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1 hour ago, Brickman said:

If these came on an actual CD I’d be interested but a steam key on a USB just feels weird and not very collectible.

Just how I enjoy putting a cart into a console I enjoy the action of putting the CD in the computer.

Very fair point. I thought the actual game was on the USB stick, so that is a bit disappointing. I'll be getting the console release.

Heads-up, the classic Colossal Cave Adventure by Roberta Williams is being released in a "reimagined" format! I pray we see King's Quest, Space Quest, and other classics ported to modern consoles and computers!!

On 1/28/2024 at 11:31 AM, Tenjikuronin said:

Best Dad joke in a while... we need a Dad Joke emoji

On 1/29/2024 at 5:20 PM, Sumez said:

I can't remember if I've gone on on this tangent on VGS before, and I probably have...

But one thing that really stood out to me when I played Hades... is how well it both fits into the modern interpretation of what a roguelike/roguelite is, that dominates so many indie games released these days, and yet how little it has in common with even the broadest definition of the actual roguelike genre - to the point where I feel a new genre name would be fitting outside of just "roguelite".

Look at Binding of Isaac. It's doing its own thing, but you can very clearly see the tie to classic roguelikes, in terms of its overall structure, mixed with the zelda-ish shooter dungeons, and it pretty much opened the floodgates for these genre-bending rogue-inspired indie games, anything from Rogue Legacy and Spelunky, to FTL or Slay The Spire - all vastly different games, different genres even, that all share at least the overall experience you get from exploring a roguelike dungeon where anything can happen, and a wrong turn means all progress is lost.

But just around Hades is where I think we reached the point where if Isaac and those other games hadn't existed, no one would have even thought to liken Hades to something like roguelikes, berlin interpretation or not. The dungeon is stringed together by random rooms, but you typically end up going through most of the same ones every run, and there isn't any exploration since you can only go forward through the game, and very rarely even get a branching path - which is only a decision between potential rewards, since you can't tell what kind of place you are going anyway.

In fact, outside of the generic hack and slash arcadeish action game that Hades is, the only thing that really ties it to those other games, is the randomness of the potential rewards you can get from the olympian gods. But having gone this route, and having played so many of those games, I can see why you'd group them all together under the same broad umbrella. Roguelike or -lite just really doesn't cut it at that point.  It's something new.

 

Also, the concept of "permadeath" in a game with a single playable character is kinda curious. Doesn't every game without a save feature have "permadeath"? It seems to me that nowadays some developers like to steer towards the "roguelite" definition, just to be able to sell the idea of an arcade'ish structure where failing actually means game over rather than a checkpoint reload. Returnal or Monolith come to mind.

I think what you say is very valid. In some ways, you can ask "Does it really matter what we call a game?" If it's fun then great, if it's not you probably could care less what genre it's classified as! Still, many of us decide if a game is of potential interest based upon the genre -- for example, I love RPGs, so if I hear a new RPG is coming out I would certainly be far more interested than a FPS, but of course you can have games like Mass Effect which combine both genres. Here is what wikipedia has to say --

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_genres

And they say a lot! They have a whole article on Roguelike --

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike

Newer games that move away from traditional hack-and-slash elements but otherwise keeping procedural generation and permadeath features are sometimes called "rogue-lites".

But, Hades which many call Roguelite does not keep permadeath, so as you noted, maybe it's a Tempdeath Roguelite... I don't know. I just made that up

30 minutes ago, nrslam said:

I can probably do that. Something in particular you wanted to see?

All of it

Seriously, whatever you can take pics of I'm sure everyone will enjoy looking at, thanks.

6 hours ago, nrslam said:

Part 2, again hastily photoshopped together from a bunch of separate images.  This has the Atari, Apple, Amiga, non-Coco TRS-80, boxed disk & tape games from the earlier systems, and a mish-mash of other computer stuff. Should pretty much finish the computer software collection except a few stray bits.

I'd love to see detailed pics of your games! I see you have Zork, Loom, Ultima -- great stuff

Let's show some love to those classic non-console releases -- PC, Amiga, C64, Mac, etc!

Let me start by showing off one of fairly recent additions --

Not gonna lie -- I paid "a bit" more than $5 for it, but no regrets

Show off some of your favorites! Or discuss what's on your non-console wish-list!

40 minutes ago, Brickman said:

Yeah it was Mass Effect 2. EBay refunded me the money so that was good but it stopped me from buying new games on eBay ever since that experience. 

Recently the same thing happened to me when I purchased a couple of Evercade cartridges -- they were the European edition and not the USA edition. I informed the seller and they gave a substantial refund (not the entire price) if I kept the games -- they were cheap enough that it wasn't worth my time returning them. Still very annoying...

2 minutes ago, MiamiSlice said:

$37.19 on eBay. I think that’s a good price? Pretty sure the guide goes for that much alone…

Very cool! In a few years PS2 games are going to be very hot collectibles -- some already are of course, but I think many more will be graded, sold, and collected

I wasn't aware that Strictly Limited Games started selling on amazon -- perhaps this has been going on for a while now? At any rate, some really good prices on their games, and since it's amazon free shipping

https://www.amazon.com/stores/StrictlyLimited/page/AA235868-C642-4802-9911-DAD30D6AE03E

On 1/24/2024 at 1:22 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

So, Hades debate on deck?

Hades might be the easiest of all the acclaimed roguelikes, but I love it too.  There's room for lots of love to be spread around, it's not an either-or situation 

My personal scores would be something like the following:

1. Darkest Dungeon - 10/10
2. Slay the Spire - 10/10
3. Hades - 9.5/10
4. Returnal - 8.5/10
5. Dead Cells - 8.5/10
6. Enter the Gungeon - 8/10
7. Into the Breach - 8/10
8. Everspace - 8/10
9. Binding of Isaac - 7.5/10
10. Dicey Dungeons - 7/10
11. Flinthook - 7/10
12. Rogue Legacy - 6.5/10
13. Crawl - 6/10
14. Moonlighter - 5/10

Inscryption, Loop Hero - tbd

I plan to try out Epics of Hammerwatch soon. I heard it's a fabulous Roguelite

21 minutes ago, Brickman said:

With an Australian ratings sticker as well  a lot of Chinese duel language 360 games flooded eBay like this during the day. It was frustrating because the seller would use the US release picture but send you the Chinese version.

It's amazing how many scams are on eBay, usually sellers trying to pass off a much cheaper product as the NA or other release. Hope you got your money back.

On 1/24/2024 at 6:41 PM, LHCGreg said:

Internet is wrong. Hades is not turn-based and metaprogression means it doesn't have real permadeath. It bears little resemblance to Rogue.

Again, I agree about the permadeath which is why many people call Hades and similar games "Roguelite"

https://screenrant.com/roguelike-roguelite-difference-permadeath-hades-rogue-slay-spire/

Because of the stringent rules laid out by the Berlin Interpretation, most popular Roguelike games are more properly referred to as roguelites. roguelite games utilize some, but not all of the design elements of Rogue as the foundation for their gameplay. Permadeath and procedurally generated maps are still crucial to a roguelites design, but many games have added new spins to the genre. A number of roguelites have introduced a mechanic of carry-over progression to eventually make runs easier and allow players to go farther. Hades, for instance, contains certain resources that don't reset on death that are used to buy permanent upgrades to the character. Whether or not a game strictly qualifies as a roguelike or the more loosely defined roguelite, the subgenres have created a space for a wide range of games and play styles.

On 1/25/2024 at 2:26 PM, Brickman said:

Anyway, US citizens don’t be stupid and lazy. Get out there and vote anyone but Trump. Signed, the rest of the world (except probably Russia).

ABT is 100% the way to go! I mean, I plan to vote for Biden, but I am praying the GOP gets its act together and nominate someone who's not a traitor. I did mention I'm praying...

22 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

I'm optimistic by the results that close to 45% republican voters (no cross party voting in NH) are going to Haley as of now. Many I expect to vote Biden in the general election which bodes well for a largely purple state. Our Gov Sununu was a major backer, so we shall see how much momentum she has with a relatively stronger that expected showing.

I pray Haley wins the Republican nomination. I've heard some people say "Biden can definitely beat Trump, so we should let Trump have the nomination" -- but I'm not so sure. I would feel far more comfortable with Haley, or honestly pretty much anyone but Trump on the ticket.

13 minutes ago, LHCGreg said:

Internet is wrong. Hades is not turn-based and metaprogression means it doesn't have real permadeath. It bears little resemblance to Rogue.

You're right that in general roguelike games have permadeath, but not always, or at any rate I've seen people debate whether "roguelike" has to include permadeath. I will say, Hades has all the other traits of roguelike -- but maybe "roguelite" is a better descriptor of Hades.

7 minutes ago, LHCGreg said:

Neither are Hades and Slay the Spire for that matter.

Internet disagrees --

Shoot, I totally missed out on Monster Train

20 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

So, Hades debate on deck?

Hades might be the easiest of all the acclaimed roguelikes, but I love it too.  There's room for lots of love to be spread around, it's not an either-or situation 

My personal scores would be something like the following:

1. Darkest Dungeon - 10/10
2. Slay the Spire - 10/10
3. Hades - 9.5/10
4. Returnal - 8.5/10
5. Dead Cells - 8.5/10
6. Enter the Gungeon - 8/10
7. Into the Breach - 8/10
8. Everspace - 8/10
9. Binding of Isaac - 7.5/10
10. Dicey Dungeons - 7/10
11. Flinthook - 7/10
12. Rogue Legacy - 6.5/10
13. Crawl - 6/10

Inscryption, Loop Hero - tbd

Darkest Dungeon is a 10/10 for me too. Spire, not even close. I would definitely rate Rogue Legacy much higher than a 6.5 -- curious why you rated it so low? Enter the Gungeon was very well done, just not for me. I've been meaning to play Binding of Isaac -- I see you gave it a decent if not great score. I know that game has huge acclaim overall.

11 hours ago, Sumez said:

!?

Ok now I'm really curious what Hades does "right" that Slay the Spire apparently does wrong. Or how those two games even relate. I enjoy both, but for very different reasons.

It's a deck builder card game, and I'm really curious how you'd like the game to be designed to rely *less* on RNG.
Also, as a related side note, do you dislike Tetris as well?

While there's always luck involved in everything, Hades is a game of skill. People have even talked about completing the game on a fresh run, which is crazy and cool! Most of us, will die a lot in Hades, but each time you die you can upgrade your character. In Spire you do upgrade your deck, but even if you have an amazing deck, you can easily lose because of the RNG. In Hades, even if you didn't get your favorite power-ups, it's a game of skill, you can do significant damage and dodge attacks so long as you are skillful regardless of what you collected in your current run. Not to mention the fact that Hades continuously "helps/rewards" you when you make it a bit further, and it has an excellent storyline, and the characters are all interesting, and NONE of that makes it into Spire.

Tetris is not a roguelike.

Gave it a 6 out of 10. Was debating between a 5 or 6, and ultimately went up. Honestly, don't plan to every come back to it. Just way way way way way too much RNG. If you want a roguelike done right, play Hades which is easily in the 9+ range. 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/23/us-pastor-1m-cryptocurrency-scheme-christians-denver

A few days ago I did something that was decades in the making, and that once seemed neigh impossible...

I completed Valis II

An accomplishment made only possible due to the release of the Valis Collection I for the Nintendo Switch!

Japanese company Edia crowdfunded in 2021 to bring the first three Valis games to the Switch -- they obviously succeeded!

Valis has a long and interesting history -- it's different than most games in many aspects, arguably the most notable is that the protagonist is a girl, a high school girl with magical and hidden powers, and the world needs her. Well, no one ever said the plot is unique! But, at the time, the visuals were unique and magnificent, and in many ways they still are. The Valis series has seen incarnations in many systems, but it is the TurboGrafx-CD version which is iconic. Cinematic cutscenes with real voice-overs! Jaw-dropping back in 1989 --

The guy above is "Megas" -- the final boss in Valis II. He might be a "dark emperor" but he's got style! Animation as seen above seemed light-years ahead of the NES or even the newly released Sega Genesis. As for the game itself. Valis is hard. VERY HARD. Arguably, unfairly difficult. Like many games of the time, the playtime was greatly extended by making the game extremely challenging. For example -- although you had multiple lives, if you perished in the hands of a boss, you would respawn at the boss battle. HOWEVER, all your power-ups were gone, so good luck! Basically, for most people it was all but a death sentence if you died at the hands of a boss -- especially the final boss, and ALL Valis final bosses are exceptionally challenging and frustrating.

Play control is by today's standards decently atrocious. Yuko (the protagonist) feels heavy and sluggish. It also seems as if you have an exceptionally large hit box. But at the time, you might not have noticed because many games had similar issues. Besides, the graphics AND music are breathtaking! Indeed, the music truly completes the game, and again, it was light-years ahead of MIDI pieces so many people associated with video games --

As awesome as the game was, it was arguably far too challenging. What does the Valis Collection do to alleviate such frustration? You can

1)Save at any time.
2)Reload at any time.
3)Save and reload as often as you want at ANY TIME!!

With the save and reload feature, it makes going through the game, well, possible! That said, if all you want to see is the visuals, you do not even have to play the game. You can watch ALL the visuals for the three TurboGrafx-CD games from inside each game's menu -- the menu also allows you to see the manual and listen to the soundtrack, plus a few other small features --

So, after spending a few hours completing each game (thanks to the save and load at any time feature) what do I think?

The games are frustrating and cheap by today's standards! But, also very artistic, visually and audibly striking. I high recommend the game for someone who enjoys "classic" albeit classically difficult games, and/or someone who is into gaming history. That said, in general I doubt most people would be interested. Also, the collection has a few negatives as well --

A)NO ENGLISH DUB
--The games have English subtitles, and quite honestly the Japanese voice acting is superb! The English voice acting, well, not superb. HOWEVER, why was it not included? That is a shame, because good or bad, the English voice acting is part of gaming history and would be most welcome.

B)Rewind button?
--The games have a rewind button... Honestly, a rewind button would and should be useful, but the way its implemented makes it basically useless. Still, not a major issue.

C)There are a few other "small issues" -- for example, when the credits roll there are no English subtitles, although there should be. However, if you go into the Visuals menu and watch the credits from there, the English subtitles appear as they should.

D)No Valis IV?
--It's included in Valis Collection II. And to be fair, there was never a Western localization of Valis IV for the TurboGrafx.

At the end of the day, as a fan of the TurboGrafx system and games, this is an easy "YES" despite a few shortcomings. For anyone NOT interested in classic gaming, you should pass. That said:

Fan of Classic Games: 9/10

See you Yuko!

On 1/18/2024 at 4:13 PM, MiamiSlice said:

Already ordered, and I took advantage of the $5 coupon being offered for signing up via text. 

A friend of mine did the music for this game so I was always going to order it as soon as it went up for sale in the West

Very cool! So your friend is the composer?