Sega CD #1: Sonic CD

At long last Sonic CD! I've been wanting to play this game for almost twenty years now. I don't think I'm alone in that either. I think this is the game that the most people wanted to play who never got to. The Sega CD was a modest success, but it never really got to smaller places like Arkansas. We all had to read about it in magazines where it was almost always called the best Sonic game ever made. I thought everyone would finally get the chance when all those Sonic collections started getting released, but it was left off most of them. By the time they finally got around releasing it everybody already had one of the earlier collections. I will always remember 2011 as the year I finally got to play this mythical game.

All these years I was expecting a nicer looking version of Sonic 2, but this game is unlike any other ones in the series. At first it seems like any other Sonic game. The fist level is certainly familiar looking. Then you start to notice some strange things. There are some very strange design elements such as rings that are stuck in the middle of walls and areas that just don't look like they can be reached. Of course you will ask yourself the most obvious question. "Does this have anything to do with those whispering signs." That's a silly question. Of course it does.

Sonic CD allows you to travel through time. In fact, you are trying to go back in time to destroy Dr. Robotnik's evil plans before the world is destroyed. This means hunting down an evil machine somewhere in the level and destroying it in the past. What this all means is that this particular game is focused on exploration instead of speed. That seems like a small thing, but in a game like Sonic it makes a huge difference. Some of the levels are quite small and can be finished in only a couple of minutes if they are ran through in the traditional fashion. However, if you take your time and explore this game it becomes a much richer experience.

I was a little bit skeptical about this game at first, but the more I played it the more I enjoyed it. It's similar to Castlevania IV in that it has many graphical tricks and game elements that are revealed slowly throughout the game. The more you get into it the more you will see. I always wanted to go on to the next level just so I could see the sights. It also has interesting boss fights. It's not the usual dodge Robotnik and then hit him eight times routine. Some of those bosses I sill don't understand, but I defeated them all so that's what really counts.

My one main complaint about this game is the very easy difficulty level. Now I know that I'm 27 years old and have been playing games like these for about 23 of those years, but I think I could've gotten through this game when I was in kindergarten. The slower pace makes it easier to walk around safely, and none of the regular enemies are that much trouble. The game autosaves, so even if you get a game over you can start back at the world you were just in. It doesn't even make you start over like all those other Sonic games. I will say, though, that I prefer this to the invisible spike after every just system of Sonic 3, but it does diminish the experience somewhat. Now I will admit that I didn't destroy all the evil machines or beat all the bonus stages, but I only see these as making the game longer. It doesn't add to the challenge that much.

So I guess it's time for the verdict. After all the hype this could've been a complete letdown, but I really enjoyed this one. It almost felt like capturing a lost piece of my childhood. It is much different than the other games, but it still fits in with the rest of the series. I think the graphics are really nice, and it is interesting that instead of animals the robots turn into plants. Just be warned, if you do play it than you are going to get that cheesy song stuck in your head. It's even got the lyrics printed inside so you can sing along during the credits. But hey, just be thankful that this isn't Sonic Adventure. At least this one doesn't rap.

Collector Chronicles: Super Rare Games #1

People are always asking me questions about rare games on here, so I thought it would be fun to talk about some of those games that I'll probably never get to own. For this one I'm sticking to older systems that only had one or two extra expensive games. I'm going to leave Atari 2600 for its own post because it has as many games over 100 dollars as all other systems combined. Or at least if you leave out Neo Geo it does. This one is going to cover the other Atari and pre-NES systems. I'll come back in a day or two and do Sega and other consoles.

Atari 5200: Meteorites, Bounty Bob Strikes Back

It's a toss up on 5200, so I'm including both of the famously rare games. Meteorites is probably a little bit more interesting because it comes from a tiny company that is symbolic of the industry at the time. There were a whole bunch of these little known start up companies making games in the early 80s. Most of them, however, made games for the 2600. This is one of the few that is for 5200. It's also one of the dozen or so games on the system that wasn't just a remake of a 2600 game. No wonder it goes for 100 bucks or more. Also, word on the internet is that it was originally going to be called Disasteroids. I sure hope this is true.

Bounty Bob Strikes Back is the sequel to Miner 2049er. Of course that probably means nothing to you. It was a fairly big success back in the day though. I believe that is is a Donkey Kong clone, but I could be wrong. I've heard that this is the rarest game for the 5200. I was actually going to find a copy on line to check on the price, but I couldn't find it anywhere. There aren't that many 5200 collectors out there, but the ones that exist are very dedicated, so I doubt that this game gets sold that often. It's a shame too because I've heard it's very good.


Atari 7800: Tank Command

I have no idea why Tank Command is so expensive. It's really not that rare. You can find a copy of it on Ebay just about any day, and it seems like it was fairly cheap a few years ago. Somewhere along the line line the prices went through the roof. I guess I should've bought it way back when. I'm thinking that the people who ran out of 2600 games to buy started collecting 7800 and that increased demand. I certainly cant think of a better explanation. This is a game from the company Froggo who are significant for being the last new company to make games for 2600. All their 2600 games were remakes of older games though. It is only the two on 7800 that are original. This might be one of the reasons that it is so expensive. As I said I really don't know. All I know is that someday I'm going to be looking at the gaping hole in my collection and wondering why.

Atari Jaguar: Air Cars

There are quite a few expensive games for the Jag, but this one is probably the most expensive of all the games that got a regular release. There are a few home-brews and other special cases that cost more, but Air Cars wins by the sheer fact that it was a real game in real stores. It was also the last Jaguar game to be released which always seems to help in the rarity department. It is such a late obscure release that it doesn't even have a box. I've always heard that this game is a stinker, but I'll probably never get to play it. That's probably for the best, but it does drive me crazy when there's a really awful game out there that I'm not able to play. I have an old issue of Game Players where the review this game. I think they gave it a 30. They said that it was nice having a new Jaguar game to play, but they sure wished it was actually worth playing.

Intellivision: Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball

Spiker is the very las game released for the Intellivison years after the system had lost its relevance. This game came out in 1989 which was 11 years after Intellivison was first released. It's very strange to think that it came out around the same time we got Blazing Lazers and Super Mario Brothers 3. Intellivision was actually kept alive for a number of years thanks to its mail order service, so I'm not sure if this game was ever in actual stores. After the video game crash somebody at the company decided to keep the thing going, and there were a few games released every year. This helped Intellivison pass the decade mark which is quite an achievement for a game console. I can only think of the 2600, Neo Geo, and Playstation 2 reaching that milestone. Anyeay, this was the last of them, and I doubt that there are too many copies floating around. Seriously, who was still playing Intellivsion in 1990? I once heard that it was the only Intellivison game to sell for over 1000 dollars. I don't know if that's still true or not, but it certainly cemented its legacy. I don't know if I'll ever play this one, but I certainly respect it.

Odyssey 2: Power Lords

This is the game on this list that I know almost nothing about. I've never even played an Odyssey 2 before. I do know, however, that almost every game can be bought for 3 dollars or less. In fact, Power Lords seems to be one of the only games that costs anything at all. There are a couple more, such as Quest for the Rings, but this one tops them all. I've searched for it many times on line, and I've never seen a copy of it. If not for Power Lords than Odyssey 2 would be a super easy collection to complete. At least it makes the system a little more interesting.


So this is part one. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to split this one up, but there will probably be two or three more parts. Next time I'll talk about Sega and maybe Nintendo. The games on this list are frustrating, but they do make for exciting trips for the used game stores. You never know when you're going to stumble upon a holy grail. Its the kind of thing that keeps lonely 40 year olds scouring garage sales across the country. It truly is a worthwhile experience.

System Profile: Sega CD & 32X

There was a time about 15 years ago when Sega seemed completely fearless. While Nintendo was busy making the greatest games of all time, Sega was pushing the limits and trying everything that seemed like even a halfway good idea. They released game systems for kids, made a game that you could attach other games into, attempted early internet experiments, and had a few infamous add-ons. Probably the two most famous, although not the least successful, are the Sega CD and the 32X. It seems like these machines get insulted constantly on line, and so of course I had to pick them up. I'm looking forward to setting the record straight.

In case you've never seen them in action, here's what the set up looks like:


And here's what it looks like when you squish a model 1 Genesis in there:


I think they are both beautiful things, even with q-tips on the floor. When you collect video games you end up with those all over the place.

Actually most people feel that this is an unwieldy monstrosity, and they are partially right. It does drive me crazy how many wires it takes. Still when I first put the pieces together I got very excited. I would've been the king at my school back in 1995, at least until somebody got a Playstation.

Here's what it looks like when you've got it hooked up. Yes, it takes three plugs to have all three at once, and there are a few games that require this. I'm sure that's a fire hazard, but as a collector I've seen worse.


I am going to talk about 32X first because it is the less interesting of the two. It's got plenty of character, but it also had a very short lifespan. Actually of all the things Sega ever did, this is possibly the most confusing. It was released only a few months before the Saturn, and its graphics are only a little bit up from the CD. Nevertheless there it is.

I actually think it's got some pretty good games on it. The version of Virtua Fighter is excellent, and so is the version of Virtua Racing. It must've made people feel like chumps who paid 100 dollars for the original Genesis version. I would love to post about some games I've beat for it, but as it turns out I suck at 32X. I've never won a race or even got through Virtua Fighter on the easiest setting. I'm alright at Metal Head, but it is very boring. That seems to always be my luck.

There's actually not that much to say about it. It's a lump that sits on top of your Genesis and plays a few slightly better looking games. It didn't make any sense then and, it doesn't make sense now. There's only 36 games for it that makes it easy to collect for. Of course there are two that are ridiculously expensive. Isn't that always the way?

Now on to the Sega CD. This probably won't surprise you too much, but I love this machine. The entire game library seems to be made up of underrated gems and extremely funny cult classics. I mean, what's better than watching extremely grainy Soundgarden videos?

That's actually the biggest caveat of the Sega CD. The sound is good but the picture is not. It has real actors and filmed cutscenes, but they are very grainy because of the lack of colors. Most of the gameplay sections of the games look fine , but they are often interrupted by grainy videos that don't even make much sense. In its defense there are some games that look very good. Games like Silpheed wouldn't look too bad on Playstation. However, some of them do give you the sense that you are fighting in front of a back drop, which I guess in a way you are.

Of course the system is best known for its full motion video which features a bunch of games that remind me of Syfy movies. The difference is that every once in a while the characters will look at the screen and say "well what are you going to do now?" and then you will have to shoot something or solve a puzzle. As I said before, they are mostly lousy but definitely entertaining. I actually don't have many of these yet, but I will keep you posted.

So those are the latest editions to my Sega collection. I admire the company's boldness, and I wish that people would go back and see their failed systems in a more sympathetic light. Sure you make fun of Sega CD now, but you know you wanted one. Didn't you think that Sewer Shark looked like the most awesome game ever? Well anyway you should track one down. It's especially good if you like good space shooters, cheesy FMVs, and obscure, expensive RPGs. Luckily, these are all my favorite things.

Playstation 2 #1- Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

Well, here's another game from this century and from a system that is still being produced albeit in much smaller numbers than it was a few years ago. Jak and Daxter sure doesn't feel that new anymore though. It seems like since then the characters have been in dozens of games and have moved on to the venerable mascot phase. How old am I that Jak and Daxter doesn't even feel new anymore? They were the hot new game characters back about ten years ago. They even replaced Crash Bandicoot as Naughty Dog's main property. It's similar to what happened in 1991 when Sonic replace Alex Kidd as Sega's mascot. That's a real thing. You can look it up if you don't believe me.

I noticed a couple of interesting things about this game. The first one is that nobody that I talked to liked it. What's the problem with it anyway? I mean, it's not Banjo-Kazooie or anything, but it's a pretty good 3D platform game. Is it because Daxter is annoying? If this is a problem you can turn off the hints and shut him up for the most part. Besides, isn't it nice that Max Casella, aka Vinnie from Doogie Hower, is getting paid? I always liked that guy. Maybe in the super violent world of Playstation 2 this game just isn't adult enough. Of course I spend most of my time playing old kid friendly games, so it's not much of a problem for me. I'd sure like to know why everybody hates this game so much when every publication I read loves it.

The next thing I noticed is also my biggest complaint with the game. This game is too easy, and it goes by way too quick. I don't mind an economical story line. This one's pretty simple, although it doesn't always make sense. The main villain is voiced by Dee Snider, but he's only got about 10 lines in it. You'd never even notice him if you didn't read it in that awful fold-out map style manual. I don't know why they didn't just get some generic Naughty Dog employee to do it if the character was going to be in it so sparingly and with so little promotion. Did everybody know this 10 years ago? I sure can't remember

The real problem, however, is that the game is just too easy. The only real danger in it is tripping over all those power cells you're going to find. This is the main goal in the game, and they are simply everywhere. There are different tasks for finding them, but they mostly boil down to walking along a path until the power cell shows up. There are some that are more difficult to get, but they are easily skipped if you want to beat the basic game. You only need 72 out of 100 to make it to the final level. Also, when you die you start back at the nearest entryway with all the things you collected still intact. This is likely to be the favorite part of many people out there, but it just seems a little too easy for me. If you're going to do this why have a life bar at all? It seems like there should be consequences for death. At least there are a few difficult boss fights in it.

I would say that I beat this game in about 10 hours, which was a shame because I was really starting to get into it. I like how it plays like one big world instead of a bunch of individual levels connected to a central location. On a whole the voice acting is good, and I like the Mark Mothersbaugh music even if it's not quite up to the caliber of the old Crash Bandicoot games. The good certainly outweighs the bad in this one. I just wish that it was more of a challenge. There's a roll jump in this game that helps you get to far off ledges. I had no idea this existed until after I beat the game. I had to skip an entire level because of this, but I still beat the game easily. That's gotta tell you something.

Now if I know game series than the sequels are probably harder. They should also be easy to track down since everybody buys these games, but nobody seems to like them much. Also this is 2011, and just about any Playstation 2 game can be found for 5 bucks or less. They're cheaper than most Atari games. I guess now would be the time for me to start building up my PS2 collection. Let's see, I've got 13 of them. I guess that only leaves me about 2000 more to get. Looks like I'm well on my way.

Sega Genesis #4: Shining in the Darkness

I remember last time I was on here I said I was going to go easy on myself with my next game. Well as it turns out I completely lied. Instead of playing through another old Disney game or some archaic sports game that only requires you to beat the computer once I decided to play through Shining in the Darkness. This game is a largely unheard of game today, but is it a very interesting Genesis game. It's also quite long. It's not much shorter than Dragon Warrior 3, and it has much less variety.

So if you were a big fan of RPGs back in the early 90s than you probably remember the Shining Force games. This was a series of strategy games that got released on a few different Sega systems up through the Saturn. The first two were on the Genesis, and they are two of the greatest games ever produced for it. In fact, Shining Force 2 is my personal favorite Genesis game. Well Shining in the Darkness is the little known predecessor to these games. However, the gameplay is completely different. Where the Shining Force games were turn-based strategy games, Darkness is an old fashioned dungeon crawler. In case you're too young to know what that means, it's sort of like that old 3D maze screensaver. Or are you too young to remember that one as well?

Here's that screen saver that always distracted you during math class.


And here's Shining in the Darkness poorly cropped to hide the fact that I just found this picture on someone's site.

So it has that impressive for 1991 3D scrolling effect, and that's really about it. There is one town, one castle, and one big ol' dungeon that will keep you busy for weeks. It doesn't sound much like that other games in the series, but there are some hints of Shining Force games to come. The similarities mostly come in the form of graphics and sprites. The menu screens are very similar, and I'm fairly sure the priest is that same one that's in later games. It also starts out the same with a person telling you a story that leads to the game select screen. Other than that there's not much resemblance, but the roots certainly are there.

I already mentioned that this game is mostly your characters moving around in a big dungeon with brick walls and floors. The whole game takes place in a small box in the middle of the screen, and if you look closely you'll notice that only the walls move while the floor stays the same. It sound boring, but I actually had a very good time playing this one. As you know, I love a game where you start out weak and slowly get stronger. Darkness did this at a very good pace. Levels never took too long to gain, and you could always tell a difference when you gained one. It also had three very useful party members. Often these games will have one guy who is completely useless. Also, unlike most of these old 3D games where I instantly get lost, I was able to make it through this one without cheating and looking up a map. In fact, the only time I got lost in the maze was when I thought I had missed my save point and checked it on a map loaded up on my computer.

Alright well let's tally this one up. On the downside it's a very drab looking game with little to do besides look around the dark dungeon. There's only one town that you move through too slowly, and one castle that you will probably forget about by the time it's actually useful. On the plus side I found it surprisingly engaging. Every time I went back in the dungeon I was able to make it a little bit farther. I usually couldn't wait to get back in there. The fighting system is very user friendly and fast-paced, so the game never seems to drag. Somehow they managed to make tedium seem fun, which is that main goal in this type of game.

This game only gets so-so reviews online, but I would say that this one is worth checking out, especially if you're into those old Shining Force games. It's interesting to see where the series got its start. I think I will close this one out before it starts to sound too much like a review. I promise next time will be something a little less involved. Spring break's coming up, so that would be the perfect time to play through some old platform games. Or maybe I'll start a game on Dragon Warrior 4. Either way I will try to update more than twice a month.

NES #34 - Dragon Warrior 3

Oh Dragon Warrior 3, where do I even begin? This is one of the biggest and most amazing games that I’ve ever put inside my NES. I can’t believe that they were able to make a game so massive and detailed on such and old system. This is back in the days when RPGs usually lasted around 10 hours and only had one or two characters. I would estimate that this game took me at least 30 hours to complete, but it was probably even longer. This game also drove me absolutely crazy more times than I can count. There were times when I wanted to retire from gaming altogether and start writing a novel. The only problem was that I could only think about dragons and medieval knights. No, I had to get through it if I was ever going to regain my dignity.

First of all, I love these old RPGs where your characters start out so weak that you can hardly take two steps out of town. I love to play a game for at least an hour before I stop walking in a circle around the first village. Dragon Warrior 3 not only does that, but allows a person to do that as many times as they want to. Other than the main character all the party members are created by the player. That means endless possibilites as long as you don’t mind only having a few character classes to choose from. I of course love this because it allows me to bypass the prototypical wizard. I really hate black wizards in these old games. They are always so stingy with the MP that wizards are only useful when fighting bosses. I hate to waste MP on any of the regular monsters because I’ll need enough for the boss. Why can’t they have MP restoring items anyway? Instead I went with a soldier, pilgrim, and merchant until I’m able to turn the merchant into a sage.

So that’s what you can think about before you even start playing. The gameplay is that familiar old Dragon Quest style. If you’ve played any of the newer games in the series than this one wont’ be too surprising. Actually it almost feels like the first game in a whole new series because most of the innovations in it later became series standards. Basically you go from town to town slowly getting stronger and slowly going through elaborate dungeons with plenty of tricks and secrets. Did you notice that I said slowly twice in there? There is a reason for that.

This game is slow! It’s one of the slowest paced games that I’ve ever played. You walk slow. That boat is damn slow. The phoenix is even slower. It takes a ridiculously long time to save up enough money to buy equipment for everybody. Not to mention the high level you have to obtain to fight that final boss. If this was any other game than I would call this a deal breaker, but for a Dragon Warrior game it’s all part of the experience. In fact, I would go so far as to say it was better because it moved so slow. This allows you to be fully immersed in the world. Because it goes by so slow you are able to appreciate everything the developers spent so much time putting in there. This might be why I’ve played through this game but never made it through Phantasy Star 4. That game just flies by to where I hardly even feel like I’m playing it. Of course my girlfriend will probably chuckle at this paragraph a little bit because she had to spend two months listening to me complaining about the game’s slow pace from the other room. I guess you appreciate things more when they’re over.

This game did take me about two months to complete. I would play it for an hour or two after work almost every day. I can’t imagine how long it would take without the internet to help me. Although the game came with detailed guides in the box so I guess they knew this one was gonna be trouble. This game is also one of the earliest I can think of that had a genuine fake ending. I seriously thought that I was fighting the final boss only to find out that I had another dozen hours or so of gameplay left. If you like random encounters than you’ll love the underworld. You’ll get into a fight almost every third step. Also, it looks a little familiar down there. Where have I seen that overworld layout before?

So I better stop this one before it runs on too long. Dragon Warrior 3 truly is a remarkable game. I got it at a time when I thought I had played through all the great NES games. It completely took over my life for a couple of months there, and I wasn’t really sure that video games could do that to me anymore. It was truly a worthwhile experience, and I’ll never forget how I felt when I finally beat it. I guess now I need to play through Dragon Warrior 2, but I might put that one on hold for a while. I just can’t take those trees that have that instant death magic. I guess that’s another story for another entry. Maybe I’ll go easy on myself and my next game will be a simple action side scroller. (Don’t worry, it’s not.)

Sega Genesis #3: Sonic the Hedgehog

Even though Sega had already been in the home console game for around ten years, this is where Sega began for most people. It's so synonymous with the company that it's hard to even think about Sega games existing before this, and yet they had been in the game a long time. They started out as a 3rd party publisher releasing games on Atari and Colecovision, and in 1986 they released the Master System which competed with the NES. Heck, Sonic's wasn't even their original mascot. That honor goes to Alex Kidd. He had a strong start on the Master System, but his subsequent games ruined the character. Hey, that sounds a little familiar.

Sonic the Hedgehog was released about two years into the life of the Genesis, and it caused millions of kids to suddenly want one. I'll never forget those old commercials. Sonic seemed so fast and exciting. We all doubted that Nintendo could do a game like that. They also had Larry Cedar dressed up like and old lady with tongue-in-cheek references to Mario. Back then Mario was the king of video games, and I had never heard him mentioned negatively anywhere. It was like I was suddenly in an alternate universe where there were other machines to play video games on. I was actually pretty excited.

By the time I realized that I wanted a Genesis in 1991 "Santa" had already gotten me a SNES. Luckily that thing was awesome, and I was able to put Sonic out of my mind until next Christmas. There are some things I will always remember, and one of those is the first time I played Sonic. First of all, when you turned on a Genesis game it would talk to you. That was almost cool enough right there to justify getting the new system. Of course it also had all those good games. That was definitely a plus.

Sonic blew me away when I first played it. The style of game was familiar, but everything about it was different. It was super fast, had those giant levels with branching paths and plenty of hidden treasures, that cool rotating bonus level, and of course the unique ring system. Ever since Super Mario Brothers came out games had you collecting 100 of something. Occasionally it was only 50, but the end result was usually just a 1-up. Sonic changed everything by making the rings he collected act as his life bar. Sure you could get an extra life at 100, but that was only part of it. It was contorting to know that you would be safe as long as you had 1 ring left.

I played the heck out of this game as a kid. I loved pausing the game at certain times to reveal funny graphical moments. Times like when Dr. Robotnik's giants glowing wrecking ball would be solid brown, or when two swinging platforms in Marble Zone would swing towards each other and actually fuse together for a moment. This is something I still do when I play the game, and it shows how obsessive about this game I was.

This game was also quite hard, and it was years before I ever actually beat it. I always got hung up on Labyrinth Zone. All those hidden spikes and drowning possibilities got to me. I've still only been to Starlight and Scrap Brain Zone a few times. What I had to do to beat this game was walk away for a while and try again when I was older. When I played it again in high school I suddenly found out that I was awesome at Sonic. When I beat the game I had over 20 lives and every emerald and continue that was available. I actually felt a little silly having so much trouble with it, but that's the game. I was only so good because I knew all those earlier levels well and could snatch up all the rings and lives.

I thought that it might be difficult again playing it now after so long, but I didn't have too much trouble. I don't think I died until Labyrinth Zone, but after that I died plenty. I still got all the emeralds, and I had forgotten how disappointing the ending was. Well that's Sega for you. I did have a great time playing it though. It took a little under an hour, and it was a nice way to spend a Friday evening.

So that's Sonic the Hedgehog. It's the game that started arguments all over the country among kids who weren't that into sports. Mario vs Sonic debates are still heated today. This also marks the beginning of what was probably the greatest era in gaming. All of a sudden Nintendo had competition and that caused them to make better games. There would be countless classics from both companies, and a few stray ones on other systems, for the next 6 years or so before Sega started to implode and Sony became the new king in town. Still, I doubt any of our childhoods would have been nearly as fun without Sega's glory days.

Oh, and on a side note my girlfriend also beat Sonic for the first time soon after I got done with it. It took her a lot more lives, but she stuck with it and was able to take down Robotnik with no trouble. I think she deserves a round of applause, so clap for her when you read this. She won't be able to hear you, but I think she'll still appreciate it.