Splain

I always knew what Mega Man was, but didn't play it until I brought my SNES to college and my roommate gushed about Mega Man X (and NBA Jam). I went ahead and bought them both on ebay and I played a ton of MMX. I've since played MMX 2 and 3, and all the GB games, but none of the NES games. I have no doubt that they're great games, but I kinda feel like I shouldn't just play ONE of them, and I hesitate to commit to ALL of them. Next year's backlog perhaps.

I'm playing stuff, I'm determined to get on the list. I always wanted to check out Attack of the Mutant Penguins after the AVGN Jaguar episode. So I've been noodling with it but I'm struggling with a lack of feedback. ("what? I thought I could put gremlins in this treasure chest. oh I DID put gremlins in there. How many did I put in? How many do I have left? Oh the round is over and I lost. How should I know how close it was?) I tried Supercross 3D with 2 different emulators and ROMs, and the opponent players never leave the starting line. That has to be an emulation thing?

There's a bunch of NES staples that I've just never gotten to, like I feel like I should play Metroid, Punch Out, and any of the Mega Man games. I also missed out on tons of non-Nintendo stuff when I was a kid, so there's a bunch of must-plays on Genesis and Playstation that I feel like I ought to play. I've never given Doom a proper go in any form.

Taking a break from Championship Pool. I'm doing better, but you still have to get lucky even when the shot looks solid. I can watch the preview shots, seeing them land in the pocket over and over, and then it just doesn't go in. And one miss can cost the game. And that's frustrating and I've been playing Rampart instead. Which is another game where you have to get a bit lucky lol.

Anyone here have a grey-cart DKL? I have one and I've seen 2 other people on the internet mention it. Maybe the other thread is the better place to discuss it...

ooh, I'll try some of these. There's a handful of Jaguar games I've wanted to check out.

WHAT just destroy it and we'll pretend we didn't see it!

Yeah any platform where users can anonymously upvote or downvote, affecting what others see, is absolutely going to be manipulated.

Welcome! Finally getting 100% on every level in Yoshi's Island is the crowning achievement of my childhood.

That number indicates a facility code, so any two cartridges that were made in the same factory will have the same number. So there are likely thousands of copies with "09" stamped.

Ok I read the spoilers Yes, the CPU's turn just removes some of their balls from the table, that's it. I've also noticed that when the CPU breaks, there's a small handful of configurations that appear on the table when it's your turn. So I've learned a couple of sequences for some of those configurations. I'll try some of those other tips, including playing on an Analogue Pocket, so I can sleep it and keep the game running indefinitely. Infinite continues was the only way I could get through Side Pocket. What it comes down to is being able to run the entire table when it's your turn, because even within the first tournament, not even at the end of it, I've had games where I had one turn only. The CPU broke and missed once, then when I missed, the CPU won on their turn. So I just have to practice the game of positioning the cue ball on each shot, to set up the next shot, and don't ever miss lol.

Props for sticking with it for so long! Championship Pool is definitely the more detailed/fleshed-out pool game. It has lots of game modes and you can zoom into the pool table and move the aiming cursor anywhere on the board, meaning if you move it farther away, you can get more detailed with the exact angle you want, in contrast with Side Pocket. Then you get a ghost-ball preview shot to show what will happen with the angle, power, and english you've specified. No moving power meter, you just press A when everything looks the way you want it. But the preview shots keep playing over and over, with slight angle variations each time. Close, easy shots can be guaranteed to go in, but the longer/trickier the shot, the more chance there is that you'll get an outlier angle that doesn't go in. The best you can do is watch the previews, tweaking the angle as best you can, until most of the previews go in, and then cross your fingers for the real shot. It's a cool mechanic, I guess, but it makes shots take a long time, so games, matches, and tournaments take forever. You also have to call every shot. The game will automatically call the ball and pocket for you, based on the preview shots, which is nice 90% of the time. You have to adjust it if you want to hit a ball with another ball or something, and there's absolutely no "hit it really hard and see what goes in" which is a necessary strategy in Side Pocket. Lol. Complaints so far are that the preview shots don't always clearly indicate that a shot is going to land in the pocket, so I'll line up a shot that looks great, and the ball might bounce between the pads and not actually sink. Also, your opponents don't actually DO their shots, it's just kinda "ok, your opponent got some balls in and then missed, so it's your turn again" and some random balls are removed from the table. That means safeties basically don't exist, you can tuck the cue ball right behind the 8 ball to force a foul, but the game will just say "your opponent ran the table and won the game." So that sucks. I've played for a few hours now and the early opponents have never fouled. There's other tiny annoying things that make everything take longer, like counting the balls to see if it was a stripe or a solid that went in on the break. (I could do 9-ball instead to make the games shorter, but 8-ball is more fun) And it doesn't look like there are passwords or continues or anything. To win more games you have to... take longer on each shot to try and improve your odds. So I'll keep playing but I'm definitely gonna take breaks (heh) with other games in the meantime.

Finished Side Pocket. It was interesting enough that I kept coming back to it, but I definitely have complaints about this game. Sometimes the inertia and physics are out of whack, and it's common to be unable to fine-tune your shot enough to even sink certain shots. Like, if your target ball is too far away from the cue, then one click in either direction turns into a huge difference, and the exact angle you need simply isn't available. And I swear the power meter isn't consistent. You can become the World Champion but you don't see the ending unless you sink all the balls in the last trick shot. And you can only try it once each time you get enough points to become world champion. So it's a bit frustrating, but all the issues are mitigated by All The Continues You Can Eat. So even if you need a little luck to progress through the game, you'll eventually get it. The Game Gear version is a little easier because the pockets are bigger. I'm already checking out Championship Pool to see how it compares.

Lol whoops. Thanks for noticing that.

All Silver boxes I can find also have that same code. If it's the P you're concerned about, it seems to be the part number of the box itself. Lots (all?) of GB game boxes have a P in the code.

You'll be glad to have it out of the way!

@koifish Sorry I didn't respond. The Play It Loud badge is for a complete set of all PIL colors. I'd probably allow some leniency when it comes to clear/white/blue ones, since I believe those were all region-specific. And we're still making the 2023 badge.

I didn't have cable as a kid, but I was vaguely aware of Ren n Stimpy. My extremely uptight high school physics teacher brought in a TV for the last ~3 days of school and we just watched Ren and Stimpy while he giggled in the back of the room. It was so weird. But that was my first time really seeing the show. It's definitely unique and quirky, but the fun/random/shocking nature doesn't really hit after the first viewing of each episode.

I've been playing Side Pocket, I have some gripes about the weird physics and some seemingly-impossible shots because they can't be fine-tuned accurately enough using that interface. I can get to the highest tier but haven't nailed the last trick shot yet. Meanwhile I finished the Missions mode of Minesweeper.

Looks like an original GBA screen to me

Don't you already have those? I should pass, I don't display my games at all, and you can land a decent chunk of cash for those, more than I have in cash or trade

I'm guilty of keeping my mouth shut at questions like "I'm going for a full set! What games are you missing?"

Are they built for CIB, (for a store display) or do loose carts fit neatly in them?

I hope I've never come across as hostile to new collectors. A common thing, in lots of communities, is seeing a newcomer show up and ask some basic questions, and then kinda pick-n-choose what things to listen to, and not 100% heed the advice of the experienced old timers, and then disappear after a week or two. Then another noob appears. I don't really see that happening here, but that's what makes a lot of other places start to feel "toxic." The newcomers don't like that the veterans get huffy about their way/ideas being the only way/ideas, when really it's that they've answered the same questions a hundred times. Staying friendly and welcoming is the challenge all online communities face.

It really is fun to find variants that sellers don't know to be rare, it's the "New Game+" of fullset collecting. These trays are really cool. I'd love to store my collection in something like that, but it's just too many games and none of them are CIB lol.