Splain | 2,571 Editorials Team · Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Thanks @GPX!! What's the meaning of your username? I had started forum life on Sealed Game Heaven (SGH) roughly 10 years ago. There I was “GPS”. With the recent years, that site had recurring issues with management and software technicalities do I decided to expand my forum resume with Nintendo Age, and subsequently now VGS. My username now is imaginatively tweaked from GPS to GPX.. Why GPS in the first place, you ask? I think initially I wanted a simple name to reflect my persona, while having an air of mystery about it. Or maybe that was the first 3-letter acronym that came to mind?! Anyway, I’m stuck with 3-letter names now! Did you draw your profile pic? Yes I did. I drew it as part of @T-Pac’s Inktober yearly campaign in 2022. It’s a straight up copy of Yoshi for the N64 cover, and I tweaked a few bits here and there to convert him into Yoshiangelo, a turtle/dinosaur hybrid! I’m a huge fan of Casual-Cart’s work. He’s inspired me to go back to my drawing passion and I hope to evolve this passion further in the coming years. How did you come across NA/VGS for the first time? I knew of NA around the time I joined SGH around 2015, but I decided to initially join SGH because I felt it was more catering for general collectors and I was really into mint/sealed stuff around then. With NA, I felt it was a bit too Nintendo-ey, and I was an all-round geek, not just into only Nintendo fetishes. I collect for Nintendo, Sega, Xbox and PlayStation, mostly from the era of the 90s and early 2000s. As mentioned in the first response, due to recurring issues with SGH, I decided to join NA around 5-6 years ago. Are you more of a collector or a gamer? I would say I’m now much more a collector in the physical and literal sense, because I spend much more time with the collecting aspect. However, I game on a weekly basis with my trusty Xbox Live games in short bursts, and spiritually I’ll always be a gamer at heart because that’s how I fell in love with games in the first place. I collect really because I don’t have the time to play as much, and this has helped to fill the gaming void. What's your collection look like? Pics? I’d like to think it’s a respectable collection of around 3000, put together with passion and filled with a mixture of mint, rarities and the odd variants and subsets. I’m mostly a Pal collector, so the collection consists mainly of the UK/Euro/Australian variants. My interest doesn’t just lie in what I’m buying, but also in the historical aspects and the nuances involved with all the forms of collecting with CIBs, mints, new/sealed and graded stuff. Most of them currently are stored in boxes scattered in various rooms. I’ve recently started a collection thread highlighting my nostalgic pieces, and here’s a pic from that thread which encapsulates well my passion both as a gamer and collector. What's the current focus of your collection? I’m in a decluttering phase with wanting more space and money. I’m focusing this year to buy a bigger home to properly store and display the stuff I own. My main focus in terms of collecting is going for a complete set of new/sealed Pal N64, Original Xbox, Dreamcast and Saturn. These are sets which I feel to be of challenge but yet, obtainable in my life time. Then adding whatever random cool stuff that tickles my fancy that I come across. What would be your holy grail? It’s hard to narrow down to just one single item because values would fluctuate if purely focusing on a monetary perspective. Personally, I set out my own challenge and once I’ve achieved it, knowing that it’s a unique and rare item/subset, that’s what satisfies me the most and keeps me going as a collector. I’ll just show a couple of pics of what I’ve put up on VGS over the years. Capcom SNES-graded awesomeness, 3 VGA 90s from the 90s! Easily the most coins I had spent on these damn arcade machines! 2. In slightly lower grades to the above, but I consider the sealed Atelier Iris trilogy for PS2 my personal grail as a collector. These were all bought at different dates from different buyers over the span of 2 years. To get them all in uniform grades is very satisfying to me. What's your favorite era of gaming? I friggin’ love the 90s, particularly the early-to-mid 90s. The games felt fresh, and the graphics and sounds evolved at such a rapid rate yearly! Even after 30 years I can still recall a lot of historical moments/discussions around that time. Examples: Sega vs Nintendo: who will win the supremacy battle? (The answer is pretty obvious now, but wasn’t obvious at all in the early 90s) Sonic vs Mario: who was the coolest dude? FX-chip on the SNES with the likes of Starwing and Stunt Race. Who will win the 3D race with the new generation consoles 3DO, Jaguar, Mega/Sega CD, PS1, Ultra 64? I went to a gaming expo in the mid-90s which showed off Sol-Feace, an arcade shooter and I can vividly recall how awestruck I was witnessing such visuals! Genuine arcade quality graphics. Sonic vs Mario: Who IS the coolest dude? I actually started console life with the Sega consoles of Master system and Megadrive. I was a one-eyed Sega fan initially so I was totally into Sonic before I even knew about Mario. It was when Streetfighter 2 came out on the SNES that I knew I had to make the console switch, and Super Mario World came as a pack-in game. Couldn’t put the game down and fell in love with that moustached plumber ever since. Long story short, Mario. How do classic 80's/90's games stack up against modern games? They’re different eras serving different purposes. 80s ~ exploring the 2D scene. 90s ~ mastering the 2D scene ~ exploring the 3D scene Modern ~ mastering the 3D scene ~ mimicking the 90s for those into nostalgia and fans of 2D gaming 2D-wise, nothing really beats the 90s, because you have so much to choose from. 3D-wise, nothing beats the present when compared to the past. Are you excited for any upcoming releases? I haven’t really played anything modern since around 15 years ago, being stuck on the Xbox Live with around 100 downloaded games. Mostly nowadays I play Defense Grid and Geometry Wars 2. I’m going to slowly work my way into playing and completing the Megadrive collection on the X360 and the games on the SNES-mini. Looking way more into the future, no doubt I’ll buy the Switch and likely future generation consoles. Just that I need to buy a new home first to then focus on the gaming part. I’ve loved the Mario platform games and have completed Mario 64 and both the Mario Galaxies, so definitely looking forward to playing the Mario Odyssey and future sequels. I want to game more when life becomes more settled, and want to try more genres and explore all the awesomeness of what games can offer. What's the greatest console/library of all time? Personally, I think it would be the SNES. So many great titles and cherished memories to be had from that era! Nintendo were the masters of gameplayability, particularly with their A-grade franchises. They also had great support with the likes of Konami and Capcom being in their prime powers of creativity and visual programming prowess! Technically, I think it would have to be the PS1. While the console wars were dominated by Nintendo and Sega in the early 90s, Sony pulled out one almighty finger at both those companies and punched them both in the balls before they knew what had hit them! The console had a huge library and was the groundbreaker to help the gaming public transition comfortably from 2D to 3D. What are your top ten favorite games? Too damn hard! But I’ll try.. Super Mario World (SNES) Super Mario 64 (N64) Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) Street Fighter 2 and its franchise (Arcade, SNES) Streets of Rage 2 (Megadrive) Einhander (PS1) Zelda Wind Waker (GameCube) - it’s the only Zelda game I’ve completed, and then I just didn’t have the time to commit to lengthy RPGs afterwards. Castlevania Symphony of the Night (PS1) Shinobi (Arcade) and Revenge of Shinobi (Megadrive) Legend of Mystical Ninja (SNES) Honorable mentions: Super Probotector (SNES), Gunstar Heroes (Megadrive), Parodius (SNES), Resident Evil (PS1), Defense Grid and Geometry Wars 2 (Xbox Live) What are the most overrated games in the world? I really haven’t been following the current gaming scene to know which is overrated. Frankly, I don’t bother about it too much because I’d rather focus on what games I’d prefer to play/collect. I stick to my lane and everyone else can do what they like. Do you remember the first video game you ever played? It would have to be on the Commodore 64. Probably Wizard of Wor or River Raid as a cartridge game. What's the most fun you've ever had playing video games? Probably Mystical Ninja on the SNES. Genuine top gameplay, nice visuals and sounds, mixed with that whacky Japanese humour with plenty of giggles and LOL moments along the way. 2-player co-op too! Had a blast playing it with friends! With social gaming, I had a lot of fun with Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Sports during parties. Do you play any smartphone games? No. Where do you live? Australia. Who do you live with? My missus. I don’t normally talk about her because she isn’t into gaming. Thankfully, she’s into sports and that’s our common passion. Any pets? Nope. I like to pat them, but not to own them. What do you like most about Australia? Reasonably good health care system, although it’s starting to be on shaky grounds since the pandemic and the health sector is undergoing a lot of changes with cost cutting measures. Other than that, I think we have a good blend of multiculturalism and fairly good tolerance to every race. Along with that, there’s great foods of Western, Eastern and European blends pretty much everywhere you go. What non-video game hobbies do you have? Sports. Currently I’m playing tons of tennis, usually 3-4 times per week. I’ve made a serious pact to improve my health and fitness since about half a year ago when I suffered from burnout with work and family commitments. There was a lengthy period last year when I didn’t come on VGS because of said life commitments and burnout. I’ve dabbled in other sports such as football (Aussie style), cricket, badminton and table tennis. Drawing. I didn’t realize this passion until in recent years, where I’m now trying to discover my potential and practicing more art work. Previously, I’ve mainly copied art from other sources, at random times, which I had found to be calming. I feel I have a lot more to improve in this field. Music. I like both the listening and the singing part, with casual karaoke-ing with friends on the odd occasions. I don’t actually have a favorite song or band, but I like all sorts ranging from the 80s to the present day. 80s and 90s had the better lyrics, whereas modern music has the better beats and instrument variations. Is pickleball big in Australia and do you bemoan its existence like US tennis players? I’m not sure if it actually exists in Australia. I watched a few clips on YouTube and it seems reasonably fun and something I’d try one day. Seems like a hybrid between tennis and table tennis, where you can do a bit more running around than table tennis, but you can’t be buggered to run too much like in tennis! How well do tennis video games stack up to the real thing? Not very well to be honest, I don’t think it’s ever possible to fully replicate this sport in a video game. The real sport is about doing all sorts of racquet speed and spin to the ball and the actual running around like a maniac on a court. I’ve only tried 3 tennis games, Super Tennis (SNES), Virtua Tennis (Dreamcast), and Wii Sports. All ok games, but I much rather doing the real thing. Bonus free Vitamin D while you’re at it! Favorite book/movie/album/meal/Ninja Turtle? Book - I read a lot of books when younger but don’t read much nowadays. Roald Dahl stood out with books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. Those were some imaginative books which have converted well into films. Movie - Inception, the Sixth Sense, Shutter (the Thai original version) Album - Michael Learns to Rock was one I remember in the late 90s. I actually bought that album during my first overseas trip to Hong Kong. I don’t listen to any specific albums these days. Just whatever songs I like from random artists, including K-pop and other non-English songs. Meal - Pizza and Beef noodles (Pho) Turtle - Yoshiangelo, the fifth turtle! - actually I liked Michaelangelo. He was goofy and so was/am I. Hong Kong? How's your Cantonese? I’m not from Hong Kong. I went there in the late 90s with a group of friends because we had a friend from University who lived there, and his parents owned a large complex with plenty of spare rooms. That friend was a rich bugger! We’ve lost touch since but those were some good times! My ethnicity is Vietnamese/Chinese and I can speak a bit of Viet and Mandarin. Although I came to Oz when I was practically a toddler, so I’m pretty much Australianised by now! As for my Cantonese, I’ve heard a lot of words watching Jacky Chan movies, but unfortunately, I can only recall the cuss words! Do you travel a lot? In order of travel - HK, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Bali. Will definitely want to go to the US one day because I have a ton of cousins there, and I might perhaps also be able to buy a cheap game or two while I’m there. Also definitely wanting to go to Europe, particularly Italy and Germany. I studied Italian for 3 years so why not put it to good use? And my wife is from Germany, so keen to check there too. I would also love to try Japan and Korea if I end up going to Asia again. I’m a bit tired of going to hot Asian countries! What do you do for work? I work in the health field. For personal reasons I don’t want to give specifics in my job description. I can share that I have an interest in physical injuries and psychology. This extends to my interest of the topics I like to discuss on VGS with respect to psychology and asking the “why?” eg. Why we game? Why we collect? Why are WATA games costing over a million bucks? etc. What's your dream job? Online business of some sort where I can sleep in and work half naked, while still earning enough. Maybe start a YouTube channel talking about games? I should ask Karl Jobst to do an interview with me, that should get the ball rolling with the subs. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Splain | 2,571 Editorials Team · Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 And here's @GPX's collection thread: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Splain | 2,571 Editorials Team · Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 June 2022: Estil July 2022: RH August 2022: Brickman September 2022: Code Monkey October 2022: OptOut November 2022: Lynda Monica December 2022: a3quit4s January 2023: Mr. Wunderful February 2023: G-Type March 2023: Link April 2023: Tabonga May 2023: Renmauzo June 2023: Sumez July 2023: DarkTone August 2023: Fox September 2023: TDIRunner October 2023: DefaultGen November 2023: guitarzombie December 2023: avatar! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Rothchild | 9,549 Editorials Team · Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Finally I can separate @GPX and @PII as two distinct people in my mind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPX | 1,370 Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 7 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said: Finally I can separate @GPX and @PII as two distinct people in my mind If it helps to distinguish us further, I’m the guy who likes to talk about WATA, even though I don’t own any WATA games! I thought of you when I put up the SNES pic. Can we be SNES buddies now? Thanks @Splain for the gentle questioning. It was done quickly and relatively pain-free! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brickman | 3,995 Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 I always thought you were from NZ GPX! Glad to have another Australian around and a great read 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link | 2,714 Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 5 hours ago, GPX said: Thanks @Splain for the gentle questioning. It was done quickly and relatively pain-free! 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPX | 1,370 Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 4 hours ago, Brickman said: I always thought you were from NZ GPX! Glad to have another Australian around and a great read I’m from Oz, but in the Southern state. Hope you’re enjoying the long weekend mate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPX | 1,370 Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 1 hour ago, Link said: A transcript of the pre-interview: Splain: before we start, I’m going to need you to curl up in the fetal position. GPS: this seems rather unnecessary, all I wanted to do was just a plain interview. Spain: it’s VGS’s policy for…err…research purposes. GPS: is it too late to back out? I’m having second thoughts. Splain: trust me, just count to three, it’ll be relatively pain-free! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brickman | 3,995 Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 1 hour ago, GPX said: I’m from Oz, but in the Southern state. Hope you’re enjoying the long weekend mate! Adelaide? I'm in Melbourne so not too far away 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,560 Graphics Team · Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 Great read @GPX - and thanks for the shout-out! I love your breakdown of how gaming evolved from the 80s through today. And those PAL Super Nintendo boxes are soooo nice. [T-Pac] 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Splain | 2,571 Editorials Team · Posted January 26 Author Share Posted January 26 12 hours ago, GPX said: A transcript of the pre-interview: Splain: before we start, I’m going to need you to curl up in the fetal position. GPS: this seems rather unnecessary, all I wanted to do was just a plain interview. Spain: it’s VGS’s policy for…err…research purposes. GPS: is it too late to back out? I’m having second thoughts. Splain: trust me, just count to three, it’ll be relatively pain-free! Shh. Nobody else will want to do it if this info gets leaked. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefaultGen | 5,414 Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 On 1/25/2024 at 1:47 PM, Splain said: I should ask Karl Jobst to do an interview with me, that should get the ball rolling with the subs. When can we get this video Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPX | 1,370 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 22 hours ago, Splain said: Shh. Nobody else will want to do it if this info gets leaked. Or maybe you’d get more volunteers. Gaming freaks on here might also be into other freaky stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPX | 1,370 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 22 hours ago, DefaultGen said: When can we get this video Can I book you in advance if Karl rejects my proposal? Jokes aside, you have great content on your channel. When are you planning for the next rap video? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptOut | 8,889 Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 We need a few more PAL collectors around here, good to see! I'm fed up with all these basic bitch US collector hicks! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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