2nd February 2010, 1:54 AM
You're certainly becoming a serious collector, and by serious I mean you should consider rehab. Buying so many bad games isn't good for you. Yeah there's some good ones there, as well as ones I've never heard of and that's always an experiment.
Ya know, in the end you should convert some den into a sanctum sanctorum of old video game shelves all around. Oh, with all those PC games, not even DOSBox is enough for you any more. You need to get an old 486 PC with some General MIDI or MT-32 compatible sound and an S3 video card to play all that stuff on. Play it all on a multiboot with DOS, Windows 3.11, and Windows 98 SE. Complete the experience with an old "loud click" keyboard.
Blinx eh? I remember that. It was a fun game. I also remember it was Microsoft's ill-fated attempt to claim a kid friendly mascot for their system. Every game company since Nintendo on through the mid 2000's when the practice finally came to a stop seemed to feel the need to get themselves a mascot. Sony tried Crash, and it worked for a while but now he's freelance, and they later tried Ape Escape, but those monkeys are not nearly popular enough to be a mascot. Sierra had King Graham, but after hollowing themselves out from the inside, only retro gamers even know who the guy is any more, and Sierra doesn't help by not even mentioning him between shoddy ports of their old Adventure series. Capcom has Megaman, but he kinda fights with Ryu for dominant mascot role with them at times, and modern audiences don't know about him nearly as much as retro gamers, and lately they don't really push Megaman as "mascot" at all. The Final Fantasy series, being what it is, doesn't really have a main character that can be called Square-Enix's mascot. There's moogles, I suppose, but then again Enix really loves their slimes. That merger kinda messed up mascots for them.
Really I can only think of two companies that have managed to keep a mascot that's actually "stuck" in the mainstream conciousness. Sega still has Sonic, though at the rate they are churning out unpopular Sonic games, he's becoming less and less memorable to modern audiences. Still, even with that in mind, people still think of Sonic when they hear "Sega". And of course, Nintendo has Mario. Mario's mascot status is simply undeniable at this point. I'd say that he's the most succesful video game company mascot ever. Heck, I'd go beyond that and say he's the most succesful company mascot ever, mainly because the only company mascots I can think of are a few cereal box guys right now and that probably proves the point right there, except for Mickey Mouse, obviously. I still think even that's debatable though. Who is more popular? Mickey or Mario? I don't have any real data on that and the best I have is some possible propaganda from some point in the 90's saying Mario was more popular, but I can't source that memory.
One thing's for sure, Mario has managed to stay popular to this day in a way that no other video game mascot, from the more succesful ones to the fail after fail that was the "animal character in a platformer" brigade, has managed. New Super Mario Bros Wii is insanely popular just as Super Mario Bros was, and Super Mario World after that, and Super Mario 64 after that, and Super Mario Galaxy after that, and that's not even mentioning the handheld games.
Ya know, in the end you should convert some den into a sanctum sanctorum of old video game shelves all around. Oh, with all those PC games, not even DOSBox is enough for you any more. You need to get an old 486 PC with some General MIDI or MT-32 compatible sound and an S3 video card to play all that stuff on. Play it all on a multiboot with DOS, Windows 3.11, and Windows 98 SE. Complete the experience with an old "loud click" keyboard.
Blinx eh? I remember that. It was a fun game. I also remember it was Microsoft's ill-fated attempt to claim a kid friendly mascot for their system. Every game company since Nintendo on through the mid 2000's when the practice finally came to a stop seemed to feel the need to get themselves a mascot. Sony tried Crash, and it worked for a while but now he's freelance, and they later tried Ape Escape, but those monkeys are not nearly popular enough to be a mascot. Sierra had King Graham, but after hollowing themselves out from the inside, only retro gamers even know who the guy is any more, and Sierra doesn't help by not even mentioning him between shoddy ports of their old Adventure series. Capcom has Megaman, but he kinda fights with Ryu for dominant mascot role with them at times, and modern audiences don't know about him nearly as much as retro gamers, and lately they don't really push Megaman as "mascot" at all. The Final Fantasy series, being what it is, doesn't really have a main character that can be called Square-Enix's mascot. There's moogles, I suppose, but then again Enix really loves their slimes. That merger kinda messed up mascots for them.
Really I can only think of two companies that have managed to keep a mascot that's actually "stuck" in the mainstream conciousness. Sega still has Sonic, though at the rate they are churning out unpopular Sonic games, he's becoming less and less memorable to modern audiences. Still, even with that in mind, people still think of Sonic when they hear "Sega". And of course, Nintendo has Mario. Mario's mascot status is simply undeniable at this point. I'd say that he's the most succesful video game company mascot ever. Heck, I'd go beyond that and say he's the most succesful company mascot ever, mainly because the only company mascots I can think of are a few cereal box guys right now and that probably proves the point right there, except for Mickey Mouse, obviously. I still think even that's debatable though. Who is more popular? Mickey or Mario? I don't have any real data on that and the best I have is some possible propaganda from some point in the 90's saying Mario was more popular, but I can't source that memory.
One thing's for sure, Mario has managed to stay popular to this day in a way that no other video game mascot, from the more succesful ones to the fail after fail that was the "animal character in a platformer" brigade, has managed. New Super Mario Bros Wii is insanely popular just as Super Mario Bros was, and Super Mario World after that, and Super Mario 64 after that, and Super Mario Galaxy after that, and that's not even mentioning the handheld games.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)