GPX

Here’s an interesting thought exercise I just thought of and it relates well to your initial angle of the OP. Say you were to play a game you loved that happens to be in this re-release package. You played it again and rediscovered why you loved it in the first place (for various reasons). You then completed it and decide to finish it every week or two, with the aim to better your hi-score or run-through time in the next 12 months. Over this period, would the external/nostalgic influences change with respect to your attention to the software experience? I would argue strongly that yes, the software experience changes from week to week, but it also changes on how much attention you want to give it.

Lately I’ve been seeing an influx of fake high bidders, with the subsequent cringe excuses that they “didn’t mean to bid because blah blah”. Such a sad sack of shameless A-holes.

Yeah, but how often would this happen to an average gamer? The probability of playing a game while having hanky panky with 2 adult porn stars while sniffing stinky vegetables is what? Close to zero! Most of the time, I’d imagine most of the solo sessions by gamers is the simple “I play to escape reality” mentality. In which case, it’s not unfathomable to think that the enjoyment you can derive out of a game is purely on the game and not much else external. I think the closer truth to the OP question is that, how much is the experience due to the software, perhaps it just depends on how much attention you want to give the game at any given time?

You’re right in that with the nostalgia of a game, there’s likely to be a component of the circumstances surrounding it which builds a strong memory. However, when playing a game, my enjoyment may have absolutely nothing to do with my recall of anything else other than the feelings I had felt during playtime. My example being Einhander on PS1: 1. Nostalgia: I had bought it cheap as a bootleg copy during my HK trip around 25 years ago. I also told a few friends back then how cool this game was, but always played it on my own. 2. Experience: played it to completion, repeatedly at least a dozen times. When playing it I never thought once about HK, friendship or the legalities of purchasing a bootleg copy. ie. 100% joy from the software.

I think there are 2 separate issues here. One being the amount of joy you get from playing a game, with external factors being an extra element of that enjoyment. The other issue is the nostalgia we get after many years have passed, and we remember the games possibly more on the situation surrounding them rather than purely on the gaming elements.

Princess Peach-Heart in color.

Really shocking and sad to hear of this news. Arguably one of the funniest guys in the history of TV sitcom. RIP Matthew!

Ladies and gents, I present to you.. Princess Peach-Heart! Half cutie and half a literal heart, with an aortic-superior-vena-cava crown.

I was trying to get clarification on what you meant by saying “Is it really a western developed platformer if it doesn't have a mandatory awful shmup segment?”

Is there a chance it could be a repro? I mean, what’s the chance of someone getting rid of it and not knowing it’s worth these days?

Huh? I’m thinking more the full blown stages which are completely different in style but are similar in quality and could well have been 2 or 3 separate games in their own right.

Have updated the suggestions. Already looking like an awesome playlist. Keep them coming!

I’m looking to compile a list of games that contain 2 or more genres among their stages. I’ll try and do updates every so often once a few posts have been added with suggestions by you guys. Preferably, the list contains great titles that scratches that gaming itch! Feel free to add more suggestions from any platform or era! NES 1. Blaster Master 2. The Guardian Legend 3. Lone Ranger 4. Adventures of Bayou Billy 5. Xexyz 6. Vice Project Doom SNES 1. Super Probotector (Contra 3) - top- down shooting levels; run-and-gun levels. 2. Legend of Mystical Ninja - 2D platform levels; action-RPG levels 3. Actraiser 4. Axelay 5. Super Star Wars Trilogy 6. Indiana Jones Greatest Adventures N64 1. Shadows of Empire GBA 1. Sigma Star Saga Genesis/Megadrive 1. Batman

I dunno. He looked pretty chill and professional during his Pawn Stars skit.

I’m sure this was talked about in the previous HA/WATA fire thread. Some of us were saying back then a lengthy delay was already not good for the consumers. Then to hype up the market to hyperbole, and then using solely the HA sales as a relative marker of “liability costs”, that’s just plain scummy. How much of this oversteps the boundaries of legality is the interesting question.

Was responding to your claim of insider info (“nothing will happen”). I guess we’ll see by the end of the year where there should be an update or a verdict of some sort. My hunch is that there was some wrong doing. I just don’t know to what extent.

You have actual evidence of no wrong doing?

I think what’s undone the hype train was the 1.5M Mario. That was when most collectors were collectively saying “WTF is going on?” You can understand to a point that graded games were going to be on the rise, but just the transition between 5-digit items to 6-digit to 7-digit items, this all went too smoothly and quickly. Instead of maintaining the hype, it sort of backfired from this point onwards. Anything that goes above a million bucks, you’d think a fair few would start to scrutinize the validity of that trajectory.

I had a similar issue with you with the first choice. I was going to put Alex Kidd Miracle World on Master System, but I knew I finished a fair few on the C64, just that I couldn’t hardly remember any of the titles. After squeezing some brain cells, Bubble Bobble was the earliest memory I can come up with.

I think it would be impossible to quantify the percentage of the enjoyment in relation to the actual game software. I can think of 3 broad things that affect my enjoyment level with any game that I’ve played and it would be situational at the time of playing. 1. Single player game - I would argue that the experience here lies in 100% with the software, and external factors can be mere distractions to the experience. However, you can also have a friend or a few playing with you, sharing strategies or taking turns in a stage/section. In which case, the software provides the core experience, with the external factors providing a certain percentage. 2. Multiplayer game - I would argue that the experience in which the game provides would be anything between 50-90%, depending on who’s playing with you (how skilled they are, the emotional connections they have with you etc.) 3. Arcade games or games with special peripherals to play (eg. Rockband, Guitar Hero) - the software experience here would depend on single player vs multiplayer (similar to the above), but the percentage would be lessened due to external factors eg. the special feel of arcade stick/buttons/accessories, the environment of playing against others, the joy of others bothering to watch you game; the special atmosphere an arcade or game parties can provide.

The frog-wiener would get all the fulfillments. Meanwhile, your nervous system is disconnected and you can only imagine the deed without understanding what it would feel like. Good for the frogger, bad for the reproduction-less human.

My serious answer, it’s actually not hard for me to choose - only play past games. I’ve played hundreds of Mame games and emulators and have play-tested a mother load of games among my collection (including Xbox Live games), so I have a plethora to choose from.

So if we choose the frog-wiener option, we can still play whatever we want?

That’s a very nice short but diverse list. My interests were more narrow than yours, having played mainly the fighting, arcade shooters and platformers. I dabbled in some RPGs and racing games but completed only a select few from these genres. N64-wise, I tried Goldeneye but could never really get into first-person shooters because they give me giddiness. Mario 64 was my first completed N64 game, which I loved so much I had to buy it again for the DS to do it all over again!

Rules are simple: - what game did you first complete (or the earliest memory of you completing a game)? - what game did you last complete (or the latest memory of you completing a game)? - pick a rough mid-point between the 2 era in the above, and pick a game you vividly recall completing. Try not to think too long and hard, rough estimates is good enough. In theory, everyone should have a different answer, because the chance of someone sharing the same answer would be astronomically low! ——————————— I’ll start: - Bubble Bobble C64 ~ 1987 - Mario 64 DS ~ 2004 - Defense Grid Xbox Live ~ 2023