DaddyMulk

I’ve had a few instances where I purchased a lot of “empty” boxes/cases off of eBay, only to discover upon arrival that they contained manuals, inserts and sometimes even games. One that’s more borderline was a manual lot that I purchased last year for around $50. It had a dozen or so SNES manuals, and I’d placed my bid based on the values of what was shown that wasn’t junk tier. Somehow, I’d apparently ignored the one manual facing down in the photos (I probably assumed it was missing its cover and wrote it off as junk), which wound up being a $50 manual.

Looking forward to the future million-dollar sale of a Left Bros. soaked in Purplesaurus Rex.

I started 2020 with something like 120 manuals to go in my Genesis set, and I’m now down to 60. I’d like to cut that number in half yet again over the next year (I’d prefer to just knock them out completely, but there are certain manuals that I haven’t seen for sale in any fashion in months and months).

Probably Mega Man (1), Streets of Rage 2 or Dragon Force. I play through all of these at least once per year.

I plunked down $3 nearly a decade ago to try a weird-looking amateur brawler called Streets of Fury from the Xbox Indies section. It seemed to be a tribute to Guardians of the ‘Hood of all things, and yet wound up having a crude but fun combo system that was light years beyond anything in that game. And in 2020, that same team helped bring a proper Streets of Rage sequel to market that became my favorite game of the year. Amazing.

It’d be great if they’d actually start taking down the listings for repros not even described as such that I’ve tried reporting to them for months now.

I’m not sure I understand exactly what’s going on with this. I was required by eBay to opt into this system in late June, but I’ve completed hundreds of transactions since then and every last one has been through PayPal. It certainly hasn’t affected my sales or anything like that. I know that part of the new arrangement is that they’re downplaying PayPal as a payment option, but is there an actual date set for when they’re no longer going to be offering it as a payment option at all?

Oh yeah, I’ve spent more time with both games than I’d care to remember. I’m not saying they didn’t make improvements: What I’m saying is that it was rotten to the core to me to begin with, and simply adding more to it while making minor tweaks doesn’t redeem it to me nor put it above any other CV game beyond CV64 (I loathe the character designs in Judgment, but it’s not a terrible fighting game beyond that).

Here are my picks: Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS): The first half or so of this game is 100% what I did not want out of a Metroid game. All of the fun of navigating quickly through areas you’re already familiar with while blasting foes is utterly negated by the ridiculous rock/paper/scissors BS you must engage in with every single peon in order to eliminate them and avoid taking significant damage. This improves once you can (finally) plow through them with the Screw Attack, but prior to that, the flow of the game is completely busted. I’m also not big on certain boss encounters that amount to minutes of dodging attacks followed by a 5-second window to inflict damage. I’m not a fan of Mercury Steam in general, but this is easily the worst thing of theirs I’ve ever played through. Just a wretched experience that makes me pine for the Game Boy version. The Rushing Beat Series: Is this series well liked? I never thought so, yet it seems to have its (very vocal) fans. I don’t really get it: There are dozens of brawlers from the 90s, and I’ve rarely played any as dull or tedious as these. People like to go on and on about how badly Shura was messed with for its US release, and while that may be true, Shura wasn’t that great of a game to begin with. And speaking of brawlers... The Simpsons (Konami): Okay, heavy caveat on this one: I don’t dislike this game at all. It’s a perfectly competent Konami brawler that just happens to be far less interesting to me than half a dozen other brawlers they cranked out during the same period. What I dislike about it is the hype around it as the top-tier Konami brawler from this era and all the nostalgia people seem to have for it. And as a Simpsons fan, I don’t get it: Like many fans of the series, around S2-9 are the episodes I loved and revisit often. Most diehards are fine with S1 but no one especially loves it. So why is there so much love for a game limited to S1 canon and gags? It’s hard to explain, but in a nutshell: The TMNT games are great because they encapsulated a lot of what we loved about the animated series when it was airing at the time. But that show never really evolved beyond what it was to begin with. The Simpsons evolved considerably, even over the course of its first two years on the air, and what’s encapsulated in that brawler (that kid from the Punch Out!! episode! That bear from the camping episode! The three-eyed fish!!) isn’t really the type of references most Simpsons fans care about. Bottom line: For me personally, trashing Foot Soldiers is a lot more fun than beating up Generic Business Suit Guy and Fat Old Guy over and over again. Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness: This one isn’t necessarily critically acclaimed. But what I often do see about it is people willing to give it a pass because “at least it’s better than Castlevania 64”. I mean, is it though? To me, adding more dogshit on top of a pile of existing dogshit doesn’t give you a good game, just a larger pile of dogshit.

It’s hard for me to pick a single “grail” in my collection, but here are a few things that mean the most to me personally. 1) I purchased this copy of Keio used in 1994 for $15 from my rental store in my college town. (Because of the way they rented things, I think the only thing I had to do was remove some light marker from the top of the disc) While I’m pleased with how much it’s gone up in value over the years, I’m more happy about being able to play it for all these years since it’s one of my favorite games on the platform, bad acting and all. Also, based on how few people on campus owned Sega CDs at the time and how quickly they sold it off, I may have been the only person who ever rented it. 2) I’m both a fan of Working Designs and Lunar, so I was thrilled to find plush Nalls for sale when I stopped by Game Arts’ TGS booth in 1999. He guards my Sega collection to this day. 3) A friend of mine decided years ago to relocate to Japan permanently, and asked me to help him sell off a good chunk of his massive game collection. In return, I got some of the proceeds and first dibs on a few choice items. His boxed Wonder Mega (barely used prior to several years ago) was at the top of this list for me. 4) I lucked into a handful of Genesis prototypes and test cartridges a few years ago. Devilish is the standout amongst these for me: I don’t think there are any differences from the final US release (apart from some text on the title screen), but the soundtrack by Hitoshi Sakimoto is one of my favorites across the entire platform, so it’s amazing to have this in my collection. 5) I have a few arcade cabs, but never in my wildest dreams did I believe I’d own Gauntlet someday! Long story short: A friend of a friend owned a storage unit facility and needed one in particular cleared out since the owner hadn’t paid on it in three years. A few friends and myself walked away with cabs in great shape for all of $60 apiece. It’s not in perfect shape (it has some burn-in that’s not visible during gameplay and needs one of its control wiring harnesses replaced), but it still runs like a charm 36 years after it was made.

I’m not going to be offering full translation patches or anything like that, but I’m always happy to decipher a bit of moonspeak for the community.

Hi, I've been lurking for a while and wanted to start actually posting sometime soon, so here I am. I've been a gamer for over 40 years and a collector for a good chunk of that period. I play and collect everything from Odyssey 2 to PS4 but have focused mainly on Sega Genesis. I have a nearly complete boxed US retail set (just missing the box for Miracle Piano) and am working on completing my manuals (around 60 to go). I also love finding out about obscure variants on that platform and have around 150 of these in addition to my "core" set. Researching these has become one of my hobbies; defaultgen has already shared a few of my findings on here. I never posted on NA but I was somewhat active on Sega Age (and Sega-16). I posted under this or a similar name, so some of you may know me from there. And if there are any other greybeards around, I was also really active in the gaming forums on CompuServe many, many moons ago. By day, I've worked as a Japanese to English document translator for the past 20 years. It's never made me rich, but it's something I really enjoy doing that helps pay for my hobbies and which allows me to own and play through cheaper alternatives to certain higher-priced games. I was also fortunate enough to spend some time in Japan during a couple of pretty cool eras in gaming (95-96 and 98-00). I'm currently playing Ninja Gaiden III (as someone who didn't grow up with it, the US version is nightmare fuel), Drill Land, Mega Man Zero/ZX Collection, Headmasters (FDS) and Pac-Man CE/CE DX (which, TBF, I've never really *stopped* playing since they were released). Anyway, glad to be here, and I'm looking forward to being a more active participant. Cheers!