when did they re-enable downloading?

GBA ROMs are generally in filename.gba format. (Most emulators allow you to keep them zipped to save space, which is good, as a complete zipped collection is still a couple of gigs.)

See if your local news feed carries the alt.binaries.emulators.* hierarchy, with a.b.e.gameboy.advance being your most likely target in this case. Several systems have their own newsgroups, and a.b.e.misc is the home for the rest.

I have had some success in obtaining some ROMS, and I'm fairly impressed with the quality of the gaming experience. I think a GBA is in our family future, here. I am also quite intrigued with the ROM devices which allow you to load multiple games into a single cartridge...

Visual Boy Advance is a sweet little emulator.

One of these days, I'm going to break down and buy a <a href="http://www.gbax.com/">Flash cartridge</a> for my wife's GBA, but not so I can put multiple GBA games on one cartridge...

...rather, so that I can put hundreds of <a href="http://www.pocketnes.org/">NES games</a> on one cartridge.

Then again, it's hard to justify spending the money for a GBA flash cartridge, when for not that much more I could get my hands on a <a href="http://www.gbax.com/gp32review.html">GamePark GP32</a> and play NES, Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, TurboGrafx/PC-Engine, Sega Master System, Game Gear, Super Nintendo, Atari ST, Spectrum, MSX, LucasArts SCUMMV, some arcade games, some Id Software ports, DivX movies, AVIs, MPEGs, MP3s, and assorted other open-source projects on it. ;)

That's cool stuff... and just right for somebody like me who likes older, simpler video games. I'm also intrigued by the capability of taking movies along. I wonder how much you can cram on with divx? The last long trip I went on I lugged a laptop and a cd carrier full of DVDs so I wouldn't get bored silly... which was a pain.... but ripping the DVDs beforehand would also be a pain.....hmmmm.

You're limited by the size of your SmartMedia card (which is what the GP32 reads from). Hence, any movie files will require major compression to fit -- it's more of a "Hey, it's neat that it can do that" feature than a major selling point.

I would just like to say that I recently joined the 21st century and played my first game of Halo on XBox. My whole platoon is quickly becoming addicted. They sell XBoxen, Halo, and TV's on base here (we're back in Kuwait, if I haven't mentioned that), and all these young, single enlisted guys with all this money saved up because they've been in the desert for months have nothing better to spend their money on.

So we have 4 networked consoles with 4 players each, and stay up until 3 or 4 a.m. each night playing team games (Team Slayer at first, now mostly CTF). But 3 of the TV's are only 14", so split that 4 ways and it doesn't leave you much real estate. Man, war is hell.

I'm guessing DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball would be considered contraband? :angel:

Well, they do sell Maxim, Ramp, and FHM in the PX, so I think it would be OK. Unless there's cheat codes to completely remove the clothes. In which case you could just label the CD "family photo album" or something and you'll be OK!

I'm surprising myself by how much I want to go out and get PS2 <a href="http://ps2.ign.com/articles/425/425633p1.html">Magic Pengel: The Quest For Color</a>.

Looks like an unholy blend of Monster Rancher and Seventh Cross Evolution. The former is well and truly celebrated, while I'm about one of six people on Earth who enjoyed the latter. Best Buy has it for cheap.

Then again, since I _still_ haven't gotten around to starting Kingdom Hearts...

Latest addiction: Dynasty Warriors 3.

I'd been eyeing this series for a while, and decided on part three for a couple of reasons: a lot of diehard reviewers liked it better than DW4 (or at least felt that DW4 wasn't a big enough upgrade), it was half the price of DW4, and it had many of the same features (elephants, for instance).

The gameplay is repetitive, but still lots of fun (think Final Fight 3D in ancient China, with hundreds of friends and foes battling all around you). The levels are somewhat static (as compared to the reportedly-better AI in DW4), but it still can be a challenge to make your way around the huge battlefields, reach imperiled allies in the nick of time and keep everybody's morale boosted.

There are tons of powerups and items, 40+ reasonably different characters (many of them unlockable), four weapons per character and three difficulty levels. Two players can play either head-to-head or co-op, adding to the fun. Joe Bob sez check it out.

(holding off on VF4: Evolution -- my wife has Silent Hill 3, I have DW3, so we're _already_ fighting over control of the PS2)

Okay!

Since the fire, current console list (working) is as follows:

- 2 Xbox
- 2 GameCubes
- 1 PS2
- 1 GameGear
- 1 Dreamcast
- 1 PSOne
- 1 PlayStation
- 1 GameBoy Advance SP
- 1 GameBoy Advance
- 1 GameBoy Player (for big-screen Metroid Fusion-y goodness!)

I have way too many games to list, and when I retire, I will finally have time to play them.

I'm looking to pick up the following:

- Another GameGear, since they're so cheap
- 1 Sega Nomad
- 1 Neo Geo Pocket Color + some good games

I know vsp will be able to help me with that last part. Puzzle games, anything you think will be interesting.

I have been spending an awful lot of time with Soul Calibur II lately. I have it for all 3 consoles. I am totally done with the Xbox version, having everything unlocked. The PS2 version was what I got first, and I'm about 70% done that (have one character to unlock yet plus a boatload of weapons), but now it's almost unplayable because of load times and because it looks so fugly. I just got the GC version last night (have to buy games for insurance!) and I haven't even put it in the console. I'll probably get to work on that some time this week.

I picked up TimeSplitters 2 for Xbox, because it was only $20 and Paul and I played it when he was over. It's definitely pretty cool for a console-based FPS. I liked the idea of it, and I want to play through it single-player.

I need to put more time in on Halo. I tried to beat it on Legendary (the highest difficulty), and it kicked my ass. I need to start easy and go from there.

I need to pick up Stuart Little 2 for PSone, because Jenni wants to play it.

How about that GameCube at $100? It ain't getting much cheaper, folks. Go buy one and make yourself happy.

Alright vsp, educate me on the ways of the Neo Geo Pocket Color.

Like many others, it tried to take down the Game Boy Empire.

"They tried and failed?" "They tried and died." (ObDune)

It had superior specs when compared to the Game Boy Color, but it was seriously outmatched by the GBC's game library and Nintendo's marketing, so it croaked. I grabbed three for $20 apiece from my local EB outlet, along with an assortment of games, and I've gotten some pretty serious mileage out of it.

The system has very good battery life -- way into double-digit hours on an average set of two AA's. Its screen is fine in average roomlight, but you'll squint without a good light source, and (unfortunately) the only light I know of isn't a straight plug-in like the GBC's. I have a Worm Light knockoff that plugs into a special rechargeable battery pack, which adds slightly to the bulk of the system.

There is no territorial lockout, much like the GBs; Japanese games work fine.

As for the games:

* Puzzle games include Bust-a-Move Pocket (not bad, though touchy on the small screen), Magical Drop Pocket (similar to the NeoGeo versions), Puzzle Link 2 (just different enough from Magical Drop to be interesting) and Puyo Pop (typical Puyo Puyo blob-dropping fun). I have BaM and PL2, and both are decent.

* There are some surprisingly decent SNK fighters for the system -- King of Fighters, Last Blade, Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown 1 and 2, Gals' Fighters, SNK Vs. Capcom: Match of the Millenium. If you can get around the two-button controls, they're not bad.

* Crush Roller and Pac-Man are classic maze games, but hard to control.

* Shanghai Mini is very nice, if you can find it.

* Sonic is exactly what you'd expect from a Sonic game.

* Metal Slug: 1st Mission and 2nd Mission are spot-on arcade ports. VERY nice for being on a small screen.

* BioMotor Unitron is a primitive RPG that's reasonably entertaining. It's about the only RPG on the system worth noting.

* The shining jewel of the lineup is SNK vs. Capcom: Cardfighter's Clash. There are two editions (SNK and Capcom); the core games are the same, but each plays slightly differently in places, and you'd need access to both editions to get certain cards.

It's a deceptively simple card-battle game; there aren't a ton of strategic nuances, but just enough that you'll keep fine-tuning your deck in small increments once you get to know your opponents. You'll spend lots of time battling the same opponents over and over to build up cards (wins earn you 3-5 random cards, depending on the opponent), but it didn't get old for me -- to this day, I can spend ungodly amounts of time playing it, trying to beat my record for winning the game (just over four hours in total speed mode, with some luck). There are also lots of cards that can't be won until AFTER you've beaten the game, along with a new mixed-deck mode.

There isn't much of a story mode to it -- in other words, you won't be wandering the countryside, hunting down the Holy Fondue Fork that the Temple Adept needs before he'll give you the Magic Wobble Orb necessary to defeat the Fudge Dragon, or anything like that. Apart from a few set events, it's straight-up card battling, and what you get is what you earn in matches.

More notes on request.

Other stuff
 

I have my GameCube (I got mine for $89 months ago, used). I bought Metroid Prime, but have been too busy with other games to try it out. My wife's been playing Eternal Darkness and the Resident Evils on it, so it's not as if it was a wasted purchase.

My sleeper of the month is <a href="http://ps2.ign.com/articles/435/435365p1.html">Disgaea: Hour of Darkness</a> for the PS2. I picked it up on Saturday, and the rest of the weekend is a blur. Think Final Fantasy Tactics with anime stylings, English translation/voice acting that's actually GOOD (and very funny at times), insane combos and leveling options, random-dungeon side-quests, and some elements borrowed from Persona 2 (also by Atlas, also recommended). AND you get exploding penguins on your team in the first five minutes. How can you go wrong?

I broke down and got an Xbox recently when I decided I just could not wait any longer for Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic on the PC.

Excellent purchase. It came with Tetris Worlds and Clone Wars, both of which are decent games. But KOTOR, damn. That is a fun game. I haven't had this much fun with a Star Wars game since... well, ever. I'm playing Galaxies, but its sort of a disappointment so far, hopefully the content will start to improve sometime soon.

Final Fantasy X is 20 bucks now on Sonys Greatest Hits, so I finally got around to that. I guess I haven't missed too much. Its a decent game and all, but I really do yearn for FF games more in the SNES style. Its just too cinematic. The cutscenes are far too frequent. I've spent more time watching the plot unfold than I have playing the game. Whats doubly itrritating is whne a cutscene ends, control is returned to you for about 3 seconds and then another begins. I don't see myself finishing it.

Any suggestions on what Xbox game I should get next? (Don't say Halo)

Are there other Xbox games?

Halo, Splinter Cell, Soul Calibur II (if you like fighting games), TimeSplitters 2, Tony Hawk 3 or 4 (both are $20 now and are insanely fun), Rallisport Challenge (if you like racing games - this one is awesome), MGS2:Substance (it's only like $20 now), Jet Set Radio Future (if that kind of thing is your bag), Dead or Alive 3 & Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (to see the breasts the system is capable of rendering)... I have all of those except Volleyball and they were all worth my money. I'd recommend Splinter Cell or Tony Hawk first though. (3 and 4 are different enough that they're both worth owning; 4 is infinitely harder.)

Additions to the to-buy list, but they were already on it (from last year):

- Super Nintendo
- Sega Saturn

vsp, were you the one that had two game rooms just filled with games? I saw pictures, and I was thinking they were yours, but maybe they're not. I can't remember. If so, wanna post pictures again? :)

I wish I had more space, 'cause I want to set up a sort of retro gaming area on a separate TV. I have to buy a 27" TV for insurance purposes anyway, and I've still got the one from the fire (I think it will work if we take it apart and clean it). Get a system selector switch and put the old PlayStation on it, plus a Saturn, SNES, NES and have the connector for the Nomad... maybe in the bedroom. I don't know. I sure do enjoy playing games though.

Is it a requirement for every male to fantasize about making some sort of uber-gaming center? I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't. Including me, of course.

Though I agree that I match the description of someone who WOULD build such a pleasure den, I currently live in a two-bedroom apartment. When I go house-hunting, a finished basement for gaming purposes will be one of my criteria.

(Ah, who the fuck am I kidding? A box with four walls that keeps the wind and rain out will be all I can afford in Chester County.)

I did pick up a cheap third TV last night, however, which will be going in my current game/computer room and have all sorts of systems hooked to it. Those five-setting switch boxes from Pelican are a gamer's best friend. (Let's see. Living room = GameCube and multicarted Vectrex, bedroom = PS2 and modded PS1, game room = TurboDuo, Dreamcast, Jaguar, NES... and if I get pathological, old school GAME <-> TV slider switchbox run through an RF Modulator so I can swap out my Atari, Intellivision and ColecoVision.)

That "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" guy says that men build CAVES for themselves. Every guy needs a cave to hang out, no women allowed.

But my wife is an avid gamer, and she's a woman. Yes, I've checked thoroughly.

I still want to turn an arcade cabinet into a MAME box someday, but that's on my someday-I'll-get-to-it list. (Ideally, I'd have a menu proggy up front to allow other emulators to run on the same control scheme. Since 99% of console emulators allow joystick input, it'd just be a matter of registering the control panel of the cabinet as a valid Windows joystick/controller, which I believe some preconstructed control sets have already accomplished.)

Man. Paul, yes. When you guys live with us, we will have one. Three GameCubes, 2 PS2's, 2 Xboxes... it'll rule. Oh yes.

Ideally I'd like to have basically two living rooms... one upstairs for movie and TV watching, and then "the den" downstairs for gaming. Two or three TVs (one big one set up with surround sound, of course), a nice big comfy sofa and some big, plush chairs that you could sink into and play your GAME GEAR! all day long.

Then I just need to retire. Yeah.

I see these lots of like 100 Genesis games on eBay for $80 and stuff. I just think "man, if only I had the time"... ah...

Gaming rules.

Oddly, I've never had the urge to sell any of my old-school games on eBay or elsewhere, other than a Vectrex now that I have three of them. I have just about every cartridge-based game I've ever owned on my PC via emulation, and then some, but there's something about digging out the genuine article now and then and remembering, for instance, just how funky the Bally Astrocade's controllers were.

(For the uninitiated -- trigger grip, with a joy-knob on top... that rotated. Joystick and paddles in one unit! Very nice. It would've been perfect for games like Tron or Mad Planets, had the system had the horsepower.)

While I agree that all humans need their space - I think I'm probably the one - not my BF that wants a gaming cave when we finally go house hunting.

Right now we have a 2 bedroom apartment. (Kids come over every weekend) In our living room - desk with 3 computers (one for me, one for the BF, one for the kids). All computers have a view of the television. Hooked up to the TV - PS2 (adults), Gamecube (kids) and DVD (all). In the Kids room - another Ps2 (kingdom hearts) and the Nintendo 64 as well as a VCR. In our bedroom - TV with VCR and PSone. We will be getting an x-box soon I hope, but as we live in Oregon and the BF is unemployed right now due to our state having the highest unemployment rate in the nation - we are a little short on cash. Oh! One thing I forgot to mention - in the living room next to computers right by couch -my small college dorm refrigerator - Yes I have a beer fridge in my living room!!!!

I have a disgusting amount of equipment, and since I am a dumb asshole, I will continue to buy more, instead of saving to buy a house. Who needs a house when you can play all 248 Dreamcast games?

vsp - I know! I've got three or four Atari 2600's that I'll never get rid of, and probably 100 carts for 'em. I couldn't part with 'em. Same with all my other stuff... I don't understand the people that sell their systems. I guess if you never use 'em anymore, but that will never be me. I will always want to play games. :)

Man... does it get better than sitting down and playing a game all freaking day? It does, but not much.

Active Library

--N64
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Star Wars Episode 1: Battle For Naboo
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
StarFox 64
GoldenEye 007
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter


--GameCube
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
Metroid Prime
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Leader
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

I also had in my lifetime the NES, Genesis, and SNES, with a myriad of games for each, all of which have succumbed to the fate of overuse and now exist only in the world of ROMs and emulators. Rest easy my friends, you shall never be forgotten.

I just, at this moment, cannot justify spending the money for an Xbox when the only games I'd enjoy for it would be Halo and KOTOR. I've played other things on friends' Boxes, and found that either the games are not something I'd pay good money for or could find equal or superior versions on the Cube (Splinter Cell, SC2, Towers).

If the Box comes down to compete with the Cube's price cut, maybe I'll snag one. Beyond that, no dice. Especially with the games ready for Cube over this holiday season - True Crime, XIII, Mario Kart Double Dash, Return of the King, Rebel Strike. Man...I get two of those, and I'll be three weeks late for the start of Spring term. Throw in Rebel Strike, and forget it, I'll make the classes up over the summer.

I dunno, man. KOTOR is more than enough reason to buy an Xbox in my book. :)

As uninterested in Halo as I am, I saw some footage of it on TechTv's X-Play last night, and if i thought I could get my wife to play deathmatch with me, I would probably pick it up.

Dude, you can deathmatch with *me* over the internet. And you don't even have to split the screen! Score!

Yeah, but I've seen your Quake video. I'll get my ass handed to me. :)

Oh well, life is short. I'll let you know when I pick it up, you can put a hurtin' on me.

It's a whole different game. I'm good at Quake because the controls are good and I've practiced so much. I don't play Halo nearly as much and the controls are harder (for me). You'd be surprised at how even a match we probably are.

It's kinda sad - my friend who owns an Xbox, his brother refuses to play Halo deathmatch against him. The only person who will is me, and I own his ass time and time again.

Perth - I don't deny KOTOR is a great game, especially for a guy like me who would spend quality cash on something like Star Wars: Yoda Takes A Nap, I'm that much of a fan. I just can't justify buying a system of one or two games.

Now if Microsoft would bundle Xbox with Halo and KOTOR...then we may have a deal.

Is it really much fun to play Deathmatch one-on-one?

Years ago, I bought Duke Nukem 3D for my Saturn, and picked up a pair of NetLinks for it on clearance. A friend and I tried it out, and as far as the game itself went, it was a perfectly good Duke Nukem game; the controls were acceptable, the lag time was negligible, and we blasted each other around the room for a while. But with only two players, and therefore nothing to do but collect weapons and blast the same guy over and over and over again, it got boring very quickly.

If you get four or five guys onto a level, that's a different story.

So, this weekend I got a good bit of gaming in.

<b>TimeSplitters 2</b> - Xbox - Andrea and I are playing through this co-op. We're stuck on the Neo Tokyo level. By "stuck" I mean "too frustrated after five or six attempts to even try it again". Following that fucking bitch is driving me instane. But otherwise, this is one cool game. Too bad it's basically got PS2 graphics, 'cause it sure isn't as pretty as

<b>Halo</b> - Xbox - After two years of owning this, I finally beat it last night. See, it's got four difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Heroic and Legendary. When I first got it, I thought "Well, it's not worth doing if I don't do it on Legendary". Apparently Legendary is pretty hard 'cause I never got off the fucking ship. On a more appropriate difficulty level, though, Andrea and I made it through it co-op in a weekend. Man the textures are great in this game. Whew. Anyway, still a great game. I might have an extra copy I can send perth (long story, but I wound up with 3 or 4 copies, sold a few and one got "ruined" in the fire, but I think the disc itself is okay - the case is just fucked, and has shit melted to it).

Deathmatch on Halo is cool 'cause I have two friends with Xboxes that can link up and play too. So we'd have 4 people. Even 1 on 1 can be fun if you're in to dueling. But really, he ought to get it just to get ready for Halo 2, which is going to rule all over the place.

I think I'm going to try and work my way through Max Payne this week (I've got it for PS2), and then finally get started on Metal Gear Solid 2. And, of course, I'll finish TimeSplitters 2 with Andrea whenever we get a chance to play.

So many games, so little time.

(Next big game purchase - GTA Double Pack for Xbox. Good lord it looks sa-weet.)

Somehow I'm not sure that Dave would be interested in a strategy RPG (even if it does have guns in it), but I'll say it anyway -- barring a November or December miracle, <b>Disgaea: Hour of Darkness</b> is my Game of the Year. By far. Can't... stop... playing.

Not strategy RPG - but MMORPG - Final Fantasy XI comes out for the PC on 10/28/03. (Yes - I'm taking a day off work so I can play it on the release date. Yes, I am pathetic)

See, I'm very dissatisfied with Halo 2, simply because the big hurrah they had for it this year was a movie. Not even in-game film. It was a trailer. And yet, people lined up all over the LACC to see this damn thing.

Granted, I'll probably change my stance once I actually get to, you know, play some form of it. But until then, my annoyance remains.

Barring release-date bumps, November is a great time to own a PS2:

* 11/4 - Dynasty Warriors 4: Xtreme Legends
Add-on pack with new random-level mode.

* 11/4 - FIFA Soccer 2004
EA junkies have already preordered, of course.

* 11/4 - SOCOM II
More online bang-bang.

* 11/5 - Lupin III: Treasure of Sorceror King
Metal Gear Solid with a Lupin twist. Guardedly optimistic on this one.

* 11/10 - Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly
Survival-horror. Trailer looks sweet.

* 11/11 - Medal of Honor: Rising Sun
Bang-bang in Japan.

* 11/11 - XIII
CEL-SHADED bang-bang. Could be interesting.

* 11/17 - Monster Rancher 4
Some new twists, and hopefully harder than MR3.

* 11/17 - Midway Arcade Treasures
23 emulated arcade games for $20; not a bad deal, even if most are already out in several PSX compilations.

* 11/17 - Spy Hunter 2
Vehicular bang-bang.

* 11/18 - Battlestar Galactica
CYLONS~!

* 11/18 - Final Fantasy X-2
Won't buy it myself, but I'm in the minority.

* 11/18 - Manhunt
Rockstar's take on "The Running Man," and you're running. Heavy on the stealth, emphasis on sound, previews are sketchy.

-- jeff. There goes the Christmas fund...

Am I sad or what?
 

I bought a Today's Special Value.

(but I will be able to play Dig Dug any time I want ...)

EB has it for $24.99, so you saved six cents but ended up paying shipping...

It's a neat concept piece, but let me know how the controls end up functioning. Four of the games use four-way joysticks (Galaxian, Pac-Man, Rally-X, Dig Dug), but Bosconian is an eight-way, and sometimes eight-way joysticks get funky when used with four-way games (when you roll the joystick through the corner, unpredictable things can happen).

I will be a good boy and not describe how someone with a CD burner could buy a used Sega Dreamcast for $40 and have all five games running on it via MAME in ten minutes. ;)

Hell, no. that thing is great. Not thrilled about the ghost-shaped joystick though. EBGames has what appears to be the same thing, only with the classic. ball-topped stick. They also have this, very cool. I'm a big Dig Dug dork myself. I just got Namco Museum for the GBA, with Dig Dug and Ms. Pacman. Two of my favourite games of all time.

Upon further inspection, the controller looks like the ghost is just a little felt cover.

vsp - urgent question.

I am going to buy a Saturn. By the end of November, I will have one.

What is a fair price to pay for a brand new one? I checked by GameStop last night and they don't have any. Do you see them regularly in Philly? If so, would you mind picking one up for me? I trust you more than I trust eBay sellers.

I bought two of the 3D controllers today to force myself to finally buy one. So, here goes. I'm getting a Saturn.

Oddly enough, I may have one new-in-the-box at my old residence, though I'll have to dig through my closet to find it. When Wal-Mart was blowing Saturns out at dirt cheap, I picked one up for the sake of having it, and also in case anything ever happened to my semi-modded one. (I melted one connector point while trying to install a switch; now it's a Japanese Saturn that needs a converter cart in order to play American games. No sweat off my back, as I wanted it Japanese to begin with so that I could use a Memory Cart with Fire Pro Wrestling S.)

I believe I paid $40 for it on clearance. A fair price today? I would say that it's Whatever The Lady At The Garage Sale Says, as that's about the best source for them these days. Half.com has a wide variety of prices, eBay is all over the place, and the usual suspects (EB and GameStop) aren't stocking them on their websites. As for what I'd ask for it, I have no idea, though there's always the barter system...

(BTW, are you still in the market for a PSX Dead or Alive original? I saw one the other day, though I don't know if it's still there or not.)

(looking up something...) I'm surprised -- National Console Support (my usual stop for imports) ran out of Fire Pro S's. They sold enough of those back in the day to pave the streets of Tokyo. As a result, I'm really not sure where to tell you to look for most of the games I'd recommend, particularly the imports. I'm sure that games like Panzer Dragoon Saga command a fortune these days -- they were rare even when they were new.

Game suggestions on request.

Yeah, I saw Panzer Dragoon Saga for like $130 on eBay and people were actually bidding on it (about 2 weeks ago).

Ha, I don't think I have anything you'd want, man. But I'm down for bartering. I generally barter with cash though. :P

Yeah, Dead or Alive PSX would be awesome. I look every time I get a chance but it's always like "disc is scratched, no booklet or case, accidentally melted the middle of the disc so it barely plays, bidding starts at $80". i just want a $20 perfect condition version! :)

Lemme know your price for the Saturn. At the very least, I'd be super duper appreciative if you decided to let it go. As always, I'm willing to pay a fair price.

I just bought Dead or Alive import for Saturn. $14 + $5 shipping. So worth it for the jiggly goodness.

I have locked myself into getting a Saturn. So... how about it, vsp. What's your price? :)

Also, is a Dreamcast Gameshark CDX all I'll need to play Japanese imports on my Dreamcast? I ask 'cause there are a few games I'd like to get. vsp == teh man.

Here's the copy of Halo I'm gonna send perth:

http://www.msdelta.net/~dave/images/...e/P0001317.JPG

Right there in the green case on top of the TV. That's all yours, studmuffin. All you gotta do is pm me your address. :)

The Dreamcast's lack of resistance to piracy is legendary, and that includes imports.

If you have a CD-burner and either Nero, DiscJuggler, or a burning program that can handle .nrg or .cdi images, , I can mail you the Utopia Boot Disc (about 4MB) in either format. That should handle Japanese originals nicely with a simple boot-swap; I've played Fire Pro D for years with such an arrangement.

Non-originals (arrrr! matey), on the other hand, are generally self-booting whether they're American, Japanese or European, and the Euros typically have 50/60Hz selectors built in to get around the PAL limitation. What DC imports do you have in mind?

Dead or Alive 2 LE, for starters. (Yes, I know you have that. Avast!)

Wanna try some Fire Pro and SPF2.

Oh man.

I just pulled out my old Dreamcast that was ruined in the fire. The "Power" button is melted shut, and I figured it was a goner. Well, I took it apart and basically sat the guts of it on my TV stand.

Put in NFL 2K1 (one of the few games I have 2 copies of) in case it spun out of control and shot off.

Hit power.

Disc didn't spin.

I thought "well, shit." It was disappointing, because the system booted up and everything. I set the time and date, could see VMU's in the controller, etc.

Then it dawned on me - there's a mechanical switch that the door closes.

Grabbed an old VMU (also saved from the fire) and depressed the switch - bam! Disc spins up.

So now I've got a spare Dreamcast. :)

I've seen replacement cases for them, and as it is, ncsx.com sells them for $19. That's cheaper than a new Dreamcast, so I think I'll order one and stick it in there. Ooooh boy, purple Dreamcast. :)

(I love that console so bad. Jesus.)

(vsp - you didn't answer me on whether or not you'd sell. :) )

(And yeah, I use Nero, so you can send me whatever will work in that. I can give you an anonymous FTP to upload to if you want - or you can stick it on your server. Whatever works for you works for me.)

Heh. Good choices, and all three are sitting on my desk. (If we're playing Dreamcast Stump the Band, you'll have to try pretty hard to find something I don't have.)

Fire Pro is the only one that requires substantial FAQ-qage, since the menus and (especially) the create-a-wrestler mode are heavy on Japanese. It also helps to know some of the foreign wrestlers, as you'll have a better idea of what to do with them (their strong points, their styles, their finishers, what body parts they tend to work on). Still, no other wrestling game in the world does a better job of building realistic movesets and creating realistic matches.

I'm sure I can part with my spare Saturn, but I still have to fetch it. I'd rather not start guessing at prices until I have it in hand and can verify that it still works.

I just wanted you to know that I found this extremely funny when I first read it two weeks ago, and I find it extremely funny again today as I read it again. Good job, sir.

vsp, you got any spare Super Nintendo systems around? They sell out like hotcakes here, and they're getting kind of expensive on eBay for the ones that are obviously well cared for. (The ones that are all discolored and shit sell for only like $20 - sigh.)

I need one of those + Super Metroid + Street Fighter 2 + Mario Kart. I <b>will</b> get them.

I only have one, but I really have no use for it. I never found much for the system that interested me; there were some shooters (Space Megaforce, Pop 'n' Twinbee, Gradius 3, R-Type 3), some RPGs that are all available for PSX now (FF2, FF3, Chrono Trigger, Ogre Battle), and Tetris Attack, but that was about it.

The "mainstream" Nintendo franchises don't impress me; I never was into Zelda beyond the first NES Zelda, Mario Kart was fun but not the best-game-ever that many make it out to be, Super Mario World was sheer overkill, and the Donkey Kong Country games were pure triumphs of graphics over gameplay.

To me, the early 90's (the Genesis / SNES / Sega CD / 3DO / CD-i) were a pretty dark time for gaming in general; there were a few gems, but there were literally tons and tons and tons and tons of side-scrolling platform crap and other shovelware. I spent most of that period sticking with my classic-era consoles and my computer -- my Intellivision was a huge draw in my college dorm circa '91-'92. The TurboGrafx/PC-Engine provides some redemption for the era, but I didn't find about its better games until years after the system had died, and many of those were Japan-only.

I'll give you a pack of matches and a pickle for Super Metroid.

(I got a Super NES at a decent price on eBay. Included was Street Fighter II. I dunno if you remember the post that started this thread, but it's my favorite fighter ever. It'll be good to play that again.)

Hey, I like SF2, too. That's why I play it in MAME, where I can choose between one (1) buttload of arcade ROM revisions.

(Or if I'm in a console mood, why I play Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition on my TurboGrafx (w/adaptor) with a six-button pad.)

I hate players that play like this:

Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken!

Dickheads.