It would even hack Kirby Tilt & Tumble to invert the controls.
Quote:Haha, yeah why doesn't Nintendo make EVERY CONCIEVABLE CONCESSION for backwards compatibility?
Also GR, you forget that the DS is fine for GBA games UNTIL you want to play some multiplayer.
It'd be nice to have "optimus gameboy" the best thing ever'd. It would even hack Kirby Tilt & Tumble to invert the controls.
One that supports all the games, doesn't have bugs in BC: EF (the screen is way too dark, far darker than it is on a GBC or than how it should be for a GBA-native game -- I compared the two, BCEF on GBC and GBA, the colors are all significantly darker on GBA... also it's got a bug where if you do a top-down stage in a GBA the game will crash, unless when you turn the game on you start a new game, get into level one, restart the system to the main menu (or quit? I forget), and then load your save... every time you turn it on, unless you want to have to dodge the trucks... and that's annoying because topdown stages are the only place you get extra lives from.)
The problems with Kirby GBC are obvious. :)
Quote:Haha, yeah why doesn't Nintendo make EVERY CONCIEVABLE CONCESSION for backwards compatibility?
It just seems that it's such an obvious thing to do in the next major-console GB attachment, it's surprising and annoying that they didn't do it... I mean, for original GB games the SGB is so much better than the GB Player it's sad... it has FAR more color pallets (48 vs. 12), a user-creatable color pallet option I think (not saved), a border creator (not saved) in addition to various built-in ones, the ability for games to set their own border so they can have borders that fit the game (the most common SGB feature), the ability for games to set their pallets and have features normal GB games can't (full-screen mode in Space Invaders, 4-player Bomberman, 2-player SFII and Killer Instinct with 2 controllers, etc)... the GC can do all those things! They have NO EXCUSE! None! I know it makes GBA games look awesome, and GBA games have less need for borders since they actually can be fullscreen, but still. The flaws are glaring.
Quote:Also GR, you forget that the DS is fine for GBA games UNTIL you want to play some multiplayer.
Another good point... they also can't be used for controllers on GC-GBA link titles. Ick.
Have a friend with a micro now. That thing really is small. Tiny. It really is hard to appreciate how very small they are until you see the cart you stick IN them standing next to them like both are just two buildings. And it is SO small they had to use lower case letters. Oh wait, no they did that because they are retarded. I know this to be true because pirates are awesome.
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net
But yeah, aside from "printer support" they should be able to get ALL of it built into a single unit.
Darkness issues? How dark are we talking here ABF? I know the GBA screen was already darker than the GBC screen but is this "darker still" in a way that is truly noticable? That glitch I'll buy. Also a kid's Tarzan GBC game had horrible sound problems when played on a GBA. A few others had similar problems, but I think your's is the only one that's actually worth playing.
Either way, that glitch as well as the glitch with Kirby Tilt and Tumble can be resolved. Your's with a simple patch to the device itself and Kirby with either rereleasing the game so that you can calibrate it to your liking (so even if in the future you load it sideways into some system it'll work fine), or just making the system recognize that that game has been put in and Game Genieing the thing so the controls are all reversed would have the same effect (the actual tilt controls not the cross pad of course, but distinguishing that with a small hex patch should be easy enough).
Further, yeah I want my SGB support. Glad someone agrees. I too was a little disappointed that wasn't stuck into my Gameboy Player, but since all they really did was stick a GBA into an add-on with little extra besides the Gamecube related adaptations and that menu, I suppose I'm not surprised.
A system that can play GBA, GBC, and GB games, all flawlessly with bug fixes as mentioned, and can also show SGB palletes, and the configuration settings of the system even allows one to set "priority" levels for what you want enabled (so let's say you want to play that SGB or GBC game but in normal GB mode, for whatever reason (comparison? Prefer LA in black and white with the simpler sprites?), just put "SGB" or "GBC mode under "GB" priority and bam, that's what it'll load it in), and also uses the same link cables that have been used in the Gameboy Pocket and since (and not that horrific adaptation they stuck on the micro for no good reason I can think of), with a screen with a brightness level option that can blind an eagle, and you have "ultimates gameboy".
Quote:Darkness issues? How dark are we talking here ABF? I know the GBA screen was already darker than the GBC screen but is this "darker still" in a way that is truly noticable? That glitch I'll buy. Also a kid's Tarzan GBC game had horrible sound problems when played on a GBA. A few others had similar problems, but I think your's is the only one that's actually worth playing.
It's definitely a glitchy game and not just the general darker screen of the GBA -- while it may be true that in general GBC games are darker on the GBA than they were on the GBC (though why that would be I have no idea, they both have non-backlit LCD screens...), but this one is darker than the others... it doesn't make the game not playable, but it does make things look a little odd -- and it isn't all better by just putting the GBA under a light. That might help with the clarity problem, but it doesn't change darker colors into lighter ones...
Quote:Either way, that glitch as well as the glitch with Kirby Tilt and Tumble can be resolved. Your's with a simple patch to the device itself and Kirby with either rereleasing the game so that you can calibrate it to your liking (so even if in the future you load it sideways into some system it'll work fine), or just making the system recognize that that game has been put in and Game Genieing the thing so the controls are all reversed would have the same effect (the actual tilt controls not the cross pad of course, but distinguishing that with a small hex patch should be easy enough).
Supposedly some copies of Bionic Commando: Elite Forces are unbugged (the crash but I mean, not colors), some are bugged like mine, and some are bugged so badly that they even have the bug when played on GBCs... even with all the problems though, it's still my favorite GBC game that isn't Zelda. (And I'd only put it below OoA. OoS was not as good and LADX was pointless... LA is the best handheld game ever. It didn't need an update.)
Quote:Further, yeah I want my SGB support. Glad someone agrees. I too was a little disappointed that wasn't stuck into my Gameboy Player, but since all they really did was stick a GBA into an add-on with little extra besides the Gamecube related adaptations and that menu, I suppose I'm not surprised.
That's not a good excuse, the SGB was essentially a GB in a cart... it had all the chips for a GB inside except the RAM, I believe....
Quote:A system that can play GBA, GBC, and GB games, all flawlessly with bug fixes as mentioned, and can also show SGB palletes, and the configuration settings of the system even allows one to set "priority" levels for what you want enabled (so let's say you want to play that SGB or GBC game but in normal GB mode, for whatever reason (comparison? Prefer LA in black and white with the simpler sprites?), just put "SGB" or "GBC mode under "GB" priority and bam, that's what it'll load it in), and also uses the same link cables that have been used in the Gameboy Pocket and since (and not that horrific adaptation they stuck on the micro for no good reason I can think of), with a screen with a brightness level option that can blind an eagle, and you have "ultimates gameboy".
One thing I'm not sure about is if the GBA uses hardware or software emulation. I'd imagine that it's hardware emulation and there is a GBC chip inside the thing, though... hardware emulation is a lot easier. Even good software emulators (PC ones, for console emulation, I mean) aren't perfect... some games won't work right, even in the best emulators... (another example of this is the NES-on-a-chip used by most all NES clones -- it's not perfect.) Even so, it can't hurt to wish for one that was... :)
Quote:(so let's say you want to play that SGB or GBC game but in normal GB mode, for whatever reason (comparison? Prefer LA in black and white with the simpler sprites?), just put "SGB" or "GBC mode under "GB" priority and bam, that's what it'll load it in)
You can actually kind of do this with the color pallets. I believe that one of the twelve the GBC/GBA/GBASP/GB Player use is 'original B&W' colors...
One interesting thing about the SGB vs. those four (which have identical emulation, with the one exception of the GBA/GBASP/GB Player (can't call it a GBP, that's the Game Boy Pocket...) having 'L/R for widescreen') is that, as I've probably said before, the SGB colorizes GB games differently. The GBC and its successors colorize GB games by making the sprites two colors and the backgrounds two more (or is it one for sprites and three for backgrounds, plus black? I'd have to check, but close enough). The SGB simply changes each of the four colors on the Game Boy screen into new colors. Thuse with the SGB GB games look like, well, GB games -- just in color. (except games that support the SGB for additional colors, such and DK '94, Kirby 2, etc) That contrasts with the GBC's "sprites are a different color from the backgrounds" design that makes it obvious which parts of the screen are sprites and which aren't, something that can be a huge help in some games... (to make the enemies stand out more in DK Land, something that was a problem on the original GB) and something of a cheat in others (my favorite example of the easy way to know which statues in LA will come alive when you touch them). I was really interested to use a SGB and find that none of that happened... it still helps DKL, though, as only some of the problem was the colors. The rest of it was the blurring, and THAT the SGB does away with. :)
Quote: (and not that horrific adaptation they stuck on the micro for no good reason I can think of)
To make sure that people can't use their Micros as GC controllers and instead have to buy MORE Gameboys, of course!
Quote:and also uses the same link cables that have been used in the Gameboy Pocket
Well, kind of, I can't use a GBP/GBC link cable to link two GBA games, and can't use a GBA link cable to link with a GBP or GBC... (or rare model two SGB with the link port, for that matter) so while the cable is mostly the same, that added bump means that you do need separate cables anyway. Since I got a GB Player I finally got a GBA Link Cable (a third party one that's also a second GBA-GC linker), and I wouldn't have done that if I could link GBA games with my (GBP/GBC with one original GB adapter) Universal Game Link Cable.