Khromak

I think I just about have the offense down and you're right, shooting is terrible and dunking is great. You may be on to something with letting them attempt to block, since I've never seen a failed dunk if the defender is attempting to block but in the wrong place, though TBH most of my dunks go in anyway. The defense part kinda sucks because in this one B is jump and A is both steal AND swap player. So as soon as the player gets out of your range/closer to another one of your players, A swaps to another player, which not only screws up your running directions, but also stops your steal spam. I've still got the cart on my desk, I'll probably give it another try in the next few days and see how it feels. Ultimately if I get trounced a few more times I might give it up, though it would also be nice to first clear another game and get it off my personal list, so I'm trying to be persistent. I think I'm up to like...5 or 6 losses in a row. Closest I've ever gotten was maybe 7 points behind? With some practice I should be able to get it down, it's just the defending/rebounding controls are awful. Half the time before I realize where the ball is on a rebound, the CPU has already picked it up and is dunking it. It doesn't help that it's a little tough to figure out who has the ball too, so sometimes I steal but don't realize I've stolen and accidently throw a "pass" off the court. Good to know you only need to win ~21 games (7 teams other than yours, 3 wins each). If I get into a rhythm where I'm winning I might strategically accept a loss or two so I can play fewer games rather than striving for 35 wins.

I've tried a few games of All Pro Basketball so far but I seem to just be getting my ass kicked by the CPU. Not like 70-20 or anything, but they manage to consistently steal from me and get rebounds more often than I do, and I get fouls more often than they do. These things combined put me behind since every turnover is at least 2 points changing hands. Other than "Don't charge into the opposing players" or "A steals, B jumps", any advice on playing this game better? I don't mind the tedium of playing 35 matches in a bad game, but I don't want to do 100 because it takes me 3 tries to beat anyone. Aside: the goal says beat each team 3 times, does that mean you only need to win 21/35 games, or does the game also have an internal goal for whether you beat the game, like over 30 wins, or something else? I was thinking of taking a few Ls here and there to make it go by quicker but don't want to end up at the end screen and get a "game over" or the wrong ending or whatever because my record was too bad.

Damn man that game is rough! Congrats! Had you beaten it before or was this your first time? I've never made it very far, though I haven't made a concerted effort. Watched some twitch/YouTube gameplay though and certain parts are just not fun

Tecmo Cup Soccer Game is beaten, my second time doing so. This time I followed my own tips from my 2021 clear, but also noted that headers/bicycle kicks and some of the special shots can only be performed by passing to someone inside the goal lines. It also seems that marking attempts to stop people from passing or shooting (low success rate) and cutting attempts to stop passing or shooting. I still spent a lot of defensive actions on tackling. I wish there was more to do on defense as a lot of times it just feels like waiting and not pressing any buttons, hoping your defense intervenes while they walk up to your goal and shoot. It seems that the game keeps track of how long it will take for your pass to end up at the recipient, so they, and all your opponents, will move between the pass starting and the end. This can lead to some real BS interceptions. Once you get the hang of it though, you can reasonably predict how many opponents will have a chance to stop your pass.

I've been playing tecmo cup soccer game for about a week now and I've learned a few things I didn't realize, or at least didn't write down last time. That said, some of the computer teams just have ridiculous stats. I think some matches you're just supposed to lose until your characters level up a certain amount. I'm on my 4th or 5th attempt at the tecmo cup. I smash the first 3 teams 5-0 or worse, then the final team i shoot special shots at point blank range off a cross field pass 15x and the goalie blocks them all. Finally ended a match 0-0 and lost in the RNG fest of the penalty kicks. It's a fun game but the randomness can be really frustrating when you think you're doing everything right. Will be happy to be done with this one

...Sorta...

Cat tax, these are my kitties, love 'em!

He will be perfectly fine if he falls that distance. E: Oh, I'm replying from a long time ago.

I want bonus EXP for getting reactions. Are there quests?

Do manufacturers usually make boxes and manuals for prototypes?

I think most people would qualify games that sell single copies every decade as being pretty rare. That's like, undoubtedly in the "rarest video games known to exist" category. Fraction of 1% of rarity, like 99.95% rarest games in existence. Most consoles have between 0-1 non-prototype games of this rarity. Most consoles have 0 games this rare. Calling it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is absolutely true.

If something has literally never sold in the last 30 years, it's not realistic to assume there are tons out there and you never know when another one will come along. Sure, maybe there are 1000s of extra copies sitting around in someone's attic. Based on the fact that nobody has ever seen one, it's reasonable to assume there aren't though. If we saw a single purple cat, we could say "hey, maybe there are tons of these!" But the reasonable thing would be to say "Holy shit, this is probably the only purple cat in existence, we'll probably never seen another one as long as we live"

So...what's the solution then? You see a holy grail item you've been after for 8 years pop up on auction, and you're supposed to just bid like...half of what you think it's worth? Let someone else buy it, because you don't want to drive prices up too much? Have you never been extremely passionate/excited about getting an item? IDK...as I said before, I've been in this situation a couple times and paid what I thought was necessary to get the item, because I had the money and had been looking for the game for a while and they are exceedingly rare to the point where the opportunity may never present itself again. Guess I should've just let someone else buy it though, to maintain lower prices on VGPN and PriceCharting. Sorry guys.

Just to restate: I think that it's great news that @DarkKobold got this game. I'm always thrilled when a rare item ends up in the hands of collectors, since I'm a collector as well and I've experienced this and I think it's pure magic. Like DarkKobold, I will never sell any of the items that fall into that category unless I'm in extremely dire financial circumstances with no other options. These can feel like once-in-a-lifetime opportunities which makes them exciting. I don't think as a community we could've asked for a better steward of a game with this level of rarity, congrats again. I also somewhat agree with @fcgamer that it is sad that items someone might have nostalgia for from their childhood in Taiwan won't be able to acquire them because the prices are too high. My problem with his vision of the world though is when it comes to the solution/implementation. I don't think there's a way to solve this problem without causing other, worse ripple effects in the community at large, both the retro gaming community as well as the local (in this case Taiwanese) community. I doubt a random citizen who finds out the game in their closet is worth 3-4 months' salary to a foreigner is going to be thrilled to find out they have to keep it to themselves, or sell it for $1k to a local collector instead.

I mean, I'm sure OP would've loved to have paid $50 for the game instead. Is he to blame for the fact that they made 2 dozen of this game? Should he not be passionate about collecting for this system? It's an auction, the price is determined by what people are willing to pay, and it seems the market has determined that game is worth $5600. I'd love for the price of Stadium Events to be $100, but unfortunately supply and demand determine that it costs about what a used truck costs. That's why I asked about your proposed solutions. If there's a limited supply because it was manufactured in the 90s, and there's nothing we can do about that, the only solution is to lower demand I guess? Should we not be interested in any games outside of our home region? What about people who move to Japan, are they not allowed to buy games unless they restrict the amount they're willing to pay? Are rich Taiwanese people allowed to pay $5600 for a game? Should exports be banned entirely? Isn't that hurting local business owners who are sitting on tens of thousands of dollars of stock they can't sell now, because we wanted to retain our heritage? IDK...seems like screaming into the void. We all wish prices were lower, but when the items are this rare, they get to be stupid expensive because 10 people want it and auctions exist. The person with the most money and willingness to spend that money gets the item. I get where you're coming from, if NES games I loved suddenly cost $5000 and I couldn't afford them because Saudi oil barrens were buying up all the copies, I could see myself being frustrated as well, but I don't really see a solution...I'm not going to ask my local game store to give up $4950 to sell me the game for $50 so that I could play it, and I think since ebay and a hundred other sites exist to sell stuff online, we can't really put the genie of international commerce back into the bottle.

I mean...it also quotes the average salary in the US at 9k/month, and I know most people aren't making that here either. Averages are skewed by high paying industries, and your experience will vary greatly depending who you associate with. Medians are also more useful, which brings the US figure down to ~6k/month and Taiwan down to ~3.5k/month. These are statistics though, it's not a matter of opinion. Edit: depends which source you use. Google suggests it might be more like ~2k in Taiwan? IDK, I'm not going to spend all day trying to figure this out, it's not important.

You could look at it as: these Taiwanese people can't afford their local video games anymore, because they're so expensive because foreigners are coming in and buying them for obscene prices! OR Isn't it nice that people are taking interest in our random crap? Now we can earn 3 months' salary by selling a single video game. How pleasant that other people are finally paying attention to our history and care about our obscure consoles. It's kind of a double-edged sword isn't it? You go on rants about how important all these random bootleg cartridges are and wonder why nobody else seems to give a crap about them, but then when someone from the "first world" starts caring about these things and collecting them, you complain that people are driving up prices for stuff. What's your ideal solution? People research and document this stuff, but don't buy it? They only pay 1 month's Taiwanese salary per item, maximum? Ban international commerce? Should I not be buying Famicom carts, because it's depriving a local Japanese customer from buying it, or raising the prices over there? IDK...I get the problem you're trying to bring attention to, but I think that demanding that foreigners stop buying your stuff and let it stay locally in the 21st century is rather silly. Maybe talk to those shopkeepers who are selling all their stock overseas and tell them to take 10% of the value of the game so that they can keep things local. Until the guy who bought the game turns around and sells it online for a profit so he can feed his family.

Well, I had no idea this system existed so that's cool. Are any/all of these games fun? What language are they in? Are they playable if you only know English? I have so many questions. Either way, neat item! There's almost no feeling better than finally getting your hands on a grail. I've had it happen at least a couple times and it's always amazing.

Robocop 2 is done, another first time clear for me! It's commonly known to be a shitty game and while it's not great, I don't think it's a total bomb. The hidden areas, sometimes required to beat the levels, are kinda bullshit. The controls are bad, but you mostly get used to them, and with infinite lives, it's pretty forgiving. Can't say I recommend it, but it's not so bad, there's fun to be had here

Video was great, love the tour of the store and I'm super jealous of the store, it's really awesome! Wish I were closer, if I ever visit I'll have to check it out. Not sure how much "car" stuff was in there before, but I don't mind what's in there now. Definitely got the feeling like I was going to the store with you.

Just finished rad gravity for the first time ever! This game has a lot of charm, great sound and graphics, especially the animations, and I love the metroidvania style, it was definitely ahead of its time with some of the puzzles and interactions with the environment. Unfortunately, the platforming is quite slippery and I absolutely hated the "floating around in space" mechanics... the last boss was once again very frustrating

The bard's tale is done! I've beaten this one before, once, actually at a lower level. I must've gotten lucky that time because I had a real hard time with the final boss this time around. He's not really threatening at all, but he has access to the full health spell with infinite mp... so it's very much up to luck. I eventually figured out something like a strategy, by using the song that interrupts spells, but it only has a percent chance to work, and on my winning fight it didn't proc at any time that mattered. Regardless, this is still a fun, but grindy, rpg. Recommended, it's fun right up until the last fight

Out of curiosity I looked up all the Taito games, Little Samson is (in my opinion) the best one, by a fairly wide margin. It's all subjective of course, but I'd say of the NA releases it goes something like: Little Samson > Flintstones 2 > Kickmaster > Jetsons > Panic Restaurant > The rest. All the Bubble Bobble games are fine, including Rainbow Islands which is a new game to me, but the arcade-style action doesn't rise to the same level for me as longer, less-repetitive games.

This is the problem with rare items though, their worth falls squarely between what people are willing to pay and what others are willing to sell for. Once you get to a certain degree of rarity, there just aren't enough owners to rely on supply/demand because supply/demand can swing very easily. If there are only 20 owners of a game and 2 of them decide they want to sell at the same time, it can totally throw the price off. If none of the 20 want to sell, no amount of money in the world will get you that game. Ninja Gaiden 3 for Playchoice-10 is insanely rare, there are probably 10-20 people out there with a copy. Someone on a Facebook group I participate in was offering $6k for one a little while back and the only responses he got were people mentioning the known owners, and doubt that anyone would budge. Pretty sure he never got a response from any of them. At the end of the day if there are 1k copies of SE and they're all in the hands of collectors who want to keep them, the price will go up because there's only 1 person out of 1,000 willing to sell and he can charge whatever he wants (so long as the buyer is willing to pay). Of course in any example like this, "wild" copies can appear and if aunt Betsy finds a SE in her attic she might just ditch it for under-market value, but the chances are most of these items are in the hands of collectors who have no desire to sell