Collector Chronicles #1: That one game

I'll tell you one thing that drives me crazy about being an obsessive video game collector. It seems that no matter what system you want to collect for, there's always that one game that is super expensive and hard to find. It seems like every system has at least one.

Atari 2600 is probably the king of expensive rare games. I'd say there's probably half a dozen of them that cost at least 1000 dollars regularly, and I don't even want to talk about all the games that are more than 100. It depresses me just thinking about it. There's also an added catch that all of the rare Atari games are awful. Boing is a notable exception (and the only one that I own), but many of them rank among the worst games ever made. You would have to be crazy to spend 600 dollars on a game that you knew was terrible. Of course I probably would if I had the money.

You would think that a system with a small library would be free of this curse, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Take the Virtual Boy for example. There are only 14 US games to hunt down. 13 of them of relatively easy to find. You can find them on ebay any day of the week. But good luck finding a reasonably priced copy of Jack Bros. I'm sure a lot of people's Virtual Boy collections are stuck at 13. Either that or they have no idea what a Virtual Boy is.

It's much the same way with the other Atari systems. The 5200 has one of the least expensive libraries to compile except for. However, there are two, Meteorites and Bounty Bob Strikes Back, that each cost as much as all the other games combined. Atari 7800 is similar although it does have more obscure games that don't pop up that often. Most of them can are still pretty when you can find them. The two super expensive games were the ones made by Froggo, Tank Command and Water Ski. The worst part about this one is that neither one of them are particularly rare, and both of them used to be somewhat reasonable. Water Ski is only a 4 on the Atariage rarity scale and I never see it for less than 80 dollars. It's gotta be the most expensive 4 I've ever seen. Jaguar I don't even want to talk about except to say that I one time put a 70 dollar bid on Air Cars and lost. I'm sure some of you will laugh at that one.

So it seems like just about every system's got one, and I look over at my collection and know that most systems will always have a gaping hole where that one game should go. I'll probably never have a Stadium Events or a Quadrun. I'm either gonna have to search every dusty little flea market in the world until I find a guy selling video games who's never heard of the internet or get a higher paying job and buy up all the expensive ones before I have kids. Either way it's both a pain and a thrill. At least I can take comfort in knowing that all the 32X games are fairly cheap. Now if only I could find a connector cable for that thing.

NES #25: Deadly Towers

Yeah that's right, Nester beat Deadly Towers. Any of your friends ever do that? This is one of those games that everybody has but nobody ever finishes. There are some good reason for this, but I guess I should talk about the quality first.

It seems that everybody online has made it a hobby of talking about how bad this game is. It's almost a rite of passage for any blogger to think of a bunch of off-color jokes about this one. I will say that some of this is deserved, but I do feel like most people are writing about this game without playing it very much. Most people probably play the game for a couple of minutes, get trapped in a dungeon, and then quickly give up on ever playing it again. I can't say I blame you for this, but that doesn't make for particularly in depth reviews.

So what does everybody hate about this game? Well as I said before, it does have those horrible dungeons in it. The dungeons are completely invisible, so you'll just be walking along and suddenly you're trapped with only one way out. People also hate how hard this game is. I'll give you that one too. You start out very weak, and it's hard to figure out how to power up. You can pick up a bunch of hearts which increase your HP. However, just like in Zelda and Metroid you always start back with a fixed amount after you get killed. Yes I did just say this game has something in common with Zelda and Metriod. If this was the typical online review I would start typing a bunch of curse words about the annoying things and then call it done, but there's actually more to this game than that.

What you find when start playing through it is that there's actually a game hidden in there. For example, did you know that some of the dungeons actually serve a useful purpose? There are shops in a few of the dungeons that have most of the items you'll need to take the sting out of this game. When you get killed you start back at the beginning of the game, but after playing it a little while you realize that the overworld is pretty small so getting killed isn't much of a problem. It never takes longer than 10 minutes or so to get anywhere, and after you have some good armor and weapons the monsters are a lot less menacing. Also, did you know that there are actually towers in this game? I played this game for years and never knew that. I don't think most people get there because they are all the way at the top. You'll need to get to the top of those towers and fight a bunch of bosses. It's actually kind of fun.

So what' my advice to people planning on playing through this one? Like with everything else these days, use the internet. I really don't like using online FAQs much, but there are some games that I make an exception for. This game is confusing and full of secrets. I'm sure back in the 80s this was their version of online play. A group of friends would all get this game, play it separately, and share the secrets they discovered with each other. It would be really hard to take on alone, but together it could probably be conquered. Today we don't really have the luxury of having a bunch of people on the playground to talk to, so we have to turn to the internet. I don't see any shame in that.

So as I was saying, I actually had some fun with this one. It's one of the only games I've ever played that was both too hard and too easy. Once you get all the good equipment it's not too bad and the bosses will go down easy. It's certainly a testament to not giving up. All I've ever heard about this game is snarky internet comments. Seanbaby, whoever that is, even picked this game has the #1 worst game on the system. I played through it and I think it's an interesting old title that does have something to offer to gamers out there. I certainly felt like I accomplished something when it was over. I will remember that forever, and I think that goes a lot farther than making a couple of teenagers chuckle on the internet.

Video Game Dream #2

I had another dream about gaming the other night which I completely forgot about until now. It's not exactly a Reef Store Dream, but it's kind of funny anyway. In this one I was visiting my brother, and he was showing me a sock that he had bought from a thrift store recently and told me that there was something very strange about it. I looked at it and noticed that there was a big bulge in it. I investigate further, and you know what the bulge was? Why it was an Atari Jaguar Cd of course. Those things usually sell for about 150 dollars, and he got one for free in a thrift store sock that he only paid a few cents for. If only real life was like this. Anyway, I have no idea why I was dreaming about Jaguars. I don't have a CD unit but hopefully I'll get a good deal on one someday. Maybe I'll bust out my regular Jaguar and play some of the cartridge games sometime. I'm sure it would be fun to talk about.

Sega Master System #1: Captain Silver

The problem with writing about Master System is that many of the games that are actually easy enough to beat are really awful. Captain Silver is a great example of this. I don't think I've ever played an easier game with one hit kills and no continues.

I think it's also important to point out that this was the first Master System game that I ever saw in the wild. They had it at one of the thrift stores in my town. For a long time I didn't know what it was and it just sat there in the shelf. I got it soon after I got the system because it was a real novelty seeing a game for the SMS anywhere. Don't worry though, I had already read reviews for this one and knew it was a stinker. I just wanted another game for my SMS shelf. So just how is this game anyway?

If you need a little insight into the quality of this game just compare the box to the instruction manual. The back of the box says that this game has 4 levels while the instruction manual says that there are 6. You gotta wonder about a game that doesn't even know how many levels it has. Actually there were 6 levels in the European version and 4 in the U.S. version. I guess they were both right.

Wait this game only has 4 levels? Just think about that for a minute. This game only has four levels in it. It has a town, boat, jungle, and cliff. The boat level is the only one that you could call lengthy, and that's pushing it a little. It does has some branching paths and a boss to fight though. The town and jungle levels both only take 3 or 4 minutes to get through, and the final cliff level is even shorter than the others. When you add it all up, this game only takes about 15 minutes to beat, and I'm not talking about a Contra 15 minutes where you spend hours practicing and get through the game quickly when you're finally good at it. I'm talking about a turn it on the first time and be done with it forever 15 minutes. The enemies are easy and the two bosses are only mildly challenging. The only challenging thing in this game is the jumps, and that's just because the controls are so bad. How awful is a game in which the only challenge comes from poor control?

It's actually so bad that I hardly feel like talking about it. This is really one of my least favorite games ever. Master System games are supposed to be fast, colorful, and challenging. It did 80s arcade style gaming better than anyone. This game is just the opposite. It's slow, easy, and very bland. It has bad control and ugly sprites. However, if you've just gotten a Master System and are looking to start crossing some games off the list, I would probably recommend you playing this one first. At least that way it will be over, and you'll have nothing but better games to play once you're done.

Reef Store Dream

I don't know if people who collect other things do this much, but I tend to dream about video games a lot. This happened to me a couple of nights ago when I dreamed about a magical video game store that had an amazing supply of very cheap old games. What I had experienced was a Reef Store Dream.

The origin of the name comes from a collector's dream about a place just called Reef Store. As far as I know this was a real dream somebody had, but either way that's what they call it. I don't know much more about the origin of the story, but I sure do have dreams like that a lot. I'd say I have one every couple of months at least. Usually I will be in a store that seems unremarkable at first, but eventually I will find "the bin" and suddenly start finding incredible deals on some very strange things.

I was writing about the Master System over the weekend, so of course I dreamed about it. I was at a store with some unremarkable NES games when I found the bin holding all the Master System games. There were many games I didn't have for only .50 each. I'm fairly certain that they were mostly real games, but it's always hard to tell in the dream world. What actually gave it away that I was dreaming was that I found a game that couldn't possibly have been a real SMS game. I wish I can't remember what it was, but I do remember it coming in a soft plastic clam shell case. I remember thinking to myself "is this a real game?" when I suddenly switched over into another dream. Oh well, it wasn't real anyway.

So as I was saying this happens all the time. I guess when you're into a hobby it starts to take over the parts of your life that you don't have much control over. I don't know if a stamp collector dreams about stamps, but I'm going to assume that he does. Do any of you out there have any similar experiences? I thought it might be fun to ask for some audience participation for a change.

System Overview: Sega Master System

Well it looks like it's time for me to branch out and start talking about games for other systems. Before I jump right into the games though, I thought it would be fun to talk about the other systems that I have completed games for. It looks like first up is Sega Master System. Isn't that exciting?

So did you people know that Sega existed before the Genesis? Sega is actually a company that dates back to the early 40s that released different kinds of games over the years. They got into the video game racket early on and had several famous arcade games back in the day. They even released a few games on the Atari 2600. However, Sega is by far best known for the 16-bit Genesis which came out in the US in 1989. It's so closely associated with the company that most people just generically refer to it as a Sega.

To most people this is where the Sega story begins, and for many it's also where it ends. There are many people out there who have some recollections of the Saturn or the Dreamcast, but it will always be the Genesis that stands out in peoples minds. Most people have no idea that Sega actually had a console before the Genesis. They had a cool 8-bit machine that competed head to head with the Nintendo and was only mostly a failure. It was a success in Europe and Brazil, but over here it quickly faded into obscurity. So what's a system like that like anyway?

Actually, the Master System is a pretty good little machine. The graphics are probably superior to the NES especially in the early days. The games are colorful and vibrant. They seem much more Japanese than their NES counterparts. What I love about the SMS is that most of its games are hard to find anywhere else. This was before the more open 3rd party policies caused games to be on several systems at the same time. There are a few that got snatched up by Tengen and a couple of arcade classics, but other than that it's mostly exclusives.

Probably the thing that the system is most famous for is the difficulty level of the games. Sega was trying to pull in the hardcore gamers. They wanted the types of people that had spent hours at the arcades during the boom of the early 80s. Because of this there are many games brought over from the arcade without much being changed. A game like Contra would be too easy on the SMS. A large percentage of them don't have continues and only have a couple of lives to begin with. They are a lot of fun, and I enjoy playing them, but don't expect too many of them on the blog right away. They require a lot of practice.

If you look at the system itself it's a little bit strange. It has slots for two different types of media. A traditional cartridge slot and a card slot in the front. The cards allowed publishers to make smaller, cheaper games that mostly sucked. You'll also notice that the pause button is on the system itself. This is probably the Master System's biggest flaw. There is no pause button on the controller, so if you need to go to the bathroom or something you have to time it out so you can bend over and pause it without getting killed. Or you need to have the system close by and push it with your foot. That's usually what I do. It especially drives me crazy when the game has menu screens that can only be accessed by the pause button. The controller only has two buttons and a control pad so the options are somewhat limited.

I got my Master System almost ten years ago. I had only rarely seen it mentioned before the internet days. I always wondered why I could never find the original Phantasy Star on the Genesis and later found out that was because it was actually a Master System game. I finally discovered it on the internet and was impressed by its rich history and library of games. It had 114 or so in the US, but a couple hundred more overseas that mostly work on American systems. I actually bought one on ebay a couple of days after I first saw pictures of it on the internet. It was with the SMS that I first started to feel like a real collector. I had lots of video games before that, but the Master System was the first piece of hardware I got that most people hadn't heard of. You can get all the common stuff, but you just don't feel like a collector unless you start to get things that either suck or are not cared about.

So if you're thinking about getting one I say go for it. They're still pretty cheap with the exception of a few of the games. There are also excellent versions of games like Shinobi and R-Type which are just as good or even better than their NES counterparts. You'll also get a piece of gaming history that most people have forgotten about. A whole new world will open up for you. It might even make you start calling it a Genesis instead of a Sega.