Thought I’d share this interesting observation I’ve made, which might come in handy as a life tip for you sporting freaks on here. Particularly, the racquet lovers. 

I’ve had tennis elbow from the past from playing tennis over a decade ago. The condition has mostly settled with previously only minor flare-ups if I had played too many games in a row. Lately, I’ve been playing more tennis as well as playing more Geometry Wars 2. The observation I’ve made is that when I play Geometry Wars 2 for a lengthy period (say > 1 hour), I’ve been noticing more tennis elbow coming on during the regular tennis sessions. 

TLDR - if you play regular tennis, don’t play too much fast-twitch games for lengthy periods. More so, if you currently have tennis elbow.

On 5/9/2024 at 1:58 PM, avatar! said:

Moon Studios CEO on why AAA exclusives ran their course

https://gameworldobserver.com/2024/05/06/aaa-games-turning-point-thomas-mahler-moon-studios

“A lot of these huge corporations that were able to get investments not based on merit, but on hype, suddenly got gutted because they were too greedy,” the developer noted.

I think that's it in a nutshell. I do think AAA games will always have their place, but it's clear that a so-called "AAA game" does not mean quality.

I think there are 2 separate issues regarding your original article that mentions the very small percentage of “AAA games” on Steam and the VGS poll of what we think of said “AAA games”. 

In the first point, a small percentage of “AAA games” currently are likely a reflection of how much of a boom indie games are and how much easier it is to bring out indie games rather than the higher-production costing games. 

Regarding the VGS poll, I think our opinions on that here might not reflect on the actual inclination of the gaming community as a whole regarding “AAA games”. The reason why I’m saying this is I think the members here are mostly seasoned gamers and/or have busy lives with partners/kids, and in general the busier our lives are, the less inclined we are to spending a ton of hours on a game, and my gut feel is that we (VGS older members) tend to steer towards more the indie/retro games. 

While I think Indie games are becoming more important, an actual AAA game (like Mario/Zelda) is likely to require a high production, than a quick weekend job of programming. And sure, there are some great Indie games out there, but I’d bet there would be a mother load of really really bad Indie games too!

3 hours ago, a3quit4s said:

Man these need to be on a shelf asap. That spine candy though

Those voluptuous vertebrates!

I think it looks legit. Just be sure to check seller feedback as well @T-Pac.

Also, that logo for Zas looks badass!

On 4/26/2024 at 4:10 PM, Kevula said:

Hello Ladies and Gentleman,

 

i‘ve a question. I ordered a brand new Gameboy Pocket sealed. Unfortunately the customs opened it the seal in a aggressive way. I still want to send it to vga for at least qualified grading.

does anyboy has experience if the refusal cause of box opening ? The item are in Brand new conditions.

 

see pictures. 
Regards Kevin

As far as I can tell, Qualified grading only applies if the internal contents appear unused/untampered. From the pics, the inside of the box appears damaged with the inside cardboard at the opening end, so I suspect this would get rejected for grading. 

My Mega CD collection with spine cards.

Around half are new and sealed. The other half in CIB form. Not sure why Sega invented this spine card concept, but certainly makes it a unique aspect in collecting!

My parents are definitely not gamers, and I can recall the only times my dad spent time playing games with me was with River Raid Atari 2600 and another shooting game on C64 in the late 80s. Both were busy with their job and various community services. So the games were like a friend as well as acting as my babysitter.  

I think their minds have already been made up that “games are for kids”, so I rarely talk about games with them, other than the fact they know I like collecting them and still play them. 

On 5/3/2024 at 9:52 AM, Hammerfestus said:

As a lad I had a recorded Mortal Kombat movie VHS.  One day I went to pop that guy in and wouldn’t you know it — someone had recorded Species over most of the movie.  That was a good day.

The good old days where surprises were aplenty!

2 hours ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

Wii sports definitely marked a turning point in gaming, one of the few over the history of video games. The Atari AVS launch, NES 1987 - 1989 run and then 2006 with the launch of Wii. Wii sports might've had the biggest exposure to non gamers at the time influencing them to become candy crushers, angry birds fligers or even more serious gamers later in life. 

How many kids right now had their first gaming experience be Wii bowling? It's probably similar to how many peoples first game was SMB/Duck Hunt. I know that was my first gaming experience. I think it's influence is different than GTA III bc GTA III influenced games being developed. Wii sports influenced a cohort of people to becoming warm to gaming 

I think the topic itself is vague and open for several interpretations. For example, importance can be from:

- How much a game can push the limits of its hardware?

- how unique is it that it feels almost  like a new genre?

- how it might change the thinking of the entire gaming industry, with gaming companies and gamers alike?

- how much global success it can achieve?

So while games like GTA III certainly pushed boundaries with the PS2 console and had the “WOW” factor, games like Wii Sports focused on broadening the gaming community with its simplistic fun. Which has more importance? I think it’s something you just can’t have a solid answer on, so I’d say “about a handful of standouts”. 

18 minutes ago, Sumez said:

Haha yeah I'd say influence is definitely a matter in importance, i just think if what you influenced was a massively successful predatory business model, it's probably not very important to anyone outside of the few people who made a lot of money on that 

Even if it’s predatory business, a mass buy into a certain game makes that game objectively important. But I feel gamers aren’t stupid, there has to be an underlying premise of why we play what we play. Gameplay and addictiveness in a game are hard to quantify, but if millions buy into it, and unless it’s global mind control, I think you can say the game has something special going for it. 

My choice with regards to this topic is Wii Sports. It’s the only game I can think of that I had a lot of fun playing it, my friends all enjoyed it at parties, and got my entire family curious enough to watch me while I was playing a game. Might possibly be the first game to attract an entire household’s attention? Well at least mine anyway!

26 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

For me it's a historical thing, those are some of the games I want. I have more games than I need, and aside from aftermarket indie and aftermarket homebrew items and my favorites, I rarely play games anymore. I generally spend more time research and writing about games than actually playing them.

Same, I’ve barely playtested the bulk of my collection, let alone played them. Most games I’ve already got on emulation, digitally downloaded on my X360, or can be found in juicy compilations on the various consoles I own.

On 4/24/2024 at 11:26 PM, T-Pac said:

Why is that a cop-out? Maybe I'm weird, but I could think of 1000 games I'd want in my collection more than an NWC gold.

I'm honestly surprised how many people are just listing rare and expensive stuff if they only had 5 spaces left to fill. Like - wouldn't you want to fill those slots with something you care about and want to play, instead of a hype game? One of the titles on my own list was Star Parodier since it's my favorite cute-em-up and I've never had a physical copy - not crazy expensive and not crazy rare, but I couldn't imagine feeling like my collection was "complete" without it. (So I bought it when I posted this topic haha.)

[T-Pac]

I think it’s because your collection stems from a gamer mindset. That is, you aim to pretty much play all the games you own. Collections from a collector mindset aims more of adding contents of the rare and the oddities, often mixed with personal nostalgia, without the need to play the entire collection. It’s not necessarily an investment mindset, as the rare items that are well known and sought after often happen to be damn expensive too!

Mario 3 is my obvious answer. A weird glitch in my gaming history where I’ve fully completed Super Mario World, Mario 64, Mario DS, Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, yet I’ve never played Mario 3!

Donkey Kong trilogy on the SNES, a few of the Sonics on the Megadrive, a few of the Crash Bandicoot games on the PS1, and the Panzer Dragoon trilogy on the Saturn, I would also love to play in proper. 

On 4/17/2024 at 10:23 PM, Jeevan said:

Are you strictly looking to ride miles?  If so make sure to buy a road bike, I rode my Mtn Bike last night and boy was it sluggish compared to my road.  

Thanks for the tip! I’ve done biking before up to around 35 miles total, with a group of friends. Those were some leisure rides around the beach side. I had stopped doing any physical exercise for 2 years during the pandemic and only got back to fitness training for the last 2 years, but mainly with tennis and jogging. The aim is to play some other sports including getting back to bike riding, just finding my balance with fitness and fun.

I’m turning into a sport freak of late. Very keen on my tennis currently but ultimately I just want to keep getting fitter whenever possible. So a long marathon run or a long bike ride is part of future planning. 

Good to see fellow members here keen on looking after their bodies. I mean, games are good but the body is pretty important too!

2 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

I dunno how VGA works. Sometimes with high value rare stuff they'll grade it when it's not new (Prototypes, NWC stuff). I know Wata has "NS" graded slide box Genesis games, which means the seal was so bad someone told Wata to take it off, but you can be sure no one ever slid the inner box out of the slip cover

The other possibility of a VGA “Qualified” is that all components are received with all the original pamphlets and such, and with all appearing to be unused with no signs of wear/tampering.

This was the game that converted me from being a die hard Sega fan to a general 16-bit lover. Also, the game back then that convinced me Sonic wasn’t the best platformer in the early 90s. This was. 

It’s an easy game to get into and probably a little easy to get to the end. The true challenge is to explore all its secrets which adds a ton of replay value.

21 hours ago, docile tapeworm said:

Blades is nostalgia is $

3rd strike is a lot of places (and true og Xbox had online) but that’s not the same as siting on the couch firing up on the 360 with a tv in all its glory. You could play little samson for free but instead you spent $3000 for the experience of og hardware.

Digital collecting isn’t the same as physical collecting though. The amount of gamers wanting to buy OG Xbox 360 with already downloaded games would be nowhere near the amount of collectors willing to pay premium prices for certain physical copies. 

The only thing I can think of otherwise, is if you have won or purchase some rare items for a downloaded game, that very few others own, then that may be sought after in the future. 

11 hours ago, MinusWorlds said:

I appreciate that very much dude. I get it, it’s so much money. That fact isn’t lost on me. The $250k thing def I can see why it would rub people the wrong way for sure. It wasn’t me, and I don’t think Frank meant any harm in it. And, he’s likely not too far off. But, I can see why people look at it as price pumping and we’ve seen enough of that. It’s one of the main reasons I went with CGC. Everyone knows I like me some Wata games, but I tried to avoid any negativity around this game. It’s just too special to me. 

You are correct, my comments weren’t directed at anyone here. I feel like this is an extension of NintendoAge and that was my safe place to geek out for many years. I may not post here often but I have nothing but love for this site. 

Congrats on finding your personal grail!

Personally, I think it’s very unfortunate that there’s a lot of black and white thinking going on, particularly with the graded scene. People are lumped into 2 groups:

1. Full support of graded games and crazy price hikes.

2. Envious of graded collectors and in denial. 

I think there should be a few other factions, but myself, I don’t care what prices go up to as long as there is genuine organic growth going on. This is what makes the collecting scene more healthy and thrive. 

Collectors like yourself, who are willing to spend big, and coming to a game forum to talk like a collector is what makes me feel much more comfortable with the market. Whereas “collectors” who bid ridiculous exponential prices, then going on YouTube to predict the price will double soon, is what makes me cringe hard.

4 hours ago, Sumez said:

Not familiar with the GG version, but the Master System game is a completely different game from the MegaDrive one.

It’s all a matter of perspective. They all share the same gameplay mechanic, stage format, all rolled into a Disney themed landscape. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that they’re spiritually the same games, despite different sprites and enemies. 
 

On 4/10/2024 at 12:54 PM, PII said:

I played the crap out of this on Game Gear.  Great platformer.

From what I can recall all the Castle of Illusion games came out around a similar time be it on Megadrive/Genesis, MS or GG. The 16-bit version had obviously the better graphics/sounds and more stuff thrown in, with the MS/GG versions being a more simplified version of the 16-bit iteration. 
All were great, but the Megadrive/Genesis version was hands down the best version as it brought a much more atmospheric animated experience than the others.

One of my favorite Megadrive games. This was one of the early release titles and even though I can’t remember much of its levels, I do recall having a blast with the game, had good graphics for its time and gameplay was balanced. 
A must play for the platform loving fanatics.

I’m trying to picture a ceiling with carts stacked on the ceiling..

were the carts glued onto the ceiling? 

Megadrive:

- Golden Axe franchise 

- Gunstar Heroes

- Contra Hard Corps

SNES

- Contra 3

- Mystical Ninja

- Final Fight 2 and 3

Multiplatform

- Bubble Bobble 

@RH, @Rhuno

First I’ve heard of Banana Ball and Beer League. Had to look those up!