lost kingdoms is pretty sweet too. i was at babbages, and theyre taking preorders for starfox, mario sunshine, zelda and metroid. im really looking forward to all those games. i have to admit tho that im a bit disappointed with the current library of games. ive been thinking of picking up a ps2 tho, theres a bunch of games there that i want to play.

My brother sent me <B>this link</B> to a review of the new Blaster Master they're releasing for Playstation. I've never even owned a Playstation but might get one so I can play this game.

The original Blaster Master was one of the best games for the NES. The detail was amazing, the game play was challenging and addictive, and the way that little jumping tank maneuvered was so realistic.

Man, I loved that game. Still have it, in fact, along with all the entire Mega Man series. Maybe it's time to hook up the ol' NES again.

where did you find the inner strength to unhook it in the first place? :)

~james

My good deed for the week
 

I got my wife hooked on GTA3 this week.

There's something infinitely cool about watching your wife roam the streets of Staunton Island, shooting people at random, then letting the bystanders all run up and look at the bodies "so that I can get the rest all at once with one grenade."

(She doesn't have my animal-reflexes driving skills yet, though. Gotta work on that.)

Not so much "inner strength", as lack of additional inputs!

Time to buy another splitter I guess..

For what it's worth, Pelican makes one that simply rocks -- five inputs with push-button switching and full S-Video support, for twenty bucks.

I have one on both TVs in my apartment.

And I have 2 of them on 1 TV in my basement. :)

They have 'em at Wal*Mart. If you're having real trouble, email me and I'll pick one up for you. They have little nameplates for each system (GameCube, XBOX, PlayStation 2, PlayStation, DVD, Other, etc). Figure $20 + ~$5-6 shipping (they kinda heavy). They're nice. Seriously. If Wal*Mart near you doesn't have 'em, lemme know. I'll get you hooked up. :)

C'mon, Dave.. some wimpy little $20 splitter? I'm disappointed in you.

This is a perfect excuse to buy a new $1500 THX-certified Dolby Digital receiver with a dozen inputs, if I've ever heard one. Thanks for the offer though. :)

I purchased Splinter Cell for my Xbox this weekend. The game is great. No mindless violence of any sort so far. It's a thinking man/womans game. It takes what made Metal Gear Solid a great game, took out the drawn out story line element added an amazing camera system and introduced some truly incredible lighting. I can't say I've played a game this difficult in a long time. If you have an Xbox I recommend at least renting it. It will drive you crazy, it's not an easy game.

Couple things going on in the gaming front...

First, I've bought a ton of games. And I've played a lot. And man, are some of 'em good. I'll get an updated list up here in the next few days.

Second, I brought my Sega Genesis and Nintendo Entertainment System home and hooked them up. I now have these consoles on my TV:

-NES
-Genesis
-PlayStation
-Nintendo 64
-Dreamcast
-PlayStation 2
-Xbox
-GameCube

I have been playing a lot of Super Mario Brothers 3, and I'm loving it just as much as I always have. Man it's a great game.

Third, I got a multitap for my PS2, as well as an extra controller. I've been playing GTA Vice City as well as Tekken Tag Tournament (only $20 now!) and I'm having a good time. PS2 is definitely a tight console, but I think I like my Cube more.

Fourth, I just won an auction for a Sega GameGear and 7 games on eBay. Including shipping and insurance, it came out to $31.50, which isn't too bad. I'd always wanted one, and now I'll have one. Weeee!

And finally, I sure do wish I had more time to just sit and play games. :)

what, no SNES?

~james

GTA Vice is everything I expected it to be. I'm at around 90% complete right now, trying desperately to figure out which Unique Jump I'm missing. (You get the same slo-mo animation for "unique jump you've already gotten credit for" and "unique jump you haven't gotten credit for, but you didn't land exactly where you're supposed to land.")

I put Legaia 2 and Kingdom Hearts on my Xmas list as my next PS2 time-killers.

I'm considering Metroid Fusion for the wife's GBA as one of her Xmas gifts... that is, if I can pry HER away from GTA: Vice long enough. I am DYING to get my hands on a Flash Advance backup cartridge, so that I can put PocketNES on it and turn her GBA into the ultimate portable NES machine. Finding one has become increasingly difficult since Lik-Sang got beaten down by The Man, however.

I'm plowing through Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (as has been detailed elsewhere) and am having a blast; I'll probably pick up the expansion set for or after Xmas.

Nothing too much screaming at me on the PS2 release-date schedules. The Getaway (read as: GTA: Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels) should pop up next month, and should be worth a look. Star Ocean 3: Till The End Of Time is listed as a hopelessly optimistic February 2003. We'll see. Tenchu 3 is March.

I'm seriously considering investing in a gamecube when the new Zelda comes out. I've played every zelda on console besides Links adventure and the thought of not playing the new one is actually bothering me. I love that franchise.

I have Morrowind's main quest nearly completeled on my Xbox but my brother owns the game so I've been away for a long time, but I'm beating the game over X-mas, and hopefully getting splinter cell finished off.

I'm sticking with my playstation. Ever since the release of those awesome arcade collections, my gaming needs are pretty much satisfied. I've been tempted to purchase an actual used game machine, like the ones we used to have to fill with quarters or tokens just to play a game or two. But I figure why bother when I could custom build the cabinet myself to better accomodate the playstation and various controllers, television, a place to rest a drink and ash tray.:)

Not to knock any of the newer game systems, there is even a "crazy climber" available for PS1 in another arcade collection. I think that the Atari collections are the very best though I haven't actually purchased very many of the others. I wonder what Namco was thinking when they designed their crappy formats for pac man, galaga, etc. Ah well, at least they were finally available.

I've been tempted to purchase a used arcade cabinet, buy an entry-level PC, toss MAME on the hard drive, and combine the two with existing software to create an arcade machine that plays over 3,000 games accurately.

But that's just me.

(What're holding me back include: the logistics of obtaining said cabinet, deciding between a standup or tabletop model, the cost of the PC, control panel issues (how to install a spinner for Tempest, a trac-ball for Centipede, a rotary joystick for Ikari Warriors), nagging fears of not knowing how to repair it when something breaks).

The Crazy Climber compilation for PSX is (a) Japan-only and (b) impossible to control with a standard controller. (If you can find the old-school two-joystick controller from Sony, you might get somewhere, but those are creakingly old and like hen's teeth to find.) There are also other Crazy Climber comps out there, like the updated Hyper Crazy Climber, which suffer similarly.

People are actually doing that, though, aren't they? Have plans been posted and stuff?

Y'know, you and me, we oughta put our heads together because if we do that we may be able to both 1) install a car stereo for your wife and 2) build custom game consoles for profit. All we need are Griff's tool cabinet and some time.

ive been working on this for a while, except im going to build a cocktail (sit down) cabinet. hardware for this sort of thing can be found here.

i have to learn to solder before i can do anything effectively, so i doubt ill ever get around to finishing, but its neat to think about.

~james

Last time I checked-
 

You could find it at e-bay, including a japanese formated ps1. I agree that it is mind blowing to try to configure a "cabinet" for video games to include one of every controller available. Personally speaking, I like YOUR ideas much better even though I'm not much into computers but the idea of a mega-arcade unit such as the one you describe in your vision appeals to me very much.:)

few more links...
 

http://www.mame.net/
http://www.klov.com/
http://www.arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm

first one is the emulator. the second one is because that site kicks ass. the third one is because its useful to poeple interested in building their own cabinet. :)

~james

Yes, people are. And I just saw one. The front of the thing was festooned with buttons and trackballs, and pots. It was very cool, and was made for use with MAME. I thought immediately of vsp when I saw it.

Unfortunately I'm getting old and forgetful, and can't for the life of me remember where I saw it.

I have narrowed it down to:

1. Some website that features such things. I will keep looking

2. Article in one of the gaming magazines (not a full article, but one of those short cool things this month featurettes that run at the front of the mag)

3. Segment on G4 tv. (Imagine that, an entire cable channel devoted to advertising games. Gotta love it.)

In the meantime ... does anyone know if williams brothers arcade hits is available for playstation (1 or 2)? I have this irrational need to have joust on every game system I own. Sometimes it's just too much hassle to unplug one to plug the other one in, you know ...

It must have been in a magazine. Oh well.

I did find this one though ... http://www.movielocity.com/mame/index.htm

Yes, it is, for PS1. The disc is titled "Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits," and it contains the same six games (Joust, Sinistar, Defender, Defender II/Stargate, Robotron:2084 and Bubbles) found in the original PC Williams Arcade Classics release.

(That was the software release that sent a lightning bolt screaming through the Internet community, inspiring many to start on homebrew emulators of their own. The first was Dave Spicer's "Sparcade," which I still have an alpha release of on my old HD -- the second public demo with six playable games. The first version of MAME (as "Multi-Pac," covering several flavors of Pac-games) followed a bit later; its open-source nature led to it eventually assimilating every other major emulator's games as well. TECHNICALLY, the Mac version of Williams Arcade Classics (with three games) came first, but...)

Anyway, the front is pictured <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1945750762">here</a> for as long as the relevant eBay auction holds up. Good luck haunting your local EB.

I really would have a tough time picking a favorite between the william's disc and atari's (through midway). They both load incredibly fast, have an equally timeless assortment, and are smoothly and easily controlled with the exception of "pong", on midway's. I think I am about to dig my ps1 out of the closet tonight when I wake up, and find a way to incorporate it into my "set top box"/vcr configuration and without breaking anything in the process. That is, if I am lucky. I've been so clumsy lately.:)

As for MAME cabinets...
 

There are lots of homebrew cabinet projects out there on the web. (There was even a commercial release, called Ultracade, which was basically MAME at one-coin-per-play with 80+ games plus whatever game packs the owner had installed. How they got around the licencing issues involved in selling this is beyond me, and I believe they're now defunct, but I saw an Ultracade machine in an Ocean City, MD arcade this summer.)

For me, it's more of a time-and-effort issue than anything else, as well as the fact that it'd involve a certain degree of physical tinkering (and, again, I'm lucky if I guess correctly which end of a soldering iron to hold, as high-school Metal Shop was a loooong time ago).

The control panel is, of course, the heart of the unit -- even an awesome game is no good if you can't control it properly. There are lots of issues involved in the design.

While most games involve a joystick and one or more buttons, there are so many oddballs out there... two joysticks (Crazy Climber/Robotron/Battlezone/Assault), a spinner (Tempest), a spinner AND a joystick (Tron/Mad Planets), rotary joysticks (Ikari Warriors/Heavy Barrel/Gondomania), trac-ball games (Centipede), joysticks or knobs that depress or lift (Discs of Tron/Super Punch-Out!), unique designs (the Star Wars yoke). Now figure in driving games (analog steering wheel, analog pedals, two-gear games like Out Run, four-or-five-gear games like Night Driver, complicated setups like Spy Hunter...) Now figure in shooting games (Crossbow, Vs. Duck Hunt, Operation: Wolf, Point Blank...)

Somewhere, the line has to be drawn, else your control panel would be eight feet long and weigh six hundred pounds, with toggle switches to turn various sections of it on and off. But the fact remains that there are lots of games that are in MAME but simply can't be played (or played efficiently) on an average PC due to these issues, and if I'm going to shell out the cash to build an arcade-cabinet solution, I might as well try to accommodate as many of these as I can...

There's also the side issue of four-way joysticks vs. eight-way joysticks. (Some games, like Sinistar, had more than eight directions, but most joystick games were designed more humanely.) Four-way games (Pac-Man) don't respond well to eight-way joysticks -- this is a very common problem with console versions, because the player will hit a diagonal and the game will go crazy-go-nuts at times. Likewise, playing an eight-way game with a four-way joystick is often impossible, and awkward at best.

Vertical or horizontal monitor? Some games use one, some use the other, and that's (unfortunately) not an easy thing to change on the fly unless you're extremely creative with your cabinet design.

Stand-up or cocktail cabinet? The cocktail looks cooler, but generally provides less space for control-panel modifications.

The alternative to all of this, of course, is to buy (or make) a custom control panel to plug into the PC. A lot of companies offer these (the X-Arcade and the Hot Rod are brands that come to mind) as pre-made plug-in joystick panels for the PC, and I saw a bunch at this past summer's Classic Gaming Convention in Valley Forge, some more full-featured than others, most around $400. Retrogames had a review of a cheaper one-player model (under $100) linked recently.

One more anecdote for Williams Arcade Classics
 

As I said above, the PC release of WAC was the first major arcade-games-on-your-computer release that delivered actual authenticity. When it shipped, I bought it on day-of-release as a birthday present for myself, and cranked it up on my Packard Bell Crashmaster.

I started playing Sinistar... and my old television went NUTS! The volume started shooting upwards, the channels started changing by themselves... this freaked me out quite a bit, considering that _I didn't have a remote for the TV_, and had never been able to find one that was compatible. (I'd bought it from a college girlfriend for twenty bucks; the TV was a JC Penney model from the late 70's, and the remote had been accidentally dropped into someone's drink glass sometime in the 80's and rendered inert.)

I petitioned rec.games.video.classic for help -- I knew the games were intense, but I knew they weren't THAT freakin' intense. The answer someone came up with was that the TV used an ultrasonic remote, as compared to the infrared remotes that are common today. Apparently, WAC's version of Sinistar threw the PC into an oddball video mode that generated just the right frequencies to trigger the TV, causing random behavior.

"Only YOU would find a quirk like that," I was told. I took this as a compliment.

What about a "rolling" control panel, two feet wide and four sides. The connection from controler to unit could perhaps be infra-red? And what if the unit itself could be portable such as the ps1 w/ built in monitor and easily transplanted from "cocktail" table view to stand up console? Oh, this is so much fun.:)

The Non-Canonical List of Classic Games on PS1
 

<b>Activision Classics:</b> A pile of Activision's Atari 2600 offerings (think Pitfall et al) for the PS1. This was generally held to be of inferior quality to their Action Pack counterparts on the PC. (There is a newer PS2 disc, called <b>Activision Anthology</b>, that's received better reviews and also includes some cheesy 80's soundtrack music.)

<b>Arcade Party Pak</b>: 720, Smash TV, Klax, Toobin', Super Sprint and Rampage. Smash TV was born for the Dual Shock controller, and some of the others aren't bad, either.

<b>Arcade's Greatest Hits: Atari Collection 1</b>: Tempest, Super Breakout, Centipede, Missile Command, Asteroids, Battlezone. Some control issues, but decent ports of the originals.

<b>Arcade's Greatest Hits: Atari Collection 2</b>: Paperboy, Gauntlet, RoadBlasters, Marble Madness, Millipede and Crystal Castles. Again, control issues hamper this one.

<b>Arcade's Greatest Hits: Midway Collection 2</b>: Blaster, Root Beer Tapper, Burgertime, Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest, Spy Hunter, Moon Patrol, and the rare Splat!. Recommended, even if Spy Hunter really needs a steering wheel.

<b>Arcade's Greatest Hits: Williams</b>: Described above.

<b>Atari Anniversary Edition</b>: Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Black Widow, Centipede, Gravitar, Missile Command, Pong, Space Duel, Super Breakout, Tempest and Warlords. Probably a better buy than the above Atari Collection 1, if you can find it.

<b>Intellivision Classics</b>: Activision's other early-console offering. Lots of two-player-only games (particularly sports). Interesting if you liked the console, though there are control issues.

<b>Konami Arcade Classics</b>: Gyruss, Scramble, Super Cobra, Pooyan, Roc'n'Rope, Kicker (Shaolin's Road), Yie-Ar Kung Fu, Circus Charlie, Time Pilot and Road Fighter. Nice variety here, with some classics that've stood the test of time.

<b>NAMCO Museum Vol. 1 through 5</b> In order:
Volume 1: Pac-Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Rally-X/New Rally-X, Bosconian, Toy Pop
Volume 2: Mappy, Xevious, Super Pac-Man, Gaplus (Galaga 3), Grobda, Dragon Buster
Volume 3: Dig Dug, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, Tower of Druaga, Phozon, Pole Position II
Volume 4: Assault (which does NOT work as you'd expect with a standard Dual Shock pad, sadly), Ordyne, Pac-Land, Return of Ishtar, Genji & Heike Clans
Volume 5: Dragon Spirit, Pac-Mania, Metro-Cross, Legend of Valkyrie, Baraduke

Volume 2 is the best of the five, IMHO, but I'm a Mappy junkie.

That's about all that made it to the States. Other solid collections (Capcom Generations Vol. 1-5, Parodius Deluxe Pack, Twinbee Deluxe Pack, Namco Encore, Namco Anthology, Nichibutsu Arcade Classics, Irem Arcade Classics) exist if you have a modded console and don't mind a little Japanese in your menu screens.

this is the layout i came up with for my arcade cabinet which i doubt will ever really get finished. i actually am planning a cocktail cabinet with only one control panel (this layout) on the long edge, for most games. there will be a simpler control panel on each short edge, a 4 way joystick and 2 buttons, for games like galaga, pacman and other simple games that play well like that.

the buttons will be laid out basically for my comfort, with a keyboard hidden beneath for pc functions. the trackball can be uses to function similar to a spinner and with 2 extra buttons at the top doubles as a mouse. with an 8-way on one panel and 4-ways on the others, i get the best of both worlds. if youve ever played pacman on a machine with an 8-way joystick, you understand why that is so important.

~james

bummer
 

Dave's gaming stuff got toasted as well, didn't it?

Hey!

Yeah, it did. Here are two fun pictures.

http://msdelta.net/~dave/images/house-fire/P0001315.JPG - PSOne and GameCube.

http://msdelta.net/~dave/images/house-fire/P0001316.JPG - The rest.

Both are big pictures; the second one is smaller, Kilobyte-wise, and shows more.

Matt and Giles bought me an Xbox, Splinter Cell and a TV to play it on. I cracked this weekend and bought a GameCube (and saved the receipt, so insurance will reimburse me for it). So I'm working it back up.

GameCube, Xbox, PS2 and PSOne are stupid easy to replace. It's the rest that I'm worried about. N64 units are increasingly difficult to find in mint condition. Dreamcast is seemingly impossible to find brand-new (though I haven't looked super hard at local game shops). Getting an original NES that doesn't need to be blown in is probably not going to be easy. I guess a Genesis in decent condition will be alright if I look around on eBay.

And then there's the games... I had a lot of good Nintendo and Genesis carts that are totally ruined. Ugh.

Remember how much I talked about Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3? I probably put over 150 hours into that game... all my save-game data is on the Xbox's hard disk. :\ My CTR save, which was at 100% completion (and involved probably 60 hours of game time) is gone. Miraculously enough, all of my memory cards (except PSOne, which was probably the worst-hit console) were able to copy data. So I have my Halo save, my GTA3 saves, my Super Mario Sunshine and Super Monkey Ball saves... pretty much the one glimmering ray of sunshine in the whole console mess.

But back to what I'm doing now... well, I can't drag myself away from Splinter Cell. Cam wasn't lying - it's fucking great. <b>Fucking great</b>. It is definitely hard (and I'm only on the 5th mission), but it's fun, and not frustrating (though Paul would argue otherwise). I will hopefully beat it in a week or two. I flew through a lot of it this weekend. Or rather, I got a lot done. I didn't really fly through it - we probably already have 20 hours on it. Hopefully I can get it done in another 20? :)

Cam, have you beaten it yet? If so, how was it as a whole?

The local EB Gameworld (Electronics Boutique clearance outlet) has used Dreamcasts for the riproaring price of $29.99, with one controller and the usual cables. I'm in the process of talking a buddy into getting one (FIRE PRO D baybee).

N64s are a dime-a-dozen these days, depending on how picky you are about condition. The fact that they're down to twenty bucks and I _still_ won't buy one should speak volumes about my opinion of its game library. Between the Atari 2600 and the Dreamcast, it's one of only three mainstream systems I've never owned -- I never bought an Atari Lynx for lack of finding a good deal on the used market, and the NeoGeo systems were too expensive (plus, MAME filled that need nicely).

Recent gameage: On the PS2, Legaia 2 was a decent time killer. An improvement on the first in some ways, but very, very linear and somewhat on the short side plot-wise, along with having the First Team Flaw (i.e. an RPG where you can recruit and switch between multiple characters, but by the time you get that option, your original characters have been levelled-up so much that it's pointless to use anyone BUT them. The original Suikoden was the grand high poobah of that trend.)

I'm halfway through Onimusha, and alarmed that I'm _already_ halfway through it. I'm at about 94% and holding in Vice City, and don't have the heart to figure out which Unique Jump I'm missing (since the you-did-this-before animation is identical to the you-haven't-done-this-one-but-you're-not-landing-in-the-precise-trigger-spot animation, I can't tell).

Morrowind was entertaining but got repetitive once I built some levels and skills -- I haven't dug into the expansion pack much yet.

And what game did I probably put more hours into than any other this year? GTA Vice is probably third, GTA3 is second, CARDFIGHTER'S CLASH on the mofo'in NeoGeo Pocket Color gets the nod. Never thought I'd say that, but the game is insanely addictive.

No I havn't beaten it, hopefully will get it finished off within the next month or so, unless I get in a groove and just rush through the game. School caught up to me the last month before I went home and I hardly touched any games, and when I was home I got into my emulation collection.

PS2 bargain of the day: Wild Arms 3, $29.99 at Target (unadvertised sale, on their discount rack)

Where you at in it Cam? I'm on the 8th mission, and that's all I'll say (for fear of revealing anything) until you tell me where you're at. :)

I did something yesterday I hadn't been planning on.

One of my girlfriends received a GameCube for Christmas. Apparently at some point in the last year she had complained to her husband about missing Mario ... so there it was under the tree, along with a copy of Mario Sunshine.

You know, for a safe for small children to play platform game, Mario Sunshine is DAMN hard ...

So now, I'm resisting getting a game cube.

I DON'T HAVE ROOM!!!!!!!!!

(The reason I got a playstation2 was that I wanted a DVD player, but didn't have space on the TV Cart and justified the purchase because it was also a game system)

The GameCube really is a pretty awesome console. I find it more fun to play than either my Xbox or my PS2. I just bought a new one a few weeks ago to replace the one that got destroyed (luckily, all my games survived)... it's great.

Super Mario Sunshine really isn't all that hard, it just takes some getting used to. Once you master the camera, you'll be fine. Take your time and explore a lot. I have like 14 extra lives now and I think three shines. :)

(You can get a GameCube/Sunshine bundle for $189, which saves you $10, but you'll also want to get a WaveBird as well. I'm told you can find these for as low as $25 if you shop around, but expect to pay $35. It's a great controller. Lastly, you definitely want a memory card, so $20 there.)

I'm toying with the notion of a GameCube... eventually... but for very different reasons.

I am very resistant to the Mario Family of games, i.e. Brightly Colored Objects Running Around And Collecting Other Brightly Colored Objects While Jumping On Top Of And Squashing Evil Brightly Colored Objects. On the NES, I had no problems with the genre, but it's gotten out of hand since. I respect Miyamoto as a creative mind, but I don't play many of his games. Likewise, the other classic Nintendo franchises (Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon, Mario Kart, StarFox, etc.) don't fill me with tingly glee like they do to the 'Cube's early adopters.

The 'Cube has a fair amount of those, plus a LOT of crap (but what console doesn't?) Animal Crossing scares me as a _concept_. However, it is starting to accumulate a few games that break out of the Nintendo=kiddy fare equation. Eternal Darkness:Sanity's Requiem, the Resident Evil games and such appeal to my wife's love of the survival-horror genre, while Metroid Prime and the Godzilla game are ones I could see myself playing. Not a huge lineup, granted, but I've bought consoles for less, and I can find oddballs like Cubivore to hold me over. Skies of Arcadia Legends is coming, which will fill one of its biggest gaps (no traditional RPGs of any note).

A game in the Fire Pro Wrestling series is reportedly coming to the 'Cube. If it does, all bets are off -- one will be coming to my house. :) (BAM! Entertainment has backed off of bringing it to the States, but the 'Cube is reasonably modification-friendly.)

I already own and overuse a PlayStation 2, so the games that are ported to both systems are out. I'm not a sports-game guy, so those are out.

Something Corporate
 

[quote]Originally posted by wolf
I did something yesterday I hadn't been planning on.[/QUOTE. Wolf, you shouldn't require much room for these here files. Someone else has already covered that department for others like you.

Goodbye.:)

As I've stated before, the game I'm really looking forward to is Soul Calibur 2, which is supposed to be out on all 3 but specifically geared toward the GC and its controller. We shall see...

I'm gonna get Animal Crossing for Jenni, and I really want Eternal Darkness and Metroid Prime.

Mario Sunshine is different because it's more "shoot this bad guy with a fun water gun"... plus, I never played Super Mario World or Mario 64 very much, so it's still fun to me. :)

Uuuh ... thanks j03.

I do enjoy the adventures of Mario and family ... and also the Zelda franchise.

I was a BIG nintendo fan, and still enjoy playing my N64. (My sister currently has custody of the SNES, so that she at least has something to play with. I ought to check with her one of these days to see if she's actually using it, or if she wants to perhaps move up to the PS world ...) However, their corporate decision to drop the old systems like a hot rock and promote the hell out of the new one does not give me warm fuzzy feelings. At least Sony continues to support the PSone, and made their new system backward compatible with the old and did not alienate their fan base.

Most of the other games available for the GameCube are not the kind of things I find interesting. Pikmin? Oh man, I would NOT touch that with a ten foot pole. Bossing around seeds? Not for me. Gimme a good sniper rifle and let me pick off targets, thank you very much.

Anyway, there is an astonishing amount of cuteness involved in Mario Sunshine, which includes any number of places where you just HAVE to say, "Oh Gee that's clever indeed!" When there is some little game feature that gives you a reminder of the old NES Mario days ... like the "underground" music every time mario hops into a manhole cover, or the scary rendering of the Pirhana plants in the new version of the game. The graphics were awesomely crisp. But maybe I'm just reacting to the fact that a lot of the games I tend to play are of the dark, brooding, grainy, atmospheric variety.

I am starting to adjust to the new controller configuration, but there are more buttons than I have fingers. Luckily my friend has an 8 year old son who is able to help me through the more difficult parts. I'm actually doing fairly well at his point, and I think in just a couple hours of play I got 5 or 6 sunsprites. The stuff I tend to get stuck on are the "test of skill, agility, and eye hand coordination" stuff ... like those damn races. I'm assuming that in the first race (on those surfin' blooper things) I have to get my course time down to under 40 seconds, which is a hassle and a half. I hated the Slide Races in Super Mario World 64 and STILL haven't beaten the damn aztec turtle in DK64 despite numerous tries and careful reading of the hint book.

I don't see myself getting a 'cube in the next month or two, but now that the bug has bit, It is likely that sometime this summer I'll hit a sale or get a coupon or just say "oh what the heck" and head over to the EB World in the shopping center in East Norriton.

In the meantime, I'm still more than entranced with the many games available for the PS2, so finding time for ANOTHER game system will not be easy. Does anybody know where the damn train has to be in Max Payne when I start my running jump so I can actually land on top of it rather than *splatting* onto the tracks? Is this actually a "bullet time" kind of moment or am I just lame?

I'm likely to set that aside for a bit though, since I got "Fatal Frame" for Christmas ... I played the X-Box version one night and thought it was even spookier than Silent Hill 2.

I'm smack dab in the middle of the Chinese EMbassy mission, having hell of a time with it. Just havn't been in the gaming mood lately so I havn't put in considerable amount of effort into it.

Fatal Frame is nice 'n' creepy. I bought my wife the PS2 version, and had her play with the lights off and the sound turned up. Good stuff.

Looking over the upcoming first-quarter release-date lists:

PS2:
<b>The Sims</b> (tomorrow), for anyone not terminally sick of it by now
<b>The Getaway</b> (next week) -- think Lock Stock & Two Smoking Grand Theft Autos, but more mission-centric than GTA games. Early reviews have been mixed.
<b>Devil May Cry 2</b> (two weeks) -- If you liked the first one...
<b>Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance</b> (early March) -- If you liked the first two...
<b>Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven</b> (early March) -- I sense a trend here...

Cube:
<b>Resident Evil 2, 3 and Codename: Veronica</b> (this month) -- In case you missed them on two or more other consoles.
<b>Skies of Arcadia Legends</b> (late January) -- Aw hell yeah. Classy RPG goodness.
<b>Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc</b> (early March) -- Back to platforming heaven for Rayman, where he belongs.
<b>Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Zelda: Wind Waker</b> (late March) -- No, "Wind Waker" is _not_ a typo.

Xbox:
<b>Panzer Dragoon Orta</b> (tomorrow) -- Return to the series' rail-shooter roots with lotsa eye candy. Looks good.
<b>Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball</b> (two weeks) -- "She kicks high."
<b>State of Emergency</b> (end of January) -- After thoroughly underwhelming PS2 gamers who expected it to be GTA3 1/2...
<b>Phantasy Star Online Xbox</b> (late February) -- For those who missed it on the Dreamcast...
<b>Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick</b> (March) -- It had better be better than Hail to the King, THAT's for sure...

Boy, February is a dead zone, isn't it?

Which Chinese Embassy mission? There are two - 6 and 8. :) I'm guessing the first?

You will have a HELL of a time at the end of the 7th mission, but you'll know when you're there. All I'm going to tell you is to make sure you don't read any guides online (I read one after I had beaten it), 'cause a) it won't help you and b) then you'll feel cheap. :)

I refuse the help of guides ruins the fun, I'd rather struggle through it and get pissed off a couple hundred times before I look at a guide. And your right I'm on the 6th.

Oh boy.

Well, the ending to mission 8 isn't too hard. Mission 9 should be pretty challenging for you - there are two fun shootouts. But you'll eventually get it. :)

I just beat it... man, what a great game. Truly the best game I've played on any console this year, and I've played a lot of good ones. I'm going to re-start it soon and try and explore everything. God it's great. :)

Warned you didn't I ;)

Funnily enough, I didn't realize you had it until after I decided to get it. I first came around to it via the review at http://xbox.ign.com - I totally agree with these guys on just about everything, and when they gave it a 9.6 (second only to Halo with a 9.7), and I read the review... well, I knew I had to have it. When I came back and read this thread some more, I saw your mention of it and I was like "yeah! Another guy likes this game. I <b>have</b> to get it."

After the house fire, Giles and Matt bought me an Xbox, a TV and... Splinter Cell (I had been raving about how I had to get it). After playing it the first time, I was hooked.

The game is truly great in every way. At the beginning, even the training seems stupidly difficult. I started a new game at Level 6 (just to see how I would do) and I flew through the training in about 5 minutes. The game really progresses nicely challenge-wise (though the shootouts in the 7th and 9th missions can be frustrating), such that by the time you get to something, you have learned enough to know how to approach it. Simply put, it's one of the most well-designed games I've ever played.

Everything about it is stunning. As I've said before, this game alone is worth having an Xbox for. It's <b>that</b> good.

Well, it IS coming to the PS2 in a couple of months, so I'm not lusting for an Xbox just yet...

I have a feeling the PS2 version won't be able to quite capture the essence of the xbox version. The ps2 just doesn't have the lighting cababilities that the Xbox has. And that game relies so much on the lighting that any degrading of it will almost ruin it. It is coming to PC though and we all know that version will kick ass on a high powered machine.

The thing I am worried about in the PC version is the control system. The game is suited perfectly toward analog sticks, both for targeting and for movement. The mouse is going to ruin that, I think.

As far as PS2... yeah, I think the graphics are gonna get hardcore fucked there, which will be a shame, because the game is absolutely beautiful. I think the optimal platform for it would be a high-end PC (see the Über-Über Box thread) with a PS2 controller (I still prefer it over everything else). If the PC version supports the use of external game pads with analog function *and* there's a PS2->PC controller adaptor... that would be how I'd want to play it.

Except that you really want it on a big ass TV to fully enjoy it.

Okay, the ideal setup for it is on a 36" Wega with 5.1 surround (man it sounds amazing) and an Xbox. :)

so i finally picked up a ps2 with baldurs gate: dark alliance. that game is a blast, and my wife will actually play it with me, which is a bonus. i think im going to pick up gta3 in a week or two, and maybe tekken. does anyone know any decent baseball games for the ps2? i was always a fan of the world series baseball games, but that one is an xbox exclusive this year, and im not buying an xbox for one game.

~james

Look for All-Star Baseball 2003 (by, startlingly enough, Acclaim) or High Heat MLB 2003 (by 3DO). Approach MLB Slugfest 2003 as you would approach an angry rattlesnake, or a person in robes at the airport who wants to hand you some pamphlets and tell you about his religion.

Baldur's Gate is a good first-wave RPG. I'm in RPG overload at the moment; I finished Legaia 2 (mildly recommended), am halfway through Wild Arms 3 (more strongly recommended) and have Kingdom Hearts (on sale for $39.99 at CompUSA) and Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land (found used at FYE for $19.99, OLD OLD school crunchy goodness) on standby.

You can't lose with GTA3, and playing it before GTA: Vice is not a bad idea. The latter is playable without familiarity with the former, but you'll miss many nuances of the sequel without it.

Both Tekken Tag Tournament and Virtua Fighter 4 come cheap these days. I vastly prefer the latter, a fun-to-play-but-extremely-difficult-to-master triumph of game design, but Tekken's pick-it-up-and-play simplicity also has its charms.

Further suggestions provided upon request; name your genre.

well, i like certain rpgs, im very picky there. im very resistant to finaly fantasy x, as ive been unimpressed with the series since ff3 on the snes (well, 9 was okay, but i know im in hte minority on that). i was thinking of picking up nhl 2k3 (i like baseball and hockey games), but what im really looking for are games i can get my wife to play with me. she likes puzzle games a lot. she liked super puzzle fighter on the ps1. i think puzzle bobble is out on ps2, which would be good.

~james

For baseball games this year, EA's completely redoing their game, renaming it's franchise and it's looking pretty promising so far. All star baseball was great on the N64, I havn't played it on the new generation of consoles but I'm sure it's tons of fun.
And if I remember correctly, no time to look it up right now, but I think World Series baseball is coming out on all platforms soon. It was an X-box exclusive for last season but I thought I remember hearing it was heading for all platforms for the new season.

I'd check out some party games(like mario party), I don't know what the ps2 has for them, but they seem to hook everyone, even people who despise video games find them enjoyable once you talk them into playing them.

There are two Super Bust-A-Move (nee Puzzle Bobble) games for the PS2, which are almost exactly like every other Puzzle Bobble game ever created. (Not that that is a bad thing -- at last count, I own eight for various systems, and that's not even counting the NeoGeo versions I have on MAME.)

Consider Frequency, a music-action game with multiplayer. Those who "get it" find it insanely addictive; I haven't had that epiphany yet, but I am trying to learn. The PS2 is rather short of puzzle games apart from that -- you're left with Aqua Aqua (Wetrix sequel), Egg Mania (so-so Tetris variant) and PS1 games (there's always Mr. Driller).

My wife plays GTA3 and GTA:Vice, but that's my wife, and yours may find sniping and skidding over pedestrians less appealing...

Note for reference: Super Puzzle Fighter 2 is coming to the Game Boy Advance next month. Expect America's national productivity to grind to a halt soon afterwards.

Oh, jeez, don't go there. The PS2's lone entry in that field is Shrek Super Party, which is a screeching horror of Biblical proportions. This is where you take advantage of the PS2's backwards-compatibility and dig up PS1 games like Poy Poy, Incredible Crisis, SPF2T, Buster Bros. Anthology, Intelligent Qube or the Point Blank series.

I wrote a long post here, and I <b>swear</b> I posted it, not just previewed. Did it get deleted or did I somehow fuck it up?

Guys, maybe you can help here.

One of my friends has an xbox.

Four of us (all female, and I'm the only one who likes shooting things in the head) get together on a regular basis to play with the thing. On occasion we'll pick a one player game and trade off the controller whenever someone dies spectacularly, but that's not as much fun as hacking away on a multiplayer game.

We had a great time playing (and finishing, much to my astonishment .. not that it was difficult, just that it took a long time) Gauntlet: Dark Legacy.

We are looking for a new game that we can all play together but have thus far been unsuccessful.

We did rent some game that was LIKE Gauntlet, only with better graphics, cool looking characters (basically street punks with magic), zombies, gargoyles coming to life, all the things that make such a game great, but the degree of difficulty was too high for the gang ... when you can't make it out o the first (actual, the one past training) level after 5 uninterrupted hours of playing the game, you get discouraged. I forget the name of that game, but it had something to do with vampires.

Does anyone have any suggestions? (yes, we could go for Mario Party because she has a 'cube, and probably will eventually, but we had kind of gotten into the magickal monster bashing in gauntlet, even if it was kinda lame, so that's the standard of comparison for the other girls.)

Our only type at a fighting game was Xena: Talisman of Fate on the N64, and that only lasted for one session, and I think we only played as long as we did because of the familiarity of the characters. I might suggest trying another fighter if they bring out a Star Wars based one, cuz everybody LOVES a lightsaber, but otherwise, it's probably not an option. These are new age chicks here ... they get upset when people are not cooperative about something. (you should have seen the "no, it's your turn to take the treasure" arguments when we played Gauntlet.)

Bloodrayne?

To actually answer your question, I've had a lot of fun with <b>Fuzion Frenzy</b>, which can probably be had cheap these days. You would almost certainly enjoy <b>Splinter Cell</b> if you can borrow the Xbox from her. :)